962 



THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[jTTNE^.l, 1883. 



of the Valley. Most of the earUer white Lilacs, that 

 fill the Parisian, and to a large extent fui-nish the 

 English marltets early in the season, are grown in the dark. 

 English cultivators are now fast imitating the French 

 example, and, as a matter of experience, we [can aflirm 

 that Lilac blooms so grown are even more pure and delicate 

 and of about the same sweetness as those grown in the light. 

 It is said that the French blanch the Lilac so completely 

 in forcing it into bloom that they care ; Uttle whether the 

 variety is white or not to start with. "We have not found 

 it so. The coloured Lilac grows pale when grown in the 

 dark but has not the absolute purity of the white vareties. 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



GREAT OEANGE8. 

 One of my orange trees grows fruit of au extraordinary 

 size. There is nothing peculiar that I know of in soil, 

 drainage, or exposure, to have caused the unusual vigour 

 shown by this tree. It was planted near my house 12 

 years ago, at the same time with other fruit seeds of 

 various kinds, the results of which are around it in a very 

 slow-growing SapodiUa, a rather small Shaddock tree, se- 

 veral Governor plums (Flacoitrtia), a Rose-apple (Jamlma), 

 a flourishing Cinnamon tree on the opposite side of the 

 roailway, a few star-apples {Chri/sophi/llttm Vainito) and a 

 number of Lemon trees— large bearers of coarse, thick- 

 skinned fruit. A very shallow gutter was certainly dug 

 two feet from the trunk, Init this does not seem to have 

 favourably affected other fruit trees of same age equally 

 near to the slight drain. The tree has sent up a tall, 

 open-branched, good-sized straight stem (whose height and 

 gii-th I shall state in next issue) and evidently comes from 

 a good stock. This, my boys tell me, is the third year 

 of fair cropping, but planted in 1871— it yielded a few fruit 

 in the Xmas season of 1879-80 in its ninth year. In the 

 Xmas of 1880-81 it gave a heavy crop— all big fruit, 

 weighing down the branches till they were like to 

 break, and in that of 1881-82 a similar" one of Uke big 

 fruit. The present year's crop, 1882-83, fit for gathering 

 dm-ing the last five weeks and finished with the half-dozen 

 plucked on Sunday, 18th inst., has been only a small one, 

 most of the fruit again very big, more res'embling shad- 

 docks than oranges, but of the few found on the tree on 

 Sunday only one was of the great size of the bulk of the 

 first two crops and the most of last month's. The others 

 have been appropriateA,, I am sorry to say, without leave 

 or asking, and in spite of protest and warning. I had 

 waited for an opportunity to send a sample of these large 

 fruit to a friend, and now that it had arrived on pro- 

 ceeiling to pluck the cherished and as I thought saved fruit, 

 I found the tree almost bared of them. The half-dozen 

 weighed 51b. 13 oz,, an average of 151 oz. per orange. . The 

 biggest weighed 20 oz. and was 13 mches round, and two 

 others together weighed just 2 lb. For these weights and 

 measurement I am indebted to my friend who kindly under- 

 took to ascertain the facts for nie and who will .save the 

 seed of the best fruit for planting, in the hope of obtain- 

 ing by selection, repeated if possil>le, a large-f i-uiteil variety 

 of orange. I should add, the oranges of this tree have 

 a thick skin little inclined to tirrn yellow, but the flesh, 

 as my boys assure me. is as sweet as that of other oranges 

 here, and — as is well known to all who have tasted them — 

 West Indian oranges are reniarkably sweet and juicy. It 

 is annoying (and worse) that greed and curiosity could 

 not keep thievish hands from this tree, as I am assured 

 that two of the missing oranges were some ounces bigger 

 (heavier) than the big one taken to St. Anns on Sunday- 

 at least 2 oz., and more likely 3 or 4 oz. If the latter, 'the 

 biggest oranges of the season's crop weighed each a pound 

 and a half! Several others were of a like size and no 

 doubt weight, to that of 20 oz. Thus, a httle miserable 

 boyish pilfering has defeated the hope (the present hope 

 at least) of obtaining a race of monster oranges. — C, Bel- 

 mont, February 21, ISSS.—Trinulad Chronich: 



CINCHONA MANURING. 

