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The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

P >> P. L. Simmonds >> The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom




The bread-fruit tree.

Kafir bread.

The PLANTAIN and BANANA; various products of these
palms.

STARCH-PRODUCING PLANTS investigated.

Characters of starch from different plants.

Tenacity and clearness of jellies; per centage of
starch yielded, and produce of plant per acre; their
meal as articles of export.

Indian Corn starch.

Rice starch.

ARROWROOT: East and West India, culture and statistics
of.

ROOT CROPS: Potatoes, Yams, Cocos, or Eddoes, Sweet
Potatoes, Cassava or Manioc.

NEW TUBEROUS PLANTS recommended as substitutes for the
potato.

MISCELLANEOUS FOOD PLANTS.

LICHENS and MOSSES.

FERNS.


SECTION III.--SPICES, AROMATIC CONDIMENTS, AND FRAGRANT WOODS.

CINNAMON.

Limited range of the culture in Ceylon.

Analysis of the soil most favorable to the tree.

Peeling.

Various kinds of bark; commercial classification,
distinguishing properties of good cinnamon; suitability
of the Straits Settlement for cinnamon plantations; oil
of cinnamon; statistics and exports from Ceylon, and
prices realised; reduction of the duty; extent of land
under cultivation with the tree; progress of the
culture in Java; exports thence to Holland.

CASSIA BARK: species from whence derived; imports,
consumption and prices.

Cassia Buds.

Cassia Oil.

CANELLA ALBA.

CASCARILLA BARK.

CLOVES: description and varieties of the tree.

Produce in Java.

Introduction into the West Indies.

Progress of the culture in Pinang and Singapore.

The Clove plantations of Zanzibar. Imports and
consumption of the United Kingdom.

The NUTMEG: Botanical description.

Dr. Oxley's account of the cultivation and management
of a plantation; enemies of the tree.

Produce and returns.

Preparation of the nuts for market.

Statistics of culture in the Straits Settlements.

Memorandum on the duties on nutmegs.

Exports of nutmegs from Singapore and Java.

Imports into the United Kingdom, and consumption of
wild and cultivated nutmegs and mace.

GINGER: description and consumption of.

Commercial distinction between black and white ginger.
East and West India ginger, directions for cultivation.

Shipments from Jamaica.

Comparison between the imports from the East and from
the West.

Total annual imports and consumption.

GALANGALE ROOT.

CARDAMOMS; plants from which derived.

Grains of Paradise.

Meleguetta, or Guinea pepper. PEPPER: description of
the vine; range of the plant.

Production of the World.

The culture declining in Java.

Extent of the production in Singapore.

Exports from Ceylon.

Its introduction into the Mauritius.

Shipments from Singapore.

Imports and consumption of the United Kingdom.

CHILLIES AND CAYENNE PEPPER: varieties of Capsicum.

PIMENTO: description of the tree; production of the
spice limited to Jamaica.

Imports and consumption.

VANILLA: description of the plant.

Its collection and preparation for the market.

Commercial varieties.

Tonquin beans.

TURMERIC: sources of supply.

Commercial uses.

Value of the Curry stuffs of the East.

Imports and consumption.

GINSENG: description of--demand for in China, exports
from America, and commercial value.

Canary, Coriander, mustard and anise seeds.

PUTCHUX, or COSTUS.

LIGNUM ALOES, and fragrant woods.


SECTION IV.--DYES AND COLORING STUFFS AND TANNING SUBSTANCES

Importance and value of these substances to our
manufacturing interests.

New specimens and materials recently produced.

Miscellaneous notices of useful plants.

Lana Dye.

Prices of Dyewoods.

Red SANDERS WOOD.

FUSTIC.

SAPPAN WOOD, Camwood and Barwood.

Imports of Dyewoods.

ARNATTO.

Commercial kinds.

Cultivation and manufacture.

Imports, consumption and prices.

CHAY-ROOT.

Wood Dyes.

Mangrove Bark.

SUMACH.

Statistics of imports and prices.

SAFFLOWER.

Gamboge.

Common native dyes.

INDIGO; plants which produce it.

Commercial sources of supply.

Cultivation in Central America, in Jamaica and the West
Indies; once an important crop in the United States.

The indigo plant a common weed in many parts of Africa.

Cultivation in India.

Classification of the dye-stuff.

Localities best suited to its production.

