SePTi,MBER I, 1891.] THE TROP 10 M. AQRIOULTURIST. 187 
but if be did lie would find tliat he bas made 
ft nlipht miptakp ; that what I did say was that 
Liberian coffee crops closer 1 cwt. an acre than 20 
cwl. afi some have a‘<serlpd in print that it would, 
llo aiuiply orroborated what 1 aaid, in putting the 
jiehi at 5 cwt. nu acre. 1 have had not t)»e 
p easure of peeing the trees referred to, so it would 
be iuteresting to know how many acres are under 
Liberica in both iustancos, as to frame a conclaeion 
from a few trees oarefully tended would be unsound. 
It in quite possible that there may bo a few spots 
in Oonrg wbern the necessary conditions for the sne* 
ceRsful cnlHvation of Liberian do exint, but it does 
not follow that success would attend it«4 adoptiou 
on all tho places now devoted to Coffee nrahica^ 
The latter, even now, in the face of loaf rust and 
the other ills that noffee is heir to, will with good 
work and manure, give its 5 owt. on an average with 
ease and comfort, and ao lou^ as this is so evils that 
we wot not of are best left alone. 
The rain has started again today . — Madras Mai, 
July 22nd. 
NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE. 
By Dr. J. K, Taylor, v. l. s,&c., Editor of 
“Science Gcssip." 
It' is not an infrequent thing to be asko 1 by 
farmers who do not know too ronoh of agricultural 
chemi-^tty whether the aun has any intlucnca ou 
“ artificials.” At first, one is ih'spnsod to answer— 
'‘Oirtaioly not.” But M. Laurent has recently 
demonstrated to the Brussels Academy of Science, 
that Kitrates can be deoomposed by the action of 
sunlight. He proved t-hfshy causing a beam ofsiiu, 
light to fall upon polutioos of nitrates placed in a 
Vacuum, and found that af^er a certain time the 
space contained liberated cxyf:en, whilst the liquids 
oBsessed the characteristic reactiots of nitritHS. The 
Ine end of tho spectrum was foand to possess the 
most powerful reducing action. 
It is the fniiotioii of eoonomjo.l Roienoe fo 
feooguise, no such thin^f ns w.sic, Ljrd P-ilinerstoii 
•lefiBod dirt as beine raatter in the wronj! place. 
What we cull waste is lOmethiiig uselul or valaabls 
>'1 the wi'oiijf place. Forty years ago the gas 
companies were steeped to the lips in law suits 
taken to prevent them throwing th ir “ was’e" into 
the rivers and canals. They w- re f.irced to utilise 
•t. Out of that very waste chemical science has 
tnan;pulat(‘d tlie most wonderful and diversified 
Products — brilliant dyes, delighifiil perfumes, valuable 
“ruga, aud a minor host of other substsnoes. The 
gas “ wa-te” in Grea* Britain and the Ooniineiit is 
now worth five millions a year. Europe ociil 1 afford 
•0 pay fgr a big war every year with the ga< 
w,iste. The “waste” in paper manufioture was 
•imilarlya matter of logislaiim a few years ago; 
now it is neatly all recovered and turned to ecoimmical 
advantage. The dislriotsof St. Helens, in Eanoashire, 
and the banks of ihe L.ine are crowded with 
obemioal works, all engaged in manufacturing some- 
tbmg useful and profitable out of “ waste.” 
oometimos it is not merely an article in the 
strong place that is wro.-ted from being a niiisanoa 
converted into sometliing useful, but a somelbiug 
Which for generations has bad no value is suddenly 
endowed by the ingenuity of modern disrovety into a 
variety of utilitarian objects. For thousands of years 
asbestos has had no value. A few urie.ital m onarehs 
amused their surprised guests by having napkins 
ovtii out of iia fibre, which wore ttirown into the 
re to be cleaned. Its Greek name expresses this 
■nconsumahility. But within the last. 20 years aabeatoa 
OBs assumed a wide usclulnees, and the finder of a 
new ream of asbestos woul I do belter than the dis- 
^1?’’“'’ » gold mine. Most of us are only aoquain ted 
witn this mineral in ooniiBotion with our modern gas 
stoves, but it has a best of applications besides, 
^amp wioka, boiler packing, iiioombuitible felt ropes, 
wui Board, stoppori tor our liugc guni, time late* 
charge pros) rvers for torpedo and dynamito shells, 
coa'iiig for ironclads, c'otli for balloons, safety coverings 
fur roofs and floors (commni ly a lopted in America), 
curtains aiul other propetUes tor theatre!, movable 
shields for preventing llio advsnoo of fire, 
clothing for fir. nu n, filters, pipe joints, furnace linings, 
insul.tnrd lamp shades, tobacco pinas, soles and 
linings for boots and shoes, soldi ring blocks for watch- 
makers, moulds f r type Icutiders, e ch and all of 
these multitinlincus ehjeet' and operations aie ad- 
ministered to by asbestos. The latest are an aslxistos. 
