226 



1° Cutting the bunches open to get at the fruit. 

 2° Eemoving the fruit from the divided bunch. 

 3° Transporting the fruit to the boiler. 

 4° Boiling the fruit for 1 hour. 



5° Transfer of heated material, (by mechanical means presum- 

 ably) to a number of mortars worked mechanically. 

 6° The stamping of fruit in the mortars. 

 7° The stamped-mass is steam-heated. 



8° The nuts (for the sorting of which from the pericarp pulp 

 some device must exist), are separated from the pericarps. 

 9° Tlie transfer of the mass of pericarps to the hydraulic presses. 

 10° The extraction and reception of the oil from the presses. 

 11° The conveying of the oil to the sand filters. 

 12° Tlie ]nimping into puncheons. 



13° The disposal of the fibrous residue from the presses. 

 14:° The separated nuts are transported to a barl)ecue or a drying- 

 shed to dry. 

 15° The dried nuts are conveyed to tlie nut-cracking machines. 

 16° The nuts are cracked in a centrifugal cracker. 

 1?° Kernels and broken shells fall in a tank below, filled with 

 brine, in which the shells sink, and the floating kernels are 

 collected. 

 18° The kernels, taken up from the brine, are put to dry. 

 19° The nuts are put in bags. 



The total pre-war cost of such machinery is given as £3,500. 

 The quantities treated 10 tons of fruit per day of 10 hours. The 

 yield 167c of palm-oil 10% of kernels. 



Accepting these data as exact, it would require to keep the 

 mill at work for 300 working days of 9 hours to treat 2,700 tons 

 of fruit. We base our calculations on a 9 hours day instead of 

 10 hours, as more in conformity with estates in Malaj'a. 



If we reckon on a production of 5 bunches per tree per year, 

 each bunch with 20 lbs. of fruit, and adopt the very generally 

 accepted figure of 1^ lb. of palm-oil per bunch -nith 4 lbs. of kernels 

 divested of shell, we shall come to a final result of : — 



1 tree = 5 bunches = 100 lbs. of fruit = 7^ lbs. of palm-oil + 20 



lbs. of kernels, and for one acre of 50 trees an annual return of 



250 bunches = 5,000 lbs. of fruit = 375 lbs. of palm-oil + 1,000 



lbs. of kernels. To produce 2,700 tons of fruit it will therefore 



require 1,200 acres of palms in bearing. 



The whole production of 1,200 acres will be: 2,700 tons of 

 fruit = (153,750 lbs.) 202 tons of oil + 536 tons of kernels. 

 202 tons of oil at £80 = £16,160 

 536 tons of kernels at £38 = £20,368 total £36,528. 

 It is perhaps a little bold, with such fragmentary information 

 as we possess, to attempt to build an estimate of the total cost of 

 an installation of this kind and of the expenditure incurred in 

 running it. For that, it is necessary to visualise it as a whole, 

 Avith its accessory and component parts and surroundings : but Mr. 

 Houard's report (pages 198-199)) will supply us with several use- 



