302 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov,  2,  1896. 
The  prospacts  of  the  native  cardamom  cultivatora 
are  extremely  gloomy.  Ov\ing  to  several  causes, 
the  cultivators  have  been  having  a bad  time  of  it 
lately.  Falling  prices,  the  enfranchisement  of  their 
slaves  which  necessities  payment  of  labour,  and 
bad  seasons,  have  all  combined  to  render  it  impossible 
for  many  of  the  lessees  to  pay  the  rent  they  covenanted 
to  six  years  ago.  ^ So  bad  has  been  their  condition 
that  tl'e  Local  Government  has  had  to  allow  a 
large  number  to  resign  and  the  condition  attached 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  resignation  viz-,  the 
payment  of  all  arrears,  has  been  found  difficult  to 
enforce. 
It  is  a matter  of  extreme  regret  that  a compara- 
tively large  number  of  families  should  lose  their 
principal  means  of  livelihood,  but  it  is  useless 
for  the  State  to  endavour  to  oppose  the  laws  of 
economics.  Want  of  capital  prevents  these  small 
male  holders  from  cultivating  and  curing  their 
cardamoms  in  a paying  way.  The  outturn  is  so 
poor  in  quality  that  it  necessarily  fetches  a very 
low  price  when  the  beautifully  cured  capsule  of  the 
English  grower  is  competing  with  it,  and  the  problem 
will  soon  work  itself  out  with  this  result,  that  the 
producers  of  native  cured  cardamoms  will  become 
fewer  and  fewer,  until  the  produce  they  put  on  the 
market  only  suffices  for  the  demand.  For,  strange 
to  say,  despite  its  inferior  value  and  condition, 
there  is  still  a demand  for  this  kind  and  always 
will  be,  as  long  as  there  are  people  who,  though 
desirous  of  purchasing,  can  only  afford  to  pay  low 
prices  and  must  therefore,  perforce,  put  up  with 
an  inferior  article.  The  slow  extinction  of  the  male 
holder  is  a serious  loss  to  the  Forest  lleveuue,  but, 
I fear,  go  he  must,  and  the  Department  must  look 
around  for  some  fresh  source  of  revenue  to  make 
us  the  deficit. 
G.  H.  FosTEit. 
Indian  Forester. 
♦ 
SILK  FROM  TIMBER. 
Applied  science  is  rapidly  undermining  the  few 
scraps  of  sentiment  that  are  still  associated  with  our 
daily  life.  The  scents  that  we  fondly  imagine  to  be 
distilled  from  the  sweet  breathing  children  of  Pdora 
are  in  reality  extracts  from  coal  tar,  and  even  worse. 
The  raspberry  flavour  in  our  confectionery  is  a pro- 
duct of  benzol,  with  a name  about  thirty  syllables  in 
length  ; essence  of  pineapple  is  just  acetate  of 
some  dreadful  hydrocarbon  compound.  Finally,  our 
silks  and  satins,  once  spun  from  the  dainty  gossamer 
of  the  silkworm,  are  henceforth  to  be  got  (para- 
doxically) from  cotton,  saw’dust,  timber,  wood  pulp, 
and  such  like  unsentimental  sources.  The  Society 
of  Chemical  industry  met  aud  gloated  over  this 
last  fact  the  other  evening.  The  process  has 
already  made  such  strides  in  Ph-ance  that  many  of  the 
extra-gorgeous  silks  in  Regent  Street  this  season  are 
said  to  be  spun  from  liquid  timber.  Science  is  never 
content  with  equalling  nature  ; she  likes  to  go  one 
better  and  (so  the  new  timber  silks  are  much  more 
glossy’ than  those  of  the  ancient  worm  and  take  richer 
shades  of  (aniline)  dye.  It  is  interesting  tol  earn, 
however,  that  in  nearly  every  detail  of  his  new  silk- 
making ’process  che  chemical  engineer  has  simply 
imitated  nature-  The  gossamer  of  the  silkworm,  the 
spider,  and  the  rest  of  the  si)inuing  invertebrates  is 
really 'nothing  but  a kind  of  natural  liquid  gum  or 
varnish  exuded  from  fine  pores  of  microscopic 
aperture.  If  yo'i  want  to  see  how  a sticky 
liquid  can  be  drawn  out  into  threads  you 
have  only  to  dip  a needle  into  treacle  or 
syrup,  and  pull  it  gently  out  again,  slightly  twisting 
the  sticky  thread  at  the  same  time.  Only,  the  sticky 
threads  that  ooze  out  of  the  spinning  ducts  of  the  silk- 
worm are  so  fine  that  you  can  hardly  see  them  with- 
out a lens,  and  they  have  the  advantage  of  instantly 
drying  into  a delicate  elastic  fibre.  When  a consider- 
able number  of  these  are  twisted  together  we  get  the 
well-known  filament  which  the  silkworm  uses  to  wrap 
round  her  cocoon  and  the  spider  to  weave  her  web. 
