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

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The wild olive is indigenous to Syria, Greece, and Africa, on the
lower slopes of Mount Atlas. The cultivated species grows
spontaneously in Syria, and is easily reared in Spain, Italy and the
South of France, various parts of Australia and the Ionian Islands.
Wherever it has been tried on the sea-coasts of Australia, the success
has been most complete. There are several fine trees near Adelaide,
some of them fourteen feet high, bearing fruit in abundance.
Unfortunately no one has attempted to cultivate the plant on a large
scale, but in a few years Australia ought to suply herself with olive
oil.

The olive tree is also grown in Hong-Kong.

There are five or six varieties of _O. Europoea_, or _sativa_, grown in
the south of Europe, of which district they are for the most part
natives.

The entire exports of olive oil from the kingdom of Naples have been
estimated at 36,333 tuns a year, which, taken at its mean value when
exported at L62 per tun, is equivalent to the annual sum of
L2,252,646.

There are one or two distinct species, natives of the East Indies and
the Cape of Good Hope. This genus of plants, besides their valuable
products of oil and fruit, are also much admired for the fragrance of
their white flowers. There is a yellow-blossomed variety, native of
China, _O. fragrans_, the Lan-hoa of the Chinese, which is used to
perfume their teas.

Olive oil now forms an article of export from Chili, being grown in
most parts of that republic, particularly in the vicinity of St. Jago,
where trees of three feet in diameter, and of a proportionate height,
are common. The olive was first carried from Andalusia to Peru in
1560, by Antonio de Ribera, of Lima. Frezier speaks of the olive being
used for oil in Chili, a century and a half ago.

The culture of the olive has been recommended for Florida and most of
the Southern States of America. Formerly, on account of its slow
growth, the olive was not considered very useful; but some years since
a new variety was introduced into France, and into some parts of Spain
and Portugal, which yields an abundant crop of fruit the second year
after planting. They are small trees or rather shrubs, about four or
five feet high. The fruit is larger than the common olive, is of a
fine green color when ripe, and contains a great deal of oil, The
advantages accruing from this new mode of cultivating the olive tree,
are beyond all calculation. By the old method an olive tree does not
attain its full growth, and consequently does not yield any
considerable crop under thirty years; whereas the new system of
cultivating dwarf trees, especially from cuttings, affords very
abundant crops in two or three. An acre of land can easily grow 2,500
trees of the new variety, and the gathering of the fruit is easy, as
it can be done by small children. At Beaufort, South Carolina, the
olive is cultivated from plants which were obtained in the
neighbourhood of Florence, Italy.

A gentleman in Mississippi is stated, by an American agricultural
journal, to have olive trees growing, which at five years from the
cutting bore fruit, and were as large at that age as they usually are
in Europe at eight years old. The olive then, it is added, will yield
a fair crop for oil at four years from the nursery, and in eight years
a full crop, or as much as in Europe at from fifteen to twenty years
of age.

The lands and climate there are stated to be as well adapted to the
successful cultivation of the olive for oil, pickles, &c., as any part
of Europe. Some hundreds of the trees are grown in South Carolina, and
the owner expressed his conviction that this product would succeed
well on the sea-coast of Carolina and Georgia. The frosts, though
severe, did not destroy or injure them, and in one case, when the
plant was supposed to be dead, and corn was planted in its stead, its
roots sent out shoots. It is well known to be a tree of great
longevity, even reaching to 1,000 or 1,200 years; so that, when once
established, it will produce crops for a great while afterwards. The
expense of extracting the oil is also stated to be but trifling.

The olive is of slow growth; trees 80 years of age measure only from
27 to 30 inches in circumference at the lower part of their trunks. An
olive tree is mentioned by M. Decandolle as measuring above 23 feet in
circumference, which, judging from the above inferences, may be safely
estimated at 700 years old. Two other colossal olives are recorded,
one at Hieres, measuring in circumference 36 feet, and one near Genoa,
measuring 38 feet 2 inches. The produce in fruit and oil is regulated
by the age of the trees, which are frequently little fortunes to their
owners. One at Villefranche produces on an average, in good seasons,
from 200 to 230 pounds of oil. The tree at Hieres, above-mentioned,
produces about 55 imperial gallons.

The olive is found everywhere along the coast of Morocco, but
particularly to the south. The trees are planted in rows, which form
alleys, the more agreeable because the trees are large, round, and
high in proportion. They take care to water them, the better to
preserve the fruit. Oil of olives might be here plentifully extracted
were taxation fixed and moderate; but such has been the variation it
has undergone, that the culture of olives is so neglected as scarcely
to produce oil sufficient for domestic consumption.

