150 
CULTIVATION OF WALNUTS. 
When ripe, the fruit of the Wantoo walnut is retailed in the city 
for eating, at the rate of a hundred for two pice, or about one penny ; 
the nuts of the Doonoo in the same number, for three pice, and of 
the Kaghzee for four pice, or two-pence. The country people break 
the walnuts at home, and carry the kernel alone to market, where it 
is sold to oil-pressers, at the average rate of seven rupees, per khur- 
war or ass load. About twelve thousands ass loads of walnut 
kernels are annually appropriated to the oil-press in Cashmere, pro¬ 
ducing in the gross return of oil and oil-cakes 1,13,000 rupees, in¬ 
dependently of the nuts eaten by man. Walnut oil is preferred to 
linseed oil, for all the uses to which the latter is applied; and in 
Cashmere as on the continent of Europe, is employed in cookery, 
and also for burning in lamps, neither much clogging the wick, 
nor giving much smoke. It is, however, inferior both for cooking, 
and for burning to the oil of til.* (Sesamum.) Walnut-oil is ex¬ 
ported to Tibut, and brings a considerable profit. It is somewhat 
extraordinary, that a tree which furnishes timber durable and hand¬ 
some, and a nut which yields a valuable oil, should not be more cul¬ 
tivated in Britain. According to ancient custom, in Cashmere, the 
crop of nuts was equally divided between the government and the 
owners of the tree; but at present, the former takes three-fourths, 
leaving but one-fourth to remunerate the farmer; yet under this op¬ 
pression, the cultivation of the walnut is extensive : and Cashmere, 
in proportion to its surface, produces a much larger quantity of nuts 
than any portion of Europe. The horse-chesnut is wild in the 
forests, and has not been reclaimed; but its fruit is said to be largely 
used in Chumba for feeding hogs. 
I. T. 
* This oil possesses such qualities, as fairly entitles it to introduction into Eu¬ 
rope; and if divested of its mucilage, it might, perhaps, compete with oil of 
Olives, at least for individual purposes, and could be raised in any quantity in 
British Indian provinces. It is sufficiently free from smell, to admit of being 
made the medium of extracting the perfume of the jessamine, the tuberose, nar¬ 
cissus, camomile, and the yellow rose. The process is managed by adding one 
weight of flowers to three weights of oil, in a bottle which, being corked, is ex¬ 
posed to the rays of the sun for forty days, when the oil is supposed to be suffi¬ 
ciently impregnated for use. 
