﻿448 RICHMOND .VXD VIVEXCK) DEL ROSARIO. 



or coconut oil : that is, the mechanical unit of production is the hydraulic press. 

 Hulling and crushing the seeds is unnecessary. They are hand picked and sub- 

 mitted to hydraulic pressure either hot or cold. Two grades of oil are produced, 

 the first for medicinal use, and the second for the various other purposes. One-half 

 to one cent per pound difference in price exists between the two grades, 9 to 11 

 cents per pound being the prevailing price in the United States. The oil cake, 

 called castor pomace, on account of its poisonous properties, has no food value, 

 but it contains potash and phosporic acid, and is especially rich in nitrogen, 

 therefore it is well adapted for a manurial. The high percentage of oil left 

 in oil cake by commercial processes is said to prevent its rapid decomposition 

 in the soil and thus to prolong its fertilizing effect. In some sections of the 

 United States the castor pomace is highly regarded as a fertilizer for tobacco. 

 In British India, where more of this product is made and used than in 

 any other country in the world, it is much esteemed as a manure for potatoes, 

 wheat, oats and corn. Good qualities of beans contain about 45 per cent of 

 oil, but the yield extracted by manufacturing processes in the United States 

 approximates only about 32 per cent. At this rate there is obtained 10 pounds 

 (2 gallons) of oil and 34 pounds of pomace per bushel of 50 pounds of the 

 beans. 



The supply of the United States is almost entirely derived from two widely 

 separated regions: the first, a few counties in Oklohama, Kansas. Missouri and 

 Illinois, the second, British India, a country that has long held the monopoly 

 of the commercial castor bean production of the world. Statistics show that 

 probably three-fourths, and possibly four-fifths, of the castor oil manufactured 

 in the United States is from imported beans. The maximum demand for this 

 product in the United States is 1.000.000 gallons annually in round numbers. 



British India is the only great castor bean producing country, the United 

 States, England. France and Germany all deriving their supply from this 

 particular source. The castor bean production in the United States has declined 

 steadily for years, while the demand for its products has had a steady upward 

 trend until, as above stated, practically the entire supply is now imported. 

 Several reasons for this condition of things may be given. The castor plant 

 being tropical in its origin must be acclimated in a country of late and early 

 frosts, to which the plant is very susceptible, while the land is much more 

 valuable for the growing or crops already adapted to the prevailing climatic 

 conditions. 



In the Philippine Islands we find the plant producing abundantly 

 under natural conditions, therefore much may be accomplished under 

 proper cultivation. Furthermore, any initial outlay in milling machinery 

 would be unnecessary, as the product can be worked tip in a coconut-oil 

 mill. "We might therefore be able to place on this market an oil for 

 purposes of lubrication and illumination which would be nonedible and 

 which could be produced as cheaply as coconut oil. now in general use. 

 TVe are nearer to the Australian market than is British India, from 

 whence the supply of castor oil is brought, but most important of all if 

 we could supply the increasing demands of America and thus divert the 

 large export trade from British India to the Philippine Islands, the residt 

 would warrant the exploitation of castor oil in the Archipelago. 



