part I

), states that the tacca plant abounds in certain parts of the province of Arracan, where the Mugs prepare the farina for export to the China market.

After removing the peel, the root is grated on a fish-skin, and the pulp having been strained through a coarse cloth, is washed three or four times in water, and then dried in the sun.

According to a recent examination of the plant by Mr. Nuttall ("American Journal of Pharmacy," vol. ix., p. 305), the Otaheite salep is obtained from a new species of tacca, which he names _T. oceanica_.

For many years we have obtained from Tahiti, and other islands of the South Seas, this fecula, known by the name of Tahiti arrowroot, probably the produce of _Tacca pinnatifida_. It is generally spherical, but also often ovoid, elliptic, or rounded, with a prolongation in the form of a neck, suddenly terminated by a plane.

The tacca plant grows at Zanzibar, and is found naturalised on the high islands of the Pacific. The art of preparing arrowroot from it is aboriginal with the Polynesians and Feejeeans.

At Tahiti the fecula is procured by washing the tubers, scraping off their outer skin, and then reducing them to a pulp by friction, on a kind of rasp, made by winding coarse twine (formed of the coco-nut fibre) regularly round a board. The pulp is washed with sea water through a sieve, made of the fibrous web which protects the young frond of the coco-nut palm. The strained liquor is received in a wooden trough, in which the fecula is deposited; and the supernatant liquor being poured off, the sediment is formed into balls, which are dried in the sun for twelve or twenty-four hours, then broken and reduced to powder, which is spread out in the sun further to dry. In some parts of the world cakes of a large size are made of the meal, which form an article of diet in China, Cochin-Caina, Travancore, &c., where they are eaten by the natives with some acid to subdue their acrimony.

Some twenty varieties of the Ti plant (_Diacaena terminalis_) are cultivated in the Polynesian islands. There is, however, but one which is considered farinaceous and edible. In Java the root is considered a valuable medicine in dysentery.

Within the last three or four years, considerable quantities of a feculent substance, called Tous les mois, have been imported from the West Indies. It is cultivated in Barbados, St. Kitts, and the French islands, and is said to be prepared by a tedious and troublesome process from the rhizomes of various species of _Canna Coccinea_, _Achiras_, _glauca_, and _edulis_. It approaches more nearly to potato starch than to any other fecula, but its particles are larger. Like the other amylaceous substances, it forms a valuable and nutritious article of food for the invalid.

The large tuberous roots of the Canna are equal in size to the human head. The plant attains in rich soils a stature of fourteen feet, and is identical, it is supposed, with the Achira of Choco, which has an esculent root highly esteemed; and my friend, Dr. Hamilton, of Plymouth, has named it provisionally, in consequence, _Canna achira_. The starch of this root, he asserts, is superior to that of the _Maranta_.

ROOT CROPS.

Amongst tuberous rooted plants, which serve as food for man in various quarters of the globe, the principal are the common potato, yam, cocoes or eddoes, sweet potatoes, taro, tacca, arrowroot, cassava, or manioc, and the Apios (_Arracacha esculenta_). There are others of less importance, which may be incidentally mentioned. The roots of _Tropæolum tuberosum_ are eaten in Peru, those of _Ocymum tuberosum_ in Java. In Kamschatka they use the root of the _Lilium Pomponium_ as a substitute for the potato. In Brazil the _Helianthus tuberosus_. The rhizomæ and seed vessels of the Lotus form the principal food of the aborigines of Australia. As a matter of curious information, I have also briefly alluded to many other plants and roots, furnishing farinaceous substance and support in different countries.

The comparative amount of human food that can be produced upon an acre from different crops, is worthy of great consideration. One hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre is not an uncommon crop. One peck per week will not only sustain life, but give a man strength to labor, if the stomach is properly toned to the amount of food. This, then, would feed one man 400 weeks, or almost eight years! 400 bushels of potatoes can also be raised upon an acre. This would give a bushel a week for the same length of time; and the actual weight of an acre of sweet potatoes (_Convolvulus batatas_) is 21,344 lbs., which is not considered an extraordinary crop. This would feed a man (six pounds a day) for 3,557 days, or nine and two-third years!

To vary the diet we will occasionally give rice, which has been grown at the rate of 93 bushels to the acre, over an entire field. This, at 45 lbs. to the bushel, would be 4,185 lbs.; or, at 28 lbs. to the bushel when husked, 2,604 lbs., which, at two pounds a day, would feed a man 1,302 days, or more than three-and-a-half years!

POTATOES.

The common English or Irish potato (_Solanum tuberosum_), so extensively cultivated throughout most of the temperate countries of the civilised globe, contributing as it does to the necessities of a large portion of the human race, as well as to the nourishment and fattening of stock, is regarded as of but little less importance in our national economy than wheat or other grain. It has been found in an indigenous state in Chili, on the mountains near Valparaiso and Mendoza; also near Monte Video, Lima, Quito, as well as in Santa Fe de Bogota, and more recently in Mexico, on the flanks of Orizaba.

The history of this plant, in connection with that of the sweet potato, is involved in obscurity, as the accounts of their introduction into Europe are somewhat conflicting, and often they appear to be confounded with one another. The common kind was doubtless introduced into Spain in the early part of the sixteenth century, from the neighbourhood of Quito, where, as well as in all Spanish countries, the tubers are known as papas. The first published account of it we find on record is in "_La Cronica del Peru_," by Pedro de Cieca, printed at Seville, in 1553, in which it is described and illustrated by an engraving. From Spain it appears to have found its way into Italy, where it assumed the same name as the truffle. It was received by Clusius, at Vienna, in 1598, in whose time it spread rapidly in the South of Europe, and even into Germany. It is said to have found its way to England by a different route, having been brought from Virginia by Raleigh colonists, in 1586, which would seem improbable, as it was unknown in North America at that time, either wild or cultivated; and besides, Gough, in his edition of Camden's "Britannia," says it was first planted by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his estate at Youghal, near Cork, and that it was cultivated in Ireland before its value was known in England. Gerarde, in his "Herbal," published in 1597, gives a figure of this plant, under the name of _Batata Virginiana_, to distinguish it from the _Batata edulis_, and recommends the root to be eaten as a "delicate dish," but not as a common food. "The sweet potato," says Sir Joseph Banks, "was used in England as a delicacy, long before the introduction of our potatoes. It was imported in considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed vigor." It is related that the common potato was accidentally introduced into England from Ireland, at a period somewhat earlier than that noticed by Gerarde, in consequence of the wreck of a vessel on the coast of Lancashire, which had a quantity on board. In 1663 the Royal Society of England took measures for the cultivation of this vegetable, with the view of preventing famine.

Notwithstanding its utility as a food became better known, no high character was attached to it; and the writers on gardening towards the end of the seventeenth century, a hundred years or more after its introduction, treated of it rather indifferently. "They are much used in Ireland and America as bread," says one author, "and may be propagated with advantage to poor people."

The famous nurserymen, Loudon and Wise, did not consider it worthy of notice in their "Complete Gardener," published in 1719. But its use gradually spread as its excellencies became better understood. It was near the middle of the last century before it was generally known either in Britain or North America, since which it has been most extensively cultivated.

The period of the introduction of the common potato into the British North American colonies, is not precisely known. It is mentioned among the products of Carolina and Virginia in 1749, and by Kalm as growing in New York the same year.

The culture of this root extends through the whole of Europe, a large portion of Asia, Australia, the southern and northern parts of Africa, and the adjacent islands. On the American continent, with the exception of some sections of the torrid zone, the culture ranges from Labrador on the east, and Nootka Sound on the west, to Cape Horn. It resists more effectually than the cereals the frosts of the north. In the North American Union it is principally confined to the Northern, Middle, and Western States, where, from the coolness of the climate it acquires a farinaceous consistence highly conducive to the support of animal life. It has never been extensively cultivated in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, probably from the greater facility of raising the sweet potato, its more tropical rival. Its perfection, however, depends as much upon the soil as on the climate in which it grows; for in the red loam, on the banks of Bayou Boeuf, in Louisiana, where the land is new, it is said that tubers are produced as large, savory, and as free from water as any raised in other parts of the world. The same may be said of those grown at Bermuda, Madeira, the Canaries, and numerous other ocean isles.

The chief varieties cultivated in the Northern States of America are the carter, the kidneys, the pink-eyes, the mercer, the orange, the Sault Ste. Marie, the merino, and Western red; in the Middle and Western States, the mercer, the long red, or merino, the orange, and the Western red. The yield varies from 50 to 400 bushels and upwards per acre, but generally it is below 200 bushels.

Within the last ten years an alarming disease, or "rot," has attacked the tubers of this plant, about the time they are fully grown. It has not only appeared in nearly every part of America, but has spread dismay, at times, throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and has been felt more or less seriously in every quarter of the globe.

To the greater uncertainty attending its cultivation of late years, must be attributed the deficiency of the United States crop of 1849, as compared with that of 1839. This is one of the four agricultural products which, by the last census, appears smaller than ten years since.--("American Census Reports for 1850.")

The crops in Ireland, where the potato is the principal object of culture, vary from 1½ to 10½ tons per acre, according to the season; but in the average of three years ending 1849, the annual growth of Great Britain and Ireland amounted to nine million tons, which, at £3 per ton, exhibits the value at £27,000,000 sterling. Ireland produced in 1847 a little over two million tons, the yield being 7¼ tons per acre. In 1848 the produce was 2,880,814 tons, averaging only four tons to the acre. In 1849, 4,014,122 tons, averaging 5½ tons to the acre. In 1850, 3,954,990 tons; and in 1851, 4,441,022 tons; the average yield per acre not stated. In many parts of Scotland 24 tons to the acre are raised. The sales of potatoes in the principal metropolitan markets exceed 140,000 tons a year, which are irrespective of the sales which take place at railway stations, wharfs, shops, &c. The imports into the United Kingdom average about 70,000 tons annually. Potatoes are exported to the West Indies, Mediterranean, and other quarters. For emigrant ships, preserved or dried potato flour is now much used.

The following quantities of potato flour were imported from France in the last few years:--

Cwts. 1848 17,222 1849 3,858 1850 12,591 1851 2,631

We also imported the following quantities of potatoes in the last five years:--

Cwts. 1848 940,697 1849 1,417,867 1850 1,348,867 1851 636,771 1852 773,658

Thoroughly dried potatoes will always produce a crop free from disease. Such is the positive assertion of Mr. Bollman, one of the professors in the Russian Agricultural Institution, at Gorigoretsky. In a very interesting pamphlet[47] by this gentleman, it is asserted, as an unquestionable fact, that mere drying, if conducted at a sufficiently high temperature, and continued long enough, is a complete antidote to the disease.

The account given by Professor Bollman of the accident which led to this discovery is as follows:--He had contrived a potato-setter, which had the bad quality of destroying any sprouts that might be "on the sets, and even of tearing away the rind. To harden the potatoes so as to protect them against this accident, he resolved to dry them. In the spring of 1850, he placed a lot in a very hot room, and at the end of three weeks they were dry enough to plant. The potatoes came up well, and produced as good a crop as that of the neighbouring farmers, with this difference only, that they had no disease, and the crop was, therefore, upon the whole, more abundant. Professor Bollman tells us that he regarded this as a mere accident; he, however, again dried his seed potatoes in 1851, and again his crop was abundant and free from disease, while everywhere on the surrounding land they were much affected. This was too remarkable a circumstance not to excite attention, and in 1852 a third trial took place. All Mr. Bollman's own stock of potatoes being exhausted, he was obliged to purchase his seed, which bore unmistakable marks of having formed part of a crop that had been severely diseased; some, in fact, were quite rotten. After keeping them about a month in a hot room, as before, he cut the largest potatoes into quarters, and the smaller into halves, and left them to dry for another week. Accidentally the drying was carried so far that apprehensions were entertained of a very bad crop, if any. Contrary to expectation, however, the sets pushed promptly, and grew so fast that excellent young potatoes were dug three weeks earlier than usual. Eventually nine times the quantity planted was produced, and although the neighbouring fields were attacked, no trace of disease could be found on either the herbage or the potatoes themselves.

This singular result, obtained in three successive years, led to inquiry as to whether any similar cases were on record. In the course of the investigation two other facts were elicited. It was discovered that Mr. Losovsky (living in the government of Witebsk, in the district of Sebege), had for four years adopted the plan of drying his seed potatoes, and that during that time there had been no disease on his estate. It was again an accident which led to the practice of this gentleman. Five years ago, while his potatoes were digging, he put one in his pocket, and on returning home threw it on the stove (poele), where it remained forgotten till the spring. Having then chanced to observe it, he had the curiosity to plant it, all dried up as it was, and obtained an abundant, healthy crop; since that time the practice of drying has been continued, and always with great success. Professor Bollman remarks that it is usual in Russia, in many places, to smoke-dry flax, wheat, and rye; and in the west of Russia, experienced proprietors prefer, for seed, onions that have been kept over the winter in cottages without a chimney. Such onions are called _dymka_, which may be interpreted smoke-dried.

The second fact is this:--Mr. Wasileffsky, a gentlemen residing in the government of Mohileff, is in the habit of keeping potatoes all the year round, by storing them in the place where his hams are smoked. It happened that in the spring of 1852 his seed potatoes, kept in the usual manner, were insufficient, and he made up the requisite quantity with some of those which had been for a month in the smoking place. These potatoes produced a capital crop, very little diseased, while at the same time the crop from the sets which were not smoke-dried was extensively attacked by disease. Professor Bollman is of opinion that there would have been no disease at all if the sets had been better dried.

The temperature required to produce the desired result is not very clearly made out. Mr. Bollman's room, in which his first potatoes were dried, was heated to about 72 degrees, and much higher. By way of experiment he placed others in the chamber of the stove itself, where the thermometer stood at 136 degrees, and more. He also ascertained that the vitality of the potato is not affected, even if the rind is charred. Those who have the use of a malt-kiln, or even a lime-kiln, might try the effect of excessive drying, for a month seems to be long enough for the process.--(Gardener's Chronicle.)

A Mr. Penoyer, of Western Saratoga, Illinois, publishes the following, which he recommends as a perfect cure and preventive of the potato rot, having tested it thoroughly four years with perfect success; while others in the same field, who did not use the preventive, lost their entire crop by the rot. It not only prevents the rot, but restores the potato to its primitive vigor, and the product is not only sound, but double the size, consequently producing twice the quantity on the same ground, and the vines grow much larger, and retain their freshness and vitality until the frost kills them. Aside from the cure of the rot, the farmers would be more than doubly compensated for their trouble and expense in the increase and quality of the crop. The remedy or preventive is as follows:--"Take one peck of fine salt and mix it thoroughly with half a bushel of Nova Scotia plaster or gypsum (the plaster is the best), and immediately after hoeing the potatoes the second time, or just as the young potato begins to set, sprinkle on the main vines, next to the ground, a tablespoon full of the above mixture to each hill, and be sure to get it on the main vines, as it is found that the rot proceeds from a sting of an insect in the vine, and the mixture coming in contact with the vine, kills the effect of it before it reaches the potato." I cannot but consider Professor Bollman's as the most important of the two remedies suggested.

The potato crop of the United States exceeds 100 million bushels, nearly all of which are consumed in the country; the average exports of the last eight years not having exceeded 160,000 bushels per annum.

According to the census returns of 1840, the quantity of potatoes of all sorts raised in the Union, was 108,298,060 bushels; of 1850, 104,055,989 bushels, of which 38,259,196 bushels were sweet potatoes.

Last year (1852) there was under cultivation with potatoes in Canada, the following extent of land:--

Acres. Bushels. Upper Canada 77,672 Produce 498,747 Lower Canada 73,244 Produce 456,111

About 782,008 cwts. of potatoes are annually exported from the Canary Islands. In Prussia, 153 million hectolitres of potatoes were raised in 1849. In 1840 Van Diemen's Land produced 15,000 tons of potatoes, on about 5,000 acres of land.

The potato is not yet an article of so much importance in France, as in England or the Low Countries, but within the last twenty years its cultivation has increased very rapidly. It is mostly grown where corn is the least cultivated. The quantity raised in 1818, was 29,231,867 hectolitres, which had increased in 1835 to 71,982,814 hectolitres. About 2,000,000 hectolitres of chesnuts are also annually consumed in France, a portion of the rural population in some of the Central and Southern Departments living almost entirely on them for half the year.

In Peru dried potatoes are thus prepared:--Small potatoes are boiled, peeled, and then dried in the sun, but the best are those dried by the severe frosts on the mountains. In the Cordilleras they are covered with ice, until they assume a horny appearance. Powdered, it is called _chimo_. They will keep for any length of time, and when used required to be bruised and soaked. If introduced as a vegetable substance in long sea voyages, the potato thus dried would be found wholesome and nourishing. A large and profitable business is now carried on, in what is called "preserved potatoes," for ships' use, prepared by Messrs. Edwards and Co., which are found exceedingly useful in the Royal Navy, in emigrant ships, for troops and other services, from their portability, nutritious properties, and being uninjured by climate.

Few persons are probably aware of the quantity of potatoes used in England, America and the Continent, in the manufacture of starch, arrowroot, and tapioca, &c., A starch manufactory in Mercer, Maine, United States, grinds from 16,000 to 24,000 bushels annually of potatoes, and makes 140,000 to 240,000 lbs. of starch, which finds a ready market at Boston, at four dollars the hundred pounds. The New England manufacturers prefer it to Poland starch. Another starch manufacturer, in Hampden, America, consumes 2,500 bushels per day. In a single district in Bavaria, in Germany, 400,000 lbs. of sago and starch are manufactured from potatoes; 100 lbs. of potatoes are said to yield 12 lbs. of starch. From experiments made in America, with three varieties of potatoes, the long reds, Philadelphia, and pink-eyes, it was found that the former yielded the most starch, viz., about 6 lbs. to the bushel. A bushel of potatoes weighs about 64 lbs. The following table from Accum, gives the rate of starch and component parts per cent. in different varieties:--

+-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------+ | Sort. |Fibrine.|Starch.|Vegetable| Gum. |Acids and|Water.| | | | | Albumen.| | Salts. | | +-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------- |Red potatoes | 7.0 | 15.0 | 1.4 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 75.0 | |Ditto germinated | 6.8 | 12.2 | 1.3 | 3.7 | | 73.0 | |Potato sprouts | 2.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 3.3 | | 93.0 | |Kidney potatoes | 8.8 | 9.1 | 0.8 | | | 81.3 | |Large red ditto | 6.0 | 12.9 | 0.7 | | | 78.0 | |Sweet ditto | 8.2 | 15.1 | 0.8 | | 74.3 | |Potato of Peru | 5.2 | 15.0 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 76.0 | |Ditto of England | 6.8 | 12.9 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 77.5 | |Onion potato | 8.4 | 18.7 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 70.3 | |Voigtland | 7.1 | 15.4 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 74.3 | |Cultivated in the | | | | | | | environs of Paris| 6.8 | 13.3 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 1.4 | 73.1 | +-------------------+--------+-------+---------+------+---------+------+

The first six varieties were analysed by Einhoff, the next four by Lamped, and the last named by Henry.

YAMS.

The different species of yams have a wide range. In the West Indies there are several varieties, having distinctive names, according to quality, color, &c., as the white yam, the red yam, the negro yam, the creole yam, the afoo yam, the buck yam (_Dioscorea triphylla_), which is found wild in Java and the East; the Guinea yam, the Portuguese yam, the water yam, and the Indian yam, &c. The last is considered the most farinaceous and delicate in its texture, resembling in size the potato; most of the other sorts are coarse, but still very nutritive and useful. The common yam (_Dioscorea sativa_) is indigenous to the Eastern Islands and West Indies. The Guinea yam (_D. aculeata_) is a native of the East. The Barbados or winged yam (_D. alata_?) has a widely extended range, being common to India, Java, Brazil, and Western Africa. The yam species are climbing plants, with handsome foliage, of the simplest culture, which succeed well in any light, rich, or sandy soil, and are readily increased by dividing the tuberous roots. The Indian, Barbados, and red yams are planted in the West Indies early in May, and dug early in the January following. If not bruised, they will keep well packed in ashes, the first nine, and the second and last twelvemonths. The Portuguese and Guinea yams are planted early in January and dug in September. Creole yams and Tanias are dug in January. Sweet potatoes from January to March. In most of our colonies large crops of the finest descriptions of yams, cocos, &c., could be obtained, but the planting of ground provisions is too much neglected by all classes. From the tubers of yams of all sorts, and particularly the buck yam, starch is easily prepared, and of excellent quality. Some varieties of the buck yam are purple-fleshed, often of a very deep tint, approaching to black, and although this is an objection, because it renders more washing necessary, yet even from these the starch is at last obtained perfectly white.

As an edible root the buck yam, especially when grown in a light soil, is equal to the potato, if not superior to it. It does not, however, keep for any length of time, and therefore could not be exported to Europe, unless the roots were sliced and dried.

Yams and sweet potatoes thrive well in the northern parts of Australia; indeed the former are indigenous there, and constitute the chief article of vegetable food used by the natives. The yam was introduced into Sweden, where it succeeded well, and bread, starch, and brandy were made from it, but it prefers a warmer climate.

Yams are occasionally brought to this country. When cooked, either by roasting or boiling, the root is even more nutritious than the potato, nor is it possessed of any unpalatable flavor, the pecularity being between that of rice and the potato. Dressed in milk, or mashed, they are absolutely a delicacy; and from the abundance in which they are cultivated in the West Indies and other parts, they promise to become a most economical and nutritious substitute for the potato.

The yam frequently grows to the enormous size of forty or fifty pounds weight, but in this large state it is coarse-flavored and fibrous.

An acre of land is capable of producing 4½ tons of yams, and the same quantity of sweet potatoes, within the twelve months, or nine tons per acre for both, being nearly as much as the return obtained at home in the cultivation of potatoes; and I have the authority of all analytical chemists for saying that in point of value, as an article of food, the superiority is as two to one in favor of the tropical roots.

The kidney-rooted yam (_D. pentaphylla_), is indigenous to the Polynesian islands, and is sometimes cultivated for its roots. It is called _kawaii_ in the Feejee islands. _D. bulbifera_, a native of the East, is also abundantly naturalised in the Polynesian islands, but is not considered edible.

There are seven or eight kinds of yams grown in India. Two are of a remarkably fine flavor, one weighing as much as eighteen pounds, the other three pounds. These are found in the Tartar country.

COCOS OR EDDOES

_Arum esculentum_.--This root has not hitherto been considered of sufficient importance to demand particular care in its cultivation, except by those who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and derive their subsistence from the production of the soil. But though the cultivation of the root is almost unknown to the higher classes in society, and little regarded by planters in the colonies, it is a most valuable article of consumption. Amongst the laboring population it is the principal dependence for a supply of food. Long droughts may disappoint the hopes of the yam crop, storms and blight may destroy the plantain walks, but neither dry or wet weather materially injure the coco; it will always make some return, and though it may not afford a plentiful crop, it will yield a sufficiency until a supply can be had from other sources. For this reason the laborer in the West Indies always takes care to put in a good plant of cocos to his provision ground as a stand by, and knowing their value, is perhaps the only person who bestows any degree of care or attention upon them. Previous to their emancipation, whole families of negroes lived upon the produce of one provision ground, and the coco formed the main article of their support. Where the soil is congenial to the white and black Bourbon coco, the labor of one industrious person once a fortnight will raise a supply sufficient for the consumption of a family of six or seven persons. The coco begins to bear after the first year, and with common care and cultivation the same plant ought to give annually two or three returns for several years. In Jamaica, a disease something similar to that affecting the potato, has been found injurious to the coco root. This disease, which has baffled all inquiry as to its origin, affects the plants in and after the second year of their being planted. The first indication of it is the change in the leaves, which gradually turn to a yellow hue, have a sickly appearance, and at length drop off at the surface of the earth. The stock or "coco head," as it is called, below ground, having become rotten, nothing but a soft pulpy mass remains. In some fields every third or fourth root is thus affected, in others much greater numbers are destroyed, so much so that the field requires to be almost entirely replanted, by which not only an expense is entailed, but a heavy loss sustained, from the field being thrown out of its regular bearing. The black coco seems to suffer less than the white.

Another species, the Taro (_Arum Colocasia_, _Colocasia esculenta_ and _macrorhizon_), is an important esculent root in the Polynesian islands. In the dry method of culture practised on the mountains of Hawaii, the roots are protected by a covering of fern leaves. The cultivation of taro is hardly a process of multiplication, for the crown of the root is perpetually replanted. As the plant endures for a series of years, the tuberous roots serve at some of the rocky groups as a security against famine. It is also extensively cultivated in Madeira and Zanzibar, and has even withstood the climate of New Zealand. It is grown also in Egypt, Syria, and some of the adjacent countries, for its esculent roots. A species is cultivated in the Deccan, for the sake of the leaves, which form a substitute for spinach. Farina is obtained from the root of _Arum Rumphii_ in Polynesia.

SWEET POTATOES.

The batatas, or camote of the Spanish colonies (_Convolvulus batatas_, Linn; _Batatas edulis_, of Choisy, and the _Ipomæa Batatas_ of other botanists), belongs to a family of plants which has been split into several genera. It is a native of the East Indies, and of intertropical America, and was the "potato" of the old English writers in the early part of the fourteenth century. It was doubtless introduced into Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia soon after their settlement by the Europeans, being mentioned as one of the cultivated products of those colonies as early as the year 1648. It grows in excessive abundance throughout the Southern States of America, and as far north as New Jersey, and the southern part of Michigan. The varieties cultivated there are the purple, the red, the yellow, and the white, the former of which is confined to the South.

The amount of sweet potatoes exported from South Carolina in 1747-48, was 700 bushels; that of the common potato exported from the United States, 1820-21, 90,889,000 bushels; in 1830-31, 112,875,000 bushels; in 1840-41, 136,095,000 bushels; in 1850-51, 106,342,000 bushels.

The sweet potato is cultivated generally in all the intertropical regions, for the sake of its roots, and as a legume in temperate countries. In the Southern States of North America, the culture ceases in Carolina under latitude 36 degs.; in Portugal and Spain it reaches to latitude 40 and 42 deg.; and as a legume its cultivation is attempted to the vicinity of Paris. In India it is a very common crop; its tubers are very similar to the potato, but have a sweeter taste, whence the common name; but it must not be confounded with the topinambur (_Helianthus tuberosus_), a native of Brazil, which is less cultivated. The root contains much saccharine and amylaceous matter.

Several marked varieties of the sweet potato are raised in the Polynesian groups. In some islands it forms the principal object of cultivation.

It is grown in the Northern districts of New Zealand, at Zanzibar, Monomoisy, Bombay, and other parts of the East Indies. They are raised on the bare surface of the rock in some parts of the Hawaiian islands, and a sourish liquor is procured from them. It was early cultivated on the Western Coast of Africa, for the Portuguese Pilot (who set out on his voyages to the colony at St. Thomas, in the Gulf of Guinea) speaks of this plant, and states that it is called "batata" by the aboriginals of St. Domingo. They are abundant at Mocha and Muscat. Sweet potatoes form a principal and important crop in the Bermudas.

A valuable addition has lately been made to the votaries of the sweet potato in Alabama, supposed to be from Peru. A letter describing it says:--"It is altogether different and equally superior to any variety of this root hitherto known. It is productive, and attains a prodigious size, even upon the poorest sandy land, and the roots remain without change from the time of taking them out of the ground until the following May. The plant is singularly easy of cultivation, growing equally well from the slip or vine, the top or vine of the full-grown plant being remarkably small; the inside is as white as snow. It is dry and mealy, and the saccharine principle contained resembles in delicacy of flavor fine virgin honey."

There is in general a great error in cultivating this root, as most people still plant in the old way, two or three sets in the hole, which is a great deal too close.

When a piece of land is to be planted in sweet potatoes, it should be top-dressed with some manure, to be dug or ploughed under a week or two before it is to be planted. Drills should be made two feet apart, and the potatoes placed in the drill about one foot asunder. From eight to twelve to the pound are the best size for planting. The "white upright" kind, when intended for sets, should be taken up early in March, and kept about a month, so as to be quite dry before planting. Abundant crops can rarely be raised from the stem of the "uprights;" the old potato, however, grows to a large size. I have planted a potato weighing about an ounce, and dug it up in August, weighing over two pounds. The drills can be made with a small plough to great advantage, when a person understands it.

The best manure for the sweet potato is anything green, such as fresh seaweed, green oats, bushes, or anything of the kind, put in in abundance.

Care should be taken to get early and good strong slips. A slip with about six joints is quite long enough; three or four joints to be put under ground, and the rest above. For slips, the land must be prepared as already described for the potatoes; this should be done before the slips are ready to cut.

The best way to plant slips is to drill, the same way as for the potatoes, only a little closer; then put the end of the slip in, leaving about two joints out of ground, placing them one foot apart. The drills can be made in dry weather, so as not to have any delay when it rains; by this means a great many can be planted in a day.

The best land for sweet potatoes is the light sandy kind; a rich friable black mould, or a rocky substratum; for hill sides, rocky ravines, and places which would be called barren and unprofitable for other crops, are found to yield a good return when planted with sweet potatoes. The best time to plant slips to get stock from, is the latter end of August or early in September, as the season may suit.

The sweet potato of Java, says Mr. Crawfurd, is the finest I ever met with. Some are frequently of several pounds weight, and now and then have been found of the enormous weight of 50 lbs. The sweetness is not disagreeable to the palate, though considerable, and they contain a large portion of farinaceous matter, being as mealy as the best of our own potatoes. In Java it is cultivated in ordinary upland arable, or in the dry season as a green crop in succession to rice.

A tuberous root (_Ocymum tuberosum_), an inhabitant of the hot plains, is frequently cultivated in Java. It is small, round, and much resembling in appearance the American potato, but has no great flavor. Its local name is _kantang_.

CASSAVA OR MANIOC.

Of this plant, which is a shrub about six feet high, extensively grown for its farinaceous root, there are several species, nearly all natives of America, principally of Brazil, whence it derives one of its common names of Manihot or Mandioc. Two species of Manihot have been found indigenous in South Australia. The varieties commonly cultivated for their roots, are the sweet and the bitter.

1. Sweet cassava (_Janiphi_ (or _Jatropha_,) _Loeflingii_, Kunth; _Manihot Aipi_, of Pohl).--This species has a spindle-shaped root brown externally, about six or seven ounces or more in weight, which contains amylaceous matter, without any bitterness, and is used as food, after being rasped and washed, so as to cleanse it from the fibrous matter, in the same manner as arrowroot is prepared. It is distinguished from the bitter cassava by a tough ligneous fibre, which runs through the heart of the tuber. Manihot starch is sometimes imported into Europe under the name of Brazilian arrowroot. The cassava is known in Peru as _yucca_.

A dry mixed soil is best suited to its culture. So exhausting is this crop, that it cannot be raised more than two or three times successively on the same land. The roots arrive at maturity in eight or nine months after planting, but may be kept in the ground a much longer time without injury. Sweet cassava might be sliced, dried in the sun, and sent to Europe in that state. In dry weather the process succeeds remarkably well, and the dried slices keep for a considerable time. Dr. Shier ascertained that when these sliced and dried roots were first steeped and then boiled, they return to very nearly their original condition, and make an excellent substitute for the potato.

The plant thrives on even the poorest soil; the mode of planting is simple. It consists in laying cuttings a foot long in square pits a foot deep, and covering them with mould, leaving the upper ends open. From two to four pieces may be placed in each square. The planting ought to be in the rainy season. The cuttings must be made from the full-grown stem. A humid soil causes the root to decay, a dry soil is therefore more adapted for its cultivation. As blossoms are occasionally plucked from potato plants, so the manihot or cassava is deprived of its buds to increase the size of its roots. The raw root of the bitter species, when taken out of the ground, is poisonous--if exposed, however, to the sun for a short time, it is innocuous, and when boiled is quite wholesome.

The starch of the root of the manioc is prepared in the following manner, as described by Dr. Ure:--" The roots are washed and reduced to a pulp by means of a rasp or grater. The pulp is put into coarse strong canvas bags, and thus submitted to the action of a powerful press, by which it parts with most of its noxious juice. As the active principle of this juice is volatile, it is easily dissipated by baking the squeezed cakes of pulp upon a plate of hot iron. The pulp thus dried concretes into lumps, which become hard and friable as they cool. They are then broken into pieces, and laid out in the sun to dry. In this state they are a wholesome nutriment. These cakes constitute the only provisions laid in by the natives, in their voyages upon the Amazon. Boiled in water, with a little beef or mutton, they form a kind of soup similar to that of rice.

The cassava cakes sent to Europe are composed almost entirely of starch, along with a few fibres of the ligneous matter. It may be purified by diffusion in warm water, passing the milky mixture through a linen cloth, evaporating the straining liquid over the fire, with constant agitation. The starch, dissolved by the heat, thickens as the water evaporates, but on being stirred it becomes granulated, and must be finally dried in a proper stove.

2. Bitter cassava (_Janipha Manihot_, of Kunth; _Jatropha Manihot_, of Linnæus; and _Manihot utilissima_, Pohl).--This species has a knotty root, black externally, which is occasionally 30 lbs. in weight. In the root there is much starchy matter deposited, usually along with a poisonous narcotic substance, which is said to be hydrocyanic acid. The juice of the plant, when distilled, affords as a first product a liquor which, in the dose of thirty drops, will cause the death of a man in six minutes. It is doubted whether this acid pre-exists in the plant; some suppose it to be generated after it is grated down into a pulp. It can be driven off by roasting, and then the starch is used in the form of cassava bread. It is principally from the starch of the bitter cassava that tapioca is prepared by elutriation and granulating on hot plates. This serves to agglutinate it into the form of concretions, constituting the tapioca of commerce. This being starch very nearly pure, is often prescribed by physicians as an aliment of easy digestion. A tolerably good imitation of it is made by beating, stirring, and drying potato starch in a similar way.

The grated starch of the roots, floated in water, is spontaneously deposited, and when repeatedly washed and dried in the sun, forms cassava flour, called "Moussache" by the French.

The juice of the bitter cassava, mixed with molasses and fermented, has been made into an intoxicating liquor, which is much relished by the negroes and Indians.

The concentrated juice of the bitter cassava, under the name of cassareep, forms the basis of the West India dish, "pepper pot." One of its most remarkable properties is its highly antiseptic power, preserving meat that has been boiled in it for a much longer period than can be done by any other culinary process. Cassareep was originally an Indian preparation.

The manioc or cassava is cultivated in America, on both sides of the equator, to about latitude 30 degrees north and south. Among the mountains of intertropical America, it reaches to an elevation of 3,200 feet. It is cultivated also in great abundance on the island of Zanzibar, and among the negro tribes of Eastern Africa to the Monomoesy, inclusive; on the west coast of Africa, in Congo and Guinea. It appears not to have been introduced into Asia. The farina of the manioc is almost the only kind of meal used in Brazil, at least in the north, near the equator. An acre of manioc is said to yield as much nutriment as six acres of wheat. Meyen states, "It is not possible sufficiently to praise the beautiful manioc plant." The Indians find in this a compensation for the rice and other cerealia of the Old World. It has been carried from Brazil to the Mauritius and Madagascar.

The following quantities of Brazilian arrowroot, or tapioca, were imported in the undermentioned years:--

Cwts. 1833 942 1834 888 1835 1,663 1836 3,735 1837 2,142 1838 462 1839 402 1840 983 1841 1,870 1843 2,325

St. Lucia grows a considerable quantity of manioc; it exported of cassava flour in--

Barrels. 1827 8 1828 814 1829 279 1830 99 1831 59 1834 713

The cassava root grows abundantly in most of the West India islands and tropical America; the trouble of planting is inconsiderable, and the profit arising from its manufacture, even by the common process of hand-grating, is immense. I should be glad if I could induce the enterprising of our colonial settlers to give this a fair trial, as well as encourage the present growers to increase their crops and improve the quality of the article, so as to render it suitable for the English market. The manufacture of starch will one of these days become a productive source of colonial wealth. Since cassava was first grown in the West, its capabilities as a starch-producer have, to a certain extent, been known, and for that purpose it has been in limited use.

Mr. James Glen, of Haagsbosch plantation, Demerara, has recently tested its value as an article of export, and added it to the other industrial resources of that colony.

This gentleman, by erecting machinery on his plantation for grinding the root and preparing the starch of the bitter cassava, has already shipped the article in considerable quantities to Europe, and it has been sold at a price which puts the profit upon sugar cultivation completely to the blush. His agent in Glasgow writes, that any quantity (like that already shipped) can command a ready sale at 9d. per lb. Its use is co-extensive, or nearly so, with that of sugar. The productive capabilities of the soil are not perhaps generally known; nor is it necessary that, to pay the grower there, it should bring even half that price. A sample of a ton, which was prepared at Haagsbosch in 1841, was submitted for examination to Dr. Shier, at the colonial laboratory, Georgetown, who admitted it to be a beautiful specimen of starch, although it had undergone but _one_ washing. The root from which it was made, was planted eight or nine months previously, upon an acre of soil, which had never undergone any preparation of ploughing, or been broken and turned up in any way. The plants were never weeded after they had begun to spring, nor were they tended or disturbed until they were ripe and pulled up. The expense of planting the acre was five dollars, and reaping this crop would, I suppose, amount to as much more, say £2 in all. The green cassava was never weighed, but the acre yielded fully a ton of starch--equal, at 9d. per lb., to £84.

The experimental researches of Dr. Shier have led him to believe that the green bitter cassava will give one-fifth its weight of starch. If this be the case the return per acre would, under favorable circumstances, when the land is properly worked, be enormous. On an estate at Essequibo, a short time ago, an acre of cassava, grown in fine permeable soil, was lifted and weighed; it yielded 25 tons of green cassava. Such a return as this per acre would enable our West India colonies to inundate Great Britain with food, and at a rate which would make flour to be considered a luxury. Dr. Shier is convinced that, in thorough drained land, where the roots could penetrate the soil, and where its permeability would permit of their indefinite expansion, a return of 25 tons an acre might uniformly be calculated upon. What a blessing, not only for those colonies, but for the world, would the introduction be of this cheap and nutritious substitute for the potato.

NEW TUBEROUS PLANTS RECOMMENDED AS SUBSTITUTES FOR THE POTATO.

In the present disturbed state of the grain markets of Europe, the advantage of cultivating plants which directly or indirectly can form a substitute for the potato, admits of no doubt. It appears to me, moreover, that when the way is once opened up, even under ordinary circumstances, the tropical colonies of Great Britain, without diminishing the quantity of sugar and coffee they produce, could advantageously supply the British market with the purest starches, and possibly also with various other articles of farinaceous food. Anything that will lead the planters to a more varied cultivation than the present uniform and persistent one, will be advantageous to our colonies; and the growth of farinaceous root crops for exportation, cannot fail to produce most beneficial effects on that class of the peasantry in the British possessions, who are owners of small lots of land, which at present they either totally neglect, or cultivate most imperfectly.

In 1846, Dr. A. Gesner, one of my correspondents, called attention, in my "Colonial Magazine," to two indigenous roots of North America, which he thought deserving special attention. These were _Apios tuberosa_, and _Claytonia acutiflora_, _or Virginiana_.

1. _A. tuberosa_ (Boerhave), or _Glycine Apios_.--This plant is common throughout the Northern and Southern States of America, and is also met with in the lower British North American Provinces. It is known under the native name of _Saa-ga-ban_ by the Micmac Indians, by whom the pear-shaped roots are used as an article of food. Like the _Arachis hypogæa_, it belongs to the Leguminosæ family. The fruit and flower resemble those of the wood vetch. It is thus described in Professor Eaton's "Manual of Botany for North America," published in 1836:--"Color of corolla, blue and purple; time of flowering, July (and August in Nova Scotia), perennial; stem, twining; leaves, pinnate, with seven lance-ovate leaflets; racemes shorter than the leaves, axillary; root, tuberous. Root very nutritive; ought to be generally cultivated."

The average size of the tubers is that of cherries, but a few are found of much larger dimensions. In their appearance they resemble the common potato, having apparently the peculiar indentations called eyes. The skin of the tuber is of a rusty or blackish brown color. The interior is very white, and the root has the taste and odor of the common potato. The Indians state that the roots, if kept either in a dry or moist state, will not suffer any decay for a lengthened period. They are very farinaceous, and contain a large per centage of starch, which resembles that of wheat; by being dried the tuber shrinks a little, but it immediately expands on being thrown into warm water. It contains much nutritive matter, is wholesome, and I have no doubt, if properly cultivated, it will prove to be very prolific. The tubers are situated a few inches below the surface of the soil, and are strung together like beads by a strong ligament.

A similar kind of earth-nut, or tuberous root, probably the _Glycine subterranea_ of Linnæus, the Voandzou of Madagascar, is extensively cultivated in various parts of Africa.

2. _Claytonia acutiflora_ or _Virginiana_, the Musquash of the Micmac Indians, is found throughout the Northern and Southern States of North America. It is thus described by Prof. Eaton, "Man. Bot. N.A."--"Color of corolla, white and red; situation, alpine, perennial; leaves, linear, lance-ovate; petals, obovate, retuse; leaves of the calyx, somewhat acute; root, tuberous. It blossoms in May. The seed is ripe in June, when the plant disappears."

These roots may be collected along the sea coasts and principal lakes and rivers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward's Island, although they are not plentiful, for they are greedily devoured by some of the wild animals, and wherever swine have been permitted to run at large they have been destroyed.

Dr. Gesner shipped several bushels of the saa-ga-ban to the principal agricultural societies in Great Britain, also to Halifax, and Nova Scotia. The ordinary potato of this country does not yield more than 14 per cent. of starch, and it contains 76 per cent. of water. From the best saa-ga-ban Dr. Gesner obtained 21 per cent. of starch, and the quantity of water is reduced to 50 per cent. It also contains vegetable albumen, gum, and sugar. From these facts it is evident that the saa-ga-ban is much more nutritive than the potato, and the weight of the tubers, in their wild state, compared with the weight of the slender vine in the best samples, is equal in proportion to the common cultivated potato in its ordinary growth. The starch is very white, and closely resembles that made from the arrowroot. It is not improbable that the quantity of water in the tuber will be increased by cultivation; yet the fibrous parenchyma will be reduced, and taken altogether, the nutritive properties will be increased; if the plant improve as much by cultivation as the potato and many others have done, its success is certain.

The North American Indians have several wild roots which they dig up for sustenance when other food is exhausted. Among these are--1st, the mendo, or wild sweet potato; 2nd, the tip-sin-ah, or wild prairie turnip; 3rd, the omen-e-chah, or wild bean. The first is found throughout the valleys of the Mississippi and St. Peter's, about the basis of bluffs, in rather moist but soft and rich ground. The plant resembles the sweet potato, and the root is similar in taste and growth. It does not grow so large or long as the cultivated sweet potato, but I should have thought it the same, were it not that the wild potato is not affected by the frost. A woman will dig from a peck to half a bushel a day.

The Indians eat them, simply boiled in water, but prefer them cooked with fat meat.

The wild potato, of the north-west of America, is a general article of food; it is called by them wabessepin; it resembles the common potato, is mealy when boiled, and grows only in wet clay ground, about one and a half feet deep. The crane potato, called sitchauc-wabessepin, is of the same kind, but inferior in quality. The Indians use these for food as well as the memomine, and another long and slender root called watappinee. Probably it is the first of these that is referred to by Nicollet, as the prairie potato. "All the high prairies (he says) abound with the silver-leafed _Psoralia_, which is the prairie turnip of the Americans, the _pomme des prairies_ of the Canadians, and furnishes an invaluable food to the Indians." There are several species of _Psoralia_, viz., _esculenta_, _argophylla_, _cuspidata_, and _lanceolata_.

The prairie turnip grows on the high dry prairies, one or two together, in size from that of a small hen's egg to that of a goose egg, and of the same form. They have a thick black or brown bark, but are nearly pure white inside, with very little moisture. They are met with four to eight inches below the surface, and are dug by the women with a long pointed stick, forced into the ground and used as a lever. They are eaten boiled and mashed like a turnip, or are split open and dried for future use. In this state they resemble pieces of chalk. It is said that when thus dried they may be ground into flour, and that they make a very palatable and nutritious bread. M. Lamare Picot, a French naturalist, has lately incurred a very considerable expense to obtain the seed, which he has carried to France, believing that it is capable of cultivation, and may form a substitute both for potato and wheat.

The wild bean is found in all parts of the valleys where the land is moist and rich. It is of the size of a large white bean, with a rich and very pleasant flavor. When used in a stew, I have thought it superior to any garden vegetable I had ever tasted. The Indians are very fond of them, and pigeons get fat on them in spring. The plant is a slender vine, from two to four feet in height, with small pods two to three inches long, containing three to five small beans. The pod dries and opens, the beans fall to the ground, and in spring take root and grow again. The beans on the ground are gathered by the Indians, who sometimes find a peck at once, gathered by mice for their winter store.

There are also several kinds of edible roots growing in the ponds or small lakes, which are gathered by the Indians for food.

The _psui-cinh-chah_, or swamp potato, is found in mud and water, about three feet deep. The leaf is as large as the cabbage leaf. The stem has but one leaf, which has, as it were, two horns or points. The root is obtained by the Indian women; they wade into the water and loosen the root with their feet, which then floats, and is picked up and thrown into a canoe. It is of an oblong shape, of a whitish yellow, with four black rings around it, of a slightly pungent taste, and not disagreeable when eaten with salt or meat.

The _psui-chah_, with a stem and leaf similar to the last, has a root about the size of a large hickory-nut. They grow in deep water, and being smaller are much more difficult to get, but the Indians prefer them; they have an agreeable taste, and are harder and firmer when cooked. Both these roots are found in large quantities in the musk-rat lodges, stored by them for winter use.

The _ta-wah-pah_, with a stem, leaf, and yellow flower, like the pond-lily, is found in the lakes, in water and mud, from four to five feet deep. The Indian women dive for them, and frequently obtain as many as they are able to carry. The root is from one to two feet in height, very porous; there are as many as six or eight cells running the whole length of the root. It is very difficult to describe the flavor. It is slightly sweet and glutinous, and is generally boiled with wild fowl, but is occasionally roasted.

In his exploring expedition into the interior of Guiana, in the region of the Upper Essequibo, Sir E. Schomburgk notices the discovery of a variety of Leguminosæ, whose tubers grow to an enormous size, fully equal to the largest yam. These roots were not, at the time he was there, in full perfection, but their taste was somewhat between the yam and the sweet potato. The Taruma Indians called them Cuyupa. The roots are considered fit for use when the herb above ground dies. Sir Robert brought a few of the seeds of the plant with him on his return to Demerara.

Two interesting productions have been recently introduced into the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris, from the Ecuador, by M. Bourcier, formerly Consul-General of France in that country. One is the red and yellow _ocas_, which is of the form of a long potato, and has the taste of a chesnut; the other is the _milloco_, which has the taste and form of our best potatoes. These two roots, which are found in great abundance in the neighbourhood of Quito, grow readily in the poorest land. The _oca_ is cultivated in the fields of Mexico, but only succeeds in the warmer districts. From the bulbous roots of the cacomite, a species of _Tigridia_, a good flour is also prepared there.

Stevenson ("Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 55) says, a root called the oca is cultivated in several of the colder provinces of Peru. "This plant," he states, "is of a moderate size, in appearance somewhat like the acetous trefoil; the roots yellow, each about five or six inches long, and two in circumference. They have many eyes, and the roots, several of which are yielded by one plant, are somewhat curved. When boiled it is much sweeter than the camote or batata; indeed it appears to contain more saccharine matter than any root I ever tasted; if eaten raw it is very much like the chesnut. The roots may be kept for many months in a dry place. The transplanting of the oca (he adds) to England, where I am persuaded it would prosper, would add another agreeable and useful esculent to our tables."

The Brussels paper, _L'Emancipation_, mentions that a root has been discovered by the Director of the Museum of Industry, in that place, destined to take the place of the potato. It is the _Lathyrus tuberosus_, called by the peasants the earth mouse, on account of its form, and the earth chesnut on account of its taste. This plant exists only in some localities of Lorraine and Burgundy. The Lathyrus has never been cultivated, and it is thought that it will attain, with cultivation, the size of the potato. The French peasants have a prejudice against cultivating it, because they say it walks under ground, and leaves the place it is planted in to go into the neighbouring field. The fact is, that it grows in a chaplet, of which the bulbs are arranged along a root running horizontally, of which the two extremities are very rarely found, so that on taking up the hinder tubercles it continues its growth in front, which gives rise to the saying that if the plant had only time enough, it would make the tour of the world.

The bulb of _Gastrodia sesamoides_ (R. Brown), a curious herbaceous species of orchis, native of New Holland, is edible, and preferred by the aborigines to potatoes and other tuberous roots. Some of my accredited informants believe it might be turned to profitable account, but being a parasitic plant, it could scarcely be systematically cultivated. It flourishes in its wild state on loamy soil in low or sloping grounds. The first indication of its vegetation in the spring, is the appearance of a whitish bulb above the sward, of an hemispherical shape, and about the size of a small egg. The dusky white covering resembles a fine white net, and within it is a pellucid gelatinous substance. Again within this is a firm kernel, about as large as a Spanish nut, and from this a fine fibrous root descends into the soil. It is known in Van Diemen's Land, and other parts of Australia, by the common name of native bread. Captain Hunter, in his Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson on the first settlement of the Convict Colony, speaks of finding large quantities of "wild yams," on which the natives fed, but the roots were not bigger than a walnut; therefore it was probably this plant.

_Arracacha esculenta_, of Bancroft and Decandolle (_Conium Arracacha_).--This perennial herb is a native of South America, which, from its salubrious qualities, is extensively cultivated in the mountains of Venezuela and other parts of tropical and Southern America, for culinary purposes. It is propagated by planting pieces of the tuberous root, in each of which is an eye or shoot. The late Baron de Shack introduced it into Trinidad, from Caraccas, and it has thence been carried to the island of Grenada. It throve there remarkably well, but has been unaccountably neglected. He also sent roots of this valuable plant to London, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Although it bears cold better than the potato, it requires a warmer and more equal temperature than most of the countries of Europe afford. It would, however, make an excellent addition to the culinary vegetables of many tropical countries, uniting the taste of the potato and parsnip, but being superior to both.

The arracacha has been introduced into the South of Europe, not as a substitute for, but as a provision against a failure of the potato crop. It is highly recommended by the Rev. J.M. Wilson, in the "Rural Encyclopædia."

Stevenson ("Travels in South America," vol. ii., p. 383) says the yucas (cassava), camotes (sweet potatoes), and yams cultivated at Esmeraldas and that neighbourhood, were the finest he ever saw. "It is not uncommon for one of these roots to weigh upwards of twenty pounds. At one place I saw a few plants of the yuca that had stood upwards of twenty years, the owner having frequently bared the bottom of the plants and taken the ripe roots, after which, throwing up the earth again, and allowing a sufficient time for new roots to grow, a continual succession of this excellent nutritious food was procured."

The Aipi grows in Brazil, and according to T. Ashe, may be eaten raw, and, when pressed, yields a pleasant juice for drink; or being inspissated by the heat of the sun, is kept either to be boiled and eaten, or dissolved and drank. The tapinambar grows in Chili, and is used by the Indians.

The tapioca, or bay rash, a plant which grows about the out-islands of the Bahamas group, was found of great use as a food plant to the inhabitants of Long Island, during a scarcity of food occasioned by the drought in 1843. This root grows in the form of a large beet, and is from twelve to sixteen inches in length. It is entirely farinaceous, and, when properly ground and prepared, makes good bread. It fetches there four to six cents a pound.

The root of the kooyah plant (_Valeriana edulis_) is much used by some of the North American Indians as food. The root is of a very bright yellow color, with a peculiar taste and odor, and hence is called "tobacco root." It is deprived of its strong poisonous qualities by being baked in the ground for about two days. A variety of other roots and tubers furnish them with food. Among these are kamas root (_Camassia esculenta_), which is highly esteemed; the bulb has a sweet pleasant flavor, somewhat of the taste of preserved quince. It is a strikingly handsome bulbous plant, with large beautiful purple flowers. Yampah root (_Anethum graveolens_) is a common article of food with the Indians of the Rocky Mountains.

The roots of a thistle (_Cersium virginianium_, or _Carduus virginianus_), which are about the ordinary size of carrots, are also eaten by them. They are sweet and well flavored, but require a long preparation to fit them for use.

The people of Southern India and Ceylon have for many hundred years been in the habit of eating the bulb or root, which is the first shoot from the Palmyra nut, which forms the germ of the future tree, and is known locally as _Pannam kilingoes_. It is about the size of a common carrot, though nearly white. It forms a great article of food among the natives for several months in the year; but Europeans dislike it from its being very bitter. Recent experiments have proved that a farina superior to arrowroot can be obtained from it, prepared in the same way; and 100 roots, costing 2½d., yield one and a-half to two pounds of the flour.

From the boiled inner bark of the Russian larch, mixed with rye flour, and afterwards buried a few hours in the snow, the hardy Siberian hunters prepare a sort of leaven, with which they supply the place of common leaven when the latter is destroyed, as it frequently is by the intense cold. The bark is nearly as valuable as oak bark. From the inner bark the Russians manufacture fine white gloves, not inferior to those made of the most delicate chamois, while they are stronger, cooler, and more pleasant for wearing in the summer.

The fruit of the _Cycas angulata_ forms the principal food of the Australian aborigines during a portion of the year. They cut it into thin slices, which are first dried, afterwards soaked in water, and finally packed up in sheets of tea-tree bark. In this condition it undergoes a species of fermentation; the deleterious properties of the fruit are destroyed, and a mealy substance with a musty flavor remains, which the blacks probably bake into cakes. They appear also to like the fruit of the _Pandanus_, of which large quantities were found by Dr. Leichardt in their camps, soaking in water, contained in vessels formed of stringy bark.

The flour obtained from the seeds of Spurry (_Spergula sativa_), when mixed with that of wheat or rye, produces wholesome bread, for which purpose it is often used in Norway and Gothland. In New Zealand, before the introduction of the potato, the roots of the fern were largely consumed.

Many species of _Bolitus_ are used as food by the natives in Western Australia, according to Drummond.

The thick tuberous roots of a climbing species of bean (_Pachyrhizus angulatus_, or _Dolichos bulbosus_) are cultivated and eaten in some parts of the Polynesian islands. The bulbous roots of some species of Orchideæ are eagerly sought after in New South Wales by the natives, being termed "boyams," and highly esteemed as an article of food for the viscid mucilage which they contain. The root of the Berar (_Caladium costatum_) is eaten by the natives of the Pedir coast (Achin), after being well washed.

The pignons or edible seeds of _Pinus Pinea_ are consumed occasionally in Italy. In Chili the cone or fruit of the _pehuen_, or _pino de la tierra_, are considered a great delicacy. The _pinones_ are sometimes boiled, and afterwards, by grinding them on a stone, converted into a kind of paste, from which very delicate pastry is made. The pine is cultivated in different parts of this province on account of its valuable wood and the pinones. The seeds from the cones of the Auracanean pine, collected in autumn, furnish the Pawenches (from _pawen_ pine) and Auracanians with a very nutritious food. When cooked, the flavor is not unlike that of the chesnut, and as they will keep for some time, they constitute, when the gathering season has been favorable, a great part of their diet.

The seeds of the cones of the nut pine (_Pinus monophyllus_), a new species described by Dr. Torrey, and alluded to by Col. Fremont in his exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, are largely used by the North American Indians. The nut is oily, of a most agreeable flavor, and must be very nutritious as it constitutes the principal subsistence of many of the native tribes.

The cone of another magnificent pine (_Auracaria Bidwillii_), indigenous to the Eastern coast of Australia, about the Moreton Bay district, is frequently met with twelve inches in diameter, and containing 150 edible seeds as large as a walnut. The aborigines roast these seeds, crack the husk between two stones, and eat them hot. They taste something like a yam or hard dry potato. The trees bear cones only once in four years, during a period of six months. This season is held as a great festival by the aborigines of that locality, called by them Bunga Bunga, and they congregate in greater numbers than is known in any other part of Australia, frequently coming from a distance of 300 miles. They grow sleek and fat upon this diet. An Act has been passed by the legislature of the colony, prohibiting, under heavy pains and penalties, the demolition of those trees, being the natural food of the natives.

The common people eat the seeds of the red sandal wood (_Adenanthera Pavonina_) in the South of India. The pulp of the fruit of the _Adansonia digitata_, or monkey bread, is also used as an article of food.

SINGHARA OR WATER NUTS.--The large seeds of _Trapa bicornis_, a native of China, and of _T. bispinosa_ and _natans_, species indigenous to India, are sweet and eatable, and the aquatic plants which furnish them are hence an extensive article of cultivation. In Cashmere and other parts of the East they are common food, and known under the name of Singhara nuts. In Cashmere the government obtains from these nuts £12,000 of annual revenue. Mr. Moorcroft mentions that Runjeet Sing derived nearly the same sum. From 96,000 to 128,000 loads of this nut are yielded annually by the lake of Ooller alone. The nut abounds in fecula. In China the kernel is used as an article of food, being roasted or boiled like the potato. The seeds of various species of _Nelumbium_, natives of the East Indies, Jamaica, and the United States, also form articles of food. The fruit of _N. speciosum_ is supposed to be the Egyptian bean of Pythagoras. The petioles and peduncles contain numerous spiral vessels, which have been used for wicks of candles. The fruit of _Willughbeia edulis_, a native of the East, as its name implies, is eatable. The kernel of the mango can be reduced to an excellent flour for making bread.

Not only from the Lichen tribe, but also from the Algæ, fungi, mosses and ferns man derives nutriment and valuable products. Some of the cryptogamic plants form considerable articles of commerce,

## particularly as food plants, affording gelatinous and amylaceous

matter, and being useful in medicine and the arts.

_Nostoe eduli_ is used in China as food; _Gelidium corneum_ enters into the formation of the edible swallows' nests of the Japanese islands. Agar-agar moss is shipped from Singapore to the extent of 13,000 tons a-year. Irish moss, Iceland moss, Ceylon moss, and some others, are also of some importance. Iodine and kelp are prepared to a considerable extent from sea weeds; one species (_Fucus tenax_) furnishes large supplies of glue to the Canton market, and the orchilla weed is of great importance to the dyer. It is principally as food that I have to speak of them in this section.

In some of the islands off the Scotch coasts, sea-wrack (_Fucus vesiculosus_) forms the chief support of horses and cattle in the winter months. _F. serratus_ is similarly employed in Norway.

The _Laminaria saccharina_ is interesting from the fact of its containing sugar. It is highly esteemed in Japan, where it is extensively used as an article of diet, being first washed in cold water and then boiled in milk or broth.

CARRAGEEN, or IRISH ROCK MOSS, _Sphæroccus_ (_Chondus_) _crispus_, abounds on the Western Coast of Ireland, round the Orkneys, Hebrides, Scilly Islands, &c. It is purplish white, and nearly transparent, and is largely imported to feed cattle and pigs in Yorkshire. It is also used for dressing the warp of webs in the loom, and mixing with the pulp for sizing paper in the vat. It swells up like tragacanth in water; and, by long decoction, affords a considerable quantity of a light, nutritious, but nauseous jelly. It is sometimes sold as pearl moss, and is employed in the place of gelatine or isinglass for preparing blanc-manges, jellies, &c. It fetches about £7 the ton.

AGAR-AGAR, a sort of edible seaweed, or tripe de roche, is found growing on the rocks about the eastern islands that are covered by the tide. It is much used for making a kind of jelly, which is highly esteemed both by Europeans and natives for the delicacy of its flavor. The first quality is worth about 30s. the picul (133 lbs.). An inferior kind is collected on the submerged banks in the neighbourhood of Macassar (Celebes), by the Bajow Laut, or Sea Gipsies. It is also collected on the rocks about the settlement of Singapore, for export to China, where it is much used as a size for stiffening silks and for making jellies. It constitutes the bulk of the cargoes of the Chinese junks on their return voyage. The quantity shipped from Singapore is about 10,000 piculs (12,500 tons) annually.

ICELAND MOSS (_Cetraria islandica_) combines valuable alimentary and medicinal properties. It is imported in bags and barrels from Hamburg and Gothenburg, and is said to be the produce of Norway and Iceland. The quantity consumed varies; in 1836, 20,599 lbs. paid duty; in 1840, 6,462 lbs. In Carniola, swine, oxen, and horses, are fattened on it. Boiled in water or milk, and flavored to the palate with sugar, wine, and aromatics, it forms a very agreeable diet for invalids.

CEYLON MOSS (_Gracelaria_, or _Gigartina, lichenoides_), a small and delicate fucus, is well known for the amylaceous property it possesses, and the large proportion of true starch it furnishes. The fronds are filiform; the filaments much branched, and of a light purple color. It grows abundantly in the large lake or back-water which extends between Putlam and Calpentyr, Ceylon. It is collected by the natives principally during the south-west monsoon, when it becomes separated by the agitation of the water. The moss is spread on mats and dried in the sun for two or three days. It is then washed several times in fresh water, and again exposed to the sun, which bleaches it, after which it is collected in heaps for exportation.

Professor O'Shaughnessy has given the best analysis of this moss, which he described under the name of _Fucus amylaceus_; 100 grains weight yielded the following proportions:--

Vegetable jelly 54.50 True starch 15.00 Ligneous fibre 18.00 Sulphate and muriate of soda 6.50 Gum 4.00 Sulphate and phosphate of lime 1.00 ----- Total 99.00 With a trace of wax and iron.

I observe among the imports into New Orleans, 911 bushels of Spanish moss in 1849, and 1,394 bushels in 1848. I do not know precisely its use, or from whence derived, but I believe it is chiefly used for stuffing cushions, mattresses, &c.

FERN.--The rhizome of _Pteris esculenta_ is used as food in Australia, and that of _Marattia alata_ in the Sandwich Islands. The trunks of the _Alsophila_, or tree fern, of the western side of Van Diemen's Land, and of the common tree fern, _Cibotium Billardieri_ (the _Dicksonia antarctica_, of Labillardiere), contain the edible pith or bread-fruit eaten by the natives. Many other species of ferns are esculent. Typha bread is prepared in Scinde from the pollen of the flowers of the _Typha elephantina_, and in New Zealand from another species of bulrush (_Typha utilis_).

"It must not be supposed, as some have believed, that the fern root, wherever it grows, is fit for food. On the contrary, it is only that found in rich loose soils which contains fecula in sufficient quantity for this purpose: in poorer ground the root contains proportionally more fibre. We were now encamped on an alluvial flat in the valley of the river, thirty or forty feet below the general level of the plain; and I observed that, even in this favourable spot, a great deal of discrimination was used in selecting the best roots, which was discoverable by their being crisp enough to break easily when bent: those which would not stand this test being thrown aside. Here a quantity sufficient for several days was procured, and was packed in baskets, to last till another spot equally favourable could be reached.

"The process of cooking fern root is very simple; for it is merely roasted on the fire, and afterwards bruised by means of a flat stone similar to a cobbler's lap-stone, and a wooden pestle. The long fibres which run like wires through the root are then easily drawn out; and the remainder is pounded till it acquires the consistence of tough dough, in which state it is eaten, its taste being very like that of cassava bread. Sometimes it is sweetened with the juice of the 'tutu.'

"The natives consider that there is no better food than this for a traveller, as it both appeases the cravings of hunger for a longer period than their other ordinary food, and renders the body less sensible to the fatigue of a long march. It is in this respect to the human frame, what oats or beans are to the horse. They have a song in praise of this root, which I have once or twice heard chanted on occasions of festivals, by a troop of young women who carry baskets of the food intended for the guests."--("Shortland's New Zealand.")

I ought not to omit noticing the _Tuber cibarium_, a plant of the mushroom family, growing under ground, which furnishes the famous truffle, so celebrated in the annals of cooking, of which immense quantities are imported, chiefly from the South of France. It is common also in Italy and Germany, and is often found in Northamptonshire, and some other of our own counties. The "kemmayes," a desert plant of the truffle kind, is a great favorite with the Arabs.

