March:!, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



^35 



Scientific Notes.— The deepest boriug yet made is 

 at the vilJage of Sc ladebach, Prussia. It has been 

 made by the Governmeut to est for the presence of 

 coal and was bored with diamond drills. Is depth 

 is 4o('.0 feet, its breadth at the bottom two inches, 

 and at the top 11 inches. It has oceap ed '^^ years 

 to bore, and cost a iittle over £vOiiO. The temperature 

 at the bottom is 118° Fah.— >oi'/A m riant"}: 



(Substitutes fob Boxwood — SirVilliers Lister calls 

 attent on to the following passage in Mr H Komilly s 

 " We tern Pacific and New Gui ea" ^Mu ray , p. 166. 



"The Trisbauds are esceecii gly rich isl;inds, and 



I,roduje various sorts of woo ' not met wi h elsewh-re, 

 unless perhaps it be on the mainland of NfW Guinea 

 There is an extremely hard white-wood which I have 

 never seen except from the Trisbands. It looks a most 

 like ivory when polished, and should be of service for 

 cabinet-making." — Journal tf the f^ocietij of Arts. 



Ffnce Posts. — a writer in The Mnine Farmer thus 

 expresses himse'f in regard to seitinj fence posts: — 

 It has crmmonly been stated that posts set top end 

 in the ground would :ast longer th n when set with 

 the Lutt end down. We recently had occasion to re- 

 move a fence which had been set eighteen years, and 

 to our surprise the posts set top down wtre still sound 

 and strong, while many of those set the reverse were 

 rotted entirely off. We have before found evidences 

 of the greater durability of posts set in this way. If 

 general experience corroborates our own, it is a matter 

 well worthy of wide attention. — Indian Gardener. 



The Planting Molesworth. — This, the latest addi- 

 tion t® the long list of useful publieations issued by 

 Meesrs. A. M. «S: J. Ferguson f t the tropical plant r, is 

 not the least valuable. Wheiher to the old experienced 

 planter or to the tyro, the jlanting Molesworth will 

 be very handy owing to the many useful tables it con- 

 taing, and to its .size permitting of insertion in the 

 pocket and ready reference. Whether f or f actorj' or 

 field work, the little volume will afford all young plan- 

 ters more instruction than years of practice, and every 

 Superintendent would do well to provide his Assistant 

 or Conductor witli a copy of this handy and useful 

 compilation. As is to be expected, the bulk of the 

 " Notes" relate to tea. We leave the criticism of the 

 figures to those most competent to deal with them— 

 pra tical tea planters. All tea planters are not neces- 

 sarily engineers, although many engineers are tea 

 planters, and the " Memoranda for the economical 

 working of Machinery" will be specially useful for 

 those, and their name is Legion, who have to work 

 machinery, the deterioration of which is generally due 

 more to ignorance in working it than to inevitable 

 wear and tear. There are a few hints on coffee, which 

 will not be found to be new to those actually engaged 

 in the culture of the old king. We believe there are 

 at present no new hands on coffee plantations, tea 

 estates absorbing all the new arrivals. Cinchona, 

 cocoa, cardamoms, castor oil, coconuts and cinnamon 

 receive as scant attention as c.ffce. Strange, that 

 with the exception of tea, all the principal 

 products of the Island, like its name and its capital, 

 begin with a 0. We have not the space to comment 

 criticiUy on all this useful little book contains; but 

 we may remark that cinnamnn must be giving little 

 or no returns to those engaged in its cultivation, for, 

 according to the information supplied by an " old 

 Planter," the yiell of an acre is a bale of 100 lb., 

 which at present market rates^^R28. The cost of 

 weeding .in acre per annum is RIO. Pruning R6. The 

 cast of cutting and peeling is not given, but averages, 

 with Cangany's wages, about R16 per bale, total R32, 

 shewing a loss of K4 per acre, without taking into 

 consideration the cost of supervision, transport, build- 

 ings &c., and yet many are still engaged in its culti- 

 vation, and make a profit out of it too ! How is this 

 managed? Those whose cinnamon fetches R28 per 

 bale do not cultivate it, and gradual extinction of these 

 places is going on, while those who cultivate their 

 estates and pay particular attention to manufacture, 

 manage to nett something more than R28 for a bale of 

 their cinnamon ; but the profit, if any, is cut very fine 

 uow.a-days.— Local " Examiner." 



