THE OIL PALM AND PALM KERNEL INDUSTRY
1. ÆSTHETIC ASPECT.—A most familiar sight to everyone visiting a farm in
the southern part of Nigeria is the charming grace of the fronds of the
Oil Palm in the clearings near the house. The long, straight,
cylindrical, undivided stem, crowned by a large tuft of broad green palm
leaves, easily distinguishes the Oil Palm (_Elæis Guineensis_) from the
Tombo (_Raphia vinifera_), which has a thinner stem, clothed from the
base to the top with 40-feet long heavy fronds, the undersides being
silvery and the upper part light green. In certain times of the year
huge bunches of yellow grape-like fruits hang quite 4 feet down from the
narrow crown of this tree. It is most noteworthy that the Tombo Palm is
found growing in or near a swamp, and only occasionally planted as an
avenue tree on drier land, whereas the Oil Palm is usually found in the
hard and drier ground and only occasionally in the swamp. The Oil Palm
is much larger than another Wine Palm, _Raphia Hookeri_, which is
similar but smaller than _Raphia vinifera_, the growth being similar but
the seeds smaller.
_Raphia Ruffia_ is a small swamp palm, with practically no stem, but a
large number of long, thin, and somewhat light, pendulous fronds.
Most visitors to West Africa are quite familiar with the huge casks of
orange-coloured or yellow oil, which often leaks on to the deck of the
ship, and the peculiar, rather nauseatingly pungent odour of the
“sweating” kernel bags.
1_a_. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE OIL PALM TREE, FRUIT AND NUT.—From the
railway carriage we can see numerous groves of Oil Palms, as well as
isolated specimens, almost continuously for the first 60 miles from
Lagos, and more isolated for the next 180 miles. With few exceptions the
Oil Palm is a single stemmed tree, one notable forked tree being seen on
the northern side of the Nigerian Railway, a little more than three
miles before reaching Ibadan. In this case an oil palm nut may have
become embedded in an old leaf stalk sheath and subsequently sprouted,
thus forming a separate tree growing on the other, which in the course
of time has become joined up.
It will be noticeable that in passing through the heavy forest near
Olokemeji few or no Oil Palms are seen. This forest, however, is
situated really within the area of the natural distribution of the Oil
Palm. The Oil Palm, however, needs a good deal of light for its
development, and those trees seen in the heavy forest are very tall,
often over 100 feet high, with comparatively short leaves and a small
number of them forming the crown of the tree (see illustration 102). On
the other hand, wherever a clearing has been made in the forest, for
instance near Awowo, the older Oil Palms are shorter in stem, often
being not more than 20 feet in height. Another instance of this is seen
in the farms near Badagry, where the trees are often only 15 to 20 feet
high, and the stem itself only 10 feet in length. In each of these cases
it will be noticed that the trees are standing quite free, with no
overhanging vegetation. From the first they have been in this position,
and the leaves have had room to spread almost 20 feet all round, thus
giving the tree the maximum amount of moisture and other food material.
Amongst these trees, Oil Palm seedlings will be seen to spread out over
the ground almost at once, even when only the secondary and tertiary
leaves have grown. In the forest, however, the leaves go almost straight
up, and only after some years have elapsed spread more as they dominate,
or try to overgrow, other seedling forest trees.
2. BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF TREE, FRUIT, ETC.—An Oil Palm starts male
flowers when three years old, and these are borne one to three years
before the female flowers appear. The male and female flowers are both
found on the same tree, the male above the female in the axils of the
leaves. There are two cycles of leaves younger than the female flower.
The Oil Palm fruit is formed first by the kernel surrounded by shell,
then the fibrous pulp containing the palm oil. The ripe fruit is of a
brilliant brick-red colour, the unripe fruit being always black at the
point and only red near the base, where it is covered by neighbouring
fruits. When ripe they fall from the bunch, and it is especially
noticeable that each bunch of fruit grows out of alternate leaf axils,
alternating also with the whorls or cycles of growth (illustration 60).
The female flowers are very minute, and in the earlier years each bunch
is rather smaller than a man’s hand. The centre of the flower is orange,
coloured with a bluish tip, and scarcely lasts a week. On the other
hand, the male inflorescence is like a compact horse’s tail, composed of
closely packed pollenated stamens. Owing to the different years in which
the male and female inflorescence appear, it is probable that cross-
fertilization takes place.
2_a_. DISTRIBUTION OF THE OIL PALM.—The Oil Palm is found from Sierra
Leone to Lake Chad, down to Ambriz, and eastward to the borders of
German East Africa.
The Palm Belt, according to Millbourne, is 3,000 miles in length, and
varies from 150 to 300 miles in width.
It is estimated that there are six or seven million Oil Palms behind
Loanda inland, though this sounds rather exaggerated.
In Nigeria it is most widely distributed in the Southern Provinces, and
the densest “stands” are found in each of the river basins wherever the
forest has been cleared (see illustration 103).
Wherever the dry season is very prolonged and the locality shows a
shallow soil, overlying laterite or rock, the Oil Palm first of all
appears after the forest has been cut down. After a few years the trees
are subject to annual grass-fires, and while still bearing fruit they
begin to fail and scarcely last half the ordinary period of their life.
Localities of that nature are found in the Afikpo, Onitsha, Ifon, and
parts of the Ibadan districts.
The Oil Palm is also one of the first trees to appear after the mangrove
swamp and Tombo Palm region is passed in going through the forest zones
from the coast inwards.
2_b_. VARIETIES OF THE OIL PALM.—These, according to Professor O.
Beccari, of Florence, are as follows:
_Elæis Guineensis_.
Var. _albescens_. White Oil Palm. Abe-fita or Abe-fufu (Gold Coast).
_Angulosa_. Oleporo Eyop (Old Calabar).
_Ceredia_. Adi-be (Gold Coast).
_Communis_. Udin (Benin).
_Communis forma, dura_. Ade-pa (Gold Coast).
_Idolatrica_. Sacred Palm. Abe-Obene (Gold Coast).
_Intermedia_.
_Macrocarpa_.
_Macrocarya_. Abubube (Gold Coast).
_Pisifera_.
_Repandra_. Kessede.