In Terra del Fuego the only vegetable food of the natives, besides a few berries of a dwarf arbutus, is a species of globular bright yellow fungus (_Cyttaria Darwinii_), which grows in vast numbers on the beech trees. In its tough and mature state it is collected in large quantities by the women and children, and eaten uncooked. It has a slightly sweet mucilaginous taste, with a faint smell like that of a mushroom.

SECTION III.

SPICES, AROMATIC CONDIMENTS, FRAGRANT WOODS, &c.

The various spices and condiments which form so large an item in our commercial imports, are obtained from the barks, the dried seeds, the fruit, flower-buds, and root-stocks, of different plants. The chief aromatic barks comprise the cinnamon, cassia lignea, cascarilla, and canella alba. The medicinal barks will be noticed elsewhere. The seeds and fruits include pepper, pimento, cardamoms, anise, nutmegs, chillies. The flower-buds of some furnish cloves and cassia buds; the roots supply ginger, galangale, turmeric, and ginseng. A few other useful substances, such as vanilla, the costus, or putchuk, mace, soy, and some of the odoriferous woods I have included under this section.

CINNAMON.

The true cinnamon of commerce is obtained from the inner bark of _Cinnamonum verum_, R. Brown; or _C. zeylanicum_; the _Laurus cinnamonum_, of Linnæus, a handsome looking tree, native of the East Indies. The island of Ceylon is the chief seat of its cultivation, and for a long time the Dutch depended solely for their supply of this bark for the home market on the produce of the wild cinnamon trees in the King of Kandy's territories there. At last, from the increasing demand, they resorted to the growth and more careful culture of the tree themselves. About the year 1794, the cultivation had succeeded so well that they were enabled to meet the demand for the spice from trees of their own growth, independent of any supplies from the Kandian monarch's territory.

In 1796, when this island fell into our hands, the local government endeavoured, after the former fashion of the Dutch, to restrain the production of this article of commerce within due bounds, by destroying all above a certain quantity.

General Maitland, in 1805, and his successors in the government, seeing the folly of such a ridiculous policy, very wisely fostered and promoted the extended cultivation of cinnamon plantations.

In the island of Java, and in Cochin-China, cinnamon culture has within the last few years made considerable progress.

The leaves of the cinnamon tree are more or less acuminated, from five to eight inches long, by about three broad, growing in pairs opposite each other. They have three principal ribs, which come in contact at its base, but do not unite. The leaves, when first developed, are of a bright red hue, then of a pale yellow, and lastly of a dark shining green; when mature, they emit a strong aromatic odor if broken or rubbed in the hands, and have the pungent taste of cloves. The young twigs of the true cinnamon tree are not downy, like those of the cassia bark. The plant blooms in January and February, and the seeds ripen in July and August.

The blossoms grow on slender foot-stalks, of a pale yellow color, from the axillæ of the leaves and the extremity of the branches. They are numerous clusters of small white flowers, having a brownish shade in the centre, about the same size as the lilac, which it resembles. The fruit is a drupe, about the size of a small hedge strawberry, containing one seed, and of the shape of an acorn, which when ripe is soft and of a dark purple color.

The roots are fibrous, hard, and tough, covered with an odoriferous bark; on the outside of a greyish brown, and on the inside of a reddish hue. They strike about three feet into the earth, and spread to a considerable distance. Many of them smell strongly of camphor, which is sometimes extracted from them.

The trees in their wild state will grow ordinarily to the height of 30 feet. The trunk is about three feet in circumference, and throws out a great number of large spreading horizontal branches, clothed with thick foliage. When cultivated for their bark, the trees are not permitted to rise above the height of ten feet.

The true cinnamon tree (according to Mr. Crawfurd) is not a native of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago; but Marshall, in his description and history of the tree ("Annals of Philos," vol. x.) assigns very extensive limits to its cultivation. He asserts that it is found on the Malabar coast, in Cochin-China, and Tonquin, Sumatra, the Soolo Archipelago, Borneo, Timor, the Nicobar and Philippine Islands. It has been transplanted, and grows well in the Mauritius, Bourbon and the eastern coast of Africa; in the Brazils, Guiana, in South America, and Guadaloupe, Martinique, Tobago, and Jamaica; but produces in the West a bark of very inferior quality to the Oriental.

Rumphius has remarked, that the trees which yield cinnamon, cassia, and clove bark (_Cinnamonum Culilaban_), though so much alike, are hardly ever found in the same countries.

The term clove bark has been applied to the barks of two different trees belonging to the natural order _Laurineæ_. One of these barks is frequently called "Culilaban bark." It consists of almost flat pieces, and is obtained from _Cinnamonum Culilaban_, a tree growing in Amboyna, and probably other parts of the Moluccas.

The other bark, known as clove bark, occurs in quills, which are imported from South America. Murray says it is produced by the _Myrtus carophyllata_, a tree termed by Decandolle _Syzgium carophyllæum_. It appears, however, that this is an error, for both Nees and Von Martius declare it to be the produce of _Dicypellium caryophyllatum_; and the last quoted authority states that this tree is the noblest of all the laurels found in the Brazils, where it is called "Pao Cravo." It grows at Para and Rio Negro.

Cinnamon may be propagated by seeds, plants, or layers; roots also, if carefully transplanted, will thrive in favorable localities, and yield useful shoots in twelve months. It is usually cultivated from suckers, which should not have more than three or four leaves, and require continual watering. If raised from seed, the young plants are kept in a nursery for a year or two, and then transplanted; but the trees from seeds are longer arriving at maturity. The plants are kept well earthed about the roots to retain the moisture, and coco-nut husks are placed above them, which in time form an excellent compost.

A cinnamon plantation, even in a favorable locality, seldom yields much return until eight or nine years have elapsed.

The mode of cultivation pursued by the natives differs from that followed in the plantations of the Europeans. The native system is to allow the cinnamon to grow large before cutting; the European practice is to cut it young. The result is that the native produces quantity, but coarse; the European produces quality, but less in quantity. I have found, in conversation with the native growers, that they consider the bush or tree decidedly weakened by its being kept down by constant cutting twice a year; and that their plants are stronger and better. It is not absolutely an original opinion, but I think the two systems might be judiciously blended. In cutting the cinnamon sticks for peeling, as the Europeans do it twice a year, there is always risk of losing much valuable young wood, which is destroyed in slashing into the bushes with _catties_ (bill-hooks) to take out that which is in a fit state for peeling, all of which is so much loss from the next cutting; and on this ground I should be inclined to advocate cutting once a year. There are, I know, other considerations than the mere growth of the sticks to be taken into account. Of these may be named the time when the bark peels best from the stick, which of course must depend upon age as well as season, the excited or unexcited state of the shoots, and their several effects upon the quality of the spice.

Weeding the plantations does not seem to be of so much consequence, if the shrub gets plenty of free air all round it.

Cinnamon land continues to yield abundantly crop after crop, not for years, but for scores of years. The greater portion of the late preserved plantations in Ceylon were planted by the Dutch, one hundred years ago, and the bushes are stated to be as vigorous as ever, and quite likely to go on yielding crops till the year 2000. This productiveness can only be accounted for on Liebig's principle of returning to the soil a portion of what we take from it. In the operation of peeling cinnamon, the tops and lateral branches are cut off, and left by the peelers on the ground close to the bushes. These, no doubt, furnish a considerable quantity of manure to the plants.

The general appearance of the plantation is that of a copse, with laurel leaves and stems, about the thickness of hazel; occasionally a tree may be seen which, having been allowed to grow for seed, has reached a height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk eighteen inches in diameter. When in full bloom, the cinnamon bushes have a very beautiful appearance, the small white petals affording a most agreeable contrast with the flame-colored extremities of the upper, and the dark green of the inferior foliage, with the blossoms of various lovely parasitical plants.

The cinnamon tree flourishes only in a small portion of the island of Ceylon. It is chiefly confined to the south-west angle, formed by the sea coast, from Tangalle in the south to Chilaw on the west. It is in a climate of agreeable temperature, which is at once hot and moist; hot from its tropical position, and moist from the frequency and plentifulness of rains. The general level of the country is low, in the midst of fresh-water lakes, divided from the sea by a narrow riband of land. And the water in the soil of the cinnamon gardens is of extraordinary purity, so as to be for that reason much in request in the neighbouring city as a beverage. This exact combination of influences does not occur anywhere else in the island, at least not in the same degree.

The cultivation principally centres round Colombo, the capital and principal port.

On the hills and valleys, in the neighbourhood of Kandy, which have a temperate climate, the tree flourishes well; a rather elevated situation, with shelter, contributing to the luxuriance of the plants. The best soil for it appears to be a pure quartz sand, which in some places rests on black moss or mould. From the surface to the depth of a few inches, this sand is as fine in its nature and as pearly white in its appearance as the best table salt; but below that depth, and near the roots of the bushes, the sand is greyish.

A specimen of this soil being carefully dried by Dr. Davy, was found to consist of 98.5 silicious sand, 0.5 vegetable matter, and 1.1 water--in 100 parts. This circumstance impresses one very strongly on visiting the cinnamon gardens; it seems so strange to see a plain of pure quartz sand whitened in the sun, and yet covered over with a luxuriant growth of trees. In richer soils the aroma does not seem to develop itself in the same concentrated form.

A mixture of loam and peat, with sand, is said, however, to form a good soil in some localities. These plantations may well suggest a doubt as to the truth of the proposition so unqualifiedly laid down by some authors, that "earth destitute of organic matter cannot sustain vegetation." Certainly it is not organic matter which supports the cinnamon trees of Colombo.

_Peeling_.--The best cinnamon is obtained from the stalks or twigs, which shoot up in a cluster of eight or ten together from the roots, after the parent bush or tree has been cut down. These shoots are cut once in about three years, close to the ground. Great care is requisite, both as to the exact size and age; for if the bark is too young, it has a green taste, if too old it is rough and gritty. These shoots yield an incomparably fine cinnamon bark. When cut for peeling they are of various sizes and lengths, depending on the texture of the bark. These rods afford the hazel-like walking-sticks so much esteemed by strangers, and which, though difficult to be procured during the prevalence of the oppressive cinnamon regulations, may now be very easily obtained from proprietors of grounds producing that spice. Cinnamon is barked at two periods of the year, between April and December. Those suckers which are considered fit for cutting, are usually about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and five feet or more long. The first operation is to strip them of the outside pellicle of bark. The twigs are then ripped up lengthwise with the point of a knife, and the liber or inner bark gradually loosened, till it can be entirely taken off. While drying they are cut up into long narrow rolls, called "quills," then stuck into one another, so as to form pipes about three or four feet long, which are afterwards made up in round bundles.

During the first day the cinnamon is suspended under shelter upon open platforms, and on the second day it is placed on wicker-work shelves, and exposed to the sun until sufficiently dry to be examined and sorted for shipment.

It is brought home in bags or bales of 80 or 90 lbs. weight, and classed before export into three sorts; first, second, and third quality. The different kinds of cinnamon bark may be thus classified, according to quality--

1. That which ranks above all others in quality, is known by the Singhalese name of _penne_ or _rasse kuroondu_, sharp sweet, or honey cinnamon.

2. _Naya kuroondu_, snake cinnamon.

3. _Kapoorn kuroondu_, camphorated cinnamon, from the very strong smell of camphor which it possesses. This variety is principally obtained from the plantations of the interior.

4. _Kahate_ or _canalle kuroondu_, astringent cinnamon. In this species the bark peels off very easily, and smells agreeably when fresh, but it has a bitter taste.

5. _Savel kuroondu_, mucilaginous or glutinous cinnamon. This sort acquires a very considerable degree of hardness, which the chewing of it sufficiently proves. It has otherwise little taste, and an ungrateful smell; but the color is very fine, and it is often mixed with the first and best sort; the color being much alike, excepting only that in the good sort some few yellowish spots appear towards the extremities.

6. _Dawool kuroondu_, or drum cinnamon. The wood of this tree, when grown hard, is light and tough, and the natives make some of their vessels and drums of it. The bark is of a pale color.

7. _Nika kuroondu_, wild cinnamon, whose leaf resembles that of the nicasol (_Vitex Negundo_). The bark of this tree has neither taste or smell when peeled, and is made use of by the natives only in physic, and to extract an oil from to anoint their bodies.

8. _Mal kuroondu_, flowering cinnamon, because this tree is always in blossom. The substance of the wood never becomes so solid and weighty in this as in the other named species, which are sometimes nine or ten feet in circumference. If this ever-flowering cinnamon be cut or bored, a limpid water will issue out of the wound; but it is of use only for the leaves and bark.

9. _Toupat kuroondu_, trefoil cinnamon, of which there are three varieties, which grow in the mountains and valleys of the interior about Kandy.

10. _We kuroondu_, white ant's cinnamon.

The first-named four of these are, however, alone varieties of the _Cinnamonum verum_.

Good cinnamon is known by the following properties:--It is thin and rather pliable; it ought to be about the substance of royal paper, or somewhat thicker. It admits of a considerable degree of pressure, and bends before it breaks; the fracture is then splintering. It is of a light color, approaching to yellow, bordering but little upon the brown; it possesses a sweetish taste, at the same time it is not stronger than can be borne without pain, and is not succeeded by any after-taste. The more cinnamon departs from these characteristics, the coarser and less serviceable it is esteemed; and it should be rejected if it be hard, and thick as a half-crown piece; if it be very dark colored or brown; if it be very pungent and hot on the tongue, with a taste bordering upon that of cloves, so that it cannot be suffered without pain. Particular care should be taken that it is not false-packed, or mixed with cinnamon of a common sort.

The following remarks, by Mr. Dunewille, of Malacca, as to the suitability of the Straits' Settlements for cinnamon culture, are interesting, although in some instances a repetition of previous observations:--

It appears, from experience, that the soil of Ceylon is more favorable to the growth of cinnamon than to that of any other aromatic plant, and I find the climate of Ceylon, if at all, differs but in a very slight degree from that of the Straits. I therefore conclude that the spice, if cultivated in the Straits, will prove superior to that of Ceylon, if one may judge from the various spices that grow here almost wild, and it would moreover yield a better return than in Ceylon. My supposition is confirmed from having seen the spice which was prepared last year in Pringet by the Honorable Resident Councillor of Malacca, and which I found to be equally as good in every respect as that grown and cultivated in the maritime provinces in Ceylon.

A sandy soil is that which is generally selected for cinnamon, but other soils may be chosen also, such as a mixture of sandy with red soil, free from quartz, gravel, or rock, also red and dark brown soils. Such land in a flat country is preferable to hilly spots, upon which, however, cinnamon also grows, and are known by the name of the "Kandyan Mountains." The soil that is rocky and stony under the surface is bad, and not adapted for the cultivation of cinnamon, as the trees would neither grow fast, nor yield a remunerative return.

When a tract of land of the above description is selected, the whole of the ground should be cleared, leaving a few trees for shade, to which the laborers might return for rest and relaxation; these may be from 50 to 60 feet apart. The trees felled should be well lopped, burnt and cleared away, the stumps should be removed with roots, after which they may be allowed to remain, in order to save expense of carriage, merely by observing some degree of order in the disposition, by forming regular rows, of which the intervening spaces are planted with cinnamon. The ground being thus cleared, holes may be dug at eight to ten feet apart, and of one foot square; the distance from each plant will depend upon the nature of the soil--that is, the poorer the soil, the nearer to each other should the trees be planted, and _vice versa_.

When this operation is over, should the holes be intended for cinnamon roots, or stumps, the latter must be carefully removed with as much earth as can be carried up with them and placed in the holes, taking care not to return the earth removed originally in digging the holes, which are to be filled with the soil scraped from the surface, which has been previously burnt, exposed, and formed into manure. Should no rain have fallen after the placing of the roots in the holes, the stumps should be well covered, and watered morning and evening, until such time as the sprouts shoot out fresh buds, which will be in a fortnight or so from the time they were transplanted, when the watering may be discontinued. In a month the new shoots will be three or four inches high; this much depends upon the weather.

If the holes be intended for young plants or seedlings, the plants must be removed with boles of earth from the nurseries, and placed in the holes, taking the same care as with the stumps, both in watering and covering, in the event of its being dry weather. When the seedlings take root, the coverings should not be removed until the plants throw out a new pair of leaves from the buds, which is a sign of their having taken root.

When a plantation is formed of old stumps, all the branches should be cut down within six inches from the ground; this should be done with one stroke of a sharp instrument, in order to avoid the splitting of the stem. From these stumps cinnamon may be cut and peeled within eighteen months from the time of transplanting. Often this is done after the lapse of twelve months from the time of transplanting.

From seedlings one cannot expect to gather a crop before two or three years from the time the plants were transplanted, when there will be but one or a single tree, which, when cut down as already shown, four or six inches to the ground, ought to be covered with fresh earth gathered from the space between the rows, and formed in a heap round the plant. The next crop will be three or four times as much as the first, from the number of sprouts the stem will throw out, and so on every year, the crop increasing according to the number of sprouts each stem will throw out yearly from the cuttings. In the course of seven or eight years, the space left between the rows will only admit the peelers and others to go round the bushes, weed, clear and remove cuttings, as the branches from each bush will almost touch each other at their ends.

It is essentially necessary to take every care not to allow any creepers or other weeds to grow, the former interfere with the growth of the bushes by entangling, because it not only takes out so much of the support feeding the cinnamon trees, but interferes with the peelers during the cutting season, and prevents the branches growing up straight with a free circulation of air. The plantation ought to be kept clean and free from weeds; the cinnamon requires no manuring, but when the plantation is weeding the bushes should be covered with the surface soil and raising the ground round the bush by making a heap of the earth, which answers well in lieu of manure. This operation must be attended to as soon as the cinnamon sticks are removed for peeling. The plantation requires weeding three or four times a year during the first two or three years, then twice a year will answer the purpose; as by that time the trees will form into bushes and destroy the seeds of the weeds on the ground.

The forming of a nursery is necessary, for which a space of ground, say an acre, should be selected in a rich bit of soil free from stones. Clear the whole brushwood, only leaving the large trees for shade, remove all stones, stumps, and roots, dig the place well six or eight inches deep, then form into long beds of three or four feet wide, put the seeds down nine or twelve inches apart, cover them eight or twelve inches above the ground by a platform, and water them every other day until the seeds grow up and give one pair of leaves, then leave off watering (unless great dry weather prevail, then it ought to be continued) but not uncover until the plants grow up six or eight inches high, and can bear the sun; these seedlings will be ready for transplanting after three months from the time they were sown.

The forming of nurseries is done at the close of the year, before December. When this is done first, the party commences clearing and preparing the land during the dry season, which is from the beginning of December up to the end of March following. April will set in with heavy rain (it is generally so in Ceylon), and it will continue wet weather till the end of August, very often till September and October, and you have the benefit of four or five months rain.

The cinnamon seeds are to be gathered when they are fully ripe, they must be heaped up in a shady place, to have the outside red pulp rotted, when it turns quite black, then have the seeds trampled or otherwise freed from the decomposed pulp, without injuring the seeds, and well washed in water (just as is done to cherry coffee, before they are made into parchment in the whole shell). Finally, have the seeds[48] well dried in the air without exposing them to the sun, and then put them in on the ground prepared for their reception. In washing the seeds, those that float on the surface should be rejected.

There are five different sorts of cinnamon, viz.:--

1st is called Panny Meers Carundoo. 2nd Tittha " " 3rd Kahatte " " 4th Wallee " " 5th Savell " "

Of these, the first kind is the best of all, the 2nd and 3rd, although inferior, are peeled likewise, the 4th and 5th are spurious.

The distinction in the cinnamon can be known both by taste, the shape of the leaves on the tree, and an experienced "Challya" man will judge the cinnamon by first sight.

The quality of the bark depends upon its situation in the branch, that peeled from the middle of the bush or branch being the _most superior_, and classed as 1st sort, that taken from the upper end is the 2nd quality, while the bark removed from the base of the branch, or the thickest end, is the inferior, and called the 3rd sort.

From the cinnamon bark refused in the sorting store of all kinds, in separating the first, second and third qualities and in making bales for exportation, the refuse is collected, and by a chemical process cinnamon oil is extracted, which sells very high, with an export duty of 3s. or l½ rupees on each ounce, exclusive of the British duties payable in England for importation, which is at present one shilling and three pence per pound.[49] Of the cinnamon roots camphor is made, which sells well both in Ceylon and other parts of the world.

Cinnamon, as a medicine, is a powerful stimulant, but it is not much used alone. It is generally united with other tonics and stimulants, but its ordinary use is to mask the disagreeable odor and taste of other medicines. The oil of cinnamon is prepared by being grossly powdered and macerated in sea water for two days and two nights, and both are put into the still. A light oil comes over with the water, and floats on its surface; a heavy oil sinks to the bottom of the receiver, four hours before the light oil separates from the water, and whilst the heavy oil continues to be precipitated for ten, twelve, or sometimes fourteen days. The heavy oil, which separates first, is about the same color as the light oil, but sometimes the portion which separates last has a browner shade than the supernatant oil. The same water can be used advantageously in a second distillation. Professor Duncan informs us that 80 lbs. of newly-prepared cinnamon yield about 2½ ozs. of oil, which floats upon the water, and 5½ of heavy oil. The same quantity of cinnamon, if kept in store for many years, yields 2 ozs. of light oil and 5 ozs. of heavy oil.

Cinnamon oil is obtained from the fragments of bark which remain after peeling, sorting, and packing. It is distilled over with difficulty, and the process is promoted by the addition of salt water, and the use of a low still. The oil thus obtained by distillation is at first of a yellow color, but soon assumes a reddish brown hue. It has an odor intermediate between that of cinnamon and vanilla, but possesses in a high degree both the sweet burning taste and the agreeable aromatic smell of cinnamon. It is heavier than water, its specific gravity being 1.035.

The ripe fruit of this tree yields a concrete oil called cinnamon suet, which was formerly employed to make candles for the Kandian kings. An oil, called clove oil, is also distilled from the leaf, which is said to be equal in aromatic pungency to that made from the clove at the Moluccas.

The following were the quantities sold, and the average prices realised during the Dutch rule in Ceylon:--

s. d. 1690 3,750 bales sold at 4 8 all round. 1709 3,750 " 4 6 " 1710 3,500 " 4 4 " 1720 5,000 " 4 4 " 1740 4,000 " 9 3 " 1760 5,000 " 8 5 " 1780 2,500 " 12 6 " 1784 2,500 " 17 4 "

The last quotation appears to have been the highest ever obtained for cinnamon, for 17s. 8d. average would give about 22s. for the first sort. In later years we find the deliveries and prices to have been as follows:--

s. d. 1824 5,934 bales sold at 6 6 all round. 1828 3,918 " 6 0 " 1830 5,849 " 7 8 " 1842 1,018 " --- " 1845 3,245 " --- "

The comparative exports of cinnamon from Ceylon in the first six months of 1853, as compared with the same period last year, are as follows:--

1853. 1852. lbs. lbs. Quarter ending 5th January 99,778 93,291 " 5th April 73,815 135,248 ------- ------- Total 173,593 228,539

The diminished export was caused by the prospective abolition of the export duty, which came into operation on the 1st July last. The quantity that will be sent to the English market by the close of the year (1853) will be something prodigious compared with the average consumption. From October 10, 1852, to July 22, 1853, the shipments were 406,326 lbs.

RETURN OF CINNAMON EXPORTED FROM CEYLON, SHOWING THE QUANTITY AND VALUE.

Quantity. Value. Year. lbs. £ 1836 724,364 -- 1837 558,110 -- 1838 398,198 -- 1839 596,592 -- 1840 389,373 -- 1841 317,919 24,857 1842 121,145 15,207 1843 662,704 66,270 1844 1,057,841 105,784 1845 408,211 40,821 1846 491,656 49,165 1847 447,369 44,736 1848 491,688 49,168 1849 733,782 73,378 1850 644,857 64,485 1851 500,518 50,051 1852 427,667 42,766

The question of the export duty on cinnamon has, during the last twenty years, occupied a considerable space in Ceylon correspondence and the Island journals. This duty was first imposed in 1832, on the abolition of the Grovernment monopoly, and was then fixed at the rate of 3s. per lb. on all qualities. From the 19th April, 1835, it was fixed at 3s. per lb. on the best, and 2s. on the second quality. It was reduced in January, 1837, to 2s. 6d. on the first and second sorts, and 2s. on the third; and in June, 1841, to 2s. on all qualities; in 1843, to 1s.; and in September, 1848, to 4d. per lb. Such a rate of export duty could be maintained only on an article for which there was a considerable demand, and which could not be supplied from other places, and this was for a long time the case. The circumstances are now different, and the abolition of the duty, which has so repeatedly been brought under the notice of the Treasury, has at length been determined on. The quantity of cinnamon, &c., taken for consumption in the United Kingdom, scarcely amounts to 2,800 bales per annum. The sale and consumption is nearly stationary, and cinnamon is only in demand for those finer purposes for which cassia, its competitor, cannot be used. Whilst we imported the large amount of 700,095 lbs. in 1850, only 28,347 lbs. went into consumption. The consumption has declined in the last two years to about 21,500 lbs. Cinnamon is now imported into the United Kingdom duty free.

The land under cultivation with cinnamon in Ceylon is about 13,000 acres, principally in the western and southern provinces. The number of gardens being eleven at Kaderane, seven at Ekelli, seven at Morotto, six at Marandham, and two at Willisene. Several enterprising planters have recently commenced the cultivation of this spice at Singapore and Malacca. The plants already promise well. Indeed there can be little doubt of its thriving, as the tree has been long grown in gardens and pleasure grounds in those settlements, as an ornamental plant, and has always flourished.

The Ceylon article is being supplanted in the continental markets by a cheaper one, of China and Malabar growth. The Javanese, tempted by the fatally high prices caused by the excessive duties on our Colonial spice, smuggled a quantity of seed, and with it a cinnamon cultivator, out of the island, and have since paid considerable attention to its growth. The Dutch have at present more than five millions of plants, equal to upwards of 5,000 acres, the greater part of which are in tolerably full bearing.

The cinnamon trees in Java begin to blossom in the month of March. They do not all flower at the same time, but in succession. The fruit begins to ripen in October in the same manner, so that the crop lasts from October to February. In Ceylon the blossom begins to appear in November. The seeds when plucked ought to be fully ripe, and after being separated from the outer pulpy covering, should be dried in the shade. They can be kept for two or three months in dry sand or ashes, but must not be exposed to the sun, as they would split, and thus be rendered useless.

The plants in nurseries must be well sheltered from the sun and heavy rains, but the plants are strengthened by the covers being removed at night when heavy rains are not expected to fall, and in the day time when only light rains prevail. The mode of planting out, cultivation, preparing the bark, &c., appears to be the same in Java as that practised in Ceylon. The only difference is, that while in Ceylon the cinnamon, when ready for market, is packed in "gunny" or canvass bags, in Java it is put into boxes, made of wood free from any smell or flavor which would injure the spice. The inferior cinnamon, however, is packed in straw mats.

The following is a return of the extent of cinnamon culture in Java :--

In 1840. In 1841. Residencies in which cinnamon is cultivated 10 10 Number of plantations 48 49 " families devoted to this culture 7,901 9,688 " paid _budjans_ 294 345 Extent of ground occupied by the cultivation, in _bahus_ of 71 decametres 1,690 1,880 --------- --------- Cinnamon trees of which the bark can be taken 1,106,566 1,407,213 Young trees in the parks 2,478,427 2,565,774 For renewing 307,000 86,800 --------- --------- Total 3,891,998 4,059,787 --------- --------- Cinnamon crop, in Dutch lbs. 57,074 38,219 " refuse 23,283 82,803

The number of trees peeled in 1842 was taken at 1,824,599, and the crop reckoned at 108,905 lbs.

In the residency of Bantam, four trees suffice to produce a pound of cinnamon, whilst in the other residencies eleven trees must generally be stripped to furnish the same quantity; in 1839 one pound could scarcely be obtained from thirteen trees.

This cultivation increases each year, and the quality of the produce improves, whilst the expenses diminish. However, the Dutch Government has judged it proper not to extend it, although the soil of Java appears favorable to this culture.

From 200,000 to 300,000 lbs. of true cinnamon, not freed from its epidermis, is exported annually from Cochin-China.

JAVA CINNAMON SOLD IN HOLLAND.

lbs. In 1835 2,200 " 1836 1,300 " 1837 1,600 " 1838 2,100 " 1839 4,700 " 1840 7,900 " 1841 23,900 " 1842 13,000 " 1843 23,000 " 1844 101,400 " 1845 134,500 " 1848 250,550

STATISTICS OF PACKAGES IN LONDON.

1842. 1843. 1844. 1845. Imported 2,196 4,458 9,197 8,909 Exported 3,661 3,964 6,712 6,081 Duty paid 838 738 801 1,012 Stock 2,709 2,622 4,230 5,549

CASSIA BARK.

_Cinnamonum Cassia_, or _aromaticum_, the _Laurus cassia_ of Linnæus, seems to be the chief source of the "cassia lignea" of commerce. It differs from the true cinnamon tree in many particulars. Its leaves are oblong-lanceolate; they have three ribs, which coalesce into one at the base; its young twigs are downy, and its leaves have the taste of cinnamon.

Malabar cassia appears to be the produce of another species of _Cinnamonum_, probably _C. eucalyptoides_, or _Malabatrum_.

Dr. Wight, of the Madras Medical Service, in a report to the East India Company, expresses his belief that the cassia producing plants extend to nearly every species of the genus. "A set of specimens (he observes) submitted for my examination, of the trees furnishing cassia on the Malabar coast, presented no fewer than four distinct species; including among them the genuine cinnamon plant, the bark of the older trees of which, it would appear, are exported from the coast as cassia. Three or four more species are natives of Ceylon, exclusive of the cinnamon proper, all of which greatly resemble the cinnamon plant, and in the woods might easily be mistaken for it and peeled, though the produce would be inferior. Thus we have from Western India and Ceylon alone, probably not less than six plants producing cassia; add to these nearly twice as many more species of _Cinnamonum_, the produce of the more eastern states of Asia, and the Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, all remarkable for their striking family likeness; all, I believe, endowed with aromatic properties, and probably the greater part, if not the whole, contributing something towards the general result, and we at once see the impossibility of awarding to any one individual species the credit of being the source whence the _Cassia lignea_ of commerce is derived; and equally the impropriety of applying to any one of them the comprehensive specific appellation of cassia, since all sorts of cinnamon-like plants, yielding bark of a quality unfit to bear the designation of cinnamon in the market, are passed off as cassia."

The cassia tree, according to Mr. Crawfurd, is found in the more northern portion of the Indian isles, as in the Philippines, Majindanao, Sumatra, Borneo, and parts of Celebes. It is also grown on the western coast of Africa. The principal seat of its culture is, however, the Malabar coast, and the provinces of Quantong and Kingse, in China.

The famous cassia of China is incomparably superior in perfume and flavor to any spice of its class. Its native place is unknown, though supposed to be the interior provinces of China. The market price is said to be £5 per lb.

The Malabar sort brought from Bombay is thicker, darker colored, and coarser than that from China, and is more subject to foul packing. A small quantity of cassia is brought from Mauritius and Brazil, and a large amount from the Philippine Islands.

Cassia bark fetches from 80s. to 105s. per cwt. in the London market, according to quality. The imports appear on the decline. In 1843 and 1844 we imported nearly two millions of pounds. The quantity imported and retained for home consumption in the past four years are shown in the following figures:--

Imported. Retained for consumption. lbs. lbs. 1848 510,247 76,152 1849 472,693 83,500 1850 1,050,008 97,178 1851 267,582 82,467

The cheaper Indian barks, as well as the cinnamon of the East, seemed at one time to be fast driving out of the market the superior class cinnamon of Ceylon.

In 1841 Java exported 400 cwts. of cinnamon; and the quantity of cassia imported into the United Kingdom from India and the Philippine Islands, in the five years ending with 1844, was--

lbs. 1840 329,310 1841 1,261,648 1842 1,312,804 1843 2,470,502 1844 1,278,413

40,000 lbs. were received from India in 1848; and 3,795 arrobas of cassia were exported from Manila in 1847. In 1852, 2,806 cwts. of cassia were received at Singapore from China, and 1,380 cwts. exported from that settlement to the Continent, against 903 cwts. shipped in the previous year.

What the Ceylon spice-grower wants, is an extended field of operation--a larger class of consumers to take off his cinnamon, and this can only be obtained by bringing it within the means of the great mass of cassia buyers.

Look at the quantity of cinnamon exported by the Dutch in the middle of the eighteenth century. Eight or nine thousand bales a year were exported, and now, after a lapse of a hundred years, Ceylon hardly sends away half that quantity. Yet the consumption of spice must have kept pace with the increased population of countries using it, and so it has. But the difference is made up, and more than made up, by cassia from China, Java, Sumatra, Malabar Coast, &c., and though the new article is not equal to the cinnamon of Ceylon, yet the vast difference in the price obtains for it the preference. Now what the Ceylon planter wants, is to be allowed to produce a spice on equal terms, and of a superior quality to cassia, which might be done under an _ad valorem_ export duty of 5 per cent. Spice of this description of course could not afford the high cultivation bestowed on the fine qualities, neither would it be required. In fact little or no cultivation need be given it. At present anything inferior to the third sort is not worth producing, because it cannot stand the shilling export duty. But under a more enlightened system of things, with a low duty such as I suggest, myriads of bushes would spring up on those low, sandy, and at present unprofitable wastes that skirt the sea-coast of the western province, around Negombo and Chilaw.

The difference of duty would be more than made up by the diffusion of capital in planting, the employment of vast numbers of laborers, the purchase from Government of many thousand acres of now valueless flats, and all the attendant benefits arising out of the development of a new field of operation for the colonial industrial resources.[50] The cassia tree grows naturally to the height of 50 or 60 feet, with large, spreading, horizontal branches. The peelers take off the two barks together, and separating the rough outer one, which is of no value, they lay the inner bark to dry, which rolls up and becomes the _Cassia lignea_ of commerce. It resembles cinnamon in taste, smell and appearance. The best is imported from China, either direct from Canton, or through Singapore, in small tubes or quills, sometimes the thickness of the ordinary pipes of cinnamon and of the same length; but usually they are shorter and thicker, and the bark itself coarser. It is of a tolerably smooth surface and brownish color, with some cast of red, but much less so than cinnamon. The exports from China are said to be about five million pounds annually; price about 32s. per cwt. In 1850, 6,509 piculs of cassia lignea (nearly one million pounds), valued at 87,850 dollars, were shipped from the single port of Canton. Cassia bark is of a less fibrous texture, and more brittle, and it is also distinguished from cinnamon by a want of pungency, and by being of a mucilaginous or gelatinous quality.

CASSIA BUDS are the dried flower buds (perianth and ovary) of the cassia tree, and are mostly brought from China. They bear some resemblance to a clove, but are smaller, and when fresh have a rich cinnamon flavor. They should be chosen round, fresh, and free from stalk and dirt. They are used chiefly in confectionery, and have the flavor and pungency of cassia. The exports from Canton in 1844 were 21,500 lbs.; in 1850, 44,140 lbs., valued at 7,400 dollars. The average quantity of cassia buds imported into the United Kingdom, in each of the thirteen years ending with 1842, was 40,231 lbs.; the average quantity entered for home consumption in these years was 6,610 lbs., and the average annual amount of duty received was £312.

Cassia bark yields a yellow volatile oil, called oil of cassia, the finer kind of which differs but little in its properties from that of cinnamon, for which it is generally substituted; it has a specific gravity of 1071. The best is manufactured in China, where the wood, bark, leaves and oil are all in request. The cassia oil is rated at 150 dollars per picul, and the trade in this article reaches about 250,000 dollars.

CANELLA ALBA, or wild cinnamon, is a valuable and ornamental tree, growing about fifteen feet high, which is cultivated in South America and the West Indies for its pungent bark, which is shipped to this country in bales or cases, in long quills and flat pieces, something like cinnamon. Large old cuttings root readily in the sand. It is grown chiefly in the Bahama Islands, from whence we derive our supplies.

By the Caribs, the ancient natives of the West Indies, and the negroes, it was first employed as a condiment. In this country it is chiefly used as an aromatic stimulant and tonic, ranking between cinnamon and cloves. The bark possesses, however, no other quality than its hot spicy flavor and strong aromatic odor when exposed to the

## action of heat.

CASCARILLA BARK is obtained chiefly from the _Croton cascarilla_, a small shrub growing at St. Domingo, the Bahama Islands, and the Antilles. The chief portion comes from Eleuthera. In Hayti a pleasant kind of tea is made from the leaves. Other species of the family supply some of the bark of commerce.

From its strong and aromatic properties it has been found very efficacious in all febrile diseases, and vies with the Jesuits' bark; as a tonic it has very wholesome qualities, a pleasant and strong bitterness, and was for some time held in considerable repute among the faculty.

About twenty years ago, large shipments were made from the Bahamas. It was found, upon adulteration with hops, to reduce the cost of that article, and for the encouragement of the hop grower a prohibitory impost was laid upon it by the Home Government, consequently it became an unsaleable product.

The sea-side balsam, or sweet wood (_Croton Eleuteria_), from which some cascarilla bark is obtained, grows in the Bahama Islands and Jamaica, but almost all the bark imported comes from Nassau, New Providence. In 1840, 15,000 lbs. were imported for home consumption.

This bark produces the combined effect of an aromatic and of a moderately powerful tonic; but it does not possess any astringency. It has been employed as a substitute for cinchona. When burned it gives out a musky odor, and is often used in pastiles.

The value of this bark ranges, according to quality, from 17s. 6d. to 43 s. per cwt.

CLOVES.

The cloves of commerce are obtained from the flower buds of _Caryophyllus aromaticus (Eugenia caryophyllata_), which was originally a native of the Moluccas, but is now cultivated in several parts of the East and West Indies. They have the form of a nail, and when examined are seen to consist of the tubular calyx with a roundish projection, formed by the unopened petals. It is a very handsome tree, growing to the height of about twenty feet. The trunk is straight, and rises four or five feet before it throws out branches. The bark is smooth, thin, of a grey color, and the wood of the trunk too hard for ordinary cabinet work.

The leaves are opposite, smooth, narrow, pointed, of a rupous color above, and green on the under side. They have a very aromatic odor when bruised between the fingers. The flowers produced in branched peduncles, at the extremity of the bough, are of a delicate peach color. The elongated calyx, forming the seed vessel, first changes to yellow, and, when ripe, red, which is from October to December, and in this state it is fit to gather. If left for a few weeks longer on the trees, they expand, and become what are termed "mother cloves," fit only for seed or for candying. The ground under the tree is first swept clean, or else a mat or cloth is spread. The nearest clusters are taken off with the hand, and the more distant by the aid of crooked sticks. Great care should be taken not to injure the tree, as it would prevent future bearing.

The cloves are then prepared for shipment by smoking them on hurdles near a slow wood fire, to give them a brown color, after which they are further dried in the sun. They may then be cut off from the flower branches with the nails, and will be found to be purple colored within, and fit to be baled for the European market. In some places they are scalded in hot water before being smoked, but this is not common. The tree may be propagated either from layers or seed. Layers will root in five or six months if kept moist.

A strong dark loam, a gravelly, sandy, or clayey soil, but one not retentive of moisture, seems that best suited for its successful culture.

It does not thrive well near the sea, nor in the higher mountains, the spray of the sea and the cold being found injurious. The plants at first require the shade of other trees, such as the mango, coco-nut, &c. Although generally a hardy plant, it suffers from excessive drought. They should be planted about twenty feet apart. In its native country the tree begins to yield fruit in the sixth year, but a crop can seldom be looked for in other quarters under eight years. It is very long lived, sometimes attaining the age of 130 years.

There appears, according to Mr. Crawfurd, to be five varieties of the clove, viz.--the ordinary cultivated clove; a kind called the female clove by the natives, which has a pale stem; the kiri or loory clove; the royal clove, which is very scarce, and the wild clove. The three first are equally valuable as spices, the female clove being considered fittest for the distillation of essential oil. The wild clove, having scarcely any aromatic flavor, is valueless.

The produce which may be expected from the tree seems to be uncertain; it may, however, be averaged at five or six pounds. A clove tree, well weeded and taken care of, will produce from five to twenty pounds. On the other hand, a tree that is neglected will not give above two or three pounds. At intervals of from three to six years they usually produce one extraordinary crop, but then a year now and then intervenes, when they yield none at all; in others they will afford a double harvest.

The clove tree was originally confined to the five principal Molucca islands, and chiefly to Machean. From these it was conveyed to Amboyna, a very short time only before the arrival of the Portuguese. By them the cultivation was strictly restricted to Amboyna, every effort being made to extirpate the plant elsewhere.

It has now, however, spread to Java, Singapore, and the Straits' Settlements, Ceylon, the Mauritius and Seychelles, Bourbon, Zanzibar, Cayenne, Dominica, Martinique, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, and Trinidad.

Cloves contain a volatile oil, associated with resinous, gummy, and astringent matter, which is yielded in larger proportion than by any other plant. Neuman obtained by distillation two ounces and two drachms from sixteen ounces of cloves. On an average cloves yield from 17 to 22 per cent. of oil, including the heavy and light oils. The oil is aromatic and acrid, and has been used as a condiment and a stimulant carminative. It is also extensively used by distillers and soap makers.

It is said that the clove does not thrive well on the soil of Java, the plantations of which trial had been made not having succeeded to the extent expected, although they were directed by skilled persons from Amboyna; the places they made choice of did not differ materially as to soil and climate from those of the Moluccas.

M. Teysman, Director of the Botanical Gardens at Batavia, seems to have bestowed much attention on the subject. The exports however from the island have been considerable. In 1830, there were 803 piculs shipped; in 1835, 4,566; in 1839, 2,334; in 1843, 2,027 piculs of 133 lbs.

M. Buee, who introduced the culture of the clove in the island of Dominica, about 1789, thus describes the results of his experience, which may be useful to other experimental cultivators. He obtained a few plants from Cayenne, and raised 1,600 trees from seed, which, in a year from the first sowing, were transplanted. The seeds were sown at about six inches apart from each other, in beds; over these beds small frames were erected about three feet from the ground, and plantain leaves were spread on the top, in order to shelter the young plants from the sun. The leaves were allowed gradually to decay, and at the end of nine months the young plants, which by that time were strong, were permitted to receive the benefit of the sun; but if not protected from it when very young, they were found to droop and die.

When transplanted, the trees were placed at sixteen feet apart from each other. They grew very luxuriantly, and at the end of fifteen months after their removal, attained the height of from three to four feet. The ground wherein they were planted had been a coffee plantation during forty years. The coffee trees had decayed, and an attempt had been made to replace them; but they refused to grow; whereas the clove plants flourished as if on congenial soil, and a crop was gathered on some of them when they were not more than six years old, which period is two or three years earlier than the usual time for gathering.

The cloves sent from St. Vincent to England in 1800, were obtained from trees eight feet high, having a stem only two inches in diameter. Trial was made in that island of the relative growth of the plant on different soils; it grew sickly on land which was not manured, but on land which had received this preparation it flourished.

In Singapore, about ten years ago, there were then about 15,000 clove trees planted out, a few of which only had come in bearing. If these plantations had proved equally productive with those of the sister settlement of Pinang, it would have been able to export 60,000 lbs. of cloves, its own produce; but this expectation, it will be seen, has not been realised. In the season of 1841-42, there was 1000 piculs of cloves shipped from Pinang, but none were exported in the two previous years.

The quantity of land under cultivation with cloves there, in 1843, was 463 orlongs in Prince of Wales Island, and 517 in Province Wellesley. The number of trees planted out in the former island was 72,779; in the latter province 7,639. There were in the island 25,161 plants in nursery.

The trees in bearing were--In Prince of Wales Island, 28,739; not bearing, 44,040; produce in 1843, 87 piculs, 50 catties; gross value, 3,399 dollars; estimated produce of cloves for 1844, 469 piculs. In Province Wellesley--Trees in bearing, 1,073; not bearing, 6,566; produce in 1843, 1 picul, 13 catties; gross value 45 dollars.

The export of cloves from Pinang was, in 1849, 24,000 lbs.; in 1850, 52,400; in 1851, 27,866; in 1852, 45,087.

From tabular statements drawn up in 1844, by Mr. F.S. Brown, Chairman of the Pinang Chamber of Commerce, it appears that there were, in 1843, in that island and Province Wellesley adjoining, 96 clove plantations, containing 80,418 clove trees; besides many young trees in nurseries ready to be planted out. The produce of cloves there, in 1842, was 11,813 lbs., and this was a very short crop, it having that year proved a complete failure; the average crop for some years previous had been 46,666 lbs. Pinang only began to export this spice in 1832. Of the clove trees in Pinang there were then only 29,812 in bearing, leaving 75,767 in that settlement alone to come to maturity; estimated to yield about 300,000 lbs.

No success has attended repeated trials of cloves in Singapore. Until the trees reach the age of bearing, they grow and look extremely well; but any expectation of a crop that may have been raised by their hitherto fine condition, ends in disappointment, for just then the trees assume the appearance of sudden blight, as if lightning-stricken, and then die. 125 clove plants and 350 seedlings were sent to Singapore from Bencoolen, by Sir T. Raffles, in the close of 1819; but although every care was paid them--while the nutmegs which accompanied them throve amazingly well--little or no progress has been made with clove culture. Two or three hundred-weight were shipped in 1845, but since then hardly any mention is made of the spice.

In a petition presented by the spice planters of Pinang and Province Wellesley, to the authorities at home, in 1844, praying that the duty on British Colonial nutmegs, mace, and cloves might be reduced to 1s. 9d., 1s. 3d., and 3d. respectively, on importation into England, in order to compete with foreign produce, it was stated that a few years hence Prince of Wales Island might be expected to produce 600,000 lbs. of nutmegs, 200,000 lbs. of mace, and 300,000 lbs. of cloves; whilst Singapore, if equally successful in the culture of the same, would yield yearly 137,000 lbs. of nutmegs, 45,000 lbs. of mace, and 60,000 lbs. of cloves. In short, the planters needed only encouragement to produce in the course of a few years a full supply of those valuable spices for the whole consumption of Great Britain.

Dr. Ruschenberger, who visited Zanzibar in 1835, thus speaks of the clove plantations there:--"As far as the eye could reach over a beautifully undulated land, nothing was to be seen but clove trees of different ages, varying in height from five to twenty feet. The form of the tree is conical, the branches grow at nearly right angles with the trunk, and they begin to shoot a few inches above the ground. The plantation contains nearly four thousand trees, and each tree yields on an average six pounds of cloves a year; they are carefully picked by hand, and then dried in the shade; we saw numbers of slaves standing on ladders gathering the spice, while others were at work clearing the ground of dead leaves. The whole is in the finest order, presenting a picture of industry and of admirable neatness and beauty. They were introduced into Zanzibar in 1818, from Mauritius, and are found to thrive so well that almost everybody in the island is now clearing away the cocoa nut to make way for them. The clove bears in five or six years from the seed; of course time enough has not yet elapsed for the value and quantity of Zanzibar cloves to be generally known; they are worth, however, in the Bombay market, about 30s. the Surat maund of 39¼ lbs.; the price for Molucca cloves in the Eastern market is from 28 to 30 dollars per picul of 133 lbs.; for those of Mauritius, 20 to 24 dollars per picul."

The average annual consumption of cloves in the United Kingdom, in the four years ending 1841, was 49,000 lbs. The largest quantity of cloves imported during the past twenty-five years was 1,041,171 lbs., in 1847. The quantities imported and entered for home consumption in the last five years have been as follows:--

Imports. Home consumption. lbs. lbs. 1848 117,433 126,691 1849 274,713 133,713 1850 749,646 159,934 1851 253,439 138,132 1852 313,949 175,287

In 1848 we received 60,000 lbs. of cloves from British India.

THE NUTMEG.

_Myristica moschata_, _M. officinalis_, or _aromatica_.--This tree is of a larger growth than the clove, attaining a height of thirty feet, and has its leaves broader in proportion to their length; the upper surface of these is of a bright green, the under of a greyish color. It is a dioecious plant, having male or barren pale yellow flowers upon one tree, and female or fertile flowers upon another. The fruit is drupaceous, and opens by two valves when ripe, displaying the beautiful reticulated scarlet arillus, which constitutes mace. Within this is a hard, dark brown, and glossy shell, covering the kernel, which is the nutmeg of the shops.

The kernels of _M. tomentosa_ are also used as aromatics, under the name of wild or male nutmegs.

Lindley describes two other species, _M. fatua_, a native of Surinam, with greenish white flowers, and _M. sebifera_ or _Virola sebifera_, a native of Guiana, with yellowish green flowers.

By expression, nutmegs are made to yield a concrete oil, called _Adeps Myristicæ_, or sometimes erroneously oil of mace. A volatile oil is also procured by distillation. Nutmegs and mace are used medicinally as aromatic stimulants and condiments. In large doses they have a narcotic effect. The fleshy part of the fruit is used as a preserve.

Dr. Oxley has given such an admirable account of the nutmeg and its cultivation, as the result of 20 years experience in Singapore, that I shall draw largely from his valuable paper, which is contained in the second volume of "The Journal of the Indian Archipelago," page 641.

The nutmeg tree, like many of its class, has a strong tendency to become monoecious, and planters in general are well pleased at this habit, thinking they secure a double advantage by having the male and female flowers on the same plant. This is, however, delusive, and being against the order of nature, the produce of such trees is invariably inferior, showing itself in the production of double nuts and other deformities. It is best, therefore, to have only female trees, with a due proportion of males.

The female flowers, which are merely composed of a tripid calyx and no corolla, when produced by a tree in full vigor are perfectly urceolate, slightly tinged with green at the base, and well filled by the ovary, whereas the female flowers of weakly trees are entirely yellow, imperfectly urceolate, and approach more to the staminiferous flowers of the male.

The shape of the fruit varies considerably, being spherical, oblong, and egg-shaped, but the nearer they approach sphericity of figure, the more highly are they prized.

There is also a great variety in the foliage of different trees, from elliptic, oblong and ovate, to almost purely lanceolate-shaped leaves. This difference seems to indicate in some measure the character of the produce; trees with large oblong leaves appearing to have the largest and most spherical fruit, and those with small lanceolate leaves being in general more prolific bearers, but of inferior quality.

Whilst its congener the clove has been spread over Asia, Africa, and the West Indies, the nutmeg refuses to flourish out of the Malayan Archipelago, except as an exotic, all attempts to introduce it largely into other tropical countries having decidedly failed. The island of Ternate, which is in about the same latitude as Singapore, is said to have been the spot where it was truly indigenous, but no doubt the tree is to be found on most of the Moluccas. At present the place of its origin is unproductive of the spice, having been robbed of its rich heritage by the policy of the Dutch, who at an early period removed the plantations to the Banda isles for better surveillance, where they still remain and flourish. But although care was formerly taken to extirpate the tree on the Moluccas, the mace-feeding pigeons have frustrated the machinations of man, and spread it widely through the Archipelago of islands extending from the Moluccas to New Guinea. Its circle of growth extends westward as far as Pinang, or Prince of Wales Island, where, although an exotic, it has been cultivated as a mercantile speculation with success for many years. Westward of Pinang there are no plantations, looking at the subject in a mercantile point of view. The tree is to be found, indeed, in Ceylon, and the West Coast of India, but to grow it as a speculation out of its indigenous limits, is as likely to prove successful as the cultivation of apples and pears in Bengal.

In the Banda Isles, where the tree may be considered as indigenous, no further attention is paid to its cultivation than setting out the plants in parks, under the shade of large forest trees, with long horizontal branches, called "Canari" by the natives. There it attains a height of 50 feet and upwards, whereas from 20 to 30 feet may be taken as a fair average of the trees in the Straits' Settlements; but notwitstanding our pigmy proportions (adds Dr. Oxley), it does not appear, from, all I could ever learn, that we are relatively behind the Banda trees, either in quantity or quality of produce, and I am strongly impressed with the idea that the island of Singapore can compete with the Banda group on perfectly even terms. Our climate is quite unexceptionable for the growth of the nutmeg, being neither exposed to droughts or high winds; and although we may lose by comparison of soils, we again gain by greater facilities of sending our products to market, by the facility of obtaining abundant supplies of manure, and any amount of free and cheap labor.

A nutmeg plantation, well laid out and brought up to perfection, is one of the most pleasing and agreeable properties that can be possessed. Yielding returns, more or less daily, throughout the year, there is increasing interest, besides the usual stimulus to all agriculturists of a crop time, when his produce increases to double and quadruple the ordinary routine.

Trees having arrived at fifteen years growth, there is no incertitude or fear of total failure of crop, only in relative amount of produce, and this, as will be seen, is greatly in the planter's own power to command. It is against reason to suppose that a tree in flower and fruit will not expend itself if left to unaided nature: it must be supplied with suitable stimuli to make good the waste, therefore he who wants nuts must not be sparing of manure.

The first requisite for the planter is choice of location. It is true that the nutmeg tree, aided by manure, will grow in almost any soil where water does not lodge, but it makes a vast difference in the degree of success, whether the soil be originally good, or poor and improved by art. The tree does not thrive in white or sandy soils, but prefers the deep red and friable soils formed by the decomposition of granite rocks and tinged with iron, and the deeper the tinge the better. I am therefore inclined to think, that iron in the soil is almost necessary for the full development of the plant. If under the before-mentioned soil there be a rubble of iron-stone at four or five feet from the surface (a very common formation in Singapore), forming a natural drainage, the planter has obtained all that he can desire in the ground, and needs only patience and perseverance to secure success. The form of the ground ought to be undulating, to permit the running off of all superfluous water, as there is no one thing more injurious to the plant than water lodging around its roots, although, in order to thrive well, it requires an atmosphere of the most humid sort, and rain almost daily. Besides the form of the ground, situation is highly desirable, particularly as regards exposure. A spot selected for a nutmeg plantation cannot be too well sheltered, as high winds are most destructive to the tree, independently of the loss occasioned by the blowing off of fruit and flower.

At present there is abundant choice of land in Singapore, the greater portion of the island being as yet uncultivated, and much answering to the above description. The land can be purchased from Government at the rate of from 10s. to 20s. per acre in perpetuity. I would advise the man who wishes to establish a plantation, to select the virgin forest, and of all things let him avoid deserted gambier plantations, the soil of which is completely exhausted, the Chinese taking good care never to leave a spot until they have taken all they can out of it. A cleared spot has a great attraction for the inexperienced, and it is not easy to convince a man that it is less expensive to attack the primitive forest, than to attempt to clear an old gambier plantation, overrun with lalang grass; but the cutting down and burning of large forest trees is far less expensive than the extirpation of the lalang, and as the Chinese leave all the stumps of the large trees in the ground, it is almost more difficult to remove them in this state than when you have the powerful lever of the trunk to aid you in tearing up the roots, setting aside the paramount advantage that, in the one case you possess a fresh and fertile soil, in the other an effete and barren one.

Forest land, or "jungle," as it is called in the East, can be cleared for about 25 to 30 dollars (£5 to £6) per acre, by contract, but the planter had better be careful to have every stump and root of tree removed, ere he ventures to commence planting, or the white ants, attracted by the dead wood, will crowd into the land, and having consumed the food thus prepared for them, will not be slow in attacking the young trees. Whilst the planter is thus clearing the ground, he may advantageously at the same time be establishing nurseries; for these the ground ought to be well trenched and mixed with a small quantity of thoroughly decomposed manure and burned earth, making up the earth afterwards into beds of about three feet wide, with paths between them for the convenience of weeding and cleaning the young plants. Of course if the planter can obtain really good plants, the produce of well-selected seed, it will be a great saving of time and expense to him, but unless the seed be carefully chosen, I would prefer beginning my own nurseries, and in the selection of seed would recommend the most perfectly ripe and spherical nuts. Oval long nuts are to be rejected, particularly any of a pale color at one end.

The planter having selected his seed, which ought to be put in the ground within twenty-four hours after being gathered, setting it about two inches deep in the beds already prepared, and at the distance of twelve to eighteen inches apart, the whole nursery to be well shaded both on top and sides, the earth kept moist and clear of weeds, and well smoked by burning wet grass or weeds in it once a week, to drive away a very small moth-like insect that is apt to infest young plants, laying its eggs on the leaf, when they become covered with yellow spots, and perish if not attended to speedily.

Washing the leaves with a decoction of the Tuba root is the best remedy I know of, but where only a few plants are affected, if the spots be numerous, I would prefer to pluck up the plant altogether, rather than run the risk of the insect becoming more numerous, to the total destruction of the nursery. The nuts germinate in from a month to six weeks, and even later, and for many months after germination the seed is attached to the young plant, and may be removed apparently as sound as when planted, to the astonishment of the unlearned, who are not aware of the great disproportion in size between the ovule and albumen, the former of which is alone necessary to form the plant. The plant may be kept in nursery with advantage for nearly two years. Should they grow rapidly, and the interspaces become too small for them, every second plant had better be removed to a fresh nursery; and set out at a distance of a couple of feet from each other. When transplanted, either in this way or for their ultimate position in the plantation, care should be taken to remove them with a good ball of earth, secured by the skin of the plantain, which prevents the ball of earth falling to pieces. The nurseries being established, the ground cleared and ready, the next proceeding is to lay out and dig holes about 26 or 30 feet apart, and as the quincunx order has so many advantages, it is the form I would recommend for adoption. The holes should be at least six feet in diameter, and about four feet deep, and when refilled the surface soil is to be used, and not that which is taken out of the hole. Each hole should be filled up about one foot higher than the surrounding ground, to allow for the settling of the soil and the sinking of the tree, which, planted at this height, will in a few years be found below the level. Over each hole thus filled up, a shed, made of Attap leaves or other shelter, closed on two sides, east and west, and proportioned to the size of the plant, is to be erected. It is not a bad plan to leave an open space in the centre of the top of each shed, about twelve inches wide, by which the young plant can obtain the benefit of the dew and gentle rains, which more than compensates for the few rays of sun that can only fall upon it whilst that body is vertical. After the sheds have been completed, each hole should have added to it a couple of baskets of well decomposed manure, and an equal quantity of burned earth, when all is ready for the reception of the plant, which, having been set out, if the weather be dry will require watering for ten days or a fortnight after, in fact until it takes the soil.

The planter having set out all his trees must not deem his labors completed, they are only commencing. To arrive thus far is simple and easy, but to patiently watch and tend the trees for ten years after, requires all the enthusiasm already mentioned. About three months after planting out, the young trees will receive great benefit if a small quantity of liquid fish manure be given them. In the first six years they ought to be trenched round three times, enlarging the circle each time, the trenches being dug close to the extremities of the roots, which generally correspond to the ends of the branches, and each new trench commencing where the old one terminated. They must of course greatly increase in size as the circle extends, requiring a proportionate quantity of manure, but the depth ought never to be less than two feet.

The object of trenching is to loosen the soil and permit the roots to spread, otherwise the tree spindles instead of becoming broad and umbrageous. Manure is beyond all other considerations the most important to the welfare of the estate; it is that which gives quantity and quality of produce, and without it a plantation cannot be carried on. The want of it must limit the cultivation in the Straits' Settlements, and will arrest many a planter, who, having got his plantation to look well up to the eighth year with very little manure, thinks he can go on in the same manner. The nutmeg tree likes well all sorts of manures, but that which is best suited for it seems to be well-rotted stable and cow-yard manure, mixed with vegetable matter, and when the tree is in bearing the outer covering of the nut itself is about one of the very best things to be thrown into the dung-pit. Dead animals buried not too near the roots, also blood, fish, and oil cakes are beneficial. Guano is of no use.

But although manuring is the chief element in successful cultivation, there are many other matters for the planter to attend to during the period that the trees are growing. All obnoxious grasses must be carefully kept out of the plantation, at least from between the trees, and the harmless grasses rather encouraged, as they keep the surface cool. The trunk of the tree ought to be carefully washed with soap and water once a year to keep it clear of moss; this has been ridiculed as a work of supererogation, but let those who think so omit the operation.

Parasitical plants of the genus Loranthus are very apt to attach themselves to the branches, and if not removed do great injury.

The insect enemies of the tree are not very numerous, but it has a few, white ants among the number. They seldom attack a vigorous plant; it is upon the first symptoms of weakness or decay that they commence their operations. Their nests may be dislodged from the roots of the plant by a dose of solution of pig dung, to which they have a great aversion.

There are several species of insects which lay their eggs on the leaves, and unless carefully watched and removed, they commit great havoc amongst the trees. For this purpose it is necessary to wash the leaves with a decoction of Tuba root, and syringe them by means of a bamboo with lime and water, of the consistence of whitewash; this adheres to the leaves, and will remain even after several heavy showers.

Another nuisance is the nest of the large red ant; these collect and glue the leaves together, forming a cavity for the deposition of their _larvæ_. The best mode of destroying them is to hang a portion of some animal substance, such as the entrails of a fowl, fish, &c., to the end of a pole, thrust through and protruding from the branches; the ants will run along the pole and collect in immense quantities around the bait, when, by a lighted faggot, they can be burned by thousands. This repeated once or twice a day for a week or so, will soon rid the tree of the invaders.

The number of men to be kept on an estate to preserve it in first-rate order after it has come into bearing, must depend of course upon the size of the plantation, but in general one man for every one hundred trees will be found sufficient, provided there be some four or five thousand trees. On a small scale the proportion must be greater.

The nutmeg planter is under the necessity of keeping up nurseries throughout the whole of his operations for the replacement of bad plants and redundant males. Of the latter ten per cent. seems to be about the best proportion to keep, but I would have completely dioecious trees. No person can boast to get a plantation completely filled up and in perfect order much sooner than fifteen years. Of the first batch planted, not more than one-half will turn out perfect females, for I do not take into account monoecious trees, which I have already condemned. The tree shows flower about the seventh year, but the longer it is before doing so, the better and stronger will it be. I cannot refrain from a smile when a sanguine planter informs me with exultation that he has obtained a nut from a tree only three or four years planted out; so much the worse for his chance of success, too great precocity being incompatible with strength and longevity.

The best trees do not show flower before the ninth year, and one such is worth a score of the others. This will be evident when it is stated that I have seen several trees yield more than 10,000 nuts each in one year, whereas I do not believe that there is a plantation in the Straits' that averages 1,000 from every tree. This very great disparity of bearing shows plainly that the cultivation of the plant is not yet thoroughly understood, or greater uniformity would prevail, and I think it clearly enough points out that a higher degree of cultivation would meet its reward.

The tree has not been introduced into the Straits' sufficiently long to determine its longevity, but those introduced and planted in the beginning of the present century, as yet show no symptoms of decay. The experiment of grafting the trees, which at first view presents so many advantages, both in securing the finest quality of nut and the certainty of the sex, has still to be tried in this cultivation. Some three years ago (continues Dr. Oxley), I succeeded in grafting several plants by approach; these are not sufficiently old for me to decide whether it be desirable or not, for although the plants are looking well and growing, they as yet have thrown out their branches in a straggling irregular manner, having no leaders, and consequently they cannot extend their branches in the regular verticles necessary for the perfect formation of the tree, without which they must ever be small and stunted, and consequently incapable of yielding any quantity of produce. The grafts have succeeded so far as stock and scion becoming one, and in time a perpendicular shoot from the wood may appear. If after that it should increase in size and strength, so as to form a tree of full dimensions, the advantage gained would be worth any trouble, the quality of some nuts being so far above that of others, it would make a difference beyond present calculation; in short, 1,000 such picked trees at the present prices would yield something equivalent to £4,000 a year, for £4 per tree would be a low estimate for such plants. If this ever does occur, it will change the aspect of cultivation altogether, and I see no good reason why it should not, except that those possessing trees of the quality alluded to, would not very willingly permit others to graft from them, so it is only the already successful planter who can try the experiment properly.

