May i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
929 
. GORSE AS FOOD FOR STOCK. 
It is worthy of note that gorse takes but a small 
percentage of mineral ingredients from the soil, in com- 
parison with other fodder plants. This is clearly shown 
by Johnstono, whose statement may well be reproduced : 
Green. Dry. I Green. Dry. 
1. Lucerne 2-6 9-5 3. White Clover !• 7 9-1 
a. Red Clover ..1-6 T5 \ 4. Goise 0-82 3-1 
In Ireland gorse is much grown for puiqioses of stock- 
feeding. In the western part of County Cork, and, in 
fact, in many parts of north Ireland, it occupies a 
prominent place as food for both horses and cattle. One 
large fanner has been known to feed for many years 
two or three hundred head of cattle from Nov. 1 to 
the following May on chopped furze only, Sunday ex- 
cepted, when they were regaled with turnips. And these 
cattle were said to be as fine and healthy as any in 
the country. But, generally speaking, horses in work, 
or cows in milk, are not led conclusively on gorse by 
farmers who have experimented with it. Youatt used 
to say tluil, " II' '_'( 
5 lb. of straw, the 
withdrawn." Exper 
well Oil guise ami C 
lu every case whe 
desirable to mix a 
food, particularly f 
nature. Furze-fed 
the butter produced 
— far sup 
fed on h 
Tie are given to a horse, 
ions, and 3 Hi. of oats may be 
•e has shown that horses thrive 
ed of boiled potatoes once a day. 
furze-feeding is practised, it is 
ill quantity of salt with the other 
horses, as furze is of a heating 
s yield milk rich in cream, and 
>m it is of a fine natural colour 
to that made from the produce of cows 
I turnip 
The following table will be serviceable as showing the 
high rank which furze takes, among different kinds of 
n inter fodder : 
Flesh-form 
ingtaaatter. 
Furze 3-21 
Cabbage ..Ml:} 
Kohl Rahi..2-75 
Mangolds . . 1 '5 1 
It is matter fo 
not long ago cxte 
able food for theii 
is that they are, 
for this puqiose.- 
Bootlan 1 whins') 
111,1- 
Flesh-form- Fat-form- 
ing matter, iug matter. 
* ..1-94 5-93 
s ..0-60 1-018 
1-80 4-43 
irprisc that English farmers have 
dy brought into use such a valu- 
:k. Probably the true explanation 
1 body, ignorant of its suitability 
.G. — Field. [Gorse or furze (in 
■ free !y at Nuwara Eliya. — Ed.] 
A PLANT TO REPLACE THE VINE. 
We have received the following communication from 
M. luguste Deleuil, agriculturist, member of the Agri- 
cultural Society of Franco, &o. : — 
Everyone has heard of the great losses our national 
Bgrioulture lias sustained during the last twenty years 
from the ravages of the phylloxera; more than half of 
the French vines have already disappeared, and none 
cau foretel the extent of the devastation to como. 
Vainly have all kinds of remedies been tried, but with- 
out success. In spite of the thousand and one recipes 
employed in turn to combat and to destroy it, the phyl- 
loxera continues to ravage at will our splendid and 
luxuriant vineyards. In the face of such a disaster, an 
energetic agriculturist, whoso labours have already re- 
ceive 1 Qu| sanction and encouragement of our learned 
societies, after manj fruitless efforts to remove the evil, 
has succeeded, not in destroying the eli'i cts of the phyl- 
loxera, I ut in brinuii'',' forward another v in.- -| i- .,lin-i:.i» 
plant. Thus, leaving the vine to its fllte, he turned 
bis an -ntion to tin 1 out if possible another plunt to 
supply the elements of piosperity uhlch we are 1 ising 
by the disappearance of the pie. -ion vine. 
\t In t this plant has been found. It is :i va ic'.y 
of. red beetroot, unrivalled In the whole •• all 'for its 
Incomparable qualities, which will n tune replace all 
that we have lost in the vino. Beetroot produce ale ho] 
of superior qnality; why, then, ihonlii not null, 
199 
treated like the must 
luscious beverage ? In 
very sweet red beetroo 
quite as good as manj 
southern vineyards. It 
age of accommodating 
in most climates. 
We wish, then, to 
only to stimulate new 
resources in wine grow 
With the view of p< 
gator places himself g 
agriculturists, to furnis 
require. Application ca 
Agronome. A Gardanne 
of the grape, produce an equally 
fact, this has been done ; the 
t produces by fermentation a wine 
> of the soi-disant wines of our 
possesses Hie additional advunt- 
itself to all soils, and flourishes 
make this fact known, if it be 
discoveries or develope further 
ing. 
ipuhirising this plant, the propu- 
ratuitously at the disposition of 
:h them with the seeds they may 
n be made to M. Auguste Deleuil, 
, pres Marseille, France.— Field, 
DATE COFFEE. 
In view of the efforts now being made to popularize 
date coffee in this country, the following opinion of a 
chemist who has recently given the subject much atten- 
tion will prove of interest. Coffee, says he, referring 
to the genuine article, is eminently the beverage of the 
masses and one of those things that should be kept iu 
the best manner, at the most moderate price, for the 
sake of common commercial morality. It is by all food 
authorities claimed to be a powerful respiratory excitant, 
and has a crystallized nitrogenous element, called caf- 
feine, upon which the action chiefly depends. It decreases 
the vaporizing action of the skin, and therefore dries 
that organ ; it lessens the loss of heat of the body, 
and increases the action of the heart. For these rea- 
sons coffee is also eminently the chink of the poor and 
feeble, because it augments energy and pulsation. But 
in date coffee the vegetable fibre strongly predominates, 
and but for 
volatile 
above r< 
sessed a 
peculiar 
opinion, 
plavs a 
the" Gei 
than th 
date- 
testiu 
cham; 
ferior 
tendo 
brown extra 
•ties can be ( 
llttel 
ind sugar, little 
au be expected. On trial, the chemist 
ouud that it coloured well, but pos- 
agreeable, and a burnt flavour of a 
rather sickly than otherwise. In his 
known combinations in which coflfee 
for instance, as the Eichel coffee of 
others, have a more aromatic taste 
offshoot of the brain of an enterpris- 
havc been testimonials given that 
salthy beverage," says he, " but these 
1 comprehensive enough to make us 
ad 
doi 
ind need not be fetched so far at an immense 
expense. The Arab has the date and coffee, but he pre- 
fors the latter as a beverage when he can get it ; and 
we have various substitutes of native .growth less costly 
than the date, which would answer the same purpose 
if the genuine article were scarce." Although date coffee 
docs not belong to the class of food adulterations, but 
to that of food imitations, it should of course be sold 
for what it is, if sold at all. There is hue a danger 
of fraud against which it is proper to guard. — New York 
Commercial K nqui re r. 
UMBRELLA AND WALKING-STICK PLANTATIONS, 
When Beau Brnmme] defied public ridicule in order 
to found that useful institution 'the umbrella, he piob- 
ably little thought to wimt enormous proportions the 
industry of manufacturing (Hose now indispensable arti 
clus would grow : and we may take it for granted tlutt 
neither he nor his repfeeentstivee of the " crutch and 
toothpick" oidc ever imagined that the demand forcer 
teiu kinds o| walking-sticks and umbrella bundles would 
thrcu.cn with destruction a valuable and important West 
Indian planting industry, which bad us origin in the 
suppl] of Bpioex. American statisticians have calculated 
how man} licet, are required every year t.. supply the 
wooden toothpick which on that contiiu-i* t'ikex the 
place of u familiar quill. The Jamaica fWeawr now 
