190 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1884. 



the long avenues of palm trees easting a refreshing and 

 inviting shade from the heat and glare of the tropical 

 sun. Our first resting place was at Tin. Sophia's Hope, 

 the residence of JVIr. Barlow, where we were most hospit- 

 ably entertained at breakfast. Mr. Barlow is indeed a 

 splendid specimen of a colonist. Forced on account of 

 ill-health to leave the hills and dales of beautiful Devon, 

 he joined his brother, who was already a planter out here, 

 and for over fifty years has made this the land of his 

 adoption; and during the last thirty-five years has never 

 left its shores ; over eighty years old, hale and hearty, a 

 living denial of the unhealthiness of the colony; and surely 

 if our Honoured President merits the title of t: Sugar 

 King," Mr. Barlow may rightly be called " King Coconut." 

 But I am digressing from my subject. After breakfast 

 and a chat on nuts and things pertaining, we started for 

 Plantation fortitude, arriving at which we were kindly 

 received by Mr. Smith, the owner, who immediately pro- 

 posed visiting the works. 



No sooner had we entered the yard than we saw piles 

 of nuts; and it is not until a tyro, like myself, sees 

 masses of nuts together like this, that he understands 

 what a vast difference there is in nuts. Here we saw 

 large, bright, reddish-brown, even-sized looking nuts which 

 we were told came from such an estate, others dirty, 

 brown, undersized, and shrivelled, showing care had not 

 been taken with the estate on which they grew, tell-tales 

 of dirty trees or drainage unattended to; but Mr. Smith 

 makes use of them to keep his machinery employed, and 

 all is grist that comes to his mill at present. As you 

 enter the machine shed, you soon discover that the manu- 

 factory is divided into two distinct operations, the Oil 

 Department, and the Fibre, the motive power for both 

 being a 14 horse power Robey Patent Engine, this being 

 stationary, and placed under the boiler, working with a 

 pressure of 60 lb. the square inch. 



The nuts are first divested of their fibrous covering, by 

 manual labour, in the yard, GO cts. per 1,000 being the 

 price paid for this work, which consists simply of split- 

 ting the husk on the sharp edge of a hoe fixed in the 

 ground, no better method at present being discovered. 

 The husks are then sent to the fibre department and the 

 hard nut, the fortune of which we intend first to follow, 

 being broken up by a hammer, is then placed on long 

 trays mounted on wheels, running in and out of a shed, 

 so as to avoid danger of getting wet. should a shower of 

 rain fall, whilst the sun's action is shrivelling the kernel, 

 allowing it to come away easily from the hard shell. This 

 is soon accomplished and children are employed in separat- 

 ing one from the other. The kernels, which at this stage 

 are called Copra, are sent away to the store room, ami 

 the shells to be burnt to l-aise steam in the boiler. The 

 copra is then placed under the crushing mill, worked 

 from a shaft driven by a pulley, on the fly-wheel shaft 

 of the engine, as indeed are all the machines in this de- 

 partment. The crushing mill consists of two large mill- 

 stone wheels revolving round a large iron saucer or pan 

 and also round their own centres; it is to all appearance 

 like a large mortar mixer, so commonly seen in England, 

 only in that case the saucer moves round, whilst in this 

 the saucer is stationary and the stones revolve. The 

 outer edges of these stones are set in such a way that 

 each one delivers to the other the mass it has just crushed ; 

 in this way the whole is reduced to a fine powder. A 

 door at the bottom of the saucer is now opened, a scraper, 

 revolving with the stones, gathers the materials together 

 and pushes it through the opening into a shallow tray 

 ready to receive it. It is now to all appearance like 

 damp brown saw-dust and is ready for placing in the 

 steam-kettie, which has a stirrer revolving inside which 

 keeps the mass moving until tin- temperature is raised 

 to 120° F. A sliding door is then opened, and the mass, 

 which has assumed an oily appearance is run into Coarse 

 cloth bags; these are put between wooden envelopes lined 

 with tin, and placed on the iron trays of the hydraulic press. 

 The hydraulic pumps working in oil, which are self-acting, 

 are then set to work, the first and biggest pump quickly 

 raising the pressure, which when it rises to a certain point 

 is taken up by the smaller pump until a pressure of 1| 

 tous to the square inch is reached. Long before this 

 point is arrived at, the oil is seen bursting out from the 

 bags, flowing from tray to tray, until it finally falls into 



a tank, from which it is pumped into the oil store. This 

 consists of a receiving tank, a settling tank, and the pure 

 oil, or shipping tank, arraugemeuts being made for draw- 

 ing from one to the other. 



