OIL-SEEDS AND OILS 



129 



eighty or one hundred years. In some countries, e.g. the 

 Malay Peninsula, the natives cut notches in the trunk as they 

 climb up to gather the nuts, but in the West Indies they use 

 a rope. By the first method a man can gather about five 

 hundred nuts a day, by the second a thousand. 



After the nuts are gathered, the next operation is to remove 

 the outer covering of fibre, which is usually about two or 

 three inches thick. This is done by striking the nut sharply 

 on an iron-pointed stake set up in the ground. The fibre 

 is then torn off by hand. 

 When the fibre has been re- 

 moved, the nut is as we see it 

 in greengrocers' shops. 



Copra. To obtain copra, as 

 the white dried flesh is called, 

 the shell must be removed. 

 This is done about three weeks 

 after the nuts have been 

 gathered. They are cleft in 

 two with a hatchet, and, after 

 being exposed to the sun for 

 a little while, the copra is taken 

 out. 



It is then either dried in the 

 sun, or in a drying-house by means of air artificially heated. 



Coco-nut Oil. To obtain the oil from the copra various 

 methods are in use, but in all the most modern ones the copra 

 is broken up and ground to a meal, then heated and heavily 

 pressed. The oil which oozes out is white in colour, and in 

 temperate climates it is solid ; in the hot tropics it is liquid. 

 After it has been purified and refined it is in all respects equal 

 to oil of almonds, and is used for a great variety of purposes. 



In India, where soap until recently was an unknown luxury, 

 the natives used it to anoint their bodies ; it produces a fine 

 gloss. They also use it for cooking, and before the introduction 

 of kerosene they used it as a lamp oil. Their lamps were of 



2203 



SECTION OF COCO-NUT 



