654 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Femmrrv s, 1883. 



should be increased to one ounce per gallon of liquid as a 

 strong solution; apply with the syringe or engine very 

 early in the morning; the sun will disengage the fumes 

 perceptibly to the nasal organs. The fumes are given off 

 at about 90° Fahrenheit's scale, when the blight is killed. 

 A combination of soot and lime liquid is still more effect- 

 ive. The (Strawberry is subject to mildew. Phosphor in 

 paste, spread upon thinly sliced bread or chupaties, cut 

 into bits, strewed about, and placed in the runs and haunts 

 of rats, mice, and other vermin, will soon rid the place 

 of them. 



I was very successful in the culture of the Strawberry 

 many years ago in the plains of the Punjab. 



"When I took charge of my work there, a quantity of 

 plants were pointed out to me in a piece of ground pre- 

 pared in ridges and furrows ; the object having been to 

 plant on the sides of the ridges facing northward. The 

 work had been done very badly, the plants were much 

 too low in the furrows in many instances, and were liable 

 to be swamped and covered with water by irrigation. 

 Many were dead, others dying, those planted above the 

 water line being alive. My opinion and intentions were 

 solicited and given; but the idea of raised beds in India 

 was laughed at. Though every conceivable site and sys- 

 tem of culture, under the shade of trees and in the open, 

 had been tried, and tried without success, yet this new 

 idea was set down as madness. Although discouraged, I 

 hopefully set to work and secured the remnant of the 

 plants by potting them, and until they had recovered, 

 placing them in a shady situation. Beds were prepared, 

 and planting followed in due course. The sequel was very 

 gratifying to me, and the result of my first attempt at 

 the culture of the Strawberry in this country was a 

 marked success. I had the pleasure of gathering, upon 

 an average, about a lb. of fruit per day for six weeks, 

 more or less, and within six months from the time I had 

 taken the matter in hand. The hot winds came on, and 

 dust-storms also, sometimes accompanied with rain and hail, 

 and followed by excessive heat. The plants suffered severly 

 in June and July, and many died in August, during the 

 rains. Those plants, however, which had been grown in the 

 shade afforded by some young guava and orange trees, 

 not only survived but produced runners freely, from which 

 I obtained sufficient young stock to double the quantity 

 the following season. From this observation, I adopted 

 shading and protection from the rains, afterwards, to ad- 

 vantage. My stock was again doubled in quantity the third 

 season with a large number of young plants to spare. I 

 was not, however, so successful in securiug the ripe fruit. 

 Wire netting was not available or procurable in the Punjab 

 for making protectors at that time (lbdi to 1S67). I had 

 felt the want of it previously as a protection against ordin- 

 ary depredators, but in three years the Panjabis had 

 acquired something beyond a taste for this fruit, amounting 

 to a passion, for as soon as the red tint appeared and 

 the fruit was barely three parts grown, everyoncdisappeared 

 without being allowed to ripen. 



In the hill stations, there is no difficulty in growing 

 Strawberry plants, but the proper routine of cultivation 

 is not observed, nor any care taken with them. When 

 planted, fruit may be gathered from them the following 

 season in April or May; aftarwards, being neglected, they 

 run into a wild mass, and deterioration follows. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the Strawberry 

 is not -a lasting plant anywhere ; and to secure fine pro- 

 duce and good crops, it needs renewal annually or bi- 

 ennially in this country, and if this is neglected it will 

 deteriorate. From a business point of view, its culture is 

 very remunerative as was abundantly shown by Mr. 

