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The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Rambutan Stew. — Boil together sugar and 

 water, with two cloves, and a little cinammon 

 stick. When boiling strain, then add the ram- 

 butan whole, and stew until the pulp comes off 

 the stone easily ; serve cold. 



Soursop Fool or Mango Fool.— Peel the 

 fruit, then boil with a little water till very soft- 

 Then strain through a wire sieve, add sugar, 

 and boil slowly until the juice becomes thick. 

 This fool can be made into a jelly, or eaten with 

 blanc-mange. 



Crystallised Pumpkin.— Peel the skin, cut 

 the pumpkin into strips about one inch thick. 

 Throw away the seeds. Soak for two hours in 

 lime water, two spoonfuls of lime in sufficient 

 water to cover the pieces. (This preparation of 

 lime is sold in the market to eat with betel and 

 is called Kapur halus.) Before cooking the 

 pumpkin wash off the lime, first with cold water, 

 then with boiling water. Boil the weight of the 

 pumpkin in sugar, using enough water to dis- 

 solve the sugar. Then when boiling add the 

 pieces of pumpkin and boil for quarter-of-an- 

 hour. Turn out into a basin and leave the whole 

 to soak for a day and a night. After this place 

 the pieces to crystallize in the hot sun. 



Banana Trifle.— Boil some ripe bananas 

 slightly, then mash with a fork, and mix with 

 any kind of jam. Lay the mixture in a glass 

 dish, and pour over it a good thick custard, and 

 over that the whipped white of an egg, adding 

 any kind of further decoration. 



Banana Fritters.— Make a batter of flour, 

 milk, and butter, add a little bicarbonate o* 

 soda. Cut the bananas in half (length-ways), dip 

 each in the batter and fry. — S. F. Press. 



VALUE OF BEES IN COFFEE 

 PLANTATIONS. 



In a recent circular on Bee Keeping, pub- 

 lished by the experiment station of Porto Rico, 

 it is stated that : 



"The coffee planters particularly have become 

 interested in the raising of bees, not for the 

 honey but because bees are very useful in pol- 

 lenizing coffee in seasons when there is a great 

 amount of rain during bloom. The pollen in the 

 coffee is carried by the winds from flower to 

 flower, but, if there is much rain, very little 

 bloom is set as only the dry pollen is carried by 

 wind ; during rainy periods the bees visit the 

 flowers and distribute the pollen in their honey 

 gathering. Ooffee plantations also afford excel- 

 lent fields for bees to work in as honey is ob- 



tained from the coffee shade as well as from the 

 coffee itself." 



As it is well known that the mango fails to 

 set fruit when heavy rains occur during the blos- 

 soming period it would be interesting to learn 

 if the reason for this is the same as given above 

 in the case of the coffee plant. If it is, no doubt 

 the value of bees in a mango grove would be 

 quite as considerable as that obtained by the 

 coffee planters of Porto Rico. 



We would like to hear from some of our 

 readers who are keeping b9es near bearing 

 mongo trees. — Cuban American, June 15. 



WATTLE CULTURE. 



In his annual report (dealing with the year 

 ended June 30 last) the Actiog Conservator of 

 Forest*, Western Australia, makes the following 

 comments on wattle culture : — 



'•The question of wattle growing for commer- 

 cial purposes is again being taken up by the 

 Department, and about 30 acres at the Ludlow 

 have been sown with the seed of the broad- 

 leaved Golden Wattle. This is a species largely 

 planted in South Australia and Victoria on ac- 

 count of its bark being very rich in tannin, and 

 which has been grown with very profitable re- 

 sults in those States. A few experimental plan- 

 tations have already been formed in this State 

 as object lessons to the public and with a view 

 of encouraging settlers to plant the useless por- 

 tions of their holdings. Unfortunately, however, 

 so far, although many inquiries have been made 

 regarding the culture of this valuable tree. I do 

 not know of any plantations having been formed 

 by private landowners, though the value of wat- 

 tles, and the fact that they will flourish on poor 

 land, is generally recognised. This species was 

 introduced into South Africa years ago by means 

 of seed obtained from Australia, and its cultiva- 

 tion has been the means of creating an important 

 industry there, the export of bark having grown 

 from 39 packages, valued at £11, in 1886, to 

 15,819 tons in 1905 valued at £92,911, and the yield 

 of a few years ago from between 30,000 and 

 40,000 acres under cultivation in Natal was 

 valued at £100,000 per annum. To come nearer 

 home, in Victoria, wattle is at present very 

 profitably cultivated, and has brought as much 

 as £5 23. 6d. per ton for bark obtained from trees 

 stripped between the fifth and eighth year of 

 planting. In Europe there is an almost in- 

 exhaustible market for Australian wattle bark. 

 It commands a higher price than other barks, 

 and there is little prospect of increased pro- 

 duction injuriously affecting the exports, as the 



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