COCOS NUCIFERA. 241 
easily digested and is particularly well adapted for the use of patients suffering from 
impaired digestion. ¢ 
The copra industry is becoming more important year by year. Thus far very 
little copra has found its way to the United States, but coconut oil is imported for 
various purposes, especially for soap making. The chief sources of coconut oil in 
this country are Ceylon and the Madras Presidency, India, especially the district of 
Cochin, where it is the principal product. Soap made from coconut oil is more 
soluble in salt water than that made from other oils or fats, and is consequently 
much used on seagoing vessels. One objectionable feature of soaps made from this 
oil is the disagreeable rancid odor which they usually leave on the skin after wash- 
ing with them. The most serious difficulty encountered by soap makers is the elim- 
ination of fatty acids contained in it. To remove these the oil is heated with lye, an 
emulsion is made, and the oil extracted from the mixture by means of a separator 
and receiver.2 Coconut oil alone is not usually employed in soap making, but is 
added to other oils for the purpose of producing quickly solidifying soaps containing 
a large proportion of water. ¢ 
FIBER, 
Coir, or the fiber of the husk of the coconut, is another product of commercial 
importance. It is imported into England and America in the form of coir yarn, coir 
fiber, coir rope, and bristle fiber, and is used principally in manufacturing matting 
and brushes.? In Guam no effort is made to utilize it, and hundreds of tons go to 
waste each year. Fiber suitable for cordage must be taken from husks or nuts not 
yet thoroughly ripe, but the coarser, harder fiber of ripe nuts could be used for 
brushes. In Samoa, where the fiber plays so important a part in the economy of 
the natives, a particular variety (’ena, or niu afa) occurs having long nuts with fiber 
especially adapted for making sinnet (afa). This variety is rare, and is highly 
valued by the natives. The sources of the best coir of commerce are the Laccadive 
Islands and the neighboring district of Cochin, on the Malabar coast of British India. 
This coir is known commercially as Cochin or Madras coir. The primitive way of 
preparing the fiber is to soak the husks thoroughly in salt water, beat them with 
heavy wooden mallets, rub them between the hands, and remove the coir by hand. 
It is then twisted by hand into two-stranded yarns.f This process has been replaced 
in many districts by improved methods, in which the fiber is extracted from the 
husk, either wet or dry, by means of machines. The husks are crushed in a mill, con- 
sisting of two adjustable fluted iron rollers. The pressure here exerted flattens them 
and prepares them for the ‘‘breaking down,” or extraction of the fiber, performed 
in an ‘“‘extractor’’? composed essentially of a drum or cylinder whose periphery is 
coated with steel teeth that catch in the fiber and tear it from the husk. The 
machine is covered with a wooden case to prevent the fiber being scattered. It is 
then ‘‘willowed”’ or cleaned, graded, and baled for shipment.” 
PRODUCTION. 
Nearly every family of Guam has its coconut plantation. The best sites are the 
lowlands, especially the sandy beaches of the west shore. The principal coconut 
@Kew Bulletin, No. 46, p. 235, 1890. 
bSee Andés, Vegetable Fats and Oils, trans., pp. 203 and 244, fig. 76, 1897. 
¢See Richardson and Watts, Chemical Technology, ed. 2, vol. 1, pt. 3, p. 683, 1863. 
d@See monthly circulars of Ide & Christie, fiber, esparto, and general produce 
brokers, 72 Mark lane, London, E. C., in which prices are quoted together with 
statistics regarding importations, ete. 
¢See Powell, Thomas, On various Samoan plants and their vernacular names, See- 
mann’s Journal of Botany, vol. 6, p. 282, 1868. 
J Watt, Economie Products of India, vol. 2, pp. 428-429, 1889. 
gSpon’s Encyclopzedia, vol. 1, p. 940, 1882. 
9773—05——16 
