THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1881. 
though the experiment has not been an unqualified 
success, the causes of the partial failure are, we 
understand, remediable, and it is not improbable that 
next hot season we may be, able to regale ourselves 
to our heart's content with the finest of Australian 
fruits, freoli and full-flavoured. The present trial has 
been made by some fruit-growers in the neighbour- 
hood of Melbourne in consequence of a memorandum 
on the export of fruit from Australia to India, 
issued by the Executive Commis-ioner for India at 
the Melbourne Exhibition. The apples were packed 
at Victoria between, the lGth and 21st April and 
shipped by P. & 0. steamer on 23rd April. After 
transhipment at Galle they arrived here on the 20th 
of May, but, unfortunately for the success of the 
experinifiit, the cases were, by some misunderstand- 
ing, left lying for a fortnight at the Custom-house. 
There i3 little doubt that this delay in delivery is 
largely accountable for the deterioration of the fruit, 
and the consequence is that only about one-third of 
the apples were found to be in sound condition. The 
packing also was not quite suitable for this climate, 
but this is a matter that can easily be rectified on 
the next occasiou. The apples regarded as sound are 
very good indeed, but with better packing and prompt 
delivery there is good reason to expect that the 
flavour will, in future, be better preserved. It is also 
hoped that the P. and 0. Company will run a steamer 
direct to Calcutta, and thus save the time lost, and 
the transhipment, at Galle. If, as we understand is 
the case, the fruits of Australia can be brought at a 
really reasonable price intp the market here, we should 
say there is every likelihood that a brisk trade in 
them may soon spring up, in spite of the fact that the 
fruit season of Australia occurs at the time that will 
send them in'o our market just when it is full 
of our best indigenous fruits." As to Messrs. 
Swallow & ArielPs meat biscuits, these seem to 
have been greatly appreciated. We can testify to 
their being very palatable additions to soups, stews 
etc., and a gentleman writes: — "I have to thank 
you for the box of biscuits. I find them excellent 
curried, and they will certiinly 1)3 very useful for travell- 
ing." A Scotchman says : — " Man, that was a delicious 
biscuit you gave me. It had the taste of solidity 
about it, but 1 found but little of the beef." A gen- 
tleman who has good testh wrote : — " I did not wait 
to cook them in any way, but ate them ' straight off. ' 
They smelt very wholesome and tasted more so." One 
of the railway officials said : — " I think about 'getting 
some up from Australia at once, for myself." 
Jackson's Tea Drier. — We have received a circular 
relating to the apparatus patented by Messrs. W. and 
J. Jackson for drying tea, to the efficacy of which 
testimony is borne by a number of tea planters. 
The price complete with four spare trays and pyro- 
meter is £104 4s. Messrs. John Walker & Co. are , 
the local agents. 
Ceylon and China Tea in Australia.— " W. B.," 
writing from Melbourne on 9th May to the Calcutta 
Tea Gazette, says :— There are plenty of people here 
interested in China .tea whose great delight is to catch 
the Indian teaman "tripping," and samples of some 
very much damaged Ceylon tea that was sold a 
short time ago at 4d. per lb., were sent to the 
Editors of all the principal newspapers and made 
the subject of a letter on the purity (?) of Ceylon 
ten. This tea turned out to be no Ceylon tea at 
all, but something recovered from a wreck and 
Picked in Ceylon,— at least, so say the consignees ; 
biit a little lire like this can be made to produce 
' smoke, especially in an article that has 
excited aa much jealousy as "Indian tea in Australia." 
Indian tea should be, like Ca;sar's wife, above 
■ ispicion. Trusting this will meet with attention in 
the right quarter, &c. 
INDUSTRIES IN FIBRES: 
Jute, and Tree Mallow. 
We call attention to Mr. Dobree's interesting letter 
on another page. He has forestalled our suggestion 
and has sent us an elaborate "Report on the cultiva- 
tion of, and trade in, Jute, in Bengal, and on Indian 
Fibres available for the manufacture of paper, by Hem 
Chunder Kerr, Deputy Magistrate on special duty," 
which shews that he has had the best possible means 
of guiding his course as a planter. It has been stated 
that a Jute industry could not be profitably conducted 
in Ceylon, because of the poor soil and the comparative 
dearness of labour ; but there are exceptions to the 
former rule, along the bauks of the Gintara, for 
instance, and in other parts of the Southern as well 
as in the Eastern Province, while in regard to labour 
it will often happen that planters of new as of old 
products, have work to find for a labour force which 
they think it wise to keep up. Kerr's elaborate Report, 
accompanied by lithographs, gives a list of the princi- 
pal fibre plants in Bengal, deals at some length with 
Hemp and Flax, and then takes up the Jute plants. 
The physical and chemical character of Jute land, 
and favourable climatic condition?, are described. 
Chapters are given on seeds, reaping, '•' retting " 
(steeping &0.), separation of the fibre, and on the 
cultivation and uses of the Jute plant. We shall make 
extracts and refer to some of the more practical por- 
tions on a future occasion. 
Meantime we owe an apology to Mr. C. A. Hay, of 
Dolosbage, who lately sent us a simple of tree-mallow 
bark fibre, the produce of four months' growth and 
the result of an experiment Mr. Hay has made with 
seed introduced from Britain. An essay by Mr. Wm. 
Gorrie (which took a prize from the Highland and 
Agricultural Society of Scotland) on the tree mallow 
(Lavatera arborea) as an agricultural plant for cattle 
feedin?, paper making and other purposes, affords 
very great encouragement for the cultivation of this 
plant. Mr. Hay, we are glad to see, has got out seed 
enough to cover an acre. He writes : — 
The tree from which the bark was taken was only 
four months old, 5 ft. high and 3 inches in diameter. 
Unfortunately some animal ate all I had, but two. 
However they are getting on well, though they get 
the full force of the south-west wind and rain. 
From Spou's " Encyclopedia " we quote as follows 
in reference to another of the same family : — 
"Abutilon Indicuji [Sida indica, S. populifolta] — 
Country Mallow. — Common in most parts of India 
and in Burmah, Stem yields a strongish fibre, fit for 
rope-making, and occasionally applied to that purpose 
in the Bancoorah district. 
"A. oxycarpum is a shrub of various parts of New 
South Wales, Queensland, W. and N. Australia ; yields 
a textile fibre. A .polyandrnm on the Nilgiri Hills, 
and about Nundidroog ; yields a long, silky, hemp- 
like fibre, suited for ropes. The fibres of A ve/wsum, 
A. amplum, A. auritum, A. molle, A. striatum, are 
utilized in S. Africa, Brazil, Australia, and the E. In- 
dies. In Algeria, A.indicum is extensively cultivated." 
But Mr. Gorr.e's report leaves little to be desired 
by way of information apart from that which only 
practical experience can afford. He was thu3 led to 
enquire about the plant : — 
"In July 1870 I spent some days near Kildonan, in 
the south of Arran, when I was much struck with the 
