COCO-NUT PRODUCTS 197 



injuring the quality of the copra. In drying, the husks 

 are first removed and the nuts opened, and the half-nuts 

 then placed on the trays and placed in the drier for a 

 period of two to four hours. They are then removed 

 and the half-dried copra is broken into pieces and dried 

 again. The total time of drying is usually about six 

 hours. It is practicable to run three charges through 

 the apparatus during each twenty-four hours. 



The company which owns the drier owns no coco- 

 nut trees, but buys the nuts from the neighbouring 

 planters. The nuts are bought by the thousand, and 

 the price depends on the price of copra and on the size 

 of the nuts. With regard to the size of the nut, no 

 discrimination is made between the nuts of different 

 planters, but from season to season the copra-producing 

 value of nuts varies in response to the climate. Ordin- 

 arily one thousand nuts yield about three piculs of 

 copra. After a sequence of favourable seasons, more 

 than three piculs are produced ; but as a result of 

 drought the nuts become much smaller. As a result 

 of the drought which ended in June 1912, the nuts 

 decreased very much in size during the following months, 

 until in January 1913 scarcely more than two piculs 

 were produced from one thousand. After this there 

 was a gradual recovery. At the time of lowest yield 

 copra was high, and seventeen pesos to twenty pesos was 

 paid for a thousand nuts, depending on fluctuations in 

 the market price of the copra. 



The copra produced by this drier usually sold slightly 

 below the price of Cebu sun-dried. For this the drying 

 was not responsible, the product being as good as drying 

 could make it. The copra lacked something of being- 

 first class because the nuts were not all properly 

 ripened. Mr. Bonito understood what was needed to 

 produce good copra, and let all nuts bought remain in 

 piles for two weeks before opening, it being his judg- 

 ment that, as they had been harvested, this was the 

 period which would produce the best result from the 

 local harvest as a whole. The factory is able to produce 



