668 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1884 



arg er and larger. The olive was suited to a dry climate, 

 and therefore it would be very valuable in a country like 

 Aus tralia. Ho had uever troubled himself about disposing 

 of the oil produce at his residence, but there was always 

 a de maud for it, thi; price given being 10s. per gallon for 

 virgi u oil, and 8s. for hot -pressed oil. He crushed the 

 berri es himself, and he paid children 5d. for each two- 

 g illon bucket of olives picked. With regard to the picking, 

 he would point out that the be.st table oils were produced 

 from olives hand-picked, because it was well known that 

 olives were particularly sensitive, and if they were allowed 

 to lie on the ground the oil produced was not of the 

 best quality, on account of the berry becoming impreg- 

 nated with .-my smell that might be in the ground. The 

 trees ou his property were not planted in the best position, 

 some of them being in hedges, but they had been mo.st 

 proluctive, as the return he had produced showed. Of 

 course, as Mr. Barnard had pointed out, the great point 

 was to plnnt good varieties, which would yield the best 

 class of oil. 



Mr. E.Smith agreed with Mr. Barnard that it was better 

 to plant five good varieties of ohves than fifty bad ones. 

 He might mention that he had disposed of 700 or 800 

 plants produced from the olives brought to the colony by 

 Mr. Boothby. 



Mr. T. Hardy said with regard to the oHve trees at 

 Banks'dc they were planted ten feet apart, or in fences, 

 or at the ends of rows of vines, and so that they had had 

 to figh^ for their very existence. The plants at Mr. 

 Everard's place were alongside piues, and so they had no 

 chance of proving their productiveness. The expense of 

 gathering the berries had been 3s. per cwt.,but he thought 

 the proper method of collecting the olives had not been 

 carried out. He had of late spread cloths under the trees, 

 and so kept the oUves from being bruised or from coming 

 in contact with the ground. Many people were deterred 

 from planting olives on account of the time it took to 

 grow trees. To lose the use of the ground for eight or 

 ten years seemed to be a long time, but he suggested a 

 plan by which the trees might be grown and the ground 

 made use of at the same time. He would plant the largest 

 worked trees to be obtained at about seventy to the acre 

 and fence each tree round with a guard by driving in a 

 circle of barked w.attle or mallee stakes sis or seven feet 

 Ion ', at eighteen inches from the tree, and from four to 

 five inches apart, and securing them round near the top 

 wi'h fencing wire in two or more rings. The ground 

 co-.dd be cleaned round inside the guards once or twice a 

 yi-iT by lifting one or two stakes, or a,s may he required, 

 and a space of one foot round outside the stakes might 

 be dug with the spade. The land in this way could be 

 depastured with sheep or cattle from the first. 



Mr. Curnow did not object to olive-growing, but on the 

 contrary rather favored it. "What he objected to was cert- 

 ain statements contained in the paper before them. 



Mr. Hardy would like to add that he had been able to 

 S(dl the olives he had gathered at 9s. per cwt., so that 

 left him a profit of Cs. There was not a wheat crop in 

 the country would jiay so well as that. 



Mr. J. Brown said the storekeepers and merchants always 

 had a greater demand for the colonial oil than for the 

 imported. The price he purchased the oil at was 12s. 

 per gallon. 



Mr. .T. S. Bagshaw said he could purchase the imported 

 oil at 6s., but he preferred to give 3s. or 4s. more for the 

 colonial, as it was ever so much better for oiUng the bear- 

 ijigs than that sent from home. 



Mr. Barnard said he was taken by surprise when he 

 heard it stated that this papers put "the matter of olive 

 cultivation in a very gloomy light, as he thought he had 

 put it in rather a too rosy aspect. Having referred to the 

 rajndity with which the yield of the olive trees increased 

 in value, he said that really the margin of profit left to 

 the maimfacturers was not by any means as large as that 

 of the grower. — Oif and Ltniff News. 



PL.iNTmo IN MAuniTius. — Accordmg to Mr. Home's re- 

 ports, the planting in the submbs of Port Louis has been 

 successful in improving the sanitary condition of sites 

 formerly most \mhealthy. Eucalypti of various kinds suc- 

 ceed well, and Cedrela Tooua is'higldy spoken of for the 

 rapidity of its growth and the value of its timber. — Gatd- 

 eners' Chronicle. 



THE VARIETIES OF GUM. 



