28 COCONUTS, KERNELS, AND CACAO. 



Each tree from about 10 to 30 feet in height is 

 calculated to bear at least seven cones of fruit, and 

 in full bearing under good conditions the yield is 

 from 8 to 10 bunches.* A record bunch has weighed 

 56 Ibs. and contained 1,445 serviceable oil nuts. The 

 yield per acre would be from 536 to 670 bunches from the 

 eighth year, where palm trees are planted 25 feet apart, 

 which gives 67 trees to the acre. The yield of oil per 

 acre by European method of extraction would be from 

 one to one-and-a-half tons of oil, exclusive of kernels. 

 The quantity of kernels obtainable per tree would vary 

 from 26 to 35 Ibs. according to the variety, or from 

 15 to 21 cwts. per acre. 



The natives remove a few of the lower leaves around 

 the crown of the tree each year. This practice is supposed 

 to increase the yield from 25 to 50 per cent., and is worth 

 trial by Europeans. 



To secure the cones, the natives have become expert 

 climbers. The cones are cut with sharp knives, in order 

 to detach the fruit. This fruit consists of (a) an outer 

 covering or pericarp, which contains the palm oil of 

 commerce, and (b) the palm nut. The pericarp often 

 holds about 60 per cent, of its own weight of oil, and 

 as this part is 40 per cent, of the whole, the amount of 

 oil is about 24 per cent. The fruit, when freed from the 

 cone, is placed in the sun for a few days and fermented 



* According to Adam (Le Palmier a huile, pp. 118-121), an average 

 yield of about 10 fruit heads, each weighing 13-2 Ibs., and equivalent to 

 85 Ibs. of fruit per tree per annum, may be counted on in districts favour- 

 able to the oil palm, such as Lower Dahomey. Farquhar (The Oil Palm 

 and its Varieties, p. 20) says that an average of five bunches is obtainable 

 in favourable districts in Nigeria, each bunch weighing 31 Ibs., but that 

 the bunches are smaller in the dry zone and in dense forest. There is no 

 doubt that the yields of fruit vary considerably in different localities. 



