400 



available Native States produce was sent, had proved to be of little 

 practical value, and a reply was therefore despatched to the effect 

 that the Association did not favour the proposal. 



EXPORT Coffee to Europe. — With the idea of eventually placing 

 regular monthly consignments of iOO piculs upon the London mar- 

 ket to attract attention to our coffee, several of your members com- 

 bined and sent a trial shipment of 80 piculs. This was bulked in 

 the Port Dickson Co. Mills, and sold through Messrs. FRAME, Al- 

 ston & Arbuthnot. The price realized was 32^. per cwt. which 

 worked out to $1 7.78 per picul. This result was not sufficiently 

 encouraging to provide any inducement for persevering with the 

 experiment, and no further shipment of any size was made. A small 

 parcel of 12 piculs was however purchased to test the respective me- 

 rits of sun-drying and storing in Port Dickson and Aden; 7 piculs 

 of this, which the Port Dickson Coffee Curing Co. took in hand, 

 were sold in London at 30J. per cwt. whilst the 5 piculs sent to 

 Aden realized only 26s. per cwt. There were grounds for believing 

 that the Aden shipment was not properly looked after, and therefore 

 no information of any value was derived. A large parcel of good 

 3-year-old Coffee was disposed of at §2 per picul less than No. 1 

 fresh from the plantations, and the idea has gained ground that to 

 speculate by holding, on the assumption that coffee appreciates in 

 value with age, is a very doubtful policy. There may be markets 

 where old coffee is eagerly competed for, but Singapore is certainly 

 not in touch with any of them. Reports from London Brokers 

 favour shipments of coffee dried in the cherry before peeling, and 

 report such coffee to be sweet and suitable for home consumption, 

 but it is suggested that a market for this description must be gra- 

 dually built up, and no shipments of any size are known to have 

 been made. 



YIELD of Copra. — In response to a request for information on 

 this subject, the Manager of the Singapore Oil Mills kindly favoured 

 us with the following communication which your Committee think 

 they cannot do better than reproduce " in extenso." 



E. B. SKINNER, Esq, 

 Secretary, 



The Planters' Association, Singapore, Oct.uth, 1901. 



S clangor. 



DEAR Sir, — I am in receipt of your letter of the 19th ult. re the 

 various copras and their comparative yield of oil. 



The copras arriving in Singapore usually go under the name of 

 the Island or State they come from, as for instance Bally, Macassar, 

 Selangor, Kelantan, etc. etc. These copras are more or less the 

 same, the real differcuce being that while some qualities are made 

 from ripe and fully matured nuts, others contain 50% of copra made 

 from half ripe nuts, consequently the yield of oil from the latter is 

 much below that of the former. 



Formerly Bally copra was recognised as the standard for " Sun 

 dried Quality- It wasthick, drv, and rich in oil. Evidently great 

 care was taken in only picking the ripe nuts, and it was properK 



