March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST, 



637 



IS no doubt a desirable piece of information that the 

 quantity of food which plants obtain from one and the 

 same soil is in proportion to the root surface, but any 

 enthusiastic farmer who makes this a reason for increasing 

 the root surface by tempting the roots downwards wiU 

 quit his platform as a practical man. It is his duty to 

 his amuial balance sheet that he should set the cost of 

 deep farming against the increased crop. He should also 

 ascertain whether the root surface cannot be doubled and 

 the crop increased by more economical methods than that 

 which has just been noticed. He should inquire the cir- 

 cumstances of mechanical texture which rule the depth 

 to which plants feed. VTe know that roots will follow 

 air and water akuost to any depth, and that they will 

 spread and feed to a depth of several feet in a well aerated 

 subsoil. They find food there, and the price of the food 

 is the cost of tillage which renders it accessible; but if 

 the .same amount of food were suppUed at the surface, 

 would not the result in the increase of the crop be greater 

 and the cost less? A simpler question is, does it pay to 

 plough more than 6 in. deep m ordmary soils? Most 

 farmers have answered this question as it has always been 

 answered at Eothamsted in the practice of Su- John 

 Lawes, whose usual depth of ploughing on his home farm 

 IS from 5 in. to 6 in. 



A capital letter from an American agriculturist was pub- 

 lished ten years since, rebuking Mr. Mechi for advocating 

 deep ploughing under all ch-cumstances. A number of 

 traders, who amused themselves by farming, belonged at 

 that time to the New York Oity Farmers' Club, and the 

 practice of deep ploughing having been recommended by 

 Mr Horace Greeley— the Mechi of the United States— the 

 club united in persuading the farmers to adopt it. Many 

 ot them did so, but when it came to a question of dollars 

 and cents the practice was abandoned. It was found that 

 on virgin soils, in some cases, deep work increased the 

 corn crop, the subsoil being of fertility; while in the 

 majority of cases the poor stuff below did not improve 

 the crops. According to this shrewd American, the "remedy" 

 tor agriculture was manm-e. The exhaustion of the soil 

 had already made some progi-ess even in the case of rich 

 virgin land deeply ploughed, and the only remedy was 

 manure. Su- John Lawes has been consulted by Cousin 

 Jonathan on this same subject of exhaustion, and his sug- 

 gested remedy has been the appUcatiou of manure '• It 

 ts evident," said the author of that very sensible letter of 

 ten years ago, " that if our mining and mauufacturinf in- 

 terests increase as rapidly as they have done in the past, 

 the time wiU soon be here when we shall not be able to 

 teed any more than our own popidation." He adds, "If 

 the farmers of England and we of the Eastern States 

 were indiscriminately to practice Mr. Mechi's plan of deep 

 ploughing, we should be in a worse boat than ever " 



Whatever may be thought ot the wi-iter's argument that 

 ttie effects of deep as well as shallow work would wear out, 

 it is an undoubted fact that the increase of manure has 

 become the question of the day, both in England and 

 America. If fertilisers were cheaper, we could even cultiv- 

 ate the wastes at a profit ; we shall never do so by 

 means of mere tUlage, whether by plough or shade.— H E 

 — tieid. 



(,i,L-<osK, OK Grape SuciAK.—Kegarding the manufacture 

 ot glucose, or grape-sugar, which has occupied so much 

 attention of late in America, it is stated in a recent re- 

 port that, omng to the unwillmgness of manufacturers to 

 impart information, it is difficult to obtain trustworthy 

 statistics in regard to the aggregate quantity produced. 

 I-atterly, however, prices of refined sugar have faUen so 

 low in America, that its adulteration with the corn pro- 

 duct has ceased to be as profitable as heretofore The 

 cultivation of sorghum, and the production of sugar there- 

 from is stiU m an experimental stage. The maple sugar 

 industry continues to be of considerable importance in 

 some of the Eastern and a few of the -Western States 

 init there appear to be no reliable data on which to found 

 an estimate of the quantity produced. The State of Ver- 

 inont IS perhaps the largest producer, the quantity now 

 manufactured bemg estimated at 15,000 tons, the other 

 States producmg altogether about 5,000 ioas.-Gardeners' 

 Litornicle, 



SOME APEICAN KOLAS. 



In theie BoTA>acAi., Chemical and Thehapeciical 

 Aspects.* 

 by e. meckel axd f. schlagdexhactten. 

