YoL. XI. No. 276. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



373 



It is further stated that the wood is of good quality, 

 durable and largely used for house-building, mat-making, etc. 



It would be interesting to learn if this is the first intro- 

 duction of the species into the West Indies, or whether it is 

 already established in the older Botanic GJardens existing in 

 Trinidad, .Jamaica and British Guiana. 



OIL AND OIL SEED TRADE OF 



MARSEILLES, 1911. 



The Consul-General in his report on the Trade of the 

 Consular District of Marseilles, state.-, that during the year 

 1911 Marseilles maintained its position as a great producing 

 centre of seed oils. 



OILS AXi> OIL SEEDS. The total imports of oil seeds 

 during 1911 amounted to 643,634 tons, as against 665,680 

 tons in 1910, .596,l.j6 tons in 1909 and 465,349 tons in 

 1908, and were composed as follows: — 



Ground nut.s: — Tons. 



Shelled 200,000 



Unshelled 1 40,000 



Copra 173,000 



Sesame 80,000 



Except for a diminution of 10,000 tons in sesame, these 

 amounts are much the same as in 1910. 



Conditions were on the whole favourable to the oil-seed 

 crushing industry. Sesame and ground nut oils and oil cake 

 sold well during the year, wiiile there was an increased 

 demand for concrete (copra and coco-nut butter) oils owing 

 to the continued high price of lard. 



Another large copra crushing concern is setting up 

 a plant for the refining of coco-nut oil, which will bring the 

 number of important manufacturers up to four, besides other 

 smaller concerns. This product seems to find more and more 

 favour with the French public, and the exports from Marseilles 

 to the I'nited Kingdom and the North of Europe, as well as to 

 Egypt and the Levant, are very considerable — 275,000 tons. 

 The quantity of oil produced seems to have sufficed for 

 local consumption, for imports of cottcn-seed oil fell off 

 still further and were comparatively insignificant, amounting 

 only to 4,750 tons of American and 1,330 tons of British oil, 

 all for edible purposes. A noticeable feature of the Mar- 

 seilles oil trade is the increase in the use of refined low- 

 grade ground nut oil, formerly used only for soap-making 

 without any refining. 



These oils undergo two processes after the crushing of the 

 seed. The low grade of oil extracted from decorticated 

 ground nuts is first of all neutralized, i.e., the free fatty acids 

 are eliminated and then the neutralized oil is deodorised and 

 a quite palatable oil obtained. The residue of fatty acids 

 from the neutralizing process is used for soap-making. Prob- 

 ably some 30,000 tons of soap-making ground nut oil was 

 diverted from the soap kettles and neutralized during 1911. 



Cotton seed oil seems no longer to play a part in the 

 Marseilles market. The increase in the duty, dating back to 

 the beginning of 1910, together with the ever increasing 

 world's consumption of cotton seed oil and the enormous 

 quantities of other oil seeds available for producing similar 

 oils, would seem to have almost entirely eliminated cotton oil 

 from the Marseilles market. The protective duty on the oil 

 has, it is true, encouraged French crushers to develop more 

 fully the crushing of cotton seed, but owing to the greater 



facilities found in the North of Europe for the disposal of the 

 cake which forms a large percentage of the products obtained 

 (85 per cent, cake and 15 per cent, oil), it is the northern 

 crushers who have profited most by the new conditions; very 

 little cotton seed oil is being crushed in Marseilles. 



The northern crushers at times are able to sell small 

 quantities of their oil in Marseilles and in the South of 

 France. The quality is fairly good. 



The prospects for 1912 are less favourable From 

 China it has been difficult to procure supplies of sesame 

 and ground nuts, as owing to the disturbed conditions 

 prevailing, shippers have exercised great caution in their 

 dealings with native firms. In India, especially in the 

 Bombay ProTince, the harvests have been poor. For these 

 reasons the price of oil seeds has risen so high that little 

 profit can be made out of then. 



This shortage has stimulated the demand for unshelled 

 ground nuts, and in view of this it is fortunate that there is 

 promise of an excellent crop from the Madras Province, 

 where the area under cultivation has been largely increased 

 in recent years. It is estimated that probably about 175,000 

 tons of decorticated ground nuts will be received here during 

 the year. 



From West Africa the reports are so far satisfactory, 

 and the yield of crops and the exports will probably be about 

 the same as last year. I'nfortunately, speculations early in 

 the year (1912) caused a sharp rise in price, which may 

 hamper the oil industry to a certain extent. 



OIL CAKE. The production of oil cake was about the 

 same as in 1910 (312,000 tons as against 317,000 tons). 



The following table shows the amounts of the different 

 kinds of oil cake, together with their prices: — 



(Quantity, Prices per cwt. 



IMPOETS OF OIL SEEDS 



For the First Five Months of 1912. 



Total 



Total _ _ _ 379,305 



During the same period the total amount of oils of all 

 kinds exported from Marseilles amounted to a little over 

 34,000 tons. (From the Month! ij Magazine, Incorporated 

 Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool, October 1912.) 



