— i8 — 



almond oil. Our sale has been exceptionally brisk at full quotations, 

 and at times we have only been able to satisfy the demand after 

 considerable delay. 



In an earlier Report 1 ) we pointed out that efforts have lately been 

 made in the United States to manufacture within the States certain oils 

 which up to the present have been purchased abroad. Among these is 

 oil of almonds, both of the fatty and of the essential variety, which, as 

 is well known, are not prepared from almonds but from the stones 

 of plums, apricots and peaches. A report by F. Rabak 2 ), published 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture, contains other in- 

 formation which may be of interest to fruit growers in the United 

 States. In the introduction, which is chiefly botanical, Rabak gives the 

 following details with regard to the cultivation of the fruits referred to : — 



Apricots are chiefly grown West of the Rocky Mountains. Peaches 

 occur very widely, chiefly in California, Colorado, Michigan, Georgia, 

 Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and 

 New Jersey. Plums grow particularly in California, Oregon, Washington, 

 and Idaho. The almond treehas been introduced into California, where 

 the climate appears to be particularly favourable to its growth. The 

 output of fruit has increased greatly during the last few years. The 

 value of exported dried fruit in 1906 was as follows: — 



Apricots $1325422 



Peaches . .... „ 1 10407 

 Plums . . . . . . „ 1 410636 3 ) 



With the object of determining to what extent American material 

 might be used for the production of the fatty and essential oils 

 mentioned above, almonds, plum, and peach kernels were extracted 

 with ether in order to obtain the fixed oil. Rabak found that sweet 

 and bitter almonds contain a little more fixed oil than the other kernels. 

 The specific gravity was practically the same for all oils, and moreover 

 there was scarcely any difference in colour, odour, taste, or congealing 

 point. The same applies to the saponification, iodine, and acid numbers, 

 and the elaidin test 4 ) also gave similar results for all the oils. 



The yield of essential oil was not equal for the different kernels; 

 peach kernels yielding 0,7 °/ , apricot kernels 1,6 °/ , plum stones 0,3 

 to 0,46 °/ , and bitter almonds 0,81 °/ . No great accuracy, however, 

 can be claimed for these figures, because only small quantities of 

 material (0,6 to 1 kilo) were used, and because the complete separation 

 of the small quantities of oil produced was rendered more difficult by 



x ) Report November 1908, 154. 



2 ) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 133, 1908. 



3 ) Commerce and Navigation of the United States 1906, 596. 



4 ) U. S. Pharmacopoeia, 5th edition (1 905), p. 307. 



