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.

Castor oil seed is thrown into the mill like other seeds, as already
described; when removed it requires to be boiled for an hour, and then
strained through a cloth to free it from the fragments of the seed.

It is a curious fact, and illustrative of the imperfect manner in
which the oil is separated from the seeds, that while the common
pressman only obtained some 261/4 per cent., Boussingault, in his
laboratory, from the same seeds, actually procured 41 per cent. When
the oil cakes are meant for feeding stock, this loss is of little
consequence, inasmuch as the oil serves a very good purpose, but when
the cake is only intended to be used as a manure, it is a great loss,
inasmuch as the oil is of little or no use in adding any food for
crops to the soil.

The chief oil made on the sea board of India, is that yielded by the
coco-nut palm. The nut having been stripped of the husk or coir, the
shell is broken, and the fatty lining enclosing the milk is taken out.
This is called cobri, copra, or copperah in different localities.
Three maunds, or ninety pounds of copperah, are thrown into the mill
with about three gallons of water, and from this is produced three
maunds, or seven and three-quarter gallons of oil. The copperah in its
unprepared state is sold, slightly dried in the market. It is burned
in iron cribs or grates, on the top of poles as torches, in
processions, and as means of illumination for work performed in the
open air at night. No press or other contrivance is made use of by the
natives in India for squeezing out or expressing the oil from the
cake, and a large amount of waste, in consequence of this, necessarily
ensues.--_Bombay Times