65 
coir made in the Peninsula. In Singapore, I have found in one 
place some Chinese who roughly beat out the husks, and twisted 
(he fibre by hand into very coarse weak rope,- which was sold very 
cheaply for tying up parcels. 
In India and Ceylon the coir is extensively prepared arid is 
always in deanand for cordage, cables, mats, brushes, etc. The 
husk is removed from the nut with an iron spike stuck in the ground 
and the husks are thrown into salt-water tanks for from 6 to 18 
months. If fresh water is used it becomes foul and the fibre is 
discoloured. The tanks are sometimes warmed by steam and this 
shortens the operation and softens and improves the fibre. When 
thoroughly soaked the husks "are beaten with mallets and rubbed 
between the bands to get rid of the cellular substance between the 
fibres. In Ceylon it is said that 40 coco-nuts will produce 6 lbs. of 
coir; in the Laccadives it is said that 3 large nuts will produce 1 lb. 
coir measuring 22 fathoms, and 10 small nuts go to about 1 lb., but 
this will measure 35 fathoms of yarn. A good deal of the value of 
the coir seerris to depend on the age of the fruit as it becomes hard 
and woody when the fruit is quite ripe. It is therefore cut in the 
10th month, if for coir. If cut before it is too weak and if later be- 
comes coarse and hard. 
This is perhaps the reason why our local coir is said to be useless. 
The nuts grown chiefly for copra are allowed to become qiiite ripe, 
by which time probably the fibre is so hard and coarse that it is 
difficult to work it. But an enormous number of nuts here are used 
young for food. In fact, it often pays the planter better to ship 
them to India and elsewhere for food than to use them for making 
copra. The husks of these nuts would well be worth the attention 
of those interested in fibres, who could easily start a coir factory 
in Singapore. 
Beside the Clsnese rope above alluded to the only other manu- 
factory of rope or mats I know of is that of the Gaols where the 
prisoners are employed in the work. 
The cost of the husks in Singapore ; s about 50 cents a hundred. 
With the large number of wasted husks in this country, it is pos'd, 
ble that some business might be done in coir-making. 
Arenga, sacckarifera , Kabong fibre, Tali Hijau, Vegetable horse- 
hair : — 
The fibre of this palm is well known in the Malay "Peninsula and 
Islands, but is very little known in the home markets as it has been 
seldom offered for sale and not in sufficient quantities. The palm 
is common in cultivated ground all over the Peninsula and a wild 
form grows in Province Wellesley. It is valued for its fibre and 
also for its sugar, the well known Gala Malacca, used either in the 
form of molasses or as a kind of Candy. 
The fibre is produced from the base of. the leaf sheaths, and en- 
wraps the trunk of the tree, its function apparently being to prevent 
the rain-water entering below the sheaths, and injuring the tree. It 
is simply pulled off the tree and rolled into bundles, after which it is 
