THE TROPIDAl. A^R1€I1LTUR1ST. 
187 
SsPTEmm I, 1891.] 
Igtb, but if he did he wonlJ find that he has maile 
a slight mistake; that what I did say was that 
Liberiau coffee crops closer 1 cwt. au acre thau 20 
c-wt. a3 some hov.i asserted in print that it wouUl. 
Ho simply c irroborated what 1 said, i" putting the 
jield at 5 cwt. au acre. I have had not tlie 
p'easure of Keeiag the trees referred to, so it would 
be interesting to know how many acres are un.ler 
Liberica ia both instanoes, as to frume a conclafio^i 
from a few trees carefully tended would be unsound. 
It is quite possible that there may be a few (■pofs 
in Coorg where the neoessaiy conditions for the suc- 
cessful cultivation of Liberian do exist, but it dots 
not follow that success would atteud its adoption 
on all the places now devoted to Cojffee arabica. 
The latter, even now, in the face of leaf ruat and 
the other ills that coffee is heir to, will with good 
work and manure, give its 5 cwt. on an average with 
ease and comfort, and so long as this is so evils that 
we wot not of are best left alone. 
The rain has Blatled again toA&j .—Madras Mai, 
July 22iid. 
...^ 
NOTES ON POPULA.TI SCIENCE. 
By Dr. J. E. Taylor, f, l. s.&c, Editor of 
"Science Gcssip." 
It is not au infrequnit thing to be askel by 
farmers who do not know too much of agricultural 
chemistry whether the sun has any iuflu<nce on 
" artificials.'' At first, one is disposed to answer— 
"Ccrtainlv not." But M. Laurent has recently 
demonstrated to the Brussels Academy of Science, 
that Eitrates can be decomposed by the action of 
sunlight. He proved this by causing a beana of sua- 
light to fall upon 8olutions of nitrates placed in a 
vacuum, and found that after a cerlai" time_ the 
space contained liberated oxygen, whilst the liquids 
possessed the characteristic reactiocs of nitrites. The 
blue end of the spectrum was found to posseS) the 
most powerful reducing sction. 
It is the tunction of economical science (o 
recognise, no stich thing as waste. L ird Palmerston 
defined dirt as beinir matter in the wrong place. 
What we call waste is tomethitig useful or valuable 
in the wrong placi. Forty je;'rs ago tlie gas 
companies were steeped to the lips in law suits 
taken to prevent them throwine; th'-ir "waste" into 
the rivers and canals, Tbey w^-re forced to utilise 
it. Oat of that very waito chemical science has 
manipulated the moat wonderful and diversified 
products— brilliant dyes, delighi ful perfumes, valuable 
drugs, and a minor host of other sidist 'ncas. The 
gas " waHe" in Grea^. Britain and the Oontinent is 
now worth five millions a yenT. Europe c ul l afford 
to pay for a big war every year with the gai 
waste. The " waste" in paper maniificture was 
similarly a matter of Icgislafi'n a few yejxrs ago; 
now it is nearly all recovered and turned to economical 
advantage. The districts of St. Helens, in Laucathire, 
and the banks of the Line are crowded with 
chemical works, all engaged in manufacturing some- 
thing useful and profitable out of " waste." _ 
Sometimes it is not merely an article in the 
wrong place that is wre-ted from being a nuisance 
and converted into simething useful, but a something 
which for generations has had n'> vilue is suddenly 
endowed by the ingenuity of mod. rn disrovei y into a 
variety of utilitarian oV jects. For thousands of years 
asbestos has had no value. A few oiie..tal m onarchs 
amused their surprised guests by having napkins 
wovi n out of its filire, which were thrown into the 
fire to be cleaned. Its Greek name expresses this 
inconnimability. But within the last 20 years asbestos 
has asBUinod a wide uselulness, and the finder ot a 
new fe»m of asbestos woul 1 do belter than the dis- 
coverer of a goldmine, Most of us are only acquainted 
with this mineral in connection with our modern gas 
stoves, but it has a host of appliiiations besides. 
