442 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1888. 
parts of the tree are applied are various. The wood 
is used for building boats and houses ; the leaves, 
which you are aware are divided into lobes, for wrap- 
ping up food and wiping the hands instead of towels ; 
the juice, which is milky and gummy, for making 
bird-lime and a cement for filling up cracks in vessels 
for holding water ; and the flower when dried serves 
for tinder, and the inner bark beaten together makes 
a species of the South-Sea cloth. 
"The edible quality of the fruit appears to be owing 
to the presence of a large quantity of starch in its 
succulent head. The milkiness of the sap is in itself 
evidence of the presence of caoutchouc. 
"If the plant I sent you last year has died, and 
if you care to have another, I shall be glad to give 
you the sucker I have reserved for the Lai Baugh, 
and send that Garden the next plant I may succeed 
in getting from my old tree." 
Bead also the following paper referred to in the 
above letter : — 
" The real Bread-fruit tree. — There are two varieties 
of the fruit, one containing seeds, and the other 
none. The former is much inferior to the latter, 
though iu cases of need it is roasted and eaten by 
the natives of the South Sea Islands, where the Bread- 
fruit form3 the chief support of the people. It is 
the seed variety that is found growing in the Lai 
Baugh and in some gardens of Madras, and is, I fear, 
mistaken for the other more useful variety. The 
seedless fruit, when reasted or boiled and the rind 
pared away, is fit for food ; the pulp, which is farina- 
ceous, has a consistency like that of wheaten bread, 
and is pleasant to the taste and highly nutritious. 
The other fruit, when cut open, is found to contain 
a number of hard seeds resembling those of the 
Boseapple, imbedded in a pulpy substance as in the 
Jack-fruit, another species of the Bread-fruit. I am 
not aware if the seeds are eaten by the natives of 
this country. Perhaps the Superintendent of the 
Lai Baugh will be able to tell us. 
" The tree referred to by Captain Oook and other 
navigators was evidently the seedless variety, of which 
lhave two in my garden, the only two in Madras. 
One is more than 30 years old, the plant having been 
brought by a former owner of the house from the 
Western coast, where it grows plentifully; and the 
other about four or five years, a sucker of the old 
tree. It bears twice a year, in January and February, 
and in June and July, and in each instance there 
are not fewer than four or five hundred fruits on 
the tree ; hence confirming the statement that in the 
Pacific Islands one or two trees will suffice for a 
man's yearly supply, and that a tree is considered a 
a fortune for a small family. 
"The young tree began to bear in the third or 
fourth year of its growth. The first crop was very 
scanty, consisting of two or three fruits only, but 
the second, during the current month, is very plenti- ' 
ful, and the fruit is considerably larger in size than 
that of the parent tree. I have tried several modes 
of propagating this tree, but have failed in all but 
one, but the success even in this single instance 
was so partial that I am inclined to doubt the 
general efficacy of this mode. 
"I had a few roots dug up, of the thickness of 
the forefinger, cut up into pieces of six or eight 
inches in length, and buried horizontally in pots. 
After the lapse of many months a shoot appeared 
only on one of the roots, which I reared with care 
and forwarded to the Agri-Horticultural Society in 
Madras iu February last. Why the other roots have 
not put forth any shoots, I am unable to say. But 
Dr. Sliortt told me that this is the usual mode of 
propagation adopted by the natives of the Laccadives, 
which Islands he visited some years ago. Another 
mode that has been suggested to me is to dig a 
trench around the tree, exposo the creeping roots hero 
and there, and h ive the trench well watered. I am 
trying this, and hope to bo rewarded with success. 
" The only way then of obtaining plants from the 
tree is to wait till the roots send up suckers, which, 
in the case of my tree, has occurred only about 
three or four times during the past 20 years. When 
the suckers attain a height of a foot or a foot and 
a half, detach them carefully from the parent stock 
by severing the connecting root ; all. w them to 
remain in the ground for a month or two, and then, 
if found to be healthy, transfer them te a pot, whence 
they may be transplanted any time to a suitable part 
of the garden, taking care to have the pit four or 
five feet deep, and four wide, filled with stable manure. 
" In February last, I had about six or seven suckers 
from the old tree, which I distributed among some 
of my friends in Madras and sent one to the Lai 
Baugh. I have heard that they are all thriving, 
except the one in the last named garden. 
"There are various ways of cooking the seedless 
fruit; It may be roasted or boiled entire, the rind 
pared away and the pulp cut into slices and eaten as 
a potato. Or remove the rind, cut it up as slices of 
potato and fry or cook it as a curry. The two latter 
modes of preparation are preferred by my Hindu friends 
to whom I have sent some fruits. I prefer it boiled 
or made into a pudding. 
"The bread-fruit, as the food of man, at one time 
excited so much attention that the poet B3'ron referred 
to it in the following lines*: — 
' The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields, 
The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields, 
And bakes its unadulterated loaves. 
Without a furnace in unpurchased groves, 
And flings off famine from its fertile breast, 
A priceless market for the gathering guest.' " 
Recorded with thanks aud resolved that efforts be 
made to obtain suckers from the Western Coast, 
where the tree is reported to be not uncommon. 
! +. 
China Tea. — Mr. Consul Alabaster, in his report 
on the trade of Canton for 1886 says : — The export 
of tea was less than it has been in any of the pre- 
ceding ten years ; but although this should have 
made the business more profitable to those concerned, 
it is not said to have been a good year. Those who 
were concerned in the earlier shipments in most 
cases lost heavily, and those who got the advantage 
of the better realisation of later parcels, in their own 
words, were just scraped out. India and Ceylon 
teas' cultivation has increased so enormously that 
the market is over-stocked, and for some years at 
least those engaged in the trade, as with those of 
late years interested in sugar, are likely to have 
hard times of it — L. <£ C. Express. 
A Cube foe Coffee Leaf-Disease. — From the 
Straits Times of Nov. 21st we quote as follows : — 
The Java Bode of the 8th November announces on 
gosd authority the important fact that Dr. Burck, 
the manager of the Government Botanical gardens 
at Buitenzorg has hit upon a remedy for the dreaded 
coffee leaf-disease. His method of cure so far has 
only been experimented with on a small scale. But 
the results have been successful enough to warrant 
sanguine expectations of its effectiveness. In a Java 
planting periodical attention is drawn to a method 
of counteracting leaf-disease which seems singularly 
enough to have escaped the notice of the parties 
interested. The method suggested offers for all that 
reasonable chances of success to planters willing to 
give it a trial. The idea put forward comes to 
rearing a variety of coffee sure to be proof against 
the disease. Progress in this line may take different 
directions. In estates under leaf-disease among the 
coffee trees, individuals have been met with which 
have either escaped altogether the fate of their fel- 
lows, or have been only partially stricken. All 
experienced planters know this. They have often 
noticed the strange phonomenon. The causes of the 
total or pprtial unsusceptibility have not yet been 
made out. Without troubling themselves about the 
why and wherefore, planters would do well to take 
advantage of this unsusceptibility by rearing plants 
sprung from these exceptional trees. By carefully 
cultivating the variety, they will likely be gainers in 
the long run. 
* Tbe Island, can to the second, xi, Hue 23, 
