740 



■ Another estimate for full grown trees is a yield of from about 

 12 bunches of nuts annually, each bunch weighing from 20-56 lb. 

 An average sized bunch contains at least 200 nuts weighing from 

 7-21 lb.; the annual yield in oil of a tree is at least 7 J lb. and 

 the jdeld of kernel oil is about one c^uart per tree per annum 

 (Thompson, Kew Bull. 1909, p. 167). An average bunch of 

 palm fruits weighs 31 lb. and of palm-oil 50 average cobs of fruit 

 yield about 10 imperial gallons (McLeod) — one imperial gallon 

 of cold palm oil weighs 8-2 lb. (Farquhar Oil-Palm, p. 23). 



On rich newly cleared forest soil the palm is said to bear its 

 first bunches of nuts when from 7-8 years old. The first bunches 

 are small until at the age of from about 8-10 years they are at 

 their maximum size and are developed at the rate of from 2-12 

 per tree per annum for practically the whole of the natural Hfe 

 of the palm (I.e.), Pollination by hand may be advantageous. 



"As to the number of seasons during which the Oil Palm 

 maintains a maximum yield reports differ. In some accounts 

 the maximum yield is said to be given when a palm is 10 years 

 old, and in others the age is said to be 12 or 15 years. Again, 

 the 10th-20th years are said to be the most prolific period, but 

 more commonly the 15th-30t]i year is given, though it is also 

 stated that the palms will yield a full crop up to their 150th 

 year." (Kew Bulletin, 1909, p. 183.) 



The tree is very slow growing, and from measurementg 



(< 



m 



of six to nine inches in three years, twelve to eighteen inches in 

 four or five years, eight feet in ten years, and thirteen to four- 

 teen feet in fifteen years, and it is estimated that it attains its 

 full height of sixty feet in about one hundred and twenty 

 years." (Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, vii. 1909, p. 360.) 



The oil shipped from Lagos is, of all that is shipped from 

 S. Nigeria, the softest, that is to say, it contains the smallest 

 quantity of stearine. Adjoining Lagos, oil from Benin is charac- 

 teristic as being semi-soft, while that from the Niger, Brass and 

 part of New Calabar contains the largest proportion of stearine 

 of any that comes. From Bonny, Opobo and Qua Eboe we get 

 a soft variety again, and from Old Calabar both kinds seem to 

 come. Owing to the extremely high prices of glycerine recently, 

 Soft oil has been very much more readily saleable than Hard 

 oil, as the percentage of glycerine contained in the Soft oil is 

 ""^f^^ "^''^'^ higher. It has always been a question as to whether 

 this difference in the quahty of the oil was due to a different 

 variety of palm and a variation in the soil, or the various modes 

 of preparation (Letter, Chairman of the Company of African 

 Merchants Ltd. Liverpool, 25 Feb. 1910, to Director) 



.TT ^^*^^^^/"g ^^^ oil by means of solvents it has been found by 

 VV R. Ralston, Govt. Chemist, that 32-86 per cent, of Palm 

 oil may be obtained from the pericarp or 10-57 per cent of 

 the whole fruit, and that 43-96 per cent, of kernel oH may be 

 obtained from the kernels or 8-55 per cent, of the whole fmit 

 (Farquhar, Oil-Palm, p. 23). 



