Nov. 2, 1903.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
303 
THE MACHINE USED. 
It is rather diifi 'ult, in the absence of diagramg, to 
describe the machine, wliich I nuderatand is lirgely 
used ia thu P.iilippiues to extract the n^lanil* fibre. 
It is a simple coutrivance. For a full description of it 
I woald refer all interested iti the subject to tlie BuUetia 
wiitten by Mr. Proudlook, Curator of the Government 
Botanical G i rdeas, Nilgiri?, and sold by th* Govern- 
ment Press, Midras, for a few annas. It contains all 
the inforra^tioQ needed, and has diagrams to ill'istrate 
the remarks made about the machine. I have not a 
cppv at h ind to refer to at presant. The principal pirt 
of the machine is the knife, which is about 4 in. broad 
and 26 in. long; h ilf of this leae;th forms the blade, 
and the other half the handle. The handle springs 
from the blade at an angle of about 30°, the handle and 
the blade forming one continnous pieca of iron or steel. 
To get an idea of the shape of the knife a two-foot 
measuring rule with hinge may be taken and opened 
out to its full length and placed on a table. One-half 
should be held by the one hand and the other half help 
by the other hand ; then one side of the rule should 
hi raised up till an angle of 3i)0 be formed, when the 
snapa of the fibre-extracting knife will appear. The 
edge of the knife must be blunt, and must re.'-.t on an 
iron plate, which must be exactly parallel with the 
blant edge of the knife so as to fit very closely to it. 
The iron pi .te ehould be j in. thick and 1.5 in. long 
and 3 in. broad. This should be fixed with screws 
to a C105S beam of any ordinary kind of wood. This 
beam shouM be held up from the ground about 3 ft. by 
two upright poles fl- ralv fix-;d in the ground. 
THE SCRAPING KNIFE. 
The knife has a hole in the centre close to the point 
where the handle turns up from the blade into which a 
bolt is put, thereby making this the pivot on which the 
knife moves. To hold the knife, a piece of wood is 
fi.xed into the cross beam, having a groove in it, into 
which the knife is put, and the bolt put through. Thii 
secures the knife in its place and allows it to work. A 
feiv inches along the handle another piece of wood is 
fiued into the cros-i beam, h iving a'so a groove in it 
ill which the hamUa works, this is to prevt-nt the 
oscillation of the knife sidew lys when the knife is in 
action. Th n at the end of the handle futthe-it a vay 
from the blade there is a hole to which a rope is tied ; 
this rope goes two ways, upwards to a bamboo spring 
to which it is fastened, and downwirds to a foot- pole 
on the level, or near the level of the ground. The 
spring is mide with an ordinary piece of bimb lo, 
which is f.'.stened to poles fixed in the earth. The 
spring has an upward pull, and keeps the knife tight 
on the iron plate, and can be regulated by shortening 
or tightening the ropH that connt^ots it with the knife. 
WORKING THR MACHINE. 
When a strip is taken to be ex.racted, the foot is 
placed on the foot-pole and pressed down, this has the 
effect of opr'nins: the knife. The half of the strip is 
pliced under the knife, the foot is taken off the foot- 
pjle and the knifn closes tight on ihe strip. The 
Htrip is then pulled through several times, as men- 
tioned already. The other half is treated in the same 
w.iy. I am not satisfied, however, with the michine, 
as it is som ^what wasteful of the fibre. It appears to 
me that the loss of fibre it causes might be saved 
by the use of som3 device which will loosen the stem- 
matter from the fibre before the knife is put in action, 
and thus make it easy for the knife to extract alt the 
fibre in the stem without any loss whatever. I hope 
to experiment on this at an early date. 
Tho fibre of all the plantains cultivated for fruit is 
useful for making cordige. Once the public realise 
that cords and rop'-s made from this kind of fi'ire are 
strong and can be utilised for the many purpos -s that 
hemp ropes are used, thev will not he"itatH to spend 
mont-y in buying them. There is an extensive m irket 
for ropes in Iiidiii, and then there is the demand that 
may be created i i European conntries for tho fibre as 
soon aa a sufficient supply is forthcomiug.: — 21adras 
THE COMMERCIAL USES OF TUB IN- 
DIAN ACACI.AS. 
