230 



CASTOR-BEAN 



CASTOR-BEAN 



homa and was continued there by Shaw and Nichol- 

 son, and is now being continued in Alabama by the 

 writer. 



Harvesting. 



If the beans are planted from the middle of 

 April to the first of May, one may expect to see the 

 first ripe fruits in July ; and from this date to the 

 first frost the pods will continue to ripen and the 

 harvest must be continued. The pods are so con- 

 structed as to throw the seeds to a considerable 

 distance when the wall of the pod breaks, and 

 hence the necessity of collecting the entire fruit- 

 cluster as soon as it turns dark brown. These 

 clusters are cut off with a sharp instrument and 

 hauled away in a tight wagon-box. They are then 



spread on a tight 

 floor in the barn 

 and left to dry 

 and crack open. 

 When all the seeds 

 are out of the pods 

 they may be swept 

 together and 

 passed through a 

 hand fanning mill 

 and stored in some 

 dry place until 

 sold. Frosted beans 

 never be 

 with the 

 good ones, as they 

 will reduce the 

 value of the whole 

 lot. If gathered at 

 the proper time 

 and handled as 

 indicated, the 

 labor item may be 

 reduced to a min- 



i^ should 

 ' ~ mixed 



Fig. 338. 

 Castoi-bean. Mature plant. 



One of the points to be kept in mind in the 

 breeding work is to develop a type in which the 

 fruits in any one cluster will ripen at the same 

 time to prevent loss. The work of gathering the 

 crop is tedious and could be much reduced in this 

 way. 



Enemies. 



Fortunately the castor-oil plant has no serious 

 ■pests as yet among either fungi or insects. 



Manufacture. 



The manufacture of castor-oil is largely concen- 

 trated at present in Jersey City and St. Louis. The 

 former place presses much of the imported ma- 

 terial, while the St. Louis mills handle largely the 

 production of the western states. The hydraulic 

 press is the essential feature of these mills, as 

 the common method is to crush by hydraulic 

 pressure without any further treatment than the 

 mere removal of foreign matter. The seeds are 

 not decorticated, as is practiced with cotton seed 

 in making cottonseed-oil. In some cases the seeds 

 are steamed before pressing, but though this 



permits of more rapid extraction, it yields an oil of 

 inferior quality for medicinal and other purposes. 

 Most of the mills leave in the residue 10 per cent 

 or more of oil. ^ 



The residue, "" ' 



called castor pom- ^ « 



ace, is a very good i 



fertilizer material, 



but is poisonous to A j^ , 



stock and cannot "^ ^t/^fn 

 be employed as 



'*»*<i«i 



cottonseed meal. In 

 some places it is 

 prized as a fertil- 

 izer for tobacco 

 and other plants. 



*^. 



i 



Castor-oil is 



used largely in the ~ .,„ « ^ v j,- 

 J . J. ■'_xi. „ Fig. 329. Castor-bean seedling, 

 dyeing of cotton 



goods, and for that purpose is converted by means 

 of concentrated acids into a sort of soluble oil, 

 which, because of the ready solubility of the 

 alizarine dye in it, is often called alizarine - assis- 

 tant or Turkey-red oil. It is not employed so 

 extensively in medicine as formerly, although 

 among the rural population in the southern United 

 States, and among the negroes particularly, it is 

 still largely used. It is employed also in various 

 other ways, such as in the manufacture of "sticky" 

 fly-paper and "glycerine" soap. 



Literature. 



A few references are here given : — The Castor- 

 Oil Plant, Miscellaneous Circular, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, No. 1, pp. 1-4; P. 

 C. Burtis : Castor Beans (1899), Oklahoma Ex- 

 periment Station, Bulletin No. 44, pp. 7-9 ; Crop 

 and Forage Notes (1900), Oklahoma Experiment 

 Station, Bulletin No. 48, p. 11 ; C. M. Daugherty: 

 The Industry in Oil Seeds, Yearbook, United 

 States Department of Agriculture (1903), pp. 

 411-426; The Castor-Oil Industry, Yearbook, 

 United States Department of Agriculture (1904), 



Fig. 330. Castor-bean seeds. 



287-298 ; G. E. Hicks, Oil-producing Seeds, Year- 

 book, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture (1895), pp. 185-204; G. L. Holter and J. 

 Fields: Fertilizer Analyses of Castor Bean Plants 

 (1897), Oklahoma Experiment Station, Bulletin 

 No. 25, pp. 7, 8 ; A Study of the Castor-Oil Plant 

 (1898), Oklahoma Experiment Station, Bulletin 

 No. 32, pp. 11-14 ; Determination of Oil in Castor 

 Beans (1898), Oklahoma Experiment Station, 



