Harvest.
Harvest of the crop requires but a brief discussion. The nuts should be plucked when ripe. The phenomenon of maturity can not be readily described in print. It frequently is as evident in nuts of a bright green color as in those of a golden-yellow color, and the recognition is one of those things that can only be learned by experience.
The practice, so general in the Seychelles, of allowing the nut to hang till it falls to the ground is certainly undesirable in these Islands. On the contrary, the overripe nuts will seldom fall until dislodged by a storm, and it is no uncommon thing to see nuts that have sprouted and started to grow upon trees in plantations where the harvest is left to the action of natural causes. Such nuts, of course, are entirely worthless for the manufacture of oil or copra, and even the husk has depreciated in value, the finest coirs, in fact, being derived only from the fruits that have not attained full ripeness. In any case, the nuts should be picked and the crop worked up before any considerable enlargement or swelling of the embryo occurs. From this time onward physiological changes arise which injuriously affect the quantity and quality of what is called the meat.
The heaping up of the nuts for some time after harvest favors some milk absorption, which seems to facilitate the subsequent easy extraction of the endosperm.