270 



able in the countrv. It is highl>' prol)ablp that the manacrer in 

 charge will choose for trees to operate upon, those which bear the 

 heaviest crop of well-ripened bunches and will, besides, put in 

 charge of the work, his most proficient labourers. The manager of 

 a crack rul)l)er estate, placed in similar circumstances, would, in all 

 probability, select a first-rate tapper to tap a few chosen trees among 

 his best " niilkers " leaving aside those that have run dry through 

 Brown Bast or other disease. Tlius, in all good faith, startling 

 results could be shown, but they would not be, in any way, repre- 

 sentative of the normal yield of all the trees on the Estate. 



Be this as it may, the process described a])ove deserves to fix 

 our attention for other reasons. Crude as it is, there is found in 

 it a train of thought which inclines one to tbink that it was not 

 bom in the brain of the natives of West Africa without suggestion 

 from the white man. 



The most convenient way of separating the pulp from the 

 stoaies, that which ofi'ers the line of least resistance to the native, is 

 the fermentation process, which, if carried on long enough, causes 

 thorough disintegration but causes also a considerable increase in 

 the degree of acidity, which in oils so obtained, often amounts to 

 25 and even 30%, whereas the oils obtained by the above method 

 are said to contain no more than 10 to 12 7o of free fatty acids. 

 By carrying the process right through without interruption from 

 the gathering of the bunch to the expression of the oil — by sub- 

 mitting the fruit at once to a steaming process in a small quantity 

 of water, these natives suppress, or greatly check the formation of 

 ferments — in fact their process is akin to a veritable sterilisation. 



The same aim is furthered by using hot stones instead of water 

 to increase the fluidity of the oil in the pulp, besides which the 

 after operation of expelling, by evaporation, a great mass of water 

 is dispensed with. ■. 



We can therefore trace, in the process, a set purpose of check- 

 ing fermentation, whicli was probably initiated by Europeans in 

 the beginning. 



But, although the extracting process may be considered as 

 satisfactory, so far as it goes, from the point of view of the degree 

 of acidity, there is yet ample room for imi])rovement in the man 

 handling of -the crop, by, as previously suggested, ''a judicious 

 blending of native methods with mechanicaf devices." 



It mav not be possible to attain the rapidity of action of the 

 Trevor svstem, which, it is claimed by the inventor, can extract the 

 oil within thirty minutes of the arrival of the fruit at the factory, 

 but yet mucli time miglit be saved on the se(|U('l of operations pre- 

 viously described. 



For instance, it took 8 people one half-hour, i.e. 4 hours to 

 pound the I'ruii in mortars, an operation wliich a hand-contrivance 



