310 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov. 1, 1900. 
land arrowroot, under the provisions of the Food 
aud Drngs Act, cannot be sold in Great Britain 
as arrowroot, and this is a matter of great impor- 
tance to the grov/ers here. The authorities in 
England, with whom the administration of the Act 
lies, have decided that the article made here and 
sent into the English market is not genuine arrow- 
root, because it is made from Carina edulis and not 
from Maranta antndiiiacea. Much correspondence has 
passed on the subject beiweeen the Department of 
Agriculture here and the Acting Agent-general for 
the colony in England, Mr. Chas. S Dicken, who 
parcticularly interested himself in the matter, and 
placed himself in communica ion with Mr. Chamber- 
lain, with the result that arrowroot made in this 
colony from the Canna edidtfi, can be sold in Great 
Britain only when labelled " Queensland Arrowroot." 
The Hon. A. J, Thynne, when Minister for Agri- 
culture, advised growers not only so to designate the 
manufuctured articl.=, but to add the words " Prepared 
from Canna edulis." So the matter stands ; and 
when arrowroot is quoted in British price lists, it 
should be understood that in every case the standard 
arrowroots of St. Vincent, Natal, and Bermuda are 
referred to. 
Those prices were given in a letter from the Agent- 
General to the Minister for Agriculture, so far 
back as 1S96, as follows ; — 
Bermuda . . . . 2s 2d per lb. 
Natal .. .. 6id „ 
St. Vincent (I) .. „ 
St. Vincent (2) . . l^d „ 
The army and Navy Stores supplied samples of 
ve kinds with their prices, viz : — 
Bermuda .. .. 23 6Jd per lb. 
Bermuda (kind) .. Is Id ,, 
Natal (finest). . .. 9id ,, 
St. Vincent . . . . S'd „ 
St. Vincent (fine) .. GJd „ 
The reason for the wide difference in value was 
the limited supply of Bermuda. There is no sample 
or price given for Queensland arrowroot for the 
reasons stated 
'■ Strictly speaking," says the Assistant Secretary 
of Inland Revenue, London, in a report on the 
subject to the Under Secretary of State, " the term" 
' arrowroot,' without prefix or qualification, should 
be restricted to the starch derived from plants of 
the genus Maranta, the most important member of 
which is Maranta arundinacea, a native of the West 
Indies, and which furnishes most of the genuine 
West Indian arrowroot. The Maranta starchd is per- 
fectly distinct in its physical character and proper- 
ties, and is readily identified under the microscope. 
A purchaser simply asking for arrowroot would 
presumably, by use and wont, expect to be supplied 
jtvith Maranta starch. 
Tous-les-mois, or Queensland arrowroot, the pro- 
duct of the Canna edidis, is quite a different starch, 
and its physical properties and appearance are 
distinct from those of Maranta starch." 
We are informed by Messrs. Lahey Bros, that 
the price of the Queensland ar^'^le has varied much 
in price, sometimes falling to l^d per lb. or £16 
per ton, with freight at id per lb, sometimes reaching 
as much as 4d per lb, or over £33 per ton. The 
average price in Brisbane, the Messrs. Lahey stated 
to range from £12 to ±'20, or, say, an average of 
£15 per ton. — (Queensland Agricultural Journal. 
HONEY PRODUCTION IN PALESTINE. 
The American Consul in Jerusalem, in a recent report 
gives an interesting account of the rear of bees and 
the production of honey in Palestine, which hae 
always been famous for its honey, although the methods 
in vogue were until lately very crude. The develop- 
ment "of the industry by the application of modern 
methods of late years is due to a family named 
Baldenspergen, which emigrated from Switzerland in 
1849 and settled at Artas, seven miles north of Jerusa- 
lem, near the famous pools of Solomon. The father 
was always interested in bees and kept some in the 
native hives, which are long terra cotta jars, and 
he aroused in his five sons an enthusiasm in thd 
industry which has led to considerable results. In 
1860 they really commenced the work under an 
American teacher, and soon adopted the plan of 
carrying the bees about from place to place for 
the best food. Thus from Ramleh they had the 
hives taken on women's heads 12 miles to Yafa, 
where tho orange-blossoms were plentiful, so that 
in April there was an abundant harvest of this kind 
of honey, v/hile at other times it was obtained from 
cactus and acacia blo-ssoms. From another apiary 
and in other places harvests were obtained from 
lemon blossoms and from wild thyme. In 1884 the 
50 hives at Yafaalone yielded 6,000 lb. of honey in 
less than a month. The Turki.sh cfiicials soon cast 
thier eyes on the industry as a source of taxation, 
and at first charged about 5d. per hive, but shortly 
after enormously increased the amount payable by 
counting every door, window, and hole through 
which, the bees could be seen at work as hives, 
so that 150 hives counted as 2,000. After much 
litigation the Baldenspergers were found to owe the 
authorities £100 on account of a single apiary. This 
they refused to pay, whereupon the houses were sold 
by auction in Jerusalem at 5s. each, but when the 
officials came to deliver the hives to the purchaser, 
as they were bound to do, it was found that tho 
bottom boards of the hives were unhooked, and the 
bees swarmed out to attack their disturbers. A com- 
promise had to be made and the bees remained with 
their original owners. Then the local sheikhs de- 
manded toll whenever an apiary was moved neat 
their villages, otherwise the hives were stolen, fire 
or water being used to kill the bees. Indeed, now, 
about a tenth of the honey has to be given away 
as blackmail. Occasionally even camel-loads of hiTes 
on their way from one feeding-ground to another 
are stolen by the Bedains, so that the industry is 
beset by many obstacles and calls for patience, tact, 
and perseverance. A colony is about 35,000 to 50,000 
bees, and in distributing these colonies great care 
is taken not to overstock any special locality. The 
Baldenspergers do a considerable business to export- 
ing queen bees, and when their enterprise waa 
threatened by excessive taxation, they sold a large 
number of their hives to natives, whom they had 
trained, and to the Jewish colony in the plain of 
Sharon, so that there are now 700 hives at work in 
the country in addition to their own colonies. Queen 
bees exported by them have sold for as much as £3 
each in America; All the honey produced finds a 
good market in Europe. — English paper. 
LECTURE ON ORANGE CULTURE: 
BY HON. J. T. PALACHE. 
I will proceed to point out what is to my mind 
the best method of establishing a grove. Select a 
well drained piece of ground, let the size be ac- 
cording, to your means , clear it of all noxious vege- 
tation, then line it in 20 feet square. It is best to 
begin with to get plants of good varieties from a 
nursery. Afterwards, as yon extend your cultivation, 
I will point out how you can supply yourself with 
your own budded plants. Dig the holes four feet 
in circumference and two feet deep — then put your 
plants in, being careful to see that they have been 
carefully taken up with all the fibrous roots, and 
in planting lay these carefully out on some loose 
soil so as to enable the roots to begin to take np 
the nutriment from the earth at the earliest pos- 
sible period. If the weather is dry cut back all 
the leaf branches, if wet you can leave them on, 
and if the plants have been carefully lifted and 
planted they wil grow without any stoppage. If the 
weather is very dry, water for about a week every 
day, after that every other day, until you are satis- 
fied that the plants have fairly started. Then pro- 
ceed to cultivate the spaces between with catcb 