Now  the  chemist  has  imitated  this  sticky  fluid  which 
is  so  easily  drawn  into  microscopic  threads  and 
instantaneously  dries  as  it  escapes  into  the  air 
He  first  of  all  prepares  a kind  of  gun-cotlno 
by  trealiog  cotton  or  wood-fibre  with  nitro- 
sulphuric  acid,  just  as  if  he  were  going  to 
make  smokeless  powder,  or  celluloid,  or  other  lovely 
modern  product.  Then  he  stews  this  in  cylinders  for 
some  ours  with  alcohol  and  ether,  which  practically 
converts  it  into  collodion.  The  latter  emerges  as  a 
sticky  fluid,  like  thick  gum.  This  is  pumped  thi’ough 
pipe.s  to  spiuuing  machines,  aud  emerges  at  each 
machine  from  a fine  glass  nipple.  Each  nipple 
answers  to  one  of  the  pores  of  the  silkworm.  Some 
ten  or  tw-elve  delicate  threads  are  drawn  from  these 
nipples,  combined  together  and  spun  into  a thread 
no  thicker  than  human  hair.  You  have  now  a 
fine  to:  gh  thread  composed  of  a sort  of  dried 
gelatine,  which  is  somewhat  akin  to  the  nitro- 
gelatiiie  employed  for  blasting  purposes.  It  would 
never  do  for  ladies  to  go  about  in  explosive 
or  at  least  highly  inflamable  stuff  of  this  sort  for 
obvious  reasons.  So  the  “silk”  is  next  ,‘de-nitrified,” 
which  puts  it  all  right,  and  it  is  then  stretched  and 
“ironed”  until  it  takes  on  even  a higher  gloss  than 
the  natural  article.  Then  it  is  handed  over  as  yarn 
to  the  weaver,  and  we  need  not  follow  its  further 
progress,  which  ends  in  the  costumer’-s  window. 
All  tliii  seems  to  clover  that  one  can  hardly  be- 
lieve 1C.  But  there  is  the  silk  actually  on  the 
market.  It  is  nearly  as  strong  as  natural  silk  and 
a great  deal  cheaper,  although  we  don’t  suppose 
ladies  will  find  the  difference  in  their  dressmaking 
bills.  'The  homo  of  this  novel  manufacture  is  at 
present  at  Besaiicon,  in  France,  but  they  are  buil- 
ding large  mills  for  it  in  Lancashire. 
To  THE  Editok  of  the  “ D.uly  Geapuic.’ 
Sir, — I have  read  with  interest  your  leader  on 
“ Silk  from  Wood,”  but  unless  ihe  process  you  refer 
to  is  very  different  from  the  last  two  or  three 
patents  taken  out,  I am  afraid  it  will  prove  a fiasco. 
I speak  from  experience,  having  used  for  the  last 
thirty-five  years  silk  of  all  aorta  and  I maintain  that 
it  is  impoaaible  to  get  an  artificial  silk  yarn  out  of 
wood  pulp. 
The  process  is  very  ingenion.s,  and  the  results  in 
the  “yarn”  are  very  good,  aud,  as  you  say,  take 
the  dye  better  almost  than  the  real  article.  You 
say  “ English  ladies  are  even  now  adorned  with 
artificial  silk.”  I doubt  this  very  much.  Would 
you  be  surprised  to  hear  that  we  have  given  sample 
orders  months  ago  for  this  or  similar  yarn,  and 
cannot  get  it  ? Not  that  orders  are  too  plentiful, 
but  that  the  yarn  cannot,  aud  has  not,  been  produced 
in  mercantile  quantities. 
As  to  the  price  quoted,  it  does  not  compare  very 
favourably  with  silk,  which,  as  every  one  knows,  is 
at  almost  the  very  lowest  point  ever  known.  Had 
this  patent  come  out  about  1871-5,  when  silk  (say 
Ital.  Organ)  was  at  44s,  per  lb.,  instead  of  now  at 
17s.  6d.  to  18s.  fid.,  it  might  have  had  a change. 
But,  apart  from  the  price,  the  main  value  of  silk 
is  the  length  of  its  fibre,  and  consequently  its 
strength.  Your  estimate  of  4-5  to  5-5,  weight  for 
weight  and  length  for  length,  I take  to  be  quite  out 
of  the  question.  There  are  a great  many  objections 
to  this  varii.  It  is  practically  gun-cotton.  What 
about  a lady  getting  her  dress  on  fire?  The  fibre — 
if  you  call  it  fibre— is  so  short  that  when  once 
creased  the  mark  will  always  be  there ; and  there 
are  many  other  objections  that  perhaps  only  a 
practical  manufacturer  can  appreciate. 
1 may  say  that  personally  I have  no  prejudice 
against  the  yarn.  If  it  fulfils  all  the  objects  the 
makers  say  it  will  I shall  bo  only  too  glad  to  use 
it.  But  1 have  never  yet  seen  a ’“silk  purse  made 
out  of  a sow’s  car.”— Yours  faithfully,  A.  Nomus. 
Manchester. — Daily  Graphic. 
