622 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1882. 
enfc, therefore, that the more farm wages rise, the 
more the metayage solution imposes itself. 
Salicylic acid, as a disinfectant and a preservative, 
still excites attention. No hygienic reasons exist, 
according to Pasteur, why, in certain quantities, the 
acid ought not to be toierated in food, and drink : 
the French Government has prohibited its use in beer 
and wine, as that use was abused. In the case of 
cattle disease— foot and mouth, lung, and charbon — 
salicylic acid is employed by vets with great ad- 
vantage : if it does not prevent the virus to produce 
in the organism of the animal, it undoubtedly stops 
its march : one-tenth of an ounce dissolved in a 
quart of warm water, and sprinkled over the litte 
will immediately sweeten a stable ; half a quart of 
the solution mixed with the ordinary drink suffices 
for an diseased animal : the acid, too, can be dusted 
over the sore feet, or the mouth and nostrils washed 
with a solution. If poultry be ^attacked with cholera, 
add a little in their drinking vessels, and mix some 
up in bread pills and honey. 
A gentleman, alluding to the prevalence of typhus 
fever in horses, says his have completely escaped, 
and this exemption he attributes to adding a little 
salt and chopped garlic — the latter in small quanti- 
ties at first — to their oats : further, above their backs 
he places movable boards, which receive a fresh coat 
of tar weekly. In the case of severe bronchitis, 
French doctors prescribe the spreading of Norwegian 
tar on a plate in the sick chamber, the balsamic 
odour effecting good. 
Some prizes were awarded to agricultural industries 
at the Electricity Exhibition. The subject, however, is 
not yet ripe for practical consideration. The problem 
to solve is : not the application of electricity as a 
motive power, but of the cheap production of elec- 
tricity as that power. 
Owing to the destruction of the vines, and the 
great damage done to orchards by the severe frost of 
1879-80, the production of alcohol has diminished : 
to remedy this state of things, farmers are 
being actively urged to embark in the distillation of 
beet— why not potatoes, as in Germany, by the 
ordinary alembics ? Prizes are offered to encourage 
the new industry. 
There was a milk or dairy show held at Ghent last 
-July, when the milk of cows nf the Durham, Dutch, 
and Flemish breeds was exhaustively examined as 
to density and quality : it has been demonstrated 
that the difference in richness can vary as 1 to 3, 
that is, from 4 \ to 15 per cent ; the yield of milk 
per day can vary as 1 to 5: in the great majority of 
cases, the first milkings are superior in density to the 
others in a day, and that density oscillates between 
1026 and 103d. Upon 168 samples of milk, 29 were 
inferior in density to 1029; hence, after the axpertists, 
they ought to be suspected of being dosed with water. 
In addition to density as a test lor the purity of milk, 
must be included the percentage of cream: now at 
Ghent, milk unquestionably 'pure yielded 5 per cent 
of cream. Practical conclusion — difficult to decide 
when milk is pure. 
INDIA : SEASO i FOR WEEK ENDING 15TH 
NOVEMBER. 
Hain has again fallen copiously throughout the 
Mysore State and in Coorg, and crops are now every- 
where in good condition ; the harvesting of ragi and 
other minor crops has commenced in Mysore, and 
rice and coffee will now ripen better in Coorg. In 
the Madras Presidency there has been further rain- 
fall, more or lews heavy, in all districts except one ; 
and general prospects are good, although a few dis- 
tricta still need more rain. In British Burma and 
Assam crop prospect* are favourable everywhere ; 
the harvesting of rice has commenced in the latter 
province. 
On the whole, it may be said that recent rains have 
materially improved crop prospects in Southern and 
Western India ; that in the Central tracts of the 
country the weather is seasonable, and agricultural 
condition satisfactory ; and that in the greater part 
of Northern India, general showers would be beneficial. 
Madras. — No rain in Ganjam ; general prospects good. 
Bombay. — Good rain in Southern Maharatta Country; 
rain also in Kanara, Ratnagiri, Satara, Sholapur, and 
parts of Ahmednagar ; urgently wanted in parts of 
last-named district and of Nasik ; locusts in Nasik 
and parts of Broach and Surat ; fever and cattle- 
disease continue in a few districts ; prices falling in 
Dharwar ; elsewhere generally steady. 
Bengal, — Slight rain in parts of Central and Eastern 
Bengal during the week. — Madras Mail. 
COFFEE LEAF DISEASE. 
With reference to Mr. G. A. Talbot's letter, it is 
right that planters should fully and freely discuss 
Mr. Marshall Ward's Report, and no one has a better 
right to be heard than Mr. Talbot who took such an 
active part with Mr. Morris in the early investigations 
into the life history of the fungus and experiments 
directed against the existence of the pest. It seems 
to us, however, that the Mycologist and the planter 
are quite at one in the belief that certain conditions 
of vigorous and mature foliage or the reverse enable 
coffee trees to resist attack or render them specially 
liable to it. What we understand Mr. Marshall Ward 
to contend for is, that no coffee trees possess inherently 
any qualities enabling them to resist or rendering 
them specially liable to attack. 
MR. KARSLAKE'S MODE OF STRIPPING 
CINCHONA BARK AND "E. H. C." ON 
CINCHONA NURSERIES. 
Supposing cinchona trees can be saved from that 
premature decay which has necessitated the uprooting 
of so many thousands, the importance of Mr. Karslake's 
mode of bark -stripping, if finally successful, can scarcely 
be exaggerated. The heavy — in a large proportion 
of cases, the prohibitory — expense of collecting mos3 
or other substance, and tjing it round the trees, is 
saved. So is much of the risk which attends the 
stripping and shaving process. To rightly understand 
Mr. Karslake's process, an obvious misprint in his 
letter ought to be corrected. Paragraph third of his 
letter (the introductory matter) should read: — "Itis, 
I find, necessary to make only the two vertical cuts 
at first. There is no fear of the bark adhering after 
it has once been loosened, and the top and bottom 
cuts will be made when it is intended to remove the 
old bark." How does Mr. Karslake^" remove" (properly 
loosen) the strip of bark so as not to injure tha 
cambium— an essential condition ? By Mclvor's method 
each strip, when cut across, at the top, was drawn 
down, and, the process being conducted when the 
trees were full of sap, came easily away, without the 
necessity of inserting any instrument between the bark 
and the tree. But, as by Mr. Karslake's method 
the bark is left adhering to the tree at the bottom, 
as well as the top, we should be i glad to lear nor 
