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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1884. 



AGRICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 

 (Special Letter.) 



Paris, July 19th. 

 There was no doubt as to the efficacy of the Pasteur 

 discovery of vaccination of stock against the charbon dis- 

 ease. Experiments widely conducted on oxen, sheep and 

 pigs, confirmed the value of vaccination as a preservative. 

 But one point remained to be determined. How long did 

 Hit rue icy of the vaccination last? It was no more per- 

 manent in the case of stock than of smallpox with human 

 beings. Roughly, its preservative action was set down at 

 six months. To test the point, the Agricultural Society of 

 Heiault experimented on three races of sheep peculiar to 

 the south of France, of which one, the. Larzac, yields the 

 milk from which the famous Roquefort cheese is prepared. 

 Thirty-six sheep were set apart for experiment, and were 

 installed at the Agricultural College of Montpellier. This 

 was in May 1382. In May 1883, six sheep, chosen two by 

 two, from the several breeds, were inoculated with the 

 poisoned virus and resisted its action. In the following 

 November the experiment was effected on another lot of six, 

 same result, immunity. After the lapse of another six 

 months, that is in May 18S4, six more animals were simil- 

 arly treated, and with equally satisfactory results, whilst 

 sheep that had not been vaccinated succumbed. Hence, 

 sheep vaccinated in 1S82 resisted the virulent virus in May 

 1884; that is to siy, the immunity was assured for two 

 years. 



Professor Heiden of Pommritz has devoted considerable 

 attention to the subject of farmyard manure. He draws 

 attention to the fact, that, while the employment of arti- 

 ficial mauures annually augments, and while amelioration 

 takes place in the races of cattle, food has become more 

 concentrated for stock, and farm offices have been improved 

 in construction, but little proportionate attention has been 

 given to the conservation of farmyard manure or to its 

 treatment. In some out-offices, the manure is only removed 

 every week or every month ; sometimes longer. The manure 

 is either carted directly to the field or placed in a heap. 

 The- Professor inclines to view that the best manure is 

 nude by leaving the litter unchanged as long as possible, 

 but on 'condition that the urine or liquid manure be care- 

 fully economized. 



Farmyard manure, when neglected, loses the greater part 

 Y)f its soluble matters— now, these are the most precious— 

 ami at the same time a notable proportion of nitrogen, 

 under the form of carbonate of ammonia. Farmyard man- 

 ure consists of excrements, urine, and litter. Urine de- 

 composes the most rapidly; when fresh, the nitrogen exists 

 under the form of urea and hippuric acid; there exists 

 also a small quantity in the ammouia aud in the colour- 

 ing principles of the urine. By the simple absorption of 

 water, the urea is rapidly changed into carbonate of am- 

 i,i,, iiia. The, hippuric acid is not slow either in decompos- 

 ing: urine collected after a space of two days contains 

 ii, lie, aud in that time it loses about 50 per cent of its 

 nitrogen. 



Having a well-constructed liquid manure tank, the Pro- 

 fessor urges the employment not the less of gypsum or 

 kaiuite. Ami the form in which gypsum ought to be used 

 is as it comes as refuse in the fabrication of superphos- 

 phates and phosphates, that is to say, when caprolithes 

 are reduced to powder, acted upon by sulphuric acid and 

 a solution of lime. Now 2 per cent of this gypsum 

 will fix the volatile carbonate of ammonia. From one to 

 three pounds per head of stock per day will suffice. Small 

 fanners, however, ought to take care and not have their 

 sh, <ls too warm, as that would, from a diminution of 

 oxygen in that atmosphere, induce the formation of sulph- 

 uret of calcium, which, generating sulphureted hydrogen 

 s, would create a bad odour. 

 In the neighbourhood of Rouen sulphuret of carbon is 

 successfully employed to destroy field-mice. A vessel cap- 

 abli of containing five quarts of the liquid, that which is 

 employed also against the phylloxera, has a cock with a 

 protruding pipe arrangement; the latter is placed at the 

 in,, nth of the mice-holes, and a simple turn of the cock 

 empties a measured dose of the poison. 



