126 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1891. 
fire, and a valuable wharf and a huge etock 
of timber were also destroyed. The Fire Brigade 
under Mr. Saperinteudent Bear worked splendidly. 
At. times so hot were the flames that while 
one party of men played on the lire another party 
had to torn their hoses on them to keep their clothes 
from taking fire. This fire was witnesstd by eome 
thousands of.persons who covered all the heights sur- 
rounding the harbonr, and altogether the fpeutaclo 
was grand in the extreme. During the Easter mili- 
tary encampment at Sydney thfre was a sad catas- 
trophe. A field day was being held, and at one etage 
of the operations a cuttor with a crew of two ofBcBrs 
and twelve men belonging to the Submarine Miners 
Corps left the wharf with two submarine torpedoes 
which they were to lay and fire (by moana of a Sie- 
mens dynamo whioh they carried in the boat) for the 
edification of the Governor snd others assembled to wit- 
ness the sight. A mine or torpedo of 100 lb. gun- 
cotton was laid and the boat drawn ofl' bo as to firo 
it, when through some unaccountable blunder the 
wire belonging to the other torpedo of 150 lb. 
still hanging at the ttern of the boat wag placed 
in the dynamo. Thoy consequently fired the 
mine still alongside the boat and blow themselves 
to atoms. The two officers and two men were thus 
destroyed. The ramaMiiug ten men cscp-ped with 
comparatively irifling injurie', although it is feared 
that one cf them has boeu rendered permanently 
deaf by the force of the explosion. 
After a residence of twelve months at Milton sur- 
rounded by dairy farmers we hn^o come to spend the 
remainder of my furlough amongst the orange groves 
and orchards of Parramatta. Fruit growing although 
not so profitable as dairy farming ia still a great 
iodufltry and is inoreaaing. The chief drawback seems 
to lie in the difificulty to aecare lemnuerativo prices 
for the fruit. The orohar>3i3t3 of California make 
large fortunes out of their fruit, but then they have 
a population of 62 millions of fruit eaters to sup- 
ply, whereas our Australian population is only 
about 3^ millions all told. Efforts are being 
made to send the surplus f'rait, oranges in parti- 
cular to Europe; but hitherto this business has 
been attended with great risk on account of the 
length of the voyage and other difficulties. A friend of 
mine, Mr. Acres, has recently sent2,000ca6ea of oranges 
to London with very unsatisfactory results. As all of 
the fruit arrived more or less damaged from two 
causes— the skins of the oranges were not dry enough 
when packed axd the cool chambers of the ship were 
too damp. Still under proper conditions Mr. Acres 
feels sure that it is possible to deliver vast quantities 
of oranges in London and elsewhere in Europe in 
sound ondition at the very time of the year (August, 
September and October) when there is least fruit 
there from other parts of the world to compete 
with ours. In this neighbourhood the orohards vary 
in size from 10 to 400 acres, and in these are grown 
oranges, lemons, apples, psars, peaches, apricots, 
plums, nectarines, loquats, quinces and pasnion- 
fruit. The oringe season is from June to about 
November. Lemons bear all the year round ; 
apricots etc., called summer fruit, come in from 
November to May. The trees are planted 100 
to the acre, and come into partial bearing in about 
four years and into full bearing probably in ten years, 
at whioh time each tree ought to yield a return of 
fruit to the value of four shillings per tree, or £20 per 
acre : an oroba'd of 20 aorea will thus yield a gross 
income of £400 per annum. The coat of working such 
a place would bo about £150, leaving £250 not t tithe 
owner. Dear labour is the great drawback in this 
country where "One man one vote" i? aimed at, and 
where the majority being of the working class are 
doing their very best to keep out cheap labour so as to 
keep the rate of wages to as high a point ae possible. 
