444 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883 



Sulphate op Quinia. — The French >Secretary of War 

 requires sulphate of quinine to stand the following tests : — 



1. It must be white, uniform and in crystals. 



2. Calcined in a platinum crucible it must leave a residue 

 not larger than 1-400. 



3. Heated to 212 ° F. it must not lose more than 12 

 per cent water. 



4. It must dissolve completely in 50 parts of water at 

 212 ® F. The solution must be perfectly clear, and allcaline 

 to red litmus paper. 



5. It must dissolve completely in SO parts of 85 ijer 

 cent alcohol at 60° F. 



6. It must dissolve completely in cold aciilulated water. 



7. It must not contain either quinidine, saUcine or other 

 exti-aneous matter. 



8 Its composition must be : — 

 Quinine... ... ... ... 76-25 



Sulphuric acid ... ... ... 9'42 



AVaterset free at 212= F. ... ... 12-00 



■\Vater remaining at 212° F... ^ ... 2-.33 



9. Not more than 2 per cent of cinchona are allowed. — 

 Union Pharmacetitique 1883. 



An Ingenious mkthod of growing trees is tlius 

 described in a notice in this Q wens and cr of the 

 Rockhampton Botanic C4ar(lens : — One of the last 

 attempts to utilise the space in these outer grounds, 

 and to turn its choice spots to the best .Tooount, 

 consists "in planting tiie two sides of 3, moist and 

 treeless valley with Ficus macrophylla, our native fig. 

 The object in view when d(ping this was ti cre.ate 

 a shade suitible for planting this natujally moist 

 locality with ferns and such plants aa love shade and 

 moisture. The modus operandi employed in attempt' 

 iiig to accomplish it is sulKoiently novel to be of 

 general interest and at the same time instructive to 

 those who may wish to do sonn-thing similar. Mr. 

 Edgar fi'St procured a sufficient quantity of hollow 

 loge, a foot or more in diameter, and about 5ft. high. 

 These he placed in position, erect on one end, vher- 

 ever he iuteudtd a fig-'ree to grow. He then filled up 

 the ccntie with suitable soil, and in the top of each 

 planted a seedling fig, finishing the work by uailiug a 

 few aliort laths or slats on the log to run up above 

 the tree on all sidss, to protect it from animals. This 

 as will be seen is iu imitation of nature. Tho fig 

 mentioned invariably commences its career as a para- 

 site, through birds dropping the seeds in some hol- 

 low of a tree where it germinates and pushes into 

 growth, and from which it eventually pu.shes out 

 roots which strike into the earth at the foot of the 

 tree it sinrted on, these eventually becoming the 

 trunk of the fig. Mr. Edgar very truthfully observes 

 that this fig naturally tends to brancli low from the 

 ground, which unfits it for a general shade tree unless 

 its nature i.1 to some extmt altered. This is at once 

 noconi(ilisbed by the expedieut mentioned. The seed- 

 ling being in the first instauon 5 It. or so from the 

 ground, gives it that much of a stem, and with a 

 little help besides it can be extended ciuito as high 

 as is required, so the usefulness of the expedient is 

 at once to that extent apparent. The seedlings thus 

 planted soon smd roots down into the ground, either 

 thi-ough the hollow of the )o_' or on the outside, and 

 if left totbemselvts afterwards will quickly hide the 

 log upon which they started by throw iug down roots 

 all round, which will eventually spread and cover the 

 log and form the trunks of the trees. The principle 

 here described has bseu largely adopted by Mr. Edgar 

 iu plautiug some of the Rockhamptou resiei ves parks, 

 and apparently with good eff' ot, and it has been noticed 

 at this lenath here because it is a practice sufficiently 

 worthy and economical t>t be largely initittited by the 

 general public. One thing that will tend to commend 

 it largely to all who wish to create shade upon their 

 lands for the use of cattle is that no fences need be 

 made at tlie first ami keept in order afterwards, as 

 the logs are all the protection needed when the laths 



or slats mentioned above are carefully nailed to the 

 log on its upper end to foi-m a circle around the 

 growing tree from 20in. to 2ft. hi,'her than the stump 

 itself. For shade purposes possibly nothing could be 

 found to suit this colony better than the fig in question." 

 This Moreton B.ay fig auA the Fieea Beiitjomini ot Java 

 would be a great accession to Ceylon. 



