244 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1881 
THE JAPAN PEA. 
There is nothing in the list of forage plants that 
excels the Japau pea for our soil and climate. T. 
E. Martin and R. T. Rutledge, both progressive farmers 
of our country, tell me tliat the Japan pea is the 
most productive as well as good food that tbey have 
ever grown, for all kind of stock ; horses, cattle, sheep, 
and hogs wilt eat the peas, stems, and leaves, if 
harvested before fully matured and cured like other 
hay, with as much relish as they do corn. Then 
there is no pea for the table, if soaked in water the 
night before cooking, that has a more exquisite 
flavor. They grow on a stout bushy stalk from two 
to three feet high, somewhat resembling the cotton 
plant. The main stalk, as well as the branches of 
limbs, are literally leaded with small pea pods filled 
with little yellow peas, similar in color, size and 
flavor to the English garden pea. They can be grown 
with the corn crop very successfully, by planting a 
hill or peas between each hill of corn at the second 
ploughing, same as the ordinary stock or field peas. 
But the way to get the greatest yield is to plant 
in hills two and-a-half feet each way, allowing but 
one stalk to the hill to remain after the first working. 
That will give you 6,960 stalks to the acre, and on 
ordinary laud, cultivated the same as corn, w ll average 
at the lowest estimate, a pint of s elled peas to the 
stalk, or a fraction over 108f bushels per acre. I 
doubt not that with high cultivation and good soil 
it would be an easy matter to double that yield, 
besides, there is no other crop that will yield more 
hay to the aire. In fact, I know of no crop so 
remunerative as the Japan pea. It is a sure cropper, 
as clearly demonstrated by my experience with this 
season's crop. Neither wet nor dry weathar materially 
interferes with the quantity or quality of the yield. 
— Mississippi Patron. 
ARTIFICIAL SEASONING OF TIMBER. 
Mr. C. Rene\ painoforte manufacturer, of Stettin, 
Germany, as reported in Engineering, has devised a 
plan by which he utilises the property of oxygen, 
particularly of that ozonised by the electric current, 
to artificially season the timber used for the sounding- 
boards of musical instruments. The first impulse to 
experiments being carried out in this direction was 
given by the well-known fact that wood, which has 
been soasoned for years, is much more suitable for 
the manufacture of musical instruments than if used 
soon after it i3 thoroughly dried only. Mr. Rene 
claims that instruments made of wood which has 
been treated by his oxygen process possess a remark- 
ably fine tone, which not only does not decrease with 
age, but as far as experience teaches, improves with 
ago as does the tone of some famous old violins 
by Italian masters. We are further told that the 
sounding-boards made of wood prepared in this man- 
ner have the quality of retaining trie sound longer 
and more powerfully. A number of painos manu- 
factured at Mr. Kene's works, and exported to the 
tropics several years ago, have stood exceedingly 
well, and seem m no way affected by the climatic 
dangers they are exposed to. While other methwds 
of impregnatirg woods with chemicals generally 
have a deteriorating influence on the wood fibres, tim- 
ber prepared by this method, which is really an 
artificial ageing, becomes harder and stronger. The 
process is ?airi to be regulirly carried on at Mr. 
Rene's works, and the apparatus consists of a her- 
metically closed boiler or tank, in which the wood 
to be treated by the process is placed on iron gratings; 
in a retort, placed by the side of the boiler and 
connected to it by a pipe with stop-valve, oxygen is 
developed and admitted "into the boiler through the 
valve. Provision is made in the boiler to ozonise 
the oxygen by means of an electric current, and 
the boiler is then gently fired and kept hot for 
forty-eight or fifty hours, after which time the 
process of preservation of wood is complete. 
THE WOOD APPLE. 
Wood apple (Fe:on'>a elcphantum). Hindi, Kyalh 
or CaviUe ; lelugu, Yalag-kai ; and Tamil, Veliam. 
This tr^e is consider d by not a few to be useless 
perhaps, because it grows wild, and ia to be found 
in alino-t every place, especially in the jungles. Hence, 
1 surmiee, it has met with only a curs uy notice in 
our Garden .Manuals, and is said to be — "not entitled 
to a place in the garden." To disabuse the minds 
of some folks I shall heie note some of the many 
purposes to which this tree (that is prettily clustered 
with fruit) is applied to. I shall commence with its— 
(a) . Fruit, when ripe, and after the globular shell 
is brokeD, it has a very strong odour. The tartish 
pulp is farinaceous and granular which is eaten with 
sugar; some make a hot weathei beverage of it like 
the '-mango fool." A most delicious and palatabie 
jelly is made from the juice of the pulp, and which, 
if properly made, will gratify all connoisseurs. The 
colour of the jelly is of a lovely ruby, and a 
better kiud could hardly be made from any other 
Indian fruit. Certainly it cannot be exc-lled. (Wood 
Apple and Guava mixed also make a good jelly). 
Although "Firminger" pronounces the jelly "to be 
such as it is not likely would be approved of by 
many," but I beg to differ from this opinion. The 
unripe fruit is made into pickle and "chutney." The 
next is the — 
(b) . Shell from which humming tops are made. 
Rockets are al-o manufactured from it for making 
Mr. Stripes uncomfortable in his den. Now I come 
to the — 
(c) . Foliage. — The tender leaves which have a sweet 
aroma are much prized by natives; they use it ex- 
tensively for curing flatulency. 
(d) . Timber containing saccharine matter is much 
relished by "borers," and renders it useless; but it 
finds a ready place in the kitchen. 
(e) . The viscous juice produced from this useful 
tree is equal to the gum obtained from the Babool 
(Acacia arabica) commonly known as "Gum Arabic." 
Last, though n >t least, I conclude with its — 
(f) . Medicinal properties. — The unripe fruit when 
made into decoction acts like an astringent. The ripe 
fruit is an antiscorbutic, its effect being much similar 
to the Bael (JZgle marmelos.) 
After enumerating the above uses of this generally 
despised Wood Apple tiee, I fail to see why it should 
not ee entitled to a place in the Indian Garden Manuals. 
#'*»*'** 
The Feronia belongs to fie Aurantiacne or orange 
tribe, as also does the JEgle Marmelos or Bael of the 
Punjab. The yonng fruit of the wood apple is almost 
a perfect substitute for the Bael, aud universally pro- 
curable throughout India while the Bael is not. — Asian. 
Agricultural Company of Mauritius.— The eighth 
annual general meeting of the Agricultural Company of' 
Manritus (Limited) was held on June 29th, at the offices, 
Change Alley. Mr. J. A. Longridge presided, and ia 
moviug the adoption of the report, expressed the satis- 
faction of the directors at being enabled to lay before 
them such a grutifyiug report. They recommended 
a dividend of Is. 6d. per share, making, with the 
interim dividend 15 per cent, for th" year; and they 
further proposed a bonus distribution of Is. per share, 
being at the rate, of 5 per cent. The report was- 
adopted. — Overland Mail. 
