Sumac extract, stainless, Sicilian, prices per pound, wholesale, New York.

Ground sumac, adulterated with 15 per cent of lentiscc, was held to be exempt from duty because commercially known as ground sumac. (Abstract 165, T. D. 24973, of 1904.)

VALONIA.

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Act of 1913.—Paragraph 639, "Valonia, free."

DESCRIPTION.

Valonia, a valuable tanning material, consists of the acorn cups of certain species of oak, chiefly Quercus aegilops, sometimes called the valonia oak, and probably Quercus macrolepsis, Quercus graeca, Quercus ungeri, and Quercus coccifera. The Quercus aegilops is found in the highlands of Morea, Roumelia, the Greek Archipelago, Palestine, and Asia Minor. The Quercus macrolepsis is abundantly occurrent in Greece, especially in the lower slopes of Taygetos. In Algeria the valonia oak is used for reforestation on account of its good adoption and rapid growth. The tree is cultivated along the shores. Smyrna, Greece, and Asia Minor export large quantities of valonia.

In Asia Minor the acorns ripen in July or August. They are shaken from the trees, allowed to dry on the ground, and later piled in heaps 5 and 6 feet high, where for several weeks a fermentation takes place. The acorns contract and separate from the cups. In case this fermentation proceeds beyond a certain point, a dark color develops, injuring the product. The cups are sorted, the finest are sent to Trieste, and the other grades are exported. As the acorns. are of low tannin content, they are used for feeding hogs. In Greece, the best quality (chamada) is gathered before the acorns are ripe, in about April; a second quality is gathered in September or October (rhabdisto); and a third inferior variety (charcola) is of little value. The total valonia harvest is reported as 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year. The largest known crop is stated at 70,000 tons in Asia Minor and 14,000 in Greece. The best quality of Turkey valonia exported from Smyrna does not reach this country. A large amount of lower quality Greek valonia is sent to the United States.

The good quality cups are of light drab color and are covered with a coarse hair, known as beard, which is very rich in tannin. A yellow coloring matter is also present. The content of tannin is about 36 per cent for Smyrna valonia, and the beards up to 45 per cent; Greek valonia up to 32 per cent, beards up to 40 per cent, and about 40 per cent for Candia valonia. The Smyrna valonia deposits more bloom and is lighter in color than the Greek. The dark-colored cups have been injured by dampness and overfermentation and are of inferior value. The Greek and Smyrna cups are marketed in the United States and the beards usually contain 10 per cent more tannin than the cups. The tannin somewhat resembles that of oak wood but gives a brown color and a heavier bloom on leather. It consists of a mixture of a gallotannin and an ellagitannin. In practice it combines the qualities of the pyrogallol and catechol tannin.

The extract is prepared by hot-water treatment of valonia cups or beard and subsequent evaporation under reduced pressure. The extract is marketed as a liquid of 25 per cent tannin and a solid extract of 65 per cent tannin.

Uses.-Valonia is used for tanning high-grade leathers of light. color. It gives a heavy-weight leather of firm texture and deposits. a high amount of bloom. Valonia is adapted for sole leather and is used with gambier and other materials for dressing leather.

Alone, valonia gives a brittle leather. It is ordinarily used in combination with such tanning materials as oak bark, myrobalans, or mimosa bark.

Extract. Practically all of the imported valonia beards are leached directly by the tanner. There are no firms reported as producers. of valonia extract for sale in this country. The imported extract averages 60 per cent tannin content. There are two factories owned by English syndicates operating near Smyrna, Asia Minor.

Imports. In 1912, 1,196,591 pounds of valonia were imported, valued at $24,680. In 1914, 7,654,055 pounds were imported, valued at $116,406. The import quantity is not separately given for years. outside of the period 1912-1915. The import of maximum value was $207,088, in 1911. The imports for the latter part of the war ceased on account of the shipping scarcity. In 1914, 69 per cent of the import came from Asiatic Turkey, 30 per cent from European Turkey, 0.4 of 1 per cent from England, and 2 per cent from Greece.

Domestic production.-Valonia cups, beards, and extract are of foreign origin. The imported beards are used directly by the tanners. No extract production is reported in the United States.

TARIFF CONSIDERATIONS.

Valonia beards and extract are indirectly competitive with domestic tanning materials. The properties of valonia differ somewhat from our domestic tanning materials. Large importations tend to reduce the price and quantity consumed of domestic tanning materials.

Valonia Imports for consumption-Revenue.

Extracts for tanning, not containing alcohol-Valonia and myrobolans—Imports for

consumption-Revenue.

The merchandise is clearly established by the record to be an extract made from the cup of the acorn of the valonia oak. Paragraph 624 of the act of 1913 was evidently intended to be all-embracing. While it may be said that the cup of an acorn of an oak tree is not in a highly technical sense the bark or the wood of the oak tree, for the purposes of the tariff law it must be so considered. (Abstract 37219, of 1915.)

Under the act of 1897 such merchandise, then designated as valonea extract, was classified with quebracho and hemlock bark and accordingly dutiable by similitude under paragraph 22 at the rate of one-half cent per pound. (Abstract 21122, T. D. 29715, of 1909.)

Description. Annatto, a natural orange-yellow dye, is prepared from the seed shells of the shrub Bixia arellana, a native of Central America, East and West Indies, India and Guiana. It is cultivated. in South America, East and West Indies, India, and Guiana. This color appears on the market as a reddish-yellow paste of buttery consistency and in the form of rolls or dry cakes.

The important coloring constituent, bixin, is a red crystalline compound slightly soluble in water and more soluble in alcohol and chloroform than in the ordinary organic solvents. It dissolves in sulphuric acid with a characteristic blue color. A soluble yellow coloring matter called orrelline, probably an oxidation product of bixin, is also present. A product was formerly marketed under the name of "bixin" of 5 to 6 times the strength of commercial annatto for the textile trade.

Annatto is partially soluble in water and more soluble in alcohol and alkaline solutions. With alumina it forms an orange lake and with tin a lemon-yellow lake. It has been adulterated with tumeric and other coloring matter, also gum, starch, and different mineral substances.

Uses.-Annatto is used as a coloring matter for oils, butter, cheese, and margarine. As it is very sensitive to the action of light, it is no longer used in the textile industry.

Preparation of annatto.-It is a hardy, shrubby tree growing best in a warm climate with good rainfall. The war-like caribs of the Lesser Antilles and Guiana used roucou as a war paint. The propagation is carried out by seeds; the seedlings are set out and yield full crops in three to four years, although seeds may be gathered in 18 months. The first full crop will amount to about 500 pounds of seed per acre. The fruit is a miter-shaped capsule splitting into halves containing 30 to 40 seeds; these are gathered when ripe.

The seeds are covered with a waxy substance, containing the coloring matter. By one method annatto is prepared by treating the seeds with boiling water and allowing the resulting liquid to ferment. After the color settles it is air-dried to a putty consistency and formed into rolls wrapped in banana leaves weighing 2 to 3 pounds; this is known as roll annatto. The drying may be continued and the product is formed into 8 to 10 pound cakes. In Guadaloupe a crude product is made by allowing to ferment for about two weeks. the mass obtained by macerating the shell pulp and seeds with water, After passing this mass through a sieve the coloring matter settles and is evaporated in large iron pans to a thick paste. The final