March i, 1888.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
637 
nal, vol. xi, p. 473). The Society has since received 
other communications on this subject, but not of suffi- 
cient importance to warrant further enquiries. Of 
recent years the continued diminishing supply of 
European Box-wood has been attracting attention, and 
notices thereon have appeared in several periodicals, 
notably in the Journal of the Society _ of Arts. The 
latest communications were published in the numbers 
of LOth and 17th April 1885, and of 19th March 
1886, of that journal. 
INSECTICIDE FOE Tea. — In the Proceedings of Sep- 
tember 1880i, mention was made of an Insecticide to 
which attention had been drawn at a meeting of the 
Koyal Horticultural Society of London, by Professor 
Church, and Mr. Elwes stated that he thought it might 
be made applicable to Tea. The manufacturers werecom- 
muuicated with, and very kindly sent a barrel of the 
Insecticide and a garden engine for applying it, to 
the Society. These were made over to Mr. J. Davenport, 
to whom the Society are indebted for a fair trial having 
been given to the wash. The following Report has 
been received from Messrs. J. Davenport and Co. 
— Calcutta, 9th December 18S7. The Secretary, Agri- 
eultural and Horticultural Society of India. Dear Sir, 
— We have the pleasure to hand you our Manager's 
report on tho Insecticide sent up some time ago, and 
to which we have, until lately, found it impossible to 
got any Manager to give a thorough and practical trial. 
As we expected, Mr. Jamieson's report is not very 
encouraging. The cost of material and labour puts the 
application quito out of the question, and Tea will 
have to go to tho wall when we can only preserve 
tho bushes from blight by such a costly process. — 
Yours faithfully, Davenport & Co. 
Second Fa i.lodhi Tea Co., Ld., 7th Dec, 1887. 
Messrs. Davenport & Co., Calcutta. 
Insecticide. — This has been tried on half an acre 
of tea on Moripahar- A timo was chosen when there 
was a break in the rains, and when the piece selected 
had, in common with the surrounding tea, been 
uttackod by mosquito, but showed signs of a Hush 
breaking through. As I had not much of the emul- 
sion, 1 thought it better to test its capabilities as 
an eradicator rather than as a preventive. A dry 
time was solectcd so that the emulsion would not 
bo washed oil" the bushes by the rain, and a piece 
attacked hy blight as a test as to the destructive- 
uoss on the blight of the mixture. The strength used 
was two ounces to a gallon of the water, and li appli- 
cations were given, one a day, on three consecutive 
days. The pieco was then allowed to run for a week, 
and then plucked and yielded '.i2 lb. of green leaf 
against 500 lb. from the remainder of the block of 
B9 acres. In tho first instance tho insecticide certainly 
did good, ns its application evidently caused the flush 
to develop hotter. No more insecticide was applied, 
and the result of a second flush was awaited. This, 
however, never came, us tho pieco experimented upon 
became as badly blighted as the rest of the block. 
It appears, therefore, from this experiment, that aa 
fur us a block of te i surrounded by other tea goes, 
a strong application of the insecticide does good tem- 
porarily only. 
Oo»t. of application. —Cost of insecticide not known. 
In the present experiment, it took four men daily 
to half an acre, but nllowing that four men in work 
could do au ticro thoroughly, to apply tho insecticide 
within a month to a 3U0-acre garden, would require 
10 machines and 40 men daily, one application only; 
and should the benefit derived from its mo prove 
temporary only, as in the experiment under notice, 
tie hi lie it derived would not pay the ooat of appli- 
cation. Besides the cost of the emulsion, the cost of 
wusl.iin; machines would have to be taken. To apply 
one application thoroughly with a strength of two 
ounces per gallon, would require 3} gallons per aero, 
or for 320 acres 1,050 gallons. 
