16 Report of Schimmel § Co. 1922. 



of their attacks on the camphor-gatherers may be gauged from the fact that during 1914, 

 when the statistics were last available, 187 of the collectors were killed and 190 wounded. 



In order to reach the large tracts of camphor forests in the interior, it was essential 

 to overcome the savages. The method employed was the establishment of a "guard 

 line" all round the mountainous interior, with small military outposts at intervals, and 

 this artificial frontier has gradually been extended, so that the turbulent natives, are 

 confined in a slowly-diminishing area. As this method was too slow, in view of the 

 present state of the industry, the Japanese Government recently voted £ 1 000000 to 

 bring about a more rapid pacification of the savages, and troops have been sent in 

 large numbers. The Formosan native must, therefore, quickly change his attitude 

 towards the camphor-gatherers or suffer annihilation. The Government is anxious to 

 improve the lot and condition of the natives and to provide education for their children. 



Shepstone says that an average camphor-tree, with a basal circumference of 12 feet, 

 will yield about 3 tons of camphor. The felled trees are chopped into chips and 

 subjected to distillation on the spot. The chips are placed in a retort over boiling 

 water, and, as the camphor vaporizes, it passes through pipes into submerged vats, 

 which are so arranged that cool water from a mountain stream can run over them to 

 accelerate crystallization 1 ). After the camphor has crystallized, the vats are opened, 

 and the product is placed on wooden troughs to allow whatever free oil there may 

 be to drain off. This oil will yield 90 per cent, of crude camphor in the process of 

 refining. The crude camphor is packed in tins and carried down precipitous mountain 

 paths on coolies' backs to the nearest railway line, whence it goes to the Government 

 refinery at Taihoku. 



There are 80000 stills scattered over Formosa. They are in the hands of Chinamen, 

 whereas the tree-fellers are Japanese. 



As the Philippine Islands apparently offer favourable conditions for the cultivation 

 of camphor-trees, the Government has granted a large stretch of land for this purpose 

 to an American company. 



In Ceylon, Nock had begun in 1893 to cultivate camphor-trees in the Hakgalla 

 Gardens, six miles from Nuwara Elya, at a height of 5600 feet. The tree thrives best 

 at a height of 3 to 5000 feet on chalky soil, also containing potash. As it is not 

 sensitive with regard to wind, it is often found as a sort of wind-screen for tea plan- 

 tations 2 ). The twigs and branches yielded 2.7 to 3.4 per cent, of camphor oil and 

 0.75 to 1 per cent, of camphor. The output amounted to 143 to 190 lbs. of camphor. 

 Bamber and Willis stated in 1910 that the cultivation of camphor-trees was successful 

 in Ceylon, if they were plated in rows facing the direction of the predominating winds, 

 on sandy clay often watered by rain. Within five years they attain a height of 18 to 20 feet. 



It seems that at least three different kinds of camphor-trees are cultivated in the 

 West-Indies. A tree in St. Vincent, supposed never to have bloomed, over 100 years 

 old, and which had been determined in Kew as Cinnamomwn Camphor a, var. glaucescens, 

 yielded on distillation of the wood only oil, but no solid camphor. Another, also 

 inferior kind in Trinidad and Dominica is conspicuous by its reddish shoots and leaf- 

 stalks and its oval leaves which, on being crushed, smell of turpentine oil. However, 

 there are also trees on these two islands, as well as in Jamaica, the leaves of which 

 yield 1 per cent, of camphor or more. 



*) It is to be seen from this description that it refers to an improved kind of the usual Chinese distilling 

 apparatus, originally employed in Formosa. In Japan proper the production of camphor has been further 

 improved. (Comp. Gildemeister and Hoffmann, The Volatile Oils, 2 nd edition, vol. II, page 456.) — 2 ) Comp. 

 Report 1918, 15. 



