APftiL J, iSSf.] TME TROPICAL AaMCi^twmBf. 



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The threshing process consists of first pulling off all I 

 the kernels of grain and the husks by means of a row 

 of iron teeth, long and saw-like, closely set in a stick 

 of wood. Between these teeth a few heads of 

 ■wheat are rapidly drawn, tearing off the kernels 

 and their coverings. The grain is separated b,\ 

 threshing on mats with a flail, and the chaff is sepa- 

 rated by one person slowly pouring the grain from a 

 •coop-shaped basket held four or five feet from the 

 ground, while another person stirs the air with a 

 large fan. The wheat is then put into straw sacks 

 and carried either on hand-carts or on the backs of 

 horses to market. Barley is a much more important 

 product than wheat, and is more universally eaten ; 

 and it is also used for making saki, a liquor largely 

 •oniumed in Japan, That which is made into flour 

 is ground and bolted in the same manner as wheat, 

 and is also cooked without fermentation. The mode 

 of cultivation, harvesting, and threshing are the same 

 as with wheat. The sugar of Japan is made from 

 that species of the sorghum plant known as the 

 Chinese sorghum. It grows luxuriantly in the 

 southern parts of the empire. For three or four hun- 

 dred years the processes of granulating and refining 

 sugars have been known and practised. Sorghum is 

 grown from cuttings and not from seed. In Septem- 

 ber selected stalks are cut and buried in trenches 

 a foot deep. Through the winter, from each joint of 

 the stalks sprouts shoot out, and in the spring these 

 joints are cut off and set out in rows fifteen or 

 eighteen inches apart, and about the same distance from 

 aech other in the rows. The ground has previously 

 been dug up and pulverised by a long-bladed mattock. 

 The fertilisers used are ashes, fish, decomposed hay, 

 straw, and seaweed, and the plants are thoroughly 

 hoed and irrigated . In October and November the 

 leaves are stripped off, and the stalks are then cut, 

 and the hard outer covering removed ; the remaining 

 portion is then ground between rollers of stone on 

 hard wood. The cane juice is then boiled in iron 

 kettles till the granulation takes place, when it is 

 placed in bags and pressed dry, the expressed syrup 

 being used as molasses. Dry, upland soils are re- 

 quired for the successful growth of the cane, and the 

 expenditure in labour and fertilisers is greater than 

 for any other crop. Tobacco is also an important 

 product, about 90,000,000 pounds being produced in 

 one year, and amountiug in value to £1,500,000. It 

 is grown on uplands, and the seed is planted at the 

 end of March, or beginiug of April, in rows about 

 15 inches apart. In September the lower leaves are 

 picked, at the begining of October the middle ones, 

 and the upper ones at the end of October. The 

 leaves so picked are dried and packed in small bales. 

