noun
definition
The seed of the flax plant, which yields linseed oil.
example
The ancients regarded linseed as a source of medical benefits.
synonyms
Examples of linseed in a Sentence
Flax, linseed, corn and timber are the leading articles of commerce.
The area under wheat in 1901 was 8,351,843 acres; Indian corn, 3,102,140 acres; linseed, 1,512,340 acres; alfalfa, 3,088,929 acres.
The principal crops in addition to wheat are oats, barley, maize, linseed and bird seed.
Linseed and other oil-bearing grains are also important articles of commerce, as well as wool and butter.
An active trade is carried on with Austria, especially through the Isakovets and Gusyatin custom-houses, corn, cattle, horses, skins, wool, linseed and hemp seed being exported, in exchange for wooden wares, linen, woollen stuffs, cotton, glass and agricultural implements.
Other manufactures of importance are butter, cheese and condensed milk, packed meats and other slaughter-house products, steam railway cars, foundry and machine-shop products, linseed oil, malt liquors, planing-mill products, sash, doors and blinds, boots and shoes, and agricultural implements.
These seeds have been examined at the Imperial Institute, and the kernels have been found to contain nearly half their weight (48%) of an oil resembling linseed oil and applicable for the same purposes.
In addition to cash registers, the city's manufactured products include agricultural implements, clay-working machinery, cotton-seed and linseed oil machinery, filters, turbines, railway cars (the large Barney-Smith car works employed 1800 men in 1905), carriages and wagons, sewingmachines (the Davis Sewing Machine Co.), automobiles, clothing, flour, malt liquors, paper, furniture, tobacco and soap. The total value of the manufactured product, under the "factory system," was $31,015,293 in 1900 and $39,596,773 in 1905.
There is an active trade in cattle, tallow, wools, skins, linseed, wine, corn and manufactured wares.
Livonia carries on a large export trade, especially through Riga and Pernau, in petroleum, wool, oilcake, flax, linseed, hemp, grain, timber and wooden wares; the Dvina is the chief channel for this trade.
Its manufactures include slaughtering and meat-packing products, cars and car repairing, linseed oil, bricks and tiles (made from excellent clay found in and near the city).
Throughout other parts bullocks are fed on pasture land, and also in stables on nourishing and succulent feed such as hay, Indian corn fodder, Indian corn silage, turnips, carrots, mangels, ground oats, barley, peas, Indian corn, rye, bran and linseed oil cake.
The chief exports are rice, indigo, linseed and other seeds, saltpetre and tobacco.
For use with wood which is exposed to moisture, as in the case of wooden cisterns, a mixture may be made of 4 parts of linseed oil boiled with litharge, and 8 parts of melted glue; other strong cements for the same purpose are prepared by softening gelatine in cold water and dissolving it by heat in linseed oil, or by mixing glue with one-fourth of its weight of turpentine, or with a little bichromate of potash.
Principal exports are grain, coal and fish; imports are bones and bone-ash, manure stuffs, linseed, salt, timber and iron.
The four chief varieties grown are mustard or rape seed, linseed, til or gingelly (sesamum), and castor-oil.
The exports consist chiefly of livestock, jerked beef, hides, wool, and other animal products, wheat, flour, corn, linseed, barley, hay, tobacco, sealskins, fruit, vegetables, and some minor products.
Nearly all the trade in the brandy manufactured in the government of Kharkov, and destined for the governments of Ekaterinoslav and Taurida, is concentrated here, as also is the trade in linseed between the districts situated on the left affluents of the Dnieper and the southern ports.
These seeds, the linseed of commerce, are of a lustrous brown colour externally, and a compressed and elongated oval form, with a slight beak or projection at one extremity.
The cotyledons contain the valuable linseed oil referred to below.
Linseed grown in tropical countries is much larger and more plump than that obtained in temperate climes, but the seed from the colder countries yields a finer quality of oil.
Linseed formed an article of food among the Greeks and Romans, and it is said that the Abyssinians at the present day eat it roasted.
The still prevalent use of linseed in poultices for open wounds is entirely to be reprobated.
The principal objections to this use of linseed is that it specially favours the growth of micro-organisms. There are numerous clean and efficient substitutes which have all its supposed advantages and none of its disadvantages.
Linseed cake, the marc left after the expression of the oil, is a most valuable feeding substance for cattle.
