SHOREA 



ROBUSTA 



D.E.P., 

 vi., pt. ii., 

 673-8. 

 Sal. 



Resin. 



Tapping. 



Tield. 

 Seasons. 



Large Blocks. 



Low Acid Value. 



Dye and 

 Tan. 



Bark. 

 Young Trees. 



Extract. 



Prospect. 



Seed. 



Famine Food. 



Timber. 



THE SAL TREE 



extent of the traffic. In 1868-9 India imported coral to the value of 93,126. 

 For the past five years the traffic has marked a decline in quantity but a rise in 

 relative price. In 1902-3 India received 283,580 lb., valued at Rs. 5,47,258 

 (36,484); and in 1906-7, 98,172 lb., valued at Rs. 3,27,773 (21,852). The 

 traffic is almost entirely from Italy and to Bengal. 



SHOREA ROBUSTA, Gaertn. ; II Br. Ind., i., 306 ; Ind. Stat. 

 Atlas, 1895, 29-30 and Map ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 77-81 ; Prain, 

 Beng. Plants, 1903, i., 254 ; Duthie, Fl. Upper Gang. Plain, 1903, 75-6 ; 

 Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 69 ; DIPTEROCARPE^E. The Sal tree, sal, sdkhu, 

 sarjum, saktva, teturl, Mnddr, gugal, kabbu, enkhyen, etc. A large gre- 

 garious tree, of which Gamble says : " The sal tree occupies two principal 

 regions in India. The first is a belt at the foot of the Himalaya and running 

 into its valleys and up its lower hills to 3,000 or 4,000 feet, and exception- 

 ally, as for instance at Lansdowne, to a still higher altitude." " The 

 second is the Central Indian belt, and the sal country begins on the Ganges 

 near Rajmahal and passes through the Sonthal Parganas, Rewah, Chota 

 Nagpur, the Central Provinces, Orissa and the Northern Circars, ending 

 in the Palkonda range of Vizagapatam and the forest of Jeypur." 



When tapped, the tree exudes large quantities of an aromatic RESIN, whitish 

 at first but becoming brown when dry. The method of tapping usually em- 

 ployed is in the month of July to cut out three to five narrow strips of the* bark, 

 according to the size of the tree, and about 3 or 4 feet from the ground. In 

 about twelve days the grooves have filled up with resin. This is gathered and 

 left to fill again. They give three yields, amounting in the best trees to as much 

 as 10 lb. The first is the best in quality. A second yield in October and a third 

 in January are also obtained from the same cuts, but small in quantity and 

 inferior in quality. The resin usually occurs in small rough pieces, nearly opaque 

 and very brittle, but Gamble states that in some parts of the Upper Tista forests, 

 large blocks, 30 to 40 cubic inches in size, may be found in the ground at the foot 

 of the trees. It is used chiefly to caulk boats and ships, also as an incense and 

 in medicine. Hooper (Eept. Labor. Ind. Mus., 1903-4, 25) says that it has a 

 much lower acid value than pine resin, viz. 20 to 22, in place of 137 in imported 

 pine resin and 124 in the Indian article. 



The bark is said to yield a red and black DYE and to serve as a TAN. Recently 

 an investigation into the value of sal bark as a tanning material was undertaken 

 at the Imperial Institute, at the request of the Forest Department, and a report 

 (Imp. Inst., Oct. 7, 1904) was submitted by Dunstan to the Under- Secretary 

 of State for India. Analyses proved that the bark derived from young trees was 

 richer in tannin than that from old trees ; moreover, that the young bark contained 

 as much tannin as is present in oak, hemlock, and other barks commonly em- 

 ployed as tanning materials. Analyses of Indian-made extracts, however, showed 

 these products to be of poor quality. Filtrates were better than solid extracts, 

 both as regards solubility and tannin content, but " the best contained only 21 

 per cent, of tannin, whereas the ordinary tanning extracts in use in Europe contain 

 at least 30 per cent." Experiments in tanning, both in the laboratory and on 

 large-scale trials, were carried on by Dunstan at the Imperial Institute. In sum- 

 ming up his report, he observes that the results recorded show that it is quite 

 possible to prepare from the bark of siiorea robnata an extract which, when 

 employed as a tanning material, may furnish leather both of good texture and 

 colour. It remains, he adds, to be seen whether the process devised by him can 

 be successfully employed on a manufacturing scale in India. [C7. Hooper, Agri. 

 Ledg., 1902, No. 1, 15-6.] 



The seeds ripen at the commencement of the rains and are collected and eaten 

 as FOOD, especially in times of scarcity. In The Agricultural Ledger (1904, No. 5) 

 will be, found a paper by Reinherz on the seeds of sitorea as a famine food. He 

 gives a map showing the chief localities where the seeds are eaten, viz. in Chota 

 Nagpur, the Sonthal Parganas, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Jalpaiguri and Orissa in 

 Bengal ; Gorakhpur in the United Provinces ; Central India ; and Chatrapur 

 in Madras. 



The tree, however, is best known, for its WOOD, which is the most extensively 



990 



