March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



661 



PAPER-MAEING IN EGYPT 

 In the suburb of Boulak, the river-port of Cairo, is situ- 

 ated the Daira paper maaufactory, which, before the late 

 war broke out, used to employ regularly more than 200 

 hands, almost all natives. Most of the paper turned out 

 is used for packiug purposes in the Khedivial sugar fac- 

 tories ; but there are also manufactured in the course of 

 the year some 70,000 reams of very fair writing and 

 printing paper, which more than supply the demand of 

 the Government offices of Cau-o and Alexandria and the 

 requirements of the national press. The writing paper i.s 

 manufactured specially for Arabic writiug, and to suit the 

 peculiar style of Oriental penmanship ; and therefore what 

 is produced of this sort in excess of the requirements of 

 the country is exported eastward rather than westward, 

 a good deal of it going to Arabia, and a few bales even 

 to India for the use of our Moslem fellow-subjects. Linen 

 and cotton rags are used to a certain extent in the 

 Boulak factory ; but the interior of the stalk of the sugar- 

 cane supplies the Cairene paper-making with an inexhaust- 

 ible supply of very workable material ; while, in the pro- 

 duction of what is called "straw" paper in Europe, the 

 hilfa grass plays a very important part. The Daira factory 

 at Boulak enjoys a monopoly of this industry in Egypt ; 

 and in connection with it is the National Printing Office, 

 also under the control of the same administration. The 

 extraordinary turn for paper-maldng displayed by the 

 Boulak Arabs is, it need hardly be said, and hereditary 

 accomplishment. They can point to a long line of ances- 

 tors who educated the East and the West in suc- 

 cessive stages of this useful art. There is an Arabic ver- 

 sion of the "Aphorisms of Hippocrates" in the magni- 

 ficent library of the Escurial, written on paper said to be 

 made of linen rags, vrhich dates from the very commence- 

 ment of the thirteenth century. This was an improve- 

 ment on the Carta homhi/cina — or Oarta Damascrim, as 

 it was vulgarly called, from its having been first im- 

 ported into Spain from Syria— which was fabricated from 

 silken as well as cotton material, and is known to have 

 been in use as early as 1100 a.d. It superseded, in its 

 turn, parchment made of the skins of sheep and calves, 

 which if not also an invention of the iVrabs, was one 

 that was quickly profited by and improved in Arabia, 

 Syria, and Egypt. The Egyptians appear to have been 

 acquainted with the use of papyrus ia the most remote 

 Pharaouic peroids; atid its manufactur" was a Government 

 monopoly, as paper-making is to this day at Boulak. The 

 Cijpera^ Ptqii/ru:< grew almost entirely in Lower Egypt, 

 and rather in marshy places or ponds formed by inund- 

 ations of the Nile than on the banks of the great rivers 

 itself. Isaiah gives us also to understand that it was found 

 in shallow brooks (presumably in connection with the 

 Lower Nile), when the course of his denunciations of 

 Egypt, he prophesies thewithering and decay of the papyi*us 

 plant — " the paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouths 

 of the brooks." The mode of its preparation was in this 

 way : — The outer rind having been first removed, the inner 

 bark was divided by a needle or some other sharp in- 

 strument into very thin and broad layers. Those were 

 placed side by side longitudinally and glued together at 

 the ends, another strip of the plant being glued across 

 the back to give strength. The papyrus, having been pressed 

 and i«'operly dried, was then ready for inscription. Pliny 

 was mistaken in imagining that the ancient Egj-ptians em- 

 ployed portions of the same papyras in making sails, mats, 

 bedding, and even boats. It was another species of the 

 same family that was so treated, which Strabo was careful 

 to distinguish from the " hieratic byblus." The monopoly 

 of the papyrus in Egypt, which was only permitted to 

 be grown in certian localities, brought its value up to a 

 price which was practically prohibitive of its use by any 

 but the very opvdent. Official documents — especially wills 

 and agreement for the purchase and sale of lani^s and tene- 

 ments — were required to be written on this expensive 

 material ; but for ordinary purposes the K-^yptian of the 

 later empire and the Roman rt't/i^ne committed bis hiero- 

 glyphs to the custody of a meaner medium, and to this day we 

 often find in the ilust heaps of Upper Egypt domestic 

 memoranda, and especially the accounts of the Egyptian 

 housewife, scrawled on the glazed fragments of some c:ist- 

 away earthenware vase. On the conquest of Egypt its papyrus 

 was introduced into Rome, and there its maiiufactiiro was 



conducted under improved conditions. Pliny says the Romans 

 made all sorts of paper out of it. Still Alexandria con- 

 tinued, as of old, the chief centre of the industry; and 

 in the third century the tyrant Firmus could write that 

 " there was so much paper there, and so large a quantity 

 of glue used in its preparation, that he could maintain an 

 army mth it."— Globe. 



