7c8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1886. 



Cocoa Nins.— Instead of local cultivators of cacao 

 trying to make chocolate, we advise some attention 

 to be given to tlie preparation of cocoa-nibs for the 

 local market : the beverage from them is most 

 pleasant and nutritious. Here are the instructions 

 furnished to us by one who knows : — " A table- 

 spoonful boiled for two hours vigonnnihj in a white 

 lined saucepan with a tight fitting lid and say 

 two cupfuls of water should make a breakfast- 

 cup of cocoa drink. The aroma goes off 

 it there is not a good lid. If boiled for four or 

 five hours the drink becomes thicker, but the aroma 

 goes. 1 think the nibs are simply well dried and 

 husked ; as the skin comes off and the nibs break 

 into pieces of such as we boil. This is all I know.' 

 Fi;iu;iFiii;Es kkom Cincho.va li.uu;. — A paper sent 

 to us by the (iovernment of Madras gives full 

 details of the cost of preparing a liquid extract 

 of bark, which has been found very efficacious 

 and which ha.-, the merit of being in a condition 

 ready for use. The two chemicals employed in 

 its preparation were acid hydrochloric and glycer- 

 ine. Our readers will be jinterested in the figures 

 showing comparative cost of various preparations : — 

 Com paral ire Cost. R. A. P. 



Tost of 175 oz. of the liquid l.** .1 4 



„ of 1 (lose of (he SJ 



,, of 1 lb of DarieeliMg quinetum ... 17 

 ,. of 1 lb of English (|uinitum (.is 



fi.Nc <1 by Government of India) 10 

 „ per 5 grains of Uarjeiliiig qiiinitum 2J 

 ,. ., ,, of EngHiih quinetuin Xi 



ThK JoHORE .\N1> ST1!MTS FlllItK CoMI'ANV (LfMITED) 



has been registered with a capital of f2.").000, in f.T 

 shares. The eonipanv is formed to purchase for 

 the sum of £I'2.OOO,'£2,000 in cash, flO,000 in 

 paid-up shares - certain leasehold estates in the 

 Batu Pahat district, .lohore also the right to use 

 in .Johore, the Straits Settlements, Ac, the patent 

 machinery of Mr. Ephraim Death for " scutching " 

 tibrous stems, leaves, Ac. The company proposes 

 to plant, cultivate, and develop, rhea, aloo, moorva, 

 pineapple, and other fibre-yielding plants, and to 

 manufacture fibre therefrom, and also to cultivate 

 tea, pepper and other articles. The consideration 

 payable to Mr, Death is .i;l,.")00 in cash and 300 

 paid-up shares, also a royalty on the machinery 

 used. Mr. R. A. Watson, of .Tohorc, the vendor, is 

 appointed manager of the company's property in 

 Johore. — 7..<f- C. K-rprcfu. 



FiSH-cuuiNG Yards.— In reviewing the Report on 

 the operations of Fish-curing, yards for the half-year 

 ending 30th September 188o, the Government re- 

 marks : — " His Excellency the Governor in Council 

 ooncuri with the Board of i?evenue in the opinion that 

 the increase in the qnnntity of fish cured is, notwith- 

 Blanding the unfavorable ciiarHCter of the season, very 

 satisfnciory. Government are gifld to observe that the 

 disinclination of Ihe fialicrmeuof Vi/agapiitoni to resort 

 to fbr yrds hi", h-en overcome. In .Sonth Canara, 

 j,„\(.(.vi •, (he yards hare be. u made but little u.se of, 

 and th( tishernnn, apparently, still hold nloof. Mala- 

 bar, n,? usiinl, takes tbn lead in ibe enterprise r)f fish- 

 curing, The Tinnevelly and Masulipatam divisions 

 tiSed the largest qnnntity of salt per maund weightof 

 flsh. lhesmalle^I tigurewasin the Nellore division. 

