COCO-NUT PRODUCTS 189 



appear by itself; but where coir manufacture is a separate 

 business, the husks are bought from the surrounding 

 coco-nut planters, and the usual price is P2*00 a 

 thousand. 



It has already been stated that coir has not become 

 a factory product nor an article of commerce except in 

 and near Ceylon. In the Philippines, the Government 

 at one time assembled a quantity of husks, locally called 

 " binuti," at its San Eamon farm, but did nothing with 

 them. The best natural location in the Islands for such 

 an industry would be Pagsanjan, where twenty-five to 

 fifty thousand nuts a day can be secured steadily ; but 

 the price of labour is higher than coir manufacture can 

 stand. 



In Java a company was organized not long ago at 

 Koetoardjo, Eesidency Kadoe, 1 for the manufacture of 

 coir and coir products for the European market. 

 Opinions as to its chance of success differed. Hoyer, 

 a Government expert sent to British India to investigate 

 the business, recommended the use of locally-made 

 machines modelled after a successful Singalese type, 

 and had two of these made ; but at the same time that 

 he reports the successful working of the machines he 

 says the fibre is inferior to that of Ceylon, and the 

 cost of production greater. Vlaanderen 2 states that 

 Javan husks may be expected to produce 80 to 

 115 g. of textile fibre, and 30 to 40 g. of brush fibre 

 each ; but to allow for the inferior quality charged by 

 Hoyer, these figures are cut down to Ceylon standard 

 estimates of 60 g. db textile and 12 g. ± bristle fibre 

 per nut, and 100 nuts a year from a tree. Taking as 

 normal London prices crude fibre £6 per metric ton, 

 coir yarn, etc., £15 per metric ton, bristle fibre fl.25 per 

 metric ton, the gross returns figure out, per tree and 

 per annum, fl.0*79 if sold as fibre, or fl.1'44 if all the 

 inferior fibre is made into coir yarn. The chief fault of 

 estimates is that one cannot know how much they 



1 Bull. Kolon. Mus. Harlem, 48 (1909) 15. 

 2 Ibid. p. 47. 



