"Immense crops are raised here of articles wholly unknown to the American farmers, and perhaps the kinds best fitted to particular localities where grain and potatoes yield poorly under the best efforts. One of these is poppies. Thousands of acres are at this moment ready for market—which the traveller takes for granted, as he hurries by, are to be manufactured into opium. They are not, however, intended for medical use at all, but for a widely different purpose. From the poppy seed a beautiful transparent oil is made, which is extensively used in house painting. It is almost as colorless as water, and possesses so many advantages over the flax seed oil that it may ultimately supersede that article. Where flax cannot be grown poppies often can be, in poor sandy soil. Linseed oil is becoming dearer, and the demand for paint is increasing. With white lead, poppy oil leaves a beautiful surface, which does not afterwards change, by the action of light, into a dirty yellow. Another season some one should make a beginning at home in this important branch of industry. The oil may be used for other purposes, and even put in the cruet for salads."
TALLICOONAH or KUNDAH OIL, is obtained from the seeds of the Carapa Touloucouna (of the Flore de Senegambie). The tree grows to the height of 40 feet; the fruit is a large, somewhat globular five-celled capsule. The seeds (of which there are from 18 to 30 in each capsule), vary in size from that of a chesnut to a hen's egg. They are three-cornered, of a brownish or blackish red color. It is found abundantly in the Timneh country, and over the colony of Sierra Leone. It is manufactured in the following manner:—The nuts having been well dried in the sun, are hung up in wicker racks or hurdles, and exposed to the smoke of the huts, after which they are roasted and subjected to trituration in large wooden mortars, until reduced to a pulp. The mass is then boiled, when the supernatant oil is removed by skimming. The natives principally prepare the oil to afford light; the leaves are used by the Kroomen as a thatch. It is held in high estimation as an anthelmintic. The oil is sold in Sierra Leone at 2s. a gallon, and could be procured in abundance from the coast as an article of commerce.
CARAP or CRAB OIL (Carapa guianensis).—This is a sort of vegetable butter, being sometimes solid and sometimes half fluid, which is obtained from the seed of a large tree abundant in the forests of Guiana, and also found in Trinidad. It is said to turn rancid very soon when exposed to the air, but this is probably caused by the presence of impurities, arising from the crude and imperfect way in which it is prepared by the natives, who boil the kernels, leave them in a heap for a few days, then skim them, and lastly reduce them into a paste in a wooden mortar, which is then spread on an inclined board, and exposed to the heat of the sun, so that the oil may melt and gradually trickle down into a vessel placed below to receive it. A prize medal was awarded for this oil at the Great Exhibition in 1851.
Carap oil in Trinidad is highly esteemed as an unguent for the hair, and also for applying to the wounds of animals, for destroying ticks and other insects which infest cattle—also for the cure of rheumatism. An oil called Carap oil is also obtained in the East, from the almonds of Xylocarpus granatum, or Carapa Molluccensis, of Lanark, which is used by the natives to dress the hair and anoint the skin, so as to keep off insects.
Cacao fat, the butter-like substance obtained from the seeds of Theobroma cacao, is esteemed as an emollient.
The nuts of the Great Macaw tree (Acrocomia fusiformis), a majestic species of palm, furnishes much oil. This tree is the Cocos fusiformis, of Jacquin, and other intertropical botanists. It is a native of Trinidad and Jamaica, and is found also very commonly in South America.
The method of extracting the oil is as follows:—The nut or kernel is slightly roasted and cleaned, then ground to a paste, first in a mill, and then on a livigating stone. This paste, gently heated and mixed with 3-10ths of its weight of boiling water, is put into a bag, and the oil expressed between two heated plates of iron; it yields about 7-10ths or 8-10ths of oil. If discolored it can be purified, when melted, by filtration. It is then of the consistence of butter, of a golden yellow hue, the odor that of violets, and the taste sweetish. If well preserved it will keep several years without spoiling, which is known to have taken place by the loss of its golden hue and delightful aroma.
It is frequently sold in the shops as palm oil, and of late has entered largely into the composition of toilet soaps. As an emollient it is said to be useful in some painful affections of the joints; the negroes deem it a sovereign remedy in "bone ache." The nut itself is sometimes fancifully carved by the negroes, and is highly ornamental, being of a shining jet black, and susceptible of a very high polish. This tree may be increased from suckers.
A. sclerocarpa is the Macahuba palm of Brazil.
THE AGAITI, as it is called by the Portuguese, or napoota by the natives and Arabs (Didynamia Gymosperma?), much cultivated in all Eastern Africa for its oil, which is considered equal to that of olives, and fetches as high a price in the Indian market. The plant, which is as tall and rank as hemp, and equally productive, having numerous pods throughout the stems, is found everywhere in a wild as well as cultivated state.