March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



68 r 



DRIED APRICOTS. 



TO THE EDITOB OF THE " AUSTKALASIAN." 



SiH, — Dried apricots, like dried apples, are much prized 

 in the far-off newly-settled regions in the Australian bush ; 

 and if you or some correspondent would make known the 

 correct process of drying them, a favour of no small moment 

 will be conferred on others as well as on your obedient 

 servant, Baecoo. 



[Apricots may be readily dried on trays or sheets of 

 iron in the sun. The trays, &c., are taken in-doors each 

 evening. Ed. "A."] 



FRUIT DRYING. 



SiE, — Oan you please inform me of some book that treats 

 on the best method of preserving or drying fruit for ex- 

 portation, such as apples, &c., and whether you think it 

 is possible to preserve bananas on the same principle. 



WVCHEPEOOF. 



[Since the Alden machine was invented in America, 

 numerous improvements thereon have been designed, and 

 such machines are much used. The makers usually send 

 printed instructions for operating, but beyond those we 

 know of no publications on the subject. AU kinds of fruits 

 can be dried, but all are not equally appreciated.— En. "A."] 



THE WHITE AIJT V. THE SUGAR OANE. 



SiE, — In your issue of the 24th ult. it is stated that the 

 De Lissa Piour>er Sugar Company attribute their want of 

 success to '• the persistent ravages of the white ant." Some 

 years ago I was pestered in garden and dwelling by ants 

 of many kinds, and happening to notice the immunity en- 

 joyed in this respect by a neighbouring country storekeeper, 

 he informed me that by mbdug arsenic with dissolved sugar 

 he had destroyed millions, and the survivors had •' cleared 

 out." I tried the prescription, and was successful. Can- 

 not the sugar company make liquid manure from their 

 refuse, mingle the arsenic, and practically say to the in- 

 sect pests. Cave Canem? 



WATTLES. 



Sir, — I have a selection that has been rung about two 

 years. A forest of wattles has sprung up nearly all over 

 the paddocks. Can you inform me how to get rid of 

 them ? Wattle. 



[Wattle bark being a valuable product, would it not be 

 well to allow the trees to become large enough for strip- 

 ping, a condition they usually attain in three years. 

 The bark should not only pay for the clearing, but yield 

 a profit besides, if you are not too distant from a mar- 

 ket.— Ed. "A."] 



CHINESE INVESTIGATION OF SORGHUM 



SUGAR MAKING. 



The State and Stripes with the dragon flag of China 

 floated together over the Rio Grande Company's works 

 today, for among the visitors on a special train from 

 Philadelphia were the Chinese Ambassador and two of 

 his Secretaries. For 2,000 years sorghum has been profit- 

 ably grown as a cereal in the Flowery Kingdom, and if 

 the clear gain of its sugar value can be added to the crop, 

 the fact will be of vast economical importance to the 

 Empire. It was, therefore, no superficial interest which 

 the Embassador and his companions manifested. If they 

 had been sugar experts inclined to purchase the whole 

 concern as an investnient they could not have studied the 

 methods and machinery more intelligently and closely. 

 They watched the cane through the rollers, and followed 

 the expressed juice as it was clarified and boiled through 

 the vacuum pans to the centrifugals, and by their search- 

 ing inquiries kept Dr. Collier and Superintendent Hughes 

 constantly explaining every detail through the entire process. 

 When the day was over there is little doubt that they had 

 a more comprehensive knowledge of sugar-making than any 

 of the American visitors. The Rio Grande Company at 

 present turns the seed into pork, boiling it, and for a change 

 scattering it on the bagasse or pressed cane with which 

 the floors of the pens are thickly covered. The swine, root- 

 ing and tramping this into compost, fiu-nish manure for the 

 crop, so that all the refuse, including the rich scum from the 



boilers, is returned to the soil, and nothing practically is 

 taken from the land except the phosjjhate of Ume in the 

 skeleton of the pork. AU this utilization of the waste was 

 carefully inquired after by Cheu Tsao Ju and his Secretaries, 

 as well as by the men of science and capitalists who made 

 up the party. — Rural Worhf. 



