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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1885. 



estate I admired theirflowers and shrubbery. Violets do 

 well both at Radnor and Whitfield Hall, and a great number 

 of roses of good varieties were to be seen in these two well- 

 kept flower gardens iu the Blue Mountains. 



The Teee Tomato. — I must not forget to mention the 

 tree tomato growing to a height of from six to ten feel and 

 bearing fruit the size of an egg with a scarlet skin; it is 

 used as a salad and not long been introduced from South 

 America'. I kept some seeds, and put them down in Port 

 Antonio, but the crabs disturbed the bed and they had 

 not germinated up to the time 1 left that district. 



Skillion Cultivation.— A kind of onion or leek called 

 by the Creoles " Skillion " or " Skellion " is largely cult- 

 ivated for the Kingston market : several acres in patches 

 may be seen near Farm Hill ou the first range of the Blue 

 Mountains. 



Watercress grows wild in the streams. 1 gathered 

 some between Radnor and Abbey Green of fine growth, 

 and saw it growing in many other places in all parts 

 of Jamaica, both in the mountains and iu the lowcountry 

 near the sea. 



Cultivated English Flowers.— English roses, violets, 

 strawberries, dahlias, gladeolas, tuberoses, geraniums, pinks 

 and carnations, Virginian stock, mignonette, cohus, jasmine, 

 begonias, gloxinias, gesuarias, daisies,zinias,and many others 

 too numerous to mention, were met with, between 

 Kingston and Goidontown, the handsome bougainvillea and 

 honeysuckle with Cape jasmine and other climbing plants 

 ornamented the entrances of country villas and cottages. 

 Wild Flowers of Jamaica.— The jungles of Jamaica 

 are liberal in the distribution of wild flowers, the large 

 pink begonia the most imposing, the convolvulus, moon- 

 flower, trumpet-flower, oleander, marvel of Peru, or 4 

 o'clock-plant of many colours, the mamosa or sensitive-plant, 

 which shrinks and folds its diminutive leaves when touched, 

 [ndian " forget-me-not " plauts quite worthy of cultivation 

 in the most artistic garden or rockery, all these beautiful 

 things are shaded by a wild growth of rose and star- 

 apple trees with mango, orange and pear trees, pointing 

 to the fact that all that part of the country between 

 Gordontown and the Blue Mountains has been cultivated 

 and cared for. 



Ferns of Jamaica.— There are said to be as many as 

 five hundred distinct varieties of ferns in this island, and 

 very lovely they are too : the " maidenhair " fern is a 

 •»reat favourite. I have not seen a list of them, to com- 

 pare notes with your Ceylon collection, or those of the 

 Straits. 



Wild Strawberries.— When journeying from tho Blue 

 Mountains by a different route to Port Antonio, I was 

 delighted with the plentiful supply of wild strawberries 

 growin" on the banks over the bridle-path from the Gov- 

 ernment gavdens, and feasted on the wild strawberries until 

 a heavy shower of rain urged me forward, on what proved 

 to be rather a long and tiring journey, from 5,000 feet 

 (five thousand feet) elevation down to the sea shore, be- 

 fore dinner on the same day ! Those who visit Jamaica in 

 the fruit season would be delighted with the treat in store 

 for tbemas far as fruit is concerned. It is a pity that 

 just now a cloud of depression hangs over the whole 

 of the fair islands iu the West Indies. Nothing is pay- 

 in" good returns for cultivation, and sugar, coffee, cinchona, 

 fruit, &c.,are all at a temporary discount. Let us hope 

 there will be a speedy reaotion. Jamaica should do as 

 Ceylon has done, try all products, suitable to climate and 

 soil, and extend those most sought after. _ 



I must conclude my remarks on the tropical agriculture 

 of Jamaica, as this letter is extra long, and trust that what 

 information has heen given will be of service to both 

 the readers of the Ceylon Observer and the Tropical Agri- 

 culturist, and remain, sir, yours faithfully, 



Henry Oottam. 



