366 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



copra, experience shows that the first or 

 native method does not ever give a thoroughly 

 satisfactory result, except perhaps in localities 

 where one can invariably depend on a cloud- 

 less sky with fierce mid-day heat for weeks on 

 end, and even then the copra can never 

 be reliably dried, but will be found to contain a 

 percentage of moisture varying from, say, 6 to 

 19 per cent. This presence of moisture in the 

 copra accounts for the forming of mould, and 

 is, of course, a serious drawback, as it militates 

 against the obtaining of a good price for the 

 product, to say nothing of the possibility of 

 its being a grave deteriorating factor of the 

 quality, causing the entire parcel to be re- 

 jected. This mould 1 naturally gets worse as 

 time elapses, and the longer the copra has to 

 be stored before being shipped and until it 

 reaches its destination in Europe or America 

 and is actually used, the worse it will become. 

 This set-back applies naturally in a lesser 

 degree to places like Malabar, Ceylon, or to 

 any centres where there are oil mills and 

 vast desiccating establishments on the spot 

 for carefully dealing locally with fresh kernels 

 and the copra within easy and speedy reach of 

 the plantations. But the majority of planters 

 are not so fortunately situated, and it is for this 

 reason that oil may supersede copra as an 

 article of export in the future, especially from 



1 See p. 54, re the reason of mould forming in sun- 

 dried copra. 



