3i6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Novembb?. I, 1890 
tnristg. The Freroh chemists htve lone been to 
the front in the investigation of matters of this k'nd, 
although their English brethren are fast overtaking 
thorn. M. Sohloesing has been experinienting in the 
matter, and has recently made known his results. He 
shows that ploughed land contains a relatively larger 
amount of oxygen to a certain depth. The carbonic 
acid generally increases with the depth, but in two 
oases the reverse occurred. This was when a high 
wind renovating the upper soil had been followed by 
hot and calm weather. Then more carbonic acid gas 
was generated in the surface soil than in the subsoils. 
In sloping pastures the most carbonic acid gas was 
found at the bottom. 
At the recent annual meeting of the Society of 
Americon Microscop'sts an interesting paper was read 
by Dr. Thomas Taylor, on the adulteration of tea. Can 
any pbilospher in the world explain why a man’s 
drinks should be more liable to adulteration than his 
solids? Pe! haps it is because he takes more of them. 
Therefore, both drinkers, and teetotallers, are hereby 
liable to the same imposition. Di’. Taylor showed how 
Japanese teas are “ faked ” to resemble the Chinese green 
teas, the materials used in the process being indigo and 
plaster of Paris. It so happens that this is the kind 
of tea the Yankees prefer. Neither of the adulterants 
is harmful, only there is no necessity to drink tea 
with any other adulterants than cream and sugar. 
The Japanese are a wise people, and by them coloured 
tea is regarded as an abomination. He taught that a 
return of the consumers of teas to Japanese habits 
wouM eertai ly result in the preparation cf the tea- 
leaves in Japan, awd would thus afford cutomers better 
teas at lower prices. 
At Keswick, in our well-knewn lake district, there is 
n w tak’ng place the first essay in England to utilise 
natural water power of the hills for the purpose of 
public electric lighting. The river Greta supplies the 
motive power. About three-quarters of a mile from 
Keswick town it has a head of twenty feet, an! this 
has been selert-=d as the site for the works. The light 
has been received with much favour, and already 
the demand is equal to the suppN. One man and 
a boy have been found sufficient to manage the 
machinery. 
The oil wells at Baku, at the Caspian, are said to be 
drying up again. Out of four hundred wells less 
than two hundred are now working. This may cause 
much incovenieiice to the Rus-ian navy on the Caspian, 
many of whose vessels have been specially fitted up 
to consume petroleum. If the world’s supply of coal 
is limited, and will only last a certain time, it is very 
certain its mineral oils are more limi'ed, and will be 
exhausted in a much .shorter period. The craze for oil- 
well boring ca.nnot be too carefully watched. 
A'-.other well-known French chemist, M. Muntz, has 
published bis experiences on the part taken up by 
green manures as nitrogenous dres-ing for soils. His 
experiments show that the efficacy of green manures 
as nitrogenous dressing materials depends especially 
on the facility with which the fresh vegetable ma’ters 
allow the nitrification of the proteids, and on the 
favourable influence they exerci.se on the physicial 
properties of soils. 
A singular confirmation of the theory that certain 
kinds of insects have become specialised to visit certain 
kinds of flowers or rather that the latter have 
been specially adapted to the former, bas just 
been proved by a German botanist. The highest 
organised and specialised of the numerous members 
of the buttercup family (Ranuncu'aceffi) is the aconite. 
On the other hand, it is granted that the bees are, 
perhaps, the most highly cerebrated of insects, and 
know tl,(-if way about. It has been shown there is 
a biulogica relationtliiu between th ■ aconite(Aconltum) 
and a genus of bees (Jdoml.us). The aconite is depeu- 
d lit iipon this hee for f rtilisation. On comparing 
tho geographical area of the two it has been found 
that the area occupied by Acoiii' um is entirely covered 
by the area of distribution of Rombus. 
