The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



BEESWAX FROM ESPARTO GRASS. 



In the report by the, Chief Inspector of Fac- 

 tories and Workshops, Mr. Newlands, Dundee, 

 repotting on the papermaking industry, t ays : 



" The dust given i ff in handling esparto grass 

 has long given trouble, and suggestions of fans, 

 etc., were not well received. A local firm, after 

 some years of experiment, have found this duet 

 of considerable commercial value, and by a new 

 process are extracting beeswax from it. Acting 

 in co operation with one of our leading dust- 

 extracting engineers, they have approached the 

 trade offering to buy this du-t at a figure that 

 Well pays for the installation of Gust-extracting 

 plant." — Chemist and Druggist, June 29. 



WORLD'S VANILLA CROPS- 



Mr. Hermann Mayer Senior has i sued his 

 annual vanilla statistics, showing the world's 

 production to be 590 tons for the year 1911 ; 

 these were shipped to the various trading 

 centres during the 1911-12 season, and were 

 composed as follows : — 



Bourbon 

 Seychelles 



Comoro and Mayotte 



Madagabcar 



Nossi-he 



Mauritius. Java, Fiji 

 aud Ceylon 



Tons 

 6S 

 13 

 70 

 60 

 10 



Guadeloupe and Mar- 

 tinique 

 Mexico 

 Tahiti 



Tons 



16 

 145 

 195 



Say about 590 



The total yield shows very satisfactory dimen- 

 sions, notwithstanding the shriukage in the 

 Seychelles aud Tahiti returns, but as twice in 

 succession no stocks of consequence were lelt 

 to be carried forward into a new season, the 

 market maintained its high level, subject, of 

 course, to the inevitable fluctuations which a 

 passing shortage or accumulation, large arrivals 

 of immature parcels, or occasional ulterior 

 motives of speculators, must produce. — Chemist 

 and Druggist, June 1. 



TEA-CHEST-WOOD BEETLES. 



As a result of the discovery that tea-chests, in 

 which tea had been sent from Calcutta to Aus- 

 tralia, were found on arrival to have been at- 

 tacked by boring beetles which were boring in 

 the wood, an enquiry was commenced by the 

 Indian Tea AsEociation, Calcutta, and its. Scien- 

 tific Department have now issued a short preli- 

 minary resume of its investigations in pamphlet 

 form : "Damage by Beetles in Tea-chest Woods" 

 by G D Hope and C B Antiam. Along list is 

 given of the various insects found in tea-chest 

 woode, many of them were casual visitors, the 



worst pests being beetles of the family of ' shot- 

 hole borers,' The wood is most frequently at- 

 tacked where stored and left undisturbed in 

 godowns, etc., in contact with saw dust and 

 wood refuse. Soft woods are attacked to a 

 greater extent than hard ones and uns asoned 

 wood is attacked more readily than seasoned. 



THE TEA PLANTER AND SECRETS 

 YET TO LEARN. 



Until the planter learns how to command the 

 elements and make them subservient to his 

 will, he will never succeed in making the same 

 rich quality of tea the yp.ar round. Nature's 

 secret has not been wrested from her, and we 

 question whether it ever will. Notwithstan- 

 ding the efforts of our scientific officers, no ad- 

 vance has been made in tea manufacture. We 

 are still groping in the dark and waiting for the 

 light to enlighten us. We were told eomo 

 months ago that tome wonderful now discovery 

 had been made with regard to a new system of 

 fermentation which was going to revolutionise 

 our present method of manuiactuie, but it ap- 

 peared to have fizzled out, for nothing further 

 has been heard of it. Great expectations, sadly 

 disappointed,— Indian Planters 1 Gazette, Aug. 3. 



THE VALUE AND PURPOSE OF GRA- 

 PHITE APPLIED TO RUBBER. 



The application of graphite to the outer sur- 

 face is found mostly in packing material, suoh 

 as asbestos-rubber manhole rings, stuffing-box 

 packing, etc. In the case of different articles the 

 method of use and the purpose of the graphite 

 is different. In mauhole rings, and packing 

 sheets aud rings, the thin outer layer of gra- 

 phite is to prevent the adhesion of the paoking 

 to the surface of the iron that is caused b/ heat. 

 A ring rubbed with sufficient of good graphite 

 is easily taken off. It n the view in some quar- 

 ters that the graphite nfust not be necessary, 

 since many engineers buy manhole rings with- 

 out the graphite. But the engineer puts on the 

 graphite himself or adds red lead. Tnis he does 

 also with ordinary rubber manhole rings. If gra- 

 phite is not used adhesion results* and the tak- 

 ing off leads to tearing, the use of a chisel being 

 necessary in some cases. In stuffing-box packing 

 the graphite is used to give greater smoothness 

 and easier running. It is more efficient than talc, 

 and to stuffing-box packing filled with talc, " 

 graphite is often also added— >Gu/nmi Zettung^ 

 May 31, 



