290 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[October i, 1884. 



overlooked. At th<» same time, it must also be re- 

 membered, tbat some other jungle products, quite as bulky, 

 and not so valuable, are yet exported with profit. 



If the gutta contained in the bark can be profitably 

 extracted, the planting of those trees on waste lands 

 might possibly be undertaken by Government with every 

 prospect of success. 



The variety that seems to be most easily grown is Payena 

 Leerii (Getah Sundik). 



This tree fruits freely, and will thrive on the swampy 

 plains near the coast; aD(l is said by the Malays to grow 

 fast. Its wood is hard, with a close grain, and takes a 

 good polish, therefore may be of some value as timber. 



I have tried experiments iu making cuttings of some 

 of the Dichopsis, but have not had any success as yet; 

 although it is probable that they may be propagated by 

 this means, when the proper mode of effecting it is 

 found out. 



I have not tried Payena Leerii as yet, but hope to be 

 able to do so very shortly. 



L. Wray, .Tunr. 

 —.Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



AGRICULTURAL BREVITIES. 

 (From the Queenslander.J 



Two New Yorkers, now in Florida, claim to have dis- 

 covered a chemical process that will preserve oranges for 

 a year without impairing their flavour. 



A whites in the Adelaide Garden and Field, who has 

 had forty years' experience at almond growing, says that 

 almonds must always be grafted to insure a crop of pure 

 soft shells. 



An American paper says : — The best labels for making 

 plants are mide from zinc, and nothing but a common 

 lead pencil is needed to mark them. The writing is at 

 Hist faint, the same as if made on glass, but soon becomes 

 distinct when exposed to the weather. 



A con respondent of the Auckland Weekly News states 

 that an infusion of blue gum leaves stands unrivalled for 

 healing sores on the necks or breasts of horses. The same 

 remedy taken internally is also said to be a certain core 

 for colds and similar complaints. 



Common salt added to the manure heap is highly re- 

 commended, as it is not only useful as a fertiliser, but 

 also as an agent for supplying chlorine, which is found 

 to he an important substance in the composition of many 

 plants, and exists in certain quantities in all of them. 



A LEMON tree in Volusia County, Florida, is said to have 

 1,900 lemons on it. 



THE VALUE OF GREEN MANURES. 

 Farmers (remarks the New York Weekly Tunis) have 

 an exceedingly inadequate idea of the value of green 

 manures. One who will sow his seed and wait patiently 

 for the crop will be too impatient to grow a crop of rye 

 or maize or clover to be ploughed under to eorich the 

 soil, and return its rich harvest another year. Another 

 will spend hundreds of dollars for purchased manure or 

 fertilisers, but will not spend tens in growing a plot to 

 plough into the soil for the same purpose. And there are 

 farmers who have determined to plough under a .'lover 

 sod and have top-dressed in the autumn or winter with 

 this intention, but who have lost heart when they have 

 seen a luxuriant growth on the ground, which seemed to 

 lie "a waste of good fodder," as they have said and so 

 they have waited and have either pastured it or mown it 

 off and robbed the soil of food which it sorely needed. 

 This would seem quite different if farmers would think 

 of their soil as something to be fed and supported to 

 enable it to yield its produce, as much as a cow that 

 yields milk, or a sheep that yields wool. There are some 

 close analogies between our fields and our auimals. An 

 animal is a machine — if we like to call it so— by which 

 we make sa'eahle products from raw materials. It is in- 

 exhaustible for its term of life so long as it is fed; but 

 it is really inexhaustible in fact, because, before its useful 

 life ends', it reproduces itself several times and simply 

 becomes a link in a chain which we may draw out in- 

 definitely without reaching the end of it. So that in this 

 view of'it even an animal is inexhaustible so long as it 



is fed. And so is the soil and no longer, and, indeed, if 

 it is not fed, a field will be more dead useless matter 

 just as a starved cow or sheep will he. The farmer must 

 learn to think of his land in this way or he gets a wrong 

 idea of it. He must not neglect to study up the science 

 of feeding his fields as he reads up that of feeding his 

 live stock. He must become acquainted with feeding tables 

 and rations and kinds of food for the land as well as 

 for animals, and must provide them liberally. Ami as 

 clover is accounted »n excellent food for stock, so it is 

 an excellent food for land. But, at the same time, as 

 there are other fodders which cau be used along with 

 clover, or as a substitute when helped out by more 

 stimulating food, so there are other crops besides clover 

 which may be made to serve as food for the soil. Indeed, 

 the soil is not very exacting in this respect, although it 

 will never give something for nothing, and always returns 

 freely in exact proportion to what it receives and' no more: 

 but it is omnivorous and has an exceedingly strong diges- 

 tion. So that the farmer cannot go astray if he will al- 

 ways provide something for it. It may be weeds and 

 no more, but it is better if it is a crop of buckwheat, 

 and better still if it is rye or maize or even turnips or 

 rape, but best of all if we can give it rich clover which 

 goes down deeply and draws food from the subsoil and 

 opens its broad leaves to the air and gathers from that 

 source too, as well as others which other plants cannot 

 reach, and so gives to the farmer a hundredfold iu return 

 for the seed and labour he has expended. There are 

 other ways of manuring the soil, but among them plough- 

 ing in of green crops has no superior. — Queensland er. 



NOTES ON IfECENT DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM 

 OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 



BY E. M. HOLMES. F.L.S., 



Ourator of the Museum of the Phwrmaceutical Society. 



Essence of Limes from Trinidad. 

 In March last there was offered for sale in the London 

 market some oil of limes which differed very considerably 

 in flavour from previous consignments. A sample of this 

 oil. presented to the Museum by Messrs. Wright. Layman 

 and Uinney was so exceedingly fragrant and bore so strong 

 a resemblance in colour and odour and taste to the finest 

 or " perfumer's " essence of lemon that it was difficult to 

 believe that it could have been obtained from limes. Under 

 these circumstances I asked Mr. J. 0. Braithwaite to com- 

 pare it with other commercial samples of the oils of lemons 

 and limes, and he reported as follows: — 



At 60 - 



Essentia] 



oil of 



limes. 



Trinidad. 



Sp. gr. 

 Boiling points 



Nitric acid 



Nessler 



Phosphoric 

 acid 



0-8741 



177-7° C. 



Dark red- 

 brown. 



Canary- 

 yellow. 



Deep um- 

 ber. 



Essential 

 oil of limes, 

 com- 

 mercial. 



Essential 

 oil of 

 lemon, 



0-8655 



17S° 0. 





Colour test. 

 Brown. 



0-8566 



175-5 ° 0. 



Red brown 



Egg yellow Canary 

 yellow. 



Light red 

 umber. 



Umber. 



Essential 

 oil of " 

 lemon, 



h. 



0-8(122 

 177 °C. 



Yellowish 

 brown. 



Pale 

 canary- 

 yellow. 



Red brown 



" The solubility of the Trinidad oil is very different from 

 that of commercial essence of lemon. It is soluble in the 

 proportion of 1 part, in 5 of alcohol of sp. gr. 0-838; so 

 is commercial oil of limes. 



"Commercial oil of lemon is barely soluble in the same 

 menstruum -n the proportion of I in 15. 



" The taste of the Trinidad oil, while quite different from 

 that of commercial oil of limes, has a slightly peculiar but 

 not unpleasant after-taste. " 



Beim? puzzled to know why an essential oil differing so 

 much in flavour from ordinary oil of limes should he ex- 

 ported under that name, I made iuquiries of Mr. H. Prestoe, 