Mb. Jackson is greatly pleased, we understand, 

 with the Kadawella Tea Factory, Ambagamuwa, Ceylon, 

 the equal of which in accommodation and convenience 

 he thinks is not to be found on many Indian plantations 

 iu India. In Assam, factories are as a rule much lower, 

 precautious having to be taken to guard against a 

 collapse from earthquakes among other risks. 



PLANTING IN NEW GUINEA AND NETHER- 

 LANDS INDIA. 

 [Translated fur the "Straits Times.") 

 Land in New Guinea. — Through 'the Consul-General 

 for the Netherlands in Australia, John Straohan has 

 sent in an application to the Java Government for grant- 

 ing him a concession to turn 350,000 acres of land 

 to account lying in that portion of New Guinea 

 which belongs to the Netherlands. The Government 

 has directed the Head of the department concerned 

 to report on the application. 



A correspondent writes to us as follows from Bata- 

 via : — As you have already been informed by telegraph, 

 the Government, has granted to the Geographical 

 Society of Amsterdum a subsidy of ten thousand guild- 

 ers to meet the expenses of scientific researches in 

 the Western portion of New Guinea. Prom what I 

 can gather that society has been informed that should 

 the finances allow of it a like amount will for the 

 present be put in the estimates every year for the 

 purpose. — Samarang Locomotief. 



The Java Bode of the 10th March asserts that 

 Mr. A. W. Remmert, an expert, has just invented 

 a steam sugar evaporation apparatus both compact 

 and simple iu construction. It is said to be not only 

 cheap but also advantageous to plauters from its com- 

 bining saving of expense in labour, fuel, and machinery 

 with better quality and larger quantity of the product 

 turned out. Fuller particulars are not as yet available. 

 The Sugar cane disease known by the name of ~Scrch 

 continues to spread steadily, it being met with in Java 

 wherever black and red canes aro grown, but geuerally 

 in a sporadic form. White and yellow cane is found 

 to be almost free from it, but the cultivation of these 

 varieties, however advisable on (hat accouut, is at- 

 tended with such difficulties in consequence of their 

 being less hardy and calling for great care in cultivat- 

 ing than the others so liable to the disease, that they 

 are at present chiefly grown by natives. There is every 

 prospect of one of the burdens weighing down the sugar 

 growing interest there being shortly lightened con- 

 siderably by the Netherlands India Railway Company 

 agreeing, subject to Government sanction, to lower its 

 freight rates on low grade sugars. 



According to the Sourabaya Couranl the coffee 

 leaf-disease was continuing to gaiu ground in Java, 

 every remedy suggested having failed on trial, in- 

 cluding that of lighting large files ou the estates 

 to fumigate the coffee trees. At a meeting of coffee 

 planters held recently at that city has decided in 

 consequence of low prices and hard times to lower 

 wages on their plantations 20 per cent, thereby fol- 

 lowing an example already set elsewhere in Java. 



ANTIDOTE FOR SERPENTS' VENOM. 



In your issue of August 21st, Mr. John Williamson 

 speaks of the healing virtues of the plantain leaf for 

 rattlesnake bites. Another remedy, which is, perhaps, 

 not so easily obtainable, +>ut sure to have a beneficial 

 effect if taken immediately after the bite, is simply 

 a quart flask, or, if possible, what is yet better, a two 

 quart flask of good whisky, into which is put about 

 a handful of pounded sassafras root. Shake thoroughly, 

 cork tightly, and you have ready for immediate use 

 one of the most powerful as well as certain expellants 

 of snake venom that is known. It should be taken 

 not only internally but externally as well by an applic- 

 ation immediately to the wound. 



Of this valuable remedy I learned when on a trout- 

 fishing excursion through Sullivan country. I had re- 

 turned home tired, wet and hungry, to the cabin of 

 my backwoods host, and had just prepared my fish to 

 become a "party of the second part" in a trout 

 supper when, happening by mere chance to look on 



