Nov.  i,  1892.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
32 1 
PALMIRA  FIBRE..  COIR  AND  DESICCATED 
COCONUT. 
With  reference  to  Mr.  Twynam’s  report,  whioh 
we  recently  published  and  commented  on,  Mr.  Figg, 
as  the  agent  of  Messrs.  Vavasseur  & Co.,  very 
naturally  wished  to  explain  that  the  Firm  were  no 
parties  to  the  alleged  destruction  of  trees  by  the 
tearing  away  of  immature  leaves.  Accordingly 
in  a very  interesting  visit  to  the  mills  yesterday 
we  were  assured  that  fibre  from  immature  leaves 
was  most  undesirable,  as  sure  to  be  weak  and 
inferior.  What  the  conductors  of  the  enterprise 
desiderate  are  the  old  leaves,  or  rather  portions  of 
leaves  whioh  the  old  trees  can  well  spare,  and 
whioh,  indeed,  must  be  removed  before  the  trees 
can  be  olimbed  to  procure  either  fruits  or  the  sac- 
charine juioe  from  the  flower  spathes  known  as 
“ toddy”  (tari)  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
“ jaggery.”  It  is  the  fibres  from  fully  matured 
and  withered  leaves  whioh  possess  the  necessary 
thickness  and  strength.  It  is  not,  we  find,  from 
the  stem  proper  that  the  fibre  is  obtained,  but 
from  its  broadened  base,  that  portion  which 
clasps  the  trunk  of  the  tree  for  the  larger  portion 
of  its  circumference.  The  outer  edges  of  these 
are  trimmed  away,  and  the  superfluous  matter  in 
whioh  the  fibres  are  embedded  got  rid  of  in  the 
localities  where  the  leaf-bases  are  collected,  by 
such  means  as  wooden  mallets  and  water.  The 
unassorted  fibres  are  then  shipped  to  Colombo  ; 
and  the  processes  whioh  we  saw  yesterday  con- 
ducted at  the  mills  consisted  in  sorting  the  fibres 
into  various  lengths  cutting  the  ends  of  bundles 
straight,  dyeing  the  fibres  of  a uniform  dark  colour, 
making  up  quantities  of  different  lengths  equal  to 
$ cwt.  in  each  case,  subjecting  the  parcels  to  the 
action  of  a sorew  press,  hooping  and  covering  with 
gunny  cloth.  As  far  as  Messrs.  Figg  and  fleinekey 
know,  the  only  uses  to  whioh  the  fibres  are  put  are 
for  the  manufacture  of  brooms  and  brushes,  the  ex- 
penditure per  annum  of  whioh  must  be  enormous, 
judging  from  the  large  and  increasing  demand  for 
the  raw  substance.  The  demand  was  previously  met 
principally  by  imports  of  a similar  Bubstance  from 
Brazil,  the  piassava  fibre,  which  seems  now  to  have 
given  out  or  to  be  too  expensive.  The  advantages 
of  the  enterprise  in  Ceylon  are  abundance  of  the 
material  in  the  Jaffna  Peninsula  in  the  vicinity  of 
cheap  labour.  We  should  think  the  same  conditions 
must  largely  prevail  in  the  Shanar  regions  of 
Tinnevelly  and  Madura.  The  calculation  we  have 
seen  gave  five  millions  of  palmira  trees  to  the 
former  district,  but  in  Southern  India  it  is  the 
jaggery  enterprise  which  is  principally  enoouraged 
by  the  European  firms  of  Madras  and  Cochin. 
The  tree  is  known  in  India  as  the  brab,  and  is  widely 
distributed  there  and  in  Burma  ; and  when  we 
were  editing  the  late  Mr.  Wm  Ferguson’s  mono- 
graph, we  were  able  to  quote  Livingstone’s  notices  of 
the  existence  of  Borassus  flabelliformis  on  the  borders 
of  the  African  lakes.  The  palmira  is,  in  tropical 
regions  of  the  earth,  one  of  the  most  plentiful  of 
palms,  but  it  is  seldom  that  oheap  labour  is  so  closely 
associated  with  the  trees  es  it  is  in  the  Northern 
Province  of  Ceylon.  An  enterprise  whioh  has  dis- 
tributed a deal  of  much  needed  money  amongst 
the  poor  peasantry  of  Jaffna,  would  be  regarded 
with  unqualified  pleasure  and  approval,  but  for  the 
danger  indicated  by  Mr.  Twynam,  that  the  greed 
of  the  owners  of  young  palmira  trees  may  lead 
them  to.  sacrifice  such  trees.  But,  as  we  have 
shown,  it  is  the  interest  of  Messrs.  Vavasseur’s 
agents  to  disoourage  suoh  reokless  destruction,  by 
rejecting  or  paying  greatly  lowered  prices  for  fibre 
from  immature  leaves,  so  that,  we  trust,  the  un- 
desirable process  resorted  to  ou  a small  scale  and 
tt 
exceptionally  may  not  oontinue.  We  also  trust 
that  Government  as  well  as  individuals  will  slacken 
no  efforts  in  extending  the  growth  of  this  valuable 
food  as  well  as  fibre-yielding  palm. 
