§H 



THE Tfi09tCAL A^KieULTUfilST, fF«8, i, m6. 



OOTTON Seed. — According to experiments by Sacc 

 (Joiirn, de Pharm. ct Chen.), cotton seed has the 

 following composition: — Casein, 6 per cent.; dextrin. 

 2'U; sugar, 20; Bbrin, 2S'7 ; woody fibre, 32 -1 ; 

 starchj 9"C; greenish-yellow oil, 06; yellow wax, 0"8 ; 

 water, 8'0 ; ash, 8'0. The seed affords by grinding 

 565 per cent of a yellow meal, which may be employed 

 with milk in bread-making. This meal, or what is 

 cheaper, the residue left after the seed has been passed 

 through the oil-press, is available for clarifying .syrups. 

 — Journal of the Society of Arts. 



StjccESSFtjL Fhuit Growino. — All trees should be 

 sprayed or washed two or three times a year, to destroy 

 the numerous bugs and insects that prey upon them. 

 The top of each limb and branch should have about 

 one-third of the year's growth pruned away. Some 

 cut merely the lower limbs, but this is not suthcieut. 

 "When peach or apricot trees are eight or ten years old, 

 they should have a severe cutting back, and all dead 

 wood should be removed. Citrus trees need more 

 thinning out and cutting back yearly, and loosening 

 of the soil after each irrigation, than they generally get. 

 These methods properly carried out will ensure good 

 crops and better shaped trees ; and the labour is lighter 

 than when trees are neglected for two or fbree years, 

 and an attempt is ti.en made to put them in good 

 condition. — Rural Californian. 



Thavetxing Seeds. — Sometimes^seeds only, sometimes 

 fruits, are thus transported by running streams and 

 ocean currents. The fruits of Fennel are exactly 

 like miuiature boats ; and Fimchal or Fennel Bay in 

 the island of Madeira owes its ;|name to this plant, , 

 colonized there by seeds that liave safely made the 

 voyage from the main laud. In like manner, Hazel- 

 nuts, Walnuts, and many other kinds of nuts, have 

 been carried by currents to a new home beyond the 

 seas. For a long time the (source of the large Coco- 

 nuts that drift about in the Indian Ocean, and are 

 finally stranded on the east of Jlalabar, remained a 

 mystery. These gigantic fruits, some of them more 

 than 18 iu. in diameter, and jweighing from forty to 

 fifty pounds, are not the produce of any neighbour- 

 ing country, and the Hindoos called them " Sea Cocoa," 

 supposing that they are supplied by some unknown 

 plant. It has since been discovered that they are 

 the produce of the Lodoicea, a magnificent Palm, 

 growing on the Seychelles Islands which lie on the 

 eastern coast of Africa, more than twelve hundred 

 miles from the nearest point of Indian territory. 

 The currents of the Pacific Ocean carry out Coconuts 

 and other fruits from the American continent to 

 enormous distances in a similar manner. These find a 

 restmg-place on the coral riilges which are raised up 

 from the bottom of the sea by the ceaseless labour 

 of polyps ; here they germinate, and soon cover with 

 brilliant verdure what had formerly been a rock 

 almost invisible to navigators. — Indian Qardiner. 



Fektiliszehs. — ^Ve are decidedly in favour of 

 ui»iiig good fertilizers, and cannot fail to speik a word 

 for nature's method of making soil, and creating fert- 

 ility, i.e., green manuring. Nature's laws are im- 

 mutable, and her teachings are infallible ; but while 

 we say this we are often painfully aware that we 

 cannot satisfactorily fathom her philosophies. Nature 

 creates soil by the process of green manuring, but 

 we cannot explain exactly in what way she docs it. 

 Never mind : let the philosophy slide ; we know it 

 is so, and let this kuowleilge direct our movements 

 and we shall be the better for it. Tho.se who neglect 

 this means of increasing the productiveness of their 

 lands staml in their own light. We believe that the 

 turning under of vegetable matter to decompose exerts 

 an influence over the free fertilizers contained m the 

 air and w.iter and appropriates them ; and on the 

 well-known principle operative iu many departments 

 of nature that .to " whomsoever haUi ninro shall be 

 given," a soil abounding in humus accumulates power 

 to increse its fertility in exact proportion to the or- 

 ganic matter it eoutaius. If this is so, aud wo challenge 

 contradiction, what shall be said of those who per, 

 BJBteutly consume with fire all the waete vegetable 



matter produced on their land ? Is it not umiatured- 

 wasteful, injtu-ious, in the long run fatal to the cherish- 

 ed wishes and expectations of the cultivator; and a 

 sure way to ruin •' We pause for are|)ly. — Queensland 

 A(/riculturist. 



