290 The Philippine Journal of Science i9i8 



the husks by hand, employing two different methods. In the one 

 the fresh husks are beaten on the convex side with a mallet, 

 stone, or club, until the fibers are freed from the corky cellular 

 tissue. This process is used by the school children and an insig- 

 nificant quantity is extracted, from which doormats and other 

 household articles are made. In the other process the husks as a 

 rule are split into segments, to facilitate the action of water and 

 of the retting bacteria, and they are steeped in either fresh or 

 brackish water, according to the locality, until sufficiently de- 

 composed to loosen the fiber. The filaments are then separated 

 from the pulp matrix by beating and by washing in water. 

 Generally no attempt is made to sort the fiber. After the fiber 

 has been dried in the sun, it is ready for use. In certain parts 

 of the Archipelago where the coconut palm abounds, extraction 

 of the fiber by this process is practiced to a limited extent as a 

 household industry. The coir thus secured is generally fabri- 

 cated into articles for personal use, and it seldom finds its way 

 into the market. It is sometimes used by the farmer and by 

 the owners of native sailing craft for fabricating inferior, rag- 

 ged-looking cordage. Both methods of extraction are slow and 

 tedious, particularly the one in which the husks are macerated in 

 water for periods varying from a few wedks to several months, 

 the time depending upon the practice in vogue in the particular 

 locality. 



For the production of coir on a large scale there have been 

 manufactured power-driven machines of various sorts which, 

 together with their operation, have been described by Hamel 

 Smith and Pape.^* The Bureau of Science has made tests to 

 determine the capacity of some of these," the power required for 

 their operation, and the quality of the product. 



Descnption of coir tested. — Two different samples of coir 

 were tested. One was machine extracted at the Bureau of 

 Science, from fresh husks of coconuts grown in Laguna Province. 

 The other came from Caoayan, Ilocos Sur, in the form of rope 

 50 millimeters in circumference, the fiber having been extracted 

 by pounding husks that had been steeped in brackish water. 



Most of the machine-cleaned filaments were smooth and free 

 from waste material. Owing to the violent shaking, fanning, 

 and tumbling action to which they had been subjected in the 

 willowing machine, the filaments were entirely free from loosely 

 adherent pulp, dust, and tow. Some were so smooth that it 



^ Hamel Smith, H., and Pape, F. A. G., Coco-nuts: The Consols of the 

 East. "Tropical Life" Publishing' Dept., London (1912). 



* Valencia, F. V., Mechanical extraction of coir, antea, 275. 



