Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-07-25

Ia Tamllv a. Plants which Talkoo tn
P1aeo q Cows In West Africa.

WOE FABLE BUTTER
Ia Tanllv ~ Plants which Talkss he
E1aoo q Cows In West Africa.
Butter 81 the name given, In
:hemical sense, to all oleaginous sub
stances which remain solid 1t . tam
Iperature Of seventy-one to eiehfy-stx
degrees, Eahrenheit. For popular pur-
poses il Is . mispomer, as all the fatty
matters ihcluded in the term could
hardly Be used by modern housewives
even for culinary purposes. The
plants yielding the butter, although
not confined to one country, nor even
to one natural order, are nevertheless
more abundant in West Africa and
India than in other parts OF the world.
and are mostly of the order Sapotaceae.
The Bassia Parkii, plant indigenous
to West Africa, and which derives
its specific name from the renowned
African traveller, Mungo Park. is
particularly rich in the product.
and is a source of great utility and
profit to the natives. The fruit Itself
when ripe is eaten by them, and is said
by travellers who have tasted it to be
not unpleasant. It is about the size of
a large prune. rather sour. but other
wise of an excellent flavor.
The butter is obtained from the
seeds. The following is the manner
in which the fruit is collected and
treated: The crop commences at the
end of May and finishes during the last
days of September. The women and
children 60 each day into the forests,
especially after storms and tornadoes.
and fetch large baskets or calabashes
to the village filed with fruit which
the wind has brought down. They
throw them into cylindrical holes, that
are found here and there in the Bam-
barra villages, even in the middle of
the roads. Whilst in these
holes the fruits lose their flesh.
which rots off; they are left there dur
ing several months. sometimes for the
whole of the winter The nuts are
then placed in kind of vertical oven;
fire is kept up under them, and this
causes them to lose their moisture.
AS soon as they are dried, the shells
are broken, and the white kernel is
peeled. and then ground and made into
homogeneous mass This is then
placed in water which is kept boiling.
The fatty matter floats to the top, and
the dirt goes to the bottom. The but
ter is then put into jar filled with
cold water and beaten clear. While in
this jar it absorbs certain amount of
water, and to get rid of this it is taken
out and beaten again. BY this print
tive process only about ten or twelve
per cent of the butter can be saved.
What the natives would do without
it, it is hard to conceive. 1t practical
ly serves them as food, medicine and
raiment Tin the sense that they oil
their skins with it). They eat it in
the same way as we do ordinary but
ter, and mixed with an animal fat, it
is considered "a panacea against all
evils and diseases. 1t is also employed
for lighting purposes, and the smoke
which is produced by its combustion is
said to be very efficacious in the cure
of snake-bites. 1t is also largely used
for soap-making; for this latter pur-
pose it has more than once been intro
duced to European manufacturers.
but up to the present has
never been utilized on an ex-
tensive scale. No doubt, as the
resources of the country are further
developed, and inter-communication
between the inland and the coast be-
comes more facilitated, we shall find
this as we'll as other products equally
valuable, make their way to this mar
ket.
The Indian representative Of the
family. the Bassio latifolia, is very
abundant in all parts of India, and the
butter expressed from the seed is used
in much the same way by the native
Indians as that of the Bassia ParEii is
by the West Africans, whilst the fruit
in many parts forms a staple article of
food. Every part of the tree. in fact,
is of use; the timber being hard and
strong, close and even-grained, is
used for the wheels of carriages, rail-
way sleepers, etc. The flowers when
dried have somewhat the odor and ap-
pearance of sultana raisins. They are
produced in enormous quantities in
March and April, after the old leaves
have fallen; and before the new leaves
have appeared, the crop rarely fails.
The aeshy flowers fall off and cover
the ground beneath the trees, and are
gathered eagerly by the natives every
morning during the Towering season.
A single tree yields from two to four
hundred poundsweight of flowers.
They are very rich in sugar. and yield
when fermented large quantity of
spirit, as much as GIG gallons of
proof spirit per hundredweight hav-
ing been obtained from them.
The shirt is manufactured to q great