tidibls Products- 



[March 1907. 



amount ; Heuze gives it as 26-28 per cent., and in some pods weighed at Kew, in a 

 very dry condition, it was found to be about 25 per cent. To place 27 per cent to the 

 kernel is therefore a liberal allowance. 



Average Annual Import of Ground-nuts in quintals into Marseilles in periods 

 of three years. (1 quintal =110J lbs. or approximately 1 cwt.) 



Years. 



Uudecorti- 

 cated. 



Dcoerticated. 



Total as Ker- 

 nels. 



Decorticated Ave- 

 rage price per 

 inn i • i , , , 

 100 KllOS. 











Francs. 



1877-76 



584,782 



09,532 



519,814 



43 



1880-82 



027,579 



316.930 



800,166 



35 



1883-85 



398,700 



499,612 



806,611 



33 



1880-88 



124,535 



739,408 



835,301 



28 



1889-91 



208,740 



1,084,023 



1,244,753 



28 



1892-94 



336,147 



1,010,517 



1,269,350 



26 



1895-97 



265,407 



464,473 



668,836 



26 



1898 - 



632,860 



54,660 



541,962 





It is true that the export of oil from Madras etc., has slightly increased, as the 

 next table below shows, but this is in no measure proportional to the great decrease 

 in exports of nuts. 



Export of Oil in Gallons from Madras Presidency. 











Foreign. 



Coastwise. 



Total. 



Average of 



5 



years ending 



1887-88 



6,456 



266,925 



273,381 



>> 



o 

 d 



>» >i 



1890-91 



7.126 



46,919 



54,045 





3 



51 51 



1893-94 



7,907 



14,997 



22,904 



> ? 



> > 



3 



' 1 5) 



1896-97 



1,459 



609,790 



611,249 







year 



1897-98 



3,049 



508,254 



511,303 



It seems that to meet the demand in Marseilles in 1898 large shipments were 

 made of undecorticated nuts from Africa, judged by the extensive cultivation on 

 that continent it is possible that the demand may be fully met. The possibilities of 

 the West Coast of Africa are not yet fully developed. W. W. A. Fitzgerald remarks 

 (Travels in Coastlands British East Africa, p. 213) that " the soil of the coast lands 

 is just what is required for its cultivation." 



Exact information on the subject of the trade of this side of Africa has 

 hitherto been wanting, and in view of the evidently considerable possibilities the 

 following abstracts from a report by H. M's Consul at Mozambique will be of interest. 

 "The ground nut iscollected by natives, by whom it is largely used as an article of food . 

 it is also sold by them in great quantities t ) the Indian merchants or to the holders 

 of Prazos (i.e., tenants), by whom it is either passed on to European firms on the 

 coast or exported independently. From such statistics as I have been enabled to 

 obtain from the Portuguese Custom Houses on this coast it would appear that the 

 bulk of the ground-nuts which find their way to Europe from Portuguese East Africa 

 are shipped from the northern ports of the province, that is to say, from Ibo, 

 Mozambique, Quilimane, and Chinde. It is evident from the figures I have received 

 from the three first-named places that Quilimane is by far the most important of 

 them in relation to this commodity ; but although, unfortunately, I have been 

 unable to procure any precise information from the Custom House at Chinde, I am 

 able to state from my personal knowledge of the place that the output from Chinde 

 approaches that from Quilimane, its neighbouring port» This will be th,e more 



