October i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
277 
cious drugs known to tho Indian hakeem and betid 
and constantly used by them, but often used in a 
hurtful manner from a deficient nosology and an in- 
correct diagnosis. These drugs are not usually found 
in chemists' shop in Bombay ; but thev would bo 
found tbereif there was an official Indian pharrhaoopcaia, 
and I have reason to believe they would prove a very 
useful addition to the armamentarium of the prac- 
tising Indian physician. An 1 if to the practising 
Indian physician why not to the European practising 
physician, and to Immunity in general I Do 1 ask the 
Government of India for a great mercy or a v. ry small 
one? Financially I ask for a very small mercy in- 
doed, bill, that very small mercy is capable of In- 
coming a very great mercy to human Buffering. — Ji- 
— rimes of India. 
NEWS FROM TASMANIA. 
Tasmania, 24th July. — I send a small packet of 
eelery-top pine seed (Phyllocladu* rhomboidalU), a 
noble pine, indigenous to Tasmania, growing freely 
in the wettest though not the coldost portions of the 
island, furnishing the timber that has the remark- 
able quality of being unshrinkable. As the season 
advances I hope to get Huon pine and other seeds 
in quantity. Meanwhile wo are in the depth of winter. 
Yesterday morning the ice was an inch thick and the 
ground white ; at Waratah the snow was 7£ inches 
deep, and the wiud blew as cold as ever I felt it at 
Dover or Dunnet Head. Phew 1- for all-the-year- 
round comfort, commend one to the hills around 
Candy. 
Garrulous globe-trotters may talk as they like to 
a I'tilliblo public about this " perfect " climate. As 
for me, I am disposed to say as Pere Accolti the 
missionary said of Vancouver: " huit mois d'hiver 
Bt quatro d'eufers" — does n't suit. — Cor. 
From a letter contributed to a local paper by 
" Old Colonist " evidently, we quote in regard to 
Hoadmaking in Tasmania: — 
Home mouths ago about 150 so-called " working 
men" were despatched from Hobart, passage pai l, to 
Stratum, the ostensible object being *hn construction 
of a road from Kumitio to Zeehan, the remuneration 
Hs Id per day of eight hours. A few days after 
reaching their destination, these "working" men 
might have been seen in groups, stretched on the banks 
of the Kiver lleuty, busily smoking and playing cards, 
while a team of poor lanky bullocks struggled help- 
lessly to drag their traps through the sun ly bed of 
the river. " Oomu ! bear a baud," cries the bullock 
driver, but not one would move. " Wo aiu't going to 
wet our feet for any boss," was the response. 
The thoroughly reliable eye-witness who graphically 
depleted this scene, adds that be bad seen gangs of 
these, mou pass to "their work," the day being well 
advanced ero they started, midday would bo past by 
the time they rouohod the BQpposed scene of opera- 
tion^, when shrewdly calculating that they could put 
in the eight hours by the time they again reached 
the huts, i hoy actually returned without ever soiling 
their shovols, chuokling greatly over the joke. 
Meanwhile the local " boss" would doubtless bo 
leaning back in bis easy ollioe chair, inditing the 
weekly report t . bis chief in Hobart, in which he 
had " the honour to state" that strenuous efforts 
were being made to accomplish the work in lmid, 
anJ tbat no stone was being left unturned in order 
W '• plete the road to Zoohau with the least 
posMhlo drl:i) 
On the margin our correspondent pencils : — 
< >n tho mines the manager tells me be is now 
Daj lug regular wages to all comers at tho rate of 
10s for eight hours, and paying all cost of carry- 
ing provisions. Mow many S. IM get this in C. jloi'i - 
Why it is — R2.20O a year, but then Itameu is a 
guuaman eompared to Uu> average miner. 
COCONUT REFUSE AS A DEFENSIVE 
WAlt MATERIAL. 
When a local controversy raged as to the 
merits of coconut refuse in agricultural and 
horticultural operations, it must have been 
the last idea which could have occurred to the 
local disputants, that the substance of their contra- 
dictory opinions was calculated to play an important 
part in the defensive armour of ships of war ! And 
why, if it succeeds at sea, should it not be found useful 
on shore as a substance in which the cannon-balls 
of an enemy attacking Colombo or Trincomalee 
might be buried as they struck, the compressed coir 
dust closing over them ? The paragraph we are 
referring to occurs in an unexpected but not incon- 
gruous place, Dr. Lawson's report on the Nilgiri 
Gardens. The Mr. Money who brought the French 
account to Dr. Lawson's notice and helped to oonduol 
experiments is the former Calcutta lawyer who has 
been long a planter on the Nilgiris, and who-n book on 
Java, " How to Govern a Colony," produced a sensa- 
tion when it appeared. The paragraph is as fallows: — 
A Proposed New Method for Utilizing Coconut Ue- 
tuse. — Mr. J. W. B. Money of Deva Sbola di e ,v my at- 
tention last summer to an article entitled " Hatnuent 
de combat et la guerre sur mer " in tho Revue den Vena: 
Mnndex, dated the 1st August 1886, by a AL L. P. de 
la Barriere in which he described, at length, how the 
refuse of tho coconut, after the p oeess of retting; 
might be used for backing the iron plates of ships of 
war. His mode of proceeding wi^ simple enough, 
and ia as follows j — He took a quantity of the powdered 
refuse before it was quite dry, and subjected it to 
pressure, when the natural viscidity of the macerated 
cellular substance of the coconut caused the mass 
to cohere, and the whole to form a plate which in 
general appearance was like a mill board, only much 
more brittle; owing to the bygroscopicity of this anb 
stance, if a hole is made through it, the parts adja- 
cent to the puncture absorb water, swell up, and im- 
mediately clos« the orifice. When on the West Coast 
last August, I brought away a sack of this refuse, and 
made a plate, eighteen inches square, by about ] ot 
an inch in thickness, and placed it between two bonds, 
and then fastened it to one side of u box, which con- 
tained a head of one foot of water A bullet one- 
half inch in diameter was fired through it, but nut a 
drop oozed out. This experiment was repeated three 
times with the same result ; next a j-inch bullet was 
tired through the plate, when a few drops only made 
their way through , lastly a bullet near an iuch in 
diameter was fired through the plate, when a large jet 
of water shot through, but in the course of a few 
seconds tho stream decreased in volume ; and in less 
than a minute had ceased to flow altogether. Whether 
or no this material could bo advantageously uaod for 
the purpose which Monsieur do la Barriere has sug- 
gested, or for Buy other purpose, it is a matter worth 
considering ; for, as Monsieur de la Barriere truly 
says in his article, millions of tons float away annu- 
ally down our rivers in India. All the above experi- 
ments were carried out under the superintendence of 
Mr. Money, on his estate at Deva Shola. 
CINNAMON AND COCONUTS IN THE 
NEGOMBO DISTRICT. 
Kadiraua, 22nd Sept. 
Weather still dry. Since the 28th June, now olose 
on three months, we have b. 1 1 1 • 7 1 inch of ruin, so you 
may imagine the parohe I state of all shrubs and grits 
ses ; the showers that fell on the 17th and IS'h, 
about half au inch, freshened up the herbnge ■ little 
and cooled the atmosphere for two days, but matters 
are as bad as over again. Cinuamun, in the White 
sand fields especially, is suffering severely, and tiiu 
bearing of coconut trees for next year's June, July, 
August and Sept umber piokiugs will bo very seriously 
ail - , ted. Pools and springs are rapidly drying up, and 
altogether prospects ,1o not look encouraging. I obfervi 
lightning towards tho north this evening, — au indication, 
I hope, of the advent of tho north-east monsoon. 
