284 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1884. 



the new department. There are at present three of these 

 Acts, viz., No. VII. of 1878, which applies to India gem-rally, 

 including Bombay; No. XIX of 1881, which applies to 

 British Burmah only ; and No. V. (Madras) of 1882, which 

 applies to the Madias Presidency. They are all based on 

 tbe same principle, and do not widely differ in details. 

 Speaking broadly, they divide the forests of India under 

 three select classes — Reserved forests, protected forests, 

 including Vellore forests, and forests which are private 

 property. 



The reserved forests are under the direct control of the 

 department, and are managed exclusively as a source of 

 immediate and prospective profit, their limits being surveyed 

 and demarcated, nomadic cultivation within them forbidden, 

 destructive undergrowth cutout, the annual hot weather 

 5res guarded against, and the cutting of timber strictly 

 regulated. The protected forests are subject to less string- 

 ent supervision, aud the people retain therein, subject to 

 regulation, their hereditary rights of cultivation, pastur- 

 age, and wood cutting ; only certain kinds of timber be- 

 ing protected. Private forests are controlled only to such 

 an extent as is necessary to prevent their destruction. 

 Besides these there are the State plantations devoted to 

 the cultivation of timber trees. 



The area of the reserved forests of India is about 46,000 

 square miles. 'That of the unreserved forests has not yet 

 been ascertained, while that of the plantations under the 

 Government of India and Madras alone is 41,000 acres. 

 The area of the plantations in Bombay is not known; 

 but it is stated that the great problem of Indian forestry, 

 viz., the re-wooding of waste districts, has been grappled 

 with in the western Presidency with great vigour and 

 mii cess, by sowing broadcast the seeds of all sorts oj 



forest trees aud shrubs, the result of which action is » 



beginning to be seen in the appearance everywhere of 

 "countless millions" of vigorous saplings. Extensive fuel 

 reserves have also been provided, and are strictly preserved 

 in all parts of India, to meet the extension of railway 

 lines throughout the peninsula. 



The nett revenue derived from these operations, after 

 deducting all charges for salaries and working expenses, 

 now amounts to over £300,000. Prior to 1848 the revenue 

 from the Indian forests was nominal, aud there was no 

 forest conservancy.* And this vast and beneficent change, 

 which will gradually also reduce droughts and famines in 

 India to a minimum, has been achieved in a single gener- 

 ation, or in the brief space of thirty-five years. 



We have an illustration in Northern Afghanistan of 

 how niisgovernment may convert a once fertile and wealthy 

 country, such as Afghanistan was under the commercial 

 rule of the Buddhists, into an inhospitable desert, and 

 all India, within the solstitial line, would probably have 

 by this time been reduced to the same condition but for 

 the English conquest of the peninsula. 



"When about ten years ago Mr. Grifhn W. Vyse was 

 executive engineer at Dheera Ghaza Khan in the Punjaub, 

 he planted over 1,000.000 timber trees along the frontier 

 joining India to Afghanistan and Beloochistan, and scat- 

 tered five tons of their seeds broadcast everywhere ; and in 

 1S77 at least. 50 per cent of these seeds bad sprung up 

 into flourishing young trees. Great zeal was also shown 

 by Mr. 0. E. Gladstone, who was an assistant commis- 

 sioner in the Punjaub at this time, in encouraging the 

 planting of tiees along the base of the Suleiman range. 

 The Punjaub Government have also formed a forest of 

 trees several miles in extent at Ohunza Munza, near Lahore; 

 and the result of all this planting on our Indian north- 

 west frontier is already being felt in the gradually in- 

 creasing annua! rainfall in the Southern Punjaub, Southern 

 Afghanistan, Northern Beloochistan, and Northern Scinde. 

 When these results become more marked, and extend 



* Before 1848 the forest revenue, which was treated as 

 a branch of the land revenue, was very trifling. In 1867-68 

 it amounted to £331,000. In 1881-82 it amounted to over 

 £874,1 00 ; and as the total charges under all heads amounted 

 to £557,000, the nett forest revenue was exactly £317,0CO. 

