the antiquated and clumsy Chinese paper umbrellas, which are only known to the traveler who has had the good fortune of traveling in the interior of China.

However, since the oil has become a commercial product for export, greater care has been used in the production of the oil. While they still use the same old methods in crushing the nut kernels, they are generally more careful in the filtering of the oil and in classifying it. There are really only three standards of China Wood Oil, viz: Light, Straw Colored Hankow standard, which is commercially known in the United States, Szechuan standard. which is the lightest in color, and the extra dark oil, which is only used through

nels are planted out in garden beds, and when the shoots become about a foot high they are transplanted into favorable locations and soils, in groups, and the soil is kept well stirred between them. This method produces trees that yield in threc to four years. Under favorable conditions the tree begins to bear at the age of three years. At this period the trunk of the tree is from four to six inches in diameter and stands about ten feet high. This tree attains a height of approximately thirty feet, with a diameter of the trunk from fifteen to eighteen inches.

The lumber from the Tung Shiu tree is smooth-grain, and when seasoned becomes hard and durable. The wood is white and

price of these three standards varies but a trifle in the Chinese market.

Habitat and How Grown.

The wood oil nut produced on the Tung Shiu tree, thrives best in the upper Yangtse River Valley, beginning at Hankow and extending west almost to the borders of Tibet, in the provinces of Hupeh, Honan, Hunan, Shensi, Kansu and Szechuan. It has only been during the past few years that any attempts have been made to cultivate the tree. Heretofore it grew wildly scattered throughout these provinces, but thriving best on hillsides, especially near the banks of the Yang-tse River and the adjoining tributaries or creeks. The tree has a green, smooth bark, wide spreading branches, and the leaves are quite large and heart-shaped. When cultivated, the ker

impervious to moisture and is utilized for many purposes throughout China.

The tree blooms in March, the flowers being red, white and purple. During the months of October, and November the tree sheds its leaves, and at this period the crop of nuts is harvested. The nut at this period has a golden hue and varies in size from a large size hickory nut to a very large walnut. The exterior appearance of the nut resembles the shell bark hickory nut. When ripe, and aided by a slight frost, the hulls burst open, the husk has three fibrous partitions, each containing a seed which resembles somewhat a large size castor oil bean. The shell of the seed is quite firm and the meat is similar to that of the Brazil nut, the yield of nuts varying from thirty to seventy-five pounds to the tree.

Nut Gathering and Method of Extracting Oil.

The absence of good roads throughout the rural parts of China and the lack of any organized system in cropping these nuts, compels each individual farmer to carry his little crop of nuts to the nearest village. The burden is carried by means of a bamboo pole balanced on the shoulder of one or two Chinamen, as the case may be, or in accordance with the load. In some cases I have known where Chinese have carried a load and marketed their nuts in a village twenty to fifty miles distant. usual Chinaman used for the transportation of these nuts is the "coolie" type, barefooted and poorly clothed, who beats the welltrodden path throughout the mountains at a rate of about four miles per hour, very seldom stopping for luncheon, but quite often stopping at a nearby village to enjoy a smoke. During this period he soon for

CHINESE WOOD OIL NUTS

The

gets his burden and temporarily passes into what he considers "the golden future." This habit in the "flowery kingdom" is fast disappearing.

When the nuts have been delivered to the village compradore, the Chinaman is paid partly in cash (the familiar Chinese brass coins with a square hole, which are usually tied on a string and strung around the neck as a convenient method of carrying) and partly with China Wood Oil, which is used by the farmer as a burning oil for his antiquated lamps.

The method of crushing the kernels and The extracting the oil is very primitive. nuts are first put into a large iron pan. about eighteen inches in diameter, and are stirred over a wood fire until parched. This causes the husks to open and the seeds are extracted, after which they are ground into a fine meal by hand in stone mortars. These mortars are quite large, holding several bushels of nuts and resembling a stone trough, built in sections, and

