474 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Januarv i, 1886. 



dries too slowly to be valuable for the first purpose, 

 and is too gummy or sticky for the second. Auother 

 product is glycerine, but this manufacture has beeu 

 but little attended to as yet. One gallon of crude 

 oil will make 3^ lb. of glycerine. Its chief use, as 

 before stated, is as a substitute for Olive oil, and 

 the following extract will show the state of pcrfectio n 

 in which the oil is now prepared: — "It is nearly 

 impossible to detect good Cotton-seed oil from the 

 best brands of Olive oil by taste, smell, or any other 

 process ; this the Olive growers of Italy have been un- 

 willingly compelled to acknowledge. An instrument 

 called the oleometer has been invented to distinguish 

 between the two oils by means of their different 

 specific gravity ; but this is confessedly an uncertain 

 aU'f unreliable test." 



The hulls or shells of the seed are used as fuel 

 to drive the oil-expressing machinery, and containing 

 some oil. they burn well and produce a good heat, 

 and are used exclusi\ely without any other fuel. It 

 was recently stat"'d in America that before long Cotton- 

 seed would yield all the Grape sugar demanded by 

 the commerce of the world. It is estimated that, "if 

 all the seed produced was used and crushed this 

 little article, once despised and deemed of no value, 

 would be worth between 80,000,000 and 100,000,000 

 dols. annually." — Gai'dcnei's' Chronicle. 



WILD MANGOES. 

 The Jungli am, which is the original steck of all 

 the fine IMaugoes, is not ofteu met with in its native 

 habitat, and less frequently in fruit. I have just 

 received a few fiue specimens of several varieties of 

 Jungli Mangoes. From the fruits it appears they 

 vary quite as much as our cultivated ones; and as 

 to shape, they are the exact counteriiart iu 

 miniature of many of our best varieties. My specimens 

 came from the Kangra Valley, and were collected 

 by a gentleman much interested in the frui*". I once 

 saw the true Jungli Mango in the Dooars, and again 

 atterwards growing at an elevation of about 2,000 

 feet in Sikkim. It is very unlike the cultivated 

 sort, having generally a straight trunk, whitish smooth 

 bark, and thin leaves, forming a fine round-headed 

 tree. The fruit rarely weighs 2 oz., often only 1 

 oz. The common country Mango, called "Beju." or 

 " Desi," in Tirhoot, is really an inferior kind of 

 cultivated Maugo, and not the proper wild Blango 

 of the forests. 



AVild Mangoes are found from India through Malay 

 to Manilla, and some of the Pacific islands, and it 

 is not really known if there is more than one species. 

 The wild and cultivated sorts are so widely dilferent 

 in shape of fruit that they could almost be called 

 distiuct species, but every intermediate connecting 

 stage may be found to bring them under one head. 

 The flowers of the wild and cultivated Mango are 

 exactly the same in structure, except that in the 

 wild one there are often more stamens fertile. 



It may not be known to most people that generally 

 in a Mango flower there is only one stamen out of 

 tho lot fertile; this one is curved round just over 

 the pistil in a peculiar way, to facilitate the fert- 

 ilisation. The so-called " nak," or nose of the Mango, 

 is the placo the pistil adhered to in the flower. All 

 this can be plainly seen with a moderately powerful 

 reading-glass or lens when the Mangos are in flower. 



PliOTKCTINO MANCO FuUlT. 



A very good way to protect Mangoes from the 

 attacks of birds and insects is to get a lot of very 

 finely-woven, round. Bamboo baskets made, say 

 4 inches wide at top, 5 inches at the bottom, and 

 as long as may be required for the fruit. See that 

 there is no room fcr a fly to get -in through the 

 basket-work. Then put the Alango inside as it hangs 

 on the tree, push a long thin peg through tho top 

 of the basket by side of the stalk of the fruit on 

 one side, and another similar peg on the other siile, 

 and the Mango will hold the basket np itself; then 

 tie a little c;dico over the top of the basket, taking 

 care not to tie the Mango stalk, and also to com- 

 pletely shut up the top of the basket. The Maugo 



stalk must be quite free, because when the fruit is 

 ripe, or nearly so, it will fall of its own accord, and 

 will be found to be just fit to gather. If a net be 

 suspended under the tree theu all danger of bruising 

 the fruit will he avoided. Theu shake the tree, to 

 gather only the ripe once. These should be kept 

 on a "machan" for a few days till quite ripe, as all 

 Mangoes improve by keeping a little, and should never 

 be eaten perfectly fresh from the tree. — 0. IVLvHiES, 

 in Indititi A'jrici'UurUt. 



