408 



RAPE SEED. 



Castor oil seed is grown over the whole of the North-West Pro- 

 vinces ; it is not of a very good quality, the yield of oil being gene- 

 rally inferior to the coast seed of Coconada and that of Colgong. 

 The Dessie supplies the largest quantity. 



The castor oil plant is extensively cultivated all over India. The 

 plant is cultivated at Lucknow as a mixed crop. It is sown in June 

 by almost all the villagers, not extensively, but principally for their 

 own use. Its cultivation can be extended all over Oude. The oil 

 is extracted by bruising the seed and then boiling it in water ; the oil 

 is afterwards skimmed off. This is the only seed out of which the oil 

 is extracted by boiling, as in this case it is found cheaper than the 

 method used for other seeds, which is by pressure. The cost of the 

 seed is one rupee per maund, and the price of the oil from two to 

 five seers per rupee, according to the abundance of the crop in the 

 season. The proportion of the oil yielded is about half the weight 

 of the seeds boiled ; it is only used for burning. 



In Cuttack the plant is grown all over the province, a good deal in 

 patches of newly-cleared land, in the jungles of the Tributary States 

 and Sumbulpore. The oil is used for burning and culinary purposes, 

 and also medicinally. Both the native methods of extracting oil are 

 wasteful and tedious, and therefore expensive. European oil-presses, 

 and a knowledge of some methods of clarifying the expressed oil, seem 

 only to be required to render the oil-seed crops of this extensive 

 division of great value. There are 67,000 acres under castor oil 

 in the Madras Presidency, chiefly in Coimbatore. 5230 sacks of 

 castor oil seed, and 111,790 veltes of castor oil, were imported into 

 Pondicherry in 1867. 



In a report on the industrial employment of castor oil, by M. 

 Dareste, published in the third volume of the Bulletin of the Acclima- 

 tization Society of Paris, p. 349, he states that from the documents he 

 had collected he found that a hectare under castor oil yielded 1800 

 kilogrammes. The average yield from oil-palms in intertropical 

 regions was only 900 kilogrammes per hectare, and that of olives in 

 the south of Europe but 600 kilogrammes. From subsequent re- 

 searches he considers that the yield of oil from the castor oil plant 

 would be even more, as he calculated the yield at 0*52 per cent., while 

 subsequent trials proved that 0*62 to 0*64 could be obtained, diffe- 

 rences which result from the mode of extraction employed. 



Castor oil is said to be adulterated sometimes with croton oil, to 

 increase its activity ; this is a dangerous sophistication. It is also 

 mixed with some cheap fixed oils. 



Rape Seed. — From the seeds of Brassica camjpestris, Brassica napiis 

 {Najpa oleifera, Spenn.), annua and biennis, and other species, all 

 natives of Europe, is expressed the colza, or rape oil. The plants 

 are extensively cultivated in the manner usually adopted in the cul- 

 ture of turnips, and raised solely for their value as an oil-yielding 

 plant. The seeds are perfected the second year of their growth. 

 The oil is extensively used for machinery and for burning in lamps. 

 The refuse cake is a well-known cattle food. 



The seed is sown broadcast, in the month of July, upon well- 



