358 



Garden and Forest. 



[July 24, 1889 



the latter only one. The plants are put two feet part along 

 the rows. The planthig is done in the wet season, and the 

 cuttings, which are about a foot long, require careful shading 

 with leaves until rooted, or they will get withered and die, the 

 plant being a delicate one, and very susceptible to the heat of 

 the sun. 



The first cutting of the crop is made in about six inonths 

 after planting, by which time the Patchouli will have reached 

 a height of two to three feet, and two other cuttings are made 

 from the same plants at intervals of about six months. At the 

 end of this time the old roots are dug up, the land re-trenched 

 and fresh cuttings planted. \ 



No reliable information as to the yield per acre nor the cost 

 of cultivatioii is accessible, but it must be rather high, as the 

 land has to be thrown up into beds, manured and carefully 

 weeded and the cuttings shaded, and, if dry weather sets in 

 before they are rooted, they have tO be watered until estab- 

 lished. The plant seems to tiourish best under slight shade, 

 but, probably, the production of oil is less in that grown under 

 shade than in that grown out in the sun, though the yield of 

 leaf would be greater. It is often planted on new land be- 

 tween Coffee, Nutmegs and other permanent crops, and is said 

 to pay all the expenses of clearing and planting, leaving the 

 permanent crop as clear profit. 



The plants are cut down near the ground when they have 

 reached a sufficient size, one stalk only being left to each bush. 

 The Patchouli is then laid out in the sun to dry in the day- 

 time, and put under cover at night and on the approach of rain. 

 When thoroughly dry it is done up into bales, and sold either 

 to dealers in the leaves or to the distillers. In this state it 

 fetches about six dollars a hundred pounds. 



The dealers cut it up and separate a great quantity of the 

 larger stalks, and, according to its freedom from these, it is 

 classed as first, second or third quality. The best consists of 

 leaves only, and is valued at $20 to $24 a hundred ; but, owing 

 to the labor involved, this quality hardly pays to prepare. The 

 second quality is composed of leaves and young shoots with 

 little of the heavier stalk, and ranges in price from $13 to $15 

 a hundred. The third quality contains less leaf and more 

 stalk, and fetches about $10 a hundred. 



The best quality of all would be produced by picking from 

 the plants the leaves and tops of the young shoots, and drying 

 these in the shade, but it is doubtful if it would pay. Prepared 

 in this way thirty-six pounds of green leaves produce ten 

 pounds of dried Patchouli. 



Large quantities of the leaves of a plant known by the Ma- 

 layan name of Ruku are often mixed with Patchouli. The 

 botanical name of this plant is Ocimum Basilicicm, L., var. 

 piloswn. A Chinaman recently bought the whole of the Ruku 

 growing wild in a Cocoanut plantation in Province Wellesley, 

 and twenty-eight tons of the dried herb were collected and 

 taken to Penang to be used for the adulteration of the more 

 valuable Patchouli. European dealers prefer to buy the plant 

 just as it is cut, when it is easy to see if it is adulterated or not, 

 but if the leaves are bought it is very hard to detect the impo- 

 sition. The leaves of another plant are also often mixed with 

 Patchouli. This plant {Urena lobata) is called Perpulut by the 

 Malays, and is to be had in any quantity for the trouble of col- 

 lecting it. 



The dried Patchouli is put into a large copper cylinder fitted 

 with a perforated false bottom and mounted on trunnions. 

 Through one of these steam enters from a boiler and is con- 

 ducted by a tube beneath the false bottom. The remaining 

 trunnion is also hollow, and the steam under a ten-pound 

 pressure, after passing through the leaves, passes out by it and 

 into a worm immersed in a tube of water in the ordinary way. 



One hundred pounds of the dried Patchouli, just as it is cut, 

 yields from eighteen to twenty-two ounces of essential oil, and 

 a sample free from the heavier stalks yields about double that 

 amount. By an ordinary still not more than one-half of the oil 

 can be extracted. The green leaves yield little or no oil, and 

 therefore it is necessary that they be dried before being sub- 

 jected to the process of distillation. The oil is of two varieties, 

 the one being sage green, and the other the color of medium- 

 colored sherry. 



Sometimes the one color is in greater demand that the 

 other, but the prices are the same for both. At present the 

 price in Penang is about fifty cents per ounce. Both kinds of 

 oil when fresh are limpid and quite fluid at ordinary tempera- 

 tures, but at 40° F. they become rather thicker, but remain 

 bright and clear. The golden-brown oil has a specific gravity 

 of 9580 at 85° F., and the green oil a specific gravity of 9578 at 

 the same temperature. 



