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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[SEt-TtMUER 1, 1883. 



STKEET PLANTING IN CALCUTTA. 



The following extract from a letter of Mr, 0. E. Clarke 

 may interest some readers of the Gardeners' Chronicle: — "I 

 give you a list of the trees plunted iu the street on the 

 east side of Tank Square, Calcutta (there are more than 

 a hundred, spi.-cii-s of treesand largeshrubs around the tank): — 

 Mifholi;! rliampaea Anttioccphalus Cadamba 



•t'alophyllum luophyllum "Mimusops Elcngi 



* Pterospernium uct-iifolium Millingtouia hortensis 



"Melia jVzadii-aclita ^'Tectona ^-audis 



Cedrela Toona firevillea robusta 



•Cassia. Siamea *Ficus benghaleusis 



•Poinciana regia *Ficus rehgiosa 



*Albizzia oiloratissiina Causarina equisetifoUa 



*Lagei'strtomia FIos-Regiure 

 ■\Vith the exception of the Poinciana, Grevillea, and 

 Casuarina, these ax-e all Indian trees; and all those marked 

 with a * are in fiower at the time of writing." 



Some idea of the aspect these trees present when in 

 flower may be obtained iu the "North" Gallery, Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, where paintings of nearly every one will 

 be found. 



Respecting the temperatm-e Mr. Clarke writes: — " Our 

 shade thermometer rose to 93 ° to 102 ^ daily by April 7, 

 and has been somewhat higher ever since. It is said to 

 be the hottest season since 1869. The nights are just so 

 hot that at 4 a.m. the perspiration streams over your ribs." 

 W. B. H. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



COTTON SEED OIL. 

 It is not many years since that cotton-seed was almost 

 a waste product, now it is largely used for the expression 

 of oil, as will l)e seen from the following notes from a 

 report on the industries of the State of Georgia. Year by 

 year the great commercial vahie of cotton-seed has been 

 gradually developed. A great authority has stated that if 

 Cotton could be grown in the Northern States, it would be 

 grown if only for the value of the seed alone. It yields an oil 

 which is widely used as a substitute for lard, and is largely 

 sold for exportation to France and Italy for the adulter- 

 ation of olive-oiU while the cake finds a I'eady sale at home 

 and abroad as food for cattle and as a fertiliser. For every 

 bale of Cotton grown there is half a ton of seed, and if 

 the crop of the present season yields but 6,500,000 bales, of 

 which there can be no reasonable doubt, there will be 

 3,250,000 tons of cotton-seed. The oil-mills pay 12 dols. a 

 ton for seed delivered at a railroad station or a river land- 

 ing. Planters ordinarily put aside from 40 to 50 per cent. 

 of the seed for planthig; this would leave 1,630,000 tons 

 as the marketable croii of the year, but as many planters 

 live far away from railroad stations or navigable rivers, and 

 the transportation facilities of the South are limited, 12 dols. 

 per ton to them would leave no profit, and the seed is 

 therefore used as a fertiliser, so that the actual quantity 

 placed on sale may be put do^vii at less than 500,000 tons. 

 It is estimated that a ton of seed yitdds from 28 to '32 

 gallons of crude oil, worth 4o cents a gallon ; 7501b. of 

 oilcake, worth from 22 dols. to 2A dols. a ton, and about 

 201b. of lint-cotton, worth 6 cents per pound. The huUs 

 furnish more than sufficient fuel for the mills. The demand 

 for the oil and the cake has grown enormously during the 

 past few years. Until recently the demand was almost 

 entirely from Europe, but dm-ing the past year the New 

 England States alone took 15,0(*0 tons of cotton-seed meal 

 (the oil-cake ground), and the lard-packers of the AVest are 

 now largely using the refined oil, which is worth about 

 60 cents per gallon, to mix with lard, which sells for 12 cents 

 per pound or DO cents per gallon. The prejudice against 

 the use of the oil for domestic purjioses is fast ilisappearing, 

 and refiners now sell it largely for cooking purposes. In 

 the New England States the cotton-seed meal is used as 

 cattle food, the cattle being penned, and the manure utilised 

 as a fertiliser; while in the South it is in most instances 

 applied direct to the ground, or in combination with other 

 fertilisers. The crop of cot ton- seed of this State for the year 

 1882 is estimated at 450,000 tons. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



CINCHONA. 



The following extract from a letter addressed to Messrs. 

