The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-01-22

which yields the terra laponlca, IhIS most
valuable of vegetables, which produces
tannin, is cultivated near the pepper planta-
items, inasmuch as the decayed leaves and
stems of the pungent parasite form the best
manure nay, are the indispensable stimulant
to the growth of the leather tanning plant,
The powerful aStringent called terra j~aponica
is obtained by boiling the leaves of the gam
bier, and the coagulated syrup thence obtain
ed becomes the important2rticle of commerce,
now so much in demand in America, and
especially in California and Utah, where the
absence of forests, and consequently of tan
bark, render it important to obtain some
other article for the tanning of leather, and
this is found most conveniently and efficient
Iy in the terra japonica. One cake of it
weighing about fifty pounds is esteemed TO
have as much tanning principle as an ordl-
nary load of bark. This article, so important
to California and Utah is at present shipped
to European and Eastern American ports /;
from thence after q heightened voyage, of
altogether about thirty thousand miles, and
after several transhipmentS it finally gets to
the Pacific coast, where it IS enhanced in.
value about tenfold its cost of production.
Now, this valuable tannin and the black
pepper are two articles that | think could be
successfully cultivated in the Hawaiian
Islands. Neither require the richest lands
of Malaysia, but are best raised in Indifferent
soils, of rather recent volcanic debris,
and on broken ground, with plenty of heat
and moderate moisture, and they would,
especially the terra iaponica, remunerate
very literally, as the demand for it at your
nearest foreign market is rapidly on the
increase.
now turn to another especial product,
to the Glove. Is that n fruit, seed or flower
Neither one but "A bud, the uneXpanded bud
of the most beautiful of myrtle trees. When
it begins to be dotted with the first white
indication of blossom, then hands are busy
culling every swelling bud, which if allowed
to expand ever so little would in a few
minutes exhale the pungert, spicy aroma,
so priced in the love of spicery of past times,
and is still in so much favor with every
pudding and preserve making housekeeper.
The Glove Was once the most famous and
most priced of all articles of ommerc be-
cause through monopoly it was worth abont
one hundred and fifty times IS much in
Europe as its first cost on It's own native
islets. 1t was esteemed a sort of commercial
king, like cotton of late days. Columbus
and Vasco de Cana were mainly stimulated
by it to discover America, and to sail round
the Cape of Good Hope. But this spice
htlIS Has 9lSdlis ldliSJs ald 10 lOb y tHudi
in Importance to the rag trade.
Products unknown during the rage for
spices now demand our attention. Among
the foremost is gutta percha, an article so
little known in America about fourteen
years ago, that | remember, when attending
a meeting of the Franklin Institute of Phil
adelphia, listening to a learned gentleman,
Professor Trigeau, common somewhat in
this wise concerning il "tie said that he
had Just received a small piece of a curious
kind of gum, which he held in his hand. Ii
had been sent to him from England, but was
originally brought from Singapore in the
East Indies, and was II product of Malaysia
He had closely examined it, and tested it in
various ways, and was satisfied that it could
hardly be of any use IN the arts, or at least
would not meet any want not already sup
piled by caoutchouc. This is like Lardner's
noted condemnation of steam for long sea
voyages. What does gutta percha now sup
ply | have seen a list of more than $50
articles made from it; submarine cables,
water pipes, combs, picture frames, drinking
cups, book covers, table tops, syringes, and
what not besides, for everything from a cable
to a bracelet can be made out of it.. As a
promotive of European and American indus
try, it is worth far more than the tea trade
of China, that has enriched a few capitalists
and needed so many war ships and corrupt
commissioners TO look after. | have traver-S
sed forests of gutta percha, and it can be
obtained as plentiful as tar in North Carolina.
| will turn to another notable promoter of
manufacturing industry, and speak Of the
rattan. You see it in chair bottoms, and in
some beautiful wicker snd basket work, COM
ing from China. This long cane, so long
that it is found growing over one thousand
feet in length, running on the ground and
climbing trees, which grows in Borneo and
Sumatra, has been for ages in use all over
the world, but not in very great demand nor
much noted as an article of till
the year 1857. When | was in the Archi-
pelago, in 1852, | could have loaded my
ship with rattans at a cost of less than one
dollar per cwt. The whole annual export
of this article at that time did not much
exceed $4,000; but by and by, an illustrious
lady of France, wishful to preserve a grace
full proportion, adopted a fashion giving
sweep and flowing outline to her robes. The
material first used by the most of imitators,
in place of the costly crinoline, was the
flexible pith or heart of the rattan. An
ingenious American inventor produced a
machine which readily removed the hard
enamel-skin of the rattan used for chairs and
wicker work, and obtained the heart or pith
clean and round. This had formerly been
burnt up, like the waste chips of a carpenters
shop, but now that it was demanded for so
gallant a service it became the most impor-
tant part of the cane. Hundreds of millions
of pounds of rattans were in requisition for
the use of the ladies during the first rage of
the fashion, One cwt. which l could have
bought for less than one dollar, now began
to cost eight dollars and upwards. and the
value of the export from Malaysia rapidly
swelled from $4,000 to over $1,000, 900, so
that the grateful and busy Malays, as they
cut away in the rattan jungle, sang merrily,
repeating an old Arab compliment allah
bless the white ladies of the West may
their shadows never grow less"
But after a time other materials, such as
steel and brass, began to supersede, with the
wealthy, the more cumbrous rattan. How
among the peasantry of Europe, and
among the poor, and the slaves of America,
the rattan is still In demand.