INSECT PESTS AND THEIR DESTRUCTION. 



People seem to forget that by the act of importing seeds 

 and plants not indigenous to the country, and in cultivat- 

 ing them they are virtually interfering with Nature, which, 

 according to their contention, would have produced them 

 on the spot if they were needed. They omit to remember 

 that by so introducing new plants they are more apt to 

 introduce along with them the parasites which infest them, 

 but leave the natural enemies of those parasites behind; 

 and they do not seem to be aware that when they under- 

 take to nurse, rear, and cultivate these plants, they are 

 removing them from their state of nature into an artificial 

 life, and that it becomes as much their interest to devise 

 me.ans for their protection against parasitic and other 

 depredators as it is to prune, water, manure, and otherwise 

 cultivate them. The stupid cry that " you cannot alter 

 Nature." is receiving a direct contradiction every time one 

 puts on clothing, cuts his hair, or does any single act or 

 thing to promote his comfort or convenience. How would 

 the conservatories get on without a constant attention to 

 destroy the red spider, thrips, scales, aphides, and other 

 little pests, or what would be the result if our vignerons 

 omitted to use sulphur against the ravages of that insidious 

 fungus the Oidium Tuckeru ? Have not our sheep farmers 

 been enabled by dipping into suitable washes to cleanse their 

 flocks from the attacks of the acarus causmg the scab — 

 without the adoption of which remedy it would have been 

 impossible to keep a sheep aUve upon this large continent. 

 Indeed, there is scarcely anj'thiug in Nature over which man 

 is not able to exercise some sort of control, and this power 

 is given him to exercise for his own good — or evil. 



Thus, then, with respect to the inroads of insects, &c., 

 upon his cultivated crops, it is quite within his province 

 to endeavour to arrest theu: progress. By careful watching 

 over fresh introductions of seeds, plants, and cuttings from 

 other countries, and a supervision during their first few 

 months of growth, he can prevent the introduction and spread 

 of new pests and diseases. While by the use of in.secticides 

 and mechanical appUanoes he can, with more or less success, 

 prevent the ravages of those already establi-shed. Thus, 

 with the Ouroulio beetle (Otiorhyncus picipes) which is now 

 spreading so rpidly, he can trap them by thousands by 

 merely wrapping a piece of canvas or cloth loosely round 

 the stem of his ti-ees, in the folds of which they will hiile 

 by day. This is the only effectual plan yet found for 

 destroying the Oodlin moth, which is so destructive to apples 

 in the United States of America, and latterly in Tasmania, 

 and has lately been introduced into Victoria. The curculio 

 is also caught by spreading sheets under the trees hy day, 

 and quietly going at night and jarring the trees, when the 

 wevils drop and are swept up and destroyed. Some insects, 

 such as the Aphides, are covered with a fine powder, which 

 rolls off any insecticides that may be sprayed upon them ; 

 but a little grease or soap in the water will destroy this 

 propensity, and the grease itself, without the addition of 

 the insecticide, will stop up the spiracles or breathmg-places, 

 and thus the insect will be suffocated. LTpon the same 

 principle a very thick smoke is sometimes found effectual 

 in destroying some kinds of insects, and others may be 

 destroyed with even clean water. Occasionally it has becen 

 found that there are particular stages in the life ofinseagts 

 ;when one method is destructive which at another stage 

 would be quite ineffectual. At one time merely shaking 

 the plant upon which they may be feeding will cause them 

 to fall and be starved, because unable to crawl back to 

 their food, and at another time this course would have 

 no effect. On most insects the leaves of the Anthemis 

 group of plants have a fatal influence — it is not known to 

 what principle this influence is ilue, but its effects are most 

 m.arked. The powder known as "insect powder" is made 

 from plants of this order, chiefly Pyrethrum cerneum and 

 1». Dalnmtica, but the whole gi-oup possess the principle 

 in a greater or lesser degree. Upon somo insects the 