Olive oil might form one of the most valuable articles of export from
Morocco. It is strong, dark, and fit only for manufacturing purposes.
This is, perhaps, not so much the fault of the olive as of the methods
by which it is prepared. No care is taken in collecting the olives.
They are beaten from the trees with poles, as in Portugal and Spain,
suffered to lie on the ground in heaps until half putrified, then put
into uncleaned presses, and the oil squeezed through the filthy
residuum of former years. Good table oil might be made, if care were
taken, as in France and Lucca, to pick the olives without bruising
them, and to press only those that were sweet and sound. But such oil
would ill suit the palate of a Maroqueen, accustomed to drink by the
pint and the quart the rancid product of his country.

The olive is the great staple of Corfu, which has, in fact, the
appearance of an extensive olive grove. It produces annually about
200,000 barrels. Olive oil is also produced for the purposes of
commerce, and for local consumption, by France, Algiers, Tuscany,
Spain, Sardinia, Portugal, Madeira, and South Australia.

Olive plantations are extending considerably both in Upper and Lower
Egypt. Large quantities of trees were planted under the direction of
Ibrahim Pasha.

The olive tree might be expected to be quickly matured at the Cape.
The native olive, resembling the European, is of spontaneous growth
and plentiful, so that if the Spanish or Italian tree were introduced,
there is no doubt of its success. The wood of the olive is exceedingly
hard and heavy, of a yellowish color, a close fine grain, capable of
the highest polish, not subject to crack nor to be affected by worms.
The root, in consequence of its variety of color, is much used for
snuff-boxes and similar bijouterie.

The wood is beautifully veined, and has an agreeable smell. It is in
great esteem with cabinet makers, on account of the fine polish of
which it is susceptible.

The sunny slopes of hills are best suited to its natural habits.
Layering is the most certain mode of propagating this fruit, although
it grows freely from the seed, provided it has first been steeped for
twelve hours in hot water or yeast.

Olives intended for preservation are gathered before they are ripe. In
pickling, the object is to remove their bitterness and preserve them
green, by impregnating them with a brine. For this purpose various
methods are employed. The fruit being gathered are placed in a lye,
composed of one part of quicklime to six of ashes of young wood
sifted. Here they remain for half a day, and are then put into fresh
water, being renewed every 24 hours; from this they are removed into a
brine of common salt dissolved in water, to which add some aromatic
plants. The olive will in this manner remain good for twelve months.
For oil, the ripe fruit is gathered in November; the oil, unlike other
plants, being obtained from the pericarp, and immediately bruised in a
mill, the stones of which are set so wide as not to crush the kernel.
The pulp is then subjected to the press in bags made of rushes; and,
by means of a gentle pressure, the best or virgin oil flows first. A
second, and afterwards a third quality of oil is obtained, by
moistening the residuum, breaking the kernel, &c., and increasing the
pressure. When the fruit is not sufficiently ripe, the recent oil has
a bitterish taste, and when too ripe it is fatty.

The following are the present market prices of olive oil in
Liverpool, (October, 1853,) and they are 40 per cent, higher than a
few years ago:--Galipoli, per tun of 252 gallons, L68; Spanish, L64;
Levant, L60. French olives, in half barrels of two gallons, are worth
L3 to L4; Spanish, in two gallon kegs, 9s. to 10s.

The preserved or pickled olives, so admired as an accompaniment to
wine, are, as we have seen the green unripe fruit, deprived of part of
their bitterness by soaking them in water, and then preserved in an
aromatised solution of salt.

The marc of olives after the oil has been expressed, indeed, the
refuse cake of all oil plants, is most valuable, either as manure or
for feeding cattle.

More than 29,000 acres are under culture with the olive in the
Austrian empire, Venice, Dalmatia, Lombardy, Carinthia, and Carniola.
The climate of Dalmatia is highly suitable for the olive, and the oil
is better than that produced in most parts of Italy. Nearly 17,000
cwt. are annually obtained.

