Burmese Cutch.

Textile Mercury, 27.4.1889

The Rangoon Gazette, discussing the manufacture and trade in cutch in Burmah, says the export of cutch is the next most important to that of rice, and it has been steadily increasing during the past twenty years. The acacia catecue, or cutch tree, is found in large forests throughout the whole country; the core of the tree is a dark red wood, mahogany; the wood is chipped, boiled, and the cutch thus extracted. It is an industry that can be carried on by anybody with a pair of hands, a knife, and a cooking pan, and accordingly it is very generally followed by poor persons. In October the cutch-boilers form themselves into small companies and select a spot where there are good robust trees. The boiling pans aro firmly fixed in holes in the ground, the trees are felled, the branches lopped, the bark and outer wood removed, and the core reached. The children chip the dark red wood, which is placed in the pans with a little water, oars being taken that it does not got overheated or burnt. When of the required consistency the contents of the pans are removed and spnad out on mats to evaporate, the woody refuse being thrown away, and the sap alone retained. In a short time the mats can be manipulated into small blocks of a regular size. The colours are red, dark red or black, the shades depending principally on the quality of the chips and the time taken in boiling. The light red and red cutch is considered the best, and with betel nut and other ingredients is chewed by the Burmese and is exported to India for the same purpose. The dark red and black are propared largely for the markets of Europe and America. The characteristics of unadulterated cutch are uniformity of appearance, bitter, acrid, or pungent taste, smell like opium, and friability. Formerly the quality could be relied on, but of late years greater liberties have been taken with the mixing and adulterating, consequently a spurious cutch is used, fibrous matter, sand, or earth being sometimes added to increase the weight, and the Chinese dealers have a habit of putting good, bad and indifferent into one consignment, which is then passed off as a good sample.