E26 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May 2, 1892. 
The best of all kinds which I have ever tried is on 
(jrowa in Delhi, under the name of Maroo Baingan- 
Baicgan is the native generic name of this plant, bat 
Maroo ie, I suspect, ft corruptioQ of the English wor>l 
marrow, as, when cooked, its pulp has a marrowy deli- 
cacy. The fruit of this grows to the eize of h child's 
head, and is of a light purple. I do not know the 
origin of the word Baingan, I cannot fiud this plant 
in Do CandoUe'e Origin of Cultivated Plants. It may 
possibly be a South American plant, originally intro- 
duced into India by the Portuguese. The French call it 
Aubergine, and also Blelongeue ; tho Italians call it 
Melingiana ; Rnd the English in India often call it 
Brinjai. All these words, with the specific Latin name, 
Melongeua, evidently have one derivation ; and the 
Indian name, Baingan makes one suspect that it is a 
further corruption ot the earae name.' In India, among 
dyers, the word Baingni has been adopted to indicate a 
purple shade of colour, so probably the cultivation of the 
platitis of old date- 
As the French are fond of Aubergines, they should 
note in Delhi are to be procured the seeds of a very 
fine variety. Itisnever certain, however, that a good 
variety in one place will maintain its fine character 
vuhen grown elsewhere. Tobacco, Tea, Ooft'ee, the 
Vine, ie, suificiently show this ; nevertheless, here- 
dity, as they say in Hindostau, is hari chif^ (a great 
thing); end it has often happened that a plant retains 
its good qualities in the country and soil ol its adop- 
tion. Then what is the use of man's intelligence if, 
having once got hold of a good plant he cannot make 
it stick to its character, or even improve it ? We 
know that the Tcmato in England is now a " how-is- 
it.we-ever-did-withiut-it " eort of both fruit and vege- 
table. The Aubergine ought, likewise, to hold in time a 
similar position as an adopted vegetable. 
It is not impossible that such a fine thing has not 
taken the fancy of Eoglish growers because they have 
not hit off the right woy of cooking it, althouch Anglo- 
Indian housewives must know a good deal about the 
way of managing it for the table ; but they would like 
to find it in the shops at a reasonable price. I fancy 
it would admit of being grown in pots in summer, under 
glass, exactly as the Tomato is grown. 
For the benefltof those who may happen to grow the 
plants of the purple variety, I herewith give one of a 
dozen ways of cooking the Aubergine. In India, they 
have many varieties, some of them almost black, and 
BB long and thin as Cucumbers; but the best I have ever 
tried is the Maroo Buingan of Delhi. 
The rule if, first to " catch the best hare you can 
find." The stalk and calvx should be cut off, then the 
Aubergine sliced longitudinally, each slice of the thick- 
ness of abont a quarter of an inch. Place them flat on 
a table or board, sprinkle salt over them, place another 
board on the top ot them, and some weights on that. 
The object of all this ia to drain off, by the help of the 
salt, the bitter juice which some bimia contain. I do 
not think tho Delhi variety needs this trouble. Then 
wash off the s-ilt, dry tho slices in a cloth, and fry 
them in lard, or any other frying material. In Italy, 
they fry tliera in plenty of Olive oil (probably now they 
do it in Ootton-sesd oil). In the olden time they nsed 
to call these fried siices of Aubergine, " quaglie " 
(quails), probably beoanso they thought them delicious. 
Sometimes after drying in a cloth they are powdered 
with flour, which, when fried of a golden-brown, 
gives tliem a crumby Eppearancc. Done in this way, 
they can bo eaton with moat, or, Fre7:oh fashion, as a 
separate dhh. 
There are miny other ways of cooking tho Auber- 
(fine. Roasted, or boiled and peeled, and then squeezed 
in a cloth, they may boused in. curries, in omelets, 
&.C. They cm b^ stuffed with force-mnat and baked, 
and in sovei al other ways, but as this is not a paper 
03 cuIiDury subjeciH, I .shall end by statiog that English 
growers and lingli^li cooka will be unwise if they do 
not take to tlu; Maroo Baiugan of Delhi — E. B. — tiar- 
danerii Chronicle, 
* The flurmine in correct. See Yulo's I/oh.wa- 
JohKiyn B. V. " Brinjanl " for the curious history of 
the word.— El). T. A. 