Soot Water. — Asa cheap and easily made reliable 

 [ fertilizer this is of great value,. It may be used 

 I with much advaut<ge wherever pl.auts are grown in 

 [ pots. There is no kind of plant it does not benefit, 

 I and it may be given to those which produce fruit, 

 j flowers, or fine foliage. It has the virtue better than 

 any other fertilizer of clearing worms from from the 

 .■ioil in pots, and this is a great gain in itself. No 

 kind of worm will remain in the soil which receives 

 a supply of soot water occasionally, and it causes 

 foliage, fruit, and flowers to assume a much dai-ker 

 colour than they do when it is not used. It imparts 

 extra vigour, and may be used all the year round. 

 Ferns are especii'lly benefited by it, aud the fronds 

 assumea deep green colour under its influence. Straw- 

 berries in pots. Pines, Vines, Pelargoniums, Fuchsias, 

 and iudeed all plants improve in texture and appear- 

 ance from its use. It may he used to expel worms 

 before the pots are full of roots, but a,s a general 

 fertilizer it should not be much employed until the 

 roots have taken to soil freely. It is not wanted 

 until then. Many have much difficulty in getting the soot 

 to mix with the water, but this is easily enough managed. 

 Any ordinary old bag should be taken ; h.alf fill it 

 with soot, put a brick or large stone inside, tie* up 

 the mouth, and put it into the tank or barrel with 

 the water. In a short time the water will have pene- 

 trated through every particle of the soot any converted 

 it into a pulp. The water is then in excellent condition 

 for use. It may, however, be too strong for giving to 

 the ])lants as it is, but a quantity of it may be lifted 

 and put into the pans with clear water, the strength 

 to apply it being a matter which can only be determined 

 by the cultivator, — J. Mi'iH, Margam. — Journal ofHorti- 

 cult lire, 



Ba iiBADOS. — The island is like a garden ; every 

 scrap of cultivable land is turned to account, and 

 iu many cases the bare rock has been covered with 

 a layer ot artificial soil, thin, but sufticient for the 

 canes, except in excessive drought. It is extra- 

 ordiuary to look at the country and see the industry 

 which has been employed in utilising every inch of 

 it. Everywhere fields of thick waving canes, uu- 

 fenced and undivided except by the white coral 

 roads, thickly sprinkled with the shanties of the 

 negroes, the white houses of the planters, the low 

 buildings and tall chimneys of the manufactories, 

 and the inevitable windmills; while here and .there, 

 but far too rarely, stand a few palm trees, their 

 plumes bent over by the trade wind, and a dead 

 branch or two hanging sorrowfully down the trunk 

 like the helpless wing of a stricken pheasant. 

 Everywhere sugar, sugar, sugar — before which all 

 muBt fall. The trees were ruthlessly sacrificed to 

 the saccharine Moloch till a diminished rainfall warned 

 the planters that treelessness means raiulessness, and 

 led them to place under the protection of the law 

 such trees as were left. Thus it comes to pass 

 that a drive over the country is most disagreeable 

 owing to the absence of shade. There is no escape 

 from the fierce sun o\erhead, or the frightful glare 

 of the road beneath ; the latter certainly the worse 

 of the two evils, and often serious in its etfects on 

 the eyes both of blacks and whites. The only relief 

 is a shower of rain, which is hardly a change for 

 the better, as tropical rain is hard to keep out, 

 and if the sun come after it the consequent damp 

 heat is almost worse thnu anything. This high state 

 of cultivation involves cheap labour, aud Barbados, 

 within and area of lfi(> square miles, contains a 

 population of nearly If^O.OOO. Of these less than 

 9h per cent are pure AVhitcs. It is to this enorm- 

 ous population that Barbados owes its long-continued 

 prosperity, and enabled it to st.ind successfullyathe 

 abolition of slavery and of the protective duties on 

 eugar. — .Mnanillan'a Mayaiine, 



