Nov. 2, J885] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



3'^5 



The manufacluif 

 that was coUfctcil 

 the sanif time the 

 viuce of I.ant'-son. 



grams of fruit; a full-sizeil tree, with a diameter 

 of forty to Bfty ceutinu-tres, gives two hundred Uilo- 

 grams. . Th« fruit is sold whilst green to the manu- 

 facturers of the oil at the price of four tiens the 

 Anuamite kilogiam. 



The Annaniites sow the seed of the " hac-giai-qua '' 

 iu mauareu soil. I he young plauts issue from the 

 soil after about twenty or thirty days, and in two or 

 three years they attain a height of twenty or thirty 

 ueniinietres. They are then transplanted and pricked 

 out at a distance of five or six metres from each 

 other, Intt alwu3's upon the slopes free from stones 

 and never at the bottom of a ravine. The treeliears 

 a small yellow and white flower in the fir.st or second 

 month of the Annaraite year and fruit in the sixth 

 to the ninth month, but it yields fruit only every 

 two years. The collection of the fruit is made by 

 hand' The cultivation is not subject to any impost. 

 The fruit is purchased either directly iu the villages, 

 or in the country markets, at a half ligature the Annara- 

 ite kilogram. 



uf the oil was siibjecfc to a tax 

 by the " tuam-pl;u," who was at 

 farmer of star anise for tlie pro- 

 The tax varied according to the 

 extent of the operation : it was three ligatures for a 

 large distillation of ten kilograms of fruit, and one 

 !igature-anil-a-half for a distillation of three or four 

 kilograms. This ta-; w.is paid for every distillation 

 and authority to distil had to be renewed each lime. 

 The only existing apparatus is of the dimensions suited 

 for one" or other of these two quantities. The oil is 

 the product of a dittilkition couducted as follows: — 

 Into a first recipient, which is an iron pan about 

 seventy-five centimetres in diameter, are placed ten 

 kilograms of star auise and water, which quantity 

 nearly fills it. A secouii iron pan, pierced with a circ- 

 ular opening about twenty-fivi' to thirty centimetres 

 in circumference, is placed upon the first, bottom 

 upwards, so as to form a cover. Over the opening 

 iu this pan is placed an earthen vessel, having three 

 small orifices in the lower part, which allow the access 

 of the vapour into tliis vessel. These orifices are 

 covered, on the inside of the recipient, by small ear- 

 shaped houds that have for their object to throw the 

 vapour upon the side of the vessel. Lastly, this earthen 

 vessel is covered hy an iron pau which performs the 

 part of rcfrigeraut, and into which a contiiuious cur- 

 rent of cold water is made to pass by means of a b.amboo 

 pipe, from a vat placi:d near the apparatus. The 

 jomts of the first two iron pans are luted wrh a mastic, 

 that of the earthen vessel with the nfrigerint by 

 means of rag bandages. The vaj.oer leaeliing the 

 earthen vessel is condensed when it strike.-* upon the 

 bottom of Ihe pun holding the cold water, and falls 

 into a small circular trough running round the bottom 

 of the vessel, from wliicli it escap.'s through a small 

 pipe. The small pipe opens out into a bamboo which 

 conducts the proiUicts ot distillation into a closed tin- 

 ned vessel fidl of water, where the oil, rising to the 

 top, drives out a corresponding quantity of water. 



A distillation las^s two days and the yield from ten 

 Aunamite kilograms of star auise is two-.aul-a-hal£ 

 decilitres of oil. The lesidiie of the dstdlatiou is 

 thrown awav. A single mauuiacturer, and there are 

 many, would distil 150 to ISO Anuamite kilograms 

 of oil yearly. 



The oil is enclosed in tinned recipients and sold in 

 China at Ijong-chau. Before 1 he French occupation of 

 Hanoi and IJac-ninh, a pait of the products went by 

 these two places into 'J'onquin, but siuce then the 

 Chinese dealers have remaiuort the masters of the 

 market. — I'harninceiiticnl Journal. 



Anottiki; Ti;,\ Meiich\nt nt Kobe has been dis- 

 covered in an attempt to sell sea-tlaraaged tea mixed 

 with sound leaf. The mixture has been confiscated, 

 and the delinquent will be dealt with hy the Tea 

 Uuikl.- i/aj^u« Weekly Mail. 



