74 



the whole may be ploughed under, thus furnishing a quantity of organic 

 matter to the soil as a preparation for the grasseswhioh are to be 

 seeded. 



With this preparation of the soil Bahama grass is one of the best 

 grasses for the purpose of preventing erosion, or of reclaiming eroded 

 land. This should be planted by cutting up a turf rather than by 

 seeding, as the seeds do not germinate very readily, even where 

 they have been gathered in a mature condition. 



Where the soil will support other good turf grasses of higher value 

 for hay or pasturage, or where the soil can be brought into a condition 

 to support them, these more valuable grasses should be introduced. 



OIL OF AKEE. 



Sometime ago Mr. E. Foster (Montego Bay), sent to the Director a 

 small portion of oil extracted from Akee, and the residual cake. These 

 samples were sent to Mr. E. M. Holmes, the Curator of the Pharma- 

 ceutical Society of London, and although they were small for the pur- 

 pose, they were carefully examined in the Research Laboratory. Mr. 

 W. Grarsed has lately read a paper on the subjeot at a meeting of the 

 Society which is given below, reprinted from the Pharmaceutical 

 Journal. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, Mr. 

 Garsed said the oil might probably be used for most of the purposes 

 for which palm oil is used at present, but they had not particulars 

 either of the price or anything else to be able to give any definite idea 

 of what its commercial value would be. 



Mr. Peter MacEwan said that vegetable oil of this character is not 

 altogether wanted to take the place of palm oil in soap-manufacture, 

 but there is not in pharmacy a vegetable oil of the same consistence 

 as akee with its bland properties. He thought it would be of interest 

 to have a further supply of the oil with a view to having it tried for 

 medicinal and pharmaceutical purposes. 



Mr. W. Martindale said that, although akee did not seem to be so 

 easily-oxidised an oil as linseed, it might replace some culinary oils, 

 like coco-nut, which have a disagreeable smell and bad keeping pro- 

 perties. The question whether they would be able to grow the plants 

 to an extent to compete with the palm oil or cooo-nut oil was one 

 which, however, he considered extremely doubtful. 



Note by Mr. E. Foster. 



At present it would be almost impossible to put Akee oil on the 

 market, for, as a rule, the trees are never allowed to grow in abund- 

 ance, Only a few are kept for supplying the table. But, taking into 

 consideration the fact that akees can be grown on waste land with 

 almost no care whatever (though care would improve them) and the 

 large amount of fat the fruit contains, I believe that if the culture 

 were taken up money could be made out of it. 



The oil is expressed from the whole of the dessicated fruit, — 

 only omitting the seed. Dessication can be artificially effeoted, but the 



