September i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
259 
Cinchona. — A planter writes : — " 4t h 
Owen's book seems just the thing I have Ic 
and could not get. It gives descriptions 0 
varieties which will be some guide, thou 
zoffld as an actual inspection of specimens 
Can these be found at Peradcniya or else 
moan, of course, all varieties named." 
one of the first improvements at the Hakgr 
will bo to provide specimens of every kno 
of cinchona for the purpose of aiding j 
identifying, apart from other uses.— Bl).] 
here ? I 
v\ 7 e trust 
1 Gardens 
n variety 
inters in 
3, j of three one-seeded opening pieces, and is girded at 
d the base by an enlarged bract. 8. sehi/era the Tallow, 
y tree, is a native of China and the adjacent iblauds, 
10 I but ithas been introduced into nnd partly natur.di-cd 
trts of America. It has rhomb, 
r-pointed. leaves about two 
• stalks with two prominent 
it'achment between the stalk 
Old-shaped sharply taper-point 
inches broad, on slender stalks 
glands at the point of at'aehn 
and leaf; and its flower-catkins 
inches long. Its fruits arc abc 
meter and contain three seeds 
process employed is an extremely simple one. A living 
sponge is cut into small-sized pieces, and each portion 
is fastened by a small stake to the sea bottom. These 
detached sponges at once begin to grow, and in a 
period varying, according to different authorities from 
three to s-ven years, arc large enough for the market. 
Professor Oscar Schmidt has succeeded so well with 
experimental culture conducted in this way that he 
bas beep commissioned by the Austrian Government 
to continue the work on a larger scale on the Coast 
of Dalmatia. Full information relating'to this interest- 
ing subject will be found in the report of Professor 
Baird, tho Fish Commissioner to the United States, 
and also iu a report recently prepared by Prof ssor Ray 
Lankester at the request of the Secretary of State for the 
Colonies.— Graphic. 
Duek, Cinchona and Fences. —Complaints are fre- 
quent of the ravages of Sambur among young cinchonas, 
lu a week one planter informed us that he had a tliirtv- 
acre field of nourishing plauts eaten down to a dis- 
heartening extent. Indeed, as he could not afford the 
necesBaaSy appliances for an efficient fence, and did 
not possess on Ids own ground the material to cheapen 
the erection of a wire fence, he thought of abandoning 
tho cultivation. If anyboily wishes to inspect a work 
of magnitude iu this way, he has but to go over to 
Deva Bbola and see what has been done in enclosing 
a thousand acres of cinchona. The proprie or is wisely 
planting bluc-^um just out-ido the fence, the plants 
being put down about a foot apart. The rapidity of 
tho growth of the blue-gum which in this locality 
attain" a height of five or six feet in a year, makes 
it quite reasonable to expect that before the decay 
of the posts that now held the wires, a fino and im- 
penetrable natural hedgo-of blue-gum will have grown 
up, which with the wire transferred to live supports 
■will completely frustrate all the efforts of the enemy 
^to get unto the ciuehona. In connection with the 
tnJbject, we have heard it suggested that all the ex- 
pense of wire fencing might be saved, if cinchona 
growers would tako to keeping a few dogs of a proper 
broedj namely, a cross between a fox" bound and a 
grey hound. A gentleman at Kodanaad has a few 
dogs of this breed, and neighb mrs complain that tho 
d".s so thoroughly hunt the sambur, that a shot within 
EtUea of their estates cannot be had of these animals. 
Wo have ours'lves known an ordinary pariah dog 
trained by a Nativo Shikaree soiz • the leg of a aam- 
bur, but the dog was too slight to make any im- 
DM&ion on the movements of the sambur, and was 
shaken of,— South of Initii " , 
Tin: I' allow Tree. — A planter writes :— " Can you 
give mo arty information about tho Chinese tallow-treo : 
1. r. iU value or tho priee tho soeds fetch iu the home 
market ?"' Prom tho Treasury Botany we take: — 
" Stilliugia.— Tin Tallow-troo of China is tho host- 
known representative of this genus of liuphorbiacceae ; 
butt. lore are two or three other Chinese and Japanese 
species, and ns many more natives of tho Sou thorn 
8tates of America. With tho exception of tho tallow- 
treo and 0110 herbaceous spocioti, they aro shrubs; and 
all have altoruate entire leaves, aud terminal catkiu- 
liko spikes of llowors. Tho fruit is a capsule composed 
by steaming the seeds in large cauldrons then 
ig therh sufficiently to loosen the fact without 
is afterwards mado into flat circular cakes aud 
in a wedgepress, when the pure tallow exudes 
hid state, and soon hardens into a white brittle 
This tallow is very extensively used for catidle- 
.iu China ; but as they get soft in hot weather 
dies generally receive a coatiuc of insect-wax. 
seed 
smploycd 
Planting Notes. — The contrast between coffee pro- 
perties cared for and cultivated and others neglected: — 
You will not be surprised that nothing has yet, virtu- 
ally, been done for . It is now a waste of 
weeds, and is a standing proof of what can be done 
by good cultivation, and what an estate suffers from 
the want of it. This place and it lie alongside, and the 
contrast, to a spectator, from the opposite side of the 
ravine, is most striking. One side of the boundary 
line, the colour is a beautiful dark healthy green ; on 
the other a most sickly mixture of pale green and 
yellow. Then go into the coffee, and the trees 
are covered with leaf disease, aud are succumbing to 
it, but those on this place, not excepted from the 
pest, seem very little put about by it, aud if they 
should begin to give, I can manure them at once I note 
your leading article and your Great Western correspond- 
ent's remarks. He and i differ on one point, viz., pruning. 
Hethiuksl ruin my trees by " slashing" them, as 
your correspondent on pruning the other day would 
call it (very sensible letter that). But I would go 
further in pruning than even he. Last year when 
pruning a piece ot this place which had always lots 
of wood but no crop, passed through and tol dme 
what a mistake I was niakinsr. That very piece has this 
year a heavy crop ! In some plac 's, I would have bigger 
crops if I pruned less. But put two crops of a well 
pruned estat" against two of another badly pruned, 
and the former is sure to have the advantage iu 
quantity and the better quality of coffee, which causes 
a great difference in the proceeds of the sales in 
Lood»n. Thus, an estate which net9 90/ per cwt. unci 
has only 7S0 owt., is as good as — ayo better than — one. 
that has 1,000 cwt. and oidy nets 70/ per cwt. ; for 
tho expenses are less. If ever I see the ques- 
tion settled, I shall try to give you an outline of it, for 
it touches the interests of all interested iu coffee, and 
our members in Council should be pressed to take notice 
of it, for there is much wanting in tho law relating to 
mortgages, when the mortgagee may have to wait till 
the ostato has literally returned to jungle, before he can 
take possession of the properly which he accepted as 
security for the money he lent upon it ! That is good 
nows for some people that Government, will reserve 
all forest above .5,tHK) elevation : — you should sea 
cinchona at 6,000 feet and over. 
Hamuli this July- S'82 
IsM) ,. —14-39 
1879 „ —i5 12 
1878 ,, —10-38 
While I write it u hotter than ever, W'oj to tho 
coffee trcs that have too much nop] 
