May i, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
B etting sun shone on the placid water, lit up the scarlet 
of the (lowers to a brighter flame, and renderedtlie dark 
sombre shade of the forest doubly dark by contrast, 
1 thought T had rarely seen a more lovely bit of scenery. 
Day's latest glance on the brown hill beaming 
Lingers like lover, loath to say farewell, 
Cradled below, the lake lies calmly gleaming. 
I bade adieu to my kind friends, rode into Teremba 
again, slept under the hospitable roof of the com- 
mandant, and at 4 a.m. boarded the old "Croix 
du Sud," and " screwed" back to Noumea. The rain 
that had bothered me almost every day of my stay 
accompanied me to the last. I saw a heavy thunder- 
storm travelling parallel with us along the mountains, 
and as we sighttd Noumea it burst over the to«n. 
Such a violent downpour has, 1 believe, nev>-r before 
visited the place; and three flashes of lightning and 
accompanying thunder (of which wo rarely have any) 
will long be remembered by the inhabitants. My box 
was full to the brim with birds ; I had several new 
birds'-eggs and nests, a lot of land shells, a stock 
of health, and, above all, fulfilled my desire and killed 
fish with the artificial fly in New Caledonia. 
E. L. Layaed. 
British Consulate, Noumea, Nov. 1881. 
AGBICULTURE IN EGYPT AND ON THE 
CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 
(Special letter.) 
Attention is being drawn to Egypt as a country 
admirably suited for agricultural emigration. Despite 
the Wad administration of the country, the advantages 
are many and real. In point of climate, it would be 
perfection for the farmer. It never rains, hails, snows 
or freezes. The water necessary for irrigation is 
stored iu reservoirs and distributed by canals ; so the 
cultivator can have the equivalent of rain when he 
pleases. The Nile marks the limit of fertility : where 
its waters reach not, there the desert commences. 
The soil is in great part derived from the sediment of 
the Nile : it is relatively deep, and, by a little amel- 
ioration in tilling, could be made to yield three 
times more than at "present. Hand labor is abundant, 
and costs only half a. franc per day, and no food. 
Land can be bought out for fs. 500 an acre, and far- 
ming pays about 5 to G per cent on capital. The 
system of cultivation is simple. When the Nile com- 
mences to rise in tho middle of dune, rice or maize, 
&c, is sown ; in autumn, wheat, beans, or clover ; and 
in March, cotton or cane-sugar. Agricultural operations 
can bo effected at all seasons, since there are no 
meteorological drawbacks. No manure is employed, 
for the natives dry the excrements of animals for the 
purposes of fuel. The same kind of plough is employed 
today, as in the time of tho shepherd kings, say, 
8, ()()!> years ago: the soil is scratched to the depth 
of two inches : tho plough is drawn by two bullocks, 
or a camel nnd an ass : no care is observed in the 
selection of sowing seeds : the grain is nover cut till 
it commences to self-shell ; consequently threshing 
operations ire easily conducted: the latter are effected 
in two manners ; bv a kind of roller armed with knife- 
teeth, when the grain is intended for human con- 
sumption and exportation ; the second consists in 
trampling it under the feet of oxen, whore the excre- 
ments of the animals also mingle. Cotton is the most 
brofitabli product to cultivate: but it ia very exhaustive, 
become none of it is over restored to tho soil : tho 
fibre and the oil aro pot exhausting products, but 
the seed or cake, which contains the fertilizing soil 
elements, aro also exported to other countries for 
cnttlo feedinu. Mulberry trees could he grafted and ho 
produce food for silkworms, while the vine could 
be m»do to yield fruit capitally suited for rainus, 
203 
and hence meet the want now much felt in the manu- 
facture of wine. Every domestic animal has degener- 
ated in Egypt, save the ass, owing to want of 
adequate food, suitable car.< and healthful conditions. 
Green fodder is much needed in the warm weather, 
and trench-preserved food would admirably fill the 
void. Ordinarily^ there is not more than one head of 
cattle for every 30 acres, while iu farming districts, 
in other land-, one beast is estimated for 2 to 3 
acres. The drawback is the taxation, which amounts 
to about one-fourth of the tot;il revenue of the land : 
some holdings, and where the soil is of identical 
quality, pay four limes higher taxation than the other. 
But this is the result of mal administration. 
M. Ladureau, Director of the Agronomical Station at 
Lille, has published h.s annual report on experiments with 
beet, to show that richness in sugar and relatively 
large-sized roots are not incompatible. These desi- 
derata can be obtained by cultivating the plants at 
close distances, securing good see. is, and selecting 
appropriate manure, superphosphate of lime especially. 
These conditions fulfilled, the meteorological draw- 
backs can be counteracted. A question has been 
raised, whether the pulp, the result of extracting the 
juice by the now general process (in France) of 
diffusion, instead of the old practice of pressure, 
demands an increase of dry matter, such as hay, 
chaff, cut straws, eve. The pulp from the press con- 
tains but 70 or 75 per cent of water, while that from 
diffusion is as high as 88 or 90. The augmentation 
of hay, &c, ought then to be about 25 per cent. 
M. Desprez, on his farm of Cappelle, near Lille, 
established a laboratory ostensibly to control the rich- 
ness of the root cultivated on 250 acres, grown simply 
for seed. Some 2,000 to 3,000 anal.i ses can be made 
daily, and the beet found richest in sui:ar is kept for 
seed : from 12 to 15 per cent of sugar is what is 
anticipated : roots yielding less are thrown aside. 
Indeed it is every day becoming more and more a 
certainty in beet culture that success depends chiefly 
on the quality of the seed. This secured, the roots 
ought to be purchased proportionate to their richness. 
The French Government organizes and subsidises a 
series of regional agricultural shows annually ; they 
are official and so have many drawbacks, one of the 
chief being the constitution of the juries. The 
number of jurors is five, being two, too m»ny, and 
the jury that awards prizes to sheep does the same 
duty towards pigs and barn door fowls. In the case 
of black cattle, matters are still worse : the same jury 
awards prizes to several differcut races of stock. It is 
proposed to nominate jurors with a special knowledge 
of ench class of animals exhibited. It would be well to 
exercise greater severity towards exhibitors who meiely 
purchase stock to fatten and carry off a blue ribbon. 
M. Lemorie has conducted a curious experiment to 
determine the ratio between the food consumed by barn- 
door fowls, and the quantity of manure produced, lie 
enclosed a cock and six hens of the Dorking breed. A 
hen, it appears, consumes annually 374 lb. of food, of 
which it excretes 272 lb. : the remaining 102 lb. repre- 
senting that serving for the sustenance of tho body. 
The value of the manure was only one franc! 
The phylloxera coutinues its ravages, and some 
vineyard- proprietors flatter themselves to have con- 
quered the foe. The Government is certainly not 
niggardly in its grants to experiment on all agents 
reputed efficacious to destroy tho lOOOrge. A v> rv 
complete history of tho plague has appeared, replete 
witii illustrations of tho insect in all its stages : its 
mode ef propagation. ■ 1 attack, and of its ravages : 
healthy and diseased vines are so grouped that it ia 
impossible even for a child not to take in the history 
of the calamity. Tho volume speaks to the eye, and 
must bo Invaluable wherever a vineyard exists, or 
natural history is taught. 
