456 
THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURfST 
[December i, 1890 . 
CHOPS IN INDIA: 
SEASON TBLEGEAM TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 
Week enriing Nov. Ist. — North-east monsoon, though 
late, h.is lair'y set in and good rain has fallen in 
all the southern districts and in Gaiyiam and Nellore. 
Standing crops generall 3 ’ good, and reviving after 
recent rains in several disiricts- Want of rain and of 
water still felt in parts of Vizagapatain, Kistna. 
Nellore, Cuddapah, North Arcot, Chingleput, Silern 
and Blalabar. Paddy in Godavari and oil-seeds in parts 
of Cuddapah blighted ; tugarcaEo damaged by heavy 
rains in parts of Coimhatoro. Locusts appeared in 
parts of Ganjam, Cuddapah and North Arcot. Out- 
turn of grains generally middling. Prices, rice and 
cholum rising, other grains falling. General pros- 
pet s improving. 
mmarTal^troubles^ 
It is not every one who has a proper concep- 
tion of what malaria means and really is. Malaiia 
really means bad air, but for some reason, difficult 
to define, it has been restricted to the emanations 
from swampy districts. For example, a man who 
has fever and ague, or, as it is known among 
professional men, intermittent fever, is said to be 
suffering from malaria j whereas a man suffering 
from the noisome effects of sewer-gas in his house 
is assuredly the victim of malaria, though not 
suffering from intermittent fever. The fevers then, 
and the ailments following in their wake, that 
are produced in districts where there are warmth and 
decaying vegetable matter, ara said to be malarial. 
Malaria is a hydra-headed disease. Even that 
one form of it, “ fever and ague,'’ presents itself 
in various forms. It occurs most frequently in 
newly-populated districts ; and in lands from which 
it has been supposed to have vanished it has been 
reproduced when their soil was turned. A man 
who has suffered once may suffer again, after a 
score of years, by simply running down in health. 
It may appear first as a chill, followed by intense 
fever, which, in its train, is followed by a 
sweating stage. It may appear simply as an intense 
neuralgia, and it may bo noted that the most 
frequent from of malarial neuralgia appears over 
the brow, and is known as *■ brow ague.” As 
if there was some similarity, distant no doubt, 
between paludal fevers and sewer-gas poisoning, it 
may be noted that neuralgic symptoms characterize 
both, and quinine certainly seems beneficial to both. 
Formerly, quinine, and indeed all the cinchona 
preparlions, were more appreciated than they are at 
present. In the whole range of medical treatment 
nothing ever is encountered which is more wonderful 
than the action of quinine in malarial fevers. With 
its administration, the disease disappear, and that 
quickly. No doubt the dwellers in old countries 
and the residents of old towns would derive great 
benefit from a far freer use of quinine, and here 
we should take occasion to point out that the 
ordinary sulphate of quinine, the form usually 
used, is objectionable ; it irritates the stom-iich, 
is quite insoluble, and is frequently not all absorbed. 
The soluble Quinine Tabloids are the best pre- 
paration, inasmuch as one of them dissolves in a 
little water the minute it touches it. They do not 
irritate the stomach, can be taken Iwithout tbe taste 
being perceived, and none of the drug is lost in the 
system. Those suffering from enervated health, 
whether from sewer-gas, or marsh emanations, 
overwork, worry, sleeplessness, or any of the 
thousand ills ti at go hand in hand with civilization, 
will find quinine uteful — more useful as a tonic than 
any of them>riad drugs that glut the market. 
Under ordinary circumslancos a two-grain Tabloid 
is Kuflicient. in malarial troubles as much as 
twenty grains should he taken in a day.— ” 
London, 
THE ENEMIES OP COTTON: 
IN THE HAPITIGAM KOEALE, C'EI HOIf,' 
No. 1. Bats digoat and eat the seeds before they 
germinate. 
2 A fly cuts holes in the leaves. 
3. A grub rolls up the leaves and lives on them. 
4. A grub enters the pods shortly after they form, 
and eats the seeds. 
5. Rats break up the pods as they approach maturity, 
eat the seeds, aud scatter the fibre mixed with the 
seed husks on the ground. 
Result of all those encouragements : one sound pod 
in fifty. 
A very prolific species of ladybird swarms on the 
bushes, but seems harmless, living probably on some 
excretion of the plant. 
Wo will be good boys and never do it again; 
^ 
WiBEwoEM AND LiHE. — A correspondent of the 
American Fkrijt, October 1st, asserts that 3 or 4 lb. 
of unslaked lime to every bushel of soil to be used, 
will act so perniciously on the wireworms contained 
in the soil that they will give it a wide berth. The 
best way to use the lime is to spread the soil in 
a flat heap, say'lf) or 12 inches high, and place the 
required quantity of lime on the surface, and when 
the latter is slaked, it should be pulverised and mixed 
thoroughly with the boU.— G ardeners' Chronicle. 
Artesian Wells at Madras.— A bore at Nega- 
patam Las been sunk to a depth of only 200 feet 
which in the country of Artois itself would have 
been considered extremely moderate and far below 
the average. With a bore of this depth the water 
rose to within ono foot of the ground surface, thus 
practically dein nstrating that an artesian spring 
had been struck. In the Madras Presidency at least 
wells have not been bored to any great depth and 
great advantages might accrue if the Negapatam 
Councillors persevered in their efforts to sink the 
bore deeper, even though it may not be clear to 
them that better results would be achieved. The 
Government order on Dr. King’s Report promises 
help from Provincial funds as an inducement to the 
Councillors to continue work. As it now stands 
the well is a success in as far as the two essential 
requisites of a water- supply, namely, quality and 
quality, have been secured. — Pioneer. 
“ Cleap.ing the Air” of Disease Germs. — 
Wo referred the other day to thunder “ clearing the 
air” in connection with our first thunderstorm of 
the North-East Monsoon season. But we are re- 
minded by a scientific writer that heavy falls of 
rain also “ clear the air ” especially when accom- 
panying a thunderstorm. A Home writer says : — 
Copi ,u 3 thunder-'" plouts ” level to the earth the 
millions of disease-germs that impregnate the 
a’mosphcre. It hes now been acknowledged that 
near a large town the average number of bacterial 
micro-organisms is in summer about 500 per cubic 
yard. Of course, in a town the number is about 
eeveiifold. Now the heavy rains carry these germs 
to the ground. After very dry weather, a cubic 
yard of rain has been found to contain 150,000 or- 
ganic dust-germs, besides an enormous quantity of 
inorganic dust-particles. In a filthy town, no le.ss 
than thirty millions of bacteria in a year will be 
deposited by the rain upon every square yard of sur- 
face. No wonder, then, that scientific men welcome 
the thunderstorm, which by the heavy showers re- 
moves from man and boast the terrible floating nuclei 
of disease anil doUh. During the twenty-four hours 
before a thunders 'orm, a man will require to breathe 
37,500 bacteria, more or less active agents of sickness, 
besides millions upon millions of dead organie and 
inorganic dnst particles — a fact which makes one 
roally marvel how he can po.ssibly escape ; yet, after 
Iho deposit of these germs by the joint action of 
turmeric current and copious rains, the air is far niore 
wholesome. 
