728 
TH£ TftOfrCAL AGRlbULTURISl. [May i, 1889. 
Fiji Tea.— The year 1887 was the first in which 
the export of tea attained to any dimensions, the 
figures having beeu as follows :— 1884, 236 lb. ; 1885, 
968 lb.; 1886,2201b.; 1887, 20,950 lb. The local con- 
sumption is also considerable, the tea being considered 
of excellent quality.. The population of Fiji is 124,658, 
of which 2,105 are' Europeans. — Chemist and Druggist, 
March 9th. 
Cheap Quinine. — It is, perhaps, worth recording 
says the Gardeners' Chronicle, that at the drug sales 
during the week ending February 23rd, 15,000 oz. 
of German manufactured quinine were sold at Is Id 
per ounce — the lowest price on record. Quinine at 
Is an ounce seems to be not far off — a very rapid 
decline, when it is remembered that less than twenty 
years ago it sold for a guinea an ounce. 
" Table Talk," a monthly periodical pub- 
lished in Philadelphia, contains in its January 
number a short paper on the " Cultivation of Coffee" 
by Mr. J. McCombie Murray. It is written after 
an interesting fashion and winds up with an ex- 
hortation to Americans to see above all things 
that they get pure unadulterated coffee and tea for 
their household use. Finlay Ackers & Co. in the 
same issue have a whole page advertisement on "the 
coming tea for Americans," — namely, Ceylon tea. 
Kola Nuts from Sierra Leone. — The Governor of 
Sierra Leone, writing from Oassie on the Oasseh Lake, 
reports that there is a considerable trade between the 
colony and Germany, as well as France, in dried kola 
nuts. Observing a quantity of rotten kola nuts dry- 
ing in the sun, he asked the owner, who is the largest 
trader in the village, for what purpose they were in- 
tended, and he replied that when dried he sent them 
to Freetown, where he got 2d per lb. for them, for 
shipment to Germany and France, to be made into 
cocoa. — He added that the trade commenced.two years 
ago. — Chemist and Druggist, March 9th. 
Fibee op Hibiscus Esculentus. — Besides 
rhea or ramie, the aloes, pineapple and bananas, 
there are scores of plants in India and Ceylon 
which yield fibre excellent for textile purposes and 
the manufacture of paper. The one great difficulty 
is to obtain the substances, in sufficient quantity 
in convenient localities, and to secure their pre- 
paration, so that the fibre may remain clean and 
undiminished in strength, while the cost of the 
decorticating and retting processes is moderate. ' A 
few years ago a Mr. de Eenzy, who trades largely in 
Indian products in Melbourne, made a journey 
specially to India with reference to fibrous plants 
other than cotton and jute. He called on us when 
returning, and stated that he was most hopeful of 
good results from a variety of Hibiscus esculentus, 
well known in India and Ceylon as bandekai, the 
edible fruits (glutinous pods with pea-like seeds, 
exceedingly wholesome) being called by the English 
"ladies' fingers." In America the plant is known 
as okra, and some time ago a characteristic 
Yankee hoax went the round of the papers, about a 
wonderful cotton which had resulted from a cross 
between the okra plant and one of the gossypiums. 
A few days ago Mr. Foenander of the Surveyor- 
General's Department brought some bavdekai fibre 
to our office, where it may be seen. We sent it to 
Mr. W. W. Mitchell with the query whether this 
and other fibres might not, by a process of teazel- 
ing and carding, be fitted for toxtile use. The 
reply is as follows : — 
"I put the sample of bandekai fibre before Mr. 
Athorton and the directors at their meeting yester- 
day, and it was examined with interest, but nothing 
could be done with it I fear in connection with cotton 
or with cotton machinery. It is more akin to jute, 
and could probably bo manipulated by machinery 
adopted for jute. The fibre, I believe, to be splendid, 
and I remember De Benzy spoke to me about it 
when here, but nothing seemed to be practicable. 
I cannot help thinking that if anything could have 
been made of it, it would have been done already." 
Gum : A Chance for Ceylon Gum " Ababic" (?) — 
The Mahdi has had a good deal to answer for, but 
the users of Indian postage stamps will be as- 
tonished to hear that he is indirectly responsible 
for the inconvenience they complain of in the matter 
of labels which will not adhere to envelopes. Such, 
however, appears to be the case. Messrs. De la 
Eue have explained to the Secretary of State that 
in consequence of the supply of gum from Khar- 
toum and tbe Upper Nile having failed, they have been 
compelled to fall back upon an artificial composition 
for their stamps and envelopes. This has not 
withstood the effects of a tropical climate, and 
hence the outcry against the innocent Indian Post 
Office. We may add that in more than one Club 
in this country the envelopes supplied by the great 
London stationery firm have been found to be 
as badly gummed as the postage stamps. — Pioneer, 
March, 23rd. 
Coconut Leaf Disease. — Veyangoda, 21st March. — 
I had the unexpected pleasure this morning of a visit 
from Blr. M. C. Potter, the lecturer on Botany at 
Cambridge, who has been residing for the last three 
months with Dr. Trimen at Peradeniya, studying tro- 
pical flora. He came to have a look at the coconut 
leaf disease, a subject in which he seems to take very 
great interest. The disease he says is present at Kadu- 
gannawa. As he was on his way to Colombo en 
route for Englaud, he unfortunately had not his micros- 
cope with him. Considering that there is hardly a 
tree that has not more or less of the disease, he seems 
to think it a matter for serious consideration. No 
decided opinion could be given without the microscope 
whether the attack was due to insects or to a fungus. 
All he saw inclined him to attribute it to the latter. He 
took away with him specimens of leaves from trees 
of different ages, with the disease in its various stages, 
and promised to put them in spirits directly he 
reached Colombo and examine them as soon as he 
reached Cambridge, and also submit them to Mr. 
Marshall Ward, the Mycologist, who investigated coffee 
leaf disease here about 10 years ago. He took away 
as well roots from a diseased tree, which to all appear- 
ance were healthy. I also gave him specimens of cinna- 
mou and other leaves attacked with fungus.— Cor., Local 
" Examiner." 
Bubber Pavements. — Ordinary caoutchouc seems 
very capable of being applied to an extraordinary 
variety of purposes. A glance at the patent records 
would surprise one at the many useful parts this 
valuable gum play. In various Continental towns, 
we learn, rubber street pavement is being introduced 
with a great deal of success. It appears, however 
that this application of rubber is not a novelty in 
this country, for we are told that Messrs. Charles 
Macintosh & Co., the original patentees of vulcanised 
indiarubber, supplied the Midland Bailway Com- 
pany 13 years ago with large slabs of rubber, 
which were laid down on the roadway underneath 
the hotel at St. Pancras on the arrival side of the 
station to prevent the objectionable noise and 
tremor caused by the constant heavy vehicular 
traffic. This pavement has answered so admirably 
that other slabs were laid down in another road- 
way the same station, and in 1881, we understand 
this example was followed by the London and 
North- Western Bailway Company. This rubber 
pavement has been found to be of great durability, 
and whilst it retains its elasticity it is neither 
affected by heat nor cold. This kind of pavement, 
being supplied in slabs, can readily be removed 
or replaced if necessary. More enterprise is now 
being shown on the Continent for the adoption of 
this class of rubber pavement than in this country. 
This is probably due to the fact that its advantages 
are very imperfeotly kno wn. — Mechanical World. 
