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

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The cultivation of the _Palma christi_, and the manufacture of castor
oil, is extensively carried on in some parts of the United States, and
continues on the increase. A single firm at St. Louis has worked up
18,500 bushels of beans in four months, producing 17,750 gallons of
oil, and it is stated that 800 barrels have been sold, at 50 dollars
per barrel. The oil may be prepared for burning, for machinery, soap,
&c., and is also convertible into stearine. It is more soluble in
alcohol than lard-oil.

American castor oil is imported for the most part from New York and
New Orleans, but some comes from our own possessions in North America.
In the United States, according to the "American Dispensatory," the
cleansed seeds are gently heated in a shallow iron reservoir, to
render the oil liquid for easy expression, and then compressed in a
powerful screw press, by which a whitish oily liquid is obtained,
which is boiled with water in clean iron boilers, and the impurities
skimmed off as they rise to the surface. The water dissolves the
mucilage and starch, and the heat coagulates the albumen, which forms
a whitish layer between the oil and water. The clear oil is now
removed, and boiled with a minute portion of water until aqueous
vapors cease to arise: by this process an acrid volatile matter is got
rid of. The oil is put into barrels, and in this way is sent into the
market. American oil has the reputation of being adulterated with
olive oil. Good seeds yield about 25 per cent. of oil. A large
proportion of the drug consumed in the eastern section of the Union is
derived by way of New Orleans from Illinois and the neighbouring
States, where it is so abundant that it is sometimes used for burning
in lamps.

In Jamaica the bruised seeds are boiled with water in an iron pot, and
the liquid kept constantly stirred. The oil which separates swims on
the top, mixed with a white froth, and is skimmed off. The skimmings
are heated in a small iron pot, and strained through a cloth. When
cold it is put in jars or bottles for use.

Castor oil imported. Retained.
lbs. lbs.
1826 263,382 453,072
1831 393,191 327,940
1836 981,585 809,559
1841 871,136 732,720
1846 1,477,168 --
1849 1,084,272 --
1850 3,495,632 --

The imports of castor oil come chiefly from the East India Company's
possessions, and were as follows, nearly all being retained for home
consumption:--

lbs.
1830 490,558
1831 343,373
1832 257,386
1833 316,779
1834 685,457
1835 1,107,115
1836 972,552
1837 957,164
1838 837,143
1839 916,370
1840 1,190,173
1841 869,947
1842 490,156
1843 717,696

In 1841, 12,406 Indian maunds of castor oil were shipped from Calcutta
alone, and 7,906 ditto in 1842.

In 1842, 8 cases were shipped from Ceylon, 10 in 1843, 24 in 1844, and
14 in 1845.

1,439 barrels were shipped from New Orleans in 1847. The quantity
brought down to that city from the interior was 1,394 barrels in 1848,
and 1,337 barrels in 1849.

Within the last year or two, an attempt has been made to introduce the
cake obtained in expressing the seeds of the castor oil plant as a
manure, which is deserving attention, both because it is in itself
likely to prove a serviceable addition to the list of fertilizers
which may be advantageously employed, and because it may lead to the
use of similar substances, which are at present neglected, or thrown
aside as refuse.

The castor oil seed resembles in chemical composition the other oily
seeds. It consists of a mixture of mucilaginous, albuminous, and oily
matters; and the former two of these are identical in constitution and
general properties with the substances found in linseed and rape cake,
while the oil is principally distinguished by its purgative
properties. The cake obtained is in the form of ordinary oil-cake, but
is at once distinguished from it by its color, and by the large
fragments of the husk of the seeds which it contains. It is also much,
softer, and may be easily broken down with the hand. I have analysed
two samples of castor cake, stated to have been obtained by different
processes; and though I have not been informed of the exact nature of
these processes, I infer, from the large quantity of oil, that one
must have been cold-drawn. The first of the following analyses is that
of the sample which I believe the cold-drawn. It is the most complete
of the two, and contains a determination of the amount of oil. In the
other analysis this was not done, but there was no doubt on my mind
that its quantity was much smaller.

