December i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAl. AGRIOULTURIST. 
423 
stated that withia his experience a ton of the material 
had been used without a sign of dame or sparkm?. 
It is a stable compound, iind can be stored without 
deterioration for any length of time. It is rendered 
comparatively safe by the fact that a detonator is 
required to explode it. If struck with a hammer or 
stone no danger need to be apprehended. 
Cardonite is lighter than dynamite, is ol a brownish 
colour, and contains 28 per cant, of nitroglycerine. 
Certain sulphuretted hydrocarbons arc added to moder- 
ate the susceptibility of the nitroglyceriue- 
Some years ago the late Sir William Siemens obtained 
some interesting results by growing vegetihles and 
Iruit under tlie continued indueuce of the electric 
light. In the botanic department at Oornell Univer- 
sity some further experiments have been made in 
the same direction. The rays of powerful electric 
lamps were allowed to fall on the plants day and 
night, and the seedlings fairly shot up. In a few 
weeks they were several times taller than others 
growing in the natural way. So far as foliage went 
there seemed a decided advantage in the luminous 
forcing but in the matter of fruit, the plants which 
had grown as usual were more prolific than those 
which had been forced. 
^ 
PROSPECTS OF CINCHONA. 
It will be remembered that some time ago an Am- 
terdam cinchona broker alleged in our columns that 
the cause of the depression in the price of quiuius 
was the action of some of the manufacturers who had 
made contracts with the Java planters direct to buy 
their bark upon the basis of the oiuohona unit upon 
its arrival. This same broker now returns to the charge 
in the Indian Murcunj, with special reference to the 
last bark sales in Amsterdam. The sales of October 
2od he says, were exceedingly disappointing. Some of 
the large buyers only brought very moderately, and 
the Brunswick works took practically nothing at all. 
He alleges that the decline thus caused was due 
directly to the action of .some of these buyers. Shortly 
before the auctions, he writes, the quinine market 
was firm although quiet, but on October 1st the Bruns- 
wick works suddenly offered quinine at a oonsider- 
abln decline. The steamer which recently arrived 
in Holand from Java, and others now on the way 
have brought considerable quantities of bark, all 
consigned directly to the works by the planters. 
The planters will be paid for that bark upon 
the basis of the cinchona unit prevailing when it 
arrives at the works; consequently the buyers have 
a direct interest in depressing the quinine market, 
apa t from the fact that they may simultane- 
ously use the occasion to bay cheaply in the market 
in order to fill previous contracts made by them. 
Until this state of affairs is altered, the broker de- 
clares, it will be impossible to look for any improve- 
ment in quinine or in cinohoua. — Ghemist and Driujist, 
Oct. 16tb. 
— ♦ 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA AUCTIONS. 
Amstbbdam, Oct. 22nd. 
OrNCHONA. — The .salts in Amsterdam on Nov. 6th, 
will consist of 4,61)9 bales and 450 ca*es, or about 392 
tons, viz.: — Java bark from Government plant, 418 
bales 47 cas^s, about 39 5 tons; from private plant, 
4,281 bales 403 cases, about 352’5 tons; British Indian 
hark, 45 bales, about 3'5 tons. These arc divided as 
follows : — ]J7'ii(/ginl’s hark : Succirubra quill.s, 428 cases ; 
broktn quills and chips, .851 bales ; root, 89 ba’es, 
Ofliciualis (jtiills, 1;8 cases ; broken quills and chips 
114 bales ; root, 6S hales. Ledgeriana broken quills. 
3,169 bales ; root, 744 halos, llybrides quills, 69 bales; 
broktn quills and chips, 85 bales ; root, 20 bulos, C. 
Schubkrafft quills, 8 cases ; broken quills and chips 
1 cate. Total, 4,699 bales 450 cases. All the analyses 
are not yet published. — Chmist and Druggist, 
The Linnean.— a meeting of this Society was 
held on June 19th, Prof. Charles Stewart, President, 
in the chair. Messrs. W. H. Beeby and Mr. H. E. 
