March, 1909.] 



Dyes and Tans. 



a considerable extent in Russia, Italy, 

 Germany and Austria, on account of its 

 cheapness and fastness. 



" One of the chief defects of catechu 

 is the tendency of the prepared colour 

 to undergo oxidation before it is used 

 for printing, owing to the combined 

 action of the air and the copper sulphate 

 present in the coloui\ A finely divided 

 precipitate is thus produced, rendering 

 the colour gritty and unfit for use. Cate- 

 chu printing colours which have not 

 been sufficiently boiled, or do not con- 

 tain sufficient acetic acid, are liable to 

 deposit crystalline catechin, with the 

 same result as above. The oxidising 

 agents used for developing the colour 

 are also liable to bring about tendering 

 of the fibre, especially if chlorates are 

 employed. These and other defects 

 have led many printers to seek for satis- 

 factory substitutes. Among those of 

 recent introduction are Fast Brown 

 J. A. and Fast Brown R. S. (A. Huillard), 

 which are apparently prepared from 

 natural dyestuffs, and have the same 

 defects as catechu. Another substitute 

 is catechu Brown O. S. C. (O. Starcke 

 and Co.) ; this yields smooth and stable 

 printing colours, and the shade can be 

 varied at will by the addition of colour- 

 ing matters capable of being fixed with 

 chromium acetate, this being the only 

 substance necessary to be added to the 

 thickened colour. 



" Printing Brown P. M. B. (P. and M. 

 Bohme) greatly resembles the colour 

 just described, and yields shades 

 which are fast to washing and to 

 acids.— R. B. G." 



(3) Adulteration and faidty manu- 

 facture. — Enquiries have been addressed 

 to many of the leading cutch importers 

 and users, and their unanimous opinion 

 is that the quality of cutch manufac- 

 tured now-a-days is superior to what it 

 was some years ago, when adulteration 

 was freely practised on a large scale. 

 There can be no doubt that this adulter- 

 ation did a great deal of permanent 

 harm to the cutch trade, which can 

 never hope to regain what it has lost, 

 as this adulteration was one of the 

 primary causes which led dyers to for- 

 sake cutch for aniline substitutes. The 

 chief fault to be found with the cutch 

 now manufactured is that some of it 

 contains an undue amount of moisture, 

 It has frequently been suggested that 

 cutch, though it may be pure when it 

 leaves the manufacturer's hands, is 

 often subject to adulteration by the 

 brokers through whose hands it passes. 

 To test the accuracy of this statement, 

 samples of cutch were obtained from 

 cutch-boilers ' camps and from the 

 brokers' warehouses in Rangoon and 

 29 



subjected to chemical analysis. In each 

 case the samples were taken haphazard 

 from the stocks in hand. The results 

 of the analysis are given in Appendix 

 B. As the total number of samples 

 received was only six, these results can 

 hardly be taken to prove very much, 

 but as far as they go they give no indi- 

 cation that the cutch is adulterated by 

 the Rangoon brokers before shipment ; 

 on the other hand, the inferiority of the 

 sample from Prome indicates that in that 

 particular instance adulteration had 

 taken place during manufacture. There 

 is undoubtedly room for improvement 

 in the manufacture of cutch, whereby 

 the proportion of soft cutch may be 

 reduced to a minimum. 



Effect of the new cutch rides. — Prior to 

 the 1st October, 1904, Government 

 revenue on cutch was collected by the 

 issue of licenses at fixed rates per 

 cauldron of given capacity used in the 

 boiling of cutch. Such licenses were 

 applicable only to cutch trees growing 

 on public land, no licenses being re- 

 quired and no duty being leviable in 

 the case of trees cut on tenanted land. 

 As this system was productive of much 

 abuse on the part of cutch boilers, who 

 habitually stole trees on public land in 

 order to remove and convert them cn 

 their own holdings, it was resolved to 

 levy an export duty, at the port of ship- 

 ment, on all cutch manufactured iii 

 Burma and exported by sea. The new 

 system was introduced on the 1st 

 October, 1904, the export duty being 

 fixed at Rs. 4 per 100 viss, which is equi- 

 valent to 365 lbs. avoirdupois. Licenses 

 for boiling cutch are still issued, but no 

 payment is required for these licenses 

 when issued in areas outside reserved 

 forests. The chief object of issuing 

 these free licenses is to prevent the 

 extermination of cutch trees on lands 

 which are likely to be constituted 

 reserved forests. The direct effect of 

 the new cutch rules will be the rapid 

 extinction of cutch trees on lands not 

 included in reserved forests and on 

 lands the reservation of which is not 

 contemplated, Even under the old 

 system of prepaid licenses the extinc- 

 tion of cutch trees on such lands would 

 have been merely a matter of time, as 

 the large areas to be patrolled and the 

 numerical weakness of the forest staff 

 would have militated against any syste- 

 matic protection of cutch trees, while 

 at the same time Government would 

 have been deprived of a large proportion 

 of its legitimate revenue. From the fore- 

 going remarks it will be seen that at the 

 present time cutch trees outside reserved 

 forests are undergoing the process of 

 rapid extinction ; this is inevitable, and 

 it would have been inevitable under the 



