July, 1912.] 



25 



Edible Products, 



THE PALMYRA PALM AND THE 

 VALUE OP ITS NUTS. 



(he Rdnier et la valeur de ses noix.)—La 

 Geographie, No. 1, pp. 50-52 Paris 

 15 Janvier, 1912. 

 G. De Gironcourt, 

 (Bulletin of the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Intelligence and of Plant-Diseases, 

 3rd year— Number 4 April, 1912.) 

 Borassus flabelliformis, called the fan 

 or Palmyra palm, furnishes excellent 

 wood in the districts of the (Sudan border- 

 ing upon the Zone of Upper Senegal and 

 the Niger, which is destitute of trees 

 with large trunks. In this district, so 

 many of these trees have been cut down, 

 as to cause anxiety lest the species 

 should be exterminated. Recently, the 

 nuts of this palm have been proved to 

 be of industrial value. 



The natives only use the pericarp of 

 the fruit, the edible portion, which is 

 very small and of little worth. The 

 kernels are only eaten in the case of 

 young fruits when they are watery or 

 gelatinous. 



On ripening, they become compact, 

 hard, and impermeable to the mordants 

 employed in dyeing ; this together with 

 their light colour has given rise to the 

 idea of using them as a substitute 

 for "corosos nuts" (1) But their dirty 

 yellow tint detracts frum their value. 

 These kernels have recently been offered 

 in Hamburg for sale at 400 f rs. (about 

 £16) per ton. Calculating that from the 

 several branches of 50 kg. (110 lbs.) 

 produced annually by a tree, about 80 

 kg, (176 lbs.) are fine fruit of which the 

 third part in weight can be turned to 

 account, it will easily be seen that the 

 Palmyra palm is of great value in French 

 West Africa. 



Each of the round fruits contains from 

 one to three kernels ; those with only 

 one occur in the proportion of 5 per cent, 

 while those with two, which are much 

 the best, form from 60 to 70 cent, of the 

 whole. 



4 



The average weight of the dry kernels 

 is 125 grammes (4$ oz,) The Government 

 of the Colony has already granted two 

 concessions for the collecting of these 

 nuts, which constitute a product of the 

 greatest interest, as a new source of in- 

 come for E rench West Africa, 



THE CULTURE OF MAIZE. 



(From Tropical Life, Vol. VIII., 

 No. 4, April, 1912.) 



Maize is one of the most important 

 grain crops grown in warm climates, and 

 will grow upon almost all soils, except 

 those which are cold and wet. With 

 this advantage, and the fact that there 

 is a practically limitless market, there is 

 an inducement for farmers to increase 

 their cultivation of this crop, and at the 

 same time, by using modern methods, 

 to get better and more profitable results 

 than are now obtained. 



The many uses to which this com- 

 modity is put make it certain that there 

 will always be a good market, since it is 

 not only used as whole grain and meal 

 for the feeding of animals and poultry, 

 but is an important agent in the manu- 

 facture of cornflour, starch, the distill- 

 ation of spirits and many other purposes. 

 It also forms the staple crop of food of 

 the natives in many of the countries ia 

 which it is grown, in addition to the 

 stalks and leaves being of considerable 

 value for feeding stock in winter. 



The world's production may be taken 

 as, roughly, 4,000,000,000 bushels, but of 

 which North America supplies more than 

 75 per cent., whilst our South African 

 Colonies contribute less than 1 per cent, 

 and Australasia a quarter of 1 per cent. 



Surely there is room for expansion in 

 these Colonies, if only from the fact that 

 Great Britain alone annually imports 

 3,000,000 tons, of a value of about 

 £15,000,000 sterling. There is perhaps no 

 country in the world more suited for 

 maize-growing than South Africa where 

 vast quantities could be produced and 



