BREEDING NEW CASTOR BEANS 



Castor Oil Now Becoming of Immense Commercial Importance as Motor Lubri- 

 cant — Careful Breeding of Varieties Having Desired Attributes 

 Necessary to Produce Best Commercial Seed — Many 

 Characters Show Mendelian Behavior. 



Orland E. White 

 Curator of Plant Breeding, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, N . Y. 



THE well-knowii castor oil is ex- 

 pressed from the seeds of a 

 Euphorbiaceous ornmental plant 

 (RiciiiHs cominuiiis), related to 

 our scarlet poinsettias. Hundreds of 

 distinct varieties of this plant are 

 known in the tropics -especially in In- 

 dia, where the bulk of the world's crop 

 is grown. Most treatises roughly di- 

 vide these numerous varieties into large 

 and small-seeded types, the former pro- 

 ducing supposedly less oil and of in- 

 ferior quality. A collection of sev- 

 eral hundred types (see Figs. 1 and 2), 

 commercial and otherwise, assembled 

 from various tropical and sub-tropical 

 regions, discloses the fact that no sharp 

 line can be drawn between the large Zan- 

 zibar types, running -ioO to GOO beans 

 per pound, and the small Bombay 

 beans, running anywhere from 1,500 to 

 4,500 beans per pound, depending on 

 the variety. All degrees of intergrades 

 in size of beans exist, these, no doubt, 

 resulting from more or less chance 

 crossing, which wind and insects have 

 brought about during the centuries of 

 its cultivation. 



BEANS MAINLY IMPORTED FROM INDIA 



Of the million or more bushels of 

 beans annually imported into this coun- 

 try through the port of New York, the 

 bulk come from Madras and Bombay ; 

 a few from Mexico, Brazil, Argentine 

 Republic, Java, and China. The In- 

 dian beans as they reach our factories 

 are generally a mixture of such small 

 and medium seeded types as are rep- 

 resented in Fig. 2. The large seeded 

 types, shown in the same figure, were 

 said to be Chinese and are grown con- 

 siderably in Mexico. The oil content 

 of the Indian beans runs as high as 55 



per cent, while the large Zanzibar 

 beans give only 35 per cent oil, and of 

 inferior quality because of the increased 

 amount of "acid." Shortly after the 

 Civil War, castor oil bean farming in 

 the United States became a promising 

 local industry in Kansas, Illinois, ancl 

 other Middle Western States, but over- 

 production and competition with cheaj) 

 Hindu labor soon made it unprofitable. 

 Castor oil beans, as late as twelve years 

 ago, were raised commercially in Okla- 

 homa, and the scarcity of imported 

 beans and the increased demand for the 

 oil, due to the war, wdll probably bring 

 large areas in these sections again into 

 castor oil bean cultivation. Large sandy 

 areas in the Gulf States, now largely 

 waste land, are said to be eminently 

 fitted for this crop. The crop runs 

 anywhere from 10 to 40 bushels per 

 acre, depending largely on the variety 

 planted, the soil, the climate, and the 

 length of frostless season. Even as 

 far north as Iowa, from 15 to 25 bushels 

 ]:»er acre have been obtained. 



The oil has innumerable uses, chief 

 among these being its value in dyeing 

 cloth, in medicine, and as an aeroplane 

 motor lubricant. Its non-drying, non- 

 gumming properties, and its high den- 

 sity are said to make it especially 

 desirable for lubricating the newly in- 

 vented Liberty motor. Normally this 

 country uses about 1,000,000 gallons an- 

 nually, but the war and the increased 

 use of aeroplanes after the. war prob- 

 ably will many times increase this 

 amount. 



BREEDING OF GOOD TYPES ESSENTIAL 



To make commercial castor oil bean 

 growing in this country a permanent in- 

 dustry, requires the breeding of varie- 



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