ocoanut-palm is extensively cultivated, solely for the
purpose of extracting the oil from the nut. The cocoanut-oil factories
are very rough, primitive establishments, usually consisting of eight
or ten posts supporting a nipa palm-leaf roof, and closed in at all
sides with split bamboos. The nuts are heaped for a while to dry and
concentrate the oil in the fruit. Then they are chopped, more or less,
in half. A man sits on a board with his feet on a treadle, from which a
rope is passed over, and works to and fro a cylindrical block, in the
end of which is fixed an iron scraper. He picks up the half-nuts one
at a time, and on applying them to the scraper in motion, the white
fruit, or pith, falls out into a vessel underneath. These scrapings
are then pressed between huge blocks of wood to express the oil, and
the mass is afterwards put into cast-iron cauldrons, of Chinese make,
with water, which is allowed to simmer and draw out the remaining
fatty particles, which are skimmed off the surface. When cold, it
is sent off to market in small, straight-sided kegs, on ponies which
carry two kegs--one slung on each side. The average estimated yield of
the cocoanuts, by the native process, is as follows, viz.:--250 large
nuts give one cwt. of dried coprah, yielding, say, 10 gallons of oil.

Small quantities of Cocoanut Oil (Tagalog, _Languis ng niog_)
are shipped from the Philippines, but in the Colony itself it is
an important article of consumption. Every dwelling, rich or poor,
consumes a certain amount of this oil nightly for lighting. For this
purpose it is poured into a glass half full of water, on which it
floats, and a wick, made of pith, called _tinsin_, introduced by
the Chinese, is suspended in the centre of the oil by a strip of
tin. As the oil is consumed, the wick is lowered by slightly bending
the tin downwards. There are few dwelling-houses, or huts, without a
light of some kind burning during the whole night in expectation of
a possible earthquake, and the vast majority use cocoanut oil because
of the economy.

It is also in use for cooking in some out-of-the-way places, and
is not unpalatable when quite fresh. It is largely employed as a
lubricant for machinery, for which purpose, however, it is very
inferior. Occasionally it finds a medicinal application, and the
natives commonly use it as hair-oil. In Europe, cocoa-nut oil is
a white solid, and is used in the manufacture of soap and candles;
in the tropics