172 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



The ripe 

 nuts. 



Husking. 



The use of 

 copra. 



The kernel 

 rich in oil. 



How to 

 make the 

 oil. 



cannot be expected from the light sandy soils of the 

 coast-line. 



The nuts are sometimes shipped with the husk on and 

 sometimes without it. The fruit is usually allowed to drop 

 from the tree, and in this way it is obtained perfectly ripe. 

 It is a certain fact that most of the nuts drop during the 

 night, and to this may no doubt be attached the rarity of in- 

 juries from nuts falling on the heads of persons working in a 

 '■'' cocaV — as a cocoa-nut plantation is usually called in the 

 West Indies. The process of husking is very laborious, yet 

 simple. The husk is torn off after it is split by striking the 

 nut smartly on the point of a crowbar firmly fixed in the 

 ground, or a sharpened stake made of hard wood may be 

 used for the same purpose. The fruit may be shipped loose, 

 or packed in coarse bags which hold a hundred nuts. 



Copra.— In some parts of the world, and especially in the 

 South Sea Islands where the cocoa-nut is cultivated ex- 

 tensively, the kernels are broken up into small pieces and 

 dried in the sun, in which form they constitute copra, 

 shipped to Europe and used principally in France and Ger- 

 many for the manufacture of oil — which is used extensively 

 for making soap and candles. Copra contains more than 

 half its weight of oil, so that i,ooo nuts will yield 5oolbs. of 

 copra. Only ripe nuts can be used for making this product 

 and they should be kept for some weeks after gathering, as 

 the copra then dries more quickly and gives a larger pro- 

 portion of oil, and, moreover, does not turn mouldy. 



Oil. — The kernel, as we have seen, is very rich in oil, 

 which may be extracted from fresh nuts, or from copra. 

 When the oil is to be obtained from fresh fruit, the kernel 

 is extracted and scraped to a pulp, which is boiled in water, 

 and the oil soon rises to the top and is skimmed off. For 

 commercial purposes, however, this process would be too 

 expensive, and various kinds of machinery have been de- 

 vised for extracting the oil. The usual system adopted is to 



