July i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 



79 



Paraffin for Fruit Trees.— Mr. Dunster, in last week's 

 Field, sajs or implies that in his paper in the Nineteenth 

 Century, he recommended the paraffin to be used with care 

 " when the sap was down." and that lie did not recommend 

 its application to all parts, nor to young wood, &c. I have 

 his article before me now, and it does not contain a word of 

 caution; but, on the contrary, the paraffin is recommended 

 to be "used pure and undiluted," and instead of being de- 

 scribed as " dangerous," its application is said " to leave the 

 tree not only uninjured, but with increased vitality and 

 power of productiveness." As to the portion of the wood 

 to be painted with it, he says he painted the trunk and 

 larger branches in his first experiment; but further on, 

 after recording further trials, his advice is that " outer bark 

 of the tree is to be rapidly but thoroughly painted over with 

 it," nothing being said about leaving the young wood. 

 " About the end of summer " or autumn is the time it is to be 

 applied, and as fruit trees are at that season in active 

 growth, with the leaves fresh and green upon them, I leave 

 your readers to judge whether the sap is then " down " or 

 not. The word "miscellaneous" was a misprint. Mr. Dunster's 

 ideas regarding the uselessness of diluting paraffin with 

 water have been proved to be wrong by abundant experience. 

 — S. W— Field. 



The Forests of Europe are estimated to cover 500 

 millions of acres, or nearly 20 per cent of the surface 

 of the Continent. In British North America there are said 

 to be 900 millions of acres of forest, in the United States 

 5(30 millions, in South America 700 millions. The total 

 thus estimated for Europe and America alone is equal to 

 3,600,000 geographical miles, each containing 736 English 

 acres. It is interesting to compare this area, so far as 

 the possible supply of fuel is concerned, with that of the 

 coal-fields of the world, which is estimated at 134,000 

 geographical miles. Of this area one-twenty-fifth part is 

 in the United Kingdom, or 5,360 geographical miles of 

 forest, against 5,000 geographical miles of coal-fields in full 

 work. Four-fifths of the known coal-measures lie within 

 British and American territory, the forests of Europe and 

 America covering twenty-seven times the area of the known 

 coal-measures of the world. In Baden, where the forest 

 statistics are carefullj r prepared, the annual production of 

 wood is less than the weight of hay that can be grown on 

 an equal area. At that rate — which is low for an average — 

 each geographical mile of forest will yield, one with another, 

 1,500 loads of timber per annum. But a square mile of coal- 

 measure yields something like 20,000 tons in the year. The 

 latter produce, however, is limited and exhaustible. Extract 

 the coal, and not only is there an end of the fuel, but the 

 soil itself is generally reduced to utter waste. Arrange 

 the forest according to the best theories of forestry, and 

 its yield is perpetual. — Builder. 



Vegetation on the Congo. — Clumps of a dwarf Talm, 

 Phcenix spinosa, which bears a just eatable starveling Date, 

 hedge in these beautiful Orchids from the wash of the 

 river, and seem a sort of water-mark that the tides rarely 

 pass, but the water often leaks through the mud and 

 vegetable barrier, and forms inside the ring of dwarf Palms 

 many little quiet lagoons, not necessarily unhealthy, for 

 the water is changed and stirred by each recurring tide ; 

 and in the lagoons bordered by Orchids and tall bushes, 

 with large spatulate leaves and shining white bracts about 

 their flower-stalks [Musssenda], by Pandanus, by waving Oil- 

 Palms, and by Mangrove trees, poised on their many feet, 

 and telling out against the shining sky with their lace- 

 like tracery of leaves — in these quiet stretches of still water 

 are the homes and feeding grounds of myriad forms of 

 life; of blue land-crabs, whose burrows riddle the black 

 soil ; of always alert and agitated " mud-fish," flapping and 

 Hopping through the ooze; of tiny amethystine red-beaked 

 kingfishers, of kingfishers that are black and white, or large 

 and grey and speckled ; of white egrets, of the brown and 

 storklike Scopus umbretta; of spur-winged geese, and of 

 all-devouring vultures. A rustling in the vegetation, and a 

 large voracious lizard slips into the water, or on some 

 trampled bank a crocodile lies asleep in the warm sun with 

 a fixed smirk hanging about his grim muzzle. These lagoons 

 are places seething with life—life that is ever stirring, 

 striving, and active — and when you suddenly arrive, slipping 

 and splashing in the watery foot holds, the sudden silence 

 that greets ynn U ritliprthe frightened hush of a thousand 

 apprehensiv. creatures, — "The River Congo," by H. H. 