Oil has been kept for ten years in a bottle with a loose stop- 

 per, when it becomes of a dark brown color and of a syrupy 



consistency. The scent of this old oil, however, is little infe- 

 rior to fresh, though not quite so powerful. This bears out 

 the statement in lire's Dictionary of Arts, that "the essen- 

 tial oil of Patchouli is one of the least volatile of any known, 

 hence it is one of the most persistent of perfumes from plants." 

 Mr. N. Cantley, Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, 

 Singapore, says: " Plants of Patchouli have been in demand 

 for experimental planting, and a good number have been sup- 

 plied. Pickled leaves are now selling at $12 per hundred. The 

 plants grow freely with but little care, and should figure 

 among colonial products." This statement, although correct 

 as far as it goes, gives a mistaken idea of the circumstances of 

 the case. The production now is quite equal to the demand, 

 which seems to be very limited, consequently the market is 

 soon glutted, particularly with the oil. Unless, therefore, the 

 use of the leaves and oil could be very materially increased, 

 there seems to be no prospect of profitably cultivating it on a 

 large scale. 



Correspondence. 



Forests and Civilization. — III. The North Woods. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — It now seems probable that a great World's Fair, or 

 International Exposition, will be held in the City of New York 

 in 1892. If this is done a complete and well-arranged exhibi- 

 tion of the wood-products of this country should be one of the 

 chief features, and the fair should be used as an occasion and 

 means for stimulating public interest in forestry, tree-culture, 

 landscape art, the management of parks and public grounds 

 and related subjects. There should be an elementary depart- 

 ment for the benefit of the good people who like to see trees 

 smothering each other to death, and who think it is a crime to 

 cut a tree down under any circumstances. As some savage 

 races like harsh noises better than music, so some persons 

 appear to feel as much pleasure in an ugly tree as in a beauti- 

 ful one. 



Such an exhibition of forest-products, as a part of an Inter- 

 national Exhibition which will be visited by intelligent and 

 thoughtful men from all civilized lands, can be made highly 

 interesting and serviceable, and the friends of forestry in this 

 country should at once begin to consider plans to secure its 

 completeness and success. Some preparatory action looking 

 to this end will probably be taken by the American Forestry 

 Congress during its session at Philadelphia in October of this 

 year. 



One of the most important and useful features or adjuncts 

 that could be connected with such an exposition would be an 

 exhibition of the Adirondack region itself, as an actual, con- 

 crete illustration of our treatment of one of the most remarka- 

 ble forests in the whole world. There should be arrangements 

 for excursions, for visitors to the Fair, through different parts of 

 this mountain region, and especially across the great tracts 

 that have been destroyed by fire. It would be an interesting 

 lesson to intelligent Eui'opean visitors. They might write for 

 their own journals descriptions of what they see, which if re- 

 published here would be valuable as criticisms from indepen- 

 dent sources; and some of our own people who think that no 

 very serious injury has been wrought here might bring their 

 theories regarding the value of forests, as natural storage 

 reservoirs for water, into a little closer relation with facts if 

 they would take the trouble to come and look at the country. 



When in Washington last winter I met a number of gentle- 

 men connected with one of the departments of the Govern- 

 ment, who asked me if the impression which is produced by 

 the report of the New York Forestry Commission for 1885, 

 regarding the denudation of Adirondack hills, is not an exag- 

 geration of the facts. This is the report of Messrs. Sargent, 

 James, Shepard and Poucher. It was based upon a more care- 

 ful and thorough examination of the condition of the entire 

 Adirondack region than had ever been made before, and all 

 its representations are of the most moderate character. Most 

 of them are far within the limits of the truth. The photo- 

 graphs, of course, exhibit faithfully the scenes which they rep- 

 resent. Nobody can question that fact, but the Washington 

 people thought there were probably but a few places like those 

 which are shown in these pictures, and that those were tracts 

 of small extent, so that the aggregate denudation is really, they 

 supposed, of but slight importance. 



The truth is that the tracts represented by these photographs 

 are so extensive as to constitute an important proportion of the 

 whole Adirondack region. There are hundreds of such places 

 as that which is shown in the picture called "An Adirondack 

 Farm," facing page 5 of the Report. The soil was never fit 



