536 



OLEAGINOUS PLAifTS. 



oil is to be made, about seventy seers measure, or two and a balf 

 bushels of seeds are thrown in ; to this ten seers, or two quarts 

 and three-quarters of water, are gradually added ; this on the con- 

 tinuance of the grinding, which lasts in all six hours, unites with 

 the fibrous portion of the seeds, and forms a cake, which, when 

 removed, leaves the oil clean and pure at the bottom of the mortar. 

 Erom this it is taken out by a coco-nut shell cup, on the pestle 

 being withdrawn. Other seed oils are described by Dr. Buchanan, 

 aa made almost entirely in the same way as the sesamum. The 

 exceptions are the hamlu, or castor oil, obtained from either the 

 small or large varieties of Hicinits, This, at Seringapatam, is first 

 parched in pots, containing something more than a seer each. It 

 is then beaten in a mortar, and formed into balls ; of these from 

 four to sixteen seers are put in an earthenware pot and boiled 

 with an equal quantity of water, for the space of five hours ; 

 frequent care being taken to stir the mixture to prevent it from 

 burning. The oil now floats on the surface, and is skimmed off 

 pure. The oil mill made use of at Bombay, and to the northward, 

 at Surat, Cambay, Kurrachee, &c., difiers a little from that just 

 described, in having a very strong wooden frame round the mouth 

 of the mortar ; on this the man who keeps the seeds in order sits. 

 In Scinde a camel is employed to drive the mill instead of bullocks. 



Castor oil seed is thrown into the mill like other seeds, as 

 already described ; when removed it requires to be boiled for an 

 hour, and then strained through a cloth to free it from the 

 fragments of the seed. 



It is a curious fact, and illustrative of the imperfect manner in 

 which the oil is separated from the seeds, that while the common 

 pressman only obtained some 261 per cent., Boussingault, in his 

 laboratory, from the same seeds, actually procured 41 per cent. 

 "When the oil cakes are meant for feeding stock, this loss is of 

 little consequence, inasmuch as the oil serves a very good purpose, 

 but when the cake is only intended to be used as a manure, it is a 

 great loss, inasmuch as the oil is of little or no use in adding any 

 food for crops to the soil. 



The chief oil made on the sea board of India, is that yielded by 

 the coco-nut palm. The nut having been stripped of the husk or 

 coir, the shell is broken, and the fatty lining enclosing the milk 

 is taken out. This is called cobri, copra, or copperah in difierent 

 localities. Three raaunds, or ninety pounds of copperah, are 

 thrown into the mill with about three gallons of water, and from 

 this is produced three maunds, or seven and three-quarter gallons 

 of oil. The copperah in its unprepared state is sold, slightly dried 

 in the market. It is burned in iron cribs or grates, on the top of 

 poles as torches, in processions, and as means of illumination for 

 work performed in the open air at night. No press or other con- 

 trivance is made use of by the natives in India for squeezing out 

 or expressing the oil from the cake, and a large amount of waste, 

 in consequence of this, necessarily ensues. — Bomhay Times, June 

 5, 1850. 