Linseed is subject to extensive and detrimental adulterations, resulting not only from careless harvesting and cleaning, whereby seeds of the flax dodder, and other weeds and grasses are mixed with it, but also from the direct admixture of cheaper and inferior oil-seeds, such as wild rape, mustard, sesame, poppy, &c., the latter adulterations being known in trade under the generic name of " buffum."
In 1864, owing to the serious aspect of the prevalent adulteration, a union of traders was formed under the name of the " Linseed Association."
This body samples all linseed oil arriving in England and reports on its value.
Linseed oil, the most valuable drying oil, is obtained by expression from the seeds, with or without the aid of heat.
For the preparation of " artist's oil," the finest form of linseed oil, the refined oil is placed in shallow trays covered with glass, and exposed to the action of the sun's rays.
By saponification it yields a number of fatty acids - palmitic, myristic, oleic, linolic, linolenic and isolinolenic. Exposed to the air in thin films, linseed oil absorbs oxygen and forms " linoxyn," a resinous semi-elastic, caoutchouclike mass, of uncertain composition.
Linseed oil is also the principal ingredient in printing and lithographic inks.
Linseed oil is subject to various falsifications, chiefly through the addition of cotton-seed, niger-seed and hemp-seed oils; and rosin oil and mineral oils also are not infrequently added.
The seeds of the flax plant, well known as linseed, are heavy, smooth, glossy and of a bright greenish-brown colour.
All tithes have been abolished, except those on cereals, carobs, silk cocoons, and, in the form of to% ad valorem export duties, those on cotton, linseed, aniseed and raisins (all other export duties and a fishing tax have been abolished); (4) sheep, goat, and pig tax; (5) an excise on wine, spirits and tobacco; (6) import duties; (7) stamps, court fees, royalties, licenses, &c.; (8) salt monopoly.
Of oil-yielding plants the castor-oil plant, sesame, linseed and olive are cultivated, the last only in a small district south of and near Resht.
On an average, £3,000,000 to £4,000,000 worth of wheat, about £i,000,000 worth of rye, and over £1,500,000 worth of barley are exported annually, besides oats, flax, linseed, rape seed, oilcake, bran, flour, vegetable oils, raw wool and caviare.
Flax and linseed also occupy a prominent place, Riga being the chief Russian port for the extensive flax-producing region of north-west Russia.
In Malwa a flat scraper is employed, a small piece of cotton soaked in linseed oil being attached to the upper part of the blade, and used for smearing the thumb and edge of the scraper to prevent adhesion of the juice; sometimes water is used instead of oil, but both practices injure the quality of the product.
The opium is collected in March and April, and the crude drug or " chick " is thrown into an earthen vessel and covered with linseed oil to prevent evaporation.
In German specifications it is required that the steelwork should first receive a coat of boiled linseed oil, in order that the red lead coating should be more coherent with the steel.
The principal oil-seeds are sarisha (mustard), til (sesamum) and tisi or masina (linseed).
Grain, fish, linseed, rapeseed, wool and hides are also exported.
When drafted to an adjoining field they run in front of their mothers and get a little crushed oats and linseed cake meal, the ewes receiving kail or roots and hay to develop milk.
The principal crops are rice, wheat, millet, other food-grains, pulse, linseed, and a little sugar-cane.
It has about ioo,000 inhabitants, and comprises four kazas (cantons), namely, (1) Maitos, noted for its excellent cotton; (2) Keshan, lying inland north of Gallipoli, noted for its cattle-market, and producing grain, linseed and canary seed; (3) Myriofyto; and (4) Sharkeui or Shar-Koi (Peristeri) on the coast of the Sea of Marmora.
Wheat and maize are exported to the Aegean islands and to Turkish ports on the mainland; barley, oats and linseed to Great Britain; canary seed chiefly to Australia; beans to France and Spain.
There is a lively trade with St Petersburg, and the sea-borne exports, which consist chiefly of timber, flax, linseed, oats, flour, pitch, tar, skins and mats, amount in value to about 12 millions sterling annually (822% for timber), but the imports (mostly fish) are worth only about £ 200,000.
Horses doing slow or other than " upper ten " work may have oats crushed, not ground, and a variety of additions made to the oats which are usually the basis of the feed - for example, a few old crushed beans, a little linseed meal, ground linseed cake or about a wine-glassful of unboiled linseed oil.
Too much linseed, often used in preparing horses for market, gives a similar appearance, but is liable to induce fatty degeneration of the liver; given in moderation it regulates the bowels and stimulates the more perfect digestion of other foods.