July r, 18S4. ] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



43 



drains should always be filled to the surface with small 

 rubble stones. Drains thus ventilated, whilst they carry 

 off water more readily in winter, increase the moisture of 

 the soil in summer by the passage of air through them. 



Conversion of Starch into Sugar hy Bacteria.— At one 

 time it was thought that the peculiar ferment called 

 diastase, which converts starch into Sugar, was only pro- 

 duced by germination; later experiments have shown that 

 all seeds contain a certain quantity of soluble albuminoids, 

 which possess diastatic power, and we now know that uii- 

 germinated barely will yield an extract wry similar in 

 quality, although differing in quantity, from that obtainable 

 from malt. It has recently been shown by J. Wortmann, 

 in a paper published in the German Journal of Physiological 

 Chemistry, that bacteria also exert a powerful action on 

 starch anil convert it into sugar ; and further, that the 

 diastatic action of bacteria is not only due to the organism 

 itself, but also to the secretion by it of a highly energetic 

 fluid capable of converting starch. The action of bacteria 

 on starch is effected by a ferment secreted by them, and 

 which, like diastase, is soluble in water, but precipitable by 

 alcohol. This ferment acts precisely as diastase in changing 

 starch into a sugar capable of reducing cupric oxide, but is 

 incapable of changing albumen into peptone. 



No Phvlloxeha in Sandy Soil. — M. Lalaude, the Deputy 

 and Mayor of Bordeaux, France, recently paid a visit to the- 

 principal vineyards in the south for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the efficiency of the different modes of coping with 

 the terrible phylloxera. He tested the effects of insecti- 

 cides. He found the vineyard of Baboulet near Beziers, 

 belougiug to M. Jaussan, president of a syndicate for oper- 

 ating with sulphide of carbon, in a very satisfactory con- 

 dition. He then visited six other vineyards, and every- 

 where found luxurious vegetation and abundant fruit. At 

 Valautres the Conite de Turenne's property, where Amer- 

 ican shoots have been employed with great success, all the 

 vines are heavily laden with magnificent grapes. At Aigues- 

 Mortes M. Lalande found all the sandy soils planted with 

 French vines in a flourishing condition, demonstrating the 

 revolution which has resulted from the discovery of the 

 impotence of the phylloxera against a sandy soil. Lands 

 which a few years ago would not have fetched 100 f. 

 (20dol.) a hectare are now worth 10,000 f. (2,000 dol.).— 

 Exchange. 



Egos. — There is nothing more strengthening and nourish- 

 ing than eggs as an article of diet, and farmers ought to 

 indulge in the luxury of eating them. Not infrequently 

 the eggs are saved up and sold when not as much nutri- 

 ment can be purchased with the money they are sold for. 

 Four eggs contain more nutriment than a pound of beef 

 steak, and will give more strength, and a person mil not 

 tire of egg diet as quickly as he will of fresh meat. They 

 never distress the partaker, and if properly cooked can be 

 eaten with perfect safety. For an invalid there is nothing 

 more wholesome than a raw egg beaten up with a little 

 sugar and stirred into a glass of milk, and taken before 

 breakfast gives strength and health. Boiled eggs are more 

 wholesome than fried ones, and egg sandwhiches are a 

 splendid dish, taken either hot or cold, and especially suited 

 for lunch or picnics. Omelets, poached eggs or boiled eggs 

 cut in slices and a cream gravy poured over them are splend- 

 id substitutes for meat at breakfast. Custards and puddings 

 are good changes in the bill of fare, and much better than 

 pies for hot weather, and eggs are an important item in 

 then- manufacture. — Alta California. 



A notable part of the proceedings at the session of the 

 New Jersey Horticultural Society, in Camden, was a suc- 

 cessful market gardener's report of four years' experiments 

 with fertilisers and modes of duplication. In one instance, 

 as a mixture, he used 25 loads of stable manure and a 

 ton of bone, or of some other commercial brand, at a sav- 

 ing of about 20 dollars per acre over the use of manure 

 alone. Another combination was 25 bushels of poultry 

 droppings, 4U0 lb. each of cotton seed meal, plaster, fine 

 bone metal and sulphate of potash, and 10 bushels of muck, 

 making about 1| tons, at a cost of about 17 dollars per ton. 

