THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. 1, 1900. 
only with the consent of the Moudir. Such con- 
sent may be granted only in districts where 
tobacco was regularly grown in the time of the 
I)evvis\ies.—Egy2Jttan Gazette, Oct. 16. 
A COLONY OF VEGETARIANS. 
A colony of vegetarians are livin<]; on Tatjula 
Island, a tiny bit of land, in the Dnteh archipelago, 
about 700 miles south-east from New Guinea, and 
1,000 miles north-east from Australia. Under the 
leadership of a Methodi&t clergyman, tlie Rev. 
James Nevvlin, of Ohio, some seventy people sailed 
from San Francisco in 1S90 for Hawaii. They 
believed that a higher plane of Christianity was to 
be reached by a vegetarian diet and freedom from 
contamination with degenerate mankind. So they 
e;ave up their friends and homes in the Eastern 
States. Tagula Island was finally chosen for th.eir 
colony. There were about fifty good-natured 
natives there who welcomed the new comers. 
There have since been accessions to the colony of 
people from England, Australia and America. — 
Ifew York Sun, 
IDENTIFICATION OF FIBRE. 
While a great deal has been published on the 
identification of the different fibres in commercial 
use, much of this has not had a truly commercial 
aspect. It is frequently difficult to identify a fibre 
from the description given in commercial text- 
books, especially where fibres closely resembling- 
each other are examined under a microscope after 
the ordinary treatment or mount. 
A writer, in speaking of the microscopical 
identification of some useful fibres, says that the 
separation of the ultimate fibres by teasing is 
tedious, and often leads to a very unsatisfactory 
iiiount. The best way is to remove by chemical 
treatment the resins cementing the ultimate fibres 
into the filament. This is more difficult with some 
fibres than with others, those having a higli 
content of silica- being usually the most refi-ac- 
tory. In this particular, sisal and manila are 
the most noteworthy. 
In a commercial laboratory, where resultsshould 
be obtained as quickly as possible, a quick tem- 
porary mount has to be ma de ^vhich will show 
the characteristics of the fibre necessary for 
identification ; and in order to prepare the fibre 
for such a mount, a suitable chemical treatment 
not occupying too much time is a great desidera- 
tum. The best method consists in boiling the 
fibre in a 2 per cent solution of caustic alkali, 
washing and suspending the fibre in water, and 
passing a stream of chlorine gas through it until 
it is thoroughly bleached and the gums thoroughly 
destroyed. This may also be done by placing the 
-specimen in a solution of chlorate of potash acidi- 
fied by hydrochloric acid. At this stage the filament 
is entirely destroyed, but the ultimate fibre retains 
cheform of the filament. The material is then rinsed 
in alcohol, and mounted in Canada balsam in the 
usual wav. After this treatment there should be no 
difficulty in teasing out the ultimate fibre. 
The fibre may then be examined under a micro- 
scope or micro-photographed. The best method 
for the examination of fibres is with artificial light, 
using a polariser. The joints or markings on the 
iibre seem to have a different rotatory power, ©r 
at least they arc brought into a more distinctive 
effect in relation to the rest of the fibre. This is 
•also true in photographing, and the best photo- 
graphs have been obtained by using an arc light 
and polarising the rays. The markings are more 
distinctly brought out when the analyser and 
Eolarisor are in such relative positions that the 
ackground or field is almost totally daik, 
To distinguish between sisal and manila is one 
of the hardest problems of fibre identification, 
but little trouble has been found after treating 
the fibres in the manner described above. The 
characteristic appearance of manila is very much 
enhanced by the chlorine treatment, and the 
same is true of sisal. The sisal is very much 
coarser than manila, and tapers considerably 
more ; when properly prepared the dark centre is 
seldom apparent. It has, however, after the 
treatment mentioned above, peculiar markings, 
having transversal cross-makings which appear 
to form X's upon the fibre. The peculiar forma- 
tion of the cotton fibre is so distinctive as to 
need no comment. Wool, with its peculiar scaly 
appearance, is also very distinctive, and where 
wool and cotton are found together they are 
readily distinguished by an ordinary mount. The 
above treatment has never been tried on animal 
fibre, for the reason that nothing would be gained. 
Silk is also distinctive ; it is quite even, but 
occasionally little nodules are noticed in the side 
of the fibre, and for this reason it is not as regu- 
lar in width as manila. It has apparently no 
markings, and its ultimate fibres are also its 
filament. 
Among the textile fibres the most difficult to 
distinguish one from the other are flax and ramie. 
They are used in the same class of work, when 
ramie is used at all, and have the same general 
microscopical appenrance. Ramie, at first sight, 
looks very like tlax, although, upon a minute 
examination, a difference will be observed. Th« 
ultimate fibre of ramie is usually coarser, the 
bamboo-like joints are larger and more marked, 
and have quite a different appearance from that 
of flax as seen with a moderately high-power 
glaas.— Textile World, Boston, Mass. 
BANANAS. 
Sir Walter Besant in his column in The Queen 
has tiie following : — 
Bananas should become cheap ; they stood for a 
long time at the figure of 2d apiece which is now 
preposteroas. They became popular about twenty- 
five years ago, being then sold, as I said at 2d. 
They are tiow with many children almost as much 
an article of diet as potatoes, and I shoald say, 
more nutritious. There are several ways of eating 
them. The best is the simplest and the most obTi- 
ous; the next best is the banana fritter, made just 
like an apple fritter ; the third way is to " triturate" 
the fruit with a fork, to pour over it a tablespoonfnl 
of claret and to add a little sugar. It can then 
proclaim a rivalry with strawberries and cream, the 
more readily because the banana is generally taken 
when strawberries are not in season. 
Molluscs and Pearls. — There is no end to 
the number of ways in which pearls can be 
secured naturally or artificially. Here is one of 
the latest reports of the kind:— "A novel 
method of producing real pearls from ear- 
shells (Haliotis) has been tried with some suc- 
cess by Monsieur L Boutan, who has described 
his experiments bo the Paris Academy of 
Sciences for 1898. The method practised is 
to drill a small hole in the shell of the living 
mollusc, at a considerable distance from the 
margin, and to introduce through this 
aperture one or more minute globules of 
mother-of-pearl ; the mollusc being then 
returned to its native element. Prom their 
position, the introduced glol)ules are prevent- 
ed from escaping, and in due course are 
coated with nacreous deposit thus producing 
really fine-pearls." 
