March i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



733 



B.\3IB00 FOR PAPER STOCK. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE '" INDIAN FOEESTEK." 



Sir, — If bamboo oaunot be readily and ecouomically pro- 

 pagated and cultivated for paper-stock, the sooner the 

 question is decided the better. It is assumed, and has 

 been asserted, that bamboos of the varieties suited for 

 paper-stock, that is long-joiuted succulent stems, such as 

 the Hamliitsa Brandisii, B. poli/inorj'hit, B. tulda, IMmlru- 

 calamus Hamiltonii kc, wUlnot grow otherwise than in large 

 clumps, therefore occupying much space with small yield 

 of season stems to the acre ; and that such chimps cannot 

 be regularly cropped without injuriously affecting tlie con- 

 tinuity of growth. The question to determine is whether 

 this is really the fact ; or whether, as I hope and believe, 

 by systematic cultivation and cropping the bamboo can 

 be made to produce a denser growth or better yield to 

 the area under such cultivation. Further investigation 

 and experiment on this crucial point is much to be desired, 

 and in this I ask " S. E. P." and others to cooperate. 



Thomas Rodtlbdoe. 



[Unless the new system of chemical treatment makes 

 the mature stems available, the case is hopeless, as taking 

 away all the young shoots seems extirpation. — Ed.] 



INSTRUCTIONS TO INTENDING COTTON 



GROWERS IN NATAL. 



(Issued by the Natal Chamber of Commerce.) 



1. Plough, dig or hoe, as <leeply a.s possible, the land 

 indended for cotton, so as to admit the air thoroughly. 



2. Sow the seed by string line, which makes hoeing 

 and weeding easier. The rows should be five feet asunder. 

 Drop two or three cotton seeds together at intervals 

 of four feet along the lines. The seed need not he 

 buried deeply, but should be covered lightly with mould. 

 Care should be taken not to trample on the spot where 

 the seed is deposited. Sow from the middle of Septem- 

 ber to the middle of November. 



3. The Plants will apear above the ground in from seven 

 to ten days, and when they have four distinct leaves 

 thin them leaving the strongest of each group of 

 three. 



4. Weed carefully for the first six weeks or two months 

 and draw up the earth about the stems imtil the blossoms 

 appear. 



5. When the plants are from six weeks to two months 

 old nip off about an inch from the top of each shoot 

 This will cause the plant to throw out a greater number 

 of branches, and consequently it will bear a larger crop. 

 Repeat this process n second and even a third time in the 

 first season. 



6. The blossoms usually appear in about 80 days, and 

 the pods arrive at maturity about three months after 

 sowing. 



7. After the first year it is advisable to have an under- 

 growth of vegetables. These in high winds keep the dust 

 from soiling the cotton when the pods begin to open. 

 If soiled the cotton loses greatly in value. — Xuial 

 Mercury. 



SULPHUR FUMIGATION AS A PREVENTIVE 



OF JUNGLE FEVERS. 



Our readers' attention is directed to a notice in " Nature" 

 on the 20th September, page 544, about M. d'Abbailie's 

 discovery that sulphur fumigation is a preventive for marsh 

 fevers. His paper was read in the Academie Francaise 

 and the reason for the good eflfects of sulphur fumiga- 

 tion is very obvious, the malarious germs being destroyed 

 by sulphur dioxide. The principal difficulty lies in the 

 aoplication of the discovery, but only a small quantity 

 of sulphur dioxide should be present in dwellings, enough 

 t'. l.Nlroy the miasma without injuring the lungs of fl,e 

 occupant-s. For open air use, a small bottle containing 

 Sodium thiosu//>hate, commonly known to photographers as 

 hyposulphide of soda, dissolved in 20 times its volume of 

 water, and mixed with one volume of strong snfphvric 

 arid, may be used Hke a bottle of smelling salts. This 

 evolves sulphur dioxide, the escape of which should be 

 regulated by a strong cork.— H. Wabth. 

