May i , 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
775 
Touacco Cultivation, I am afraid will be a 
failure in tho Western and North-Western Provinces. 
I have seen it repeatedly tried by a very persev- 
ering coconut planter in the first-named Province, 
but it could not be made to pay.— Cor. 
Daiukklino. — Regarding tea prospects, I have little 
to say just now. There is a good deal of blight about, 
and more rain is badly wanted iu many parts of the 
district. Iu the meantime, I think planters aro looking 
up a good bit, after their long time of depression, and 
it is becoming apparent that bill tea will pay in the 
long run, if tho property is only fairly well managed. 
The latter is the important point. — Indian Planters) 
Gazette, April 10th. 
Indian Tka Notks.— Tea making has begun at Dehra 
Dodn. The Gardens are looking well, as they have 
had very good winter rains. On tho 30th Lallamook 
had an eai thquako— two small shocks. The weather 
is favourable. '« All the squalls come at night. One 
iron rod 1ms been carriod away. Nearly all the gardens 
have started their machinery." A heavy hailstorm pas- 
sed over Cachar last Tuesday and Wednesday (3rd 
and ith instant), and is reported to have dono very 
sorious damage on somo of the tea estates. One 
Manager telegraphs that his garden is " cut up by 
tho hail, and that the manufacture " is stopped 
indefinitely." Another planter with facetious sadness 
wired that he had iced pegs with his dinner which 
cost him HI 0,000 ! — Indian Planters' Gazette, April 10th. 
TeA DbtiNQ is thus noticed in the Loudon 
Letter of the Indian Planters' Gazette:— A* friend 
who has recently been down to Chingford to see 
some more experiments tried with Mr. Gibbs' new filter 
stove, took with him some specially selected delicate, 
lightly fermented Jhanzie tea, after having had the 
same sampled by two leading brokers. This tea he 
slightly moistened for the purposes of the experiment ; 
theroby not only giving the dryer seme work to do, 
but rendering the t a more liable to absorb any foreign 
llavour which might be applied to it though exposure to 
the direct products of combustion. Some Assam coal 
had bean procured from the office of the Assam Railways 
and Trading Oo., Lmtd., in order to test the actual 
fuol of that province. Some teakwood had also been 
obtained as giving out a powerful aroma, in order 
to put wood fuel to a severe test. The delicate 
Jhanzie tea operated upon was dived; part was dried 
by the direct products from the coal, and part from 
thoso from the teak. Previous to operating upon the 
tea, ti e fan was stopped, and immediately the densest 
possible volume of smoke were emitted from the 
feed hopper. The instant the fan was turned again 
the emission of nil smoke cased and— r.ot a trace 
of it, or of any odours, was to be discovered at the 
hot air exit ! The tea was brought back to town 
and tested by tho same brokers who had originally 
sampled it, and they could find no trace of injury 
from fvreiyn flavour, though the quality and appear- 
ance bail of course, been nffected by the damping. 
My friend also told me that Mr. Gibbs is about to 
erect a full-sized filter stove in order to complete the 
thorough testing of tho invention before launching 
it upon the world. Drying tea direct from a coal 
firo would have been laughed at a few months ago. 
We may have it dried by gas yet ; indeed, thought is 
already being directed. 
Prnt: StTLPHATl <M Quinine is now made 
by Mr. Oammio in Northern India, and an official 
paper has been published giving a full account of 
tho process. Dr. King and Mr. Gamrpio are 
specially thanked by the (iovemmcnt of India. Wo 
shall i|iioto the wholo paper, together with tho 
description of tho method of extraction, into our 
Tropical Aijricultnrht. Hut meantime we quote 
the following passage :— 
During a visit which he paid to Holland in IsS-l, Dr. 