 Among the vegetable products of the African soil, there 

 IS perhaps none more mteresting and vakiable than those 

 which under the various names of "kola," "<'oiu-ou" 

 "ombeue," "nangoue," and " kokkorokou," are used Is 

 articles of consumption thi-oughout tropical and equatorial 

 Atrica, as equivalent to tea, cottee, mati5 and cocoa Used 

 under the form of seeds, probably from time immemorial, 

 by the native tribes, these products are of varying botanic 

 origin, and then- history has been up to the present time 

 imperfectly known; but the authors have been able to avaU 

 themselves of the observations of some recent traveUers to 

 clear up some obscure points. 



The products which are included by the authors under 

 the name "kola" (the various synonyms quoted being special 

 to particulai- countries) consist of sceds,yielded by two families 

 ot plants and diflfering very much in appearance. The kind 

 most widely distributed, the "true kola," which by some 

 of the natives is called the "female kola," comes from the 

 Stercuhaceaj; another variety, called by the author " false 

 kola, IS kuo^vn among the negroes as simply " kola," or 

 male kola. ' Before the authors' researches only the " true " 

 or " female " kola was known, and it had been ascertained 

 to be yielded by the titerculia acuminata,V. dcVieMv (Cola 

 acumumta, R. Br.) To this Messrs. Heckel and Schlagden- 

 haulfcu are able now to add information concerning the 

 "rnale" kola, hitherto unknown, and to give reasons for 

 believmg that various other species of Utemilia, besides 

 ■5. acuminata, yield kola seeds. 



1 ^i?"^? ^''1' "■'* "*emale"kola, the authors describe at 

 length hterciilia acuminata from specimens, the description 

 agreeing with Oliver's description of rar. « (Fl. Trop Af 

 1., 220;. According to the best information, the tree— which 

 IS from 30 to 60 feet high, and in general aspect resembles 

 the chestnut— grows wild upon the western coast of Africa 

 comprised between Sierra Leone and the Congo or Lower 

 Gumea, reaching mto the ulterior about five or six hundred 

 miles, where it appears to follow the limits of the pahn 

 Upon the eastern coast in appears to be unknown in places 

 where it has not been introduced by the English Dr 

 Schweinfurth, speaking of the country of the Nvams-Nyams' 

 near lake Nyanza, says that among the imposing forms of 

 vegetation a iterculia of the kola kind predominates and 

 is caUed locally "kokkorokou." In the comitry of the 

 Momboutous (24^ E. long., 3° N. lat.), too, upon askkig for 

 kola he was supplied with the fruit in its rose-coloured 

 envelope; but the only information he could obtam there 

 concerning it was that the nuts were found in the country 

 m the ivild state and were called "nangoue" by the natives 

 who chewed shces of it whilst smoking. Kar.sten, in his 

 *Iore de Colombie,' describes the plant as growing wild 

 111 the moist hot woods near the southern coast of A'enezuela 

 but the authors believe it was probably introduced there 

 about the same time as it was iutroduced into Martinique 

 and that it was sown by African negroes, who brought it 

 into those countnes in the same maimer as they are known 

 to have introduced S. contifoUa for the sake of its delicious 

 fruit. It has also been introduced succe.ssfullv by the English 

 mto the East Indies, the Seychelles, Ceylon, Demerara 

 Dominica, Mauritius, Sydney and Zanzibar.and by the French 

 recently at (iuadeloupe, Cayenne, Cochin Chma and the 

 Gaboon. In all these stations the kola tree flourishes best 

 in moist lands at the sea-level, or a little above. At Sierra 

 Leone some fine trees are found at an elevation of 200 or 

 300 metres, but not higher than that. 



The kola tree commences to yield a crop about its fourth 

 or hfth year, but it is not until about its tenth year that 

 'V"; I?? ,u'" '^'•■'''•'"S- A s""g'" tree will then yield an average 

 of 120 lb. of seed annually. The fiowering is nearly con- 

 tmuous after the tree reaches matiu-ity, .so that a lar^e 

 tree bears flowers and fruit at the same time. There are 

 two collections; the ,Juue flowering yielding the fruit in 

 October and November and that of November and December 

 jn May and June. AVhen the fruit is ripe it takes a brown- 



* Ab.stract of a lengthy memoir read before the Union 

 Scientifique des Pharmaciens de France (Jovni. Pltanii et 

 de Cliimie, [5], vii., p. 553; viii., 81, 177.) 



