THE CASTOR OIL PLANT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2199, 23 April 1896, Page 4

THE CASTOR OIL PLANT.

Unquestionably the Department of Agriculture, if efficiently conducted under the supervision of officials ordinarily well-informed on practical and scientific topics affecting modern agrioulture, is capable - of conferring appreciable benefits on the very considerable portion of the population eDgaged in farming pursuits ; whilst at the same time crnde, illconsidered advices emanating from the institution most deservedly and very speedily lower its prestige in the estimation of farmers. The "Leaflets for Farmers" issued by the department heretofore have as a rale contained a certain amount of useful information, but the latest (No. 30), suggesting the cultivation of the castor oil plant as an auxiliary crop on farms, and with an attractive illustration of the plant showing its ornamental appearance, is calculated to perpetrate so much misohief that this official document deserves special condemnation.

The reasons advanced in the leaflet for the cultivation by farmers of the castor oil plant are that in bulk and bottle £9132 worth of caster oil was imported to the colony in 1894, and that "there is no reason whatever why this money should not be retained in the Colony." There is the further recommendation that "loousts feeding on the foliage are destroyed in large numbers, whilst most insects shun its neighbourhood" ; and the query is put : " Why not plant a line of these shrubs round crops and orchards likely to be infected by armies of beetles, caterpillars, &c. P " and it is added: "The question of growing plants poisonous or obnoxious to injurious insects has not received the attention it deserves." It is true that mischiefs contingent on its cultivation are referred to, but in such a cursory manner that ordinary le&ders of the leaflet will take little account of them, and in this the most obnoxious feature of this official publication pertains.

In the first place, as to the estimated £9132 worth of importations, it has to be considered what part oi this went to the growers of the raw material in the many producing countries. Taking into account the many intermediate expenses of crushing, dealers' profits, commissions, freights, &0., a liberal estimate of £1000 would^cover the returns to the growers. But allowing that £2000 could be realised by growers here, there is nothing in the amount that should encourage farmers to engage in the cultivation of a plant alike dangerous in farm and garden wherever it is grown under conditions favourable to the maturing of its feed, and this the authorities of the Agricultural department should have known, for the information has been familiar to farmers in the United Kingdom for years through casualties following the feeding of cattle and sheep on oilcake having even an infinitesimal admixture of castor-oil bean. There are alto the wellknown clangers to human life contingent on the cultivation of the plant as an ornamental shrub or a curiosity in ft garden when permitted to mature its seed. Dr Taylor in his text book on medical jurisprudence mentions several cases in which severe illness and even death hnve resulted from eating these seeds ; and although several recovered from the effects, in another case a man died in 46 hours after eating three seeds only. Dr J. W. Leather, P.H D., ■who quotes Taylor, wrote that two of his own friends were made seriously ill by eating three or four castor seeds. As regards the danger to the health of farm animals of iufinstsimal doses of castor oil seed or its crushings refuse the officials in our Agricultural department »rf>, apparently in this respect, deplorably lacking in the information their position demands of them. Were this a fair sample of the work they are performing we could only conclude that they did not think it necessary to acquaint themselves with published matter pertaining to advanced agriculture, wbich would have suggested the reading of authoritative agricultural journals, and enabled ' them to avoid the mistake they have made in issuing "Leaflets for Farmers, No. 30." Only I so recently as December 1894 Dr Voelcker in tbe Royal A.S. Society's Journal noted the occurrence of castor oil bean in linseed cake. " The occurrence of castor oil bsan in linseed cake is." fee says, "in my experience, almost confined to the case of foreign made cakes, and especially those that come from Marseilles. At the latter port a good deal of castor bean is crushed, and care is not always taken to thoroughly clean the mills of it before putting them on to lin&erd or otJwr stetl crushing. In one instance thai came under my notice a delivery of cake, sold as ' Round Italian Linseed Cake,' was found to contain cator oil bean, and over 30 lambs died from eating it. In another caie, a farmer had been unwise enough to purchase the sweepings of wharves, floors, &c, and into these some castor bean had found its way. On giving it to a flock of 96 sheep, 25 of them died, and all the others were more or leas affected. It need hardly be said" 1 tWWfiKit M tbe Osk CdO in, wing as food %

stock such materials as the sweeping of mills, floors, &o. in wbich castor oil bean has been crushed."

The action on the human system Dr Taylor describes in these words :— " Soon after the pulp has bean swallowed there is severe pain in the abdomen, copious and painful vomiting, with bloody purging, thirst, and convulsions, terminated by death." As to its action on farm animals' the following illustrations may be cited. In July 1894 Mr James Norris, Blechingly, Surrey, had a number of fat lambs die, a main portion of their food having been linseed cake. A portion of the cake was forwarded to Dr Voelcker for analysis, and his report wast— "A cake not only impure by reason of the foreign seeds in it, but positively poisonous owing to the presence of a very considerable quantity of castor oil bean." Dr J, W. Leather, who assisted Dr Voelcker in laboratory researches made for the purpose of ascertaining the causes of frequent deaths among stock fed on oil cuke, Ttr'.tea in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, September 1892: — "From time to time cases of severe purging among stock, followed occasionally by death, have been brought under notice, and the mischief has been traced, in come of the cases at least, to the presence of castor seed in one or other of the feeding stuffi given to the animals. From what has been said as to the quantity of these seeds which is required to cause illness or death among human beings, it will be readily understood that cot many seeds need be administered to sheep or cattle in order to produce like effects, and should the seed exist in a ottble food, several pounds of which constitute a daily ratios, it will be likewise clear that one or two seeds per lb are all that axe necessary in order to produce harmful results, if not death." Dr Leather proceeds to say that "as cases of damage to stock have been brought home to-the-presence of castor seed in the foods,, inquiry on this point has naturally been made. " Both Dr Bernard and Mr Smetham— two acknowledged authorities — have pointed out that the castor oil plant grows as a weed amongst the cotton orop, and that this rendily accounts for its presence in small quantities on the arrival of the latter in England. It is not likely that the castor oil plant will be cultivated in this colony for .the sake of the oil which the seed contains, but the leaflet under notice may induce people to try experimental growths in gardens. Sufficient has been said to show the urgent necessity for collecting and destroying the jbean or seed -where it may possibly mature, bo as to avert the risk of poiioning people unconscious of the danger as well as the livestock about the farmstead.