^^%>s^^^

^ 1-^^

s^\^ .f

I-

^ ^. S

[V'j!. \\ cni'(a:iiiii!) Vhw/i^w /. Ui XII: Jal;/ \»»:-, :„ Jum wa.]
step after step the ladiler is osccndcd."— Oeorue HEHiitKi, Jacaia Pi'idenlnm.

THE

Tropical Agriculturist:

A

MONTHLY RECORD OF INFORMATION

I'OK

PLANTERS

OF

Tea, Coffee, Cacao, Cinchona, Sugar, Rubber, Tobacco, Palms, Spices, Eice,

AND OTHER PRODUCTS,

SUITED FOR CULTIVATION IN THE TROPICS.

. [ISSTED ON OR ABOUT THK 1ST OF EACH MONTH.]

COMl'lLED BY

LIBRARY

A. M. & J. KEKGUSON new York

0/ Me •'■Ceylon Observer;' .^r. BOTANICAL

oarukn.

"It is Ix'lli th»! duty nil': interest of every owner and cultivator of tlie soil to study lae best raenns of reuderiny
thdt Poll subservient to his o«ii and the general wants of the eommuuity ; and he who inlroduces, buueticially* a new
aud Useful ^^c(/, riant, or !:yhrttb into hio distriet, is a blessing and an houour to his country.'*— bin J. Sinclair.

A. M. & J. FERGUSON: COLOMBO, CEYLON.

The " Tropic AL AonicULiUBisx " can be obtained from, or aJvertiBemeiits for it sent to, the following
agents ; —

London: — Messrs. T8iin.VKU& Co.. 67 & 6'J, Luclgate Hill i John Haddon & Co., 3. Bouverie .St., Fleet St.;
(iEO. Sthekt fc Co., 30, Coruhill ; F. Au.Au, 11 and 12, Clement's Laue, Lombard .St.; Bate-, He.vdy
k Co. 37, "Walbrook ; Cowie k Co., 17, Gresham St. ; IJoedoN & Go 1 CB, St. Bride St., Ludgatu Circus ;
Caluk, Son, & 1'latt, 85, Gracecburch St.; W. H. S.mith & Co., Strand; S. Deacon & Co., 1.5(1, Leadenhall
St.; T. Ohbisty & Co., 15.5, Venchureh St.; \\'. B. WHrrriNHHAJi & Co., Ill, (iracechureh Street. — CiiinliriJyr :
DiDHV & Co.—Manrhestrr: Phki.es k Bhows;:, ib Cathedral Yard. — Lin, pool : Ciias. Birchai.i., 32, Castle
Street.— f''/tt.<yi..ir .- W. k K. MAtPnus.— A'(//«/.«)'y// .■ W. & A. IC. .Tounston.— .4fc(';-i/cfrt .■ M'. M'ksti.anh, r>3,
Nicholas Street. — /''iris: AcENcE Havas. — .Uiidiiis: Vest & {'o—Xili/iri and Wi,naad Districts: A. Primiidsk,
Mercacjt. Coorg — Calcutlu : ThalkEr, Sfink 8: Co. — Dvmbui/: Tiia< kkk & Co., Ltd. — llanunnii: Soiomon k Co.
— PiHunij : Bi.azf, Keidei & Vn.—Sinyajm-e: J. LiTTi.R k (.'o.—Bcilariii: John Puvce & Co., and (!. Koi.i-f
& Co. — Si'ra^aya : Thos. C. Wilson k Co.— Sumiiruni/ : Maxi'Al i Co. — 6'ui//on ; Flkith k LAPLACf.'. —
Honiihin'j : Kellv & Co. — ShumjUai : China and Japan Tkadi.nii Company. — Mclhoiime, St/dnn/ nnd /iiislnrne:
GoKDON & GOTtH. — Si/dnei/ : ^Vm. MWDOLK. — Ada/aide: CawthouN & to. — Xortliern QueinsUind : \V. Hopki.\s,
Kwkharapton. —/"<-/■//(, T. Anftratiu: Stirling & Sons. — Xeir /.taland : Coiomai. News Ahem v, Napier. — l-'iji:
Artmlk Stephens. — Jirazil, Hio de JnmAiu: Lo.mhaehts & Co., 7, Rua dos Ouvives; A.J. Lamoiuflx, " Kio
News" Oflice.- C'eHfCd/ America: James Boyd, Panama.— '/i'«/f//iii 'a . W. J. Foiisyth. — /fV.s/ Indite: C. H.
Caldebon, St. Thomas. — Dominica: "Dominica Dial" Ofuck. — /)')t!/.'.7i. (tuinnn: "Rovai. Gazetie " Ofiick. —
Xatal : Rohinson *: Vausp, Durban.— J/nK/idwn . C. W. Ham, Port Louis. — United States: S. M. Petting 1 1, L &
Co., 263, Broadway.

MDCCCLXXXVI.

r^J

I'RINTED AI THE " CEVLON OBSEKVER " I'llESS I COLOMBO, CEVLON : 188().

LIBRARY

TO OUR READERS. !',f;™'^

BOTANICAL
UaRDPM.

In closing the Fifth Volume of the " Tropical Agriculturist,'' we have
but to repeat what we have said on similar previous occasions, in directing attention
to the large amount of useful information aflbrded, and to the great variety of topics
treated in our pages. From month to month, we have endeavoured to lay before
our readers the latest results of practical experience and scientific teaching in all
that concerns tropical agriculture ; and our ambition has been to make this periodical
not only indispensable to the planter, but of nervice to business men and capitalists,
never forgetting that agriculture trenches upon every department of human knowledge
and science, besides being the basis of human wealth.

While directing our attention chiefly to the products prominently mentioned
on our title-page, we have never omitted to notice minor industries likely to fit in
with tropical conditions ; and our readers have an ample guarantee in the pages before
them that, in the future, no pains will be spared to bring together all available
information both from the West and East, the same being examined in the li^ht of
the teachings of commonsense as well as of prolonged tropical experience in this
the leading Crown and Planting Colony of the British Empire.

The official Reports on the Royal Botanic and Economic Gardens in Ceylon
are republished in lull in a separate torm, in the present volume an'd throughout
our pages will be found reviews of, and extracts from the Reports of other Botanic
Gardens situated in or near the tropics. We are ready to give copious extracts
from, if not to reprint in e.xteiiso, the Reports of all other sub-tropical Public Botanic
Gardens which may reach us. Most of these* Reports we already receive and utilize
as above-mentioned for the benefit of our planting readers.

A full and accurate Index affords the means of ready reference to every
subject treated in this fifth volume which we now place in our subscribers' hands,
in full confidence that it will be received with an amount of approval, at least equal
to that which has been so kindly extended to its predecessors.

In conclusion, we must tender our thanks to readers and contributors, and
our wish that all friends may continue to write instructively and read with approval :
fDr then indeed must the "Tropical Agriculturist" continue to do well.

CT, .\. M. cS: J. FERCU.SON.

2i roLOMno : 15th June, 1886,

c>

u

C-

I N DEX.

298, 3i

Paoe.

25fi, 438, 753, 840, i'Tit

425

{See Coffee!

[See Sugar]

iSff Tea

55

252

... 637

m-

, 427, .552, 757
.'5.52
[flee Forests]
... 472
45
427, 4(J4
[■See Chemistry, Agricultural]
1.5. 19. 19:i, 317, 329, 344, 3.55,
470, 51,s. 612, 709, 8m, ,m02, 842, 877

Kxhibitions ... 35,36,799

.Students, Oeylonese ... 470

.\griculture ... . . 298, 490. 594

— and Insects ... .. 151, i98

at the Cape ... ... 287

Kxhibits at Inveutioiis Exhibition 121

. Experiments in ... .39,121.794

for Natives 23. 3ti, 39, 90, 93, 120, 1-50, 242,

377, 470, 722, 7-58, 779, 802
Improvement of ...35, 3li, .594, 709, 722, 754

Acaolas ...

Acreage Returns
.\dult«ration of Coffee

of Sugar

of Tea

Advance .System and Plautijg in Ceylon

AdvPlti^iug

Africa, Central, Planting in ...

, Equatorixl

, German Plaatatious in

, West, Products of

African Tlora

, Oil Palm ...

Trade ...

. Trees

Agricultural Chemistry
Education

in Africa
' in Algeria
in America
in .\ustralia

552

;i3f;

.Alkaloid in Lantana
Alluvial Soils
Aloe Cultivat!<ui
Aloes, Market Rates for

Altitude and ^'egetation

Alvelos and Caut-tT

Amazon

Amber

America, liees in ...

, Coffee in

, Floriculture in

, Forests in

, Fruit Cultivation

, Indiarubber iu

, (Quinine in

, Tea Cultivation iu

, Tobacco Cultivation in [See Tobaoco'Cultvn ]

, Trade of ... ... 807

, Wheat I'ultiv.-ition in ... 344

American Evaporator ... .504, 7(jO

Ammoiiiacum, Gum, Market Kates for 72, 152, 232,

304, 376, 448, 520, .592, 664, 736, 808

Anatto ... ... 91, 708, 744

Andamans, Tea Cultivation in ... ... 776

Animi, Gum, Market Kates for 72, 1-52, 232, 304, 376,
448, 520, -592, 664

Paoe,

424

[.S'ee Soils]

3«8

1.52, 232, 304, .376, 448, 520,

592, 664, 736, 880

•J5

170

66(1

325

... .34, UO

[•<*c Coffee]

490

[See Forestl

2.56, 33B, 4lS

[■S>f Indiarubbi-r"!

74

[See Tea]

25, 90. 151. 374, 475, -569, 890
15(1, 162,242,329,367,370,

;»5, 414. 510, 717, 721

in liorneo ... 5.90,596.6.58

in Brazil ...31, 99, 271. 320. 7o7, 731

iu Burma 26, 91, 101, 248, 264, 349, 46T,

478, 494

in Ceylon 17. 18, 19, 23, 45, .55, 85, 150,

217, 218, 242, 247, 2S4, 306, 311, 340, 3.53,

380, 396, 409. 412, 455, 472, 483, 486, 614,

672, 709, 718, 722, 776, 781, 802, 816, 835, 848

in China ... ... 798

in England ... 19, 499, 631, 709

in Europe ... 201, 329, 791, .'i.39

in India ?,:>, :{6, 39, 47, 102, 197. 19H, 209,

317, 318, 329. 341, 355, 3m7, 399, 4U0, 470,
477, 480, 56t;, 574, 60S, 614, K70, 871, 876

— — in Italy ... ... 320

in .lapan ... ... 295,340

in .lava ... ... 235,350

in .lohore ... ... 203

in Malaya ... 427, 638, 688

in Mauritius ... ... 428

in Netherlands Iniia 24, 145, 270, 282,

2»5, 338, .■305. 517. 705, 717, 789

— in New Guinea ... ... 580

in New Z. aUi.d ... ).5, 415, 475, .559, S05

iu Siam ... ... 199

in West lu.lics 4,17, 100. 2 1», 584, 864

Atjricuttiiiui, Ti-o/timl [,9ee Tropica' .ii/i-icultur M'

Agri-Hoiti. ultural Show, Ceylon ... 13, 218

.Vlcohol. I otfce r.<. ... ... 306

from Coffee Husks ... ... 854

Alcoholisnt, IVnacea for „ ... 30

Algeria, Agriiulluri; in ... ... 3:10

Alkaloid iu .\iccanul . . ... 823

Anise, .Star
Anthracite
Antiseptics
.Vnts, Black

. Ued and Ihlupilli

, Remedies for

vs. Worms

, White

Anuradhapura Gardens
Aphidie
► Apple Trees

736 808

354

...257,325

.583

...61.5,641

94

2(10, I'lil, 615,641, 601,792

501

[Set 'White .Vnts]

[See Botanic (iardensj

319, 456, 676, (162

340

Arabic Gum, .Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376, 448

Arboriculture 240, 247, 268. .577, 6(i3, 613, 038, 640, 680,

706, 715, 719, 817, 823, N29, 858, 864. 879

Arecauut ... ... ... 858

CiUtivation 137, 155, 164, 195, 20), 253, .848

Arekane ... ... 823

Arnatto . . ... [.See Anatto]

Arrack, Copper in ... ... 19/

Supply ... ... ... 870

Arrowroot Cultivation ■ ... ... 242

, Market Rates for 72,152,232,304,376,

448,52(1, .529,664.73(1,808
Arsenic ... .. ... 183

Artesian Wells ... 242, 247, 744

Artificial Mauures ... [6'ec Manures.]

Asbestos ... ... 449. 798

Ashes as a Fertilizer- ... [A'ee Jl .n ui'-J.

Asia, Central ... .... 640

Asphalte W-lUs ... ... 730

Assafcetida, .\1 oket Rates for 72,1.59,232,304,376,

418,52(1,09.1, 664, 730,8 '8
.Assam, Cutt'.n- cull ivati(Ui in ... ... 272

, Pliinlin..; in ... ...070, &41

,l;.il^v:lJ^ iu .. ... -426

, T a Cultivation in ... [Aea Te->.]

Air, Pan ami ... ... ... (58

AuRlrali:>, Agriculture in ... [See Agricultuic]

, Birds iu ... ..370,786

, Cinchona CuUir.ition in ... 1.50

INDEX.

Page.
Australia, C^offee Cultivation in ... :Vu

, Geology of ... ...410,730

. . Gold in ... ... 845

, Labor in ... .50, 148, 307

. , Pbntincin ... ... 404, 7iW

, liice f'ultivatiou in... ... 3S4

, South, Xorthcrn Territory of ...150, 155,

.307, 385, 404, 717

, Sugar Cultivation in ".SVe -Sugar Cultivation"^

. Tea in ..." [SVC Tea.]

Australian Stock for India and Ceylon ... 717

, Timber... ... T.S'Sf Timber.!

Avenue Trees ... ... ... 124

B.

•I, Iflii.

Baliul Cultivation

Badulla, Fruit trade of

Bael Fruit in Dy.scntry

Bamboo

Haniboo Square

Bananas

Bark

Jiarbailos

Barley in Coyion

Bats' Dung

Boche-de-Jler ...

Bee-keeping

Bees in America

in India ...

Beeswax, Market Rates for

753
174
...4ri(j, -172
.. 354, 39G, 1»4, 404, ^24
351
:07, 318, 377, G40, 832, »72
r*'t^ Cinchona].
584
...311,321
... 132, 497
... 120, 122
C04, 842, 872
... 34, 'M
147,508,694
72, 152, 232, 304, 376,
148, 520, LO-2, 664, 730, 808
Beetles as Enemies of Cocomits [iSee Coconuts,

Enemies of.]

Beet, JIanure for

Beet Sugar

Begonias

Belts on Pulleys

Birds, Hare

Feathers Trade

■ — Insectivorous

Song

Wild, Protection for

Birdsnests, Edible
Bi-sulphide of Carbon
Bit, Indiarubber
Blight, Berberrv

Blister .'..

Books and White Ants

Blood as jMaiiuie

Blue Gum

Boilers, Kemoving Scale from

Bolivia, Cinchona Cultivation in

, Planting' in

Bonedu.st as Manure
Bone Industry...

Meal for Fowls

Bones as Manure
Borneo, Gold in

, Gutta Percha Cultivation in ... 514

, North ... ... 5,49,90

, British, Company ... 139, 272

, Planting in ... 3.36,658,

, Products of ... 145, 229, 596, 741, 759

Botanic Gardens, C.ilcutta ... ... 530

, icylon 20, 30, 65, 1, 50, 341, 055,713

761

[See Manures.]

419, 500, C02, 696, 833

545

503

190

7«2

83, 93, 78(1

189

83, 295, 330,' 110, 782

299

295

400

S23

98

210

[_Scc Manures.]

[See Eucalyptus. 1

... 295, 445

137

503

405

400

400

795

102, 184, 229, 229, 741

, .lamaica

, Kew

, liUckuow

, Madras

North India

Singapore

Botany 107, 17(1, 191, 207,

52, 730, 799

411,553,717

... 507,013,730, 754,790

520

... . 68

609

590

359

237, 255, 300., 30n, 320, 384.

3.SC., 387, 393. 114. 419, 4.57, 4G3, 472, 479, l.so.
Ix.'i, 5l).s. 514, ."i35, 536, 540, 024, (81, 708,
730, 753, 767, 709, 776, 7r!i
liotanist, Oritntid ... ... 381

-, (!»yloii ... ... 05

Poxes. Slakiiig, liy Macbimry ... ... 691

Bracken Fern ... ... ... 329

Brazil, Cinchona Cultivation

, Coffee Cultivation in

. , Financial Ciisis in

, Labor in

. Planting in 31,

.Progress in

, Slavery in

, Sugar Cultivation in

in Java

Breeding Cattle

Horses

Brewing in Ceylon

British Possessions

Bug

Bull Culture in Holland

Burma, Forest.^ in

. Natural History of

. -— ., ( )|jeuing up

, Planting in 20.91.

Resourses of

liice Cultivaliou iu

Burmese Lacquer
Buiter-Ules, Migiratiou of
— , Testing

Page.

in [f!ee Cinchona]

li'n Coffee I

100,347

35,117,867

99, 117, 231, 271,320,343,

347, 696, 867

343,347,514,781

31, 117, 198,343,347, 706

867

270

... 3.5,36

204

41,311,321

845

91, 184,216,324,428,041

462

[See Forests.]

533

91

101, 849, 433, 467, 478, 513

.535,707

457,533,794

[S,:e Rice.]

353

M9

08, 194

Cacao and Coconut ... ... 328

Cacao Blight ... ... 93, 179, 182, 183, 229

Consumption of ... ... 286

Cultivation in Ceylon 35. 137, 146, 178, 239, 282,

399, 043, 047. 050. 0.)5, 070,
674, 715, 716, 74.3. 763

in Granada... ... 735

— ^^ — ■ in Guiana ... ... 008

in Java ... ... 190

- — ■-- -^■^— in .lohore .. ... 164

in Monteserrat ... 196

in Trinidad 272, 612

94, 99, 147, 109, 229, 230

, Enemies of

, Preparation of

, Trade

, Varieties of

Cactus Hedges ...
Caffeine

and Toothache

Calamander ^\'ood
Calcutta Botaiuc Gardeus
Tea Syndicate

239, S79, 765, 802

[See Cocoa.]

425, 429

416

672

216

844

.530

[Siff Tea]

413, 823

210

151,414

California

Xalophyllum Inophyllum
X'alotropis Gi^^antea

Calumba Root, Markets Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 370,

448
Camphor in China ... 410, 480

, Market Rates for 72, 152, 23:;, .3ii4, 370. 448,

.520, 592, 00 1. 73(1. 803

Canada

, Ceylon Tea in

Canai-ies

Cancer, Remedy for

Canker, Curt-s for

Caoutchouc

Cape .Jasmine

Capsicum

Carbolic Aciil as an Antiseptic .

■ as Manure

Oarbolineum Aveuarius
Cardamom, Cultivation

■ in Fiji .

Drying

Market

CardaiM.inis, :\larkpt Rat.fs for

Carob Tree
Caroline Islands
Carrawa.v Seed
Castor Cake
Tree (fcr Oil

Cultivation

87 1

KM

408, 428, 414

170

329

[Siv Indiarubber.]

297

781

810

IjS'ce Manures.]

410

5. l.Nl, ,"i2,s. iil7, 790

...1-57.431

2m

296, 310. N07

!. 1.52. 232. 304. 370.

lis. -520, 5I»L'. 601

730. 8M8

I2:i

154, 34!)

408

405

072, SIfi. x"5

INDEX.

Cast«r **il, Market R-itesfor

, l'rei)aration of

Oasuarina
Caterpillars
Cats, Civet
Cattle Food

rA(;r.
Ti, 152,232. :JW. 37G, 44.S,
620, 592, 6frl, 730, SO,s
So7
,')T7
172,.J1>6, 757, &:U.832
<i7
1 lo 12;i, IJl, 100, too, 151, 2C1,
330, 027, 041.1

,]ioi'k about ... ... 5ao

, Iraproveinents iif ... ... 3:10

Cauca'u.'i, Tea (.'uUiiatiou in the 530,001

Ceara lUibber ... ... l.'iS, 033

*'e(Iar ... ... 45e<. H50, 770,804, t<70

Celluloid ... ... 386,473

Cenieut, Colourless ... ... 131

. I'avement ... ... 412

Ceylou, Agriculture iu ... [Une Agriculture]

— . as a tield for C_'olouists ... 439. 4oti

, Birds iu ... ... ' 78(;

, Botanic Gardeus ... [,S«t Botanic Gardens]

• , Climate of ... ...524,8.5:;

, Cocoa ... ... ... 5i;4

, Commerce ... ... .<i28

-, Consumption of Tea in ... 233

57,0,'., 93, WG, 471

... 156, 2&'<, 587, .593, G99

699

42, 238, 246, 248, 587, 593

.593

147,217.21s

[See India EubberT

SOI

.. 318,442,606,691,841

[4'«c Irrigation!

295,617, 8-11

23.-?

. Flora

. Forests in

, Gems in

, Geology

, Gold in

, Grain Cultivation iu

*— , Guttapercha

— — , Hides ...

, Investments in

, Irrigation in

, in the London Exhibition

— , Metals in

— , Jlinerals iu ... 24G,2W. 257, 587, 593

— , Planting in 1, i, 18, 30, 45, 40, 51, 55, 60, 85

9G. 99, 11(1, lis, 137, 115, 154, 1.55, 15,-*. 177,
194, 237, 238, 239, 266, 282, 315, 337, 36i; 362,
369, 373, 383, 139, 412, 419, 4,sl, 436, 511, 517,
527, 530, 598, G17, 613. 646, 647. S6<), 6i;9. 670,
699, 707, 715, 738, 742, 743, 710, 758, 772, 780,
.804, »12, ,825, .842, .S-IS
2.57
282, 377, 400, 455, 583, 777, 784,
796, 807, 828, 860
230, 410, 699, 750, 839, 841
36, 11.5, 120, 131, 150, 246,237,
305, 318,377, 40", 445,450, l-<3, 722,
700,790,812,821, 820, 818

, Sulphuric Acid Factory in [.See Sulphuric Acid]

, Vegetation ... i'31,536, 099. 753

Ceylouesc .Vgricultural Students ... 470

< liarcoal ... ... ... 798

m.iking Kiln ... ... 330

in Fornio.sa ... ... 119

Chemical Manufacture of Hugar ... 272

Dyes and Their Danger

( hcmietry

, Agricultural

, I'lumbago in

PrmUtctions

, Rainfall in

, Itesources of

Chickens, Treatment of

, I'ood for

Chillies

-, .Market Kate.'- for

China, Forests ij>

, Grass

, Tea C'ultivatiou iif

Ohinese Immigration

Labour

i.'hlorine

Sitljah I -and t!o.,

t-'hoeolatL', Ceylon
Cigars in Tea ...

Inaects destroyiug

^lauufactorv of

— Trade

Cinuboua Alkaloids

.528

...627,823

167, 237, 255, 334, .147, 438,

513, 665, 823

171

271

7M

72, 152,232,304,876.418.

520, 592, 001, 736, .808

416,180,547

[■ief Rheal

[f>ec Tea]

555

145

469

...12.5,241

...564,674

92

11

... 24S, 2.56

... Ii:t, 212, 2I.^2.56, 829

51, 147,301,.34.5,40(>, 429

Manufacture in ^^Iad^as ... 147
Bark Analyses 57,114,301,400,419,789

Cinchona Baling
.Harvesting 01

-, in Medicine
-, Market -

-, Market Kates for

■ -Supply

Blister

Cinchona Culti\'ation in -\ustralia

■ in Boli\-ia

• in Brazil

■ in Ceylou

. Disease

, Enemies of

, E.'^tracts of

Febrifuge

. Crrafting

, Ledgeriana

Manufacture

— Markets

. Production

Succirubra

-, "N'arieties of

...537,511

92, 133, 130, 179,181, 191,

245. 2.52. 270, 398

1011,545,790

N 39, 57, 197, 271. 29(1,4110,013,

645, 690, 705, 789

72, 152.232,304, 37G,.148,

520, C92, 601, 736,808'

...567,796

703

1.50

137.289,301,807

343

. 45,08, 137,140,

oOl, 359, 397, 043, 047, »i50, 655,

703, 707, 700, 810

- in Guatemala ... 374, 569

■ in India 34, 99, 130. -301 , 329, 340,
401, 117, J-.'o, 568, 572. 600, 739, 829,

830, 845

— in Jamaica ... 791
in Java 22, 35, 397, 400, 450, 553.

565, 693, 705, 760, 783
in Johore.. ,.. 104

■ iu Jlauritius ... 428
...745,812

229

... 315,418,457,708,774

242, 708, 796

292

38

[iSee Quinine]

349, 446, 469, 536, 567, 705, 796,

800,829, 845,. ■<67, 871

39,58,340,801

97

301,457

227,291,441,066

Cinnamon, Cultivation

Market Kates for 72, 1.52, 232, 304, 376, -"48,

520, .592, 064, 736, .S0«

Oil, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376,

448, 520, 592, 664, 736, ,808
• AVeights

348
719
97
48G, 8.50
304. 376,
148, 520, 592, 064, 736, 808
Citrons ... 321,4.83,485,719,770,810

Clay ^Soil ... ... [.SV(S Soils]

Climate. Influence of Forests on [.Vt'« RainfallJ

Citric Acid as an .Vntiseptie

Civet Cats

Citronella Cultivation

' — Oil, Market Kates for 72,

— of India

348

72, 152, 232, 304, 376, 448,

520, .592, 604, 7-36, ,808

145

257

,S02

823

15 93, 2.H9, 2:hi, 332, 391, 426, 430,

723,715,710, 790.795, .824

36,93, 147, 2:)U, 333, 391,

424, 445, 488, 559, 560

101

174

[_See Coffee]

81X1

[Nee Cacao]

566

90

19!), 090, 708

.561, 70.S

72, 152, 232, .304, 376, )4.H.

661, 736, 808

4-56, 560

,, ... ,Vk/».

2fK)

17. 226, 227. 517.. 5.N6, 01 I.

032, 011^7 I, 7118, 717, 784, islo, ,s05

315

158, 201

Islands ... ... 200

— iu West Indies ... ... 687

Cloves. Market Kates for

Coal in Borneo

in Ceylon

Tar ^5ugar

Clover
Coca

Cocaine

Coca ,SeeJ
Cochineal
t'ockchafer Grub
Cockchafers
Cocoa

Drinking

Leaves ...

Market ..

. — Manut'acturi:

, S'arkct Kates for

— ■ — , Tses of

Coco-de-JIer

Coconut I'alms and Crabs

Cultivation 23,

in Brazil
• iu Fiji...
in Keeling

INDEX.

Coconut. Enemies of

'. Fibre

Uil

- — Trade

-, Origin of

, Refuse ...

, U.ses of

US,

C'oculus ludicus, Market Rates for 72, 15J,

Page.
...400,611

[.Vec Coir I
320

... 9», ii;.'

8G5

...344 ()Sm

149, 32y, 341

.>32, 304, 376,

Coffeei Adulteration of

— — Analysis

Brandv ••■

Bug " ...

Charges on

■ (-olour of,

44S. 520, .592, 664, 736, 808

25, 54, 137, 310, 521, 607

671

851

... 91. 184

... '237

54, 188, 110, 229, 347, 389, 524, 526

45,186,521,666

Companies

Consumption 28C, 293, 311, 326, 364, 378, 607. 871

Crops ... 21,16,102,146 705,715,716

Cultivation in Ceylon 16, 85, 186, 104, 200. 399,

■169, 643, 647, 650, 743

in Africa 117, 184, 249, 290, 444

in America 113,117,249,296, 330,347

.in Asia ... 117,249.296

in Australia ... ■■• 367

in Brazil 31, 117, 160, 249, 328, 378,

671,731,743,867

• in Burma ... ... 26

in Fiji ... ...157,431

. in India 16, 25, 54. 85, 130, 192, 210,

272, 286, 308, 375. 390, 443, 552,

572,585,781,807,843

- in Jamaica ... 785, 791

■ in Java 45, 117, 198, 766
• in Malay Archipelago 102, 427

■ in Natal ... ... 732

■ in Netherlands India 270, 283, 705
in AVest Indies ... 735

193
3.5, 102, 200

Drinking
, Enemies of
Grub

in America...
Leaf-Disease

[See Grub.]

4-5,113,117,446

51, 68, 85, 94, 101, 13-3, 134, 182,

183, 186, 198, 236, 266. 335, 441, 446, 473, 502.

521, 524, 670, 731, 742

I.iberian ... [dec Liberiim Coffee.]

210, 771

15, 118, 229, 237, 303, 447, 521, 601,

690, 866

72, 152, 1S8. 232. 304, 376,

448, 520, 592, 661. 736, 808

426

118, 188, 210. 229, 433, 469

... 193,378,523, 718,720

, Manuring
Market

, Market Kates for

New Era

Preparation of

. rroductiou ...

I'runing

, Seedlings

, Substitutes for

Statue to ...

Trade

ivs. Alcohol

, ^ViM, in Mexico

Coir, Market Rates for

, Dust

, Yarn

Coke as Fuel
Cola Nut
Colds, Cure for ...
Colonists, Ceylon as a I'ield for...
Colour, Green, Retention of
Colombo Root ...
Columbia, British

Communication between Assam and Calcutta
Congo, Trade on the
Consumption of Commodities in liritian
— , Pulmonary, Cure for

238
344

34, 400, 480, 601

764

194, 237, 310, 343, 447, 734, 871

366

147

72, 152. 232, 304, 376, 448, 520,

592. 6(i4, 73(i, 808

565,576,614

112

[*e Tea, Fuel for]

[■See Kola Nut]

512, 7 iC

430,4.5(1

426

fiee Caluniba]

C'ontagious Diseases
Cooking Recipes
Cool, Dry Air Process
Coolies, Treatment of

, compared witli British I,abourers

Cooling A'essels, Test of
Coorg, Planting iu

426

45

178

327

335

327, 328, 347, 857

504

19, 82.5, 8.51

19

2SS

16, 54,'30S, 670

Copra Trade

, Machinery for

Copper in Arrack
Coral Reefs
Corks
Cotton

56,

Cultivation

Picker ...

■ , Seed Cake

for Food

, Uses of

.Silk

Coughs, Cure for
Crab Coconut
Cranberry Cultivation
Credit, "Working on
Creeper. Gigantic
Creosote

Crops and ■\Veatlr.r in India

and Weeds

, (irowthof

Croton Oil Consumption

Oil Cultivation 191, 614,

■— Seed, Market Rates for

448,
Crows

Oryptomeria Japonica
Cubebs
Cuca

Curing Fish
Cuscutta Creeper
Cutch, Manufacture of
Market Rates for

Dairy Farming in India

, Produce Artificial

Darjiling, Planting in
Date Palm

Plum

Sugar

Death by Violence ...
Diamond in Madagascar
Digging among Shrubs
Diseases, Contagious
Disinfectants
Divi Divi
Diving

Dogs, Insectivorous
Douiba Nuts
Dominica
Duundake
Drainage
Drought

Drugs, New I ommercial
"Dry Regions, Plants for
Dung, Bats
Dust, Fertilizing ...
Dutch East Indies

Government and Colonies

Dye-woods
Dye-yielding Plants
Dysentery, Cure for

PlUB.-

130, 150,201, 205,575

192, 341,566

... 197

441

216

...330,484

820

.598

... 45.S, 473

160

...473,584

[•Sfe Kapok]

746

200

64

198

99

Gin

i-Sre Indian

084

243

9

641, 685, 743, 831, 832

72, 152, 232, 301, 376,

520, 592. 664, 736, 808

97

829

802

[See Coca]

30

476

256

72

163

799

32, 453, 745

434, 447, 473

388

[See Sugar]

790

51

490

335

380,720, 781,816

568. 577

373

97

246

488, 712

393

256

...415,7.50

123

616

132

775

24

407

464

90, 115,

466." 4T2, 495

Earthing-up
Ebony

, Market Rites for

E.

551

464, 646

72

198

299

Eczemas and Snails

Edible Birds' Nests ... ... ...,..,

Education, Agricultural [.V« Agricultural Education]
of L-ibouring Classes ... ... 19, 842

Egg Trade
Electric Ijight ...

Plants ...

Electricity and Ploughing
Elephants, C'apture of

Ensil,

I go

Entomology ...
lin/throi-iAoit in Ceylou
Esparto Grass ...

90
824
428
118

764

131, 197,390,428,189,560

486,871

.. 36,93

502

INDEX.

Euglauii. Drought in
Essential Oils ...
Kucalyptus and Malaria
Cultivation

— in England
in India...

— in Scotland

■, Decay of
■ Disease
-, Experiments on

— • Gum, Use for

Height of

in Medicine

Oil from...

Timber ...

. TJses of...

, Varieties of

101,
295,

Evftporator, American
Gxhibitioo, Kandy

> London, Ceylon in the

, Inventions

Experiments in Agriculture

Page.

415

[See OUs]

254, 25U, 494

128, 399, 57/

254. 784

43S

yge, 509, 624

327

327

823

254

752

550

243, 254, 445

130, 155,196,254

442, 550, 612, 873

254, 336

[See American]

97

295, S4 1

121

121

Falcon

Fans, Palm OU

Farming

-. English, in India

Feathers, Birds..

Febrifuge

Fermentation

Ferns, Bracken ...

Ferns, Catalogue of Ceylon

Fern Culture ...

Ferns, Bleaching

Ferns, Maidenhair

of Jamaica

Fertilizers
Fibres for Hopes
Fibre Machinery

IflO

377

[See Agriculture.]

163

782

424, 774

289

329

... 65,446

552, 840

42S

408

256

[Sec Manures.]

505

26. 56,1165, 332, 75, 441, 98, 597, 729,

830, 854

100,495,577,708,729,740

32,57, 99, 103, 123, 131, 149, 165

Preparation

Fibre-yielding Plants

297, 318, 332, 345, 368, 414, 502, 625, 708^ 726! 798! 876
Fig Cultivation ... ... ... 072

Fiji, Labour in ... ... ... 271

— , Planting in 126, 156, 178, 192, 201, 27i",'328, 363
431, 438, 515, 640, 716, 735, 749, 772, 780, 827, 830

r liter, Quick

■ Household

Fire (,'aused by Friction

, Preservativ* against

Fish Curing

Manures

• — — Rearing

, Sceintific Collection of

Fl»x, Cultivation of

Fibre

Floriculture in America
Florida

98

34S

354

...510, -541

36,316,455,519,632

748, 766

760

197

27

100

490

745, 775, 783, 824, 827, 836

; Orange Cultivation in [Hee Orange Cultivation.]
Flowering Plants, Exhalation of Ozone fcy
Flower-pots, Worms in
Flower Distillation
I'lowers and Health
Flowers, Faded...
, Oriental Names of

■, Preservation of

Flour
Fliea

Foochow Tea Guild
Fo<lder

Food Plants for Human Beings
Forest Trees, A^e of German...
Forestry, British School of
Forests and Rainfall
Forests and Firo Cultivation ...
in Africa

in America

■ — ill Australia

-• in Burma

271,360,561,581

688

395

184, 197

517, 776

632

409

48

659

833

680

268

3.36,437,526,770

.353

427,464,637, 757

331,488, 189,776

370, 4.59, 840

Forests in Ceylon

in China

iu Europe

iu India

• — in .Tohore

in JVIalaya

in Mauritius

in New Guinea

iu New Zealand

- Planting

Paoe,

268,896

416, 480

331.416, 096

430,436,444, 4 j3, 784

322

387, 437, 7S9, 797

476

779

559, 858

393, 829, 858

400

Fowls, Bone Meal for

, Food lor ... 136, 798

■ — , Tre:itiiient of ... 171, 6J1, 784. 790

, Yard ... ... 9il

Foxes, Flying ... ... 761

Fiankincense, Substitute for ... ... 489

Frogs ... ... ... 798

Fruit Cultivation ... 131,174,247,339.346,300,445,

446. 4.59, 46(1, 474, 475, 483, 485, 494, .505, 544, 566,

584, 624, 638, 640, 672, 686, 764, 769, 772, 780,

790, 793, 8;'5, 872

in America

, Eating

, Drying

, Preserving

Trade, West Indian

, Trees

, Fuogoitl Diseases in

Trees, Pruning of

Tripartite...

Fuel

Fungi 130, 170, 197, 536, 629," 694, 752, 800, 823

Fungoid Diseases ... ... 41

[See America]

4U«

504, 766

438, 516, 683, 790, 845

174

35

415

[See Pruning]

192

[See Tea,"Fuel for]

G.

Galls and Insects

Gall Nuts

Galls, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232,

Gambler, Market Kates for

in .lohore

in North Borneo

72, 152,
62U,

Game, Preservation of
Gardening in Ceylon
Garden Labels

Pests ...

Gas Lime as Manure

Light

Gems in Ceylon...

German Agricultural Colony in Brazil

Plantations in Africa ... 296

Germination of Seeds

Ginger Cultivation

, Market Rates for 73, 13

Ginseng

Glycerine

Gold in Australia

in Borneo ...

in Burma ...

in Ceylon ...

in India

in Madagascar

Golden Fruit
Gooseberry

Gorse

Gourds ... •••

Graft, Influence of, on Stock

Granada

Grape Cultivation

Graphite

Grass, ludiaii

Grassing Banks...

Grass, Manure for

(ireece, N iues in

Green Mauuring

Grub, Cockchafer

, Cure for ...

Guano, Bats' .••

Guatemala

, Economic Products in

520,

48G
784
304, 376, 448, 520.
592, 664, 736, 808
232, 304, 376, 448,
, 592, 064, 736, 808
203
90
2,38
... 16, 471
[See Labels]
[.S'e« Insect Pests]
[See Manures]
824
[See Ceylon]
.320
327, 427, 552, 757
296
327
232. 304, 376, 448,
592, 684, 736, 808
513
775
100, 845
102, 184, 229, 741
.. 467,794
[See Oeylon]
[100, 286, 802]
51
23
194
629
640
613
735
[.Sc- VinoJ
[Set Pluiikbago]
650
840
84(»
161
[See Manures I
[See Cotfeej
...229,577
...132,497
...371.569
... 474

iNl3liX,

fJums, Market Rates for

, Kaju

•, Kauri .„

-, Moriiiga..

, 152,232, 304, 376, •l-)8,520,

592, 604, Ti6, 808

400

•559

402

— , Vegetable ... ....559,037

Cuttapcrcha ... ... 388, ,540, 583. 797

• Consumption ... ...630.797

— — — — Cultivation ... 630, 797, ■'<73

. in Borneo and Sumatra 514,

741, 797
in East Indies ... 50

, Market Kales for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376,

448, 520, 592, 661, 73B, .S08

Preparation ... ...546,030

I'roducing Plants 185, 388,583, 071, 683, 697

1)08

Clypsum

H.

Hakgalla Gardens
Headache
Health, Human...
Hedges, t'aetus ...
Heart-disease, Cure for
Heohpellis A>ilanii
Hemp, Howstriug

, M^inila ...

Heno

Herbs

Hide-bound PLints anji Trees ...

Hints, Useful ...

Honduras, British, Agrieulture in

Hops

Horse Bedding ...

Breeding...

Food

Shoeing ...

Horses. Wounds on
Horticultural Education
Hot Water, Effect of, on Plants
Hydraulic Machinery

I.
Icclrnd Moss ...
Inibul

Importation of Pests
India, Agrieulture in

, Cinchona Cultivation iu

-, Climate of

, Coffee Cultivation in

. , Crops and Weather in ...

, English Farming in

. ., Forests in

. , Geology of

-, Gold in ...

, Indiarubber Cultivation in

■, Industries

, Irrigation in

, Labor in

, Lenions in

Mills iu

, Planting in

, Progress of *••

——, Silk Culture iu

, Tea Cultivation iu

, Tree Planting in

, Tropical Products iu ...

-, Whi at Cultivation iu ...

. [See Botanic Gardens]

...295, 790

335, 6S6, 800

410

784

{See Cocoa Blighfand Tea Bug]

■ ... 178

798, 876

... . \_Sfe Fowls]

148

69

.567

207

709

M23

2(14

204, 204

8.55

205

r.18, 612, 799. 800

.330

I8S

In liau ICoonomic Products
^— — - Timbers
Indiarubber Bits

Collecting

■ Cultivation

■ in Africa

■ in America

■ in Brazil

■ in C'eylon

3;J6

[See Kapok]

82

[iS'«e Agriculture!

iScc Cinchona]

318

[Sec Coffee]

870

163

[■S'M Forests.]

536, 744, 803

...286, 802

I See Indiarubbei']

803

...104,281

527

IU

484

85, 348, 585

803

[See Silk Culture]

{See T.a]

(Ute Forests.]

753

644

47

... 185, .508

400

;06, 207, 282,528, 600

207, 282, 050, ,s73

207, 526, 707

5(i«

,,,207,511

528

— in Dutch East Indiee .
in India

— in .lava

50,5

. — Export of, from Brazil

873
797
797

Paoe.

Indiarubber, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 370,

448, 620, 592, Cfrl, 786, 808

.Preparation ... 315,435

, Substitute for ... ... 085

.Trade ... 206,207,685,797,824

, Uses of ... ... 198, 685

, Varieties of 388, 514, 536, 583, 033, 707,

797, 824, 804

yielding Creeper ... ... 037

Industry, Diversified 377, 4.55, 583, G44, 685, 719.

722, 7» I, 781.803

Insecticide ... 144, 151, 272, 29s, 428, 450, 501, 577,

579, 583, 591, 597, 661, 711, 793, 823

Insectivorous Animals ... ... 97,147

Insectivorous Birds ... 83, 93, 97, 788, 8 0

Insect Pests ... 11, 41, 62, 63, .S3, 93. 94, 9.9, 190,

121, 151, 1.59, 200, 209, 216, 231, 243
244, 271, 272. 2.88, 298, 319, 324, 4(i0,
*«, 416, 459, 472, 496, .Wl. .507, 517,
521, 560, .576, 577, 591, 595, 60(j, HIS,
641. 001, 68.5, 703, 720, 747, 7.53, 757,
769, 784, ,800, 831,832
...-503, 773
802
428
712
510
.. ■ ... 412

148,217,218,225,
227, -242, 247, 412, 722
438
8, 104, 284, 496 _
576
498
— • 386

Insect Wax
Ipecachuana
Iron, Plumbago from
Iron Rails

Rust, Preventive for

, Slag

Irrigation in Ceylon

— Automatic
-- in India
-, Undergrouml

Ivy for Screens
Ivory, Substitute for

J.

.lak Fruit

■Tackals

.laffna, Resources of ....36

.Jamaica, Ginger Cultivation

Museum

, I'lanting in 4

-, Products of

Public Gardens

.Trade of.,.

Jams and -Jellies, Ceylon
Japan, Labor in ...

Tea

— ^^ Tobacco

, Vegetable Food Products of

.Japanese Oils

Tea Boxes

.Jasmine Gape

Jat

Java Botanic ( Jardens

, Cocoa Cultivation iu

, Cinchona Cultivation in ...

, Cotfee Cultivation in

, Leaf-Disease iu

, Guttapercha Cultivation iu

, Indiarubber Cultivation in

, Planting in

, Sugar Cultivation in

, Tea Cultivation in

, Tobacco Cultivation in

Jobore, Forests in

, Planting in 101, :WG

, Progress of

Jute Cultivation
Preparatiot\-

402
97
120, 131, 150, 242. 358. 3 8
in ... H•2^

248
17, 31. 106, 1K5. 256, 281. .301 .
.390, .541. 518. 7X5, 791
799
... 52, 792
... -it;. 102
, . 5S:!
.•i9«
[SW Tea]
(107
833
490
.{S'ci: Tea Boxes]
297
[fle^ Tea]
...411,55.3
[See Cacao]
; 'SVf Cinchona]
I See Coffee]
[Stf Cotf«('l
797
•197
235,350,397,717
[Sfie Sugar)
[SeeT&tl
235
322
322. 427, 730. 35.4
708

9
9

K.

Kainit

Kaju Gum

Kniijean Islands

Kaolin in Madras

Kapok

Ka^kine, the New Quinine

Kauri Gum

160, 005, 674, 759

400

34

271

...377,625

824

[See Gum]

1NDEA-.

Keeling Islauds...
Kerosene as ;in Insecticide

Trade...

Kuw IJardens and Sir .1. Hooker
Khcdilahs

Kino, Market Hate.s for

Kitul Fibre
Kola Nut
Paste

Paok.
1 18, 200, a3.'>
(il5
4'.'7
.'lOJ
764

72, 15:!. :-'3-'. 301, 370, 148,
-,2i). 592

.,.300, 071
13S

Labels, Garden ... :vi:>, 377, 781
Labor in Australia ... 50. 1 J8, 307
in Brazil ... 35, 117. 807

in Britain ... ... 19^ 4jii

in Ceylon ... 19. 825, 801

ii> China... ... ... -149

in India ... ... ,',27

■ in Japan ... ...398,419

in Malay Archipelago ... ...115, Is I

iu till- Tropics ... ... 4-JO

■ • in ^Vest indies ... ...512,(iS7

Systems ... ... ... 101

Laboring Classes in Britain and iu Ceylon ... 19

in Italy ... ... 320

I*acquer. Burmef-e ... ... 3'J2

Lake. Planting the Foreshores of a ... 5211

L;tud. Value of, in England ... ... 176

Lautana .. ... ...124,009

Law of Patents ... ... ... 54

Lawn .Shrubs ... ... ... 525

I/Cad, Test to Discover
Leaf Disease ...
Leaves, Analyjis of

and Fro-t

Manurr

Lemon Cultivation in Ceylon

• .Juice

— in India ...

in Medicine

Monstrosity

288
[6'ee Ooftee]
S44
09(i
497
220, 321, 399, 4«:!. ixo
719
111, 220, 719
IU
170
Lemongrass. Oil Jlarket Kates for 72, 152, 2;!2, 3i>l,
'370, 448, 520, 592, 604, 730, 808
I-epidoptera ... ... ... 519

Lettuce Cultivation ... ... 477

Lettuces in .Mauritius ... ... 428

Liberian Coffee I 'altivation 120, 105, 291, 322, 000, 09 1,

712, 731', 777

, Origin of, iu Ceylon 21

Libraries ... ... ... 24>S

Lice iu Hens' Nests ... ... 781

on Plants ... [■''''c Insect IVsts]

Lichens on Tea Trees ... ... .'Uj, 615

Licorice ... ...475,682

Light, Influence of ... ...775, f<2o

Lime as a Manure ... ...205,447

as a Preservative of Timber 303, 3o5, 864

, Juice ... ... ... ISl

Trees ... ... ... 4S0

Limes, Essential Oil of ... [f-'cc Essential Oils]

Lining and Planting ... ... 353

Linseed Oil ... ... ... 057

Lubricants ... ... ... 779

Luminous IVper ... ... 320

Trees .- ... 290

M.

Macaroni
Macassar oil ...
Mnce, Market Bites for

Machinery for C'pra

, llydr ulic

for Making Boxes..

Madagascar ...

Miidras Botanicn! Department .,

— Emigration from

Mahwa Flowers

JIaidenhair Fern ...

Malabar Coast, Exports from ...

Malacca, Progress of

(•44

...41.5, .'<21

l.")2, 232, 304,370,448,

520, 592, 0()4, 730, «08

193

188

691

...51,414

O.-s

170

[Bee SugarT

40^

586

64

PA(iK.

Malaria ... ... 3i20, 494, 6S0

Malay Peninsula, Government of ... 195

, Phyftical Geography of ... I'<i0

Timber Trees ... [Ste Forests]

Maugabeira Kubber
Manganese
.M-iugo Cultiv.ition
Manila Hemp

, Planting in

514
327
131,474,510,690,712,793
318
18
120

Manioc, Sweet

Manures iind Manuring 01, 127. 141, 131, 311, 334, 353,

380, 38T. 39S, 435, 440, 447, 458, 400, 405, 480,

49 7, 570, 584, 590, 004, 005, 683, 005, 671, OSl, 712,

748. 771, 772, 770, 794, 795, 799,818, 823

Mariana Islands ... ... 154

MargosaOil ... ... 216

Market Oardeniug in Ceylon ... ... 16

Produce Sample Dt-put .. 756

Rates for Old and \ew Products 72, 148, 1.52

172, 232, 304, 37i;, 4-18, 520, 592, 004. 730, 808,

Marking Fruit

Marmalade, Ceylon

Mauritius, Cinchona Cultivation in

, Plauting in

, Sugar Cultivation in

, Tea Cultivation in ...

Medicinal Properties of Alvelos

— — of Antipyrin

. of Citrus

197, 428,

of Cocoa ...

of Cuscuta Creeper

of Eucalyptus

of Erythro.xylou monogynum

93,

of Flax ...

of Graphite

of Hemp ...

— of Maidenhair Fern

of Maugabeira

of Parameria

of Kice

of Semicarpus anararuium

of Snails ...

■ of Strophanthus hi.spidus

of Verbena

Melaleucas and Swamps ...

Menthols

Metals iu Australia

in Ceylon

Meteorology in .Vustralia

Mi.\ico

Mildew

Minerals in Ceylon

in AustraUa

Money, How to make

Mou.soon, S.-W.

I^lorpliini.^ni, Panacea for ' ...

Mosquitoes ...

Mosquito Blight

on tea trees

Mo's, To Destroy

Mother-of-Pearl

Muil as Manure

Mulberry Leaves

Mufeum, Eronomii:

JUnk-Ilats and T,%iutifcd AVines...

Mushrooms ...

Mutical Instruments Trade in Saxony

Mustard and Oress

Plasters

Jlyrabolams, Market Hates for 72.

Myrrh, Market Kitten for
Mysore, Planting in

,35

.583
428
790

23
197
170
505
483
456
470
505
36,
431
479
587
178
40S
327
528
177

35
198
7N4
148
320
817
327

42
445
637
450, 4S8, (108, S23
42, 240, 210
448
427

41

30

385, 04.1

[See Tea Bug]

36

615

350

iSce Manures]

423

448

481

408, 472, 752, 800

212

500

5(>7

152, 232, 3(ll,,37(!,

14^, .520, 592, CO (.7:50, Hi >8

7->, 152, 232. 304, 376. 448, '

520, 592,664, 730, 808

158

Nails. Steel
Natives, Cultures for

Euterprize

- Industries
-, Products of

N,

712

[See Agricidture]

...722,779

377, 456, 583, 722, 781

596

INDEX.

Pahe.
Natal, Planting in ... ... 473, 673

Nelli Fruit ... ... ... 247

Netherliinds India 282, 285, 365, iOd, 407, 409, 427,

441, 517, 624, 646, 739, 789. 811. 829
New Caledonia ... ,.. 784

Guinea ... 288, 406. 580

, Planting in ... 270, 288, 550

Products, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232,

304, 376, 448, 520, 592, 664, 736, 808

Zealand, Agriculture in ... [See Agriculture]

Flax 27, 103, 396, 479, 498, 671, 718

...475, 80.)

...659, 858

231, 752, 805

416

430, 830, 858

823

151

[.S'ee Australia]

486

6S6

— , Resources of

■ , Timber in

— . Vegetation in ...

Nice

Nilgiris, Planting ou

Nitrogen from (Jlover lyoots

Nipal

Northern Territory of South Australia

Nutmeg, California

Cultivation

Nutmegs, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376, 448,

520, 592, 664, 736, 808

Nux Vomica, Market Rates for... 72, 162, 233, 304, 376,

448, 530, 592, 664, 73C, 808

o.

OilOske ... ... ...458,512

Galls ... ... .... .480

— Industry .. ... ...512,657

— Palm, African ... ... 472

Oils, Essential ... 817,820,850

■ , Market Rates for 73, 152, 233, 304, .376,

448, 520, 592. 664, 736, 808

Japanese ... ... ... 491

, Lubricating and Illuminating ... 779

.Vegetable ... ...657, <iSI

Olas ... ... ...-377,378

Olibanum, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376,

448,520,592,664,736,808

Olive Cultivation ... ...459, 6T)3

Oil ... ... ... 603

Ontario Agricultural College ... ... 877

Orange Cake ... ... ... 719

Oultivatiou 38,J63, 121, 226, 25G, 360, 38i'., 483,

485, 488, 501, 612, 719, 745, 775, 783, 824.

827, 836

Peel Trade ... ... 71!)

Scale Insect ... ...63,272

Trade ... ... 445,482,566,719

•\Vine ... ... ...375,696

Oranges, Preserving ... [.See Fruit Preserving.]

Orchards, Laying out ... ... S3t;

Orchella AVeed, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376,

44S,520,.592
Orchids ... ... 480,512,717

Organisms Destructive in the Air ... 335

Oriental Bank Estates ... ... 780

Plane Tree ... ... 546

Ornithology ... ... ...190,370

Cstrich Breeding ... ... 272

Farming... ... ... 272

Overproduction... ,. ... 673

Oyster Raising ... ... ... 713

Oysters ... ... a08, 443, 697

Ozone, Exhalation of, by Flowering Plants ... 686

Paddy Oultivatiou

Shells as food for Poultry

Paiut, Fire Proof
Palm, Date

Leaf Labels

— — Products ...
Palms, Branched

Cultivation of

— Ola Fans

I'aper Eedclothing
— — I/uminous

Materials for

Fiaoog

{See Rice]

271

510

388,431,447,473

...378, 781

799

...457,462

...256,741

377

775

330

36, 66, 98, lot I, 133, 414, 625, 873

241

.„ 613

in Europe

Palmyra Palm ...
Pan and Atr (Roses)
Papaw Cultivation
— ^ — .Tuice
Passion Flower
Patents, Law relating to
Pavement Cement
Peanuts
Peach Blight ...

Forest

, Guinea or Negro

Pearls

Pearl F'ishery in King George's Sound
in the Persian Gulf

Page.
462
658
409
409
624
...54,271
412
632
415
...339, 790
446
348, 372, 542, 545, 759

504
399

- of Ceylon ... ... 814

Cultivation of ... 154, 443, 481

Seed Shelling in Borneo ... 769

Peaty Soils ... .. [.SV« Soils]

Pepper Cultivation 90, 203, 283, 309, 344, 501, 585, 694

, Market Rates for 72, 162, 232, 304, 376. 448,

520, 592, 664, 736, 808
Peppermint ... ... 55,424,817

Peradeuiya Gardens ... [Set Botanic Gardens]

Perak, Progress of ... ... 84

Perfumes ... ... ... 489

Persian Gulf; Pearl Fishery in ... ... 399

Pests, Imported ...
Petroleum, .Sources of
Pharmacopoeia, British
Philippine Islands
Phormium Tenax
Phylloxera
l*issava
Pickles

Pigeons, Homing
Pigs

J'inang, Cultivation in
Pinneapple Cultivation
Pisciculture
Pitcher Plant ...
Plane Tree, Oriental
Plaintains
Plant Food
Planting Enterprize
and Lining

62
815
424

18

..[See New Zealand Flax]

[IS'ee Vine Disease]

...297,345

178

...511,779

...328,336

...638,797

...426,530

760

300

546

318

167, 237, 255, 334, 409, 435,833

[A'ci! Agriculture]

353

Plants, Absorption of Water by... 657, 757, 879

, of Atmospheric Nitrogen by 255

, Catalogue of Ceylon ... ... 65

, Classification of

, Culture in Pots

, Death of

, Electric ...

, Growth of

, Hide-bound

, Hybridization of

- — , Labels for

, Life of ...

, Medicinal

, New Commercial

, Pitcher...

, Fre.serviiig

, Warm \Vater for

681

161, 599, 625, 657

757

428

61, 205, 435, 531, 657, 775. 823

69

133, 134, 147, 149

335,377,378,781

... 167, 236,479, 696, 741

637

12.3, 637, 721, 799

300

...400,776

336

Ploughing, .Vpplication of Electricity to ... US

Ploughs in Ceylon 120,709,803

in India ... ...470,871

in Java... ... ... 235

Plumbago ... ...257,428,587,744,779

, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376, 448,

520, 592, 664, 736, 808
Poison in Arrack ... ... 197

Poisonous Mushrooms ... ...468,472

Polyne.'-iaus in Fiji ... ... 271

Posts, F^ence ... ... ... 303

Potash, Manufacture of ... ... 513

Potato, Celluloid ... ... 479

. , Cultivation 423, 428, 488, 536, 816, 818, 840. 857

, Fungus ... ... ... 170

Potn toes. Manuring of ... 61,41.10,818

, Preserving ... ... 438

■, Regeneration of the ... ... 499

.Sweet... ... 9i», 335, 536

Pot Plants, Treatment of ... 161,69P, 625

INDEX.

Pots, Worms in...

Pottery

Poultry

Prickly-pear

Primula

Products for the North of Ceylou

Page.
39«
...536, 730
[See Fowls]
151
529
■M. \-20, 131, 150

, Market Kates for OUl ami New 72, 152, 234,
301, 37t), U8, 520, 592, Gti-l, 736, 808
Pruning .. ... 683, 791, 824, 835

Pulleys, Belts on ... ... 503

Pulmonary Consumption, Cure for ...327,566

Pumpkins ... ... 264, 454, 857

Pyrethrum ... ■.. ...685,793

Q.

Queensland, Agriculture in

^^__ , EcoDomic Products in

, Labor in

, Planting in

Quinine, Artificial

in America

- Consumption

Industry

Marke*

, Sulphate of

Quinquina Africain

at Calicut
in Oe3'lon
in Milan

[See Agriculture]

162, 510, 721, 730

148

... 50, 730

824

371

...561,707

707

113

12, 181, 182, 346, 516

...368,561

... 57, 707

...672, 769

393

R.

Kails, Iron and St«el

...

712

Kailroad Ties, Preserving

...

613

Kailway Extension in Ceylon

29, 174, 827

— Sleepers

...

3.52, 410, 442

Railways in the Coloaies

845

Rainfall

...398,750

336 437 526 770

in Ceylon

...

{Set Ceylon.]

256, 548

Rain Tree

...

... '779

Rainwater, Analysis of

...

145, 334

Raisins, Manufacture of

...

[See Vine.]

Ramie

...

r.S'ee Rhea]

Rats, Remedies for

... 577

Reafforestation ...

...

[See Forests.]

Red Cum

...

[See Eucalyptus]

Spider

456, 769, 784

Wood, Market Rates for

72

,152

, 232, 304, 376, 448

520

592, 664, 736, 808

Reunion. Island of

315

Rhea Cultivation and Preparation

16, 37, 70, 99, 103

133,

165

697,

726, 740, 780, 830

Rhubarb, Market Rates for

72

152.

232, 304, 376, 448

520

592, 664, 736, 80S

Rice as a Styptic Remedy

177

Cultivation 148, 217,

218,'

226,

227,228,231,217,

269, 295,

305,

331,

353, 409, 412, 753

... in Australia

3.S.5

535, 672, 74.^
•'>(JQ *>Q,'; 340

mW.^j ^OOj O^Lf

331

, Duty on ...

'.'.. 218

I.'prmpnfatinn nf

289

Fields, Ploughing

118

and Cause of Disease

...

197

TraHe

...228, 536

River Banks, Kevetmeut of

480

Ropes, Fibres Suitable for

505

Roraima " the Mysterious "

... 25,639

Rose Culture 44, 92, 97,

121,

179

184, 198, 235, 243

247,

346

438, 430, 608, 784

Eose Oil

581

Roses, Green

327

Rosewood Cultivation

776

Root Pruning

[See Pruuinii '

Roots

...

:iS1, 629

Rubber

[See Indiarubber ]

Rusvsia, Tea in ...

[*e Tea]

Rusf Proventive...

...

510

s.

SaUlower

Sabah Chinese Land Co.

Salflower, Market Rates for 7:

Sago, Jtarket Rates for 72, 15:

Salt as a Fertilizer
Salt for the Throat
Salt Revenue ...
Salt Duty Free in India
Salt Manufacture of
Sandalwood

, Market Rates for 7

San Domingo ...

Sandy Soil

Sap in Plants ...

Sarawak

Sapauwood, Market Rates for

Satin Wood
Sau Tree

Sawdust Paper ...
Science in Agriculture
Science, Popular
Screens, Ivy tor...
Sea .Sickness, Cure for
Seed Pearls
Seeds, Adulteration
Seeds as Weights

— , Germination of

, Protection of

Travelling

Senna, Market Rates for 72, 152, 232, 304, 376, 448, 520,

592, 664, 736, 808

PAut:.
351

12.5

152, 232, 304, 576, 448

520, 592, 664, 736, 808

232. 304, 376, 448, 520

592, 664, 736, 808

[See Manures]

330

872

532, 689. 744, 805

747

817,820

72, 1.52, 232, S04, 376, 448

520, 592, 664, 736, 808

56

[See SoUs.]

7.57,799

296, 688

72, 152, 232, 304, 376, 448

520,592, 664.736,808

396

432

56

[See Agriculture.]

70.5,71,8,844

496

236,288,424

759

416

131

... 296,454,636,735,855

296

584

823

[See Silk Culture]

1-54,160,584

[See Trees.]

399

184. 197

... 526

490

552

[See Kapok]

124, 188

710

124, 710

32, 124, 423, 549, .597. 602, 700

102, 269

479

613

... 32, 124

l.5."i. 160

700

638, 730

67

[Sec IJrazil.]

352,410,442

198

197,597

338, 349

408

197

7911

.Sequoia

Serioultiue

Seychelles

Shade Trees

Sheep

Shoeflower

Shrubs, Lawn ...

, Digging among

Silesia
Silk Cotton

Culture

. Industry ...

Market

in India ...

. in .Japan ...

in New Zealand

in Eu8.sia ...

Cocoons

Spider

■ Thana

Singapore

Silver Mining in China

Slavery in Brazil

Sleepers, Railway

Snails and Eczema

Soap

Snakes' Poison, Antidote for

Snakes. \'arieties of

in Mauritius

Soda, Artificial

Soils 205, 334, 386, 387, 435, 447, 486, 490, 506, 639, 771

— -.Analyses of ... ... 20'>

, Clay ... ... ... ,506

, Peaty ... ... ... 607

, Preservation of ... ... 334

, Sandy ... ... ... 386

.Temperature ... ... 61

Solar Rays and Transpiration ... ... ,'J95

Soma Plant ... ... ... 326

Soot as Manure... ... ...516, 584

Spider Silk ... ... ...155, 160

Spinel ... ... ...587,593

Spores in the .Vir ... ... 335

Squirrrel and their Habits ... ... 46, 147

Stable Manure ... •■• [Sec Manures.]

8tar Anise ... »• ..< 354

INDEX.

steel Kails

Kust, Preventive for

Stock Farming ...

Str.iits Sbttleinents, Planting in

, Timber of

."Strawberry Cultivation
Siibsiileuce Theory
Sugar, .adulteration of

. as Fsed for Stock

, Oane

Disease

Cultivation in Africa

- in -Australia

. Duties ...
- from Beetroot

Coal Tar

Date I'alm.s

— Mahwa Flowers

IVIanufacture

, Manures for

Sugarcane. Field Ploughing

, New Varieties of

Sulphur

Sulphuric Acid

Sumatra, (iuttapcrcha Cultivation in

, I'laoting in

■ , Tobacco Cultivation in

Sunflowers, Cultivation of

as Fuel

Oil ...

Sunstroke. Cure for
Supply and Demand
Swamps
Sylhet

Pare.

713

510

399

... L>4. 87n

638

+59, 615 S40

...335, 144

113

113

98, 2tJ5, 602, 834, 859

...206, 717

427, 552, 757

.50, 14S, 163. 3.S5, 407,

657, 685, 730

...101, 433

«50

158, 328, 710

721

113,282.338,385

... 23, 296

113, 266, 2.S3

503

260

686

4S9

131, 256, 265, 272

325, SOO, 859

...499, 300

...499, 500

802

...447. 473

. .444, 699

272, 4.56. 705. 829, 801

[See JIanures.]

UN

8.59

154, 328, 607, 544, 587, 711, 730

... 294, S85, 466, 496, 487

...767, 789

. in Burma .

- in Ceylon

- in Fiji

- in India
. in Java

- in Mauritiu.s

- in Netherlands Imlia

- in New Zealand

in the Philippines

in Polynesia

in Ilussia ...

in "West Indies

24,517, 7W

...146, 739

...410, 568

192

415

.505

208

326

...•519,704

T.

Talipot Palm Labels
Tamarinds. Market Rates for 72.

Tamarind Seed Oil

Tan, Cses of ...

Tannin. Plants Rich in

Tapeworm, Cure for

Tapioca Cultivation

, Market liates for 72,

Tasmania
Tavoy, Planting in
Taxes on Agriculture in Indi
Tta Agencie.s

Adulteration of

_ — Auiilyses ...

Black

Blending of

Blight

Brick

Bohea

. Boxes 26,38,44,

485,

Bug

, Bulking of

, Ciipe

, Cevlon

7,26,101,104,

136,137, 146,233,

380, 426, 427, 429,

(i94, 718, 789, 801,

816,831,883;

1.52, 232, 301. .376. 448.

520, 592, 664 736, 808

595

353. 753, 840

....53.5, 641

775

.126.105

152, 232, 304, 376, 448,

520, 592, 664, 7^0, 808

...786,846

[See Burma]

47

381

25, 102, 430

77, »6, 140

688

148

595

807

497

198. 228. 291, 428. 44.^,

.. 706, 708 712, 720, 722,

750, 8t.>6, 857

... 4.5,216

281, 741. 815, 830

...349.385

,1(17,108,131,133, 134,

236,264. 2i;5, 270, 37.5,

467, 562, 575, WO, 670,

»02, 803, 809, 814, 815,

,854,856,868,865, 8(}7

Pa(;e.

Tea. Charges on ... 104, lU, l.s8, 189, 209

, Chemical Composition of ... ... 77

- — , Chests, Metal ... ... 857

— , China ... 27, 48, 80, 119. 363, 430, 733, 788. 803

Companies 34,46,88,112.147,175.177,19.5,245.

247, 325, 692, 745, 758. 778, 843

, Consumption of 7, 22, 52, 103, 193, 233, 234, 286.

293, 311, 364, 425, 643, 673, 734. 737. 803,
819, 865, »S9
— — Cultivation in Ceylon 1, 7. 22, 25. 29, 32, 34. 35.

36, 45, 46,51, 52, 66, 98, 99, 108, 109, 140,
149, 150, 1.53, 181, 191, 197, 216, 230, 308.
330, 337, 338, 350, 360, 361, 369, 397, 399,
405, 410, 467, 469. 471, 482, 49.5, 512, .537,

812,830,839,841,818

in .Vmerica . . . 385, 488, 596, 645, 830

. in Assam ... ... 830

in Australia ... ...444,694

in China ... 52, 119, 788, 869

in Europe ... ... 485

in Fiji ... 157, 325, 431, 716, 749

in India 7, 8, 22, 23, 33, 99. 130, 137,

147, 150, 172, 175, 177, 184, 192, 19N,

245. 267, 305. 307, 325, 329, 330, 331,

.385, 425, 426, 453, 519, Ui, 575. 673,

712, 757, 830, 843, 859, 862. 870, 874

in Italy ... ... 170

. . — - — ^ in Jamaica ... ...2,'<I,396

in Japan 31, 73, 102, 110, 1.33, 136, 147,

148, 2011,272,607, 788

. in Java ... 148, .330, 712, 737

in Jobore 42. 164, 204, 366, 322. 735, 854

in Mauritius ... 102,197,247

in Natal 327, 529, 694, 746, 778, 832

■ in the .Uidaraans ... 776

in Transcaucasia ...530, 601

, Diseases of ... ...429,696

Driers 1, 6, 12, 20, 43, 98, 99, 100, 147, 229, 279,
327, 366, 3(9, 484, 547, 695, 745, 755, 756,
757, 765, 831. 833, 8.54
118,193,712,803,819
862.869
1, 45. 1,59, 37-3, 694, 777
87, 107. 137, 149, 1.50, 1.53, 172, 200,
273, 33S, C75, 688, 841
... ■ 100
711
2.5, 30, 2.^3, 241, 231, 291, 323, 511
11,26,275,279
...279,752
25. 1 19, 122, 192, 291, 325, 399, 746,
7IW, .SI I
133, 131, 147, 149
iScc Australia!
530, 601

- Drinking

- Duty

- Enemies of

- Enterprize

- Evajiorator

- Exhiliiteil ..

- Factories ..
-. Fermenting

- Firing
-, Fuel for

Hybridizing

in Australia

in Ru'^sia ... .-- — . —

Indian 7, 27. 100, 109, 147, 344, .350, 382, 428, 018,

' 692, 694, 721, 741, 773, 776, 803, 819, 8.54, 858, 862

Industry ... •■• ■■ 87

. Jat ... ■■■ 38,06,91

Java ... - ', 102, W. 803

' J,;md ... ... ...397,851

Lead ... ... ...722,806

Leaves, Abnormal ... 136, 192, 696

Literature 86, 9,s. 102. 137, 140. 146. 236, 266, 273.

369 425, 467, 538, 624, 720, 790, 807, 812, 821, 871

- J[-.cliinery 1, 6, 11, 13, 41, 4:i, 15, 54. 67. 99. 100,

185, 188, 233, 271, 273, 281, 309, 330, 360, 372,

397, 416, 439, 446. 449, 457,468, 494. .503. 319,

538, 688, 715, 842, 854. 83.5. 872

, Jlanuring of 141. 311, 359, 4(V1, 4i;5, 7 10, 766

M uket 26, 33, 35, 36, 40, 41, lll2. 104. 109, 136,

264, 270, 303, .308, 309, 415, 446, 809

JIarkiug ... ... ...281.522

, Mite ... — [•*•■'■« Ke<l Spulcrl

, Moisture in .• -.• 10

, JIiiss and Lichens on. Trees ... 3i'., 6I,i

, Motors for. Machinery ... ... 27s

Noten ... ••• — ^l'> 1**

.Fackiog ... 42,280, 291; 496,622,649,83.'

INDEX.

Paoe.
Tpa Planters iu Ceylon, Prospects of ... 812

Planting as a Career ... ... (575

Plants ... ... ... iH(i

-, Plucking of 42, 4.'), 2.53, 7J5, :4-«, 732, WH), 802, &ii

l're)iaration 11, U. 13, U, 10, 52, 73, S7, lOil, 119,

133, 135, 140, 18G, 197, 229, 273, 2!l(i, 2112,
3119, 346, 3l>9, 446, 562, 564, 69.5, 71>G, 712.

74.1, 831, a: 2

, Pric« for 36, 216, 245, 247, 305, 428, G4S, 67:j, 869

, Production of 7, 12, 86, 1.53, 233, 2-34, 291, 305,

444. 449. «73, 700, 7.i3. 788

Prospects 25, 27. 35. 52. 134, 1-13, 338, .-ISO, o8-.',

707. 716, 764, 854

Pruning ... ... ...122,481

Kollc-rs 54, 185. 226, 278, 397, 524, 520, 561, 5il3,

5,85. 614, 641, &42, 715, 705 829
40, lO'i. 303

•,— .— Sales

Seed

Seedlinga ...

Seed Oil ...

, Shade for ...

Sifters

— ^ Sorting

.Substitutes for

, Sweet

Syndicate, Calcutta

, Tap -root of

Ta-sters ...

Taxation ...

, Test for ...

Topping ...

133, 134, 181.449,646,842

344

614

432

41, 280, ?,3n, 317, 360, 446

280

769

479

615

614

...317,411

27,362,802,869

147

624

Trade 47, 80. 104, 108, 112, 140, 204, 329 330. 349

350, 355, 308, 381, 382. 426,' 490, 715

^ Uses of ... ... ... 819

Weeding ... ... ...573, 574

, Weighing of .;. 197, 406, 4s.5, 522

. Williiw-leaf ... ...102 094

- — , WitlierinK 43, 44, 91, 147, 194, 190, 275, 277, 295.
372, 457, 547, ()95, 751, 752, 755,
■■" 380, 399. .170, .537, 565, 757
.'!96
845
101
288
288
r.Ve Kibre-yielding Plants!
330

330,

-, Yield of

T,ak

Telegraph, Electric

— Poles

"Terne ' Plate, Test of

Tist of (\)oking Vessels

Textile Plants ...

Throat. Salt for the

Therapeutics 424, 479, 493, 507, 528, 5.50, 718, 775, 78 !

Ticks ••• ••• ... 641

Timber at the Straits ... ... 638

. , Artificial Seasoning of... . . 504

, Compressed ... ... 390

. for Telegraph Poles ... ... lOl

. . Preserving 303. 328, .33.5, 410, 504, 601, 627,

685, 860, 864
-upply

Timbers, American

, A^sani ...

-^ Australian

, for Tea Boxes

, Indian

.Malay

, Xew Zealand

-, Varieties of

Tobacco, Advantages of,

Cultivation _ _ ...

in America

in Borneo

in Burma ...

in Ceylon

. in India

in .lapan

in .luva

463
685
770
6.39, 870
I'.Sec Tea Boxes]
390
2fi3

...627, 7'16

8;«

578

823

5, .336, 741

513

398, 835, 872

- ... 461

(X17

•23.:

in Netherlands India 266, 272, 283

■ in Natal

in the Philippines

- ill Sumatra

' in United Kingdom

i Insects and

Paper

Tobago, Planting in

864

113, 166

285,517, 739

711,807,875,

879

41

98

160

Tomato Cooking

I'ultivation

; — Tree

Tonics
Toothache
Toreuias
Tramways

Transcaucasia, Tea Cultivation in
Trade, Depression iu
Tracing Paper ...
Transpiration and Solar Kays ...
Tree Planting iu .Australia
— Pruning

Trees 35.4.5,57,123,144,

354, 387,-393, 400, 401, 409.

457, 4.58, 4G3, 480. 482,

, and Water

, Australian

, Avenue ...

, Big

, Fungus ...

-, Hide -bound

y Ornamental Jungle

, Shade .35, 144, 480,

, Springing...

Triniilad, Planting in

J'opical AffricidttiTist 15, 20

Tuberoses

Turbines

Turkeys, Treatment of

Turmeric, Market Kates for 72,

I'nited States
Useful Hints

U.

V.

Paoe.
178

271
7Wi
719
... 98,216
514
79S
I .sVe Tea I
178, 20s
G13
59.5
123
f.SVf Pruning!
150, 246, 247, 290, 296,
43cl, 432, 430. 437, 444,
486. 48il, 546, 559, 639
779.799
840
124
752
130, 629
69
11
482,502, .59.5, 706, 771
60O
272, 326, 512, 687
1,8.5, 217, 206,303, .351.
383, 641
573
[See AVater Power]
I .SV < Kowls]
152, 232, 304, 376. 448,
520, 592, 664, 736, 808

[Sec America]
367

Vanilla, Market Pvates for 72, 152. 2.32,
448, 520, 592,
Vegetable Cultivation

Marrows

Oils

Wool

Vegetables as Food
A^Hgetariauism
Vegetation and Altitude

, Uses of

Venezuela Climate and Products

Ventilation

Verbena

Vine Cultivation

- - in Algeria

■ in America

in India

in Greece

Disease, 16,205,271,359,469,488,

Volcanic Rock

-, Remedies for

W.

Walks, Asphalte

A\'arm AVater for Plants

Water, .absorption of, by Plants

. Cress in Ceylon

A\'atering Plants
A\'ater Power ...

304, 370, 1 10.

664, 736, 81 IS

16, ,576

•380

[See Oils.]

[See Kapok.]

754

.396

45

256

51

323

148

358, 775. 780

336

403

69,444

161,. 359, 469

.5.52,074, 747,

77.5, 793, 799

824

12

730
[See Plants.]
rSee Plants.]

231
[See Plants.]

274, 278, 292, 293, 294. .321, 350.
369, 397. 48-1
— —, Rain, Analysis of ... ... 145

Warm, Effect of, on Plants ... 336

Wattle Cultivation
AVax. Insect ...
AA'eeds and Cr^ps

and AVe^ding

Destfoyiog

AVells, Artesian ...
A\'est Indian Fruit Trade
West Indies, Planting in
, Trade iu

4.59, 800, aiO, 879

.503, 773

684

084,7119,799

... ... 3.3.5

... [See Artesian AVells.]

20

131,160,272,320

4, 32, 644

INDEX.

Wheat Cultivation
— ; Beverage

in India

, Price of

Supply

Weather Science
Weights, Seeds as
White Ants ... 200,209.216

^— Attacking Living Trees

Whitewash

Winds, Fertih'zing

Willows

Wintering

Wild Birds Protection Ordinance

Wine, Orange

, Tainted ...

Wood Apple in Dysentery

PAflE.

311

426

[Ser India.]

90

344

41, 870

131

231, 383, 442

159

744

775

795

791

83

375

484

46fi, 472

Wood Ashes as a Fertilizer

. Polishing

■ — , Preservation of

Soot as Manure

Woods

Wool, Vegetable

Worms, Cure for

• • in Pots

Wreaths, Flower
Wynaad, Planting in

■'54,

Yams

Zanzibar, Imports from
>iymotic Diseases

Page.

[See Manures.]

601

[See Timber.]

516, 581

[See Timber.]

[See Kapok. |

501

396

.517

480, 575, G08, 739

672,776

242,388
335

JuLYi, iSSs-l ISS^THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

SEEING THE TEA GROW IN THE CENTRAL
. PKOVINCE OF CEVLOX. WITH A GLANCE AT
CACAO, CARDAMOMS AND OTHER NEW
PRODUCTS.

VICTORIA AVEHAOE loss OF WKIGHT IN DRylN(? TEA

LEAVES — Jackson's and kinmond's dkiebs compared

— PKOTECTION AGAINST LOSS OF SMALL TEA — DRTINC
LAKOE AND SMALL IKA— TIIH PROCESSES OF THE VIC-
TORIA DRIER — TEA NOT TOUCHED BV THE HUMAN
UAND IN MANUFACTURE— A SUBSTANTIAL PIECE OF
WOHK— OEEAT HEAT — SMALL AMOUNT OF LABOR
REQUIRED— THE A AND B MACHINES — JACKSON'S
DRIER AND THE SIROCCO USED TOOETUEK— OUTTURN
OF MADE TEA — TIME NECESSARY FOR ROLLING— QUICK
JtOLLINO IN ASSAM — CEYLON TEA PLANTERS PROFITING
BY THE EXPERIENCE OF THEIR INDIAN BRETHREN.

All familiar with the processes of tea-making
arc avraie that the loss of weight in tea
leaves, in passing from green to dry, is on
au average 75 per cent. Mr. Armstrong in a
recent letter to our columns, gave the actual
weight of rolled tea as compared with the finally
dried article, aud I am sorry I cannot refer to the
Btatomei.t as I writo, but I do not suppose I shall be
far from an approximation when 1 attribute two-
thirds of the whole loss of 75 per cent to evapor-
ation in "withering," the other tliird disappearing
in the roasting or " drying " process. In very wet
weather, probably the proportions are altered so that
the rolled leaf contains considerably more moisture
than one half of its weight. The weather during the
trials at Carolina was mild, altho ugh occasionally
showery : good withering weather on tho wliole.
The amount of moisture in tho rolled leaf,
therefore, which had to be carried away by
the heated air and which reduced that air, in
its transit, from 280' to US' Fahrenheit, may, I eup-
po3o, bo considered the fair normal proportion. I
suppose most readers familiar with the processes of
tea-making will agree with me that tho principle of
Jackson's machine, by which tbc-hot air is continu-
ously exhausted and expelled na it becomes laden
with moisture and as continuously renewed, is superior
to what I was told was the principle of Kinmond's,
by which the moisturcladon air was repeatedly made
to traverse the same tta. What is certain is, that,
while the exhaust fan in Jackson's machine draws
out at the top the hot-air which has imbibed moisture
in its passage through tho tr a leaves, those leaves are
delivered below in a pprfectly dry state. At present the
tea is nccived in boxes, but Mr. Megginson, I nnder-
etox), was meditating au appliance by which the
roastid tea would be conveyed directly from the drier
to the sifter. The word appliance reminds me that
what I telegraphed was that there is an appliance to
prevent email tea biing drawn up by the exhaust
Ian ill Jackson's drier, so tiiat only a modicnm, not
wnith mention, goes on to the blanting board up
which the exhausted air travels to thu witheriog loft.
A small (|nanti;y of tea, I believe, falls down to tho
bottom cf the machine, which can easily be taken
out in a finished state. Of course Mr. Megginaon's
plan of scparaiing the smaller tea from the larger
and drying it on the Sirocco reduces the chances
of any possible loss of small tea iu 'the drier. In my
notice of .Mr. Megginaon's projesses, for which he has no
doubt good reasons, the want of runctualiou aud capitals
created gome confniiion. The statement was meant
1

to run thus : — " Mr. Megginson takes out the leaf from
tho roller at th) cud of tho half-hour, sifts out the
small leaf on a pulpor-siove No. 3 mesh, and, when this
small tea is fermented, ho dries it on tho Bii-ucoo.
Tho larger tea is again imt back into the rollir aud
operated on for a ijiiiirtcr-of-au-hour further before
being fermented and dried on Jackson's machine."
With these corrections wa trust our descriptions of tho
various processes is clear. The rolled tea is fed in at
an orifice iu the top aud is automatically spread
successively on three travelling webs composed of plates
of perforated lead-covered iron, tho tea falling from
the first wob, down to tho second aud then tho
third, while the hot-air, is iu the proocts of rising
through the series. By this arraugcment, it will bo
seen, tho tea finally comos in cont.'ict with tho
pure hot-air unmixed with moisture, parting before
being ejected with the last traces of moi^luro iu its
own substance. The tea leaves are not touched by
the human hand from tho time ih»>y are fed in as
"roll" until they emerge as finished tea, aud, if
Mr. Megginson's design is carried out, the tea on
emerging will be conveyed without man's inttr-
vcntion to the sifter or, if more coavenioot, ilie bin.
The machine is, as we stated iu our telegram, a
solid mass of metal equal to 1.3 tons, aud Mr.
Jackson assured us that the pipes in the multi-
tubular arrangement are so substantial, that lie doci
not autioipatu that even with C/nslant working it
will be necessary to replace nny of the lower tier
of six pipes in less than five years at tbo earliest.
Of course the heating of the great (although
most compact) mass of metal we have described
tells powerfully im the surrounding atmoaphere which
is proportionally raised in temperature (oui- weight
while note-taking was reduced by at least tho enui-
valent of a five-catty box of tea); but our readers will
observe that tho machino is so onstructed and does
its work after euch a fashion, that tiio European
superintendent need merely occasioually see that tho
rolled tea is properly fed and tho lininhed tea pro-
perly received, a stoker being held responsible for
keeping up tho furnace to tho proper mark. To
do this, wo suspect 2 lb. of fuel to 1 lb. of dry tea
will be needed. But oven so tho drier i^ jus!; tho
machine for a respectably siz';d ctatc, where motive
power, of which tho drier dem.-mds but a moderate
portiun is available. In places whero the Milheriug
lofts are over the tea-house and the climate renders
artificial warmth desirable, wo bhfuld think two of
the B machines such as that exliil)ited at Carolina,
price £270, would be preferable to one of tho
A kind costing A'.370, although the • latter
is said to turn out 240 ll>. of tea per hour against
IGO lb. promised, and about 170 lb. accomptuhed
by the former. I'robably mobt planters (who
can afford to do so), will folhiw Mr. Megghi-
son's example by using Jackson's I'rier and Davul-
son's Sirocco, iu combination. Wc noticed that Mr.
Jackson did not depreciate the Belfast niachiu!-, tho
chief fault of which is the amount of handling aud
friction of the tea needed. Mr. Meggiutou ttattd that
70 lb. as a maximum per hour was preparer! by tho
No. 3 .Sirocco, but this was when pushed to its utmoSit
capacitj-. When we stated that only (j4 lb, an hour
could, as yet, ire got at Abbotsford, Mr. Megginson
stated that about Co lb, an hour was the ical average.
For reasons which we doubt not are good, Mr.
Megginson, as we have stated, roils his small tea far
half-au-hour and the larger leaf for (bree-quarteis
of an hour, but Mr. Armstrong, whom we had tho
pleasure of meeting at the station, reminded us thap
ho and others fiml twenty miunies suliicieiit,— for leaf
of all sizes understood. But we have never heard
of Ceylcn leaf being rolled in ten miuuleB as Wt
Jackson naid wfti* done ja A«<am. Wc rcgrtt Tvc'did

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

tJyLY I, 1885,

not tliiuk of asking Mr. Megginson whether hia pro-
longed rolling was a necessity, from the use of
Excelsiors, or the result of experience which proved
tho lieneiit of the longer period, but we have no doubt
that courteous gentleman will kindly afford this inform-
ation as he so readily did on all other points referred
to him. We have endeavoured to give a popular
notice of Jackson's Drier, which, supplementing his
Excelsior Roller, places Ceylon planters, at the com- _
roenoement of their enterprize, in possession of the best '
machinery, the result of extended and costly ex-
peripnce in India, giving them thus great and im-
portant advantages, oj which they and the colony are
to be congratulated. We meant to refer to the
technical descriptions of the Victoria and Venetian
driers and to deal with other topics suggested by
our visit to Carolina. But we must, for today, hold
our band-

HIOH PKICE.S FOR TEA MACHINERY— JACKSON'.S VltTOElA
DRIER — OOOD .SOLID WOKK — SAVING OF LABOR AND
FUEL — DESCEIVTION OF THE MACHINE — THE AMERICAN
PATENT CHAIN — A TE.ST OF THE TEA PREPAKED EY
JACKSON'S DRIER AND THE .SIROCCO — THE VENETIAN
DKIER— TEA WITHERING — MANURING TEA— ASSAM IN
DIOBNOUS — MO.SS ON TEA : CADSE AND REMEDY.

Wo suspect that many of our planter readers will
draw a long breath as they scan the symbols £270,
representing the price at the English works of
Jackson's Victoria Drier, Class B. " Where are we
to obtain 1U,000, which the machine will cost by the
time it is erected in a Ceylon Tea Factory, even if
motive power already exists ? " will be the question
asked and difficult to answer. And, of course, neither
Excelsior Rollers nor Victoria Driers are within the
reach of beginners. These must content themselvee
with cheaper machines, until tracts of 100 acres or
over come into full bearing with a rush, the tea crop
providing the means for obtaining the requisite
machinery for preparing it. Such great central
factories as that on Card ma solve the difficulty in a
still better manner, the green leaf being purchased
bj the owners of such factories from the proprietors
of neighbouring estates at remunerative prices, and so
enabling the latter to save the cost of buildings and
machinery, until the extent of tea in ■bearing justificB
a separate establishment. There can be no question
that for the preparation of tea more costly machinery
is required and more unremitting labour and attention
demanded than was the case in regard to coffee.
But arrangements can be made to give superintend-
ents much needed holidays, and as regards cost of
machinery, which we trust will be soon reduced, it
must not be forgotten that in the case of tea all the
lequi-'ite machinery and operations are concentrated
on ihe estate. The Colombo agmt, if one is employed,
niertly receives and ships the already hermetically
chised boxes which are rtady for the market.
But, to show how persoi 3 differ in their estimates
of cos'lincss, we may say that Mr. Jackson, in con-
Tcrsiu'^ w.t\\ us about liis machine, dwelt on i'.s
eonipaiative cheapneea nhen its merits were considered.
He faid ;— "My endeavour has been to provide
the- tea planter-", especially those of Ceylon, with
thii beat possible drier at tlie cheapest possible price,
irnd I believe this machine meets thoto conditidiis."
We have already mentioned that tho weight of
metal ill tho structure, including fiamuwork, furnace,
iiij.e.'i, bad-covered diying webs and gearing of all
kiuds, in no liss than 13 tons, while the fact that
the manufiitturerers are Messrs. Marshall, f^ons & Co.
of Gainsborough is a guarantee for tho honeat, si lid,
lasting character of iho work. Then, let us hear Mr.
Jacksun state both what can bo saved and gained
by tho use of his hot air exhaust, antomatio feeding
and dibchargiug drier, Jt is wtli to be remiudtd

that 90 per cent of labour and an enormous saving
in charcoal, fuel, costly and troublesome to obtain,
are secured by the eupercessiou of the old " chulahs "
or " dholea." The time had arrived, indeed, when
over wide areas the kinds of timber alone suitable
for charcoal had become exhausted. The same may
be said of timber gener.-iUy, and the next great dis-
covery desiderated in the interests of steam navigation
and railway travelling as well as tea mauufucture.
is that of a fuel small in bulk, cheap in price and
rich in clean and concentrated caloric. The small
dimensions of the drier are contrasted with the im-
mense .-.rea occupied by the "chulahs." But let ui
quote the patentee's description : —

The utiUzatioD of all the heat generated by its stove,
as no trays have to be drawn out to turn the tea, no
heat is lost and all risk of smoking is avoided by using
surface heated air.

Wood, coal, or grass fuel can be used, by this means
a continuous supply of hot air is generated in a multi-
tubular cast-iron stove ; this stove being of auch a nature
that no fumes, smoke, or ga-ses from the combustion
chamber can come in contact with the drying tea.

Stewing is impossible, as a very powerful exhaust fan
is placed on the top of the Machine, and the moist air is
instantly drawn off the drying tea, and is followed up
by fresh and pure hot air drawn through the tubes of
the furnace from the surrounding atmosphere, thus retaining
the original aroma of the out-turn, and giving it that
malty Savour so highly prized in the market.

The risk of burning is reduced to a minimum by a
peculiar arrangement of air ducts, the leaves during the
process of drying are submitted to a temperature of 300"
when at first fed into tlie Machine, then the drying js
completed in a temperature of about 2U0°. The Machine
also being on the exhaust principle makes it favorable for
adjustment, and doors are placed in it which if opened
will reduce the working temperature over 100" in tho
course of a few minutes.

Fermentation is instantly checked, and the color may bo
fixed or decided upon before the leaf is put in tho
machine without any fear of its becoming more fermented,
and no time lias to be allowed for that purpose, as in
some Drying Machines.

The color or bloom of out-turn is improved, and is of
a beautiful glossy black, from the fact that the tea liea
perfectly still on the moving trays and is not handled'
Mostly all who are acquainted with tea manufacture
know that handling is very injurious to the color of tea,
and this is a most important advantage gained over tray
dryers.

The action of the machine is perfectly automatic, and
the leaf to be dried is placed in a mechanical feeding
hopper, the bottom of which consists of a aol'd travel-
ling web or band, composed of corrugated lead-coated iron
plates. Over the top of this band a reciprocating plate
moves for the purpose of equaliziug the feed, which it
does with great regularity. The feeding hopper is suUiciently
large to hold about two or three maunds of fermented leaf.
AVhen the leaf is carried in by the automatic feeder it falls
on to an endless travelling web of perforated plates, (also
of lead-coated iron) which overlap each other somewhat
like ■\'enetian blimls when closed.

These are carried round on the chain wheels at ends by
means of pitch chain of a disconnecting and iuterchaugabic
form. The web lias a slow motion imparted to it by means
of gearing, and it carries the tea along while tho exhaust
fan ie drawing the hot air rapidly through it. Wlien it
roaches the end it is tipped over and falls on a second web
of the same kind. It is thus returned aud tijircd on to a
third, and .-lo on till it passes over three travelling webs,
aud is then discharged. It is thus tui'ued several tiinea in
tho course of drying, aud those travelling webs can he
adjusted in a few seconds to run at diA'erent speeds, al-
lowing tho tea from 10 to 2.') miuute.s iu the machine.
One boy is required to supply the hopper with leaf, another
to carry uway the driwd tea, aud unother to attend to the
fire. The motive power to drive the macliiuo is fractional.
Tho consumption of fuel varies of course with its con-
ditions, but it will generally bo found that from one-and-
a-half to two muunda of fairly good timber will give s

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

mauud of tea perfectly dried. The out-turu, when a steady
temperature aud speed are kept uii, will bo about two
mauuds per hour of dry tea.

