Dec.  2,  1895.J 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
399 
A FOURTH  CROP  of  Strawberries  has  just  been 
gathered  near  Penzance.  Chestnut-trees  are  in  new 
leaf  and  bloom  in  north  London.  At  Kendal  dam- 
sons sold  for  a farthing  a pound,  and  apples  at  less 
than  a half-penny.  A marrow  weighing  32  lb.  was 
displayed  at  the  harvest  festival  in  Eastbourne  Wes- 
leyan Church. — Christian  World. 
De.vth  of  Mr.  Andrew'  .Jamieson, — The  Ktc- 
Itulletin  for  September  anuoiuices  the  death  at  the 
General  Hospital,  Madras,  on  August  17,  of  Mr. 
Andiew  Jamieson,  Curator  of  the  gardens  and  parks 
at  Ootacamund,  Nilgiris.  Mr.  Jamieson  was  fifty- 
three  years  of  age,  and  had  been  connected  with 
the  Ootacamund  Gardens  for  nearly  twenty-seven 
years.  He  w'as  formerly  a member  of  the  garden- 
ing staff  at  Kew,  and  was  appointed  to  Ootacamund 
in  September,  18(58,  being  in  sole  charge  of  the 
gardens  on  the  Nilgiris  for  many  years,  until  they 
were  placed  under  the  control  of  the  present  Dir- 
ector, Mr.  M.  A.  Jjawson,  who  spoke  most  highly 
of  Mr.  Jamieson’s  skill  and  perseverance  in  Pull  his 
duties. — Gardeners'  Ch roniclc. 
Brick-making  in  Ceylon. — There  is  a report  cur- 
rent that  an  effort  is  to  be  made  at  Nuwara  Eliya 
to  make  bricks  according  to  European  methods  in 
place  of  those  hitherto  in  vogue.  We  wish  the  pro- 
ject all  success,  but  we  would  point  out  that  the 
demand  for  bricks  in  Nuwara  Eliya  cannot  be  large, 
while  past  efforts  to  improve  the  system  of  brick- 
making  in  Ceylon  have  not  been  very  successful. 
During  recent  years  two  companies  were  projected 
at  different  times  to  start  brick-making  in  Colomlio, 
according  to  the  most  approved  methods,  with 
European  machinery  and  under  European  supervision, 
but  they  never  got  beyond  the  stage  of  projection  ; 
for  some  reason  or  other,  the  difficulty  in  one  case 
being  the  personality  of  one  of  the  projectors,  which 
was  objected  to  by  the  general  public  when  they  w'ere 
asked  to  invest.  A.11  effort  was  also  made,  if  we  remember 
aright,  by  Government  to  make  their  own  bricks  when 
the  new  Post  Office  taken  in  hand,  and  some  machi- 
nery was  erected  at  the  General  Factoiy,  but  this 
scheme  also  fell  through,  although  it  was  responsi- 
ble to  a great  extent  for  the  decided  improvement 
in  native-made  bricks  that  has  been  observable  dur- 
ing the  last  two  or  three  years.  And  yet  there  are  said 
to  be  large  profits  made  in  brick-making  as  at  pre- 
sent carried  on,  and  it  has  been  urged  that,  were 
machinery  imported  and  European  methods  adopted, 
instead  of  the  primitive  ways  at  present  in  vogue, 
still  larger  gains  might  be  looked  for,  although,  in 
our  opinion,  this  does  not  necessarily  follow,  as  ex- 
perience of  other  enterprises — laundry  work  for  in- 
stance— has  convinced  us  that  in  some  operations, 
epecially  where  a large  degree  of  skill  is  not  required, 
the  hand ‘labour  of  the  native  can  hold  its  own  with 
the  more  expensive  and  complicated  machine-woik 
of  the  European,  without  taking  into  account  the 
opposition  of  vested  interests. 
A Place  Worth  Occupying.— Sir  Theodore 
Bent  describes  the  only  sjiot  on  tlie  Arabian 
littoral  which  seems  to  be  worth  while  anne.xing. 
This  he  describes  under  the  title  of  the  “Land 
of  Frankincense  and  Myrrh”;  — 
Dhofar  is  610  miles  from  Muscat  on  the  one  side 
and  800  miles  from  Aden  on  the  other,  so  it  is  situ- 
ated about  as  far  as  possible  from  any  civilised  centre. 
Nominally  it  ic  under  the  Sultan  of  Oman  : virtually 
it  is  ruled  over  autocratically  by  one  Wall  Suleiman, 
who  was  sent  out  there  about  eighteen  years  ago  as 
Governor,  at  the  request  of  the  feud-torn  inhabitants, 
by  Sultan  Tourki  of  Muscat.  If  ever  this  tract  of 
country  comes  into  the  hands  of  a civilised  nation, 
it  will  be  capable  of  great  and  useful  development. 
Supposing  the  harbour  restored  to  receive  ships  of 
modern  sixe,  the  Gara  hills,  rich  in  grass  and  vege- 
tation, with  an  ample  supply  of  water  and  regular 
rains,  and,  further-more,  with  a most  delicious  and 
health-giving  air,  might  be  of  inestimable  value  as  a 
granary  and  a health  resort  for  the  inhabitants  of 
the  burnt-up  centres  of  Arabian  commerce,  Aden  and 
Muscat.  It  is,  as  I have  said,  about  half-way  between 
them,  and  it  is  the  only  fertile  stretch  of  coast-line 
along  that  arid  frontage  of  the  Arabian  Peninsula  on 
^9  the  Indian  Ocean. 
