57(> 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886. 



Watehinq Vegetables. — Peas pay for watering as 

 much as auy crop. When dry at the root they 

 never fill the pods well, and the peas bscome 

 hard, dry, and flavourless before they have ever 

 attained perfection. The plan of growing summer 

 Peas in trjuches is a capital one. The soil must 

 be loosoned well down before the trench can be 

 made, and when watering has to be done it is a 

 simple matter to fill the trench with it. It has 

 no means of running away and not reaching the 

 roots, which is often the case on the level. 

 Kidney Beans of all sorts should be thoroughly 

 watered in dry weather. Cauliflowers should never 

 be allowed to droop their leaves for want of it. 

 Lettuces will take any quantity if they are to be 

 cut large and crisp. Ridge Cucumbers, Vegetable 

 Marrows, and Tomatoes enjoy abundance of water, 

 and generally speaking dryness at the roots is a 

 great drawback to all kitchen garden produce. Some 

 plants many be small and far from maturing 

 their crops, and by this it may be thought they 

 do not require water, or that the absence of it will 

 do them no harm at such an early stage of their 

 growth, but this idea is wrong. If tlie plants are 

 insufficiently supplied with moisture when young 

 many of the roots will peri.«h, they will become 

 stunted, and no amount of after watering will bring 

 back their uaual or former vigour, Water should 

 be applied to maintain their full strength, not to 

 renew it after a great loss has occurred. Of liquid 

 mamire for vegetables we cannot speak too highly, 

 and dissolved, artificial manures, as well as drainings 

 from all kinds of manure heaps, may be used 

 copiously. Spreading on the manure around the 

 plants or along the sides of the rows, and then 

 watering on the top of it to wash the fertilising 

 properties down to the roots, is a practice which 

 cannot be too strongly recommended. — A Kitchen 

 Gabdenkk.—Jok )■»(!? of Bort'uuhiirc, 



OoiK Fibre Dost.— .Is an Agriculturist, I cannot 

 understand the position Mr. Symons, the Managing 

 Director of the Horrekelly Company, has taken up as 

 to the uselessuess of tiore dus'" for applic.ition to the 

 coconuL tree. When analysed it may not have yielded 

 encouraging results, but it has an intrinsic value as au 

 application to the tree that yields or products it. It 

 has been publicly stated on the authority of ;RIr. .Symons 

 that owing to the moisture in ir, it cannot be t>urnt, and 

 that occasionally it is ploughed into the ground to 

 kenp it moist. No better testimony could be given as 

 to its great value as an application to a tiry, sandy soil, 

 than its moistui'e-absorbiug or moisture-retaining pro- 

 perties. The coi'ouut palm luxuriates and revels in 

 moisture, not stagnant; and any substiuce that gives 

 body to a sandy, light soil and arrests the too rapid 

 evaporation of moisture, ought to be readily availed of 

 as an application to the tree, or to be ploughed into the 

 ground. It is an admdted fact that moisture is a 

 necessity for the absorption of manure by the roots of 

 a tree ; and if, as I bedeve, artiti.-iil manures are used 

 on Horrekelly, fibre dust might aav.'.n'.tgeousiy be used 

 as a ** vehicle " for its applicatinu. All this apart from 

 the manurial value the product of a tree bear.< to it. 

 In the last Tropical Ayftculti'rht I find Professor 

 Caldwell says: — "That the most ividnif distinction be- 

 tween stable manure and comntprcial fertilisers * * 

 is its large proportion of nc^^'toWi- 7n<»^<«' (the itidios are 

 mine) or humus-forming material." So that a moisture 

 loving proiluet like fibre-dust can pr.iitrdijy be utilized 

 as an absorl>ent of the ammoni i m bn bad in a cattle- 

 shed. Again: "That humus, through its decay in the 

 soil, furnishes cnrbonic acid among other solvent agents; 

