364 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



In spite of opinions and reports to the con- 

 trary, including those mentioned in several 

 places in this book, it roughly takes three 

 nuts to make i Ib. of well-dried copra ; there- 

 fore, until improved cultivation permanently 

 increases the kernel-content of the nuts far 

 beyond what it now is, taken on the average, 

 drying space for at least 6,000 nuts and 7,000 

 would be the safest number to reckon on 

 must be allowed for in any drying appliances 

 erected for every ton of copra to be turned 

 out. It is maintained, and we believe with 

 perfect correctness, that 4,000 nuts from care- 

 fully planted and highly cultivated estates, are 

 all that is needed to make a ton of copra, as 

 "compared with the 6,000 to 7,000 nuts grown 

 on native lands." This is doubtless correct, 

 but as the large highly cultivated estates turn- 

 ing out 2,000,000 nuts and over in a year 

 have still to come into maturity, we are bound 

 to go by the majority of outputs, and 95 per 

 cent, of these go from 6,000 to 7,000 nuts. 

 The words put in inverted commas just above 

 were taken from a report of a great believer 

 in 4,000 nuts to the ton, who, in using them to 

 prove his case, confirms what we claim, viz., 

 taking the producing world as a whole, that 

 6,000 nuts at least must be reckoned on. In 

 discussing coco-nuts in Samoa, 7,000 nuts 

 are also given as being necessary for one 

 ton of copra. 



There is one consolation in this matter with 



