718 
THE OIL-SEEDS OF COMMERCE. 
While the consumption of oil and oil-seeds was so much 
larger than usual last year, the stocks held are exceedingly 
small, and prices high. The manufacture of linseed oil in 
the United Kingdom in I860 was estimated at 65,000 tons; 
of which 33,700 tons were exported. The home production 
of oil-cake was also considerably in excess of former years. 
The stock of rapeseed held was only about 18,000 qrs. at the 
commencement of this year, while of poppy and Niger seeds 
there were none on hand. Rape and seed oils, we are told, 
continue to sustain the same prominent position in our 
markets they have done for years past, and, independent of a 
large home make, 9300 tons were imported into the kingdom 
last year. 
A new kind of grease made from rape oil is now manufac¬ 
tured at Leipzig. The mass of grease, or fat, is quite pure, 
without taste or smell, and, according to medical certificates, 
contains nothing in the least injurious to health. In cookery, 
it answers fully the purposes of butter, with the advantage 
that, instead of the usual quantity of butter, one third in 
quantity of this rapeseed-grease will suffice. The butter 
sold in London is bad enough, in all conscience, and we 
therefore trust that, for edible purposes, the rape-grease may 
be kept by our German friends. 
The ground-nut, as it is popularly termed, the subterra¬ 
neous fruit of the Arachis hypogaa, is now cultivated very 
extensively as an oil-seed, especially at the Gold Coast, 
Gambia, and Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. 
We imported in 1859* 1124 tons from the Gambia, 1116 tons 
from Sierra Leone, and 147 tons from the Gold Coast. But 
large quantities are sent direct thence to France. Thus in 
1857 13,554 tons of ground-nuts were exported, of which 
11,300 tons went to France, and 1300 to the United States. 
From Sierra Leone 243,123 bushels were sent away, of which 
206,503 went to France. The French imports from their 
own African possessions are also considerable; and it is 
stated that from 70,000 to 80,000 tons of ground-nuts are 
annually received, chiefly at Marseilles. 
In the Southern States of America its culture is much 
attended to, and there, and in parts of the West Indies, it is 
called pindar and pea-nut. In Brazil it is known under the 
name of mindoubi. In Natal and the Cape, as well as in the 
Indian Presidences, the ground-nut is now extensively 
grown ; and in Spain and Algeria it is found to rank among 
the more advantageous objects of field cultivation. The 
price has of late been steady in our market for them at 
^16 10$. per ton. The prepared oil, expressed from the 