No. 1. No. 2.
Water 8.32 16.31
Oil 24.32 --
Nitrogen 3.05 3.35
Ash 7.22 4.95

The ash contains--
Siliccous matters 1.96 --
Phosphates 3.36 2.27
Excess of phosphoric acid 0.64 --

In order to give a proper idea of the value of this substance as a
manure, I shall quote here, for comparison sake, the average
composition of rape cake, as deduced from the analyses contained in
the Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland:--

Water 10.68
Oil 11.10
Nitrogen 4.63
Ash 7.79
The ash contains--
Siliccous matters 1.18
Phosphates 3.87
Excess of phosphoric acid 0.39

It will be at once seen that there is a close general resemblance
between these two substances, although there is no doubt that the
castor cake is inferior to rape cake; still I believe that this
inferiority is fully counterbalanced by the difference in price, which
is such that, compared with rape cake, the castor cake is really a
cheap manure. There is only one of its constituents which it contains
in larger quantity, and that is the oil. No weight is, however, to be
attached to the quantity of oil in a manure. In a substance to be used
as food, it is of very high importance; but so far as we at present
know, its value as manure is extremely problematical. Whale, seal, and
other coarse oils have been used as manures, and by some few observers
benefits have been derived from their application, but the general
experience has not been favorable to their use, nor should we
chemically be induced to expect any beneficial effect from them. We
have every reason to believe that the oils which are found in plants
are produced there as the results of certain processes which are
proceeding within the plant, and there is no evidence to show that any
part of it is ever absorbed in the state of oil by the roots when they
are presented to them. On the other hand, the oils are extremely inert
substances, and undergo chemical changes very slowly; so that there is
no likelihood of their being converted into carbonic acid, or any
other substance which may be useful to the plant; and as they contain
no nitrogen, and consist only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they
can yield only those elements of which the plant can easily obtain an
unlimited supply. I can conceive cases in which the oil might possibly
produce some mechanical effect on the soil, but none in which it could
act as a manure, in the proper sense of the term.

KANARI on.--Mr. Crawfurd, in his "History of the Indian Archipelago,"
speaks most favorably of an oil obtained from the "Kanari," a tree
which, he says, is a native of the same country as the sago palm, and
is not found to the westward, though it has been introduced to Celebes
and Java. I have not been able to distinguish its botanical name; but
Mr. Crawfurd describes it as a large handsome tree, and one of the
most useful productions of the Archipelago. It bears a nut of an
oblong shape, nearly the size of a walnut, the kernel of which is as
delicate as that of a filbert, and abounds with oil. The nuts are
either smoked and dried for use, or the oil is expressed from them in
their recent state. It is used for all culinary purposes, and is purer
and more palatable than that of the coco-nut. The kernels, mixed up
with a little sago meal, are made into cakes and eaten as bread.

THE COCO-NUT PALM.

This palm (_Cocos nucifera_) is one of the most useful of the
extensive family to which it belongs, supplying food, clothing,
materials for houses, utensils of various kinds, rope and oil; and
some of its products, particularly the two last, form important
articles of commerce. An old writer, in a curious discourse on palm
trees, read before the Royal Society, in 1688, says, "The coco nut
palm is alone sufficient to build, rig, and freight a ship with bread,
wine, water, oil, vinegar, sugar, and other commodities. I have sailed
(he adds) in vessels where the bottom and the whole cargo hath been
from the munificence of this palm tree. I will take upon me to make
good what I have asserted." And then he proceeds to describe and
enumerate each product. Another recent popular writer speaks in
eloquent terms of the estimation in which it is held, and the various
uses to which it is applied.

"Its very aspect is imposing. Asserting its supremacy by an erect and
lofty bearing, it may be said to compare with other trees, as man with
inferior creatures. The blessings it confers are incalculable. Year
after year the islander reposes beneath its shade, both eating and
drinking of its fruit; he thatches his hut with its boughs, and weaves
them into baskets to carry his food; he cools himself with a fan
plaited from the young leaflets, and shields his head from the sun by
a bonnet of the leaves; sometimes he clothes himself with the
cloth-like substance which wraps round the base of the stalks, whose
elastic rods, strung with filberts, are used as a taper. The larger
nuts, thinned and polished, furnish him with a beautiful goblet; the
smaller ones with bowls for his pipes; the dry husks kindle his fires;
their fibres are twisted into fishing-lines and cords for his canoes.
He heals his wounds with a balsam compounded from the juice of the
nut; and with the oil extracted from its pulp embalms the bodies of
the dead. The noble trunk itself is far from being valueless. Sawn
into posts, it upholds the islander's dwelling; converted into
charcoal, it cooks his food; and, supported on blocks of stones, rails
in his lands. He impels his canoe through the water with a paddle of
the wood, and goes to battle with clubs and spears of the same hard
material. In Pagan Tahiti, a coco-nut branch was the symbol of regal
authority. Laid upon the sacrifice in the temple, it made the offering
sacred; and with it the priests chastised and put to flight the evil
spirits which assailed them. The supreme majesty of Oro, the great god
of their mythology, was declared in the coco-nut log from which his
image was rudely carved. Upon one of the Tonga Islands there stands a
living tree, revered itself as a deity. Even upon the Sandwich Islands
the coco palm retains all its ancient reputation; the people there
having thought of adopting it as the national emblem."

