ON OIL OP WORMSEED, ETC. 
305 
iron pot of from three to six gallons capacity with a soap 
stone head or cap, into which a gun-barrel is fitted, which 
latter is kept cool by a stream of water, and acts as the 
condenser. The pot is permanently built in brick work so 
as to form a fireplace beneath. The soap stone capping 
consists of two pieces; one about four inches thick, and 
penetrated by a hole eight or ten inches in diameter, is 
cemented on the top edge of the pot. The gun barrel 
passes through the side of this stone and opens into the in- 
terior. The other soap stone is a circular flat piece lying 
on the first, completely covering the opening, and forms a 
steam tight joint, the two being ground to fit accurately. 
A spot is selected near a running spring, when possible, 
so as to facilitate the refrigeration. The whole plant 
is used, which is forced down into the pot until it is full, and 
then water poured on till the interstitial space is nearly filled, 
when the cap is replaced and the process commenced. The 
charge in each five gallon pot yields about one ounce and a 
quarter of oil, and requires about 20 minutes to distil it. The 
distillers object to distil the seed tops alone as clogging the 
still. The oil is brought to market in.lots of from half a pound 
to fifty pounds or more, principally in the fall and along 
through the winter, some holding on till spring for a better 
price. The average cost price is from two and a half to 
three and a half dollars, although some assert that it will 
not remunerate the producer under four dollars. The oil as 
obtained from different growers, has generally the same 
appearenee — a pale straw color when recent, whilst Wes- 
tern oil is much darker. The Baltimore oil sometimes has 
an empyreumatic odor when it has not been prepared with 
the usual care, [a fact easily accounted for when we con- 
sider the apparatus. Indeed it is hardly credible that in 
view of the easily attainable means of distillation on a 
large scale, that the old habits of those wormseed oil dis- 
tillers should be persisted in. — Ed.] 
The following receipt for administering oil of wormseed 
24* 
