944 



THE TROPICAL" AGRYCTTLTURIST. 



[June r, 1885. 



Dr. Major's I was shown cloves, • nutmegs, cinnamon, 

 and Liberian coffee : the nutmegs had an immense 

 crop, but the trees were smaller than some I saw in 

 a garden near Nilambe in the days of Louie Byrde. 

 From Bath we passed through an old property named 

 Suffolk Park owned originally by an old Cavalier 

 Colonel, there being still extant a fine old tree planted 

 by him : It is truly like an English park ; there were 

 plenty of logwood trees, which are not unlike in 

 appearance to large hawthorns ; the cattle grazing 

 under these and other beautiful trees, on the smooth 

 grassland, was quite a picturesque sight. 



Wc were then close on our journey's end for the 

 day, for we Bhortly afterwards entered that fine old 

 sugar estate Hordley, owned now by Mr. James 

 Harrison, who came out to the island quite a youth, 

 and has been now 38 years in Jamaica, a fine speci- 

 men of a robust, hard-working and experienced sugar 

 planter. We were shown over the works, which are 

 celebrated for a wide undershot-wheel, and a light 

 ironwheel, also undershot, but with elevator buckets 

 that deliver water on to a staging, and so by a 

 spout to suDply the mill. We saw the process of 

 sugar-making as well as rum : it is certainly not as 

 attractive or as clean work as coffee curing, and I am 

 therefore very thankful my lines have always been 

 laid in the more pleasant work of coffee planting. 

 Hordley though of great age, is still a very fine 

 property, the soil being very rich and alluvial ; but 

 prices are now so low that most sugar planters are only 

 .able with the help of rum to make bolh ends meet, 

 profits being 'quite at a standstill. Going up the 

 steps to the great house, where we were most 

 hospitably entertained, we saw something in baskets 

 and bags, which my friend said must be some sort 

 of wild grape ; I observed that it looked more like 

 very large ooffee, and proved to be right for it was 

 Liberian cherry ; I had never seen it in any quantity 

 before. Next morning we visited the field where it was 

 grown, but as I have never seen any other could not 

 judge whether it was a fine specimen ; however, the 

 trees were vigorous and bearing heavily, but evid- 

 ently had not been pruned in accordance with the 

 prevailing system on Ceylon coffee estate 3 . 



Next morning we journeyed back to Morant Bay 

 by another road, and visited a cattle pen, named 

 Pera, where we were also very hospitably entertained 

 by the lessee, who regaled us on fresh oysters 

 from off the "mangrove" roots, wood pigeons, 

 stye-fed pork, tender beefsteak and cabbage palm, 

 all delicacies not easily to be got upeonn f T "u- "-"' 

 tough beefsteak. This property li ■ 

 sea, and a stream passes through it, in ..I. ■ < 



are alligators, and there are also ponds in which wild 

 ducks abound. En route homewards we went into 

 Lysson's estate works, which are of more modern 

 construction as to appliances, and I should certainly 

 give them the palm ; the power was steam, and the 

 centrifugal process can be used if desired, but most 

 of the Jamaica sugar is Muscavado, and is refined 

 in England or whatever country to which it is sent. 

 At Lysson's we saw Creoles, brown people, Bengal 

 coolies and Chinese all working together harmoniously. 

 Mr. John Wallace the very obliging overseer or 

 superintendent of Lysson's told us his Chinese 

 were now working very satisfactorily, for at first 

 the sugar planters had much trouble with them, 

 os they declared they had been promised a dollar 

 a day on enlistment and refused to work for less ; 

 whereas it was but one shilling a day on which 

 the contracts had been signed. W. S. 



"WELLS' ROUGH ON CORNS." 

 Ask for Wells' "Rough on Corns." Quick relief com- 

 plete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions. W. E. 

