FARMERS' REGISTER— ANSWER TO QUERIES IN NO. 9. 



047 



from flax seed, and is therefore, unfit fur the pur- 

 poses of painting:, &c. 



Having- been for a long-time engaged in tlie ma- 

 nufacture of flax seed oil, and having made vari- 

 ous experiments on other seeds, I have, of course, 

 had some experience on the subject. In relation 

 to rape seed, I had an excellent oi)portunity of 

 making full and satisfactory experiments. In the 

 year 1822 or 1S23, an Englisli gentleman, who 

 was familiar with the culture of rape seed, and 

 who had a farm somewhere in the neighborhood of 

 Salem, N. J. brought to my establishment about 

 forty bushels of rape seed, which he had produced 

 upon his farm. Tiie account he gave me of its 

 culture was this. Two acres were sown with this 

 seed (broad cast) in the month of August; it 

 sprouted, and was growing very handsomely, but 

 late in the fall, the cattle broke into it, and as he 

 thought, completely destroyed it. He abandoned 

 the experiment, and suOcred his cattle to roam in 

 it all winter ; but in the spring, observing it 

 sprouting again, he put up the fence, and as he ex- 

 pressed himselfj " let it take its chance." The 

 two acres with this, as he considered it, unfair ex- 

 periment, produced him about forty four busliels 

 of seed, for which I olfered him four dollars per 

 bushel, which he refused to take. I expressed it 

 for him; and although my apparatus was not by 

 any means perfectly adapted to the purj)0ie, the 

 manufacture differing in some res])ects, not neces- 

 sary to state, from that of tlax seed oil, I produced 

 three and a half gallons of oil per bushel. Tiie 

 cake, that is, the pulp after the oil is expressed 

 from it, he valued highly for fattening cattle, and 

 refused to take seventy five cents per bushel for it ; 

 the oil he sold to a woollen manufacturer for 

 one dollar and thirty cents per gallon, thus, inclu- 

 ding the cake, realizing five dollars and thirty cents 

 per bushel, out of which he paid the expense of 

 manufacturing. It is, I am told^ considered in 

 England a profital)le crop, although the price is 

 not much, if at all, above two dollars per bushel. 

 The gentleman was in high spirits as to the re- 

 sult, and told me he intended to go into the culture 

 of it more extensively; but from v.hat cause I do 

 not know, I have never seen him or heard from 

 him since — whether he failed in his experiments, 

 died, or returned to England, I do not know. 1 

 have not, however, the least doubt that our soil 

 and clmiate, are well adapted to the culture of this 

 seed ; it is of the same family with the cabbage, 

 which every one knows grows luxuriantly here. 

 We have, besides, such a variety of soils and cli- 

 mates in our country, that if it will not succeed in 

 one district it certainly will in some other. 



Another seed, valuable for oil, is the sun flower. 

 I have never tried this, but am told it produces a 

 very excellent sallad oil. I have no doubt the cul- 

 ture of it, properly managed, would be both use- 

 ful and profitable. 



The bene seed cultivated in the southern stales, 

 produces a valuable oil, and yields more than any 

 seed I know of; it is said that one hundred pounds 

 of seed produces ninety pounds of oil. I never 

 tried the experiment fairly, but have no doubt as 

 to the fact. Some years since, I expressed a bar- 

 rel of the seed, but do not now remember the 

 quantity produced ; it was, however, such as to as- 

 tonish me. The seed was eight years old, and had 

 become in a manner rotten and rancid ; the oil, oi 

 coursej was not fit for the table; but it was, ne- 



vertheless, beautifully transparent and fluid — more 

 so tlian any I had ever seen. It struck me that it 

 might be valuable for watchmakers. I believe I 

 have a small quantity of it left, and should like 

 some one who knows more of that matter than I 

 do, to try it. 



The common thin shelled pig nut of our coun- 

 try is said to make an excellent sallad oil ; the ma- 

 nufacture of it is easy ; the shell is so thin as to in- 

 terifjre but little in the process : the nut is put into 

 the mill, and ground up without removing the 

 siiell. 



The cotton seed, if hulled, will yield a large 

 quantity of oil ; and I am glad to learn that atten- 

 tion is beins: paid to it. I once manufactured a 

 small quantity, grinding the hull and cotton fibre 

 with it ; the quantity of oil produced in this way 

 will not, of course, pay the ex|)ense of manufac- 

 turing il, so much of the oil being absorbed by 

 the hull and cotton. Your correspondent does not 

 appear to be practically acquainted with the plan 

 of taking off the hull which he suggests, by means 

 of a barley hulling machine. It is totally imprac- 

 ticable, for the following, among other reasons : 

 first, if the result could be accomj)lished in that 

 way, the expense of power, labor, &.c. in doing so, 

 would be such as to leave little or no profit; it 

 uould, in fact, be much more trouble and expense 

 than all the rest of the process of making oil ; — 

 second, the seed cannot be hulled in that way. I 

 speak from experience, being practically familiar 

 with the process of hulling barley ; the reason is, 

 that wJien the grist is put into the machine, and 

 the stone had penetrated through the hull, and come 

 in contact w ith the soft and greasy parts of the seed, 

 it would become so greased, or to speak technical- 

 ly, glazed, as to render it perfectly incapable of 

 doing any more work ; the seed would then come 

 out in prett)' much the same condition that it went 

 in. I rather think a method similar to that which 

 is used in chocolate mills for separating the hull 

 from the cocoa, would be more feasible. The nuts 

 are broken up by being passed through rollers of 

 a peculiar construction, and the shell is afterwards 

 blown out by a common fan. The olijections to 

 this i)lan are, the diificuKy of breaking up the cot- 

 ton seed, on account of its toughness; the further 

 difficulty, from its adhesiveness, of separating the 

 hull from the kernel of the seed. I have been told 

 that some person at the south has succeeded in 

 making a machine for hulling cotton seed, and I 

 perceive among the list of patents in the Journal 

 lor Noveml;er, one for a machine for that purpose ; 

 the description of it, however, is so imperfect, that 

 I cannot exactly understand the nature of it. If, 

 as is said, it does hull one hundred and fifty bush- 

 els per day, it is an important matter, and the ob- 

 ject is attained. 



The above remarks have been hastily thrown to- 

 gether, after reading the essay above alluded to; 

 they come from one who is in a measure practical- 

 ly acquainted with the suitject, and may perhaps 

 answer some useful purpose. 



ANSWERS TO QUERIES IjV NO. 9. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Regi.^ter. 



Charles City Co. Feb. 26th, 1S34. 

 Nothing could afford me more pleasure than to 

 answer the call of a brother fiirmer from Essex 

 county, through your truly valuable publication 



