476 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
8. AMount or Propuce Usep, Eaten, anD AMOUNT GROWING.— 
There is probably only 5 per cent., or at most 15 per cent., 
of the total possible trade done in this product from West 
Africa. 
The amount of the oil used by the natives per annum is as 
follows : 
Three gallons of oil per head per annum for food. 
Half-gallon of oil per head per annum for illuminant in 
the Eastern Circle, according to Gilman, and half-gallon used 
mixed with camwood for rubbing on the skin per head per 
annum. 
Allowing this amount for the total population of 8,000,000, we 
have a total of 32,000,000 gallons used locally per annum. This 
means the produce of at least 128,000,000 trees, taking into 
consideration the very poor or underbearing state of many of the 
trees. Some also are immature and not in full bearing when utilized. 
Even so, this represents only a part of the total possible crop, which 
might be 100,000,000 gallons and 500,000 tons of kernels. Although the 
above small percentage of the amount of trade done will eventually 
prove to be an exaggeration, partly owing to the cutting down of Oil 
Palms in making farms, there is nevertheless clear evidence that a 
great many more palm kernels especially could be obtained if there 
were an increased number of plants available for cracking the nuts 
in various parts of the country. Then, too, in those places where 
the trees stand too closely together, an increased yield would be 
obtained after they had been thinned out. Allowing for an area of 
about 7,000 square miles in the dry zone, where the Oil Palms are 
not found, and 12,000 square miles for mangrove swamps, rivers, 
roads, railways, town and village sites, also where there are no Oil 
Palms, and about 10,000 square miles of heavy evergreen and mixed 
deciduous forest areas where there are few or no Oil Palms, this leaves 
an area of about 50,000 square miles on which they are found growing. 
The density varies from over 200 per acre down to only one, or in 
isolated cases to one to ten acres. With the increased amount of the 
tapping of the Oil Palm, as well as cutting it down both to get the 
palm wine and for making farms for food as well as cocoa crops, there 
is a great danger of the total amount being reduced. Everywhere on 
the West Coast of Africa where other produce has been introduced, such 
as in the Congo and in the Gold Coast, the export of palm produce 
tends to fall very rapidly. Owing to the fact that such a large amount 
of palm oil is used for alimentary or other purposes locally, and a great 
deal is exported to the Northern Provinces, the export of palm kernels 
to Great Britain and Europe generally forms the better basis in calcu- 
lating the amount of palm produce now actually produced in the 
country. The small number of kernels used for making an oil for 
