The Minneapolis journal., 1903-10-23
BUTTER FROM COPRA
Philippine Planters Making Big
Money Out Of the Products
of Cocoanuts
Conversion of Cocoanut Oil into
Dietetic Products Works a Rev ,
olution.

From The Journal Bureau, Room IS, Post Build
ing, Washington.
washington, Oct. 23.-The bureau
Of insular affairs, war department., has
received a bulletin prepared by the
Philippine Bureau of Agriculture de-
voted to the products and cultivation
Of the cocoanut from which the fol-
lowing is taken: -.
The cocoanut furnishes two distinct
commercial products-the dried meat
Of the nut, or copra, and the outer
fibrous hhSk.
Until very recently the demand for
the "meat" of the cocoanut or its pro-
ducts was limited to the uses OF soap
boilers and confectioners, but WITHIN
the past decade chemical science has
produced from the cocoanut a series
Of food products whose manufacture
has revolutionized industry and placed
the business Of the manufacturers and
of the producer upon plane OF pros
perity never before enjoyed.
There has also been a great advance
in the processes by which the new oil
derivatives are manufactured. The
United States took the initiative In
1895. In 1897 the Germans establish
ed factories in Mannheim, but 1t re-
manned for the French to bring the
industry to it's present perfection.
The conversion of cocoanut oil into
dietetic compounds was undertaken in
Marseilles in 1900 by Messrs. Rocca,
Tassy and de Roux, who in that year
turned out an average Of 25 tons per
month. In 1902, their average month
ly output exceeded 5000 tons and, In
addition to this, four or five other
large factories were working to meet
the worlds demand for .'vegetaline",
"cocoaline' or other products With
suggestive names, belonging to this
infant industry.
These articles are sold at gross price
of 18 to 20 cents per kilO to Holland
and Danish merchants, who, at the
added cost of a cent or two, repack
them in tins branded dairy butter"
and, as such, ship them to all parts
Of the world. 1t was necessary to
disguise the earlier products by sub
jecting them to trituration with milk
or cream; but SO perfect Is the present
emulsion that the plain and unadul-
terated fats now find as ready a mar
ket as butter.
The significance of these great dis
coveries to the cocoanut planter can
not be overestimated. They have a
field that is practically without COM
petition and the question will no long
er be that of finding market, but or
producing the millions of tons of
copra or oil that this one industry will
annually absorb in the immediate fu-
ture.
The fiber of the cocoanut husk or
coir, as it is commercially known has
never yet been utilized in the Philip
pines. Second In value only to the CO.
pra this product has been allowed to
go to waste, but highly improved and
inexpensive machinery for the COM
plete and easy extraction of the husk
fbers is now rapidly superseding the
tedious hand process once in general
| use. s....... VI
The yield of fiber varies from twelve
to twenty-five quintals of coir, and
four to seven quintals of brush fiber
per 10000 average husks. In the
Philippines the nuts yield large
amount Of fiber and a relatively small
percentage Of chaff and dust.
There are large areas thruout the
littoral valleys of the archipelago, as
yet unexploited, which in the essen
tials of soil, climate, irrigation facili-
ties, and general environment are
suitable for cocoanut growing.
The presnt conditions present es-
pecially fattering attractions to CO.
| coanut growers capable Of undertake
ing the cultivation upon a scale Of
some magnitude. BY cooperation,
small estates could combine in the
| common ownership Of machinery,
| whereby the products Of growers
could be converted into more profita-
BILE substances than copra. s
The present production of copra
| (estimated at 278,00O piouls, almost
| 10000 tons) is an assurance of suf-
ficient supply to warrant the erection
| of a modern plant for the manufac-
ture Of the ultimate, (the "butter,")
| products of the nut. The average
| market value of the best grades of CO.
pra in the Marseilles market is $54.40
gold per English ton. The jobbing
value on Jan. 1, 1903, of the refined
Butter fats Observation-Disclosures. $50. 90
| Residual soap oils ...................... 21 90
Press cake ........................ $40
The difference representing the
| profit per ton, less the cost of man
| ufacture.
The minimum size Of a plantation
on which economical application of
! Oil and fiber preparing machinery
| could be made, is sixty hectares, ap-
proximately $50 acres.
| Their is no other horticultural trop-
ical product which may be grown in
the Philippines where crop assurance
may be so nearly guaranteed, or nat
ural conditions so nearly controlled by
the planter.
mand for cOcOanut products the in
dustry promises for many years to be
one of the most profitable and desira
Eble enterprises which commands the
attention of the Filipino planter. =
! H. c.. Stevens.