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 tts 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 (Citrullus vulgaris) of the Yorubas, could be 
