March i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
635 
performing tho name nutritive function in the process 
of germination. 
There remains the cellulose whose composition hns 
much in common with starch. It imports volume to 
forage, predominates in straw, hay, clover, lucerne, &o. 
The younger the plant, the more digestible' is the cel- 
lulose. 'When in the dense state, it forms the wood 
of trees and the kernels of fruits. Associated witli 
ttie foregoing matters, sugar, gluten kc. and necessary 
for their action are sulphur, phosphorus and lime. 
Many substances in the food pass through the animal's 
body onutilizod ; while others, as starch, sugar, and 
fat, undergo profound modifications in the stomach 
and the intestines in contact with the juices secreted 
by these organs. Thoy thus become metamorphosed, 
and so rendered, apt for entering into the organism 
of the animal to repair the waste of the system, 
sustain life, and maintain the animal's strength. The 
matters not utilized are eliminated from the 
system. 
A few remarks respecting the present state of 
science on the subject of digestion: Hitherto it was 
held that the plant having Formed sugar, starch &c. 
out of its atmospheric and soil food, role of the ani- 
mal consisted in solely taking over these matters into 
its system by the process of digestion. It was denied 
that the animal itself could form starch, sugar, al- 
bumen &c, independent of what the animal received of 
these through the medium of its ordinary nations. It 
was Olaude Bernard who demonstrated, that in the 
auimal and vegetable kingdoms, plants and animals 
made independently of each other their sugar albu- 
men, iScc. Only the plant did so at the expense of 
inorganic matters of the air and soil, while the 
animal prepired its sugar &c. out of the materials 
elaborated by the plant. The latter in a word only 
supplies the raw material. It is in the blood tint 
the animal finds the nutrition it requires. Il was 
Claude Bernard who demonstrated also that the liver 
cm form sugar and slarch independent of what the 
food may contain of these two substances. 
Mood totally devoid of starch and sugar before 
entering the liver contained on leaving that organ 
important quantities of these two substances, and 
which are as essential for the animal to fabricate, 
as the same substauces are for the plant manufacture 
by its leave*. Every living being is in a perpetual 
state of chalige : all the atoms of his body are 
beiug incessantly renewed. We ourselves are not to- 
day, materially speaking, what we were yesterday, 
or what we will be tomorrow. In the space of 
twenty-four hours, we lose about the twentieth part 
of our weight. It is our elementation which covers 
his loss, brings us back to our weight of the eve ; 
ami the maintenance of this equilibrium we call 
health. Naturally the food or rations must vary 
following the object in view with the stock — whether 
for milk, work, or fattening. Science has shown us 
what rations are chemically composed of what the 
animal system demands for its sustenance, and in 
wdiat proportions. 
Twenty-two departments of France contain beds of 
phosphate of lime ; the total capable of yielding 83 
millions tons. The phosphate varies iu variety from 
nodules up to the rock stage, and the percentegc in 
phosphoric acid fluctuates between 15 and -'57 percent. 
The area of aniblo land in Franco is about 06 mil- 
lion acres, exclusive of vineyards, meadows, and 
forests. At the present rato of consumption of these 
mineral phosphates, tin? natural supply is not expected 
to Inst beyond 1 7 • > years. The total sales of the 
phosphate-, in 1sm>, iu the three stat*s of brut, 
smashed, and screened, was liOOiWO tons, represent- 
ing a money value of seven millions franc-i. 
Respecting the dephosphorized scorh" or clinkers: 
there are seven smelting establishment* in France 
which produc annually lim.OOO tons; not more than 
one-tenth of this total has been utilized for agricul- 
tural purpose*, representing a monetary vniuo of 
102,000 fr. In the brut stige, the price is t fr. a ton ; 
in small mossels, or powder, from LU to 20 fr. The 
Helmet* of the scorim iu phosphoric aoid varies from 
7 to 18 per coot, and iu iiuiu from W to |Q per oeu*. 