Besides the foregoing and following uses, I am aware of several scents
and spirituous liquors being procured from the flowers and pulp of the
coco-nut.

This palm tree is one of the finest objects in nature. Its stem is
tall and slender, without a branch; and at the top are seen from ten
to two hundred coco-nuts, each as large as a man's head: over these
are the graceful plumes, with their green gloss, and beautiful fronds
of the nodding leaves. Nothing can exceed the graceful majesty of
these intertropical fruit trees, except the various useful purposes to
which the tree, the leaf, and the nut are applied by the natives.

1. The stem is used for--Bridges, posts, beams, rafters, paling,
ramparts, loop-holes, walking sticks, water butts, bags (the upper
cuticle), sieves in use for arrowroot.

2. The coco-nut is used for--milk, a delicious drink; meat from the
scraped nut, for various kinds of food; jelly, _kora_, pulp, nut, oil,
excellent and various food for man, beast, and fowl.

The shell for vessels to drink out of, water pitchers, lamps, funnels,
fuel, _panga_ (for a game).

The fibre for sinnet, various cordage, bed stuffing, thread for tying
combs, scrubbing-brushes, girdle (ornamental), whisk for flies,
medicines, various and useful.

3. The leaf is used for--Thatch for houses, lining for houses,
_takapau_ (mats), baskets (fancy and plain), fans, _palalafa_ (for
sham fights), combs (very various), bedding (white fibre), _tafi_
(brooms), _Kubatse_ (used in printing), _mama_ (candles), screen for
bedroom, waiter's tray.

Here are no less than forty-three uses of which we know something; and
the natives know of others to which they can apply this single
instance of the bounty of the God of nature. For house and clothes,
for food and medicine, the coco-nut palm is their sheet anchor, as
well as their ornament and amusement, who dwell in the torrid zone.

This fine palm, which always forms a prominent feature in tropical
scenery, is a native of Southern Asia. It is spread by cultivation
through almost all the intertropical regions of the Old and New
Worlds; but it is cultivated nowhere so abundantly as in the Island of
Ceylon, and those of Sumatra, Java, &c. On the shores of the Red Sea
it advances to Mokha, according to Niebuhr; but it does not succeed
in Egypt. It is cultivated in the lower and southern portions of the
Asiatic Continent, as on the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, and
around Calcutta. In the island of Ceylon, where the fruit of this tree
forms one of the principal aliments of the natives, the nuts are
produced in such quantities that in one year about three millions were
exported, besides the manufactured produce in oil, &c. According to
Marshall it requires a mean temperature of 72 deg. Its northern limit,
therefore, is nearly the same as the southern limit of our cereals.

Rumphius enumerates thirteen varieties of this palm, but many of these
have now been placed under other genera, and Lindley resolves them
into three species--_C. nucifera_, the most generally diffused
species, a native of the East Indies; and _C. flexuosa_ and _plumosa_,
natives of Brazil. The trunk, which is supported by numerous, small
fibrous roots, rises gracefully, with a slight inclination, from forty
to sixty feet in height; it is cylindrical, of middling size, marked
from the root upwards with unequal circles or rings, and is crowned by
a graceful head of large leaves. The terminal bud of this palm, as
well as that of the cabbage palm (_Euterpe montana_), is used as a
culinary vegetable. The wood of the tree is known by the name of
porcupine wood. It is light and spongy, and, therefore, cannot be
advantageously employed in the construction of ships or solid
edifices, though it is used in building huts; vessels made of it are
fragile and of little duration. Its fruit, at different seasons, is in
much request; when young, it is filled with a clear, somewhat sweet,
and cooling fluid, which is equally refreshing to the native and the
traveller. When the nut becomes old, or attains its full maturity, the
fluid disappears, and the hollow is filled by a sort of almond, which
is the germinating organ. This pulp or kernel, when cut in pieces and
dried in the sun, is called copperah, and is eaten by the Malays,
Coolies, and other natives, and from it a valuable species of oil is
expressed, which is in great demand for a variety of purposes. The
refuse oil cake is called Poonae, and forms an excellent manure.

