174 
“ The weight of kernels obtained was 33 ewts. 15 lbs.; while it 
cost 6s, to break by hand and pick sufficient nuts to weigh 56 lbs., 
as shown below :— 
Men Ti | Cost. | Quantity of 
aus employed. me: | of labour. | kernels obtained. 
| 
£8. Hi Ibs. 
Passing 2,050 Ibs. nuts 3 | day | 01 6 
through machine | 379 
Picking out kernels 22 1 day 1 2 0 
racking nuts by hand 
and picking out kernels. 6 | I day ae oe 56 
“ It will thus be seen that with the assistance of the machine a 
hundredweight of kernels may be prepared for 7s, approximately, 
but when cracked by hand they cost 12s., i.e., the cost of labour is 
reduced 41 per cent.” 
he ordinary method in use in the Gold Coast for extracting 
the kernels is, after the nuts are dried, to break them separately 
with a stone, and to pick out the kernels, The nut-cracking machine 
is occasionally met with in the Colony, but it has not been taken 
In Southern Nigeria kernel oil is extracted by roasting the 
kernels, and collecting the oil as it oozes out, or by first heating 
them to a moderate extent only, and then cracking them and placing 
the broken kernels into water which is boiled, when the oil that 
floats to the surface is skimmed off and collected (Thompson). 
In the Gambia a somewhat different process is resorted to :— 
“The oil from the kernel (‘Tenkulo tuiu’ in Mandingo) is 
whitish. 
“Ist. The nuts are cracked and kernels extracted. 
“2nd. The kernels are then dried in the sun 
“3rd. The kernels are next beaten into flour in a mortar ; and 
“4th. The flour thus obtained is mixed up in cold water, and 
stirred about with a stick until eventually the oil rises to 
the surface, and is taken off. 
“The white oil is generally sold in bottles, for which 9d. and 1s. 
per pint bottle is charged. The traders up country pay 1s. for 16 lbs. 
of the kernels. 
“ This year there are a great many Karoni Jolahs, in Kombo, 
boiling oil and also selling kernels, 
“There is a large sale for the oil both amongst the natives up 
country and the Rogie of Bathurst, and for this reason the export 
is not very large ” ( angster), 
The following account of the Oil Palm in the Gambia is taken 
from the third report on the Agricultural and Forest products of 
the Gambia, y Mr. ea EF Dudgeon, Inspector of Agriculture for 
British West Africa, published in the Gambia Government Gazette, 
March Sth, 1909, pp. 124, 125 :— 
“This Palm occurs throughout ihe lower river districts and is 
utilised by the Mandingos and Jolahs for the extraction of the red 
fruit or pericarp oil. As the process of extraction in the Gambia 
