448 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1902. 
from Bcitish Hondurag dowa to Paraguay who IWe 
largely on Caasiva are not m^ra so) through loss 
of sale of exportable products for which there is 
either no demand or only very low prices offered, 
they go on ignoring to a large extent thi? product, 
which every good authority places as on 3 of the 
most valuable edibles available in warm climates. 
It is superior to cornmeal for this clinvxte as it is 
less heating in its effect on working people, and 
less irrititing to the digestive organs of children, 
and it is mire digestible than either Cornmeal or 
wheat-flour breid, as may be exsily proved on trial. 
Corumaal is an imported product, biker's bread ia 
to all intents also an imported product, and even 
if this were actually cheaper than Cassavi products, 
which they ara not, would not be preEerable to 
a h>m3 product; if wa ware raoeiviug plenty of 
money readily from our exports and our buyiug 
power wa? good, by all means should we purchase 
freely what we could afford. Our buying power is 
very low yet the people accustomed in better time 
to purchasing imported articles of diet, never at 
any time necessities, but always in the nature of 
luxuries, go on spending their little monies on 
morsels of expansive imported articles, and ignoring 
to a large exteut the production of their own 
fislds, or what miy be readily produced at their 
owQ door. Even the native yam when scarce and 
high priced, as it U at present, will be bought by 
the small piece at five times its nutritive value 
compared to S»eet Cassava, as if it was absolutely 
indispensable. If, however. Cassava, Sweat and 
Bitter, hal been plautad freely, as we have insisted 
on, (and it is so easy to grow,) the Sweet Oassava 
could now replace the yam temporarily, Parine 
which can be stored and kept in bulk for a year, 
if necessary, could replace the Bornmeal, Cassava 
Meal and "Bammy, " or Cassava Cakes, the flour 
bread, and Tapioca, the rice to some extent, the 
saving to the individual and to the island might 
h bve been very appreciable, if this could have been 
done at the present time. We have not forgotten 
the Cassava starch, largely used, — but still many 
towns folk use imported Cora -starch admittedly 
inferior for laundry purposes. We ought even to 
export Cassava Starch and over and over we have 
put very fine stuff on the London and New York 
markets, but the market price is not enough to 
make its niinufacture here by hand lahimi; a pay- 
ing industry. If in Florida, where for several years 
past thtjre have been starch manufactories working, 
using principilly Cissava for making Starch can 
pay with but six months to grow the Cassava in 
and much cultivation and fertilizing required to 
make any crop yield well at all, then here where 
it grows a'l the year round, with typical soils for 
its production without much cultivation and fertiliz- 
ing, if we had proper machinery, surely starch 
making would be profitable. We need some manu- 
facturing concerns to employ labour, female labour 
especially. — Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. 
and Mangalore cardamoms, which Messrs, Evans, 
Sons & Co, gave them, and some of the results 
are tabulated in the following : 
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON CARDA- 
MOM-FRUITS. 
By R. C. Cowley and J. P. Catford. 
In a paper read before the Liverpool Chemists' 
Association (C. <b D., Win., 472) the authors pointed 
out that combustion in a platinum dish of cada- 
mjin-seeds leads to inaccurate results owing to 
reluction of the phosphorus compounds into phos- 
phides and they suggested the use of ammonium 
nitrate as an oxidising agent to complete the oxi- 
dition. Further experiments on different samples, 
however, have shown that combustion in a clay pipe, 
also tlicn suggested, produces results which closely 
correspond with those obtained with the use of the 
oxidiser. Neither method is, however, by any means 
perfect. They have since exeimined Malabar, Mysore, 
Variety. 
Malabar. 
80 
a 
45 
3 3 2 9 
Number of fruits in 10 gms. 
Percentage proportion of 
Pericarp 30 25 20 
Percentage proportion of I ( dark 57) „- 
seed f 1 light ISP^ 
Percentage of ash from 
dark seed ... 
Percentage of ash from 
light seed 8-5-9 4 5 — 
Percentage of ash from 
pericarp 13 71 7'6 
Lime was found to predominate in pericarps of 
all varieties to such an extent than an admixture 
of 20 per cent, of pericarp with seed is readily dis- 
tinguished by precipitating the lime as oxalate from 
the acetic-acid solution of the ash, two-thirds the 
ash of Malabar pericarps is soluble in acetic acid, 
bud of the seed-ash less than one-half is soluble 
and this portion is mainly composed of potassium 
salts. Manganese and iron are present in all varieties 
of pericarp and seed ; but in Mysore cardamoms only 
comparatively small traces are shown when small 
qantities are examined, such as would be used for 
pharmacopoeial testing. Cobalt was not found in any 
of the three varieties — a result which entirely differs 
from those obtained from previous experiments with 
the seeds. There was another point of difference — 
viz., that dark and light Malabar seed on fusion 
did not differ in yield of metallic oxides as was previ- 
ously recorded. 
The authors proceeded to say that a quantitative 
test for volatile oil would not be so complicated or 
tedious as many of the standardising processes com- 
monly in use. Absolute accuracy is not essential — 
e.g., 10 grsms. of seed might be required to yield 
0-3 to 0 4 c.c. of volatile oil. They concluded with 
these observations . 
An ash determination of cardamom-seed in itself 
is of questionable value as an index of quality. 
The mineral constituents are not constant even in 
individual varieties. 
The large proportion of lime in the pericarp is cha 
racteristio of all varieties. 
The ash-percentage of light-coloured seed is always 
higher than that of the dark, because of the imperfect 
development of the organic matter. 
The high proportion of mineral substances in Malabar 
cardamoms is not a matter to be ignored, for they 
think the medicinal action of the drng does not depend 
entirely on the volatile oi\.— Chemist and Druggist. 
Oranges. — Tlie Fruitgrower of London says 
that " Jamaica oranges continue to arrive and 
sell freely. These fruits have excellent flavour 
and fair colour. If only a little deeper colour 
could be given them they would be very fine 
market fruit. Most of the supplies available have 
been dearer at from 15s to I6s per ease. Ihat 
was the condition of things in October. Since 
then it is reported that the market for Jamaica 
oranges has " gone smash.'' The total receipt 
of oranges in Britain for the last week ot October 
was three times moie than the corresponding 
week of last year; 8,000 cwb carne from Spain, 
5,506 boxes from Jaffa, and from the Mediter- 
ranean generally large .shipments arrived in 
UnhdJin."— Journal of the Jamaica Agricul- 
ral Society, 
