182 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1884, 



THE JUICE OF THE PAPAYA FRUIT. 



A correspondent has been good enough to send us 

 the latest information regarding this fruit and its uses, 

 as follows : — 



"Papain, papainum or vegetable pepsin may be pre- 

 pared from the juice of the green fruit of carica 

 papaya by adding alcohol, which precipitates papain. 

 This precipitate is dried and powdered, and is then 

 quite ready for use. Brunton considers that, in its 

 peptonising powers, it is superior to the ordinary 

 animal pepsin, and it has the additional advantage 

 of neither requiring the addition of an acid nor an 

 alkali to convert the contents of the stomach into 

 peptone. It is extensively used both in France and 

 Germany, and has been given with good results even 

 to children. It is an invaluable remedy in the dys- 

 pepsia of those recovering from attacks of cholera. 

 No planter upcountry should have any difficulty in 

 preparing it. It should be thoroughly dried in the 

 sun on a hot-plate and preserved in well stoppered 

 bottles. In France, it is mixed with starch to pre- 

 serve it, and is often made up in the form of papain 

 lozenges, ' Drage.es de Papai'ue,' of which two forma 

 dose. The ' Syrop de Papaine ' is also a favourite 

 form as well as papainwein and papain elixir. The 

 alcoholic preparations of it are the most popular. This 

 vegetable pepsin is said to digest the tapeworm in 

 the intestines, and the juice of the carica papaya is 

 a favourite domestic remedy for the expulsion of that 

 worm in Brazil." 



THE TEA TRADE. 

 In reply to an article that appeared in our contemporary the 

 Standard "The Owner of a Sensitive Tongue" writes: — 

 The day has goue by for excitement over the first arrivals 

 fom Oliiua. Buyers and sellers would be only too thank- 

 ful could the market be opened a month or two later, 

 instead of in the middle of the holiday, or " slack " time, 

 as we call it. It would be a good thing for the British 

 producers in India and Ceylon if the public could be taught 

 to discriminate between good and bad tea. Why a man 

 shoidd boast in his dining-room of the price he pays for 

 his claret, while iu his drawing room his wife boasts that 

 she gets her tea for next to uothing, is a mystery. Good 

 tea is not sold for nothing in Mincing-lane, I can assure 

 you, aud the matron who thinks she can buy the rial 

 thing at a low price displays a credulity about tea which 

 does not characterize her in other matters. You must 

 allow me, sir, to take exceptiom to your dictum that a 

 taster's palate wears out iu eight years. Mine has had 

 more than the average amount of work for fiftecu, and is 

 good fur another fifteen years, I hope. Our digestive 

 apparatus and our stjmachs, alas! wear out too soon, and 

 we fly for relief to Cavendish-square. And then you 

 advertize that we are highly paid ! I cau assure you we 

 do not think so. l'ray, sir, contradict the report, or the 

 market will be overstocked with would be tasters. Like 

 poets, great generals, and K. A.'s tea tasters are born, not 

 made — London and China Express. 



THE HON. SIR V. NAZ'S REPORT ON LABOUR. 



[It iscuiious that with so large a number of Indians 

 resident iu Mauritius the labour difficulty should be 

 the subject of constant complaint. But the following 

 extract will shew that the former coolies were becoming 

 landholders on their own account. — En.] 



The Hon. Sir V. Naz's "Third Interim I!eport"as 

 chairman of the committee of the whole Council on 

 the supply of labour and the cost of production of 

 sugar is remarkably well drawn up and lucid. Every 

 point which can in any way bear upon the subject has 

 been taken up and well reasoned. The total male 

 Indian population lias in 18 years 1867 to '84, decreased 

 by 10,000, in round numbers from 157,000 to 147,000 ; 

 the delicit has been partly made up by 11,000 Creoles 

 of Indian extraction engaged under written contract ; 



fact 



some 



but 



than 



these 



but the tabulated statement of old aud other immi- 

 grants under engagement gives only about 37,000 of the 

 147,000 male immigrants in the Colony — shewing some 

 110,000 who are not engaged; who are occupied in 

 small culture, and as hawkers, those who work on 

 estates without contract, servants and workmen, and 

 others having no regular occupation. 



We must however not overlook the 

 that the said 147,000 male Indians include 

 50,000 boys from 10 to 20 years of age 

 again that total number- comprizes more 

 10,000 above 55 years of age, the ages of 

 latter may be compensated in some degree by some 

 of the 50,000 boys. 



The Report says that the increase of the total male 

 population of Mauritius (i.e. of all nationalities) has 

 been in the last 14 years only 3,224. The number of 

 children from 1 to 10 years has increased by 7,011. 

 The aged Indians above 55 years have increased by 

 5,127, whilst the number of adult Indians has decreased 

 by nearly 12,000. Here we shall copy a paragraph of 

 Sir Virgile's, as it is so well expressed. 



" The consequence of which is that employers with 

 money in their hands, cannot, even at an excessive 

 price, get the labour which they absolutely want ; it 

 becomes evident that, however desirable it may be to 

 restrict vagrancy and desertion aud to induce, by fair 

 and just means, the Indians now in the Colony who 

 can be efficient labourers, and who do not work, to 

 become industrious and to earn an honest livelihood; 

 the time has certainly not yet come when this Colony 

 should try to secure the return to India of the new 

 immigrants whom it may introduce for some years 

 to come, so long as they are young and strong enough 

 to be efficient labourers." 



A large number of Indians and Indo-Mauritians are 

 gradually becoming small land-owners. The epizooties 

 having destroyed so mauy of their mules and cattle, 

 they considered that plots nf land were a much surer 

 investment. The Report tells us that the Transcrip- 

 tion and Registration Office is at ttje Committee's 

 request preparing a tabulated statement of the number 

 of Indians who have purchased aud leased land. It 

 is thought that there are at least 10,000 Indians who 

 have done so. — Met caiitile Record and Commercia 

 Gazette. 



BARON LIEBIG'S MALTO-LEGUMINE COCOA AND 

 CHOCOLATE WORKS (LIMITED), BEEMONDSEY 

 STREET, LONDON. 

 It is now some fifteeu years ago that the late Charles 

 Dickens leftit upon record that "to convince an untutored, 

 or even a semi-educated person, that nearly all the in nits 

 of a juicy or a succulent steak may, by judicious cooking, 

 be derived from the humble bean, the disregarded oak- 

 mushroom, or the despised oniou, would be a task not much 

 less difficult or arduous than was Galileo's persistent de- 

 monstration that our earth is round ; " yet, in these days 

 of experimental hygiene, a mighty effort is being made to 

 change all this, and the present International Health Ex- 

 hibition is a grain! example of the truth of our remarks. 

 Amongst the food exhibits we notice with considerable in- 

 terest samples of leguminous articles of diet prepared at 

 the Baron Liebig's Malto-legumine Cocoa and Chocolate 

 Works (Limited!, Bermondsey Street, which are destined 

 doubtless, to take a somewhat prominent position in alter- 

 ing the traditional standard by which in the past the re- 

 lative value of nutritive substances has been establi 

 The company carrying on tin pas formed in order 



to acquire the exclusive right to manufacture and to sell 

 Baron Hermann von I. icing's malto-legumine, and also his 



not only in the United 

 . im, but also in all the British coloi 

 and possessions. Now, the name of Baron biebig lias long 

 principally u wit] 



supply, and it is, perhaps, not too 

 much to say that no name 1- 



