110 
f HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887 
cussed while lie was engaged iu forming the Government 
central Museum at Madras, and other museums iu 
various parts of India, as well as in the preparatiou 
of " The Cyclopaedia of India " and his work on 
"The Timber Trees of India." He was therefore 
very well qualified to prepare this manuil or diction- 
ary of natural history, which will serve to show Indian 
agriculturists what are the principal foes of their 
crops and herds. No remedies or methods of pre- 
vention are given iu detail. Some general instructions 
appear in the introductory chapters, such as to farm 
cleanly, and to use certain washes and powders in 
case of the attack of some insects. These, however, 
have evidently been taken from lists of remedies 
prescribed by American and English practical entomo- 
logists, and have not.been actually tried in India. Now 
that Surgeon-General Balfour has demonstrated the 
dangei's, and indicated general remedies which have 
been found advantageous in other climes, the farmers, 
the foresters, and fruit-growers of India should at 
once make experiments, and prove for themselves 
whether these are as efficacious iu the fiery heat of 
the East as in the temperate climates of Great 
Britain and America. 
This notice cannot be concluded without an allusion 
to some of the errors which have been carelessly 
allowed to remain in the book, having evidently es- 
caped the notice of the eminent scientific man who 
" revised nearly the whole in manuscript, and the 
proofs as they passed through the press." It is not 
to be expected that Surgeon- General Balfour should 
be a skilled entomologist, but it is very unfortunate 
for him that those on whom he relied for assistance 
should have so signally failed him. He says that 
the Cecidomyia tritici is the Hessian fly of Europe 
and America. In reality the Hossian fly of Europe 
and America is Gecindomyia destructor, named so by 
Say long ago, and is completely and specificially dis- 
tinct from Cecidomyia tritici, which is the true wheat 
midge of Great Britain. This is a mistake which 
appears unpardonable in a scientific reviser. On -p. 
45 it is stated that " the species of Necrophorus 
and Silpha are useful ; they feed on carrion, and 
by scratching the ground from under dead animals 
they partially bury them." Asa fact the Silpha opo.ca, 
aud another species, the iSilpha atrata, eat and 
seriously injure plants of bset and mangelwurzel, as 
has beeii shown by Curtis and Miss Ormcrod in. Eng- 
land, by Gucrin Meneville iu France, and Taschen- 
berg in Germany. It need hardly be said that correct 
information as to the habits of insects is as necessary 
as accurate nomenclature — at least to agriculturists. 
Again, under the heading Buprestidaj and Elaterida; 
(click beetles) it is remarked that the larvie feed 
on living wood, and are more or less injurious. The 
wire-worm, the larva of Elatar liiicatus, is fearfully 
destructive to the roots of crops of all kinds. In 
the description of Elaterid<e, further on, this kind' 
of mischief is attributed to their larva? ; so that there 
are two utterly conflicting accounts of the habits of 
these insects, calculated to puzzle the inquiring 
Indian farmers. 
A sweeping statement that " all the weevil family 
insert thc-ir eggs in the stigma of the flower " cannot 
be supported, and is utterly oppsosed to the ex- 
perience of observers. A few species do this, but 
others deposit their eggs in a variety of places. Of 
weevils it is also said that they " attack principally 
in their larval stage every part of vegetable tissues." 
As a fact, many weevils do incredible harm to veget- 
tion in their perfect or weevil form, and it would be 
difficult for the larvic — mere maggots — to hold on 
to leaves. 
Sitonas, described as attacking stored grain and 
seed, have been evidently mistaken forjspecies of Bruchi. 
These and other mistakes ought to be corrected 
before the work is put iuto the hands of the agri- 
culturists of India as a text-book for their guidance. — 
Nature. 
Small cast-iron pieces can be tinned by first 
thoroughly cleaning the articles to be tinued, and 
immersed iu a bath of one ounce cream of tartav, oue 
ounce proiochioride of tiu and ten quarts of water. 
The bath should ba kept at a temperature of 190" 
in a stone vessel. Pitejs of zinc should be thrown 
iuto the bath. — American Cidiivutor. 
