_, June 5, 1850.

Oil, of the finest kind, is made in India by expression from the
kernels of the apricot. It is clear, of a pale yellow color, and
smells strongly of hydrocyanic acid, of which it contains, usually,
about 4 per cent.

"On inquiring into the use made of the sunflower, we were given to
understand that it is here (in Tartary) raised chiefly for the oil
expressed from it. But it is also of use for many other purposes. In
the market places of the larger towns we often found the people eating
the seeds, which, when boiled in water, taste not unlike the boiled
Indian corn eaten by the Turks. In some districts of Russia the seeds
are employed with great success in fattening poultry; they are also
said to increase the number of eggs more than any other kind of grain.
Pheasants and partridges eat them with great avidity, and find the
same effects from them as other birds. The dried leaves are given to
cattle in place of straw; and the withered stalks are said to produce
a considerable quantity of alkali."--_Bremner's Interior of Russia._

658 barrels linseed oil were brought down to New Orleans from the
interior in 1849, and 1009 in 1848.

During the period of the Great Exhibition special enquiry was made by
many manufacturers as to the different oils of Southern India,
suitable for supplying the place of animal fat in the manufacture of
candles, and generally adapted for various other purposes. Enquiries
should be directed to the specific gravity, the boiling point, the per
centage of pure oil in the seeds, and the means of obtaining a regular
supply. The demand for vegetable oils in European commerce has been
steadily on the increase for several years past, and the quantities
consumed are now so large that the oleaginous products of India and
the colonies must sooner or later have a considerable commercial
importance, from the value which they are likely to acquire. Indeed
some have already established a footing in the home market, and Drs.
Hunter, Cleghorn, and others in India, have specially directed the
attention of the natives and merchants to the subject.

MARGOSE, OR NEEM OIL.--From the pericarp or fleshy part of the fruit
of the _Melia Azederachta_, the well known Margosa oil is prepared;
which is cheap and easily procurable in Ceylon. Dr. Maxwell, garrison
surgeon of Trichinopoly, states that he has found this oil equally
efficacious to cod-liver oil in cases of consumption and scrofula. He
began