February i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
703 
to land in a 
it to animal 
various insect: 
alone — and if 
fresh animal 
quantity and i 
are re 
lime v 
it is 111 
and a 
take n 
IN THE UNITED STATES OP 
COLOMBIA. 
2nd Dec. 1881.) 
Led on in Colombia 
■ade accounts of that 
the export of this 
ear, the greater part 
ates. Consul Smith, 
{jives an interesting 
{Journal of the Society c 
A very considerable trade 
in gathering india-rubber, an- 
country show a large increi 
article' for l.sso over the pre 
of it being consigned to the Ui 
of Carthagena, in his recent 
account of the system purused by the rubber hunters in 
collecting this article, and, at tiie same time, calls at- 
tention to the wasteful custom they have of cutting 
down every tree from which they extract the rubber in- 
stead of tapping them ; in this way all the trees near 
the rivers have been long since destroyed, and the hunters 
have mi , to go several days' journey into the forests, 
■tossing swamps and mountains before they can find the 
rubber and bring it out on their backs over these rough 
trail*.. Each Buccee ling year the quantity gathered "is 
less, and it is a matter of surprise that the Colombian 
Government has not enforced its regulations a"ainst the 
systematic destruction of one of the most valuable forest 
pees. The trees which yiel I the largest supply flourish 
along the hanks of the Sinu and Aslalo Rivers. The 
hunter.-, before entering the woods, pro\i!e themselves 
with guns, ammunition, Hour, salt, and tobacco. The 
Jour is made from plantains, which are cut into slices, 
dried and | round, and is- generally mixed with com meal ; 
this will keep sweet for mouths. For meat the hunters 
Ben 1 upon the game they can kill. Each man starts 
fent with his gun and machete alone, hunting for rubber 
and game. As soon as a rubber tree is found he cleans 
a Space round the trunk, cutting away all vines, under- 
bnsli, ..c, and again marches off hi search of more 
robber lives, not returning to camp till nightfall. Ac- 
cord in to immemorial custom, a tree belongs to him 
Bo has cut round it. The hunt is continued until all 
the tree* in the vicinity of the camp are thus secured, 
•Oil then begins the work of gathering the lubber. A 
bale is dug in the ground near the nil. her trees, unless 
BUothei party is encamped near, in that ca-e the holes 
We dug mar the camp. The bark of the tree is first 
hacked with a "machete" as high as a man can reach, 
n cuts being in the form of a V, and the milk, or 
■1 collected as ii exudes, and put into the hide which 
Us been dug for it. Alter the sap ceases to How from 
the cuts, a pile of wool or brush is made at the foot 
•I tllt> tree, and the tree itself is chopped down, the 
^HPOB keeping one end of the tree off the ground, 
•Ad the piles of Wood at the foot of the tree doing I he 
same 111 1 ie other end, thus the tree is suspended. The 
OBnter, after ciircfulh placing large leaves on the ground 
undo 1 lie tree, pr eds to cut gashes in the Link through- 
out its whole length. The sup is collected from the 
tree and from the leaves placed under it, and added to 
the milk first collected. The sap when it llrst exudes 
Bum the tree i. as white as milk and as thick as cream, 
but it soon turn- black on exposure to air and light, if 
JOOt properly wa'.che I and cared for. The quantity of 
milk Inch i* put iiuo one hob., depends not only in 
the Bi/.e of the tree-, and their distance apart, but also 
HI the strength of the man who is to carry the rubber 
ate. The lmrtfulucss of I from camp to the rivers, and the track and trail he 
fe is even doubtful, for must carry it over. As soon as the milk is placed in 
ive and thrive in hot lime the hole, the rubber is coagulated by the addition of 
the power of corroding some substance, such as the root of " mechvacan," hard 
substances when laid in . soap, or other substances, and these cause the milk to 
icdiate contact; witli it — coagulate so fast as to prevent escape of the water, 
1 animals and vegetables which is always present hi the fresh sap, and as the 
proving the fact that hot rubber and water will not mix, a piece of rubber coagul- 
iftect on vegetables, when ated in this manner is full of small cells containing 
bed or suspended in water, water. It costs no more to make the rubber perfectly 
ges and combination that [ clear and transparent as amber, in which case it is in- 
finitely moro valuablo, than to make it full of holes, 
water and dirt. As soon as all the rubber trees are 
cut down, and the rubber coagulated, the pieces are 
strapped on the backs of the hunters, by thongs of 
bark, and carried by them out to the bank of the river, 
and brought to market by canoe or raft. Consul Smith 
says, in concluding his report, that the importance of 
the india-rubber tree, in connection with the many and 
useful purposes to which it is now applied, can hardly 
be estimated, and that the attention of the planters of 
Colombia lias never been turned to its cultivation, and 
he expresses an opinion that a good field for investment 
lies in this direction, as a plantation of india-rubber trees 
would prove a most valuable source of profit. There 
are places 011 the Sinu river where the trees will grow 
from eight to ten inches in diameter hi three or four 
years from the planting of the seed ; the trees require 
but little attention, and begin to give returns as soon, 
if not sooner, than other trees. 
NEW PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING TANNIN BY 
DIALYSIS. 
BY O. KOHLBAUSCH. 
Dingl. polyt. J., 210, 72-75. From the Journal of the 
Chemical Society, Sept. 1881. 
Some time ago it was proposed to prepare tannin ex- 
tracts in Hungary, from a variety of barks and woods, 
especially chestnut wood and oak. The author has 
thoroughly investigated this question, and succeeded in 
devising a process of extracting tannin hi almost theo- 
retical quantities from different kinds of bark. The mode 
of procedure, necessary apparatus, and plant are described 
in detail. With regard to the experimental part of the 
paper, the author concludes that as in tanning the tan- 
nin enters the skin by osmosis, it similarly leaves the 
cells of plants through their permeable membrane, chem- 
ical and microscopical examination having shown that 
the interior of the uninjured cells is the same as the 
exterior of thick bark which had already been utilized. 
II is therefore not the solution of the tannin set free by 
finely dividing the bark, and taken up by the skins, but 
dialysis of the tannin through the permeable membrane 
of the plant cells, and also through the animal membrane 
of the skin. Hence it is not requisite to divide the 
bark into very small particles, but pieces may be use.l 
with advantage which are small enough to allow tho 
dialysing operation to take place in a battery «i closed 
vessels, thus avoiding any danger of choking up the valves 
or pipes of the apparatus. The result is that purer ex- 
tract- are obtained in u more economical manner, so 
that lighter coloured leather is produce I ; and if the freshly 
prepan 
■d extracts 
used at once, the author believes 
that considerably less of the tannin in a fresh acti.e 
state will be required for tanning. Experiments have 
shown that tannin posses through the animal membrane 
verv rapidly in the onlyser; that in a short Interval fine 
extracts ruii from u battery; and that the residual bark 
(of the size of peas) is almost entirely fret' from tannic acid. 
OIL OB PEPPERMINT" 
Baton Hull. tin. From New Remediet, Sept. 1881. 
The peppermint crop , f the I'nit. d States bus, for the 
lust fe.v year*, reaehc I the amount of 70.IXH) pounds pur 
year, of which a' o-r. SO.IKKI po inds wen- annually ex 
