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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May i, 1885. 



however, the more intelligent planters are reverting to 

 slower firing at a lower temperature. The question, how- 

 ever, as between the two methods is a matter which, I 

 venture to say, is still sub judice. 



"With the large quantites of tea which have now to 

 be dealt with— large factories and large outturns — machinery 

 is absolutely indispensible, and must needs, ere long, be 

 much more largely utilised. You are accordingly, I feel 

 sure, doing a benefit to the industry in directing atten- 

 tion to the important question of quality ; and the sug- 

 gestion that a better knowledge of chemistry would be 

 advantageous to those engaged in the practical operatious 

 of tea-making is a good one. Never, perhaps, more than 

 at the present moment was ' market ' more critical of the 

 quality of the teas which are offered them." — Home and 



Colonial Mail. 



« 



BLACK PEPPER. 

 Some of our readers wish to know more about the 

 pepper, that is always on every American table that 

 supports a castor, than the mere fact that it is a tropical 

 product, and is grown chiefly on the spice islands south 

 of the Asiatic peninsula Well, we wish to please, as 

 well as to instruct our readers. 



Black pepper was for ages considered a very choice article. 

 Like gold, silver and precious stones, it was for mauy 

 generations found only on royal tables, and those of the 

 rich and noble who aspired to rank with the rulers of the 

 realm. Choice spices and rare gums were among the 

 precious treasures of the kings of Eygpt more than two 

 thousand years before the Christian era. The trading 

 Midiauitic caravan that purchased Joseph from his brothers 

 and sold him into Egypt were bearers of "spicery and 

 balm " for the Egyptian market. And when the sons of 

 Jacob were makiug preparations to visit that land the 

 second time, to propitiate the "Lord of the realm," their j 

 father said to them : "Take of the best fruits of the land, 

 and carry down a little balm and a little honey, spices | 

 and myrrh, nuts and almonds." Indeed, during the palmy 

 days of Egypt, when they embalmed all their distin- 

 guished dead, precious gums and fragrant, pungent spices 

 were largely called into requisition. Even the Israelites, 

 in their ritualistic worship, held in such high esteem 

 many of these rare gums and oils that their law forbade 

 their use for any other purpose. 



It is not, therefore, surprising that during the first 

 centuries of the Christian era even the common spice, 

 which is known as black pepper, was prized as highly in 

 the city of Borne as its weight iu gold. 



When this pepper was first discovered it was growing 

 spontaneously as a kind of wild vine. It was found in 

 narrow, well-wooded valleys, where the soil was rich and 

 moist, the air hot and humid. Such conditions are found 

 iu Southern India, Java, Sumatra, Siena Leone and Isle 

 of France. It grows on vines— not unlike grapes, but 

 much smaller, which creep along the ground, aud fre- 

 quently throw out new roots. It is most successfuly cultiv- 

 ated under tall trees, which secure for the vine, shade 

 and support. The vine may be cultivated and trained to 

 ascend large trees, into whose rough bark it fastens its 

 roots or tendrils. Where the soil is deep, rich and moist, 

 these vines will often reach a height of 20 to 30 feet. 

 Though for convenience of gathering, they are seldom 

 permitted to grow much higher than a man's head. The 

 leaves are oval and the blossoms white. When these 

 fall the berries grow on the stem that is lefr, an I this 

 spike of a vigorous vine will bear from twenty to fifty 

 berries. From green they turn to red, aud when they 

 attain a dark chocolate shade, they are deemed mature, 

 and the spike is pinched off and placed on mats, or on 

 hard, dry, smooth ground in the sun or iu open baskets 

 before a gentle fire a few days. They are then cleaned 

 and ready to be placed in mats or sacks which are called 

 piculs. Each of these, when well filled, is supposed to 

 weigh 133A pounds. 



Spices of all kinds, like teas, coffee and fruits of every 

 variety, are greatly improved by cultivation aud wise, 

 skillful 'attention. The migration of Chinese and Europeans 

 to Southern Asia, Malacca and the Spice Islands, who 

 have given special attention to the growth and cultivation 

 of pepper have greatly increased its production and 



intrinsic value. Yet, at the same time, they have learned 

 that it is possible to mix up with the pure berry the 

 pepper stems, pieces of the vine and other material, 

 which, when pulverized, taste and smell so much like 

 pepper, that none but an expert can intelligently affirm 

 that the product is either impure or adulterated. 