THE SEYCHELLES ARCHIPELAGO. 



Reported hy U. S. A. Consul Jllussey. 



DESCEIPTION OF THE ISLANDS. 



The Seychelles Archipelago lies in the Indian Ocean, 

 about 1,400 miles south-east of Aden, and 1,000 miles east 

 of the coast of Zanzibar, in latitude 4 ' south and longitude 

 55 ° east. The Seychelles group comprises about thirty 

 rough, rocky, and mountainous islands, surrounded mainly by 

 coral reefs. The group was discovered by the Portuguese in 

 the fifteenth centiu-y, taken by the French in 1642, and cap- 

 tiired from them in turn by the British in 1814, since which 

 time they have been vmder the domination of Great 

 Britain. The name is derived from a French explorer. Count 

 HcraiJt de Seychelles, who visited the i.slauds at an early 

 period in their history. 



The surface of the land is extremely rugged and mountain- 

 ous, and but a comparatively small portion is available 

 for agriciUtural purposes. Huge boulders lie thickly strewn 

 on the sm-face everywhere, and great labor and capital must 

 be expended to clear the steep sides of the hills and 

 mountains of stones, trees, and tropical tangle of grass, 

 vines, and undergi-owth. 



The soil is a hard, red, clayey loam, strong in plant-food 

 and the elements that make a vigorous vegetable growth, 

 and, given the adjuncts of heat, moisture, and almost 

 perpetual sunshine, vegetation flourishes and riots in tropical 

 abundance and luxuriance. The islands are, therefore, green 

 and fresh at all seasons, and particularly so dui-ing the 

 wet period, which extends from November to JIay. During 

 this season, the tropical summer, immense quantities of 

 water fall, the total for the year 1881 amoimting to 

 113-50 mches. 



The climate is warm and equable, the extreme range of 

 the thermometer in 1881 and 1SS2 being only 22 ° , viz., 

 minimum 71°, maximum 93°, Fahrenheit. The heat is 

 seldom sulti-y and oppressive, as the air is tempered by 

 the monsoon, which gives a cool breeze rarely broken. 

 The " winter " season covers the months between May and 

 November, and the climate is most agreeable, as the 

 southeast monsoon obtains, and the mercury but infrequently 

 rises above 85 ° . These islands are too far to the north 

 to receive the frightful hurricanes which occasionally sweep 

 over the sister islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, and 

 even thunder-storms but seldom appear here. — Indian 

 Mercury. 



THE DESERT PALM. 



The following description of the Desert Palm is from an 

 American paper: — "All the tree, except the bark and 

 leaves, are available for paper-making. The fibre bleaches 

 easily, and what is very desirable in a paper-making sub- 

 stance, it felts well and cooks well, as the phrases are. The 

 fibre contains no resinous substance, and therefore tiurns 

 out a clear quality of paper. Mr. AValker has erected a mill 

 in the Soledad Canon, six miles from the entrance to the 

 desert." 



My own immediate object is to attract the attention of 

 experienced men interested in the Indiiiu Section of the 

 Society's operations, with a view to raising the question 

 whether it may not be highly desirable to have the Yucca 

 Draconk introduced into India. I have high authority for 

 the assurance that this "cactus would grow every where 

 in India." 

 j There is a fm'ther incidental excuse for my thus bring- 

 I ing the matter to the notice of Anglo-Indians. Just be- 

 fore the Session closed, Mr. Alderman Fowler — who is 

 always ready to do India a good turn — put a question as 

 to the probable advantage of propagating the esparto grass 

 in that country. M. J.K.Cross replied, iu general terms, 

 that the attention of the agricultural bureau should be 

 drawn to the subject. But the proposal at once suggests 

 comparison as to the far gieater fibre-yielding quahties 



