225 



ing oil, the writer obtained 5-^ ounces of pericarp ; this time, how- 

 ever, working against time, he probably did not scrape the nuts as 

 carefully, and hence the loss of weight.' 



If we follow up this result, we find that a day of 9 hours 

 should give an output of 62 ozs. or say, allowing for time wasted 

 by the coolie 2^ lbs. of pericarp, yielding about 12 ozs. of palm-oil, 

 worth about 6 pence. A daily task of 2^ lbs. of pericarp could not 

 therefore be paid more than 4 pence, leaving 2 pence for cost of 

 extraction of the oil freight and profit; plainly an impossibility, 

 except where the very cheapest female and child labour can be 

 drawn upon. 



In this connection, a well known authority, Auguste Chevalier, 

 (Bulletin des Matieres Grasses de 1' Institut Colonial de Marseille, 

 N"o. 4, 1919) makes the following statement: 



" A native of West Africa, working 300 days, produces yearly 

 only 390 kilos of almonds, while another, treating the pericarps, 

 obtains yearly 657 kilos of oil: the daily production of almonds 

 not exceeding 1.300 kilos and that of oil 2.190 kilos." 



2.190 kilos per day for two persons or say 1.100 kilos for one 

 person, is more than treble what the writer himself obtained of oil ; 

 this is probably due to previous softening of the pericarps by 

 fermenting in heaps, a native practice. 



Taking as a daily task 1.100 kilos or 2 lbs. 7 ozs. of palm-oil 

 per coolie per day, of a value (at £80 per ton) of 20 pence, it 

 would perhaps be possible to pay a daily wage of 1/- sterling, leav- 

 ing 8 pence for cost of extraction, oil containers, freight and profit. 

 But the number of hands employed would be such as to render the 

 operation impossible for an estate with a large production of fruit. 



However, these figures may stand for the time being. Mean- 

 while the question naturally presents itself: what about machinery? 



The writer is unacquainted with the various depericarping, 

 •depulping, grinding, and nut-cracking machines, which have for 

 some time made their appearance on the market. Some of them, 

 we are told, are made more to sell, tlian for anything else ; others, 

 having been working for some years, have proved their efficiency. 

 But the writer has not seen any of them and his opinion would, 

 at best, be only that of a layman : he must therefore borrow light 

 from other, better informed sources. 



Two such sources of information are now before him: 



The Agricultural Bulletin F. M. S. for September and October, 

 1918, and the " Etude sur I'Exploitation industrielle du Palmier 

 a huile," by Mr. Houard Director of Agriculture, Dahomey. The 

 report is dated 1919. 



On page 509 of the " Bulletin " reference is made to a German 

 process installed in the Cameroons before the War. A summary 

 description (to which the reader is referred for want of space) is 

 given of the machinery and its mode of action. 



Now if we dissect the process into its several changes from 

 start to finish we shall find that the crop has to go through the 

 following manipulations : 



