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Age in reference to quality of the nut.—One of the first and most 
important of the problems which presented itself was to determine the 
effect of the age and the relative maturity of the nut on the percentage 
of its various constituents; in other words, to find out the most favorable 
time for opening a nut to obtain the largest and best yield of copra and 
of oil. With this end in view, the following analyses were made of four 
series of ten nuts each: 
Series I consisted of 10 nuts selected from a pile which had just been 
picked from the trees and which were ready to be used for making copra. 
These nuts were all fairly ripe, although the husks were still green in 
color and full of water. 
Series IT was made up of 10 nuts from the same pile as Series I, but all 
were very ripe. The husks were dry and of a dead-brown color. 
Series ITI represents nuts which had been selected for seed and set out 
to sprout about three months before the time of analysis. They each 
contained a small embryo or “foot” and had green sprouts protruding to 
a height of about 6 inches. The husks had absorbed a large amount of 
water while lying on the ground. 
Series [V was a rather abnormal lot of nuts which had been set out for 
seed similarly to those in Series III, but for some reason the individual 
ones had failed to sprout, although they had been standing for six months. 
The meat had become somewhat softened and in several cases it was 
discolored and possessed a bad odor. To a greater extent than any 
other this series shows what large variations may exist among nuts of 
the same age. 