And then follows the price, in the case of machiuo
E, £270, with " packing for shipment and delivery
to London or Liverpool extra." We presume the
price in rnpees, laid down in Colombo, can be ascert-
ained from the Ceylon agents, Messrs. John Walker
& Co. of Colombo, whose fame in connection with
coffee machinery is worldwide. The chain alluded
to in the description of the machine is worthy of
special notice. It is an American patented invention
and ought to be useful for a vast variety of purposes.
It is composed of a series of solid but separate
links, BO that, combined with extreme strength, there
is the convenience of being able, at any moment and
at any portion of the chain, to abstract or supply
any number of links deemed necessary. In our
popular description we have spoken of three drying
webs, but in reality the web is endless, the leaf
being tipped from one portion to another as it
travels until the dry tea is discharged at the base.
The speed at which the tea-laden perforated webs
travel through the heated air can be slowed or
expedited as the condition and appearance of the tea
leaf may seem to demand, while a regulating apparatus
spreads the tea over the webs at a uniform thickness.
Readers acquainted with the eSfect of iron on tea
when the two come in contact will understand the
reason why the webs and all other portions of the
machine which the leaf touches are coated with lead.
The final test of the merits of this as of all other
machines of the kind is, of course, the quality of the
tea it turns out, and to meet this test efifectually
(apart from the judgment of planters and others pre-
sent at the trials), two separate invoices are to be
sent simultaneously, from Carolina for sale in the
London market — one of tea dried on the Sirocco and
one of leaf prepared by Jackson's machine. The re-
sults will, of course, be published and will guide planters
who have not satisfied themselves by the results of
the trials still going on. In the description of the
travelling web, it is said to be composed of iron
plates which fold over each other somewhat after the
fashion of a Venetian blind. And this brings us to
the fact that Mr. Jackson has invented a Venetian
Drier, the cost of which is only £100. It does not
seem to have been introduced into Ceylon, and, there-
fore, we cannot speak of its performances or merits.
What Mr. Jackson claims for it is thus stated : —

This machine embodies a couvcuicnt aud handy arrange-
ment for turning over and passing the tea leaves down
from one drying surfnce to another, without haviug to take
such leaves out of the drj-ing chamber till the operation is
completed. The di-ying surfaces are composed of a series of
perforated lead-coated iron strips or flaps, which are ar-
ranged together somewhat after the stjde of the laths, of
what are known as •' Venetian " bliuds. Every Hap is
provided at each end with a pivot or bearing, on which it
can turn in suitable supports in the sides of the drying
chamber, and the flaps are placed side by side, so that when
all are in a horizontal position, they will overlap each other
a little, aud form an unbroken drying surface. Each flap
is also provided with a crank, which projects outside the
casing, and all the cranks of each series of flaps constitut-
ing one drying surface, are coupled together by a connect-
ing rod or bar, which, on being pulled the one way or
the other, either opens or shuts all the flaps. On the top,
or feeding surface, which can be withdrawn from the dry-
ing chamber, is spread the leaf to bo dried, and when
pushed back in position the connecting rod or bar is
pulled, and the whole of the flaps are turned, so that t)ie
leaf is caused to fall therefrom on to the next lower sur-
face. The top surface is then withdrawn, re-charged and
inserted. The connecting rod of the next lower surface
is now pulled, wliich projects the leaf down a surface further,
and soon, down from surface to surface, until each charge
ultimately arrives upon the lowest, from which it is dis-

' charged in a proper dry condition into a suitable receiver.
Tlie quick tilting of the flaps turn.s over the tea in a
perfect manner, and obviates breakage of the fine leaves,
and injury to the bloom, that must accrue from to.ssiug
and turning the tea by hand on wire mesh trays. This
change, therefore, from the use of hand mesh wire trays
will be admitted and received as a very desirable one.

Labor will be saved in working, and as the tea is not
withdrawn at all from the machine till the process is com-
pleted, not only is much time saved, but the leaf will
give out a more brisk and malty liquor on infusion. An
Exhaust Fan, of very simple construction, provided at the
top, to draw oflt the moist air, which is followed up by
a continuous supply of pure hot air from the multitubular
air heater below.

AVood, grass, coal or other fuel may be used.
The drying appliances in this case, it will be observed,
are not automatic. An exhaust fan carries up the
hot-air, but a series of crank» must be adjusted,
so as to give the tea layers in succession the benefit
of the heat. With reference to the Venetian
principle, we may mention that Mr. Fleming of
Messrs. John Walker & Co., Kandy, who wa»
our fellow-traveller from Wstawala downwards,
pressed on U9, as he had done on others, tha
adaptability of the principle of the well-known Venetian
to the process of tea withering, the laths being,
of course, cut to the proper width. The appliances
at present in use, next to the surfaces of floors and
lofts, are trays of Hessian or other cloth, narrow and
wooden-framed. A series of knots on a rope hanging
from above, sustains a considerable number of these
trays superimposed. When the leaf spread on these
trays is sufficiently withered, it is either gathered up,
or the rope is withdrawn and all the trays fall from
the horizontal to the perpendicular, depositing their
loads in long rows on the floor. Mr. Fleming pointed
out, that, if Venetian platforms were adopted, they
could be of any length desired. When the leaf spread
on them was withered, a spring at one end could be let
go, and then the Venetian would be retracted to the
opposite end, folding from above downwards over
a roller and depositing its charge of leaf in a heap on
the floor or in a box below. We cannot doubt that our
ingenious and enterprizing planters will give practical
efl'ect to this idea, and we should be glad to be able
to report the result. Aud while on the topic of new
ideas, we may, say that, instead of teak wood (liable
to wear) for the table and iron for the top of his roller,
Mr. Jackson is meditating the employment of marble
(in sections) for the former and granite (in mass)
for tlio latter. Of many inventions under the sun
there is thus no end, and those who devote ingenuity
aud skill, industry and perseverance to providing sub-
stitutes for human toil and additions to the comfort,
well-being, power and prosperity of their fellow-men
are justly entitled to due reward, which we trust Mr.
Jackson will receive for his unremitting and useful
efforts to facilitate the operations of that industry to
which humanity owes its moat innocent, beneficial
and cheering beverage.

Visitors to Carolina Factory cannot help noticing,
(any more than they can help observing the rush of
the waterfall, unhappily hidden from the railway
traveller,) the fact that tea is here being cultivated on a
typical specimen of the numerous estates on which coffee
has been grown for a third of a century or so aud which
the tropic sun and rains have deprived of humus
aud top surface. It is clear that on such places
tea will absolutely require manuring, and the
proprietors of Carolina are evidently alive to the fact.
A portion to which cattle manure has been applied
has responded wonderfully, so that we wore not sur-
prized to hear of a 50-aci-e grass-field and increased
cattle establishments being meditated. Coconut poonao
in addition to cattle manure, good fertilizers, applied
JO good jAt (indigenous) tea, growing on good soil

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

and in a good tea climate, have resulted in a luxuriant
shew of heavy Hushing Ijuahes on Kadawella^ than
which Mr. Jackson said he had seen none finer in
Assam. Nuthinr/ can be better than Assam indigenous
in a suitable climate, but we suspect its zone in Ceylon
cnda nearer 3,000 thin 5,000 feet. It is carious how a
thing will come to the front all at once. Until recently
and in our own experience we had never heard of
moss on the stems of tea bushes, and we have searched
Money's E^isay and the Tea Cyclop.xdia in vain for
any notice of moss, lichen or fungus on the bark.
But cue of the first things we heard on reaching
Carolina was that Mr. Dalgaruo, whose experience had
\y6eu obtained iu Darjecliug, had uttered the warning:
" In a few years the growth of moss on the tea
bushes will lessen flush in Ceylon," while Mr.
Jackson iu answer to our questioning told us that
moss on tea stems is well known in Assam. Such
being the ca.se, it is surely carious that in books and
essays on tea, nothing or so little should have been
sai'l of a form of " blight," which certainly re-
quires the attention of planters. The growth of the
moss is probably promoted by the dense shade
produced by wid e surfaces of flush-yielding wood and
foliage, and pruning in the dry season, December and
January, vfas mentioned to us as a remedy. Until
better ;idvi.sed, we shall continue to believe in tho
necessity of occasional rubbing of badly affected stems
and dusting with lime. But the prominent impression
created by a visit to Kadawella is that of truly lux-
uriant and magnificent tea, while we learned that,
if a recently purchased block of forest is cleared
and planted, the total area under tea belonging to
the owners of the great Factory will be 2,000 acres.

BANANA PLANTING AND TKADE IN WEST
INDIES.

Jamaica, June 17th, 1884.

Four people supervising the work of about 300 or 400
Creoles aud coolies seemed too absurd, and particularly
unple.isant for me whcu formerly accustomed to 100 and
50U people without anyone to dictate to me as to the
modus operandi. Bananas, forsooth ! People here make
as much fuss about them as though they were coffee,
or tea, or cinchona, ■\^"hy, in Ceylon, we gave the
bananas to the coolies, aud they grew at their " own
sweet will " better tlian " cultivated." The present rush
into bananas has resulted in a fall in price : fancy, a fall
of 50 per cent from Ss to Is 6d and Is local prices paid
at the wharf for eight-baud bunches only. My first
" banana " savings wore expended in buying a -b nuff-
coloured suit aud half-a-dozen new shirts, a pair of
elastic->ided boots and jiair of slippers, oh, and a brown
felt hat to match the clothes: fancy my new outfit com-
ing-out of"'" banana s:tviugs." I was as proud of my
banana suit as old Golii.sniith wlien he bought a new suit
out of his advances for the M8.ot the" Vicar of ^Vakbfield."
Ean.inas have done more for some people ; one man
bonght a "carriage aud pair " and another bought two
old sugar estates, all out of the profits of a good season.
I feel sorry to leave Port Autdnio. Captain Eaker said
I might please myself, go or stay at Eog or Bound
Brook, but I told him. there wore too many people
overlooking the works there and that I wanted to be
" boss " myself. "All right," said Captain liaker, "go aud
look after the ' heathen Chinee.' " He kindly gave me a
free passage in the "Flying Cloud" schooner just get-
ting uudor weigh aud bound for Anuatto Bay. One last
long g.<izo at pretty little I'ort Antonio aud the " Flying
Cloud" was making tracks along tho east coast of Jamaica.
Tho sun set and moon rose, aud the captain and his
male entered into an animating conversation on nautical
sulijeots in whieli I took part.

"Yes, sir," said the Captaiu, " as I just remarked
to niy mate." Kf arboard your helm." " Starboard it i.s, sir."

Damn that boy ' is he asleep on his look-out again P

jre 'sa ' usolesFi creature for triie.' " Whack, whack, with

a rope's end, " Who dat knock me ? me not asleep,
captain, mo nebber sleep on my look-out," By-and-byo
the captain went to sleep, and the mate steered the
" Flying Cloud." I had some hard boiled eggs, cold fish
aud bread tor supper and smoked a cigar, the " Flying
Cloud " roUed very much aud rocked in the cradle of
the deep I rolled myself up iu the main sail aud was
soon in the arms of Morpheus, Anchored in Aunatto
Bay at 2 a. m. When the captain awoke ho hammered
his boy as most captains of small crafts do. "I" shall be
the death of that boy yet ! Fancy his not turning out
when the watch is called and me and my mate got to
shorten sail. Never heard of such a thiug ever since
I 've been at sea, my king ! Boys are men in these
days. Now be quick and make the coffee or look out for
squalls." It did rain during the night and blow hard,
and I went below, but the rats and cockroaches ran
over my face and the fleas in the banana trash pro-
vented sleep down below, therefore anyone taking passage
in a Jamaica drogher should stick to the deck, if
weather permits, for there are too many cabin passengers
in the form of natural history specimens. A night in a
Jamaica fruit boat is not a thing one would care to ex-
perience twice, it it could be,helped. Anyhow the writer
cannot count the number of times he has spent miser-
able nights at sea in all sorts of crafts.

I landed in Anuatto Bay on the 30th July 1884. Met
Mr. Broughton, drove out with him to Iter Boreale
estate, and had a nice breakfast with Mr. Manahan, tho
manager of the property. The Chinese had arrived, but
done no work from date of arrival ; they look a good-
looking gang aud may turn out well. The worst of it is,
we have got to weigh out rations to them, and they
are always complaining of quantity and quality of the
provisions when they are all of the very best obtainable,
much better than we use ourselves sometimes. It is
hard lines for me after trudging up and down the hill
and working all day in the sun to be obliged to weigh
out their meat, rice, coco, sugar, salt-fish, &c., &c., until
dark, our dinner getting spoiled, and pitch dark before
time to bathe or wash and dress for dinner. The worst
of it is, the Chinese are not likely to improve, their
motto being to get as much out of the estate and their
employers as they can for the least labour. Iter Boreale
estate is a sugar plantation with extensive fields of cane,
sugar-house, distillery, &c., &c. Mr. Manahan and two
book-keepers are in charge of the property. Mr. Broughton
visits onco a fortnight or so tor a Mrs. Hossack, resident
iu England. The estate gives about ISO hogsheads ot^
sugar and eighty or ninety puncheons of rum per anuum.
It is situated on the sea coast between Aunatto Bay
and Fort Stewart. Banana cultivation is carried on up
the hill near " Prospect," a property occupied by tho
Westmoreland family, also owners of sugar estates,
" Gibraltar " and others.

There are several j.roduce brokers iu Aimatto Bay who
send out their waggon.s to the estates and buy up tho
bananas by the hundred. The price is at present low,
about £6 per 100 bunches. Mr. Benbow is agent for
Messrs. Baker & Co. of Port Antonio ; and, when the
"Flying Cloud" landed me iu the Buy, Mr. Benbow
kindly took charge of my baggage and sent it up to me
by the Iter Boreale cart. Mr. Benbow had no bananas
ready for tho " Flying Clound " and telegraphed to Baker
for orders. She was sent to " Port Maria " higher up
the coast for a load of coconuts. Mr. Benbow and his
brother are descendants of tho brave Admiral Benbow.
who fought the French olT Port Koyal aud had
both his legs shot off before sinking the French frigate
Admiral Benbow wai buried in Kiugston, Jamaica.

Store-keeping appears to pay in Aunatto Bay, to judge
from tho number of stores and shops. Wednesdays and
Saturdays are tho market days. There is a market for the
sale of fresh beef twice a week, a post office, telegraph
office, court-house and a church of the Church of England.
A little out of the Bay there are churches of other de-
nominations including a Baptist aud Wesleyan. The roads aro
fairly good and bridged over for somesbort distance from
town, and all along tho public road is a succession of fruit
gardens, coconut palms bearing well, breadfruit, oranges,
limes, iic.
Iter ]!nreale i« only two-»nd-a half milos from the town

JULV I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

and convenient for obtaining provisions fresh from market.
Sugar growing has received a severe check from the fall in
prices, and Iter iJorcaleost-ite is to be abandoned as the cane
is removed and bananas planted iustead. It is a great pity, as
the sugar-house, machinery and distillery, boiling appliances,
kc, are all in good working order. It is an animating sight to
SCO the sturdy Jamaica cattle dragging the wains of sugar-
cane into the yard where it is conveyed to the crusher and
converted into barrels of sugar. All this bustle and life will be
soon still, the doors of the mills closed, the people marchiug
off *o thu Isthmus of Tanama and everything brought to a
dead standstill. The main cause of all this trouble is similar
to tlie crisis in coffee and cinchona and perhaps tea in its
turn, " over-production," the bounty on beetroot and the
increased quantity last year by 200,000 tons.

Stock-farming and pen-keeping in Jamaica is a fairly
good living, especially if a large pen-keeper gets a military
contract to supply the troops with beef, perhaps half-a-dozen
beasts killed weekly. In the country parts of Jamaica the
breeil of horses is improved, and a great number of mules
are raised.

With a good rainfall of about 120 inches this part of
Jamaica is well-watered and grazing grounds or pasture
lands very rich. There are no leeches to bother sheep and
cattle, and no snakes to speak of, — the writer has not seen a
Jamaica snake yet. Mongoose are as common as rats and
may be seen crossing one's path at all hours of the day and
pl.iy old gooseberry in fowl-houses, amongst the chickens
at night-time.

The Chinese having given a lot of trouble to the
Government and the planters, and their striking work
on Iter Boreale for six weeks made me lose money, being
paid only for the days they turned out to work at 6s per day.
My mess money was paid by the estate during the strike,
in consideration of having the trouble of serving out their
daily rations. We could not stop their food supplies because
the Government paper were not signed, and each Chinaman
cost £17 a head passage money from Hongkong. They ask
a dollar a day, and my gang are afraid to work because
the Chinese on the other estates have struck work and
threaten to beat those inclined to go to work.

H. ColTAM.

SANDAKAN, NORTH BORNEO : EXTRACTS FR«M
KESIDKNT PRYEE'S REPORT ON THE
YEAR 1884.
(From the Jirilisk Xorth Borneo Herald, May 1st. )

" Gutta percha and Indian rubber show an increase of
SI3,00U over last year, the Dyaks are the principal col-
lectors of these products, they report that up the Kina
Bataugan and Labuk rivers there is very little more left
now, and they have mostly left those rivers and gone up
the Segama for which river durng the quarter this office
granted passes to 87 people. Rattans on the Kina Batan-
gan also have been mostly cleared otl for the present,
those at all events near the river's banks ; there are how-
ever plenty, but a few hundred yards in, our principal
supplies now are coming from the Sugut and Labuk.
Becs-wai: and camphor show an increase ; these products
are more particularly collected by our own villagers and
not by aliens, as most of our other forest produce to a
great extent ia, and the increase in their value is therefore
a very good sign. Sea produce shows a considerable in-
crease in the quantity of seed pearls exported, but these
are chiefly understood to be some that have been for a
considerable length of time in the country, though some
have been collected principally at the mouth of the Mo-
roap, a few have come from Labuk Bay also, but scarcely
any from Sandakau Bay ; both these latter localities seem
never to have properly recovered from the destruction of
seed p(!arl oysters caused by very heavy rain in 1878.

" Tnnler this year first figures to any extent, the value
put down is just the bare amount spent on its collection
and gives but a small idea of its true value in an ordui-
ary market, there is every appearance of timber figuring
more and more largely in our export sheet in tho future
as It gets better known in the Australian, China and
Singapore markets."

We may add now that it may almost be looked upon as
ft certainty that there will hn a great expansion of the

timber trade diuing the present year. Mr. do Lissa's first
shipment of serayah and other woods to Melbourne per
S. S. " Woosung " proved a decided success and it ia re-
ported that the North Borneo Trading Company have
taken over his Sigaliud estate for a sura of over £0 000
principally for the sake of the valuable timbers it 'con-
tains. Captain Beeston, as agent for the North Borneo
Trading Syndicate of Melbourne, has provisionally accepted
terms offered by the Oovernmeut for tho right of cutting
timber over about 11,000 acres of land. A summary of
these terms will be found in our present issue.

Kepokt on the Gebman Borneo OojipAm-'s
Estate, Banguey Island.

2he Estate. — About 12 acres of land have been cleared
and while I was there the sound of falling trees was
going on all day long. The jungle is very heavy, I have
never seen finer timber anywhere. The coolies' sheds are
allupandSIr. Lindt has bought a Dusuu house, and finished
it for himself..

Soil.— I can only say the same as Mr. Parry (formerly
a Ceylon coffee planter) namely that I never saw such
soil before. In the wells for 6 feet from the surface there
is a rich chocolate soil, below this about 5 feet of clay
mixed with sand, and under this if near a water course
gravel, if not old mangrove swamp, which plainly shews
that the 11 to 12 feet above is all alluvial deposit and
proves Bnuguty to be far older than any of the mainland
near, excejit Silimpuden and Marasinsiug in Marudu Bay
I asked Mr. Lindt how long it was necessary to leave
land that had been planted with Tobacco before it would
grow it again, he replied—" That depends, if the land is
very good I could return to it in five years." "This land"
pointing to what he is now clearing " I can return to in
five years."

General. — Mr. Lindt appears to be getting on well he
has certainly got through much work, and he has had a
good deal to contend with, owing to this having found it
desirable to move from Pangkalan. Having also lost his
" tongkong." he has had to carry all his goods and material
overland. Mr. Lindt means to plant filty fields this year,
and he talks quite confidently af the uumberof fields he'
he is going to clear at the end of this year for next
year's cror. Blr. Parry thinks he will be able to get from
5,000 to 7,000 acres in one block near Limabak and the
S. E. corner of the block will be from a mile and a half to
two miles from the settlement at Timbang Diaii. The
remaining 3,000 to 5,000 acres taken up by the Company
will be taken near the head of the Spuruk river which
runs into the harbour. Some of the Chinese coolies com-
plained of the clearness of the goods at the estate shop,
therefore the sooner the road to Timbang Dian is made
the better, as then the coolies will be able to come and
buy there. To make a cart road to where Mr. Lindt is
now planting would cost about §1,500, but to make a
road to the corner of the block only would cost about S (iOO.
To make a jungle road all the way would cowt about jSWOJ
to tho corner of the block only about ^120. I may also
mention that the head maudor and the Chinese coolies
(old tobacco planters from Deli) are quite satisfied with
the soil and as they are all working on contract and de-
pend on the goodness of the crop for their wages, X think
this a very good sign for Banguey.

As I expected the centre of the island appears Hat.
Mr. Parry who 1 may mention is surveying the German
Borneo Company's Land, said he thought he could get
one block of iiO,000 acres in the middle of the island,
20,000 acres of which would he flat and the other 10,000
flat onoug for Tobacco. This block would bo entered from
the Spuruk river which runs| into tho Harbour. Prub-
ably Banguey contains about 40,000 acres of land suit-
able for tobacco but we shall be in a better jiosititm to
say how much there really is when Mr. Parry h:is finished
his survey. From tho top of the "I'eak'"' Mr. Parry
pointed to a valley below us and said. "If it was not for
leaf disease I should say, there is my idea of it site for
a coffee plantation."

NORTH Bf)RNKO.
FoHEioN Impobts. — Into British North Borneo dming
the year, 188 1:— Total value, 18485,895. Exports" from

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

British North Borneo during the year, 1884 :— Camphor,
8,573 ; dammar, 4,120 ; gutta-percha, 34,807 ; Indian rubber,
22,924: rattans, 31,575; sago, 11,125; timber, 9,756; to-
bacco, 2,112 ; trepaug, 8,020. Grand total $267,240.

AVe learn that the following terms for timber cutting
have been provisionally accepted by the agent of the
North Borneo Trading Syndicate, Captain Beeston, sub-
ject to confirmation by his directors. — The Syndicate to
have the right for three years of cutting and exporting
timber only, from 11,000 acres of Goverumeut land situ-
ated in largo blocks on the Tolibas and Sagayan rivers,
in the Uusang Peninsula, in the Benkoka river, and in
Blarudu Bay ; paying the Government for this privilege a
quit rent of 26 cents an acre in advance per annum and
%u export royalty of $1 per ton of 40 cubic feet. The
rights of the natives in the matter of timber for domestic
purposes are conserved.

Gold in Nouth Borneo. — The following letter addressed
to the Government by Captain Beeston regarding gold in
North Borneo, cannot fail to be of interest at the present
moment, when the question of gold is exciting so much
interest. Captain Beeston, whose opinion is valuable owing
to his possessing practical knowledge on the subject, ap-
pears to be very favorably impressed with the raetatliter-
ous characteristics of the northern and Eastern portion
of the Territory. Wo may state that since the date of
his letter information has been received from London to
the effect that rock sent by Resident Davies from the
Sugut-Paitan district yielded gold on analysis. It would
Beem that gold exists in an extensive district comprizing
the North and East of North Borneo from Marudu Bay
to Silam.

Sir,— As promised I have the honor herewith to forward
you such information regarding gold in North Borneo as
I procured during my visit to the country in 1883.

"While the whole of the East Coast from Silam to the
Segama river is from its formation undoubtedly auriferous
I actually got gold in the following places: —

Silam ; the Segama Kiver ; Lahadata, in Darvel Bay ;
Banguey Island.

Silam. — At Silam the gold was found in a small stream
or creek that runs past the experimental gardens. The
wash is principally quartz gravel mixed with ironstone
cubes and stanniferous sand. The hill above the creek
bordering the gardens also contains quartz and I shall not
be surprized if areef were found in the locality carrying gold.
Segama Rivek.— On the Segama River the country in
which I found gold is micacious granite and sandstone
with serpentiue outcropping not far off. I found it in a
small creek on the left bank of the river not far from a
high conical hill at the foot of which there is a large out
crop of serpentine. I am pretty certain that the whole
of the country up this river is auriferous and it giviitly
resembles that of the Palmer River country m .\..iili
Queensland. Besides the gold I obtain^ i a auiall quautity
of stream tin in this river, and I am Ml~(^ of opiniou that
Cinnabar exists in largo quantities as I found one or two
pieces in the creeks, but they had evidently " travelled "
some distance as they were much water worn.

Lahadata. — The Lahadata country in Darvel Bay re-
sembles that at Silam with the exception that slate out-
crops slightly here and there. The wash in the creek ex-
actly resemblei that at Silam, and the country abounds
in quartz. This place is well worth thoroughly prospecting,
as the country is ea.sy to get over, and should payable
gold be found, it could be very easily worked.

Banguky. — On Banguey island the gold I obtained was
on the right bank of the I'augkalan river about two miles
from its month. I like the took of the country here very
much but bad no time to prospect it properly. In addition
to the gold here I fonud asbestos in the creek. As
Banguey is now inhabited and work being carried on there,
it is quite possible an important discovery might be made
at any time. Jlr. G. L. Davies, Resident of the West
Coast informed me that he had tried the river with no
result and I gave him on the chart the exact locality where
I obtained the gold.

In addition to the above places I should consuler the
country in the neighbourhood of tho Selimpadan River
running into Maruda Bay would be well worth prospect-
ing, as from the wash and the look of tho beaches it ap-
pears very likely to contain minerals of any sort.

In conclusion I would record my opinion that a sys-
tematic prospecting of the East Coast would not fail to
bring about valuable results.- 1 am, sir, your obedient
servant, R. D. Beeston.

The Hon'ble W. H. Treacher.

THE KG. 1 SIROCCO : MR. C. S. AEMSTRONG'S
AND MR. C. A. HAY'S EXPERIMENTS DIS-
CUSSED BY THE PATENTEES, AND THE
DIFFERENCE IN OUTTURNS EXPLAINED:

INTERESTING INFORMATION.
Messrs. Davidson & Co. write as follows : — " We have
received the copies of the ' Times ' and Obseritr
with both Mr. Armstrong's and Mr. Hay's reports on
working the No. 1 Siroccos. We notice that Mr.
Hay cannot understand how Mr. Armstrong man-
ages to get 45 to 48 lb. of dried tea from a No. 1
Sirocco, against his own 30J lb., but we can see that
their work is about equal,

" Mr. Armstrong puts 13 trays of 9 lb. charges equal

to ... . . ... 117 lb. leaf,

into his Sirocco in the hour and geta ,.. 48 diy tea,

which gives an evaporation of 60 lb. water

or moisture in the hour.

" Mr. Hav eets 10 trays in with 9 lb. on each equal

to . . .. 90 lb. and has,

an outturn of" 30^ lb. dried tea,

which indicates an evaporation of... 59i lb. of water
in the hour, and you will admit that it is
not far wide of Mr. Armstrong's results. It is Mr.
Davidson's experience of some estates in India, growing
indigenous leaf on low flat soil that 2 to 2i lb.
sap has to be evapor.^ted to give 1 lb. of dried tea,
while others working hard China leaf on sloping hilly
and dry soil nearly get a lb. of dried leaf to every
lb. sap evaporated. In like manner Mr. Armstrong
may have a naturally less amount of sap in his roll,
or may wither it a little better than Mr. Hay's, and
in this way may have a larger outturn par hour of
dried leaf. Of course you will readily see that it is
the amount of moisture driven off that regulates the
outturn, and it there was hardly any moistme to
evaporate there would be a very first rate outturn
The best evaporation ever done by ns with a No.
1 was 80 lb of water per hour against Mr. Arm-
strong's 69 lb., but of course it is to be expected
we would get fullest possible results with our ex-
perience and European workmen. With a No. 3 J.
shape we have got 180 to 195 lb. and once 200
lb. (this is a remarkable advance on the No. 1), and
with our new T-shaped Sirocco 216 to 220 lb.
per hour. The results obtained by Messrs. Hay and
Armstrong are very fair indeed for praotical work-
ing with coolies. Of course when our men do a
day's experimenting they have a certain advantage
over ordinary labourers at a tea garden, for we work
carefully and with all the knowledge of a long ex-
perience, and could hardly expect an estate to get
quite our results, but they should get within a few
lb. (6 or 10) of what wo get." „.,,,. ,

Note by W. II. Davies ,0 Co.— As Mr. T. J. Gngg of
Theberton also sent to the papers the result of
his working the Sirocco No. 1, we give bolaw tho
threo experiments for comparison :—

0 S. AuMSTunNo. C. A. Hay. T. .1. Gnroo.

13 trays of 9 lb. 10 trays of 9 lb. 11 trays of / lb.

each. each. each.

117 lb leaf 90 lb. U-af 77 lb. leaf

48 lb. made tea 30J lb. made tea 34 lb. made toa

63 lb. water 59i lb. water 15 lb. water

evaporated. evaporated. evaporated.

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

Kole hy Editor G. O. — Tt would thus appear that
the average proportion of moisture in rolled tea which
has to be dissipated by driers, ranges from 58 to OG
per cent. The latter ligure is so much higher than
the other two, that we believe we may safely take it for
granted that the general average is as nearly as
possible GO per cent, somewhat more than one-half
of the roll. Taking the fact that 4 lb. of green
flush yield 1 lb. of dry tea, we should like now to
know the proportion of moisture dissipated in wither-
ing ? Apparently only 15 per cent ?

INDIAN, CEYLON, AND JAVA TEAS.

Sir, — I have noticed from time to time in your
issues remarks about China tea, and, as these were
evidently written by some one who knows the subject
thoroughly, I am in hopes you will allow mo to give
you some information about Indian, Ceylon, and Java
teas, feeilng assured it will be of equal interest to
your readers I am indebted for most of the inform-
ation i give you below to Messrs. George White and Co.,
the well known tea-brokers of this city. There is very
little doubt in the minds of importers like myself that
if the Chinese levy an extra local tax (lekin tai) — per-
fectly distinct, it must be understood, from the export
duty charged by the Imperial Chinese Government— on
all teas exported by foreigners from China, the benefit
will be great to those interested in Indian, Ceylon, and
Java teas in the coming tea season.

Ceylon and Java are expected to produce about four
and a half millions each during the coming season.
Planters in the former island appear determined not to
be left behind in the race, which they have been carry-
ing on 80 well for the past two years, while the pro-
duce of the latter has shown a great improvement,
some of the teas having full rich flavour like hill-grown
Indiana or Ceylons.

" Regarding Indian teas," to quote my authority,
"prospects for the coming season seem favourable,
though a higher average price than last year's should
not be depended on with an incriased yield. The
stimulus given to the market by the duty scare may
cause a reaction after the budget is announced, whether
an alteration takes place or not. If an addition is
made it will tend to increase the demand for teas
for price, and if no change is made things will
probably settle down as before. Fine to finest will
in all probability be much wanted until September
or October, and high prices may be obtained for
them until buyers have replenished their stocks.
During the past season a few fine, pungent, lightly
fermented teas have sold well, partly owing to their
scarcity, but the demand for these is rather limited.
It has now been pretty clearly shown that, with
a few exceptions, a large quantity does not pay so
well as a smaller amount of better quality. The tempt-
ation to swell their outturn per acre should not be
yielded to by managers, for, although the Bgures may
look well on paper as regards the total of tea manu-
factured, the pecuniary result often proves anything
but satisfactory. The different stages of manufacture
ha»o of late engaged the nttcntion of planters in India
and Ceylon, and a great deal of correspondence has been
carried on « ith regard to it, both privately and in the
different joutnalo connected with tea. 8"me advocate
fillip withered leaf, as it produces teas with fine rich
flavour, which the same leaf less withered does not
pOfstSB. Rolling by machinery is almost general,
though owing to the leaf beint; sometimes submitted
to too much pressure the juice is partly lost. Ferment-
atioD, one of the most im[jortaiit processes, dots not
Bp(>car to be thoroughly understood by the majority
of planters, and is a subject which would well repay
Bcieutilio investigation. The cause of the poor-
pees of a larger portion of this season's crop has

been shifted from ' climatic influence ' on to t e
shoulders of tho dryingmachires. As, however, it
is a well-known fact that good and bad teas
have been produced by the same machines, and
even from the same gardens, it would appear that
sufBcient experience in the use of them has hardly
yet been attained. Firing at » very high temper-
ature and briskly is advocated by a few, but it is
generally considered that tea fired at a moderate heat
is usually the best. To obtain a good name for a
garden should be one of the chief aims, as many
buyers will give pence per pound more for a mark
which they have become used to, and of which thoy
can depend upon obtaining a regular supply." Then
agaiu : " The total estimated crop for the season
1884-85 amounted to (iS.OOO.OOO lb., from which do-
j duct say onc-and-a-h.ilf million for local consumption,
and two-and-a-half millions for shipment to the colonics,
j America, and the Continent, which will leave about

sixty-four millions available for Great Britain."
1 Let me add that, if Ceylon growers of tea wish
to maintain for their teas the high prices that havo
j been ruling in the London market, they must keep
! a standard quality, otherwise their teas will fall to
^ the level of the low prices ruling for all China teas
j and for large quanties of Indian and Java sorts.

Apologizing for the length of my letter, but trust-
ing its subject may be of sufficient interest to excuse
the trespass on your valuable space, I am, your
obedient servant, AsDAM.

London : April 1885.
— Whitehall Revieiu.

NOTES ON TEA.

By Percy SwiNBunXE, late of Sylhet and Oachar.

The following " notes " are the outcome of many years
practical experience in India in the cultivation and manu-
facture of tea, and were made from time to time with the
idea of placing on record the results of actu\l observation
on a subject in which hitherto the planter's only guide
has been his own experience. Of course the experiuce how-
ever varied of no individual planter would be anything
like adequate to the purpose of giving a full history of
so vast a subject, and it is with the hope of obtaining
the opinions of others that I venture to publish tho fol-
lowing. Although the strides made during the last ten
years in the scientiBc cultivation of tea have been enorm-
ous, yet it may still be considered in its infancy, nearly
every planter having some special opinion of his own differ-
ing from others on even the mo.*-* elementary and vital
subjects, ard it can only be by massing together tho ob-
servations of a number of men, that proper deductions can
be drawn which may act as a serviceable and reliable
guide to planters present and to come. Year by year, the
extension of the area of cultivation, the iutroductiou of
machinery, aud the increased competition reuder the
economic, or what in the same thing, the scientific cultiv-
ation of lutlia tea all the more necessar}-, and the only road
to success will be the carefully studying and taking
advantage of the observation of others. Some of my
deductions will doubtless be canvassed. Indeed, I do
not profefs to speak ex cathedra on any subject which
may be open to question, but only to claim attention to
the facts to which I have noted down in tlio hope of olj-
taiuiugthe more valuable expcri(;nce of othcr.^, as in no other
way can a proper knowledge of the subject be advnnced.
These observations are necessary to account for the form
in whicb the notes are written, and if other planters can
be induced to record their obrervations, the results in com-
bination would be invalu.ible. I may add that I havo
thought it advisable to " begin with the liegiiming."

Choice of Land. — An experienced .and careful planter will
probably be successful on almost any site of land he may
choose, yet the measure of his success will depend in the
first place on the quality and lay of his laud. If pos.sibIc
tho services of a surveyor should be secured, and the pro-
posed laud should be demarcated, and diagonal farries cut
in a perfectly ettaigltt liuts tbrougb the juugle. Xboflnr*

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885,

veyor should also mark out the ground, showing which
part would bo most suitable for tea cultivation, cattle
ground, and timber reserve — giving the area of each. In
order properly to examine a piece of jungle laud, it is
necessary to cut paths or farries through the dense under-
growth ; and if this work is not carefully supervised, the
natives invariably follow any old tracks which may happen
to run iu the required direction. If there are no tracks
they will choose out the lightest jungle, and as in laud con-
eieting of chains of hills and valleys, the lightest jungle as
well as the old jungle paths generally run along the top
of the hill ranges, a false notion will be given to any one
passing along a farrie thus cut of the area of the land ;
and it continually happens that gardens are opened up on
undesirable hill land under the impression that the site
chosen is a large flat with a few low hills. On elevations
of 2,000 feet or higher, the forest is generally old and the
ground light, and iu these places the difficulty of seeing
the land would not be so great.

Soils. — Nearly all soils appear suitable for ten, stiff clay,
well drained and cultivated being well adapted for it, as
well as the lightest sandy soils on which bamboo jungle
grows. Light sandy soil heavily manured appears to give
the largest crop, but it is impracticable to manure a large
area. Bamboo land is enriched by the large quantity ot
leaves which fall every year, and also by the network of
fine roots which spread for some distance near the surface
of the ground. These roots thorougly disintegrate the soil
and serve to manure on the death of the tree. In some
places the soil contain large quantities of slate-like stones,
or is full of " Kunker," or is hard and gravelly. These
places should be avoided, but a mixture of kunker and
■oil a few feet below the surface, and where the kunker
only occasionally appears on the surface, is desirable on
Bccount of the natural drainage it affords, and also on
account of some property in kunker* soil, probably some
mineral which is much appreciated by the tea plant.
There are some estates below the hills containing some
etretches of fine tea growing among large stones which
are so thick as to prevent any cultivation except an
occasional picking and forking between the stones, but
these are exceptions to the general rule. When land
prospecting, holes should be dug at short intervals two
feet deep, and the soil carefully examined. At every
four inch depth, the hole should be cleaned out, and the
soil placed in a heap on one side. In this way there
would be six heaps, showing the variation of the soil at
various depths. The best soil for the tea in hill or plat-
eau land is generally black or dark leaf-mould near the
surface, with a rich yellow red subsoil. If the soil on examiu-
ation prove satisfactory , the prospector may rest assured as
to its quality — of bamboo, virgin forest, or very luxuriant
sun-grass, or if in the case of low land, ekur or huldie
is growing on it. But the soil still better suited for tea,
or indeed for any othe"- crop which requires much man-
ure as tobacco or sugar is to be found in narrow strips
of low swampy land between tee'ahs. The heavy rains
rush down the teelahs, carrying with them a small quan-
tity ot " wash," and, in the course of centuries, hollows
which were below the flood level of the country are
raised above it. In these places tall grasses grow— ekur,
null, huldie, cane, and eralee grass. Large quantities rot
yearly, and new shoots springing up, the result is that
the surface soil becomes ;i mass of decayed vegetation
to a depth sometimes of thirty six feet or even more. In
the higher parts where the swamp rises, trees grow with
a dense undergrowth. Sometimes this " tal" or cheel
land is coated with a deep surface soil of ,saiul,and in this
case it is not so valuable as sand, or sandy soil does not
contain much plant food imless under e.tcc-ptionril circum-
stances. At other times it con.siets of Hue clay, in which
caae if heavily drained and thoroughly cultivated, the
clay turns into soil full of nourishment. If the day is
dark coloured and full of decaying vegetable uiatter,
the result of cultivation is still more satisfactory, and
the value of the soil increases with the arooimt of de-
cayed vegetation it contains. .Sometinu's the soil on
teelah or hill land although containing a large propor-
tion of Kand is good for tea, and this is specially the
case when it has previously grown bamboo. The loot

* Kunker is an imparo limcBtouv.— -Gp.

of the tea plant finds its way readily through the light
surface soil, and penetrates deep down into the subsoil
which is generally more consistent. The rain also per-
colates readily through the sandy surface, and the plant
is en.ibled to absorb some of the mineral matter of the
soil below. In some parts of Assam stretches of low lying
land are found covered with httle mounds three to four feet
high called koorka. It is supposed that the mounds are
thrown up by worms. This kind of laud is generally
drainable, and well suited for tea. Small patches are
sometimes seen in Sylhet and Oacbar, where the hills
fall away into thedhan khets.

Labour. — Having found the proper site, the next great
question is how to get the very best result at the least
possible cost. It is of course impossible to make the
cheapest and also the best garden at the same time, and
it is still a matter of dispute as to how far it is advisable
to increase expenditure to improve results, and what ratio
one should bear to the other. Putting the average yield
of the bearing tea at 3i maunds, and the working expend-
iture at 13Us to 150s per acre, and the average price
of the tea at 45s per maund, the annual produce of the
acre would realize K157'8 at an annual cost of 130s to
150s, or R17 8 yearly profit. The average price and yield
have perhaps been fixed a little too low, but the average
profit is probably not more than 5 to 6 per cent, while tho
cost of opening out the gardens as well as working them
is yearly decreasing and though the yield is increasing,
the market is falling iu the same ratio — if not faster.
Now, as the manufacture of tea, is a delicate operation,
and the quality of a crop may easily deteriorate to
tho extent of 2 annas per lb., it is evident that a
certainty of profit can only be secured on gardens
which give a yield considerably above the average, while
their working expenses are comparatively low. It costs
proportionately far less to turn out six maunds an acre ott
a fine garden, than three maunds oflt a poor one. Planters
I now understand that a 200 acre garden yielding 1,200 maimds
is much more valuable than a 400 acre yielding the same.

In three estates equally well worked, and in which the
same quantity of leaf was plucked, and the same quantity
of tea produced, the result might be roughly estimated as
follows : —

h

T)

C4H

s

-n

n

a <u w
as ^

O

<i a

X

u

W

nu

W

^

>

K.

K.

A

!)

250

45

B

fi

190

45

O

3

120

45

•K.<!

3 6<

o<
u

CM en 0) o

K. 1!. Percent.
155 700 22

80 500 IG

5* 200 2i»

A estate with a fall of 2 rm". per lb. or realizing 35 rs,
per maund for its tea, would still show 9 per cent profit,
while O estate under the same circumstances would show
a lossof Ti percent, consccjuently an investor with 700 rs.
(per acre) would be in a better position with an acre of A
estate than with 10 acres of C estate.

These figures are given to show tiiat it is more import-
ant to make a good garden than a cheap cue, and if the
difficulties are not po.sitively insuruiountible, it is better
to choose the soil which gives a high yield even if
it should be disadvantageously situated and costly to operate
upon. — rinntey.i' Gazette.

Some Experiments of Cunsideeable Impoetance, so
far as irrigation is concerned, were made during last year
at the agricultural farm at Saidapot, in Madras, with the
view of ascertaining what quantity of water produced the
best returns from soils such as those in the farm. The ex-
periments tended to show that the smaller quantities of
water representing a rainfall of 1, 2, antl 3 inches respect-
ively produced the best outturn, and that a nuich suuiller
quantity of water than is commonly used by r.-vyats would
siifEce to produce very good crop.s. No comparison, how-
ever, is gven of the results of these experiments with the
results of irrigation on any land of similar quality by
ordinary rayats, or of tho quality ot water usually ma<.le
use of by the rayats. — Calcutta Enylishmiui.

* The profit por acre should be HIS.
pev cwt.— Ed, .

Surely equal to 7?r

July i, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

^ori'i^sponilenoo.

To the Editor of ike " Ceylon Observer. "

THE CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION OF
JUTE.

Tavoy, British Burma, 16th April 18S3.

Dear Sir, — I see by the Obsert'er that a Queens-
land man is in quest of instructions for jute oultiv-
atiou : so here goes.

Instuu€tion.s for Jute Cultivation. — .S'oi7 and Ch-
mate. — Jute thrives best on loamy soil, rich clay and
sand, or sand combined \rith alluvial deposit, and on
land which is neither inundated nor dry. A clayey soil
and a ferruginous soil are not unfavourable to the
growth of the plant. But laterite and gravelly soil
are unsuitable. A hot, damp atmosphere is most
favourable to the growth of the plant. Alternate
rain and sunshine are most congenial. The plant
suffers less injury from excess of rainfall than from
the entire want of it. Too much rain at the begin-
ning of the season and early Hoods, however, are
injurious and destructive to the young plants. Drought
stunts their growth and very often even destroys
them, if not sufficiently developed. But heavy rains
have no such destructive effect on the plants,
so long as they do not drown the plants and there
is sufficient sunshine to afford the warmth necessary
to strengthen the plant so that it will not fall to the
ground.

Modes of Cultivation. — The preparation of the soil
should be commenced early in low lands where there is
considerable risk of water rising very high early, but
deferred to a later period in high lands when no such
apprehension is entertained Friable, sandy soils are
ploughed as early as in March, but when there is
much clay and the soil is hard, tillage is deferred
till after the first showers of rain in April. The number
of ploughinga required is dependent entirely on the
nature of the soil : a clayey, hard soil requires a
greater number of ploughings than a light sandy or
loamy soil. Under any circumstances the land should
be so ploughed as to render the soil finely pulver-
ulent and to expose every part of it repeatedly
to the sun. The oftener and the more thoroughly
the laud is ploughed the larger is the yield. The
seeds should be sown about the middle of May as
the first showers have fallen ; they are Eown broad-
cast on a clear, sunny day and harrowed over twice,
that is, a double stroke of the harrow. Except in
low situations, seeds are never sown until after a
shower of rain to help germination. On germination,
which takes place within four to eight days after
sowing, the fields are again harrowed, and all the
weeds removed. Overcrowding should be avoided. It
checks the full development of the plant. About 12 lb.
(twelve pounds) of seed should be sown to the acre
" Imperial." The crop should be thinned wherever
it becomes too thick, by the removal of the more back-
ward plants. Ordinarily the space left between the
plants is six indies, and the thinning is carried to
that extent, but sometimes the plants are left wider
apart : this must be decided by the quality of your land.

Cuttinr/. — The plant is cut generally near the root,
unless the lower end is overrun with suckers. The time
considered best for cutting is when the plant is in
Hower end just before the appearance of the pods. The
fibre of the plants then out is of superior quality.
The fibre of the plants which have not fiowered is
weak, while the fibre from plants in seed is harsh
and waTiting in gloss, though it is heavier and stronger
than the fibre of the plints cut in flower Whrnever
practicable the plant should bd cut either when
flowering or when the llowcring is just completed.

Preparation of Fibre. — The stalkt when cut shonld
be made up in bundles according to size — long, middl-
ing or short — and allowed to remain few dayn in
the field and then thrown into water and thnre s'eeped.
In steeping the stalks are covered wiih a layer of
refuse, tops of the jute plant or other jungle
plants, or with clods of earth, or cowdung, trunks
of plantain trees, or with straw smeared with mud
in order partly to protect the upper part of the liundlej
from the action of the sun and pirtly to keep the
stalks sutficiently below the surface of the water, and
to hasten the process of rotting. There are two ways :
the bundles are either first sunk by the root tiid.
which is harder, leaving the upper end exposed
above the water, and then after 10 or 12 days the
upper end is pressed down to the same level with the
root ends, so that the whole length of the stalks
may rot uniformly, or the bundles are turned over
while steeping. The duration of steeping is reg.
ulated partly by the condition of the plant
at the reaping time, that is, whether it was
in flower or in seed. Much also depends upon the
temperature of water while the steeping lasts.
Understeeping has the eflfeot of leaving runners
and pieces of bark adhering to the fibre, causing
it to separate unequally and stopping chiefly at the
Bmall knots which appear on the stem, and thus
ciusing the black speies so often eeen in jute. On
the other hand, oversteeping impairs the strength
and flexibility of the jute fibre and imparts to it a
dull, muddy colour. While the bundles are under
water they should be examined from time to time
to see how far the rotting has progrecsed, and
when the rotting has so far gone on that the
fibre peels off readily, the bundles should be taken
I ut of the water and at onee put in hand for the
8' paratinn of the fibre.

This separation prociss may be done thus :— The
operator, standing up to hie middle in water,
takes as many of the stalks in his handi a~ he
can grasp, and removing a small portion cf the
bark from the ends next the roots and grasping
them together, strips off the whole from end to
end without breaking either stem or 6bre. Having
prepared a certain quantity into this half state, he next
proceeds to wash off, which he does by taking
a large handful and swinging it round hia head ;
he dashes it repeatedly against the nurface if the
water, drawing it through towards him so as to
wash off the impurities ; then, with a di xterons
throw, he fans it out on the surface of the water,
and carefully picks off all remaining black spots.
This done, he wrings out the water and hangs the
libre out to dry. The cleaner the water in which
it is washed and the more frequent the washing, tho
cleaner and more whiter becomes the fibre. When-
ever readily accessible, running water is therefore
preferred for this process. After washing, the fibre is
dried in tho sun from one to five days. When dry
the fibre is made up into bundles and is then ready
for the market.

The quantity will depend upon the quality of tho
toil and the cultivator ; the value, upon the quality
of the article produced, and the great secret is in
giving attention, "strict attention," to the prepar-
ation of the fibre. — I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully,
JAMES D. WATSON.

THE COWUMPTION OF llROTON OIL.

Dear. Sir, — There was an article in the Tropical
Ai/riculliirisC referring to the consumption of oils, and
"croton oil" was put down at 14,000 tons annuall y
for wool-dressing. Now I can 't find any statixtics 'o
back up this statement: can you? It i» a mis'ake
surely for cotton oil ! If not, it is a fine thing to go ii)

10

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

or, t-peciallv uitli cacao, the latter requiring shade, the
oriiier eupiilying bolb .'■hacle and jd'Otlucc of a remuner-
ative kind especially as the consumption ia so great.
I would not have troubled you but that a general
opinion prevails that the thing will be overdone as
it is only used medicinally, and, knowing your pro-
veibial good-nature, I am writing to ask you if you
can put my mind at rest, as, if so, I intend putting
down a good acreage. — Yours truly, PLANTER.

[There must certainly have been some mistake : where
did our correspondent see the article in the T. A ? —
we cannot lay our hands on it for the moment.* But a
reference to the latest edition of MaeCulloch shows
that the imports imo the United Kingdom of all the
■' seed" oils put together do not average more than
from 12,000 to 14,000 tons. We cannot find crotnn
specified separately. The following reference is the only
one of consequence in the Encyclopedia Britamiica: —

Oroton Oil [Crotonis OUnm) is prepared from the seeds
of Crotoii Titflium, a euphorbiaceous tree indigenous to the
Malabar coast and Tavoy, and grown in many parts of
the East Indies. The tree is from 15 to 20 feet in
height, and has few and spreading branches ; alternate,
oval-obloDg leaves, acuminate at the point, and covered
when young with stellate hairs and small, downy, greenish-
yellow, moniecious flowers. The male blossoms have five
petals and fifteen stamens ; the females are apetalous, but
bear three bifid styles. The fruit or capsule is obtusely
three-cornered, and jths of an inch long ; it consists of three
carpels each inclosing a seed. The seeds resemble those
of the castor-oil plant ; they are about half an inch long,
and 2-5ths of an inch broad, and have a cinnamon-brown,
brittle integment ; between the two halves of the kernel
lie the large cotyledons and radicle. The kernels contain
from 50 to 60 per cent, of oil, which is obtained by press-
ing them, when bruised to a pulp, between hot plates.
C'roton oil has long been known in India as a medicine,
and has been in use in Eugland since 181'i. !8eeds for
maniifactui'iog it are imported mostly from Cochin and
I'.ombay. It is occasionally adulterated with olive, castor
ami nut oil.

From Simmond's Commercial Products we get some
interesting particulars : —

Croton oil is obtained by expression from the seed or
nuts of Croton Tic/Hum, an evergreen tree, 15 to 20 feet
in height, belonging to the same order as the castor oil
plant, producing whitish green flowers, and seeds resembl-
ing a tick in appearance, whence its generic name. It
is a native of the East Indies. 100 parts of seeds afford
about lit of kernel. 50 quarters of croton nuts for ex-
]ir('ssing oil were imported into Liverpool from the Cape
A^crde Islands, in 1849,

The Croton Tic/Hmii grow.s plentifully in Oeylon, and the
oil if jiroperly e.xpressed, might be made an article of
traile. The hC't mode of preparing it is by grinding the
■ seeds, placing the powder in bags, and pressing between
plates of iron ; allow the oil to stand for fifteen days,
then filter. The lesidue of the expression is triturated
with twice its weight of alcohol, and heated on the sand-
bath from 120 to 110 dcg. Fahrenheit, and the mixture
pressed again. In this ste|) the utmost caution is necessary
in avoiding the acrid fumes. One seer of seed furnishes
by this process rather more'than eleven fluid ounces of oil,
six by the first step, and five by alcohol. The oil acts as
an irritant purgative in the dose of one drop. In large
does it is a dangei'ous poison. When applied externally
it produces pustules. In 1845, eight ca.ses of croton oil
and six cases of the seed were exported from Oeylon. Other
species of croton, as 0. I'avnnay a native of Ava and the
north-eastern parts of Bengal, and C. Roxhvrghii, yield a
purgative oil. The bark of C. Eleiittria, C. CascariUa and
other species is aromatic, and acts as a tonic and stimulant.
It forms the cascarilla bark of commerce already spoken

* We have since found the passage ; it is in an article
from a Demerara paper and we should like much to have
some light thrown upon the statement which is as fol-
lows":— " About 14,000 tons Oroton oil are annually imported
for the use of the wool-dressers of Ifritain." — Ed.

of. Wlien bruised, it gives out a musky odor and is often
used in pastilles.

Oil is also obtained from the seeds of Jatropha curcas,
a native of South America and Asia, is purgative and
ametic, and analogous in its properties to croton oil. It
is said to be a valuable external applicatian in itch. In
India it is used for lamps.

Then of the "Jatropha " we read in Simmond's tropical
work : —

Physic Nut {Ciircts pargans, Lindl. ; Jatropha Otircas,
Liu.)— This small tree or shrub is grown in Brazil, tha
East and West Indies, and West Aifrica ; but the prin-
cipal seat of production is the Cape Verde Islands. In the
tropics, hedges and enclosures are made with this shrub,
as cattle will not touch the leaves. The seeds are excess-
ively drastic, hence their general name of purging nuts.
This plant grows in abundance al Casamauca, and Gaboon
and other parts of the African coast could supply this
oil seed. The bush from which the seed is obtained is
readily increased by cuttings, which rapidly take root.
The seeds are three or four, contained in a thin skin,
which is black ; the seed is of the same colour,
and grows in bunches ; the stems of the bushes
are not strong, but they answer excellently for
fcuees, with split bamboo tied on each side to keep
them straight and together, and the great advantage is
that no kind of cattle eat them. The seeds are collected and
the oil expressed inthe usual way. The oil obtained from
the seeds is chiefly used for lamps, and also in cutaneous
diseases and chronic rheumatism. The Chinese boil the
oil with oxide of iron to make the black varnish used
for coating boxes, &c. The oil is viscous, of a deep yellow,
with a density of 0-918.

This oil has been frequently imported into Eng- .
land as a substitute for linseed oil. Tho colour is some-
what paler ; it answers equally well. Quantities of the
seeds are shipped from the archipelago of the Oape Verde •
Islands ; the average export from thence is about 100,000
hectolitres annually ; they are sold at the port for 5 francs
the decalitre . The seeds are known under the name of
Pignons d'Inde by the French, and Purgueira by the
Portuguese.

The following shows tho quantity of these seeds raised
in 1869 in the Cape Verde Islands, the chief locality of
production :

Tons.
St. Jago .. .. 15,750

Togo .. .. 900

Bona Vista . . . . 23

1(5,072

An oil obtained from another species in India (Ja/rnp/m
glauca, Vahl.) is also used locally in medicine and for
lamps. In appearance and consistence it resembles castor
oil. The seeds of other species, /. niultijichi and J. gossypl-
folius, are also purgative.

CitoTON Oil.— The oil is obtained by grinding the seeds,
placing the powder in bags, and pressing them between
plates of iron. The oil is then allowed to stand fifteen ■
days, and afterwards filtered. The residue after expression
is saturated with twice its weight of alcohol, heated on
the sand bath from 120' to 140" Fahr., and the mixture
pressed again. The alcohol is distilled off, the oil allowed
to settle, and filtered after a fortnight. One soer (21I>.)
of seed furnishes 11 fluid ounces of oil; G oz. by tho (ir.st
process, 6 oz. by the second. Sometimes the seeds are
roatied before they are compressed. Tho seeds of 0.
Soxinirghii, 0. Pnraiin, and 6'. oblonyifoUus have similar
purgative properties.

We suspect that a profitable market will be found
(for other than physic purposes) for all the croton oil
seeds our Ceylon planters can produce for some time
to come. All we can learn from the India Customs
Returns is that the export of "seeds" in 1883-4
was equal to 17,.357,8S4 cwt. valued at P>10,0=!6,090,
but in the term "seeds" the following are included:
— " Castor, coriander, casuarina, jinjili, ortil, ground-
nuts, linseed, methic, mustard, poppy, rape or sarsou,
and 'others.' "—Ed.]

July i, 1SS5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

A CONSPICUOUS ORNAMENTAL JUNGLE
TKEE IN THE FORESTS ABOUT DIMBULA.

*' The Governor was also struck with a tree iii our forests which
fOf some time back has shown masses of white (iowers over its
top."— Extract from letter "From the Hills" iu Observer of 13th
May 1685, p. 3, top of col. 2.

15th May 1885.

DE,iK Sir, — 1 feel almost certain that this refers to
.in aliuiidant and very conspicuous tree in the forests
in Dimbula and I notice in ray copy of the "Flora
of British India," (vol. 2 p. 6) that 1 procured and
identified specimens of it at Lower Abbotsford on
the 13th ot February ISSl, from trees 60 to 70 feet
hif?h and at an elevation of 5, SOD feet. The trees were
very conspicuous from the large panicles of white
fiowcrs on the tops of the branches then, and no
doubt at other times. It has no native name that
I am aware of in C'eylou.

It is the jUeliosma arnotliana, Wight, and the
following remarks from Colonel B ddoma's " Flora
Sylvatica" (t. 160) are very applicable to our Ceylon
tree: — "A very common tree in Sou*heru India and
Ceylon at 4,0 0 feet and upwards ; ii is very abundant
at C»Jonoor on the Nilgiris, and is a most beautiful
sight in June when in full blossom, its whitish panicles
forming a perfect sheet of flowers over the top of the
tree ; it is also a very conspicuous tree when iu flower
in the mountain sholaa of the Annamalliys. It is
called l)y the Burghers on the Nilgiris ' Hull makay '
(tiger-Iike), the heart-wood 'of very old trees being
striped reddish and white ; the timber is worthless,
being spongy and lighi, but is occasionally used for
rafters and as firewood." This cenus is the last one
in Stii-niidiicefe in Th. En. p. 59, but it is now
included in an order called Saimccc and is the
lirst one in the 2Dd volume of the " Flora of British
India."

Wo have the follov/ing three species of Mcliosma
in Ceylon : —

1. ilclmma Wighiii, PLA.Nrn. — A tree with
simple leaves found at the same elevation as
M. arnottmna, and Col. Beddome's remarks in the
Forester's Manual, p. 77, equally apply to this tree
also :— "Amost common tree ia the sliola forests about
Ootacamund and otter mounta n u.s tracts on the west
side of this pre-idency a' d in C. ylon, at and about
5,000 feet elevation. The tree is called ly Europeans
on the Nilgiris the hill m ngo and at th : distance it has
somewhat the api.earaLce (f a m^ngo tree when in
blossom; it is called Tode by the Burghers. The wood
is use e=3 and not even cut a? firewood, as it burns
very badly. The tree is said to be held sacrtd by
the Todas." — It is given as M. pumjens, Walp., in
Thw. 59.

2. Metiosma siiiij/lici/olia, Rox — This also as its
specific name implies is a siuipleleavid plant. It is
very common about Kaudy especially, on the banks of
streams, and is every conspicuous frnm its Img panicles
of flowers and fruits about the sz-3 of red currants.
"A very common tree in the moist subalpine forests
on the western side of the Madras Presidency at 2,000 to
3,000 feet e^evat on, also iu Cejlon and Bengal. I have
not seen it above the latter elevation, its place being
then taken by 'Tungeiii] Wighti." — Bed. 1. o. The
Sinhalese name for this small tree is Elbedda, and I
wonder if the famou'i Flbedda plains derive their name
from this tree, but 1 fear not, as it is scarcely likely to
be found at that elevation.

3. Jifeliofma arnottiana, Wight.- With lar«B pinna'ed
leaves, the very conspicuous tree already referred
to.

I trust these notes will enable your readers to identify
this latter tree at least. — Yours, W. V.

P.S.—Uoon, pt. 2, p, 27, givta " -El-Bedda " to mean
cold jungle or bush,

THE SIHOUCO:-A CORRECTION.

The Ceylon Purchase Hire Cunipauy,
Colombo, M;>y 20lh, ISSo.

Dear Sik, — Will you kindly permit us to correct a
statement in your issue of the ISth iustaut re tea drjtrs.
You say that the No. 3 Sirocco on Abbotsford estate
only gave an outturn of G4 lb. per hour.

As a matter of fact the Sirocco on Abbotsford is 7tol
a No. 3, but a converted No 1, in which form Messrs.
Davidson & Co. claim "it is capab'e of doing abimt
two-thirds more ^^ork per hour" than the urigiual
No. 1, If therefore it does turn out the quantitj' yi.u
mention (04 lb.) it fulfils the promise of the patentees,
as do the No. 3'a with an outturn of 80 lb. per hour
obtained by Mr. Jas. Wight of Kandahiya from
his two machines, of Mr. Blackett of Doteloya and
Pen-y-lan with his maohiuee, and Mr. J. M. Bouatead
with two of his machines. — Yours faithfully,

W. H. DA VIES & Co.

[We stand corrected in th s matter, and if we have
fallen into any other mistake we shall be glad to
know. Our sole object is to state the exact trutli
about the various machines competing fur public
favour. — Ed.]

AN INSECT PEST.
The Wharf and Warehouse Company, Colombo,
20th May 1SS5.
Dear Sir, — I send you three.branci.es from a sunya
tree cut in these premises today. Vnu will pleas) observe
that they are infested with some poochies resunb in.;
very much those found on drift timlier in the sc.i?
The tree from which these branches were cut i^ nearly
dying. I would therefore feel obliged if you will be
good enough to forward these branches to your usual
botanical referee and find out the name and origin of
the pooohie. — Yours faithfully,

DARLEY ALTENDOEFF.
[Our critomological referee reports as follows ; —
"The shell like tubes on the branches from the suriya
tree are the abodes of the lacvas of a small homoptrrous
insect belonging to the Ceruupii',-e fainilv, i.f which
AphropJiora snmnaria ia a member. The latter inaic';
is commonly known in England as the cucl(oo-spit a^d
frog-hoppir. The tubes in quistion seem lo have
been constructed by the insects from matt, r sec'e Cil
■within them. This must harden at nnce, and a full-
fized tube is probably the woik of nu.ny d.'ys, ris the
insect grows and feeds upon the sap ol the tree. Its
body is so soft, that, without some kind of protection
from the heat of the sun, it would be speedily dried
up and killed, but in its tube it can foul in safety,
and is also protected frnm the attacks of other insects.
It is the first lime that these tubes have been brought
to my notice, and I inter.d to send some if them to
Professor Westwood, as they may also prove new to
him."— Ed.]

TEA BROKERS' ADVICE ON FERMENTATIUN
AND FIRING.

l!:)rii May iss.S.
Dear Sm,— In reply to your query on the brokers'
advice as to " f. rmentatitU " nucl bilsk firing, I c.-n-
sider full fermentation as espUinod to mean a ftrmcut-
ation carried only to that point which while it secures a
deep color does not produce a Weak, iu.'ipid, pointless
liquor. In overfermented teas, though pungency is
losf, color of liquor may still runa n ; hut the chemical
changes (regarding w Irch sec Tea Cyclo| ,Tdi.a, dis-
cussion between (J, H. Lepper, CI s. Kussil, .m.k.a i,'.,
And others) are indicated by otrtain uninistakablo test)!

12

THE TROPICAL AGKlCULTUKlST.

[July I, 1885.

For practical purposes, however, ia a factory the
folluuiiig tests may suffice: —

1. The outturn of over-fermentttl tea will more or
less approach in color an old penny, rather than the
new penny,— "TUE DESIBABLK LIGHT SALMON COLOUS."

2. lu the liquor, the grip, like taking alum water
for a gargle (especially in the case of a wfU-fermented
pekoe or broken ptkoe), will have disappeared.

3. A sweet smell, the result of the change from
tlie incipient stage of fermentation to the stage of
true fementation, will emanate from the testing cup
and follow the tasting.

4. The liquor on beicg cooled will not cloud,
as will the correctly fermented tea from the broken

pekoe down to the pekoe souchong in good teas.

Yours truly, AGRICOLA.

P.S. —Yoi\ have disposed of the question of tiring
briskly. A Sirocco at 300 cr even 275 is brisk enough,
and I he Ceylon men do not burn, as a rule, by any
means. As regards underfermenting, there is always a
marktt for undei fermented teas. Overfermented teas
!ire v.iiueless, according to their degree of weakness.

VULCANIC ROCK (?) AND TEA I'RODUOTION.
Oonoonagalla, 23rd May 1885.

Dear Sir, — I am sending you to lay as promised
a, specimen of ilie rocks in the Gallelieua leatield.
The formaiinn is in places very similar to that of
II (ield of lava having all the appearance of being
a surface deposit filling up the bottoms of two ravines.

I ani.ex particulars of leaf gathered during the last
four flusl es from the field above referred to. The
whole extent is 100 acres, but as the tea has been
p.amed (chiefly at stake ) at different periods during
the last five years, as cinchona died out, it ig very
irregular and the number of trees in bearing cannot
be estimated C( rrectly. I may mention, however, that
I put out nearly 120,000 supplies last season. The
resul;, is I think satislaotory as showing regular yield
aud tost of plucking ; and as there is very little tea
yet iu beaiing out of the considerable area planted in
thia district the figures may prove of Interest to some
of your leaders, — Yours faithfully,

M. H. THOMAS.

No. cf

Leaf

No. of

Leaf

Pluckers.

gathered.

Pluckers.

gathered

ih.

lb.

March 31

W

502

May 1

32

393

April 1

ZK

601

Do 3

33

453

Do 2

fS

352

Do 4

28

445

Do J

32

553

Do S

26

384

Du 1

35 1

58ll

Do 6

25

339

Do li

391

503

Do 7

30

380

Do 7

31

543

Do 8

31

340

Do 8

35

605

.

Do 'J

31

440

31f!4

4, GOO

Average per

cooly 13-3 lb

oU3

4,533

Average per cooly 1515 lb.

Do 9

23

2«5

Do 11

22

369

Do 13

38

584

Do 12

24

403

Do H

371

582

Do 13

30

538

Do 15

438

Do 14

»3

583

Do 111

345

4511

Do 15

27

460

Do 17

35J

466

Do 16

24

493

Ho IS

32

431

Do 18

30

383

Do S!0

33

3»2

Do 19

32

539

Do 21

35

452

Do 20

28i

468

Do 22

XI

384

Do 31

13

238

314

4.139

2,70i

4,749

Average per cooIy i3'2 lb.

Average per cooly 17-2 lb.

— — ■

Uo 2fi

32}

427

Do 27

28

383

Do 28

n

3oa

Do 99

2Ba

Do 30

32

I.VJ

[W- »h»ll take measures to ascertain the true
charac'.rr of the rock, which is evidently exceed-
i gty fertile, judging by the returns of tea growing

TEA DRYING BY "JACKSON'S PATENT
VICTORIA DRIER."
Carolina, Ambagamuwa, 25th May 1885.
Deab Sir, — A break-down in gearing prevented the
use of the turbine for three days. The Victoria
drier was worked by hand, one cooly driving the
webs, but the f,m was not used. The amount of
dry tea turned out was 80 lb per hour. The Chal-
lenge roller came in very usefully, 120 lb. of withered
leaf per hour being rolled by it.— Yours faithfully,

W. MEGGINSON.

CINCHONA BARK: A MANUFACTORY AT

NUWARA ELIYA.
Sir,— In 188384 about 40 per cent East Indian and
60 per cent South American barks were imported into
Europe : last year 75 per cent East Indian and 25
per cent South American. Soon manufacturers will
have to rely entirely on East Indian bark. At the
same time production of bark has so increased that
pi ices must aud will fall from their present low ruling
rates. Even now it does not pay to export any bark
j containing less than 1 per cent quinine sulphate.
VVheu one thinks of the expense of exporting to
I Europe and America a raw material, which only con-
I tains from J to 6 per cent of the manufactured
commodity, one feels staggered to think that the
few capitalists of Ceylon have not ere this estab-
lished a factory in Nuwara Kliya.

The climate is suitable, so is the water, and an
article could be produced of the first quality at a
price which would simply cut all others out' of the
market. This question is of more importance to us
as an agricultural colony than that of the Graving
Dock in Colombo. About £8,000 would build and
stock the factory, besides providing a working capital.
A factory at the fountain-head of bark would bo
the most succesful speculation of the day.

Kindly take this up.— Yours, G. A. D.

[We have urged the matter on quinine makers
and bark dealeis in New York and England, but
without avail. There are secrets in the manufacture,
too.— Ed.]

LOCAL MANUFACTURE OF QUININE.

Bowhill, 28th May 1885.

Dear Sir,— Eeferriug to " G. A. D." 's letter and
jour fill tnotf — the subject has engaged my attention
for tome time — it has always seemed to me to be
as reasi nable fiT the Jamaica planters to send home
their caue, as for us to send our bark.

AH that inn-allied is the capital. Succefs is certain.
I he ' secrets " of 1 he manufacture are known to me,
ai d 1 a I. ai. the. | r sent moment in correspondence
with ■' piactical quiniuem.nufaciurer of long experience,
who, 1 have uo doubt, would come to Ceylon at once
were ihi i-ipiinl nrailabli'. The -'jlant ' &c. would
cost ab ut £5,000, and a working capital would be
upccssaiy o kee,! such a factoiy going at the rate
of if '«!-/ 500 ounces of made quinine daly — Yours
truly. K. VV. JENKINS.

[m1|. posing half the capital in cash (onay i!5 000)
Mere v.. sed in Knglttud, now would it do for the
I lykui p rtion to le coutiibuted in "bark" by
planters willing to wait for their returns till the
quinine «aa usted and sold 1 — Ed.]

" BUCHU.PAIBA. "
(^liiiik, coinpKtc cure, all annoying Kidney, Wadih'r nnd
I'liimiy Di.seHscf. Druggists- W. E. iimith & Co., Madras,
Sole Agents.

July i, 1685.]

the; •fROf'fCAL AGRiCULtUrvIST.

13

THE KANDY (CEYLON) AGKI-HORTICULTURAL

SHOW.

[May SOth, 16So,)

The exhibits were all arranged on tables running
down the centre of each court and passage and were
divided into 10 classes as follows : —Class I. Garden
Perennials in pots ; Class II. Garden Annuals in pots;
Class III. Ferns in pots ; Class IV. Foliage Plants in
pots ; Clui V. Cut Fowers ; Class VI. Vegetables ;
Claes VII. Fruit ; Class VIII. Native Products ; Class
IX. Estate Products ; Class X. Arts and Manufactures.
In addition to these and not classitied were the machin-
ery and other miscellaneous exhibits.

Class I., Garden Perennials, was ou the whole very
creditably represented, Mr. J, V. H. Owen's pot plants
being specially worthy of mention. The roses were a
very poor show, and the judges decided that no awards
should be given for them.

Class II., Garden Annuals.— These were not very
largely represented.

Class III., Ferns in Pots. — This was one of the best
filled classes in the Show, and one of the finest.
Mr. Pate of Colombo sent a magnificent collection of
ferns which excited universal admiration and took
the tirst prize. Mr. Jonklaas was also an extensive
and a successful contributor to this class.

CiasB IV , Foliage Plants in Pots, was very largely
represented and a vrry good show.

Clais v., Cut Flo«ers. — This was a very good show
indeed. S. Jayetilleke Mudaliyar took the litst prize,
and silver medal for the best collection of roses.
The exhibits in this class— of Mr. Barber, Nuwara
Eliya, Mr. Wingate, Maiurata, and Mr. J. V. H.
Oweu — were specially good.

Class VI., Vegetables. — A very extensive collection of
vegetables was on show, and some really line exhibits
were very much admired, reminding one as they did of
eimilar shows in the old country. Mr. J. Alexander
of Udapussellawa was the most successful contributor
m this class and took the Silver Medal for tbe best
collection of English vegetables and the prizes for
potatoes and tomatoes. Mr. Whjte's collection of
Englioh vegetables grown in Kandy was a very good
show, but the judges decided it was worth a Bronze
Meilal and not the silver medal offered.

Class VII., Fruit, was not extensively represented,
but what there was exceedingly good. The
principal exbibits in this class were those sent by
Mr. \V. I. Cutton of New Galway. The peaches
and plums were exceptionally good and looked very
tempting.

Class VIII., Native Products, deserves a special word
of commendation. The collection of paddy was most
extensive and the samples really spleudid. Yatawara
Ratemahatniaya well deserved the gold medal given by
the Sociity for ihe best general collection of native
products, and for the best collection of paddy the gold
iiic'ial givin by His Excellency the Govciuor was well
besiowud on Palipane Kateinaliatmaya. Tcnnekoon
Kateinahatmaya'.i colltciiuu of paddy was a beautiful
show and was accornpamrd by^ a capital catalogue.
Uii colicctii.n he prtsented to Dr. Trimeu for the
niuseuiii at Peradeuiya Gardens. Fibres and jungle
ropea were very wtU represented, and the cotton shown
was i.f good quality.

(. U»o iX-, Esiate Products, was of course the prin-
ci|ai clicctiuu in the Show. The class may be
Buiiiii.cd up on the whole ta not numerous but very
gwd. A liuer sample of cofl'ee than that shown
by Mr. (i. H. U. hlphinstone and which took the
liuld Medal could not be wished for, and the other
eaciiples shown were not far behind in quality. The
pity of it is tl^at there is so little of it now iu
tile island Tea was certainly disappointing, not in
qualiiy shown, but in the paucity o£ bona fide,

commercial samples. It was all " too good to bo
true" : in fact the judges declared that they were
all fancy teas and that there was scarcely a com-
mercial tea in the collection. It is not pleasant to
have to f.iy so, but they undoubtedly allwere " doctored"
as it was expressed by more than one planter. Of one
sample sent it was stated that the souchong, broken
pekoe and pekoe were all nothing more or less than
threegrades of pekoe. Perhaps it would have been more
satisfactory had the teas been sent in bulk and
sorted by the judges with the assistance of one of
the numerous tea sifters uow in the market. Some
samples of tea which would otherwise have got prizes
were badly packed and were tainted by the wood or
paint of the boxes. Gallebodde tea would probably
have taken the prize for "fancy" tea had three
qualities instead of t^wo been sent. For the best set
of samples of bona fide oommerci.^l tea, the Gold Medal
was awarded to Blackstoue, the judges believing this
to have been a genuine sample of a br<?ak, but they
declined to give the silver and bronae medals offered
for the second and third best sam[jles. For "fancy"
tea, under which name nearly all samples should
have been entered, Lauderdale took the palm
though that estate was closely run by Blackstone
and Gallebodde, the latter as stated as above losing
it by not complying witli regulations ; these two
latter wire awarded Bronze Medals. Cacao was ex-
tensively represented, and some beautiful samples
were shown. Pallekelly took the lead in this pro-
duct and the sample winning the Gold Medal was
undoubtedly the finest there. Cardamoms were ex-
tensively shown and all the samples were first-class.
Cinchona too was a very fine collection. Mr, J,
Alexander of Kirklees took the palm in this product,
his collection being a really first-class lot of barks.
In cinnamon the well-known mark of Mr. J. ¥•
Drieberg's estate took first place for a capital col-
lection. Vanilla was fairly well represented, Mr. S.
Jayetilleke of Kurunegala showing the best and
winning a Bronze Medal with a very tine sample.
Class X , Arts and Manufactures, was a very
interesting show and included Dumbara nuts, inlaid
tables, fret-work, carving in wood and ivory,
pottery, silver-work &c. A'c. Mr. \V. G. Wood showed
a large number of fret-work texts and mottoes which
were splendidly carved. Mr. G. A. Cherrington of
Colombo had some very excellent models of ships.
Mr. A. K. Ashton had a model of a 40-pouuder lield
gun and also a model of H. M. S. •' Invincible."
The silver and ivory work was remarkably fine, and
a epecial Silver Medal was awarded ftir the former
besides the one offered. The awards iu this class
have not yet all been made.

PKIZE LIST.
Class I.— Gakden Pekexnials (iu i)ots).

Bi-;;oni;i>. 1>»'>1 ct'IliM-lioii of not

)

Ifss lIiJiii 1) diffrreiit

^Silver Medal

Hon J F Diekson

vuriutii's

1

Do do ;J do

BronzeMedal

J de Liveru

]{.-~t (Icriiiiiunis

do

H S SatnidiTH

I'l lar^'oiiiunis

do

.T Alexander

CaniiitioMt* tmd Pinks

do

J F WiiiKate

Gluxiniu and Achiim-ni-se

Silver -Medal

J V II (l«en

An(irrhinunis

UronzeMdl

11 S .Sauiid.TS

(.tlii.liulus

do

11 S Saunders

Orchiilsin tlowiT

.Silver Mediil

11 M Al«i»

Tubcrous-lluoterl Ik'noniii.s

Bronze Mdl

.J \ H Owen

CLAhS a. -GAKDEN ANNIAK'SC

n iJOt.i).

Be**t Ilaliwima

yilver Medlil

A Whyte

IVtuniiis

Uron/.e Medl

W I) Losanquet

Phlox

do

W. n. HoBaunue

Zinnin^

do

A Wl.vte

Asters

do

.T V II Ow.'n

Piiii-it'--

do

li 11 II Anst.'n

l'iihi-sd:»riU!)

do

E J TInvaiUv.

Cm T.irins

do

do

friuiulaa

do

J ^' 11 0»i;i:

14

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885;

Class ni.— Fbbns (in pots).

Best f^eneral collection of not
less than 9 iliffi-rent kinds

Best general collection of not
less thiin i different kinds

Best collection of Adiautums

Best single Fern

Silver Medal C Pate

Brouzo Mdl
Silver ,,
Bronze ,,

J D JohUliUxs
Hon. J F Dickson
J D Jonklaas

Class IV.— Follage Plants finpots).

Crolous. Best collection of not

Ic^s than 6 varieties Silver Mdl Mrs. W T Pearce

Bronze Mdl W H Wright
do A Whyte

do Fred.de Silva

do Mrs. Jeffries

do A Whyte

Drwwuas
CaUidinms
Marautas
Colens
Do.

Class VI.— Cut Flowers.

Eoscs. Best collection of not
less than 18 different
varieties Silver Medal

do 12 do C. of Merit

Best 3 blooms of a White

Do
Do

do Yellow Kosc

Rose
Do do 3
Best Dahlias

Geraniums, in trusses of tliree
Pelargoniums do
Carnations
Phlox

Chrysanthemums
Fuchsias

'Violets , , ,

Best arranged table bouquets

Do
Do
Do
De

do
do

Silver Med.al
Bronze Medal

do
do
C.of Merit
Bronze Medal

do

do
Silver Medal
Bronze Jit dal
Stiver Jledal

do do

do hand do --

3 button-hole bouquets Bronze Medal

collection of native •

llowers do

Diauthus— (special) Silver Medal
Extra general collection €ut

flowers Bronze Jledal

Do do do do

S Jayetilleko Mudl.
A Whyto

N W Grieve

Pavilion Arachclii

T C Huxley

Mrs. Baker
do.
do.

Dr. Hutcbings

Mrs. Braine
Mrs W J Cotton
Mrs. Baker
E J Tliwaites
WM David
Mrs. Mackenzie
Misses Tranchell

Class VI.— Vegetables.

Pavilion Arachclii
T C Huxley

J V H Owen
A M Ferguson,
Junr.

BcstcoUectionof English vege-
tables, grown in Kandy,
not less than G different
sorts, as below

Best collection of English vego
tab'es, grown up-country,
not less than C different
sorts, as below

Best Potatoes (12 tuber.s)

Carrots (6)

French Beans (2 measures)

Beet Boot (3 roots)

Cauliflower (2) heads

Tomatoes (12)
Do.

Knol-kohl (G)

Yams

Pumpkins 2

Briuials Ij

Capsicums of sorts

Eandakais, 12

Pot-lierbB! Miut,,Siigo. Basil,
Parsley, Marjoram, Fcuucl
&o.

Bronze Mdl A Whyte

}

■Silver Medal J Alexander.

Silver Aldl
Bronze Mdl

do

do

do

do

do

do

do
C. of Merit
C.of Merit
Bronze Mdl
( . of Merit

J Alexander
E J Thwaites
Mrs. Cotton
Miss JKobertsou
E J Thwailes
J Alexander
A E Carey
E J Thwaites
X B Waraka^lla
CTirigama D N
A G'N David
R Sparkes
A G M Devasaga-
Tatu

Bronze .Vldl A Whyte

CI..1SS VII. Fbuits.

Best General collection of
not less than 0 diflereut

sorts, as below
Mangoes do »' differout var-
ieties named
Best Pino Apple, 3
Best Oranges, 12
Seville Oranges
Jacks 2
Plums 18,

Do
Peaches G,

Do
Bhul.irb, G slicks
Pears

Silver Mdl W J Cotton

Silver Mdl
C. of Merit
Silver Mdl
Bronze Mdl
do

1»
C of Merit
Silver Mdl
Bronze Mdl

do
Silver Medal

F D Fonseka
Halpo President
F D Ponscka
A E Carey
A L J H Mnrikar
W J Cotton
J Bagra
W J t^otton
A E Carey
Mrs. Braille
Mrs. Ellis

Cl.vss VIII.— Native I'hoducts

Best general colleelion of na-
tive products grown by Duo „,,,,,,,.. „ „
Exhibtor Gold Medal latawara It M
Paddy. Best collection ofl Special Uold
the (ollowing sorts ;-Haliyal, Medal (pre- p^u ^^^ ^ jj
Hawi, Hondar.awala. Hiuati, sented by 11 '^
Ehvi.lialawiCi bushel of each).) E tlio Gov.)

Paddy best_ collectiont i>f the
following exotic sorts: — Mut-
tu-Samba, Kaivara-Samba,
Sulai, Carolina, or any of
them (i bushel of each or any)

Indian Corn (Eriugn)

Cliolum (Karal Eriugn)

Kurakkan

Small Grains (Amu, Meneri,
Taiia-hal, &c.)

Arrowroot

Tapioca (meal and granulatecl)

Gram and other Pulses

.Taggery

Tobacco (cured)

Cotton

Cigars

Tree Cotton, Piiluu

Ginger

Areca Nuts

Plumbago

Native Fibres, named

Native Gums and Eesins,

uamcd
Native Drugs do

Jungle Koxies do

^ungle Seeds do

Silver Mdl
Bronze Mdl

do do

do Teiinekoou K. M.

Tennekoon R. M.
Watagama R. M.

do

do

do

Wattaranteiiiie

C. of Merit

Girag.aina K. M.

do

Bastian Pullo

Bronze Mdl

Palipane E, M.

Silver Mdl

J Iiigleton

do

Wattaraiiteuno

do

do

C of Merit

Marikar

Bronze Mdl

Wattegama R M

do

Yatawara K M

Silver Mdl

Palipane R M

Bronze Mdl

D S Silva Gnncrat-

neMuliandiiam

do

Samuel Percra

do

Kobbekadua E M

do

J Alexander

do

D S Silva Gnnarat-

ne Muliaudiram

Class IX. — Estate Pkoducts.

Best coUecliou of estate pro-
ducts from oue estate
Do do do

Tea, Best set of samples of
bona fide Commercial Teas.
Brukeu Pekoe, Pekoe aud
Pekoe Souchong, from oue
estate (5 lb. eacli grade)

Gold Mdl
Bronze Mdl

Gold Mdl

Havillaud Estate
Lebanon Estate

Blackstoue
Each sett of samples of Commercial Teas must be accompanied

by a declaration ou honour that they are fair aud uii^elected

samples of the whole break.

Tea. Best set of samples of
Faucy teas ; (2 lb of each
grades) Silver Mdl

Coffee (56 lb, accompanied by

one bushel in parchment) Gold Medal

Lib. Coffee do do do Silver Madal

Cacao. Best samples of Com-
mercial Cacao (38 lb.) Gold Medal Pallekelle

Do Socoud best do do Silver Medal Kajuwelle
Sumplos of Cacao must be accompanied by a declaration on

honour that they ore fair, aud unselected from the bulk.

lstLaudcrilalc{I}Iack-
stone and Galboddc
equal, Bronze Modal;

Logie
Saumare/ Estate

Cardamous {5lb,)

My.sore Cardamoms (5 lb.)

Cinchona. Best coUectiou of
barlcs grown by the Exhibitor
{201b. in all)
Do Natural Led-;, bark (2 lb.)

do

E J Martin, Laxapa-
negall*
E S Aiidcrsoii, Dean-
stone

Do Natural Officiidis
Do Kat. robusta (hybrid
Do Nat. Succirubra
Do Reuwed Succ.

Bron?;e Mdl.
do
do

, Dal-
.Or-

Di.l-

Gold Medal. J Alexander, ICirkrcrs
Silver Medal TN Cliri!!tie, St An-
drews
do Bron?:eMdl. C J Bminc, Maniik-
watte
A E B Stiven,

intu>iie
do do .T GMacf.irJai]

middle
do do A EB fetiven

hoiisie

The Judges will take their awards in Cinchona on Kxarninalion
of llie biu'ks. Should any exhibitor challenge their dccixi^.ii, he
may, oil depositing the cost, have Ihr simples anah/ed, .nid the
ndges will on the result reconsider tlie awarvls nuule.
Vanilla {3 lb.) Broii/.e Mdl S Javalill.-ke Mudlr

Induu-uhber (\\h.) Silver Mdl J Inglelon

L'iiiiiamon (^5 lb.) do .1 F Driebery, KkelU-

Nulmej^s (12 lb.) do N S Ferniindo

Cloves (5 lb.) do do

Pepper (3 lb.) do Rmgholy Aratchigo-

dcre

Ct-ASS X.— Auts

Best example of work iu Rold
Do do do in silver
Do do do ill silver

Best example of >vork iii cop-
per aud brass

Jewellery

Ivory CarviuR

Wuud Curvius
Do do

Models
Do
Do

PotLfvy aiyl Tiles

Kandyau Painted Potter>

Kuttuu wuik

AND MANUPAcTURKS.

Silver Mdl Welicama I'linansc
do DukU'uiya Miihu

do DjinliuoKiri Ap|ni

Silver

Mdl

Ua naide Gallade

Bronze

IVldl

.V 1, J L JIarikar

do

Kotalbodde Muhu

do

W G Wood

do

Don Lems

do

A K .\ Torriiigton

do

•Jrroni.'i de Alwis

do

Sinlio Naide

do

Dr .intlionisz

do

Diugiri Ajipu

C oi Merit

fiuwiie

July i, 1S85.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

15

Baikct

Muls

SpiuuiuK wliecls

Textile Fabrics
Embroi<]erv

C of Merit Teiiiielioon E M
Urouzu Mill J;ivotilkko MiKll

C of Merit HulnKalla It M

Bronze Mdl Eambukwello K M

do J Alwis Mndl.

Extra I'lize Model of Bridge Silver Mdl C E Spoouer
Extra Stuffed animals do S Bligh

For design of building Silver Mdl 0 E Spooner

SCIENTIFIC AGr.ICULTURE IN NEW ZEA.
LAND.
By R. W, Emebson MacIvor, f. i. c, f. c. s., &o.
The Agricultural School at Lincoln, New Zealaud,
is the only well-orgauized institution of the kind in
this hemisphere, and the manner iu which it has been
conducted from the outset says much for the practic-
al ability and perseverance of Professor W. E. Ivey.
In addition to class teaching and the general routine
work of the farm, experiments and investigations of
one description and another have beeu carried out with
eminently valuable results.

The course of study extends over three years, and
includes agriculture, dairy work, chemistry, natural
science, mathematics, survey and plan drawing, book-
keeping, veterinary science, meteorology, blacksmith-
ing, carpentry, and field work. Last year the students
numbered 36, and Globtained their final certificate of com-
petency. Speaking of his students, Professor Ivey
says : — ' ' There are always a few students to whom
work of all kind is irksome, and who are discon-
tented at its being enforced. These do their best to
mako others dissatisfied. 1 am strongly of opinion
that it is essential that farm students should go
through the drudgery of the farm, and I therefore
object to doing the unpleasant part of the work by
hired labour. The few students have an objection to
such work aa carting dung and similarly confessedly
unpleasant parts cf ihe farm routine; and, unfortun-
ately, some parents think their sons should not be
required to do such uuintellectual work. I think the
school is far better without such students ; and that
for its future credit no hesitation should be displayed
in weeding out and requiring the removal of those who
do not enter with the bona fide intention of becoming
farmers, or, at least, of thoroughly learning the farmer's
business. I think the labor test of considerable value
to this end." It will thus be seen that Professor Ivey
has made up his mind to drill those put under his
charge in such a way as to make them sound practical
farmers. Agricultural edncation on any other basis
must ecd in worse than failure.

The extent of the farm iu cimnectiou with the school
is about 661 acres. Of this area 12G acres are sown
with 10 different varities of wheat, G9 acres are planted
with five kinds of oats, 21 acres uoder barley, 2.") acres
under beans, and 2-1 acres under peas of diflfer-
ent sorts. Sumo 157 acres are iu rotation of grasses,
115 in permanent pasture, 24 acres under muntard,
rye. and vetches for spring keep, to be followed by
roots, and 50 acres are in fallow for roots. The total
productive area is about 616 acres. The live stock
on the farm are 1.262 sheep, 60 cattle, 60 pigs and 15
horses. The yield of grains for last year was T.^WO
bushels, or an average of .35 1-3 bushels per acre.

In the dairying department of the farm large re-
turns were obtained last season. No less than 16,649
gallons of milk were purchased, and 16,294 lb. or over
7 tons of cheese manufactured. Ivey has made some
interesting and important observations on the loss in
weight experienced by cheeses which are kept for six
months. He finds that those weighing about 75 1b.
each lose 8 per cent, whilst those of about lYi lb. each
lose nearly 9 per cent. Small cheeses, 12 lb. to 18 1b.,
lose as much as 10 per cent. The cheese made in 18S3
sold at 7 1-lOd. per lb. and had been kept until it
waa well matured, when it had shrunk so much in

weight thot 1 !b. of the choose represented 13 lb. of
milk. The yield of new cheese averages practically
lib. toone gallon of milk and the shrink.age isabout
the some each year, the loss in weight being about
9 per cent, in the six months.

Much valuable analytical work has been done in
the laboratory during the past three years. This
part of the institution is under the care of Mr. Gray,
the lecturer ou chemistry, who has devoted much of
his time to the analysis of farm produce, soils, and
manures. With regard to the latter Professor Ivey
has endeavoured to check the s.ale of adulterated
niauures by announcing that farmers may havesamiiles
analyzed free of cost. This has already led to the
exposure of fraud. A sample of bonedust recently ex-
amined by Mr. Gray contained no less than 17'72
per cent, of sand, or over 3J cwt. per ton. Another
specimen contained 12'7 percent, or over 2i cwt. per ton.
Besides thus aiding the agriculturist, Mr. Gray also
examines soils and waters without making any charge.
The composition of the wheats of the various colonies
has been under investigation for some years and the
results obtained are most interesting. The well-known
" weakness " of New Zealand and some Australian flours
has been shown to be due to their containing less gluten
and more starch than either Russian, Hungarian, or
American Hours.

Iu the natural science section Mr, Kirk, F. L. -s.,
has conducted important researches in regard to insect
and other farm pests, the. germination of seeds, the
onltivation of indigeuous and exotic grasses, and the
destruction of weeds. This gentleman has recently
made a useful contribution to our knowledge of smut
in wheat. It having been found that dressing with
a strong solution of bluestone had a very prejudicial
effect upon some varieties of wheat— particularly Tuscan
— expeiiments were undertaken to discover what
strength of solution would effectually destroy the smut
spores adhering to the si ed without ramaging the
grain. It was ascertained that where Tuscan wheat
was treated to a solution of two ounces to one quart
of water, which is equal to one pound of bluestone to the
bag of wheat more than one half the seed was killed,
germination of the other half being delayed some 11
day?. With a eolution half this strength one-fourth
of the dressed seed was killed. P'or this reason, and
because carbolic acid was being advertized as a certain
preventive of smut, an extensive investigation was
made, and the following conclusions arrived at : — 1.
That sulphate of copper (bluestone) is the only sub-
stance efiective in killing smut spores. 2. That with
adulterated bluestone the effects are relative according
to the copper sulphate present. 3. That carbolic acid
is useless. 4. That bluestone retards germinaliou,
weakens the young wheat plant, aud in strong sol-
utions even kills a large proportion of some kinds of
wheat. 5. That solutions containing one ounco of
bluestone to two quarts of water or two ounces pur
bushel of seed, are strong enough to kill the smut spores.
6. That it is probable that by damping the wheat a
few hours before dressing it so that the smut spores
arc swelled up and made more susceptible, a much
weaker solution of bluestone may be used. This in-
vestigation is not yet finished, and we may look for-
ward to even more useful results.

It will he seen from what has been said that the
school at Lincoln is doing much good, and the sooner
New South Wales provides itself with a similer instit-
ution thebettcrit will be for our farmers. — Sydney Mail.

