223 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1888. 
some oi' these are for as much as 17,500 acres 
(10,000 Bows) it follows that others are much 
below the above average. Looking at the facility 
with which some concessions of 4,000 acres have 
changed hands we think it quite reasonable to 
suppose that acreage is sufficient for a Company 
and that 5,000 acres is a sufficiently liberal 
allowance. 
Arrivals by the S.S. "Paknam," 16th July. Messrs. 
H. N. J. Lugt, V. W. van Gogh, T.F. W. Kehrerand 
Aug. Koch. These gentlemen are all connected 
with planting and their object in visiting British 
North Borneo is to select land suitable for Tobacco 
planting. They proceeded the following day to 
Lahad Datu to visit Baron von Stein's Tobacco 
Estate the soil of which they report as being very 
suitable for Tobacco. After their return to Sanda- 
kan they proceeded up the Kinabatangan in the 
S.S. " Normanhurst " as far as Bilit and conti- 
nued up stream in the " Thistle " with their men 
and boats in tow, to prospect the Lokan and upper 
Kinabatangan. We are glad to see these gentle- 
men among us and hope they may meet with 
success. 
A PBOLIFEEOUS STBAWBEBBY. 
Horticultural editors are often appealed to to inter- 
pret the conditions in the schedules of flower shows. 
A frequent injuiry is as to whether Rhubarb is to be 
considered as a fruit or a vegetable — using the latter 
word in a culinary sense. A similar question is often 
put with reference to the Tomato. No such enquiry 
has ever reached us as to the Strawberry ; every one 
seems quite satisfied that should be called a fruit, and 
cot only a fruit, but that particular fruit called a 
berry. It may bo read that the Almighty might have 
created a better " berry," but that He did not. What 
then, if the so-called Strawberry be not a berry at 
all, and, exoept in a very loose sense, not even a 
fruit? In point of fact, the true fruits in the 
Strawberry are the little dry pips commonly, but 
erroneously called seeds, and which spriog from and 
are more or less imbedded in the fleshy end of the 
flower-stalk. Usually the flower-stalk or axis, after 
having given origin to the several parts of the 
flower, ceases to grow, and disappears from sight : 
but in the Strawberry it swells out into that deli- 
cious succulent mass which is so nice that the par- 
taker heeds not for a moment the botanical pedant 
who tells him it is not and could not be a berry. 
That it is really the dilated top of the flower-stalk 
is, however, shown on various grounds which it is 
unnecessary to discuss. Suffice it to say it is the 
office of a stalk to produce leaves, leaf-buds, shoots, 
or flowers, or all of them, as the case may be ; and 
in the Strawberry before us we have three or four 
such buds springing from the sides of the berry, and 
one of them so perfectly organised as to havo not 
only leaves (a) but adventitious roots, the commence- 
ment of a runner, (c), aDd a terminal flower. — Gar- 
deners' Chronicle. 
♦ 
MATERIALS USED IN THE MANU- 
FACTURE OF SOAP. 
Under this heading we find thejfoltowiug information 
in the Indian Engineer: — 
Palm oil may ho considered next in importance 
to olive oil in the fabrication of soap, for which 
purpose it is consumed in vast quantities, in England 
especially, where it was first used. It enters into 
nearly all their best rosin soaps, and this admixture 
has given both character and popularity to English 
yellow soaps. It is also used advantageously iu mauy 
soaps for toilet purposes. It is obtained from the 
fruit of a species of palm, the Avoira Elais or 
Elait Guianensis ; according to others, however, from 
Cceui Buty-racea, as well as from an Areca species. 
It 1¥, however, not improbable that all these plants 
produce similar vegetable oils. Palm oil is a product 
of the soil of tropical Africa and South America 
(Guiana), the Canary Islands, India and also of some 
other regions. The largest consumption of palm oil 
is in England, which country, in 1879, imported 
147,993,216 tfo., but the consumption of it is also very 
great in Germany, France and the United States. 
The different kinds in the market have various names; 
the prima logos and seconda logos beiDg the most 
excellent ; the former cau be more ea-ily bleached 
than the latter. 
Palm Kernel oil — Has recently made its appear- 
ance in the market, and it is but a short time since 
it found application in the manufacture of soap. 
, It is obtained by crushing and pressing the stony 
kernels which are obtained iu the fruit of the Avoira 
Mais. In the raw state it has almost a coffee brown 
color and a peculiar cocoa-like fragrance. Before its 
application to the making of soap it must be 
bleached. To do this, the following recipe will auswer : — 
50 kilogrammes (110 lb.) of fat are well stirred 
with a rake in a sub-lye or a solution of culinary 
salt of 26° B , at a temperature of 100°O. (212°E.); 
after this it is left to settle a while, during which 
time the fat, which has already lost considerable of 
its color, rises to the surface. It is then scooped 
off, warmed to 35°C. (95°F.), mixed with 1 kilogramme 
(2 21b.) of crude muriatic acid and a solution of £ 
kilogramme (8"8 oz.) bichromate of potash in water 
and well stirred. On the following day the oil is 
re-heated to 35 c O. (95°F.), and again j kilogramme 
bichromate of potash and 1 kilogramme muriatic acid 
are added. The oil thus bleached, called in commerce 
palmitin oil, has a faint reddish tint and an agree- 
able smell similar to that of a mixture of palm oil 
and cocoa-nut oil, and in consequence thereof it may 
be used with good results for making the so-called 
Swiss soaps, also for colored toilet soap, which in 
this case is not subject to that disagreeable odour 
which cocoa-nut oil soda soap possesses. 
Cocoa-nut oil. — Of this valuable oil several kinds 
are at present known in commerce, Oeylon, Sidney, 
Malabar, Goa, and Cochin-Ohina oils, — the latter 
being considered much the best — whether from a 
differeut species of palm or the care in its prepar- 
ation is not known. These oils are obtained by boil- 
ing * the ground or crushed kernels of the nuts of 
the Cocus Nucifera, the Cocus Butyracea, and per- 
haps other species. Oocoa-nut oil is a white usually 
rancid fat of the consistency of lard, with an un- 
pleasant taste and smell ; it melts at 20°to 22°C. 
(68° to 71-6°F.) and congeals at 18°C. (64'40°F.). 
Tyndall made some experiments, and obtained by 
the operation from 210 kilogrammes (4621b.) di- 
viding the cocoa-nut kernels into portions of 3J kilo- 
grammes (7"331b.) in pressing bags made of 
the best mats, various sorts of oils of steadily in- 
creasing melting points, after having five times 
increased the temperature of the masses which were 
prepared for pressing. 
Sesame oil. — This valuable oil, from the seeds of 
the Sesamicm Orientale, t has many good propertiers 
for forming a superior soap especially adapted for 
the toilet, but generally in combination with other 
oils or fats. The plant, orginally indigenous to India, 
however, generally thrives in hot climates, and is 
frequently cultivated as an oil plant. In India three 
varieties are said to be known, viz., with white seed, 
with partly colored, and with brownish-black seed grains; 
the latter furnishing the oil of oommerce, and con- 
taining 40 to 50 per cent of oil. The Sesame seed 
is exported in large quantities from India and Africa 
to Europe, France, Germany and England, where, by 
pressing, the oil is obtained. It is yellowish in culor, 
and, in a pure state, odourless and tasteless. When 
first pressed, it tastes somewhat sharp, but this taste 
is soon entirely lost. If exposed to the air for some 
* Certainly not : it is expressed by both natives 
and Europeans, the latter using powerful hydraulic 
presses. Boiling is resorted to only when oil is 
wanted for culinary purposes. — Ed. 
']' Gingelly.— Ed. 