Stolen or intercalary crops commenco to bn more 
and more in favor as a means of cleaning the soil 
of those weeds that follow the harvesting of a cereal. 
A slight skin-ploughing, a few strokes of the harrow, 
a dusting of the soil with Spate che ip fertilizer aud 
a sowing of a mixture of buckwheat, white mustard 
ami millet, will, in addition to ridding the land of 
weeds, secure a green-bite for cattle, the more appre- 
ciated if the season has been dry. 
Economy is still tho order of the day in referenoo 
to fodder. Straw in this rospoct is receiving special 
attention : it is more employed as a ration. Instead 
of being filled into rooks, it is chopped, placed in 
alternate layers with sl ced roots, grains, beet-pulp, 
or oil cakes, wetted with boiling water and allowed 
to ferment. Where straw is sc iree and cannot be 
spared for bedding, heath, ferns, rushes, leaves, furze 
&C., make an excellent substitute for the latter. In 
Switzerland and in the south west of France, tha 
floors of cow-9heds are in wood, with relatively wide 
interstices. Behind runs a small stream into which 
the solid excrements are swept to join the urine. 
The stream is then led directly over meadow land. 
This plan can only have an exceptional application, 
but it is well to know where such can be applied, the 
plan suits. 
♦ 
THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN FIJI. 
HY J. B. C. 
The growing and preserving of the tropical fruits 
of Fiji and its exportation, both iu the raw and 
preserved state, has only recently become a leading 
industry in the colony of Fiji, although it has for 
some years been carried on by a few planters on 
Ovalau aud Vanua L'-vu. Messrs. II. Maughau and 
F. Woodhouse, of Ovalau, may be Baid to have been 
the pioneers of this industry, and their success has 
induced many others to embark in so profitable an 
undertaking. The bulk of the trade is nowc;ntn d 
in Suva, the fruit being grown at Xavua, on the 
river Kewa, and at other places in the vicinity. The 
following account of a visit to one of the principal 
fruit plantations in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Suva will give a very correct idea of similar plan- 
tations in other parts: — 
The extensive banana plantation of Messrs. F. W. 
Armstrong & Co., known as Mua-ni-k.iu, or Brigh- 
ton, is situated at Armstrong's Point within 2 miles 
from the business part of Suva. Just before approach- 
ing Brighton, the road is crossed by the Leveta 
Creek, which is spanned by a substantial bridge. A 
little further on the handsome gates guarding the 
main entrance to the estate, are reached, aud pass- 
ing through these, the visitor conies upon a handsome 
avenue half a mile in length, which runs through 
tho ceutre of the plantation direct to the residence 
of one of the proprietors. This avenue, which is 
plauted with pine apples ou either side of the t:am- 
way running its entire length, is shortly left, and 
turning down a by-path, a second avenue, also provided 
with a tramway, is come to. This second avenue, which 
is parallel with ttiat first entered upou, is also counoctod 
with it by a loop liue at the opposite end of the 
estate. On those tramways are trucks, and into these 
the fruit, when out, is placed and oonveye I to punts 
lying in the Loveta Creek. Theso punts are then towed 
to tho steamer lying in the ofliug. 
Tho quantity of laud at present under bananas in 
all stages of growth is estimated at 100 acres, and 
more is being gradually cleared and planted. 
The present output ib about 8000 bunches of bnnauas 
por month, which the proprietors estimate, they will 
be able to increase considerably, when the intended 
extensions and improvements ore effected. Tho soil 
on the estate is evidently of a superior quality, the 
size, etc. of the fruit grown beiug a sulhciout testi- 
mony of tbo rich nature of thu ground, ns their 
gTOWtb is rapid, the treos healthy, and tile bunches 
of fruit large an 1 well developed! in fact, the twint 
lias from this estate are so much priio I that those 
sold for shipment, bring an advance on thu average 
market price. A flower and vegetable garden sue- 