Tun " T. A." — Mr. Morris of Jamaica writes :—
" I trust the Tropical AijricuUarist is extending its
operations .and becoming still more widely known in
all tiopical countries. We require its powerful aid
ovcrywhcro hero, and I wish it every suocess,"

i6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[July i, 1885.

COFFEE IN OOORG.

Mhrcaea, May 10th.— In the year 187G, the prospects i.f
coffee planters were at their best, a magnificent crop had
been gathered, and above a hundred pounds uett had been
realized, which placed planters as a rule free of their London
firm, or advancing agents ; coffee then was realizing 30 per
cent upon the money invested. A pack of fox hounds
was imported, more land was recklessly taken up, loans were
pressed upon borrowers: in fact at that moment coffee
was lord of all things. In the August of that year, the coffee
trees presented a superb appearance, with their healthy
look and vigorous show of crop, but when they ripened in
November, a terrible crisis was at hand, which changed the
aspect of affairs, as completely, ag a sudden squall obscures
a placid sky — upon the unmanured, and unskilfully
worked estates lying west of Jlercara and which then were
the bulk of the whole, a terrible reckoning was at hand —
the whole of the crop failed, in so far that outwardly it
was perfect to the vision, but there were no berries or beans
inside, it was all light, one of the planters, clever and
practical, who had then 800 acres in full bearing, assured
me on one occasion in that terrible year, he permitted 700
bushels of ripe berries, (that would have given him 4^ tons
of coffee ordinarily) to pass unpulped away to his manure
heap. Then, he amongst others, who had reckoned upon
retiring, said that prospects were blasted: money had to be
borrowed, estates mortgaged ; whilst others, the blow
struck so grievously, that they never recovered, but sunk
under it, notably our two * coffee kings ' who at one time
owned between them nearly all the best estates. Since
then, no man has been able to stand in their shoes. In
south Coorg, or the Bamboo «s it is locally termed, matters
had turned out most favorably, there was nothing wrong
with the crops : low-lying, feverish, impure water, shortness
of labor, it offered few inducements for planters, as long as
the healthy European climate of the ghat paid so hand-
somely— it was now that covetous eyes were turned upon
this rich bamboo land, with its thich black soil, on gentle
slopes ; and coffee estates sprang up upon all sides, worked
in many cases with money borrowed from the old ghat
estates which in 1877 was a year of plenty. — Madras
Standard, May 1.5th.

A CDRIOUS phenomenon is reported from somo of
the vineyards in the province of Malaga. According
to Spanish papers, plants attacked by the phylloxera
and given up as pi actically dead have begun to show
marked symptons of vitality, due, it is believed in
the localities, to the destruction of the insect by
gases, or electrical conditions cons quentjon the earth-
quakes in that dislviat. — Ovc-land Mail.

Market Gardening on the Hills. — A corre-
spondent writes: — "Itbought of 'market gardening'
long before your other correspondent did, but the
fact is as most of the gardeners here will tell you
it does not pay to send vegetables to Colombo. Perera,
the most extensive market gardener, has told me
even although he had a contract to supply the
P. & O. steamers, it nearly ruined him, and he had
to give it up. Now that there is a railway from
Nanuoya, it might, pay : the diltioulty is the getting
in the money, so many of the natives «ire such r.iscals
in their dealings with each other. It might pay one
European to send to another European in Colombo,
but the Government would require to carry vegetables at
very low rates, and rturu the hampers free of charge,
and I am not awareethat they have even thought as
yet of doing so. The; Colombo market always seems
to me to be full of locally grown vegetables of good
kinds, only the servants won't apparently buy them
for their masters or cannot cook thorn so as to please
European palates when they get them, " If such
tomatoes as those a friend has sent us from a- Ud
pussellawa could bo regularly supplied to Colombo,
there ought to be a good deniand, as also for cabb.Tges,
peas, (See. The way would bo to register so many
regular customers among Steam Companies and
Colombo housoholders,

f CoFi-EE IX MidDimbula.— An old planter writies :
I — " Do you recollect criticizing this place un-
! favourably in your paper in 1879? I think you
' rather made a mistake then, and, if you could see
this year's crop (in spite of leaf-disease and grub) on
the old place I almost believe you would think so
too ! According to Mr. Hughes' analysis of soil, this
place was to ' go out ' or something of that kind and
other places were to flourish, some of them even
without manure ; but, alas, for the frailty of th«8«
scientilie cards .'—exactly the reverse has been the
case. Trusting we will yet have the pleasure of
seeing the Railway (for which you have fought so
long and so well) advancing towards Uva." We are
very glad indeed to hear such good accounts now of
Mousa Ella, and hope it may flourish for a hundred
years. Would that many more or all Dimbula
planters could say the same of a good prospect of
fine crops.

Moisture ik Tea. — The percentages given in con-
nection with tea-drying were a little mixed. Taking
the fact that 4 lb. of green leaf yield 1 lb. of

dry tea, we would put the ratio as follows :

Weights : Green leaf, 4 lb. ; after rolling, 2i lb. ; dried,
1 lb. This is based on the assumption that on an
average 60 per cent of the weight of rolled tea is dissip-
ated as moisture in drying, so that on an average a roll-
ing which weighs 2.J lb. gives 1 lb. dry tea ; but 1 lb.
dry tea on the average requires 4 lb. green leaf, and
therefore 41b. green leaf after being withered and rolled,
on an average gives a weight of '21 lb. The percentage
of the green leaf, therefore, which is dissipated, on the
average, is as nearly as possible 40 per cent. But
direct experiments ought to be made in order to
settle all doubt : it would certaiuly seem that more
moisture ought to be dissipated in the drying than
in the withering and rolling ; and herefore probably
Mr. Armstrong's estimate of 00 per cent of the roll
being moisture may be the nearest. This would give
nearly 3 lb. as the weight of the roll making the pro-
portional weights : —

Green leaf. After withering on After
the roll. drying.

4 lb. 3 lb. 1 lb.

(25 p. c. dissipated.) (GCJ p. c. dissipated )

RiiEA FiURE. — Even as the nearly ruined cofTee-
planters of Ceylon found salvation at the last moment
in cinchona and tea cultivation, bo, perhaps, may
the unfortunate gold-seekers of South of India save
something by growing rhea grass on their estates,
Owiug to recent improvements in the machinery for
separating the fibre, this industry promises to prove
very remunerative. The main difliculty, indeed, is
in finding localities where the soil and climate suit
the plant. A supply of cheap labour is also necessary,
and as all these requisites exist in the Wynaad and
adjacent districts, it requires nothing but capit.il
and -enterprise to make a start. According to the
calculations of Mr. W. G. Kemp, each properly cult-
ivated acre should yield a net profit of £S 33. Id.
per annum. This includes all working charges from
planting until the prepared fibre is placed on board
ship. A farm of 1,000 acres would, therefore, re-
turn £8,154 38. 4d. as interest on the capital sunk
in buildings and machinery. These estimates are
m-ade on the assumption that each acre would yield
10 owt. of the fibre per annum, but Mr. Kemp is of
opinion that the out-turn might be doubled by careful
planting and manipulation. Even, however, as matters
stand it would appear that a handsome profit awaits
those who are the first to enter this promising field of
industry. The pioneers in cinchona cultivation realized
huge profits before the market value of the article was
depreciated by augmented production. — Q/oU;

July i, 1SS5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

17

WORKDsG CHINESE LABOUR IN JAMAICA.

THE HRATHEN- CHINEE— TRIAL OF THE CIUXESE— KIOT ON
GRAV'S INN SUUAR ESTATE -A CHINAMAN KILLED— COUKT
OF INQUIET— OCE GANG ON ITER BOKEALE TRIED* AND
THE RINGLEADERS ARRESTED — STRIKE AGAIN — MY GASO
WORKING AT THE SUGAR MILLS — PROSPECTS OF THE SVGAR
TKADE IN JAMAICA — WONG SEO AND LEE LOO IN JAIL.

August 9th.— On Saturtlay night we issued fresh beef,
salt-fish, coco yams, rice auil siii;ar to the Chinamen : they
kept Mr. Mauahan ami self until dark pottering over
their confounded rations. Our dinner w.as waiting and the
soup got cold — my bathing towel wa,s on my arm w,aiting
to bathe, and when I got down to the siig.ar mills the
mosquitoes attacked me in millions, therefore I dressed
quicker than ever before. It is enough to vex a saint
the ingratitude of these Chinese beggars, they Uve like
fighting-cocks, and their food of the very best quality and
yet they grumble. The work done during the week past,
though little, is done well, the timber heaped up for burn-
iug in a clearing intended for bananas.

August 11th, Monday. — The Chinese struck work this
morning and said they hid no money and that we ought
to pay them for 5.^- days' work since arrival. Mr. Manalian
sent for them and was witness to their each and all refusing
to take si.xpence b.alance due. Their rate of pay is fixed by
the .Tamaica Government at one shilling for nine hours'
work daily. They worked tour days only last week and
li previously for the past week; os 6d only was charged for
good rations, leaving those who had worked four days at
Is only Od balance. The sixpence they refused and each
and all of the 14 men refu.sed to go up the hill to work.
"WoHi; Seo was their spokesman and said the pay was " not
enough," rice not enougli, and oil was wanted for lamps at
night. Mr. Manahan wrote off by special messenger to
Mr. Pegue, the immigration agent residing in Tort Maria
15 miles from here, he will come with the Chinese inter-
preter and will, no doubt, run the heathen Chinee iuto
" chokie," or as the Creoles call it, " The Work-
house." At any rate Wong Heo and another must gn as \
an example, the position is not a pleasant one, consider-
ing the risk run for small pay, fancy a fellow coming out I
of jail, full of evil intentions towards those who put him
in. My berth is as unstable as the wind and my only '
chance is to be patient and wait until another berth is
offered me elsewhere. Probably the British Honduras Gov-
ernment will reply favourably to an apj>lication made to
ihem .ind backed up by Mr. Morris of the Botanical
Dep.irtment or the Tropical Products Company of
Livingston, Guatemala. (Since writing in my diary as above,
replies eime from both quarters, the British Honduras
Governrtient not being able to employ me at present
and the manager of the Tropical Products Company
saying he had no berth uHth a salary attached thereto, .
but could employ superintendents to overlook labour in
the field at S25 and a furnished house, '■ but this would
probably not fill up the bill." — I cannot quite fathom the
meaning of the last expre».sion used, perhaps it is an
Americanism. Perhaps it mc.in.s the game i.i not worth
the candle. There is a far 'better scheme" on the
board and that is to join Mr. IJ. Morris, the Director of
Goverument Plautntioiis, as Assistant Commis.sinnor with
the .Tamaica exhibits to New Orlsin's. Mr. Morris writes
me officially to the effect that the Jamaica exhibits
will not be c.ttensive and not beyond his own resources,
but. as he has not engaged anyone to assist him, he will
write me ag.ain. There is not much time to spare, for
th'i " big .show '' at New Orleans comes off soon and
Mr. .Morris has only got a week to spare, 1 believe. The
Governulent has sanctioned X'GOO, and another two of
three hundred will by this time be rai.sed by private
subscription. The Yanks will muster strong at the
Grand liitornational Kxhibition, as they generally come
down south to cheat the winter.)

August I ttli, 18S4.— We gave out rations again this
morning to the Chinese and enough beef fresh from tiio
butcher at 11-30 a.m.

An order for

Gice
Ulb

Rations to ChinCse.
Coco Yams Sugar Dee(
.. 1 lb ,,. 2 of, ,„ 8 071,

(\ keg salt beef
I j keg salt pork
-[ 2 boxes salt fish
I 3 boxes of best rice
(.Icask of split peas
IS a sample of how the " heathen chinee is fed in
Jamaica. It is hard lines we should be obliged to feed
them so well, when they are on strike. The Agent of
Coolies and Mr. Broughton will be here today. Meantime,
" Wong Seo," acting as spokesman for the others, says
that, if they work here, the other Chinese will beat
them, they refused the 6d balance of pay due for four
dtiys vmrk last week at Is per day ; 3s 6d charged weekly
for the above rations.

August loth. — Received a letter from Mr. Broughton
of Low Laytcn Estate informing me that *' owing to the
ruinous prices of all produce " he cannot afford to pay
me at the rate of 6s (six shillings) per day (working day)
and that I am to" please understand " that only on look-
ing after the Chinese on working days can I draw ray " full
pay " — 63. Now this is father yonijh on raU and cockroacht.^,
considering I carry my life in my trousers pocket working
them. Moreover, I have to serve out the beef, the rice,
the coco yams, the sugar, the salt fish ! by the powers I
might as well turn storekeeper antl have a little bejl on
the iloor like the " sweet-stutf shops" in the old country.
What a fortune 1 might h.ave made as a general store-
keeper out in the East Indies, yet stuck to planting a]\d
plantiug nuned me with hundreds more who had sjjent
their lives growing the fragrant bean. Why, it would
have been better to turn newspaper man and sit in the
editoral chair! Even acatsmeat-shop would be a "better
scheme" than planting anything.

August 16th.— The Chinese are still on strilce,
and drawing their rations regular as clock work,
the beef, rice, coco yams, sugar, carefully weighed
to au oz. in the spring balauce. When I git up
in the morning there is the "heathen Chinco"
peeping in at the window and asking for " chow chow !" I
went to their lines yesterday and tried to gt;t them to
turn out to work, but they one and all refused stoutly to
budge an iuch without the con.sent of the other Chinese in
the district. "The strike" is general throughout .Jamaica
I believe; and know it to be so in Metcalfe and T'ortland
districts. In spite of my explaining to them that my pay
is stopped every day they won't turn out, they still refuse
to do anything but eat, drink, and bo merry. .Sohnnon
Simpson from " Bo!^" accompanied me to their quarters,
two lines of huts or rooms; they have rigged up bed and
mosquito nets, and we pro\ ided each room with lock and
key, even gave them lamps and kertsine oil and yet they
won't " turn to." In one room, four Chiuauirn were tailor-
ing, tliey had made spleudid iackets and trousers. I''an(y
the joke of paying £ 5 to £l"pir hcail for these gay ami
festive cusses and feeiliug them up like fighting-cocks for
nothing in return. If we stop the prescribed rations, they
might abscond, and let the plauter in for the passage
money from Hongkong and overland in Jamaica. As it in,
the poor planter is kt in for iifrcars of rations and the
Government fnr the passage, the planters have not vet
sicni'rt the indentures fur t years' service In exrliange for all
charges. So the "heathen Chinee'' has sold us all iu'
chiding the Governor I Puling the week, very great ex-
citement has prtvaileil owing to a big fight iietween the
Chinese of Gray's Inn sugnr estate and the Inspector of
Police, C.aptain Coward and his men, and the plitrjtora with
their Creoles aud Coolies. It appears that the police hod
arrived to arrest tho.^e Chinamen who r.?fused to turn out
to work and weie answered by a shower of big sIoim'H,
Wounding Captain Coward and his officers and men of the
police and one of tin: bookkeepers of Uiay's Inn esta'c
very severely on their hearls, the cuts being deep. It i.i
said the Creoles and coolies, when callcil to n>cue. fought
like ilemons with their slicks an 1 a fr< e fight rrsultiiiM
ill tb<5 death of one Cliinainan and at veie wounding of
five otlHi.=i carried to the UoV'Tunienl hospital. It Is
unknown up to date (I3lh Sepleinbi r l8?l) who killed
Johnny, but suffice it to .say he was as " (had as n
birring.'' We intend to turn our gang out on Monday
and if they refuse go through the same ceremony of
arresting them and " running them all in to ehokie."
Meantime llr. Broughton of Iter Boreale estate has

IS

The tropical AGRlCtLTURlSf.

[JOLY I, 1885.

SinicliiiiieJ my expenditure. The Chinese strike, however,
has made nie lose about £10, as I agreeJ to be paid
for worliiog ilays ouly, though I have to weigh out their
rations every morning including Sunday. Times are hard
in the AVest Indies just now, and the failure of sugar will
he the. straw that breaks the camel's back. "Well, one fine
morning a lot of mounted police with swords and pi.stols
apd their best uniform on rode up to our " groat house "
and the chief immigration agent Mr. Cork and assistant
Mr. I'egue arrived and tried our gang, finding thera all
guilty atd asking for the ringleaders. Wong Seo was
pointed out as one and Leo Loo the other. The latter
liad politely told me he would cut us down with his out-
lass it the police came, and on the spur of the moraont,
your correspondent thought Lee Loo very impertinent
and hit out with the right, catching liim fairly on
the nose. We confessed this to the Justice of the Peace
and handed over Mr. Lee Loo over to the police as an
imnroijer person and suitable example to the other
Ohiuamen.

Thursday, ISth September 1881. — Yesterday we made
tho Chinese in the barracks surrender their cutlasses.
Wong p^eo's gang refused to work unless the others were
liberated from jail. I then told them they would be
arrested and sent to Port Maria prison unless they turned
out at onee. /( rms xery hard lines that the police left me
to I/O hi/ mi/sclf to the Chinese barracks mien they were
cxciteJ, I sent a messenger to call the police, but she
returned and said they had gone into the Bay and that
the cooly agents had gone too. So much for our trial, the two
ring-leaders got e month each at Port Maria State prison.
What with women crying and the excitement of the trial,
everything was upset for that day, and I think after this
I .ihall not trouble you about the " Heathen Chinee."
There was a strict court of inquiry held at the Court-house
in Annotto Pay which resulted in the verdict that
Johnny was killed by some person or per.soas unknown.
Since tho grand row, my Chinese worked steadily, fome-
tinies working at the sugar mills, heading cane for the
crusher, and clearing away the trash from the sugar
machinery; they aflerwards went on lopping forest in the
Iw nana clearing near "Lady Hole," apiece of forest below
'• Pro.spect " and above " Gibraltar."

CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPOKT.

25th May 1885.
The monsoon still keeps off, but the variable
winds— now S. W. now N. E. — tell us that the change
is near. Most of us are like regiments which have
been warned, and may expect to go intj active service
ere many days are past, for there are acres upon
acres holed and filled, nurseries more than ready for
putting out, and seed in germinating beds for plant-
ing at stake, if we had but the needed rain to
enable us to go on. The slight showers which we
do get only trouble us with the problem, as to
whether it is safe yet to begin, and we eigh for the
good honest burst, which puts reasoning to the wall
and clears the mind of doubt. At this season of the
year when no particular monsoon has the ascendency
it is very trying for th' se who are indoors, as
Tvell as for those whose duties take them out ; all
alike grumble, and all desire change. He^idnches, fever,
liver and many of the other ills which flesh Is
heir to under an Eistern sun crop Dp at the
end of the hot season, and add their Worries
to the mnpgy heat. If we couln, like our Aryan for€«
fathers, look upon the contending monsoi ns as a great
battle being fought fur our special bemfit and in
which our champion Indra, the r.iin-giver, was sure
to be successful, there would be comfort and balm
in the thought for many of our minor niiaories. But
wo can't. Indra has long siuce been relegated to the
Umbo of the defunct gods ; the '* darksome spirits "
which he assailed have followed in his train ; and
Uovv Vfe have to turn our eyes to the Uimalayas,
And murk the tuow line tb«re er« W« eau iotm au

approximate opinion as to what the S. W. monsoon
will do for us.

The disappearance of coffee is being hurried again
this ^ear by bug. It was very bad last
season, but this one bids fair not to be
a whit behind. One thing, it somewhat mitigate
the pain in cutting an old friend — the fact that
he has developed such low tast' s that no other
way will do with him. But you do grieve that
a product which might have helped to have carried
the estate over the hiatus of the last lean years
and the coming plenty is turning out so value-
less. Bug is said to be very bad in all the low
districts, and it is to be hoped that the higher ones
may be spared. A inore sickening sight than a field
of coffee badly stricken with hug I hardly know.

By the way, while speaking of cofi'ee, I am reminded
that one of our firms the other day enclosed in tlieir
account to me a circular entitled " Partionlars of
Improved sieve-plates," aud quoted prices ! I read this
precious missive very carefully, but it was like a
message from the dead, a thing that ought to have been
in my hands ten years ago. When tempted, as I was
the other day, to accept R50 forapulper which not so very
long ago mst R700, to be now offered improved sieve-
plates for the same kind of machine at Rl'25 per
square foot, seems virr i.ke joking on sacred suhjects.

Peppeecohn,
♦— —

PLANTING IN MANILA.

[Trans'ntcd for Ike '■ Strails Tiines.")

Model Farm. — A telegram from the Colonial Minis-
ler has been received announcing that the r.jyal sanc-
tion had been given to the preliminary operations fol-
towing the choice of a site for the establishmfnt of
a model farm in the island of Luzon, within the pro-
vince of Pampauga, at the village of Magalang. With-
in a few days, preparations will be made for start-
ing this important agricultural undertaking.

Leaf Tobacco for Government. — The official Gazette
has published the conditions under which temlers are
invited for supplying Government with Philippine leaf
tobacco, applications to ba forwarded to Madrid. Tnis
notification bears out what we have asserted so many
times, namely, that the Government has no intention
to neglect a produce article of such importance, and
that hence growers should not become disc luraged,
but on the contrary ought, to set about, with greater
confidence, planting operations to secure abundance
of leaf tobacco of good quality. The 200,000 quintals,
tenders as to which have been called for by Govern-
ment, even through the price brought be only SIO
per quintal on the average, will when exported
leave two millions of dollars in this country
chiefly in the hands of growers, who can now,
if they choose, freely part with their produce
without the interference of intermediate dealers.

The Government hence protects its ownwo'k, that
is, the beneficent work resulting in the abolition o£
the tobacco monop dy. The people of these islands
should ba very grateful to It therefor, It is notorious
and wellknown to the public that discouragement has
set in among those engaged in the tobacco business.
But a calling for tenders of inch importance as that we
have annouiToed will revive the market, and it may be
said that the leaf tobacco shortly to be gathered in
will not be sufficient for Government requirements,
local consumption, and private exportation. Hence,
then, it is necessary for growers here who may have
land enough for the purpose, not to lose heart, but
to sow their fields and look well after the plants, for
the better the quality of their outturn the higher
will be the market quotations. The abolition of the
tobacco monopoly will, without fail, prove beneficial,
unless {growers here eluuiber whil« thoii; elsitwiiere

jt;i,y I, iSSj,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTtJRISf,

i0

keep awake. It will be inexcusable were the cultivation
of this valuable product neglected iu the Philippiues,
famed as they are from of old for producing tobauco
of the best quality iu the Far East, and \v*l-e the
Government aud mercantile community obliged in
consequence to have recourse to foreign ports in search
of what should be available at home.

. THE LABOUraNG CLASSES IN BRITAIN AND

IN CEYLON.

{By an ex-Ceyhn Cofl'ec Planter.)

How often do we hear old Indians inveigh against
the coolies aud servant boys whom they were ac-
customed to have in the East ? Their stealing pro-
pensities, their want of gratitude and their general
behaviour, are sources of unending conversation for
them, and I have oftimes found myself in a woeful '
minority, when I have taken up the cudgels in de-
fence of the absent Hindu. It is now my purpose to
compare the working classes of Great Britain with
those dark-skinned workers of India, and try to prove
from my personal knowledge of the two classes,
that the latter is the better after all. No doubt, every
coQee planter has had his troubles with r''gard to
labonr-supply, and the petty jealousies and quarrels
which went on amongst his coolies were, doubtless,
BOurcea of great annoyance to him : but we all have
our little troubles of this kind, in whatever sphere
of life we have a part, and the settling of disturbances
in the eooly lines or smoothing down of jealous feel-
ings are scarcely sufficient cause for a sweeping de-
nunciation of a whole class. But it is Iho incorrig-
ible wickedness of the Hindu that is always spoken
about, and first and foremost of all their vices comes
the one of cleptomania, — a vice that is supposed to
reign paramount in a coolie's breast. I have known
of many cases of coolies having committed theft, aud
I have taken evidence down in my judicial capacity,
which would have bean counted as conclusive by
many, but, when the poor half-starved and shivering
creaturis. who as a rule represented the accused,
pleaded hunger as a reason for their ciime, I always
felt inclined to lean to the si'Ie of mercy. I have
be^n ti Id of bungalows being brokfn into and robbed
of parchment cotlee taken from stores, aud of many
other instances of petty larceny, but I have never
had my bungalow or store broken into, aud so I can
only speak of tbe.se things from hearsay. The bun-
galows of some planters are in a chronic state of
being broken into, and it is possible that this m^iy
be accounted for by the fact that the planter is not
altogether a favourite with his coolies aud they do
it for revenge. At one time, the aistrict in which
I was residing was visited by a gang of thieves, and
one bungalow after another fell a prey to their maraud-
ing propensities. I daily expected that it would bo
my turn next, but, although I made no difference
in the way of watching, I was never interfered with.
However, before I had been long away from that
estate, I heard that both the bungalow and the store
hid been visited by light-fingered gentlemen. This gang,
however, — and indeed, I may eay, a very well-organized
gang,— of robbers in Ceylon consisted of Sinhalese,
whose lazy habits have been so fostered by Govern-
ment that they prefer stealing to working, and living
in gaol to life in their own villages, for, in gaol,
they have better food and a greater selection to
chose from than they could possibly have in the
villages,

liobberies that have come to my knowledge, and
which had been committed by coolies, have as a

rule been very trifling and were evidently perpetrated
more for the sake of supplying themselves with food
than anything else. Their want of gratitude I admit
to a certain extent only. They are alw.iys grateful
to the hand that supplies them with rice, but, when
the donor goes elsewhere, their gratitude is promptly
transferred to his successor, and the former " durai "
is blotted from their memory so far as gratitude ia
concerned. Yet I have met with many coolies who
were grateful for any little attention I had bestowed
on them during sickness, that I am f:iiu to believe
that theirs is a grateful nature if one cau touch tho
right chord, and I have never yet known a ooolie return
a kind action by an ungrateful one.

Now compare this with the manners and customs of
the working classes in the country at home. As a rule,
the lairds aud large farmers are a warm-hearted race, and
everready to put their hands in their pockets to relieve
their poorer brethren ; in return for this, they are
abused in public as well as private, and are spoken
of as if they were grinding the working classes under
their heels. In Scotland, there is, of course, no such
thing as politeness amongst the labourers : they think
that rudeness shows a tine, free and independent
spirit ; but iu England one does find a trilling display
of polish in the manners of the country labourers.
As there is an e.^cception to every rule, it would be
unjust of me if I neglected to mention that, when
travelling in one part of Scotland, in a parish called
Huntly in Aberdeenshire, I conversed with every
labourer that I chanced to come across, and met only
with politeness, and a quiet yet straightforward
manuer. I mentioned the fact to a clergyman there,
and asked him how he could account for it, and was
told that it was all due to the schoolmaster, who
was a gentleman and had inculcated his manner into
his pupds, and that under the present school-board
system the teachers often sprang from the lowest rung
of the village ladder, and therefore failed to have
and to hold the respect which they were entitled to
from their pupils. Whether this is the case or not
I am not in a positiou to say, but I give the illustra-
tion as I got it. One thing I do know, is that tho child
is father to the man, and that both child aud man
of the labouring classes here show a want of gratitude
aud a total ignorance of the distinction between
iiieum and luum that far outstrips the coolies on tho
estates of Ceylon. Both boy and man consider that
they have a perfect right to go into private plant-
ations and steal firewood or \juI1 up young trees for
decorating the halls of their Mutual lm|)rovcinent
Associations without leave from the proprietors. For
the same reason, llowers growing in gardens easy of
access are considered as public property, and tho
poultry fancier is lucky iudcid who cau bring up
chickens or ducklings fur his own table, they gcner.ally
being confiscated by lads who, having passed the
necessary standards at school, are free to apply their
education to such noble ends. In my younger days,
taking a turnip out of a field was considered a sin,
but we now live in an age, when one's turnips scein
to be public property, and when not only is it ap-
parently thought to be perfectly legitimate to take
turnips to eat, but also to throw them over the
dykes for sheep travelling along the road to partake
of, these sheep not being the property of the
grower of the turnips !

My shooting extends to about l,(X)0 acres aud my
fishing to about two miles of river frontage, aud,
during the season, scarcely a day passes that I do
not order poachers ofl' tho river, who kn.>w they
are trespassing, and chief among these is our district
constable, whose arduous duties seem to consist of
poaching on my (idling ground and spooning on
the post ollice girl ! Poaching game was much in-
dulged in before I came hire, but I liavo an awkwar^!

to

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1S85.

habit of gettiDg up early in the morning, at tlie
very time when the game poacher ia busiest, and this
has driven them to "fresh fields and pastures new " :
indeed, during the last three years, 1 have only
twice seen evidence of the presence of poachers. A
large farmer in Scotland, and father of a worthy
Kandy citizen, told me that the Ground Game Act had
been s curie to farmers, as it granted leave to thoir
Bons to shoot hares and rabbits, and they would do
nothing else now, and this just led to worse, as the
carta belonging to game-dealers went round the
country and bought the game from these boys. Since
I was told .this, I have seen this evil in full awing,
and I agree with what the old gentleman said, that
a plague of rabbits is pretty bad, but a plague of
ne'er-do-weel boys would be much worse.

How often have I heard old planters — now farmers at
home — say, that if they only had a gang of coolies, how
differently would they get on with their work, and how
much more pleasantly than with the stupid bumpkins
that are nowadays turned out by the school-boards
aa farm servants — louts that have just been taught
enough to make them believe that they are very
clever, but have not received sufficient education to
let them understand what utter idiots they are. There
are still many of the old race of farm-servants to
be met with, shrewd and hard-headed, but who have
not been educated to any great extent beyond the
three r'a and it is a real pleasure to speak with
any one of these, as they are so superior to the rising
generation. When that old race of farm-servants
dies out, it will be almost impossible to get their
places filled as grieves, cattlemen, &a,, the rising
generation being quite unsuited for such work, they
having never learned to supervise men nor caring to
make themselves acquainted with every work belong-
ing to a farm. A coolie learns every variety of work
connected with a coffee estate, but a farm servant
only learns a few of the duties on a farm ; he may
attend to a pair of horses, plough with them or drive
a reaping-machine with them, but could he reap with
a scythe, shear a sheep, or milk a cow ? Certainly
not : he leaves the general knowledge of farming to
the old school of labourers, and he ia content with
having passed the school board standards and been
shown the way to look after a pair of horses. Thf se
are the men who, going out to the colonies with large
ideas of their own abilities, lind themselves snubbed
by the colonials, who are obliged to learn now to
do everything for themselves, and who don't under-
stand a man who cau't put his hand t) anything
and everything, and so the deluded farm-labourer of
the present day comes home again, and seeks to
forget his colonial career in the more congenial work
of acting the part of a machine, without any idea of
why he ia ordered at one time of yeir to take his
horses and plough, and at another time to cart out
manure : it is nothing to him the why or the where-
fore, so long as he gets his pay, and that it is
•uificient for him to indulge in a periodical spree.
That is the farm-servant of nowadays at home, and
any old Ceylon man that ever I met has agreed
with me in thinking, that, for working, intelligence
and gratitude, the Malabar cooly is decidedly the
superior of the two. Cosmopolite,

Tea Driebs : " The Cry is Still they Come ! " —
We were one of a party who inspected an invention
by Mr. Charles Shand for drying tea, which we
agreed in terming an improved " Chulah," a horizontal
flue being the equivalent of the numerous charcoal
lires of former times. We intended to have written
a full notice of the apparatus, but we must
give the precedence to the details of mail news. One
gr@at^ merit of the new dri^r is its cheapness.

THE CEYLON BOTANIC GAKDENS : DR
^ TRIMEN'S REPORT FOR 1SS4.
Although in Dr. Trimen's latest report, there is
nothing sensational, the contents show that good
and useful work has been done, not only at
Peradeniya, hut at Hakgala, Henaratgoda and away
near the site of the ancient capital of Ceylon af
Anuradhapura. Although the rapid rise of tea and
cacao is recorded, and the bright hopes founded on
"new ijroducts" indicated, yet reference has had to
be made to the decadence of coffee under the ac
cumulated ravages of fungus, grub and bug. The
effect of the consequent prevailing depression is
shown ia the lessened sales of plants generally, while
it is complained that at Hakgala extra expense is
incurred from the necessity of renewing supplies of
plants for which demand has ceased, but which may
again be called for. Ceylon is now in the transition
period from coffee to tea as the staple production
of the island, and the sudden and complete glving-
out of the old product over large areas in the
Kandy and Matale diatricte, is this year a sore
trial to many who hoped with the proceeds of
sales of coffee to "plant up" their land with tea.
Dr. Trimen's notices of the Morada and Verde Cali-
sayas, as well of cinchonas generally, will be read
with interest, while cacao in its varieties is ex-
haustively treated. If the euterprize of Ceylon planters
has resulted ia low prices for bark, such as in many
cases cannot possibly remunerate the growers, there is
such comfort as ia available from the fact that humanity
ia the giiiuer by the large supply li quinine available
at very cheap ratea, The danger is that Ceylon
planters will go ahead so rapidly aa to brinjj; about
similar results with tea. Tea, however, is not a
medicine, but a must useful and acceptable article of
food, so tliat the danger will piobably be averted :
at any rate it is far distant. The meteorological
returns from the gardens below the vast brow of
Hakgala are very interesting, and, unless 1SS4 was
an exceptional year as regarda temperature as well
as rainfall, we have stroug proof of the superior
geniality ol^ the climate on the eastern side of the
Nuwara Eliya table-land, as compared with the
region to the west. As the result of very careful
observations taken by the late Mr. Edward Heelis,
a mean temperature of C5° was established at 4,000
feet altitude ia Dimbula. Hakgala ia nearly 1,000
feet higher (the difference between 4,')00 and 5,581
feet being exactly 9S1), but the mean temperature of
the loftier position for la?t year was only one degree
lower than the mean of the Dimbula station. Between
Dimbula at 4,600 feet with 03° mean temper-
ature and Nuwara Eliya at G,200 with 57° mean
temperature, the fall is 8°, or at the rate of 1* for
every 200 feet ascent. Or, ti take the reverse : in
going down from Nuwara Eliya to Langdale in Dim-
bula, a warmer climate is gained only at the rate of
1° for every 200 feet descent ; but in going down from
Nuwara Eliya to Hakgala a degree of heat is actually
gained for every 90 feet of descent ! The dilference is
very great, and no doubt it largely accounts for the
success with which peaches and plums are grown
by Mr. Cotton in New Gal way, a distiict which lies
close to Hakgala, but at a lower level and there-
fore still warmer. It would stem, however, that
Dimbula has the more equable climate, in being less
liable to extreme cold. In ten years in Dimbula

July i, 18S5]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

21

the thermometer only onoe went down lower than
45°, ami tlien it w.ia over 44", in the month of
Maich. But iu February last year, Mr. Nock at
Hakgala, recorded 4o'5" in the shade and 34' on the
grass iu the same month. The maximum in the shade
was 78'o' and in the sun 147'. The tirst portion of
the year being droughty, the rainfall for the year
was 75-4 inches on 19U days. We should think
that when the weather of 18S5 has been carefully
recordtd, fair averages for temperature, rainfall, &c.,
at Hakgala can be computed. The conditions of
climati are very different to those at Peradeuiya
even, and certainly the opposite of those which pre-
vail at lleuaratgoda and Anuradhapura. It is specially
pleasing to hear of the success of the latter Garden,
as persons condemned to live in the climate of the
ancient city need every possible alleviation of their
lot, such as the sight of luxuriant plants and
beautilul Uowcrs can supply. The rainfall at I'era-
dcuiya was only a few cents below that which fell
at Hakgala, but the rainy days at the 1,()00 feet
station were only 11.5 against 196 on the mountain
plateau. The Hakgala Gardens, which command so
grand a view of the Valley of Uva, will, now that the
rail«.iy has been opened to near Nuwara Kliya, be more
than ever the resort of visitors, and we are glad
to bo assured, and indeed to know, tiiat, under
Mr. Nock's energetic management, the place is
a credit to the colony, in degree only behind
the romantic scene near Kandy of which Dr.
Trimen ii the presiding genius. Our readers will see
that interchanges of plants and seeds have gone on
briskly and that to the list of plants at Pera-
deniya large additions have been made, while the
volumes iu the Library have also been increased.
We now know why the Ceylon BdopelHi has the
distinguishing name of Antonii. It is named after
Dr. Anton Uohrn, but why the tirst instead of the
second name of that gentleman was chosen, except
for r. asons of euphony, we cunnot say. We are also
informed that cacao was grown at the Botanic
Gardens at Kalutara in ISl'J and that in 18:i4-35
Sir I-tob^rt Wdmot Ilorton (who had just declared
the Indian rupee to be the equivalent of two shillliugs)
obtained a consignment of the plants from Triifidad.
Of course there is reference to the old narcotic and
new anesthetic coca or cuca, and it is shown that
specimens of Strychnos mix vomica growing in Ceylon
are especially rich in the alkaliids from which the
valuablo nie.liciue but deadly poison, strychnine, is
obtained. Fruit trees are not forgotten, and alto-
gether Dr. Trimen's Rviijort will well repay perusal.
We hope his next will announce a revivtd demand
for trees,- [jlauts and seeds; and the establishment
o£ a Garden at BaduUa which the Goveinment his
too long delayed.

make any unpleasant remarks it the superintendent
estimated lO.UOO aud cured 15,000 ; and yet he would
be equally wrong in the latter case as iu the former
and quite as deserving of censure. I wonder what the
feelings of those people are now who have been
cutting down good bearing coffee to make room for
tea. " CoS'ee ain't dead yet, and so I telli yer."
Afternoon sliowera have been prevalent during the
last fortnight, and one day recently a rather severe
thunderstorm was experienced, which, however, was
only of very short duration.

GOOD COFFEE CROPS IN UVA.

Badulla, 30th May. — You will, no doubt, be glad
and perhaps also surprised to hear that almost every-
body iu thete parts is getting a great deal more than
his estimate of cutfie crop : in some ins'ancea indeed
nearly double the estimate has already been attained
and there is a lot more to pick. If coffee quotations
were only at a decent figure, we might well exclaim :
" What a day we 're a 'aving." Many of the oldest
and most experienced planters here have been altogether
out in their calculations this season ; the very severe
attack of leaf-diaease we had making it extremely
doubtful if half the crop would ever ariive at maturity.
The mistakes in estimites being on the right side,
however no one is likely to raise an outcry about
the error. Agents and proprietors might object to a
superintendent estimating 10,000 of parchment and
getting 5,000, whereas they would not be likely to

HOW LIBEBIAN COFPEE WAS FIRST
INTRODUCED INTO CEYLON,

[From a letter addressed to a Loudon correspondent
by the late Mr. John Gordon.]

London, 27th November 1878.
You may have been reading in the papers from time
to time the history of the Liberian coffee without
perhaps being aware of the trivial circumstances
which tirst led to its introduction into Ceylon : it
may not therefore be out of placo if we give it now.
In 1SC6 there was a ship captaiu who had been on a
trading voyage along the West Coast of Africa, who
thought if he had some copper coins to trade with he
could do so much better than by barter. He therefore
called on Mr. Gordon (late of Ceylon) and spoke to
him with reference to having some copper coined.
While iu Mr. Goi'don's oflice the captain saw there a
number of small sample bottles of oullee, when he
remarked that at one place where he had gone ashore
he had si en two culfee trees growing side by side,
in the jungle, one of which was a large tree with the
berries on it like small English plums. The other tree
was entirely diff'erent and grew smaller berries.
Gordon asked the captaiu for a few berries of both
aorta, which he gave him. Mr. Goi'don was greatly
«urprized at the large-sized beans : the other coffee was
about the usual Ceylon size, but different in this respect
that about seven-tenths of the berries had three beans in
each cherry, in place of the usual two.

Gordon did not think much of this latter coffee, but
sent some of the large beans to Mr. Massey in Kandy
and set about obtaining a quantity of the coffee seed
from Liberia to forward to Ceylon, but, owing to the
Civil War and President Kay's death, the seed was not
obtained for som-i years. When Gordon succeeded in
getting eight bnehels of parchment coffee, he packed it in
powdered chare >al in old flour barrels aud sent it out
to Mr. Tottenham, who unfortunately had just left
Ceylon for a trip to Borneo. The ca.ks lay for several
months in the Customs House at Columbo until hia
return, when he liad it planted. Owing, however, to
the coffee having become t.io much dried from the
absorbing nature of the charcoal, not a single seed of
it grew.

President Roberts brought homo an open box of coffee
plants which ho presented to Mr. Goidon, who sent
them to Mr. Tottenham. The weather being rather
cold at the time of the plants' arrival, and the steamer
for Ceylon not sailing for ten days, Mr. Tottenham
took the box of plants in a cab to Mr. Bull's hot-houso
where tliey remained until the departure of the vessel.
(Two leaves from the plauts in this box are still pasted
against the wall in Mr. Gordon's office.) This was
the first time Mr. Bull had seen the coffee. Iu 1872
Gordnn had two wardian cases with plants, and
cherries, in theei.rth, aud these were also sent to Mr.
Bull's conservatory until the steamer was ready.
These plants were all sent to Mr, L. St. George Carey
to whom Mr. Tottenham had sold hia estates.

Althoujjh .Mr. Tottenham paid the greater part of the
actual expenses, Gordon states that ho is still out of
pocket by the introduction, and, as the (Government

22

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[JULV I, 1885.

haa had a good pull out of the sale of otherwise useless
land, it would seem fair that tbey should give the
introducers of this new product some compensation,
as au encouragement to others to introduce plants.

Mr. Massey has stated that he had sent the editor
of the Observer some of the first beans, so he, and
Mr. Massey could prove the introduction years before
Mr. Bull or Kew Gardens knew anything about the
coflfoe. Mr. Bull considered each of the wardian cases
and plants worth over £100. Mr. Gordon had about
£G for them, which was the bare^cost of charges.
Mr. Gordon was not charged for the plants, nor did
he make a claim for them on Mr. Tottenham.

[John Gordon is now no more, and we believe he
left his widow and family well off, the foundation
of his competency having been laid in Ceylon,—
Ed.]

CINCHONA SUCCIRUBRA IN UVA.
TEA GROWING APACE IN MADULSIMA.

31st May 18S5.
Cinchona. — Five acres one rood 20 poles planted
in 1878-79 and 1879 80 :—

June 1S83. — The clearing was shaved and gave
1,536 lb. of original bark which sold locally at 51 cents
per lb. ; analysis being 1 05 C. S. of Q.

February, March and April 1884. — The clearing was
shaved and gave 1,851 lb. renewed bark and 390 lb.
original bark. Renewed sold locally at Rl 0201 cent,
and originil at 25 cents pur unit, analysis being 3'31
and Til respectively. The drop in the analysis of
the original is owing to the fact that some very
young trees were shaved tbis year aud the bark from
the clearing not kept apart.

In lSS-1 85 (season current) the clearing has been
coppiced leaving sufficient trees standing to make a
good cover to the ground and the result is
Quill 2,GS9 lb. wet.

O. chips 3 283 ,, ,,
R. chips 8,079 ,, ,,
Twig 4,3.'-)3 ,, ,,

0. shvgs. .520 ,, „
R. shvgs. 059 ,, ,,
Twigs 52 ,, ,,

20,235
At 33 per cent 0,743 lb. dry bark.
33 per cent is the actual outturn of all bark dried
at this date. S.il'?s and analysis of this season will bo
Bent' on completion of the necessary statistics.

[The correspondent who sends us the above, remarks: —
"I send you some particulars of cinchona succirubra
in Madulsima. 1 think the result is satixfartory, to say
the lei.st. I hnpe my tea will some day do as well.
I am certain that we can grow very tine tea in Uva,
and Lave seen some very lately 2' 0" high at one year
old planted on patana soil. If we had been sending
our pioduce to Colomho by rail for the last five years,
we should Ui'ver have heard the name of distress in
Uva, aud the whole distr.ct would have been a
monument to the man who had given the word to
extend to BaduUa. \v'ould that it could have been said of
the Governor of that year : " .Si thu immentvm quaris
circumspice ! "]

REPORT Olf THE GOVERNMENT OINOHONA

ENTEBPRIZE IN JAVA FOR THE 1ST

QUARTER OF 1885.

(Translated for the " Ceylon Observer.")

The past quarter was marked by much heavy r.iin.

Whilst as a conseiiuence of this plautiug could be

carried on without ccs.'iaUon, in respect of other branches

of work £Oaio delay was e.vpericuced on account of tbo

continuous wet weather. At the beginuingof March several
storms were experienced, which caused a little damage
to plants and nursery-houses, especially at Naejrak. The
product of the harvest of 1884 was dispatched to Batavia
in bales and chests at the end of the quarter. A total
of 400,236 half-kilograms was gathered, of which 394,663
half-kilos were reserved for sale in the Netherlands aud
5,573 pounds for the local military medical service.
On account of the continuous wet weather a very small
quantity of bark was gathered during the past quarter,
which still lies stored in the packing-houses. The supply
of labour was very large, so much so, that in conjunc-
tion with the managers of private estates in the Bandoeng
and Tjitjalengka divisions the wages were reduced 20
per cent. The diminution of wages was applied only in
the case of coolies and newly engaged fixed bocdjangs, and
was not attended with the slightest difficulty afterwards.
On 18th Feb. a sale of cinchona seed took place under
the Government order. The prices obtained were on the
whole pretty high : for a small lot of Ledgerirana seed
from the plantation of grafts and cuttings at Tirtasari as
much as /7'50 per gram was paid. The total netted was
/l,463-75. A portion of the 1884 crop, viz. 1,112 bales
containing 78,725 kilograms net, was sold on 4th March
by public auction at Amsterdam, realizing an average of
fO-Qi per half-kilo. The markedly low price given for the
portion sold is to be referred to the large proportion of
inferior bark of which the 1884 crop consisted. Now that
the bark of young branches and twigs is no longer
gathered, it is to be expected that the average prices
win gradually rise in a correspondiug degree. The
plautations from which in 1884 and 18S5 inferior varieties
like C. Josejjliiana and C. Calisaya have been rooted out
were during the late west monsoon jdanted with C. Ledyeriana
aud partly with C. bucciruhra, whilst the graft plantation at
Tirtasarie was largely exteudcl. The plantation now consists
of about 78,000 grafts aud 7,000 cuttings, occupying an extent
of about 40 bouws. In the nurseries at Tjiujiroean are about
25,000 more grafts, a portion of which are to be planted
out during the jirevalent rain in the second quarter of
this year. The plants have during the last three months
made a vigorous growth chiefly as a result of the thorough
working of the soil carried out last year, and promise to
yield a largo harvest in 1885,

Van RoJinNDE,

Director Government Cinchona Enterprize.

B»ndoeng, 7th April 1885.

THE INDIAN TEA CROPS, ESTIMATED AND
ACTUAL: OUTTURN FOR 1885-86,

From the interesting report by William Moran &
Co., which we reproduce in our commercial columns,
it will be seen that for 1884-85 the estimated
outturn of tea for all India, was Ol),(;04,0001b. ; the re-
vised estimate reduced this quantity to 02,514,0001b. ;
while the actual outturn was 03,4 1-4,000 lb.

The estimate for 1SS5 80 is more than live millions
ofpnunda in excess of these figures ; but. the require-
ments of India and exports to Australia and other
places will reduce the supply for Britain to about
05,000,000, a quantity which, judging from the increased
figux'fS fur monthly consumption and the lowness of
stocks, is certain to ba readily absorbed. There had
been .an increase of more than a million of pounds in
the average monthly deliveries for 1884 against those
for 1SS2, the comparative figures for three years
being

1882 ... 4,322,0001b.

1883 ... 4,53.3,000 „

1884 ... 5,444,000 „

An average not higher than these last figures would
more than exhaust the 05,000,000 lb. So that all
Ceylon can add to the production of India is likely
to go to a good market. An improvement ia prices

July i, 1SS5.]

THE TI^OPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

23

is needed, the averages per lb. for the three years being,
for

1S82 ... annaa 87

1883 ... ,, 9 11

18S4 ... , 8-6
An average of a little over S annas., or considerably
noder one shilling per pound is certainly the
reverse of remunerative. It depends, of course,
on the cost at whioh tea can be produced. We in
Ceylon have many advantages, over the remoter dis-
tricts in Indi.i, but we suspect very little of our tea
is sent to market at a cost of less than 30 cents or a
little under Sd per lb. There is talk of 25 cents, but
few and far between arc the cases where that sum
has sufficed. There is a good margin, however,
between 8d and Is per lb.

If Ceylon planters do not make the very best poss-
ible tea, it will not be for want of good advice. But
can any reader tell us what Messrs. Moran & Co.
really advise as to the process popularly known as
"fermenting"? First they say "a full fermentation
should be given ;" but they add "it is safer to under
than overferracnt." " Brisk but thorough firing is
recommended," and yet Ceylon planters are charged
with burning their teas. The cases, however, in which
the brokers report " leaf burnt " are very rare.

SUGAR PLANTING IN MAURITIUS.
(From the Mercantile Record and Commercial Oazette,
May 11th.)

The Weather and the Crop. — Since our last, the
weather has continued favourable in certain parts of
the island, to the young plantations. But there is
every reason to suppose, as we already stated, that the
out turn of the crop 1885 to 1SS6, will not be equival-
ent in quantities to the one of last year. The de-
pression on our sugar rates is always causing great
anxiety, if the market does not improve, the cost price
of our staple will no doubt leave a serious loss. It
is high time that Government should take in hand
the interests of our planters, nothing has yet been
done in that respect, if our authorities are really de-
Birous of helping the planters to get out of the present
crisis, they must, at once, improte the labour law in
order to put a stop to vagrancy and more particularly
to absenteism on sugar estates.

♦

THE GOLDEN FRUIT.
[Ilcisand Rayyet.)

In a pleasant article, to which an appropriate adapt-
ation from (if we mistake cot) Herrick gives a de-
licacy of literary thvour, Ihe " Ceylon Patriot" exposes
the myth of the CofTee Eh/orado in the Island, and
anticipates the same collapse for the tea mania. The
account of Great Expectations and their discredit — of
the facdities for extravagance from blessed Paper Credit
and the consequent demoralization — have more than a
pasi'ing local interest. The following is the way of all
moDty making maniap, with the necessary variations
from the nature nf each industry : —

'• When llio Central Province became known as
adapted for coffee, and when a few, as planters and
snperiutendfnta, lived as if money was of no consider-
ation, dra«in'4 their income from their agents, King
Coffee was thought lobe a fairy Sovereign who was
willing to use his wand, at the beck and command of
every man, wlio called himself his subject. So gorgeous
was the picture of future wealth, that even the natives
thought, tlat to be conductor on an estate was to be
on the high road to v, calth. The kangani also when he
went to his country told his friends, bow they could
gather rupeet under the coffee bushes, and as a tangible
proof of his asFCrtion he freely distributed a few
rupees out of the heavy advances he received from

this master. Now while conductors have earned a
competency, and kanganies and coolies could boast of
lands and fields in their own country, wJiile carpenters
from Moratuwa have been able, by working on estates
to become well-to-do, and while Chetties have grown
fat on rupees, it is a fact, which cannot be denied,
that take it all in all, on an average, very few of
the planters have been aide to feather their nests,
and retire from business with something substantial.
The reason is not far to seek. Paper money and
the facility of obtaining things on credit have been
the bane of the coffee planters. A tlmndu lo the
Chetty, an order on the shop, and a promissory note at
the bank, made him think that money was cheap
as pebbles, and luxuries as the sine ijiia nan of
every day life. This was not found fault with,
because there was the prospect of future bumper
crops ; and for the time being King Coffee yielded
quite enough to keep a man out of the bank-
ruptcy court, and enable him to make a flash in the
pan, which maintained his credit abroad. If ho re-
turned to England he lived for the six or seven
months he was out on an holiday, as he was an
Eastern Prince. So glowing was the picture he drew
of fortunes to be realized by investment in coffee,
that there was no ditiiciilty in persuading those who
were looking for good investment to launch out in
lending money on mortgage of coffee property. He
then returned to Ceylon, with another feather iuhia
cap, with greater facility of raising money, and what
he counted upon as resources was paper credit : and
that did not trouble his mind : for he had nothing to pay
with ; nothing to lose : but if king coffee was generous
as good dame Fortune he had every thing to win.
Then followed the gradual decrease of crop. We say
gradual, advisedly. This induced the use of various
kinds of manure, whioh made the trees precocious,
and brought about for the time being a large produce
to stave off heavy losses and insolvency. Till at
present coffee is well nigh dethroned, and his great-
ness is the memory of the past and a matter of history. "

The above ought to act as a general warning to
planters and speculators on both the Continent and
the Island. The same cause is at work in many of
our Indigo concerns, specially since the protection
to the peasantry has dried up the former illicit sources
of profit of planters. The same acting doubtless with
other circumstances, has been the ruin of the tea
industry in Bengal and Assam. It would appear
that the same path is being pursued in Ceylon
with respect to tea, which has there taken the
place of coffee. The result may be easily predicted,

Our contemporary seeks to create a diversion. It
deprecates the prevailing devotion to the ambitious
culture of coffee and tea, and offers a sober yet far
from unpromising alternative. It recommends a fall-
ing back on a cultivation to which the soil is adaped
and for which the island has been famous from of old
namely, coconut. Our insular brethren should seriously
consider the suggestion. Coconut is a tedious cultiv-
ation, but it is easier and lets costly than tea or coffee
and its ulimato success is not so problematical. The
soil suitable to it is, of coursi', different from coffee
or tea s)il,but probably mmv estates li.ive both kind*
and in that case it might be worth the uhileof the
owner, to grow both sorts of product-, so th.-itthe uncert-
ainties of coffee or tea might be balanced by the toler-
able certainty and moderato protitsbleott-s of the cocoa
palm. Whatever the viciasitudis (if tl c iinre amb-
itious culture, an estate with a goodly plantation of
young coconut trees would always coimnand agood price.

We would make the same suggestion for India. In
fact we notice this extra-Indian subject to )>rominently
at this length, in order to direct our readers' attin-
tion to the advisableue-ss of promoting this substanti-
al culture, Coconut is out of the question for the

H

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

hills and highlands where tea is grown. Bat many
of the Indigo coacerns in Lower Bengal are within
the coco palm belt. The ambitious planter may
deride it as a poor idea, but there may be prudent and
astute men who might seriously consider the profit-
nbleness of having coconut nurseries in the neigh-
bourhood of their factories and plantations on their
estates. We especially commend the culture to natives
to whom it is in every respect better suited. It is
most lamentable to see this fine productive resource
of the country unutilized. While so many of the
respectable classes are pining in want, while our
educated young men are crowding the professions
and the ordinary spheres of employment to the de-
triment of those already in them and to their own
disappointment, while multitudes besiege a single
vacancy, here is actually a royal road to riches absol-
utely neglected. We say rojal road, because success
is certain and on the easiest terms imaginable.
Wealth perhaps may not be open to all, being a
question of capital, but with ordinary out'ay and
ekill and industry, such as most may command, a
more than fair return and even competence may bo
assured. We pretend to no discovery, the thing
ought to be well known. The 'coconut is one of the
oldest of indigenous plants. It is everywhere about
US, specially in the maritime fringe. It is, within
its sphere, found in numbers in every homestead —
its most striking object and cherished monument. It
is, on the face of it, a substantial valuable tree. For
that matter, it is unique. It is invaluable — absolutely
and entirely valuable— useful in the highest degree
in every feature and belonging of it. It does not
very much trouble, scarcely ever deceives, the loyal cult-
ivator, for on the right soil it is sure to grow without
solicitation and does not want delicate nursing, and
it almost never disappoints the merchant or trades-
man, as it keeps for ever and a satisfactory sale is only
a question of time. In fine, it is the best provision
for a rainy day in the agricultural career. Our unem-
ployed youth without professional training could not
do better than beg, borrow, oretealsorae little capital,
and plant a few acres of coconut.*

♦

PLANTING IN DELI.
{Tramlalcd for the "Straits Times.")
bjyread of Plantation cnterprize. — A few years ago
plantations in the Battack country inland were only
few in number, but the tale of them both in Deli
and Langkat has now greatly increased, there being
every prospect that further advance by Europeans in
that direction is only a question of time, and that
the opening of tobacco estates in the Battack couutiy
will take place in all directions wherver the soil is
in any way suitable for it. By comparing previ us
surveys of the Deli district with those lately carried
through by the topographical office as set out in a
map now readily obtainable by the public, this for-
ward movement becomes more evident. This peace-
able annexation goes on so slowly but surely that
probably, before ten years shall have elapsed, the
green mountains at whch we had so looginftly gir, d
from the coast will no longer be a closed book. By
that time, European cultivation will have reached
them, and a fertile country will in a lawful manner
be brought under the Netherlands' sceptre. Already
at various places the so-called independent Battick
boundaries have been, if not crossed, at lea^t reache 1,
though the authorities pro forma have only granted
sanction to land contracts bearing upon cUstiicts
where the Sultan of Deli or the Pangeran of Langkat

* See "All about the Coconut Palm," published at the
Office of this iieriudical.— £o.

enforce claims or exercise dominion. Soon, however>
this will no lont;er prove sufficient, and then the tnrn
will come for contracts with which the Malay rulers
have nothing at all to do. The Government may now
look upon this as undesirable, and withhold as loug as
possible its sanction to such contracts, but even this
reluctance cannot be carried beyond certain bounds ;
and, when once the inclination and the need for extend-
ing colonization become too great, it must give way.
Difficulties and differences between the n.atives and
European settlers will not be wanting at the outset
(such things have taken place everywhere) ; but in
this case they might be greatly obviated by Govern-
ment taking action in time to favour settlement." —
Deli Courant.

The European residents in Deli are 500 in number,
many of whom are planters.

At a meeting of the Deli, Serdang, and Langkat
Planters' Association held at Medan, on the 23th
March, it was decided »o fix by w.xy of trial from the
1st .June to the 1st November this year, the foe for
Sinkeh coolies delivered on the estates at §50 each
owing to its having risen so enormously of late from
competition among planters when the labour market
was badly supplied, as to bid fair, unless checked, to
amouQt to SlUO per coolie,

" We may add to our previous statement about
a German Consulate in Deli, the intelligence that,
yesterday, by French mail, Mr. F. Kediug re-
ceived a notification of his appiutment to fill it. so
that he only awaits the exequatur of the Netherlands
Government in order to enter upon the duties of
his office.

"The severe drought which has been experienced
here also for a cjuple of mouths, which h.Ts hindered
the putting out of young tobacco plants on many estates
and alsa did great havoc among the seedlings, appears
to prevail along the whole coasts and more severely
even than here. In Assahan, the patty crop has
proved a total failure, so that the exportation of gra n
has been forbidden, a striking contrast to former years
when Assahan exported sometimes ten thousand gaii-
tangs to Penang, contrary, however, to the ruininirj
current thereanent in the Scraits, the state of hcaltti
here generally is sa'asfaclory, and there is not the
least truth in the assertion that cholera is prevailing
epidemically."

The running away of coolies from e^tilea is be-
coming unusually fr€quent this year. Both in Dcdi
and Langkat, several planters are complaining heavily
of it, without any of tliem being able to find i,ut
wliat the true cause is. The blame may partly be
laid on the continually dry weather, for having
maJe the Chinese in consequence sick at heart
and impatient; but this cannot be the only cause,
because absconding takes phoe on estates where
field w..rk is not in such an advanced stage that
the continuous drought need cause uiuasiniss. We
rather prefer to account for it by what we la ely
heard brought forward, namely, that the luuaivaya
are hdp d to ab.-cond by coufalerates of the Penang
brokers. 'I he exeesdveiy high fcei paid of late for
coolic'3 at PeuADg n;i tin ally tends to encourage,
kidnapping. We moreover bel'eve that sopervfiou
over departing Penang steamers is not so strict as
the Planters' Oommittee laecy. During Ills) illness
of the Captain in China and his stay at Mcdau, his
so IS oft n repaired upcountrj ■ In our opinion,
I heir absence resulted in supervision becoming flwiier.
It would also be dtsirable were the plant' rs to pay
greater heed to ths returning of the discharge
passes of those coolies who leave the country. A
regular trade in there paSses is carried on in !,abuan

Deli.

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

25

Thk PKOsrECTs OF Tka.— All old plantei' write';: —
"There is no dovibt about one thing, and that is that
there are thousands of acres ( f tt-a being planted
in Ceylou quite equal to if not supeiior to show-place,
Mariawatle. Another factis that tea is most remunerative
at Is fteiling per lb. all round in London with a good
margin for a fall in price. "

The CiNcnoxA Enterprize in Java. — The latest
report (translated for our planting ojlumn) is a
great contrast to the r.onleuf th rose statements of
former years, the tnij,' bark even of Ledgeriaua sharing
in the general depression and selling at a price
unprecedented for lonuess. Hard times in Java, it
will be seen, had had the effect of rendering labour
plentiful and cheap.

CocONVT Planteks are bewailing the shortness of their
crops thi,s year as well as the bad prospects for ne.\t y ar
that they have to look forward to. Two successive years
have told heavily on the trees in tlie Western Province,
and old and experienced coconut planters tell ma that
they do not expect to get J the crop that they have
hitherto picked from their respective estates. On some
estates no rain fell for fully four months, thus causing all
the blossom to fall aud not allowing the same to
mature. — Car.

iUARiAWAiTE New Tea Factouy is like'y, when
ready, lo be the most complete in the island if not
in the world. The machinery (all Jackson's Patents,
Hollers, Drier, Sifter, ka.) is to be driven by a 12 horse-
power Marshall's steam engine, now on the way out.
There is no lack of fuel for machinery or drying,
around Gampola, but it is p inted out that where
timber is scarce in Ceylou, dneJ gras can be readdy
got as in many districts in India wheie grass is regular-
ly used for the driei'.s. Our m;uia grass dried and
stacked ought to be very nsefal for tea-drying.

KoRAIMi "thk Mysterious," which has at
length ben fully explored by Mr. Im Thurn, is
tne subjec; of an inteixsring paper by Mr. H. J.
Perkins (who aocompauh d ihe explorer) u.iticed in
Nature. The falls must be magniticcut, the Kerkenau
river, which rises i i the mountaiu of Ihe same name
deBC.;nding from the summit in a splendid fall of
1,300 feet. The run water on the top of Koraima
rushes over the side of ihe enormous clifT in magni-
ficent "cascades" somf of which h.ive a clear fall of 1,500
feet ! Roraima plateau was found to be 8,600 feet
above sea-level.

Britlsh Colombia. — What traffic will the Canada
Pacific line have in this country ? lu the opinion of
many who know the c uutry there are few — if, in-
deed, any — di tricts of the aiz-. of British Columbia
for which the amount and diversity of its natural
resources promise a more prosperous future. Its coal-
beds produce fuel that is g-nerally ack'ioHleilged to
be the best on the whole Pacihc ilope, a circumstance
amply corroborated by its large export to San Fran-
cisco aud other American [orts. Of the timber wealth
it is not necessary to sp.'ak, for British (."oluinbia has
today by far the largjst and by far the finest forests
in the world. Its fisheries are finer than anything
OQ the cast coast of America or in Europe, while what
good judges pronounce to be perhaps the most important
if its resources — that is, its minerals — deserves very
much more attention by capitalists than it has hitherto
received. The extent of its agricultural land is limited,
but what there is is uanully of the moat productive
alluvial character. Its grazing areas are limited to
certiin di-itricts, where ex,.ellent bunch grass and a
mild winter climate prevail. In a few valleys, such as
the Upper Kooteuiy valley in the attractive Kootenay
district, through which the Canada Pacific is now
being built, there is a rare combination of both these
kinds of lands. And w ithal the whole country is one
where life is not made unpleasant by extremes of
temperature.— /'«/! Alall Umlrjct.

Sale of a Coffee E.state.— Sir James Gordon, your
late Resident, has at last found a purchaser for his
coft'ee estate on the Nilgiris, known as Glenburn. Tlio
estate is 91 acres in extent, all coffee in full bearing
and realized 20,i 00 rupees, a third of the price asked
a year ago for the property, aud a little more than a
half of what was wanted a few mouths back. Tha
average crops were given at 16 tons, which was the
estimated outturn of the crop for 18S4-85, but up to
the end of April the coffee didn't ripen, and was not
(iff the tie.s when the estate changed hands. The
industry all over the District is greatly depressed and
the agouciia refuse alvances. It is not surprising
therefore to find that properties quoted at high prices a
short time ago are going a bc-gging. — Ootacamund
coiresponilent of Bangalore Spectator.

Mit. Arnold White on Adulteratiox and
Emr!R.\tion. — This versatile ex-Ceylon planter whose
name is not unknown in the Eakwana and
Bila'igoda district^, after biing Secretary to an
Elcclrie Light Company in Li ndon, has now de-
veloped a new career as a social philanthropist — a
seeker-out of the nomad poor in the East of London
and a controversialist with Socialists. In the for-
mer capacity, Mr. White ha. contributal an article
to May's Contemporary in which the planter comes
out io his demonstration of adulteration, thus : —
" To take but a few instances : legalizing the sale of a
mixture of coffee and chicory has not reduced ad-
ultera'ion of these commodities, for the coffee is half-ripe
or inseet-caten, ' tails ' blended with ' finings,' and
the cliicory is fortified with beans, lupin seeds, acorns,
' Llamln'o' powder,' mingel-wuizel, and spent t;in ; and
the most obvious proof of adulteration is, that the c 'ffee
is sold retail in London at a price at which it
cannot be produced on his estate by the coffee-
planter. A pennyworth of tea, as purchased by the
poor in many small East-end shops, does not contain
oneteiileaf. It consists of iloordust, the sweepings of
inferior te.is, China clay, fine sand, and spurious
leaves of ' Ma-loo ' mixture. Bread in the Erst-end
lias some peculiar characteristic well worth the notice
of a philanthropist."

Tea WrriiiN- 25 Miles of Colombo. — I visited Dum-
hartou estate, Henaratgoda, some weeks back (I think it
was about a fortnight back) with two friends and was
most courteously reeceived by the resident superintendent
and his son. I had not seen this place for some time,
and was simply astonished at the m.arvellous change that
has taken place in the aspect not only of the estate itself
but its bungalow and its surroundings. Liberiaii and cacao
were rapidly giving place to tea, and tea was actually being
manufactured on the estate. I did not like to enquire,
hut I certainly think it must be from trees under two
years in growth, as I have visited the estate before aud
my visit previous to the last could not have been so far
hack as two years ago. One of my companions is one of
the most fastidious geuts I ever came across aa regards
what he oats and what he drinks. He had long since
eschewed tea, has become a great coffee drinker, is a great
authority on the best mode of grinding coffee, has his own
opinion of Dr. S.'s ground coffee as sold by a leading
Company, (;arries a patent coffee pot, one of AV^alker's
best, his own coffee, and lastly makes his own coffee. He had
not tasted tea it appears for years. We reached the estate
at about 10 a. m. having started from Henaratgoda rest-
house, ami after a walk round the estate went into the
bungalow and were there given a cup of tea made out of
the estate produce, and I can a.s.sure you each and all of
US, including our " fastidious " friend, the great coffee-
drinker, pronounced the tea really good. "We felt so re-
freshed after it that we walked ii good distance back on
our return to the resthoiise and each and alt made up our
mind to buy nothing but " Dumbarton " tea in the
luturo. So, not informing you as to the proprietorship
of the estate, I beg you will be so good as to inform me
where " Dumbarton Tea " is to be got.— Cor.

96

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

The "Tropical Aobicoltukisi" in all its volumes
has been added to the College Library of the Royal
Agricultural College, Cirencester.

"The Fermentation of Tea," writes Mr. Johu
Hughes, " is indeed a most injportant subject, but I
think, like tlie aualytis of Si(af/e (which is attracting
so much attention in this country), it should be
investigated looally. Fermentation in hot climates
proceeds so much more rapidly than in temperate
zones."

Ceylon Teas in London. — A gentleman in the Tea
Trade writes from the Lane :— '■' London, 8th May.—
Since my last letter to you a large quantity of Ceylon
Tea has been brought to auction and mostly sold.
Our market still remains in a firm condition, especially
for the finer grades, which have been well competed
for. Au invoice from the Hardenhuish estate has
shown decided improvement both in style and liquor,
the teas b- ing something similar to those from the
Loolcondera estate. A shipment from the Oliphant
estate (which I gather from the T. A. to be one of
the most elevated in Ceylon) was sold this week, but
the teas were greatly deteriorated in value by their
being over-firtd ; this over-firing is still to be noticed
in a large quantity of Ceylon Tea."

The Death and Ellwood Machine in Jamaica.—
The trials of fibre cleaning machines, conducted by
a committee appointed by the Government of Jamaica
have o included, and in a recent number of the Official
Oazette, we find a copy of the committee's report on
the working of the machine. It differs from that of
the Calcutta committee, and this is doubtless due to
the presence of Mr. Death himself in the one case,
and the want of anyone expert in the use of the
maohino in the other, for this Jamaica record is by
no mtais satisfactory. Thus we find that from
310 lb. of gieen pineapple leaves, only 25 lb. of
wet fibre, or 8 lb. of dry fibre were obtained in 7
hours 20 minutes ; from 4SS lb. banana stems, only
34 lb. of wet fibres, or 6^ lb. dry in 2 hours 20
minutes ; from 247§ lb. rhea stems, 13| lb wet, or
4i lb. diy in 4 hoars 12 minutes. Similar results
w'ere obtained in the case of other fibre?, and the
committee express their regret that they are so far
below what they had been led to expect. We under-
stand, however, that the General Fibre Company will
shortly send out a represertative to the West Indies
to demonstrate what the machit-e can do when pro-
perly handled. — Planters' Gazette,

Planting in Tavoy, British Burma.— Mr. Jas. D.
Wat-sou writes:—" I am quite well and jolly, and
products are nourishing nicely. I send you a photogr aph
of my estate taken by Mr. A. H. Loansdale, head-master
of the Tavoy school ; also one small photo of a coffee
tree in full bloom taken by our euerf/etic Diputy
Commissioner, Mr. C. J. A. Dubo : it will remind you
of the good old times in your lovely island, Leylon. I
am now busy felling again for cocoa, tea and Liberian
coffee. Have fine nur-ieries, and plants splenaid, ranh
and vigonus. Fine rains this sea>:ou : January rain,
February rain, .March rain, and we e-xpect iu April
about middle." The photographs have duly come to
hand and that of the colfec tree in ii>wer should
be a cure for " sore eyes " to an old cotfee planter, so
grand is the display of blossom. Tiie view of the
"Model Duko Estate " gives us a glimpse of Libtrian
cotl'eo and other products backed by abundance of veget-
ation with buildings peeping out at oue or two
points. The worthy manager and a kangani come out
ell. We have a long report in the printer's hands
from Mr. Watson, who, as the planting pioneer of
Tavoy, is practically demonstrating how model estates
should be formed.

Jamaica at the New Orlaens Exhibition.— We
learn from Mr. Morris, that, besides making a large
and al^tractive exhibit, Jamaica bids fair to open
large trade reliitious with New Orleans, and one of
his chief duties, successfully accomplished, was to get
the quarantine regulations against Jamaica which have
been in existence for nearly 30 years removed. Mr.
Morris adds: — "We have vindicated the climate and
sanitary conditions of our island as being the best in the
West Inrlies, aud hence we shall have unrestricted trade
with the Southern Stiites of Ameri a all the year
round. This will have a great effect upon our fruit
trade and smaller industries, and it is really in these
just now (in the univtr^-al depression which has over-
come our larger industries) that our true safety lies."

Tea Boxes from Japan.— Mr. H. D. Deane of
Maskeliya haa made good us^- of his time in a holiday-
trip to the Far East, to judge by the following extract
from a letter received from him : — " Yokohama, 23rd
April. — Of our travels, I have but little time to write,
but you may be sure we are having a very jolly
time of it. We stayed a fortnight at Hongkong, two
days at Canton, a week at Kobe and Hiogo, two
days at Otaka, a week at Kiote, doing from there
L,ake Bewake .lud the rapids, and we shall stay here
and at Tokio &c. until the mail after this, when we
return to Ceylon. I believe 1 have been able to be
of use to Ceylon tea-plantirs in that I have managed
after a lot ot trouble to arrange for an unlimited
supply of well-seasoned tea boxes of cedar and pine-
wood : the ^at^B at which I can place them
in Colombo I enclose on a separate memo : —

Cost of 1,000 tea boxes 19 x IGJ x ISJ, to hold CO J^Tet.
to 70 ft) delivered in Oolonibo at ... ...R55500

Plus Colombo charges and duty, say 5 per cent 275

Plus, say lauding aud brokers' charges 5 per cent 275

Boxes about |-inch thick dove-tailed and packed
iu shocks, of best seasoned wood ...R560o0

Cost of 1,000 tea boxes 17 x 14 x 15, to hold 3»

to 45 lb delivered at Colombo at ... ...R50000

Plus Colombo charges aiid duty, say 5 per cent 2-50
Plus, say lauding and brokers' charges 5 per cent 2'o0

Boxes above j-inch thick dove-tailed and packed
iu shocks, of best seasoned wood ...R505-00

I will bring samples with me by next mail. The
quality of tlie boxes is Al, better than ouis iu Ceylon
iu every way : they are dovetailed by machinery
by a system called the " lock-hook," which is so much
stronger than our old system that no nails except
those used for lioopironiug will be required, aud
they are so beautifully made that wo planing is re.
quired on the estate, both the sides, tops aud bottoms
fitting together exactly. I cannot tell you what
the landing charges will be in Colombo, but I
have in my enclosed estimate allowed 10 per cent
for duty (?) and lauding and brokers' charges. [Iho
Government might well forego duty on ao article calcul-
ated to benefit a rising agricultural industry.— Ed.]
The larger boxes me.asuie abont 71 Ions of 40 cubic
feet to 1 000 boxes and the smaller about 6), tons ; but
in any ca'e the charges on this side as far as Colombo
are correct, and I chall be able to deliver the boxes at
Colombo (the purchaser to pay lauding charges) at
Kri55 00 per 1,000 on tho larger size or 55J cents
per box, aud l!5y0 per 1 ,000 on the smaller size or
50i cents per box, provided each order be not less
than 50 tons, for which measunment I have obtained
special rates of freight— the sizes of course can be
altered if di sir, d I at present give the sizes for « hich
the machine i^ set to cut." [We give Mr. Deaue's
experiment the advantage of an advertisement because
ho has personally visited Japau and taken trouble to
bring a new aitiola to aid our planters. As in the

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

2?

case of the " jiniricUshaws," we do not see why local I
makers should not copy the Japanese pattern when 1
it is fully introduced, that is if generally approved j
of. We hear deplorable accounts of the state of the
carpenters of the Moratuwa district for want of work.
Have they begun to try their hauds at " jinirick-
shaws," the use of which is extending upcountry, or j
at tea boxes? — Ed.] ■ |

New Ze.vland Flax. — It will interest colonial |
botanists to know, that a very fine specimen of the
plant Plmrmium tenax fariegata is blooming in the
conservatory at Castle Hill House, Huntingdon, the
residence of the Ven. Archdeacon Vesey. The speci-
men is in a No. 2 pot (I'li inches in diameter).
The flower-spike is already IS' feet high, and secma
likely to reach another 2 feet. The spread of the
beautifully-striped leaves is 13 feet, and aliogether
the plant forms a striking object in an angle at the
garden entrance to the conservatory, — Europetin Mail.
Tea Pkospeots. — Commenting on the future of
the tea market, the Grocrs' Chronicle says : — We
have examined into the prospective supply and carefully
considered the figures as far as they are known, and
our investigation leads U3 to the conclusion that the
total crop of the year is about four millirms of pounds
in excess of last year, New Zealand, Australia, and
America have taken about one million in excess of
last season; and the S. S. "Justitia." which was
lost had about three quarters of a million on board.
So that as nearly as possible the excess to be expected
in London over last year is about 2,250,0001b. The
deliveries have been 8,000,000 lb. greater tlian last year,
and the good piiccs ruling here for the last two
months have tempted importers to put up every chest
they had for sale. So that the unsnld part of the
crop now in dock is only about 4,000,000 lb. against
14,000,000 lb. this time last year. Some nutborities
say that at this time last year there wa>i not so much
as 14,000,000 1b. remaining ; but from the 15tb Arrd,
16S4, to the end of the season, l(iO,000 packages
were catalogued for sale ; and allowing each package
to average 00 1b., we incline to regard our statem.^ut
as quite within the mark. Of course, r.s long as the
market is so well supplied as it hiis been for the
last ten weeks (during which time 40,000 chests more
than last year have been sold in sale), no ic.^rcity is
felt, but as soon as the four mil'ican yet to be sold are
cleared off, there will be r.itlier a want of occupation
for the noble army of tea-tasters in Mincing Lane.
Perhaps, therefore, the active desire to get hold of
a^ much tea as pos-ible is, after all, not far wrong,
although the price.s piid for some lots this week in our
judgment could scarcely be justified ou any other
grounds. — Home and Colonial Mail.

Tea Taxation. —Nearly simultaneously, at both ends
of the longUne over which it travels, tea has been threat-
ened with increased taiatiou, owing to financial exigencies
caused by war. The alarm has proved a false one, so
far as London is concerned. The ii te'ests of teetotal-
ism and the free breakfast table have prevailed ; Mr.
Childers has sought other sources of revenue, and those
interested in the leaf are quit from the excitfment and
the temporary spurt which it caused. It is, however,
not so certain that it will be equally fortunate in China.
Though stronger in a military senae than before the
French w'ar broke out, China has without doubt been
subjected to a severe Hnauic.il strain ; and the necessity
for some additional taxation may well remain, even
now peace has been declared. The fmancial scheme
lately drawn up by the Board of Revenue and Tsungli-
Yam6n seems to have contemplated an addition of from
25 to 40 per ceut. to existing dues on the common and
medium teas ; and though that increase in not greater
probably, than would havo been imposed here, if tea
had beea seleottd for additional taxation, the

effect would bo vastly different on the China
trade. An additional tax at this end would affect
Indian and China teas alike, and place the latter
therefore at no relative disadvantage ; while an addition-
al tix in China would give an impulse to the cult,
ivation in India and elsewhere that would probably affect
permanently both the selling v.ilne and the demand for
the Chinese produce. As we have said before, however,
the new scheme was drawn up before preliminaries of
peace had been fettled, and will hardly be m.iintained in
its integrity under thealtered conditions. The Imperial
approv-d was provisionally accorded, subject to the
advice of the provincial authoritie.s ; but we can hardly
doubt that the alarm of the Chinese dealers, who
fully appreciate the situation, will communicate itself
to the latter, and lead at least to a modification of
the plan. If additional revenue must still be had,
the Chinese Government will be wise to follow the
English example, and leave tea alon3 — visiting its
difficulties upon the other articles in its programme.
In opium alone it has a rich mine, if it would
frankly recognize the squeezes which are actually
levied ou the native drug, but whose quasi illegality
enables the diversion eif the greater portion into the
official pocket. China tea is already taxed heavily
enough, at either end ; and any modification should
be rather in the direction of easing than lightening
the burden, if it is to keep its place in the market ;
whereas it has had a narrow escape of incurring a
double mulct. The escape is complete so far as the
threatened 3d at this end is concerned j and we hope
it may escape the greater portion, if not all, of the
threatened increase in China. Chinese mindaiins aro
not the most skilful or most moral of financiers,
but they have a crude idea of the folly of quito
killing the goose that lays th'J gold, n egg ; and the
danger in this case is likely to be borne in upon
them from many sources. They cannot afford to
injure severely a large and important industry ; eo
we may probably take it for granted that, if there
be an increase, it will be a more moderate one than
the memorial proposes.

In the tea market, operators are relieved from
further uncertainty as regards the duty, in which
no alteration has been made. By an increase in
the tax ou beer and spirits it is not improbable a
further stimulus will be given to the consumption of
the leaf, aud which is undoubtedly the cheapest
beverage that is sold. The consumer has now been
educated to a preference for Indian grown, but there
is no doubt, if teas from China showed improvement
in quility they would quickly regain the lost ground.
An effort was made by the Foochow teamen by an
" edict, " strongly urging the growers in the differ-
ent districts of the Foh-Kion province to devote
greater care in the cultivation io, , and so compete
with tho teas grown in India. The Chinese now
seem fairly aroused to the necessity of arresting
the declining trade, the total export for the season
being only 14,5,000,000 lb., against 153,000,000 lb.
As regards Indian tea, consumption goes ou rapidly
increasing, and this has been helped by low prices. The
accounts from India, however, are not satisfactory, as
planters have done no good at the prices current
duiiijg the greater part of this season. The firm belief
that the duty would be increased on tea continued up
to the time of the Chancellor of the Exchequer making
his statement last night. Yesterday two firms alono
paid as much as £24,000 in duty, representing nearly
a million pounds of Tea. During last month advances
havo been made to a con.sidorable extent by the banks
j against the amounts cleared by the dealejs. A quiet
' market may now be expected, unless war breaks out
which would create a roactiou. — London and China
I hxpresi, May let,

28

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885,

MR. J. B. MOENS ON THE POSITION OF
THE CINCHONA BARK MARKET.

From an elaborate article headed " The Cinchona
Market in 1884," which has appeared in the Indian
3lcrcuri/, a Dutch publication, we are pl-id to observe
that our good and valued friend, the Dii-ectir of the
Java cinchona plantations, is still to the fore and
resident, during his well-earned furlough, at Haarlem.
We are the better pleased to receive this information
because several books and periodicals which we for-
warded to Mr. Moeus, "care of the Dutch iVJiuister
of the Colonies," were returned to us, with the
inimation that Mr. iVloens was "not to bo found"!
That one of the greatest benefactors of the chief
colony of Holland, of Holland heraelf, and of the
human race, should be so little known or held in so
little esteem by his countrymen, is, we conceive,
greatly to their disgrace. In connection with the
history of the very king of the fever-plants Mr.
Moens's name will be honourably remembered ages
after the names of the leading atatoameu and war-
riors of the Netherlands will have sunk into oblivion.
We are glad to notice, that, while absent from tho
scene of his honourable and useful labours, Mr. Moens
is not forgetful of the product with which his name is
so intimately associated. The paper to which we have
referred, and which we shall transfer in full to tho
columns of the TropiC'il AijrlcnHurUt^ gives good and
clear resume of the cironmstoucps whioli have brought
the market for quinine-yielding bark and quinine sulph-
ate to its present low estate. In less thau a quarter of a
century since first the South Americin plants were
introduced into Asia, the experiment has been so
successful, that the Eastern bark, chictly tho product
of Ceylon, has almost closed the market to the product
of which the Western world, for many centuries after
the diseovery of the virtues of "I'eiuvian Bark," was
made, had the monopoly. As is our fashion in Ceylon,
we have disregarded the m^y.'m\ fe si ina lent/; and, com-
mercially speaking, we have, by going ahead too fas',
injured our own interests oidy less than those of the
bark-gatherers of the Andean forests. But, as we
said, in reviewing Dr. Trimcu's report, humanity is the
gainer in having available in plenty the most valuable
febrifuge in the world at a price unprecedentedly
moderate. We only wish we saw consumption ad-
vancing more in proportion to plenty and cheapness.
But all in good time.

Mr. Moens commences hia paper by adverting to the
unfavourable influence exerted on the bark market
at the ecmmencement of 188-1, by the operation of
an agreement by a syndicate of European and
American quiniue manufaeturers to limit the mauu-
facture of the sulph.'ite, — of all the alkaloids, in
truth. The reault for a time was that the pro-
portions of value between bark and quiuine
were entirely destroyed. Mr. Moeus uses the Dutcli
florin to indicate prices, and t'le difference iu value
between this coin and the rupee is so small that
they are practically the same. Early in 18S4, while
the price of manufactured quinine was kept up at
/145 per kilogr., the sulphate in the bark went down
to /60. The just proportions would have been /1 12
to /122. But rings of this kind contain within them
the principle of destruction. Had the syndicate per-
severed, Mr, Moens is of opinion that the reault
would have been the establishment of manufactories
in Java, India or elsewhere from which quiuine could
have been turned out at /80 per kilogr. But dis-
sensions broke up the ring, mainly from the action of
one of its members, who in October 1883 had entered
into a, contract with the Netherlands Government, It

was also discovered that the high profit on such sales
of quinine as took place did not compensate for the
low limit to which sales were reduced. Con-
sequently, instead of la ting till May, the compact
came to an end early in January. The manu-
facturers had done no real good to themselves,
while tbey had caused larger losses to those interested
in the sale of bark. The immediate effect of the
break-up of the ring was not a rise in the price of
bark, but a very considerable fall in quinine. Thia
fall was only temporarily arrested by the destruction
by fire in February of a quinine manufactory in
Philadelphia. The speculative oporationsof the notori-
ous Milan Manufactory in purchases of bark, chiefly
cuprea, continued aud by October bark and quinine both
went down until Howard's quinine was quoted at /7
and German at/0'50, while bark went down in London
to Ihi per lb. unit In August the Milan Company
and Mcjer & Co., of London went down, but the
bauks interested prevented a crash by disposing
gradually of 30,000 bales of cuprca bark and 21,000
kilogr. of quinine. The Milan concern had been long
in financial difficulties: the shareholders lost all their
capital and the creditors are not likely to receive
more than 45 per cent of their claims. The Italian
Factory is still at work, but, as only 25 kilogr. of
.'ulphate of quinine per diem are turned out, the
expenses are not covered.

No. II.
Mr. Moeus writes in regard to the Milan Factory
that it must have been in difficulties for some time,
the liabilities having been stated at/5,000,000 against
assets /'•2,280,0 0. Amongst the assets were cinchona
plantations in Bolivia valued at /50,000, but of which
no title-deeds had been found I The price of cin.
chona bark continued to fall until the end of Nov-
ember 1884, but then, and all through December, there
was a great demand for quiniue and the unit in bark
went up from 25 cents (of a florin) iu October to 30
ceuts at the end of the year. Mr. Moens, in giving
the range of prices for English, German and French
quinine in 1884, states his opinion that Howard's
sulphate has no superiority over the others in pro-
portion to the higher price, but we suspect purchasers
have more confidence in tho English drug as unadulter-
ated, the very name of the Howard's being a guarantee
of genuineness. Whatever the reason, the range for
English quiuine wa.s from 82 to 150 Horina or guilders
per kilogram ; for French from 67 to 149 ; German
(iG'.'iO to 145. The contract rates for the Dutch Colonial
Department were from GO to IOS'87. As illustrating
the great fall iu the value of bark between May
1883 and September 1SS4, Mr. Moens mentions the
case of a pircel of bark fiom Java, which was sold
in the former month, stored, and then rtsold iu the
latter month. Stem hark went down from 40 cents
per English pound to 17" cents, branch from 50 to
22", and shavings from 90 to 40. Low quality
bai'ks were almost unsaleable, and most of the South
American kinds were held for better times.
The imports of this kind of bark dropped from
163,000 bales in 1SS2 to 37,000 in 1884 I About 80,000
bales of the 1882 imptirts were cuprea bark, of which
description England and France in 1S84 took only
12,000 bales. As our readers are aware, the cuprea
bark is not cinchona bark at all, altliough possessing
similar qualities, and we have seen it stated that it
was easier for the chemist to deal with. Siieculative
storing up of this pseudo-bark ended in heavy losses
when sales were necessitated by the continued aud
heavy influx of the superior Asiatic barks, "Cey.

July i, 1SS5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

29

Inn" writes Mr. Moeas, "bears the palm amongst
Asiatic possessions for quantity of the product." We
shouKl Uiiuk fo, indeed. Mr. Moens gives figures in
kilogrs. sliowing a moie than niuo-fold increase in
tbe supply from our island in four years, the rise
being trt.m544,00U kilograms in 1881 to .^i,21u,000_iu
1884 * No winder if prices of bark and quinine
went down in s-ynipathy in the face of an iucroase
so enormous and so rapid. But there will, infallibly,
be lessened exports from Ceylon as the process goes
on of ousting cinchonas as well as coffee to m.ike
room for tea. This year, however, ivnd perhaps next,
we suspect there will be a still further mcre.iso
rather than a diminution. Mr. Moens states that the
percentage of quinine in Ceylon barks is estimated at
an average tf 1^ or 2 per cent, while Java bark (a
hirge proportion of which is Ledgeriana) averages
from i'Sa to .3'5. The highest percentage was 98 in
the air dried bark of government Ledgeriaua, the pro-
duce of private plantations competing closely. For
instance, L'.dgor stem bark from Hjekenagara gave 8
per cent; and the lowest from other estates was 5 '3.
Officinalis barks from estates also ranged high, from
4'3 to 5'S. As regards l.edgeriana, Mr. Moens de-
duces the result that the successive generations of
trees have improved upon those derived from American
seed. As far as high quality is concerned it seems
certain that Java will be the leading cinchona coun-
try of the future-. As a result of heavy sales of
Ceylon in consequence of low prices, we suppose,
as well as checked supplies from South America,
stocks of bark in Lundon, France and North
Am.-rica wont down from 129,000 bales in 1883 to
yt),UOO m 1SS4. Mr. Moens calculates that of the
bark in stock over one-third is of poor quality or
useless. Counting by bales is deceptive, for while tlio
American packages average only (JO kilogrs . each,
those from Ceylou were 110 in 1SS3 and 112 in 1884.
The stocks in London at end of 1884 consisted
mainly of South American, of which 04,000 bales
were cuprea, only . '5,800 bales being E,a8t Indian. The
prospects for IsSj seem better than thnse for 1884, but
ibr. Moeiis, taking our figures that 1'28 millions of cin-
chonas must have been planted in Ceylon, of which
22 millions were 2 ycau old aad upwards, in 1884
gives a needed warning that Ceylon is not likely
soon to bo an iusignificeint factor as bark-producing
country. Our own opinion is, that, nfUr 1887, Ceylon
will decrease as Java increases in the production of
the f-iver bark. There has not been and there
does not seem likely to be any sacritioe of cinchonas
to tea in Java, while in Ceylon the giaut
" GnA " demands and receives his holocausts of cin-
chona and cjff^e victims, even young cinchonas being
immolated. A gojd deal of cinchoua exists in Travan-
core and Wynaad, which tea will not, probably,
supersede. Java ;ent 453,000 kilogrs. into the market
in 1884, ol wh ch only 2 7,000 were frum the Gov-
ermeut gardens, and the quantity from the Dutch
colony will speedily increase, although it will be
long before it overtik s the astounding Ceylon figures —
figures which have tiken producers and consumers
equally by surprise. Mr. Moeus enters into a
laboured argument to prove that Amsterdam is as
good a market for .Java bark as London can be, but
he mentions the one great attraction of sales in London
being fur cash, while 1 per cent is deducted for
cash at Amsterdam. The auction charges are " very
heavy " at both place^i, being more onerous the lower
the prices obtained. Direct sale by analysis to manu-
facturers exists in some cases. Mr. jNIoens dwells on
variations in analyses, owing largely to the differing
qualities of bark in the same bale. Besides the cash
principle, London has the advantage of frequent

* All coutinental India added less than 5,000 bales,

auctions, once a fortnight, while at Amsterdam only
eight were held in 1884. Mr. Moens dissuades from
any attempt at sorting quills of Ledgeriana aud other
"chemist's bark." which sells on its merits as shown
by analysis, in whatever form it is received. Such
bark should be broken into small pieces and thoroughly
mixed. Indeed, to save a multitude of analyses, ho
advises the thorough mixing up of bark of all qual-
ities and all ages, root, stem, branch and twig of the
various kinds. Wood should not exist in parcels of
b.ark, aud succirubra bark (for druggists, of course)
should be from trees at least seven years old, or rather
older, so as to have the white silvery appearance
outside and reddish brown inside, so much desiderat-
ed. Then he tflls the Java planters to mark the
tare of their bo.\e3, and after alluding to two so-called
substitutes for quinine which reduce the heat of the
system but are not febrifuges, the writer brings his
able aud interesting paper on the present condition
and future prospects of the ciuchoua market to a
close. The details which will appear in the Tro-
pical Aijriculturst will well repay perusal and be use-
ful for reference.

MR. JAMES lUVlNE ON TEA.

TEA AND COFFEE TOOETIIEK NOT A SUCCESS — TEA AT LOW
.^ND HIGH ELEVATION'S — TEA PHEPAUATION — OVElt-FBODUC-
TJON — THE FUEL QUESTION AND KAILVVAI EXTENSION TO
HiPUTALE — THE HAPUTALB-BADULLA TRACE— SUITABILITY
OF UYA FOR TEA.

