N'oVEMBEfc i, 1888.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
buy readily enough if there is anything Rood to 
sell. But it is evident from the report that the 
metropolitan public are not the first to be educated 
regarding the value of Australian produce: The 
colonists themselvis require instruction, and more 
especially the farmer.-, whoso object hitherto has 
been to get a big farm and put into it the work 
and manures which are oidy suited for a little one. 
This has to bo changed, and the farmers have also 
to be informed of what else than wheat may be 
grown in mother earth ; therefore the commission 
strongly recommend the publication of a cheap edition 
of Baron von Mueller's work, " Select Extra -Tropical 
Plants for Industrial Culture and Naturalisation," 
which affords the fullest information as to tho use- 
ful plants capable of being grown in Victoria, and 
specially indicating the more important and valuable 
•f them. We trust that tho commission's labours 
will bear good fruit, and that Australian commerce, 
and more especially agriculture, will be advanced by 
it, and will take a larger share in supplying tho old 
country with many of the raw products for which we 
are at present dependent upon foreign countries. — 
Chcmi.it and Druggist. 
— ♦ 
TEA at Nagasaki. — Consul Buslie in his report to 
Ml?, Trench on the Trade and Shipping of Nagasaki 
for 1HS7 remarks : — Owing to tho primitive, and careless 
methods of cultivation and preparation in tho surround- 
ing districts, tea has virtually ceased to be an article of 
export, except to tl e north oi China, which takes large 
quantities of very inferior kinds, rangiug between $4 
and ,*>5 per picul. There were but small purchases at 
the opening of the year, and, though prices declined, 
the rije in Sti rling exchange prevented any advantage 
being taken of this fall, which was about $2 in medium 
to fine, and §1. 50 for lettr kinds. — London and China 
Ei press . 
K i sari Dal. — The evil effects of the particular kind 
of vetch known to science as lathyrus sativus, and to 
the cultivator as kesari dal, have loug been well, 
if not widely, known. The habitual use of the grain 
produces a peculiar sort of paralysis in both men 
and animals, affecting in the human subject chiefiy 
the lower limbs. Tho evil results are, however, not 
universal, showing themselves in different degrees in 
different subjects, while some habitual comsumers of 
the grain seem to escapo altogether. To this fact, 
and to the easo with which it is cultivated, may 
be ascribed it- continued u.r, A' ,/,/' will grow on 
heavy clay lands which will give no other crop, and 
when sown broadcast, after the retreat of flood-water, 
will give a good return, although the ground subse- 
qq< ntly hardens to the consistency of a sun-dried 
brick, and splits into long deep fissures. It is com- 
monly sown in rice land before tho rieo is cut, 
springing up among the stalks and yielding a crop 
in the spring, while the rice stubble is still standing. 
The easo and cheapness of its production lead to 
its extensive use for tho payment of grain wages, 
with a corresponding perpetuation of its evil results. 
This being so, it is interesting to observe that a 
continental physician, whose attention was called to 
the effects id the same grain in the south of Italy, 
has been conducting a -erics of experiments with a 
view to the isolation and subsequent examination of 
the toxic principle. In the result an alkaline volatile 
liquid has been obtained from the seeds, which exhi- 
bit!! all tho poisonous effects associated with the use 
of Icanri. The importance of this discovery, if it is 
to bo relied upon, lies in the fact that this liquid, 
bi iug volatile, is not present in preparations of tho 
grain, such as pressed cakes made at a high tempe- 
rature, which were accordingly not found to bo 
I Isonous. If, however, such cakes were propared at 
low teiiq-eratm s they exhibited to\i<- properties, the 
bent used uot being sufficient to drive off tho 
poisonous principle. This seems as if it might afford 
■n explanation of the cnpriciotisnoss of the effects 
of ke.uiri on tho people who habitually consume it. 
In any case the experiment! referred to aro well 
worth repetition in this country, where a largo number 
of the poorest classes arc compelled to tat ka.tri 
during many mouths of the year. If a grain which 
is undoubtedly noxious, can be converted into :>. 
wholesome food-stuff simply by the application of 
sufficient heat iu cooking, the fact ought to be 
definitely ascertained and made widely known. — Pidnet ;•, 
Canks and Sticks. — In a lecture on cane umbrella 
handles, &c, Mr. Jackson of'Kew stated :— From the 
East and West Indies, Singapore, Java, China and 
other eastern countries, are derived a great variety 
of sticks, principally, however, belonging- to the 
bamboo and palm tribes. The sticks, as required for 
the workshops, are drafted from these immense ston a ; 
some are so crooked, that they require a great dr,d of 
straightening before anything elsejis done with them, and 
this straightening process is ono of the most interest- 
ing and remarkable point. On the top of a very hot 
stove is a heap of sand, iu which the sticks are plunged, 
and kept there till they have become quite pliable. 
The workman then takes the crooked stick while it is 
still hot and inserts it into a notch cut in a stout 
board, placed at an angle inclined from him, and bends 
and strains it, occasionally casting his eye along it 
to see that it is straight and when perfectly so it is 
thrown dowu to cool, and when cold it is quite rigid, 
without the slightest fear of it ever going back to its 
natural crookedness. In this way some of the most 
irregular and apparently worthless sticks are made to 
assumo an appearance almost impossible, when we 
consider that tho workman has nothing but practice 
and a well trained eye to guide him. Heat is a very 
important elomcut in the manipulations of a stickmaker, 
and produces very different effects on the several kinds 
of woods, the degree of heat necessary to straighten 
one kind of stick being often sufficient to completely 
spoil another kind. The same power which makes 
a crooked stick straight is applied to make a 
straight one crooked, and so we fiud that the rigid 
stems of bamboos, partridge canes, as well as 
all the various kinds of Euglish sticks which aro 
required to be curled or twisted, are by the applica- 
tion of heat made to assume almost any shape or 
form. Thus we often sco ladies' sunshade handles at 
the present time, especially those of bamboo or 
partridge cane, twisted and even tied into doublo 
knots. — Journal of the Society of Arts. 
The World's Silk Production. — The following 
statement, which has been extracted from returns 
lately prepared by the Syndicate of Silk Manufac- 
turers of Lyons, shows the world's silk production 
in each of tho years 188-i, 1885, 18S6 and 1887, the 
figures being in kilogrammes (one kilogramme— 2 20-1 lb. 
avoirdupois) : — 
b o f Co 
oa *; —j o 
t> a. 
-1 1 ■ 
Co to 
8 
© o 
••1 10 — I C5 
O -1 h- Co 
OliCfl* - 
- z. - - 
a So — 2 
tell 
6»t a a. 
i: t- 
IO 
CO I 
C"1o O! Ci x" 
£ I - M 
-1 CO w I L 
as » 
o© I 5 5 
*» I CO 
sills* ? 
