3« 



Cultivation. 



The Oil palm is raised from seed, which can be sown in beds, 

 and later planted out, when thev are abo.it a foot tall. Thev should 

 be planted not less than twenty feet apart. The soil it prefers is 

 damp semimarshy soil (S. FREELING in Kew Bulletin 1889, p. 262), 

 where water however, does not stand. In arid dry soil it becomes 

 stumpy and grows very slowly sometimes bearing at four feet, 

 instead of developing to 10 or 12 feet in height. This account 0, 

 the plant as it grows in Lagos is quite confirmed by its habits heref 

 In stiff clay it makes hardly any growth. Plants grown in the 

 1 have in 18 years or more not made a stem 



than two feet tall 



lower and damper spot are magnificent trees of 20 feet tall. The 

 biggest or rather tallest one in the gardens, forty feet tall, is grow- 

 ing in damp ground with the sago palms. It may be about thirty 

 years of age One planted by the edge of the lake where it has 

 much water but not stagnant water at its roots, has only attained 

 since 1897, a height of 2 feet, but it fruits heavily. 



There is some advantage in having the tree not too tall, as it is 

 easier to gather the nuts and to protect them too from squirrels 

 which are very partial to them. 



The palm does not seem to possess many enemies. A species 

 ot Knynchophorus attacks it in Africa but according to Dr. PREUSS, 

 does not do much harm. I have never known the common coconut 

 Rhynchophorus nor the larger species attack it. 



The tree begins to fruit about 5th and 6th year, and is said to 

 last in bearing for 60 years or more, and produces three or four 

 ™u„:„ ra y e ,° r as man y as seven bunches of fruit in the year. 



1 different parts 



:ilogramm 



Pechuel Loesche 



'94 kg. oil and 3-84 kg. kernels 



be got. ,ts y?rly „ utput ruSoVfcJ 



x 5'36 kg. kernels. 5 



the W Kew U R R H S , ay \ a P ' anter Can reck0n ° n 5o kg. fruit a year. In 

 the nrod ^ f ^o 1S Stated that 3,2 76,000 gallons of palm-oil are 

 ^ P ^S)vV ,638,0O0 u tlBCS VV ' hkh S ives 2 gallons of oil to each 

 t takes ,ntn, ^ ? Ch tree § ives ^ P ou » ds weight of fruit, and 

 it takes 30 to 35 pounds of fruit to make a gallon of oil. 



has bLnTn,^^ 011 ^ here certainl y fruits well, but no record 

 on a P X ^ W61 § ht of fruit Produced. Dr. PrEUSS when 



still more J ex P ressed surprise at its fertility and was 

 so leTruit S e U d rP for e it. * WaS CUltivated ^ ™ * ^ 



T , Preparation, 

 of fruit Thich meth t°^ ° f obtainin g the oil is to throw the sprays 



Placed in l^L d av J 1 "' is '°° se -d. Th - *ff £ 



arge clay vats filled with water and trampled on till the 



