223 



Palm Kernels London 10 November £38 to £38.10 per ton. 



Therefore 250,000 bunches at 1.50 lbs. of oil = 375,000 lbs. 

 Palm-oil at £80 per ton = £13,392. 



350,000 bunches at 2.43 lbs. of oil = 607,500 lbs. Palm-oil at 

 £80 per 'ton = £21,250. 



Messrs. B. J. Eaton and F. G. Spring (Agricultural Bulletin 

 P. M. S., Sept. and October, 1918) assuming a .yield of 4,500 lbs. 

 of fruit per acre, estimate tlie yield of palm-oil at 800 lbs. per acre ; 

 this would result in a yearly crop on 1,000 acres of 800^000 lbs. 

 Avhich, at £80 per ton, would give a gross return of £28,571. The 

 discrepancies between the above figures show, if nothing else, the 

 great need for further close investigations of the subject. 



Palm Kernel Oil. 

 It may be useful to remind the reader that the above figures 

 relate to palm oil, i.e. the oil extracted from the outside oily coat 

 of the fruit. AVhen this coat, or pericarp, has been taken off, there 

 remains the nut, the Kernel of which has also a large oil content: 

 this oil goes under the name of " palm-kernel oil."' 



The fruit of Elaeis is very much like the Coconut in structure, 

 and the name " Klapa Kechi'l " given it by Javanese and Malays, 

 is, botany apart, quite apt ; for we have in both : 



1st. The pericarp which instead of being of corky material, 

 as in the Coconut, consists of a fleshy coat about ^ inch in thick- 

 ness in which are embedded, as strands of steel in reinforced con- 

 crete, straight and almost parallel fibres which converge towards 

 the apex of the fruit. Tiiis coat, or pericarp contains of oil (ex- 

 tracted by solvents) 32.86% of the weight of the pericarp (C. W. 

 E. Ealston). 



2nd. A shell of the same stone-like hardness as that found 

 in the Coconut— but harder in the Elaeis fruit; thickness, i to i 

 inch. 



3rd. A kernel of wliite "meat," filled with "water" in the 

 Coconut, but full, i.e. without cavity, in the Elaeis. This " meat " 

 has a bluish tint and is much harder than that of the Coconut. 



It contains of oil (extracted by solvents) 43.967o of the 

 weight of the kernel (C. W. Jl. Ealston). 



The writer has found the weight of 25 kernels, divested of 

 their shell, to be 2.12 ozs. 



The writer has no personal accjuaintance with this oil, nor, 

 except from drawings, of the machinery in use for its extraction, 

 but, as in the generality of cases, the extraction does not take plape 

 on the Estate "itself the kernels being exported to Europe, it will 

 be sufficient to take their market value, which in London is £38 

 per ton. 



On the al)Ove basis of 25 nuts weighing 2.12 ozs. we should 

 have from a 1,000 acre estate (250,000 bunches of 600 fruit) 357 

 tons of kernels at £38 per ton or £13,566. 



