FIBRE 



The word i-oir did not come into tho English language until the 

 teenth century. It is doubtless an Anglicised version through Portu- 

 of tin- Malayal verb kdydru = to be twisted (kdyar, Mai. and 

 , Tain.). Both the fibre and the rope made from it appear to have 

 n exported to Europe in the middle of the 16th century under the name 

 i inisrcmloring, very possibly, of kdiyar. But it was actually 

 t until the Great Exhibition of 1851 that coir rope and matting 

 ed commercial importance in England. Thus Milburn, writing as 

 as 1813, observes that cocoanuts are an article of considerable trade 

 parts of India, and that coir ropes are much esteemed there. He 

 nothing at all of any exports to Europe. It deserves notice, too, that 

 collections of early letters of the East India Co.'s servants, published 

 Mr. W. Foster, contain no reference to the cocoanut fibre. 

 Production. Taking India as a whole, coir is only obtained as a by- 

 product. As will be seen under the notes on trade, the present-day Indian 

 i s are almost entirely made from Bombay and Madras, and it may be 

 that Madras, Cochin, the Laccadives and Malabar are the only parts 

 ( li;i t hat produce coir on a commercial scale. According to the Manual 

 . Kanara (1895, ii., 147-8) about 5,000 persons depend for their living 

 the manufacture and sale of coir in that district. It is further said that 

 cocoanuts produce 1 candy of coir. The cost of raw material and 

 manufacture is about Rs. 15 and the selling price about Rs. 20 per candy. 

 A here in India the fibre is dark and coarse, and not comparable to the 

 : ualities of the above-named districts or to that of Ceylon or Singapore. 

 Tin TO are many reasons for this. Situation is one ; the fibre would seem 

 to become coarser at a distance from the coast ; but variety, age at which 

 the nut is gathered, care and skill in steeping, beating, and cleaning the 

 fibre, etc., etc., are all factors of no small importance. If the palm be 

 cultivated for the supply of juice or to afford ripe fruit, the fibre usually 

 proves in the one case imperfectly formed and in the other overripe. 

 Such, at least, is the common opinion, although according to Wiesner 

 ii., 420) only three varieties of C. nucifera are really suitable for the 

 priM luction of coir, viz. rutila, cupulifortnts, and stuppomi, and the first 

 ed gives the finest and most elastic fibre. These are three out of the 

 teen forms given by Miquel. Wiesner, however, would appear to have 

 pted for general application a criticism which Miquel (I.e. 65) originally 

 intended exclusively for the Dutch East Indies. In many countries such 

 as Guam a specially long fruit is grown for the express purpose of affording 

 the long straight-bristle fibre. Of Indian coir it has been commonly 

 atliimed that the best comes from Cochin, and that as a result attempts 

 have been made to imitate the light colour of the Cochin fibre by bleach- 

 ing. But the chemicals used in this process destroy the elasticity of the 

 fibre and render good qualities bad and inferior qualities worthless. 

 Neither does it seem quite clear whether by Cochin coir is meant com- 

 mercially the produce of the Native State or that of the whole coast of 

 Malabar, or indeed all high qualities from whatever country obtained. It 

 is said that for fibre the nuts should be cut in the tenth month ; it would 

 appear, however that a large quantity of ripe nuts are exported to Europe 

 in husk and the coir separated on arrival. 



Manipulation. Concise accounts of the various local methods of re- 

 moving the fibre from the shell and of separating and cleaning the coir have 

 hot MI given in the Dictionary (I.e. 428-30), to which the reader is referred. 



355 



cocos 



NUCIFERA 

 Fibre 



Ooir a 

 Hy-product. 



Kanara, 



Cost. 

 Coarse Fibre. 



Specific 

 Variation. 



Specially Long 

 Fibre. 



Cochin. 



Bleaching. 



Prepara- 

 tion of 

 Fibre. 



Shelling. 



