214 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
more and more will fruit. But if you plant one lot 
and then stop to watch the result you will be sorry 
when you see the result, that you did not make an 
annual sowing." I quite concur in the above opinion. 
To make the experiment felt, we must obtain and 
sow large quantities of seeds at various centres every 
year. The importation of seeds is not an expensive 
measure, and judging from the courtesy already ex- 
perienced, I believe we have only to make our re- 
quirement known to be well served by the authorities 
at the Persian Gulf.— B. S. — Madras Mail. 
European Consumption of Coffee. — The consump- 
tion of coffee seems to be steadily increasing in Europe. 
The Economiste Frangais has some interesting statist- 
ics on this subject. Holland seems to show the greatest 
consumption per capita. The amount used is 9'18 kilo- 
grammes (about twenty pounds.) The smallest con- 
sumption is in Russia, where only '09 of a kilogramme 
is consumed per annum. In the United Kingdom only 
•41 of a kilogramme is used per head. Singularly enough 
the consumption in the last-mentioned countries shows 
decreases when compared with previous years. All 
others mentioned show increases. Belgium ranks next 
to Holland in coffee consumption, with an average per 
head of 4-48 kilogrammes. Germany consumes 2 31 
kilogrammes per head of population. Franoe ,1'73 
kilogrammes. — Bradstreet's. 
[In the United Kingdom and Russia tea is in- 
creasing more in proportion than coffee is decreas- 
ing in consumption. When Ceylon was a great 
coffee country we used to mourn the neglect of 
coffee in favour of tea in the United Kingdom. In 
the past decade there has been quite a revolution 
of feeling following on essentially changed con- 
ditions. — Ed.] 
Indian and American Wheat. — Mr. Smeaton, 
Director of Agriculture for the North-West Pro- 
vinces of India, has issued an interesting note on 
the competition between Indian and American 
wheat. The conclusion to which he comes is that 
it is not in prime cost that India is at a disad- 
vantage. For the same outlay she can raise nearly 
20 per cent, more grain than America, and of not 
much inferior quality ; while she has resources 
enough in area and labour to raise sufficient wheat 
to supply the entire demand of the British market. 
India, Mr. Smeaton thinks, possesses means to 
compel America to withdraw her hostile tariffs 
and to open her markets to the products of British 
industry, but she is burdened in the struggle with 
America by, first, a primary railway freight about 
25 per cent, higher ; secondly, an extra railway 
freight of 5 per cent, on ballast ; thirdly, a further 
extra freight on bags ; fourthly, excessive hand- 
ling ; and fifthly, she brings into the English 
market an article inferior in appearance, though 
on the whole not much inferior in quality, to the 
rival one. He urges the London merchants to 
take the matter up and use their influence with 
the Indian railway companies and merchants. 
Cinchonas in Java. — Consul McNeill, reporting on 
the trade and commerce of the island of Java, 
says that the area of laud planted with Cinchona 
on private account is estimated at 21,000 acres, and 
the number of trees at 30,000,000, of which about, 
14,000,1)1)1) are of O. succirubra. The crop for the 
present year was estimated at the time of writ- 
ing at 1,433,250 lb. The average proportion of 
sulphate extracted from the bark is estimated at 
about 3 per cent. In 1883, the last yenr for which 
returns are available of this area of land planted 
by the (iovernment, it was 1778 acres. At the end 
of 1880 the statistics of the Government estates were 
al follows: — 
Plantain the nurseries .- — Number. 
JiCdgerianua 1,443,000 
Succirubra 075,000 
Plants in the open ground : — 
hedgeriana 820,700 
Oulisaya and Uaskkarli&ua 50,000 
Succirubra and caloptera 573,000 
Officinalis 225,000 
Lancifolia ... 8,000 
—Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Tests with Vaeiods Insecticioes. — Professor Riley, 
Entomologist of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, has been experimenting upon the relative 
values of insecticides. His results show that ice 
water is not reliable as a remedy against the cabbage 
worm, while salt and water and saltpetre and water 
also failed. One part carbolic acid to 100 parts of 
water injured the leaves and did not kill the worms 
under the leaves, Pyrethrum, 1 part; and flour, 3 
parts, dusted on the plants killed three-fourths of 
worms. Kerosene emulsion destroyed 80 per cent, of 
all worms exposed to it, but buckwheat flour, ammonia, 
powdered alum, copperas water, carbolised lime, black 
pepper, tar water, and tomato water were failures. 
Copperas, 4 oz, to a quart of water, killed all the 
worms. Tar water and AVolf's soap drove the margined 
blister beetles from beets, but they returned. One 
part carbolic acid and 64 parts water drove auts away 
permanently. Kerosene emulsion destroyed yellow- 
necked caterpillars. Two applications of a saturated 
solution of salt killed lice on lettuce. The woolly 
aphis on apple trees was destroyed by kerosene 
emulsion, which, as the results show, is about the 
best insecticide, but has the drawbacks of importing 
its odour to cabbage leaves. — Chemist and Druggist. 
Scientific Rice Cultivation. — The " Examiner" 
thus concludes an article on the recent experi- 
ments : — ■ 
It is a mistake to suppose that transplanting is pract- 
ically unknown in Ceylon. It is appreciated and 
largely practised in the Kandyan country, and may be 
seen very generally adopted on the low lying fields 
bordering the Railway line between Gampola and 
Peradeniya which are, probably, as fertile low lands 
as any in the country. The Trincomalie experiment, 
without manure, proves what splendid results could be 
obtained by transplanting ; and, where labour is avail- 
able, we think it should invariably be adopted, unless 
careful calculations show the cost to be prohibitory. 
This objection should not, of course, stand in the way 
of the goiya, whose labour is his own, and who, when 
he does not work in his field, generally idles, or is 
engaged in some harmful pursuit proverbially attract- 
ive to idle hands. Results such as have been recorded 
at Toppur, if widely published, and obtained in other 
parts of the country over a wider area, will lead to 
more willing converts to transplanting, which costs 
no money, than to the iron plough which does. 
The experiment at Toppur, though valuable in itself, 
and as exhibiting one benefit of the Agricultural 
School in teaching its pupils not only to be 
observant, but accurately to note results, an accom- 
plishment very far from common, affords no information 
as to cost, and from its nature could not be expected 
to. We should be glad if any of our friends who 
pay for labour, and do not practise transplanting, 
would try an experiment LOtins? the cost, and also 
the enhanced yield, as compared with the average 
out-turn of the field on which the experiment is carried 
out. If headmen generally adopt transplanting, and 
obtain results approaching that recorded from Toppur, 
the goiya will not long retain his objections to the 
uncomfortablep ositiou in which transplantationhas to be 
performed ; but whether the goiya turn convert ©r not 
to iron ploughs and transplanting, we are very clear as 
to the duty of more intelligent agriculturists. 
As regards the controversy on ploughs and plough- 
ing, no doubt the difficulty is to replace the native 
implement by anything approaching it in lightness 
and cheapness. If it be really true, as stated by 
the Veyangoda correspondent of the " Examiner," 
that the rice plant feeds only down to two inches (!), 
the necessity for any deeper ploughing than at 
present is not apparent. But we should think 
lour inches nearer the mark and the limit for up- 
turning soil six to eight inches. The number of ploughs 
in India is calculated at 20 millions. We sup- 
pose the number in Ceylon is under 200,000 ? 
