io6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[AtjcusT I, 1883. 



VEGETABLE OILS. 



I.— (Jashew Apple On.. 



Huile >le iioix de Caju I in France. 



Huile (I Acajou ... ... ... j 



Uashew Apple Oil „ England. 



HijU Badam „ India. 



Watn Oaju „ Ceylon. 



Acajou olie „ Netherland. 



The specific weight of this oil is 0016. It is prepared 

 from the fruit of a plant that grows in West India and 

 South Africa. It is called the cashew or acajou tree ; also 

 the West Indian elm. This tree grows to a height of 6 ft. 

 and bears fruit in the second year, which ft-uit are square 

 and nutty. Thev are called Indian nuts or Cashew nuts, 

 while they also bear the old name of elephant-lice. They 

 are of the size of an ordinary fowl's egg. In the 

 dark-brown mesocarpium of the hard fruit covering, are 

 hollows containing a black pungent oil, which causes in- 

 flammation, and bli.sters on the skin. This oil contains re.sin 

 of cashew and other matters. Its specific weight is 1014. 

 After removing the fruit envelope, and washing away a 

 kiud of cone, there remains a square, edible, oily kernel, 

 baring a nutty taste. These kernels contain 40 or 50 per 

 cent of oil, of a clear yellow colour, a sweet taste and 

 much resembling of almonds. The Brazilians have used 

 this oil as food for centuries. This is the oil known as 

 Cashew Apple Oil. 



A kindred oil is obtained from the fruit of the Indian 

 ink-tree (Semecarpus Auacardium). They are known in 

 commerce by the names of East Indian Elephant-Hce and 

 East Indian Cashew nuts. In them also a black, pungent 

 oil is found under the hard outer-shell of the fruit, which 

 is used in East India as an indelible ink. The etherial 

 solution of that is used also in Germany for the same 

 purpose, but is at present prohibited. The seeds arealso 

 edible, and contain an inferior kind of oil of ODSO specific 

 weight. 



II. — Croton Oil. 



Oleum Orotonis, Cretan Oil. 



„ Tiglii Jamalgotha (Hindostan). 



Huile de Croton Ratov (Arabia), 

 de Tilly Dund (Persia). 

 This oil is the produce of the seeds of the so-called gian- 

 atiUa tree, Pui-gur tree or Bm-gur Croton. It is a .small 

 tree, about 5 or 6 metres high, with long-stalked, sei-rate 

 leaves, which exhale an unpleasant odour, and have a 

 nauseous taste. The plant is a native of the regions about 

 Malabar, but is also cultivated in South Asia, the Indian 

 Ai-chipeiago and China. The seeds and the wood of this 

 tree were mtroduced into Europe towards the latter eud 

 of the sixteenth century ; yet the seeds and the oil were 

 already known in the times of Herodotus. The seeds 

 knovra in commerce under the names of Purger-grains, 

 Pignons d'Inde, Grainu de Tilly, Croton-seeds. are .about 

 1 ccntim. long and i a cuutim. broad, and almost of a 

 square shape, of a s'wallow or a ih-ab oolom-, ami slmost 

 black when the soft cuticle is rubbed off. In the thin, 

 fragile, speckled shell which constitutes about k of the 

 weight of the fruit, is a wlute, beautiful kernel. The 

 taste of the fruit is fir.st sweet andoUy, but leaves a pung- 

 ent burning flavour ; when warmed, they emit a vapour 

 that afl'ects the eyes painfully. The seeds contain 30 to 

 35 per cent of oil, .sonu-times more. In pressing, every 

 dii-ect contact with the skin must be avoided, and as much 

 as possible one nnist guanl oneself against the pungent 

 fumes entering the nose and eyes. The oil is of an orange- 

 yellow colour, sometimes brownish yellow, very thick, 

 and has a peculi.ar and disagreeable smell. In water 

 it is completely insoluble, whereas it is ea.sily 

 (lis.solved in etlier and sulphnreted carbon. Croton 

 oil is a powerful purgative, even when rubbed in 

 oa the abdomen, it causes violent pm-ging and even bloody 

 evacuations. Applied to the skin it is absorbed at once, 

 causes in a few minutes a violent burning pain, the skin 

 turns fiery red. and a strong eruption ensues. The specific 

 weight of the oil is 0-043 to HSo, according to its ago. 

