March i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



715 



As THE "Oannon-Ball Tree" is acclimatised, and to 

 some extout distributed, iu Queensland, some of oui- readers 

 who have specimens of it growing wiU be pleased to know 

 what can be said about it. Its botauicle name is Cuuroupita. 

 Guiaiiensis, and the tree itself attains to a large size and 

 is very ornamental. Its habit appears to be to run up 

 taU and be almost free from branches, forming at the top 

 a handsome dome-shaped head of dense darkgreen foliage. 

 The "cannon balls" are produced iu large quantities on 

 the branches, bearing them down with the weight, the 

 balls being solid rusty-coated fruits about 6in. in diameter, 

 aud containing a quantity of flat circular seeds rather larger 

 than a sixpence imbedded in their pulp. The flowers are 

 large, curious in form, pink iu colour, aud highly-scented. 

 c I, "• '■'* " "*tive of tropical America. The hard shell 

 of the ripe fruit is used as a drinking vessel, and the 

 pulp, when fresh, is of an agreeable flavour.— Oasens- 

 lander. 



Antiseptic— Through the agency of Messrs. Berkley, 

 Taylor & Co., an antiseptic, under the name of " Glacialiue," 

 has been introduced into this colony, which, judging from 

 present experiences, promises to be of incalculable benefit 

 to housewives in this climate. • For some time past notices 

 of the wonderful preservative powers of this new agent 

 have appeared in the English Press, but we have preferred 

 t^^u°° *° °°*'''<' '* "°*'' practical experience should show 

 whether it was equally efficacious iu this climate. From 

 the number of testimouials now forward in its favour 

 there would appear little reason to doubt that in the pre- 

 servation of meat, butter, and other perisnabie articles 

 of consumption it is a success. It is .it present in use 

 m many households in and around Brisbane, and it has 

 been found that by means of a solution of it fresh butter 

 niaf be kept sweet for many d.iys, whilst it appears to 

 be equally valuable in the preservation of fresh meat, fish 

 and even eggs. Perhaps the strongest evidence in its 

 favour IS that which comes from Messrs. Foster and Billam, 

 of Cardwell, who report that they have used it with 

 the utmost success in the preservation of mullet, travalli 

 and other kinds of fish, aud also on the belly pieces of 

 young dugong. They state that in the case of the latter 

 they can now dispense with the use of salt, soda, aud 

 saltpetre, and that one packet of the glacialine is equal 

 to 1 cwt. of salt ; better in fact, as the flies do not affect 

 meat preserved by glacialine. Chemical analyses show that 

 It IS perfectly innocuous. To residents in the distant bush, 

 who are coudemned to the use of salt junk during the 

 greater part of the year, this new agent should prove almost 



I, invaluable, both as to health and comfort.— Okcchs- 

 lander. 

 Maot^ who cannot give a satisfactory reason for what 

 they thmk or say, nevertheless cherish the fond conviction 

 that nitrogen is supplied to mother earth from the atmos- 



j phere under favourable conditions. Results are constantly 

 bemg observed which warrant the conclu.sion, but science 

 has hithei-to been more or less bafiied in her attempts to 

 demonstrate it. Dr. Lawes ssiys :— " That impoverished fields 

 overgrown with grass, weeds, and blackberry patches do 

 increase lu fertility may be considered an accepted fact " 

 The improvement being conceded, whence comes it— from 

 liberated nitrogen in the soil, or accumulations from the 

 atmo.sphere'' If from the latter, upon what conditions? 