In 1837 there were 11,526 acres of ground under cultivation with
olives in Southern Illyria, which yielded 261,800 gallons. Olives and
sumach form the principal crops of the landholder. I have not been
able to get any recent correct statistics of the culture and produce.
The oil of Istria is considered equal to that of Provence. The stones
and refuse are used there for fuel. The olive is also extensively
cultivated in the Quarnero Islands, especially Veglia and Cherso, and
in Corfu. There were in 1836, 219,339 acres under cultivation in the
Ionian Islands, producing 113,219 barrels. The olive is gathered there
in December. The average price of the barrel of olive oil was 48s. 3d.
Nearly two millions of gallons of olive oil were exported from Sicily
in 1842. Naples alone shipped five millions of gallons in 1839, and
about 2,500 cwts. of oil is shipped annually from Morocco. Russia
imports about 500,000 poods (40 lbs. each) of olive oil annually.

"Provence oil, the produce of Aix, is the most esteemed. Florence oil
is the virgin oil expressed from the ripe fruit soon after being
gathered; it is imported in flasks surrounded by a kind of network
formed by the leaves of a monocotyledonous plant, and packed in half
chests; it is that used at table under the name of salad oil. Lucca
oil is imported in jars holding nineteen gallons each. Genoa oil is
another fine kind. Galipoli oil forms the largest portion of the olive
oil brought to England, it is imported in casks. Apulia and Calabria
are the provinces of Naples most celebrated for its production; the
Apulian is the best. Sicily oil is of inferior quality; it is
principally produced at Milazzo. Spanish oil is the worst. The foot
deposited by olive oil is used for oiling machinery, under the name
of' droppings of sweet oil.'"--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

The manufacture of olive oil in Spain has undergone very considerable
improvement during the last few years; in particular, the process for
expressing the oil has been rendered more rapid and effectual by the
introduction of the hydraulic press, and thus the injurious
consequences which resulted from the partial fermentation of the fruit
are avoided.

There are four different kinds of oil known in the districts where it
is prepared.

1. _Virgin oil_--A term which is applied, in the district Montpellier,
to that which spontaneously separates from the paste of crushed
olives. This oil is not met with in commerce, being all used by the
inhabitants, either as an emollient remedy, or for oiling the works of
watches. A good deal of virgin oil is, however, obtained from Aix.

2. _Ordinary oil_.--This oil is prepared by pressing the olives,
previously crushed and mixed with boiling water. By this second
expression, in which more pressure is applied than in the previous
one, an oil is obtained, somewhat inferior in quality to the virgin
oil.

3. _Oil of the infernal regions_.--The water which has been employed
in the preceding operation is in some districts conducted into large
reservoirs called the _infernal regions_, where it is left for many
days. During this period, any oil that might have remained mixed with
the water separates and collects on the surface. This oil being very
inferior in quality, is only fit for burning in lamps, and is
generally locally used.

4. _Fermented oil_ is obtained in the departments of Aix and
Montpellier, by leaving the fresh olives in heaps for some time, and
pouring boiling water over them before pressing the oil. But this
method is very seldom put in practice, for the olives during this
fermentation lose their peculiar flavor, become much heated, and
acquire a musty taste, which is communicated to the oil.

The fruity flavor of the oil depends upon the quality of the olives
from which it is pressed, and not upon the method adopted in its
preparation,"--(French "Journal de Pharmacie.")

The price of olive oil is sufficiently high to lead to its admixture
with cheaper oils. The oil of poppy seeds is that which is usually
employed for its adulteration, as it has the advantage of being cheap,
of having a sweet taste, and very little smell. M. Gobley has invented
an instrument which he calls an areometer, to detect this fraud. It is
founded on the difference between the densities of olive oil and oil
of poppies.

The imports, which in 1826 were only 742,719 gallons, had risen in
1850 to 5,237,816 gallons. The following figures show the progressive
imports and consumption:--

Imported. Retained for home consumption.
gallons. gallons.
1827 1,028,174 1,070,765
1831 4,158,917 1,928,892
1835 606,166 554,196
1839 1,793,920 1,806,178
1843 3,047,688 2,516,724
1847 2,190,384 --
1848 2,541,672 --
1849 4,274,928 --
1850 5,860,806 --
1851 2,898,756 2,749,572
1852 2,242,296 1,066,400

The imports of olive oil into the port of Liverpool were 9,815 tuns
in 1849, and 10,038 tuns in 1850. It was brought from Manila, Malaga,
and Corfu, but chiefly from Barbary, Palermo, Gallipoli, and the
Levant. In 1850 we imported from France 259,646 imperial gallons of
olive oil, officially valued at L34,638; the average in ordinary years
is only about 20,000 gallons from the continent.

