A VALUABLE PLANT.

Shannon News, 21 September 1923, Page 4

A VALUABLE PLANT.

CHINA OIL NUTS. j About twenty years ago the late Mr. G. W. S. Patterson made a trip 2000 hiiles inland in China for the purpose of procuring certain nuts from which bil is produced. He succeeded in his mission, and brought back quite a number of nuts, which were distributed among friends, but failed to germinate. Probably the wily Oriental jrora whom the nuts were procured took precautions to ensure they would not grow. Mr. Patterson, who was in pie 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 -jbeen successful in growing . some of these trees from nuts which he objtained from America, where the plant ’has been acclimatised. The plants are how flourishing well. They belong to jthe same class as the candle nut tree. [fihe foliage is handsome, but the ; plant is deciduous, and therefore not ■suited for planting for ornamental purposes. This tree grows over la>-ge areas in the interior of China. Its .value as an oil producer may be ■judged from the fact that in China isome 25,000,000 gallons are used annually. Multifarious are the uses to Jwhich the Chinese put this 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 manu•facture of paint* and linoleum. For icoating 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. jThe Chinese junkman always coats his 'boat with the cruder grades of wood oil. After the oil has been abstracted {the nut is burnt by the Chinese, then {the soot is mixed with other materials 'and used for the purpose of caulking poats. 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 Auckland district it may lead to such a ’valuable plant being widely planted, and in the years t'o come, if nuts are freely in this climate, the results might be beneficial to the country by developing a new industry.