384 



CUTCH. 



festival games. It is extensively used in cooking in the East, es- 

 pecially as an ingredient in curry powder; indeed there are few 

 articles of food that are not there flavoured with turmeric. 



It used to be used medicinally in this country, but maintains a 

 high reputation among native practitioners in the East as a cordial 

 and stomachic, as antiscorbutic, and stimulating the digestive organs. 

 It is frequently given in the fresh state as an anthelmintic, and in 

 diarrhoea. The imports are comparatively large. Twenty years ago 

 we only imported 27 tons. From 1857 to 1859 it averaged 2200 tons, 

 now the average is 2000 tons yearly, of which about half is reshipped 

 to the Continent, for use in France, Eussia, and Germany. 



Mr. E. S. Hepburn, chemist, of Panama, writes me under date 

 February 20, 1877, that the turmeric grown in the Isthmus is very 

 fine, but the growers there are ignorant of its commercial value. 

 The price now (March 1877) ranges from 12s. 6d. to 26s. per cwt. 



The imports were as follows in the years stated ; no later official 

 details have been published : 



Tear. 



Quantity. 



Value. 





tons. 



£ 



1866 



1499 



34,799 



1867 



1814 



40,555 



1868 



2183 



46,523 



1869 



3214 



65,218 



1870 



2245 



44,639 



Our receipts are chiefly from Madi-as and Bengal. The imports 

 into London in 1876 were 1827 tons. The shipments made from 

 Bombay (some 30,000 cwt.) go chiefly to Sind and the Persian Gulf, 

 and but little from thence reaches Em'ope. 



CuTCH. — Perhaps less is known in commercial circles of the history 

 and origin of the inspissated extracts known as cutch and gambler, 

 which are now imported to so large an amount for tanning and dyeing 

 purposes, than of any other products. The misnomer of " Terra 

 Japonica," which was so long applied to gambler in the official trade 

 returns, has now been got rid of, and the two extracts appear under 

 their proper names. Although they are frequently confounded by 

 many, cutch and gambier are obtained from different sources and 

 different plants. It may, therefore, be well to give some detailed 

 description of them, and of the great progress they have made, until 

 our imports of these two products now reach a value of nearly three 

 quarters of a million. The imports in the last two years were as 

 follows : 





Year. 



Cutch. 



Gambier. 





Quantity. 



Value. 



Quantity. 



Value. 







tons. 



£ 



tons. 



£ 







1875 



5,821 



141,412 



23,299 



606,050 







1876 



4,956 



120,872 



21,712 



493,120 





