98 NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



usually yield 6 pounds of coir. As coir yarn, it is imported into the United States 

 at a value of about 2f cents per pound. In Europe, Asia, and America coir is 

 preferred to horse hair for stuffing beds, cushions, chairs, and saddles, as it is 

 indestructible and never harbors vermin. Eope made from coir is very strong 

 and light, does not rot when wet, and floats in water. It is stronger and more 

 elastic than hemp, and before the days of chains, chain cables and wire ropes it 

 was in demand for cables and standing rigging on shipboard. 



Door mats of coir find a ready sale at remunerative prices. The Polynesians 

 twist and braid small cords of this fiber, which as "sinnet" serves in the construction 

 of houses and canoes where Europeans would use nails. The small green and 

 immature nuts are grated fine for medicinal use, and when mixed with the oil of 

 the ripe nut it becomes a healing ointment. The jelly which lines the shell of more 

 mature nuts furnishes a delicate and nutritious food. The milk in its center, when 

 iced, is a most delicious luxury. In the Maldive Islands, labor performed is more 

 frequently than otherwise paid for in cocoanuts alone. Grated cocoauut forms a 

 part of the world-renowned East India condiment, curry. The chief manufactured 

 product derived from the kernel of the cocoauut is cocoanut oil, which has a 

 commercial value of about 6jJ cents per pound by the hogshead. Most of the oil 

 consumed in the United States is of home manufacture, though made from imported 

 nuts, the oil being extracted from the dry meat of the nut as imported, either by 

 pressure or by a treatment of sulphide of carbon. Chemically the oil consists of the 

 peculiar substance called cociuin, a complex combination of fatty acids with a very 

 small quantity of olein. During saponification cocinin yields glycerine and cocinic 

 acid; it is therefore mainly valuable in the preparation of candles and soaps. The 

 oil is used in small quantities for fine toilet and fulling soaps, also for marine soap> 

 as it forms a lather with sea water. It is also used in the preparation of a butter 

 substitute, known as cocoanut stearin. 



In most cocoanut-growing countries the process of preparing the oil is exceedingly 

 crude. The kernel is either broken up and dried in the sun and the oil extracted by 

 pressure, or exposed to the sun in troughs and kept constantly wet until fermentation 

 takes place, when the oil is drained off. The refuse is fed to pigs and poultry. The 

 poorer natives burn this oil in cocoanut shells, making the wicks of a bunch of fiber 

 from the husks ; the wealthier classes pour the oil into brass lamps 4 or 5 feet high, 

 having flat basins with ornamental beaks to hold the wick. Cocoa oil is also used 

 to anoint the body and is extensively employed as a substitute for olive oil in 

 pharmaceutical preparations. Mixed with a species of resin, and the compound 

 melted, a substance is obtained which is used in India instead of pitch for calking 

 the seams of boats and ships. It is also used as a substitute for wax in the 

 manufacture of fine candles. It is said to be preferred to olive oil by cloth 

 manufacturers and glass blowers. The kernels broken and dried are known as 

 copperah or copra; 1,000 full-sized nuts will yield 500 pounds of copra, from which 

 25 gallons of oil should be obtained. The oil is a white substance of a peculiar, 

 disagreeable odor; liquid at 80; below this temperature down to 50 it is of the 

 consistence of lard, and cooler than that it is quite solid. Under pressure it 

 separates into a liquid and "a solid portion; the latter, cocoa stearin, is extensively 

 used in the manufacture of candles. 



COCOANUT BUTTER. 



Mr. J. C. Monaghan, United States consul at Mannheim, 1 called attention to the 

 fact that quite an extensive factory in that city is manufacturing cocoanut butter, 

 of which the consul suggests : " If it is what chemists and hospital supervisors say 

 it is, its manufacture in the United States, where such vast quantities of butter are 



'In Vol. 108, Consular Reports, Department of State. 