An acre of land contains on an average 92 trees, and it is calculated an outlay of 300 dollars is required upon every acre to bring the tree to maturity; but as not more than one-half of the trees generally turn out females, and as many others are destroyed by accident and diseases to which this plant is very liable, it makes the cost of each tree, by the time it yields fruit, about eight dollars. The nutmeg tree begins to bear when about eight years old, but it gives no return for several years longer; and therefore to the expense of cultivation must be added the interest of the capital sunk. The plant being indigenous in the Moluccas, the expense of cultivation there is greatly less, and this consequently forms a strong ground of claim to the British planter for protective duties to their spices from the British Government.

The planter having his tree arrived at the agreeable point of producing, has but slight trouble in preparing his produce for market. As the fruit is brought in by the gatherers, the mace is carefully removed, pressed together and flattened on a board, exposed to the sun for three or four days, it is then dry enough to be put by in the spice-house until required for exportation, when it is to be screwed into boxes, and becomes the mace of commerce. The average proportion of mace yielded in Singapore is one pound for every 433 nuts.

The nutmeg itself requires more care in its curing, it being necessary to have it well and carefully dried ere the outer black shell be broken. For this purpose the usual practice is to subject it for a couple of months to the smoke of slow fires kept up underneath, whilst the nuts are spread on a grating about eight or ten feet above. The model of a perfect drying-house is easily to be obtained. Care should be taken not to dry the nuts by too great a heat, as they shrivel and lose their full and marketable appearance. It is therefore desirable to keep the nuts, when first collected, for eight or ten days out of the drying-house, exposing them at first for an hour or so to the morning sun, and increasing the exposure daily until they shake in the shell. The nuts ought never to be cracked until required for exportation, or they will be attacked and destroyed by a small weasel-like insect, the larvæ of which is deposited in the ovule, and, becoming the perfect insect, eats its way out, leaving the nut bored through and through, and worth less as a marketable commodity. Liming the nuts prevents this to a certain extent, but limed nuts are not those best liked in the English market, whereas they are preferred in that state in the United States. When the nuts are to be limed, it is simply necessary to have them well rubbed over between the hands with powdered lime. By the Dutch mode of preparation, they are steeped in a mixture of lime and water for several weeks. This no doubt will preserve them, but it must also have a prejudicial effect on the flavor of the spice.

After the nuts are thoroughly dried, which requires from six weeks to two months smoking, they cannot be too soon sent to market. But it is otherwise with the mace; that commodity, when fresh, not being in esteem in the London market, seeing that they desire it of a golden color, which it only assumes after a few months, whereas at first when fresh it is blood red; now red blades are looked upon with suspicion, and are highly injurious to the sale of the article.

This is one of those peculiar prejudices of John Bull, which somewhat impugns his wisdom; but it must be attended to, as John is very ready to pay for his caprice; therefore those who provide for him have no right to complain, although they may smile.

The nutmeg tree was sent from Bencoolen to Singapore, the latter end of 1819, so that thirty-four years have elapsed since its first introduction. Sir Stamford Raffles shipped to the care of the resident commandant, Major Farquhar, 100 nutmeg plants, 25 larger ditto, and 1,000 nutmeg seeds, which were committed to the charge of Mr. Brooks, a European gardener, who was specially engaged by the East India Company to look after their embryo spice plantations here. Some of these plants were set out in rather a bad soil and locality, but several of them are at present, and have been for the last ten years, fine fruitful trees. 315 of the trees in the Government garden yielded, in 1848, 190,426 nuts, or at the average of 604 for each tree; but of these not over 50 were of the old stock, most having been planted since 1836; so that a planter may safely calculate on having a better average than is here set forth, provided he attends to his cultivation, and his trees are brought up to the age of fifteen years. If a plantation be attended to from the commencement after the manner I have endeavoured to explain, and the trees be in a good locality, the planter will undoubtedly obtain an average of 10 lbs. of spice from each tree from the fifteenth year; this, at an average price of 2s. 6d. per lb., is 25s. per annum. He can have about seventy such trees in an acre, so that there is scarcely any better or more remunerative cultivation when once established. But the race is a long one, the chances of life, and a high rate of interest in the country, make it one of no ordinary risk, and it is one that holds out no prospect of any return in less than ten years.

A person commencing and stopping short of the bearing point, either by death or want of funds, will suffer almost total loss, for the value of such a property brought into a market where there are no buyers must be purely nominal. Again, if the property has arrived at the paying point, almost any person of common honesty can take charge of and carry it on, for the trees after twelve years are remarkably hardy, and bear a deal of ill treatment and neglect; not that I would recommend any person to try the experiment. But it is some consolation for the proprietor to know that stupidity will not ruin him, and that even at the distance of thousands of miles he can give such directions, as, if attended to, will keep his estate in a flourishing and fruitful state.

The total number of nutmeg trees in Singapore in 1848 was 55,925, of which 14,914 only were in bearing. The produce of that year was 4,085,361 nutmegs, or 33,600 lbs. in weight. The greater number of the trees, it will be perceived, have not come into full bearing, but the produce is increasing rapidly, and in 1849 it amounted to fully 66,670 lbs.

Among the principal growers in that island are Dr. Oxley, Mr. C.R. Prinsep, and Mr. W. Montgomerie, who have each large plantations, with from 2,000 to 5,000 bearing trees on them. Others, as Sir. J. d'Almeida, Mr. Nicol, and one or two more, have planted extensively, but have not yet got their trees to the bearing point.

A large supply of nutmeg and clove plants arrived at Pinang in 1802, from the Molucca Islands. There were 71,266 nutmeg and 55,264 clove plants; allowing one half of the former to have been male trees, there would only have been 35,633 useful nutmeg plants. It is believed that a mere fraction of these ever reached maturity, but they served to introduce the cultivation permanently. Plants were likewise sent to Ceylon and Cape Comorin. It does not appear that the climates of these two localities suit the nutmeg tree, as it requires rain, or at least a very damp climate throughout the year. The East India Company's spice plantations in Pinang were sold in 1824, and the trees were dispersed over the island.

The spice cultivators of the Straits' Settlements have for some time sought a further protective duty on nutmegs, and the extension of a similar protection to mace and cloves, the produce of these settlements; for singularly enough the present tariff affords no protection to mace, the growth of British possessions. From tabular statements, furnished by the Chamber of Commerce of Pinang, drawn up apparently with great care, it appears that in 1843 there were 3,046 acres cultivated with spice trees in Pinang and province Wellesley, containing 233,995 nutmegs, and 80,418 clove trees, besides 77,671 trees in nurseries ready to be planted out; and by a similar statement from Singapore, which is however not so complete, that 743 acres are cultivated, containing 43,544 nutmeg trees. The island of Pinang is estimated to contain 160 square miles, nearly the whole of which, with the exception perhaps of summits of the hills, is well adapted to spice growing. Province Wellesley is of much greater extent, and the soil of it has already been proved to be equally well fitted for that kind of cultivation; and the settlements of Malacca and Singapore are said to be admirably suited, in many places, for that species of produce, the latter of which has already several plantations fast approaching to maturity.

The cultivation is capable of great extension; encouragement is only required to be held out, and new plantations will be rapidly formed in these settlements. The same tables show that the produce in 1842 was, in Pinang and Province Wellesley, 18,560,281 nutmegs, 42,866 lbs. of mace, and 11,813 lbs. of cloves[51]; and in Singapore, 842,328 nutmegs, and 1,962 lbs. of mace. Thus making the produce from the two settlements 19,408,608 nutmegs in number (or in weight 147,034 lbs.), 44,822 lbs. of mace, and 11,813 lbs. of cloves. Now the consumption of these spices in Great Britain was, on an average of four years ending 1841, as follows:--Nutmegs, 121,000 lbs.; mace, 18,000 lbs.; cloves, 92,000 lbs. Showing, therefore, that the Straits' Settlements already produce more than sufficient of the two former to supply the home market.

In the course of four or five years more, Pinang alone will more than double the present quantity of nutmegs and mace produced in the Straits, and the produce of cloves will be more than tripled.

I have been able, from several elaborate papers in my "Colonial Magazine," to condense details, showing the progress of spice plantations in Prince of Wales Island and Province Wellesley. In the close of 1843 there were 64,902 nutmeg trees in bearing in the island; 39,209 male trees, 103,982 not bearing; making a total of 208,093 trees planted out, besides 52,510 plants in nursery. The quantity of ground under cultivation was 2,282 orlongs. The produce in 1842 was 15,116,591 good nuts, 1,461,229 inferior nuts, and 38,260 lbs. of mace. The gross value of the produce in 1843, reckoning the good nuts at five dollars per thousand, and the inferior at one dollar, was 76,944 dollars. The estimated number of nuts in 1843 was 12,458,762; in 1844, 25,429,000.

In Province Wellesley there were 247 orlongs under cultivation with the nutmeg, on which were 10,500 bearing trees, 8,095 male trees, and 7,307 not yet bearing, making in all 25,902 trees planted out. The produce was in 1842, 1,969,619 good nuts, 18,842 inferior ditto, and 4,500 lbs. of mace. The value of the produce of nutmegs was 9,867 dollars. The estimated number of nuts in 1843 was 1,980,000; in 1844, 2,958,000. There were in all 423 nutmeg plantations on the island and main land.

There were annually exported in the four years ending 1850, 48,000 lbs. of nutmegs from Pinang, and 57,400 lbs. of mace.

The French at an early period cultivated the nutmeg at the Mauritius, and from thence they carried it to Cayenne. In Sumatra it appears to have been grown successfully, and according to Sir S. Raffles, there was in 1819 a plantation at Bencoolen of 100,000 nutmeg trees, one-fourth of which were bearing. Attempts have been made in Trinidad and St. Vincent to carry out the culture, but for want of enterprise very little progress seems to have been made in the matter.

Under the new duties which came into operation this year, nutmegs, instead of standing at 1s. per pound all round, have been classified, and the so-called "wild" nutmegs of the Dutch islands are to pay only 5d per pound. This deprives the Straits' produce of its last protection against that of the Banda plantations, where the tree grows spontaneously, while it gives the long Dutch nut a high protection. If an alteration in this suicidal measure is not speedily obtained, the Straits' planters will be ruined. The Dutch have the power of inundating the market with the long aromatic nut. If the original plan of putting all British and all foreign nutmegs on the same footing had been adhered to, the Straits' planters would not have complained, as they would have trusted to their superior skill and care to compensate for the grand advantage the Dutch have in their rich soils.

On observing this alteration of duty, Mr. Crawfurd and Mr. Gilman immediately prepared the following memorandum for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which however failed to influence that Minister:--

"MEMORANDUM ON THE DUTIES ON NUTMEGS.

"The duty proposed to be levied on nutmegs is 1s. per pound for cultivated, and 5d. per pound for those commonly called wild. The ground on which this distinction is founded, is said to be that the market value of the one is but half that of the other, and that the Customs can readily distinguish between them.

Now it is admitted, on all sides, that there is but one species of culinary nutmeg, the _Myristica Moschata_ of botanists, although at least a score of the same genus, all unfit for human food. The parent country of the aromatic nutmegs extends from the Molucca Islands to New Guinea, inclusive. In this they grow with facility and even in the Banda Islands, where there are parks of them, they hardly undergo any cultivation, and may truly be said, even there, to be a wild product. It is only when grown as exotics, as in the British settlements of Pinang and Singapore, that they require cultivation, and that a more careful and expensive one than any other produce of the soil.

Aromatic nutmegs are sometimes large and sometimes small--sometimes round, sometimes oblong, and sometimes long, and this will be found the case whether cultivated or uncultivated. How, then, the Customs are able to distinguish them it is difficult to understand. In the ordinary Prices Current no mention whatever is made of the wild and cultivated, the lowest quality being quoted in the most recent at 2s. per pound, and the highest at 3s. 10d.,--the best of what are called wild fetching a higher price than the lower qualities of what are called cultivated.

But suppose the distinction could be made with the most perfect certainty, to make it would be a palpable departure from the principle adopted with every other commodity, of charging a uniform rate of duty on quality. To give an example, the present price of black pepper is 3-5/8d. to 4d. per pound, while that of white pepper is 8½d. to 1s. 2d. per pound, both paying the same duty of 6d.; yet nothing can be more easily distinguished than these two commodities, which, except as to curing, are the same article.

Tea is a still more striking example. The duty is the same on all qualities, though prices range from 1l½d. to 3s. 6d. per pound. It was the very circumstance of the difficulty of distinguishing between the different kinds of tea, especially between Bohea and Congou, which, after an eighteen months trial, overthrew the system of rated duties of 1s. 6d., 2s., and 3s., adopted on the abolition of the East India Company's monopoly in 1833.

Unless the duty on nutmegs is equalised there will be no end of trouble and disputes, and however expert the Customs may be, they will certainly be outwitted, and long-shaped and small nutmegs, although really cultivated, will be introduced at the lower duty, by unscrupulous traders, as wild ones.

It may be added that duties of 12d. and 5d. do not, even if a departure from the principle of charging on quality were justifiable, represent the just proportional rates which ought to be levied upon what are supposed to be, respectively, cultivated and wild, as they are represented in the ordinary Price Current by the highest and lowest prices, which are 3s. 10d. and 2s. The just proportional duty ought to be on the lowest, not 5d., but 7d. The duty, as first proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, of 1s. per pound on nutmegs, without distinction, was perfectly satisfactory to the planters, merchants, and the trade in general.

It is a mistake to suppose that a duty of 1s. would exclude the so-called wild nutmegs. They would be imported in large quantities, as the cost is low. In quantity it was 17 Spanish dollars per picul, and there is no reason to suppose it would be more now. The finest picked cost say 34 Spanish dollars.

In Pinang and Singapore for cultivated the price is 65 to 70 dollars.

The planters for the most part do not sell on the spot, but consign here for sale on their own account.

London, May 23rd, 1853.

NUTMEGS IMPORTED AND EXPORTED TO AND FROM SINGAPORE.

Value of the Imported. Exported. Growth of native growth. piculs. piculs. Singapore. £ 1841 227½ 412 184½ 3,323 1842 258 809 551 9,897 1843 150½ 249 98½ 1,760 1844 52 282 230 4,131 1845 41 383 342 6,143 1846 79 331 252 4,526 1847 139 416 277 4,275

NUTMEGS EXPORTED FROM JAVA.

Nutmegs. Mace. piculs. piculs. 1830 1,304 177 1835 5,022 1,606 1839 5,027 1,581 1843 2,133 486

IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM. NUTMEGS, WILD AND CULTIVATED. | MACE. Imports. Home consump. | Imports. Consumption. lbs. lbs. | lbs. lbs. 1847 367,936 150,657 | 1847 60,265 18,821 1848 336,420 167,143 | 1848 47,572 19,712 1849 224,021 178,417 | 1849 45,978 20,605 1850 315,126 167,683 | 1850 77,337 21,997 1851 358,320 194,132 | 1851 77,863 21,695 1852 357,940 239,113 | 1852 61,697 21,480

MACE EXPORTED--ACTUAL GROWTH OF SINGAPORE. Quantity--piculs. Value--£ 1841 25½ 583 1842 72 1,616 1843 40¾ 943 1844 16½ 359 1845 71 1,616 1846 8 179 1847 75 1,661

109 piculs of imported mace were also re-shipped in 1847.

40,000 lbs. of mace were imported into the United Kingdom from India in 1848.

GINGER, GALANGALE, AND CARDAMOMS.

The rhizome of _Zingiber officinale_ (_Amomum Zingiber_), constitutes the ginger of commerce, which is imported chiefly from the East and West Indies. It is also grown in China. In the young state the rhizomes are fleshy and slightly aromatic, and they are then used as preserves, or prepared in syrup; in a more advanced stage the aroma is fully developed, their texture is more woody, and they become fit for ordinary ginger. The inferior sorts, when dried after immersion in hot water, form black ginger. The best roots are scraped, washed, and simply dried in the sun with care, and then they receive the name of white ginger. The rhizome contains an acid resin and volatile oil, starch and gum. It is used medicinally as a tonic and carminative, in the form of powder, syrup, and tincture.

The root stocks of _Alpinia racemosa_, _A. Galanga_, and many other plants of the order, have the same aromatic and pungent properties as ginger.

The consumption of ginger is about 13,000 or 14,000 cwt. a year. Of 16,004 cwt. imported in 1840, 5,381 came from the British West Indies, 9,727 from the East India Company's possessions and Ceylon, and 896 cwt. from Western Africa.

The difference between the black and white ginger of the shops is ascribed by Dr. P. Browne and others to different methods of curing the rhizomes; but this is scarcely sufficient to account for them, and I cannot help suspecting the existence of some difference in the plants themselves. That this really exists is proved by the statements of Rumphius ("Herb. Amb.," lib. 8, cap. xix., p. 156), that there are two varieties of the plant, the white and the red. Moreover Dr. Wright ("Lond. Med. Journal," vol. viii.) says that two sorts are cultivated in Jamaica, viz., the white and the black; and, he adds, "black ginger has the most numerous and largest roots."

The rhizome, called in commerce ginger root, occurs in flattish-branched or lobed palmate pieces, called _races_, which do not exceed four inches in length. Several varieties, distinguished by their color and place of growth, are met with. The finest is that brought from Jamaica. A great part of that found in the shops has been washed in whiting and water, under the pretence of preserving it from insects.

The dark colored kinds are frequently bleached with chloride of lime. Barbados ginger is in shorter flatter races, of a darker color, and covered with a corrugated epidermis. African ginger is in smallish races, which have been partially scraped, and are pale colored. East India ginger is unscraped; its races are dark ash colored externally, and are larger than those of the African ginger. Tellichery ginger is in large plump races, with a remarkable reddish tint externally.

Jamaica black ginger is not frequently found in the shops. The Malabar dark ginger is in unscraped short pieces, which have a horny appearance internally, and are of a dirty brown color both internally and externally.

Ginger is imported in bags weighing about a hundred-weight.

The Malabar ginger exported from Calicut is the produce of the district of Shernaad, situated in the south of Calicut; a place chiefly inhabited by Moplas, who look upon the ginger cultivation as a most valuable and profitable trade, which in fact it is. The soil of Shernaad is so very luxuriant, and so well suited for the cultivation of ginger, that it is reckoned the best, and in fact the only place in Malabar where ginger grows and thrives to perfection. Gravelly grounds are considered unfit; the same may be said of swampy ones, and whilst the former check the growth of the ginger, the latter tend in a great measure to rot the root; thus the only suitable kind of soil is that which, being red earth, is yet free from gravel, and the sod good and heavy. The cultivation generally commences about the middle of May, after the ground has undergone a thorough process of ploughing, harrowing, &c.

At the commencement of the monsoons, beds of ten or twelve feet long by three or four feet wide are formed, and in these beds small holes are dug at three-fourths to one foot apart, which are filled with manure. The roots, hitherto carefully buried under sheds, are dug out, the good ones picked from those which are affected by the moisture, or any other concomitant of a half-year's exclusion from the atmosphere, and the process of clipping them into suitable sizes for planting performed by cutting the ginger into pieces of an inch and a half to two inches long. These are then buried in the holes, which have been previously manured, and the whole of the beds are then covered with a good thick layer of green leaves, which, whilst they serve as manure, also contribute to keep the beds from unnecessary dampness, which might otherwise be occasioned by the heavy falls of rain during the months of June and July. Rain is essentially requisite for the growth of the ginger; it is also however necessary, that the beds be constantly kept from inundation, which, if not carefully attended to, the crop is entirely ruined; great precaution is therefore taken in forming drains between the beds, and letting water out, thus preventing a superfluity. On account of the great tendency some kinds of leaves have to breed worms and insects, strict care is observed in the choosing of them, and none but the particular kinds used in manuring ginger are taken in, lest the wrong ones might fetch in worms, which, if once in the beds, no remedy can be resorted to successfully to destroy them; thus they in a very short time ruin the crop. Worms bred from the leaves laid on the soil, though highly destructive, are not so pernicious to ginger cultivation as those which proceed from the effect of the soil. The former kind, whilst they destroy the beds in which they once appear, do not spread themselves to the other beds, be they ever so close, but the latter kind must of _course_ be found in almost all the beds, as they do not proceed from accidental causes, but from the nature of the soil. In cases like these, the whole crop is oftentimes ruined, and the cultivators are thereby subjected to heavy losses.

Ginger is extensively diffused throughout the Indian isles, it being especially indigenous to the East, and of pretty general use among the natives, who neglect the finer spices. The great and smaller varieties are cultivated, and the sub-varieties distinguished by their brown or white colors. There is no production which has a greater diversity of names. This diversity proves, as usual, the wide diffusion of the plant in its wild state. The ginger of the Indian Archipelago is however inferior in quality to that of Malabar or Bengal. In the cultivation of ginger great improvement may be adopted and expense saved. The garden plough and small harrow should be used.

The present mode of preparing the land for this crop in the West Indies, is by first carefully hoeing off all bush and weeds from the piece you intend to plant; the workmen are then placed in a line, and dig forward the land to the full depth of the hoe, cutting the furrow not more than from five to six inches thick. The land is then allowed to pulverise for a short time; you then prepare it for receiving the plants by opening drills with the hoe, from ten to twelve inches apart, and the same in depth, chopping or breaking up any clods that may be in the land. Two or three women follow and drop the plants in the drills, say from nine to ten inches apart. The plants or sets are the small knots or fingers broken off the original root, as not worth the scraping. The plants are then covered in with a portion of the earth-bank formed in drilling. It requires great care and attention in keeping them clean from weeds until they attain sufficient age. It throws out a pedicle or foot stalk in the course of the second or third week, the leaves of which are of similar shape to that of the Guinea grass.

Ginger is a delicate plant, and very liable to rot, particularly if planted in too rich a soil, or where it may be subject to heavy rains. The general average of yield is from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre in plants, although I have known as much as 3,000 lbs. of ginger cured from an acre of land. The planting season generally commences in Jamaica in February and March, and the crop is got in in December and January, when the stalks begin to wither. The ginger is taken from the ground by means of the hoe, each laborer filling a good-sized basket, at the same time breaking off the small knots or knobs for future planting.

A good scraper of ginger will give you from 30 to 40 lbs. of ginger per day. It is then laid on barbacues (generally made of boards) to dry. It takes from six to ten days to be properly cured. The average yield in weight is about one-third of what is scraped. When intended for preserving, the roots must be taken up at the end of three or four months, while the fibres are tender and full of sap.

The ginger grown in the West Indies is considered superior in quality to that of the East, doubtless because more care is paid to the culture and drying of the root, but it is of less importance to commerce. The quantities imported from these two quarters is however becoming more equal, and Africa is coming into the field as a producer, 1,545 casks and packages having arrived from the western coast in 1846. The annual average export of ginger from Barbados between the years 1740 and 1788, was 4,667 bags; between 1784 and 1786, 6,320 bags; in 1788, 5,562 cwt. were shipped; in 1792, 3,046 bags and barrels. In 1738, so widely was the culture of this root diffused in Jamaica, that 20,933 bags, of one cwt. each, and 8,864 lbs. in casks were shipped. The exports may now be taken on an average at 4,000 cwt.; but, like all the other staple products of the island, this has fallen off one-half since the emancipation of the negro population.

In the three years which preceded the abolition of slavery, 5,719,000 lbs. of ginger were shipped from Jamaica. In the three years ending with 1848, the quantity shipped had decreased 2,612,186 lbs., as will be seen by the following returns:--

GINGER SHIPPED. lbs. lbs. 1830 1,748,800 | 1846 1,462,000 1831 1,614,640 | 1847 1,324,480 1832 2,355,560 | 1848 320,340 --------- | --------- 5,719,000 | 3,106,820

In 1843 there were shipped from Jamaica 3,719 casks and bags; in 1844, 3,692 casks and 1730 bags; in 1845, 3,506 casks, valued at £4 10s. each, and 1,129 bags, valued at £2 each, equal in all to £18,037. From the island of Hayti 8,769 lbs. of ginger were exported in 1835, and 15,509 lbs. in 1836. 39 packages of ginger were shipped from Barbados in 1851.

In Maranham and one or two other provinces of Brazil, ginger of an excellent quality is grown, and a good deal is exported. It was very early an article of culture in South America. According to Acosta, it was brought to America by one Francisco de Mendoza, from Malabar, and so rapidly did its cultivation spread, that as far back as 1547, 22,053 cwt. were shipped to Europe. Southey, in his "History of Brazil" (vol. i., p. 320), says, "Ginger had been brought from the island of St. Thomas, and throve so well that in the year 1573, 4,000 arrobas of 25 lbs. each were cured; it was better than what came from India, though the art of drying it was not so well understood. Great use was made of this root in preserves, but it was prohibited, as interfering with the Indian trade in that wretched species of policy which regards immediate revenue as its main object."

Ginger was worth in the London market 25s. to 60s. the cwt. in bond; middling and fine qualities, 80s. to 160s. The duty is 5s. per cwt.

Amount of imports of ginger into the United Kingdom, with the quantities entered for home consumption:--

West India Entered for East India Entered for ginger. home consumption. ginger. home consumption. cwts. cwts. cwts. cwts. 1831 3,551 4,709 849 79 1832 5,947 6,795 2,508 213 1833 6,064 6,570 10,049 1,099 1834 9,913 9,918 10,004 1,638 1835 8,321 8,982 4,489 1,647 1836 10,226 6,304 13,589 3,524 1837 10,933 9,905 23,876 3,386 1838 13,366 9,944 25,649 1,431 1839 8,996 7,213 29,624 914 1840 5,381 7,935 9,719 1,568 1841 4,446 5,523 5,292 1,177 1842 4,671 5,068 3,680 1,956 1843 4,013 5,953 4,106 3,254 casks, &c. casks. bags. bags. 1844 4,619 3,128 5,101 6,964 1845 6,033 4,000 8,165 7,938

Total Retained for ginger imported. home consumption. cwts. cwts. 1846 24,370 15,937 1846 20,010 15,163 1847 12,995 9,744 1848 13,748 10,454 1849 28,015 12,880 1850 33,953 16,543 1851 35,678 19,855 1852 20,297 18,691

GALANGALE ROOT is a good deal used in China, and forms an article of commerce, fetching in the London market 12s. to 16s. per cwt. in bond. It is the rhizoma of _Alpinia Galanga_. Its taste is peppery and aromatic. Externally the color of the root-stocks is reddish brown, internally pale reddish white.

1,280 cwt. of galangale root, valued at 2,880 dollars, was exported from Canton in 1850.

CARDAMOMS.

Cardamoms are the production of various species of plants of the same tribe as the ginger, and might be profitably cultivated with that aromatic root, as well as the Turmeric (_Curcuma longa_), which see.

Various species of _Alpiniæ_, _Amomum_, _Elettaria_, _and Renealmia_, appear to furnish the cardamoms of the shops, which consist of the oval, trivalvular capsules containing the seeds. The bright yellow seeds are used in medicine as aromatic tonics and carminatives; and for curries, ketchups, soups, &c. Their active ingredient is a pungent volatile oil. The least dampness injures the finer sorts. About 688 cwts. of cardamoms, and 5,000 cwts. of bastard cardamoms are annually exported from Siam, "We imported about 300 tons in 1849. The price ranges from 1s. 6d. to 3s. the pound. The estimated value of the cardamoms and pepper shipped from Ceylon in the past few years was as follows:--1846, £208; 1847, £246; 1848, £205; 1849, £454; 1850, £960; 1851, £771; 1852, £590. The" following are some of the plants from which cardamoms are procured.

1. _Amomum Cardamomum_, a Java plant, supplies the round cardamoms. It has pale brown flowers. The fruit varies in size from that of a black currant to a cherry.

_2. A. angustifolium_ (Pereira), a plant having red blossoms; furnishes the large Madagascar cardamoms, and also supplies some of the seeds called "Grains of Paradise," which are, however, larger than those imported under that name.

This species is found in Abyssinia, according to my friend Mr. Chas. Johnston, author of "Travels in Abyssinia," who favored me with some specimens. The seeds are pale olive brown, devoid of the fiery peppery taste of the grains of paradise.

3. _A. maximum_, the great winged amomum, produces the Java cardamoma of the London market, and is also grown extensively in Ceylon, the Malay islands, Nepaul, Sumatra, and other islands of the Eastern Archipelago. There were exported from Ceylon in 1842, 5,364 lbs.; in 1843, 9,632 lbs.; 1844, 7,280 lbs.; and in 1845, 11,812 lbs. The pods are large and long, and dark colored, approaching to black, the taste nauseous and disagreeable, not the least resembling that of the Malabar cardamoms. It is propagated by cuttings of the rhizoma. The plants yield in three years, and afterwards give an annual crop. They are not used here, but sent to the continent.

4. _Alpinia Cardamomum_.--This is the source of the clustered cardamoms, and furnishes the best known sort. Its produce is in great request throughout India, fetching as much as £30 the candy of 600 Lbs. About 192 candies are grown annually in Travancore, and the usual crop in Malabar is reckoned at 100 candies annually. It flourishes on the mountainous parts of the Malabar coast, and among the western mountains of Wynaad. The bulbous plants, which grow three or four feet high, are produced in the recesses of the mountains by felling trees, and afterwards burning them, for wherever the ashes fall in the openings or fissures of the rocks, the plant naturally springs up. In the third year the plants come to perfection, bearing abundantly for a year or two, and then die. In Soonda Balagat, and other places where cardamoms are planted, they are much inferior to those grown in the wild state. It may be propagated by cuttings or divisions of the roots. Not more than one-hundredth part of the cardamoms raised in Malabar are used in the country. They are sent in large quantities to the ports on the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, up the Indus to Scinde, to Bengal and Bombay. The price of Malabar cardamons at Madras, in June, 1853, was about £3 the maund of 25 lbs. They fetch in the Bombay market £4 10s. the maund of 40 lbs. Cardamoms form a universal ingredient in curries, pillaus, &c. The seed capsules are gathered as they ripen, and when dried in the sun are fit for sale. They should be chosen full, plump, and difficult to be broken; of a bright yellow color, and piercing smell; with an acrid bitterish, though not very unpleasant taste, and particular care should be taken that they are properly dried.

_5. Amomum Grana-Paradisi_, which is indigenous to the islands of Madagascar and Ceylon, yields an inferior sort of cardamoms, known by the names of grains of paradise, or Meleguetta pepper. These are worth in the English market only from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. per pound, while the long and Malabar cardamoms fetch 2s. 8d. to 3s. 3d. the pound. This plant is a native of Guinea, and the western parts of Africa about Sierra Leone. We imported from thence in 1841, 7,911 pounds.

The taste of these Guinea grains is aromatic and vehemently hot or peppery. They are imported in casks from Africa, and are principally used in veterinary medicine, and to give an artificial strength to spirits, wine, beer, &c. The average quantity on which duty was paid in the six years ending with 1840, was 16,000 lbs. per annum. They are esteemed in Africa the most wholesome of spices, and generally used by the natives to season their food.

Dr. Pereira, from a careful examination and close inquiry, is of opinion that the _Amomum Grana-Paradisi_ of Smith, and the _Amamum Melegueta_ of Roscoe, are identical species.

In the second volume of the "Pharmaceutical Journal," Dr. Pereira states that the term "grains of paradise," or Melegueta, has been applied to the produce of no less than six scitamineous plants. At the present time, and in this country, the term is exclusively given to the hot acrid seeds imported into England from the coast of Guinea, and frequently called Guinea grains; and by the Africans Guinea pepper.

_Elettaria Cardomomum_, Don.--The fruit of this species constitutes the true, small, officinal Malabar cardamoms. It is an ovate oblong, obtusely triangular capsule, from three to ten lines long, rarely exceeding three lines in breadth, coriaceous, ribbed, greyish or brownish yellow. It contains many angular, blackish or reddish brown rugose seeds, which are white internally, have a pleasant aromatic odor, and a warm agreeable taste. 100 parts of the fruit yield 74 parts of seeds, and 26 parts of pericarpal coats.

This seems to be identical with _Amomum Cardamomum_.

_Elettaria major_, is a perennial, native of Ceylon, which grows in shady situations in a rich mixed soil. The dried capsules are known in commerce as wild or Ceylon cardamoms, and are of less value in the market than those of Malabar (_Elettaria Cardamomum_, Maton). It is chiefly grown about the Kandyan district; and in the eight years ending with 1813, the average export was nine and a-half candies per annum. The seeds in taste resemble our carraways, and are used for seasoning various dishes.

Ceylon cardamoms are now worth in the London market (Sept., 1853) 1s. to 1s. 3d. per lb.; Malabar ditto, 2s. 3d. to 3s.

PEPPER.

The black pepper of commerce is obtained from the dried unripe fruit (drupes) of _Piper nigrum_, a climbing plant common in the East Indies, and of the simplest culture, being multiplied with facility by cuttings or suckers. The ripe fruit, when deprived of its outer fleshy covering by washing, forms the white pepper of the shops. The dried fruiting spikes of _P. longum_, a perennial shrub, native of Malabar and Bengal, constitute long pepper. The fruit of _Xylopia aromatica_ is commonly called Ethiopian pepper, from being used as pepper in Africa. The seeds of some species of fennel-flower (_Nigella sativa_ and _arvensis_), natives of the south of Europe, were formerly used instead of pepper, and are said to be still extensively employed in adulterating it. In Japan, the capsules of _Xanthoxylum piperitum_, or _Fagara Piperita_, are used as a substitute for pepper, and so is the fruit of _Tasmannia aromatica_ in Van Diemen's Land. According to Dr. Roxburgh, _P. trioicum_ is cultivated in the East, and yields an excellent pepper.

The pepper vine rises about two feet in the first year of its growth, and attains to nearly six feet in the second, at which time, if vigorous and healthy, the petals begin to form the corolla or blossom. All suckers and side shoots are to be carefully removed, and the vines should be thinned or pruned, if they become bushy at the top. Rank coarse weeds and parasitical plants should be uprooted. The vine would climb, if permitted, to the elevation of twenty feet, but is said to bear best when kept down to the height of ten or twelve feet. It produces two crops in the year. The fruit grows abundantly from all the branches, in long small clusters of from 20 to 50 grains; when ripe it is of a bright red color. After being gathered, it is spread on mats in the sun to dry, when it becomes black and shrivelled. The grains are separated from the stalks by hand rubbing. The roots and thickest parts of the stems, when cut into small pieces and dried, form a considerable article of commerce all over India, under the name of _Pippula moola_.

Almost all the plants of the family _Piperaceæ_ have a strong aromatic smell and a sharp burning taste. This small group of plants is confined to the hottest regions of the globe; being most abundant in tropical America and in the East Indian Archipelago, but more rare in the equinoctial regions of Africa. The common black pepper, _P. nigrum_, represents the usual property of the order, which is not confined to the fruit, but pervades, more or less, the whole plant. It is peculiar to the torrid zone of Asia, and appears to be indigenous to the coast of Malabar, where it has been found in a wild state. From this it extends between the meridians of longitude 96 deg. and 116 deg. S. and the parallels of latitude 5 deg. S. and 12 deg. N., beyond which no pepper is found. Within these limits are the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, with the Malay peninsula and part of Siam. Sumatra produces by far the greatest quantity of pepper. In 1842, the annual produce of this island was reckoned at 30,000,000 lbs., being more than the amount furnished by all the other pepper districts in the world.

A little pepper is grown in the Mauritius and the West India Islands, and its cultivation is making some progress on the Western Coast of Africa, as we imported from thence 2,909 bags and casks in 1846, and about 110,000 lbs. in 1847.

Mr. J. Crawfurd, F.R.S., one of the best authorities on all that relates to the commerce and agriculture of the Eastern Archipelago, recently estimated the produce of pepper as follows:--

lbs. Sumatra (West Coast) 20,000,000 " (East Coast) 8,000,000 Islands in the Straits of Malacca 3,600,000 Malay Peninsula 3,733,333 Borneo 2,666,667 Siam 8,000,000 Malabar 4,060,000 ---------- Total 50,000,000

If we add to this

Western Coast of Africa and B.W. Indies 53,000 Java 4,000,000 Mauritius and Ceylon 80,000 ---------- It gives 54,133,000 as the total produce of the world

Black pepper constitutes a great and valuable article of export from the Indian Islands; which, as we have seen, afford by far the largest portion of What is consumed throughout the world. In the first intercourse of the Dutch and English with India, it constituted the most considerable and important staple of their commerce. The production of pepper is confined in a great measure to the western countries of the Eastern Archipelago, and among these to the islands in the centre and to the northern quarter, including the Peninsula. It is obtained in the ports on both sides of the coast of the latter, but

## particularly the north-eastern coast. The principal quarters

(according to Mr. Crawfurd, my authority on this subject), are Patani, Tringanu, and Kalantin. In the Straits a large quantity is produced in the island of Singapore, and above all in Pinang, where the capital of Europeans and the skill and industry of the Chinese have been successfully applied to its culture. The western extremity of Sumatra, and the north-west coast of that island, are the most remarkable situations in it for the production of pepper, and here we have Acheen, Tikao, Bencoolen, Padang, and the country of the Lampungs. The production of the eastern extremity of Sumatra or Palembang is considerable, but held of inferior quality. In the fertile island of Java, the quantity of pepper grown is inconsiderable, nor is it remarkable for the goodness of its quality.

The province of Bantam has always furnished, and still continues to produce, the most pepper; but the culture of this creeper is fast giving place in Java to staples affording higher profits and requiring less care. The exports were, in the following years:--

piculs. | lbs. 1830 6,061 | 1843 3,737,732 1835 11,868 | 1848 461,680 1839 11,044 | 1851 95,037 1841 13,477 | 1852 135,690

The number of pepper vines in the district of Bencoolen, in the close of last year, 1852, was as follows:--1,571,894 young vines; 2,437,052 bearing ditto; total, 4,008,946.

Up to the end of September there had been delivered to the Government 1,145 piculs white pepper, and 1,128 piculs black pepper, while of the harvest of 1852 there were still probably to be received 330 piculs white, and 4,967 piculs black pepper.

The south, the west, and the north coasts of the great island of Borneo produce a large quantity of pepper; as early as 1721 it was a staple commodity of this island. Banjarmassin is the most productive place on the south coast, and the State of Borneo Proper on the north coast. The best pepper certainly does not grow in the richest soils, for the peppers of Java and Palembang are the worst of the Archipelago, and that of Pinang and the west coast of Sumatra are the best. Care in culture and curing improves the quality, as with other articles, and for this reason chiefly it is that the pepper of Pinang is more in esteem than that of any other portion of the Archipelago. From the ports and districts of Siam 3,500 to 4,000 tons are exported annually.

The duty at present levied on pepper in England is 6d. per lb., while the wholesale price for that of Pinang, Malabar, and Sumatra is about 4d. per lb. White pepper ranges from 9d. to 1s. 6d. per lb. The prime cost in Singapore is not more than 1½d. per lb.

About 70,000 or 80,000 piculs of pepper are annually exported from Singapore, of which between 30,000 and 40,000 piculs have, until within the last two years, gone on to Great Britain. More than one-half of the pepper exported from Singapore is grown in the island by Chinese settlers.

The low selling price of the article in the English market, the high duty levied upon it, and the large freight paid for its carriage to Great Britain, now leave so small a price to the cultivator in Singapore, that the cultivation ceases to be remunerative, and is carried on at a loss; and has consequently within the last year or two begun to decrease rapidly, involving the Chinese growers, who are generally of the poorest class, and without capital, in great distress. A reduction in the duty on pepper has always been followed by a very large increase in the consumption of the article, as will appear from the following table, showing the importation and consumption in Great Britain during some of the first and last years of the different rates of duty:--

Duty Singapore price Year Quantity consumed s. d. s. d. s. d. 1811 1,457,383 1 10½ 0 7½ to 0 7¾ 1814 941,569 1 10½ 0 11 " 1 1 1820 1,404,021 2 6 0 6½ " 0 6¾ 1824 1,447,030 2 6 0 4¾ " 0 5½ 1826 2,529,027 2 0 0 4 " 0 4½ 1836 2,749,491 1 0 0 0 " 0 0 1837 2,625,075 0 6 0 0 " 0 0 1845 3,210,415 0 6 0 2¼ " 0 4¾

In a memorial from the mercantile community of Singapore, sent home in 1848, it is asserted that a reduction in the duty of pepper being always attended by a large increase in the consumption, would not lead to any serious loss in the revenue, while it would confer a great boon on the poorer classes, to whom it has now become a necessary article of life. The reduction would also be of great advantage to British manufacturers, as well as to our Indian possessions, by giving rise to an increased demand or British goods and productions, and of the highest benefit to the agricultural settlers in the island of Singapore, by enabling them to procure for their labor an honest means of livelihood.

The pepper vines, which are allowed to climb poles or small trees, are tolerably productive at Singapore; and pepper planting is esteemed by the Chinese to be a profitable speculation, particularly if they are enabled to evade the payment of quit-rent. An acre of pepper vines will yield 1,161 lbs. of clean pepper. In Sumatra a full grown plant has been known to produce seven pounds; in Pinang the yield is much more. The average produce of one thousand vines is said, however, to be only about 450 lbs.

Colonel Low, in his "Dissertation on Pinang," published at Singapore some years ago, gives an interesting account of the culture:--

"Pepper was, during many years, the staple product of Pinang soil, the average annual quantity having been nearly four millions of pounds; but previous to the year 1810, the above amount had decreased to about two-and-a-half millions of pounds, which was the result of the continental system.

The price having fallen at length to three and three-and-a-half dollars the picul--with only a few occasional exceptions of rises--the cultivation of this spice was gradually abandoned, and the total product at this day does not exceed 2,000 piculs. The original cost, when pepper was at a high price, together with charges of transporting it to Europe, amounted to £36,357 for every five hundred tons, and the loss by wastage was estimated at £5,405. In 1818 there remained on the island 1,480,265 pepper vines in bearing, and the average value of exports of pepper from Pinang, including that received from other places, was averaged at 106,870 Spanish dollars.

As might have been foreseen, the fall of prices has so greatly diminished the cultivation of pepper to the eastward, that a reaction is likely to take place; and has in fact partly shown itself already. Some Chinese in Pinang and Province Wellesley seem to be preparing to renew the cultivation. There is abundant scope for the purpose on both sides of the harbour, and every facility is at hand for carrying it on.

The pepper plant or vine requires a good soil, the richer the better, but the _red_ soil of the higher hills is not congenial, the Chinese think, to it. The undulations skirting the bases of the hills, and the deep alluvial lands, where not saturated with water, or liable to be overflowed, are preferred.

The Chinese have always been the chief cultivators, and when the speculation flourished they received advances from the merchants, which they paid back in produce at fixed rates.

When pepper was extensively cultivated on Prince of Wales Island, the European owner of the land had the forest cleared by contract, and the vines planted by contract, and when the vines came into bearing the plantation was farmed to the Chinese from year to year, on payment of a specific quantity of pepper. Any other plan would have ruined the capitalist, as the culture is almost entirely in their hands in the Straits' Settlements, and they will not work so well for others as when they are specially interested.

The plants are set out at intervals, _every way_, of from seven to twelve feet, according to the degree of fertility of the soil, so that there are from 800 to 1,000 vines in one orlong of land; to each vine is allotted a prop of from ten to thirteen feet high, cut from the thorny tree called _dadap_, or where that is scarce, from the less durable _boonglai_; these props take root, thus affording both shade and support to the plant. The plant may be raised from seed pepper, but the plan is not approved of, cuttings being preferable, as they soonest come into bearing. The pits in which these cuttings are set should be a foot-and-a-half square, and two feet in depth; manure is not often applied, and then it is only some turf ashes. However unpicturesque a pepper plantation may be, still its neat and uniform appearance renders the landscape lively, and there can be little doubt that the island has suffered in its salubrity since the jungle usurped the extensive tracts formerly under pepper cultivation.

When the vine has reached the height of three or four feet, it is bent down and laid in the earth, and about five of the strongest shoots which now spring up are retained and carefully trained up the prop, to which they are tied by means of ligatures of some creeping plants.

One Chinese, after the plantation has been formed, can take care of two orlongs of land. The usual mode is this:--an advance is made by the capitalist to the laborer for building a house, and for agricultural implements; he then receives two dollars monthly to subsist on, until the end of the third year, when the estate or plantation is equally divided betwixt the contracting parties.

The Chinese and even European cultivators used formerly to engage the Chinese who had just arrived from China; they paid off their passage-money, and then allowed them two dollars monthly, for provisions, for one year; with a suit of clothes, by which means the cost of the labor of one man averaged about three dollars monthly; but this plan is attended with risks.

The cost attendant on the cultivation of two orlongs of land, with pepper, for three years--the Chinese laborer receiving the usual hire of _five_ Spanish dollars monthly--will be nearly as follows:--

Spanish dollars. Price of land, clearing, and planting 40 Quit rent, at 75 cents per annum per orlong 9 Two thousand plants 4 " dadap props 6 Implements 6 House 10 Labor 200 Interest, loosely calculated at 30 --- Total Spanish dollars 305

In a very good soil a pepper vine will yield about one-eighth of a pound of dry produce at the end of the first year; at the end of the second, about a quarter of a pound; and at the expiration of the third, probably one pound; at the end of the fourth, from three to three-and-a-half pounds; ditto fifth, from eight to ten pounds. After the fifth year up to the fifteenth, or even the twentieth year, about ten pounds of dry merchantable produce may be obtained from each vine, under favorable circumstances. The Chinese speculator used to rent out his half-share of a new plantation for five years, to his cultivating partner, after the expiration of the first three years, at the rate of thirty piculs per annum; the total produce of these five years giving about fifty-six piculs annually as an average.

A pepper plantation never survives the thirtieth year, unless in extremely rich soil, and then it is unproductive; nor will the young vine thrive on an old worn out pepper land, a peculiarity which is applicable to the coffee tree. The chief crop lasts from August to February. Four pounds of dry produce, for ten of green, is considered a fair estimate. Great care is requisite in the management of the vine, and especially in training and tying it on the props. It is subject to be injured by the attacks of a small insect. The green pepper dries in two or three days, and if it is intended that it shall be black, it is pulled before it is quite ripe. To make white pepper, the berry is allowed to remain somewhat longer on the vine; it is, when plucked, immersed in boiling water, by means of which process and subsequent friction, before drying, the husk is separated.

The exports of pepper from Pinang in the last four years have been--In 1849, 2,591,233 lbs.; in 1850, 6,397,733 lbs.; in 1851, 2,366,933 lbs.; in 1852, 2,112,133 lbs."

A small quantity of pepper seems to be annually exported from Ceylon, which I presume is the growth of that island; thus there were:--

54 cwts. shipped in 1842 83 " " 1843 102 " " 1844

In the Customs' returns of Ceylon, it is classed with cardamoms, and 160 to 170 cwt. of the two were shipped in each of the years 1850 and 1851. Last year the quantity was smaller.

Pepper cultivation has been introduced into the Mauritius, and in 1839 more than 500,000 lbs. were imported from thence, but as the shipments have since decreased, I presume it has given place to the more profitable staple sugar. I have been able to glean no information as to the progress it has made in the West Indies. In Cayenne it has been successfully carried on for many years; and large shipments of pepper have been made thence to France.

BLACK PEPPER EXPORTED FROM SINGAPORE.

Piculs. Value in rupees. 1841 Total Exports 66,810 " Growth of Singapore 21,231 47,674 1842 Exports 74,228 " Growth of Singapore 32,277 72,473 1843 Exports 57,883 " Growth of Singapore 35,585 79,900 1844 Exports 67,148 " Growth of Singapore 42,995 386,152 1845 Exports 65,892 " Growth of Singapore 39,019 350,443 1846 Exports 56,709 " Growth of Singapore 35,712 ----- 1847 Exports 60,994 " Growth of Singapore 36,565 328,397

Pliny, the naturalist, states that the price of pepper in the market of Rome in his time was, in English money, 9s. 4d. a pound, and thus we have the price of pepper at least 1,774 years ago. The pepper alluded to must have been the produce of Malabar, the nearest part of India to Europe that produced the article, and its prime cost could not have exceeded the present one, or about 2d. a pound. It would most probably have come to Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian ocean, with the easterly monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the desert, dropping down the Nile, and making its way along the Mediterranean by two-thirds of its whole length. This voyage, which in our times can be performed in a month, most probably then took eighteen. Transit and customs duties must have been paid over and over again, and there must have been plenty of extortion. All this will explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman market under fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous to the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, we find that the price of pepper in the markets of Europe had fallen to 6s a pound, or 3s. 4d. less than in the time of Pliny. What probably contributed to this fall, was the superior skill in navigation of the now converted Arabs, and the extension of their commerce to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, which abounded in pepper. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gama, the price of pepper fell to about 1s. 3d. a pound, a fall of 8s. 1d. from that of the time of Pliny, and of 4s. 9d. from that of the Mahommedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians.

In 1826, 14,000,000 lbs. of pepper were imported into the United Kingdom, of which about 5,500,000 were re-exported. In 1841, 15,000,000 lbs. were imported, of which 6,500,000 were re-shipped to other countries.

The home consumption, it will be seen, now averages about 3,250,000 lbs.:--

Imports Home consumption lbs. lbs. 1845 9,852,984 3,209,718 1846 5,906,586 3,299,955 1847 4,669,930 2,966,022 1848 8,125,545 3,185,337 1849 4,796,042 3,257,911 1850 8,028,319 3,170,883 1851 3,996,496 3,303,403 1852 6,641,699 3,524,501

The following return shows the number of bags of pepper imported into the United Kingdom, with the quantity retained for home consumption:--

Imports. Retained for home consumption. Black. White. Black. White. bags bags bags. bags. 1843 37,840 3,861 21,163 2,257 1844 60,705 2,123 23,525 2,122 1845 80,600 3,208 30,294 2,861 1847 37,194 1,236 28,768 2,654 1848 65,518 3,042 31,665 3,950 1849 43,651 2,616 32,246 3,859

CHILLIES AND CAYENNE PEPPER.

Chillies or capsicum are long roundish taper pods, divided into two or three cells, full of small whitish seeds. When this fruit is fresh, it has a penetrating acrid smell; to the taste it is extremely pungent, and produces a most painful burning in the mouth. They are occasionally imported dry, and form the basis of Cayenne pepper; put in vinegar when green or ripe, they are an acceptable present in Europe. In Bengal the natives make an extract from the chillies, which is about the consistence and color of treacle.

The consumption of chillies in India is immense, as both rich and poor daily use them, and it is the principal ingredient in all chutnies and curries; ground into a paste, between two stones, with a little mustard, oil, ginger, and salt, it forms the only seasoning which the millions of poor in that country can obtain to eat with their insipid rice. They are worth in the Bombay market about 40s. the candy of 600 lbs.

Immense quantities of the capsicum are used by the native population of the West Indies, Africa, and Mexico; the consumption as a condiment being almost universal, and perhaps equal in quantity to salt. Ten barrels of these peppers were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first six months of 1851.

The wholesale price of chillies in the London market is from 15s. to 25s. the cwt., and there is a duty of 6d. per pound on them. Cayenne fetches 9d. to 2s. the pound.

Chilli is the Mexican name for all varieties of _Capsicum_. They are natives of the East and West Indies, and other hot climates. _C. annuum_ is the species commonly noticed, but there seems to be numerous varieties, which by many are reckoned species. Thus, _C. frutescens_ is a shrubby plant, which, along with _C. minimum_, supplies the variety called bird-pepper, it grows to a larger and more bushy size; _C. baccatum_ has a globular fruit, and furnishes cherry or berry capsicum. They are all of the simplest culture, and may even be grown with very little care in England. Culture appears to increase the size, but to diminish the pungency of the fruit. In capsicums irritant properties prevail so as to obscure the narcotic action. Their acridity is owing to an oleaginous substance called capsicin. Cayenne pepper is used in medicine chiefly in the form of tincture, as a rubefacient and stimulant, especially in cases of ulcerated sore throat. It acts on the stomach as an aromatic condiment, and when preserved in acetic acid it forms chilli vinegar.

Red pepper may be considered one of the most useful vegetables in hygiene. As a stimulant and auxiliary in digestion it has been considered invaluable, especially in warm countries. A kind called the tobacco red pepper, is said to possess the most pungent properties of any of the species. It yields a small red pod, less than an inch in length, and longitudinal in shape, which is so exceedingly hot that a small quantity of it is sufficient to season a large dish of any food. Owing to its oleaginous character, it has been found impossible to preserve it by drying, but by pouring strong boiling vinegar on it a sauce or decoction can be made, which possesses in a concentrated form all the essential qualities of the vegetable. A single drop of this sauce will flavor a whole plate of soup or other food.

The "wort" or Cayenne pottage may be termed the national dish of the Abyssinians, as that, or its basis "dillock," is invariably eaten with their ordinary diet, the thin crumpet-like bread of teff or wheat flour. Equal parts of salt and the red cayenne pods are well powdered and mixed together with a little pea or bean meal to make a paste. This is called "dillock," and is made in quantities at a time, being preserved in a large gourd-shell, generally suspended from the roof. The "wort" is merely a little water added to this paste, which is then boiled over the fire, with the addition of a little fat meat and more meal to make a kind of porridge, to which sometimes is also added several warm seeds, such as the common cress or black mustard, both of which are indigenous in Abyssinia.--("Johnston's Abyssinia.")

A great quantity of Agi or Guinea pepper is grown in Peru, the natives being very fond of this condiment. It is not uncommon for an American Indian to make a meal of twenty or thirty pods of capsicum, a little salt, and a piece of bread, washed down by two or three quarts of chica, the popular beverage.

PIMENTO.

The pimento, _Eugenia Pimento_ (_Myrtus Pimenta_), is a native of Mexico, and the West Indies. It flourishes spontaneously and in great abundance on the north side of the island of Jamaica; its numerous white blossoms mixing with the dark green foliage, and with the slightest breeze diffusing around the most delicious fragrance, give a beauty and a charm to nature rarely equalled, and of which he who has not visited the shady arbors and perfumed groves of the tropics can have little conception. This lovely tree, the very leaf of which when bruised emits a fine aromatic odor, nearly as powerful as that of the spice itself, has been known to grow to the height of from 30 to 40 feet, exceedingly straight, and having for its base the spinous ridge of a rock, eight or ten feet above the surface of the hill or mountain. A single tree has frequently produced 150 lbs. of the raw, or 100 lbs. of the dried fruit.

The fruit has an aromatic odor, and its taste combines that of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; hence its common name of allspice. The fruit of _Eugenia acris_ is used for pimento.

The trunk is of a grey color, smooth and shining, and altogether destitute of bark. It is luxuriantly clothed with leaves of a deep green, somewhat like those of the bay tree, and these leaves are, in the months of July and August, beautifully contrasted and relieved by an exuberance of white flowers. The leaves yield by distillation a delicate odoriferous oil, which is said to be sometimes passed off for oil of cloves.

The berries are gathered before they are ripe, and spread on a terrace, exposed to the sun for about a week, during which time they lose their green color, and acquire that reddish brown tint which renders them marketable. Some planters kiln-dry them. Like many of the minor productions of the tropics, pimento is exceedingly uncertain, and perhaps a very plenteous crop occurs but once in five years.

In 1800 there were 12,759 bags and 610 casks of pimento imported from Jamaica; in 1824 there were 33,308 bags and 599 casks shipped from the island; in 1829 the quantity exported was 6,069,127 lbs.

In the year ending October 1843, the export of pimento from Jamaica was 29,322 bags and 156 casks; in the year ending October 1844, 12,055 bags and 88 casks; in the year ending October 1845, 233 casks, valued at 30s. each, and 59,494 bags, valued at 20s.

From 1st January to 1st August, 1851, 128,277 lbs. pimento were shipped from the port of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

There was a very considerable pimento plantation made in Tobago, some years ago, by a Mr. Franklin, but it was abandoned by his sons, that they might attend the more exclusively to sugar culture.

Jamaica exported nearly two millions of pounds of pimento less, in the three years ending 1848, than she did in the three previous to the emancipation of the slaves. The number of pounds shipped annually, in these periods, is shown by the following figures:--

Year. lbs. 1830 5,560,620 1831 3,172,320 1832 4,024,800 1846 2,997,060 1847 2,800,140 1848 5,231,908

Pimento is imported into this country in bags of about 100 lbs. each. The imports have been:--

Year. Imports. Home consumption. cwts. cwts. 1848 20,773 4,230 1849 24,994 3,419 1850 20,448 3,467 1851 14,840 3,935 1852 22,708 3,872

The following is a statement of the imports from the West Indies, and the consumption of the United Kingdom, in pounds:--

Entries for Year. Imports. home consumption. lbs. lbs. 1831 1,801,355 305,739 1832 1,366,183 296,197 1833 4,770,255 330,890 1834 1,389,402 320,719 1835 2,536,353 343,942 1836 3,230,978 400,941 1837 2,026,128 383,401 1838 892,974 383,997 1839 1,071,511 309,078 1840 999,068 338,969 1841 797,757 297,201 1842 1,643,318 450,683 1843 2,028,658 378,096

The imports have been, in--

bags. 1843 18,649 1844 2,408 1845 21,092 1847 9,649 1848 18,196 1849 14,108

Pimento is worth in the London market 6d. to 7d. per lb. The duty is 5s. per cwt.

VANILLA.

The fleshy, pod-like, odoriferous fruit of different species of _Epidendrum_ constitute the substance called vanilla, which is used in confectionery for giving a delicious perfume to chocolate, liqueurs, &c. As an aromatic it is much sought after by confectioners, for flavoring ices and creams; and also by perfumers, liqueurists, and distillers. The best comes from the forests round the village of Zurtila, in the intendancy of Oaxaca, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera of Anahuac, between the parallels of 19 deg. and 20 deg. N. All the vanilla which is used in Europe is imported from Mexico, Venezuela, and Vera Cruz.

It is a native of tropical America, and grows wild in Brazil, Peru, the banks of the Orinoco, and all places where heat, shade, and moisture prevail. There are many species indigenous to the Bahamas, Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominica, Martinique and St. Vincent, which would produce considerable gain to the inhabitants if they would give themselves the trouble of cultivating or collecting its fruit.

This parasitical plant has a trailing stem, not unlike the common ivy, but not so woody, by which it attaches itself to the trunks of trees, and sucks the moisture which their bark derives from the lichens and other cryptogamia, but without drawing nourishment from the tree itself, like the misletoe and loranthus. The Indians in Mexico propagate it by planting cuttings at the foot of trees selected for that purpose. It rises to the height of 18 or 20 feet; the flowers are of a greenish yellow, mixed with white. The plant is subcylindrical about eight or ten inches long, of a yellow color when gathered, but dark brown or black when imported into Europe. It is one-celled siliquose, and pulpy within, wrinkled on the outside, and full of a vast number of seeds like grains of sand, having when properly prepared, a peculiar and delicious fragrance. It should be gathered before it is fully ripe.

Different species of vanilla are natives of Guiana, and it is found in large quantities along the banks of its rivers, and in the wooded districts which intersperse the savannahs. The oily and balsamic substance which the minute seeds possess, may be found to have medicinal qualities. Its cultivation can be connected with no difficulties; it needs only to plant the slips among trees, and to keep them clear of weeds. It would prove therefore a great addition to a cocoa plantation. In 1825 the price was, in Germany, sixty-six dollars (equal to £9) per pound, and twenty-five to thirty dollars are paid for it in Martinique.

Humboldt states that the annual value of vanilla exported from the state of Vera Cruz was 40,000 dollars, £8,000 sterling. Some vanilla is exported from Maranham. The cultivation of vanilla, which was introduced into Java in the year 1847, is said to have made considerable progress, there being now no fewer than thirty plantations.

The fruit of this orchideous plant is entirely neglected in the province of Caracas, though abundant crops of it might be gathered on the humid coast between Porto Cabello and Ocumare, especially at Turiamo, where the pods attain the length of nearly a foot. The English and American merchants often seek to make purchases at the port of La Guayra, but with difficulty procure it in small quantities.

In the valleys that descend from the chain of coast towards the Caribbean sea, in the province of Truxillo, as well as in the mission of Guiana, near the cataracts of the Orinoco, a great quantity of the vanilla pods might be collected, the produce of which would be still more abundant, if, according to the practice of the Mexicans, the plant were disentangled from time to time from the other creepers, with which it is intertwined and stifled.

When collected to prepare it for the market, about 12,000 of the pods are strung like a garland by their lower end, as near as possible to their foot-stalk; the whole are plunged for an instant into boiling water to blanch them; they are then hung up in the open air and exposed to the sun for a few hours. By some they are wrapped in woollen cloths to sweat. Next day they are lightly smeared with oil, by means of a feather or the fingers, and are surrounded with oiled cotton to prevent the valves from opening. As they become dry, on inverting their upper end they discharge a viscid liquor from it, and they are pressed several times with oiled fingers to promote its flow. The dried pods, like the berries of pepper, change color under the drying operation, grow brown, wrinkled, soft, and shrink to one-fourth of their original size. In this state they are touched a second time with oil, but very sparingly, because with too much oil they would lose some of their delicious perfume.

They are then packed for the market in small bundles of 50 or 100 in each, enclosed in lead foil, or tight metallic cases.

There are four local varieties, all differing in price and excellence; viz., the vanilla _fina_, the _zacate_, the _rezacate_, and the _vasura_.

One pod of vanilla is sufficient to perfume a pound and a half of cacao. It is with difficulty reduced to fine particles, but it may be sufficiently attenuated by cutting it into small bits, and grinding these along with sugar.

As it comes to us, vanilla is a capsular fruit, of the thickness of a swan's quill; straight, cylindrical, but somewhat flattened, truncated at the top, thinned off at the ends, glistening, wrinkled, furrowed lengthwise, flexible, from five to ten inches long, and of a reddish brown color. It contains a pulpy parenchyma, soft, unctuous, very brown, in which are embedded black, brilliant, very small seeds.

The kind most esteemed in France is called _leq_ vanilla; it is about six inches long, from one-fourth to one-third of an inch broad, narrowed at the two ends and curved at the base; somewhat soft and viscid, of a dark reddish color, and of a most delicious flavor, like that of balsam of Peru. It is called vanilla _giorees_, when it is covered with efflorescences of benzcoin acid, after having been kept in a dry place, and in vessels not hermetically closed.

The second sort, called _vanilla simarona_, or bastard, is a little smaller than the preceding, of a less deep brown hue, drier, less aromatic, destitute of efflorescence. It is said to be the produce of the wild plant, and is brought from St. Domingo.

A third sort, which comes from Brazil, is the _vanillon_, or large vanilla of the French market; the _vanilla pamprona_ or _bova_ of the Spaniards. Its length is from five to six inches, its breadth from one-half to three-fourths of an inch. It is brown, soft, viscid, almost always open, of a strong smell, but less agreeable than the _leq_. It is sometimes a little spoiled by an incipient fermentation. It is cured with sugar, and enclosed in tin plate boxes, which contain from 20 to 60 pods[52]. The average annual import of vanilla into Havre, in the five years ending 1841, was about 16 boxes; in 1842 it was 30 packages.

TONQUIN BEANS.--The seeds of the Tongo tree (_Dipterix odorata_), a native of Guiana, are the well-known tonquin beans used to give a pleasant flavor to snuff.

TURMERIC.

This article of commerce is furnished by the branches of the rhizome or root-stock of the _Curcuma longa_, and _C. rotunda_, plants which are natives of Eastern Asia, but have been grown in England and the West Indies. They thrive well in a rich light soil, and are readily increased by offsets from the roots.

In the East Indies, where it is known as Huldee, turmeric is much employed in dyeing yellow, principally silks, but the color is very fugitive. It is also used medicinally as an aromatic carminative, and as a condiment; it enters into the composition of curry sauce or powder, and many other articles of Indian cookery. It is cordial and stomachic, and considered by the native doctors of India an excellent application in powder for cleansing foul ulcers.

It is grown in, and exported chiefly from, Bengal and Malabar, Madras, Java, and China. The turmeric of Java is in high estimation in the European markets, ranking next to that of China, and being much superior to that of Bengal. The seeds of _Anethum Sowa_, from their carminative properties, form an ingredient in curry powder.

The price of turmeric in London is from 12s. to 20s. per cwt., according to quality. The entries for home consumption are about 4,000 to 5,000 cwts. annually. It is better shipped in casks or cases than in bags.