ALMOND OIL.--To the south of the Empire of Morocco there are forests
of the Arzo tree, which is thorny, irregular in its form, and produces
a species of almond exceedingly hard. Its fruit consists of two
almonds, rough and bitter, from which an oil is produced, very
excellent for frying. In order to use this oil it requires to be
purified by fire, and set in a flame, which must be suffered to die
away of itself; the most greasy particles are thus consumed, and its
arid qualities wholly destroyed. "When the Moors gather these fruits
they drive their goats under the trees, and as the fruit falls the
animals carefully nibble off the skins, and then greedily feed.

The oil of almonds is more fluid than olive oil, and of a clear,
transparent, yellowish color, with a very slight odor and taste. It is
occasionally employed for making the finer kinds of soap, and also in
medicine.

In manufacturing it the fruit are first well rubbed or shaken in a
coarse bag or sack, to separate a bitter powder which covers their
epidermis. They are then pounded to a paste in mortars of marble,
which paste is afterwards subjected to the action of a press, as in
the case of the olive.

About 80 tuns of almond oil are annually imported into this country,
the price being about 1s. per pound. Five-and-a-half pounds of almond
oil will yield by cold expression one pound six ounces of oil, and
three-fourths of a pound more if the iron plates are heated.

SESAME OR TEEL.--Of this small annual plant there are two or three
species. _Sesamum orientale_, the common sort; and _S. indicum_, a
more robust kind, cultivated at a different season, are both natives
of the East Indies. _S. indicum_ bears a pale purple flower, and _S.
orientals_ has a white blossom. It is the latter which is chiefly
grown, and the seeds afford the Gingellie oil or suffed-til, already
extensively known in commerce in the East. The expressed oil is as
clear and sweet as that from almonds, and probably the Behens oil,
used in varnish, is no other. It is called by the Arabs "Siriteh," and
the seed, "bennie " seed, in Africa. _S. orientals_ is grown in the
West Indies under the name of "wangle." It is said to have been first
brought to Jamaica by the Jews as an article of food. 1,050 bags of
gingelly teel, or sesame seed, were imported into Liverpool, in 1849,
from the East, South America, and Africa, for expressing oil, and
3,700 bags in 1850. There are two kinds of seed, light and dark, and
it is about the same size as mustard seed, only not round.

A hectare of land in Algeria yields 1,475 kilogrammes of seed, which
estimated at 50 cents the kilogramme, amounts to 737 francs, whilst
the cost of production is only 259 francs, leaving a profit of 478
francs (nearly L20). The oil obtained from this seed is inferior to
good olive oil, but is better adapted for the manufacture of soap.

This plant is not unlike hemp, but the stalk is cleaner and
semi-transparent. The flower also is so gaudy, that a field in blossom
looks like a bed of florist's flowers, and its aromatic fragrance does
not aid to dispel such delusion. It flourishes most upon land which is
light and fertile. The fragrance of the oil is perceptibly weaker when
obtained from seed produced on wet, tenacious soils. A gallon of seed
seems to be the usual quantity sown upon an acre. In Bengal, _S.
orientale_ is sown during February, and the crop harvested at the end
of May; but _S. indicum_ is sown on high, dry soil, in the early part
of the rains of June, and the harvest occurs in September. About
Poonah it is sown in June and harvested in November. In Nepaul two
crops are obtained annually; one is sown as a first crop in April and
May, and reaped in October and November; the other as an autumn crop,
after the upland rise in August and September, and reaped in November
and December.

In Mysore, after being cut it is stacked for a week, then exposed to
the sun for three days, but gathered into heaps at night; and between
every two days of such drying, it is kept a day in the heap. By this
process, the pods burst and shed their seeds without thrashing.

The seeds contain an abundance of oil, which might be substituted for
olive oil; it is procured from them in great quantities, in Egypt,
India, Kashmir, China, and Japan, where it is used both for cooking
and burning. It will keep for many years and not acquire any rancid
smell or taste, but in the course of a year or two becomes quite mild,
so that when the warm taste of the seed, which is in the oil when
first expressed, is worn off, it is used for all the purposes of salad
oil. It possesses such qualities as fairly entitle it to introduction
into Europe; and if divested of its mucilage, it might perhaps compete
with oil of olives, at least for medicinal purposes, and could be
raised in any quantity in the British Indian Presidencies. It is
sufficiently free from smell to admit of being made the medium for
extracting the perfume of the jasmine, the tuberose, narcissus,
camomile, and of 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 exposed to the rays of the sun for forty days, when the oil
is supposed to be sufliciently impregnated for use. This oil, under
the name of Gingilie oil, is used in India to adulterate oil of
almonds.