 The iiverjige fnf iilt divisions was r2'(>4 lb., and not 

 l2-f)7lb., nscpiotid I'y Ihe Commissioner. Though the 

 variations in the tiuanlities used at individual yards 

 are genemlly bon.ining leas marked, there are still 

 some enses of strlkilie disparity occurring in adjacent 

 yards. The (Ippiirfnirntal expf-riments in flsh-curiug 

 led to no dei idi'd r. «ults; butthiTe can be doubt that 

 they serve a usf fill purpose by way of example to the 

 fishermen, and they should therefore be continued. The 

 tinancial result of the operations for thehalf-year was* 

 loss to Government of R1.0.i6. The total number of 

 yards at the beginning of the half-year ia given u 136, 

 but, according to the report iox the preceding period, 

 it »Uuuld be \H-—Madrai HaU, 



Annatto Sekh. — In reply to a correspondent we 

 would say there is only a very limited market for 

 this ifced. At a r^-i-ent London auction one barrel of 

 476 lb. sold at 6d per lb. Annatto paste, called by 

 some people Bixa Dye, has also been shipped from 

 Ceylon iu .^mall quantitien, the last sale re.iliziug 2 6 

 per lb. This requires yreat care in preparation to pre- 

 vent it^ turning inouldly ru ruiitr. This substance, we 

 understand, i.s used for colouring battsr and cheese, 

 anil it tbereforf requires to be sweet. Tlie importance 

 of this cannot be too strongly inipressed upon manu- 

 facturers, as without this essential quality the product 

 is idiMply worthless. — *' Ceylon Advertiser." 



CocoM is : V^KVAMioDA, 7th Maicli. — If the crops I 

 and mv neighbours have picked are a criterion of 

 the loconut crops of this district, they will be 

 lariiciitahly short this year. Speaking for myself, I 

 have all the necessary conditions for an increase of 

 crop annually for the next II) to 15 years, and yet 

 my crop this year has fallen short of that for last 

 year, as far as w-e have gone. In reply to your 

 feotnote to that part of my letter treating of the 

 relative prices of coconuts and copra, I mav men- 

 tion that I have worked on your figures. \*ou give 

 the average number of coconuts to a candy of copra 

 as from I.KII) to l,30t(. I accepted the latter figure. 

 Even taking it at l,20t), it is plain that with fair 

 dealing copra cannot be profitably sold at the pre- 

 sent figures. I too, have heard of places where itOO 

 nuts aiitfice for a candy of copra. I look upon such 

 statements as apocryphal. Nine hundred picked nuts 

 when dried may yield a candy of copra, but it is 

 hard to believe that an estate of even limited extent 

 can yield sik b spledid averages. All coconut planters 

 will bear nie out when I say that only rcr// ex- 

 ceptional places, hardly one per cent of estates, give 

 such a good average as 1,(K)0 nuts a candy of copra. 

 On a 1.1-rge estate that I know of, l,-4tX) nuts have 

 gone to .a candy of copra for several seasons running. 

 — Civ., " Kxanimer." 



Thi. .Java Tea-box wooi>. of which Mr. Mundt 

 has brought a sjiecimen box (as well as the seed of the 

 tree) is known to him as the " Surian " and from 

 the name as well as the lid of the box sent us by 

 Mr. Bois, Mr. \Vm. Ferguson is able to identify 

 the timber as that of the well-known or at any 

 rate much-talked of Culrelu Toviw already frccjuently 

 referred to in our columns. " W. F. '' writes ; — 

 " Botanically the specimen of tea bcrx wood is 

 most closely allied to our Lunumidella, the 

 Mel ill iliiltiii, and the only .lavan name like 

 Siiriiin is ' .S'io-cm '- Cedrela febrifuga-a sviiouym 

 of (Vdrela Toona. I believe the wood is the pro- 

 duce of tliiit famous limlper tree of which the Flora 

 Brit. Ind. 1, p. .'iC.ll, says it is a native of 'Tropical 

 Himalaya, from the Indus Eastward, ascending to 

 3,000 feel ; and throughout the hilly districts of 

 Central and Southern India. Burma (absent in 

 Ceylon '.). I'l-itribntinii, .fiini, ,\nstralia.' Gamble, 

 Manual of Inillnii 'riiiibr-r-i. p. IX. says of Ccdrelft 

 Toona : ' In I'liigal and .^?sanl, it is the chief 

 wood for making Ica-lro.xes. hut is {getting scarce on 

 account of the lica\y demand." The bex-lid 

 itself, if a (air sivcimen of (he work done in. 'avR, 

 is not to be admired, for as " \V. I'.".says : — "No 

 man in or out of Ceylon is a better judge of the 

 fact that the tea-box lid you send me is the pro- 

 duce of a liliinderin;! mechanic. It was put together 

 uii.'^fii.wiii'd with wooden pins to draw the edges 

 and l;ec-|i (hem close, and (hen had two battens 

 nailed on the iii.^iilf instead of on the out- 

 siilc, and is altogether a coarse piece of work. 

 The wood has shrunk in drying, and there is a 

 wide oprning between the boards. I feel sure it 

 can't be che.ip too : 14 screw nails in n lid of a 

 tea-box for cheapness !'' \Vc do not suppose the box 

 in (|ne-tion. being probably used for the purpose of 

 carrving seed, is a fair sample of how a tea-box 

 jii tiirned out, at least in respect ol the 14 ecrew 

 nails. 