You in Australia know what it is to disturb nature’s 
zoological balance by your rabbit pest. They are suff- 
ering from a similar disturbance in the floutliern States 
of America. The alligators have nearly si! been killed off 
for the sake of their bides, which are manufactured into 
a special kind of leather. It seems the alligators are 
the specific foes of the musk-rats, which have multiplied 
aceoi diiigly sines the almost complete extermination 0 
their natural enemies, insomuch they are now > greaf 
scourge tc the farmirs in Louisiana and elsewhere. The 
consequence is rhat a fine of 24d .l. is nowimposed upon 
any one who shall slay an alligator. — Australasian, 
A TEA, PLANTER’S ROSIANOE. 
In “ The Dead Man’s Gift : A Tea Planter's 
Romance,” jnst published by Messrs. W H. Allen 
& Co., Nr. Herbert Compton has written a capital 
Anglo-Indian nov. l, dealing with a phase of Eoglish 
life out here that has scarcely been attempted before. 
The plot is ingenious aud exciting, the scenery is 
adm rably described, and the characters are wonder- 
fully lifelike. With fhe plot we need scarcely coucerc 
our.'-elves here ; it will be enough to know that a 
very pretty love story and an atrocuus scheme 
of commercial villsny are gradually revealed in a 
novel and picturesque frame-work of Himalayan 
sceuery. The interest of the book from our point of 
view lies rather in its characters, vivid enough to be 
transcripts of actual individuals, and in its laithful, 
nnvarnished descriptions of tea-plai ting life. Dennis 
Durand, the central Tea Planter of Mr. Compton’s 
romance, is a frank, straight-forward young University 
man, who after having had a good time at home in- 
vested whi't he hsd left, some four thousand pounds, 
in a tea garden at Dulgoorie (for which perhaps Dar- 
jeeling may be read), and then proceeded to learn the 
business A kindly neighbour, old Pekoe PuckL, for- 
tunately took him in hand. 'When Puekle first came 
to Dulgoorie, the process of tea- manufacture was a 
Mystery tempered with Ignorance. The manuiacture 
of tbe leaf was in the hands of a few Ch neae charlatans, 
who had been imported from the Flowery Land, and 
distributed over the new tea districts to disseminate 
a knowledge of their reputed craft. They concealed 
their ignorance under a cloak of pride and impenetra- 
bility, and did all thnr work in carefully secluded 
corners. Puekle put them down as git antic humbugs, 
and evolvod a proce.ss of bis own that gave his teas a 
verv profitable price. Unlike most of the old-fashioned 
tea-plai ters, he was always ready to give everyone the 
benefit of his experience : — “ The sooner we can all 
make good stuff,” he would argue, “ the sooner we 
shall sweep the rubbish from China out of the market. 
It’s bi und to go if we pull together.” Strolling lor 
five minutes through a frieni’s factory, he would point 
out all the errors and mistakes be noticed, and rect fy 
them at once. The smell, the colour, the look, the 
touch, the feel of the leaves in the process of manu- 
facture '.old him everything at a glance: — “In short, 
he was a Tea Expert.” Things, we are told, have 
altered since those remote times wh' n the sixties were 
youug: — “Everything is done by machinery in a tea 
factory nowadays, and Puckle’s tea-ln use opeia ions 
slowly and laboriously, and it is 10 be feared 
dirtily, performed by hand by a large staff of 
specially drilled coolies, can now be conducted by 
half a dozen intelligent men in charge of a variety 
of withering, rolling, drying, and sifting machines 
and with a facility and precision and cleanliness which 
would crumple up some 0'' the old dead-and-gone pio- 
neers of the industry, if they could rise from tbeir 
graves to resume tempora'y management of their fact- 
ories.” “ Don’t imaci' e, Durand,” Puekle would often 
■say, “that any fool is fit for a tea- planter; that is 
ail expb ded idea now amongst men of business, who 
know what tea-planting really is. You want more wits 
and versatility in our profession than in most. You 
must not only be Jack of many trades, but master 
of til m. 'Ihe programme for a tuccestful season is a 
big order for any one to buckle down to.” We are 
pilfering wilfully from Mr. Compton’s volume, as the 
