824 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June *, 1890. 
Whales and Elephants. — The weight of the great 
Greenland or right whale is said to be 100 tons, 
or 220,000 lb.— equal to that of 88 elephants or 
440 bears. The whale-bone in such a whale may 
be taken at 3,360 lb., and the oil at from 140 
to 170 tons. There are annually killed in Africa 
a minimum of 65,000 elephants, yielding a pro- 
duction of a quantity of raw ivory, the selling prise 
of which is about £850,000. — South of India Observer, 
March 22nd. 
Cyelon Tea in America. — We call attention 
to the letter of Mr. A. G. Stanton of Gove, Wilson 
& Stanton on this subject further on. Mr, 
Stanton tells us a good deal that is interesting, more 
especially with reference to the Establishment of the 
Ceylon-American Oo. in New York, and we shall look 
forward with pleasure to his future letters. The 
prospect of our teas getting into the American 
market and catching the taste of the people is deoi- 
dadly improving. 
A Giant Flower.— A contemporary says :— "The 
biggest flower in the world was recently discovered 
by Dr. Alexander Schadenberg. It was found on 
. Mount Pavag, one of the south-eastern Philippine 
islands. The native who aooompanied Dr. Schaden- 
berg called the flower bolo. The bolo in bloom is a 
five-petalled flower, nearly a yard in diameter, as 
large as a carriage wheel. A single flower weighed 
over 221b. The five petals of the immense flower 
ere oval and creamy white, and grow around a centre 
filled with countless long violet-hued stamens." — 
pioneer. 
English Vegetables and Flowers in India and 
Oeylon. — The above is the title of a small book by 
Mr. D. McDonald, dealing with the vegetables and 
flowers of the white residents ia India, and which 
seems to comprise nearly everything of value in the 
way of vegetables for the table, and plants to de- 
corate the flower garden. Many of the latter are 
silent reminders of home, and would seem to 
be ill at home in tropical India, but as the area of 
the country is as immense as its climatic conditions 
are very varied, there are places doubtless to be found 
where the most unlikely plants will thrive with a 
due amount of care on the part of the gardener, 
— Qardeners' Chronicle. 
Interesting Discovery in Relation to Sugar 
Canes. — Muoh interest is evinced in scientific circles 
by a disoovery whioh has just been made at Kew 
by Mr. D. Morris, the assistant director. Hitherto 
the sugar oane has been produced from cuttings 
or slips exclusively, as no one knew that there 
were such things as seed in the plant. After a 
long search Mr. Morris has at last discovered that 
each oane produoes a number of seeds, from whioh 
it is possible to grow a variety of improved canes, and 
it is anticipated that by cross fertilisation and selec- 
tion of the best seeds a considerable increase will be 
made in the yield of sugar in the tropical plantations. 
Hi instances the case of beet, which when first 
introduced for sugar-growing purposes yielded only 
about six per cent., but now, by the method of 
selection of proper seeds, it produces about 18 or 
20 per cent, of saccharine juioe. The seeds of the 
cane have been discovered in the panicle or flowery 
head of the cane, and the difficulty of finding 
them has been increased by the similarity of the 
glumes and the havis. It was only by the aid of 
a powerful mirosoope that tiny seeds were detected, 
and a number of plants were exhihited at the last 
meeting of the Linntcan Society, with the seeds 
attached. At Kew Gardens there are some plants 
about nine inches high whioh have beon grown from 
need obtained from canes sent from the Barbadoes. 
ill importance of this disoovery cannot be over- 
estimated, as it will tend to drive beet sugar out 
to the market. — Manchester Courier. 
Does the Nuisance Justify Flogging ?— The Gre. 
nada papers (Windward Islands) report the alarming 
extent to which the larceny of cacao and spices is be- 
ing carried on. The landowners and merchants con- 
tend that nothing will tend to suppress " the habit " 
but a severe system of punishment. They have 
accordingly prepared a petition to the Government 
praying that whipping be resorted to as a deterrent, 
and that all business in cacao be carried on ex- 
clusively in the towns. It is said that in som - parts 
of the island the pods are cut open on the trees 
and the beans stolen therefrom, leaving the pod 
hanging as if it were in " full" bloom. This petty 
thieving may be very tantalising, but one would 
thifjk that something effective could be done for 
its suppression without resorting to flogging— a 
punishment to which a not unimportant section of 
opinion in the home country would be too sensitive 
to subject even burglars convicted of using firearms. 
— Daily Chronicle. 
Farming in England.— Mr. J. Allanson 
Picton, M. P,, is of opinion that if the English 
tenant farmers were only placed in as good a 
position as their brethren in Ireland, a 1 talk about 
" depression " would disappear. Here is a passage 
from a paper by him in the latest Contemporary 
Review ; — ■ • r 
The depression of agriculture is no necessarv result of 
free trade, but the inevitable consequence of a land 
system uuadapttd and unadaptable to ihe social land 
commercial lite pursued by unshackled commerce. If 
land could be bought, sold, and tranferrre I as easily 
as Consols ; if rural Eogland were less a rich man's 
playground and more a poor man's farm ; if every 
occupant of laud were absolutely free to make the 
best of it, had the same rights as in Ireland, and were 
wise eiiough to sacrifice game to crops ; if delicately 
tilled soil and trim fences could be secured against 
the trampling and breakage of mounted Goths- if every 
future farmer had some years' scientific tracing and 
practice; if the needs of towns wen; sijillieo, and 
obstinate bucdic habit compelled to adapt itself to the 
market of the nineties instead of the markets of the 
'teens; au 1 if railway companies were forced to give 
rapid, sure, and cheap carriage for pro luce with -ut 
partiality or favour— the land of this country would 
he well able to pay all and more thau the charges laid 
upon it. 
The Imperial Tea Duty.- -Says the Madras. 
Mail : — 
On the expiration in 1833 of the charter of the 
East India Company, which had held a complete 
monopoly of the tea trade, the ad valorem duty was 
abolished and differential duties of Is 6d, 2s 2d and 
3s per lb. were substituted ; but they appear to 'have 
worked badly and were abaudoned in 1336 for one 
uniform rate of 2s Id, to whioh in 184C was 
added an additional five per cant. From 1840 the 
duty remained stationary tnl 1853, when it was 
reduced to Is lOi ; ia 1854 it was reduced to Is 
6d ; in 1855 it was raised again to Is. 91; next 
vear it was reduced again to Is 5d, at which it 
remained till 1863, when it was reduce I to Is, and 
next year to 6i, at which it ha; remained * ever 
since. The most curious circumstance connected with 
the tea trade is the displacement of China tea by 
Ceylon and India in tha home markets. Five 
years ago India and Ceylon exported to the 
United Kingdom little mora than half the 
quantity exported by China, yet in the short space 
of time intervening a wonderful change lias taken 
plaoe and we find that India an I Ceylou < xported in 
ten months of the year 1889 a total of more than 
103 million lb , while China exported hardh 52 million 
lb. Such a transformation seems almost incredible, 
but is none the less true. The case of »n' irticie of 
produce in five years increasing in such a ratio on 
the cue hand, and decreasing ia a corresponding 
ratio on the other, has probably never oooarred jjlo.g 
