16 COCONUTS, KERNELS, AND CACAO. 



as the fruit matures. To prepare the fibre, the natives 

 remove the husks by hulling, and place them in basket- 

 work cages in backwaters or pits containing brackish 

 water, where they remain for many months to soften. 

 Then the fibre is freed from the non-fibrous matter, 

 dried, cleaned, sorted, and baled for export. 



In sorting, " fibre " consists of the finer fibres used 

 for spinning purposes and for mats or ropes ; " brush " 

 fibre is coarser and stiffer, and is employed in the manu- 

 facture of brushes and brooms. Short " curled " fibre 

 or tow is used in upholstery as a substitute for horse- 

 hair, and the dust or refuse for bulbs and garden pur- 

 poses. Twelve thousand coconut husks yield one ton 

 of coir fibre. 



Copra is the matured kernel of the coconut broken into 

 pieces and well dried, either in the sun, or, more fre- 

 quently now, perhaps, by mechanical means in hot-air 

 evaporators, where the shell does not fall away at the 

 time when the nuts are broken. 



The high value of copra is due to the oil it contains. 

 To extract the oil the early method was first to pound 

 the copra into a meal and then to cast this meal into a 

 vat of boiling water, whereupon the oil, released by the 

 heat and rising to the top of the water, was recovered 

 from the surface by skimming ; but to-day oil is " ex- 

 pressed " from the copra, the entire process being per- 

 formed by machinery. The copra is properly milled, 

 the resultant meal being steamed and fashioned into large 

 square cakes ; and from these cakes, upon submitting 

 them to a hydraulic pressure of several tons per square 

 inch, the coveted oil is " expressed/' or squeezed. 



The reason why the public hears little of the " coconut 



