Oils and Fats. 



296 



[October, 1909. 



golden yellow eyebrow or Chin-huang 



gives good beau curd, 

 black belly or Hei-chi. 

 Green bean or Ohing-ton, 

 Black beau or Wu-ton, 



large blacK or Ta-Wu-tou, 

 small black or Hsiao-wu-ton, 

 flat black or Pien-wu-ton, 



We seem to have no green beans in 

 India and nothing approaching the yel- 

 low Mauchurian beans in shape nor the 

 larger black. 



Sir Alexander Hosie in another place 

 (Report on the Province of Ssuch'uan, 

 1904, p. 4) states that the beans of this 

 south-western province are white or red : 

 their cultivation he adds (p. 43) is in- 

 significant, lape supplying oil instead. I 

 should imagine that they are in Ssuch'uan 

 grown to a degree which corresponds 

 closely with that of our Indian hills. 



There have been made many analyses 

 of soy beans— too numerous to be quoted 

 here. Most of them may be found 

 gathered together in Konig's Chemie der 

 menschlichen Nahrungs und Genussmit- 

 tel, Vol. I, pages 595-600 and 1484. The 

 seed contains about— 

 8 per cent water. 



35 „ albuminoids. 



18 „ oil. 



28 ,, non-nitrogenous extratives, starch, etc, 

 5 ,, fibre. 

 5 ,, ash. 



Examining all the analyses 1 find that 

 the percentage on dry weight of oils in 

 beans from various countries is recorded 

 to vary thus : — 



Chinese beans ... ... 17-60 to 26: 18 



Japanese „ ... ... 13-36 „ 25-55 



Java „ ... .. 18 37 „ 26-18 



Grown in Europe ... ... 1516 ,, 21*89 



Grown in North America .. 18'42 „ 19 52 



I reserve the Indian figures. The 

 average of eight aualyses from China 

 is 19*89. The average of six analyses 

 from Japan is 20 01. The average of six 

 analyses from Java is 21 "62. The aver- 

 age of forty-two analyses from Europe 

 is 18'98, being from Germany fourteen 

 analyses with an average of 19 74, from 

 Austria eleven, average ltr44, from 

 Hungary six, average 19-16, from Russia 

 nine, average 17'93, from France two, 

 average 15'40. 



Church (Food Grains of India, p. 141) 

 gave the following analyses of Soja. I 

 presume he had Indian seed, but it is not 

 possible to say what race he examined : — 



Per cent. 



Water 11 



Albuminoids ... ... 35*3 



Pat 18 9 



Starch and sugar... ... 26-0 



Fibre 4-2 



Ash 4-6 



Dr. Leather in 1903 analysed the seeds 

 of seven samples of soy from Japanese 

 seeds cultivated at Manjri, near Poona. 

 The amount of oil in them varied from 

 14 92 to 23-05 per cent, being on the dry 

 weight 15-97 to 24-41 per cent, with an 

 average of 19-99. 



My office is now studying the composi- 

 tion of the seeds of established races in 

 order to see how they compare in oil 

 content with such material as Man- 

 churia exports, or such as Manchurian 

 seed might give in India. 



At the present time India has not 

 the supply of these beans for an export 

 trade ; but possibilities of a certain 

 extent are evident. 



One of the first of considerations must 

 be the yield that soy will give per acre 

 in various parts of the country. Burma 

 which, owing to its thorough Settlement 

 operations, has for so many crops pro- 

 vided reliable ststistics, for this bean 

 provides none— a consequence of the 

 way in which it is seldom grown alone. 

 When the bean in 1885 was grown experi- 

 mentally at Nagpur from Japanese seed 

 it yielded at the rate of 180 lbs. per acre 

 (see Report Experimental Farms for that 

 year, p. 5) but later (vide Nagpur Experi- 

 mental Farm Report 1889-90, p. 5) it 

 yielded but an average of 88 lbs. per 

 acre over five years. In Lahore in 1894- 

 95 (vide Report on the Government Agri- 

 Horticultural Garden, p. 2.) it yielded 

 at an estimated rate of 349 lbs. of seed 

 per acre and 349 lbs. of fodder, but on a 

 very small area. Its yield was veiy poor 

 in the next year. The estimated yield 

 in 1898 in an expeiiment done at Madras 

 was 468 lbs. per acre. It has been grown 

 sparingly at Nadiad in Gujarat, and 

 elsewhere in the Bombay Presidency. In 

 the Experimental Farm Report, Bombay, 

 for 1901 a big yield was chronicled, but 

 in the next year the crops at Poona and 

 Surat failed. In 1903 the seeds analysed 

 by Dr. Leather, as already reported, 

 were grown near Poona : the yield is 

 not recorded. In 1904 ' a yield of about 

 300 lbs. per acre was obtained (Experi- 

 mental Farms Report, Bombay, p. 70) 

 on light land. One year later nineteen 

 plots were under trial, but with unpro- 

 mising results, for only five yielded seed 

 enough to repay for the cost of cultiva- 

 tion. The yield varied from 50 to 293 

 lbs. per acre, the five promising to be 

 remunerative yielding over 200 lbs, per 

 acre. The Manjri (Poona) Farm grew 

 19 plots in 1905-06 with better results, 

 probably as a consequence of better land. 

 Plot No. 3 yielded at the rate of 700 lb«. 

 per acre, No. 13 at the rate of 690 lbs. per 

 aero, No. 4 at the rate of 650 lbs, per acre 

 and so on. Nearly all the plots gave 



