198 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



sixty to seventy piculs of copra a day. It employs 

 fourteen persons at a total wage of about twelve pesos a 

 day. Husks are removed for sixty centavos a thousand. 

 The removal of the meat from the shells and breaking up 

 the meat is paid for at the rate of fifty centavos a thousand 

 nuts. The factory cost P4000, and when running full 

 blast pays a profit of about Pi 00 a day, from which 

 the cost of management must be deducted. 



The husks which are not used for fuel are hammered 

 by means of a machine operated by the same boiler, and 

 the half-cleaned fibre is sold in Manila for use as caulk- 

 ing material. Mr. Bonito's statement is that from one 

 hundred husks an " aroba " of coir is produced, and that 

 this sells in Manila at three pesos an aroba. If this state- 

 ment is correct, the receipts for the fibre are in excess 

 of the price paid for the nuts. 



The largest copra drier ever built is probably that of 

 Antonio Navarro of Pagsanjan, in the Philippine pro- 

 vince of La Laguna. The kiln is in effect the basement 

 of a one-story building. The excavation is approxi- 

 mately 2 metres deep, 5 metres wide, and 15 metres 

 long, and has floor and walls of cemented masonry. 

 At one end is a very ample fireplace, sunk a little deeper 

 still into the ground. The rest of the excavation is 

 covered with heavy sheet-iron and serves as a great flue ; 

 a pipe leading to the high chimney leaves the end 

 opposite the fireplace. The cover of the flue is the floor 

 of the drying chamber, which is less than 150 cm. high, 

 neatly made of sheet-iron, and with trap-doors in the 

 sides and top. The top of the drying chamber is less 

 than a metre above the floor of the building, this floor 

 being hardly more than a hall- way around the drying 

 chamber. The drying chamber is ventilated by means 

 of pipes or by the trap-doors. Coco-nut husks and shells 

 are used as fuel. According to Mr. Navarro's state- 

 ments, the temperature of the kiln is controlled without 

 difficulty, and kept at about $5° C. ; the capacity is 

 then about fifty piculs (roughly three tons) of copra a 

 day ; and the cost of drying is rather less in operation 



