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Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. IV. 
other at Bliowali (Naini Tal Division), the latter being worked on 
a comparatively large scale. One has recently been started at 
Shahdara in the Punjab where steam is used in place of water for 
distillation. Though the quantity of turpentine and colophony 
turned out by the two departmental factories finds a ready sale, yet 
there is room for improvement. Complaints have been received 
from time to time that the Indian oil dried more slowly than the 
imported American turpentine. In a criticism received from a reli¬ 
able source of Indian turpentine oil by the Reporter on Economic 
Products to the Government of India, and forwarded to the Eorest 
Economist in 1907, for information, it was stated that its smell, its 
inferior drying power, and its less volatile constituents place it far 
below the American and the French turpentines, and that it would 
never be able to compete in the European market with American, 
French or Russian turpentines, unless greatly improved. There is 
a good deal of truth in this criticism as regards the oil derived from 
this particular species, which owing to its different chemical com¬ 
position cannot come up to the American and French oils consisting 
mostly of pinene, but if prepared by adopting better methods of 
distillation, it is better than the Russian turpentine oil and is not 
much inferior to the American oil when used for paints, varnishes, 
etc. 
In 1908, some difficulty arose about the sale of turpentine oil 
produced at Bhowali, which was said to leave a greasy residue on 
evaporation and was, therefore, unsuitable for varnish. Accord¬ 
ingly, Mr. P. H. Clutterbuck, the then Deputy Conservator of 
Forests, Naini Tal, instituted an enquiry into the matter with the 
object of determining the causes of the low drying power of the 
Indian oil and ascertaining whether those causes proceeded from 
the method of distillation employed, and to decide whether it should 
be given up in favour of steam distillation. 
After having thoroughly gone into this question by examining 
the different fractions of the crude turpentine oil, it was found that 
the crude oil as then distilled contained about 35 per cent, of heavy 
turps, the whole or the portion of which mus 1 : be eliminated to free 
the oil of the defect complained of. The greasy residue was traced 
to the presence of these heavy turps in the oil. The most natural 
method of refining the oil, therefore, appeared to be the elimination 
of the total 35 per cent, of heavy turps from the crude oil and its 
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