578 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1883. 



in India only on the Juiiipemis es^celsa^ gradually over- 

 spreading the plant on which it has once taken root, often 

 killing the branch or the entire tree. Precise information 

 under this head is wautiug in India, and more careful 

 and extended observations are urgently called for. 



A Peoductive Potato. — On October 28 I hfted a " big 

 Potato" of a new sort, which I have named "The Great 

 Archangel." The parent tuber weighed 1 lb. 1.3 oz., and 

 measured in length 9J inches. It was planted entire, and 

 tbi'ew up fourteen stems of the average height of 4 feet 

 6 inches, which occupied a .spice 11 feet 6 in;hes in 

 circumference, and yielded tweuty-eight tubers of the gross 

 ■weight of 20 lb. Eight of the tubers weighed 1 lb. and 

 upwards, the heaviest being lib. I'i oz. I should like to 

 know if there is any record of a single tuber having yielded 

 a heavier crop? — Jno. F. Sharpin, Kipox. — Gardeners^ 

 Chronicle. 



The ANiLOOT found to e.fist between Plants and 

 Animals is remarkable, and to a great extent corroborative 

 of the modern doctrine that the entire universe is com- 

 posed of the same few simple elements, and ruled by the 

 same correlative laws. It appears to be the case, both 

 among our.selves and the lower creatures around us, that 

 those which have been raised in scant pastures, and inured 

 to hardships, succeed much better on being moved to better 

 places than those grown in the midst of abundance of rich 

 food, when, afterward, they encounter restricted supply 

 of what is poorer. It is argued that plants manifest a 

 similar behaviour, that seed taken from poor ground to 

 rich succeeds better than if it had been raised on good 

 soil. It is an opinion very generally held, and one that 

 seems to have reason in it. Many potato growers advo- 

 cate the policy of raising sets for seed by themselves, in 

 unmanured ground, and with late planting; and for nursery 

 work it is admitted that soil of medium or poor quality 

 is better for raising pljints to send away than a rich soil 

 which would bring them on more rapidly. Short-jointed 

 cane also, the produce of poor land, makes better cuttings 

 than when it is long-jointed. The rule is good and worth 

 watching by all, and its principles can generally be applied 

 advantageously. — Australasian. 



A Vineyard Company is at the present time projected 

 to commence operations in the Darling Downs district. 

 The proposed capital is £5,000, in 5,000 £1 sh.ares; 4,500 

 of which will be offered to the public and 500 held in 

 reserve to be afterwards dealt with as the directors may 

 see fit. The object of the company is to develop the 

 wine-growing resources of the district by the purchase of 

 100 acres of land, thirty of which it is intended to plant 

 at once with 21,0JO vines, and aftefwards to increase the 

 area annually. It is proposed to make and mature for 

 export or home consumption a superior class of wine from 

 the company's own grapes, and, if necessary, by purchase 

 from the smaller vignerons in the district; and it can 

 hardly be questioned that the industry, if managed efficiently, 

 would, in that district especially, thrive and prove a highly 

 remunerative one. It is thought that thi- protective duty 

 of 6s. per gallon on imported wines will favour a large 

 and growing consumption of Queensland wines in the 

 colony, and the market for them and for Australian wines 

 is extending rapidly all over the world. There is no branch 

 of agriculture of more promise in the western country, 

 where the lands are high and the winters cold and brac- 

 in;.;, than viticulture. The market is practically without 

 limit, and at the present time especially, when the in- 

 dustry in old vine countries has received such an alarming 

 check from the devastations caused by the phylloxera, 

 the matter for wonder is that our enterprising men h.ave 

 not seen their way to eniOark capital in the business 

 before now. An estimate of the probable cost of working 

 such a piece of land, with the takings likely to accrue 

 for the period of six years from the commencement, has 

 been calculated dy the promoters as follows; — £7,455 out- 

 lay for that period; sale of produce, £12,597; value of 

 property, £3,000; total to cre.lit, £lfi,197, against £7,455 

 expenses — leaving a net profit of £8,742, or £1,457 as the 

 annual profits on the proposed expenditure of £5,000, more 

 than 25 per cent income. Without placing undue reliance 

 upon these figures, and making very Large marginal 

 allowances, there is every reason left to encourage the 

 enterprise. — A ustralasian. 



