3§6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [December i, 1889. 
obtaining timber for agricultural purposes, and this> 
therefore, is not the reason that he is too poor to feed 
his cattle. It was the Forest Act, but the wasteful- 
ness of the people themselves and their over-grega- 
riousness, that created a scarcity in the supply of 
firewood, and incidently of manure. It is not the Act, 
but the system of working it that is to blame for its 
failure to help agriculture as it ought. For many 
yeas the Government has been considering the feasi- 
bility of introducing a system of village plantations 
that would not only supply firewood, but yield leaves 
and an underworth of fodder sufficient to tide the 
cattle over their struggle for life each summer. In 
Firae districts, Government has land of its own which 
i could thus plant ; in others it is only a sleeping 
partner in the soil. In some cantons of Switzerland 
the occupiers of commune lands are compelled by 
law to keep up a certain number of trees. It seems 
ft fair question whether plantations ought not to be 
made an incident of land tenure in many parts of 
India. They would go far to solve many difficulties 
of Indian agriculture. But little can be done in this 
way until the pressure of population is removed from 
the overcrowded parts. The repeal of the Forest Act 
would mean indiscriminate timber cutting, burning of 
jungles, waste of fuel, the use of manure to supply 
the place of that waste, bringing pasture land 
under the plough, and diminution of the rainfall. 
It would, in short, intensify, instead of modify, the 
causes of the present three great impediments of Indian 
agriculture, viz., the pauoity and miserable condition of 
the cattle, want of manure, and want of water. The 
Swami's fourth demand is : " To repeal the salt law, 
the terrible rules of which have made penal illicit manu- 
facture of salt in howsoever small a degree, and have 
thus practically shut the gate against innocent cows, 
who also require some salt." This would meet with a 
sympathetic reception, if it could be shown how salt 
fit for consumption by cattle can be rendered unfit for 
human consumption, or, failing that, how the deficit 
caused by giving up the salt monopoly can be made 
good. In urging his final and real proposition, the pro- 
hibit! on of cow-killing, the Swami asks why, " while 
the Government have made a game law for the con- 
venience of a limited number of their countrymen, and 
a fish law for the good of a small portion of the Ben- 
galis alone," there should not be "introduced a special 
law regarding cows, animals equally useful to[the young 
and the old, to the Brahmin and Pariah, to the King 
and the vassal ?" The laws referred to impose a limited 
restriction, which would, in special localities, prevent 
the rapid extermination of the animals in question. 
But an almost complete restriction of the slaughter, to 
the point of extermination, of cattle already exists in 
the laws of caste. — Madras Mail, Oct. 28th. 
COFFEE IN YEKCAUD. 
The few wet misty monsoonish looking days last 
week, seem to have been very general. Bad weather 
was even experienced in Madras, where the "Times" 
informed the public, that the N.-E. monsoon had 
set in very punctually. Its contemporary the 
"Standard" prophesies that the N. E. will set in 
on " Deepavali " day with a vengeance. The strong 
wind and rain up here on the 17th and 18th was 
from the south-west, and at the end of the week 
the total rainfall for the year was 77 inches ; the 
average for the whole year being about 68 inches, 
and we have yet two months before us. The coffee 
estates as a whole are looking very much better 
than they ever did, leaf-disease being less than in 
past years. A discussion is on here amongst the 
planters, whether this damp whether helps to reduce 
leaf-disease or does it bring it on. What do your 
readers say? 
Coonook, October 25th. — Our monsoon is rather 
eocentric. Last week we were deluged witho rain 
—day and night — this week has been fair through- 
out ; with clear starry skies at nights.a suspicon 
of frost attending the last two.— South of India 
Oburvcr t Oot. 26th. 
Coffee's Tukn Now ! — The Chemist and Dru/j- 
gist informs us that in the Berlin Unische Wochen- 
schrift Dr. Wendel calls attention to the injurious 
effect of the continued use of coffee. He states that 
"it is quite erroneous to suppose coffee is harmless, 
as, after being taken for a lengthened period, it 
produces a special disease. In consequence of its 
physiological action, Dr. Wendel thinks that coffee 
should be absolutely interdicted in all febrile dis- 
eases, such as typhoid, tuberculosis, &c. : also in 
diseases of the brain and spinal cord, in anasmia, 
chlorosis, &c. The symptoms caused by excessive 
coffee-drinking are as characteristic as those of 
morphinism and alcoholism." — What next? 
Castok Oil as Food. — The Malays must have 
pucka digestive functions, seeing that they use a 
powerful cathartic as food. We quote from the Perak 
Government Gazette as follows: — "It is not generally 
known that the oil from the seeds of the Palma Ohristi 
forms an artiole of human food ; yet such is the ease, 
and amongst the Malays of Upper Perak and Patani 
castor oil is commonly used in cookery. Both the 
variety known to the Malays as Jarah Lang, which is 
the officinal plant, and another variety, with smooth 
seed capsules, designated by them Jarah noir, are eaten 
by these people. The seeds are ground up, and supply 
the place of cocoanut-oil in the preparation of the 
Malayan curry or gulai. At other times the oil is ex- 
pressed by an oil-press called apit surin before use. It 
is said that people unaccustomed to it can only eat it in 
small quantities ; but that with use its cathartic effects 
pass off, and then a man can eat half a tumbler of it 
with his food without any inconvenience. That such an 
extremely nauseous oil, endowed with active medicinal 
properties, should have become an article of diet is cer- 
tainly a matter of interest, the more so as it is one of 
the drugs which is held by the medical profession not 
to lose its power by ro-peated doses." 
The Value of Cocaine. — In their latest report 
(9th Oct.) Messrs. iBoehringer & Son of Mann- 
heim give the following interesting information : — 
Several statements having been lately made in the 
daily press calculated to inspire the public with some 
distrust of Cocaine, an experienced operator whose 
whole life has been devoted to the study of such sub- 
stances appeals in Kb'ln. Zeitung (No. 254 ; 13th Sept. 
1889) against such unfounded apprehnsions. We give 
the following extract from his interesting remarks :- 
" It were much to be regretted if the misuse of Cocaine, 
and the denuciation in the daily papers of such misuse, 
should deprive a single suffering human being of the 
blessing of its salutary influence. Yet such must in- 
evitably be the case, if dread of Cooainism inspire 
physicians with doubt, and patients with repugnance. 
There is not the slightest reason for either. Cocainism 
(i. e. the habit of taking Cocaine in excessivequantities) 
resulted solely from the attempt by Cocaine to counter- 
act the deleterious effects of Morphium injection. Such 
violent excitement of the nerve-centres has however no 
connection whatever with the external application of 
Cocaine in surgery, which in the hands of the capable 
and practised operator is as innocuous as any other 
simple operation More difficult is the 
production of local insensibility by the injection of the 
solution within, or below, the skin. Success in such 
cases is only attainable through arresting the Cocaine 
in the locality to be operated upon, V>y locally suspend- 
ing the circulation. Neglect of this has occasionally 
caused failure in the application. Another element 
that owing to the novelty of the subjeot was also not 
known or disregarded has done the same. Solutions of 
Cocaine in water become namely, by chemical decom- 
position, more rapidly inactive, than in the absence of 
all clouding or colouring of the liquid, would be sup- 
posed, and hitherto no means has been discovered of 
preventing such change. Hence however the impera- 
tive necessity of employing only freshly prepared solu- 
tions. In general with Cocaine as with every impor- 
tant reme the knowledge and skill of the operator 
form the second chief factor Where these qnalitiesare 
present, and a reliable preparation at hand, Cocainism 
becomes a fiction and Cocaine an inestimable relief to 
many a sufferer." 
