Aug. 1, 1894.] 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist." 
143 
The salt, it may be noted, is rock-salt, and is 
obtained first by blasting, and then by cutting 
with a rough pick. The miners are so accus- 
tomed to the work that the little dhivastive all the 
light they require, and it is astonishing with 
what regularity and neatness the walls of the 
chambers are cut. These chambers are immense 
rooms — one of them being 320 ft. long and 1-50 ft. 
high. They are seen at their best when a small 
paper balloon is sent up and the surrounding 
space is thus lighted up. There are several 
"Show Booms" of this kind into which visitors 
are taken. 
The salt obtained is generally of a pink or 
pinkish colour, sometimes a dirty or muddy 
pink. Natural salt is said to be found in almost 
every colour — red, brown, green, blue, Sec, but 
here the prevailing coloui is pink. The trans- 
parent crystal salt is also found. A solid rect- 
angular block of 37| cubic ft., and weighing 2} 
tons was sent to Vienna Exhibition of 1873. The 
quantity of rock-salt in this range is practically 
inexhaustible. It lias been calculated that " if au 
average thickness of only 13o ft. and a width of 
3 miles be assigned to the salt beds, then, in the 
130 miles along which these are seen there may be 
130 miles x 3 miles x 135 ft. of beds, giving as 
the solid content of the salt deposits nearly 10 
cubic miles." As for the quality, Dr. Warth 
declared that the salt is "of a purity such us 
few known salt mines of the earth can yield. 
There is no such salt in England, nor in most 
mines on the Continent.'' 
in concluding these notes it may be stated 
that the actual cost of production is said to 
be under 2 as. or 12 cts. a maund (=82 lbs.). 
But the Government duty on each maund is 
R2'8, so that to obtain a maund of salt at the 
mines the buyer lias to pay li2 - 62. 
L. E. B. 
BY HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES. 
Hydrocotle Asiatica (the native name of which 
is Hin-gotu-lolri) is a common enough weed in 
the Island. The plant, which is of a creeping 
habit, and is characterised by roundish or kidney- 
shaped leaves, is officinal in the pharmacopoeia of 
India. The leaves which are the part used, 
contain a pungent, pale-coloured, bitter, volatile 
oil named vellarine, and act as an alterative 
tonic when administered internally, as well as a 
stimulant when locally applied. Attention is 
being drawn in N. S. Wales to the medicinal 
properties of this plant which is said to be 
"credited locally as valuable when applied to 
wounds or sores in the form of a salve or poultice." 
The r , karm r icof/ra])hia Indica confirms the above 
estimate of the therapeutic value of the drug, 
and nlso states that it is so abundant in the 
.Mauritius that it serves as forage for cattle, 
whose milk it improves ; it is also said to be 
greedily eaten by pigs and other domestic animals. 
The plant is much used in native practice in 
Ceylon for purification of the blood, checking 
dysentery, and promoting digestion, as well as 
for curing nervous and skin diseases. Thwaites 
mentions that it is also used as an anthelmintic. 
Pdriictiin c'riib-tfetlW, or barnyard grass (Sin. U'el- 
DWukku) is a grass common in the hotter parts 
of the Island. In Australia, to which it is native, 
P. crus-ffalli is much esteemed as a nutritious grass 
which produces an enormotfs quantity of feed. 
It is there said to be greedily eaten by horses 
and cattle, and to make a hay of good quality. 
In parts of America, it is mowed annually, and 
as much as 4 or o tons of hay are harvested 
per acre. 
The Deputy Conservator of Forests, Andaman 
Islands, stated in reply to an official circular that 
" the possibility of creating a regular export trade 
in East Indian walnut (Albizzia lebbek)* from India 
appears to be well worthy of the consideration of 
the Forest Department as well as of timber mer- 
chants in Europe and tins country." The wood 
seasons well, is easily worked and curved, deve- 
lopes a beautiful grain, and is susceptible of a fine 
polish. Owing to these and other good properties 
it produces pretty as well as substantial furniture, 
and the small consignments which have been 
occasionally sent from the Andamans to London 
have commanded for this purpose a ready sale. 
In India it is much used in ornamental carpentry 
and cabinet-making ; and, owing to its hardness 
and fair durability, for sugar-came crushers, oil- 
mills, well curbs, wheel-work, &c. It is also 
highly suitable for house building, although people 
in the northern provinces have a superstition that 
it is unlucky when applied to this purpose. The 
" East India walnut " [not to be confounded with 
the true walnut of India (Jut/kins regis)~\ is found 
wild or cultivated in most parts of the empire, 
Bengal, Bombay, Madras, and Burma. Specimens 
have been forwarded to the Imperial Institute 
from the Terai forests of the Darje'eliug district, 
from Satara, Poona, and other parts of the 
Western Presidency ; from South Arcot, Malabar, 
&c-, in the South ; from Thayetmyo in Ujiper 
and Tenasserim in Lower Burma. The growth 
of the tree, which is said to attain a height 
of from forty to sixty feet, with a girth of six 
to eight, and at times even ten to twelve feet, 
is exceedingly rapid. Seventeen-year-old stems 
have been found in Sukkur, Sindh, to girdle five 
to six feet. The former Burmese Government, 
it is said, thought so highly of the timber 
(known in their vernacular as kak-ko), that a 
higher tax was fixed on the felling of it than 
on that of any other tree. Burrs of the East 
India walnut, as in the case of other furniture 
wood, increase in value with the intricacy and 
rarity of the design and the size of the burr. 
These, are, as a rule, sliced up into veneers, and 
cost not uncommonly ten to twenty times that 
of the plain wood; indeed, as high as one hundred 
times the value of the ordinary timber has been 
paid for extremely curious and unique specimens. 
The Heme de Eaiw et Fdrets, in an article 
on the effects of humus on vegetation, ob- 
serves that young trees require more nitrogenous 
matter than old ones, and these latter jtfene- 
trate deeper into the sub-soil and lower layers, 
which contain more nitrogen than tne upper 
layers. For these two reasons the removal of 
the covering of dead leaves must necessarily 
have greater influence in the case of young crops. 
* Known among the Sinhalese as Mara, aud found 
in thu Aurmidluipura and Bidullu, districts. 