Japanese  Matting. — The  demand  for  .Japanese 
matting,  probably  made  from  the  culms  of  Lepironia 
mucronata,  appears,  from  a recent  report  from  Hirgo 
and  Osaka  to  be  still  increasing.  The  progress  made 
in  the  manufacture  of  this  article  is  more  and  more 
noticeable  each  year,  the  export  for  18'J-l  amounting 
to  O',  er  277, OOU  rolls  of  10  yards  each,  against 
227,000  in  1803.  The  chief  demand  comes  from 
Nevy  York,  and  the  quantity  carried  to  that  port  by 
sailing  vessels  alone  amounted  to  over  170  000  rolls, 
being  an  average  of  over  12,000  rolls  per  vessel, 
which  shows  what  an  important  factor  as  regards 
freight  this  industry  has  assumed.  New  designs  of 
matting  are  constantly  being  invented  by  the 
Japanese,  W'hile  the  workmen  are  very  ready  to 
execute  orders  based  on  patterns  received  from 
foreign  countries,  so  that  the  number  of  styles  now 
available  to  the  exporter  are  almost  unlimited.  The 
crop  of  Rush  from  which  the  matting  is  made  was 
particularly  good  and  abundant  during  the  year,  and 
the  result  has  been  that  the  trade  proves  capable  of 
great  expansion  without  any  important  change  in 
prices,  to  the  considerable  advantage  of  both  the 
Japanese  and  foreigners  engaged  in  it.  To  all 
appearance,  the  demand  for  floor  matting  is  likely 
to  increase  in  the  future. — Gardeners'  Chronicle. 
Sheet-Lightning. — An  interesting  paper  was  read 
a,t  a recent  meeting  of  the  Scottish  Meteorological 
Society  by  Mr.  G.  Michie  Smith,  Government  Astro- 
nomer, Madras,  011  the  thunderstorms  of  Madras. 
Almost  every  night,  he  said,  sheet-lightning  could  be 
seen  on  the  horizon,  and  he  attributed  this  not  to 
the  reflection  from  distant  flashes,  as  was  commouly 
and  erroneously  supposed,  but  to  .the  meeting  of 
land  winds  and  sea  winds.  The  first  would  be 
heavily  charged  with  dust,  while  the  latter  would 
be  free  from  impurity.  He  had  frequently  noticed 
that  when  slieet-lightning  occurred  tiie  clouds  were 
double,  and  he  suggested  that  these  two  oolumiis  of  sea 
and  land  clouds  might  be  negative  and  positive  to 
one  another,  and  thus  discharge  is  brought  about 
bet'veeu  them.  The  succession  of  flashes  was  some- 
times so  frequent  that  three  hundred  could  be 
counted  m a minute,  and  this  would  go  on  for  as 
long  as  an  hour  and  a half.  The  Indian  Govern- 
ment  had  decided  to  build  an  observatory  at  a 
height  of  7,i00  feet,  at  Kodaikanal,  and  although  it 
\vas  primarily  intended  for  the  study  of  solar  phy- 
sics, a certain  amount  of  meteorological  work  would 
be  done.  Associated  with  this  Observatory  would 
be  another  building  7,000  feet  below  it,  and  at  a 
distance  of  three  or  four  miles.  The  foundation  stone 
of  the  foruiei’  was  successfully  laid  this  morning 
The  Pro.srect.s  of  Quinine  w'ill  certainly  im- 
prove greatly  it  war  breaks  out  in  South-Ea.stern 
Europe.  Meantime  the  New  York  Drug  Reporter 
has  the  tollowim.--  editorial  remarks 
The  attempt  to  secure  co-operation  among  the  .Java 
planters,  with  a yie'v  to  restricting  production,  appears 
to  have  failed,  but  the  statistics  prove  that,  at  any 
rate,  individuals  have  been  willing  to  try  to  obtain 
better  prices  for  their  output.  One  feature  must  not 
beoverlooked  and  that  IS  that  the  supply  of  bark  is 
gradually  fading,  the  indications  pointing  to  a repe- 
tition of  what  has  occun-ed  in  Ceylon.^  Manufac- 
tuieis  of  quinine  would  be  perfectly  willing  to  pay 
higher  prices  for  their  bark,  as  they  could  easily 
obtain  a relatively  much  higher  price  for  the  alkaloid^ 
The  quinine  makers  do  not  appear  to  be  wonied 
by  the  prospect  of  an  early  establishment  of  a factory 
in  Java  for  the  manufacture  of  the  alkaloid.  As  a 
foreign  contemporary  says  : “ The  trouble  will  be  to 
*5«hig  slaughtered 
on  the  European  markets  in  the  same  way  as  the  bark  is 
now  for  no  provision  is  made  to  keep  the  manufai- 
toed  product  m the  coutral  of  a central  sale  office. 
On  the  contrary  it  is  to  be  handed  back  to  the  planter 
who  supplies  the  bark,  and  who  will,  therefore  be 
under  the  same  temptation  to  sell  with  regard  to 
quinine  that  has  been  hig  «ndoing  in  the  matter 
of  tho  mother  substauc#,”  ® * 
