n^ 



f^f fUdMCAt mnttjvtxsmwv. 



[May ^, t%%i4 



" During the last three years several hundred packets 

 of Tree Tomato seed have been distributed to various 

 correspondents in the Colonies, and very favourable 

 accounts have been received of the introduction of 

 this fruit to Ceylon, Southern India, and Eastern 

 countries. Lately Dr. Shortt, of Yercund, sent to 

 Kew a pot of preserve made from the Tree Tomato 

 fruit grown in Southern India. — D Morris, Assistant 

 Director, Koyal Gardens, Kew." 



To this vee may add that the fruit is occasionally 

 grown in this countrj', as vce remember to have had 

 specimens sent us for identification, and they have 

 also been exhibited before the Scientific Committee. As 

 is the case with most cultivated plants, there is a 

 considerable amount of variation in the size, colour, 

 and form of the fruit. Those now figured are more 

 pointed than we have usually seen them. 



In the Revue Horticole for 1881, p, 470, is a second 

 coloured plate, representing two varieties obtained 

 from seed of that originally figured. One of these is 

 yellow, and we mention the circumstance as we have 

 just received from Messrs. Viccars Collyer & Co., of 

 Leicester, a fruit under the name of Melon-Pear, which 

 is clearly the fruit of a Solanum, very nearly allied 

 to, if not identical with, the Tree Tomato and with 

 the " eg^ plant." The specimen sent is seedless, and 

 does unt admit of absolute verification, but we have 

 no doubt that the fruit in question is the produce 

 of a Solanum. Assuredly it is not a Melon and not 

 a Pear— sufficiently good reas()ns to the framers of 

 popular names to call it a Melon-Pear. It has, it is 

 true, much of the fragrance of a Melon, We are 

 promised further specimens with flowers and leaves 

 at another time, when the identification of this so- 

 called Melon-Pear can be rendered certain. Accord- 

 ing to an article in the INIarch number of the Ameri- 

 can Gardeners' Monthly/, this plant is called, in Central 

 America, Pepino, or Cucumber. — Gardeners Chronicle. 



SEEICULTUEE IN INDIA. 



The following extrncts from a letter to the Journal 

 of the Society of Arts from Mr Cunliffe Lister will 

 be of more than passing interest : — 



" Chinese iassar waste is worth to-day at least 2-5 

 per cent more than Indian. I use considerable quan- 

 tities of both. It is quite a folly to suppose that 

 that tassar or any wild silk can bo reared to pay, 

 because in all cases it will cost as much, and in many 

 (more particularly tassai-) vastly more than mulbcrrj', 

 and when done, the cocoons are only worth about half 

 as much. Wild silk has a future, but it must be 

 limited beyond all question to what the jungle can 

 produce at little cost, and that I consider is not a very 

 large quantity. 



Tassar might be the fashion, and might, for some 

 S2)ecial purposes, be as valuable as the homhi/.r mori, 

 but it would be of a fictitious value, as its fibre lustre 

 and dying properties are not comparable. 



Some twenty years ago I re;id in Dr. Tre's Victionar// 

 of Arts and Manufactures that there was n species of 

 silk (the eria worm) grown in Aa.sam that was so 

 abundant and cheap that the natives over a large 

 e-vtent of country were clothe<i in it, and that it was 

 TO durable that mothers hand down garments to their 

 daUgliter.'H, Thi.i dc.')cript!on of Dr, 1 re's so e.%"actly 

 iJliJted and described what was wanted, that in RIarch, 

 ISb'.'', t wrote to tny agents in Calcutta " with a 

 monthly cruv it should be produced almost as cheaply 

 as cotton— t.iist it cai> be produced for little or nothing 

 is beyond dispute, of t*hy ate a\\ the poor natives 

 clothed in it ? *' From that day (new mote than twenty 

 vears ago) I have never been able to obtain any 

 ^supply worth notice ; each year 1 nave imported tl 

 small quantity, but nothing of any importance. At 

 the present time Manchester prints have to a great 

 extent superseded it amongst the natives. Before 

 going to India, in 1S84, I had two acres planted with 

 castor-oil, in order that when I arrived there I might 

 have some eria worms reared under my own supervision, 

 but I soon found that it was a mistake, as they recj^uired 

 ih? 8?ii»e labour and atteqtjoti as the ?'o?»byjf ?«(?>•«, aud 



the cocoons were only worth half the money, as 

 they could not be reeled, and must be ased as waste ; 

 80 I had my castor-oil plants dug up and planted with 

 mulberry. 