{Extract from Idler )

Nuwara Eliya, 2oth May 18S5.
* * * There is no doubt, tea is now the great
planting industry of Ceylon, and where it is planted
coffee must come out. You w ill see lots of tea and coffee
growing together, but lam convinced that wherever tea
has been planted in coQee, not only muat the coffee
come out ultimately, but it is iu my opinion best
that the coffee come out at onco, as the growth of
the tea is greatly retarded. Tea grows freely from
Nuwara Eliya to Awisawella. I do not yet feel in-
clined to give a hard and fast opinion as to elevation,
but will probably adhere to my origin.al opinion that an
elevation of from 1,500 to 2,000 feet will be most
productive when climate and rainfall are suitable. On
the other hand, I wa^ greatly pleased and I may also
say surprised at what I saw on AbbotsforJ : not so
much with the large "Riant Trees" as with the
new fields at the top of the estate at an elevation
of say 6,000 feet. They are far more rapid in growth
than I expected : thebushe; Hush freely and have stood
cose plucking as no low-grown tea would do. I
fully believe that the Mgures for Abbotsford manu-
factured tea per acre, if not exceeded, will at least be
realized on many high estates. I am also confirmed in
my opinion as to the durableness of tea under cultiv-
ation^ more especially at high ih-vations. .4.3 to the pre-
paration of tea by machinery it is only in its infancy
as yet and will gradually be improved : the "revolv-
ing web" for drying is one step forward, but the
whole work of the tea-house may be so systematized
as not only to lessen the cost of production but to
do away with much night- work. What we Ceylon
planters have most to fear is over-production. Wo
will certainly send into the London market within
the next five or six years not loss than fifty million
pounds of good tea. 1 was of opinion that 300 lb. good
tea per acre would be a fair average for the Island,
admitting that exceptionally good estates will give a
very largo yield : there will also doubtless be failures
perhaps many, but the acreage of really good tea
land is Eo large that I feel convinced a larger yield
than 300 lb. per acre will begot as an average for tea
land in full bearing. The fuel diflSculty has praotio-

30

-fHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

QuLV i, 1885.

ally no existence on the Kandyan estates with
tlie opening of the railway, but as for Uva,
you must have a railway not only to Haputale
but to BaduUa. It is a very great mistake
to suppose that the trace from Haputalo to Badulla
I9 either costly or difficult to construct: on the cou-
trary, it is by far the easiest porti'in of the linp,
the diffi'julty was in getting a trace to meet the re-
quirements of the consulting engiueer as to curves
and gradients ; the sudden drop froui Baudarawela to
Kumbalwella between the 17th and 19th railc-posts
on the Badulla and Haputale road waa the real
difficulty, lut I pointed out to Mr. Ferrar that by
keeping well belrnd the resthouse he would prob-
ably find a good enough trace with a little cutting
and the whole line to Badulla his been pegged out
and there is h'lrdly a piece of rock cutting on tht
line. The difficulty, if difficulty it can be called, will
be to get good stone for the few culverts oa tlie liae ;
so soft and yieldiug is the whole country heie.that
Mr. Ferrar's fear was that constant slips would add
much to the cost of upkeep for some time after
opening, and, in order to avoid this, the trace has
followed the bed of the Baduluoya as closely as
possible, where the bed of the road would be sounder
and stone and lime available for building ; this necess-
itates crossing the stream several times, and the
bridging of the Baduluoya wdl be one of the most
costly items in the consti uction. This trace will take
all the coliee from LuniigiUa, Ampitikande, Leau-
gahawelle, Craig aud the whole grou^ of estates near
Baudarawela ; the whole of the Kaudapola estates
will also find their nearest outlet at Baudarawela,
but a cart road must be out from Koslauda to the
Baudarawela station. The large group of Badulla
estates from Ravenswood through Gowrakelle to
Pepolgaahena will find their outlet at a station near
Demodara, their present place of dispatch, Keeuakelle,
Naraangalla aud piobably the Gampaha group of estates
in TJdapussellawa will find their outlet at DikweiJa
station, as the nearest point on the raileway liue.
Badnlla station will serve the whole of tho Badulla,
Passara and MaduUima estates i.nd probably Mouara-
gala as being nearer than Haputale via the uuhealthj
country of Wcllaivaya. When the railway is com-
pleted, thea may the Badulla planters hope to com-
pete with the Kandyan districts in the cultivation
of tea. I still adhere to my previously expressed
opiniou, that the soil and climate of Uva are cipable
of producing alike the maximum yield with the
finest quality of any tea grown in Cejlon, but, still
you have got a railway, you will labour under far
greater disadvantages in tea cultivation than yiui have
ever done with coffee. * » * Jamks Irvine.

[If Sir Arthur Gordon brings back sanction for
the Haputale section we and the Uva men v/ill bo
well-pleased ; but should he overcome all objection
to go on to Badulla at once we should indeed be
delighted 1— Ed.]

BURNING OF ANOTHER TKA FACTORY:
The need of special vkecautions : asbestos paint-
iron STORES— EIRE INSURANCE,

The report that Mr. W. I. Cotton, of Warwick
estate. New Galway, has sustaiued the loss, by fire,
of his tea-house and a considerable quantity of pro-
duce, more or less prepared, is, we much regret to
say, confirmed. This occurred ou the evening of
Friday, May 28th, aud so sudden was the seizure, about
7 p. m., that although the alarm was at once
given and all possible steps taken, almost nothiug
was saved: the tea-house with the furuishing,

thi bins full of tea (2,500 lb.) and 50 boxes of tea ready
for dispatch ; all were lost. There was some danger
at one time of the tire spreading to the bungalow
and outhouses; but, fortunately, this waa prevented. As
it stands, the loss is a heavy one for Mr. Cotton,
aud much sympathy is due to an honorable, indu--
trious and (like eo many more in these day,) struggl-
ing planter.

This is the second case of the burning of a tea-house in
the neighbourhood of Nuwara Elira wdiere, no doubt, the
cooler temperature aud oecaiional strong winds increase
the risk. A third and even more important case was
that of Campden Hill. It is no wonder therefore though
the agents of Fire Insurance Compouifs ehould ex-
pect to do considerable business in Ceylon. But In-
surance at best oin ill compensate for all the loss
aud incouvenienes sustained on such occasions — the
stoppage of work for instance. And therefore it. will
become a question whether iron stores should not be-
come the rule in the future. In the meantime those
with timber exposed to^the risk of catching fire should at
at once consider the importance of applying this new
fireproof asbestos paint, which, we understand, is
not much dearer than ordinary paint and which has
stood so severe a test that a log painted with it
aud thrown into a furuace resisted the action of
the fiames '.

CEYLON UPCOUNTRV PLANTING REPORT.

THE WANT OF REVERENCE OF THE PRESENT AGE: AN IN-
STANCE— A TEA "authority" — LOSS OF FLUSHES FROM

helopeliis — a cacao estate planted up with areca

palms— A REAL OLD-FASHIONED SOUTH-WEST MONSOON, BUT
WITH VERY LITTLE WPND.

8th June 1885.

Want of reverence is said to be one of the crying
sins of the age ; it affects things facred and secular,
theology and tea. 1 had a sad example of its in-
trusion into the region of our promising now product
the other day. One who ought to have known better
come up to me with a Iroad grin on his face, and
said ; " Did you hear that good joke? " and not having
heard it he poured it out then and there, adding
as his moral to the tale : " These fellows who give
themselves aiis as authorities ou tea seem to me to
know very little about it." The irreverence displayed
was shocking, — but I will tell the =tory that was told
to me, so that my readers may judge for themselves
how far my indignation is righteous. On an estate
about to bo turned into a tea garden a report was
called for as to suitability for the new enterprize,
and special refereU'je wjs made to some tea bushes
then growing, as to what they were, and whether it
would be worth while preserving them for seed. The
"authority" came, saw, aud delivered as his verdict
that the tea was a very poor j;U, and ought to be
rooted out. The superintendent on the estate was
not an authority, and did not pretend to have that
nice precention which distinguishes the knowing ones ;
but for all that he na? practical, gathered the seeds of
the doomed plants, and put them out in a nursery.
In due time the nursery flourished, and specimens
from it were forwarded to " the authority " and ad-
vice aeked as to whether it would bo safe to buy similar
plants for planting. The answer returned was to the
effect that they were of a very fair jAt indeed, and
a recommendation that they should be bought !
Now I don't pretend to understand what mv frl-nd
had got to laugh at. You remember — in " Dm Quixote"
was it?— the perplexity caused by the different verdicts
on a pipe of wine by the two famed connoisseurs.
Oue said it had a taste of iron, and the other that
it had a fiavour of leather, and how their skill was
established by the discovery when the pipe of wine

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

31

was empty that a key with a k-athern thong
waa found at the bottom of the cask ! I admit at
once th (. it 13 a hard problem, liow an authority
in tea can recommend, as a good jat, plants grown
from seed of trees so Vrry worthless as to be worthy
only of being rooted out : still, I 'm "agin" all ir-
reverencef and on the side of authority,

I was sorry to hear the otlier day that on one
tea place two tiushes bad been lost by hetopellis.*
It is to be hoped that this sort of thing won't go on.
It is bad enough in cacao, giving uo end of trouble,
and it is much to be debired that to the multituii in-
cus duties of the tea planter there won't be added
the hunting-down of this lly.

I heard of one man, who ought to know what he
is about in regard to cacao cultivation, having gone
in for planting his young cacao place with areca
palms. Wind and hehpeUlf were tht= r*?asi>iis given.

So far we are havmg a real houest old-fashioned
S. W. monsoou, minus the wind. The absence —
or rather comparative absence — of the latttr is very
marked, and few I think will regret it. Such a spell
of planting weather we have not had for long, and
if the tea plants don't come on which are being
put out by the thousand now, it will be
through "sheer cussedness." I take it that every
planter does his honest best to have this work
carefully looked to.

Peppercorn,

THE NEGROES AND PLANTING IN JAMAICA.

Iter Boreale estate is a famous place for good water
for drnking and good bathing places. A favourite place of
mine was under a culvert on the cart-road where the
old millrace for driving an under.'jhot water-wheel used
to be. The wheel is still there about 40 feet in diameter
or 120 in circumference, but it is rotting with the roof
over it, and would be better used for tin-wood ; in parts
of the dam there are good bathing holes, and Mr. Forrest
and self go down nearly every evening and batlie in a shaded
place, where fastoons of hanging climber.s touch the waler,
and the wall of the dam protects us from the view of the
public road. Tliero are a great number of rock etr, ams
and springs a'usliing ont along the boundary of Iter Boreale.
The Mills and Trash Houses on Iter Boreale estate cover
an area of about three acres. Si.x buildings in all ;

1st. — The Boiling House.

2nd. — Sugar House and Store.

3rd. — Distillery and Fermenting House, Kum Store.

4th.— Trash House.

5th.— Do. do.

6th. — Carjienter, 'Wheelwright, and Cooper's Shed.
The machinery of a sugar-houso is very interesting.
Three heavy cjUnders or crushers driven by a steam-
eugine draw in the cane as it is placed ou the table to
feed the crushers and the Creole man employed pas-;ing
the cane is called " the feeder." He generally has an old
woman to help him " feed, " and on the off side another
couple of h^nds are necessary to clear away the " trash "
quick enough so that the machinery may not be impeded,
pressure being put on of Clj', and the machinery should
bo kept regular, without blocking the " trash." A
heavy cog-wlieel revolving steadily and regulated by
a large fly-wheel not oidy turns the shaft of the con-
necting crushers but pumps the cane liquor (flowing from
the gutters into a cistern) up into the boiling pan, receiv.
ing boiler or vat. A small quantity of lime is mixed
with the cane juice in No. 2 cistern or vat and then it
is let off into the boilim; coppers below, hve of which are
kept boiling and a staff of men uudi-r a "chief boiler"
employed skimming off the froth and refuse floating on
the surface of the boiler. They are widebladed pieces of
wood used for this purpose, like canoe p.addles ; for mani-
pulating the sugar other men are armed with heavy ladles.

» la this hearsay ? In two cases, we know, of alleged
helopeltis, it has been proved that this insect was not to
blame.— Ed. I

After the sugar is pressed out of the cane trash it is dried
in the sun and used for fuel for the engines. The pressure
of steam was 51, and there is disconnecting gear to use
at times of block. Old Brown has been engineer for 22
years on Her Boreale ; he is fifty years old and son of
the old lady working at the " Great House. '• Heading
out cane in the cane-field ready for the wains requires
supervision, and the wainmeu come along at a good rate
with their teams of cattle, caUing them by their respective
names, such as " Prince," " Dashwood," " Eover," &c.
One has got to lookout in the caneyard when four wains
are dragged in with a rush drawn by sixteen heavy steers.
In the distillery tliere are eight large vats for ferment-
ation and a syphon worm wound round a cistern filled
with water. Sugar boiling and rum distilling are not learned
iuj a day any more than tea jpanufacture, and your cor-
respondent is rather " fuddled " with the rum business,
and considerably mixed up with the " duuder '' and the
"lees" and the "high wines" the saccharometer and
the " beads " to test the " above proof. " It appears to
me that a " Doctor " or still-house book-keeper is indis-
pensible, and yet ours was dischaiged shortly after the
" field book-keeper, "and now " Bushajini " is discharged
to reduce the expenditure and left me "the Chinese book-
keeper" to look after the hanana.s until Mr. Brongliton took
charge of over he whole estate and is about to hand over to
Mr. Ed. Forrest (late of Dimbula) ; so thathke the Govern-
ment of Jamaica we are to have a "new departure."
MeautimeMr. Forrest is to be."Busha" field hook-keeper,
stillhouse book-keeper or " doctor " banana cultiv-
ator and penu-keeper all rolled into sue. My "new departure"
will prob;ibly be to the City of New Orleans in the Southern
States of America. Since writing to you, I visited the great
Gray's Inn sugar estate in Annatto Bay. The day was
Saturday, the Creole market day so there was no work
going ou. There is a manager or "Busha" (sometimes
called overseer) a field bookkeeper and stillhouse book-
keeper, also a " boiling house hook-keeper " ou Gray's Inn
sugar estate. The fields of cane stretch along both sides
of the cart-road and even the low hill land is under cane,
the outturu of sugar last year was between 500 and
600 hogsheads of sugar ! What a pity such fine pro-
perties should be :it a discount just now through the
Frenchmen and Germans growing so much beetroot. (Goak
Why don't John Bull " beet " them with his " cane " f)
That bounty business is ruining all the West Indies and
some want to go over to the United States and others
to the Dominion Government of Canada. The Yankees
say the West Indies are no good and call the negroes
lazy and good for nothing. Meauwhde oft' goes " Quashie"
to cut the Panama Canal and leaves all the Creoles
to shift for themselves. This is another view of the " new
departure." Lord Derby promised the West Indians ! The
new members of the Legislative Council at Kingston have
tried to reduce the expenditure but failed to do so, toany
extent, without disorganizing some of the departments.
The new railway extension will soon be oijoued to the public
and when the country is more opened u]), by roads and rail-
ways aud the Panama Canal is in working order, Jamaica
will stand a good chance as a coaling-station and place
of call convenient to vessels plying the Canal. People in
Jamaica are too fond of saying everything is " going to
the dogs" Now why don't they go in for all liinds of new
products suitable to the cliiuate aud soil of the country.
You may depend upon it Ceylon will come off with fly-
ing colours by and bye, when the Tea boxes are shipped,
and eardamons, cinchona, coffee, cacao, tobacco, &c.
are all up again, fetching high prices. I read your speech
in the Colonial Institute and glad to hear the new pro-
ducts are putting old Ceylon ou her feet again. As far
as I can see you will not have the competition in the
future you have had in the past, aud borne so patiently.

What is llie use of repining ?
For where there 's a will there "s a way.

Tomorrow the sun may be shining
.\lthough it is cloudy today.

H. C.

^

BP>AZIL SLAVKS AND COFFEE CROPS.
The Qazp.ta de Noticias has collected and printed
some very interesting statistics in relation to the slave
population of the empire. From these we beg to ox.

32

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July r, 18S5.

tract some figurea. The slave population of the empire

is estimated at 1,177,022, of which 623,274 are males

and 553,7-18 females. As to ages : —

14 to 20 years ... 323,808

21 to 39 „ ... 497,725

40 to 59 „ ... 267,487

Over 60 „ ... 87,942

1,177,022
This table is claimed to be based on actual figures
from 14 provinces and estimates in the case of .5 ; 2
provinces are said to hi freed. The disproportion of
tlie slaves over 60 years old to those younger, arises
from the non-registry of such of them as are yearly
becoming superannuated. *

Beyond the emancipated provinces', Amazonaa and
CearA, Kio (Jrande do Sul has made large strides to-
wards thesame goal. Our colleague goes on to show
that the freedom of the slaves of over 60 years, will not
d'sorgauize agriculture, for this is already disorganized.
In the proviuots of Eio de Janeiro, Minas, S. Paulo
and Kepirito Santo there are 726 plantations with
34,548 slaves mortgaged ; these represent a value of
§41,459,705 aod the real estate etc. $53,551, 901. The
greater part of the mortgages were made over 20
years ago, which goes to prove that neither the Rio
Branco law, nor the abolitionist propaganda have
produced the 6traits of planters. The figures given
show that of 348 plantations in the province of Rio
326 are mortgaged; of 266 in S. Paulo 251 ; of 150
in Minas 140 are mortgaged. The coffee crop of 1868-69
is estimated at 116,420 metrical tons against 272,382
in 1882-83 and 188,323 in 1883-84. The figures should
serve the purpose of refuting the constant complaints
of the agricultural interest that they are badly treated
and need every kind of Governmental coddling. It is
not agriculture that is benefited at the expense of com-
merce and industry, but the holders of these mortgages,
for the great majority of the planters are little more
than tenants, and to a large extent dependent on their
respective mortgagees. There is no question that agri-
culture will always be compelled to raise money on its
lands, where large properties are concentrated in few
hands, and this is a serious matter at the present mo-
ment. The mortgagees are i n a position to bring press-
ure to bear on the plaii'ers, that the land may be sub-
divided into such mod. rate sized farms as will suit
freedmen or immiitrants, .ind this in their ojvu interest
they should Jo. We do not lose sight of the antiquated
and anomalous mortgage law, by which a debtor may
become his mortgagee's creditor, but the matter should
be tested and if practicable, the results would be ad-
vantageous to both parties ; for the mortgagee could
spread his investment over various families of labouring
people aiul the planter would have no object in retain-
ing any more land than he might ha able to properly
cultivate on some mitairie, or similar, system, with
such immigr.ints as are not in a position to assume the
responsibility of a farm of their own. There can be
no ea'isfactory infla.x of immigration, uutil some means
are secured for placing the immigrant in a position to
immediately g:un liia living. Dropping him down in
the virgin forest to contend with all the difficulties of
sub-tropical vogetaticin will not prove an attraction,
and the division of the large plantations seems the only
solution of the question. As to the figures in reference
to the slave population, there seems no reason to con-
cede that the liberty of some 88,000 sexagenarian
slaves, out of apopulaliou of 1,177,000 could seriously
affect the .agricultural interests of the country. Then !
the figures of the incre;i3<i in the coffee crops, even
with the reduction of labour by death and emancip-
ation, are further proofs that so far the coffee planting
interesthas little cause to complain as to production,
although prices are so much lower ; an increase of
72,000 tons in 15 years should be conaiijered satis-

factory and contradict the demands for more favours
from the planters. Let the large planters, or their
masters, the mortgagees, declare their willingness to
divide their lauds among immigranis, and let this
decision become generally known abroad, and we are
of opinion that immigrants of a good quality would
be attracted to this country. — i?jo Neios.

♦

The Aveeage Price ofWhe.^t in England for last year
was 353 8d. In 1SS3 it was 41s 7d per quarter. The former
is the lowest average for upwards of a century. In 1780
the annual average was the same, viz. S5sSd.—rianter and
Farmer.

A VALUAnLE FiEKE. — The Trinidad Agricultural
Society were about to bring the following resolution
to the notice of the Governor; — " That this society
petitions His Excellency the Governor and Council for
the introduction and distribution in this island, at the
Botanical Gardens, of seeds or plants of the ' Bomeria
nivea,' the Chinese grass-cloth plant of English writers
(Tchou-ma of China and Rhcea of Assam), a plant well
adapted for cultivation here, the fibre of which (Ramie
fibre of commerce) is of great commercial value. "
— Colonies and India.

Tea. — Uak.iiung, May I5th. — There has been a great
deal of rain, and no day has passed for the past fortnight
without a good fall. However, although it ha? (hut
us indoors a bit, it has done much good in cleansing
the town and putting fresh life into the tea trees
that had been nearly annihilated by the hail stones.
It also holds out the pleasant prospect of less moistuie
and no landslip when the regular rains set in a
month or so hence. It has otherwise benefited tea
generally, and, as the weather has been altogether
just what suited to the tea bush, viz., alternate sun
and rain, most gardens have made a gi od start, and
the reason promises to be better than usual. — Calcutta
BniiHshnuai.

The Annual Exhibition of Silk Cocoon.s was
held at MursUidAbad from the 19th to the 24th of
January, and appears to have been, on the whole, a
success, There were no leas than 44S exhibits this
year as compared with 181 in the previous year, the
districts exhibiting being MursUidiihAd, Birblium, Malda
and Nadia. Prizes to the value of 1:2,067 were
awarded. The cocoons are described as far suoorior
to those of last year, althouuh not better than, or
even so good as those of 18S3. This is accounted for
by the fact that there was a lai-ge crop of mulberry
which was sold at a very cheap rate, and so enabled
the rearers to feed their worms belter aird at a
cheaper cost, whilst obtaining an increase of from 15
to 20 per cent in the produce. It is sa'd to be nearly
always the case that when the mulberry crop is large
and cheap, the cocoons are g od and more productive.
A few attempts to cheat on the part of the ex-
hibitors wer-e discovered, some of the rearers
having borrowed good cocoons from others and ex-
hibited them as their own. In every ca^e where ths
could be proved the prizes were withheld, but still
the Collector considers it probable that many piizts
were diahonestly obtained. The Government of Bengal
displayed its interest in the exhibition by sending a
special officer to see it, but the Collector anticipates
that the public would take more intcKst in the
exhibition if it was extended so as to show the pi'o-
cess by which silk is made, and the final products
woven. Already the cultivation of the mulberry and
the rearing of the silk worm have added much to
the prosperity of the Murshidabiid district, aud tilk
piece-goods manufactured there by the natives are
purchased aud exported. If the Eui-opean silk merchants
would encourage the trade, and if the exhibition were
extended also to tasar, silk, there can be little doubt
that it would become much more important.— Calcutta
Englishman,

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

33

TEA: NEWS FROM THE INDIAN DISTRICTS.

Splendid weather for tea is reported from Julpigoree,
very hot and moist and the chota Inn-fat over. Unfort-
unately, however, tea and human beings are differently
constituted, and fever has been sadly prevalent, as also
cholera in a lesser degree.

OUK Tezpur correspondent writes : —The past week has
been a favourable one for tea ; but excessive rain has
made it too cold for good leaf, aud red spider is spreading.
A few sunny days will, however, improve matters, aud,
generally speaking, prospects for the season are good.

DAB.1KELIN0. — The choin Inirsat has not quite taken tis
departure, as showers have fallen in the station almost
every day recently. The temperature has gone up a
good deal within the last few days throughout the district
and there has been a line, bright sun out when rain w.is
not falling. To show your readers how very partial the
rainfall is in these hills, it may be mentioned that at
the Darjeeling Observatory over 22 inches of rain have
been registered already this year, while at a place nearly
due east from here and about six miles distant as the
crow flies, the rainfall since the beginning of January
has not quite reached 11 inches. Here is a fact connected
with rod spider which is of interest. A small patch of a
garden which had been infested by this blight for several
years was deep ho'id early last October, pruned at the
usual time, and then not hoed again until the raiu had
begun. The result has been th.it spider has completely
disappeared from this patch. Tho experiment is of
course, on far too small a scale to build any theory on,
but it might be worth while to try this plan on other
gardens and watch the result. Mr. Blaudford'a theory
that heavy snow in the interior of the Himalayas meant
a short rainfall certainly held good- in this district last
year. Snow was unusually heavy in the interior last
winter, and snow fell unusually low and late. It remains, of
course, to be seen whether the same rule will hold good
iu this year of grace.

Assam. — Here we are sitting with the thermometer at
75' in the shade at 3 p.m., and the tirst quarter of the
month of May has gone astern. It is difficult to realize
that the year is so far advanced. Most of us have only
just commenced punkahs ; but it is more with a view to
driving away mosquitoes than in order to cool the air.
Kvetybody has been crying out about tliu weather, and ^vith
good reason ; for we have had an exceptionally damp
April. Eain fell on nineteen out of the thirty days and
tlie remaining eleven were mostly cloudy* aud dull. 10*73
inches of raiu fell during tho month, against 5'82 in April
lSS-1, 4-27 in 1SS3 and 339 in 1»82. The thermometer
ranged between 81' and CO . The average highest temper-
ature being IS" and average lowest G7'. There was a violent
gale on the 9th which did some damage to buildings and
stopped the traflic on several of the roads, by blowing
down trees. One planter had an exceedingly narrow escape ;
he was driving along in his buggy when a large tree was
blown over and came down with a tremendous crash on tlie
road immediately behind him. The horse took fright and
bolted for some distance. There wtro also several hail-
storms which knocked off some of the young tea shoots in
several gardens. On the second of this mouth the weather
cleared aud we had two glorious days, all tho weather
propheti fand their name is Icgionl declaring that we were
to have a prolonged spell of scorching accompanied by
blights and pests. Oue the night of the 4th, however, it
clouded over and, by the 9th, 3'30 inches had been added
to the rainfall. Although we bAve had «o little sun during
the last six weeks, and the occasional stiff breezes have
opened up the leaf, making it banji, nearly all the gardens
about here are considerably ahead of last year and, should
the weather be favourable, ought to make a good May
also.

Tkzpuk. — Again I have to chronicle a week of very
favorable weather for tea — the little rain we have had has
fallen at night and the days have been bright and warm.
The month promises to be a very good one as compared
with May last year and most gardens are getting well
ahead. Ked spider is unfortunately still spreading, but
that seems to be the normal state of affairs for this time
of the year aud need not perhaps be remarked upon, Tho
Bta Buu is exveptionaUy cuul aud hvalthy eu fur,
5

Messrs. Gow, Wilson and Stanton, Tea Brokers, have
published a diagram " showing the quarterly import and
delivery of Java tea, with the price of the leailiug de-
scriptions for the past five years," the chief features of
interest being distinguished by lines printed in peen and
in red. As they remark — " The trade in Java tea has
exhibited a steady increase in both the imports and
deliveries during the above period, which is shown by
the total annual figures, herewith subjoined: —

1880. 1S81. 1882. 1883. 18S4.

lb. lb. lb. lb. lb.

Imports ...2,019,000 1,217,(100 2,159,000 3,0SG,0n0 r.,5,'-9,0n()
Deliveries... 2.012,000 1,314,000 1,786.000 2,893.UOO 2,7U9.00a

These statistics prove that Java teas have been gradu-
ally gaining favour iu the London market, for the deliveries
have continued to increase etpially with the imports, while
in some years they consideraHly exceeded them." Prices
during the five years have varied as follows ; — " Fair '*
Pekoe started in 1880 at about Is 6d., and soon fell
to Is. 4d., but in the subsequent year the lvalue roso
to Is. 8ii., after which it gradually descended to Is 4d.,
and again touching Is Cd in 1883, it dropped to Is 3d per lb.
by the close of 1884. " Medium " Pekoe similarly varied ;
commencing at Is 2d in 1880, f.illing to lO.W before tho
expiiation of that year, rising to Is 4d at the end of
1881 and the opening of 1882, and, after many short ups
and downs, closing last year at Is per lb. Pekoe Sou-
chong of medium to fair quality rauged from Is Ogd
in 1880 down to Old early in 1861, and ouly once more
advancing to Is., in the first quarter of 1882 almost
continually declined in price until the end of 1884,
when it was onl\' S^d. Souchong has followed the satne
downward course, selling in 1880 at Is, being worth only
9d later in the same year, and though realizing lid in
the last quarter of 1881, this kind of tfa has since fallen
by degrees to the low level of 7d jter lb. Messrs. Gow,
Wilson, aud Sfanton observe that — " The gr.idual fall of
prices must, however, be disappointing to importers, but
this has not been in any way peculiar to Java teas, and
applies equally to all other tea imlustries, many of which
suffered to an even more serious extent. Some consol-
ation may, nevertheless, be drawn from the fact that thuso
gardens, both in India or Ceylon, aud in Java, have suf-
fered least wliieh havo sent home the best liquoring teas;
anil we may add that more attention is now being paid
by buyers to the quality of tho liquor than has ever be-
fore been the case, while teas for mere appear.nucc — that
is, with handsome leaf and poor cup — are every year be-
ing looked upon with less favour. M.-^ny of the best gard-
ens iu Java have recognized this fact, and turned their
attention to proilucing teas with fine llavour and useful
strength, iu which cndravour they have met wifh con-
siderable success; such invoices always command the atten-
tion of tho trade, aud meet with the, hi'st reception, averag-
ing naturnll.v the highest prices." Altogether tho diagram
is well worth studying by that branch of the traiie most
interested iu Java tea, and both i>la;ilors anil munut'act>
uror.s may also glean, from the reniaiks which accom-
pany it, some useful hints as to the best modes of pi'Cr
paring and " firing" the teas for the English market. —
Indiin Fantera' Gazette.

Kangka Valley Tea rEosvECT.s.— Tho tea maunfaclur-

iug season is now well on. Till within the last day or two

the weather has been nio.«t unfiivnurable, three or four bail'

storms having rut up some of the gardens, and there having

been constant falls of snow on the hills, which resr themselves

up just bchiml the valley, tho .mow itself being only about

four miles distant as the crow flies. The appearance of

the upper rai. go is wintry, aud it has not been so white at

thin month of the year within memory of man. Tho con-

sequence of this Unseasonable weather is that tho first flush

has nearly all gone hanji, ami as in the Knngra Valle.v this

crop represents fully a third, and often a larger pircent-

age, of the jcar'a outturn, tho dnmiigo done by tho cold

an be estimated. The more hopeful planters loiik forward

to a bumper May anil June crop, but close plucking and

banji heads on tbo bushes arc but a poor preface to a big

second flush, Oardins will probably all come round in tho

rains, which is a con,«oliition for those who still regard last

ye.U''B ' outturn to date ' with eyes of fond but foiled ad-

I miration. Personally, however, it is satlBfactory to note

tbe vusillutiug therujumuter duiug itu little couittituliuiml

34

THE tROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July t, 1885.

betweeu 47° and 159°. Desperate as this may be for flushes
ami liquor sellers, it affords a pleasing sense of coolness
which you must envy in the plains, — Calcutta EngHshman.

TEA IN JAPAN.
(From the Japan Weekly Mail, May 2ncl.)

New season's tea has arrived in small quantities at Kobe
from Tofia during the week. Tea men at that i)ort ex-
pected to ship to Yokohama on the 8th of May, but the
condition of the crop makes, it now apparent that the
first batch will not be ready before the 13th.

The yield of tea throughfuit Ynniato is expected to be
forty per cent, below the average, and the Idzumi crop
twenty per cent.

The Central Tea Industry Association having determined
to establish the sale of Japanese tea in the Kussian territ-
ories in Asi'i. Mr. ]\Iatsudaira Taro is now travelling
through Manchuria and investigating the requirements of
the tea trade in that region.

A chanjje in the weather in Kishin has favorably affected
tho tea crop, and the plants are reported to present a
promising appearance.

Two hundred and forty-five me of new tea from Suruga
wore sold at Yokohama, at the rate of 65 yen per 1,000 me,
on the 11th instant. The local buyers distributed the fresh
Icave.s among the foreign tea merchants of the port in
the shape of presents.

THK KANGEAN ISLANDS: NETHERLANDS

INDIA.

{Traz/slided/or the '• S/raits Times.")

From a private letter written by on official who has
been via ting the Kangean islands, the following
particulars are taken : — The Kangean islands are
well worth a visit. They lie at about equal distances
from Madura, Java, the smaller Sunda island and
Celebes.

There are also found there Madurese, Malays, Bugia,
Mandarsse, people from Sumbawa. and emigrants from
Celebes, who all live in a very primitive style. Money
is seldom used. In the markets different products are
simply bartered. Sugar and petroleum, articles found
in the smallest village in Java, are seldom obtainable
at the chief town of these islands. A short time ago
a fowl could bo got hore in bart«r for an empty
wine bottle. The people seem to be of a very
mild disposition, and are particularly honest. Theft
is almost unknown here. Horses are allowed to run
about nncared for day and night in the villages and
in the hush, yet not one of them is ever stolen.
The Islandprs are, however, very lazy, and refuse to
wok for others even when paid. The coolies whom
1 make use of here are compelled by the authorities
to come along with me at high wag s. The above
details bpar chi( fly upon the Kangeau^se properly so
0 lied, who ara mainly descendants ef Madunse
baniuhed hither in former timt-n, The remaining
population, who are mostly found on the ooa-ts and
w th wh'-m I have had very little to do, are quite a
riiffprent «■ rt of people. Kangean in a tino island.
The soil is derived from coral r^cka, which had been
tipHeav d by v leanio potion to a height of one thousand
feet at Bev«Val piacea. In ttie hills there are several
utalact'te grottoes of jungle, of which a comparatively
•ni II portion consi ts of tfak. The fl .ra, ami fauna
prps.nt m^ny features of great intt-rest, and bear a
stmng rei-' mhla' 0« to Australian forms, though
the isla d belongs ce d'gicslly lo the same limestone
forina'iou as Vladura, North Sourahaya, and Rome
b'-ng. The only Kuropean who r^-sidis permnnently
on Kangean is the c nr.r.dler. The sea around the
island is notoriously unaife.

BuBS.—It is »iicl that there are in America no lees than
threo million itocks of bees, producing an annual yield of
|!0.00l',0OU lbs. of iioney.—l'lontcrand Farmer,

CiNCiiON.v Plantations. — We learn that Mr. J. W.
Ryan has been selected, among other applicauts, to
fill au important appointment in connection with the
Neddivuttum cinchona plantations, and wc cannot
refrain from congratulating Mr. Lawson on this nomin-
ation, which we have not the slightest doubt will in
every way prove a great gain to the department so
ably supervised by him. — S. I. Observer.

Dividends of Tea Companies for 1884. — We have
pleasure to announce that at the annual meeting of the
shareholders of the Borokai Tea Company, Limited, held
yesterday, (April 30th) a final dividend of 10 per cent, mak-
ing fifteen per cent, for the year was declared ; ana at
a simiiar meeting of the shareholders of the Tea Company
of Cacbar, Limited, a dividend at the rate of 3.^ percent.
for the year was declared. We hope to give the reports in
full in our next issue. — Home and Colonial Mail.

A Substitute for Coffee.— Ground nuts are being
successfully substituted for coffee in Pondicherry. The
nuts are roasted and ground, and prepared in the same
way as the coffee berry, and when properly manipul-
ated a pleasant and refreshing drink is the result.
Ground nuts have been used in America for many years
as a eubstitnte.and very largely for adulterating oofifee,
but the Yankees mix the nuts with horse beans into
a paste from which they turn out the berry in perfect
shape and with a greenish colour and an aroma. —
Madras Mail, May 28th.

Tea in the Lowcountky of Ceylon.— Ilenaratgoda,
8th June. — The monsoon rains began here at 4 a.m. on the
morning of 2nd June, and the first spell lasted six hours ;
the rain has kept up pretty constantly till the end of the
week, though, after a spell of from five to ten hours, it
would pretend to have done its worst, and let the sun
shine out for an hour or so in an unclouded
sky, when it would suddenly pull itself together, and
break out more fiercely than ever. I might easily have
put out all my available plants in the two first
wet days, but I lost so many plants in 1883-84 from
the lack of planting weather that I can now put no
faith whatever in any appearance or promise of the
clerk of that ilk, that I this season decided to
give each plant put out in the fi»ld the additional
chance of a special shade, without reference to the
weather, which I dare not depend on. This business
of shading was a much more laborious and protracted
affair than the mere planting, and as things have
turned out was an unnecessary work, for there haa
hardly been ennngh sun to make the tender leaf
droop since the hall opened. Well in five days, with
a good deal of broken time, I have planted out 30,000
tea plants, and '^haded them with a total day's
lab'iur, of men, women and children, of 104, and I do
rot think I will lose 2 per cent. When the sun
shone out at 8 a.m. today, 1 said the blazing
humbug was at hia old tricks; he had cheated
me many times during last week, and I
would on this oooasion pay no ptte^tion to
him, no I went on planting, and did not stay,
while I had a plant left. The sun was however
in earues', i>nd ehoue at intervnls during the day,
and there was no more rain till lato at night, I
have plenty more planting to do, but must wait
till the p'ants grow large enough, which will take
a month at least. The most forward of the tea
lnish.-s are beginning to flush, since the rain came,
and there will now be nearly constant plucking, for
a limited force of women and children. I fancied I
h d got the weeding well in hand before the rains
came on, but on some spota the grass is more flourish,
ing than ever. Venly there are worse things to deal
with than ageratum. The vast rainfall wo have
had during the past week has done its work very
quietly : wo have h."d very little wind, — 10th May.
The weather seems se'tled for the last two days;
wa have only bad eliglit showers at tUnig,

j'-'I-V J,

rfiaj.}

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

35

Ari'.c!P03, of the planter in 3. PauKi, who placed some
Italians in the stoclis. Thaju z municipal of the nearest
town makes a Tory lame oxousc, for he says he only
hcarcV of the occurrence through the S. Paulo papers.
And they want immigrants ? — Eio yeios.

A MiNAS Gkraks paper says that a larva has been
discovered in a district thei-e, that feeds on the
leaves of the coffee-trees. It is of a green colour and
difficult to detach from the branches. Over 50 were
found on a twig. Whether this will affect con-
suming markets is questionable, but in any case it
should bo looked into. —Rio I^ews.

DuMBARA : The Monsoon, &c. — 3rd Juiie. — It cert-
ainly looks bke the S. W. this nioruing. If it is
the S. \V., it has come in very quietly. Oathe 1st
aod '2ud we had over 3 inches of rain, bringing our
rainfall at date up to 1391 : so ne are better off
than we were last year. The cacao crop came in
with a rush. It will be all in by the end of June.
Estimates are turning out short, doubtless owing to
the pods being ripened before attaining their full size.
lldopeltis is extending its ravages. Catching the insects
is very expensive work and does not have any effect
apparently. The only thiug I can ste for it is shade,
and under shade we will not get nearly as much
crop a< we do in the Ofen, but " half a loaf is better
than no bread," which will be the case whenever
shade is not resorted to. The Cooig fig (or " atti-
maram" of the coolies) makes a fine shade tree — it
always did for coffee. I have often Been a patch of
coffee, green and nourishing under one of these trees
whin all around it was dead. I believe the splendid
crops that we hear of their getting in Coorg are
all due to the shade of this tree. It grows easily and
quickly, aod is not a dense shade, and it it the
very thing for cacao where the cacao has been
cstablislied.

OiD Cevlon Coffee Planters o.v Tea. — Both Me.ssrs.
MacLeod and Sinclair have returned to Ceylon more than
ever impressed by what they have seen and heard at home
regarding the good prospects for our tea. The former has
a hundred acres of tea on DousiJe, a half of which is
already giving leaf, and two hundred acres to be added,
making 300 acres in all. It is not his intention to put up
machinery just yet, but in the meantime he will dispose
of his green leaf to neighbors. He continues to have an
interest in lielgravia, which has thus far done well for him,
whilst Mr. Sinclair is equally 'fortunate with the coffeo
crops from Eearwell, of which he continues to have ex-
cellent accounts. It is evident from the information
gathered in the Lane by these friends that the feeling in
favor of the Ceylon tea enterprize has taken a firm hold
of the London financial mind. Public sales and broker-*'
reports are so unanimously in favor of the article that it is
impossible any longer to resist the iufcrcnco that the in-
dustry must be remunerative and the demand for- Ceylon
leaf is now on a thoroughly established basis. Brokers
declare that, even with 20t',000 acres of land under tea
and in full bearing, giving say, SCO lb. an acre, or a total
yield of 011,000,000 lb. of such tea as we are now send-
ing home, we need be under no apprehension about finding
a demand for it all at fairly remmierative prices, having
regard to the extremely low rate at wliieb it can be pro-
duced in Ceylon. ]5ut there is only one opinion in the
Lane as to plucking. They say " Do not go in for coai su
plucking, but- produce an article with which China cannot
eompcto and you will always obtain your price for it."
Five hundred lb. an acre of really good leaf will find a better
and readier market and pay Ijctter in the long run than
SOOII). or l.COOlb an acre of coarse leaf. It may suit Assam,
Chittagong. and Dooars planters to go ir. for quantity in
competition with China tea, but not Ceylon or Darjeeling.
^[r. I). Keid is doing the colony a service by exposing
for public examination the accounts of bis JLariawatto
estate in the reading-room of the Westminster Palace
Kooms. A sale of extraordinarily fine Blackstono tea bad
been made just before the mail left and bad been noticed
and commented upon in the " City " article of the London
Timci. — Local " Times."

The "Tropic.\l Aghicdlturist,"— A home subscriber
writes :—

" It is an excellent magazine for those who are acth-eli/
and 2'>ractically engaged in tropical agriculture, and I wish
you every success with it."

A Hint to the Ceylon Authorities.— The Director
of Agriculture in Madras has made a' suggestion
with regard to the prizes to be given at Agiicultural
Shows which is certainly worth a trial, and has
met with the approv.Tl of the local Board of
Revenue. Instead of giving the whole of the prizes
in money to successful competitors at Agricultural
Kxhibitions, it is proposed that presentations of good
specimens of stock, of agricultural implements and of
selected seeds, should be made. The nature and kind
of the stock and seeds, as well as of the implements,
would of course be determined according to the agri-
cultural conditions of the district in which each ex-
hibition was held. It is thought that, by the adoption
of this suggestion, the improved stock would get into the
hands most likely to make the best use of it, whilst
at the same time it would lead to a general improve-
ment amongst the cattle. — Calcutta Enijlishman.

"That Uisekable As.sistant." — A tea planter,
writing to the Calcutta Englishman, says : — I feel
like a Soudan special correspondent writing in
a zareeba under a bail of bullets. Only my zareeba
is a corner verandah of the factoiy, wliere my simple-
minded manager (who imagines I am inspectiug the
roll) can't see me, and the hail of bullets is bail — •
imminent hail, from some exceedingly disgusting look-
ing clouds which are sweeping up from south-south-
west. Why hail should so ficquently come from the
south I do not know, unless it is because that is a
pleasant quarter to reside in:

^\^leu Eeouomisiug Agents are not writing,
AA'hen Directors leave the Board Room (with their fees),
You *d think they were not capable of blighting
Or smashing up a Manager with case.
The hail may come and all the bushes smother,
Still it melts away quite sweetly in the sun ;
Oh ! take one consideration with another.
The tea planter's life is not a hajipy one.
Except when be can lay all the blame on that
miserable assistant.

Marking Fruit (C. L. A'.).— This is the produce of
Seraecarpus anacardium, is a large tree, 50 feet bi^b, a
native of the mountains of the East Indies, and is called
JIarking Fruit. 'What constitutes the fruit is the swollen
receptacle, which, when ripe, is yellow, and is roasted in
ashes and eaten by the natives. They have the flavour of
roasted in ashes and eaten by the natives. They have the
flavour of roasted apples ; but wheu nuroasted they ta.ste
astringent and acrid, leaving a painful sensation on the
tongue for some time. When niiripe it may ho made into
good bird-lime by pounding it. The nut is heart-shaped
and seated on the receptacle, black, and consists of a
cover or shell composed of two skins — an outer and an
inner — and a kernel. Between the two skins is con-
tained a black, acrid, resinous juice, which, before it
is ripe, is of a palo milk colour. This black acrid juice
of the shell is by the natives applied externally to
remove rheumatic pains, aches, and strains. In tender
constitutions it often causes inllammations and swelling
but where it docs not produce these effects it is an eflicaci-
ous remedy. It is iu general use for making cotton cloths,
and the colour is improved and prevented from runnin.g
by a little mixture of quicklime and water. The juice is
not soluble in water, and is only diifusible in spirits ot wine,
for it soon falls to tho bottom unless the menstrum be pre-
viously alkali,sed, but then tho solution is pretty complete,
and of a black colour. It ginks in fixed oils and unites
perfectly with them, but tlie alkaline solution acts upon
it with no better success than jilain water. The kernels
are rarely eaten. The wood in reckoned of no use, not nidy
on account of its softness hut also because it contains nuicji
acrid juice, which makes it dangerous to cut down and
work upon. — Junynul of Jlurlicittture,

36

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[JULV I, 1885.

Salt vor Curing Fish. — On reoonsideration of the
subject, the Government of Madras is of opinion that it
would be better to forego all duty on salt used for curing
iish, having regard to the advantages to the public
which will accrue therefrom. The present system
of supply at coat price will be continued, and it will be
the object of the Department to suggest measures for
extending the benefits of the system, — Madras Mail.

CATTiiE Brkeding, — As a step towards improving
the live stock of the country by the influence of
example, the Director of Kevenue Settlement and
Agriculture recently proposed to encourage laud
owners and Mofussil stock-traders by substituting
presentations of live and dead stock for the money
prizes which it is now the custom to distribute at
Agricultural Exhibitions. These proposals Iiad the
concurroiico of the Bnard of Revenue, and have now
received the entire approval of the Government.
— Maihas Mail, June 5th.

A Panacea fob Alcoholism. — Dr. FleischI, of
V'ienna, declares that morphinism, alcoholism and
similar habits can now be cured rapidly and painlessly
by means of coeain chloride. The method is very
simple — a withdrawal, either gradual or abrupt and
complete, of the habitual intoxicant, and treatment of
the nervous and other symptoms which arise there-
from by means of hypodermic injections of the coeain.
He claims that in ten days a cure may be effected in
.any case. The dose of coeain chloride, hypodermically,
is from one-twelfth to one-fourth of a"grain, dissolved
in water, repeated as necessary. — Morning News.

Blackstonk Tea up to 23 Sid with an average
for 35 packages of Is lOd per lb. is the
best report on Ceylon Teas by this mail,
and is another feather in the cap of the
spirited, careful and intelligent Ceyloneae proprietor
and manager of the estate. All honour to Mr.
Barber, gold medallist, and may his success lead
many of his countrymen to follow his example by
turning teai planters. A London Correspondent sends
us the following series of capital averages just re-
alized : —

TEA.

AvEKAOES.

Blackstone 35 pkgs. averaged 1/10

Qalleboddo IIG „ „ 1/7

Kookwood 99 „ „ l/.-jJ

Windsor Forest 158 „ „ 1/4|

Lotcbeme 24 „ „ 1/3?

KAW 112 „ „ 1/2J

Ovoca IS „ „ 1/21

Moss AND Lichens ok Tea Trees. — In the proceed-
ings of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of
India, we find the following under Communications : —
" From Messrs. Macnoil & Co., enquiring if any
preparation suitable for removing moss and lichens
from the stems of tea bushes can be recommended,
as one of the gardens in their agency is much
affected, and a remedy would be useful. Messrs.
Maoneil & Co. were informed that a saturated solution
of soft soap and common salt, applied with a painter's
brush, is used for removing moss from fruit trees, and
is also said to destroy eggs of insects ; lime, either
dusted on while the trees are wot or applied in the
form of whitewash, is also used. It would be interest-
ing to note the effects of these remedies on red
spider." Wo understand that iron- wire gloves are used
to remove moss from forest trees in Britain. Can any
reader who has seen such gloves used say if they
would be likely to answer for tea bushes ? We should
fear decortication unless tho wire were very fine.
But we suppose coir is as good as anything which
can be used ? Wo fancy the moss ought to be rubbed
off as a prelimiuary to any application, although, no
doubt, a liberal application of caustic lime would
kill the moss on the stems

The Outwaed and Visible Signs of Tea
Jat are so uncertain, especially in the case of old
trees allowed to grow up in a state of neglect, that
the ' ' tea authority " alluded to by the author of
" gup " is not so much to blame as might be
imagined. Tea planters are familiar with the process
by wliich hybrids with leaves as large, bright-coloured
and serrated as those of pure indigenous, show
smaller and more sUnder leaves as they increase in
years, whether left as seed-bearers, or cultivated for
leaf. But if a shoot springs up from the root of
such a tree the leaves of such shoot revert to the
original fine type. In our own experience the best
flush-yieldors amongst hybrids arc those with long
but narrow leaves. We are speaking of tea at high
elevations, where even China bushes well cultivated
yield wonderful returns.

Material for Paper Making. — It seems that at the
Luoknow paper mills a kind of Indian esparto is used,
which is thus noticed in the Madras Mail : — We
quote the passage because the plant may, possi-
bly exist in Ceylon :— The materials employed
for the production of paper in the Lucknow
Mills are rags of all sorts ; rope and gunny (jute) refuse
and vegetable substances, including rice-straw, 'moonj'
and ' bed or baid,' otherwise locally ' known as ' Khabar
or binkas. The scientific name is — Major Pitcher in-
forms me — PoUinia Ariopoda. It is found all along the
Himalayas. This last plant is a sort of esparto which
is collected in Shahjehanpur and Philibeet, through
the Forest Department, and locally purchased at from
El to IJ a maund. It is said to grow at the foot of,
or on the lower ranges of the hills, and as it is considered
the best known raw material for paper making im this
part of India I have sent Dr. Bidie a small bundle
for the Madras Central Museum, as I believe that it,
or something like it, is common in the Madras Presid-
ency. The proved good qualities of this grass makes
it desirable that it should be utilized on a muqh larger
scale than at present. Paddy straw is much the cheapest
material, and answers the purpose fairly well. All the
other substances used for the same purpose in the mill,
and already enumerated, cost about the same price as
beb.

PnoDUCTSFOETHE NoETH OP Oetlon.— Wehavein Ceylon
a closely allied species i'.Dtonoi/^nKjH, which is common in the
hot dry districts, and called in Tamil " Tevadar.im." The
wood is slightly f r.igi-ant, and Dr. Ondaatjie has recorded the
preparation from it at Puttalam of a creasotio oil. The
leaves are strikingly like those of E. Coca, and it is interesting
to note that in South India, they were largely used as
food by the poor during one of the late famines, as re-
corded by Dr. IJidie. They may possibly contain cocaine. —
Dr. Tnmen .—There are, we ["Jaffna Catholic Guardian"]
believe, two kinds of trees going by the name of Tevadaram
in the Nortli. One is largely used in native medicine,
so much so, that trees of this kind, which no one
takes the trouble of cultivating, are getting very scarce
in J.alfna. They extract a kind of oil out of the wood,
or use it in the form of powder; the wood is of light
brown colour and fragrant. AVe think the gardens should
not be all contiaed to the limits of one or two provinces.
The North does not lack industry or soil ; all it wants
is means of turning these to account; we think that no-
where could a botanic garden prove more useful than in
Jaffna. To mention only one or two items: cotton, if
attended to, could very soon become an important pro-
duce, and tlia source of a no less imi>ortant industry in
Jaffna. It grows wild in our gardens ; but, as old wild plants,
is of poor quality, though it must not have always been
so, as the native names of Point Pedro (Parutti-turrai,
cotton-harbour) .shows that there was formerly a trade
fin that branch in the Peninsula. Jafi'na fruits are of
iuperior quality, and its grapes and plantains are famous
all over the island. 'What could not be achieved in this re-
spect with the care luul learning of a Dr. Trimon ?
We just mention this as a specimen of what could bo
done.—" Jaffna Catholic Guardian."

JULV i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

37

RHEA FIBRE : CULTURE AND PREPARATION.

KHEA CTLTIVATION— rUOPOSED COMPAMY— TTSEg OF EHEA
FIBEE— A HINT TO CEYLON— SntPLB PEEPAHATIOX.

It is now nearly eighteen months since Mr. Edwin
Watsou of Johore entered into an agreement with Mr.
G. 'W. U, Brogden & Oo. of Gresham House, London, to
sell to a Oompany 20,000 acres of land selected by him
for the cultivation of rhea in .Johore, and to act as local
manager of the property, but up to present time the
t^ompauy has not been floated. Mr. Watson has however
since his return to Johore about a year ago planted out
a considerable area of land with rhea, and has already
demonstrated the suitability of the soil and climate tor
its culture : not that there could ever have been any
doubt on this point, aa the plant is indigenous all over
the southern portion of the Malay Peninsula. A determined
effort is now being made by the London firm above-named
to establish a company to promote the production of
the fibre, and to purchase from it the rights to use the
Favier-Fremy processes, and in furtherance of this object
Mr. Edward Caspar, one of the partners, went down to
Manchester a few days ago, and held a meeting at the
Town Hall, under the presidency of Mr. James H. Hutton,
the Chairman of the Lhamber of Commerce, who is by
the way the brother of the late Mr. T. 0. Hutton,
formerly of Kandy, and son-in-law of Mr. John Capper.
Sir Joseph Lee, and some other prominent Manchester
men have lately manifested a keen interest in the question
of utilizing rhea, and extending its supply, and Mr.
Caspar's purpose was to enlist the sympathy and support
of Lancashire mill-owners for his project, which is now
called the China Grass Supply Company. His efforts seem
to have been very successful, it one may judge from the
attention that has been attracted to the subject in the
Manchester papers, and the large number of influential
men who took part in the proceedings, but whether when
it comes to the practical test of subscribing the requisite
capital, they will be found equally eager, I cannot of
course pretend to say. Mr. Caspar exhibited a great
variety of materials made from rhea, extending from fire
hose and machinery belting to beautiful velvet goods,
towellings, table covers, and other articles; yarns of all
counts up to 2C0's (French); and samples of the fibroin
every stage of manufacture, and of the chief shades of
dye. It was conclusively demonstrated that entire auccess
has been gained, and that the material has been proved
applicable to a very wide range of goods : indeed, it is
claimed for it that it stands at the head of all vegetable
fibres. There is in it a hairiness of texture which permits
of it being worked up into resemblance of wool; audit
has also a gloss and lustre which assimiUtes it to the most
delicate of animal fibres, namelv, silk. For rough goods
it is particularly valuable. Although it can be sold at
half the price of flax, it is six times as strong. Made
into fire hose, and tested against ordinary material, it has
beeu found that whereas the latter commenced to " weep "
at a pressure of 100 lb. the rhea hose would stand a press-
ure of 600 lb. As machinery belting, the results of experi-
ments by Messrs. D. Kirkaldy & Sons prove its high
superiority to leather in respect of tensile strength aud
rates of extension: leather broke at 600 lb. mean stress,
Ohma grass fabric held out until 1,400 lb had been reached.
It works up admirably in furuiture fabrics, taking the
place of spun silks, in giving all the silky ajipearanoo
with the advantage of greater .strength.

Mr. Caspar explained to the meeting the nature of
rhea cultivation, pointing out that it was both easy and
profitable, and announced that large blocks of land had
beeu secured by the Company in Johore and Venezuela.
A large portion of the land in Johore lay on both sides
of a nver navigable to the ports of .Johore and Singapore
at all seasons, and there were six crops a year. Tho
delay which hod taken place in the popularizing of the
fibre arose from tho difficulties aud expense attendant on
Its treatment to prepare it for use, but processes had some-
what recently been discovered, which removed this diffic-
ulty, and now tho fibre could bo delivered chemically
pure, ready for splnuiug and dyeing. From the date the
plant was cut olf until it was delivered to tho manu-
facturer a week need not olapso, aud tho Company, if

formed, would insure a supply of at least one thousand
tons a month. Tho material could bo laid down cheaper
than any present one,— flax, cotton or hemp, and it had
qualities infinitely superior to any of them. Those who
were moving in the matter had secured some thirty
square miles of laud, and had acquired very valuable
concessions and privileges. What they wanted now was
money to enable them to cultivate tho plant, and to
tlie Company which it was proposed to form Sir Joseph
Lee had promised to subscribe.

One of the Mauclioster papers in discussing Rhea
Culture remarks as follows :— " Even as the nearly-ruined
coffee-planters of Coylon found salvation at tho last
moment in cinchona and tea cultivation, so, perhaps, may
the unfortunate gold-seekers of South India save some-
thing by growing rhea grass on their estates. Owing to
recent improvements in the machinery for separating the
fibre, this industry promises to prove very remunerative.
The main difficulty, indeed, is in finding localities jwhere
the soil aud climate suit the plant. A suppiy of cheap
labour is also necessary, aud as all these requisites exist
in the Wynaad and adjacent districts, it requires nothing
but capital and enterprise to make a start. According
to the calculations of Mr. VV. G. Kemp, each properly-
cultivated acre should yield a net profit of £S 3s Id per
annum. This includes all working charges from planting
until the prepared fibre is placed on board ship. A farm
of 1,000 acres would, therefore, return £8,154 3s 4s as
interest on the capital sunk in buildings and machinery.
The estimates are made on the assumption that each acre
would yield 10 cwt. of the fibre per annum, but Mr.
Kemp is of opinion that the out-turn might be doubled by
careful planting and manipulation. Even, however, as
matters stand, it would appear that a handsome profit
awaits those who are the first to enter this promising field
of industry. The pioneers in cinchona cultivation realized
huge profits before the market value of the article was
depreciated by augmented production."

I may add that Mr. Kemp's calculations ore purely
theoretical, since he has never planted, or even seen, a
aiuglo acre of cultivated rhea in his life, but Mr. Fennings,
the Secretary of the Olenrock Co., assures me that under
Mr. Minchin's management the industry has been most
successfully introduced on the Company's estates in the
Wynaad. Starting in May last year with about 2,000
plants which he brought with him from Algeria. Mr.
Mincliin had in December succeeded in establishing no less
than 300,000 healthy plants, and during the monsoon
rains this year he hoped to complete the planting up of
200 acres. O* course, in order to produce such a result
as this everything was sacrificed to propagation ; no plants
were allowed to mature ; as soon as possible they were
taken up and divided, and iu this way a single plant in
five months had produced thirteen strong-growing cuttings.
The soil and climate, he said, are evidently most suitable,
and before the close of the present year it is expected
that a portion of the mature stems will be cut and do-
corticated, so as to tost the commercial value of the in-
dustry. He reports too, that the natives in tho neighbour-
hood of tho estate are manifesting a lively interest in
the subject, and eagerly enquiring for seeds and plants
to put into their own gardens, so that, it any one of the
processes now available for extracting the fibre should
prove really satisfactory, it is pretty certain that the rhea
industry will soon become a very important one, both to
Europeans and natives.

I have gone at some length into this matter because I
am convinced that it i.s ono which must at no distant
date receive serious and practical consideration iu Ceylon,
where there are thousands, I might almost say millions,
of acres of land now lying waste, which might profitably
be occupied with this product. It has tlie great advant-
age over most others now in vogue, that, where ])lants arc
available, the first crop may bo cut within twelve months.
During tho last few days, moreover, I have received in-
formation which lends much additional importance to tho
question of rhea culture, and the accuracy of part of it
can easily be tested in Ceylon as there is plenty of wild
rhea growing in tho jungles. I am told that thero is
really no necessity for tho Favier steaming process in order
to decorticate tho stems, for if the thumb nail be inserted
in the soft bark and fleshy matter coutiiiued iu tlio fihro

38

THE TROPICAL AGRlCULi UKlST.

[July 1, i88<f.

at the thick end of the stem, so as to loosen it from
the woody pipe -which runs up the centre, the whole can
be stripped oft' by the hand with the greatest ease, pro-
vided this is dono vei'y soon .ifter the stems have been
cut, and when there hMS not been a long-contiuued drought.
Tlie " ribbons " thus stripped oil', and containing the outer
bark and the fibre embedded in the gums lying beneath it, are
paid to be much more amenable to subsequent treatment,
than if steam had been applied, because they are iu a
perfectly natural state. They can be easily dried in the
sun, and baled for export. If tliis bo true, and I have
been shown some " ribbons " said to have been obtained
in this way in Egyjit, it would surely be possible to start
the industry at once, by employing men to go into the
jungle and operate there and then ujion such stems as
they might find sufficiently matured. But more important
than this is the discovery of a more simple, economical
and efficacious method of subsequent treatment. A French
chemist claims to have found a chemical, a solution of
which in boiling water will dissolve all the gums sur-
rounding the fibre and attaching it to the bark, and will
leave the fibre itself perfectly clean and ready for the
spinner. The ribbons need not be boiled under pressure
as in the Fremy process, but, as I understand it, they are
simply steeped for a short time in the boiling solution,
and the fibre which then comes away need only be
washed in cold water and dried . The chemical is not
costly as you may judge from the fact that the whole
process will, it is estimated, be completed in quantity for
less than a halfpenny per lb. I have seen the cleaned
fibre and have heard the opinion of experts to the effect
that it is even better for the spinners' and dyers' purposes
than that prepared by M. Fremy. No machinery or
elaborate plant is necessary, nothing but an ordinary
cauldron or boiler, and a supply of the chemical, so that
it would be easy enough to carry out the process on any
estate or even native garden, and ship home stuff which
would bo worth at least Is per lb. making a liberal re-
duction for the influence of increased supplies. You will at
once appreciate the immense importance of such a discovery,
if the brief description I have given of it bo accurate,
but I wish you to understand that I am only re-
peating what has been told me by the London agents
of the French chemist alluded to, who is engaged in
negotiations for a sale of the secret. — London Cor.

THE SOIL SUITED TO THE ORANGE.

Analysis of some soil taken from Mr. Pye's celebrated
Rocky Hall orangery. Paramatta, New South Wales, ;as
published in Orange Ctdtvre in Aurl-Iand, shows that
silica is its principal component. Mr. Pye was one of those
who believe that the orange does not want much manure,
hut well-worked soil, and plenty of beat and moisture.
The analysis belows shows that he was right : —
X.— Soil.
Water ... ... ... 1-21

Organic matter ... ... ... 141

Substances soluble in dilute acid (a) ... O'fil

Olay ... ... ... 0-22

Fine sand (/■) ... ... ... 21-09

Coarse sand ... ... ... 78-83

' 100-00
(a). Composition of part solablo in acid.

Silica ... ... ... 0154

Iron sesquioxide ... .«■ 0'298

Alumina ... ■.■ ... 0114

Lime ... .. ... 0024

Magnesia ... ... ... 0010

I'hosphoric acid ... ... traces

Alkalies ... - ... 0-011

OCll
(/>.) Tho sand is principally qnartz.
II. — SncsoiL.
Is very similar to tho soil, except that it is a little coarser.

W. Skky,
N, Z. Geological Survey Laboratory.
11th December, ISSi.—Queenilander.

CINCHONA LEDGEEIANA.

Mr. E. M. Holmes states that the name Cinchona
Ledgeriajia was first used in the East Indies to distinguish
tho trees grown from seed collected in tho northern portion
of Bolivia by au Indian servant ot Mr. Ledger, and which
was subsequently distributed to Java, variou.s j>lantations
in India and Ceylon. Mr. J. E. Howard figured three
forms he had received from Java as the produce of Ledger's
seedlings, under the name of " Cinchona Calisaya," variety
Ledgeriaua. Doubts, notwithstanding have existed among
planters as to the exact characters of recognition. Mr.
Holmes is of opinion, finding marked differences in the ex-
ternal characteristics of specimens submitted to his notice,
that seveial different varieties or forms, one or more of which
arc probably hybrids, are now grown iu plantations under
the name of " Cinchona Ledguriana " ; and that there is
not sufficient evidence to support the conclusion of Dr.
Trimen that he had determined the typical plant, which,
having figured and described, he had erected into a species.

Mr. Holmes suggests, therefore, to planters that herb,
arium specimens, gathered when in fully-formed fruit, and
accompanied by a char.icteristic portion of bark, should
be kept for reference of all forms that present a recog-
nizable difference in habit of growth, appearance of bark,
typical form of leaf, size and structure of ilower, and shape
and size of fruit. In this way only can tho tangle be un-
ravelled into which a mixture of a variety of seeds supplied
by Mr. Ledger has led botanists. — Chemist ami Druggist,
[Dr. Trimen will, doubtless, have something to say to this,
but why does Mr. Holmes ignore the portraits and de-
scriptions of Ledgeriana varieties by Moens ? Equally with
Dr. Trimen, the eminent Dutch l)otanist separates Ledgeriana
,rom the Calisaya. — Ed.]

4

"CRYPTOMEEIA JAPONICA " AS A TIMBER
FOR TEA BOXES.

Some eight years ago, Mr. Gammie sent us, from
Darjiling, a quantity of seeds of this tree, but they
did not succeed at Abbotsford, probably from loss of %
vitality in the long carriage and perhaps from want ,"
of knowledge how best to germinate the seeds. As
the tree has been naturalized in the Darjiling hills,
growing readily at elevations of 5,.50O to 7,000 feet,
we cannot doubt that it would succeed on the mountains
of Ceylon. Provided the seeds are iu good condition,
they seem to be easily germinated. Our authority is
Mr. Gamble, in whoso valuable Manual the tree is
ranked with the conifers and specifically with the
cypresses. Such being the case, the terebiuthine
odour so strong in many of the true pines is prob-
ably absent from the timber. In any case, whatever
odour there may be is dispelled by the artificial sea-
soning to which the wood is subjected by the saw-
ing and box-making establishment in Japan. When
we come to think of it, surely a prominent place iu
the romance ot commerce must be found for the con-
nection wliich Mr. Dcane of Kintyre estate, Maskeliya
has been the means of establishing between the enter-
prize of tho tea planters of Ceylon and tho forest
wealth of tho Far East of the globe as utilized by
the ingenuity and scientific appliances of men from
that Far West which has been defined as "a little on
this .side of sunset." Tho Japanese call their country
again, " tho land of tho rising sun." Ceylon
lies merely midway between the regions of
sunrise and sunset, profiting by the resour-
ces of each. And let us uot forget that, but
for the wonderful progress of steam navigation
and tho competition which has so largely cheapened
frajght, we could uot possibly be rfceiving tea iioxcs
manufactured by American machinery -from timber
grown in Japan, at prices below those at which the
locally-manufactured articles can be supplied. While
not only timber suitable for tea boxes and building
purposes but even firewood is becoming scarce in
Coylon, lot us bo thankful that so largo a proportion
o£ the Japanese archipelago is clothed with lu.\uriant

JULY I, 1S85,]

THE TKQPICAL AGKICULTUKIST,

39

forest, much of it close to the seashore. The gentle-
mau who recently left Ceylon for Europe with the
purpose of getting tea boxes manufactured from the
pines of Scandinavia, may dud his plans affected by
this sudden opening of imports of boxes in shoolia
from Yokohama. But as neither the forests of Northern
Europe nor those of Eastern Asia are inexhaustible,
it may be well for Ceylon tea planters to devote some
portions of their estates to the cultivation of trees
which in the miuimum of time will supply useful
timber from their trunks and firewood from their
branches. Next to the Australian blue gum in rapidity
of growth and perhaps the superior of the euoalypt
in available timber seems to be this Japan cypress
(it grows also in China) which the botanists call Crypto-
mcria japoijca, Mr. Gamble describes it as of ex-
cessively rapid growth in Darjiling, where it is largely
cultivated. Ho says it is a large tree of China and
Japan, the seeds of which were originally brought to
India by Mr. Fortune. It grows best at 3,000 to
6,000 feet, say 4,000 to 7,000 in Ceylon, and probably
seeds could be more easily obtained from Japan than
from Darjding. It seeds abundantly, and the seed-
lings are, according to M r. Gamble, very easily raised
in boxes and sheltered beds. He describes the tree
as brittle, the tops and branches being easily broken
by high winds. Thickly planted we should think the
trees would shelter one another. Wo quote what
follows from Mr. Gamble : — " Bark brown, fibrous,
peeling off in narrow strips. Wood soft, wliite, with
a brown, often almost black, heartwood, very uniform,
with narrow bands of darker and firmer tissue at the
end of each annual ring. Medullary raya short, flue
and very fine, extremely numerous,"

THE

DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE IN
MADRAS PRESIDENCY.

We attract the attention of Sir Arthur Gordon,
his Executive Council and Revenue Officers to the
following letter from the Director of Agriculture to
the Madras Board of Kevenue, dated 26th March last.
We now merely ad,l that the Madras Government,
on the 2nd May, passed an order approving of tlie
Director's proposals. The system which prevails in
India, of the Baard of Revenue publicly dealing with
administration proposals laid before them by the Civil
Officers, BO encouraging a general and progressive
iQterest, is much superior to our Ceylon mode of
inanasing provincial and district affairs. It is time
too, that the Cej lou Government and revenue officers
did much more than thf,y are doiv.ir to promote a
divirtijifd Agriculture. We quote as fallows :—

The Goyeriiment Farm at SaMapet is to be closed, and
direct agricultural operations on the part of Government
arc for a time therefore at an end, I do not, however,
think that agricultural experiments need on tliis account
be abant'oned, but I propose that they should now be
imdertaktn in a new direction. There are two objects
which I consider wortliy of the eon.sideration of Govern-
ment in this connection- one of a purely agricultural
nature, the other intimately connected indeed with agri-
culture, but of a more c0mmerci.1l and speculative nature.
The former relates to the introduction of a more diversi-
fied agriculture in irrigated tracts that are now almost
exclusively (kvoted to the production of rice; the latter
to injprovements in the curing of country tobacco, eo as [
to make it a more marketable and commercially more
valu.ible article than it now is. The introduction of
a more diversified agriculture in tracts where rice is now '
the sole or chief product is intimately connected with
the more economic use of water provided for irrigation,
(w as to mnko the same quantity available for wider areas I
by the growth of crops which are either not generally (
trigatcJ ot Jo uot tccjuiro such au abundance of wat«r '•

as rice docs. Such crops often suffer much from the
failure of rain, and would often be saved altogether or
greatly benefited by partial flooding from artificial irrig-
ation. If this end can be secured by the contraction of
the area of rice cultivation, a largely-increased area of
land would be perfectly protected, which, at present, is
only partially and intermittently protected, and the »rea
and volume of production largely increased to the great
advantage both of the cultivating classes and ot the
public generally. I propose, therefore, that with the permis-
sion of Government, this department should cuter uito
an arrangement with some substantial cultivator for the
cultivation on a block of land, say, of 50 to 100 acres in
extent in one of the delta tracts, which ordinarily is cult-
ivated with rice only, of a diversity of crops, one only
of which shall be rice and the others crops that are not
usually classed as irrigated, the cultivator being guaranteed
against less by a covenant on the part of Government
to make good to him the loss, if any, incurred by him
in making the experiment. The question ot less or no
loss would be determined by the relative value of the
products other than rice with that of rice grown on the
same area ; this again being determined by reference to
the value of the produce raised on the rice-cultivated
area of the block or by consideration of what, in ordin-
ary years, the same land can be shown to have produced
when cidtivafed with rice. For an experiment of this
kind, Mr. Kistnasawmi Mud.ali of Shiyali would, if he
cau be induced to undertake it, be admirably fitted, and
I have to request the sanction of Government to my
negotiating with him on the matter. There is another
Point of view from which the introduction of a diversified
agriculture in irrigated tracts of wide area is desirable.
The losses sustained every year by cultivators in these
tracts from the attacks of insects, from fungoid diseases
and from closed ear-shoots (k-odu) and deaf ears may not
impossibly, be due, in a great measure to the exolu,sive
cultivation, for a long period of years, of a single product,
and the introduction of new and varied products might
not impossibly have a considerable etfect in mitigating, if
not removing, the evils from which the single product at
present suffers so seriously.

CINCHONA BARK IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

The past year has brought occurrences of wide signifi-
cance, which have put au end to the unnatural situation
that has existed so long. On January Slat, ls84, the
" ring" of quinine-makers broke up, and during the first
half of August came the I'ailure of the great quinme factory
of Milan and of the largest London holder of bark. It is
kuown that the "ring" was the work of the former di-
rector of the Fabbrica Lorabarda. From the reports sub-
sequentlypublishedofthe rash engagements of this establish-
ment it appears clearly that the situation, from the very
formation of the "ring," was quite hopele.ss, and tliat this
last anchor of salvation was also deceptive. The loss of the
subscribed capit.al of 6,000, OOOf., with a further deficit of
5,000,0'-'0f. duo to creditors, could only be the result of sever-
al years of excessive speculation. In tho first h.alf of the
past year attempts were made frcm Milan to bring about a
new turn. In May and Juue, with I he co-operatioii of tho
London speculator, bark was artificially raised to Bd
and t)d per uuit. But in July the bark market became more
and more uncontrollable, and in August, after the cata-
strophe, Oeylon bark reached 6d and 6d per unit. That a
complete panic was avoided was due to the fact that tho
stocks of quinine and bark were in the hands of powerful
banks, and have come on the market only by degrees, and
perhaps nut even yet. The reduction in the price of manu-
facturing barks was, therefore, slow, and when 5cl per unit,
the lowest point, was reached in November the Oeylon
planters affirmed that the collection of bark would no longer
pay. By withholding their stocks they were able to secure
in December not only a better tone, but high prices, for in
January fid and 8J per unit was regained. The cause of
this recovery is to be sought in a combieatinn of circum-
stances. First, the London holders of South American
barks continued to make such high demands that the buyers
at the auctions confined themselves almost entirely to Kast
Indian. Then in January came the report of revolutions iu
Oulumbia. Thu etatiitical positiou at tUv cud of Docuubcc

40

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

1883.

1882.

Owt.

Owt.

17,825

138,763

69,370

80,014

also appeared favourable to a rise. During 1884 in England
the imports were 59,287 bales against 90,608 and 110,517
bales in the two proceeding years ; the deliveries were 78,532,
67,340 and 88,717 iu 1884, 1883 and 1882 respectively ; and
the stocks remaining were 80,500, 99,667 and 70,676. The
stocks ia Franco iu the same years were 11,205, 18,282 and
15,776 bales ; and in New York 2,600, 6,200 and 15,000 bales
respectively. Thus in 1884 the total imports were 76,708,
deliveries 106,630, and stocks reduced from 124,149 bales in
the proceeding year to 94,305. The London imports included
10,000 bales of Ouprea. This statistics are not to be ac-
cepted without examination, asihe greater part of the imports
and a large percentage of what was worked up was of Asiatic
origin, that is to say, the bales were nearly double the
size of those from South America. The English imports and
exports stated iu hundredweights give a different appear-
ance:—

1884.
Owt.

Imports 105,957

Exports 102,853

The stocks in 1884, although reduced hy 19,167 bales, arc
only 3,104 cwt. less. The shipments from Ceylon have been
as follows, the year dating from October 1st to September
30th:—

Lb. Lb.

1880-81 1,208,518 11882-83 6,925,598

1881-82 3,099,893 | 1883-84 11,492,947

It was estimated that the shipments for 1884-85 would be
between 5,000,000 and 8,000,000 lb., or about 6,500,000 lb.
But this amount is almost certain to be exceeded, as up
to February 19th 678,183 lb. of twig and 3,053,5791b. of stem
bark had already been embarked, against 240,836 lb. and
2477,018 lb. in the same part of the previous season. The
imports of South American bark into London were — in
1882, 95,930 bales ; 1883, 53,780 bales; 1884,20,070 bales.
The high pricesof bark at the beginning of the year were ]iart-
ly influenced by sudden large purchases for North America,
which possessed only small stocks of bark, and where the
newly-erected factory in Philadelphia, as well as a further
establishment in New York, will soon commence operations,
or have already done so. Their object is to make the im-
portation of European quinine into the United States un-
necessary and impossible. Here are the imports of quiuiue
(iu ounces) into the States from June 30th to end of the
fiscal year: —

1877 (duty 20 per cent.) 75,804

1878 „ 17,549

1879 „ 228,348

1880 (duty free)

1881

1882

1883

416,998

408,851

794,495

1,055,764

The guiding spirit in the now American factory is the
speculator formerly of Milan, who desires to influence the
London auctions as was attempted to a small extent in
January, or by purchases in Ceylon to lessen the arrivals in
London, and so pave the way for a fresh rise in prices.
Against this stands the magnitude of the stocks iu London,
amouutiug to 70,564 bales on March 1st, mostly in strong
hands, and consisting to a large extent of valuable Oupren,
Toeima, and Calisaya. Nothing but a considerable reduction
iu the arrivals from the East Indies, with stagnation in the
exports from South America, could favour a frtsb and
permanent arrangement.— C/j««fs( ayid Drvyi/ist, 'iia.y 15lh,

TEA IN LONDON : THE SECRETS OP THE

SALES-ROOM : REFOKM NEEDED.

With the increase in the public sales of tea some years
back, the system of offering parcels in lots of six, nine,
or ten packages, which was well adapted to a small trade,
was felt to be totally inapplicable to a large one, while
the waste of time to which it led was intolerable. It was
therefore suggested to the importers and brokers that
the size of the lots should be increased, and that not
less than thirty or fifty packages should be offered at one
time. Instead of this reasonable solution of the diflicully,
a far more drastic remedy was adopted, and the importers
decided to offer entire parcels in single lots. This certainly
had the effect of saving much more time than the trade
had desired, but it has led to much greater evils than
tli« {utmer titate vl tUiuijs. The Oliiua tew ehivtiy oUttred

at public sale are of the commoner qualities, where the
trade are more closely agreed as to value than with
other sorts. On 6d. or 7d. Oongou, for instance, the
general valuations would not differ more than about a
farthing. When a parcel of tea is offered there is at once
a wild shout from perhaps twenty or thirty voices, and
the auctioneer is more often than not at a loss whom to
knock down the tea to, so that the most clamorous and
persistent individual has the best chance of being named
the buyer. The public sale-room for China tea has long
become a sort of bear garden, and everyone is agreed
that some change in the method of conducting the sales
is an absolute necessity. It is not, however, the question
of maintaining better order in a place supposed to be
frequented for business purposes, which it is proposed to
discuss here, but the point that full competition, under
the present circamstances, is rendered practically im-
possible. On entire breaks of common descriptions offered
in one lot, buyers cannot afford an extra farthing, as it
■will render the teas dear. If, on the other hand, there
were several lots, for instance four of twenty-five packages
instead of one of a hundred, there would be an opening
for competition, and other buyers, by giving the extra
farthing for a few packages, which would not materially
raise the average cost, would have a chance of securing
some of the tea they wanted. For instance, a further
farthing on twenty-five packages would represent only
1-1 6d per lb. on 100 packages, which would be a trifling
matter, even on low-priced tea. With the finer China
teas or with the more expensive Indian sorts another set
of considerations arises. It is only the larger buyers who
are prepared to take entire parcels of costly teas, and, by
offering them in one lot, competition is materially
diminished. The general results of this state of things
are most injurious both to the sellers and to the real
buyers of tea, because they have had for their inevitable
result the revival of the " buying-over " broker, and the
handing over of the Tea sales, which were thrown open
with so much trouble and at so great a cost a few years
ago, as a close monopoly to a small clique of operators,
whose voices are almost the only ones heard iu the auction
rooms. This return to old and evil conditions of trade is
distinctly injurious to the importers, to the first-hand
brokers, and to tho dealers, by limiting competition
and by introducing a totally unnecessary element of cost
into the purchase of tea. The importers, if they sell to
two or three people instead of to twenty or thirty, place
themtelves in an unfavourable position, and undoubtedly
get less for their tea than if they appealed to the whole
trade. Unless they take active mtasui-es iu time they may
see their property sacrificed to a virtual " knock-out,"
such as they formerly so loudly complained of, and tliey
will have the mortification of knowing that the spoil ia
divided afterwards. The first-hand, or Importers' Brokers
do not in anyway benefit by the change that has taken
place, unless it be that wheu they have orders to buy a
parcel of tea they are 'offering, they can generally knock
it down to themselves. To the dealers the alteration ia
anything but satisfactory. The benefit of the abolition of
tho buying brokerages is gone, so far as public .sales are
concerned, because the" buyiug-over " brokers assume the
mastery of the auctiou-room. If a whole parcel of common
tea is wanted, which is not always the case, except among
eight or ten of the larger houses, it is out of tho question
for a dealer to bid a farthing beyond the buying broker,
as the brokerage paid for taking the tea from liim after
the sale is very small, compared with jd per lb. With
finer teas the old bad practice is revived, and a dealer
who bids on his own account at sale is tacitly Ist know
that he will be what is called " run" for the tea— that
is, be made to pay more for it than if he took it through
a buying broker. The evils of the present state of the
public .sales must be patent to anyone who will look through
the catalogues, though they are still more obvious to those
who attend the rooms. The remedies, also, are simple.
First, not more than twenty to fifty packiigcs should be
offered in a lot ; second, the leading dealers should agree
among themselves that for a time they will refuse to pur-
chase any " bought-over " parcels, but only buy their public
sale teas either in their own names, or through instruc.
tious givuu tu a brukcr by thutuselvet.- i'/'yiitfce .Uwket)'
Rev WW,

Jvtv 1, iSSj.J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

4J

■*■

To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer. "

BREWING IN CEYLON AND INDIA.

Oldbury, 20th May.
Dear Sit:,— I was asked the other clay fur sume
infoimatiou respe^otiBg the brewing process as caiiieJ
on ill India aud Ceylon. A brewery was started iu
Ceylon at NuwarA Eliya just before I left the country
in 1SS3, but I have heard nothing of its ultimate
Buccess or failure. If the Brewery is still carrying
on business, could you obtain from the managers an
article on the " process tliey adopt," " w-ater,"
"yeast," and general means of overcoming the climatic
difficulties, which must be great ? I should esteem
it a great favour if you could oblige mfl in this
matter, and I think if you had no objedioi the
article could very likely be published iu the Brewers'
Journal.

With every good wish for the success of yourself
and paper. I am, yours very einoerlv,

^ ^ C. W. BARTON.

[This letter speaks for itself, aui perhaps someone
who knows may send information oa the subject
of Brewing in the East. The last time we siw Mr.
Wbymper, he stated to us that his chief obslaclo in
Nuwara Eliya to successful brewing lay in the pro-
hibitory railway traftic rates for malt and other requis-
ites : costing him as much for a hundred miles bore, as
for a thousand miles in India. We hope a conces-
sion has since been made, — In vol. I. of Tropical
Agrictdturist, pages 690 and 71S, and again on page
655 of vol. II., we gave some information which
should be of service to Mr. Barton's friend wlio is
interested in the Brewers' Journal. It is therefore
from a literary point of view that information is
wanted. Can Mr. Barton in return tell us of the
prospect of an increasing demand for cinchona bark
on the part of brewers either iu England or on the
Continent of Europe? — Ed.]

TEA SIEVES.

Bunyan, SOth May 1S85.
Deaii Sib,— Reading the local papers some days ago,
I noticed gouie tea-men found it a diliioulty to separ-
ate the large from the small leaves, I mean the pekoe
from souchong ones. I got my carpenter to make
two large si^ve3 (one for each of my estates) 8' liy .3'
with a depth of say six inches, meshes S of an
inch square made out of the strands of an old wire
rope, a simple contrivance. So I suppose many tea
planters have the same sort of a thing, cheap but not
na.'<ty. The sieve is slung from the four corners with
a wire from the floor alone. One man can sift 300 lb.
leaf per hour just as it arrives from the field. I'ekoe
leaves of course go through leaving souchong ones in
the sieve. Leaves beirg thus separated enables me
to get even withering : as the small leaves will be
ready before the large, if put together to wither, I
do not see how a man can get even or proper wither-
ing. Leaves will be ready for rolling, and will
have more white tips of courss than if the lartre and
small ones were all rolled of a heap ; tips will not
be discoloured by the juice from the lal•^'e leaver.
Commonsense tells H.iall that. My sieves have been
in use with me between two and three years, and they
are a great help indeed. GO to 70 per cent of pekoe
leaves pass through. V\ hen leaf comes in wet, several
of the leaves will be found clinf^ing together ; the sieve
shakes them adrift. Of courae this tort uf a sieve niiiy
have been iu use for many year.H. I hope so. — Yours
truly. THOMAS GllAY.

G

TEA FROM S.MABL GARDENS: HOW lAN

IT BE BEST SORTED AND DISPOSED OF.

Madulk-ele, SIst May 1885.
Dkar Sii!, — Having a small acreage of tea, "say
from 15 to 20 acres, " and fr'ini which I hope to get
about 150 to 170 lb. of made tea per in nth. could
you or any of your luinierous correspondents, inform
mo as to the best mode of sending this small quantity
home — whether it should be assorted into two or thrcs
cKisses or dispatched unassorted ? — Yours truly,

ENQUIRER.

OLD COFFEE PULPEUS CONVERTED INTO
TEA SIFTING MACHINES.

Blackwaler, 4th June 1SS5.

Dear Sir, — Now that so many coffee estates are
being planted up with tea, planters must be asking
the question, " What are we to do with ourpulpers?"
I can tell them : Do as I have done with .an ancient
one I found on this estate — oonve.t the s'eve at-
tachment into a tea-sifting machine. I have had one
working for tome months, and it does ;ill my work
and quite as well as the most expensive patent. 1
made a set of sliding sieves, No-r. 8 10, VI, and 14,
and whichever I require can at once b- adjusted.
The tea is put in a hopper at top and falls on the
sieve, through that on to a galvaniz d plate, I'ekoe,
Souchong uopqualized pn.sslng of! the tup at one endt
whilst Broken Pekoe and Pekoe nii.xed puss lait at
the other. Two men can easily sort iu a day ;)()0 ;j
400 lb. Pekoe and Broken Pekoe mixed to;,'other
with one man to equalize the Pekoe Souchong : these
3 men can finish off 400 lb. of bulk into IJrukeu
Pekoe, Pekoe, Pekoe Souchong and Dust for a dav'a
work. Messrs. W. H. Davies &. Co. can supply ihu
wire mesh, a piece of which .S' G" x 'A' coats ab.iut
K5'25. and to make eaoh sieve with wood, nails and
labour another R2 ; so that they are very little liVer
the price paid for one of the round ones wliich eo its
RG'oO and has only half the sifting surface. I am
making on an averaj;e 400 lb. tea a day, and theso
men keep up with the manufacture easily. Anyone
wishing can send his carpenter and get the "plaii
ol the whole affair. — Voars faithfully,
C. A. HAY,

TOBACCO-LOVING INSECTS: A CURE WANTED^

Df.ab SiH|— Oould any of your numerous corrcspondeiits
inform me what can be done to keep insects from eigais 'i
They make a small hole iu the cigar and pleiee it
through aud through. If you could be the means of in.
terming me what could be done to prevent the ravages
of these beasts, you would much oblige VINoT

THE SOUTH-WEST MONSOON : INTERESTING
DEDUCTIONS.
Dear Siu,— Weather science, as it afl'ects any
particular locality, is an impossibility. The remit
depends upon so many circumstances spread over such
a vast area where observation is impracticable, that
the event must ever remain uncertain at any given time
and place. By the hading astronomers iu Kurojie it is
now relegated to the columna id Zadkkl and nuoh
like publications together with " Sun-spottery " and
the South Kensington clique of oliice-seekcrs, who
still humling Government and the public with that
myth. The swaying of ihe trojiieal monsoons, how-
ever, is another matter, hut the (/((irHi)/)/ 3nt\ ym/iieuci/ of
the rains which accompany tlnin belong to weutlicr
science. The burst of the monsoon shonhl surely
always be .accuding 1o y<uv own delinitiun and not

ac'.cordiiig ti) tl ! ?riarlicd A, It and C.

Hut what strikes iii'j loruibly iu regard to thi
chief question under discuosion, namely, " the aveia";

42

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

period required for the travelling, of moDSOon raiua
from Colombo to Bombay," was the 35 days average
therein arrived at, because observation here appears
to agree witli theory.

The monsoon follows the sun in theory, so Mr.
Pearson's table shows that it does in fact. Taking
the latitude of Colombo at 7° and that of Bombay at
18° (?)* we have a difference of 11°. According to
VVhitaUer the sun this year was vertical at Colombo
on April 8th and at Bombay on May 12th, or 34 days
later !

The q.'estion to be solved appears to be : " Howmany

days is the mnnsoon on an average, latar than the sun i "

under any agreed definition. Take definition A, for

instance ; we can then construct tlie following table : —

N. Lat. Sun Vertical. Add Monsoon due.

Colombo 7° 8th April (?) 12 days 20th Apl.

Bombay 18' 12th May 12 days 24th May

Z^

METALLIC VEINS IN THE ROCKS OF
CEYLON.

Sir, — There has been much learned specnl-
ation about the age of the rocks in Ceylon, but it
seems lo me of very little importance what place they
occupy seeing that they are old and crystalline enough
to makn it highly probable that they contain some-
thing of more value than fossils. I mean metallic reins,
the search for which seems to me to have been sadly
neglected, for it is hardly possible that rocks so crys-
talline could prevail over such a large extent of country
and not have some payable fissures in them. I have
oaly heard of one case where any real prospecting
was done, and, I believe, some silver found, but the
work was not carried out sufficiently to prove whether
the vein was a paying one or not. Some good how-
ever was done by the attempt, as it showed that veins
may be looked to run from about E. N. E. to W. S. W.,
same aa they do in Wales.

Many erratic attempts have been made to find sold
in bedded quartz when the strata chanced to be suffici-
ently on edge to give it the appearance of a fissure
vein ; but nothing was exaniiurd that did not show
quartz, as only gold was hoped for. The only reason
T have heard given, against the chance of finding
metals in Ceylon, is that no trace, may be said, is
to be found of them on the surface ; but this is hardly
any reason, iu my oi>inion, against them in a country
that has not been knocked about by earthquakes and
volcanic disturbances. Except silver, very few metals
are to be found quite up at the surface, and copper
is usually from SO to 100 feet down. M.

[Our correspondent, in a private note, tells of
" pro-spccting " in Pussoliawa, and sends the following
from Mr. A. Dixon : —

" Normal St*ool, Colombo, 13th August 1884.
I am sorry I have kept you waiting so Ions', hut I
vhave been very ill under the doctor, wlui woiiUl not allow
mc to do any work. I hxve us.sayed your iiiiarlz. It is
of a far superior qualit,^ to the last you sent, being much
more compact. It coiiliinis the minerals honihlonde and
I'pidote in layers, ami at the junction of these with the
quartz there is metal. Silver is present at the rate of
11.35 dwt. per ton. There are also traces of gold,
titanium, iron and manganese, and other less important
metals. — Yours sincerely, Alexandeb O. Dixon."

We quite agree with our correspondent that a thorough
geological and minoralogical survey of our formations
ehonld be made. There have been some ]uLtty deep
cuttings on our mountain railways, and an examination
of the drbris might reveal something valuable. Mr.
Blackett. who brought kuowledgo and testing material
from Ballarat, is sanguine that gold will be found in

* Bombay is iu 19 degrees N. Lat. exactly.— Bd,

Dolosbage. Mr. Blackett, in fact, had specimens o
his rock assayed »t the School of Mines, Victoria
i with the result of gold being found at a rate which
would pay under favourable circumstances. — Ed ]

COOLIES PER ACRE FOR PLUCKING TEA J

j 10th June 1885.

] Dear Sir, — I should like to know if you or some
of our leading tea men would inform me what they
consider a fair number of coolies per acre for tea
picking. We hear a lot about coolies picking an

' average of 1.5 to 20 lb. or more. ^'hat I want to

I find out is what extent of ground a cooly ought to be
able to pick over, tay for a field giving sometimes 30 lb.
green leaf per acre, sometimes 40, 50, up to nearly
Too lb. per acre or more.

I The only letter that I have seen that bears on
the subject is Mr. M. H. Thomas's of May 23rd
published by you on May 27th. There he states he is
picking off 100 acres : I see he averages from 276J
to 348^ coolias, or say 2J coolies to 3^ per acre, and
the former picked the best round of the lot, viz. , average
of !7'2 per oooly. Abbotaford ought to be able to
give us a good idea on the subject. I should like to
know what difference is experienced in picking Assam
hybrid and China hybrid : as the latter is much tmaller
leaf, it is. I suppose, more expensive picking ; at any
rate I find it so. — Years truly, B. S.

[A "V, A." gives IJ to 2 cooliea per acre as his
idea of an annual average fortea plucking. — Ed.]

NEW TIN AND TAINTED TKAS.

Rangala, Uth June 1885.

Dpar Sir, — I shall be very much obliged if you

will obtain me an answer to the following through

your paper: — The way to remove the smell of new tin

canisters, which taint the tea if it is packed io them.

PLANTER.
[Keep the canisters open to the air for some
time, or, query, burn a little charcoal over them. — Ed.]

TEA IN JOHORE.

SiR.^I beg to send you copy of a letter I wrote
to a friend of mine the other d.ay who was in com-
munication with me, as to whether Johore would answer
as a [irofitable tea-producing country. If you think
the loiter worth publishing by all means do so, as
I think it may be the means of preventing tea
planters coming here from Ceylon and elsewhere to
meet with nothing but (as the most have done)
disappointment. — I remain, dear sir, yours faith-
fully, W. H. G.

