February i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



635 



Camomile. — Where can I get roots of camomile, and 

 what is the mode of culture? — J. Adams. [Most good 

 nurserymen will supply roots. As regards culture, *^^he 

 foUowiug is the routine followed by the growers at Mitch- 

 am, where many acres of land are occupied by it. In 

 March, old woru-out plantations are broken up and the 

 plants divided into small root pieces. These are planted in 

 well-prepared ground in rows two feet apart each way, the 

 intervening spaces being cropped with lettuces or other 

 esculents, which can be quickly got otf the ground. It 

 is, however, not an uncommon practice to plant camomile 

 plants as thickly again as those mentioned, and afterwards 

 to thin them out to the required distance asunder. As the 

 blooms expand they are picked off by women, who receive 

 Id. or l^d. per lb. for gathering them, a process which is 

 continued as long as sutlicieut flowers are laid out in a 

 shady but airy place to dry, after which they are put into 

 canvas or paper bags and disposed of. — Ed.] — Field. 



SuGAB. — An inventiou is announced in one of our American 

 contemporaries which if it fulfils all that it promises to 

 do, \vill completely revolutionise the manufacturing depart- 

 ment of the sugar industry. The New York Sun thus 

 describes the invention : — " It is proposed to do away 

 with the cane mill in the sugar process, on account of 

 its waste and loss, and substitute a new apparatus denomin- 

 ated the pulpifactor, which presents two series of vertical 

 saws specially made for cutting sugar canes, and fixed 

 to two frames; the whole working by a reciprocating 

 motion with but small power to lift the tool, which 

 afterwards precipitates itself with its own power, in- 

 creased by its weight and velocity. Each series of saws 

 reduces at one stroke a bundle of ten canes into slices 

 and the letter, fallmg into a disintegrator running at 

 high speed, are reduced into a fi.ne pulp, which is pressed 

 by means of two small rollers ; the whole of the juice 

 being by this means forced ont of the cells, and the 

 woody matter is removed in a dry state. The juice thus 

 extracted is mixed with lime as each gallon is produced 

 and a proper proportion as it runs to a continuous pre- 

 parator, when it is heated in a few minutes up to, but 

 not exceeding, 203'^ Fah. During this short time it is 

 cleared of all the suspended matters, this being effected 

 by passing the juice over a table constructed witli a 

 series of corrugations forming a long continuous passage 

 the heat being applied beneath the table." 



Facts About Cinchona. — In addition to the unfavorable 

 yield of quinine by Cuprea bark there is the additional 

 drawback involved in the difficulty of extracting the 

 alkaloids from it, owmg to the extremely hard and im- 

 per\'ious nature of the bark, a difficulty which alone 

 detracts from its market-able value. Keaders of this journal 

 will easily understand how important an element in the 

 value of any bark is the readiness with which it is acted 

 upon by chemicals, and on this subject we may mention 

 a fact not hitherto made known, so far as we are aware 

 of the superiority in this respect of the succiruhra variety 

 over officinalis, a fact which has come to be generally 

 recognised amongst quinine manufacturers, and which may 

 be as well borne in mind by planters in their future 

 choice of a variety for planting out. It is this same 

 facility of extraction which gives cinchona dust a value 

 apparently out of all proportion to its marketable quality. 

 "We are assured by a visitor to a quinine manufactorv in 

 England, that he was shewn a heap of cinchona dust 

 which had all the appearance of being the veriest rubbish, 

 but the proprietor of the factory assured him that it was 

 a great bargain at ten pence the pound, owing to the 

 fine atoms of the best bark pre.sent in it. and hence the 

 ease with which it could be operated upon. We under- 

 stand that the idea entertained a short time ago of 

 establishing a factory in Colombo for the extraction of 

 the cinchona alkaloids in the rough, has been abandoned, 

 in consequence of information obtained at home shewing 

 that similar attempts made in South America failed, owing 

 to the high temperature of the locality being unfavorable 

 to the process. It was foimd that from this cause, after 

 the longest treatment of bark by chemicals, there still 

 remained a certain portion of the alkaloids in the resid- 

 uum incapable of being extracted, and so the idea which 

 seemed to promise such good results, came to be aban- 

 doned. — "Ceylon Times," 



