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SECTION V. 



THE OIL SEEDS AND VEGETABLE OILS 

 OF COMMERCE. 



Great as tas been tlie eEtension of commerce and the progress of 

 our foreign agricultural supplies, the Oil Seeds of commerce are 

 yet far from commensurate to the increasing wants of Eiu'ope. It is 

 therefore a wise provision that new discoveries crop up from time to 

 time, arising from the progress of scientific research, or the extension 

 of foreign agricultiu-e to meet in some measure these increased 

 demands. When the oils yielded by the whale fishery declined, and 

 by their enhanced price became too expensive for manufactures, in- 

 creased attention was given to the production of vegetable oils, and 

 larger quantities of oil seeds for crushing, from Europe, Africa and 

 the East, were obtained. Even these were found insufiicient for the 

 increased demand, till the discovery of the mineral oil springs came 

 in to supply the wants. The vegetable oils, however, provide, and 

 will long continue to do so, the bulk of the consumption. 



In the section on " The Useful Palms," some of the chief vegetable 

 oils, such as Cocoanut oil and Palm oil, have already been described, 

 and I now proceed to notice others. 



The Olive. — The olive (Olea Europea) is supposed to have been 

 originally a native of Asia, and grows abundantly about Aleppo and 

 Lebanon, but it is now naturalized in Greece, Italy, Spain, and the 

 South of France, where it has been extensively cultivated for an un- 

 known length of time, for the oil expressed from its fruit. The wild 

 olive is found indigenous in Syria, Greece, and Africa, on the lower 

 slopes of the Atlas. The cultivated one grows spontaneously in Syria, 

 and is easily raised on the shores of the Levant. Much attention has, 

 of late years, been paid to olive culture by the French in Algeria. 

 Tuscany, the South of France, and the plains of Spain, are the parts of 

 Europe in which the olive was earliest cultivated. The Tuscans were 

 the first who exported olive oil largely, and thus it has obtained the 

 name of Florence oil ; but the purest is said to be obtained fi'om Aix 

 in France. 



The olive in the western world followed the progress of peace, of 

 which it was considered the symbol. * Two centuries after the founda- 

 tion of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful 

 plant: it was naturalized in those countries, and at length carried 

 into the heart of Spain and Gaul. Its usefulness, the little culture 