False policy, as, with cheap labour, m >st ol these very 
people who noiv work ho hard could b iO i.'iic employers 
of labour, occupy more Hud, make more money and 
orjjoy life as wo do in tho Tropit;s. A propnrly managed 
orchard must bo kept well worked and constantly 
ploughed and muoh like a welI-rn;inagod coffee estate- 
bo kept free from weeds. The trees must be well 
washed with mixtures containing soft soap or sulphur 
or other chemical to destroy the various insects snd 
fungoid pests. Bone dust and chemical manures are 
necessary to supply the lack of lime or phosphate 
or other wants. Certain trees requiring certain 
chemicals, e.g., oranges and lemons require phos- 
phate of lime, sulphate of lime and sulphate of 
ammonia ; peaches require in addition to these sulphate 
of potash &o. Unimproved orchard land costs in this 
district £30 per acre, and it is difficult to secure a 
good well-planted orchard at even £100 per acre- 
There is a good deal of hard work necessary on an 
orchard ; but to one capable of working a place on 
soientifao lines the work is most interesting as well 
as profitable. Thousands of acres of splendid orchards 
have gone out of cultivation iu consequence of the 
ignorance and the slothfuluess of the owners. "Know- 
ledge is power" here as well as elsewhere. The 
climate here is colder than that of Milton : we have 
already had several nights of hard frost. In Milton 
we had no frost until July. I must now close. In 
my next I shall have something to say on the ques- 
tion of " Ceylon Tea in Australia." 
HENRY R. PIGOTT. 
ECHOES OF SCIENCE. 
The Government of the United States have appro- 
priated 9,000 dols. to assist some experiments in the 
production oi riun, whioh are ab:)ut to be undertaken 
by Colonel Dyenfur li, (A Waahington, during liiis 
monih in the Staty of Western Kansas. The principle 
of the experimeuts is the well-known effeci of con- 
cussion in producing ram. It has often been remarked 
that artillery fire iu battle lias brought down showers 
of rain; and Cjlonel D^enfurth proposes to send up 
balloons filled ".vith oxygen and hydrogen gas into the 
atmosphere, and explode tbem by means of an electric 
spark sent along a wire a . tachod t J the hallo JUS. These 
elevated concussions will al^o be assisted by dynatnite 
explosions on the ground. Rain ia a great desideratum 
in the Western Prtirie States, and hence the Govern- 
ment support. 
A new machine for tikisg the contour of a country 
in a short time is in course of construction. It is a 
bicycle which is simply wheeled on _the ground, and 
as it, rises over a hill or descends into a hollow, traces 
the curve of the surface on a sheet of p^per by means 
of an adjusted peucd. The theory of the machine 
is tc'O mathematiial to enter into; but engineers in 
trying climates will be glad to avail themselves of 
au instrument so convenient 
Mr. E. DeviUe, the Surveyor General of Canada, has 
introduced a speedy method of surveying in the Rocky 
Mountain re^iou of the Dominion. It ia to photograph 
the country by a specially designed camera, which is 
carefully levelled and adjusted. 0(tho-chrom»tic 
gelatine plates were found to give tho best resultc. 
Mr. Devilie cousidi rs the photographs as accurate 
as a plan which ha~ beea laid down by means of a 
very good protractor. The method is likely to be 
useful in military operations. — Globe. 
CONSTITUENTS OP COCONUT MILK, IN 
UNRIPE AND RIPE NUTS. 
Out readers will observe, by the following extract, 
that tho weight of the liquid in unripe coconuts 
ranges from 230 to 383 grams, while in ripe fruits 
the weight; of the milk v/dS reduced to between 
109 and 161. The explanation, of course, ia 
tho soiidifyiog into kernel in ripe oooonuts 
of a very large proportion of the substances 
whioh were liquid in the young fruit. The pro- 
portion of water in the olear milk of young coco- 
nuts ranged from 9i per cent to 96, which in the 
turbid milk of ripe oooonuts was reduced to 91. 
The sacoharine matter in the milk of young oooo- 
nuts is in the form of gluoose, varying from 3-'t5 
per cent to 4'58. In the milk of the ripe nut, 
