24 
THE TROPICAL AGIUCULTUEIST. 
[July 1, 1900. 
Sugar looks strong from American news, but 
k6re people think iulvance gone far enougn. 
Wheat and Corn should rise Coifse consump- 
tion is greater than supply and should rise 
Iron, copper and tin are higher enoagh. i^otton 
gTOvving crop 20 per cent, increase in acreage and 
fertilizers 28 per cent.— Car. 
Mtcs. FROM Cn^LON.— [t will be a m ittor of 
interest to many tiiac m'ca is beci.Miiug au article 
of export from tiiis islatitl. Hmail qaruiuf.iea are 
bein'-' sent now. The "City of 8|):ui,a," due liere 
toraoi-rosv, takes away 1 ton (2.3 c:wes) of ini/a. 
Lfv?t niouLli 2 I cases were sent. Tlie article is 
seat to London. Mxa is believed to exist in 
Qeylon extensively and should a demand for ic be 
found, Ceylon oui^ht to be able to isupjily it to any 
extent.— Lo:al " Examiner." 
Thi5 Assam-Bengal Railway Co., are, we 
hear, takin,-j the eiiterprisiag step' of inilucmg 
one of the skeanisr compuniea who trade ia our 
East luiiie.^ to provide a steamer service between 
Chitta-ong and Lcnaon durin- the fn^uu'S' tea 
and inte RQ-.mnt. lb would mean ' full loads 
either way,, we slr.uld fancy or at Ir.-t h-pe 
so for th-5 s-nv^ to be wo. tb the ea-d'e. Mes-re. 
Dufi Brnoe & Co. a-u the new (jon'nltin.; ll-'igi- 
nfers at home to the A9saui-P>engai Uailway Com- 
pany, in s-.icces'sioii to Mr. Wiiiiam Uuff Bruce.— 
Indian and Eastern Engineer, (May.) 
Indian Labour Applied for fi?om this 
Straits!— We command the f .llowing piece of 
Indiaa news to the enterprising Government 
that rules this land, a Government which tor 
its size has more public works on its hands 
than any in the East and has as yet made no 
official announcement as to the steps it has 
taken to pi'ocare labour for those works :— 
Th'" following telegram from the Government of 
India" wis recently leeeived by the Madras Govern- 
._" Goveruor-General in CoaU'^d learns tnat 
Prot-^fced Sfcotes, Milay Penin.-julx., are anxiofis to 
reoru t Indian I'.bour this year ia famine tracts 
Hooi IS? to obfc^iin better supply th ui ui ordinary veara 
they seok co-operation of ludi in G ivemmeno. P.ease 
consider whether any special fa',:disie3 for obt unin? 
labour can be given to ProtoLaed States exempted 
from Indian Emigration Act." in repiy the Mwlras 
Goveramer..t isaid :— " Instrnctioas will be given to 
Di=i6rict Officers to allow the emigratv)a agents ot 
Stcdit3 Government to proceed witii volantury enai- 
grtitiou without interference or obatruotiou." 
On the Collection of Rubber prom 
CearaTrhes. -Fi'omthe " Bulletin cle 1' Union 
A^ricole Cale'donienne " we translate the 
following:— " M. Godefroy-Lebeuf, the well- 
known and distinguishedhorticultnrist, writes 
to us as follows : My Dcai' President,-! call 
vour attention to the process for collecting 
ceara rubber which, Mr. Lecerf, my friend 
iust now in Guinea, has made known to me. 
Hf- .soaks a sponge in lime juice or salt 
water washes oue .side of the tree to be bled 
with "this sponge, then makes some^ oblique 
■ inc'sions one above tlie otlier. The milk 
escapes and the drops collect and form in 
coa'Ailating, a layer of rubber which is taken 
away the next morning. The trees used m 
the ex|>eriment were less than a year 
old Your.s re.spectfudy, (iodefroy Lebtcut. 
Pl-int'-rs and others in Ceylon who freely 
. irrew the ccjara tree some years ago, and 
then abandoned the culture as wocthless, 
should experiment as above on some of the 
old trees and send uw the result. 
