Vegetable Oils and Fats 



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expression forms a fine table oil that approaches most nearly tojpliye oil, for which it furnishes 

 a substitute or adulterant. 



Rape Oils. It is convenient to include under this head the oils obtained from the v seeds 

 of a number of plants belonging to the order Cruet ferae. In the narrowest acceptation of the 

 word, the rape plant of Europe is Brassica campestns, var. rapus ; but no" distinction is made 

 in this country between the product of this plant a.mlth.a.toi Brassica caiiipesiris which receives 

 the name of colza oil in Germany, or Brassica rapa, to which the term " Rtibsen oil " is applied. 

 The seeds of these three plants are very similar in shape and in colour, but as a rule colza seeds 

 are larger and yield a greater proportion of oil." Rape is cultivated in France, Belgium; North 

 Germany, Austria, Roumania, and Russia. In Europe a distinction is made between summer 

 rape that is sown in spring and matures in five months, and winter rape that is sown in 

 autumn and reaped the following summer ; winter rape is considered to yield better oil. The 

 preparation of the seed for treatment consists in breaking down and crushing the seed, 

 this being followed by pressing or extraction. The pressed cake is suitable for feeding cattle, 

 the extracted cake is suitable for manure. Crude rape oil is dark-brown in colour, but is 

 refined into a clear yellow oil that possesses a characteristic harsh, taste. 



Other semi-drying oils that find a commercial use are : — 



Kapok Oil, obtained from the seeds of Eriodendron anfractuosum, the Silk Cotton tree, 

 cultivated for the " floss " that envelops the seeds. The oil, principally expressed from Java 

 seed in Holland, approaches very closely in its properties to cotton seed , oil ; the better 

 qualities serve for converting into butter substitutes, the poorer grades for soap-making. 



Maize Oil is manufactured chiefly in the United States of America from the germs of the 



Photo by W. H. Johnson, Esq., F.L.S. 



PREPARING PALM OIL ON THE GOLD COAST 