—¥ 



THE COCHINEAL INDUSTRY IN GUATEMALA. 



The following paragraphs describing a visit to a 

 "cochineal range" in Guatemala are taken from the 

 ilontreal Daili; Star: — 



" In this queer country the raising of hemipterous 

 insects of the bark-louse family — especially the Coccus 

 cactus or Spanish cochinilla — is a profitable if not a 

 plaasant industry. In this portion of Guatemala vast 

 plantations are given up entirely to the cultivation of 

 the ** Indian fig," or nopal, of the genus Cacti {O/nuitia 

 cochinUixfera)^ upon which these bark-lice feed. 



"Sciior Espauosa's plantation of Opuniia cochiiiiU ijera 

 which was the one we visited, includes nearly a, 

 thousand acres, and the jiiouh^ operandi of cultivating 

 the insect is most curious. They require about the 

 same care that is ordinarily bestowed upon silk-worms 

 and the occupation is not more disagreeable aosoug 

 crawling bugs than wriggling worms. Immediately 

 before the annual time of violent rains, great branches 

 of the nopal, covered with insects, are out off and 

 stored in a building erected for the purpose, to 

 protect them from the weather. At the close of the 

 wet season, four or five mon'hs later (about 'the 

 middle of October), the plantations are again stocked 

 from these supplies, by suspending little nests made 

 of henequin, maguey, jute or any sort of woody fibre, 

 upon the spines of the growing cacti, each nest con- 

 taining about a dozen females. Warmed by the tropic 

 Sim, the insects soon emerge from their semi-comatose 

 condition, and begin to lay eggs with marvellous 

 rapidity, each female producing more than a thousand 

 young. These spread over the plants with marvellous 

 celerity, the young females attaching themselves to 

 the leaves and immediately swelling *0 iucre*ble size, 

 adhering so closely to the nop.^l as to become almost 

 a part of it, resembling vegetable excrescences rather 

 than animated creatures. 



" In this condition they are gathered for cochineal, 

 none but the pregnant females being valuable for 

 commercial purposes. The males are comparatively 

 few in number — not more than one to two hunilred and 

 fifty females — and are of no use for colouring pur- 

 poses ; but, as in the higher or.lers of existence, 

 escape most of the pains and perils of life Wbi'* 

 the male are thus left to disport themselTes undisturbed, 

 tho females are picked ofi: with a blunt knife, collect- 

 ed into baskets and killed by dipping them into 

 boiling water, or baking them in a heated oven, or 

 ou plates of hot iron. The first crop ia gathered about 

 the middle of December, and suijsequently several 

 more of as many successive generations — the last for 

 the year being late in May. These tiny insects, of 

 the family Coccidir, are in the form of rounded scales, 

 tho body covered with deep, transverse wrinkles, 

 abdomen of daik mulberry colour, with short, black 

 legs, and bristly on the posterior part. The male has 

 two erect wings, the female none. 



"A labourer of ordinary skill can pick only about 

 two ounces of cochineal bugs in a day. These lose 

 at least two-thirds of their weight in the process of 

 drying. As it requires no less than seventy thonsanjl 

 insects to weigh a pound, and the average retail price 

 of cochineal is only sixty cents per pound, it may be 

 inferred that the business is by no means a sinecure. 

 By the method of immersing the insects in boiling 

 water they turn to a reddish-brown hue, losing nnich 

 of tho white powder with which the wrinkles of 

 their bodies are loaded. Wheii dried in an oven they 

 ret.ain this, and then their colour is grey, and when 

 killed on but iron they become black. This is the 

 cause of the varieties knowu in the market as ' silver 



