i6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1882. 



tapping, and coagulated by heat, or in some other 

 way, similar to that, used in Madagascar or tlie Brazila. 

 The product, however, s said to be of an inferior 

 quality." 



Ou " the subject of Bornean caoutchouc, the Kew 

 report says: — "The most authentic infoimatiou on the 

 caoutchouc-yielding species of North-Wet.t Borneo is 

 apparently that contributed by Mr. Treacher to the 

 "Journul of the Straits Branch of the Koyal Asiatic 

 Soci.-ty," for July, 1879 (p. 58). He I'uumerates no 

 leas than eight, with tihe following names : — 

 " 1. Manuugan pulau (i e., Manungan proper). 

 " 2. Manungan biijok. 



" 3. Manungan manga (light coloured bark). 

 " 4. Manungan manga (d,.rk coloured bark). 

 " From the abi)ve is obtained the gutta Lchak or 

 gutta susu of commerce. (Guttn in Malayan means 

 gum ; lecha/c, elastic ; susu, milk). 

 " 5, Serapit larut. 

 " 6. Serapit pulau. 



" The produce of these is only used to increase the 

 weight of the manungans, the milk not hardening 

 sufhciently of iiself. 



" 7. Bertabu or Petabo pulau. 

 " 8. Bertabu or petabo laut. 



" The profluce of these is no longer marketable. 

 The different plants would appear to be accurattly 

 distinguished by the native collectors ; anil, if the 

 best of them are to be sought and brought into 

 cultivation, their precise botanical identiKcation be- 

 comes important. 



"No. i of the foregoing list is referred to as a new 

 species of Wllintjhheia, the name proposed for it being 

 Willughbe.ia Burblirjei. 

 " No. 2 is Leucenolis euge.nifoliuf,. 

 Nos. 3 and 4 are supposed to be species ol WUhiuhheia 

 and W. Treaclteri is proposed for No. 5. 



" The remainder would at present seem to be un- 

 determinable. All the above species belong to one 

 natural order, namely, Apoci/nacni. Other caoutchouc 

 yielding idants are referred to in the report, which 

 are, however, of minor importance as compared with 

 those just enumeraied. 



" Regarding the collection in Perak of Gittln sing- 

 garip, the produce of WHIughheia Burbidgei, the follow- 

 ing description is given : — 'The stem is geneniily ringed 

 at intervals of 10 to 12 inches, .and the milkalloiied 

 to run into vessels made of palm or other leaves, 

 coconut shells, or anything available for the purpose ; 

 it continues to dow for some time, but after flowing 

 for some minutes, it gets very watery and thin. 

 One flow will yield from Ave to ten catties of the 

 coagulated ciioutchouc. When raw, it has the ap- 

 pearance of sour milk, and, to coagulate it, the 

 natives add salt, or salt water. When freshly coagula- 

 ted, it is quite white, which gradually changes to a 

 darker colour. It keeps white inside, and, on cut- 

 tini', it presents a foveated appearance, the cells con- 

 tainin" water and salt, which have become enclosed 

 during coagulation. In texture it is soft, very spongy, 

 and very wet." 



COFFEE CONCOCTIONS ; 



AND HOW TO MAKE THEM. 

 A recent analysis of coffee affords strong grounds 

 for the conclusion th;it such a thing as pure coffee 

 exists only in the iiiiigination of "the pure to whom 

 all things are pure." Out of thirty-seven specimens, 

 three proved to be actually devoid of any coffee what- 

 ever. Even that ".«old as a mixture of coffee and 

 chicory" proced a downright sell, the chicory itself 

 be)n^ adulterated. Dates and dandelions are compar- 

 atively harmless, but there were besides, potatoes, 

 carrots, parsnips, beans, mangold-wurzel, acorns, bi-i- 

 cuit-powder, burnt sugar, and general vegetable mat- 



ter ("What's the matter?" we should like to know?) 

 As if these were not enough, there have been found 

 also in coffee S'^enetian red, burnt rags, and rope- 

 yarn, lentils, and ground lupine seeds, sawdust, 

 horses' hearts (to think that adulterators should 

 " have the heart to do this !"), and baked bullock's liver. 



We thus see that a great deal of the fine .Jamaica 

 coffee is not "real jam" ^it ail, and that the best 

 Mocha is a mere Mocha-ry. As to the victims of 

 such frauds, we might ask them, in music-hall langu- 

 age : 



"How do you like our coffee? what do you give a 

 pound ? 



How do you like baked horse's heart and lentils 

 finel^v ground ? 



How do you like Venetian red, rope, sawdust, rags, 

 and such ? 



How flid you get that poison down, and did it hurt 

 you much ?" 

 —Funny Folks, April 15th. 



AGRICULTURE IN AMERICA. 



For some years past the attention of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in the United States of America 

 has been directed towards supplementing the amount 

 of suyar produced in the country, and that almost 

 entirely from the ordinary sugar-cane (saccharum 

 fifficinarum), by encouraging the extraction of sugar 

 from sorgliinn. America consumes an enormous quant- 

 ity of sugar, the annual consumption being estimated 

 :it 40 lb. per head, or for the whole ijopulation two 

 thousand million pound-^. As the production in the 

 States hardly exceeds two hundred million pounds, 

 it is evident that nine-tenths of the sugar u.sed must 

 be im]iorted. Sorghum is a variety of maiz^ says 

 the Field to wlicli we are indebted for some inform- 

 ation on a subject which has not escaped the notice 

 of our local Department of Agriculture. In America 

 they profess to have thirty-two varieties, of which 

 the favourite is the e.irly amber. This only occupies 

 the ground ninety days and also contains the largest 

 proportion of saccharine matter, to the acre, of the 

 quicker-growing varieties. The Honduras sorghum 

 which gives the heaviest yield of cane, occupies the 

 ground longer, and the syrup obtained from it is in- 

 ferior. It is estimated that from 60 to 65 per cent 

 of juice should he given by the stripped cane, and 

 that, if the cane be cut at the proper time i.e., when 

 the setd is thoroughly matured, from 12 to 16 per cent 

 of the juice should he sugar, that is to say 100 lb. 

 of stripped cane should yield ^\ lb. of sug'ir. The 

 great merit of the sorghum, as compared with sugar- 

 cane lies in the short time that it occupies the ground, 

 only ninety days instead of the whole year. The 

 experiments made by the N.-W.-P. Department of Agri- 

 culture appenie to have failed in obtaining proper 

 gr.inulation of sugar from the syrup. Much of the 

 success in this direction depends on the cane being cut 

 exactly at a favourable period of its growth, and in 

 this the -lorghum affords a better guide than ordinary 

 .sugar-cane : the hardening of the seeds being a sure 

 test of the maturity of the cane. The seed too affords 

 a useful food for cattle, though it would be best given 

 in a crushed form. Moreover the sorghum yields its 

 own seed, wheie;is in the case of cane a large propor- 

 tniu has to be set asirle for seed canes for the following 

 year. The manufacture of sugar from .soriyA^i/ii requires 

 no expensive machinery. It is ditiicnlt to compare the 

 profits obtained under the system of agriculture in 

 America with those o'ltainable in India, but a low 

 estimate would appeai to give in America an outturn of 

 200 gallons syrup to the acre, worth 100 dollars, the 

 cost of cultivation being only 6J dollars per acre. The 

 e.'tperiment of growing .-iorghum for sugar is well worth 

 trying by agricultural experts and others desirous of 



