December r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



427 



South African Products. — Kilwauga needs a word of 

 special mention, it is such an important article of con- 

 sumption in the Congo menu. The root of the manioc, 

 or cassada, a very ancient introduction from Brazil, is 

 taken and pounded into a fine white pulp. This is left 

 to soak for about tweuty-f our hours iu running water (possibly 

 to rid the substance of a certain acrid poison attributed 

 to the root), and is then allowed to ferment. "When worked 

 up into a consistence of stiff dough it is divided into 

 portions, and each portion is wrapped up in a large green 

 leaf until wanted for cooking. Kilwanga tastes and looks 

 like sour dough, but it is highly nutritive. The best way 

 of eating it is to cut it into very thiu slices, and eat 

 these fried in butter, or, if butter be not procurable, in 

 ground-nut oil, easily (extracted from the Arachi^ kj/pagaa. 

 Perhaps a simple recipe for doing so might interest in- 

 tending African travellers who are reading these pages. 

 Take a bushel of ripe ground-nut that have previously been 

 dried in the sim, pound them to a pulp, and put them 

 in a cauldron of boiling water. The oil will rise to the 

 surface, and can easily be skimmed off and put apart into 

 a vessel. The residue is e.^cellent fattening food for fowls, 

 and the oil itself is almost indistinguishable from the best 

 ■ olive in taste. Indeed, most ef the olive oil we use in 

 Europe u nothing but the oil of ground-nuts, which are 

 exported largely from "SVest African ports to Marseilles to 

 be there manufactured and flavoured into various salad 

 oils christened by different names. This oil of ground- 

 nuts is excellent as a kitchen grease and as a lamp-oil. 

 I will even give you another recipe in which this substance 

 may be advantageously employed. Take a quantity of 

 sugar-canes, some nine or ten sticks, peel them, cut thera 



> up into small cubes, and mash these to a pulp, straining 

 off the abundant liquor into a large pot. Put this over 

 the fire to boil, and at the end of an hour and a half 

 you will rejoice to find the sweet synip liquor reduced to 

 a considerable quantity of gluey barley sugar. If this does 

 not .sufticiently gladden the heart, and you crave for some- 

 ^ing yet more toothsome, mix a certain quantity of this 

 thick sugar with groiuid-nut oil; further, blanche some 

 ground-nuts and scatter them freely in the mess. This 

 compound, if carefully cooked for about ten minutes, will 

 produce the most ravishing African Toffee ! Little shifts 

 and expedients like these serve considerably to lighten the 

 explorer's lot, and to render palatable many forms of native 

 food. \Yq are here following the great trade route from 

 Stanley Pool to tlie coast, and the sicles of the way are 

 strewn with the top leaves of pineapples, which, when the 

 fruit is eaten, are thro\vn away, and, taking root in the 

 rich red soil at the side of the path, serve to spread this 

 plant along the whole route between Lutete and Stanley 

 Pool, in some places, especially in the dank, moist ravines, 

 forming an almost impenetrable hedge on each side of the 

 nari-ow path. The inhabitants come to these narrow valleys, 

 an-1 fill their long wicker baskets with the beautiful golden 

 fruit which forms now so large a part of their diet. In 

 one village we came to there was a perfect orgie of pine- 

 apples going on. The people were too indolent and care- 

 less even to sell them, and one lady, with whom from pure 

 habit I was disputing the price of her basketful, said in a 

 langiiid way to Faraji, "Here, take them ; as he does not 

 want to pay, he can have them for nothing." The dogs, 

 the cats, the pigs, the goats, the fowls, and the children, 

 all lived on pine-apples. The very people had a golden 

 tinge about them, as if from the absorption of such quantities 

 of mellow fruit, and the fowls I brought here had a flavour 

 that was quite unaccountable save for this theorv of an 

 exclusive pineapple diet. Here it was impossible to resist 

 halting; we arrived about eight in the morning, and for 

 two whole hours we .sat and ate pine-apple. A few brass 

 rods paid for the entire feast, and the generous natives 

 moreover brought us a heaped-up basketful to carry on 

 our jom-ney. However burdened the meu might be, this 

 wasan extra load theynever refused. — From Mr. H. Johvstons 



_ Visit to the Coiif/Oy in the ^'Graphic." 



C.iitRiBR R WKNS.— At Coblenz lately experiments were made 

 with young ravens with a view of replacing carriei'-pigeons 

 by them. The ravens are not so subject to being attacked and 

 destroyed by birds of prey. The ravens were sent from 



- Ooblenz to a small place on the Moselle near Treves, a 

 distance of about forty miles. The experiments proved 

 eminently successful. — Nature. 



