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AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



a pneumatic separator. The smaller lies in the other, bottom-side 

 up, being the receptacle for the steam. A piece of bamboo cane 

 (b^) pours a steady stream of water over its bottom and down over 

 its walls to the separator below. Through a hole half-way up the 

 side of this the overflow runs off. In about twelve hours the chips 

 are exhausted. A valve (v) near th6 bottom of the vat (the joint 

 having been hitherto closely sealed), is now opened, and the wood 

 withdrawn. It is dried before the fire, so as to serve for fuel in the 

 next filling. 



Camphor and camphor-oil are now found collected on the water 

 in the cooling-apparatus. They are skimmed off and separated 

 from each other by filtration through straw or by pressure. 



Fig. 8. APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING CAMPHOR IN TOSA, TAPAN. 



The description of camphor manufacture given by Thunberg 

 differs from this. He says that on an iron kettle there rests a 

 wooden cover, terminating in a long point, in which straw was 

 fastened ; that the camphor-chips are boiled with water in the 

 kettle ; that the steam, rising, collected and condensed in the straw 

 of the point of the cover, from which it was then separated as a 

 granular, greyish white mass, to be packed in wooden tubs, and 

 sold by weight to the Dutch Company in De-shima. 



There can be no doubt that the process I witnessed marks a 

 notable advance over that just described. In Japan it is not 

 customary to soak the chips several days in water before begin- 

 ning distillation, as is said to be the method in China. Scherzer 

 describes the manufacture of camphor in Formosa. It agrees in its 



