The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-11-17
NO WASTE IN THE COCoANUT.
How the Various Parts of the Prod
net Are utilixed for Profit.


A Chinese proverb says that the cocoa.
are days in the year. The fruit of the
tree Is the only part imported into Cali
fornia, and it is now put to many and
WAdely-diterent uses, not one atom being
e eaEoMn ah away Zoo oHe local importer re-
c SS ABOUT SOO,oOO cocoanuts d month.
TIE the green trade as it is called when
tne nut Is sold IN it's original state, the
greater bulk passing to the factory.
where the husk is removed and the in.
ner nut is steamed to facilitate the re-
moval of the meat. About thirty-fve
noSs and girls are, employed there in
carefully preserved and sent to the oil
and lead works, where substance re-
semoling lard and known as cocoanut
butter is extracted. This is worked into
all sorts of toilet articles. The white,
meatty part Of the nut. after being
chimes to be ground according to the
quailty required, some grinding it al
most as fine as four others cutting it
into strips half an inch wide. The next
process is the cooking. which is done in
immense lll1! brass kettles continuously re-
the milk contained in the heart Of the
nut is used in the cooking. After the
nut is sufficiently cooked-that is, when
the moisture has wholly evaporated, the
pulp is placed in shallow iron pans and
dried IN drying closets, and the "dessic-
suit, which enters into many different
corrections.
That part of the cocoanut whose prop.
critics are not so we'll known in California
Is the outer covering or husk. The inner
woody she'll of this makes excellent fuel.
If you are initiated into the mysteries
rather tho
also know that it does duty as spice"
HOW spicy it really is depends upon
what is mixed with it. At any rate it is
too good fuel to be thrown away. But
the hbrous outer shell of the cocoanut
bay, to float off and finally disfigure the
surrounding beaches. There is now
factory on the Berkeley shore of the bay
which uses this despised husk in the
manufacture of another useful CONNER
cial commodity. 1t is the only factory Of
lts k!na IN Callfornla, and it assumes q
is remembered that it is converting what
was previously considered waste matter,
which was hard to get rid of and which
Dld falr to become 4 nuisance, into an ar
ticle of great utility. Out of this husk
very aromatic, perfectly sanitary and
sprlngy material is being made to serve
as a substitute in mattress making for
the unsanitary curled hair The husk of
the cocoanut shell contains n fbrous ma
terial which really makes excellent furni-
ture and mattress filling. 1t is infinitely
superior to shoddy: This industry is only
III its infancy on this coast. Twenty-Five
per cent. of the husk is hair or fiber, the
rest is dust; but not even this dust is
wasted, for nurserymen have found that
it makes an excellent covering for winter
flower beds. The first process through
which the husk is put is that of crushing.
This is accomplished by machine re-
sembling a rock crusher, and sounding
very much like one when at work, driven
by 10 horsepower engine. This is
called the picker. The husk comes out Of
1t as dust and coarse hair like fiber, with
here and there remnant Of shell. This
is picked over by boys and thrown again
into the picker.
When it comes out second time por-
ton of it Is twisted into rope by ma
chine called the twister. When about a
hundred feet of this rope is made it is
tied up into bundle and hung in
steam box. After being thoroughly
steamed, these bundles are dried in a room
heated to 12O degrees. While so treated
the fiber is still kept in the shape Of rope.
curled and gets its springy quality. The
twisted fiber is then put through the
picker third time, and when it is
thrown out it looks as light as down, and
settles into the sweetest, most aromatic
heap imaginable, for it retains it's pleas
ant woody and spicy odor, which alone
ought to make it an ideal material for
mattress filling independent of it's more
important sanitary properties. The price
Of this cocoanut fiber ranges from PA
cents to 10 cents per pound. 1t has lately
been listed as an article Of commerce, SO
that it is now one of the established in
dustries of this coast.-San Francisco
Chron(.le