October i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
253 
and soot, which can bo kopt under control and regu- 
lated to any degree of heat required, makes its use 
invaluable in the manufacture of glass, steel, crockery, 
stoneware, sewer pipo, brick, and in fact almost any 
business where such a fire is required. This is shown by 
its having been adopted as Cue) by the following manu- 
factories, where it can be seen in operation, and to 
which we refer. 
[A. large number mentioned.] 
In the glass works at Chicago and Canton and the 
steel works at Detroit and Cincinnati, a much better 
quality of glass and steel have been manufactured since 
the adoption of oil as a fuel than when coal was used. 
In the p iper mills at Lima and Niles from 20 to 25 
per cent have been added to their product by its use, 
and in the burning of lime and in the manufacture of 
Humiliating gas, tho very best results have been 
iccured. 
The use of oil as a fuel and heat producer is no longer 
an experiment. Improved forms of buruers and 
methods of applying are boing rapidly introduced, and 
events in tho past few months have demonstrated its 
outiro practicability and economy over the ordinary 
methods. The cost of adapting it to auy furnace or 
boiler is very small, and, owing to its extreme simpli- 
city, it can be applied without serious delay or import- 
ant alterations, and enn be changed from burning coal 
to oil, or from oil to coal with very little delay or ex- 
pense. In addition to the manufactures named above 
the C dumet Iron nnd Steel "Works of Chicago, the 
Cleveland Boiling Mill Co., the Britton Iron and Steel 
Woiks, and many other Cleveland work are using i il as 
a fuel successfully and a great number of the largest 
works of various kinds throughout the country are ar- 
ranging to introduce it as rapidly as possible.— Oil, Paint 
§ Dniy Reporter. 
[The one great difficulty is the cost of freight 
for a material so bulky and dangerous. Our hopes 
lie in bricks of the. crude material mixed with 
pounded coke or charcoal, or some like substance. 
— Ed.] 
♦ 
Coconut raising is a growing industry in Southern 
Florida. I'ineapple and coconuts pay very well. 
Ten thousand pineapples can be raised it is said to 
an acre, and the same amount of space will sup- 
port coconut trees. The latter require very little 
cultivation. They begin to bear at from nine to 
twelve years of age and produce from 80 to 150 nuts 
to the tree. They 'bring about live cents apiece to 
tho grower. Many groves have boon planted within 
a fow years. One new Jersey gentleman has 
Q6Q,000 trees. — Indian Agriculturist. !Of course the 
number of coconuts per treo is grossly exaggerated. 
—Ed.] 
A. laboe number of planters in Brazil have just 
been very neatly hoist with their own petard. 
Two years ago a law was passed providing for the 
gradual emancipation of the slaves, of whom the 
empire still contains a large number. One of the 
provisions of this law was that every slaveholder 
should register tho number and individual value 
of his slaves, and the period allowed for this 
regi-tration expired at the end of March last. On 
tho registors being overhauled it appeared that 
only a relatively small proportion of tho slaves 
in tho country had beon " declared." The bulk 
of thorn had been omitted in order that their 
ownora might escape the small registration fco 
la be paid on each slave.* As many of the planters 
own largo numbers of slaves, the saving to them 
was considerable. Every slave not registered, how- 
•ver, t) uues ex -pott facto free; and now there 
is gnashing of teeth in Brazil over tho - 200,000 
boil I ,iii-n \\lv> will, it is f-arctl, be manumitted 
by rouson of thin evasion of the law. Tho planters 
had counted upon tlm ignora nce of the slaves not 
" Jtmt what happened in Ceylon in regard to pre- 
dial Mnvery.— Eo. 
to claim their freedom : but the Brazilian Sambo 
has many friends. It appears, however, that most 
of the slaves who have so far become entitled 
to their liberty arc voluntarily remaining with 
their old masters as hired labourers, — St. James's 
Budget, 
Indian Tea. — In the Returns of Trade at tho 
Treaty Ports in China, published under the Im- 
p-rial Maritime Customs, there is more than one 
allusion to the successful competition of the Indian 
teas with the Chinese leaf. Mr. B. E. Bredon, 
Commissioner of Customs at Hankow, report that 
" all the tea buyers say that Indian tea is the 
tea of the future for people who can afford to pay 
for a good article" ; and that there is now no 
reliable market for choice China tea except in 
Russia. He says that cheap kinds of tea can be 
produced in China and sold to the foreign buyer 
" to suit any pocket " ; and that they can be 
made quite drinkable " by the addition of a few 
pennyworths of good full-tlavourcd Indian." Mr. 
C. Hannen, the Commissioner at Fooehow, makes 
similar remarks on the neglect in the London 
market of teas " over a shilling a pound " ; and 
says that last year the native dealers, by injudi- 
cious purchases from the growers, suffered severely 
from the falling prices. On the other hand, the 
overland tea trade with Bussia enormously in- 
creased in 1880. This growth the Commissioner 
of Customs at Tientsin attributes to " the 
unusual luxuriance " of the Mongolian pastures 
which supply food to the dromedaries on 
whose backs the tea is transported. The Bussians, 
however, recognising the fact that the experience 
of last year was in this respect exceptional, are 
busy with alternative railway schemes, one of which, 
involving the construction of a railway from 
Stretensk to Veringukunsk on the Amoor, seems to 
offer great advantages.— Overland Mail. 
Capabilities of Socotra. — A correspondent writes 
to the China Mail, suggesting several means by 
which our recent acquisition — the island of Socotra 
— may be rendered more useful. He says:— The 
British have just taken over Socotra and hoisted 
their flag there. There add, however, mamy things 
that must be done in order to make the place 
useful to us. First of all, it wants a light on its 
N. E. end, which might be seen 20 to 25 miles. If 
such a light had existed the " Oder" would not have 
come to grief. But what I think deserves most 
attention is the admirable manner in which the 
island is adapted for forming a garden from which 
we could provision Aden. I remember seeing, some 
seven years ago, the botanists that went over it. 
They were delighted with the island and said it 
would grow anything, tea, sugar, coffee, cotton 
cic. The best aloes in the world grow there, and 
dragon's blood trees may be found growing wild 
all over the island. There is plenty of water, and 
a warm temperature. It is 70 miles long, by 22 
miles broad ; there are hills in the centre 1,000 
feet high ; and it is only about 500 miles from 
Adon and the entrance of the Bed Sea. We have 
got a grand island if wo could only realise it 
and make good use of it. Now that Aden is to 
be made a great place and havo about 1,000 
troops, Socotra would seem as if placed there by 
Nature to become a store-house for it. And in 
order to develop the place best, I think China is 
the placo to draw tho labour from. The condi- 
tion of things is exactly suited to the Chinese 
patient, steady hand labour. If some 300 men 
were sont there— farmer-, inonto breed cattle sheep, 
pigs, poultry, &a, t along with carpenters, rond- 
makers, all working men and no idlers, thoy 
would soon find a ready market for their produce at 
Adon. — Siifiaporr ire? I'rns, 
