Page:The coco palm by Dahlgren, B. E. (Bror Eric).djvu/15

Rh palm in another manner. The stem and branches of the flower spike are tied into a bundle and cut, and over the cut end is fixed a vessel consisting of a length of bamboo. The sap which would ordinarily go to the formation of the cluster of fruit is obtained in this way. The bamboo is emptied each day, the collector sometimes passing by aerial bridges from tree to tree. The fermented juice is variously known as "tuba" or "toddy." Eleven million gallons of it were produced in the Philippines in 1913.

The main product of the tree is, however, the white meat of the coconut. The mature nuts are allowed to fall naturally or are gathered four or five times a year by pulling them down with hooks or by climbing the trees when situated too high to be reached from the ground. They are collected into piles and husked by beating against the sharpened end of a stake or iron point fixed upright in the ground. They are then split with a bush knife or cleaver and are left in the sun to dry somewhat, which loosens the white coconut meat from the shell. The dried meat is known as "copra." It constitutes an important article of commerce. Dessicated and grated it forms the shredded coconut of the confectioners, but its principal value depends on its oil content, fifty per cent or more by weight. The oil is obtained from the copra by pressure. The remaining "cake" is a valuable fodder. The coconut oil is at ordinary temperature, a soft, white fat of somewhat objectionable taste and odor. It has always been highly esteemed as a fat for soap making, but its present-day, more important use dates from the discovery that the addition of an atom of hydrogen to the molecule of fat renders it perfectly bland and comestible. (See Slosson, "Creative Chemistry" for an account of vegetable fats.) It is now widely used in the preparation of butter substitutes and is consumed