262 
COLONIAL OFFICE to ROYAL GARDENS, Kew. 
SIR, Downing Street, June 8, 1877. 
I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to 
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 22nd of March, in pie 
to the eultivation of the Afriean Oil Palm, and to transmit to you 
copy of a despatch from the Governor of the Gold Coast on the akii, 
am, 
(Signed) Aie G. W. HERBERT. 
J. D. Hooker, Esq., M.D. 
Governor FREELING to the EARL OF CARNARVON. 
Government House, Christiansborg Castle, 
My er , Accra coms a ril = dim 
connected with the Palm Oil industry on the West Coast of Africa, 
from a report thereon which I have received, in which the subject is 
divid ed. ante two heads, Cultivation and Produce, I beg to quote as 
follow: 
—The ripe nut is selected for this purpose; the ground 
is first well il EH, and the nuts scattered broadeast over it, and lightly 
Sverd with earth, or a num g from] six to ten, 
is deposited in one spot at various Uh | and covered wi h 
e planting must be during the rain ; 4s it requires a good 
Senso: 
quantity of water. When the young shoots hav grown to about a foot 
in height they are carefully removed in the evening, and transplanted a 
cions E at least 15 feet from one another, and if planted during 
it is better to allow iini to remain until the next before 
shay are wanipa 
The African Oil Palm grows luxuriantly and bears more abundantly 
at the height of from 10 to 12 feet in a da amp semi-marshy soil and 
y soi 
good number of nut branches, large in size, with nuts well Fopplied 
with flesh or what is technically called * fat. nuts," the trees must b 
at a distance of at least 20 feet from one another, and well kuppliod 
with water. 
The supply of nuts fit for use is biennial, but the most abundant 
supply of commercial oil is od from nuts gathered during the 
rainy season 
Commercial Palm Oil manufacture. — The nut bunches are cut 
down from the trees and put in a heap outside in dis air, where they 
are allowed to remain for a week or 10 days, which causes the joints of 
the nuts to be weakened by the process of decom omposition, and. allows 
them to be detached by simply beating them against any substance 
