July 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



59 



little more than covers expenditure. A still capable of 

 turning out a dozen bottles a day costs £300. I hardly 

 think it would be advisable to attempt this cultivation at 

 Port Blaii-. 



SnOAECANE. 



I have had an opportunity here of visiting two native 

 estates where raw sugar is made by native process without 

 machinery, and it is of so simple a description that there 

 is no reason why we should not mauufacture similar sugar 

 at Port Blair. On one estate a cane-crusher, driven by a 

 six-horse power engine, is used, the manufacturer of which 

 is G. Fletcher, Loudon. It is a horizontal mill u^th 3' 

 roller ; on the other estate a similar crusher, Init with 

 IV 6" rollers, manufactured by J. Gordon and Company. 

 London, is working. This, however, is worked by four 

 bullocks, and would appear to be better suited to our 

 requirements. The latter machine is worked for si.\ hours 

 daily, and is said to tiu'n out 700 gallons of juice. The 

 juice is then boiled in vacuum pans C 6" diameter, aud 

 when of the proper consistency, is turned out into wooden 

 coolers. AVTien quite cold it is poiu"ed into wooden casks, 

 the bottoms of which are perforated with holes to allow 

 the treacle to escape. In a few weeks this process is 

 completed, when the sugar is spread ia the sun to dry, 

 .sorted into dift'erent qualities, and is ready for use. 



TAPIOCA AND BBEADFEUIT. 



I brought with me a few cuttings of the true [true ?] 



tapioca plant and thi-ee or four plants of the breail fruit 



tree, as I thought both these would be very valuable for 



vegetables for convicts. They have arrived in good order. 



R. J. AVnrBERi.EY, Major, 



Officiating Deputy Superintendent. 



WOOD STAINS. 



Herr Leo, a pharmacist of Benshein, Germany, recom- 

 mends the following stains for oak, pine, beech, poplar, 

 etc. 



1. Yellow Stain. — Wash over with a hot concentrated 

 solution of picric acid, aud, when dry, polish the wood. 



2. Ehoiii/ Black. — Wash with a concentrated aqueous 

 solution of extract of logwood several times ; then with a 

 solution of . acetate of iron, of 14 deg. Baume, which is 

 repeated until a deep black is produced. 



3. Grta/. — One part of nitrate of silver dissolved in iif ty 

 parts of distilled water; wash over twice ; then with hydro- 

 chloric acid, and aftei-wards with water of ammonia. The 

 wood is allowed to dry in the dark, and then finished in 

 oil and polished. 



4. Lit/lit IValnnt. — Dissolve one part of permanganate of 

 potassium in thu-ty parts of pure water, and apply twice 

 in succession, and after an interval of five minutes, wash 

 with clean water, and when dry, oil and polish. 



5. Dark H'ulinit. — Same as for light walnut; but after 

 wa!5hing with water the darker veins are made more pro- 

 minent \vitli a solution of acetate of iron. 



6. Dark Mtihogany. — Introduce into a bottle 15 gi'ains 

 alkanet root, ?tO grains aloes, 30 gi'ains powdered dragon's 

 blood, and 500 grains fl.5 per cent alcohol, closing the mouth 

 of the bottle with a piece of bladder, keeping it in a 

 warm place for three or four days, with occasional shaking, 

 then filtering the liquid. The wood is fii'st mordanted with 

 nitric acid, antl when dry washed with the stain once or 

 oftener according to the desired shade; then the wood, 

 being dried, is oiled aud polished. 



7. Lit/ht Afahoyaiii/. — Same as dark mahogany, but the 

 stain should ouly be applied once. The veins of true maho- 

 gany may be imitated by the use of acetate of iron skill- 

 fully applied. — Rural Califonlian. 



THE EUCALYPTUS OR BLUE GUM. 



On suitable soil it will produce a greater number of 



cords of good hard wood and in less time, than any other 



they will bear croMding. and still grow well. They 



. ; be planted 8x8 feet apart — making 680 trees per acre. 



t^o far as we have noted they do best on a moist sandy 



loam, that is free from alkali, with a subsoil that can be 



penetrated by its strong fibrous roots. The ground should 



be in a good state of cultivation, and the young tree 



taken from thi- box in which it was sprouted with its 

 roots enveloped in the ball of dirt in which they have 

 gi-own, and planted in the place in which it is to grow. 