 and this carbonic acid plays an iniprrtant part, by 

 bringing the native insoluble stock of ji ant food within 

 easy reach." "That soluble plant food, idricd to the 

 soil in commercial ftrtiliserp, lu'eds thi^ help of humus, 

 finally, for its solution." "That plant food in most 

 animal and vegetable residues used as ir.anures. costs 

 much less than conimerciat manures." How pertinent 

 all this is to the discussion recently raised in the 

 columns of the Observer, as to the value of fibre-dust as 

 an application to the coconut tree I It is to be hoped 



that the directors and shareholders of the Horrekelly 

 Company will see that not a lb. of the fibre dust will 

 go to waste. Out will be profifably applied to an estate 

 where application and means of carriage are ridioa'- 

 ously easy. Perhaps this discussion will open their 

 eyes to tlie, I thought, exploded belief, that one who 

 controls the finances of an estate, is per se capable of 

 direcHn? its cultivation. If a practical planter, say 

 IMr. W. .Jar'line, who is now in the neighbourhood, aud 

 who received liis first lessons iu coconut cultivation on 

 Horrekelly be appointed to visit this estate, the share- 

 holders will be gainers without doubt.—" Examiner." 



Aphid.^e o\ Tea Leaves are thus noticed in the pro- 

 ceedings of the A. and Horticultural Society of India: — 

 From Messrs. (leorge Henderson & Co., forwarding an 

 extract of a letter from Mr. Troun, of the MuUakat- 

 tyoor Tea Estate, Kumaon, with specimen of the 

 affected leaves alluded to, asking for a report. As 

 other p'anters may have been troubled with similar 

 experience, Mr. Troup's description, with the report 

 kindly furnished by Mr. Wood-Mason, are both given 

 in full : — Extract from a letter, dated the 7th June 

 188.5, from Norman F. T. Troup, Esq., of the Mullakat- 

 tvoor Tea Estpte. Lackiugton, Baijuath, Kumaon. "By 

 this day's post I am sending you a few sprigs of a 

 Tea hush that presents a most curious appearance, and 

 should feel very much obliged if you would kindly 

 get some of your friends learned in such matters to 

 explain what is amiss with them. The leaves of the 

 bushes that are thus affected present a varnished 

 appearance, and are coated with some sticky substance 

 like honey which is also as sweet as honey, and the 

 voung shoots are covered with a sma'l wina*d brown 

 fly like the c/reen fly that attacks some kinds of flowers 

 in greenhouses. There are also some small six-legged 

 insects like bugs on these bushes, of a slatish black 

 colour dotted with white. I at first thought that 

 these insects were accountable for both the brown fly 

 and sticky substance on the leaves, but so far as ob- 

 servation has enabled me to ascertain they only prey 

 on these flies. I observed the same sticky substance 

 on the bushes during the winter, but then concluded 

 it to be an abnormal supi)ly of honey iu the flowers, 

 as at that time it w.as dropping ouli of them, but 

 now there are no flowers for it to come from. Tliis 

 fly, other iusect, and the stickiness do not seem to 

 affnct the health of the btishes, as those they are on, 

 look as vigorous, and are flusliiug as freely as those 

 free from them. Up to date, we in this district, have 

 entirely free from all Tea pests, and hence iny cnrios- 

 itv .and ignorance regarding this one, if it is a ' pest." 

 .Vr. IJ'ood-.lfnMH'.f report: — "The sweet and sticky 

 substance on these leaves is no doubt ' honey-dew,' 

 mi.xeil with exuded sap. Many leaf-lice (.■l/i//(./a) are 

 provided on the dor.sal surface of the ante-penultim- 

 ate abdominal segment, wi^h a piir of tubular pro- 

 minences, the so-called 'honey-tubes,' each of which 

 bears at its extremity a minute pore. From these 

 pores there continually exudes a sweet ttuiil, secreted 

 by special glands, and eagerly sought after by anst 

 the so-called ' honev-dew,' which is frequently deposited 

 npon the leaves frequented by the lies, there be- 

 coming mixed with the sap that exudes from the 

 punctures made by these insects with the four stilets 

 of their sucking mouth in feeding. Hundreds of the 

 lice [the 'brown bugs,' of your currcspoudeut are 

 females and young, and the ' brown tlies ' are males] 

 arp glued to the different parts of the sprig of tea-plant, 

 as also are numbers of the fluffy white cast skins of 

 larva- which are populary termed 'I\[ildew.' though 

 they have nothing whatever to do therewith. Tlie 

 matter is of no practical importance whatever." 



WfLLS' "ROUGHBON CORNS." 

 "Ask for Wells' "Rough on Corus." Quick relief, 

 complete, permanent cure. Corns, warts bunions. 

 W, E. Smith k Co., Madras, Sole AgentJS. 



