34° 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Nov. 2, 1885. 



" The worst enemy of the peach orehai-il," re- 

 marked Mr. Parnell, " is the half-taught horticult- 

 urist with a pruning knife. Tliere is no doubt but 

 tliat peach trees understand the art of growing, and 

 should be let alone. The borers will not do as much 

 harm as the man who tries to exterminate 

 them. If a tree yields bad fruit just cut it 

 down and replant. The principal danger, however, 

 is winter killing, which is a misnomer, because the 

 killing takes pilace owing to the absence of winter. 

 Where no winter comes the sun never sinks. A 

 sudden cold day chills the tree, just as it does a 

 man. I have fully exploded one idea prevalent, 

 that it won't do to plant a new orchard upon the 

 site of an old orchard. Thousands of my best trees 

 are standing upon ground which has been the site 

 of half a dozen previous orchards. Trees set out to 

 the north-east never fail to have fruit. Peaches 

 flourish in alternate years, sometimes one variety 

 and sometimes another. In lB7o there was a wonder- 

 ful yield of early peaches. In 1S78 the crop was 

 equally good, but in 1879 there was a peach famine 

 whii'h caught me two ways. The famine in Ireland 

 deprived me of my rents, and the famine in peaches 

 deprived me of my income here. In alternate years 

 since, with wonderful regularitj', the yield has up- 

 held the theory. The earliest shipment ever made 

 to New York was on the IBth of May, an.l the 

 latest the 10th of August, when the Delaware croiJ 

 cuts off the Georgia sales." 



" The demand tor Igood fruit has never yet been 

 met. I always have more orders than I can fill. 

 New York is the great market, because it is the 

 distributing point, and always offers regular prices. 

 Philadelphia stands next as an Eastern market. 

 Cincinnati is the great peach depot of the West. 

 I once got 25 dels, a crate in Cincinnati. My 

 heaviest shipment in one day was 900 crates to 

 the New I'ork market. Large quantities I send by 

 freight and small quantities by express. In one 

 year I netted 11,000 dols. This year I have already 

 shipped 1,000."— P«H il/«;/ Bmhjet. 



EICE GROWING AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 

 IM JAPAN AND CEYLON. 

 The Hoiujkomj Daily'Press has the following; — " The 

 suggestions made by a correspondent of the 

 Japan Mail that there is too much rice cultiv- 

 ation in Japan and that some of the land now 

 devoted to this crop should be put under mulberry 

 and European grain and vegetable crops is well 

 worthy the serious attention of the Japanese Gov- 

 erumei^t and people. There is no doubt that 

 among the causes of the inferior physique of the 

 Japanese race, the malaria arising from the rice 

 swamps may be placed in the front rank. With 

 the patient industry and careful cultivation of the 

 Japanese farmer, more remunerative crops than rice 

 could be raised, and the means afforded for a more 

 nourishing and sustaining diet than is at present 

 enjoyed by the mass of the population. The 

 Japanese Government have accomplished some- 

 thing, in an experimental way, towards introduc- 

 ing new industries, but a great deal more might still 

 be done. The attempt to breed sheep m Japan 

 has failed owing to the prevalence of the bamboo 

 grass, which gives the animals lesion of the bowels 

 but could not an effort be made to exterminate 

 this grass in some district or some of the islands 

 in the Inland Sea? It would be a great boon to 

 Japan if this could be done, and it is worth mak- 

 ing an effort for. Possibly, too, some breed of 

 mountain sheep not yet tried might be found which 

 would bo unaffected by the bamboo grass. PouKry 

 might also we tliink, be bred successfully on a 



much larger scale than is at present the case. 

 There is unquestionably far more poverty in the 

 Laird of the Rising Sun than ought to exist. The 

 soil is exceptionally fertile, the people are indus- 

 trious and ingenious, and there is no waste in their 

 system of agriculture, but neverthless the vast maj- 

 ority of them live from hand to month, and the first 

 failure of crops is sure to plunge them into the 

 direst distress. It is true that only a very small 

 proj)ortion, we believe one-tenth, of the area of the 

 Japanese islands is under cultivation, and that the 

 uplands are almost entirely covered with forest and 

 grass, but more might be made of the available land. 

 The beds of the rivers might be secured against 

 overflow by the aid of engineering science, and 

 some portions of the uplands might be utihsed as 

 grazing laud if the bamboo grass could be eradic- 

 ated. The resources of the Hokkaido are as yet 

 undeveloped, and the attempts hitherto made by 

 the Government to open up that valuable island 

 have been too tentative and spasmodic to make 

 much impression. Meantime, the taxation presses 

 heavily on the agricultural classes, and its pay- 

 ment in money instead of produce as formerly 

 aggravates the pressure. The Government must 

 of course have a revenue, and the taxation would 

 perhaps not be unreasonable were the farmers 

 more prosperous. It becomes the duty of the Gov- 

 ernment, therefore, to help the agriculturists 

 in every way, and this can best be done, as the 

 writer in our Yokohama contemporary points out, 

 by importing fresh seeds from abroad and supplying 

 them at a low rate to the farmers. In any case 

 the cultivation of rice round the towns should be 

 discouraged as much as possible. Wheat, barley, 

 oats, and clover all thrive amazingly in Japan, 

 and almost every kind of useful vegetable can be 

 raised with success, so there need be no difficulty 

 in substituting other products for the rice." 



CINCHONA PROSPECTS IN WYNAAD. 



To the Editor " Ulailnis Hail." 

 SiK, — It is about four or five years since cin- 

 chona first began to be planted on a large scale 

 in Wynaad, and, at the present day, the whole 

 district is thickly studded v.'ith cinchona trees of 

 various ages, and different varieties. In 1880 one 

 paid a rupee apiece for a plant of the Ledgeriana 

 species, and now 1,000 of this variety are to be 

 had for 1U.5 to R20. This affords some idea of 

 the strides that are being made in the cultivation 

 of this valuable medicinal jiroduct. In South 

 Wynaad, at the piresent moment there cannot be 

 fewer than five million cinchona plants of different 

 ages. Recent analyses show that spoke shavings 

 from suceirubra bark from tlie Vythery district, 

 give two to three per cent of Sulphate of Quinine 

 and fetches 8d to Is 8d. per pound in the London 

 Market. A suceirubra tree can be shaved tour times 

 in four years with impunity, and will yield at least 

 a quarter of a pound dry bark each time it is 

 shaved ; it can then be coppiced, when it will 

 yield as much bark as three shavings. After 

 coppicing the tree will have yielded about 2 lb. 

 of bark, which at the very lowest valuation would 

 be worth a rupee a pound, and say the stool 

 is valued at only 8 annas, and it appears that 

 valuing the tree at Ri-6— a figure which would cover 

 a heavy fall in the price of tjarit— the cinchonas in 

 South Wynaad are worth 7u lakhs of rupees or up- 

 wards of hall a million of English :noney. lint 

 everything points to a rise rather than a fall in tlie 

 price of bark. London Urokers value the unit at 

 one-sixth of an ounce of quinine, so that with the 

 unit at ud. quinine ought not to cost more than 



