J 70 MINOR PnODUtJE FRt)M FELLED WOOD. 



Rs. 5,00,000.* Many of our dark-hearted trees, such as Hard- 

 wicUa binata, Soijmida fehrifuga, &c., would, no doubt, j'ield dye- 

 ing extracts quite as valuable as cutch. Industry and enterprise 

 alone are wanting to bring them into use. 



Section II.— Oils and othbe PkodtJcSs op cisfiLLATioS. 



The oils at present distilled from wood are those obtained from 

 sandal-wood, from teak, from deodar, and from pines (chiefly P. 

 longifolia, Khasti/a, and Merhmi). 



Amongst these, the only articles of commerce are the produce of 

 the sandal-wood, Pinus longifolia, and teak, the rest either having a 

 very local use or being manufactured to meet an occasional demand. 



The process of manufacture of sandal-wood oil will be described in 

 Part III. A large quantity of wood is now wasted which would pro- 

 fitably be used for distilling the oil, and the establishment of stills 

 in all the sandal-wood forests of Madras, Mysore, and Coorg would 

 permit of those forests being worked and treated on a much more 

 intensive system than can b§ adopted under present circumstances. 



The oil of the deodar and Pinus longifolia, as well as of teak, is 

 obtained by destructive distillation. The method of distillation 

 is extremely primitive. Chips of the wood, long enough not to 

 fall out, are put into an earthen pot with a narrow mouth. The 

 chips are set on fire, and the pot is inverted into another, with a 

 broad mouth. As the wood burns, the vapour of the oil condenses 

 against the sides of the upper pot and the oil trickles down into 

 the lower one. Sometimes the wood is not set on fire, but the two 

 pots are so arranged that the inverted one is surrounded with fire. 

 In either case, the produce obtained is never quite pure, as tarry 

 matters and acids distil with the oil and discolour and taint it. 

 This is, however, actually no disadvantage in the case of the coni- 

 fer oils, which are at present used only for friction in rheumatism 

 and skin diseases. Teak wood oil is rubbed into inferior woods to 

 make them more durable and to give them the odour and oiliness 

 of teak wood. In each one of these cases, tarry matters and a 

 small quantity of acid probably add to the effectiveness of the oil. 

 Teak wood oil, being siccative, is also sometimes used in the place 

 of linseed oil. 



The other products of distillation of wood, in which there is a 

 trade, are acetic acid, wood-spirit, creosote, and tar. Of these, tar 

 alone is made in this country, and that, too, only on a very small 



• For further particulars regarding cutch and katha, see Part III. 