The flour of the seed, after the oil is expressed, is used in making
cakes, and the straw serves for fuel and manure.

The oil is much used in Mysore for dressing food, and as a common lamp
oil. From 200 to 400 quarters under the name of Niger seed are
imported annually into Liverpool for expressing oil.

Three varieties of Til are extensively cultivated throughout India,
for the sake of the fine oil expressed from their seeds, the white
seeded variety, the parti-colored, and the black. It is from the
latter that the sesamum or gingelly oil of commerce is obtained.
Sesamum seed contains about 45 per cent. of oil. Good samples of the
oil were shown at the Great Exhibition from Vizianagram, Ganjain,
Hyderabad, Tanjore, the district of Moorshedabad, and Gwalior. The
gingelly seed is stated to be worth about L4 per ton in the North
Circars.

An oil resembling that of sesamum is obtained from the seed of
_Guizotea oleifera_ and _Abyssinica_, a plant introduced from
Abyssinia, and common in Bengal. The ram til, or valisaloo seeds,
yield about 34 per cent, of oil. The oil is generally used for
burning, and is worth locally about 10d. per gallon.

BLACK TIL (_Verbesena sativa_).--This is known as kutsela or kala til,
in the Deccan. It is chiefly cultivated in Mysore and the western
districts of Peninsular India, as well as in the Bombay presidency.

About Seringapatam, as soon as the millet crop has been reaped the
field is ploughed four times, and the seed sown, a gallon per acre,
during the month of July or August, after the first heavy rain. No
manure or weeding is required, for the crop will grow on the worst
soils. It is reaped in three months, being cut close to the ground,
and stacked for a week. After exposure to the sun for two or three
days, the seed is beaten out with a stick. The crop in Mysore rarely
yields two bushels per acre, but about Poonah the produce is much
larger. The seed is sometimes parched and made into sweetmeats, but is
usually grown for its oil. This is used in cooking, but it is not so
abundant in the seed, nor so good as that of the sesame. Bullocks will
not eat the stems unless pressed by hunger.

About 5,000 maunds are exported annually from Calcutta. 3,703 bags
were imported into Liverpool in 1851. The price per quarter of eight
bushels, in January, 1853, was from 30s. to L2; of teel oil, in tins,
weighing 60 to 100 pounds, L2 to L2 4s.

Bombay linseed was worth L2 11s. to L2 12s. the quarter of eight
bushels, in January, 1853. Bengal ditto 2s. less. The imports into
Liverpool were 68,468 bags and 54,834 pockets in 1851, and 14,490 bags
and 33,700 pockets in 1852. About 9,000 bags of mustard seed and from
18,000 to 20,000 bags of rape seed are also imported thence. The price
of the latter is about L2 the quarter.

NATIVE OIL MILLS.--The principal native oil mill of India, of which,
however, there are some varieties, consists of a simple wooden mortar
with revolving pestle. It is in common use in all Belgaum and
Bangalore. Two oxen are harnessed to the geering, which depends from
the extremity of the pestle,--a man sits on the top of the mortar, and
throws in the seeds that may have got displaced. The mill grinds twice
a day; a fresh man and team being employed on each occasion. When
sesame oil is to be made, about seventy seers measure, or two and a
half bushels of seeds are thrown in; to this ten seers, or two quarts
and three-quarters of water, are gradually added; this on the
continuance of the grinding, which lasts in all six hours, unites with
the fibrous portion of the seeds, and forms a cake, which, when
removed, leaves the oil clean and pure at the bottom of the mortar.
From this it is taken out by a coco-nut shell cup, on the pestle being
withdrawn. Other seed oils are described by Dr. Buchanan, as made
almost entirely in the same way as the sesamum. The exceptions are the
hamlu, or castor oil, obtained from either the small or large
varieties of _Ricinus_. This, at Seringapatam, is first parched in
pots, containing something more than a seer each. It is then beaten in
a mortar, and formed into balls; of these from four to sixteen seers
are put in an earthenware pot and boiled with an equal quantity of
water, for the space of five hours; frequent care being taken to stir
the mixture to prevent it from burning. The oil now floats on the
surface, and is skimmed off pure. The oil mill made use of at Bombay,
and to the northward, at Surat, Cambay, Kurrachee, &c., differs a
little from that just described, in having a very strong wooden frame
round the mouth of the mortar; on this the man who keeps the seeds in
order sits. In Scinde a camel is employed to drive the mill instead of
bullocks.