Finally, the third and most lasting major industry to provide work to residents of Ambergris Caye after the Blakes’ arrival was coconut production, once again a largely Blake-owned enterprise. In the 1880s and 1890s, the Blakes established coconut plantations on their lands. Coconut workers were usually paid by the task as needed or by monthly salary. The work was hard and long, often 12 hours a day for 6 days of the week. Task workers harvested, husked, and delivered a batch of 500 coconuts to the cargo boat for a wage of 50 cents which were sold by the plantation owners for $30 in Belize City. Salaried workers were generally paid $12 monthly and were paid in the form of coupons printed by the Blakes and good only at the Blake’s Comisariato, a general store. Just 10 cents of each dollar’s worth of coupons could be converted to cash. Women were hired to make copra, essentially dried coconut flesh from which coconut oil would later be extracted for making soap, cooking oil and lotions. The coconut business on Ambergris Caye was quite profitable for the Blakes, despite setbacks from hurricane damage in 1916 and 1920 and the devastating hurricane of 1942. Some of the coconut walks were re-established eventually, only to be destroyed again by Hurricane Janet in 1955. The glory days of the coconut business were never to return.