Lamp wicks, boiler packing, incombustible felt ropes, 
piUl buai'd, Btoppeta £gr our IwgQ guusj tiwo i^^^^ 
charge prestrvers for torpedo and dynamito shells, 
coa' iiig for irourla Is, c'oth for balloons, safety coverings 
for roofs and floors (commot ly a lopted in Ainericu), 
curla^ns and ether properties tor theatre.n, movable 
shields for preventing the advance of fire, 
clothing foe fir^ men, filters, pipe joints, furnace linings, 
insuhitor.-s! lamp .'hades, tobacco pi])6P, soles and 
linings for boots and slices, soldering blocks for watch- 
makers, moulds f r type founders, e ch ftnl all of 
these multituiiuicus object and operations aie nd- 
ministered to by asbestos. The latest are an asbestos, 
paper and compound tobacco asbestos mixture for 
cigarettes. Ai tifical asbestos can be made out of use- 
lees clay by steam-blowing the molten mass into thin 
hairs, resembling flofs silk. Asbestos, natural and 
artific al, ia capable of still further application, and 
perhipa the artificid kind is as yet only in its 
infancy. \Va te on y exists where ignorance exists. 
"For nought so vile upon the earth do: h live, but to 
the eai'tli some special good doth give." — Auatralasian. 
» 
An Insect Enemy.— -" E. B," writes from Matara ;— 
" I send you uuder separate oovtr two woima. I 
am very much interested in knowing what they are. 
These worms especially the younger onea of the 
same species I believe ; but green in oolour are 
destroying my plants. I tried many remedies with- 
out suooess." Our entomological referee reports !— - 
" Caterpillars o£ a common brown moth ; one moth 
was found in the match box, but so much damaged, 
that it was impossible to identify it." 
The Cut Flower Thade in France. — Three hun. 
dred and twenty-three tons of cut flowers, says the 
Liverpool Mercury, sounds an enormous amount, and so, 
without doubt, it is. Yet this was the weight of the 
quantity of cut flowers packed and sent out during the 
four months from November to February from Cannes 
alone. Their value would be estimated at ±'65,268. 
The trade is said to be increasing at an almost incre- 
dible rate, and within th'^ past eighteen months no 
fewer than fifty-three new establishments have been 
started for the cultivation of flowers. From Nice, the 
report is that the flower trade has been much depressed 
owing to the severe frost of the winter. It is said, how- 
ever, to have yielded — the whole district — 15,000,000 
francs during last year, — Gardeners' Chronicle, 
The Japan Tea Export Company. — The 
Japan Weekly Mail of 11th July sajs : — 
It seems probable that the grant of two hundred 
thousand yen, made by the Department of Agri- 
culture and Commerce to the Tea Company — the 
grant about which so much has been said in the 
press and the Diet — will never become available for 
the Company's purposes. The affair has lingered 
interminably, and statements are also in circulation 
to the effect that the terms on which the subsidy 
was given have been violated by the projectors. 
The ISkogyo Shimpo says that, the matter having 
been brought to the Cabinet's notice, the latter de- 
cided on the 3rd instant, to re-pass into the Treasury 
the sum of two hundred thousand yen, which has 
hitherto been lying in a bank, for the purpose of 
being transferred to the Company so soon as the 
litter should have qualified to receive it. 
The Mail of ISth July has the following : — 
The rumour that the Minister of Agriculture and 
Commerce had determined to recall the grant of 
two hundred thousand yen made to the jScicha Kaisha 
or Tea-manufacturing Company, was well founded. 
On the loth instant a notification was issued, over 
the signature of Mr. Mutsu, in the following terms : 
— " In-as-niuch as the Japan Tea-manufacturing 
Company has not fulfilled the eonditions origi ally 
fixed by its charter, the subsidy of two hundred 
thousand yen granted to it is hereby recalled, and 
the said sum must be returned within thirty days 
from the present date." 
The Directors of the Tea Export Company intend 
to raise an action against Mr. Mutsu, Minister of 
State for Agriculture and Commerce, on the ground 
that his administrative action in regard to the 
subsidy, granted by the Government to the cgmpi^nv, 
