AdRfCULTUKXST. ifm i, 1887, 
COFFEE IN MYSORE. 
By " Aberdonensis." 
Ah ! But there 's more, my dears, than Volun- 
teering to rouse us and cheer us. Grand prices in 
retiospect and grand crops in prospect is cheering : 
Oh ! let them go on, those men in Ceylon 
They '11 choke all the markets and countries with 
Tea. 
With hope and with trust, we '11 keep to our crust, 
Or rather our coffee ; and joy to be free ! 
It is very cheering to have good prices and good 
crops. It puts the past, the present and the future in 
a good light and makes a man enjoy his work. Yeu 
have all left your old love. I have followed her to 
a far country ; and there her soft whispering caresses 
as I pass along the estate paths ; her ropes of green 
swelling pearls ; her sweet breath untainted by blight 
or deadly spores of Hemileia ; her willing response 
to care and trouble ; these all as in the laughing days 
of my youth, now console my more sedate spirit. 
" Coffee, when it pays, is the best thing going for 
any man." How often has that been said ? Is it 
not true ? Your tea does n't pay so well and gives you 
a lot of bother. The trim tidy bushes of coffee — 
contrast them with the hideous pruned tea field. I 
saw some when I was last in Ceylon. I compared 
a pruned tea bush and a pruned coffee bush. The 
latter is a maid with her tresses trimmed and braided, 
her dress arranged t;dy and neat. The former a ghastly 
corpse half devoured by some unholy creature, its 
bones pointing to the sky. 
The sweet smell of the cherries as they merrily drop 
through the machinery, the scent of the dry parch- 
ment .- how d^es that compare to the sickly beat 
and trying sour atmosphere of crushed and fermented 
and fired leaves mingled wit h the dust and the noise ? 
Then instead of the clean gunny you have the solder, 
the lead, the stencil plates, &c. 
4, ■ — 
NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE. 
BY DR. J. E. TAYLOR, r. l. s., f. g. si, &c, 
E.BITOB of " Science Gossip. " 
There are few subjects wnich possess a greater 
fascination for agricultural chemists than the im- 
mense stores of nitrogen in the atmosphere around 
us. If they could only tap them I The dream of 
doing so is to them what the possibility of convert- 
ing the base metals into gold was to the mediseval 
alchemist. And to none has the possibility of some- 
how being able to make use of this atmospheric store 
appeared more sanguine than to the French chemises. 
The Emperor Napoleon took intense interest in scienti- 
fic agriculture, and one of the best chemists of the 
day, Professor Ville, superintended his experimental 
farm at Vincennes. Professor Ville was very sanguine 
about chemists being able to cheaply use the nitro- 
gen of the atmosphere. Certain kinds of plants, such 
as the order Leguminos;©, had learned to do so, he 
(said, and why should not men. He wanted the French 
Academy to offer a prize cf £10,000, and throw it 
open to the world, for the lucky person who discovered 
an e isy method of utilising the nitrogen of the air. 
M Berthelot, a distinguished French chemist, is 
the apostolical successor of the late Professor Ville 
in this matter. He is constantly experimenting in 
the direction that Ville suggested. Last week he read 
& paper before the Academy of Sciences on " The 
Direct Fixation of the Gaseous Nitrogen of the 
Atmosphere by Vegetable Soils with the Aid of Veget- 
ation. If agriculturists could only manage to grow 
crops which would enrich their soils instead of pau- 
per'sina them, it is manifest that there would be 
some hope for agriculture. M. Berthelot evidently 
thinks be has partly succeeded on argillaceous, or 
clayey soils, in fixing atmospheric nitrogen— but not 
wiih the aid of vegetation. His experiments have 
been carried on at Meudon, one patch with veget- 
ation on it and the other without. He found that 
the amount of nitrogen fixed by the former was 12 7, 
and as much as 2B'15, whilst that fixed by the aid of 
vegetation wai only 4 '67, and the utmost 7*58 g rammei. 
The Colonial College and Training Farms at Hal- 
lesley Bay, in Suffolk, have started, the principal 
being the Rev. Dr. Koss, who had 16 years' experi- 
ence at Graham's Town, South Africa. It is intend- 
ed to train youths who have left school, and who 
intend being colonists, in such practical yet scientific 
details as will make them all the better colonists. 
The farms include nearly 1,400 acres of all sorts. This 
is a tolerably large farm in England. There are flocks 
and herds on it, and the lads are not only being 
taught husbandry, but something of veterinary sur- 
gery, practical chemistry, geology, and botany as well 
as sheep shearing and slaughtering, a little of black- 
smithing and carpentery, and indeed everything likely 
to make a young fellow handy in every way. So our 
young "new chums " may be able to give you a few 
wrinkles by and by. They are not instructed in the 
art of tea making, but they will soon learn that 
when they get over to your side, and find how bad 
the water is. 
In a paper on the subject just read before the Paris 
Academy of Sciences, by M. Andouard, the writer 
shows that it is a great mistake to mix nitrates and 
superphosphates together as artificial manures. —Aus- 
tralasian. 
¥ 
COMPANIES AND SOCIETIES IN JAVA: 
THE AMSTERDAM QUININE FACTORY. 
Our readers (says the Indische Mercuur) know 
perhaps that for various reasons it was decided 
to liquidate the Amsterdam Quinine Factory. 
An endeavour is to be made to reorganise the 
establishment. With^a view to this the factory has 
been purchased by one of the former directors, 
Mr. W. Sieger, who wishes to form a company 
with a capital amounting to 250,000 guilders, of 
which already 150,000 guilders have been taken 
by the following gentlemen, viz., A. L. Fransen 
van de Putte, J. J. van Santem, B. R. G. Bouri- 
cius, Dr. A. S. Wanstart, G. M. Boissevain, W. 
Dull, W. A. van Dorp, A, Koch, Paul van Rath, 
J. T. Cremer, J. E. Tegelberg, F. A. Vriese, the 
Netheiiand Trade Company, W. H. Bloaun, J. R. 
Wuste, S. B, Leveryn, T. C. Brandt, junr., G. T. 
de Clercq, and T. Pryce. Mr. W. Sieger has also 
succeeded in securing the co-operation of the well- 
known quinine manufacturers, C. F. Boehringer 
and Sonne, of Mannheim (Germany), and the 
technical management and superintendence will 
be carried on by that firm. The factory and ac- 
cessions have been purchased for the low sum of 
101,285'75 guilders, for which amount the factory 
has also been admitted to the Company. The 
usual expenses of sale and the intended extensions, 
which increase the power of production from 3,600 
kilos, to 8,000 kilos, sulfas quinine, bring the costs 
of the factory to about 135,000 guilders. Con- 
sidering that the factory will be obtained by the 
Company for a very small sum, and that numerous 
well-known commercial men are among the directors 
we may safely predict the success of the under- 
taking. 
THE " NGOEPIT " AGRICULTURAL COM- 
PANY. 
The Agricultural Company " Ngoepit " (says the 
Indische Mercuur), which will be erected at Amster> 
damj has in view to continue the cultivation of 
that plantation, situated in the District Soera« 
carta, large 1,911 Government " bouwa " (one 
bouw is equal 1,7537 acres) with about 1,300 
working hands, and planted with indigo, tobacco, 
coffee, and cocoa. The capital has been fixed at 
430,000 guilders, divided into 430 shares at 1,000 
guilders each, and has b«en wholly furnished. 
As a complete payment of the 330 shares, in associ- 
ation with the proprietors, will be admitted the plant- 
ation, including the inventory. The Company is erect, 
od for 10 years. From the net profits fitted by the 
