74. 



Hie Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



owing to tha high piice of copra and nuts. Prob- 

 ably the Home and Continental Crushing Mills 

 wore able to produce it more cheaply than Ceylon 

 could supply it. But it looks as if this year is 

 to be one of the poorest in the decade for this 

 famous fodder. 



We did fairly well with our Nuts in shell for 

 the half-year, 7,604,329 nuts were sent away in 

 shell, against 5,805,647 in 1910. Crops have been 

 satisfactory in quantity. The kernel, however, 

 as must be expected, with five consecutive 

 years of half our average rainfall, in our best nut 

 districts, was very poor. It took fully 3J nuts, 

 all round, big and little, to make a pound of 

 desiccated, while, in many cases, it required 

 fully 1,400 to 1,500 all round, to produce a 

 candy of first quality estate copra. There are 

 very few nuts on the trees for the end of this year, 

 and we hoar on all sides that nuts are to be 

 very short September to December, aud, in 

 fact on into January, February, March, which 

 is always our shortest crop period. 



With yarn and fibre the mills worked on the 

 whole six months, save when water supply failed, 

 which it did at a good many mills. Several 

 however, had to shut down. There were two 

 reasons for this. The first was that husk went 

 to very abnormal prices. The second was that 

 there was no water in the tanks for retting. 

 This was doubly unfortunate in the face of the 

 best prices the mills ever saw, the best bristle 

 fibre reaching Kll, while mattress fibre was 

 worth K390 at buyers' stores, Colombo. 



Now with these prospects of very short nut 

 crops we may well ask if there is to be a 

 " boom ' : in Coconut products. Last mail 

 seemed to bring expectation of this, especially 

 in "' Copra." We attract attention to Mr. 

 Wicherley's paper in the " Rubber World" re- 

 produced elsewhere, which is, on the whole, a 

 carefully compiled statement, based, we should 

 think, on information gathered from Ceylon 

 authorities. But apart from this, the local 

 rumour is that there is a great deficiency in 

 this year's supply of Copra. If this is so, 

 there is a good time coming for all interested in 

 coconut plantations and gardens now in bearing. 



The following details of (lopra Exports for 

 1911 are kindly supplied us by Messrs. Freuden- 

 berg & Co., and will be studied with interest: — 



Exports of Copra, January to May, 1911. 



TONS. 





Jan. 



Feb. 



Mar. 



April. 



May.* 



93 



Total. 



Ceylon 



846 



918 



1108 



1818 



5643 



Java 



7167 



8064 



6017 



4858 



5772 



31878 



Singapore 



4651 



t291 



4743 



5458 



5819 



22962 



Penang 



1560 



1110 



1940 



2375 



1530 



8515 



Cochin 



309 



602 



112? 



152) 



3785 



7343 



Padang 



1045 



783 



967 



295 



1016 



4096 



Macassar 



2352 



1891 



3299 



1909 



3184 



12626 



Molluken 



5786 



2023 



689 i 



4056 



4438 



22201 



Manila &;Cebu 5700 



5200 



4500 



9000 



60UO 



30400 





29416 



22882 



2S599 



31280 



32487 



145664 



From figures published last month the total 

 shipments of copra from the Dutch East 

 Indies, Straits and Singapore, Ceylon, and the 

 Philippines for the period J muary to May, 

 1910, were given as 162,315 tons against the 

 total for these months of 145 664 tons repre- 

 sented above, 



* Provisional. 



COCONUTS LANDS: THE COPRA 

 INDUSTRY. 



IS A BOOM COMING ? 

 By William Wicherley, F.R.H.S. 

 It is common knowledge that some of the 

 shrewdest brains in the City have for some 

 months now been concentrated on the problem 

 which is at present disturbing the edible oil 

 industry all over the world— viz., shortage of 

 supply, and the consequent certainty of an enor- 

 mous increase in the price of the raw material, 

 in the category of which copra, the product of 

 the coconut, stands first and foremost. 



Thefinest copra comes fromthe Malabar Coast, 

 the next in esteem being produced in Ceylon, 

 whilst that from the Malay States, Dutch East 

 Indies, Philippines, and the South Sea Islands 

 follows in their stated order. So far as the out- 

 turn from the South Seas is concerned, this, as it 

 applies to the European market, may be left out 

 of count, since the Australian and American 

 demand greedily consumes everything offered 

 from that quarter. 



About three years ago, Messrs Lever Bros., of 

 Port Sunlight, embarkea on the heroic endea- 

 vour to direct this trade to England, but the 

 attempt is stated to have been a complete 

 failure. After sinking thousands of pounds in 

 the enterprise, this firm decided early in tho 

 present year to cut their losses, anu leave the 

 Solomon Islands and its copra trade severely 

 alone. The cost of collection was found to 

 be enormous, often amounting to over £50 

 per ton, at a period when copra could be 

 purchased in England at £22, delivered ! 

 Messrs Lever Bros, are now turning their 

 attention to the palm-nut forests of the 

 Belgian Congo in the endeavour to obtain 

 supplies. The same uneasiness is manifested 

 among other large consumers, who, for the time 

 being, are obtaining some assistance from the 

 soya beau. This cannot last, however, for many 

 reasons, chief of which is the ever widening 

 demand for this legume as a food among the 

 Asiatic races. Experts recognise that the only 

 solution of the difficulty is the consolidation of 

 the copra industry into channels which would 

 ensure continuity of supply, together with a 

 price always moving in consonance with that of 

 the ruling market. To obtain this desideratum, 

 it is absolutely necessary to secure the means of 

 output, which can only be accomplished by out 

 and out purchase of the lands which yield the 

 product, or the financing of the means of pro- 

 duction. The latter would be the readier, if the 

 more risky, means of operation, but it has 

 drawbacks which have before now frightened 

 away investors. The only difficulty in the way 

 of purchase is to persuade the native owners to 

 ask a reasonable price for their properties. For 

 thf. moment, thanks to fictitious inquiries from 

 irresponsible people, they entertain the notion 

 that Europeans are tumbling over each other in 

 a desire to pay anything from fifty to a hundred 

 years' purchase for coconut lands in bearing, 

 whereas a reasonable figure is anything between 

 six and twelve years' purchase of the certified 

 net profits, averaged over a period of five years. 



