THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1882. 
As a bee forage plant nothing is better than mignion- 
ette, and the honey made from it is deliciously fragrant 
and commands a higher figure. 
No man can remain perfectly healthy without a good 
Hupply of vegetables. All exclusive flesh diet begets 
grossness, fatness and laziness. 
Young larkspur and castor oil plants are destructive 
to locust life. 
The English consume on an average 201b. of cheese 
each per annum, or a total of 500,000,000 lb. 
In an experiment at the Illinois Industrial University, 
corn cultivated six times gave 8 per cent more crop 
than that under same conditions, but cultivated only 3 
times. 
Glucose is largely superseding barley malt in the manu- 
facture of lager beer. 
Crushed bones form an excellent manure for sugar- 
cane. 
In poor land it is a great mistake to put the surface 
mould too deep. In trenching, work so as to keep it 
on the top. 
THROUGH THE DARK PRESENT TO THE 
BRIGHT FUTURE. 
Everything seems so to obey the cycle theory that 
a man like Stanley Jevons even, went the length of 
advancing the proposition that commerce and finance 
were ruled by the sun-spot periods. Of course, the 
proposition must have a certain amount of truth in 
it, if we believe, as we suppose most intelligent ob- 
servers now do, that the weather and the harvests, 
on which the prosperity of commerce so much de- 
pends, are affected by the sun-spots, that is, by 
solar influences. Observations of a limited nature may 
seem adverse to the doctrine, but when extended 
areas and extended periods are the materials for in- 
ference, very striking conclusions are arrived at. It 
may be — why not ? — that, as depression in Ceylon 
has reached its lowest depths coincidently with the 
close of a period of quiescence in the sun's gaseous 
envelope, so a reaction to prosperity may be coin- 
cident with the abnormal activity recently developed 
in the forces which dwell in aud radiate from the 
centre of the solar system ? There is no place in 
the world where belief in the influence of the sun 
spots on the earth's meteorology and, therefore, on 
the interests affected by the weather has been more 
persistently taught than in Mauritius by that careful 
observer and able generalizer, Mr. Meldrum. Rightly, 
therefore, on all accounts has our correspondent used 
the sugar colony as an illustration of warning, or 
rather we should say of cheer, to us in Ceylon. 
What he states is true. It was only the other clay 
that sugar property in Mauritius, which is now at 
a very high premium, as the extracts which follow 
"Mercator" 's letter will shew, could be purchased for 
an old song. Our own constant complaint was that 
a company which owned so much of next to worthless 
property in Mauritius should take its title from the 
isle of the prosperous and promising coffee. Lo ! 
the change. Many shareholders in the Ceylon Com- 
pany (Limited) must experience bitter regret that 
their directors parted with estates which are now 
so exceedingly valuable. Why should not the pro- 
cess which in a few years has raised Mauritius and 
her sugar interest from the depths almost of despair, 
to great and still advancing prosperity, not be repeated 
in Ceylon ? In the history of our island's enterprize, 
several such rebounds to prosperity from almost hops- 
less adversity have occurred, and " that which hath 
been, that it is which shall be." The doctrine of 
cycles is roughly embodied in the popular proverb 
that " When things are at their worst, they will be 
sure to mend," and the mending time must be close 
at hand, for it is difficult to suppose that things 
with us can become worse than they are : especially 
in regard to our great staple, Arabian coffee, and in 
a minor degree with reference to our ee.condary staples, 
coconut oil and cinnamon. We must not be mis- 
understood as now alluding to the retrieval of the 
colony's position by the means of "new products" : 
tea, cinchona, cacao, &c. What we look for, con- 
fidently and soon, — if all analogy in human affairs is 
not to fail us, — is a reaction to prosperity in our old 
staples and especially in the sore-tried coffee, so long 
the victim of abnormal seasons ; so long the prey of 
enfeebling fungus and wasting grub. Having done 
their worst, those malefic agencies may now be ex- 
pected to depart altogether, or much and continually 
to abate in virulence until the normal condition of 
our great and older industries is restored. Our grat- 
itude is due to the correspondent who has struck the 
key-note of hope, and we commend his arguments 
and his very striking illustration to the best atten- 
tion of our readers, especially those inclined to look 
exclusively on the dark side of the shield. There is 
a bright side, although for a time it has been obscured. 
We do not know half the uses of electricity as yey 
Professor Scoutteten assures us that electricity in ant 
form, whether by continued and direct current, or by 
current of induction, or by spark, always acts in the 
same manner with wines, and makes the hardest and 
most acrid vintages soft, mellow and agreeable to the 
palate. In fact, electricity gives age to new wine. This 
was discovered in France, not very recently, though 
no scientific action has yet been taken on it. The case was 
once reported to the Academy of Sciences by a vine- 
yard proprietor of Digne, whose house was struck by 
lightning. — Pioneer. 
An Australian Remedy for Asthma.— A corre- 
spondent of the Sydney Town and Country Journal 
writes to that paper to bear personal testimony to 
correctness of the claim which has often been uiade 
on behalf of a species of Euphorbia indigenous to 
Queensland, and known scientifically as E. pi/ulifera, 
that it affords a remedy for asthmatic and bronchial 
affections. An ounce of the leaves of the plant placed 
in two quarts of water, and allowed to simmer till 
the quantity is reduced to one-half, will afford 
a medicine which, taken a wine-glassful at a time, 
twice or thrice a day, will relieve the most obstinate 
cases of asthma, as well as coughs and ordinary chest 
affections. The leaves may be easily gathered and 
dried, and kept for a considerable length of time. 
Evidence of the virtues of a decoction of the leaves of 
this species of Euphorbia is very general in Queens- 
land and parts of New South Wales, as other kinds 
of Euphorbia have a considerable medicinal reputation 
in India and elsewhere. Thus leaves of the E. nercifolia 
are prescribed as a purgative by the native pract- 
itioners in. India, while the root of the E. ipecacuanha 
is said to be equal in all respects to the true ipeca- 
cuanha. This extensive genus of plants evidently 
deserves the careful study of skilled botanists and 
druggists. — Colonies and India. 
