Sept. 1, 1900.1 THE TEOPICAL AGRlCtJLTURIST. 
•Ihe Pepper family and C'>rda'roms need dense shade, 
and bnt little more clearing would be necessary for the 
larger spice trees, and would give them many of the 
conditions essential to their successtul culture, and also 
supply them with surrounf\ings and polls infinitely 
nearer to those obtaining in their natural habitat. 
Each of these products I hope to deal wilh _ in the 
coarse of the year, and to record my experience of 
them in Departmental /oitrnaZ from time to time. 
HOWARD NEWPORT. 
—Queensland Department of Agriculture. 
♦ 
PLANTING NOTES, 
Peaches in Georgia, U. S. A.— The Hale Peach 
Orchard in Georgia has, we are informed, about 
300,000 t)ees ; one block of 60,000 Alberts is the 
heaviest loaded of all. The proprietor, Mr. Hale, 
estimates that 8,000 car-loads of Peaches will be 
shipped out of Georgia this year. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
The Mulbeey in Lombaedy. — By way of Milan we 
have news to the effect that the immature condition 
of the Mulberry foliage in Lombardy has greatly 
interfered with the success of the silk industry in 
that section of Italy. The frequent and serious 
variations in atmospheric conditions have been all 
against cocomi raising by the silkworm, and the 
decrease in production is placed at some ten per 
cent. So much for the inter-dependence of commerce 
and vegetation. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
SooT. — From a paragraph in our valued contem- 
porary, the Hevue de V Horticulture Beige for August, 
we learn that a dressing of soot is fatal to the 
Phylloxera, and beneficial to the Vine. We have 
seen no Phylloxera now for some years in our vineries; 
but should it occur again, we shall hope to try the 
effect of the soot, as if efficacious, it would save 
much trouble and expense. The plan adopted is to 
dig in around each stock in winter time li litre of 
' Boot (say 2 pints). Our contemporary speaks of the 
root-form of the in.sect. Whether a dusting over the 
foliage with soot would bo equally efficacious is not 
tarted — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Tomato Diseases— There are various diseases, all 
of which have been repeatedly described and figured 
in our cjlumns : 1, the leaf-rust, Cladosporium fulvum, 
chiefly attacks the leaves, which look as if dusted 
with brown powder; 2, the Tomato- rot, which is 
identical with the Potato disease ; 3, the Black-rot, 
. attacking the fruit chiefly, but not entirely — it often 
: forms oircular patches around the style ; 4, the sleep- 
ing disease, attacking the leaves which become 
flaccid and droop. Bordeaux Mixture, or potassium 
sulphide 5 oz, to a gallon of water sprayed on the 
plants will be of service, if carried out effectively 
at an early stage o* growth, but spraying will have 
- no effect on No. 4. AH these diseases are greatly 
• favoured by growing so many plants of the same 
species in the same house. Under such circumstances 
the disease is certain to spread from one plant to 
. another, hence the necessity of up-rooting and buru- 
■' ing all affected plants. As even now many people 
' seem not to know of the Bordeaux Mixture, we add 
'the proportion: copper sulphate 4 lb., lime unslaked 
■ 3 lb., water 40 gallons. Place the copper sulphate 
in a coarse-sacking bag, and suspend it in 6 gallons 
■ of cold water, in a wooden tub with no iron about 
. . it. Slake the lime and add it to the copper solutien 
■graduUy. Stir freely with a wooden stick, and add 
, t'rie remainder of the water' then let it settle. It 
is best to use more rather than less lime, so that 
the foliage may not be injured by the spiaying It 
is as well to try the effect on the leaves before using 
it extensively, as then the mixture can be diluted 
if necessary. Two or three applications at interval! 
are better than a strong dose at one time. Less 
troublesome to make, and in .some cases equally 
effectual, is a mixture consisting of liver-of -sulphur 
• oz., water 10 gallons, — Ibid. 
Tea.— China furnished little over 48 per cent, of 
the total supply; Japan, over 41 per cent. Tiiis 
shows that Ceylon ami India have a j^reat field 
for work if they would supplant China and 
Japan teas by niachine niade tea..— American 
Grocer, Aup;. 8 
Fish M.-vnure,— A Telhcherry correspondent 
writes : "The shoals of sardine fish had tailed to 
appear on the Malabar Coast for the last three 
years consecutively and consequently the coffee 
planters were in utter disappointment in procuring 
the fish manure, which is manufactured only of 
this jpecies of fish. Now I am glad to ^mention 
that the shoals have just appeared on the Coast and 
tiiere is every sign of a continuance of their ap- 
pearance. I liope this will be a welcome news to 
coffee p lanters as they attach much importance to 
this manure."— PiOrtfCJ'. 
Earth nuts, Pea-nuts (Arachis hypogea).— From 
an American jounal we have the information that 
the last crop of this edible nut was reckoned at 
between four and four-and-a-half million bushels. 
This is quite a favourite article of consumption in 
the United States, and would be more so here were 
heat applied to driven off the oily contents— as is 
the case, we believe, in the States. Mr. Theodore 
Wood, a number of the Executive Council of New 
Guinea, says that Pea-nuts are likely to prove a 
great success in that part of the world, certain 
portions of the "Possession" being eminently adapted 
for their culivation. Samples sent to Brisbane would 
appear to be quite equal to the best ot anywhere 
else As far as can be judged at present, the class 
of land in British New Guinea upon which the Pea- 
nut will thrive should yield at least four tons to 
the acre, and in favourable seasons the planter may 
be expected to take two crops per annum. The cost 
of cultivation is very small, the labourer being easily 
satisfied with a very ti-ifling remuneration.— G'arrfenm' 
Chronicle. 
Commercial Cultivation of Plants Under Glass. 
—It is estimated that the retail value of cut flowers 
sold in the States annually is $12,500,000, the esti- 
mated apportionment of this sum being for— 
Roses. .. »6,no0,000 
Carnations 4,000,000 
Violets.. .. •• •• •• T.W.OOO 
Chrysanthemums .. •• •• 500,000 
Miscellaneous flowers, includmg Lilies, Ac. 1,250,000 
Estimating the average retail value of Roses. Carna- 
tions, and Violets at $6, $4 una $1 per hundred, res- 
pectively, the total number of each told annually 
based on the above valaes, would be, of— 
Roses 100,000,000 
Carnations 100,000,000 
Violets .. .. •• 75,000,000 
276,000,000 
The retail value of the plants sold is placed at 
$10,000,000. Taking the plant trade as a whdle, and 
the country in the aggregate, the average-sized pot 
used is estimated to be 3 inches, and the average 
retail price 10 cents per pots. This means that there 
are no less than 100,000,000 plants sold every year. 
To handle this bussiness in entirely requires pro- 
bably an average of not less than one man for every 
1,500 square feet of glass, or 15,000 men iu all. 
Fifteen hundred square feet of glass per man may 
seem like a low estimate, and such is the fact when 
considering commercial establishments of any size. 
The larger the area of glass, other things being equal, 
the more square feet one man can handle. As a 
matter of fact, some of the large Rose-growing 
establishments do not use more than one man for 
each 10,000 square feet. Large Carnation establisli- 
ments will run about the same as Roses; while 
Violets, owing to the great amount of work involved 
in oleanin-J the plants and picking the flowers, 
averfige higher, It is the many thousand small 
establiahraets that increase the amount of lab<?ur 
required,— -Iwiencara Gardening. 