A kind of arrowroot is prepared from _C. angustifolia_, another species of this tribe of plants.

_Amaranthus gangiticus_, and another species, are much cultivated by the Hindoos for their stews and curries.

The quantity and value of the curry stuff imported into Ceylon, chiefly from India, has been in the last few years as follows:--

Quantity. Years. cwts. packages. Value. 1847 6,866 1848 9,981 1849 26,347 109 9,664 1850 24,396 300 7,267 1851 32,550 9,446 1852 9,039

What is comprised under the term "curry stuff," I am not aware, but it appears to be a bulky article, for it was imported to the extent of 32,000 cwt. in 1852.

There are two varieties of turmeric usually sent into Europe from the East (whence all the turmeric imported into Europe is obtained), the "long" turmeric (_Curcuma longa_), and the "round," or as it is better known the "Chinese turmeric." The latter description is very rare, the former is the common article of commerce. According to one of my correspondents, Mr. Hepburn, chemist, of Falmouth, Jamaica, the common or long turmeric is indigenous to that island, growing luxuriantly in the mountainous districts, in rather damp soils, its locality being in the vicinity of rivers, water-courses and springs. In this respect it differs from ginger, which requires a rather dry soil for its culture. I am not aware that this plant possesses the property of impoverishing the soil like the ginger. From the general habits of the plant in its natural state, we may gather the following rules for our guidance in its culture. The plants should be laid down in rows of five or six inches distant from each other, in a soil moderately damp, of an aluminous or clayey nature, and free to a great extent of the more soluble alkalies, potash and soda, as these, by absorption, may destroy the coloring matter of the plant, and so diminish its value as a dye-stuff. Finally, in preparing the roots for exportation, they should be cleansed from all earthy particles, exposed for drying in the shade, and without any further preparation bagged for shipment.

The coloring matter of turmeric is of an orange yellow color exceedingly delicate and capable of change, either from the action of light or of alkalies, which turn it to a dark brown color. It is slightly soluble in water, and readily soluble in an alkaline solution, becoming dark brown. Alcohol extracts the coloring matter. The uses to which turmeric is applied are two: as an ingredient in the curry powder and paste, and as a dye for silk. It was some time ago used as a medicine; but though retained in the "Pharmacopoeias" of the present day, it is entirely discarded by the practitioner as a curative agent. The best Bengal and Malabar turmeric fetches a price nearly as high as that of ginger, and I see no reason why the West India planter could not send it into the British market quite as cheap as the East India trader. According to Dallas, 397 bags of turmeric were exported from Jamaica in 1797.

Turmeric is grown about the city of Patna and Behar. It is much cultivated about Calcutta and all parts of Bengal. One acre yields about 2,000 lbs. of the fresh root. It is also grown on the central table land of Afghanistan. The exports from Calcutta in 1841 were 11,000 Indian maunds, and 28,137 in 1842. The value of that exported from Madras in 1839 was 40,000 rupees, or £4,000; in 1840, £4,200. The quantity shipped from that Presidency in 1850 was 6,877 bags.

In the neighbourhood of Dacca about 200 lbs. of seed is sown to the beegah, measuring 80 cubits by 80, and the yield is from 640 to 800 lbs.

140 tons were imported into Liverpool in 1849, for dyeing and for curries; 414 tons in 1850; 11,554 bags and packages in 1851; and only 3,595 ditto in 1852. The price in January 1853 was, for Bengal, 10s. to 12s.; China, 12s. to 14s., and Malabar 9s. to 12s. the cwt. The imports into London were 18 tons in 1848, 191 in 1849, and 980 in 1850. The deliveries for consumption, 192 tons in 1848, 270 in 1849, and 870 tons in 1850.

In China turmeric is used with Prussian blue in coloring and facing tea.

GINSENG

The produce of this plant, as an article of commerce, is confined to our transatlantic neighbours, who have the monopoly of the supply to China.

The root of _Panax quinquefolium_, the American ginseng, is much esteemed by the Chinese, for certain supposed beneficial effects upon the nerves, and for other presumed virtues; but our physicians have not discovered any proofs of its efficacy in Europe. The plant is an herbaceous perennial, growing upon the confines of Tartary and China, near the great wall. It is found wild, flourishing in moist situations, and attains the height of from two to three feet; it is also now produced largely in the northern, middle, and western States of the Union, particularly Virginia, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, and a considerable trade is carried on with it to China. A variety of the plant was discovered, a few years ago, in the Himalaya mountains, and small quantities have been thence sent to Canton. It is also found growing in Canada. The root is about three or four inches in length, and one inch in thickness. It resembles a small carrot, but not so taper at the end, and is sometimes single, sometimes divided into two branches. The stem is striated, without branches, and of a red color near the root. The leaves, from four to six of which surround the stem where they form sheaths (bracteal), are simply pinnate. The flower stalk is long and green, the inflorescence a simple umbel. The fruit is a berry of a red color, and contains two seeds of the size of mustard seed. The officinal root differs in appearance, according to the country from which it is brought. In Korea and China it is white, corrugated when dry, and covered with a powder resembling starch. In Mandscharia and Dauria it is yellow, smooth and transparent, and when cut resembles amber. The taste of the root is bitter. Crude ginseng now sells in the Canton market at 70 to 80 dollars per picul of 133 lbs., and cured or clarified root at 130 to 140 dollars.

The stem of the plant, which is renewed every year, leaves, as it falls off, an impression upon the neck of the root, so that the number of these rings or marks indicates the age of the plant, and the value of the root increases accordingly. The Chinese government were formerly in the habit of sending out annually 30,000 Tartar soldiers to search for the plant, and each was obliged to bring home two ounces of the root gratis, and for all above that quantity he was paid its weight in silver. The Asiatic ginseng is said to be obtained from the root of _P. Schinseng_ of Nees von Esenbeck, _P. Pseudo ginseng_ of Wallich. This root might be procured in Prince Edward's Island and some of the other British North American colonies.

I have been able to trace, after some labor and research, the progressive exports of this curious article of trade from the United States.

In 1790, 813 casks, of the value of 47,025 dollars, were exported; and in 1791, 29,208 lbs. From 1803 to 1807, the annual value of ginseng shipped was about 123,000 dollars, and from 1820 to 1830, it averaged 157,000 dollars.

The following figures show the value of the article in subsequent years:--1831, 115,921 dollars; year ending 30th September, 1835, 94,960 dollars; 1837, 212,899 lbs., valued at 108,548 dollars; 1840, 22,728 dollars; 1841, 437,245 dollars.

The quantity shipped in 1839, from Philadelphia alone, was 317,443 lbs. In 1841, 637,885 lbs. were exported from the United States.

The value of that exported in the years ending 30th June, was 1844, 95,008 in dollars, and in 1845, 117,146 dollars; 110,000 lbs. were collected at Toledo, Ohio, in 1845. The value of the exports in the following years, ending June 30th, were--1847, 64,466 dollars; 1849, 162,640; 1849, 182,966; 1850, 122,916 dollars.

CORIANDER, CARRAWAY, AND OTHER SEEDS.

The fruits of anise, carraway, coriander, &c., (erroneously called seeds,) are in demand for various purposes.

CARRAWAY SEED is imported to the extent of 500 tons annually from Germany and Holland, the price being about 33s. per cwt. It is also now much grown in Essex and Kent. In the years 1848 and 1849, 7,000 cwt. of this seed was imported, of which nearly the whole quantity was retained for home consumption.

CORIANDER SEED is chiefly used by distillers, to produce an aromatic oil. The quantity imported annually does not exceed 50 tons, and it is brought principally to the port of Hull. It is also cultivated in Suffolk, Essex and Kent.

Of MUSTARD SEED the aggregate quantity imported annually is about 2,000 tons for home consumption, and the flour is used as a well-known condiment to food, &c., and in medicine; the average price being about 9d. per pound.

ANISE.--The fruit of _Pimpinilla anisum_, under the name of aniseed, is principally imported from Alicant and Germany (the first is preferred), but some is also brought from the East Indies. It is an annual plant, largely cultivated in Spain, Malta, and various parts of Germany, and also in the island of Scio, Egypt, and parts of Asia. The imports are not large; 192 cwts. paid duty in 1833, and 315 cwts. in 1840. About 60 cwts. are annually received at Hull from Germany. It is used to flavor liqueurs, sweetmeats, and confectionery of various kinds. Oil of aniseed is obtained by distillation from the fruit, and 1,544 lbs. were imported in 1839. About two pounds of oil are obtained from one hundred-weight of seed.

STAR ANISE, _Illicum anisatum_, is a native of the countries extending from 23½ deg. to 35 deg. of north latitude, or from Canton to Japan. The capsules constitute in India a rather important article of commerce, and are sold in all the bazaars. Large quantities are also used in Europe in the preparation of liqueurs. 695 piculs of star aniseed were exported from Canton in 1850, valued at 8,200 Spanish dollars. 81 piculs of oil of aniseed were exported from Canton in 1845, and 105 piculs in 1850, valued at 11,900 dollars. 3,000 piculs of aniseed are exported annually from Cambodia.

PUTCHUK, OR COSTUS.

The substance called costus was highly prized by the ancients, and specimens may be met with at a few of the London drug-houses. It has been shown by Dr. Falconer to be the produce of a genus of the thistle tribe, to which he has given the name of _Aucklandia_. The root of _A. Costus_ is supposed to be the _Costus Arabicus_, on the following grounds:--It corresponds with the descriptions given by the ancient authors, and is used at the present day for the same purposes in China, as costus was formerly applied to by the Greeks. The coincidence of the names--in Cashmere the root is called koot, and the Arabic synonym is said to be _koost_. It grows in immense abundance on the mountains which surround Cashmere. It is a gregarious herb, about six or seven feet high, with a perennial thick branched root, with an annual round smooth stem, large leaves and dark purple flowers. The roots are dug up in the months of September and October, when the plant begins to be torpid; they are chopped up into pieces, from two to six inches long, and are exported without further preparation. The quantity collected, according to Dr. Falconer, is very large, amounting to about two million pounds per annum. The cost of its collection and transport to a mercantile depot in Cashmere, is about 2s. 4d. the cwt. The commodity is laden on bullocks and exported to the Punjaub, whence the larger portion goes down to Bombay, where it is shipped for the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and China; a portion of it finds its way across the Sutlej and Jumna into Hindostan Proper, whence it is taken to Calcutta, and bought up there with avidity under the name of putchuk. The value is enhanced at Jugadree, on the Jumna, to about 16s. 9d. or 23s. 4d. per cwt. In the Chinese ports it fetches nearly double that price the cwt. The Chinese burn the roots as an incense in the temples of their gods, and they also attach great efficacy to it as an aphrodisiac. The imports into Canton in 1848 were 414 piculs; in 1850, 854 piculs; valued at 5,150 dollars. In Cashmere it is chiefly used for the protection of bales of shawls from insects. The exports from the port of Calcutta were, in 1840-41, 19,660 maunds; in 1841-42, 12,847; in 1847-48, 2,050¼; in 1848-49, 2,110¾;--worth about £1,500 annually.

Specimens of amboyna wood, the odoriferous sandal wood from Timor, clove wood, and other choice woods from the Moluccas and Prince of Wales Island, were sent home to the Great Exhibition in 1851.

LIGNUM ALOES, the eagle wood and Calambak of commerce, yielding an aromatic perfume, is furnished by the _Aquilaria malaccensis_, and _agallocha_, in Silhet, an ornamental evergreen shrub. A very high artificial value is placed on the better qualities of this product by the natives of the East; the best quality being worth about £14 the picul of 133 lbs.

This fragrant wood is probably the lign aloes of the Bible.

Incense to the value of nearly one million and a quarter francs was exported from Alexandria in 1837.

Calambak or eagle wood, the true lignum aloes so highly esteemed in the East as a perfume or incense, is said to be produced by the _Aloexylum agallochum_, Lour. This remarkable wood contains a large quantity of an odoriferous oleo-resin; when heated it undergoes a sort of imperfect fusion, and exhales a fragrant and very agreeable odor. Its price in Sumatra is about £30 per cwt. Inferior specimens are obtained at Malacca. Eagle wood is also obtained from several other trees. The true eagle wood is however very scarce.

SECTION IV.

DYES AND COLORING STUFFS, AND TANNING SUBSTANCES.

Of the several classes of materials collected at the Industrial Exhibition in Hyde Park, in 1851, few possessed so much importance in the eyes of the textile and leather manufacturer and chemist as the different products used in the arts and manufactures for coloring and tanning purposes. These were in a great measure lost sight of by the public at large, being scattered about in small quantities in a great number of directions; and, from the minute samples shown, were in many instances overlooked altogether. Besides furnishing some novel and general statistical facts, which may prove interesting, I propose also in this section to draw attention more prominently to some of these products, which are at present little known or appreciated.

Coloring substances for staining and dyeing are obtained indifferently from the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms, but it is of the last alone that I shall have to speak. The importance of a more careful consideration of this subject will be admitted, if we consider how much the prosperity and extent of our cotton, silk, woollen, and leather manufactures depends on a liberal and cheap supply of dyes and tannin, to give beauty and color to the fabrics, and substance and utility to the skins. Even oil colors, for painters' purposes, which do not come within the scope of my remarks, form an item in our yearly exports of the value of £250,000, and when we calculate the large amount of cotton, silk and wool worked up, most of which requires various coloring agents, gums, starches, and mordants;--that nearly 30,000 tons of hides are annually imported, exclusive of those obtained from our now slaughter-houses, besides goat, seal, and other skins--and that the exports of our various manufactures of cotton, linen, silk, wool and leather in 1852, setting aside our home consumption, amounted to nearly fifty millions sterling, we shall be able to form a better estimate of the importance of the various subjects we are about to notice.

Great Britain does not pay less than £600,000 annually for the dried carcasses of the tiny cochineal insect, while the produce of another small insect, that which produces the lac dye, is scarcely less valuable. Then there are the gall nuts used for dyeing and making black ink. Upwards of £3,000,000 is paid for barks of various kinds for tanners' purposes, about one million for other tanning substances and heavy dye woods, besides about £200,000 for various extracts of tannin, such as Gambier, Cutch, Divi-divi, and Kino. The aggregate value of the dye stuffs and gum it is difficult to estimate.

The beautiful specimens of materials imported from China, India, New Zealand, the Continent, and other countries, and exhibited at the Crystal Palace, proves to us that we have yet much to learn from other nations in the art of fixing colors and obtaining brilliant dyes. The French are much our superiors in dyeing and the production of fast and beautiful colors. Their chemical researches and investigations are carried out more systematically and effectively than our own. Russia imports dyewoods and dye-stuffs to the value of five millions and a half of silver roubles annually.

It was well observed by the Jury Reporters at the Great Exhibition, that "a vast number of new coloring materials have been discovered or made available, and improved modes have been devised of economically applying those already in use; so that the dyer of the present time employs many substances of the very existence of which his practical predecessors were wholly ignorant. From the increased use of many of the vegetable colors, and from the improved modes of applying the coloring matters, a demand has naturally sprung up for various dye stuffs; and at the present time, many of the dyeing materials of distant countries are beginning to excite the attention of practical men; for though they have been acquainted with many of these substances, it is only recently that the progress of the art has rendered their use desirable or even practicable."

It would be quite impossible, within the limits which I have assigned myself, to make even a bare enumeration of the various plants and trees from which coloring substances and dye stuffs can be obtained, I must, therefore, be content to specify only a few.

The roots of some species of Lithospermum afford a lac for dyeing and painting. Dried pomegranates are said to be used in Tunis for dyeing yellow; the rind is also a tanning substance.

Sir John Franklin tells us that the Crees extract some beautiful colors from several of their native vegetables. They dye a beautiful scarlet with the roots of two species of bed-straw, _Galium tinctorium_ and _boreale_. They dye black, with an ink made of elder bark and a little bog-iron ore dried and powdered, and they have various modes of producing yellow. They employ the dried roots of the cowbane (_Cicuta virosa_), the bruised buds of the Dutch myrtle, and have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens.

In the "Comptes Rendus," xxxv., p. 558, there is an account by M.J. Persoz, of a green coloring matter from China, of great stability, from which it appears that the Chinese possess a coloring substance having the appearance of indigo, which communicates a beautiful and permanent sea green color to mordants of alumina and iron, and which is not a preparation of indigo, or any derivative of this dyeing principal. As furnished to M. Persoz by Mr. Forbes, the American consul at Canton, it was in thin plates of a blue color, resembling Japanese indigo, but of a finer grain, differing also from indigo in its composition and chemical properties. On infusing a very small quantity of it in water, this fluid soon acquired a deep blue color with a greenish tinge; upon boiling and immersing a piece of calico on which the mordants of iron and alumina had been printed, it was dyed a sea green color of greater or less intensity according to the strength of the mordant--the portions not coated remaining white.

A berry called _Makleua_ grows on a large forest tree at Bankok, which is used most extensively by the Siamese as a vegetable black dye. It is merely bruised in water, when a fermentation takes place, and the article to be dyed is steeped in the liquid and then spread out in the sun to dry. The berry, when fresh, is of a fine green color, but after being gathered for two or three days it becomes quite black and shrivelled like pepper. It must be used fresh, and whilst its mixture with water produces fermentation. The bark of _Datisca cannabina_ also dyes yellow. It contains a bitter principle, like quassia.

A coloring matter is prepared from the dried fruit of the _Rottlera tinctoria_, by the natives of the East, to dye orange, which is a brilliant and tolerably permanent dye. It is apparently of a resinous nature.

A small quantity of Alkanet root (_Anchusa tinctoria_), is imported from the Levant and the south of France, and is used to color gun stocks, furniture, &c., of a deep red mahogany and rosewood color. It is brought over in packages weighing about two cwt., the price being 40s. or 50s. per cwt.

Turmeric is now imported to the extent of upwards of 800 tons, a portion of this is used in dyeing. The culture and commerce has been already noticed in Section III.

The bark and roots of the berberry are used in the East to dye yellow; the color is best when boiled in ley. Some of the species of Symplocos, as _S. racemosa_, known as lodh about the Himalaya mountains, and _S. tinctoria_, a native of Carolina, are used for dyeing. The scarlet flowers of _Butea frondosa_ (the Dhaktree), and _B. superba_, natives of the Indian jungles, yield a beautiful dye, and furnishing a species of kino (_Pulas kino_), are also used for tanning. _Althea rosea_, the parent of the many beautiful varieties of hollyhock, a native of China, yields a blue coloring matter equal to indigo. Indigo of an excellent quality has been obtained in the East from a twining plant, _Gymnema tingens_ or _Asclepias tingens_.

The juice of the unripe fruit of _Rhamnus infectorius_, _catharticus_ and _virigatius_, known as Turkey or French berries, is used for dyeing leather yellow. When mixed with lime and evaporated to dryness, it forms the color called sap-green. A great quantity of yellow berries are annually shipped from Constantinople; 115 tons were imported into Liverpool last year. The average annual imports into the United Kingdom are about 450 tons. They come from the Levant in hair bales weighing three and a quarter cwt., or in tierces of four to five cwt., and are used by calico printers for dyeing a yellow color. They are sometimes called Persian berries.

It is a subject of surprise that the common betel-nut of the East has never been introduced for dyeing purposes. The roots of the awl tree of Malabar and other parts of India, _Morinda citrifolia_, and of _M. tinctoria_, found abundant in all the Asiatic islands, are extensively used as a dye stuff for giving a red color. It is usually grown as a prop and shade for the pepper vine and coffee tree. The coloring matter resides principally in the bark of the roots, which are long and slender, and the small pieces are the best, fetching 8s. to 10s. a maund. It is exported in large quantities from Malabar to Guzerat, and the northern parts of Hindostan, but seldom finds its way to Europe.

The wood and roots of another species, _M. umbellata_, known in the eastern islands as "Mangkudu," are used extensively for their red dye, in Celebes and Java. Specimens of all these, and of the Lopisip bark, bunchong bulu wood, and the gaju gum (from undescribed plants), have been introduced into England. They are said to furnish excellent dyes in the Asiatic islands. Native dyes from Arracan have also been imported, viz., thit-tel and the-dan yielding red dyes, ting-nget and reros, affording dark purple dyes; and thit-nan-weng, a chocolate dye. These would be worth enquiry, and particulars of the plants yielding them, the quantities available, and the prices might be procured. Dyes and colors from the following plants are obtained in India: several species of _Terminalia_, _Sinecarpus Anacardium_, _Myrica Sapide_, _Nelumbium speciosus_, _Butea frondosa_, and _Nyctanthes arboretristis_. The bunkita barring, obtained from an undescribed plant in Borneo, produces a dark purple or black dye. A species of ruellia, under the name of "Room," is employed in its raw state by the Khamptis and Lingphos to dye their clothes of a deep blue. It is described by the late Dr. Griffiths as "a valuable dye, and highly worthy of attention." It might, perhaps, be usefully employed as the ground for a black dye. In Nepaul they use the bark of _Photinia dubia_ or _Mespilus Bengalensis_ for dyeing scarlet. The bark of the black oak, _Quercus tinctoria_ and its varieties, natives of North America, are used by dyers under the name of quercitron.

In the south of Europe, _Daphne Gnidium_ is used to dye yellow. The root of reilbon, a sort of madder in Chili, dyes red. A purple tint or dye is obtained from the bark of an undescribed tree, known under the name of "_Grana ponciana_," growing about Quito; and Stevenson (Travels in South America) says, "if known in Europe, it would undoubtedly become an article of commerce." Another much more expensive species of coloring matter (red) is obtained in various parts of South America from the leaves of the _Bignonia Chica_, a climbing evergreen shrub, native of the Orinoco country, with large handsome panicles of flowers. The coloring substance is obtained by decoction, which deposits, when cool, a red matter; this is formed into cakes and dried. Dr. Ure thinks it might probably be turned to account in the arts of civilization. The order of plants to which it belongs, contains a vast number of species, all natives of tropical regions, and their value for the production of coloring substances may be worth investigation.

It is met with in British Guiana, and the Indian tribes of that district prepare the pigment with which they stain their skin from it; it is called by them "Caraveru." The coloring matter is used as a dye in the United States, and for artistical purposes would rival madder. Sir Robert Schomburgk thinks it might form an article of export if it were sufficiently known, as its preparation is extremely simple. The leaves are dried in the sun, and at the first exposure, after having been plucked from the vine which produces them, they show the abundant feculent substance which they contain.

LANA DYE.--A beautiful bluish-black color, known as "Caruto," is procured in Demerara and Berbice from the juice of the fruit of the _Genipa Americana_, Linn.--a tree very common in the colony. The Indians use it for staining their faces and persons. The Lana dye was honorably mentioned by the jurors at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The bluish-black color obtained from it is remarkably permanent, a fact which has very long been known, though hardly any attempt appears to have been made to introduce it to the notice of European dyers. Another pigment is prepared by them from arnotto, mixed with turtle oil, or carap oil, obtained from the seeds of the _Carapa guianensis_ (Aubl.). The wild plantain (_Urania guianensis_) and the cultivated plantain (_Musa paridisiaca_), the Mahoe (_Thespesia populnea_), and the pear seed of the Avocado (_Persea gratissima_), furnish dyes in various parts of the West Indies; specimens of many of these have been imported from British Guiana and Trinidad.

Russia produces good specimens of the wood of _Statice coriaria_, the leaves and bark of sumach, the bark of the wild pomegranate, yellow berries, _Madia sativa_, saffron, safflower and madder roots for dyeing purposes.

_Avicenna tomentosa_, a species of mangrove, is very common about the creeks of Antigua, Jamaica, and other West India islands, where it is used for dyeing and tanning.

In New Zealand, the natives produce a most brilliant blue-black dye from the bark of the Eno, which is in great abundance. Some of the borders of the native mats, of a most magnificent black, are dyed with this substance. It has been tried in New South Wales; but, as with other local dyes, although found well suited for flax, hemp, linen, or other vegetable productions, it could not be fixed on wools or animal matter. Dr. Holroyd, of Sydney, some time since, imported a ton of it for a friend near Bathurst. It is of great importance that chemical science should be applied to devise some means of fixing this valuable dye on wool. As the tree is so common, the bark could be had in any quantity at about £3 10s. a ton; and our tweed manufacturers are in great want of a black dye for their check and other cloths.

The principal heavy woods used for dyeing are fustic, logwood, Nicaragua wood, barwood, camwood, red Sanders wood, Brazil wood, and sappan wood. All the dyewoods are nearly £2 per ton higher than last year.

Common Spanish fustic which in September, 1852, was only £3 10s. per ton, now fetches £6 10s. in the Liverpool market; and there is a great demand for all kinds of dyewoods. Tampico and Puerto Cabello fustic are now worth £6 10s. to £7 the ton, Cuba ditto, £9 10s. to £10.

Sappan wood is £4 higher than last year; barwood has risen cent per cent; logwoods are £2 per ton higher.

The following were the prices of the different dyewoods in the Liverpool market, on the 1st September, 1853, per ton:--

£ s. d. £ s. d. FUSTIC, common Spanish 5 10 0 to 6 10 0 Tampico 6 10 0 7 0 0 Puerto Cabello 6 10 0 7 10 0 Cuba 8 0 0 9 10 0 LOGWOOD, Jamaica 5 0 0 5 5 0 St. Domingo 5 5 0 5 10 0 Campeachy, direct 7 12 6 8 0 0 Indirect and Tobasco 6 10 0 7 0 0 NICARAGUA. WOOD. Rio de la Hache, solid 9 0 0 11 10 0 " " small 6 0 0 6 10 0 Lima 12 0 0 14 10 0 BARWOOD, Angola } Gaboon } 7 0 0 ----- CAMWOOD 25 0 0 30 10 0 RED SANDERS WOOD 5 15 0 6 10 0 SAPPAN WOOD 10 0 0 15 0 0

RED SANDERS WOOD (_Pterocarpus santalinus_), which is hard and of a bright garnet red color, is employed to dye a lasting reddish brown on wool. It only yields its color to ether or alcohol. The tree, which is a lofty one, is common about Madras and other parts of India; it is also indigenous to Ceylon, Timor, and other Eastern islands. The exports of this wood from Madras in one year have been nearly 2,000 tons.

The imports of red Sanders wood from Calcutta and Bombay chiefly into London are to the extent of 700 or 800 tons a year, worth £6 to £9 per ton.

Of FUSTIC we import from 1,500 to 2,000 tons annually. We derive our supplies from Brazil, Tampico, Puerto Cabello, Cuba, and Jamaica. The best is obtained from Cuba; for while the common white fustic from Jamaica and the Spanish Main fetches only £5 10s. to £6 10s. the ton, that of Cuba realizes from £8 to £9 10s. the ton.

SAPPAN WOOD (_Cæsalpinia Sappan_) is an article of considerable commerce in the East. It is the bukkum wood of Scinde, and is procured in Mergui, Bengal, the Tenasserim Provinces, Malabar and Ceylon. In 1842 as much 78,000 cwts. were shipped from Ceylon, but the export from thence has decreased. This island, however, ships dyewoods annually to the amount of £2,000. A large quantity is exported from Siam and the Philippine Islands; as much as 200,000 piculs annually from the former, and 23,000 piculs from Manila. 3,524 piculs were shipped from Singapore in 1851, and 4,074 piculs in 1852. The picul is about one cwt. and a quarter. Sappan wood yields a yellowish color, like that of Brazil wood (_C. brasiliensis_) but it does not afford of dye matter so much in quantity or so good in quality.

It forms a large export from Ceylon: the shipments from thence were, in 1842, 77,694 cwt.; in 1843, 1,692; in 1844, 2,592; in 1845, 2,854. I have no detailed returns at hand, but in 1837, 23,695 piculs of sappan wood, and 2,266 piculs of roots of ditto were shipped, and in the first six months of 1843, 22,326 piculs were exported from Manila; a large portion of this comes to Europe, but some goes to China, the United States, Singapore, &c. 15,500 piculs were shipped from Manila in 1844, 5,250 ditto in 1845; and 1,210 tons in 1850. About 3,000 piculs of sappan wood and the same quantity of other dye-stuffs are annually imported into Shanghae. The price of straight sappan wood at Shanghae in July, last year, was thirty dollars per picul.

In Calcutta, in June last year, 4,000 piculs of the root of Manila sappan wood sold freely at about 7s. 6d. per factory maund, Siam ditto 6s.

75 tons were imported into Liverpool in 1849; and 120 tons in 1850, from Calcutta. The imports of sappan wood into the United Kingdom, in 1850, amounted to 3,670 tons, worth £8 to £12 the ton, and this continued the price in January 1853.

Camwood, red sanders wood, barwood, and other dye woods, are found in great quantities in many parts of Africa. The dyes of Africa are found to resist both acids and light, properties which no other dyes seem to possess in the same degree. About thirty miles east of Bassia Cove, in the republic of Liberia, is the commencement of a region of unknown extent, where scarcely any tree is seen except the camwood. This boundless forest of wealth, as yet untouched, is easily accessible from that settlement; roads can be opened to it with little expense, and the neighbouring kings would probably give their co-operation to a measure so vastly beneficial to themselves. It is impossible to ascertain the exact amount of export of these commodities to Europe and the United States, but it is very great, and employs a large amount of vessels. One Liverpool house imported 600 tons in a single year, worth £9,000.

In 1841 upwards of 3,000 tons of dye woods were imported into Liverpool from the western coast of Africa.

CAMWOOD (_Baphia nitida_) is used as a mordant and for producing the bright red color seen in English bandana handkerchiefs. The imports from Sierra Leone to Liverpool in 1849 were 216 tons, worth £20 to £25 per ton.

Gaboon barwood is another variety of this dyewood which is imported from the west coast of Africa, in straight flat pieces, from three to, five feet in length; the average annual import being about 2,000 tons, of the value of £4 a ton.

The imports of barwood into Liverpool were in--

Tons. 1835 2,000 1836 1,000 1837 1,150 1838 650 1839 350 1841 2,012 1850 1,710

Dyewoods imported in 1850. Re-exported. Logwood 32,930 4,332 Fustic 9,808 1,771 Nicaragua 7,909 112 Barwood 1,896 1,229 Sappan 3,670 -- Green Ebony, and } Cocuswood } 1,457 -- Red Sanders 656 -- Camwood 416 -- Brazil and Brazillito 309 -- ------ ----- 59,051 7,444

Thus we perceive the annual consumption of heavy dyewoods in this country, in dyeing cotton, linen, woollen and silk goods, &c., exceeds in weight 51,000 tons.

ARNOTTO.--The plants of this family are chiefly natives of the warmest parts of South America, the East and West Indies, and Africa. In America the seeds are called achote or roucou. From the port of Barcelona, in Venezuela, about 2,000 quintals are annually exported. The species grown for its dye is the _Bixa orellana_. It is used to impart a bright orange color to silk goods, and to afford a deeper shade to simple yellows. The dry hard paste is also found to be the best of all ingredients for giving a golden tint to cheese or butter. A convenient liquid preparation is now sold to dairymen. The Spanish Americans mix it with their chocolate, to which it gives a beautiful rich hue.

It is of two sorts, viz.:--

1. Flag or cake arnotto, which is by far the most important article in a commercial point of view, is furnished almost wholly by Cayenne. It is imported in square cakes, weighing two or three pounds each, wrapped in banana leaves, packed in casks.

2. Roll arnotto is principally brought from Brazil. The rolls are small, not exceeding two or three ounces in weight. It is hard, dry, and compact, brownish on the outside, and of a beautiful red color within.

The dye is usually prepared by macerating the pods in boiling water for a week or longer. When they begin to ferment, the seeds ought to be strongly stirred and bruised with wooden pestles to promote the separation of the red skins. This process is repeated several times, till the seeds are left white. The liquor passed through close cane sieves, pretty thick, of a deep red color, and a very bad smell, is received into coppers. In boiling, it throws up its coloring matter to the surface in the form of scum, which is taken off, saved in large pans, and afterwards boiled down to a due consistence, and then made up, when soft, into balls or cakes of two or three pounds weight.

The following description of the manufacture is from Dr. Ure:--

"The pods of the tree being gathered, their seeds are taken out and bruised; they are then transferred to a vat, which is called the steeper, where they are mixed with as much water as covers them. Here the substance is left for several weeks or even months; it is now squeezed through sieves placed above the steeper, that the water containing the coloring matter in suspension may return into the vat. The residuum is preserved under the leaves of the pine-apple shrub, till it becomes hot by fermentation. It is again subjected to the same operation, and this treatment is continued till no more color remains.

"The substance thus extracted is passed through sieves, in order to separate the remainder of the seeds, and the color is allowed to subside. The precipitate is boiled in coppers till it be reduced to a consistent paste; it is then suffered to cool, and dried in the shade. Instead of this long and painful labor, which occasions diseases by the putrefaction induced and which affords a spoiled product, Leblond proposes simply to wash the seeds of arnotto till they be entirely deprived of their color, which lies wholly on their surface; to precipitate the color by means of vinegar or lemon juice, and to boil it up in the ordinary manner, or to drain it in bags as is practised with indigo.

"The experiments which Vauquelin made on the seeds of arnotto imported by Leblond, confirmed the efficacy of the process which he proposed; and the dyers ascertained that the arnotto obtained in this manner was worth at least four times more than that of commerce; that, moreover, it was more easily employed; that it required less solvents; that it gave less trouble in the copper, and furnished a purer color."--("Dict. of Arts.")

Our imports of arnotto for home consumption are from 200,000 to 300,000 lbs. per annum. The plant is grown in Dacca and other parts of India, and the eastern Archipelago. At the Hawaiian Islands, Tongataboo, Rio Janeiro, Peru and Zanzibar, the arnotto is an indigenous shrub which rises to the height of seven or eight feet, producing oblong heavy pods, somewhat resembling those of a chesnut. Within these there are generally thirty or forty irregularly-formed seeds, which are enveloped in a pulp of a bright red color, and a fragrant smell.

The imports of arnotto have been as follows:--

Retained for lbs. home consumption. 1834 252,981 -- 1835 163,421 -- 1839 303,489 224,794 1840 408,469 330,490 1847 270,000 296,821 1849 162,400 145,824 1850 301,504 231,280

The price of flag arnotto in the London market, in June 1853, was 1s. per lb.

We imported from France, in 1850, 1,924 cwt. of roll or flag arnotto, of the official value of £21,499; and in 1851, 1,253 cwt., worth £13,968.

Wood dye exported from Ceylon--

Value Quantity £ cwts. 1848 1,359 -- 1849 2,035 -- 1850 1,766 5,206 1851 259 776 1852 770 2,396

CHAY-ROOT.--There is a plant called chay, the _Oldenlandia umbellata_, which is extensively cultivated as a dye plant in the East, especially on the coasts of Coromandel, Nellore, Masulipatam, Malabar, and other parts of India. The outer bark of the roots furnishes the coloring matter for the durable red for which the chintzes of India are famous. Chay-root forms a considerable article of export from Ceylon. The wild plant there is considered preferable; the roots, which are shorter, yielding one-fourth part more coloring matter, and the right to dig it is farmed out. It grows spontaneously on light, dry, sandy ground on the sea coast; the cultivated roots are slender, with a few lateral fibres, and from one to two feet long. The dye is said to have been tried in Europe, but not with very advantageous effect. Dr. Bancroft suspects it may be injured by the long voyage, but he adds that it cannot produce any effect which may not be more cheaply obtained from madder.

This red dye, similar to Munjeet, is used to a great extent in the southern parts of Hindostan by the native dyers.

It is not held in very good estimation in Europe but seems to deserve a better reputation than it at present possesses. Attention was drawn to it as a dye-stuff in 1798, by a special minute of the Board of Trade recommending its importation; but Dr. Bancroft, who made some experiments with a sample of damaged chay-root, considered it inferior to madder and hence discouraged its further importation.

The bark and root of various species of Morinda (_M. citrifolia_ and _tinctoria_) are used in different parts of the East Indies, and considered a very valuable red dye. The colors dyed with it are for the most part exceedingly brilliant, and the coloring matter is far more permanent than many other red colors are, with improved management it would probably rival that of madder, and is, therefore, worthy more attention from dyers.

MANGROVE BARK (_Rhizophora mangle_), is used to dye a chocolate color in the East and West Indies. This was one of the colors introduced by Dr. Bancroft, and for the exclusive use of which he obtained an Act of Parliament. It is procured in plenty at Arracan, Malabar, and Singapore in the East.

SHUMAC or SUMACH, sometimes called young fustic, is the powder of the leaves, peduncles, and young branches of a small deciduous plant (_Rhus coriaria_), native of the South of Europe, but which is also grown in Syria and Palestine, for its powerful astringent properties, which renders it valuable for tanning light-colored leather, and it imparts a beautiful bright yellow dye to cottons, which is rendered permanent by proper mordants. It is principally imported from the Ionian Islands and the Morea. The species grown for the purpose in Spain, Portugal, and Italy is _R. Cotinus_, a shrub with pale purple flowers, whereas _R. coriaria_ has greenish yellow blossoms. They may be propagated by cuttings of the roots and layers. _R. typhina_, and _R. glabia_, with their varieties, are North American species, which are also used for tanning purposes. In Montpellier and the South of France the twigs and leaves are known under the name of _redoul_ or _roudo_. They are gathered every year, and the shoots are chipped or reduced to powder by a mill.

The imports into the United Kingdom were in 1846,10,256 tons; in 1847, 11,975 tons; in 1848, 9,617 tons; in 1849, 12,590 tons; in 1850, 12,929 tons, and in 1852, 9,758; which were all retained for consumption. In 1841, we received about 9,000 tons from the port of Leghorn. There were exported from Sicily in 1842, 123,305 tons, valued at £68,894. It is imported in packages of about a cwt., wrapped in cloth. America takes a large quantity of sumach. The imports into the port of Boston alone, were 19,070 bags in 1847; 34,524 in 1848; and 30,050 in 1849.

The prices in Liverpool, duty paid, in the close of this year, are per cwt.:--

s. d. s. d. Sicily, Messina 10 0 to 10 6 " Palermo 12 0 " 13 0 " Trieste 7 0 " 7 6 " Verona 5 6 " 6 6 " Tyrolese 8 0 " 9 0

SAFFLOWER.--The dried flowers of _Carthamus tinctorius_ yield a pink dye, which is used for silks and cottons, and the manufacture of rouge; the color, however, is very fugitive. It is an annual plant, cultivated in China, India, Egypt, America, Spain, and some of the warmer parts of Europe; and is indigenous to the whole of the Indian Archipelago. A large quantity is grown in and exported from Bali. The Chinese safflower is considered the best, and that from Bombay is least esteemed. The annual quantity exported from the district of Dacca averages about 150 tons. The shipments from Calcutta exceed 300 tons to various quarters. Our imports are on the decline, and are now only about 1,200 cwt. per annum. Safflower was shown in the Great Exhibition from Celebes, Assam, the vicinity of Calcutta, Dacca, the states of Rajpootana, and other places.

There are two species: _C. tinctorius_, which has small leaves and an orange flower; and _C. oxyacantha_, with larger leaves and a yellow flower, a native of Caucasus. The former is cultivated in Egypt, the Levant, &c., where it forms a considerable article of commerce. 6,633 cwts. of safflower were imported into the United Kingdom in 1835, of which about one-half was retained for home consumption. Of 5,352 cwts. imported in 1840, nearly the whole came from our possessions in the East. In 1847, about 405 tons were imported; in 1848, 506 tons; in 1849, 407 tons; in 1850, 522 tons. The price of safflower varies from £1 to £8 per cwt., according to quality. That from Bombay is least esteemed, fetching only 20s. to 30s.

The annual quantity of safflower, according to Dr. Taylor, exported from the district of Dacca for eight years ending with 1839, amounted to 4,000 maunds, or about 149 tons. The exports through the Calcutta Custom House are occasionally large: in 1824-25 there were about 316 tons; 8,500 Indian maunds were shipped from Calcutta in each of the years 1841 and 1842.

The prices in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, were for Bengal, good and fine, £6 to £7 10s. per cwt.; middling, £4 to £4 10s.; inferior and ordinary, £2 10s. to £3.

GAMBOGE is extensively used as a pigment, from its bright yellow color. There are two kinds known in commerce, the Ceylon and the Siam. The former is procured from the _Hebradendron Cambogoides_, Graham; a tree which grows wild on the Malabar and Ceylon coasts, and affords the coarsest kind. The pipe gamboge of Siam is said to be obtained from the bruised leaves and young branches of _Stalagmites cambogoides_. The resinous sap is received into calabashes, and allowed to thicken, after which it is formed into rolls. Several other plants, as the _Mangostana Gambogia_, Gaertner, and the _Hypericum bacciferum_ and _Cayanense_, yield similar yellow viscid exudation, hardly distinguishable from gamboge and used for the same purpose by painters. The _Garcinia elliptica_, Wallich, of Tavoy and Moulmein, affords gamboge, and approaches very closely in its characters to Graham's _Hebradendron_. In like manner the Mysore tree bears an exceedingly close resemblance to that species. It is common in the forests of Wynaad in the western part of Mysore, and has been named by Dr. Christison _Hebradendron pictorium_. Another gamboge tree has recently been found inhabiting the western Burmese territories. Both these seem to furnish an equally fine pigment. As it can be obtained in unlimited quantity, it might be introduced into European trade, if the natives learn how to collect it in a state of purity, and make it up in homogenous masses in imitation of pipe gamboge, the finest Siam variety. It seems to possess more coloring matter, more resin and less gum than the ordinary gamboge of commerce. Gamboge owes its color to the fatty acid. The resin must be regarded as the chief constituent, and is most abundant in that imported from Ceylon, which contains about 76 per cent., and is therefore best adapted for painting. Gamboge also has its medicinal uses.

Various species of _Lecanora_, particularly _L. tartarea_, known as cudbear, are used in dyeing woollen yarn. The _Rocella tinctoria_ and _fusiformis_ furnish the orchil, or orchilla weed of commerce, which is sometimes sold as a moist pulp, but usually in the form of dry cakes, known under the name of _litmus_; it produces a fine purple color. Our imports, which have amounted to 6,000 or 7,000 cwts. annually, are derived chiefly from the Canary, Azores, and Cape Verd Islands. Rock orchilla was shown at the Exhibition, from the Berlingen Isles, from Angola, Madeira and the Cape de Verds. Orchilla weed is very plentiful about the shores of the islands of New Zealand, some being sent from thence to the Exhibition; but from a want of knowledge as to the time at which it should be gathered, and the mode of preparing it for the market, it has not yet become a saleable commodity there. The rich varieties of lichens on the rocks and plains of Australia have not been tested, as they ought to be, with Helot's lichen test. Various lichens, and _Rocella tinctoria_, from Tenasserim and other parts of India, have been introduced by the East India Company. In the Admiralty instructions given to Capt. Sir James C. Ross, on his Antarctic voyage, a few years ago, his attention was specially called to the search and enquiry for substitutes for the _Rocella_, which is now becoming scarce. A prize medal was awarded, in 1851, to an exhibitor from the Elbe for specimens of the weed, and an extract of red and violet orchil. Specimens of varieties of the lichens used in the manufacture of cudbear, orchil and litmus, and of the substance obtained, were also shown in the British department, which were awarded prize medals.

The beauty of the dyes given by common materials, in the Highlands of Scotland, to some of the cloths which were exhibited, should lead our botanists and chemists to examine, more closely than they have hitherto done, the dye-stuffs that might be extracted from British plants. Woad (_Isatis tinctoria_) and the dyers' yellow woad (_Reseda lutea_), are both well known. A piece of tweed, spun and woven in Ross-shire, was dyed brown and black, by such cheap and common dyes as moss and alder bark, and the colors were unexceptionable.

Sutherlandshire tweed and stockings, possessing a rich brown color, were produced with no more valuable dye than soot; in another piece, beautifully dyed, the yellow was obtained from stoney rag, brown from the crops of young heather, and purple from the same, but subjecting the yarn to a greater action of the dye than was necessary to produce brown. There is very little doubt but that beautiful and permanent dyes, from brown to a very rich purple, might be cheaply procured by scientific preparations of the common heather (_Genista tinctoria_). The inhabitants of Skye exhibited cloth with a peculiarly rich dye, obtained from the "crobal" moss. In the Spanish department, specimens of vegetable dyes from many cultivated and wild plants were furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa, and of several of these it would be important to obtain descriptions and particulars.

Gums are of essential importance to the dyer, and the imports of these, therefore, are large, averaging about 8,000 tons.

INDIGO.

The plants which afford this dye grow chiefly in the East and West Indies, in the middle regions of America, in Africa and Europe. They are all species of the genera _Indigofera_, _Isatis_ and _Nerium_. _Indigofera tinctoria_ or _coerulea_, furnishes the chief indigo of commerce, and affords in Bengal, Malabar, Madagascar, the Isle of France, and St. Domingo, an article of middling quality, but not in large quantity. The _Indigofera disperma_, a plant cultivated in the East Indies and America, grows higher than the preceding, is woody, and furnishes a superior dye-stuff. The Guatamela indigo comes from this species.

_Indigofera Anil_ grows in the same countries, and also in the West Indies. The _Indigofera Argentea_, which flourishes in Africa, yields little indigo, but it is of an excellent quality. _I. pseudotinctoria_, cultivated in the East Indies, furnishes the best of all. _I. glauca_ is the Egyptian and Arabian species. There are also the _cinerea_, _erecta_ (a native of Guinea), _hirsuta_, _glabra_, with red flowers, species common to the East, and several others.

The _Wrightia tinctoria_, of the East Indies, an evergreen, with white blossoms, affords some indigo, as does the _Isatis tinctoria_, or, Woad, in Europe, and the _Polygonum tinctorium_, with red flowers, a native of China. _Baptisia tinctoria_ furnishes a blue dye, and is the wild indigo of the United States.

SOURCES OF SUPPLY.--Indigo is at present grown for commercial purposes in Bengal, and the other provinces of that Presidency, from the 20th to the 30th deg. of north latitude; in the Province of Tinnevelly; in the Madras Presidency; in Java, in the largest of the Philippine islands, in Guatemala, Caraccas, Central America and Brazil. Bengal is, however, the chief mart for indigo, and the quantity produced in other places is comparatively inconsiderable. It is also still cultivated in some of the West India islands, especially St. Domingo, but not in large quantities. Indigo grows wild in several parts of Palestine, but attention seems not to have been given to its cultivation or collection. On most parts of the eastern and western coasts of Africa, it is indigenous; at Sierra Leone, Natal, and other places it is found abundant.

In our settlements of Honduras, Demerara, and various portions of the American continent, it would amply reward the labor of the cultivator; several inferior sorts of Indigofera being found there indigenous, and only requiring care and culture to improve them.

The quality of indigo depends upon the species of the plant, its ripeness, the soil and climate of its growth, and the mode of manufacture. The East India, and Brazilian indigo arrives here packed in chests, the Guatemala in ox-hides, called serons.

The indigo imported from the western hemisphere was for some time considered superior in quality to that of the East. Its cultivation, however, has been neglected, and the Bengal indigo is preferred at present to any imported from South America, where it is now only cultivated by the Brazilians and Colombians. If proper attention were paid to the cultivation of the plant, and to the preparation of the dye, it is very likely part of that important trade would be brought back. It thrives best in a moist climate, and the interior of Guiana, chiefly newly-cleared land, would be well adapted for it.

The late Mr. Dunlop ("Travels in Central America") gives an interesting description, which, at the risk of repetition in some points, I shall give entire.

"Several vessels generally arrive at the Union from South America at the time of the periodical fairs, where nearly all the indigo (the only produce of any importance), is disposed of; formerly it reached 10,000 bales, but at present it does not at most exceed 3,000 bales of 150 lbs. each.

The indigo well known in Europe by the name of Guatemala indigo, was never cultivated in that province (in the same manner as not a grain of the Honduras cochineal is grown there), being entirely grown in the state of San Salvador, in the vicinity of San Miguel, San Vicenti, and the City of Salvador, with the exception of a small quantity of very superior quality grown in the state of Nicaragua, and a few bales in Costa Rica, which is all consumed in the State. Under the government of Spain, the produce of the state of San Salvador alone had reached 10,000 bales, and that of Nicaragua 2,000; the produce of San Salvador in 1820, two years before its independence, being 8,323 bales. But since 1822 the annual produce had gradually declined, and in 1846 it did not exceed 1,000 to 1,200 bales, nearly all the indigo estates being abandoned, partly, no doubt, from the great fall in the price of the article, but more on account of the impossibility of getting laborers to work steadily.

The plant cultivated in Central America for the manufacture of indigo, is the triennial plant, supposed to be a native of America; but there is also an indigenous perennial plant, abounding in many parts of Central America, which produces indigo of a very superior quality, but gives less than half the weight which is produced by the cultivated species. The ground for sowing the indigo seed is prepared in April,--a piece of good forest land near one of the towns being selected, a part is cut to make a rude fence, and the remainder burnt, which is easily accomplished, as everything is very dry at that season; and the ground is afterwards scratched with two sticks, fastened crosswise, to resemble somewhat the shape of a plough, and the seed scattered over it by hand. The rainy season always commences early in May, and the indigo is ready for cutting about the middle of July, taking about two and a half months to come to perfection. The growing crop somewhat resembles lucerne, and is in the best state for making indigo, when it becomes covered with a sort of greenish farina.

The crop of the first year is small, and sometimes not worth manufacturing; that of the second year is the best, and the third is also very good, if it has been carefully weeded; but many indigo fields have lasted more than ten years without being re-sown, as the seed which falls naturally springs up again, and where the land is good yields nearly as large a crop as a new sown field. When the plant is ready for manufacturing, a number of men are collected, each of whom is either provided with, or brings his own mule or horse, if he has one. Two men always go together, cut the plant, then about the height of full-grown red clover, and take it to the vats, which are large tanks made of brick and lime, holding at least 1,000 gallons, and some as much as 10,000. Into these the plant is thrown till they are nearly full, when weights are put above it to prevent its floating; and the vats filled with water till it covers the mass of the indigo plant. After remaining from twelve to twenty-four hours, according to the state of the plant, weather, and other circumstances (the time required being determined by the color which the water assumes), the herb is taken out, and the water beaten with paddles in the very small vats, and by a wheel suspended above and turned by men or horses in the larger ones, till it changes from a green color, which it has acquired ere the removal of the herb, to a fine blue, when it is allowed to stand for some hours, till the coloring matter has settled to the bottom of the tank, a process which is generally hastened by throwing in an infusion of certain herbs to facilitate its settlement, or as the natives term it curdle (_cuajar_) the colored water. As soon as all the color has settled, the water is drawn off, and the blue, which is of the consistency of thick mud, is taken out of the vat and spread upon cotton, or coarse woollen cloth, and dried in the sun. The color in a great measure depends upon removing the herb exactly at the proper time, and upon properly beating the water, neither too long, or too short. Unless these processes are properly performed, the indigo will not be of first-rate quality; but some estates will never produce the best indigo, whatever care may be bestowed on the manufacture.

A _mansana_, of 100 yards square, which is nearly two British statute acres, produces generally about 100 to 120 lbs. of indigo, the carriage and cutting of the herb costing about twenty dollars, and the cleaning of the field and all other expenses connected with it, including the manufacture of the indigo, about as much more.

The indigo of Central America is not put into moulds when drying, as that of Bengal, but is allowed to remain in the rough shape in which it dries, and without further preparation is ready for baling and exportation.

The bales are generally made up in 150 lbs. each, and the quality is classed by numbers, from 1 to 9; Nos. 1 to 3 being of the quality called _cobres_ in Europe; Nos. 4 to 6 of that called _cortes_, and Nos. 7 to 9 of that called _flores_; Nos. 1 to 6 do not at present pay the expenses of manufacture, and are never intentionally made. No doubt, with a little more skill in the manufacture, the whole might, as in Bengal, be made of the quality called _flores_; but such improvements cannot be expected till a new race of people inhabit Central America. At present about one-half of the indigo produced is under No. 7, and as the cultivation is said not to pay at the present prices--and, indeed, hardly can be supposed to compete with Bengal, a country where labor is so much cheaper, and capital abundant--it is probable, that the cultivation will shortly be entirely abandoned, unless the price should again rise in Europe." In 1846, 21,933 lbs. of indigo were exported from Angostura.

The following particulars were contributed to my "Colonial Magazine," by the late Dr. Edward Binns, of Jamaica:--

The species generally cultivated is the _I. tinctoria_, which requires a rich moist soil and warm weather. The seed, which is at first sight not unlike coarse gunpowder, is sown three or four inches deep, in straight lines, twelve or fifteen inches apart. The shoots appear above ground in about a week; at the end of two months the plant flowers, when it is fit for cutting, which is done with a pruning knife. It must be mentioned that great care is requisite in weeding the indigo field when plants first shoot through the earth. In the State of St. Salvador, large vats made of mahogany, or other hard wood, are constructed for the reception of the plant, where it is allowed to undergo maceration and fermentation. In a short time the water becomes greenish, and emits a strong pungent smell, while carbonic acid gas is freely evolved. In about twenty-four hours it is run off into large flat vessels, and stirred about until a blue scum appears, when additional water is added, and the blue flakes sink to the bottom. The supernatant water has now acquired a yellowish tinge, when it is run off carefully, and the blue deposit or sediment put into bags to drain. It is subsequently dried in the shade, or sometimes in the sun, then placed in cotton bags and carried to the indigo fair, or forwarded to the city of Guatemala.

The East Indian mode of manufacturing the indigo differs materially, and many suppose it preferable to the Salvador. It consists in _steaming_ the fermented mass in large pipes enclosed in huge boilers. I am inclined to believe this to be the most economical, if not the best way of manufacturing indigo. From Guatemala alone, it is computed that from 6,000 to 8,000 serons of indigo are exported annually; while San Miguel, Chalatenaugo, Tejulta, Secatecolnea, St. Vincent, Sensuntepepe, not only, it is said, produce a larger quantity, but the four last-mentioned places have the advantage as to quality. The _Belize Advertiser_ stated, some time since, that the value of this dye from one State in 1830 produced 2,000,000 dollars, the minimum of an immense sum which has been most unjustly and unwisely wrested from the people of Jamaica, and the West India islands.

Bridges ("Annals of Jamaica," p. 584, Append.), speaking of the vast returns of an indigo plantation, says, "The labour of a single negro would often bring to his owner £30 sterling per annum clear profit,--a sum which was at the time the laborer's highest price. It continued the _staple_ of Jamaica till an intolerable tax oppressed it, while its price was lowered by the competition of other colonies.

Its cultivation immediately declined throughout them all, but nowhere so rapidly as here. The financial error was quickly discovered,--a remedy was attempted by a bounty; but it came too late, the plantations were thrown up, and the planters, attracted by the temporary gain, abused the tardy boon, by introducing, as of their own growth, large quantities of foreign indigo." As Bridges may be said in this passage to be merely a commentator on Edwards, who has entered more largely upon the subject, I shall condense from the latter, statements connected with the manufacture and decay of this branch of industry, once the staple of Jamaica.

Edwards ("West Indies," vol. ii., p. 275, 2nd edition) reckons three kinds of indigo--the wild, Guatemala, and French. The first is the hardest, and the dye extracted from it of the best quality as regards color and grain; but one or other of the two species is commonly preferred by the planter, as yielding a greater return. Of these the French surpasses the Guatemala in quantity, but yields to it in fineness of grain and beauty of color. The indigo thrives almost on any land, though the richest soils produce the most luxuriant plants, and the longest dry weather will not kill it. The cultivation and manufacture our author thus describes:--"The land being prepared, trenches, two or three inches in depth, are made by the hoe. These are ten or twelve inches asunder. The seeds are then strewed in the trenches by the hand, and slightly covered with mould. When the plants shoot, they are carefully weeded, and kept constantly clean, until they rise high enough to cover the ground. A bushel of seed is sufficient for four or five acres. The best season for planting is March; but if the land be good, it may be sown at any time, and in three months the plants attain maturity. In seasonable situations, they have four cuttings in the year. The subsequent growths from the plants ripen in six or eight weeks; but the produce diminishes after the second cutting, so that the seeds should be sown every second year. A species of grub, or worm, which infests the plant on the second year is avoided by changing the soil; or, in other words, by a rotation of crops. The produce per acre of the first cutting is about 60 lbs. It is nearly as much in North America; but when the thermometer falls to sixty, the returns are very uncertain, that degree of heat being too low for the necessary vegetation, maceration, and fermentation. The yieldings for the subsequent cuttings somewhat diminish; but in Jamaica and St. Domingo, if the land is new, about 300 lbs. per acre of the second quality may be expected annually from all the cuttings together; and four negroes are sufficient to carry on the cultivation of five acres, besides doing other occasional work, sufficient to reimburse the expenses of their maintenance and clothing."

The process for obtaining the dye, according to the same author, was conducted through the means of two cisterns, the one elevated above the other, in the manner of steps. The higher, which was also the longer, was named the _sleeper_--its dimensions sixteen feet square and two and a half in depth. The second, into which the fluid was discharged, was called the _battery_; it was about twelve feet square, and four and a half in depth. These cisterns were of stone; but strong timber answered remarkably well. There was also a lime-vat, six feet square and four feet deep, the plug of which was at least eight inches from the bottom. This was for the purpose of permitting the lime to subside, before the lime-water was withdrawn. The plants then being ripe, or fit for cutting, were cut with reaping-hooks, or sickles, a few inches from the ground--six was the minimum--and placed by strata in the _sleeper_, until it was about three parts full. They were then pressed with boards, either loaded with weights or wedged down, so as to prevent the plants from floating loosely; and as much water was admitted as they would imbibe, until it covered the mass four or five inches deep. In this state it was allowed to ferment until the water had extracted the pulp. To know when this had been thoroughly effected, required extreme attention and great practical knowledge; for if the fluid were drawn off too soon, much of the pulp was left behind; and if the fermentation continued too long, the tender tops of the plants were decomposed, and the whole crop lost. When the tincture or extract was received in the battery, it was agitated or churned until the dye began to granulate, or float in little flakes upon the surface. This was accomplished at one period in Jamaica by paddles, worked by manual labor, and, in the French islands, by buckets or cylinders, worked by long poles; but subsequently--that is, at the time Edwards wrote--convenient apparatus was constructed, the levers of which were worked by a cog-wheel, kept in motion by a horse or mule. When the fluid had been churned for fifteen or twenty minutes, a small quantity was examined in a cup or plate, and if it appeared curdled or coagulated, strongly impregnated lime-water was gradually added, not only with a view to promote separation, but to prevent decomposition. Browne remarks ("Civil and Nat. Hist. of Jamaica," art. "Indigo"), the planters "must carefully distinguish the different stages of this part of the operation also, and attentively examine the appearance and color as the work advances,--for the grain passes gradually from a greenish to a fine purple, which is the proper color when the liquor is sufficiently worked,--too small a degree of agitation leaving the indigo green and coarse, while too vigorous an action brings it to be almost black." The liquor being then, as we shall suppose, properly worked, and granulation established, it was left undisturbed until the flakes settled at the bottom, when the liquor was drawn off, and the sediment (which is the indigo) placed in little bags to drain, after which it was carefully packed in small square boxes, and suffered to dry gradually in the shade.

Such is the account, nearly word for word, which Edwards gives of the mode of manufacturing indigo. I shall now quote his remarks upon the outlay and gain upon the article _verbatim_.--"To what has been said above of the nature of the plant suiting itself to every soil, and producing four cuttings in the year, if we add the cheapness of the buildings, apparatus, and labor, and the great value of the commodity, there will seem but little cause for wonder at the splendid accounts which are transmitted down to us concerning the great opulence of the first indigo-planters. Allowing the produce of an acre to be 300 lbs., and the produce no more than 4s. per pound, the gross profit of only twenty acres will be £1,200, produced by the labor of only sixteen negroes, and on capital in land and buildings scarce deserving consideration." Yet, notwithstanding this statement, the author informs us afterwards that he knew, in the course of eighteen years' residence in the West Indies, upwards of twenty persons who tried to re-establish indigo manufactories, but failed. This appears strange, since it is plain that what has once been done can be done again, but especially in the manufacture of an article requiring a capital so very small in proportion to the profits as almost to tempt the most cautious and the most timid man to embark in it.

I quote the following passage from the same author, for the purpose of showing the very loose manner in which statements are made on the authority of others, who are as incompetent to decide the merits of a question as the party himself chronicling their opinion. Speaking of the twenty unfortunate indigo-planters, our author thus writes:--"Many of them were men of foresight, knowledge, and property. That they failed is certain; but of _the causes of their_ FAILURE _I confess I can give no satisfactory account._ I was told that disappointment trod close upon their heels at every stop. At one time the fermentation was too long continued, at another the liquor was drawn off too soon; now the pulp was not duly granulated, and now it was worked too much. To these inconveniences, for which practice would doubtless have found a remedy, were added others of a much greater magnitude--the mortality of the negroes, from the vapour of fermented liquor (an alarming circumstance, that, I am informed, both by the French and English planters, constantly attends the process), the failure of the seasons, and the ravages of the worm. These, or some of these evils, drove them at length to other pursuits, where industry might find a surer recompense."--(p. 283.)

The fallacy of much of this requires no comment, as it must strike even the most careless reader,--for if the so-called indigo-growers did not know the process of manufacturing the commodity, then it could not be surprising that they failed. Thus the cause of their failure required no comment, and no explanation. Were a ploughman taken from the field and placed at the helm of a ship, and the vessel in consequence wrecked, would any one be astonished but at the folly of those who placed him there? This was the case with the indigo-growers,--they attempted what they did not understand, and, consequently, lost their labor and their money. The mortality of the negroes employed, stated as another reason for abandoning the attempt, requires a somewhat more lengthy notice.

I can briefly say, that I have learned that in the Central States of America, deaths among indigo-laborers are not more frequent than in other branches of tropical industry; and I never heard or have read that the _original_ growers complained of the mortality attending the progress. The truth is, that this statement is not founded on fact. There is nothing whatever in the manufacture of indigo, either in the cultivation or the granulation, or even the maceration and fermentation of the plant, which is directly or indirectly, _per se_, injurious to human life. I have certainly never seen the indigo plant macerated on a large scale; but I have myself steeped much of it in water, and allowed it even to rot, and found nothing in the mass differing in any marked degree from decomposed vegetable matter. It seems to me that this idea of the manufacture of indigo being especially inimical to human life, is as unfounded as the belief, even by Humboldt, up to a very recent period, that none of the Cerealia would grow in tropical climates. In conversing with an old gentleman in Jamaica, some twelve years since, who had tried the manufacture of indigo, and with every prospect of success, but abandoned it, as he confessed, for the cultivation of the sugar cane, since it was then more profitable, he suggested the solution, that as the manufacture was light work, probably aged and debilitated, in place of youthful and vigorous slaves, were too frequently employed in the process--hence the mortality. This may be correct to a certain extent; but I am also inclined to think that another cause of mortality might be found in the mode and manner in which the negro was fed and clothed, and not because aged persons were exclusively engaged in the manufacture. I believe I may state, without fear of contradiction, that the real cause of the decline and consequent abandonment of the indigo plant was the monstrous duty levied upon it by the English government. Indeed, this has been already stated in the extract from Bridges; while the cause of the failure of the attempt to renew it, over and above the reasons we have given, was the greater temptation to embark capital in sugar plantations,--the West Indies enjoying a monopoly in this article, while they had competitors in the Southern States of America in the other. I have, therefore, no hesitation in saying, that, with a trifling capital, under prudent management, indigo might be cultivated to a very great extent, and with considerable profit, even now, in Jamaica. But the adventurer is not to expect to count his gains, as the original growers did, by thousands; he must be content with hundreds, if not fifties; for at the present day every branch of industry is laden with difficulties, encumbered by taxation, and obstructed by competition. There are two objections, however, which I have not removed,--I allude to "the failure of the seasons and the ravages of the worm." Very little need be said to combat these. Seasons are mutable, and the same heaven that frowns this year on the labors of the husbandman, may smile the next; while a remedy for the "ravages of the worm" may be found in the mutation of the soil, the destruction of the grub, or the rotation of crops,--accessories to success which seem not to have entered into the vocabularies of the twenty pseudo indigo-growers, "many of them men of knowledge, foresight and property."