paper aud compound tobacco UBbc.stoa mixture for 
cigarettes. Artifical asbestos can be made out of use- 
less clay by steam-blowiug the molten muss into thin 
hairs, rcarmbling flora silk. Asbestos, natural and 
arlificial, is capablo of still furilier applicatiou, aud 
petli.ps the artifici.l kind is as yet only in its 
infancy. \Va to on.y exists whore ignorance exists. 
“For nought so vile upon the earth doth live, but to 
the earth some special good doth give.” — Australasian. 
— » 
An InsbotEnemy.— “E. B." writes from Matara;— 
“ I send you under separate cover two wotmj. I 
am very much interested in knowing what they are. 
These worms especially the younger ones of the 
same species I believe ; but green in colour are 
destroying my plants. I tried many remedies with- 
out BuooeBS." Our entomolugiosl referee reports ; 
•' Caterpillars of a oommon brown moth ; one moth 
was found in tho match-box, but so much damaged, 
that it was impossible to identify it." 
Thk Cut 1'loweb Tiiade in Fbance. — T hree hun- 
dred and twenty-three tons of cut flowers, says the 
Liverpool Mercviy. sounds an enormous amount, and so, 
without doubt, it ia. Yet this was tho weight of the 
quantity of cut flowers packed and sent out during the 
tour mouths from November to February from Cannes 
alone. Their value would be estimated at i'(15,2C8. 
The trade ia said to be increasing at an almost incre- 
dible rate, and within the past eighteen months no 
fewer than fifty-three new eatablisliiueuts Imvo been 
started for tho cultivation of flowers. From Nice, the 
report ia that tho flower trade has been much depressed 
owing to tho severe frost of tho winter. It is said, how- 
ever, to have yielded— the whole district— 15,000,000 
franca during last year.— Gardsssrs' Chronicle. 
The Japan Tea Export Company. — T he 
Japan Weekly 3Iail of llth July sa's 
It seems probable that the grant of two hundred 
thousand yen, mode by the department of Agri- 
culture and Commerce to the Tea Company — tho 
grant about which so much has been said in the 
press and the Diet — will never become available for 
the Company’s purposes. Tho affair has lingered 
interminably, and statements are also in circulation 
to the effect that tho terms on which the subsidy 
was given have been violated by the projectors. 
Tho Shoffi/o SAimpo says that, the matter having 
been brought to the Cabinet’s notice, the latter de- 
cided on the 3rd instant, to re-pass into the Treasury 
the sum of two hundred thousand yen, which has 
hitherto boon lying in a hank, for the purpose of 
being transferred to tbo Company so soon as tho 
latter should bav'o qualifled to receive it. 
The Uailut ISih July has the f .ilowing : 
The rumour that the Minister of Agricultui-e and 
Commerce had determined to recall tho grant of 
two hundred thousand yen made to the Seicha JCaislat 
or Toa-manufacturing Company, was well founded. 
On the loth instant a notification was issued, over 
the signature of Mr. Mutsu, in the following terms : 
— “ In-as-mnch as the Japan Tea-manufacturing 
Company hn.H not fnlfilled the conditions originally 
fixed by its charter, the subsidy of two hundred 
thousand yen granted to it is hereby recalled, and 
the said sum must ho returned within thirty days 
from tho present date. ” 
The Directors of the Tea Export Company intend 
to raise an action against Mr. Matsu, Minister of 
State for Agriculture and Commerce, on the ground 
that his administrative action in regard to the 
by tbe Government to the oouipany, 
