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tion of timber and fire wood, that the cultivator was unable 

 to procure enough posts for the pepper plants, and wood to 

 make burnt earth, to manure it or firewood to boil the 

 gambir. When they had used up what was easily accessible 

 to their plantation, they shifted the plantation and so went 

 on till there was no suitable ground left, then the cultivation 

 disappeared, and the land abandoned became a wretched 

 desert of lalang, and in many cases has begun slowly to 

 come back to secondary scrub. 



The Chinese method has been described in the first 

 series of the Bulletin. It was wasteful and reckless. The 

 product was very wet, and though at one time there was a 

 considerable profit on it, it might have been made much 

 higher if the Gambir had been turned out in a dryer and 

 cleaner condition. 



In 1894 I being on leave in England visited Leeds 

 the centre of the tanning industry and had an opportunity 

 of seeing the Singapore Gambir being used in the tanneries 

 and was quite surprised to see how much dirt and rubbish 

 came from it when put through the washing machinery and 

 also my attention was called to the very large proportion 

 of water in the product. On my return to the East I made 

 enquiries about this, and attempted to induce planters to 

 turn out a dryer and better product. I was informed by 

 one that chemically dried gambir had been sent home by 

 him on one occasion, but that unfortunately when sold the 

 brokers did not appreciate the value of the product, and it 

 sold for the same price as gambir which was very wet in- 

 deed. He did not attempt any further work in this direc- 

 tion. 



Some few years ago we had at the Agricultural 

 Exhibition in 1906, some very fine samples of dried 

 gambir, in the form of powder produced at Lanadron in 

 Muar, but we have not heard of this manufacture since. 



From Prof. Dunstan I heard lately that gambir was 

 being manufactured in Indragiri, Sumatra, by modern 

 methods, and Mr. Burchard of Indragiri has kindly given 

 some information on the matter. The leaves are boiled by 

 steam and the decoction passes into a vacuum chamber, by 

 pipes there it is treated by steam, till it is of a consistency 

 sufficient to be run off and cooled in cases in which it is 

 shipped. The whole factory is fitted with steam power, 

 leaf cutters, and elevators, electric light, ice works and 

 saws. The factory works day and night and turns out 80 

 piculs of Gambir a day. The buyers at first did not appre- 

 ciate the product and would not pay more than 16s. per 



