November r, 1888.] TH£ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
THE TOBACCO -GROWING EXPERIMENTS 
IN CEYLON. 
Along with almost all the other products of the 
island the tobacco which had been planted by a 
German gentlemen in the Kurunegala district has 
suffered greatly from the unusually prolonged 
drought, many thousands of the young plants 
having been killed. For some time 200 coolies a 
day were employed in watering them, but even 
this expensive expedient eould not atone for the 
absence of rain, and the experiment seems to be a 
failure for the present, at all events ; though we 
hope the promoters will not lose heart, and trust 
that better luck will yet attend their experiments 
in Ceylon. 
QUININE FOR THE MILLION. 
To Mr. Rivers Hicks of London, a well-known 
authority on cinchona, belongs the credit of coming 
forward after a practical manner to popularize quinine 
and make it available for the million not only in Eng- 
land but in India and we trust by-aud-by throughout 
China. This mail brings us a letter full of interest 
from Mr. Rivers Hicks which will be published 
in our next issue, and it also brings us a package 
of his "four-grain quinine pills" made up in con- 
venient little boxes of " 24 doses for 12 pence" ; 
but inside are little pill-boxes each containing 
two quinine pills of 4 grains each, each such box 
selling at one penny or one anna. Then this is 
accompanied by an illustrated pamphlet of 16 pages 
giving the following information in Marathi, Tamil, 
Gujarati, Bengali and Hindustani, with pictures 
of various public buildings in England to catch 
the native eye. Mr. Hicks has still to serve the 
Chinese, Burmese, Malays, Siamese and especially 
the millions of Chinese, who, above all other people, 
are likely to take to cheap quinine, The letter- 
press is as follows : — 
Sulphate of Quinine : 
made up into tub safe dose of fouit-orain feveit-l'ilt.s. 
made i3v machinery. 
A box containing two pills costs 14.= 1 anna. 
Quinine iswell-kno >n throughout India as the only 
reliable remedy against fever, and is especially no known 
niuco the introduction into India of the cinchona tree 
by the Government of the Empress. 
Its value is inestimable to those who, in unhealthy 
OH mates, have been in the habit of taking opium me- 
dicinally, as quinine produces all the good results to bo 
expected from opium without uny of its evil effects. 
The benelicial increase in the cultivation of the cin- 
chona ha* not had a proportionate result in the cheap- 
ening of Quinine to the consumer. 
The poorer among the inhabitants of India now get 
somo valuable, though inferior, febrifuges at a com- 
paratively low rato, hut they do not get the sulphate of 
quinine which they requiro. That has hitherto been 
sold at too high prico for thorn to buy it, It has also 
hitherto been sold in largo quantities than they require, 
and thoy do not know the proper dose. 
1 am, therefore, now offering at the Ion price of one 
peuny, about equal to ouu anna each, boxes containing 
two onfe doses of each four-grain sulphate of quinine, 
made up by machinery into fever pills, ready to be taken. 
Persons accustomed to taking quinine, or those suf- 
fering from, sev re attacks of lever, may take much 
larger di ses, even up to as much na twenty grains, but 
the four-grain is the safe doso, and if taken by any ouo 
feeling the tirst approach of fever may prevent iiu 
attack. 
These fever-pill* may therefore bo cuusidcrcd as 
rateable preventive* of fever. 
Ituyerj of large quantities, who senil KllHI, will have 
forwarded to them, ' image paid, to any address in 
India, 1,0 f) boxes, each containing two doses of sul- 
phate of quiuiue, being at tho rate of one anua per hex. 
88 
Buyers of small quantities can have any quantity, 
however small, seut by post, on forwarding, in addition 
to lrTfore.ch box the cost of postage. 
Minimum parcels postage of 8 annas ; so that 8 boxes 
of pills would cost 8 annas + 8 annas postage, or 16 
annas == 1 rupee, whereas 50 boxes would only cost 50 
annas + 8 auuas postage, or 64 annas = 4 rupees. 
; ♦ 
THE PETROLEUM VAPOUR ENGINE. 
In his address before the British Association, 
Sir Frederick Bramwell made the following interest- 
ing referrence: — 
" Looking at the wonderful petroleum industry, and 
at the multifarious products which are obtained from 
the crude material, is it too much to say that there 
is a future for motor engines worked by the vapour 
of some of the more highly volatile of these pro- 
ducts — true vapour— not a gas, but a condensable 
body, capable of being worked over and over again ? 
Numbers of such engines, some of as much as four 
horse-power, made by Mr. Yarrow, are now running, 
and are apparently giving good results, certainly ex- 
cellent results as regards the compactness and light- 
ness of the machinery ; for boat purposes they 
possess the great advantage of being rapidly under 
way. I have seen one go to work within two minutes 
of the striking of the match to light the burner. 
Again, a3 we know, the vapour of this material has 
been used as a gas in gas engines, the motive power 
having been obtained by direct combustion." 
The President, having now warmed to his work, 
waxes bold, and says : — 
"Ilaving regard to these considerations, was I 
wrong in predicting that the neat engine of the 
futuru will probably be one independent of the vapour 
of water ? And, further, in these days of electrical 
advancement IS it too much to hope for the direct pro- 
duction of electrcitij from the combustion of fuel." 
Allusion is next made to various methods of sup- 
plying power to householders: — 
" Water at 700 lb. pressure per inch is a most con- 
venient mode of lying on a large amount of power 
through comparatively small pipes." 
Again : — 
"Power is also transmitted by means of com- 
pressed air, an agent which, on the score of its 
ability to ventilate and of its cleanliness, has much 
to recommend it. On the other hand, it is an agent 
which, having regard to the probability of the de- 
position of moisture in the form of 'snow,' requires 
to be worked with judgment. Again, there is an 
alternative mode for the conveyance of power by 
the exhaustion of nir — a mode of which has been in 
practical use for over sixty years. We have also the 
curious system pursued at Schatfhausen, where quick- 
running ropes are driven by turbines, those being 
worked by the current of the river Rhine ; and at 
New York; and in other cities of the United States, 
steam is laid on under the streets, so as to enable 
domestic steam engines to be worked without the 
necessity of a boiler, a stoker or a chimney, tho 
steam affording also means of heating the bouse, 
when needed. Lastly, thero is the system of trans- 
mitting power by electricity, to whirdi I have already 
adverted. I was glad to learn, ouly tho other day, 
that thero was every hope to thi3 power being ap- 
plied to the working of an important subterranean 
tram way." 
lleat-withdrawing or cold-producing engines are 
next discussed: — "Wo have in these machines daily 
instances that, if you wish to make u ship's hold cold, 
you can do it by burning a certain quautity of cjali 
—a paradox, if over thero was one." 
FISH-CULTUKE. 
[TO ran KIMTOIt OF THE " SFKlTATOU.''] 
Sir, — Thero is a serious difficulty to bo overcome 
before your suggestion that ornamental waters 
should be stocked with sporting fish ran be accom- 
plished. Trout, which of course, are the species to 
be tirst thought of, do not breed unless they havo 
a gravelly stream to spawn in. Now the ornamental 
waters led by a suflioieut stream of that kind are cx- 
