April 1908.] 



309 



Edible Products. 



and exposed to the sun for a few hours, 

 or such time as may be necessary to 

 cause the fleshy albumen to contract and 

 shrink away from the hard outer shell, 

 so that the meat may be easily detached 

 with the fingers. 



Weather-permitting, the meat thus 

 secured is sun dried for a day and then 

 subjected to the heat of a slow fire for 

 several hours. In some countries this 

 drying is now effected by hot-air driers, 

 and a very white and valuable product 

 secured ; but in the Philippines the uni- 

 versal practice is to spread out the 

 copra upon what may be called a bam- 

 boo grill, over a smoky fire made of the 

 shells and husks, just sufficient heat 

 being maintained not to set fire to the 

 bamboo. The halves, when dried, are 

 broken by hand into still smaller irre- 

 gular fragments, and subjected to one or 

 two days of sun bath. By this time the 

 moisture has been so thoroughly expell- 

 ed that the copra is now ready to be 

 sacked or baled and stored away for 

 shipment or use. 



All modern coconut-oil mills are sup- 

 plied with a decorticator armed with 

 revolving discs that tear or cut through 

 the husk longitudinally, freeing the nut 

 from its outer covering and leaving the 

 latter in the best possible condition for 

 the subsequent extraction of its fibre. 

 This decorticator is fed from a hopper 

 and is made of a size and capacity to 

 husk from 550 to 1,000 nuts per hour. 



Rasping and grinding machinery of 

 many patterns and makes, for reducing 

 the meat to a pulp, is used in India, 

 Ceylon, and China, and, although far 

 more expeditious, offers no improve- 

 ments, so far as concerns the condition 

 to which the meats are reduced over 

 the methods followed in the Philippines. 

 Here the fleshy halves of the meat are 

 held by hand against a rapidly revolv- 

 ing, half-spherical knife blade which 

 scrapes and shaves the flesh down to a 

 fine degree of comminution. The result- 

 ing mass is then macerated in a little 

 water and placed in bags and subjected 

 to pressure, and the milky juice which 

 flows therefrom is collected in receivers 

 placed below. This is now drawn off 

 into boilers and cooked until the clear 

 oil is concentrated upon the surface. 

 The oil is then skimmed off and is ready 

 for market. 



The process outlined above is very 

 wasteful. The processes 1 have seen in 

 operation are very inadequate, and I 

 estimate that not less than 10 per cent, 

 of the oil goes to loss in the press cake. 

 This is a loss that does not occur in estab- 

 lishment equipped with the be&t hydrau- 



lic presses. It is true that very heavy 

 pressure carries through much colouring 

 matter not withdrawn by the primitive 

 native mill, and that the oil is conse- 

 quently darker, and sooner undergoes 

 decomposition ; but modern mills are 

 now supplied with filtration plants 

 through which this objection is practi- 

 cally oveicome. 



The principles of the above process 

 are daily produced in thousands of Fili- 

 pino homes, where the hand rasping of 

 the nut, the expression of the milky 

 juice through coarse cloth, its subse- 

 quent boiling down in an opeu pan, and 

 the final skimming off of the oil are in 

 common practice. Notwithstanding the 

 cheapness of labour, it is only by employ- 

 ing a mill well equipped with decorti- 

 cating, rasping, hydraulic brushing, and 

 steam-boiling machinery, and with 

 facilities to convert the residue to feed- 

 ing or other uses, that one may hope- 

 fully enter the field of oil manufacture 

 in these Islands in competition with 

 copra buyers. 



Coir. 



The fibre of the coconut husk, or coir 

 as it is commercially known, has never 

 yet been utilized in this Archipelago, 

 excepting occasionally for local con- 

 sumption. 



Second in value only to the copra, this 

 product has been allowed to go to waste. 

 The rejected husks are thrown together 

 in immense heaps, which are finally 

 burned and the ashes, exceedingly rich in 

 potash and phosphoric acid, are left to 

 blow away. 



As the commercial value of the fibre 

 is greater than the manurial value of 

 the salts therein, it is economy to utilize 

 the fibre and purchase potash and phos- 

 phoric acid when needed to enrich the 

 soil. 



Highly improved and inexpensive 

 power machinery for the complete and 

 easy extraction of the fibres of the husk, 

 either wet or dry, is now rapidly super- 

 seding the tedious hand tprocess once in 

 such general use. Good patterns of 

 machinery are shown in the "husk- 

 crushing mill " (fig. 1), and in the " fibre 

 extractor " (fig. 2). 



The first breaks, crushes, and flattens 

 out the husks by means of powerful, 

 fluted metal rollers, and, in the second 

 the broken husks are fed over a revolving 

 drum set with teeth especially devised for 

 tearing out the fibre from the entire mass. 

 Finally, it is fed into one of the manj' 

 forms of " willowiug " machines, which 

 reduces the mass to clean fibre, which is 

 now ready for grading, baling, and ship. 



