March, 1912.] 



199 



Fibres. 



seed is shelled before crushing, but this 

 is not necessary as the cake cannot be 

 used for feeding purposes. Prom 100 lbs. 

 of 9eed about 30 to 35 lbs. of oil may be 

 obtained in this way. 



(b) By roasting the seed, then pound- 

 ing it and afterwards boiling it in 

 water. Stir the mixture constantly 

 ;iad skim off the oil as it rises to the 

 surface. Boiling is continued for two or 

 three days, the second day's boiling pro- 

 ducing better oil than the first. From 



100 lbs. of seed only about 30 lbs. of oil 

 can be obtained in this way. 



(c) By far the best method is by means 

 of an oil-press as used by large millers. 

 This method gives more than 35 lbs. of 

 oil from 100 lbs. of seed. Therefore, as 

 there is a good market, it is better to sell 

 the seed whole to millers than to crush 

 it by the ordinary methods. 



Whenever procurable the cake and 

 other refuse should be used as manure. 

 For this purpose it is specially valuable 

 for sugarcane, paddy and cotton. 



FIBRES. 



PLANTAIN FIBRE INDUSTRY. 



(From the Ceylon Patriot, January 

 '30, 1912.) 



Perhaps many are not aware of the 

 latent source of wealth that lies buried 

 in the plantain fibre which now practic- 

 ally goes to waste. In the following 

 few lines I shall endeavour to place 

 before your readers the results of my 

 observations and experiments 1 have been 

 carrying on while 1 was in India some 

 years back : — 



The main reason of our not utilizing 

 the fibre contained iu the plantain, 

 which is a common plant iu Ceylon, is, I 

 believe, due to the general ignorance of 

 its existence, Experiments have shown 

 that the plantain fibre is admirably 

 suited for cordage of a superior quality. 

 The Manila rope which is very largely 

 used in ships and for machine driving is 

 made of the fibre extracted from the 

 "Manila Plantain," which is a native of 

 the Malaya Archipelago. Experiments 

 for manufacturing fabrics out of plan- 

 tain fibre were also made and were 

 found satisfactory. I had with me a few 

 different kinds of these turned out by 

 the Trivandrum School of Arts. Some 

 of them looked even better than silk, 



•The extraction of the fibre is a very 

 simple process, and is done by means of 

 a machine which in itself is very simple. 

 The first of the kind I saw was the inven- 

 tion of Mr. Proudlock of Ootacamund, 

 the pioneer of this industry in South 

 India. It consists of a smooth piece of 

 wood 4" by 6" by 6" on two posts fixed to 

 the ground, and a blunt knife fixed to it 

 lengthwise, with its edge downwards. 

 One end of a string is attached to the 

 handle of the knife, and the other to a 

 long piece of bamboo to form a lever 

 which is pressed by the foot to raise the 

 blade when working. The cost of this 

 was only about Rs, 3. The disadvantage 



of this machine is that it is not easily 

 portable. Au improvement on this was 

 the one made at the School of Arts, Tri- 

 vandrum. The Superintendent of this 

 institution describes the machine as 

 follows : — 



" The framework of the machine is in 

 teak wood and the scraping blade, with 

 the squeezing fluted roller, fitted parallel 

 to each other at the top, are actuated 

 by two separate strong steel springs 

 worked by foot levers. The machine 

 on the whole is sufficiently small and 

 light to enable it to be carried conveni- 

 ently to the very spot in the plantain 

 gardens where the trees are cut, saviug 

 thereby a large expenditure that has 

 otherwise to be invariably incurred in 

 the transport of the raw material, The 

 additional mechanism for squeezing 

 with the fluted rollers which work in 

 advance of the scraping operation, gives 

 greater pliability to the plantain sheaths 

 and renders the extraction of the fibre 

 much easier." 



Experiments have shown that a man 

 with a few days' experience on the 

 machine will be able to work about ten 

 plantain stems a day, with the assist- 

 ance of a boy to tear the sheaths into 

 longitudinal pieces of an inch and a half 

 wide, and assisting him generally. An 

 average plantain stem cut for fruit 

 yields about 1| lbs. of fibre. The wages 

 of the man and the boy may be put 

 down at 50 cts. per day, and for this 50 

 ets. we get 15 lbs. of fibre. At this rate 

 it costs about Rs. 75 to extract a ton 

 (2.21C lbs.) of fibre. Add to this Rs. 45 

 for freight, traders' commission, baling, 

 insurance, &c; the total comes to Rs. 

 120, And for this sum of Rs. 120 a ton 

 of fibre reaches the London market. 

 The price there is about Rs. 300 a tou— 

 of course subject to fluctuation. From 

 this we see the profit on a ton of fibre 

 is Rs, 180. I arrive at this figure on the 



