THE EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
191 
ever, tried several samples which the exhibitor gave us without 
any other admixture, and they have been highly approved by 
all who have tasted them. 
Amongst the other luxuries (if tea can be so designated) 
exhibited here, we were much interested in, but not greatly 
edified by, that of opium in its various states of preparation : 
“ crude ball ” opium, “ grain,” and other forms in which this 
noxious substance is vended; and, as appropriate companions 
to this enervating narcotic, we found various intoxicating drinks 
used by the natives. 
These consist of rice and date arrack, rum, and “ country 
spirits,” the latter being distilled from the cocoa-nut palm. 
But if these alcoholic beverages fail to call up pleasant asso- 
ciations in our minds, we have here two other products of 
the vegetable kingdom, one of which especially is becoming 
every day of greater importance to our welfare at home. The 
first is indigo, of which, along with many other colouring 
materials, there is a goodly show ; and the second, to which 
special reference must be made, comprises the various seeds 
used in the manufacture of oils and cattle-cake. The Bombay 
linseed, of which above 35,000 tons weight were imported into 
England alone in the year 1861, is the finest in the world, and 
commands the highest price of any in the market. 
To give our readers some idea of the cause of its high 
relative value, we may just state the following facts concerning 
it : — Linseed yields two substances in crushing; viz., oil, used 
for painters 5 purposes, &c. &c., and the residue being cattle- 
cake.* 
Whilst we write this, the value of linseed oil is £42 per ton, 
whilst that of linseed-cake is only £11 per ton. It is therefore 
obvious that the more oil obtained from the seed, the more 
valuable it must be. 
How a quarter of Riga linseed weighs 400 lb., and yields 
about 94 lb. of oil in crushing, the residue being inferior cake ; 
whilst a quarter of Bombay linseed weighs 4161b., yielding 
132 lb. of oil, and the remainder fine nutritious cake, of con- 
siderably more value than that made from other seeds. This 
explains the increased worth of the Bombay seed. The linseed 
from Calcutta and Madras is but slightly inferior to that of 
Bombay. 
Again, the finest refined burning rape-oil is extracted from 
the “ Guzeraf” rape-seed, grown in the province of that name, 
and exported from Bombay; so much so, that a considerable 
* No doubt all our readers who visited the Exhibition will have seen the 
seed-crushing process carried on in the Machinery department of the 
building, by Messrs. Blundell, Spence, & Co., of Hull, 