Process of Manufacture.

Annual production in the East Indies; adaptation of
Ceylon.

Extent of the culture in Java; annual exports
therefrom; imports and consumption.

MADDER: extent of the demand for. Enormous profit of
the cultivation; system of harvesting and manufacture.

Large supplies received from France.

MUNJEET, or Indian madder, deserving of more
consideration.

LOGWOOD, FUSTIC, Quercitron.

Brazil Wood.

LICHENS FOR DYEING.

Henna.

ORCHILLA WEED.

Chemical examination of the coloring principles of the
Lichens.

BARKS FOR TANNING: cursory notice of a variety of
suitable barks.

Proportions of tannin yielded by different barks.

CATECHU: definition of, and whence derived.

GAMBIER PLANT: cultivation in Singapore; returns from a
plantation.

Different qualities of extract and mode of obtaining
it.

Places of manufacture; average produce.

Terra Japonica, a misnomer. Cutch, another name for
Catechu.

Statistics of imports and consumption; the amount and
value of Gambier from Singapore.

DIVI-DIVI: description of.

CORK TREE BARK.

MIMOSA BARK.

Valuable native barks of New Zealand.

Mangrove bark.

MYROBALANS.

Kino: definition of; sources from whence obtained.

VALONIA: statistics of, consumption and prices.


SECTION V.--OLEAGINOUS PLANTS AND THOSE YIELDING FIXED OR
ESSENTIAL OILS

General Remarks.

Extensive demand for Oils.

Proportion of oil furnished by various seeds.

Richness of Indian seeds in oil.

RAPE OIL.

Domba Oil.

The EARTH or GROUND NUT, its extensive cultivation for
food and oil.

Tea oil.

Tobacco seed oil.

Poppy oil.

Tallicoonah oil.

Carap oil.

Macaw oil. _Madia sativa_.

Cocum oil.

Candle Tree.

Cinnamon Suet.

Croton oil.

Oil of Ben.

PALM OIL: progress of the African trade.

Imports into Liverpool.

Quantity retained for home consumption.

Statistics of; imports of the four principal vegetable
oils.

OLIVE OIL: description of the tree and its varieties;
its cultivation attempted in the United States.

Preservation of the fruit.

Expression of the oil.

Range of prices.

Frequently adulterated with cheaper oils.

Annual imports and consumption.

ALMOND OIL.

SESAME, or TEEL Oil.

Various species cultivated in the East.

Large exports of the seed from India; native oil mills;
processes of expression and manufacture.

Sunflower oil.

Margose, or Neem oil.

Illepe oil.

Vegetable butter. Candle nut tree.

Colza oil.

VEGETABLE WAX.

The Candleberry myrtle.

The CASTOR OIL PLANT: manufacture of the oil in the
East and West Indies.

Extent of the imports annually.

The oil-cake for manure.

Kanari oil.

The COCO-NUT PALM: description of the tree; its various
and important uses.

Varieties of this palm met with.

Wide range of the plant.

Directions for its culture; profits derived from
plantations; great attention paid to them in Ceylon.

Commercial value of its products.

Statistics of culture in Pinang.

Natural enemies of the tree.

Copperah and Poonac.

Statistical returns connected with its products in
Ceylon.

Imports and consumption of coco-nut oil.

Comparison of the consumption of the chief vegetable
oils of commerce.

The value and uses of oil-cake for cattle-feeding.

VOLATILE, OR ESSENTIAL OILS: description of the most
important.

Oil of peppermint.

Process of obtaining the perfumed oils.

Cultivation of Roses in the East and preparation of
Attar. Lemon-grass oil.

Citronella oil.

Patchouly.

SAPONACEOUS PLANTS.


SECTION VI.--DRUGS, INCLUDING NARCOTICS AND OTHER MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES

The COCA PLANT. _Cocculus Indicus_.

BETEL LEAF.

The ARECA PALM; extensive use of the nuts in the East
as a masticatory.

Narcotic properties.

Catechu, or Cutch; its astringent properties.

Davy's analysis.

Value of the Areca nuts exported from Ceylon.

The POPPY: increasing consumption of Opium in this
country.

Production of the Drug in India.

Large revenue derived therefrom.

Variety of the poppy grown; system of culture pursued.

Various modes of consuming opium.

Its preparation and manufacture described.

Commercial varieties met with.

