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tnU IP^OPiCAL AGKiCULTU Kifc;!'. 



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(Jassia : — The attempt that has been made bj* the afifor- 

 estatiou Department of Hong Kong to grow Ciimamoiiium 

 Cassia appears to have met with an unexpected check. 

 According to the report of the Superintendent of the 

 Department, the Chinese persistently break off the 

 leaves and branches of the plants, and notwithstanding 

 the vigilance of the forest guard they manage to 

 keep the plants in an almost leafless condition. The 

 reason assigned is that the Chinese use the leaves 

 in medicine. (Gard. Citron., July 17, p. 82). — Fharm- 

 ace utica I Journal. 



Coffee as a Disinfectant. — Years ago some studi- 

 ous German made the observation, the correctness 

 of which he endeavored (and to a great extent also 

 succeeded) to establish by statistical data that coffee, 

 if taken early it the morning on an empty stomach, 

 auted as a preventive against infectious and mainly 

 acute epidemic diseases. He quoted a great number 

 of cases where individuals accustomed to drink a 

 cup of hot coffee for breakfast had either escaped 

 an epidemic of typhoid then ravaging the part of 

 Germany in which tlie observer lived, or if attacked 

 by the disease contracted it in a much milder form, 

 while all those who died from the disease had not 

 been in the habit of taking coffee in the morning. 

 This was a good number of years ago, at a time when 

 iu many parts of Germany coffee was still either an 

 unknown or so costly a beverage as to be looked upon 

 as a luxury that only the rich could enjoy. "We have 

 forgotten the name of the phjsician, but remember 

 that the medical profession did not take kindly to 

 the idea of coffee being a disinfectant, or, as they 

 then said, an anti-zymotic, and those who could not 

 deny the correctness of the observation itself ascribed 

 the apparent immunity to other causes, many to 

 the hot water with which the coffee was prepared. 

 That the physician, however, has not been so wrong 

 has been but recently proved. During the last meet- 

 ing of the Prussian army surgeons in Berlin, Medical 

 Director Oppler reported that after extensive investig- 

 ations, which he related in detail, he had discovered 

 that we pos.5ess in coffee an antiseptic remedy of no 

 mean value, but one which could well serve for the 

 purposes of a first dressing of a wound received in 

 3 battle. If employed at once it totally prevented 

 ijuppuration. but if used after pus has already accu- 

 mulated in the wound, it leads to tlie formation of 

 % scab, beneath which the wound heals with asep=is. 

 The coffee should be employed in the form of powder, 

 and as it might entail the loss of valuabh' time to 

 have to grind first the roasted coffee bean, which in 

 Prussia every soldier is bound to carry about him, 

 O. recommends the use of coffee-tablets, which have 

 been recently discovered by a Hamburg firm, and 

 which answer their purpose admirably well, as it is 

 only necessary to rub these tablets a little, when 

 they at once assume a powder form. — Amerimn Fafer. 



