THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September r, 1888. 
A few Tea plants have been introduced, and grow 
fairly well : but as yet nothing definite can be said of 
the prospects of Tea plantations. In the highlands it 
is doubtful whether the cultivation would ever prove 
successful, and the uncertainty of labour would render 
it a very precarious undertaking. 
Cinchona has been introduced and shows every pros- 
pect of its cultivation being a success, from the fact 
that plants three years' old are now 6 feet high. It 
remains to be seen whether the quality of the bark 
will justify the planters' investment of capital, and 
whether the state of the market will offer encourage- 
ment. A small plantation of 1000 plants has been 
formed this season at Zomba.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
« 
The Plantain Tree a Protection against Mala- 
ria. — The Hospet Taluk Board has adopted the 
suggestion of Mr. H. St. A. Goodrich, the Collector 
of Bellary and President of District Board, who has 
found from experience that a belt of plantain trees 
of the ordinary size and thickness planted between 
irrigated land and crowded towns or villages pro- 
tected the latter from malaria effectually. The 
Taluk Board has directed that this be carried out 
wherever practicable. — Madras Standard, Aug. 10th. 
Liquorice Culture in Bussia. — Liquorice root 
(Glycyrrhiza glabra), which is now but little cultivated 
in this country, the chief supplies coming to us from 
Spain aud Italy, is said to have become of late an import- 
ant article of cultivation in the neighbourhood of 
Batoum. A few years ago its existence was scarcely 
known or heeded. It is now grown in great abundauce 
at Liakha, in the district of Blizavetopol. The quantity 
expoited from this place in 1887 amounted to 1400 tons, 
and the average price on the spot of production is about 
£2 per ton, and at the port of Batoum, properly pressed 
and packed, it realises over £6 per ton.— Gardeners' 
Chronicle. 
High-handed Conduct of the Chinese Tea 
Guild at Shanghai. — Our files of China papers 
are full of discussions regarding the tea trade and 
tea traders. It is rather surprising, just as we 
were feeling sympathy with the Chinese on the 
decadence of their great industry, to be told that 
very bumptious conduct on the part of the mem- 
bers of the Tea Guild in Shanghai was due to 
the fact of their having made such large profits 
at Hankow that they thought and boasted that 
they could deal as they pleased with the foreign 
merchants. Accordingly, on mail day, and without 
one word of warning, a paper was presented to 
the merchants, to which instant signature was 
demanded, by which they should be made to agree 
to a rule that each godownkeeper should give 
receipts for all tea on its arrival, with no time 
for examination. The merchants, of course, re- 
fused, and the Tea Guild stopped business in tea 
and everything. The foreign Consular body, on 
being appealed to, denounced the conduct of the 
Tea League as illegal, and so represented it to 
the Taotai, who, as the Guild is amenable to 
official rule, will bring the bumptious tea dealers 
to their senses. Meantime, we reserve all our 
sympathy for the Chinese tea-growers. 
Asbestos Lining. — The Citizen speaks of an 
excellent adaptation of asbestos for internal use in 
buildings in the shape of a cardboard, manufactured 
in Blieets five feet by four feet, and produced at 
the very moderate cost of a minimum of 6d per 
square yard. At this charge the manufacturer 
offers a sixteenth of an inch board, and this we 
found quite sufficient to protect a wooden partition 
from various fl imes. Another specimen had been 
selected to protect the adjacent wood work from an 
American stove, and on being removed no perceptible 
ill eri oration either in fibre or appearance could be 
detected. The "flatness" obtained by affixing to a 
wall surface serins to give this substance a distinct 
advantage, and, although corners of the sheet were 
subjected to the action of the flame, the adjacent 
asbestos seemed to restrict the damage t > the portion 
actually uncovered. It does not seem that with 
any ordinary care in fixing such positions of attack 
by fire can be anticipated, but we think it is 
unlikely that in the case of au accidental fire the 
minute portions of wood exposed would be subjected 
to such heat as that offered in the experiment. 
An additional advantage is that the boards readily 
lend to decorative purposes, and, indeed, present 
an excellent surface lor the i>'iinter. — Oil, Paint and 
Drug Reporter. [Query: suitable frr internal cover- 
ing of the walls of tea stores? — Ed.] 
Fbuit Without Seeds. — The following will be of 
much ufe to such of our reach rs as take interest in the 
cultivation of fiuit trees. It is well known that high 
cultivation tends to produce fruit containing fewer 
seeds, until at last all the powers of the tree or plant 
are directed to the perfecting of the pulp. In wine 
cases no seed appears. The finest varieties of plantains 
aud bananas, pineapples and bread-fruit have no 8' eds. 
Of course, all such trees and plants have to be propa- 
gated from shoots or cuttings. It has been a common 
belief that the life of such cou'd not be prolonged indefi- 
nitely. In the case of the apple and the orange this 
is true. The trees have to be raised from seeds, 
and the seedless varieties are grafted upon these. 
Such varieties of fruit could not arise in a state of 
nature. They are the result of selection by the early 
races of mankind. It must have been the case that the 
fruit was abundant, so that people were content only 
with the best. It must a so have been a favourite, if 
not a necessary article of food, or men would not have 
improved it by careful selection. Humboldt thought 
tint some species of the plantain were natives to America, 
but the early discoverers made no mention of finding 
them there. If we. could prove it to be native, it would 
raise our estimate of the civilization of the people. 
As the case stands the probability is that tbe.-e seed- 
less fruits were first produced in the East Indies and 
from that point have been carrel around the world. 
The name of the banana indicates that it was given in 
the East, and that the fruit was a leading one in the 
ancient markets. — The Indian Tea Gazette. 
Oranges in Natal. — There appeared in the Agri- 
cultural Journal of May 31st, a letter from Mr. Mac- 
Owen, the director of the Botanic Gardens, on the 
subject of orange trees. The trees were reprseented 
as dying from some disease, not scale, which was 
preceded by large crops of indifferent fruit, scant 
foliage, and withering of the upper twigs. Mr. Mac- 
Owen is of opinion that the trees have suffered at the 
root, owing to want of care at the time of planting, 
the ground not having been trenched deeply so 
that the trees having plenty of good soil around 
their roots horizontally have sent the leaders 
through the little that was below into the unbroken 
subsoil. He recommends transplanting if the tree 
is not too far gone, and if that cannot be done, 
the digging of a trench on two sides of the tree 
carrying it well down into the hard subsoil pan 
so as to be at least a foot lower than the decay- 
ing roots. The trench to be filled two feet deep 
with the best of the top soil, mixed with an equal 
bulk of well-rotted manure. As the recently-formed 
rootlet tips and the root hairs on the youngest 
parts are the only absorbent portions of the root, 
no amount of manure dug close to the tree is of 
any use, except in so far as it is carried away 
by percolation to the rootlets, a yard away and 
20 inches deep. He condemns the custom of 
drenching the trees with irrigation water; irriga- 
tion, without proper, quick drainage below, being 
almost as bad as drought. " You want," he says, 
"not only to wet the soil, but to cause the Water 
to slip quickly through its interstices and pull the 
vital air after it. If I were to write for an hour 
I could tell you nothing more valuable than that 
simple, but oft-forgotten, law of cultural necessity." 
— Natal Mercury. 