 Smith [k Co., Madras, Sole Agents, 



Pur.r.ic Officers and Land in Mauritius. — A 

 Circular Letter from Earl Derby, dated 2nd February, 

 enjoined that in future no salaried public officer should 

 be allowed to cultivate or occupy for profit, except 

 through an attorney or agent, any land of greater ex- 

 tent than 20 acres, or situated at a distance of mere 

 than six miles from his residence ; hut this rule nerd 

 not be applied to officers already occupying estates or 

 stock farms, unless such occupation should be found to 

 interfere with their duties. No magistrate whose duty 

 it is to adjudicate between indentured labourers and 

 their employers should be allowed to employ indentured 

 labourers in the district in which he exercises jurisdic- 

 tion. — Mercantile Record and Commercial Gazette. 

 _ Tropical Exhibits.— The Colonial and Indian Exhib. 

 ition Committee appointed in Brisbane, among other 

 things, says in a circular that tea, coffee, spices, and 

 other tropical and semi-tropical products will be im- 

 portant exhibits, and we entirely agree with the Com- 

 mittee. But as there can be no object in misleading 

 people at home, it would be well that among the 

 information forwarded concerning the cultivation of 

 these products it should bo clearly laid down that any 

 persons attempting to grow them in Queensland will 

 be compelled to do so with other than Asiatic labor. 

 This will perhaps act as an inducement to some people 

 to go into the cultivation of tropical products ; others 

 ki may deter, but it is just as well to let tho people 

 tnow the truth. — Mackay Standard, April 3rd. 



Tea Planting: the Weather and its Effect on 

 Tea — Growth of Parasitic Fdsgi and Moss on Stems 

 of Tea. — Linhula, May 15tb. — There is a continuance 

 of the weather previously reported : perfectly calm 

 days with clear mornings, becoming cloudy about noon 

 with thunder and showers of rain, which are not heavy 

 and do not last long. While such weather promotis 

 the growth and the flushing of tea, it is right to add 

 that it seems equally to promote parasitic growths of 

 mosses or fungi on the stems. To cope with this 

 " enemy of the tea tree " at high altitudes, we have 

 supplied the women-labourers with pieces of coir 

 matting, with which they are rubbing the stems clean. 

 Of course, a considerable proportion of buds will be 

 rubbed away in the process, but that cannot be helped. 

 We mean subsequently to give the cleaned bushes a 

 good dusting with caustic lime. We advise tea cul- 

 tivators in high damp districts not to uegleet these 

 stem mosses. 



Effect of Pruning: Pruned and TIntruned Vines. — 

 Long ago the produce of the grafted, as compared with 

 that of the ungjpted Vine, was ascertained. No difference 

 —as preceptible. This is now received in Franco as an in- 

 ■ nitestible fact. The quantity of alcohol in the juico is 

 in proportion to the sugar in the Grapes, and very often 

 the wine is sold according to the alcoholic strength; that 

 is to say, that a hectolitre of wine is sold for 2'50 or 3 

 fr. and more (according to circumstances), according to 

 the alcoholic strength; wine having 10 por cent alcohol 

 selling, for example, at 30 fr., while if it contains 12 per 

 cent it brings 36 fr., and so on. Considering that the 

 great merchants sell often 1,000.2,000, or 3,000 hectolitres, 

 it is seen that the question of alcholic strength (that is to 

 say, the amount of BUgar) is one of the greatest importance 

 for them. The strength is estimated with care by well- 

 known practical methods. In many southern departments 

 the French Vines are now grafted on to divers American 

 Vines, to protect them against the Phylloxera. The 

 American Vines are varieties of Vitis aestivalis, V. eordi- 

 folia, and V. riparia, or of hy birds between them. The 

 grafts succeed well; there are even schools of grafting, 

 with hundreds of students, and grafting competitions are 

 established in many departments. No doubt if the stock 

 is badly chosen the graft does not develope well, and tho 

 produce is bad ; but it is a fact that, in the South of 

 France, grafted plauts give quite as good results as those 

 growing on their own roots. Tho results obtained on fruit 

 trees, which immemorial practice indicates and recom- 

 mends, are in fact of the same nature. — Maxime Cobnu, 

 Jardin des Plantes, Paris. — Gardeneg Chronicle, 



