DESICCATED COCONUT INDUSTRIES 141 



mouth of the chamber. In passing over it the pestle 

 forces it upwards again, and the work of the 

 operator is to return all that is thrown out on the 

 table, and to break up and turn the cake from time 

 to time. Copra for ckekku pressing must be abso- 

 lutely dry, and is all the better for being put in hot. 

 A " turn" of copra is 42 lb., and should the appara- 

 tus be in perfect order and the copra perfectly dry, 

 the result will be 28 lb. of oil and 14 lb. of poonac, 

 or cattle- food cake ; thus 45 lb. of copra should 

 yield 3 gallons of oil. 



In the Philippines the pieces of dried copra are 

 held by hand against a rapidly revolving half- 

 spherical knife blade, which scrapes and shaves the 

 copra down to a fine degree of comminution. The 

 resultant mass is then macerated in a little hand 

 press, and the milky juice which flows therefrom 

 is collected in receivers placed below. This is then 

 drawn off into boilers and cooked until the clear 

 oil concentrates upon the surface. It is then 

 skimmed and filtered through a cloth, after which 

 it is ready for the market. Obviously this process, 

 while effective, is very wasteful, as it leaves quite 

 10 per cent, of the oil in the residue. 



" By another crude, wasteful method long 

 adopted in the Philippines," we are told, " the 

 kernel of the nut is rasped out of its shell and 

 loaded into old boats, which are elevated on posts. 

 When putrefaction supervenes, the oil percolates 



