June 2, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



867 



sources of the brine are found the means for its evapor- 

 ation. The fire wells would appear to be associated with 

 petroleum deposits, and give forth an inflammable vapour 

 which is conveyed through bamboo tubes lined ^vith lime 

 to the furnaces where it is burnt under the evaporating 

 pans. The brine varies in quantity and quality ; sometimes 

 it is black and sometimes yellow, the latter yiehling about 

 half OS much salt as the former. The black brino is obtained 

 from a depth of at least two thousand feet and the yellow 

 from seven or eight hundred fret. AVhen the supply is 

 good upwards of three hundred "buckets" of black brine 

 and six or eight hundred of yellow may be obtained in a 

 nay. The "buckets" would appear to be large aud the 

 briue strong, since it is stated that a bucketful of black 

 brine yields upon evaporation about twenty-four pounds of 

 salt, worth from Gd. to 9*/. The low price of the salt, how- 

 ever, does not save it from adulteration, since we are told 

 that in the manufacture of graniUar salt bean flour is added 

 to improve its colour. 



After reaching tho capital of Se-chuen the travellers 

 turuetl south-west, passing through a fertile plain and reaching 

 Ya-chou, which is considered to bo the centre of a medicine- 

 producing country. Here " huaug-lien," or gentian, sells for 

 more than its weight in silver, and "hou-po," the bark of 

 the Magnolia hypole^'.caj is valued at 15 to 30 taels (£4 8.s\ 

 to £8 llj^'.) per catty (l^lb.), the product from the wild 

 tree being most esteemed. It is curious, if not significant, 

 that here and subsequently, next to tea, medicines and 

 coftiu boards formed the principal articles of trade. Brick 

 tea is manufactured in Ya-chou, and is said to differ from 

 the article made luuler the same name at Haukow in con- 

 sisting of tho I II tiro loaf and twig loosely pressed to- 

 gether, whilst the Hankow brick-tea is tea-dust firmly com- 

 pressed into actual brick shap<'. Still travelling south aud 

 bending towards the west of Yun-nan, the valley of Ohicn- 

 chang, the groat white wax insect egg-producing district, 

 was reached. "Wax is not x^^'^-^duced here however, since, 

 according to J[r. Ilosie, the insects are not reared on the 

 wax-treo, but on a tree calletl the " tung-chion," and are 

 exported to the districts where the wax-tree is cultivated. 

 If this observation 1)C correct it will help to clear up some 

 obscurity with reference to tho origin of tho Chinese white 

 wax. The perseverance of the late Daniel Hanbury estab- 

 lished it beyond reasonable doubt that one tree, at least, 

 upon which the Chinese wax insect feeds is a species of 

 ash {Fraxiims chinensis, Koxb.) ; but he mentioned in liis 

 first conmiunication that the wax had also been attributed 

 to a plant bearing the name " tung-tsing," variously spelt 

 " tong-(;in, " toung-thsing," etc., which has been referred 

 to various sp(!cies of Lirp/.^tn/m. Mr. Hosie speaks very 

 distinctly on the subject. He says : — " It has been hither- 

 " to a matter of surprise that the valley of Chien-chang 

 " should produce the insects and not the wax, and Chia-tiug 

 " tiui wax and not the insects. Tho reason is porfectly 

 " simple however. In the prefecture of Chia-ting the wax 

 " tree is extensively grown ; in the valley of Chion-chaug 

 " it is not. On a small twig of the 'tung-ching' tree, which 

 " a dealer in wax insects has just given me, I find half 

 " a dozen round excrescences about the size of a pea, and 

 " innumerable smaller excrescences, like minute shellfish, 

 " clinging to the bark. On opening one of the brown glazed 

 " pea-shaped excrescences, thousands of minute wliity-brown 

 ** creatm-es, whose movements are all but imperceptible to 

 *' the naked eye, are seen. In less than a month hence 

 " these excrescences will be collected, transported and sus- 

 '' pendcd on the branches of the wax tree. At first they 

 " spread themselves on the upper side of the leaves during 

 *' the night, but hide diu"ing the day from the sun under 

 ♦* the leaves. After a time they spread over the branches 

 '■ aud secrete the wax. A little wax is on the twig of the 

 «■ tung-tching tree which I hold in my hand." 



