9i8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[JWS 2* l?84. 



ought to be payed to the curing process in eitlier case. 

 For tha British market the beans are separated as soon 

 as possible from the husk and pulp ; for the continental 

 market a little fermentition is allowed, which spoils their 

 appearance and takes away some of their b,' tterness, so 

 that you cannot mix them with such a ja rgo quantity 

 of Hour or fecula, as it is your wont in England. But 

 ho fermentation develops and impr oves greatly the 

 tflavour." 



Jamaica. — Mr. Morris, the Director of Public Gardens 

 and Plantations, Jamaica, has, at the request of the 

 Governor, thrown into the form of a pamphlet, the sub- 

 stance of a lecture delivered under the auspices of the 

 Institute of .Jamaica at the Town Hal!, Kingston, " with 

 the view of affording information respecting the cultiv- 

 ation and preparation of cocoa, an industry which it is 

 hoped will become an important one among the ' minor 

 industries ' of the island." The title of the pamphlet is. 

 Cocoa : How to grow and how to cure it. Copies may be 

 obtained in London of Messrs. Silver & Co. It has been 

 reprinted in Fiji at the instance of the Hon. J. B. 

 Thurston. 



In the case of "cinchona robusta," Dr. Trimen's 

 researches and the opinions of the Kew Gardens Staff 

 are taken to have set the question at rest of its 

 being a hybrid and not Mr. Cross's Pata de Galliuazo. 

 We extract what is said about coffee disease in 

 Mauritius : — 



OoFFEE-DisEASE. — In reference to the brief note in the 

 Kew Report for 1881, p. 31, on the appearance of leaf 

 disease in IMauritius, I now quote a fuller account from 

 Jlr. Home's report for 1881 :^" During the year the coffee 

 leaf disease {Hemihio vastatrix) was found to be common 

 in the Colony. "When, or how, this pest arrived in 

 Mauritius it is impossible to say. It was noticed first on 

 some young coffee plants growing on Deux Bras estate. 

 Grand Port district, then at the Vale, Grand Bay, next 

 on some coffee plants growing at the edge of the forests 

 at Combo estate, Savanne ; and on close inspection of 

 the few coffee trees growing at the Gardens, Pample- 

 mousses, all the young leaves were found to be thickly 

 covered with the yellow spots which this fungus causes. 

 The fungus having been noticed within a period of about 

 two weeks at points so widely apart as these gave groimds 

 for supposing that it was spread over all the Colony 

 wherever a coffee plant existed. The correctness of this 

 supposition was soon verified by the letters which from 

 time to time appeared in the newspapers." 



" During the year it caused a loss of about 15,000 coffee 

 plants at the Gardens. They were so intensely infected 

 by the (Usease and weakened in growth, that there was 

 no hope of their recovery, and they were therefore pulled 

 up and burned." 



In anotice of jalap cultivation in J.amaica we observe 

 that slices of the roots were dried ou "an American 

 fruit-drier." The information obtained respecting the 

 lacquer tree of Japan is noticed, and there is a para- 

 graph respecting phylloxera which we quote : — 



Phylloxeea.— M. Tisserand, the French Minister of Agri- 

 culture, in a report on the progress of the Phylloxera and 

 of the measures for combatting it during the year 18Si, 

 which has been communicated to Kew by the Foreign Office, 

 sums up the situation as follows: — Fifty departments have 

 been attacked ; 764,000 hectares of vines have been des- 

 troyed ; 642,000 are more or less seriously injured. A mil- 

 lion and a halt of hectares (or about half the total area 

 of vine cultivation in France) are still free from the pest, 

 and the champagne district is untouched i the most im- 

 portant districts of Burgundy and the Gironde are infected, 

 but the Phylloxera has been so far held in check. 

 There is an engraving and the following deBoription 

 of " the North Gallery " :— 



North Gali.ebt. 