_Rostrata_. Mbana Oyop (Old Calabar).
The Benin people differentiate the Udin or ordinary palm from Ogedin or
the King Palm on account of its having smaller bunches of fruit, each
fruit being longer and having a softer shell. They also treat
Evirommilla or the Palm of Everlasting Life as a separate species. The
Yorubas, however, consider that there are three species of Oil Palm.
According to the German experiments in the Cameroons, the Lisombe or
soft-shell Oil Palm does not come up true to type, approximately only 5
to 10 per cent. growing to the true variety. From the locality in which
the Lisombe Palm was and is found, it looks as if the high rainfall
(over 300 inches) had really been one of the main factors in evolving
this type of Oil Palm. In fact, natives who know the ordinary Oil Palm
and the soft-shell Oil Palm say it is rather a matter of taste as to
which is the better of the two. Apparently it depends on what commodity
the native is dealing in, kernels or oil, as to whether it pays better
to get plenty of oil, and obtain the kernels more easily from the soft-
shelled Oil Palm, or an average amount of oil and larger kernels
obtained with more difficulty from the ordinary Oil Palm. On the whole,
the Lisombe Palm does not seem to yield on an average more pericarp oil
than the ordinary Benin or Yoruba Oil Palm growing in a farm in the
usual moist-zone climate. Certainly the kernel of the Lisombe Palm is
much smaller than the ordinary Oil Palm. A further point to be
considered, too, is that the bunch of Lisombe Oil Palm fruit is smaller
on the average than the bunch of the ordinary Oil Palm.
However, it may be noted that the natives of the southern part of the
Ogoja district, especially the Ndeh and Befun people, plant a species of
soft-shelled palm near the villages. Of course, in this locality the Oil
Palm is not found in very large quantities, and the seeds for these
groves were obtained from a good distance away, probably near the Cross
River.
3. THE GROWING OF THE OIL PALM—DISTRIBUTION OF SEED BY FARMERS, PARROTS,
MONKEYS.—In the forest country a clearing is made some distance away
from the village by the native to make a new farm. In clearing and
cutting down the forest, few or no Oil Palms are met with, so that the
farmer’s wife brings palm fruit or oil to the new farm, in order that
they may have palm oil to eat. Having made the oil, the nuts are put out
in the open to dry, with the intention of their being cracked later on.
However, they lie about some months, and rodents of various kinds, such
as rats and the hyrax (a squirrel-like animal), carry some of these away
into the farm. Some farmers, too, pick up a few and scatter them over
the farm. In the course of a year or two Oil Palm seedlings appear,
where they are left amongst the other vegetation when the farm is
abandoned. In this way, instead of the original thick forest there is a
more or less dense grove of young Oil Palms. In other places the parrots
may bring nuts from the neighbouring forests or other old farms, and
these, falling in the clearing, also help to make a palm forest.
The native also, after he has picked the bunches of fruit, puts them
down in some convenient place on the roadside. Some of the nuts become
scattered, which subsequently sprout and form additional groves of
palms, especially where the larger trees near the roadside fall, or are
cut down, thus giving more light to the young seedlings.
Again, when the bunch of fruit is ripe on the tree, it is not often
immediately cut off, and many of the ripe nuts thus fall to the ground.
These subsequently grow, forming almost thickets of Oil Palms, instead
of the one from which the original seed was obtained. A similar process
takes place on a bigger scale in the more distantly situated forests,
where the natives do not collect the fruit at all. Here, all the nuts
gradually fall off the tree, more or less forming a circle 10 to 15 feet
away from the trunk. If any clearings take place in these localities,
they rapidly appear to become filled up with Oil Palms, which in reality
were already there as little tiny seedlings amongst the herbs and
undergrowth, ready to make use of any additional light or growing space
to develop fully.
4. FRUIT-BEARING AGE OF OIL PALM.—Under these conditions, where the
seedling Oil Palms stand only a few inches, or at the most 4 or 5 feet
apart, the growth is very constricted, with the result that no flowers
or fruit appear before the fifteenth or twentieth year. Each stem is
excessively thin, and tends to grow upwards like an ordinary forest
tree, rather than forming a very short, almost negligible length of
stem, but nearly 1 foot in diameter, as is typical of the palm family in
the earlier years of its growth. Contrary to the above, where the Oil
Palm comes up in a more open place the leaves do not tend upwards, but
outwards, arching over with the leaf stalk at an angle of about 45° to
the ground. The leaves themselves, instead of being long and thin and
with a long length of green stalk, soon spread out fully 20 inches on
either side of the main stalk, thus giving the plant more food material
and making it grow more quickly. Then, in the fourth or fifth year,
bunches of fruit, each containing from twenty-five to thirty nuts, are
formed out of the female flower. Each bunch, which is the size of a
man’s fist at this age, increases to nearly 2 feet in length and 1 foot
in diameter at maturity. However, each bunch of fruit, having been
formed against the stem of the palm and in the axil of the leaf stalk,
is very much compressed, especially at the base. As an experiment, when
the fruit is beginning to ripen, the leaf stalk just immediately below
the base of the fruit stalk is removed; gradually then the bunch of
fruit droops a little and develops more fully at the base, owing to
having more space. More light thus reaches the fruit sideways, and the
period of ripening is accelerated by three weeks.
5. OIL PALM PLANTATIONS AND CROPS.—As a result of the greater spreading
out of the leaves of the young palm and the more sessile habit of the
stem in the earlier stages of growth, light penetrates more intensely
into the fruit-bearing axils of the tree, thus increasing the size of
each bunch.
In the Calabar Arboretum, some Oil Palms were cleaned and the ground
thoroughly cultivated in two successive years. In the first year one
tree bore fourteen bunches of fruit, and in the second year it bore
twenty-two bunches. No manure was placed on the ground, and the soil was
distinctly poor and sandy—in fact, the natives in the locality said the
land was of no use and could not be used for farms (see illustration
102).
In another case, in Benin, the Oil Palms, which were first sown at stake
and subsequently transplanted, bore fruit in the fifth year. Contrary to
expectation, the transplanted Oil Palm seedlings developed the secondary
and tertiary leaves within a few months after the transplanting had
taken place, whereas those sown at stake continued with only two spiky
leaves for almost the first year of their growth. As the tree gets
older, the number of bunches of fruit borne gets less, though each bunch
is fully five times the size of the first fruiting bunches of the fifth
year.