Among the articles of medicine observed in Se-chuen pro- 

 vince, Mr. Hosie mentions "China root," by which, however, 

 he docs not mean the rhizomo of t^niUax ChiiKr, usvially 

 (lesignated under that name, but the curious fungoid growth 

 of a spcoies of Parhi/ma^ — resembling the " tuckahoo " or 

 ••Indian liri-ad " of North America, — which is found on the 

 roots of old fir-trees. Anothermedicinal substanne, "tu-la," 

 was met with after crossing tho Yun-nan frontier, which 

 is described a^ a " brown root-like sidjstauce, found under- 

 ground in the hiUs." It has u bitter taste, reseml>ling that 

 of quinine, aud ia said to be efficacious as an autidote to 



opium and in the treatment of fever. This is not the only 

 case in which a regret arises as to the limits of the traveller's 

 scientific knowledge. In one place he vouches for having 

 inspected'a specimen of coarse dusting cloth, "manufactured 

 from the fibrous roots of a coarse grass," tho peculiarity 

 of which is that " when it is dirty it is put in the fire, tho 

 " dirt is consumed and the cloth is taken out clean and un- 

 " injured and ready for use." In Yun-nan poppy cultivation 

 and opium collection were noticed almost everywhere, the 

 purple and white-flowered varieties being grown in this pro- 

 vince. This province also contributes armadillo skins for 

 use as medicine in the more northerly parts of China. In 

 the southern part of the province of Kuei-chou the propor- 

 tion of land under poppy cultivation appeared to be still 

 larger than in Se-chuen or Yun-nan, the !>oppy grown liere 

 being a white-flowered variety edged with pink, whilst 

 further north the red and purple-flowered varieties become 

 more common. lief ore concluding this notice mention may 

 be made of a practice not devoid of a touch of humour. On 

 several occasions Mr. Ilosie's attention was attracted to 

 travellers wearing official hats, which he was told indicated 

 that they were candidates making their way northwards to 

 attend the competitive examinations in Pekin. The st;ite- 

 ment appeared, however, inconsistent with the large quantity 

 of luggage they carried, imtil the mystery was cleared up 

 by the information that as examination candidates from the 

 provinces "travel with a pass exempting their luggage from 

 all taxes en route to Pekin, such persons usually carry with 

 them a good supply of opium aud Ta-li marble, so that in 

 the event of their being "plucked,"^ they have some consol- 

 ation in being able to return home with pockets better lined 

 tiian when they sot oat, as the result of a Uttle bit of 

 smuggling. — Pliarnuiceutical Journal. 



AGRICULTURAIi ESSAYS. 



The Committee of the Agricultural Exhibition hold in 

 Madras last February gave eight prizes for the best essays 

 on various subjects connected with agriculture. The essays 

 written byt he prize-takers have only recently been published, 

 with the report on the Exhibition. Dealing with tliem in 

 the order in which they are printed, we find the essay by 

 Mr. Tliomas Clarke, of Tencasy, Timiovelly, is "On the 

 Management of Soils under Coffee, or Tea or Cinchona in 

 this Presidency." For this Mr. Clarke received K150, and 

 we are of opinion that the essay is cheap at the price. He 

 refers to the advance made in scientific agriculture in other 

 parts of the world, and points out that the cultivators of 

 coffee have not reaped the full benefit of that advance, be- 

 cause working under conditions somewhat special they have 

 not yet sufficiently tested theory by practice. The coffee 

 planter is not possessed of the advantages secured by many 

 other agriculturists, as the condition under which ho works, 

 to a great extent, forbids his utilising the exjierience ac- 

 cunndated in years of European agriculture. In order to 

 remedy this state of affairs the planters should combine to 

 ascertaii\, by careful experiment, the best method of applying 

 to the cultivation of hiH sidos in a tropical climate the 

 principles of scientific agriculture. A Uttle assistance and 

 direction from the Agricultural I >epartment of the Govern- 

 ment should be secured, if possible, and Jlr. Clarke recom- 

 mends the keeping \\\) of an experimental field in each 

 district, worked under a central authority, by which all 

 results should be carefully collected and circulated. He 

 advocates the use of artificial manures, and goes into stat- 

 istics to point out the great waste of fertilizing material on 

 a coffee estate apart from the loss in the crop taken away 

 from the estate. He believes the great despoiler is wash, 

 and to this cause he attril>utes most of the loss of the 

 four most important olements in the production of crop. 

 Here then, he argues, lies the whole secret of the progress- 

 ive defertilization of coffee soils. "We have luard, and 

 read, of the established principle in Europe of returning to 

 the soil in manure the constituents removod in crop, and 

 ignoring the different conditions, wo havo complacently 

 imagined that by so doing here we were maintaining the 

 fertility of our soil." He calculates that the waste by wash 

 and leaf represent a loss in nitr'^gen alone on the coffee, 

 tea, and cinchona plantations of this Presidency which it 

 would take an annual expenditure of more than K28,7(»,0OO to 

 replace by maimre. The prevontion of this enormous waste 

 should be, then, tho first and most inqiortant part of any 



