52 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



copra) per frasila of 35 Ib. Local prices do 

 not fluctuate according to the output of the 

 season, but move in sympathy with the Euro- 

 pean market. With the exception of small 

 exports to Germany and Bombay in 1909, and 

 to Italy and Germany in 1911, the shipments 

 from Zanzibar apparently were made entirely 

 to Marseilles. 



Mr. L. C. Brown, Inspector of Coco-nut 

 Plantations, F.M.S., estimated that the average 

 price for coco-nuts at that centre during the five 

 years, 1905-1909, had been a little over $30 

 per 1,000 ($ = 2s. 4d.) and of copra $8.65 a 

 picul = 133^ Ib. One thousand nuts on the 

 average gave 4*30 piculs, in which case $30 

 worth of nuts collected (1,000 nuts) when turned 

 into copra returned about $37.20, including the 

 cost of extracting and drying the kernels. By 

 the way, Mr. Brown states that when making 

 copra, a better return is obtained if the nuts 

 are stored for a month or so before being 

 opened, and it lessens the cost of manufacture, 

 as the kernel is then more easily extracted 

 from the shell. We have always suggested 

 putting the nuts in the sun to dry off a little, 

 as that has the desired result of shrinking the 

 kernel, so that, when the shell is broken, it is 

 easily detached ; meanwhile it all helps in the 

 drying. The question of the best kind of 

 dryer, when mechanical process is desired, is 

 still far from settled, though all condemn sun- 

 drying, if only because the copra tends to get 



