EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXV. Abstract Number. No. 9, 



RECENT WORK IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY— AGROTECHNY. 



Vegetable fats and oils, L. E. Andes, trans, by C. Salter (London, Toronto, 

 and Xcw York, 1902, 2. ed., enl., pp. XVI-\-3.'i2, figs. 9//).— This publication, which 

 deals with the practical preparation, purification, properties, adulteration, and 

 examination of vegetable fats and oils, contains data as to the estimation of the 

 amount of oil in seeds; the preparation of vegetable fats and oils; apparatus 

 for grinding oil seeds and fruits; nondryiug and drying vegetable oils; solid 

 vegetable fats ; seeds and fruits yielding oils and fats ; soluble oils ; improved 

 methods of refining with sulphuric acid and zinc oxid or lead oxid, with caustic 

 alkalis, ammonia, carbonates of the alkalis, and lime, or with tannin ; Eken- 

 berg's method of refining ; Villon's jn'ocess for purifying oils by sulphurous acid ; 

 mechanical, appliances for refining ; Filbert's deodorizing apparatus for oils and 

 fats; bleaching fats and oils; practical experiments on the treatment of oils 

 with regard to refining and bleaching; oil cake and oil meal; testing oils and 

 fats; maize oil; fatty acids of coconut oil; and vegetable tallows from the 

 Dutch East Indies. 



Composition of rice oil, iNI. Tsujimoto (Chem. Rev. Fett u. Harz Indus., 18 

 (1911), yo. 5, pp. Ill, 112; aU. in Zischr. Angcw. Chem., 2-'t (1911), No. 29, 

 p. 13S6). — Rice oil is usually obtained by extracting rice bran with petroleiun 

 ether. It is fluid and has a greenish yellow color. The unsaponifiable part 

 (4.7S per cent) is probably composed of phytosterin. The fatty acids are chiefly 

 palmitic, oleic, and isooleic acids, and if the amount of solid fatty acids is taken 

 as 20 per cent, and the icKlin number of the liquid acid as 130, they can be con- 

 sidered proportionately as follows : Palmitic acid 20 per cent, oleic acid 45 per 

 cent, and isooleic acid 35 per cent. 



In reg'ard to the refraction constants of vegetable oils, J. Klimont (Ztschr. 

 Angeiv. Chem., 2.'t (1911), No. 6, pp. 2o-'i-256). — The oils examined were rape, 

 cotton-seed, linseed, corn, olive, soy-bean, soy-bean in a mixture with cotton-seed, 

 sesame, peanut, hedge mustard, and neats-foot oils, in regard to their density, 

 refraction exponent, specific refraction, saponification number, iodin number, 

 and middle molecular refraction. The work was done with i)articular reference 

 to the last-named constant. 



Reactions of carbohydrates. — I, Sucrose, C. Reichard (Pharm. Zentralhalle, 

 51 (1910), pp. 979-986; abs. in Jour. Chem. 8oc. [London], 98 (1910), No. 578, 

 IT, p. 1117).- — This work with solid sucrose shows that in the cold, sulphuric 

 acid, nitric acid, or hydrochloric acid convert this sugar into a pasty mass, 

 which does not dry in the air. Carbonaceous matter produced with sulphuric 

 acid did not separate until the mixture was heated. 



801 



