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iUE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS-r. 



[May I, 1886, 



The Uses of HORTicuLTunAL Societies. — We take 

 the following extract from n paper of Mr. J,. B. Pierce, 

 of Ohio, on the means of extending the usefulness 

 of local horticultural societies contained in the 

 Tra)i:<actloH of the American romolocfical Societij ; — 

 " If you can persuade or teach an Irish washerwoman 

 that Grape Vine will grow beside her shanty (in 

 the United States) as readily as a Morning Glory 

 (Convolvulus), that a garden that grows Cabbages 

 and Potatos will also grow Cauliflowers and Straw- 

 berries, you have taken one step towards the millcnium 

 — you have got her and her family a step out of 

 the beaten track, and this single step may lead her 

 sons into lines of life that will crave neither the 

 ghort-stemmed pipe nor the whisky bottle." — Hardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



The Cultivation of the "Wattle-tree is quite anindustry 

 iu Victoria and South Australia. There are several 

 species of these trees, all belonging to a class pre- 

 eminently suited to the Australian climate, being 

 equally able to withstand wet and dry seasons, and 

 a bush fire, instead of destroying the dormant seed 

 lying on in the ground as would naturally be supposed, 

 causes it to germinate and grow. The large amount 

 of tannin in the bark was early discovered by the 

 Australian settler, and as settlement became closer, 

 and tanneries increased, fear was often expressed that 

 the supply of wattle-bark would .soon be exhausted. 

 However, observation showed that light loamy or 

 sandy lands would grow a crop of wattles provided 

 only it was fenced oft from cattle; this led to a large 

 area of land being .so treated in "S^ictoria, but in South 

 Australia the actual ploughing of the land and sowing 

 the] wattle-seed was extensively carried out, and the 

 residts are said to have been very remunerative. The 

 trees are ready to strip in about five ye&rs from time 

 of sowing, but the process of stripping is always 

 looked upon as wasteful, as only the bark upon the 

 trunk and main branches can be peeled off, and much 

 waste is left upon the smaller branches. It is there- 

 fore satisfactory to learn that an Adelaide firm have 

 succeeded in inventing a process for extractiug the 

 tannin principle from the tree, a process in which the 

 whole of the tree, leaves, bark, and wood, is used. 

 The extract so prepared is of a sticky semi-licjuid con- 

 sistency, not unlike thick molasses in appearance. It 

 has stood the test of practicability for the tanner, 

 and now several of the local tanners use it iu pre- 

 ference to the crude bark, for it saves them a great 

 deal of labour and expen.'ie, and renders unnecessary 

 the storage of a large quantity of bark. Several casks 

 of the " extract " have been shipped to England, and 

 it seems not unlikely that new industry has been 

 created. To the farmer it opens out a market for 

 a product which can be grown in the jjoorest soil, 

 and with the lea.st amount of cultivation possible,— 

 The QvccnsUindcr. 



Fungi, Food and Disease. — Mr, W. J. Simmons, 

 Secretary to the Public Health Society of this city, 

 delivered a very interesting and intsructive lecture on 

 the night of the hith instant, choosing as his subject. 

