[ 28, ]' 



properties of the seed go into the oil which make it unsuitable 

 for medicinal purposes. But cold-drawn medicinal oil is also 

 made in this jail. The processes adopted in jails are: 



(1) Cleaning and grading of the seed with hand. 



(2) Splitting of the seed with mallets, or with machine, 

 consisting of 2 iron rollers, set parallel to each other and at 

 adjustable distance. 



(3) Sunning the seed and winnowing it with kulo or sup t 

 so as to separate the kernel from the husk on a wide masonry 

 platform. 



(4) Crushing the kernels with dhenki, or with another 

 roller machine. 



(5) Putting the pulp into canvas bags 15" x 12" and pres- 

 sing it in screw presses in between plates of iron, about 150 

 bags being put in at each feed of the press. 



(6) Boiling (40 parts of oil with 5 to 8 parts of water) 

 in copper pans; great experience is needed for this operation. 



(7 1 Straining through a bed of charcoal and 8 folds of 

 calico. 



386. The growing of castor in plantations for the pur- 

 pose of rearing Eri silkworms on a large scale cannot be 

 recommended. Eri silk rearing, to be profitable, must be 

 carried on as a domestic industry by the poor. Poor delicate 

 women who have no other avocation in particular, can profit- 

 ablyjemploy their time in rearing a few thousand silkworms 

 in doors on dalas, picking leaves from near the immediate 

 vicinity of their homesteads, utilising the cocoons for spinning 

 thread with wheel or takur (spindle) and weaving a coarse 

 but substantial cloth out of it. Two or three pieces of chadder 

 cloth woven annually by a woman would bring her a gross 

 outturn of Rs. 36, with no outgoings whatever. This in some 

 districts would be considered a profitable industry for women.* 



* Readers desirous of getting fuller informatoin on the subject should con- 

 suit the Hand-book of Sericulture by the author, 



JJ 



