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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1887. 



it in carts and despatches it to meet a demand, at present 

 in its infancy, either on the Railway or in some of 

 the towns with a considerable European population. 

 Natives are rapidly acquiring a taste for potatos, 

 and as soon as they are cheap enough to become an 

 article of daily consumption in every Hindu house- 

 hold the cultivation will reach proportions of great 

 magnitude. There are hundreds of square miles of 

 arable land that the hill tribes cannot profitably 

 cultivate with their ordinary grains, but wliich put 

 under this vegetable would maintain their owners 

 in comfort. A rich soil is not indispensable, though 

 liberal-treatment with manure, other circumstances 

 being favorable, would be well rewarded. The Eng- 

 lish cultivator raises from three to four times the 

 crop that the native in this country does, but the 

 latter is well satisfied with present results, and so 

 long as high prices are maintained he will not be 

 disposed to tax the soil to its utmost limit of pro- 

 ductiveness. Natives appreciate the potato as an 

 article of food, but its prohibitive price interferes 

 to prevent increase of consumption. A rupee a maund 

 places it beyond the reach of all but the well-to-do. 

 Should the price fall to a third of this figure, at 

 which it will yet pay the grower well, a stimulus 

 to production will be given that will treble and 

 quadruple the extent of land brought under contri- 

 bution. — South of India Observer. 



KAURI RESIN. 



The following paper was read by Mr. Gellatly, 

 Curator of the Edinburgh ]Mu.seum of Science, on 

 January 13, at the last meeting of the Edinburgh 

 Botanical Society : — 



The Dammara australis which yields these Kauri 

 resin is the largest of the New Zealand trees. It is 

 confiaed to the northern portion of the North Island, 

 and grows on all soils up to the height of 1500 feet, 

 but is said to prefer the dry and sterile clays of the 

 hilly districts. It reaches a height varying from 100 

 to 140 feet — some few growing as high as 170 feet 

 or rather more. The tree is usually bare of branches 

 for about 50 feet from the ground. A trunk has 

 been occasionally but rarely seen as much as 35 feet 

 in circumference. Laslett fiaw two exceptionally large 

 trees- — one at Wangaroa (a little to the northward of 

 the Bay of Islands), that measured 48 feet in circum- 

 ference at three feet from the ground, and another 

 near Mercury Bay, which was 72 feet in circumference 

 and 80 feet to the branches. As the tree, which is 

 of slow growth, does not add more than an inch to 

 its diameter in six or seven years, Mr. Laslett com- 

 puted the ages of these two giants to be respectively 

 about 1,300 and 2,000 years. 



The timber i* so useful that it is employed in the 

 construction of most of the houses and for nearly all 

 the boats in the North Island. There is a little diff- 

 erence of opinion about its quality. Mr. Laslett says 

 that the timber is generally sound and free from 

 defects common to many other descriptions of wood ; 

 that it shrinks very little and stands well after season- 

 ing. Further, that it is remarkably solid, and may 

 be considered one of the best woods for working that 

 the carpenter can take in hand. Some of the colon- 

 ists, however, state that it has a strong tendency 

 to shrink and contract in length as well as in breadth, 

 and that it often does this when freshly planed, no 

 matter how well it is seasoned. It seems, however, 

 to be unrivalled for the masts and spars of ships, 

 possessing the requisite dimensions, lightness, elasticity 

 and strength ; and being more durable than any other 

 Pine. Its specific gravity averages about '530, some- 

 what less than the density of the timber of Pinus 

 sylvestris brought from the Baltic ports. 



The so-called Kauri gum — really a resin — exudes 

 spontaneously from every part of the tree, and hardens 

 upon the surface by exposure to the air, immen.so 

 masses of the resin being often seen on old trees, 

 suspended from the stem at the forked part of the 

 branches. It is believed that the bark, branches, 

 stumps, roots, and even the leaves of the Kauri Pine 

 would yield a large amount of resin under proper 

 raanageraent. When au incision is made in the bark 



of the Kauri tree the resin exudes freely, so that 

 here, in the course of a few weeks, a large mass of 

 half-dried resin will have accumulated. This new 

 gum takes about three months to harden properly. 

