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 culina