PitODucTioN OF Cream of Tartar at Messina.— 

 According to the annual report of tha Chamber of 

 Commerce of Messina, it will be seen that a marked 

 increase in the exports of cream of tartar from that 

 port has taken place during the last three years, being 

 as follows :— 1S83, 3, 500,000 kilogs. ; 1884, 4, 155,671 

 kdogs. ; 1835, 5,721,597 kilogs.— c/o»nirt/ of the Society 

 of Arts. 



ExpoRTATio.v OF FowLS FiiOM Italv.— Formerly the 

 greater part of the fowls sent to Marseilles was 

 furnished by Gascouy and Languedoc ; now Italy sup- 

 plies the greatest number, and chiefly Lombardy. 

 Italian fowls also are sent to Spain. Every Friday 

 a specially constructed live poultry truck arrives at 

 the Marseilles railway station. It, is of similar dimen- 

 >ion8 to an ordinary covered goods truck, and 

 contains about 3,000 fowls in 108 hencoops. The truck 

 consists of nine tiers of cages, twelve to each tier, and 

 each capable of holding thirty fowls. Being well 

 ventilated and kept scrupulously clean, and supplied 

 with an abundance of fre.'^h water and millet-seed, 

 the fowls from Milan and even Yenine, arrive at 

 Marseilles in the best possible condition of health, 

 and large numbers are likewise forwarded to Spain 

 — Journal of ike Society of Arts. 



There has been a collee famine in Eangooii iu 

 the past few weeks, occasioned, it is supposed, by 

 the large quantities sent upcountry for the troops. 

 Anyhow, says a correspondent, the price for several 

 days rose from one rupee per viss (3| lb.) to R2-4 

 and E2-8 per viss. And yet excellent co£fee grows 

 in tho vicinity of the town, and the climate of most 

 of the Lower Burma stations seems excellently ad- 

 apted for the production of any quantity. It is 

 strange that in a large city like this, with so many 

 stores where every description of English and In- 

 dian supplies can generally be got, they allow them- 

 selves to run out of an article in such general use 

 with ali classes of the community. Yet such has 

 been the case in Rangoon with co&ei.— Madras Times. 



Uses of Hovs.— The hop is not only known as an 

 ingredient in beer-brewing. Its tender tops sei ve the 

 Belgians for asparagus, an infusion of its flowers yields 

 a well-known yellow dye for wool, its stalks yield a 

 flax that in Sweden is woven into cloth, and a bag 

 of hops is often used in medicine to allay inflam- 

 mation. The strong bitter odour of the ripened bloom 

 has a strangely exhilarating effect in cases of des- 

 pondency, and the dried hop itself has curious sleep- 

 beguiling properties occasionally taken advantage of 

 in critical cases. When the Prince of Wales was so 

 seriously ill ab Sandringham, a pillow of hops was used 

 for him to sleep on. When his great grandfather 

 George III. lay sick almost to death in 1787, a hop pillow 

 was also used. And in each case the recovery is claimed 

 as a triumph for the Humlus lupuhts. — Lei.itcre Hour. 



TnE Flora of Australia.— Barou F. Von Miiller, 

 K. 0. M. G., has just completed and isiued under the 

 auspices of the Victorian Government a second supple- 

 ment to his Systematic Oansua of Australian Plants. 

 From the information now publi-*hed it appears that 

 while the known plants of Anstrtlia and Tasmania 

 are about 9,000, they occur in the following propor- 

 tions in the respective colonies : Western Australia, 

 .S,455; Queesland, 3,457; New South Wale.s, 3,154; 

 Northern Australia, 1,829 ; Victoria, 1,820 ; South Aus- 

 tralia, 1,810, and Tasmania, 1,016. the progress of 

 Botanical discovery in Australia within the last quarter 

 of a century has been very marked, says the Colonies 

 and India, and the Colonies are mainly indebted to 

 Baron Von Miiller for this result. At the beginning 

 of the century (1805) Robert Brown, who may be 

 styled the father of Australian Botany, returned to 

 England with between 3,000 and 4,000 species of plants, 

 and there in subsequent years he described in his 

 "Prodromus Flora Novtr- Hollandire et Insula^ Van 

 Diemen." Since Brown's work no systematic arhlition 

 was m.ide to his labours until Baron F. '^^on Miiller, 

 considering that the time had arrived for the public- 

 ation of a general flora of Australia, prepared in 

 conjunction with Bentham, the seven volumes of th» 

 " Flora Australiensis," — Indian Garlener. 



