Copra and its Preparation 373 



in the case of the West Indian Island of 

 Trinidad, which practically ships all its nuts 

 to the United States, renders the planters 

 exempt from t'he trouble of drying the copra 

 or of making oil. Local consumption, again, 

 as in China, India, Burmah and Siam notably, 

 absorbs annually many millions of nuts ; there- 

 fore, when buying your estate, ascertain which 

 will pay you best to sell the nuts whole, to 

 make copra, desiccated coco-nut, or oil and 

 poonac. 



After being halved, Mr. Worcester tells us, 

 the nuts are placed in the sun, concave side up, 

 and the meat as it dries separates from the 

 shell. Meanwhile the milk, which in the 

 aggregate, as shown in the tables on p. 526, 

 weighs almost as much as the meat itself, goes 

 to waste on the ground. 



On p. 374 we have trays, as used in San 

 Thome and the West Indies for cacao, which 

 are pushed under cover at night or when it rains. 

 When the meat, as described above, is ready to 

 separate itself from the shell, the nuts will be 

 removed, the shell carried away to be burnt, and 

 the meat will be completely dried by itself. 



On p. 377 it will be seen that the halves 

 are being placed over the grill for the pre- 

 liminary drying, previous to removing the 

 shell. We leave our readers to imagine the 

 state of the meat when shipped. 



The phenomenally rapid opening up of the 

 vast Empire of China alone by railways and 



