The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 69

_Kiln-drying,_--The size and mode of constructing the kiln may be varied to suit circ.u.mstances. The following is a very cheap plan, and sufficient to dry one ton of roots at a time. Place four strong posts in the ground, twelve feet apart one way, and eighteen the other; the front two fourteen feet high, and the other eighteen; put girts across the bottom, middle, and top, and nail boards perpendicularly on the outside as for a common barn. The boards must be well seasoned, and all cracks or holes should be plastered or otherwise stopped up. Make a shed-roof of common boards. In the inside put upright standards about five feet apart, with cross-pieces to support the scaffolding. The first cross-pieces to be four feet from the floor; the next two feet higher, and so on to the top. On these cross-pieces lay small poles, about six feet long and two inches thick, four or fire inches apart. On these scaffolds the madder is to be spread nine inches thick. A floor is laid at the bottom to keep all dry and clean. When the kiln is filled, take six or eight small kettles or hand-furnaces, and place them four or five feet apart on the floor (first securing it from fire with bricks or stones), and make fires in them with charcoal, being careful not to make any of the fires so large as to scorch the madder over them. A person must be in constant attendance to watch and replenish the fires. The heat will ascend through the whole, and in ten or twelve hours it will all be sufficiently dried, which is known by its becoming brittle like pipe stems.

_Breaking and grinding._--Immediately after being dried, the madder must be taken to the barn and threshed with flails, or broken by machinery (a mill might easily be constructed for this purpose), so that it will feed in a common grist-mill. If it is not broken and ground immediately, it will gather dampness so as to prevent its grinding freely. Any common grist-mill can grind madder properly.

When ground finely it is fit for use, and may be packed in barrels like flour for market.

_Amount and value of product, &c._--Mr. Swift measured off a part of his ground, and carefully weighed the product when dried, which he found to be over two thousand pounds per acre, notwithstanding the seasons were mostly dry and unfavorable. With his present knowledge of the business, he is confident that he can obtain at least three thousand pounds per acre, which is said to be more than is often obtained in Germany. The whole amount of labor he estimates at from eighty to one hundred days' work per acre. The value of the crop, at the usual wholesale price (about fifteen cents per pound), from three to four hundred dollars. In foreign countries it is customary to make several qualities of the madder, which is done by sorting the roots; but as only one quality is required for the western market, Mr. Swift makes but one, and that is found superior to most of the imported, and finds a ready sale.

Madder is produced in Middle Egypt to some extent, for the consumption of the country, princ.i.p.ally for dyeing the _tarbouche_ or skull caps which are universally worn. Its culture was introduced in 1825. In 1833, 300 acres in Upper Egypt, and 500 in the Delta and the Kelyout, were devoted to madder roots.

New South Wales is eminently suited to the culture of this valuable root, and as the profits upon its cultivation are very large, I would strongly recommend it to the attention of agriculturists there. The article produces to France an annual sum of one million sterling; the price of the finest quality in the English market being 60 per ton.

Its yield varies from 40 to 50 per acre, and the expenses upon its proper culture should not exceed one-half that amount. The colonists would find it to their interest to turn their attention to such articles as this, for which there is an extensive demand at home, instead of confining themselves exclusively to the commoner and bulkier products, which they export at a much less profit, and which when once the market is fully supplied, may fall to a price at which they cannot afford to sell.

The following is a calculation of the expenses generally supposed to attend a crop according to the mode of cultivation practised in Vaucluse:--

Rent per hectare (2 English acres), 3 years, at s. d.

165 francs 19 17 6 Manure, 440 francs 17 12 6 Carriage of ditto, 132 francs 3 5 10 --------- 22 18 4 --------- 42 15 10

These expenses may almost be dispensed with in our colonies, as the soil at Vaucluse has long been exhausted.

Two and a-half acres require 170 lbs. seed, at 2d. per pound, which, with the labor afterwards bestowed, including the cost of spade trenching, will be 30 0 0 --------- 72 15 10

The average produce per hectare is 77 cwt., which, at 1 4s. 2d. per cwt. (the price on the spot), is 93. The price is now much lower, but still it is clear a most profitable return would be derived from the first crop, and a proportionably larger one afterwards.

