AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 



exceed the home demand, while no less than 20,409 piculs, or 

 about 1,234,000 kg. were exported from China in the year 1878. 



A former national custom in Japan — which of late has been 

 rapidly dying out — required married women, and maidens who 

 had got past a certain age and with it the hope of finding a 

 husband, and besides these the Kuge (the court-nobility in Kioto), 

 to blacken their teeth. This was done with a sort of ink, made on 

 the teeth themselves, and called Ohaguro,^ Haguro, or Kane. For 

 this purpose they used pulverized galls (Fushi-no-ko) and ferrous 

 acetate, made by pouring diluted Sake boiling-hot over ingots or 

 nails of iron. They brushed their teeth with this solution of iron, 

 and then rubbed them with some of the white gall-apple powder, 

 thus really making ink, which, of course, had to be renewed from 

 time to time. 



Shibu or Kaki-no-shibu. This is the astringent juice of unripe 

 Kaki — that is, of certain sorts, called Shibu-gaki. In the "Trans- 

 actions of the Asiatic Society," vol. ix. p. 36, Ishikawa gives the 

 following description of it : 



The fruits of Shibu-gaki — that is to say, Kaki species — preserve 

 their astringent character even till the time of ripeness. Early in 

 summer they are stamped in iron mortars ; then the pasty mass is 

 transferred to wooden tubs, covered with water, and allowed to 

 stand half a day. Then it is all put into bags woven out of straw- 

 rope ; and a milky juice is pressed out under a simple angle-press. 

 This juice yields the best Shibu, especially if the small fruit of the 

 Shinano-gaki [Diospyros Lotus, L.) is used. 



By soaking what remains and pressing it again, a second quality 

 is obtained. The milky juice soon takes on a darker colour through 

 exposure to the air, and its surface quickly becomes covered with 

 a thin scum. Shibu as known to commerce is a light or dark 

 grey fluid, in which numerous fine hard particles are suspended. 

 It exhibits an acid reaction on litmus paper, and in a solution of 

 gelatine gives off a great quantity of the usual flaky precipitate 

 of tannic acid. Its odour is singularly disagreeable. 



This fluid is used in many ways. It gives toughness to wood, 

 paper, fish-nets, and other objects, increasing their resisting power 

 against many injurious influences. In some Shibu tested by 

 Ishikawa there were 64*4 grammes per liter of solid matter, more 

 than half of which was tannin. 



Paper soaked in Shibu receives from it qualities different 

 from those imparted by other tannic acids. The effect (greater 

 firmness, dark colour) is therefore not attributable to the presence 

 of albumin and the formation of a sort of leather. But during 

 the experiments the following facts were brought to light, which 

 indicate an explanation : 



(i) Shibu turns black only when it comes in contact with the air, 

 being like Japanese lacquer in this respect. 



O, a prefix of respect ; ha, teeth ; guro = kuro, black. 



