43° 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[December i, 1896* 
COCONUT 23UTTEE : 
A NEW riELl) FOR EXPORT FROM CEYLON, 
For some little time past we have been hearing 
rumours as to the successiul extraction from coco- 
nuts of a butter which it has been asserted might 
eventually take the place to a very great 
extent, cf the genuine article. Information, however, 
respecting this new process has hitherto been of a 
very limited character, and from all that could be 
learned on the subject the experiments made seemed 
to have been of a tentative character only. It is, 
therefore, with considerable surprise that we have 
read the account given in the latest Keio Bulletin 
and which was summarized in our London Letter 
by last mail. To judge from wbat we have thus 
learned, the process has not only passed out of 
the region of bare experiment, but its success 
commercially has already been established, and a 
very great demand, far beyond the present means 
or meeting it, has sprung up. 
To an island like Ceylon, which not only now 
produces an enormous yield of coconuts, but 
in which the cultivation of the palm bearing it 
is possible of still farther extension, the news 
now reaching us is of very material impor- 
tance. But we deem it to be probable that 
local interest in the matter must to a considerable 
extent await the fuller development of the methods 
employed. Unless it be found impracticable here- 
after to work the manufacture locally and with profit, 
the probability is that our own interest in it must 
be dependent upon the discovery of a method by 
which the extract may be obtained from the copra, 
the name by which the dried kernel of the nut 
is known. So long as the power of extracting 
the butter is limited to the fresh nuts, it is 
scarcely possible, we should say, that Ceylon, 
despite all its capacity for production, can com- 
pete in the supply of them to European countries, 
with sources which lie nearer home. For, after 
all the question of the cost of transportation is 
a serious one in regard to the nut itself. 
The unbroken nut, even when stripped of its 
husky covering, occupies much space relatively to 
the weight of kernel it contains, and this fact 
must, of course, increase the freightage greatly. 
Two courses, therefore, await experiment before 
this island can hope to share very largely in the supply 
for the actively increased demand which this new 
discovery is likely to cause. The most important 
of these would be the discovery of a method 
whereby the butter may be extracted from the 
dried kernels, while the second one would be the 
adoption of the process of manufacture locally. 
The method of the latter process is unknown to us, 
nor does the Kew Bulletin afford us any intelli- 
gence with reference to it. The probability is, we 
should say, that it is— for fhe present at all events 
a trade secret, and there can be little doubt that 
if it be BO, the endeavour will be made to preserve to 
it that character as long as may be possible, 
The local prospect, therefore, of sharing in tne 
advantages to be expeeted from this new inven- 
tion must, it would seem, be dependent on means 
being found for the substitution of the dried for 
the fresh kernel. As to this, everything must 
depend as regards ourselves upon whether the 
drying which converts the juicy nut into a hard 
substance is inimical to the preservation of the 
constituents from which the butter is derived. 
This is, of course, a point upon which we are 
unable to express an opinion, but it is one which 
may well engage the attention of scientific chemists, 
and would even be of importance enough to our 
island interest to warrant our Government in 
letking iBfgrwatipn Irom homo. According to the 
Kciv Bulletin, the new extract has a fair prospect 
of largely superseding the butterines, such as oleo- 
margarine, cSic., which are extractions from animal 
fats. Indeed we are told lhat it has already largely 
done so, and that the present demand ranges as 
high as 100 hundredweights ijcr diem, while the 
existing means of production limit fhe outturn to 
50 hundredweights only. 
We may be sure that the official organ of 
the Great British Botanical Gardens would not 
h .ve committed itself to the reproduction of these 
figures, had not its directors been possessed of 
good warranty for so doing, and we may there- 
fore accept them as fully reliable. It is not 
difficult of belief that people would prefer a pure 
and healthy vegetable extract to one, the sources 
of which are open to taint and much suspicion. 
As regards these last we have even heard it hinted 
at that the soapy scum which rises to the surface 
cf the Thames at the points of sewage dis- 
charge into them is collected partly with 
the object of the manufacture from it of 
oleomargarine ! Although we greatly doubt this, 
it is quite certain that many very base and 
disagreeable substances may be, and probably are, 
the foundation of much of the oleo-margarine sold. 
We have never practised the experiment ourselves 
of tasting this compound, but there is ample 
evidence of its very extensive manufacture and of its 
large and legally-practised sale. There is every 
likelihood that this substance will be largely dis- 
placed by the pure extract from the coconut if all 
that we have been told about the latter be correct. 
In that case we shall do wisely to keep “ our 
eyes about us ” in the hope that cur native in- 
dustries may largely benefit by this new departure. 
BIG RETURN OF TEA. 
Ruwanwella division of the Eelani Valley is in 
a fair way to take the palm with a return of tea 
per acre last month that beats anything yet recorded 
— 3001b, made tea per acre over about 30 acres 
flat, with the prospect of being repeated 
in the current month, are the figures given to us. 
Has this been beaten ? 
UYA BEATING JAVA IN THE RICHNESS OF 
ITS CINCHONA BARR. 
Our Java friends are fond of boasting of the 
superiority of their cinchona bark to any grown in 
Ceylon ; but we should like to know of any single 
shipment from Batavia equal in weight, ex- 
ceeding the analysis of the one we have just got 
particulars about. Last week a parcel of cinchona 
bark from the Messrs. Macfarlane’s Canavarella 
estate, Badulla, of 28,000 Ib. analysed in Colombo 
510 per cent sulphate of quinine — so it will be 
seen that the Jave people— as our informant says — 
have not yet got the matter entirely in their 
own hands. This is the highest analysis for a large 
quantity of bark ever obtained in Ceylon we think. 
♦ 
Ceylon Tea Plantation Company, Ld. — A Goon 
Dividend. — We have come to regard this Company at 
the premier Tea Company of Ceylon, being the largess 
and one of the most prosperous. When, therefore; 
it docs well, having interests in many districts of 
the island, and at both high and low altitudes, it 
certainly is hopeful for the Ceylon Tea enterprize 
generally. We are, therefore, pleased to be able to 
slate that the last mail brought news to the Colony 
that the Directors of the above Company had decided 
to declare an interim dividend for the past half-year 
at the rate of 7 per cent per annum, which, con- 
sidering the enormous rise in exchange which has 
occurred during the last five months, is a most satis- 
factory result, and one of which no one should be 
more proud than Mr. G. A. Talbot, the Manager of 
the Company, and the Buperiutendeuiei 
