S5^ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Feb. I, 1887 



Inclined Riilboad for Chk^a.— At Hong Koa^ 

 a cable tramway is constructed from the towu to the 

 Peak a range of very steep hills, on which are fine villa 

 residences, and v?here the climite is more salubrious, 

 than near the harbour. The incline where they have 

 to work is 4,800 feet long, and the line, which is 

 partly single and partly double, is laid with 35-pound 

 steel rails on steel sleepers. The gradients vary be- 

 tween 1 in 2 and 1 in 10, closely following the natural 

 contour of the ground. The total height to which the 

 carriages have to be raised is 1,300 feet, and the ropes, 

 of which one is the working rope and the oMier the 

 safety rope, ran on sepu-ate sets of friction-rollers. 

 The carriages are attached to each end of the ropes, 

 and as one pair of carriages ascends the inclin'^, the 

 other pair descends. Each car is to contain 60 passen- 

 gers, the maximum load being 7^ tons at each end 

 of the ropes. The working rope is passed over a pair 

 of drums 8 feet in diameter, and the safety rope over 

 one drum, the drums being fixed at the top of the 

 incline and driven by two compound steam-engines, 

 40 nominal horsepower each. The speed of the cars 

 ia ^> be six miles an hour. — Indian Fn/meer. 



TKoPiCAii Dew. — Having Had occasion to lay out a 

 large quantity of iron hoes and picks without handles, 

 on the hard ground of an open inclosure in one of the 

 driest districts in India (Bellary) , where in fact these 

 implements had been collected in the face of a 

 scar.iity, it was found, after they had lain a couple 

 of months, that a thick, weedy, but luxuriant 

 veg'^tation had sprung up, enough, though there 

 had been no rain, to almost hide the tools. The 

 effect depositing tools on grass haa bad in stimulat- 

 ing its growing the writer has observed in the 

 tropics before, but was at a loss to account for it, 

 except upon some irresolvable theory of radiation 

 or magnetism. The whole phenomenon is cleared up 

 by Mr. Aitkeu's paper on " Dew " in " Nature" of 

 January 14 (page 256), dew being proved deposited, 

 not as generally, thought, from the air above, but 

 rising and condensing from the soil below ; and 

 the ground in India is always hygroscopic. The 

 outer surfaces of the iron tools radiate of 

 course quickly at night, and the stratum of air 

 inclosed between the metal imder surfaces and 

 the earth is, therefore, saturated with condensing 

 moisture. That iron gratings laid on bare ground 

 will raise a rank vegetation in places with only 

 10 or 15 inches of annual rainfall, and exposed 

 • to tropical heat, is a not unimportant fact, as 

 being a readily available substitute for irrigation 

 watwr, worth further investigation. — Nature. 



Double Manure Salt. — The market for double 

 manure salt or sulphate of potash, is now lower 

 than ever before known, and as recent heavy 

 arrivals have unsettled values, a lower range of 

 prices may prevail. The easy position of the 

 article is not owing to decreased consumption, but 

 to over production, and consequent larger ship- 

 ments, and unlesp some arrangement is made at 

 the source of supply whereby exports are curtailed, 

 the future will be anything but promising. We 

 hear rumors of a probable combination abroad, 

 but there is no reliable information upon which 

 to base an opinion as to what action if any 

 will be taken to remedy the present depressed 

 feeling in the market. For five or six years, 

 double manure salt remained on a steady basis at 

 one and a quarter cents per pound ; then the price 

 broke to one dollar and seven cents per one hun- 

 dred pounds, and the feeling gradually _ weakened 

 until ninety cents was reached, which is the pre- 

 sent nominal value for lots on dock, with some 

 parcels in store limited to one dollar and ten 

 cents. Low prices have stimulated trade to some 

 extent and we understand that the salt has been 

 ubstituted for muriate of potash, bat not in important 

 quantities. 



[The above from the Drnr/ Feportrr would seem 

 to shew that now is the tim9 for purcln; in? potash 

 salts to mix with cattle m anu as an appliation 

 to tea.— Ed.] 



