THE NUT BUTTER INDUSTRY 177 



that one company renews all its supplies of nut 

 butter to its hundreds of branches every three 

 days. Quite bewildering is the rapidity of manu- 

 facture, thanks to the perfection to which both 

 machinery and staff have been brought by con- 

 stant experiment and practice. Milk and coconut, 

 entering the factory at noon, can be transformed 

 into the finished product, packed, and dispatched 

 about four o'clock. The company is particularly 

 proud of its packing machinery, which is a marvel 

 of rapidity and precision, working with almost 

 human intelligence. A case for packing 56 Ib. of 

 the product is constructed by one machine, which 

 drives twenty nails in two or three seconds, another 

 machine printing and attaching the label, and so on. 



This company has its own water supply, which 

 is drawn from over forty artesian wells sunk below 

 the chalk. Its machine-room is among the finest 

 to be seen in the country, one superb pair of 

 engines being of 900 H.P. 



It is scarcely necessary to add that at every 

 stage the product is carefully watched and sub- 

 jected to the most stringent scientific tests. The 

 operations being continuous, night and day, two 

 brigades of chemists follow every process in con- 

 nection with the raw materials and the finished 

 product. One of the finest departments is the 

 laboratory, with its imposing array of scientific 

 instruments and appliances necessary for the testing 



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