and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



95 



question until there has been a considerable in- 

 crease in the present moderate yield, which 

 equals only 25 per cent of the turpentine oil 

 used. Moreover, a3count has to be taken of the 

 quickly progressing exhaustion of the American 

 turpentine forests. Hilgard conjures up a future 

 vision of the preparation of camphor from petro- 

 leum, which is certainly a distant prospect and 

 not a very credible one at the present time. At 

 any rite! the experiments which have for their 

 object the replacement of camphor by similar 

 materials have much more chance of being 

 realised. 



In an appendix to the paper, Cayla lays stress 

 upon the complete agreement of Hilgard with 

 the viows frequently expressed by him (Cayla), 

 to which we have referred in previous Re- 

 ports. Cayla regards Hilgard ; s statements as 

 an indirect confirmation of the conclusions 

 arrived at by Giglioii d, in so far as the latter 

 particularly referred to the lowness of the 

 wages in Italy and the age of the Italian 

 camphor trees. Cayla is of the same opinion 

 as Beille and Lemaire e, and also Giglioii, 

 that the camphor production of the future 

 will be established on the basis of 



MAKING USB OF THE LEAVES, 



a process which is already being applied in 

 Formosa and Ceylon. Cayla also calls special 

 attention to the impossibility of synthetic 

 camphor becoming a serious competitor, 

 in view of the present state of the prices ; but 

 in regard to this aspect of the matter he thinks 

 that a change might be brought about if coni- 

 ferous trees yielding turpentine or a similar oil 

 were cultivated in suitable countries, especially 

 jn India and in Tonquin. 



Cayla/, in his review of Qiglioli's books La 

 canfora italiana (to which work reference has also 

 been made in our Report ff, points out, in oppo- 

 sition to Riviere A, that according to the experi- 

 ence of Giglioii it is not necessary to remove the 

 newly-grown leaves fVomthe tree, thereby check- 

 ing its growth. According to' Giglioii, a satis- 

 factory yield of camphor may be obtained from 

 the leaves which have been shed by the tree and 

 have been dried naturally by exposure to the 

 atmosphere, the loss caused by the drying pro- 

 cess not being considerable. Artificial desicca- 

 tion on the other hand, may cause a loss of 

 camphor-content up to 50 per cent. The suit- 

 ability of dry leaves for distilling purposes is of 

 interest, because this fact would appear to 

 make it possible to press the leaves for transport 

 to distilleries situated in suitable localities. 



Watts and Tempany i have prepared essen- 

 tial oil from the wood, leaves and twigs of cam- 

 phor trees grown in the botanical gar dens in 

 Dominica, with the following results : — 



1. 90 lb. wood yielded 7, In. oz. of oil; 

 d27°-16,6° 0,9012, nD— 13,1°. 



2. 33 lb. leaves and twigs yielded 2,75 fl. oz. 

 of oil ; d27°-16,6° 0,9024, ud -18,4° 



3. 29 lb. leaves and twigs yielded 6,2 ft. oz. 

 of oil; d27°-16,6° 0,8987, «D— 19° 



d Report N vember 1908, 36 



eReport April 1908, 21 ; November 1908, 35. 



/Journ. d' Agriculture tropicale (1909), 60. 



oReport November, 1908, 28. 



AHeport November, 1908, 36. 



i West Indian Bulletin 9 (1908), 275. From a Copy kindly 

 sent to us, 



The low yield of oil in the second experiment 

 is attributed by Watts and Tempany to the 

 insufficiency of the coudensing apparatus, 

 which caused the loss of a considerable pro- 

 portion of the oil. All the distillates were 

 clear and colourless, and even during the cooling 

 no camphor separated from them, which shows 

 that that substance cannot be present in any 

 considerable quantities. Watts and Tempny 

 also state that in his annual Report for 1906y, 

 Consul Playfair pointed out that the occasional 

 absonce of camphor from the oil was ascribed 

 by many theorists to the circumstance that only 

 those camphor trees which grow near the coast 

 attain their full developments, while others 

 doclare that male and female camphor-trees 

 grow isolated and that only the former contain 

 camphor. Phyfair considers the last-named 

 theory to be incorrect, as the flowers of Cinna- 

 momum are polygamous. — Schimmel & Co.'s 

 Semi-Annual Report for April. 



CEYLON CSNNAftlON OSL IN 1908. 



We continue, as before, to devote special in- 

 terest to the distillation of this important 

 article, and wo are able to state with satis- 

 faction that owing to the exquisite quality of 

 our product our sale has experienced a con- 

 siderable increase. The prices of pure cinna- 

 mon oil remain unchanged, and the market for 

 the raw material also has shown but slight 

 fluctuations. The exports of Ceylon cinnamon 

 chips were as follows : — 



in 1908 2,785,824 lb. 



,, 1907 2,835,936 „ 



,, 1906 2,531,614 „ 



,, 1905 2,325,514 „ 

 Of this total, Hamburg imported : — 



in 1908 about 554,400 lb. 



„ 1907 „ 473,200 ,, 



„ 1906 ,, 386,400 „ 

 Our own consumption in the past year reached 

 about 115,000kilos, that is to say, approximately 

 about one half of the total quantity imported 

 via Hamburg. 



It is remarkable that in 1908, 200,878 ounces 

 of cinnamon oil distilled in Ceylon were ex- 

 ported, a figure reached never before, of which 

 over one-half went to England. Compared with 

 1907, these figures indicate an increase in the 

 exports of over 100 per cent, and the fact that, 

 this notwithstanding, our distillate found a 

 ready sale at full prices, should afford sufficient 

 proof of its superiority. 



In considering the export figures of Ceylon oil 

 givnn above, it should be remembered that 

 within the past year large quantities of cinna- 

 mon leaf oil were shipped from Ceylon, and 

 that these are included in the above statistics. 

 The manufacture of the last-naaied article has 

 been carried on with an intensity that can only 

 be characterised aa senseless, no regard having 

 been paid to the very limited consumption. 



In an article in Southall's Report 1 the just 

 desire is expressed that the Pharmacopoeia re- 

 quirements relating to Ceylon cinnamon oil 



j Diplomatic and Consular Reports No. 3,913, Aug., 1907, 

 k Compare Report April 1908, 23. 



