November r, 1887.] TtfE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
345 
barrel or tub and using in a clear state after Strain- 
ing. As the plants get mora mature and the buds be- 
come filled with roots, a good top dressing of well rot- 
ted manure will bo of very great advantage^ and a 
good Syringing with pure Soft water over head, night 
and morning from the time of planting onwards, will 
help to keop tho plants healthy and free from 
insects. 
Pruning, — Allow the plants to run up with one stem 
till they reach the trellis, pinching out the auxiliary 
growths as they appear, or when they are an inch 
long, close to the Stem, When the plant has reached 
tho trellis i I. may bo allowed to flower and fruit. The 
main growth should under no circumstances he stopped 
till it has reached, the ridge. The plants may show 
clusters of llowers before they reach the trellis, in which 
case they should be allowed lo remain and produce 
fruit. In this way plants may be had with clusters of 
fruit from close to the grouud up to the ridge of the 
house. It is most important that all auxiliary shoots 
should bo removed as the clusters appear for if allowed 
to remain, the house will bo rilled with useless foliage 
and wood intercepting tho sunlight and robbing the 
main stem and clusters of fruit of support. When tho 
leader has reached tho ridge of the huu-e it may either 
be stopped or turned down again, hut care must be 
taken not to fill tho house with too much foliage so as 
to darken it, as the fruit of the tomato requires a gruat 
deal of sunlight to bring out its rich colouring. 
Ventilation. — The plants will stand a very high tem- 
perature without injury, but tho ohjoct in a climate 
like that of tho Nilgiris, should be to keep it within 
the house as equable as possible. If a high temper- 
atures caunot be maintained at night, then it must not 
bo allowed to get very high during tho day. Where 
no artificial heat is available, some covering material 
for tho glass would be tho best thing to USdj taking 
care to shut up the houso close early in the afternoon 
or before the sun has left it. During the time of 
flowering, free ventilation should be given in order to 
secure the proper fertilisation of the blossoms. 
Uaisiny plants.— These are easily raised from seed, 
but somo prefer cuttings which are, by some, thought 
to fruit earlier and more freely, but seedlings, are 
more easily managod. The seed may be sown thickly 
and the seedlings transplanted when fit to handle. 
The tomato plant bears transplanting almost at any 
stage without injury. 
A number of growers for market, instead of plant- 
ing their plants in bods, use pots and roughly made 
boxes with success. This plan not only economises soil 
but also manure. When pots or b6xi 8 are used artifi- 
cial manures are usually applied instead of the ordin- 
ary liquid manure from horse droppings, and large 
crops of splendid fruit are frequently obtained in this 
way. Clay's Fertiliser is a favourite manure and can 
be had iu boxes or packets and in large or small 
quantities. 
Hiirtn. — Criterion, Largo Red, Mikado, llathawiy's 
Excelsior and Trophy are the best. — Hobtus. — South 
of Indian Observer. 
♦ 
SANDALWOOD CARVING IN MYSORE. 
By Cot.. liowKN, n. e. 
The tendency of indigenous Indian industries to 
localise themselves within narrow circles is well ex- 
emplified in the case of sandalwood carving in Mysore, 
an art which is almost entirely confined lo a few towns 
iu the north western corner of the l'roviuce and in the 
adjoining Taluks of Bombay. Saugor is the h ad- 
qii ird rs of the tew families that practise this art and 
who have apparently haude I it down for generations 
from father to son ; it has in Ver oxteu led b yond tVs 
looality. Caste prejudices may have contributed to some 
extent to tho retention of the craft iu this particular 
district, hut it is likely that tho demaii I for the articles 
manufactured w is always very limited, and there was 
mi indue tment to outidders to intrude on the demesne 
of the few who were, on to N|>enk. born and bred to the 
trade, moro especially as the skill and dolicncyof touch 
required could only l>" acquired l>y training from eirh 
boyhood, t'udcr them circumstances, it is per hap? 
atrnngo that tho art did uot d<o out altogether during 
tho centuries of chronic disturbance under the Palle- 
gar Chiefs; stranger still that it survived the period 
of Mahammadan supremacy. It is probtble that it 
was kept alive hy the bounty and liberality o' a few 
wealthy local magnates, with a taste for the aesthetic, 
and although the policy of ETyder All andTippu Sultan 
aimed at the extirpation of Hindu customs and 
traditions which invariably find expression in Hindu 
sculpture and carving, Mahammadan inllueiire never 
extended to the remoter districts of the Province. 
