386 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist. 



is practically impossible. The details of manu- 

 facture are more or less secret, but I may tell 

 you this, that while the nut is being handled 

 it is constantly in water, and on leaving the 

 water it passes into the machinery and is 

 then Untouched by hand until it is turned out 

 a snow-like mass of finely cut or powdered 

 dry coconut. The nut has to be shelled and 

 the brown skin pared off — that is the only 

 work done by hand, and, as I say, water is 

 freely used and the whole oval kernel under- 

 goes a thorough washing before passing into 

 the machinery — where does this process fail 

 in •' hygienic requirements?" 



" Then the Australian article is not superior 

 to the Ceylon product?" 



"It cannot be. If you saw the care wtih 

 which the dried or desiccated nut is watched 

 at the mills you would realise that the process 

 of manufacture can hardly be improved upon, 

 even in Ceylon where we have been working 

 for years. Moreover, currents of fresh dry 

 air pass through the factory, where everything 

 is kept scrupulously clean, and the high tem- 

 perature employed in the desiccators would 

 render perfectly innocuous any stray microbes. 

 And finally, before being carefully packed in 

 "grease-paper" in lead-lined chests, the piles 

 of snow-white nut are slowly turned over and 

 the smallest specks of even slightly discoloured 

 nut are picked out. Any one can eat Ceylon 

 desiccated nut raw without any fear at all — 

 I have eaten quantities — and the slur on our 

 produce in that Australian paper is unfair 

 and untrue. Of course, it was inspired by 

 some interested person, but such remarks as 

 that will only redound to the hurt of the 

 person himself. 



Ceylon's Competitors. 



"And you fear no competition?" "Well, 

 there lis such a demand for good Ceylon nut. 

 and it has such a firm hold in Europe, America, 

 Canada and elsewhere, that we can stand a 

 lot of competition. Besides this Australian 

 concern gets the nuts from the South Sea 

 Islands, and they are so liable to typhoons, etc., 

 which destroy the crops, as was experienced a 

 couple of years ago, that from time to time 

 coconuts there are scarce and prices of copra go 

 up very high, and the price of nuts follows ; and 

 if the mills there had no nuts — well, I leave 

 the rest to you !" 



" Does any other country produce desiccated 

 coconut" ? 



"Well, a Jamaica concern commenced work 

 and did something a few years ago ; but if they 

 are still working, it must be in a very small 

 way. In the United States are several mills ; 

 they get nuts from the West Indies and mix 

 up potato and cassava with the coconut, and 

 sell a curious mixture as 'desiccated coconut' ; 

 but their trade is limited and they have to de- 

 clare that it is a mixture they are selling." 



So the famous Ceylon desiccated coconut 

 still leads the way. 



CEYLON vs. AUSTRALIA. 



Colombo, Sept. 4th. 

 Dear Sib, — Your article re the Australian 

 " Desiccated Ookernut " industry is interesting, 

 but it would be still more so if you told us what 



the amount of the Import Duty is that enables 

 the Australian-made product to be sold at, you 

 say, ^d per lb. under cost of Ceylon Cokernut. 



— I am, yours, &c, 



COKERNUT. 



[The duty, we learn, is 2d per lb. which leaves 

 l^d per lb. to cover the extra cost of labour, &c. 

 —Ed., V. aj 



II. 



September 5th. 

 Dear Sib, — With reference to the extract from 

 the Melbourne "Age " of 6th August last on the 

 subject of "New Industries Established," I have 

 only to remark with regard to Desiccated Coco- 

 nut manufactured in Ceylon— which article is — or 

 was until our great Commonwealth of the South 

 commenced to " stagger humanity " with her 5- 

 ton-a-week Parramatta output — practically the 

 only country producing it :— Our enterprise was 

 started about 1885, or say a couple of decades 

 ago. In 1898 Ceylon exported about 13,040,554 

 lb. only, while this year of grace, I fancy we will 

 not be much short of 27,000,000 lb., while Aus- 

 tralia has to 24th August taken some 594,648 lb. 

 or little over a month's Parramatta Factory out- 

 put ; so that, while we are suffering from over- 

 production here, which is the "real cause" 

 of our extremely low prices during this 

 year— all i can say is, if our gum-sucking 

 friends of the South do not increase their popu- 

 lation in all its branches, and the confectionery- 

 sucking olive-branches in particular, they too 

 are bound, if Parramatta nut industry lives 

 another few months, to suffer from the same 

 complaint. I fail to see whore the political 

 sentiment comes in nor even the hygienic re- 

 quirements the writer in the "Age " alludes to, 

 but I question the superiority of their white 

 workers over our Sinhalese. It would be absurd 

 for an Australian to attempt to form an opinion, 

 but I know that black cooks are prized very 

 much in America, it being a well-known fact 

 that they are cleaner than the whites in many 

 respects. The writer in the " Age " does not say 

 so, but I conclude the nuts for manufacture are 

 obtained in the husk ; that is, they have to take 

 them just as they are packed. Now this must 

 entail a very heavy toll for rejections of bad and 

 immature nuts, and spoilt ones during the 

 voyage in the hot hold of a ship. This period, 

 the writer in question tells us, is from four 

 to five weeks, practically the same time our 

 nuts in Ceylon require for withering prior to 

 being husked for desiccating ; in other words, 

 their nuts wither in the ship-hold, whereas 

 ours mature on the ground in open air or 

 in well-ventilated sheds, so that what he calls 

 the "set" is nothing more or less than the 

 withering or maturing. In Ceylon the seller 

 of green nuts in husk generally allows the 

 buyer 5 per cent for rejections, but this toll 

 often runs to 10 per cent, so that with this charge 

 and the great cost of labour in Australia, and 

 the great heat the desiccating white men must 

 endure in Summer, it is very questionable if the 

 concern can be made to pay; however, it seems that 

 the Australians like the article raw, so perhaps 

 by educating the people in that direction, the 

 Parramatta general output of 537,600 lb. might 

 be doubled — so as to meet the great Australian 

 consumption of say 1,000,0001b., about which 

 figure or little over it reached last year. The 



