272 ON SOME N.S.W. TAN-SUBSTANCES. 



Tannic acid — 36.297 per cent. Non-tannin and impurities — 

 2*438 per cent. The percentage of tannic acid is extraordinary, 

 and in order to avoid all possible error, the above is the mean of 

 three separate analyses (not of three samples of the same liquor 

 but of three separate liquors), which gave closely agreeing results. 



Mr. Thomas Shepherd, an enterprising tanner of Cambewarra, 

 N.S.W., has kindly furnished me with the following information 

 in sending this sample. Of all New South Wales localities, he 

 prefers Nerriga for A. decurrens bark. He says it would be quite 

 equal to Tasmanian if it could be obtained as finely ground. 

 From the Cambewarra bark already described (xxi., 33), Mr. 

 Shepherd obtains only two liquors, of which the second is very 

 weak, while from the Nerriga bark he invariably obtains three 

 strong liquors. - * In his opinion, the best time for stripping is 

 when the trees are in bud, and have just come into flower. Next 

 to the Nerriga bark he speaks highest of that coming from the 

 Bega district. Nerriga is on the high table land, on the road 

 from Nowra to Braidwood. 



91. Acacia, decurrens, Willd. See 90. 



Sample obtained from near Nerriga from various trees. 

 Collected February, 1888. Analysed 14th to 15th September, 

 1888. 



This appears to be quite a similar bark to the preceding. But 

 when powdered they are very different in appearance, the present 

 sample being very light in comparison, and may be styled flesh- 

 coloured. 



Extract. — 53*96 per cent. Colour, light ruby * of moist residue, 

 burnt umber. 



Tannic acid — 2 4 "9 9 per cent. Non-tannin and impurities — 

 2-032 per cent. 



In regard to this second sample of A. decurrens bark, Mr. 

 Shepherd informed me that not a drop of rain had fallen on it 

 since the day it was stripped. It is sent as "an exceptionally 

 good sample." This bark is "exceptionally good" as regards 

 lightness of colour of extract, and consequently would produce 

 very light-coloured leather, as also tested by me with hide powder, 

 but it is not of the highest class in richness of tannin, as Mr. 

 Shepherd would realize when he came to use it. The present is a 

 good illustration of the danger of trusting to appearances with 

 wattle bark. In Europe and America analyses of tan materials 

 are usually made in the laboratory of the tannery itself. Mr. 

 Shepherd states that A. decurrens gives a denser liquor than 



# The analysis of No. 91 shows, however, that the Nerriga bark is 

 unequal in quality. 



