IX, A. 2 Pratt: Coconut and its Products 181 



meat upward, on dry, sandy ground. The nuts are carefully 

 covered at night and kept free from all dirt. The meat shrinks 

 away from the shells after two days, and is then removed for 

 further drying. The process is usually complete in about six 

 days, whereupon the copra is ready for market (Plate 1, fig. 1). 



Artificially dried copra is frequently inferior to the sundried 

 product since the heat and smoke give it a darker color and 

 wizened appearance. Fire drying requires from two to four 

 days in the large mills and from five to seven days on native 

 estates. The latter rate is preferable as it produces a higher 

 grade copra. The process is essentially the same in both cases, 

 differing merely in the rate at which it is carried out. A plat- 

 form is constructed of green areca-palm (betel-nut palm) laths 

 placed about 1 centimeter apart, forming a floor from 2 to 3 

 meters wide and of any desired length. This is erected about 

 2 meters above an earthen pit in which coconut shells are fired, 

 after having been fitted into each other in parallel rows from 

 two-thirds to 1 meter apart. Three or four rows of these shells 

 are generally fired at one time, with an occasional reduction of 

 the heat for several hours. A row of shells burns for from 

 five to six hours, sometimes much longer. The half nuts on the 

 platform are turned over after the second firing, and the partially 

 dried meat is released after the third. Three more firings com- 

 plete the drying. When this method is carefully carried out, 

 only dry shells are burned, as these produce very little smoke but 

 considerable heat. The husks are employed in the preparation 

 of fiber, as will be shown later. The resulting copra is fairly 

 white and clean, and since it sells for nearly top prices in the 

 London market estate owners are content to use this method, 

 as supplementary to sundrying without employing more com- 

 plex machinery. All Ceylon copra at the present time is pre- 

 pared by one or both of these processes. 



A very successful native drier claims he can turn out the best 

 white copra by grill drying and even more economically than by 

 sundrying. He fires only one row of shells at a time, and re- 

 quires five days and nights of continuous heating to complete 

 the drying. Many planters start with sundrying, and complete 

 the preparation of their copra over grills. 



The amount of copra from a given quantity of fresh nuts 

 depends to a considerable extent upon the rate of artificial drying. 

 Ordinarily, from 170 to 200 nuts give about 50 kilograms (110 

 pounds) of copra. The two extremes are encountered in compar- 

 ing the output of sundried copra with that of desiccated coconut 



