582 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1883. 



straight combs, and add to their beauty, facilitate their 

 division, and increase their market value. 



13. Improving the race of bees by constant selection 

 and experiments, breeding in the traits of character de- 

 sired or breeding out the undesirable ones. 



14. Popularising the consumption of honey, and creat- 

 ing a demand for it among the masses. 



16. A foreign outlet for honey, thereby creating a valu- 

 able market for all our surplus crops. 



16. Many improvements in marketing jars, cans, kegs, 

 sections, crates, &c., thereby adding to the value of the 

 bee interests. 



17. Shows for bees and honey, presenting an oppor- 

 tunity for good natured rivalry, and raising the standard 

 of the " ideal." 



18. Planting for honey bloom, to give a continuous 

 yield of nectar for our bees to gather, from early in the 

 spring tiU late in the fall. 



19. Making honey a staple article — giving market quot- 

 ations, estimating the crops and regulating the prices for 

 it all over the country. 



20. The development of practical plans for wintering 

 our bees. — Queenslander. 



LENTILS. 



[In copying the following from the Adelaide Observer, 

 we would ask if lentils (the source of revalenta Arahica) 

 have ever been tried in Ceylon ? They ought to do well, 

 especially in Jaffna.] 



The botanic name of the lentil is Ervum lens, the first 

 being derived from Erw. Celtic for tilled land, to which 

 lentils are a pest, and the latter being also the diminutive 

 of the Celtic "lentil." The seeds are circular and flat- 

 tened in the shape of a lens ; indeed the name lens, as 

 applied to the glasses used in microscopes, telescopes, &c., 

 is derived from their resembling the lens or lentils. The 

 lentil has been cultivated as a staple of food for an in- 

 definite time — as far back as the days when Esau sold 

 his birthright for a mess of pottage, of which lentils 

 formed a constituent part. (See Genesis xxv.) In Syria 

 and the Eastern countries lentils are still very extensively 

 cultivated. In Egypt they are parched in a pan and sold 

 in the shops, beiug considered by the natives as the best 

 food to be taken on long journeys. With a girdle around 

 the waist and a handful of parched " peas," it has been 

 asserted that they will travel extraordinary distances in a 

 very short time. Lentils are also cultivated to a limited 

 extent in Central and Southern Europe, but the climate 

 is there scarcely warm enough, and of the immense 

 quantity used on the Continent and in England the major 

 portion is imported from Egypt. There are several var- 

 ieties of lentils cultivated on the Continent, but the two 

 chief sorts are the French and the Egyptian, the first 

 being of a bluish-grey colour, large and very flat ; and the 

 other is smaller, with a dark skiu, and orange-red inside. 

 The last is the best-flavoured, and the favourite kind for 

 nse in soups and haricots ; the fruit is very much larger, 

 and the plant is also better for the straw, which is very 

 useful for feeding young stock. There is a yellowish sort 

 also cultivated. Lentils on the Continent sell at double 

 the price of peas. 



By analysis 100 parts of lentils give — water, 14'0 ; cas- 

 eine, 26 0; starch, 350; sugar, 20; gum, 7-0; fat, 2'0; 

 woody fibre, 12"5 ; mineral matter, 1"6. Lentils, besides 

 serving as a highly nutritious article of food, possess the 

 reputation of being a certain cure for indigestion, bilious 

 disorders, &c. They act as a mild deobstruent on all the 

 digestive organs, and produce an increased flow of gastric 

 juice, bile, and other secretions. To secure that result 

 it is necessary to get the best seeds, and entirely cleanse 

 them from all other seeds as well as any that are dam- 

 aged, and to remove the outer skin. The lentils should 

 be boiled until they are soft (from twenty to thirty mi- 

 nutes, never longer) in soup or beef-tea. to which salt has 

 previously been added. Pure lentils may be taken, cleansed 

 from the outer skins, ground to powder, and made into 

 gruel with milk, which will be quite as effectual in curing 

 arabiestion and bilious attacks. The ervalenta or revalenta 

 indigca is little less but lentil meal, flavoured with salt or 

 sweetened with sugar. 



