598 
THt TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 18S9. 
per lb. Druggists' barks in good bold si very to small 
broken quills and chips sold at 12c to 110c par half- 
kilo, (equal to 2d to Is 8d per lb) ; druggists' root 
bark at 12c to 22c per half. kilo, (equal to 2d to 4d per 
lb.) For manufacturing barks of all varieties, good 
rich quills, chips, and shavings, tbe prices ranged from 
7c to 79c per half-kilo., or l|d to Is 2Jd per lb., and 
for manufacturers' root from 14c to 72c per half-kilo - 
(equal to 2Jd to Is Id per lb.) Tbe principal buyers 
were the Brunswick Factory and the Amsterdam Quinine 
AVorks. 
The auctions held today at Amsterdam contained 
2,575 bales and 399 cases Java cinchona, weighing to- 
gether about 230 tons, of which about 185 tons are 
manufacturers' bark aDd 45 tons druggists' bark. The 
average test of the former was 4 3 per cent, and the 
quantity of sulphate of quinine in the bark about 315,000 
oz. Eight tons contained 1 to 2 per cent sulphate of 
quinine ; 27 tons, 2 to 3 per cent ; 51 tons, 3 to 4 
pe>- cent ; 40 tons, 4 to 5 per cent ; 34 tons, 5 to 
6 per ceut; 6 tons, 6 to 7 per cent: 16 tons, 7 to 8 
percent; 2| tons, 9 to 10 (9 38) per cent. The 
above-named 399 cases and 2,575 bales were divided 
as follows : — Ledgeriana, quills 4 cases ; broken quills 
and chips 1,622 hsles; root 484 bales. Officinalis, broken 
quills and chips 126 bales ; root 3 bales., Hybrid, bro- 
ken quills and chips 81 bales : root 1 bale- Succiru- 
bra, quills 376 cases; broken quills and chips 14 cases 
and 167 bales ; root 82 bales. Schuhkraft, quills 5 
cases; broken quills and chips 9 bales. — Chemist and 
Druggist. 
EXPORTS FROM JAVA. 
(From the Manchester Guardian of 15th Jan. 1889. 
TEA. 
1887-88 ... 3,427,781 kilos. 
1886- 87 3 329.004 „ 
1885-86 2.607.613 „ 
1884-85 2,998,967 ,, 
CINCHONA BARK. 
Government. Private. 
1887-88 ... 575,986 bales. 2,916,927 bales. 
1886-87 ... 660.433 „ 1;569,842 „ 
1885-86 ... 457,267 „ 1,673,889 „ 
1884-85 ... 419,460 „ 776,510 „ 
COFFEE. 
1887- 88 514,907 piculs. 
1884-85 1,308,480 „ 
[I send you particulars of Java exports. Tea 
export is only 200,000 lb. ahead of last year, and only 
increased one million pounds (1,000,000 lb.) since 
1884-85. I think a kilo is about 21b.: is it not? 
(2 l-oth lb. avoirdupois.) 
The bark export is a different pair of boots: 
1,400,000 private bales 1887-88 over the quantity in 
1886 87. It is true the Government bark export is 
90,000 bales less, but the private plantations seem 
to be going ahead very fast. Then their bark is so 
much better than ours. 
Go fee. — Poor old coffee in Java just as in Ceylon 
... 514,907 picula 1887-88 
against ... 1,308,480 „ 1884-85 
Fall of ... 793,573 piculs in 3 years.— Co)'.] 
TEA IN RUSSIA. 
In the Consular report for 1887 on the trade of hit. 
Petersburg, Mr. John Michell writes: — 
There was a greater supply of tea at the Nijni Nov- 
gorod fair than in 1886. The prices of teas brought 
overland through Siberia were considerably higher — 
irom 5 r. to L0 r. for the lower qualities, and from 
10 r. to 15 r. per box for the higher kinds of sea- 
borne tea* ; but Canton and Hankow teas were not 
in equal roquest, and their sale showed a decrease of 
10 per cent, as compared with 1886. This iR ascribed 
to the bad qualities of the sea-borne tea, among which, 
according to local opinion, but there is but little of 
the superior kinds so highly esteemed in Russia to 
be found.— H. and C Mad. 