Wild silk can be used, when produced at a low 

 price, but can never be a large article of commerce, 

 like the bomhj/x mori. In 1874 I bought 1000 acres of 

 land, at a cost of £3,000 or £4,000 in Upper Assam, 

 for sericulture, but it was afterwards found that 

 labour was too scarce and dear, and I then turned it 

 into a tea garden. Some years after that, in 1878, 

 I made another attempt at sericulture at Madhopur, 

 in the Panjab, the Government being exceedingly 

 anxious to promote cottage cultivation. At that time 

 I had but little practical knowledge of the proper 

 method of treating and rearing silkworms, and very 

 foolishly, as it turned out, imported during two or 

 three years a large amount — above five thousand pounds 

 worth — of the best Italian and French seed, which 

 was given out to the cottage native rearers, and for 

 which I got absolutely nothing in return. It might 

 have just as well been thrown into the sea. A very 

 large sum was spent in various ways (most of it very 

 foolishly), but all in vain. It was a complete failure ; 

 and well it might be, when we consider the miserable 

 huts in which the worms were reared, and the imper- 

 fect knowledge and want of cleanliness of the rearers. 

 There must be ventilation, absolute cleanliness, and 

 abundant space, if silkworms are to be reared with 

 any chance of success. All these conditions are wanting 

 in a native cottage. Although I joined the Government 

 in oifering prizes for the best cocoons, and everything 

 possible was done, no expense being spared, it was 

 all in vain, and I had to begin again this time, I 

 hoped, with a better chance of success. 



In August, 1882, the Government of the North- 

 western Provinces gave me a grant of about 3,500 

 acres of jungle in the Eastern Diln, on certain con- 

 ditions ; one being that I was to have 3,500 acres 

 more when I had planted a thousand with mulberry, 

 and as I have planted about two thousand acres I am 

 entitled to a further grant. The Eastern Dun was 

 pronounced by the doctor of the district as so 

 malarious during the rains as to render its cultivation 

 exceedingly difficult and dangerous, and at first I 

 had no end of trouble from that cause. It is, how- 

 ever, much better now, and as the jungle is cleard 

 away and it is brought into cultivation, it will in time, 

 I have no doubt, be as healthy as any other part 

 of the Dun. I have built a large number of rearing 

 houses for silkworms, a shed for reeling the cocoons, 

 also a large number of workmen's houses, or coolie 

 lines as they are called, also bungalows for the 

 managers ; in fact everything has been done to insure 

 success, and to show, if possible, how far the first 

 time in the history of sericulture (at least so far as 

 I know) it can be carried out and made to pay on a 

 commercial scale. Hitherto it may be said to have 

 been altogether cottage cultivation. It is no doubt 

 a large and costly experiment, but I have great hopes 

 of succeeding. The mulberry plants grow most 

 luxuriantly, but we have not yet had sutlicienl experience 

 to say whether the climate will suit all description.s 

 of silkworms. I'ntii tlii.s year, on a small scale, European 

 seed has done very well, but this year the crop was 

 destroyed by a thunderstorm, and I am disposed to 

 think that there must always be considerable risk 

 attending .•sericulture, even under the most favourable 

 circumstances, 



The Bengal multivoltine worm which I hare tfied 

 to rear during the rainy season has Hot so ft!r dolie 

 well. It may be the cllmatej or it may arise from 

 bad and diseased seed. If the muUiVoltine of Bengal 

 should fail, some othet species from China or Japan 

 will have to be tried, as it is very important to have 

 two cr<ips in the rainy season, as without that the 

 remuneration would be comparatively small. As time 

 goes on and my plantations grow, and are capable 

 of giving a sufiicient supply of leaf for rearing on a 

 large scale, it will be possible then to have a thoroughly 

 practical result that can be relied upon. 



There are many problems yet to isolve, 



