i8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 



[JULY I, 1 884' 



under the names S. zeylaiuca, S. cylindrica, S. fasciata, 

 and 8. caniculata, have also met with considerable atten- 

 tion. A large number of plants and cuttings have been 

 distributed locally and to distant places, and some success- 

 ful experiments have been made in propagation, which 

 will enable the Society to comply with large demands on 

 reasonable notice. Enquiries have also been received and 

 answered as to the habits and capabilities of several other 

 plants, as producers of fibres and paper making materials. 

 The Manager of one of the Tambracherry Company's es- 

 tates in the Wynaad, is reported to have sent to England 

 a fibre gathered in tho forest on one of his Company's 

 estates, where it is said to grow in great profusion, which 

 was valued in the London market at £70 per ton. The 

 plant from which this fibre came is believed to be Cono- 

 cephalus niveus Wight, (syns. Morocarpus or Dcbrtyeasia 

 Imujifvlia,) a common plant on the Neilgherry Hills, be- 

 longing to the natural order of Nettles (Urticacece), and 

 well known to, and much used by the jungle men and 

 coolies working on the coffee and other estates. 



Calotropis gif/antea is again provoking enquiry. It is one 

 of our commonest wild shrubs and contains perhaps the 

 best fibre in India, producing also in abundance a plastic 

 gum well worthy of attention. 



Paraguay Tea. — From the report on the Horticultural 

 Gardens, Lucknow, published last year, we learn that 

 efforvs are being made there to grow Ilex Paraguayensis 

 the source of " Mate," or " Paraguay Tea," now being 

 advertised as a wholesome beverage in various English 

 papers ; that an healthy specimen is growing in the AVing- 

 fieM Park at Lucknow ; and that eight millions of pounds 

 are said to be annually consumed in South America. This 

 Society has for many years past possessed several hand- 

 some specimens of this plant, from which, though they 

 have not been observed to flower in Madras, no difficulty 

 is found in propagating freely. The habit of the plant here 

 seems to be that of a large, spreading, and umbrageous 

 shrub, with large, dark green, shining leaves, forming a 

 most desirable tree to plant as a screen for unsightly ob- 

 jects, and one well worthy of being planted for its own 

 beauty. 



The Society will be glad to distribute plants to any one 

 who will test and report on their economic value. That 

 the plant as growing here has properties which will bear 

 investigation, is proved by the experience of the Honorary 

 Secretary, who having chewed a fresh gathered leaf found 

 its effect on him to be that of a fairly violent emetic. 

 A closely allied species Hex romitoria is said to be actually 

 used by the natives iu its own country for its emetic pro- 

 perties, a special pilgrimage being taken every spring to 

 indulge in, or submit to its effects.* 



The parent plant of those in the Society's Gardens was 

 brought out from Kew by Mr. Henry, when he entered 

 the Society's service as Superintendent in 1870, and specim- 

 ens have since been sent to Bangalore, Poona and other 

 places. 



A large number of seedlings of Jlieohroma cocoa raised 

 in the Gardens in 1882, were distributed to Planters on the 

 Shevaroy and Neilgherry Hills, and three or four plants 

 reserved for the Gardens have thriven amazingly, so much 

 so, that it seems to be almost possible that the Members 

 of this Society may one day consume chocolate grown and 

 manufactured in Madras. A slightly older specimen planted 

 out in the coconut tope in partial shade, actually flowered 

 and set fruit. Many previous experiments with cocoa in 

 Madras have failed. It does well at Burliar. 



PALMYRA TODDY AND JAGGERY. 



Much has been said and written of late about the refor- 

 estation of India. In an agricultural country like this, 

 where the prosperity and well-being of the masses depend 

 largely on the abundance and regularity of the periodical 

 rains, I can hardly conceive of anything more important 

 than to conserve the existing forests; to re-clothe the 

 denuded hills and arid plains with vegetation, and thus to 

 ensure a permanent and lasting water supply. Apropos of 

 the subject, it occurs to me, however, that in carrying out 

 this desirable object, very little notice has yet been taken 

 of the palm6 and other indigenous flora whose value and 



* Vide Tropical Agriculturist, Vol. 3, page 163. 