The accompanying illustration, for the use of which I am 

 indebted to the proprietors of the Gardener's Chmnicle 

 represents the exterior of the North Gallery aft^r its com- 

 pletion. A porch, atTordiug accommodation f.ir an att •»- 

 dant ty takp charge o,^ up^UffjlIas, &c., was sub.sc(|ni-ntly 

 ft^4_^.',»t Miss North's , expe^^e. ' 



The arrangement and hanging of the pictures was ac- 

 complished under Miss North's personal superintendence, 

 and the gallery with its contents was handed over to my 

 charge on behalf of the public on June 8th. 



The collection of separate pictures amounts in number 

 to 627. 



The following are the principal regions of the earth's 

 vegetation which we owe to Jliss North's skilful pencil, vivid 

 and accurate impressions : — Teneritfe, Brazil, .J.Tmaica, 

 United States, California, India, Ceylon, Singapore, Borneo, 

 Java, Japan, Australia, Now Zealand. 



Before the gallery was opened to the public Miss North 

 caused a descriptive catalogue to be prepared by Mr. W. 

 Botting Hemsley, A. l. s. Of this an addition of 2,000 

 copies was printed at her own expense, and she has ex- 

 pressed a wish that the proceeds of the sale should be 

 devoted to the improvement of the small library kept up 

 for the use of the young gardeners and open to them in 

 the evening. The official pubhcation of subsequent editions 

 of the catalogue has been taken over by the Stationery 

 Office. 



A verj large collection of plants from Madagascar, 

 the gift of the Rev. R. Baron, is specially noticed, 

 as also the curious fact, that, with all its wealth 

 of plant life, the island exports but little vegetable 

 produce. We learn that 



The Assistant Director has contributed a " Note on the 

 origin of " Cassia Lignea " to the Liunean Suciety (Journal, 

 vol, XX. pp. 19—24). 

 and tb.at 



Mr. Eentham, F. u. s., in conjunction with the Director, 

 has nearly completed the concluding part of the " Genera 

 Plantarum." 



The detailed list of palms has a general as well as 

 a botanical interest. 



THE CULTURE, HARVESTING AND DRYING 

 OF CINCHONA. 

 The report on cinchona by the sub-oimmittee of 

 the Dimbula Planters' Association given below 

 embodies some important results, based on evidence 

 more or less reliable and unanimous. Although a 

 few plants h.id reached Peradeniya previously, yet the 

 cinchona enterprize, as far as Ceylon is concerned, 

 was really commenced at Hakgala in 1865 with the 

 establishment of propagating beds under the care of 

 Mr. MacNicol. In answer to queries circulated by 

 the Dimbula Planters' Association, preference is given 

 to seed obtained from trees, the result of rooted 

 cuttings from Hakgala. And yet we remember, that, 

 in a specially wet season when much " dying off " 

 occurred, planters were inclined to attribute the 

 fatalities to the cuttings from Hakgala, whicli were 

 saitl to be destitute of tap-roots. Others regarded 

 this as an advantage, there being no tap-root to go 

 down into the damp, stiff clay subsoil. As to kinds, 

 preference is given to snccirubra and hybrids from 

 Hakgala, owing, no doubt, to the extent to whicli 

 officinalis went off in the third to the fifth years 

 of its existence ; but it is a curious commentary on 

 the advertisements calliug attention to seed gathered 

 from "trees which had never been shaved," that the 

 conclusion arrived at iu Dimbula is that "no differ- 

 ence appears to have been found between seed from 

 shaved antl unshnved trees." On general princip es 

 we should think preference ought to be given to 

 seed from trees wliich had nevei- been sha\-ed and 

 which had not flowered and seeded until they had 

 reached the age of maturity, between seven and ten 

 years. Plants put into holes (as contrasted with those 

 dibbled into the soil by means of crowbars) have 

 generally answered best, as might be anticipated, and 

 yet there must,' ljj:.|n!ucb to be saij for dilibling in 

 soil whicJi has 'b"^)ia, loosened in the tillage of coffee. 