In most districts about five bunches of fruit ripen each year, and each
bunch bears from 1,200 to 2,000 nuts (from the best trees). It is always
noticeable that the palms growing in the open, free from surrounding
trees, produce the finest bunches and the greatest number of nuts. On
this point of the yield of bunches per annum further investigations are
necessary, as it is by no means proved that an average of five bunches
per annum is the maximum number for a mature Oil Palm.
In the Togo Plantations (251 acres), it was noticeable that in the more
favourable climate of Atakpame and Bassari the Oil Palm bore in the
fifth year, whereas in the drier climate of Jendi the trees first bore
fruit in the seventh year. In illustration No. 19 the amount of growth
shows clearly from year to year, more especially in the difference in
the size of the leaf. The relative shortness of the stem is distinctly
seen, showing up when compared with the natural forest-grown Oil Palms
in illustration 20. In addition, there is the Agu Plantation in Togo.
Thus far very few Oil Palm plantations have been made, those in the
Cameroons being the most extensive. However, these are almost too young,
or to some extent mixed up with the original forest-grown Oil Palms, for
conclusive results to be shown.
In the Central Circle in 1906 a communal plantation was made at Okokwo,
but the natives have not yet found the necessity of extending it.
Between the Kwa and the Akwayefe Rivers, going along the Akpaboyo Road,
the Oil Palms are so evenly distributed that they almost appear to be
one great plantation. However, the locality is very favourable to the
Oil Palm; the original forest has been largely cut down and the natives
have allowed the Oil Palms to stand wherever they did not hinder farming
operations. Owing to the fact that the Oil Palm has spread, and is
spreading, in those parts of the Southern Provinces of Nigeria and
elsewhere where the rainfall is between 60 and 150 inches per annum,
there has thus far, from the native point of view, been no incentive to
plant more Oil Palms. In fact, with the increasing amount of general
work going on, combined with the comparatively high price obtained for
palm oil and kernels, there is less necessity for the native to gather
all the palm fruit that has grown. It has been noticed that the
cultivated Oil Palm, or Oil Palms growing in an open place, only reach
about one-quarter the height of the forest-grown Oil Palms, which attain
a height of over 100 feet (see illustrations 60).
With cultivated trees it is possible in the earlier fruiting years to
stand on the ground and gather the fruit from the palms, and even in
later years only a short ladder is necessary in order to reach it. It is
really on this problem of the height of the palm-tree that the chief
collection of the fruit depends, and also the total output from the Oil
Palm forests. Further investigations are necessary to decide as to how
far it is possible to retard the height-growth of the Oil Palm for as
long as possible, while accelerating the radial growth, or at any rate
increasing the thickening of the stem. Varying planting distances have
been tried, such as 16 feet 3 inches each way, 17 feet 9 inches in the
German experiments in Togo, but 23 feet each way in the Cameroons. In
one case teak (_Tectona grandis_) had been mixed with it. On the whole,
in ordinarily favourable localities, a planting distance of 24 feet each
way appears to be the most suitable. For the first five to ten years at
least agricultural crops could be grown in between, until the Oil Palms
had spread out so as to cover the ground almost entirely. Few or no
experiments have yet been undertaken in selecting and planting only the
biggest nuts of the most prolific variety, which, according to Mr.
Farquhar’s report, _The Oil Palm and its Varieties_, is the A-sog-e-jub,
which contains 48 per cent. of pericarp oil.
It has at any rate been demonstrated by the natives that Oil Palms which
have been tended yield bigger bunches and bear larger nuts, but only by
actual experiments in selected areas or plantations can it be proved
exactly how much more produce is obtained, and the extra financial yield
over and above the increased cost of cultivation, etc.
According to various commercial calculations, it has been estimated that
only £1 per ton can be paid for the ripe fruit at the oil or kernel
crushing mill.
Owing to the comparative wide distance (24 feet) at which the Oil Palm
should be planted, for the first few years it is possible to plant some
catch crops. One of the cheapest ways of forming Oil Palm plantations
would be to take over an area fairly well covered with self-sown Oil
Palms up to 12 or 15 feet in height. After choosing the best and marking
these, the rest should be gradually thinned out by tapping them for palm
wine, which could be sold. A crop of water-melon, or Egusi bara
(_Citrullus vulgaris_) of the Yorubas, could be planted over two-thirds
of the ground between the Oil Palm plants and trees, leaving sufficient
space for their growth and about equal to the spread of their foliage in
each case. After this crop has been gathered in August or September, a
crop of Awuje (Yoruba name) beans could be planted, which would again be
ready for picking by December. In each case the haulms and dried leaves
of the plants, after the crop is gathered, should be burnt in small
heaps and the ashes scattered over the soil. At the beginning of the
following year the ground could be got ready again and a crop of maize
sown in a similar way, covering a half to two-thirds of the ground
between the plants. This could be followed by another crop of water-
melon, which would act as soil-covering during the rainy season, and
again another crop of beans in the autumn. In turn this could be
followed, after similar treatment as before, at the beginning of the
third year, by a crop of yams (_Dioscorea sp._). Probably owing to the
growth of the palms it would only be possible to have one row down the
middle of the line between the palms. The species of yam should not be
too large, so that the ridges or yam heaps could be heaped up if
necessary with a plough and not by hand, as is usually done. The
following autumn another crop of beans could be planted, and the next
year, if the soil was light and suitable, a crop of ground nuts could be
grown as a double row between the Oil Palms. In the following autumn a
crop of beans could be grown again. In the following year, the fifth,
some of the Oil Palms would be in bearing and yield the first returns.
Bananas could then be planted as a single row between the lines of Oil
Palms and would bear in the following year, thus supplementing the
second yield of oil and kernels. By these means the whole cost of
cultivation should at any rate be covered by the sale of the produce
grown, partially to the labourers and otherwise outside, for export, and
perhaps even a profit made over and above the cost. In the eleventh or
twelfth year the bananas would be practically or entirely covered by the
Oil Palms, and thus have to be cut down and to some extent uprooted.
