THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
415 
Due I, 1S97.] 
I think the pioprietors of the large oil mills in 
Colombo will be able to inform you whether Cochin 
oil is richer in stearine than Ceylon, and how the white 
oil they turn out compares with Cochin as regards 
prices. 
The communication of the retired Colombo mer- 
chant is very interesting and instructive. What he 
savs about the application of ashes to the coconut 
tree only supports Mr. Cochran’s recent analysis, 
that Potash is the leading mineral constituent of 
the coconut palm. Potash manures ought to be the 
principal manure for coconut trees, especially in 
sandy soils which are poor in potash, bat not I 
think the only manure. It is gratifying to know 
that I am practising the style of cultivation which 
he says is practised successfully in Cochin, t.e., 
tirrning up the soil round the trees and leaving it 
in little clods. The advantages of thus aerating 
the soil are too api^rent to need explanation. I 
always dig in manure round the trees, and do not 
apply it in circular trenches, and I leave the clods 
of earth as they are. Further, to prevent them 
from being battered down by the rain and caked 
by the sun, I use a mulch of coconut leaves and 
weeds. The loosened soil is then kept free and open 
for a considerable period. This is especially impor- 
tant in heavy soils which cake as hard as cement 
in dry weather. A friend, who followed my advice 
on a heavy soil, was full of the increased freeness 
and porosity of the soil which resulted from this 
treatment. 
What your merchant friend says of the color of 
copra from germitjated nuts is true. Desiccating 
mills will not use these as the stuff turned ont is 
quite yellow. Copra likewise from these is quite 
discolored and if dried over fires turns out black. 
Of course it is not possible for large estates to dry 
nuts on mats, butbirbacues are possible and should, I 
think, be made on every estate making c- pra. The 
disadvantages of keeping nuts to be cure 1 till dry 
weather sets in, are that left out as they of neces- 
sity are in the open, the bottom layer of nuts go 
bad or germinate even when the nuts are well 
spread out. 
2. Thei-e, is the delay in realizing their 
value. I think that with a little attention means 
could be devised to dry coconuts white over fires. 
That this has not been done yet is, I think, a re- 
proach to all coconut planters. I know of experiments 
that have been made but have been unsuccessful 
owieg to sufficient thought not having been bestowed 
on them. Fire or smoke should not be allowed 
to come into contact with the nuts, especially in the 
earlier stages when they are not quite dry as they 
then get readily discolored. I think a simple plan 
would be to have sheet iron immediately under the plat- 
form of “ wtratchies ” on which the nuts are placed. 
Unfortunately everything on a coconut estate is done 
on the “ cheap Jack ” system. On coffee and tea estates 
expensive stores were and are built, aud much money' 
spent on up-to-date machinery. Not so on coconut 
estates. Everything is of the most primitive kind, 
and ‘‘ cheap and nasty ” is the rule. 
3 and 4. Quire possible to give the same attention 
in this distiict aud elsewhere to copra curing and 
cultivation as iu Cochin, but since I came here we 
have had very little continuously dry weather. If after 
coconuts are split they have not two days at least of 
fine dry weather the copra gets mildewed. But after 
this, fire drying does not discolor the stuff. 
5. Putlalam, 0 ilpentyn, Jaffna, Batticaloa and last 
Chil iw. 
U and 7. Hardly necessary. Copra curing is well- 
known h. re and we can dry white given the weather 
and failing that proper appliances, i.c., a well-fitted hot 
room. 
8. C.alpentyn copra always ranks first in the 
Colombo maiket and Marawila second. I do not 
know whether Jaffna and B.x'ticaloa copra fills a 
la>'ge plice iu the Colombo market, but if it does 
there it 110 reason why it should not be classed with 
Calpcntyn. 
9. Answered fully in the beginning of this paper. 
I do not think it advisable for the copra to be in 
direct contact with the tire-h“ated iron sheets. If a 
“ messa ” of “ waratchies ” will not live over the 
heated iron, wont perforated iron do ? 
B. 
No. XI. 
1. Yes, but could not fathom it, as soma years ago, 
and (I believe even now), all copra from Jaffna 
was shipped to Cochin aud the oil extracted there. 
2. My opinion is, that it is not so much the 
copra that is to blame, bat the mode of extracting 
the oil. 
3. Yes. 
4. No. Considering it to be the driest district in 
the island more or less. 
5. Jaffna and Batticaloa. 
6 Certainly ._ A good idea. 
7. Certainly 1 should also recommend getting some 
Cochin natives. 
8. No. 
9. I do not think the tint observed in the oil 
has anything to do with delay in collecting and 
making into copra, and nuts should always be 
allowed to lie in husks for at least a fortnight or three 
weeks. ip_ 
No. XII. 
November 11th. 1897. 
1. Yes, and in my opinion 
2. The vast difference between the price of Cochin 
oil and Ceylon is due principally to the better quality 
of copra the Cochin country is turning out. 
3. I do not see why in dry districts the palm 
should not enjoy the same attention as it does in 
Cochin, and so with the kernels, if not all the year 
through at least most part of it. 
4. My district is one of the wettest and in such 
localities unless expensive factories are provided, with 
rooms heated by steam and free of smoke, the quality 
of the copra must be inferior hi that of the dry 
district. It is unquestionable, though, that with care 
and cleanlinei's our present means should be suffi- 
cient to secure a quality of copra nearly as good as 
that now produced by our dry districts, and these 
in their turn go much nearer to Cochin. The colour 
of copra does not depend solely on the means of heat 
(sun or fire), but a great deal on the handling while 
curing. In wet districts it is iu fact a matter of repeated 
handling and shifting from the drying ground to the 
drying tray, layer upon layer, and from this again to the 
ground. It is during this handling that the fibre 
dust of the shells, and other d>rt sticking to the 
gummy kernel spoil the appearance of the copra. 
This could only be avoided by having commodious 
hot rooms with plenty of trays where on’y one la ver 
of kernels should be spread , but as long as our 
copra must be heaped up on a single drying tray 
eight to ten layers, one over the other it will never 
turn out dean. 
5. This is not the case in dry districts, where the 
split nuts once spread out on a mat to dry and 
simply covered at nights, can be left there ’until 
ready. Those districts certainly should be able to 
give better copra than what they give at present. 
6 and 7. Systematical, clean sun drying, or im- 
proved accommodation for artificial drying, and well 
matured mits are, in my opinion, all that is wanted • 
hem e not much to learn in Cochin, by a superin- 
tendent from Ceylon nor from a Cochin man here. 
8. No, but I know of one estate in a wet district 
(with 128 inches up to 31st October) obtaining for 
its copra as good a price as Maravilla. 
A New Hand. 
No. XIII. 
1. I have. 
2. The piincipal cause is a bad name as regards 
the oil of this district, Batticaloa. 
3. It is always done. 
4. None. 
Batticaloa, Jaffna and Kalpitiya 
