March 1907.] 



153 



Edible Products, 



To North America it spread more than a century ago, and it was cultivated 

 by the slaves in Carolina in the eighteenth century. There is evidence that it was 

 grown in Virginia in 1781 (Sturtevant in American Naturalist, XXIV p. 150). 



At the end of last century its cultivation as a crop in Europe was first 

 attempted ; and at a later date Australia and some of the Polynesian islands received 

 it. To how wide a range of latitude it is suited is shown by this extensive dispersal 

 Probably the furthest north to which it can be grown is in Central Emope, e. g. 

 Austria ; in the United States it i-: grown to 38°N., while the furthest south at which 

 it is found is 30°-35° s. latitude. 



Ortgin and Growth of tiir Trade op Europe. 



Mention has been made of the use which the slavers made of groundnuts as 

 food for their captives. They drew their supply at first it seems, from the West 

 Indies ; later it came from the Guinea Coast. This traffic and attempts to grow the 

 nut in other more northern places helped to familiarise industrial Europe with it. 

 Even as early as 1697 Stisser grew it in Brnnswick (Fliickiger and Hanbury, Pharma- 

 cographia, ed. 2, London, 1879 p, 187) ; in 1712 it had been cultivated under glass in 

 England (see Tropical Agriculturist, ILL, 507), and in 1723 it was at the Royal Garden 

 at Montpellier, where however, it soon died out (Houze, Les plantes Industrie lies, 

 II., Paris, 1893, p. 130.) Tenore says that in 1771 it was again in England ; and in 1769 

 Sir William Waston showed pods aud the oil to the Royal Society, while he read a 

 memoir on it, communicated to him by George Brownrigg of North Carolina {Phil. 

 Traps., lix..pp. 379-383). 



In 1787 a great quantity of seed was brought to Spain and Portugal where 

 its cultivation promised well, and it is of great interest to learn from Tenore, who 

 himself experimented with it in Italy, (Napoli, Atti 1st. Incorr., I, 1811, p. 

 31), that in 1807 the uses of its seeds were to yield an oil for soap-making and 

 as a substitute for almond oil in pharmacy, while powdered, they served as a 

 substitute for cacao (1/3 Arachis seed mixed with 2/3 Cacao) or were added to 

 flour in making bread. Prance was anxious to obtain it, and from Heuze's accouut — 

 more correct than that of any other recent writer— the following is borrowed : — 



"In 1801, Lucien Bonaparte, Ambassador at the Court of Madrid, sent seeds 

 to M. Mechin, prefect of the department of Les Landes (the province to the south of 

 Bordeaux) suggesting that he should try to grow ib on the sandy soil of those parts 

 When the first trials had succeeded, M. Mechin printed a detailed account of how to 

 cultivate it aud circulated it among those who were willing to repeat his experiments. 

 As a result Arachis was widely grown on a large scale in the departments of Basses- 

 Pyrenees, Pyreuees-orientales, Gard, Bouches de Rhone, Vaucluse, Isere, Aude, and 

 Drome. Everywhere people were convinced that it was a reliable oil seed, and 

 would assuredly grow in Southern France. The political troubles of 1808 to 1815 

 stopped the experiments, and the cultivation of Archis was abandoned. Again in 

 1820 to 1822, at the time when the olive yards were in a large measure destroyed by 

 frost, fresh experiments took place, ill-conceived, ill-directed, and without result. 

 The farmers who had undertaken them, in abandoning the enterprise, reported 

 that shelling the seeds was necessary before obtaining the oil, and that this was 

 a difficult operation, and, secondly, that there was no market for the oil." 



Again the winter of 1830 wrought serious havoc in olive-yards (Coutance 

 L Olivier, Paris, 1877, p. 210), and for some time olive oil remined at a high price. 

 This led the wool-carders to seek some lubricant as a substitute. Ground-nut oil, 

 in 1837, was found to serve. A Marseilles firm had put on to the market as an 

 experiment some four or five kilogrammes (Dumas ex Poiteau in Ann. Set Nat. s6r. 

 XIX., p. 270) derived from the crushing of seed sent from Gambia. From this 

 the trade takes its origin. French settlements benefitted first and Gambia, where 

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