nets, while the wood goes into
construction. Even the bugs that live on it are food for men.

The "H. C. B." as the Huileries du Congo Belge is more commonly known in
the Congo, really performed a courageous act in exploitation when it set
up shop in the remote regions and devoted itself to an absolutely fresh
enterprise, so far as extensive development is concerned, at a time when
the rich and profitable products of the country were rubber, ivory and
copal. The company's initiative, therefore, instigated the trade in
oleaginous products which is so conspicuous in the economic life of the
country.

The installation at Alberta, while not so large as the Leverville area
on the Kwilu River, will serve to show just what the corporation is
doing. Five years ago this region was the jungle. Today it is the model
settlement on the Congo River. The big brick office building stands on a
brow of the hill overlooking the water. Not far away is the large mill
where the palm fruit is reduced to oil and the kernels dried. Stretching
away from the river is a long avenue of palms, flanked by the commodious
brick bungalows of the white employes. The "H. C. B." maintains a store
at each of its areas, where food and supplies are bought by the
personnel. These stores are all operated by the Societe d'Entreprises
Commerciales au Congo Belge, known locally under the name of "Sedec,"
formed as its name indicated, with a view of benefiting by the great
resources opened to commerce in the Colony.

For miles in every direction the Company has laid out extensive palm
plantations. In the Alberta region twenty-five hundred acres are in
course of cultivation in what is known as the Eastern Development, while
sixteen hundred more acres are embodied in the Western development. An
oil palm will bear fruit within seven years after the young tree is
planted. The fruit comes in what is called a _regime_, which resembles a
huge bunch of grapes. It is a thick cluster of palm fruit. Each fruit is
about the size of a large date. The outer portion, the pericarp, is
almost entirely yellow oil encased in a thick skin. Imbedded in this oil
is the kernel, which contains an even finer oil. The fruit is boiled
down and the kernel, after a drying process, is exported in bags to
England, where it is broken open and the contents used for salad oil or
margarine.

Before the war thousands of tons of palm oil and kernels were shipped
from the West Coast of Africa to Ge