462 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



roof. By means of the circulating fans all the 

 air is made to pass three or four times through 

 the four drying floors thus ensuring it picking 

 up all the moisture it will hold before leaving the 

 building. All the fans are driven from shafts in 

 an underground channel, and these shafts are 

 driven in turn from two oil-engines which can 

 also be used to drive the lifts. 



Mr Hamel Smith, be it remembered, in no 

 way claims perfection for his drying house and 

 there is much in it, perhaps, that a practical 

 coconut planter in these parts might consider fit 

 to amend or modify, but it strikes a new depar- 

 ture in copra operations and in a moist climate 

 like this with a large and almost continuous rain- 

 fall occurring over a great part of the year 

 copra-drying is often retarded and is rendered a 

 slow process. Mr Hamel Smith's "by the acre' 1 

 houst' may therefore prove a boon and a blessing. 

 — Grenier's Rubber News, April 13. 



Negombo, May 3rd. 



Dhak Sik, — 1 was very interested in the above 

 extract from Grenier's Rubber News. 



I have interested myself on improved methods 

 of copra drying ever since I took to coconut plan- 

 ting and have discussed the subject with those 

 who visited me from different partsof the world. 



Mr Fredrick Burchardt, the Managing Direc- 

 tor of a large Banking, Trading and Planting 

 Company in German Samoa, gave me a rough 

 plan of a drying-house used by his company 

 which had 6,000 acres under coconuts, 



This and other plans of drying-houses which 

 1 received I placed before my employers. The 

 stereotyped decision was that they were satis- 

 fied with the present system of drying and did 

 not intend to spend money to improve it. 



Mr Hamel Smith (of "cocoa " fame) proposes 

 drying "by the acre." The idea is extrava- 

 gant for estates, but will do for those who 

 buy nuts and convert them into copra for 

 purposes of trade. A building 100 feet by 

 30 feet of four floors is estimated to turn out 

 in a day of 10 hours 48,000 lb. of copra, i.e., 

 over 85 candies. That is entirely beyond the 

 requirements of the largest ebtate in Ceylon. 

 As with tea factories in the hill country, coco- 

 nut estates with large drying houses can pur- 

 chase the crops of the neighbouring estates, 

 or work them into copra for them. 



It will be remembered that Mr. Long Price, 

 when presiding at a meeting of a Kurunegala 

 Coconut Company last year, stated that's large 



proportion of the crop was lying on the ground 

 owing to want of trained men to manufacture 

 copra and what was manufactured was at a 

 high cost. With a drying house such as is sug- 

 gested by Mr. Hamel Smith, coconut planters 

 will be independent of professional copra driers, 

 and crops will not lie for long uncured on the 

 ground. 



On the merits of Mr. Hamel Smith's inven- 

 tion, I leave experts to speak. I do not think 

 it neces&ary to place sacking or matting over 

 the wire mesh flooring " to keep the produce, 

 as much as possible, from falling through." 

 " The produce " will be coconuts in large pieces 

 and what does fall through can be swept out 

 from the ground floor which will have to be 

 paved. Old coffee planters know that for small 

 coffee beans, the lofts of the coffee stores were 

 covered over with J inch mesh galvanised wire 

 matting. This should more than do for the 

 floor of coconut drying rooms. 



Of course, it is understood that the meat 

 will have to be detached from the shells before 

 the drying can take place, to economise space 

 and for other reasons. 



Who will be the first to build and use a new 

 and improved copra drying house? A Euro- 

 pean Firm or a Ceylonese P The De Soysa 

 brothers can have one in the Mahaoya Valley 

 for all the estates they own there. I commend 

 the idea to Mr. R. E. S. de Soysa, who has, 

 as a partner in some branches of his business, 

 a competent Engineer and Chemist in the person 

 of Mr. Weigel of Excise fame. 



B. 



THE CULTIVATION AND CURING OF 

 CARDAMOMS. 



[In this article the cultivation, curing and 

 commerce of Cardamoms are described. The 

 photographs were expressly taken for " The 

 Chemist and Druggist " by Mr H F McMillan, 

 of Peradeniya BotanicGardtns, Coylon.l 

 Botany. 



The cardamoms of British commerce are de- 

 rived from Elettaria Cardamomum, Maton, which 

 grows wild, or is cultivated, on the Malabar 

 coast of India and Ceylon, these countries pro- 

 viding almost exclusively the fine grades met 

 with on the London markets. The annual con- 

 sumption in India and Burma is computed to be 

 nearly one million pounds. There is a large mar- 

 ket for the spice in Calcutta, the cardamom 

 coated with sugar forming a feature at Hindoo 

 festivals and ceremonials. 



