274 



"• The success of the mills erected in Senegal for the decortic- 

 *'■ ation of ara chides (ground nut) demonstrates how erroneous that 

 opinion is," 



Seeing, that, of all oil-seeds, ground nut is about the easiest to 

 cultivate, to transport and to decorticate — all thinga which the 

 Elae'is is not — this argument fails to convince. 



The present paper was ready for the press when the writer 

 received the " Bidletin des Matiercs Gra,^ses 1919, No. 6 " with Mr. 

 van Pelt's report of his mission of investigation in West Africa, 

 which deals most fully with the question of the industrial exploit- 

 ation of the Palm-forest as it stands. He sees no possible future 

 in it and the reasons he gives are so cogent that they are unanswer- 

 able. 



According to Mr. van Pelt, a careful valuation will show that, 

 taking a Ijlock of palm-forest, not more than 25 trees to the hectare 

 are immediately exploitable: that their output may be computed at 

 5 bunches weighing 10 kilos each, and yielding altogether 25 kilos 

 of fruit per 3'ear i.e. for 25 trees, 625 kilos. 



Here then, we have from the pen of a highly competent and 

 unprejudiced observer an estimate of the capabilities of a palm- 

 stand in its natural state given as 550 pounds of fruit to the acre 

 per year, wliich, treated at the oil-mill, will give at the rate of (16 

 to 20%) say 18% — 100 pounds of oil of a value (€80 per ton in 

 London) of 71 shillings! 



If we carry these figures to their logical end, we reach terms 

 of pure impossibilities. For instance, to obtain 2700 tons of fruit, 

 we shall require not 1200 acres which we found in our previous 

 paper (April Bulletin) were necessary to keep a mill supplied with 

 fruit for 300 working days at 9 tons per day; we shall require 

 11,000 acres, each acre containing 10 trees with 5 bunches that is 

 to siay 110,000 trees and 550.000 bunches. If, as Mr. van Pelt does, 

 we estimate the capacity of a climber at 20 bunches a day i.e. 6,000 

 bunches a year, we shall require 100 climbers to do nothing else 

 but chopping off the bunches apart from the collecting and trans- 

 porting to the mill, which in itself, will require a very large number 

 of hands. 



As will be seen from the above digression Mr. van Pelt's cogent 

 remarks completely confirm the present writer's views of the im- 

 possibility of an economic exploitation of the natural stands of oil- 

 palms. If Elae'is is destined to find a home in Malaya, as a cul- 

 tivated product, it will have nothing to fear from its wild congener 

 of West Africa — it will rather be the other way round, as the past 

 history of Ivubber shows. 



Before finally closing these notes, the \\'Titer would call the 

 attention of his readers to an interesting group of photographs of 

 Elaeis grown in Sumatra, given by the Bulletin de I'Association 

 des Planteur de Caoutchouc of Februay 1920. One tree, 4 years 

 old showing a number of large bunches, hanging about 3 feet above 

 ground, ofTers an object-lesson to the future planter of Elaeis: the 



