USES OF THE COCOA NUT* 



153 



used, I understand, in Ceylon, as an efficacious remedy in 

 cutaneous diseases ; the root is also used for medicinal pur- 

 poses ; its elastic fibres are sometimes woven into strainers 

 for liquids, while the timber may be used in building, or 

 converted into beautiful articles of furniture. The husk 

 consists of a tough fibre, from which cordage and rigging 

 of the best quality may be manufactured, and the finest 

 stuffing for mattrasses that is used, not excepting hair. I 

 saw some of this fibre manufactured at the Penitentiary 

 in Kingston, for mattrass stuffing. I satisfied myself that 

 if its value were known in America, it would bring a 

 higher price than any commodity now in use for bedding. 

 The specimens that I saw were prepared by the convicts, 

 at a cost, I was told, of six cents a pound. Hair costs in 

 New York, I believe about twenty-five cents. 



The process of manufacturing it, is very simple — the 

 husk shells are soaked till perfectly soft, and then pounded 

 out until the fibres are all separated. This was done 

 in the prison by hand-labor, and without the use of 

 machinery, and the article could be produced by them 

 for six cents a pound. By the aid of a very simple 

 machine — something, for instance, like that to which rags 

 in a paper mill are first subjected — it is very apparent, that 

 the cost of manufacturing it might be reduced at least one 

 half. When I asked why machinery was not employed 

 in this department of the prison, I was told that they had 



