2)8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1891. 
brew a conooction altogether poisonous it ought 
to be efifeotual. Oa Suoday morniDg the tea-maker 
starts with a clean pot and a clean record. 
The pot 19 hung over the fire with a sufficiency 
of water in it for the day's brew, and when 
thia has boiled, he pours into it enough of the 
fragrant herb to produce a deep coffee-coloured 
liquid. On Monday night removina: yesterday's tea 
leaves he repeats the process, and so on to the end of 
the week." It is quite time Indian and Oeylon teas, 
together with prop.r instructions how to brew them 
were known in up" country stations. Mr. Murray's 
opinion of Australia comes to this : — " There is no 
country in which so high a condition of general com- 
fort, so lofty a standard of proved intelligence, and 
such large and varied means of intellectual exi.steuce 
exist side by aide with so much turbulence, so lax a 
commercial morality, and such overcharged atatiatica of 
drunkenness and crimes of violence." 
Planting in Jamaica. — The prospects of Jamaica 
are looking up, according to the ollioial reports of Sir 
Henry Blake, the Governor of the island. Although 
the sugar crop, the staple of the island, has under- 
gone a terrible decline, and is still decreasing. Sir 
Henry does not believe that it has ceased to be 
" a safe and profitable investment," under al- 
tered conditions. He declines to accept the theory 
that the abandonment of sugar estates is attri- 
butable to the low price of sugar, aud the diffi- 
oulty of obtaining labour. The Governor thinks 
there baa been improvidence in the system of culti- 
vating the canes, and a lack of science in the methods 
of manufacturinsr sugar and rum. Sir H. Blake re- 
grets, for an especisl reason, that sugar planting 
should be given up. The cane, unlike the banana, 
cannot be destroyed by a hurricane, and thus it offered 
a steidy field for labour when such calamilies 
occurred. Nor does he see any reason why the 
industry should be abindoned, but the business of 
manufacture shonld be separated from that of culti- 
vation, and the planter shonld cultivate scientific 
methods, Fruit-growing, which has taken the place 
which sugar-planting used to occupy in the com- 
merce of the island, is a profitable industry alike to 
the small cultivator and the capitalists who have 
engaged in it on a large scale. The crop consists 
chiefly of oranges and bananas, and a large quantity 
of the latter is sent to the United States. The culti- 
vation of rice, commenced by the East Indian immi- 
grants a few years ago, has expanded considerably. 
Cocoa is being sedulously cnUivatod. Stimulated by 
the success which has attended the Bihamas experi- 
ment, planters are seeking another string to their 
bow in the fibre industry. 
The Quabtekly Sales of Oinnamon.— The third 
series of public sales of cinnamon for this year was 
held last week, when of 1.460 bales, 16 parcels, 12 boxes 
and 44 ballots Ceylon was offered; but the market was 
BO dull that at the commencement of tho auctions 
Bcarci ly any bids were made, and whole marks were 
withdrawn almost without a price being named. After- 
wards, however, as importers manifestei a dispo-ition 
to make concehsionn, the cjmpetilion seemed to improve 
a little, thnugh it was still far from pprighily, for, 
whilht tho commoner gradts found buyers at somewhat 
easier rates, the finer sotts wc-re more difficult to 
realise, and were disposed of about Id per lb. 
lower than in May, leaving the general currency as 
follows : — Supi^rior quality plantation at Is 4d to ls5d ; 
fine firsts at lOid to 1h Id, ordinary to good at T^-d to 
9Jd ; 81 couds ai 0 1, to 10^, finest at Is Id ; thirds and 
fourths at (id to S^d ; fifths at 5Jd to 5Jd, with hrnken 
in boxes at S^d to 7d, and in ballots at djd to 5jd per 
lb. These prices may bo regarded as unprecedently low. 
KAKI. 
