and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— October, 1911. 369 



not long been available ; but now that such ma- 

 chinery has been successfully designed and con- 

 structed, capable of extracting up to 99 per cent 

 of the available oil, as against 30-40 per cent, by 

 the native methods, it is obvious that develop- 

 ments may be expected in the very near future. 

 The imports of palm oil and palm kernels into 

 Europe are steadily rising, and the prices are 

 very well maintained, showing, if anything, a 

 tendency to rise. Palm oil is one of the chief 

 constituents used in the manufacture of soap, and 

 as showing the importance which the large tircis 

 attach to it, Messrs. Lever Brothers have ac- 

 quired a lease of oil-palm land of very con- 

 siderable extent in West Africa, where the 

 industry will be developed to meet their own 

 individual requirements. In addition to its 

 employment tor soap making, an enormous 

 amount of palm oil is supplied to all the railway 

 companies of the world, who use it almost 

 exclusively for the axle-boxes of carriages. 



As indicating the continued progress which is 

 being made in the production of palm oil, it may 

 be mentioned that in 1900 about 50,000 tons were 

 exported from Lagos, while in 1909 this had 

 risen to nearly 100,000 tone. The normal selling 

 price of palm od may be taken as £30 per ton, 

 which figure is, however, frequently exceeded, 

 and the point immediately to be considered is 

 the price at which the oil can be delivered to 

 England and other European countries by ex- 

 tracting it on the spot with modern machinery. 

 It is a question if the palm oil alone should be 

 extracted and the kernels sent home in bulk, or 

 whether the kernel oil should also be obtained. 

 Probably, since the machinery is available, it is 

 a better proposition to extract both the palm 

 and the kernel oil on the spot, and also manu- 

 facture the meal from the refuse, and export all 

 to Europe, the meal being quite a valuable pro- 

 duct and worth about £4 per ton. Reckoning on 

 the latter course of procedure being adopted, it 

 is estimated that the oil can be delivered to the 

 buyer in Europe at a cost of £13 to £15 per 

 ton, including absolutely all charges, leaving 

 a net profit of something in the neighbourhood 

 of £15 per ton, this estimate being on the 

 basis of a moderate output per annum, say, 

 2,000 tons. 



It is not difficult to understand that this 

 estimate of cost of production and delivery in 

 Europe is a very conservative one, when it is re- 

 membered that an enormous and most profitable 

 trade is now carried on in palm oil and kernels, 

 in spite of the fact that the methods employed 

 are very slow and relatively expensive. The 

 cost of collecting the fruit from the trees is ex- 

 tremely small, owing to the cheapness of labour, 

 and as the performance of the machines can be 

 guaranteed with safety, and the cost of transport 

 to Europe is a known quantity, there is in re- 

 ality very little in the nature of a speculation in 

 the matter. The only possibility of a diminution 

 in the profits below an exceptionally high figure 

 would be the opening out of too many estates, 

 with a consequent over-production and lowering 

 of the selling prices. Even this, however, is 

 doubtful, and would in any case take many years 

 by which time th« luvestors in the earlier com- 

 panies would probably have regained their 

 money many times over. 



It is generally reckoned by authorities who 

 have had long experience in the palm-oil in- 

 dustry that an aero of average palm-bearing 

 land produces sufficient fruit to give a yield of 

 about 12 cwt. of oil per annum ; so that from 

 an estate a square mile in extent nearly 400 tons 

 of palm oil could be produced. In actual estim- 

 ates it is safer to reckon on a smaller quantity 

 than this ; but the figure is sufficient to show 

 that the amount of ground necessary to be ac- 

 quired is relatively small for a reasonable out- 

 put of palm oil, and the price at which land in 

 the palm district can now be obtained is com- 

 paratively low. There is little doubt that the 

 next six months will see the establishment of 

 several palm oil producing companies, and, pro- 

 vided reasonable care has been exercised by the 

 promoters, the prospects are excellent. The 

 chief point into which the investor should in- 

 quire is the question of transport facilities from 

 the factory to the coast, and, so long as there is 

 no difficulty or heavy cost of labour involved in 

 this matter, there is very little to be feared, 

 provided the company is in the hands of sound 

 and business-like people. 



RAT DESTRUCTION IN JAVA. 



M. D. Kruyff, of the Agricultural Bureau of 

 of the Dutch Indies, Buitenzorg, Java, has 

 published an interesting article on the destruc- 

 tion of rats. All visible rat holes were first 

 stopped with earth to ascertain which were 

 inhabited, for the inhabited boles were found 

 re-opened on the following day. Half-a-spoon- 

 ful of carbon bisulphide was poured in each of 

 these holes, and after waiting a few seconds to 

 allow the liquid to evaporate the mixture of 

 vapour and air was ignited. The result was a 

 small explosion, which filled the hole with 

 poisonous gases, and killed all the rats almost 

 instantly. A pound of bisulphide is sufficient 

 for more than 200 rats holes; 131 dead rats 

 were found in 43 holes which were opened after 

 the operation, 



A FREAK PLANTAIN BUNCH. 



A plantain tree grown in the vicinity of 

 Colombo has produced a record bunch of fruit. 

 The tree itself is of the average size but the 

 bunch of fruit is quite nine feet or more in length 

 and resembles in shape the trunk of an elephant. 

 The fruit cluster so thickly that the combs are 

 hardly distinguishable, and the total number of 

 plaintains must be a thousand or more. The 

 length of the fruit at the head of the bunch is 

 about 3£ inches while the diminutive ones at the 

 bottom are barely an inch long. The bunch is 

 not mature yet and the flower is still on ; the tree 

 appears to have been cut in too great a hurry — 

 due no doubt to the impatience of the native 

 who is now exhibiting it somewhere in Maradana 

 at the rate of 5 cts. per head. The owner avers 

 the young tree was brought to Ceylon from 

 the Far East but to all appearance it is a 

 freak growth of the ordinary variety " Musa 

 Sapientum.'' 



47 



