^^(i 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



fJUNE I, 1886. 



doors when there is uo fear ot rain, may safEoe, as the 

 leaf is exceedingly hygrometric and sensitive to a raoist 

 atmosphere. The bundles are now paclied symmetrically 

 in boxes or between boards, and heavily weighted. The 

 packed material shonld remain for some montlis under 

 shelter and in a moderately warm temperature, such as 

 may be afforded by a room in the dwelling-house, or in 

 the same glass structure in which the drying process 

 was effected, but a really damp atmosphere will now be 

 detrimental. A species of slow fermentation succeeds, 

 analogous to that of hay in the rick, and until this has 

 workeil itself out, the Tobacco is not fit for use, in fact 

 it is not proper Tobacco at all. 



Manurk — I do not recommend the application of 

 much manure, as this would tend to induce the over- 

 lu.Kiu'iance which I have indicated as undesirable. 

 Potasli has been suggested, or rather inferred fiom 

 the existence of it rather largely in the plant itself. I 

 might myself suggest a top-dressing of superphosphate 

 of lime as inducing early maturity, but I have no 

 experience on this point. The lime, too. might ha\'e a 

 good ofl'eet in inducing the smoker's desideratum ot a 

 " white ash." 



SoiiTS rott Cultivation. — The Tobaccos may be con- 

 veniently divided into broad and narrow leaved sorts. 

 To the former belong the Maryland and Lebanon kinds, 

 which are nearly identical, wbile i\w narrow-leaved 

 Ha\aua and Latikia are equally near each other in 

 character. The A^irginian (broadj is considered to 

 produce a stronger Tobacco. The Schiraz, or Persian, 

 is a distinct-looking form, 'and, with mo produced a 

 paler and milder smoking Tobacco. N. rustica, a dis- 

 tinct species with green dovyers, is hardier, but S')me- 

 wliat uuamanageahle in cultivation, and I do not recom- 

 mend it. A curious hybrid was raised by me between 

 this and the true Havana, whii-h made a fine coloured 

 leaf of good quality, but. all tlie sorts I have grown 

 seemed to turn out of nnu-h the same quality in our 

 climate, 



llKl'AriTin.ATION, 



Under this head I briuR- into notice the absolute 

 essentials only, namely : — 



1. The cultivation on ridges. 



2. The removal of all laterals. 



3. The earliest liarvesting of the crop consistent with 

 a proper ripening of the leaf. 



•1. The absolutely dry state of the leaf before packing 

 for fermentation. 



Note also, a much larger crop nray be gained by leaving 

 the cuttuig to the last moment iu late autumn, but the 

 i|Uality will be iuevitably bad — woody and watery, so to 

 :,pcak, and of iuferioi- colour. 



In a goo 1 season, and under the treatment recom- 

 mended, a perfectly coloured leaf may be produced, and 

 the resulting Tobacco will be of fair smoking quality — 

 always, however, more or less pimgeut. and with a 

 peculiar Goat, which may be described as earthy. — 11. 

 TnKvoK ('f.AKKK,|JA\niinster, Ajiril 26. [An abstract of 

 this paper was read before the Scientific Committse on 

 Tuesday last. — Kn.]— Gu/Jt-miv' Cliron'ulc. 



MANILLA UEJU' IN INDIA. 



(Kxperimental Cidtivation of the Mu.sa Textilis at the 

 tlovernmeut Experimental Farms at Bhadgaon and 

 Hyderabad and the farm attached to the College of 

 Seience, I'ooua.) 



Letter from II. Strachan, Esq., .Superintendent, 

 (iovernment Kitpcrimental Karin, Hyderabad, Sind, to 

 the Collector of Hyderabad, Sind, dati-d 29th Sep- 

 tember 1885. 



Miisa ttwtilif plant. — This plant thrives very well 

 here under irrigation. Fifty young plants have been 

 planted out, and 127 more arc ready for transplant- 

 ing ; 29 stems are fit for manufacturing into fibre. 

