Copperah is the name, given by the natives to the kernel of the ripe nut after it has been exposed to the sun on mats, until it has become rancid and dissolved.  It has recently been shipped to England in this state for the purpose of converting into oil.  The exports of copperah from Ceylon were, in 1842, 115 cwts.; in 1843, 2,194; in 1844, 2,397; and in 1852, 39,174 cwts.

The returned value of the copperah or kernels exported from Ceylon, as entered in the Custom House books, is—­

1840 2,508 1841 1,460 1842 3,022 1843 5,795 1844 6,194 1845 3,282 1846 5,517 1847 6,503 1848 12,639 1849 7,819 1850 4,166 1851 9,678 1852 13,325

632 cwts. of poonac (being the refuse or cake, after expressing the oil) were exported from Ceylon in 1842.  It is worth there about L10 the ton.

The oil from the nut is obtained for culinary purposes by boiling the fresh pulp, and skimming it as it rises.  That for exportation is usually obtained by pressing the copperah in a simple press turned by bullocks.  Recently, however, steam power has been applied in Colombo, with great advantage.  About 21/2 gallons of oil per 100 nuts, are usually obtained.  It is requisite that care should be taken not to apply too great and sudden a pressure at once, but by degrees an increasing force, so as not to choke the conducting channels of the oil in the press.

In many of the colonies the oil is expressed by the slow and laborious hand process of grating the pulp.

The quantity shipped from Ceylon was 2,250 tuns, in 1842; 3,985 in 1843; 2,331 in 1844; 1,797 in 1845.  The quantity in gallons shipped since, was 101,553 in 1846; 197,850 in 1847; 300,146 in 1848; 867,326 in 1849; 407,960 in 1850; 442,700 in 1851; and 749,028 in 1852.

The duty on importation is of and from British possessions, 7d. and 7/8ths. per cwt.; if the produce of foreign possessions, 1s. 33/4 d, per cwt.  In the close of 1852, the price of coco-nut oil in the London market was, for Ceylon, L32, L33, to L33 10s. per ton; Cochin, middling to fine, L34 to L35.

The following return shows the Custom House valuation of the oil shipped from Ceylon for a series of years, and which is of course much below its real value:—­

1839 L26,597 1840 32,483 1841 24,052 1842 34,242 1843 43,874 1844 24,067 1845 15,945 1846 7,939 1847 19,142 1848 24,839 1849 34,831 1850 35,035 1851 31,444 1852 58,045

Among the coco-nut oil exported from Ceylon, in 1849, there were 47,4271/2 gallons, valued at L3,595, the whole of which, I believe, was Cochin oil; the raw material of this kind not being, like the copperah generally in Ceylon, subjected to the action of fire, the product is finer, and fetches a better price in the London market.