Vol. XVIII. No. 446. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



1G3 



h;ind, if he would carefully study the records avail- 

 able — and there is no luck of them — if he woidd 

 remember the limitations of his scientific advisers, 

 and if he himself would patiently revise and think over 

 results already obtained, he too would be in the way 

 of making good and lasting progress, not on'v with 

 respect to the proper manurial treatment of his crop 

 and soil, but also with regard to many other questions 

 affecting the art of agriculture to which his life is 

 devoted. 



THE COOO-NUT INDUSTRIES OP 

 TRINIDAD. 



la an interesting article under the above title, which 

 appeared in The Board of Trade Joi/mal, February L'O, 1919, 

 much of which is reproduced below, it is stated that the 

 coco-nut estates of Trinidad, confined within comparatively 

 small portions of the island by the sea-coast, areyielding greater 

 profits on the capital invested in them than any other agri- 

 cultural industry in the island. With constant planting of 

 new trees, the industry, it is considered, is bound to expand 

 in importance during the next few years. 



During the year 1917, the export of coconuts from 

 Trinidad amounted to 16.595,'J82 coco nuts locally grown, and 

 also 760,430 foreign coco-nuts, chiefly Venezuelan. Most of 

 these were shipped to the United States, the figures being 

 13,867,655 coco-nuts, valued at §398,912, and 696,100 

 Venezuelan coco nuts, valued at $22,806. 



The exports of copra in 19 1 7, according to the United 

 States 'CommerceJReports,' amounted to 7,201,448 lb., of 

 which 3,277,258 lb. were exported to the United States. All 

 the copra exported from Trinidad during that year was 

 produced locally. 



Trinidad produces approximately 140,000 gallons of 

 coconut oil a jear for the consumption of the local popula- 

 tion, especially the East Indian' coolie classes, who use it 

 both as fooJ and as lotion for tteir bodies. The amount of 

 coco nut oil pr.duced d-pends to some extent on the relatite 

 price of copra, for when the export pi ice of copra offer i more 

 profit than the manufacture of the .same into coco- nut oil, 

 the uwoers prefer to .sell the copra for export. 



Coconut trees are to be found practically all round the 

 coast, but the production is concenirated chiefly in two 

 districts : one, the Cedros district, has about 9,640 acres, 

 7,000 of which are bearing, and the other, the Mayaro 

 district, has 7,500 acres in trees, all bearing coco nuts. The 

 island of TrinidaJ altogeiher has about 27,000 acres in 

 coco-nuts, one-third of which is probably not yet bearing. 

 The island of Tobago has now about 9,000 acres under this 

 crop, but only a very small proportion of trees are bearing. 



Tliere are about 21,000,000 cocu nuts produced annually 

 in the Cedros district, of which approximately 16,000,000 are 

 grown on large est ites owned by English companies, or 

 planters of French and English extraction, imd about 

 5 000,000 on small estates owned chiefly by East Indians and 

 negr* es. The cost of working these small estates is con- 

 siderably more per acre than thav of large estates. Large 

 estates vary from 800 to 1,600 acres, and small estates from 

 10 to 100 Hcres. 



Next in importance to the Cedros district is that of 

 Mayaro, which covers about 17 miles of the southern part of 

 the ea.'it coast of Trinidad, with an extent inland of about 

 a quarter of a mile. Some 12,000,000 coco-nuts are produced 



annually in this district, but the nuts are smaller than those 

 produced in the Cedros district. The soil conditions are less 

 favourable, and only about 20 per cent, of aU the coco-nuts 

 produced are within the tvvo classes desired for imiiorc into 

 the United States as nuts. The remaining 80 per cent, are 

 used for copra and coco-nut oil, the shells serving as fuel 

 for the manufacture. 



In the Mayaro district there are three factories, eich of 

 which makes use of 7,000 coconuts per day for the manufac- 

 ture of oil. The fotal output amounts to about 100,000 

 gallons per ye- . i about 500,000 It), of coco-nut cake, 

 sold mostly in i' id for feeding stock. Probably about 



one-half of all . jco nuts produced in this district find 

 their way into these three factories for making oil, but this 

 depends on the relative jirice of copra. 



An analysis of coconut products was made at a factory 

 in Portof-Spain, the nuts having been delivered whole to 

 the factory for this purpose, although usually only copra is 

 brought there. This analysis revealed that 1,000 selected 

 nuts, weighing 1,491 tti in the shell, yielded 735 lb. of green 

 copra, 446 fi). of shell, and 310 tb. of water; the green copra 

 yielded 440 ft>. of dry copra. The same number of culls, 

 weighing 1,043 Bb. in the sheP, yielded 326 B&.'of shell, 189 lb. 

 of water; and 528 tt). of green copra, or 318 ft), of dry copra. 

 The 2,000 coco nuts yielded 45 gallons (imperial) of roco-nut 

 oil, averaging 6 gallons per 100 lb. of copra, and 290 lb. of 

 coco nut meal. The factory ordinarily uses 20,000 fti. of 

 copra every week, making 1,200 gallons of oil and 10,000 ft. 

 of meal. BesHes coco nut shells, wood, and coal, a good 

 deal of sawdust, obtained from a saw mill in the vicinity, has 

 been useil for f'lel. 



In addition to copra and coco nut oil, the coir fibre of the 

 coco-nuts IS also a .source of revenue in connexion with the 

 coco-nut industry of Trinidad, notwithstanding the fact th it 

 a vast amount of this fibre is wasted on husks thrown away 

 or used only for fuel. At the gaol in Port-of Spain, prisoners 

 have an industry of making mats from coco nut fibre, these 

 being used for household purposes, for motor cars, etc In 

 Port-otSpaiu there is also the West Indian fibre factory, 

 employing about fifty persons, including sixteen raachinemen. 

 with an average output of between 6 and 7 tons of fibre per 

 week 



In addition to the coir-fibre factory at Port-of-Spaia 

 already mentioned, there is another plant existing for such 

 purpose on the (.'edros Peninsula, which with four machines, 

 can use the fibre from about 2,000 coco-nut husks per day. 

 It has been temporarily closed on account of the difficulty of 

 shipping the fibre- 

 There is the utmost feeling of confidence in Trinidad ia 

 the future of the coco-nut industry; and it is believed that 

 there will always be an active world demand for coco-nut 

 products, especially copra, in connexion with the increasing 

 use of margarine. 



Prof. H. MaxwellLefroy said at the Royal Institute 

 on February 27, 1919 that there were three kinds of .silk 

 prniluced in India from insec's living wholly or partly in the 

 forests. These were the 'tussore' silk, which came largely 

 from China and .Japan, but the adult insect lived in the forests 

 of North- We^t Indi:i; secondly. 'miga' silk, produced chiefly in 

 A»<am; and thirdl), 'Kri' silk, which foines from caterpillars 

 which feed on the castor oil plant. This last is of great vduo 

 in India because it is the only silk which can be spun fioiu 

 coco ins without killing the insects in them, and is therefure the 

 only silk that a strict Hindoo can wear. {T/ie Times, February 

 2^, 1919.) 



