i6d 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Sept. i, 1886 



Oetlon exhibits some fine specimens of cinchona 

 bark at the Ooloaial and Indian Exhibition. Although 

 the best days of this cultivation in ("eylon are now 

 past, it will long be renaembered that great energy 

 was given to it not long since, when thinr supplies 

 flooded the market and brought down prices. At 

 the present time cinchona cultivation by itself does 

 not pay, though it is an important auxiliary. The 

 Cejlon planter also gives much attention to card:inioms. 

 liurqoyne, t^c, Prices Cvrrcnt. 



The Medicinal Uses of Lkmons and Oranges have 

 often been pointed out and dwelt upon. Some time 

 ago, writing to a leading horticultural London ioiiniii', 

 Dr. Bouavia referred to the remarkable uses of some 

 species of citrus in cases of iut'-rmittent or malarial 

 fever. For this disease the Italians use freshly-gathered 

 lemons ; and the good effects have been confirmed 

 by English doctors in Rome and elsewhere. Dr. Eonavia 

 had tried the lemon in North-west India, both on 

 a con.siderable scale and with beneficial results. He 

 had stated that for simple intermittent fever, without 

 any other conplication, a decoction of lemon was 

 equal to quinine in its effects. Speaking of the 

 depressed stnte of the lemon trode in Sicily, he had 

 suggested that in the place of allowing the fruit 

 to rot, chemists should endeavour to extract the 

 active principle, and turn it to account. All things 

 considered, its uses being so varied and beneficial, 

 the cultivation of the lemon should be carried on 

 wherever the fruit would grow. — 'Sew Zeo hind Paper. 



Sncc'EssFCL Peach Growinc4. — I am pretty safe in 

 saying that fruit growing is carried on more extens- 

 ively in Earl P'ortescue's gardens at Oastle Hill than 

 at any other Devonshire garden, the Pine-apples, 

 Grapes, Peaches and Nectarines, and Figs command- 

 ing most attention there. One of the orchard-houses 

 is 325 feet in length. But it is of the earliest Peach- 

 house I wish to speak. This house is a lean-to 

 building, about 00 feet in length by l-"> feet in width, 

 and contains four trees, the back wall being clothed 

 with a Dr. Hogg and an Early Alfred Peach, and 

 the roof is almost covered with the growths of two 

 dwarf standards of that good old variety, Koyal 

 George, which represent the perfection of training 



1 did not count the fruits on the back wall; suffice 

 it to .say there were abundance; but 1 had the 

 curiosity to record those under the roof, and tbey 

 numbered ju.st OOO, and fast ripening ; I enclose one 

 herein, together with some of the finest and healthiest 

 Peach leaves I have ever seen . — ^Y. Nappe R, Al phi ng- 

 ton Cross. [A very fine fruit. Ed.] — Gnrfdenen'' Clironicle. 



A VERY SIMPLE MEANS of rendering all kinds of fabrics 

 which are starched uninflammable, is to add a little 

 sal ammoniac and plaster of Paris to the starch, or to 

 dissolve borax 12 parts, and Epsom salts 9 parts in SO 

 parts of warm water. The tissues to be prepared are 

 dipped in the solution until thoroughly saturated, then 

 starched in the ordinary way. They are then wrong 

 out, pressed, wrapped in a cloth and passed through 

 the mangle, after which the articles are ironed while 

 still damp, or the necessary quantity of starch can be 

 stirred into the saline solution. Vogt recommends 

 sublimed sal ammoniac, 2 parts ; sulphate of zinc, 1 part ; 

 water, 15 or 20 parts; and the starch to be mixed 

 with this solution. Siebrath says, good residts may be 

 obtained by steeping the dresses in a solution of 5 per 

 cent, alum, and 5 per cent, phosphate of ammonia. 

 Nicol advises a bath composed of alum, parts ; borax, 



2 parts; tungstate of soda, 1 part; dextrine, dissolved 

 in soap lye, 1 part. The following have appeared iti a 

 German journal: — Sulphate of ammon., 8 parts; 

 carbonate of ammon., 2^ parts; boric acid, 2 parls; 

 borax, 1| parts ; starch 2 parts; water, 100 parts. The 

 fabric to be passed through this mixture boiling hot. 

 Another recipe is : — Boric acid, 5 parts ; sal ammoniac, 

 l.'» parts; )>otash felspar, 5 parts; gelatine, l.V parts; 

 starch paste, .")0 parts ; water, 1,000 parts. This solution to 

 bo applied, with a l>rush. — Bvrguiine. tic, /'rici.< (lurri'iil. 