 It must, however, be borne in mind that, even from a financial 

 point of view, the annual revenue which forest conserv- 

 ancy has as yet piovided is utterly insignificant when com- 

 pared with the capital value of the Indian forests redeemed 

 by the Biitish Government from certain destruction. 



further into Afghanistan, the predatory character of the 

 population of that country is sure to be strongly modified ; 

 aud should Russia adopt a wise system of forest conserv- 

 ancy in Turkestan, we may hope for.the gradual restitu- 

 tion to the whole of Central Asia of the prosperity it 

 once enjoyed. 



The planting of trees has always been a highly hon- 

 oured popular custom among the natives of India, and 

 the Brahmins have a saying, wisely devised to encourage 

 the practice, that "He who plants a tree lives long." 

 We may augur, therefore, from the success of our forest 

 department, a long life to British rule in India. 



It is a happy omen also that the first International 

 Exhibition of Forestry should have been appointed to be 

 held in the stately capital of Scotland, where scientific 

 forestry throughout the British empire received its earliest 

 impulse— and that the exhibition should be so much in- 

 debted for its prosperous issue to the co-operation of 

 Colonel Michael, the pioneer of practical forestry, and of 

 Cleghorn, the father of scientific forestry in India.— George 

 Birdwood. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



ESSENTIA! OILS: THEIR DERIVATIVES AND 



SOME OF THEIK USES. 



(Continued from /'. 888, Vol. III.) 



Pari- II. 



Paper ,<■„! before the Chemist's Assistants' Association by 



Mr. William A. Wrerm, March 19, 1S84. 



In the first part of this paper (vide The Chemist a„,l 

 Druggist, December, 18So, page 598) I alluded to those 

 essential oils for the production of which the English dis- 

 tiller has obtained the foremost place, and that are also 

 of therapeutic value. I have now to notice those essen- 

 tial oils which are more or less aromatic, aud, perhaps 

 less used in medicine. ' 



Oleum Amygda] i; Essentiale— By far the larger quantity 

 ot tins ml is of foreign distillation. There are a few 

 houses in London whose products to a certain extent 

 enjoy i) monopoly and command a long price, and justly 

 so, as foreign importations have always been regarded with 

 suspicion, on account of many sophistications. 



Amygdalus communis ivar Amara) is cultivated in the 

 South of France, generally in conjunction with Olea Eurapaa 

 I notice* very extensive plantations in Provence, and 

 particularly along the road leading from Marseilles to Aix 

 and Avignon. Morocco and the North-east of Africa 

 Barbary, Sicily, and Spain, and the couutry to the north 

 and east of the Persian Gulf furnish a considerable supply. 



Sicily and Barbary ' bitters " are generally pressed in 

 London for the fixe, I oil. The dry almond-cake is broken 

 up with water and quickly placed in the still. Hydride 

 of benzoyl (ol. amygdal. esseut.) is distilled over, com- 

 bined with hydrocyanic acid. 



Glucose is also formed, and remains in the still. The 

 equation descriptive of the action is given thus in Attfield's 

 " Chemistry": — 



O :i0 H ;17 NO,, + 2H ; ,O = C 7 H 5 OH + H0N + 20 li H, 2 O B 

 Amygdaliu Benzoic Glucose 



aldehyde dextro 



anhydrous 



The product varies fiom -4 to 95 per cent from the 

 almonds themselves, which corresponds to from '75 to 16 

 per cent of essential oil from the almond-cake, the ex- 

 pressed oil being yielded to the extent of about 43 per cent. 



The crude essential oil has a specific gravity varying 

 from l'l'.'ii: to 1070, and some very old samples gave sp. 

 gr. of 1078 anil l'OSO respectively; in the latter case the 

 oil was dark in colour, with a distinct smell of benzoin. 



It is very important that the proportion of hydrocyanic 

 acid with the essential oil should be noted. ' It varies 

 from .s to 12 per cent. Acid, hydrocyanic dil. P.P. con- 

 tains but 2 per cent. The highly-daugeri us properties of 

 the crude oil are, therefore, obvious, and necessitate ex- 

 treme caution in its distribution and application. 



There are several methods for depriving the oil of its 

 prussic acid. The process generally adopted commercially 

 is to treat with ferrous sulphate dissolved in water, anil 

 add lime to excess of alkalinity. After contract for a 

 short time the oil is re-distilled, depiived of the water 