Requisites for the successful culture of the poppy for
opium.

The TOBACCO PLANT; species cultivated.

London's classification.

Analyses of various samples of tobacco; Statistics of
the culture in Brazil; extent of the consumption;
considerations of revenue; memorial of Liverpool
Chamber of Commerce.

Comparative consumption of tea, coffee and tobacco, per
head.

Imports and duty received on tobacco in the last five
years.

Consumption checked in England and France by the high
duties.

Imports, sales, and stocks, in Bremen for 10 years.

Culture and statistics in the United States.

Quantity exported from 1821 to 1850.

Countries from whence we received our supplies in 1850.

Particulars of the tobacco trade in 1850 and 1853.

Mode of culture pursued in Virginia.

General instructions for the planter.

Information as to growing Cuba tobacco.

History of the trade and cultivation in Cuba.

Statistics of exports from the Havana.

Culture of tobacco in the East.

Analysis of tobacco soils.

Progress of cultivation and shipments in Ceylon.

Manila tobacco and cigars.

Production in the Islands of the Archipelago.

Suggestions and directions for tobacco culture in New
South Wales.

Its value and extensive use as a sheep wash.

Excellence of the product and manufacture in New South
Wales; culture of tobacco in South Australia.

MISCELLANEOUS DRUGS.

Poisons.

ALOES: varieties of the plant; culture and manufacture
in Socotra, Barbados, and the Cape Colony.

ASAFOETIDA.

CAMPHOR.

CINCHONA BARK: commercial varieties of CALUMBA ROOT.

COLOCYNTH.

CUBEBS.

GAMBOGE.

GENTIAN.

IPECACUAN.




INTRODUCTORY.

The want of a practical work treating of the cultivation and
manufacture of the chief Agricultural Productions of the Tropics and
Foreign Countries, has long been felt, for not even separate essays
are to be met with on very many of the important subjects treated of
in this volume.

The requirements of several friends proceeding to settle in the
Colonies, and wishing to devote themselves to Cotton culture, Coffee
planting, the raising of Tobacco, Indigo, and other agricultural
staples, first called my attention to the consideration of this
fertile and extensive field of investigation.

Professor Solly, in one of the series of Lectures on the results of
the Great Exhibition, delivered before the Society of Arts, early last
year, made some practical remarks bearing on the subject:--

"If (he said) you were to place before any manufacturer specimens of
all the substances which could be employed in his particular
manufacture, and if you could tell him from whence each could be
procured, its cost, the quantities in which he might obtain it, and
its physical and chemical properties, he would soon be able to
select for himself the one best suited for his purposes. This,
however, has never happened in relation to any one art; in every
case manufacturers have had to make the best of the materials which
chance or accident has brought before them. It is strange and
startling, but nevertheless perfectly true, that even at the present
time there are many excellent and abundant productions of nature
with which not only our manufacturers, but, in some instances, even
our men of science, are wholly unacquainted. _There is not a single
book published which gives even tolerably complete information on
any one of the different classes of vegetable raw produce at present
under our consideration_. The truth of these remarks will be felt
strongly by any one who takes the trouble to examine any of these
great divisions of raw materials. He will obtain tolerably complete
information respecting most of those substances which are known in
trade and commerce; but of the greater number of those not known to
the broker, he will learn little or nothing. Men of science, for the
most part, look down upon such knowledge. The practical uses of any
substances, the wants and difficulties of the manufacturer, are
regarded as mere trade questions, vulgar and low--simple questions
of money. On the other hand, mere men of business do not feel the
want of such knowledge, because, in the first place, they are
ignorant of its existence, and secondly, because they do not see how
it could aid them or their business; and if it should happen that an
enterprising manufacturer desires to learn something of the
cultivation and production of the raw material with which he works,
he generally finds it quite impossible to obtain any really sound
and useful information. In such cases, if he is a man of energy and
of capital, he often is at the cost of sending out a perfectly
qualified person to some distant part of the globe, to learn for him
those practical details which he desires to know. This is no
uncommon thing; and many cases might be stated, showing the great
advantages which have arisen to those who have thus gained a march
upon their neighbours."

The Society of Arts, appreciating the importance of from time to time
encouraging the introduction of new and improved products from our
Indian and Colonial Possessions, has offered many gold medals as
premiums for a great variety of staples from abroad.

The Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations brought together
an immense variety of productions from tropical regions, of which the
English public were comparatively ignorant. Attracting public
attention, as these necessarily did, information on the best modes of
cultivating and manufacturing them will be peculiarly valuable to the
colonists, and is as eagerly sought after by many brokers, merchants
and manufacturers at home.

In consequence of the recent liberal policy of Great Britain, the
competition of foreign countries, the want of cheap and abundant
labor, and other causes, those chief staples, Sugar and Coffee, which
for a series of years formed the principal and almost exclusive
articles of production in our colonies, and which had met with a ready
and remunerative sale in the British markets, have either fallen off
to an alarming extent, or become so reduced in price as scarcely to
repay the cost of cultivation. The partial abandonment of the
cultivation of these staples in our colonies has had the effect of
crippling the agricultural and commercial enterprise of several of our
most valuable foreign possessions, and throwing out of employment a
number of persons: it behoves us, therefore, to direct attention to
some of the many minor articles in demand;--to those indigenous or
exotic products of the soil in tropical regions, which, being
inexpensive in cultivation and manufacture, might be undertaken with a
moderate outlay of labor and capital, and the certainty of a ready and
remunerative sale in the European markets; and could moreover be
attended to without neglecting or at all interfering with the
cultivation of the leading staples.

It is evident that the export wealth of tropical regions must be
chiefly agricultural, the soil and climate being peculiarly fitted for
the culture of fruits, trees and plants yielding oils, gums, starch,
spices, and other valuable products, which no art can raise cheaply in
more temperate latitudes. The large and continued emigration of
farmers and other enterprising persons from Britain and the Continent
to Natal, the Cape Colony, Northern Australia, Ceylon, the East India
Company's Possessions and the Straits Settlements, Brazil, New
Granada, and the Central American Republics, Texas, the Southern
States of North America, and other tropical and sub-tropical
countries, renders information as to the agriculture and productions
of those regions highly desirable. Even to the settlers in our West
Indian possessions, most of whom have too long pursued the old beaten
track of culture and manufacture, comparatively regardless of modern
improvements and the results of chemical, scientific, and practical
investigation, recent information on all these subjects, and a
comparison of the practices of different countries, cannot fail to be
useful.

There is much valuable information to be met with in detached papers
and essays in the scientific periodicals of the day, and in colonial
and other publications; such as the Transactions and Journals of the
different agricultural and horticultural societies of the East and
West Indies, the United States, Australia, &c., but none readily
accessible for easy reference, and which the new settler, proceeding
out to try his fortune in those fair and productive regions of the
globe, can turn to as a hand book. I have had much experience in
Tropical Agriculture, and for many years my attention has been mainly
directed to this important subject, for which purpose I have kept up a
large and extended correspondence with numerous agricultural,
scientific and other societies abroad; with experienced practical men,
and have also received the leading journals of all the tropical
Colonies.

No one person could be expected to be thoroughly familiar with all the
different modes of culture and preparation of every one of the
numerous products to be described in this volume; but where my own
agricultural experience (of several years in the West Indies and South
America) was at fault, I have availed myself of the practical
knowledge of those of my colonial friends and correspondents best
informed on the subject, and am particularly fortunate in having many
valuable essays on Tropical Agriculture scattered through the
different volumes of my "Colonial Magazine."

The discussion of the best modes of culture, properties, manufacture,
consumption, uses, and value of the commercial products of the
vegetable kingdom cannot be without its value, and the attention of
merchants and planters may be usefully directed to various articles,
which will be profitable both in an agricultural and commercial point
of view; many of which are already sources of wealth to other
countries.

The introduction of new objects of industry into the colonial
dependencies of the British Empire, is no longer considered a mere
subject of speculation, but one well worthy the attention of the eye
of science; and the fostering hand of care is beginning to be held out
to productions of nature and art, which, if not all equally necessary
to the welfare of man, yet certainly merit the attention of the
cultivator and capitalist, and have great claims on the scientific
observer, and on those interested in raising the manufactures of our
country to a higher standard.

Few who have not investigated this subject are aware of the immense
number of countries lying in the equatorial and tropical ranges of the
torrid zone, many of which, from the value and importance of their
indigenous productions, have already attracted considerable notice,
and to which still more attention will be directed by European nations
as the value of their various products becomes more extensively known.

