IX, A, 2 Pratt: Coconut and its Products 



used. The primitive methods in vogue throughout the Galle 

 District may be taken as representative of native manufacture. 



Bamboo inclosures, each of a few square meters' area, are 

 constructed along the numerous streams, esteros, and the sea. 

 The husks are thrown into these pens and submerged by adding 

 lengths of palm trunk or other suitable material (Plate II, fig. 2) . 

 The action of the water is allowed to soften the husks for about 

 six days, and is generally considered to give a more desirable 

 fiber where a mingling of fresh and salt water acts upon the 

 material. The softened husk is placed upon a block and 

 thoroughly beaten, either with a stone or a short stick, thus 

 causing a separation of the fiber. The outer surface is then 

 stripped off as valueless, and the fiber is shaken free from 

 fine bits of husk, woody pulp, etc. It is then hackled with a 

 coarse wooden comb and dried. Two classes of fiber result, the 

 coarse "bristle fiber" averaging 30 centimeters in length and 

 the finer "mattress fiber." The latter is spun into what is known 

 as "coir yarn" in strands about 40 millimeters thick and 17 

 meters long. The spinning is done by women who rapidly twist 

 the fiber between the thumb and palm of the hand, building 

 up two strands, which are then twisted together. Women 

 employed in this way claim to earn from 0.60 to 1.20 pesos per 

 day, but no definite information is available as they work at 

 irregular times under no supervision. 



Husks are purchased by the bullock-cart load at fiber mills 

 for about 16 centavos per hundred, although it is possible in 

 some localities to procure them without other cost than cart 

 hire (Plate III, fig. 1). They are then quartered and placed 

 to soak. Better type mills conduct the softening process in 

 large tanks with iron rails to keep the husks submerged. Others 

 utilize swampy ground with soaking pits. 



The soft husks are removed after five days and carried to 

 a machine known as a "breaker" that crushes them in prepara- 

 tion for the "drums" (Plate IV, fig. 1). These are in pairs, 

 a coarse machine for the first treatment and a finer one for 

 the second. They are circular iron wheels 1 meter in diameter, 

 and revolve at high speed. The 35-centimeter rim is studded 

 with spikes that tear out the woody portion of the husks held 

 against them, leaving separate the long coarse fibers (Plate 

 III, fig. 2). Torn and broken fiber that falls from the spikes 

 is fanned, spread in the sun to dry, subsequently cleaned, and 

 finally baled as mattress fiber (Plate IV, fig. 2). The long, 

 coarse fibers are washed, cleaned, and dried. They are then 