Rice and Coffee Mills.— There are eighty-oue mills and 

 plantations on the Sandwich Islands — both rice and coffee 

 huskers are obtainable; the first in Louisiana, and the other 

 in Oeylou. — Sugar Planter. 



Sugar. — From the Town^mlle Herald we learn that the 

 first sugar from the Burdekin was brought to Townsville 

 by the Star of Hope. It consisted of about twenty-five tons, 

 the result of the first crushing at the new mill on Airdmillan 

 plantation, and its quality shows that with proper crush- 

 ing and refining appliances, the Burdekin can produce a 

 sugar equal to any manufacture in the world. — Flanter and 

 Farmer. 



Budding Mangoes. — Mr. Shann, of the Bowen Botanical 

 Reserve gives the F. I). Times the following valuable inform- 

 ation on this subject: — Mangoes budded in September 

 take very freely, the sap is well up and the bark parts 

 freely from the old wood. Previous to budding, a lean 

 young shoot should be chosen from the variety to be bud- 

 ded, pinch out the top of the shoot while the young leaves 

 are red, so as to throw all the strength into the wished-for 

 buds; by the time the bark and the leaves of the young 

 shoot begin to assume a green colour plump buds have formed, 

 which should then be inserted in the ordinary way of T 

 budding upon the stock intended for them. In a month or 

 five weeks the bud will begin to push, the tying should be 

 slackened to keep it from cutting through the bark and pre- 

 venting the flow of the sap. — -Flanter and Farmer. 



The Taro Plant. — A colonial paper states that the taro 

 plant, which constitute the principal article of diet amongst 

 the natives of many of the South Sea islands, has been 

 cultivated for ye;H,rs on many of the sugar plantations of 

 Queensland for the use of kanakas. It has not come into 

 general consumption a oongst the white population, although 

 it is said to be a very healthy vegetable, equal, if not 

 superior, to the sweet potato. It has recently been intro- 

 duced into some of the Southern States of America, where 

 it is not only relished as a vegetable, but has been found a 

 most excellent food for horses and cattle. The taro grows 

 to greater perfection in the island of Tanua than in any 

 of the other islands, on account of the great depth and 

 freeuess of soil in that island. The natives ciUtivate it, 

 like the yams, on the tops of mounds of finely-pulverised 

 earth. AVhen grown on land cultivateil by the plough, it is , 

 usual to plant it on the tops of large drills prepared by 

 hilling up together three or four furrows. A very good 

 starch and a very fair arrowroot are made from the bulb. 

 It can only be cultivated with success, however, on fine 

 alluvial soil such as is to be found along the barks of 

 rivers. — Journal of Uorticulture. 



A New Vine Disease in France. — Her Majesty's Vice- 

 Oonsnl at La Kochelle says that to the various diseases to which 

 the vine is subject, must be added the Foaospora viticolay 

 or mildew, which has been undoubtedly introduced by vines 

 from America. For a long time, the vineyards iu cerkiin 

 parts of the United States have been ravaged by this disease, 

 but it appears to have been totally unknown in France 

 prior to 1878. From an account given by a chemist who 

 has been engaged in making researches on the subject, it 

 appears that the mildew is a species of fungus which attacks 

 tlie under siile of the leaves, turning them brown and dry 

 until they eventually fall ott", and spreads according to the 

 dampness of the atmosphere. The stems, deprived of their 

 foliage, can no longer nourish the grapes, which shrink up 

 before ripening. The spore of these species of fungus ger- 

 minate in one night in a drop of water, consequently, 

 wlien the air is dry, and there is no rain or dew on the 

 leaves, the malady makes no ]>rogi'ess, while pro.vimity to the 

 sea, and a misty humid condition of the air, favour its 

 development. Later in the ssason, it forms another spore 

 in the tissue of the leaf, which ])ropagates the disease for 

 the following year; it is, therefore, important to collect 

 and burn all dead leaves after the vegetation of the vine 

 has ceased. It is easily distinguishable from the oidium, 

 as it produces a distinct and clearly defined spot like a 

 burn on the leaf; the fungus is thicker, and of a whiter 

 colour, and has no smell; the mildt'\'. also does not torm 

 a boss on the upper side of the leaf corresponding to the 

 spot attached imderneath, as is the case with the erinium. 

 The mildew has already caused considerable damage in the 

 south-west of France and Algeria, and it appears to be rapidly 

 spreading. — Joz'riuil of the Societi/ of Arts. 



