2 3 8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
To Balance, Loss on Crop 18S5-86 
Balance Carried to Balance Sheet 
1,952 13 10 
240 7 2 
£2,193 1 0 
By Proceeds of Coffee— 
£ 8. d. 
cwts. qrs. lbs. s. d. 
1,424 2 11 Average 80 3 per cwt... 5,715 9 2 
„ Refuse coffee sold in Ceylon... ... 326 0 3 
„ Proceeds of cinchona bark 
122,2391b. Average 6Jdperlb. ... 3,275 18 8 
,, Proceeds of cinchona bark sold in Ceylon ... 10 0 8 
Proceeds of cocoa — 
cwts. qrs. lb. s. d. 
9 0 11 Average 70 3 per cwt. ... 31 19 4 
,, Balance carried down ... 1,952 13 10 
By balance from last year 
£11,312 7 11 
.. 2,193 1 0 
£2,193 1 0 
Cinchona Culture in Victoria.— Many years ago 
plants of several species of Oiuchona were reared 
and distributed for test culture in the colony of 
Victoria by Baron von Mueller. Among these, 
some were entrusted to Mr. G. W. Robinson, of 
the Western Port District, who cultivated them, 
with many other industrial plants, at his estate near 
Berwick, which is more forestral, and has a milder 
climate than the immediate vicinity of Melbourne. 
Some years since Mr. Robinsou's plants not only 
produced flowers, but ripened seeds also, from which 
seedlings wt-re raised. We learu now, with interest, 
that an analysis of the bark of these Berwick trees 
by Mr. W. B. Matthews gave the percentage of 
alkaloids as 6|. This fact is significant, as it is 
thereby demonstrated for the first time that Cinchonas 
grown in lowlands will also produce a fair quantity 
of alkaloids, so that the culture of these valuable 
plants has also for commercial purposes a far wider 
scope than was generally anticipated. The village 
of Berwick belongs quite to the coast region, it 
being only about 100 feet above the sea-level, while 
its distance from Melbourne is less than thirty miles 
~Girdeners' Chronicle. 
The Walnut Tbee grows most luxuriantly and 
fruits freely on the Nilgiris. Some fine specimens 
are to be found on the Llangollen farm where the 
trees are about fifteen years old. The late Mr. Frend 
was most assiduous in his efforts to cultivate this 
and other useful trees, and succeeded most com- 
pletely. To the best of our recollection he was 
the only person who grew the walnut to maturity 
and sold the fresh nuts in OotacamunJ. The follow- 
ing remarks on the walnut taken from the Garden- 
er's Chronicle will be read with interest: — 
" If it were generally known that the walnut 
succeeds far better when sown where it is intended 
to grow into a timber tree than when planted at 
however young an age, many persons would be 
tempted to cultivate the tree who are now debarred 
from doing so by the cost of young trees. The 
ground intended to be sown with the nuts must 
be trenched and manured the winter before sowing, 
or if it be intended to plant at wide intervals as 
is sometimes done in orchards and fields, then sta- 
tions of two yards square only need be so manipulated. 
In sunnier climes than our own — for instance, in 
France and Southern Germany — the trees are grown 
in two lines, say 40 feet apart, and then a space 
of '.i0 yards to the next double line and so on over 
the whole area of the field. Early maturing crops 
of grain, as oats and barley, potatoes and cabbages 
are then sown and planted in the open spaces. Sown 
walnuts have two advantages over planted ones be- 
sides that of cheapness, namely, great power to 
withstand wind by reason of the retention of the 
great tap-roots (which are generally lost in trans- 
planted trees) and which go deep into the soil, and 
by the absence of all check to growth experienced 
by transplanted trees, which lose one to two year'i 
growth by the operation. The high price (5s. per 
cubic foot,) the wood of the walnut now letches in 
the market, owing to its increasing scarcity, should 
induce landowners to pay attention to its cultiva- 
tion. Upland sites are preferable for growing the 
tree, as it is spring tender both here and on the 
Continent when grown in low-lying localities, the 
young shoots often getting cut with frost when they 
have reached 9 inches in length. In warm sheltered 
sites, and in the south of the country, the tree may 
be planted on lower lands without disadvantage, al- 
though the finest market timber, either pollarded 
or not, will be found in the colder positions, as 
these favour a somewhat slow rate of growth. 
For Military gunstock purposes the straighter grained 
wood, grown unpollarded and quickly, is, we 
believe, most liked." 
Tanning in China. — Consul Shepard, of Hankow, says 
that the method of tanning pursued in his consular 
district is not dissimilar in its earlier stages from that 
pursued in the United States. A vat is prepared — 
generally sunk in the ground — capable of holding about 
thirty hides. These are overed and left to soak in 
a solution of lime, called by the natives, " milk of 
lime." They are kept in this bath sixteen days and 
upwards, according to the season, cold weather re- 
quiring more lime than warm. The hair is then 
loosened, and the hides are taken singly, spread upon 
a bench, and thoroughly put through a scraping process 
to remove the hair and offal from the flesh. The tool 
used for this purpose is of peculiar construction. It 
is shaped like the capital letter H, one side being a 
steel or iron blade, and the other the handle, the 
cross-bar merely connecting them. The blade is about 
a foot in length, and the handle two or three inches 
less. The workmau places the handle against his breast 
for greater ease and power, and with this forcible 
application of the tool to the hide the hair is speedily 
removed. The hide is then turned with the flesh side 
up, and by a similar manipulation all offal is removed, 
and the hide is reduced to a uniform thickness. A 
thorough washing follows, and the skin is cleansed of 
all remains of the lime. The refuse hair is saved for 
agricultural purposes, and the scrapings of the flesh side 
are boiled down for glue. After the cleansing, the hides 
are subjected to a vigorous rubbing with a heavy sand- 
stone, or similar article, until both sides are thoroughly 
smooth. When this process is completed, a strong de- 
coction of nutgall is sprinkled over the green leather, 
and then the tanning is commenced. The nutgalls are 
boiled in water over a slow tire until they become 
liquefied, and the strained liquor furnishes all the tannin 
used. Nutgalls are abundant in the districts furnishing 
exports to Hankow, and considerable quantities are 
sent to the United States. The next process to which 
the skins are subjected is as follows. A kind of furnace 
is built underground with an opening in circular form, 
from which a dense smoke issues when the fuel is 
fired. The fuel required is either wheat straw or a 
species of grass gathered from the mountain side; it 
is believed that nothing else will answer the required 
purpose. For the space of seven days the hides are 
passed backwards and forwards through the smoke 
issuing from the furnace, and unless it is to be blacked, 
the tanning of the leather is thus completed. If it 
is to be blacked, a liquor of vinegar in which iron 
has been left to corrode, or a solution of nutgalls 
and copperas, is ordinarily used, but at times simple 
lamp-black is employed. The yellow-brown colour given 
to the leather by the smoking process is considered 
to be of remarkable beauty, and is therefore greatly 
preferred by manufacturers and wearers. The leather 
is made soft by sprinkling it with saltpetre duriug the 
smoking, accompanied by repeated and violent kneading 
of it, drying it in the air, instead of by exposure 
to the sun. The strength of the solution of saltpetre 
as applied is said to be kept secret, no apprentice 
being initiated to the knowledge of it until he has 
served for three years.— Journal of the /Society of Arts, 
