Cost of Making Copra 415 



following valuable notes: " Your letter to hand, 

 but regarding the cost of coco-nuts per 1,000 

 to produce, your remarks appear to me rather 

 vague, as it entirely depends upon what items 

 of expenditure you intend to include. I may 

 mention that in my opinion the only saving 

 you can look for on an estate of 2,000 acres or 

 more, compared with one of 500, lies in the 

 cost per acre for supervision and buildings ; for 

 the general expense of felling, draining, main- 

 tenance, weeding, picking and the manufacture 

 of copra would practically remain the same. 

 An estate of 5,000 acres, however, might cause 

 the planter to produce sufficient to feed a 

 factory to turn out oil, coir and even to make 

 rope, from which sources additional profits 

 might certainly be looked for. An estate, say 

 of 1,000 acres planted 30 x 30, or 48 to the 

 acre, giving an average of 50 nuts per tree 

 when in full bearing, should yield 48,000 x 50 

 = 2,400,000 nuts per annum, and I calculate 

 on an average that 1,000 nuts will give 4 piculs 

 30 katties of copra, making the entire produc- 

 tion amount to 10,320 piculs of copra in the 

 year. Then again the average price of copra 

 has been a good deal over $10 per picul 

 (133! Ib.) cash price at Singapore or Penang 

 for some time past (it is up to Rs.io6 per 

 candy of 560 Ib. in Ceylon), but taking $10 as 

 a reasonable average price ($ =* 2/4) the gross 

 revenue for the year would be $103,200 or 

 $103.20 per acre. I now enter upon the cost 



