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of Amraoti. We tender Mr. Burkill our most sincere thanks for sending 

 us this report, which forms a welcome supplement to previous notices. 1 ) 

 A number of photographs and sketches accompanied Mr. BurkilPs letter 

 and out of these we have chosen one representing a distilling plant 

 to illustrate this Report (see frontispiece); sketches of the apparatus 

 used in distilling and of the receivers will be found in the report of 

 Mr. Burkill, the text of which we subjoin. 



Distillation of Rusa or Palmarosa Oil in the District of 

 Amraoti, Province of Berar, India. 



The oil distilling industry about Ellichpur is worked in the following 

 way. The forest lands where Cymbopogon Martini var. Motia grows 

 are leased out to men of substance — generally Mohammedans, who 

 for the most part sub -lease them again piece-meal to men who go 

 out to selected valleys in the Melghat with stills and engaging villagers 

 send some out to cut the grass tops at so much per hundred bundles 

 brought in, and with others set up open-air distilleries on the banks 

 of the streams. There is built first a row of stone fire-places and 

 the cauldrons are set up on them, generally 3 or 4 in a row. The 

 cauldrons are sometimes of iron and sometimes of copper. If they 

 are of copper they are generally somewhat smaller than those of iron 

 and depressed globose; the iron cauldrons are cylindrical and rivetted; 

 they are about 2 x / 2 feet in diameter. The top of the iron cauldrons 

 is slightly conical with a central lid. Out of the lid emerges the 

 bamboo elbowed tube by which the distillate passes off. 



The cauldron once set in place ready for the fire, is never moved. 



The elbowed tube has a bamboo peg run through it at the angle 

 and is wrapped from end to end in string. From the elbow the 

 longer part is about six feet. 



The receivers are generally long necked, more than a foot in 

 diameter below, not so deep as broad (neck excluded). But some- 

 times they are without a neck, in which case a pad of cloth on the 

 bamboo closes the mouth. They are generally made of copper. They 

 are placed in the water quite up to the neck. A framework of wood 

 lies in the stream which is generally dammed to deepen the water. 

 Into the interspaces of this framework the receivers fit, being held in 

 place by means of two sticks of wood which are tied on either side of 

 the neck and are placed under the cross bars of the framework. Further, 

 stones are heaped round each receiver to help to keep them underwater. 



The method of work is as follows. We will suppose that the 

 cauldron has just been emptied of a charge and lies with the lid off 

 and with the fire drawn from below it. A workman standing on the 



*) Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils y p. 282. 



