Oct.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
241 
NOTES  BY  WANDERER. 
Aug.  22nd. 
Quinine.— Your  co-editor  Mr.  John  Ferguson  is 
always  pressing  on  the  attention  ot  those  in- 
terested in  cinohona  or  quinine  the  propriety  of 
extending  its  use  by  making  it  up  in  small 
packets  and  selling  it  at  a oheap  rate  to  the 
poorer  classes.  The  Indian  Government  has  evi- 
dently got  hold  of  this  idea,  for  they  are  using 
the  agenoies  of  the  post  offices  in  India  to  sell 
Indian  Government  quinine  to  the  poor  classes 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  India. 
Timber  Trees. — What  will  my  brother  planters 
say  to  the  following  cutting  from  the  “ Indian 
Agriculturist”  re  the  despised  blue  gum  ? — 
The  euoal} plus  iB  declared  to  be  the  mort  valuable 
tree  introduced  in*o  France,  aDd  its  cultivation  is 
rapidly  extending  in  the  Southern  departments.  Its 
bark  is  in  great  demand  by  the  French  tanners.  ts 
fibres  are  employed  in  the  making  of  mats  and  baskets, 
cordage  p&oking  and  blotting  paper  and  filters.  A 
resioons  substanoe  is  extracted  from  it  by  distillation 
which  is  known  in  commerce  as  vegetable  naphtha. 
An  illuminating  oil  is  obtained  from  it  which  affords 
a brilliant  light  without  smoke  and  without  odour. 
Fragrant  essenoes  are  distilled  from  its  flowers.  Its 
ohemical  pro  lucts  enter  largely  into  the  French  Phar- 
macopoeia, and  a decoction  of  the  wood,  after  having 
been  cut  into  fine  flakes,  is  found  to  bo  superior  to 
any  other  agency  for  cleansing  the  calcareous  incrus- 
tations which  gather  on  the  inside  of  the  boilers  of 
steam  engines. 
Tea  Blight. — Apparently  there  is  truth  in  the 
proverb  “ the  cute  is  worse  than  the  disease”  if 
the  following  extract  from  an  Indian  paper  is  oorrect: 
The  Director  of  Land  R°oords  and  Agriculture  at 
Bombay  reoeutly  published  a memorandum,  recom- 
mending that  Bouilh'e  Bordelaise  should  be  used  as  a 
cure  for  the  potato  disease  th-t  is  ravaging  the  Poona 
fields.  It  may  interest  him  t'i  read  in  the  annual  report 
of  the  Agri-Horticultural  Society  of  India  that,  in  re- 
oent  cases  in  Assam,  when  Boullie  Bourdtlaise  was  tried 
on  some  tea  gardens  ae  a cure  for  tea  blight,  the  blight 
was  immediately  checked — but  the  following  flash  in 
tbeee  affected  parts  produced  tea  with  a “ peculiarly 
offensive  taste.”  If  the  remedy  have  this  effect  in 
Poona,  the  cultivators  will  have  little  cause  for  thank, 
fulness. 
Cattle  Food. — We  often  bear  planters  complain 
that  while  they  have  enough  and  to  spare  of  grass 
in  the  rainy  season,  they  are  very  hard  up  for  the 
commodity  in  the  dry.  Here  is  a recipe  for  making 
a silo  : — 
To  Make  a Stack  Silo. — Cart  the  freshly  cut  grass 
to  a convenieut  spot  and  then  throw  it  off  on  the 
round  without  bed  or  bottom.  Spread  it  and  gra- 
ually  shape  it  into  a four-sided  figure.  The  heap 
should  be  laid  out  3 feet  wider  than  is  required,  and 
trimmed  back  afterwards.  Then  when  the  heap  is 
three  or  four  feet  high,  walk  two  buffaloes  or  bul- 
locks on  its  top  round  and  round.  Stacking  should 
be  done  gradually,  so  that  the  mass  may  get  time 
to  heat.  I have  taken  buffaloes  on  to  the  stack 
when  it  was  over  eight  feet  in  height  by  making  a 
slope  of  the  green  stuff.  The  bullocks  may  be  kept 
on  the  stack  at  night,  or,  if  removed,  the  stack 
should  be  weighted  to  press  it  down.  When  the 
required  height  is  attained,  the  trimmings  should  be 
laid  on  to  the  top,  thick  branches  of  trees  put  on, 
and  weighted  with  stones  2 feet  deep.  Stones  should 
be  of  the  size  of  a fist  to  a man’s  head.  Stones  of 
larger  size  require  more  labour  in  loading  and  un- 
loading. 
Manuring. — I see  you  wish  your  planting  friends 
to  give  you  their  ideas  on  the  value  of  coconut 
fibre  as  a manure.  Personally  I think  the  way 
for  an  editor  or  any  other  person  to  get  really 
valuable  advice  on  estate  matters  is  to  pay  a fee 
of  RLOO  to  a really  good  V.  A.;  but  to  show  you 
there  is  no  bad  feeling  between  us  I oommit  my- 
self to  the  following ; that  I don’t  believe  much 
31 
in  bones  unless  you  are  going  in  for  the  sale  of 
tsa  seed.  I think  “Coconut  Planter"  ’s  suggestion 
a good  one,  and  would  like  to  see  it  get  a fair  trial. 
