Amongst the imports from British possessions in Asia, were 2,600 cwts., of copperah (dried coco-nut kernels, from which oil is expressed), valued at L1,100; amongst the imports re-exported to Great Britain, we find 870 cwts. of the same article, valued at L300.  Of the oil exported a quantity of 11,000 gallons was shipped for the United States.  About 600,000 piculs of coco-nut oil are annually exported from Siam.

A large quantity of oil is made in Trinidad, chiefly on the east coast, where, in one locality, there is an uninterrupted belt of coco-nut palms fourteen miles in extent.  They usually bear when five years old.

The cultivation of the coco-nut in a proper soil presents a very profitable speculation for small capitalists.  Whether sold at the rate of a dollar per hundred in their natural state, to captains of ships, who freely purchase them, or manufactured into oil, they are a very remunerative product.  Each tree in the West Indies is calculated to produce nuts to the value of one dollar yearly.  There is one thing to which we would draw the attention of chemists and other scientific men.

For twenty-four or even forty-eight hours after its manufacture this oil is as free from any unpleasant taste as olive oil, and can be used in lieu of it for all culinary purposes, but after that time it acquires such a rancid taste as to be wholly unpalateable.  If any means could be discovered of preventing this deterioration in quality, and preserving it fresh and sweet, it could compete with olive oil, and the price and consumption would be largely raised.

COCO-NUT OIL IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM.

Imports.    Retained for home consumption.
cwts.                 cwts.
1835            19,838                14,015
1836            26,058                26,062
1837            41,218                28,641
1838              —­                  38,669
1839              —­                  15,153
1840              —­                  37,269
1841              —­                  26,528
1842              —­                  26,225
1843              —­                  29,928
1844              —­                  42,480
1848            85,453                54,783
1849            64,451                14,622
1850            98,040                46,494
1851            55,995                 2,333
1852           101,863                27,112

A London coco-nut oil soap was found, on analysis by Dr. Ure, to consist of:—­

Soda 4.5
Coco-nut lard 22.0
Water 73.5
-----
100.0

This remarkable soap was sufficiently solid; but it dissolved in hot water with extreme facility.  It is called marine soap, because it washes linen with sea water.

Of the six principal vegetable oils, namely—­palm, coco-nut castor, olive, linseed, and rape, the first four are imported in the state of oil only; the two last chiefly as seed.  The proportion in which they were imported is shown in the following tables; and if to these quantities are added about a million and a half cwt. of tallow, and nearly twenty thousand tuns of whale oil and spermaceti, they will nearly represent the total quantity of oil imported into Great Britain.