736 THP1 TROPICAL 
are of interest wherever suoh plants are cultivated, J 
and we may add scarcely a single tropical product, 
is passed unnoticed. D. M. 
— Nature, London, Feb. 14th. 
• ♦ 
Cotton Cultivation, — It is a bad sign when 
— as reported by a Chilaw correspondent yesterday, 
— cotton plants of from 6 to 12 inches in height 
begin to " flower profusely." They ought to be 
3 to 4 feet or more before this result came about. 
Poverty of soil or prolonged drought can alone 
explain the premature flowering, and the crop will not 
be worth gathering we should say. 
Proscribed Medicines. — The police authorities 
of the City of London have just now published a list 
of about 200 patent medicines which are no longer to 
be publicly advertised. Among them we find a 
number of well-known ones, as, for instance, 
American Consumption Cure, Barella's Powder, 
Brandt's Schweizer Pillen, Haarlem Drops, St. 
Jacob's Drops, Richter's Pain Expeiler, Shaker 
Extract, Simpson's Lotion, Warner's Safe Cure, Dr. 
Bock's Pectoral, &c. — Chemist, and Druggist. 
Ceylon Tea in Western Australia.— We 
are glad to learn that Mr. H. Perssenne, who re- 
cently passed through Colombo from London, has 
established himself as an agent for the sale of 
Ceylon teas in Albany, the steamer port of 
Western Australia, and now a rising township 
as well as connected by rail with the capital, 
Perth, 250 miles distant. Mr. Pressenne has 
already had considerable encouragement in busi- 
ness, and was the first to establish a Ceylon Tea 
Agency in Western Australia. He ought certainly 
to be the recipient of a grant from our "Tea 
Fund," so soon as there are funds or teas to spare. 
Artificial Teeth.— The number of artificial teeth 
made in America last year by three of the largest 
business houses engaged in the trade was nearly 
20,000,000, and this was not more than half the 
actual production of the country. One peculiar 
feature of the business is that the houses 
which do the most extensive export trade are 
obliged to prepare teeth of different colours 
for different countries. In Canada, for instance, 
the demand is for molars as white as snow, 
while in South America no such teeth could 
be sold. There they require teeth that are almost 
yellow, and the trade from China, whioh is a lucra- 
tive one, is for nothing but black teeth. — Pioneer. 
Tea Notes. — Rain is wanted for tea in Kamroop. — 
In Cachar the days are warm and the nights cool. — 
The weather has been warmer than usual in Luck- 
impore. — Seasonable weather is the news from Sylhet, 
Goalpara, Durrung. and Sibaangor. — Weather in Gola- 
ghat and Jorehat District very hot,rain wanted. Moriani 
district manufacturing from 1st of month. — Dehra 
Dun, 12th March.— We are having lovely weather, 
although a bit warm for this time of year. All the 
gardens are looking very well, and there is every hope 
of a good spring crop. — Nagrakata, 15th March. — The 
weather here is very dry and beginning to get rather 
warm. No rain has fallen for a month but we are 
two inches ahead of last year. One or two girdeus 
have commenced manufacture and others thinking of 
doing ho during the next week. Loaf coming out 
well, and labour plentiful. Sootea, 11th March. — 
Weather begins to get hot during the day time, but 
the mornings and nights are still cool and pleasant. 
Rain is much wanted, and if the drought which has 
lasted since the 20th ultimo continues now nurseries 
and transplants must suffer. The tea season, how- 
ever, has opeued rathor earlier that that of last year. 
— Indian I'lrintera' Gazette. 
AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1889. 
) Kolar Gold Field, Mysore, — We have re- 
ceived from the Madras authorities a very elaborate 
Report on the " Kolar Gold Field and its Southern 
Extension, in which the Auriferous Rocks are 
Traced from the Mysore State into the Madras 
Presidency, with Maps and Sketches, by P. Bos- 
worth-Smith, Esq,, f.g.s. Associate of the Royal 
School of Mines (Bessemer Medallist), and Govern- 
ment Mineralogist to the Madras Presidency. " The 
Report deals with the Topography, Geology, Petro- 
logy, Mining (lodes and old native workings, old im- 
plements &c, supposed modes of working, modern 
mining and milling), Prospects of the Kolar Gold 
Field and its Southern Extension into the Madras 
presidsency, Mineralogy, Washings and Assays, and 
Maps. This summary will indicate the very 
elaborate nature of the report ; but the most practi- 
cally interesting portion is that which deals with 
the future prosects, from which we quote as 
follows :■ — 
There can be no doubt that the Kolar gold field has 
a future before it. But that th'i expectations that 
were first started when gold mining' in India was 
revived in 1880 will ever be realized in this (or any 
other gold field in any other pirt of the globe) is 
very doubtful. Some of the mines are now paying 
expenses, and there can be no doubt that managed 
economically and under scientific supervision several 
others should easily pay their way at an early date. 
If regular dividends are to be paid, it will be found 
that prospecting work must be kept going side by side 
with the more pleasant task of stamping and crush- 
ing what pay stone has already been found. It will 
not do, after finding a pay shoot, to concentrate all 
the energies of the mine on getting out that shoot 
and rushing it through the stamps to fiud, after taking 
all its quartz that has been left by the old men above 
400 feet, that the rich shoot is getting out of your 
control and that it must practically remain untouched 
whilst a new shaft is sunk.tocut the shoot lower down. 
It would be invidious to take each mine separately 
and write on its merits and demerits, but it can do 
no harm to mention the names of some of the best 
mines. That the oldest mines are the best is duo to 
the fact that they have beeu more thoroughly pros- 
pected, and that, when the field was started, the 
number of old workings on a block were taken (and 
very rightly too) as an indication of its value. The 
Oorgaum and Mysore mines as will be seen from the 
map contain a great number of large old workings, 
and without doubt these are the pick of the mines. 
Balaghat has a rich shoot opeued out for over 200 feet 
and Nuudydrug has been returning an average of about 
400 oz. per month for some time past. Theminfs that 
have crushed and sent home gold are the Nine Reefs, 
Balaghat, Nundydrug, Oorgaum, Rlysore, Int iau Con- 
solidated (Kolar Section) Mining Companies, and the 
South-East Mysore Company is expected to crush very 
shortly. Good shows of gold are certainly to be| found 
in the Baramahal on the Madaipalle and Karikuppam 
folds, but I should never advise the expenditure of 
money here on deep mining. If, however, such were 
tried, the pit Bmgarugunta would be the best spot 
to try at. Mining on the Adakonda hills or at Mala- 
pankonda I should not advise, there being very few 
quartz veins, and all of them poor. Better prospects are 
found at Chigaragunta, Guvalgunta (Gulguntur) and 
Nundymadugu, but not so good as to warraut the ex- 
penditure of much money. Certainly here the ex- 
penses would be smaller ; drainage could be done to 
some extent by tunnels, and water-power could be 
used to some extent, hut with large tracts of aurife- 
rous country practically unknown, there could no doubt 
be found better places for mining enterprise than the 
central fold of schistose rocks, south of Malapankouda; 
and this remark applies well to the whole of the ex- 
t«nsion of the field, south of Yerrakonda. 
From this, it may be judged that gold mining in 
Southern India, as nearly everywhere else, is a 
great lottery. 
