234 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October b, 1889. 
of Oassa leaves. The price realized on the spot is 
80s. per owt., a rate far beyond its worth in the 
home market, so that the article never finds its way 
to England. Surprise has often been expressed that 
it has not been sent home in quantity, but the fact 
last mentioned furnishes the required explanation. 
Lawsonia Inermis. — This sweet-smelling tree, the 
Maritonda of the Tamils and the Henna of the 
Arabs,* grows plentifully in the western and northern 
parts of the island. Its leaves are extensively used 
by the Muhamadan women to dye their nails red 
and their husbands are accustomed to employ it in 
staining the tails and manes of their horses. It 
might be made an artiole of considerable export. 
Memecylon Tinctorium. — The Gorakaha of the 
Singhalese and Gassa of the Tamils is to be found 
over the whole face of the country, and is a perfect 
substitute for Sumach, to which it is in reality 
superior both as a dyeing and tanning material. The 
leaves should be gathered and dried, in the nuts 
when they will turn yellow and emit the exact 
odour of Sumaoh. The annual import into England 
is about 14,000 tons, with an aggregate value of 
£150,000, so the article is one of very considerable 
importance. The young twigs may be gathered and 
ground up with the leaves for shipment. 
Bixa Orellana. — The shrub which yields this use- 
ful dye is a favorite with Bhudist priests, and is 
usually found growing near their pansalas. The 
coloring matterf is contained in the casing of the 
seeds, and can be obtained in the simplest manner. 
It is only necessary to wash them until no more 
color can be obtained, and then carefully boil down 
the liquor to an extract. The seeds give out a very 
large proportion of color, and as the cake is worth 
over a shilling per lb., it would pay very well to 
prepare it. It is used to impart a rich orange tint 
to silk, and for giving a golden color to butter. It 
is sent from Brazil and Cayenne in the shape of 
square cakes weighing two or three lb. each wrapped 
in plantain leaves or in rolls, not exceeding two 
or three ounces. Exporters of such articles from 
new countries would do well to imitate as much as 
possible the prevailing style of packing and ship- 
ping, or their first venture is likely to be disregarded 
in the home market. 
The above are the principal Dye Stuffs in the 
island, but a thorough examination of its resources 
in this respect might bring many new articles to 
light. The leaves of the Teak tree make a tolerable 
red, and yellows of more or less intensity are furnished 
by several kinds of bark, and the wood of the Acacia 
Catechu, the fruit of the Enibryopteris Glutinifera 
and the barks of the Mangrove and Terminalia Alata 
make excellent browns. An easy method of detect- 
ing the presence of coloring matter in any vegetable 
substance may be practised as follows : — Take a 
piece of wool, either cloth or yarn, with two per 
cent of its weight of alum, and an equal quantity, 
of bichromate of potash. Boil the wool for twenty 
minutes, then take it out, wash it in clean water, and 
hang it up in the shade to dry. It is now mordanted 
or ready to receive the dye, and it is only necessary 
to immerse it in boiling water again, with three or 
four times its weight of chips, bark or leaves, as the 
case may be, and in the course of half-an-hour the 
coloring matter, if it exist at all, will have been 
taken up by the cloth. There are some dyes which 
have a stronger affinity for Cotton, but the cases 
are rare in which they are not to be exhibited on 
wool. In such instances the cloth to be dyed must 
be worked about for half-an-hour in a decoction of 
Sumaoh or other astringent substance, and then re- 
• I'opulaly known as the " country mignonotte," 
from the odour of the flowers. — Ed. 
f The "arnotto" of commerce.— Ed. 
peatedly immersed in a cold infusion of the supposed 
dye, care being taken to dry it after each immer- 
sion. In this manner, at scarcely any expense and 
at small cost of labour, the existence of coloring 
matters may be easily ascertained. That point being 
settled, the rest is for the consideration of the 
merchant and the manufacturer. 
OILS. 
The climate and soil of Ceylon seems pecu- 
liarly favorable for the growth of oil seeds. It 
produces a great quantity of indigenous fatty 
substances, as well as a number of vola- 
tile oils. It is needless to say much upon 
the wellknown subject of coconut, the oil pro- 
cured from which ranks first in the scale of 
importance. An acre of land under native cul- 
tivation will yield from forty to fifty nuts a tree 
annually, but in estates planted by Europeans, 
the average is not above ten to a tree. * The 
weight of the nut varies very much. In some 
cases but little more than 1,000 make up the 
candy of 560 lb., whilst again there are plantations 
where 1,500 are required. If 1,250 are assumed 
to be the average, then the European cultivator 
gets a candy from an acre and a half, whilst the 
native realises a ton from the same breadth of 
soil. The price of "copperah," as the kernel of 
the nut is termed, may be set down at 70s a 
candy or £2 7s per acre in the one case and over 
£d in the other, t Seven and a half candies of 
copperah go to the production of a ton weight of oil, 
worth in the local market say £30 in the average. 
The manufacture of coconut-oil is a very 
simple affair. The nuts are plucked every second 
month in the dry season, and after being kept 
in a heap for a few days, the outer husk is 
taken off, the shell broken, and the kernel put 
out in the sun. Bain discolors it, but when 
carefully dried it will keep for months without 
injury. To convert it into oil by the native 
method, the copperah is cut into small pieces and 
put into the cheeko, which is a part of the 
trunk of a tree, sunk in the ground to the depth 
of some feet, and hollowed out for about 18 
inches at the top. A beam twenty feet long is 
fitted into a groove at the bottom of the checko 
by a sort of a collar, and the pestle, a heavy piece 
of wood, is secured to the beam by a shifting con- 
trivance. The machine is merely a druggist's 
mortar and pestle on a large scale, but rude as it is, 
it is so efficacious, that only a hydraulic machinery 
of the very best kind can extract more from the 
copperah. ' Nor is it really worth while to exert 
more pressure, as the oil cake is worth 25 per 
cent of the value of copperah, and if it is too 
dry it is proportionately less nutritious for the 
cattle. A full-sized checko will hold 561b. of 
copperah, and it takes about two hours to exhaust 
a charge. The oil is sent to market very dull 
in color, and contains much more impurities than 
the article turned out by English machinery, but it 
commands almost if not quite as good a price 
and is produced at a cost which beats all com- 
petition. To beat the largest and best appointed 
machinery that can be established, it is merely 
necessary to multiply the number of cheokos, and 
whether in the outlay in plant, or the expenses 
in working the native has it hollow. In the 
one case, deterioration alone costs ten per cent 
* A strangely erroneous statement. The yield in 
the case of European plantations, unless in excep- 
tionally unfavourable conditions, is by far. the higher, 
and is only limited by the amount of culture and 
manuring bestowed on the trees. — Ed. , 
f Could such a contrast ever have been true?— Ed. 
