Nov. i, 1894.] THE TROPIC A.L 
AGRICULTURIST. 
343 
for the European market. The manihot is a hand- 
some plant, with larga deeply-lobed leaves; but the 
raw root is bitter, and more or less poisonous until 
the juices have been expelled by pre. sure. 
As to Dutch life in Java, the following is in- 
teresting : — 
From Sindanglaja to Buiteozorg is a drive of 
twenty-four miles through oharming soenery and 
over au excellent road. It takes about four hours. 
We returned from Buitenz^rg to Batavia, and sailed 
at 9 a.m. on the 17th May in a Dutch coasting steamer 
for Semarang iu Central Java. The steamer was 
comfortable, but was rather crowded, as in addition 
to the ordinary passengers we carried twenty Dutch 
young ladies, on the way to their homes for the 
holidays. The girls were in high spirits, und kept 
us amused with playing games and singing chorus 
songs until the ship became a little lively, when 
they disappeared below. The Anglo-Indian in Java 
ia much struok by the manuer iu which the Dutch 
make themselves at borne in their Eastern posses- 
sions, as contrasted with our habits in India. Few 
fathers of families in Java think it necessary to S9nd 
their boys and girls to Holland for education; and it 
is common, even in Batavia, to see troops of little 
pale-faced children creeping unwillingly to schojl. 
The Dutch ladies also seem to resign themselves quite 
willingly to perpetual exile. The difference is no 
doubt partly due to the superior climate which the 
interior of Java possesses, as compared with the 
burum- plains of India; but it is also in some decree 
attributable to the sensible manner in which the Dutch 
adapt their dress and daily habits to the conditions 
of life in the tropics. In Java the Europeans seem 
to make up their minds to live their lives there, while 
in India we are all birds of passage. 
Our " temple-tree " {Plumiera acutifolia) seems to 
be given over to oemeteries in Java, all native 
burial-places bad them and they were the largest trees 
of the kind, Sir H. Collett had ever seen. A great 
deal of information is given about the volcanic 
mountains and Graters in Java, also on the Buddhist 
and Hindu temple remains. One suoh reference we 
quote : — 
The wonderful temple of Boroboedar is conjectured 
by Fergusson to have been erected in the seventh 
century of the Obristian era, the golden age of Bud- 
dhism in Java, "just when the BudJhist system had 
attained its greatest development, and just before 
its fall. This templs thus contains witbin itself a 
complete epitome of all we learn from other sources 
and is a perfeot illustration of all we know of Buddhist 
art and its revival." 
The temple is built on the summit of a command- 
ing hill, and hts the form of a pyramid with its apex 
removed. Each side of the base measures 370 lest, 
and on the upper platform are placed the seventy- 
two small shriues (or dagobas), each with a seated 
statue of Buddha in it, which formed the temple 
proper. In the centre of these rises a larger shrine 
now empty, bat which no doubt once contained relics 
or a statue. Four gallaries, or procession paths en- 
cirole the structure, ami lead to the upper platform, 
where a grand view of the fertile plain enclosed by 
rugged mountains is obtained. 
" It is not, however," Fergusson writes, "either 
from its dimensions or the beauty of its architectural 
design that Boroboedar is so remarkable, as for the 
sculptures that lino Its galleries. These extend to 
nearly 5,000 feet, almost an English mile, and as there 
are sculptures on both faces of the galleries, we have 
nearly 10,000 feet of bas-reliefs; or if we like to aid 
those which are in two storeys, we have a scr.es of 
sculptures which, if arranged consecutively in a row 
would extend over nearly three miles of ground. 
Most of them are singularly well preserved; for when 
the Jayans were converted to Muhamadauism it was 
not in anger, and they were not urged to destroy 
what they had before reverenced : they merely 
neglectod them, and, exoept for earthquakes these, 
monuments would now be neatly as perfect as when 
they woro first erected," 
The outer face of the basement is extremely rich 
in architectural ornaments and figure sculptures! 
but is not historically important. The first enclosed 
gallery is the most interesting, and contaius on its 
inner wall 120 elaborate bas reliefs portraying scenes 
in the life of Buddha. In the three upper galleriei 
Buddhism is represented as a religion. Groups of 
Buddhas, three, five, or ninf, are repeated over and 
over agffin, mixed with representations of saints and 
sages. Tue carvings have been executed in a hard 
tracbytic rook, aud if the coveriog of moss and liohena 
is soraped off, the finest tracings of the artist's chiBel 
are still to be di-cerned. 
We are accuetomed to regard Buddhism as a widely- 
spread religion even in these days; but the faith ia 
now in its decadence as compared with the golden 
age which witnessed the nearly contemporaneous 
erection of temples in Afghanistan, in India, and ia 
Java — iountries where the tenets of Sakya Muni have 
long ceased to hold sway. 
INDIAN PATENTS. 
Calcutta, the 27th September 1894. 
Specifications of the undermentioned inventions have 
been filed under the provisions of Act V of 1888:— 
Dieing Fibres.— No. 55 of 1894.— Alexander Beith 
Hay, Manufacturing Chemist, and James Moffatt Park, 
Oliemist, both of Maryhill, Glasgow, io the Co. of 
Lanark, Scotland, for improvements in dyeing fibres, 
yarns and fabrics. (Filed 18th September 1894.) 
Machine for Husking, etc.— No. 112 of 1894. — 
Kobert Rickie, of Messrs. Rickie & Co., Bangalore 
Iron Works, Bangalore City, for an improved machine 
for husking, decorticating and crushing seeds, grains 
or berries. (Filed 13th September 1894.;— Indian 
Engineer. 
♦ •■ — 
REPORT ON GINGER CROPS IN 
JAMAICA, 
Mr. W. Fawoett, the Director of Publio Gardens, 
has issued his report on tne Ginger Crops of Jamaioa. 
He says : — 
The quality of commercial ginger upon which the 
pr.ee depends, is due chiefly to s >il, but also to curing 
to the variety, white or blue aud to whether it has 
been freshly planted a few months before or hag 
been " ratooning " for one or more years. 
The soil, which produces the very highest quality 
realising perhaps £10 per cwt. in the London market 
is the very deep black soil of virgin forest. To grow 
ginger under this condition involves the destruction of 
large areas of forest. 
Magnificent trees, six feet in diameter, may be seen 
iu some districts lying rotting on the ground while 
the ginger cultivators have gone further to the centre 
of the island, abandoning the woodlands already cut 
down. The plan adopted in cleaning the forest is 
for a. cultivator to invite 10 or 12 01 his friends to 
a " cutting match," he provides iood and drink and 
the laborious work of feeling trees is carried on 
merrily and without much expense. Afterwards fire 
is put, and the place is burnt over. This burn- 
ing is considered very important as much so as 
the virgin soil probably its importance is due 
principally to the deposit of potash and other 
mineral matters contained in the ashes, but the 
fire will also sweeten the ground correcting sourness 
aud moreover it destroys insect pests. Some cul- 
tivators will only grow ginger in freshly oleared wood- 
land and next jeat they move on to a new clearing, 
but although in this way they get very fiuo ginger 
it is at the expense of fores: laud which would re- 
quire a very heavy outlay and perhaps a term of a 
hundred years to restore. Albert Town was net so 
long ago a centre ior the cultivation, but 1 was told 
there that growcra had already got as far as fourteen 
miles further inland. 
Ginger can be and is grown iu many places year 
after year on the same ground. Au intelligent cul. 
