September i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



209 



SiLK-woBM Cii-TUKE IN Of.yixjn" — The Geictnil Blattfiir 

 Textil Industrie states that the superstitious views of the 

 Buddhists had, until recently, prevented the exteusiou of 

 silk-worm cultui-e iu Ceylon." According to the latest ac- 

 counts, however, this opposition has been overcome, and silk 

 is occupying much attention iu several districts. The numer- 

 ous insects and reptiles of the island have been found*to 

 render progress difficult; but it is e.\pected that, by the 

 adoption of such precautionary measures as are usual iu 

 tropical countries, the new entei-prise will finally be success- 

 id. — Jov.rmd of tltt Society of Arts. 



Frog and Gkubs.^A friend of mine, who loves flowers, 

 gardening, and Nature generally, and has done good service 

 to natural history, fed a medium-sized frog, a few days 

 ago, with sis good fat larva; of the daddy-long-legs (of 

 which we have a pest in these parts), and this after an 

 earthworm, which he was Uterally tucking in when found. 

 He '•pouched" the sixth grub as smartly as he did the 

 first, "and still he sighed for more." For gardeners the 

 moral of this httle story is obvious. A robin m my own 

 garden feeds himself and family largely on these "varmint." 

 Do animals feeding on "such small deer" derive pleasiu-e 

 from internal wriggles ? — T. Hamett Harkisson, in the Field. 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



A NnTJiEG Gatherer. — Amongst some interesting .speci- 

 mens recently received at the Kew Mu.seum from Timor- 

 lant, collected by Jlr. H. O. Forbes, is an instrument 

 such as is used in Banda for gathering nutmegs. The 

 instrument is made of spilt bamboo, and forms a kind 

 of ba.sket of an oval . form, with an opening on one side. 

 At the upper part of this opening are two projecting 

 prongs of hard wood, set pretty close together; at the 

 opposite end is a hght bamboo handle. The whole appar- 

 atus is very Ught, and in gathering the nutmegs while 

 yet, of coui'se, iu their fruit, the instrument is pushed 

 amongst the branches of the tree and the fniit caught 

 between the two prongs of hard wood, previously de- 

 scribed. By a jerk ol the instrument the friut is detached, 

 and falls at once into the basket below. The contrivance 

 is extremely simple, and does away with the necessity of 

 erecting stages for the purpose of gathering the fruits, 

 which is done in some countries. — T'lanters' Gazette. 



British Hostdithas. — The most important as well as the 

 richest river valley in the colony is that of the Old River, 

 sometimes called the Belize River. This extends in a wide 

 sinuous course from the town of Belize at the sea coast to 

 the western frontier; in the upper portions the valley widens 

 into broad expanses of rich fertile plains, in some cases thirty 

 or forty miles in breadth, covered by Oohime Palm. I 

 carefully examined this district, and worked my way to the 

 frontier station — the Cayo— near which a Coffee plantation 

 has recently been established. 'With the exception of .some 

 six Sugar estates, and the same number of Banana ijlantations, 

 this Coffee plantation is the only attempt hitherto made 

 to establish a systematic course of culture in the colony, 

 the bulk of the people being employed, and the chief trade 

 of the colony depending upon mahogany and logwood cut- 

 ting which, when good prices are ruling, are apparently very 

 remunerative industries. In the forest of the western dis- 

 tricts I found the rubber tree of Central America (Castilloa 

 elastica) very abmrdant. This tree (a member of the Bread- 

 fruit family) is especially suitable for cultivation on account 

 of its preferring a loamy, sandy soil, and being a deep feeder 

 it might be utilised as a shade trt:e in cultivated areas with 

 great advantage. I spent two days with a rubber gatherer 

 in order to observe the methods for bleeding the tree and 

 preparing the rubber; and I have brought with me botanical 

 specimens of the tree, some seed, as well as a sample of 

 the rubber. I hope soon to make a special report on this 

 tree and its produce. I am, also, making arrangements to 

 procui-e a large quantity of the seed, when ripe, for dis- 

 tribution amongst Cacao planters in this island. Trees at 

 ten years old yield from 41b. to 71b. of rubber, which is valued 

 at from 2s. Sd. to 3s. per pound. If carefully managed, the 

 trees can be bled every three or four years. Auother in- 

 teresting plant found vAld in these forests was the indigenous 

 Cacao of Central America; this differed from all kinds I had 

 met previously. An examination of the pods, which are of 

 a golden-yellow colour', led to the conclusion that this " Tam- 

 pasco">or "Socunusco" Cacao is the yellow form of the 



celebrate.(l "Caracas'' Cacao. Should such prove to be the 

 case, there is little doubt that this yellow variety will prove 

 as much superior to the red (Caracas) form, as the yellow 

 Forastero does to the red (Trinidad) Cacao. Many other 

 uiteresting plants of timber and dye woods, as well as of 

 plants of medicinal and economic value, were met, many 

 of which I have no doubt are capable of being utilised both 

 in British Honduras and in other British possessions. D. 

