June i, 1891 .] 
THE TROPIO^I- A18Rlt5tJLTURlSr. 
883 
as Rhode Island is now, tha population ot the Union, 
instead of being over 62 millions, would be nearly 946 
millions or about two-thirds of the entire population 
of the world. The United States are capable of sup- 
porting 1,000 millions or more. 
A company has been formed for the construction of 
a canal between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. 
It wilt have a length of 75 miles, and a breadth of 
73 feet, with a depth of 134 feet, increasing to 16 
feet at both ends. Six years are allowed for its com- 
pletion. We may add that the Isthmus of Corinth 
Canal is expected to be finished in 1SS5— Globe. 
Early Flowering of Coconut Trees, — 
A few of the coconut palms planted amongst 
the tea on Bilandhu estate, a few miles south 
of Henaratgoda, have flowered, although they 
were only planted out in 1887 1 But too much 
must not be made of this fact. The plants were 
originally of high quality and they were placed 
in large holes dug in soil which had already 
undergone considerable tillage and manuring. 
Then the precocious plants in question are 
situated near the tea house, and have been forced 
into premature bearing by liberal applications 
of ashes from the furnaces of the drier and the 
steam engine, and other manorial substances. 
In the case of ordinary plantations, we believe we 
are safe in saying that although a certain pro 
portion of the trees will bear in the seventh year, 
and perhaps one half in the fourteenth, the whole 
plantation will not be in full bearing much under 
the round score years from date of being put 
into the field. Then, the popular estimate for 
bearing is sixty years— .sixty years for the existence 
of the tree is too low, — and one of our shrewdest 
and most experienced coconut planters is of 
opinion that, properly tended and liberally manured, 
it is not possible to place a limit on the bearing 
life of the palm. 
Jungle Fowl and Cackling. — We draw at- 
tention to another letter from Nature, in which 
Mr. V. Ball, the veteran Anglo-Indian Geologist, 
expresses opinions, the result partly of personal 
observation which renders the question still more 
perplexing. For, only the other day we had. the 
express testimony of an old planter, the result of 
personal observation, to the effect that the domes- 
ticated barn-door fowl never cackles when it lays 
an egg in forest, jungle or away from home. The 
quiet around affords no encouragement to cackle 
—for only as it lays at home, does it indulge in 
cackling 1 These facts may be of some use to Mr. 
Romanes ; he may be able to experiment with the 
domestic hen in the woods of the old country. Here 
is the letter from the latest number of Nature :— 
Oaokling or Hens. 
It is often difficult to recall an actual instance of 
what may bd a matter of very common occurrence. 
Such 18 to a certain extent the case with the subject 
to which Prof. Romanes’s query in Nature of April 
2 (p. 616) refers. 
In a general way it is my impression that the 
cackling of jung'e fowl is not very commonly heard in 
India butl feel certain that I have heard it occasion- 
ally and that I once did hear it upon a somewhat 
considerable scale is impressed very distinctly upon 
my memory by certain and special circumstances. My 
tent lor a few days in April 1876 was pitched close to 
a perfectly impenetrable patch of thorny jungle in 
Orissa. This cover was full of jungle fowl, luid 1 
remember bearing the cackling of the hens, which 
reminded me of the familiar farmjard sounds ot 
home. It is possible that in this case the safety of 
their retreat may have had sometuiiig to^ do with 
their not fearing to cackle with unusual Ggonr. 
> . 
Science and Art Museum, April 18th. 
—Nature, April 23td- 
Indian Pekoe Souchongs. — “Peripatetic Plan 
ter ’’ writes to Indian Planters’ Gazette from Lon- 
don as follows: — As regards Indian Tjpe (pekoe sou- 
ohongs) it is openly proclaimed by some, that those 
will pass the shilling before long ! More’s the pity, 
again — a short life and a merry oiio is not the ideal 
of those with a permanent stake in the irdnstry. All 
kinds of sensational rumours are afloat about these 
pekoe souchongs — one of the baneful effects of their 
adoption by the Clearing House, or Commercial Monte 
Carlo. It is said, that very large transactions in this 
class have been privately effected, within the past 
few days, (10.000 chests and 20,000 chests are va- 
riously mentioned in the rumours referred to) and 
urge catalogues of the past fortnight’s auctions (on 
Garden or Company Account) are pointed out with 
scarcely a single line of pekoe souchongs in them 
by way of partial corroboration of the statements. 
This looks like the commencement of a corner, but that 
I know large irriporters who have not yet been ap- 
proached with any privatu offers for this special class 
ot tea; and to establish a corner successfully, would 
almost demand a very rapid grabbing of the greater 
proportion of the clas.s. Hence, the opinion is reason- 
able, that the transactions are (1) either mythical, or 
(2) the sporting act of private speculators, and not 
of a really heavily capitalised group of speculative 
financiers. In any case, we are having the first taste 
of those baneful results which I predicted when the 
adoption of an Indian Type by the Clearing House 
was first talked of. 
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