May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



933 



TuK Tank Plants at the Government gardeu a 

 Kaugoon sufl'er from a strange enemy. The lakes in 

 the gardens :i.re infested with tortoises, or fresh-water 

 turtle, which have gradually destroyed all specimens 

 of the Victoria ngia. The last specimen was preserved 

 for a long time by placing bamboo network all round 

 it, but at last, when the lakes filled during the rains, 

 this could no longer be done and it too was de- 

 stroytd, — Enghshnian, 14th March. 



Tapioca fkom Haputale. — We have been favou- 

 red with samjiles of tapioca and of tapioca flour 

 grown and prL:pared in the country. The tapioca 

 may not look (piite so white as that imported usually 

 from England, Ijut w'e fail to perceive any difl'erence 

 between the two when cooked, and should certainly 

 use island-grown produce on principle if it were put 

 into the market. The fJour seems to resemble arrow- 

 root, but it has more body and flavour and seems more 

 nutritious. If cheaper than corn-flour, it might well 

 take its place for household use. Mr. Westland, 

 who sends us the samples does not seem to consider 

 the preparation of it very troublesome. He writes : 

 " I think it a pity more do not go In for cultiv- 

 ating this useful article of food, not so much for 

 export as for private use. The root, when divested 

 of the woody top, carefully cleaned, cut up into 

 pieces and boiled, is a grancl substitute for potatoes. 

 The refuse of the root, i.e., when all the flour or 

 starch has been extracted, is readily eaten by cattle, 

 and I imagine has about as much nourishment as poonac. " 



.Jamaica Laboueees leaving for the Panama Canal is 

 thebiirdc-u of two paragraphs is OaU's News Letter: — 



"Still they go" is the cry which we have tore- 

 iterate in reepect to the labourers from amongst us 

 who are leaving by the hundred for the lethmiis 

 of Panama. Week after week fresh bands are emi- 

 grating Even from the other West Indian Islands, 

 Agents have been sent to collect them, so that in 

 course of time if this exodus continues we shall be 

 losing a few thousands of our able-bodied labourers. 

 Several estates are already complaining of scanly 

 labour on that account, but the remedy to retain 

 them, which is increased wages, is not forthcoming. 

 32 labourers from St. Lucia and 38 from Barbados 

 are among the paesengers en roji^e to the Ishmus, en- 

 gaged fur one year, at the end of which term, they 

 are entitled to return to their respective colonies 

 at til" expense of the company. The wages oftered 

 are ten cents per hour for a working day of ten 

 hours. [In other words SI or 4s 2d per diem ! No 

 wonder if the negroes of the West Indies are at- 

 tracted.— Ed.] 



Manure Heaps.— The following wrinkle may be of 

 use to planters who have jungles adjoining their 

 cofiVe. A piece of jungle is cut down and the 

 leaves are allowed to decay ; in a few months the 

 stamps of tiie trees grow vigorously again. The 

 jungle is cut down again, and after it has decayed 

 somewhat, cooliei are allowed to help themselves to 

 the twigs for firewood, and then after the whole 

 surface had been strewn over with lime, put to 

 collect the leaves and top-soil into heaps. These 

 hea|is after a time are mixed with lime and fish and 

 applied to the coH'ee, and the effect it is said lasts 

 for 3 year.s. A piece of jungle will yield manure 

 periodically. A Government irrigation stream runs 

 along the bottom of Mr. HoUoway's Estate, and is 

 lined with large trees. He has the upkeep of as much 

 of it .as runs tliroiigh his property. He makes this 

 yield him manure. During dry weather like the 

 present it is cleaned up, and along its whole length I 

 ob^irv. d hiapi, ninde of the weeds growing in it and 

 the rich mud and decayed leaves that had settled at 

 its bottom. These are made the basis of compost 

 heaps, — Cor, " C'eyolu Examiner." 