Dear Sir, — In reply to your query of the 5th iust as
to whether tea would pay in .Tolioro or not, I beg to
submit the following as my c.indid opinion, and winch
is supported with the opinion of other tea planters that
I have met here and been in eomnuniination with: gentle-
men and planters of experience that have given the
country of .Johore ft more lengthened and as some of
thom are sorry to say to their cost a determined trial ( mor6
than I care to do now), which proved unsatisfactory
and unprofitable without an exception.

'i'KA Cultivation in JonoijE.

Climate. — A goo-l tea climate as a rule is not a healthy
one. .Tohore and Singapore are boasted of by the European
community liere as the healthiest places iu the tropics.
This fact I candidly admit aiul coincide with tliem in. It has
not t+ie hot damp mucky climate we have in Assam and
which is an indispensable point with regard to pi-otitable
tea cultivation. Therefore the great desideratum Johore
pos.sesse?:, suflieient rainfall, but suflers from lengthened
and severe drought in the early part of the year; in fact
rain throughout the year is very iiTegular, so much so that
I have seen rents or cracks all over a tea plantation called —
— (that I resided on some time) so bad and the soil actually
baked as hard as a brick. I began to think that this evil

July i, iSSj.]

THE TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST.

akme woulil be against tho pi'ofitiible iiitroiluctiou of the
tea plant, wliich I have no doubt it will be as any tlrou^ht
is j>rejudiciiil to tea. "Without c^utiunal moisture, the tva
plaut will not hixuriato to satisty the wants of tho Enrop-
ean system of plucUiug, aud what we prune for, i. e., plenty
of yonnii and healthy growth which cannot but give plenty
of leaf if the climate is suitable. Every leaf or halt-leaf
left on the shoot plucked to send from the axis of that
leaf a bud which should devtlope in 36 to 42 days into
healthy and large vigorous shoots now ready tor plucking,
and which ought to be a shade harder plucked tb;in its
parent, and so on in succession with every noiv flush
uutil the Hushes begin to get stunted which will then
necessitate prunmg. A Ceylon eott'ee planter now residing
here asked me not long since, why it was the tea
plant did not flush in Johore so regular ;:ud so continu-
ous as he had seen it do in Ceylon? ItolJ him I thought
it was because the interval between the rain was by far
too long, kc.f and when it did rain it came down in such
torrents and lasted such a short time, the soil whioh is
very stiff and hard had not time to benefit from the
showers ; being mostly liilly here, such heavy showers run
off as fast as it rained, and from its hard dry state through
continuous dry weather and nature of the soil sudden
showers had not time to percolate. A really pleasant climate
cannot be a good one for tea — Indian experience. [Contra-
dicted by Ceylon experience I — Ed. J

Soil. — I have visited several estates in this neigh-
bourhood, coffee &c., and I find there is a great
sameness throughout, too much of this red stiff
soilandtoo muchiucliued to cake and split. What little
good soil there is I find very shallow, so much so iu some
places that after holing laud on a moderate slope a few
of the showers we are accustomed to here and the sub-
soil (i. e. clay) is laid bare exposing a stiff hard clay
almost impenetrable, where I found instead of the taproot
of some tea plants going straight down they went straight
along its surface, a circumstance I never saw happen to
a tea plant root all the time I have been in India. Tea
thrives best in a light loose friable soil : the spongioles
or ends of the feeding roots are very tender and cannot
penetrate any other. It is a well known fact there is more
nourishment in stitfer soils, but for this reason the tea plant
cannot take advantage of it. It was long believed that tea
would thrive best on poor soil, but thank goodness that idea
has long been exploded but not before thousands of pounds
had been wasted. Thegronth of the tea plant here as far
as good is concerned, is, I must say, very rapid in Johore.
A three-year old plant has a stem as thick and in every
way equally as large as a five-year old plant gr^wn in
Assam; but this system of judging tea plants, as is generally
known amongst tea planters, is a very fallacious teit.

Tea. — As regards the quality of tea manufactured i n
Johore there is no disputing the fact good tea can be made.
As a convincing proof, I manufactured quantities of tea
at ditterent times and sent samples to tea. tasters in Cal-
cutta ; better reports and valuations I couhl not have expected;
much better in eveiy respect than what we usually get
on teas I have sent at times from Assam. I shall be happy
to show you the valuations whm I next visit Singayoie.
Unfortunately that is no criterion to go by, The tea-
plant will not flush the same as it does in Afsam or Ooylon.
I thought it Wit simply sulking (a term we use iu Assam
very much when a flush is long in growing), but no, it is |
worse than that. A week or two after the first plucking
what appears to be a nice flush from the axis of each leaf
left on the stem that has had tho tip and oiie-and.half or
two leaves taken from it I found at nearly every axis
seed developing not only that but the old leaves to start
growing afresh. I felt quite mystified : t such a freak and
could not determine the cause as yet : on asking tlie con-
ductor if ever he saw that happen before he said 'yes '; such
being the case tea-planting in .lohore'is, I may say, not
worth the candle. What is wanted before tea can pay in
Johore is a rapid succession of healthy flushes, and from my
experience and that of others to get this, the long and the
short of it is, it is simply a moral impossibility.

Labour. — When we come to consider the large amount
of labour required to work a tea plantation, it is
certain facilities for it are a sine qua iwn to
success. With the present state of affairs the labour
ef Johore i, i. CUuesti ftud Javauose with line or two Malaga

now and again, really cannot bo depended on, and the class
of Chinese to be picked up are of the very worst kind. At
the most they^ will only work 20 days each man per mouth.
If a mauager^ys too much to them to spite him they
will wait until he gets a flush of leaf that he wants to
take off quick, thou iu a body they will refuse to work
unless they get an increase of pay, making this tho would-
be reason and leave the garden leaving the mandoro to
receive their pay for the days worked. This actually hap-
pened to two estate managers here. They tried this gaino
on with me, but I soon put a stop to it. I took the two
ringleaders before the police authorities and put a stop to
this nonsense. I am glad to say it had the ilesired eiteet.
I did not punish them, but simply showed them I could.
After that I had more coolies than I wanted and in con-
sequence had to refuse many work. Coolies are not he
had under 25 cents (equal to about Is) per day for Chinese,
20 cents (or about lOJ) per day for Java|coolies, Malays §8
^ American dollars) per month, very scarce. They cannot be
got to engage for moreaian a month, and iu consequence
every mouth coolies are changing more or less. This constant
changing is the source of great anoyance and inconvenience
which the planter of Johore (tea as well as colfee) knows to
their very great cost and trouble. More in my next.—
Yours truly, W. H.G.

TEA DRYING AND NO. 3 SIEOCCO.

Davidson's No. 3 Sirocco.— Mr. Jamea Blackett
of Doteloya, Doloabage, recently reported to Messrs.
W. H. Davies & Co. as follows :—" The two No.
3 Siroccos that I have at work on Pen-y-lan and
Doteloya estates, I urn out 80 lb of dry tea per hour
without any ditliculty whatever. Both of them are
in pits and the heat not allowed to come quite up to
270 degrees."

15th June 1SS5.

Dear Sir, — Referring to Mr. Janes Biackett's note to
Messrs. W. H. Davies & Co. anent the No 3 Sirocco, it
strikes me there is something very ambiguous in the
wording of it. Messrs. Davies & Co. contend that tlie No. 3
Sirocco will fire properly 80 lb. of made tea per hour,
»nd looking casually at what Mr. Blackett writes, a per-
son would think that be confirms this ; but what I wish
to know is, does Mr. Blackett get f(7o/i of his No. 3 Siroccos
to tura out SO lb. of dry tea per hour working at 270° ?
or does he mean that the outturn of Xhe tiro Siroccos com-
bined is 80 lb. per hour V I have a No. 3 Sirocco and
working it at 260°, it burns my tea. I have heard of tho
same happening on two other estates where the Nn. 3
Sirocco is used. I suppose in my case it may be attributed
to my ignorance as to tho proper way to work the Sirocco ;
up to date my results with the No, 3 have been unsatis-
factory. I am making some changes in my way of work-
ing tlie machine and am hopeful of better result.". — Yours
faithfully, K.

TEA-PREPARATION I A WITHERING REBUKE,

Ainbagamuwa, 16 h Jutie 1886.

Dear Sir, — The remarks of " A Practical Proprietor "
(p. 44) appear to me far from practical. He is oharly dis»
covered for this once iu a somewhat steamy atnio-
sphere of fpeculation, when he goes floundenn;; about
among pails and pans of hot-water, calico (!) trays and
Turkish baths, iu a dense vapour of theoretical tea-
making.

In solemnly and decisively pronouncing hia opinion
against withering by liot-air, it is stated that ho
has the high sanction of " commonscnse and scieutilic
grounds." The latter has been however studiously
withheld from us and the former does not appear to
me to corriepond with that of tea-ni.iker8 iu gujuial,
who take advant.igo of their Sirocco heat, and iWuiicc
heat, day after day, for the purpose of withering their

leaf. The objection to hot-air i.s sla'ed as follows :

,' Because, in drying this way the juices of the haves
are extracted," — this is one objection ; " the juices
are extracted," — what next ?—" and the leaf would be-
come harsh and would not roll well." Did e\cr a
teR-iuan hear of auytliiu^' like thU 7 uheightcued temper^

44

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 18^5,

ature in a tea room, just enough to secure a wither,
" exlractiiKj " the "juices ?" — theine aud tannin, I sop-
nose, ai">5 meant. Fray what does the Sirocco do with
the juicy roll put into it, when it is fired at fronr
275 to 300 degrees, when its 40 feet chimney is spread-
ine far and wide the fragrance of the drying tea ?
Is' the hot dry air rising from the stove aud going
through the trays guaranteed to spare the "juices"
referred to? or is it only the moisture that is
dispelled '! Any way, it leaves enough behind to give
practical proprietors at least an average of Is .Sd a
lb. for the residuum. Why run the gauntlet then,
with a claim for "commonscnse aud scientific
grounds" in the case of withering ? Does "Practical
Proprietor" profess not to know that from "25 to .SO
per cent of moisture is expelled in ordinary withering 'I
and if this process which is indispensable in tea-
making dots not "extract" the "juice"' any more
than the Sirocco does at a fierce "dry" heat of 300
degrei"?, wherein lies the "scientific" or "common-
sense" diflference which has caused so much alarm
and anxiety in the proprietory bosom ?

Tlie next objection is: " And the leaf would become
harsli and would noi roll." I don't think even
" comuiousenae" and "soicntifio grounds" can be ac-
cepted as an excuse for the charming heterodoxy of
this proposition. It is to well established that an
overwitbertd leaf makes invariably a better twisted
tea, that one does not know by what subtle reaEOuiug
the writer arrived at his cuuclusions. No matter how
harsh the withered leaf may be, if well i)lucked, I '11
venture to back a .Jackson's " Exctliior, " aye! even
a Thompson's " Challenger" for harsliness to sit against
harshness. You have seen a corkscrew. That's the
association iu the mind, at tiicind of the coullict, as
far as the leaf goes.

It is cousoliug to our ruffled feelings however to
know that " A Practical Proprietor" has not left us and
his suparintendcuto witlnut a hope at this critical
juncUire of hie ri flections and speculations. He has
"thought the subject out" aud told us what he
Ihonght. Y»t he promiats to " cmsider the question
/urtliir and let j'oii know the remit.'' ludii has
tt'or/.TiZciut a great deal and Ceylon is loorkitiei it out now
in her numerum tea factories. Let us by all means add
10 our experience the speculations in Turkish baths
if ihey will stand criticism and practical experiments.
— Youri truly, AG RICO LA.

~"^ "rose cultivation.

Deak Sir,— Will any of your readers be so good
as to infoim me the b st meth'-d of gruwing roses
in Colombo ? What mmure to be applied and in
what pro))oriion ? Are wood-ashes as gathered in
th« kitchen mixed with m: nure any good? Also the
b(st way of removing Mack bug, which infest the
trees and kill them ult'm'tely. Infoimntion on these
pent*! will be gratefully rece'ved by, yours faithfully,
KK1^IDKNT IN COLOMBO.

No, II.

Datota, 21st June 1886.
Sir,— The test iriethod I fourel of striking slips was
to put them in almost pure sard kept moi-t all the
limn, for about two weiks, giving th m a little of the
mnrningtun. By tha" time the^ will have struck root,
when they could lie trunsferred to a bed or pots having

Charcoal
the
but

equ >1 portions of rotted cowdung and sand. (
aiiol ed to the pan's brings out the coler of the
, betier. A small ainr ant of ashes is gf
must be known that ash is caustic, aid without

apiil ed to the pan

flowiis betier. A small amr ant of ashes is good

it must be known that ash is caustic, ai

he a d of manure is inert, or rather harmful. For
tlaik l.ug try a dusting of sulphur, a branch from the
rinaio placed in the plaut, or an inlusion of tobacco

d twuiato J«uve» ; any of these i« said to be efficacious.

If your correspondent has the Tropical Agriculturist
with him, he will read about the best way to cultivate
roses and keep off insects freni them. I gained most
of my experience irom reading it, aud was successful
in growing roses.

I forgot to mention that roses thrive well on cabook
soil, but the ground must be well forked and a little
liiue or ashes applied to make the soil porous. — Yours
faithfully, B. E.

P, S. — I have seen a lot of people unsuccessful in
growing roses : they manure them too often, and fork
them too often aud thereby damage the rootlets formed
by the previous application of manure.

Tea Boxes. — Messrs. W. H. Davies & Co. send us
a sample of a Lox made by the Patent American
dovetailing machinery. The box is of American pine
well seasoned and very strongly dovetailed together.
Messj's. Davies, we understand, are imporliag these
boxes in the following siz^s :— 16x 16 x 16 (§ in. thick)
for 40 lb. and 24x19x19 (i in. thick) for SO lb. tea.
If they can be supplied cheaply, there should be a
good demanil for them.

Tea Leaf Withering — Here are hints from
practical proprietor to his superintcnelent in refer-
ence to " withering " which ate worth rcailnig :—

" is iu trouble about the accumulation of uuwithcrcd

leaf he has, iu consetiueuce of the rainy weather. 1 wrote
to him yesterday, suggesting experiments iu withering, by
means of heat from the vapour of hoihng water, i. e,
steam. I toht bim the result ot an experiment I niaele, and
suggested further trials. .Since then I have thought the
subject out, and I now tell you, for your guidance, wliat
I thiuk. — It is quite clear that tea should not he arti-
ficially withered by means of dry hot-air ; because
in drying this way the juices of the leaves are extractetl
aud the leaf would become harsh, and would not roll well ;
but if the leaf is withered by moist hot-air, the result
would be dillereut. I remember well, that, iu offices aud
buildings heated [by stoves and hot-air ; there was in-
variably plaeeil, or should have been placed, large tins
contaiuing water on the top of the stove, so that the air
to be inhaled shoidd have a sufficient quantity of moisture.
If you heat your tea-house up to 120 degrees with hot-
air, you would soon knock your coolies aud yourself up;
but if you put tins of boiling-water aud make your air
moist, you and they could stand 120or 1-10 degrees without in-
convenience. Anyone who h,as been iu a Turkish bath kuows
all about this. I say then, on commouseuse as well as scienti-
fic grounds, that, if tea leaves are be to withered properly
by artificial means, it muft be air heated by the vapour
from boiling-water. Fortunately nothing tan be easier
than _doing this : a dozen ways at once present themselves
to me. You can try the experiment m the easiest aud
most inexpensive way, and wiih very little trouble. Place
on your tea-diier tins (as large as possible) containing
wilier; over this put your calico trays, on which spread
your leaf. The w.iter will soon boil, and, what with the heat
from your drier, mul the boiling-waler, ycuwi'lsoon nUa
the general tuniper.'Uur.s to IkH degrees (not enough for
wiiherini?), aud the heat under your calico trays to 140
i or l.'iU degrees, which will nithir your leaf ilia few minute
I If thiuly spread. The best vapour fof heating a withering
! room woulil be that from |,ourinff water on a surface os
I red-hot iron ; the steam would be superhcateil. The
j chief object of my writing this letter to you is to say,
! after thinking the- rontter over, that there is one Way
of artificially ffitherirj;- leaf without extracting the juices,
which can be carried out at a very sniai' expense iu a variety
of ways , viz., by heating the air in your wilheiing-room
to the necessary degice of beat by means of the vapour
from boiling-watcr. that is by moist lieat iu contra-
distinction to (Irv heat. After reading this letter send it

over to , and, I ask you both not cnlyto experiment

but think the subject out I will consider the question
futthtv aud let you know the result."

JULV I, iSSj.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

45

A French Scientist has hsea studying the effects
of altitude upon vegetatioa, and concludes that for
each augmentation of about 100 yards there will be,
as a general average, a retardation of four days ; that
is, other circumstances being equal, a crop planted at
the sea level will appear above ground four days before
a similar crop planted 300 feet above it.— Ajnerkan
Grocer.

" Helopeltis " AND TEA.— We have heard from
" Peppercorn " about the case he referred to, which
is one previously reported to us, and in which we be-
lieve the injury done to the tea bushes was due to
some other and temporary cause rather than helopeltis.
" Not Proven" seems to be the verdict so far in
respect to every instance in which helopeltis is alleged
to have damaged tea in Ceylon.

In a rcccut letter I mentioned that a parcel of COCA
LE.vviis was on its way from Bolivia, and last week it
was disposed of at the handsome price of 7s per lb at
public sale, the buyers being Messrs. Howard & Sons of
Stratford, the well-known quinine makers. They have gone
in for the manufacture of the muriate of cocaine and of
some other out-of-the way extracts and alkaloids which
have hitherto been almost exclusively in the hands of
American and German chemists. — London Coi:

Tea-Pkeparing Inventions. — We are glad to learn
that the experiments made with Mr. C. .Shaud's new
tea drier are pronounced very favorable in the results:
the tea so prepared being valued above average. We
have no doubt that Ceylon men, are to do much for
the simplifying and improving of tea-preparing
machinery, unless they should happen to be pulled up
by patentees. One such case is now in the Courts
and on its decision a good deal may turn.
- Cinchona and Tea. — The Dimbula Coffee Company
is entering on a new lease of lite, and we
trust it will prove one of uninterrupted prosperity,
Mr. Dick-Lauder, who has so well done his work in
the past, remains as Resident Manager, and between
coffee and bark there are receipts to come in for
the new shareholders more than enough to cover ex-
penditure, while the planting of tea is being so
actively carried out that already this season 450 acres
have been covered — 350 with tine plants and 100
planted with germinated tea seed.

Tea Pluckino Contbact.s with Sinhalese on
LowconNTRY Estates.— An estate proprietor writes :
— "It. occurs to me to suggest that it would
be a good plan to institute a system of pluck-
ing contracts, similar to weeding contracts : for
outlying fields on estates it would be invaluable.
Tlie plucking of coarse leaf could be easily guarded
against by severe fines. Assuming that when tea ie
in full-bearing about 181b. of green leaf per diem
would be a good day'e work, and this at 36 cents
would be 2 cents per pound of green leaf. I am sure
if this system was ejtabliehed there would never be
any labor difficulty in Ceylon. The Sinhalese could
easily be taught to pluck properly, and they would
willingly do contract work."

Coffee Movement in America,— The consumption
last month «a8 unusually heavy, it reaching 22,345
tons, being larj^rr than for any month in the record
of several years. In 1884 the average per month was
17,633 tons; in 1883,16,391 tons, wliich indicates the
gain made this year despite dull times. The con-
Bumptioii for the fiist quarter of 1885 a-ixs 61,980 tons,
against -19,2'25 tons and 53,594 tons in 1>84, and 1883
respectively. Undoubtedly a decline ot over two cents
per pound baa done much to improve the deliveries,
Tho increasing distributiou in a roasted state steadily
tends to increase the consumption. The roasters are
educating the people to believe that coffee fresh roasted,
fresh ground, and fresh made is a cheap luxury and
a delightful stimulant. In fact, coffee is fast becoming
the moBt popular beverage o£ the day ,— AimrkanOmer,

Coffee i.v Java. — A satisfactory prospiet. — We under-
stand that the coffee crop in the Kesidency of Samaraug
promises to be overflowing this year. The trees are
now laden with berries which are almost ripe, and of
leaf disease there is hardly any tiace. Barring
accidents, there are good grounds for expecting au
abundant crop. — Locomotiif.

The Prospects of Trade on the Congo.— Mr.
Stanley speaks in one chapter on " The Kernel
of the Argument." The Congo River is three thousand
miles in length, and the regions on either side are
densely populated, some of the villages being miles in
length. Palm oil, timber of various kinds, cotton,
orchilla weed, indiarubber, copal, spices, these and
au immense variety of their merchandise awaits. ex-
portation, and a railway 235 miles long, as Mr,
Stanley shows, would be able, in export and import
freights, to earn a gross revenue of 3OO,00OA per
annum.— Coto)ii't's and India.

Tea Boxes from Japan— Mr. H. Drummond Deane has
returned after his pleasant Far Eastern trip, not so strong
in health as we should like to see him. His tea boxes
from Japan from what we have seen and learned are, un-
doubtedly, to be a great success. Their manufacture
is by means of American patent machinery and has
only been Lately commenced, so that the question is
if the demand for Japan itself (with exports reaching
to 40 million lb. per annum), taa for Ceylon and
India can be kept pace with. An Assam planter who
travelled with Mr. Deane was so pleased with the
sample boxes that he at once gave a big order.
One of the largest boxes without hoop-iron has been
tested by Mr. Deane with a full packing of dust,
and has come in such good order notwithstanding
transhipment at Hongkong from hold to hold, as to
give a good guarantee for the strength of the boxes.
Mr. Creasy has been appointed Mr. Deane's Agent
here and at his office, the samples can be seen :
the timber is good and thoroughly seasoned (kiln-
dried), the workmanship perfect, and the boxes strong
though light, while the prices range from 50 cents
for a box to hold 20 1b. (weighing itself 51b.) to
80 cents for a 13 lb, box to hold 100 lb. There
are three intermediate sizes to hold 45, 70, 901b.
and to cost 55, 60, 75 cents. Altogether Mr.' Deano
has made a happy hit and done good service to his
brother-planters.

Tea-boxes from Japan.— The firm manufacturing the
boxes brought Ly Mr. Deane from Japan have chained a
private concession for the cutting of timber over 20
square miles of forest, covered with the trees so peculiar
to Japan, the Cryptomeria Japonica, of which the follow
ing account is fromthe Treasury of Botany :

Obyptomekia. a lofty evergreen tree, forming a genus
of Coiiifirw of the tribe or suborder Citpressintce. The leaves
are shortly linear, falcate, rigid and acute, crowded but
spreading. The flowers are moueucious, the males in axil-
lary catkins, the peltate scales bearing five anther-cells at
their base. The fruits are in small terminal globular cones
with palmately-lobed imbricate scales, each one covering
four to six winged seeds. C. Japoniai, the only species
known, is a native of North China and Japan, and being
hardy enough to sustain our [English] climate without in-
jury, is now very generally planted in collections of Conifers.
It is not, however, suited to heavy soil.

Messrs. Fraser, Farley, Varnum & Co., have only
recently begun manufacturing the boxes by niachiuory
—Mr. Ucane in fact taking away the first samples.
They use 40,000 chests a year on their own account,
and as all the tea from Japan has been sent away in
similar boxes — hand-made, hitherto, and therefore ZQ
to 40 per cent dearer— the machine-made boxes are
likely to secure the home market for tho forty millions lb.
of tea exported ; besides being in demand for India
aad Ceylon,

46

THE TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST,

[July i, 1S85.

SQUIRRELS AND THEIR HABITS.

A correspondent sends us an interesting account
of the doings of one of our small Ceylon squirrels.
He saw it ripping up the long foxglove-like
flowers of a foreign but now common climber in
Ceylon, and supposed by Mr. W. Ferguson to be
the Lophospermum eruhesctns, in order to get at the
nectar they contained, whilst our correspondent at
first imagined the tiny rodent was eating his peaches.
Here in Colombo the three-striped " ground" squirrel,
BO-called, but which affects our palm trees and houses,
is constantly seen eating seeds, nibbling at flowers,
&c. It is one of our most familiar and bold little
mammals. By a curious coincidence we heard recently
about a fight between one of them and a blood-
sucker, Caloles versicolor, but which of them was
the aggressor we do not know. We have seen
the palm squirrels at Colombo not only pilfering
gram meant for poultry but actually feeding on white-
ants which bad climbed up the root step of
coconut trees, so that this amusing little creature seems
to be omnivorous.

Habits of the Common Squirrel.

"Yesterday, I witnessed to me a new and
most interesting habit of the common striped
ground squirrel, which may interest you. I saw
a little fellow on a large peach tree, which was
festooned with a common but beautiful creeper. I do
not know its name. Naturally thinking the 'beautiful
■wretch' was after my peaches. — I like the birds and
little beasts to have a share of my fruit, but really
sometimes they do not seem to think that I want
any ! — Just to see what it was up to I watched ist
movements a few feet over my head and quite un-
disturbed. It seemed so busy that it had not noticed
me. It was evidently 'on the feed,' but seeing it
pass a good fat peach at once attracted my attention,
and it was evidently busy in some way with the fox-
glove-like flowers of the creeping plant. I saw it
visit several before I could make out what it was
doing. Turning a small telescope on it, I saw that each
time it went to the base of a blossom its little head
gave a quick jerk upwards, and then was quite motion-
less to all appearance for a few seconds. A blossom
falling near me, after it was operated on, I quietly
picked it up. It was not a fully expanded one ; there
clearly enough was to be seen marks which fully ex-
plained the intelligent little creature's movements to
get at the nectar at the base of the flower. It had
seized the calyx with its sharp cutting teeth and deip
enough to catch hold of a portion of the blossom,
and with the jerk noticed laid open the base of the
blossom, sufficiently to insert its tongue and suck the
honey out. I watched it operate on 30 or 40 blossoms
in a very few minutes, and saw, with the help of
the glass, its tongue inserted quite clearl;'. It was so
expert at the work that it never missed laying the base
of the flower open at Jlrsi shot. About a third of
the blossoms fell : the older blossoms had a piece
bitten quite out near the calyx, the latter sometimes
not injured ; younger blossoms invariably had more or
less of the calyx cut up. I enclose you a specimen
of each, and no doubt you can tell me the name of
the plant, which is like a weed here, but I expect not
a native, I enclose three mature blossoms to show how
clearly each blossom is bitten exactly in the same
Tray. Xhe wretch is at it again this inorniog, throw-
ing eoorea of bloeeoma down,"

PLANTING NOTES FROM UVA.

Haputale, 12th June 1885.

The last month was a busy one up here from all ac-
counts, crop gathering being iii full swing during
my absence in Colombo; the final rounds of picking are
now progressing, and I am happy to be able to report the
most cheering accounts of estimate being realized and in
many cases being greatly exceeded, not by liiindreds but
by thoumnds of bushels of jiarchment, which most satis-
factory result is said especially to have been experienced
on all the higher estates above the Pass, and I am also
glad to learn that those who had spring crop to gather
on estates below the Pass have been equally fortunate ;
so that my earUer predictions when drought and leaf-
disease were prevalent and threatened the loss of much
crop, especially on estates below the Pass, have most
happily been disappointed and estimates are said to have
been gathered in full. That some crop was lost from
drought and leaf-disease cannot be denied, and it has been
mentioned to me that but for these unforeseen calamities
estimates in many cases would have been cloiihled., and
tu-icc the quantity estimated would have been gathered
this season. From the Badulla side I have heard that one
estate has actually gathered double its estimate^ and others
have got from 2,000 to 4,000 bushels parchment overestimate,
whilst in some of the pubUc papers I saw it recently
stated that the Uva Company's estates were this season
giving 1,000 cwt. of crojj over estimate. How much more
crop they would have given it they had not destroyed
some 200 acres or more of fine bearing coffee, to make
room for tea, I leave you, Mr. Editor, to guess.

The " tea mania " has now fairly set in here, and
many estates have extensive tea nurseries and some are
planting tea under the coffee and cinchona trees.
Oh ! ye gods of agriculture, how in the name of com-
monsense do you expect all three products to thrive in
the same six feet square of soil '( If you are in a hurry
to get rich I will also suggest your sticking in the same
plot a plantain tree, a few briujals, tomatoes, et hoc genus
oinne ! If a word of warning from an old stager would
be acceptable to my brother-planters, I would say : " Don't
plant tea amongst your good coffee, but stick to the old
and generous King. Treat him kindly and regally and he
will respond to your affection by good crops for a good
many years yet to come. If you want to plant tea, do
so on your spare land or buy patana or chena lands, of
which there are thousands and thousands of acres all
around you in Uva, with soil quite as good as on most
of the tea clearings I saw in my travels through the Kclani
Valley, Yakdessa, Ambagamuwa, Kotmale and Dimbula.
After a residence of nearly 30 years in Uva I can say that
the rainfall here is ample. The present season's weal her
is more like the good old times when I commenced plant-
ing here early in the fifties. Last month the rainfall was
12-21 inches distributed over 20 days, and since Ist June
to loth iust. there have been 7 wet days totalling 306 inches.

HOW TO PLANT AND PREPARE TEA :

THE FATHEKS OF THE INDIAN TEA INDUSTRY

INTERVIEWED: II. ME. WM. ROBERTS.

Mr. AVin. Roberts, who has for many years so succcbe-
fuUy steered the affairs of the Jorebaut Tea Company,
Limited, into its present eminently satisfactory position,
first entered on his Indian experiences in the year ISJl. "The
question of sending rut a really properly qualified chendst
to analise the tea under various stages of manufacture is a
very important one. Our experience of experts in comicotion
with investigations relating to tea-blights has not been
satisfactory, in fact, very raueh the reverse, hut that is a
totally ditferent braucb of science, as you know. Yes ;
and their failure might have been foretold, as it is a ques-
tion affecting the most fundamental laws of nature ; as
we know that in nature, given the requisite conditions of
life in siUBciently attractive quantity and quality and
' pest ' life will be developed in proportion to the ex-
tent of the attraction offered to it. Having planted large
tracts with tea, where hitherto only odd bushes existed,
we had but to expect that those forms of life which are
fpeciall}' attracted \>y tea buibes would multiply uuder

JyLV I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

47

the thriving conditions supplied to them, just as happened
in the Straits Settlement to the spice cultivation, in Oey-
lonj to the coffee, in Ireland to the potatoes, in France.to
the vines, &c.

" Quite to, and thi> ' particular form the tea-pests took
rendered their partial extermination extremely difficult ;
though special meteorological conditions varying in differ-
ent seasons, appear to affect, sometimes favourably, some-
times the reverse, the propagation of the pests. Coming
back to the question of the chemist, I think that it is
quite probable that he would be able, after discovering
the essentials upon which depend the manufacture of good
tea to point out how the weather affects the manufacture ;
and thus we might have indicated to us the means of
modifying atmospheric conditions where we could almost
say that tea manufacture' had been reduced to an exact
science, and independent, so far as the manufacture of good
cutcha leaf goes, of all conditions of weather. Tea com-
panies and estates would probably be found quite ready
to supply the necessary funds for such a very desirable
purpose. Tea planters need not be alarmed at the
prospect. A knowledge of chemistry would not be required
of them. General principles would merely have to be placed
on a basis of scientific fact in the first place, then rules
for guidance, to be followed according to the varying con-
ditions, based upon those principles, would prove as simple
as present rules, only they would be based on reason in the
place of rule of thumb."
" What are your views as to a return to panning ? "
*' Panning was a dirty, troublesome, dangerous jupocess,
but it is quite possible we may have to return to a modi-
fied form of panning, under which, by the assistance of
mechanical appliances, the old disadvantages of the process
may be overcome. In any case, I should very much like
to see 50 maunds of tea manufactured under the panning
system alongside of 50 maunds under the present system,
sent home as a trial ; as upon these, reports could be obtained
which would do much to assist us in forming, an initial
opinion as to the desirability of further experiments in
that direction. For myself I think that many advantages
resulted from panning, wbich we have lost by discontinu-
ing the process. The leaf was made more pliant, and the
essentials were more fixed — by a partial evaporation of the
moisture — before the rolling, and thus less of these were lost
by excessive expression of juice in the rolling ; further, the
dried half was blacker and more "'lossy, and many oth*:
advantages might be credited to the panning process.

"Care would have to be taken to select an old planter to try
the above experiment, one who remembers all the details
of the obsolete process, as except those planters inDehra
Dun, and Kangra, for example, who manufacture green
tea for Afghanistan, and the two or three in Assam
who still occasionally make " Namouna," the present
generation of planters, as a rule, would regard a " caroi "
as a curiosity well qualified for a museum of antiquities.
" To what, if I may ask the question, do you attribute
the success of the .Torehaut Tea Company ? ''

"That is a short question, but the answer to be| com-
plete would be voluminous. Briefly, we have experience,
and a system based upon experience, and we do not change
our managers if they happen to have had an occasional un-
satisfactory season. Then we select good men as managers,
provide them with every requisite and of the most im-
proved and perfect kind procurable, and treatthem well,
insisting in return upon their treating the Company to
the best of their abilities. We have a complete system
of printed forms, each a rejiort on some head in itself,
and these keep us at head-quarters thoroughly posted in
all that goes on or does not go on. We have all alo!ig seen
the economy of putting up comfortable, substantial build-
ings to start with, and thus the ciinstant drain for repairs
to cutcha buildings has been avoided, and our people have
healthy dwellings and proper weather-tight accommodation
for the {'manufacture of tea under the most favourable
conditions inconsequence. Even the coolies' tints are iron-
roofed and have brick walls. The mortality has, therefore,
naturally been immensely reduced. Every attention poss-
ible has been paid to sanitation on all hands. AVe have
supplied aerated water machinery, and an ice machine
driven by steam, thus adding greatly to the comfort of
our Europeans and hastening their convalescence from
fever. Large iron filters have also been supplied (or the

coolies, and onr doctors have to report periodically upon
the quality of the water. Our managers' bungalows are
well built, commodious, and healthy. There are photo-
graphs of some of our buildings on that wall, you will
allow they are very superior. If the Europeans like to
come home to recruit their energies during the cold wea-
ther after October, they are permitted to do so occasion-
ally, and they receive full pay and their commission on
the previous season, as though they had remained on duty.
If they come home during the manufacturing season, the
man who does their duty receives the commission of the
season, as only fair. As regards cultivation, we insist upon
thisbeing thoroughly well done, overdone rather than under-
done. Then as to pluckings; each factor has to submit a
ten-day return to the superintendent, and if the leaf of
each " flush" is not shown as all gathered within that
limited period, enquiries as to the reason take place, as
it is one of our maxims that to make good tea the * flush '
must be gathered at the right moment. As [we supply
suflQcient labour for that purpose this condition of good
tea-making is rendered possible, as well as essential.
Finally, we carry nothing to capital account, all charges
for buildings and even extensions, are met ont of revenue,
and notwithstanding this our Kevecue Fund is a largo
one."

Truly an excellent example this of the happy results of
a correct realization of the responsibilities of capital towards
labour. — Home and Colonial Mail.

NEW PRODUCTS IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Barks. — A most important bark is that of the Cassia
'auriculata. This shrub, which grows in great quantities
in certain districts, is extensively used both for tanning
purposes and for manure, and the rates at present in
force vary very considerably. The Board of Revenue
propose that the levy of seigniorage should be discontinued,
that the tracts on which the plant is found in abundance
should be taken up as reserved lands and worked depart-
mentally, and that on other tracts the cutting of the plant
should be permitted free of charge. If this course were
adopted, the tracts outside the reserves would speedily
be exhausted. As for the wants of the ryots for agricult-
ural purposes, the case is to a great extent met by recent
orders which will allow of their cutting the shrub for
manure within the limits of their own villages. The best
policy seems to be to impose a moderate seigniorage every-
where, and at the same time to form departmental re-
serves in places where the demand is unusually great. There
should ordinarily be two scales of seigniorage, based on
charges of 1^ and 3 rupees respectively per cart-load, and
it will be for the Collectors of the districts concerned to
adopt either the one or the other according to local cir-
cumstances of demand and supply. In tracts bordering on
Mysore it will be necessary to maintain a high rate as
heretofore.

Fruits, Leaves, &c. — In some districts it is proposed t*
levy seignorage rates on fruits, gums, roots, medicinal
plants and leaves for manure. The levy of the.se rates
should be confined to areas under special protection and
reserved forests. Minerals also should be charged for
only in reserved areas. — Orders of Madras Government

THE CHINA TE4 TRADE.
(From the North-China Herald, May 29th.)

Twenty-five years ago, dating. I believe, from this
very month, Hankow was opened with " great expect-
ations " to foreign trade. Its history has been one
of a few successes and many bitter disappointments,
and the semi-jubilee ■we are celebrating at this time
gives little promise of better things to come.

The future of the tea trade of this port is as difficult of
divination as ever, ami on the truo Iwuk a nnn lucendo
principle only those who know nothing of thearticle and
the conduct if riverine all'iirs, who watch in calm
ease at Shanghai our wearying labour here, are fit
to sit in judgment upon us.

"Suave mari magiio turbantibiis icquora ventis
E terra magnuin alterius spectare laborem,"

48

TKE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July t, 1885,

In passing in review some of the more prominent
features of seasons 1SS5-86, one fact stands pre-emin-
ent, viz. : the status of the native teaman today.
Sii short weeks ago, only a limited amount of sycee
had been sent into the country, a small quantity
of tea made, and a very sloomy prospect of outlet. To-
day, ficlsle fortune, ever Celestially sympathetic, comes
to his aid with the glad tidings of peace, backed up by the
appreciable gifts of cheap exchange aud cheaper
carriage. The result of these kindly favours will be
a very full supply of tea and assured large profits
to the natives. Truly if ever fortune's favoured nation
clause were extended on behalf of any race, it has
been stretched to its utmost limit in the interest of
these long-tailed, long-nailed, long-headed middlemen
who batten upon the profits of this vexatious trade.

Now as regards the produce itself. Injerioriti/ is
its characteristic. The teas of nine districts out of
ten are poorer in leaf and poorer in cup, and super-
add to these misfortunes the ever present objection-
able tarry or burnt flavours. It would appear that
the three great tea-producing provinces of Kiangsi,
Hupei and Hunan had all done a thriving trade with
Stockholm. Taking tlie Kiukiang teas in their order ;

1. — The Ningchows are tarry, burnt, mouldy or
weathery,

2. — Tlie Keemuns, if not tarry, "are for the most
part burnt. These classes of tea have been bought
by the great judges, and are out and out the best
teas of the year.

3. — Hohows generally quite enough baked.

The Oopack teas, Sungyangs, Yuug-low-tungs,
Tongeaus, &c. are a jejune lot ; all thin, dry and
hungry. They lost a great deal of money last year
for shippers, and will probably repeat the perform-
ance this.

The Oonahm teas are a motley crew. They are all
touched with the tar brush.

In the first rank as regards quality are the Tonyuens.
They are well made, i)owerful teas, possessing any
amount of brute force.

The Oanfas are soft, tarry things, fit for the eighteen
penny canister.

The Kokens are few in number and of fair
quality.

The Lilings, Shun.fa3,Fa-tam9, and Shun-tams beggar
desoription,

FOOCHOW.

CONSULAR NOTIFICATION.

To the British mercantile community of Foochow.
British Consulate, Pooohowfoo, 14th May 18S5.

The undersigned begs to circulate for the inform-
ation of the British mercantile community the anne^ed
translation of au address that has been made to him
by the native tea firms and brokers of this port.

They therein represent that certain abuses have
grown into existence in the conduct of the tea
business of Foochow and that through these abu.sca
they have sufi'ered aurioug losses ; they refer in partic-
ular, firstly, to the overplus of weight taken from them
in the process of weighing ; and seoondlj' to the long
delays in settling up accounts.

It would then appear to be their fixed purpose
to endeavour to place the tea trade on a fair
and uniform basis ; with tliis end in view, a set of
Trade Rules lias been drawn up, and a copy been
submitted to tlie undersigned with a request that tliey
may bo nntilied to the BritiBli Merchants at the port
for their olnervancc aud guidance.

In compliance with that request, a translation
of the eaid rules is herewitli published, and to
them the attention of the British Mercautilo Com-
munity is now kindly iuvited.

H. JVI.'s Consul nowise pretends to dictate the form
in which business should be conducted with the native
Tea Firms; he may, nevertheless, be allowed to give
expression to an opinion in regard to these Trade Rules,
namely, that they appear to him to contain not only
'nothing illiberal and unreasonable, but much, on the
contrary, that is likely to conduce to a healthy and
mutually profitable trade, if carried out in their
integrity, aud be hails the introduction of such rules
with pleasure.

He may add, that in this view of the
subject he shall feel disposed to guide his
decisions by these Rules, in those cases which
might come before him judicially, where it should
be shown that no special contract had been made
on the part of the buyer. Cuarles A. Sinclair,

Her Majesty's Coimul.

PETITION OF THE FOOCHOW TEA GUILD TO
CONSUL .SINCLAIR.

Petitioners, the Committee of the Foochow Tea
Guild, beg to state that in consequence of the
heavy losses they have sustained from the system
of giving over-weight and taking credit, tliey have
held a meeting, and framed an agreement of which
they beg you will cause the observance.

Having invested their capital and opened Tea Honga
in Foochow, they beg to point out that trade between
Chinese and Foreigners is entirely dependent on good
faith, and if it is carried on without dispute, it maybe
expected to be permanent.

Now of late years Foreign merchants when pur-
chasing tea have adopted methods of weighing aud
making payment which have been very detrimental
to Chinese teamen aud brokers ; for 2 or 3 catties
a chest overweight have iu some instances been given,
in others 3 or 4 catties ; sometimes 5 or G mouths'
credit has been taken, and occasionally over a 12
months' : and cases have even occurred where firms
who have first taken long credit have eventually
suspended business, and have jiaid only a com-
position, or not even a cash, thus involving pet-
itioners in serious loss. As a result, of lite years
many of the native tea firms have had to close their
establishments, and have been plunged in the deepest
distress. Now the merchants at all theTreaty Porta
ought to deal fairly. If they take overweight, then
their estimate does not tally with that of the seller,
and all the tea firms alike suffer ; if long credit be
taken, then the latter have to bear a further and
considerable loss of interest. Moreover the tea ought
to be weighed without delay immediately the order is
entered in the books.

Petitioners have been compelled by the great diffic-
ulties under which the trade labours, to hold a meeting
and pass resolutions that in future in all transactions
the true weight be adhered to, that payment be made
at the stipulated time, and tliat no one be allowed to
reduce the weight at pleasure or to take credit at will.
These rules will, it is hoped, prove beneficial to the
Tea Trade in the South-East of China. Buyer and
seller should treat each other in a reasonable and con-
siderate manner, so that henceforward their good faith
may be manifest to all. They must not take an unfair
advantage of each other.

Petitioners enclose the rules framed by the Guild,
the terms of which they beg you will view without
prejudice and be good enough to make known to all
Foreign merchants, that trade may be carried on iu
accordance therewith. Compliments.

RULES FROMED BY THE TEA GUILD,

May 1SS5.

I. — All Foreign merchants buying tea must pay

ready money ; or, where this ia impracticable, within

three days after clearance at the Custom House : or,

/ULY I, 1883.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

full

No

the

if press of business prevents this, payment in
must be made at tlie latest within seven days,
credit will be given in any case.

II. — Should, as may happen now and again,
purchaser not have taken delivery owing to the nou-
arrival ot the steamer, or should the tea, though de-
livered, not have been weighed; in any case, at the _

expiration ef four weeks after the entr^- of the tr(vus-|L become a monetary mctiiuna both

action in the books, the tea shall be immediately • —

weighed and payment made in full, whether the stamer
has arrived or not. No furl her credit will be givfu.
Tea that has already paid duty at the Custom House
does not come under this rule.

III. — In weighing tfa, the exact wti.;ht must be
adhered to. A tare of 2 Ih. will be nllowed on every
large chest, and of lib. on eveiy 251b. cliest : Jib.
only will be allowed on small boxes. On 25 lb. boxes
of Oolong h lb. only ; on large boxes of Pekoe 1 lb.
All we require is fair dealing at the time of weighing.

IV. — When the tea is weighed after purchase a
memorandum of the weight must be sent without
delay to the Chinese tea firm, who will forward it
to the seller for his information. Sliould any discrep-
ancy be reported by the tirm, it must not be shipped
till it has been reexamined. The tea must not first
be shipped under the pretext that otherwise it would
miss the steamer.

V. — In all transactions these rules must be in every
respect strictly observed. Should any person infringe
them, our Guild will cease to send him musters, and
will refuse to deal with him.

Translated by R. W. Hurst.

NORTH BORNEO.
SiH Walter Medhuest's Paper bki'ore the
E. Colonial Institute.
North Borneo will rank as one of the dependencies of
the Crown, and the Royal Colonial Institute is therefore
to be commended for departing somewhat from its
" Colonial programme " i J order to enlighten the world
upon a territory which, from all aocouiit.>i, has a very
successful if not a most brilliaut future before it. f'"'
Walter H. Medhurst, who was deputed by the company
to proceed to Borneo in 1S82 for the purpose of organizing
a suitable system of Chinese immigration, was the rffader
of the paper, and he described in much detail the
success which has so far attended the efforts of the
enterprising gentlemen who have taken upon themselves
the arduous lask of building up a new State in the
Eastern Seas. It appears that the compa' y owns a coast
Hue (if not less than 600 miles, and that the total area of
the country ceded is computed roughly at 24,000 miles.
When we are told that the land is indented at various
points by bays and harbours, some of them scarcely to
bo equalled by any in the world ; that the soil, whilst
specially adapted for tobacco and pepper cultivatiou, is
pronounced as being most favourable for cultivatiou in
general ; that the climate, a tropical one, is at the same
time a grand one, the temperature being prntty even all
the year round ; that the timber is of the verj finest ;
that the supply of guano deposited by tlie bat.'S and the
birds Is enormous beyond calculation, and that the
flowers are pronounced by competent authorities to be as
numerous, delicate, and beautiful as the forests are grand
and imposing, the company may well be colii;ratuIated
upon obtaining such a valuable acquisition upon v(;ry
favourable terms, and we are sure that as soon as the
richness and fertility of the country becomes mnre
generally known, private enterprise will not be backward
in seconding the strenuous efforts which the company
are making towards preparing the country for coloniz-
ation. So SHCccssfid has the company been in Ibis
respect, that the inhabitants of other parts are Sfiid to
be clamouring to be jilaced under the company's rule.
This shows that the natives are beginning to ajipreciate
fully the advantages attending a life of peace and
eeciirity at home, combined with a lucrative trf.de abroad,

7

as compared with the fitful and hazardous existence they
once led as pira tes and head-hunters, with the war cry
of tribal dispute perpetually ringing in their ears. As
another and satisfactory evidence of the hold upon the
confidence of their own people, as well as the neigh-
bouring tribes which the company have succeeded in
.securing, it may be mentioned that they havo
iutroduced a one cent copper coinage, which has

North Borneo and
beyond its limits. They have, moreover, establi.shed
a paper currency of SI, $0, and $25 notes, which pass
current even as far as .Sarawak, Singapore, and Uongkong;
and they have set up their own postage-stamps, and opened
a money-order conmiunication with Great Britain and for-
eign countries. Sir M'alter Medhurst certainly said enough
to convince anyone that all that British North Borneo
needs is capital, enterprize, and judicious working to bo
developed successfully. The principal centre ot trade at
the present time is Sandukan, which, lying in a posititm
relatively to the ruute of steamers runningbetween Australia
and China, must have a commanding commercial influ-
ence, whenever North Borneo becomes sufficiently devel-
oped to take a place amongst the pri>ducing districts of the
world. The site of the settlement comprizes a frontage of
about 5,000 feet, with water deep enough to admit of large
vessels being laid alongside its future wharves, which are
at this moment represented by one well-built wooden pier,
4.50 feet in length, and enabling vessels drawing 20 feet ot
water to go alongside. Although private enterprize docs
not appear to have effected much as yet, still it is gratify-
ing to observe that over 260,000 acres had been taken up
to the end of 1883, in the East Coast Residency, and 1,000
acres in the West Coast Residency. Of the first-named
quantity, 100,000 acres were applied for by the Australian
Borneo Company, and there is every reason to believe that
other companies will follow suit in the same direction, as
soon as the promising results of the efforts of that associ-
ation become generally known. It is certainly not a little
singular that, although the existence of a pearl oyster of
the same variety as that fished up with such good results
off Thursday Island, has been conclusively proved, the op-
portunity, for some unexplained reason, has not yet been
taken advantage of . The introduction of Chinese is looked
upon as absolutely necessary for the development of the
country. It has been suggested that an offer of free pass-
ages to Borneo, say for twelve months, would have the
effect of bringing into the country hundreds of Chinese of
all classes, the poorer ones of whom, already accustomed to
jungle life in the Straits, would find the means of living in
various ways, as collectors *'f jungle produce, charcoal
burners, gambiir and pepper p'ii.uters, gardeners, plank
sawyers, &c. ; but Sir Walter is of opinion that a still stronger
inceutive to respectable Chinese settlers would be an offer
of plots of land free for a certain term of years, in self-
selected localities, subject to subsequent assessment of
value whenever the productiveness of the soil has been
sufficiently established. In the, discussion which followed
the reading of the Paper, Mr. A. Delit, the originator
of the Biilisb Norlh Borneo Company, gave some rather
later stati-stics regarding the progress of the country than
those submittal by Sir V.'a'ler. Mr. Deul; admitted that
murh had b. On danc, but he confessed that he aulicip<
atcd the advancement Woid<l have been in a much greater
ratio. The revenue flsial of l.'*84 slioivcd an Increase of
60 per cent, nver that of 1883, but the land sales exhibited
a d, cease of ad per cint., so that there wa.^* a surplus of
21 percent., which, con.iidcriiig the state of trade all over
the world, was not wholly unsatisfactory. He Wi.'ihrd to
correct an Imp essinn that the company received its pow-
ers from Her Mnjesly's Ooverument. They derived all
their powers from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu Sea, the
ISnglish Government merely allowing them to incorporalc
themselves as a comp.anv, Oeneral Lowry pointed out tbiit
the country, being halfway between China and Australia,
it must be' mn>fc valuable from a strategic point of_ view,
and he hoped the time was not far distant when its im-
portance as a coaling stntiim would be recignized by the
Kiiglish Government. Mr. Myhurg, Q. C, one of tho
directors of the company, thanked Sir Walter ibr his
Paper, and for introducing Chinese immigration into
Borneo. The Obintee would uuver have t'oue back to thvir

5"

.THE TROPICAL AGlilCULTURlST.

[July i, 1883.

homes if the sugar-|)lanting interest had not turned out a
failure, owing to the dt'pressioD existing in the v»rious
markets of the world. Before long, he had no doubt, the
position of the company would be altered, and that British
North Borneo would be inoorporated in the British Em-
pire. Sir Richard Temple, in a long speech, urged the
development of the country by Chinese labour, which, he
said, was 50 per cent, better than Indian labour, and ex-
pressed a hope that at no distant date the country would
become a dependency of the Grown. Admiral Mayne,
Mr. de Miiller, who has recently returned from Borneo,
and Mr. J. Beaumont followed, and the discussion, after
lasting over one hour and-a-quarter, was brought to a close
by a few remarks from the chairman — the Duke of Man-
chester— who expressed his gratification at the advance the
colonial question had made during his absence in Australia.
This was the first appearance of His Grace at the Institute
since his return, and we need hardly say that he met with
a most enthsiastic recejitiou. — Eurojmin Mail.

QUEENSLAND SUGAR PLANTERS AND THE
POLYNESIAN ISL4NDERS.
Brisbane, May 31st.— The steamer "Victoria,"
which probably leaves on Tuesday, will take back
to their homes the islanders who were declared by the
Polynesian Commission to have been illegally re-
cruited. Mr. A. Musgrave, jun., goes with the
steamer as acting deputy commissioner for the Pacific.
The Queensland Government will be represented by
Mr. H. M. Cheater, Mr. M. C. Lawrie, and Dr. Smith.
The northern planDers are, however, taking steps to
prevent, if possible, the removal of the islanders,
formal protists have been entered with the immigra-
tion agents at Mackay and elsewhere, and also with
the Government. One planter at Mackay is said to
have flatly refused to give up his labourers at present,
and an injunction to restrain the Government from
removing them will be applied for, at the instance
of some of the Mackay planters, in the Supreme
Court tomorrow. The three Mackay firms who are
understood to be taking the chief action in the matter
are Messrs. Sloane and Co., the Colonial Sugar Com-
pany, and Messrs. Fanning, Naukivell, and Co. One
of the chief rr asons given is that if the labourers are
removed at the present time the sugar crop will be
completely ruined,

♦ •

INDIAEUBBER AND GUTTAPERCHA IN
THE DUTCH EAST INDIES.

We have received a separate reprint of a paper
ftrm the February number of the Tijdschrifl ran
Nijve>'heid en Landbomo (Journal of Industry and Agri-
culture) published in Batav'a, the title of the pappr
being " Over de Toekomst der Caoutchouc-eultuur ' in
Oost-Indie " (On the Future of Caoutchouc Culture in
[Dutch] East India), being a notice of a "report
on planting experiments with caoutchouc yielding
trees during the (irst quarter of 1884, curried out by
the forester of the foreat di-trict of East Prfanccr,
A. H. Bprkhout." The review is dated " Batavia
19 h reccmbcr ISoJ," but there is no signature, ro
t! at wc cannot tell who the writrr's. He cimmcnces by
briefly skotching the history of 'udiarubb r and de-
tailing the u.'es to which it is put, and then
Jeals trparately wiMi the three commerciil vari-
etirs of East Indian, Sumatran, and American.
Under the first, he spe^iks of Uros'tgrnri ilasticuin
and Uroi'tiijmn knrd, bi't belorgirg to the family of
the Artorarpa''''.t. It seems that .lava has the oldest
plantati'^n in the world of knret t-ees, Messrs. Holland
having iu l>!f!6 formed an extensive plantation in the
eeijjjbbourliood of Sptbang. The writer goes on to

i

refer to the wasteful method of gathering the rubber,
and quotes from the Tropical AijriculturUt for Nov.
18S4, p. 3(11, an extract on this subject, the state-
ments in which, he says, are borne out by experience
in Java, and he quotes from Mr. Berkhoul's report
A instance of this, and then mentions the i-egulations
which are being enforced in Assam for the protection
of rubber trees. Details are given of experiments
by Mr. Berkhout with karet trees, which seem to
promise success. The usual method of propagating
this tree is by cuttings, but the writer thinks that
the USB of seed would be cheaper and more efficacious.
Proceeding to speak of Ceara rubber (il/a«(A()< ijlauovii),
the writer quotes from Mr. Berkhout's report details
of experiments with seed obtained from Ceylon iu
Dec. 18S3 through Messrs. John Prycc &, Co. Two
ditlerent methods were employed. A portion was
simply put out in the open air between gunuy bags
and kept constantly moist. To guard against the attacks
of auls, which are very foud of the kernels, the bags were
placed on rough trestles, the legs of which were
put into tins of earth and these into kerosene tins
tilled with water. Three days afterwards some of
the seeds had sprouted, but a large portion after
the expiry of a month showed no signs of germin-
ation : recourse was therefore had to filing, and the
seeds were once more placed between the gunny
bags. Many then showed that they possessed the
power of germination, but, filr. Berkhout adds,
filing is a difficult operation and if not done care-
fully causes harm instead of good : if the germ
is injured the cotyledons swell but soon rot and
no roots are produced. Mr. Berkhout adds that as
soon as the seeds begin to germinate they should
be planted with the root downwards 1 centimeter
(say ^ inch) deep. Seedlings should not be planted out
directly in nursery beds, as many would fall a prey
to ante, but should be put into pots Irlled with
sand aud placed on trestles. When the plumule
begins to develop the plant can be placed with the
ball of earth in the nursery bed, and for the
first few days shaded. The differences in the
growth of the plants Mr. Berkhout thinks
are to be explained by a portion of the
seed being from young trees. Figures are then
given of the growth made by plants at different eleva-
tions. Experiments were to be tried with cuttings,
but Mr. Berkhout considers these doubtful of success,
judging by experience with cassava, which is closely
allied to Ceara. The writer of the review then
quotes from the T. A for last Nov., p. 354, an extract
from the report "f the Agricultural Society of
Madras, giving part of a letter from Messrs, J. P.
William & Bros, of Henaratgoda on CearA cultivation,
aud directions for the germination of the seed, which
he compxrcs with those given by Mr. Berkhout,
Passing on to spe k of Ccifli/Ioa daalica the reviewer
fives an extract from Mr. Berkhout's Report relating to
the planting of seeds from a tree in Java all of which
germinated, the plants growing wel', Mr. Berkhout
ndd':— "The Btatenient of Dr. Trimcn, that the
Caslilha etnflica is destined, u' der cvreful culture,
to he a source of revenue, aj pears to me, in view
of what I have stated, perfect'y correct." luform-
atinn on the .Milject is .igain quoted from the
T. A., and then the rcvirwrr proceeds to
rotioe certain indigenous caou'chouc yielding tree«,
v'z. Liucouitcs cvijcnifu/iii, Biamnontia iiranili-
llora Wall., B. riiitUijlora F. fr. B,, B. spec. Jin:,
and Vahrii gummiferei, and finally Para rubber.
Figures for rainfall at various p'ates in Java are
then given, .ind a tab'e showing the growth of the
various varict'es of caou'chouc planted. The last
plant referred to in the Re( ort s a tree calleii
by the Malays hamharanij (F'cus /'"■l^a), which fleldii

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

51

a vegetable wax, used in the coloriug of cloth.
The Report conclutles by imLl, ng out the importance
of an extended cultivatio i of caoutchouc-yielding
plants, now that the price of cinchona barlf his so
decreased and the cofl'ee crops have fallen off ti
such an extent. The writer points out th<at there i&
no fear of over-production, as in the case of quinine,
the uses to which caoutchouc can be put being
almost endless. He calls upon the Government to
send a botanist to South America to pr.icnre plants
and seeds of the best varieties ; while at the same
time there should bo a tlioroui;h invcsUgition into
the varieties growing in the Dutch East Indies, es-
pecially Borneo. So far Mr. Berkhout's P^eport, and
the reviewer concludes his remarks by pointing nut
the difference between caoutchouc and guttapercha,
which two substances are popularly confounded to-
gether, though entirely distinct in origin, chemical
composition and uses. His final words are : — "If,
however, the reader wishes to get further inform-
ation on this subject he should buy the following " —
and then come the entire title and list of contents of the
book on iiidiarubber and guttapercha compiled and
published by us. For this gratia advertisement and
testimonial to the value of our publication we tender
our thanks to the anonymous writer.

COFFEE AND LEAF DISEASE IN CEYLON.

Guided by the experience of the last two years,
I have all along assumed tliat coffee is doomed,
that "leroi est mort," and that tea everywhere is
taking its place. But we read this year of a wonder-
ful revival of coffee in all Uva. What docs
this mean ?. Is it likely to last ? Their last year's
season must have been more than usually pro-
pitious, and the great depth of eoil in Badulla
enables the coffee to send down its roots to depths
far-below the deepest diving grub. But whut
about leaf-disease ? Let us see. Dr. Thwaites
asserted that " le.af-diaojse would last as long as
there was coffee to nouiish it." Tl,e fisjht then
is between the two, and to judge of the future we
must look at the jjast. Has the fungus asierted
its supremacy in the past iu such a degree as to
make us fear — henritifi Dr. T/iwaitess dictum in mind
—that it wUl finady triumph everywhere ? Or
are there some favoured spots where coffee and
fungus have arrived at a sort of equdibrium, one
making up its strength, as the other perioiically
falls off, and vU-e versa ? This teems to be the
condition of things in Uva just no it. But as the
fungus has even there brought crops down from, say, 7
c«t. an acre to 2 cwt., it has, so far, proved
Its hautful power over c .ffce. Having thus reduced
coflee from its previous state of vigor, is it likely that
cotfeo can now— in its wtakened coudit on— resist
and survive, 80 long as the fungus exists and attacks ?
If it can, then must it ne^essaiily be in consequence
of some falling-of virulence iu the fungus itself
—a happy omen for the many patches of good coffee
stdl existing a'l over the country. But I fear
this IS _ not a reasonable expectation. If it has
taken fifteen years to reduce coffee from its best
cuuditiou to a mean crop of 2 cwt. an acre, how
long will it take to lini,h it off from 2 cwt, an
acio to nothing ?

Since the "fifties" too, and before the end of the
' eighties," the island will haTo passed through two
great extremes, t.s-ting in the one the sweets of pro-
sperity, and in the other the drees of misfortune. To
the credit of the good old coffee days must be ascribed
the material advantages the country now enjoys in
railways, roads, bridges, &c., and also the stdl un-
exhausted wealth iu native hands, and the many civilizing

institutions within their reach. Europeans reaped a
rich harvest also, but with few exceptions these
disappeared from the scene. So that the residue of
former prosperity is chietly now seen in material
improvements, and amongst the natives. — Old Planter.

Venezuela : its Climate a.xd Pkoditcts.— There are
three zones, three climates, within the limitsofVenf zuela,
from cold too intense to bo endured by man, to the
greatest degree of heat known on the earth's surface.
The Alpine zone lies to the west among the snow
clad summits of the Andes, where are plains swept
by blasts which chill the blood. The next zone is from
from 5,U00 to S.UOU feet above the sea, covered with
forests of timber and uutritiou.s glasses. The third
zone is the tropical, where fiuitsof all sorts are pro-
duced in the greatest aluudauce. The Venezuelans
claim that theirs is the only land where cofl'ee and
corn, sugar and apples, bananas and wheat grow in
the same soil. — A/ncrican Grocer.

Diamonds and Gold in Madagascau !— ,So runs the
news iu a private letter from Antananarivo published in a
Gape newspaper. But the difficulty is to get at these preci-
ous gems. The law of the country .>;ays twenty years
in chains against the digging miu.ials. The writer describes
»he country as really marvellously rich in diamonds,
gold, .silver, copper, lead, tin, graphite, and specimens of
ruby and sapphire. But lie complains that he has utterly
failed in getting a concession out of the Hova Government.
This iuformatiuii may be especi.ally commended to the
attention of a gentleman at present doing duty as a war
correspondent in tlio Soudan. He was successful in get-
ting a concession for sugar plautatious in Madagascar from
the JIalagasy envoys when they were in this country,
and ought to be al)le to .secure a digging concession for
an English couipaMy.— /•«« Mall lUuhjet.

The Dimbui.a Association on Tea Cultivation.—
We call attention to the Report of a SubCummiltee
of the Uimbula Planters' Association, given en page 66.
as a mcdel of the good and useful work which all
District Associations might set themselves to do with
more or less success. The intei change of the results of
experience, obsfTvation or even reading iu this way is
calculated to be of very great s?rvice in connection wiih
our new industrief, both in supplying the information
most in request with young planters and in dealing
with the vari.>us disputed pomti const'intly raised
about the treatment of new products. What is said,
about tea in the pre-icnt report may be open to
criticism on some points ; but no one can dispute
the general advantage of bringing together a vaiiely
of opinions in this way. We may refer to the report iu
an early issue.

Cinchona Alkaloids.— We are glad to learn that
the Madras Government has directed a new departure
in the matter of cinchona alkaloids. Mr. Hooper,
the quiuologist to that Government, has found that
the Madras Medical Store Depot possesses a laboratory
with appliances tli.at can readily be adopted to the
manufacture of liquid cinchona on a large scale, and
he has accordingly obtained permission to manufacture
liquid extract ot cinchona alkaloids to the extent of
1,000 lb. . . , At all events tho cxppriiiKiit is
a most valuable one, and if it succeeds must necess-
arily give an euorinons impetus to the cultivation
of cinchona for it will supply a local market foj
the bark, thus doing away with all charges for home
export, agent's commission, etc., &c. Mr. (Jrant Duff'
certainly deserves commendation for the persevering
manner iu which ho has puBbed on the question of
practicability of the local iiianufaeture of cinchona
alkaloids, and if Mr. Hooper's anticipations are real-
ized, a grand future of priiS[)erity will be ojiencd
to the Wyuaad plantors, who have been sorely trieil
since coffee began to full — 'yimct of Imlla, .

52

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July I, 1885.

A Botanic Station for St. Lucia. — A contemp-
orary, diacussing the propoBal of Mr. Morris to estab-
lish a botanic station at St. Lucia in couneotion
with the Jamaica Gardens, says : — " Without wish-
ing, in any way, to forestall the judgment o£ the com-
mittc?, we would at once state that a botanic station*
on the very limited scale suggested by Mr. Morris
would be perfectly useless in St. Lucia. That we want
information respecting the profitable culture of indus-
trial plants is quite certain. But we want that in-
formatiou to be, not merely mechanical, but intellig-
ently reasoned. We could not look for this from a
gardener at L^s to 18s a week, as recommended by
Mr. Morris, If we could get a good man, loving his
work, who could teach us how to make two pods of
cacao grow where one only is growing now, who could
show us how to get 7 tons ot sugar from the land
that now produces only t«'o, oud who could direct
our industry into new and paying channels, we could
well aftord to cheerfully pay him a liberal salary." —
Colonies and India.

A Tea r,iMiNE Peodable. — The supply in this country
decreasing, aud nothiug coming from China. New Vorlc
World: The war between China and France creates great
luieasiuess among the importers ot tea. By reason of the
blockade of Chinese ports the supply in this market
is becoming limited, and fears are entertained that
this country will be affected with a tea famiue."
A member of the firm of A. Oolburn & Co., No. 110
AVall street, said yesterday ; — " The Island of Formosa,
npoi\ which we depend largely for our supply of black
teas, has been blockaded by the French since September.
As a natural consequence we have been unable to com-
municate any ordtrs we might .see fit to make to shippers
at that point. Therefore, we have received no invnices
since the war began," " For bow long a period will the
supply we now po.'-se.ss last y" " I fear we shall be very
short of tea before August unless the blockade is raised.
It is to be supposed that the planters in Formosa are
now sowing their crop. In June they will reap it. If by
that time the French vacate Chhiese w.atcrs we shall have
an abundant supply. iShoukl France, on the other hand,
decide not only to continue the blockade of Formota but
to cut off all communication with Shanghai, Foo Chow and
other tea ports, we sh;ill be forced to call upon Japan,"
" Could Japan be depended upon to furnish us nn ade-
quate supply? " This country consumes annually in round
figures 10U,000,000 pounds of tea. The vast majority of
this we have heretofore received from China, Possibly
■fapau sends us between 20,000,000 and 30,000,000 pounds.
I doubt if we could depend on lier for more than
50,000,000 pounds a ytar in the aggregate. You can readily
see then that should our Chinese supply be taken from
lis we should be put ou half rations. Tea parties would
then be rather expensive luxuries and indigent persons
would be compelled to forego the pleasure of partidcing
of the delicious drink. Our advices today say that as
yet there is no reason for believing that tlie blockade at
Formosa will be raised for sometime to cOme, The other tea
ports have not yet been compelled to sever communication
with us. What may happen in a week's time we are too
far from the scene of conffict to predict.
Strange idra of the steds sewing — quite as good as some
of the Directors of the L'eylon Company, Limited, who
proposed at a meeting of the shaieiiolders : — " That all
their estates should bo planted witli the seed of
* Orange J^ekoc' tree — and none of the coarser kinds
jilantcd." And another one wdio wrot'i to a friend
and asked him " to send a ]iinch of tea seed in his
Ufxt letter." But perhaps these ,ire old. Our cart
road is getting very na'ty, not at all like our " .Spoouer"
days. It is not tlie mim tliat is to blame. Mo''e improve-
ment in machinery nnc notices in every pap.r ; yes, in
two years' time most of our present will compare with
our future as " Alleck's rattle T. traps" (IS.'i.'ii to J.
W.alker & Co.'s, (1870) " improved gearless double pul-
pcrs." Sell your leaf to a central " I'actory " and wait a
little is my advice to Ks. T. B^. (Kniglits of the Tea
Buslies).

THE PROGRESS OF TEA CULTIVATION
AND MANUFACTURE IN CEYLON.

In a speech made by Mr. John Ferguson at the
Colonial Instilute very recently, it was shown, that,
though coffee had fallen off in quantity through leaf-
disease, the new products were likely erelong to balance
the deficiency. We have now arrived at the period of
the new products passing coffee, tea taking the lead
by several lengths, cinchona a good third and other
products bringing up the rear with more or less
success. Allowing then that tea will soon be the staple
product of Ceylon, coffee second, and cinchona third,
with a railway running through the heart of the
Central Province and region of tropical products,
Ceylon must regain a firm fooling and confidence in
commercial circles.

A Visiting Agent of long experience remarked a few
days ago that the traffic on the railway would soon
be greater than ever known before since the advent
of the " iron horse " into our mountain ranges. It is
refreshing to hear the whistle of the steam engine
under the Great Western. Capitalists and others who
come up into the mountains simply to satisfy their
curiosity and breathe the mountain afr will be so
delighted with the scenery and struck so much by
surprize at seeing such a vast area under cultivation
that the f.ame of Oeylun will soon spread far and wide,
capital will be restored, and speculative merchants and
brokers out do each other in giving the highest prices
for produce.

Let us now glance at the rapid progress tea cultiv-
ation has made during the past four or five years.
Another Visiting Agent anxious to glean statistics of
tea for the information of people at home made
a rough estimate of the area now under tea, and,
although lie omitted Kotmale and other districts likely
to produce tea largely, the total acreage arrived at
was no less than 85.000 acres " with power to add,"
say 100,000 acres or half the cultivated area of the
Central Province under coffee, tea and cinchona.

It IS true much of the above tea is under coffee
aud ciuchona, ' and on this important subject of
whether it is economical in the long run to grow
all three products grouped together much may be
written at some future time m this series of letters
to the Observer.

No old planter, experienced in the fluctuation of
prices aud disappointments in relying on one pro-
duct, would advocate the wholesale rooting-up of
old King Coffee or cinchona as long as prices are
low. There is a very good prospect of both coffee
and cinchona rising in price at an early date. The
reason for thinkiug so, in the case of both products,
"the rush" has subsided and leaf-disease has shaken
confidence is, that thereby diminishing extended cultiva-
tion ; but the best of all reasons is the prospect of eman-
cipation of slavery in Brazil. As soon as the four
millions of cwt. ceas-o to pour into the American '
and European markets and the other ooft'ee-piro-
ducing countries all more or less suffering from leaf-
disease and indifferent cultivation, coffee will rise
steadily and so will cinchona. .-Vs people cease to
cultivate this product aud the market is not glutted
wiih the article, prices will rise for a certainty.

It is therefore extremely difficult to give any
advice as to the prudence or otherwise of roofing
up coffee and ciuchona to replace them with tea.
There is no question about the benefit tea would
derive by being released from the shade and drip
of ciuchona succirubra "itli its large cabbage-shaped
leaves, and as tea requires loose soil, well opened
to receive moisture, the network of roots must of

July i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

S3

neeessity be injurious. Pickaxing, forking, or digging
of any kind would hurry ou the growth of tea, and
pruning should be early attended to. But ou these
subjects we will devote separate articles and revise
the pamphlet on tea cultivation and manufacture in
Assam in a series of new letters on a subject now
intereeting all classes of our Ceylon community and
brother planters in Southern India. When in Assam in
187G the tea planters said it was no use our attempt-
ing to grow tea in Ceylon, that tea would not thrive
inaide 15° lat. N. of the equator, and they forgot
that the elevation of our Ceylon mountains com-
pensated for deliciency of the North latitude.

In fact without minciug matters with our friends
in Assam and other tea-producing parts of India we
in Ceylon are likely to profit by their experience,
especially in the perfection reached in tea machinery.
The tea planter of tlie old school was of opinion
that tea could only be made with the aid of char-
coal and heavy reserves of forest were left to pro-
vide wood for charcoal burning. "What will you do
for wood ? " said a tea planter of Assam. The quantity
required is tnormous ! Wl'at have we now? "The
Sirocco " and other improved tea-driers exploding
the idea of charcoal and its fumes as an actual
necessity for tea manufacture. Improvement in tea
machinery is reaching such a pitch, that by and bye
we shall probably see the green leaf going in at one
end and coming out made pekoe souchong at the
other, like the pigs at Chicago having their re-
spective throats cut at one end and coming out bacon
and hams ! Fancy the plodding Assam tea planter
with his chulahs and charcoal ever dreaming of Ceylcn
competing with him with all the means and appliances of
modern mechanical improvements. We must not crow
over the success of Ceylon as a tea-producing
country on a large scale unless care be taken to
make our tea an loell to compete with India and China.
There is danger of overproduction in this article
the same as in coffee and cinchona, and to protect
ourselves from future loss, the quality of Ceylon
tea must eclipse the "Indian maike " and the cun-
ning manipulation of the "heathen Chinee" It is
gratif>ing to know that Chinese supplies have fallen
off iibonc 50,000,000 of lb. corresponding with the
steady increase of Indian tea which rose from 1876
to 18S4, say in eight years, to more than doiih/c !
Ceylon in ihe same way will gradually increase
year by year until we catch up to India's supply.
The capabilities of Ceylon as a tea-growing country
are long past the experimental stage, and a taste for
Ceylon tea has sprung up in all parts of the United
Kingdom. We must watch jealously that inferior teas
are not palmfd off on the English public as Ceylon-
grown teas. It was whispered to me on the way out
trom England that a certain individual in London
had been victimizing Ceylon's reputation by selling
rubbish from India as a Cejdon-made tea. If this sort
of thing is persisted in, Ceylon will not hold her
own, and I would suggest that an agent be appointed
to watch the interests of Ceylon planters and merchants,
and if necessary prosecute an offender of the kind
above described— perhaps a warning would he sufficient.
Meanwhile Ceylon tea hears a high character and is
now sold all over London — wholesale and retail.

Now comes the question of how much tea we can
produce. One hundred thousand acres at three hund-
red pounds per acre will be no less a quantity than
thirty millions of pounds within the next three or
four years. Xow double the area, aud say 'JOO.OOO
acres. We find we can produce sixty millions of tea in
about si.\ years' time. What a prospect //" Ihr prices
keep vj' ! The estim.ate is rea'-ionable enougTi.* We
shall be running neck and neck with all India ; and

Too sanguine, io our opinion, — £p.

when the worn out Assam planter comes to see how
we are getting on, he will in all probability transfer
his capital to Ceylon, where we possess climate,
suitable soil, elevation to 7,000 feet railway trans-
port to tfie sea-borde, aud all improvements in tea
machinery.

Why is Ceylon tea preferred to China and Indian
teas ? The reason given is before it combines the two
in flavour and strength, and docs away with blending
China and Indian.

The great di.strict of Pimbula includinr; the
Agras aud Liudula promises to contribute largely
with thirteen thousand acres already _ planted.
Machinery has already been introduced into this
district, rolling machines, ".=!iroccos" aud sifting
apparatus. We enter an old coffee store and lind it
converted into a tea-house, with fixtures for the
withering trays, shelves for the tasting cups, large bins
for storing the different qualities of tea from " pekoe "
down to " faunings," Peeping into a side room, we
find a lot of happy-lookiug podiyans using No. S,
No. 10 and No. 12 sieves, and down below we find car-
penters making tea boxes. On one estate here maybe
seen tea making, coffee curing, and cinchona baling
all going on at one aud the same time !

" Things are lool;ing vp" (as an old Uva planter used
to remark), and we are glad to hear that Uva is
commencing to grow the coming product tea, aud 5U0
acres are planted at Spring Valley.

Abbotsford takes the lead and was lately making one
thousand pounds of tea a day. Anyone who has had the
advant.age of a visit to Abbotsford estate and seen
the giant growth of tea left as seed-bearers would at
once proclaim Ceylon the home of the tea plant. The tea
factory at Abbotsford is supplied with rollers,
Siroccos and sifters, and it is a pleasure to see how
quickly our Southern Indian coolies have grasped the
7nodus operandi : they seem to like it better than
exposure to all weathers in the coffee field, though
perhaps the stupid ones will have to work
outside as usual gathering the leaf. Mr. _A.
M. Ferguson junior is willing and obliging
in giving hia visitors all information regarding lea
cultivation and manufacturing on Abbotsford estate,
and Mr. A. M. Ferguson, C. M o., the proprietor of
the property, deserves all the success of being fu-st
in the field in Dimbula with large returns. The
editors of the Ceylon Observer advocated new pro-
ducts and railway extension, and, now that the
former are being harvested and the railway is
opened, things will daily improve and more th.-m
thanks are due to the Messrs. Ferguson of the
Ceylon Obsirve.r standing to their guns under a
heavy fire of slinldny fish, for everybody knows that
there were more people ready to eoy Ceylon was
hopelessly ruined than the far-seeing few who predicted
" a good time coming boys, wait a little longer.
There is a marked improvement in the prople
of England, less heavy drinliny, and, if the Gov-
ernment rerluce iustead of increase the duty on tea,
the consumption of the article will greatly in-
crease. Our Australian colonies will doubtless in time
discontinue importing Chinese teas.

Next to the operations on Abbotsford estate, Lindoola
estate is well-known as ft progressing factory where
everything is c.irried on in a husincss-liko manner:
leaf purchased from a.ljoining est.ates, and upwards
of one thousand pounds of leaf manufactured daily.
Then comes Calsay estate under the supervision of
Mr. Scott, who received his training as a tea maker
under Mr. Taylor of Loolcondura in Ilewaheta, 1
intend to visit that estate soon and report progress
with Mr. Scott's permission.

Much can be written on the subject of jats. Neatly
every estate has got a mixture of jats &c., and wo aro

54

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885,

not quite sure which quality to seleot as a "good
working jat. Some are in favour o£ as nearly aproach-
the indigenous as possible. In this case, Mr. Ashton of
Torringtou possesses a nursery of indigenous plants &c.,
and he is willing to exchange in proportion to value
with his neighbours, or sell by the thouand. Mr. Ash-
ton's nursery is a success, and the plants are of a uni-
form quality, very light in colour and no doubt the
real article. Another gentleman in the Agras who
pushed forward the coffee enterprize in his time has
made extensive tea nurseries. Mr. Johnston, the gentle-
man referred to, has been selling plants at Thornlield
estate and made nurseries for others. His nur-
series are well made, and the plants good
and in a hardy condition and ready for planting.
A central factory will be required for the Agras.
Mr. Jackson of St. George's has planted tea on parts
of that estate, and informed me that Messrs. Carey,
Strachan & Co. have already upwards of two thousand
acres of tea put down in different districts.

Great Western is not behind in the tea enter-
prize. The manager of Scalpa estate will gather from
500 acres and have a proper tea house fitted up with
all requisite machinery. Messrs. Tilly and Murray are
also planting tea on Louisa estate and Galkandcwatte.

I have not seen Glasshaugh estate operations
whore machinery is working. Tlie general appearance
of the districts of Uikoya and J)imljula promises well.
Some planters are cutting away the lower primaries
of their cofl'eo to give light and sun to their young
tea plants, and from the railway track between
NawaUpitiya and Talawakele several glimpses of tea
Citales may be obtnined from the carriage-window.
G.illebodde estate with au even sheet of tea.
Elackwater estate on the righthand side coming
up, Carolina store which has been often written
about iu the Observer, ' largo nurteries at Kotiya-
galla, and Uatton estate being cleared up for tea.
Plucking has been commenced at Middleton, and all
the estates in these districts are doing some-
thing or intend conimencing soon. It is
very encouraging that old districts in coffee
should be doing so well with tea. I hear the
Brothers Scovell are doing wonders at Strathellie and
in Maskeliya district. Mariawatte must have
astonished disbelievers in the theory that tea can
be cultivated to pay where coffee Tailed, and the
district of Dolosbage, always a struggling district,
will now reward the Labours of Messrs. Blaokett,
Drummond and others who have toiled so many
years. Yatiyautota, Awisawella, and other hot places
where there is a good averagn rainfall is the per-
fection of climate for the growth of the tea bush,
and heavy crops of leaf can be expected from that
quarter iu a short time.

Henry Cottam.

WYNAAD PLANTKIIH' ASSOCIATION.

The monthly general meeting was held at Pookote club,
Vythery, on the 3rd June ; —

OoFFEK OuuiNd. — Mr. Jowitt asked if any member
could give a reason why AVynaad coffee is deficient in
colour and also in size, and invariably fetches a lower price
compared with that of other districts than it did in former
years. Mr, Walker and others attributed this to the de-
terioration of the coffee trees from the effects of leaf
disease which could only he overcome by growing them
under heavy sliside such as exists in Mysore and Ooorg,
but not iu Wynaad. After considerable discussion it was
resolved that the Honorary Secretary should address the
various rlanters' Associations of Southern Indi.a, asking
iul'ormiition on the following points : — 1. How docs tho
borin of colfee grown under shade compare in colour
with tliat grown in the open 'i 2. Is there any proved
system of estate curing, that will affect the colour of tho
bean'? 3. Is there any marked dilferenco in tho colour

of the beans cured at the West Coast, East Coast, and
inland colfee works ? 4. How do manures affect the
colour ? 5. Have the different modes of packing any in-
fluence on the colour ? The W. P. A. will be glad to
receive the opinions of arty persons interested in this
matter. Kesolved that those questions be circulated
separately as well as in the Report of proceedings. — Madras
Mail, Juue 20th.

♦

COOPvG PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION.
(From Hon. Secretary's Anmial Eejwrtfor 1884-85.)

I think you will agree with me th.at this past year has
beeu a very trying one to us all, and the severe crisis we are
now passing through, owing to the heavy fall iu the price
of coffee, has told hardly ui^on a good many of us ; but let
us hope that the experience we have gained has taught us
a lesson that we shall few of us forget, and that by reduc-
ing our expenditure within reasonable limits we may yet
again make coffee pay even at the present reduced values.

Labour Question. — The first and most important matter
that occupied our attention was the endeavour to induce
the other Associations in Southern India to join us in re-
ducing the wages for labour, and doing away with advances
toMaistries. 'This is a question that has occupied the atten-
tion of this Association for some time, and as we did not come
to any unanimous decision amongst ourselves, it was un-
likely that where so many different districts were concerned
with altogether separate interests that any one united ac-
tion would be evolved. The replies from the ditfereut Associ-
ations were laid before you at the time, and although
they could not come to any definite agreement to reduce
their present rates of pay ; or promise to give no advances
in fature to Maistries, still they were one and all unanim-
ously of opinion that it behoved each district for itself to
reduce its wages for labour, and advances to Maistries, as
much as possible according as circumstances permitted.
Thus although no definite agreement has been come to, still
the question has been well ventilated, and is bearing fruit
already. "We in this district have already reduced the wages
of all Coast labour from 5 annas to 4 annas a day, and the
pay of all locals to the same level aS Canarese. The ques-
tion of advances to Maistries has, I consider, solved itself,
as owing to the tightness of money I believe that few or
no fresh advances have been given out this j'ear, but on
the contrary, large sums have been recovered from tho
Maistries. This is a step in the right direction, and if wo
will only persevere in the same course next season, I feel
confident that wo shall have given the death-blow to ad-
vances to Maistries, and to the heavy losses that planters
annually sustain therefrom, not to mention the release of
a large amount of capital hitherto locked up iu these ad-
vances, and which will now be profitably employed in tho
cultivation of our estates.

Adulteration of Coffee.— We in company with other
Associations of Southern India agreed to refer this ques-
tion to the Ceylon Central Association, and it was
understood that they were to draw up a Memorial on
the subject for presentation to the Home Government ;
but as over a year has now passed, and nothing has been
done, I think it behoves us to act for ourselves, unless
we wish the matter to drop altogether, which I think
would be unwise considering the present depressed state
of the coffee enterprize.

Curing Charges. — Our representations to all the Coast
Curing Firms and Agencies on the subject of a reduc-
tion of their charges during the present depressed state
of coffee did not meet with the favourable reply that
we could have wished, but did not iu the least expect ;
and they one and all politely but firmly declined to meet

our views.

^

THE TEA-ROLLER PATENT CASE.

The case of Jackson r. Kerr, was argued in the District
Court on Saturday last, upon the plaintiff's motion for an
interim injunction restraining the defendant from making,
selling and using the machines known as Kerr's Tea-Kollcrs,
the plaintitV alleging that such machines involved infringe-
ments of his patent rights iu respect of Jcakson's Tca-
Itoller.

Mr. Advocate Layard, for the plaintiff, explained to tho
Court with help of working models, tho two pcculiiir feat-

JL-LY 1, 1^85.]

tup: tropical AGRicuLTurasT.

55

ures of tlie plaiutiff's machine which were alleged to be im-
properly embodied in the defendant's Koller viz., (1) free
and automatic vertical movemtut of the top rolling-surface
which is loosely enclosed in a jacket or box, which imparts
motion to it ; and (2) an arrangement for turning over ou
hinges the jacket or box together with the upper rolling-
surface, for purposes of cleaning out, &c. Mr. Layard
relied on Cannington v. Nuttall (L. K. 5 H. L. 205) to show
that a patent might be sustained though each principle or
process was previously wellknowu to all persons engaged in
the trade to which the patent related, provided the mode of
combining such processes was new and produced a beneficial
result. He also cited Lord Ellenborough's words in
Huddart v. Grirashaw (Dav. Pat. cases 205). He claimed
the phintiff '5 machine to be an entirely new combination
never previously applied to any purpose. Even the first
importer into this Island of a new machine might properly
patent it. Minter v. Wells (1 Webs. E. 131). Even a
colourable title in the plaintiff is sufficient to entitle plaint-
iff to an interim injunction. Oxford and Cambridge Uni-
versities V. Kichardson (6 Yes. jr. 70G). Even the use
of part only of plaintiff's combinations would con-
stitute an infringement. Sellers v. Dickinson (5 Ex. 325). —
A discussion here took place as to whether defendant
should be ordered to keep an account pending trial, Mr.
Layard contending that all proceeds realized should be paid
into Court or into a separate banking account, and Mr.
Browne opposing this as quite unusual, but being quite
willing to keep an account of the machines sold by the
defendant with the prices realized for them. Ultimately the
matter dropped, no agreement being come to on the point.
— Sir. Advocate Browne (Mr. de Vos with him) opi)06ed
the motion on behalf of the defendaut. The plaintiff was
wrong in proceeding against the defendant as though he
were an impudent pirate, whereas he had as good jrrima
facie title in virtue of the patent that he too held. Where
the parties have obtained patents for the same invention,
the Court of Chancery will not interfere by an interlocut-
ory injunction, but leave them to try the legal right by
scire facias, as questions might be raised also as to the
validity of plaintiff's patent. Copeiand i'. Webb (11 W.
R. 13-t) where Kindersley, V,-C , merely put the defendant
upon an undertaking to keep an account of the articles sold.
The plaintiff was also not entitled to the injunction by reason
of his laches in coming forward. The defendant's patent was
taken out at the latter end of ISS.?, and a full account of it
was given in the Cet/ton Observer of 8th December 18S3,
and plaintiff in his affidavit merely said that he heard
in 1884 (without mentioning the date) of thealleged infringe-
ment. Goodeve's Abstract of Patent Cases, p. 58 ;
Bridson v. Bcntcke (12 Beav. 1) where a delay of 11
months was held fatal notwithstanding the Court had
a strong impression in favour of plaintiff's right. Mr.
Braicne put in the affidavit of Mr. Aitkon to show that
one of .Jackson's machines, made in accordance "x'ith the
patent now in question, had been used in Ceylon at the
latter end of ISSl, long before plaintiff's grant of letters
patent. This would be a good defence. Stead \. Anderson
(U Jur. 1877). Again, plaintiff's patent is recent, there
lias not been exclusive possession of it for any length
of time, and defendant contends that it should never
hare been granted in view of the facts stated in Mr.
Aitken's affidavit : under these circumstances no inter-
locutory injunction should be granted. Hill v. Thompson
, (3 Mer. 622) ; Rennrd v, Levenstein (10 L. T., X. S. 01, 177.)
At the conclu.sion of the argument, the Court intim-
ated that it was inclined in plaintiff's favour, but would
carefully consider the matter before making its order.

A question was started yesterday by the Secretary
of the Court, whether the pleadings in the case
should not bear the usual ad valorem stamps, not being
especially exempted by the Stamp Ordinance, This point
still remains to be decided. — " Examiner," June 23rd.

AND

J.^rANE.'iE PErrERMiNT is rapidly increasinp in value
owing to the large demand fr.im the United S'ates. A
f«w years ago, its price, as stated in a Tokyo paper, was
four ;/•» per pound, whereas it is now fourteea yen. Its
quality is highly praised by the foreign consumers,—
Japan Weikiij ilai,

THE CEYLON PLANTING INDUSTRY
THE "ADVANCE", SYSTEM.

Under the nom-tU-yluma of " Au ex-Coffco Agent,"
a gentleman who is well entitled to write on the sub-
ject with authority sends us the following interesting aud
timely communication ; —

Loudon, 22nd May 18S5.
Coffee planting in Ceylon may almost be said to be
the child of the advance system. Nurtured ou advances,
the cultivation grew with promising, not to say as-
tonishing, rapidity. And in the hey-day of its success
it was the boast of a well-kuowu Colombo merchant,
that to him was due the prosperity of Ceylon in
that he was the tirst to induce London capitalists
to make large advances in anticipation of securing
the sale of coffee crops in Mincing Lane. But there
was death in the pup. One need not insist on the
debatable point whether leaf-disease and other pests
were directly produced by the over-haste to be rich.
This at least is certain, that when the storm burst
the consequent ruin was greatly intensified by the
existing liuancial position ; and the same cause, which
had in previous days accelerated the rise of our late
King, now in a much greater degree accelerated his fall.
In the old days, when, barring exceptions just nu-
merous enough to prove the rule, every local merchant
or agent was heavily indebted to London merchants
or banking companies, every estate proprietor simil-
arly indebted to local agents, every company to his
estate proprietor', every cooly to his kangani it
was idle to hope for a fair and full discussion on
its merits of the system iu vogue. The evidences
of a present prosperity on which all, from the
merchant prince of the capital to the bumble
and hardworking cooly of Southern India, were un-
doubtedly thriving, were too strong to be assailed
by abstract arguments based only on general principles
how ever sound.

The case is now altered, and at the present juncture
when the advance system is for the time iu abeyance
it may well be profitable to raise au academic dis-
cussion on its merits and shortcomings, not only as
being highly interesting iu regard to the past, but
also as a guide and warning for the future.

To begin in true academic fashion let us try to define
the system of advances. The essence of the matter,
apart from any special arrangements for attainiug
the end in view, will be found on consideration to
lie in the application of the accumulated capital of
one country to the development of the resources of
another.

Given that coffee-planting in Ceylon offered a reason-
able prospect of suecoes, it would seem, at all
events in its first beginnings, to befijecially adapted
to be the subject of advances from without. Indeed
looking at the time and cost necessary to bring coffee
trees to maturity, it is difficult to see how the first
coffee estates could Lave been opened without ex-
traneous capital.

It is true that M*. Henry George boldly
asserts that labour is altogether independent of
capital and is in every case allsutlicing. i5ut even he
would, it may bj presumed, be puz/lcd to pet a foieo
of coolies to come over from the Coast of India and
plant up an ei-tate In Ceylon with no means ( f feed-
ing them the while, beyond the hopes of some coffee
' berrie? at the end of three years.

I Again even when th* estate is iu bearing a large
I expenditure is ueoofsiiry each year in anticipation
of the harvesting of the crop. And the problem is
still further complicated by the fact that the labour
I force has to be continuously imported and that not
I a cooly can do a stroke c( work till a ccrtaia limited
1

56

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

sum at least has been expended in bringing him
from his native village in India to the scene fo his
future labours. «

It is obvious then that without extraneous capital
the earlier coffee estatea of Ceylon could never have
been planted. And as capitalists -svere hardly liliely
themselves to come and open estates, it may be
freely admitted with the abovemeutioned Colombo
merchant that the man who first induced London
capitalists to make advances to Ceylon may be
considered in some sort a benefactor to the colony.
Once let the cultivation be f.iirly established, however,
and the case would seem to be greatly changed. Then
the enterprize is thriving, a sound and healthy
development will certainly take place, though no
further capital be introduced from without. But such
development will in that case clearly be dependent
on actual attained resultB. And here one sees at
once wherein may lie the risk of a~ continued m-
ilow of capital from abroad. Extension being uo
longer controlled by the results of previous ad-
ventures may take place in any direction or to any
extent that the most sanguine hopes of the future
may suggest.