Besides  palmira  fibres,  Messrs.  Vavasseur  & Co, 
are  larg9  exporters  of  coir,  the*  fibre  which  sur- 
rounds the  coconut.  This,  we  should  say,  is  the 
cheapest  fibre  wbioh  enters  into  commeroe,  the 
price  in  London  being  only  £5  per  ton,  while  £3 
of  this  sum  iB  absorbed  by  freight.  It  is  only 
the  very  large  transactions  which  Messrs.  Vavaseur 
& Co.,  and  other  firms  oonduot,  that  leave  any  profit 
to  them  and  the  portion  which  aocrues  to  the  poor 
natives  who  prepare  it  more  or  less  in  a finished 
state  must,  we  fear,  be  very  small.  Muoh 
of  the  work  of  steeping  in  water,  cleaning, 
drying,  &o  , is  done  by  women  and  children,  how- 
ever, The  use  of  ooir  mats  in  Europe  and  Amerioa 
is  very  extensive ; and  Messrs.  Treloar  have  manu- 
factured many  fanoy  artioles  from  this  substance, 
including  a lady’s  bonnet  1 
The  coir  industry  is  an  old  one,  but  the  main 
enterprise  conducted  at  the  Mills  we  visited  yes- 
terday, that  in  desiooated  coconut,  is,  like  the  fibre 
industry,  a new  one,  and  exceedingly  interesting. 
As  our  readers  are,  most  of  them,  aware,  the 
juice  and  meat  in  the  interior  of  a oooonut  Bhell 
are  in  young  coconuts  delioiousy  saaoharine.  In 
the  copra  (dried  kernels)  of  fully  ripe  oooonuts, 
the  saccharine  matter  has  been  converted  into  an 
oleaginous  substanoe,  and  the  oil  expressed  from 
the  ground  copra  has  a very  pronounced  flavour, 
whioh  we  cannot  honestly  desoribe  as  agreeable. 
The  nuts  used  in  the  desiccating  prooess  must  be 
mature  though  not  over-ripe.  A very  large  force 
of  labourers,  muoh  machinery  and  great  heat 
were  all  employed  yesterday  in  the  various  oper« 
ationa  of  opening  the  shells,  taking  out  the  kernels, 
slicing  them  into  films  and  threads,  and  in  some  oases 
grinding  them  to  the  consistence  of  very  fine  arrow* 
root.  This  latter  preparation,  we  were  told,  was  used 
in  biscuit-making,  the  other  forms  entering  largely 
into  confectionary,  dear  to  the  juveniles  of  Britain,  tha 
United  States  and  everywhere.  A soupgon  of  thepecu= 
liar  coconut  odour  seems  only  to  add  zest  to  appetite 
in  regard  to  these  preparations.  What  greatly  ex- 
cited our  admiration  was  the  snow-white  hue 
preserved  in  ail  the  forms  into  whioh  the  kernels 
were  prepared.  The  process  of  desiccation  waa 
oonduoted  in  a number  of  Brown’s  Tea  Desiccators, 
which  required  but  slight  adaptation  to  suit  them 
to  this  purpose  and  which  may  ultimately  be 
employed  in  drying  plantains  for  export?  The 
coconut  kernel  preparations  finished  off  in  tea 
desiccators  are  paoked  and  hermetically  closed  in 
lead-lined  tea-ohests,  long  rows  of  whiofl,  to  our 
mystification  at  first,  we  found  ready  for  filling 
and  soldering  in  the  faotory.  As  finally  paoked 
for  export  the  desiccated  oooonut  oontains  about 
4 per  cent  of  saooharine  matter  and  only  2 per 
cent  of  moisture,  the  latter  about  the  smallest 
proportion  which  any  substance,  however  prepared, 
can  show.  The  result  is  that  no  injurious  che» 
mical  aotion  takes  place  en  route,  and  the  pure 
and  wholesome  substances  reaoh  purchasers  and 
users,  with  their  snowy  hue  as  clear  and  untainted 
as  when  they  left  the  Ehores  over  whioh  the  palms 
which  yield  this  and  so  mmy  other  products 
bend.  The  Tamil  writer,  by  the  way,  who  enu- 
merated the  “ Thousand  Uses  of  the  Palmira  Palm  ” 
never  in  his  wildest  dreams  contemplated  the 
additional  use  whioh  is  at  the  root  of  Messrs.  Vavas- 
seur’s interesting  enterprise.  We  very  naturally 
asked  if  experiments  had  been  tried  with  the 
bases  of  oooonut  leaves  with  reference  to  fibre. 
The  answer  was  in  the  affirmative,  but  that  the 
resulting  fibre,  and  also  the  eekels  from  the  leaf 
