January i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



593 



those clear to them with trees belonging to the pine 

 tribe, or at leiist treis partiiking, as the iron-wnod 

 does, of tl'.eir phyBiognomy. The Greeks and Turks 

 think the cypress a befitting expression of their grief; 

 the Chinese the beautiful Cypresnus funehris ; and tlie 

 Germans and English tlie arhorv)ta? and yew. All 

 attempts to convince people that a graveyard ought to 

 have as cheerful a look as such a drear lonely spot 

 can ever be expected to assume, have in tlie lonj; run 

 proved a failure. Ivy-clad church walls, mossy tomb- 

 stones, and sombre-looking yews, are in better keeping 

 with it than gay flower beds or bright tinsel." We 

 must notice other Malayan plant-lorf another time. 



HiLDEBic Friend. 



THE SUNFLOWER IN THE OLD WOKLD. 



TO THE EDITOR OF " ALLEN'S INDIAN MAIL'" 

 Sir, — In an interesting short article, the D. T. 

 has just advocated the cultivation of the sunflower 

 on account of its valuable uses, apart from a;3the- 

 tioism ; and it has graphically described the religious 

 worship of tliis urand flower in China. But one fails 

 to understand how this could be, considering that 

 the plant was known before the discovery of America, 

 where, for the first time, the old world knewol it 

 as a Native, af Peru. But the D. T. by describing it 

 as repnsented sculptured, or cast, on figures of 

 *' Buddha," at once betrays the origin of the error; 

 and shows that the writer mistook the well-known, 

 so-called Marigold, or Mesemhi'yanthemum, so common 

 on ancient Buddhist sculptures in ludia and China, 

 for the Peruvian flower. But he over-stepped thi'. 

 bounds when he described the grotesque celestial as 

 posing in adoration before his vegetable deity. Dur- 

 ing twelve years' residence in India and one in China 

 (from Taku to Pekin), I never found the sunflower 

 in a native garden or temple. I myself as an ama- 

 teur, introduced it in 1847, iuto my garden at Kus^o- 

 whi, near Simla, chiefly on account of its striking 

 " s-entinel-like "' aspect. I have seen it in the Pun- 

 jab (from English seed) over 13 feet high ; and, in 

 England, »ith the unusually large seed-disc iliomeler 

 of 14 inches. The plant is now about to be cultivated 

 in the Thames Valley by a Company not because its 

 virtues are similar to those of the euca!yptus, but 

 on account of its commercial value. J. U. L. A. 



P. S. — Retired officers wlio may have *• stuffy " back 

 greens or compounds exhaling miasma should " try a 

 pennyworth " of the seed. 



AGRICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT OF 

 EUROPE 



(Special Letter. ) 



Park, November 4. 



The beet crop has not been good this year : the 

 weather was unpropitious: the plaut ripened iiregularly, 

 and had a tendency even to a .second kind of growth 

 rather than to maturity. This told unfavourably on 

 the richness of the root. The transport of the roots 

 to the factory has been difficult, on account of the 

 wet condition of the soil, and the washing of the 

 roots was laborious owing to the eame cause, complic- 

 ated by the numerous roo'lets which the moist season 

 developed. The factories were compelled to commenee 

 operations earlier than ordinary : in fact, there were 

 in full work on the 30th September, '226 factories, or 41 

 more than at the corresponding period of 1881. Also, 

 9,000 tc ns of sugar had been manufactured at that 

 date. The mean degree ol the juice was 3'u, being 

 one-tenth superior to that of 1881. 



In Germany, complaints are rife thnt notwith- 

 standing the greatest care bestowed in the cultivation 

 of beet, the crop fails to be profitable. Messrs. 



Knhn & Liebseher have since some time been occu- 

 pied with the investigation of the anomaly, and trace 

 the oiuse to the presence of an insect, the nemainde, 

 which develops itself rapidly pending tlie summer and 

 autumn in the roots of the plant ; it multiplies by 

 premature development and dies early. The best way 

 to Ci>nquer the scourge is not to cultivate beet too 

 frequently on the same soil, and so starve the enemy 

 out. The culture of cabbage and colza has been 

 recommended as traps for the insect, which has a 

 marked predeliction for thofe plants, and, as tlic latter 

 are consumed early, in the green state, multitudes 

 of nematodes are thus extirpated. Leaving a period to 

 elapse between the culture of the beet crops, in other 

 words, adopting a rotation, appears to be the soundest 

 plan for depriving the insect of its special food. 

 Induel this truth is becoming daily more and more 

 eviilent, that the destruction of insects, by d"priving 

 them for a definite time of their favorite aliments, 

 is one of the fundamental advantages of a rotation 

 of crops. 



Salicylic acid is regarded as a poison by the French 

 auth"rities, and so prohibited as an antiseptic in the 

 preparation of wines, especially for exportation. Wine- 

 growers protest agaiust the law, alleging that the 

 quantity of the acid employed, hss than one quarter 

 of an ounce per 22 gallons, cannot affect health. 

 Besides, a'l Spanish and Italian wines are dosed with 

 the acid, and no complaints are heard against such 

 brands. Some farmers claim that salicylic acid added 

 to food secures stock iu sound health, and for horses 

 and cows, maintains a shiny skin. In Austria, arsenic 

 is given to horses ; it imparts to them dash, fire, 

 and induces foam at the mouth — a coneuniination 

 wished for in carriage horses. 



M. Muntz has discovered some years ago an animal- 

 cule (microbe) which had tlie property of inducing 

 fermentation in ainmonical substances, where the 

 nitrates figure. Now M. Gayon, also a chemist, of 

 Bordeaux, has discovered a microbe with properties 

 absolutely inverse : it attracts the nitrates — instead 

 of promoting as in the other ca-e their formation — 

 aud disengages the nitric acid or other nitrogenous • 

 combinations. This explains the azoteous vapor which 

 escapes from the tuns in which the juice of beet- 

 augar is accumulated ; the juice being knowingly rich 

 iu nitrates. 



In the principal towns of Switzerland, gratuitous 

 public lectures are delivered on agriculture and its 

 kindred sciences, during the winter months. The 

 results have proved highly practical, and the lectures 

 are well attended. 



SERICULTURE IN INDIA. 

 The notice (page 591) of Father Palla's benevolent 

 attempts to establish the silk industry in Ceylon, led us 

 to peruse with fresh interest some notices of Seuculture 

 in Bengal and Mysore, which we found in the Indian 

 Agriculturist. For the greater portion of half-a-cen- 

 tury now, we have followed the history of experi- 

 ments to revive what was once an important industry in 

 India. Failure in every case, or at any rate, the slight 

 improvement which has resulted from large expendi- 

 ture of time, attention and money, seem due to one 

 cause, the inability of the Indian peasantry, from 

 want of intelligence, or want of care, or both to spin 

 the silk into decently even thread. A writer who 

 feels deeply the deplorable degradation, in body, mind 

 and morals of the Bengal silk spinners, who seem to 

 be sunk in the lowest depths of poverty, vice and 

 misery, states : — 



" The English throwsters iu the large and splendid 



