January i, 189 -.] 
Supplement to the “ Tropical Agriculturist I" 
539 
the Champion Cup in the milking trials at the 
Dairy Show of 1888. While the goat,s’ milk was 
found to contain of water 80’72 per cent, fat 
(pure butter) 6-93, and solids other than fat 
(casein, sugar, and ash) 12’35 ; the cow’s milk 
gave the respective percentages of 87‘56, 3‘63, 
and 8’81. The sample of goats’ milk thus showed 
7 per cent less water, while it contained nearly 
twice the quantity of pure butter fat, and half as 
much again of other solids. Besides its richness 
and nutritious property, goats’ milk has the merit 
of being extremely digestible, and is accordingly 
recommended by medical men as a diet for in- 
valids and children. In Ceylon goats are of no 
great importance as milk-producers among the 
natives, though the Hindu and Mussalman classes 
use the milk to some extent. The value of the 
milk as food for invalids and children is, however, 
recognised even here. 
Says the Melbourne Leader, in an article on 
valuable vegetable products : — 'The Indian Areca- 
nut is regularly eaten every day in the year by 
100,000,000 of the population. There is an 
annual importation of upwards of 30,000,000 lb. 
from Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Sumatra, 
and they are exported in considerable quantities 
for the use of the Indians living in Zanzibar, Aden, 
Mauritius, China, and other countries. The fresh 
nuts have intoxicating properties and produce 
giddiness. These objectionable properties are 
much diminished by heat and by drying, and 
many cautious people decline to u.se any except 
nuts which have undergone a process of cooking 
and are known by their colour. The original 
wild nut was intoxicating, but the only nuts now 
used are from cultivated trees, and these are 
milder. They are only intoxicating when unripe, 
and then but slightly. The nuts are eaten with 
the betel leaf, the praise of which is- sung in 
ancient Hindu books which attribute to it no 
less than 13 valuable properties which are duly 
enumerated. Modern medical men vouch for 
the fact that essential oils of betel leaves are 
highly beneficial in catarrhal affections and 
throat inflammations. Further researches into 
the properties of the nut and leaves are evidently 
called for, because their preparations by native 
methods are a good deal regulated by supersti- 
tions. The betel leaves are mixed with other 
spices used with lime to form pan, with which 
the nuts are eaten. An organic poison can be 
extracted from the nut, and when this is injected 
under the skin of rabbits and cats they die a few 
minutes ; but the same may be said of a great 
many vegetable productions, the Kola-nut in- 
clusive, which are usually regarded as harmless. 
Even the lettuce contains such a poison. The 
arecanut is grown on a palm which is supposed 
to be indigenous in the Malayan peninsula and 
islands, but is not now found in a wild state. 
Tlie Indians no doubt indulge too freely in the 
n.se of the arecanut and betel loaves, but for 
exceptional use they may be found to be 
medicinally beneficial. If' the reverse be the 
case, further investigation is demanded on behalf 
of the 100,000,000 betel eaters. It is a popular 
idea among betel-chewers that the chewiim 
mixture has digestive as well as antiseptic 
properties. 
Mr Johansson, a Swedish Engineer, claims to 
have invented the simplest and most rapid 
machinery by which new milk can be converted 
into butter. The process takes less than three 
minutes, and the machine could deal with l,o00 
pounds of milk per hour. Mr. Johansson re- 
ceived the highest award at the Koyal Agricultural 
Society’s Show last year. 
A trial of ploughing by means of electric 
motors is about to be made on the property of 
the Marquis de la Laguna. The power of a 
waterwheel of some 20 II. P. will be employed, 
and the implement for working the land is 
excepted to work at a distance of 3 miles from 
the generating dynamo. 
During the year 1889-90, says the Madraa 
Times, there was a general rise in the i^rices of the 
principal food grains and horsegram throughout 
the Madras Presidency as compared with the 
two previous years. 
The value of charcoal to plants is not so much 
as a fertilizer as an absorber of ammonia both 
from the atmosphere and the soil. It is further 
claimed for charcoal that it prevents attacks of 
insects and fungi. 
The British Consul at Bahia has more than 
confirmed the wonderful stories told of the j)ro- 
perties of the Kola- nut. The Kola-eating Africans 
who labour at the unloading of vessels are said 
to work and earn twice as much as their com- 
petitors. The beans which are described as un- 
intoxicating and in no way injurious, are said to 
act as a nutritive and quench thirst : yet they 
are not strictly a stimulant. The beans are best 
soon after they are gathered, and are sold accord- 
ing to freshness at twopence or threepence each 
bean. At the request of the Government of India 
practical information regarding the extraordinary 
properties of Kola-nuts has been supplied by the 
authorities at Kew. 
Dr. Henry Baker of Michigan remonstrates 
vigorously against the proposal to discard the 
fumes of burning sulphur as a disinfecting agent. 
He shows by tables and diagrams the controlling 
power of this disinfectant, and attributes its 
alleged failure as .such to the use of too little 
sulphur. The burning of 3 lb. of sulphur to the 
thousand feet of air .space is sufficient to destroy 
the germs of contagious disease in a closed room, 
without extra moisture in the room. In support 
of his po.sition he quotes the results obtained 
by recent French e.xperiments in this field. 
The members of the Indian Agricultural Con- 
ference were unanimous in urging that educa- 
tional primers of an agricultural character should 
be introduced in all primary schools, and al.so 
that arrangements should be made for the siipjil y- 
ing of a high-class education in Agriculf ural 
Science to all who desired follow it out. 
