146 APPENDIX, 
The ground-nut oil trade in Pondicherry. 
The ground-nut oil trade of Pondicherry has increased enormously 
during the last few years: twenty years ago the total quantity 
exported amounted to only 1,403 casks, the whole of which was 
taken by Mauritius and Réunion; 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 ago, has 
now risen to a steady demand for about 700 candies a month. 
The oil is put up in English beer hogsheads holding 440 Ibs. each, 
and in Cochin oil casks containing 5. .each, The tabulated 
tables given below show the total shipments, and the highest, 
lowest, and average prices for certain given periods, The ground- 
nut kernels 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—800 at Vilvanur, a village in the Villapuram taluq, 
eighteen miles west of Pondicherry, and 400 in Pondicherry 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 European agency, A company 
was started at Pondicherry a few years back for erecting and work- 
ing a huilerie tobe worked by steam power, andin due time the 
mill commenced crushing, 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 purchaser 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 dloc 
was transferred to a small party composed of original shareholders, 
fora 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, and 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 