 Beans, peas, and other leguminous plants are exten- 

 sively cultivated in Japan, and Consul van Buren 

 says that there is probably no country in the world 

 where this class of food-plants enters so largely in 

 the diet of a people as in Japan. The cultivation of 

 tea is one of the most important branches, of Japanese 

 agriculture, the total production for the year 1880 

 amounting to as much as 90,000,000 pounds. As 

 regards textile fabrics, silk is the most important, 

 the mulberry tree growing on nearly all parts of the 

 islands south of Yesso. The principal provinces in 

 which it is cultivated are Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, 

 Fukushiraa, Gunba, Tocbigi, Chiba, Iberaki, Kana- 

 gawa, Nagano, Yamanashi, Shidyuoka, Gifu, Ishi- 

 kawa, Shiga, and Kioto Fu. The variety of the 

 mulberry most in use is the lilorv.s iiif/ra, and it 

 grows from five to ten feet in height. Hemp is 

 grown on tho lower and richer soils, in drills sixteen 

 inches apart, It is sown in March or April, and 

 receives the same careful garden tillage as all other 

 products of the soil in Japan. The soil is carefully 

 prepared by the small Chinese plough, or the long- 

 bladed mattock, and well manured in the drills where 

 the seed is sown. During the summer it is frequently 

 hoed, and fertilisers are applied to the root of the 

 plants. All hemp lauds are flooded three or four 

 times in the season, from the irrigating ditches. The 

 stalk, usually ready for harvest in August, grows 

 from four to seven feet high, and is pulled and spread 



on the ground, where it is allowed to rot, and the 

 fibre is easily separated. This is done by beating 

 with a bamboo stick. The resinous substance is 

 removed by hand-scraping, with a sharp-edged 

 bamboo knife, and the fibre is of great length, 

 strength, and lustre. Flax is not grown in the 

 couQtry. Consul van Buren says he cannot render 

 too warm a tribute to the thoroughness of the present 

 tillage by the Japanese farmers, the value of which 

 is proved by its immense results. When the mattock 

 or broad-edged pick is alone used, the whole surface 

 of the ground is dug up and turned over to the depth 

 of eight to ten inches, and then the whole of tho soil 

 is pulverised and raked over, until not a lump of 

 earth is left. When the small Chinese plough is 

 used, the soil is ploughed and re-ploughed from four 

 to eight times. — Journal of the Society of Arts, 



Manures for Vines and Peaches. — For Vines 

 and Peach trees I mix the following materials in the 

 fo'lowing proportions: — 4 bushels of fiesh lime, 10 

 bushels of good fresh soot, 20 bushels of wood 

 ashes, 2 cwt. of guano, or 6 cwt. of night-soil. Put 

 water on the lime to slack it, then carefully mix all 

 the materials well together, and as soon as it has 

 got well heated, turn it over three or four times, 

 when it is tit for use. Put the mixture about 1 inch 

 thick all over the Vine borders, both inside and out, 

 and then lightly fork it in. After this operation give 

 the inside a good watering with diluted liijuid manure. 

 I give my Vme borders a dressing every year with 

 this manure as soon as the Grapes are cut, and have 

 used this first-class fertiliser for many years with the 

 best results. It destroys insects in the soil and pre- 

 vents mildew, — W. SirrxHE, Basing Park. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



NoN -Germination of Skeds. — The seedsmen of the 

 present are beginning to realise that if they would have 

 their trade grow, they must supply their customers 

 with fresh seed, without any attempt to get rid of 

 the old stock by mixing with the new. Hence, now, 

 the fault of non-germination is the purchaser's more 

 commonly than the seedsman's. It is a great mistake 

 to cover small seeds too deeply, and to sow in ground 

 but freshly broken up, or too loose open will largely 

 promote failure. Ground sufficiently firm to retain an 

 even moisture, is a condition of the first imjiortance, 

 for open ground may contain just sufficient moisture 

 to start the seed, and then *or want of it to let it 

 perish. Very light and open soil should be trodden 

 down firmly with the foot and raked level, before and 

 after sowing the seed. — Rural Australian. 



Hot Water as an Insecticide. — Hot water is a clean, 

 safe, and effective means of destroying green fly on 

 pot plants. To the amateur whose stock of plants 

 might be small, or who might not have accommoda- 

 tion for fumigating, it would be found a convenient 

 remedy. There is a margin of many degrees between 

 the lowest temprature that will destroy this insect, 

 and the highest that a plant will stand with impunity, 

 130 degrees i,s a good medium, or as hot as the hand 

 can be held in two seconds. The plant should be 

 plunged into and withdrawn from the water instant- 

 aneously. The smaller body and more delicate skin 

 of the insect is more quickly acted upon than that of 

 the plaut. Should anj'one be afraid to employ the 

 remedy, let him, if he has several plants ett'ected, try it 

 on one first, and the next day, when he sees that it 

 has suffered no injury, he will have no misgivings about 

 treating the rest in the same way. — Rural Auistralian. 



Dr. Watt, writing in Nature, says that Manipur is 

 a small vallej' surrounded by mountain ranges, and in this 

 valley the rainfall WdS found to be only about 39 inches ; 

 but seventeen miles off, in the mountains which formed 

 the north-east ranges, the rainfall was as much as 120 

 inches, and towards the Naga country to the north it 

 became greater and greater in certain limited tracts. 

 In the Khasia Hills 600 inches might fall in one place, 

 and twenty miles off only 50 inches. Nothing in 

 Manipur struck Dr. Watt so much, as a botanist, as the 

 remarkable transitions of vegetation in that small 

 region. Dr. Watt gathered twelve or more species of 

 Oaks, many of which were new to gcieoce, and tea tm 



