54 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



Question. Do you find that sun-dried copra 

 tends, on the whole, to arrive mouldy and 

 dirty at the works ? 



Answer. Sun-dried copra has a tendency 

 to arrive mouldy and dirty at the works. This 

 may be accounted for by the fact that fermen- 

 tation can take place during the slow process 

 of sun-drying. 



Question. Do you agree that the figures in 

 attached reprint give a correct idea of the time 

 required for drying by the various processes 

 named, viz. : 



Method Time 



Sun ... 5 days 



Grill (over bamboos) ... 10 to 12 hours 



Hot-air chamber ... ... 3! ,, 4 ,, 



Rotary hot-air process ... 2 ,, 3 ,, 



Answer. We agree that the figures of the 

 time required for drying, as quoted above, 

 are quite possible figures, but there are many 

 circumstances, such as country, climate, tem- 

 perature, and system of mechanical drying 

 which would affect results. 



In a lecture delivered to a Missionary 

 Industrial Conference at Kodaikanal, Sir F. A. 

 Nicholson 1 told his audience of an experiment 

 he made that could well be carried out on 



hand, the process can be too slow, and hence cause with 

 copra, as stated in Answer No. 2, fermentation to take 

 place during the drying process. (See our book on " The 

 Fermentation of Cacao," p. 151, and Preface, p. xxiii, for 

 an explanation of this.) 



1 Indian Agriculturist, October, 19 10. 