The Eist Indian name tor all sorts of distilled 
spirituous liquorn, but 'chiefly for that procured from 
tod'ly or 'be r<;rmoiil()'i juice of the cocoa and other 
palms, and Irom rice. The coconut-palm is a chief 
iiource of toddy or palm-wine, and is obtained from 
trees ranging from 12 to 16 years old, or, in fact, at 
the period when they begin to show the firet indications 
of fliwering. After the flowering shoot or spadix 
enveloped in its spathe is pretty well advanced and 
the latter is about to open, the toddy-man climbs the 
tree and cuts off the tip of the flower-shoot; he next 
ties a ligature around the stalk at the base of the 
spadix, and with a small cudgel he beats the flower- 
shoot and bruises it. This he does daily for a fortnight, 
and if the tree is in good coniition a considerable 
quantity of a saccharine juice flows from the cut apex 
of the flower-shoot. The juice rapidly ferments, and 
in four days is usually sour ; previous to that it is a 
favorite drink, known in India by the natives as csllu, 
and to the Europeans as toddy. When turning sour 
it is distilled and converted into raki, known better 
to the Hindus as naril, aud to the Cingalese as pol, 
or nawasi. It is probable that the use of raki is 
more widely diffused among the human race than either 
wine, brandy, whisky or beer.— A7nerican Grocer. 
ECHOES OF SCIENCE. 
Mr. Edison is credited with another " big idea" 
in the shape of a "cosmical telephone." Some years 
ago, while expfrimenting with his long distance 
telephone on a long line, ho observed singular iu- 
duotiou noises which did not appear to have an 
earthly origin, but to be due to solar eruptions. 
Possessing a mine of magnetic iron ore at Ogden, 
New Jersey, he is now arrangiug to run a teleptione 
wire round and round the mass of magnetic ore so 
aa to form a large coil with a magnetic core. He 
intends to connect telephones with this wire, and 
hopes to hear a faint rumour of the catastrophes in 
the sun as communicated by the modern Hermes 
"induction." 
Mr. W. F. Stanley, the well known optician, has 
devised a "phonometer" chronograph for enabling 
a person to measure distances by observing the time 
between tbe report and flash of a gun. It can also 
be used for estimating the distince of lightning by 
timing the flash with the c'ap of thunder, and 
aUowing a quarter of a mile (333 metres or over 
1,000 icet) f'lr every second of the interval. 
In the Philosophical 3Tagatine for July M. S. 
Tolver Preston proposes to make an acoustical 
thermometer. It is well known that a tnning fork 
of a certain vibrating period will at the normal 
temperature vibrate in resonance with a tube possess- 
ing a certain length : but the note of a resonance 
tube varies according! to the temperature of the 
air or gis it encloses. Hence if the tube is placed 
near a healed body so as to change its temperature, 
the same fork will no longer vibrate in resonance 
with it. There are two obvious ways of utilising 
this idea. Either the resooance tube should be 
telescopic, so that its length fan he varied as its 
temperature varies, and in that case the same tuuing 
fork will serve. Or, if the tube is unaltered, an 
a'ljustible tuning fork can be used to find the 
tetnperaturo. 
MM. Fridourg and Hesse, of 23, Rue des Ecoles, 
Paris, have brought out a useful little pyroscope for 
indicating when a certain high temperature is reached 
in a furnace. The device can be used to tell different 
tempe.'atnre.between l,150Jepr. and 1,700 Jeff, centigrade. 
It consists of a little Cilinder of refractory material 
which fuses at the temperature in question. They 
have been carefully callibrated and are said to be 
very accurate. 
It is Well-known that the bacillus of tuberculosis is 
often found in places lately occupied by cons-uraptive 
persons. Herr Prausuilz, of Berlin, has l itely collected 
the dust from the railway carriages used to cjuvey such 
patients to Meran, and inoculateil guinea pigs wiih it. 
Three out of four of the animals beoume mffcted with the 
disease ; aud were k lied after ten or twelve weeks. The 
author supposes the numb<:r of the bacilli in the dust to 
have been small, but the facts nevertheless show the 
necessity of disinfecting such carriages. 
