CUaned. 

 JUt Quality. 



1 rocui. 



Prices. 



Yield. 



cocos 



NUCIFKRA THE COCOANUT PALM 



Cocoanut 



Briefly it may be said that for the first process an iron spike is fixed in the 

 ground with point upwards, and that the nut is so struck on this that the 

 Husk. point penetrates between the nut and the husk, and causes them to separate. 



A Native can treat in this way about 1,000 nuts daily. Although many 

 machines have been tried for this purpose, hitherto none have been found 

 which can compete with hand-labour. The husks after being retted in 

 brackish or sweet water for 7 to 18 months are crushed either by hand 

 or by machinery, and the fibre extracted. Fresh water is said to injure 

 the fibre. The retting process is sometimes dispensed with, the husk 

 being steamed till the fibre separates. After \ ing dried the fibre is 

 " willowed " or cleaned of dust and refuse, and it is finally separated into 

 various grades or qualities such as " mat " or long fibres (used for spinning 

 purposes) ; " brush and broom ' bristle ' ' the shorter and stifier fibres ; 

 upholstery, the tow or curled fibre; and the dust or refuse employed 

 as a manure and for other purposes. The best bristle fibre done up in 

 small bundles, and with the fibre stretched straight and clean, may fetch 

 30 a ton. The mat fibre is worth 20 per ton and the waste 10 a ton. 

 Under a high pressure a cocoanut dust was found to make a rather 

 brittle cardboard which on being touched by water would instantly sw^ll 

 up and close any hole made in it. This was looked upon, some ten years 

 ago, as a valuable discovery for rendering warships practically unsinkable 

 by gun-fire. The ordinary uses of coir, coir-yarn, etc., are so well known 

 in most households, that it seems superfluous to attempt an enumeration. 

 Coir-matting, coir-ropes, cocoanut brooms and besoms, hassocks, ham- 

 mocks, " bass " for nursery men, bags for seed-crushers, oil-presses, etc., 

 are amongst the many forms of manufactured coir. Coir rope is especially 

 serviceable in India because it does not suffer from the damp climate, and 

 sails are accordingly sometimes made of coarse coir-cloth. In the Laccadive 

 Islands mats made of cocoanut leaves are used as sails. In Ceylon and 

 India the fronds are split and woven into neat baskets. [Cf. Dodge, 

 Useful Fibre Plants of the World, 120-3.] 



Yield. As regards yield of fibre per nut and price, it has been said 

 that 10,000 husks treated in England yield about 50 cwt. of spinning fibre 

 and 10 cwt. of brush fibre. In Ceylon 40 nuts are reported to give 6 Ib. of 

 coir (or say 13J cwt. to 10,000) ; in Madras 18 large nuts and in the 

 Laccadives 60 small nuts give a similar amount ; but whereas a pound of 

 Laccadive coir spins to 35 fathoms (210 feet), a pound of the coir from 

 large Madras nuts will only measure 22 fathoms (132 feet). 



London Prices. The quotations for Coir on the London market, as published by 



Market. Messrs. Ide & Christie, October 15, 1907, may be here given. The spot values 



were as follows : 

 COIR YARJT 



Common to good Cochin Roping Dholls 

 Bales 



,, fair Cochin Weaving ,. 

 Fair to good 



Good to extra *. 



Common to fair Ceylon Dholls and Ballots 

 Fair to good Ceylon Ballots and Bales 

 Good to extra Ceylon Ballots 

 COIR FIBRE COCHIN, common 

 fair .. 

 good 



CEYLON, short to fair 

 clean long . . 



356 