utility are well understood by the masses; while exotics 

 like coffee, tea, cinchona, and the like have received an 

 almost exclusive attention. This is the more strange when 

 the very highest authority on the subject, Mr. Biandis, 

 Inspector-General of Forests with the Government of India, 

 says : — ''• The great beauty of Coimbatore is due to the 

 fine stretch of paddy cultivation and the palm forests. I 

 have been told that these last yield from R50 to R100 

 per acre, but I think even 112(H) would not be an excessive 

 estimate." I suppose Mr. Braudis refers to the coconut 

 and not the palmyra, but it is an open question which of 

 the two is of greater value and utility to man. Except 

 that the former requires constant irrigation and the latter 

 none, there is not much to choose between them; and 

 consequently the following observations on the manifold 

 uses of the palmyra tree apply with a few exceptions to 

 the coconut also. I may observe, iu the first place, that 

 the palmyra fruit yields no less than five different pro- 

 duets, of which four are edible, viz., the starchy bulb or 

 the palmyra in embryo of four mouths' growth ; the sweet 

 whitish sponge-like substance into which the kernel is then • 

 found to have been transformed; the yellow fibrous pulp 

 or outer covering of the ripe fruit divested of the rind ; 

 the cool delicious gelatine-like kernel of the young fruit; 

 and, finally, the oil extracted from the ripe kernel. The 

 timber is valuable as furnishing excellent material for raft- 

 ers, joists, and the like, and what is more, improves by 

 age in the living tree so much as to become quite dark, 

 and hardly distinguishable at a distance from the finest 

 ebony. Need I speak of the leaves which form the ordin- 

 ary covering of a hut in these parts ; of the thousand-and- 

 one fantastic shapes they are made to assume, when wrought 

 into baskets, jars, knife-cases, betel-holders, trays, &c, and 

 of their important use as substitutes for paper from time 

 immemorial. 



But the most important, because the most valuable, pro- 

 duct of all is the Sugar extracted from tbe juice or toddy, 

 and which in commercial terminology goes by the name of 

 Jaggery. There are only two varieties of the tree, the 

 male and the female, and toddy is obtained from both by 

 bruising the flower-stalk (or raceme), and otherwise mani- 

 pulating it so as to induce the exudation of the wine. 

 What is known as " sweet toddy " is wine whose ferment- 

 ation (or "vinous process," as doctors call it) has been 

 arrested by lime, thinly laid on or rubbed in beforehand 

 with a massive brush on the internal surface of the pot 

 or receptacle. It is this harmless unfermented wine that, 

 when boiled down, produces the Jaggery of commerce. The 

 pure unmedicated wine or toddy begins to ferment in the 

 pot itself, and soon becomes a frothing spirituous liquor 

 like beer, and highly intoxicating. Its production and sale 

 is therefore regulated by government, who derive a pretty 

 considerable revenue by leasing out the monopoly for stated 

 periods to the highest bidder. Agreeably to the general 

 rule in India of each caste clinging tenaciously to its own 

 hereditary occupation, the profession of climbing, manipu- 

 lating, and drawing toddy from the tree, perilous and diffic- 

 ult as it is, is still monopolised by a non-Aryan tribe of 

 the name of Shanars. It has always been with me a curious 

 sight, somewhat bordering on the ludicrous, to behold the 

 climber go about in the recesses of the grove, strangely 

 armed and accoutred, like some knight-errant of the middle 

 ages hastening forth to the tournament or the battle-field. 

 His peculiar turban, fashioned not unlike a helmet; the 

 crutch or substitute for a ladder which he carries on his 

 shoulder in the manner of a battle-axe ; the leathern cuirass 

 and belt ; his nether garments tucked up to the waist ; 

 his wooden sandals and the knapsack or weapon-basket 

 dangling behind containing his brush, pincers, bill-hooks, 

 and a quantity of lime — all these conspire to give him a 

 quasi martial appearance at least. Thrice during the 

 twenty-four hours has the poor fellow to climb and pare 

 the flower-stalk afresh to expedite the flow of the sac- 

 charine juice ; but it is at 3 or 4 a.m. that the toddy is 

 brought down to the booths or temporary structures con- 

 taining the stove and Other apparatus employed in con- 

 verting it into Sugar. Throughout the toddy season, which 

 lasts from February until August, may be seen in the im- 

 pervious gloom of the early morning these primitive stoves 

 blazing up like so many it/m fatui, endeavouring to dispel 

 the surrounding darkness. The toddy is first filtered and 

 then poured into as many earthen pots as the stove has 