Kkw. — That vast aggregate of botanic gardens, conserva- 

 tories, propagating houses, museums, arboretums, exchange 

 offices, instruction halls, and specimen orchard and oi-namen- 

 tal grounds, with which all countries in the world are in 

 correspondence, knows as Kew Gardens, and about six 

 miles up the Thames frum the business centre of London, 

 was visited by no less than Gl,831 persons on one day 

 last year. — Queenslander. 



Jarrah Wood (Eucalyptus Marginata.)— Reporting on 

 this wood the Chief Engineer at Adelaide, South Australia, 

 says it has been extensively used in the colony for many 

 years for railway sleepers, piles and other structural pur- 

 poses. Many of the sleepers that have been laid in the 

 permanent way for a period of eighteen years are quite 

 sound at the present time, and show no symptoms of 

 decay or destruction from the white ant. It is recom- 

 mended that the timber should always be provided from 

 the iron-stone ranges, and not from the flat or swamps, 

 as from the latter places it is spongy, and is liable to at- 

 tack from insects both on land and in the sea. It is also 

 a matter of importance that the logs should be felled when 

 the sap is down, and properly pitched, by which means 

 any tendency to splitting is minimised. Sound logs are 

 readily obtainable from 20 to 40 feet in length, and from 

 12 to 34 inches square. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



The "Tropical Agriculturist."— We have received the 

 Tropical Agriculturist for June, It is a monthly record 

 of information for planters of coffee, tea, cocoa, cinchona, 

 sugar, palm, rice, or products suited for tropical cultiv- 

 ation. It is an excellent pubHcation, brimful of facts and 

 information. It is published at Colombo, by Messrs. A M. 

 and J. Ferguson, at the Ceylon Observer office. We have 

 much pleasure, therefore, in drawing attention to the pub- 

 lication, which had in June reached its thirteenth number, 

 It is one interesting to the naturalist and to all desirous 

 of information ; whilst it is indispensable, we think, to the 

 planter or estate manager. Each nnmler contains some 

 ninety closely-printed pages, and the low price brings it 

 within the reach of all. It is sold at agencies in London 

 (Haddon), Aberdeen (AA^estland), Madras (Higginbotham), 

 Calcutta and Bombay (Thacker), Singapore (Little), Penang 

 (Blaze), Batavia (Bryce), Port Louis (Hall), Durban (Ro- 

 binson), Jamaica (Call), Trinidad {Chronicle Office), and 

 British Guiana {Royal Gazette Office), and throughout Aus- 

 tralia by Messrs. Gordon and Gotch. The June issue has, 

 we should add, a full index for the first thirteen numbers. 



I find the Tropical Agriculturist a most interesting and 

 useful publication. It finds a place on the table of our 

 Public Library, and is much prized. 



The Java rainfall, as measured at Batavia for the 

 years 1864 to 1878, was as follows: — 



Shewing a mean annual fall of 75 89 inches. During 

 these 15 years, the largest amount registered for any 24 

 hours was 6-9 inches, the largest amount for one single 

 hour, 3-6 inches, half the annual rainfall falls in December, 

 January, and February. The followipg figures are the 

 percentages for all the months according to 1864—1878 

 observations. 



For the above figures given by the Indiyo I'lat,t»rs 

 Gazette, (from the Eacydofoidia liritannica we believe.) it 

 will be seen that the average rainfall at Batavia is about 

 15 inches below that of Colombo, and that the bulk falls in 

 the thren months, December to Felniary. These facts 

 and the shelter from strong sea wind.-^, probably account for 

 the free growth and flowering at Batavia of the bougaincilleos 

 layerstrcemias, kc. ' ' 



