ich is protected by a padded
board, against the projecting end of the rod. The fine shreds of the
nut remain for twelve hours in flat pans, in order that they may be
partially decomposed. They are then lightly pressed in hand-presses;
and the liquor, which consists of one-third oil and two-thirds water,
is caught in tubs, from which, at the end of six hours, the oil,
floating on the surface, is skimmed off. It is then heated in iron
pans, containing 100 liters, until the whole of the water in it has
evaporated, which takes from two to three hours. In order that the
oil may cool rapidly, and not become dark in color, two pailfuls of
cold oil, freed from water, are poured into it, and the fire quickly
removed to a distance. The compressed shreds are once more exposed
to the atmosphere, and then subjected to a powerful pressure. After
these two operations have been twice repeated, the rasped substance
is suspended in sacks between two strong vertical boards and crushed
to the utmost by means of clamp screws, and repeatedly shaken up. The
refuse serves as food for pigs. The oil which runs from the sacks is
free from water, and is consequently very clear, and is employed in
the cooling of that which is obtained in the first instance. [187]

[Limited output.] The factory produces fifteen hundred tinajas of
oil. It is in operation only nine months in the year; from December to
February the transport of nuts being prevented by the tempestuous seas,
there being no land communication. The manufacturer was not successful
in procuring nuts from the immediate vicinity in sufficient quantity
to enable him to carry on his operations without interruption, nor,
during the favorable season of the year, could he lay up a store for
the winter months, although he paid the comparatively high price of
three dollars per thousand.

[Illogical business.] While the natives manufactured oil in the manner
just described, they obtained from a thousand nuts three and a half
pots, which, at six reals each, fetched twenty-one reals; that is three
reals less than was offered them for the raw nuts. These data, which
are obtained from the manufacturers, are probably exaggerated, but
they are in the main well founded; and the traveller in the Philippines
often has the opportunity of observing similar anomalies. For example,
in Daet, North Camarines, I bought six coconuts for one cuarto, at
the rate of nine hundred and sixty for one dollar, the common pric