60 
duty with the Indian Revenue and E Department, on the 
present state of the Barilla industry in India. 
The report has been prepared by Mr. Watt from the answers to a 
circular o founded on your letter of 14th March 1884, which was 
addressed by the Government of India to all the Indian Provincial 
Governments. 
(Signed) S . A, GODLEY. 
Sir Joseph Hooker, K.C.S.I., 
&c. &c. &c, 
BARILLA. 
Khár-sajjí or Sajjí-khár, or Barila. This is carbonate of soda 
obtained from the ashes (khdr) of certain salt-worts Th 
manufacture of Barilla first assumed commercial importan ce in Spain, 
d was an article of considerable — d eo ane discovered his 
method of pr roparing g soda from common salt. ‘Since then it has con- 
siderably declined. "Before this imporait discovery the demand for 
Barilla iei à attention to be directed to India as a country to which 
the trade might possibly be extended. RUE at the beginning of 
the century, recommended the cultivation of one or two plants on the 
coast of Madras, but there is no evidence of this having been acted 
uj 
Mr. Baden Powell (in his Panjáb Products, Vol. 1., pel a en a 
most instructive account of Barilla manufacture as 
Panjab. The process by which this substance is p dti vodka on 
during the month of October and the three rai months. The 
plant after being cut down is allowed to dry. The next step is to dig : 
pit of a oily. piae shape, about 6 feet in Gash , and 3 fee 
deep. One ore vessels with holes perforated are inverted id 
placed in the botioin of the pit, ww holes being kept closed when the 
operation begins. The dry plants are gradually burned, and during the 
process a liquid substance is found to run down into the inverted vessels. 
After this has taken place, the residue is stirred np by means of a flat 
be found a pure form of hhdér-sajji, and in the bottom of the pit an 
impure form containing a mixture of ashes. The process differs only 
very slightly from that followed in soe In the latter country the 
plants are burned on iron bars placed across the mouth of the pit, ces 
vessels to separate the substance fits pure and impure Barilla are no 
m in the bottom. 
n Shahpur and Multan, however, the manu- 
facture of sajjt is considerable. The Deputy Commissioner of Shahpur 
reports that the outturn is from 8,000 to 10,000 maunds a a year, and the 
revenue derived by ovens by the lease of the sajjí producing 
lands amounts at present to over Rs. 9,500 per annum. The price, too, 
from various causes has risen from Rs. 1-2 to about Rs. 1-10 per 
maund since iine 
n Octo ovember as we v— in Baden Powell's Panjáb 
Products. He ie ‘I can find no riii that the introduction of 
** soda salts manufactured by purely chemical processes has injuriously 
