Copra Driers
pp. 46-48 · Read in the full issue
Ceylon-Type is Best
JJ/ITH restricted markets for copra, these days, buyers mostly are seeking only the best grades of hot air dried copra. Smoke-cured copra, for merly sent to Marseilles {France), is in very weak demand. Mr. G. H. Murray, head of the Agriculture Department of the NG Administration, in the following article, written at the invitation of the New Guinea Copra Board, urges planters to abandon the old system of producing smoked copra in favour of improved, up to-date methods.
MOST planters in the Mandated Terri tory are using what is commonly known as the German New Guinea hot air drier for curing their copra. This drier is costly to construct but, providing it is kept in good order, it turns out a fairly good product.
On the other hand, there are many planters and traders still adhering to the old smoke drying method of curing copra, known as “South Sea”, which has been common in the Pacific for 100 years or more.
The Ceylon drier is recognised through out the tropical world as producing the finest copra and modifications of this drier are in use in many copra-producing countries. For several years the NG Department of Agriculture has advocated this type of drier, but, unfortunately, many are still prejudiced against it be cause it is something they are not accustomed to. Most NG planters have come from Australia without having seen a copra drier elsewhere, and have simply accepted the German drier in use in this Territory.
The writer submitted to local planters a design of a drier in common use in Ceylon, and those who gave it a fair trial were fully satisfied with it. Natur ally, native labourers —always conser vative —objected to the Ceylon method at first, but after they had become thor oughly familiar with the process they preferred it to the old system.
One planter who produces 1,000 tons of copra per annum informed me that his Ceylon driers, built of native material, cost about £3O each. It took his labourers three months before they became expert, but since then he has had no trouble and the labourers them selves like the work. This planter has always obtained a premium of 7/6 up wards per ton over ruling prices for hot air which surely indicates his copra is of superior quality.
IT would certainly be uneconomic for those planters who have gone to the expense of erecting German NG driers to abandon them for Ceylon driers, especially at a time like the present, but those planters who still ad here to smoke drying methods are strongly recommended to adopt the more modern Ceylon drier.
Many smoke driers that have been well constructed can be altered to the Ceylon type at little extra cost. Apart from the drying structures, the main dif ference between smoke and Ceylon dry ing methods is the fuel; that of the latter must be dried coconut shell in half-shells, as free of fibre as possible, whilst for the former, coconut husks or almost any kind of fuel may be used.
Mr. F. C. Cooke, Copra Investigation Officer of the Department of Agriculture in the Federated Malay States, designed small driers described as “cabinets”, operated on the Ceylon system of dry ing which the writer saw in his 1935 and
1939 visits to that country. On his re turn to New Guinea in 1936, two such small driers were erected here, one at Nodup and a slightly larger one at Matanatar, but they are only suitable for Malay and other small peasant pro prietors.
These driers cost but a few shillings to construct and turn out first-class copra, equal to Ceylon, but their small size did not appeal to our natives. The New Guinea native ordinarily is not an individualist and the term peasant pro prietor is not applicable to him, conse quently, the small drier did not appeal to him.
The average New Guinea native does not like the regular consistent work re quired by the small cabinet drier turning out small quantities of copra daily for the individual producer. In Rabaul dis trict, natives seem to prefer the more expensive German New Guinea drier and the Department of Agriculture has assisted many native capitalists in their construction.
The less sophisticated village native supplied coconuts or green copra to the owners of these driers who, in some cases, exploited their less intelligent fellows just as much as the most un scrupulous trader.
Formerly, numerous small hot air driers were to be seen in Rabaul district erected by native capitalists who charged from 1/- to 4/- per bag for curing the copra according to the shrewdness of the native supplying the green copra.
After the boom of a couple of years ago, most of the small native driers dis appeared to become scrap iron.
THE Ceylon drier consists of an en closed shed with hip roof open along the full length of the ridge pole and covered with a jack roof which permits the escape of evaporated mois ture from copra on the drying platform below, yet giving protection from the weather.
