October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



271 



FsAORANT Floweks. — The perfume uiBunfacturers 

 of Nice aud Cannes crush ir)4,000 lb. of Orange 

 blo3som3, 13,-200 lb. of Acacia tlowers, 154,000 lb. of 

 Rose petals, 35,200 lb. of Jaeraiue blossoms, '22,000 

 lb. of Violets, 8,8001b. of Tulieroses, aud a relatively 

 large amount of Spanish Lilacs, Rosemary, Mint, 

 Lime and Lemon blossoms every year. 



TosiATOEs. — An American contemporary states 

 that during the past season there were put up 

 48,508,248 cans of Tomatoes in the United States, 

 being one-third less than the pack of 18S3, the 

 decrease in acreage being lieaviest in the eastern 

 States. It is said that a farmer in Salem County, 

 New Jersey, last season raised S3 tons of lomaloea 

 on 6 acres of land. The crop was sold in the can- 

 ning establishment for 7 dollars (nearly 30s.) pei top. 

 Kaoi.i>i i.v the Madras Presidency. — It is stated 

 that Mr. B'oote, of the Geological Survey, has como 

 across, during his operations about 20 miles from 

 Trichinopoly, two veins of kaolin and felspar which 

 promise to be of good quality. Instructions have 

 been issued for these veins being investigated, as 

 these materials (the latter being calcined and used 

 chietly in the manufacture of plaister of Paris) can 

 be utilised largely and is required much by the local 

 school of art. — JJadms Times, 



A Xew Vise Pest. — The unfortunate province of 

 Bessarabia which has been sufTering grievously for 

 some time from a visitation of locuats is now bub- 

 jeced to a fresh misfortune. It apppears that a 

 destructive insect whose rapaciousness exceeds that 

 of the phylloxera has made its appearance in the 

 extensive Bessarabian vineyards. The insect is 

 described as of simiUr siz-i to the phylloxera, but of 

 a different and unknown species, A special com- 

 mission ia leaving Odessa for Bessarabia in order to 

 Lt" suit O' means for the destruction of this new 

 p.rtgue - DrtiVy Nnus. 



A xoviiL use, siys an Eastern paper, is being made 

 ofoister ^ hells by a Hartford, Conn., man, who ia 

 c I'uing money in his now enterprise. The shells are 

 plac'd in a patented mill and ground. It has a 

 cipaoity of five tons a day. By an ingenious ar- 

 r ngemeut sieves are kept at "work assorting the dust 

 mtu tine, coarse and insufficiently treated. The tine 

 and the coarse are taken by the elevator belts to 

 the floor below, where, through canvas chutes, 

 re. ulated by wooden slides, barrels are rapidly filled. 

 The product is sold for chicken feed. Twenty tons 

 and rn >re aie sent yearly to San Fianc'sco, orders are 

 filled from U'estern States, and Bermuda and the Sand- 

 wich island-! have been supplied. — European Mail. 

 Cinchona Bakk Sales. —Local sales of Govern- 

 ment cinetioaa (crown) bai k will continue to be luld 

 in Madras until further orders. To give stability 

 and certainty to the market, however, and so to 

 reduce the risk of loss within the narrowest possible 

 limitn, the Government directs that salen be held in 

 Mairas on the first Monday of September, October, 

 November and December in each ye.ir. T" add still 

 further to the stability of the market, and so to 

 enable home deaUrs to make arraugenierts, if they 

 wish, for buying bark in Madras through corre- 

 spondent', the Government resolve to guarantee that 

 for the next two years, a quantity of " crown" baik, 

 not letiS than 17,500 lbs. will be placed on the 

 market at each of the four sales to he held in each 

 year. They will also arrange that samples of the 

 bark to be offered at each .sale, with oliemical 

 analyses attached, shall be avail.ableat M.-.dras for a 

 fortnight .ind at the India Office for six weeks or 

 80 before the dates of sale in Madras. For this 

 purpo3e, the Direc'or will send the samples direct 

 to the Master Attendant in time to enable that 

 officer to ship thomr so that they may be at the India 

 Office by the proper time. — Madras Mail. 



