April i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



64} 



PREPARATION OF HIDES IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



A Buenos Ayres newspaper calls the attention of 

 stock breeders to the fact that the hides of cattle in 

 many cases lose a great part of their value on ac- 

 count of the careless way in which they are stripped 

 from the slaughtered aoimal. Calf skins and sheep 

 pelts are often reduced one-half in value by being 

 gashed and improperly stretched. When a hide is 

 stripped off, it should be stretched at once and 

 pegged out to dry, with the flesh side upward. If it 

 is rolled up, thrown into a heap, and left to dry in 

 that shape, it is so mean looking that a buyer will 

 only offer half its real value. A few hints as to 

 taking off a hide will be useful. The skiu is slit 

 from the chin down the brisket in a straight line to 

 the tail ; it is then cut round each hoof, the hind legs 

 are slit behind over the gambrel, but the front ones 

 are slit up in front OTer the knees. This leaves the 

 ■kin in a good shape for finishing the leather. The 

 head and legs are first carefully skinned, taking care 

 to avoid cutting the skin. The skin is then easily 

 drawn off, by taking hold of it firmly and pulling it 

 steadily. It is then spread out evenly on a floor, and 

 sprinkled with fine salt. If there is but one, it is 

 best to take it out as soon as the salt has taken, and 

 dry at once in a cool shady place. If there are more 

 than one, then they are laid upon each other, and 

 salted freely, and afterwards thoroughly dried. If 

 the skins are to be kept, they should be closely watched 

 for moths or grubs. — Journal of the Society of Arts. 



WILD MANGOES. 



(BT C. MARIES.) 



Th»jungli dm, which is the original stock of all our 

 fine mangoes, is not often met with in its native habitat, 

 and les« frequently in fruit. I have just received a few 

 fine specimens of several varieties of jungli mangoes. 

 From the fruits, it appears they vary quite as 

 much as our cultivated ones; and as to shape, they are 

 the exact counterpart in miniature of many of our best 

 varieties. My specimens came from the Kangra valley, 

 and were collected by a gentleman much interested 

 in the fruit. I once saw the true jungli mango in 

 the Dooars, and again afterwards growing at an 

 elevation of about 2,000 feet in Sikkiui. It is very 

 unlike the cultivated sort, having generally a straight 

 trunk, whitish, smooth bark, and thin leaves, forming 

 a fine, round-headed tree. The fruit rarely weighs 

 2 oz. ; often only 1 oz. The common country mango 

 palled " Beju " or " Desi," in Tirhoot, is really an 

 inferior kind of cultivated mango, and not the proper 

 wild mango of the forests. 



AS'ild mangoes are found from India through Malay 

 to Manilla and some of the Pacific islands, and it is 

 not really known if there is more than one species. 

 The wild and cultivated sorts are so widely different 

 in shape of fruit, that they could almost be called 

 distinct species, but every intermediate connecting 

 stage may be found to bring them under one head. 

 The flowers of the wild and cultivated mango are 

 exactly the same in structure, except that in the wild 

 one there are often more stamens fertile. 



It may not be known to most people that generally 

 in a mango flower there is only one stamen out of 

 the lot fertile ; this one is curved round just over the 

 pistil in a peculiar way, to facilitate the fertilization. 

 The so called " nak," or nose of the m?ngo, is the 

 place the pistil adhered to in the flower. All this 

 can be plainly seen with a moderately powerful reading 

 glass or lens when the mangoes are in flower. 

 Peotbcting Mango Fbuit. 



