741 



The method of extraction from the pericarp commonly 

 practised in the Western Province, S. Nigeria and reported 



fruits 



matter 



to produce 



the branch with the aid of a cutlass and boiled with water in 

 an iron pot until the pericarp becomes soft; they are then turned 

 into a wooden mortar and beaten with wooden pestles to separate 

 the pericarp from the nuts. The mixture of nuts and fibre 

 which results is put into a circular pit, which has its surface 

 lined with hardened clay ; here it is trodden on until any fibrous 



adhering to the nuts is removed. The nuts are picked 

 out and the fibrous mass remaining is hand squeezed, the fibre 

 being discarded. The oily matter which rises to the surface is 

 boiled to evaporate any water present after which the oil is 

 ready for market. The amount of oil extracted by this method 

 varies from 5- 5-7 per cent, of the total weight of the fruits. 



Experimental extractions from thin-shelled fruits gave 7-5" 

 12-5 per cent, of oil from the pericarp — about 600 thick-shelled 

 kernels or 1400 thin-shelled kernels go to the pound (Johnson^ 

 Ann. Rep. Agric. Dept. S. Prov. Nigeria, 1917, p. 8; see also 

 Kew Bull. 1892, pp. 204-208— preparation of Lagos Palm-oil; 

 1909, p. 171- — preparation of pericarp oil on the Gold Coast, 

 Parquhar, '' Oil-Palm "— " Preparation of Oil," pp. 23-27 ; 

 "Bull. Imp. Inst. xvii. 1919, pp. 262-264— " Trevor Process" 

 of extraction, Poisson's Machinery and Native Methods on the 

 Ivory Coast). 



The oil exported from Nigeria amounts to approximately 



\\ million cwt. (1915) and of palm-kernels over 3 million cwt. 



(1915); the figures were approximately the same in 



1,737,941 cwt.; kernels— 3,459,940 cwt.) 1911 (oil— 1,586,123 



cwt.; kernels— 3,537,600 c\Ai;s.) and in 1914 (oil— 1,450,622 cwt.; 

 kernels 



—3,249,020 cwt.) [Lagos Customs & Trade Joum. Jan. 

 17th, 1912: Nig. Gaz. June 13th, 1916]: but it is interesting 

 to note that kernel-oil and cake were exported in 1914 from Lagos 

 and Opobo— 35,646 cwt. kernel-oil and 27,640 cwt. of kernel-cake 

 and in 1915 from Lagos — 265 cwt. of kernel-oil (Nig. Gaz. 

 Jan. 13th, 1916). Before the war the trade in kernels was largely 



crushers 



(K 



claimed 



than half the world's commercial supply of the produce of Oil- 

 Palms and in addition to her own colonies — Togoland, Cameroons, 

 etc. took palm-oil and kernels to the value of 100 million marks 

 annually from British Nigeria (Kew Bull. 1918, p. 198); but 

 representations (1915) by the West African Section of the 

 Chamber of Commerce — hastened more or less by war conditions- 

 have effectually diverted more of the trade to Great Britain. 

 This result has been materially assisted by the Ministry of 

 Agriculture, under their advice and pubhcation of literature 

 as to the value of the cake for feeding purposes (hitherto nearly 

 all used up on the Continent), by the Imperial Listitute and by the 

 Committee specially appointed to consider the question as part 



