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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883. 



A CORRESPOXDEXT of a Southern paper asserts that a 

 Riiiall proportion of kerosene thoroughly shaken up with 

 the castor oil is even hetter thau the latter lubricant alone 

 for greasing waggon axles and other similar bearings being 

 less liable to gum. — Planter and Fapner. 



Nagesar "Wood ( ille^tta ferfea) has dark red heartwood, 

 extremely hard. It has been found to answer for sleepers 

 equally well with PjTkado, but the cost of cutting the 

 hard wood, its weight, and the freight from the Tenas- 

 serim forests to Calicutta prevent its being much used, as 

 the total cost is scarcely covered by the price (K5) per 

 broad gauge sleeper. It is used for building, for bridges, 

 gunstocks, and tool handles ; but its more general use is 

 prevented by its great hardness, weight, and the difficulty 

 of working it. — Indian Forester. 



The Life of Timber.— The ordinary life of unprotected 

 timber structures is not more than twelve or fifteen years. 

 Timber exposed to moistm-e in the presence of air, especially 

 if in a warm place, or to alternate wetting and drying, will 

 decay rapidly. Sap and moisture retained in timber, by 

 painting or closing in the sticks before they are seasoned 

 through, mil cause decay of a very in.sidious kind, as it 

 works in the interior, lea^ig an apparently sound exterior 

 or skin, which is the layer that had an opportunity to 

 season. Paint on unseasoned timber is, therefore, more 

 hurtful than serviceable. Lai-ge sticlvs of timber dry so 

 slowly that, before they are seasoned throughout, decay 

 may begin, and hence pieces of small scantling are prefer- 

 able to' large ones. Danipneess and a lack of ventilation 

 combined will hasten decay. The best seasoned timber will 

 not withstand the effects of exposure to the weather for 

 much over twenty-five years. — Lv.mher World. 



East Indian Ffrniture Woods. — Toon AVood (Cedrela 

 Toona) is light, soft, and red, and has no heartwood. It 

 is not eaten by white ants ; it is liiglily valued and 

 universally used for fmniture of all kinds, and is also 

 employed for door panels and caiving. From Burmah it 

 is exported under the name of "iloulmein Cedar," and 

 as such is known m the English market. It there fetches 

 about E6.5 per ton, the cost of cutting and delivery being 

 E44, according to Major Seaton. lu North- West India 

 it is used for furniture, carvings, and other purposes. 

 In Bengal and Assam it is the chief wood for malting 

 tea-boxes, but is getting scarce on account of the heavy 

 demand. The Bhutias use it for shingles and for wood 

 carving; they also hollow it out for rice pounders. It 

 is, or rather used to be — for very large trees are now 

 rather scarce — hollowed out for dugout canoes in Bengal 

 aud Assam. In Bengal, Assam, aud Burmah it grows 

 to a very large size, trees 20 feet girth, with a height 

 of ?0 to 100 feet of clear stem, being not uncommon 

 in forests which have been only Uttle worked like those 

 in Dumsong aud in some parts of the Chittagong Hill 

 Tracts. — Indian Foreater. < 



Insecticides : Good fob Grub. — With reference to 

 phylloxera on vines in a place near M.anchester, the editor 

 of the Journal of Horticulture writes: — As we remarked a 

 few weeks ago, a nobleman's gardener .saturated a phylloxera- 

 infested border with amnioniacal hquor from gas-works in 

 almost tho full expectation that it would kill the Tines. 

 It did not kill them, but killed the phyllo.xera, and the 

 Vines have since borne many fine crops of Grapes. This 

 liquor, we may remark, should be diluted with from four 

 to six times its volume with water. We are not aware that 

 petroleum has yet been tried as a remedy against the phyllo- 

 xera, and we think it worth trying. It may be fairly mixed 

 in soapsuds in which a little soda is dissolved. An ounce 

 of oil dissolved in a gallon of water has been applied to 

 Onions, Lettuces, aud Kidney Beans without injury to the 

 plants, but resulting in the death of all insects mth which 

 it came in contact. On page 332 of our issue of Api-il 2Sth, 

 1881, Mr. Wither.spoon enforces the value of hellebore as 

 an insecticide, and suggests that it be tried on phylloxera- 

 infested Vines, firmly believing it would prove' etfectual, as 

 he observes that "in soil saturated with helleliore no insect 

 can live, and yet plants are not injured." The method of 

 using it is to dissolve 2 oz. of the powder in a gallon of 

 water, but first mixing a small portion in a little hot water 

 to the consistency of cream, then adding the quantity of 

 cold water required. This is worth trying, as also doubt- 

 less will be sever.'d other in-eparations tb<at will suggest 

 themselves to those specially interested iu the matter. 



