370 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



OUR PALM PRODUCTS FOR THIHD 

 QUARTER, 1911. 



The quarter has been a very remarkable one 

 in that a very sharp rise took place under all 

 headings and particularly in copra. The drought 

 has been very severe over the period now under 

 review. It was about the worst ever experienced, 

 over our nut zone. The dry cycle, now in its 

 sixth year, is — let us hope— near its end. It is 

 sad to see how our palms have suffered, parti, 

 cularly North of Colombo. The South, Matara 

 to Kalutara and Colombo, has been more fortu- 

 nate. It has had a refreshing showers now and 

 then, which the North-West coast entirely mis- 

 sed. It is simply wonderful how the coconuts 

 came rolling in at mills, and copra sheds, not- 

 withstanding the terrible drought, with less than 

 half our usual rainfall for the year. But the 

 drought has made itself felt in other fashion. 

 Several mills had to stop work, both fibre and 

 desiccating, for want of water. The former 

 were refusing splendid offers, their mattress 

 fibre being as high as Rs.l4 - 75 to Rs. 5 per 

 cwt. in Colombo. The like of this was, we fancy, 

 never known before in the history of the Product. 



Oil. — This has been in good demand during 

 the quarter and prices quite up to the best of 

 last year, reaching Rs.600 per ton f.o.b. Colombo. 

 We sent away to end of quarter or say 2nd inst. 

 Only 325,195 cwt., against same date in 1910 no 

 less than 448,301 cwt., the fa!ling-ofl' being caused 

 no doubt by the demand being easier during 1st 

 and 2nd quarters, and besides copra-drying 

 went slow over the same period owing to nuts 

 being dearer. 



Copea. — The year, that is to end June, was 

 a bad one for copra-drying, nuts being very 

 high while copra went down to about Rs. 67, 

 at which price the men could not secure a nut- 

 supply at a sufficiently low price. During 

 August copra took a sudden turn upwards 

 when mills were practically deserted by nut- 

 contractors who rushed off to dry copra as 

 fast as they could, while mills were forced to 

 go slow as they could not compete with the 

 copra men ; the price of copra reached Rs. 93 - 25, 

 or 25 cts. per candy less than the record price 

 it went to last year. People who should know 

 seem to think that copra, before the end of the 

 year, will reach the round Rs. 100 per candy, 

 and if one can judge by the great scarcity of 

 nuts on the trees just now, it would look 

 as if these prophets, mostly old experienced 

 natives; are likely to be right. At date we have 



only shipped 472,589 cwt. against 562,214 cwt. 

 last year at same date. 



Desiccated Nut.— How very different the 

 figures for this are ! If this is to be anything 

 like last year's 3rd quarter, it looks as if we 

 are to ship a record crop this year of nearly 

 30,000,000 lb. against some 13,000,000 lb. ten 

 years ago. A cheap sugar year is a good year 

 for this product, as manufacturing is seen to 

 go on with increased vigour. While nuts 

 ranged from Rs. 52 to Rs. 60 per ],000 during 

 the quarter, the demand was fair and prices 

 for the ordinary assortment ranged from 22 cts. 

 to 25J cts. per lb. Colombo delivery, fancy 

 grades being about 2 cts. per lb. over the above. 



Poonac. — We have to record a great falling 

 off in this, the actual figures being 120,720 cwt. 

 against 211,669 cwt. in 1910. No doubt the 

 greater demand locally for this as cattle food, 

 owing to the great scarcity apd to the famine 

 price of paddy straw, has raised the price be- 

 yond the limit of home and continental buyers. 

 What with great scarcity of water, and high 

 prices of straw and poonac, the poor cart bulls 

 have had a bad time of it all over the low- 

 country, not only over the quarter under notice, 

 but through the whole year. 



Coconuts in Shell.— The export of these has 

 been going on very briskly, the total shipped 

 to date being very little under last year, the 

 figures being 12,118,226 nuts, against 12,265,819 

 in 1910, the U.K. as usual taking the greater 

 number. There is a terrible falling off in the 

 quality of the kernol reported from all sides, 

 this year, owing to over six consecutive years 

 of half rainfall. In many cases the nuts have 

 hardly any water in them, and it is taking 

 nearly 3£ to make a pound of desiccated, while as 

 many as 1,600 are required to make a candy of 

 copra whereas formerly it was a common thing 

 to get a candy of copra from 1,000 to 1,100 nuts. 



Fibre and Yarn. — There is a small increase 

 in yarn over last year at date, as also in fibre, 

 notwithstanding the great scarcity of water at 

 miles for retting. The high price of mattress 

 fibre sent up the price of their raw material, 

 the husk going to R2-50 and R30 per 1,000 for 

 a time at some mills. Taking it all rouud, the 

 coconut enterprise was, we think, in a better 

 position during the past quarter. True, a few 

 of our estate proprietors have lost their heads 

 with the high prices nuts and lands are fetching, 

 while many of our trees lost their heads by the 

 drought ; but it is marvellous to see how they 

 go on cropping in the face of the six continu- 

 ous dry years. 



