259 
Teoup : Cutch Trade in ^urma. 
been left untouched for years, and will afford a permanent future supply. 
In addition to this many of the cutch plantations are appi’oaching 
maturity, and will still further ensure a regular yield of cutch. 
Future supplies of cutch. — It is impossible with data at present to 
hand to form anything like an accurate estimate of the annual yield of 
cutch which is likely to be afforded when the present stock of trees 
outside reserves has become exhausted. Whatever the actual future 
supplies may be, however, they will at all events be far more regular and 
less fluctuating when the reserves come to be worked under fixed working- 
plans than they have been in the past or are likely to be during the next 
few years. 
The depletion of cutch trees as affecting the local population. — The 
depletion of cirtch trees in unclassed forests is likely to produce distress 
in the poorer districts where cutch boilers cannot find employment in 
reserved forests. The manufacture of cutch is carried out chiefly in the 
drier parts of Burma, where cultivation is not always in a flourishing 
state, and where a certain proportion of the people resort to cutch boiling 
as a means of livelihood. W'here cutch reserves exist in sufficient extent 
however, there should be no distress if these forests are in a condition to 
be worked under regular working-plans. Another adverse effect of the 
depletion of cutch trees will be the loss to the cultivator of the wood 
.vhich supplies him with his harrow teeth. 
Catechinfree cxitch. — A few years ago experiments with cutch were 
made at the Imperial Institute, London, and the results are embodied in 
the Imperial Institute Technical Reports and Scientific Papers of 1903 
on page 229 of which the following passage appears : — “ Since catechu- 
tannic acid possesses greater colouring power than catechu, it is evident 
that the cutches which are more lustrous, more soluble, and richer in 
catechu-tannic acid are the most valuable for the i)urpose of dveing 
cotton.” 
In the hope that a manufactured form of cutch containing no catechu 
might prove of value, samples of catechin -free cutch were recently prepared 
at the laboratory of the Imperial Forest Chemist, Dehra Dun, and were 
sent for trial to Great Britain. They were, however, found to possess no 
special advantage, either for dyeing or for curing fishing nets, and in this 
connection it is of interest to quote the views of a well-known British 
firm on the subject: — “For our part we consider catechu a valuable 
