^7 



run into a pit where they separate, when the oil is 

 dipped out, placed in an open pan and boiled to drive 

 oft' any remaining water ; the product is then barrelled. 

 The pressed cakes are broken up and placed on mats in 

 the sun, where the stuft" dries ; when dry it contains 

 below 5 per cent of moisture and is then bagged. The 

 price obtained at the factory for oil is about Rs. i6o per 

 ton of about 250 gallons [6^^ kerosene tins), at which 

 price the middleman — usually a European firm — 

 supplies casks and takes the cost of transport ; this is 

 for the crude oil with its stearine. The o-uano fetches 

 at the factory about Rs. jo per ton and should have 

 about 8'5 per cent of nitrogen and something higher in 

 phosphoric acid. 



12. In the experimental station efforts have been 

 made to separate the oil into two qualities, viz., fine 

 yellow and ordinary brown. It was found that when the 

 mass is heated in the boiling pan most of the oil speedily 

 rises to the surface and can be skimmed off; this product 

 is of a fine light or bright yellow, with very slight smell. 

 After skimming, which produces about two-thirds of the 

 whole oil obtained, the mass runs into draining boxes 

 and thence is taken to the presses. Enquiries from 

 Europe, of which I have had about 40, show an enormous 

 demand for fish oil, and many of the enquiries, as well 

 as specimens sent to me, show a large demand for the 

 fine yellow oil of which the price is much higher than 

 the brown oil ; a single leather factory has specially 

 asked me to supply several thousand gallons of this fine 

 oil, observing that the leather produced by the use of a 

 sample was particularly good ; firms in Hamburg, 

 Australia, etc., also specially enquire after this oil. The 

 experiments will be renewed next season on a better 

 scale and with better method ; fo?' the present, the 

 simplest and most remunerative plan for the small 

 factories is to produce the ordinary brown oil without 

 troubling about the finer qualities ; the method is 

 cheap, very simple, and free from all technicalities, and 

 there is so Q^reat a demand for this crude brown oil that 

 it may be called unlimited and cannot be in any way 

 satisfied even by the whole potential produce of the 

 West Coast. Among other experiments tried at the 

 station was an attempt to devise a method for cottage 

 operations, acting on a hint derived from Mangalore 



