moderate '-pressure. They are then ground and the oil 

 obtained by expression. In the C.P., the kernels are pounded 

 and boiled and then wrapped up in 2 or 3 folds of cloth and 

 the oil thereafter expressed. In the western tracts of Bengal 

 and in the C. P., the oil is largely used for lighting and as a 

 substitute for ghi. It is of equal value with cocoa-nut oil for 

 soap-making and has been valued at 35 per ton in London. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



SAFFI,OWER (CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS). 



crop is grown both as a dye-crop and as an oil-seed 

 crop. In the C. P., safflower oil, though it is slightly 

 bitter, is in common use for cullinary and other purposes and it 

 is sold at about 200 tolas per rupee like any other ordinary oil. 

 But it is chiefly for its red dye that it is cultivated all over 

 India as well as in Spain, Southern Germany, Italy, Hungary, 

 Persia, China, Egypt, South America, and Southern Russia. 

 It is found in a wild state in the Punjab and elsewhere, the 

 seeds of the wild safflower being much smaller than those of 

 the cultivated kind. Safflower dye being evanescent and 

 aniline colours gradually replacing it, the cultivation of this 

 crop is gradually dying out. In Eastern Bengal, specially in 

 Dacca and also in Midnapore, the cultivation of safflower for 

 dye still holds its own. 



405. It is usually sown along with some other rabi crop, 

 such as gram, wheat, barley, tobacco, chillies, opium, or 

 carrots, from the middle of October to the end of November. 

 'In Chittagong sowing is done as late as January. Low chur- 

 land is preferred for this crop. It is an exhausting crop and 

 grown for three years in succession on the same soil it is 



