GUM ARABIC TREE ITS MANIFOLD USES. 49 



Gum Arabic, from the Babul, Acacia arabica. 



This tree may well be considered as one of the 

 most valuable, I believe ; and in the numerous uses to 

 which its various parts are applicable, second only 

 to the Cocos nucifera; without it what would our 

 Ryots do to supply themselves with Agricultural 

 implements ? Of this wood all the cart wheels in 

 Gujerat are constructed, and put together without a 

 single iron nail, and yet they endure for five or six 

 years ; common salt is the substitute for nails. By an 

 ingenious process the wheel when finished is salted, 

 and by the deliquescent property of the salt rendered 

 proof against the dry atmosphere of the hot season. 



The bark of the Babul is the most useful of 

 all for curing leather; without it leather bags and 

 ropes, used by the Ryots, and called the coop, could 

 not be cured. The leaves and young branches form 

 valuable food for goats and sheep ; the pods arc 

 collected and sold at a high price as nourishing food 

 for milch buffaloes; the wood forms the best char- 

 coal and fire- wood. 



This tree ought certainly to be protected, and the 

 government could not do better than order a plan- 

 tation of it to be attached to every village in the 



country. The expence would be little, and it would 



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