36

AGRICULTURE.

spoons, handles, and many other things; it also makes an
pxcellent smokeless fuel, and yields a good charcoal.
In recent years a large industry has sprung up in desiccated
 cocoanut, 7.e., the kernel of the nut sliced and dried
in special desiccators. The product is soldered up in leadlined
 boxes and exported for use in confectionery.
The thick outer husk of the cocoanut, rarely seen in
America or Europe, contains a large number of long stout
fibres running lengthwise, The villagers obtain these by
splitting the husks, rotting them in water, and then beating
out the soft tissue from the fibres. There are also many
large mills where special machinery is used for preparing
coir, as this fibre is called. The uses of coir are many ; the
fibres are graded according to their stoutness, and used for
making brushes, yarn, rope, mats, and for many other
purposes. There is a large export to Europe and America,
1t is supposed that the cocoanut palms of the Island
produce about 800,000,000 nuts annually, and that about
half of the crop is used locally. The export trade is very
large, and during 1903 the chief elements of it were as
follows :—
Cocoanut oil ... 665,357 cwt. ' Desiceated cocoanut 485.269 1b.
Copra we 721,575 ,, Coir we 244.965 cwt,
Poonac ... 299,972 ,, , Arrack wo 72,619 gals,
Nuts .. 13.129.849

Cinnamon.
This spice was the most famous of Ceylon’s early exports
to Lurope, and until 1833 its cultivation was a Government
monopoly, first under the Dutch and afterwards under the
British Government. Since that period the cultivation has
greatly extended, chiefly on the light sandy soils near the
south-west coast, where the spice is native. At the present
time about 40,000 acres are in cultivation. Left to itself, the
cinnamon plant ((innamomum zeylanicum) would form a
small tree, but in cultivation it is kept coppiced, gending up
long willowy shoots, whose bark, peeled off and dried and
rolled into quills, forms the spice of commerce. The cinnamon
 peelers form a separate caste among the Siphalese.
The finer quills are made up into bales, while an inferior
grade is shipped under the name chips.” There is also a
small export of so-called “wild cinnamon,” the produce of
certain jungle trees belonging to the same family, and often
scented with true cinnamon oil.
A considerable quantity of cinnamon oil is distilled in
the Island from broken quills and larger fragments of bark.