272 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[October i, 1890, 
TEi-DKiNKiNG sometimes causes indigestion, which, 
it is said, may be obviated by tying the tea in a 
cambric handkerchief, before placing it in the pot. 
The handkerchief absorbs the steam. — Madras Times, 
The Belgian Legation at Mexico has reported to 
the Belgian Government on the guimbobo or angu, 
a textile plant found in the State of Vera Cruz. 
The fibre is of a very superior quality, while the 
plant is easily cultivated, and yields a nutritious 
fruit. Unlike ramie, cotton, or hemp, the fibre is 
within the bark, which can be removed by a simple 
machine. Its lustre is like that of silk, it is strong 
and fine, and of a creamy white colour. — Globe. 
A. muoificent sum of from three to five million 
dollars has been left by Mr. H. Shaw to endow the 
Botanic Garden and School of Botany in St. Louis, 
Missouri, U. S. The trustees propose to improve the 
gardens, house and the norbarium of Dr. Bngelmann m 
a fire-proof bui.ding, establish a botanical museum, and 
urther botanical research. Toaid in the latter puipose, 
travelling scholarships have been established. — hlobe. 
A wonderful revolution in flour-barrel-making is 
promised by a paient which has been granted for 
ihe making’ of barrels out of cotton-duck instead of 
wood. The new material is impervious to water and 
resists fire for a long time. It weighs to the barrel 
about fifteen pounds less than the wood and can be manu- 
factured 10 per cent, cheaper. The cotton-duck baneican 
be rolled up into small space and returned to the 
mills for irequent use. The flour merchants of 
Atlanta, Ga, pronounce it a success. — American Grocer. 
A German engineer, Busse, of Linden, Hanover, 
was granted a patent some time ago for what he 
terms caoutchouc pavement. Within ihe past year 
it has been used tor a bridge roadway at Hanover, 
with good results, and is now being laid down in 
one of the streets for a length of nearly a mile. Ex- 
periments are being’ made with it also in several 
Streets of Berlin and Hamburg. According to the 
Wochenschrift des osterr. Inyenieur und Architekten- 
Vereines, the new piavemeut gives rise to no noise 
from passing’ vehicles, and at the same time ap- 
pears 10 he as hard as sione and is not affecied by 
either heat or cold. — Enyineering Record. 
“TTmbees, and How to Know Them.” — 
Dr, AVilliam iSomerville, the newly-appointed lecturer 
on Forestry in the University of Edinburgh, has trans- 
lated from the German the third euition of Dr. 
Harug’s work under the above title. It forms a small 
treatise of some eighty pages, with numerous illustra- 
tions. It is needless to say the book is good of its 
kind, and likely to be useful to beginners, especially 
if used as a guide-book and aid to the study of the 
woods themselves; but it is to be noped that Dr. 
Bomei’ville may be induced to extend it in a future 
edition by an introductory chapter relating to the for- 
maiion and growth of wood m general, and the cir- 
cumstances which favour or hinuer those processes. 
Much might advantageously be added to the details 
relating to particular kinds of timber, such as the rate 
of growth under different conditions, the capacity tor 
resistance, the specific gravity, &c. Dr. Hartig has a 
weU-earued reputation as a botanist, but he hardly 
acted up to it when he suffered such a statement as 
this to pass : — “ The ‘ Eose-wood ’ of commerce is got 
from various, especially Asiatic, species of trees ! ” 
Fig. Hi, on p. 52, is said to refer to Flatanus occi- 
dentalib, and it may be rightly, but we should have 
liked seine assurance that the tree intended is not 
1'. oricntalis, winch seems, on the whole more probable. 
