Vol. XVII. No. 426. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



•263 



Indeed the tendency of modern systems of manuring is not 

 to manure the land, but to manure for each crop cnly. We 

 do not question the correctness of such a system, so long as 

 each crop receives a supply sufficient to bring it to healthy 

 maturity- 



There is a much larger area under the B.H. 10(12) for 

 the crop of next year than was at first thought, and we have 

 noticed several fairly large nurseries of the seedling being 

 grown for the next planting season. 



The heavy tonnage given by our seedlings as plant canes 

 in the black soil demands that there should be recuperation 

 before another crop of canes is grown. The increased value 

 of a catch crop from a field which has only grown one crop 

 of canes compensates to some extent for the amount which is 

 realized by the second crop of canes. There is also the danger 

 of exhausting the soil, and thereby exposing it to the inroads 

 of disease. There is too in addition, but little chance of 

 resting fields where cropping is so continuous. 



The fields of B- 64.50 are not disappointing, and, as this 

 is a cane which develops later than either the Ba. 60-32 or the 

 B.H. 10(12), we cannot as yet compare it with the more 

 forward condition of its rivals. 



Since our last report the putting out of farmyard 

 manure has been generally started, c )ne can hardly drive in 

 any district without meeting roads of this valuable stuS' 

 beiug carted in different directions. This application is being 

 made from the yard pens. The field pens are not yet fit for 

 distribution. 



Fodder is fairly plentiful, and the supply of cane shoot.s 

 is only now being finished up. These have been in some 

 instances supplemented by fields of imphee, and now the 

 pastures are ready to yield their supply. Fodder is also 

 being sold at a moderate price in Bridgetown, as the peasants 

 are disposing of their crop of Guinea corn fodder grown since 

 the incoming of the rainy reason. 



The Indian corn crop has proved satisfactory practically 

 everywhere, and reaping has been started. As this crop ripens 

 very rapidly, the next lew weeks will see its general ingath- 

 ering. We regret to record that many peasants have had to 

 sell their young corn crop as fodder, in order to save it from 

 the depredations of thieves. 



The scarcity of potatoes is being relieved, but it will 

 still be a few weeks before a fair supply can be placed on 

 the market. Some estates are selling to their labourers 

 only. We cannot object to this, and we are informed that 

 this has had the etiect in some instances of increasing the 

 volume of labour. Many villagers who were only very tran- 

 sient labourers have given general a.ssistance on ntighbouring 

 estates, in order to become eligible purchasers of potatoes. 

 (The ParhaJos Agriail/iiraf Rcpm-t.r, August 10, 1918.) 



NATIVE OIL PALMS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 

 The discovery of new sources of raw material, or the 

 further development of old sources is the only means of 

 overtaking the large and ever-gmwing demand for vegetable 

 oil. Any information of a new source of vegetable oil is 

 welcome, more especially if such be a natural forest product, 

 and not a cultivated one. In a paper in the /»///v/a/ of the 

 Board of Agricifltiirf of British Guiana, April 1918, 

 Mr. L. S. Hoiienkerk, Forestry < )tticer in the Department of 

 Lands and Mines of that colony, draws attention to the possi- 

 bilities as an oil producer of the Kokerit palm {Maximi/iaiia 

 refill) which is widely distributed throughout easily access- 

 ible forest areas of British Guian i. 



The Director of the Imperial Institute has furnished 

 a report on a small sample of kokerit fruit and oil forwarded 

 to him for examination. 



The kokerit fruits are about U to 2 inches long, and 

 from j-inch to 1 inch in diameter. The fruit consists of a 

 soft, pulpy pericarp containing oil, and the nut, a hard 

 woody shell enclosing two or three kernels, which resemble 

 African palm kernels in consi-stency. 



The pericarp yielded 17'1 per cent, of a semi-solid 

 orange-red oil, resembling African palm oil in appearance, 

 but differing somewhat from it in chemical composition. The 

 report was of opinion that this pericarp oil would find a ready 

 market, if it could be obtained in quantity. 



The kernels yielded 64 1 per cent, of a fairly hard 

 cream-coloured fat, with an odour resembling that of ooco-nut 

 oil, and in chemical composition similar to African palm 

 kernel and coco nut oil. It was stated in the report that 

 there can be no doubt that kokerit kernels would fetch the 

 same price as palm kernels, or possibly a little more. 



The meal left after extraction of the oil from the kernel 

 was pale brown, with a mild and not unpleasant taste, some- 

 what suggestive of coco-nut. It should have a feeding value 

 about eijual to that of palm kernel cake, and somewhat lower 

 than coco nut cake. 



The question therefore is to ascertain whether the fruit 

 can be obtained in British Guiana in large quantities at a price 

 which will admit of their being sold in Liverpool at about 

 the same price as palm kernels. 



From a survey of about 90 sc^uare miles by the Forestry 

 Officer, he has computed that the number of kokerit palms 

 in the Ganje River district alone would not be less than 

 511,785 fruiting trees, which would produce, even supposing 

 a tree gave only one bunch of nuts per annum, of aa 

 average weight of only 50 ft., a weight of fruit equal to 

 25,589,250 ft., which ought to yield something like 1,108 

 tons of oil. Even at the pre-war rate of palm oil at £22 

 per ton, the value of thi.s oil would be £24,376 per annum. 

 Mr. Hohenkerk considers that the best plan for exploiting 

 this product would be to obtain machinery for cracking the 

 .shells and extracting the oil in the colony, and then to 

 export both the oil and the meal to the home markets. 



Machinery for the purpose is however unobtainable at 

 the present time, but an export of kokerit kernels might be 

 started in a comparatively short time. The aboriginal 

 Indians, who reside on the banks of the rivers in the districts 

 where the palms are eommon, might be interested in this 

 industry. Both men and women could collect the nuts, 

 either while returning to their homes from their fields or 

 work places, or by making special journeys to the palm 

 trees in their neighbourhood. The nuts could be sun- 

 dried and broken, the kernels j)icked out and packed into 

 baskets by women and children, and the baskets conveniently 

 shipped by steamer, launch, or boat, for sale to one of the 

 firms in the colony who are willing to buy them. 



In this connexion Mr. Hohenkirk says that he himself 

 has seen in the fruiting season hundreds of tons of these 

 nuts, cleaned of the pericarp, lying under the trees in the 

 region of the Canje and Berbice Rivers, and he thinks that 

 it would be more feasible to collect only the fallen nuts 

 than to strive to obtain the whole fruit. 



There are other palms also growing in numbers in British 

 Guiana, the fruits of which are known to yield from both 

 pericarp and kernel edible oils of a high value. For instance, 

 the Awarra {Astrocaryiim tticumoidis), the Akuyuro {.Istro- 

 caryuin tiicitma), and the Turn {Oeiiocarpus I'aai/ia), along 

 with several others, which it might seem advisable to get 

 reports on. 