And so indeed it happened in the case of the
Ceylon Coffee Enterprize. Somewhere between
fifteen and twenty years ago, it had become evident
to those who were most widely interested in the
cultivation, that there was difficulty in keeping up
the yield, that crops did not as previously increase
iu proportion to the increase of acreage. In the
face of that experience it wa9 yet found expedient
to begin about the same date the opening of new
districts on a scale beyond all precedent, and, as if
to prevent any chance of prudent hesitation, about
the same date bankers rushed in where agents were
fearing to tread and under the name of cash-credits,
did in effect place capital in the hands of any, be
he novice or not, who wished to speculate in coffee
planting. It is needless to dwell on the result,
which is only too well-known to all.

It may be said that this is but ex -po't facto
criticism and that it is easy to be wise after the
event. But it is the case that there were some
who steadfastly refused to join in the rush
into the new districts though pr. ssed to
do so. and who later when the great rise iu coffee
caused a temporary and delusive flush of prosperity
were seriously blamed for their inaction. It is the
case also, that, before a cash-credit was signed, the
proposed system was denounced without hedtation by
one at least as "a dangerous trap."

How difft-rent would bs the position of Ceylon
planters today, if, eay from the year 1S70, instead of
the wild rush into tens of thousands of ceres of coffee
in the new districts, steady progress had been made
with the cultivation of tea, cinchona and other new pro-
ducts, and if the great Bank, in place of joining in
the race to make advances, had confined its operations
to the veiy lucrative business legitimately open to it !
But it is idle to cry over spilt mdk. And the only
value to us of recalling the mistakes of the past lies
in their bearing on the futu'ro , ^ „ .

Tea is the future King. Will it be prudent that
the system of advances, whieh was first so useful and
then so disastrous in the case of coffee cultivation,
should bo extended to that of tea ?

It would undoubtedly be safest as far as possible to
restrict advances. The conditions under which the
planting of tea e.states is takjng place, diffa- widely
from those attending the opening of the ct lice estates.
The land is in most cases already cleared and in
many cases actually giving some return, so that the
necessary first outlay is comparatively small ; and
again as soon as the plant is in bearing, the crops

comes in continuously so that the necessity for yearly
crop advances does not exist.

Moreover, Ceylon is now comijaratively well-known
and accessible, and capitalists in England will now
certainly come themselves in sufficient numbers to
carry forward tea cultivation so long as it offers
reasonable hopes of good returns. Indeed the greater
fear is that, even without any revival of the old system
of advances, means will be found for the rapid ex-
tension of cultivation beyontl the limits of prudence.

To end this prolix essay : On this as on every
subject our great poet has written not for an age,
but for all time. Were Polonius now starting off
Laertes as a Tea planter to Ceylon, how could he
better advise him than in those well-known words
of old ?

Keitlier a borrower nor a lender be,

Foe loan oft loses both itself and friend ;

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

San Domingo. — Transportation is still in its prim-
itive condition in San Domingo. There is not a
single wagon road penetrating more than three or
four leagues into the interior. All of the inland
traflio is carried on by means of animals. A rail-
road is being built from Samaua Bay to Santiago,
and if completed will open up rich tracts of lands
capable of p roducing great crops of sugar, tobacco,
coffee, cocoa, and other tropical articles. — Chamber
0} Commerce Journal.

Copra. — Pli'ladelphia Press : One of the leading
articles which the Polynesian Islands send to this
country is copra, which is simply the dried meat of
coconuts. The natives break the nut into smill pieces,
which, after exposure to the tropical sun, turn to a
dark brown color. Copra is used in the manufacture
of candles to a large extent. Besides pomades and
coconut oil, copra furnishes a volatile oil which is used
in the manufacture of perfumery. The importation
of copra into the United Slates is yearly increasing.
— Amerkan Grocer. [The " volatile oil" is new to us.
—Ed.]

A Chancb for INVBNTOR.S. — The Government of
the State of Yucatan, Mexico, offer a prize of S'20,000
to the inventor of a machine which shall successfully
extract the fibre from hcnequin, under the followino con-
ditions : It must be automatic and not require skilled
and experienced workmen to manage it ; it luu.st be
entirely free from danger to the operntives ; it must
require less nioiive force than the machines now in use
with relation to its producing power ; it must increase
the production or extraction of the fibre within a given
time, diminishing its loss compared with the various
machines iu »8e. The reward is to remain ppon fur
three years, and is without prejudice to the right of
proprietorship and of vateut.— /'. 7', Jourmil,

Sawdust Papek. — Paper made of sawdust ii among
the latest achievements in wood pnlp and paper making
inventions. Tlie Rutland (Vt. ) Herald comes tn us
printed on paper made exclus-vely of sawdust. It is a
product of a roller pulp miohine invented by (J. H.
Pond of Glens Falls, N. Y. There is no grinding in I he
process, the material is pressed into pulp by iron rollc rs
working inside an iron cylinder, and is ideached by
a new process devised by the same inventor. In his
machine, shaviugo, chips, sawdust, nnd refuse of saw
mills genernlly, as well as bagasse — the refus;* of fugar
cnne — are converted into pulp which the maker claims
is superior to the pulp of wood and rags. It does seem
to be in one respect, it posse-scs the inipnrtiiit advantage
of being strong — tougli. The tensile strength per square
inch is about di uble that of paper used by most news-
papers, which bears a breaking stra'u of only about
eight pounds in the tester, while this marks seventeen
to the square inch, It is, however, rather hard, harsh,
and " rattly."— P, T. Jovrml.

JutY I, iS8j.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

5?

LEAF DISEASE, NEW PRODUCTS, &c., ^fo. VII.
To "running brooks anJ sermons on stones," Shake-
fipeare Diii::ht have adileil '•' and wealth in the woods."
Besides timber and wild fruits, there are a great deal
ot materials in the woods to engage the cnerjry and
industry of man. The supply of fibres, and their uses,
obtained from the aloe plant, the wild hemp (the raudiu*,
and \ara of the Sinhalese, ex'ukelam of the Tamils),
the suriya Thepesia (puvaresei of the Tamils) and
others have been already adverted to : I would now
invite attention of the industrious and enterprising to fibres
obtainable from wild trees and \a es or creepers: of
these — the ittie tree yields, it is said, fibres of the
strongest quality (although not equal in strength to
the mudur, erukelain) from its bark. This tree is near-
ly allied to the banyan (Fieiis), with beautiful green
foliage ; it loves to cling round other trees ; the stem
is smooth and almost glossy, of a pale green colour,
abounds in milk. The ne.xt fibre tree is the the-
gulam of the Tamils: it is a vine with soft obovate
pale green leaves ; the flowers are in large clusters, but
smill, corolla white with dark red caly.\, resembles the
flowers of the margosa ; the bark of the vine yields
fine pink fibres, and is made into twine of a fine
quality (specimen is enclosed) ; it is useful for ordinary
bindings, but is liable to break on much exposure to
the sxm ; the fibres are also useful for making gunny
bags. The natives detach the fibres aud go on twisting
into twine or rope, by the li.Tud ; witli a machine a
large quantity might be made. Then there is the amthee
mior. The iiathv is a leguminous tree, grows to a
height of ten or twelve feet witli spreading branches
and thorny, the leaves are bifid at tlie termination of
a dark green colour, the flowers are solitary, of a yellow
colour, the poil is abeam. The fibres are obtained in the same
way as the last, the cordage is much stronger, is used for
a variety of purposes. There is another vine which is used
entire for tyingfences, and roofs of thatched houses is
called maan^ coje. I could not get the leaves an 1 flowers.
The above are however sufficiently numerous varieties of
materiala for cordage, and if the manuf.icttire is carrieil on
extensively, I have no doubt of its jieldiug a profit to
speculators. The long pods ot the Cas.sia fistula (leyuocondel)
of the Tamils is, I think, already an article of trade and
is exported. Tlie covering of the seeds is a soft blackish
pulp, possesses laxative properties and enters into the
composition of the confection of senna. The Cnpan
meme Ceylon Tinctoria is a beautiful tree when in full
flower, which adhere to the branches of the tree, and
present the appearance of small bu.-shes, stuck on the
tree, of a beautiful blue colour, slightly fragrant, but
Boon fades on removing from the tree" ; it yields, I
think, a beautiful blue dye. Specimen will be sent, but
they are to be seen in the jungles about Maradana.

SILEX.
♦

THE CINCHONA MARKET IX ISSi ]X EUROPE

AND AMERICA.

{Set jjar/e '2Sfor remai-ks on tliis paper.)

in the commencement of 1S84 the condition of tl.o
Cinchona market was highly unfavourable for the pro-
ducers of Cinchona bark.

The quinine manufacturers, both European am! American,
bad formed a convention in ISSa, which had for object
to limit the manufacture of sulpliate ot quininei but to
Maintain the price of tliis iriediciuc at a fixed heislit.
Although it was not the direct intention of the nmnu-
facturers to depress the jjrice of barks, vet the natufal
consequence of the combination wa.s, that very soon then-
Was more bark on hand, thin could be made use of
by the limited manufacture of quinine, and so the proper
proportion between the value of the quinine in the bark
and that of the prepared sulphate of quinine, was en-
tirely disturbed. Whilst the price of the sulphiite of
qumine was kept at about /I45 per kilogr, the vahie of
the qumme (calculated as sulphate of quinine: in the br-rk.
fell to about /'(jO, while the just proportion would have
required it to have been ./lli to /IL'2. By the con-
vention it had been stipulated how much every maau-
actory nii§ht produce per month.

e

The unavoidable consequence of this convention , if it*
continuance could luive been possible, would have been
that here or there— probably in J;iva, or Briti.sh India, or
elsewhere — one or more new quinine factories would havo
arisen, which, not bound by the couvention, would h:ive
been able to sell their product :it a much lower price
about /80 per kilogr. '

But dissensions soon arose in the bosom of tho con-
vention itself. One of the members contracted 1st October
18S3 for the furnishing of 100 kilogr, ot sulphate of
quinine for the use ot the ('olonial Department in Nether-
lands, at the price of/ 127 per kilogr. The supposition is
authorized that, where this cuuld happen in a public tender
it woLihl not be uulikely that, in direct sales from the
factories, some of the manufacturers woul.l not keej)
strictly to the stipuhited price. The manufacturers soon
discerned that the sales became limited to the smallest
extent, sijice, by the too high prices of the sulphate ot
quinine, only su much was purchased as was required for
immediate use, while the stimulus was wanting to take
much trouble to increase the consumption.

There were great profits on what was sold, but so
little w:is sold, thet the factories who kept honestly to
the agreement, made a bail business of it, whilst tho
benefits of the conveution were only oonferred on a few.

The convention was to have lasted till Jlay 1884 ; but,
fortunately, the condition had become so untenable, that
it fell asunder as early as the latter part of January.

It is to be hoped that the expeiieuce gained by the
quiuiue manufacturers while this couvention lasted will
preveut them from ever again ))roceediug to such a
nieasure. To the producers of cinchona bark it was
highly injurious, as they obtained a very low price for
their product, without the advantage of the consumption
iucrea.>,ing by reason of this low price.

So iu the beginning of the year a healthier state of
things set in. The 24th of January 10,000 oz. (321'4
kilos)^ of sulphate of quinine were sold in London, at
/3075 per oz. or /.09 per kilogr., and Howard & Son soon
followed by reducing the price from ./'1-50 per kilogr. to
J 120. The price of the bark di<l not rise to any im-
portance, but that of the sulphate of quiuiue was lowered
more ami more, and so came more iu agreement with
that of the bark.

Iu February the news came that a fire h.ul broken out
in the quinine factory of Powers and AVeightman at
Philadelphi::, which destroyed part ot the stock, and
would al.'.o entail a temporjiry stoppnge of the manu-
facture. This intelligence occa:ioneil fur some days an
increased demand for quinine, but soon it became evident
that the reports had been exiigger.ited, and Unit the loss
did not amount to move than .'itlO ba'esof biu-lc.

Iu March the price of sulphate of quinine fell to/llO
per kiliigr. and in April a ve^y birge qu.autity — 14,000
a 1.5,000 bales— of Cuprea bark, with a proportion about
2^ p. Ot. of sulphate of quinine, was .sold to the factory
at Milan, at a price which was kept secret, but thought
to be too high in proportion to the value of the sulphate.
In May, too, the price of the bark was somewhat forced
up, especially by the iu.strnmentalily of the Milan muiui-
factory, which seemed then to intend some now spccui-
atioUk However, this did not succeed, and an attempt
to dispose of another 14,000 b,ale« of Cuprea by aueticn,
on 2oth May, failed likewise, an only about fiOO bales
found purehaaeii', In Juno the prices remained the saroa
as in tbe preccling two months, hut diuee .Tuly they
constantly declined, till at thu latter cud of October
the price of the sulphate of quinine for Howani's was
quoted at /«/« and for tierman manufacture at /'('■", 50.

The bnrU prices followed this movement, and the unit
per half Ullogiam fell for barks of 2— i p. Ct. to 20 cents,
in London to 4.^tl. per pound unit.

In August the failure of the Milan Factory beenfnfi
known, .and -horlly afier, that of the fum •'^leyer &
Co. at London, the principal importers of barks from
South America. It was first feared th:it these failures
would have a teiy iniuriou* iuriueuce. because by it the
market wa.« threatened with about HO.OOO bales of Cupre.i
bark. Viesiiles 2l.f'0<i kilogr, of sulphate of quinine. But
fortunately neither contingencies occurrcv!, and it appears
that the "stock was gradually disposed oJ by tli<e baitkl
who had Ivut money upon it.

58

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

The Milan factory must have been in financial difficulties
for a considerable time. The liabilities were stated at
/S.OOO.UOH, the assets at /:J,2S0,000. The shareholders
have entirely lost their capital, while the creditors will
receive about 45 p. Ct. The value of the factory is estim-
ated at /' 975,000, the stock of sulphate of quiuine, etc.
at /■ 1,940,000. The factory possesses also Cinchona planations
in'Bolivia, which are valued at / 50,000, bat of which no
title deeds have been found. The manufacture is still
continued, but as only 25 kilogr. of sulphate of quinine
per day are prepared now, it does not cover the expenses.

The demand for sulphate of quinine remained very
trifling up to November, and the stock of barks could
only be disposed of by constant lowering of the price. But
against the end of that month, and in December, a greater
demand for this salt arose, and prices improved somewhat,
50 that also the unit, which had fallen in October to a
mean of 2.5 cents, improved by ultimo December to 30 cents.

The range of prices for sulphate of quinine during the
year 1884 is given here for every month.

As is known, Howard's sulphate of quinine commands
higher prices than either the French or the German. In
general there exist no other reason for this, than that
Howard's salt is preferred in Kngland and part of the
British Colonies to the exclusion of all other marks.

The purity and the appearance of the salt do not differ
60 much as to authorize the higher price

The price of the various marks were, per kilogram, in
guilders i —

English. French. German.

January 150 149 145

February 120 96—106 91—101

March Ill lOO— 110 101—106

April 101 96—101 88— 91

May 101 96—101 91

June lOl 101—106 91—96

July 96—101 101-106 86—96

August 87 77— 86 82—87

September 82—87 77— 82 72—77

October 83-87 72— 82 67-50

November 82— --7 67—80 66-50-72

December 87—90 77—86 72—77

For the Department of Colonies in Netherland, the
furnishing of sulphate of quinine was contracted : the
5th March for / 10887, 9th April f<)5-in, 13th May
/91-40, 5th INovumber /65, 20th December /76-63 per
kilogr. These prices ngrce pretty well with the market
value, whilst the contract for 5th November only was in
fact below the market price.

The price of bark declined with that of the sulphate
of quinine, but the difference is not so great, because
the January price of /145 a /150 for quinine was an
artificial one. However, on comparing the prices of bark
in May 1883 and in September 1884, it will become
evident what a great diminution in value has taken
place within that period. An excellent instance to cor-
roborate this, is the history of a parcel of bark from the
Tjiomas plantation, which after being sold in London, in
Hiay 1883, was stored by the purchaser, aud offered by
him again for sale in September 1884 in the same place.
The prices were per English pound ; —

In 1883. In 1884.

146 bales stem-bark 40 cents 17 » cents
28 „ branch-bark 50 „ 22^ „
8 „ shavings 90 „ 40 „

Ths unit for barks containing of 24 p Ct. sulphate of
quinine varied from 25 to 45 cents. For barks of very
low ])erce«tage, below 1 p Ct., however, this was not the
case, and the unit for these descriptions has fallen as
low as to 18 cents, Avhile buyers neglected those barks,
giving more attention to material of a higher percentage.

A circumstance, observed during the whole course of
the precedmg year, was, that the American barks were
■only sold and supplied in .small quantities. The rate to
•which the bark prices had declined, left no margin for j
profit for these barks. There were still some supplies,
for which n,n«tjy advances had been paid, but the import-
er.s. who would have had to lose upon their supplies
have generally preferred to withhold their bark, hoping
for better times. ,'

The following statement shows bow much the imports of
^mericau baflte havu decreased, conspared with former J

years. These figures are the totals of imports from S.
America to England, N. America and France in bales: —

1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884
91,990. 107.900. 110,530. 157,805. 163,587. 104,690. 37,490.
A great part of these supplies of the years from 1881
to 1884 consisted of Ouprea-barks ; in 1882 about 80,000
bales of this description were imported to England and
France together, in 1884, only about 12,000 bales.

As has been said above, in Slay about 15,000 bales of
cuprea bark had been taken by the Slilan factory. But
save this larger sale, only about 20,000 bales of S. American
bark were sold during the whole first half-year of 1884,
which figure tell in the second half-year to 6,000 bales.
So only 21,000 bales were sold, out of more than 89,500
bales that had been put for auction.

Among the Cuprea barks sold this year, there were
thousands of bales which had lain for to or three years in
London, and with which a speculation had been attempted
in hopes of engrossing all the bark, and so force up the
prices. Fortunately this speculation miscarried, and the
figure expressiug the losses iu that speculation must needs
be very high.

Especially the great supplies of cultivated barks from
Asia have tended to frustrate the attempts to force up
the prices.

Ceylon bears the palm among the Asiatic possessions,
as to quantity of the product. The quantity has increased
there with astonishing rapidity, as will appear from the
following table. The total imports from C'eylou were in
kilograms, during the years : —

18S1 1882 1883 1884

544,200 1,405,850 3,174,500 5,215,250

The other parts of British India, Madras, and Bengal,
brought to market iu Loudon diuriiig 1884 only a quantity
of a little more than 5,000 bales,

Iu 1881 Java turni.shed 453,700 kilograms of bark. Of
this quantity 323,500 kilograms were sold by auction at
Amsterdam, iu Loudon 50,000 kilograms by auction, aud
80,200 kilograms were sold direct to quinine fabricauts.
The percentage of the Ceylon barks is at present estim-
ated at an average of H or 2 p Ct. sulphate of quiuine.
That of the Javan barlTs suld by auction amouuted to
'2 22 p Ct., while those sold direct to the factories held
on an average 35 p Ct. On the whole, all the ciuchoua
barks imported from Java in 1884 and sold iu Europe,
contained about 10,000 kilograms of sulphate of quinine.
The highest percentage was found iu the Ledgeriaua
barks of the Government's Cinchona plantations (0-3 p Ct.
sulphate of quinine iu the air-dried bark), but also among
the private supplies, stem-barks are constantly met with,
which, though mostly younger than the Government barks,
excel for high contents.

From auction notes aud direct sales to factories known
to me, I here give the highest contents of parcels of
barks of some estates in Java, which were sold during 1884.
The percentage is: sulphate of quinine in air dry bark:
Djoengo (East .Java) Ledgeriaua stem-bark 0 3 pOt.
Pringombo (Pekalougan) ,, ,., 7'5 „

Pagilaran „ „ „ 6-7 „

Karang Mego ., ,, „ 7-3 „

Pamanoekau & Tjiasem Krawang Ledgeriaua

stem-bark G'4 „

Suekanegara (Preanger Keg.) Ledg. stcm-b. 8'0 „
Panjairau „ ,, ,, 6'9 „

Tjiseureuh „ „ „ 5-2 „

Bajabaug „ „ „ o'l „

I'asir Ipics ,, „ ,, 6-2 „

■Waspada „ „ „ 5'0 „

Tandjoeng laoet ,, „ „ 5-7 „

Djajagiri „ ,, „ ^^ »

Soakawana ,, „ „ 5*7 „

Telaga I'ateugan „ „ „ 5-1 „

Tjitrap (Buitenzorg) „ „ 5-3 „

The officinalis bark, too, often sliowed a high percent-
age of sulphate of quiuine. The following Cinchona
coucerus, for instance, sold : —

Pasir Ipies officinalis stem-bark 5'8 p.ct.

A\'aspada ,, ,. 4-7 „

Pamanoekau & Tjiasem officinalis „ 5.1 „

Djajagiri „ „ 6-1 „

Soekawaua „ „ 61 „

Pjoeiigo „ „ i'S „

JULV I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

59

This shows how, iu various parts of Java and iu differ-
ent plantations, the percentagi' ti~ the Ledgeriana barlt is
very higli. We might hence J.cdiKe that this generation
of C. Ledgeriana, reared from seed gained in Java, has
not deteriorated, that the percentage may be at least
equal, and sometimes superior, to the average percentage
of the original C. Ledgeriana of the same age, reared
from S. American seed. The first harvest of these, in
1S72, when the trees were six years old, had a proportion
of 0-2 p. ct. of sulphate of quinine, just as much as the
average of the above stated contents, which for the most
part relate to hark of four or live years old. As the
quantity of Ledgeriana seed, that could be placed at the
disposal of private persons, was not abundant, aud the
trees of inferior quality flourished first, the consequence
was that at first seeds were given from trees of inferior
percentage. As the richest barks from S. America con-
tained only 3 p. ct. sulphate as ma.vimum, it was thought
at the onset very fair if seeds were distributed to the
planters from trees with 3-5 and 1 p. ct. of quinine sulph-
ate. So from the older gardens of the oldest private
cinchona plantations, we often find supplies of Ledgeriana
bark not exceeding in contents 3-5 a 38 p. ct. sulphate,—
while the richest barks come from the plantations. Those of
Soekanegara, rringombo. Karang Jlego, I'agilaran, mostly
derive from the year IS"!), when there was .an abundance
of .superior Ledgeriana seed from the harvest of 187S,

The stock of Cinchona bark was, at the end of 188-4.
considerably less than at the commencement of that year.

On the last of December of the years 18"S— 84 there
were iu stock, bales: —

187S 1879 1S80 18.S1 18S2 188.3 1884

Iu Lon.lou a,090 14,205 28,170 39,200 72,300 100,470 79,31)0

„ France 1,370 8,400 8,040 15,780 18,230 11.200

„ North America 17.400 29,000 11,800 12,500 15,000 10,400 6,700

Total ... 20,490 44,57.1 48,370 ,^9,740 104,080 129,l.i0 90,2liO
>So there was diu-ing 1884 a considerable redoction in
the stock, with as much as 32,890 bales ; but still it re-
mains very considerable. However the stock on bund is
not all good bark. It can be taken for granted that
among the remaining 96,000 bales, a great part, probably
a» much as one-third or one-half, does not average more
than 1 p. ct. and often less than that, of sulphate, so
that these barks are mostly of very little value, aud
even quite worthless for tbe manufacturers. So, for
instance, it is stated of North America that among
the 5,700 bales in stock as many as 3,100 arfe as good as
unfit for use.

In Amslerdam the stock amounted on the last of Dec-
ember, to 2,000 bales, for the greater part Government
barks.

It is a pity that for all countries the returns of sup-
plies and stock are not given in weight, as the exjjression
bales or chests is so vague as to the quantity. Tbe
South American bales are estimated on an average at
00 kilos, but the Ceylon bales are nuich heavier ; in lSti3
these contained on an average 100 kilograms, and iu
18.^4, 112 kilograms each.
In London the stock at the end of 1884, consisted of :
04,500 bales of Cuprea, Pitayo, Columbia and North
Granada barks ;
3,346 „ „ Calisaya ;
1,010 „ „ Carthagena ;
1,175 „ „ Officinalis and Micrantha;

G5 „ ,, South American Succirubra;
5,835 „ „ East Indian bark.
The prospects for 1885 seemed rather better at the end
of 1884. The barks from S. Amciica will be no longer
imported in any quantity, as at the heavy reduction in
value, they can no longer make good the costs of har-
vesting and transport.

It is moreover thought, and this opinion is confirmed
on many sides, — that during 1S84, by various circumstanc-
es, and especially owing to financial position, more was
harvested than was necessary or good for the plantations,
and that in many places the harvest was a forced one,
because the cinchona trees began to die off.

The opinion has been expressed that the soil of Oeylon,
which is not very rich in the mountain districts, and
which, in many jilaees, has growu much worse by the
manner of cultivation, w-ill not ui the long run be able
to produce anually such great cinchona harvests. Dr.

' Tnmen, the Director of the Botanical Gardens at Pera-
demya, says in his report of 1883. that, according to the
planters, the young plants aud seedlings die away much
more than they did formerly, and he himself ex.
perienced this in the Botanical fiardeu at Hakgalla. Vet
128 millions of Cinchona trees must have been planted
in Ceylon, of which about 22 millions were still alive in
1884. How many cf these will lu'uceforth remain alive,
cannot be said with any certainty, but it seems only
prudent not to found the supposition on these reports
that Ceylon will soon be an insignificant factor as a
bark-producing country.

In Bengal aud JIadras the cinchona cultivation seems
not to attain much larger proportions. In the western
parts of Madras,— Wynaad and Travancore,— a great deal
of Cinchona has been planted for .some years too, which
can be harvested two or three years hence.

In 1884 Java brought about 453,700 kilos of bark to
the market. Of these about 207,000 kilos were from
the Government gardens. The production now increases
year by year, but will not for the first years equal
that of Oeylon in 1884.

The London brokers are doing all they can to attract
the Java Cinchona bark, which, in general, surpasses all
other cinchona barks in quality, to their market, aud
boast of the high prices which are obtained at London
more than any where else.

On looking more closely into the matter, it will bo
seen that in general quite as good prices are obtaineil
at Amsterdam as in London. For the continental factories
Amsterdam is better situated than London, and for barks
of high quality the English fabricants also come to make
their purchases at Amsterdam.

It is a difHcult thing to make out for certain whether
the prices are as high at Amstenlam as in London : only
the manufacturers, who examine all the barks, and can
thus constantly compare the analy.sis with tbe prices
would be able to do this. At first sight, however, it
may be thought impossible tliat in the long r\ui any
important tlitference can remain in favour of either
market; for if really the prices at either place %vere con-
stantly lower, this would very certainly attract the
buyers, thus causing that great competition by which,
acccording to the Loudon brokers, their market deserves
the preference.

It is a fact, that often German manufacturers come to the
Cinchona bark sales at Amsterdam with the intention of
buying large quantities but who quit the auctiou as owners
of only a dozen bales, because they found prices run too high
and as they could obtain their supplies cheaper in
London. Though orders are often given by English
manufacturers for the auctions at Amsterdam yet they
are seldom effected, because the limits are mostly too
low; whence it may be concluded that in London such
purchases can be effected at that lower price.

As far as is known, the following Java barks were
sold iu London during 1884: —

Sulphate

Febr. 26th. Ledgeriana A

B

O

D

Officinalis

March 25tli. Ledgeriana

April 9th.

May 6th. Only bark for
pharmaceut. use
July 30th. Leilgeriana
Oct. 6th.

Nov. 4th. „

Dec. 2nd. Succirubra^
Officinalis renewed

19

10

10

IS

5

1

5

21)
23
17
9
2
3
6

36
U
11

PRICE UNIT

OP p. i kilo in

QUININE, in cents, cents.
6- pOt. 206 .34 =
192»

5 3

4-9

3-1

.■i-8

31)

2-5

6-2

4-5

2-5

5-0

4-6

5-84

2-98

2-1
3-2
21

1595

110

137"

no

264

171

88
198
149
193

122

60,

99

C'J

36"

32"'

.350

35 =

35^

44

42°

38

.35'

39'-'

,32*

33

41

28 "

31

31

173

eo

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[JOLV I, 1885.

Sulphate price

OF p. i kilo

QUININE, in ceats.

OfficinaHs original
Succirubi-a ?

Officinalis renewed

", original

lb.

5-8 pCt. 176

UNIT

in
cents,

30

5
3

4
13
4
2

(50
4-5
5-9
5-6
5.1
5-4
5.2
2.3

170
126
159
170
143
141
154
93

28

27

30

28

27=.

29»

28

Now, if the unit is taken of the auctions held at
about 'the same time at Amsterclam, we find: —
London. Amsterdam.

Feb. 36th. 32^-44 et. Feb. 29th 31-45 ct.

NB— The barks with more than 4 p. ct. sulphate
were ' paid at London with 32»-36ii per unit, at
Amsterdam with 36—45.
April 9tb. 33^—41 ct. April 18th. 33-43 et. ,

N B -During the month of April the prices remained

"tly'foth. 2SS ct. July 25th. 31-32 ct

NB— For Amsterdam I have pm-posely taken only
the unit of barks which obtained about 2 p. ct. liUe
those of Loudon.

Dee. 2.ul. 2T-32 ct. Nov, 2Sth. 31-36. ct.
NB— The market had a n.smg tendency, so that the
date of Dec. 2nd must have been in favour of Loudon

It is evident,-a. least as far as these tew
comparative data go to prove,-that the advantage was
not on the side of the London market. I most boweve
observe that in London the payments are cash without
deduction, while at Amsterdam 1 p.. ct. ,s given lor
ready miuey. We shall then do wisely to take for
granted that the business takes its natural course and
that, at the same periods, the same price is paid at
Amsterdam and London for the same manufacturer s baik.
The comparLsou of druggist bark is even more
difficult. In the reports of sales we only see noted ot
Dutch barks : stambasl Ide soort or Iste soo,-t iii lant/e
mpen,-oi English barks: loni/ or hold i%'.very dmciytU
mill, etc.-but the particulars-fair, sound appearance,
the being well covered with lichens, the silvery coating,
and other details that determine the high value, are
not learnt from such a description It is therefore
difficult to say: saccirubra has fetched at London so
much, and at Amsterdam so much, and thus compare
them, because those succirubra barks may coffer immensely
in the eyes of a druggist. . ,

That sometimes very high prices are given for such
barks at Amsterdam was evident from the auction ot
29th February, when very young succirubra bark in long
quills was sold on appearance for 19i a -04 cts au.l
the 19th of June, when long quills of Calisaya
Schuhkraft fetched 302 cts. per li kilogram.

As there is not so much wanted of this sort ot
barks, it may easily happen, that at one time there is
more demand in Loudon, and at another lu Amsterdam,
and that the prices in proportion may vary '" J''™"''
of either market. Dealers of flruggist-barks ni Nether-
land assure that the prices of this article are better at
Amsterdam, but 1 believe that their colleagues in
London find the prices better there.

The costs of sale in Luiidou are not less than those
of the auctions at Amsterdam; the contrary is even
averred. The planters who have sold in both places,
would be able to give information about this point,
which would certainly nut be to the detnmeut of the
Dutch market. The ch:irges of auction <nc very high
in both places, and they weigh heaviest the lower the
prices, the less good the bark, and smaller the parcels
are If, for example, very young succirubra quills are
packed in chests, and it the whole lot must be sold at
30 or 40 cts. per half kilogram, then freight and
insurance run away with the greater part of the
produce, and it may occur that as much as 40 pCt
and even more of the gross produce is lost for charges,
while the seller in Amsterdam is after all ill-paid for

his trouble. „ ^ ■ 1

Direct sale, by eotitract, to manufactories, under
control ot the analysis from the side of the sellers,

has for a couple of years been practised to satisfaction
by some planters. The payment is regulated according
to the average price of the sulphate of quinine during
one half-year. This system of sale entails vcnj small
charges. The chance of deriving eventual profit from
the inclination for speculation ot some buyer who pays
higher prices at the auction than the price of the
sulphate of quinine at the moment of the auction
would authorize, is then disregarded; but then there is
the advantage of being always sure of an immediate sale
at the average value sulphate of quinine during one
half-year.

The brokers, both at London and Amsterdam must be
directed by analysis of the barks. For the factory-barka
especially, these are quite indispensable for valuation.
The analyses for this purpose must often be made in
great numbers and very expeditiously, and it frequently
occurs that an exact determination of quinine sulphate is
dequired within two or three days.

I touud that my method of analysis, which I
constantly followed in Java, though it gives exact results,
did not answer under these conditions, because it
required too much time and labour. I was therefore
obliged to adopt another method, and at first this gave
some trouble, and I could not be aways satisfied
with the results obtained. But at present this
dithculty is surmounted, and while using the _ same
method of analysis followed in many quinine factories, the
figures hi general agree with those of the manufacturers.

Differences in the analyses constantly occur, and the
more so in proportion as the barks are badly mixed,
or appear in quiils, which makes it difficult to take a
good average sample. If several persons take samples
from one and the same parcel of bark in quills, it is
very likely that their analyses will diverge more or less
considerably, and it often occurs by this reason that
the limits of the manufacturers for one and the same
parcel of bark greatly differ. Thence follows that units
obtained by dividing the amount ot quinine sulphate
upon the prices per IJ kilo, diverge sometimes consider-
ably from each other, which difft-rence is increased by
the unit's being in proportion to the contents, a little
higher or lower, because the manufacturers pay more
for the best barks of 4 p. ct. sulphate of quinine than
for that of lower percentage.

Hitherto we did not find the London market to excel
by any particular advantages. Yet there is one, and
that is that in London cinchona sales are held regularly,
every fortnight, about 25 per annum ; while at Amsterdam
the auctions are not so regular, and last year only 8
were held. This may sometimes occasion some delay for
small parcels, but, in proportion as greater supplies come
from Java, and the planters send their barks less fre-
quently to London, this difficulty will diminish. It is
probable that in 1885 one sale per month can be held.
Besides, the way is always open to dispose quickly of
fit parcels by privately selling them to the manu-
factories.

The arrivals m Amsterdam in 18S4 consisted for a
great part of manufacturer's barks. We cannot recom-
mend the planters too strongly, iu the case of typical
Ledgeiiana, not to apply themselves to obtain more or
less fair bark quills. As soon as the contents exceed
3 a 4 p et. of sulphate of quinine, the bark is not
bought as druggist-bark, and so the form gives no
advantage; indeed it is a disadvantage, because the bark
takes up more room, requires more costs ot package
and freight, and the exact valuation is rendered more
difficult Such barks should be broken up in small
pieces a couple of centimetres long, and be thoroughly
mixed. It is no use whatever to do, as is so often
done with Ledgeria-ia barks of more than 6 p ct_.
sulphate— to separate them in quills ot -6, 4, 5, b
decimetres in length, and thus sorting several sma
parcels, instead of breaking them all up into small
pieces and mixing them up to one good large parcel

The manufacturers have at present an immense deal of
work. In the first two months ot the present year 8,6,2
bales of Ceylon cinchona bark were set up for auction m
London, bc'sides the S. American barks. It now wo
assume that all this consisted on an average of parcels

JULV 1, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

61

of 10 bales, then evfry factory that wishes to bo pro-
perly enlightened hail, only for these barks, to make 867
tests. Adit to this the S. American and Javan barks.
It is oln-ious that the consequence will be, that small
parcels of 1 a 2 bales are neglected, that the manu-
facturers examine no samples, -or at least not all the
manufacturers, and that the true value is obtained with
difficulty for such parcels. By mixing several small
parcels, for instance, Ledgeriana and officinalis root-bark
in powder, Ledgeriana and officinalis stem-bark of equal
contents, also in powder — young plantations, which
otherwise would have to supply too many small bulks
of various sorts, can thus make np one parcel important
enough to attract the attention of buyers.

If there is enough of each sort to make up 5 or C
bales — about 500 kilograms— then it is not necessary to
mi.x them. For manufacturers bark the name of the
bark is not of the least con.sequence, the only factor
that regidates the prices is the proportion of sulphate
of quinine it contains.

I also observed that the harvesting of the bark —
especially of the branch bark — was performed rather
rudely, and that a good deal of wood was taken along
with the bark. In some samples I have found as much
as 10 a 15 p. ct. of wood. This ought to be looked
to, for it acts very prejudicially for the seller because
the buyers will deduct a veri/ full percentage for wood.

In general the succirubra, offered by private planters,
was too young. There is a good demand for these
barks, but they must be at least 7 years old, or rather
older, and have the white silvery appearance on the
outside and the reddish brown colour inside, that are
required of this sort, and if these couditions are not
complied with, it is of no use cutting the bark in long
quills.

Mor do the shippers in Java usually set the tare of
the chesis in which the barks are packed on the outside
of the chest. This causes much trouble at Amsterdam,
because the chests must then be unpacked there, weighed
and be repacked, to state the tare to the buyers. The
barks suffer under the treatment, and for all these
small operations the charges are relatively high. I
therefore advise planters to mark the tare as accur-
ately as possible on the outside of the Jchests.

As subtitutes for the quinine-salts, during 1884, anti-
pyrine, a derivative of chinoline, and thalline were
recommended.

Anti-pjTine is a greyish-white, crystalline body, smelling
of tar, and having an acrid bitter taste. It possesses
ahsohttely no febrifiic/al giia/iti/, but lowers the temper-
ature of the body two or three degrees Celsius. The
dose is one gramme, and must be repeated from 2 to 5
times, at intervals of one hour. The great quantities
required to> be taken, render the autipyriue, which
costs about t'GO per kilo, very dear.

Thalline (tetrahydroparachinanisol) has been prepared
by Skraup. ^Vith sulphuric and tartaric-acid it yields
crystalline salts, which taste acrid and bitter. This new
remedy, which has also the quality of lowering the
temperature, is now being made the object of experi-
ments,

J. 0. B. MOENS.

Haarlem, April 1st, 1885.

MANUrjNG AND CULTH^ATION: PRACllCB
WITH SCIENCE.

Fine v. Coakse Sdpekpiiosphates. — The controverted
point as to the relative effects of very finely divided
manures and coarsely powdered fertilizers has received
some illustration in recent experiments of P. "Wagner. He
finds that the degree of fineness of a manure really is of
great importance as regards its action in the soil, but that
its activity does not necessarily increase with the degree
of fineness. As a case in point, he maintains that on soils
rich in lime it is preferable to use finely divided super-
phosphate, while on soils poor in lime coarsely broken
superphosphates give better results.

Tub Function of Stltca in Plant Growth. — Experi-
ments by Dr. Kmil \\'olft on this subject may pos.sible lead
to important result,s, for he has been end(^avouring to
ascertain how far it would bo practicable in the cultiv_

ation of grain crops to enbstitute for the expensivs
phosphoric acid the far cheaper silica. The experiment,
were made on oats grown by means of water culture
that is, in nutrient solutions thi> compositions of which
is known and may be modified at pleasure. There were
three sets of experiments arranged respectively to in-
clude no silica, very little silica, and much silica. It
may here be observed that although silica is commonly
found m the ash of plants, particularly of grasses and
cereals, yet healthy vegetation may be produced in the
absence of silica, so that this ingredient cannot be re-
garded as essential to plant growth in the same way
as nitrogen, potash, and phosphorus are known to be.
Woffi's results indicate that the absorption of silica
greatly assists the assimilation of other plant foods, and
that plants to which silica is supplied show a decidedly
better development of grain and straw than do others not
so treated. Previous experiments had shown that phosphoric
acid similarly acted in facilitating the assimilation of ordmary
plant foods, and hence it is suggested whether it would
not be possible to replace phosphoric acid by silica,- acid
(silica) in the composition of artificial manures. As a
matter of fact, manure manufacturers have attempted to
achieve this result, and their failure is attributed to us-
ing silica in an unsuitable form. Further experiments
are needed, eBpecially by ordinary methods of cultivation,
as under-water culture plants absorb more nutriment
than when grown in the soil. It is doubtful whi-tlier
phosphoric acid in manures could be successfully replaced
by silicic acid, but it is not unlikely that a combin-
ation of both may be obtained, which would yield ex-
cellent results in the cultivation of cereal crops.

iNFLnENuE OP Shelter on Soil Temperature. — Observ-
ations byE. AVollny on the temperature of soils under various
circumstances show that during the warm season bare soil
is much warmer than sheltered soil, and soil sheltered
bv straw manure warmer than that covered by grass.
At the hour of greatest daily temperature the difference
between the temperature of the shaded and exposed
soil is greatest, while at the lowest temperature of the
twenty-four hours the exposed soil is generally cooler than
the sheltered soil. Perfectly analogous results obtain,
as is well known, in the case of a sandy desert as compared
with a grassy plain. The daily variations of temperature
are greatest in exposed soil and least in grass-covered.
Soil covered by vegetation or dead vegetable matter, such
as stul>ble or manure, is considerably warmer in summer
at some distance below the surface and cooler in winter
than a fallow, but when a warm period in winter or a cold
period in sunmier intervenes the influence of the covering
makes itself felt in the opposite direction. Bare soil is iu
spring morerapidly heated, and in winter more rapidly cooled.
A crop exerts a decided influence on the temperature of the
soil, the thickness of sowing and the age and character
of the crop being all effective, though it is uncertain
whether the plant itself has any influence. Soils are found
to warm more rapidly when the crop is drilled than
when it is sown broadcast, and a further advantage is
gained if the drills .aie wider apart and if they run
north and south. In the case of jjerennials, as meadow
grass, the temperature rises after mowing. — Adelaide
Observer.

SIR J. B. LaWES on the CULTIVATION OF
POTATOS.

Although I consiilcr that the use of complete artificial
manures involves too great a cost for their emi)loyini'utr
in the growth of ordinary farm crops, perhaps an exception
may be made in regard to Potatos, a crop which requires
a large supply both of potash and nitrogen.

At Rothamsted we have grown nine crops of potatos
in succession upon land which for fifteen years previously
had received no y.ard manure, and the average yield of
the last three crops has been 'lOO bushels per acre,
calcidating the bushel to weigh 50 lb. The .manure used
each year has been SOU lb. of sid^jhate of potash, ,S50 lb.
of superphosphate of limn, anil 401) lb. of salts of antninnia :
while in another e.xiieriment, instead of the salts of
ammonia, 540 lb. of nitrate of soda were ai)|)li(!d. The
produce from both mamtres has been tdmost iiidentical.

The sulphate of potash supplies about loU lb. of potash —

6i

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[JotV I, 1885.

and we find very nearly the same amount in the crop.
Tho phosphoric " acid, on the other hand, is much in
excess of the requirements of the crop, and it might he
reduced one-half. The salts of ammonia and the nitrate
each supply about the same amount of nitrogen — 87 lb. :
and of this the crop does not take up more than 50 lb. ;
there is, apparently, therefore, a considerable loss of this
substance; but at the same time, any reduction in the
amount of these manures would be followed by a reduction
in the crop. The loss of this costly manure ingredient
is a most serious matter, as unfortunately there is but
little prospect of recovering, in succeeding crops, any
appreciable amount of the 37 lb. not taken up by the
first. By means of the same mineral manures alone we
have grown — over the same period — one-half the crop we
obtained by the apphcation of minerals with nitrogen,
the soil having suppUed a sufficient amount of that substance
to give a product of iOU bushels; but one-half of the
minerals applied remained inactive in the soil; these,
however, might be made available to the crop by an
application of nitrogen.

The quantity of potash removed in potatos is very
large. In the 400 bushels it amounts to about 130 lb.
Compare this with the amount removed by animals. An
ox weighing 1,400 lb., which was killed for the purpose
of 'analysis, contained only 2i lb. in the whole carcase
and ottal. Hay is another crop which takes a goood deal
of potash from the soil, and farmers in England rarely
"VOW either hay or potatos for sale unless there are facilities
tor the purchase of town dung. Artificial manures are
certainly not used alone by practical farmers in the growth
of their crops.

In our experimental field, the character of the manure
is represented in the stem and leaves of the plant.
Ammonia and nitrate without minerals give a low stem
and greenish-brown leaves, which in the evening appear
almost black. Minerals without nitrogen give a thin, low
.stem and yellowish-green leaves ; while mineral and nitrogen
together give a luxuriant, and sometimes an over-luxm-iant,
stem, with leaves of a bright green. There is no difficulty
in accounting for these peculiarities. A plant takes up
wh.atever food is mo.st abundant in the soil, with the
hope, as I sometimes put it, that sooner or later it may
find the food which suits it best. In the dark-green
leaves the nitrogen is in excess; but starch cannot be
formed without potash, and the supphes of potash are not
uuflicient to use up the nitrogen. It is far more easy to
change the yellowish-green of the mineral-manured potatos
into a dark green than it is tn lighten the colour of
potatos which receive nitrogen ; a solution of nitrate of
soda will effect tho one in a very few days, but as both
potash and pUosphoric acid form the insoluble compounds
with the soil, they are much more slowly taken up by plants.
We always, however, obtain a larger crop of potatos
where we apply the mineral manures alone, than where
we apply the nitrogen without the minerals, though in
the next field, salts of ammonia applied without minerals
for thirty-nine years in succession, have grown larger
crops of wheat over the whole period than mineral
manures without ammonia. To explain this apparent in-
consistency we must consider the great difference in the
character of the two crops.

Wheat in England is sown in the autumn, and being
a deep-rooted plant, it has a greater range of soil to
obtain a supply of mineral food than the spriug-sowu
potato. The relation between the potash and the phos-
phoric acid and nitrogen in the two crops is also very
different. In the wheat crops grown by salts of ammonia
alone, mixed samples, taken over a period of ten years,
give the products per acre of the total crop — straw and
grain— as follows : nitrogen, 3(i lb. ; potash, 23 lb. ; phos-
phoric acid, 13 lb. The relation, therefore, between these
two important minerals and nitrogen is as one to one.

In the potato crop, on the other hand, the proportion
of nitrogen to the minerals is nearer one of nitrogen to
three of miiicrals, the demand upon the soil for potash
being much greater in the case of potatos than where
wheat or barley is grown. It must be a very large wheat
crop indeed which removes 50 lb. of nitrogen from the
soil ; but in some of our potato crops we carry off more
than 100 lb. of that substance per acre.

As very few soils could furnish so large an amonut as
this from their own resources, when potatos are continously
grown, it becomes necessary to furnish a supply of potash
either in dung or chemical salts. The following table
gives the prorlucts of the crop grown in 1S?3, being the
ninth in succession without any change in the manures.

Potatos pec

Acre in
Long Tons.

Cwt.

1. 14 tons of dung

2. Minerals without nitrogen ...

3. Nitrogen without minerals ...

4. Minerals and ammonia

5. Minerals and nitrates

0
5
3

8
8

'3

19
2

amount of mineral matter and nitrogen per cent. in_
dry tubers: —

Mineral
Matter.

Nitrogen.

1

3.5

1.09

2 •■■

3.86

0.73

3

2.64

1.47

4

3.67

1.08

5

3.86

1.37

The character of the manure is most clearly shown in
the composition of the crop. lu No. 2, manured with
minerals, the minerals are five times as high as the nitrogen ;
while in No. 3, where ammonia or nitrates are useo, the
minerals are considerably less than doul)le the amount of
nitrogen. In both oases there is a waste of power^ shown
by small crops, and unused manures. The loss, however, is
not equal in both cases, as the minerals remain in the soil
to be taken up at some future time, while the nitrogen
is probably lost. — Sib John Lawes, in " Umal New yorkerJ'
— Gardeners' Chronicle,

INJURIES TO

CULTIVATOr.S BY
PESTS.

IMPORTED

A circular has been issued and widely circulated from

the office of the Adelaide Observer upon the subject of
injuries done to crops, fruit, and farmers' produce gene-
rally, by imported pests of all kinds including the Coor-
ado beetle, the Oidium Tuckerii, and the Aphis lainger
or American Blight for which reductive if not intirely
obliterative remedies have already been discovered. The
author refers to the excessive danger done by the shot
hole fungus — Helmiuthosporium rhabdiferum — of which I\Ir.
Frazer S. Crawford has recently discovered the fruiting
spores. This destructive fungoid pest attacks the almond,
apricot, and peach crops, eating innumerable circular
holes in the leaves of trees, atfectiug the tender branches
by absorbing their juices, and disfiguring and dwarfing
the fruits. At one time this fungus was unknown in
the colony, and our apricot, peach and almond trees
used to be loaded with fruit of the largest size and
finest flavour. Now it is a very rare thing to see a
good peach or almond, except at American River, Kan-
garoo Island, where the disease has not yet been intro-
duced. An acre of apricots would contain about one hund-
red trees, and it woidd be an exceedingly moan estimate
at present to put the value of the yield of a good tree
at twenty shillings. "We have seen hundreds of dozens
of fruit upon the trees at the island, and at fourpeuce a
dozen that sum would he realized over and over again.
AVhat, then, would be the value of a remedy by which
the grower could secure the proper and healthy crops —
as of old — from the apricot and peach trees H For years
it has existed amongst us, and until now not one in a
hundred growers knew what it was that was injuring him,-
and not one at all knew the remedy. It is vtry simple,
and credit is due to Mr. Crawford for his enquiry into
the life history of the pest, as well as his suggestion of
a remedy — which is simply soft soap. I'robably the
kerosiue emulsion would answer e<)uany us well, and as it
is also destructive of scale and aphis it might answer better

July i, 1SS5.3

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

63

The farmer and the gardener have to fight innumer-
able noxious weeds that have beeu imported from various
countries without the natural enemies that keep them in
cheek in their owu countries. Some, perhaps all, have
their redeeming qualities, but when they get mixed up
with the farmers' crops or the gardeners' grasses they
destroy the average product of the field in which they
grow to just the extent that they cover and rob it.
"Whether the " takeall " fungus was imported or not we
cannot say, but it most probably found an entrance by
way of one of our ports. However, it is idle to speculate
whether this and red rust came that way or not. We
know that the list of introduced noxious weeds is very
numerous, and that it is increasing very rapidly. We
have had scale insects innumerable introduced on various
plants; we kuow of, certain snails that were let loose
purposely by a man who brought them from England,
and now they are a great nuisance. A number of speci-
mens of ajjhis have been brought here, and the phyllo-
xera ajjhis is waiting just outside our doors, hariug
been brought from France to Geelong, and our jammakers
and even our nurserymen are importing fruit and fruit-
trees in quantities from Geelong, quite careless whether
or not they introduce it to our vineyards. It is well
known that the Codlin moth has caused the loss of mil-
Uous of pounds to orchard-owners in America and in Tas-
mania, as well as many other places, and yet we are tak-
ing absolutely no steps to prevent the importation of
fruit and fruit-trees from those countries, or even to in-
spect and disinfect the boxes or trees upon landing.

The apple blight is rampant in our orchards, and no
one can even estimate what its introduction has cost the
colony. The patato moth (Leda soladinella) eats tons of
potatoes occasionally, and causes the rest to rot whole-
sale ; we have the curculio beetle, also imported from the
Mediterranean, whenee we get the stinkwort (Imda grave-
oleus), and a few more pests; and we might enumerate
a number of borers, coccida^, sawiiies, slugs, beetles, &c.,
but we have said enough to prove that the enemies
against which our cultivators have to contend are neither
few in number nor mean in power to hurt them.

The question is, can they successfully cope with their
enemies 'i We say most decidely they can in some cases,
and could in others if they knew more about them and
with what weapons to resist their attacks. They want a
good practical knowledge of their enemies in all stages
and particularly of these periods in their life history
when they are weakest and most defenceless, and then
they want unanimity of purpose. Thus the locusts iu
Russia. Syria, and other places used to descend upon the
country in thousands of tons and eat every green herb,
causing famines and deaths to thousands of human be-
ings. It would be useless to attempt to destroy them
at this time, but the armies of the different Governments
w-ere sent out when the locusts had just emerged from
their egg-cases in the soil, and, besidft, exery soul that
could work icaj impressed into the duty, so that before they
were able to fly the whole lot were killed, and thus a
catastrophe was prevented. How often do we liear from
our country correspondents that -'the whole place is
alive with young grasshoppers, and fears are entertained
that the crops will suffer by and by." or " that the
grubs or the caterpillars are crawling in procession over
the newly sown wheatfields, clearing them as they go."
Surely the whole neighbourhood should turn out in such
cases as these and by means of landroUers, or even of
masses of bushes drawn across the living masses of soft !
defenceless locusts or grubs, they could kill them whole-
sale, and, by preventing them coming to maturity would
stop an indefinite multiplication of these pests.

I^pon the subject of education into the origin and de-
slructiveness of such pests the circular goes on to say and
wisely too, "Everything concerning insects injurious or
beneficial is taught in all the schools on the Continent,
and particularly in Germany where beautifully prepared
specimens and plates of the insects, their larv;e, their
eggs, and the work done by each are illustrated. Great
attempts arc being made in England to establish a similar
pi-ictice, and Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, whose work is
often referred to iu the proceedings of our Koyal Agri- \
cultural Society, has done very much towards dissemin-
atiu 8 a knowledge of iti^ecta injurious and beneficial to j

cultivators, besides enlisting the sj-mpathies and the assist-
ance of numbers of cultivators. But it is in America
that the greatest attention has been paid to farm and
garden pests, and the funds of the States have been
expended with no parsimonious hand in endeavouring to
find out all about the farm aud orchard pests as well as
to devise means for their extirpation. We cannot hope
that an Australian Government will establish any such
complete organization as exists iu the American States
but a great deal might be done to gather particulars aud
disseminate information concerning insect and fungoid
pests with a very small expenditure of money. Those
who have had the opportunity of inspecting the two cases
of insects prepared by Mr P. S. Grawford, and jjlaced
in the room of the Royal Agricultural Society, can easily
see how valuable aud instructive a work could be done
by only one person during each year were his whole
attention put into the work. When once an institution
for examination into the character of insects and fungi
affecting agriculture has been established, there will arise
hundreds of willing workers, who will send in specimens
observe their habits in situ, and try experiments either
under direction or voluntarily, and comnmnicate every
particular to the central authority, liy these means a
great deal of valuable information would soon be got to-
gether, and doubtless simple and inexi^ensive means for
combating the various enemies to cultivation would be
devised.**

In conclusion, although we have not said half of what
could be urged iu the interests of the various cultural
industries, we may point out that in the public Museum
there is already the room where the centre of operations
could be located; aud as the Museum already employs
a collector iu the entomological department and also a
highly skilled preparateur, there would only bs needed a
small additional expenditure for cases, &c., iu which to
exhibit the specimens. The Director, or other officers
would find no difiiculty in publishing all information con-
cerning his department, for each newspaper in the eolouy
would only be too pleased to convey information for the
benefit of those important classes— the cultivator of the
soil and breeders of live stock.

It is sincerely to be hoped the Government of South
Australia will not hesitate in incurring the exijenditure
necessary to ensure a prompt and searching investigation
into the origin and best means of eradicating all pests
above and under the soil from which agriculturists of all
kinds have suffered aud will continue to suffer still more
severely if not to a disastrous extent, unless provision for

their discovery and total eradication be made in time.

Agriculturist and Jieview.

AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS ON ORANGE SCALE.

Equally with the orange growers of Australia, those of
southern California, and the southern states of America,
especially Florida, are frequently subjected to losses through
the ravages of the orange scale insect, aud much attention
has been devoted by the central Department of Agriculture
in the way of experiments having for their object the
finding of an effective remedy for the plague. The latest
experiments that have taken place in Florida form the
subject of a report submitted to tlie Commissioner of
Agriculture at Washington. Mr. Geo. B. Loring, who for-
wards us a copy, and from it we gather that the greatest
amount of success has been obtained by the use of
emulsions composed of 67 per cent, of kerosene anil 33
per cent, of soap aud water. The experiments with
kerosene enuilsious have proved that various soaps can be
readily made to combine with the oil, and that the soap
and kerosene emulsions are as effective a.s' those formed
with milk. The use of soap materially reduces the cost,
except whitre milk is abundant as cheap, as is very
seldom the ease iu Florida. Common bar soap, soft soaji,
and whale oil soap have been tried and found to do
almost equally good, ^^'hale oil soap, when of good
quality, is jjreferred, as it is stronger, and adils to the
insecticidal properties of the emulsion. The following
formula is one which has proved in practice useful where
a moderate quantity of emulsion is required, and is said
to gii'c a wash of suflicieut strength to kill the eggs of
the iicalc insects commonly fouud in Tlorida; Iseroseng

64

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[JULV I, 1S85.

2 gallons ; common soap or wliale oil soap, J lb. ; water,
1 gallon. " Heat the solution of soap, " the directious state,
"and add it boiling hot to the kerosene. Churn the
mixture by means of a force pump and spray nozzle
for five or ten minutes. The emulsion, if perfect, forms
a cream, which thickens on cooling, and should adhere
■without oiliness to the surface of glass. Dilute, before
using, one part of the emulsion with nine parts of cold
water. The above formula gives 3 gallons of emulsion
and makes when diluted, thirty (,30) gallons of wash.
The percentage of oil can be increased considerably
without danger to the plant, and a stronger emulsion,
may, in fact, be required in coping with some of the
Aspidiottis scales, but the amount of kerosene in the
emulsion cannot be greatly reduced without weakening
too much its power as an insecticide. The amount of
soap may also be varied, but less than J lb. to the
gallon of water forms an unstable emidsion. "

The distrust of kerosene felt at the outset, it is stated
has now given place to confidence, and the emulsions are
now widely used by orange growers in eastern Florida.
Want of thoroughness in applying the wash, however, is
found to render repeated .applications necessary. The
invention and introduction of what is called the cyclone
nozzle by the Department of Agriculture greatly diminishes
the labour of applying the liquid to orange trees and
insures success with ordinary care and attention, at the
same time reducing to a minimum the amount of liquid
required and the expense of an application, and there is
no report of any case of loss or permanent injury resulting
from the use of kerosene enmlsions, although the reckless
use of emulsions imperfectly formed, or of unnecessary
strength, it is noted, may be expected to cause defoliation
and a temporary shock of greater or less severity. It is
indeed the opinion of a majority of the Florida growers
that in kerosene properly emulsified and diluted they
have a nearly perfect remedy, more effective than any
other insecticide in destroying scale insects and having
as slight an effect upon the plant as can probably be
expected from any remedy with sufficient penetrating
power to reach and kill the eggs of these insects.

In regard to the physiological action of kerosene upon
the orange, cai-eful observations are reported as having
been made during the year, and the following conclusions
arrived at:— 1st. That kerosene dififers from most other
remedial agents in being entirely harmless to tender young
growth, blossom buds, and young fruit. It may, there-
fore be applied to bearing trees at seasons when other
insecticides would cause more or less loss of growth or
of fruit. 2nd. That the shock produced by an overdose is
felt more severely upon devitalized portions of the plant,
and is not appreciable where there is full vigor. This
shock is quickly followed by a healthful reaction, and is
not ordinarily attended with any serious consequences,
such as hardening of the bark. 3rd. That extremes
of heat and cold increase, sometimes to an injurious
extent, its action upon the plant. Applications made
in the hot sun, during the middle of the day, are observed
to cause a greater amount of defoliation than would result
from the same application made at evening or in the
shade. In winter, when the air is charged with moisture
and the nights are- cold, with frost or heavy dews, it
is found that the oil does not evaporate as rapidly as
iu warm or dry weather. Applications made under sucli
atmospheric conditions sometimes prove unexpectedly
severe and cause the tree to shed all its leaves or eveu
kill a portion of its branches. The most favorable season
for applying kerosene washes is agreed upon as being
early iu spring or as soon as all danger of frost is past.
The shedding of the last year's leaves, which takes place
naturally after the orange tree has renewed its foliage
in spring, is often accelerated by the action of the oil,
which is thus nuide to appear very severe, but the loss
of old and devitalized leaves is regarded of slight consequence,
and iu the case of badly infested trees is a positive advant-
age, as the leaves iu falling carry with them the scales
most difficult to reach with insecticides.

In dealing with an enemy so thoroughly protected as
are many of the bark lice, the lic|uid insectiuides, it is
recommended, should be applied in as fine a spray as
possible, or at least in moderately fine spray, driven witL
couBiclei'al)l« forco iu order to iucrewe to tlio utmost

their penetrating power. The aim should also be to
reach and thoroughly wet every portion of an infested
tree, so that no individual scale insect shall escape the
action of the liquid. This result was not fouud attainable
by the old method of sending a jet from a distance into
the tops of the trees, and an ordinary garden syringe is
practically useless. There is needed a force pump aud a
hozzle giving a fiuely atomised .spray. This nozzle, it is
noted, should be attached to a sufficient length of flexible
hose, to allow it to be introduced into the top of the
tree. The orifice of the nozzle, it is explained, should
be directed at a right angle to the hose, and not in line
with it, so that the jet of spray may thus by a turn of
the wrist be directed upward or downward, and brought
into contact with all parts of the foliage and branches,
from beneath as well as from the upper side.

The Cyclone nozzle, which answers the above conditions
and is easily attached to any force pump, is described
as consisting of a "shallow, circular, metal chamber soldered
to a short piece of metal tubing as an inlet. The inlet
passage penetrates the wall of the chamber taugentially,
admitting the fluid eccentrically, and causing it to rotate
rapidly in the chamber. The outlet consists of a very
small hole drilled in the exact centre of one face of the
chamber. The orifice should not be larger than will
.admit the shaft of an ordinary pin, Through this outlet
the fluid is driven perpendicularly to the plaue of rotation
in the chamber. Its whirling motion disperses it broadly
from the orifice, and produces a very fine spray, which
may be converted into a cloud of mist by increasing the
pressure in the pump. The perforated face of the nozzle
chamber is removable for convenience in clearing the
orifice when it clogs. The diameter of the chamber inside
need not exceed J inch, and its depth J inch. A nozzle
of these dimensions attached to an Aquapult pump covers
1^ square yards of surface at a distance of 4 or 5 feet
from the orifice. The amount of dispersion depends some-
what upon the thickness of the perforated face of chamber.
The diameter of the cone of spray may be increased by
countersinking the exit hole and making its edges thin.
Half inch gum tubing is sufficiently large to supply one
or a gang of several nozzles. The tubbing must be
strengthened with one ply of cloth. " In use, the end
of the hose is supported by being fastened to a light rod
of wood, which forms a han.lle, by mea is of w-hich the
nozzle may be applied to all parts of the tree. For full
sized trees a rod long enough to reach nearly to their
tops must be used. For this purpose, a conveuient device,
it is explained, may be made by passing the small rubber
hose through a hollow bamboo rod of the required length,
and a three-sixteenth brass tube inserted in a bamboo
rod has also been used.

The following is the estimated cost for a standard was''
of whale oil soap and kerosene emulsion containing 67 per
cent, of oil, aud diluted 1 to 9 ; Kerosene, 2 gallons, retail
at 20 cents, 40 cents; soap, J lb., retail at 10 cents, 5
cents; water,! gallon; emulsion, 3 gallons: total cost, 45
cents, or 1-5 cents per gallon. One gallon of emulsion
will make 10 gallons of diluted wasli ; cost lo cents.
Cost of wash per gallon, IJ cents. With the Aquapult
pump and Cyclone nozzle, 4 gallons of wash is sufficient
for thirty nursery trees of one aud two years from the
bud. Cost per tree, two-tenths cent. Trees which have
been transplanted and have made two years' average
growth in the grova (three or four years "from the bud),
it is stated, require about two-thirds of a gallon of wash,
Cost, 1 cent per tree. Bearing trees of full size will
require from 5 to 10 gallons of wash. Cost, 7 to 1 5 cents
average about JO oeuts per tree.— Melbourne Leader.

Or.vnherriks.— Although nmch of this fruit is impnrted
into this country, notably fi-oni America, its cultureniight be
profitably imdertaken in naturally suitable places at home,
Much swampy land still exists tliatniight be turned to such
a use. Where the soil isnaturally damp and rsts on a bed
of porous material and there is free circulatiou of air, the
American Cranl berry (O.xycoccus macrocarixi) grows quite
Ittsutisutly.— ea)'d(ne«' Ohromcle,

JULV I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

f,4

TRIMEN'S C'ATALCGE OP CFA'LOK PLANTS*

{ComintiniccJe^.)

If brevity be the soul of wit and the expression
be akiu to " multum in parvo," seldom could either
be more appropriately quoted than on the present
occasion respec'.ing tliis Catalogue of Ceylon Plants.
The wellkuown apology of a Frenchman to a cor-
respondent for the length of his epistle on the ground
that he had no' time to write a shorter, can scarcely
be quoted by Dr. Trinien in respect to tlie matter
contained in this list of Ceylon plants ; but, on the
other hand, it is difficult to calculate what portion
of Dr. Trimen's fully occupied time has been devoted
to the preparation of tliis catalogue, and the boiling
down of the scattered and heterogeneous mass of
matter from which he has had to compile it during his
short residence amongst us. To be able to do this
correctly implies a peculiar training and practical
knowledge of botanical literature, but when the careful
examination of several thousand specimpns of dried
aud liviug plants has to be added to Dr. Trimen's
labours, Ihe value of this list can be fully appreciated
by brother-botanists interested in the plants growing
in Ceylon. But to non-botanists truly the list is
Etrougly recommended on the ground that a more
full and correct list of the botanical, Sinhalese aad
Tamil names of our Ceylon plants has not before
been made in accordance with the recognized and
proper arrangement of the several famiiiea of plants.
Dr. Trimen's list forms a complete index to Thwaites's
" Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylania;" ; but in the se-
quence of the families or natural orders it d.ll'<;is
very materially from Thwaites's work. Dr. Trimen's
Viii is reilly a catalogue of the botanical names of
the plants of Cejlon generally derived from Latin aud
occasionally Greek terms ; and it may be saffly stated
that nearly all the English names of plants in this
list of some 3,000 to -1,000 individuals can be counted
on the lingers of cue's hands.

To save ladies and others from making wry faces
by attempting to commit to memory and pronounce
tlie Lalino-Gieek names of plants, would-be popular
writers have attempted to give thorn tictitious English
names in every case, bul in this respect the ever
courteous Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Peradeniya, always so ready to impart useful and
popular information on plants to eytry one visiting
the classioil gardens of Peradeniya or applying to him
for information, thus disposes of the ijnglish names
of Ceylou plants : — " Euyli^h names uave been
added to the feiv plants which have acquired
them," thus cle.-vrly trampling under foot the ad-
mitted fact by all nations, iuoludiny Russia, " that
we (English) sre thi people, and that wisdom will
die with us ! " But to make up f.jr this fact Dr.
Trimeu has given more than his titlep.age indicates,
for in addition to the "flowering plants and ferns"
he has added five natural orders, viz., Khizocarf c:o,
Lycopodiaccas, Isoetcc, Selaginellacta-, and Characcx-,
not bargained for.

The catalogue consists of two pages of an " Ex-
planatory Xute " (rt'hichis quoted after this notice)
and 137 pages of the list of plants divided as fol-
lows :— pp. 1 to 8G include Dicotyledons ; pp. 8G to
110 MoxocoTYLEDOxs ; and pp. Ill to 119 Vascular
CKvriouAMS ; whilst pp. 121 to lo7 are occupied
with the indii-es of the botanical names of the

» A Systematic Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and
Ferns ludigenous to or Growing in Ceylou. With the
\'eruacular Isamis, aud with Itefereiicus to Thwaites'
Enumeratio. Compiled by Henry Trimeii, M.B., f-l.is.,
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, 18S5.
0

natural orders and genera, and the Sinhaleje and,
Tamil names of the plants.

The catalogue includes 15G natural orders, 1,071
genera, and 3,249 regular species, with 408 varieties,
some of which may prove to be distinct spacies.
The catalogue is issued as a number of the "Journal
of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
for 1SS5," and has been printed by Mr. George J. A.
Skeen, Government Printer, Ceylon, to whom
the author and the members of the Asiatic Society
owe a debt of gratitude for the neat and careful
way in which the book has been issued. It may
be safely stated that this catalogue of the plants of
Ceylon by Dr. Trimen is the most valuable work
ever contributed to the Society in strict accordance
with its objects in connection with the several branches
of the natural history of Ceyjou formiug its programme.

The following specimens of the catalogue are given :
On page 3G and under Natural Order 54, " Ltturace.e ;
genus 309 Lagerstrcemia Flos-regina^ Retz, 122.
]Uuriita, S. KadaUpuva, T.," and on page 55, under
Natural Order " 85, Asclepiade.-e and Genus 4S(J,
Hemidesmus indicus, Brown. 195. Iramnnu, S.
Nannari, T. Indian SarsajMrilhi ," which meaus that
these plants ari to be found on pages 122 and 195
respectively of Thwaites' Enum. Plant. Zeyl., and th;it
the letters S. and T. stand for Sinhalese and
Tamil. All the members of the Ceylou Branch (if
the Royal Asiatic Society will be eutitleil to a fieo
copy of this valuable catalogue, aud there need be
no hesitation in recommending it to all ethers inter-
ested in the Botany of Ceylon. W. F.

Of t'le scientific value of the list, there can be
no question, but we (li"D.) trust it will be speedily
followed by the long-promised, longlooked-for popnlar
work on the Botany of Ceylou. — Dr.'lrimen's Explanatory
Note is as follows: —

E.X;i'r..\NATORY NOTE.

The Xaliiral OnUis aud the Gcncrit iu Ibis Cit.ilogiie
are e.tch numbered cousecutively throughout, the sequence
followed being that of the " Genera Plaularum " by Bon-
tham aud Hooker. The Species are generally named iu
accordance with the "Flora of British India," bo far as
that work hivs yet beeu published (to end of Geuus
594, p. 07).

Names of species or varieties printed in sstAi.r, capitals
are believed to be ende,iiio (i. e., found in Ce.vloii only, or
peculiar to the Island).

Names with an asterisk (*) prefixed are es:otie.speei.,s
which have become more or less iudio'nli:efl, usually a.s
ifpo/." iu cultivated or waste land. Jlauy are thoroughly
established and very common; others merely casual and
rarely found. A dagger (t) prefixed to a name iiulie-
ates a suspicion of exotic origin or a doubt as to true
nativity.

Names eccln.scd in roiuid brackets ( ) are exotic species
which, being largely e/iltimted for u-e or ornament, are
often found apparently wild, but are not really uaturalized
here.

A query (?) prefi.'ced to a name iiulicates doubt a.s
to the occurrence of the plant in Ceylon ; placed after a
a name it means doubt as to the correctness of the
tletermination.

Names enclosed in square brackets [ ] are species wbieh
have been recorded for Ccyhui, liut the occurrence of
which is a matter of grave doulit or recpdres verilicatiou.
Most of them are. in all probability, errors • bnt n.-* they
arc given in "hooks of more or less anlhority, it is tliuught
well to include them, thus clearly distinguished from the
others.

The additional names (synonyms) in italics are those of
Thwaite-'s " Bnnmcratio Plantarum >5eylani:e " (lAIS-fill
when ditferent from theories here adopted. Tlie numhers
following the names refer to the pages of tlie sanit!
book, to which this Catalogue forms- a complete classilicd
index.

Iu the case of a few .ipeeies of which I liavo not seen
Ceylou specimens — aud for the most part not iucliuled in

66

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

the CEaumeratio'' — I have qaoted the name of the col-
lector given by the author recoi-ding the species as
Oeylonese, thus (" Walker "). Most of them, it will be
seen, were collected by Col. or Mrs. Walker (in 1S30-40),
and many, it seems, have not been again found.

" 0. r." refers to the distributed sets of dried speci-
mens of Ctyhn Plants. The numbers given here are
the whole of those subsequent to the ones quoted in the
" Biiumeratio," which terminated with 0. P. 3SG0. A few
of the earlier numbers however are occasionally quoted
in this Catalogue; when necessary to secure precision in
nomenclature.

JVew SjKcies. — There are a few MS. names here printed
for the first time. It is ray intention to publish de-
scriptions of these supposed new species in the " Journal
of Botany " (London) without delay.

Vernacutar Names. — The letters "S." and " T." after
these signify Sinhalese and Tamil repectively. With re-
gard to the former, it is believed that a fair amount of
accuracy has been attained, and that the spelling is in
accordance with the rules for transliteration prescribed
by the Ceylon Government. In the case of the Tamil
names, however, it is to be feared that but a small
number of those in use iu tlie North and East of the
Colony have been obtained, and that these are not always
rightly determiued or properly transliterated. But it
may be hoped that the publication of this list will serve
as a basis for a more systematic and accurate collection.

English names have been added to the few plants which
have acquired them. H. T.

Teradeniya, February, 1885.

We may add to this an extract from ,the Journal
of Botany for May 1S8.5, which contains among
other contents, the followiog paper : —

NOTES ON THE FLORA OF OEYLON.

BY HENRY TUIMEN, M.B., F.L.S.

The last Part of the late Dr. Thwaites' ' Enumeratio
Plant. Zeylaniw ' was published in 1864, and, besides com-
pleting the systematic enumeration of the plants of Ceylon
to the end of the Vascular Cryptogams, contained two ap-
pendices (extending to 4:j pages) of Addenda and Oor-
rigenda,thus bringing the earlier portions of the book(wliich
began to appear in 1858) up to the date of its conclusion.

The numbered .series of e.r.ii.ciita, well known as " 0. P.,"
had been previou.sly made up and widely distributed by
Thwaites; their numbers are systematically quoted through-
out the book, and are. in the supplements above mentioned,
carried on up to 0. P. iiSGO inclusive.

After the completion of the 'Enumeratio' the 0. P.
numeration was still kept on, as new species or varieties
were detected in the Island, or as further research showed
the necessity of breaking up some of the previously re-
corded ones into two. In this way 164 additional 0. P. num-
bers were given, and the series was extended from O.P.
3861 to 4024, which number is absolutely the last.

Many of these addition.! I numbers have been sent out
from Peradeniya to the public herbaria of Europe and Asia
and to private collections, and not a few have been quoted
by authors of recent monographs and descriptive treatises.
It will therefore, I believe, be of use to give a list of them
with their determinations, as represented in the Peradeniya
herbarium, which in any case of doubt must be considered
as the type series.

I may note that very nearly all these additional numbers
refer to plants collected between 1864 and 1809. After this
latter year Dr. Thwaites turned his attention, so far as
Botany is concerned, almost exclusively to the Lower
Cryptogams, and although bis collectors brought in a few
additional Flowering Plants, only two or three C. P. num-
bers refer to any ye.ar after 181 9.

In the following determinations I have been often assisted
by the staff of the herbariums at Kew and at the Natural
History (British) Museum and have especially to thank Mr.
Hemsley of the formi-r establishment, and Mr. H. N.Iiidley
of the latter, for their prompt attention to my enquiries.

[Then follows Botanical list. — En.]

In addition to the plants in the above list, a consider-
able number of species has been recorded from Ceylon in
various systematic treatises (and especially in the ' Flora
of British India,' now in course of publication), wliich were

not included iu the ' Enumeratio.' Of these most were
collected by Col. and Mrs. Walker, in the years 18.30-1840,
entirely in the south-western and southern parts of the
Island, and have not been met with by subsequent collect-
ors. Some of their gatherings were garden plants how-
ever. Another collector was MacRae, who had charge of
Peradeniya Gardens from 1827 to 1830 ; many of the plants
sent home by him as natives of Ceylon were evidently
gathered in the gardens, and are nowhere wild in the colony ;
whilst others are from N. AV. India, where he also collected
for the Horticultural Society. Some of Gardner's plants,
collected by him iu company with Wight in the Nilgiris iu
1845, have also been erroneously given for Ceylon ; and
altogether there is a rather large number of names to be
deleted in the list of recorded Ceylonese plants. A cor-
rected and revised catalogue of the whole florals now being
printed at Colombo for the Asiatic Society's (Ceylou
Branch) * Proceedings,' in which I have taken care to dis-
tinguish all doubtful natives and erroneous records.

During the five years I have been in Ceylon, a good many
species (chiefly Indian) have been detected, especially in the
less-known portions of the Island, which have not, so far as
I know, been previously recorded. The greater part of
these have been met with in my own excursions through
the country, but many have been detected by my friend Mr.
W. Ferguson, F.i-.s., of Colombo, an excellent field botanist,
who during the long residence of 45 years in the Colony has
lost no opportunity of acquiring and adding to his extens-
ive acquaintance with its vegetation. Mr. H. Nevill, of
the Ceylon Oivil Service, has also availed himself of his
residence and travels in unfrequented districts to collect rare
plants, and has thus added several species to our flora.

The following is a list with notes of these additions. The
few new or undescribed species it contains, as well as those
mentioned under Ms. names in the above list, and a few
others, will be described at the end of this paper.

[The list referred to must be very interesting to
Botanists, and we see it is "to be continued" — Ed.]

DIiMBULA PL.4NTERS' AS.SOCIATION :
TEA SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT.

It is with Some diflideuce that the Sub-Committee
have undertaken to draw out this report, feeling, as
they do, that they have not sufBcieut experience of
the subject. Owing to the courtesy however of some
of the most Experienced tea planters in the country,
amongst whom .are Messrs. A. E. Seovell, W.
Forsythe, T. Gray, C. IC. Welldon and C. S. Armstrong,
who have kindly given their opinions on questions
submitteed to them, the Sub-Committee venture to
issue their report to the district, contident that the
information contained in it, will be useful and as
reliable as can be at present obtained.

The first part of the report has been compiled
from the answers given by residents in the district
to questions A, treating chiefly of seed, nurseries
and planting, branches of the snlject in which mem.
bers of tlie Association have had some experience.
The second part has been drawn up from the answers
given by the experienced tea planters outside the
district to questions B.

Part 1. — Nurseries.

In answer to question 1 the majority are decidedly
In favour of a high-class Assam hybrid, as most
suitable to the district, while some are in favour of
local seed when a good iat is obtainable, othei-s
Indian. The pl.an of packing recommended by most
is in charcoal (though some have found burnt clay
or earth answer) with layers of paper between each
layer of seed.

JJr)/ .land in lead-lined cases has .also done well.
With regard to gfruiinating the seed before sowing
it, 9 are against doing so and 5 in favour of germ-
inatiug by different methods. By most 4 feet wide
beds are recommended, dug from S' to 12" deep,
the seed l)eing sown S" apart and 1 V' to 2' below

July i, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

67

the surface. With regard to s'nading for tbe beds 5
recomended ferns, 5 mana grass, 3 jangle shading,
dan 1 dried pulp.

PLA>'TINCi.

In 7 papers 4 x 4 is considered the best distance
apart to plant in a new clearing, 3 considered -1x3
best, and 3 say 5 x 3 or 4. .So in eoU'ee, 0 recom-
mend 4x4. Four by four is therefore the most
popular distance to plant in Dimbula. Holing is con-
sidered by nearly all as the best means of preparing
to ground. Some consider forking to answer in free
or cultivated land. Plants, except iu one case, are
universally prepared to stake planting for old land.
In 2 cases only is germinated seed at stake preferred
to plants, far new clearings. There .".ppears to be no
doubt that the early part of the south-west monsoon
is the best season for planting in, and plants from
S to 10 inches high are most popular. Most are in
favour of cutting the thin end of the taproot before
planting, though some would not do so unless the
roots are long.

In only one case are cuttings favourably reported on.

Topping.

The majority are iu favour of topping at from 15
to IS inches at IS months old, aud of plucking 8
inches above the topping-level, though nearly as many
say G inches. Six have found grub attack thei\
nurseries, while 4 have not. The majority have not
found this pest injure the plants in the held.

Part 2.— J.\T, &c.

Beginning with the all-important question of jat,
the experienced tea planters who have been good
enough to give us their opinion are almost all in
favour of a high-class hybrid, closely approaching
indigenous, i.e., either one or two remove^ from in-
digenous, for elevations up to 3,000 and 4,000 feet.
The maji rity (amongst whom are Messrs. Scovell
and Armstrong) rtcomniend a medium hybrid, for
yield from 4,(JC0 to «,000 feet.

For strength, a high-class hybiil is universally
considered the best.

As to distances, at which tea should be plcnted,
3x3i or 4 is said to be the best for stofp lai.d,
while 4x3i or 4 is the best for tiit land and high
elevation, 4 x 3 or 4 beiog recomineuded generally
for low elevations,

The m&jonty rec.^mmend 15" as the height to top,
gome saying " when the plant has reached 4 'to 5
feet high," and some, "when it is a year old.' Mr, i
, Armstrong says "when the gnatcst diameter is at \
Is inches in red wood." He also recommends that i
single stem plants should be slumped to 0 in ohea \
before thi?. j

Nearly all say the first pluckings should be done
with a stick 5 to G inches above the topping level,
provided that 2A leaves are left oa the shoot above
topping level.

With re^ia'd to pruning most rfcommecil the S, W,
monsoon, that ie from Jui e to August, as the beat
geasop, thouth a few say Ojtobir and November, and
gome say all the year round chiefly on acconpt of
their labour force. JJigging young tea is generally
approved if, espeoiallj' wbeu the prunings can be
buried. By ^ome it is thought unnecessary (especiiUy
in free soil) until the bushes are 4 years oM. P.uik'ng
tbe sides of young bushes below tbe topping Uvel
is not approv: d of. Some reonmmenrl ploeking be-
low that level for tbe lust two mui.ths before prun-
1113.

G. A. Taluot ; J. A. C'AJtpBELl, ; W. B. .Jackson!
JoHS Cl.\kk ; TiiOMA* Mackie ; J.vo. Map.tin ; G. H. D,
Elphi.v.stose ; W. SAhUVs Tho.mas ; Wm, Camekom ;
Geo. BECK.

I Questions A.

I. — What class of plaut do you consider most suitable for
Dimbula ':* aud give your reasons.

II. — Do you prefer local-grown seed or Indian ? Give
reasons.

III.— With regard to imported seed,what method of pack-
ing has aswered best with you ?

IV. — Do you prefer to germinate your seed before sowing
it, to putting straight out ': If the former, what mode of
germinating do you Hud answer best ?

y. — Give your ideas as to the best style of nursery.

VI. — If you .shade your nurseries, what mode of coveriug
do you consider best ?

PLiNTINO.

VII. — AVhat do you consider tlie best distance for plant
ing tea ?

(a) In the new clearing. (//) In the new coffee.

VI U. — Which of the many methods now in vogue do you
cou.sider best for preparing the ground for- plautiug, holirrg,
forking, alavanga planting, ices' and give particulars.

IX.— Do you prefer plauting at stake germinated or un-
germinated seed or plants ?

X. — What .sized plant do you prefer? and what do you
consider the best season of the year for planting y

XI. — Do you consider it advantageous or the reverse to
cut the taproot before platrtinL; out r

XII. — Have you tried cuttings 'f and with what result ?

TOPPINO.
XIII.— Do you prefer to top by cutting down, and it so at
what age and to what height from thegroimd ? Or do you
prefer to form your bush by plucking ? and it so at what
height '/

XIV.— What growth do you give to your bushes after top-
ping before you commence plucking ?

XV. — Ha\ e you fouud your tea plants eaten by grub ?
(rt) In the nurseries, (i) In the field.

Qiiesiioiis B.

1. — What do you consider the best jat of tea (ff) for yield
and (4) for strength at the following elevations :— :3,UU0feet;
3,000 feet; 4,000 feet ; 6,000?

2. — What do you consider the best distance to plant at the
above elevations V

{a) In steep laud. (/)) In flat land.

3.— At what height aud age do you consider it best
to top ?

4.— Does, in yoiir opinion, delaying the topping benefit the
bush eventually 't

5. — Should the first pluckings be done with a mtii.suring
stick? and, if so, at what height above the topping.

0. — What season or .--easons do you cou.sider best for prun-
ing (at the above elevations), having regard to exposiue ?

7. — Do you consider it advantageous to dig young tea ?
If .so, at what age aud seasnu 'f

8. — Uo you consider it advisable to pluck the .sulcs of
young bushes i' If bo, at what period alter topping ?

Mining OpEKAiloh'.^ in China do not seem to lavo been
nmch affected by an unsettled erudition of affairs in
that country, for we learn that during 1 he recent Franco-
Chinese war, the opening of th" Tamchow silver mines
in Kwaugtung «ent on iiaitterrup'edly. Tie iiiinrs
are undtr English management, < nd the remits obtained
are Very satisfcctnry. Altogether, theie would fueni
to be a bright future for tt)e last cuttome of Anglo-
Cliiuese enterprize. — Indian Aijriculturist,

" The TfEW Tea No. 3 Sirocco," writes au up-country
correspondent, " has been much inipt'OVcd by Mr. IJentley,
He has shortened the height of the horizontal .Trm ab< ut 11
foot, thus bringing it practically nearer llu> lire, and with
an alteration in th<3 plates, has'vastly improved the mach-
ine in every respect. To prevent the spilling complained
of a large hopper should be constructed into which the
coolies can shnkc tlio trays, so that not ore pound of
tea is lost. With these iiiiproveineuts, to my mind, the
No. '6 (Sirocco is i\\nU) ecpial to any other drier.— Local

« Ximee,"

t)o

THE TROPICAL AGUICULTURISlT.

HULY

8885.

COFFEE LEAF I>ISEASE.

The Ti apical Agricvlturist accuses us of sneering at
Ceylon Plniiters, because we wrote: — " There is ouc thing
shouUl stiiki! riatitcrs, that is, if thu trees on a Cotfee
E-t.ite have ouci: yielrleil yioofl crops, why they should
jiiit do it again. The cliunite has not changed; the tree
ileniands, nourishment which it docs not get; the result
is. shtn-t crops and disease." Now, we never sneei'eJ at
(.'■■yion Planters, but we certainly pointed out that their
tiees have never been properly rn.inured, nor have they
been in Wvnaad, Tlie writer goes on to say: — "that a
** fair ilegfee of success rewarded their efforts {'^) as well
'* as tliose of Southern India, until the calamitous advent
-'* o\ tile debilitating leaf disease. J:;ven after its appearance
" nimurcs were liberally apphed until many plauters found
" th.it they were merely feeding the fungus." Wo knoiv
that liberal manuring meaiis about one bullock an acre,
we have hardly heartl of one case of scientific manuring,
and not one of draining. AVe thi:ik, that if a really
good case could be produc^'d of the above renied'es having
been carried out and failed to afford relief, then would
owners of coffee plantations have been justified in abandon-
ing coffee and taking to tea ; but until we know of a
really well authenticated case, we must adhere to our
orig'lial opiuion. With borer it was different; estates went
out becausii they were too dry ; fungus has laid hold of
cofi'ee bjcause the ground is too damp, and it is easier
to remedy that, thaii where it is too dry. We have seen
how Ciucho'ias in Ceylo;i have to bo cut out when their
roots get down into the damp impervious subsoil, and we
have a shrewd suspicion, tluit uudrained damp subsoil in
Oeylon, has a good deal to do with leaf disease. We
I1 ive not heard of draining having been resorted to for
Cinchonas any more than for leaf disease, and yet, very
probahlv, it will be found a cure for both Cinchonas and
Coffee." [The above is from the Nilgiii Planters' Rcvieir.
We have simply to repeat tliat never in the world's history"
were more scientific culture, careful and thorough manuring
applied to coffee and cinchonas more than in Ceylon. But
leaf-liseiise proved fatal to the highest cultivated estates, as
nnieh as to those left uncared for. Let the writer in
tins Revieir practicallv establish his theories and then
blame planters if they do not follow his example.— En.]

MADRAS : THE ORGANIZATION OF A BOTAN-
ICAL DEPARTMENT.

We recently referred in our columns to the creation of
a new appointment — a Mineralogist to the Madras Gov-
ernment, for which Mr. Bosworth Smith was selected. We
now learn that the local Government have in view the
organization of a Botanical Department for this Presidency

a measure which will, it is thought, besides subserving

the interests of science, be of great and immediate practic-
al utiUty, while it can, in pre.sent circumstancea, be
carried into eft'ect at a very small cost to Proviucial Funds,
and to which it is hoped the sanction of the Government
of India and of Her Majesty's Secretary of State will be
readily accorded. With this object in view, the local Gov-
verumeat invited Professor Thiseltou Dyer, 0.11. Q.,ot Kew
Gardens, to offer, in consultation witli Professor Sir Joseph
Hooker, another eminout Botanist, suggestions with -regard
to the constitution of the department. This he has done,
and the Government have much to be indebted to that
geutleivai for the valuable opinions he has given on the
question. There Is in all India only one Botanical institution
which, though technically provincial, must, at any rate,
in external estimation, fromitsage — it has nearlytittaiued
its centenary- from its scientific traditions, and from the
splendour of its maintenance, rank as imperial. What-
ever be now or in the future the exact official status of
the Ivoy:d Botanical Gardens at Calcutta, it must always
be regarded a-^ standing at tlip head of the Botanical
institution of the Umpire. India, however, possesses imly
one such Biitanieal institution of a secoml order, and that
is the gardens at Saliarunpore ; but from its vast size and
resources India needs more than one sucli localized
t)«titutioii, liot that it's want h-a uot been felt, but that

it has been provided for, at the best, imperfectly and in a
tentative and uncoordinated manner. What has been done
seems to have produced only moderately useful results,
with" undoubtedly much expenditure. IHius India owes in
great part to the Calcutta Botanic GardenSj its great
cinchona euterprize, aud to Saharunpore the practical in-
ception of tea cultivation, though the initiatory stages
must be credited to the Calcutta Botanists.

There is nothing precisely aud collectively answering to
a Botanical Department fulfilling the functions required
of it iu this Presidency. There is, however, the Agri-
Horticultural Society's Garden, which, though subsidized
by the Government, is not under its control. Founded in
1835, its establishment and early management owed every
thing to its first Secretary, Dr. Wight. It has not been
barren of results. To its experiments in 1840 may lie at-
tributed the introduction of coffee cultivation ; anil it lias
in no small measure encouraged the cultivation of Europ-
ean vegetables and indigenous and naturalized fruits. But
it is much to be regretted that in more recent years the
more scientific aspects of the garden seem to have been
sacrificed with little consideration. That a jeally scienti-
fic Botanical Department, on the basis of the one at
Calcutta, was needed, has long been apparent at Kew,
from the numerous communications, both public and
private, relating to the practical as well as the scientific
side of botanical business. The materials for such a de-
partment ai'e, however, all to hand, and a little organiz-
ation would practically effect all that is needed. There is
Mr. Lawson, late Professor of Botany in the University of
Oxford, now iu charge of the Government; Cinchuua Plant-
ations, Parks and Gardens, Nilgiris ; as regards the head
of llie proposed department a very slight extension of his
duties is all that is required. He now draws KGOO per
meneem, aud it is proposed to araise it to KSOO per mensem
rising to U1,000 in five years. He is serving at present
under no definite conditions, and the Government consider
that his service from the commencement should be de-
clared to count for leave and pension, aud that he should
be admit ;e 1 to the more favourable leave rules. Applic-
ation will be made in the Fiuaucial Department for sanc-
tion to these proposal.s.

The situation is not ompiioated by the existence of any
(Sovernment Botanical G irden at .Madras. The existing
Government garden at Ootacamund seems iu every way
the proper seat of the Botauical Department. Its remote-
ness from the capital may be objectionable, but the plant-
ing industries of Southern India gravitate to its Western
side, aud the Botanical head-quarters should be in the
nearest feasible pro.ximity to them. The detailed adminis-
tration of the Botanical gardens will require a Curator,
subordinate to the Director. Mr. Lawson lias the advant-
age of the cordial co-operation of Mr. Jamieson, who has
long efficiently filled this position.

In order to extract the maximum of usefulness from a
tropical Botanical Department, it is found necessary that
it should comprize a chain of gardens at different elev-
ations, as in Ceylon and .Jamaica. Ootacamund, therefore,
will require to be supplemented by an Intermediate Gar-
den and a tropical garden. Besides, tlie department will
repnire the maintenance of a well-arranged Herbarium,
a Museum wherein a collection of wood, fruits, seeds and
other vegetable products of economic interest might be
stored, a small but carefuly selected library, and all other
paraphernalia of an Administrative Department. Under
the new arrangement Mr. Lawsou will retain charge of
the Cinchona plantation anl tlie superintendence of the
Botauical Garden and Parks on the Nilgiris, as at present.
His othcial designation will be ''Government Botanist aud
Director of OinchonaJ^Plantatiou.'' On receipt of sanction
orders will i.ssue on the minor points of organization.^
Madras Standard.

[While the step proposed is, no doubfc, in the right
direction, let us not forgei that the Government of
Madras and Mr. Thiseltoa Dyer have both recently-
borne high and weJl merited testimony to the excel,
lent work dime during its tifty years' existence by
the Madras Agri-Horticultural Sdoiety. Government
gave a eum of 111,000 which has been used to adil to
an already rich botanical library,— Ed.]

July i, 1885".]

■THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

6g

HIDEBOUND PLANTS AND TREES.

