246 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUKIST, [Oct. 1, 1903. 
The lavender harvesters are now busy with their 
curious sickles, which have roughened edges, on 
account of the tough nature of the flower stalks. 
The lavender grower can always depend 
upon a good demand for his blooms, for the simple 
reason that he has more than one outlet for dis- 
posal. If market value for cut blooms are low, he 
can reserve his stock for distillation, 
English oil of lavender, because of its superior 
quality is worth more than four times the price of 
the French extract. The English lavender has no 
equal for fragrance, and thus can have no foreign 
competitor to contend with. It will surprise many 
to learn that lavender was introduced into England 
as early as 1658, though it is only within the past 
50 years that it has been cultivated extensively for 
market and distillation. Many of the Surrey 
lavender growers bring their own blooms to Covent 
Garden Market, put up iu bunches, and sell it 
direct to the buyers, such as the street hawkers 
and higglers. They can do this by the payment 
of Is a morning for their stand in or about the 
market, and a toll varying according to the 
quantity brought up for sale. The growers who 
work on these lines make money from their crop, 
for rhey avoid the salesman's commission, and 
work up a permanent connection at the same time. 
Fine, hot weather brings out the aroma, and is 
also necessary for successful harvesting. For a 
full month "sweet lavender" will be cried through- 
out the streets in every city in the United King- 
dom.— (?iobe. 
THE USES OF THE SUNFLOWER. 
The seeds should be planted, two to three inches 
apart, in rows three to three and half feet apart, 
at a depth, except in very heavy soils, of two 
to three inches. The heads should be harvested 
before the seeds are quite ripe, to prevent scattering 
and loss. After drying, the seeds can be threshed 
out and stored in bags in the usual way. The 
most useful part of the plant is the seed. The 
seeds themselves form an excellent food for poultry 
and are fed to horses and cattle to keep the 
animals in good physical condition. The oil 
expressed from the seeds is the most valuable 
manufactured product of the sunflower, and for 
edible purposes approaches more nearly to olive 
oil than any other vegetable oil known. The 
cake, left after the extraction of the oil is rich in 
nitrogenous matter, Its food value is equal to 
that of the cake made from linseed or Indian corn, 
at the same time it has the advantage of being 
more palatable. The branches and stalks of the 
sunflower are used as food for cattle, horses and 
sheep. — Agricultural News, 
♦ 
ADVERTISING JAPAN AND CEYLON TEA 
IN AMERICA. 
The Japanese have assimilated one American 
trait, to wit, being interviewed in the public press 
in as many places and as many times as opportunity 
permits. The value of advertising under such aus- 
pices is well understood here and the knowledge 
has spread even across the Pacific. Thus it has 
come about that our western land has been told 
something of Japan tea by the Special Commis- 
sioners journeying in America in the interest of 
that leaf. Their progress eastward was traceable 
by this ingenious manifestation. A year ago a 
Ceylon Commissioner shrewdly employed a bureau 
of publicity, but greased the way by a sprinkling 
of paid advertising iir local journals, inconsequence 
of which more extensive results were realised. The 
Japanese should acquaint themselves with this 
fact, for it is important. It is a general impression 
that they do things in a Liliputian way, and there 
certainly was nothing very mammoth in the appro- 
priation last year by their National Tea Association 
of $1,500 for advertising Japan tea in the United 
States and Canada. It all looked so comic as to 
suggest opera-bouffe, though Anglo-Saxon traders 
in Japan tea were moved to tears and remonstrance. 
Even the expenditure of the entire government 
grant of $35,000 in mere advertising would still 
be picayunishin the light of the dimensions of the 
United States and Canada, and the sooner the 
Japanese understand that the only effective way 
wich us is the large way the sooner will their 
position in defence of their market here become 
less vulnerable, to say nothing of extending their 
market. The Japan tea commission has learned 
something of the art of publicity, and plain duty 
requires that they learn it all ; else there are 
breakers ahead.— Tea and Coffee Trade Journal. 
The Congo Rubber Movement.— Exports of 
Rubber from the Congo Free State during 1902 
are officially stated as follows : — 
Kilos. Value. 
Total rubber exports ...5,804,030 45,271,434 francs 
Product of the State ...5,350,452 41,783,525 „ 
The arrival at Antwerp during the year 1902 
embraced 5 403,985 kilograms, from all sources, of 
which 4,992,954 kilograms were from Congo Free 
State. The difference between the Antwerp re- 
ceipts and the output of the Free State is doubtless 
to be accounted for in the Rotterdam trade in Congo 
rubbers, the arrivals there of this grade in 1902 
having amounted to 899,750. — India Eubber 
World. 
The Mosquito Plant.— Sir William Thiselton- 
Dyer sends to the Times a long letter from Dr. 
Prout, the Principal Medical Officer, Sierra Leone, 
detailing the numerous experiments made by him 
and Dr Hood to put to the test the alleged powers 
of the mosquito plant, Ocimum viride. The con- 
clusions may be briefly summarised as follovvs : — 
'1. Growing plants have little or no effect in driv- 
ing away mosgaitoes, and are not to be relied on as a 
sabstitate for the mosquito net. 
2. Fresh laasil leaves have no prejudicial effect on 
mosqiiitoes when placed in close contact with them. 
3. The fumes of burnt basil leaves have a stupefying 
and eventually a destructive effect on mosquitoea ; but 
to obtain this action a degree of saturation of the air 
ia necessary, which renders it impossible for the indi- 
vidual to remain in the room. It is probable, 
however, that cones made of powdered baail would, 
when burnt, have the effect of driving mosquitoes 
away, and to this extent <night be fonnd useful.' 
The fumes of insect powder (Pyrethrum), and 
of nicotine ' XL-All,' are efficacious in making the 
rooms in which they are burnt too uncomfortable 
for gnats and flies ; but the discomfort is equally 
great to human beings, and by the time the rooms 
were habitable the insects or their relatives might 
return, unless mosquito nets were used over the 
verandahs, &c. — Gardeners' Chronicle, 