Quebnsland (Calophj/Uv.m IiicphyUt(m).~Dnri'\g the 

 debate on the Pearl Fisheries' Bill in the Assembly on 

 July 23, a clause was specially inserted to protect traes of 



the species Cdophyllum inophyllutn on Thursday Island, 

 on the motion of Mr. Palmer. A fiae of £10 is inflicted on 

 any person who cuts dowu or injures either one of these 

 species, or a coconut tree, or any other tree bearing 

 edible fruit. Mr. Palmar said that the oil was valuable, 

 worth £90 a ton, the woo 1 u.seful, and the bark a good 

 tanning material. Mr. S. "W.Brooks and Mr. Sheridan 

 both supported the motion, the former gentleman re- 

 marking that the tree was known in Tahiti as tamano 

 or delo, and the oil was a specific for rheumatism. The 

 Bill was passed by the Legislative Council on August 

 19, and now awaits royal consent. [Bai-on Ferdin ind 

 vDii Mueller writi s to us on this subject as follows: — 

 Concerning the Calophyllum inophi/llum, as early as 

 1855, 1 found the tree on one of th'^ i'ilands of Hawick's 

 group, on the north-eastern coast of Queensland. Other 

 localities of this species as recorded in my Fraginenta 

 phytoloii- Austral, ix., 185, are Adam's Bny, Owpe York, 

 Rockingham's Bay. Edgecomb's Bay, Fitzroy's Island, 

 and Goode Island ; but I have no specimen from 

 Thursday Island. Still I should think it most likely 

 to exist there, as the tree has a wide range along the 

 coasts of tropical A^ia, extending to eastern Africa and 

 to Polynesia. My collection of Thursday Island plants is 

 not complete, so the mere absence of the plant from 

 there is no proof of the tree not occuring in the locality. 

 I may incidentally remark that a second specii?s of Cal- 

 opKullum occurs in north-eastern Australia, namely, 

 C. tomentosum, but it is as yet only known from near 

 Eockiughim's Bay and Johnstone's River ; its fruits 

 are considerably smaller than those of C. inophyllum. " 

 — Chemist and Drnagist. 



Sweet Gibl Graduates in Prussia. — The Journal 

 de Pharmacie <i' Anvevs states that the Prussian 

 Minister of Education has prohibited the admission 

 of ladies to the Prussian universities, either as students 

 or to lectures. — Chemist andDruggist. 



The Museum op the Pharmaceutical Society has 

 been greatly enriched during the past year bj- many large 

 find valuable donations. Some of these have been re- 

 ceived from well-known wholesale firms, or from private 

 individuals, but the most extensive additions have 

 been made through the liberality of the Commisson- 

 ers of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and of 

 several of the exhibitors, some of the latter having handed 

 over their entire exhibits to the Society. Among the 

 last-named are the valu-ib'e exhibits of Dr. Ho Kai 

 and Messrs. A. S. Watson and Oo. in the Hong Kong 

 Court, the former including over four hundered speci- 

 mens of Chinese drugs, and the latter, several valuable 

 models. Not less important are the exhibits of Dr. 

 Brooks, including vanilla and valuable specimens of 

 essential oil, from the Seychelles, and that of Mr. 

 Fersson, of Demerara. The Indian Court contributed 

 a most useful series of sections of the trunks of the 

 ciuchoua trei s cultivated in that country, which show 

 the mode of renewing the bark. The whole of the 

 collection of Ceylon drugs fthree hundred and fifty 

 specimens) has been acquired by the Society, as well 

 as the collection of Chinese drugs in the Straits Settle- 

 ments Court, the latter having been presented by the 

 Executive Commissioner. Valuable contributions to the 

 Museum have also been received from the Executive 

 CommLsioners of the British Guiana, West Indian, 

 Victoria and Fiji Courts. The materia medica of the 

 Cape of Good Hope is now represented in the Museum 

 by an entire series of the drugs exhiliited in that 

 Court, presented by Mr. Sidney Oowper. In addition 

 to these, a very extensive and valuable collection of 

 essential oils, many of them of great rarity, has been 

 presented by Messrs. Schimmel and Co., of Liepzig. Dr. 

 Aitchison has handed to the Society a collection of the 

 drugs obtained by him in Afghanistan, and specimens of 

 considerable interest have been received from the Direc- 

 tor of the Kew Gardens, fr.>m Dr. Dymock of Bombay, 

 Di-. Oudaatje, of Ceylon, Mr. Mnrai, of Japan, and 

 many othprs. The large contributinis to the Museum 

 during the last few years .have raised it to the first rank 

 as a Museum of Materia Medio; so that it has lately been 

 classed in a well-known periodical [Nineteenth Ce7it2ay) 

 with the National Musem of Natural History at Kew 

 and thi British Museum. — Pharmaceutical Joxrnal. 