 Morris. — Director of PubUc Gardens and Plantations, 

 Jamaica. — Gardeners' Chroiiicle. 



Tea in Disibula. — A planter of great experience, par- 

 ticularly in tea, makes the following very valuable sugges- 

 tions to those about to embark in this enterprise, which 

 are worth studying. He says : — " In my opinion the cul- 

 tivation of tea in the low-country and the cultivation of it 

 in Dimbula are two very different thmgs, and the bushes 

 cannot he treated the same. That tea will pay, pos.sibly 

 all over Ceylon, there seems to be little doubt, but I would 

 advise those up-country who intend planting up coffee to 

 base their calculation on 350 lb. an acre. They will pro- 

 bably get more, but it is as well to be safe : and thenao-aiu 

 I would be inclined to say : don't plant up your good coffee. 

 It does not follow that good coffee lan<l will be good tea 

 laud : and when a man hasa good piece of coft'ee land he had 

 better keep it and cultivate it. for there is much bad coffee 

 laud that will grow tea admiriibly. With three products on 

 an estate carefully attended to there should be no waste of 

 labor. A tea estate alone will be found more expensive work- 

 ing than is generally supposed but with other products there 

 need not be — for want of a better word — economy (? waste) 

 of labor." Undoubtedly, though tea will pay to grow even 

 at great altitudes, such tea must receive different treatment 

 to that in the low-country, in the same way that coffee at 

 5,000 ft. requh-es totally different treatment to coffee at 

 1,500 ft. No doubt, as time goes on, our planters will learn 

 by experience how to treat tea at both extremes of altitude. 

 — Local " Times. " 



The Golden Apple. — Mr. Ronald McLeod, Mount Triiodos 



CypiTis, writes to a daily contemporary as follows: "It 



will, I think, be a subject of interest to know that the 

 identification of the fruit which in the Old Testament and 

 in ancient Greek wiitings is called the 'Golden Apple' has 

 become possible. 'The three Golden Apples given by Venus 

 -to Meilanion, whereby he won the race with Atalanta, were 

 Iilucked, it is said, either from the Garden of the Hesp'erides 

 or from an orchard in Cyprus.' Any proof helping to establish 

 the identification of this fruit will come naturally with "reater 

 weight from Cj-prus, the home of Aphrodite. In Crarus at 

 the present day in early summer almost every ganlen has 

 trees laden with ' ta chrysomela,' ' Golden Apples,' and the 

 bazaars of the towns ai-e filled with the fragrant fruit. ' The 

 modern Greek name for the Apricot is ' to Berykokkon ' 

 but the Cypriote still calls it by the ancient name 'to 

 chi-ysomelo,' since he knows no other, thus can-yin" the 

 mind back to the distant past when Cyprus was the Garden 

 of the Eastern Mediterranean, and fit to be the favourite 

 residence of the Goddess of Beauty. The 'Golden Apple' 

 of the Book of Proverbs is also doubtless, the Ain-icot 

 The reference in the Old Testament apply, in all respects' 

 to this fruit tree alone. It has been abundantly cultivated' 

 in Palestine from early times; its foUage forms a 'delio-htful 

 shade,' and is bright and pale hke 'pictures of silver, ' while 

 it bears 'Apples of Gold ' of ' fragrant smell' and 'sweet to 

 the taste.' Dr. Clarke says that the .Vpricot tree appears 

 to be indigenous to Oyi>rus. If this be so, the ' Apijles of 

 Gold ' of Proverbs xrv. 2 are certainly Apricots. If, on the 

 other hand, as is also asserted, the " Apricot is a native of 

 Armenia, then both the ti-ee and probably its name were 

 thence introduced at some early period into Cyprus. MTien 

 the constant intercourse of Cyprus with the Eastern main- 

 land in all ages is borne iu mind, together with the fact 

 of the particular commercial dealings which existed between 

 the Israelites and the Phoenicians at a time when C'yprus 

 was largely colonised by the latter, and when, for a while 

 it owned allegi.ince to Hiram King of Tyre, there is the 

 sti-ongest probability for the assumption that the fniit which 

 the Greek afterwards called the 'Golden Apjjle' is identical 

 with that which in King Solomon's time was laiown by 

 the same name ; and both names were derived from a com- 

 mon source." — Journal of Horticidtiire, 



