April i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
883 
mixed wif h 1 
it fodder, 
ed or cotton seed cake, fat- 
tens animals 
well in four n 
lonths. Chemists allege that 
no great adv 
antage is gaine 
d by having a pulp rich in 
sugar, for w 
hen the pulp 
s placed in the trench for 
(•mi -cr\ 11 1 ion, 
the sugar bee 
omes rapidly changed into 
alcohol, and 
: acid. The scums from the 
defecation of 
Hi. nil.- .;! 
excellent manure, being rich 
in nitrogen ; 
as a top drcssi 
lg for meadows it is invalu- 
able, and pic 
ughed in after 
a flax crop, is considered as 
an excellent 
(reparation for 
stolen crops of turnips. On 
beet farms fcl 
e ratio of stoc 
£ kept is 10 sheep or pigs, 
or one head 
of black cattle 
per 3| acres. 
M. Pasteui 
has lost no 
line in practically applying 
his importan 
discoveries coi 
inccted with the vaccination 
of live stock 
as a prcservati 
ve against chorion and other 
maladies. II 
3 prepares the 
vaccine and forwards it in 
bottles, suffic 
cut for 50, 1C 
0, to iiOO sheep : tho doses 
for cows and 1 
lorscs are largei 
. There are first and second 
vaccines In 1 
e employed ill 
an interval of a fortnight, 
mill injected 
l by a Pravaz syringe. In 
the case of t 
heep fchej are 
vaccinated inside tho thigh, 
cows boliind 
lie slionl'der, ai 
d horses on tho neck, where 
tho collar ca 
unot rub. The 
syringe employed must be 
carefully was 
led after each 
day's use ; the vaccine must 
be kepi in a 
a cellar, and a bottle once 
opened must 
be used. Afte 
r being operated upon, cattle 
exhibit no tremor; sheep do, and horses largely so; no 
treatment is required for the pustules. An extensive 
agriculturist asserts ho preserves his stock from peri- 
pneumonia, by hanging in the sheds planks coated twice 
a week, not with coal, but Norwegian tar ; giving 
common salt and garlic liberally with the food, purging 
with oastor-oil, and employing lotions of camphored spirits. 
M. Lemoine, an extensivo poultry breeder, considers 
the droppings of fowls, if allowed to accumulate, as detri- 
mental to the health of the birds and the profits they 
ought to yield. His poultry-yard consists of several 
well-sanded, low-wired over alleys, planted with fruit trees, 
terainating in a small paddock. The mortality of the 
fowls is 20 per cent less, and the eggs one-fourth more 
numerous by the now installation. Farmers aro urged 
to domesticate the Cabiui of South America as ranking 
nest to the pig and sheep. It is commonlv known as 
the water pig, and resembles tho squirrel in point of 
cleanliness and food. In three years it becomes as large 
as an ordinary pi;,' ; it cats little and sleeps much. The 
head is large, the ears small, it has two terrible cutting 
teeth, but no tail. When carefully fed, the flesh loses 
[tie objectionable oily taste. 
A M. Georges proposes, that since meteorology cannot 
predict the weather I'm- mouths in advance, and since the 
telegraph can, for 48 hours, fanners ought to club among 
themselves during the active seasons, to receive weather 
telegrams from the Observatory. 
Nothing to record relative to the phylloxera: the battle 
between tho invader and the invaded goes bravely on. 
Much interest has of late been displayed to discover the 
winter eggs of the insect. In the meantime, several vine- 
yards which hud been destroyed by t he ravages of thephyl- 
loxera, are being replanted by American stocks, so that in 
five or six years the vines will be flourishing like bay trees. 
It lias been said that a man could make his fortune by 
rabbit rearing. M. ISouvycr, of C'batellerault, near Tours, 
cultivates mushrooms in old quarries: manure and labor, 
fs. 1,100 per mouth; receipts, is. 8,000; profits, 
fB. 7,900; be gathers about lot) lb. of mushrooms per 
dny ; the beds, composed of horse dung, after being 
sown with spawn from rabbits' excrements, send up the 
OgClllcnt in three months; it ripens on the third day 
of its being overground. 
THE "HYBRIDITY OE CINCHONAS" 
CONTROVERSY. 
We personally feel that there can bo no further 
Controversy as to tho liability or oven the tendency 
of cinchonas to hybridize. Apart from the judgment 
of strictly scientific men, like Dr. Trimen and Mr. 
Moens, confirmed by so-called practical planters (who, 
if educated and observant men, arc eminently scientific), 
our own experience, as recently related, of the pro- 
geny of seed from calisayas grown within roach of 
S.iccirubras, has been conclusive. We ought to say 
that we never doubted the ability of a scientific 
horticulturist, like the late Mr. Mclvor, to produce 
hybrids by the methods usually practised to obtain 
new varieties of plants. What we were long sceptical 
about was hybridization by natural agencies, sucli as 
currents of wind or insects. We had two very strong 
apologies for our sceptical attitude of mind. In the 
first place, we pinned our faith to the dicta of such 
eminent botanists as Drs. Hooker and Thompson, who, 
in their Flora Indica, strongly insisted that hybridity 
in nature was exceedingly rare, and, artificially, often 
very difficult. In the second place, our personal ob- 
servation of C. officinalis had convinced us of the 
almost illimitable faculty of "sporting" into the most 
diverse sizes, shapes and other characteristics of foli- 
age, possessed by the plants. We may add that we 
attached much importance to a concession made by 
the greatest living quinologist, Mi\ John Eliot Howard, 
that, although real hybridization of the cinchonas in 
their natural habitat, was not probable (and 'o that 
position he adheres), yet the various species growing 
in close contiguity might affect each other to an ex- 
tent short of hybridization. Mr. Broughton wrote 
to Mr. Howard that, as regarded the Crown barks, 
C. officinalis, — Uritusinga, Loxa, Condamima, Bon- 
plcndiana, or by whatever other names the varieties 
might be distinguished, those varieties were numerous 
and extreme, from trees of robust habit, with large 
and glabrous foliage, down to the shrubby C. angutli- 
folia, with its small, pointed, peach-like leaves. Mr. 
Broughton, however, found seedlings which he was 
compelled to recognize as hybrids, under trees of C. 
succirubra and C. officinalis, which had ripened and 
dropped seeds. Tlie seedlings were neither succirubra 
nor officinalis, but manifest hybrids, although some 
inclined more to one parent and some to the other. 
Broughton's grand error was the assertion, which 
Mclvor said discouraged him and for a time inter- 
rupted his experiments, that the hybrids possessed 
the bad qualities of both parents and the good pro- 
perties of neither. What Mclvor did and what 
nature seems also to have done, was to produce, 
amongst hybrids of no value, at least a couple (or 
perhaps only one, leaning in some specimens to one 
parent and in some to tho other) superior in good 
properties to either parent. Those taking after the red 
bark parent have been distinguished as pubiscmt ; those 
bearing the impress of th'i crown bark t< lingo, robust ; 
and, ns a name which both sides to the controversy 
can at onco adopt, Djp. Trimen suggests C. robu*ta 
for what bo believes, and his opinion has b en con- 
firmed by tho authorities at Kew, i* a hybrid, * but 
* Dr. Trimen cautiously says it mm/ turn out to bo a 
distinct species ; but his opinion, thai it is t hybrid, is clear 
enough.. 
