February r, 1890.3 THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 55? 
and green. The Jews of Amsterdam will oharge 
you a hundred guineas for sapphire ! but buy a 
little strass and oxile fcobaltand you can make 
one for yourself. Little need be said of the 
Parisian fabrication of chrysoberyls, chrysopals, 
and " floating light," which are really not jewels 
in the strict sense of the term. The last, known 
in the slang of the French market as aquapho- 
nanes, are of an asparagus green, rather shell- 
shaped, with two refractions, and pretty enough 
when flashing under a galaxy of chandeliers. In 
imitating the ruby — always providing that mere 
red glass and the other pitiful ideas of toy arcades 
are out of the question — great difficulties have to 
be overcome. Properly speaking, there is only 
one ruby (known to the lapidaries as the spinel), 
of a tender red : the Oriental, Barbary, and Brazi- 
lian are generally sapphires, amethysts, or topazes. 
The oolour of the true stone may best be 
described, perhaps, as a combination, exquisitely 
delicate, of rose and cherry ; but some are wine- 
tinted, or of a violet hue, or tinged with yellow. 
It is astonishing how far a mixture of white lead 
and pulverised and calcined dints will go in com- 
petition with the jewel beds of India. So with 
emeralds ; the same paste that is used for artificial 
diamonds is blended with a precipitate of oxide 
of copper, and the green gem sparkles brilliantly. 
The garnet requires paste dyed with the " purple 
of Cassius" ; it is, however, exceedingly difficult to 
imitate its starlike ray. Oxide of cobalt and the 
Cassian purple will produce a beautiful semblance 
of the amethyst, though a better is obtained by 
a mingling of white sand, treated with hydrochloric 
acid, read lead, calcined potash, calcined borax, 
and the purple. Thousands of these mock gems are 
annually sold, at considerable prices ; and thousands 
of them are worn by those who would have the 
world believe in heirloom jewels. 
The manufacture of false pearls, which had its 
origin in the French capital, and thence spread 
to Italy, is exceedingly curious. As its foundation 
are used the scales of the blay, a small flat fish, 
with a green back and a white belly, the latter being 
of a very silvery appearance, and easily detached. 
The scales are scraped into bowls of water, dried 
in a horse hair sieve, melted, and converted into 
" essenoo of the East, ; ' to which is added a little 
gelatine, and this mixture is spread, with the ut- 
most oare, over delicate globes of glass. When cool, 
these are pierced and filled with white wax to give 
them the necessary solidity and weight. Occasion- 
ally, real opals, powdered, are used for the most 
costly kinds. The trinkets imported as " Venetian 
pearls " are glass, and their production presents 
no difficulty. 
Infinite care is bestowed upon the mounting of 
spurious gems by the French artificer. He has to 
consider how his sham settings— they must be sham, 
since he must sell them cheap — are likely to suffer 
from exposure to the atmosphere or from the 
action of heat, water and acids ; and he resorts 
to copper, lead, platinum, iron, steel, gold, silver 
and their amalgams accordingly. The history of 
their manipulation by his or several sets of hands, 
the softening, the purification, the moulding, the 
washing, the hammering, the melting, the colour- 
ing 'or bleaching, the chiseling, and so forth 
would about occupy an entire technical dictionary. 
There are instruments for stamping, instruments 
for welding, instruments for soldering. One work- 
man chamfers, another 11 .tes, ai other stands 
at the laminating maolrne; the fourth bends 
over the delicate enaiueller's knife, sharp 
as a diamond's edge, and nearly aa hard ; 
a tifth subjects the completed work to a micro- 
scopical ■ examination. This industrial eoonomy 
is peculiarly interesting, the diversity of aptitude, 
of course, encouraging the division of labour. 
Beverting to the French meretricious jeweller's 
other arts — those of coating common with precious 
materials, and enamelling, few have any idea of 
the extent to which these tricks in manufacture 
are carried. The ingenious and cheap French 
enamel, white or coloured, made up into rings, 
collarets, and bracelets, brings a great profit to the 
workmen, and is really attractive. But it requires 
time and study to obtain a mastery over this art; 
There is the fixing of the translucent glass upon 
the metallic surface, the painting of the vitreous 
plane, the choice of tints, the subtle application of 
heat, the consideration of chemical action exercised 
by one oxide upon another, and the due admix- 
ture of materials. Then, the engraving of 
enamels is a task requiring all possible exact- 
ness and tenderness of touch. Gilding, or as the 
Parisians style it, " gold " colouring, calls into requi- 
sition methods the most various, the oil, the hot, the 
cold, the bronze, the copper, the steel, and the 
ether ; but the magic of silvering is scarcely less 
intricate, especially when the surfacing is to be 
totally false, or what is termed " argenterie des 
charlatans." As for coating copper with gold 
which is quite different from gilding, this belongs 
altogether to a higher artisanship, applicable also to 
lead, and even to iron. 
The manufacture of steel trinkets by the French 
is of old date, and the finish and polish of the 
fancies produced for the Palais Boyal by the arti- 
ficers of the riotous Faubourg St. Antoine have 
never been excelled, even by the ambitious mecha- 
nics of Austria, who are Dutch in their perseverance 
and Italian in their taste. But, after all, these 
artists aim mostly at the imitation of jewels and 
gold. 
A number of workmen in Paris have, for many 
years, been dependent upon the mock jewellery 
industry, and thrived by it. It is not by any mea ns 
a degrading business, simply because the deception 
is, in faot, no deception. It is avowed in the market- 
place ; the objects are sold as shams ; no one of 
common sense or knowlege could take them to be 
anything else ; but they bring, or have usually 
brought, to the artisans of Paris an enormous 
annual income. 
<, 
NATIVE AGRICULTURE IN INDIA. 
(Prom the Indian Agriculturist, Dec. 28th.) 
Dr. Voelcker, who lets Calcutta for Cawnpore on 
the 20th instant on taur, has come to India for twelve 
mouths under special engagement with the Secretary 
of State for the purpose of suggesting improvements 
in Indian agriculture through scientific means. As far 
as his observations have extended, Dr. Voelcker has 
been struck by the evidences of careful cultivation 
which he has seen in the country through which he 
has travelled. Nor has he failed to recognise the 
difficulties in the way introducing agricultural machinery 
and the free employment of manures in this country. 
It is believed that Dr. Voelcker has been especially 
charged by the Secretary of State to deal thoroughly with 
the question how the wheat trade between Iudia and 
England can beiinproved and developed. Dr. Voelcker's 
researches rre als ', we think, to be extended to the. 
conditions under which linseed is now exported to 
England, inoi-o e-pec a!iy with a view of preventing 
the adulteration of the seed and securing a completely 
sati lac'ory oilc.ke for use by British farmers. 
According to the Director of Agriculture in Bombay, 
Mr. Bhimbhai Kirpuram, tbe rjots do not need to bo 
familiarised with the rotation or intereulture of crops, 
nor do they nppi.eciite the benefits of biyh farming ; 
but they want such help as will enable thorn to uti- 
lise too results of science, and adopt such practical 
methods in agriculture aa well-tested experiments bavo 
