36 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1890' 
RIOE. I 
Does long habit develop a hereditary faculty of ) 
rice-tasting ? Folks in ^London who use rice to make 
paddings or to eat with jam and cream, pay from 
9 j to 12s a cwt for Bengal white rice, while for Japan- 
ese they only give from lOs 6d to 11s 6d, according 
to the quotations of March 8th. Offer Bengal rice 
to a Japanese, however, and he turns up his nose at 
it with contempt. Even a common labourer speaks 
of imported rice as a miserable affair, and if he 
finds himself unable to purchase the home-grown 
article, prefers to have recouse to barley. To him 
foreign rice is insipid and even uupalatable, whereas 
to outsiders the difference is scarcely perceptible. This 
is why rice must go almost to famine prices in Japan 
before any prospect of profit presents itself to im- 
porters, and this is doubtless why so much reluctance 
has been shown by the Exchanges to admit foreign 
rice into their quotation lists. It appears that even oa 
the Tokyo Exchange, where enlightened views are 
supposed to prevail preeminently, great difficulties 
have been raised with reference to foreign rice, the 
majority of the shareholders being averse to giving it any 
publio recognition. The ofiBcials of the Department of 
Agriculture and Commerce have, however, combated 
these scruples successfully, and it is now determined 
that imported rice shall be quoted in the lists, ranking 
there with the inferior quality of riceknown as imazuri- 
mai, and being put at from 2 yen to 2-80yen below 
the Japanese product. Of course something of the 
reluctance shown by the Exchanges must be attributed 
to the novelty of the contemplated procedure. Foreign 
rice, under ordinary circumstances, is a drug in the 
Japanese market. Nobody wants to eat it, and nobody 
thinks of dealing in it. Consequently very little is 
known about the ruling rates, and merchants do not 
care to touch an article so unfamiliar. The Osaka folks 
still maintain an attitude of refusal, but as Tokyo has 
consented to act in the desired sense, its example will 
doubtless be followed ere long. It is not the price of 
rice alone that signifies so much, however. The trouble 
is that nearly all the necessaries of daily life appreciate 
when rice is dear, so that great hardship results for 
the lower classes . — Japan IFeekly Mail. 
[This very objeotion to imported rice long prevailed 
in Ceylon, and many of the natives object to it 
to this day. At any rata they prefer the home- 
grown article. But long years ago the presence 
here of a vast body of Indian labourers gave im- 
ported rice an important position in our commerce 
which it retains to this day. For imported grain, 
chiefly rice, Ceylon makes an annual payment to 
India of about IJ million sterling.— Ed. T. A.} 
PRECIOUS stones" AT THE ROYAL 
SOCIETY CONVERSAZIONE. 
The Royal Society held the earlier of its two 
annual conversaziones on Wednesday night in the 
rooms at Burlington-house, and this, one of the 
great scientific events of the season, was as usual, 
a brilliant success. * * * 
No social function during the present season would 
be complete without including something connected 
with Mr. Stanley and his recent expedition ; 
and the Royal Society conversazione is no excep- 
t.'. Mr. Henley Grose-Smith was ab'a to show 
on Wednesday night a selection from the butter- 
flies oollecti’d in the great African foicsts by Mr. 
William Bonny. Nine of the species c. llected by 
Mr. Bfnnyare new to science, and many of tho 
tpecies are West African. * * # 
Professor Judd showed some interesting and beau- 
lilul Fpeoimens of minerals brought from Ceylon 
by Mr. C. Barrington Brown ; tho inormous beryl, 
between !j\b. and (lib. in weight, attracted special 
attention. » » # 
An exhibit by Mr. D. Morris, of the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, was of great practical interest ; this 
was a sugar-cane seed and seedlings. As the 
result of some experiments with self-sown seedlings, 
it is anticipated that, bv cross fertilization and a 
careful selection of seedlings, it will now be possi- 
ble to raise new and improved varieties of 
sugar cane. and renew the constitutional 
vigour of plants that have become deteriorated 
through continuous cultivation by cuttings or slips. 
Great importance is attached to the subject in 
sugar-producing countries, as it opens up an entirely 
new field of investigation in regard to sugar-cane 
cultivation. Of equal practical interest was Pro- 
fessor Marshall Ward’s exhibit of a selection of 
transparent photographs, showing — (I) the habit, 
(fee., of various trees from different parts of the 
world ; (2) the comparative structure and anatomy 
of several European timbers ; and (3), some of the 
more prominent features of diseases of wood, Ac., 
and fungi causing them. # * )<• 
Several Egyptian exhibits were very popular. 
One consisted of three pages of an ancient Egyp- 
tian book on medicine, written on papyrus bv a 
scribe named Usertesen Sen, in the 26th or 2.5th 
century before Christ. It contains ! directions for 
the use of midwives, written in black and red ink, 
in hieratic characters. A translation was given of 
one passage on the Treatment of a woman who 
is pained in her legs and in all her limbs as one 
who is beaten. ... Do thou with regard to 
her thus ; let her eat grease until she is cured.” * * * 
—London Times, May 16th. 
— ^ 
THE BONE TRADE OP INDIA. 
In tho last report on Agricultural operations in 
the N.-W. Provinces there are some interesting parti- 
culars of the bone trade in India ; — 
The carcases of cattle and other animals, with very 
rare exceptions are allowed to lie in ravines and 
waste places and it is the bones of these animals 
that are exported from the N. W, Provinces. The 
total number o' horses and cattle in the provinces 
returned for 1888-89 was 23,608,455. Assuming the 
rate of mortaility per annum at 10 per cent, and the 
weight of dry bones in a carcass at 20 seers, the 
total weight of bones which annually becomes avail- 
able for use amounts to over 40,000 tons. 
Mr. Holderness farther reports : — The trade in bones, 
so far as these provinces are concerned, is of a very 
recent date, it is entirely in the hands of Eurasians 
and Mahomedans, who send out agents into districts 
adjoining the line of rail. These employ coolies, gene- 
rally of the Chamar caste, to collect bones for them, 
and large stocks ready for despatch may often be 
seen in the neighbourhood of a railway station. The 
trade is evidently a profitable and growing one, for 
I have been surprised during a tour recently made 
through Southern Oudh and the Azamgarh, Jaunpur 
and Allahabad districts, to see the number of persons 
engaged in bone- collecting. The town of Phul- 
pur, 17 miles from the nearest railway station, 
is an instance of the sub-depots which are snread- 
ing over the country. As “bone” does not form a 
head in the classified list of articles prescribed for 
registration of rail-bone traffic, the full extent of the 
traffic is not known The following figures have been 
kindlv furnished by the Assistant Auditor, East Indian 
Roilwav, for the stations on his line in the North- 
Western Provinces, from which the export of bones 
in 1888 exceeded 5,000 maunds. Similar atatisHcs for 
the Oudh and Rohilkband Railway ond other Railway 
lines within the province was not available. 
Mds. 
Mds; 
Cawnpore 
... 2'>,944 Sirsaul 
... 7,275 
Agra 
... 20189 Sirathu 
... 6,604 
Allahabad 
.., 89,986 Chola 
... 6,372 
Hathras 
.... 85,556 Mohar 
... 5,134 
Aligarh 
... 84,686 Fatehpiir 
... 5,024 
The total 
value of the bones exprrted by sea in 1888- 
89 is given in the note received with the Government 