"WuF.THEii Oows AKE IN Galf. — " Enquirer " on this 

 subject may try the following, given on the authority 

 of the Am'^riraii Dahyvtan: — "Let a drop of fresh 

 milk fall into a glass of pure water. If the milk 

 |iroraptly disseminates itself through the water, the 



cow that yielded that milk is not with calf ; but if 

 it sinks to the bottom of the glass as it falls upon 

 the water, and does not produce but little of a milky 

 cloud, the cow is pregnant. The specific giavity and 

 viscidity of the albuminous milk being heavier than 

 water, thus retains the drop of milk and causes it 

 to sink." To find if a cow is in calf, the usual 

 method is to thrust the points of the fingers or thumb 

 against the right flank of the cow, when, if the calf 

 is about six mouths old, a hard lump will be felt 

 bounding against the abdomen ; but Youatt strongly 

 objects to the punches that are frequently given by 

 way of trying if a cow has a calf in her— punches 

 which, he had no doubt, were sometimes the cau.se 

 of difficult or fatal parturition. — New Zealand. Paper. 



TcBEROsES. — The Colonies just now are iu the 

 ascendant, and we Britons are about as proud and self- 

 conscious as any old hen and her chicks — and we 

 have reison to be. In these days demonstration is 

 everything. It does not do to read of the battle 

 of Waterloo, that may have been true or not, but 

 we did not see it. Captain Cook may have discovered 

 that part of Australia known as Botany Bay, but 

 we were not there to see him do it. Nevertheless 

 the exhibits at South Kensington furnish proof .suffi- 

 cient even for an examiner, and so we trust the 

 illustration we now give of Tuberose growing in Natal 

 such may afford satisfactory evidence, even to 

 those who have ni)t been there, that there is 

 a colony as Natal, and that the Tuberose is grown 

 there pretty extensively, furnishing employment to 

 Europeans and to natives, and thus contributing not 

 only to the luxuries of the "classes'' at home, but 

 supplying also a potent factor in the spread of civiliz- 

 ation among the masses, black as well as white. 

 Messrs. Edwards & Bell, of Pietermaritzhurg — to 

 whom we are indebted for the photograph whence 

 our illustration was taken tell us that they have 

 under cultivation more than 12 acres of the "double 

 South African Tuberose,'" and which is grown chiefly 

 for the London and the Paris markets. Polianthes 

 tuherosa was first mentioned by L'Escluse (Clusius) 

 in 1594, and was probably originally introduced; from 

 Mexico. The name of Poliauthes is derived from 

 polios, white, and anthos, flower, and must not be 

 confounded with Polyanthus — from jwlus, many, and 

 anthos, flower — a term applied to umbellate Prim- 

 roses. — Gardeners^ Clironicle. 



Illipe Oil from MAuiiiTirs, as shown at the Ex- 

 hiljition is thus noticedby the Pharma reuticulJoK rnal . — 

 "Specimens of a white solid fat prepared from the 

 seeds of Bassia laiifolia {Sapotacca) are exhibited by 

 M. C. Lienard under the name of illipe oil. This 

 is used iu the island as a substitute for lard for 

 cooking purposes. It would probably form a valuable 

 oil for soap manufacture, several of the Sapotaeeous 

 trees yielding, like the Shea butter tree, a fat 

 containing a small quantity of a substance resembl- 

 ing gutta-percha, the presence of which prevents the 

 rapid wasting away of soap made with it that is 

 characteristic of the soaps made with coconut oil. 

 In India it ha-* long been used in preparing common 

 country soap. It contains stearic and oleic acids, and 

 another acid said to have the formula Oj.H., j.O,. 

 According to Cooke's "Eeport on the Oils and Oil 

 Seeds of India," it was stated in 1843, by the 

 Director of Price's Patent Candle Company, that illipe 

 oil was worth £8 less per ton than St. Petersburg 

 tallow for the manufacture of caudles, but that large 

 quantities could be used iu this country if it could 

 be supplied at £35 per ton. The value of the oil in 

 Bombay is about 85. for the Surat maund of .37^ lbs. 

 The seeds yield about 33 per cent of oil, wliich 

 after saponification yields 40 per cent, of inodorous 

 translucent stearic acid. The oleine obtained bj' train- 

 ing, i. f., melting and cooling to a temperature which 

 .allows the stoarine to crystallize out, is very pure 

 and resembles olive oil in apji.arance and properties.'' 

 There follows this statement : — " The curious statement 

 is made under cinnamon wood that the roots yield 

 an excellent yellow dye." Camphor candles as inade 

 from a substance obtained from cinnamon roots we 

 have beard, but the yellow dye is new to us- 