We now return to the hydraulic press from which the 

 pressure has been taken oft* and the envelopes removed ; 

 the bags are now perfectly flat, and it is with difficulty 

 they are taken off from the hard cake formed inside. 

 This is now like oil-cake made from linseed, but is lighter 

 iu colour. Sometimes these cakes are again broken up 

 under the mill and are squeezed a second time, or are 

 mixed with the copra to prevent the mass under the 

 stones from becoming too oily, and after the second 

 pressure the cakes are fit for food. The broken cakes 

 are ground up into 'powder and form a fine food for poultry, 

 most of it being sold on the spot at 72 cts. per 100 lb., 

 or is used for mixing with fresh copra ; in this way little 

 or nothing is wasted. 



One action of the pair of presses will crush the copra 

 from loO nuts and yield per day 130 to 140 gallons of 

 oil. and the filter bags used will work up 100.000 nuts 

 u before wearing out. 



"We then turned our attention to the husks, which arc 

 first placed in a crushing mill, worked by a belt from 

 the fly-wheel, as are all the machines in this portion of 

 the factory, and which consists of two deeply grooved 

 rollers which flatten out and break up the outer silicate 

 covering. They are then placed on trucks and wheeled 

 to the ponds placed at the side of the tramway, where 

 they remain soaking in water for at least a week, but gen- 

 erally for a much longer period, until the outer cuticle has 

 to some extent rotted and become soft. They are then 

 taken back to the factory and the process of extracting 

 the fibre by the teazing machines commences. 



The husk, being held in the hand, passes between two 

 small rollers about lh inches in diameter, close to which 

 a large wheel, with its periphery covered with small teeth, 

 revolves with great speed, which, as soon as the husk 

 touches it, tears the refuse from the fibre and in a few 

 seconds leaves the fibres still somewhat dirty but separ- 

 ated from each other. Then it is withdrawn ami the 

 portion of the husk previously held in the hand is sub- 

 mitted to the same process, leaving a hunch of compar- 

 atively clean fibres. The refuse from these machines goes 

 to make what is known as "No. 2 mat fibre." The fibre 

 just acted upon, which I have stated is only comparatively 

 clean, is again submitted to a second process iu another 

 teazing machine kept clean for this purpose, the result 



being a clean sample. The refuse from this se< id 



ation goes to form what is called -'No. 1 mat fibre." 

 Mr. Smith has three of these teazing machines at work; 

 but he finds they are not sufficient for his wants, and he 

 has three more, on their way from England, 



The fibre is tied up into small bundles, a number of 

 these being placed together and placed under an hydraulic 

 press forming a bale 2 feet X 2 feet X 3 feet weighing 

 about 200 lb. The refuse from the teazing machine is again 

 passed into a cleaning machine, consisting of a wire cylinder 

 about S feet long, slowly revolving iu the opposite direc- 

 tion to a thaft inside carrying teeth which shake out the 

 dust from the fibres, carrying it at the same time forward 

 and discharging it clean at the other end. This machine 

 is most simple and effective. Of course the 1st and 2nd 

 mat fibres are passed through separately and are packed 

 by themselves, inhales similar in size to the brush fibre, 

 but only weighing 120 to 130 lb. But before- packing, all 

 the fibres an- exposed to the sun. for dryings and are ex- 

 posed on wheeled trays running on a tramway similar to 

 those used for drying the copra. 



Thus every portion of the coconut is disposed of, and is 

 marketable with the exception of the refuse from the mat 

 fibre cleaning machine, no use having been found for this, 

 except tor nurserymen at home, who place it :is a top 

 dressing to bedding plants and on the pots in greenhouses, 

 and I have- uo doubl our Government Botanist will be able 

 to take sine' of tins for the Botanic Gardens, and perhaps 

 tell us if it would he suitable as a manure in cane cultiv- 

 ation. 



After inspecting the works we walked through the cocal. 

 This consisted, a few years ago, of some huudn I trees, 

 but Mr. Smith with his ene y has 

 bearing, all kept clean and in good order. He states hiv 



