312 THE FLAX CROP. 



sumption of it in this country, has invested this portion 

 of the subject with an interest and importance which it 

 does not possess in any other country. The treatment 

 the seed undergoes in the manufacture is very simple. It 

 is merely crushed and submitted in that state to a very 

 high pressure, by which the oil, or rather a portion of it, 

 is expelled, and the solid portions remain in the shape of 

 compressed hard cake. The relative proportions of the 

 two, the oil and the cake, depend of course on the quality 

 of the seed, and the efficiency of the process the crushing 

 and the pressing. In no case, however, is it mechanically 

 possible to extract the whole of the oil; on the average, 

 about two-thirds to three- fourths, or 66 to 75 per cent., 

 are pressed out, and the remaining portion, one-fourth to 

 one-third, or 25 to 33 per cent., left in the cake. 



Of the samples of foreign seeds already referred to in 

 the analysis given, the importer and crusher, an intelli- 

 gent and reliable authority, gives the following as the 

 trade produce of the several samples : 



No. 1. Riga, of average quality, weighing 52^ Ibs. 'per bushel, would 

 produce from 90 to 95 Ibs. of oil per quarter, or equal to 22 per cent. } 

 whereas it contained by analysis 3 4 '7 per cent. 



No. 2. Memel, good quality, weight 56 Ibs. per bushel, would produce 

 from 100 to 105 Ibs. of oil per quarter, or equal to 22'8 per cent., whereas it 

 contained by analysis 36 per cent. 



No. 3. Black Sea, weighing 53| Ibs. per bushel, would produce about 112 

 Ibs. of oil per quarter, or equal to 26' 3 per cent., the analysis showing 38 '42 

 per cent. 



Thus in neither case do we find that more than two- 

 thirds of the oil naturally existing in the seed is expressed 

 by the manufacturing process to which it is submitted, 

 the remaining one-third forming a portion of the residual 

 cake, and adding materially to its value for general feed- 

 ing purposes. 



Oil-pressing and the manufacture of oil-cake is carried 

 on to a considerable extent in this country. Foreign seed 