Their leaves, however, would form a good mulch for the soil, and at any
rate act as an effective soil-covering, thus preventing the growth of
weeds.
It is doubtful whether it would be wise to plant bananas right from the
start in even one line, not to speak of two amongst the Oil Palms, owing
to the extraordinary amount of moisture taken from the ground by the
banana. In some cases, on the better soils, they might be introduced in
the third year. Cassava, _Manihot utilissima_, is rather too exacting a
crop to be suitable for planting amongst the Oil Palms. It is very
liable to impoverish the soil. Then, too, as far as Nigeria is
concerned, it is not a very paying crop, yielding at the most about 14s.
per acre after all expenses have been paid. In all the above cases we
are taking it for granted that the Oil Palm has been planted at, or
thinned out to, a distance of 24 feet between each tree. On the poorer
soils the distance might no doubt be 18 to 20 feet, and on the very best
probably a distance of 30 feet will not be found excessive. Where lime
or other manure is available and comparatively cheap, and in some cases
heaps of humus from the outskirts of villages, it would pay to put this
on the land in the late autumn when the ashes from the previous crops
are being spread on the land. In addition to these crops, careful
surface cultivation round each Oil Palm is essential, not only to
prevent the growth of weeds but also to keep the aeration of the soil
good, prevent the desiccating effects of the dry season, and accelerate
the growth of the Oil Palm. Besides planting these crops by directly
paid labour under European supervision, using as many modern labour-
saving appliances as possible, parts of a plantation could no doubt be
let out at a nominal rent to the natives, even to some of the labourers,
to work it in their own time, but only planting such crops as would fit
in with the rotation and not lead to the impoverishment of the soil.
Apparently the greatest danger to the tropical soil is to leave it bare
for any length of time. In the rainy season all the mineral matter and
tilth is liable to be washed away, and in the dry season fissures are
formed in it, and if it is at all argillaceous it is liable to be dried
out for a depth of over 2 feet. Constant covering is thus necessary to
ensure the growth of the Oil Palm.
6. DESTRUCTION OF OIL PALMS.—This is carried out for the following
purposes: For farming (Onitsha) and making palm wine. Sometimes many of
these trees are destroyed by fire in the Ahoada Okigwi, North Owerri,
Afikpo, Abakaliki, Ogaya, and Obudu. Grubs, too, are a very frequent
source of destruction among them. The trees are tapped in the Yoruba
country to obtain palm wine, but it is not known exactly to what extent
this reduces the yield of palm oil and kernels. On the whole it is
harmful, owing to the fact that insect and other pests can obtain
entrance to the tree through the holes made in tapping it. With the
steadily rising price of gin the tapping of the Oil Palm is increasing
annually, resulting in a destruction of many thousand trees each year,
chiefly in the Obubra and Ikom districts, and to a lesser extent by
tapping the trees in the Yoruba country. Wherever the rainfall does not
exceed much over 50 inches and the soil of the locality is shallow over
laterite or some rock formation, the fires become usually an annual
occurrence. The Oil Palms which at first come up on the clearing of the
forests then get burnt, and after a few years cease to grow faster than
the leaves are burned each year, and subsequently die. In a similar way
the young seedlings which may come up are very easily killed by these
annually recurring fires, and thus the whole district is impoverished.
This process can be seen going on in parts of the Afikpo, Owerri,
Abakaliki, Onitsha, Ifon and Ibadan districts. It is a serious menace to
the future development of the Oil Palm industry.
[Illustration: FIG. 104.—=Mature Brachystegia spicæformis standing at
the side of the Calabar Road, Calabar, showing the typical shape of the
crown and branches.=]
[Illustration: FIG. 105.—=Base of Mature Brachystegia spicæformis
standing at the side of the Calabar Road showing both the scaly
untouched bark and the wounded section covered with nodules.=]
To face p. 472.
6_a_. NATIVE METHOD OF COLLECTING FRUIT.—The native, to collect the
fruit, climbs the tree with a specially made rope round his waist, by
which he gradually hoists himself up. With a rough chisel, like a piece
of iron with a handle, he first cuts off the leaf just above the fruit
and then severs the bunch, letting it fall to the ground. Many of the
fruits drop out in the transit, but these the native does not trouble to
gather up.
It is usual for the Chief to close the forest for a certain time until
the Oil Palm fruit is more or less ripe, and then the natives can gather
it all at the same time. Owing to the difference in the time of the
ripening of the individual fruits at the top of the bunch and those at
the base, many fall to the ground before the bunch is actually cut off
the tree. These are not gathered up, and are taken away by rodents or
birds, or come up in the same place.
7. NATIVE METHOD OF MAKING OIL AND KERNEL INSPECTION.—The native cracks
the palm kernel almost entirely by hand, the nuts being first dried in
the sun on the ground in open spaces, surrounded roughly with little
billets of wood, or in small sheds. When dry, they are taken out and
cracked on rocks (if they happen to be in the neighbourhood) with a
piece of stone in the cracker’s hand. Should the spot be devoid of rock,
a piece of wood or stone takes its place, and then a piece of iron or
stone is used by him in the right hand. Good workers, usually small
girls or women, can crack about 15 to 20 lb. a day in this manner.
An inspection fee on palm kernels and oil has undoubtedly helped to
improve the product immensely and not reduced the output.
The kernels are picked out at the same time, the shell remaining more or
less where the nut is cracked. A certain amount of shell adheres to the
kernel, and if it is an excessive amount the native picks it off.
Anyhow, when he reaches the factory the shell contents must not exceed 5
per cent. Although they are not actually dried, they are usually kept in
a dry, cool place, until sufficient have been collected to sell either
in the local market or straight to a European factory. The inspection of
the palm produce, both oil and kernels, takes place at the factory,
where the produce is bought by the Inspectors of Produce under the
Customs Department.
7_a_. KINDS OF OIL.—Most of the oil is soft, but as some hard oil is
made which is worth £3 or £4 less per ton than the former, owing to its
having about 8 per cent. less of glycerine, and both are made by a
different process, both methods will be described.
_Hard oil_ is made chiefly near Onitsha and Ikpa markets, east of the
Niger, by the Ibos, and the following is the process employed in those
districts.
