30 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [July i, 1893, 
Scientific Cultu«e.— The Editor of the 
Horticultural Times puts true science in a nutshell 
Bnd we oommend the following to the attention of 
our planters:— 
Nitrogen is an indiapeusable fertilizer in fiome crops 
aud soils, yet nitrogen mast be backed up in moit 
OBBes by a corresponding proportion of potaith aud 
phosphoric acid. Whether this is so or oot, theorisiijg 
upon the subject will not settle the question one 
way or another : the only way to settle the matter 
is " to put the question to the soil aud get the answer 
in the crop." 
Fkuit Culture in Northern India.— The 
Bev. M. M. Carleton has furnished the Horti- 
cultural Times with very interesting notes of bis 
experience at 4,500 feet altitude, 65 miles from 
Simla: which we shall reproduce in full in tbe 
Tropical Agriculturist. He gives results of apple 
cultivation (a failure comparatively); Kasbmere 
apricots (a great success); hardy American grapes 
(a great succese); common Himalayan walnut (also 
a success), European orange trees 8 years old 
gave over 200 oranges each year, yielding a profit 
of 10 rupees from 10 feet square of ground. 
An American Tea Garden " — (what next ?) 
— Such is the rather ominous heading of a long 
paper with interesting and well-executed engravings I 
which we find in the American Grocer, reproduced it 
seems from another Far Western publication 
American Gardening. The experiment thus 
attracting such widespread interest is that of 
ProfesBOi Shephard i& South Carolina to which 
referpnoe has already been made in our columns. 
Mr, Henry Cottam has been his factotum and 12 
acres have been planted with plants from |As8em- 
Hybrid seed got from Oeylon : other seed being 
tried in separate gardens. The engravings show 
Very flourishing bushes and neatly arranged rows 
packed by the sombre pines for which the Carolinae 
are famouB. That it will not do to smile at such 
experiments, especially in these days of " patent 
pluokers may be judged from the Grocer's edi- 
torial remarks :— 
An experimental tea garden in South Carolina 
brings up the old question : Can tea growing be made 
a profitable industry in the United States 1 When 
the raisin industry of California was started, and 
the orange plantations of Florida, nearly every one 
was an unbeliever in the ultimate success ot the 
kcspective enterprises. The absence ot cheap labor 
was the cause assigned ; the want of it is now regar- 
ded the chief hindrance to tea cultivation in the 
United States. Both raisin making and orange 
growing have passed the experimental stage and are 
in a fair way to displace the foreign grown article. 
Mr^ Shephard himself reports : — 
The Finehurst tea gardens are none of them much 
more than three years old ; the most have been 
very recently planted. They comprise altogether 
about twelve acres, and consist of plants grown from 
the Assam hybrid seed, which has been raised in the 
Southern States, and from the best Ceylon estates. 
Other gardens have Chinese, Formosa and Japanese 
plants, all raised from seed procured from those 
countries. It is probable that some gardens of Indian 
seed will be established ere long, as it is intended 
to experiment with all the leading varieties. This 
year's manufacture did not extend beyond Ase&m- 
hybrid plants, but another year Chinese plants should 
be avaiUble to a limited extent as well. In addition 
to the gardens, there are in hedges tea plants equi- 
valent to a couple of acres of garden, which are 
later to be used in manufacture. The gardens have 
been located on several varieties of soil (sandy, clay 
loam and bottoms of reclaimed swamp), for the pur- 
pose of testing tbeir relative fitness. 
Ametioans do not give up their "ventures" in a 
hnrry, and it machines be utilized, we may hear 
B good deal more of tea-growine even in South 
Coconuts ih ZiNziUAa— Mr, Fitzgerald in 
a report which we shall quote in detail by and-bye, 
speaks of palms favorably situated yielding up 
to 300 nuts per annum, though he admits that 
the usual yield is from 100 to 200 — or 30 to 
■00 at a plucking four times a year. Very good 
indeed — indeed magnificent, must euch returns be 
considered, if verified by experience for any time 
and over any considerable area. 
A Chkmical-factoby in thk Tranbtaal. — The 
Johannesburg Htar gives particulars of a new 
factory for sulphuric-acid manufacture, known as 
the " Transvaal Chcmical-worke," which has just 
been erected at Knight's Dam, in the Transvaal 
Republic, close to the Hungarian Ore-reduction 
Company's factory. The factory is under the 
management of a Mr. Bagehawe, who has bad 
experience of similar work in Scotland and else- 
where. The works will be of great advantage, it is 
thought, to the gold fields ; they will use the 
pyrites obtained in treating the ore, and supply 
the gold companies with the sulphuric acid, of 
which they require large quantities. There are 
four lead-chambers, measuring 130 by VO feet, and 
from 12 to 14 feet high, erected by English workmen, 
—Chemist and Dru/jgist, April 22. 
Thk British Guiana Government Labobatoby — 
The Government analytical chemist of British 
Guiana has hitherto been allowed to carry on a 
private analytical practice in addition to his 
official work, but at the last meeting of the 
" Court of Policy " of the colony a motion was 
brought forward EUggesting that the tees received 
by the analyst in his private practice (which were 
stated to mount to 91,320 a year) should go into 
the Treasury. Ultimately it was agreed to allow 
the analyst SI, 200 a year in lieu of his private 
fees — the latter to go into the Treasury — to raise 
his salary from $3,000 to S3.000, with qoartere, 
and to allow him two Bssistants (one at 9960 and 
one at S480), instead of one as theretofore. The 
analyst clearly appears to have had the best of the 
bargain. — Ihid. 
New Petroleum Fields in Sumatra. — A 
correspondent writes to a Singapore paper to 
announce new petroleum discoveries in Rumatra: — 
It seem that Sumatra shortly will not only be 
known as produoiog the finest tob&cco and cofiee, 
but also as tbe Fenneylvauia of the East, as ii i8 
apparently coming into tbe first rank ai a petroleum 
producing country. It is not so long ago, that tbe 
first Sumatra petroleom from Laogkat appeared on 
the Singapore market. Since then it appears that 
an oil tield of far larger extent has just been discovered 
in Palembang by Mr. Scbmitz du Moulio, Most of 
the petroleum wells he controls are lying clo^^e to tbe 
shore where the largest seagoicg vtstiel can lie along 
side. Hence the facilities for shipping cannot be 
snrpassed, as no costly system of transport or pipe 
lines are W&nted for bringing the petroleum to the 
ship's side-. The geological formation is believed to 
be much the same as in tbe oil-bearing districts of 
the States, undulating country, the petroleum forma- 
tion being overlayed by a soft sandstone. Many ate 
trying now to find petroleom further inland or to 
get concessions in the ceigbbonrhood, among them 
such well known names as those of Mr. Herrings of 
Assahan, Messrs. Scblimmer & Co., and others. Since 
the first wells have been found, there has been k 
teal rnsh for concessions, a great many of which have 
been already applied for. WUat makea the dieoovery 
of Mr. Schmitz du Moulin still more important is 
that he declares that he has found there also enor- 
mous deposits of ozokerit, which is really a form 
of solidified petroleum. If there is trntn in this 
asserted discovery, it will prove a great boon to nut 
Eastern gas manufactories, especially as no reallj 
good gas coal has been ^et tound in th« Sast, 