A considerable portion of the madder roots, instead of being ground and exported in that form, as heretofore, is now exposed, after being invested with dilute sulphuric acid, to a boiling heat by means of steam, by which the coloring matter is considerably altered and improved in quality for some dyeing processes, while the quant.i.ty rendered soluble in water is greatly increased. The madder so prepared is known as "garancine," and forms an important branch of manufacture in the south of France, which was well ill.u.s.trated at the Great Exhibition in 1851, by a collection of specimens supplied by the Chamber of Commerce of Avignon. The spent madder, after being used in dyeing, is now also converted by Mr. H. Steiner, of Accrington, into a garancine (termed _garanceuse_ by the French) by steaming it with sulphuric acid in the same manner as the fresh madder, and thus a considerable quant.i.ty of coloring matter is recovered and made available which was formerly thrown away in the spent madder. Both varieties of garancine give a more scarlety red than the unprepared madder, and also good chocolate and black, without soiling the white ground, but are not so well fitted, particularly the garancine of spent madder, for dyeing purples, lilacs, and pinks. The value of the garancine imported from France in 1848 was 59,554, and of that imported in 1851 93,818. This preparation of ground madder is imported into Liverpool to the extent of from 500 to 600 tons annually from Ma.r.s.eilles, for the use of calico printers in the manufacturing districts. The price is 7 to 8 the ton.

This important root is already cultivated to a considerable extent in Russia but not nearly in sufficient quant.i.ty to meet the local demand; so that large quant.i.ties are imported from Holland and elsewhere, every year.

The quant.i.ty of madder, madder-root, and garaneine annually imported into the United Kingdom is exceedingly large, over 15,000 tons, as is shown by a reference to the following figures:--

Madder. Madder roots. Garancine. Total.

cwts. cwts. cwts. cwts.

1848 81,261 139,463 5,955 276,679 1849 92,736 161,986 4,969 259,691 1850 100,248 161,613 5,845 267,706 1851 92,925 202,091 9,382 304,398 1852 84,385 179,813 ---- ----

We imported from France, duty free, the following:--

Madder. Official value. Madder-root.

cwts. cwts.

1848 54,084 122,851 25,068 70,749 1849 57,108 131,059 23,459 81,274 1850 54,559 123,628 13,693 55,263 1851 65,577 151,502 34,017 167,721

The price in the Liverpool market, in June 1853, for Bombay madder-roots was 1 18s. to 2 14s. the cwt.

INDIAN MADDER.--_Rubia cordifolia_, or _Munjestha_, a variety with white flowers, a native of Siberia, is cultivated largely in the East, particularly about a.s.sam, Nepaul, Bombay, Scinde, Quitta, China, &c., for its dye-stuff, and is known as Munjeet. A small quant.i.ty is exported from China and India; about 338 Indian maunds were s.h.i.+pped from Calcutta in 1840, and 2,328 in 1841. It fetches in the London and Liverpool markets from 20s. to 25s. and 30s. per cwt., duty free; 405 tons were imported into Liverpool from Bombay and Calcutta, in 1849, and 525 tons in 1850, but none was imported in 1851 and 1852.

It was remarked by the Jury in 1851, at the Great Exhibition, that this is a valuable dye-stuff, and hitherto not so well appreciated as it deserves, for some of the colors dyed with it are quite as permanent as those dyed with madder, and even more brilliant. Its use however is gradually increasing, and it is unquestionably well worthy the attention of dyers.

LOGWOOD.--The logwood of commerce is the red heart wood, or duramen, of a fine lofty growing tree (_Haematroxylon Campechianum_), growing in Campeachy and the bay of Honduras, and which is also now common in the woods of Jamaica and St. Domingo. It is princ.i.p.ally imported as a dye wood, cut into short lengths. We chip, grind, and pack it into casks and bags, ready for the dyers, hatters, and printers' use, who esteem it as affording the most durable deep red and black dyes. It is sometimes used in medicine as an astringent. That grown in Jamaica is least valued that of Honduras, Tobasco, and St. Domingo, fetches a somewhat higher price; but that imported from Campeachy direct, is the most esteemed. The annual imports into Liverpool are about 1,300 tons from Honduras, 100 from Tobasco, and 1,800 from Campeachy.

