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.