470 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



Palms. In fact, with the increasing amount of general work going 

 on, combined with the comparatively high price obtained for palm 

 oil and kernels, there is less necessity for the native to gather all 

 the palm fruit that has grown. It has been noticed that the cultivated 

 Oil Palm, or Oil Palms growing in an open place, only reach about 

 one-quarter the height of the forest-grown Oil Palms, which attain 

 a height of over 100 feet (see illustrations 60). 



With cultivated trees it is possible in the earlier fruiting years to 

 stand on the ground and gather the fruit from the palms, and even 

 in later years only a short ladder is necessary in order to reach it. 

 It is really on this problem of the height of the palm-tree that the 

 chief collection of the fruit depends, and also the total output 

 from the Oil Palm forests. Further investigations are necessary to 

 decide as to how far it is possible to retard the height-growth of the 

 Oil Palm for as long as possible, while accelerating the radial 

 growth, or at any rate increasing the thickening of the stem. 

 Varying planting distances have been tried, such as 16 feet 3 inches 

 each way, 17 feet 9 inches in the German experiments in Togo, 

 but 23 feet each way in the Cameroons. In one case teak {Tectona 

 grandis) had been mixed with it. On the whole, in ordinarily favour- 

 able localities, a planting distance of 24 feet each way appears to be 

 the most suitable. For the first five to ten years at least agricultural 

 crops could be grown in between, until the Oil Palms had spread out 

 so as to cover the ground almost entirely. Few or no experiments 

 have yet been undertaken in selecting and planting only the biggest 

 nuts of the most prolific variety, which, according to Mr. Farquhar's 

 report, The Oil Palm and its Varieties, is the A-sog-e-jub, which 

 contains 48 per cent, of pericarp oil. 



It has at any rate been demonstrated by the natives that Oil 

 Palms which have been tended yield bigger bunches and bear larger 

 nuts, but only by actual experiments in selected areas or plantations 

 can it be proved exactly how much more produce is obtained, and 

 the extra financial yield over and above the increased cost of cultiva- 

 tion, etc. 



According to various commercial calculations, it has been estimated 

 that only £1 per ton can be paid for the ripe fruit at the oil or kernel 

 crushing mill. 



Owing to the comparative wide distance (24 feet) at which the 

 Oil Palm should be planted, for the first few years it is possible to plant 

 some catch crops. One of the cheapest ways of forming Oil Palm 

 plantations would be to take over an area fairly well covered with 

 self-sown Oil Palms up to 12 or 15 feet in height. After choosing the 

 best and marking these, the rest should be gradually thinned out by 

 tapping them for palm wine, which could be sold. A crop of water- 

 melon, or Egusi bara {Citrvlhis vulgaris) of the Yorubas, could be 