TASMANIAN APPLES. 
" There U a glut of Apples in tho market," said a 
morning contemporary, the other day; and "the 
danadian crop of Apples is this year estimated at a 
million barrels," an evening journal had previoasly 
stated. All thi'<, of course, writes a correppondent, 
means a bad lookout for loiv-clas-j Boglish products— 
first-oJasa will always hold their own anywhere ; and 
in these few words the grower may read his lesson. 
As time goes on, all the weedy sorts will h ive been 
cleared from the market, and ;Apples worthy of the 
name will be "worth moaey," as tlie saying is. By 
the month of March next, people will begin to sigh 
for a toothsome and cheaper Apple, and then — on 
coma the beautiful varieties from Hobart, in far 
Tasmania. ^Ve hive bean threatened wi.h supplies 
from Australia ; they would be very welcome, but they 
have yet to be grown, and it is just possible that 
Australia is not an Apple-growing couatry. This, how- 
ever, from ail aocounta, Tasmania is ; we can readily 
take this for granted, with the vivid memory of what 
hia reached us from that far-off British coloay, rapidly 
rising into inportance, for much of which it is indebted 
to it? Fruit-Growers' Association, and the Agent- 
General, located in the Broadway, Westminster — a 
gentlemnn with a firm belief in the future of his 
country, and quite able to direct the operations of 
those of his friends at the Antipodes who seek to find 
favour for their w.ires in the English markets. A 
pleasant interview with this gentleman a few days 
since was productive of muih information coucerning 
the Apples of Tasmania, from which we roproduce the 
foUowiug, almost in the words of our informant. 
Three years sinca, the import of Apples into this 
country from Hobirt was some 30,000 bushels ; in 
the year fo'lowin^ -1890 — the figures had risen to 
40000; this year the import»t=o:i h^l risea to 140,000 
bushels ! It may be stated here that daring tho season 
of 1891 considerable space was sennred ia the cool cham- 
heri of steamers loading fruit at Hobirt beyond thefirst- 
class fruit then at the disposal of the shippers. To 
save absolute loss of freight, inferior fruit was shipped, 
with the consequence thai the price fell from the 
average of IBs to 18s per bushel of 1889 and 1890 to 8s 
to lOsiu 1891. It has been stated in the English press 
that tha Tasmanian growers are satisfied with this 
lower rate : but they are not satisfied. The actual 
cost to the sh'pper in freiftht, &o., excluding the price 
of the fruit, is over 7s a bushel, and the Is to 3s re- 
maining over is less th^n the price which can be 
realised in tho colony. The Goveromont have noticed 
the mistake of puttmg anything but first class f'uit 
on the English market, and there is no probability that 
the Tfismanian Fruit Growers' Association, which 
conducts the fruit exports, will allow such a bJander to 
be repeated. In the season of 1892 and thereafter, the 
British public need not anticipate the arrival from 
Tasmania of any but first-class apples. 
Respecting the area over which apples are grown in 
Tasmania, the Agent-General infi rmed n.s thsvt the 
acreage under gardens and orchards in 1889-90 was 
9808, against 6459 in 1880-81, and this increase is 
likilyto be maintained. It is antioipited, says our 
informant, that in ten years hence the acreage will 
be extended to some 12,000 acres. To our thinking 
the increase will be greater. Our informant hinted at 
the possibility of an early start in the production 
of Peaches and Apricots for this market ; certainly the 
fruit would be eagerly bought up if in good condition ; 
and here, surely, what h^s been done may fairly be 
accepted as an earnest of what remains to be accom- 
plished. — Gardeners'' Chronicle. 
NATURAL REPRODUCTION IN TFIE 
MADRAS FORESTS. 
It is no now faofc to be told that, where proteetion 
is efficient both from fire and grazing, thu natural 
growth in the Forest Keserves of the Presidency is 
excellent; and on the contrary, where it ia not so, 
the natural growth is poor. All that the Forest OflBoer 
has to do, therefore, is to proteot — and possibly direo 