— — 
A LONDON  IVORY  SALE. 
The  Leisure  Hour  publishes  in  its  July  number 
an  instructive  account  of  the  London  ivory  market. 
Four  times  a year,  says  the  writer,  in  January, 
April,  July,  and  October,  ivory  sales  are  held  in 
Mincing  Lane,  and  the  display  of  the  goods  in  the 
warehouse  is  one  of  the  strange  sights  of  London. 
The  floor  is  crowded  with  ivory  of  all  sorts  and 
sizes,  in  tusks  and  sections,  and  odds  and  ends, 
some  of  it  in  huge  teeth  weighing  70fb.  each,  some 
mere  trifles  of  201b.  a piece,  some  mere  pigmy 
“scrivelloes,”  and  crooked,  cracked,  hollow,  decayed 
and  broken.  The  wilderness  of  teeth  seems  all 
in  movement  round  the  gigantic  pair  of  travelling 
scales  in  the  centre ; the  curving  tusks  are  like 
so  many  worms,  all  strangely  scratched  and  scribed, 
and  are  of  all  colours  from  white,  through  the 
browns,  almost  black ; and  an  expert  can  tell  at 
a glance  where  each  came  from,  andean  sort  the 
lots  from  the  pink  Calcutta  to  the  black  West 
Coast  which  comes  wrapped  up  in  the  raw  hides 
bearing  the  mysterious  name  of  “ schroons.”  What 
would  an  elephant  think  if  he  were  to  get  a peep 
at  this  floor  so  crowded  with  his  relatives’  incisors  ? 
Here  would  be  a memento  mori  for  nim  more 
significant  than  that  of  the  mummy  at  an  Egyptian 
feast!  Each  pair  of  tusks  means  a life,  for  the 
elephant  is  as  yet  ignorant  of  the  dentist’s  forceps, 
although  we  hear  of  elephants  driven  mad  with 
the  tooth-ache  and  have  specimens  of  tusk  disease 
in  our  College  of  Surgeons’  Museum ; and  the  few 
cases  of  monstrosities  having  three,  four,  and 
even  nine  tusks  at  a time  may  be  disregarded. 
Mr.  Stanley  tells  us  that  in  the  Congo  basin  there 
are  two  hundred  thousand  elephants,  each  with 
501b.  of  ivory  in  his  jaws,  the  total  being  worth 
half  a million  of  money;  but  even,  that  stock 
would  soon  be  exhausted  if  the  Congo  alone  had 
to  fill  this  floor  four  times  a year. 
WHERE  THE  TUSKS  COME  FROM. 
And  besides  the  London  sales  there  are  sales  at 
Liverpool  and  Antwerp  and  Rotterdam.  Most  of 
the  Liverpool  ivory  comes  from  the  West  Coast 
of  Africa,  and  a quarter  of  it  goes  to  Sheffield,  a 
quarter  to  London,  and  half  to  Germany,  France, 
and  the  United  States.  To  the  London  sales  the 
ivory  comes  from  all  parts.  Recently  the  year’s 
import  amounted  to  11,763  cwt.,  declared  at 
£537,527.  Of  this  large  quantity — the  freight  of 
which  is  reckoned  at  61  cwt.  to  the  ton — the  British 
East  Indies  were  responsible  for  3,180  cwt.  and 
Hong- Kong  for  40,  thus  making  the  Asiatic  contri- 
bution 3,220  cwt.,  to  which  we  must  add  37  cwt. 
from  Java  and  much  of  the  1,241  cwt.  from 
Holland  before  we  can  approximate  to  the  total 
yield  of  the  Indian  elephant.  But  a classification 
of  this  sort  is  vague  and  valueless.  Ivory  is  both 
imported  and  exported  direct  by  us,  and  much 
of  it  reaches  through  European  ports.  For 
instance,  Europe,  omitting  Holland,  sends  us 
1,415  cwt.,  which  may  be  either  Indian  or  African, 
though  the  bulk  undoubtedly  comes  from  the 
Dark  Continent.  Much  of  the  North  African  ivory 
reaches  us  by  way  of  Malta,  and  much  of  the 
East  African  from  Aden,  Out  of  the  11,000  odd 
cwt.  Malta  sent  565  and  Tripoli  309,  making  874 
as  the  Northern  contribution;  Aden  sent  1,821 
and  East  Africa  331,  making  2,152  as  the  Eastern 
lot ; West  Africa  sent  2,429,  and  South  Africa 
181,  making  up  the  African  supply  to  5,636  cwt. 
at  the  very  least,  to  whioh  we  should  certainly 
add  the  French  ivory  from  the  Gaboon, 
