Attgust r, 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Ill 
grades that have been partly excluded by the duty, 
and it is easy to see how the duty has indirectly 
affected the pockets of the American consumer when 
a higher-priced substitute has been used in some 
cases. We say, in some cases, because Brazil grades 
have also taken the place of Maracaibo an'i Laguayra 
coffees, at a higher price than they would have realized 
if Maracaibos and Laguayras had never been dis- 
criminated against. It is strange that some papers 
will not admit that import duties enhance prices, 
when they are so unwilling to have the duties 
removed. If the duties do not increase prices, they 
must be useVss ; and if they are useless, why not 
remove them. — Ihid. 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCH0N4 AUCTIONS. 
(Telegram from our Correspondent.) 
Amstehdam, Thursday evening. 
At today's cinchona auctiona 5,734 bales Java bark 
were oijercd, of which only 3,235 found buyers, at 
B decline of 5 per cent upon the last auction rates, 
the unit avera;;iDg on this occssion 4g cenis (=abnut 
Jd per lb ) For manufacturing bark in qoills, -^h'pa 
biid orufhed from 5c. to 59o. (=ld to lOJd). ; ditto 
root, 9c. to 32c. (= IJd to 5Jd) ; druggists' barks 
in quill, brokr n quill and chips 10. to 51c (=lid to 
9id); ditto root, l4o. to 27o. (=2i.l to 4iJ per lb.) 
WB8 p»id. The prircipal buyers, in the order of 
their quicine-purchafes, were the Brunswick, the 
Amsterdam and Mannheim, and the Auerback factories, 
Messrs. Matthes & Borme.'ster, and the Frankfort- 
on-Maia and Stuttgart work. — Chemist and Drugyist, 
June 3. 
^ 
PUBE COCOA. 
Sib, — Referring to my letter in your journal of 
May 20, Messrs. Van Houttn direct my sttention to 
the fact that their cocoa is not di-soribeias "pure," 
bat as " pure soluble." TLeie n^ay be more iu this 
diatitction tbau prinia facie appears, There is no 
cocoa in the market which is " abpoUtely pure," 
strictly fp. aking. Every mauntao'urer cither removes 
a poriion ot the fat or adds Bomoiliing to theground 
nib to make tho preparation mere palntablo when 
infused. A cocoa may be correctly detcribtd as 
" I)cre soluble" from a dietetic poiiit of vi..w, 
although it has been treated in a perfect innocuous 
manner, eo as iucreiise the proportion of soluble 
coni-titacnts. — Your very truly, D. B. Dott. 
104 S.)uth CanOEgnte, Edinburgh, May 31. 
— Chemist and Brugr/ist, Jure 3. 
PLANTING "PICKINGS" WITH A PRACTICAL 
APPLICATKJN. 
The "cures" for all the ills that flesh is heir to are 
legion, but probably many people have not heard, 
of that common agreeable and cheap medicament 
to wit Sugar. "The , ugar cane" is the tile of a 
long description in the Produce Jlarlcts Bcvieic of 
how sugar of which the patients a.re advised at tirs 
to take not more than i lb and never over h lb 
(though Ij lb. may be taken afterwards) can cure 
indigestion, pains, oppression, acidity, nausea, in- 
somnia, loss of appetite, debility, nervousness, wounds, 
sores, spo'sof hard skin, ulcerated ears, laringitis, 
etc , etc., &c. l et there be no fear of any dangerous 
results from this treatment, for we are told that 
•'of 202 patients treated with sugar only ."j died." 
What a good time there is in store for our little ones 
among whom there would seem to be a prospect of 
much siclincss (though not of a fatal nature) in the 
near future, and for be grocerymen too, who will be 
a'so our druggists. Our doctors of medicine would 
do well to tlu'vw physic to the dogs and take 
to sugarcane culture. 
The stock movement reports in the Qiictvshnider, 
give oce an idea of the scale on which stock fnrm- 
iug is carried on in the southern continent. Uere 
I are a few items : "Today there are passing through 
Jundah, 1 112 bullocks from Spring Creek, George- 
'i town. P. Collins owner, George Blackall in charge. 
