l8o TlMEHRI. 
showing a difference of sixpence per lb. on balata made 
from the same sample of milk in favour of that dried 
simply by evaporation. 
The history of the balata trade is not a very long one ; 
it extends back only 25 years. As with most new com- 
modities, the attempt to gain for it a place in com- 
merce has been chequered by periods of alternate dis- 
couragement and hope. As yet, though of late years 
the demand tor it has been considerable, and as shown 
by Dr. MULLER'S report, its character is well known, 
it seems, by the reduced exports at present, not to have 
achieved an established footing in the market. The 
copious milk secretion, which constitutes balata, in the 
bark of the bullet-tree, has of course been always 
known, but that it might^be turned to any economic use 
appears not, before the above date, to have been sus- 
pected. Whether the Indians in the past ever turned it 
to any account I have been unable to discover, and it is 
likely that they did not. But at present, on the 
Berbice River, they are reported to be expert col- 
lectors of it for sale. So far as can be gathered, 
the credit of discovering its promising commercial 
character belongs to the neighbouring colony of Suri- 
nam. In British Guiana, the initiative in the trade 
was taken by Dr. Van Holt of Berbice, to whom it 
was suggested by a visit to Surinam. He was well 
acquainted with the tree, and, with a brother of his, was 
interested in wood-cutting on the Canje. Messrs. SILVER 
& Co., of London, were among the earliest movers in 
the matter. The first sample sent home for trial was 
due to a suggestion of theirs in 1859 to Mr. DAVID MEL- 
VILLE, who was an active agent in all these tentative 