The following passage from Bryan Edwards will corroborate much that I have endeavored to enforce. It furnishes not only a solution which has been hinted at before, of the enigma why indigo ceased to be cultivated in Jamaica, but also _an incentive_ to re-introduce the culture. He says (p. 444), "It is a remarkable and well-known circumstance, after the cultivation of indigo was suppressed by an exorbitant duty of near £20 the hundred-weight, Great Britain was compelled to pay her rivals and enemies £200,000 annually for this commodity, so essential to a great variety of her most important manufactures. At length, the duty being repealed, and a bounty some time after substituted in its place, the States of Georgia and South Carolina entered upon, and succeeding in the culture of this valuable plant, supplied at a far cheaper rate than the French and Spaniards (receiving too our manufactures in payment) not only the British consumption, but also enabled Great Britain to export a surplus at an advanced price to foreign markets."--It is therefore plain that the manufacture of indigo was lost to Jamaica, not from any difficulty in growing the plant, or from any loss of life attending the process of manufacturing it, but from the ruinously heavy duty of £20 the hundred-weight--and that now, when no duty exists, it might be again cultivated with great advantage.

The cultivation of indigo has been repeatedly attempted in Cuba, but never with much success; although the shrub called the Xiquilite, from which it is extracted, grows wild in several districts of the island, but more especially towards the eastern extremity. The first _anileria_, or manufactory of indigo, was established in 1795, under the patronage of the _Ayuntamento_ of the Havana, who made an advance of 3,500 dollars, without interest, to the party engaging in the speculation, in order to encourage the enterprise; but the undertaking proved unsuccessful, and the same fate has befallen every subsequent attempt to introduce this branch of industry. In 1827, the whole produce amounted only to 56 arrobas. In 1837 the imports of indigo greatly exceeded the exports; the former having amounted to 121,350 lbs., and the latter to 82,890 lbs. In 1833, 5,184 lbs. reached the United Kingdom from the Havana, and in 1843, 62,675 lbs.

In 1826 British Honduras exported 358,552 lbs.; in 1830, 2,650 serons; in 1844, 1,247 serons; and in 1845, 1,052 serons.

The indigo shrub is one of the most common bushes in Trinidad, where it grows wild on almost all the indifferent soils. In 1783, there were several plantations and manufactories of indigo established in Trinidad; these were subsequently abandoned, on account of a supposition that they were unhealthy. Prior to 1783, the colonists had a kind of simple process by which they extracted sufficient coloring matter to serve domestic consumption. This process is at present unknown, hence all the indigo used there is imported from Europe, although the plant from which it can be made vegetates in every direction.

In 1791 Hayti imported 930,016 lbs. of indigo, while in 1804 the export had dwindled to 35,400 lbs.

Indigo, as I have already stated, was once a most important crop in South Carolina, some attention has recently again been given to it by an individual or two in Louisiana, and the enterprise is said to promise success; enough might undoubtedly be raised in the United States to supply the home market. Some indigo produced at Baton Rouge was pronounced to have been equal to the best Caraccas, which sells at two dollars per pound; and the gentleman who cultivated it remarks, that one acre of ground there, well cultivated, will yield from 40 to 60 lbs.; that it requires only from July to October for cultivating it; that there is not connected with it one-third of the expense or time that is generally required for the cultivation of cotton.

I take the following from Smyth's "Tour in the United States."

"This plant is somewhat like the fern when grown, and when young is hardly distinguishable from lucern grass, its leaves in general are pinnated, and terminated by a single lobe; the flowers consist of five leaves, and are of the papilonaceous kind, the uppermost petal being longer and rounder than the rest, and lightly furrowed on the side, the lower ones are short and end in a point; in the middle of the flower is formed the style, which afterwards becomes a pod containing the seeds.

"They cultivate three sorts of indigo in Carolina, which demand the same variety of soils. First, the French or Hispaniola indigo, which striking a long tap root will only flourish in a deep rich soil, and therefore, though an excellent sort, is not so much cultivated in the maritime parts of the State, which are generally sandy, but it is produced in great perfection one hundred miles backwards; it is neglected too on another account, for it hardly bears a winter so sharp as that of Carolina. The second sort, which is the false Guatemala, or true Bahamas, bears the winter better, is a more tall and vigorous plant, is raised in greater quantities from the same compass of ground, is content with the worst soil in the country, and is therefore more cultivated than the first soil, though inferior in the quality of its dye.

"The third sort is the wild indigo, which is indigenous here; this, as it is a native of the country, answers the purposes of the planter best of all, with regard to the hardiness of the plant, the easiness of the culture, and the quantity of the produce. Of the quality there is some dispute not yet settled amongst the planters themselves; nor can they distinctly tell when they are to attribute the faults of their indigo to the nature of the plant, to the seasons, which have much influence upon it, or to some defect in the manufacture.

"The time of planting the indigo is generally after the first rains succeeding the vernal equinox; the seed is sown in small straight trenches, about eighteen or twenty inches asunder; when it is at its height, it is generally eighteen inches tall. It is fit for cutting, if all things answer well, in the beginning of July.

"Towards the end of August a second cutting is obtained, and if they have a mild autumn, there is a third cutting at Michaelmas. The indigo land must be weeded every day, the plants cleansed from worms, and the plantation attended with the greatest care and diligence. About twenty-five hands may manage a plantation of fifty acres, and complete the manufacture of the drug, besides providing their own necessary subsistence and that of the planter's family.

"Each acre yields, if the land be very good, 60 or 70 lbs. weight of indigo, at a medium the produce is 50 lbs. This however, is reckoned by many skilful planters but a very indifferent crop.

"When the plant is beginning to blossom it is fit for cutting, and when cut great care ought to be taken to bring it to the steeper without pressing or shaking it, as great part of the beauty of the indigo depends upon the fine farina, which adheres to the leaves of this plant. The apparatus for making indigo is inconsiderable and not expensive, for besides a pump, the whole consists only of vats and tubs of cypress wood, common and cheap in this country.

"The indigo, when cut, is first laid in a vat, about twelve or fourteen feet long and four feet deep, to the height of about fourteen inches, to macerate and digest; then this vessel, which is called the _steeper_, is filled with water; the whole having laid from about twelve to sixteen hours, according to the weather, begins to ferment, swell, rise, and grow sensibly warm. At this time spars of wood are run across, to mark the highest point of its ascent; when it falls below this mark, they judge that the fermentation has attained its due pitch, and begins to abate; this directs the manager to open a cock, and let off the water into another vat, which is called the _beater_; the gross matter that remains in the first vat is carried off to manure the ground, for which purpose it is excellent, and new cuttings are put in, as long as the harvest of the weed continues. When the water, strongly impregnated with the particles of indigo, has run into the second vat or beater, they attend with a sort of bottomless buckets, with long handles, to work and agitate it, when it froths, ferments, and rises above the rim of the vessel that contains it. To allay this violent fermentation, oil is thrown in as the froth rises, which instantly sinks it. When this beating has continued for twenty, thirty, or thirty-five minutes, according to the state of the weather (for in cool weather it requires the longest continued beating), a small muddy grain begins to be formed; the salts and other particles of the plant united, dissolved, and before mixed with the water, are now re-united together, and begin to granulate. To discover these

## particles the better, and to find when the liquor is sufficiently

beaten, they take up some of it from time to time on a plate, or in a glass; when it appears in a hopeful condition, they let loose some lime water from an adjacent vessel, gently stirring the whole, which wonderfully facilitates the operation; the indigo granulates more fully, the liquor assumes a purplish color, and the whole is troubled and muddy; it is now suffered to settle; then the clearer part is permitted to run off into another succession of vessels, from whence the water is conveyed away as fast as it clears on the top, until nothing remains but a thick mud, which is put into bags of coarse linen. These are hung up and left for some time until the moisture is entirely drained off.

"To finish the drying, this mud is turned out of the bags, and worked upon boards of some porous timber, with a wooden spatula; it is frequently exposed to the morning and evening sun, but for a short time only; and then it is put into boxes or frames, which is called the curing, exposed again to the sun in the same cautious manner, until, with great labor and attention the operation is finished, and the valuable drug fitted for the market. The greatest skill and care is required in every part of the process, or there may be great danger of ruining the whole; the water must not be suffered to remain too short or too long a time, either in the steeper or beater; the beating itself must be nicely managed, so as not to exceed or fall short; and in the curing the exact medium between too much or too little drying is not easily attained. Nothing but experience can make the overseers skilful in these matters. There are two methods of trying the goodness of indigo; by fire and by water. If it swims it is good, if it sinks it is inferior, the heavier the worse; so if it wholly dissolves in water it is good. Another way of proving it, is by the fire ordeal; if it entirely burns away it is good, the adulterations remain untouched."

Indigo to the extent of 220,000 lbs. per annum is grown in Egypt. The leaves are there thrown into earthen vessels, which are buried in pits and filled with water; heat is applied, and the liquid is boiled away until the indigo becomes of a fit consistence, when it is pressed into shape and dried. Many Armenians have been invited from the East Indies to teach the fellahs the best mode of preparation, and, in consequence, nine indigo works have been established belonging to the government.

The indigo plant is found scattered like a weed abundantly over the face of the country in the district of Natal, Eastern Africa. It is said that there are no less than ten varieties of the plant commonly to be met with there. Mr. Blaine submitted, in 1848, to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, a small specimen of this dye-stuff, which had been extracted by a rude process from a native plant, which was pronounced by good authority to be of superior quality, and worth 3s. 4d. per pound. Mr. W. Wilson, a settler at Natal, in a letter to the editor of the _Natal Witness_, thus speaks of the culture:--

"My attention was first forcibly drawn to the cultivation of indigo by some seed imported by Mr. Kinlock, from India. This seed, on trial, I found to grow luxuriantly; and after a few experiments I succeeded in manufacturing the dye. The success which thus attended my first attempts has encouraged me to try indigo planting on a more extensive scale. For this purpose I am allowing all the plants of this season to run to seed, and intend to plant equal quantities of Bengal and native indigo.

While my attention was engaged in these preliminary experiments, I observed that the country abounded in a variety of species of indigo, and by a series of experiments found it rich and abundant, and have since learnt that it is known and in use among the natives, and called by them Umpekumbeto.

This of course induced further inquiry, and on consulting different works I find that the Cape of Good Hope possesses more species of indigo than the whole world besides. Now I take it for granted that if Providence has placed these materials within our reach, it was evidently intended that we should, by the application of industry, appropriate them to our use. It becomes, then, a matter of necessity that indigo must thrive, this being its native soil and climate; and the experiments I have successfully made, go to support me in the opinion that the cultivation of indigo will bring an ample reward. Indeed it seems contrary to the laws of nature that it should be otherwise.

I have obtained from the 140th part of an acre the proportion of 300 lbs. of indigo per acre. That the plant will cross successfully, I have also ascertained."

_Cultivation in India._--During the nine years which preceded the opening of the trade with India in 1814, the annual average produce of indigo in Bengal, for exportation, was nearly 5,600,000 lbs. But since the ports were opened, the indigo produced for exportation has increased fully a third; the exports during the sixteen years ending with 1829-30, being above 7,400,000 lbs. a year.

The consumption in the United Kingdom has averaged, during the last ten years, about 2,500,000 lbs. a year.

In 1839-40 the export of indigo from Madras amounted to 1,333,808 lbs. A small quantity is also exported from the French settlement of Pondicherry. In 1837 the export from Manila amounted to about 250,000 lbs. The export from Batavia in 1841 amounted to 913,693 lbs., and the production in 1843 was double that amount. The annual exports of indigo, from all parts of Asia and the Indian Archipelago, were taken by M'Culloch, in 1840, to be 12,440,000 lbs. The imports are about 20,000 chests of Bengal, and 8,000 from Madras annually, of which 9,000 or 10,000 are used for home consumption, and the rest re-exported.

The total crop of indigo in the Bengal Presidency has ranged, for the last twenty years, at from 100,000 to 172,000 factory maunds; the highest crop was in 1845. The factory maund of indigo in India is about 78 lbs.

In the delta of the Ganges, where the best and largest quantity of indigo is produced, the plant lasts only for a single season, being destroyed by the periodical inundation; but in the dry central and western provinces, one or two _ratoon_ crops are obtained.

The culture of indigo is very precarious, not only in so far as respects the growth of the plant from year to year, but also as regards the quantity and quality of the drug which the same amount of plant will afford in the same season.

The fixed capital required, as I have already shown, in the manufacture of indigo, consists simply of a few vats of common masonry for steeping the plant, and precipitating the coloring matter; a boiling and drying house, and a dwelling for the planter. Thus a factory of ten pair of vats, capable of producing, at an average, 12,500 lbs. of indigo, worth on the spot £2,500, will not cost above £1,500 sterling. The buildings and machinery necessary to produce an equal value in sugar and rum, would probably cost about £4,000.

The indigo of Bengal is divided into two classes, called, in commercial language, Bengal and Oude; the first being the produce of the southern provinces of Bengal and Bahar, and the last that of the northern provinces, and of Benares. The first class is in point of quality much superior to the other. The inferiority of the Oude indigo is thought to be more the result of soil and climate, than of any difference in the skill with which the manufacture is conducted. The indigo of Madras, which is superior to that of Manila, is about equal to ordinary Bengal indigo. The produce of Java is superior to these.

Large quantities of indigo, of a very fine quality, are grown in Scinde. I have to acknowledge the receipt, from the Indian Government, of an interesting collection of documents on the culture and manufacture of indigo in Upper Scinde. The papers are chiefly from the pen of Mr. Wood, Deputy Collector of Sukkur, though there are several others, perhaps of much value, from various other of the revenue officers of Scinde.

Mr. Wood is of opinion that Scinde is much better suited than Bengal for the production of this dye-stuff--the alluvial soil on the banks of the Indus is equal in richness to that on those of the Ganges, and the climate seems equally well suited for the growth of the plant. But in two years out of three, the crops of the Bengal planter are injured by excessive inundations, while the work of gathering and manipulation is necessarily performed, during the rainy season, under the greatest imaginable disadvantages. In Scinde, on the other hand, the inundation of the river is produced almost solely from the melting of the snows in the Himalayas, and it is not liable to those excessive fluctuations in amount, or that suddenness in appearance peculiar to inundations chiefly arising from falls of rain. The Granges sometimes rises ten feet in four-and-twenty hours, and at some part of its course its depth is at times forty feet greater during a flood than in fair weather, while the Indus rarely rises above a foot a day, its extreme flood never exceeding fifteen feet, the limits and amount of the inundation being singularly uniform over a succession of years. Moreover, as rain hardly ever falls in Scinde, and when it does so only continues over a few days, and extends to the amount of three or four inches, no danger or inconvenience from this need be apprehended. Mr. Wood mentions that hemp may be grown in profusion on the indigo grounds, and that were the production of the dye once introduced, it would bring hundreds of thousands of acres now barren into cultivation, and secure the growth or manufacture of a vast variety of other commodities for which the country is eminently fitted. An experimental factory might, it is believed, be set up for from two to three thousand pounds, but this appears to be an amount of adventure from which the Government shrinks.

The districts of Kishnagar, Jessore, and Moorshedabad, in Bengal, ranging from 88 to 90 degs. E. latitude, and 22½ to 24 degs. N. longitude, produce the finest indigo. That from the districts about Burdwan and Benares is of a coarser or harsher grain. Tirhoot, in latitude 26 degs., yields a tolerably good article. The portion of Bengal most propitious to the cultivation of indigo, lies between the river Hooghly and the main stream of the Ganges.

In the East Indies, after having ploughed the ground in October, November, and the beginning of December, they sow the seed in the last half of March and the beginning of April, while the soil, being neither too hot nor too dry, is most propitious to its germination. A light mould answers best; and sunshine, with occasional light showers, are most favorable to its growth. Twelve pounds of seed are sufficient for sowing an acre of land. The plants grow rapidly, and will bear to be cut for the first time at the beginning of July; nay, in some districts so early as the middle of June. The indications of maturity are the bursting forth of the flower buds, and the expansion of the blossoms; at which period the plant abounds most in the dyeing principle. Another indication is taken from the leaves, which, if they break across when doubled flat, denote a state of maturity. But this character is somewhat fallacious, and depends upon the poverty or richness of the soil. When much rain falls, the plants grow too rapidly, and do not sufficiently elaborate the blue pigment. Bright sunshine is most advantageous to its production.

The first cropping of the plants is the best; after two months a second is made; after another interval a third, and even a fourth; but each of these is of diminished value.

_Culture in India._--For the following excellent account of the modes of culture, and practice, &c., in Bengal, and other parts of India, I am indebted to Mr. G. W. Johnson, one of the correspondents of my "Colonial Magazine." Mr. Johnson, besides his own Indian experience, has consulted all the best authorities, and the opinions of contributors to the leading periodicals of Calcutta on this important subject:--

When America became known to Europeans, its indigo became to them a principal object of cultivation, and against their skill the native Hindostanee had nothing to oppose, but the cheapness of his simple process of manufacture. The profit and extent of the trade soon induced Europeans to brave the perils of distance and climate to cultivate the plant in Hindostan; but these obstacles, added to the superior article manufactured by the French and Spaniards in the West Indies, would long have held its produce in India in subordination, if the anarchy and wars incident to the French Revolution, especially when they reached St. Domingo, had not almost annihilated the trade from the West, and consequently proportionally fostered that in the East. The indigo produce of St. Domingo was nearly as large as that of all the other West India islands together. From the time that the negroes revolted in that island, the cultivation of indigo has increased in Hindostan, until it has become one of its principal exports, and the quality of the article manufactured is not inferior to that of any other part of the world.

The most general mode of obtaining the necessary supply of _weed_, as it is called by the planter, is as follows:--The land attached to the factory is parcelled out among the ryots or farmers, who contract to devote a certain portion of their farm to the cultivation of indigo, and to deliver it, for a fixed price per bundle, at the factory; a sum of money, usually equal to half the probable produce, has to be advanced to the ryot by the planter, to enable him to accomplish the cultivation, and to subsist upon until the crop is ready for cutting.

If, as is generally the case, sufficient land is not attached to the factory to supply it with plant, the owner obtains what he requires by inducing the ryots in his vicinity to cultivate it upon a part of their land. Yet it is with them far from a favorite object of cultivation; and, indeed, if it were not for the money advanced to each ryot by the planter, to provide seed, &c., and which gives him a little ready money, bearing no interest, it is doubtful whether he would engage in the cultivation at all. Even this advance of money does not induce him to appropriate it to any but the worst part of his farm, nor to bestow upon it more than the smallest possible amount of labor. The reasons for this neglect are valid, for the grain crops are more profitable to the ryot, and indigo is one of the most precarious of India's vegetable products.

In Bengal the usual terms of contract between the manufacturer and the ryot are, that the latter, receiving at the time a certain advance of money, perhaps one rupee (2s.) per biggah, with promise of a similar sum at a more advanced period of the season, undertakes to have a certain quantity of land suitably and seasonably prepared for sowing, to attend and receive seed whenever occasion requires, and to deliver the crop, when called upon, at the factory, at a specified price per bundle or 100 bundles. The particular conditions of these contracts vary generally in Bengal; they amount to advancing the ryot two rupees for every biggah of land, furnishing him with seed at about one-third its cost, on an engagement from him to return whatever his lands may produce (which, as has been said, is generally none at all), at the price charged, and receiving the plant from him at six, seven, eight, or sometimes nine bundles for a rupee--much oftener the former than the latter rates. A ryot cultivating alluvial lands, and having no seed, can hardly ever repay his advances; but it does not follow that he has been a loser, for he, perhaps, could not value his time, labor, and rent altogether at half the amount; and as long as this system is kept within moderate bounds, it answers much better than private cultivation to the manufacturer, and has many contingent advantages to the cultivator.

In Tirhoot similar engagements are entered into with the ryots, who are there called _Assamees_. These engagements with Assamees are generally made in the month of September, on a written instrument called a _noviskaun_, by which they agree for a certain quantity of land, for five years, to be cultivated with indigo plant, and for which they are to be paid at the rate of six rupees per biggah, for every full field of plant measured by a luggie or measuring-rod. The luggie, it must be observed, varies in size throughout the district. In the southern and eastern divisions of Tirhoot and Sarun it is eight-and-a-half to ten feet long; and in the northern and western from twelve to fourteen feet. The Assamee receives, on the day of making his _bundobust_, or settlement, three rupees advance on each biggah he contracts for, another rupee per biggah when the crop is fit to weed, and the remaining two rupees at the ensuing settlement of accounts. Exclusive of the price of his maul or plant, the Assamee is entitled to receive two or three rupees per biggah (as may be agreed on) for gurkee, or lands that have failed, as a remuneration for his trouble, and to enable him to pay his rent. The foregoing are the principal stipulations of the noviskaun, but the Assamee further engages to give you such land as you may select, prepare it according to instructions from the factory, sow and weed as often as he is required, cut the plant and load the hackeries at his own cost, and in every other respect conform to the orders of the planter or his aumlah (managing man). The Assamee is not charged for seed, the cartage of his plants, or for the cost of drilling. I should mention that a penalty is attached to the non-fulfilment of the Assamees engagements, commonly called _hurjah_, viz., twelve rupees for every biggah short of his agreement, and this for every year that the noviskaun has to run. This is, however, seldom recoverable, for if you sue the Assamee in court and obtain a decree (a most expensive and dilatory process), he can in most instances easily evade it by a fictitious transfer of his property to other hands.

The planter generally finds it his interest to get the Zemindar of the village in which he proposes cultivating, to join in the noviskaun, as a further security; or he engages with a jytedar, or head Assamee, having several others subordinate to him, and for whose conduct he is responsible. But a still better system is lately gaining ground in this district, I mean that of taking villages in ticka, or farm, by far the best and cheapest plan that has ever been resorted to for the cultivation of indigo.

When the planter cultivates the ground himself, it is called in Tirhoot _Zerant_ cultivation. _Zerants_, or _Neiz_, are taken on a pottah or lease for five years, at the average rent of three rupees per biggah. The heavy cost attending this cultivation has occasioned its decrease in most factories in Tirhoot and particularly since the fall in prices. About a third, I believe, was the proportion it formerly bore to the whole cultivation of the district, but of late such factories only have retained it as cannot procure sufficient good land under the Assamewar system; but now that the plan of taking villages in farm is becoming more and more prevalent here, it is very likely that Zerants will be entirely abandoned. From all the information I have been able to collect, the cost of a biggah of Zerant (ten feet luggie) may be estimated at sixteen rupees; that of Assamewar is generally twenty-five per cent. less, both exclusive of interest, agents' charges, and private expenses.

It can only be the reluctance of the ryot to cultivate indigo that induces a manufacturer to grow it himself, for it has been found an expensive plan, profitable only when the dye is at its highest rate, and even then scarcely furnishing an adequate return. They not only could not cultivate so cheaply as the native laboring husbandman, but ordinarily had to engage extensive tracts of land, much of which was not suitable for their purpose, or, perhaps, for any other, and consequently, although the average rate of rent was even low on the whole, it constituted a very heavy charge on the portion from which they obtained their return.

In Oude there are three systems of obtaining a supply of the plant, viz., _Kush Kurreea_, _Bighowty_, and _Nij_; but the latter is a mere trifle in proportion to the others, and is, therefore, not worth mentioning. On the _Bighowty_ system, which prevails chiefly in the Meerut and Mooradabad districts, the planter advances for a biggah of _Jumowah_ (irrigated sowings) nine rupees, and for a biggah of _Assaroo_ (rain sowings) five rupees four annas. The next year's plant, or _khoonti_, becomes his on an additional payment of eight annas per biggah. He also supplies the seed at the rate of six seers per biggah, being almost double the quantity made use of in Bengal, but which is necessary to make up for the destruction of the plant the year following by the frost, white ants, hot winds, grass cutters, and, I may add, the village cattle, which are let loose to graze on the khoonte during the latter period, when not a blade of grass or vegetation is to be seen anywhere left.

The Bighowty system is a sadly ruinous one, as, independently of the attempts to assimilate Assaroo, at five rupees four annas, with _Jumowah_, at nine rupees per biggah, which is very easily effected if the planter is not very vigilant, he is obliged to maintain an extensive and imposing establishment of servants, not only to enforce the sowings, weeding, and cutting, but also to look after his khoonte, and protect it from being destroyed by bullocks and grass cutters, or from being ploughed up clandestinely by the Zemindars themselves.

The Kush Kurreea system again has its evils, as the planter never gets plant for the full amount of his advances, and hence often leads to his ruin.

_Soils._--Indigo delights in a fresh soil; new lands, of similar staple to others before cultivated, always surpass them in the amount and quality of their produce. Hence arises the superior productiveness of the lands annually overflowed by the Ganges, the earthy and saline deposits from which in effect renovate the soil. The further we recede from the influence of the inundation, the less adapted is the soil for the cultivation of indigo. The staple of the soil ought to be silicious, fertile, and deep. Mr. Ballard, writing on the indigo soils of Tirhoot, says that high "soomba," or light soils, are generally preferred, being from their nature and level less exposed to the risk of rain or river inundation; but they are difficult to procure, and, moreover, require particular care in the preparation. Next in estimation is "doruss," a nearly equal mixture of light earth and clay; a soil more retentive of moisture in a dry season than any other. "Muttyaur," or heavy clay soils, are generally avoided, although in certain seasons, with mild showers of rain, they have been known to answer. The safest selection I should conceive to be an equal portion of soomba and doruss. In a country, however, interspersed with jheels and nullahs, it is difficult to form a cultivation without a considerable mixture of low lands, more or less, according to the situation of the Assamee's fields. Great care should be taken, at all events, to guard against oosur lands, or such as abound with saltpetre; these can be most easily detected in the dry months. _Puchkatak_, that is, lands slightly touched with _oosur_, have been known to answer, as partaking more of the nature of _doruss_ soil; but the crop is generally thin, although strong and branchy.

There is another description of land that should be cautiously avoided. It goes by the name of _jaung_, and is a light soil, with a substratum of sand from six to twelve inches below the surface. The plant generally looks very fine in such fields till it gets a foot high, when the root touching the sand, and having no moisture to sustain it, either dies away altogether, or becomes so stunted and impoverished as to yield little or nothing in the cutting. Of the _daub_ or _dearab_ (alluvial) land, says Mr. Ballard, there is scarcely any in the district except what falls to the lot of my own factories, being situated on the banks of the Ganges and Great Gunduck. Of _bungur_, a stiff reddish clay soil, there is little in Tirhoot; it pervades the western provinces, and is best adapted for Assaroo sowings, which do not succeed in Tirhoot.

_Preparation of the soil._--The root of the indigo plant being fusiform, and extending to about a foot in length, requires the soil to be loosened thoroughly to that depth at least. Experience teaches that the fineness of the tilth to which the soil is reduced previously to the seed being committed to it, is one very influential operation for the obtaining a productive crop. Yet in some districts of Bengal, particularly about Furudpore, the sowing is performed without any previous ploughing. This is where the river, when receded, has left the soil and deposit so deep, that about October, or a little later, the seed being forcibly discharged from the sower's hand, buries itself, and requires no after covering by means of the rake or harrow.

In Tirhoot they are indefatigable in this first step of the cultivation. Mr. Ballard says, that the preparation of indigo lands should commence in September, as soon as the cessation of the rains will permit; and as we do not rely on rain for our sowings (as is the custom in Bengal and elsewhere, and irrigation is never resorted to, from the heavy expense attending it), our principal aim is to preserve as much moisture in the fields as possible. They should receive, for this purpose, not less than eight ploughings, besides a thorough turning up with the spade, after the fourth ploughing, to clear the field from stubble, grass and weeds. It is absolutely indispensable to get all this done on our light soils, especially before the end of October, and have the land carefully harrowed down, so as to prevent the moisture escaping.

Should there be heavy rains between the interval of preparing and sowing, it will be necessary to turn the fields up with either one or two ploughings, and harrow them down as before. If only a slight shower, running the harrow over them will be sufficient to break the crust formed on the surface, and which, if allowed to remain, would quickly exhaust the moisture. This, with the occasional use of the weeding-hook, is all that the lands will require till the time of sowing.--("Transactions of the Agri.-Hort. Society of Calcutta," vol. ii., p. 22.)

_Sowing_.--The time when the seed is committed to the soil varies in different parts of India, and, even in the same place, admits of being performed at two different seasons. The periods of sowing in Bengal are first immediately after the rains, from about the latter end of October. The rivers are then rapidly retiring within their beds, and as soon as the soft deposit of the year has drained itself into a consistency, though not solid enough to keep a man from sinking up to his knees in it, they begin to scatter the seed broadcast. This is continued until the ground has become too hard for the seed to bury itself; the plough is then used to loosen the crust, and the sowing continued to about the middle, or even the end of November, from which period the weather is considered too cold, until February. These autumnal sowings are called October sowings, from the month in which they generally commence. Much of the plant perishes during the months of December and January, and more again in the spring, unless there are early and moderate showers. The crop that remains is not so productive ordinarily in the vat, as that obtained from spring sowings, and some think the quality of the produce inferior. But there is no expense of cultivation, and the liabilities of the crop to failure are such a discouragement to cost and labor in rearing it, that the October sowing is followed by most planters who can obtain suitable land. The second period of sowing is the spring, with the first rains of March, or even the end of February. The land having been measured and placed under its slight course of tillage during the two or three preceding mouths, is sown broadcast as soon as the ground has been well moistened, or even in prospect of approaching rain. The quantity of seed used for this autumn sowing is generally more than what is considered requisite for spring sowing; six seers at the former and four at the latter season per biggah, in Bengal, is the quantity usually allowed.

Some cultivators commence the autumn sowing as early as at the close of September, or as soon as the low lands are in a state to permit the operation after the inundation has subsided. This seed time may be said to continue until the end of December, and the crops from these sowings often yield an average produce, if the lands are not very low and wet. If they are, the sowing had better be delayed until January, or even February, for the crops from these latter sowings are usually the most productive, and the dye obtained from them the finest. The object for thus delaying the sowing is, that the young plants may have a more genial season for vegetation. Those who prefer sowing earlier, and yet are aware of the importance of saving the young plants as much as possible from the comparative low temperature of the season, sow some other crop with their indigo. Til, the country linseed, is good for this purpose in high lying soils. But I never knew an intermixture of crops that was not attended by inconveniences and injuries more than was compensated by the advantages gained.

The success of sowings during March and April is very doubtful. It depends entirely upon the occurrence of rain, which in those months is proverbially uncertain. If the season should be sufficiently wet, the sowing may be performed in May; but a June sowing is very rarely remunerating. The rains setting in during the latter part of this month so promote the growth of weeds, that the young plants are choked and generally destroyed. The exceptions only occur in high lands, in unusually propitious seasons, and ought never to be relied upon except when the earlier sowings have failed. To protract the manufacturing season, some planters begin sowing upon low lying lands in the hot season, for the chance of a crop at the commencement of the rains; and they sow at the close of the rains with the hope of, as it were, stealing another in the next year. In the western provinces sowing necessarily occurs in the dry weather, usually in March and April, though occasionally either a little earlier or later.

In Tirhoot the sowings commence about the latter end of February or the beginning of March, if by that time there is sufficient warmth in the atmosphere to ensure a healthy vegetation. Light soils are sown on one close ploughing; heavy soils on two, with from four to eight seers of seed, in proportion to the size of the biggah. After strewing the seed, the field should be harrowed down by two turns of the harrow, and then again by two turns more after the third day. In case of rain before the plant appears (which it ought to do on the sixth or seventh day), if a slight shower, the harrow should be used again; if very heavy, it were best to turn up the ground and re-sow. If rain fall after the appearance of the plant, and before it has got past four leaves, and attained sufficient strength to resist the hard crust before alluded to, immediate recourse must be had to drilling. In fact, the closest attention is required to watch the state of the young crop for a month at least after the sowings; if it yield the least, or assume a sickly appearance, drills are the only resource. These, if applied in time, in all March, for instance, or before the middle of April at latest, are generally successful, not only in restoring plants, but recovering such as may have become sickly from want or excess of moisture, or any other cause. In dry seasons they have been known to give a crop when broadcast sowings have failed. Each drill, with a good pair of bullocks, should do five biggahs a day. They are regulated to throw from three to four seers per biggah, but the quantity can be increased or diminished at pleasure. The natives do not employ them in their grain sowings, but commonly adopt a contrivance with their own plough for sowing in furrows, whenever their fields are deficient in moisture. The drill employed in Tirhoot resembles considerably the implement known by that name in England. It is found not only to effect a great saving of seed, ten seers being there sown broad-cost on a biggah of 57,600 feet square, and only seven seers by this drill; but also materially to improve the quality and regularity of the growth of the plant. Experience has demonstrated, that the more lateral room the plants have, the more abundant is their produce of leaves, in which the coloring matter chiefly resides. The seed employed should always be as new as possible, for though, if carefully preserved, it vegetates when one year old, and even when nearly two years old has produced a moderate crop, yet this has been under circumstances of an unusually favorable season and soil. The plants from old seed rarely attain a height of more than a foot before they wither and die. As frauds are very likely to be practised by giving old seed the glossiness and general appearance of new, great circumspection should be shown by the planter, who does not grow his own, in obtaining seed from known

## parties.

Planters in the lower provinces are induced to use up-country seed, because, coming from a colder climate, it vegetates, and the plants ripen rapidly, so as to be harvested more certainly before the annual inundation, but they employ one-fourth more. Three seers per Bengal biggah are sufficient, if it is "Dassee" seed; but four is not too much if it is up-country seed. A Bengal biggah is only a third of the size of that of Tirhoot. If the weather is dry, the seed very often does not germinate until the occurrence of rain, and it has been known in a dry, light soil, to remain in the ground without injury for six weeks. If seasonable showers occur, the plants make their appearance in four days, or even less; and they must be watched, in order that they may be weeded on the earliest day that they are sufficiently established to allow the operation to be safely performed. In dry weather, it must not be done while they are very young, otherwise many of the seedlings will have their roots disturbed, and perish from the drought. However, not more than a fortnight should be allowed to pass, after the seedlings have appeared, before the weeds are carefully removed, and this clearing should be frequently repeated until the plants so overshadow the ground that they of themselves keep back the advance of the weeds. The first weeding is best performed immediately after a shower of rain.

Irrigation is rarely adopted for the indigo crops in the lower provinces of Bengal, unless they happen to be grown in some situation very favorable to the operation, such as the bank of a river. It is much more attended to in the western provinces, and in Oude, the water being obtained from wells, which are dug in nearly every cultivated plot. In Oude, Mr. Ballard says that a biggah of land employs three persons to irrigate it, and occupies never less than six days. The ryot, or cultivator, requires for the work a pair of bullocks, which cost him at least 32s., a bucket made of a white bullock hide, at 2s., and a rope for 2s. more, both of which do not last him above a year. He never pays less than 8s. for the rent of a biggah of land near a well.

In Bengal the plant requires three months to attain its highest state of perfection for manufacturing, but is often cut, from necessity, within half that time; for the approach of the river compels the premature removal of the crop, unless, indeed, its growth has been so retarded that it would not pay the expense of working. Most indigo factories have consequently to begin in June, or early in July, whenever they may have effected their spring sowings, and the labors of the season are commonly terminated by the middle or end of August.

When the plants begin to flower is considered the best time for cutting them, and this is just what the botanist would have suggested, because then the proper sap of all plants is most abundant, and most rich in their several peculiar secretions. A vividly green, abundant and healthy foliage, downy at the back, is the surest intimation of the plants being rich in indigo. Plants that are ready for cutting in July and August, are usually the most productive.

In the western provinces from sixteen to twenty maunds of plant is considered a good produce per biggah. In the upper provinces the produce of the best crop, which is sown directly the rains commence, is not more then ten maunds per biggah. The factory maund is equal to about seventy-eight pounds. One thousand maunds of plant are considered as producing quite an average quantity of indigo if this amounts to four maunds. Adopting another mode of estimate, Mr. Ballard says, that in Bengal an average crop may he considered to be from ten to twelve bundles, over an extensive cultivation, in a good season, from each Bengal biggah; the sheaf or bundle being measured by a six-feet cord or chain. Speaking of the produce in Tirhoot, the same gentleman says the "luggie," or measuring rod, varies throughout the district. The common Tirhoot biggah, is, I believe, equal to two-and-a-half or three Bengal biggahs (about an English acre). Its produce varies according to the size of the luggie, the fertility of the soil, and accidents of season; eight to ten hackery loads, however, is generally considered a good average return. South and east of Tirhoot, one hundred maunds from six hundred biggahs, including "khoonti," or a second cutting, is reckoned a successful result. In another part of the district, including Sarun, where the "luggie" is larger, the average produce is about one-third better. As we measure our plant on the ground (he adds), the bundle system is unknown here; but, I believe, forty-five or fifty Tirhoot hackery loads of plants (estimated to yield a maund of dry indigo), will be found equal to two hundred Bengal bundles.--("Trans. Agri. Hort. Soc., vol. ii. p. 23.")

In Oude the _jamowah_, or crop sown in May, yields on an average twenty maunds, or say thirteen bundles, per biggah (160 feet square). The "assaroo," or rain sowings, producing a very inferior plant, the average return is not more than three maunds, or two bundles. The "khoonti," or crop of the next year from the same plants, averages fifteen maunds, or ten bundles per biggah.

In Central and Western India, the plants are allowed to produce the second and even the third year, according to some statements; but in Bengal the same stocks are rarely suffered to yield a second crop: being nearly all on lands that are under water in the height of the inundation, the stock is rotted in the ground. Mr. Ballard, speaking of the duration of the plant, says that, as for three years' plant and "khoonti," it is a mere chimera, like the many others with which the planters have hitherto deluded themselves, and which it only requires a little reflection to overthrow. A biggah may be cut here and there, on an extensive cultivation, but it can never be relied upon as forming a part of the cultivation.

The uncertainty of the indigo crop has been already noticed, and is, indeed, as proverbial as that from the hop plant in England. In Bengal the crop is particularly subject to be destroyed by the annual inundation of the river, if it occurs earlier than usual. A storm of wind, accompanied by rain and hail, as completely ruins the crop as if devoured by the locust; neither from this latter scourge is the crop exempt.

This proneness to injury extends throughout its growth. The seedlings are liable to be destroyed by an insect closely resembling the turnip-fly, as well as by the frog. Caterpillars feed upon the leaves of older plants, and the white ant destroys them by consuming their roots. To these destructive visitations are to be added the more than ordinary liability of the plant to injury, not merely from atmospheric commotions, but even from apparently less inimical visitations. Thus not only do storms of wind, heavy rains, and hail, destroy the indigo planter's prospects, but even sunshine, if it pours out fervently after showers of rain, is apt, as it is properly termed, to _scorch_ the plants; and if it occurs during the first month of their growth, is most injurious to their future advance. The reason of this effect appears to be the violent change from a state of imbibing to a rapid transpiration of moisture. No human invention or foresight can preserve the crop from the atmospheric visitations. To destroy and drive away the little coleopterous insects which attack the seedlings, it would be a successful method to spread dry grass, &c., over the surface intended to be cultivated, and to burn the litter immediately before the sowing. The heat and smoke produced has been found perfectly efficacious against the turnip-fly in England. To destroy the caterpillar, slacked lime dusted over the leaves, while the dew is upon them, is an effectual application. The white ants may be driven away or destroyed by frequent hoeings, which is the best preventive of the scorching, for hoeing preserves the soil in an equable and fitting state of moisture.

The great supply of seed for Bengal cultivation is obtained from the western provinces, and forms an article of trade of no inconsiderable magnitude. The stubble in the low lands of Bengal is generally submerged before it has time to throw out fresh shoots, on which the blossom and subsequent seed-pod are formed. There are, however, some high tracts reserved for that purpose, and on these the plant is found well in flower in September, and the seed fit to gather in November or early in December.

Two methods are pursued to extract the indigo from the plant; the first effects it by fermentation of the fresh leaves and stems; the second, by maceration of the dried leaves; the latter process being most advantageous. They are thus described by Dr. Ure, in his "Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures:"--

1. _From the recent leaves._--In the indigo factories of Bengal, there are two large stone-built cisterns, the bottom of the first being nearly upon a level with the top of the second, in order to allow the liquid contents to be run out of the one into the other. The uppermost is called the fermenting vat, or the steeper; its area is twenty feet square, and its depth three feet; the lowermost, called the beater or beating vat, is as broad as the other, but one-third longer. The cuttings of the plant, as they come from the field, are stratified in the steeper, till this be filled within five or six inches of its brim. In order that the plant, during its fermentation, may not swell and rise out of the vat, beams of wood and twigs of bamboo are braced tight over the surface of the plants, after which water is pumped upon them till it stands within three or four inches of the edge of the vessel. An active fermentation speedily commences, which is completed within fourteen or fifteen hours; a little longer or shorter, according to the temperature of the air, the prevailing winds, the quality of the water, and the ripeness of the plants. Nine or ten hours after the immersion of the plant, the condition of the vat must be examined; frothy bubbles appear, which rise like little pyramids, are at first of a white colour, but soon become grey, blue, and then deep purple red. The fermentation is at this time violent, the fluid is in constant commotion, apparently boiling, innumerable bubbles mount to the surface, and a copper colored dense scum covers the whole. As long as the liquor is agitated, the fermentation must not be disturbed, but when it becomes more tranquil, the liquor is to be drawn off into the lower cistern. It is of the utmost consequence not to push the fermentation too far, because the quality of the whole indigo is deteriorated; but rather to cut it short, in which case there is, indeed, a loss of weight, but the article is better. The liquor possesses now a glistening yellow color, which, when the indigo precipitates, changes to green. The average temperature of the liquor is commonly 85 deg. Fahr.; its specific gravity at the surface is 1.0015; and at the bottom 1.003.

As soon as the liquor has been run into the lower cistern, ten men are set to work to beat it with oars, or shovels four feet long, called _busquets_. Paddle wheels have also been employed for the same purpose. Meanwhile two other laborers clear away the compressing beams and bamboos from the surface of the upper vat, remove the exhausted plant, set it to dry for fuel, clean out the vessel, and stratify fresh plants in it. The fermented plant appears still green, but it has lost three-fourths of its bulk in the process, or from twelve to fourteen per cent. of its weight, chiefly water and extractive matter.

The liquor in the lower vat must be strongly beaten for an hour and a half, when the indigo begins to agglomerate in flocks, and to precipitate. This is the moment for judging whether there has been any error committed in the fermentation, which must be corrected by the operation of beating. If the fermentation has been defective, much froth rises in the beating, which must be allayed with a little oil, and then a reddish tinge appears. If large round granulations are formed, the beating is continued, in order to see if they will grow smaller. If they become as small as fine sand, and if the water clears up, the indigo is allowed quietly to subside. Should the vat have been over-fermented, a thick fat-looking crust covers the liquor, which does not disappear by the introduction of a flask of oil. In such a case the beating must be moderated. Whenever the granulations become round, and begin to subside, and the liquor clears up, the beating must be discontinued. The froth or scum diffuses itself spontaneously into separate minute particles, that move about the surface of the liquor, which are marks of an excessive fermentation. On the other hand, a rightly fermented vat is easy to work; the froth, though abundant, vanishes whenever the granulations make their appearance. The color of the liquor, when drawn out of the steeper into the beater, is bright green; but as soon as the agglomerations of the indigo commence, it assumes the color of Madeira wine; and speedily afterwards, in the course of beating, a small round grain is formed, which, on separating, makes the water transparent, and falls down, when all the turbidity and froth vanish.

The object of the beating is three-fold; first, it tends to disengage a great quantity of carbonic acid present in the liquor; secondly, to give the newly-developed indigo its requisite dose of oxygen by the most extensive exposure of its particles to the atmosphere; thirdly, to agglomerate the indigo in distinct flocks or granulations. In order to hasten the precipitation, lime water is occasionally added to the fermented liquor in the progress of beating, but it is not indispensable, and has been supposed capable of deteriorating the indigo. In the front of the beater a beam is fixed upright, in which three or more holes are pierced, a few inches in diameter. These are closed with plugs during the beating, but two or three hours after it, as the indigo subsides, the upper plug is withdrawn to run off the supernatant liquor, and then the lower plugs in succession. The state of this liquor being examined, affords an indication of the success of both the processes. When the whole liquor is run off, a laborer enters the vat, sweeps all the precipitate into one corner, and enters the thinner part into a spout which leads into a cistern, alongside of a boiler, twenty feet long, three feet wide, and three feet deep. When all this liquor is once collected, it is pumped through a bag, for retaining the impurities, into the boiler, and heated to ebullition. The froth soon subsides, and shows an oily looking film on the liquor. The indigo is by this process not only freed from the yellow extractive matter, but is enriched in the intensity of its color, and increased in weight. From the boiler the mixture is run, after two or three hours, into a general receiver called the _dripping vat_, or table, which, for a factory of twelve pairs of preparation vats, is twenty feet long, ten feet wide, and three feet deep, having a false bottom two feet under the top edge. This cistern stands in a basin of masonry (made water-tight with Chunam, hydraulic cement), the bottom of which slopes to one end, in order to facilitate the drainage. A thick woollen web is stretched along the bottom of the inner vessel, to act as a filter. As long as the liquor passes through turbid, it is pumped back into the receiver; whenever it runs clear, the receiver is covered with another piece of cloth to exclude the dust, and allowed to drain at its leisure. Next morning the drained magma is put into a strong bag, and squeezed in a press. The indigo is then carefully taken out of the bag, and cut with a brass wire into bits, about three inches cube, which are dried in an airy house, upon shelves of wicker work. During the drying a whitish effloresence comes upon the pieces, which must be carefully removed with a brush. In some places, particularly on the coast of Coromandel, the dried indigo lumps are allowed to effloresce in a cask for some time, and when they become hard they are wiped and packed for exportation.

2. _Indigo from dried leaves._--The ripe plant being cropped, is to be dried in sunshine from nine o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon, during two days, and threshed to separate the stems from the leaves, which are then stored up in magazines till a sufficient quantity he collected for manufacturing operations. The newly dried leaves must be free from spots, and friable between the fingers. When kept dry, the leaves undergo, in the course of four weeks, a material change, their beautiful green tint turning into a pale blue-grey, previous to which the leaves afford no indigo by maceration in water, but subsequently a large quantity. Afterwards the product becomes less considerable.

The following process is pursued to extract indigo from the dried leaves:--They are infused in the steeping vat with six times their bulk of water, and allowed to macerate for two hours, with continual stirring, till all the floating leaves sink. The fine green liquor is then drawn off into the beater vat, for if it stood longer in the steeper, some of the indigo would settle among the leaves and be lost. Hot water, as employed by some manufacturers, is not necessary. The process with dry leaves possesses this advantage, that a provision of the plant may be made at the most suitable times, independently of the vicissitudes of the weather, and the indigo may be uniformly made; and, moreover, that the fermentation of the fresh leaves, often capricious in its course, is superseded by a much shorter period of simple maceration.

PRODUCTION OF INDIGO IN INDIA.

maunds.

1840 120,000 1841 162,318 1842 79,000 1843 143,207 1844 127,862 1845 127,862 1846 101,328 1847 110,000 1848 126,565 1849 126,000

Average of the ten years 126,744 maunds.

The yield from the different districts in 1849, was nearly as follows:--

maunds. Bengal 84,500 Tirhoot 24,500 Benares 9,500 Oude 6,500 --------- 125,000

In 1790 the general object of cultivation in Mauritius was indigo, of which from four to five crops a year were procured. One person sent to Europe 30,000 lbs., in 1789, of very superior quality.

CEYLON.--Indigo, though indigenous in Ceylon, is still imported from the adjoining continent, but its growth in this island would be subject to none of the vicissitudes of climate, that in the course of a single night have devastated the most extensive plantations in Bengal, and annihilated the hopes and calculations of the planter at a time when they had attained all the luxuriance of approaching maturity.

The district of Tangalle, in the southern province, is the best adapted to the culture and manufacture of indigo for various reasons, such as the abundance of the indigenous varieties of the plant, the similarity of the climate to that of the coast of Coromandel, where the best indigo is produced; facility of transport by water to either of the ports of export, Galle or Colombo, during the south-east, or to Trincomalee by the south-west monsoon; every necessary material is at hand for building a first rate indigo factory, including drying yards, leaf godowns (stores), steeping vats and presses, except roof and floor tiles--which may be obtained in any quantity from Colombo, during the south-west monsoon, at a moderate rate, compared with their cost at home.

In 1817 an offer was made to the Grovernment to introduce the cultivation of indigo, on condition of a free grant of the land required for the purpose and freedom from taxation for thirty years, after which the usual tax was to be levied; and in case the cultivation were abandoned, the land was to revert to the Crown. But whether from the disturbed state of the colony at the time or from incredulity on the part of the Government, as to the capability of the colony in this respect, the application was unheeded. A subsequent proposal, emanating from a Swedish gentleman of great ability, skill and enterprise, was defeated by his death, although a company was on the point of formation to carry out the scheme. It would not be difficult, says Mr. Barrett, to select 500,000 acres, the property of the Crown, which at a comparatively small expenditure might be brought into a proper state of cultivation for the reception of indigo seed; for very little would be required to be done beyond clearing the land of weeds, burning the grass, and then lightly ploughing and levelling the ground; and whenever manure might be requisite, the fecula of the leaf affords one of the richest that could be employed. Ceylon produces two other plants from which a very valuable blue dye may be obtained by a similar process to that of making indigo. The Singhalese head men of the Tangalle district have long been anxious for the establishment of an indigo plantation there, and would readily take shares in a company established for that purpose. Indigo would seem to have been exported by the Dutch from Ceylon so late as 1794. The wild varieties of indigo which grow on the sea-shore are used by the dobies (_washermen_).

Indigo grows in a wild state in Siam, and all the dye used in the country is manufactured from these plants. The extensive low grounds are admirably suited for the cultivation of this plant.

A large quantity is raised in Manila, but I have no full details of the cultivation in the Philippines. However, in the first six months of 1843, 1,039 piculs of indigo were shipped to Europe, and about 650 to other quarters--equal in all to about 226,000 lbs. in the half year. In the year 1847 the exports of indigo were 30,631 arrobas, equal to about 7,658 cwt.; in 1850 the total exports from Manila were 4,225 quintals.

JAVA.--The cultivation of indigo was introduced into Java in the time of the company. It was so much neglected during the administration of Governor Daendels, that the exportation ceased. It however revived subsequently, and in 1823 the exports were close upon 17,000 lbs. In 1826 it had risen to 46,000 lbs. In the single province of Westbaglen, about 60 square miles in extent, 86 indigo factories were established in the course of seven or eight years. In 1839, the exports of this dye-stuff from Java were 588,764 kilogrammes, valued at 7½ million francs.

It has been found by experience that a good soil is essentially necessary for the plant, and the indigo transplanted from elevated grounds to the rice fields succeeds better and yields more coloring matter than when raised direct on the spot from the seed. The residencies of Cheribon, Baglen and Madura, are those in which the crop succeeds best. From being so exhausting a crop, and finding it prejudicial to their rice grounds, they are gradually abandoning indigo culture in Java, and about two-thirds of the indigo plantations have within the, last year or two been replaced with sugar.

The value of the Java indigo is set down at 250 rupees (£25) per maund. If this be the average price, and it cannot be manufactured lower, Bengal has little to fear from Javanese competition. The product of indigo rose from 276 maunds in 1825, to 28,000 in 1842, and the quantity sold by the Dutch Trading Company in the last-named year was 10,500 chests, of about the same dimensions as those usually exported from Calcutta.

Some further statistics of the culture in Java are shown in the following returns of the quantity exported:--

lbs. 1830 22,063 1835 535,753 1839 595,818 1841 913,693 1843 1,890,429 1851 769,580 1852 838,288

The produce in 1848 was 1,151,368 lbs.

1840. 1841. Residencies in which this culture is introduced 9 10 Number of factories 728 728 Families occupied with this culture 197,085 192,159 Extent of fields where the cutting has been made in _bahas_ of 71 decametres 40,844 38,829 Quantity of _bahus_ planted before the gathering 317 538 Quantity of indigo crop in pounds 2,032,097 1,663,427 " average pounds per _bahu_ 49¾ 43

The extent of fields destined for the crop of 1842 was 37,970 bahus, and the amount of the crop was calculated by approximation at 1,862,000.

The gradual increase of the export in the eighteen years ending 1842, is shown as follows:--

Maunds. 1825 76 1826 126 1827 109 1828 310 1829 600 1830 480 1831 563 1832 2,213 1833 2,861 1834 3,310 1835 7,023 1836 5,365 1837 10,822 1838 9,788 1839 15,680 1840 27,946 1841 24,044 1842 28,000

Total imports of indigo into the United Kingdom, and quantity retained for home consumption:--

Imports. Home consumption. cwts. cwts. 1848 59,127 9,032 1849 81,449 12,270 1850 70,482 16,374 1851 89,994 27,947 1852 83,565 16,381

IMPORTS OF INDIGO. Mexico and the ports East Indies. of South America. lbs. lbs. 1831 6,996,062 ------ 1832 6,196,080 66,363 1833 6,315,529 125,264 1834 3,595,697 64,638 1835 3,861,853 88,306 1836 7,218,991 198,003 1837 5,706,896 365,091 1838 6,578,352 142,739 1839 4,651,542 363,148 1840 6,940,192 124,766 1841 7,451,653 247,031 1842 8,931,112 155,003 1843 6,319,294 130,836

Entered for home consumption about two millions and a half pounds annually. (" Parl. Returns No. 656, September 1843, and 426, September 1844.")

The consumption of indigo in Europe and North America in round numbers, estimated from authentic sources, is thus set down by Mr. Macculloch in 1849:--

chests. In Great Britain for home consumption 9,820 " France total for ditto 10,400 " American ports from London and Liverpool 2,500 " " Calcutta 700 " " Holland, &c 400 Other European countries export from London and Liverpool. 21,530 " " Holland 4,270 " " Calcutta 120 " " France 300 ---------- 50,040

MADDER.

This substance, which is so extensively used in dyeing red, is the product of the long slender roots of the _Rubia tinctorum_, a plant of which there are several varieties. Our principal supplies of this important article of commerce are obtained from Holland, Belgium, France, Turkey, Spain, and the Balearic Isles, the Italian States, India, and Ceylon.

The plant is generally raised from seed, and requires three years to come to maturity. It is, however, often pulled in eighteen months without injury to the quality; the quantity only is smaller. A rich soil is necessary for its successful cultivation, and when the soil is impregnated with alkaline matter, the root acquires a red color; in other cases it is yellow. The latter is preferred in England, from the long habit of using Dutch madder, which is of this color, but in France the red sells at two francs per cwt. higher, being used for the Turkey-red dye. Madder does not deteriorate by keeping, provided it be kept dry. It contains three volatile coloring matters, madder purple, orange, and red. The latter is in the form of crystals, having a fine orange red color, and called Alizaine. This is the substance which yields the Turkey-red dye. The chay root is employed in the East Indies as a substitute for madder, and so is the root of _Morinda citrifolia_, under the name of Sooranjee.

Turkey madder roots realise about 30s. per cwt. About 1,100 tons are annually shipped from Naples, worth about £30 per ton.

Madder has become an article of great request, on account of the fine scarlet color produced from its roots, and is so essential to dyers and calico printers that without it they cannot carry on their manufactures. It is cultivated extensively in Holland, from whence it is imported in large quantities into both England and France, though it is cultivated to some extent in both countries. It has also been raised as a soiling crop, but the coloring matter is of so penetrating and subtile a character, that the flesh, milk, and even the bones of animals fed upon it are said to be tinged to a considerable degree with it. The soils best adapted, and which should be selected for its cultivation, are dry, fertile, and deep sandy loams; the roots are long and fibrous, and descend to a depth of from two to three feet. It may be propagated by seed, which, by some, is thought the best method, but the more usual mode is by the division of, and transplanting, the roots. The ground should be thoroughly and deeply pulverised, clean, and well-manured for the preceding crop, that the manure may be thoroughly rotted and incorporated with the soil: in April or May the suckers will be fit for taking from the older plantations--those of two or three years producing the best. The sets should have roots four or five inches long. Mark out rows two feet apart, with a line, and set the plant with a dibble, one foot apart in the rows. The roots should be dipped in a puddle of fine rich earth and water, beaten to the consistence of cream, previous to planting; let the crown of the plant be clearly over ground, and secure the earth well around the root, to keep out drought. The plantation requires nothing more but to be kept perfectly clean and well-hoed during the summer months; and after the top decays in the autumn, to be earthed up by the plough for the winter, each year, till the plants are three years old, when they are of the proper size and age for lifting, which must be done by trenching the land two feet deep--several hands accompanying the digger to pick out the roots, which must be thoroughly cleaned and dried on a kiln till they are so brittle as to break across, when they are fit to be packed in bags, and sold to the dye-stuff manufacturers who grind and reduce them to powder for use. The produce is variable; usually from eight to twenty cwt. per acre, but as much as 3,000 to 6,000 lbs. is frequently obtained. The forage amounts to about 15,000 lbs. the first year, and 7,500 lbs. the second year. In a new and good soil manure may be dispensed with for the first crop. Some cultivators interline and grow other crops between the rows, but the best cultivators state that such a practice is objectionable. The breadth of land under this crop in England is much reduced, in consequence of the reduction in price from the competition of the Dutch growers.

Madder is extensively grown on the central table land of Afghanistan, forming one of the leading products of Beloochistan.; and, according to Mr. Pottinger, it sells in the Kelat Bazaar at about 10 lbs. for 2s. The cultivation there pursued is as follows:--The ground is repeatedly ploughed, and laid out finally in small trenches, in which the seed is sown, covered slightly with earth, and then the whole is flooded. Whilst thus irrigated, the trenches are filled with a mixture of rich manure and earth. The plants appear in about ten days, and attain a height of three or four feet during the first summer. They are cut down in September and used as fodder for cattle. Subsequently, and until spring arrives, the ground is manured and repeatedly flooded. During the second year's growth, the plants which are intended to produce seed are set apart, but the stems of the remainder are cut every four or six weeks, in order to increase the size and goodness of the roots.

Madder is said to repay a nett profit of 200 dollars to the acre, when properly managed. It produced on the farm of a gentleman, who has devoted some attention to this product in Ohio, at the rate of 2,000 lbs. per acre, and it may be made to produce 3,000 lbs., which is a greater yield than the average crops of Germany and Holland. Nine acres were planted by another person in the United States, in 1839, which he harvested in 1842. The labor required is said to be from 80 to 100 days work per acre.

In the third year the stems are pruned as in the two preceding, and in September the roots are dug up. The roots are fusiform and thin, without any ramifications, and usually from three to five feet long. As soon as raised, they are immediately cut into small pieces and dried, and are then merchantable.

Mr. Joseph Swift, an enterprising American farmer, of Erie county, Ohio, who occupies about 400 acres of choice land, mostly alluvial, in the valley of the Vermilion river, seven miles from Lake Erie, has detailed his practice in the "New Genesee Farmer" (an agricultural periodical), for March, 1843. His directions must be understood as intended for those who wish to cultivate only a few acres, and cannot afford much outlay of capital. Those who desire to engage in the business on an extensive scale, would need to adopt a somewhat different practice:--

_Soil and preparation._--" The soil should be a deep, rich, sandy loam, free from weeds, roots, stones, &c., containing a good portion of vegetable earth. Alluvial "bottom" land is the most suitable, but it must not be wet. If old upland is used, it should receive a heavy coating of vegetable earth, from decayed wood and leaves. The land should be ploughed very deep in the fall, and early in the spring apply about one hundred loads of well-rotted manure per acre, spread evenly, and ploughed in deeply; then harrow till quite fine and free from lumps. Next plough the land into beds four feet wide, leaving alleys between three feet wide, then harrow the beds with a fine light harrow, or rake them by hand, so as to leave them smooth and even with the alleys; they are then ready for planting.

_Preparing sets and planting._--Madder sets or seed roots are best selected when the crop is dug in the fall. The horizontal uppermost roots (with eyes) are the kind to be used; these should be separated from the bottom roots, and buried in sand in a cellar or pit. If not done in the fall, the sets may be dug early in the spring, before they begin to sprout. They should be cut or broken into pieces, containing from two to five eyes each; _i.e._, three to four inches long. The time for planting is as early in the spring as the ground can be got in good order, and severe frosts are over, which in this climate (America) is usually about the middle of April. With the beds prepared as directed, stretch a line lengthwise the bed, and with the corner of a hoe make a drill two inches deep along each edge and down the middle, so as to give three rows to each bed, about two feet apart. Into these drills drop the sets, ten inches apart, covering them two inches deep. Eight or ten bushels of sets are requisite for an acre.

_After culture._--As soon as the madder plants can be seen, the ground should be carefully hoed, so as to destroy the weeds and not injure the plants; and the hoeing and weeding must be repeated as often as weeds make their appearance. If any of the sets have failed to grow, the vacancies should be filled by talking up parts of the strongest roots and transplanting them; this is best done in June. As soon as the madder plants are ten or twelve inches high, the tops are to be bent down on the surface of the ground, and all except the tip end covered with earth, shovelled from the middle of the alleys. Bend the shoots outward and inward in every direction, so as in time to fill all the vacant space on the beds, and about one foot on each side. After the first time covering, repeat the weeding when necessary, and run a single horse plough through the alleys several times to keep the earth clean and mellow. As soon as the plants again become ten or twelve inches high, bend down and cover them as before, repeating the operation as often as necessary, which is commonly three times the first season. The last time may be as late as September, or later if no frosts occur. By covering the tops in this manner, they change to roots, and the design is to fill the ground as full of roots as possible. When the vacant spaces are all full, there is but little chance for weeds to grow; but all that appear must be pulled out.

_The second year._--Keep the beds free from weeds; plough the alleys and cover the tops, as before directed, two or three times during the season. The alleys will now form deep and narrow ditches, and if it becomes difficult to obtain good earth for covering the tops, that operation may be omitted after the second time this season. Care should be taken, when covering the tops, to keep the edges of the beds as high as the middle; otherwise the water from heavy showers will run off, and the crop suffer from drought.

_The third year._--Very little labor or attention is required. They will now cover the whole ground. If any weeds are seen, they must be pulled out; otherwise their roots will cause trouble when harvesting the madder. The crop is sometimes dug the third year; and if the soil and cultivation have been good, and the seasons warm and favorable, the madder will be of a good quality; but generally it is much better in quality, and more in quantity, when left until the fourth year.

_Digging and harvesting._--This should be done between the 20th of August and the 20th of September. Take a sharp shovel or shovels, and cut off and remove the tops with half an inch of the surface of the earth; then take a plough of the largest size, with a sharp coulter and a double team, and plough a furrow outward, beam-deep, around the edge of the bed; stir the earth with forks, and carefully pick out all the roots, removing the earth from the bottom of the furrow; then plough another furrow beam-deep, as before, and pick over and remove the earth in the same manner; thus proceeding until the whole is completed.

_Washing and drying._--As soon as possible after digging, take the roots to some running stream to be washed. If there is no running stream convenient, it can be done at a pump. Take large round sieves, two-and-a-half or three feet in diameter, with the wire about as fine as wheat sieves; or if these cannot be had, get from a hardware store sufficient screen wire of the right fineness, and make frames or boxes, two-and-a-half feet long and the width of the, wire, on the bottom of which nail the wire. In these sieves or boxes, put half a bushel of roots at a time, and stir them about in the water, pulling the branches apart so as to wash them clean; then, having a platform at hand, lay them onto dry. (To make the platform, take two or three common boards, so as to be about four feet in width, and nail deals across the under side). On these spread the roots about two inches thick for drying in the sun. Carry the platforms to a convenient place, not far from the house, and place them side by side, in rows east and west, and with their ends north and south, leaving room to walk between the rows. Elevate the south ends of the platforms about eighteen inches, and the north ends about six inches from the ground, putting poles or sticks to support them--this will greatly facilitate drying. After the second or third day's drying, the madder must be protected from the dews at night, and from rain, by placing the platforms one upon another to a convenient height, and covering the uppermost one with board. Spread them out again in the morning, or as soon as danger is over. Five or six days of ordinarily fine weather will dry the madder sufficiently, when it may be put away till it is convenient to kiln-dry and grind it.