The bullocks are in exceptionally fine condition." 
" On the 12th inst. Mr. Wiglesworth, with 13 000 good 
wethers from Beaconsfield, destination Yundilla." 
"1,000 bullocks and 600 cows, the property of T. B. 
\ Nimmo. passed on the 18th." This is something 
like farming ! 
j The following quotation from the Melbotirne Leader 
I of June 3rd is of interest at the present moment : — 
It may not be out of pla^e, without any necessity 
I for creating a scare, to call attention to the desira- 
j bleness of improving our system of Cattle Inspection, 
1 more particularly with reference to the dairy herds, 
i The growing importance of the dairying industry in 
I connection with the interests of the pi'oducera and 
consumers alike demands a complete revision of the 
present extremely slip-shod system. The staff of 
stock inspectors attached to the Department of Agri- 
culture has not, we believe, at any time been sub- 
jected to a very severe veterinary examination test 
as a condition of admission to office ; but if it be 
granted that some of the older officers in the service 
; may have some practical experience in lieu of pro- 
' fesaional qualifications, that should certainly be no 
excuse for laxity in later appointments. It may of 
course be regarded as sufficiently in order f om a 
Public Service Board point of view to transfer — as 
per a recent instance— a telegraph line repairer to 
a postal stock inspector, but to those outside who 
, have no access to the sources of wisdom which 
j actuate the members of that peculiar institution, 
the action is not altogether destitute of apparent 
' anomaly. Even supposing the status of the stock 
inspectors was improved in a professional sense 
I instead of weakened, it might be argued that the 
I field of inspection is now becoming wide enough to 
I demand even a more numerously officered system 
than the Department of Agriculture in these retrench- 
ment times is likely to be able to command. In 
such case it might be as well to remember that 
clause 24 of the Public Health Amendment Act 
authorises borough and shire councils to register 
all dairies within their districts and appoint in- 
spectors. Surely this is a duty that these bodies 
should undertake. For an annual fee that need not 
be beyond the ability of these bodies to easily defray 
the services of a competent veterinarian might be 
obtained to act jointly for several districts. One 
of the metropolitan districts, we note, has recently 
seen its way to adopt this course, with the result 
that already upwards of a score of cows have been 
marked as unfit for dairy use. It is not at all impro- 
bable that these condemned animals may have been 
transferred to some other district where inspection 
is not so methodically carried out, and if so that 
only adds weight to the reason why each local body 
should appoint its own inspector. 
The Auckland Weekly Kews. under "Sc'ence aud 
Invcnti' ns" refers thus 10 Vegetable Ivoby, allcded 
to in ocr columns some time back: — This is furrisbtd 
from the Andem palm tree, one of the mo<<t beantiful 
of r11 the palm tribei, a native of Soutti Ameri' a, but 
found especiiUy in Pern. The stem of the tree is 
straight and Bhort, snd the crown ends in a splendid 
tuft of light green foliage, somewhat resembling an 
enormous ostrich plume running np for about 30 ft. or 
40 ft. in height. The fruit is of great size aud con- 
tains a nnmber of cells or drupes all close together, 
lu these cells are a number of nuts, each about the 
size of a hen's egg, which, when ripe, are extremely 
hard and known to commerce as corrozzo nuts. The 
kernels are quite white, and have a very close re- 
semblance in their geueriil appearance to ivory. Many 
millioDsofthe nu»s are now imported into this country. 
The rPBultant ivory like subetaLca is of very wide 
utilit'-, and in various parts, Birmingbim efpecmily, 
tl>o mutt rial is iilr ac^y being used for ni;iny purfosee, 
useful as vel as " ornainenta', for nbicb pre- 
vio'islytrue ivcrv was exclusively emplojeil. In 'his 
curious iiHturiil rrD>lu.-t— or the resultant substance— 
there crcbably lie-i a gr.at future, since there apprnrs 
to be no practical limit lo the produclionof tbo nute. 