 Tills increa.se of specific weight by age, points to the thicken- 

 ing of the oil, which .also in other respects approaches to 

 the siccative oils. Formerly only East Indian and English 

 Crotduoils were known to commerce ; the former was 

 yellowi.vh, the latter ^r^vnlish-yellow. Of late years a good 

 'de.^1 of Croton oil Jias been produced in Germany, from 



seeds imported from India through Madras, Calcutta, etc., 

 to London, and thence transported to Germany. The two 

 houses, F. Witte, at Rostock, and Gehe & Co. at Dresden, 

 provide aU Germany, Kussia, Denmark and even parts 

 of America with Croton-oil. — India JJa'cu}->/. 



THE USE OF MANURES. 



Many gardeners may be ready to say, "Give us the 

 manure, we can show you how to use it !" It is quite true 

 that in many districts the difficulty of obtaining manure 

 is very great, but it is also too true that when good 

 manure has been carted a considerable di.^tance over diffic- 

 ult roads, the best is not made of it. Even the growers 

 for market, who ought to be alive to their own interests, 

 do not set a good example in this respect. Ihe difficulty 

 of carting heavy loads of manure over the country roads 

 and lanes is enormous, and dm-ing the past winter I have 

 frequently seen five strong horses harnessed to one waggon. 

 Hundreds of tons of good London manure are piled upon 

 the roadsides, where it lies for mouths, until the ditches 

 are turbid with its inky juice. It is quite certain that this 

 is the worst way to use manm-e. It is not always poss- 

 ible to cart it on to the land, but when this can be uone, 

 it ought to be done at ouce ; and it is better to spread 

 it over the laud than to lay it down and let it lie in large 

 or small heaps. The best manure, when it can be ob- 

 tained from London or other towns, is t-o get equal quant- 

 ities 01 cow and stable manure, ami to throw them up 

 together in large heaps ; the cow-manure prevents the other 

 from overheating itself, and waste is avoided in that way, 

 which is as bad, if not worse, than allowing its essential 

 properties to be washed away by the rains. 



I consider this mixtiu-e the best of all manui'es ; and 

 when it can be obtained, artificial maniu'es are not needed. 

 I throw the two together, mixing well, and it never be- 

 comes overheated. I like it to lie in the heap ten days or 

 a fortnight before trenching or digging it in. Excess of 

 fermentation destroys the most useful part of the manixre, 

 reduces it to two-thirds of its original weight, and burns up, 

 as it were, perhaps half of its fertihzing propeities. In 

 what may almost be termed the dark ages of gardening it 

 was thought that unfermented manure imparted a ois- 

 agreeable flavour to vegetivbles and fruits, and parceners did 

 not care to use the manure until it was completely decayed. 

 In the composts recommended by the old florists, I have 

 sometimes wondered that the quautity of manuie did not 

 Idll the plants outright ; and so it woiilti ha\'e done if it 

 had been used with ah its fertilizing properties in it, but 

 most of these have evaporated diu-iug the two or three 

 years' e.xposure to summer suns and ivinter frosts. The 

 dung of fowls and pigeons is very strong, and is as good 

 as guauo for most craps. 



I lived for some years in a situation where a very large sup- 

 ply of the best vegetables and fruits was required, and no 

 farmyard maniu-e was allowed for the gardens ; and yet 

 we never dug or trenched any of the quarters without dress- 

 ing them with manure. In that garden not a leaf of 

 vegetable refuse was wasted ; it was all laid U)) on a heap 

 — mowings from the lawn. Cabbage-leaves and .stalks, potato- 

 tops, and all the leaves of trees that could be obtained ; 

 the gardener was also allowed to bring away the draiuings 

 fron: the farmyard, which was collected in a tank. Many 

 cartloads of this hquid were thrown over the heap, and 

 when the lea%-es and refuse were tm-ned over together it 

 formed a heap of good manure, which was used for every- 

 thing. The vegetable refuse heap ought not to be neglected. 



Green vegetable matter may also be u.sed with ad\ant- 

 age. On some of the large market farms it is the pr.actice 

 to sow with rye part of the ground that has to be 

 cro|iped with potatos. and when the rye is about a foot high 

 it is ploughed in. I have seen part of afield sorni with rye 

 to be ploughed in, and the other part left vacant. The 

 fallow part had a goo.l dressing of manure at planting- 

 time, and as gooil a crop of potatos was obtained from the one 

 part as the other. Rye has sometimes to be wasted when 

 it comes on too fast in the spring; a hint th.at it is an 

 excellent manure may be useful. If seaweeds can be ob- 

 tained, they form ,an excellent manure for Asparagus, and 

 I believe also for seakale and artichokes. 



The seaweeds do not require any prep:nation to fit them for 

 the use of the plants. AVhen I liveil within the sound of 



