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THE TROPICAL AGTUCULTURTST. 



[October i, 1884. 



longer cultivated, because there are some among them 

 unfit for the preparing of quinine and hence are of little 

 value. In the nurseries only seedlings or slips of C. 

 Ledgeriana — 0. officinalis — and Succirubra are now found, 

 the first of which furnishes a superior bark for quinine, 

 with 2 a 8 p. Ot. of quinine. The second (C. officinalis) 

 less rich, but advantageous enough for the manufacture, 

 has an advantage in culture, that it very well endures 

 a severer climate in the higher elevations of 7,000 feet, 

 while the third sort (C. Succirubra) thrives quickly and 

 vigorously also in the lower regions of 3,500 feet, and 

 yields the favourite bark of the apothecary — the red bark. 

 Of the formerly so highly-lauded Cinchona Pahudiana 

 How. represented by more than a million of plants, nothing 

 more remains than a few specimens, living witnesses for 

 History. As the substantial sort in the. row of Botanical 

 Science it has long since disappeared. — Indian Mercury. 



The Use of Oyster Shells in the Manufacture of 

 Soap. — A correspondent states the fact that in France oyster- 

 shells are reduced to a coarse powder by grinding and 

 stamping. When dried, this powder is sold to the makers 

 of carbonated water. The bitter portion of the shells is 

 during the process separated, and after being carefully col- 

 lected it is used in the manufacture of soap. — Independent 

 Journal. 



orange Culture. — Orange trees never thrive well, or 

 atta.n a great age, unless their roots are able to penetrate 

 the subsoil to a great depth. The worst subsoils are sour 

 clay and impenetrable rock. If the subsoil is gravel or 

 loose slialy rock in which the routs can make way, the 

 plants will succeed, and grow in proportion to the quality 

 of the surface soil or the way in which the surface roots 

 are fed. The trees are likely to last longer if the seeds 

 are sown where they have to remain, and they grow more 

 robust. — Lta ler. 



Ceme.t i'ok Protecting Wounds of Trees. — It is de- 

 cidedly advisable tojeover wounds on fruit trees made by 

 cutting off branches. You may use any of the following 

 recipes:— Take 1 quart of tar and beil it slowly three or 

 four hours. Add to the bailing' tar 4 oz. of tallow and 

 1 lb. ol beeswax and stir till well mixed; then remove 

 the vessel from the fire and stir till the contents begin 

 to thicken. Have ready 1 lb. of dry and sifted clay, and 

 stir it throughly until you can stir it no longer. In warm 

 weather this cement is soft enough to be easily spread 

 wiih the point of a knife. When applied to wounds on 

 trees it completely exclules moisture, does not harden or 

 crack, or scale off', yie'ds to the new growth and can at 

 any time in moderately warm weather be pressed by the 

 finger into corners and crevices of the wound which may 

 be uncovered. One of ■ ur correspondents says that he 

 has found a cheap and safe application to be that of tar 

 anil puunded brick applied with a swab. His experience 

 has neen that it will last for years, or until the stub 

 is healed over. An application of gam-shellac dissolved in 

 alcohol, common grafting wax or either of the above pre- 

 parations is exceedingly useful in preventing season crack 

 where the limbs have been cut off. — Lender. 



The water which alights as rain is not the same as 

 the water which existed in the chui. That we must 

 imagine to have be°n pure water, as it was when present 

 as an invisible gas in lie midst of the clear blue air. 

 This has already picked up many foreign ingredients also 

 present in the air, through which the falling shower has 

 passed. Like the mineral cloud in tie midst of the glacier 

 river, it has carried down with it all it could— more, 

 indeed, than is possible lor a cloud of mere triturated 

 rock, like that wlrch the Rhone brings down to the 

 I ake of Geneva; for the rain drops possess not only the 

 power ot surface attraction, which is all that particles of 

 rock exert — they are also solvents, and will take into solu- 

 tion all tint is soluble in iha air through which they pass. 

 The air contains many soluble substances besides itself. 

 All life, and still more death and decay, is always tilling 

 it with foreign substances which are soluble in water. 