A calcareous concretion is sometimes found in the centre of the nut,
to which peculiar virtues have been attributed.

Along the Gulf of Cariaco there are many large coco walks. In moist
and fertile ground it begins to bear abundantly the fourth year; but
in dry soils it does not produce fruit until the tenth. Its duration
does not generally exceed 80 or 100 years, at which period its mean
height is about 80 feet. Throughout this coast a coco tree supplies
annually about 100 nuts, which yield eight flascos of oil. The flasco
is sold for about 1s. 4d. A great quantity is made at Cumana, and
Humboldt frequently witnessed the arrival there of canoes containing
3,000 nuts.

Throughout the South Sea Islands, coco-nut palms abound, and oil may
be obtained in various places. Some of the uninhabited islands are
covered with dense groves, and the ungathered nuts, which have fallen
year after year, lie upon the ground in incredible quantities. Two or
three men, provided with the necessary apparatus for pressing out the
oil, will, in the course of a week or two, obtain enough to load one
of the large sea canoes. Coco nut oil is now manufactured in different
parts of the South Seas, and forms no small part of the traffic
carried on with trading vessels. A considerable quantity is annually
exported from the Society Islands to Sydney. They bottle it up in
large bamboos, six or eight feet long, and these form part of the
circulating medium of Tahiti. The natives use the bruised fronds of
_Polypodium crassifolium_ to perfume this oil. _Evodia triphylla_, a
favorite evergreen plant with the natives of the Polynesian Islands,
is also used for this purpose.

The most favorable situation for the growth of the coco palm is the
ground near the sea-coast, and if the roots reach the mud or salt
water, they thrive all the better for it. The coco-nut walks are the
real estates of India, as the vineyards and olive groves are of
Europe. I have seen these palms growing well in inland situations,
remote from the sea, but always on plains, never upon hills or very
exposed situations, where they do not arrive to maturity, wanting
shelter, and being shaken too violently by the wind. The stems being
tall and slight, and the whole weight of leaves and fruit at the head,
they may not unaptly be compared to the mast of a ship with round top
and topmast without shrouds to support it. Ashes and fish are good
manures for it.

The coco-nut is essentially a maritime plant, and is always one of the
first to make its appearance on coral and other new islands in
tropical seas, the nut being floated to them, and rather benefiting
than otherwise by its immersion in the salt water. Silex and soda are
the two principal salts which the coco-nut abstracts from the soil,
and hence, where these do not exist in great abundance, the tree does
not thrive well. I do not know myself what is the practice in Ceylon,
but in Brazil, Dr. Gardner tells me, salt is very generally applied to
the coco-nut when planted. Far in the interior, he states, he has seen
as much as half a bushel applied to a single tree, and that too when
it cost about 2s. a pound, from the great distance it had to be
brought. That the application, therefore, of salt, of seaweed, and
saline mud, does more than supply soda, must be very evident, if we
only recollect how difficult it is to dry any part of our dress that
has been soaked in salt water, and what effect damp weather has on
table salt, which, in a balance, has often been made use of as an
hydrometer. Moisture is always attracted by salt, and the more sea mud
and other such little matters that coco-nut planters can apply round
the roots of their trees, there will most assuredly be the less
occasion for watering them in the dry season. Sea weed contains but
very little fibrous matter, being chiefly composed of mucilage and
water; and the experiments of Sir J. Pringle and Mr. C. W. Johnson,
prove that salt in small quantities assists the decomposition of both
animal and vegetable substances. Decomposed poonac, or oil-cake, is
one of the best manures that can be applied, as it returns to the soil
the component parts of which it has beau deprived to form the fruit.

The primary direction of the planter's industry will be to the
establishment of a nursery of young plants. In Ceylon, for this
purpose, the nuts are placed in squares of 400, covered with one inch
of sand, or salt mud; are watered daily till the young shoots appear,
and are planted out after the rains in September. Sand and salt mud
are to be found on almost all the coasts where it would be desirable
to plant nuts, and if they are put into the ground at the commencement
of the rainy season, artificial watering will scarcely be necessary.
Any period, when there are showers, would answer for transplanting
them. I should say from the middle to the end of January would be
best, when they are placed in the nursery in October and November; and
in October when they are planted in June.

