140 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 



country. The early method was to remove the outer covering 

 by the aid of a sharp three-cornered iron mounted on a stick, 

 this implement being used to a great extent at present by the 

 natives of the Philippine Islands. After the removal of the 

 husk the nut was split in two by a sharp blow with a heavy 

 knife. The halves were then placed in the sun to dry and 

 after the shrinking of the kerne] the hard shell was readily 

 separated. The early settlers pounded the meat into meal 

 and placed it in vats of boiling water, the applied heat bring- 

 ing the oil to the surface when it was subsequently skimmed 

 off. With the advent of the American and European planters, 

 special machinery was invented for the complete operation of 

 oil extraction, from expelling the nuts from the fibrous husks 

 to expressing the oil from the kernels. The copra is dried by 

 either hot-air evaporators or the sun. The hard shells are 

 separated by shrinkage. The kernel or meat is then milled, 

 the resultant meal being strained and molded into cakes and 

 submitted to a hydraulic pressure of several tons per square 

 inch which expresses or squeezes the coveted oil. 



The ultimate use of cocoanut oil is in the manufacture of 

 soaps, candles, glycerin, salves, and lotions, and also as an 

 adulterant in cod-liver oil. Before the recent war the oil 

 was used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, the charac- 

 teristic odor of oil being removed by treatment with alcohol 

 and animal charcoal. Careful analyses show that the vege- 

 table fats and oils from the cocoanut have a higher nutritive 

 value than most present-day mixed butters, but, unfor- 

 tunately, a prejudice exists against nut butter. 



Germany, prior to the war, imported the major portion of 

 the output, of copra from tropical Africa, consisting of 

 109,000 tons. The export from the Philippines amounted to 

 over 160,000 tons, practically all of which came to this country. 



Coir. — This product is the fibrous outer covering of the 

 cocoanut. Its quality depends upon the situation of the plan- 

 tation and the time of harvesting the crop. Palms growing 

 adjacent to the sea produce a finer quality of fiber than those 

 grown in the inland regions. As the fiber becomes coarser 

 upon the maturity of the fruit, it is better to collect the fruit 

 before ripening. In preparing the coir, the fiber is removed 

 from the nuts by the natives and placed in basket-work cages. 

 It is then thrown in backwaters or pits containing brackish 

 water and left for several months until it has become softened 

 and easily separated from the non-fibrous matter. After 