 If the ground is sufficiently moist, and the weeds are kept 

 down, by cultivation for two years, they will take care of 

 themselves in future, and in ten years will average ten 

 inches in diameter, and sixty feet high. How many cords 

 of wood the trees would make, we do not know, but it 

 woidd be a large quantity; the wood makes the best fuel, 

 but it must be cut and spUt to the size it is wanted for 

 u.se, whilst it is green, as when dry it be comes as hard 

 as iron, and cannot be worked. 



A forest of blue gmns has this advantage — it is a perman- 

 ent investment. Wheu a tree is cut, suckers immediately 

 spring up from the stump, and if those on each are con- 

 fined to two, in five years the stump will have produced 

 two trees of equtil size with the fiist, aud thus the forest will 

 perpetually reproduce itself. Any one who has money for 

 which he has no immediate use, cannot make a better use 

 of it than to invest it in a piece of suitable land and 

 plant it in lilue gum.s. — Rural Californian. 



Caffeic Acid from Cuprea Baek. — ^The bark employe.! 

 differs from ordinary cinchona bark in that its aqueous 

 solution becomes reddish violet on the addition of potash, 

 and moreover, it yields caffeic acid when employed for 

 the manufacture of sulphate of quinine; the caffeic acid 

 is found in the mother liquors as quinine caffeate. The 

 presence of this acid furuLshes an additional proof of 

 the relationship existing between the coffee and cinchona 

 plants. — Fkann. J. Trans. [Only that the trees from which 

 cuprea bark is obtained are not cinchonas. — Ed.] 



Ration of Hay foe Horse. — AVill you please state, to 

 decide a question of payment, how much hay a horse will 

 eat per diem in addition to eight quarts of grain? He is 

 a medium-sized horse, weighing less than 950 pounds, 

 twelve years old, used in the country to a buggy only, 

 and not driven every day. — W. W., New York. [The ex- 

 periments of Wolff and others, at German experiment 

 stations, show that a horse weighing 1,100 to 1,200 pounds 

 would eat from twenty-two to twenty-seven and a half 

 pounds of hay, if no oth-ir food was given. With grain, 

 twenty to twenty-five poimds was usually eaten by working 

 horses of that weight. Lighter horses would not need 

 quite so much, but we cau find no data of experiments 

 with horses weighing less than 1,000 pounds.] — Rural 

 Odif'jriiian. 



PiuiNTNG Fruit Trees. — Much butchery is committed by 

 unskillful per.sous under the delusive idea th.at they are 

 judiciously pruuiug. A sldllful pruner, by taking a glance 

 at a young tree, can easily tell what buds to take off and 

 what to leave, and can prune it with his thumb nail, so 

 the tree will need little more through the season. Trees 

 managed in this way will have few limbs required to be 

 cut away. Sometimes a limb is cut off, leariiig a stump 

 two or three inches long on the tree. Aside from un- 

 sightly appearance, such a wound can certainly never heal 

 over. If it is necessary to remove a limb, it should be 

 sawed off as closely as possible to the stem, and then 

 smoothly trimmed off with a sharp knife. — Rural Cidi- 

 foraiaa. 



ACCI.IMATIS.1TI0N OF PLANTS. — AVith reference to the 

 theory that, as coffee got acchmatized in Ceylon, it suc- 

 ceeded at higher and higher altitudes, we quote as follows 

 frbra the Indian Forester : — Mr. A. Smythies, from Messrs. 

 James Backhouse & Son. the gieat nurserymen of York, 

 writes: — "In reply to yom- enquiry, we, believe that, in 

 point of fact, there never was such a thing as what is 

 usually called ' accUmatisation ' anywhere. What lias been 

 done has been merely finding out what the constitution of 

 each species, or variety, leill hear in the way of climate. 

 We thiuk you will find, as a rule, that where natural 

 hardmess is the result of high latitude^ there is nothing to 

 fear, but that when supposed hardiness results fiom high 

 allitnde of native locality, the risk in all our low-lying 

 ground is very considerable." Our readers will of course 

 understand that the last sentence refers oidy to the British 

 Isles. 