REPORT OF THE OOMSHTTEB OF THE' 

 MADRAS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOU 

 THE YEAR 1SS4. 



[ The report of this useful Society, although deal, ng 

 with circumstan:- s of climate different from th^u.se 

 existing in a large portion of Ceylon, will be 

 found very interesting. — Ed.] 



The Society has throughout the year earnestly con- 

 tinued its work with a view to compassing the objects 

 for which it was founded very nearly fifty years 

 ago*, namely the promotion of Horticulture anil the 

 encouragement of improvements in Agricultut-e, and 

 its labours have not been imrewarded, thougii the 

 season on the whole cannot be called a good one. 

 The prO(!eedings of the Committee passed .at their 

 montlily meetings show that the Society's energy has 

 not flagged ; while the books of account show that 

 its monetary affairs are in .an highly satisfactory 

 state. In the office letter books will be found lfii;\ 

 letters, many of them of much importance, written 

 and entered during the year, which of course do not 

 include numerous notes written by the officers of the 

 Socu-ty of which it was unnecessary or inconvenient 

 to keep a record. The correspondence of the -Society, 

 which is to a great extent a rough gauge of the 

 amount of work it is doing, has very nearly doubled 

 during the last 10 years, and trebled since 18t»l). 



The i^eitsini. — As stated .above, the season cannot 

 be called a good one, the even and fair distiibulion 

 of the rainfall on which Matlras gardens depend for 

 their .succes.s having entirely faili^d us, i hough the ■ 

 overage allowance of rain was greatly exceeded. 



For the following particulars we are indebted to 

 the returns from the Goverumeut Observatory published 

 weekly in the Fort 8t. (ieoriie GazHtr. In the month 

 of .Tanuary, 18SJ, we had on three days 3'14 inches 

 of rain, in February none, and in I\Iarch none, agnnst 

 an av^'age fall in the first quarter of 1'6.5 inches. 

 In April we had a thunder-storm which gave us 

 I'Cfi inches. In ?day we had on four days 1-48 inches, 

 and iu .lune OOl of an inch, making in the fiist 

 half year •5'29 inches against an average of 0-5()- In 

 .Inly, August and September there was a fairly wril 

 distributed raintall of lO'TO inches, 3'.55 in July, Ivl) 

 in August, and 5'56 in September, giving pronnse of 

 a very good season, though it brought the total for 

 the i) months up to 15'99 only against an average 

 of 19-:i5 for that pt-rioi 



But promises were speedily soattero.l by the ileluge, 

 or rather deluges which followed. Betweeti < Ictulj; r 

 10th and November 10th we had a fall of 12 I niches, 

 against an average ot 27' for the North-East mon- 

 soon, — including in October, on one day 3'7(), and on 

 another 2'2!l inches, in November, on seven of the 

 first nine ilays 2-31, 31b, 2-20, 4-G2, 5'T2, S-Ki, and 

 372 inches, and iu December, between the 15th and 

 22ud 13-S-5 inches. In October, the rainfall was 14-41 

 inches, in November, 34 23, and in December, 14-41, 

 making during the whole year a total of 78 92 inches 

 against an average of 48'Vl inches. 



Such excessive rainfall is particularly destructive, 

 more so than a scarcity. Seeds and seedlings in the 

 seed-bed, and plants delicate in this cliraale perish 

 wholesale as if from chill, while large aud hardy trees 

 and shrubs, even casuarinas, die in numbers, drowned 

 by standing water. 



To add to the mischief done by the excessive rain 

 we had on the morning of the 21st November, a 

 severe cyclone which did considerable damage iu the 

 Society's gardens though happily little, if any, of an 

 I irreparable kind. An interesting report by the Super- 

 intendent giving the full details of the damage done 

 was published in the proceedings of the Committee 

 ! of Ulh December last.-f 



I I'roccnliiuis of 6'oi'f(-ii.-"f-H(.— During the year many 

 Proceedings of Government on Agricultural, llctanical, 

 and kindred topics of interest to this Society have 

 been communicated and carefully filed, the recei pt of 



* 15th July, 1835. 



+ Vide Vol. Ill, New Sericii, pa&c 447. 