King acquired som<» hints an to a process of extraction 
by means of oil. And now benefitting by tho advice, of 
some chemical fri- nds, Mr. U«mmi« has boon able to 
perfeot this proacss with the result that the whole of 
tho quinine in yellow bark can bo extracted iu a form 
undistinguishable either chemically or physically from 
the best brands of European manufacture. This can 
bo done so cheaply, that as long as the supply of bark 
is kept up quinine need never cost Government much 
above twenty-five rupees per pound. It is true that at 
the present moment quinine is obtainable in the open 
market at rates not very different from this; but that 
is duo to entirely exceptional causes. For home time 
back the Ocylon planters, have been uprooting their 
cinch'ina trees both to save them from disease, and to 
make way for tea planting which appears now to be 
becoming the principal industry of that colony; ond 
cinchona bark has actually been sold iu London below 
the cost of its production in Ceylon. Indeed, so far has 
tho fall iu price gone, that South American bark has 
been practically driven out of the market. This is a 
state of matters, which cannot continue very long, and 
which is not likely to recur. In tlx; ordinary course, 
therefore, quinine might be expected soon to rise to 
what may be considered its normal price. The object 
of making public the process now discovered is to check 
this rise in the price of a drug of such general utility. 
" Coco-ndt ob Cocoa-nut." — We call special 
attention to the following editorial note from the 
Pharmaceutical Journal of London. We have for 
several years back with the concurrence and approval 
of the highest authority in the island (the Director 
of the Royal Botanic Gardens) adopted " coconut" 
in all our publications. The difficulty usually is 
to get people at home to aid in a change of 
the kind, but now that the step has been taken 
by so good an authority in England, we trust all 
writers, printers and publishers out here will follow 
suit and do what they can to make the convenient 
and indubitable form of " coconut" universal. We 
would especially appeal to our contemporaries, to the 
Department of Public Instruction (and Agriculture ?), 
and last not least, to the Government Printer 
to adopt what is so clearly and scientifically shewn 
to be the correct form. If we could only convince 
" Mincing Lane" we should like next to see "cacao'' 
adopted for the produce as well as the tree ; but 
this is more difficult, " cocoa" as pronounced being 
a universal household as well as " market" word 
for this food product and drink, in England. Still 
if " coco" is kept for the nut, there will be much 
less risk of " cocoa" beans, nibs, or paste being 
supposed to come from the palnitree. Here is the 
paragraph : — 
Coco-nut on Cocoa-nut. — A discussion as to whether 
this should he spelled c-o-c-o or c-o-c-o-a has receutly 
been published. The paJm yielding the coconut and 
the tree which furnishes the substance used as a bever- 
age ond called cocoa, are kuown by botanists, and 
hence 1 y pharmacists, to have no connection. Never- 
theless, many persons outside that intelligent circle 
have au Wi i that h tb arc products of the same tree, or 
are connected iu some way, and even botauists do not 
agree as to the correct spelling of tho word coco iu 
coc omit. The evidence ou tho subject is briefly this : — 
Iu early botanical works and books of travel coco-nuts 
are mentioned, the word " coco " being derived from 
an Indian word coc or cocus, used to indicate the fruit 
of (,'oco.v nwifera, on account of a fancied resemblance 
of tho base of the endocurp, with tho three circular 
impressions, to tho face of a monkey whose conver- 
sational powers were limited to uttering a sound liko 
coco or cocus. According to another authority the 
word "ooco" in Portuguese means anything which 
frightens children, the monkey-like expression on the 
endocarp being perhnps used for that purpose. Lin- 
n»us in forming the genus Cocos probably founded tho 
name on these variations, and how it came to be known 
as cocoa (c-o-c-o-a) nut is not quito clear, but tin re is 
nothing to warrant such a method of spelling. Now 
that tho leaves of Erijihroxylon Coc.i arc also r 1 n 1. - ,1 
commerce and kuown as coca (c-o-c-a). it becomes a 
matter of much importance to discriminate carefully 
between thn three substances of similar names but 
widoly different nature— l'ha> MOMvttcd Journal, 
March Silt, 
