...ease, will frequently take on a new growth in a 
View weeks with a steady application of lime. 
' . Applied in the same way to potato, stalks that 
. taye been dried and eaten up by disease, the lime 
",'ha9 similar good, results. "When the disease has 
eaten so far down into the heart of the stems that 
'"the roots of the potatoes are affected, the applica- 
.,..tion of powdered lime will not have much effect. 
'"'ilJnless the disease has, however made such rapid 
"i. headway, it will pay to give the whole field a treat- 
' 'ment with lime. The greatest care should be taken 
i' to sprinkle them carefully, sifting the lime on all 
[Mparts of the leaves and stems that are affected in 
."the slightest degree. Very , many potato fields could 
l'',be.sa,ved from, partial or complete destruction in 
, .tills, y/Siy .—Spfitjiem Planter. 
■ NOTES ON ESSENTIAL ;OILS.* 
• ^ Sandal-wood Oil.— At the Government auctions of 
-sandal-wood held at Mysore in November and Decem- 
ber last the following quantities were brought for- 
ward:— 
Tons. 
. From the Shimoga district 770 
From the Kador district 200 
. From the Hassan district 300 
From the Mysore (Seringapatam and Hunsur) 
district • 1.000 
From the Banvalore district 150 
while the auctions in previous yt ars show the fol- 
lowing quantities : 
Year .. 1883 1884 18'-5 1886 1887 1888 
Tons '.. .. 2,600 2,775 2,6.50 2 025 2,450 2,500 
The assortment usually consists of 15 per cent, of 
root, 20 per cent, of best-quality logs and the remainder 
of second quality logs and chips. Unexpectedly high 
prices were paid for all qualities, for whereas the 
. values had been, superior 46s 6d., roots 44s. 9d., 
ordinary 40s., c.i.f , the whole of the quantity brought 
forward sold rapidly at 54s. 6d. for superior, 52s. 9d. 
for roots, and 46s, 6d. for ordinary, an increase of 
20 per cent. It is believed that for a long time to 
come the article will be maintained at high prices, 
. as the government of Mysore has again taken en- 
ergetic steps to obtain the full benefit of this mono- 
poly. In future only so much good is to be cut 
down as required for the consumption, and it seems 
to be the object of the Government gradually to in 
crease the price of the wood, and then to keep it 
at a definite point. Of the whole of the wood, 
which is sold, about two-thirds is , used in Ind a, 
partly for carvi> g, and partly as an incense in reli- 
gious ceremonies, and only about one- third is con- 
sumed in Europe. If, iu spite of this advance in 
the price of the raw material, the cheap oil from 
Bast .Indian wood is frequently offered, cause may 
be f' und in the use of Macassar sandal-wood oil, 
which very nearly approaches the Indian oil in 
quality, although for perfumery purposes the Indian 
oil deserves decidedly the preference.— 0(7, Paint 
and Drug Reporter. 
NOTES ON POPULAR SGIEIjJOE. 
By Dh. J. B. Taylou, f.l.s., f.g.s., &c., 
Edixou of " Science Gossip." 
The , artificial manufacture of rubies is still going 
on and a trade demand for them has arisen for 
use as pivots in watches. They are stated to be 
not inferior to the natural stones in hardness. The 
two French chemists who have been long experi- 
menting on the subject have been able to produce 
much larger stones than formerly by a modification 
and improvement of thoir original method. As much 
as six pounds of rubies can be produced at each 
operation. Those experiments show that the colours 
both of natural rubies and sapphires are due to 
chromium in different stales of oxidation. 
Indigo can now be artificially produced by two 
different metliods, worked out independently by two 
or three different oxperinienteis, all German chemists. 
• From MeBsra, Schimmel & Co.'s repor*. 
One is produced with phenylglycocine and the other 
from anilidoacetic acid. 
