Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1886-10-15
THE CocoANUT.
Interesting Figures ms to Its Importance
Ms an Article of Commerce.


The South Sea Island, export i'm
mense quantities of copra (the broken
or crushed meat of the cocoanut, sun
dried for shipment to oil -crusLers,
who extract sixty per cent. of its weight
In oily, the trade being almost ex-
clusively in the hands of the Germans
who ship principally to Europe. San
Francisco oil-crushers are the chief
manufacturers of cocoanut oil in the
United States. and handle nearly all the
copra sold in this country, which they
procure from Samoa, Tonga or the
Fiji Islands. The importa,ions of copra
exceed fifty thousand dollars annually.
The United States imported in tie
year 1885, ended June 80, coooanuts,
coir fiber. ooir yarn and oil to The
value of S1,7S0,000 exclusive of CO.
pra). The importat;ons Ct fiber ard
yarn for 1885 exceeded -, OOO. 900.
The consumption CT the fiber in tho
United States has increased rapidly in
the past six years. as shown BY the i'm
Portations Of 1879 being only $780,
The largest cocoanut-fber manufac-
tory In the world is located in London,
England, where great quantities of
eocoanut husks are in stock. Often
l,5OO, 600 of the husks are in store at
one time, while enormous quantities of
the fiber are being disposed of. Often
twenty tons are shipped in one con-
'ignment. going to all parts of the
world. About 100000 nuts are
landed in the United Kingdom yearly.
Nearly all of these nuts are imported
In the husks. After tho nuts are TO
moved from the husks they are sorted
IS to size and quality and are then sold
to fruit dealers. confectioners, etc.
The husks are passed through
powerful crusher driven by steam
power. which fattens and partially
,oftens them. They are then thrown
INTO huge tanks, each holding many
thousands, whore they undergo a
'te.ming and soaking process for SOW
sral hours. After the husks are sufli-
siently soaked they are ready for the
mills. which consists of cylinders or
drums. each being studded on its
periphery with two thousand or three
thousand steel tooth. They are driven
BY steam and run with great rapidly.
Each husk is divided longitudinaliy
into thin slices, and each piece is
passed into the mill separately by the
workman or feeder, he retaining firm
grip OF 1t 50 As not to allow it to pass
out OF his hands. After one-haf Of the
slioe OF the husk is thus cleaned the
feeder rsverses it, passing in the other
half. Each slice of husk is passed
through three of these mills in success
NON. This method of cleaning tho
sber. though apparently a very dan
yerous one, is gone through with won
isrful rapidity. A recent invention in
machinery for extracting the fiber from
she husk on the plantation where the
aut is grown, 1t is said, will probably
revolutionize the system of producing
,Oir fiber from the oocoanut husk, in
the fact that they are a small portable
machine, enabling the most ordinary
laborer to prepare the fiber ut a cost
fifty per cent. less than the one now in
use in England. In Ceylon, India and
other countries whore the coir fiber is
prepared for shipment by the natives,
the husks are placed in ponds, often in
mud, where they remain several
months to rot. Even six months soak
ing is sometimes required to loosen the
hber sufficiently to enable natives to
rub and wash the fiber clean.
New Orleans imported for the year
ended December 81, 1885, coooanuts to
the value of $50, 1928, or over 5, 40s.-
500 nuts. These nuts are largely used
tor desiccating purposes One of the
largest houses in the United States on
in hut h,,s =
Louis, Mo-, were over 1000, 900 nuts
are annually consumed for that pur-
pose. Twenty-Five per cent. of the
eocoanuts gathered for shipment to the
United States are rejected, being
small, cracked or otherwise defective,
IS nuts for desiccating should be. sound
and contan the milk, it being evidence
Of tho sweet condition Of the nut.
twenty-five per cent. of the eocoanuts
gathered for shipment to New Orleans
and rejected represent 1,352,l25 for
1885. which would have produced over
$4,000 pounds of copra, and yielded
l05, 600 pounds of oil, and $40, 900 OF
oil cake, equal to cotton-seed cake az
food for stock. Apparently the re-
jocted cocoanuts on the Caribbean coast
Of Central America would sustain @
profitable business in the manufacture
Of oil. either by erecting small plants
on the ground for producing the oil OF
shipping the copra to New Orleans
where oil mills are already established,
and where the trade In oocoanuts,
oopra, oil and cake could be made a.
famous as the trade in eotton-seed
products is now. But there is still an
other much greater waste existing in
the cocoanut trade of Central and South
America and tho West Indies, which
should be used to augment the com
MERGE Of New Orleans. From figures
above given We find that by including
the rejected nuts, 6,76o,626 nuts mus
have been grown lsstyea on the cocoa
nut plantations that supply the New
Orleans market. The husk Of zach nu
contains one-third of 4 pound of tn,
fiber called coir, and as mono Of thil
fiber was saved it is clear that vast.