The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 96

[Footnote 18: Reports of Dr. Roxburgh, Mr. Touchet of Radanagore, and Mr. Cardin of Mirzapore, Cutna. Papers on East India Sugar, page 258.]

[Footnote 19: Many are of opinion, that although the juice of this cane is larger in quant.i.ty, yet that it contains less sugar. There is some sense in the reason they a.s.sign, which is, that in the Mauritius and elsewhere it has the full time of twelve or fourteen months allowed for its coming to maturity--whereas the agriculture of India, and especially in Bengal, only allows it eight or nine months, which, though ample to mature the smaller country canes, is not sufficient for the Otaheite.]

[Footnote 20: Roxburgh on the Culture of Sugar and Jaggary in the Rajahmundry Circar; Third Ap. to Report on East India Sugar, p. 2.]

[Footnote 21: L'Exploitation de Sucreries. Porter on the Sugar Cane, 53,321.]

[Footnote 22: That the above application would be beneficial, is rendered still more worthy of credit from the following experience:--In the Dhoon, the white ant is a most formidable enemy to the sugar planter, owing to the destruction it causes to the sets when first planted. Mr. G.H. Smith says, that there is a wood very common there, called by the natives _Butch_, through, which, they say, if the irrigating waters are pa.s.sed in its progress to the beds, the white ants are driven away. (Trans. Agri-Hort. Soc. of India, v. 65.)]

[Footnote 23: Fitzmaurice on the Culture of the Sugar Cane.]

[Footnote 24: The kilogramme is equal to 2 lb, 3 oz. avoirdupois.]

[Footnote 25: A lecture on the nutritive value of different articles of food, by C. Daubeny, M.D., "Gardener's Chronicle" (London), January 20th, 1849, p. 37.]

[Footnote 26: Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, 1849, p. 646.]

[Footnote 27: A lecture "On the Geographical Distribution of Corn Plants," by the Rev. E. Sidney--Proceedings of the Royal Inst.i.tution (London), May 18th, 1849.]

[Footnote 28: Boussingault's Rural Economy, American edition, pp. 85 and 86.]

[Footnote 29: Zenas Coffin, one of the oldest whalemen in Nantucket, states that corn meal in tight rum puncheons when sent to the Went Indies will keep sweet, while in common flour barrels it will spoil.

Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1847, p. 133.]

[Footnote 30: From remarks of Col. Skinner, and others, at a meeting of the American Inst.i.tute, held in April 1846. Transactions of American Inst.i.tute, 1846, p. 509 _et seq._]

[Footnote 31: Comptes Rendus des Seances de L'Academie des Sciences, February 5th, 1819.]

[Footnote 32: A Treatise on Diet and Regimen, by Wm. Henry Robertson, M.D., vol. i. p. 153.]

[Footnote 33: The Plant: a Biography; by M.H. Schleiden, M.D., Professor of Botany in the University of Jena. English translation, p.

54.]

[Footnote 34: Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1847, p. 190. In this communication, Mr. Bentz does not describe the process which he adopts, but enumerates some of its supposed advantages.]

[Footnote 35: Quoted by Boussingault, Rural Economy, Amer. edition, p.

410.]

[Footnote 36: A Treatise on Diet and Regimen, by Wm. Henry Robertson, M.D., Vol. i. p. 140.]

[Footnote 37: Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals, &c., by R.D. Thomson, M.D., p. 156.]

[Footnote 38: Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology, translated by Prof. J.F.W. Johnston, p. 684.]

[Footnote 39: See Dr. R.D. Thomson's Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals, &c.]

[Footnote 40: Mulder's Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology; English Translation, p. 816.]

[Footnote 41: I have had no opportunity of a.n.a.lysing samples of flour from the South-Western States, and therefore cannot extend this comparison to them.]

[Footnote 42: Transactions of "Agri.-Hort. Society, of Calcutta," vol.

iv. p. 125.]

[Footnote 43: Dict. of Arts and Manufacture.]

[Footnote 44: Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. 3, p. 138.]

[Footnote 45: The gla.s.ses used were all of the sort described in Griffin's catalogue under the name of Clark's test-gla.s.ses. They were all, as nearly as possible, of the same size and shape.]

[Footnote 46: I have determined the amount of nitrogen contained in the meal made from the whole maize, the growth of the colony, as also from plantain meal; I have also ascertained its amount in ca.s.sava meal, prepared in the manner mentioned in the text, and in meal prepared from the ca.s.sava sliced, dried, and ground without expressing the juice. a.s.suming Liebig's formula of Proteine, namely, C-48 N-6 H-36 0-4 the results stand thus:--

Nitrogen. Proteine compounds.

Per cent. Per cent.

Maize meal (unhusked) 1.73 10.72 Plantain meal .88 5.45 Ca.s.sava meal (juice expressed) .36 2.23 Ditto from the sliced and dried roots .78 4.83 ]

[Footnote 47: Les Moyens de prevenir la Maladie des Pommes de Terre.

Experiences et Conclusions de A.N.C. Bollman, Conseiller d'etat, Professeur, &c. 8vo, St. Petersburg, 1853.]

[Footnote 48: If cinnamon seeds after was.h.i.+ng be exposed to the sun, even for twenty minutes, the sh.e.l.ls will crack in two, and this prevents the seeds from growing.]

[Footnote 49: No export duties exist in the Straits Settlements.]

[Footnote 50: Since these remarks were written, the duty has been wholly abolished.]

[Footnote 51: Although this was the amount of produce for 1842, it must be remarked that that crop was a complete failure, and the average crop for some years past has been 46,666 pounds.]

[Footnote 52: Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.]

[Footnote 53: The vernacular name for stale or putrid urine.]

[Footnote 54: "Lit" was the name applied to the plant, from which the dye was to be prepared, and "pig" is the Scotch synonym for any kind of earthenware vessel---in which the maceration was generally carried on.]

[Footnote 55: Pitkins' Statistics of the United States.]

[Footnote 56: A great portion of the crop I grew had leaves measuring two feet nine inches in length and eighteen inches wide, being larger than I ever knew to have been grown in America. The average weight I obtained per acre, was 25 cwt.; whereas I see by the public returns, the average of what is grown here is only 17 1-7th cwt.]