Dr. Alfred Carpenter, of Croydon, the well-knovm 
sanitarian authority, in an address recently delivered 
before the Association of Sanitary Inspectors at 
Liverpool, estimates the loss to England from the 
non utilisation of sewage, during the last 800 years, 
at 16,000 millions sterling. He declared that if our 
present wasted sewage could be put upon the land, 
meat and milk would be produced over that yielded 
now, and five times the amount of labour would be 
employed thereon. He contended there should be 
from 5,000 to 6,000 tons of sewage placed on every 
35 acres of land, from which 40 to 50 tons of produce 
per acre would be obtained. Moreover, he argued that, 
if properly treated the land would be freed from excess 
of nitrogenous matter, and there would be a com- 
pleter purification of the water supply. He did not 
say, however, how the latter could be effected. I 
imagine you would find it difficult in Australia to 
put 50 tons of sewage on every 35 acres of culti- 
vated land. Even in our densely-populated country 
we cannot do so. Consequently our British bill for 
artificial manures is a little over five millions a year. 
The official report issued by the U. S. A. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture at Washington shows a falling 
off in the wheat cultivation of America during the 
last decade. In the year 1880 the total production 
was 498,549,868 bushels ; in 1890 it was reduced to 
399,262,000 bushels, nearly one-fifth less. Maize yielded 
in 1880 1,717,434,,543 bushels ; in 1890 only 1;489,970,000 
bushels, although this is a oharacteristie American 
crop. On the other hand, the yield of oats had 
gone up, perhaps owing to the large increase in the 
number of horses employed. In 1880 417,858,380 
bushels of oats were produced ; in 1890 the yield 
had increased to 523,621,000 bushels. 
From some important experiments by Professor 
Henry, the principal of the Wisconsin Agricultural 
Station, as to the relative fattening properties of 
barley, meal and maize meal, it appears that it 
required 361b. more barley meal than maize meal to 
produce 1,0001b. of meat. The experiments were on 
ten hogs, 14 months old, extending over a period of 
eight weeks. Both feeds were soaked with water, 
and it was found it required about three pounds 
weight of water properly to soak one pound of barley 
.meal, ^und only two pounds of water to soak the 
same .quantity of maize meal. The hogs fed on barley 
meal consumed . 301b. of water daily with their food, 
while the hogs on maize meal only required 221b. 
Even with this large amount of water in the feed, 
the,, barley fed hogs drank two pounds a day extra, 
from a separate trough, whilst the maize meal fed 
hogs only required three-quarters of a pound extra 
idBiiiy .-^Australasian. 
THE PROJECTED JAVA QUININE- 
FACTORY. 
We mfntioned reaeutly that the Java. plantecs in- 
tendi d to fend a chi.'m.st well acquainted with the 
cinchona industry to British India to report upon the 
quinine-works existing there, with a view to the 
est.a,hlishmeiit of a factory in,, Java. The missiOD, 
howovT, is not likely tQitake place, as the nf cesfary 
fnnd< have no* bpen fnitliconiinp. A correspondent 
of ihe Indische ^ler^uur stnlea that two years ago he 
ii.sp. c ed he work- at Nadivafam and Mi]ngpoo, in 
Ii dia, l.ut fi.und thn process used there quite 
uifsuitable for the prop r mRnatacture of quinine, 
al>houi,h since then Mej^sis. Lawson & Hooper have 
improved the prot.ess in eevtral particnlafB. Ho 
l.appi nud to meet iu India one ot the largest European 
quinine mauufaoturers, who h-d also visited the two 
factories, and tpike of the process followed there 
with contftnpl, Ea>in8- tlmt, if the freieht were not 
too heavy, he t,huuld be plad to boy the already f-x- 
.tracted Varks from the-<e f nctories, because th<> alka- 
loids are very impfrfpi tli lak^n ont. — Chemisi and 
Druyyist. [We iloubt the bona fides of this critic, con- 
sidering the cheapness of the bark in its original 
Bt»te.— Ed. T. a.'] 