The Essential Oil Trade.— The following part- 
iculars are taken from Messrs. Schimmel & G'o.'s fcemi- 
aunual report on the essential oil trade: — 
Cinnamon On.. — The prices of cinnamon chips have 
advanced by about 15 per cent. 6ince last November, 
and may not improbably rise further still, as the ship- 
ments fell off last year. As regards the oil itself, the 
Oeylou statistics, which give a total export of 139,094 
oz. for 1886, doubtless include the oil distilled from 
the leaves and roots, for there is no question that the 
production of true oil of cinnamon bark in Oeylon is 
as yet so small as not to exceed 10 per ceut. of the 
total exports quoted uuder the heading " cinnamon oil." 
Ouscus Oil, — Judging from the quantities offered by 
him, it appears, that the manufacturer of this oil on thu 
island of Reunion, whose pioduct has only recently 
been placed on the market, considers that there is an 
unlimited demand for this oil. Such is not the case, 
however, for the use of so expensive an article mutt 
necessarily be a very restricted one. — Chemist and 
Druggist. 
ItuBBEil. — Dr. William Roxburgh, Superintendent of 
the Botanic Garden at Calcutti, sent, in 1811, a sample 
of India-rubber from Bengal, and also a paper ou the 
teak troe of the East Indies, then used for shipbuild- 
ing. He also communicated suggestions on the means 
of supplying food to the natives of India when the 
rice crop proves deficient. The thirty-third volume 
of the Transactions contains a portrait of Dr. Roxburgh, 
who died in 1815, and an account of his labours. 
Subsequently, Dr. AV"allich, Superitendent of the Botanic 
Garden at Calcutta, communicated to thy Society 
a full catalogue of Indian woods ( Transactions, vol. 
48, p. 439 ). In connection with the intoduction of au 
iudia-rubber from Bengal, mention may be made of 
the first introduction of guttapercha from Singapore. 
Dr. Moutgomerie sent a specimen to the Society iu 
1843, aud in ,1845 a gold medal was awarded to him 
for the introduction of this substance iuto Englaud. 
In 1815, the gold Isis medal was awarded to Mr. 
Thomas Hoblyn, for preparing rice in the island of 
Ceylon by means of improved machinery. — Journal of 
the 'Society of Arts. 
Tea. — Great interest was felt in England about 
1820 in the spread of tea culture in our Colonies, aud 
the Society of Arts took the matter up. A gold 
medal was offered to the person wuo should commuuic- 
ate, from information obtained iu China, the best 
aud most authentic account of the culture of the plant 
or plants, the leaves of which furnish the different 
kinds of tea, together with the method of gathering, 
drying, aud otherwise preparing the leaves. The gold 
medal, or fifty guineas, was offered to the person who 
should grow and prepare the greatest quantity of 
China tea, of good quality, not being less than twenty 
pounds weight, in the island ot Jaraaica, or in any 
other British West Indian Colony, and should import 
the same into Great B itaiu. Tne same premium was 
offered for the Colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, 
the Mauritius, and New South Wales. In 1788, Sir 
Joseph Banks suggested to the Court of Directors of 
the East Indian Company the practicability of cult- 
ivating the tea plant iu British India ; but it was not 
uutil 1834 that the subject was submitted to his Council 
by Lord W. Bentinck, Governor-General. In 1835, 
information arrived in Calcutta that the tea plant 
was found indigenous in some districts in Upper 
Assam, and iu 1838, the Chairman of the Ea^ India 
Company sent a sample of this wild tea to the Society, 
which was referred to the Commitee of Colonies and 
Trade. Subsequently, the Society awarded the gold 
medal to Mr. C. A. Bruce, " for his meritorious services 
iu discovering the indigenous tea tracts, and cultivat- 
ing aud preparing tea in Assam. " It will be remember- 
ed by readers of the Jour nal that Mr. Berry White, 
in his paper on on the " Indian Tea Industry, " dei ies 
to, Mr. Bruce the honour of being the first discoverer 
of the tea plant iu Assam ( see ante, p. 735), — Journal 
of tin Society of Arts, 
