Vol. XVII. No. 41 s. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



141 



JAMAICA OIL OF ORANGE. 



The editorial in the Perfitmerx and Essintial Oi/ 

 Jiti-"i\l, March 1918, draws attention to the remarkable 

 development of the production of orange oil in Jamaica in 

 the last few years. Whereas the export to the United 

 Kingdom, the United States, and Canada in 1911 was valued 

 at nearly •'SlOiOrtO, in 1916 it bad reached more than 

 §141,000. It would seem as if the industry might be 

 reinuneratise in some of the smaller islands, especially such 

 an island as 1 >ominica, where the ecuelling of limes is largely 

 practised, and where there is probably a glut of oranges at 

 present, owing to shortage of shipping. The present price of 

 •lamaica orange oil.on the London market is from 8,f. to 9.v. 

 per R>. 



The initiation of the extraction of the oil from oranges 

 in Jamaica, notwithstanding the abundance of ihe fruits 

 grown in the island, is of comparatively recent date. The 

 first e.xperiments appear to have been induced by the heavy 

 tariff against c;itrus fruits imposed by the United States, and 

 the distance of Jamaica from other large consuming centres. 

 Small headway seems to have been made until the Sicilian 

 •earthquake oi 1908 paralysed for a time the industry in the 

 ^Mediterranean island, and gave a splendid opportunity to 

 introduce the West Indian oil, which is now firmly established 

 "n the markets. In addition to its u.se in the United 

 Kingdom and on the Continent, .lamaican oil of orange has 

 a big sale in the L^nited States, where it is largely employed 

 in the manufacture of wafer biscuits, and in cakes and confec- 

 tionery; this, of course, is in addition to that consumed 

 in perfumery, soaps, and flavouring essences. The main 

 method of preparation in vogue in Jamaica is a variety of the 

 ■ecuelle process of Southern Kurope, although we believe that 

 distillation was formerly and may still be to some e.^tent 

 employed. The actual apparatus, the 'rinder', is somewhat 

 .simpler than the Sicilian ecuelle, in fact it seems almost iden- 

 tical with the esuelle used in Dominica for lime oil e.^traction. 

 It consists of a shallow copper basin, coated with tin and 

 studded with sharp copper points about i;-iuch in length. 

 At the bottom of the 'rinder' is a receptacle to collect the 

 oil, in the form of a funnel spout, the larger end opening into 

 the basin, and the snialler being closed. The 'rinder' is held 

 between the knees of the operator, and the orange is lightly 

 rubbed by the palm of the hand against the spikes, which rup- 

 ture the oil cells. When the receiver is filled, the oil is strained 

 through a cloth into a bottle, and permitted to settle, so that 

 it can be drawn off from the mucilage and juice with which it 

 is usually contaminated. It is then filtered into tin-lined 

 copper or tin vessels. Women and children do the actual 

 rinding. The oranges are not, as in Florida and Sicily, grown 

 in groves, but are in scattered plantations, and the oil is 

 extracted on the spot, and carried to the merchants. The 

 fruits .should be fully grown, but not fully ripe, and the best 

 yields of oil are obtained in the early morning before full 

 sun power develops. About 2,00n fruits will give 21b of oil. 

 .Jamaica orange oil was formerly crudely adulterated with 

 kerosene and cotton oil, but this short-sighted practice has 

 now nearly disappeared. 



The prices obtained fluctuate somewhat, and are depen- 

 dent not only on the demand for the oil, but on the size of 

 the, orange crop, and the outlet for the fruits for export. 

 Thus a poor orange crop in America will favour a big enquiry 

 for Jamaica oranges, and militate against oil production, with 

 conseijuent raising of the price. The greater part of the 

 Jamaica oil is from sweet oranges, ail tjiis commands a rather 

 better price thnn that from the liittn- variety, which does not 

 accord with relative values of tlie two grades of the Sicilian 

 product. 



THE VALUE OF WATER HYACINTHS 



AS A FERTILIZER. 



The apparent resemblance of the flower of Eidii'mia 

 rrassipis to that of the European hyacinth is responsible -for 

 its ordinary Engli,sh name: no botanical relation however 

 exists between the two \>\^\x\% Eichoniiu crassipes belongs to 

 the botanical family Pontederiaceae. It is a native of South 

 America, but has become a troublesome weed in ^ther 

 countries, notably Florida, Indo-China, Australia, and India. 

 It was introduced into these countries, as it has been into 

 many of the West Indian islands, for ornamental purposes. 

 The plant n')rmally floats on the surface of the water, with 

 abundant sub-aqueous roots. It has also large, bladder-like 

 leafstalks which make it remarkably buoyant. It multiplies 

 extensively by division of th'e root-stalks, and soon becomes 

 a pest by forming such a dense mass of vegetation in canals 

 and .slow-flowing rivers, as to render navigation impossible. 

 The means to be taken to exterminate it in India is the 

 subject of Bulh-tiii Xi,. j/ of the Agricultural Research 

 Institute, Pusa. In Burma, the pest has become so wide- 

 spread that it has been found necessary to legislate acainst 

 it: the object of the bulletin is to indicate that a certain 

 return can be obtained from the plant in the process of 

 exterminating it. Its extermination and not its commercial ex- 

 ploitation is aimed at; but it is thought that ettbrts to get rid 

 of it may be more energetic if .some return is obtained for the 

 labour involved. In Indo-China investigations have been carried 

 out towards finding an eronomic use of the weed, su:h as the 

 manufacture of paper, and the extraction of ialts of ammonium 

 It has also been proposed to employ the fibrous mattrr of the 

 plant for the manufacture of bags. No commercial suucessf al 

 enterprise has as yet been elaborated. In this bulletin the 

 matter is approached from an agricultural standpoint. From 

 the analyses of specimens of the plant it appears that the 

 water hyacinth contains considerable stores of valuable ['lant 

 food, of which potash is the <:hief constituent. If rotted, the 

 residue contains about the same amount of nitrogen and phis 

 phoric acid as, perhaps rather more than, ordinary farmyard 

 manure: and it is several times as rich in potash. 



The fresh green plant contains about 9."i per cent, of 

 water, and could not be economically transported over any 

 great distance. The rotted plant contains about 60 per i-ent. 

 of water, comparable with cow dung in this respect. 



The dried material is only about one-twentieth of the 

 weight of the green plant: it is thus in a much more 

 convenient form for transport than either the green plant or 

 the rotted material. It contains from I'.oto 2 per rent, of 

 nitrogen, and about 8 per cent, of potash. 



After burning, the ash re.sidue of clean plants unmixed 

 with earth has been found to contain as much as -35 per cent. 

 of potash. The ash is therefore several times richer in potash 

 than ordinary wood-ashes. 



The results of a series of field tests on a jute crop showed 

 conclusively that water h^ icinth is 'a valuable manure, either 

 in the rotted state or as ash, on various types of .>oil. r)n 

 high, light, well-drained soils the rotted material might be 

 preferable, but on heavy low-lying lands the ash w'>nM 

 probably be more successful. 



There are indi^-ations that the cultivators in the Uaoca 

 district of Bengal are biginning to appreciate the manurial 

 possibilities of water hyacinths; and in a densely populated 

 tract like Eastern Bengal, where one of the staple crops like 

 jute responds to heavy potash manuring, there is a power- 

 f'd incentive for the people to extirpate this obstruction of 

 their water ways, either individual or collectively. 



