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THE TROHCAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April 2, 1883. 



istence. The most perfect sui-face draining rarely 

 does good where plants have shewn signs of distress, 

 and yet the taproots of tei plants seem capable of 

 fitting stiff, damp clays for the successful growth 

 of cinchonas. I have much faith in tea ou its own 

 account and as a forerunner of cinchona. Indeed oiiV 

 present system is to put in the two plants togetlier. 

 If the cinchonas refuse to grow, we have the tea, 

 which, practically, grows everywhere. I had the old 

 question put to me tliis morning as to diminished 

 flush at these high altitudes. "Well," I said, " if 

 we only get 300 lb. per acre against 700 in the low- 

 country, there is the compensation of a perfectly salu- 

 brious climate." "It is certainly one of the healthiest 

 in the world, as my experience with a large family of 

 children proves," was the response. — From the cin- 

 chona account book sent to me yesterday, I take the 

 following details of the earliest experiment with succi- 



rubra in this district :— 2^ acres of estate 



were planted with succirubra in 1864-65. In 1874, 

 that is 10 years after planting, 7,057 lb. of dry bark 

 " gross weight" were obtained from frds of the original 

 clearing which was coppiced. In 1878 the remaining 

 Jrd was coppiced, and 6,457 lb. net of dry bark obtained. 

 In 1879 the Ji'ds of original clearing coppiced in 1874, 

 was cut out, (rooted out, no doubt,) and the dry 

 bark obtained from stems, stumps, roots, branches, &c., 

 amounted to ... ... 13,048 1b. 



Add as above 7,057 -h 6,457 13,514 ,, 



Total ... 26,562 ,. 

 while the Jrd coppiced in 187S seems to have been 

 still to the fore. At Kl per lb. all round this would 

 give R26,562, or, if the ^rd had been rooted out, say 

 R30,U00 in 1879 from 2iths acres planted in 1864— 

 15 years. This would be at the rate of 9,660 lb. and 

 Rl0,900 per acre. The ground is, I believe planted 

 again, while a 16-acre field of flourishing succii-ubra 

 has been added. From that iield was obtained the 

 large amounts of shaved bark noticed in my letter of 

 yesterday. 



Tree-plantino. — At the recent American Forestry 

 Congress held at Montreal, Professor Hough i-ead a paper 

 on "Tree Planting by Railway Companies." In introduc- 

 ing his paper he said that there being in the Uiiited States 

 about 100,000 miles of railway, the advisability of 

 tree plantmg by railway companies for construction 

 and maintenance was an important question, 2,000 to 

 3,000, and even 3,500, ties (sleepers) being used per 

 mile. The average duration of ties is from five to 

 eight years, consequently from 30,000,000 to 50,000,000 

 a year will be required for 100,000 miles of railway. 

 Putting 500 ties as the product of an acre of wood- 

 land, from 60,000 to 100,000 acres will have to be 

 cut every year, and as it takes thirty years for a 

 tree to grow to the right size, the railway will re- 

 quire from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres— or 3,126 to 

 4,687 square miles of forest to keep up the supply. At 

 this rate, the Hailmay Review says, there should be 

 tweutytive acres for each mile of road, involv- 

 ing au investment of £ 100 in land per mile — a wise 

 investment, giving the railways an independent supply 

 of ties. He seated that wood fuel is being superseded 

 by coal, and wooden bridges by stone or iron. 

 In Europe, wood in railway structures is very rare, 

 and for ties, mineral substances will be much dearer 

 than wood for some time. The professor concluded 

 hie paper with some references to the necessity of 

 planting trees to hold embankments together by their 

 roots, and alder and willow to prevent erosion of streams 

 and the various kinds propei to plant for different 

 purposes and in different localities ; also the preven- 

 tion of snow-blocks by having trees along the railway 

 tracks. — Knowledge. 



Silk-worm's Eggs.— The Government of India have 

 received intimation of the despatch of silk-worms 

 eggs from Dehra Pun for (experimental rearing 

 in Madras as desired by the Madras Government. 

 But as there is no reason to believe that they were 

 exposed to the influence of warm weather, which 

 renders them liable to hatch a further supply of the 

 eggs, packed in ice, has been despatched. This supply 

 is from Kashmir, and is of the univoltine variety. 

 With them has also been included a miall quantity 

 of eggs just received from China. — Madras Times. 



The Action of Coffee. — Dr. Guimaraes, of Rio de 

 Janeiro, concludes, after many experiments upon 

 animals, that coffee is directly useful owing to its as- 

 similable principles, and is also especially useful in- 

 directly owing to the large quantity of nitrogenised food 

 which it causes to be consumed. It is probably 

 superior to stimulants such as alcohol, because, taken 

 in even large doses, it leaves a perfect equilibrium 

 between assimilation and dis-assimilation, while at the 

 same time permitting the tissues to be consumed to a 

 gi'eatei- extent. Although many points remain obscure 

 in the mechanism of this impulse given to the most 

 important organic functions, it is now known why the 

 use of coffee is beneficial to those who wish to make a 

 full use of their powers ; it acts both as a stimulant and 

 as a reparative agent, and, while permitting of a greater 

 expenditure of force, and a greater consumption of 

 nitrogenous substances, it clearly increases the capacity 

 for work. — Sanitary Record. 



Quinine Adulteration. — A most disquieting dis- 

 covery was made last Friday in Paris. A dispens- 

 er at the Children's Hospital noticed that the 

 powder on the bottom of an empty quinine-box presented 

 a different appearance from that which he had taken 

 out of the box. An examination showed that there 

 was sulphate of quinine at the orifice and centre 

 of the boxes, but that the rest was filled with sulph- 

 ate of cinchonine and sulphate of cinchonidine. 

 Investigations at other hospitals and in several drug- 

 s;ists' shops gave the same result. The wholesale 

 houses protest that they deliver the boxes just as 

 they receive them, and that the sin lies at the 

 door of the foreign manufacturers. However that 

 may be, we hope that somebody eifher in America or 

 France will be smartly punished for thus tampering with 

 men's lives, for the typhoid fever so commonin Paris is 

 in variably treated with quinine.- firfV/sA India Journal. 



A Disinfectant.— Mr. Mattiju VViiliams notes that 

 sulphate of copper may be usefully employed as a 

 disinfectant. It may be bought at sixpence or less 

 per pound (they call it blue vitriol) in the shops, and 

 is really soluble in water. " I have lately used it," 

 he says, " in the case of a trouble to which English 

 householders are too commonly liable, and one that 

 has in many cases done serious mischief. The stop- 

 page of a soil-pipe ciused the overflow of a closet, 

 and a consequent saturation of floor-boards, that iu 

 time would probably have developed danger by nour- 

 ishing and developing the germs of bacteria, bacilli, 

 etc., which abound iu the air, and are ready to 

 increase and multiply wherever their unsavoury food 

 abounds. By simply mopping the floor with a 

 solution of these green crystals, and allowing it to 

 soak well into the pores of the wood, they (the 

 pores) cease to become a habitat for such microscopic 

 abominations. The copper salt poisons the poisoners. 

 It occures to me that this would be a useful and 

 interesting subject of inquiry for young'microscopists." 

 The solution of sulphate should not be put into iron 

 or zinc vessels, as it rapidly corrodes them, and de- 

 posits a non-adherent film of copper. "It will even," 

 says Mr. Williams, "disintegrate common earthenware 

 by penetrating the glaze, and crystallising within the 

 pores of the ware." Stone-ware resists them and they 

 may be safely kept in wooden buckets. — Knowledge. 