_Kiln-drying,_--The size and mode of constructing the kiln may be varied to suit circumstances. The following is a very cheap plan, and sufficient to dry one ton of roots at a time. Place four strong posts in the ground, twelve feet apart one way, and eighteen the other; the front two fourteen feet high, and the other eighteen; put girts across the bottom, middle, and top, and nail boards perpendicularly on the outside as for a common barn. The boards must be well seasoned, and all cracks or holes should be plastered or otherwise stopped up. Make a shed-roof of common boards. In the inside put upright standards about five feet apart, with cross-pieces to support the scaffolding. The first cross-pieces to be four feet from the floor; the next two feet higher, and so on to the top. On these cross-pieces lay small poles, about six feet long and two inches thick, four or fire inches apart. On these scaffolds the madder is to be spread nine inches thick. A floor is laid at the bottom to keep all dry and clean. When the kiln is filled, take six or eight small kettles or hand-furnaces, and place them four or five feet apart on the floor (first securing it from fire with bricks or stones), and make fires in them with charcoal, being careful not to make any of the fires so large as to scorch the madder over them. A person must be in constant attendance to watch and replenish the fires. The heat will ascend through the whole, and in ten or twelve hours it will all be sufficiently dried, which is known by its becoming brittle like pipe stems.

_Breaking and grinding._--Immediately after being dried, the madder must be taken to the barn and threshed with flails, or broken by machinery (a mill might easily be constructed for this purpose), so that it will feed in a common grist-mill. If it is not broken and ground immediately, it will gather dampness so as to prevent its grinding freely. Any common grist-mill can grind madder properly. When ground finely it is fit for use, and may be packed in barrels like flour for market.

_Amount and value of product, &c._--Mr. Swift measured off a part of his ground, and carefully weighed the product when dried, which he found to be over two thousand pounds per acre, notwithstanding the seasons were mostly dry and unfavorable. With his present knowledge of the business, he is confident that he can obtain at least three thousand pounds per acre, which is said to be more than is often obtained in Germany. The whole amount of labor he estimates at from eighty to one hundred days' work per acre. The value of the crop, at the usual wholesale price (about fifteen cents per pound), from three to four hundred dollars. In foreign countries it is customary to make several qualities of the madder, which is done by sorting the roots; but as only one quality is required for the western market, Mr. Swift makes but one, and that is found superior to most of the imported, and finds a ready sale.

Madder is produced in Middle Egypt to some extent, for the consumption of the country, principally for dyeing the _tarbouche_ or skull caps which are universally worn. Its culture was introduced in 1825. In 1833, 300 acres in Upper Egypt, and 500 in the Delta and the Kelyout, were devoted to madder roots.

New South Wales is eminently suited to the culture of this valuable root, and as the profits upon its cultivation are very large, I would strongly recommend it to the attention of agriculturists there. The article produces to France an annual sum of one million sterling; the price of the finest quality in the English market being £60 per ton. Its yield varies from £40 to £50 per acre, and the expenses upon its proper culture should not exceed one-half that amount. The colonists would find it to their interest to turn their attention to such articles as this, for which there is an extensive demand at home, instead of confining themselves exclusively to the commoner and bulkier products, which they export at a much less profit, and which when once the market is fully supplied, may fall to a price at which they cannot afford to sell.

The following is a calculation of the expenses generally supposed to attend a crop according to the mode of cultivation practised in Vaucluse:--

Rent per hectare (2½ English acres), 3 years, at £ s. d. 165 francs 19 17 6 Manure, 440 francs £17 12 6 Carriage of ditto, 132 francs 3 5 10 --------- 22 18 4 --------- £42 15 10

These expenses may almost be dispensed with in our colonies, as the soil at Vaucluse has long been exhausted.

Two and a-half acres require 170 lbs. seed, at 2½d. per pound, which, with the labor afterwards bestowed, including the cost of spade trenching, will be 30 0 0 --------- £72 15 10

The average produce per hectare is 77 cwt., which, at £1 4s. 2d. per cwt. (the price on the spot), is £93. The price is now much lower, but still it is clear a most profitable return would be derived from the first crop, and a proportionably larger one afterwards.

A considerable portion of the madder roots, instead of being ground and exported in that form, as heretofore, is now exposed, after being invested with dilute sulphuric acid, to a boiling heat by means of steam, by which the coloring matter is considerably altered and improved in quality for some dyeing processes, while the quantity rendered soluble in water is greatly increased. The madder so prepared is known as "garancine," and forms an important branch of manufacture in the south of France, which was well illustrated at the Great Exhibition in 1851, by a collection of specimens supplied by the Chamber of Commerce of Avignon. The spent madder, after being used in dyeing, is now also converted by Mr. H. Steiner, of Accrington, into a garancine (termed _garanceuse_ by the French) by steaming it with sulphuric acid in the same manner as the fresh madder, and thus a considerable quantity of coloring matter is recovered and made available which was formerly thrown away in the spent madder. Both varieties of garancine give a more scarlety red than the unprepared madder, and also good chocolate and black, without soiling the white ground, but are not so well fitted, particularly the garancine of spent madder, for dyeing purples, lilacs, and pinks. The value of the garancine imported from France in 1848 was £59,554, and of that imported in 1851 £93,818. This preparation of ground madder is imported into Liverpool to the extent of from 500 to 600 tons annually from Marseilles, for the use of calico printers in the manufacturing districts. The price is £7 to £8 the ton.

This important root is already cultivated to a considerable extent in Russia but not nearly in sufficient quantity to meet the local demand; so that large quantities are imported from Holland and elsewhere, every year.

The quantity of madder, madder-root, and garaneine annually imported into the United Kingdom is exceedingly large, over 15,000 tons, as is shown by a reference to the following figures:--

Madder. Madder roots. Garancine. Total. cwts. cwts. cwts. cwts. 1848 81,261 139,463 5,955 276,679 1849 92,736 161,986 4,969 259,691 1850 100,248 161,613 5,845 267,706 1851 92,925 202,091 9,382 304,398 1852 84,385 179,813 ---- ----

We imported from France, duty free, the following:--

Madder. Official value. Madder-root. cwts. £ cwts. £ 1848 54,084 122,851 25,068 70,749 1849 57,108 131,059 23,459 81,274 1850 54,559 123,628 13,693 55,263 1851 65,577 151,502 34,017 167,721

The price in the Liverpool market, in June 1853, for Bombay madder-roots was £1 18s. to £2 14s. the cwt.

INDIAN MADDER.--_Rubia cordifolia_, or _Munjestha_, a variety with white flowers, a native of Siberia, is cultivated largely in the East,

## particularly about Assam, Nepaul, Bombay, Scinde, Quitta, China, &c.,

for its dye-stuff, and is known as Munjeet. A small quantity is exported from China and India; about 338 Indian maunds were shipped from Calcutta in 1840, and 2,328 in 1841. It fetches in the London and Liverpool markets from 20s. to 25s. and 30s. per cwt., duty free; 405 tons were imported into Liverpool from Bombay and Calcutta, in 1849, and 525 tons in 1850, but none was imported in 1851 and 1852.

It was remarked by the Jury in 1851, at the Great Exhibition, that this is a valuable dye-stuff, and hitherto not so well appreciated as it deserves, for some of the colors dyed with it are quite as permanent as those dyed with madder, and even more brilliant. Its use however is gradually increasing, and it is unquestionably well worthy the attention of dyers.

LOGWOOD.--The logwood of commerce is the red heart wood, or duramen, of a fine lofty growing tree (_Haematroxylon Campechianum_), growing in Campeachy and the bay of Honduras, and which is also now common in the woods of Jamaica and St. Domingo. It is principally imported as a dye wood, cut into short lengths. We chip, grind, and pack it into casks and bags, ready for the dyers, hatters, and printers' use, who esteem it as affording the most durable deep red and black dyes. It is sometimes used in medicine as an astringent. That grown in Jamaica is least valued that of Honduras, Tobasco, and St. Domingo, fetches a somewhat higher price; but that imported from Campeachy direct, is the most esteemed. The annual imports into Liverpool are about 1,300 tons from Honduras, 100 from Tobasco, and 1,800 from Campeachy.

It thrives best in a damp tenacious soil, with a small proportion of sand. It is imported in logs, which are afterwards chipped, and is of great commercial importance from its valuable dyeing properties. Old wood is preferred; it is so hard as almost to be indestructible by the atmosphere. The albumen is of a yellowish color, and is not imported. The bark and wood are slightly astringent. The imports of logwood into the United Kingdom, were 23,192 tons in 1848, 23,996 tons in 1849, and 34,090 tons in 1850, of which 3,484 tons were re-exported in 1848, and 2,307 tons in 1849. The imports in the past two years of 1852 and 1853, have averaged 20,000 tons, of which about 3,000 tons were re-exported. It is increasing in use, for in 1837, the quantity retained for home use was only 14,677½ tons. The price varies according to quality from £4 to £7 per ton.

We received from Honduras 5,401 tons in 1844; and 55,824 tons in 1845. From Montego Bay, Jamaica, 398 tons were shipped between January and July 1851.

FUSTIC.--This is the common name of a species of dye wood in extensive use, which is obtained from _Maclura tinctoria_, or _Broussonitia tinctoria_, Kunth, a large and handsome evergreen tree, growing in South America and the West Indies. The wood is extensively used as an ingredient in the dyeing of yellow, and is largely imported for that purpose. The quantity entered for home consumption in the United Kingdom was 1,731 tons in 1847, 1,653 in 1848, and 1,842 tons in 1849.

Ninety-one tons were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first six months of 1851.

QUERCITRON.---This bark furnishes a yellow dye, of which about 3,500 tons are annually imported in hogsheads of from half a ton to a ton. 296 tons were imported into Liverpool from Philadelphia in 1849, and 514 tons in 1850.

BRAZIL WOOD.--This very ponderous wood is obtained in Brazil from the _Cæsalpina Braziliensis_, which yields a red or crimson dye, when united with alum or tartar, and is used by silk dyers. It is imported principally from Pernambuco, 1,200 quintals having been shipped to London in 1835, but about 500 tons, worth about £4 a ton, were imported from Costa Rica in 1845.

The tree is large, crooked, and knotty, and the bark is thick, and equals the third or fourth of its diameter.

The imports may be stated at about 600 tons annually, the average price being £50 per ton.

Brazil wood is found in the greatest abundance and of the best quality, in the Province of Pernambuco, but being a government monopoly it has been cut down in so improvident a manner, that it is now seldom seen within several leagues of the coast.

Among the Cuba dye woods is Copey _(Clusia rosea_, Linn).

Braziletto, obtained from _C. Crista_, is one of the cheapest and least esteemed of the red dye woods, imported from Jamaica and other West India islands to the extent of 150 tons per annum, fetching £6 to £8 per ton. 2,361 tons of Nicaragua wood were imported in 1848, 2,701 tons in 1849, and 6,130 tons in 1850.

Spain exhibited various vegetable dyes obtained from cultivated and wild plants furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa.

LICHENS.

The chief lichens employed in the manufacture of orchil and cudbear are the following:--

Angola weed (_Ramalina furfuracea_).

Mauritius weed (_Rocella fusiformis_), which comes also from Madagascar, Lima, and Valparaiso, and then bears the distinctive commercial name of the port of shipment.

Cape weed (_Rocella tinctoria_), from the Cape de Verd Islands.

Canary Moss (_Parmelia perlata_).

Tartareous Moss (_Parmelia tartarea_).

Pustulatus Moss (_Umbilicaria pustulata_).

Velvet Moss (_Gyrophora murina_).

The last three are imported from Sweden.

Of these lichens, the first, which is the richest in coloring matter, grows as a parasite upon trees; all the remainder upon rocks.

_Rocella corallina_, _Variolaris lactea_ and _dealbata_, have been also resorted to.

About 130 tons of cudbear are imported annually from Sweden.

These lichens are found on rocks, on the sea coast. The modes, of treating them for the manufacture of the different dyes is the same in principle, though varying slightly in detail. They are carefully cleaned and ground into a pulp with water, an ammoniacal liquor is from time to time added, and the mass constantly stirred in order to expose it as much as possible to the air. Peculiar substances existing in these plants are, during this process, so changed by the combined

## action of the atmosphere, water, and ammonia, as to generate the

coloring matter, which, when perfect, is pressed out, and gypsum, chalk, or other substances, are then added, so as to give it the desired consistency; these are then prepared for the market under the forms of cudbear or litmus.

HENNA (_Lawsonia inermis_), is an important dye-stuff, and the distilled water of the flowers is used as a perfume. The Mahomedan women in India use the shoots for dyeing their nails red, and the same practice prevails in Arabia. In these countries the manes and tails of the horses are stained red in the same manner. The _Genista tomentosa_ yields red petals used in dyeing, and containing much tannic acid.

ORCHILLA WEED.--The fine purple color which the orchilla weed yields, is in use as an agent for coloring, staining, and dyeing. About 30,000 lbs. is obtained annually in the island of Teneriffe. 460 arrobas (or 115 cwt.) of orchilla were exported from the Canary Isles in 1833. In 1839, 6,494 cwts. paid duty, and 4,175 cwts. in 1840. The average imports of the three years ending with 1842, was 6,050 cwt. A little comes in from Barbary and the islands of the Archipelago.

Dr. W.L. Lindley, in a very interesting paper, read before the Botanical Society of London, in December, 1852, on the dyeing properties of the lichens, stated--

The subject of the _colorific_ and _coloring_ principles of the lichen has, within the last few years, attracted a due share of that attention which, has been increasingly devoted to organic chemistry. Since 1830, Heeren, Kane, Schunck, Rochleder and Heldt, Knop, Stenhouse, Laurent and Gerhardt, have published valuable papers on these principles; but, here again, we have to regret the great discrepancy in the various results obtained, and there is therefore, here also, imperatively demanded re-investigation and correction before _any_ of the results already published can he implicitly relied upon, and before we can have safe data from which to generalise. I have no doubt that a great proportion of the obscurity overhanging this subject depends on the circumstance that many of the chemists, who have devoted attention to the color-educts and products of the lichens, were not themselves botanists, and have therefore probably, in some cases at least, analysed species under erroneous names, and also because their investigations have comprehended a much too limited number of species.

Their utility in the arts, and especially in dyeing--including the collection of a series of the commercial dye lichens, _i.e._, those used by the manufacturers of London, &c., in the making of orchil, cudbear, litmus, and other lichen dyes. While investigating the dyeing properties of the lichens, I made experiments, with a view to test their colorific power, on as many species as I could obtain in sufficient quantity, to render it at all useful to operate on--that number, however, being very limited (between forty and fifty).

Dr. Lindley adds, many parties may be able to aid his investigations, by furnishing information on their economic uses, and on their special applications in dyeing and other arts--(particularly on their employment, as dye agents, by the natives of Britain and other countries)--with specimens of the lichens so used, and their common names--specimens of fabrics dyed therewith--notes of the processes employed for the elimination of the dyes, &c. Parties resident in, or travelling through our western Highlands and Islands, the northern Highlands, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Iceland, and similar countries, are most likely to be able to afford this description of information--many native lichens being still used by the peasantry of these countries to dye their homespun yarn, &c.

He proceeded to treat--1. The vast importance of this humble tribe of plants in the grand economy of nature, as the pioneers and founders of _all_ vegetation. 2. Their importance to man and the lower animals, as furnishing various articles of food. 3. Their importance in medicine, and especially in its past history, at home and abroad. 4. Their importance in the useful and fine arts, and especially in the art of dyeing. 5. Their affinities and analogies to other cryptogamic families, and to the Phanerogamia. 6. Their value as an element of the picturesque in nature; and, 7. Their typical significance.

He then adverted more especially to the subject of his communication, under the ten following heads:--

I. The colors of the Thallus and apothecia of Lichens--their causes, and the circumstances which modify and alter them.

II. History of the application of their coloring matters to the art of dyeing.

III. Chemical nature and general properties of these coloring matters.

IV. Tests and processes for estimating qualitatively, and quantitatively the colorific powers of individual species--with their practical applications.

V. Processes of manufacture of the Lichen-dyes, on the large and small scale in different countries--with the principles on which they are founded.

VI. Nomenclature of the dye-Lichens, and of the Lichen-dyes.

VII. Botanical and commercial sources of the same.

VIII. Special applications of the Lichen-dyes in the arts.

IX. Commercial value of the dye-Lichens, and their products.

X. Geographical distribution of the dye-Lichens--with the effect of climate; situation, &c., on their colorific materials.

Of the four first sections of his paper, the following is a very short summary or synopsis:--

Under the first head, the author spoke of chlorophylle and various organic and inorganic substances, which enter into the formation of the colors of the thallus and apothecia of lichens, and of the modifications of these colors depending on various degrees of--1. Exposure to air and light. 2. Temperature. 3. Moisture, &c. 4. Atmospheric vicissitudes. 5. Season of the year. 6. Nature of the Gonidic reproduction (_i.e._, gemmation). 7. Nature of habitat. 8. Organic decomposition. 9. Coalescence of parts, monstrosities, &c.

Under the second section, he traced historically the manufacture of Lichen-dyes, and the native use of Lichens as dye agents, among different nations, from the times of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, down to the present day, sketching briefly the ancient end modern history of orchil, cudbear, and litmus, and specifying the native use of lichen-dyes in different, countries of Europe, Asia, and America. He alluded more particularly to their application to the dyeing of yarns, &c., by the Scotch Highlanders, under the name of "_Crottles_." "The process of the manufacture of the various crottles, generally consisted in macerating the powdered lichen for two or three weeks, in stale urine, exposing the mass freely to the air by repeated stirring, and adding lime, salt, alum, or argillaceous and other substances, either to heighten the color or impart consistence. To such an extent did this custom at one time prevail, that, in several of our northern counties each farm and cottage had its tank or barrel of putrefying urine, a homely but perfectly efficient mode of generating the necessary amount of ammonia. In the county of Aberdeen, in particular, every homestead had its reservoir of "Graith,"[53] and the "Lit-pig,"[54] which stood by every fireside, was as familiar an article of furniture in the cots of the peasantry, as the "cuttie-stool," or the "meal girnel." So lately as 1841 (and I presume the practice continues to the present day), Mr. Edmonston stated that, of four or five native dyes, used by the Shetlanders to color cloth and yarns, two at least were furnished by lichens, viz., a _brown dye_ from _Parmelia saxatilis_, under the name of "Scrottyie," and a _red_ one from _Lecanora tartarea_, under that of "Korkalett." It is very probable, however, that steam and free trade have gradually dispelled this good old custom, even in the remoter corners of our island; machinery-made articles being now readily supplied, at a rate so extraordinarily cheap, as to render it absolutely expensive (as to time, if not also as to money) to prepare colors, even by a process so simple and inexpensive as that just mentioned."

Under the third head, he examined, in a general way, the chemistry of the colorific and coloring matters of the lichens and the results to which it has led, avoiding as much as possible the technicalities inseparable from such a subject, and giving a short _vise_ of the researches of Heeren, Kane, Rochleder, and Heldt, Stenhouse, Schunck, Laurent, and Gerhardt, and others. "Our untaught senses should undoubtedly lead us to expect the lichens, whose thallus exhibits the brightest tints, to yield the finest dyes, and these, too, of a color similar to that of the thallus, but experience teaches us that the beautiful reddish or purplish coloring-matters are producible in the greatest abundance by the very species from which we should least expect to derive any, viz., in those most devoid of external color. This, though at first sight very remarkable, is easily explicable, when we remember that, in most of the so-called dye-lichens, colorific principles exist in a colorless form, and only become converted into colored substances under a peculiar combination of circumstances.

"Some lichens contain coloring matters, ready formed, and these exhibit themselves in the tint of the thallus of the plants, _e.g._ chrysophanic [or parietinic] acid in _Parmelia parietina_, and vulpinic acid in _Evernia vulpina_. In other species we find principles, which, while in the plant, and unacted on by chemical re-agents, are colorless, but which, when the lichens are exposed to the combined influence of atmospheric air, water, and ammonia, yield colored substances. This series of colored products is usually comprehended more for convenience sake than on account of chemical identity, under the generic term orceine."

The whole subject of the chemistry of these bodies is at present in a most unsatisfactory condition, demanding fresh investigation and research, in illustration of which, the author exhibited tables of the colorific and coloring principles, so far as they are at present known, showing their chemical formulæ and the authority therefor, and various relative information. "It is highly probable that when the chemistry of the lichens has been more fully studied, and the whole subject of their color-educts and products better understood, we shall begin to reduce the present confused mass of complex substances, and find the same principles more extensively diffused through different lichen species." Dr. L. entered somewhat minutely on the chemical reactions of the better known colorific and coloring principles, and their derivatives, so far at least as these throw any light on the production and transmutation of the red or purple colors extracted from what may be termed _par excellence_, the _dye-lichens_. After a few remarks on the chemical constitution of orchil and litmus, as given by Kane, Gelis, Pereira, and others, he discussed the subject of decolorisation of weak infusions of orchil and litmus by exclusion of atmospheric air, and by various deoxidising agents, and the different theories as to the causation of this phenomenon. "I have repeatedly had occasion to notice that, when weak infusions of these substances are excluded for some time from atmospheric air, in a bottle, with a tightly fitting cork, they gradually lose color, but rapidly regain it on re-exposure. It is curious that both orchil and litmus are what are called transient or false colors, _i.e._, they slowly lose their bloom and tint by long exposure to the atmosphere; the coloring matter, therefore, appears to be decolorised both by exposure to, and exclusion from the air, phenomena apparently of very opposite characters. The cause of the latter phenomenon has never, so far as I am aware, been quite satisfactorily explained; but it has been variously supposed to be due:--

1. To the mere negation of oxygen.

2. To the development, in the liquids, of various substances, capable of exerting a decolorising influence on the coloring matter.

3. To deoxidation of the coloring matter by substances, which have a great tendency to become oxidised or peroxised; _e.g._ hydrogen, in the case of decolorisation by sulphuretted hydrogen, nascent hydrogen, and the protoxides of iron and tin, &c.

4. To the fixation of an additional amount of hydrogen in a new colorless body, formed by the union of the sulphuretted hydrogen or other substances with the coloring matter of the liquid. This view is chiefly supported by Kane, who says, "that precisely as the coloring matters combine with water, to form different shades of red-colored bodies--with ammonia to produce a series of bodies, which are blue and purple--so they combined with sulphuretted hydrogen to form colorless compounds in solution, which, if solid, very probably would be white." He supposes, in a word, that for every colored substance existing in orchil and litmus, there is a corresponding white one, producible by the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, &c.; and, in proof of this theory, he mentions having obtained from Azolitmine and Betaorceine colorless bodies, to which he gave the respective names of Leuco-litmine and Leuco-orceine.

The author then gave a short summary of Dr. Westring's experiments on the dyeing powers of the Swedish lichens, which he found might be conveniently divided into four classes, according to the degree of heat employed in their maceration, viz.:--

1. Lichens, whose coloring matter was easily extractable by _cold_ water alone.

2. Those which required for the elimination of their coloring matter, maceration in _tepid_ water (_i.e._ below 258 degs. Swedish thermometer).

3. Those which required maceration in _warm_ water (_i.e._between 50 and 60 degs. Swedish thermometer).

4. Those requiring _boiling_ water alone, or with the aid of solvents.

"It must be admitted that our knowledge of the true nature of the colorofic and coloring principles of the lichens is, as yet, very imperfect and confused, and one great cause of the dubity and obscurity overhanging the subject, is the fact that different analysts have arrived at most opposite results, even in the examination of the same species. For instance, in _Rocella tinctoria_, which has, of all the dye-Lichens, been most frequently selected for analytical investigation, on account of its important product orchil, the discrepancies between the results obtained are very striking. In it Heeren discovered his _Erythrine_; Kane his _Erythriline_; Schunk his _Erythric acid_; and Stenhouse three different substances in as many varieties of the plant; all of these bodies differing more or less from each other in composition and properties (at least, if we are to assume, as correct, the descriptions given of them by their respective discoverers").

"I have already hinted that there is no ratio between the external and internal color or structure of a lichen, and the kind or amount of coloring matter it will be found to yield. It is exceedingly natural to suppose that such a ratio should exist; but, proceeding for some time on this supposition, I was frequently disappointed in my results--the most showy and brilliantly colored lichens often furnishing the dullest and most worthless colors. For instance, the bright yellow thallus of _Parmelia parietina_, and the beautiful scarlet apothecia of _Scyphophorus cocciferus_, instead of producing a rich yellow in the one case, and a deep crimson in the other, yielded, respectively, only dirty greenish-yellow and brownish colors. As a general rule I should almost be inclined to say that the finer the color of the thallus of any given lichen, the more is that lichen to be suspected of poverty in valuable coloring matters; and that, on the other hand, the palest pulverulent or crustaceous species, especially such as are saxicolous, may be expected to yield the most beautiful and valuable pigments (_e.g._ the Rocellas and Lecanoras). In such circumstances it is necessary to have some test, of easy applicability, of the kind and amount of colorific properties of any lichen, and this fortunately is readily attainable."

The fourth section of the paper was devoted to the consideration of the various tests of colorific power, which have been recommended by different authors. "Of these, the greater number proceed on the principle of developing the coloring matter by some alkali, in conjunction with the decomposing action of atmospheric oxygen and water; others are founded on the reaction between colorific principles of certain of the dye lichens and some of our ordinary chemical re-agents." The author noticed in particular--

1. Helot's test, } 2. Westring's tests, }qualitative. 3. Stenhouse's test, } 4. " quantitative.

Helot's test consists in digesting the dried and powdered lichen or a few hours, at a temperature of 130 degs., in a weak solution of ammonia, sufficiently strong, however, to be tolerably pungent. One that is fit for the dyer will yield a rich violet red liquor.

Dr. Westring recommended simply macerating three or four drachms of the lichen in cool spring water, assisting, perhaps, the solvent

## action of the water by minute quantities of common salt, nitre,

quicklime, sulphate of copper or iron, or similar re-agents. If these means failed, after a sufficient length of time had been allowed for the development of color, he digested a fresh portion of the pulverised lichen in water, containing small quantities of sal-ammoniac and quicklime [in the proportion of 25 parts of water, 1-10th lime, and 1-20th sal-ammoniac for every part of lichen], for a period varying from eight to fourteen days, and by this process, he says, he never failed to develop all the color which the plant was capable of yielding.

Dr. Stenhouse, of London, one of our latest and best authorities on the chemistry of the lichens, adds to an alcoholic infusion of the lichen, a solution of common bleaching powder (chloride of lime), whereby, if it contain certain colorific principles capable of developing, under the joint action of air, water, and ammonia, red coloring matters, a fugitive but distinct _blood-red color_ will be exhibited. The amount of this colorific matter may be estimated quantitatively by noting the quantity of the chloride of lime solution required to destroy this blood-red color in different cases: or the same result may be obtained by macerating for a short period in milk of lime--filtering--precipitating the filtered liquor by acetic or muriatic acid--collecting this precipitate on a weighed filter--drying at ordinary temperatures and again weighing.

The author entered into a full analysis of these tests and processes--pointing out their respective advantages and disadvantages--and showing their practical value and applications. He stated that he had made use of these, and various other tests, in upwards of 300 experiments, and the one which he employed to the greatest extent, because most uniformly applicable, was Helot's ammonia test. The following combination is that most favorable for the development of the coloring matter of the lichens--viz., the presence

1. Of _water_ as a solvent menstruum. 2. Of atmospheric _oxygen_. 3. Of _ammonia_, in the state of vapor or in solution, and 4. Of a moderate degree of _heat_;

And according as the proportion of these combining elements varies, so do the kind and amount of color educed by them. This combination is the foundation of all the processes for the manufacture of the lichen dyes throughout the world, however different these may appear to be in detail or results.

I believe it may come to be a matter of great commercial importance to discover, at home or abroad, some cheap and easily-procurable substitute for the _Roccellas_, which are gradually becoming scarce, and consequently valuable in European commerce, having sometimes fetched, in times of scarcity, no less than £1,000 per ton. No plants can be so easily collected and preserved as lichens--requiring merely to be cleaned, dried, pulverised, and packed; and if their bulk be an objection to transport, their whole colorific matter may be collected in the way I have already mentioned. Ascending to the verge of eternal snows, and descending to the ocean level--with a geographical diffusion that is co-extensive with the surface of our earth, it is difficult to say where lichens shall not be found. There are myriads of small rocky islets in the boundless ocean, and there are thousands of miles of barren rocky coast and sterile mountain range in every part of the world, which, though at present unfit to bear any of the higher members of the vegetable kingdom, are yet carpeted and adorned with a rich covering of lichens, and of those very species too, which I have already spoken of as prolific in colorific materials. I sincerely believe, therefore, that a more general attention to the very simple tests just enumerated, would ultimately result in a greatly extended use of the lichens as dye agents. What renders it very probable that efforts in this direction are likely to meet with success is the great similarity of species found all over the world. It has been repeatedly noticed that the European species, which, of course, are best known, differ little from those of North America. Dr. Robert Brown remarked the same fact with regard to New Holland species, and Humboldt also recognised the similarity in natives of the South American Andes. Of a large collection made by Professor Royle, in the Himalayas, Don pronounced almost every one to be identical with European species. From examining the raw vegetable products, sent by different countries to the Great Exhibition of 1851, I am satisfied that, even now, there are many fields open for the establishment of an export trade in _Roccellas_ and other so-called orchella weeds." I there saw specimens of good dye lichens from almost every part of the world, including our own young colonies; and as a single instance of their probable value, I may introduce here the copy of a note appended to a specimen of orchella weed from the island of Socotra, contained in the Indian collection of that exhibition, "_abundant_, but _unknown_ as an article of use or commerce. Also abundant on the hills around (Aden) and _might_ be made an article of trade." Roccellas from this source are estimated as worth £190 to £380 per ton. I believe that a similar statement might be made with regard to the countless islands of the broad Atlantic and Pacific, which may, at some future period, perhaps not far distant, be found to be rich depots of orchella weeds, just as some of them are, at present, rich fields of guano, and may, as such, become new nuclei of British commerce and enterprise. Even at home, in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh, or, to restrict our limits still more narrowly, within the compass of Arthur's Seat, there are not a few very good dye-lichens, which require merely to be scraped with an old knife or similar instrument, from the rocks to which they adhere, and subjected to the ammonia process already mentioned. Of twelve specimens thus collected at random one morning, I found no less than three yielded beautiful purple-red colors, apparently as fine as orchil or cudbear, while the others furnished rich and dark tints of brownish-red, brown and olive-green.

Dr. Lindley's communication was illustrated with specimens of coloring matters yielded by various lichens collected in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, &c.

BARKS FOR TANNING.

Let us now take a brief review of the sources from whence tanning materials may be obtained, which will also enable us to form a fair estimate of the prospect of future supplies. Only one medal was awarded, at the Great Exhibition, for tanning substances, viz., to Messrs. Curtis, Brothers (United Kingdom, No. 126), but honorable mention was made of the following competitors:--One from Tunis, one from Van Diemen's Land, one from New Zealand, one from Belgium, one from the Cape of Good Hope, one from Canada, and one from the United Kingdom.

The substance from which pure tannin is most frequently obtained for chemical purposes is nutgalls, for tannin constitutes above 40 per cent, of their weight. It may be procured also from several other sources, such as oak, horse chestnut, sumach, and cinchona barks, catechu, kino, &c.

The basis of the skins of animals is composed of a substance to which the name of gelatine is given. One of the properties of this substance is, that when combined with tannin, it forms the compound of tannate of gelatine, or leather, a substance which is so useful to mankind. From time immemorial, the substance employed to furnish the tannin to the hides of animals, in order to convert them into leather, has been oak bark. But as the purpose for which oaks are grown is their timber, and not their bark, the supply of oak bark cannot be calculated upon, and this is, perhaps, one of the causes why tanning as an art is in such a backward state.

The consumption of tannin required in the leather manufacture may be estimated from the fact that more than 672,000 cwts. of raw hides were imported in 1851, besides the hides of the cattle, &c., consumed in the United Kingdom. On the Continent and in the United States the consumption of bark for this purpose is also considerable.

The imports of bark for the use of tanners and dyers has amounted yearly to the very large quantity of 380,674 cwt., besides what we obtain at home. Oak bark contains usually the largest proportion of tannin, and according to Davy's experiments eight-and-a-half pounds of oak bark are equivalent for tanning purposes to two-and-a-quarter of galls, three of sumach, seven-and-a-half of Leicester willow, eleven of Spanish chesnut, eighteen of elm, and twenty-one of common willow bark. Tannin obtained from these sources, however, differs materially in some of its characters. The tannin of nutgalls, which is that generally employed for chemical purposes, is sometimes called gallo-tannic acid, to distinguish it from other species.

Notwithstanding the number of different substances which have from time to time been introduced for the use of tanners, it is, nevertheless, pretty generally acknowledged that there is nothing superior, or even equal, to good oak bark, and that all attempts to hurry the process beyond a certain point by the use of concentrated solutions of tan, &c., are for the most part failures, as the manufacture of good leather, to a great extent, depends on the process being conducted in a slow and gradual, but--at the same time--thorough and complete matter.

Oak bark is, however, by no means the only astringent bark well suited to the use of the tanner, and in various parts of the world other similar substances are used with very great success. All these tanning materials, though they may not be considered by the English tanner equal to the best oak bark, are, nevertheless, of great value to him; they may be employed in conjunction with oak bark, or even as a substitute in times of scarcity, or when the price of oak bark is high; in fact the very existence of such substances tends to keep down and equalise the price of bark, and to prevent it from undergoing those great fluctuations in value which would necessarily occur were it the only tanning material available to our manufacture--("Prof. Solly in Jury Reports of Great Exhibition.")

There are a vast number of bark and other substances useful for tanning purposes, which are found in the tropics, that are comparatively unknown or little regarded in Europe; but which might be readily obtained in large quantities and at a trifling cost. The bark of many species of _Acacia_ furnishes the tanning principle in a great degree, particularly that of _A. arabica_, which, under the name of Babul wood, is largely used about Scinde, Biliary, Gruzerat, and other parts of India; where it is regarded as a powerful tonic. The fruit of _A. vera_, termed Egyptian and Senegal "bablah," has been employed in tanning and dyeing. Numerous species of this tribe are found abundant in New South Wales and the Cape Colony, and these, particularly the wattle bark of Australia, are in common use for tanning, from their astringent properties. The bark and rind of the fruit of the pomegranate (_Pumica Granata_) have similar properties.

The bark of _Avicenna tomentosa_ is in great use in the Brazils for tanning. So are the curved pods of _Cæsalpinia Coriari_, in the East and West Indies, under the name of Divi-divi. _Coriaria myrtifolia_ is not only used in tanning leather, but also for staining black. It is worth £9 to £10 per ton. _Pterocarpus marsupium_ furnishes about Tellicherry the concrete exudation called kino, a powerful astringent used for tanning.

The plants of the mangrove tribe, _Rhizophora Mangle_, and other allied species, have frequently an astringent bark, which is in many cases used for tanning and dyeing black. This tree is very common in most tropical countries, where it forms dense thickets on the muddy banks of rivers and the sea shores. The bark of _Bauhinia variegata_, is made use of in Scinde and other parts of Asia. The bitter astringent bark and the galls of several of the Tamarisk tribe are also well suited for the purpose.

_Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum_, one of the numerous indigenous species of the Cape, is used in making morocco leather.

The extract procured from the bark of the _Butea_, that of the _Buchanania latifolia_, the _Scyzgium_ (_Calyptranthes_), _Jambolana_, &c., are likely to be of consequence to the tanners, and could be produced in India in large quantities. Specimens of these, and of the bark of the Saul tree, of _Nychanthes arbortrista, Terminalia angustifolia_, and of the gaub fruit (_Diospyros glutinosa_), were shown by the East India Company. The bark of the hemlock tree is extensively employed for tanning in New Brunswick.

The bark of yellow hercules (_Xanthoxylum ochroxylon_), and the pods of _Acacia tortuosa_ are used for tanning in the West Indies.

In the instructions given by the Admiralty to Sir James Boss, when proceeding on his Antarctic Expedition, his attention was particularly called to the astringent substances adapted for tanning, and to the various extracts of barks, &c., imported into England from our Australian settlements, and which are employed by the tanner. Little sterling information has as yet been obtained as to the qualities of the astringent gums, barks, and dyes, yielded in such abundance by the trees of those colonies, and the proportion of tannin they contained.

In 1846, 563 tons of bark for tanning were exported from Port Phillip.

A large quantity of tannin is extracted from various species of Eucalyptus, the gigantic gum trees in Australia and Van Diemen's Land (of which quarter all the species are natives), and sent to the English market; it is said to be twice as powerful in its operations as oak bark. Some of these trees attain a height of 200 feet. Their bark separates remarkably into layers. A sort of kino gum, an astringent resinous-like substance, is also extracted from _E. resinifera_, the brown gum-tree of New Holland, which is sold in the medicine bazaars of India. It exudes in the form of red juice from incisions in the bark. A single tree will often yield 60 gallons. In Brazil they use the bark of _Luhea panicata_, an evergreen climber, for tanning leather; and in Peru the bark of some species of _Weinmaunia_ serve the same purpose. Among other powerful astringents I may notice the root of a species of Sea Lavender (_Statice Caroliniana_), _Myrica cerifera_, and _Heuchera Americana_, all natives of North America. Also the petals of _Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis_, a native of Asia.

The sea-side grape (_Coccolaba uvifera_) yields an astringent substance, known as Jamaica kino.

The bark of the _Cassia auriculata_, and the milky juice of the _Asclepias gigantea_, are used for tanning in India.

The red astringent gum obtained from _Butea frondosa_, a middling size tree, common in Bengal and the mountainous parts of India, is used by the natives for tanning. English tanners, however, object to its use on account of the color which it communicates to the leather.

The barks of the _Mora excelsa_, Benth; Courida (_Avicenna nutida_), cashew (_Anicardium occidentale_), guava and hog-plum (_Spondius lutea_, Linn.), have all been successfully used for tanning in Demerara and the West India Islands, where they are very abundant. Specimens were sent from British Guiana.

The root of the Palmetto palm (_Chaemaerops Palmetto_) is stated to be valuable for the purposes of tanning. The leaves of _Nerium Oleander_ contain tannic acid. The bark of a species of Malphigia is much used by the Brazilians.

The panke (_Gunnera scabra_) is a fine plant, growing in Chili, on the sandstone cliffs, which somewhat resembles the rhubarb on a gigantic scale. The inhabitants eat the stalks, which are subacid, tan leather with the roots, and also prepare a black dye from them. The leaf is nearly circular, but deeply indented on its margin. Mr. Darwin measured one which was nearly eight feet in diameter, and therefore no less than twenty-four in circumference. The stalk is rather more than a yard high, and each plant sends out four or five of these enormous leaves, presenting together a very noble appearance.

The barks replete with the tanning principle should be stripped with hatchets and bills from the trunk and branches of trees in spring, when their sap flows most freely. The average quantity of oak bark obtained from our forests is estimated at 150,000 tons annually, of which Ireland and Scotland furnish but a very small quantity.

The following table, given by Dr. Ure, shows the quantity of extractive matter and tannin yielded by different substances:--

In 480 parts In 100 parts by Davy. by Cadet. Sicilian sumach 78 -- Malaga ditto 79 -- Souchong tea 48 -- Green tea 41 -- Bombay catechu 261 -- Bengal ditto 231 -- Nutgalls 127 46 Bark of pomegranate -- 32 " Virginian sumach -- 10 " Carolina ditto -- 5

Catechu and Gambier are very valuable for tanning, and are alluded to under the heads GAMBIER and ARECA PALM.

CATECHU is obtained from the _Acacia Catechu_, an arboreous tree growing from fifteen to twenty feet high, with a brown and scabrous bark. The interior wood is brown, dark red or blackish, and the exterior white, one or two inches thick. It inhabits various parts of the East Indies, of which it is a native, and is also now common in Jamaica. It bears whitish or pale yellow flowers.

The catechu obtained from this tree in Pegu, is celebrated throughout India, and fetches £4 to £5 more per ton than gambier and other astringent extracts. When of good quality, catechu is more powerful as an astringent than kino. Of all the astringent substances we know, catechu appears to contain the largest proportion of tannin, and Mr. Purkis found that one pound was equivalent to seven or eight of oak bark for tanning leather.

The term catechu, observes Dr. Pereira, is applied to various astringent extracts imported from India and the neighbouring countries. A few years ago the terms catechu, terra japonica, and cutch were employed synonymously; they are now, however, for the most part used in trade somewhat distinctively, though not uniformly in the same sense. The manufacture of catechu from the _Acacia catechu_ as practised in Canara and Behar, has been described by Mr. Kerr ("Med. Obs. and Inquiries," vol. v.), and Dr. Hamilton ("Journey through Mysore," &c., vol. iii.), while Professor Royle has explained the process followed in Northern India. According to the last-mentioned gentleman, "the kutt manufacturers move to different parts of the country in different seasons, erect temporary huts in the jungles, and selecting trees fit for their purpose, cut the inner wood into small chips. These they put into small earthen pots, which are arranged in a double row, along a fireplace built of mud; water is then poured in until the whole are covered; after a considerable portion has boiled away, the clear liquor is strained into one of the neighbouring pots, and a fresh supply of the material is put into the first, and the operation repeated until the extract in the general receiver is of sufficient consistence to be poured into clay moulds, which, in the Kheree Pass and Doon, where I have seen the process, are generally of a quadrangular form. This catechu is usually of a pale red color, and is considered there to be of the best quality. By the manufacturers it is conveyed to Saharunpore and Moradabad, whence it follows the course of commerce down the Ganges, and meets that from Nepaul, so that both may be exported from Calcutta."

GAMBIER.

The Gambier plant (_Uncaria Gambler_, Roxburgh, _Nauclea Gambir_, Hunter), has been described by Rumphius under the name of _Funis uncatus_. It is a stout, scandent, evergreen shrub, which strongly resembles the myrtle. It is generally cultivated in the same plantation with pepper, as the leaves and shoots, after undergoing the process by which their juice is extracted, to furnish a kind of catechu, are found to be an excellent manure for the pepper vines. The leaves and young shoots of the gambier plant are collected as soon as they have attained a sufficient size, and boiled in iron pans until the juice acquires the consistence of treacle. The decoction is poured out into narrow troughs, dried, and afterwards cut up into small cakes, and packed in baskets for exportation. The gambier extract, which is of a yellowish brown color, and has the consistence of hard cheese, is much esteemed by the Malays for mixing with the preparation of betel, which they are in the habit of chewing; and considerable quantities have lately been imported to this country, where it is used for dyeing colors, and for tanning leather. The demand for gambier here is on the increase; and when better known to our chemists, it will probably be found applicable to many other purposes than those to which it is at present applied.

There were, in 1850, 400 gambier and pepper plantations on the island of Singapore; each measures or occupies on an average an area of 500 fathoms square, and employs eight to ten hands to cultivate and manufacture the gambier and pepper. There are some pepper plantations in addition, and they have been found to answer very well without any gambier being cultivated with them. Gambier cultivation is generally a losing undertaking, but it is adopted to obtain the refuse of the leaves for manuring the pepper vines, and also to employ the people in the plantations; it besides affords the proprietors the means of getting monthly sums to carry on the cultivation of pepper, which affords two crops yearly. There were formerly 600 plantations in Singapore, but the reason already assigned, and the formation of spice plantations contiguous have caused the abandonment of all those near the town. Each plantation must have an equal extent of forest land to that cultivated with gambier and pepper, to enable the manufacture of the gambier being carried on, and each gambier plantation, of 500 fathoms square, contains about 3,500 pepper vines, which yield on an average two catties per vine, or 70 piculs of pepper, and about 170 piculs of gambier annually;--a good plantation will, however, yield sometimes as much as 120 piculs of pepper, and 200 piculs of gambier, and a bad one as little as 40 to 50 piculs of pepper, and 60 to 80 piculs of gambier. Were it not for the enormous commission charged by the agents of these plantations, from whom the cultivators get all the advances, it would prove a profitable cultivation. The rates of commission charged generally are as follows:--Per picul of gambier, fifteen to twenty-five cents; per picul of pepper, thirty to forty cents; and if the price of the former is below one-and-a-half dollars, and the latter below three-and-a-half dollars per picul, a small reduction is made in the rates of commission. On every picul of rice supplied to the planters twenty to twenty-five cents commission is charged; this includes the interest of money advanced, which is never charged. A gambier and pepper plantation is valued or estimated at about 400 dollars on an average. The following is supposed to be a correct estimate, on an average, of the yearly expenditure and returns of a gambier and pepper plantation of 500 fathoms square, viz:--

EXPENDITURE. drs. c. men. drs. c. Eight men at 3½ dollars and 7 Java rupees per month, wages for headman and labourers respectively 22.70 12 272.40 Five piculs of rice, including commission, say 6.50 12 81.60 Fish, &c. 5 12 60.0 Boat or cart hire to carry rice and produce 1¾ 12 21.0 ------ 435.0

PRODUCE.

170 piculs of gambier, valued at l dollar 45 cents per picul, less 15 cents commission chargeable, nett 221.30 -- --- 70 piculs of pepper, at 4½ dollars, less 40 cents per picul commission, nett 287.0 -- 508.0

Yearly profit, 73 dollars, or about £15.

Several gambier and pepper plantations have been abandoned in Singapore, partly from the ground being impoverished, but more

## particularly from the exhaustion of the forest adjacent to their

estates. The exhaustion of the trees by yearly consumption deprives the planters of the necessary fire wood which is used for the boiling down of the gambier. A gambier plantation gets exhausted in fifteen years, either from the want of firewood or the land getting impoverished.

There are about 200 plantations at Johore, and the produce of gambier for the season of 1851 was calculated at 30,000 piculs.

This shrub was, at one period, cultivated with success at Pinang and other places to the eastward, but as Java was the principal market for the produce, and the Dutch had levied a duty of twelve Java rupees per picul on it, the cultivation at the former island did not repay its cost, and it was accordingly abandoned. Prices have been lately advancing, and the Chinese are talking of trying it again. The plant is partial to hilly land or slopes at the skirts of hills. Two hundred plants are usually placed on one orlong of land, being six feet asunder. They are raised from seed, and are topped to eight or ten feet, when the gambier is to be prepared. The Chinese dry the seed slightly, and sow in rainy weather.

The seeds vegetate in forty days, and are planted out in the second or third month afterwards.

At the expiration of fourteen months, the first cutting of the branches, with the leaves on, is made. These are put into a boiler, and when the juice has been extracted, the branches and refuse are thrown away, and the boiling is continued until the liquor has obtained the proper consistence, when it is put into shallow troughs, dried, and cut into slices for sale. The second cutting takes place eight months subsequently to the first. The plant now grows strong and admits of frequent cropping, and it will endure for twenty years. No manure is used, but the plantation is kept clean.

Estimated cost of cultivating ten orlongs, about 13 acres, according to Colonel Low:--

Spanish dollars. Value of cleared land, ten orlongs 200 Six laborers per annum 360 Quit rent 7 Boilers, firewood, and implements 20 Houses 50 Incidental 30 ---- Total first year 667 Second year 397 ---- 1,064

The six laborers on the plantation will, after the above period, be constantly employed in cutting and preparing the gambier: the average product will be 15 piculs monthly, which, at two dollars per picul, will be 30 dollars monthly, or 360 dollars per annum. This is the account obtained by collating different Chinese statements.

The _Nauclea Gambir_ is placed by Jussieu under the natural order _Rubiaceæ_; it is a shrub attaining the height of six to eight feet, branchy; the leaves are ovate, pointed, smooth, waving, distinctly veined transversely underneath, of dark green color, and, when chewed, they have a bitter astringent taste, leaving however, afterwards, a sweetish taste in the mouth, not unlike liquorice; the flowers are aggregate, globular, composed of numerous florets, crowded on a globular naked receptacle; tubes of the corolla of a pinkish color; the upper part of the corolla fine, cleft, and of a greenish yellow color; the staminæ are five in number, and short; the pistil is longer than the corolla; the flowers are destitute of fragrance; the capsules (as correctly stated by Mr. Hunter) are stalked oblong, incrusted, and crowned with a calyx; tapering to a point below; two celled, two valved, the valves adhering at the apex, splitting at the sides; seeds very numerous, oblong, very small, compressed, furnished at both ends with a membraneous pappus.

The gambier plant is propagated either by seeds or cuttings, but the latter are preferred. It is cultivated to some extent at Singapore, but it is said that the gambier can be imported cheaper from the islands in the vicinity, more especially at the Dutch settlement at Rhio. The extract is used extensively by the natives of India, Eastern Archipelago, Cochin-China, and Cambodia, as a masticatory, wrapped up with the betel.

There are three different qualities of extract; the first and best is white, brittle, and has an earthy appearance when rubbed between the fingers (which earthy appearance gave it the name of Terra Japonica, being supposed, at first also, to come from Japan), and is formed into very small round cakes. This is the dearest sort, and most refined, but it is not unfrequently adulterated with sago; this kind is brought in the greatest quantity from the island of Sumatra. The second quality is of a brownish yellow color, is formed into oblong cakes, and, when broken, has a light brown earthy appearance; it is also made into a solid cube form; it is sold in the bazars in small packets, each containing five or six. The third quality contains more impurities than the preceding, is formed into small circular cakes, and is sold in packages of five or six in the bazar.

The method employed in preparing the extract is thus correctly related by Finlayson:--"The leaves are collected three or four times a year; they are thrown into a large cauldron, the bottom of which is formed of iron, the upper part of bark, and boiled for five or six hours, until a strong decoction is obtained; the leaves are then withdrawn, and allowed to strain over the vessel, which is kept boiling for as many hours more, until the decoction is inspissated; it is then allowed to cool, when the catechu subsides, The water is drawn off; a soft soapy substance remains, which is cut into large masses; these are further divided by a knife into small cubes, about an inch square, or into still smaller pieces, which are laid in frames to dry. This catechu has more of a granular, uniform appearance than that of Bengal; it is, perhaps, also less pure."

The younger leaves of the shrub are said to produce the whitest and best gambier; the older, a brown and inferior sort. There are other species of _Nauclea_ indigenous to Singapore, but they do not produce any extract.

Dr. Bennett has particularised four qualities of gambier:--

1. Small round cakes, about the size of a small lozenge. Color pale, purplish, yellowish, white.

2. Cubes, in which shape it is principally imported into England, and square prisms, or oblong pieces.

3. Circular discs, or short cylindrical pieces.

4. Cubical amylaceous pieces, of a darker brown than the other kinds.

Gambier is one of the most powerful of the pure astringents.

The chief places of manufacture are Saik, Malacca, Singapore, and Rhio or Bintang. Bennett, in his "Wanderings," says there are 60,000 plantations of gambier on this island. After that of Rhio, the next best gambier is that of Lingin. That used by the Malays, with the leaves of betel, in the same manner as cutch in other parts of India, is the finest and whitest; the red being stronger tasted and rank, is exported to Batavia, China, and England, for the purposes of tanning and dyeing. It is frequently adulterated with sago powder, but it may be detected by solution in water.

Large quantities of gambier are imported, under the corrupted name of cutch, into Calcutta, from Pegu. The quantity of gambier produced in Rhio, by the Chinese settlers, amounts to about 4,600 tons a year, about 2,000 of which are exported for the consumption of Java, the rest being sent to Cochin-China and other neighbouring countries.

Two methods of obtaining gambier are described. One consists in boiling the leaves in water, and in inspissating the decoction; the other, which yields the best gambier, consists in infusing the leaves in warm water, by which a fecula is obtained, which is inspissated by the heat of the sun, and formed into cakes.

The injudicious practice adopted by the Land Office in Singapore, of granting indiscriminate licenses, or "cutting papers" as they are formed, seems open to objection, and is driving many of the Chinese cultivators to the neighbouring island of Johore, where they readily obtain permission to cultivate, without obstruction, this important article of commerce. Parties of 300 or 400 at a time left in 1846. It appears that, under his permissive license, the squatter obtains permission to clear as much land as he possibly can, but the order does not define any extent beyond which no cutting should take place. The squatter clears as much land as the means at his disposal will allow, in the hope and expectation that the jungle contiguous to the cleared ground will be at his command for fuel--a supply of fuel, easy of access, and adequate to the number of plants grown, being indispensable to the culture and manufacture of gambier. When the time for gathering the leaves arrives, another squatter (perhaps from motives of envy or malice) obtains a "cutting paper," and commences clearing in close proximity to the already-formed gambier plantation; obviously depriving the owner of the fuel he has reasonably calculated upon. The established planter cannot of course eject the intruder from the land, since the latter possesses an equal right to it, in virtue of his "cutting paper," which, as it specifies no limits, leaves him the disposer or destroyer of the crop of the industrious planter. Instead of the present system, a better practice ought to be introduced, defining the boundaries to be included in a "cutting paper," and effectually preventing a trespass on the fuel-land of the industrious planter. This might easily be effected by specifying the number of acres, as well as the direction, in every clearing paper granted.

The average produce of gambier in Singapore is between 7,000 and 8,000 piculs monthly. The ordinary price is about 1¼ dollars per picul. A deficiency of rain, labor, or other causes, will occasionally reduce the annual produce from 90,000 or 100,000 piculs, to 60,000 or 70,000, and this diminished supply will raise the market price of the article probably 35 cents per picul. But, in addition to the effect occasioned by a deficient supply, there are other causes in operation exercising a powerful influence in reducing prices. Gambier was first exported in 1830, from Singapore, to the extent of 2,587 piculs, at 4½ dollars per picul. As a rival to bark it failed at so costly a price to meet with encouragement; the culture and manufacture consequently declined until 1834, when 1,858 piculs were shipped to England at a somewhat lower rate. The demand then became active, the exportations were at first multiplied, then doubled every succeeding year, until they reached, in 1846-47 no less than 173,117 piculs. The price has gradually declined to 1¼ dollars per picul, at which rate it displaces its rival, bark. This price, however, is unremunerative to the grower, so that, unless more encouragement offers, the supply will decline.

The number of Chinese employed in the cultivation, &c., of gambier and pepper in Singapore is about 11,000. Their rate of wages fluctuates with the price of gambier. If a picul of gambier realizes 1½ dollars, the monthly pay will be about three dollars; if gambier fetches two dollars, their pay will amount to four dollars in the month. The workmen who clean the plantation always receive a dollar less than those who cut and boil the gambier.

A good deal of gambier seems now to be grown in Java, for 58,305 piculs were exported from that island in 1843. A small quantity is taken by the Chinese ports, but whether as a masticatory or for tanning and dyeing I am not aware.

VALUE OF THE TERRA JAPONICA IMPORTED INTO CEYLON. £ 1840 611 1841 1,053 1842 768 1843 471 1844 1,153 1845 537 1846 824 1847 1,549 1848 1,095 1849 896 1850 265 1851 386

In the Customs' returns of imports to this country, two articles are enumerated, under the separate names of cutch and terra japonica; the former is catechu and the latter the produce of the gambier plant. The imports of gambier were, in 1836, 970 tons; 1837, 2,738 tons; 1838, 1,600 tons; 1839, 5,213 tons.

Cutch. Terra Japonica. tons. tons. 1848 Imported to the United Kingdom 1,186 5,623 Retained for home consumption 765 5,102 1849 Imported 1,636 6,851 Retained for home consumption 869 5,400 1850 Imported 1,172 4,585 Home consumption 787 3,655 1851 Imported 2,401 4,783 Home consumption 2,020 4,431 1852 Imported 2,236 3,244 Home consumption 1,708 3,003

Catechu, imported under its Indian name of cutch, is brought over in bales or baskets of from one to four cwt., the price being £18 to £25 per ton. About 450 cwt. of terra japonica or gambier is annually imported into Hull from the East Indies. The imports of the two substances into Liverpool is about 900 tons. Gambier is only worth £13 to £14 the ton; a few years ago it fetched 26s. the cwt. The imports into the port of London average 1,500 tons annually.

4,679 bales, and 14,436 baskets of terra japonica were imported into Liverpool in 1851, and 14,000 bales and baskets in 1852. The imports of cutch were 10,290 bags, and 2,592 baskets, in 1851, and 11,873 bags and baskets in 1852; the prices, which were from 16s. 6d. to 18s. per cwt. for each article, in 1851, were rapidly run up in Liverpool, in 1853, owing to short supplies, to 25s. for gambier, and 22s. to 24s. per cwt. for cutch, or catechu.

EXPORTS OF GAMBIER FROM SINGAPORE, WITH THE OFFICIAL VALUE IN RUPEES.

Piculs. Value in rupees. 1840-41 Exported 79,508 457,560 " Growth of Singapore 59,325 1841-42 Exported 93,340 470,790 " Growth of Singapore 47,696 1842-43 Exported 148,746 548,281 " Growth of Singapore 110,151 1843-44 Exported 139,050 584,449 " Growth of Singapore 121,791 1844-45 Exported 157,654 539,978 " Growth of Singapore 134,528 1845-46 Exported 110,766 425,643 " Growth of Singapore 75,797 1846-47 Exported 173,117 591,943 " Growth of Singapore 143,795

The exports of gambier from Singapore were as follows:--

To England. To the Continent. Total. piculs. piculs. piculs. 1849 134,546 6,121 140,667 1850 87,611 16,166 103,777 1851 68,365 11,639 80,004 1852 68,045 9,006 77,051

The exports of cutch from Pinang, in the last four years, have been:--1849, 3,693 piculs; 1850, 900; 1851, 4,143; 1852, 3,880; or, on an average, 197 tons.

DIVI-DIVI is the commercial name for the curved pod of a leguminous shrub, _Cæsalpinia coriaria_, which is sometimes imported from Carthage. Its tannin differs materially from that of nutgalls. The quantity of mucilage which it contains precludes it from the use of dyers; but, as it furnishes nearly 50 per cent. of tannin, it is largely used by curriers. It is imported into Liverpool from Rio de la Hacha, Maracaibo, and Savanila. 400 tons of the seed pods and bark of the Algaroba, or Locust-tree (_Prosopis pallida_) were imported in 1849 into Liverpool from Valparaiso, as a substitute for divi-divi in tanning. 3,200 lbs. of divi-divi were exported from the port of Augostara, in 1846.

Specimens of divi-divi which had been raised at Calcutta were shown in the Indian department of the Great Exhibition.

Dr. Hamilton states that, according to some admirably conducted experiments of Mr. Rootsey, of Bristol, undertaken at his request, the pods of divi-divi contain above 50 per cent. of tannin. It appears also, from trials made, that one part of divi-divi is sufficient for tanning as much leather as four parts of bark, and the process occupies but one-third of the time.

The average produce of pods from a full-grown tree has been estimated at 100 lbs. weight, one-fourth of which consists of seeds or refuse, leaving about 75 lbs. of marketable matter.

At an interval of six feet apart, an acre of ground will contain 1,210 trees, yielding an average of 810 cwts., and 30 pounds, or above 40½ tons of marketable matter, worth, at only £5 per ton, £200. Should the interval between the trees be extended two feet more, we shall still have 680 to the acre, the produce of which would not improbably be increased by the increased space given for the extension of the branches.

The ground in which this tree admits of being cultivated is that which is least adapted to the staple products of tropical agriculture; guinea grass may be profitably raised beneath its shade and as with the exception of the three years which precede the commencement of its bearing, there is hardly any deduction to be made from its returns, it promises to be among the most valuable objects of a planter's attention.

Jacquin describes the _Cæsalpinia coriaria_ as a handsome branching tree, of about fifteen feet in stature, covered with a dark spotted bark. Its leaves are doubly pinnate, and the leaflets of twelve pair without a terminal one; they are oblong, obtuse, smooth, very entire. The flowers are disposed in spikes issuing from the extremities of the branches; they are small, yellowish, and slightly fragrant. To these succeed oblong, compressed, somewhat obtuse pods, curved laterally, the inner side being concave and the other convex. The seeds rarely exceed three or four in each pod, and are of a brownish color.

Divi-divi resembles a dried pea-shuck curled up, filled with yellow powder, and a few dark brown seeds. The price ranges from £8 to £13 per ton.

The imports into the United Kingdom in 1844, were 3,900 tons; in 1845 and 1846, about 1,400 tons each year; during the subsequent three years the imports were merely nominal, but in 1850 a renewed demand seems to have sprung up, for 2,770 tons were imported into Liverpool, and a few tons into London.

CORK-TREE BARK (_Quercus suber_) has been imported into Ireland to a considerable extent, frequently to the amount of 1,500 tons annually. The quantity of cork imported annually into the United Kingdom is about 3,000 tons. It is brought from Spain, Italy, and Barbary. Oak bark and valonia being very cheap and plentiful, the price of cork hark is only nominal, being, for Spanish cork-tree bark, £7 10s. to £8 per ton; Leghorn ditto, £6 to £7 per ton. It is less astringent than oak bark, and is more generally useful for stoppers of bottles and bungs for casks. 160 tons of cork-tree bark were imported into Liverpool from Rabat in 1849, and 150 tons in 1850.

1,867 cwts. of bark for tanning were imported from Chili in 1844, of which 292 were Quillai bark.

MIMOSA BARK.--The bark of the _Mimosa decurrens_, which abounds in Australia and Van Diemen's Land, is found to be a very powerful tanning agent.

The first shipment of tannin was made from Sydney to England as far back as 1823, in the shape of an extract of the bark of two species of mimosa, which was readily purchased by the tanners at the rate of £50 per ton. One ton of bark had produced four cwts. of extract of the consistency of tar.

In 1843, 3,078 tons of mimosa bark was shipped from Port Phillip to Great Britain. The price then realised in the London market was £12 to £14 per ton, but it has since declined to £8 a ton. The quantity of this bark to be procured in the colony is quite inexhaustible. The price of chopped mimosa bark in Australia, for export, in the close of 1846, was £2 5s. per ton. Bark valued at £912 was exported from Van Diemen's Land in 1848.

The imports of mimosa bark have only been to a limited extent within the last few years, reaching 350 tons in 1850, against 110 tons in 1849, 230 tons in 1848, and 600 tons in 1847. The prices realised were £10 to £11 for chopped, £12 to £12 10s. for ground, and £8 to £9 per ton for unchopped bark. Whilst the imports were 3,900 tons in 1814, they dwindled to less than 400 tons in 1850.

From an experiment, conducted by Professor Brandt, the strength of the mimosa bark, as compared with that of young English oak bark, is found to be in the proportion of 57 to 39, so that the mimosa bark is half as strong again as the best English bark.

Mr. Samuel Mossman, in a communication to the Botanic Society of Edinburgh, in 1851, stated that the bark of _A. dealbata_ pays to ship to England, notwithstanding the distance, from the fact of its containing a greater per centage of tannin than any other bark. It is a handsome tree, from fifteen to thirty feet high, forming luxuriant groves on the banks of streams, most abundant in Port Phillip and Twofold Bay, between the parallels of latitude 34 and 30 degrees.

New Zealand is rich in barks and dyes. The bark of the Tanahaka (_Phyllodadus trichomanoides_, of Don) is used by the natives as a red dye for the ornamental parts of their kaitahas, their best border garments. There is also another red dye, called Tawaivwai, the bark of which is very profuse. A black dye is procured from the hinau. They are of a rich hue, and exceedingly fast colors. The barks are to be found all over the colony. The hinau and tanahaka are employed in tanning, all the leather used in the colony being tanned either at the Bay of Islands or Port Nicholson.

The bark of the Rimu or red pine (_Dacrydium Cupressinum_, of Solander), a very common tree, possesses tanning qualities far superior to any of the Australian barks. One pound of the bark yields 85 grains of extract.