 Carbonic acid, the product both of respiration and of putre- 

 faction, is largely present in it. Ammonia is present in 

 it. Nitric acid is present in it. Even the chlorine of 

 common salt, thanks to our nearness to the sea, is present 

 iu it. The rain dissolves, absorbs and carries down all 

 tliese things. — Agricultural 6a etti 



Making gas prom city refuse has been tried suc- 

 cessfully in New York. A pound of rubbish was 

 picked up at random in the street old rags, leather, 

 vegetable stumps, bones crusts, egg-shells and cigar- 

 ends — and when placed iu a retort produced a clear 

 steady flame quite as good as that generally used 

 for illuminating purposes. This quantity gave light 

 for lialf-an-liour, and yielded twenty-two feet of gas. 

 — Graphic. 



Disease in Brazil Coffee. — Our papers from 

 Brazil have uot as yet confirmed the statement, set 

 afloat by Dutchmen we believe, that the deadly 

 hemileia va&tatrix had reached Brazil. But, from the 

 following paragraph in the Rio News of July 24th, 

 we gather that the coffee in San Paulo (Santos) had 

 been very seriously affected : — 



A S. Paulo paper, the Rio Branca, says that the coffee 

 pest is caused by an insect called E/achista coffeila and 

 not by Sequilha, nor Saltao. We wouder which is worse 

 for the coffee ! 



A Stimulant for Tomatoes. — "Beginner," Wakefield, 

 Mass., asks: — "What artificial fertilizer can be used upon 

 a crop of tomatoes to give a quick aud temporary result ? " 

 The soil for tomatoes may be easily made too rich, and 

 the vines stimulated to rampant growing rather than to 

 fruit bearing. A light, sandy soil, with a little well de- 

 composed stable manure in the hill at planting, gives better 

 crops than a strong soil heavily manured. Of the artificial 

 fertilizers, a good superphosphate is likely to give the best 

 resuls. A tablespoonful or so to each plant to be worked 

 into the soil at the time of setting out, or rather more 

 applited later, when hoeing, will probably be of gocd seivice. 

 — American Agriculturist. 



China Tea in Bond in London at 6|d. per 

 Lb. — A correspondent, " R. W. J.," writes to us : — 

 " With reference to your doubt expressed in your 

 review of Mr. Colquhouu's letter to the London Timea 

 that ' China tea is sold iu London as low as Is 

 per lb.' I send you herewith samples of 100 half- 

 chests bought by a friend of mine, a contractor, who 

 gave it to me at 6jd a lb. in bond in May last. 

 Having been kept in paper so long, it is musty, 

 but you can judge of the leaf by infusion." The 

 tea, but for its mustiness, is what a Scotchman 

 would characterize as " No that bad," But, however 

 well the buying price might suit a contractor, either 

 the grower or the middleman must have lost by the 

 selling price. But even this tea could not be retailed, 

 after the paytneut of 6d per lb. duty, at anything 

 less than Is 6d per lb. 



A correspondent has sent us a specimen of a twin 

 tea leaf taken off a heavily pruned bush of a very 

 fair hybrid. It is a peculiarity of growth and co- 

 hesion which is not very rare, and is referred to in 

 Dr. Masters work on Vegetable Tetratology, in 

 which he says that the union of the margins of two 

 or more different organs is of common occurrence, the 

 loaves being frequently subjected to this change. 

 Occasionally, the leaflets of a compound leaf have 

 been observed united by their margins, as in the 

 strawberry, the white trefoil, and others. Sometimes 

 the union takes place by means of the stalks only ; 

 in other cases the whole extent, of the leaf becomes 

 joiued to its neighbour, the leaves thus becoming 

 completely united by their edges. Although usually 

 the lower portions of the leaf are united together, 

 leaving the upper parts more or less detached, there 

 are some instances in which the margins of the leaf 

 at their upper portions have been noticed to be coherent, 

 while their lower portions, with their stalks, were com- 

 pletely nee. — Indian Tea Gazette. [Of these curious 

 united leaves, we have seen many in Ceylon. — Ed.] 



" ROUGH ON RATS. " 

 Clears out rats, mice, roaches, Hies, ants, bed-bugs 

 beetles, insects, skunks, chipmunks, gophers. Druggists 

 W. E. Smith ,\. Co., Madris, Sole Agents. 