Lentik would most probably be a paying crop to be 



grown by farmers here. There ought to be no difficulty 

 m producmg them on our warm, dry, calcareous soils, 

 and with a climate not much different from that of Syria' 

 Egypt, India, &c. There is another kind of lentil grown 

 m Chma with yellow seeds, which could probably be pur- 

 chased in their shops here. We have seen a very small 

 brown sort which is used by them in their soups, and is 

 also manufactured into sauces, &c. 



The lentils can be sown later than peas, and will ripen 

 in a shorter space of time. They are more than equal 

 in nutritive value to peas, containing 3 per cent more 

 flesh-formers ; but are about equal to haricot beans. They 

 grow from a foot to two feet high, and the straw is at 

 least equal to that of peas for feeding purposes. 



Probably the proper time for sowing lentils would be 

 in July or August, but at present we have no data to go 

 upon. In Europe March and April are the months chosen. 



CULTIVATION OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 

 We quote as follows from a letter from Major J. 0. 

 Walker, Conservator of Forests, to the Secretary to Govern- 

 ment, Madras, dated I3th July 18S2 :— 



I find that Colonel Eeddome in his " Flora Sylvatica," 

 page CXXV, suggests that the Ipecacuanha " would pro- 

 bably answer well on the moist western slopes of the Nilgiris 

 at 3,000^.000 feet elevation," and Martius, in his "Plantea 

 usuelles de Brazil " states that in its wild state it " is 

 found inhabiting the moist and shady forests of various 

 parts of Brazil, especially in the provinces of Pernambuco, 

 Minas-Geraes and Bahia; its growth extending as far south 

 as latitude 22." The "Silent Valley" would therefore 

 probably prove an excellent site for experiments as well 

 as providing a moister climate for the Heitea. I also propose 

 experiments at Manantoddy, where Mr. Morgan has recently, 

 started a Botanical garden in which he takes great interest. 

 The rainfall is 70 inches .and elevation 2,500 feet above 

 the sea. Neither the Ipecacuanha nor Hevea have, so far 

 as I am aware, been tried there, and the climate will 

 probably not be found moist enough, but it is worth a 

 trial which will cost little or nothing. As regards O. Calisaya 

 it is very difficult to give an opinion. In my report on 

 the Government Chinchona Plantation on the Nilgiris, I 

 state that 1 had come to the conclusion that it was the 

 long drought from January to April or May on the Nilgiris 

 which had proved inimical to the species, but Mr. Cross 

 and Colonel Eeddome ascribe its failure to the elevation 

 at which it is grown being too high. I propose, therefore, 

 to experiment with it also in the Silent Valley (3,000), 

 at Manantoddy (2,500), Mudamalai (about 3,500), and in 

 the lower portion of the Wood Estate, Pykara, which 

 cannot be more than 5,000 feet above the sea. The result 

 of all these experiments, if approved by Government, will 

 be carefully watched, recorded and reported on. As regards 

 the " Silent Valley " experiments, I have been in consultation 

 with Mr. Logan when he was here, and we are quite agreed 

 that it would be quite impracticable to make them under 

 the control of Mr. J. Ferguson or any forest ofiicer at 

 Nilambur, from which they are remote and difficult of 

 access. I suggested to Mr. Logan that some private planter, 

 holding land in the valley, might be induced to under- 

 take the experiments on behalf of Government and for 

 his own ultimate advantage. He at once suggested Mr. 

 T. J. Ferguson, of Messrs. Hinde and Co., and wrote to 

 him at once. I submit a letter (dated Calicut 17th June 

 1882J from Sir. T. Ferguson from which it will be seen 

 that he is willing to m.vke arrangements for carrying out 

 the experiments and evidently takes much (intelligent) 

 interest in all such matters. I have not heard from Mr. 

 Logan since his return to the District, but if Government 

 approve of our enlisting private enterprise, I have no doubt 

 we can carry out the ".Silent Valley" experiments much 

 more cheaply and satisfnctorilythan through direct Govern- 

 ment agency. _ The Nilambur or other forest officer would, 

 of course, visit the place and report on the condition of 

 the plants periodically. 



The Government order on the above is as follows: — 

 Major Walker proposes to entrust the experiments with 

 Ipecacuanha, Hevea linisiliensis and Chinchona Calisaya in 

 the Silent Valley to private enterprise, subject to in.spe'ction 

 and report by the officers of his Department. The Go- 

 vernment have no objection to this course and their ac- 



