SECTION V.
OLEAGINOUS PLANTS, AND THOSE YIELDING FIXED OR ESSENTIAL OILS.
Few cultivators are probably aware of the great importance of oil to this country, and the number of purposes for which it is employed in the arts and manufactures. It is extensively used for candle and soap making, for burning in lamps, for diminishing friction in machinery of all kinds, and especially for locomotives—in wool-dressing, in the manufacture of paints and varnishes, as an article of food, for medicinal purposes, &c.
So important are vegetable oils deemed, that the Society of Arts, in its prize list for 1851, offered gold medals for the importation or introduction into this country of any new plants or trees from China, India, or elsewhere, producing oils or fatty substances, such as can be used as food, or are applicable to manufacturing purposes; and also to the person who shall manufacture and import the finest specimen of oil, not less than ten gallons, the produce of olives grown in any British colony in Africa or Australasia.
The time of burning of equal quantities of the following oils has been found to be—
| Hours. | ||
| Oil of | poppy | 14 |
| " | sunflower | 13 |
| " | rape | 11 |
| " | mustard | 11½ |
| " | flax seed | 10 |
| " | gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa) | 9½ |
| " | olives | 9 |
| " | hemp seed | 8 |
| " | tallow | 10½ |
FOREIGN VEGETABLE OILS IMPORTED.
| 1821. | 1845. | 1850. | |
| tuns. | tuns. | tuns. | |
| Coco-nut oil | — | 2,148 | 98,040 |
| Olive oil | 1,900 | 12,315 | 20,783 |
| Palm oil | 3,200 | 25,285 | 448,589 cwts. |
| Rape seed oil | 800 | 3,973 | — |
| Linseed oil | 10,500 | 38,634 | — |
| 16,400 | 82,355 | ||
| Fish oils | 32,356 | 22,626 | 21,328 |