The fruit is left on the bunch in the bush, covered with leaves, for ten
days; it is then brought into the village or place where the fruit is
cut or knocked off the bunch. Large earthenware pots with a little water
in the bottom are then filled with the fruit; this is then heated, but
the water does not actually boil, or even steam very much. The fruit is
then taken out and beaten in an old canoe or hard mud trough until all
the fibre is fairly well macerated and detached from the nut. The whole
mass is then placed in a shady place for four days to enable the oil to
“get strong,” as the local people say. On the fifth day the oily fibre
and nuts are placed in the trough again, and cold water is poured in
until it is about a foot deep. The whole mass is pounded with the bare
feet of children, girls or women, so that gradually the oil becomes
detached from the fibre or from adhering to the nuts, and floats on the
surface of the water, especially near the edges of the trough. It is
then skimmed off with the hand and put into calabashes. The nuts and
fibre having sunk to the bottom of the trough, the oil is left
comparatively free from impurities. The oil in the calabashes hardens to
much the same degree as dripping, and is ready for sale.
On the banks of the Niger, where it is sold to European firms, the
natives are often obliged to boil it to purify it still further, and to
enable it to be poured into the puncheon in which it is shipped to
England. This oil, even when cleaned and boiled, has a bitter taste,
which the natives do not like when they have been accustomed to soft
oil. When this oil arrives in England it is quite hard again.
Soft oil is made in Nigeria, as well as in Sierra Leone and the Gold
Coast Colony. The Lagos and Benin oil is the best, so the method
employed in that part of the country will be described. The fruit is cut
off the tree in much the same way, but the loose fruit is generally
collected from the ground as well as the bunches, which are then carried
to the oil-making place, which is usually situated near a running stream
for the convenience of the manufacture of the oil. The fruit is cut or
knocked off the bunch, cleaned of any extra stalk or dirt, and placed in
earthenware pots, in the bottom of which is a little water. These pots
are then put over a bright fire until the water not only boils, but has
quite steamed away. It is then considered that the fruit is thoroughly
soft and ready for crushing, when it is placed in earthen troughs or old
tree trunks which are used for this purpose. Cold water is then poured
over the fruit to about a foot in depth, and the fruit is pressed by the
feet of women or girls standing in the trough. The oil rises to the
surface of the water, is skimmed off with the hand or a flat piece of
wood, and put into earthenware calabashes; all fibre is thoroughly
squeezed and rinsed to obtain the oil out of it. The oil is now
thoroughly boiled, and when quite thin and of a reddish-orange colour is
poured off carefully into clean pots. A fine residue of fibre and
particles of dirt remain in the pot in which the oil was boiled; this is
used for native lamps by dipping a twisted fibre into it.
The clean soft oil is now ready for sale, and is carried in old kerosene
tins or other receptacles to the nearest market. Despite the very large
loss which occurs, owing to the breaking of calabashes on the road to
market, still very large amounts are carried in vegetable calabashes or
earthenware pots. By the time this oil reaches Europe it is partially
hardened in the cask, though usually there is a certain amount of liquid
on the top.
_Sale of Produce._—The palm oil is sold by the kerosene tin (one
gallon), by the keg, or by the puncheon. It is also sold by the bottle
in the markets for local use.
The palm kernels are sold by the calabash in the districts further away
from the markets, but more usually by the coulah (Jekri). They are also
sometimes sold by the bag, weighing either 25 lb. or nearly 50 lb. in
weight. The natives find old salt bags of different sizes very
convenient for this purpose, more especially when the kernels are to be
conveyed some distance to the nearest factory.
7_b_. At the beginning of 1915 hard oil was worth £32 per ton, and soft
oil £36 10s. per ton, whereas at the beginning of 1918 soft oil was
being sold at £36 5s. to £47 10s. per ton, whilst the official maximum
price for unbleached palm oil is £44 per ton, and £50 per ton bleached.
7_a_ and 11. UTILITY OF THE OIL PALM.—From the Oil Palm are obtained the
following products: Palm oil, palm kernels, palm wine and yeast from the
fermented palm wine. The shells of the nuts are used by blacksmiths, as
they give out great heat. The growing head of the palm is used as a
vegetable—palm cabbage. The stems of the leaves are useful as rafters or
house posts in the Yoruba country, the leaves for making mats for
roofing, and the midribs as brooms.
To obtain the wine, the tree is either tapped below the male
inflorescence in Ibadan, Yoruba, etc., or when the tree is felled and
the crown cut off. A calabash is placed so as to catch the outflowing
sap, which is the palm wine.
The natives frizzle the kernels in an iron pot and obtain an oil which
is used as an emollient for wounds and rubbing on bruises or sprains. It
has a burnt smell. Only small quantities of kernels are used for this
purpose in Nigeria.
Tapping is sometimes effected at the base of both inflorescences, but
this is a more unusual method.
So far no use has been found for the wood, though it is uncommonly tough
and very fibrous.
8. AMOUNT OF PRODUCE USED, EATEN, AND AMOUNT GROWING.—There is probably
only 5 per cent., or at most 15 per cent., of the total possible trade
done in this product from West Africa.
The amount of the oil used by the natives per annum is as follows:
Three gallons of oil per head per annum for food.
Half-gallon of oil per head per annum for illuminant in the Eastern
Circle, according to Gilman, and half-gallon used mixed with camwood for
rubbing on the skin per head per annum.
Allowing this amount for the total population of 8,000,000, we have a
total of 32,000,000 gallons used locally per annum. This means the
produce of at least 128,000,000 trees, taking into consideration the
very poor or underbearing state of many of the trees. Some also are
immature and not in full bearing when utilized. Even so, this represents
only a part of the total possible crop, which might be 100,000,000
gallons and 500,000 tons of kernels. Although the above small percentage
of the amount of trade done will eventually prove to be an exaggeration,
partly owing to the cutting down of Oil Palms in making farms, there is
nevertheless clear evidence that a great many more palm kernels
especially could be obtained if there were an increased number of plants
available for cracking the nuts in various parts of the country. Then,
too, in those places where the trees stand too closely together, an
increased yield would be obtained after they had been thinned out.
