Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-02
A NEW INDUSTRY.
Manufa cture of Palm OF on the West
Coast of Africa.

u rom the Syren
Inc crushing Of seeds and nuts for the
OH which they contain and the prcpara-
.ioh OF feeding stuffs from the residue is.
30 lar as England is concerned COM
parauNeiy new industry. And one OF the
ilos' important phases of this business is
lhat which centers around the products
ol the OIL palm, and plays such a consid-
cradle part in the trade between the west
coast OF Africa and Liverpool This
palma beautiful tree of the umbrella nat
tern-fiowers about September or October,
and the fruit ripens about four or FIVE
months afterward. the main crop being
gathered from February to May The
fruit is gathered by natives who ascend
the trees by means of ropes-sai,or
fashfon-and dstach the masses OF nut
clusters. or hands. as they are called
with a small ak or cutlass. The nuts are
then heaped on the ground. covered with
palm leaves, and left for a week in the hot
ana more or less moist atmosphere. to fer
ment- During this process the nuts be-
come loose in their sockets and are re-
moved by hand and placed in baskets.
The next processes aim at the scpara-
ton OF the nut proper from the seed YES
sci or pericarp. First. huge earthenware
pots are taken, With capacity OF about
twelve or fourteen gallons. and I'm these
are placed about half a hundredwei Of
nuts. Water is added and the pot placed
boiling the seed vessel is sufficiently soft
to be squeezable by the fingers. The nuts
are then placed in the bottom of a canoe
Drawn up on the river hank, and the ma
tires tread out the nuts from the encir-
cling pericarp with their bare feet. Three
men will thus tread out 20 pounds I'm an
hour. Water is then poured into the canoe
to the depth of three or four inches and
the nuts treated to the final separating.
process by being rocked. stirred and
shaken BY this means the kernels with
the hard shell containing them become de-
tached from the pericarp and after dry
ing in the sun are cracked between stones
so as to separate the palm kernels" of
commerce from The hard shell inclosing
them. But the water I'm the canoe has be-
come covered with a yellowish oily scum
This is carefully collected in calabashcs
washed and finally pressed in a mortar to
extract the remaining particles of OIL. and
Delng OF no further commercial value is
thrown aside to be used as fuel
fhus the West African negroes supply us
from the oil palm with two valuable ar
ticies or ccmmerce-palm oil and palm Der
nels The processes employed are wastcful
no doubt and the absence of means of
communication, save by the rivers and
creeks, Implies that many thousands OF
tens OF precious produce are annually al
lowed TO rot This waste however IS
gradually being reduced, and with the nd
vent OF much required railways our sun
plies OF West African tropical produce
must be Increased indefinitely The bulk
or the palm kernels-or rather that GEO.
NC N or them shipped to England-find their
way TO Liverpool, and II certainly did NOT
renect creditably upon the enterprise o.
the merchants of the Mersey port that the
major portion Of such imports also 0pured
IN the exports or transshipments from
Liverpool TO continental ports