.fudging from the Minll experiment made, the in- 
secticide docs not seem likely to prove a success as 
an eradicator of mosquito blight. Mosquito with in 
lasts from two to threo months, and seems to 
come and go during that time, lor instance, n part 
of tho gTdcu may bo blighted iu August, yield fairly 
well in September, and be closed again in October. To 
apply the insecticide as a preventive, it would need 
to be applied within a few days over the whole area 
of the garden, and to do this would uecessitato a far 
larger number of men than most gardens have at 
their command, leaving out of tho question the enor- 
mous number of machines which would he required. 
On the other hand to fake a mouth for one appli- 
cation over the whole area of the garden would be 
next to useless, as the first treated portions would, 
by the time tho whole garden was finished, be blighted, 
as from the experiment tried, the effect of the insecit- 
cide does not seem to last for more than a week or 
ten days. Another matter to be considered is, the 
mosquito generally first appearcs in August September, 
the two wettest months of the year. If the insecti- 
cide is to be used as a preventative, it should be 
applied during September. During this month it is 
very rare to have 24 hours without rain, which would 
wash the stuff off the bushes and nullify its effect. 
The opinion I have como to is, that would one appli- 
cation stay tho progress of the blight permanently, 
the insecticide would be a great success, but if, as 
the experiment seems to show, its effect is only tem- 
porary, its repeated applications would be impossible 
on any ordinary tea garden. The washing machine 
can with difficulty be got through lines of tea planted 
4'x4'. The leaf from the experimental piece having 
been allowed to run for a week after the application 
of the insecticide, no odour or taste was perceptible 
in the leaf or manufactured tea. — Yours faithfully, 
A. Y. M. Jajoeson. 
Castor Cake Tea Fertilizer. — Messrs. Macneil 
& Co. made some enquiries regarding the 
cultivation and machinery required for growing 
Castor, and for extracting the oil, they explained 
their object in making these enquiries as follows: — 
" It occurs to us that provided castor seed can be 
"obtained in quantity and cheaply in Eastern Bengal 
"orSylhet, Oachar, and a market could be found for 
" the oil, worked on a large scale the cake produced 
" would ensure a supply of manure suited for application 
" to the gardens, and on these points we would be 
"glad if you would give us tho benefit of any imfor- 
" ruation at your command." 
The machinery employed for pressing is worked 
by hand-power, and is of simple construction, and 
is found to answer the purpose as we 1 as those of 
greater power, as in practice it is found that the pressure 
has to be applied gradually, and tho process cannot 
be hurried. A wood-cut of one of the presses in 
oommou use in Calcutta, with details as to its capacity 
was kindly furnished by Messrs. Jessop & Co. for Messrs 
Macneil & Go's information. 
♦> 
At the drug sales this week, a root wns offered un- 
der tho name of Ipecacuanha, which bears a distant 
resemhlauce to that drug externally, but internally 
has not tho hard woody centre characteristic of true 
ipecacuanha. The drug is said to have been shipped 
from India under the name of "medicine root." It 
appears to hove met with a ready sale, presumably iu 
consequence of tho now recognized value of ipecacuauha 
cultivated in the East Indies. — Pharmaceutical Jouriiu'. 
I'ueskrvation of Flowers. — A method of preserv- 
ing the natural colours of flowers recommended by 
R. Hegler, in the DeuUche botanisdie MunaUhcfte, 
consists in dustiue salicylic acid ou the plants as tin y 
lie in the press and removing it again with a brush 
when the flowers are dry. Red colours in particular 
aro well presorved by this agent. Anothor method 
of applying tho same preservative is to use a solution 
of 1 part of salicylic acid iu 11 of alcohol by means of 
blotting paper of cotton wool soakod iu it and placed 
above and below the llowors. Powdered boracic aei I 
yields nearly as good results. Dr. Sch"ulauJ, in a para- 
graph contributed to tho U^rdcnera' Chronicle (Jan. 
'21, p. 82), recommends, as an improvement in tho 
method of u<ing sulphurous acid for preserving the 
colour, that in t he case of delicate llowors th-y mi^b' 
bo placed loosely between slice'.* of vegetable parch- 
ment before immursion iu tho liquid, so as to preserve 
their natural form.— ••rAoNMCfifflocrf Jvumal. 
