BARILLA 



Sajji Khar 



THE INDIAN BAMBOOS 



Timber. 



Annual 

 Consumption. 



House- 

 construction and 

 Furnishing, 



of this gum. I passed through a number of similar stretches in which the 

 bamboos were covered with the gum. This sugary deposit only extended for 

 about five feet along the culms and was entirely absent towards the tops ; 

 it was found both at the nodes of the bamboo as well as on the stems 

 between the nodes. I am sure this has nothing to do with any insect 

 deposit, nor has it been caused through the aid of insect punctures in 

 the stem of the bamboo, as I made a careful examination of a number of 

 culms. The culms also were old ones, one, two and three years old." 

 Mr. Stebbing, however, reports that he had found the leaves of Bainbusa 

 anindinacea so attacked by an Aphis as to cause a manna to fall 

 in drops on the stems. Hooper found that the manna furnished by 

 Mr. Lowrie consisted of a saccharose related to, if not identical with 

 cane-sugar. [Cf. with Hobson-Jobson (ed. Crooke), 863.] 



Timber. Bamboos form the most important portion of the minor 

 forest produce of all forest divisions, and one that increases in value 

 every year. Gamble estimates that the Indian annual consumption 

 of bamboos must be something like 150 millions per annum. The forest 

 administration Annual Reports issued by the various provinces of India 

 afford useful particulars as to the supply drawn from their respective 

 producing areas. It would occupy a volume to enumerate even by name 

 all the uses to which the mature bamboo stems are put. To the inhabitants 

 of the regions where the bamboo luxuriates, it affords all the materials 

 required for the erection and furnishing of ordinary dwelling-houses. 

 Certain species are more serviceable for posts, others for matting and 

 basket-work, etc., etc., but if one or two species be used every requirement 

 in house construction and furnishing may be met. Perhaps one of the 

 most curious is the employment of specially prepared slips of bamboo 

 for the purpose of letter-writing. M. Chavannes (Les Livres Ohinois, etc.) 

 has shown that in ancient times (or prior to the discovery of the art of 

 paper-making in 105 A.D.) the stationery of China was mainly of this 

 nature. Stein (Ancient Khotan, 1907, 358) has moreover shown that the 

 oldest manuscripts discovered by him (3rd century) were written on spe- 

 cially prepared pieces of wood made up on the pattern of the older bamboo 

 slips (see under Leather, p. 636; also Paper and Paper Materials, 

 p. 862). The reader had better also consult the account of the 

 economic uses of the Bamboo as given in the Dictionary. 



BARILLA, OP SAJ JI KHAR ; Ball, Man. Econ. Geol. Ind., 1881, 

 492-5 ; Kew Bull, 1890, 56-62 ; Agri. Ledg., 1902, No. 5, 126 ; Holland, 

 Rec. Geol. Surv. Ind., xxxii., 115. 



A century ago the manufacture of carbonate of soda from the ashes of certain 

 saltworts was an important industry. Attention was accordingly early directed 

 to India as a source of supply for Great Britain to supplement that obtained from 

 Spain. Roxburgh, Royle, Baden-Powell and many other writers in succession 

 described the existing trade and discussed its possible developments. Rox- 

 burgh (Fl. Ind., ii., 61) practically speaks of the future of the Indian barilla trade 

 as being of national importance. He explains that one species of tiaiicomia, 

 one of ArtHrocnenmni and one of Sal sola, which are extremely abundant 

 plants on the Coromandel Coast, might be made to yield barilla sufficient to 

 Soap and Glass, make SOAP and GLASS for the whole world, since labour is cheap and popula- 

 tion abundant. That opinion was written before the date of the famine 

 that removed fully half the labouring classes of Coromandel (1791-3). It 

 need hardly be said, however, that the discovery of Le Blanc's method of pre- 

 paring sodium carbonate chemically from common salt not only destroyed 

 these and all other similar expectations of a remunerative trade in barilla, but 



112 



D.E.P., 

 i., 394-9. 

 Barilla. 



Barilla. 

 World's Supply. 



Expectations 

 Falsified. 



