THE COCOANUT PALM. 



235 



pits the better the quality of the fibre, and shrewd purchasers always 

 bear this fact in mind when speculating in the article. Some years 

 back, the husks used to be kept in the pits for more than a year, but 

 now they are not kept above six to eight months, for as soon as it is 

 believed that they are rotten enough to throw out the fibre when 

 beaten, they are removed. If kept above fifteen months, however, they 

 spoil, and the fibre obtained is generally of a bluish colour, and of thin, 

 poor staple, which is unsaleable in England. The price of rotten 

 husks during the last few years has greatly advanced, and has fluctu- 

 ated between 7 to 10 Es. per 1000. When a purchaser comes forward, 

 the husks are either counted and delivered over, or, as is more 

 usually done, the cadjan specifying the number buried in each pit is 

 handed over and the bargain is supposed to be concluded. The stench 

 emanating from the pits is often intolerable, and during the fibre 

 season, travelling along the banks of the backwater is not a very 

 pleasant thing. The purchaser hands over the husks to women, who 

 beat out all the fibre with short heavy clubs ; and as labour is very 

 cheap in the interior, this process is not a very expensive one. They 

 have to clear the fibre of all pith, wash it clean and expose it to 

 be dried, and in a half-dried state it is bundled up and brought into 

 market for sale. In Calicut and other ports on the Malabar coast, the 

 fibre is prepared by a different process, and hence the very undesirable 

 quality of the yarn of those places. In Cochin and Travancore the 

 natives seem to be more alive to the importance of bringing the article 

 to market in its best condition, as they find that it pays them to 

 do so. 



The constantly increasing demand for the prepared fibre is suffi- 

 cient to induce many planters to cultivate largely the growth of the 

 cocoanut. 



The short, woody, and apparently intractable fibres lining the 

 inside of the husk of the cocoanut constitute the material which 

 Hindoo ingenuity had long since converted into excellent cordage. 

 A quarter of a century ago this was its only use; now a large 

 industry has been created in it for matmaking and brushmaking, and 

 we now import into the United Kingdom coir fibre, yarn, and cordage 

 to the collective value of about 170,000Z. 



In 1845 under 10,000 cwts. of coir rope^and fibre of all kinds were 

 shipped from Ceylon ; in 1870 it had increased to 58,000 cwts. 



The following figures give the shipments for a few years : 





Year. 



Coir Yarn. 



Coir Rope. 







Cwts. 



£ 



Cwts. 



£ 







1866 

 1867 

 1868 

 1869 

 1870 



46,869 

 42,949 

 57,961 

 59,489 

 46,764 



28,122 

 26,039 

 34,776 

 35,687 

 28,616 



8,097 

 6,242 

 6,692 

 6,183 

 9,635 



10,121 



7,803 

 8,370 

 7,730 

 12,072 





The pericarp of forty nuts furnishes about 6 lbs. of coir. There are 

 several ways of stripping the fibre from the husk. One is by placing 