A New Fibre from the Cotton Plant. — A manu- 
facturing firm in New York has sent to the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture specimens of a new fibre the;, are 
making from the stalk of the cotton plant. The samples 
received strongly resemble hemp, and seem to be 
adapted to all the uses that hemp is put to. A few 
fibres of it twisted together in the hand show remarkable 
tensile strength, although no exact comparative tests 
with other fibres have yet been made. A collection of 
the fibres of hemp, flax, ]ute, ramie, etc., from ail 
parts of the world is being made by the Department, and 
a new instrument has been invented by which it isexpect- 
ed that the tensile strength of each will be ascertained 
with great accuracy. If the cotton plant turns out to 
furnish as valuable a fibre as now seem6 possible, an 
important new source of profit will be afforded the cotton 
planters of the Southern States upon their crops — Science. 
To Siam and Malaya in the Duke of Suther- 
land's Yacht " Sans Peur " by Mrs. Florence 
Caddy. (Hurst & Blackett.) — In a review of this 
work in the Athemum of 12th Jan. we find the fol- 
lowing reference :— 
"In fact, tbe two most interesting passages in Mrs. 
Caddy's work are those in which the doings of the 
Italian army at Massowah and Dr. Trimen's botanical 
labours in Ceylon are respectively described." 
Further on we find that 
"when describing Johore and the hospitalities enjoyed 
there the author observes : ' By all this it will be seen 
that Johore under its present Saltan affords a good field 
for enterprise to natives as well as Europeans.' It 
must not, however, be supposed that Europeans of 
the operative classes are meant — the climate is too 
hot for them ; but there seems certainly some reason 
to think that Johore is one of the places where young 
men of a somewhat higher station, if possessed of 
industry and a little capital, might find an opening." 
We read the statement made on tbe succeeding page 
that guttah percha was first brought into use from Johore 
with surprise. ' Percha,' we had thought, was the Malay 
name for Sumatra, and guttah Percha we had under- 
stood to mean the gum from Sumatra, not Johore.'i 
Dosing Trees With Medicine. — Referring to the 
popular idea that sulphur placed in holes bored in 
the trunks of trees will be dissolved and carried by 
the sap to the foliage in such quantities as to 
render it offensive to insects, a recent Bulletin of 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College Experiment 
Station says that it has been found upon cutting 
down trees which have been plugged with sulphur 
that the material remains unchanged for many years. 
It is added that while we are spending so much 
effort to prevent injury to our trees from borers we 
certainly ought not to make holes in them many times 
larger than those made by any known species of in- 
secet. In order to ascertain whether sulphur in soluble 
form can be introduced into a tree so as to affect the 
fungus growths causing ru6ts, blights, and mildews, some 
large rose bushes, badly mildewed, were treated with 
saturated solutions of potassium sulphide, hydrogen 
sulphide, and ammonium sulphide. The liquid was 
forced into holes bored into the main stem with a 
small gimlet, and the orifice was plugged with graft- 
ing wax. At first a slight improvement in the 
amount of mildew upon the leaves was noticed, but 
in September all the bushes but one were dead, 
presumably from the effect of the holes. Until further 
trials are made, this experiment indicates that while 
there may be some promise that antiseptics introduced 
into the sap circulation may prevent the growth of 
fungi, some safer means of introducing solutions must be 
found. From the nature of the case it is hardly poss- 
ible that any substance can be introduced into the 
circulation in sufficent quantities to affect insect life. 
Professor Maynard, who prepard the Bulletin, suggests 
that au inspection be made next season of the elms 
in Boston which were bored and filled with chemicals 
last spring to make the leaves distasteful to beetles. 
Careful weighing would determine how much of the 
powder had escaped from the hole, and analysis could 
detect the presence of any excess of sulphur in the 
leaves. — Home Paper. 