It thrives best in a damp tenacious soil, with a small proportion of sand. It is imported in logs, which are afterwards chipped, and is of great commercial importance from its valuable dyeing properties. Old wood is preferred; it is so hard as almost to be indestructible by the atmosphere. The alb.u.men is of a yellowish color, and is not imported. The bark and wood are slightly astringent. The imports of logwood into the United Kingdom, were 23,192 tons in 1848, 23,996 tons in 1849, and 34,090 tons in 1850, of which 3,484 tons were re-exported in 1848, and 2,307 tons in 1849. The imports in the past two years of 1852 and 1853, have averaged 20,000 tons, of which about 3,000 tons were re-exported. It is increasing in use, for in 1837, the quant.i.ty retained for home use was only 14,677 tons. The price varies according to quality from 4 to 7 per ton.

We received from Honduras 5,401 tons in 1844; and 55,824 tons in 1845.

From Montego Bay, Jamaica, 398 tons were s.h.i.+pped between January and July 1851.

FUSTIC.--This is the common name of a species of dye wood in extensive use, which is obtained from _Maclura tinctoria_, or _Broussonitia tinctoria_, Kunth, a large and handsome evergreen tree, growing in South America and the West Indies. The wood is extensively used as an ingredient in the dyeing of yellow, and is largely imported for that purpose. The quant.i.ty entered for home consumption in the United Kingdom was 1,731 tons in 1847, 1,653 in 1848, and 1,842 tons in 1849.

Ninety-one tons were s.h.i.+pped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first six months of 1851.

QUERCITRON.---This bark furnishes a yellow dye, of which about 3,500 tons are annually imported in hogsheads of from half a ton to a ton.

296 tons were imported into Liverpool from Philadelphia in 1849, and 514 tons in 1850.

BRAZIL WOOD.--This very ponderous wood is obtained in Brazil from the _Caesalpina Braziliensis_, which yields a red or crimson dye, when united with alum or tartar, and is used by silk dyers. It is imported princ.i.p.ally from Pernambuco, 1,200 quintals having been s.h.i.+pped to London in 1835, but about 500 tons, worth about 4 a ton, were imported from Costa Rica in 1845.

The tree is large, crooked, and knotty, and the bark is thick, and equals the third or fourth of its diameter.

The imports may be stated at about 600 tons annually, the average price being 50 per ton.

Brazil wood is found in the greatest abundance and of the best quality, in the Province of Pernambuco, but being a government monopoly it has been cut down in so improvident a manner, that it is now seldom seen within several leagues of the coast.

Among the Cuba dye woods is Copey _(Clusia rosea_, Linn).

Braziletto, obtained from _C. Crista_, is one of the cheapest and least esteemed of the red dye woods, imported from Jamaica and other West India islands to the extent of 150 tons per annum, fetching 6 to 8 per ton. 2,361 tons of Nicaragua wood were imported in 1848, 2,701 tons in 1849, and 6,130 tons in 1850.

Spain exhibited various vegetable dyes obtained from cultivated and wild plants furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa.

LICHENS.

The chief lichens employed in the manufacture of orchil and cudbear are the following:--

Angola weed (_Ramalina furfuracea_).

Mauritius weed (_Rocella fusiformis_), which comes also from Madagascar, Lima, and Valparaiso, and then bears the distinctive commercial name of the port of s.h.i.+pment.

Cape weed (_Rocella tinctoria_), from the Cape de Verd Islands.

Canary Moss (_Parmelia perlata_).

Tartareous Moss (_Parmelia tartarea_).

Pustulatus Moss (_Umbilicaria pustulata_).

Velvet Moss (_Gyrophora murina_).

The last three are imported from Sweden.

Of these lichens, the first, which is the richest in coloring matter, grows as a parasite upon trees; all the remainder upon rocks.

_Rocella corallina_, _Variolaris lactea_ and _dealbata_, have been also resorted to.

About 130 tons of cudbear are imported annually from Sweden.