An ex^prieuced eye will soon detect a hide-bouud
plant from its weakly growth and siokJy appearance ;
but it is amongst hard-wooded subjects that we must
look cbiefly tor this condition. Tlants in pots, such as
ericas, pimeleas, acacias, chorozemas, and subjects of that
class, are too often found to bo hide-bound, and an
experienced grower will avoid purchasing them when it
is possible. Of one thing they may be certain, viz.,
that if they get hold of hide-bound plants, the most
skilful treatment will not convert them afterward into
satisfactory specimens. Only those who have watched
the behariour of hide-bound plants can realize the dis-
appointment attending their cultiure. The hard dry bark
seems to encircle them like a band of iron, and as the
roots have been so long crippled from want of food and
space, it is a long time before they regain sufficient
activity to burst thi-ough the bonds of inaction to which
they have been subjected.

How many cases of failure those who are much en-
gaged in planting forest trees meet with, it may per-
haps be difficult to tell ; but we may be sure they are
not a few, especially in the case of those who buy in
the cheapest market, without any guarantee as to quality.
However that maj' be, the selection of trees for forest
planting is one in which good judgment is necessary ;
and only those who arc practically acquainted with the
characters that constitute a young and healthy tree shoidd
be engaged in the business. AVhen young trees make
growth after the first year of planting in nursery quart-
ers of only a few inches in length, it may bo safely
concluded that the soil is either too poor or badly
drained. Either of these conditions will produce hide-
bound trees, and it will take several years of patient
cultivation in a good soil to restore them to health,
It does not follow that a hide-bound tree is diseased ;
for that matter, the tree may be perfectly healthy ; but
e.arly crippling engenders a sort of inherent weakness
that only time and a total change from a poor soil to
a rich one will restore. I have good reasons for remem-
bering a case that has a direct bearing on the subject
under notice ; it occurred when I was a junior in a large
garden. An order came one morning that all hands
were to assist at onc& in planting several thousand yOung
larches. AVe had proceeded with the work for several
hours before the manager came to inspect the trees.
On his arrival he instantly gave the order to stop
planting. It appeared he [had not seen the trees before
then and had no iilea as to their condition. However,
he at once condemned them as hide-bound, and there-
tore would not plant another tree of the number then
on hand, but had them returned to the person who had
supplied them. In a few days another lot of trees
arrived, and so great was the difference between the
two samples that, even as a young hand, the case made
au impression on nie. I saw at once the difference
between a hide-bound tree and one that had been liber-
ally grown. The longest leaders on the former did not
exceed seven inches, while those on the latter had reached
twelve inches and sixteen inches in length, with propor-
tionate -side shoots. The side shoots on the stunted
trees were mere sprays, and a grey kind of lichen had
extended a good way over the stems; the colour of the
growth, too, was a dull, rusty brown ; while the colour
of the stem, and especially the young growth on the
properly grown trees, was bright, and free from all
kinds of parasitic growth. The difference of behaviour
in the two lots of trees was equally marked for several
years afterwards. As a matter of fact, the hide-bouud
ones never overtook those that were healthy. This was
my first experience with hide-bound trees; but I have
dealt with many cases since, though of less magnitude,
and the result hae always been the same. If the subjects
whatever they were, regained a vigorous state of growth
it W.SS at the expense of much patience, coupled with a
direct loss of time.

In the case of fruit trees, especially plums aiul ])ears,
examples of hide-bound trees frecjuently occur, partic-
ularly if sorts are wanted for which there is not a
regular demand, and {growers for sale must necessarily
keep a largo number of vati^tiet of aU kinds is (tock,

Those for which there is a constant demand arc regu-
larly renewed ; but in the case of less popidar varieties
they do not receive the same attention. Plants are re-
peatedly cut back to keep them within saleable dimen-
sions ; the consequence is they e.xhaust the soil iu which
they are growing; and, what with hard cutting back
and poor soil, the plants become weakened. Kut this
is not the only cause of hide-bouud plants. The worst
cases come otf naturally poor ground — huid that will
take four j'oars to produce a tree of a saleable size;
while in properly manured ground only two years should
be occupied.

Regtirding conifers the fact that the plants are hide-bouud
when received causes more disappointment than is attrib-
uted to that cause. I do not wish to imply in regard
to these trees that they are all hide-bound, but 1 do
say that in cases of unsatisfactory growth the blame
is often laid upon iuditferent planting or unsuitable
soil, when they have nothing to do with it, and that
the real cause is iu the condition of the tree at the
time of planting ; yet there is no class of plants that
sooner reveal that condition to a practised eye. "When
the plants have leaders only three or four inches long,
and the side branches show still less vigour, with lichen
iu various stages of growth establishing itself upon the
stem it is quite safe to conclude that such examples
have been stunted in growth ; and that although under
changed and favouraljle conditions they may ultimately
recover, their behaviour for the first four or five years
after planting will not be satisfactory to persons under
the impression that the specimens at planting time were
suitable for the purpose. I have no hesitation in saying
that purchasers of conifers exceed prudent bounds when
they insist on securing plants that have been frequently
removed while iu nursery quarters. To the frequent
transplanting of young trees there is a limit, exceeding
which is advantageous neither to the seller nor to the
purchaser. Frequent removal means a check to all the
functions of the plant, and, if repeated so often as to
cause a serious loss of vigour (which it certainly does
under such circumstance), all the energies of the plant get
enfeebled — it is hide-bound, in fact^and, therefore, not in a
comlition to give satisfaction to anyone. — J. 0. 0> — Held.

THE VINE IN INDIA.

It is a singular tact that in an Empire once famous for
its wino there is not a drop to be had today for love or
money. The grape, although it grows luxuriantly iu vari-
ous parts of Hiudostan, has uo association whatever with
the bottle ; for one reason, perhaps, because wine from the
palm. Indict!, " toddy,*' is so much the more easily made
of the two. But it was not always so. Taveruier, Captain
Hamilton, and other early travellers in India speak of native
wines, and of one especially of such potency that it tloored
the Great Mogul himself. And another emperor — Baber —
tells us in his memoirs how he used to driuk freely in his
younger days of the wine of Ind, and commit mad pranks
thereafter, svich as practical jokes — on horseback — with his
boon companions. These monarchs doubtless were of the
Ohiuamau's taste, who made " drinkee for drunkee, not
for dry," but at all events the generous juice of the grape
was there, however much the potentates in question thought
fit to abuse it. Where the wine was made it is difficult to
say now. Baber's wine perhaps came from Cabul, where
wine is still found, but where did Auruugzebe get his ?
Possibly in the Deccan, where grapes grow magnificently ;
one town — Aurungabad — being famous for its eating grapes
to this day. Later still we find the early English merch-
ants of Calcutta drinking Shiraz wine, but this must have
been an importation from Persia. The wine of Shiraz is
also praised by Hafiz the poet, and it must haye been
fairly good tipple, to judge from the [lostprandial gambols
of old Job Uharnock and the men with the pigtails and nan-
keen small clothes. In Rickey's Gazette we read how these
old Anglo-Indian worthies drank the toast of the day— prob-
ably sonuMuitive belle— in Ijamjiers fdU'd with the wine of
the country, and how later on tboy thrust at each other
with their swords over the prostrate palar(|uin of the dusky
one. The fumes of Shiraz were evidently provocative of
miduight bcawU aad street rows, au4 jierhaps it wait this

•JO

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885,

Iiijady I'ernian lii|iior whicli causud Sir Philip Francis anil
"VVarrcn IlaftiiigH tobave tlii;ir memorable meeting on tbc
Muiilan of (Jaleiitta. IJut by and by, wben easier com-
iMUiiiiiit.ioo with Iviirojic Ijrougbt European wines into the
Jinljjiii inurketH, the Nabobs tooi< to Snoyd's claret in
prelcDjocc \/} Shiraz and very much it would appear, to
the irnprovunieut of their morals and their tempers. ^\'hat
has become of the wine Shiraz now, it would be hard to
way. ]'(;rli;ipH it goes, with wines from all countries, to
Oeltc, tln:re t/i be manufactured into something that is tbe
lashifjualite drink of tbe moment.

In India they (,'row tbe vine chiedy on trellises. I have
Keen a cbarmiiif,' effect produced by trellised vines extending
over an nilcy of a hundred yards or so. Underneath the
canopy of vine leaves and pui-ple, red, and white cluhters
of grapes, were IVrns, tastefully arranged in ornamental pots
anil baskets. JCvery fern, from the tree fern to tbe maiden's
hair, was there in profusion, and tbe bajjpy combination of
shade iiiid chci|Uereil light from above was enchanting. But
although wine i.i luaile from trellised vines in Italy, it is not
the proper way of growing the vine for wine. iJowever, the
little stunted bushes with which (Jontinental travel has
made every one familiar are absent in India, though one
need not know as much about wine, as (Jyrus UeJding or
\'i/.eti:lly to see that certain soils in India must be ad-
mirably adai)leil for tho vine, and perhaps for wine. The
Jtlabarajah ofOasbmere has thought so well of tbe capacities
of is dominions in tins direction that he has imported vines
and vine-ilriiHsiTs from France-, and projjoses entering the
market as a rival of \'euve C'iicipiot and Tol lUigir ; but the
Maharajah's experiments are being conducted out of ]iriti.sh
territory, so have not tbe same interest as it conducted in our
own. There is plenty of soil (and proper climate) however
in Northern India that could grow the gr.ape just iis well as
(lashnieru, and it seems a pity that IJritish India, which now
produces corn and oil in the greatest abundance, .shonld
not bavo the conventional third type of a land's fertility
added to the other two. There is a diamondiferous district
in Soulhorii Inilia, Ijordcring the Kistna and Toonga Woiin-
dra districts that might piTliaps produce a good wine.
There are diainond fields there, which were once very pro-
<luetive, and they are now being reopened. But the grapes
of Ouilduiiah, and those parts, are better than the diamonds
— at least tlian any I have seen. And if there were i.o
ilillicully about irrigation— for Ouddapah is a i'rigbtfuUy
liot place — vines — ami wine— should succeed there with care.
But it is easy, of course, to get any climate almost one
pleases in India by simply ascending tbe plateaus and
mountains that arc to be found everywhere ; thus tbe My-
sore iilnteau :i,IK10 IVot high, would seem in parts to bo
favourable to the cultivation of the vine. The natives of
tbe present day, however soeni to liavo lost all knowledge
of the vine. Tbey scarcely know what tho plant is, they
Hew It so seldom. And yift there was a time when wine was
sold ill tho bazaars, and when, no doubt, large tracts of
country were planted thiekly with the vine. The value
und iiwportanco of a local wine, whether it was made in
the Morlh, the South, the liast, or West of tho Peninsula
of India, may be guessed by the enormous figures which
represent the importation of wines and spirits to India. It
is a curious fact, borne out by those iiguros, that while
Kuropeans in India are beceniiug nioro temperate, natives
of India are growing more and more bibulous. Europeans
now mostly conteul themselves with a little whisky— ad-
ulterated wiiU"* being more poisonous in India than el.se-
where ; hut to the native tippler all is good liquor that
ia bottled, so much so that kerosene oil has been iiuaffod
Milder that delution. And the imports through tbe lionibay
Ihislem House represent a total of gin, and of other cheap
spirits, that is awful enough to make Sir \V. Lawson's
hair stand on end. tiin seems the peculiar vanity of the
lower class of Hindu : his superiors get drunk on cherry
brandy, junt wine and champague— perhaps all mixed to-
gether, lint it is a noteworthy circumstance that while
this import of fiireign spirit is steadily tlowing into Hin-
dostan, there is another alcoholic current tlowing out of it.
C)f late years the exportation oi arrack has been very
consuloralilc, though what becomes of this rice spirits
after it leaxes India no one knows. There is no vauxhall
now, where rakU-puneli would be in demand, and if there
was, sensible people would tiiUo Joe Scdley's e;.aniplo ns u
wftiuing, Aud »void tUa " hot coppers " produced >>y it.

But toddy, or the juice of the palmyra, or the date palm,
is unquestiouably the national drink, the wine of India at
the present day. And in taste it somewhat resembles ball-
room gooseberry, miscalled champagne Toddy, neverthe-
less is a poisonous drink, and it is an argument in favoiu-
of the restoration of the viue that a liquor so demoralizing
should be the wine, so to speak ^ of an enormous part of
the population of India. Toddy has the curious property
of being non-intoxicating, and therefore harmless, before
the sun is risen and it has had time to ferment, but toddy
io the day time is to be avoided, of which an instance in
point. lu my gritbuish, or salad days, I used to drink a
tumbler of palm juice in the early morning before it had
fermented, and found it acid and refreshing. But one day,
about 11 a.m., being fagged and heated in pursuit of ante-
lope, I had a hearty pull at a toddy-pot in a village I
passed through, and the result is never to be forgotten.
My horse went home by himself, and I awoke, at three
o'clock, from a sound sleep in the middle of the public
road. The stuff is as quick in intoxicating as good cham-
pagne, and exposure to the sun intensifies and quickens
its effects. The confirmed toddy drinker's appearance is
a caution. His eyes are the colour of rubies, or of coals
of fire, in his head, reminding one of those lines in Bon
Gaultier, slightly transposed ; —

What is this, his eyes are pinky,
Was ithis /orfc'i/ ? oh, no, no.
Bless your heart, it was his curry,
Ourry always makes them so.

And I have heard that excessive indulgence in toddy pro-
duces a number of bodily ailments bi'sides those common
to tbe abuse of any intoxicating liquor.

Unquestionably the vine is the least hurtful of all the
plants that give an intoxicant to the human race, and I
am sanguine enough to think that if tbe vino and vineyards
were revived in India we should have a remedy for tho
drunkenness that threatens the Indian population of the
future. The destruction of the vineyards of India I at-
tribute to the Maliomedan conquerors of the country; men
who would have rooted up the vine wherever found as an
unmitigated evil. But even the llahomedans with civil-
ization and unbelief are becoming free livers, while the
educated Hindus notoriously drink like fishes. There is
no hope for such a ijeojile if they once take to drink,
and wbat'i' — the cheap spirits imported from abroad ! But
if India grew — as I make no doubt she could grow — a
cheap and pure vin dc pai/s, such as the temperate peoples
of wine countries use, the L'50 millions might drink as
thev pleased, their drinking could do them little harm. —
F. E. W.— Graphic.

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF RAMII-: (OR EHEA)

CULTURE.

By Henky Sankobd Behgman,

CULTIVATION, DECOUTICATINO, BLEACiriNO AND SPINNING.

For several years the farmers in the northern part of
France have raised ramie as a better paying culture than
that of wine. Three ctops can be raised on a hectare
equal to two acres, viz., in the middle of the mouths of
.Tune, August, and October. One croi) will yield 00,000
kilogs. per hectare, or 180,000 kilogs. in all, which can
bo sold at 8 francs jier kilog , thus giving a crop valued
at 4,800 frs. (?9 0 per year). The total cost of roots,
planting and labor amounts to 1,200 frs. per hectare in
the first year; in tbe following years no cost except for
labor are to be incurred, as the ramie plant is a ]ier-
eiinial plant. Tbe culture of ramie on a large scale is more
remunerative, as the cost of labour is thus gradually
diminished. The decorticating and baling of the fibres is
generally done on tbe spot under a shed ; the stalks bring
a price of S frs. per I(iO kilogs. — The difference be-
tween raising ramie on a small and large scale is illus-
trated tbns: — A .small grower sells his stalks at 8 frs. per
100 kilogs., receiving •1,800 frs. per hectare; a large
grower, who decorticates the fibre, sells it I fr. per kilog ,
reieiving 12,000 frs. per hectsire, or at a ditTereuce of,
7,'W fi«. per liectoie. A decortioatiug macliius, e^'stem

JUVL I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

71

Berthet, costs 5,000 frs , and is sufficient for 10 hectares
or 20 acres. One machine will clean 1,200 kilogs. dry
stalks per day, which yield from 2:! to 25 per cent., or
270 kilogs. clean stalks. According to this, a yearly crop
of 180,000 kilogs. ramie will yield 54,000 kilogs. dry
stalks per hectare. The bleacliing and preparing processes
produce 80 per cent, of clean white fibres, free from gum
or 9,000 kilogs. of a silk-like fibre. After these processes
the fibre is combed by which process SO per cent., of
7,G80 kilogs. silk floss and 1,!120 kilogs. noils are obtained.
These products command a price of 4 frs. and li frs. per
kilog. respectively.

The yield is as follows: —

Francs.

7,G80 kilogs. floss, at 4 frs 30,720

1,920 " noils, at IJ frs 2,880

Total frs... 33,G00=£1,344

The expenses will amount to 14,000 frs., leaving a
balance of 196,000 frs., (£784).

The loss and waste in spinning the yarn amounts to 7
per cent. Thus from 7,080 kilogs. floss, 7,000 kilogs.
yarn can be obtained in Nos. 50, 60, aud SO at a selling
price of 8, 9, aud 12 francs respectively. According to
the size of yarn spun, a clear profit of from 56,000 to
84,000 frs. can be made, after all the wages for labor
for cutlivation, decorticating, bleaching, combing, and
spinning have been paid. A plant of 5,000 spindles will
produce BOO kilogs. yarn per day, or 150,000 kilogs. per
year of 300 days. The consumption would be 251,000
kilogs. bleached, fibre, eipial to 1,100,000 kilogs. decortic-
ated stalks, and 3,000,000 kilogs, green ramie. Such a
production would require a farm of 20 hectares, or 40
acres, at three crops per year, with four decorticating
machines.

The cost of a plant of ,i,000 spindles, including build-
ings aud other machinery, would amount to 700,000 frs
(£28,000); further, a cash capital of MUO,000 frs. (£12,000)
fen- buying, &c., would be required, or a total of 1,000,000
frs. The following is an estimate of expenses ; —

Francs.
Wages, at 400 frs. per day, 300 days ... 120,000

Coal, Engine, &c. 30,000

Management and office expenses ... 85,00!j

Total

235,000

Raw material — 3,000,000 kilogs. green
stalks at 8 frs. per 100 kilogs. ... 288,000

Total per year ... 523,000

rroduction— 150,000 kilos, yarn. Nos. 30

to40, 7frs 1,050,000

5ii,00u kilogs noils at 1.50 frs. ... 75,000

Deduct exjienses and raw material ... 523,000

Leaving a profit of ... 002,000 or £24,080

The above calculations will amply demonstrate the im-
portance of so remunerative a cultivation of this plant.

SriK'NMiNli AND MaNUFACTURIKO OK KaMIE CLOTH.

Ami-rican hosiery manufactures are using ramie yarns
for imitating hosiery which was imported as a silk mixt-
ure. In Europe ramie is' employed for making saddles,
aud shoemakers' twist for fancy sewing silks, being lustr-
ous like silk and having twice the streugth of the
best silk or linen thread. Fine ramie yarns are used in
silk maDufacturing as filling; the noils are bought by
woollen manufacturers for so-called silk-mixed goods.—
Of late fine guipure laces and lace curtains were manu-
factured by Seidel and Eichter, at Zittan ; the same
yarns and articles are also made in France by a large
company who bought the patents for France from F. E.
Seidel and Co. This company is also notable for its
enormous demand for yarn. The latest product from
ramie is sealskin plush, which is equal to silk-seal plush,
and is sold in large New York dry goods stores at froni
S12 to §18 per yard, being the niost perfect imitation
of seal.— -A.t the Industri.al Exhibition at Kouen, in 1884, the

ramie industry was represented by a new decorticating
machme of the system Berthet, and a collection of
samples of ramie in the various degrees of the process,
of manufacturing, and its application, as decorticated
bleached, combed, spuu, dyed, and woven ; these samples
have been sent partly from Algeria, by M. Ferray d'Es-
sonnes, by M\ "Wallon, finisher, and by Oaron and Miray
dyers. In the south of France and in Algeria four crops
can be obtained per year. For this decorticating machine
which works other fibres as well as ramie, a gold medal
has been awarded to M. Barchet, and the results ob-
tained by it fully correspond with figures above mentioned.
M. B:irchet, who is director of spinning and weaving,'
has been in Louisiana to organize a cotton spinning and
weaving mill. While sojourning there and in Mexico he
concened the idea of his decorticating machine, which
has given such satisfactory results.— English manufact-
urers are using ramie for making alpacas, by mixing
wool and ramie, which gives a superior article to cotton
and wool.— Introducing the ramie culture in the United
States is principally due to the efforts of the J)rv Goods
Bulletin., which for years acted as the pioneer of this
industry, by publishing leading articles on the merits .and
advantages of this culture. It has received samples of
fibres, yarns, and fabrics from its foreign correspondents,
and has called the attention of its readers to the mix-
ture of silk goods with ramie. Beautiful laces and lace
curtains are beiu made from ramie, sam])les of which
are open for inspection. Of late the majority of the
American aud foreign textile papers h.ave taken up the
subject of ramie culture. There was no profit made yet
in this country by planting ramie, as most of the
culturists merely have grown it for a pastime or for
expcTiinentiiig, and no proper machine for dcn^orticatin"
th(^ fibre built.— Mr. D.avid ,S. Ogden. founder of the Hyde
I'ark at Chicago and general agent of Illinois Kailroad
Jjand Office, a gentleman full of life and enterprize, started
with the writer of this for the United States of Columbia,
to explore the pita ramie and other fibrous plant. After
a difficult travel of eight months, mostly on mules, we re-
turned, hving achieved splendid results, and then we
sailed for Europe, to find the most appropriate machinery
for decoticating and spinning ramie. We travelled through
England. Scotland, Ireland, France, and Germany for eight
months, we visited machine builders and yarn sjiinners,
and had the intention to go to work on a large scale. Mr'.
Ogden, previous to going to Europe, secured a contract
with Mexican .and New York capitalists, with power of
attorney authorizing him to use his own judgment in se-
lecting and buying nmchinery, we to furni.sh our oxi)erience
and the bankers the capital for this enterprize,— After hav-
ing returned to this country. Mr. Ogden died three weeks
afterward, which unfortunate event left the matter in
the same state as two years ago. Later the writer made
the acquaintance of Mr. Jagerhuber, editor of the JJiy
Goods Jitdletin, who had devoted many years' study to
the vegetable fibres.— A large collection of samples of
yarns and fabrics are to be found at the ofiice of the
T>i>/ Goods Bnthlin, which consists of specimens of ramie,
in all the degrees of the process of manufacturing, and
serve to demonstrate the importance of the cultivation
of the ramie plant, its preparation for the use of yarn
and textile manufacturers in the United States.— The
time is near at hand when every manufacturer of textile
fabrics must calculate with ramie, if he wants to keep
alive.— Thus far the practical results achieved are a com-
plete trhmpli, and, in my opinion, the American peojile,
from the farmer and mechanic up to the merchant aud
manufacturer, will soou have occasion to express their
gratitude to the pioneers of this great industry, but
above all to the unselfish and persistent labour o"f the
aditor of this paper, I\Ir. Jagerhuber, who has hc4i)ed
us more than all European agitators.— A', «■ im-k JJn/
Goods Bulletin.

THAT HUSBAND OF MINE

Is three times the man he was before he began using
Wells' Health Renewer." Druggists. AY. E. Smith & Co .
JIadras, Sole Agents.

72

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[July i, 1885.

MARKKT RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS.

(From Leiois & Peat's London Price Current, June 4th, 1885.)

TROM MALAliAR

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADKAS, &c.

BEES' WAS, Wlnte
Yellow
CINCHONA BAKK— Crwu

CAEDAMOMS Malabar

and Ceylou
Alpppee
Telliclierry

Mangalore
L ug' Ceylon
Ists
2nds
ards
Itks

CINNAiMON

Woody and hard ...
Fair to tine plant...
Medium to bolii ...
[Triage to ordiniiry
CoFFKiC(''^ylon Plantation Hold to tine bold

Cliips
COCOA, Ceylon

QUALITY.

I Slightly sottish to good

\ hard bright

Uo. drossy & dark ditto..

Renewed ...

Medinm to fine Quill ..

Spoke shavings

Branch

Renewed

IVIedium to good Quill ..

Spoke shavings

Branch

Twig

Clipped, bold, bright, tine
Middling, stalky & lean
Fair to fine idump clipped
Good to fine
Brown ish
Good & fine, washed, bgt.
Middling to good...
Ord. to tine pale quill

,, Native
Bast Indian

COIRROPE.O
FIBRE,

Native
■ylon&C'ochin
Brush
Stalling ...
YARN, Ceylou
Cochin
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted ...
CROTON SUEDS, sifted...
GINGER, Cocliin, Cut

Rough

NtlX VOMICA

MYEABOLANES, pale ...

Picking:
OIL, CINNAMON

CITRONELLE

LEMON GR.\SS ..

OKCHELLA WEED ... Mid. to fine, not woody.

PEPPER, Malnl'arblk.sifted Fair to bold heavy 1

.Middling to fine mid. ...

Low middling

.Smalls

Good ordinary

Bold to fine bold

Medium to fine

Small

Good to fine ordinary ...
Mid. coarse to finestraight
Ord. to fine long straight

Coarse to fine

Ordinary to superior
Ordinary to fine ...
Roping fair to good
Middlingwormy to fine...

Fair to fine fresh

Good to fine bold

Small and meilium

Fair to good bold

Small

Fair to fine bold fresh ...
Small ordinaryand fair...
Good to fine picked
Common to middling ...

Fair Coast

Burnt and defective
Good to fine heavy
Bright & good flavour ...

Alb ppi-e & Cochin
Telli.herrv. White
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Chips
Dast
RED WOOD
SAPAN WOOD
SANDAL WOOD, logs

Do. chips
SENNA, Tiunevelli

TURMERIC, Madras
Do.
Do.
Cocliin
VANILLOES, Mauritius &
Bourbon, 1st;
2nds

3rds
4th

good

Fair to fine bright bold...
Middling to good small..
Slight foul to fine bright
Ordinary to fine bright ...
Fair and fine bold
Middling coated to good
Fair to good flavor

..Good to fine bold green

I Fair middling bold
JCommon dark and sn'ali

Finger fair to fine 1 old

Mixed middling [bright

Bulbs whole
Do split

Fine crystalised 6 a 9inch

Foxy & reddish ."i a 8 ,,
f Lenn & dry to middling
1 under 6 inches ,_ Gs a lis
( Low, foxy, inferior and

\ pickings .39 a Os

QUOTATIONS.

£B Ifts a £8
£5 10s a £6 109

Is a 3s ea

Is -Id a 23 Oa
9d a Is 6d
2d a 8d
sa a as 6d
Od a 2s (id
5d a Is 2d
2a a 6d
Id

•is Gd a Is 6d
)s a 3s

2s Gd a 33 2d
3s 4d a 4s
Is Gd a 2s 9d
Is a 5s
8d a la 6d
1 Is ild
'd a Is Gd
Oda Is
5d a lod
Md a 4d
'Ss a 923
't'B a 77s
'OS a 1073
039 a 789
'lis a Gl9
I8s a 583
l8s nora.
■fOs a 1049
f'ls a 783
IGs a 529
13s nom.
B12 a £24
£14 a £25
C7 10s a £11
ei2 10sa £30
£12 a £40
ei3 a £20
1 3s a 52s Gd
iGs a 40s
•■89 a 8.is Gd
i3s a G5s Gd
15s a 60a
19s a 423
^s a 123
7s a 8s
lOsa lis Gd
.Is a 10s
)a

7s Gd a 73 9a
l9 3d a 33 3d
H a IJd
IJda Hd
tOs a 55s

7Jda 75d

Id a 23 Gd
I4s 3d a IGs Gd
10s a 1.3s 6d
Ss a 1.3s Gd
IsGd alls
£5 17s Gd a £0
eGa£7
eao a £3.5
£10a£lG
9d a Is
3d a Cd
Id a 2d
23s a 28s
18s a 21s
18s a 223
93 a Us

16s a 2.5s
12s a 183

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

ALOF,S, Soceotrine and

Hepatic.
CHILLIES, Zan/.ibar

CXiOVES, Zan/.lbar 1

and Pemba /

Good and fine dry
Comniou and good
rood to fine bright
"Jrdinary and middling,
lood and fine bright ..
Ordinary du.ll to fair ,

, £7 a £9
1 708 a £G

■ 4.'".s a 48s
i40s a 44s

■J5d a 5.Jd

\ 4^il a4ad

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

CLOVES, Mother

,, Stems...

COCULUS INDICUS

^^'■i^Z^ }blue

green..

white..
GUM AMMONIACUM—

drop ..

block..
ANIMI, washed ..

scraped. .
ARABIC, picked .

ASSAFffiTIDA

KINO

MYRRH, picked .

Aden sorts
OLIBANUM, drop

pickings..

sittings ..

INDIARUBBER Mo/ambi

SA¥FLOWER, Persian ...

QUALITY

Fair, usual dry
, fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

QUOTATIONS

Small to fine clean
lark to good

Picked fine pale in sorts,
part yellow aud mixed
Bean & Pea size ditto ...
amber and dark bold
Medium & bold sorts
Pale bold clean
Yellowish and mixed ...
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine
Slightly stony and foul ..
Fair to line bright
Fair to fine pale
Middling to gootl
Fair to good white
Reddish middling
Middling to good pale ..
Slightly foul to fiu£
nue,fair tofine sausage..
' „ . „ Ball...

unripe root
liver
Ordiiiai7 to good

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists
2nd3
3rds

INDIARUBBER Assam

Rangoon
Madagascar;

2d a 4d

Id a 1 1-lGd

Ss Gd a 93

52s a 55a

4.5s a 509
40s a 44s

■509 a 079

30s a 45s

£1G a £19

£12 a £14

£5 109 a £9

£10 a £14

£5 a £9

.SOs a 859

G3s a 75s
;62s Gd a 773 6d
Uos a 483
l23s a .379
|2.Hs a 30s

£0 a £3
is.59 a 9fls
1373 a 45s
1349 a SGs
'Us a 139
l9s a Us
|lsllda2s Id
!lsllda2sld

ls4.id a l»5id

Is 5d a Is 8d

5s n 15s

SAFFLOWER

TAMARINDS

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWBOOT Natal

Nearly water white
Fairand good pale
Brown and brownish
Good to fine " ...

Common foul and mixed
Fair to good clean
Goodto fine pinky &wllite
Fair to good black
Good to fine pinky
Jliddliug to fair
Inferior and pickings ...'
Mid.to fiue/^/(TcA-not stony
Slouy aud iuferior ...

3Jd a 3Jd
13 1-I6da3ia
2|d a 3d
Is 7d a 23
Gd a Is Gd
ilsCdalslld
2s a 23 Id
Is7dals9d
!£4 lOs a £5 IDs
l£3 63a £4 2sGd
'£1 a £1 IDs
|10s a 149
>33aCs

,. Fairdrj' to fine bright ... 369 a ,3fs
Common Sc middling soft 253 a 333
Fair to fine ....353 a 403

Middling to fine ... ajd a Gd

FROM CHINA, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS

CAJMPHOR, China

.Tapan

GAMBLER, Cubes

Block

GUTTA PEHCHA, genuine
Sumatra.
■Reboiled.
White Borneo .

NUTMEGS, Large

Medium
Small

MACE

EHUBAEB, Sun dried

High dried

^SGs a 5*8

Good, pure, & dry white
„ ,, pink

Ordinary tcinefree ... 2G9 a 27s
Pressed ... 23s a 243

Good ... 20s 3d

Fine clean Banj&Macas-p's 4d a 3s Sd
Barky to fair [sarl7d a 2s ,Sd

Common to fine clean ...[Gd a Is Gd
Good to fine clean ...[lid a Is 3d

Inferior and barky
G3's a SO's, garbled
85's a 95's
lOO's a IGO's
Pale reddish to pale
Ordinary to red
Chips

Good to fine sound
Dark ordinary & middling
Good to fine
Dark, rough & middling

SAGO, Tearl, lar;;e

Fair to tine

medium ...

>

smiill

.• II •>

Flour

(lood pinky to white

TAPIOCA, Ppnaiit; Fluke...

Fuir to fine

Singapore

ft K

Flour

M tl

Vearl

Bullets

Mftdium

Seed

4d a lOd
23 3d a .33 7d
2s a 2s 2d
Is 2d a Is 9d
Is Gd a 23 Gd
Is a Is 3d
Is a Is ai
2s a 4s :!d
Is a Is 9d
Is 4d a Is 7d
7da Is
12s a las
12s a 1.39
:l2sal3s0d
!Us Od a lOs Gd
lida2;d
I 9-1 Gd a 2a
Udalfi
153 a I.'isGd
IGs a 173 Od
15s a 15s 3d

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

73

JAPAN GREEN TEAS : THE CULTURE AND
PREPAEATION OF TEA IN JAPAN.

We have received from Mr. H. D. Deane of Kin-
tyre estate, Maakcliyn, Ceylou, two specimens of Japan
teas, the one simply fired by the Japanese themselves
and uncolouted, the otlier re-fired and coloured for
the American market by foreign merchants. The out.
turn of both shows a stron;; and peculiar licht-nrange
liquor, which may, uo doubt, be acceptable to some
palates, but which tastes very poorly against our fine
pungent Ceylon liquors. The leaf, after infnsion,
shows quite green in both cases, proving that |
it had been withered by steaming and had been
rolled the same day as it was plucked. The diied
leaf is not rounded and twisted like China and Indian
black tea, but looks lilse Inng chips of green wood.
The type oE a Japan tea-bush is the very smallest
Chioa variety, and these teas show in addition very
fine plucking. The coloured tea appears to have
passed through a cutting machine. The samples can
be seen at our olfice.

From Mr. Deane we have received a nnmber of the
"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," con-
sisting entirely of an illustrated paper by Mr Henry
G'ihble on the preparation of Japnn tra. \Xe are
thus enabled to appreei\te the peculiarities whicli dis-
tinguish the culture and preparation of the fragrant
leaf in " the land of the rifiog snn."

At the outset wo are strnck with the extreme dis-
parity betwe n the size of go'>d As^am hybrid leaves
and those of t'iie varieties of tea cultivated in Japan.
Tlie former produces leaves varving from five to ten
inches long, but the larger-leaved variety of tea cultiv-
ated iQ Japan, m^ c/ia, is only two inches long, while
the smaller variety, o <•/(«, has leaves, the largest
of which is little more than an inch, tlie flnah is,
of course, small in pr'^portion. Beside* n'ctures of the
two varieties of tea Iniaho, showini.' flowers, fruits
and leaves, natural sizi>. Mr, Cribble's paper is iWmt-
trated with representations of the larva and
larvi ca e of the miiio mmhi (Psyche sp. ?), the
only pest, and that not a formid.ablR one, to which
tea grown in Japan is liable. The insect would
du considerable damage if let alniie, but ii is easily
detected and removed, while tea bug, red spider ard
other plagues (if Indian plantation^ do not trouble the
Japan tea-grower. There may be something in climate
and a good deal in the svBtem of culture in detached
patches.

Beaides the three illustrations referred to, there are
no fewer than twenty-one engraving" from ri'|iresent-
ations \)y native artists of the various r>rnce*3es of
prepa'ation, from picking to roping and finisliin'', the
various implement^ and api'liaoces being also dejiicted
up to a fori ign firing godown and its fittines.
T' e picking of t';e fluah seems to be done entirely bv
young girls (well-clothed and their heads covered by
wide round hats, the picture sho»s them), and. nn'esi
a very serious printer's error bai been allowed to
pass in Mr. Oribble's p^per, the average dav's gather
^ug is only .S.J 11.. ! As thi.s conhl not possibly pay,
even where wai»ps are po low an in .Tapan. we sus-
prct that the e(|u!v,alent of 3.V lb. of mad.' tea most
have been m»ant, in which ca"e the (juanlity of green
leaf would be 14 lb., a fair averace, cnnsidering the
extreme minuteness of Jaj^an tea flush. Following
"picking" we have a representation of the processes
of " cidlecting and carrying to markit." In this case
two girls are pouring the green leaves out of their small
10

field baskets into a large one, with a fellow of which a
man is walking off Hi" f-et are eUd with sandals, and
he carries his burden on his back, the universal pinno not
being in this case broucht into requisition. Then
comes tlie peculiar process of steaming the ereen
1 aves, on which, evidentiv, the main peculiarity of
the Japan tea depends. In thi" process which a re-
cent correspondent wanted Ceylon plant.er.ti to adopt,
onlv men seem to I.p employed. The stenming pan
and the oven on wliioh it is set are fully shown.
and there are enlarced designs of the carrying basket,
<?ia mnh'\ -ind the small basket used in the fields.
cha hil-H Both ba'ke's seem nicely finished and
lire more elongate! in form than those we have ob-
served in ns» in flevlon. Wo next get pictures of
the small hind. broom. m>irinhol-i in u=e. as also a
small hand.ba = k<'t for sorting, mi a steaminf trav
with wire bottom, fitting t p of oven, ftikn/shi
Khfiro. and a lid* for the same, f'ifn Tf the
steaming of t°a is reallv tried in Ceylon, a set of the
necessary annliancea. and snO'l drawings of the oven,
ought to be procured from Japan.

"Preparatory to Firing" represents two girls on
their knees apparently rolling bal's of the leaves, bat
Mr (Jribble's piper represents the rolling spd fi''in<T
1 as taking place simnltaneoualy. A man is taking
away the slight^Iv rolled leaf on a sieve. We then
ffpp "The First Firin"." oyer " choolns." two girlo
taking up the I'^af. rolling it between their hnn'^s and
spreading it again over the travs "The Final Firing "
seems to bo done by men. Ono is pouring leaf from
a sieve on to the travs ; anothor is rolling and spread.
ing the leif on the trays Th"n wo get sopar.ate
npresentatiora of "the fi'ing box " " Imrn" " nanored
firing tray, fitting top of firing box." " xhiuU vn
jnfan." and " papered tray for final firing," " nhinnf.
no jotan " As onr rei-lers will lo.nrn when we oomo
to notice Mr riribble'M description oP the process of
firing they manufacture a paper in .TaPfln (some of
which might be turned to good account in Ceylon 1).
strong enough for a long period to resist great heat
and the pressure of rolling at the same time.

" Porting" represents otdv two men with ha'^ket sieves
(not perforated), some ten on tt'o floor and three hoxes.
There are large size pictures of the " square basket, "
" l^nl-uhfivfi.^' and the " bnskot for sorting.'' " sihitia-
elii mi." Now come' " Rifting." apparently nut of
place (after Sorting?). There is one sieve wdth a
perforated brttoni hung by ropes and a second man
is at work with the ordinary basket oiove. Tbo large
perforated sieve " f^irnl " is shown enlargod sizo_ pa
.a^so the round basket, '* mfirif hnrfJ." ^p now rome
to " Hand-picking." in which four girls are represrpted
picking out what we take to he st.alks, red leaves
and foreiE^n substances from the tea, Separate pict.
ures follow of the " picking table," " yort tJaJ " ;
" trays for reiected leaves." " rlta. nvt^ hnha " :
" platter for yellow lesves." '* hiha irf " ; a.nd " h»if
for yellow leaves." " l-lha hiihirn" As we look at
the engravings of all these ingenious and rostly.
finished contrivances, we cmnot h'ln wiohipg tjjaf to
all the other fdiligati^ns rontrrre'^ by him op Pn^■^on
in connection w'tb .Tapan, Mr. D' ane w. iild. through
his friends at Yokohama, now o^tiin «-eto t^f al' the
implements and atiiiliar^ces connected "dtb t^ji eplturo
and tea preraratinu We feel anre the C'homber of
Commerce' and Planters' Association won]fl e1a,^1y
defray the coat The arMctes eou^^ bo firof, f^isplsvo'^
at rsiombo an-l then at Koo/t^*, b'-ing iin..ll\. pl.ieed
in the permnnent keeping of the Do .^'ovsn Museum, n<i
I the big inst'tutiou can op^y receive nrticVo of Po^-lon
1 origin. Many useful hints might I e obtained from
the tea making a,pp1ianeeH used in .Japan. " Weigh-
ing find Packing " are well represented, men alone beinc
employed in these processes, and then comes a quaint
' and amusing picture of Packing (Boldering and nailing

1^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

up the boxea) aad marking Now coma " Roping
and Fiuisliing."" A ForeigD Tea Firing Godown," in-
terior view presents a busy and animated scene, with
its long rows of furnaces, pans and firers. There are
separate representations of "the tiring pan in l.riok
\rork and plaster"; "carrying basket for taking
tea to the pans" ; " hand-6Coop for removing the
tea from the. pans " ; and a longitudinal perfnrattd
"sievo." Fiually we have, in this curious and instruct-
ive eet of native drawings a representation of " basket
firing," the bosUets looking like Indian di urns. There
are a " gonPr:il view and section of basket, centre
tray for receiving tlie tea, small broom and fan." In
the sectional view of the basket (wide at both ends
and narrow in the middle), we see that the (ire
is beneath the basket and that the drying tiay laden
vith leaf is in the centre, tlie heat and vapour pass-
ing np through the top part of the basket. This,
we suppose, is about the simplest Jprm of firing which
can well be adopted.

Having thus noticed the interesting illustrations to
Mr. Gribble's puper, we shall mw give our readers an
abstr.ict of the valuable information embodied in the
elaborate paper itself, " On the Preparation of Tea in
Japan," preparation which, like culture in J.ipan,
differs essentially from what is familiar to planters in
India and Ceyh n.

At the commenc' ment we have a good story
from Kaempter's; History of Japan, about a
woman who, being desirous of gettiug rid of her
husband, was .advised to feed him eutiiely on pork
and otiier fat things. Wish ivi to expedite the
desired event, however, she took further advice, pur-
suant to which she gave her husband, now reduced
to a skeleton, large drafts of tea. The result was
his perfect restoration to heabh 1 After quoting many
absurd denunciations of ti'a, and Dr. .Johnson's apology
for his own liive of the infusion, Mr.Uribble characterizes
tea as givmg the Yokohama merubants their oocup.ition
(he purposely avoided saying; profit) by supplying fome
35 millions nf pounds weight to the thirsty inhabit.iuts
of the United States. Tliis was in October 18S3,
and, we believe, tliat 40 millions is now nearer the
mark, the United States being almost the sole market
for Japan green teas, the revelations about facing
and adulteralinn having almost annihilati-d the trade
in green tea for Britain. The more *s the pity, for
pure green teas .ire fjisily m-de and could lie more
cheaply supplied tliau bla'k. Tea seems to have
fouud its way from Assam to China about the fifth
century of the Christian era, and from China seeds
were brought to Japan in 805 A.D. It was rot,
however, until tlie twelfth century that a Buddhist
priest succeeded in getting the J.ipanese properly to
appreciate the virtUK-s of the tea-plant, and it would
seem that, until quite recently, only nobles and rich
people mdulgi d in th" luxury of the le.il infuaiin. It is
curious to see KaenipCer quott-d to the effect that Buddha
was an Indian and a negro, born 1028 B.c ! Tho
Japanese tradition is that Dnrma, who introduced
the tea-plant to China, crossed to Japan riding on
a tea-leaf, an original paracluito truly ! We quote
a couple of par.agiaiihs ; —

Probahly the earliest nientimi of Japan Tea by an Euglish-
man is to he found in the " Diary of Kichard Oocks," tho
Agent of the Hon'ble Kast Iiitlia C^onipany at Kirando
(Hinido), l(il.-)-lU22, lately published by the HakluytSoei-
ety, in which more than or.e reference is mail(3 to *' cup.s
fur rhair,^^ and where one entry records the receipt from
Miaco (Kiyoto) of " iij 'jars of ano " for Mr. AVickhani,
who bail been the company's resident at O.saka. It is
noticeable that Cocks throughout bis iliary niakis no men-
tion of tea (Iriiikiiit^. an omission which \vouid Ir.urdly have
taken place if the custom had been at all a prevalent tone
in Hirdo, or indeed if ho had at any lime partaken
beverage theie on his several trips to the uortji. For a

long time Tea was too expensive a luxury even to the
Japanese themselves to be indulged in by any but the
nobles, and Kaempfer, writing in 1692, describes how the
tea used at the Imperial court was then grown and pre-
pared at Uji under the care of the chief purveyor of Tea ;
how, for at least two or three weeks before the gathering
of the leaves the persons who were to pick them were
prohibited from eating fifh or any unclean food, lest
their breath should contaminate the leaves ; how, during
the gathering season they had to wash themselves twice
or three times a day ; nor were they allowed to touch
the leaves except with gloved hands. When finally pre-
pared, the Tea was sent up to court under a good
guard; sometimes a simple pot of this tea, containing
no more than tliree or four catties, being attended by
nearly two hundred people. This Imperial tea cost thirty
or forty Tnels for one catty, and when receiving a cup
at his audience at court, Kaempfer was told by the at-
tendant that the single cupful cost one ichibn.
Mr. Gribble gives a botanical description of the tea-
plants, and states that the large and small leaves
(one inch and two inches long !) are fouud growing
on the same bush, the native planters stating that they
cannot tell beforehand which variety will be germ-
inated from any given seed. In some districts the
different kinds are called male (otoko) and female (ona).
The chemistry of tea is added, but for this detail we
wait until .ve" come to a very able paper by Dr. Divers,
which embodies the mostcorrect and fullest information.
We quote what is said about planting and grow-
ing, directing the jjarticnlar attention of our readers
to the extraordinary system of cramming 30 seeds
into a circle of 2 feet diameter, the centre of each
circle being 5 feet distant from its neighbour. The
result must be that the ground is completely covered,
for although there is a distance of 8 feet between
the rims of the circles, on the surface, yet the branches
from the outside plants of each circle must nearly,
meet. No wonder, though seed thus sown should
develop into " a compact bush," the 30 plants,
or all tiiat result from the 30 seeds put into each
circle of 2 feet diameter, becoming, in fact, one mats
of stems and twigs. It is hedge-planting, after a
fashion. This is what Mr. Griblile writes :—

I'lanling. — The tea plant requires a well-drained soil ;
it grows well on level ground with well-kept drains, but
is more often seen on gentle hill-slopes and again on
steep inclines, where terraces are cut to maintain small
level patches and to prevent too violent rushes of water
during heavy rains. These terraces on the hill-sides, when
covered with plants, look very picturesque ; but they are
only selected as being the cheapest ground procurable,
and not because the tea requires any such elevation. A
new plantation is started from seed, planted in circles of
about two feet diameter; each circle receives about 30
seeds and its centre is placed at a distance of about
five feet from its niMghbour.

(lrotmii(l.—T\\e circle of seed developes into a compact
bush, some shoots of wliicli will be fouud to bear leaves
of a darker colour and of harder texture than the others
and also much smaller. This difference in the leaf on the
same tea bush is one of the difficulties of the tea-farmer
and te.a-piclcer, and it .seems difficult to believe that
with more lare this f rouble cannot be avoi<led. In the
third year of its growth the tea plant bears leaves
ready for picking, and it is considered at its best '^rom
the fifth to the tenth vear. But age does not deterior-
ate the plant, the only difference being that with years
it requires more ni.anure. Tin' shrub is not allowed to
grow beyond a height of three or four feet, necessary
both for the convenience of picking and for tho strength
of the new shoots. , „ . ■ ■

pid.lm/.—As the .season is early or late, the first pick-
ing com'meuces at the litter end of April or beginning of
May, and la.sts about twenty days or a mouth. The
second crop is gathered in June and July, and some-
times a third one later on. This work is performed
almost entirely by girls, who deftly picK off the new
leaves, but very often also the whole of a new shoot,
80 that long stems are frequently met with in their

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

75

baskets, where leaves only should be seeu. The shrub,
being an evergieeu, has still mauy of ils last year's
leaves, so that smiiO skill is necessary to fill a baski-t
quickly nithout also including some of the old giowtli.
A girl will pick, at the beginning of the season, about
one kicoi-mc of leaves (oj lb.) in a day, for whicli, this
year, her wages were Ih ;>ei/.

We have alreudy stated onr belief that Mr. Gribble
must have meant not 3^ lb. of green leaf gathered
daily, but green leaf etjuivalent to S.^ lb. made tea.
Tile average Indian tutk or "ncrriuk" of green
leaves being Uiib. , a gathering of 14 1b. oomea
pretty close to the average. But our readers will
nonce the long intervals inJiealed between the pick-
ing or pluckiug seasons. We now come to the
"country prepuration," which is very curious and
largely opposed to the pre cesses by which black tea
is made in India and Ceylon. Mr. Uribble writes : —

The following notes on the country preparation were
made during a few days stay at Shidzuoka (the capital
of iSuriigaJ early in May this year, at the time when the
first pickings were being made and when the whole district
was alive with the industry of a new tea crop. Surnga
and the adjoining province of Totomi are two of the
principal tea producing districts of Japan, and at the
time of my visit the tea gardens on the plain, on the
hill-slopes and on the terraces up the hill-sides were
dotted with the figures and large sun-hats of the girls
picking the leaves. The roads leading to the town were
seldom free from men carrying baskets full of green leaves
to be fired ; others dragging to the port of lo.iding, cart-
loads of the finished tea for shipment to Yokohama.
In the town itself dealers b.irgaiu tor each small lot of
tea brouglit in from the fields and the carriers either stay
to sell their baskets-full, or pass on with a word of chalf
if their load has already been bespoken, or if it has to
go direct to the firing place of the owner of the plant-
ation where the tea has been picked. As a rule the tea
belongs to very small proprietors, who fire their few cat-
ties a day, generally in the tutrauce ot their only apart-
lueut, and then sell the fired leaf to larger dealers who,
as principals or go-betweens, mix their various purchases
together and then send twenty or more boxes of similar
tea for sale at the treaty ports. Kut tile process of pre-
paring the green leaf is the same whether done in a
small shanty or in the godonus of a well-to-do merchant.
It is as follows : —

'iteatniny. — As soon as possible after the leaves have been
picked they are steamed by being placed in a round
wooden tray, with a brass wire bottom, over boiling water;
the tray filliiig up the mouth of an iron cauldron set in
plaster over a wood fire. The tray is about 18
inches diameter, and receives about a couple of hand-
fuls of green leaf ; the lid is put on to confine the
steam, and the process is complete in about half a
minute ; the attendant taking one look at the leaves and
stirring before removing them. The water in the cauldron
showed 210' Fahrenheit and the bottom of the tray \>*if.
The moist leaves, with their natural oil now brought to
the surface, are then tumbled on to a wooden table for a
few minutes, and then taken into the firing room, where
the principal manipulation has now to be performed.

Firiiuj. — A box-shaped wooden frame about 4 feet long
by 2\ feet broad, coated with plaster, forms the oven.
Charcoal (well covered with charcoal ash) is alight in the
bottom of the oven, and about a foot and a half above
the charcoal rests the wooden frame with tough Japanese
paper stretched across it. This paper gets darkly tanned
by the oil from the leaves, but below it shows no signs
of getting burnt, and one such paper tray will often do
more than a whole season's work without being renewed.
The heat of the paper at the time of firing is about 120".

About SCO Mc' (tj^lb.) of green loaves are thrown on
to one of these paper trays and a man (for tlie work can
only be done by men f ) now proceeds to fire this quantity,
which by the time it is finished bedimea reduced to about
170 mc (Hlb). At first ho throws up the soft, moist leaves
in quick succession and keeps the whole mass moving

* 120 me=one pound.

+ Their wages this year were 50 sot per day, during which
they would finish abcut 700 mc of fired tea about (6 lb).

without any attempt at rolling or twisting. Gradually the
leaves assume .'i darker colour, and gradually' he works
tiieni up into balls, rolling tho balls hetivceii his hands,
sop:iratmg the leaves again, rolling than on tli'j hot sur.
lace of the paper, again collecting them into balls, which
he will now roll backwards and forwards on the paper,
and finally do so with considerable strength and pressure,
occasionally resting one elbow on the edge of the tray
and rolling the ten between the jialnis of both hands with
all his might. After some hours work (de]iendiiig upon
the quality of the tea) the leaves have all becuine separately
twisted, and have changed their colour to dark olive pur-
ple. They are now crisp, long, thin wiry " spills," and,
in the case of the best leaf, look more like slender tooth-
picks than the leaves of a shrub, ^\■heu finished, the lea
is strewed on a similar firing tray, hut at a lower tcmji-
erature (about 110'), and is there allowed to dry until
it becomes quite brittle. The heat is then further reduced
to about 'Sb"), :ind the tea left for '1 to (i hours, even longer
if it is intended to keep it in stock for many months.
Tea well tired in this manner and afterwards packed in
earthenware jars will keep fur a whole year witliout spoiling.

Sorliiii/. — Aftir leaving the firing room tlietea passes to
the hands of a man who sorts the leaves by jerking them
uj) and down in a bamboo hand tray, by which he separ-
ates a large projiortion of the light from the heavy leaf.

sifting. — The tea is then passed to a sieve suspended
from the roof and swung backwards and forwards with
a circular motion, allowing all the fine thin leaves to col-
lect in a heap on the ground and retaining the large and
coarser ones to be throw'n into a separate heap.

Hand I'ich'mij. — The completing ptocess of the country
preparation is to distribute the tea to girls, seated on the
mats in front of a picking table, v\'ho sort out all the seeds,
stalks und rubbish that may still be mbced with the tea.
The tea, thus finished as far as the country process is con-
cerned, is packed into wooden boxes, nailed, corded and
marked, and then sent to the treaty port for sale, each
box containing about half a picul.

Before following the tea into the foreigner's godown ,
where it has again to be fired and jiacked for shiiJinent
over sea, I give the result of my enquiries as to the coun-
try cost of its growth and manipulation.

Level ground, within easy distance of Shidzuoka, suit-
able for a tea plantation, is now said to bo "worth about
100 yen for 100 Isuho (3, (iOO square feet); ten Jyears ago
it was worth about 25 ijcn, and twenty years ago only
half the latter sum. On the hills equally good ground is
said to be worth an averige of 30 yen per 400 Uuho.

Tea shrubs covering 100 tsubu will produce m their third
year about 30 kimn-me (250 lb.) of green leaves at the
first lacking and about 15 kwan-mc at the second picking.
According to this year's scale of wages (about 2.3 per cent,
cheaper than last season's) tlie cost of picking 30 kwau-mo
was i/eii 4.50.

The cost of labour in bring, of charcoal, of packing
boxes and of freight to Yokohama was given to mo as
t/ni 7, and the charges for selling in Yokohama 5 percent.
Vv'e thus h.ave as the cost cf the first crop from 100 Uuhj
of land under cultivation: —

t/en.

Picking 30 kioan-me (2501b.) i-M

Firing, packing and freight to Yokohama ... 7'00
Agencycharges in Yokohama, 5 percent ... "CO

yen... 12-10

at exchange of I oO i/i,ii per Joilar the equivalent of S9'31
for a net weight of 6 kican-ine (50 lb.) of fired tea (the
loss in weight thus amounting to SO per cent). This is
equal to about §25 per picul without any allowance for
profit to the planter or for rental of his plantation. Of -
course if the whole of his crop were of the "Choicest"
qu.Tlity, this cost would leave him a large profit, but whether
his tea sells as "Choicest," or as "common " the average
cost of ]iroduction is not tar different.

At the time of my visit to Shidzuoka the 'best tea, al-
ready fired and picked, was being botight by the large
dealers at yen 2^70 per iitaH-Jiie, the equivalent of .vert 43'20
per picul. The cost of boxes and expenses to Yokohama
amounted to yen 2 per picul, making the total cost hero,
with selling charges, yen 47'48 per picul or S30'50. Similar
tea was then selling in Yokohama at a little over this price.
The value in Shidzupka of eimilur tea at the same time in

76

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

the previous season, was yen 4 per kwan-me, and the tea
men were al! loud in their complaints that, although the
cost of labour was so much cheaper this year, the prcsfut
would be a losiDg season to them, and that it would not
pay to gather the second crop. This, however, has not
proved the case, and, contrary to many expectations, the
total yield this year of Jajian tea seems likoly to be little
short of last season's supply. I am, therefore, inclined
to think that the figures of cost as given to me at Sliid-
zuoka were excessive, and we must probably wait for that
long-hoped for period of the opening of the country to
foreign enterprize before this Society can be correctly in-
formed of the cost of producing tea in Japin.
lfotc.~V20 me = 1 lb. 1 i5«(io=3fi square ft.

1 kwan-me = S3 lb. 1,210 „ =1 acre.
16 „ =13ajlb. 1 acre =43,5(10 sq.ft.

Ipicul =133^ lb.
At the date of writing these notes one dollar was equal
to 130 yen (paper) and the sterling exchange was 3s 8d.
per dollar, thus making the pound sterling equal to 7'09
paper yen.

The further manipulation that Japan tea has to under- I
go before it can be exported to America or Canada (its
only markets) is familiar to most of us who reside at the
treaty ports. During the season we have daily experience
of the aroma issuing from the open windows of the tea-
firing godowns, of the troops of tea-firing men, women
and children who clatter past our windows at an unearthly
hour in the morning, and who make day hideous witli
their noise, singing and crying. Probably most of us have
also been inside these godowns and seen these women at
work, stirring the tea in iron pans with unceasing vigour
and song, only interrupted by the occasional shouts of the .
overlookers or by the motherly attentions required by the )
children slung on their backs or tugging at their skirts.
There are two systems of finally firing Japan tea : Pan
firing and basket firing.

Pan Firimj. — This is done iu rows of iron pans (21
inches diameter by 13 inches deep) set in britk wiuk and
heated by charcoal. The tea which has been bought probably
in small lots of different qualities has been bulked into
large enough quantities of the same description and is then
carried by the women in baskets to the firing godown.
At a given .signal all the baskets are emptied into the
pans (about 5 lb. weight into each), and the fires being
well lit and afterwards constantly attended to, the stirring
of the leaves continues until the overseer (generally a
Oliinaman) considers the tea sufficiently fired, when the
signal is given to take out the tea and carry it back to
the packing godown, or put it through a second process
of stirring in cold pans. According to the quality of the
tea and the ideas of the tea-taster, the pan firing of one
lot of tea may last from 40 to C5 minutes in the hot and
from 25 to 60 minutes in the cold pans. "When finished
it is taken into the packing godown, where it is sifted
to remove the dust, and then packed while still warm, into
the half-chests lined with leads, which are to convey it
to the grocers and tea-drinkers of America.

Colourhit/. — When colouring matter has to be used it is
thrown into the pans at the proper moment by the Ohinese
OVtrseer and quickly gets absorbed by all the tea. The
use of colouring matter has lately given rise to consider-
able discussion, and thei'e can be no doubt that, as far
as it goes, it is a species of adulteration — just as much
adulteration as the use of colour to make some
sugar plums white, others piuk or other .salmon
colour. Certain tastes for colour are developed in
the consumers of tea as in the consumers of .'-ugared
almonds, and it becomes the necessity of the manufacturer
to meet the requirements of bis customers. The American
dealers have called for more or less coloured tea, and
their demand has been met here by those who prepare it.
That demand is now undergoing some change, and tea
merchants in Japan will be only too glad when it has ceased
altogether. A large quantity of tea is now sent without
any colouring matter whatever, and even where it is still
used it cannot be condemned as being in any way in-
jurious to health, in the infinitesimal quantities in which it
is mixed with the tea. The outcry against colouriug matter
has been principally caused by the excessive colour and
actual weight-adulterations of the lower grades of China
green tea ; also by the re-manufacture in Loudon or New

York of teas shipped from the East — a process' for which
merchants here are not responsible. Dr. Divers, Principal
of the Kobu-Dai-Gaku, has kindly contributed a special
report upon this part of the manipulation of tea, which
will be found attached to this paper and will be read with
interest as representing the opinion of an able and independ-
ent expert.

Basket Firinrj. — Basket firing consists in simply refiring
the tea without any of the stirring process as gone through
in the pans. A bamboo basket, shaped like a dice box,
but open at both end.s, is placed over a large iron brazier
containing lighted charcoal (well covered with ashes) and
the tea is strewed, about an inch in thiclcness, ou a
close woven bamboo tray which fits the neck of the dice
box. The baskets are occasionally removed from the brazier
and the tea turned over by hand in order that all may bo
equally fired ; they are carefully replaced on the brazier,
without allowing any dust or leaves to fall through the tray
on to the charcoal, and in the course of 40 to 60 minutes
the tea is ready for packing.

Gonyou.— The foregoing description appUes to the pre-
paration of ordinary' Japan tea, during which no ferment-
ation of the leaf has been allowed to take place. But in
the preparation of Black Tea (Oongouj, of which a consider-
able quantity was made some seasons ago, fermentation
has to occur and the process deserves special notice. The
financial result of Japan-made congous has not hitherto
been a success, but there is no reason why further per-
severance should not make it so ; and it is in every way
desirable that the Japanese should continue this industry,
and thus limit the const^mtly increasing supply of green
tea, which year by year is found to be in excess of its
demand in America and Canada. These now are the onlj-
markets for the Japan green tea ; but they wou!d also
absorb a certain quantity of Japan-made congous, whilst
the latter would find an outlet in Europe and Australia,
where the Japan greens are not now appreciated.
To anyone reading this account it would occur, that,
surely, instead of linal-finng factories in the towns, there
ought to be central factories in the districts. The ob-
jection, no doubt, is, that tiie patches of tea are not only
too smallbut too widely scattered to enable such country
factories to be worked with a profit. Mr. Gribble
speaks of no rolling before steaming, but the pictures
we previously noticed would seem to indicate that the
leaves are rolled to some extent before they are
steamed. The jirocess of withering is nowhere indic-
ated, either in the native pictures or in Mr. Cribble's
descriptions.

If Mr. Gribble's figures for yield are correct,
the result would seem to be 4,500 lb. green tea, or
1,125 lb. dry per acre ; but, even with constant manur-
ing and the system of small husbatdry adopted, this
figure seems very high. It may probably b-ar reduc-
tion by one-fourth. The figures for cost would seem
to prove that tea laid down at Yokohama cost about
50 cents per lb. of our money, but Mr. Gribble iudic-
ates that the native information is untrustworthy. If
the tea did not yield some profit, the landholders would
surely cease to grow and prepare it. Our readers will
observe that the tinal processes in the European
godowns include manipulation in cold pans, as a
sequel to firing in hot pans. What can be the philo-
sophy of the odd p.iu process, unless it be to give a
polish to the leaves or rather " spills " ? Refiring
with baskets, it will be observed, dispenses altogether
veith pans, just as the mode adopted by the vast majority
of Indian and Ceylon planters now does. The last para-
graph quoted shows the vast difference between Japan
green and black teas to be that the former undergo
no process of fermoutation. The steaming process is re-
presented as evolving a "natural oil" from the leaves.
Is there any such oil as can be appreciably noticed ?
There is, no doubt, an essential oil, but it could scarcely
act as represented ?

Black tea as well as green is made iu Japan, a
deputation of Japanese having been sent a few years
ago to India |to collect information as to the process
pursued there, Mr, James Greea of Kobc^, who, vre

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

77

believe, travelled witli Mr. Dcane, furnished Mr.
Gnhble with a description of the native manufaotuie
of black tea. The openirg p.iiagraph reveals tl o
grand miat.ikc of wasting the juica exuded in rolling,
a practice, we believe, foTlowed laigcly if not generally
ia Chin.i, while Indian and Cejlon planters arc
careful tiial the juice is absorbed by the rolled leaf
1 efore it is fermenteil. We quote as folloivs: —

" The great objecliou to Japanese made congou is that i
it is too skinny in leaf and hicks strength in cup. The j
first crop produces the most attractive tea, hut tlie leaf is |
too succulent, and nenrly all its gpod iiualities are lost |
when being rolled. I hive often seen a heap of green foamy |
juice, rolled out of the leaf, lying on the gi-ound beneath
the rolhng tables, and as a natural result the infused tea
much resembled ' toast water.' Tlie third crop produces
the lest tea, as the sun is then powerful and the shoots
are strong and hard. The greater part of the congou
made in Japan is sliipped to England, where it is mi.\ed
with Indian teas, the former most effectually toning the
latter, antl thus forming an excellent combination.

" l>iyijii/, — The young pickings are spread out in thin
layers on bamboo or straw mats in a sunny place till they
are quite soft. Care must be taken not to wilt them too
much ; in fact extremes should he avoided, for if the leaf
is either not sufficiently soft or wilted too much, broken
or dead haves will become visible and spoil the apijear-
ance of the tea when made up. "When then the leaf is
as soft as untanned leather it is fit for rolling. In
wet weather or when it is CDld, or in the early morning,
the leaf may be reuilered sutiiciently pliable by wilt-
ing on iron plates or ordinary firing pans over charcoal
fires. Steaming, as in the ' Uji sei ' or green tea process,
must be avoided, as it takes too much vitality out of
what is natura'Iy a, weak tea.

" Rollin!/. — The wilted leaf is gathered up in baskets and
taken to the rolhng room, where it is turned out on a
long table, on either side of which stand the rolling
coolies. Each coolie takes a double handful and rolls it,
a* a baker kneada dough, for thirty minutes, after whicli
it is packed tightly in largo round baskets (obotc) and
covered over with a cioth for .m hour or so to allow it
to ferment, at the expiration of which time it attains a
reddish-brownish tint. To assist the process of ferment-
ation, the b;iskets containing the rolled leaf should be
placed ill the firing-room. The leaf is then tipped out on to
the roiling tables, well shaken out and rolled for fifteen
minutes more and fired on iron gauzo sieves or in tsiisiimi
kayo, drum baskets, over charcoal fires. The first men-
tioned and best process takes forty-five, and the drum
baskets seventy minutes. There is a saving of charcoal
in the latter, a small item, however, when the difference
in quality is taken into consideration, for sieve-fired teas
always command a better price on the London market.

" SiJ'tinij. — Ten men stand in a row, the first having
a large-sized sieve, the mesh of the others decreasing
in rotation, anil the tea is passed from one to the other ;
the last sifting being dust. As ail the tea must pass
through No. 5 f-ieve, tiio larger sittings are broken by
the hand and then winnowed to take out all fiakey leaf.
The bulk is at last reduced to five siftiugs, viz., large
and small congou, large and small pekoe, and ilust.

" Sorl'n;/ is generally performed by women, who sit
down before long, low, black tables and take out the
stalks and discoloured flat leaves, either with chopsticks
on their fingers.

" Mak'ny a Chop. — A layer of large tea is first put into
the bulking recess aud carefully levelled; then a layer of
small congou, then pekoe, then a small amount of dust,
followed by another layer of large leaf, and so on. The
No. 5 sieve teas are fired once more in drum-basketa
and put into the chop quite hot. ^Vhen thoroughly warmed
through, the bulk ia broken with iron rakes in a most
careful niauucr, so that the tea shall be all alike. It is
thoii packed into leaded balf-cliests ready for shipment.
" AnotJter Afellwil. — .Some tea producers in Orni and
Mino, acting upon instructions given them by the Kuwan
no Kii/olu (department for the advancement of husb.andry r)
about live years ago made at congou after what they called
the ' Indian method ' (Indit «ei), bat the demand for their
production was not at all up to their ezpectatioas, and they

were forced to abandon an enterprize that cost thiem a
lot of money in ] lant and buildings.

" Pri'iMmtion.- Wilt the leaf on white calico .sheets in
the sun, and when sufiiciently soft roll on cross planed
or ribbed tables for twenty minutes. The rolled leaf is
then placed on shelves in a hot-house (muro), bearing a
temperature of lbO°, where it remains till it assumes a
reddish colour. It is theu rolled again for ten minutes
to give it a twist, and fired on thin iron plates over slow
charcoal fires. After the first rolling the leaf is sifted so
as to separate the pekoe from the congou.

" A very attractive tea can also be made by steaming
the grceu leaf and then rolling it for thirty minutes,
after which it is fired for forty minutes in a hot Fychow
pan. The tea then .somewhat resembles a Hyson, nml has
the advantage of being a natural green leaf, but in cup
it has what the Japanese call uo kusm, or raw taste."

Intormatiou is given lespecling "brick tea" in which
none of our readers are practically interested. We
need only mention the curious fact that in certain
parts of Mongolia the people will only purchase bricks
which have Deen cut in half, so as to show the stalks.
Mr. Gribblo indicates that the foreign merchant
are making experiments with machiuery and im-
proved modes of preparation, the results of which
are likely to bo apparent in the future. The
trade in Japan teas has grown up within the score of
years or eo sinco the Perry aud Elyiu treaties. It
is practically confined to the Uuited S^tate3 and C.uada,
and production has now outstripped demand. Prices
have gone down from S5G per picul in lH'i'l to §33
in 18S3 for choice, and for lower gr ides the fall has
been heavier in proportion. The export in 1863-64
was only 4^ millions of )b. aga ust an average of 40
millions now. Mr. Gribble produced specimens of te.ie,
from $3,50 per picul d ivvu to .SS. The la'.ler was an
uncoloured common tea.. Finally the author of the
paper said : —

Allow me, in conclusion, to thank you for your kind
attention and to offer you a cup of the Powdered Tea
{Hikicha), such as delights the heart of the most tcsthetic
and extravagant me.mber of the Cha no I'u. Its value is
only about §400 per picul, and you will please imagine
that the three or more hours necessary ceremonies have
been gone through elsewhere, before it has become comme
il faut to drink this tea.

The value of this exceptional tea would be about 12a
per lb.

The paper by Dr. Diver on " Tne Chemical Cora-
position of Japan aud Other Tea" is oue of the bi-at
and most disci iminative we have met with, and our
readers will thank us for extracting it : —

The following analyses of Japanese tea, made in the labor-
atory of the Imperial College of Agriculture, Tokiyo, were
published in Ih79 by Mr. Edward Kinch, then Professor of
I Chemistry there, and now in the same position in the Koyal
Agricultural College of England : —

Water 6.74

Kbre 11.20

Ash fi.63

Soluble in water ... 43.26

Tannin 12.50

Nitrogen 5.79

These quantities refer to 100 parts, and are not to bo
added together, because the matters enumerati.'d are not ex-
clusive of each other, part of the ash, part of the nitrogen,
and all the tannin being contained in the matter soluble
in water. No. I. is hiki-dm, or ground-tea, from Uji, for
eating with its infusion in the form of a broth. No. II.
is sm-elia or leaf tea for infusing in the ordinary way, also
from Uji. No. ill. is tea made by the (Jliinese method,
at the Experimental Section of the Agricultural Bureau,
Naito Sinjiku Gardens, Tokiyo. I liave myself had ex-
amined tea sent me by Mr. Gribble, and found it to con-
tain moisture varying from 2 to ^'{ per cent, and in the
dry state, 5.73-5.8 per cent, ash or mineral matter. Eder
in DiMjUrs poliitrchm^ehcs Jom-iuu, vol. 231, has reported
upon * yellow ' or Japanese tea, so called because although
it is nearly black in its dry state, it differs from truo

II.

III.

G.IO

8.92

11.70

6.10

5.26

52.55

36..i0

12.10

13.19

6.33

3.1S

78

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

10

30

60

10

2

0.6
12

1.7
3.7

12

0.2

3
20

4
20.8

black teas iu becoming yellow coloured in hot water. He
has found :—

Ash ... ... ... 5J

Tannin ... ... ... 13

Insoluble part ... ... 60

Water ... ... ... 10

The same au^ilyst gives a summary of his e.xamiaation of
various teas, Chinese, Japanese, and Indiau,of which the fol-
lowing is an abstract : —

"Water

Soluble matters

Tannin

Theine

Tea-oil

Legumin (albumenoids)

]\Iineral

Other substances

Insoluble matters

Albumenoids ...

Wax

Kfisin

Cellulose

J&inerai

Others

KEMAEKS ON THE COMPOSITION OF TEA.

Tables of chemical composition, such as tliose of tea,
are generally for the most part unintelligible and therefore
without interest to others than the initiated ; and even
to the latter, I may add, they are often indefinite and
unsatisfactory from the contradictions, real or apparent,
which occur in them. A few words iu addition to those
of Mr. Gribblo, descriptive of the composition of tea .and
of the applications of our present knowledge of it, may
perhaps be hero acceptable. The desired effects of tea-
driuking are almost certainly due to the hot-drink in the
first place, and then to the tannin, the theine or caffeine,
and the fragrant oil and resin iu the tea. When, farther,
the entire tea is consumed, as iu the use of hikl~cha in
this country, tea also serves as common food. This use
of tea as food may almost shock those keenly sensitive
to the exquisite delicate flavour aud the intellectualizing
effects of a cup of choice tea, and it will therefore be
noticed first, so as to get done with it. Attention then is
called to the fact shown by the analysis by Eder aud other
cnemists, that tea, with even as much as 10 per cent of water,
contains &hQwt oiie-q'tarto- of it-szituf/JitofallmmcHoUh, the so-
called ' flesh-formers.' It is consequently of but little less
value tlum beans. The nitrogen mentioned in Professor
Kinch's analysis of Japanese tea is an important chemical
element of these flesh-formers, being found in them to the
extent of 16 per cent of their weight. Hence after de-
ducting some nitrogen for theine, we can calculate from the
remainder the amount of these albumenoids. S'tiyorfaij 3-4
per cent.— Mr. Kinch's analysis III. — indicating in the
presence of 2 per ceut of theine about 2.3 per ceut albumen-
oids, is the usual quantity in tea cured for the foreign
market. The much larger quuitities of nitrogen in teas I.
and II., cured by the .Japanese method, are interesting and
need chemical investigation. Now to notice the water or
mohturc mentioned as present in tea. When the tea comes
hot from the firing operation it is without any water and,
if at once packed in really air-tight cases, will remain so.
Even by some exposure, as on keepiug in common tin-
canisters, it may remain a long time witli only 2-4 per
cent moisture al)sorbed, as my own analyses show. But
analyses of tea in Europe have been published, giving as
much as lli-17 per cent of water ; and 10 per cent is re-
garded there as the normal content. Thus, it will be
seen that every nine pounds of tea put up in Japan or
China, will on retailing in the United States or Europe,
run to ten pounds. The tea containing this water remains
dry to the touch. Another point of interest attaching to
this water, is that in its absence, the spores of vtnut and
mould are inactive, while they at once find a congenial
seat of growth when they fall in with tea containing a
tolerable quantity of moisture, especially when the tea
has been liglitly fired as by the Japanese method only.
With regard to the //i('(j;e, and rotdttlc oil and ri'.s'i«,it is
certainly of interest to note that while these are very
active physiological agents, aud undoubtedly give to tea
much of its esteemed qualities, the quantities of these

constituents— of the theine at least— have not been found
to be at all in any direct relation to the recognized value
or appreciation of the tea. Theine is also found in
coffee, and as far as the possession of this sub-
stance is measured it may be said that one ounco
of tea is equal to at least two ounces and a half
of coffee. Two per cent is the usual proportion of
theine in tea. Ten-od doe.? not exist in the fresh leaves
of tea, but is developed by a ajiecies of fermentation
after they are gathered. The re^'ii appears to be the
substiince into which the oil changes by time. When
this change is complete the tea has lost its aroma.

Tannin, so-called because it is that which when it
occurs in oak-bark serves to tan skiws in leather-making,
is found to be a useful and pleasant component of tonic
and refreshing draughts. It is to it that the roughness
of the taste of tea is due. Many persons prefer to remove
much of this roughness by the addition of milk, the
albumenoids of which render the tannin insoluble and there-
fore tasteless. On the other hand, a pinch of soda, or of wood
ashes in the water brings more of it aud other matters out
of the leaf, as most housekeepers have learned by experience,
but only at the cost of the more delicate flavour of the
tea. The amount of tannin is sutticiently constant in tea
to be trusted by the chemist, when taken with other •
points, iu detecting that form of sijurious tea consisting
of spent or once used leaves rolled and dried again for
sale. Tannin from other sources is sometimes added to
poor tea to give it a fictitious strength, an addition which
also occupies the chemist's atte:ition. -Japanese tea yields
about 13 percenter one-eirjlitli nf ,i. ircic/ht oi tannin, a
quantity a little higher than that of Chinese tea. Firing
and fermentation seem to destroy tannin, so that in
black teas less tannin is found than in green. In the
analysis of Indian tea, taken by Mr. Gribble from the
Indian Tea, Gazette, it can be nothing else than a mistake
to have made the tannin so much more than a quarter
of the weight of the tea. Indian tea is, however, a
little richer iu tannin than Japanese tea, and would be
more so if the cultivation of Thea Assamica had not
largely or entirely been replaced by that of T. Hi/brida.
Indeed an extract of coarse Indian tea is prepared as a
substitute for catechu.

The wax mentioned in Eder's analysis comes from the
surface of the fresh leaves, where in a delicately thin layer
it protects the living leaves from undue loss of moisture.
The bruised leaf withers in consequence of the breaking
of this coating. Of the fat mentioned iu the anal) sis
taken from the Indian Gfzttte, I know nothing. The
sur/ar metitioned is not common sugar; is in very small
quantity only, aud does not exist ready formed in the
fresh leaf.

The ash or mineral part of tea remains to be noticed.
Hitherto the use of the fertilizers has been but little
practised with tea. Experiments in India do not appear
to have had very promising results, although the effects
of the use of these agents have been quite evident upon
the crops of leaves got. Now any exp^^riments iu this
direction can only be properly carried out under the
guidance of a knowledge of the composition of the ash
of tea. This ash has been repeatedly analysed, but in
the present state of the matter, it would be probably of
little use to reproduce the published results here. The
ash of tea is slightly under 6 per cent of tlie te.i, of
which a little more than half is soluble in water when
in the state of ash. In the tea itself less than a third
of the mineral matter is soluble in its infusion, the rest
remaining iu the exhausted leaves, as will be seen on
looking at Eder's general analysis. In determining the
degree of adulteration of tea, the chemist depends largely
upon these facts.

This ends the account of the constituents of tea. But
a word should he said as to the usi- of the hot infusion,
namely, that Europeans seem to be largely indebted to
the Chinese and Japanese for a knowledge of the pleasure,
if not advantage, of hot beverages, as much in hot weather
as in co'd.

It will be seen that tea leaves properly dressed and
eaten form a nutritious diet ! As to the colouring of
teas, Dr. Diver shows that the quantity of colouring
matter used by foreiga merchauta cau do little, if any
harm,

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

79

BOWEN's EEVOLVISO tea toaster — EE-PIRIVO TEA —

fCLTivATloN IN Japan— A novel proposal— tea

PANS.

In connection with the above, we may notice an
article headed " Japan Tea and Bowen's Eevolving
Tea Toaster." Mr. Bowen's account of the culture
and manufacture of tea in Japan is almost entirelj'
borrowed from Mr. Gribble's paper, but ho ia more
detailed in his notice of the final firino: in the foreign
factorirs. The introduction of some disgnsting and
very improbable details of children carried by their
mothers becoming sick amidst the tea, looks asif •*
was done to further Mr. Bowen's design of giving
employment in America to a tea-toaster be has in-
vented. As our readers are aware, no degree of he.at
to which tea can be safely exposed will succeed in
dispelling all the moisture. About 5 per cent re-
mains in the best fired teas, and to tea packed in
hermetically closed boxes this percentage can do no
harm. The harm is done, if people in America or
Europe open the boxes and leave them open, so that
the tea should imbibe further moisture and get spoiled
. or even mouldy The teas imperfectly tired in Japanese
houses or huts, however, contain an appreciable
quantity of moisture, which is expelled in the final
firing. Mr. Bowen's contention is thit a revolution
ousht to take place in the tea _ trade of Japan, in
order that employment rnay be given to a tea toaster
which he has invented. He holds that the teas as fired
by the Chinese middlemen, conld Sitfely bear the com-
paratively short voyage to America via San Francisco,
:ind could, after arrival, be kept in the original pack-
ages, until t:iken out to be toasted as coflfee i.", when re-
quired The quality of the tea, he believes, would
thus be superior. An engineering authority, to whom
we submitted the number of the Indian Mercury in
which the article occurs, gave his opinion thu.-* : —
I have read the article carefully, and am inclined to be
very sceptical: (1) because the writer is cracking up his own
machine and (2) because of the nonsense he writes in
the paragraphs I have marked.

We suspect this will be the general feeling amongst
experts. No doubt it mioht seem desirable to friends
in America and Europe, that the final firing or toast-
ing of tea should be relegated to them, but pro-
ducers cannot he expected to see it, or to give up
their belief that the very p-rfect'ou of t 'a manufacture
is that the leaf wh"n pucka baltied, as they say in
India, and fimlly tired, as people say where ''the
English she is spoken," should be packed and soldered
up when dry and hot. But we shall allow the in-
genious American speak for himself. We ought tu
say that the hiiliriu Mercury quotes Mr. Bowen's
article from the Grocer. Mr. Howen states that the
mode of planting adopted resembles that pu.suuJ
in Californian vineyards and that thi- siparatt: oiroles
of plants are better than the hedge system, inasmuch
as an opportunity i« thin given to more thoroughly
fertilize and cultivate, which is consoicntiou.sly done.
He states : —

In the third year of its growth the plant bears leaves
ready for picking, and from its fifth to tenth year is con-
sidered at its best, although with proper cultivation from
this time on it deteriorate-! but little. The hlirub, for
convenience of picking and for the .strength and develop-
ment of the new shoots, is kept trimmed to a height ot
three or four feet.

.Mr. Bowen repeats M' (Jriljble's sta'ement as to girl"
e-itriering 3,4 lb. per <l.m, Sut • th.' t-nd. r leaves"
follow, and that they gither a gr ater wei^dit as the
leaves develop in size The wag-^ for a day s w-rk
is -aid to be \2k emits oi ,\mioi.-:Tn mon'-y, which
would be about 25 cen's of a rupee. Twenty-live
cenia per diem for less than of a eq'dvalent of a hi.
9f dried tea could never pay ; so we suep.-ct Mr. Bowon.

copied Mr. Gribble, and that the latter referred to lb.
of dried tea. Mr. Bowen ta.ks of a first crop in April
or May ; a second in June or July ; and sometimes,
with a favourable season and high prices, another
crop is gathered still later on. It is clear that
plucking flush is generally confined to the period ex-
t nding from April to July. Bowen s.ays distinctly
that the Jirst proci'ss after pluckiug is steaming. And
now for Mr. Bowen's proposal : —

Before following the tea into the godown or warehouse
of European exporter, I desire to call the reader's atten-
tion to the liaii.i of the writer's idea in shipping thoroughly
cured tea, and freshly firing or toasting (I use the word
toast as being, perhaps, more generally expressive) it in
America as soon preceding its actual consumption as
possible.

The position, I assume, is that it is possible and practical
to ship to America properly cured tea, direct from the
plantation, free from all coloring matter, and in its natural
state, and toa.st it as it is consumed.

In all my experiments I have met with only one ex-
pression of doubt, and that is that the " tea won't keep "
but when showing samples that have been in stock
tiyht-tai months, and perfectly sound and sweet, the regul-
ation reply has been, " I did not, think it ]]ossible."

The climate of America is noted for its tea-keeping
(lualities, and witli the ocean voyage.s reduced to fifteen or
eighteen days, the risk is much less than when shipments
were made by the Cape or Horn.

Unfortunately the manipulation of tea, unlike itsactive
competitor, cotfee, is but little known, but for the purpose
of an illustration, I may compare them. Every child knows
that cotfee comes to America in what is commonly called
the " green "state, and that before it can be used it must
be toasted, or roasted ; but how many children, or, for that
matter, how many adults generally speaking, ever heard of
tea being toasted ?

Not one, I will venture, in a hundred ! and yet, every
pound of tea, that is or ever has been exported, has
undergone this final toasting process before leaving tlieso
shores. It is acknowledged by all coffee drinkers that
cotfee, when used immediately after toasting, is better than
it ever will be by subsequent keeping. This is identically
so with tea.

But I am asked, what is the use of toasting tea? The
best reply to that is by asking, what is the use of toasting
coffee y

Whatever the chemical action of heat upon the combined
or individual properties of tea or cotfee may be, one fact
remains fixed, and that is for centuries no other treatment
has been devised that will develop the body, bouquet and
flavor as the toast does.

Naturally, then, if our tea is treated one day or one
week before using, it will possess more flavor, aroma and
" snap " than if bought as it is now, with the toast from
six months to three years old.

To carefully toast tea by what is known as the ba.sket
system, without having skilled labor, is the problem the
writer after three years of experimenting in Japan claims
to have deciphered in the coni|)letion of what is known as
"Bowen's Patent Automatic Tea Kirer." This machine
consists of a cast iron bo.\, diviiling into thri-e equal sized
compartments, over aii.J partially in which on suitable
journals, revolve three nickel-plated wire baskets. The
baskets are revolved by an endless screw, which is pro-
pelled by a small ingenious water wheel of recent design.
On one end of e.xch hasket is fastened another screw of
corresponding thread, which meshes into the driving screw,
and this is connected l.y alight running rublier belt to the
driving wheel of the water motors. These mol.ors are very
simple, and screw on to the same sized nut as an ordin-
ary garden hose, anil therefore do not recpurc any o.\pens-
ive pipe connections. Jiy the aiTaiigernent of the screw,
the baskets work entirely independent of each other, thus
enabling a person to to.ist at one time three separate gratles
of tea. Under each basket is placed a pan of live char-
coal uf tir the smoke and gas li.avu been burnt oft'. This
furnishes the neces.sary peculi.ar steady heat, which in
about twenty minutes will give the tea a most even and
thorough, quick toast. At this moment your tea is at it

8o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

best, and like coffee, the sooner thereafter it is consumec!,
the more delicious jt is.

The machiueis j,, working order on tea that has been ex-
pressly cured tor jt this season, and to those who mav be
niterested, a practical demonstration will at any time gladly
be made.

That is Mr. Bowen's scheme, and, if it has real
merit to recommend it, we ought to hear of further
progress. Mr. Bowen cives a full account of the
bring process in the foreign godowns, from which
we gather that tlie pans employed are not copper,
?' .^® I'nagined pans for t)reparing tea always were,
but cast-iron. Thpy are described as thin and about
2 feet in dianipter and 13 inches in depth. Many
godowns contain ,'500, 700, or even 1,000 such pans,
two persons operating on each. We need not quote
^'*g"!?y"g "cletails thrown in as regards perspiration,
&o. Mr. Bowen concludes thus : —

if ri""" *^ ^'''' *^^^* '" sufficiently toasted, it is immediately
packed i,, Jea^ ij^e^ chests or jars and shipped on its
journey, with the hope that the toast may remain till it is
opened. "^

Of course, the inference desired to be convpypd is
that the toast will not rPmain, and that Bowen's
faster ought always to be bronght into requisition,
"urchagera and consumers may be left to settle that
point. Jq any case our properly rolled and fermented
teas, will not need retiring in the consuming country.

THE CHINA TEA TEADE :
(From the Nortk-China //craM, June 5th. )

THE DISPUTE IN THE TEA MARKET AT FOOCHOW.
The disputed matters between the foreign buyers
and tho teamen in Foochow remain unsettled, and
the market has consequently not yet been opened.
The Chinese case was stated iu the document pre-
sented by the Tea Guild to the English Consul,
which we published some days ago. The English
Consul, in a manner which ought to be fully reprob-'
atedbyhis superiors, intimated his intention of adopt-
ing the rules propounded by the Chinese, and of guid-
ing his opinion by them in siiy case that might be
brought before him jndiei I'y. He did not wait to
leai-n whether h's cnuii'rvmen had anything to urge
against the demands of the Chinese, but, with that
indiscretion which has often marked his ofiioiol pro-
ceedings, at once ranged himself on the side of the
n.atives. The Chinese Guild complains of the " cuts "
which have often been made in the weights of teas.
These seem to be pretty much the same as, but on
a smiller scale than the malpractices we exposed in
the Hankow trade .about to two years ngo. They
are the growth of an unhealthy competition on the part
of foreigners; and have no doubt been encouraged by the
desire of native dealers and brokers to sell their teas at
nominally high prices. The Guild required that a
certain scale of allowances should be adopted, and
the Chamb'-r of Commerce has proposed another more
favournhle to buyers. The dispute ns ti the allowances
resemliles that which occurred h^re in 18S0, and which
was settled bv a compromise wliich has worked satis-
f:icforiIy. Now that both sides have fully expressed
their views we have little doubt that a similar com-
promise will be adoptfd by tho trade in Foocho%v.
Practically it dnes not maUer in tho long run on what
Ronditions tho tea trade is carried on, if those are
faithfully observed. But there is treat reason to fear
that the Chinese dea'ers have no inti-ntion of consider-
ing themselves hound to apply the rubs of the Guild to
their dealings under all circumi-tinces and to all people.
No security that the rules will be adhered to by the
Chinese is offered by tho Guild, and foreigners cmnot
trust them to resist the temptation of selling contrary
to the rules, and thus in an underhand way injuring
tho fair dealer who adhered to tho regulations approved

by the Chamber of Commerce. This is so obvious that
the Chamber o£ Commerce, in the resolutions adopted
by tbem, require that a substantial guarantee or an ap-
proved security ba given to their Committee that the
tea hongs will adhere to the rules which they pro-
posed. And for what the Tea Guild says about the
long credit taken by foreigners, that is a peculiarly
Chinese way of stating matters. Long credit has more
or less a characteristic of the trade siacB the opening
of the port, and was introduced by the first Cantonese
teampn who established themselves there. These men
were wealthy, but they and their wealth have given
way to a new and by uo means rich class.

The tea trade at Foochow has been for a long time
conducted generally on peculiar principles. The
Chinese dealers were mostly wealthy Oautonese who
did everything they could-to encourage speculation ou
the part of foreigners. Long credit was given ; some-
times the teas or at all events a portion of their
value was not paid for until they had been sold in
London and returns received bick. Thi.s accommod-
ation was paid for by considerably higher prices bting
given for the teas" than prudent shippers offerei!.
Thus the market was sustained in Fuochow aljove
its proper level, to the detriment of the general body
of foreign traders. The teamen ran some risk by
this kind of busin. S9, but on the other hand they secured
higher prices for the bulk of the crops than they would
otherwise have done. From lime to time they made
severe losses, but it may be inferred from the style of
business having continued so long, that, upin the
whole, it was proQtable to the Chinese. In other ca?ea
foreigners did not pay for the teas they purchased until
it suited thein to sell their exchange, which mighi be
weeks, or even months, after the teas sailed for
England. Sometimes foreigners kept running accouuta
with the teamen, to which payments were made fr..m
time to time, and a settlement nominally made once
a year. At no other port in Ciiina were such facil-
ities for reckless speculation offered by the Chinese.
This system of credit-business was probably intro-
duced when the port was first opened some
forty years ago, and was no doubt the same
as that on which the tea trade had been conducledat
Canton frrra the time when the East India C.impany
closed its factories. The Cantouesi; teameu hadal^^ay8a
strongly speculative element in them. Tliey l.ked to do
things on agreat. scale, and they rancoiisidera^)le risksiu
order to make large profits ; and under the rigime of the
East India Company they could only try to get these
by demandiug high prices. They could not increase
their gains by giving credit, ai the Company paid
cash at ouco. But as soon as an opportunity presented
itself the Cantonese availed themselves of it, and
more than seventy years ago sever.al of the Hong
merchants impoverished themselves by giving long
credit to American merchants, who were theieby it:- •
duced to overstock the New York market. Teas,
we are told, foil in prices there to much beluw
the actual cost of §uch teas in Canton, and the
Continental markets, from which a large purt
of tho teas used in England were then obtainfd
by smuggliup, were also seriously depressed. It would
;ippear that the ehippera who thus obt.iiucd credit, in
Canton were, at least iu many oises, unable to u.ake
good the losses, and, the Iloug mcrcliauts having
been trading ou bol•rl■o^ved cijiital, some of them were
brought to ruin, and the remainder more or less em-
barrassed. Again we find the same thing ocourring
in Canton sume thirty years ago, when an Americin
lirm f.ailed owing large sums of money to the te>inieu,
and a few years later au English house suspended pay-
ment here, to which largo credit had been given by
the Chinese. In this latter case, the only one of any
cousequenoe which has occuned here, tlio tcamou
had given credit in the Canton way, but they did

August i, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

Si

not bear their losses with the equanimity which has
often characterized their brethren in the south under
similar circumstanoee. Headers of Laurence Oliphaiit's
account of Lord KIgiu's mission will remember how
the natives here persecuted the foreign merchant to
whom they had given the most lavish credit, t>iDCO
that time there have beeu some instances in Foochow
in which the teamen have made serious Josses, but
they are not entitled to claim sympathy for these,
or to make them reasons for brin<;ing charges
against foreign merchants, as they entered on a
dangerous business with their eyes open, and ran
considerable risls for the sake cf a larger nominal
gain than they could have obtained from selling tlieir
teas to responsible firms. The sooner this sort of
business is put au end to the better for all parties.
It was never a healthy one, and the r.apidity with
which business is carried on nowadays has probably
increased its dangers. We believe the system of
giving long credit to foreign buyers is now almost
confined to Foochow ; at all events there is nothing
of the kind iu the northern tea maiket?. Had there
been, the bad condition of the trade in late years
would undoubtedly have been even worse than has
unfortunately been the case.

