COIR is the fibre from the rind of the cocoanut, and is a corruption either from the Tamil Kayer, a lope, or the Maldive Kaubar, the name given to the cords with which the inhabitants, according to Abul Fazl, sewed together the planks of their ships. It is largely used in India, and the exports during the years 1850-51 to 1860-61 from India ranged between 2393 and 5832 tons, value .F.20,909 and .i57,284. Between 1868 and 1878, the exports of coir and coir rope ranged up to 10,821 tons. Coir appears in the market in various degrees of fineness, depending on tho age at which the cocoanut is cut and the husk separ ated, and the care bestowed in steeping and clean ing. In order to remove this husk, an iron spike or sharp piece of hard wood is fixed in the ground. The nut is then forced upon the point, which passes through the fibres,..and thereby separates the rind from the shell. In this manner a man can clear 1000 nuts daily. For the best coir, the outer rind of the nuts is bruised and steeped in water for two or three days, when it is taken up, and the fibres separated by the fingers and scraped gently with a blunt knife, and dried in the sun. If steeped in water too long, they get dark-coloured. Mr. Robinson thus describes the method of making coir in the Laccadives. The husk, he says, gets hard and woody if the fruit be allowed to become quite ripo, therefore the proper time for cutting it is about the tenth month. If cut before this, the coir is weak ; if later, it becomes coarse and hard, and more difficult to twist, and requires to be longer in the, soaking-pit, and thus becomes darker in colour. When cut, the husk is severed from the nut and throWn into soaking-pits. These, in some of the islands, are merely holes in the sand, just within the influence of the salt water. Here they lie buried for a year, and are kept down by heaps of stones thrown over them to protect them from the ripple. In others the soak ing pits are fresh-water tanks behind the crest of coral. In these the water, not being changed, becomes foul and dark-coloured, which affects the colour of the coir. 1Vhen thoroughly soaked, the fibrous parts are easily separated from the woody by beating. If taken out of the pits too early, it is diflicult to free the coir from impurities. If left in too long, the fibre is weakened, ita is mid to be the case also with that soaked in fresh water. The e,oir from the Laccadive Islands, Kadamat, Kiltan, and .Chetlat, is said to be of the best description. In the Laccadives the manufacture into cordage of the emir is entirely in the hands of the women. When soaked sufficiently long, it is taken out of the pit and beaten with a heavy mallet, and rubbed with the hands until all the interstitial cellular substance is separated from the fibrous portion. 1Vhen quite clean, it is
arranged into a loose roving, preparatory to being twisted, which is done between the palms of the hands in a very ingenious way, so as to produce a yarn of two strands at once. In these islands coir is one of the chief commodities of barter for the necessaries of life, as rice, salt, tobacco, etc. The coir is made up for their petty traffic in short 'kute ' of a mixed length and weight, and at the end of the year these are collected and made up into lengths of 70 to 75 fathoms, as received by the Government. 40 cocoanuts are said to yield 6 lbs. of coir in Ceylon. Mr. Robinson says three large coast Laccadive nuts will yield 1 lb. of coir, measuring 22 fathoms, whereas ten small fine island nuts go to about 1 lb. of coir, but this will measure 35 fathoms. 2 lbs. of such yarn, measuring from 70 to 75 fathoms, are made up into sootie, of which there are 14 to a bundle, averaging about a maund of 28 lbs. A .Mani,,ellore candy of 560 lbs. will thus be the produce of 5600 nuts, and should contain about 20,000 fathoms of yarn. The value of the coir produce of a tree is calculated to be from 2 to 21- anna.s ; and that of the produce of 100 trees, from 14 to 15 rupees. The average value of the total raw produce of a tree bearina fruit would then be 7 annas to rupee ; and tat of a plot of 100 trees, 45 rupees. The annual export of coir from the Laccadives to Madras ports is about 200 tons. In Ceylon, at Calpentyra and the Akkara-pattoo, the natives separate the coir by burying the husks along the border of the extensive salt-water lake, and when, after six months or more, they are dug out very clean, the fibres easily separate from the cellular tissue of the husk. This mode of preparing the fibre prevents the offensive smell emanated by macerating the husk, so common along the road from Colombo to Matum.
China imports coir from the Archipelago. Coir is made into cordage, both ropes and ,cables, for boats and ships, for which, from its lightness, it is well suited. It is largely used by upholsterers as a material for stuflina mattresses, couches, pillows ; it is used as a suatitute for oakum in caulking ships. The fibre is also made into brushes and brooms, as a substitute for bristles; is cleaned, curled, and dyed to resemble horse-hair; and made into matting, door-mats, and netting for sheep folds, woven into stair carpets and floor-matting, bonnets, hats.—Lontl. Erh. of 1862 ; Royle, Fib. Pl. ; Robinson's Report on the Laccadires ; Hon. Mr. Morrison ; Ondatjee.