December i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



497 



Can you give me any inforraatiou about padcly- 

 huskinir machines ?— Yours faithfully, PLANTER. 



[Paddy. thrc'Bhiug manhines were not a success in the 

 Matara district here. — Ed.] 



THE TOGA MEDICINE. 



Deae iSiR, — In your Tropical Agriculturist for May 

 the " Toga " plant ia meutioned, which does not exist, 

 whilst the "Toga" medicine is prepared from two 

 Fijian plants neither of which rejoices in the name 

 of "Toga." 



Some time ago I met somewhere an extract from 

 the Lancet which mentions both plants by their 

 botanical natuea and correctly, buti u which at the 

 same time the second plant seemsi o ha onsidspsd xs 

 a worthless addition. In Dr. Seemann's work, the 

 one plant is described as Rhapbidophora Vitiensis and 

 the second as Premna Tahitensis (Verbenaceae.) But 

 whilst the Arcidaoeous plant gets the credit of being 

 the chief agent, the Verbenaceous plant, the bark of 

 which contains, as most plants of th.it family do, a 

 decided aromatical principle, which I am quite sure, 

 must not be ignored in the composition of the drug, is 

 denied any share of efficacy. 



Of the value of the drug against some forms of 

 neuralgia I haye had practical proof in my own family. 

 It was prepared green, fresh from both the plunts, 

 every day, and obtained from the bruised stilk of the 

 first and the scraped bark (mezophlebium) of the 

 second by maceration iu cold water. It was then 

 pressed in a cloth strainer, and a tumbler full taken 

 three times a day before meals. 



The natives often keep it in a dry state in their 

 houses for ready use in balls about the size of a tiit. 

 They also employ it externally by moistening and 

 chafing the afl'ected parts. The medicine is called Toga, 

 becnuse it was first used, and the knowledge of it 

 imported into this country by natives of Toga Tabu 

 (Friendly Islands.)— Very faithfully, 



JACOB P. STORCK. 



CROTON OIL PLANT CULTIVATION. 

 November 3rd. 

 Dear Sir,— In reply to your correspoud^t "S." of 

 Punduloya, in Observer issue of 31st October, wishing 

 me to give a few hints as to elevation, soil, etc., 

 necessary for the success of croton oilplant cultivation,' 

 I am glad to be able to inform hiui that with rue 

 it grows iu very poor soil and at an elevation from 

 1,7U0 to 3,000ft. At the request of a H«putale planter, 

 who applied to me some 'J. years liack whether I 

 thought the seed would grow on abandoned coffee 

 land and at stake, I replied yes, supplied him with 

 seed and have lately seen his advertiseniet\t to sell seed : 

 so he must have been successful and is getting a 

 return the second year. If for a wind belt, plant 8ft. 

 apart, top one plant at 2ft. and let it grow as a 

 dense shrub ; the second trim and let it grow to a tree 

 and 90 on. You will then get a strong wind belt! 

 If in coffee, cocoa, or cardamom for sli.ide, plant 20 to 

 30ft apart, trim for trees. Seed can be planted in 

 a nursery and plants planted out same as Arabian 



coffee (plants or stump,) or seed planted at stake. 



Yours truly, J. HOLLOVVAY. 



AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS IN THE WEST 

 AND EAST. 



Nov. 5th, 1882. 

 Dear Sir, — To some there is a morbid satiafactinn 

 in learning that they have fellowship in suffering. To 

 the majority of your readers I will not impute !his 

 idiosyncrasy; but to shew that we planters are not more 

 in need of pity than our brethren in the old coun- 

 try, I quote from the letter of a large laud agent 



just to hand: -"It is impossible to describe the mis- 

 erable state agricultural interests have been in for the 

 last four or five years. The glebes have become iu this 

 district almost uncultivated ; the sm.U squires have to 

 leave their homes and goabroad, and many laree 

 estates, where the owner has no money to lav out m 



iiiiprovenients, are unlet : for instance ^ 



, &c., and on one estate in , which' I knoJ 



there are 12,000 acres of land uncultivated " My corr 

 spondent also gives me some particulars of the est^fpt 

 under his own management, and even on these— estnt 

 upon which much money is laid out by the owne II 

 there is land unlet. In all of the above case.s the \l„A 

 18 above the average, situated in the best parts of tl,o 

 midland countries, and land which in my huntin.. d^v^ r 

 regarded as a veritable Goshen. " ■' 



By the same mail conies a letter from an 

 Ex-planter, who has found a restmtr-place fZ 

 the present in Ontario Canada. From tho otu 

 to the 19th of May he , was "stuck fast in an ie« 

 floe, entirely disabled, with pr.peller smashed and drift 

 ing more or less with thej ice on the coast of St" 

 Johns, Newfoundland."— Imean, of course that H 

 ship in which he was a passenger was in this condition*^ 

 Heisays:-"IhopB m time to become a fairly skilleri 

 agircultural labourer ; for that is about what the orr! 

 nary armer is here. * * I guess vou would Wh 

 If you ,saw sometime a rcfhoeing praties, or mow 

 lug, or wrastling with a refrctory old ' mutton ' 

 Manitoona by-an.bye and mentions " Mainto .a mud 

 111 the spring 'bud dog' mosquitos in summer (3 

 of which are said to be able to pull a strono- „,i„ 

 out of bed) and 30= below zero in winter w.th an 

 occassional ' blizzard ' (t : t : meaning unkuowni 

 will stir up a liver blighted by the v^tthJlZj^^ 

 of oriental luxury (save the mark iu these days i ) and 

 make a new man of you in no time." ' 



To my mind no man who has heal'th and stien^fh 

 and few a hundreds left would do badly to eo tn ti.t 

 United States (see letter re Idaho in the FMI 

 of Sept. 30th) ou Canada; but to many who lave 

 lived here for long and become too much ■iZ 

 customed to Indian ways I could not reoom 

 mend roughing it anywhere. Hard work on a 

 coffee estate is very different work from hard work 

 in these countries, where one has to dispense entirely 

 with the assistance of domestics of all kinds No 

 friendly coolies, no " boy ;" no ;-" ruffin " would 

 not suit many of my acquaintance, who fane,/ that 

 they have experienced hard work here. All farm work 

 IS very tiring lo a novice, and stdlmore uu.suitable to 

 a man whose constitution 's debilitated by a lensthenerl 

 residence in a tropical country.— I rem-iin „ 

 very faithfully. A FARMEU OF EXPErTenJe ' 



P. S.- I think it may be worth mentioning that m,, 

 letter left Matale on the 22ud August, an-ite^l It 

 Ontario (via a London suburb, where ,t was re-directerH 

 September 2/tli; answer Nov. 5th— 75 days t Uistanee 

 perhaps you will be kind enough to calculate I en 

 close the envelope. [About 18,000 miles.— Ed \ 



ANALOGY BETWEEN CWFEE^leapTdiseASE 

 AND POTATO FUNGUS. 



November 6th 1882 

 Dkar Sir,— Having been from home for so'm^ 

 tune I have been unable to notice "\V 's strictiire 

 on my letter in which I sngge.«te,l a possible simil! 

 arity in the direfu operations of Peronospera in/estans 

 and that of //emde.a vasiatrix, I „m supported in 

 this belief by no le.ss an authority tlian Mr. Stephen 

 Wilson, with whom 1 had the privil.go, .ome three 

 months since, ot having ..n iuUTvieu, in the course 

 ot which I learned , hat his ohserv.uons and experi 

 ments with P. m/eslans, winch have extended ov'.- 

 some thirty years, had resulted in a very decided 