It is noL known with auy certainty when saudalwi od 
carving was first introduced in Mysore, but there is 8 
tradition amongst tho Gudigars, as the carvers are 
called, that their ancestors came from Saptakoti, 
Narway, ami other places in the Goa country, and 
that their original language was Konkaui. They be- 
lieve themselves to be docendauts of Kshartiyas ; 
that to escape the wrath of Parsu Rima iu tho 
6th iucaruation of Vishnu, who had vowed to des- 
troy every Kshatriyas in the world, they adopted 
the profession of carvers and " Hath " or car 
builders, and that ever since they have been follow- 
ing that avocation. It is a fact worthy of notice 
here that " Chitragars " or painters, toy-makers, 
workers iu lace and followers of other refined 
arts which administer to the luxury of man, have 
a similar tradition that they are Kshatriyas. They 
may not be decended from the old Aryan Kshatriyas, 
but as it. has been usual for every ruling caste or class 
to assume the name of Kshatriya, it is not improb- 
able that these artizans once belonged to the dominant 
class, but wore compelled by couquest and subjug- 
ation to adopt some profession for their livelihood, 
and that they took to these fine arts as more in keep- 
ing with their previous habits and delicate breeding. 
This would imply that those Kshatriyas found tho 
trade ready to hand, that they had only to master 
its technicalities, and that they ousted out in course 
of time those who origiually introduced and pursued 
it; it gives no hiut as to its origin or early develop- 
ment. We must then imagiue that the beauty and 
fragrance of the wood, the ease with which it is 
wrought and the wide distribution of the insignific- 
ant tree from which it is derived, led in the first 
instance to its use for domestic articles. The or- 
namentation of these articles aud of tho beads, 
amulets, anil articles of personal adornment also prob- 
ably wrought from the wood in the earliest times, 
followed in natural sequence, just as the primitive 
rough-hewn temples of the ancient priests developed 
in course of time with the growth of the datura] 
artistic iustincts of the people into tho elaborate 
and profusely decorated temples of a later period. 
In In ha, as elsewhere, the art instinct of the 
people first found expression in the decoration of 
its temples, and when the instinct grew into the 
desire for the decoration of dwellings or of articles 
in ordinary u^e, tho figures, columns, and carvings of 
the temples were' naturally adapted for purposes '- 
together outside of religion. So we fiud that from 
the beginning the sandalwoo 1 carvers followed the 
models before them ou the walls of their shrines. 
Unfortunately after the architects aud sculptors who 
elaborated tho walls of Belgavi and Halebid had 
lisappearcd, a period of distinct art-decadence appears 
to have set in, and has united down to the present (lay ; 
no original artist arose totreattho subjects of the Hindu 
Pantheon with entire originality, or to effect improve- 
ments on the designs of his predece-sors, aud tho wood 
carvers have slavishly adhered to the same original 
models with the result of establishing in their work 
a purely conventional style In every article that wo 
have seen, unless in the few cases when the copy of 
a European picture or print bus been -attempted, 
there is to be found the saruo ever-recurring type of 
Hindu god or demon, of flower aud tulhnre. •>! 
r ry and border. There may be diversity in tho 
urraugOmi ut or juxtaposition of each conventional 
par', but the art-impression rouvuyod on the mind by 
one 'curved article, whatever it be, ia exactly tbst 
conveyed by any other. 
In modiwval Christian art we find that pfel - 
teachings in painting and sculpture were the me lium 
