Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1908 — Usese of Palm Trees. [ARTICLE]

Usese of Palm Trees.

The various kinds of palm trees on the island of Ceylon are in themselves of great Interest, and when their different uses are explained a person can well appreciate how essential they are o the u .lives in the low country Singalese districts. From the sap of the cocoanut palm the spirit he drinks is distilled; the kernel of the nut is a necessary element in his daily curry; the “milk” is the beverage offered to every visitor to his domain; his only lamp is fed from the oil; his nets for fishing are manufactured from its fibre, as is also the rope which keeps his goat or cow from going astray; while the rafters of his house, the thatch of the roof and the window blinds are made from its leaf and wood. There is, perhaps,- no product in the world that is put to so many and such profitable uses as the cocoanut palm, for, even before it is grown, its leaf ribs are tied together to make brooms for sweeping and cages tor birds.