 I think (says a writer in the Praine Furwer) from shade 

 and moisture, or, in other words, mulch, shielding the 

 deposits from (h-yiug wmds aud evaporations from the sun's 



' rays. Half rotted straw would do the same or more The 

 growth upon the soil could hardly attract this surplus 

 tertihty, but rather hinder its escape. The rapid re9uperatiou 

 of e.Nhausted soils sown to clover has been thought to 

 proceed from the atmosphere through the foliage of the 

 plant. Until it can he demonstrated that plants feed from 

 either or both ends, I must think it draws its sustenance 

 trom the earth, and the superabundaut foliage of the clover 

 plant fm-nishes the conditions favourable to the deposition 

 and retention of nitrogen in the soil; and if the same crop 

 was closely grazed the improvement would not be so mani- 

 fest. I am an ad\-ocate of salt as an agent in agriculture 

 It may contain no vegetable nutrition. As a chloride it 

 attracts moisture and increases tlie retcntiveuess of the 

 Bod— two conditions favouring, if not inviting, the storing 



■ of atmospheric gases." So long as it is not used too freely 



I it would be invaluable in Queensland, or in any dry climate 



on account or its great power of attracting moisture Tak- 

 ing the above writer's view of the case how antagonistic 

 both to reason and science is the wasteful practice of 

 bmning off the stubble and refuse vegetable matter which 

 accumulates upon the farm! If it was never ploughed 

 under at all, but strewn upon the surface as a mulch it 

 would indirectly fertilise the land by causing a deposit 

 of nitrogen from the atmosphere. Depend upon it aeratine 

 soil does, somehow, fertilise \t.—Queenslander 



A New use fob the Papaya Fruit.- The 'indian Alkd- 

 ical Gazette for the current mouth reprints a valuable 

 note by Thos. Christy on the effects and uses of papaine 

 or extract of the well-known papaya of India, South' 

 America and other tropical countries. The new drug is 

 shown to have been used as a solvent with extraordinary 

 success in diphtheria; as a digestive, tonic and deob- 

 struent m various forms of dyspepsia, and also in spleen • 

 and there seems little reason to doubt that it will take 

 a most important place in the pharmacopeia. As an il- 

 lustration of its powerful solvent properties a crucial 

 experiment performed by M. "VVurtz is quoted :— M. Wurtz 

 diluted two grammes of papaine, which he was obliged 

 to use in a somewhat impure stato owing to the im- 

 possibility of freeing it entirely from the foreign sub- 

 stances adhering to it, in a glass containing 2 cubic 

 centimetres of water. Into the bath thus prepared was 

 introduced an ill-fated frog, weighing 50 grammes, which 

 was left to be operated upon by the spontaneous effects 

 of the liquid. In two hours the wretched occupant of 

 the bath began to show signs of his impending fate, his 

 skin ^ being gradually worn away by the action of the 

 papaine. Four hours more ekpsed, and the muscular action 

 of the beast appeared to be paralysed. His movements 

 became slack, and soon nfter ceased altogether. The 

 next stage was the gradual disappearance of the body 

 itself, which faded away, as it were, after remaining in 

 the shape of a sort of film, the conformation of which 

 grew every minute less distinct. On the morning of the 

 following day the frog had altogether disappeared." The 

 same journal also publishes a report of a paper read by 

 Dr. Bwart before the Epidemiological Society of Loudon 

 on the effect of the Indian climate on phtliisical patients. 

 Most Indian experts would probably concur in the con- 

 clu.sion of the author that the balance of argument is 

 against the advisability of persons sutferiug from this 

 disease, or predisposed to it by hereditiiry taint, resort- 

 ing to this country. — Englishman. 



Cinchona in Ceylon.— Mr. St. George Oaidfcild, writing 

 from Tullybody, Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon, informs us that 

 coppicing, so far as Cinchona officinalis is concerned, is 

 fast becomiug obsolete at an elevation of 6,500ft., but at 

 lower elevations, and with the Cinchona sv.ccirithr'a, it is 

 still practised, and is found to pay. "With reference to 

 the system of barking round the tree, or "spokeshaving," 

 which we mentioned some time ago as beiug discontinued, 

 he says this is not the case, but is now gone in for largely! 

 and ••stripping," so far as "crown bark" (C. officinalis) lii 

 concerned, is being done away with. Bark that has lieeu 

 spokeshaved is richer in alkaloids, and much thicker than 

 the natural bark left for trial on the same trees. Renewed 

 spokeshaved bark sometimes realises 6s. lOd. per lb. when 

 dry, the trees having been shaved only cleveu mouths before, 

 the increase on the former sh,aving in quantity of bark 

 beiug 20 per cent, aud the first hark only sold for 3s. 5d. 

 wheu dry. On the Tullybody estate of 150 acres all the 

 trees large enough are so treated, and a three-year-old 

 tree can be shaved with safety about ,'Jft. up from the 

 ground on an average, aud will give about 2oz. of dried 

 bark; but the next shaving the yield will be greater, as 

 the bark will be thicker and the tree can be shaved higher 

 up; bark may be saved from the branches which are lopped 

 ofl: to make free run for the spokeshave. A two-handed 

 iron tool, having a steel bit fixed with a screw, so that 

 it may he worked to any required depth, is the tool 

 generally in use. In spokeshaving, a suflicieucy of the inner 

 bark should be left to cau.se a rapid renewal, and when 

 the bark is covered it renews much more rapidly than if 

 exposed. On the Tullybody estate the renewed bark which 

 was not cov(!red sold for from 4s. Ud. to 6s. 6d. per lb., 

 but the ])ractice of coveriug is nevertheless the best. As 

 a proof of the success of cinchona, Mr. Caulfield s.iyshe 

 has 300 acres under his charge. — Queenslandei: 