Agiucultuee in Cookg was thus reported 

 on in the Administration Report for 1884-85 : — 

 The area of laud held under grauts for coffee &c., 

 and denoted in Statement I. E. Fiscal (2) as " Za- 

 niidari " was computed at 73, 1!)0 acres iu 1881-85. Of 

 this area 37,544 acres bearing an assessment of Rti7,t;02 

 were held bj- Europeans, and 35,655 acres with an 

 assessment of E65,591 by natives planters. The area 

 of European estates has been diminished by 609 

 acres since the previous year, and by 2,910 acres since 

 1882-83. The average size of European Coffee Estates, 

 is estimated at 163 acres, aud Native Plantations 

 and of at 7"8 acres. A considerable area of unassessed 

 Bane land (the wooded pasture land) attached 

 to farms under rice cultivation) is cultivated 

 with coffee, and it has been for some years past 

 in contemplation to survey and assess these lands. It is 

 expected that a commencement will be made during 

 the ensuing working season. Labor for the coffee 

 estates, though late in coming, was plentiful at the end 

 of the season. The Cooly Maistries are no longer 

 stimulated by the higli rates formerly paid by 

 the estate owners, the heavy losses sustained 

 of recent years having led to a disposition to 

 curtail expenses in every possible manner. The 

 monthly wage oow o^erecl varies from R6 to R7* for 



a man, and R3§ to R4 for a woman. Pricfs. — 

 Allusion was made in last year's report to the sudden 

 fall in the price of coffee which took place early in 

 1884. The price had fallen during that and the 

 previous year from i\4() to R26 or K25 per cwt, and in 

 the English IMarket from 100 shillings to 61 shillings 

 per cwt. The local price has with occasional slight 

 fluctuation been maintained at the former average rate 

 ofR26percwt. The season was on the whole fairly 

 good. The South West Monsoon rains were lighter 

 than usual during the usual June and July, the 

 rain-fall gauged for those months at Mercara was only 

 16'55 inches and 29-()l inches respectively. The fall 

 during August, however, amounted to 42-94 inches, 

 and thus a fair average was maintained. Notwith- 

 standing the late period at which the rains commenced, 

 the outturn of the cereal crops was fully equal to 

 the yield of former years. The coffee crop was 

 somewhat affected by the untimely occurrence of the 

 blossoming showers, as well as by the circumstance 

 that the yield of the previous year had been in the most 

 instances large. The cultivation of cinchona has not 

 received the same attention as iu the previous years 

 as it is feared that the enterprise will prove a failui'e 

 owing to the low prices for the bark now ruling in the 

 English Market. 



The Colonial Exhiuition. — The literature pertain- 

 ing to this Exhibition is not unnaturally extensive, 

 and for the most part it is excellent. Each colony 

 has caused to be prepared a short account, which 

 generallj' includes a summary of the history, found- 

 ation, government, physical and natural features, as 

 well as commercial products of the colony. In this 

 way an amount of authentic information has been got 

 together which can rarely if ever have been made so 

 accessible before. Adverting more especially to matters 

 in which our readers are more directly concerned, 

 we note an excellent descriptive and classified list of 

 the woods of Queensland, by Mr. F. Manson Bailey, 

 the Colonial Botanist. The Ceylon catalogue, in addi- 

 tion to a mention of raw products generally, has a 

 list of the drugs and of the timber trees of Ceylon, 

 to occompany the specimens exhibited by the Director 

 of the Rnyal Botanic Garden. The New Zealand 

 catalogue also comprises a list of native woods, ))ut 

 not so usefully arranged as in some other case.*. 

 New South A\''ales issues a general statement of the 

 progress and resources of the colony, but no list of 

 products. The (Jape of Good Hope catalogue includes 

 descriptive lists of iriedicin;il plants and of woods. 

 The otlicial handbook of Natal deals with generalities, 

 and the same may be said of Fiji, a special feature 

 of wtiich, however, are the elaborate meteorological 

 details, which will he useful for future reference. 

 South Australia furnishes an excellent general account 

 of the nature, history, and products of the colony. 

 The Victorian handbook is remarkable for the copious- 

 ness of its illustrations. Canada has an admirable 

 summary of its history, productions, and natural 

 resources, accompanied bj' two large sized maps, 

 which enable us to realise the extent of the Dominion, 

 and the splendid prospects in store for it. The 

 special British Guian^ catalogue is very interesting to 

 peruse, and the notes on timbers instructive, though 

 here, as elsewhere, the use of popular names, compul- 

 sory in this case, is a great drawback. The notes on 

 the Straits Settlements contain an interesting history 

 of the colony, but little detail as to its products. 

 The West Indian courts so far seem least well 

 represented iu this euumeration of literary exhibits. 

 Tasmania, for some reason or other, does not appear 

 to be represented at all in this Exhibition. We are 

 frequently asked to give information and advice to 

 intending emigrants — a task which, at least so far 

 as the counsel goes, we rarely comply with, for 

 reasons that will be sufficiently obvious ; but .>-iuce 

 the opening of the Colonial Exhibition we have 

 referred all applicants to the Exhibition and to the 

 official reports. We allude to this matter because in 

 our judgnumt it shows Ihs desirability of securing a 

 permanent Colonial Museum, where every applicant 

 may find the information he is iu ee^rch oi. ^Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



