1i 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist.*' [July 2, 1894. 
duction of milk and Butter. — Cocoa-nut meal 
and cake compare very favourably in these res- 
pects with other concentrated foods, such as 
earth-nut cake, oatmeal, pea meal, cotton-seed 
meal, rape cake, and oil-cake. 
The following are two useful suggestions for 
preserving eggs: — The eggs are first thoroughly 
cleansed, then dipped for some time in a solu- 
tion of common salt, and finally packed in peat- 
dust and stored in ventilated wooden baskets 
in a dry, airy place. Of 100 eggs so packed 
in autumn, and used during the winter, only 
three were bad. The peat-dust checks the in- 
crease of the bacteria which penetrate the shell. 
Another method is to soap the eggs well and 
soak them for an hour in a solution consisting 
of as much permanganate of potash as will lie 
on the point of a knife added to half a gallon 
of water (or in dilute Condy's fluid). They are 
then thoroughly dried, wrapped in clean paper 
and after packing in a basket or box, kept in 
a dry place free from frost. Eggs so preserved 
will keep for six or seven months without 
losing their fresh taste, as is quickly the case 
with those packed in lime, straw, or chaff. 
Few trades in this country have developed 
with such surprising rapidity as that in eartli 
or ground nuts, or, as they are termed in Ame- 
rica, pea nuts : an account of which is given in 
one of the " Handbooks of Commercial Products." 
The crop was first officially made mention of in 
the Madras Presidency, only as far back as 1851- 
52, but it now constitutes a most important item 
in the exports of Southern India. Earth-nuts 
were not introduced into Europe until 1840 ; but 
owing to the many useful purposes to winch the 
oil is adaptable, its consumption has increased 
to an enormous extent, estimated a year or two 
ago at little short of a million long annually. 
The bulk of the nuts exported from India goes 
to France, mainly to that great seat of the oil- 
manufacturing industry, Marseilles (which port 
now absorbs more of this than any other oil-seed) 
where it is largely utilised in the preparation 
of salad oil ; West Africa and China being the 
other chief sources of supply. Ground nuts afford 
an excellent substitute for olive oil, which they 
much resemble in taste, and the principal emporia 
of this branch of the trade are naturally, after 
the town mentioned, Barcelona and Genoa, l»e- 
cause of their reputation for supplying pure Lucca 
oil. Eastern and western commercial morality 
are probably about on a par, and the produce 
of the earth-nut is sold largely as genuine olive 
oil, or mixed with the latter, in the same way 
that in Madras it is made to pass for gingelly 
oil (put through a mill, in which the latter seed 
ha9 been crushed), and where it is also employed 
as an adulterant for ghee. The oil is also ex- 
tensively used on the Continent in soap-making 
and for lubricating purposes, as an illuminaut 
and for dressing cloth. There i- a large local 
trade in earth-nut oil, in connection with which — 
the raw and manufactured material being alike 
produced and consumed in the country — the ques- 
tion of exchange does not arise ; there is a not 
inconsiderable export business with the Mauritiu-i, 
Burma, the Straits, &c. ; the "il cake also appears 
to find a market in the latter settlement, London 
and Ceylon, and it is therefore somewhat singular 
that more vigorous efforts have not been made 
to establish large steam mills in India for the 
manufacture. 
The Horticultural Review recommends the fol- 
lowing for getting rid of ants; one pound of 
alum dissolved in two quarts of boiling water. 
