684 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1898. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
The Mango: the “Prince of Indian 
Fruit,” and a “ Disease-causing Fruit.” — 
That most cultured of Anglo-Indian statesmen, 
Sir M. E. Grant-Duff, has been giving a lecture 
before the Society of Arts on the “Recreations of 
an Indian Official ” and very interesting he made 
it ; but we only refer to it today to quote the ex- 
Governor's high praise of the mango in the 
following sentence : — 
There were the AnacanUacece, to which belongs the 
omnipresent mango as to which we may say, with 
more truth, what Bishop Berkeley is reported to have 
said about the strawberry, that he had no doubt 
that the Almighty could have made a better fruit, 
but that he had certainly not done so. 
This we put in contrast with information given 
by Sir George Birdwood in a commnnication to 
the same journal as supplementary to the Lecture 
in which he gives the native meaning ot the 
names of fruit, trees, &c., and among the rest 
Amba . — (Magnifera indica) “■ disease causing ” ; the 
Mango, so called by Anglo-Indians because nrst known 
to them by its Tamil name, manka, mea.iing “ man- 
fruit.” The fruit is apt to act injuriously on the 
kidneys, and cows fed with its leaves for the 
production of the exquisite mango yellow dye of 
India obtained from their urine, die in a few months. 
This is quite new to us — and, we fancy, to 
most of our reader.s— that the mango is apt to 
act injuriously on the kidneys (we suppose only 
when eaten in excess as is the case with the 
Bengal natives who live on mangoes at one 
season of the year) or that the leaves were so 
fatally injurious to cattle? 
The Cluster Pine is being introduced into 
West Australia by the Conservator of Forests, 
Mr. J. Edine Brown, who has obtained a large 
consignment of the seed for planting on the 
interior sand wastes as well as along the sea 
coast. Some interesting particulars are given 
as to the success which has attended the intro- 
ductijn of this timber to the Cape, where the 
Cluster pine at Genadendal has a clean, straight, 
robust growth that is unsurpassed by the best 
trees in the Cape Peninsula. Trees as straight 
as a mast and 70 feet to the first branch are 
not uncommon. Cluster pine timber is used for 
all the purposes where imported pine is employed 
in Cape-town, except for fine carpentry. Clus- 
ter pine answers well for floors, joists and 
beams ; but for line carpentry, such as win- 
dows, its hard, resinous nature makes it diffi- 
ult to work. At Genadendal the Cluster pine 
timber is brought to the side of the road and 
there sold to tlie farmers, who come with their 
waggons and fetch it away. . Prices are low. 
A sound straight log 9 inches diameter and 22 
feet long would be .sold for 3s. Scaffold poles 4 
inches mean diameter and 36 feet long sell for 
9d. The extended planting of Cluster pine in 
the southern and south-western districts has long 
been advocated by the Cape Forest department. 
Air along the better watered .soutli-western coast 
districts it exists as a hardy forest tree, requir- 
ing for its propagation only that the ground be 
ploughed or otherwise broken up and sown at 
the proper season, i. e., wi ll the first winter 
rains. No plantations in south Africa, and few 
in other parts of tlie world, can be laid down 
so cheaply and so easily. It is as simple as 
sowing a held of wheat or oats. A good bushel 
of seed, or about 40 lb. to tbe acre, is required. 
The seed costs from 3d. to 4d. a lb., i. e., it can 
be obtained at this price from the Cape 
Government.— Melbourne Leader, Feb. 5. 
A Tea P.vcker is being sent out to the Poogbon 
Tea Estate. (As bulking at the factory is coming 
into vogue again, says a Darjeeling paper, these 
machines must come into more general use as it is 
almost impossible to get two chests ot tea packed 
exactly alike by the old methods of pressing in by 
the hand or feet, one chest is bound to contain more 
broken tea and dust than another. At the same 
time it is doubtful whether more tea is got into a 
chest by the machine than by foot (as some 
assert); so we ai'e informed by .some experts 
who have dealt with and .seen many. 
Lady-birds for Madras Planters. — The 
Government of Madras has promised to contribute 
R2,000 towards the expen.ses of sending Mr. H. O. 
Newport to Australia to collect and bring back 
ladybirds to exterminate the green bug and other 
scale ))esls which are doing so much damage to 
the cott'ee plantations in Southern India, on the 
Lower Pulneys especially. The Government’s con- 
tribution is a moiety of the calculated expense of 
sending Mr. Newport to Australia, placed at amaxi- 
mura limit of R4.000. The planters themselves 
have snb.scriLed K.5,100 for this particular purpose. 
“ Kaolin and Fireclays of high quality are 
reported to have been found in considerable 
quantities in several parts of Nt'v Mexico. The 
most important is situated near So''nrro, and is 
now being worked. A new discover.\ of a large 
deposit of fireclay and kaolin near Santa Fe is 
also notified.” A correspondent in sending the 
above asks “What about Ceylon Kaolin?” — In 
reply we can only say that we have some of the 
finest of kaolin, prized in ancient times by the 
Chinese for their fine ware. But although Sir 
Wm. Gregory tested it satisfactorily in getting 
imitation Sevres ware made from it ; yet it 
was not considei ed that it would warrant the cost 
of digging, packing and freight to export it. 
Hope for the West- Indies.”— In one of 
the Magazines Sir George Baden-Powell, a relia- 
ble colonial observer, finds the abolition of 
bounties insufficient for the preservation of tire 
sugar and other industries, and pleads for an 
Imperial department for information respecting 
West Indian products, in connection w’ith Kew : — 
“ The culmmating advantage would consist in ap- 
pointing a travelling Inspector of Tropical Products, 
who should, with a small staff proceed on regular 
tour, at the right seasons, to our tropical colonies 
to gather and to disseminate information of a 
thoroughly reliable and independent .character.” 
In fact — as a correspondent observes — what is 
wanted is a peripatetic “ f.A.” (“Tropical 
Agriculturist” !). — Our Monthly T. A. is secured 
and filed in most of the West Indian islands. 
Fish Manure and Weevils.— Recently a 
market gardener in Kent applied a heavy dress- 
ing of fish manure — the putrid carcases of sprats 
and starfish — on to a piece of poor land with the 
idea of enriching it. Soon after the ground ap- 
peared to be alive with small brown weevils, very 
similar to tlie Vine and Ra.spberry weevils, w’hich 
played dreadful havoc with the vegetables which 
formed the crop. Now the gardener is at a loss to 
know how to destroy the hard-backed marauders, 
and question.s the advisability of using putrid fish 
as a manure if it is the means of introducing pests 
of this kind. In many Raspberry and Strawberry 
growing districts fish manure is largely used, and 
the Raspberry weevil is the common enemy, and 
a hard one to fight. Is this pest introduced in the 
manure ? because if such is the ca.se it would pay 
Raspberry growers to let it severely alone. Per- 
haps other readers can throw some light on this 
matter.— Kentish Man. 
