MISCELLANY. 
The Tallow Tree. — The tallow tree (Stillingia sebifera) is abundant 
in the valleys of Chusan, and large quantities of tallow and oil are 
yearly extracted from its seeds : tallow mills are erected in several 
parts of the island for this purpose. 
For the following account of the Chinese method of extracting the 
tallow from the seeds of the Stillingia sebifera, I am indebted to Dr. 
Rawes^ of the Madras army, who was sometime resident in the island 
of Chusan : — 
Method of obtaining the Tallow. 
The seeds are picked at the commencement of the cold weather, 
in November and December, when all the leaves have fallen from the 
treeS; — this I saw at Singkong when out shooting in the Sah-hoo 
valley, close by our quarters, through the village. The seeds are in 
the first place taken to the building where the process of making the 
tallow is carried on, and picked and separated from the stalks. They 
are then put into a wooden cylinder, open at top, but with a perforated 
bottom. This is placed over an iron vessel (about the same diameter 
or rather larger than the woo den cylinder, and about six or eight 
inches deep) containing water, by which means the seeds are well 
steamed, for the purpose of softening the tallow and causing it more 
readily to separate. The furnace I saw had four or five iron vessels in 
a row, was about three feet high, four or five feet broad, and eight or 
ten feet long. The fire was placed at one end, and fed with the husk 
of the rice, dry grass, and such like cheap materials which make a 
great flame, and the flue was of course carried directly under the 
whole of the iron vessels. 
" When the seeds have steamed ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, 
they are thrown into a ^arge stone mortar, and are gently beaten by 
two men with stone mallets for the purpose of detaching the tallow 
from the other parts of the seed. They aie then thrown upon a sieve, 
heated over the fire, and sifted, by which process the tallow is sepa- 
rated, or nearly so, although they generally undergo the process of 
steaming^ &c., a second time, that nothing may be lost. The other 
part of the seed is ground and pressed for oil. 
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