47 2 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



spread it on the vatas ; two well filled bags 

 constitute an ordinary task for a man. 



The vatas are the platforms on which the 

 copra is spread out for drying. They are 

 usually wooden frames with reed bottoms, and 

 when it rains the copra is covered with old 

 galvanized iron, canvas, or coco-nut leaves. 

 On larger and better provided plantations the 

 vatas are usually wooden platforms on wheels 

 moving on rails and made to run under a shed 

 when rain comes on and at night time. The 

 object of the planter who sells in the local 

 market appears to me to be to produce an 

 article just good enough to secure the adver- 

 tised market price. There is really no encour- 

 agement here to produce an extra fine article, 

 the merchants will not pay any more for it, 

 though they are not adverse to reducing the 

 price for indifferent copra. Whether it would 

 pay the merchant to grade his copra into two 

 or more different lots according to quality, 

 I cannot say, but I am pretty well sure that 

 if copra of mixed descriptions is placed in a 

 single heap the bad will have a more deteriorat- 

 ing effect on the good copra than that the latter 

 will improve the former. 



Results are better when planters themselves 

 ship direct to the Colonies or Europe ; and 

 even then the market price quoted for South 

 Sea Island copra is almost invariably lower 

 than that paid for copra from any other place, 

 and generally some ^3 or ^"4 less than 

 Malabar and Ceylon copra fetches. 