Rubber. — An esteemed corresjiondeut writes tons: — "The 

 Nagas in this portion of the Naga Hills (above Amgourie 

 tea garden j, are getting a good deal of rubber from a woody 

 vine. The vine climbs trees aud grows to three or fom- 

 inches in diameter. When the seed-pods are ripe, they 

 burst open, and a hght ttirasy material comes forth, and 

 is wafted about by the mnds. It is this fact that gives 

 to the vine its Naga name Apunt/man^e. The botanical name 

 I do not know. The %-ine is common in the forest jungle 

 of these hiUs, aud the Nagas say it is in the forests at 

 the base of the hills, but not as' abundant as in the hill 

 forests. The juice in the green state and when dried has 

 every appearance of that from the rubber tree. It might 

 be well for Government to ascertain how abundant this 

 forest viue is in the plains aud other hill districts of India: 

 also to give a thorough test of the value of the rubber from 

 this viue. — Indian Ai/riculinrist. 



Magnesia is seldom used in practical agriculture as a 

 manure, aud the effects following its use in scientific experi- 

 ments seem to indicate that in ordinary soils the fact that it 

 is an essential plant food may be ignored, as almost all soils 

 coutaiu enough of it. That it is essential may lie regarded as 

 proved, for plants grown in calcined sand from which it was 

 e.xcluded and everything else suijplied, faded, and from the 

 fact that it is never absent from ordinary plants, more es- 

 pecially then- seeds. Though constantly present in plants, it 

 is not so to the same extent as lime, potash, soda, or phos- 

 phates. In the ash of ordinary garden vegetables it is only 

 occasionally above 10 per cent, and is often as low as 1. It 

 is removed from the soil to the extent of one-eighth of the 

 amount of potash in an ordinary rotation of kitchen garden 

 crops. Many ornamental plants, however, remove it in 

 large quantities comparatively. Accordmg to Ivi.sou Macadam 

 of Ediubm-gh, it is sometimes present m the ash of certain 

 Fuchsias to the extent lb per cent, and iu Ficus elastica to 

 11. In greeuliouse mould, which before being used con- 

 tained 0248 of magnesia, only 0182 remained after use. In 

 fruits it is not largely present ; in Grapes there are niue 

 grains of potash present for every one of magnesia. In the^ 

 ash of white Mustard 11 per cent of magnesia occux'S and 

 only 9 of potash. — Journal of Horticulture. 



Cinchona Bark from Java. — According to a report by 

 Jlr. Consul Cameron, the croi) of bark from the Dutch 

 Government cinchona pLantations in Java is increasing year 

 by year, that for 1882 amounting to 230,000 Amsterdam 

 pounds (17i ounces nearly) against 165,000 pounds in 1881. 

 E.xperimeuts made last year to ascertain the percentage of 

 alkaloid contained in the bark from young Ledgeriana trees 

 i-aised from seed produced by plants grown in the island 

 showed that the bark from a plant four years old, when 

 bearing the true tj-pe of the mother stem, yields 9 to 1175 

 per cent of quinine, being an improvement on the pnrent 

 trees. There wei'e at the end of the year 3,305,200 einchona 

 trees in the Government nurseries and plantations, of which 

 820,700 were young Ledgeriana trees in the nm'series, and 

 6:)4,900 older ones m the plantations. The exports of bai-k 

 from the private plantations in Java during 1882 was 181,354 

 Amsterdam pounds, «a quantity that is likely soon to be 

 considerably increased. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 



Tka-Bulking. — Our remarks we hope will be taken in the 

 spuit in which they are meant, for we believe that the planter 

 is not so much to blame in many instances as the apphances 

 he has at his command. For instance, in how many fac- 

 tories will a good air-tight, or rather weather-tight, tea- 

 house be found ? In very many more than half theestates 

 in existence, the tea is manufactm-ed iu a kutcha house, the 

 atmosphere of which, on a wet day, is loaded with moisture, 

 except when the actual fires are burning, and fires in m.any 

 instances have given way to siroccos, &c., so that it is only 

 in a very limited space, close to the drying appliances that 

 the air is at all th-y and free of moisture, and yet in those 

 houses the planter is expected not only to bulk his tea, 

 but to keep it there mitil there is sirfBcieut to nuike 

 a break, ami tho larger these are, now-a-days the better 

 the broker likes them, for is it not being continually dinned 

 into the plantei-s' cars, that small breake are a mistake. 

 This latter of course makes bad worse, for it takes some time 

 for ordinary gardens to get enough together to make a 

 break. — Inili^o Planters' Gazette. [In the geuer:dly damp 

 climate of Ceylon, it is probable that a furnace and hot air 

 pipes would be valuable in preserving a dry tein])eratnre in 

 tea-houses. — Ed.] 