 Ji HNSTONE, F.Z.S. — Gardeners' < « 



Glue, Paste, or Mucuagb. — Lehner publishes the follow- 

 ing formula for making a liquid paste or glue from starch 

 and acid. Place 5 lb. of potato starch in 6 lb. (3 quarts) 

 of water, and add $ lb. of pure nitric acid. Keep it in 

 a warm place, stirring frequently for forty-eight hours. 

 Then boil the mixture until it forms a thick and trans- 

 lucent substance. Dilute with water, if necessary, and 

 filter through a thick cloth. At the same time another 

 paste is made from sugar and gum arabic. Dissolve 5 lb. 

 gum arabic and 1 lb. sugar iu 5 lb. of water, and add 

 1 oz. of nitric acid and heat to boiling. Then mix the 

 above with the starch paste. The resultant paste is liquid, 

 does not mould, and dries on paper with a gloss. It is 

 useful for labels, wrappers, and fine bookbinder's use. Dry 

 pocket glue is made from twelve parts of glue and five 

 parts of sugar. The glue is boiled until entirely dissolved, 

 the sugar dissolved in the hot glue, and the mass evaporated 

 until it hardens on cooling. The hard substance dissolves 

 rapidly in lukewarm water, and is an excellent glue for 

 use on paper. — P. Notiz. 



Paper Towels. — In the surgical dispensary of the 

 Philadelphia Polyclinic, Dr. Roberts has, we read in the 

 Medical alii Surgical Reporter of that city, been using with 

 much satisfaction Japanese paper handkerchiefs for drying 

 wounds. Sponges are so seldom and with such difficulty 

 perfectly cleansed after being once used, that they are never 

 employed in the hospital. Ordinary cotton or linen towels 

 are much perf erable to sponges, which, if dirty, are liable to 

 intorduee septic material into wounds. The paper towels 

 however, answer the same purpose as cotton ones, and are 

 so cheap that they can be thrown away after being used. 

 The cost of washing a large number of ordinary towels is 

 thus avoided. The paper towels are scarcely suitable for 

 drying hands, after washing, unless several towels be used 

 at once, because a large amount of moisture on the hands 

 soon saturates a single towel. For removing blood from 

 wounds, a. paper towel is crumpled up into a sort of ball, 

 and then used as a sponge. Such balls absorb blood rapidly. 

 The crude ornamental pictures, in colour, on the towels, 

 are of no advantage, nor are they, as far as known, any 

 objection. — Adelaide Observer. 



Underground Irrigation is thus noticed in the pro- 

 ceedings of the Indian Agri-Horticultural Society: — Read 

 the following letter from Major-Oeneral Fischer, R.E., 

 dated Ramandroog, 21st April 1884 : — In continuation of 

 my last letter to you, I beg to send you an extract from 

 the Indian Review for November 1883, from which it 

 appears that underground irrigation is practised in Cali- 

 fornia. "Four systems of irrigation are practised: first, flood- 

 ing the land, the second system is by furrows, the third 

 system is by basins dug among tree roots. The fourth 

 system is by sub-irrigation. This is the most expensive 

 system of all, but is thought to economize water. The 

 water is carried in pipes laid from 2 to 3 feet under ground. 

 By opening valves in these pipes the water is let out anil 

 up, but never comes about the surface." You will see that 

 I was quite right in not pretending to any original idea, 

 but this does not necessitate the proposal being shelved 

 as it is apparently very suitable to India where it is of 

 the greatest importance to economize water as much as pos- 

 sible, and particularly to prevent loss of water by evaporation 

 which the system adapted in California seems to realize. 



Desert Plants. — Several enterprising cultivators are now, 

 at our suggestion, trying to multiply the thornless Opuntia 

 aud the Spek-boom in Namaqualand, Angra Pequina, and 

 elsewhere. I think these, excellent food plants have not 

 received the attention they deserve. Of course they are 

 special food plants, suited to special localities, and do not 

 come into competition with the ordinary veldt-bosjes and 

 grass wherever the climatic conditions permit the usual 

 pasturage. But I am sure that, should the Spek-boom be 

 incapable of acclimatisation on the sun-smitten randts of 

 Namaqualand, the Opuntia may be grown in vast thickets 

 at the junction of rock and sand veldt, and its use would 

 save much of the present expenditure iu importing com- 

 pressed hay for trek-cattle. Such culture throughout all 

 carroid districts of the colony subject to frequent failure 

 of seasonal rains is far more important than the introduction 

 of any more of the fancy staples which are from time 

 to time proposed, praised, and forgotteD, and which have 

 given point to the proverbial sneer that "the Cape i- a 

 country of samples." — M*Owan, in " Report of the Cape Town 

 Botanic Gardens." — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