The statement that the wood of the Austrian Pine 
(P. Laricio var. au.striaca) cannot be distinguished from 
resinous wood of the Boots Pine is one that, had it 
been made by anyone else but Professor Hartig, we 
snould Lave ventured to question. At any rate, the 
timber of the true (Jorsicau P. Laricio seems different 
from that of the Bcots Pmo. Dr. Hartig’s is a good 
book lor beginners, but we have more than one 
English botanist who could have produced a more 
tatisl'actory owt.—Gmikmrs' Uhroniclo, 
I Me. Oswald has a paper in the National Remew 
on Anti-Poverty Eeceipts, in which he argues in 
favour of substituting nuts for wheat as the diet of 
mankind. The Corsican chestnut will provide more 
food on waste land than anything else that can be 
grown by man. 
Teopical Pboddcts in Queensland, Natal, &c. — 
With reference to the inquiries of your correspondent 
“ N. Z.,” I know of several planters who, nearly 
ruined through the coffee-leaf disease, emigrated 
from Ceylon to Queensland in the hope of retrieving 
their fortunes, but they found the labour supply too 
deficient and expensive for practical purposee, al- 
though coffee appeared to thrive fairly well, 1 also 
know a gentleman, an experienced tea planter from 
Assam, and son of a well-known clergyman in Aber- 
deen, who started tea culture in Natal, but gave it 
up as he found it did not pay; he told me the rain- 
fall seldom exceeded 40 inches per annum. In the 
best Indian tea districts the rainfall varies from 120 
to over 300 inches per annum. Apart from the 
labour question, your correspondents would find New 
Zealand too cool for the profitable culture of the 
products he mentions. The labour question is a 
very serious one, as he would have to compete with 
the Ceylon and Indian ooolies, who barely earn six- 
pence per day. Cinchona has had its day for the 
present, and there are thousands of acres of mature 
trees in South India waiting to be cut whenever the 
market shows a favourable opportunity, which is not 
likely at present with sulphate of quinine at Is fid 
and 2s per ounce. The tropical AyricuUurist, pub- 
lished in Oeylon, is by far lire most reliable work on 
all matters connected with tropical planting. I have 
seen it advertised in your columns occasionally, 
notably on the back of the current year’s Almanac. 
If “N. Z.” is a novice in tropical planting, as he 
appears to be, I shall be happy to forward him full 
details on tea, coffee, and cinchona planting. S. S. 
— Gardener's Chronicle, Aug. 9th. 
Plants fob Ovbbcoming Deifting Sand. — A corres- 
pondent, whose letter we inserted yesterday, writing 
on “ Tree planting in Ganjam ” stated that an 
excellent work in the matter of planting was 
being carried out by the Local Fund Board of 
Ganjam under the supervision of ihe Overseer of 
Chioaoole. “ Upwards of fifty acres of rasuarina 
have been planted on the drifting sands of the 
Vamsadhara near Maripam. The wind has forced 
the sand into dunes, and it is constantly invading 
the high road, in fact near the river the road 
is completely obliterated. The planting has been 
carefully done ; each individual plant is manured 
and those on the steep sides of the dunes 
are turfed round. ... If the plantation suc- 
ceed they will amply serve their purpose 
and not only protect the road but the fields 
behind them and the canal distributories.” An- 
other way of overcoming the effects of drifting sand 
would be by planting lupins, which have been 
proved most effective for tfie purpose. In Australia 
drift-sand is often very destructive to farms and 
pastures near the borders of rivers, and many 
thousands of acres have been rendered useless by 
the driving showers of grit which assail and out 
all kinds of vegetation. Mr. Bundey, of East Welling- 
ton, writing to the Oommissioner of Crown Lands 
last October, said that he had sown lupins with 
this view for fourteen years, and in no case had 
he to sow the land a second time. He bad re- 
claimed 100 acres of the worst sand drive on the 
river by sowing lupins — the only plant that will 
stand tfie fearful cutting of the drift-sand. When 
grass begins to grow between the plants he lets 
the seeds fall naturally upon the land, and the re- 
sult is that after the second year sheep can be put 
upon the paetures>^illa(/ms Mail, Augi 15tb. 
