29
Renovation of old groves 30
Conclusion 30

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

Bureau of Agriculture,

Manila, June 1, 1903.

Sir: In responding to numerous inquiries about the cocoanut, its
uses, cultivation, and preparation for market, I have prepared,
by your direction, the accompanying bulletin, which is intended to
cover the general field of the inquiries addressed to this Bureau,
and herewith submit the same, with the recommendation that it be
published as Farmers' Bulletin No. 8.

Respectfully,

Wm. S. Lyon,
In Charge of Division of Plant Industry.

To Hon. F. Lamson-Scribner,
Chief Bureau of Agriculture, Manila.

THE COCOANUT.

INTRODUCTION.

The following pages are written chiefly in the interests of the
planter, but the writer feels that the great agricultural importance
which the cocoanut palm is bound to assume in these Islands is
sufficient to justify the presentation of some of its history and
botany.

For that part of the bulletin which touches upon the botany of the
cocoanut I am indebted to Don Regino Garcia, associate botanist of the
Forestry Bureau; for that relating to its products and local uses, to
the courtesy of manufacturers in Laguna; and, for the rest, to personal
experience and observations made in Laguna Province and in the southern
Visayan Islands where, as elsewhere in this Archipelago, the cocoanut
may properly be considered a spontaneous and not a cultivated product.

HISTORY.

The legendary history of the "Prince of Palms," [1] as it has been
called, dates back to a period when the Christian era was young,
and its history is developing day by day in some new and striking
manifestation of its utility or beauty. It seems not unreasonable to
assume that much of the earlier traditionary history of the cocoanut
may have been inspired as much by its inherent beauty as by its
uses. Such traditional proverbs Or folklore as I have gathered in
the Visayas recognize the influence of the beautiful, in so far as
the blessings of the trees only inure to the good; for instance,
"He who is cruel to his beast or his family will only harvest barren
husks from the reproving trees that witness the pusillanimous act;"
and, again, "He who grinds the poor will only grind water ins