This was done by Germany putting a heavy tariff of £6 a ton on refined edible oils,
importing the palm kernels free, and charging her own manufacturers and
countries with whom she had special treaties, an extra price which
enabled her to undersell the British market. She also captured the
Canadian market, although Liverpool enjoyed exceptionally low freight to
Canada. Before the war, also, Britain imported margarine to the extent
of 1,518,297 cwts. in 1913, value £3,917,701. Of this amount 1,483,417
cwts. came from Holland. Now Britain is making her own margarine from
her own raw material, and as it was being bought retail at from 7d. to
Is. per lb., while butter was costing 2s. to 2s. 6d., the gain to the
consumer at home is great.
Messrs. Lever now have their own steamers running between West Africa
and Liverpool for their trade in kernels and oil. In Sierra Leone
alone, the palm kernels exported in 1917 reached the record figure of
58,000 tons.
The following table gives the range of the principal constants of
commercial palm kernel oil.
The corresponding figures for coconut oil
are added for comparison :-
|
Commercial
Palm Kernel
Oil. |
Coconut Oil. |
| Specific gravity 99°/15°, |
0.873 |
0.874 |
| Iodine value, per cent., |
10.3 to 17.5 |
8.0 to 10.0 |
| Saponification value, |
242 to 255 |
246 to 268 |
| Titer test, |
20.0° C. to 25.5° C. |
21.2° C. to 25.5° C. |
| Hehner value, |
911 |
82.4 to 90.5 |
| Reichert-Meissl value, |
5.0 to 6.8 |
6.6 to 7.5 |
| Polenske value, |
|
18.0 |
| Yield of oil, |
46.7 to 52.5 |
64.5 to 74.7 |
When the weight of a cask of palm oil is ascertained, and in
invoicing the same to the buyer in this country, 16 lbs. per cwt., or
one-seventh of the whole, is deducted as representing the weight of the
cask.
This is an agreed figure and applies only to such casks as are termed
" regular," and comply with a certain measurement. In the case of palm
kernels, if these are shipped in bags, the actual weight of the bags is
ascertained by trial, and this weight is deducted from the gross weight
of the kernels. The usual tare is 13 lbs. for five bags ; when shipped
in bulk there is no tare.
An ingenious and simple nut-cracking machine has been devised
recently by J. O. Drews. It consists of a pair of finely corrugated
steel jaws, one of which is fixed vertically to the frame of the
machine, while the other is moved by means of a specially constructed
cam. The moving jaw has its corrugated face formed at a slight angle to
the face of the fixed jaw ; the space between the jaws is, therefore,
wider at the top than at the bottom, so that larger nuts dropped between
the jaws lodge near the top and small nuts near the bottom. In working,
the moving jaw takes up three consecutive positions : (1) discharging,
fully open, allowing the broken nuts to fall through ; (2) feeding,
partly closed ; (3) cracking, a small auxiliary cam mounted on the main
cam engages with the operating rod of the moving jaw, causing the latter
to take a short, sharp movement and to crack the nut-shells without
breaking up the kernels.
The nuts are fed to the jaws by means of a sloping tray ending in a
series of shaped bars mounted at right angles to and above the faces of
the jaws. A series of -shaped bars mounted on a shaft rotate between the
bare on the feed tray, pick up a row of nuts, and throw them between
the jaws. The machine is light, simple, and strong, and seems to work
well.
The working of another new palm-nut-cracking machine devised by Mr.
Kent Johnston has been demonstrated recently in Liverpool. This machine
works on the centrifugal plan, but differs from other centrifugal
machines in that the nuts are flung from one ribbed rotating disc or
drum into or against another disc rotating in the opposite direction.
The machine is said to work satisfactorily, and weighs 130 lbs., being
of convenient size for transport.
Every such effort to get the most out of kernels will probably be
welcomed by merchant and native alike, especially as soap-makers and
margarine-makers, and other users of kernel oil are calling for a
contract in which kernels will be valued according to their oil
con-tents, anything containing less than 48 per cent, of oil to be
penalised.
Palm-kernel cake is the residue from the kernels of the nuts of the
West African oil palm after expression of the oil.* More than
one-quarter million tons of nuts have been for the past few years
annually exported from West Africa, but until the outbreak of the war,
and the consequent closing of the German ports, this huge trade was
almost entirely in German hands. A small quantity of the nuts was
imported into Britain, but almost all the cake left from the extraction
of these was exported to the Continent, where it has always commanded a
considerably higher price than in this country.
" Expression " is the more correct term when the material is crushed
in a press and the oil squeezed out, " extraction " when oil is
dissolved by suitable solvents (e.g., benzine). Solvent extracted oils
are now used extensively for edible purposes.
As far back as 1861, at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester,
it was experimentally established that kernel cake was good stuff for
cattle, but the Germans discovered that palm kernel cake given to
milking cows would increase the amount of butter fat by as much as over
1/4 per cent., so that by giving it to their cattle they were able to
get as much butter from nine cows as before it took ten cows to produce.
For that reason throughout the German Empire for many years palm kernel
cake has been more valuable than it has been in England.
At the end of 1914 there were only two mills in Britain dealing with
palm kernels, and their combined capacity amounted to only 70,000 tons
per annum. Since then, however, a considerable development in this
industry has taken place, and new mills (e.g., at London and Hull) have
been erected capable of dealing with large quantities, so that, in the
near future, very large stocks of palm-kernel cake will be at the
disposal of the home feeder.
For the purposes of experiment, 2 tons of the cake were supplied by
Messrs. Lever Brothers, Port Sunlight, who, in connection with their
industry, crush a considerable quantity of palm kernels. These
experiments have shown that palm-kernel cake is very highly digestible,
and that its productive value is much higher than its chemical analysis
alone would lead us to believe. For this reason three cakes were used in
equal quantities throughout the experiment. For the purposes of the
experiment, thirty head of cattle, eighteen heifers, and twelve
bullocks, all cross-bred two-year-olds, were used. These were divided
into three lots of ten each-each lot consisting of six heifers and four
bullocks. For a (Messrs. Lever Bros.) short time before the commencement
of the experiment they underwent a preparatory period of feeding, in
order to accustom them to the experimental foods- Lot I. getting linseed
cake, Lot II. decorticated cotton cake, and Lot III. palm-kernel cake.
The cakes were fed in mixture with locust-bean meal, and were from the
first taken readily by all the animals. The experimental period, which
extended to eighty-four days, was divided into three periods of
twenty-eight days each, the animals being weighed at the commencement,
and again at the end of each period. The final conclusions reached were
:"I. Fed in the same quantities, palm-kernel cake may be expected to
give equally as good a return in live weight increase as linseed cake or
decorticated cotton cake, and at present prices it gives a better
monetary return than either of these.
The oil palm planted currently is the tenera hybrid which yields about
4.0 t of palm oil per hectare, together with 0.5 t palm kernel oil and
0.6 t palm kernel cake. Oil palm has an economic life of about 25 years.
The harvesting of the palm could begin 30 months after field planting. 
Several important organised efforts have now been made to supplant
the wasteful native method for recovering the yellow oil from the
pericarp, by establishing modern plants within the area in which the oil
palm flourishes. These modern plants offer one of the most favourable
opportunities for the investment of capital, as the native labourer will
soon find that the collection of fruit for these establishments is
easier and more profitable than attempting to extract the oil himself.
At the same time, users of palm oil in Europe will be furnished with a
product which, on account of the large proportion of glycerine it
contains and better average condition, will be of greater value than the
variable and uncertain product that is now shipped by the West African
native.