676 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April 2, 1888. 
now pinch the writer, as he in November 1885 
asks of your readers the information I require; 
but I do not find he succeeded in gaining it, and 
it is not a matter for surprize that he did not, 
as hitherto African negroes are the collectors if 
not cultivators of the fruit, and the trade in the 
hands of native brokers there, who are the sole 
exporters of this produce. Will you kindly ask 
" Udagama" now to give your readers the benefit of 
his experience in palm oil cultivation since 1885, 
and in the words of Van Thaer on oover of 
T. A. " acquire thereby a right to the gratitude 
of his fellows and of those who come after,"— 
Yours truly. J . W. 
[On what points does " J. W." want information? 
It is very probable that Ceylon planters are the 
very first to cultivate Elms qaineensis, the African 
oil-palm, and therefore they have to make the 
history of cultivation for themselves. The negroes 
of Africa can scarcely give them information as 
to nurseries and culture. As to the fruit we fancy 
they must be largely exported uncrushed from 
Afrioa to Britain, and the trade has developed 
enormously of late years. But, as will be seen 
from our extraots, a good deal of the oil is ex- 
tracted by the natives after a very primitive fashion. 
There is often confusion between African " palm 
oil" and "palm nut oil," but we believe the only differ- 
ence is that the former is got by pressing the soft 
yellow outside fruit— the husk almost— and that 
for the latter the kernel is broken and crushed, 
giving a white oil. The former, the yellow oil, 
is the great rival of coconut oil. We quote from 
Simmonds a few passages of interest: — 
" The Afbican Oil Palm (Elects guineensis, Lin.) is, 
after the coconut palm, one of the most important iu 
a commercial point of view, since it furnishes 
to British commerce about 50,000 tons of oil 
annually, of the value of one and a half to one 
and three-quarters of a million sterling, besides the 
quantity locally consumed as food in Africa, and sent 
to other countries. It is distinguished by its decumbent 
trunk, and bears clusters of one-seeded fruits (drupes), 
with oily husks of a bright vermilion or a more or 
less yellow colour. The range of this palm is not 
as yet well defined, but appears to extend from the 
ccast of Guinea to the south of Fernando Po, and grows 
as far up in the interior as Zheru, a distance of 400 
miles from the sea, or the mouth of the Min, one of 
the embouchures of the Niger. 
*' The process of extracting the oil is simple. The 
clusters or branches of fruit, which contain perhaps as 
many as 4,000, are gathered by the men, and thrown 
indiscriminately into a trench or pit, and so left until 
they beewne somewhat decayed. The fruit is after- 
wards p*unded in a mortar to loosen the husky fibre 
covering the nut. This done, they are placed in large 
clay vats filled with water, and two or three women 
tread out the semi-liquid oil, which comes to the sur- 
face as disengaged from the fibre, when it is collected 
and boiled to get rid of the water. The inner surface 
of these clay vats having at first absorbed a small 
quantity of oil, is not afterwards affected either by 
the water or oil. The oil is collected in pots, con- 
taining from three to twenty gallons. M. Boussingalt 
has shown, from information collected that the aver- 
age production of oil from palms is at the rate of 
900 kilos, per hectare, that is to say, superior by a 
third t« the production of oil from the olive in the 
south of Europe. 
"Palm-Kernel Oil. — The kernels, with the exception 
of an insignificant quantity used for the manufacture 
of oil for domestic purposes in Africa, were formerly 
thrown away. Attention was fir6t drawn to their 
utilization in Liberia. "Within the last fifteen years 
they have been more generally collected and em- 
ployed. The shell being broken, the kernels are ship- 
ped to be pressed for oil, &c. Vast extension of the 
African trade bag arisen out of this new article of 
export. 
"It has been estimated by competent authorities that 
from the 50,000 tons of palm oil shipped there must be 
10,000,000 bushels of kernels, equal to 223,000 tons in 
weight. The average yield from these kernels being 
about 30 per cent, if all were utilized this would furnish 
76,000 tons more of oil, worth at the price of coconut 
oil (which it closely resembles) about 2,700,000/. If wo 
add to this the value of the oilcake, 112,000 tons at 6/ 
per ton, we should have a very large increase to the value 
of the oil-palm trade with Western Africa. Palm-nut 
oil is obtained on the coast from the seed or kernel, by 
roasting, beating, and boiling. In Liberia, on a small 
scale, a bushel of kernels was found to yield two gal- 
lons of oil, but with good presses a very much larger 
yield than this is obtained. The palm kernels are 
quoted in London, January 1877, at 122 10* to IU per 
ton. The kernel, which is nearly white, is covered by 
a thin brownish layer of woody fibre, and in conse- 
quence of this the palm-nut meal has a light-brown 
or dirt-coloured appearance. The size of the kernels 
varies from that of a hazel nut to that of a small pigeon's 
egg. They are very hard, nearly inodorous, rather in- 
sipid to the taste, and extremely rich in fatty matter, 
possessing the consistency of butter, with the useful 
property of not readily turning rancid. The extraction 
of the oil necessitates the reduction of the kernels into 
a tolerably fine powder, and the application of powerful 
orushing machinery and gentle heat. Notwithstanding 
these means, the cake or meal left in presses contains 
usually a larger proportion of fat than is found in most 
other kinds of oilcake." 
If Udagama superintendents or any other cultivators 
of the African oil palm in Ceylon can add to our 
stock of knowledge we shall be much obliged. — 
Ed.] 
FUEL FOB TEA ESTATES : THE AUSTRALIAN 
ACACIAS. 
Albion, Nuwara Eliya, 25th Feb. 1888. 
Dear Siks, — As the fuel question is at last at- 
tracting attention, I send you a few particulars, which 
may perhaps be useful, at this juncture, to anxious 
proprietors, who see their stock of available timber 
and fuel growing smaller by degrees and beautifully 
less. A few days ago a correspondent sent you 
some interesting particulars about blue-gums for 
fuel in tea manufacture, and although I cannot go 
the same length, being as yet only a tea-grower 
and not a manufacturer, I must say that my small 
experience would lead me to advise the planting 
of acacias in preference to any of the eucalypti, 
as my belts and groves described a year ago 
by Mr. A. M. Ferguson in his letters headed "New 
Gal way Revisited" give ample proof that, for the 
first few years at least, the Acacia decurrens 
makes much more wood fit for fuel than blue- 
gum, and being a much harder wood it makes better 
charcoal, whereas the gum burns more to ashes and 
does not give out as much heat. The Acacia 
melanoxylon as is well-known gives splendid building 
timber. From some trees about 20 years old I 
have had sawn beams 18 ft. long, and could have 
got them longer if required ; it also makes a very 
pretty ceiling, and the branches and crooked por- 
tions made good smithy charcoal. 
For acacias a detached piece of land should 
be chosen owing to their tendenoy to spread, but 
they are not particular as to soil, and the most 
exposed ridges and poorest soil will suit them. 
Although the gum does not spread from its roots, 
it is a very wide feeder, and when planted in a 
grove does not, in my experience, thin like the 
acacia ; it has also, I have heard, a tendency to 
"pipe," which would, reduce its value as a timber 
tree, and if tea is going to last as long as our 
Ceylon pioneers predict, it behoves every proprietor 
to.proYide for a good future timber supply. 
