THE TROnCAL agricultupjbt. 
fJAX. 1, 1905. 
THE FOOD VALUE OF VEGETABLES. 
Tomatoes rouse torpid liver and do the work, ordin- 
arily of a doctor's prescription. 
Lettuoa lias a sootiiing quieting offset upon the 
nerves, and is an -insomnia remedy. 
Celery is an acknowledged nerve tonic, and is more 
arid more used in medicinal prescriptions. 
Onions are also a tonic for the nerves, but people 
■will be forever prejudiced because of their odour. 
Potatoes should be eschewed ty those who " have 
a horror of getting fat," aa that is one penalty of 
eating them. 
Parsnips, it is now contended by scientists, possess 
almost the same virtues tliat are claimed for sar- 
eaparilla. 
Bests are fattening, and even a moderately-learned 
man will understand that it is because of the sugar 
they contain. 
Ordinary Lima baaus, some one has said, are good 
to allay thirst, but the same can be said, with equal 
truih, of a ])itcher of water. 
Asparagus is efficacious in kidney ailments to an 
•xtent that it is not y.-t, perhaps, thoroughly ap- 
preciated. 
Cucumbers, aside from sunbeam emitting proper- 
ties known to readers of facetious paragraphs, eou- 
tains an acil that is helpful in some casss of 
dyspepsia. 
Parsley will assist good digestion, like cheese and 
nuts, but a quantity in excess of ordinary capacity 
his to be consumed. Therein lies the joke. 
Pumpkins are an ingredient in a patent medicine 
that is fiuaranteed to cure quite a variety of 
ailments fle^h is heir to, but the world is increasing 
in inhabitan'.s who do not believe all they hear. 
— E. N NaYEB, in "What to Eat." in the Queensland 
Ayrlc Utural journal for November. 
BANANA CULTIVATION IN ZANZI- 
BAR. 
The cost of plaritinfj will depend upon circum- 
stances. This yearO.lGj ban.anas have been planted 
at Diinga in a young clove plantation at 
a costof R74-15 ;} wliicli is at the rate of about 
17 annas per 100. Tiiree j^'angs of prisoners were, 
for the most part, employed at this work : oae 
gang of four digtring up the suckers, another of four 
aarrying them lo their destinations, and a third 
gang of i'ourdigging the holes and planting. 367 men 
planted 6,165 bananas which is at the rate of 16'8 
per man per day. Pi ison labour is of course cheaper 
than ordinary labour 'iver., when, as in this case, 
the wages of the police in charge are taken into 
account. Had ordinary labour been exclusively 
employed the cost would have amounted to with- 
in a fraction of one piee !)er plant, which is at 
the rate of 25 annas per 100. Thus the cost of 
prison labour compaies in this instance with the 
cost of ordinary labour in the proportion of 2 to 
.3, assuming that a paid labourer would have done 
no more work in a day than a prisoner ; not an 
altogether fair assuminion. 
The above calculation refers to planting in 
among young trees. Clearing and lining operations 
were dispensed with as these had already been per- 
formed for the young clove plants. 
At Dunga slickers were obtained within half a 
mile of the spot. When plants have to be fetched 
from any great distance the cost of planting will 
be piopoition.Tlly increased. 
fn two years time a clump of bananas will, if 
the snckcr.s are not pruned away, present the 
appearance of a miniature forest, while the bun- 
dles of fruit will be light and of little value. At 
most half a dozen stems should be permitted to 
grow in one clump, the rest stubbed out. From 
time to time the earth may be hilled up round 
the stems, to invigorate the growth, and the dead 
leaves and stems cleared away to admit of air. 
Return':. — The same proportion isnot maintained 
in the money value returned. A plantation of 1,600 
tree^ (■•lump-i) planted at Diiuga in 1898 to shade 
cocoa and kola has yielded during the last 12 
months about two annas per tree. At the rate of 
plants per acre (15 by 15) this amuunis to 
atiout R'i4 per acre. The cost of gathering the 
fruit and selling it in the local m irket may iie 
set down at, apiiroximately, lt:< per acre ; lea\in^ 
a net return of K16 per acre. Coconuts return 
from R14 to K17 per acre. Both are subject to 
theft and in neither case has the cost of cultivation 
been taken into account. There is this difl'erence, 
however, between the two products ; coconut 
trees will get along without cultivation, bananas 
will not. The cost of cultivation in the case of 
the trees referred to above, would amount to not 
less than R12 per acre, which, if charged to the 
banana'!, would leave a maru;in of proQt too narrow 
to permit of their being cultivated. As however 
they have been grown especially to sliade the e.v- 
perimental plots of cocoa and kola ti e proceeds of 
their produce may be counted as profit Con- 
siderable loss takes place through theft and in 
order to reduce this loss as much as possible the 
fruit is often cut sooner than it otherwise would be. 
But whenso cut the bunches command a lower price 
in the market than if they had been allowed to re- 
main till they had matured. The bunches are cut 
green and buiied in a hole in the earth which has 
been previously heated with hre In four or five 
days they will be ripe a d ready for eating. Or 
they may be hung up to ripen, in which case the 
process will occupy ten or twelve days. The trunk 
is always cut down when the fruit is cropped as it 
will not bear a second time. 
Bananas bear in about 12 months from planting, 
a month or two less if the suckers were large 
when planted and the season favourable. They 
bear all tlie year round, that is to say there are 
always bunches coming in. — Shamba, Nov. 6. 
INDIAN TEA TRADE. 
The following letter from Mr George Seton, 
of 120, Bishopsgate Street, E.C , appears in 
today's Standard in reply to a long and rather 
belated article : — 
" My attention has been called to an article 
in the Standard on Monday last, headed ' 'J'he 
Indian Tea Trade : A Gloomy Outlook,' which 
article (and more particularly its heading) seetns 
likely to cause some misapprehension — har(ily 
justiliable from the facts of the case. As indi- 
cated in the report on the tea trade of India, 
which you quote, the Indian tea planiins; 
industry has lately passed through something in 
the nature of a crisis. Owing to the great 
stimulus given to tea-planting by the fall in the 
value of the rupee and other causes, very large 
extensions of cultivation were made, not only prior 
to bub even after the closing of the Indian Mints 
to the free coinage of silver, with the result 
■ — as shown by you— that a very great fall took 
jilace in the price of all teas. The decline reached 
a climax in 1900, and in the earlier part of the 
present year, when the full stream of overproduc- 
tion, both from India and Ceylon, surged upon 
a surfeited maiket. Since then, however — thank 