 This gave as good results as bone meal and different brands 

 of fertilisers side by side, at a saving of fully 20 dollars per 

 ton. In applying fertiliser alone he used from 1 ton to 

 It tons to the acre in spring ; barnyard manure was applied 

 in winter on all ploughed ground. By this process he in- 



creased his receipts from 1,750 dollars peryear to 7,300 dollars. 

 By high manuring and through tillage the crops were larger, 

 one to two weeks earlier, and, being of quick growth, were 

 of better quality, found an early market, ready sale at 

 good prices and a fair profit, and by the time the market 

 was overstocked his crop was harvested and the same 

 ground ready fora second crop, the one manuring sen ing 

 for both. — New York Tribune. 



Fermentation.— Fermentation is a chemical process which 

 is by no means popularly understood. To the dairy man 

 it is a bugbear of no small proportions, the more so because 

 he has been taught something of its destructive properties, 

 and has learned to consider it something in the same 

 light as children think of and fear the bugaboo of the 

 nursery. But there is nothing connected with the business 

 of daiying in all its branches that should be better under- 

 stood. Fermentation is a chemical change which varies as 

 the substances affected by it differ. Generally it may be 

 considered as a change of organic substances, in which their 

 elements are broken up and combined in new compounds. 

 Particularly it may be distinguished as saccharine, when 

 starch and gum are changed into sugar; vinous when sugar- 

 is changed into alcohol; acetous when alcohol is changed 

 into acetic acid ; lactic when lactose, or milk sugar, and gluc- 

 ose, or grape sugar, are converted into lactic acid ; viscous 

 when sugar is converted into mucilaginous substances : and 

 putrefactive when nitrogenous matters are decomposed into 

 substances containing ammonia, nitric acid and other gases, 

 There is also a butyric fermentation which may be produced 

 in milk or cheese by the addition of chalk, or may go on 

 under the presence of certain germs, but this sort of ferment- 

 ation is generally included under the generic name of 

 putrefaction. All these changes are caused by the develop- 

 ment of special forms of fungi, which, however, have a 

 somewhat close relationship, and have been considered as 

 all varieties of each other. Hollier especially maintains 

 that the forms which accompany mildew also ihduci 

 mentation and putrefaction, and 'common experience in the 

 dairy corroborates this belief. Fermentations, under what- 

 ever conditions and character (hey may occur are all purely 

 chemical reactions, and do not all necessarily destroy or 

 cause the destructive decdmpositioh of tin- substances 

 affected. It is necessary to realise this fact in considering 

 the chemical changes which occur in fermenting substances, 

 especially those which enter into consumption as animal or 

 human food. — San Francisco Weelly CTironi '■ 



HOLING IN COFFEE-UARDEXS. 

 BY COUPE BUS. 

 (Translated; from J>> PA&ische Gids.) ' 



In laying out either Government or Private Coffee-plant- 

 ations in Java of late years, holes ale frequently dug 1 or 

 lh ft. cubic, and even larger, in which the small coffee- 

 trees about half a foot in height, with a pellet id' earth 

 of the size of one's first at tlie root, are planted. 



They who have these planting-holes dug, affirm that the 

 coffee-trees planted in them thrive better than in grounds 

 where are no planting-holes, and that therefore these must 

 be made. 



To the first part of this assertion no objection can be 

 made ; for as the soil in such holes— at least in the beginning 

 — is always loose, (except when more earth is pressed into 

 them than was dug out) and sometimes also better than the 

 surrounding soil— that is when the earth dug out is supplanted 

 by more fertile soil, or else when the former is rendered 

 better by admixture with manure, leaf-mould, etc.— then it 

 is very natural that the seedlings taken from the nurseries 

 will thrive vigorously in these planting-holes. 



Such holes, however, are quiti unnecessary in soils that 

 are by nature loose and friable, namely, when they consist 

 of a stratum of rich humus, or in the case it is composed 

 of clay mixed with much humus and a large proportion of 

 sand, deeayed bits of lava and pummice stone; such as the 

 soil of many volcanic grounds, overgrown with large woods, 

 or thick qlagah, honje, banana, etc. In such light, humid, 

 and at the same time fertile soils, which, with a sufficient 

 depth of the upper layer, enjoy an altitude of more or less 

 ?,i«i feet above the sea-level, a good situation as to the sun, and 

 a due protection against gusts of wind or gales, are the best 

 coffee grounds in Java, and into which the roots of the 



