Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 107, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1919 — Monkey as Labor Possibility. [ARTICLE]

Monkey as Labor Possibility.

The pig-tailed macaque or brok of the Malays is a highly intelligent animal. and the Malays train them to pick coconuts. The modus operand! to described by R. W. C. Shelford la “A Naturalist tn Borneo." A eord is fastened round the monkey’s waist and it to led to the coconut palm, which it rapidly elimbs. It then lays hold of a nut, and ts the owner judges the fruit to be ripe for plucking he shouts to the monkey, which then twists the nut round and round till the stalk to broken and lets it fall to the ground. If the monkey catches hold of an unripe fruit the owner tags the eord and the monkey tries another. I have seen a brok net as a very efficient fruitpicker, although the use of the cord was dispensed with altogether, 4he monkey being guided by the tones and inflections of his master’s voice.