258 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct. 1, 1902. 
results from uative holdings that the Planters' 
Association are likely to frame their reports. Thus 
it would be interesting from the would-be investor's 
point ot view, if from no other, to ascertain the 
extent to which European cultivation has suffered 
by the " ravages of the beetle" to warrant the 
Planters' Association taking such a gloomy view 
of the situation. It must occur to the least 
observant that the prominence of such statements 
without more detail is hardly calculated to bring 
the cultivation in question into further favour, 
»nd in the Native States there must be many who 
have a large interest at stake. 
, . " FORCED " PLANTAINS. 
'Mt. C J Stracey, in your issue of the 20fch 
inst., i-efers to the statements of " A Corre- 
spondent" on "forced" plantains •which 
appeared in your columns a short time ago, 
and says the practice of artificially ripening 
the half-green fruit *' has not been discovered 
to produce deleterious effects on the consu- 
mers." He admits that this process robs 
fruit of its freshness and flavour, but he 
thinks that the practice is defensible so far 
as the ryots on the Lower Pulney Hills are 
concerned, owing to the desire they have to 
get a quick and regular sale for the fruit 
they so extensively grow. The question is 
not whether the plantain ripened by an arti- 
ficial process is deleterious to the consumer 
but whether it is really worth spending 
money on it in its deteriorated condition. 
If this process destroys the freshness and 
flavour of the fruit there can be no real 
pleasure in buying and consuming it. Euro- 
peans are chary of eating the soft, pulpy, 
flavourless, artificially-ripened plantains sold 
and are greatly provoked when such are 
placed before them on the table for con- 
sumption. The people of India are not so 
careful and often eat fruit in a semi-decayed 
state, which may sometimes be the cause 
of bowel complaints. The article on 
"forced" plantains has already taken effect. 
I know of several Europeans who have 
taken action since they read it and ordered 
their cooks not to bring artificially ripened 
plantains . any more. I have heard of com- 
plaints made by consumers about the un- 
satisfactory nature of the plantains put now- 
adays on the Madras market. They cannot 
understand, they say, why plantains have 
such an altered taste, My article has now 
enlightened them as to the cause of this. 
Plantains come from various parts of South 
India to the City for sale, I understand. 
My counsel is that, if Madras purchasers 
would sternly resist such an indefensible 
method of ripening them and refuse to 
buy them, the growers and the retail dealers 
would soon be brought to their senses and 
put only naturally ripened plantains on the 
market. This would set an example to the 
whole of South India, and to the fruit- 
growers on the Lower Pulneys in particular, 
who evidently are much to blame in openly 
carrying on the practice. A great future 
lies before the plantain, not only because 
of its fruit but because of the fibre which 
can be extracted from the stalk and made 
into ropes. Some of the finest and strongest 
ropes can be made from certain species of 
plantains, which, if cultivated for fibre as 
well as for fruic, might become a source of 
wealth to the ryots of the Presidency. 
Thousands of plantain stems are cut down 
and. thrown away as worthless, if they can- 
not be utilised as leaf-plates. The waste in 
fibre by this action, and the consequent loss 
in rupees must be very great. If plantain 
growers were taught how valuable the plan- 
tain stalk is in fibre, and if they would 
avail themselves of the fibre-extracting ap' 
pliances which can be procured cheaply, 
they would benefit themselves to a large 
extent. They might grow the Musa textilxs, 
which is the plantain so extensively grown 
in the Philippines. This plantain is well- 
known in India. It is called in Tamil Peyan 
vazhai, or the " demon plantain." — Mmdraa 
Mail, Aug. 25. 
FPtUIT PULPING. 
An account is given in the Annual Report on 
the Saharanpur and Mussoorie Botanical Gardens 
of som« experiments made in the new Californian 
industry known as fruit-pulping. The idea ia to 
boil down the fruit until it has assumed a semi- 
solid condition and then evaporate the remaining 
moisture, so that the pulp can be wrapped in oiled 
tissue and packed in an ordinary deal box. 
Experiments were made with peaches and man- 
goes, but the result was not encouraging. One 
hundred and fifty peaches, weighing 19i lb pro- 
duced 2 lb ofdry pulp, costing 12 annas per lb, with- 
out counting che cost of stoning the fruit, boiling, 
■training, evaporating, putting up the bricks in an 
atractive form for sale, etc. Thus the cost of 
producing peach-pulp bricks is at least Re 1 per lb; 
and as the better class of peaches sell readily 
Rs 2 to Rs 3 per 100 and second-rate fruit at Re 1 
per 100, it would not be worth the time and trouble 
of growers to adopt the pulping system. Moreover, 
it was found that the pulp-brieka would not 
remain hard and solid for more than a few days 
in the moist climate of the Y&ias.—^Madras Mail, 
Aug. 23. 
THE COCONUT PEST IN THE STRAITS 
Mr E V Carey writes from Klang to the Malay 
ilfa»7 as follows : —As instancing the danger of 
having any sort of rubbish lying about an estate, 
or in private compounds, the following little 
anecdots may be of interest. Some four montLa 
ago I had to discard a number of old sacks ; thesa 
were thrown in a heap on the ground, covering 
a space just six feet square, and left there. Last 
week I have happened to notice them, and stood 
by whilst they were being removed. From this 
on« httle heap no less than 201 larvae of the 
rhinoceros beetle were collected. I am sorry for 
the one, buk this is a true story, so I can't very 
well leave him out. Moral let every one keep his 
grounds scrupulously clean, and have even the 
insignificant and harmless-looking collections of 
rubbish promptly burned. 
THE USES OF CASSAVA. 
In the Cosmopolitan, Mr. Packard points ont th« 
astonishing agricultural possibilities of cassava, batter 
known as tapioca. It is a bushy shrnb growing to aboat 
five or six feet in tropical and anb-tropical olin)a(ea> 