The native tanning barks of New Zealand are various and easily obtained. Specimens of the bark and dye, &c., of most of these trees were sent home to the Great Exhibition. One pound of the Tanahaka bark is said to yield 63 grains of tannin. The sails of boats are dyed with it to preserve them. The Towai (_Licospermum racemosum_, of Don, _Weinmaunia racemosa_, Decandole), is supposed to be valuable for the purposes of the tanner, and is said to yield 104 grains of tannin for every pound of bark. The bark of the Pohutu kawa of the natives, the _Metrosideros tomentosa_of Richard, and _Callistemon ellipticum_ of Allan Cunningham, would also be useful for tanning, one pound of it furnishing about 60 grains of tannin.

The bark of the Hino tree, the _Elæocarpus hinau_ of Cunningham, the _Dicera dentata_ of Forster, is used by the natives for dyeing black.

The black mangrove (_Rhizophora mangle_) is a tree attaining an altitude of from 30 to 50 feet, and occupying marshy situations in the vicinity of the sea. Almost every part of the mangrove--the bark, roots, and the fruit more particularly--abounds in an astringent principle, which is successfully applied to the purposes of tanning. As the tree is so abundant within the tropics, it might be worth the while of some practical speculator to make an extract on the spot, and introduce it into the English market, for the use of tanners and dyers. For tanning, the mangrove is said to be infinitely superior to oak bark, completing in six weeks an operation which with the latter occupies at least six months, and the sole-leather so tanned is said to be more durable than any other. The bark and leaves, which contain nearly as much tannin as the oak, are made use of in the West Indies, as well as in Scinde and other parts of Asia.

3,713 piculs of mangrove bark, valued at £819, were shipped from Shanghae, one of the Chinese ports, in 1849.

MYROBALANS.--This is a name applied to the almond-like kernels of a nut or dried fruit of the plum kind, of which there are several sorts known in the East. They are the produce of various species of _Terminalia_, as _T. Bellerica, chebula, citrina_, and _angustifolia_. They vary from the size of olives to that of gall nuts, and have a rough, bitter, and unpleasant taste. Many of the trees of this tribe, which are all natives of the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America, are used for tanning, and some for dyeing. They are highly valued by dyers, creating, when mixed with alum, a durable dark brown yellow. Myrobalans fetch in the Bombay market 8s. to 26s. the Surat candy of 821 lbs. The bark and leaves of _T. Catappa_ yield a black pigment, with which Indian ink is made; the seeds are eaten like almonds. A milky juice is said to flow from _T. angustifolia_, which, when dried, is fragrant, and, resembling Benzoin, is used as a kind of incense in the Catholic churches in the Mauritius. The fruit of _T. Bellerica_, and of _T. Chebula_, both useful timber trees, indigenous to the East Indies, are used medicinally as a tonic and astringent. 117 cwts. of myrobalans were shipped from Ceylon in 1845.

The annual imports of myrobalans into Hull, amount to about 1,600 cwts. The quantity which arrived at Liverpool was 185 tons in 1849, 851 tons in 1850; 27,212 bags in 1851, and 19,946 bags in 1852; they come from Calcutta and Bombay, and are also used for dyeing yellow and black. The price in January, 1853, was 6s. to 12s. per cwt. The average annual imports into the United Kingdom may be taken at 1,200 tons.

KINO.--The Kino, of Botany Bay and Van Diemen's Land, is the produce of the iron bark tree, _Eucalyptus resinifera_. White ("Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales"), says this tree sometimes yields, on incision, 60 gallons of juice. Kino is imported in boxes. The tincture of kino is used medicinally, but an inconvenience is frequently found to arise, from its changing to the gelatinous form. Dr. Pereira seems to think this species of kino consists principally of pectin and tannic acid. That chiefly used as East Indian kino, is an extract formed by inspissating a decoction of the branches and twigs of the gambler plant. Vauquelin analysed it, and found it to consist of, tannin and peculiar extractive matter, 75; red gum, 24; insoluble matter, 1.

The East Indian kino, imported from Bombay and Tellicherry, is the produce of _Pterocarpus marsupium_, a lofty, broad-spreading forest tree, which blossoms in October and November. The bark is of a greyish color, and is upwards of half an inch in thickness on the trunk. When cut, a blood-red juice speedily exudes and trickles down; it soon thickens, and becomes hard in the course of fifteen or sixteen hours. The gum is extracted in the season when the tree is in blossom, by making longitudinal incisions in the bark round the trunk, so as to let the gum ooze down a broad leaf, placed as a spout, into a receiver. When the receiver is filled it is removed. The gum is dried in the sun until it crumbles, and then filled in wooden boxes for exportation.

_P. erinaceus_, a tree 40 to 50 feet in height, a native of the woods of the Gambia and Senegal, furnishes kino, but none is collected in or exported from Africa. _Butea frondosa_, or the dhak tree of the East Indies, furnishes a similar product, in the shape of a milky, colored, brittle, and very astringent gum. Kino is used as a powerful astringent, and is administered in the form of powder and tincture. Some specimens of Butea kino, analysed by Prof. Solly, after the impurities had been separated, yielded 73¼ per cent. of tannin.

VALONIA is the commercial name of the cupula or cup of the acorn, produced by the _Quercus ægilops_ and its varieties, the Balonia or Valonia oak, natives of the Levant, from whence, and the Morea, they form a very considerable article of export; containing abundance of tannin they are largely used by tanners. The tannin differs materially from that of nutgalls. The bark of _Q. tinctorea_, a native of North America, yields a yellow dye.

The quantity of valonia imported for home consumption, in 1836, was 80,511 cwts., of which Turkey furnished 58,724 cwts., and Italy and the Ionian islands 7,209 cwts. Of 163,983 cwts. imported in 1840, 143,095 cwts. were brought from Turkey, 15,195 cwts. from Italy, and the residue from Greece and the Ionian Islands. The entries for home consumption in the three years ending with 1842, amounted to about 8,200 tons a year. The increase since has been considerable, the imports having been, in 1848, 10,237 tons; in 1849, 16,671 tons; in 1850, 12,526 tons; in 1851, 10,639 tons; in 1852, 13,870 tons. We receive about 14,000 to 20,000 cwts. annually from Leghorn. The imports into the port of Hull are 3,900 cwts. per year.

The prices of Smyrna valonias are from £13 to £14 per ton; those of picked Morea, £10 per ton. The duty received on valonias imported in 1842 was about £4,000.

The annual produce is sufficient to meet the wants of all Europe. It can be had in Turkey to any extent and at all periods. Many cargoes are sent to Dublin, and the German markets. A little valonia is exported from Manila, the shipments having been about 150 tons per annum.

Camata and Camatina are two varieties of very young valonias, which are found more valuable for some processes of tanning than the common kinds.

Extensive as has been the enumeration of the vegetable substances used in the various branches of art and manufacture which have formed the principal subjects of this section, it is probable that with the progress of knowledge, of scientific experiment, and of investigation into the properties of given commodities, the list will be indefinitely increased. What I have stated will suffice to give the reader an idea of the surprising variety of sources from which we receive the raw materials which enable us to perfect some of the most elegant processes of manufacturing skill and ingenuity, and will further afford some criterion--though, of course, not a perfect one--for estimating the relative importance of the tanning and dyeing substances.

SECTION V.

OLEAGINOUS PLANTS, AND THOSE YIELDING FIXED OR ESSENTIAL OILS.

Few cultivators are probably aware of the great importance of oil to this country, and the number of purposes for which it is employed in the arts and manufactures. It is extensively used for candle and soap making, for burning in lamps, for diminishing friction in machinery of all kinds, and especially for locomotives--in wool-dressing, in the manufacture of paints and varnishes, as an article of food, for medicinal purposes, &c.

So important are vegetable oils deemed, that the Society of Arts, in its prize list for 1851, offered gold medals for the importation or introduction into this country of any new plants or trees from China, India, or elsewhere, producing oils or fatty substances, such as can be used as food, or are applicable to manufacturing purposes; and also to the person who shall manufacture and import the finest specimen of oil, not less than ten gallons, the produce of olives grown in any British colony in Africa or Australasia.

The time of burning of equal quantities of the following oils has been found to be--

Hours. Oil of poppy 14 " sunflower 13 " rape 11 " mustard 11½ " flax seed 10 " gold of pleasure (_Camelina sativa_) 9½ " olives 9 " hemp seed 8 " tallow 10½

FOREIGN VEGETABLE OILS IMPORTED.

1821. 1845. 1850. tuns. tuns. tuns. Coco-nut oil -- 2,148 98,040 Olive oil 1,900 12,315 20,783 Palm oil 3,200 25,285 448,589 cwts. Rape seed oil 800 3,973 -- Linseed oil 10,500 38,634 -- ------ ------ ------- 16,400 82,355 Fish oils 32,356 22,626 21,328

The total quantity of all kinds of wool annually consumed in England and Wales, in 1843, was estimated at 801,566 packs. Now, five gallons of olive, rapeseed or other oils, being used in the preparation of every pack of wool, for cloth (independent of the quantity used in soap, applicable to the woollen manufactures), it follows that five gallons on 801,566 packs are equal to 4,007,830 gallons, or 15,904 tuns; and adding for olive or sperm oil used in machinery 1-11th of the whole, 1,446 tuns, the total quantity consumed is 17,350 tuns.--("Enderby on the South Whale Fishery.")

_Fixed oils_ are found in the cells and intercellular spaces of the fruit, leaves, and other parts of plants.

Some of these are drying oils, as linseed oil, from _Linum usitatissimum_; some are fat oils, as that from olives (fruit of _Olea sativa_ or _Europæa_); whilst others are solid, as palm oil.

The solid oils or fats procured from plants are, butter of cacao, from _Theobroma cacao_; of cinnamon from _Cinnamomum verum_; of nutmeg, from _Myristica moschata_; of coco-nut, from _Cocos nucifera_; of laurel, from _Laurus nobilis_; of palm oil, from _Elais guianiensis_; Shea butter, from _Bassia Parkii_; Galam butter, or Ghee, from _Bassia butyracea_; and vegetable tallow, from _Stillingia sebifera_ in China, from _Vateria indica_ in Canara and China, and from _Pentadesma butyracea_ in Sierra Leone, and from the almond. These oils contain a large amount of stearine, and are used as substitutes for fat. Some of them are imported in large quantities, and enter into the composition of soap, candles, &c.

Castor oil, from the seeds of _Ricinus communis_, differs from other fixed oils in its composition.

Decandolle states the following as the quantity of oil obtained from various seeds:--

Per cent. in weight. Hazel-nut 60 Garden cress 57 Olive 50 Walnut 50 Poppy (_Papaver somniferum_) 48 Almond 46 Caper-spurge (_Euphorbia Lathyris_) 41 Colza (_Brassica oleracea_) 39 White mustard (_Sinapis alba_) 36 Tobacco 34 Plum 33 Woad 30 Hemp 25 Flax 22 Sunflower 15 Buckwheat 14 Grapes 12

The following table, quoted from Boussingault, shows the results of some experiments made by M. Grauzac, of Dagny:--

Seed produced Oil obtained per per acre. acre, in lbs. Oil per Cake cwts. qrs. lbs. lbs. ozs. cent. per cent.

Colewort 19 0 15 875 4 40 54 Rocket 15 1 3 320 8 18 73 Winter rape 16 2 18 641 6 33 62 Swedish turnips 15 1 25 595 8 33 62 Curled colewort 16 2 18 641 6 33 62 Turnip cabbage 13 3 19 565 4 33 61 Gold of pleasure 17 1 16 545 8 27 72 Sunflower 15 3 14 275 0 15 80 Flax 15 1 25 385 0 22 69 White poppy 10 1 18 560 8 46 52 Hemp 7 3 21 229 0 25 70 Summer rape 11 3 17 412 5 30 65

The subjoined list will serve to exhibit the richness of the produce of different Indian seeds, from which varieties of oil are extracted; it gives the proportion of oil per cent. in weight:--

Sesame oil (_Sesamum indicum_) 46.7 Black til, coloured variety of ditto (_Verbesena sativa_) 46.4 Gingelie oil (_S. orientale_) 46.7 Ground nuts, produced by _Arachis hypogoea_ 45.5 Wounded seeds obtained from the Poonnay-tree (_Calophyttum Inophyllum_), a bitter lamp oil 63.7 Karunj seeds, from the _Pongamia glabra_ 26.7 Ram til, the seeds of the nuts Ellu, or _Guizotia oleifera_ 35 Poppy seeds (_Papaver somniferum_) 43 to 58 Silaam, an oil seed from Nepaul 41 Rape seed (_Brassica napus_) 33

The foregoing are not all the seeds from which oil is extracted by the natives of the East. In addition to this there are cottonseed oil, used for their lamps. Castor oil and Argemone seed, similarly used. Oil obtained from the fruit of _Melia Azadriachta_, for medicine and lamps. Apricot oil in the Himalayas, sunflower oil, oil of cucumber-seed for cooking and lamps, oil of colocynth seed, a lamp oil.

The seeds of bastard saffron (_Carthamus tinctorius_) yield oil.

Mustard oil, the produce of various species of _Sinapis_, &c. Shanghae oil, from _Brassica Chinensis_. Illiepie oil, from _Bassia longifolia_, which is used for frying cakes, &c., in Madras; and Muohwa oil, from another species of the same genus in Bengal, _B. latifolia_. Oil is expressed from the seeds of _Cæsalpina oleosperma_, a native of the East. The neem tree seeds afford a very clear or bitter oil, used for burning.

Wood oil is a remarkable substance, obtained from several species of _Dipterocarpus_, by simply tapping the tree.

The horse-eyes and cacoons of Jamaica (_Fevillea scandens_) yield a considerable quantity of oil or fat, as white and hard as tallow. It has been employed for similar purposes on the Mosquito shores.

The seeds of the _Argemone mexicana_, and of the _Sanguinaria canadensis_, also contain a bland, nutritious, colorless, fixed oil. The mass from which the seed is expressed is found to be extremely nutritious to cattle.

The _Camelina sativa_ is cultivated in Europe, for the extraction of an oil used only by the soap makers, and for lamps.

A solid oil, of a pale greenish color, a good deal resembling the oils of the Bassia in character, though rather harder, and approaching more in properties to myrtle wax, was shown at the Great Exhibition, from Singapore. It is supposed to be the produce of the tallow tree of Java, called locally "kawan," probably a species of Bassia. It is very easily bleached; indeed, by exposure to air and light, it becomes perfectly white; if not too costly, it promises to become a valuable oil.

According to Mr. Low, there are several varieties of solid oil commonly used in the Islands of the Archipelago, and obtained from the seeds of different species of _Dipterocarpus_.

Piney tallow is obtained from the fruit of the _Vateria Indica_, a large and quick-growing tree, abundant in Malabar and Canara. It is a white solid oil, fusible at a temperature of 97 degrees, and makes excellent candles, especially when saponified and distilled in the manner now adopted with palm oil, &c. It has one great advantage over coco-nut oil, that the candles made of it do not give out any suffocating acrid vapors when extinguished, as those made with the latter oil do.

An oil is produced from the inner shell of the cashew-nut (_Anacardium occidentale_ var. _indicum_), in the East.

In Japan a kind of butter, called _mijo_, is obtained from a species of the Dolichos bean (_Dolichos soya_).

The kernel of the seeds of the tallow tree of China, _Stillingia sebifera_, an evergreen shrub, contains an oil, which, when expressed, consolidates through the cold to the consistence of tallow, and by boiling becomes as hard as bees' wax. The plant also yields a bland oil. A similar fatty product is obtained from a shrub in British Guiana, the _Myristica (Virola) sebifera_.

Oil is obtained in South America from the sand box tree _(Hura crepitans_), and from the _Carapa guianensis_.

A fatty oil is obtained in Demerara from the seeds of the butter tree, _Pekea_ (?) _Bassia butyrosa_, and also from the Saouari (_P. tuberculosa_).

The fleshy seeds contained in the woody capsules of the Monkey pot (_Lecythis Tabucajo_), which derive their generic name from their similarity to an oil jar, are common in the West India Islands and South America, and yield a considerable quantity of oil.

The seeds of the plants of the cucumber family frequently supply a bland oil, which is used in the East as a lamp oil and for cooking. Among the vegetable oils imported into Ningpo, and other Chinese ports, from Shantong, Leatong, and Teisin, are oil of teuss, obtained from green and dried peas; black oil of the fruit of the tree _kin_ (?) and oil from the pea of suchau.

The seeds of _Spergula saliva_, a large, smooth-seeded variety of the common cow spurrey, which is cultivated in Flanders as a pasture grass and green crop, afford, on expression, a good lamp oil.

A pale brownish yellow oil is obtained from the seeds of _Carthamus tinctorius_, in Bombay; the seeds contain about 28 per cent. of oil.

Excellent oil is expressed in various parts of India from the seeds of different species of _Sinapis_, especially from the black mustard seed. _S. glauca, S. dichotorna_, and _S. juncea_ are extensively cultivated in the East for their oil. The _Erysimum perfoliatum_ is cultivated in Japan for its oil-seeds.

A beautiful pale yellow oil is procured from the seeds of the angular-leaved physic nut, _Jatropha curcas_, a shrub which is often employed in the tropics as a fence for enclosures. It is used by the natives in medicine and as a lamp oil. About 700 tons of this oil was imported into Liverpool in 1850 from Lisbon, for the purpose of dressing cloth, burning, &c.

A rich yellow oil, perfectly clear and transparent, is obtained from the seeds of _Bergera koenigii_.

RAPE OIL.--The imports of rape oil, from _Brassica napus_, into Liverpool, are about 15 to 20 tuns annually.

Rape oil has been found to be better suited than any other oil for the lubrication of machinery, when properly purified from the mucilage, &c., which it contains in the raw state. Rape oil is now used extensively for locomotives, for marine engines, and also for burning in lamps. It is stated that a locomotive consumes between 90 and 100 gallons of oil yearly; and the annual consumption of oil by the London and North-Western Railway, for this purpose alone, is more than 40,000 gallons. The oil obtained from good English rape seed is purer and of superior quality to that from foreign or colonial seed; and as an acre of land yields nearly five quarters of seed, which is worth at present 50s. per quarter, it is a profitable crop.

Rape seed is now largely imported for expressing oil. The imports, which in 1847 were but 87,662 quarters, weighing 17,532 tons, had reached, in 1851, 107,029 quarters, weighing 21,606 tons. The price of new seed is £25 to £27 the last of ten quarters. The oil is £34 per tun.

The refuse cake, after the seed is crushed for oil, is in demand as food for cattle, being worth £4 the ton.

We imported in 1851, from Trance, 289 tuns of rapeseed oil, worth about £17,000, on which there was no duty levied.

There are exported annually from Hesse Darmstadt, 34,660 cwts. of poppy and rape oils.

The oil of the colza is much used in Europe, and highly prized. In France it has been adopted for all the purposes of lighthouses. In this country it has lately come into extensive domestic use, for burning in the French moderateur lamps, being retailed at from 3s. 4d. to 4s. the gallon.

DOMBA OIL.--The Poonay or Palang tree (_Calophyllum Inophyllum_), the Alexandrian laurel, is a beautiful evergreen, native of the East Indies, which flourishes luxuriantly on poor sandy soils, in fact where scarcely anything else will grow. The seeds or berries contain nearly 60 per cent. of a fragrant, fixed oil, which is used for burning as well as for medicinal purposes, being considered a cure for the itch. As commonly prepared it has a dark green color. It is perfectly fluid at common temperatures, but begins to gelatinise when cooled below 50 degrees.

THE EARTH-NUT (_Arachis hypogæa, or hypocarpogea_).--This very singular plant has frequently been confounded with others, partly through the carelessness of travellers, and by the improper use of names, which tended to mislead and confuse. Its common appellative, the earth-nut, has led to the conclusion that it was a species of nut, such as is known in England under the name of "pig nut," "hawk nut," and "ground nut." This, as well as the "earth chesnut," belongs to a totally different genera. On the Continent and in the East Indies a similar confusion had long existed by the appellation of "ground pistachio," which caused the fruit to be confounded with the nut of the tree _Pistacia vera_. Some resemblance, on the other hand, existing between these--as well as from their being eaten by different nations, and used as an article of food, and also for producing oil--rendered the true description still more difficult. Botanists are, however, no longer at a loss, having well established the nature and character of all these plants. The Arachis "nut" partakes of the nature of the pea or bean of our own country, and is a low annual plant of the order _Diadelphia decandria_ of Linn.; originally from Africa, but now extensively cultivated in every quarter of the globe. It has been naturalised in Europe, and with the climate of the South of France it may be turned to good account.

It has been said to be indigenous in Florida, Peru, Brazil, and Surinam; but the plant may be grown on a light sandy soil, under a moderate heat, equal to that of Italy or the South of France. The class to which it belongs approaches to the pea tribe; but its remarkable difference to this, as to the pulse we know as a bean, is the circumstance of its introducing its fruit or pod--if we may so call it--into the earth, for the purpose of ripening its seed. The Arachis, or earth nut, has obtained its name from this operation. The flowers, leaves, and stems are produced in the ordinary manner we see in the pea tribe. When the yellow flower has withered and the seed fertilised, there is nothing left but the bare stem which had supported it. This stem, in which is the germ of the future fruit and pod, now grows rapidly in a curved manner, with a tendency to arrive shortly on the surface of the ground, into which it penetrates this now naked stem, and sinks into the earth several inches. It is in this obscure position that the fruit takes its ripened form, and is either gathered from its hiding place or left to the future season, when its time of rising into new existence calls it from what was thought its unnatural position.

When mature, it is of a pale yellow color, wrinkled, and forms an oblong pod, sometimes contracted in the middle; it contains generally two seeds. The nuts or peas are a valuable article of food in the tropical parts of Africa, America, and Asia. They are sweetish and almond-like, and yield an oil, when pressed, not inferior in use and quality to that obtained from the olive. The leaf resembles that of clover, and, like it, affords excellent food for cattle. The cake, after the oil is expressed, forms an excellent manure.

The Arachis is usually sown in dry, warm weather, from May to June, and are placed at the distance of eighteen inches from each other. Insects are fond of them; and if the season is cold and unfavorable to them, or the growth retarded, they become musty and bad, or are eaten by insects.

The mode of obtaining the oil is nearly the same as for other pulse or seeds; and under favorable circumstances the Arachis will produce half its weight of oil. When heated and pressed the quantity is very considerably increased. This oil is good for every purpose for which olive or almond oil is used. For domestic purposes it is esteemed, and it does not become rancid so quickly as other oils. Experiments have been made on its inflammable properties, and it is proved that the brilliancy of light was superior to that of olive oil, and its durability was likewise proved to be seven minutes per hour beyond the combustion of the best olive oil, with the additional advantage of scarcely any smoke. In Cochin-China and India it is used for lamps. It is known as Bhoe Moong or Moong Phullee in Bengal, and as Japan or Chinese pulse in Java.

From China this plant was probably introduced into the continent of India, Ceylon, and the Malayan Archipelago, where it is generally cultivated.

In South Carolina the seed is roasted and used as chocolate. The leaves are used medicinally.

It is grown in Jamaica, and there called Pindar nut.

That the culture of the Arachis in warm climates, or even in a temperate one, under favorable circumstances, should be encouraged, there can be but one opinion. And when it is considered that its qualities are able to supersede that of the olive and the almond, which are but precarious in their crops--to which may be added, that as a plant it is greedily devoured in the green state by cattle--how much may it not serve to assist the new settler in regions of the world which have a climate suited to it.

It is known by various local names--such as _mani manoti_ by the Spaniards, and has obtained also that of _cacahuete_ in some countries. It has the additional term _hypogea_ attached to it, which literally signifies subterranean. This is apt to mislead; for the plant grows above ground as other pulse, whereas only its seed and pericarp are inserted, after blooming, into the earth. Hence the better term _hypocarpogea_.

It appears to form an important article of cultivation along the whole of the west coast of Africa, and probably on the east coast, on several parts of which it was found by Loureiro ("Flor. Cochin," p. 430). It was doubtless carried from Africa to various parts of equinoctial America, for it is noticed in some of the early accounts of Peru and Brazil. 800 quarters of this nut were imported into Liverpool from the West Coast of Africa, in 1849, for expressing oil, and about half that quantity in 1850.

Eighty to 90 tuns of the expressed oil are now annually imported. The seeds contain about 44 per cent. of a clear pale yellow oil, which is largely used in India as food, and for lamps, particularly at Malwa and Bombay, &c. Two varieties are grown in Malacca, the white seed and the brown seed, and also in Java, in the vicinity of sugar plantations; the oil cake being used as manure. It is there known as katjang oil.

This plant, which seems to be a native of many parts of Asia, has within the last ten years been much cultivated about Calcutta. The seeds contain abundance of fixed oil, have a faint odor, and very mild agreeable taste; 1,950 parts of seed, separated from their coverings and blanched, give 1,405 of kernels, from which, by cold pressure, 703 parts of oil are procured. The seeds are consumed as a cheap popular luxury, being half roasted, and then eaten with salt. The oil is calculated to serve as an efficient and very cheap substitute for olive oil, for pharmaceutical purposes. It burns with little smoke, with a clear flame, and affords a very full bright light, answering perfectly in Argand lamps.

The oil cake affords, also, an excellent food for cattle.

The ground nut has of late become of considerable importance as an article of exportation, by English houses; yet more so by French houses at Ghent, Rouen, and Bordeaux; some of whom have contracted with the merchants of the African colonies for large quantities, sending shipping for the cargoes. One house alone contracted for 60,000 bushels in the years 1844 and 1845. This nut oil is so very useful to machinery that the naval steam cruisers on the coast have adopted it. A ground-nut oil factory exists in the colony of Sierra Leone; but from the want of steam power and proper machinery, and from bad management, together with the inferior attainments of the African artisan, when compared with the European mechanic, and their facilities in quantity or quality, there is abundant scope for improvement. The price in the colony is 4s. 6d. per gallon. It is capable of being refined so as to answer the purpose of a salad oil; the nut is prolific, and eaten by the natives and Europeans, boiled, roasted, or in its raw state; and frequently introduced at the table as we do the Spanish Barcelona nut at dessert. It grows in the rainy season, and is collected in the dry, and sold in the colony for one shilling to eighteen-pence per bushel, in goods and cash. Form of the nut, long, light shell, contains two kernels covered with a brown rind, when shelled white in appearance.

It is a low creeping plant, with yellow flowers; after they drop off, and the pods begin to form, they bury themselves in the earth, where they come to maturity. The pod is woody and dry, containing from one to three peas, or nuts, as they are called, hence the common names, ground-nut or pea-nut. They require to be parched in an oven before they are eaten, and form a chief article of food in many parts of Africa.

From a narrow strip of land, extending about 40 miles northerly from Wilmington (North Carolina), comes nearly the entire quantity of earth nuts (known as pea-nuts) grown in the United States for market. From that tract and immediate vicinity, 80,000 bushels have been carried to Wilmington market in one year.

The plant has somewhat the appearance of the dwarf garden-pea, though more bushy. It is cultivated in hills. The pea grows on tendrils, which put out from the plant and take root in the earth, where the nut is produced and ripened. The fruit is picked from the root by hand, and the vines are a favorite food for horses, mules, and cattle. From 30 to 80 bushels are produced on an acre. There are some planters who raise from 1,000 to 1,500 bushels a year.--("Hunt's Merchant's Magazine," vol. xv., p. 426.)

The ground-nut is exceedingly prolific, and requires but little care and attention to its culture, while the oil extracted from it is quite equal to that yielded by the olive. Almost any kind of soil being adapted for it, nothing can be more simple than its management. All that is required is the soil to be turned over and the seed sown in drills like potatoes; after it begins to shoot it may be earthed with a hoe or plough. In many parts of Western Australia they are now grown in gardens for feeding pigs, the rich oil they are capable of yielding being entirely overlooked. In regard to their marketable value at home, I will give a copy of a letter of a friend of mine, received from some London brokers, largely engaged in the African trade:--

"Wilson and Rose present compliments to Mr. N., and beg to inform him the price of African ground nuts is as under:--Say for River Gambia, £11 per ton here. Say for Sierra Leone, £10 per ton here. For ground nuts free on board at the former port, £8 per ton is demanded; these are the finest description of nut, the freight would be about £4 per ton; the weight per bushel imperial measure, and in the shell, is about 25 lbs."

The following, also, is an extract from a letter written in 1842, by Mr. Forster (the present M.P. for Berwick), an eminent African merchant. Speaking of the staple of Africa, he says:--

"I have lately been attempting to obtain other oils from the coast, and it was only yesterday I received from the hands of the oil presser the result of my most recent experiment on the ground nut, which I am happy to say is encouraging. I send you a sample of the oil extracted from them. They are from the Gambia. It is a pure golden colored oil, with a pleasant flavor, free from the frequent rancidity of olive oil."

Since then the cultivation has gone on, and the exportation largely increased. The French also have entered into the trade, and several vessels are exclusively employed in exporting this product from the river Gambia, conveying it to oil factors on the continent, who extract its oil. Seeing, then, the many advantages the cultivation of such a product bestows, and its adaptation to the soil and climate of Australia, I cannot refrain from expressing a hope that some of the influential landowners in the cultivated districts will give the matter their consideration.

I am informed by an American merchant that he cleared 12,000 dollars in one year, on the single article of ground or pea nuts obtained from Africa. Strange as it may appear, nearly all these nuts are transhipped to France, where they command a ready sale; are there converted into oil, and thence find their way over the world in the shape of olive oil; the skill of the French chemists enabling them to imitate the real Lucca and Florence oil, so as to deceive the nicest judges. Indeed, the oil from the pea nuts possesses a sweetness and delicacy that cannot be surpassed.

Advices from the West Coast of Africa to the 16th August, 1853, report that the ground nut season had closed; the quantity shipped during the season having exceeded 900,000 bushels. The yield has increased 20 per cent, each year for the last three years, and it is expected the increase will be still greater in the forthcoming season.

TEUSS OIL.--The Chinese use what is called teuss or tea oil, for food and other purposes. I have alluded to it under the head of pulse, at page 312. It is obtained, however, from a species of the ground nut, and is sold in Hong Kong, at 2s. 6d. the gallon, being imported from the main land. By a local ordinance it is imperative on every householder at Victoria, Hong-Kong, to have a lamp burning over his door at night. When burning, this oil affords a clear, bright light, and is not so offensive to the smell as train and other common lamp oils.

TOBACCO SEED OIL.--A discovery, which may prove of some commercial importance, appears to have been made by a British resident in Russia, namely, that the seed of the tobacco plant contains about fifteen per cent. of an oil possessing peculiar drying properties, calculated to render it a superior medium, especially for paints and varnishes. The process employed for the extraction of the oil is to reduce the seed to powder, and knead it into a stiff paste with _quantum sufficit_ of hot water, and then submit it to the action of strong fires. The oil thus obtained is exposed to a moderate heat, which, by coagulating the vegetable albumen of the seed, causes all impurities contained in the oil to form a cake at the bottom of the vessel employed, leaving the oil perfectly limpid and clear.

POPPY OIL.--About 80 cwt. of poppy seed is imported annually into Hull, and small quantities come into other ports to be crushed into oil. The seeds of the poppy yield, by expression, 56 per cent. of a bland and very valuable oil, of a pale golden color, fluid to within ten degrees of the freezing point of water. It dries easily, is inodorous, and of an agreeable flavor like olive oil.

Dr. J.V.C. Smith, writing from Switzerland, to the editor of the "Boston Medical Journal," says:--

"Immense crops are raised here of articles wholly unknown to the American farmers, and perhaps the kinds best fitted to particular localities where grain and potatoes yield poorly under the best efforts. One of these is poppies. Thousands of acres are at this moment ready for market--which the traveller takes for granted, as he hurries by, are to be manufactured into opium. They are not, however, intended for medical use at all, but for a widely different purpose. From the poppy seed a beautiful transparent oil is made, which is extensively used in house painting. It is almost as colorless as water, and possesses so many advantages over the flax seed oil that it may ultimately supersede that article. Where flax cannot be grown poppies often can be, in poor sandy soil. Linseed oil is becoming dearer, and the demand for paint is increasing. With white lead, poppy oil leaves a beautiful surface, which does not afterwards change, by the action of light, into a dirty yellow. Another season some one should make a beginning at home in this important branch of industry. The oil may be used for other purposes, and even put in the cruet for salads."

TALLICOONAH or KUNDAH OIL, is obtained from the seeds of the _Carapa Touloucouna_ (of the Flore de Senegambie). The tree grows to the height of 40 feet; the fruit is a large, somewhat globular five-celled capsule. The seeds (of which there are from 18 to 30 in each capsule), vary in size from that of a chesnut to a hen's egg. They are three-cornered, of a brownish or blackish red color. It is found abundantly in the Timneh country, and over the colony of Sierra Leone. It is manufactured in the following manner:--The nuts having been well dried in the sun, are hung up in wicker racks or hurdles, and exposed to the smoke of the huts, after which they are roasted and subjected to trituration in large wooden mortars, until reduced to a pulp. The mass is then boiled, when the supernatant oil is removed by skimming. The natives principally prepare the oil to afford light; the leaves are used by the Kroomen as a thatch. It is held in high estimation as an anthelmintic. The oil is sold in Sierra Leone at 2s. a gallon, and could be procured in abundance from the coast as an article of commerce.

CARAP or CRAB OIL (_Carapa guianensis_).--This is a sort of vegetable butter, being sometimes solid and sometimes half fluid, which is obtained from the seed of a large tree abundant in the forests of Guiana, and also found in Trinidad. It is said to turn rancid very soon when exposed to the air, but this is probably caused by the presence of impurities, arising from the crude and imperfect way in which it is prepared by the natives, who boil the kernels, leave them in a heap for a few days, then skim them, and lastly reduce them into a paste in a wooden mortar, which is then spread on an inclined board, and exposed to the heat of the sun, so that the oil may melt and gradually trickle down into a vessel placed below to receive it. A prize medal was awarded for this oil at the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Carap oil in Trinidad is highly esteemed as an unguent for the hair, and also for applying to the wounds of animals, for destroying ticks and other insects which infest cattle--also for the cure of rheumatism. An oil called Carap oil is also obtained in the East, from the almonds of _Xylocarpus granatum_, or _Carapa Molluccensis_, of Lanark, which is used by the natives to dress the hair and anoint the skin, so as to keep off insects.

Cacao fat, the butter-like substance obtained from the seeds of _Theobroma cacao_, is esteemed as an emollient.

The nuts of the Great Macaw tree (_Acrocomia fusiformis_), a majestic species of palm, furnishes much oil. This tree is the _Cocos fusiformis_, of Jacquin, and other intertropical botanists. It is a native of Trinidad and Jamaica, and is found also very commonly in South America.

The method of extracting the oil is as follows:--The nut or kernel is slightly roasted and cleaned, then ground to a paste, first in a mill, and then on a livigating stone. This paste, gently heated and mixed with 3-10ths of its weight of boiling water, is put into a bag, and the oil expressed between two heated plates of iron; it yields about 7-10ths or 8-10ths of oil. If discolored it can be purified, when melted, by filtration. It is then of the consistence of butter, of a golden yellow hue, the odor that of violets, and the taste sweetish. If well preserved it will keep several years without spoiling, which is known to have taken place by the loss of its golden hue and delightful aroma.

It is frequently sold in the shops as palm oil, and of late has entered largely into the composition of toilet soaps. As an emollient it is said to be useful in some painful affections of the joints; the negroes deem it a sovereign remedy in "bone ache." The nut itself is sometimes fancifully carved by the negroes, and is highly ornamental, being of a shining jet black, and susceptible of a very high polish. This tree may be increased from suckers.

_A. sclerocarpa_ is the Macahuba palm of Brazil.

THE AGAITI, as it is called by the Portuguese, or napoota by the natives and Arabs (_Didynamia Gymosperma?_), much cultivated in all Eastern Africa for its oil, which is considered equal to that of olives, and fetches as high a price in the Indian market. The plant, which is as tall and rank as hemp, and equally productive, having numerous pods throughout the stems, is found everywhere in a wild as well as cultivated state.

The "Cape Shipping Gazette," of August, 1850, says:--

"The attention of the George Agricultural and Horticultural Society having been drawn to the fact that an excellent oil, equal to the olive oil of Italy, can be extracted from the kernel of the fruit known by the name of "T Kou Pijte" and "Pruim Besje," they have offered a reward of £10 for the best sample, not less than a half aum of this oil--and £15 if it shall be adjudged equal to the best oil of Italy. This fact is deserving of notice, as an instance of the advantages which are likely to result from the attention now being devoted to the natural productions of the colony."

_Madia sativa_ is a handsome annual plant, native of Chili, which has been naturalised in Europe. It grows about two feet high, and produces flowers in July and August, of a pale yellow color.

The whole plant is viscid and exhales a powerful odor, which is somewhat like heated honey. It requires rather a rich soil, of a ferruginous character. The root is fusiform, the stem cylindrical, and furnished with sessile, three to five longitudinally-nerved leaves, which are apposite on the lower portion of the stem, and alternate on the upper. M. Victor Pasquier, who has written on the culture of the plant, analysed the seed, and found 100 parts to consist of 26.5 of testa, and 73.5 of kernel; 100 parts of the latter yielded 31.3 of vegetable albumen, gum, and lignine, 56.0 of _fixed oil_, and 12.5 of water. In dry seasons the oil is both more abundant and better than in damp seasons. The produce of oil, compared with that of the poppy, is equal; with colza, as 32 to 28; with linseed, 32 to 21; with the olive, 32 to 16.

The leaves and stems of this plant are rejected by cattle; but the oil-cake, which always contains a considerable portion of the oil, forms a nutritive food, of which they are very fond. The oil expressed without heat is transparent, of a golden yellow color, inodorous, rather fatter than the oil of rape or olives, and of a soft, agreeable, nutty taste. It is fit to be employed in the preparation of food, in salads, and for all the purposes of the best and mildest fixed oils. It burns with a brilliant, reddish-white flame, and leaves no residue. It is little liable to become rancid, and is completely decolorised by animal charcoal.

The oil of the seeds of this plant, now extensively cultivated in France, will yield, according to the observations of Braconnet, a solid soap, similar to that made from olive oil. Boussingault obtained from the oil a solid, as well as a fluid acid. The solid one is probably palmic acid, it fuses at exactly 140 degrees of Fahrenheit. The fluid acid in its properties resembles the oleic acid discovered by Chevreul, and seems to dry easily.

The following is the composition of each, as determined by his analysis:--

Solid acid. Fluid acid. Carbon 74.2 76.0 Hydrogen 12.0 11.0 Oxygen 13.8 13.0 ------ ------ 100. 100.

COCUM OIL, or butter, is obtained from the seeds of a kind of mangosteen (_Garcinia purpurea_), and used in various parts of India to adulterate ghee or butter. It is said to be exported to England for the purpose of mixing with bears' grease in the manufacture of pomatum. It is a white, or pale greenish yellow, solid oil, brittle, or rather friable, having a faint but not unpleasant smell, melting at about 95 degrees, and when cooled after fusion remaining liquid to 75 degrees.

An excellent solid oil, of a bright green color, is obtained from Bombay, having a consistence intermediate between that of tallow and wax, fusible at about 95 degrees, and easily bleached; it has a peculiar and somewhat aromatic odor. There is some uncertainty as to the plant from which it is obtained. It was referred to the _Salvadora persica_, and to the _Vernonia Anthelminticea_, a plant common in Guzerat and the Concan Ghats.

A pale yellow clear oil is obtained from the seed of _Dolichos biflorus_(_?_). Oil is also expressed in India from the seed of the _Argemone mexicana_, which is used for lamps and in medicine; and from the seeds of the cashew nut (_Anacardium occidentale_), from _Sapindus marginatus_, and the country walnut (_Aleurites triloba_.) The fruit of the _Chirongia sapinda_, (or _Buchanania latifolia_,) yields oil. From the seeds of the _Pongamia glabra_, or _Galidupa arborea_, a honey brown and almost tasteless oil is procured, which is fluid at common temperatures, but gelatinises at 55 degrees.

Other sources of oil are the _Celastrus paniculatus_ (_?_) _Balanites Egyptictca_ and the saul tree (_Shorea Robusta_).

THE CANDLE-TREE or PALO BE VELAS, (_Parmentiera cereifera_, Seemann.)--This tree, in the valley of the Chagres, South America, forms entire forests. In entering them a person might almost fancy himself transported into a chandler's shop. From all the stems and lower branches hang long cylindrical fruits, of a yellow wax color, so much resembling a candle as to have given rise to the popular appellation. The fruit is generally from two to three, but not unfrequently four feet long, and an inch in diameter. The tree itself is about 24 feet high, with, opposite trifoliated leaves, and large white blossoms, which appear throughout the year, but are in greatest abundance during the rainy season. The _Palo de Velas_ belongs to the natural order _Crescentiaceae_, and is a _Parmentiera_, of which genus hitherto only one species, the _P. edulis_, of De Candolle, was known to exist. The fruit of the latter, called _Quauhscilote_, is eaten by the Mexicans, while that of the former serves for food to numerous herds of cattle. Bullocks especially, if fed with the fruit of this tree, guinea-grass, and _Batatilla_ (_Ipomoea brachypoda_, Benth.), soon get fat. It is generally admitted, however, that the meat partakes in some degree of the peculiar apple-like smell of the fruit, but this is by no means disagreeable, and easily prevented, if, for a few days previous to killing the animal, the food is changed. The tree produces its principal harvest during the dry season, when all the herbaceous vegetation is burned up, and on that account its cultivation in tropical countries is especially to be recommended; a few acres of it would effectually prevent that want of fodder which is always most severely felt after the periodical rains have ceased.--("Hooker's Journal of Botany.")

CINNAMON SUET is extracted by boiling the fruit of the cinnamon. An oily fluid floats on the surface, which on cooling subsides to the bottom of the vessel, and hardens into a substance like mutton suet. The Singhalese make a kind of candles with it, and use it for culinary purposes. It emits a very pleasant aroma while burning. According to the analysis of Dr. Christison, it contains eight per cent, of a fluid not unlike olive oil; the remainder is a waxy principle.

CROTON OIL is obtained by expression from the seeds or nuts of _Croton Tiglium_, an evergreen tree, 15 to 20 feet in height, belonging to the same order as the castor oil plant, producing whitish green flowers, and seeds resembling a tick in appearance, whence its generic name. It is a native of the East Indies. 100 parts of seeds afford about 64 of kernel. 50 quarters of croton nuts for expressing oil were imported into Liverpool from the Cape Verd Islands, in 1849.

The _Croton Tiglium_ grows plentifully in Ceylon, and the oil, if properly expressed, might be made an article of trade. The best mode of preparing it is by grinding the seeds, placing the powder in bags, and pressing between plates of iron; allow the oil to stand for fifteen days, then filter. The residue of the expression is triturated with twice its weight of alcohol, and heated on the sand-bath from 120 to 140 degs. Fahrenheit, and the mixture pressed again. In this step the utmost caution is necessary in avoiding the acrid fumes. One seer of seed furnishes by this process rather more than eleven fluid ounces of oil, six by the first step, and five by alcohol.

The oil acts as an irritant purgative in the dose of one drop. In large doses it is a dangerous poison. When applied externally it produces pustules.

In 1845, eight cases of croton oil and six cases of the seed were exported from Ceylon.

Other species of Croton, as _C. Pavana_, a native of Ava and the north-eastern parts of Bengal, and _C. Roxburghii_, yield a purgative oil. The bark of _C. Eleuteria_, _C. Cascarilla_, and other species is aromatic, and acts as a tonic and stimulant. It forms the cascarilla bark of commerce already spoken of. When bruised, it gives out a musky odor and is often used in pastilles.

The oil obtained from the seeds of _Jatropha curcas_, a native of South America and Asia, is purgative and emetic, and analagous in its properties to croton oil. It is said to be a valuable external application in itch. In India it is used for lamps.

OIL OF BEN, known as Sohrinja in Bengal, and Muringo in Malabar is obtained from the seeds or nuts of the horseradish tree, _Moringa pterygosperma_, Burmann; the _Hyperanthera Moringa_, of Linnæus. This clear limpid oil having no perceptible smell, is much esteemed by watchmakers and perfumers; it is expensive and not often to be procured pure, consequently the oil would be a very profitable export. It grows rapidly and luxuriantly everywhere in Jamaica, particularly on the north side of the island--as well as Trinidad and other quarters of the West. It is easily propagated either by cuttings from the tree (the branches) or by seeds, and bears the second year. The produce of each tree may be estimated at from one to two gallons. From the flowers a very pleasant perfume might be easily distilled.

The following account I derive from my friend Dr. Hamilton--

"It is a small tree, of about twenty feet in height, of most rapid growth, coming into flower within a few months after it has been sown, and continuing to produce seeds and blossoms afterwards throughout the year. The tree is now naturalised in the West Indies. The timber is said to dye a fine blue, and the gum, which, exudes from wounds in the bark, bears a strong resemblance to that obtained from the _Astragalus tragacantha_, for which it might, no doubt, be substituted.

The numerous racemes of white blossoms with which the tree is constantly loaded, are succeeded by long triangular pods, somewhat tourlose at the ends, and about two feet in length, when arrived at the full growth. These pods, while yet young and tender, are not unfrequently cooked and served up at the planter's tables like asparagus, for which they are not a bad substitute. The pods, when full grown, contain about fifteen seeds; each considerably larger than a pea, with a membraneous covering expanding into three wings, whence the specific name of _pterygosperma_. On removing the winged envelope the seeds appear somewhat like pith balls; but upon dividing them with the nail, they are found to abound in a clear, colorless, tasteless, scentless oil, of which the proportion is so large that it may be expressed from good fresh seeds by the simple pressure of the nail. Geoffry informs us, that he obtained 30½ ounces of oil from eight pounds of the decorticated seeds, being at the rate of very nearly 24 lbs. of oil from 100 lbs. of seed.

Notwithstanding the great value of its oil, and the facility with which it can be obtained in the West Indies, the moringa has been hitherto valued merely as an ornamental shrub, and cultivated for the sake of its young pods or the horseradish of its roots, as luxuries for the table.

The oil is peculiarly valuable for the formation of ointments, from its capability of being kept for almost any length of time without entering into combination with oxygen. This property, together with the total absence of color, smell, and taste, peculiarly adapts it to the purposes of the perfumer, who is able to make it the medium for arresting the flight of those highly volatile particles of essential oil, which constitute the aroma of many of the most odoriferous flowers, and cannot be obtained by any other means, in a concentrated and permanent form. To effect this, the petals of the flowers, whose odor it is desired to obtain, are thinly spread over flakes of cotton wool saturated with this oil, and the whole enclosed in air tight tin cases, where they are suffered to remain till they begin to wither, when they are replaced by fresh ones, and the process thus continued till the oil has absorbed as much as was desired of the aroma; it is then separated from the wool by pressure, and preserved under the name of _essence_, in well stopped bottles.

By digesting the oil thus impregnated in alcohol, which does not take up the fixed oil, a solution of the aroma is effected in the spirit, and many odoriferous tinctures or waters, as they are somewhat inaccurately termed, prepared. By this process most delicious perfumes might be obtained from the flowers of the _Acacia tortuosa_, _Pancratium carribeum_, _Plumeria alba_, _Plumeria rubra_, and innumerable other flowers, of the most exquisite fragrance, which abound within the tropics, blooming unregarded, and wasting their odors on the barren air."

THE OIL PALM.

There are several species of this genus of beautiful palms of the tribe _Cococinæ_, but that chiefly turned to account is _Elais guineensis_, a native of the Coast of Guinea to the south of Fernando Po, which furnishes the best oil.

There are three other varieties--_E. melanococca_, a native of New Granada, _E. Pernambucana_, common on the coast of Brazil, and _J. occidentalis_, indigenous to Jamaica. All the species grow well in a sandy loam and may be increased by suckers.

The value of the oil of this palm, as an article of commerce, is exemplified by the large annual imports, averaging more than 516,000 cwt. for many years past.

Our supplies of palm oil are almost wholly derived from the West Coast of Africa, of which it is the staple article of export.

Palm oil has the greatest specific gravity of any of the fixed vegetable oils. It is used principally in this country for making yellow soap. But the inhabitants of the Guinea coast employ it for the same purposes that we do butter.

The trade in palm oil has almost driven out the slave trade from the Bight of Benin, which was a few years ago one of its principal seats. The old slave traders at Whydah have generally gone into the palm oil trade, and are carrying it on to a very great extent. In August 1849, no less than twelve vessels were lying at that port taking in oil; whilst, only three years before, it was rare to see three vessels there at once, and of those in all probability two would be slavers.

This palm is called Maba by the natives about the Congo river. It is moneocious, which indeed Jacquin, by whom the genus was established, concluded it to be, although first described as dioecious by Gaertner, whose account has been adopted, probably without examination, by Schroder, Willdenow, and Persoon.

The average imports of this oil into Liverpool alone, have now been for some years upwards of 18,000 tons, worth nearly £800,000 sterling, and giving employment to upwards of 30,000 tons of shipping; thus proving that the natives who formerly exported their brethren as a matter of traffic, now find, at least, an equally profitable trade in the exportation of the vegetable products of their native soil.

Palm oil is produced by the nut of the tree, which grows in the greatest abundance throughout Western Africa. The demand for it, both in Europe and America, is daily increasing, and there is no doubt it will, ere long, become the most important article of African trade.

IMPORTS INTO LIVERPOOL. casks. tons. 1835 28,500 9,500 1836 33,500 11,000 1837 26,000 9,900 1838 27,520 10,320 1839 36,500 14,300 1852 about -- 23,500

In the colony of Liberia, I notice the manufacture of a new article of African production, which is called "Herring's Palm Kernel Oil or African Lard." It is thus spoken of in the newspapers of that Republic :--

We had been for a long time impressed with an idea that the oil contained in the kernel of the palm nut, was superior both in quality and appearance to that of palm oil, which is obtained from the exterior part.

On making an effort to extract the oil from the kernel (which was by means of a little machine, of our own invention and contrivance), we found that our thoughts upon the matter were correct, that the oil possessed admirable beauty in its appearance, with a taste, when used for cooking purposes, unexcelled by that of the best lard.

After being made and set by, it assumes a consistence like that of hard butter, and has to be cut out with a knife or spoon; its appearance in this state is very beautiful, presenting such richness, clearness, and adaptedness to table purposes, that one would not suppose that this oil is obtained from the same tree from which palm oil is, for there is as much disparity both in their appearance and taste as there is between lard and butter.

The exquisite transparency which the kernel oil bears in a liquid state, especially when undergoing the purifying process, is a cause of admiration. On showing some of it to several foreigners, I was asked in two instances which was the oil and which the water, or whether it was oil or water; thus you may have an idea of its clearness. We make two qualities of this oil, differing however in taste only, the one being for table uses and the other for exportation and for whatever use they may choose to put it to abroad.

There have been many conjectures in respect to the uses to which this oil might he put in foreign countries; but that it will be a useful article, and especially in our trade, when made more extensively, there can be no doubt, for the quantity in which it might be had would undoubtedly introduce it to a respectable rank among the other commodities of our productive country so eagerly sought after.

There is nothing, to my knowledge, that can be turned to as good account and at the same time so abundant and easily obtained, as the palm kernel, for they are as common as the pebbles of stony land, especially in this section of the country, where we have palm orchards of spontaneous growth for miles together, and interspersing the surrounding country in almost innumerable numbers.

According to statistical ascertainment, there is on an average exported from this port, thirty thousand gallons of palm oil annually, from which fact we ascertain demonstratively that the palm kernels which are thrown away here (leaving out the whole leeward coast of our possessions) are sufficient to make thirty thousand gallons of oil, more or less. This is not at all a problematical speculation of ours, but we feel authorised to advance this assertion from the fact that one bushel of kernels, completely worked up, will make two gallons of oil. But to work them up is the thing, plentiful as they are; we however, hesitate not to say, that it can be done and probably will be.

Having now so far conquered the difficulties attending the manufacture of this oil, as that we can safely vouch a reasonable supply for home consumption, we most cheerfully recommend it to the citizens of this Republic, whose demands for it, for eating purposes, we doubt not can be supplied, and on very reasonable terms.

We will assure our customers that there will not be an ounce of dirt or sediment in a hundred pounds of our oil.

The recent abolition of the soap duty, by stimulating the demand for palm oil, will have an instant effect on the trade and commerce of Western Africa, by confirming the suppression of the slave trade, and giving an additional impetus to negro improvement. It will also increase the production for England of ground nuts, whence the oil so largely used in making continental soaps is expressed. "When (observes a recent writer) the Portuguese first treated with that coast, they found palm oil and ground nuts articles of native food, and so they remained down to a period within living memory. So used, they neither required any cultivation nor gave rise to any notions of property. Though whole tracts of country are crowded by the oil-palm tree, little care was taken of what was, in fact, superabundant; and as for ground nuts, they were simply dug up as prudence or necessity dictated. Some thirty years ago a cask or two of palm oil was sent home from the Gold Coast; it met so ready a sale that it was further inquired after, and the total amount now imported into England ranges from 25,000 to 30,000 tons annually. The exportation of ground nuts is even larger; but, owing to our excise on soap, they had heretofore gone principally to France---to Marseilles especially.

"Of these two articles, it is to be observed, the Western Coast of Africa appears to have a monopoly; and with respect to palm oil, it is further to be remarked, that it is exactly behind those ports and up those rivers, which were formerly the great nests of the slave trade, that its production is largest; and just as the slave trade there has been crushed, a commerce in palm oil has sprung up and replaced it. There are men alive who recollect the slave trade flourishing on the Gold Coast; it has long been extinct there, and palm oil is now largely exported. It is but a very few years ago since that traffic appeared to be irrepressible at the mouths of the Niger: it is now expelled, and thence Liverpool obtains, instead, its supplies of palm oil. So also, later still, at Whydah, and the other ports of the kingdom of Dahomy, and along the Lagoon, which connects Dahomy with the Benin River, there the Spanish slave dealers are themselves inaugurating a commerce in palm oil. Already the trade in that quarter is considerable, and it would have extended much more rapidly than it has done, were it not that disorder and warfare in the interior have been promoted and prolonged by the indiscreet zeal of some of our own naval officers and by the desire of some of our missionaries to rule at Abeeokutu, at Lagos, and at Badagray. When, however, order and tranquillity are restored, a most important trade will undoubtedly arise there. A generation ago, when palm oil was merely an article of food, there was, we have said, no property in palm trees. Since, however, a large foreign demand has arisen for this oil, the plantations, as already they are called, begin to be cared for; and lately the title to some of them has been disputed in our courts on the Gold Coast: a contention which constitutes the first evidence we have received of the value of land, not actually under their own cultivation, being recognised by the natives. Thus the feeling of property and the desire for accumulation are springing up out of the palm oil trade; and they are everywhere the germs of nascent civilisation. It is no light question, therefore, thus involved in an increased demand for this article; it may produce African consequences of incalculable importance to the whole human race. It is in France hitherto that the great consumption of ground nut oil has occurred. It is there used in the manufacture of soaps, which, though preferred abroad, are little used in England--very much because of the Excise laws. The specific gravity of the soap made out of ground nut oil is higher than those laws permitted; in consequence we could neither make it for our own use nor for foreign exportation; and thus France has substantially the soap trade of the world. By the repeal of the duty, England will be enabled to compete--in this, as in all other trades--with France abroad."

The price, in Liverpool, for palm oil, in October, 1853, was £38 10s. to £39 per ton.

We export annually nearly four million gallons of oil made from linseed, hemp seed, and rape seed.

PALM OIL RETAINED FOR HOME CONSUMPTION cwts. 1835 242,733 1836 234,357 1837 211,919 1838 272,991 1839 262,910 1840 314,881 1841 300,770 1842 353,672 1843 377,765 1844 363,335 1848 510,218 1849 493,331 1850 448,589 1851 493,598 1852 408,577

The quantity of the four principal vegetable oils annually imported into Great Britain, is shown by the following figures:--

Palm oil. Coco-nut oil. Castor oil. Olive oil. cwts. cwts. cwts. tuns. 1848 510,218 85,463 4,588 10,086 1849 493,331 64,452 9,681 16,964 1850 448,589 98,040 -- 20,738 1851 608,550 55,995 -- 11,503 1852 623,231 101,863 -- 8,898

THE OLIVE-TREE (_Olea Europea_).--There are several varieties of this plant, two of which have been long distinguished--the wild and the cultivated. The former is an evergreen shrub or low tree, with spiny branches and round twigs; the latter is a taller tree, without spines, and with four-angled twigs. The fruit is a drupe about the size and color of a damson. Its fleshy pericarp yields by expression olive oil, of which the finest comes from Provence and Florence. Spanish or Castile soap is made by mixing olive oil and soda, while soft soap is made by mixing the oil with potash.

The wild olive is indigenous to Syria, Greece, and Africa, on the lower slopes of Mount Atlas. The cultivated species grows spontaneously in Syria, and is easily reared in Spain, Italy and the South of France, various parts of Australia and the Ionian Islands. Wherever it has been tried on the sea-coasts of Australia, the success has been most complete. There are several fine trees near Adelaide, some of them fourteen feet high, bearing fruit in abundance. Unfortunately no one has attempted to cultivate the plant on a large scale, but in a few years Australia ought to suply herself with olive oil.

The olive tree is also grown in Hong-Kong.

There are five or six varieties of _O. Europoea_, or _sativa_, grown in the south of Europe, of which district they are for the most part natives.

The entire exports of olive oil from the kingdom of Naples have been estimated at 36,333 tuns a year, which, taken at its mean value when exported at £62 per tun, is equivalent to the annual sum of £2,252,646.

There are one or two distinct species, natives of the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope. This genus of plants, besides their valuable products of oil and fruit, are also much admired for the fragrance of their white flowers. There is a yellow-blossomed variety, native of China, _O. fragrans_, the Lan-hoa of the Chinese, which is used to perfume their teas.

Olive oil now forms an article of export from Chili, being grown in most parts of that republic, particularly in the vicinity of St. Jago, where trees of three feet in diameter, and of a proportionate height, are common. The olive was first carried from Andalusia to Peru in 1560, by Antonio de Ribera, of Lima. Frezier speaks of the olive being used for oil in Chili, a century and a half ago.

The culture of the olive has been recommended for Florida and most of the Southern States of America. Formerly, on account of its slow growth, the olive was not considered very useful; but some years since a new variety was introduced into France, and into some parts of Spain and Portugal, which yields an abundant crop of fruit the second year after planting. They are small trees or rather shrubs, about four or five feet high. The fruit is larger than the common olive, is of a fine green color when ripe, and contains a great deal of oil, The advantages accruing from this new mode of cultivating the olive tree, are beyond all calculation. By the old method an olive tree does not attain its full growth, and consequently does not yield any considerable crop under thirty years; whereas the new system of cultivating dwarf trees, especially from cuttings, affords very abundant crops in two or three. An acre of land can easily grow 2,500 trees of the new variety, and the gathering of the fruit is easy, as it can be done by small children. At Beaufort, South Carolina, the olive is cultivated from plants which were obtained in the neighbourhood of Florence, Italy.

A gentleman in Mississippi is stated, by an American agricultural journal, to have olive trees growing, which at five years from the cutting bore fruit, and were as large at that age as they usually are in Europe at eight years old. The olive then, it is added, will yield a fair crop for oil at four years from the nursery, and in eight years a full crop, or as much as in Europe at from fifteen to twenty years of age.

The lands and climate there are stated to be as well adapted to the successful cultivation of the olive for oil, pickles, &c., as any part of Europe. Some hundreds of the trees are grown in South Carolina, and the owner expressed his conviction that this product would succeed well on the sea-coast of Carolina and Georgia. The frosts, though severe, did not destroy or injure them, and in one case, when the plant was supposed to be dead, and corn was planted in its stead, its roots sent out shoots. It is well known to be a tree of great longevity, even reaching to 1,000 or 1,200 years; so that, when once established, it will produce crops for a great while afterwards. The expense of extracting the oil is also stated to be but trifling.

The olive is of slow growth; trees 80 years of age measure only from 27 to 30 inches in circumference at the lower part of their trunks. An olive tree is mentioned by M. Decandolle as measuring above 23 feet in circumference, which, judging from the above inferences, may be safely estimated at 700 years old. Two other colossal olives are recorded, one at Hieres, measuring in circumference 36 feet, and one near Genoa, measuring 38 feet 2 inches. The produce in fruit and oil is regulated by the age of the trees, which are frequently little fortunes to their owners. One at Villefranche produces on an average, in good seasons, from 200 to 230 pounds of oil. The tree at Hieres, above-mentioned, produces about 55 imperial gallons.

The olive is found everywhere along the coast of Morocco, but

## particularly to the south. The trees are planted in rows, which form

alleys, the more agreeable because the trees are large, round, and high in proportion. They take care to water them, the better to preserve the fruit. Oil of olives might be here plentifully extracted were taxation fixed and moderate; but such has been the variation it has undergone, that the culture of olives is so neglected as scarcely to produce oil sufficient for domestic consumption.

Olive oil might form one of the most valuable articles of export from Morocco. It is strong, dark, and fit only for manufacturing purposes. This is, perhaps, not so much the fault of the olive as of the methods by which it is prepared. No care is taken in collecting the olives. They are beaten from the trees with poles, as in Portugal and Spain, suffered to lie on the ground in heaps until half putrified, then put into uncleaned presses, and the oil squeezed through the filthy residuum of former years. Good table oil might be made, if care were taken, as in France and Lucca, to pick the olives without bruising them, and to press only those that were sweet and sound. But such oil would ill suit the palate of a Maroqueen, accustomed to drink by the pint and the quart the rancid product of his country.

The olive is the great staple of Corfu, which has, in fact, the appearance of an extensive olive grove. It produces annually about 200,000 barrels. Olive oil is also produced for the purposes of commerce, and for local consumption, by France, Algiers, Tuscany, Spain, Sardinia, Portugal, Madeira, and South Australia.

Olive plantations are extending considerably both in Upper and Lower Egypt. Large quantities of trees were planted under the direction of Ibrahim Pasha.

The olive tree might be expected to be quickly matured at the Cape. The native olive, resembling the European, is of spontaneous growth and plentiful, so that if the Spanish or Italian tree were introduced, there is no doubt of its success. The wood of the olive is exceedingly hard and heavy, of a yellowish color, a close fine grain, capable of the highest polish, not subject to crack nor to be affected by worms. The root, in consequence of its variety of color, is much used for snuff-boxes and similar bijouterie.

The wood is beautifully veined, and has an agreeable smell. It is in great esteem with cabinet makers, on account of the fine polish of which it is susceptible.

The sunny slopes of hills are best suited to its natural habits. Layering is the most certain mode of propagating this fruit, although it grows freely from the seed, provided it has first been steeped for twelve hours in hot water or yeast.

Olives intended for preservation are gathered before they are ripe. In pickling, the object is to remove their bitterness and preserve them green, by impregnating them with a brine. For this purpose various methods are employed. The fruit being gathered are placed in a lye, composed of one part of quicklime to six of ashes of young wood sifted. Here they remain for half a day, and are then put into fresh water, being renewed every 24 hours; from this they are removed into a brine of common salt dissolved in water, to which add some aromatic plants. The olive will in this manner remain good for twelve months. For oil, the ripe fruit is gathered in November; the oil, unlike other plants, being obtained from the pericarp, and immediately bruised in a mill, the stones of which are set so wide as not to crush the kernel. The pulp is then subjected to the press in bags made of rushes; and, by means of a gentle pressure, the best or virgin oil flows first. A second, and afterwards a third quality of oil is obtained, by moistening the residuum, breaking the kernel, &c., and increasing the pressure. When the fruit is not sufficiently ripe, the recent oil has a bitterish taste, and when too ripe it is fatty.

The following are the present market prices of olive oil in Liverpool, (October, 1853,) and they are 40 per cent, higher than a few years ago:--Galipoli, per tun of 252 gallons, £68; Spanish, £64; Levant, £60. French olives, in half barrels of two gallons, are worth £3 to £4; Spanish, in two gallon kegs, 9s. to 10s.

