COCOS NUCIFERA. 241 



easily digested and is particularly well adapted for the use of patients suffering from 

 impaired digestion. « 



The copra industry is becoming more important year by year. Thus far very 

 little copra has found its way to the United States, but coconut oil is imported for 

 various purposes, especially for soap making. The chief sources of coconut oil in 

 this country are Ceylon and the Madras Presidency, India, especially the district of 

 Cochin, where it is the principal product. Soap made from coconut oil is more 

 soluble in salt water than that made from other oils or fats, and is consequently 

 much used on seagoing vessels. One objectionable feature of soaps made from this 

 oil is the disagreeable rancid odor which they usually leave on the skin after wash- 

 ing with them. The most serious difficulty encountered by soap makers is the elim- 

 ination of fatty acids contained in it. To remove these the oil is heated with lye, an 

 emulsion is made, and the oil extracted from the mixture by means of a separator 

 and receiver. & Coconut oil alone is not usually employed in soap making, but is 

 added to other oils for the purpose of producing quickly solidifying soaps containing 

 a large proportion of water. c 



Coir, or the fiber of the husk of the coconut, is another product of commercial 

 importance. It is imported into England and America in the form of coir yarn, coir • 

 fiber, coir rope, and bristle fiber, and is used principally in manufacturing matting 

 and brushes.^ In Guam no effort is made to utilize it, and hundreds of tons go to 

 waste each year. Fiber suitable for cordage must be taken from husks or nuts not t 

 yet thoroughly ripe, but the coarser, harder fiber of ripe nuts could be used for 

 brushes. In Samoa, where the fiber plays so important a part in the economy of | 

 the natives, a particular variety ('ena, or niu afa) occurs having long nuts with fiber 

 especially adapted for making sinnet (afa). This variety is rare, and is highly 

 valued by the natives. e The sources of the best coir of commerce are the Laccadive 

 Islands and the neighboring district of Cochin, on the Malabar coast of British India. 

 This coir is known commercially as Cochin or Madras coir. The primitive way of j 

 preparing the fiber is to soak the husks thoroughly in salt water, beat them with 

 heavy wooden mallets, rub them between the hands, and remove the coir by hand. | 

 It is then twisted by hand into two-stranded yarns./ This process has been replaced 

 in many districts by improved methods, in which the fiber is extracted from the 

 husk, either wet or dry, by means of machines. The husks are crushed in a mill, con- J 

 sisting of two adjustable fluted iron rollers. The pressure here exerted flattens them 

 and prepares them for the "breaking down," or extraction of the fiber, performed, 

 in an "extractor" composed essentially of a drum or cylinder whose periphery is 

 coated with steel teeth that catch in the fiber and tear it from the husk. The 

 machine is covered with a wooden case to prevent the fiber being scattered. It is 

 then "willowed" or cleaned, graded, and baled for shipment.!/ 



PRODUCTION. 



Nearly every family of Guam has its coconut plantation. The best sites are the 

 lowlands, especially the sandy beaches of the west shore. The principal coconut 



«Kew Bulletin, No. 46, p. 235, 1890. 



&See Andes, Vegetable Fats and Oils, trans., pp. 203 and 244, fig. 76, 1897. 



cSee Richardson and Watts, Chemical Technology, ed. 2, vol. 1, pt. 3, p. 683, 1863. 



^See monthly circulars of Ide & Christie, fiber, esparto, and general produce 

 brokers, 72 Mark lane, London, E. C, in which prices are quoted together with 

 statistics regarding importations, etc. 



e See Powell, Thomas, On various Samoan plants and their vernacular names, See- 

 mann's Journal of Botany, vol. 6, p. 282, 1868. 



/Watt, Economic Products of India, vol. 2, pp. 428-429, 1889, 



?Spon's Encyclopaedia, vol. 1, p. 940, 1882, 



9773—05 16 



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