164 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



leave the plantation, there is of course a very great 

 additional loss of fertilizing materials. If the husks 

 themselves are sold, the loss is materially greater 

 than when the coir is sold after its extraction from 

 the husks. The greatest loss of all is of course by 

 the sale of the whole nuts. Yet this is the common 

 form in which to market the produce in some parts 

 of the world, and the chief form wherever transportation 

 facilities are such that nuts can be laid down at 

 reasonable cost at the centres of commerce in temperate 

 countries. 



In the past the manuring value of the constituents 

 of the coco-nut has been better understood, or at least 

 better appreciated in practice, in various temperate 

 countries than it has where the coco-nuts are produced. 

 It is evidently in the permanent interest of the planter 

 to produce oil on the ground rather than to sell copra. 

 But the oil-cake made in many tropical countries is 

 without local cash value, while it has sufficient value 

 in other places, so that copra-buyers can, if necessary, 

 bid up to the full oil value of the copra, and make 

 the profits and the cost of transportation and manu- 

 facture out of the sale of the oil-cake. 



THE HARVEST 



The proper time for the harvest of the nuts depends 

 somewhat on the use to be made of the crop. In the 

 rare cases in which the production of coir is the chief 

 end the nuts are not allowed to become very nearly 

 mature. But in most cases the making of coir is not 

 a consideration at all, and only copra is directly pro- 

 duced. The copra in its turn is sooner or later used 

 for the manufacture of oil, and its value depends 

 entirely on the quantity and quality of the oil which 

 can be made from it. To produce the greatest quantity 

 and best quality of oil, and to produce it most easily 

 and cheaply, the nuts must be entirely ripe. A nut 

 is ready for the seed-bed when it is really ready for 