Chillies. — Mr. Stronacli writes on another 
page for some practical information on the 
subject of cultivating chiiiies. Can any of 
our readers reply from actual and recent ex- 
perience of their own ? 
WiPi.N'G OUT THK MosQc'l''0. — Interesting ex- 
perijnents Inive been conducted iii Sassari by Dr. 
i ernii. Dr. Lnmbau, and J>r. Coswui- Ko"Ca, with 
tin- ol>j^cr of freeing that town from inosqiiitoes. 
Tiie larvte v/ere dest oyed by mea!::j of' peiroleuin 
phice > it! the puddles and other breeding-grounds 
twice a month, and the uio nuiioe.s were ex- 
termniated by means of chlorine and oiher de- 
structive agents. Dr. Fermi consideis ir, j.ossible 
to free any t.'>\vn from mosquitoes by tins ineihod, 
unless its situation is excep'ionaliy iiafav-anable. 
The expense, for a town ot 50, COO pcoi-de, is from 
£40 to £30 a year.— Daily Mail, May 12. 
A Valuable Testimony to "Tea"— has 
just l^een paid by Professor Victor Horsley 
P.B.S., in the .second '* i^ees and Raper Memo 
rial Lecture " in 8t. James's Hall, when Mr, 
Augustine Birrell, Q.c, M.P., presided. The 
subject was '•alcohol and tiie brain "and the 
reference to tea is found in the following 
pa.ragraph of v/hich "tlie Th rtv Committee" 
and its agents ought to make the most : — 
Now was to be considered the effect of alcohol 
upon voluntary inovernents — those performea by 
the central pait of the great bi'ain. It had been 
discovered that this part of the brain does not 
act uniformly and steadily, but that it gives out 
energy intermittently, in a tremulous way, by a 
rhythmic succession of impulses. Careful investi- 
gation had shown that alcohol increased this 
tremulousness. and also reduce-d the power of 
action. Krepelin found, in experiments with the 
dynamometer, that, after a small dose oE alcohol, 
at first an additional amount of power was put 
out, but that it was quickly followed by a lower- 
ing effect. He found also tlf irdercstiny fact that 
after a dose of tea there icas no loire ring effect. 
I^urthsr exp riments had been made in which a 
certain amount of ihouriht '.\ j.s combined with 
voluntary moyemeiits. Compositors oifered tiiem- 
selves as subjects for this experimerrt, and by 
careful measureineut it had been clearlj^ de- 
monstrated that small doses of alcohol had a 
deleterious --ffect. So in the ease of Arctic ex- 
peditions and other undertakings experieirce had 
shown that alcohol as an article of diet should 
be excluded. 
India-rubber. —It is extraordinary the 
interest taken in this product all round the 
tropical v/orld and beyond it as shown by 
the Indie.n Govei^nment deciding to open a 
10,000 acres plantation on the Burma Coast. 
Oar latest enquiry comes, from Port-au- 
Prince, from a former G.ardener at Ke\r, who 
is now engaged in Rubber Cultivation in 
Hayti for a large Belgian Commercial 
House. Besides growing Heveas, Castilloa, 
' Manihot,' and ' Supinon ' {sic) on a large 
scale, he intends trying a number of other 
rubber-yielding plants. From Paris, Vv'e ha.ve 
an interesting but rather puzzling letter 
from Mr. A. Godefroy-Lebeuf which, written 
in Englisli, we interpret in some parts as 
well as wo can. The sample of rubber sent 
to US is very peculiar coarse and by no 
means clean — irnt sbili rublier. It can be 
seen at our oirlce by anyone hi tf^rested. 
There slronid b-; no -.lirii'/altv' ingt-rting the 
pieces of h-ii-s; i' >•• .■xp-a-imeut. bvs desired by 
our ':i)ri- vv; >\\ (.■■it : iait he .gives us no dimen- 
sions vv'ill ,sti;iy,i^, .ai,a inch wide, by a foot 
in length, do ? ■ 