But conscientious and houorable meu, who own and 

 run mills for grinding pepper, as carefully screen the 

 pure, round pepper berry from stems, vines, dirt and 

 rubbish of all kinds, as a good miller does wheat and 

 corn from smut, cobs and all foreign material, before 

 they pour these grains into the hopper.— Independent 

 Journal. 



SPIDER-SILK. 



There are many more things in heaven and earth than 

 are dreamt of iu our philosophy, although a hackneyed 

 truism, is of special application in the domains of science. 

 Natural history supplies instances where the wildest dream 

 of the visionary has found a resting-place in the ordinary 

 occurrences of life. From the period of the legendary 

 introduction of the silk-worm into Europe by a pious 

 fraud of the Jesuit Fathers down to a comparatively 

 recent date, the spirit of enquiry has never slept in regard 

 to the progressive display of silk-producing insects. It 

 was, however, reserved for the Society of Arts to lend 

 encouragement to investigations in this direction, by award- 

 ing a medal to one Mr. Rolt for his success in obtaining 

 an appreciable quantity of silk from the garden spider, 

 and thus inuagurating a new aud important era in the 

 annals of commerce. That gentleman accomplished his 

 purpose by connecting reel with a steam engine, setting 

 it revolving at the rate of 150 feet per minute ; when, after 

 two hours' patience, he wound off 18,000 feet of beautiful 

 white line of a metallic lustre from twenty-four spiders. 

 Subsequent examination proved this thread to be only the 

 30,000th part of an inch in diameter, so that a single pound 

 weight was estimated to be sufficient to encircle the globe. 

 This was about fifty years ago, and Mr. Rolt's experiments 

 were not pushed further. It was reserved for a French- 

 man to manufacture gloves aud stockings of spider-silk. 

 But owing to the extreme difficulty of bringing together 

 a numerous family of spinners within a reasonable space, 

 on account of their pugnacity, led to the abandonment 

 of the industry. Certain species of foreign spiders, how- 

 ever, when examined with a view to their silk, offer a 

 field for very considerable encouragement. In the island 

 of Ceylou there is one, two inches long, with a large 

 yellow spot upon its back, which spins a beautiful yellow 

 web -lh feet in diameter, so strong that an ordinary walk- 

 ing stick thrown in, is entangled and retained among the 

 meshes. As might be expected the filament, which is said 

 to exhibit a more silky appearance than common spiders' 

 web, is easily wound by hand on a card without any care 

 being exercised in the operation. There is another spider 

 of more formidable dimensions. It is a large black, yel- 

 low-spotted creature, measuring more than six inches 

 across its extended legs, and it spins a web strained on 

 lines as stout as fine sewing cotton. It is to be found 

 in moderately warm southerly latitudes like New Zealand, 

 Queensland, and the Cape of C4ood Hope. In habits it 

 is exactly the reverse of its European brother, for, instead 

 of devouring each other, it exists in little harmonious 

 communities of upwards of a hundred, of different ages 

 aud sizes occupying a common web. It spins a beautiful 

 yellow net-work about 12 feet iu diameter, quite as strong 

 as the silk of commerce. A traveller who had an ad- 

 venture with it says:— "Iu passing through an opening 

 between some trees, I felt my head entangled in the 

 meshes of an immense cob-web, which was drawn like a 

 veil of thick gauze across the opening, aud was expanded 

 from branch to branch of the opposite trees as large as 

 a sheet, 10 or 12 feet in diameter." Another account 

 says that it sometimes covers au entire lemon tree, aud 

 its diameter was estimated at ten yards. But the latest 

 addition to our knowledge of spider-silk comes from the 

 Paris "Ecole Pratique d'Acelimation," a member of which 

 has discovered an African species which spins a strong 

 yellow web, so very like the product of the silk-worms 

 as to be scarcely distinguishable from it. This promises 

 to be a fibre of commeece of the future, as after a close 



