400 
available Native States produce was sent, bad proved to be of little 
practical value, and a reply was therefore despatched to the effect 
that the Association did not favour the proposal. 
Export Coffee to Europe. — With the idea of eventually placing 
regular monthly consignments of 100 piculs upon the London mar- 
ket to attract attention to our coffee, several of your members com- 
bined and sent a trial shipment of 80 piculs. This was bulked in 
the Port Dickson Co. Mills, and sold through Messrs. Fra.me, Al- 
ston & Arbuthnot. The price realized was 325. per cwt. which 
worked out to -Si 7.78 per picul. This result was not sufficiently 
encouraging to provide any inducement for persevering with the 
experiment, and no further shipment of any size was made. A small 
parcel of 12 piculs was however purchased to test the respective me- 
rits of sun-drying and storing in Port Dickson and Aden; 7 piculs 
of this, which the Port Dickson Coffee Curing Co. took in hand, 
were sold in London at 30.?. per cwt. whilst the 5 piculs sent to 
Aden realized only r 26s. per cwt. There were grounds for believing 
that the Aden shipment was not properly looked after, and therefore 
no information of any value was derived. A large parcel of good 
3-year-old Coffee was disposed of at $2 per picul less than No. 1 
fresh from the plantations, and the idea has gained ground that to 
speculate by holding, on the assumption that coffee appreciates in 
value with age, is a very doubtful policy. There may be markets 
where old coffee is eagerly' competed for, but Singapore is certainly 
not in touch with any of them. Reports from London Brokers 
favour shipments of coffee dried in the cherry before peeling, and 
report such coffee to be sweet and suitable for home consumption, 
but it is suggested that a market for this description must be gra- 
dually built up, and no shipments of any size are known to have 
been made. 
Yield of Copra. — In response to a request for information on 
this subject, the Manager of the Singapore Oil Mills kindly favoured 
us with the following communication which your Committee think 
they cannot do better than reproduce “ in extenso.” 
E. B. SKINNER, Esq, 
Secretary, 
The Planters' Association, Singapore, Oct. nth, 1901. 
Selangor. 
DEAR Sir , — 1 am in receipt of your letter of the 19th ult. re the 
various copras and their comparative yield of oil. 
The copras arriving in “Singapore usually" go under the name of 
the Island or State they come from, as for instance Bally, Macassar, 
Selangor, Kelantan, etc. etc. These copras are more or less the 
same, the real differeuce being that while some qualities are made 
from ripe and fully matured nuts, others contain 50% of copra made 
from half ripe nuts, consequently the yield of oil from the latter is 
much below that of the former. 
Formerly Bally copra was recognised as the standard for Sun- 
dried Quality.” It was thick, dry, and rich in oil. Evidently great 
care was taken in only picking the ripe nuts, and it was properly 