The homeward commerce which we carry on with our numerous Colonies,
with our Indian Possessions, and with foreign countries, is
principally in articles furnished by the vegetable kingdom, such as
the cereal grains, wheat, rice, maize, &c.; vegetables used in
preparing dietetic drinks and distilled liquors, as tea, coffee,
cacao, and the sugar cane, grapes, &c.; spices and condiments; drugs;
dyes and tanning substances, obtained from the bark, leaves, fruit,
and roots of various herbs and trees; the expressed or distilled oils
of different plants; fruits in the green, dried, or preserved state;
starches obtained from the roots or trunks of many farinaceous plants;
fibrous substances used for cordage, matting, and clothing, as cotton,
Indian hemp, flax, coco-nut coir, plantain and pine-apple fibre;
timber and fancy woods. These substances, in the aggregate, form at
least nine-tenths in value of the whole imports of this country. There
are also several products of the animal kingdom dependent on vegetable
culture, which might be brought into this category, such as silk and
cochineal. Very few of these products of the vegetable kingdom come to
us in any other than an unmanufactured state; they are shipped to this
country as the chief emporium and factory of the world, either for
re-export or to be prepared for consumption by the millions to whom
they furnish employment, sustenance, and articles of clothing.

It is a wise ordination of Providence, that the different nations of
the earth are as it were mutually dependent on each other for many of
the necessaries and luxuries of life, and the means of progress and
civilization. Commerce is thus extended, the various arts and
manufactures improved by comparison and competition; and the acres yet
untilled in distant lands hold out strong inducements for immigration,
their climate and products affording health, freedom, and independence
to the over-tasked and heavily taxed artisan and agriculturist of
Europe. Although the systems of tropical agriculture, generally
pursued, are peculiar and effective, yet there is no doubt that much
improvement remains to be carried out in the practices adopted, in the
implements employed, and the machinery used for preparing the crops
for shipment. In the British Isles our insulated position, limited
extent of country, unsettled climate, and numerous population,
aggregated in dense masses, have compelled us to investigate and avail
ourselves of every improvement in agriculture, arts and manufactures,
which experience, ingenuity, and a comparison with the customs of
other countries, have placed at our disposal.

If we except sandy deserts, and some of the interior portions of the
polar regions, it will be found that there is scarcely any country but
what is capable of improvement. Indeed, so extensive are the resources
of agriculture, that further improvements may be most easily effected.

Let us then examine and ascertain what new objects may be improved
upon, and if by our speculations only one single article, either for
food or use, is added to those already in use, or those that are
already cultivated be improved upon, it is equivalent to an increase
of our wealth.

An eminent writer has truly remarked that "Agriculture is the parent
of Manufactures, seeing that the productions of nature are the
materials of art."

In the economy of Providence every fragment of creation seems to
unfold, as man progresses in the arts of life, unbounded capabilities
of adaptation to his every want. We have, indeed, daily illustration
of the truth of that trite and homely adage, that "nothing is made in
vain."

That quaint old English poet, Herbert, who flourished in the fifteenth
century, in a short poem on "Providence," has graphically described,
in his unique vein, the sentiment which forces itself upon us in view
of the numerous discoveries of the age in which we live:--

"All countries have enough to serve their need.

* * * * *

----The Indian nut alone
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can,
Boat, cable, sail, and needle, all in one."

"The addition (it has been well observed) of even a single flower, or
an ornamental shrub, to those which we already possess, is not to be
regarded as a matter below the care of industry and science. The more
we extend our researches into the productions of nature, the more are
our minds elevated by contemplating the variety as well as the
exceeding beauty and excellence of the works of the Creator."

The mode of arrangement of the various subjects treated of involved
some consideration; two or three plans were open for adoption. 1st. To
describe the several products in the order of their agricultural
importance or commercial value. 2nd. An alphabetical reference, in the
style of a Dictionary or Encyclopaedia; and 3rd. Classifying them under
subdivisions, according to their particular or chief uses. The last
seemed to me the most desirable and efficient mode, although open to
some objections, from the variety of uses to which different parts of
many plants were applied. Some, as cotton, indigo, sugar, coffee, tea,
&c., would readily fall into their proper division, but others, as the
coco-nut, plantain, &c., from the variety of their products, would
come under several heads. I have, however, endeavoured to meet this
difficulty by placing each plant or tree under the section to which
its most valuable production seemed naturally to refer it.

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