J82 



THE UROPtCAL ACrKlCUl-lURISt* 



[Sept. r, t'6H6. 



The We8t Indian Lime i Citrus rnedica, var. aei.la 

 is a fruit which is not much known in England. It 

 is possibly little grown anywhere else except in I he 

 AVest Indies, where a large industry is arising in con- 

 nection with the preparation of raw and concentrated) 

 lime-juice for the manufacture of citric acid. 



The Mango (Mangifera indica") is the " Apple " of 

 the Tropica, and is a most nutritious and wholesome 

 food as well as a desert fruit. Originally an Ea'-t Indian 

 tree, the Mango has become thoroughly naturalised in 

 the "West Indies, and is forming large groves iu waste 

 places iu Jamaica, where negros, horses, pigs, and 

 fowls feed upon the fruits for nearly four months of 

 the year. The West lias given to the East the Auona 

 fruits, known as Sour-sop (A. muricata), the Custard- 

 apple (A. reticulata), Sweet-sop (X. squamosa), and 

 the Cherimoycr (A. cherinvdia), but practically only 

 the second and third appear to have become established 

 u their now home. Tne (.tuava fruits (Psidium 

 Guavava) are very common everywhere, and utilised 

 chiefly for making the well known Guava jelly, and 

 for flavouring cordials and syrups. The Litchi, rambu- 

 tan, and L' ngan of the Ea«t Indies are co-related by 

 the Genip (Genipa americaua; of the AVest Indies. 

 The fruit of the spine-armed Zizyphus jujuba, allied 

 to the "seductive sweet fruit"— the Lotus of the 

 ancient Lotophagi, has become cosmopolitan in its 

 distribution, and will soon finds its way to England 

 from the West as well as from the East. The 

 Passion-fruits are amongst the omost delicate and 

 refreshing of tropical fruits, and ome of them have 

 been successfully introduced to England. The most 

 common are the Granadilla (Passiflora quadrangulaiis) 

 the Pomme d'Or or Water Lemon (P. laurifolia), 

 the Sweet-cup (P. edulis), and the Calabash Sweet- 

 cup (P. maliformis). 



Of tropical fruits known generally as nuts, we have 

 a long licit, some of which are seldom seen in Engla,ud. 

 The Coconut is> too well known to need description. 

 It is computed that over three million acres of land 

 are under cultivation in Coconuts m tropical coun- 

 tries, and the annual export value of nuts, oil, copra, 

 and coir is estimated at nearly two million and a 

 quarter founds sterling. The Brazil nut (Bertholetia 

 excelsa) is obtained entirely from wild trees which, 

 are of immense size ; and the same may be said of 

 the Sapucaya nut (Lecy this sapucajo), and the Souari 

 or butter-nut (Caryoca nuciferuru). 



India is so badly off for fruit herself that she is 

 not likely to be able to export any to this country ; 

 but the wild Apricot of the Himalayas, of the Pur.jaub 

 and North-west Provinces, is produced in such im- 

 mense quantities, and so easily cured by simply drying 

 in the sun, that it might be imported at a very low 

 price. It is the Pruuus armeniaca of botanists, kuowu 

 in India as the Mish-mush or Moon of the Faithful. 

 This latter appellation it has obtained from the fact 

 that it is sometimes pressed out into sheets of " moons" 

 and kept in that state until required for use. The 

 delicious fruits of Singapore and the Malay peninsula, 

 amongst which the Mangosteen and the Durian arc 

 the best known, are not likely to come direct from 

 those countries. The former has, however, been 

 fruited both in Trinidad and Jamaica, and large trees 

 of the latter exist at these islands as well as at 

 Dominica, Grenada, and St. A'lncent. Hence AYest 

 Indian Mangosteens and Uurians are objects not im- 

 possible to be seen in England during the next decade 

 — D. MoRKis, Assistant Director, Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 July 21.— Gardeners' Chrmicle. 

 » 



The Potato Disease.— We take the following from 

 the Jociiial oj the iliariuaccutical Sodety-.—^Dr. A. 