A considerable trade is at present done ia India 
in the export of gum^. which find a ready maikat 
in Europe and America. The most important gum- 
yielding trees are the acacias, ani consequently con- 
siderable intere-)t from this point of view attaches 
to an article dealing with the Indian acacias, pub- 
lished in a special number of the "Agricultural 
Lsdger,^' 1903, 
Acacia Arabica. — This tree is widely distributed 
throughout Ind a. it is cultivated on a light, sandy 
loam, and grows well, even in the preienoe of a 
fairly large percent ii;e of alkili salts. Wnea young 
the tree yiells yeirly from 4 to 20 oz. of a soluble 
light yellow or reddish gum ; the product from 
very old trees is darker coloured and somewhat less 
soluble in water. The gum, as at present produced, 
is of no value for confectionery purposes, is no, 
where sufficiently abundant to become a famine food, 
and is generally usel in calico printing. The bark 
of the treo i-i extensively employed in Indii as a 
tanning m iterial, the quality of the bark deteriorates 
after the tree i-i fr im 10 to 12 years old, and owing 
to the sm ill percentage of tannin contained even in 
the bark of young trees the manufacture of tannin 
extract for export would not be profitable. 
The pods and leaves are valuable as a cattle fodder, 
and they are also used medicin illv as an astringent. 
The fact that Acacia arabica will grow even in 
presence otalkili sxlts renders it particularly valu- 
able in India, where large tracts of alkali lands 
occur. 
The so-o:illed arable or acicia gums may be 
divided into three classes:— («) Gum arable of 
Earopsin commerce. (6) Bl ist Inlian gum arable, 
(c) Indian gum ai-abic. The first comprises the pro- 
duct of Acacia Senegal, from the French colony of 
Senegal, a yellow or slightly reddish gQm;K)cdofan 
or Turkey gam, exported from districti on the 
upper Nile, a colourless gnin, completely soluble 
in witer; and Suik'niand iljgador gums, inferior 
products exported from the northern districts of 
Africa. The sei'ond class: — E ist I-idia gum, is ira- 
pjrteJ into B)mb.iy from Aden and the Bed Sea 
port-;, and having been picked and sorted, is 
re-exported; it. is usually a good solnble gum of 
a white to slightly reddish colour. The third class: 
Indian gum arable, generally known as " Gum 
Ghitti," is a mixture of acacia gunn, of variable 
qa-iUty. the supei'ior properties of the products of 
Ac icia Siiiec/al, /i. catechu, and A. jaaquemontii being 
spjin by the presen>^d of interior gum j ieriv ^d from 
other trees. In some parts of S )uthern India ha'id- 
picking and sorting is n iw praoiised, and a better 
trade is being done. 
The followioa figures taken from the " Agricultural 
Lelger," 191)2, give the export of Indian gum arable 
during the past five years : — 
CWts, 
1896-7 
.. 58,769 ... 
... 91,979 
1897-8 
... 46,.52.o . . 
... 69,412 
1893-9 
... 41,469 ... 
. . 60,412 
1899-00 
... 46.254 .. 
... 5L.39S 
19 '0-01 
... 37,553 ... 
.. 46,659 
In 1900-1901, 2,355 cwt. of Eist India gum were im- 
ported from Afric i and Bed Ssa ports, and 12,171 cwts. 
exported, the diffeience being due probably to adul- 
teration with Indian gum arabic. 
Acacia c itecbu. —The gum p oduced by this tree is of 
a pile yellow colour, it is soluble in water, and more 
ne u'ly resembles true gum aribic than does that of 
Acacix arabica. The timber is only used for the pre- 
paration of cutck, although it ia a hard and durable 
wood, takes a fine polish, and aeasooa well. 
