November i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



407 



since the war, and it is only within the past ten years 

 that it has attained any importance. There are now 

 eixty-five or seventy mills in operation or being erected, 

 and the progress and profits of the manufacture are 

 already established. When the chief mill in New 

 Orleans was e.stablished some ten years ago we paid but 

 fromS7 to .$10 a ton for the seed. Last year we were 

 obliged to pay from S16 to $19 a ton. At first we could 

 get such a supply as we wanted along the watercourses, 

 and the transportation cost but little. The demand has 

 grown to such proportions th.nt we must now go into 

 the interior, and the difl'erence in the cost of getting the 

 seed to market makes the dilference in the price to us. 



" For every bale of cotton— 400 pounds — there are 

 1,200 pounds of seed. The annual cotton crop amounts 

 to about six million bales, which would yield, after 

 reserving the necessary seed for planting nest year, 

 about two and a half million tons of cotttonseed. This 

 seed, if manufactured into oil, oilcakes and other 

 products, would be in value not less than $75,000,000, 

 and probably §100,000,000. All of this seed before the 

 war, with the exception of that used for planting, was 

 thrown away. We now buy all that we ciin get. With 

 increased facilities of transportation, permitting the 

 planters to ship their seed to the mills, the entire crop 

 will be uiilized, because the piotiis of the manufacture, 

 with the price at not more than $20 a ton delivered at 

 the mill, will induce the e.xpansion of the business until 

 the whole crop will be used. There will be always a 

 ready market. All that is now made is readily sold. 

 There are four products of the seed — the oil itself, liut 

 necessarily left on the seed in the process of ginning, the 

 cake and the residuum left after clarifying the oil. 

 The oil is used for table purposes aud for cooking ; the 

 oil cake for feeding animals and for fertilizers,; the resi- 

 duum for sodp stock. Out of one ton of seed we get 

 thirty-six gallons of oil and about seven hundred 

 pounds of cake, besides the lint and residuum. The 

 total value of the manufactured product yields a very 

 handsome profit. Our markets for the oil are Italy and 

 the Mediterranean ports : for the cake, England and 

 Germany. Of course, large quantities of both are also 

 consumed in the United States. Good judges declare 

 that where cottonseed oil i.s well made and clarified it 

 is hard to tell the difference between it and the best 

 olive oil. Both are vegetable products, and there can 

 be nothing purer or more free from injurious effects 

 upon the stomach than is cottonseed oil. I have no 

 doubt that the time will come when it will be used with 

 fully as much savor as the salad oil from Europe. It is 

 now need by thousands who cannot detect the difference 

 between it and olive oil. I look to its manufacture as 

 one of the great factors of the future prosperity of the 

 South." — Oil and Paint Review. 



Quinine.— Dr. Tuckerman says: — "Quinine may 

 be rendered tasteless ly giving it with powdered 

 slippery-elm bark. Take about 5 grains of the bark 

 and mix with about half a table-spoonful of water, 

 stirring till the mass is thoroughly mucilaginous ; 

 then mix in a dose of quinine, and give it to the 

 patient, following it with a swallow of water. The 

 bitter is barely perceptible, — J/ec&a? Brief. 



VaniIjLA. — the new crop vanilla has not yet ap- 

 peared in the market : we have therefore no quota- 

 tions to give. We do not of course make any men- 

 tion of a few small lots of which the preparation 

 was not even completed. The gathering of the pods 

 is going on slowly, the ripening being somewhat late 

 this year in the elevated regions of the island, from 

 which we now receive the greater part of our vanil- 

 la. Gradually as the gathering goes on, it becomes 

 apparent that the falling of the pods has been more 

 serious than was anticipated at the commencement. 

 We cannot however pronounce with any certainty on 

 the probable amount of our crop for 1882-83. 



Enemies OF Tea. — "Planter," Balaugoda sends us 

 a small box containing one or two 'caterpilliri, ' which 

 have bean doing much damage by eating down bis tea 

 seedlings. The ' caterpillars, ' we are sorry to see, are 

 none else than the common destructive black grub, 

 against which patience seems the only effectual remedy. 

 They will disappear as suddenly as they come, and 

 meauwhile the tea seedlings will in the majority of 

 cases send up a fresh shoot. Kerosine ought to do 

 good, but the bed might also be watered with lime 

 and water, or soot and water, and the grubs picked 

 up and killed as they come to the surface. 



Naphthaline has recently found a new and import- 

 ant use in medicine. It has been found that this 

 hydrocarbon is an excellent antiseptic, which kills 

 fungi and bacteria in a short time. For surgical 

 bandages and in contagious diseases, so far as experi- 

 ments have been made, it has answered an excellent 

 purpose, and seems well adapted to replace in many 

 cases those antiseptics now so much used, namely, 

 carbolic and salicylic acids, and iodoform. It has 

 one great advantage over carbolic acid, being absolutely 

 free from poison, and can, therefore, be used in any 

 desired quantity without causing any disturbance 

 It also surpasses all other antiseptics in cheap- 

 ness. As lOU kilos ot pure naphthaline can he bought 

 for 60 marks (about 7 cents per pound), there is 

 no doubt that it will soon find general use for med- 

 ical purposes. — Oil and Paint Review. 



Chinese Textile Manufactures. — It may not be 

 amiss to call the attention of the British cotton and silk 

 trades to the fact that the Chinese are makiug arrange- 

 ments for the manufacture of both textiles on their own 

 account. Under this head in the reports recently issued 

 by the American Consuls — one of whom. Consul Stevens, 

 states that a cotton factory of the most perfect con- 

 struction ifl shortly to be erected in Shanghai. Consul 

 Bandinel writes from New Chiang to the effect 

 that the local officials contemplate establishing a com- 

 pany in the very heart of the silk district, for the pur- 

 pose of employing foreign machinery in the treat- 

 ment of the raw article and in the prrjduction 

 of silk piece goods. In view of this undertaking, the 

 cottagers of the adjoining districts have been ordered 

 to acquaint themselves with the most approved niethnda 

 for rearing the worms, killing the cocoons, and reeling 

 off the silk. It need scarcely be observed that if the 

 Chinese seriously set to work to provide themselves 

 with their own cotton and silk piece goods au unniis- 

 takeable blow will have been delivered at our Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire commercial centres. — London Tin,es. 



Casuakina Cultivation at Madras. — A Corres;io- 

 ndent, writingfrom Madras, says: — " A great part of 

 the road (between Ennore and Madras) is bordered by 

 casuariua plantations, looking as neat and well kept as 

 many coffee estates. The trees are planted in rows aud 

 carefully watered when necessary. Weeding is also 

 attended to, so that the young plantations look very 

 well. And all this upon poor sandy soil which used 

 to be next door to waste land. It is on the coast, 

 and I believe that the sea-breezes are said to have 

 something to do with the success of casu.arina cultiv- 

 ation here. Most of the plantations are owned by 

 Europeans, but the natives have begun to open their 

 eyes aud see what benefits are to be derived from 

 such an enterprize, so that I suppose there will be 

 great demand for the many thousands of young plants 

 now in nurseries. Ennore is a lovely spot, with a 

 salt water lake at its back and the sea on the other 

 side. Fine bathing and the lake is large enough for a 

 good sail." Casuariua cultivation ought to do well on 

 many parts of the east coast of Ceylon, but then 

 there is no market there, and on the west coast tht^ 

 mor,' valuable coconut palm is ubiquitous, while firt- 

 woiid is obtained along the line of railway to Kandy, 

 from the wil [cassia tlorkla) andother indigenous rees. 