Allowing for an area of about 7,000 square miles in the dry zone, where
the Oil Palms are not found, and 12,000 square miles for mangrove
swamps, rivers, roads, railways, town and village sites, also where
there are no Oil Palms, and about 10,000 square miles of heavy evergreen
and mixed deciduous forest areas where there are few or no Oil Palms,
this leaves an area of about 50,000 square miles on which they are found
growing. The density varies from over 200 per acre down to only one, or
in isolated cases to one to ten acres. With the increased amount of the
tapping of the Oil Palm, as well as cutting it down both to get the palm
wine and for making farms for food as well as cocoa crops, there is a
great danger of the total amount being reduced. Everywhere on the West
Coast of Africa where other produce has been introduced, such as in the
Congo and in the Gold Coast, the export of palm produce tends to fall
very rapidly. Owing to the fact that such a large amount of palm oil is
used for alimentary or other purposes locally, and a great deal is
exported to the Northern Provinces, the export of palm kernels to Great
Britain and Europe generally forms the better basis in calculating the
amount of palm produce now actually produced in the country. The small
number of kernels used for making an oil for local use is really quite a
negligible quantity, and will no doubt almost die out when there are
larger amounts of pomade and other skin emollients available for the
natives to buy.
9. EUROPEAN MACHINERY FOR EXTRACTION (PERICARPING).—Mr. E. W. J. Trevor,
of 87, Maida Vale, claims two machines for detaching and removing the
pericarp of palm fruit with abrading, and has devised also a means by
which the fruit is held in place and has along in line, an endless band
or chain. It is not stated, however, if this is successful.
Another apparatus with knife-blades for decorticating the pericarp has
been patented by Mr. H. Beckwith, of 2, Rumford Street, Liverpool. It is
called the depericarping machine. Dr. Hupfeld’s oil process is carried
out at Agu (Togo).
Haake, a Berlin firm, constructed a machine called the wet process. The
fruit is heated with water and freed from the pulp in special machines.
The pulp is allowed to drain, and then heated again and put under
presses. The nuts are cracked in a large centrifugal machine, and the
shell is separated by a drum-like sieve or by brine. With this process
100 lb. of fruit yield 15 lb. of oil and 14 lb. of kernels. Four or five
tons of fruit can be treated daily by fifteen or twenty men. The natives
only extract 7 per cent. of the pericarp oil. This oil contains over 30
per cent. of fatty acid and is only used for soaps.
The Government has set up kernel-cracking machines in various places in
West Africa.
10. EUROPEAN NUT-CRACKING.—Several plants have been put up latterly to
deal with the cracking of kernels by machinery.
One of the first of such factories was started at Benin River, Warri
province, where the shells after the nuts had been obtained from them
were used for firing the engines of the machinery. Another factory
exists at Abonnemma, Owerri province, and yet another was started at
Yenagoa in 1914. The natives seem very willing to bring in the nuts to
be cracked, especially where the population is not large enough to both
make the oil and crack the kernels, as in the Brass and Degema
districts. Brine is often used for separating the kernels from the
shell.
Some hand-machines have been brought out by Miller Brothers which crack
the nuts, but both shell and kernels fall to the ground at the same
time. A certain number of the kernels are broken in the process, but of
recent years an improvement has been made in this respect. The cost of
the hand-machine, amounting as it does to £30, is almost prohibitive for
the native, unless a system of hire-purchase were to be adopted. Only a
few of these machines (comparatively) have been sold to them.
_Yield of Oil and Kernels from Whole Fruit by Machinery._—It has been
variously estimated that out of a hundred tons of whole fruit the native
obtains by his methods:
7 tons of oil worth (pre-war rates) £12 per ton = £84.
15 tons of kernels worth (pre-war rates) £6 per ton = £90.
Again, out of the whole fruit, the result of various investigations
shows that the pericarp comprises 30 per cent., shell 56 per cent., the
kernels 14 per cent., and that there is 50 per cent. of oil in the
pericarp. It has also been estimated that out of a hundred tons of whole
fruit, a maximum of 15 tons of oil and 14 tons of kernels can be
obtained by machinery. These at the pre-war rates would be worth
approximately £600 and £200—in all, £800. It has also been estimated
that the crushing of the fruit, the various freights, the carriage by
rail and ocean, cost of bags, shipping, landing charges, insurance and
general expenses would amount to £4 per ton, or in all about £400. This
leaves about £400 to pay for the fresh fruit and allow for a profit;
thus, paying £1 per ton for the fresh fruit, there would still be £300
left for profit, or in the case of paying £2 per ton there would be £200
left. However, so far £1 per ton has proved too low a rate for the
natives to accept, and in most places it has been refused. It is
doubtful whether £2 per ton will attract them sufficiently to bring in
the large bulk of farm produce which is available. From an average
closely stocked Oil Palm area the fruit could not be collected at a cost
of £1 per ton, and it is very doubtful if it could be done for £2 per
ton. So far, it appears that the native working for himself in his own
time will always do things at a cheaper rate than paid labour under
European supervision. Further investigations will, however, prove what a
high price can be paid for the fresh fruit at the factory and yet leave
sufficient margin to make a profit on the extraction of the pericarp
oil, and also of the cracking of the nuts. In this connection the
crushing of the kernels is considered rather a separate economic
problem, as several other market factors come in which do not apply to
the case of the pericarp oil and the uncrushed kernels. The machinery
for the crushing of the kernels on the whole is much more intricate,
costly, and requires much more highly-trained European supervision.
10_a_. PERCENTAGE OIL AND KERNELS.—According to the investigations of
the Imperial Institute, the composition of the fruit is as follows:
Per cent.
Pericarp oil 18
Fibre and moisture 12
Shell and disk 58
Kernel 12
Cake for fattening hogs 100
The kernel contains 46 to 53 per cent. of oil.
10_b_. PERICARP PALM OIL ANALYSIS.—This is as follows:
Specific gravity 15/15° C. 0·9209-0·9245
Melting-point 24°-42·5° C.
Saponification value 196·3-205·5
Iodine value 53-57·4
Reichert-Meissl value 0·86-1·87
Hehner value 94·2-97
The solidifying-point of fatty acids varies from 35·8° to 46·4° C.
usually 44·5° to 45° C.
