460 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 1, 1901. 
Bixtieth year, a decrease may be noticed. Many trees, 
however, reach a much greater age ; aomo of them 
are said to complete a century. 
The Nutmeg trees bear blossom and fruit without 
intermission, in every stage of ripeness, and so nuts 
may be gathered all the year round. The greatest 
abundance, however, falls during the months of July 
and August. 
The Nutmeg itself is the kernel of the frnit, which 
is pear-shaped, of the colour of a peach, and consists 
of four parts ; the outer fleshy part, then the mem- 
branous substances covering the shell of the Nutmeg 
and known to commerce as mace, then the shell, and 
finally the kernel or actual Nutmeg. 
The greatest care is required in gathering and hand- 
ling the fruit. Twenty-four hours after the opening 
of the fruit — a sure sign of its ripeness — the nut will 
drop to the ground, thu3 injuring the mace-network 
and deteriorating its proper quality, as its lying on 
the soil makes it apt to become wormy. On the 
other hand, the closed fruit may be still unripe, and 
knocking these down would be highly injudicious, 
Work commences at 5 o'clock in the morning at the 
ringing of a bell, when men, women, and boys and 
girls over sixteen years go out into the woods armed 
with the gaaigaai — a long stick with a prong at the 
end — to break off the ripe fruit and a basket to carry 
the collected nuts. 
The wood is the all-in-all to the labourer. It is hia 
place for work and recreation. It is his club, and even 
the spot where the young man seeks his future wife 
when the overseer is out of the way, notice of whose 
approach is kindly given by the friends of the young 
couples imitating the call of the nut-pigeon as a danger 
signal. — New York Merchants' Beview. 
RICE THRESHING AND HULLING IN 
INDIA. 
• The Indian cultivator cannot be expected to 
understand the scientific cultivation of rice, nor 
can the Indian hunniah be expecte:! to realise 
the value of nieclianieal threshing and husking, 
or hulling, of rice. From time iiameraorial the 
paddy has been threshed and husked by the most 
primitive methods, which the people of the country 
have found good enough to meet their require- 
ments. The inrportaiice of labour-saving nnchi- 
nery is not yet appreciated, and we can quite 
understand that, a mechanical contrivance costing 
a thousand rupees, and intended for the purpose 
of the husking rice, is looked upon as an expensive 
luxury. But when it is realised that such a 
machine pays for itself in one year, and after 
that is a source of clear profit to the owner, 
land-holders will begin to see that it is to their 
advantage to invest in such a labour-saving and 
money- making machine. In such matters, how- 
ever, it seems to be generally accepted that if 
the Sirkar were to take the initiative in intro- 
ducing labour-saving machinery in Wards' Estates 
and show the advantage to be gained by such, 
the neighbouring zemindars would haTe an 
opportunity of seeing such machines at work, 
and thus be induced to invest in them to the 
advantage of their own as well as their ryots' 
pockets. We are led to these observations by a 
perusal of a most interesting article in the 
Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society for 
July 1900, on the cultivation and treatment of 
rice in Jamaica, by Rupert H. Lindo, a perusal of 
which will repay anyone interested on the suhject. 
After describing ihe cost of land, etc., selection 
of land, cleaning antl preparing land, nursery 
for rice plant.-i, planting out and reaping (all of 
wlriclr o|)perations are fairly well understood in 
tljis country), the writer goes into the questions 
of threshing, drying, hulling and preparing for 
market. Threshing is performed in this country 
by the ancient method of trampling by cattle, 
but were a threshing machine use i ouc here, 
one small machine, worked by a small engine uf 
two horse- power, could thresh 170 bushels pi-r 
day of eight hours, each bushel, say, of 401b., 
or equal to 6,8001b., equal to 170 iiraund.-' per 
day, Conrpare this with the outturn of the ryot 
by the old method, and we get some idea of 
the value of asieanr thresher. 
The writer of the article under reference then 
proceeds to deicriOe hulling and piepaiing tor 
market, and we cannot do better than quote his 
own words. He says: "This is the most im- 
portant QSLit of the process for treating rice, 
and it is the point that we have been aiming 
at from the very start ; for, besides growing rice 
successfully, the next tiring in importance is to 
place the paddy in the best condition possible 
for the huller to handle. Of course, one can 
always resort to the old mortar and pestles 
[these are used in India. — Ed., I. G. <£• P.], but 
what can they do with 20 acres of rice yielding 
1,200 bushels of paddy? The huller I use is of 
the 1895 patent, and is made by the Engleberg 
Huller Company of New York, and cost, landed 
in Jamaica, £60. They are pefect machines, all 
things being equal." The writer then g ves 
detailed instructions as to how this machine is 
to be used, and .=iuggests the central factory 
system for threshing and hulling rice, ttuch a 
system would seem to be well suited to this 
country, as the small tenants and cultivators 
cannot be expected to invest in aco.stly machine. 
The threshirrg and hulling could be done on the 
sanie principle as the caire- pressing is done all 
over Behar by the proprietors and patentees of 
the Beheca Sugar Mills. For an innovation of 
this kind to be successful it is essential that 
it should be initiated by the Government, as the 
penple have faith in any undertaking that the 
Government patronises; 
Those who desire to introduce mechanical 
threshing and hulling may be interested to know 
that the 'Engiebei g" Rice Huller,. so strongly 
recommended by Mr. Lindo in the article under 
neiice, can be had at Calcutta from Messrs. 
Macbeth Brothers and Company, 2, Pollock Street, 
whose advertisement has been appearing in our 
pages for sonre weeks past. The price ot a single 
Huller com pleoe is Rl, 100. — Indian Gardening and 
Planting. 
Acknowledgment. — A paragraph appears on page 
336 of the Tropical Agriculturist for November lat, 
which is taken from the British and Colonial Druggitt 
without acknowledgment, we regret to find. The para- 
graph is bettded " The Camphor Corner." 
Limes as a Geemicide. — It may not be generally 
known that fruit acids are germicidal, but the infor- 
mation is of special value to planters generally. The 
juice of lime and lemon is as deadly to cholera germs 
as corrosive sublimate, or sulphur fumes, or any other 
diaintecant. It is so powerful a germicide that if 
the juice of one lime or lemon be squeezed ir^to a 
glass ot Water, that if then left standing ten or fifteen 
minutes, the water will be disinfected. It makes 
little difieteuce where the water has been obtained, 
or wiiether it has been boiled or filtered. This is 
a fact worth knowing, for anyone may at any time 
find himself under circumstances m wliich it is 
impossible to get either boiled or filtered water. In 
such a case the juice of a lime or lemon will purfiy 
the water perfectly.— Znrfiart Planters' Gazette, 
