of an inch, and then
covered by a similar protection. These fat sandwiches are two feet
square, and being piled one upon the other to a height of about six
feet in an hydraulic press, are subjected to a pressure of some hundred
tons. This disengages the pure oleaginous parts from the more
insoluble portions, and the fat residue, being increased in hardness by
its extra density, is mixed with stearine, and by a variety of
preparations is converted into candles. The pure oil thus expressed is
that known in the shops as cocoa-nut oil.

The cultivation of the cocoa-nut tree is now carried to a great extent,
both by natives and Europeans; by the former it is grown for a variety
of purposes, but by the latter its profits are confined to oil, coir
and poonac. The latter is the refuse Of the nut after the oil has been
expressed, and corresponds in its uses to the linseed-oil cake of
England, being chiefly employed for fattening cattle, pigs and poultry.

The preparation of coir is a dirty and offensive occupation. The husk
of the cocoa-nut is thrown into tanks of water, until the woody or
pithy matter is loosened by fermentation from the coir fibre. The
stench of putrid vegetable matter arising from these heaps must be
highly deleterious. Subsequently the husks are beaten and the fibre is
separated and dried. Coir rope is useful on account of its durability
and power of resisting decay during long immersion. In the year 1853,
twenty-three hundred and eighty tons of coir were exported from Ceylon.

The great drawback to the commencement of a cocoa-nut plantation is the
total uncertainty of the probable alteration in the price of oil during
the interval of eleven years which must elapse before the estate comes
into bearing. In this era of invention, when improvements in every
branch of science follow each other with such rapid strides, it is
always a dangerous speculation to make any outlay that will remain so
long invested without producing a return. Who can be so presumptuous
as to predict the changes of future years? Oil may have ceased to be
the common medium of light--our rooms may be illumined by electricity,
or from fifty other sources which now are never dreamed of. In the
mean time, the annual outlay during eleven years is an additional
incubus upon the prime cost of the plantation, which, at the expiration
of this term, may be reduced to one-tenth of its present value.

The cocoa-nut tree requires a sandy