55° 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Febritary 1, 1884. 



over the Isthmus, which melt in heavy showers as soon 

 as the electricity is discharged in the form of fork iiud 

 sheet lightning. Within my recollection I have seen 

 buildinys struck by lightiuing ; the towers of the 

 cathedral 'vere struck last year, and several large 

 masses of atone were detached by the otroke. Not- 

 withstanding the frequency of these accidents from 

 lighting, there is not a single lightning conductor 

 in the whole town. The railway wharf received a 

 discharge in October last, which tore up and splint- 

 ered Beveral planks. Three people were killed on 

 the Savanna. The Isthmus is covered with thick veget- 

 ation ; the wonderful verdure grow.s pell-mell ; the 

 variety and luxuriance are marvellous. Great trees 

 overshadow an interminable and impenetrable juugle 

 of lesser growth, made up of an endless number of 

 nameless plants nnd vines, all pushing, struggling, 

 clambering towards the light. The flora is perfectly 

 gorgeous and bewildering in beautj and variety. The 

 solar rays cannot penetrate such layers of thick foliage, 

 and the soil always remains saturated. There is no 

 niuiton in the country ; the little that can be pro- 

 cured is obtained from the south steannTs at Panama 

 and Colon from the Kojal mail by special favour. 

 It is supposed to be a great luxury to have a leg 

 of mutton, and friends are generally invited to come 

 and partake when it is the luck of some resident to 

 possess the article. Very often goat 11; sh is passed 

 off for lamb, but connoisseurs detect the difference 

 immediati'ly. Fish is plentiful ; the word Panama in 

 Inilian means 'plenty of fish.' There are fish of every 

 kind ; lobsters and shrimps abound, and undoubtedly 

 plenty of oysters. The Atlantic species are sperior, the 

 flesh of the Pacific kind not being so firm, and getting 

 tainted very soon. The Isthmus for 50 years was not 

 visited by any phenomenon such as eartliquakes, &c.; 

 very slight oscillations were felt, but nearlj' impurcot- 

 ible to a great many. Lately we have had a succession. 

 The first that took place after this long silence was 

 on the 7th of September last year, at 3-20 a.m. The 

 city was roused by a severe o.-cillatiun from north to 

 Boutli, accompanied by a rumbling noise. The fafade 

 of the cathedral was destroyed, the columns and 

 balconies of the Parliament House were thrown down, 

 and several public and private edifici's were rent. 

 Since then we have had a series, varying in intensity, 

 from three to five per month, and the extraordinary 

 coincidence exists that they are regular and more severe 

 at the new moon." — London Times. 



PLOWS AND FANNING MILLS FOR INDIA. 



Of the superiority of our agricultuial tools and 

 instruments there are no two opinions. The world 

 has acknowledged them as the best of the kind in 

 the market. Why then is not our foreign trade 

 therein larger ? Simply because tliere are only a few 

 countries advanced enougli in agriculture to be ai le 

 to use advanced machinery in the cultivation of the 

 soil. As an illustration of this portion of our argu- 

 ment, our Consul-GfUtral at Calcutta says :— 



" The Indian ' ryots ' (agriculturists) cultivate 

 200,000,000 acres of laud and plow the same from 

 two to live times every year, with no better imple- 

 ment than an iron-pointed wooden .^tick, wliich does 

 not turn over tlie soil, but only stirs and shakes 

 it to the depth of 3 to 4 inches. The enormous 

 quantity of small grain annually produced on these 

 200,000,000 acres is cleaned and separated for food 

 and for the market by the same system of hand- 

 winnowing which was in use among the Israelites of 

 old, and which, for the European grain trade at 

 least, is now deemed inefficient." 



Under these circumstances it would bo worse than 

 useless to ship onr agricultural implements to India, 

 and yet by simply modifying some of theui to suit 



Indian requirements— and the same modification will 

 apply to many other oouatries^there is an opening 

 in that empire for a very large trade in certain 

 agricultural machinery, notably plows and fanning 

 mills. Our Consul-Geueral, in calling the attention 

 of our manufacturers hereto, gives the following 

 advice : — 



"The small American garden plow, which turns 

 a furrow of 8 or 9 inches, and is so light tliat a 

 ten years ' old boy can carry it on his shoulder and 

 a good sized pony can work it in the fit-ld, is, in 

 my judgment, the very plow to iutroQuoe into India 

 where an immense market awaits the successful mai;u- 

 facturer. It would, however, have to be made some- 

 what ditferent from the home model ; the beam should 

 be very light and long (much like a common wagon 

 tongue), with a slight incline upwards, so that the 

 end could be fastened with a clevis 10 the yoke o£ 

 a pair of bullocks of the tize of common two-year 

 old American country steers (tlie cattle here are yoked 

 so far apart, that there is room close to their hind 

 feet for the woikiug of the plow); the handle or 

 handles should stand nearly upright in ordir that 

 the plowman may walk so near his cattle tliat he 

 can readily catch hold of their tails, because the Ind- 

 ian buliock-driver will insist on regulating the motion 

 of his cattle by jerking and twisting their tails near 

 the root with his hands. In all other respects it 

 should be just like our light garden plow with a 

 high polish, so as to scour easy in the wet, heavy 

 soil, but otherwise the finish might be plain and cheap, 

 so that the plow would come withm the means of 

 'he poor tenantry who compose the agriculturists of 

 India. 



"The fanning mill should be made with special 

 reference to cleaning and separating wheat for the 

 European market, and should be small, light and 

 cheap. It is very seldom that one ryot has more 

 than 50 or CO busliels of wheat to clean, and time 

 is of no special object to him ; the mill therefore 

 need not be made to do much work in a day, but 

 rather to do ib well. A little village community 

 would probably become joint owners of oue such 

 mill, but tliere are '150,000 agricultural villages iu 

 India, and iu many iustaucts the 'zemindar' (laud 

 pioprietor) would buy it and let it out on hire to 

 his tenants. Many attempts have been made to in- 

 troduce these implements from Europe, but so far 

 the samples have jiroved too heavy and expensive. 

 Tliere is a universally acknowledged want for both 

 of them, and airaugcments can easily be made for 

 their trinl at the Government experimental farms." — 

 AiiiericcM Nxporttr, 



PASTOKAL AND AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS 

 IN TASMANIA. 



Tasmania, in its climate, and to a considerable ex. 

 tent in its soil, is well adapted for agriculture. By 

 far the largest art-a of laud devoted to cereals and 

 root crops is in the northern half of the island. 

 Along the north coast, from Ringarooma to Ciienlar 

 Head, the couuti-y is dotted with houiesteads. Toui-ists 

 from Jther colonies Hit from Lauuccstcm to Camp- 

 belltown and thincc to Hobart, and imagine that they 

 have seen Tasmania. Such persons, however, get a 

 very erroucous idea of the aspect and resources of the 

 country. The visitor should take the Western line 

 of rail from Launctston to its terminus at Deloraiue. 

 He will pass througli some rich and productive laud, 

 such as that near Evandalc, with its surface rising 

 and falling like huge ocean waves ; Bishopsbourue, 

 where the wattle blooms in rare perfection and the 

 gorse hedgis flame between the wheatfields ; West- 

 buty, Exton, and Deloraine, with picturesque homes, 

 aubstantiul bnildiugs, and every sign of comfort, and 