Gum is identical in all vegetables, and the different kinds 

 vary only in the quantity and quality or the substances 

 united with them. It exists naturally almost pure in gum 

 Arabic and gum Senegal, and more or less mixed in the 

 gum which exudes from the plum, cherry, and other fruit 

 trees, as also in the mucilage of flax seed, slippery elm, 

 etc. Various rosins and gum-rosins are commonly con- 

 founded under this appellation. In sti'ucture gum is quite 

 amorphous or iudetermLnte in form, being neither or- 

 ganized like starch nor crystallized like sugar. It is believed 

 that the acacias yield their gum abundantly when sickly 

 and in an abnormal state, caused by a fulness of sap in 

 the young tissues, whereby the new cells are soltenMl and 

 fiually disorganized ; the cavities thus formed fill with liquid, 

 which exudes, dries and constitutes the gum. When dry 

 it is transparent, brittle, not easily pulverized, and of insipid 

 or slightly sweet taste. Although custom has inaccurately 

 given the name of gum to several rosins and gum-rosins, 

 such as gum copal, gum saudarach, gum ammoniac, and 

 others, these differ in many particulars from real gum. 

 The true gums are gum arable, gum tragacanth, cherry- 

 tree gum, gum of Bassora, and mucilage. Gum arable 

 is the product of the JlLiiosa Xilotica and some other 

 species of the same genus, inhabiting the sandy parts of 

 Arabia, Egypt, Senegal, and Central Africa. The principal 

 kinds are distinguished as Turkey picked, Sedda, Talca, 

 Senegal, Bombay, Cape, and East India (from Brombay 

 and Aden). Another variety, but recently introduced into 

 the market, is called gum mesquite. It comes from Western 

 Texas and Mexico, and is yellowish in color, very brittle, 

 and quite soluble in water. Gum arable exudes spontaneously 

 in a fluid state, and remains attached to the branches 

 after it has concreted and become solid. This exudation 

 takes place continually during the whole of the dry season, - 

 from October to June, but more copiously immediately 

 after the r.ains. December and March are the two mouths 

 in which this gum is collected by the Arabs, with whom 

 it is an important ailment, those tribes that are contmually 

 wandering in the desert often making it their principal 

 article of food during a great part of the year. 



Gum arable is obtained in rounded masses, transparent 

 or of a light yellow color, capable of being easily reduced 

 to a powder, insipid to tie taste, or possessing a slight 

 acidity, which, however, is only perceptible by those who 

 use it habitually. It is easily soluble in water, and the 

 solution has the property of conveying pulverized solids 

 through a filter, which would separate them were they 

 suspended merely in water; thus it is impossible, by this 

 means, to separate powdered charcoal from gum water. In 

 pharmacy gum arable is employed to suspend in water 

 substances which otherwise conld not be kept equally 

 diffused, as baLsam?, fixed oils, rosins, etc,, but its principal 

 consumption isjn manufactures, forming the basis of crayons 

 and cakes of water-colors, as well as of writting ink, and 

 several liquid colors, serving to increase the consistency 

 of these colors, and to prevent their spreading in calico 

 printing, affording a clear cement for joining light sub- 

 stances, which maj" be prepared in a moment, giving a 

 lustre to ribbands, silks, crape, etc. It is besides, used 

 for a great variety of pui-jjoses. ' In medicine it is frequently 

 emploj-ed, especially in dysenteries, as a demulcent, and 

 enters into the composition of a variety of emollient pre- 

 parations. It is also employed in the manufacture of 

 confectionery, and for labels, etc., it is usual to mix sugar 

 of glycerine with it to prevent cracking. The v.ariety of 

 gum arable called gum Senegal, occurs in pieces gencraUy 

 rounded of the size of a pigeon's egg, and of a i-cddish 

 or yellow color. It gives, with water, a somewhat stronger 

 mucilage than the ordinary Arabic species, from which it 

 is distinguished by its clear interior, fewer cracks and 

 greater toughness. It is imported from the river Gambia, 

 from Senegal and Bathurst, and is collected in March and 

 December yearly. Chagual gum, a new variety brought 

 from St. lago de Chili, resembles gum Senegal. By the 

 aid of sulphuric acid it may be converted into a species 

 of gluco.se. 



Gum tragacanth, generally called gum dragon, is col- 

 lected in .-Vsia Jlinor, Ihe principal port of shiprhent being 

 Smyrna. Formerly only the spontaneous exudations of 

 the tree called Astralgtis were gathered, and these were 

 o£ a brown color; now the flow of gum is aided by in- 