The preserved or pickled olives, so admired as an accompaniment to wine, are, as we have seen the green unripe fruit, deprived of part of their bitterness by soaking them in water, and then preserved in an aromatised solution of salt.

The marc of olives after the oil has been expressed, indeed, the refuse cake of all oil plants, is most valuable, either as manure or for feeding cattle.

More than 29,000 acres are under culture with the olive in the Austrian empire, Venice, Dalmatia, Lombardy, Carinthia, and Carniola. The climate of Dalmatia is highly suitable for the olive, and the oil is better than that produced in most parts of Italy. Nearly 17,000 cwt. are annually obtained.

In 1837 there were 11,526 acres of ground under cultivation with olives in Southern Illyria, which yielded 261,800 gallons. Olives and sumach form the principal crops of the landholder. I have not been able to get any recent correct statistics of the culture and produce. The oil of Istria is considered equal to that of Provence. The stones and refuse are used there for fuel. The olive is also extensively cultivated in the Quarnero Islands, especially Veglia and Cherso, and in Corfu. There were in 1836, 219,339 acres under cultivation in the Ionian Islands, producing 113,219 barrels. The olive is gathered there in December. The average price of the barrel of olive oil was 48s. 3d. Nearly two millions of gallons of olive oil were exported from Sicily in 1842. Naples alone shipped five millions of gallons in 1839, and about 2,500 cwts. of oil is shipped annually from Morocco. Russia imports about 500,000 poods (40 lbs. each) of olive oil annually.

"Provence oil, the produce of Aix, is the most esteemed. Florence oil is the virgin oil expressed from the ripe fruit soon after being gathered; it is imported in flasks surrounded by a kind of network formed by the leaves of a monocotyledonous plant, and packed in half chests; it is that used at table under the name of salad oil. Lucca oil is imported in jars holding nineteen gallons each. Genoa oil is another fine kind. Galipoli oil forms the largest portion of the olive oil brought to England, it is imported in casks. Apulia and Calabria are the provinces of Naples most celebrated for its production; the Apulian is the best. Sicily oil is of inferior quality; it is principally produced at Milazzo. Spanish oil is the worst. The foot deposited by olive oil is used for oiling machinery, under the name of' droppings of sweet oil.'"--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

The manufacture of olive oil in Spain has undergone very considerable improvement during the last few years; in particular, the process for expressing the oil has been rendered more rapid and effectual by the introduction of the hydraulic press, and thus the injurious consequences which resulted from the partial fermentation of the fruit are avoided.

There are four different kinds of oil known in the districts where it is prepared.

1. _Virgin oil_--A term which is applied, in the district Montpellier, to that which spontaneously separates from the paste of crushed olives. This oil is not met with in commerce, being all used by the inhabitants, either as an emollient remedy, or for oiling the works of watches. A good deal of virgin oil is, however, obtained from Aix.

2. _Ordinary oil_.--This oil is prepared by pressing the olives, previously crushed and mixed with boiling water. By this second expression, in which more pressure is applied than in the previous one, an oil is obtained, somewhat inferior in quality to the virgin oil.

3. _Oil of the infernal regions_.--The water which has been employed in the preceding operation is in some districts conducted into large reservoirs called the _infernal regions_, where it is left for many days. During this period, any oil that might have remained mixed with the water separates and collects on the surface. This oil being very inferior in quality, is only fit for burning in lamps, and is generally locally used.

4. _Fermented oil_ is obtained in the departments of Aix and Montpellier, by leaving the fresh olives in heaps for some time, and pouring boiling water over them before pressing the oil. But this method is very seldom put in practice, for the olives during this fermentation lose their peculiar flavor, become much heated, and acquire a musty taste, which is communicated to the oil.

The fruity flavor of the oil depends upon the quality of the olives from which it is pressed, and not upon the method adopted in its preparation,"--(French "Journal de Pharmacie.")

The price of olive oil is sufficiently high to lead to its admixture with cheaper oils. The oil of poppy seeds is that which is usually employed for its adulteration, as it has the advantage of being cheap, of having a sweet taste, and very little smell. M. Gobley has invented an instrument which he calls an areometer, to detect this fraud. It is founded on the difference between the densities of olive oil and oil of poppies.

The imports, which in 1826 were only 742,719 gallons, had risen in 1850 to 5,237,816 gallons. The following figures show the progressive imports and consumption:--

Imported. Retained for home consumption. gallons. gallons. 1827 1,028,174 1,070,765 1831 4,158,917 1,928,892 1835 606,166 554,196 1839 1,793,920 1,806,178 1843 3,047,688 2,516,724 1847 2,190,384 -- 1848 2,541,672 -- 1849 4,274,928 -- 1850 5,860,806 -- 1851 2,898,756 2,749,572 1852 2,242,296 1,066,400

The imports of olive oil into the port of Liverpool were 9,815 tuns in 1849, and 10,038 tuns in 1850. It was brought from Manila, Malaga, and Corfu, but chiefly from Barbary, Palermo, Gallipoli, and the Levant. In 1850 we imported from France 259,646 imperial gallons of olive oil, officially valued at £34,638; the average in ordinary years is only about 20,000 gallons from the continent.

ALMOND OIL.--To the south of the Empire of Morocco there are forests of the Arzo tree, which is thorny, irregular in its form, and produces a species of almond exceedingly hard. Its fruit consists of two almonds, rough and bitter, from which an oil is produced, very excellent for frying. In order to use this oil it requires to be purified by fire, and set in a flame, which must be suffered to die away of itself; the most greasy particles are thus consumed, and its arid qualities wholly destroyed. "When the Moors gather these fruits they drive their goats under the trees, and as the fruit falls the animals carefully nibble off the skins, and then greedily feed.

The oil of almonds is more fluid than olive oil, and of a clear, transparent, yellowish color, with a very slight odor and taste. It is occasionally employed for making the finer kinds of soap, and also in medicine.

In manufacturing it the fruit are first well rubbed or shaken in a coarse bag or sack, to separate a bitter powder which covers their epidermis. They are then pounded to a paste in mortars of marble, which paste is afterwards subjected to the action of a press, as in the case of the olive.

About 80 tuns of almond oil are annually imported into this country, the price being about 1s. per pound. Five-and-a-half pounds of almond oil will yield by cold expression one pound six ounces of oil, and three-fourths of a pound more if the iron plates are heated.

SESAME OR TEEL.--Of this small annual plant there are two or three species. _Sesamum orientale_, the common sort; and _S. indicum_, a more robust kind, cultivated at a different season, are both natives of the East Indies. _S. indicum_ bears a pale purple flower, and _S. orientals_ has a white blossom. It is the latter which is chiefly grown, and the seeds afford the Gingellie oil or suffed-til, already extensively known in commerce in the East. The expressed oil is as clear and sweet as that from almonds, and probably the Behens oil, used in varnish, is no other. It is called by the Arabs "Siriteh," and the seed, "bennie " seed, in Africa. _S. orientals_ is grown in the West Indies under the name of "wangle." It is said to have been first brought to Jamaica by the Jews as an article of food. 1,050 bags of gingelly teel, or sesame seed, were imported into Liverpool, in 1849, from the East, South America, and Africa, for expressing oil, and 3,700 bags in 1850. There are two kinds of seed, light and dark, and it is about the same size as mustard seed, only not round.

A hectare of land in Algeria yields 1,475 kilogrammes of seed, which estimated at 50 cents the kilogramme, amounts to 737 francs, whilst the cost of production is only 259 francs, leaving a profit of 478 francs (nearly £20). The oil obtained from this seed is inferior to good olive oil, but is better adapted for the manufacture of soap.

This plant is not unlike hemp, but the stalk is cleaner and semi-transparent. The flower also is so gaudy, that a field in blossom looks like a bed of florist's flowers, and its aromatic fragrance does not aid to dispel such delusion. It flourishes most upon land which is light and fertile. The fragrance of the oil is perceptibly weaker when obtained from seed produced on wet, tenacious soils. A gallon of seed seems to be the usual quantity sown upon an acre. In Bengal, _S. orientale_ is sown during February, and the crop harvested at the end of May; but _S. indicum_ is sown on high, dry soil, in the early part of the rains of June, and the harvest occurs in September. About Poonah it is sown in June and harvested in November. In Nepaul two crops are obtained annually; one is sown as a first crop in April and May, and reaped in October and November; the other as an autumn crop, after the upland rise in August and September, and reaped in November and December.

In Mysore, after being cut it is stacked for a week, then exposed to the sun for three days, but gathered into heaps at night; and between every two days of such drying, it is kept a day in the heap. By this process, the pods burst and shed their seeds without thrashing.

The seeds contain an abundance of oil, which might be substituted for olive oil; it is procured from them in great quantities, in Egypt, India, Kashmir, China, and Japan, where it is used both for cooking and burning. It will keep for many years and not acquire any rancid smell or taste, but in the course of a year or two becomes quite mild, so that when the warm taste of the seed, which is in the oil when first expressed, is worn off, it is used for all the purposes of salad oil. It possesses such qualities as fairly entitle it to introduction into Europe; and if divested of its mucilage, it might perhaps compete with oil of olives, at least for medicinal purposes, and could be raised in any quantity in the British Indian Presidencies. It is sufficiently free from smell to admit of being made the medium for extracting the perfume of the jasmine, the tuberose, narcissus, camomile, and of the yellow rose. The process is managed by adding one weight of flowers to three weights of oil in a bottle, which being corked is exposed to the rays of the sun for forty days, when the oil is supposed to be sufliciently impregnated for use. This oil, under the name of Gingilie oil, is used in India to adulterate oil of almonds.

The flour of the seed, after the oil is expressed, is used in making cakes, and the straw serves for fuel and manure.

The oil is much used in Mysore for dressing food, and as a common lamp oil. From 200 to 400 quarters under the name of Niger seed are imported annually into Liverpool for expressing oil.

Three varieties of Til are extensively cultivated throughout India, for the sake of the fine oil expressed from their seeds, the white seeded variety, the parti-colored, and the black. It is from the latter that the sesamum or gingelly oil of commerce is obtained. Sesamum seed contains about 45 per cent. of oil. Good samples of the oil were shown at the Great Exhibition from Vizianagram, Ganjain, Hyderabad, Tanjore, the district of Moorshedabad, and Gwalior. The gingelly seed is stated to be worth about £4 per ton in the North Circars.

An oil resembling that of sesamum is obtained from the seed of _Guizotea oleifera_ and _Abyssinica_, a plant introduced from Abyssinia, and common in Bengal. The ram til, or valisaloo seeds, yield about 34 per cent, of oil. The oil is generally used for burning, and is worth locally about 10d. per gallon.

BLACK TIL (_Verbesena sativa_).--This is known as kutsela or kala til, in the Deccan. It is chiefly cultivated in Mysore and the western districts of Peninsular India, as well as in the Bombay presidency.

About Seringapatam, as soon as the millet crop has been reaped the field is ploughed four times, and the seed sown, a gallon per acre, during the month of July or August, after the first heavy rain. No manure or weeding is required, for the crop will grow on the worst soils. It is reaped in three months, being cut close to the ground, and stacked for a week. After exposure to the sun for two or three days, the seed is beaten out with a stick. The crop in Mysore rarely yields two bushels per acre, but about Poonah the produce is much larger. The seed is sometimes parched and made into sweetmeats, but is usually grown for its oil. This is used in cooking, but it is not so abundant in the seed, nor so good as that of the sesame. Bullocks will not eat the stems unless pressed by hunger.

About 5,000 maunds are exported annually from Calcutta. 3,703 bags were imported into Liverpool in 1851. The price per quarter of eight bushels, in January, 1853, was from 30s. to £2; of teel oil, in tins, weighing 60 to 100 pounds, £2 to £2 4s.

Bombay linseed was worth £2 11s. to £2 12s. the quarter of eight bushels, in January, 1853. Bengal ditto 2s. less. The imports into Liverpool were 68,468 bags and 54,834 pockets in 1851, and 14,490 bags and 33,700 pockets in 1852. About 9,000 bags of mustard seed and from 18,000 to 20,000 bags of rape seed are also imported thence. The price of the latter is about £2 the quarter.

NATIVE OIL MILLS.--The principal native oil mill of India, of which, however, there are some varieties, consists of a simple wooden mortar with revolving pestle. It is in common use in all Belgaum and Bangalore. Two oxen are harnessed to the geering, which depends from the extremity of the pestle,--a man sits on the top of the mortar, and throws in the seeds that may have got displaced. The mill grinds twice a day; a fresh man and team being employed on each occasion. When sesame oil is to be made, about seventy seers measure, or two and a half bushels of seeds are thrown in; to this ten seers, or two quarts and three-quarters of water, are gradually added; this on the continuance of the grinding, which lasts in all six hours, unites with the fibrous portion of the seeds, and forms a cake, which, when removed, leaves the oil clean and pure at the bottom of the mortar. From this it is taken out by a coco-nut shell cup, on the pestle being withdrawn. Other seed oils are described by Dr. Buchanan, as made almost entirely in the same way as the sesamum. The exceptions are the hamlu, or castor oil, obtained from either the small or large varieties of _Ricinus_. This, at Seringapatam, is first parched in pots, containing something more than a seer each. It is then beaten in a mortar, and formed into balls; of these from four to sixteen seers are put in an earthenware pot and boiled with an equal quantity of water, for the space of five hours; frequent care being taken to stir the mixture to prevent it from burning. The oil now floats on the surface, and is skimmed off pure. The oil mill made use of at Bombay, and to the northward, at Surat, Cambay, Kurrachee, &c., differs a little from that just described, in having a very strong wooden frame round the mouth of the mortar; on this the man who keeps the seeds in order sits. In Scinde a camel is employed to drive the mill instead of bullocks.

Castor oil seed is thrown into the mill like other seeds, as already described; when removed it requires to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a cloth to free it from the fragments of the seed.

It is a curious fact, and illustrative of the imperfect manner in which the oil is separated from the seeds, that while the common pressman only obtained some 26¼ per cent., Boussingault, in his laboratory, from the same seeds, actually procured 41 per cent. When the oil cakes are meant for feeding stock, this loss is of little consequence, inasmuch as the oil serves a very good purpose, but when the cake is only intended to be used as a manure, it is a great loss, inasmuch as the oil is of little or no use in adding any food for crops to the soil.

The chief oil made on the sea board of India, is that yielded by the coco-nut palm. The nut having been stripped of the husk or coir, the shell is broken, and the fatty lining enclosing the milk is taken out. This is called cobri, copra, or copperah in different localities. Three maunds, or ninety pounds of copperah, are thrown into the mill with about three gallons of water, and from this is produced three maunds, or seven and three-quarter gallons of oil. The copperah in its unprepared state is sold, slightly dried in the market. It is burned in iron cribs or grates, on the top of poles as torches, in processions, and as means of illumination for work performed in the open air at night. No press or other contrivance is made use of by the natives in India for squeezing out or expressing the oil from the cake, and a large amount of waste, in consequence of this, necessarily ensues.--_Bombay Times_, June 5, 1850.

Oil, of the finest kind, is made in India by expression from the kernels of the apricot. It is clear, of a pale yellow color, and smells strongly of hydrocyanic acid, of which it contains, usually, about 4 per cent.

"On inquiring into the use made of the sunflower, we were given to understand that it is here (in Tartary) raised chiefly for the oil expressed from it. But it is also of use for many other purposes. In the market places of the larger towns we often found the people eating the seeds, which, when boiled in water, taste not unlike the boiled Indian corn eaten by the Turks. In some districts of Russia the seeds are employed with great success in fattening poultry; they are also said to increase the number of eggs more than any other kind of grain. Pheasants and partridges eat them with great avidity, and find the same effects from them as other birds. The dried leaves are given to cattle in place of straw; and the withered stalks are said to produce a considerable quantity of alkali."--_Bremner's Interior of Russia._

658 barrels linseed oil were brought down to New Orleans from the interior in 1849, and 1009 in 1848.

During the period of the Great Exhibition special enquiry was made by many manufacturers as to the different oils of Southern India, suitable for supplying the place of animal fat in the manufacture of candles, and generally adapted for various other purposes. Enquiries should be directed to the specific gravity, the boiling point, the per centage of pure oil in the seeds, and the means of obtaining a regular supply. The demand for vegetable oils in European commerce has been steadily on the increase for several years past, and the quantities consumed are now so large that the oleaginous products of India and the colonies must sooner or later have a considerable commercial importance, from the value which they are likely to acquire. Indeed some have already established a footing in the home market, and Drs. Hunter, Cleghorn, and others in India, have specially directed the attention of the natives and merchants to the subject.

MARGOSE, OR NEEM OIL.--From the pericarp or fleshy part of the fruit of the _Melia Azederachta_, the well known Margosa oil is prepared; which is cheap and easily procurable in Ceylon. Dr. Maxwell, garrison surgeon of Trichinopoly, states that he has found this oil equally efficacious to cod-liver oil in cases of consumption and scrofula. He began with half-ounce doses, morning and evening, which were gradually reduced.

ILLEPE OIL.--The seeds of three species of Bassia, indigenous to India, yield solid oils, and are remarkable for the fact, that they supply at the same time saccharine matter, spirit, and oil, fit for both food and burning in lamps. The Illepe( _B. longifolia_) is a tree abundant in the Madras Presidency, the southern parts of Hindostan generally, and the northern province of Ceylon. In Ceylon the inhabitants use the oil in cooking and for lamps. The oil cake is rubbed on the body as soap, and seems admirably adapted for removing the unctuosity of the skin caused by excessive perspiration, and for rendering it soft, pliable, and glossy, which is so conducive to health in a tropical climate. The oil is white and solid at common temperatures, fusing at from 70 to 80 degrees. It may be advantageously employed in the manufacture of both candles and soap; in Ceylon and some parts of India this oil forms the chief ingredient in the manufacture of soap.

Mahower (_B. latifolia_) is common in most parts of the Bengal Presidency. The oil a good deal resembles that last described, obtained from the Illepe seeds; and may be used for similar purposes. It is solid at common temperatures, and begins to melt at about 70 degrees.

Vegetable butter is obtained from the Choorie (_B. butyracea_). This tree, though far less generally abundant than the other two species, is common in certain of the hilly districts, especially in the eastern parts of Kumaon; in the province of Dotee it is so abundant that the oil is cheaper than ghee, or fluid butter, and is used to adulterate it. It is likewise commonly burnt in lamps, for which purpose it is preferred to coco-nut oil. It is a white solid fat, fusible at about 120 degrees, and exhibits very little tendency to become rancid when kept.

Shea, or galam butter, is obtained in Western Africa from the _Bassia Parkii_, or _Pentadisma butyracea_, a tree closely resembling the _B. latifolia_, and other species indigenous to Hindostan. According to Park, the tree is abundant in Bambara, the oil is solid, of a greyish-white color, and fuses at 97 degrees. Its product is used for a variety of purposes--for cooking, burning in lamps, &c.

This tree has much of the character of the laurel, but grows to the height of eighteen or twenty feet. Its leaf is somewhat longer than the laurel, and is a little broader at the point; the edges of the leaf are gently curved, and are of a dark sap green color. The nut is of the form and size of a pigeon's egg, and the kernel completely fills the shell. When fresh it is of a white drab color, but, if long kept, becomes the color of chocolate. The kernel, when new, is nearly all butter, which is extracted in the following manner:--The shell is removed from the kernel, which is also crushed, and then a quantity is put into an earthen pot or pan, placed over the fire with a portion of water and the nut kernels. After boiling slowly about half an hour the whole is strained through a grass mat into a clean vessel, when it is allowed to cool. Then, after removing the fibrous part from it, it is put into a grass bag and pressed so as to obtain all the oil. This is poured into the vessel along with the first-mentioned portion, and when cold is about the consistence of butter.

The nuts hang in bunches from the different boughs, but each nut has its own fibre, about seven or eight inches long, and about the thickness and color of whip-cord. The nut is attached to the fibre in a very singular manner. The end of the fibre is concealed by a thin membrane, about half an inch wide and three-quarters of an inch long. This membrane is attached to the side of the nut, and, when ripe, relinquishes its hold, and the nut falls to the ground, when it is gathered for use. A good-sized healthy tree yields about a bushel of nuts, but the greater number are not so prolific. The trees close to the stream present a more healthy appearance, probably on account of being better watered, and the fire being less powerful close to the stream.

THE CANDLE NUT TREE (_Aleurites triloba_, of Foster) grows in the Polynesian Islands, and is also met with in some parts of Jamaica and the East Indies. In the latter quarter it is known as the Indian Akhrowt. A very superior kind of paint oil is produced from the nut, and the cake, after the expression of the oil, forms an excellent food for cattle, and a useful manure. 31½ gallons of the nut yield ten gallons of oil, which bears a good price in the home markets.

The yearly produce of this oil in the Sandwich Isles, where it is called kukui oil, is about 10,000 gallons. It has been shipped to the markets of Chili, New South Wales, and London, but not as yet with much profit. It realized about £20 per imperial ton in the port of London. In 1843, about 8,620 gallons were shipped from Honolulu, valued at 1s. 8d. per gallon.

In Ceylon the oil is known as kekune oil, and a good deal of it might be obtained there from the district of Badulla. From the trials made it appears that it cannot be used as a drying oil, but will probably answer best as a substitute for rape oil. Samples have been sent to several clothiers, and the nature and quality of the oil renders it most applicable to their purposes.

COLZA (_Brassica oleracea_), a variety of the common cabbage, is much grown in the South of Europe and other parts, for the oil obtained by pressure from its seeds, and which is used for lamps and other purposes. The plant will not thrive on sand or clay, but requires a rich light soil. After the ground has been well ploughed and manured, the seed should be sown in July, in furrows eight or ten inches asunder. The plants are transplanted about October. When ripe the stalks are reaped with a sickle, and the seeds threshed out with a flail. The cake, after the oil is expressed, is an excellent food for cattle.

Like all the oleaginous plants cultivated for their seed, colza greatly impoverishes the soil.

In Peru the caoutchouc is used as a substitute for candles. A roll of it (which is generally about a yard long and three inches in diameter) is cut lengthways into four parts, but before it is lighted the piece is rolled up in a green plantain leaf, to prevent it from melting or taking fire down the sides. The natives of Peru also bruize the beans of a species of wild cacao after they have been well dried, and use the substance instead of tallow in their lamps.

Mr. Dearman, writing from Dacca, to Dr. Spry, Secretary to the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of India, in 1839, says--"I will send you some seeds from a tree, which resemble chestnuts. One of these seeds, after taking off the shell, being stuck on the point of a penknife, and lighted at a candle flame, will burn without the least odor for four or five minutes, giving a light equal to two or three candles. From the flower of the tree (he adds), I am told, is distilled a delightful scent." [I presume this must be the candle-nut tree.]

At the Feejee and Hawaian islands, the seeds of the castor oil plant and of the candle-nut tree (_Aleurites triloba_) are strung together and used for candles. Species of torches are also made from the candle wood in Demerara.

THE CANDLEBERRY MYRTLE (_Myrica cerifera_) abounds in the Bahama Islands. The shrub produces a small green berry, which, like the hog plum, puts out from the trunk and larger limbs. Much patient labor is required in gathering these berries, and from them is obtained a beautiful green wax, which burns very nearly, if not fully, as well as the spermaceti, or composition candles imported from abroad. Not long since Mr. Thos. B. Musgrove, of St. Salvador (or Cat Island), obtained about 80 lbs. of this wax, and made some excellent candles of it. The method of procuring this wax is by boiling the berries in a copper or brass vessel for some time. Iron pots are found to darken and cloud the wax. The vessel after a sufficient time is taken from the fire, and when cool the hardened wax, floating on the top of the water, is skimmed off.

MYRTLE WAX.--According to the experiments of M. Cadet and Dr. Bostock, myrtle wax differs in many respects from bees' wax, Specimens of it assume shades of a yellowish green color. Its smell is also different; myrtle wax, when fresh, emitting a fragrant balsamic odor. It has in part the unctuosity of bees' wax, and somewhat of the brittleness of resin. Its specific gravity is greater, insomuch that it sinks in water, whereas bees' wax floats upon it; and it is not so easily bleached to form white wax. The wax tree of Louisiana contains immense quantities of wax.

Mr. Moodie ("Ten Tears in South Africa") says,--

"I occasionally employed my people, at spare times, in gathering wax berries that grow in great abundance upon small bushes in the sand hills, near the sea, and yield a substance partaking of the nature of wax and tallow, which is mixed with common tallow, and used by the colonists for making candles. The berry is about the size of a pea, and covered with a bluish powder. They are gathered by spreading a skin on the sand, and beating the bush with a stick. When a sufficient quantity of the berries are collected, they are boiled in a great quantity of water, and the wax is skimmed off as fast as it rises; the wax is then poured into flat vessels and allowed to cool, when it becomes hard and brittle, and has a metallic sound when struck. The cakes thus formed are of a deep green color, and are sold at the same price as tallow. The wild pigs devour these berries when they come in their way, and seem very fond of them."

A good specimen of myrtle, or candleberry wax, accompanied by candles made from it in the crude unbleached state in New Brunswick, was shown at the Great Exhibition.

Vegetable wax was also sent from Shanghae, in China; from St. Domingo, in the northern parts of which the plant is indigenous; and a remarkable specimen from Japan. This substance, from its high melting point and other physical characteristics, has of late attracted a good deal of attention; it is admirably suited as a material for the manufacture of candles.

At a meeting of the Central Board, at Cape Town, in March, 1853, the members voted about £300, to employ some 20 or 30 men, in gathering berries from the Downs, and making wax during the winter months, that is, from the beginning of May to the end of September. The wax fetches a good price in the Cape market.

In the annual report of the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society, in May, 1853, a very fine sample of myrtle, or terry wax, grown on the Cape Flats, was exhibited by Mr. Feeny, Superintendent of the Road Plantation, by direction of the Commissioners of the Central Road Board, in different stages of purification, from green to white, as also some candles; and it being conceived by the meeting that this article might ultimately become one of considerable importance for purposes of export, a letter of thanks was addressed to Mr. Feeny; and Nathaniel Day, the constable who assisted him, was presented with the sum of £5, as a remuneration for his trouble in assisting to purify and prepare the wax. On reference to the juror's report on the Great Exhibition, it will be gratifying to find that the berry wax, forwarded by this Society, had attracted peculiar notice, and a prize medal been awarded for it; the following reference is therein made to it: "some fine specimens of myrtle or berry wax, from the Cape of Good Hope, are exhibited by J. Lindenberg, of Worcester. This is an excellent material for the manufacture of candles, when employed in conjunction with other solid fats. The jury awarded a prize medal for these specimens."

Your Committee would suggest every possible attention being drawn to this subject, in which they are gratified to state, the Commissioners of the Central Road Board have evinced a readiness to co-operate, by offering to place at the Society's disposal the sum of £10 10s., "to be given as a premium for the best information respecting the wax berry plant, the soils and situations in which it is found to grow most luxuriantly: the best mode of propagating and cultivating it, of collecting the berries, and extracting and preparing the wax, &c." And from a letter received from the Secretary to the Central Road Board, it appears that the Board had authorised the shipment to England of 2,561 lbs. of the wax, by the _Queen of the South_ in November last, which, from the account sales lately received from Messrs. J.R. Thomson & Co., realised as follows, viz.:--

4 cases weighing nett 856 lbs. à 8d. £28 10 8 4 " 1040 lbs. à 9d. 39 0 0 3 " 745 lbs. à 11d. 34 2 11 3 " 6 lbs. à 11d. 0 5 6 --------------- £101 19 1 Discount 2½ per cent. 2 11 0 --------------- £99 8 1

CHARGES. Warehouse Entry 3s. 6d. Fire Insurance 2s., Ports 2s. 6d £0 8 0 Freight 7 3 3 Primage 0 14 4 Dock Charges 3 9 6 Sale Expenses 0 9 0 Brokerage 1 0 6 --------------- £13 4 7

Commission at 2½ per cent 2 11 0 --------------- Carried forward £16 15 7

Brought forward £15 15 7 --------- £83 12 6 Deduct Bills of Lading, &c. 0 19 6 --------- £82 13 0 Deduct the Board's expenses for gathering and preparing, &c 28 8 7 --------- Leaving a clear profit of £54 4 5

This statement shows that from a plant, which is indigenous to the colony, and might he cultivated to almost any extent, and mostly on soils unavailable for other purposes, an article of great export could be derived at a comparatively small expense; it is with that view that I desire to direct public attention more prominently to it.

In the Museum of the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew, wax is shown as scraped from the trunk of the wax palm (_Ceroxylon andicola_), and candles made from it, as also some made of acorns and closely resembling common tallow. Concrete milk and butter made from the Shea butter tree, and others growing in Para, are also exhibited.

Wax candles have been made from the seeds of _Myrica macrocarpa_ in Colombia, and also from vegetable wax in Java. Some of these are to be seen in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society of London.

CASTOR OIL PLANT.

Castor oil is expressed from the seeds of _Ricinus communis (Palma Christi)_, a plant with petale-palmate leaves, which is found native in Greece, Africa, the South of Spain, and the East Indies, and is cultivated in the West Indies, as well as in North and South America. In the temperate and northern parts of Europe, the plant is an herbaceous annual, of from three to eight feet high; in the more southern parts it becomes scrubby and even attains an height of twenty feet; while in India it is often a tree thirty to forty feet high. The best oil is obtained by expression from the seeds without heat, and is hence called "cold drawn oil." A large quantity of oil may be produced by boiling the seeds, but it is less sweet and more apt to become rancid than that procured by expression.

The _Palma Christi_ grows continuously for about four years, and becomes a large tree in constant bearing, ripening its rich clusters of beans in such profusion, that 100 bushels may be obtained annually from an acre, and their product of oil two gallons per bushel.

There are several species, all of which yield oil of an equally good quality. A shrubby variety is common in South Australia, and other parts of New Holland. _Ricinus lividus_ is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a hardy plant, of the easiest culture, and will thrive in almost any soil, whether in the burning plains or the coldest part of the mountains. The seed should be planted in the tropics in September, singly, and at the distance of 10 or twelve feet apart. They will bear the first season, and continue to yield for years. When the seed-pods become brown, they are in a fit state to pluck. It is often grown in the East intermixed with other crops. The primitive mode of obtaining the oil is to separate the seeds from the husks, and bruise them by tying them up in a grass mat. In this state they are put into a boiler amongst water, and boiled until all the oil is separated, which floats at the top, and the refuse sinks to the bottom; it is then skimmed off, and put away for use. The purest oil is obtained, as before-mentioned, by crushing the seeds (which are sewed up in horsehair bags), by the action of heavy iron beaters. The oil, as it oozes out, is caught in troughs, and conveyed to receivers, whence it is bottled for use.

Castor oil is used for lamps in the East Indies, and the Chinese have some mode of depriving it of its medicinal properties, so as to render it suitable for culinary purposes.

That which we import from the East Indies comes from Bombay and Calcutta, and is obtained at a very low price. It is exceedingly pure, both in color and taste.

In the West Indies the shrub grows about six feet high. The stalks are jointed, and the branches covered with leaves about eighteen inches in circumference, forming eight or ten sharp-pointed divisions, of a bluish green color, spreading out in different directions. The flowers contain yellow stamina; the seed is enclosed in a triangular husk, of a dark brown color, and covered with a light fur, of the same color as the husk. When the capsule is thoroughly ripened by the sun, it bursts, and expels the seeds, which are usually three in number.

In Jamaica this plant is of such speedy growth, that in one year it arrives at maturity, and I have known it to attain to the height of twenty feet. A gallon of the seed yields by expression about two pounds of oil.

The wholesale price in Liverpool, in October, 1853, was 3d. to 5d. per lb.

It is brought over from the East Indies in small tin cases, soldered together and packed in boxes, weighing about 2 cwt. each.

In Ceylon castor oil is obtained from two varieties of the plant, the white and the red.

The native mode of preparing the oil is by roasting the seed; this imparts an acridity to the oil, which is objectionable. By attending to the following directions, the oil may be prepared in the purest and best form. The modes of preparation are--1. By boiling in water. 2. By expression. 3. Extraction by alcohol. In the first the seeds are slightly roasted to coagulate the albumen, cleaned of the integuments, bruised in a mortar, and the paste boiled in pure water. The oil which rises on the surface is removed, and treated with an additional quantity of fresh water; 10,000 parts of clean seed give by this process (in Jamaica) 3,250 of oil, of good quality, though amber-colored. 2. Expression is the simplest and most usually adopted process; the cleaned kernels are well bruised, placed in cloth bags, and compressed in a powerful lever and screw press. A thick oil is obtained, which must be filtered through cloth and paper to separate the mucilage. In Bengal the manufacturers boil the oil water, which coagulates some albumen, and they subsequently filter through cloth, charcoal, and paper. 3. The extraction by alcohol is practised by some druggists. Each pound of paste is triturated with four pounds of alcohol, specific gravity 8.350, and the mixture subjected to pressure. The oil dissolved by the alcohol escapes very freely: one half is recovered by the distillation of the spirit, the residue of the distillation is boiled in a large quantity of water. The oil separates and is removed, and gently heated to expel any adherent moisture; then filtered at the temperature of 90 deg. Fahrenheit; 1,000 parts of the paste have by this process given 625 of colorless and exceedingly sweet oil.

The cultivation of the _Palma christi_, and the manufacture of castor oil, is extensively carried on in some parts of the United States, and continues on the increase. A single firm at St. Louis has worked up 18,500 bushels of beans in four months, producing 17,750 gallons of oil, and it is stated that 800 barrels have been sold, at 50 dollars per barrel. The oil may be prepared for burning, for machinery, soap, &c., and is also convertible into stearine. It is more soluble in alcohol than lard-oil.

American castor oil is imported for the most part from New York and New Orleans, but some comes from our own possessions in North America. In the United States, according to the "American Dispensatory," the cleansed seeds are gently heated in a shallow iron reservoir, to render the oil liquid for easy expression, and then compressed in a powerful screw press, by which a whitish oily liquid is obtained, which is boiled with water in clean iron boilers, and the impurities skimmed off as they rise to the surface. The water dissolves the mucilage and starch, and the heat coagulates the albumen, which forms a whitish layer between the oil and water. The clear oil is now removed, and boiled with a minute portion of water until aqueous vapors cease to arise: by this process an acrid volatile matter is got rid of. The oil is put into barrels, and in this way is sent into the market. American oil has the reputation of being adulterated with olive oil. Good seeds yield about 25 per cent. of oil. A large proportion of the drug consumed in the eastern section of the Union is derived by way of New Orleans from Illinois and the neighbouring States, where it is so abundant that it is sometimes used for burning in lamps.

In Jamaica the bruised seeds are boiled with water in an iron pot, and the liquid kept constantly stirred. The oil which separates swims on the top, mixed with a white froth, and is skimmed off. The skimmings are heated in a small iron pot, and strained through a cloth. When cold it is put in jars or bottles for use.

Castor oil imported. Retained. lbs. lbs. 1826 263,382 453,072 1831 393,191 327,940 1836 981,585 809,559 1841 871,136 732,720 1846 1,477,168 -- 1849 1,084,272 -- 1850 3,495,632 --

The imports of castor oil come chiefly from the East India Company's possessions, and were as follows, nearly all being retained for home consumption:--

lbs. 1830 490,558 1831 343,373 1832 257,386 1833 316,779 1834 685,457 1835 1,107,115 1836 972,552 1837 957,164 1838 837,143 1839 916,370 1840 1,190,173 1841 869,947 1842 490,156 1843 717,696

In 1841, 12,406 Indian maunds of castor oil were shipped from Calcutta alone, and 7,906 ditto in 1842.

In 1842, 8 cases were shipped from Ceylon, 10 in 1843, 24 in 1844, and 14 in 1845.

1,439 barrels were shipped from New Orleans in 1847. The quantity brought down to that city from the interior was 1,394 barrels in 1848, and 1,337 barrels in 1849.

Within the last year or two, an attempt has been made to introduce the cake obtained in expressing the seeds of the castor oil plant as a manure, which is deserving attention, both because it is in itself likely to prove a serviceable addition to the list of fertilizers which may be advantageously employed, and because it may lead to the use of similar substances, which are at present neglected, or thrown aside as refuse.

The castor oil seed resembles in chemical composition the other oily seeds. It consists of a mixture of mucilaginous, albuminous, and oily matters; and the former two of these are identical in constitution and general properties with the substances found in linseed and rape cake, while the oil is principally distinguished by its purgative properties. The cake obtained is in the form of ordinary oil-cake, but is at once distinguished from it by its color, and by the large fragments of the husk of the seeds which it contains. It is also much, softer, and may be easily broken down with the hand. I have analysed two samples of castor cake, stated to have been obtained by different processes; and though I have not been informed of the exact nature of these processes, I infer, from the large quantity of oil, that one must have been cold-drawn. The first of the following analyses is that of the sample which I believe the cold-drawn. It is the most complete of the two, and contains a determination of the amount of oil. In the other analysis this was not done, but there was no doubt on my mind that its quantity was much smaller.

No. 1. No. 2. Water 8.32 16.31 Oil 24.32 -- Nitrogen 3.05 3.35 Ash 7.22 4.95

The ash contains-- Siliccous matters 1.96 -- Phosphates 3.36 2.27 Excess of phosphoric acid 0.64 --

In order to give a proper idea of the value of this substance as a manure, I shall quote here, for comparison sake, the average composition of rape cake, as deduced from the analyses contained in the Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland:--

Water 10.68 Oil 11.10 Nitrogen 4.63 Ash 7.79 The ash contains-- Siliccous matters 1.18 Phosphates 3.87 Excess of phosphoric acid 0.39

It will be at once seen that there is a close general resemblance between these two substances, although there is no doubt that the castor cake is inferior to rape cake; still I believe that this inferiority is fully counterbalanced by the difference in price, which is such that, compared with rape cake, the castor cake is really a cheap manure. There is only one of its constituents which it contains in larger quantity, and that is the oil. No weight is, however, to be attached to the quantity of oil in a manure. In a substance to be used as food, it is of very high importance; but so far as we at present know, its value as manure is extremely problematical. Whale, seal, and other coarse oils have been used as manures, and by some few observers benefits have been derived from their application, but the general experience has not been favorable to their use, nor should we chemically be induced to expect any beneficial effect from them. We have every reason to believe that the oils which are found in plants are produced there as the results of certain processes which are proceeding within the plant, and there is no evidence to show that any part of it is ever absorbed in the state of oil by the roots when they are presented to them. On the other hand, the oils are extremely inert substances, and undergo chemical changes very slowly; so that there is no likelihood of their being converted into carbonic acid, or any other substance which may be useful to the plant; and as they contain no nitrogen, and consist only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they can yield only those elements of which the plant can easily obtain an unlimited supply. I can conceive cases in which the oil might possibly produce some mechanical effect on the soil, but none in which it could act as a manure, in the proper sense of the term.

KANARI on.--Mr. Crawfurd, in his "History of the Indian Archipelago," speaks most favorably of an oil obtained from the "Kanari," a tree which, he says, is a native of the same country as the sago palm, and is not found to the westward, though it has been introduced to Celebes and Java. I have not been able to distinguish its botanical name; but Mr. Crawfurd describes it as a large handsome tree, and one of the most useful productions of the Archipelago. It bears a nut of an oblong shape, nearly the size of a walnut, the kernel of which is as delicate as that of a filbert, and abounds with oil. The nuts are either smoked and dried for use, or the oil is expressed from them in their recent state. It is used for all culinary purposes, and is purer and more palatable than that of the coco-nut. The kernels, mixed up with a little sago meal, are made into cakes and eaten as bread.

THE COCO-NUT PALM.

This palm (_Cocos nucifera_) is one of the most useful of the extensive family to which it belongs, supplying food, clothing, materials for houses, utensils of various kinds, rope and oil; and some of its products, particularly the two last, form important articles of commerce. An old writer, in a curious discourse on palm trees, read before the Royal Society, in 1688, says, "The coco nut palm is alone sufficient to build, rig, and freight a ship with bread, wine, water, oil, vinegar, sugar, and other commodities. I have sailed (he adds) in vessels where the bottom and the whole cargo hath been from the munificence of this palm tree. I will take upon me to make good what I have asserted." And then he proceeds to describe and enumerate each product. Another recent popular writer speaks in eloquent terms of the estimation in which it is held, and the various uses to which it is applied.

"Its very aspect is imposing. Asserting its supremacy by an erect and lofty bearing, it may be said to compare with other trees, as man with inferior creatures. The blessings it confers are incalculable. Year after year the islander reposes beneath its shade, both eating and drinking of its fruit; he thatches his hut with its boughs, and weaves them into baskets to carry his food; he cools himself with a fan plaited from the young leaflets, and shields his head from the sun by a bonnet of the leaves; sometimes he clothes himself with the cloth-like substance which wraps round the base of the stalks, whose elastic rods, strung with filberts, are used as a taper. The larger nuts, thinned and polished, furnish him with a beautiful goblet; the smaller ones with bowls for his pipes; the dry husks kindle his fires; their fibres are twisted into fishing-lines and cords for his canoes. He heals his wounds with a balsam compounded from the juice of the nut; and with the oil extracted from its pulp embalms the bodies of the dead. The noble trunk itself is far from being valueless. Sawn into posts, it upholds the islander's dwelling; converted into charcoal, it cooks his food; and, supported on blocks of stones, rails in his lands. He impels his canoe through the water with a paddle of the wood, and goes to battle with clubs and spears of the same hard material. In Pagan Tahiti, a coco-nut branch was the symbol of regal authority. Laid upon the sacrifice in the temple, it made the offering sacred; and with it the priests chastised and put to flight the evil spirits which assailed them. The supreme majesty of Oro, the great god of their mythology, was declared in the coco-nut log from which his image was rudely carved. Upon one of the Tonga Islands there stands a living tree, revered itself as a deity. Even upon the Sandwich Islands the coco palm retains all its ancient reputation; the people there having thought of adopting it as the national emblem."

Besides the foregoing and following uses, I am aware of several scents and spirituous liquors being procured from the flowers and pulp of the coco-nut.

This palm tree is one of the finest objects in nature. Its stem is tall and slender, without a branch; and at the top are seen from ten to two hundred coco-nuts, each as large as a man's head: over these are the graceful plumes, with their green gloss, and beautiful fronds of the nodding leaves. Nothing can exceed the graceful majesty of these intertropical fruit trees, except the various useful purposes to which the tree, the leaf, and the nut are applied by the natives.

1. The stem is used for--Bridges, posts, beams, rafters, paling, ramparts, loop-holes, walking sticks, water butts, bags (the upper cuticle), sieves in use for arrowroot.

2. The coco-nut is used for--milk, a delicious drink; meat from the scraped nut, for various kinds of food; jelly, _kora_, pulp, nut, oil, excellent and various food for man, beast, and fowl.

The shell for vessels to drink out of, water pitchers, lamps, funnels, fuel, _panga_ (for a game).

The fibre for sinnet, various cordage, bed stuffing, thread for tying combs, scrubbing-brushes, girdle (ornamental), whisk for flies, medicines, various and useful.

3. The leaf is used for--Thatch for houses, lining for houses, _takapau_ (mats), baskets (fancy and plain), fans, _palalafa_ (for sham fights), combs (very various), bedding (white fibre), _tafi_ (brooms), _Kubatse_ (used in printing), _mama_ (candles), screen for bedroom, waiter's tray.

Here are no less than forty-three uses of which we know something; and the natives know of others to which they can apply this single instance of the bounty of the God of nature. For house and clothes, for food and medicine, the coco-nut palm is their sheet anchor, as well as their ornament and amusement, who dwell in the torrid zone.

This fine palm, which always forms a prominent feature in tropical scenery, is a native of Southern Asia. It is spread by cultivation through almost all the intertropical regions of the Old and New Worlds; but it is cultivated nowhere so abundantly as in the Island of Ceylon, and those of Sumatra, Java, &c. On the shores of the Red Sea it advances to Mokha, according to Niebuhr; but it does not succeed in Egypt. It is cultivated in the lower and southern portions of the Asiatic Continent, as on the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, and around Calcutta. In the island of Ceylon, where the fruit of this tree forms one of the principal aliments of the natives, the nuts are produced in such quantities that in one year about three millions were exported, besides the manufactured produce in oil, &c. According to Marshall it requires a mean temperature of 72 deg. Its northern limit, therefore, is nearly the same as the southern limit of our cereals.

Rumphius enumerates thirteen varieties of this palm, but many of these have now been placed under other genera, and Lindley resolves them into three species--_C. nucifera_, the most generally diffused species, a native of the East Indies; and _C. flexuosa_ and _plumosa_, natives of Brazil. The trunk, which is supported by numerous, small fibrous roots, rises gracefully, with a slight inclination, from forty to sixty feet in height; it is cylindrical, of middling size, marked from the root upwards with unequal circles or rings, and is crowned by a graceful head of large leaves. The terminal bud of this palm, as well as that of the cabbage palm (_Euterpe montana_), is used as a culinary vegetable. The wood of the tree is known by the name of porcupine wood. It is light and spongy, and, therefore, cannot be advantageously employed in the construction of ships or solid edifices, though it is used in building huts; vessels made of it are fragile and of little duration. Its fruit, at different seasons, is in much request; when young, it is filled with a clear, somewhat sweet, and cooling fluid, which is equally refreshing to the native and the traveller. When the nut becomes old, or attains its full maturity, the fluid disappears, and the hollow is filled by a sort of almond, which is the germinating organ. This pulp or kernel, when cut in pieces and dried in the sun, is called copperah, and is eaten by the Malays, Coolies, and other natives, and from it a valuable species of oil is expressed, which is in great demand for a variety of purposes. The refuse oil cake is called Poonae, and forms an excellent manure.

A calcareous concretion is sometimes found in the centre of the nut, to which peculiar virtues have been attributed.

Along the Gulf of Cariaco there are many large coco walks. In moist and fertile ground it begins to bear abundantly the fourth year; but in dry soils it does not produce fruit until the tenth. Its duration does not generally exceed 80 or 100 years, at which period its mean height is about 80 feet. Throughout this coast a coco tree supplies annually about 100 nuts, which yield eight flascos of oil. The flasco is sold for about 1s. 4d. A great quantity is made at Cumana, and Humboldt frequently witnessed the arrival there of canoes containing 3,000 nuts.

Throughout the South Sea Islands, coco-nut palms abound, and oil may be obtained in various places. Some of the uninhabited islands are covered with dense groves, and the ungathered nuts, which have fallen year after year, lie upon the ground in incredible quantities. Two or three men, provided with the necessary apparatus for pressing out the oil, will, in the course of a week or two, obtain enough to load one of the large sea canoes. Coco nut oil is now manufactured in different parts of the South Seas, and forms no small part of the traffic carried on with trading vessels. A considerable quantity is annually exported from the Society Islands to Sydney. They bottle it up in large bamboos, six or eight feet long, and these form part of the circulating medium of Tahiti. The natives use the bruised fronds of _Polypodium crassifolium_ to perfume this oil. _Evodia triphylla_, a favorite evergreen plant with the natives of the Polynesian Islands, is also used for this purpose.

The most favorable situation for the growth of the coco palm is the ground near the sea-coast, and if the roots reach the mud or salt water, they thrive all the better for it. The coco-nut walks are the real estates of India, as the vineyards and olive groves are of Europe. I have seen these palms growing well in inland situations, remote from the sea, but always on plains, never upon hills or very exposed situations, where they do not arrive to maturity, wanting shelter, and being shaken too violently by the wind. The stems being tall and slight, and the whole weight of leaves and fruit at the head, they may not unaptly be compared to the mast of a ship with round top and topmast without shrouds to support it. Ashes and fish are good manures for it.

The coco-nut is essentially a maritime plant, and is always one of the first to make its appearance on coral and other new islands in tropical seas, the nut being floated to them, and rather benefiting than otherwise by its immersion in the salt water. Silex and soda are the two principal salts which the coco-nut abstracts from the soil, and hence, where these do not exist in great abundance, the tree does not thrive well. I do not know myself what is the practice in Ceylon, but in Brazil, Dr. Gardner tells me, salt is very generally applied to the coco-nut when planted. Far in the interior, he states, he has seen as much as half a bushel applied to a single tree, and that too when it cost about 2s. a pound, from the great distance it had to be brought. That the application, therefore, of salt, of seaweed, and saline mud, does more than supply soda, must be very evident, if we only recollect how difficult it is to dry any part of our dress that has been soaked in salt water, and what effect damp weather has on table salt, which, in a balance, has often been made use of as an hydrometer. Moisture is always attracted by salt, and the more sea mud and other such little matters that coco-nut planters can apply round the roots of their trees, there will most assuredly be the less occasion for watering them in the dry season. Sea weed contains but very little fibrous matter, being chiefly composed of mucilage and water; and the experiments of Sir J. Pringle and Mr. C. W. Johnson, prove that salt in small quantities assists the decomposition of both animal and vegetable substances. Decomposed poonac, or oil-cake, is one of the best manures that can be applied, as it returns to the soil the component parts of which it has beau deprived to form the fruit.

The primary direction of the planter's industry will be to the establishment of a nursery of young plants. In Ceylon, for this purpose, the nuts are placed in squares of 400, covered with one inch of sand, or salt mud; are watered daily till the young shoots appear, and are planted out after the rains in September. Sand and salt mud are to be found on almost all the coasts where it would be desirable to plant nuts, and if they are put into the ground at the commencement of the rainy season, artificial watering will scarcely be necessary. Any period, when there are showers, would answer for transplanting them. I should say from the middle to the end of January would be best, when they are placed in the nursery in October and November; and in October when they are planted in June.

It is said that they should be allowed from 20 to 30 feet space apart, but I will calculate their return when planted 27 feet apart every way. This will give 58 coco-nut trees per acre. If manured, for the first two years, with seaweed and salt mud, and supplied with water in dry weather, there need be no loss, and the plants will thrive the better. The land must be kept clear of weeds till the plants are matured, in order to permit them abundance of air and light. In five years, when well cared for, the flower may be expected, but the plants will not be in full bearing before the seventh or eighth year. From 50 to 80 nuts are the annual crop of a tree; but I will calculate at the lowest rate. One hundred nuts will yield, when the oil is properly expressed, at least two gallons and a half. I shall not take into account the making of jaggery sugar and toddy, or spirit from the sap, as I do not consider that the manufacture would be remunerative; and it must be attended with much trouble, besides requiring a great deal of care and some skill.

Take the case now of a plantation of 100 acres in extent. This would give us 5,800 trees, which, at 50 nuts per tree, 290,000 nuts, at 2½ gallons of oil per hundred, would yield 7,250 gallons of oil, the value of which any person may calculate, but which, at the low rate of 3s. over charges, would furnish, as the gross plantation return in oil, a sum of £1,087 10s. sterling. If the cultivator, instead of making his produce into oil, were to sell it in its natural state, his gross return in the West Indies would be nearly £600 sterling, at the rate of ten dollars per thousand.

Either of these sums would be a handsome return from 100 acres of any land, _requiring no cultivation or care whatever, after the fourth year, and yielding_ the same amount for upwards of half a century! But this is not all. An outlay of a few pounds will secure other advantages, and ought to enable the owner of a coco-nut plantation to turn his gross receipts for oil into nett profits. The coir made from the husk of the nut is calculated to realise nearly one-fourth of the proceeds of the oil, but if we put it down at one-fifth, we shall have, in addition to the value of the oil, £217 10s., thus making a total of £1,305 sterling. If we obtained 60 nuts from each tree, the return would be £1,566 sterling, and if 75, £1,957 8s. sterling; and this from 100 acres of sea side sand! But even _this_ does not exhibit the whole return of this article of culture. Each nut may be calculated to give a quarter of a pound of poonac, or oil-cake, being the refuse after expression, fit for feeding all kinds of stock, which may be estimated as worth £10 per ton. We must, therefore, add on this account to our first calculation, the sum of say £325; to the second, £390; and to the third, £485. This would give, in round numbers, the entire returns of the 100 acres planted:--At 50 nuts per tree, £1,630; at 60 ditto, £1,957; at 75, ditto, £2,446.

These are striking results, and may appear exaggerated; but I will, to show how very moderate has been my calculation, give two returns, with which I have been favored from Ceylon. These, it will be seen, differ materially, but the latter I can rely on as a practical result, from a plantation in Jaffna, the peninsula of the northern portion of the island. After estimating the expense of establishing the plantation, the first writer sets down his return thus:--

"The produce, calculating 90 trees to an acre, and 75 nuts to a tree, sold at £2 per 1,000, would yield 675,000 nuts, worth £1,350; or if converted into oil, calculating 30 to give one gallon, it would produce 22,500 gallons, or about 90 tons from 100 acres."

From Jaffna, the following is an abridged estimate of return of 100 acres in full bearing:--"At 27 feet apart, 58 trees per acre, 5,800 trees, at 60 nuts per tree, 3,480 nuts per acre, 100 acres, 348,000 nuts, at 40 nuts per imperial gallon, 8,700 gallons of oil, at 2s. per gallon, netted £8 14s. per acre. The poonac left will pay the expense of making the oil. If shipped to England, at the present time (close of 1848), the selling price there being 55s. per cwt., measuring 12 imperial gallons, say, 4s. 7d. per gallon, and the cost and charges of sending it home and selling it being 23s., it would leave 3s. per gallon, or £13 per acre." This sum is _nett proceeds_.

It will be seen by the above, that I have been extremely moderate in my computation of the return which may be anticipated, for there is no doubt that planters can, in favorable localities, on the coasts of most of our colonies, cultivate this palm with as much success as attends its culture in Ceylon. By the first of the calculations I have cited from, that island, the gross return appears thus:--

22,500 gallons at 4s. 7d £5,156 5 Coir--one-fifth of value 1,031 4 Cake from 675,000 nuts, say ¼ lb. each, 75 tons at £10 750 0 ----------- Total gross return from 100 acres 6,937 9

According to the other calculation, the return will stand thus:--

8,700 gallons at 4s. 7d £1,993 15 Coir 398 15 Cake from 348,000 nuts, 34 tons 340 0 ---------- Total gross return from 100 acres 2,732 10

It will be seen that in my calculation I have set down the return lower than it is rendered in the less favorable statement from Ceylon by a sum of upwards of £1,000 sterling. But even supposing _one-half_ of the amount of the lower Ceylon estimate could be realised, we should have a return of £1,366 5s. sterling from 100 acres of sea side sand.

I now proceed to point out the very small outlay required to obtain these results. In places where the coco-nut would be grown, there is generally no heavy woodland requiring great labor with axe and fire, and consequently one able-bodied man should get through the felling and clearing away bush, on an acre of the land to be prepared for the plant, in a short period,--say, on an average, four days. I will calculate, that for wages and rations, each hand employed will cost sixteen dollars per month, an outside price. Let us then say that ten laborers shall be at work. They fell two acres and a half per diem. In one month there should be nearly 70 acres felled; but I will say that the 100 acres will occupy them two months in felling and stacking the wood. During this period our planter may be considered to have had the aid of two more hands, engaged in the preparation, planting out, and care of the nursery of young plants. Two more hands must also be occupied in the construction of tanks and sheds, except where there is a stream of fresh water. For grubbing up the roots, if not very large size, the assistance of about a dozen cattle would be required, a labor which would be performed by means of the common grubbing machine, an implement in the form of a claw. We will consider that all hands are occupied another month in this manner, and in removing and re-stacking the wood, and turning up the land. The planting out would require but little time and labor. At the end of three months then, one-half of the hands, besides those engaged in the nursery and tanks, might be discharged. We must make an allowance for provision for the fodder of the cattle. Six thousand nuts would be required.

Let us now see what are the planter's expenses; making ample allowance on account of each item:--

dollars. 6,000 picked nuts at 10 dollars per 1,000 60 Hire and rations of 12 hands, at 16 dollars for 3 months 676 Two hands at nursery, for same period 96 Purchase of 12 cattle at 20 dollars 240 Foddering cattle one month 32 Hire of two extra hands, making tanks and sheds 3 months 96 Hire of 6 hands for 9 months 864 Tools (including plough) 100 ----- Total 2,064

About £415 sterling for expenses for the first year.

Where fencing is required, we must add for making about three miles of fence, say £30 sterling. Two carts would also have to be provided, which will cost, say £20 more. In all we may compute the first year's expenditure at £460 sterling.

Second year's expenditure: ploughing land, or hoeing it twice, watering plants, manuring, repairing fences, and supplying plants, say hire of eight men for six months, about £150 sterling. The same for the third.

Fourth year's expenditure: hire of six hands for three months, cleaning land, and manuring plants, about £60 sterling, and the like, at the cultivator's option, for the fifth year.

SUMMARY OF EXPENSES. £ First year 460 Second year 150 Third year 150 Fourth year 60 Fifth year 60 --- Total expenditure 880 Add for buildings 80

And we have a grand total of £960 sterling expended; for what purpose? To secure a net income of _at least_ £1,200 sterling per annum for at least 50 years!

In the first year's expenses many items might be cut down, but I leave the calculation as one to be considered by a party with small capital, intending to establish a coco-nut plantation. I have allowed nothing for the cost of land, as it is impossible to compute that. In general it would cost next to the nothing mentioned. I have, by careful calculation, arrived at the conclusion that by combining the cultivation of provisions with the gradual but steadily progressive establishment of a coco-nut plantation, any man of energy and perseverance may, with the aid of but four hands, clear, fence, and plant, in a favorable locality, 50 acres of coco-nuts within the year, yet have a balance in his pocket at its close. Such a person would, ere doing anything beyond putting in his nursery plants, establish a provision ground, of considerable extent, for the purpose of supplying himself and his laborers with bread kind, and vegetables, and of enabling him, by the disposal of the surplus produce in the market, to raise a sufficient sum of money to furnish the wages and rations of the men. I need not enter into a calculation to show how this could be done, as every one must be aware of an easy method of following out so simple a suggestion. Of course he would have to bear in mind that the provision ground is of secondary importance, and limit his exertions in that line accordingly; devoting to the coco-nut plantation the strictest daily attention.

The cultivation of this tree deserves much more attention than has hitherto been paid to it, particularly in the East, where it not only forms part of the daily food of all classes of the community, but is an exportable article to neighbouring regions, the oil which it yields having of late years become in great demand in England, for the manufacture of composite candles and soap, and there is no doubt of its continually extended application to such purposes. Supposing, nevertheless, the result of an increased cultivation of the coco-nut should be such as to cause a fall in price, and sink the nett return in England to 2s. per gallon; this being clear profit, would make this kind of plantation a safe and sure investment for both capital and labor in the Colonies.

A kind of sugar made from the sap is called "jaggery," and the sap when fermented forms an intoxicating beverage known as toddy. The fibrous outer covering, or husk of the nut, when macerated and prepared, is termed "coir," and is spun into yarn and rope. It is extensively shipped from Ceylon, in coils of rope, bundles of yarn, and pieces of junk.

The coco-nut is usually planted as follows:--Selecting a suitable place, you drop into the ground a fully ripe nut, and leave it. In a few days a thin lance-like shoot forces itself through a minute hole in the shell, pierces the husk, and soon unfolds three pale green leaves in the air; while, originating in the same soft white sponge which now completely fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots pushing away the stoppers which close two holes in an opposite direction, penetrate the shell, and strike vertically into the ground. A day or two more, and the shell and husk, which in the last and germinating stage of the nut are so hard that a knife will scarcely make any impression, spontaneously burst by some force within; and, henceforth, the hardy young plant thrives apace, and needing no culture, pruning, or attention of any sort, rapidly arrives at maturity. In four or five years it bears; in twice as many more it begins to lift its head among the groves, where, waxing strong, it flourishes for near a century. Thus, as some voyager has said, the man who but drops one of these nuts into the ground, may be said to confer a greater and more certain benefit upon himself and posterity, than many a life's toil in less genial climes. The fruitfulness of the tree is remarkable. As long as it lives it bears, and without intermission. Two hundred nuts, besides innumerable white blossoms of others, may be seen upon it at one time; and though a whole year is required to bring any one of them to the germinating point, no two, perhaps, are at one time in precisely the same stage of growth.

Coco-nuts form a considerable article of export from many of the British colonies: 375,770 were exported from Honduras in 1844, and 254,000 in 1845; 105,107 were shipped from Demerara, in 1845; 3,500,000 from Ceylon in 1847.

They are very abundant on the Maldive Islands, Siam, and on several parts of the coast of Brazil. Humboldt states, that on the south shores of the Gulf of Cariaco, nothing is to be seen but plantations of coco-nut trees, some of them containing nine or ten thousand trees.

Ceylon is one of the localities where the greatest progress has been made in this species of culture.

In 1832 several Europeans settled at Batticaloa, expressly for the purpose of cultivating this palm to a large extent. They planted cotton bushes between the young trees, which were found to ripen well, and nurse and shade them.

There are now an immense number of coco-nut topes, or walks, on the coasts of the island, and about 20,000 acres of land are under cultivation with this tree.

The value of this product to Ceylon, may be estimated by the following return of its exports in 1847, besides the local consumption:--

£ Declared value of nuts 5,485 Ditto of Coir 10,318 Kernels, or Copperah 6,503 Shells 210 Oil 19,142 Arrack 11,657 ------- Total £53,315

The annually increasing consumption of the nuts holds out a great inducement to the native proprietors to reclaim all their hitherto unproductive land. The fruit commands a high price in the island, (ranging from ¾d. to 3d. per nut), owing to the constant demand for it as an article of food, by both Singhalese and Malabars; there is not so much, therefore, now converted into copperah for oil making. In the maritime provinces of the island, it has been estimated that the quantity of nuts used in each family, say of five persons, amounts to 100 nuts per month, or 1,000 per annum. It needs only a reduction in the cost of transit, to extend the consumption in the interior of the island to an almost unlimited extent.

In 1842, Ceylon exported but 550 nuts, while in 1847 she shipped off to other quarters three millions and a half of nuts, valued at £5,500. The average value of the nuts exported may be set down at £7,000.

In Cochin China the cultivation of the coco-nut tree is much attended to, and they export a large quantity of oil. At Malacca and Pinang it shares attention with the more profitable spices. Since the palm has been acclimatised in Bourbon, about 20,000 kilogrammes of oil have been produced annually. About 8,000 piculs of oil are exported annually from Java.

A correspondent, under date December, 1849, has furnished me with the following particulars of coco-nut planting in Jaffna, the northern district of Ceylon, in which the culture has only recently been carried on; the facts and figures are interesting:--

The Karandhai estate, the property of the late Mr. J. Byles, was sold last month for £2,400, part of it bearing. It consisted of 303 acres, of which 228 are planted with coco nuts--about half the trees six years old.

The Victoria estate, in extent 170 acres, planted and part in bearing, and about seventy acres of jungle, was also sold for £1,500. Mr. G. Dalrymple was the purchaser of the latter, and Mr. Davidson of the former. Both lots were cheap. The properties are among the best in the district, the latter, especially, is a beautiful estate.

About two-thirds of the estates planted are looking well, and the remainder but indifferently, in fact, ought never to have been planted, and I believe will never give any return. About 7,000 acres are now under cultivation here, and clearing is still going on. Estates can now be put in for about one half what they cost formerly, viz., about £4 or £5 per acre, and can be kept in order, inclusive of all charges, for about 15s. to 20s. per acre for the first two years, and about half that afterwards. Estates, in some instances, have been put in for about £3 per acre.

Elephants have almost disappeared; now and then a stray one comes. Figs are still a great nuisance, but the greatest anxiety among planters is regarding beetles. You will be sorry to hear that the first year the trees showed fruit or flower, one-tenth of them were destroyed by the beetle; the insects still go on destroying, and hardly a tree attacked ever recovers.

This is a very serious evil, and upon which the fortunes of all those involved in coco-nut planting depend. The trees come into bearing but very slowly, and I consider no estate will give any return over its current expenses under twelve years. It takes twelve months from the formation of the flower, till the fruit ripens. On an estate, perhaps one of the oldest and best in this district, out of 120 acres,