 Croysdale & Co., by then- London Agents, Messrs, Francois 

 LeMair and Rivers Hicks, on the harvesting of Cinchona 

 bark, will prove of interest t-o many of our readers:— 



When slicing was commenced in India three years age, 

 it was with some trepidation that we observed the deiiarture 

 from the old, well-tried and extremely remunerative process 

 of taking the bark by stripping, and was only when we were 

 assured of the following being facts, that we expressed our 

 approval, the correctness of which we shortly after saw 

 reason to doubt, and later to be certain that the new process 

 was a most lamentable failure. We were assured that the 

 quantity of bark to be taken would be at least double that 

 obtained under stripping. That the trees were more healthy 

 under the slicing than under stripping. That the bark re- 

 newed more quickly mider slicing than under stripping. 

 That the ^n eld of alkaloid, and especially quinine increased 

 more quickly under slicing than under stripping. These 

 four premises proved, as many growers believe them to be, 

 and the case would of course be made out, and no sane man 

 would take bark by strippmg when he could shave or shce. 

 The first slices were undoubtedly richer iu quinine and other 

 alkaloids than the strips taken off the same trees, but that 

 of course had nothing to do with the system, the bark having 

 been grown under the stripping process, and the extra rich- 

 ness was accounted for by their only having taken the outer 

 and undoubtedly richer portion of bark which has not been 

 sliced. The next question, viz, the greater healthiness of 

 the trees under slicing than stripping, was the point which 

 delayed our expressing our antagonistic feeling, for there 

 was no doubt that the trees were healthier under slicing 

 than under strip2nng, and the first deduction naturally to be 

 drawn was that, if the tree were healthier, the bark must 

 be better ; if it were not so, some other influence must be 

 at work. liut further observation, that jn spite ofthispheno- 

 menon, bark from trees sliced was each time worse than 

 the last, and that the rate of deterioration was an ever- 

 increasing one, made us feel sure that the argument must 

 be a false one, and in effect, when remembering that the sap 

 of the tree goes up inside the tree, and is there transformed 

 in Nature's laboratory, the leaves, and comes down outside, 

 down the bark, and is deposited for the most part in the 

 bark, in the shape of alkaloids, when one considers this, 

 all is immediately plain, and actual every day experience of 

 those whose life is to handle and value bark, triumphs over 

 all the theories. In slicing, yuu cut through the storehouse 

 of the alkaloid, and leave the contents of the bark on the 

 tree, subject to leakage and to chemical changes, by being 

 exposed to influences they were never intended to be subject 

 to. So far for theory, which as business men we do not believe 

 in. Our theory is made up from our experience. AVe do 

 not make a theory first, .so that even could this theory which 

 we have compiled from observation of ett'ects, be overturned 

 by any argument, which seems to us very difficult, there 

 would still remain the facts observed to be disposed of, and 

 these are the things that convince us of the suicidal effects 

 of slicing. We have never seen in any case coming through 

 oiu- hands, and where therefore we had means of verifying 

 the whole matter, we have never seen second slices from 

 identical trees, exceed in richness the first slices from those 

 trees. AVe have observed in very many, too many cases, a 

 bark arriving the first year in fine, bright, thick, richshces, 

 commanding the top value, arrive the next year in dull, 

 sickly, deadly thin sHces of very uncertain value, and of use 

 to only a limited number of buyers. V.'^e have known cases 

 of a crop of bark taken by slicing, decline in two years, 

 by about 40 per cent in weight and about 30 per cent of 

 the value, that is instead of every I'X) lb. of 3s. bark, only 

 60 lb. of 2s. bark, making every allowance for the drop in 

 the market. A^'hat the dilTerence after three years slicing 

 is, we do not know, but we are afraid it would be something 

 deplorable, and it seems to us tliat about four- years of slicing 

 might reduce a 5 per cent bark to a valueless one. Our 

 experience of comparison between the effects of the two 

 processes being chiefly confined to figures, relating to bark 

 from mature ti-ees, you have to face a further complic- 

 ation, that is, that your figures, relating to young trees, 

 which in the usual course woidd be fast improving in 

 alkaloid yield, are hkely to be confused by taking any in- 

 crease iu alkaloid occurring whilst slicing, as an effect of 

 that systeTu instead of, as we contend, in spite of the 

 system, so that w'e should argue ; that if in slicing you 

 got an hicrease, that incx-ease would be less than it should 

 be by the amount of damage in leakage and chemical 

 change of constitution of alkaloid, resulting from removing 

 the pi-otccii"g outer-layer of tht bark. (Jiidvv the jyioi-.t^^i*} 