 All except a verj- smill portion of the Kauri resin 

 so largely exported from New Zealand is however, 

 dug out of the ground in a fossil or semi-fossil state, 

 but there is not much of it found more than 10 inches 

 below the surface ; that is, it occurs in the present 

 soil. Occasionally it is found at a depth of '6 feet, 

 and it is fished up in bogs or swamps, as well as dug 

 out of dry ground. The resin is found either in small 

 detached lumps, or in considerable quantities deposited 

 in oue whole. When dug up its surface is found to 

 be partially decayed, and this portion requires to be 

 scraped off. It is curious that where the buried gum 

 is obtained there are now no remains of Kauri trees 

 except the resin itself. Nevertheless, it is believed 

 that forests of this Pine must have formerly grown 

 over the areas where it is found. 



The only tools used in procuring the resin are a 

 spear and a spade. The spear is a pointed steel rod, 

 with which the digger pierces the ground, and by this 

 means, after he becomes sufHcieatly expert, he can 

 tell whether he is touching a stone or a piece of 

 resin. If the latter, it is dug up with his spade. 

 Between 1,000 and 2,000 Maories are usually engaged 

 in digging for the resin, but although from habit and 

 local experience they are more adroit at obtaining it 

 than the settlers, they are said not to care for the 

 work, and only continue at it when pressed by want. 

 Many Europeans are also engaged ; these, however, 

 are chiefly men impatient of regular occupation— vaga- 

 bonds, dare-devils, or persons fond of gipsy life. I 

 see that an American Consul, in a report to his State 

 Department, points out with manifest glee, that 

 amongst this nomadic class are a number of the degen- 

 erated sons of the aristocracy of Great Britain. 



A few years ago an industrious man could dig out 

 about 2 cwt. per day ; now he will hardly obtain 

 one-third of that quantity in the same time. The 

 total annual yield is, however, not yet falling off, 

 owing to the additional number of diggers employed. 

 This quantity is very large for a substance of this 

 kind, amounting to fully 5,000 tons, of which 3,000 are 

 sent, to America, and 2,000 to England. The average 

 vahie of the fossil resin is now about £60 per ton. 

 There are several qualities of it, however, varying in 

 price from £45 to £170 according to its purity. The 

 resin obtained from growing trees of which, as already 

 remarked, very little has yet been exported — is not 

 worth more than £25 per ton. 



Although many specimens of Kauri resin are as beauti- 

 ful as amber, the Maories, notwithstanding that they 

 have the artistic faculty in a high degree, do not 

 appear to have ever applied the resin in any way as 

 an ornament. As we see by objects handed down to 

 us, amber for this purpose must have been highly 

 prized by the ancient Greeks, the l^omans, the Vik- 

 ings or Norsemen, and the early Celts. _ The only 

 uses the Maories have made of Kauri resin have been 

 to kindle fires and as a masticatory. In recent years 

 lockets, brooches, and other small ornaments have been 

 made of it by settlers at Auckland and other places in the 

 North Island. They have the serious drawback of 

 being not nearly so hard as amber ornaments. 



The important uses of Kauri resin are— first, in the 

 making of varui.shes ; second, in the manufacture of 

 linoleum— a floorcloth now largely made— in which this 

 resin is advantageously mixed with common resin and 

 oxidised linseed-oil ; and, third, in the dressing of silk 

 fabrics. [It is also used by dentists for taking moulds 

 or casts. — Ed.] 



Unfortunately it is yearly becoming more difficult 

 to keep up the supply of this highly useful vegetable 

 product. The resin first appeared in any quantity as 

 an article of export from New Zealand about the 

 year 1850. Mr. lieynolds, of Auckland, who has been 

 engaged in collecting it for export for twenty years, 

 estimates that the fossil Kauri resin will be completely 

 exhausted in twenty years hence. Probably in the 

 meantime the discovery in quantity of some equally 

 valuable resin in another part of the world may render 



