204 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, i8gi. 
I hear that Sutton in the Agras has been eold 
for Fomething over £9,000 — net so duety a figure! 
FcoT-AND Mouth Disease s prevalent in some 
distriote. Witli careful disinfecting abd segregation, 
this pest can be much minimised. 
Labouk is plentifnl at present, because there is no 
flashiDg to epeak of. Wait till October and then 
we will hear a howl. No time shouli be Icsfc in 
sending some Government officiil and a planter of 
good etanding to visit some of the districts suffering 
from food scarcity in districts probably adjoining 
the districts we at present get our labour from. 
Such a commission would cost little, and give us 
some data to work on. 
THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES 0^ 
MALABAR. 
Malabar is one of the principal Districts where 
Eiu'opean enterprise is employed in the develop- 
ment of the country. The manufacturing^ industries 
there from year to year are increasing with the aid 
of European capital. Diiring the past official year 
the Malabar Spinning and Weaving Company con- 
tinued its operations, employing only 301 hands 
against 378 in the previous year. The out-turn was 
1,183,7411b. of yarn valued at E4,43,903 against an 
out-turn of 1,185,9001b. at E4,87,790 in the preced- 
ing year. This is the only Factory which comes 
under the Factory Act, and is subject to the inspec- 
tion of Government officers. The Basel Mission has 
weaving establishments at Cannanore, Calicut, 
Tellicherry and Churubala, which manufactured 
cotton fabrics to the valve of Rl, 40,737. Messrs 
Volkart Brothers, of Cochin, and Messrs. Henke 
&] Co., of Calicut manufactured coir-matting to the 
value of R37,320. This industry is also carried out 
by Messrs. Pierce Leslie & Co., of Caliciit. Coffee 
curing is carried on by seven European firms in 
Tellicherry and Calicut. The Basel Mission has a 
tile factory at Calicut with a branch at Kodacal, 
near Tirur, at which ten lakhs of tiles were made, 
of the aggregate value R40,000. Two hundred 
labourers are employed on these worlc,3 daily. A 
Parsee firm, Messrs. Maneckji & Co., has a tile 
factory at the Ferok. Messrs. Henke & Co., are 
engaged in the manufacture of cigars at Calicut, and 
turned out cigars to the value of R3,000. Coir and 
cinchona baling, the preparation of bone manure 
and bleaching of ginger are also carried on to some 
extent. Calicut has three soda water manufactories 
at which 6,220 dozen bottles of water were made 
valued at R3,2.52 during the year, against 5,420 dozens 
in 1888-89.— if. Mail, Aug. 14th. 
BARK AND DRUG REPORT. 
(From the Chemist and Druggist.) 
London, Aug. 8th. 
QumSE.— There is no alteration in the market. 
Several trausactions of secondary 'imporfance— said to 
be mainly for consumption— are reported at lOjd per oz 
for Fabbrica Lombardu ; and lOfd to lOJd per oz for B 
& S and Brunswick quinine in bulk. Messrs. Hartford, 
Schoellkopf, and McLagan, of New York, observe, with 
regard to the position of quinine in the United States :— 
' ' Everybody is willing to admit tliat the foreign statis- 
tical position of bark and the unit i^-ice paid for same 
does not warrant such low prices, 20c being the present 
New York quotation, but there is no large demand 
for quinine at present, and hence the decline, in the 
face of apparently favourable conditions. We take the 
followiDg;flgurea from the C. S. Government statistics just 
to hand ;— 
Lbs. 
