The process for preparing cutch varies slightly in different districts. The trees are reckoned to be of proper age when their trunks are about 1 ft. diam. They are then cut down, and the whole of the woody part, with the exception of the smaller branches and the bark, is reduced to chips: some accounts state that only the darker heart-wood is thus used. The chips are placed with water in earthen jars, arranged in a series over a mud fire-place, usually in the open air. Here the water is made to boil, the liquor as it becomes thick and strong being decanted into another vessel, in which the evaporation is continued until the extract is sufficiently inspissated, when it is poured into moulds made of clay, or of leaves pinned together in the shape of cups, or in some districts on to a mat covered with the ashes of burnt cow-dung, the drying in each case being completed by exposure to the sun and air. The product is a dark-brown extract, which is the usual form in which cutch is known in Europe. In Kumaon, North India, a slight modification of the process affords a drug of very different appearance. Instead of evaporating the decoction to the condition of an extract, the inspissation is stopped at a certain point, and the liquor is allowed to cool, coagulate, and crystallise over twigs and leaves thrown into the pots for the purpose. By this method is obtained from each pot about 2 lb. of _kath_ or catechu, of an ashy-whitish appearance. In Burma, the manufacture and export of cutch form one of the most important items of forest revenue. The quantity of cutch exported from the province in 1869-70 was 10,782 tons, valued at 193,602_l._, of which nearly half was the produce of manufactories situated in British territory. The article is imported in mats, bags, and boxes, often enveloped in the large leaf of _Dipterocarpus tuberculatus_. It is brought down from Berar and Nepal to Calcutta. That of Pegu has a high reputation. Our imports of cutch in 1880 were 5155 tons, value 173,040_l._, from the British East Indies; 539 tons, 15,572_l._, from other countries; total, 5694 tons, 188,612_l._ Our exports in the same year were:--892 tons, 28,527_l._, to Germany; 676 tons, 24,562_l._, to the United States; 478 tons, 15,505_l._, to France; 303 tons, 10,537_l._, to Holland; 177 tons, 5859_l._, to Russia; 141 tons, 4835_l._, to Belgium; 245 tons, 8719_l._, to other countries; total, 2912 tons, 98,544_l._ The approximate London market value of Pegu cutch is 21-42_s._ a cwt. An astringent extract prepared from the areca nut (_Areca Catechu_) is said to contribute to commercial cutch; if so, it is a totally distinct product from those just described.