Planting in Brazil.— A well-informed resident 



in Rio de Janeiro writes to us by this mail : 



"The planters here are really hard-up. As yet 

 there is no interest manifested in the improved 

 methods of cultivation which your journal so ably 

 di.-cuBses ; but I am inclined to think that when 

 slavery goes the old planting methods will begin 

 to yo also." 



Tea Machineuy. — A planter writes : — " I send 

 you a lithograph of Baillie's Tea Breaker made by a 

 Glasgow House ; also a lithograph of a Tea Drier by 

 the same firm. One or more of these driers have 

 been sent to India and a report is waited for. The 

 breiiker gives satisfaction in India. The drier is in 

 shape like the old sirocco ; the firing arrangement 

 is quite different, being much stronger and I be- 

 lieve better in so far as the quantity of fuel re- 

 quired is concerned. Could you make known some 

 particulars of the patent law in Ceylon ? [Onr 

 coi respondent can have a copy of the Patent Ordin- 

 ance No. of 1859 for a few cents.] As far as I 

 have heard it, it is monstrous. 1 suggested to 

 my friend a top for his drier like the newer Sirocco 

 but before he could adopt it the newer Sirocco was 

 brought out, aud is, I am advised by Messrs. 

 Davics & Co., patented The late tea roller cases too 

 seem hard on new arrangements. When at home 

 many years ago I saw a machine at work in Glasgow. 

 The motion, us far as I can rt member it, was the same 

 as Jatkson's tea rollers. The machine I refer to was 

 called astfam ma.'Ou, and was need for grinding down 

 stones toau even surface. Would the importation of 

 that machine be an infringementcf Jackson's jatent ? 

 I am writing home for particulars of it." 



Feakful Mortality of Poltnesians in Fiji.— "A 

 Fijian White " writes to the Fluiiters' Gazette : — "With 

 further reference to labour, the men who have experience 

 of other labour, such as may be obtained in the Southern 

 Provinces of India, are the best judges as to the value 

 of the Fijian as an estate labourer; and they have 

 informed me that the Fijian is utterly useless for general 

 work. I am clad he refers to the Polynesian slavery 

 as being ' repugnant to the sentiments of liunianity,' 

 but as he has omitted to statei the rate of mortality, 

 I may as well enlighten humanity at a ilistiiuce. In 

 18ti2 the death-rate ou an estate on the Eewa Eiver 

 was upwards of 60 per cent ; ou auotaer place in 1884 

 seventy odd men were recruited at a cost of £27 per 

 head ; they .all died within six months. On another 

 place in 18S1 or 1882 forty-seven men were recruited, 

 and they all dieil to a man within a few months. Items 

 of this sort are not included in my statement of cost 

 at 2s per day. Your correspondent is further mistaken 

 as to tlie cost of Indian coolies in 1884, they cost £24 

 per head, with a recent intimation from the immigration 

 department that the rate for 1S85 will exceed that of 

 1884. That is, double the cost to Mauritius and some 

 of the West India islands. The immigration depart- 

 ment itself is probably the worst managed of any in 

 the colony, and the man who till recently occupied the 

 appointment of ' Ageiit-Gi-neral,' is held "in the greatest 

 contempt by planters gn-at and .small. The service in 

 Fiji, or as they themselves term it, the ' forlorn hope,' 

 consists of ruined cotton planters and Fonie reformed 

 tipplers, who have been excommnnicated from the 

 society of their early life, — with the excention of the 

 very able man who has been acting as administrator 

 during the absence of Kir Wm. Des Voeux and Mr. 

 Thurston, there is not one among them who has had 

 experience oi oiKcial eniplovment out of the Ci>lony. 

 True, Jlr. Horn did write a jiamplilet on the nature 

 and resources of the country, and it is e<jiially true that 

 he arrived at conclusions that have since been proved 

 to be erroneous. Where are the coffee estates that ho 

 said would rival Ceylon ? where the cotton, cinchona, 

 aud half-a-dozen other products Iw refers to? they 

 remain only in the memories of the unfortunates who 

 possessed them, and in the peculiar imagination of your 

 correspondent." 



