146 APPENDIX, 



The ground-nut oil trade in Pondicherry. 



The gi'ound-nut oil trade of Pondichei-ry has iuci^'eased enormously 

 during the last few year^: twenty years ago the total quantity 

 exported amounted to only 1,403 ca^ks, the whole of which was 

 taken by Mauritius and Rt^uuion ; during the twelve months ending 

 31st December 1890^ the total shipment rose to 18,485 casks^ 7,503 

 being consigned to Rangoon and Moulmein ; large quantities were 

 also taken by Calcutta, Coconada, Singapore, and Penang, The oil 

 trade with Burmah, which scarcely . existed eight years agOy has 

 now risen to a steady demand for about 700 candies a month. 

 The oil is put up in English beer hogsheads holding 440 lbs. each, 

 and in Cochin oil casks containing 550 lbs, each. The tabulated 

 tables given below show the total shipments, and the highest, 

 lowest, and average prices for certain given peiiods. The ground- 

 nut keraels are crushed exclusively by the ancient wooden presses 

 of exactly the same pattern which have been used for several 

 centuries; about 1,200 of these mills are employed in crushing the 

 kernels — 8 00 at Vilvanur, a village in the Villapuram taluq, 

 eighteen miles west of Pondicherry, and 400 in Pondicheriy and the 

 neighbouring communes : the trade is entirely in the hands of native 

 operators, who buy and crush the nuts, and ship and sell the oil 

 without the intervention of any Em'opean agency. A company 

 was started at Pondicherry a few years back for erecting and work- 

 ing a huihrie to be worked by steam power, and in due time the 

 mill commenced cinishing, but the results were unfavourable, the 

 cost of working and of the raw material being largely in excess of 

 the value of the oil produced ; after persevering for upwards of two 

 years, company No, 1 decided to close up the concern by liquidation ; 

 but for some time no pm-chaser could be found, and it was therefore 

 resolved to sell off the property by public auction, but *' bidders," 

 were not forthcoming, and as a last expedient the factory en bloc 

 was transferred to a small party composed of original shareholders, 

 for a mere song. This company No. 2 soon came to grief, and 

 finding the losses on working to be more than they cared to bear, 

 the mill was again closed and advertised for sale. After a con- 

 siderable delay a Calcutta firm bought the property, an-l having 

 made various improvements in the machinery, set vigorously to 

 work at crushing, but with no better result than that obtained by 

 companies Nos. 1 and 2 ; and the factory was again closed for the 



