Copra and its Preparation 395 



" Copra may be dried in the sun until all but 

 about 10 per cent, of the moisture has been 

 driven off, and sun-dried copra, if weather condi- 

 tions are favourable," says Dean C. Worcester 

 (p. 17 in his book), " is very white and brings 

 a high price, but it is liable to get wet 

 when drying and this darkens it ; any person, 

 therefore, producing copra on a large scale 

 should instal an artificial drying plant. Copra 

 dried on the lines of the Gloucester (Mass.) 

 system for drying codfish, by the aid of a large 

 rotary ventilating fan, would, or should, give 

 a snow-white product, and cause higher prices 

 to be realized." 



It was in order to meet the growing demand 

 for the necessary apparatus to dry copra, 

 rubber, cacao, &c., on a large scale that we 

 collaborated with our friends, and designed 

 the buildings described in the following pages. 

 In the building on p. 394 the four floors have 

 been arranged to provide a total drying area 

 of 1 1 ,000 sq. ft. or about a quarter of an 

 acre in extent, and the Blackman Export Co., 

 Ltd., claim that with their fans, 10 Ib. of wet 

 or green copra can be dried per square foot. 

 This area (11,000 sq. ft.), therefore, should be 

 easily able to take 80,000 Ib. of wet copra per 

 day (or 7 Ib. per square foot), which, with a 40 

 per cent, evaporation, would give 48,000 Ib. 

 copra ready for shipment. 



The building shown is provided with 

 skeleton floors with strong woven wire, or 



