Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-07-17
VEGETABLE BUTTER.
A Family OF Plants Which Takes the
Place of Cows in West Africa.


Butter is the name given, in
chemical sense, to all oleaginous SUBJ
stances which remain solid at a tenn
perature OF seventy-one to eighty-six
degrees Fahrenheit, For popular pur-
poses 1t is misnOmer, as all the fatty
matters included 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 Sapotacee.
The Bassia Parkii, a 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
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 go each day into the forests,
especially after storms and tornadoes,
and fetch large baskets or calabashes
to the village filled 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;
a 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 filed with
cold waterand 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 primi-
tive process only about ten or twelve
per cent, of the butter can be saved.
What the natives would do without
1t, it is hard to conceive. 1t practical
ly serves them as food, medicine and
raiment Gin the sense that they oil
their skins with iD. 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 etficacious 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-commpnication
between the inland and the coast be-
comes more facilitated, we shall find
this as well as other products equally
valuable, make their way to this mar
ket.
The Indian representative of the
family, the Bassic latJoliq, 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 Park;i is
by the West Africans, whilst the fruit
in many parts forms 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
" OuuCCu LII cAOII1OuS QudutlIlSS III
March and April, after the old leaves
have fallen; and before the new leaves
have appeared, the crop rarely fails.
The heshy 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 a large quantity of
spirit, as much as GIG gallons of
proof spirit per hundredweight hav-
ing been obtained from them.
The spirit is manufactured to a great
extent in India, and it is said that tho
government receives quite large
amount for duty on the spirits dis
titled.
The flowers have from time to time
been placed before important distillers
in England; but owing to peculiar
flavor being developed-caused, it is