(See also 7_a_, Uses; see also 12_a_.)
11. EUROPEAN USES OF OIL AND KERNELS, PALM WINE, PALM CABBAGE, ETC.—From
46 to 53 per cent. of oil is contained in the kernel.
Palm oil is used in Europe for making margarine, vegetable butters,
chocolate and cooking fats. It makes a good butter-substitute. Palm oil
is chiefly used for making soap and candles in England, according to Mr.
Dennett’s paper. Tin plates are covered with palm oil to prevent
oxidization. The leakage from the casks of oil on board ship is used for
making metal polish. Railways use it for greasing axle-boxes on railway
carriages.
11_a_. NIGERIAN EXPORTS, OIL AND KERNELS.—The exports of palm kernels
have been increasing almost continuously for years, owing to the gradual
opening up of the country to trade, and also to the natives finding out
the value of the kernel as an article of barter; nevertheless, more
still could be obtained if hand-cracking machinery and more nut-cracking
mills were introduced at suitable spots.
The following table shows the exports for the years 1909 to 1916 of
PALM KERNELS.
Year. Tons. £ Price.
1907 — 1,658,000 —
1908 — 1,425,000 —
1909 158,869 1,815,967 —
1910 172,998 2,450,814 —
1911 176,389 2,574,405 £18 6s.
1912 184,624 2,797,411 £19 15s.
1913 174,720 3,109,820 £23 5s.
1914 162,452 2,541,149 —
1915 153,319 1,692,712 —
1916 161,439 1,739,706 —
PALM OIL FROM COLONIAL REPORT, NIGERIAN EXPORTS.
Year. Tons. £ Price.
1911 79,000 1,696,875 £13 15s.
1912 77,000 1,654,933 £29 18s.
1913 83,000 1,854,384 £32 15s.
The following is quoted from Sect. 2, Mr. R. E. Dennett’s paper on
British Trade in Nigeria. Valuable notes have been obtained from this
paper with regard to the palm products.
PALM KERNEL EXPORTS TO GERMANY.
About £5,000,000 worth went to Germany before the war.
Year. Tons.
1911 262,680
1912 283,536
1913 241,961
12. VALUE OF OIL AND KERNELS.—Since the war, the price of oil first went
down £5 per ton and kernels £15 per ton up.
With kernels at £17 to £18 per ton, the oil is worth £36 15s. per ton.
Glycerine is worth £50 per ton, and pericarp oil contains about 8 per
cent.
At the beginning of 1918 the price of palm kernels varied from £25 to
£26 per ton, the latter figure being the official maximum for it.
12_a_. DESCRIPTION OF KERNEL OIL.—It is white or pale-yellow in colour,
with a pleasant nutty taste. By suitable treatment kernel oil can be
divided into liquid oil, olein, and solid palm-kernel oil, stearin. It
is used for soap and candles, edible fats—such as palmine,
margarine—cooking fats, vegetable butters and chocolate fats.
13. IMPORT PORTS IN ENGLAND AND U.S.A. FOR OIL AND
KERNELS.—_Hull._—Congo kernels go to Hull by the Cie Congo du Belge
line, run by Elder Dempster & Co. In the first six months of 1915,
20,821 tons of kernels were imported into Hull. In most statements on
Hull the price of palm kernel cake is omitted, whilst those of linseed,
Bombay cotton-seed, and Saga Bean are always quoted. Hull imported
between 40,000 and 50,000 tons in 1915 (from January to November only,
31,723 tons); 200,000 tons were taken by Germany before, and hence are
available now.
_Bristol._—Bristol as a port is prepared, according to its seed-
crushers, to try kernels, but they asked the Colonial Office for
protection from Germany.
_Liverpool._—For the first six months of 1915, 87,366 tons of palm
kernels were imported into Liverpool, against 73,000 tons in 1914.
_U.S.A._—In 1915, 4,000 tons of kernels were shipped direct to the
States.
14. THE CRUSHING OF PALM KERNELS IN AFRICA AND ENGLAND.—The largest
seed-crushing and oil-extracting centre in Great Britain is at Hull.
Most of the crushing used to be done in Harburg, near Hamburg, Germany,
and only a little at Liverpool—some 70,000 tons out of 300,000 tons.
Since the war began Hull and London (Erith) have taken up the crushing
of kernels. Bristol and Manchester have both thought about it.
Crushing has been tried in Africa, but has not been very successful so
far, the cost of the operations having proved too high. In the Congo,
however, it is still being done.
The crushing plants in Nigeria are situated at Opoba and Apapa, near
Lagos.
14_a_. OTHER METHODS OF KERNEL CRUSHING—SOLVENTS.—Commercially, kernels
are heated with solvents or pressure is used to extract the oil.
According to Mr. Dennett the first expression takes place at a
temperature of 45° to 50° C., and the second at 55° to 60° C. The double
pressing is necessary owing to the amount of fat in the oil. By
solvents, all or only a part can be taken out of the kernels. If all is
taken, then they are almost valueless as cake, owing to its lack of oil.
15. PALM-KERNEL PRODUCE.—Palm-kernel cake used to contain 20 to 22 per
cent. of fibre and 10 per cent. of oil, which went rancid, so was not
liked here.
This was the main reason why palm-kernel cake was not used to any extent
by farmers in England before the war.
15_a_. YIELD OF OIL, KERNELS AND CAKE.—From 46 to 53 per cent. of palm-
kernel oil is obtained from the kernels.
Roughly speaking, a ton of kernels yields half a ton of cake, according
to Mr. R. E. Dennett.
According to the _Bulletin_ of the Imperial Institute 1 ton of kernels
yields 1,000 lb. of oil.
_Palm-kernel Cake and Oil Exports._—Palm-kernel cake was exported to
Denmark in September 1915-18, 863 bags.
15_b_. ANALYSIS OF KERNEL CAKE.—This, according to a recent analysis in
the _Field_ by Frank J. Lloyd, is:
Per cent.
Fibre 14·80
Mineral matters 3·55
Nutrients—
Oil 6·17
Albuminoids 16·12
Carbohydrates 48·51
Water 10·85
------
100·00
A further analysis shows:
Per cent.