about three feet in diameter. After the nuts have been placed into the mortar or trough they are then ground by a heavy stone roller turned by a water buffalo or donkey. When ground finely, the meal is then collected and put into an old-fashioned press and wedges driven to increase the power of the heavy stones piled on top of the press to get the maximum efficiency. I have also seen a primitive press made from a heavy log split in two and one side hollowed out to form the mortar. These logs were then tied or bound together with wicker, bamboo or braided grass and wedged to produce pressure on the nuts sufficient to expel the oil. The meal is usually heated or steamed before putting in the trough to assist in extracting the oil, which is very poisonous when first produced. A lighter oil can be produced by sun-curing the kernels before crushing. When the kernels are subjected to an extreme artificial heat before crushing, they produce a much darker oil. After the oil is taken from the mortar press, it is sieved or strained through a series of coarse grasscloth and silk. It is then packed in baskets woven of bamboo and lined with grass-cloth or paper and well sealed. It is now ready for transportation to the nearest village on the Yang-tse River and resold to the next compradore or merchant. At these points the oil is bartered for by compradores representing the various wood oil merchants who come up the river from Hankow, the center of the wood oil industry. The oil is then packed into river junks or boats with a carrying capacity of from fifteen hundred pounds to several tons, and brought down the river, polled for many miles, portaged at several places in passing the rapids, and the boats are then put under sail, assisted

by the strong current of the Yang-tse River, until they reach their destination at Hankow, where the junks are unloaded and the contents of the baskets dumped into large wooden vats, where the oil is again filtered or strained through a series of grass-cloth filters. At this point the oil is classified according to the shade or color and barrelled, or, if the merchant has the convenience of modern steel tankage the oil is dumped into these large tanks, holding from five hundred to six hundred barrels, and allowed to age until ready for shipment. Some of these tanks are equipped with steam heating coils whereby oil can be carried and handled throughout the winter months.

Use of Oil Cake or Refuse.

The refuse of the wood oil nut after the oil has been extracted, becomes a nut cake and is used as a fertilizer for the poppy or opium plant. I have also known of this nut cake being burned to an ash or soot and made into a paste form with an addition of wood oil, and used for a cement for calking the boat and deck seams of native junks, and for some work, when this paste is thinned down, forms a first coater of paint. This soot or ash is also used in making India ink. It is a known fact that by the use of the primitive methods in the extraction of oil, the natives only get about 70 per cent. to 80 per cent. of the oil from the nut, 20 per cent. to 30 per cent. of the

The barrels in which this oil is packed are usually of good quality, most of the new packages coming from the United States in knock-down shape and assembled at Hankow. When assembled, they are lined with paper, filled and ready for export to the United States and the Continent.

The Yang-tse River is navigable from Hankow down, by steamers or sailing vessels up to one thousand tons displacement Many cargoes are trans-shipped at Shanghai before they make their final start for the Pacific coast or through the Suez canal to the Continent, and thence to the East Coast of the United States.

The oil in China is sold on a basis of the Chinese picul (of 133% pounds), and the medium of exchange is the Chinese tael, which is equivalent to about 75c U. S. currency.

oil being lost or wasted in the nut cake. By the use of modern hydraulic presses, a very large economy could be effected. Local Experiments in Growing Wood Oil Trees.

As far back as six years ago the United States Bureau of Plant Industry imported quantities of China Wood Oil nut seeds and planted them in different parts of the United States and territorial possessions. Some results have been reported from California, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands. However, no section has produced sufficient nuts to prove that it is practical to produce wood oil nuts in commercial quantities. Commercial Value of China Wood Oil.

China Wood Oil has undoubtedly been the most valuable acquisition to the list of our raw products used in varnish and paint making during the past ten years, but ow

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There are two other oil products produced in China and Japan that bear a similarity to China Wood Oil. There is a Japanese Wood Oil produced in Northern Japan that is apt to confuse one in talking wood oil. This Japanese Wood Oil is quite different in substance, and comparative values can be easily obtained by consulting the works of Lewkowitsch on Oils, Fats and Waxes, or some of the other standard authorities. The other cil is known as Ningpo Oil. This product is the sap of a tree known as the Vernix Vernicia and is produced in the interior of China. although the varnish from the oil is prepared in the province of Ningpo, China, from whence it takes its name. The crude sap is refined and manipulated in certain proportions with oil under a secret process, which produces the Ningpo varnish, which in the writer's estimation is a very highgrade varnish oil, suitable as a marine or spar varnish. It is also used for a variety of purposes in China, but the greatest difficulty in the use of this varnish is its poisonous effects. In coming in contact with any article newly varnished with Ningpo varnish, one can become poisoned, the poisonous effect being similar to that of ivy poisoning. It is also a known fact that this varnish dries more favorably during moist or wet weather.