 "Decay, and the Germ Theory of Disease. " After 

 a short preamble on the economy of the vegetable 

 kingdom, the lecturer entered upon a very exhaustive 

 analysis of the family of fungi. He .>iaid that an in- 

 timate study of it would lead to the discovery that 

 that it touched human life at every point. " It whs 

 tn fungi that we were indebted for both bread and 

 wine, and but for it, we would have neither vinegar 

 nor beer. The fungi touched us, loo, when they 

 blighted our crops and desolated our vineyards ; wlien 

 they paralysed the silk industry of France and Italy, 

 and swept, like a destroying angel, over the teeming 

 herds of Kussia. Fungi were a terror to the agricul- 

 turist, the farmer, and the cattle-breeder ; the physi- 

 cian had learned to recognize in them the certain 

 cause of anthrax, and the probable cause of consump- 

 tion, and a hostof other diseases; the surgeon t.axed 

 his skill to prevent them from invading his hospitals, 

 Bnd showing themselves with deadly effect in his pati- 

 ents' wounds. Their seeds, germs, or spores were 

 miugled with the air we breathed, aud the food and 



drink we consumed. True to the laws of their vege- 

 table life, these spores persistently produced fungi of 

 the parent typo. And this constancy of reproduction 

 ran thrcugh the whole class. As Tyudall strikingly 

 sajs: "Sow any of the fungi in a state of purity 

 in any appropriate fluid, you get it, and it alone in 

 the subse(|uent crop. In like manner, sow small-pox 

 in the human body, your crop is sraall-pox ; sow 

 there scarlatina, your crop is .sea ilatina ; sow typhoid 

 virus, your crop is typhoid ; cholera, your crop is 

 cholera. This disease bears a* constant a rela- 

 tion to its contagiura as the microscopic organisms 

 just enumerated do to their germs ; or as a thistle 

 does to its seed. No wonder, then (he goes on) with 

 analogies so obvious and so striking that the convic- 

 tion is spreading and growing daily in Btrength, that 

 reproductive parasitic life is at the root of endemic 

 disease." — Indian Ayricu Itnn'st. 



CoCK(.'HAKEtts. — Mr. Booth, the well-known nursery- 

 man of Hamburg, says : — " About ten years ago we 

 sutfercd terribly from Cockchafers, whole plantations 

 of Rhododendrons and Conifers being completely 

 destroyed by them. Against such devastation all 

 artificial remedies were more or less powerless. "We 

 then adopted the starling plan. We caused 100 

 breeding cages to be made of the very simplest con- 

 struction, and in the .spring they were all occiyjied. 

 As soon as the Cockchafer comes or is coming 

 out of the earth the starling is there ; it picks the 

 Chafer clean out, tapping about on the ground with 

 its beak until it finds it. Beside almost every hole 

 from which a Cockchafer his escaped one might find 

 the wings and whatever is uneatable, proof enough 

 that the Chafers' enjoyment of life had not been of 

 long duration. We increased the number of cages, 

 and have now from 175 to 300. AVe have since then 

 had plenty of Cockchafer years, but ha\e not again 

 experienced such injury from them, and in working 

 the ground to a greater depth for them the number 

 of gnibs found is comparaf.ively few." Another 

 remedy adopted by French gardeners is to thickly 

 sow the affected ground in autumn with Colzi, which 

 is ploughed in as soon as the first frosts begin to 

 make their appearance. Half-decayed Cabbage leaves, 

 or indeed the refuse of any Cruciferous plant, should 

 be ploughed in at the same time. It seems that the 

 Cockchafer grab cannot stand the leaves of an}' of 

 the Cruciferous plants in a state of fermentation, the 

 sulphurous emanations given uff by tbem beinj; poison- 

 ous to the insect. Planting Cabbages or Turnips in 

 ground infested by the Cockchafer grub is said to be 

 effectual in driving them away. Another method, 

 which is only api)licable in woods and ])lautations, is 

 described in the '* Mereseburgher Official .Tournal " as 

 having been successfully tried in a nursery belonging 

 to the lloyal Forestry at Bischotfsrodo, comprising l.V 

 acres of land, and surrounded by high trees, especially 

 by Oaks, completely ravaged by Cockchafers. Just 

 before tlie flying time seventeen different .spots were 

 artificially prepared as breeding places in the following 

 manner: — Alongside the paths, and near the fences, 

 from 3 ft. to 4 ft. square of ground were covered with 

 fresh manure from S iu. to 6 in. high, without mix- 

 ture of straw or any other material ; upon this was 

 laid 2 in. or 3 in. of fresh earth, nicely smoothed 

 dowu ami raked. Thc.«e spots were carefully watched 

 during the flying season, but, owing to the absence 

 of any bored holes, were left undisturbed until the 

 middle of .Inly, when it was discovered that in those 

 spots exposed to the sun, the mamire was a living mass 

 of grubs ' in. in length, whilst in those places more 

 in the shade the number of eggs was inconceivable. 

 These heaps were brought together, and collectively 

 burnt outside the nursery." — Indian Gardener. 



ROUGH ON RATS. 

 Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flics, anii, bed-bug.s, 

 beetles, insects, skunks, chipmunks, gophers. Druggists. 

 W. E. Smith & Co., Madras, f?oIe Agents. 



