A VALUABLE PLANT.

Shannon News, 6 July 1923, Page 3

A VALUABLE PLANT.

CHINA OIL NUTS. _> ■ •> About twenty years ago the late Mr. G. W. S. Patterson made a trip 2000 • miles inland in China for the purpose of procuring certain nuts from which oil is produced. He succeeded in his mission, and -brought back quite a number of nuts, which were distributed among friends, but failed to ger- ' minat’e. Probably the wily Oriental from whom the nuts were procured took precautions to ensure they would not g’vow. Mi*. Patterson, who was in the kauri gum trade, had an idea that if the tree could be. acclimatised in the Auckland district it would be of great value in the future when the_ deposits of fossil resin were exhausted.

Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., of Auckland, who takes great interest in the-; work of introducing new plants, has - been successful in growing some of these trees from nut's which he obtained from America, where the plant has been acclimatised. The plants are’ now flourishing well. They belong to the same class as the candle nut tree.The foliage is handsome, but the . plant is deciduous, and therefore not suited for planting for ornamental purposes. This tree grows over la r ge areas in the interior of China. Its; value as an oil producer may be judged from the fact that in China; some 25,000,000 gallons are used annually. Multifarious are the uses to which the Chinese put {his nut. The oil is largely used as a substitute for linseed, in the manufacture of varnish. It dries so rapidly that, it is almost a natural varnish. The Chinese use nut oil for coating paper for covers of umbrellas, which it renders waterproof. It is also utilised -in the manufacture of paint? &nd liriQleuinjy.- • ';For* coating furniture the oil is valuable as a .preventive of the ravages of insects as. it is highly poisonous, hence the value- as to preservative of timber. This leads to the thought that probably Chinese nut oil might be found an effective remedy for the borer, which is such a pest in New Zealand. The Chinese junkman always coats-hi 3 boat with the cruder grades of Tybod oil. After the oil has been abstracted /the nut is burnt by the Chinese, ihen the soot is mixed with other materials and used for the purpose of caulking boats. This oil is also valuable as a dressing for leather, and an excellent ink is manufactured from the soot- of the nut.

It is to be hoped that now the China nut oil plants are growing in the Auck. land district it may lead to such: a valuable plant being- widely planted, and in the years to come, if nuts are produced freely in this climate the results might be beneficial to the country by developing a new industry.