A NEW RED DEVIL GLASS CUTTER. The glass cutting trade, and especially all practical glaziers, will be interested to hear that the Smith & Hemenway Co., 150-152 Chambers St., New York, the manufacturers of the famous RED DEVIL glass cutters and glaziers' tools, have perfected and are now putting on the market an entirely new glass cutter to be known as the Expert No. 6 RED DEVIL.

As its name implies, it is an expert's cutter being designed for the use of the expert glazier who cuts all kinds of glass, art, plate, sheet, etc.

This new cutter has a hard wood handle of special design and the manufacturers state it is the only handle that will "not cramp the fingers" while in use. There are five extra cutting wheels in an air tight chamber in the handle, and it is further claimed that 25,000 ft. of glass can be cut with this new style cutter without a skip.

The new cutter is highly recommended by all the large plate glass houses as the five extra wheels enable the operator to make instant changes should one wheel in cutting become dulled or accidentally damaged.

This new No. 6 RED DEVIL cutter is packed in a snap button glove kid case which not only acts as a protection for the one wheel in use in the cutter, but also makes it a very practical manner of carrying the cutter in the pocket or tool bag.

Any of our readers who may be unable to obtain this row No. 6 RED DEVIL from their local dealer may secure a single sample by sending 30 cents in stamps to Smith & Hemenway Co., 150 Chambers St., New York, and mentioning the P. & D. The regular retail price is 50 cents.

ERSIAN art covered in its development, maturity, and decline, the period from 3,000 to 500 B. C., and is therefore contemporary with Egyptian art. Unlike the Egyptians, the Persians, who were continually in a state of unrest and at war with other people, copied their architecture through lack of time for the development of a national type. The construction of their buildings followed the plans of the Assyrians and the Egyptians. The former, through the use of the platform on which the buildings were erected, being reached by carved or ornamented stairways, and the latter, through the use of columns or pillars. However, the embellishment of the interiors show the character of their own original art. This consisted of the conventional renderings of natural forms, and while flowers and plants predominated, animals were also used.

One interesting feature, which is not found in other styles, is the pleasing combination of the conventional with the natural. So skillful were the Persian artists in the use of lines, in the rendering of detail and the application of color, that much can be learned from a close study of this style.

While the Persian decoration was built up from the natural form as was the

Egyptian, the horizontal growth or movement is shown rather than the upward movement, which is so typically Egyptian. This was developed from the necessity to produce decoration that would be suitable on the floor as well as the ceiling surfaces, where an upward growth could not be used. Then, too, the border work required a design that would appear well when used as a continuous line on a flat or upright surface.

Although the Persian patterns and borders appear intricate, the design can be easily followed and will then disclose the simplicity and charm of the work.

Geometric forms were also used alone, or combined with conventional flowers. Much was made of fine detail work, so that in adapting the Persian decoration to the modern interior it is necessary to bring it to a most finished state. It should therefore be selected for walls which will be carefully inspected.

Rich color combinations vere introduced in the Persian just as in the Egyptian, but the secondary and tertiary colors were used, rather than the primary. Pink, light blue, light lavender and light green are the lighter tints, while deep lake tints, purples, orange and dark green were used when a stronger combination was required. -The Colorist.

BERRY BROS., LTD. FIND THAT CHILDREN READ "THE PAINTER AND DECORATOR."

We learn from Berry Bros., Ltd., that children are reading The Painter and Decorator. We hoped we were making a magazine of interest to the painting fraternity, but we have never thought of it as appealing to the sons and daughters of our readers.

However, there can be no doubt about this point in our minds from this time on, for we have seen a number of letters from the youngsters that have been sent to Berry Bros., Ltd., in response to the advertising in our monthly.

Probably you have noticed the small type portion of the Berry advertisements in which they offer to send free a book entitled, "Around the World in a Berry