44 8 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [November r, 1881. 
or even causeways were constructed; as at present the 
journeys are made by means of mules along steep and 
rugged paths. From a chemical analysis of the plant, 
it appears that it contains the same properties as coffee, 
an alkaloid with oleaginous essences and resinous gums, 
hut as the quantity of the latter is much greater than 
in coffee, the nutritive element is superior. This ana- 
lysis has been confirmed by experience. The inhabitants 
drink nothing else, and with mocte and meat they live 
well, without feeling any anxiety for bread or vegetables, 
although it would be easy to cultivate maize and pota- 
toes if necessary. The cattle tenders often remain shut- 
out for days from all human habitation with then herds, and 
are content to forego their usual meals, if only they 
have a good supply of mocte which appears to be an 
active element of food and, unlike coffee, produces neither 
sleeplessness nor palpitation. — Western Star. 
THE PAPER MULBERRY TREE. 
(Journal of the Society of Arts, 2nd Sept. 1881.) 
The United States Minister of Agriculture, in a recent 
report, calls attention to the largely increasing manufact- 
ure of cloth in China, Japan, and the Sandwich Is- 
lands, from the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). 
In Tahiti and other South Pacific Islands, a species 
of cloth is manufactured from its bark, know as " Tappa" 
or "Kappa," and it is said that the finest and whitest 
cloth and mantles worn by the islanders and the prin- 
cipal people of Otaheite are made from the bark of this 
tiree; it dyes readily, particularly in red, and takes a 
good colour. The following is the method employed by 
the native women of Otaheite in beating out the fibre. 
The cleansed fibres are spread out on plantain leaves 
to the length of about eleven or twelve yards, and these 
are placed on a regular and even surface of about a 
foot in breadth. Two or three layers are thus placed one 
upon another, great attention being paid to making the 
cloth of uniform thickness ; if thinner in one place than 
another, a thicker piece is laid over this place when 
the next layer is laid down. The cloth is left to dry 
during the night, and a part of the moisture having 
evaporated, the several layers are found to adhere to- 
gether, so that the whole mass may be lifted from the 
ground in one piece. It is then laid on a long smooth 
plank of wood prepared for the purpose, and beaten with 
a wooden instrument about a foot long and three inches 
square. Each of the four sides has longitudinal grooves 
of different degrees of fineness, the depth and width of 
those on one side being sufficient to receive a small pack- 
thread, the other sides being finer in a regular graduation, 
so that the grooves of the last would scarcely admit 
anything coarser than sewing silk. A long handle is 
attached, and the cloth is first beaten with its coarsest side, 
and spreads very fast under the strokes. It is then 
beaten with the other sides successively, and is then 
considered fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is made 
still thinner by beating it after it has been several times 
doubled with the finest side of the mallet, and it can 
thus be attenuated until it becomes as fine as muslin. 
Should the cloth break under this process, it is easily 
repaired by laying on a piece of bark, which is made 
to adhere by means of a glutinous substance made from 
the arrowroot, and this is done with such nicety, that 
the break can scarcely be detected. In other islands the 
bark is kept wet and scraped with sharp-edged shells. 
It is said that the King of the Friendly Islands had 
a piece made which was 120 feet wide and two miles 
long. In Japan a species of cloth is made from paper 
derived from this tree. It is cut into thin strips, which 
are twisted together and spooled, to be used in the woof 
of the fabric, while the warp is composed of silk or 
heiup. About 250 pieces only are manufactured at the 
principal 111:11 nj'uc.turiDg place. The paper mulberry grows 
gverywhere i Japan, and is a valuable tree, as furnish- 
ng the bast from which a large portion of the Japanese 
paper is made; the plants are reproduced in quantity 
by sub-dividing the roots, and in two or three years are 
ready to be cut. This work is done in November, and 
the branches, from seven to ten feet long, are made up 
into bundles, three or four feet in length, and steamed so 
that the bark is loosened and can be more readily stripped 
off; this is washed, dried, and again soaked in water, 
and scraped with a knife to remove the outer skin, 
which is used for inferior kinds of paper. The bast, 
when cleaned, is washed repeatedly in clean water and 
rinsed; it is then bleached in the sun till sufficiently 
white, after it is boiled in a lye, chiefly of buckwheat 
ashes, to remove all gunimy matters. The fibres are 
now readily separated, and are transformed into pulp 
by beating with wooden mallets; the pulp is mixed in 
vats with the necessary quantity of water, to which is 
added a milky substance prepared from rice flour. The 
couches on which the paper sheets are produced are made 
of bamboo, split into very thin sticks, and in parallel 
lines by silk or hemp threads, so as to form a kind of 
mat. This is laid upon a wooden frame, and the appar- 
atus dipped into the vat, raised and shaken, so as to 
spread the pulp evenly, after which the cover is first 
removed, then the bamboo couch, with the sheet of 
paper. When a number of sheets have been thus pre- 
pared, they are pressed to exclude the water, and after- 
wards spread out with a brush upon boards and allowed 
to dry. The sheets are only about two feet in length, 
but sometimes sheets ten feet long are produced. 
Agricultural Returns for 1881. — The Statistical and 
Commercial Department of the Board of Trade have 
issued a summary of the returns collected on the 4th of 
June last, which shows the extent of land in Great 
Britain under wheat to be 2,806,057 acres, or 103,381 
acres less than in 1880; barley, 2,442,105 acres, or 25,036 
acres less than in 1880; oats, 2,901,135 acres, or an in- 
crease of 104,230 acres ; potatoes, 579,431 acres, an in- 
crease of 28,499 acres over 1880; and hops, 64,128 acres, 
or a decrease of 1,577 acres. The total number of live 
stock in Great Britain on the same day is given as 
—Cattle, 5,911,524; sheep and lambs, 24,582,154; pigs, 
2,048,034.— Journal of the Society of Arts. 
Sarracenia Purpurea and Flies.— Joseph Jackson, 
Massachusetts, in Coulter's Botanical Gazette, states 
that when out herborising he was surprised on drawing 
aside the petals to look at the stamens, to see the 
whole cavity formed by the petals and the peltate ex- 
pansion of the style filled with flies, as large as the 
common house-fly, all busy as could be, eating the 
pollen, of which scarcely a grain could be seen. Fourteen 
flies were counted in one flower. Nearly every plant 
examined was filled in the same way. — Gardeners' 1 
Chronicle. 
Tea Cultivation in America. — Successful experiments 
are reported on the cultivation of Tea in the United 
States. A tract of land has been selected in Georgia 
by the Commissioner of Agriculture as an experimental 
farm, on which the cultivation of Tea on an extended 
scale will be carefully and thoroughly tried. Samples 
of Teas already produced in America have been sent to 
London, and the report of a Mincing Lane firm is as 
follows: — "They represent Teas of a high type. The 
flavour, though not strong, is remarkably fragrant. In 
appearance they resemble Indian Teas, but the flavour 
is more like that of the finest Chinese black Tea, or 
of the hill Teas of India." The cultivation of the plant 
has been taken up with vigour by one enthusiastic 
planter, so satisfied is he of success in a conrmercial 
point of view, and this after fifteen years' experience of 
Tea cultivation in India. Fifty acres of land have been 
planted with Tea, which, if successful, will be at once 
extend to 100 acres. It is prophesied by this American 
Tea planter that in a comparatively short time America 
would be able to supply her own markets with this 
important article. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
