Susan Lindgren, age 11, of Gulfport, Miss., for her question:
HOW TALL DOES THE COCONUT PALM GROW?
The tall, graceful palm tree on which coconuts grow is a native of Southeast Asia and the islands of Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean. However, man has successfully introduced the tree to ail of the tropical and subtropical parts of the world. The stately trees often grow to be 100 feet tall.
Large featherlike leaves spread from the top of the coconut palm's branchless trunk.
The coconut palm turns out to be one of the most useful trees in the world. It not only provides food, but people in the tropics build houses and bridges from its wood. They also use whole leaves to make thatch roofs and strips of leaves to make baskets, mats and hats. A sweet drink called toddy or tuba is made from the sap of the trees blossoms and people also use this sap to make sugar, vinegar and an alcoholic beverage.
The coconut is the fruit of the coconut palm. Clusters of the fruit grow among the leaves of the tree.
Each coconut has a smooth, light colored rind. Tinder this rind is a one to two inch husk of reddish brown fibers. The husk and the rind surround a brown woody shell that has three soft spots called eyes at one end. The rind and husks are usually cut away before the coconuts are sent to the market.
A ball of sweet tasting, crisp, white coconut meat is covered by a tough brown skin. The ball has a hollow center that holds a sugary fluid called coconut milk.
The coconut seed measures from eight to 12 inches long and from six to 10 inches across.
Trees today grow in plantations. A well tended tree can produce about 100 coconuts each year. Each fruit takes about one year to ripen.
When a coconut is ripe, it will fall from the tree to the ground. On plantations, however, the coconuts are usually cut every two or three months.
Solid, dried coconut meat is called copra. Copra contains a valuable oil that is used for cooking and to make margarine and soap. Tropical lands produce millions of tons of copra each year.
About 6,000 medium sized coconuts are needed to make one ton of copra.
To make copra, coconuts are split open and dried in the sun or in ovens called kilns. Some coconuts are dried by smoking or by the use of hot air.
After the oil is pressed out, the remaining cake, called coconut stearin, is used, like cottonseed oil cake, for fodder and manure.
Copra yields from 50 to 65 percent of its weight in oil when dried. Hot air drying sometimes raises production to as much as 75 percent. Thirty average coconuts produce about one gallon of oil.
A new coconut palm sprout will grow to be a food bearing tree in seven or eight years. The trees need much water and a temperature of at least 72 degrees Fahrenheit most of the year.