38° 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec.  i,  1892. 
reaction  in  favour  of  jute  planting  ba",  ns  was  men- 
tioned in  the  recently  issued  Report,  naturally  taken 
place,  and  the  area  planted  during  the  present  official 
year  must,  says  Mr.  Thurston,  be  as  great  as  if  net 
greater  tha",  that  of  1890-91.  For  the  in'ormation  of 
the  uninitiated  it  may  be  mentioned  that  jute  is  ma- 
nufactured into  cloth  of  different  qualities  ranging  from 
substitutes  for  silk  to  shirtings,  curtains,  carpet", 
nudguunies;  into  paper,  chiefly  prepared  from  there- 
jections  and  cu'tings,  and  into  the  coarser  and  stronger 
qualities  of  cordage,  Where  sida  fibre  excels  jute  ii  in 
its  durability,  and  the  peri-.hable  natnro  of  the  latter 
is  thought  to  ba  fatU  to  its  obtaining  a position 
innch  higher  than  it  has  already  attuned.  It  has, 
however,  it  seems,  a new  sphere  of  usefulness  viz.,  in 
the  form  of  “ juteite,”  the  Dame  of  an  explosive 
invented  by  a German  chemist,  which  is  composed  of 
jute  and  glycerine,  and  which  is  reported  to  have  many 
points  of  superiority  over  the  numerous  explosives  now 
in  the  market. 
As  regards  Podophyllum  emodi  and  morinda,  wo  may 
merely  mention  that  the  Indian  roots  of  the  former 
are  reported  as  yielding  12  per  cent  of  resin,  whereas 
the  American  roots  only  yield  4 per  oent.  Owing  to 
tho  peculiar  property  of  the  dye  stuff  obtained  from 
morinda,  cloth  dyed  with  it  is  not  attacked  by  white 
ants,  and  cloth  so  prepared  is  used  in  India  to  wrap 
round  tho  acoount  books  of  bankers  and  shopkeepers, 
and  it  might  with  advantage  ba  more  generally  used 
lor  bookbinding  and  other  purposes  for  which  profi  c- 
tion  from  iusicts  is  a desideratum.  The  plant,  or 
small  tree,  seems  to  grow  all  over  India.  It  is  known 
in  Madras  as  Togari.  This  13  the  Morinda  citrifolia, 
or  Indian  mulberry,  ami  Urge  quantities  of  the  roots 
are  exported  from  Ma'abar  to  Guzerat  and  Norlheru 
India. — Madras  Mail,  Oct.  31. 
THE  BAMBOO— ITS  MANIFOLD  USES. 
Editor  Farmer  and  Fruit  Grower. 
1.  It  is  impervious  to  mold  and  other  fungoid 
growths,  and  probably  this  is  the  reason  why  Euro- 
pean physicians  in  the  Orient  advise  their  patients 
in  convalescence  from  climatic  fevers  to  leave  their 
houses  built  in  European  fashion  and  live  in  the 
bamboo  bungalows  of  the  natives.  Experience  must 
have  taught  them,  for  they  did  so  in  .Java  long  before 
the  germ  theory  was  started.* 
2.  The  bamboo  partakes  of  the  peculiarities  of 
many  palm  trees,  which  in  sea  water  are  not  at- 
tacked by  the  teredo  or  boring  mfllusk,  so  de- 
structive to  all  other  wood  submerged  in  /water. 
3.  There  are  some  varieties,  highly  prized  by 
the  Chinese,  which  grow  in  joints  or  sections 
four  or  five  feet  long  ; these  are  used  for  cheap 
aqueducts  by  fitting  the  end  of  one  cane  into 
another.  They  grow  forty  to  fifty  feet  high,  and 
canes  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  long  may  be  obtained. 
Why  might  not  these  be  used  for  irrigating  pur- 
poses in  orange  groves  and  truck  farms  ? They  will 
withstand  a high  pressure,  if  not  weakened  and  rot- 
ted by  being  kept  constantly  wet.  It  takes  thirty 
years  to  bring  them  to  complete  maturity,  indi- 
cated by  blossoming  and  seeding  ; but  planta- 
tions propagated  from  suckers  may  be  cut 
in  four  or  five  years.  They  are  usually  cut 
in  the  winter,  as  their  wood  is  then  hardest. 
4.  Probably  the  meat  important  use  to  which  they 
could  be  put  in  Florida  would  be  in  making  slight 
temporary  sheds  or  roofing  for  pineapples  and  sum- 
mer garden)  of  vaiioas  plants  and  vegetable*,  which 
do  not  quite  relish  the  strong'  heat  of  the  mid-uin- 
mer  sun.  They  could  be  much  more  easily  manu- 
factured into  s'ats  by  sMteDmg  in  water  and  split- 
ting, than  the  clumsy  pine  rails  now  used  for  this 
purpose  can  ba  mode. 
The  almost  innumerable  uses  to  which  the  bamboo 
is  put  by  the  Oriental  nations,  of  course,  would  find 
little  acocp'ance  with  Anuricang,  ns  that  would 
imply  t ho  abandonment  of  nails  for  lashing 
an  i the  home  for  tho  bungalow.  It  would 
* The  use  of  bamboo  houses  in  Java  is  referrible 
to  the  prevalence  of  volcanic  disturbance.— En.  T.A. 
make  a serviceable  windbreak  for  our  orange 
groves  if  grown  ou  the  north  and  west  dises. 
