106 
THE TROPICAL AGRICUI-TURIST. 
[Aug. 1, 1899. 
MINOR PRODUCTS REPORT. 
Cinchona. — The shipraeists from Ceylon for the 
week endiug May <Jth were 8,0Gi lb only. At Am- 
sterdam, on June 8th, 4,9.50 bales and 5';U cases Will 
be offered, The total weight 431,800 kiio.s (con- 
taining the equivalcni, 820,'.)20 ounce quinine i-n\- 
phate), of which 7^,362 kilos, is pliacuiaceiitic .1 b;ik, 
and 408,418 kilos. maLulacturing h-a-k. Th; ,i; .n'j- 
facturijjg bilk conCaina an avei.i.ge vi.-hi of rio 
per cent quiiiiiie sulphate agarnst 5-.")2 per cent in 
May, and 5'21 per cent for the ten auctious in IbOB. 
Tilers has bi^en a fair amount of busiueHB done in 
druggists' biiiks lately, and in many instances lower 
prices have been accepted. The Java shipments in 
May amounted to 666,400 Amst. lb against 672,300 
Amat. lb last Mav. The total for the five months ia 
170,000 Amst. lb under last year. 
— 
PLANTING NOTES. 
A P'INK Potato Plant. — A remarkably linH 
potato plant, says the Audralasiaa, grown m the 
Apollo "liay di-striet, has been shown Lj us by 
Messrs. Davis, Lancaster, and Co. It is from a 
crop grown l)y Mr. Jas. McPhee, at Ueatlilield 
Farm. The area of the paddock is live acres ; 
but the yield is expected to reach 7o tons, or an 
average of 15 ton.s per acre. The soil is 'i'-i feet 
deep, with a clay bottom, and the ground forms 
pirc of the river fiats, of wiiich there is a con- 
siderable quantity. The haulm of the plants 
e.xiiibits unusual vigour of growth, the one sliown 
to U.S, laid out on a board, leacliinif the lengtli of 
nine feet. From its roots twelve large potatoes 
were taken. Tlie variety is the New Zealand Ulue 
Derwent. The Apollo Hay district also produces 
good crops of o?iions, yields ot 30 tons per acre 
biing common. 
Coffee and Cacao in Mexico.— We have 
a letter from Mr. E. O. Darley — who will be 
remembered by some as a Knuckles coffee 
planter — stating that he had takeii charge 
of about 1(X),0()U acres of land belonging to 
a Company on which he has to plant a 
large acreage with coffee, cacao, rubber and 
sugarcane. He is to give us a report of the 
district and its capabilities when he has seen 
a little more of it. Meantime he writes : — 
"A very large quantity of very fine cacao 
is produced here and the native coffee bears 
very heavily and no leaf disease, and I do 
not believe it exists in Mexico at all. I 
have never seen or heard of it. Sugarcane 
also is most prolific, the local demand for 
sugar and rum making it a very profitable 
business." 
Annatto : Poor Prospects op Crop and 
AN Enemy. — Mr. Van Starrex, of Crystal 
Hill, Matale, who, we suppose, cultivates as 
much iinnatto as anybody in the country, 
writes:— "The annatto Hy has beeji so baci 
n the Matale district this year that fears are 
entertained that the crop out-turn will not 
pay for upkeep, and there is a fear of the plant 
going consequently out of cultivatioii. At any 
rate, the poor crop with the low prices now 
given for the article, is likely to stop the 
manufacture of the dye on Crystall Hill for 
the present. Kathei' sad for those who have 
been earning something out of tha sepd sold 
to these manufacturing works from the 
smallest quantities up to several tons, every 
season." As soon as the JSntomologist re- 
turns, he should see to the *' fly " and its 
i-emedy. What is the cause of persistent low 
prices '( Overproduction (where 'i) or chemical 
dyes 'i 
Ramie (Russia).— The cultivation of the ramie 
plant (Chine.-e nettle) has been so very successful, 
more espc-cialiy in ilie district of Batoum, that 
the area under this plant is from year to year 
increaf^iiig. This year's crop has been very 
ftburidiiiit, and it is stated that some Rns.sian 
cai-i-alists are on the point of building a 
fii,c.:oiy in a .suitable ioealiiy for the purpose of 
working up the libre. Tlie Imperial Domains 
at Chakva iiave already received machin''ry for 
handling this a.\i\(;W&. — British Consul at Batoum, 
June 1. 
IIi^ATiNG Capacity op Wood.— The Biver 
Plate liecievj says tiiat a writer in the Staats- 
Ze'dumj cjnects a very common supposition in 
regard to the heating capacity of wood, the most 
notable tact in the cuse being that such a practic- 
able and e.a-y demoustrable error shuuld so long 
have prevailed— namely, that the heating capa- 
ciiy of hardwood is greater than that of softwood. 
The fact, as asceitained by repeated determina- 
tiont-, is that the greatest heating power is 
possessed by one of the .softest varieties of sucli 
material— viz., the linden. Taking its beating 
capacity by the unit, the second best beater is 
also a soft-wood :— Fir, with U 99 heating pi>wer ; 
next follow the elm and pine, witii O'QS ; willow, 
chestnut, larch, with 0 97; maple and spruce lir, 
with 0 96; black poplar, with 0'95 ; alder and 
white birch, with ti-94 only ; then come the hard 
oak, with 0-92; the locust and the white beech, 
with 0-91 ; and the red beech, with 0-90, These 
examples leave no doubt of the general fact that 
hardwood heats the \ea.i,t.— Queensland Agri- 
cultural Journal. 
Indiarubber Cultivation is attracting 
a great deal of attention in several of the 
French Dependencies. We have enquiries 
about om- forthcoming Manual fi^om Paris, 
Marseilles, ,West Africa and Madagascar; 
and an enterprising French Agi-iculturist 
reports that he has indented for, and 
is daily expecting to receive, one Diillion 
of Castilloa seeds and asks if such are of 
use in Ceylon. We have advised him to 
send 500,000, if in good condition, out here at 
once and that we may get the seed aiictioned 
by Mr. Symons (with his consent) with per- 
haps as good a result as in the case of Para 
seed, if not better ! In a recent French Review- 
devoted to Colonial AgTiculture we find 
several important, up-to-date papers on 
Rubber. One is devoted to We.st Africa 
where France has now very large tropical 
interests, and one authority' shows how, to 
supplement the indigenous creeper rubber 
vines, they are hitroducing four exotic 
varieties Para, Castilloa, Ceara and a new 
and as yet little-known kind "Manitoba" 
rubber. It is evident that there is going to 
be a good deal done in "rubber" culture; 
but many parts of Ceylon have special 
advantages, especially where the rubber trees 
can be grovrn as a subsidiary to tea. As 
regaixls '• preparation," we ' find the fol- 
lowing in a letter adtli-essed to the French 
Colonial Minister by M. Marcellin Pellet in 
the latest "Revue desCultmes Coloniales " :— 
"M.Joaquin Asturias has found out a new system. 
He filters the milk, to get from it impurities of all 
sorts, and then lets it dry by natural evaporation, 
expoaing it to the sun on mats, plantain leaves or 
skina. This process gives an absolutely pure 
product, equal or superior to the best Par«, 
rubber." 