 A number of the oldest stems have been cut and used 

 for tying vine canes and rose buds, &c.; for such 

 work we find the plant very useful. The girth of 

 some of the stems, 6" above the ground, is 2 feet SHnches 



the length 14' 2," and the middle circumference 1' 9"- 

 The fruit when ripe may be said to consist of little 

 else than skin and seed cells, the pulp is almost nil 

 and of no very pleasant taste. As a fruit I would 

 say it is useless. The flower spike in most cases is 

 from 5 feet to 6 feet long, but the fruit seldom ex- 

 tends further up than 1 foot to 14 inches from the 

 ba.se, the flijwers fall from the other portion of it. 

 ■\Vith a view of obtaining a hybird between this pl.an- 

 tain and some variety which yields good fruit, fifty 

 shoots of the Bombay red plantain were planted out 

 towards the end of last year; they are growing well, 

 but will not flower for some time yet. The first trial 

 at extracting the fibre failed on account of our hav- 

 ing no proper machine to bruise the stems. AVe ex- 

 temporised a two-roller mill, but as it had no cog- 

 gearing to cause both rollers to turn together, the 

 one only on which the handle or crank was fixed 

 turned with the result of griudiug th% stems to pulp 

 instead of simply bruising them. This machine is 

 being altered so as to make both rollers work together 

 and it will then be capable of crushing one leaf or 

 the whole stem at one time. The pressure which is 

 regulated by two levers attached to the upper roller 

 can be varied at pleasure to give a bruising weight of 

 from 5 lb. to 200 lb. or more if required. It only wants 

 a couple of cog wheels or pinions to make a very 

 complete and useful implement for preparing any 

 kind of fibre from stems which require to be crushed. 

 As soon as it is ready further trials of extracting the 

 fibre from this plant will he put iu hand. 



REPORT ON M.\N'rr,rA nr.MP (mUSA textilis) CCLTtJItE. 



The plantation of Manilla hemp on the College Farm 

 is two years old. From a plot measuring half guntha, 

 eleven stems were cut down and the fibre prepared 

 as follows. — 



The leaves were cut off and the midribs laid aside. 

 The (false) stem was separated into the leaf sheaths 

 it is composed of, the sheaths torn up into narrow 

 strips and bung up iu the shade to dry and subse- 

 quently soaked in water until the fibre separated easily. 

 The weather being cool the time required for retting 

 was ten days. The quantity of fibre obtained was 

 7 11). This is equal to 560 lb. per acre. The cost ot 

 production is per acre; — 



Laud rent .. ... ... ."i 



Irrigation ... ... ... 18 



Manure ... ... ... 40 



Labor cultivating ... ... 10 



Do. watering i:j 



8i; for .'>G0 lb. 

 A crop of Suua (C'i'oM/</rm_/»7(ccrtl will give OitO lb. 

 per acre of a better fibre at a cost of ]{25 in this 

 district. An attempt to produce a cross between 

 Manilla hemp {.^fusn ti.rti/ix) and Sonekale (.!/««< 

 sajiientum) has been made. The pollen of the Sone- 

 kale { the finest of our varieties of Banana was applieil 

 to the flowers of the I\lanilla hemp without effect. 

 Ihe pollen of the I^lanilla hemp was applied at the 

 same time to the flowers of the .Sonekale; the fruit 

 ripened during last ntonth and has given about half 

 ounce of seed. "Whether a cross has been effected is 

 doubtful, but I have never seen the Sonekale produce 

 such large seed, and it is proi>ably due to the pollen 

 of the Manilla hemp. The seed will be ripened by 

 March next when it will be sown. .\s the wild Banana 

 takes about five years to attain full develoi)ment, I 

 expect the cultivated variety, when raised from seed, 

 will take a like period, and the effect will not bo 

 apparent until the plant is full grown and in fruit. 

 I attach samples of the fibre prepared from the 

 Manilla hemp plants and also from the Sonekale grown 

 in similar circumstances. It will be observed that the 

 fibre of the latter is little inferior to the fibre of the 

 former, while the latter (Sonekale) has a valuable 

 fruit, and tbe fruit of the former (Manilla hemp) is 

 uneatable. From this I would infer that a cross breed 

 between those two plants will not be of practical 

 value. It will probably be an inferior Sonekale with 

 its fibre a little improved, which would not be an im- 

 provcraeut on the whole. The necessity for and the 



