October i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
541 
market by storm, casting China and Japan rubbish 
in ibe fosse without ihe fort. We have an oppor- 
tunity now presented us to make a breach in the 
walls of the American Tea Market Fort. If we suc- 
ceed in making it, the place is ours, and China nnd 
Japan will soon lly out of the back door. Once in 
our possession, we need only plant the flag of the 
" Indian Tea Industry," and dare any other to dis- 
place it. With a home consumption, increasing mare 
and more rapidly every year, with now markets, 
capable of unlimited expansion opened and opening 
out, the Tea Industry in India Bhould undoubtedly 
take rank as one of the foremost, one of the safest 
and most stable investments in this the country and 
indigenous home of the tea plant. 
PETROLEUM" AND PLANT-LIFE. 
(From the Monthly Market Report.) 
At the last meeting of the California Academy of 
Sciences a discussion took place on the subject of the 
use of petroleum for destroying scale insects on rose- 
bushes. Dr. Henry Gibbons said that two months ago 
he put petroleum, on the trees in his garden. Since 
then the trees have grown better than ever before ; 
they havo grown faster than ever before, and given 
better roses. The petroleum seems to kill the scale 
insects. The handsomest rose he exhibited was from 
a bush which looked nearly dead a short time since. 
The petroleum was mixed with castor oil. It is not 
applied profusely aud allowed to run down the roots. 
Perhaps in a crude state the petroleum would be 
bad, even to the stalks ; but mixed with the castor 
oil it appears to bo advantageous to the plant. The 
compound does not evaporate nor give out the iusolu- 
ble portion. Therefore you have a permanent coat- 
ing, acting on the entire surface of the plant. Dr. 
Gibbons exhibited a large bunch of beautiful roses of 
exceeding fragrance and in full bloom, which he gath- 
ered from a bush in his garden that two months ago 
was overrun with scale bugs and nearly dead. Now, 
since using the petroleum and the castor oil, no sign 
of any scale insect can be seen in the whole garden. 
He thought castor oil was the only oil that will mix 
with alcohol, turpentine, and the benzines. It is 
soluble in alcohol, and when mixed with crude 
petroleum forms a sort of varnish and cement, which 
remains on the bushes and does not fall to the ground. 
Petroleum, uueombiued with castor oil, evaporates 
swiftly, but when combined forms a useful coating 
to preserve the plant. Many things have been thus 
tried. Trees have been white-washed with caustic 
DOtaell and lime. One of his rose bushes, nearly 
ruined by scale insects, thus treated, has borne an 
unusual number of roses, and a single cactus has 
borne 200 flowers this season. Ho thought theso 
were practical facts, and quite as valuable as theo- 
retical ones, although lie valued both, and was glad 
to learn of any experience having a bearing of such 
importance to the agricultural industries of tho human 
family. He cautioned persons agiiust saturating the 
earth with petroleum, as such a course prevents 
future vegetation. Like all things else, its moderate 
use wisoly directed is good, and its excessive use is 
destructive. A grain of opium relieves pain, but its 
habitual use persisted in brings death. Dr. Bohr said 
that as the mixture was not foluble in water, if it 
reaches the earth it cakes the ground and thus shuts 
out the ait* which must permeate the surface, and 
is nocessary to plant-growth. A few applications will 
make rose bushes grow bettor if sparingly applied, 
and kill thu scale bugs, but if allowed to reach the 
soil it renders vegetation thereafter impossible in the 
spot, until it is eradicated. Dr. A. Kellogg thought 
a limple wash of common lye would at first bo 
culli ient in many eases. Petroleum deteriorates ground 
for Orops, Mr. Wider received a largo lot of lemon 
86 
trees from Australia covered with scale bugs. He 
applied refined petroleum to the leaves carefully and 
they all fell off, but every bug died and fresh leaves 
came out, and the plants continued healthy for many 
years. He afterwards applied it successfully to orange 
trees. He thinks there is a misapprehension among 
those who condemn its use. It should not be allowed 
to reach the ground. 
COFFEE, ITS USES AND MEDICINAL 
QUALITIES. 
By Henry Segur, M.D. 
Doctor Bock, of Leipsic, says: — ' The nervousness 
and peevishness of times are chiefly attributable to tea 
and coffee ;' he says that ' the digestive organs of con- 
firmed coffee drinkers are in a state of chronic 
derangement, which reacts on the brain, producing 
fretful and lachrymose moods.' I cannot agree that 
the nervousness and peevishness of the present time 
are to be attributed to the use of coffee. If people are 
more nervous or in worse humour now than formerly, 
we may find other causes arising from the customs and 
habits of society, much more likely to produce such 
a state of things, than the use of this particular article 
of diet. I have no intention of pointing out many 
changes and peculiarities in the habits of the age, to 
show many other more prominent reasons for people 
being in bad humour, besides the use of coff e. My 
object is to defend coffee from a slander aimed at one 
of our best friends — a friend more likely to relieve the 
morbid state of things complained of, thau to produce 
it. Who that has experienced the good effects of coffee 
can sit quietly aud hear it abused, especially by an 
estimable physician, who has written learned books on 
the nervous system ? The nerves of every honest 
friend of coffee tremble with the shock of an attack 
from such a quarter. 
Let us examine the effects of coffee on the economy. 
Taken in moderation it is a mental and bodily stimulant 
of a most agreeable nature ; and followed by no harm- 
ful reaction, it produces contentment of mind, allays 
hunger and bodily weakness, increases the incentive and 
capacity for work, makes man forget his misfortunes, 
and enables those who use it to remain a long time 
without food or sleep, to endure unusual fatigue, 
and preserve their cheerfulness aud contentment. 
Jomand says : ' An infusion made with ten ounces 
of coffee enables me to live without other food for 
five consecutive days, without lessening my ordinary- 
occupations, and to use m ire and more prolonged 
muscular exercise than I was accustomed to, without 
any other physical iujury than a slight degree of 
fatigue, aud a little loss of flesh. The mental ex- 
hilaration, physical activity, and wakefulness it causes, 
explain the fondness for it, which has been shown 
by so many men of science, poets, scholars, and other 
devoted to thinking. It has indeed, beeu called ' tho 
intellectual beverage.' It supported the old age of 
Voltaire, and enabled Fontenelle to pass his hundred 
years. 
The action of coffee is directed chiefly lo the nerv- 
ous system. It produces a warming, cordial im- 
pression on the stomach, quickly followed by a 
diffused, agreeable aud nervous excitement, which 
extends itself to tho cerebral functions, giving rise 
to increased vigourof imagination and intellect, without 
any subsequent confusion or stupor,' such as arc 
characteristic of narcotics. 
Coffee contains essential principles of nutrition, far 
exoeoding in importance its exhilarating properties, 
and is one of the most d'-sirable articles tor sustaining 
the system, in certain prostrating diseases ; as com- 
pared with the nutrition to be derived from the best 
of soups, coffee has decidedly tho advantage, and to 
bo preferred in many instances. 
