274 



i'HK IKOPXC^t AGHiCULrUiiiHT, 



lOi 



m 



botanist, good taste in arrangements, and happy 

 way of putting matters en train will be sadly 

 missed. This reminds me to mention that Mr. 

 Hart has been appointed 2^?'o tem superinten- 

 dent of the Cinchona Plantation. What the council 

 will decide as to the future management of the place 

 will not be known till next session, it is to be hoped, 

 they will not abandon the place, or let it be sold 

 below its value. Mr. Morris' former residence 

 would make a very good Government sanatarium : 

 there is no such place in the Jamaica Mountains 

 where oflicials can go to for change, when laid aside 

 by sickness. 



Our Jamaica fruit trade flourishes best during the 

 winter and spring months before the American 

 fruits are ripe ; just now is a dull time and prices 

 low. In January, £12 is given per 100 bunches 

 bananas ready for shipment, now prices are down 

 to £6 and £7 ; this added to the number of trees 

 blown down during the gales and damaged by the 

 floods, will cause considerable loss to growers. 

 Cacao, and coconuL trees must also have suffered 

 from the late stormy weather. 



The Gleaner newspaper has lately published 

 several leaders on the subject of protection, point- 

 ing to the decadence of agriculture and manu- 

 factures in England as compared with America 

 advocating the levying of heavy dues locally on all 

 goods that can either be grown or manufactured 

 in the island ; this is no doubt a very wise advice 

 (/ it can be carried out, but at present there would 

 be a sad lack of experienced hands, so protection 

 would only tend to a large increase in prices. It 

 does seem an anomaly that Jamaica with hundreds 

 of acres of fine land lying idle should have to 

 import corn from America, also ice which can and 

 is by one company manufactured cheaply at 

 Kingston. Thousands of pigs could be raised here, 

 and fed on sweet potatoes and turned into pork. 

 Ham and bacon, milk and butter, could be got in 

 quantities from the cattle pens; boots and shoes, 

 furniture, clothing, &c., &c., might be made in 

 the Island, and import duties saved and the money 

 kept circulating in the island employing men, 

 who, because our colonies, our sugar, coffee and 

 other products are not protected, have to go to 

 that deadly climate on the Isthmus for employ- 

 ment. I have always thought free trade a mistake, 

 unless it was generally adopted; England cannot alone 

 fight the battle of free trade and ruin her colonies 

 and farmers, and manufacturers. This fact must at 

 length be dawning on such men as Mr. Bright 

 and his school and may reconcile them to a 

 policy of reciprocity: allowing all colonial goods 

 duty free except those necessarily taxed for i^ur- 

 poses of revenue, and on these the import dues 

 should be double to foreign countries that tax our 

 products and manufactures. W. S. 



COFFEE IN THE S. STATES' CONFEDEBACY. 



Coffee had been almost the sole table beverage 

 of the South, and no privation caused more actual 

 discomfort among the people at large than the 

 want of it. There was nothing for which they 

 strove so eagerly and unceasingly to procure a 

 substitute. Few, indeed, were the substances which 

 did not first and last find their way into the 

 coffeepot. Wheat, rye, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, 

 dandelion seed, okra seed, persimmon seed, melon 

 seed, are but a few of the substitutes which had 

 their tura and their day. " A fig for the differ- 

 ence between Ri-o and ry-e," said the wits. 

 "Eureka!" cried an enthusiastic newspaper cor- 

 respondent. " Another of the shackles which holds 

 the South the commercial thrall of the world is 

 esvej'ed, Let South America keep Jjpr Jii© aod the 



antipodes its Java. It is discovered to be true 

 beyond peradventure that as a beverage the seed 

 of the sea-island cotton cannot be distinguished 

 from the best Java unless by its superiority ; while 

 the seed of the ordinary variety is found to be 

 not a whit behind the best Rio." 



What a flutter of excitement and Joy it raissd 

 in many a household —and doubtless the scene in 

 ours was typical— to find that the great national 

 plant, the very symbol of the Confederacy, was 

 indeed was so many-sided I It gave u^ greater 

 confidence, if it were possible to have greater, in 

 the power and possibilities of the South, now that 

 cotton, the great king, had had another crown laid 

 on his brow. So opportune was the discovory, 

 too, that it struck us as almost a divine revel- 

 ation, indicating the iuterpositon of Providence in 

 our favor. So eager were we to test it — or rather 

 to confirm it, for it was too good, not to be true 

 — that we could not await meal-time. Residing 

 in North Carolina and up the country, w-e had 

 never seen any sea-island cotton, but the prospect 

 of being confined to Eio was by no means 

 appalling. A pickaninny was forthwith hurried off' 

 to the cotton patch, then sparsely flecked with 

 newly opened boles. The apronful of precious 

 stuft', now a veritable manna, was hardly indoors 

 before a dozen hands, of all sizes and colors, 

 were tearing, picking at the discredited fibre, in 

 quest of the more priceless seed. The Rio was 

 made and drunk. Despite the sorghum sweetening, 

 the verdict was unanimous in its favor. 



I hope that the communication of this stupen- 

 dous discovery to our neighbors added as immen- 

 sely to our happiness as to our self-importance. 

 But if in the last respect we sinned, retribution 

 could not have been laggard. For although, owing 

 to the fact that happily the recollection of dis- 

 appointments and humiliations is less abiding than 

 the opposite feelings, [ am unable to tell exactly 

 why and when we returned to parched bran, it 

 is nevertheless true that we did. 



Recipes for making " coffee without coffee " 

 (when the real article was alluded to strong 

 emphasis on the word left no doubt as to which 

 kind was meant) were extensively advertised in the 

 newspapers, and in some instances sold by can- 

 vassing agents. But rye, okra seed, and meal or 

 bran held in the long run the popular favor. 

 Those who could afford an infinitesimal quantity 

 of the real article counted out by the grain, to 

 flavor the substitute, were the envy of the neighbor- 

 hood. A cup of pure and genuine coffee would 

 in the eyes of many have been an extravagance 

 akin to Cleopatra's famous draught itself. The 

 contents of a small gourd, which held our entire 

 stock of the genuine article for many months be- 

 fore the close of the war, must have gone towards 

 the making of an incredible lake of coffee. — David 

 Dodge, in tlie " Atlantic." 



PETROLEUM AS FUEL. 



In several issues of the Journal of the Society of 

 Arts, a lecture on Petroleum has been published 

 of an exhaustive nature. The latest portion deals 

 with petroleum as a fuel, and we extract as follows : — 



The " pulverisers" of Artemetf, of Braudt, ©f Nobel 

 (vvliich is a modification of Brandt's), aud others, will 

 be found fully described and illustrated in Enx/iuecriiiy, 

 vol. 35 (18S3), by Mr. Thomas Urquhart, Locomotive 

 Superiuteudeut of tlite Griazi-Tsaritsiu Kailway of 

 Southern Russia. The burner which is statea to have 

 given the best results in use on the locomotives of that 

 railway company, is Karapetoft's ; and that which has 

 been adopted by the Russiau Goveriimeut as best 

 adapted for use iu torpedo vessels is Kaufmanu's. Al 1 

 these pulveriners depeud for their action upou tb o 