It is said that they should be allowed from 20 to 30 feet space apart,
but I will calculate their return when planted 27 feet apart every
way. This will give 58 coco-nut trees per acre. If manured, for the
first two years, with seaweed and salt mud, and supplied with water in
dry weather, there need be no loss, and the plants will thrive the
better. The land must be kept clear of weeds till the plants are
matured, in order to permit them abundance of air and light. In five
years, when well cared for, the flower may be expected, but the plants
will not be in full bearing before the seventh or eighth year. From 50
to 80 nuts are the annual crop of a tree; but I will calculate at the
lowest rate. One hundred nuts will yield, when the oil is properly
expressed, at least two gallons and a half. I shall not take into
account the making of jaggery sugar and toddy, or spirit from the sap,
as I do not consider that the manufacture would be remunerative; and
it must be attended with much trouble, besides requiring a great deal
of care and some skill.

Take the case now of a plantation of 100 acres in extent. This would
give us 5,800 trees, which, at 50 nuts per tree, 290,000 nuts, at 21/2
gallons of oil per hundred, would yield 7,250 gallons of oil, the
value of which any person may calculate, but which, at the low rate of
3s. over charges, would furnish, as the gross plantation return in
oil, a sum of L1,087 10s. sterling. If the cultivator, instead of
making his produce into oil, were to sell it in its natural state, his
gross return in the West Indies would be nearly L600 sterling, at the
rate of ten dollars per thousand.

Either of these sums would be a handsome return from 100 acres of any
land, _requiring no cultivation or care whatever, after the fourth
year, and yielding_ the same amount for upwards of half a century! But
this is not all. An outlay of a few pounds will secure other
advantages, and ought to enable the owner of a coco-nut plantation to
turn his gross receipts for oil into nett profits. The coir made from
the husk of the nut is calculated to realise nearly one-fourth of the
proceeds of the oil, but if we put it down at one-fifth, we shall
have, in addition to the value of the oil, L217 10s., thus making a
total of L1,305 sterling. If we obtained 60 nuts from each tree, the
return would be L1,566 sterling, and if 75, L1,957 8s. sterling; and
this from 100 acres of sea side sand! But even _this_ does not exhibit
the whole return of this article of culture. Each nut may be
calculated to give a quarter of a pound of poonac, or oil-cake, being
the refuse after expression, fit for feeding all kinds of stock, which
may be estimated as worth L10 per ton. We must, therefore, add on this
account to our first calculation, the sum of say L325; to the second,
L390; and to the third, L485. This would give, in round numbers, the
entire returns of the 100 acres planted:--At 50 nuts per tree, L1,630;
at 60 ditto, L1,957; at 75, ditto, L2,446.

These are striking results, and may appear exaggerated; but I will, to
show how very moderate has been my calculation, give two returns, with
which I have been favored from Ceylon. These, it will be seen, differ
materially, but the latter I can rely on as a practical result, from a
plantation in Jaffna, the peninsula of the northern portion of the
island. After estimating the expense of establishing the plantation,
the first writer sets down his return thus:--

"The produce, calculating 90 trees to an acre, and 75 nuts to a tree,
sold at L2 per 1,000, would yield 675,000 nuts, worth L1,350; or if
converted into oil, calculating 30 to give one gallon, it would
produce 22,500 gallons, or about 90 tons from 100 acres."

From Jaffna, the following is an abridged estimate of return of 100
acres in full bearing:--"At 27 feet apart, 58 trees per acre, 5,800
trees, at 60 nuts per tree, 3,480 nuts per acre, 100 acres, 348,000
nuts, at 40 nuts per imperial gallon, 8,700 gallons of oil, at 2s. per
gallon, netted L8 14s. per acre. The poonac left will pay the expense
of making the oil. If shipped to England, at the present time (close
of 1848), the selling price there being 55s. per cwt., measuring 12
imperial gallons, say, 4s. 7d. per gallon, and the cost and charges of
sending it home and selling it being 23s., it would leave 3s. per
gallon, or L13 per acre." This sum is _nett proceeds_.