JUNE I, l88§.] 
THP TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
827 
A NEW COLONIAL INDUSTRY: 
THE SEASONING OF TIMBER. 
A large number of influential gentlemen on Tues- 
day met at the hall of the City Bank to hear an 
explanation of the method of a patent now being in- 
troduced by Mr. Leon Resier, naviag tor its object 
the seasoning of Australian timber. It has previously 
Deen the practice to pile timber and allow it to remain 
stored, but as this system occupies from a couple of 
mouths to several years the native timber industry 
has not hitherto been altogether a success. It is claimed 
that by Mr. Resier's prooess timber can be thoroughly 
seasoned aud made fit for the most artistic woodwork 
in from six to eight days. The timber after being sub- 
jected to the process does not deteriorate, but rather 
improves, in quality, and after being put into use will 
not shrink, as does much of the timber at present 
used. Mr. Resier gave specimens of his efforts, 
and the professional and practical experts unhesitat- 
ingly pronounced the process to be a great success, 
Baron von Mueller, who was amongst those present 
examined the soasoned timber microscopically and 
tested it as to strength, subsequently expressing a 
very favourable opinion to the patentee. Baron von 
Mueller discussed the importance of the discovery to 
all the colonies, and said he believed an outlet which at 
present did not exist would be established through the 
means of the process in various parts of the world for 
Australasian timber. Mr. Resier was also complimented 
on his success by others of those present. Negoti- 
ations are pending to float a Company to work the patent 
ou an extensive scale. As the manufacture of parquet 
requires the very best seasoned wood, several specimens 
of parquet, which were made in 10 dajs out of green 
timber, were shown. The new company is to be called 
the Australian Timber Seasoning and Parquet Manu- 
facturing Company Limited, and the headquarters will 
be in Melbourne. Specimens of the wood can be seen 
at Garraway's Land Auction Rooms, Queen's-walk. 
Further information will be supplied by Mr. Resier, the 
patentee, or Messrs. A. D. Hunter and Co., Queen's- 
walk. — Leader. 
THE ADULTERATION OF THE 
ADULTERANTS. 
A prosecution for adulteration lately disposed of 
by the Burton magistrates is far more suggestive 
than would at first sight appear. The defendant 
was a local grocer, whose "olive oil," under a 
little tender pressure, disclosed an indebtedness of 
50 per oent. to the less suave product of the 
cotton-pod. The Bench appears to have been more 
or less satisfied with the retailer's personal bona 
fides, for it imposed only a nominal fine. But in 
the course of the proceedings the inspector who 
had instituted them gravely informed the magis- 
trates that " it had come to the knowledge of the 
Government that cotton-seed oil was being im- 
ported into Italy on an extensive scale," — of 
course for translation into the native growth of 
the olive-producing districts. As little more than 
eighteen months have elapsed since the British 
Consul at Leghorn reported exhaustively upon this 
fraud, the vigilance and activity of the authorities 
are worthy of commendation. 
But while the official mind has been thus post- 
ing itself, the mora nimble professors of adulter- 
ation have not been idle. The alliance between 
olive and cotton-seed oils is now complicated by 
the admission of " other and cheaper oils" to the 
compact. In the year 1883 two million and a 
half tons of cotton-seed (in excess of the amount 
required for planting) produced in the United 
States were practically wasted because the trade 
in the oil had not then been created. Today the 
demand for this product is so enormous that, 
even in the character of an adulterant it is itself 
adulterated by the admixture of more questionable 
oils. In this respect cotton-seed oil has followed 
the exact oourse takea by chicory in its com- 
mercial connection with coffee. As soon as the 
English public had satisfied itself that coffee " as 
in France " was acceptable to the palate, and 
that a little chicory was perhaps an improvement, 
the demand for the addition speedily outran the 
supply. The chicory-root became too dear for 
profitable use, and one firm alone used several 
hundred tons of carrots and parsnips in adulter- 
ating it. But the public mind seems systematically 
unable to realize the fact of the second and far 
more serious substitution. It rests upon the old 
official platitude, " The public is cheated rather 
than poisoned." Reassured by analysis and reports 
upon the comparative innocence of the prime, or 
nominal, adulterant, it never occurs to many 
persons that this itself presently becomes the 
object of as much substitution as the original 
commodity. The prinoiple involved will appear 
clearly in a tabulated form ; though the following 
outline is given only by way of illustration, and 
not as being in any sense comprehensive even in 
respect of the articles mentioned : — 
Ostensible 
Commodity. Nominal Adulterant. Actual Ingredients. 
Olive oil.... Cotton-seed oil Other and cheaper oils. 
Coffee Chicory... ■ Carrots, parsnip-i, ground 
date-stones, burnt, maize, 
etc. 
) Ground olive-stones 1 Maize, flour, palm-ker- 
J (poivrette) J nel, dried potatoes, etc. 
■ Animal fats andoilsA 
justified as being I Made from the refuse 
made from the > that cannot be more 
prime fat of heal- \ profitably disposed of. 
epper 
Butter 
Cheese 
Lard.. 
Jams 
thy animals . 
Cotton-seed and 
other oils and fats 
" Inferior fruits".. 
Raspberry 1 " Fruit substitutes^ 
Jelly 
Honey . 
Stearme and " many de- 
leterious stuffs." 
Vegetables substitutes of 
various binds, gingelly 
seeds, and "jam colour- 
ing." 
" Oil of vitriol, impura 
glucose, algine, aniliue 
and raspberry ether."* 
A syrup made from maize Various soraohes 
treated with oxalic 
acid. 
The manufacture of wine and spirits is far too 
complicated to be thus dealt with. But it follows 
the principle laid down. The public, and eveu the 
authorities themselves, are cajoled with a few 
leading adulterants, admittedly innocuous ; while 
these are supplemented by a host of more or less 
injurious accessories, the application of which 
belongs to the innermost chemical seorets of the 
several trades. In the matter of wine it is dis- 
tressing to leara that the worst practices prevail 
with regard to so-called "health-wines." So out- 
rageous have been the proceedings of Spanish wine 
growers, that the Ministry of Public Works in 
Madrid has lately ordered the erection of twenty 
chemical laboratories in as many of the chief wine- 
producing districts. At this moment it is not very 
reassuring to be told by a writer upon the marvellous 
products of coal, that we can by means of some of 
them obtain " wine without grapes, beer without 
malt, preserves without either fruit or sugar, per- 
fumes without flowers, and dyes without the 
vegetable or animal substances from which they 
have been hitherto chiefly derived." 
America has been charged with practising adulter- 
ation on a larger scale than any other country. 
But, truth to tell, there is not much to choose 
between the New World and the Old. A report 
upon the " falsification of foods," lately published 
in Germany, discloses practices which it is to be 
f eared are n ot confined to any particular country. 
* "Hard to distinguish, from a natural raspberry jelly." 
—American Analyst. 
