464 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1901. 
Still better would it be to get a 
fresh supply of seed from Peru or Bolivia, 
if the collection and carriage were feasible 
at a moderate outlay. As regards " planting " 
we know that a good deal has been done 
in Ceylon in a quiet way this year. One 
proprietor in a favorite district is planting 
twenty acres with cinchona and doing all 
possible justice to the experiment ; while 
others are following our advice about plant- 
ing up boundaries, the sides of paths, 
ridges, «&c., with the graceful cinchona chiefly 
of hybrid or officinalis varieties. May a full 
measure of success be attained in these ex- 
periments. 
* -~ 
TOBACCO AS AN INSECTICIDE. 
An authority in the Antipodes gives, in tlie 
Agricultural Gazette of New SoiUli IJ ales, the followinp; 
advice as to best way of using the ordinary dried 
tobacco leaf as an insecticide : " For aphis, the 
roots of the affected trees are bared, and the 
tobacco, ground to powder, is dusted well over the 
roots and ground about them. A ring of tobacco 
dust is put round the trunk of the tree just below 
the surface. The earth is then thrown back, and 
when rain comes the nicotine is washed out of 
the tobacco, and gets spread over the roots, killing 
rU black or woolly aphides with which it comes in 
contact. Secondly, aa a wash : one pound of waste 
tobacco will make about four gallons of wash, and 
halt pound of soap is added to make it :uore ad- 
hesive. The leaf can be steeped in cold water over 
Qight, and the soap boiled up and added ; but most 
orchardists boil up the leaf and soap together strain- 
ing the resulting liquor and applying it hot. To- 
bacco is a contact poison, and is the best known 
remedy for soft-bodied things like aphides, but it 
does not affect scale insects very much, when they 
are full grown and protected by their shelly outer 
covering. If tobacco wash could be sprayed ou to 
the larvsB of scale insect it would destroy them 
wholesale." 
FRUIT &c. IN WEST AUSTEALIA. 
It has been said that " Westralia is all Sin, Sand, 
Sorrow, Sore-eyes and Sir John Forrest." This is 
certainly most untrue. I have been on a visit to 
the Great Southend Agricultural District (on the 
Eailway Line from Perth to Albany) and have seen 
enough to convince me that the precious ore is not 
the only attraction in this vast land. I stayed for 
about a week at Rataning, a great farming centre. 
The crops on many of the farms are magnificent and 
the orchards, it would be difficult to equal anywhere. 
I saw fruit orchards on which not a drop of water has 
ever been poured and over the whole area of which 
one could travel and not find a withered leaf. The 
abounding vigour of all 
THE TREES AND VINES 
ia the outstanding fact that attracts the attention of 
most visitors. Oranges do not do well but apricots, 
apples, cherries, almonds, &o., are in their element — 
the two former doing splendidly. I saw cherry trees 
that you could not touch with your hand without touch- 
ing fruit. These cherries fetch one shilling per pound 
on the ground. In an orchard that despatched 33 tons 
of grapes last year I could not discover a single 
" supply" among the vines, though I went round twice. 
A Homestead Farm of 160 acres can be had in this 
district for £1. Of coarse, the canny Scot is here, 
and there are 19 Macdonalds alone in this one 
district. 
LIME AS A FERTILISER. 
Lime i.s a good fertiliser, but not for all plants. 
It is hieneficial to some, injurious to a few, and 
'indi/Fercnt in result to others. " Farmers' Bul- 
letni ^o. (I, issued by the United States Gov- 
ernment Agricultural Department, gives good 
information on this subject. From itWe gather 
that tlie following are some of the plants which 
have .shown marked benefit from the use of lime 
Spinnc-h, lettuce, beets (all kinds), gumbo (okra)' 
salbify (vegetable oyster], celery, onion, parsnip' 
caulillo«er, cucumber, egg plant, cantaloupe, as- 
paragus, kohl-rabi, cabbage, dandelion, Swedish 
turnip, pepper, pea, peanut, martynia, tobacco 
sorghum, alfalfa, clover, barley, wheat, oats 
timothy, and Kentucky blue grass. Not only was 
liie crop greater, but in many instances it was 
ix-ady fur market much earlier where the .soil was 
limed. There was at least two weeks' difference 
in kohl rabi in this respect. Tobacco not only 
made a much better growth wlieu limed, but the 
ash was much lighter in colour. Tho.se that are 
injured by liming are suradelhi, water melon, blue 
lupine, and .common sorrel. Standing between 
the two groups of plants given above are a num- 
ber Which when they are supplied with all of 
the nitrogen they required in a readily assimil- 
able form such as nitiate of sorla, .show little or 
no benelit from liming. Among those are Indian 
corn, common millet, Hunuarian golden nullet 
rye, potatoes, carrot, Riiode Island bent (gia.ss), 
and redtop (grass). On a very acid or sour soil- 
even those plants would be beiielited by lime by 
virtue ot its helping to change the nitrogen into 
readily assimilable nitrates, provided sulpiiate 
of ammonia, blood, tankaje, lish, cotton seed 
meal, plant-roots, etc., were present as .souices of 
nitrogen. Intelligent farmers in malaiious dis- 
tricts may make their own choice from the aljove 
facts and be properly guided in the use of lime 
for agricultural purposes.— /jtcZia/i Agriculturist 
Nov. 1 ' 
— 
HYBRID FRUITS. 
An article on " Conifers," in a recent number 
of the Speaker mentioned the immense improve- 
ments which careful selection and cultivation 
have made in flowers and fruics : but the vast 
promise which the hybridisation of fruits seems 
to hold out was not mentioned— that is crosses 
between fruits of the same class. One m;iy 
perhaps, wonder whether something of the same 
sort might not be attempted between vegetables 
A few years ago an enterprising amateur gardener 
and fruit-gTower at Blandford had some hvhrid 
fruits— crosses between mulberries and rasp- 
berries, blackberries and raspberries, strawberries 
and raspberries, &c. Perhaps it was prejudice 
but I thought the uncrossed fruit superior. The 
other day, Mr. Forrester, Lord Portman's steward 
and a famous and successful cattle-breeder 
showed me some very fine hybrids, called Logan 
berries, between the raspberry and the blackberry 
They were darker in colour than raspberries, 
and much larger and longer, and really very nice 
eating, though use has much to do "\vith one's 
appreciation of flavours. The Loganberry is re- 
ported to be an American hybrid between the 
red raspberry and the black beriy. The berries 
are of enormous size, fully as large as the 
largest blackberries, which in form and structure 
they resemble. They are deep reddish-maroon in 
colour, melting and without a core, and very firm. 
Gathered, or on the bush after being ripe, they 
keep a long time wdthout spoiling. The flavour 
is rich and sharp, with a dash of the raspberry 
and of the blackberry, mellowed, and refined, but 
distinct from either, and so luscious, novel,' and 
agreeable that the Logan berry cannot fail to 
become a great favourite as a dessert-iruit, while 
as a preserve it is said to be unequalled. The 
canes are strong and vigorous, semitrailing 
in habit, and very prolific. They fetch 2s. 6d. 
each, or 24s. a dozen, but no doubt should 