 SiB, — It is generally believed that the only manure for 

 cinchona is cattle manure, and that it produces a sliglitly 

 more rapid growth but does not affect the richness of the 

 bark. Now, I determined to make some experiments of 

 my own last .year, in the following manner : — My estate 

 is a Uttle over 4,000 feet, a part of which faces the north, 



the remainder the east. I have two clearings of cinchona, 

 a large one of succirubra and a smaller one of officinalis; 

 the former about two, and the latter nearly three years 

 old. In May of last year, I ajipUed manure to an acre 

 of each field, thus: 



I divided each acre in two portions, as nearly as possible 

 in half, and so had four divisions, two of succu-ubra, and 

 two of officinalis. In one field of ofBcinalis and one field 

 of succu-ubra I put cattle manure about half a basket, 

 while to the other two portions I appUed castor cake and 

 bone dust in the proportion of two-thirds and one-thu'd. 

 The following was the result:— The officmalis,with cattle 

 manure, m August made a great start, and grew rapidly 

 m bulk till January, when it stopped, and began to shew 

 red-leaf. Since then canker has broken out and is now 

 rapidly demolishing the field, which threatens to become 

 extmct shortly. The officinalis, unmanured, is only .slightly 

 affected, and the mortahty has not been nearly as high 

 as on the experimented patch alluded to. On the other 

 patch of officinalis, wit)i castor and bone dust, the trees 

 have only progressed in the same manner as the un- 

 manured officinalis, and the death rate is about the same 

 as the siurrounding field. The succu-ubra mth cattle manure 

 began to show increased signs of vitahty in September and 

 went on to December, wlien it hung back again, and is now 

 about on a par with that around it, as though there had 

 been a spurt and then a reaction. The castor and bone 

 dust on the other patch of succhubra has had a most 

 wonderful effect. The trees have not only increased rapidly 

 in built and are .still doing so, but they are now one 

 healthy sheet of dark green than which none better could 

 be desired. 



At the same time the fataUties from canker have ceased 

 altogether, and the patch in this, as in all respects, shows 

 a marked difference from the succirubra adjoining it. I 

 am still watching the fields as the experiment is still going 

 on, and I intend to manure again shortly. It would appear 

 as yet that cattle manure to officiuaUs is harmful instead 

 of beneficial, while artificial manure produces no effect at 

 aU, On succirubra, cattle manure seems to have a temporary 

 effect, but the reaction, when the immediate effect of the 

 manure has ceased, brings it back to the state it was in 

 before. To succirubra the castor and bone dust seem most 

 beneficial, and if, after the end of the twelve months, the 

 progress in the successful patch continues, I shall go in 

 for a wide application of it, as I reckon it wiU make the 

 yield almost a quarter as much again as it would other- 

 wise have been. What the effect of the manure on the 

 barks has been I do not yet know, but if it happens 

 that succirubra bark is em-iched as well as increased by 

 the apphcation of castor and bone dust, theu I say an 

 important discovery has been made, as, though renewing 

 produces the first result, the combination of both has not 

 yet been attained. 



I forgot to say that the soil of the patches on which 

 I experimented was a rather hea-v^, dark chocolate one, 

 as it is on the whole of my clearings, -with a good deal 

 of rock scattered about. — Cadenus in " Ceylon Times. " 



RUBBER IN BRAZIL. 

 In the early morning, men and women come with baskets 

 of clay cups on their backs, and little hatchets to gash 

 the trees. Where the white milk drips down from the 

 gash they stick their cups on the trunk with daubs of 

 clay, moulded so as to catcli the whole flow. If the tree 

 is a large one, four or five gashes may be cut in a circle 

 around the trunk. On tlie uext day other gashes are mailo 

 a little below these, and so on until the rows reach the 

 ground. By eleven o'clock the flow of milli has ceased and 

 the serbiffueiros come to collect the contents of the cujjs 

 in calabash jugs. A gill or so is the utmost yield from each 

 tree, and a single gatherer may attend to a humlred and 

 twenty trees or more, wading always through these dark 

 marshes, and paying dearly for his profit in fever and weak- 

 ness. Our maiiuhira hostess has brought in her day's 

 gathering — a calabash full of the white liquid, in appearance 

 precisely like milk. If left in this condition it coagulates 

 after a while, and forms an inferior whitish gum. To make 

 the black rubber of commerce, the milk must go through 

 a peculiar process of manufacture, for which our guide has 

 been jn-eparing. Over a smouldering fire, fed with hard 

 nuts of the tiicuma palm he places a kind of clay chimney , 



