124 OIL-SEEDS AND OILS 



Uses of the Oil Palm. In its native country almost every 

 part of the tree serves some useful purpose ; the great leaves, 

 for instance, are used for thatch, and brooms are made of the 

 midrib of the leaflets. 



To the native mind, however, its most valuable product, 

 after oil, is the wine which it yields. There are various 

 methods of collecting this ; one is to make a round hole in 

 the flowering stalk, and insert a narrow-necked bottle into 

 it to catch the juice as it flows out. Unfortunately this collect- 

 ing of wine is bad for the trees, and where the practice is in 

 vogue they sooner or later dwindle and die. 



Palm oil, i.e. the oil made from the pulp of the fruit, is 

 reddish yellow in colour, and is used chiefly in the manufacture 

 of soap and candles ; as a lubricant for the axles of railway 

 engines, and in the tinplate industry. 



Palm-kernel oil, i.e. the oil expressed from the kernels 

 of the nuts, is white in colour, and is increasingly used for 

 making margarine l and various other edible butters and 

 fats. The ' cake ', which is left over after the oil is extracted, 

 is very rich in fat, and is a valuable food for animals. 



CLIMATE AND SOIL. The oil palm, unlike the coco-nut, does 

 not like the sandy shore of the sea ; it likes a rich moist soil, 

 and in West Africa the great oil forests do not begin till two 

 or three miles inland. 



With regard to climate, it will not grow vigorously with 

 less than seventy inches of rain in the year, and an average 

 of between 70 and 80 of heat. 



In West Africa, from Sierra Leone to French Congo, not only 

 is it hot and rainy, but there is very little difference between 

 summer and winter, and the rainfall occurs all the year round, 

 though it is heaviest in spring and autumn . 



' Dayes and Nights are of one length or else there is little 



1 Margarine (from the Latin margarita, a pearl) was a name originally 

 given to ' a peculiar pearl-like substance extracted from some vegetable 

 oils and also from the fat of some animals '. The familiar compound of the 

 present day consists of a mixture of fats (animal or vegetable), oils (such 

 as palm kernel or coco-nut), water, milk, and salt. 



