COCO-NUT PRODUCTS 199 



than that of smoke drying. The copra is clean, clear, 

 and dry, without the least rancidity after six months in 

 the store-house. As the shells are left in the kiln until 

 the drying is complete, the copra is all in half-nut 

 pieces up to the time they are broken in packing. 

 Except for occasional pieces made from unripe nuts — and 

 far fewer of these than are usually found in the Laguna 

 product — this copra was in a business sense perfect. 



Nevertheless Mr. Navarro has not found it possible 

 to operate his drier the most of the time at a profit. 

 Because of a practical corner on the local marketing 

 facilities held by a leading exporting company, or 

 because of his ignorance of the real market, or lack of 

 capital, he has been forced to sell his product at the 

 price locally paid for the best smoke-cured copra. As 

 most planters make their own, and pay practically no 

 attention to the cost of drying it, their nuts cannot be 

 bought and handled at a profit unless the copra can be 

 marketed at a higher price than they could get. Pagsan- 

 jan is so situated, at the junction of two rivers flowing 

 through a great coco-nut forest, that nuts enough to 

 keep this drier busy, seventeen or eighteen thousand a 

 day, are easily delivered. Except in such a place, the 

 operation of a drier of this size would be impracticable 

 for reasons other than inability to sell the product for 

 its real value. 



The type of drying house in use by the Deutsche 

 Handels- und Plantagen-Gesellschaft in Samoa has been 

 described twice in the Beihefte zum Tropenpjlanzer, 

 first by Preuss in March 1907. For the sake of clear- 

 ness Preuss's figures are copied here. 



The house, the outer walls of which are supported 

 by wooden posts set in cement, is set over a smaller 

 room of masonry, in which the air is heated. This hot 

 room is, in one of the driers described as typical, 5 m. 

 long, 2*3 m. wide, and 2*3 m. high. Set into the wall 

 at the middle of one end is the fireplace. A flue of stone 

 runs from the fireplace obliquely well toward the other 

 end of the room. It is there connected by a vertical 



