April 2, 1900.1 THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
663 
stir till dissolved, then put one scant tablespoon to 
each cup of tea (cold,) lay a thin slice of lemon 
in the cup, and if this seems too strong, add cold 
water till it suits, and of course some ice. Russian 
Tea. — Place two cubes of loaf sugar in a cup half 
filled with cracked ice, add a slice of lemon and fill 
up with cold tea. Ginger Punch. — One quart cold 
water, one cup suear, half cup orange and the same 
amount of lemon juice, half lb- ginger. Chop ginger, 
add water and sugar, boil 15 minutes, add fruit juice, 
cool, strain and dilute with water and cracked ioe, 
Frivt Punch. — One quart cold water, two cups sugar, 
half cup lemon juice, two cups chopped fruit, one 
cup orange juice. Boil water, sugar and fruit 15 
minutes, add fruit juice, cool strain and dilute with 
ice water. Lemon Syrup. — Roll the lemons, then press 
the juice into a bowl, take all seeds out. Remove 
the pulp from the peels and cover with water and 
boil a few moments, then strain the water with the 
juice of the lemons. Allow one lb. of white sugar 
to every pint of juice, boil 10 minutes and then 
bottle. Put a tablespoon or two of this in a glass 
of water with cracked ice and you have a pleasant 
cooling drink. 
***** 
How TO Remove Stains. — Tea and coffee usually 
readily yield to the purifying influence of boiling 
water poured through the fabric so, too, do some 
fruit stains. An application of lemon juice ii,nd s-^l', 
with good sun exposure, is an old and in many in- 
stances an effective remedy. Green stains usually 
can be removed by dipping in alcohol, and an appli- 
cation of paste made of cream of tartar wet up 
with water will remove them when alcohol will not. 
So, too, cream of tartar and water will remove iron 
mold spots, drying on the grass in the sun. If one 
application does not remove, repeat. Soaking in 
sour milk over night will usually remove ink stains, 
while the juice of a rice tomato is useful in remov- 
ing stains from the hands. Kerosene will clean many 
stains from old cloth, brass or copper. Surfaces 
that would be marred by sand soaps can often be 
nicely cleaner with kerosene, followed by an appli- 
cation of hot soap suds. But the stand by when 
all other remedies fail to successfully remove stains 
from white fabrics is javally water. It is easily 
made, and once used no housekeeper will be without 
it. The formula is as follows: — Four lb. bi-carbo- 
nate of soda, and lb. chloride of lime pour over the 
soda, one gallon of boiling water, place over the fire 
and boil 15 minutes, then stir in the chloride of 
lime until thoroughly dissolved. Allow to cool and 
settle, then strain through cloth, bottle and set aside 
to use. To remove stains, wet the stain in cold 
water, dip up and down until the spot disappears, 
then wash as usual. Do not use on colored mate- 
rials, as it will destroy color. It will remove ink 
stains better than any other preparation we ever 
tried. One teacupful of this liquid to a boiler of 
water whitens garments that have grown yellow from 
disuse. — Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. 
CHEMISTRY AND AGRICULTURE. 
The following paper was read before the Farmer's 
Conference at the Agricultural College, Gattoa, 
Queensland, June, 1897 : — 
IMPORTANCE OF CHEMISTRY TO AGRICULTURE. 
" Profesoor Warrington, in a lecture rocently deli- 
Tered before the University of Oxford, draws atten- 
tion to the great difference in the position of agri- 
culture at the present day and a hundred years ago. 
He says — 
A hundrod years ago agrienltnre was an art, having 
only few points of contact witli natural science. At 
the present time both the materials and the oper- 
ations of agriculture have been so far examined and 
elucidated by patient scientific investigations that w« 
may now give the title of agricultuml acieuca to this 
ediflci of true th@ory 
This IS undeniably true, but agriculture will always 
remain an art if we consider that art deals with 
practical ways aod means to accompalish certain things. 
Science agaia gives us tlie explanation of these ways 
and means, so that really art and science have to 
work hand in hand to maintain agriculture in its 
present eminent position. 
The science which helped agriculture more than 
any other is uadoubtedl}' chemistry. 
No other science, electricity perhaps excepted, has 
made such wonderful progress in the present century 
as chemistry; and there is hardly, in the present 
time, any occupation or industry in which chemistry 
does not play an important part. 
Ltt us briefly consider what chemistry is. Ton all 
know that man, with all his science and wonderful 
appliances, has never and will never succeed in creat- 
ing matter, any more than he can destroy existing 
matter. 
All the bod ies which surround us, the air we 
breath, the food we consume, the clothes we wear, 
the earth on whiah wo grow our crops, are all com- 
posed of a few distinct constituents, which at present 
cannot be further decomposed and which are called 
the elements. 
Only a few of these elements exists in nature in 
an uncoiiibined state. The most of them are com- 
bined in such a wonderful manner that no one would 
suspect such combination, judging only by the ordinary 
senses. Who would, for instance, suppose that starch, 
cane-sugar and cotton are simply composed of car- 
bon and of water. ! 
The science of chemistry has to come to our aid 
to tell us the nature of these combinations, and which 
elements take part in their formation. 
Chemistry further tells us in which manner we 
can force the elements or combinations to unite and 
to form new bodies. 
Chemistry also proves that all things are formsd 
out of pre-existing matter. A plant which grows ia 
not a creation but simply a transformation of other 
existing bodies. Again, vThen a plant decays in th« 
ground, or when a tree stump is burned, the bodies 
which took part, in their formation are not lost by 
simply transformed into other bodies, which, in 
their turn, will again be assimilated by other grow- 
ing plants. 
Emerson, in one of his essays on farming, says 
Who are the farmer's servants ? Not the Irish 
nor the coolies, but geology and chemistry, the quarry 
of the air, the water of the brook, the lightning of 
the cloud, the castings of the worm, and the nlough 
of the frost. 
That chemistry is te be the servant of the farmer 
is now universally recognised, and oonsequentlv we 
find amongst the staff of Agricultural Departments 
a large number of chemists. 
In the United States a very great number of agri- 
cultural experimental stations and agricultural colleges 
exist, and I may mention that, for instance, at the 
New York Agricultural Experimental Station out of 
a total number of 16 ofiicers 7 are chsmists ; at the 
South Dakota Experimental Station, and also at the 
Virginia Agricultural College out of 8 officers 3 
are chemists ; and at Alabama Agricultural Experi- 
mental Station 4 out of 11. In the Southern Colonies 
besides, the agricultural colleges and experiment 
farms with their staff of experts, exist agricultural 
laboratories with chemists in charge and several 
aisistants. 
The work to be carried out at an agricultural 
laboratory is very large and of «, varied nature, and 
consists chiefly in the following : — 
Analyses of soils. ••, .-, 
Analyses of waters, chiefly irrigation w»ters. A 
Analyses of manures. 
Analyses of foods and food-stuffs. 
Analyses of dairy products. 
Analyses of plants, fruits and grains. 
Experiments with wheats and testing them as to 
milling qualities, &c, 
Practical experim«nt« in the field. 
