OIL PALM AND PALM KERNEL INDUSTRY 475 
oil out of it. The oil is now thoroughly boiled, and when quite thin 
and of a reddish-orange colour is poured off carefully into clean pots. 
A fine residue of fibre and particles of dirt remain in the pot in which 
the oil was boiled; this is used for native lamps by dipping a twisted 
fibre into it. 
The clean soft oil is now ready for sale, and is carried in old kerosene 
tins or other receptacles to the nearest market. Despite the very 
large loss which occurs, owing to the breaking of calabashes on the 
road to market, still very large amounts are carried in vegetable cala- 
bashes or earthenware pots. By the time this oil reaches Europe it 
is partially hardened in the cask, though usually there is a certain 
amount of liquid on the top. 
Sale of Produce.—The palm oil is sold by the kerosene tin (one gallon), 
by the keg, or by the puncheon. It is also sold by the bottle in the 
markets for local use. 
The palm kernels are sold by the calabash in the districts further 
away from the markets, but more usually by the coulah (Jekri). They 
are also sometimes sold by the bag, weighing either 25 lb. or nearly 
50 Ib. in weight. The natives find old salt bags of different sizes 
very convenient for this purpose, more especially when the kernels 
are to be conveyed some distance to the nearest factory. 
7b. At the beginning of 1915 hard oil was worth £32 per ton, and 
soft oil £36 10s. per ton, whereas at the beginning of 1918 soft oil was 
being sold at £36 5s. to £47 10s. per ton, whilst the official maximum 
price for unbleached palm oil is £44 per ton, and £50 per ton 
bleached. 
7a and 11. Utinrry or THE Om Patm.—From the Oil Palm are 
obtained the following products : Palm oil, palm kernels, palm wine and 
yeast from the fermented palm wine. The shells of the nuts are used 
by blacksmiths, as they give out great heat. The growing head of the 
palm is used as a vegetable—palm cabbage. The stems of the leaves 
are useful as rafters or house posts in the Yoruba country, the leaves 
for making mats for roofing, and the midribs as brooms. 
To obtain the wine, the tree is either tapped below the male 
inflorescence in Ibadan, Yoruba, etc., or when the tree is felled and 
the crown cut off. A calabash is placed so as to catch the outflowing 
sap, which is the palm wine. 
The natives frizzle the kernels in an iron pot and obtain an oil 
which is used as an emollient for wounds and rubbing on bruises or 
sprains. It has a burnt smell. Only small quantities of kernels are 
used for this purpose in Nigeria. 
Tapping is sometimes effected at the base of both inflorescences, 
but this is a more unusual method. 
So far no use has been found for the wood, though it is uncommonly 
tough and very fibrous. 