Gas Limp is the Garden. — H. H. Allen, of Mo., writes 

 that an application of gas-house hme upon cabbage plant, 

 tomatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., killed them. Of cour.se it 

 did. It is very poisonous to plants, and even fatal to them 

 in small quantities. It contains valuable manurial substances, 

 notably ammonia, in combination with sulphur or some acid 

 of sulphur, and sulphate of lime, besides more or less slaked 

 lime. The sulphur compounds, except sulphuric acid (which 

 is innocent, nay, valuable, when combined u-ith the lime), 

 ai'e all poisonous to plants, but exjiosure to the air causes them 

 all to become harmless. It is best to ap]ily gas lime upon 

 the surface of the ground in winter, and thus give it thorough 

 exposure to the weather for several months. Tlieie will 

 not be much ammonia left in it, but the lime and the sulph- 

 ate of Hme, equivalent to land plaster, will be of value, 

 especially ou clayey or loamy soils rich in vegetable matter. 

 — American Agriculturist. 



About Feldspar.— James Eideout, Macon Co., N.O., asks 

 us if Feldspar is used as a fertilizer. Feldspar, in a state of 

 decomposition, occurs iu his lohty, and he has observed 

 that where the blocks have been thi-owu out, the vegetation 

 around them is very rank. His soil needs a fertilizer; it 

 costs too much to bring lime, and, though he does not say 

 so, he eWdently intended to ask if he could use Feldspar 

 instead. There are several kinds of Feldspar differing greatly 

 in composition. The most common Feldspar a siUcate of 

 potash and alumina ; another has soda in place of potash, 

 and others still have hme in combination with soda. It will 

 be seen from this that Feldspar is a term for a very variable 

 mineral. Some of its forms readily decompose and make a very 

 fertile soil. Our correspondent must be governed by local 

 conditions. It he has decomposing f eldspathic rock at hand, 

 and it can be distributed upon his soil at a small outlay, it may 

 pay him to use it as a fertihzer. It is doubtful if any form 

 of Feldspar can be available commerci ally, as the same 

 elements may be had in a much cheaper form. — Ama'ican 

 At/'nculturi&t. 



Acacias and acacia- like plants, such .ns abound in the 

 north and east of Ceylon, are thus noticed by Mr. Vincent 

 in a letter to the Indian Forester: — The road northwards 

 from Sidliout passes first over a low pass in the Lankamalai 

 hills, which here have a fine growth of Ked Sanders above 

 and thickets of acacias below. The chief of these last was 

 the A. Sunilra, which very closely resembles the weU-known 

 khair (A. Cutecluc) of Northern India indeed, so closely, 

 that it would be not easy were the two mixed together, 

 to say which was which. Talking of acacias, one of the 

 difficulties in South Indian forestry is to say which is which 

 of the many species there are of Acacias and Acacia-like 

 trees. The common blue-stemmed Albizzi amara is only 

 recognizable from an Acacia by its want of thorns; Prosopis 

 spicifjtra by its larger leaflets, and JJickrostarhys cinerea by 

 its twisted pods and tlowers of two colom'S pink and yellow 

 The white bark of Acacia Z^iro^A^fra is its chief characteristic, 

 and there is another species near it with purple and yellow 

 flowers and sweet scent, which probably is Acacia tontentosa. 

 Other and better kno^m species are Acacia a7'ai>ica,the sweet 

 scented A. Farnesiana grown iu villages, the chmbiug A, 

 Intsia and A. Fennata and the A. Sundra and A. Latronum 

 ah-eady alluded to. Then there is the Acacia planifrons^ 

 which is only indigenous in southern districts like Tiiiue- 

 velly, but is often planted in the north as on the slopes 

 of the old forts of Gooty and Bellary. Let the pods be 

 gone anil the flowers not yet opeued, and perhaps besides 

 let the tree be considerably grazed or lopped, and it is iiio.st 

 difficult to say at once to which of the species mentioned 

 a given plant belongs. These thorny plants and the allied 

 Mimosa make it exceedingly difficult to get through the 

 scrub forests, especially when the thorns of the acacias 

 are aided by those of the Canthium, Zici/phus (Enoplinr, 

 Oarissa Carandas, Toddalia, and other bearers of similar de- 

 fensive weapons. Tlie Mimosa is not that of Northern India, 

 our well-known and detested M. ruhicaulis, but the alUcd Jf. 

 Iiamata. chiefly recognizable by tUo curved prickles on its 

 jointed pod. 