Milner were admitted, and Messrs. AV. Cross and S. 
Schouland wore elected Fellows of the Society. Mr. 
AV. H. Beeby exhibited a specimen of Eumex pro- 
pinquus, new to Britain, and procured in Shetland' 
Mr. Thomas Christy exhibited, and made remarks niion 
a specimen of Oallistemon rigidum. Mr. B. M. 
Holmes exhibited some marine Algte new to Britain, 
including Ascooyclua reptana, Halothrix lumbricalis, 
Harveyella mirabilis, Sorocarpus uvteformi.s, and 
Vaucheria licorea ; also specimens of Rhodymenia 
palmata with autheridia, and Punctaria tennissima in 
tructification ; the last two not having been previously 
recorded to occur iu this state in Great Britain. The 
following papers were then read : — “ Observations on 
the Protection of Buds in the Tropics,” by M. C. 
Potter; “ On the Distribution of the South American 
Bell-birds belonging to the genus Ohasmarhynohus,” 
by J. E. Hartney; “On the Vertical Distribntion of 
Plants in the Caucasus,” by Dr. Gustav Raddes ; and 
“ Notes on the Forficulistse, with descriptions of new 
genera and species,” by W. F. Kirby. This meeting 
terminated the session of 1889-90 — Gardentrs’ 
Chro7iicle. 
Pisciculture in Ceylon. — There arrived at Colombo 
by the B. I. S. S. “ Goorkha” yesterday morning, con- 
signed by Dr. Thurston at Madras to Mr. O.J. R. 
LeMesurier, four young specimens of the fish Gourami 
which were first brought from Mauritius, but are now 
to bo found at both Calcutta and Madras, and grow 
to 12 lb. or 15 lb. One of the four was found to be 
newly dead and justified the reputation of its kind 
shortly after by making a savoury dish ; and the others 
were alive and well. A fifth had died a day or two 
before. Those to hand are intended for the ponds 
at Kandy, viz ; one at Lady Horton’s walk and two 
in the Pavilion grounds which Mr. LeMesuiier is 
stacking and also using for breeding grounds. When 
ho returned from Madras at the begnining of the year 
he brought soma Gouramis and also specimens of the 
Lvibco and both are believed to be doing well. Pishes 
of several other kinds too, arrived in July last, and 
have all been placed in the Kandy ponds. Mr. 
LeMesurier has only carp and trout in the Nuwara Eliya 
streams. In the budget now before Oouucil there is 
a vote for R2.000 for this good work, which iu time 
we hope will reali.se the plan of the principal promoter, 
which is to supply many villages with their little fish 
ponds and stocks of edible fish. — Local “Independent.’’ 
The “ One-Coconut per-tree per-Annum ” 
Tax.— We forgot to refer to the actual incidence of 
this tax. The usual number of palm trees to the 
acre is about 75 and the incidence of the single- 
nut tax would therefore be on an average, we sup- 
pose, about B2 per acre per annum. Now, wehavs 
in our possession a letter from the late Dr. Sortain 
who knew as much about coconuts as anyone of his 
day, most seriously alleging that a direct tax of 2s Gd 
(old currency) or Rl-25 per acre on coconuts would 
suffice to ensure the abandonment of a large extent 
of cultivation under the auspices of foreign capital. 
He alleged that the margin of return was so narrow 
beyond actual outlay year by year, that there could 
be no other result. We suppose Dr. Sortain had 
then in view a coconut land-tax in addition to the 
grain levies. How he would view the matter if both 
grain taxes were simultaneously abolished, we are 
not prepared to say ; but his opinion is of value as 
showing that of the “ milk iu the coconut,” very 
little often falls to the absent proprietor--in other 
words that while coconut properties in some cases — 
in the Western and North-Western Provinces un- 
doubtedly — are very often valuable ; in other instances, 
they scarcely pay their way. Nevertheless, that 
coconuts, with every other form of cultivation in the 
island, pay their share of existing taxation — both 
through grain and salt, — is undoubted, 