The structure can be built entirely of native material, and there is practically no risk of fire if only dry coconut shell, free from fibre, is used as fuel. How ever, for additional safety, galvanised iron can be used for the walls, sides and partitions of the fire-pit. The roof can be of thatch-nipa, sak sak or kunai.
The drying platform extends the full length of the building with a passage along one side to permit movements of the labourers. The platform is in five sections with partitions cross-wise, 15 in. or 18 in. high, made of saplings. The firing pit is 4 ft. below ground level and immediately under the drying platform, which is 3 ft. above the ground, thus 7 ft. from bottom of fire pit.
The fire pit should be walled with concrete or_ galvanised iron to the height of the drying platform. In Ceylon, the fire pit walls are sometimes made of blocks of laterite. The fire pit is divided into sections with partitions of galvanised iron on concrete walls to correspond with the partitions of the drying table.
Sometimes an opening is left in the wall, dividing each section of the firing pit to permit movements of the labourers when attending to the fires. A more satisfactory way, however, is to have a small entrance to each fire pit section on the inside wall which may be kept closed when necessary.
A plan of a Ceylon drier can be ob tained from the New Guinea Department of Agriculture (Rabaul) which will clearly illustrate the above particulars.
IN the best coconut growing districts in Ceylon, the dry season is longer and more pronounced than in many parts of New Guinea, so that it is usually found possible to give the newly split coconuts several hours’ sun-drying
before placing on the drying platform.
In such cases, therefore, there are only four divisions on the platform, but in the NG climate it is advisable to have the platform in five sections to give an extra day for drying. There should also be a door opening from the fifth section to a verandah or nearby shed for sorting and bulk storing the copra.
It is always advisable to avoid making copra in very wet weather, and this can be done by having a second drier and thus being able to deal with the accumulated nuts when necessary.
For curing in the Ceylon drier, the nuts must be brought to the drying depot where they are husked and split and left exposed on a barbecue or clean piece of ground in the sun, for a few hours if possible. The husking at first is considered a costly task, but it has been proved on more than one NG plantation that a native can husk 1,200 coconuts per day. After the nuts are split and receive a preliminary drying,
weather permitting, they are placed on the first division of the drying platform, The half nuts should be laid with regu larity on this platform, avoiding cupping, which would check the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the coco nut meat. The half coconuts can be stacked in this way to a depth of 15 inches, and under a good smokeless coco nut shell fire will soon lose their surface moisture, and thus give less opportunity for mould development, On the second day, the half coconuts are thrown into the second partition, so that those on the bottom of the first partition will be on the top of the next and vice versa. This action is repeated daily on the other partitions until, on the fifth day, the copra should be well dried.
On the third day, most of the coconut meat will have separated from the shells. Throwing the half coconut shells from one partition to the next is only a matter of a few minutes, and once the
labourers become accustomed to this method of drying, they prefer it to the old method of- cutting the green copra into fingers and placing it on trays.
The coconut shells as they separate from the meat should be stored at one end of the drier to be used as fuel later To' those unused to this method, it may seem tedious, and native labourers do not like it at first, but in a few months they become proficient. This has been the experience of all those who have given the Ceylon method a fair trial, A DRIER with a capacity of 5 tons, i.e., turning out 1 ton of copra per day, should be the largest size. A very large drier means a large air space in which ventilation will not be so easy to regulate. When production is more than 1 ton per day, it is advisable to have a second drier,
It is most important that the coconut shell fuel is thoroughly dry and free from excessive fibre, otherwise the fires will smoke or blaze. rp, , lf , .. , Pl] teJLvfil 8 ? 18 shoU o4. be lined or h p PP fll r g n he th fi roWS '? ' a f rt aCfOSS floor of the fire-pit, and in every concave sides should be n T ' h f oppos tc direction, Under the second and third day plat forms double firing should be adopted, two bnes ,°f shells 2 ft. apart. On the A ±th da y> necessary, the drying should oe so advanced that the wider single row firing should be sufficient. Due care must be taken at this stage, as over firing will result in scorching or dis colouring the copra, In starting the fires, every alternate line should be lighted at opposite ends and they should, of course, be started before placing the green copra on the platforms.