THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [April a, 1888. 
The Foochow Echo of February 25th says : — The 
report given by native papers that the losses of the 
Foochow teamen during last season amount to 
1400,000 cannot be true, for in such were the case, 
we fear there will be no native teamen left for the 
coming season. When a Chinaman says that he 
has lost the above-mentioned, or any other amount, 
we must understand that he means he could not 
squeeze that amount from us. We doubt not that 
some of our native teamen did surfer severe loss, 
but to such an alarming amount is next to impos- 
sible. The actual loss, we are given to understand, 
does not exceed $50,000 and this amount is shared 
by few teamen, while many made, as usual, their 
fortunes. — China Mail, Maroh 14th. 
Different Uses of Cement. — A bushel of cement 
may be turned to a variety of useful purposes on the 
farm. Mixed with three or four times its bulk of 
bright, sharp sand it is almost invaluable on the 
farm for purposes aside from building or patching of 
walls, cisterns and wells. Common cement is as 
good as any, but where it is used to hold water it 
should be made to set very slowly by the frequent 
application of moisture while it is in the process of 
drying. Where this is done cracks will not appear 
oausing the cistern to leak. Cement may be used in 
making permanently tight boxes, old tin or iron basins 
or even old baskets. Supposing for instance, a 
watering place is wanted for horses it can be made 
from an old dry goods box. Having mounted it in 
its place a serviceable trough can be made by smear- 
ing a quantity of very wet cement all over it inside 
repeating the operation before the first coat has dried 
and until the cracks and oorners are completely hid- 
den. Cement can also be used for making water 
basins for poultry or young ducks. An English 
writer says that he simply scrapes a hole in the earth 
a trifle larger than the basin desired, smoothes the 
sides of it a little and applies the soft cement an inch 
thick. This quickly-made receptacle should prove 
of great service throughout the season. — Indian 
Agriculturist, March 17th. 
Sisu, Oranges, &o. in Northern India. — Mr. Jas. 
Gibson of Yatiyantota writes to us from the Gorakh- 
pur district, N. W. P., India, as follows : — 
" As I see no chance of being back for a month 
or two, I send you the sisu tree seed I promised. 
It is counted very valuable here, and fine belts and 
avenues are planted all oyer. It should grow high, 
I tbink, as in winter it is cold here, even on the 
plains, as cold as Nuwara Eliya at coldest, but I 
believe in the hot season it is as hot as the low- 
country in Ceylon ; so perhaps elsewhere would 
suit too. The pods are just sown in nurseries as sent 
about three inches apart and transplanted. The 
orange seeds sent in envelope among the sisu are 
wild Nepaul oranges, and are the best oranges I ever 
ate : we get them at one rupee a hundred here^ 
carried down from Nepaul. small and bright orange 
color when ripe, and their skin somewhat like mandarin. 
Got our first strawberry plate for season yesterday. 
The trees are now all over the country coming into 
loaf and the weather milder; it is spring time, and 
what a paradox — harvest is just beginning, wheat 
and peas ripe and begun reaping everywhere, flax 
and dal nearly ripe, indigo is being sown now. Did 
I toll you the railway here, Bengal and North- 
Western, cost only 45,000 and 50,000 rupees a mile 
to complete ? A very substantial one and well bal- 
lasted, but 1 must tell you there is net a rise of 
30 feet from one end to the other, about 150 miles 
long I think, and here in the plains is only about 
120 feet above Calcutta, 800 miles south. I find men's 
wages two annas a day only here, and young ones 
one aniia. House servants seven rupees a month and 
koki and gardeners two and three rupees a mouth, 
bread Of, couts a loaf, fat beef nine cents a lb., and all 
vegetables more than cau use in everyone's garden 
ana natives have baskets of thorn iu presents daily.", 
Planting in Netherlands India. — Says the 
Amsterdam correspondent of the L. <£• C. Express 
writing on Feb. 29th :— A limited company, styled 
the Borneo Tobacco Company, Sugut, has been es- 
tablished at Botterdam for the purpose of working 
certain lands for tobacco cultivation situated near 
the river Sugut (North Borneo.) The territory 
comprises 50,000 acres. The company's capital 
amounts to fll,000,000, divided into two series of 
fl500,000, and of 500 shares each, the first of which 
is nearly taken up. Beports have been received that 
the Boyal sanction has been granted to the statutes 
of the Cultuur Maatschappy der Vorstenlanden, 
so that the establishment of this company may be 
expected in a few days. This company is the 
consequence of the proposed plan of reorganisation of 
the business of the Dorrepaalsche Bank der Vorsten- 
landen, which latter bank failed last night. 
Indian Products. — The late Colonial and Indian 
Exhibition appears to have led to some interest being 
taken in the exportation of Indian tlrugs of various 
kinds on trial. One of these articles received during 
the past mouth was a sample of white musli, the 
root of Asparagus ascendent. It has an ivory-white 
colour and is hard and twisted, the pieces being 
about an inch long and two lines in thickness. It 
has a sweetish taste, and forms, according to Dr. 
Dymock, an excellent substitute for salep, than which 
it is nicer and is more relished by Europeans, At 
the present time, when salep is dear, it would form 
an excellent substitute for it as food for invalids. 
Large quantities of different varieties of gum arabic 
are also now being sent from India. Some of these, 
however, are imperfectly soluble in water and very 
dirty, being evidently collected without much care. 
Nevertheless, those that have been examined possess 
a considerable amount of adhesiveuess, and appeared 
to contain mere traces of tanning matter. A valerian 
root, apparently that of /'. WalUchii, and costus root 
(Aplotaxis auriculata), are also among Indiau drugs 
that have been sent to this country on speculation 
recently from India. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 
Mr. Marshall Ward on " Dry Bot" in Wood.— 
From a paper by the mycologist who reported on 
Hemileia vastatrix in Ceylon, we quote as follows : — 
It will be evident from what has been stated that 
the practical application of botanical knowledge is here 
not only possible, but much easier than is the case 
in dealing with many other diseases. It must first 
bo borne in mind that this fungus spreads, like so many 
others, by means of both spores and mycelium : it is 
easy to see strands of mycelium passing from badly, 
diseased planks or beams, &c, across intervening brick- 
work or soil, and on to sound timber, which it then 
infects. The spores are developed in countless myriads 
from the fructifications described, and they are ex- 
tremely minute and light : it has been proved that they 
can be carried from house to house on the clothes and 
tools, &c.,of workmen, who in their ignorance of the facts 
are perfectly careless about laying their coats, imple- 
ments, &c, on piles of the diseased timber intended for 
removal. Again, in replacing beams, &c, attacked with 
dry-rot, with sound timber, the utmost ignorance and 
carelessness are shown : broken pieces of the diseased 
timber are left about, whether with spores on or not ; 
and I have myself seen quite lately sound planks laid 
close upon and nailed to planks attacked with the ' rot.' 
Hartig proved that the spores can be carried from the 
wood of one building to that of another by means of 
the saws of workmen. But perhaps the most reck- 
less of all practices is the usage of partially diseased 
timber for other constructive purposes, and stacking 
it meanwhile in a yard or outbuilding in the neigh- 
bourhood of fresh-cut, unseasoned timber. It is ob- 
vious that the diseased timber should be removed as 
quickly as possible, and burnt, at once if used as fire- 
wood in the ordinary way, it is at the risk of those 
concerned. Of course the great danger cousists in the 
presence of many ripe spores, and their being scattered 
on timber which is under proper conditions for their 
germination and the spread of the mycelium. 