A very good way to protect mangoes from the 

 attacks of birds and insects is, get a lot of very finely- 

 woven, round bamboo baskets made, say 4 inches wide 

 at top, 5 inches at the bottom, and as long as may 

 be required for the fruit; see that there is not room 

 for a fly to get in through the basket-work. Then 

 put the mango inside as it hangs on the tree, push 

 a long thin peg through the top of the basket by the 

 side of the stallc of the fruit on one side, and another 

 similar peg on the other side, and the mango will 



hold the basket up itself ; then tie a little calico over 

 the top of the basket, taking care not to tie the 

 mango stalk, and also to completely shut up the top 

 of the basket. The mango stalk must be quite free, 

 because when the fruit is ripe, or nearly so, it will 

 fall of its own accord, and will be found to 'be just 

 fit to gather. If a net be suspended under the tree 

 then all danger of bruising the fruit will be avoided! 

 Then shake the tree to gather only the ripe ones. 

 These should be kept on a " machan " for a few days 

 till quite ripe, as a'l mangoes improve by keeping a 

 little, and should never be eaten perfectly fresh from 

 the tree. — Indian Agricultunst. 



LICHENS INJURIOUS TO FRUIT TREES. 



The following from the American Gardeners' Monthlu 

 has a bearing on the treatment of tea bushes infested 

 with lichens. Rubbing off the foreign growth is 

 no doubt expensive, but it certainly must be bene 

 ficial :— A New Jersey correspondent says : "Will you 

 please give me the name of the inclosed moss, which 

 I find growing in company with unlimited quantities 

 of lichen on a lot of old cedars on the river bank in 

 front of my cottage. As these trees, knarled and 

 twisted as they are, are very necessary to me, I have 

 amused myself for a week past, scraping the lichen 

 off. 



"I know that the lichen is not regarded among 

 botanists as a true parasite but as an epiphyte. 

 But I am satisfied from my own observations the past 

 week, that the lichen is almost as deadly in its embraces 

 as the mistletoe or the fabled Upas tree itself— though 

 possibly longer about it. 



"Small limbs, twigs, and sometimes the entire tree, 

 if fairly girdled with the lichen, are dead in most 

 cases or dying. The lichen has a strong aflinity 

 for moisture and very retentive thereof— trees on the 

 river bank, more or less damp from exhalations from 

 the river, have much lichen upon them— while the 

 same tree (cedars) a hundred yards back have little 

 or none. 



"On lifting a piece of lichen from the tree I find 

 the spot beneath invariably damp or even wet and 

 the bark discolored, and generally more or less rotten 

 or doted, penetrating in some cases to the wood. 

 'Tis, in my opinion, this wetting process that destroy* 

 the twig, limb or tree. But whether the lichen does 

 it with 'malice prepense,' as a lawyer would put it, 

 I am not botanist enough to determine. 



"Will you please enlighten me on this point, for I 

 am not a little interested in the lichen." 



[The old gardeners— whose practice was often better 

 than their reasonings — always insisted on the advantages 

 of scraping lichens from the bark of fruit trees. But 

 modern gardeners teach that if fruit trees are properly 

 cared for they will throw off lichens themselves. In 

 other words, the existence of lichens is a sign of bad 

 health. Scraping the bark or any other thing that 

 "injures or closes the pores," as these good people say, 

 is regarded as an evil. We have, however, seen so 

 much good result from slitting the bark of hide- 

 bound trees,— lime washing those covered by lichen 

 or moss, — and soap cleaning trees that were even ia 

 fair health, that, though our natural tendencies are 

 with scientific progress, we are compelled to admit 

 that the practice is good, and therefore to believe 

 that mosses and lichens may have, as our corres- 

 pondent believes, some injurious tendency, quite a.side 

 from the general belief that they, feed wholly on dead 

 bark or other meterial. — Ed. G. M. I 



HOW TO GLEAN A BOOK WITHOUT INJURY. 



All adept in the art of washing or cleansing dirty 

 books sends to the Fublisliers' Circular a few plain 

 directions to be followed by those who wish to cleanse 

 their soiled volumes. The amateur boolc cleanser had 

 better begin to practise on some worthlei^s volume 

 until he acquires the necessary skill. All traces of Itnie, 

 acid, etc. used in the cleaning proce^^s must be re- 

 moved from the book, else in time it may be entirely 

 destroyed. 