Quinine barks imported for 11 months 
ended May 31st, 1»91 ... 2,581,381 
1890 .„ 2,24U,242 
Increase 335,130 
If we take 3 per cent as a fair average for the quinine 
contained In the bark, we get, say, 1,600,000 oz of sul- 
phate quiuiue, but a considerable portion of this bark 
)B UBCU for drugiii'lB' purposes, so that we would oo.n- 
Ridor 1,260,000 oz to bo ahout the quantity prgUucei'iA 
(bin 09kUtry. ts'est we U'^ve 
Quinine and its salts imported for 11 
mouths ending May 3l6t, 1801 ... 3,i02 960 
1890 ... 2,82G,138 
... , , Increase 376,822 
it will be seen that importations of both bark and 
quinine are increasing. As oinchonidia and other salts 
of quinine play minor part now, we conclude ^hat the 
great bulk of the importations Tvere sulphate of quinine. 
It will, therefore, be noticed that the imports and 'pro- 
duction give lit least 4,250,000 oz for eleven months) or, 
say 4,750 oz yearly, for consumption in this country. 
That there is considerable over-production of quinine 
we have no doubt, and perhaps this is the true reason 
why the market has taken a downward course." 
ECHOES OF SCIENCE. 
The mushroom has become a simile for vigorous 
growth, and a recent instance of its capacity for 
thriving in uutowa'd ciroumttances comes to us from 
Stockton, California, where several fine specimens 
were found growing on the concrete floor of a stable. 
The floor had been laid f^r a year, and consisted 
of cement with a top coj,lii)g of gravel and as. 
pake. The mushrooma germinated in the body of 
the concrete, breaking through the cement to reach 
the air. One grew to a height of oue-aud-a-half 
inchec, and the diameter of its stem was three 
fourths of an inch, while its substance was beauti- 
fully white and firm. The conjecture is that some 
mushroom spawn had become mixed up with the 
cozierete when the floor was laid. They were rooted 
about l^in below the surface, and one cf them 
had cast a fragment of the superincumbent cement 
about a foot away. 
The power of snnlight in promoting the frag- 
rance of flowers has been investigated by Her 
Regell, who finds that when a plant is ktpt iu the 
dark the flowers are scentless. If the flowcr-huds 
alone were kept in the dark, the flowers proved to 
be fragrant. Even flowers which bloom at night lost 
their sceut when the plant was deprived of light. 
On restoring the light,however, the flowers recovered 
their scent. Respiration has also an influence on 
their fragrance. For example a plantof nycterinia 
enclosed, in a bell-jar, with oxjgsn gas, beliavid 
as it would have done in air, whereas one enclosed 
with hydrogen did not open its flower-buds, and 
these had no scent. 
M. Buuchon Brandely has introiJuced a simple 
device for facilitating the growth of oysters in the 
French beds. It consists of a series of sballov/ 
trays of wiro netting, about two feet, square and 
four inches deep. These are ranged in tiers on iron 
frames, which are either planted on the bottom or 
suspended from rafts to a suitable depth. The oysters, 
being placed in these trays, are easily collected, pnd 
are pretected from unsuitabla soils, or such enemies 
as borers and "five-fingers," while being exposed on 
all eides to the free circulation of the wster. The 
apparatus might be ussful io the Thames teds where 
a curious disease accompanied by rotting of the 
shell has made its appearance. 
A new antiseptic called microoidine has been 
brought to tbe notice of the French Acadomy of 
Medicine by Professor Berlioz of Grenoble. It is a 
compound of napthol and soda, neither poisonous nor 
irritating, and is twenty limes as active as boric acid, 
while being more soluble than carbolic acid, thymol, 
and others. Microoidine is a greyish powder, and a 
solution of three grammes in a litre of wattr does 
not stain the hands or bandages. It is particularly 
well adapted for family use. 
M. Deherain, a Freneh chemist, has devised an 
interesting way of sl-owing that stsrch is the first 
stable product of the activity" of light aad chloro- 
phyll in leaves. It is based on the fact that starch 
forms a blue colour when in contact with iodine. 
A growing leaf is covered above and below with black 
paper, which is quite opaque, by means of gum 
arable, the upper foil, having 'been out into a 
stencil plate with letters or figures. This should 
bo done in the early morning, wheu the leaf is 
free of ^istvohf that made the d».y before bavin|; 
