Nov. 1, 1898.] Siipplement to the Tropical Agriculturists 
369 
Dr. Eobert Wallace, Professor of Agriculture 
at the University of Ediiiburgli, bears testimony 
to the Talue of tlie new breeds of cereals and 
grasses, and snys that having visited maTiy 
Countries in the interest of agricultural research 
he has seen nothing to rival, in scientific interest 
or national importance, the work in which Messrs. 
Garton are engaged. 
Mr. Alfred Sraetham, Consulting Chemist to 
the Eoyal Lancashire Agricultural Society ; Mr. 
James Wacdonald, Secretary of the Highland 
Agricultural Society; and Dr. McDougall, Lecturer 
on Agricultural Botany at the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Edinburgh, all bear similar testimony 
to the value of Messrs. Garton's discoveries, not 
only from a scientific, but from a practical point 
of view. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
The Report of the Milk and Butter Tests at the 
Royal Show of England held this year, gives some 
idea of the height of perfection to which breeding 
for milk and butter has been brought in England, 
The prize for the best butter cow of Jersey, 
Guernsey, Kerry and Dexter breed went to the 
Earl of Cadogan's Six-year Jersey " Clemency." 
She had calved about six weeks before and yielded 
lbs. in the morning and 16 lbs. in the evening, 
which produced 38^ oz. butter. To put these facts 
in a clearer way, she yielded 31 imperial pints (to 
a fraction) milk, which produced butter at the rate 
of just about 1 lb. butter to 1^ gallons milk, the 
ordinary proportions being in England I lb. to 2^^ 
gallons- The best milk cow produced 59J lbs. milk 
or 47f imperial pints, the winner being a red short- 
horn. Another short-horn yielded more, viz., 64J 
lbs. or oil imperial pints, but she was not placed 
as she did not come up to the standard of solids, 
■viz., 3 per ceut fat and 12 per cent total solids. 
We may be pardoned for comparing great things 
with small and making a comparison between these 
prize-winners and the Government Dairy cattle 
(Sind breed), as the comparison is interesting. As 
regards quantity our Cattle fall far short of 
English milkers, the best cow in the dairy giving 
only up to 20 pints, but this is very good for the low 
country where English breeds will not thrive. As 
regards butter, however, we can compare favour- 
ably, for while the standard adopted at the Royal 
Show was 3 per cent fat, the analysis of a sample 
of milk from our best milker (Queeiiie) by the City 
Analyst gave 8-92 fat, and the prize butter cow 
above referred showed 4"7 per cent and 6 2 per 
cent fat in her morning and evening milk respect- 
ively. Our record is certainly a noteworthy one 
of which we might justly be proud. 
A trial has been made in the drying of fruits 
and vegetables in India by means of Dr. Ryders' 
American Fruit and Vegetable Evaporator. The 
Director of the Sharunpore Botanic Gardens 
reports the results in a letter to the Direc- 
tor of Agriculture, N.W.P. The cost of the fruits 
and vegetables for the evaporator naturally varies, 
but the other items are fairly constant and are 
estimated as follows: — 
Preparation of the article for the 
evaporaiiou and attendance 
during drying ... ... iannaperlb. 
Tins and labels ... ... 2 . 
Interest on evaporation and 
premises ... ... i „ „ 
General supervision ... 1 „ 
Add as trade profit ... 2 „ „ 
Total... 6 „ „ 
The cost estimated under each kind of fruit 
and vegetable includes market value of fresh 
article and cost of wood used for drying. Adding 
6 annas to this cost we get the sale price per 
lb. of the following fruits which we select from 
a long list of both fruits and vegetables experi- 
mented with : Green mangoes about 13 annas ; ripe 
mangoes about 12 annas ; guava about 10 anuas ; 
plantains (green) Iq^ annas ; plantains (green), 10^ 
annas. It is disappointing to find, however, that 
Messrs. Treacher & Co., of Bombay, report un- 
favourably on the samples of dried fruics sent 
to them. 
The Indian Affnculturi$t,velevnug to the Report 
on the working of the Civil Veterinary Department 
for the past year as a remarkable record of useful 
work efficiently done under exceptionally trying 
circumstances, says: Of even greater importance 
is the remarkable stride that has been made during 
the year in the matter of dealing with rinderpest, 
The investigations of Vet. Capt. Raymond in Bengal 
in this connection are specially noticeable, as this 
gentleman has succeeded not only in confirming 
and utilising with the happiest results the inocu- 
lation prophylactic devised by Dr. Koch, but he 
has been able to dispose once and for all the 
germ discovered by Dr; Simpson as the causa 
caiisans of this dreaded cattle-plague. Special 
mention is also made of Vet. Capt. Gunn's work 
in the Punjab, and that of Vet. Capt, Evans 
in Burmah, 
We have already made reference to a trial 
of Dr. Ryder's American Evaporator with Indian 
fruits. It will be there found that the sale 
price of dried unripe and ripe plantains is given 
as equivalent to 98 and 63 Ceylon cents per lb. 
These would seem to be absurdly high figures, 
and on looking over the details of cost we find 
the buying price of the fresh fruit given as 
equivalent to Rl'36 per lOt). We understand that 
a pound of sun-dried plantains such as was 
sent to U3 lately from Anuradhapura could be 
produced at something less than 20 cents! 
THE CACAO CANKER, 
The second (but we hope not the final) report 
of Mr. Carruthers, who specially came over to 
Ceylon to study this disease, while throwing a 
good deal of light ou the nature of this new 
enemy to the cacao industry, is particularly 
valuable for the practical hints it contains. The 
two most important points in this latter connec- 
tion aio hi^ recommendations (1) that light sluido 
