58 
[Enclosure No. 1.] 
BRITISH CONSULATE, CATALONIA, to FOREIGN OFFICE. 
Mx Lorp Bareelona, 21st February 1884. 
Havine imeedistelr requested Mr. Vice-Consul Cumming, of 
eee which I beeu in original, having further directed him to 
transmit to London, addressed to Sir J oseph Hooker, Director of the 
Royal We uh the small box he has prepared with samples of 
plant, seed, and 
have, &c. 
The Right Hon (Signed) Jonn TRAT, 
Earl Granville, K.G., &c., &c. Consul. 
[Enclosure No. 2.] 
Report on the BARILLA INDUSTRY. 
Since the Mies of the manufacture of soda salts M. nde 
chemical processes, the Barilla industry in this province 
very reduced, abad not completely obsolete, the pad being still 
cultivated to a certain extent. It is very difficult to ascertain the 
es greatly according to abundance and demand, and may be roughly 
d from $2 to $2} per quintal or 50 kilos. 
As to the cultivation Pot the plant, the seed is sown in January and 
> seed 
following its collection. The plant is gathered in OOM It is pulled 
up by the root, spread for two or three days, and then collected in d 
conical shaped cocks or piles of two or three quintals each, so that 
case of rain the water may not penetrate so much into the interior iid 
rot the plant. It is left thus about a month to thoroughly dry. If not 
then ashe to be burnt it is stacked and covered with esparto or rush 
to prese 
The ri tcp as Barilla is earried out as follows es hole is dug 
out in the form o rge round earthenware t 1} feet in 
diameter at the tial about 4 feet at bottom, and 5d e about 33 feet, 
the inner part of which is well beaten and then covered with a slight 
smooth coating of mud. A small quantity of wood is then burnt to 
ashes in this hole to dry and heat it, when it is clea ned out and a 
en 
removed by means of a large, bent, two prodded, wooden fork, the 
boiling substance in the hole is thoroughly stirred, till it becomes even 
and smooth on surface like molton lead: then the bars are replaced, and 
the same operation repeated until the hole is filled, when the entire mass 
is finally stirred as described. The mouth of the hole i is then closed u 
and the Barilla is left about a week to cool thoroughly, during which 
time it hardens and cracks into pieces. The hole has then merely to be 
dug around and the Barilla taken out. 
(Signed) Jasper W. Cumming, 
~“ Vice-Consul. 
Alicante, 18th February 1884. 