Cinchona Cultivation in Coorg.— Fully twenty 

 years have elapsed since the Government initiated on 

 a small scale the cultivation of cinchona in Coorg; 

 now that its cultivation may be fairly regarded as 

 beyond its experimental stage, and found to be a 

 profitable undertaking, we find several private 

 parties coming timidly forward to renew the experi- 

 ment. Land for the purpose is being sold at the 

 surprisingly low upset price of two rupees per acre, 

 and seeds and plants are being distributed either 

 gratis or sold at a nominal price, so that ere long 

 we hope to see the Government entirely relieved of 

 its illegitimate work of cinchona planting and the 

 enterprize entirely in the hands of private capitalists. 

 Bangalore Spectator. 



Coconuts on the Ceylon Seaside.— Your corre- 

 spondent, who writes on the subject of coconut pro- 

 perty along the seaside line, seems a bit of a wag from 

 his pretending not to understand that it is the 

 huniialow at Dehiwala, and not the coconut trees, 

 that is to let. As regards the poor specimens of 

 coconut trees along the sea-side, the poverty of 

 the soil is the cause. What can we expect from 

 mere sea-sand, on which even a blade of grass will 

 not grow ? Manure these trees with cahook earth 

 and the result will be marvellous. — Cor. [Are our cor- 

 respondents aware that so late as 1740 nine-tenths of 

 the laud between Colombo and Kalutara, now we sup- 

 pose one continuous grove of ooconul and other fruit 

 trees, was described as waste land, and Governor Van 

 Imhoff in that year surveyed and distributed the 

 land in limited portioBs to persons who would plant 

 coconuts. It is therefore possible that some of the 

 trees along the seaside are 140 years old? — Ed.] 



Sago and Tapioca. — Somebody, not content with our 

 morning contemporary's having made such a fool of himself 

 about Lady Florence Dixie, has evidently been hoaxing him 

 about the preparation of sago and tapioca, for in a recent 

 issue he says in reply to the enquiry of a correspondent about 

 these products: — "The enquiry of a correspondent relative 

 to these two products is easily answered. Cassava flour is 

 the produce of the root of the manioc, which is scraped and 

 roasted the same as is done with arrowroot, but tapioca is the 

 produce of the sago palm, made from the flom-, much as is 

 sago, but by a somewhat different process." Arrowroot fiour 

 is made by scraping or pounding the root and extracting the 

 starch by washing, but the flour is not roasted. Cassava flour 

 is made by cutting the roots of the cassava or manioc into 

 slices about as thick as a five-cent coin, drying them in the 

 sun till they become brittle, pounding them in a mortar, and 

 then sifting the powder to separate the woody from the 

 farinacious particles. Cassava flour is not, so far as we know, 

 a commercial product, but that is the way it is made in this 

 country for domestic use. Tapioca is also obtained from the 

 cassava root and not, as the Times in his wisdom supposes , 

 from the sago palm, which is the tree from which sago is 

 obtained. The starch from which both sago and tapioca are 

 made is obtained in the same way as arrowroot flour — that 

 is, by separating the starch from the woody filire by washing 

 in water — and the raw starch is in both cases in fine powder 

 in the raw state and is made to granulate by heating it on 

 iron plates over a fire. The name of arrowroot is derived 

 from the use of the plant by the savages of .South America 

 as a real or imaginary medicine for wounds made by their 

 poisoned arrows. There are two kinds of cassava, one 

 poisonous and the other not, but the leaves of even the 

 harmless kind are sufficiently poisonous to poison cattle if 

 they arc cut and given to the animals, as we know from ex- 

 periince. Yet, for some reason which we cannot explain,' 

 cattle seem to suffer no harm from browsing on the leaves 

 of the gi-owiug plant, as we have often known them do it 

 with impunity. The poisocoas cassava is not a safe article 

 of diet, but it is not poisonous where sufficiently cooked, 

 because the poison in it is volatile, and can be quite expelled 

 by heat. Tapioca can be made from either variety of the 

 plant, but the poisonous kind is said to yield more starch 

 th.an the other. Cassava will grow in very poor soil, and the 

 quantity of tapioca that this country could produce is practic- 

 ally unlimited, but the demand for it is not very great. — 

 Ceylon "Catholic Wesseugcr." 