South American Missionary Society: New Products.— 

 The following extract from Dr. Duke's letter, relating to 

 his voyage on the Eiver Pauyny (a tributary of the Purus) 

 IS sigmflcant as to the requirements of the all-important 

 Amazon Mission :— On this affluent seringa (indiarubber) 

 is very plentiful, and there also exists the vegetable-ivory 

 palm. Of this latter I brought with me several nuts, 

 which I picked up in the forest ; each nut is about the 

 size of a pigeon's egg, and consists when ripe of a soUd 

 rnass of what resembles ivory, but of a slightish blueish 

 tint. I believe that this fetches a high price as an article 

 of commerce in Para. On the Pauyny I observed what 

 I have not seen on the Purus, namely, small streams in 

 the forest flowing over stony beds, in which are to be 

 seen pebble-stones, such as might be found in any Eng- 

 lish brook. On the lower Purus the beds of all streams 

 consist of mud or sand, without any stones. This seems 

 to indicate that the Pauyny approximates to the higher 

 lands rising towards the Andes. I have never yet been 

 able to inake a voyage to the higher Purus, visiting the 

 tribes existing there. Of them I have always received 

 glowing accounts, but knowing well the w.ant of veracity 

 of the Natives generally, have been anxious not to write 

 any account until I have seen for myself. One hears 

 often of light-haired, blue-eyed, faur-skinned Indians, with 

 long beards, &c., but all this one takes ' with a pinch of 

 salt.' — South American Journal. 



The Oareohtdeates contained in Oeylon moss (Svhcero- 

 coccus lichenoides) form the subject of a communication by 

 Mr. H. G. Greenish to the Archiv der Pharmacie (xvii., 241). 

 Instead of confining his attention to one constituent, the 

 author has endeavoured to ascertain what carbohydrates 

 enter into the composition of the drug, to what extent 

 they resemble or are identical with similar substances 

 contained in phanerogams, and to what extent they are 

 present. He finds that the gelatinizing constituent (named 

 by Payen *• gelose ") is a carbohydrate convertible by boiling 

 with dilute acid into arabiuose and probably identical with 

 a similar constituent in the agar-agar of commerce; the 

 latter differs from pararabin (its identity with which was 

 asserted by Eeichardt) in its insolubility in cold dilute 

 hydrochloric acid. In addition to the gelatinizing constituent 

 (36'7 per cent) the drug appears to contain mucilage (2'7 

 per cent), starch, metarabin (1'32 per cent), wood-gum 

 (3'17 per cent), cellulose (identical with that of phane- 

 rogams, 10'17 per cent); and further a carabohydrate, 

 provisionally termed paramylan by the author, dissolved 

 by dilute acid by differing from Eeichardt's par.arabin 

 (which is extracted from phanerogamous plants in a similar 

 manner) in being directly convertible into sugar and then 

 yielding not arabinose but a fermentable sugar, probably 

 grape-sugar. This substance is present to the amount of 

 about 6'5 per cent, and appears, as the author remarks, to 

 be deserving of closer investigation. — FharmaceuticalJournal. 



Pot.atoes. — We have to thank a Charters Towers gardener 

 for an account of a little experience he has gathered and 

 forw.arded to us for publication, re potato growing. He 

 writes: — I tried an experiment with potatoes this autumn, 

 as seed wa.s scarce. I took cuttings of potato tops and 

 planted them in the wet weather, and they took root 

 and bore a better crop than the original root. Some of 

 the seed potatoes were growing strong before I set them, 

 so I slipped off the superfluous shoots, and planted them 

 with very good results; and any one with a small supply 

 of good seed may largely increase it by this simple method." 

 This is a plan often adopted by experienced potato growers, 

 especially with new varieties. At various times special 

 prizes have been offered in America for the greatest 

 weight of potatoes obtained from one pound of seed, and 

 prizes have been awarded to growers who have succeeded 

 in producing something like 2,000 lb. of potatoes as one 

 crop from a single pound of seed. The modus operandi 

 has been as follows: — First, each potato was carefully cut, 

 with one eye to each set, and the body of the tuber 

 equally shared among the sets. The sets were than planted, 

 and treated much as dahlias are for propagation; as the 

 eyes started to grow every superfluous shoot was slipped 

 off as near the base as possible and planted carefully, and 

 this was followed up persistently until every individual plant 

 possible was made from the potatoes. Possibly the experiment 

 or process is new, or nearly so, to QueensLand, but it has 

 been often tried elsewhere with good results. — Queenslanier. 



