1 62 



AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



hung on ropes, and thus swung horizontally, a saving of the force 

 which would have been otherwise expended in merely holding 

 them. An iron kettle was employed here, as elsewhere, to warm 

 the mass, which still included many kernel-stones. It was half- 

 filled with boiling water ; in its upper part rested a bamboo 

 basket, lined with cloth, in which the fatty meal was steamed. 



A wax-press shown me in Nagasaki had an entirely different 

 shape and arrangement. It was the trunk of a tree, Keaki {Planera 

 Keaki), hollowed out in the form of a flask, and bound with iron 

 rings at both ends. The stuff was heated in hempen bags, then 

 packed between stout round wicker mats, and pushed into the neck 

 of the flask, which was turned upside down. To fill the remaining 

 hollow space, thick, circular pieces of board were driven in from 

 above by means of wedges. The vessel for receiving the fat, 

 which flowed down through a tube, stood on a chafing-dish. 



However the process of obtaining vegetable tallow may differ 

 as to particulars in various parts of the country, it is in general 

 still the same, and is insufficient to extract all the fat from the 

 vegetable mass. This might be better done by adding some 

 Perilla-oil, as has been mentioned by some, though I never ob- 

 served it myself 



I made a comparative estimate of the weight of the several 

 parts of the sumach fruits used for making tallow in Japan, and of 

 the amount of fat extracted by means of ether. The results given 

 by A. Meyer do not agree with mine, so I give them both. Meyer 

 took, as he says, ten pieces of the fruit of Rhus succedanea, (from 

 whence is not stated), and found that they weighed 1*51 gr. and 

 consisted of 46'45 per cent, mesocarp. 42'36 per cent, epidermis 

 and putamen (shell of the kernel), and 885 per cent, embryo, with 

 a loss of 2"35 per cent, accounted for by dust. Grating the 

 mesocarp, he extracted from it with ether 209 per cent, of the 

 entire fruit, in tallow. The cotyledons yielded him in oil 2*65 per 

 cent, of the entire weight, and 36 per cent, of their own weight. 

 In my experiments I took considerable quantities of fresh, air- 

 dried fruit of the lacquer-tree, from Murakami ; of the tallow- 

 tree, from Nagasaki, with a result as shown in the following 

 table : 



R. vernicifera. R. succedanea. 



103 pieces of normally formed fruit weighed 

 Ot" which the epidermis gave .... 



„ the mesocarp 



„ epidermis and mesocarp. . . 



„ endocarp (putamen and embryo) 

 The fat extracted with ether weighed . . 

 Leaving for the stone-shells (putamen) . 



875 gnn. 



57 per cent. 

 39'3 



45-0 „ 

 55'o „ 

 24-2 

 20-8 „ 



1 2 "So grm. 

 47 per cent. 

 42-4 „ 

 74-1 „ 

 52-9 ,. 

 27-0 „ 



20-I 



