4l2 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1881. 
A new kind of Palm has been discovered in 
Borne of the South Sea Islands, or else cultivation has 
improved the already wonderfully productive powers 
of the cocoanut palm. In a leading article a few days 
ago a contemporary spoke of the " copra-bearing palm" 
as one of the natural products of those islands. 
Ready-made copra, hanging in graceful clusters from 
the tree, would indeed be a striking proof of the 
effects of scientific agriculture. — Colonies and India. 
Cardamoms. — During the past month, Bengal card- 
amoms, the produce of Amomum aromaticum, Roxb. 
and meni seed, bhe spindle- shaped fruits of Lophira 
alala, have been offered at the London drug sales. 
The latter belongs to the natural order Dipteraceag, 
and occasionally presents one of the wings of the 
calyx, to the development of which the order owes 
its name. An oil obtained from these seeds is said 
to be used by the natives of tropical Africa under 
the name of "meni "oil. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 
Medicinal Plants in Jamaica. — The cultivation of 
ehinchona bark is being vigorously carried on in Jamaica 
under the able direction of Mr. D. Morris. The true 
Cinchona Ledyeriana, the most valuable of all the Peru- 
vian barks, has been grown from seed supplied by Mr. 
Moms, of Java ; and there are now in Jamaica some 
60,000 seedlings raised from this seed, beside 20,000 
more from seed obtained from Dr. King,' of Calcutta. 
This quantity will, it is hoped, enable the Jamaica 
plantations to compete successfully in a few years 
with those of the East Indies. The Columbian barks 
lately introduced into Jamaica are also thriving. The 
cultivation of jalap in Jamaica, again, promises to bo 
a success. About 2,0001b. of tliis root are being now 
stnt to the London market, partly in the form of split 
and dried tubers and partly in slices. Should the 
latter meet with acceptance at a fair price, the cul- 
tivation promises to be remunerative, as the roots can, 
in this way, be dried without artificial heat, and 2d. 
per lb. cost of production saved. The roots are said 
to lose about 70 per cent, in drying. The roots are 
being analysed, and the results will probably soon be 
published. — Colonies and India. 
The Water Power op Niagara Eiver. — The recent 
visit of the American Society of Civil Engineers to 
Niagara Falls has drawn renewed attention to the 
works for utilizing some of the enormous water powee 
of Niagara river which are now in progress under tlir 
auspices of a new Company. The canal was originally 
constructed by Horace H. Day, of New York, in the 
year 1850, at a cost of $250,000. The canal debouches 
from the r.ver above the falls, and discharges into the 
reservoir below them, being about turee-quarters of a 
mile in length. Its dimensions at preeeut are about 
35 ft. in width, by 10 ft. in depth ; but the new Com- 
pany have land enough secured to enlarge it, when 
necessary, to 100 ft. wide. There is a fall of 2ft. in the 
length of the canal. It is arranged to extend the re- 
servoir, as required, to a mile in length along the river 
bank, its width being 70 ft., and depth same as the 
canal. Four wheels, owned by private individuals, 
were in operation formerly. The new Company, formed 
some four years ago, bought the old undertaking at a 
mere song, and is now developing the scheme into a 
thoroughly organized water-power Company. They 
have nearly completed a wheel pit, not far from the 
lower extremity of the present reservoir, 40 ft. long by 
20 ft. wide, sunk in the solid rock 86 ft., from which 
a tunnel, 10 f(. by 6 ft., has been bored for discharging 
the waste into the river. It is proposed to ultimately 
place three wheels in this pit, but for the present only 
a 50 in. liisdon turbine is in position, under a head of 
S6ft., developing some 1,100-horse power. The water 
is led from the reservoir to the wheels by huge iron pipeB 
The total available head is about 220 ft., which, after 
deducting the 86 ft at present employed, leaves some 
134ft, jut available. The possibilities of power appear 
at jir.it night to be inexhaustible. —lion. 
Queensland Pearl Fisheries.— From a report re- 
cently issued on the pearl fisheries of Queensland by 
Lieutenant de Hoghton, of Her Majesty's ship " Beagle,' 
we learn that 11 firms are engaged in the trade in 
Torres Straits, of whom ten have their headquarters 
at Sydney, employing nearly 100 boats in the work.' 
The amount of pearl-shell exported in 1878 was 449£ 
tons, valued at from £60,000 to £70,000. The price 
of the shell fluctuates a good deal, ranging between 
£120 to 280 per ton. The divers principally consist 
of Kanakas, Maories, and Malays, only some 20 white 
men being engaged in the operations, with a few 
Australian blacks. Generally speaking, the divers 
make an excellent thing of it, their earnings seldom 
being less than £200 a year, while in very good 
years, such as 1878, they have been known to make 
£340 each. Although there are a good number of 
sharks in these seas, the loss of life on the part of 
the pearl fishers is very small, averaging about two 
per annum ; and it is a curious fact that the sharks 
almost always beat a retreat as soon as the fishing 
operations commence. — London Times. 
Artificial Honey. — When " artificial honeycombs " 
made of paraffin wax and filled with "glucose" — i.e. 
the sweet syrup of common corn — are manufactured 
in large quantities in New York, and "eagerly bought 
up as the best clover honey," it is hard to say where 
Yankee ingenuity and human credulity are to end. 
But cannot many of our Colonies take the hint thus 
offered to them, and step in to supply the demand for 
honey with the real article ? In the garden isles of the 
West Indies, on the flowery slopes of Botany Bay, 
amid the groves of Tasmania, in Canada itself — with all 
its "terrible winters" — the "busy bee," if properly 
housed, would manufacture illimitable quantities of best 
honey in purest wax cell3 without the necessity for 
machinery to copy the combs in solidified paraffin, " so 
beautifully as to defy detection " — to quote the words 
of the Graphic, which reports this latest Yankee dodge 
— and without calling into requisition hot irons to close 
the cells. Wooden nutmegs, oleomargarine, and glucose 
honey, are all very well in their way, but when it is 
worth while to make imitations of any article there 
mu9t be a market for the real thing and the real thing 
will always bear the palm. — Colonies and India. 
The En&lish Community in Iowa. — A per pawith 
this title, by Mr. Robert Benson, in AJacmiilan's Maga- 
zine for May this year, gives on account of the English 
settlement referred to by a correspondent in our issue 
of last Friday. It appears from this that the founder 
of the colony (which now numbers 500) was Mr. Close, 
the well-known Cambridge oarsman, who in 1877 
bought 3,000 acres in north-western Iowa, his reasons 
for choosing that part in preference to ■ Canada or 
other American states being that there was plenty 
of railway carriage, the land was prairie and would 
grown both staples, Indian corn and wheat, and 
as the eastern half of the state was thickly popu- 
lated and the land there was worth £8 to £15| 
an acre it was to be expected that the next year 
of immigration would overlap the eastern half and 
equalize prices. 120,000 acres have already been cul- 
tivated by this colony, representing a capital of about 
£250,000. The land is divided into farms of 160 acres 
each, every 40 farms or so being placed under a 
steward. A form ready for the tenant would cost now j 
from £340 to £400. Labour is plentiful, the wages . 
being £3 10s a month and board. Nothing but success 
has met the colony so far, but the test will come 
when there is a bad harvest from burst, or drought, 
or storms, or other causes ; on when a good harvest 
in Kurope corresponds with one in America. Mean. ^ 
time however persons with moderate capital can 
scarcely do better than follow the example of the 
former Colombo merchant whose experience is given 
in Friday's paper, and buy a farm in Iowa. 