Oil 5·5-10
Albuminoids 15·8-18·5
Carbohydrates 36-50
or per food unit it works out to £4 16s. per ton. Indigestible fibre
reaches 10 per cent., or in older samples of ten years ago 28 per cent.,
which is far too high. As a unit it costs 1s. 4d., against 2s. 7d. for
cotton-seed meal.
According to E. D. News the analysis is:
Per cent.
Albuminous matters 17-30
Fatty matter 10-18
Gum, sugar and starch 30-40
15_c_. KERNEL ANALYSIS.—According to the investigations the analysis
showed:
Specific gravity at 90/15° C. 0·873
Iodine value 10·3-17·5
Saponification value 242-255
Titer test 20·0-25·5° C.
Hehner value 91·1
Reichert-Meissl test 5·0-6·8
16 and 17. VALUE OF PALM-KERNEL OIL AND CAKE.—Palm-kernel cake is sold
at 7s. per cwt., and only 10 per cent. of the food ration is given to
cows or calves for the first time.
According to the _Oil and Colours Journal_, in September 1915 palm-
kernel oil was worth £37 10s. per ton first hand, and £48 in March 1916.
According to this journal it is the lowest priced of all the cakes.
The price of the cake is £7 to £7 5s. per ton.
The cake is sold at £7 5s. free on rail per ton at Hull. At the
beginning of 1918 it was worth £13 15s. per ton, but in Surrey it could
not be obtained under £21 per ton.
Palm-kernel oil is worth about £40 per ton.
At the beginning of 1918, palm-kernel oil extracted by solvents was
worth £51 per ton; crushed, £52 per ton; refined, £67 per ton—which were
the official maximum prices.
17. USES OF PALM-KERNEL CAKE.—Kernels worked by solvents make a more
digestible meal—80 per cent. against 73 per cent. of crushed kernels,
and containing 19 per cent. of protein and 2 per cent. of fat, against
18 per cent. of protein and 8 per cent. of fat for crushed kernels. It
is used for feeding young pigs and milch cows in Germany.
18. RESULTS OF FEEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH KERNEL CAKE.—The weekly gain in
live weight with kernel cake ration was 8 lb. at the West of Scotland
Agricultural College. The cost worked out at 4½d. per lb., and 3 lb. of
kernel cake gave better results than 4 lb. of bran.
At the East of Scotland College, a gain of 2·04 lb. per day was
recorded, the cost being £6 6s. per ton.
Experiments conducted in Scotland showed that cattle increased 1·95 lb.
per day with palm-kernel cake, against only 1·84 lb. with linseed cake.
No difficulty was found in keeping the cake, and it did not go rancid.
The cattle fed on palm-nut cake were stated to look glossier, carry more
bloom, and have a looser skin than those fed on cotton-seed cake. It is
also claimed that the fat content of the milk is increased, though the
amount of extra butter-fat produced per day cannot be demonstrated.
A mixture containing 3 lb. of palm-nut cake is recommended per day for
milch cows, and one containing from ¼ lb. to ½ lb. for sheep and pigs.
Ten per cent. of the ration should be given to cows or cattle the first
time. Only 2 lb. of cake per day is given to animals.
According to the Cambridge University Department of Agriculture the
feeding value of palm-kernel cake for bullocks is practically the same
as that of linseed cake.
The feeding experiments demonstrated that the palm-kernel cake gave
equal results to linseed or cotton-seed cake, and paid better because of
the lower price of palm-kernel cake for milch cows and cattle. It is
recommended for pigs too. The cost of feeding for eighty-four days was
43s. 4d. for palm-kernel cake against 51s. 6d. for linseed, and a gain
of 164·5 lb. in weight against 167 lb. flesh weight with linseed cake.
Cattle do not take to it readily at first, but afterwards like it.
According to Wyndham R. Dunstan, palm-kernel cake costs 1s. 5½d. per
food unit as compared to 2s. 4d. for hay, hay being £5 per ton.
According to Thomas Fawcett, L.M.R., A.S.E., it is a question of what is
relatively cheaper. British farmers have always bought linseed cake at
£10 10s. per ton, when beef was only 10d. to 1s. per lb. Relatively, it
would be better to go in for more cows being fed with palm-kernel cake.
He also states that kernels only came in irregular quantities.
The cake, according to Lancashire County experiments, must be given as
part ration, as milk yield goes down with kernel cake alone.
18_a_. PALM-NUT MEAL: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF FEEDING.—In 1879, in
_Agricultural Chemistry_, by Johnson and Cameron (2nd edition), palm-nut
meal from England and the Continent is mentioned and recommended as the
cheapest meal for cattle, especially calves. The Royal Agricultural
Society of England in 1878 also published a pamphlet for the Paris
Exhibition, in which a mixture including a large proportion of palm-nut
meal is recommended, and the experience in feeding young animals is
given, showing that it is far cheaper and that linseed cake is really
very expensive. Fourteen beasts fed on linseed cake averaged at eighteen
months old 13·5 lb. live weight the week, or only ¾ lb. less than the
heaviest at the show, on less food, especially using palm-nut meal.
According to others, meal is not recommended owing to its going rancid
and its indigestibility.
19. MANURIAL VALUE OF KERNEL CAKE.—The manurial value of palm-kernel
cake is £1 4s. for the ration as given per ton.
20. WEST AFRICAN SHIPPING IN RELATION TO FARM PRODUCE.—Before the advent
of the German line, the West Coast was at the mercy of the Shipping
Combine, as it is now, freights being arranged accordingly.
Since the Government has fixed maximum freight rates, shippers now know
the largest amount they will have to pay, but even so freights are
extremely high, and with no outside competition are unlikely to be
brought down very much.
21. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE OIL PALM.—Monsieur Chevalier’s _Les Végétaux
Utiles de l’Afrique tropicale française_, Fasc. VII (1e partie),
“Documents sur le Palmier à Huile,” contains a great deal of valuable
information on the subject of the Oil Palm. _The Oil Palm_, by J. H.
Farquhar, summarizes the results of a year’s investigations as to the
growth and yield of the Oil Palm in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria.
In the monograph _Oil Seed and Feeding Cakes_, issued by the Imperial
Institute, a complete account is given of the new British palm-kernel
industry.