766 
THE TROPICAL 
AGIRCULTURIST. 
[May 1, 1901. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Eucalyptus DiSTiLLiNG.— According,' to the re- 
port of the (Jliief Ins))ef;tor of Distilleries in S;!Ui!i 
Australia, there are fourteen eucalyplus-oil ilistii- 
iing licences in force in that colony. Thirteen 
licences are on Kan;,'aroo Islam!, the other at 
Pnnyelioo The value of oil exported increased 
from £1,131 in 1892 to £2,224 in 1899.— Plant- 
ing Opinion, April 6. 
Raw Kubber Notes. --It is stated that the rub- 
ber trade ia the Lagos district has almost reached 
a position of complete standstill. This anxiety 
is' well founded and there are some substantial 
reasons for believing that causes other _ than 
the failure of the rubber trees are operatincr to 
obstruct and kill the trade.— JiicZia Ihthber 
Journal, March 18. 
Thk Analysis of Gutta percha— by H Born- 
TRAGER. — Crude commercial wutta-percha has the 
following composition accordins; to the invesu;,'a- 
tions of different chemists :— Water, 1 to r5 ; dirt 
(wood and soil), 3 to 5 ; pure f^utta, 30'5 to 83-5 ; 
albane, T'O to 44-5 ; and fluavile 3-0 to 21-0 
percent. An analysis of a sample of crude ^'ulta- 
percha by another method gave the follwing re- 
sults:— Water, rS ; dirt, 2-5 ; pure putta, 77'o ; 
fluavile. 6; albane al. 3'8; albane ii2, :V7 ; and 
albane a3, live per cent. — India liuhher Journal, 
March 18. 
Inferior Tea.— It is all very fine (says the 
India7i Planiors' Gazette) for our local papers 
to gird at the Ceylon and South Indian planters for 
sending out reluse tea for local sale, and even 
export ; but what about our own damaged and re- 
packed ? Hardly a sale passes during the mon- 
soon without several chests being put up under 
the above denomination. What becomes of them? 
and have brokers a right to publicly .auction dam- 
aged food goods ? Is the Calcutta Health Officer a 
dummy ? Any muck brought forward ought to 
be forthwith confiscated, and the Tea Association 
are bound to see to this for the sake of the good 
name of our oeas. 
Dosing an Elephant. — A difRcult operation 
was performed the other day at the Zoological 
Gardens at Hanov.er. An elephant was sufTeriug 
great pain from a growth on the lower part of 
one of its hind feet, and it was deemed necessary 
to cut this malformation away. In order to 
render the animal insensible a dose of 600 grains of 
of morphia in six bottles of rum was administered. 
This dose took about an hour before any vi.sible 
effect was produced. The elephant then fell over 
in a kind of sleep, anil the operation was suc- 
cessfully carried out without any further ado. 
The opeiatioa lasted in all three days.— (?Zo&c, 
March 22. 
The Season at Darejeeling.— March 4.— 
Darjeeling has burst into spring early this year, 
and nothing could surpa.'ss in India the beauty of 
the last three weeks, soft cloudless skies, bright 
cheerful sun, the lonp line of snows clear but not 
hard, taking delicious colouring in the early morn- 
ing and late afternoon. Rhododendrons are already 
bursting into their glorious blooms of wliite, 
pink and scarlet, anil trees are putting on their 
young ligiit green, and very soon the hill-sides 
■will 'ije white with magnolia. True indeed it is 
that only the cold weather residents of the place 
ever see Uarjeeling atits best, for, barring six vveelcs 
of rather dreary cold and mist, the climale this 
■winter has been ^jorfect.— Piwiecn 
Sugar and Jaggery feom New Sources.— 
An atteinpii has been recently made by the 
Ivlalras Government to ascertain the amount of 
sugar and jaggery manufactured in the Presidency 
from material other than sugar-cane. Jaggery 
(raw sugar) is produced from palmyra, sago, date, 
and coconut palms ; but there is a consensus or 
opinion that it is not feasible to prepare any 
estimates of out-turn, whilst to arrive at any ap- 
proximate idea of the area occupied by these 
sources of jaggery from year ro year is not possible, 
owing to the fact that the tree's are scattered and 
promiscuously planted. —i/ad/ as ilfai'Z, March 14. 
Graphite from Ceylon.— More concessions for 
diggint; for graphite oj Crown lai.ds were granted 
last year than in any previous year, notwith- 
standing the drop in prices, f iie district of Knru- 
negala, to the north-west of Kandy, has 154 
graphite mines. In the southern part of the island 
117 acres of land on which graphite had been 
discovered were leased for ten years for 333,450 
rupees. In the central districts of Ceylon 112 
mining concessions have been accorded. Since 
European lirms have taken up the development of 
graphite dep.isits more scientific methods are 
employed in the working of the mines, and the 
ratio of production has been increased accordiogly. 
—Ncwsaqent, Eeb. 23. 
Manuring Bananas. —Mr. R H Eiworthy, of 
Priestinaii's River, took five acres of iiis coast 
lands in Portland, red soil which, he states does not 
grow bananas; he manured one acre with sheep 
manure, and on this acre the bananas made 
luxuriant growth and came in earliest, but bore 
small bunches of seven and eight hands. On 
one acre, rotten coconut husks were dug in and 
here the fruit came slow, with less stem and head 
growth than ^the acre with sheep manure, but the 
bunches were larger and fairly good on the whole 
Onthe remaining three acres no manure was applied 
and the bananas grew very poorly, producing 
when they produced fruit at all, small benches 
and )ioor frui D. — Journal of the Jamaica Agri- 
culhiral Society, Feb. 1901. 
Indian Tea Companies. — During the week a 
number of tea companies have published their 
reports — says the Calcutta Correspondent of The 
Pioneer, writing on March 29th. Reading the 
reports as a whole one carries away the impression 
that the results are not so bad as might have been 
expected, considering all the outcry that there has 
been and that the cry of " stinking fish " that has 
been raised over the industry is perhaps a trif.e 
premature. Even although no profit may have 
been earned, and although most of the companies 
are unable to declare a dividend, yet the losses are 
small ; and bad as prices have been, there is a ray 
of light in the fact that those companies, I take 
Dehing as an example, that have devoted their 
energies to making ihebetter class of teas, have 
obtained a better average price than during last 
year, and even where low grade teas are manufac- 
tured, as in the case of the South Cachar Co., it ia 
possible by capable management and a sufficiently 
large outturn to obtain remunerative results. Tak- 
ing this last company^ which declares a dividend at. 
the rate of 10 per cent per annum, its successful 
results are doubtless due to good management, 
combined with the fact that it is able to turn oud 
about 14 maunds of tea per acre as compared with 
an average outiturn of about 5J to 6 mauads iq 
other Cachar gardens. 