 93 



The following extract from the Pioneer also refers to 

 the same subjects :— At a recent meeting of the Paris 

 Academy M. d'Abbadie made some interesting remarks on 

 the efficacy of sulphur as a preservative against marsh 

 fevers. He stated that the elephant hunters from plateaux, 

 with comparatively cool climates, brave the hottest and 

 most deleterious Ethiopian regions with impunity, which 

 they attribute to their liabit of daily fumigation of the 

 naked body with sulphur. Also some of the sulphur mines 

 of Sicily are situated at a low level, where intermittent 

 fever prevails ; while the population of the neighbouring 

 villages IS attacked by fever in the proportion of 90 per 

 cent, the workmen in the sulphur mines suffer very much 

 less— not more than 8 or 9 per cent, being attacked. 

 Again, on the west side of the marshy and fever-invested 

 plain of Catania is a sulphur mine, with a colony of 

 healthy workmen living about the mine, who seem to be 

 preserved from the fever by the sulphurous emanations ; 

 whilst a httle beyond, at a higher level, is a village 

 some time ago abandoned on account of marsh fever. 

 The above facts would certainly encourage our Indian 

 authorities to make experiments with sulphur in some 

 of the fever-striken districts of India,— say, for example 

 in the deadly Terai.— /ndwn Forester. ' 



A COUPLE OF WRINKLES. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE "QUEENSLANDBR." 



SiK,— I fancy I have accidentally stumbled across two 

 matters that may be of some importance. 



1. Let anyone try roasting the corn before feeding it 

 to his fowls, and tell you by-and-by if his egg basket does 

 not fill much more rapidly than usual. 



2. Let anyone having orange trees that don't do well 

 with him try pouring the chamber water on the ground 

 round the base of the trees every morning, and then tell 

 you the result. With mine that has been simply magical 

 up to the present. My orange trees, like many others else- 

 where, have never done well, throwing up green shoots 

 every season, and then dying back again or altogether. 

 I had three sickly ones left in the garden, rouml which, 

 inter aha, I have been throwing the chamber water for 

 the last couple of months or so, and they are now grow- 

 ing big trees, perfectly green and bearing some fine healthy- 

 looking fruit. I apply the same cure to my lemon trees, 

 and they also thrive nicely under it. I have two guava trees 

 and a rose-apple tree, which had been perfectly black with 

 scale or smut for three years past. I tried the same remedy 

 with them, aud thoy have now thrown off nearly all the 

 smut and are growing as healthy as could be desireil. So 

 convinced am I of the good effects of the application that 

 I now make use of it in turn to almost everything in the 

 garden. Can it be possible that the appKcation of ammonia 

 would render our orangeries fruitful? This naturally 

 exercises my mind with regard to wheat. I wish some 

 of your wheat-growing correspondent would try this mixture 

 on say, a few yards of a row convenient to the house, 

 after the plants are well above the ground, and, if pos.sibIei 

 in the middle of a rusty patch. It can't do much harm,' 

 if unsuccessful. Possibly diluting with fresh water might 

 be necessary with such tender plants as wheat.— I am, sir. &c 

 J. Gibson. ' ' 



[What the effects of feeding roasted corn to fowls may 

 be we cannot say, but those who keep fowls should certainly 

 give it a trial, and let us know the result. With reference 

 to the u.se of urine, it is known to be a valuable fert- 

 iliser — more so than the solid droppings from any animal ; 

 and we have long held the opinion that blighted and sickly 

 fruit trees were as much or more in want of assistance 

 from fertilisers than anything else. Even the good effects 

 resulting from drainage are as much caused by the liberation 

 of fertilising particles formerly insoluble as from the 

 mechanical dryness or porosity occasioned thereby.— Ed. Q.] 



COFFEE AND CINCHONA IN QUEENSLAND. 



For the following on the above subjects, we are in.lcbted 

 to :Mr. (!. Rrookes, of Mackay:— 



I come to the conclusion that it is better to pay even 

 tour times the price for coffee soed from plants now pro- 

 ducing in the colony, and so far as I have seen quite free 

 from leaf disease, than to run the risk of introducing it 