 B. Griffiths has lately made some interesting experi- 

 ments on the effect of sulphate of iron on the Potato 

 disease fungus {Chemical Seirs, May 28, p. 25G). He 

 found that an aqueous solution of 0. 1. gram of 

 ferrous sulphate in 100 grams of water causes per- 

 forations of the celkUose walls of the hyphte and 

 spores, while it does not attack the cellulose walls 



apptars to be of a dirterent character, since it is 

 colourpd by reagents which do not afft- ct the cellulose 

 of fungi. He also su.gests that potash salts in manures, 

 while v.iluable for the potato, also stimulate the growth 

 of fungi, since Chevrt-ul has shown that fungi greatly 

 llourLsh when watered with a solution of potassium 

 nitrate. —Gardenern'' Chronicle. 



Planting in Tkav.vncore.— Mr. Valentine of 

 Txavaucore has been on a short visit to pur 

 Ceylon Tea districts, to note and compare pro- 

 gress. Travancore promises to be a very fine 

 ea-growing district : indeed one report 'by a 

 Ceylou planter says he has seen as fine tea 

 growing there of its age as any in Ceylon. Very 

 little in Travancore however is of a plucking 

 age, and the extension of planting is not being 

 pressed, but is carefully and gradually being 

 attended to. There is no scarcity of labour, most 

 of the coolies coining from Tinnevelly. As an 

 outlying division of the Ceylon planting districts 

 which we have always regarded South Travancore 

 since the days of poor John Grant and his 

 band of pioneers, we are interested to hear 

 of progress such as Mr. Valentine reports. 



A Hint to Ceylon Tanneks. — A new use for 

 Carbolic Acid has been discovered by an Australian 

 inventor, namely for tanning leather. We had thought 

 that Australia affords more than enough natural 

 tanning material without this invention. h\ the 

 process the skins, which have been limed in the 

 ordinary manner, also haired and prepared if for 

 the production of sole leather, are placed in a 

 bath consisting of a mixture of 10 gallons of 

 water, in which 200 pounds of soap are dissolved 

 and containing 1 gallon of carbolic acid, the skins 

 being left in the bath until tanning is complete. 

 The process may be considerably accelerated by 

 adding a j)int of fresh carbolic acid to the tanning 

 fluid from time to time. For a softer leather the 

 raw, limed, and haired skins are for one or two 

 days placed in a mixture of four parts carbon 

 bisulphide and one of carbolic acid, and then 

 washed. — t hemist and Dnujijist. 



CoH'EE up to 70s is indeed, good news for ' 

 long-suffering planters who may have coffee to sell : 

 and we may have the standard rate in the "eighties" 

 before the end of the year. Brazil is rapidly 

 getting into a bad way, witness the following new 

 phase of their labour troubles recorded in the 

 latest Bio paper ; — 



There is one serious problem iu the social organiz- 

 ation of Brazil which ought to be studied and 

 solved — and that is : What is to be done with the 

 freedmau '.' Rare indeed is it that a planter is found 

 who thinks that his ex-slaves may be retained upon 

 his lauds as paid laborers, and still rarer is it to 

 find a legislator who contemplates the possibility 

 of retaining them as a laboring force. The one 

 great demand is for colonization or immigi-ation, 

 in which is to be found a substitute for slavery. 

 Now, what is to be done with the ex-slave'.' It is 

 thought by most men that the freedmen will all 

 flock to the cities ; but the cities are already over- 

 crowded with them and can neither employ nor sup- 

 port thein. Where, then, are they to go'.' They 

 cannot camp iu the highways, nor upon the landa 

 of others. They can not live without food, clothing 

 and shelter of some kind, nor can the charitable 

 begin to provide even a tithe of these things for 

 them. The cities, and even the country places, aro 

 already over-run with' mendicants of every kind and 

 description, and the number of idlers and vagabond 

 dependents is even now gi'ievously out of all pro- 

 portion to the actual laborers. Out of a population 

 of, say, twelve millions, there arc probably not a 

 quarter of a million of manual laborers outside of 

 the slaves. The number of idle men among the 

 poorer classes — men who actually do less than a 



week's nork in tlie wliole year— ig eucplv iucredibte. 



