Arizona silver belt., 1889-10-26
VEGETABLE BUTTER.
A Family of Plants Which Takes ths
 Place of Cows in West Africa.

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 Butter is the name given, in a chemical sense, 10 all oleaginous sub- stances which remain solid at tenn. perature of seventy-one to eighty-s,x degrees Fahrenheit, For popular pur- poses it 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 ei the order Sapotace9. The Bassia Rarhii. 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 source of great utility and profit 10 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 favor.
 The buttes 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 tlre roads. Whilst in these holes the fruits lose their flesh, which rots of; they are left there dur ing several months. sometimes for tho whole of the winter The nuts are then placed an a kind of vertical oven fire is kept up under them, and this causes them to lose their moisture. As sdon as they are dried, the shells are broken. and the white kernel is peeled. and then grnand and made into a homogeneous hA. ; 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 citaN While ia this jar it absorDs a certain amount oi water. and to ge, rid of this it is taken out and beaten again. By this primi- tive process only about ten or twelve per cent. of the butler can be saved.
 What the natives would do without it. it is hard 10 conceive, IL practical. ly serves ihem as food, medicine and raiment {ln the sense that they Gil their skins with it). They eat it ir the same way as we do ordinary but ter, and mixed with an animal fat, il is considered u panacea against al evils and diseases. It is also employed for lighting purposes. and the smoke which Is produced by its combuetion i: said to be very efiicaeious in the cure of snuke-bite5. IL is also largely usee for soap-making; for this latter pur pose it hns more than once been intro duced 10 European manufacturers but mp to the present ha. never been utilized, on an eX .tensive scale. No doubt as tn, resources of the country are further developed, and inter-communicatior between the inland and the coast be comes more facilitated, we shall tinl this as well as other products equall! vaIpabie, make their way to this mar ket.
 The Indian representative of th' family. the Bassia latYoIa, is yer! abundant in all parts of India, and tn, butter exrressed from the seed is use. In much the same way by the nativ' Indians as that of the Bdssia Parbii i by the West Africans, whilst the frui in many parts forms a staple article ot food. Every part of the tree, in fact is of useis tto timber being hard ans strong, Close and even-grained, i used Tor the wheels of carriages, rail way sleepers. etc. The flowers whei dried have somewhat the odor and ap pearance of sultana raisins. They ar produced in enormous quantities il March and April, after the old leave have fallen; and before the new leave have appeared, the crop rarely fails lhe ileshy flowers fall off and cove the ground beneath the trees, and ar gathered eagerly by the natives ever. morning during the Towering season A single treo yields from two to fou hundred poundsweight of flowers They are very rich in sugar. and yiel' when fermented large quantity c spirit, as much as 6.lG gallons o proof spirit per hundredweight hay ing been obtained from them J'he spirit is manufactured to a greA extent in India, and it is s1id that tn government receives quite lapg amount for duty on the spirits dis titled.
 The flowers have frntr time tc tim been placed before important distiller in Engiand; but owing to u peculta flavor being developed-caused. it thought by the persistent stamen; which it is difficult to remove from tn fowers--the spirit distilled has neve been brought iate eensti,nption in th