IX, A, 2 Pratt: Coconut and its Prodiicts * 189 



to a coarse bran. This is heated in large, steam- jacketed con- 

 tainers provided with stirrers to insure a uniform temperature. 

 The temperature employed is very important, as it affects the 

 quality of the resulting oil to a great degree, and it is one of 

 the carefully guarded details of the mill. The warm mass is 

 then run into large vertical presses, in which it is separated 

 by perforated plates that determine the thickness of the resulting 

 cake. Hydraulic pressure of 2 tons is gradually applied, until 

 all except about 10 per cent of the oil is expressed. The press 

 cakes are then ground, rolled, heated as before, and submitted 

 to 3-ton presses that reduce the oil content to about 6 per cent. 

 Ck)pra yields roughly 66 per cent of oil by this method and 

 33 per cent of press cake, called poonac. These cakes weigh 

 approximately 5.5 kilograms each, and are packed in burlap 

 for shipment to the continent as cattle food or are ground with 

 fish, phosphates, and nitrates as fertilizer for estates. Germany 

 is the largest buyer, followed by Belgium and the United King- 

 dom. For yearly export, see Table XIV. The total consump- 

 tion of oil cake as food for draught cattle, milch cows, and pigs 

 is rapidly increasing. It possesses the valuable property of 

 adding to the firmness of butter produced by cows fed upon it. 



DESICCATED COCONUT 



The processes employed in the manufacture of various des- 

 iccated coconut products are not so generally known as in 

 the previous industry, and will, therefore, be discussed more in 

 detail. The husked nuts are brought to the desiccating mills 

 in bullock carts well covered to protect them from sun and rain. 

 Here they are counted, and are bought at prices ranging from 

 52 to 56 pesos per thousand. The broken, blemished, and under- 

 sized nuts are used for making copra, while the selected ones 

 are covered to protect them from rain and sun which would cause 

 bursting followed by rancidity. Rain especially injures the 

 flavor, and in case the nuts cannot be used at once they are 

 removed to storage sheds. 



The satisfactory nuts are then counted into baskets containing 

 50 each, which are carried to natives seated in long rows and pro- 

 vided with small hatchets and chopping blocks. The shells are 

 skillfully chipped away, leaving the kernel entire (Plate I, 

 fig. 2). These are rapidly passed to women who pare or shave 

 off the coarse, brown outer surface. The instrument used is 

 an ordinary carpenter's spokeshave having one end cut off. 

 The use of special machinery for this operation was tried at 