There  arc  several  varieties  that  are  considered 
hardy  enough  to  grow  in  the  orange  belt  at  least. 
Among  these  are  mentioned  the  corypha , the  arun  - 
dinaria  falcata,  the  bambusa  vidgarts , the  dendro- 
calamus  strictus,  the  dendroealamtet  Hamiltoni.  L.  P. 
THE  ECONOMIC  USES  OF  LEAVES. 
Of  the  three  divisions  of  Nature’s  products,  man 
is  most  chiefly  indebted  to  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
whether  for  his  food,  medicine,  or  domestic  comforts. 
Every  part  of  plants  and  trees  is  more  or  less  utilised 
by  savage  and  civilised  men,  and  a common  category 
might  be  furnished  by  the  various  uses  of  the  se- 
parate parts— the  roots,  stems,  sap,  bark,  fruit  and 
seeds  and  leaves.  If  we  take  the  last-named,  the 
foliage,  apparently  the  most  insignificant  part  of  the 
plant,  how  dependent  are  we  on  these  for  food,  cloth- 
ing. medicine,  dyes,  stains,  and  various  comforts. 
The  miscellaneous  application  of  leaves  for  different 
purposes  as  domestic  appliances,  and  for  manufactur- 
ing uses,  of  themselves,  would  furnish  a long  list : 
some  few  of  these  we  may  pass  under  notice,  because 
their  adaptability  and  usefulness  are  mainly  confined 
to  tropical  countries.  It  is  true  that  some  leaves 
have  been  utilised  by  the  paper-maker,  as  in  those 
of  the  dwarf  Palm,  Maize  leaves,  and  others,  but 
this  is  only  on  a small  scale. 
The  leaves  of  many  Palms  are  largely  employed 
for  making  hat".  Those  best  known  are  Panama 
hats,  so  named  from  being  shipped  from  that  port. 
These  are  made  from  the  finely-plated  fibre  of  the 
leaves  of  a South  American  Screw-pine  (Carludovica 
palmata).  These  hats  are  much  prized  for  wear  in  the 
tropics,  being  light  and  flexible,  and  can  be  washed 
and  bleached  repeatedly.  The  tree  has  no  stems, 
the  leaves  have  long  slender  petioles,  springing  from 
the  ground  they  are  some  2 feet  long  fan-shaped 
and  four-parted,  each  segment  being  again  ten-cleft, 
so  that  when  folded  in  venation,  each  segment  on  its 
own  rib,  there  are  eighty  layers  in  a young  leaf. 
The  tree  occurs  only  on  the  slopes  of  Andes.  About 
200,000  dozens  of  these  hats  are  made  in  Ecuador  and 
different  States  of  South  America.  These  hats  are 
distinguished  from  all  others  by  consisting  only  of 
a single  piece,  and  by  their  lightness  and  flexibility 
they  may  be  rolled  up  and  put  in  the  pocket  with- 
out injury.  In  the  rainy  season  they  are  apt  to 
get  black,  but  by  washing  with  soap  and  water, 
besmearing  them  with  lime-juice  or  any  other  acid, 
and  exposing  to  the  sun,  their  whiteness  is  easily 
restored.  The  plaiting  of  the  hats  is  very  tedious 
and  troublesome ; the  coarse  ones  may  be  finished 
in  two  or  three  days,  but  the  fine  ones  take  as 
many  months  to  plait.  It  commences  at  the  crown, 
and  finishes  at  the  brim.  The  hats  are  made  on  a 
block,  which  is  placed  upon  the  knees,  and 
requires  to  be  constantly  pressed  with  the  breast. 
The  hats  vary  in  price,  according  to  fineness  and 
quality,  from  20.s.  to  as  many  pounds. 
The  unexpanded  fronds  of  Livistonia  australis, 
prepared  by  being  immersed  in  boiling  water,  are 
dried,  and  the  fibre  thus  obtained  is  much  valued 
for  the  manufacture  of  hats  in  Australia,  which 
much  resembles  the  celebrated  Panama  hats. 
The  rough  leaves  of  the  Ohumico  (Cureteila  ameri- 
cana)  and  of  Davilla  lucida  are  used  for  cleaning 
iron,  and  polishing  and  scouring  wood.  Curatella 
alata  is  used  in  the  West  Indies  for  polishing  bows, 
sabres,  &c. ; and  C.  sambaiba  in  Brazil — indeed,  they 
serve  all  the  purposes  of  sand-paper  to  the  Indians 
for  polishing  their  blow-pipes  and  war  clubs.  The 
leaves  of  Oeltis  orientalis  are  used  for  polishing 
horns  in  the  East  Indies. 
The  foliage  of  Guiacum  officinale  is  very  detersive, 
and  is  frequently  used  in  the  West  Indies  to  scour 
and  whiten  floods,  which  it  is  said  to  do  better 
than  soap. 
Leaves  sown  together  are  much  used  in  India  as 
substitute  for  the  plates  and  dishes  of  more  civilised 
life.  It  is  not  always  poverty  that  leads  natives  to 
use  them  in  preference  to  metal  or  porcelain  articles 
