THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
275 
Oct. I, 1897.] 
Coconuts and CopRj^. — Certainty, writes a 
correspondent, the more distant districts shoiilu 
send their copra to market, and not then 
The weiglit of the kernel alone is reduced by 
one-half by drying ; add to that the cost of 
tranr-poit of the shell aiul the water \yhicli aie 
thrown away ; and yon will see how carnage tells. 
Cacao Disease and the R. B- Gardens’ 
Circular. — We call attention to the 'eGer ot 
a practical cacao planter on this subject. It is 
quite evident that cacao disease is far easier to 
grapple with than leaf disease or bug in conee, 
if only systematic care is e.xercised and caretul ob- 
servation made. Separate cacao trees can be treated 
in detail, and reliable results arrived at, when 
there are only 300 to the acre- far more so 
than was the case with coffee Arahica with 
1,200 bushes to the acre. Our correspondent a,d- 
vocates the use of lime and wood ashes tor the 
benefit of trees affected : the expermient is well 
worth trying. 
“Royal Botanic Gardens’ Circulars.”— 
We call attention to the letter of the Director on 
this subject, to his introductory notice and to 
the first of the series of periodical Circulars, all ot 
which we reproduce in full today and \velcome 
with much pleasure. Such periodical deliv'eranccs 
on certain products cannot tail to be useful, and 
for onr own part, as reproduced regularly in our 
monihXj Tropical Acjnculturist, they cannot tail 
to increase its interest and usefulness especially 
to readers in other tropical Depemlencies. 1 he 
discussions sure to arise in the daily press, out 
of certain of the Circulars as lime rolls on, will also 
he of service when recorded simultaneously 111 our 
periodical. In the present case - the circular upon 
the cacao disease and suggested remedies-there 
is not much to be said, as the matter has recently 
been very exhaustively treated in our columns. 
But we notice that Messrs. Willis and Gieen aie 
not very hopeful about the old Criollo cacao and 
strongly recommend all further planting to be 
with Forastero. 
British Central Africa. -Mr. John M. 
Moir, one of the oldest and leading coffee planters 
in Nyasaland, was to leave Edinburgh on 28th 
August for B. C. Africa. Mr. Moir sends us 
an advance copy of his paper for, 
British Association for the Advancement op 
Science. Toronto, 1897.— The Climatology of Africa. 
—Sixth Report of a Committee, consisting of Mr. 
E. G. Ravenstein (Chairman), Sir John Kirk, Mr. 
G. J. Symons, Dr. H. R. Mill, and Mr. H. N. 
Dickson (Secretary). (Drawn up by the Chairman.) 
In the present report we are able to publish abstracts 
of two years’ observations made by our old and valued 
correspondent, Mr. J. M. Moir, at Lauderdale. Mr. 
Moir is, after a holiday at home, about to return 
to Nvasaland; but bis work has been continued 
during his absence by Mr. Thomson. We are also 
enabled, through the courtesy of Mr, A Sha^e, to 
publish rainfall observations for ten stations. Larlier 
unpublished observations for Livingstonia have been 
added from the note-book of the late Mr. Stewart. 
Rainfall in Nyasaland — Year 1896. 
Chiromo 
Chikwawa 
Cholo (Nyamteti Estate) 
Mandala (Blantyve) 
Zomba (Residency) 
Mlanje — Lauderdale 
Nyasaland Coffee Co. 
Fort Johnston — Fort 
African Lakes Co 
Inches. 
34-39 
28-78 
.51-26—81 days 
52-60 
63-34 
108-15 
78-54 
42-20 
45-74 
Likoma (Univ. Miss.) . . 50-58 
Bandawe (Livingstonia Mission) 92-59 — 126 days 
Cotton. — The e.xpeiiment made witli seeds of 
the best kind of Egyi>tiaii cotton in the Horti- 
cnltuial Gardens, Lucknow, gives yiroinise of 
some succe.ss. The plants are profusely covered 
with blossom, and it is hoped that they will 
give a good (leal of cotton. — Pioneer, Sept. 11. 
Fisu Guano. — A Ceylon reader writes us from 
Kandy that Fish Guano has been tried on tea with 
very poor results. The favourite fertilizer employed 
is nitrate of soda. A comparison between the two is 
of course impossible without the fullest data, but we 
cannot help thinking that the guano has not been 
given a fair trial. W e hear it is a new but great 
favourite wilh coffee planters in South India. — 
Plantinff Opidion. 
The “Indian Forester,’’ edited by .J. W. Oliver, 
Conservator of Forests, and Director of the Forest 
School, Dehra Dun, August 1897. — Contents: Original 
Articles and Translations-r-The Expoit Works in 
the Bamsu Forest (illustrated) by G. E. McA. M. 
Correspondence — Irregnlarity in the Growth of Teak, 
letter from S. C. ; The nutnber of acres in a Cape 
Morgen, letter from A. W. Heywood. Reviews — 
Forest Administration in the Northern and Central 
Circle of Bombay during 1895-96. Extracts, Notes and 
Queries. Timber and Produce Trade. Extracts from 
Official Gazettes. Appendix Series of the Indian 
Fortsler. Reports by E. E. Fernandez, Esq.. (Re- 
port of Pine in Germany and Switzerland), Gonsr, 
of Forests, l^art III. 
Tapioca as a Food Crop. —The Englishman 
remarks that a good deal of corre.spondence has 
been taking place on the subject of the introduc- 
tion into India of the Manioc or M.aiidioca 
(Tapioca) plants of South America as an alterna- 
tive food-cro]) in time.s of prolonged drought and 
famine. It ayipears that the proposal emanated 
fn.m Dr. Halliday Gunning, who has resided for 
a long time in Brazil, and is of opinion ilia 
the plant could he used as an alternative food'- 
when the rice-crop tailed in rice-eating districts. 
It is -pointed out that tapioca is already regularly 
cultivated in the Dinaji»ui, Rangpur, Bogra, and 
Jalpaiguridistricts of Bengal. 3Tie yield [ler acre 
is very large. In most parts of India, however, 
the peojde have a prejudice .against eating the 
root, and it is grown merely as a hedge plant. 
Any attempt, therefore, to intioduce the plant 
generally as an alternative for rice would pro- 
bably fail, though its cultivation might he en- 
couraged in Northern Bengal, where the people 
are accustomed to regard it in the light of a 
foodstuff. 
Pronunciation: “Cocaine” (8th S. xi 485). 
— The note leferred to is in several particulars 
somewhat misleading to \A\e simpheitas laicorum. 
What is im^ant by “words of this formation” 
I do not quite undeistfuid, but there are many 
words, ajiparently formed on the same principle 
as those referred to, in which the termination 
ine does not denote an alkaloid, as, for example, 
iodine, bromine, glycerine, chlorine, crocine, and 
carmine. Nor is it quite correct to say that 
an alkaloid is the active principle of a thing. 
Many plants yield half a dozen alkaloids, none 
of which can properly be said to be the active 
principle of the plant. Opium, for instance, 
yields, besides morphine, papaverine, thebaine, 
codeine, narcotine, narceine , and ]u-obably several 
more, each of which has properties of its own, 
none of which has precisely the same value as 
any other. There are alkaloids, too, which occur 
in' more tli.an one plant (caffeine, for instance, 
occurs in both tea and coffee), and there are 
animal alkaloids, .and artificial alkaloids almost 
without end, to which your correspondent’s de- 
scription would not apply. — C.C.B. — Notes and, 
Queries, July 10. 