I have been informed of a new snaffle combination for 

 stopping bolting horses. This consists of a chain arrange- 

 ment, which comes into operation the moment the ordin- 

 ary reins break, or are dropped, and forces two plates in 



metal-covered leather over the horse's nostrils, beside 5 

 closing the mouth. The animal, uuable to breathe, stops 

 It is in contemplation to again resume the experiment 

 of cultivating model farms on the metayage system, by 

 which pupils would have a share in the profits. This would 

 break them in when they entered on the Association plan 

 on their own account with landed proprietors. 



A good deal of wheat is now being imported from India, 

 and more will certainly arrive as the tolls of the Suez 

 Canal are reduced. There is another product that might 

 be studied, that of forage. This is generally insufficient in 

 France, and there is ever a brisk demand for good hay. 

 Half-a-century ago India exported compressed hay to 

 France. 



Many of the seed merchants in France present to farm 

 schools samples of new plants, seeds and manures, pro- 

 vided the soil will be specially allocuted to the end in 

 view. The farmers in the locality club to pay the rent 

 of a piece of ground, and follow the practical experiments 

 with interest and profit. 



Agricultural asylums are to be organized for worn-out 

 labourers; by paying a small sum weekly, a labourer will 

 have the right to food and shelter, at a certain age, with 

 an opportunity to add to his income by moderate work. 

 The hot summer has developed an enormous number of 

 vipers ; their bites are cured by carbolic acid. 



Earwigs, so destructive to vegetation, are also numerous ; 

 get a flower-pot, place therein a little bran, cover with a 

 slate or tile, put it next a fruit bush or young vegetable ; 

 soon the pot will be filled with the insects. 



BETWEEN THE POMEROON AND THE ORINOCO. 



The vegetation of the district, to which we must next 

 turn, has already been described as regards its general 

 characters in distinguishing the parallel tracts of mangrove 

 and mora, which occupy the whole district. But while 

 the mangrove and the mora, respectively, are by far the 

 most abundant plants in these two tracts, other plants are 

 of course intermingled with these, especially in the mora 

 tract. And as these additional plants differ in some de- 

 gree from those general throughout the colony, they claim 

 a few words of notice. 



Next to the mangrove and mora, the most abundant 

 vegetation is supplied by palms of various species. Of 

 these the manicole palm (Euterpe edulis) is the most pro- 

 miueut, growing as it does in a profusion greater even 

 than in other parts of British Guiana. It is abundant in 

 the mangrove tract, and is present, though in less abund- 

 ance, in the mora tract; but it is just where the one of 

 these tracts passes into the other that it flourishes most. 

 On either side of the Biara river, for instance, which runs 

 just where the two tracts meet, it occurs in surprising 

 numbers. Indeed, the dense " bush " there consists almost 

 entirely of enormous numbers of manicoles, varied only by 

 a good many bushes, or rather small trees of . ' wild 

 chocolate' (Pachira aquatica), of unusually large size, 

 and a few trees of a kind (Spathelia sp?) of which more 

 will be said presently. 



But if manicole is unusually abundant in the district, 

 another palm, common elsewhere throughout the colony, 

 is here remarkable for its great scarcity. Throughout the 

 district there are but very few kokerite palms (Maxi- 

 miliana rei/ia) ; and those which do occur are of remark- 

 ably stunted growth. Nowhere in this district does one 

 seethe noble column-like trunk, the grandlycurved capital of 

 huge down-hanging spathes and flowers and fruits, and the 

 noble crown of vast plumed fronds which distinguish the 

 kokerites of other districts. Here, where this palm occurs at 

 all, its dwarfed leaves risetono great height, it is almost with- 

 out stem and has its few miserable bunches of flowers 

 and fruit alm-st buried in the mud. 



Yet another palm requires notice here. This is the troolie 

 (Matricaria saccifera), which occupies so much of the 

 swamp lands of the Pomeroon and Barima, but is, curiously 

 enough, rare, or at least very locally distributed, in the 

 intermediate, though apparently equally suitable parts. 

 For instance, on the. Waini, at least on those parts of its 

 banks immediately above the junction of the Barimanni, 

 the troolie does not occur at all. But on entering the 



