August, Ml.] 



Edible Products. 



Dean of our College, published in May, 

 1908, in the Philippine Agricultural 

 Review. 



Gathering of Nuts. 

 The low quality of our copra is due 

 mainly to the use of immature nuts, aud 

 to the poor method of handling it. The 

 common nut-gatherers never allow the 

 nuts to mature completely. Much is to 

 be gained if, instead of gathering the 

 nuts while on the tree, they are allowed 

 to be dead ripe and to fall of themselves. 

 They will be thus giveu time to con- 

 centrate their oil contents, and thus 

 yield a better quality of copra. This 

 method has two objections : one is the 

 chance for the fruit to germinate on the 

 tree before falling, and the other is the 

 danger of the nuts being lost, or des- 

 troyed, after falling. The first difficulty 

 in localities where it occurs can be 

 avoided through seed selectiou ; the 

 second is easily remedied by keeping 

 the plantation free from weeds. This 

 practice may seem costly, but if we 

 know how to relate it with others it 

 will result economically. Letting the 

 ripe nuts fall will suppress the bad habit 

 of the majority of the nut-gatherers of 

 making incisions on trees to aid in 

 climbing. 



Coconut Products. 

 The principal coconutproduct exported 

 from the Philippines is copra. The total 

 export of this article for nine months 

 ending March, 1909, was 5,353,548 dollars, 

 of which 2,774,131 dollars, representing 

 122,638,576 pounds of the article, that is 

 more than one-half of the export, were 

 imported by Prance alone (from the 

 " Quarterly Summary of Commerce of 

 the Philippine Islands" for January- 

 March, 1909). But the Philippine copra 

 is classed as the poorest, as can be seen 

 from the following prices of copra from 

 different countries in Marseilles, Dec. 

 11, 1909: — 



For every 100 Kg. 

 Ceylon sundried 

 Singapore 

 Macassar 

 Manilla 

 Zanzibar 

 Java sundried 

 Saigon 

 Cotonon 

 Pacific Samoa 

 Oceanie Francaise 

 Mozambique 



{From U Agriculture Pratique 

 Pays Chauds.) 



One franc is worth about thirty»eight 

 centavos. 



61 



Fr. 



58 



J J 



57 



)» 



55 



>5 



56-50 



' J 



60 



1) 



56 



» » 



56-50 





57 



J> 

 » ) 



57 



58 



)) 



des 



Comparing the price given for the 

 Manila copra with that of Ceylon 

 sundried, the former is losing eleven 

 per cent, by this difference in classi- 

 fication. If we could therefore im- 

 prove our copra and succeed in 

 classifying it among the best, we 

 would increase our income eleven 

 per cent, for this product. According 

 to Prudhomme the superiority of the 

 best copra is " to be mainly attributed 

 to a very careful preparation and to the 

 use of well-matured nuts." 



Sun Drying versus Kiln Drying. — As 

 has been pointed out in the beginning 

 of this paper, the low price given for 

 Manila copra is mainly due to an im- 

 perfect method of drying and to the 

 use of immature nuts. It is worth while 

 to quote Prudhomme when speaking of 

 the different investigations on the effect 

 of drying on the quality of the oil 

 obtained : " One can, I think, draw 

 from these investigations the following 

 conclusions : 



1. The oil of the most pure and of 

 the best quality are extracted from 

 little coloured copra that proceeds from 

 well-matured nuts. 



"2. Drying by smoking and kiln 

 drying, when poorly done, have the 

 great inconvenience of yielding copra of 

 a more or less dark colour, giving out a 

 well pronounced smoky odour, and 

 leaving as residue a cake of inferior 

 quality. 



"3. Sun drying gives the most excel- 

 lent results when well conducted. 



" 4. The finest copra can only be pre- 

 pared from perfectly mature nuts." 



There are several ways of drying 

 copra : kiln drying, smoking in " smoke 

 houses," and by means of the sun. 

 Stoves are also used. 



In rainy countries where sundrying 

 cannot be relied upon, and where 

 farmers cannot afford to expend money 

 for stoves, kiln drying can be resorted 

 to, but fuel giving out the least amount 

 of smoke must be used. 



The desiccated coconut is a product 

 largely consumed the world over, but 

 not produced as yet in the Philippines. 

 This article is used in making pudding 

 and sweet-meats. 7,900,000 kg. of this 

 product was exported from Ceylon 

 in 1903. 



The industrial preparation of desic- 

 cated coconnt involves several steps : 

 splitting of nuts and separation of meat 

 from shell ; the rasping of the meat to 

 reduce it to small fragments ; the desic- 

 cation and the baling of the product, 



