THE 
MONTHLY 
Vol. IX. 
COLOMBO, JULY ist, 1889. 
[No: 1 
BARK FOR TANNING: THE BLACK 
WATTLE : A NEW INDUSTRY ? 
]E call attention to the letter 
of Mr. Tringham and the 
commercial report accompany- 
ing it on page 865, Vol. VIII. 
The information is not so full 
as we should like, but it is 
sufficient to be very sugges- 
tive of a "good thing" in cultivation. At 4 feet 
apart every way, Mr. Tringham could have 2,700 
trees of Acacia deeurrens (otherwise known as black 
wattle) to the acre. These yielded J cwt. of bark 
per tree at Si years old, or 34 tons per acre valued 
as per sample in London at £10 to £11 per ton. 
Surely there is margin enough here for a profit- 
able industry ? Mr. Tringham should give us some 
idea of his outlay in planting and harvesting, 
though very likely his experiment was on so 
small a scale as scarcely to afford a fair criterion 
of what 20, 50 or 100 acres would do? Thouga 
spoken of as " mimosa bark," it is wellknown that 
A. deeurrens with its rapid and enormous growth 
1 8 very different from the ordinary mimosas of 
our hedgerows in the lowcountry. The mimosa 
genus at one time included nearly a thousand 
different species. The Australian acacias are hug e 
trees, while the tropical mimosas are little more 
than shrubs. The most common tanning bark in 
use in India is that of Acacia arabica or " the 
babul bark," and as much as " 222 cwt. of tan- 
ners' bark " were exported in 1887 from Ceylon 
to British and French India; but from what 
description of tree this was taken, the Customs 
Report gives no hint. On the other hand, we 
learned from Mr. Vincent's Forest Report that th e 
" Valem Bark" exported to India from the Northern, 
Province was got from Acacia eucophlaia and was 
used in India in arrack distilleries. In 1887 as much 
as 9G0 cwt. of this bark were sent from the 
Northern Province. Is it used in any of the Ceylon 
distilleries ? 
In Australia, the bark next the Black Wattle 
most commonly used for tanning is that, of the 
Acacia melanoxylon, one of the most su' cessful 
in growth and most valuable for timber pur- 
poses of any Australian trees growing on our hill 
country. It is also a very rapid grower, spreading 
from the root, as may be seen in several gardens 
and plots of land about Nuwara Eliya, though 
it ia not so troublesome in this respect as Mr. 
Tringham's Acacia decurrms (black wattle). The 
point for practical men, however, is, which is the 
more profitable tree to cultivate ? Both are rapid 
growers for bark, and the value for tan- 
ning purposes of the product will be much about 
the same ? But we suspect the Black Wattle 
from the figures given by Mr. Tringham must 
be first in the race. On the other hand, there 
may be a question about the value of the 
respective timbers. On this point, . Mr. Tring- 
ham gives us no information, although we 
suppose the timber of the wattle trees at 
3§ years old must have been of value other 
than for firewood ? As regards the melanoxylon, 
the blackwood of Australia, its wood is hard and 
durable, the heartwood being dark brown and 
beautifully mottled, soft, shining and even- 
grained, conspicuously marked on a vertical 
section. In Australia this timber is used for 
cabinet work, coach building, railway carriages, 
&C; but in the Nilgiris, curiously enough, it is 
neglected and thought only fit for firewood. The 
late Rev, W. Oakley showed us a bookcase made 
of the wood of A, melanoxylon which was not 
only hard and substantial, but beautifully 
marked, so as to be superior to nadoon, and 
almost equal in appearance to calamander. Both 
the Acacias (deeurrens or black wattle and melan- 
oxylon or black wood) are clearly worth cultivating 
especially in our higher regions Mr. Tring- 
ham will no doubt give the preference to the 
black wattle, and if tanning bark be the object in 
view, it is apparently, the best. If indeed, 30 tons 
of bark can be taken off an acre of land after 
four years' growth of this tree from seed, and 
the same be worth £300 laid down in London, 
while the timber is useful as fuel if nothing else, 
not a few of our planters we should think 
will go in for planting their reserves with black 
wattle (Acacia deeurrens). But let them be care- 
ful by a big trench or ditch around the 
wattle reserve, to prevent the roots passing into 
their tea or cinchona fields. The question we 
should like Mr. Tringham now to answer is 
what outlay per acre may be estimated against 
the £300 gross return ? It seems to us that even 
taking an outside figure, the margin left would 
be wide enough to provoke a planting rush 
into " wattles " 1 But then, the other ques- 
