Sso THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1888. 
tubs, the leaves in the trough are once more swept 
into the pau and reboiled, after which they are taken 
out and thrown outside to be afterwards cirried off 
to the pepper garden. The liquor left in the qualli 
from the second boiling is too weak to be converted 
into gambier, but is an excellent extract in which to 
boil up the next lot of green leaves. 
As soon as the extract in the small wooden tubs 
already spoken of is sufficiently cool to allow of the 
hand being placed in it, a very curious process of 
agitation is adopted by the Chinese which it is diffi- 
cult to clearly describe. The coolie squats before the 
tub, and plunges his half closed hand into i r s semi- 
fluid contents, and in the hollow thus formed by his 
hand ho incessantly works up and down a piece of 
light wood shaped like an elongated dicebox, the im- 
mediate effect of this treatment is to cause the gam- 
bier extract to thicken, in fact it sets up a process 
of crystallisation, the extract assumes a concrete 
form and becomes gambier. When it is quite cool it 
is turned out from the tub as from a mould and 
cubed with a knife, which, as a rule, is nude out of 
the iron hoopiug of a Manchester bale. The cubes 
are then put on coarse bamboo trays with wide 
meshes, the trays are placed in rudely constructed 
racks over the dapw and should be left there for 
four or five days to get smoke-dried. The cubes at 
the end of this time will have thrown off an immense 
percentage of water, and have become greatly re- 
duced in size. It is then packed in mats and sent 
off to one of the gambier houses fronting Boat 
Quay, one and all of which possess a capacious well 
of moderately dirty water. 
It is easy to distinguish good gambier. If sound 
ripe leaves are boiled for a sufficient number of hours, 
and if the cubes are made not too large and are 
properly smoke-dried, then the gambier will be de- 
livered into the godown in a hard compact mass 
weighing as near fifty catties as possible. There is 
some difficulty in stripping off the mat, the cubes 
are distinct and are of a good browioish black colour 
externally, and when broken will exhibit a deep ma- 
hogany red with an occasional streak of dark yellow; 
there is a total absence of steaminess about such 
gambier, and when it has been put through the press, 
the pools of water near the bed plate and pump will 
not be covered next morning with a milky white 
surface. 
In the ordinary run of gambier which merchants are 
now content to receive, there are no traces of cubing, 
and when cubes are to be discerned, they are of an 
extraordinary size, the colour is of an unclean white 
to a dirty pale yellow, and the mass frequently 
steams. There is a farce gone through at the press 
of " rejecting " bad stuff which is worse than useless, 
because it costs money, the " rejections " are all worked 
over again with mat scrapings and are rushed though 
the godown with unfailing success. Any one who will 
take the trouble to walk along Boat Quay, between Elgin 
Bridge and Coleman Bridge, will see "rejections" 
being worked over by the tou, not a catty of this 
beastly stuff is lost by the Chinese. " Rejections," of 
which our shipments are now so largely composed, are 
simply nothing much more than masses of putrescent 
boiled vegetable matter; it frequently shows Urge 
patches of a black or dirty blue colour, it cannot hold 
together but drops to pieces when handled, and often 
has a sour fetid smell. The fact is that the Chinamen, 
finding that anything will be accepted, boil down 
leaves which may be either too old or too young 
mixed up with useless shouts and twigs, the banysal 
proprietors save as much fire-wood as f h'y possibly can, 
it h ing one of their principal items of exp mditur-., 
the extract is not sufficiently boiled and the crude stuff 
will not crystallise properly. It is doubtful whether 
it can stand a few days smoke drying, but it is not 
put to this test however, for aft r a very brief course 
of a-vip, it is bundled up in mats and delivered in all 
haste to the merchant, who accepts it with results 
which must be best kuown to himself- 
A few words as to the general chemistry of gambier 
may be interesting. Roughly speaking, good gambier 
may bo said to contain betweon 40 p. c. and 50 p. c. 
of tannic acid, the other chief ingredient of gambier 
being a soluble gum; its action upon hides is to 
precipitate all their fatty and fleshy matter, leaving 
nothing but the imp ltrescible sub-,tance, that is to say, 
leather. Notwithstanding this precipitation, the hides 
take up so much gambier as to gain in weight by 
the process 
There is no space in this rapid sketch for any 
details about the working of the"Hongkek" or of 
adulteration of gambier with foreign matter, but the 
overloading of gambier with water, combined with 
what can only be c tile 1 the fraudulent method of its 
preparation, constitute adulteration of the worst and 
most destructive type. — Straits Times. 
THE DYES AND COLOURING MATERIALS OF 
THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
When Brazil, with its immense forests bordering 
upon tide-water, was first opened to foreign com- 
merce, the demand for its dyes a -id dye-stuffs was 
so great that no inconsiderable part of the revenues 
of the King of Portugal was derived from the roy- 
alties he exacted from the trade. 
In the case of the countries of the Eiver Plate, 
their mineral regions and forests were so remote from 
the sea-board, and the navigation of the Parana 
river was then so uncertain and so limited, that 
but little was known of their resources in dyes and 
dye-stuffs; and subsequently the facilities with which 
all these articles of prime importance in the textile 
arts have been procured from the Brazils and the 
countries of Central America have been so great, 
that but little scientific attention has thus far been 
paid to the class fication of such articles in these 
lines as this country affords. It is only in coun- 
tries where tex'ile manufactures are most flourishing 
that the art of dyeing is studied and applied iu 
its full significince, and in the absence of cotton 
and woollen mills in the Argentine Republic, the ma. 
terials for producing colours have rec-ivei but little 
application. There has been no demand for them 
either at home or abroad. 
Materials used foe Colouring. 
Under these conditions, and with such limited op- 
portunities for the use of colouring-matters in the 
textile arts, it is not strange that the Argentine 
Republic is almost an unexplored country in the 
matter of dyes and dye-stuffs. The full extent of 
its resources and possibilities in these respects can- 
only yet be conjectured ; but lately public attention 
has been somewhat directed to the subject, and Pro- 
fessor Max Siewart, the well known German scientist 
and chemist, now of the University of Cordoba, has 
devoted considerable attention to this department of 
chemistry. M. de Moussy, in his work in French, 
has also made extensive reference to the subject. 
Their researches and investigations, and especially 
some of the experiments of the former, seem to be 
of so much interest, not only to those who are en- 
gaged in textile manufactures, but also to those who 
are especially occupied with the chemistry of dyes 
and dye-stuffs, that Mr. Baker, the United States 
Consul at Buenos Ayres, has translated them, and 
we summarise his paper. 
Dyes : Cochineal. — This insect grows in the great- 
est abundance upon the opuntia of this country (the 
Argentine Repub'ic). If the people of the interior 
possessed more enterprise, the cochineal could be 
made to produce a splendid return and a most pro- 
fitable business. In all parts of the country the 
tunas or prickly pears ar« used for hedges or to 
protect vegetable gardens, but less in view of the 
production of cochineal than to harvest the fruit 
which is i-aten fresh or under the form of a thick 
s^rup or preserve, made by cooking it in copper 
vessels. In the province of Tucumin and other 
places, where the cochineal is gathered, it is crushed 
in woode i mortars, and afterwards, the paste is formed 
into little cakes, w'uc'i, when dried, are sold under 
the name of " grana " (scarlet). 
Vegetable Substances. 
It is difficult to give a clear explanation of the 
vegetable dye-stuffs which are in use in the different 