 Smith's experiment at Thana. He also grows it there as 

 an ornamental plant, in flower beds. 



find so much as an acre regularly planted up with this 

 product in either of the countries named. There are, of 

 course, obvious and sufficient reasons for this, and also for 

 the fact that Sierra Leone should lead the van, because 

 the tree is indigenous to the forests of that colony, and 

 there is already a trade in the nut there. We are not 

 surprised, therefore, to learn from one of the local papers 

 that an effort is being made to form a Joint Stock Com- 

 pany, under the title of the "Kola Nut Planting and 

 Trailing Company," with the object of cultivating an estate 

 of about 300 acres, and those on the spot who are well 

 able to judge speak of the prospects of the enterprise as 

 very encouraging. For our part we have not yet seen any 

 reliable data as to the cost of creating and working such 

 an estate, nor any estimate of the probable returns, but 

 from what we have recently learned regarding the valuable 

 dietetic properties of kola nut, we have no doubt that there 

 is an important future before it. The main fact in this 

 connection is that Mr. T. Christy has discovered a method 

 of so treating the kola nut as to render it a most valu- 

 able food product, and an agent for improving the flavour 

 of cocoa. For the present the process is kept secret, but 

 we are informed that the practical effect of adding even 

 a small quantity of the prepared kola nut cake to inferior 

 cocoa, is to render its flavour in the cup equal to that of 

 the best quality. If this be so, it is needless to say that 

 with the growing consumption of cocoa all over the world, 

 there is a very large field for the kola nut even in this 

 way. There is, however, one thing which will, we fear, 

 militate somewhat against its cultivation by European plant- 

 ers. We are told that it is not until the fifth year after 

 planting that the tree comes into bearing, and, therefore, 

 it will not suit everyone to invest in it on an extensive 

 scale. — Planters' Gazette. 



CULTIVATION OF THE KOLA NUT. 

 To Sierra Leone, so far as we are aware, belongs the 

 credit of having started the first organised scheme for the 

 cultivation of the kola nut on a commercial scale. Plants 

 have been sent to Ceylon and Southern India by Mr. T. 

 Christy, and introduced into the public gardens in India 

 and Ceylon, and here and there private growers are making 

 experiments with them, but we feel sure that we shall be 

 within the mark if we say that it would be impossible to 



THE ADULTERATION OF TEA, COFFEE 

 AND COCOA. 



A chemical lecture was delivered on Friday, the 5th inst., 

 in the Hygienic Laboratory of the Health Exhibitiou at 

 South Kensington, on "Adulteration of Common Food." 

 Mr. Cassall in his opening remarks stated that the sub- 

 ject of the adulteration of food was an extremely wide 

 one. The meaning' of the word "food" was more extend- 

 ed in hygienic than iu common language, as it included 

 alcohol aud tobacco. In defining the word "adulteration" 

 a distinction' must be made between it and impurity. 

 There might be impurities present in food which the 

 manufacturer could not help to a certain extent, and in 

 regard to some food a certain amount of impurity was 

 permitted. Adulteration he defined as the addition of 

 some substance to the food which would enable it to be 

 sold at more profit to the seller than by selling it in its 

 pure state. The articles used iu adulteration might be 

 deleterious to health, or not. Deleterious adulteration was 

 a very serious offence, although it was not so regarded by 

 those who administered the law. In consequence of the 

 passing of the Adulteration Act, adulteration had very 

 much lessened in this country, and therefore the Act had 

 done a great deal of good. Referring to tea the lecturer 

 said this used to be very considerably adulterated with 

 leaves other than tea, aud with sand which had been put 

 on the leaves. It also used to be a practice to cover tea- 

 leaves with prussian blue to give it a more pleasant appear- 

 ance. That was especially the case with green teas. The 

 Chinese themselves were very clever at adulteration, the 

 most common being what was known as "lye tea." That 

 was made by steeping the leaves in gum, aud then rolling 

 them in a heavy sort of sand. The detection of that, 

 however, was very easy, for if some of the tea were boiled, 

 it would dissolve, and the sand, of course, would be fouud 

 in the vessel. Another form of adulteration was the use 

 of exhausted leaves, which practice seemed to have come 

 in again in this country. Some persons would buy ex- 

 cessively cheap teas, and they gotexhausted leaves which were 

 dried aud sold again. That was very easily detected by 

 the naked eye. Then, again, tea was adulterated by the 

 presence of leaves other than tea, such as the leaf of the 

 willow. That, however, could also be detected by observ- 

 ing the special character of the original tea-leaf, the vivns 

 of which turned up in a peculiar manner. Referring next 