FOOCHOW. I

THE DISPUTE IM THE TEA TR.\Dli. I

At the annual general meeting of the Chamber of
Commerce held on the 20th May, the following re-
solution was uoanimcusly adopted : —

1. — That the following regulations be made for the
payment for tea?.

(a). — In all cases payment to be made within seven
days after the examination of the teas by the Custom :
House.

(6). — A discount of 1% (one per cent) to be allowed I
on all such payments. j

(c). — iS'o discount to be allowed on teas not shipped
off or not paid for within one month cf date of '
purchase.

2. — For the regulation of weights.

(a).— The turn of the scale and fractions of a lb.
to be in favour of buyer,

(6).— With the following allewauces ;
Per Cheat of Congou ... ... 31b. each.

„ Ualt- chest Cin^ou ... ... 2 ,,

„ Box ( f all dfscriptious of tea ... J ,,

,, Half-chegt Ooloni; .,. ... 1 ,,

,, Cheat Flowery Pekoe ... ... 2 ,,

xVo(f. — Boxes t.) be weighed one at a tini''. No c m-
tract need bd acceptid win u boxej are over 27 lb. gross
and no allowjccc will be mide tor any excess.

(c). Notice to be given of the lime for weighing teas,
which can be shipped off, if no co:n|diiat is made, at
once, If the teaman or his represetititive docs not at-
ttnd at tbe weighing, no oomplaint will be in crtained.

A Bubitant al guaraulce or an approved security be
handed to the Coin;nit'.C3 tf the Cl.anilitr of Commerce
that the various tea hongs on their aide will adhere to
tlifl above rules. [

JoUM Odbll, Ciiairman,

20th May, '

THIC TK\ DISPUTR AT FOOCHOW.

Foociiow, .June Sth.— The dispnle with the teamen
still continues. On the -Ith. a >pcc;al '.•entr.il meeiing
of the Chamber of Comm-rce was held at the Club,
when the f( Uowing memorandum from the Tea Guild's I
Committee wa? piefeatcd for cons i eiation : —

CosGOtJ.— Two half ches'sot Congou or .Souchong
to be weighed togeth'r. Teas to bo weighed exactly
and fractions not up to half-pound to be iu favour of
buyers,

Taring.— Ualf-chcsts to be tared BiDgly, The .

fractions not up to a quarter pound shall ba calcul-
ated as a quarter pound and to bo iu favour
of buyers. An allowance of 2 lb. per half-chest in the
case of Congou ; 2 lb. per half-chest in Souchong, and
3 lb. per chest to be made.

Boxes. — Hoxos to be weighed exactly in two together
at a time (sic). Fractions not up to half a pound to be
in f.ivour cf buyers.

Taring. — Eneh box to bo weighed at a time (sit).
Fractions not up to a quarter pound to be in favour
of buyers. No other alhiwancc to be made be5ide3 this.

OoLoXRs. — Two half-chests of OoJoug to be wei^'hed
togethi'r. llalf-chcsts to be tared singly. An allow-
ance of 1 lb. jior half-chest (Oolong) to be made.

Flowery PiiKOE. — In Flowery Pekoes an allowauee
of 1 lb. per chctt to be made.

Teas musi be weighed within a fortnight cf date of
purchase. Teas must be paid for within seven days
of their being examineel by the Custom House. In all
cases they must be paid I'or withiu Ij weeks of elate
of purchase", whetlier the teas be shippoil or not.

A properly a'ljuslcd scale to be kept at one of the
foreign tea hongs, so that any dispute in weight
may be conipuretl by it.

In case of infringement of the foregoing terms on
the part of foreign buyers their musters to be at
once stopped, and in I ho meantime no business will
be eldne \iith them. In case of infringement on the
part of tea-inen, a tine of 1,000 taels to be imprised
by the Tea Guild, anel as a guarantee of gcod f.iith
a sigiiel document to be lodged at the British Con-
sulate stating that the above line will be paid^by
any teaman so ofTending.

Further, a memo, of weights in all cases will be
at once sent to the tea hongs concerned, ai.d the
same may be shipped when no error is detected ;
furthermore, that iu tho absence of an answer from
the tea hongs they cannot be shipped under plea tf
quick despatch, as also allowances thai! be deducted
out of the weights mentioned in siid memo. — Foochow,
2nd June 1SS5.

As compare-! with the rules originally put forward
by the Tea Guild, this document shows a consider-
able diminution in their demands. The allowances of
weight are increased so as to correspi nd, excepting
in the ca^e of tio.very pekoe, with the resolu'ion of
the C. ambT of G>inmeice- the perind w thin which
paymint must in all ra'es be niede is exteii' cd fioni
four to fix weeks. Tno guarantee d. ma ided by the
( haiiber U also provideil for. But the points at
is(-UG remain numerous .-md important. A fixed time
for payment, irresprctivc of iho examination of teas
by tho 1 nslom House, is >till demamkd. Only .j lb.
instead of I lb. is ccnccihd for the turn of the scale.
Boxes and half-chests are to be weighed two iit a
time, thus le.-S'ning the alloMancrs te r fractions of
weight. And tho buyer is btill lift to wait the con-
venience of tlio teainin as to the t'me for making
complaints about tlie weighing.

The meeting adjourned til next day in oidcr that
the men'orandum might be (riiitid a.d circulatid
among the membtrsoi the Chambir if Commerce. At
tho a<ljnurncd meeting, fu'tlnr propo^aU wcreat.sciitcd
to uiainlaining the ncce.-sity of ihc r. le 'hat 'the turn
of tho scide rnd fiactionsof a ll>, are to be in favor
of the buyer,' and geneta-ly the adoptirn cf tl e ChMi'-
ber's nuitiin as to the regiilati' n < f weights, lut p; ss'ng
over the claim foreliso uiit of oi o percent. The tea-
men, howeier after much di?cusion wiili itio committeo
appointed to tn at with tliein, found thenrelvcs uiialilo
to ace pt f'.e pripo.-al and fo things cutiuue at a
deadlock. MaT y peop'e, however, i xpress ot^utiderco
in the acceptance of the proposals of the thamter by
the teamen within a short period.

Ihe claim of the foregn buyer to have given in hie
favor all fractious of a lb, is necesiiitated by the ciistop^

8^-

THE TKOFICAL AGRICULTUKIST

[August i, 1885.

of tho London market and should be agreed to. The
reason for weighing boxes singly I have explained in mj
last. As to the (lis|«ite3 about weight, the propositions
of both sides might be slightly modified. Tho foreign
merchant can [hardly consent to wait Aa indefinite
tira^ lor a reply from the teaman and so
possibly lose a chance of shipping his teas,
while it may bo seriously inconvenient to the teaman
to ' at once ' compare the weights and forthwith send
in his protojt. Perhaps the best course for the Chinese
would bo to appoint a special agent or agents to be
present at the weighing of all teas, and to make protest
on tbeir behalf, if necessary. — China Mail.

The controversy between the Foreign and Chinese Tea
Merchants has been finally settled between themselves,
and the revised propositions made by the Chinese Tea
Merchants' Association have been accepted by the Foo-
chow General Chamber of Commerce. The following is
a copy of them: — ■

REGULATIONS

FOR THR CONDnOT OF THE TEA TRADE AT FOOCHOW, SUD-
MITTED DY THE CHINBSE TEA MERCHNTS' ' ASSOCIATION
COMMONIY CALLED THE TEA GUILD.

1. — Teas to be paid for within 7 days of their being ex-
amined by Custom Heuse.

Teas to be weiglied within 1-1 days of contract, unless
special arrangement to the contrary be made and stated
on the contract.

In all cases Teas to be paid for within 7 weeks of
date of contract.
2. — For the regulation of weights,
(n) — The exact scale, and fractious of J lb. to be iu
favour of buyer,
(/ij—AVith tho following allowances, viz: —

Per chest of Congou .3 lb. each.

Per half-cheat of Congou 2 lb. „

Per chest of Souchong % lb. „

Per half-chest of Souchong U lb. „

Per box of all descriptions 0| lb. ,,

Per half-chest Oolong 1 lb. „

Per chest Flowery Pekoe li lb. „

Tabino.

All packages to be tared singly. Fraction of J lb. to
be ill favour of buyer.

All packages to be weighed one at a time. No con-
tract need be acci-pted when boxes are over 27 lb. gross,
and no allowance will be made for any excess.

((•) Jlemo. of weight to be at once given, and the teas

can be shipped off if no complaint be made within 3
hours after receipt of such notice.

jy'oxE. — In order to avoid any misunderstanding in the
matter an example is subjoined of what is considered a
fair method of weighing, viz: —

If tho gro.ss weight of half-chest is, say,

71J lb. it shall be called 71 lb.

„ , "I ^

TIJ 1') ,.

zrib, „ » „

Tabino,
If tlie half.cUest weighs
j5 Ih, ft .itiU^II b« culled ,.,

73 Jb,

m lb, „

mib. „

,lti lb. ,) (( ,) ... ui .„ i

If ttiti fe'ross ^Toight of the boxes be mora than

37 Hh ii eball be called .., !

16 )b,

m lb.

10 lb.

18 lb,

m

26}

27 lb,
0| 'b, „ a ,^ 20j( lb.

6} lb, „ ,, ',i .;i -M lb,

TAftlNO.

If tlio boxes wrigh

7J lb. each they shall he called ... ,,, 7§ lb.

7* lb, , 7J lb,

4 lb. , 7 lb,

7 lb , 7 lb,

Foochow, 13th June, 18S5.

FoocHOw, 19th .Tune.— An agreement was come to
between the foreiga tea niercliauts aijd tbo ChincKe

3 lb.
2 lb.
2i lb.
li lb.
*lb.
1 lb.
Ii lb.

each

tea-men on the 12th; and, the document having been
signed by all the foreign firms, musters were sent in
at the beginning of the week. We are now looking
forward to tho opening of the maiktt iu another ten
days or to. This tinal agreement is to the following
effect :^iVa5 are to be paid for within a week after
examination by the Custom House. Te,is are to be
weiiihud within fourteen days after the contract is
made, in tlie absence of spCL-ial arrangements entered
iu the contract. Payment is in all cases to ho made
witl.iu seven weeks from the date of the contract.

As to weights, fractions of i a pound are to be in
favour of the buyers ; with the following allowances,
viz : —

Per chest of Congou
,, half-chest ,,
,, chest of Souchong,
,, half-chest ,,
,, boxes of all descriptions,
,, half-chest of Oolong,
,, ohest of Flowery Pekoe,
All packiges are to be tared singly, the fractions
of 4 lb. being in favour of the buyer.

All packages are to be weighed one at a time,
In o lice is to bo given of the time of weighing and
any complaint must be made within three hours,
otherwise the tea can be shipped oti'.

The above terms, when compared with tho rules
originally put forward by the Tea Guild, shew an
extension in the time for payment from 4 weeks after
contract to 7 weeks ; the allowances granted are to be
weighed singly. As compared with the unanimoua
resolution passed by the Chamber of Commerce, the
chief coiicessious to the teamen are no claim fur dis-
count, fractions of h lb. insttad vi 1 lb. to be in favor
of the buyer, and a slight diminution iu the allowances
made. A fixed lime for making complaint as to weight
is laid down and the teaman is not required to be
present at the weighing.

Possibly the offer of the aboue terms made by the
Guild was accelerated by the ditoontent of the smaller
Cniuese tea-hong.'f, shewn in a placard full of virulent
abuse of the richest coinpradore', which was posted on
the walls on Saturday.

Foocuow, 19th June.— The dispute between the
Teaincu and Foreign Meiohants has at last been
taiisfact only settled, and seemingly in a way fair to
both parties.

The origin of the dispute arose from a circular
issued by Tea Guild, in which they asked or in.
sisted that business this season should be carried
on on terms which were a little too much for the
" haughty Foreigner," so the reply was a counter
demand very much against the " poor ill-used Native
Trader."

The real cause of the whole thing was this,
Several rums who annually purchase a great ijuantity
of tea had taken advantage of the old st^le of doing
business to weigh in a manner so as to give them a,
clear gain of 4, 5, and even C per cent, in weight,
and air this the Chinese winked, as it kept up the
nominal price of the article, For instanoe, a email
buyer wishing to hove a chop or two, just to look
iu, finds the' price of Panyongs Tie. 14 ; and after
bidding Tls. 13, Tie. 13J, and TIs I.'i| iu vain, Bees
them all, slipping away at a reported price of Tls.
14, and CO gives that price, thus paying unwittingly
4, 5| or 0 per cent, more than bis ueigiibuUr. At
last this came out and everyone in his own defence
merrily bumped the scale so at last to claim the at-
tentiou of honest John Chinaman.

The new system of -weights is calculated to put
all on the same footing and to save the loss in
weight 00 shipments to London, calculated in tbg
olid tables at 3 per aent^ and caused ^f the mUMti

August i, 1SS5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

83

ia which teas are weigI:cJ by the Customs io
London and the allowauoe of lib. draft par p»ckage
to the trade.

The present agreement has not been arrived at
withoat considerable opposition from native (i. e.
Fokien) teamen, and tho walls of the Oaoton Joss
House were for a day or two embellished with
some of ths choicei<t abuse the Chint-sp linguage
allows of, some tpit'.els being tjaita original and
ingenious and well worthy of the attention of any
of our sn'l.jjU'S whj are compiling a Chinese slang
dictionary.

Our tea market wis opened yesterday, and prices
seem to suit tl.e heathen, as they aie passing nales.
— Moiuikong Daily Press.

INSECT PESTS AND INSECIIVOEOUS EIEDS :

A WILD BIRDS rKOTECriON ORDINA>XE WANTED IN
CEYLOK.

TVe commend Mr. A. Whyte's letter (page 93) to the
attention of all connected with gardens or plantations.
The statistics given as to tho insect-destroying powers
of even a few birds are marvellous. As faraas cacao
is concerned, we should think insectivorous birds
would do well, it properly provided for aud conserved,
up to the limit of the zone in which the plant
grows, and a very large pioportion of the tea culture
of CeyloQ will be in this same zone, from sea-levei
to 2,000 or, at the utmost, 3,000 feet.

The difficulty will be with tea grown above 3,000
feet, for nothing is more striking than the paucity
of bird-life as hijher aud higher elevations aro at-
tained in Ceylon, the substitution of plantations for
the orininal forest having seemingly banished a large
proportion even of the birds whoaa habiat is in the
elevated re^'iona. No doubt, something could be done
by growing groves of trees around bungalows and
elsewhere on estates, but, unless abundance of Htlo-
pelt'u (which we all deprecate) attracted insectivorous
birds, we eca'cely see how taey are to exist in any
numbers on hill and mountain properties. When first
cinchona oflicinalis seeded, numbers of small birds
came to the trees, but evidently the seed was not
acceptable as fuod, for the birds gradually disappeared.
S ill, aronud Nuwara Eliya whel-e the forest is un-
touched, tho birds con'.inue plentiful. Perhaps some
of our planter-friends may have experience to re-
cord or tuagestions to nflfer.

"The ^"eed for a Wild Birds' Protection Act for
India" was the subject of a paper read before the
East India Association by Mr. Kobert II. Elliot
("the Mysore Planter") about a year ago. We quote
a few passages in order to strengthen our position
in calling for some legislation in Ceylon. The
paper, in its entirely, now in our possession, will be
at the service of the Government or any legislator who
may wieh to take up the subject during the session
of Council. Mr. Elliot mentioned, among other in-
sectivorous birds that ought to be protected, tho fol-
lowing:—

The Jay, Kingfisher, many kinds of Woodpeckers,
Thru6hes,"and Titmice. All these are sought in ludiafor
their plumage, and there can be no doubt of their use as
insect-eaters. The value of such birds to the planter and
the agriculturist has been fully recognized by the Govern-
ment of INfadras, which, some years apo, applied to the
Supreme Government for a Preservation Act. Aft«r a
long delay, there descended from Simla a single sentence,
declaring that the ^■ice^oy in Ooancil was not prepared to
legislate in order *' to prevent the indiscriminate destruc-
tion of wild birds for the sake of their plumage." In the
case of Mysore, 1 am happy to say, we have heeu more
fortunate. The Planters' Associations of that State lately
asked for an Act. A petition was also signed by native
farmers and cofTee-garden owners who,! need hardly say,

are fully aware of the value of birds. The Prime Minister
promptly requested the planters to submit a measure for
consideration, and we hopf, before long, to have our
beautiful aud valuable birds efficiently protected.
About the way in which destruction is proceeding,
we read : —

As tho most convenient season for the destruction of
birds is during the line weather that succeeds the heavy
rains of the raousoous, and as this season is also tho breed-
ing season, the destruction of birds proceeds at such a
rate as must soon lead to almost absolute extermination,
unless preservative measures are immediately adapted.
And the rapid progress towards extermination is cloirly
shown by last year's export returns from the port of Madras,

I have obtained the following return, which exhibits
tho shipments from the port of Madras alone : —

Birds' Skins.
Quantity. Value.

82,100
98,300
11,275

B.

19,S80

20,"5-S

i,t;6o

Birds' Feathers.

Quantity. Value.

K.

1.SSI... 123,175 10.625

1882... 105,51 5 19,930

18S3... 167,750 20,'iUO

As most of these exports go to Hongkong and Singapore
it is fair to conclude that Asia East of India has alre.ady
become exhausted of bright-j-iumaged birds. It would be
interesting to ascertain the exports from the numerous
ports on the Western side of India, which, from the
quantity of woodland towards the West, probably far ex-
ceed the exports from I^Iadras.

That birds can be very rapidly exterminated we know
from experience in other countries. From Bogota in South
America, largo supplies of skins and feathers once came.
Now none come. The Quezal, or Trogon of Guatemala,
has been exterminated in the districts where once it was
common, and is now only to be found from three to four
hundred miles inland. My own experience too has shown
me how rapidly) the process of extermination proceeds.
In 1679, when I visited my plantations in Mysore, bright-
plumaged birds were numerous When I returned in
1881 their numbers had perceptibly dimiuished. Towards
the close of last year, when I again visited my estates,
the decrease of birds was so marked, that I instituted in-
quiries, aud soon found the cause, which I had not pre-
viously suspected, and you will not wonder at their rapid
diminution when I tell you that, quite early in a recent
season, a single bird-catcher in my district had secured four
hundred skins.
Mr. Elliot ^ops further than prevention: —

To promote the increase of birds, and spread them
throughout the length and breadth of the land, is notlesa
important than to prevent their destruction, and in order to
effect this, plantations should be formed on the waste lands
of every village. Such plantations would at once shelter tho
birds, provide fuel (to the saving of the manure now used for
that purpose), wood for building and agricultural purposes,
shelter for grass and crops, promote the conservation of
water and effect a general amelioration of the climate.

Finally, let mo remark on the need for establishing a
close-time for the protection of game-birds. Every civil-
ized Government'preserves them, with the exception of that
of India, which, with two unimportant exceptions, allows
them to be destroyed in any way, and at any season of tbe year.
To act thus, is of. course, simply to extinguish a valuable
source of food. The almost absolute extermination of game-
birds, (which live largely on insects, it may be observed) has
already be<^n accomplished in many parts of India. As
to the rapidity of this extermination, I can myself bear
witness, as Pea-Fowl, ,Tuiigle-Fowl, .Spur-Fowl aud tho
Imperial Pigeon, have beeu almost exterminated along
the Western districts of Mysore. AVhcn last in India, I
saw during a three • months' visit one specimen of the
Imperial Pigeon, which I regarded as a curiosity. 'J'he
shrill call of the Jungle-Cock, once su(di a familiar sound,
is no longer to be beard, and tbe extermination of this
bird has been accomplished with a romp'etene.ss I could
never have credited had I not bad ample opportunities
of observing tho fact.

In conclusion, permit me to point out that legislation
as between mau aud nature is of far more urgent im-
portance thau as between man and man, because, what-
ever the laws may be which affect our relations with

84

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 1885,

each other, there is an accommodating power always at
work which answers fairly well for the existing needs and
circumstances of the times, and which largely modifies
the worst evils that society 's liable to suffer from.

While man is always re2)resented in some form or other,
and while, therefore, in his case, legislation may for long
be delayed, nature, being unrepresented, ever needs the
vigilance and timely action of the legislator. Prompt
attention, then, is needed in order to extend throughout
the length and breadth of India those woods which are
necessary for the use of man, and birds and the amelior-
ation of the climate. Not less attention is required to
preserve and promote the increase of those bu'ds which
eo largely aid in preventing an injurious increase of in-
sect-life. Let us, then, do what we canto represent the
cause of nature, and endeavour, on behalf of the beauti-
ful and useful wild birds of India, to bring about a
measure for the restoration and preservation, of that ba-
lance of nature which has been, and is now being, so griev-
ously injured by the negligence of the Indian Government.

We trust Mr. Elliot's elocjuent words will move the
Ceylon Government to follow the example of that of
Mysore : a, copy of the Act passed there c.Tn easily be
procured. We may mention that although the export
trade in birds' feathers and skins from Ceylon is not
so extensive as that from M idras, etill it is large
enough as the following figures show, to indicate a very
considerable destruction of birds for the sake of their
plumage : —

birds' F£ATn£K.S tXPOETED FROM CEYLON TO BRITISH
INDIA AND STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

1884. 18S3. 18S2. 1881. 1880.
Value... El, 034 3,330 4,255 5,160 4,912

We cannot tell the value of birds' skins exported,
because in our Customs accouuts theve is but the
one heading "Skins of sorts" for the skins of all
animals. But the above ligures are suflieient to show
that a large annual destruction of birds for tbeir plum-
age takes place in Ceylon and to justify the call, at
this time, for a " VA'iLD Birds Protection Ordin'-
ANCE " The object is one peculiarly within the scope
of our Planters' Associations ; butpcrhapi before they
move, our present Acting Co'oDial Secretary may fortify
himself with the Mysoie Act; and issue circulars for
information to the Governiiietit Agents.

PROGRESS OF PERAK AND MALACCA.

The report for 1885 of Mr, Swettenham, the Acting
Resident of Perak, is no. iced in the Straits Times,
and we learn that

while ten years ago, in 1874, the revenue was only
!8!'226,2Li3, against an expenditure of §256,831, the defici-
encies doubtless being made up by loans from this
Government, the revenue has risen steadily year by year,
nntil in 1SS4 it reached .$1,, 532, 497, against an expenditure
of S1,4S1,470, During these ten years, the State has
entirely cleared itself of debt, including the loans from
the Colony's Treasury' and tlic whole of the war debt, so
that its finances are now in a thoroughly sound condition
— having a credit balance of S!310,000; and Mr. Swetteu-
ham advocates the abolition of some unimportant but annoy-
ing taxes which are regarded rather in the na'.ure of a
poll-tax.

The chief source of revalue of the State is the tin
mining industry, and in spite of the low price ruling
for this metal, inducing tlic Government to reduce the
royalty from 1512 to ,~jlO p.r bhara in I^arut and to .'j'J iu
Selania district, the output was lari^er than ever and the
customs receipts exceeiled the estimates b)' nearly
S75,0U0, being $-.'4,000 more than in J88:{. Some of
the tin deposits, how ever, arc alul0.^t woiked out, so
the Government are opening up the country by
me.ina of roads, the nmst important being that now
under construction from Kwala Kangsa to Ulu Remain
to meet the road recently made by tlu.' Selangor
Government.

This, Mr. Swettenham says, will be the main trunk road
of the State, and when completed " there will be an un-
interrupted highway from Malacca to Province Wellesley,
i.e., a distance of about 3G5 miles from Malacca town to
Butterworth."
This roid, however, it seems,

is not to be a metalled cart road, which the State could
not now afford,— but a first-class bridle road, graded to
nothing steeper than 1 in 211, and any section of it can
be altered into a cart-road as the necessity arises. The
Perak portion of this road is about 1.50 niiles in length,
and passes over the Meru range at a height of 1,300 feet,
but there are two branch roads, one 24 miles, and the
other 50 miles in length, already under construction and
forming part of this scheme.

The railway from Port Weld has been completed
since Mr. Swetteuham's report was published.

The Port Weld wharf, has proved a white ele-
phant to the State, and though S20,000 were placed on
the estimates for dredging, piling, and building the wharf,
and 18100,000 for the railway, the wharf swallowed §34,800
and the railway §108,000. The railway alone, with rolling-
stock, was estimated by the State Engineer to cost about
£8,000 per mile, or, as it is only 8 miles long, S357,00O
for the whole. The work on the wharf at Port Weld
has been stopped, as the original plan is not likely to
succeed. Temporary landing stages were therefore being
erected, and the Hon. Major McCallum had reported on
the work and prepared detailed plans and estimates, but
Mr. Swettenham has no idea what the cost of completing
the wharf will be ; and probably the original scheme will
never be carried out.

A commencement has been made with the surveying
and mapping of the State, and it is to be hoped this
will be carried to completion. Chinese immigrati a
has fallen pflf greatly, owing no doubt to the low
price of tin. Mr. Swettenham gives his opinion on
the subject of European tin-mining companies, and
thinks that the Rev. Mr. Teuison- Woods was rather
piemature in stating that Europeans cannot make
tin-mining in Perak a success. Ha says : —

The advice I would offer to European miners is /cs/iMa
loite, and reduce as far as possible the risk, whether as to
nature of ground or ainotmt of money sunk in the venture.
If the investment of a small capital proves successful oper-
ations can gradually be extended ; if it fail, there is a
possibility of withdrawal without much loss. Companies,
however, do not usually care to prove the ground by a
small expenditure and one pump, and it is only operations
on a very large scale indeed, something I fancy as yet
imtu-ed and for which the chaiacter of Ihe Malay tin de-
jiosits may lie unsuited, that can support a numerous
highly-paid European staff and a quantity of powerful
machinery and still bImw a fair margin for dividends.
Mr. Swettenham concludes his report by contrasting
the state of Perak as it was when be first visited it
more than eleven yeai's ago. naraowly escaping sharing
the fate of Mr. Birch, with its present condition.

The Straits Times also notices the administration
report of the Kesident Councillor of Malacca (Hon.
D. F. A. Hervey) for 1884, from which we learn that
the revenue for last year was 835,000 less than the
expenditure, but was ,S2.000 over the 1883 revenue,
so that it is hoped that erelong there will be a balance
to thegood. We read that

The tapioca planting has been to a great extent given
up Owing to the great fall in price of the maimfactured
article but the extension of frontier roads, and the open-
ing of roads through the assistance of this Government
in the Native States, must eventually tend to make Ma-
lacca an important and prosperous country.
The Pieport states that

There is plenty of tin near Kulla Pilah and also in
Gemeucheh, and it is to be hoped that the opening up of
communications will be the means of attracting capital to
work it.

Tin-working has already been taken up hi two places
iu llembau.

There is plenty of fine hill country in .Tohol, Kembaa,
Sri Menanti, and Jclei, which it would be worth planters'
while to iu.spect.

August i, 1SS5,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

Ss

pockets and looks as if he wished to hear no more on the
subject. Very well. Now tlio Mysore man says : t'We
like weeds : they save wash in the monsoon, they
continually furnish a ready substance to dig into our
soil, they do not get much beyond control because
we have shade, and they sweeten and nitrify the
soil." I needn't enlarge on the Ceylon system, which
U known to your readers. I may merely state that a
weedy est.ite is a blot on a man's escutcheon in
Ceylon, a stain on his fame as a planter. How do
they then combat with weeds in iVIysore save at a
ruinous cost? Well, I would like first to ask would
a V. A. or Colombo agent allow you to charge the
eradication of weeds as dif/iiinci if digging were the
process ? or what would you call renovation — pitting
and top-dressing the soil with the earth out of the
hole? You would n't charge it to loeedingl All right."
Tlien Mysore weeding beats you as regards cost. A
dry-digging at the comme ncemeut of four months
drought is pretty rough on weeds for some time, yon '11
admit; and, besides the renovation-pits, the sickle is
used to mow down all weedy growth in the rains,
the stubble of which forms a splendid protection
against wash. Add to this the effect of digging in
every year a great deal of green vegetable matter,
and you will see the system is not altogether "happy-
go-lucky," or " ruleot-thumh." But before we can be
on even ground on the suVijecb of weeds we must
look at shade. It is no use to roll scientific jaw-
breakers on our tongue and say that Ilcmidria vaslatrix
ruined cofl'ee thi>refore coffee should be given up ;
that HelopcUin Antonii has played havoc with cacao
therefore away with cacao. I once very foolishly tried
to break a lance with "W." and I see my folly, I
think, now. I now agree with him that leaf-disease
is a result rather than a ciuse, and I include
helopeltis and borer in the same category. If
you outrage nature a punishment is sure to come.
Is there a punishment in store for the forlorn hope
tea? Now shade has been proved in India to
be a specific against borer. Twenty-five years have
clearly proved this : I find cicao planters acknowledge
this to be true with regard to helopeltis. Too
thick shade may be modified, but once removed
it is hard to re-establish it. This question applies
perfectly to the districts where cacao has flourished.
But higher up men of experience say they want all
the sun they can get. It is truly to be hoped that
the Ceylon men have found a door nf hope now in
tfta. Assam men ask : " How long will it last?
You can't have flushes all the year round. No
plant will stand it. You have no droughts to check
vegetation and afford a rest to your tea estates.
Financial considerations are forcing you on." The
Ceylon man answers : " The oldest tea is the island is
just as good as ever, even better. There is no sign
that any harm is accruing ; and at the present rates
v/e will be out of the wood long before the tea will
absolutely require to be maintained by manure."
Then he soars away into arithmetical flights — so much
2>rr aerc so iiinch per jioiind, and the bitter past and the
trying present are for the nonce forgotten. My
sympathies are with thee, oh sorely tried planter of
Ceylon ! Surely success will come before the old
veterans are all laid beneath the sod. It is coming,
they say. Let it come speedily. I wiil have more to
say after I have ssen more. I often think that Ceylon
being at the apex of the triangle gets the full evil of
blights th,at .are cirried on the wings of the wind. This
helopeltis has declared itself in Ceylon in cacao, in
Assam in tea, in Java in cinchona. It may creep into
your grand tea expanses. look the thing in the face,
for, behold it is within your borders. Gently does it.
Draw the line in dipping too deeply in the usurer's and
money-lender's purse. Ouard asjainst the spider's ne\
I liive seen Coorg coffee in Ceylon today sappy and

On this our Straits contemporary remarks : — !

Now, the fact that the people of Kembau have allowed
minerals to be worked in their territory, against which
they are said to have entertained a superstitious dread,
shows the advantage that will be derived from closer and
easier communication with the more prosperous coast
states. The workmg of tin is the direct result of the [
opening up of the country by roads, which must also give •
an imjietus to agriculture and by alfording ready outlets
for the products. As to Malacca itself, Mr. Hervey con-
cludes by hinting at the possible production of tea, coffee,
and sugarcane, and remarks that if all the available padi
laud in the Settlement were taken up, and cultivated as
the Chinese know how to do it, Malacca might be the
gi-anary of the Straits. He says nothing, however, about
the difficulty of export, owing to the shoal sfcite of Jla-
lacca harbour and the want of facilities for shipping grain,
and it is to be feared that unless these are improve<l the
produce of Malacca and of the inlying states will find
readier outlets by the Muar river or by way of Sungei
Ujong, aud that the neglect that has been shown by Gov-
ernment of the interests of the ancient and interesting
Settlement will unless speedily remedied eventually hasten
its decadence.

PLANTING IN CEYLON AND SOUTHERN
INDIA.

[X'oles bi/ " Aberdonfjisis.")

CEYI.ON AXD SOLTHERN INDIA CO.MPARED— CHANGES IN
CEYLON — TEA 's TUE WORD— CEYI.ON A FEUIf-BEARINA
AS WELL AS LEAF-BEARING COUNTRY — THE CEYLON GM
AND THE MVSOUE MAN ON AVEEDS — COST OF WEEDINGN N
MYSORE— SHADE — LEAF-DISEASE A IlESULT RATIIEK THANAI
CAUSE — ASSAM PROPHETS OF EVIL OX TEA IN CEYLON —
HELOPELTIS — A WABSING— COFFEE IN CEYLON AND SOUTH-
ERN INDIi — PROFITS FROM CARDAMOMS IN CEXLON — CABD-
AM05I3 IN MYSORE.

A most interesting time is before me. A few
months' holiday has afforded me the opportunity of
confirming comparisons already noted and considered
between Ceylon and Southern ludii. Before saying
anything further, I wish to emphatically assert that
as there are intelligent Britons in both countries all
striving after the main chance, spending their lives
in closely studying the characteristics of the climate
and requirements of the plant from which they hope
to make a competency, — 1 say it follows that it
would be dogmatic and unfair to institute close com-
parisons which are proverbially odions. At the same
time it is interesting to compare the two countries
in a harmless waj', and so I make use of some spare
leisure in wilting down my humble ideas.

In three years there have been great changes in
Ceylon. The talk everywhere is tea. In bungalows,
in hotels, in railway carriages — everywhere the talk
is about tea. I can't siy I am interested. I
have seen great talk about many things, but lasting re-
sults have not been so apparent. When I go
farther upcouotry tea may impress me, but 1 am
sceptical, and I resist " gush " as far as I can.

Ceylon may be, and is, a leaf-growing country, but
it is eminonUy a fruit-beaiirg conntry too. Fruit,
being the result of reproductive efforts of the plant
of course differs iu its effects on that plants
from leaves which support its life. " Magnesia and
silicic acid are the principal conditions for the form-
ation of roots and leaves " (Liebig) and are
favourable for the cultivation of tea and weeds.
Weeds rob the soil of potash, but prom )te nitri-
fication and so on. These facts arc applicable to
cereals more than to fruit-trees. Now for a local
application. The Ceylon man's first dogma u :
" Ceylon soil being too poor to grow both weeds
and a particular product, the weeds must be kept
down as cheaply as possible. We have arrived at the
nearest point of perfectiuu iu working out this prin-
ciple." And thu Ceylon man shoves his hands into his

86

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 18S5.

croppy as is its wont. There ia no argument against it
here,

I hear Udapafsellawa is asserting herself. Poor
coffee ! art thou altogether rejected ?

In Mysore, looking across the Maidun, you can
make out the locality of the', coffee est;-tea by stretches
of what appears to be jungle, so thick i-! the shade.
And if the coffee appears to have heavy shade what
would be said cf cardamoms where the covering is
much heavier ?

Talking of cardamoms, I have to retract my chaff
about " orchards." The figures are startling. Forty
acres in Ceylon gi«e about the same yield as three
thousand acres in the Mysore Ghats. This will give a
profit of over twenty thousand rupees. How about the
Ceylon forty acres ? This is another example of
stuffing a market. The Ceylon men are again respons-
ible. They are not blessed in India, especially in Assam!

The ditiVrence in yii-ld and prices since both have
had the cream skimmed off, say on 3,000 acres, is the
difference between a profit of RIOOOOO annually and
one-fifth of tl;at sum. The prices have been lowered
by the Ceylon buccaneers !

I referred above to the Mysore Gh.ats. In the
Mysore Gliiits the cardamoms reach the height say of
eight feet .ind about the same number of shoots in
the stool. In favoured spots the growth exceeds that,
and in large areas less favoured the stools are very
poor. Now in the Maidan, just on the boundary zone
out of the Gliats and out of the true Maidan — between
the two where the coffee thrives — you find cardamoms
in ravines assume the thick lu-Kuriant appearance of
the Malabar cardamom in Otylon, and bearing heavily.
They fear however to plant it up the hillsides on
account of the drought and because they .ire pleased
with the coffee. But why enlarge on this subject ? You
get 25,000 piiuuds weight from forty acres and you
have brought the market down about our ears I want
to see how you are working tea, and I will
send you my ideas if they are acceptable.

Abebdonensls.

PROGRESS IN TKA MANUFACTURE.

(To till- Editor of the "Home and Colnilil Mail")
All folly aod injustice will be minimised when
thorough and official iuvtstigatiou shall have not only
formulateil rules for mauufaoture but scales of requis-
ites, also standards for out-turn p'ir 1,000 bushes of
the various jhals for various sh'j. districts. I say per
1,000 bushes a9 acreage too often tellsagainst the planter
where vacancies are of abnormal number. A planter
can then before taking ocor the . management of a
garden, form his own e.stimate, and compare it with
that expected of him by the proprietor", and at once
protest ou the grounds of officially sanctioned scale,
against any improper entry in the proprietors' estimate.
Thus it would not be a case of his opinion against that
of his predecessor, but that of his predeccs.-or against
the scale. Of course, such scale could only be
approximate and must be subjict to the average effect
of each season's weather over the eub-district in which
the garden is situateil, but it would be far nearer a true
criterion of a mauagei'a merit than auythiug we at
present have, and soma Ii;tlo safi guard to his re-
putation. I have said sub-districts because there
are too great differences in "Lay" and s lil in whole
districts to .allow of one scale being fair to all the
gardens in ii. Daiukeling.
^

" TEA NOTES."

IWe slmll shortly pulilish a review of our own of lljis book.— Ed.]
Mr. L). U. Traill, of the UalcuUa Adoeriiser Press,

has just published "Tea Notes," compiled by A. F.

Dowiiujj, of the ICoriiafuli Association, Chitt.agong.

The book is a very useful Omnium yalhtram on every

conceivable subject connected with tea-plants. It deals

with the chemistry of tea and the advantages of wire
netting : the forest trees of Chittagong and Screw
threads and shingles : foreign rate of postage and
prescriptions of all sorts ; tables of wages, tea returns,
waste laud lot^, in short something is said about
everything. The subjects are arranged alphabetically
and the book is interleaved, so that notes may be added
from time to time as may be found needful. Mr.
Cowling's Tea Notes should certainly prove a success.
Here is what is said regarding soils and manure: —

We have to consider first, what Soils consist of;
second, what the plant takes out of the Soil ; third,
what are the constituents of Tea leaves, manufactured
tea, tea extracts, spent leaves, and tea ashes ; fourth,
what should be done to replace the substances removed
from the soil ? All soils consist of organic and inorganic
bodies : the latter, the earthy and stony substances ;
the former, animal and vegetable matters.

As a rule, soils contain but a small percentage of
vegetable or other organic matter, from three to ten
per cent only, — the proportion being easily ascertained
by placing a sample of soil over a strong fire, when
the organic portion will be more or less readily burnt
away, while the residue will represent the inorganic per-
centage, which remains fired and permanent iu the fire.
The best soil for tea is a strong humus soil, full of
organic matter, provided it be friable, that is to say,
contain thirty per cent or so of sand. Such soils,
however, are scarce, and the bulk of land tak3n up
nowa-days for tea is a light loam, containing plenty of
sand, with more or less of clay, carbonate of lime,
potash, magnesia, and oxide of iron ; while the richer it
is in organic matter the better for the growth of the plant.
Clayey soils, containing little t<v no lime, and marly or
calcareous soils, containing lime in excess, are unsuitable
for tea. Clay can with difficulty, and only at heavy ex-
pense, be brought to grow tea. Sand, on the other hand,
with but moderate manuring can be made a fair yielding
soil. Animal manure, however, is now very scarce ; in
fact it can hardly be obtained.

To know what our bushes extract from the soil, it
is necessary to be acqu.ainted with the constituents of
green tea leaves, manufactured tea, tea extract, the spent
leaves, and tea ashes.

The leaves of the teabush are all that is actually re-
moved from the land provided that weeds are buried,
which iu every case should h^ returned to the soil to
keep up its fertility. The leaves contain a large pro-
portion of water which is taken back by the soil
from natural sources. All but about !S per cent
of this water is driven off in the process of tiring the
leaf, the residue, or manufactured tea, consisting of
the following substance : —
In the extract or soluble part, or Liquor : —

per cent.

Dextrine, glucose, gum, principally carbon ... 1 7-55

Tannin — ... ll-QO

Theine (the Alkaloid of tea, 2S per cent of

which is nitrogen) ... ... 2-00

Nitroyen ... ... G-00

Potash ^ ... ... 275

Ammonia ... ... '70

Chlorine and Sulphuric Acid ... a trace

Essential Oil ... ... Do.

And in the spent leaves, or insoluble

part or outturn:— percent.

■Water ... ... 5-00

Woody fibre principally carbon ... 27'00

Legumen, a nitrogenous protein sub-
stance, sometimes called vegetable
casein ... ... l^vOO

Other protein albuminous compounds lll'dO

lusolublo tannin and insoluble ash... 3-00

6000

Total ... 100-00

Tea, it will thus bo observed, is extraordinarily rich

in nitrogen, so much so that the fresh leaves contai^

AvoviT 1, lS9^.]

Tim I'KOPICy^L AGRICULTURIST,

b^

mcye nourishing protein compounds than beans and
peas ; and were it possible to render the coarse
leaves palatable, they might be used as a nouriahiDg
article of food.

The whcle percentage of the leaf need not necessarilj'
be returned to the soil, as we have already seen that
part of it is derived from the air. To determine approx-
imately the substances actually extracted and which
cannot be restored trom natural sources, we must pay
attention to the ash of manufactured tea, the analysis
of which is: —

per cent.
Potash ... ... ... 3-00

Soda ... ... ... -10

Magnesia ... ... ... -30

Lime ... ... ... -25

0.tide of Iron ... ... -25

Protoxide of Manganese... ... '05

Phosphoric Acid ... ... "SO

Sulphuric Acid ... ... a trace

Chlorine ... ... ... ,,

Silica ... ... ... -25

Carbonic Acid ... ... l-QO

"While the combustible or gaseous
portions of the manufactured
leaf are : per cent.

AVater ... ... 510

Nitrogen in tea extract ... 6 00

Do iusoluble spent leaf (j Ou

Do Theine ... '50

Carbon ... ... 4000

Oxygen ... ... 3000

Hydrogen ... ... 5'UO

Sulphur ... ... loO 9400

Total ... 10000
The bulk of the carbon, o.tygen, and hydrogen of
the above being supplied by the air, and existing so
plentifully in good tea soils ; and the quantity of soda,
magnesia, lime, oxido of iron, and manganese ex-
tracted being comparatively insignificant, we need
only pay attention to a resupply of the other sub-
stances, nitrogen, potash, sulphur, and phosphoric
acid ; the two former, nitrogen and potash, being
thcsa of most importance. There being 12ilb. ofthe
former and 3 lb. of the latter in each 100 lb., it there-
fore follows that a yearly produce of 400 lb. removes
from the soil 50 lb. of nitrogen and 12 lb. of potash
per acre. Cow-dung and linseed, or castor cakes,
are the only manures which so far have been used
to any extent by tea planters, and with consider-
able success 80 far as a resupply of nitrogen and some
of the soluble ealts is concerned : but neither of
these manures contains potash. It ftillbe an assittance
to have a simple test for this last named valuable in-
gredient. Chemical text books may be souglit in vaia
for any but the most elaborate means of detecting
its presence j but I ficd that for a rough test it is
suthoitnt to stir into the tea infusion (in a wine
g1a-8) a< much tartaric acid as will cover the point
of a pen knife (part of the ccDtents of the white
packet of a seiUlitii powder will do.) whuu a slight
cloud wiU indicate a trace, and precipitate BU
ftliundauceof po'.aeh.

With reference to the Saw Tree Mr. Dowllngsaysi
—From close observation it would seem that lea gener-
ally ii better (at any rate greener) under the fhade
of the Acacias. At Agonea there ia some very good
tea near Korais, while at AVaga Snrrah the best tea
in the garden is shaded by an uou,uaily large Cliukwa.
The peculiarity of the Saw, I uuder.'itaad it, is that
it has a beneficial effect on tiie soil, and I c. n well
inia.;ine this chemical action is possible, for in Cfutta-
gong wo know to our coat what a baneful influence
tome trees have on the soil. The Assur injures tea
near its base. The Banian, though innocuous to p'ants
round the stem, yellows the bushes mmy yards off,
Tb« GurjoD, lioojia, Cbamlash an^ Mango weaken

the soil. The Badhi Peeala exudes an odour from
its roots which poisons tlie plant for some distance
round, while the Doomir (fortunately rare) kills the
plant outright at the time when it bears tigs on tho
bark of its stem in February and March. It is only
reasonable to suppose then th.it some of the Albizzias,
apart from any benefit desired from their light shade,
have the capability of impressing tho soil. If there
are trees which deteriorate the land, we may
naturally look for others which better it, and the
thanks of the planting community are certaiuly due
to Mr. Buckingham for making; generally known the
advant.iiies and beneficial infiuenoes of Albizzia
Stipulata. — Indian Planters' Gazette.

THE FATHERS OP THE INDIAN TEA

INDUSTRY INTERVIEWED.— III. ME.

W. HAWORTH.

Mr. Haworth, the subject of tbis interview, is prob-
ably the Z)oi/fn of the class representing Anglo-Saxon
enterprise m India. He first left England for India iu
the last week of 1S27, arriving in India in the middle
of the following year after one of those protracted
voyages long since relegated to the limbo of the past.
Thus every railway iu the world, with the exception
of that short initial line between Stockton and Dar-
lington, has been comtnenced since Mr. Haworth first
left home to become — as it turned out — tho father of
various enterprises in the laud of his exile. His object
in first going out to India was to superiutend the
building of the Strand Flour Mills iu Calcutta which,
for a long time, were the largest mills of the kind. His
energies were absorbed by this venture till 1S32 when
he returned home, but soon left again for India to take
out the machinery for and establish the Cossipore rice
and flour mills on his ow^n account. These were after-
wards converted into a sugar refinery, in which, by
introducing " centrifugals, " he soon produced uupre-
cedeutly large crystals, these becoming known as
" Haworth's paviug-stoues." It was as a member of
the Agricultural Society of India, of which ho afterwards
became vice-president, tliat tea was discovered ia Assam.
Its gradual extension and establishment as an
industry thus came promiently under his notice.
He was, it may be mentioned, in passing, a member of
the committee, who received from tho Viceroy, and
tasted the first small package of tea which was made
and sant down to Calcutta as a sample. How little
could he have anticipated on examining, as a curiosity,
those few ounces, that he would not only become one
of the benefactors of the new industry whicli was about
to take the lead of all others in India, but that he should
see the day when that industry should have absorbed
close upon 16 millions steiling, and have produced over
67 million pounds of tea in one season, yielding about
14 million stsrliug to the English Exchequer as revenue.
Since his position in the Agricultural Society thus first
brought tea before him, his connection with the industry
which immediately sprang up has been continuous, Hia
special training naturally enlisted hia energies ou the
side of mechanical innovations iu the process of rnanu.
faoture. Up to 1807-68 t^a was rolled by hand, and —
horrihile dictu — sometimes by the feet, after the fashion
taught by the Chinese tea makars who were imported
to snpervii-e the manufacture on approved I hinese prin-
ciples. These principles, though still adhered to in
China with that tenacity 10 '' old custoii " so peculiarly
dear to the Celestial mind, presented many objections to
tho more go-ahead Euiopearis who controlled tho tea
estates in India. In lS(i7-0'8, two or three gentlemen
commenced experimenting with machines, of more or
less crude design, in the hopes of replacing the
costly and dirty manipulation by means of a
Biachiao which should be both more economic and
ckauly in use, from one of these Mr. Haworth received

^B

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885,

the inspiration which led to the production of his first
rolling machine. The first o£ these machines was sent
to Tarrapore Estate in Cachar, in 1S68. This original
design has since been completely remodelled and vastly
improved. The original model, however, may hs said
to have been the first rolling machine introduced which
succeeded in competing sufficiently favourably with
hand-labour to merit adoption by planters, though there
are now several well-known rolling machines very
efficient, of which it is not on this occasion the place to
speak. Coming to the views now entertaiued by Mr,
Haworth on the subject of manufacture, it is to be
confessed that that gentleman's modesty militates
somewhat against the duties of an interviewer.
His distaste against "appearing in print" ia marked
when it is a question of advancing opinions, or the
chronicling of his experiences. The years during which
he has been connected with the industry he ignores
when it is proposed that he should pose as an authority ;
" I don't see that I can add much to what everybody who
is intimately acquainted with tea must already know."

" Granted, for the sake of argument, but under
great reservation, it is, none the less, of considerable
interest just now to many, that views should be
discussed, and to be discussed they must be known.
Perhaps your views may help enquirers on a point or
two iu that search for more light, whigh is the acknow-
ledged duty of the hour ? "

" Well then, to take up one point in manufacture
only; we need a thorough sifting of the question of
the temperature at which tea should be dried. This,
in my mind, is the crux of the whole position. I am
convinced that very excessive temperatures have, iu
many cases been adopted, and I have reason to be.
lieve that even the chief advocates of high temperat-
ures are now becoming converted and are realising the
fallacy of their former creed. The true temperature'
will probably be found to lie under 250°. At that
temperature or under it, air can be more evenly and
regularly heated over a large surface, and also more
economically probably by using steam as the heatiog
medium, than in the case where high temperatures
arc employed, apart from the most vital consideration
of all, the chemical effect upon leaf."

"This means that time which has hitherto been such
an object to save is to be sacrificed !"

"Not necessarily so; as with slight modification the
work can be done as quickly as it is now by using
additional appaiatus; but if Indian tea is to maintain
its repuiatiou for quality we must make the latter more
of an object than we have done of late : though 1
think it is quite possible that machine may be produced
or adapted from present forms by which the quantity
turned out need not be reduced though the temper-
ature should be."

" Are you in favour of a return to panning?"

"I think it ia very probable that we shall Hud that
if our quality is to be improvod it will be necessary
to re-establisli, not panning after the okl-fashioned
caroi plau, but a n^echaoical substiiute for that plan
whereby the aciion produced by the old process of
panning shall be revived. I thinl' an appliance could
be constructed without much difficulty in which all
the action produced on the leaf by janning could be
produced without the old risk of burning from the
pans being overheated, and without the costly em-
ployment of manual labour in thi working entailed
by the old system. Such an appliance la already
under consideraiion in certain quarters. You see there
is about 75 per cent, of water in the cutcha leaf, of
this about 25 per cent, is extracted during the wilber-
in2, rouf;hly speaking, then 25 per cent, should bo
extracted during the panning, and this weuld ouly
leave 26 per cent, to be extracted during the final
drying, instead of about 50 per cent, less juices cniehed
out during the rolling, often to a fatal excess by

planters, as at present. Thus the lower temperature
would then have less moisture to dry off, and this
would compensate in a measure for the decrease in
temperature, though at the cost of an additional pro-
cess, that of panning, it is true. If the equality de-
mands it, however, that additional process must be
accepted as a necessary inconvenience, and in this
way the whole process might be done as Cjuickly as
it is at present."

" What would then be your complete ideal system
of manufacturing ? "

"Firstly, I .should of course wither ; secondl5', roll
slightly ; thirdly, pan mechanically ; fourthly, ferment
or, more properly, oxidize; fifthly, finish the rolling I
sixthly, final fire, and at this final firing I should, a^
already explained, have only 25 per cent, instead Of
50 per cent of water to evaporate — i.e., one-half of wha^.
now has to be evaporated." — Home aiul Colonial Mail

LONDON (INDIAN) TEA COMPANIES.

The Borokai Tea Company, Limited — Capital
£4,3,560in 4,.356 shares of £10 each, Areaundtr cultiv-
ation, 910 acres. Directors, Messrs. William Duncan,
O. A. Duncan, T. W. Powell, and W. H. Simpson.

The twenty-first annual meeting of the share-holders
of this Company was held on the 30th ult. at the Com-
pany's office, when the following report was represented
to them by the elireetors:—

The directors have to report that the crop of tea from
the company's gardens in 1S84 was 2,980 maunds, and
that the quality of the tea was satisfactory.

The gardens were well cultivated and 54 acres of new
garden planted, the area now under plant being 910
acres, of which 802 are in bearing. It is intended to plant
an additional 50 acres, or more, in 1885, and a supply
of the best tea seed has been bought to raise seedlings
for that purpose, and for filling in vacancies in the
gardens.

The coolies worked well during the year, and the
number on the garden on Dec. 31st last was 781. More
labor will be required for the increasing area of garden
and the manager states that if his recruiters are as
successful a.'i they were last year, the rccjuisite number
of coolies will be obtained through them.

The gardens were visited and inspected in
January last by a member of the firm of Messrs,
.Jardiue, Skinner, & Co., the Company's agent iu
Calcutta, who was much pleased with the appear-
ance of the gardens, which he found iu good order,
The whole of the crop has been sold with the ex-
ception of lis maunds, and estimating these to realize
£678 lOs or £5 los per inaund, the total revenue
for the year, as shown in the annexed accounts,
amounts to £19,536 12s 5d against a total expend-
iture of £11,654 li^s Id, leavirg a profit of£7,SS2 2s4d,
to which has to be added a balance of £399 14s 6d
brought forward from the previous year, making the
total amonut available, £8,281 16s lOd, An inter in
dividend of 5 per cent has already been paid, and
the directors have now the pleasure to recimuvuda
further distribution of 10 percent making 15 percent
for the year, which together will absorb £6,531. They
further recommend that £1,000 be added to the ro-
reserve fund, raising it to £4,750 ; and that the lalanie
remaining at the credit of the profit and loss account
be carried forward.

Results seem to show that these estat s are among
the finest, if not actually the finest in the district of
Cachar, — The returns given by the area iu full bearing
appear to us to be quite as encouraging as any we
have heard of, even in Ceylon, so far as the va'ue
of the produce goes. The yield per acre of bearing
plant is close upon four maunds, and the net result
18 a prp^t of it.'9 89 per acre.

August i, 1SS5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

89

Wo congratulate the fortunate shareholdera oa the
substantial proofs they receive of the good mauage-
nieut of their gardens — 15 per cent, dividends for
the past two years may well make the mouths of share-
hol<lcrs in the older corapmies water !

The Company's crop of tea was, we notice, 321
mauuds above the out-turn of 1SS3.

The Ixdian Tea Company of Cachak, Limited.

Capital, £94,060, in 0,40G shares of £10 each. Area
under cultivation, 79IJ acres. Dirtctors : Messrs. William
Duncin, C. A. Duncan, X. W. Powell, and W. H.
Simpson.

The twenty-second annu.al meeting of the share-
hoMers in this company was held on the 2Sth ultimo
at the Company's office, v\hen the following report was
presented to them by the Directors : —

The Company's gardens yielded, in ISS-i, a crop of
2,592 maunds of tea. The season commenced well ;
but in April there were several hail-storms, which cut
up the bushes badly, and for a short time plucking
had to be altogether stopped. For a mouth or two
afterwards the jield was small, but with favourable
weather, and less blight than usual, it improved later
on, and the season closed with an out-turn of 154
maunds more than in 1SS3. The progress of cultiv-
ation continues to show the propriety of gr.adually
abandoning the steeper parts of the " teelah "
laud of the old garden, and bestowing more labour
on, the planting and cultivation of flat land, which is
much more productive. During the year C4 acres of
new garden were planted on flat laud, and the
total area now under plant in 796 acres, of which
about TOO acres are in bearing. The machinery in the
garden continues to give satisfaction, and the supply
of labour is sufficient for the area under cultivation.
The gardens were inspected in January last by a
member of the firm of Messrs. Jardinc, Skinner &
Co., the Company's agents in Calcutta, and he reports
an improvement in tlie flat portions of the garden
since his former visit, the bushis having increased in
height as well as in breadth. As shown iu the an-
nexed accounts 2,516 maunds of tea have been
sold, leaving uusold 76 mauuds, and estimating
these to real'za £380, at £5 per mauud, the total
revenue f,ir the year amounts to £13,773 lis. Sd ,
against a tola! outlay of £9,814 Ts. 5d., having a pro-
file of £.3,9.'59 4s. 3d , to w!:ich has to be added £501 Us.
7d,, brought forward from lastyear, m.iking an avail-
able balance of £4,4G0 18<. 101. The direct.irs recom-
mend that a dividend of 3J per cent, be declared free
of income tax : that £750 be added to the reserve fund
aud thut the balance reniaiuing at the credit of pro-
fit aud 1 ss be carried forward,

Darjeeung Companv, Limited,

The following is th« report of the Directors to b®
made at the meeting held on May Uth ;^

The Directors beg leave to eubmit. their Twomieth
Ani.ual Report on the operfttious of the Company dur-
ina the past year.

The watlur during the manufacturing seaaou of
1884 was most variable and unfavourable for the pro-
puction of large quantities of fine leaf, and con-
SKpiently the tt-a made was far below the amount ex-
pected by the manager at Uarjecling when he pre-
pared hie estimate of the crop. For the same reason
the quality of the t?a at times was rath-r disappoint-
ing ; tome invoices were, however, received possess-
ing tine flavour, and realized excellent prices.

The average rainfall on the plantation during the
past three seasons, up to Novembi:r9th in each year,
was US inches in 1882, 91 inches in l'*S3, and only
73 inches in 1884.

Thu great depression in the value of all colonial
produce that has exiated »o long, has also been keenly

felt in the tea market, and, under such adverse cir-
cumstances, the results that have been realized, as
indicated below, must be considered to be of a satis-
factory character to all parties interested in the Com-
pany's all'airs.

The Directors would desire especially to draw
attention to the large savings effected in the expend-
iture in 1SS4. as compared with that in ISHJ, and tliis
was accomplished without in any way diiuiuishiug tho
efficiency of the labour staff, or curtailing the necess-
ary operations on the plant.ntions ; on the contrai'y,
the plantations aud everything connected with them
have been maintained in the highest state of elhcicney
and many important improvements of .1 permiincut
character have been carried out.

The cash receipts in 1SS4 have fallen short of those
in 1883 by about £2,734, but, on tho other hand
the general expenditure in 1S81, as mentioned above,
was less than that in 1SS3 by £2,259, so that the
gross profits realized in 1SS4 have been only £475
less than in 1883.

The particulars are given as follows, viz.: —

Tho crop of tea of 1SS3 was 473,tjl0lb.

„ „ 1884 473,206 „

Decrease in 1884

The average price for 18.S3 crop Is (j-59d
„ ,, ltiS4 !.•> r,-iU\

Decrease in 1884

The crop of tea, 1883, realized ...£35.927

001 lb.

1-lSd.

1884,

,.£33,975

Decrease in 1884
E.xchauge account iu 1883 was
1884 „

Decrease in 1884
Cinchona bark in 1S83 realized
„ 1884 „

"." £3,701

... £3,292

.".'.' £392
NU.

£1,952

£409

Decrease in 1S84

of tea and seed

£392

Less, extra receipts for sales
in 1884

£2,753
£19

Total deereaco in receipts in 1831 ..
Outlay in Darjeeling in 1884 ... £18,296
„ „ 1883 ... £17,493

Saving in 1S84
General outlay in 18S3
„ 1884

, £4,803
, £3,755

£3,734

£803

£1,018

£408
£2,269

Saving in 1884,..
Insurance and charges on tea in 1883. ..£4,657
In urance and charges on tea in !884. ..£4,249

Saving in 1844...

Total savings effected in 1884

Showing a balance against 1884 of only
The gross profits iu 1883 were ...

1884 ,

Decrease iu 1884

Tlie following comparative statements show at a glance
the operations of the Company during the past three
years : —

Total OrT-TCRN op Tka and Cost at I'l.ANrATioNS.
In 1832, 1,534 acres, 566,102 lb. at 3691b. I!.

£475
£12,299
£11,824

£475

per aero

195,336

In 1883, 1 ,502 acres, 473,810 lb. at 303 lb. per acre 182,965
I Iu ISS-l, 1,586 acres, 473,200 lb. at 2931b. per acre 174,932

yo

THE tROPlCAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 1885.

Gnoss ExpENDrTUBE AND Cost pee pound of Tea, aftee

DEDUCTING THE DIFFEKENCE IN THE RATES OF EXCHANGE.

In 1S82, £27,256 ... cost per lb. Os. ll-82d.
„ 1SS3, £25.461 ... „ Is 117d.

„ 1834, £23,707 ... „ Is 018d.

AccoDNT Sales Weight of Tea, Average Pkices, and
Proceeds.
In 1882, 553.02716. at Is 3-33d £35,336
„ 1883, 4B3,(i8llb. at Is 6-59d 35,927
„ 188J, 468,2391b. at Is 5-41d 33,975
Dividend.
The Directors beg leave to recommend to the members
the declaration of a dividend at the rate of 7 per cent,
free of income tax, payable on and after May lltb, IS85.

After providing for this dividend a balance will remain
on the pro6t and loss statement for 1884 of £782 10s 3d,
which will be carried to the credit of the reserve fund.
Dividends Declared.
On 1882 crop of tea, 6 per cent.
„ 1883 do 74 „

„ 1884 do 7 „

Reserved Profits.
The following sums have been set aside from the prolits
asa reserve fund, viz. : —

From profit and loss account, 1880. ..£1,073 10 11
Do do 1881... 1,312 14 0

Do do 1882... 199 19 4

Do do 1883... 688 18 2

Do Jo 1884... 782 16 3

Total.. .£4,057 17 2
Tea Season, 1885.
The manager at Darjeeling has prepared his estimates
for 1885 on the basis that fair average weather will prevail
throughout the season ; a diminishod rainfall, similar to
that experienced during the past season, must necessarily
upset an estimate prepared in this way, but under favour-
able conditions and estimated quantity of tea ought to be
produced.
Estimated CnoP of Tea and Expenditure in 1885.
Ambotia Plantation, ... 208,000 tfe. R59,2U8
Ging do ... 132,000,, 43,434

Tukdah do ... 108,000 „ 88,660

Phoobsering do ... 72,000 „ 24,668

(judder charges ... — 13,834

Totals.. .520,000 lb. RI79,694
Dieectors.
Mr. John Farley Leith and Mr. Henry Smith retire from
the direction by rotation iiu this occasion, and, _ being
eligible, they beg to offer themselves for re-election as
Dirsctorsof the Company.

AnDITOK.

Mr. John W. Roberts, the auditor of the OottipaBy, begs
to offer himself for re-election for the ensuing year.— "if cm"
and Colonial Mail,

(From the Planter and Farmer,)

Bkbs.— It iii Bitid that theru are In America no less thati
three niilliou stocks of bees, producing au annual yitjkl of
I2il,(i00,0i:0 lb, of honey,

It is fM by on AmerlcaU eobteiHJJOtai'y that a good
*i)rinkllng of a pint of sulphuric acid, diluted with a pail
t)f Water will effectually purity poultry yards if oprlnkled
lu theiil. Disease Will be eradicated and noiioui* gases
ile^itreyed. It pfTectually keejje cholera awaj*,

Til a I'lioDUcTiON ol' MaIzb in the United States during
1884 is said to have bet<n greater than in any previous
vear. It is estimated to have anlounted to 1,875,000,000
bubhels.

Thk avebagk rmcE of wheat in England foi' last J-eaf
Was 358 8d. In 1883 it was 41« 7d per quaftef, The
loinur is the lowest average for upwards of a century.
In 1780 the annual average was the same, viz., 308 8d.

The Eog trade of Great Britain is simply enormous.
lu 1853 the return .show thkt tlio importation of eggs
am ouuted to 7,83R,9C8 great hundreds of 120 eggs each,
yalBed &% »2,73i,0^9,

Sweet Potatoes is Japan. — Seventeen square miles
iu Kigoshima prefecture are devoted to the cultiv-
ation of sweet potatoes. — /a;>an Weekly Mail.

Cocoa Leaves are thus referred to in the
proceedings of the Agri-Horticultural Society of
Madras : — Read letter from the Honorary Secretary,
dated 4th February 1S85, to Messrs. Thomas Christy
& Co., London, enquiring what preparations the leaves
of Eryihroxyloji coca require to tic them for the market?
Read the following letter from Messrs. Thomas Christy
& Co., dated London, 27th February 1S85, in reply :—
" Your favour of the 4th inst. is to hind. 1 very
much regret you did not act, if it was only to send
home 10 to 20 lb. of the coca leaves which are worth
here today lOs per lb., when dried in the shade and
received green, whereas by your delay of only send-
ing perhaps in the course of a month or so, the new
leaves will be in from Bolivia, Chili and Brazil, and
the price is very likely to fall down to 23 to 3s
per lb. We have had to empty all our show bottles
80 gnat is the demind for even a few ounces of the
le..ve8 for medicinal purposes. The extract from the
gifeu leaves ha? been selling as high as lOs an oz.
a-.d the alkaloid his been as high as 223 6d the
gramme. A pound of leaves when well prepared yields
a gramme of alkaloid. If you can send us over a
anpiily of the seed in bags by post, we shall be very
grateful for it. They only want tying up in bags and
direding here. Your earliest attention will muohoblige."

Gambier and Pepper Plantations in North Borneo,
— Iu arldi'ion to the ordinary regulations under which
lands are leased it has been thought desirable to issue
special regulations having reference to the cultivation
of O'lmbier and Pepper, and with this view the court
have ordered as follows viz, : — that upon an applic-
ation for land being approved for the purposes named
a permit will be granted to the applicant to occupy
such land rent free for three years, at the expiration
of which period a rough survey of the land will
be made and a lease will be issued for 99 years for
so much of the land as shall have been Under cult-
ivation, and for the remaining acreage an extent
not exceeding two thirds of the cultivated portion
the whole being subject to au annual quit rent of 4Jd
per acre. The Company reserve the right to impose
au export duty on the produce of such lands. The
sale of lands fell short of the estimate for 1884,
principally in consequence of the nonpayment of cert-
ain large tracts alinated to Australian lirms who
however are expected to make good their liabilities
during the current year (1885.) — North Borneo Herald,

AouicuLiURE FOR NATIVES. — Mr. S. Weerackody,
Interpreter Mudaliyar of the Kegalla District Court,
and a member of the Ceylon Agricultural Associ-
ation, sends us Part I of " Waawurawidi Saiigarawa, or
a Trtatise on Planting." " This work," the writer
says, '' is especially intended for the information
of the large class of Sinhalese landowners and cultiv
ators who are unable to derive muoli benefit from
books on acietttitiu and practical agriculture, publi»hed
in English boih in Ceylon and elsewhere," Thti
book will be oOiii|jlLied in toU parts, each containing
sixteen pages. The prioo iu advance .for the whole
book fer registered subscribeiB i<* R2, and each pftrt
is sold at 25 cents. Mr, Weerackody, In a Isttee
accompanying this part, says ;—" I have acknowledgud
in the introuuctiou my deep indebtedness to yoUl"
Invaluable journal, and other publicat ons on agri-
coltufe issued from the Observer Office, without the
aid of which, I must say, itcould hanily have been
possible for me to complete my bonk."^ Tuis first
part dobtains au Introduction and deals with the Plant,
the (oil, aud Manure, vegetable, animal and mineral.
The work is ffedicated by permission to Sir Arthur
Gordon. Mr. Weerackody deserves well of his fellow-
countrymen and >ve ii«p« iu# venture will be 4 fSese^i,

August r, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

51

^on'i^spondonci:!.

To the Editor of the " Ceylon Ol'setrer. "

BLACK-BUG ON COFFEE.

Agra Store, 22ad June 1SS5.
Dear Sir, — One of your onrrespnndeQts wishes to
know the liest remedy for the cure of black-bug in
coffee. If you think the enclojed is worth your notice,
you might advise iiim to try it, and kindly publiah
it in your next. — Yours faithfully,

WILLIAM JDDD.

Cure for Black Bra on Coffee, — First cut down
all giiava trees iu the field near the buggy coffee
and bury or burn all branches and leaves. Spread a
thick covering of pig manure on the surface 18 inches
wide all round the tree, taking care that the manure is
direct from the stye without any m xture of cattle-
manure, and I have not the least doubt you will soon
see a favorable change iu the coffee.

MOIST VS. DRY HEAT FOR TEA
WITHERING.

Kelani Valley, 24th June ISSo.

Dear Sir,—" Agricola" 'a Withering Rebuke to a pract-
ical proprietor is amusing, if not instructive. "P.P.,"
however, is not far wrong in his theory, though
(probably owing to the steamy atmosphere in which
his speculations were carried on) his ideas of cause
and effect are less clear than might have been, had
they been formed under more favourable circum-
stances. During many years of tea planting both in
cold and hot climates, I have had my full share of
the difficulties a planter has to contend with in the
matter of withering, and have made many (I confess
futile) attempts to overcome them by artificial means.
To sum up the re-ults of years of experience in a few
words, I find ;—

(Ut; That really good tea cannot be made from
leaf that ha» been subjected to a higher temperature
than 90° during the withering.

(2nd) That the cause lies not in any waste of
juices, but from the action of extreme beat
rendering the leaf unfit for (or incapable of)
undergoing the chemical changes necessary to produce
what we call fermentation : the result of forced
withering being an uneven greenish outturn, a thin pale
liquor and a harsh unpleasant flavour not unlike a
weak cup of bad green tea. To illustrate the effect
of the heat by an extreme case : if the leaf be
subjected to a temperature that would fit it for
rolling within an hour after plucking, the result
would be a perfectly grcfn outturn, a pale straw-
coloured liquor and almost as bitter as an infusion of
cinchona bark.

(.3rd) That, up to 80° or So" a perfectly dry
atmosphere is best for withering, but above t)0°
moist heat alTeota the fermentation far less than
dry heat ; so much is this the case, that I believe
110' would not injure the leaf if the atmos|ih<re
were charged with imusture — at the same time, be it
remembered that 110° of moist air would take as
long to wither the leaf as 85" of dry. Never having
studied solenoe, I cannot tell " Agr.cola " why moist
heat has less injurious effect on tlie lenf t an dry
heat, but that it is to, I know from

EXPERIENCE.

PLANTING NOTES FROM TAVOY, BRITISH
BURMA :

THE VALUE OF A GOOD JAT OF TEA.

Sir, — Isee " Lindula Proprietor" complains of want
of information about indigenous tea. Can't find it in tha
T. A. Dear me. Liudula, Esq., put on your ?pee<
and look up July number, pp. 13 and ,3!), year 1833, and
you will find information as far back as 1874, sumo years
ago, Mr. Editor ; and one can have oouUr demouatiatioii
of results in Seaforth, Horagalla, VV'mdsur Forest mid
St. Rumbold^, not a long distance from Liudula There
you will find the oldest indigenous and the heat
hybrid that is to be found in t'eylon, di.stinctioii
easily perceived by an experienced eye : colour of
leaf and bark of tree quite dititrent, of a much
lighter pale-green leaf, and the bark of the ludiuenous
tree of a much lighter colour than cither China or
hybrid.

Those seeda of indigenou? and high-class hylirid
are the first of the kind turned to good practical
account. And it does » poor fellow's heart gooil (in
this lonely spot) to read the grand r.ccount of those
estates still holdmg their own, and to think of tlie
"senior editor 'looking down upon them with .idmiration
when he surmises that they must surely have been
planted with indigenous or near the real Simon pure,
Quito right, indigenous and No. 1 hybrid !
Indigenous. Hyhrid.
5 maunda to GO
I may be able to further enlighten some of you,
on the value of a good jdt of tea. I remeniljtr some
of you pooh-poohed Oiveua quutalitma im the v.i:ue (.f
a mauud of tea-.>-eed. I h^ve i ow iu my p .sse.s.-iiou
replies from four different, firm^ in O.ilcutta. and
prices of tea-seed from Pv,25 to K150 per maund.

I had the plea-uie of seeing Mr, W^inl here whet)
he came to T.avoy : although he had little tim^, he
came to see me here. Mr. Wur,! is now Chiif Com-
misaionir of A-sain, was f rmerl\ Jii licial Comniissiouer
there, and, a* he is a man ot observation and takes
a gr at iuteieat in tea cultivation, he gave me sterling
good advice. Ho taid : " If y u plant tea, put in the
best hybrid and indigenous that you can secure j
plants of an interior kind will thrive well for a time,
better even thau indigei.ona or A 1 hybrid, as they
feed for a time <m the puriace soil, but tliey have
not got strength to penetrate Mime sub-toils, and all
inferior jilts atter a time do not pay to keep up."
Indigenous will make way with its root.s through
rott-n rocks, but iudigenous should not be planted
alone. From all information 1 have got, the best
flavoured tea and greatist quautity for an average
yield is from tea p'.auttJ wiih indigenous and hybrid
mixed. In the tea districts now, inferior tea is
being pulled up, and the best kinds being pknted
instead. I trust this informatiou may be of some
use to your lovely island. — Yours faithfully,

JAMES D. WATSON.
P.iS.— Can you give me any information on the
value of annatto seed ?— J. D. W. [Let " J. D. W."
refer to page 65G, vol. 1883-84 of T.A.—Ev.]

TAVOY SIAM KOAD.
The scenery down the river is intensely pretty. High
hills averaging 800 to 1,000 feet, running along on
cither side and thickly woorlod to their very .summits. It
certainly is not child's play for the Assistant Kngineors to
trace the roa I, for in many places the hills seem to bo
literally almost perpemlicular, and it is a case of holding
on by one's eyelids, while tlie brushwood is so dense and
tangled that iu many places one has to actually crawl
through it to get to an opening wlicn tracing. I'lenty
of game ahound.'J in the shape of sninhur and harking
deer, wild pigs, deer, rhinoceroses, jungle fowl.s, pea hcuB

92

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August t, 1SS5,

&e., aud make a welcomo addition to the larder o£ one's
camp, and a pleasant variety to the tinned meats which
is all wo can niauayo to get here. Fish too is very
plentiful, and lliere being uo devotees to hold them sacred
dynamite is used to [procure the same. They are very
fair eating, but are terribly bony aud remind one cou-
Biderably of the Hilsa, only the flavour is not so
delicate. 'We have had the Chief Oommissioner
nt Jlyitta, and ho went down the river as far as
AV'oondwiu, aud from all I can learn enjoyed the fuu
greatly of shooting the rapids. As far as he went
he made a pretty keen inspection of the work done, and
our. of the results of his investigation has been that the
E.'cecutive Engineer will also come down the Tennasserim
and take charge of a division so as to be in the centre of
the work and push on the same as fast as possible. The
Chief Oommissioner has also written a pretty lengthy min-
ute on the subject, but this I have not as yet seen. There
is evidently a tliorough determination to have the path
made as far as I'ouscko before the monsoon breaks, but
I am of opinion that it will be a near piece of work, aud
that it will he pretty tough work to get it finished. Now
that all the officers and men are in their places the work
will of course go on far more quickly than hitherto, but
still it will take them all their time to have the road made.
Now too that the transport of stores is almost at an end
many coolies can be utilized on the road and this will also
tend to hurry on the work, for many hands make light
work, aud if tbo men can be kept well, as it is to be
hoped they will, the G-foot road may be a fait accompli
by the end of March. In the meantime the Ohief Oom-
missioner has promised a fair inducement for the work to
be completed and there is little doubt but that all will put
forth every endeavour to finish the road in the given time.
Owing to indisposition I believe. Colonel Lang did not ac-
company Mr. Bernard, but he is expected down in these
parts in a fortnight or three weeks, and by the time he
comes I fancy there will bo a substantial amount of work
for him to inspect. The Telegraph meantime are also push-
ing steadily on, Mr. Pitmau's headquarters being at
Tsindoungat present. There is a temporary ofhce at ICyoukh-
tone, but it will not be long hofuie the hne will be fixed
up as far as Tsindoung, and then I presume the Oamp's
headquarters will be shifted ou to Siubudeing. There was
some talk of the Siamese Government meeting us at Sin-
buduiug or a little way over the frontier aud fixing the tele-
graph line thence to Bangkok, but somehow it has come to
n*thing. At all events the origiual programme both as to the
telegraph, aud 1'. AV. i). road is to be carried out toPonseke via
Amya, though may bo nexi; seasoa a diversion may be maile.
■\Vlion the road is finally completed it is an open question
as to whether it will tend to serve as an inducement for
people to settle, aud populate the laud. AVere the country
cleared somewhat of the dense jungle I cannot but think
that it would prove healthy and as far as cullivatiou is
concerned the soil st-'ius pretty rich and well adapted for
crops. 1 should fancy (oo that a good trade might be done
all along the banks of the Tennasserim in cutting clown the
huge trees and floating the same down to Mergui, where
the river discharges itself into the sea. Burmans, however,
would, I am afraid, be too apathetic for the latter work,
awd 1 very much question if Kuropeaus could do it on
account of the clinir.te though 1 don't suppose it is worse
hero in the rains than up in the Chiudwin forests. Of
course not being a forester 1 do no( know the value of the
trees here but judging fronr the specimens of those cut
down which I have seen all along the route the wood
appears to be of a very hatd qualitj and well adapte<l for
buikliug purposes. Time, liowever, works wonders and it
may be that some day this desolate region may become
poiuxlatt.'d, and where all is silent and still, civilization ntay
step in and change this Imwling wilderness into cultivated
acres and open out fresh fields and pastures new to mauy to
whom civilized Burma is phxyed out. — Ranyoun Gazette.

CIGARS IN TEA : A WICEDY SUBJECT.
Badulla, 2.5lli Juno 1885.
Rm, — In your issue of the 22nd instant '■ A Lover
of the Weed," makes rather a sweeping asbcrtion in
slating that cigars are utterly ruined by being kept in tea
longer than u week ! I have brought njauy thousand
cigars packed iu tea ami iu a tin liued case to Eug.

land from both India and Australia, the former via
the Cape of Good Hope, and the latter by way
of Cape Horn and on their arrival in England, after
a three and even four months' voyage, have been pro-
nounced excellent in condition, flavour and quality,
by my friends, who, I dare say, are quite as choice
with their cigars ns" A Lover of the Weed."

Many people with whom I am acquainted have
shipped quantitiei of cigars and cheroots from India
to England packed in a similar manner, aud on no
occasion do I remember having heard a single complaint
as to the cigai s becoming deteriorated or allected in
in any way, by being iu contact with tea during the
time which elapsed in their transport from port to port,
I w ould reoomend ' ' A Lover of the Weed " to try
p.acking his cigars iu old and thoroughly dried tea ; and
lie may then find he will have good reason to alter
his opinion. GLOBETKOTTEK.

ROSES IN OEYLON.
! Deltota, 25th June 1SS5.

! Dear Sir,— Can you or any of your readers let me
know if anyone has compiled a pamphlet on the roses
I of Oeylon V I have before me the book prepared by jMorris,
' Assistant Director, on the forest trees, fruit trees, Ac. &c.,
' in which he gives 27 roses. There are at least 100 varieties
in Ceylon, and someone (Mr. Nock 1 think the most com-
petent, as he has the greatest variety) should give the names
of roses, with a description of each, intelligible to every-
one. Did you see the large rose exhibited by the Hakgala
Gardens 'i One who is something of a botanist called it
"Mrs. 'Williams," while another "Paul Neron." Morris in his
book gives Rosa centifolia as the cabbage rose, aud further
on " Souvenir de la Malmaison " as the Matale rose. Now
I have heard almost everyone call the " ISouvenir de la
Malmaison" the Hundred-petal or Kosa centifolia. Then
there is the beautiful cream rose with a salmon centre
called the "Gloirede Dijon." Mr. Whyte, the naturalist,
says that everyone is wrong, and calls what everyone
calls the '\'ictor Verdier (a creeping light-brown rose) the
" Gloirede Dijon," while to the " G. de Dijon," he gives
another name (" Wargotin "). Then again there is t)ie
sweet-smelling pink rose, very large, called by some
" Baroness Ilothsohild " and by others " La France."

Again what in Ceylon is called the " Field of the Cloth
of Gold" is also named" L.araarque," while a small book
T have gives the name " L-uuarque " to a pale straw-
colored rose, aud " Oloth of Gold " or " Ohromatella " to a
creamy white with a yellow centre. This shows the
necessity for a book on roses, giving the name, color, size,
and a description of the rose, aud whether it will blossom
at low altitudes or not. A great variety of roses, I am
sure might be got from Calcutta <Src., for the Botanical
(hardens, i, 0. if they are likely to blossom in Ceylon : c. g.
" Jladame Laffray" ; " Madame Desprez " ; " Mrs .
Bosanquet"; " Koan, " ci-imsou scarlet sbadiog into
purple; "Grandissima," rosy crimson; " Safrano," pale
yellowish buff; " Barbot," cream, suffused With rose and
salmon ; " Luxembourg, " deep crimson ; and other
varieties. Poses seed well in the hillconntry, and hybrids
mierht be obtained from them by fertilizing in the
following manner : the petals to be opened quietly with
the fingers aud the anthers removed with a pair of pointed
scissors, and fertilized with a flower of another variety.
In this way we might raise any number of hybrids of
dilTerent varieties. B, E.

HARVESTING CINCHONA.

Ilewa Eliya, 27th June 18S5.

Dmar Si!1, — I have read in the June runiber of
the 'J'rfijiieal ylgricnlturist a letter from " B. E.,"Doltota,
in which he enquires "if an average of 130i lb. of
green hark shavt^iffs from cinchona suooirubra trees
of from 2 to 0 years of age is a fair amount (quantity)."

I guess it is ! I have never heard of such a
quantity of shavings being obtained : to get this aver-
age, some of the shavers probably harvested as much
as' lUl) lb. ! 1)033 " C E." measure twice a-day'i

August i, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

I think some reliable figurea could be obtained from
several men in Madulaima, whicli would show that
your correspondent " B. E. " ought to be well satis-
fied with the task done by his truly wonderful coolies.

On a certain well-known estate up here, witli very
fine large succirubra trees from G to 7 years of age,
the average quantity harvested was about 73 lb!
per cooly after having been at the work for some
tune ; a few of the men would bring as much
as SO to 90 lb., but tbey were exceptionally good
coolies. The work was most carefully done, and
on the slightest signs of bad or careless work the
coolies Here checked.

" B. E. " should most c-rtainly cover the trees affer
being shaved : it is now generally believed that " cover-
ing " pays well in every way. Will " B. E. " kindly
let us know what force he employs " shaving " ?

It will be a bad lookout for this and other cin-
chona districts, if he has a large force and can employ
them for some months shaving at his present averaee
rate of 13ji lb. =. r s

I will be glad to know if, before he comes to an
end of his harvesting operations, he gets the average
up to 150 lb.— Yours truly, ENVIOUS.

i.-**-w.-> «i^ ^....•niu^ij iiivc tiiubu ui r,. cwra, auu ic is
interesting to note that in South India, they were largely
used as food by the poor during one of the late famines
as recorded by Dr. Lidie. They may possibly contain
Cocaine." ,

Some leaves ought certainly to go to Mr. T. Christy
tr) get tested by a chrmist : he is .■:o keen about
a supply of the commercial product that ho would
gladly attend to this, wo have no doubt.— En.]

COCA SEED : THE DIFFICULTY IN GROWING
PLANTS ;-THE LOCAL ALLIED SPECIES-
WHAT ARE ITS PROPERTIES ?

27th June 1883.
Dear Sir,— Your correspondent "Peppercorn"
notices the general failure of the coca seed from
Peradeniya, at least, in hands less capable than the
Assistant thfre ; and this has certainly been my own
experience, for, out of 100 seeds kindly sent me by
the Director, not one has come up. The fact, that
at the Gardens it baa grown, is a proof that the
fault is not in the seed. But wherein lies tho secret
of enccess ? Is it that it should be sown at once
on being gathered ? lu South America they seem to
have no diiBculty— the plants being, I believe, in-
variably raised from seed bonn in shaded or roofed
beds— very much in the style of our oincliona nureer-
ies, though probably lees carefully coBStructed. But
is it not premature to ran wild after coca, till the
comparative merit of our own n>-arly allied species
of ErylhroTijlon has been determined ? Is this not
desirable in view of the Urge demand opening out
for coca leaves ? That its loaves do contain the
active principle of the latter in some proportion would
.s»em evident, or at least probable, from the efleots
their use is said to have had with the natives dur-
ing Ihp last famine in India. Surely it is a point
that some of our local experts could at once decide,
if a sample for analysis were sent them ? Would
Dr. Trinvn or your correspondent " W. F." kindly
mention whether it belongs to the moiater parts of
the lowcouutry or where chielly abundant,- and by
what names it U known, in Sinhalese and Tamil?— (i. '

[Dr. Trimen's remarks in his last report may be
repeated with advantage : —

" I may add that we have in Ceylon a closely allied
species, !•:. monoi/i/niim, which is common in the hot dry
districts, and called in Tamil ' Tevadarara.' The wood is
slightly fragrant, and Dr. Ondaatje has recorded tho
preparation from it at Puttalam of a crcosotic oil. The
leaves are strikingly like those of E. Oica, and it is

INSECT PESTS, AND INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS
"HELOPELIIS" AND RED ANTS.

r, o „ Kandy, 27th June ISSo.

JJEAE SIR,— On several previous occasions, eome of
my experiences of the value of insectivorous birds
lu clearing our cultivated plants of their insect pests
have appeared in your columns, aud I now send you a
few 8tati.stic-!, whicli, I trust, may prove of some interest.

It is impossible to overestimate the importauce of
this subjrct, in a climate such as oure, teeming with
insect lite. The more I have investigated the (juestion,
the more I have had impressed on me the great
value of insect-feeding birds, in assisting us in our
garden and in fact general plantation operations.

We have tried to reduce the rearing and fostering
of these useful little creatures to something like a
system, and, though this is a very difficult and up-
hill task, we think we can say, our efforts have
been attended with some degree of success, in the
case of at least one species, our common " Magpie
Robin" or " Dialbird " (Copsychus saulans, Linn.)
He is to be found in the compound of almost every
bungalow, in and out of town, and he awakes us at
early dawn of day, with his clear, rich and joyous notes,
long ere old Sol has passed the horizon. There are
several pairs, which now breed regularly in our com-
pound, and which we may term semi-domesticated.

Our plan is this : we attach chatties or flowerpots
with suitable holes in them, to the wall, in places
where no cat can reach them, and so arranged that
the crows cannot get at the eggs or young ones.
These are intended as breeding-places, and in most
cases, instinct tells cock-robin aud his mate,
that they are safe harbours of refuge. After due
inspection— for he is a knowing and cunning little
dodger— he will hop in, hop out, hop on to the
top of his chatty, and pour f .rth his long shrill
notes of love aud approval. In a day or two tho
materials for the nost begin to arrive, aud one then
knows bU is right, and woe betide the impudent
crow, whose curiosity may lead him to be too in-
c^uisi'lve. In due course the period of incubation is comp-
leted, and the process of grubbing commences, the two
pirents incessantly bringing caterpillars for the young.

When ths little ones aie nearly fledged, we remove
them from the nest, and place them in a good roomy
wicker cage, outside, hut piotected from rain. The
parent birds now get very excited, and express their
disapproval of these proceedings in harsli screeches,
and cock-robin is no doubt highly indignant at the
libeities taken with his offspring. Gradually, how-
ever, he and mother-robin get reconciled, aud go on
assiduously stuffing the yourg with caterpillars or
larvai tlirough the bars of their cage. In this cage the
young undergo an imprisonment of six weeks, during
wiiich time the dietary arrangements are entirely lelt
for the parents to settle.* At the expiry of their
term of servitude, tho youngsters are liberated. They
are, of course, delighted, overjoyed, and show their
gratitude, by still remaining near the compound, to
which they have become attached, and by regularly
visiting our pot plants, aud rose trees, till not a
vestige of a poochie can be found.

We were very anxious to get at some reliable statistics
as to tho number of larv;u a family of robins wnnld
destroy iu a day, and had a careful hand told off,
to take tally of the number of trips the male and
female each made to their young with food, during
the entire day. lie was furnished with a pencil and
a board, and stationed close to the cage, and when-
ever Cdck robin arrived wiili a mouthful of cater-
pillars, down went a x ; and whenever eld mother-robin
came, dottn went a 1. On reckoning up the crosseg
and strokes, for three successive days, we arrived at

» M'ater bcinp, of coiirae, plentifully provided.— Ed.

94

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 1885,

the following average result, viz. :—

Per day.
Cock Robin 92 trips a day \ ^glS tripa.
Mother Robin 121 „ ,. J

Take the average to be two larv.-e at
each trip (a low estimate) ; then
larva' = double the number of trips or= 426 larvas.
As the cage on this occasion contained two young
ones, the allowance for each bird was 213 larvre.

Now, even say the adults will not require more larvas
than the number they give their young, viz. 213 each,
we arrive at 852 larvffi per day, for the four birds, or
35,784 for the six weeks the young were in confinement.
Again, at and in the neighbourhood of the nursery
grounds and garden, we have at least five families of
say six each, including the adult birds, i.e. 30 birds,
each capturing 213 larvjs daily : then for the year
of 365 days we arrive at the enormous number of
2,332,350 destructive larvse captured by the five
families of robins.

In this calculation, you will see, we have not allowed
more food for the adult birds, than was sufficient for
the young in confinement, and we think J more might,
with safety, be added to the number of larvfe de-
stroyed. It is better, however, to be on the safe side,
and these figures as they stand, are sufficiently startling.
VVe have not yet got any data to give you, as
to the destruction of larvae by the " Warblers,"
[Syhiadce) and "Bush-creepers" {Leiotrichincii), and
other small fry ; but we are positive that these are
more useful to us than the " Eobins " {Saxieoliiiie),
the " Bulbuls " (Pycnonotinte) and even the "Fly-
cdXo'wera" (Musckapina'), Little " Snips," the " Tailor
Bird" (0. longkauila) warbler, has an insatiable
appe tite and is activity personified, or we should per-
haps say ornithofi/il (to coin a word).

These smaller insect-feeders are the very birds our
cacao planters should show the utmost attention
to, and encourage in every way. VVhy, little Snips
and his nimble confreres are a match for Helopeltia
any day, if you can only get them to locate and
pay their addresses to that vile little pest. We'll back
a dozen tailor-birds or other warblers against the
entire cooly population of the estate, at Helopeltia
catching. The plan would be to plant up any waste
patches or swampy ravines between the cacao fields
or even the road-sides, with thick clumps or belts
of wild cane, or ether sort of tall reed, in which they
delight, and where they would soon make their home.
These of themselves would form a sort of shelter for
the cacao, and, as they do not throw down seed,
would do no mischief, if the roots were kept from
trespassing by means of trenches.

To all lovers of horticulture, I would respectfully
say, try and rear your robins regularly, and other
species of insectivorous birds if you can, and attach
them to your gardens and compound. We all know
how trying it is to one's equaniuiity of a morning,
to discover that that grand Idoom of Gnpt. Chriity,
La France, or Qloire Duchess rose, which we were
looking forward to feast our eyes on, has been half-
deviiured during the night by a wretched larva of
one of the G'comitricttv moths.

Watch over and foater your robins, and no such
catastrophes will occur.

. WH YT E, Naturalist and Florist.
P. S. — On the question, as to how Helopeltia can
be k' pt iu subjection, I feel more and more con-
vinced that it can be vanquished by the steady and
peraeveriug introduction and application of its natural
euemie~. Wo have no mysterious and insidious fungus
to deal with here ; nature has provided the cure, if we
can only apply it. I mcutioucd in my last letter,
that I thought (and iu f .ot 1 feel sure) that lizards
would be moat destructive, and I now tea that some
plantcra are introducing red ants, a cajjital move I

think. They are the veritable tigers of the insect
world, and cannot fail to be most beneficial. Hunt-
ing down such small insects with coolies seema aa
expensive, clumsy and slow operation. I believe
thoroughly in the smaller insect-feeding birds, as th9
most elficacious cure. No coast advances, no check-
roll or montiily pay required for them. We could
not even purchase their services : they are given with-
out money and without price ; are in fact, in a two-
fold tense of the word, priceless.

INVESTIGATION OF COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE: AN

APPARENT REMEDY BY AN UVA PLANTER.

Sir, — I have never seen the report made by Mr.
Marshall Ward regarding the result of his investig-
ations into the nature of our coffee leaf-disease nor
the report of anyone else, and I am altogether ignor-
ant as to the conclusions which have been come to
in the matter. My own observations and investig-
ations, which have extended over a period of nearly
nine months, have therefore been entirely independ-
ent of the opinions of others. Like a great many
other planters, I believe I have hitherto been led
to regard the pest as a parasitical fuiujus, and even
now I am not prepared to deny that the saffron-
coloured spots which appear on the underside of
coffee leaves are a fungus, but, if it Ib, it appears to
me to be one which derives its nourishment from
the air and not from the substance or juices of the
leaf. I have never yet seen a leaf change its healthy,
looking aspect until the development of the insect
which is inseparably connected with the so-called
fungus, I have therefore been led to the con-
clusion, after long and patient investigation, that the
evil effects are due to this insect and not to the
fungus, if it be a fungus. That the maggot or Zwtia
is produced from zoospores there can be no doubt.
The question therefore comes to be : What relation do
living zoospores or germ cells, ova or spawn bear
to the fpores of the supposed fungus ? For the one
does not exist without the other, and it is only
after the maggot is developed that the leaves change
their color, blacken and die. This creature, although
it is very minute, is not so mioroscopio that when
it is full-grown it cannot be perceived by the unaided
eye, for it is then about the sixteenth of an inch
in length, and it is surprizing to me that I have
heard nothing of it befoie. My microscope is un-
fortunately not a very powerful one, so that probably
several hours must elapse before the newly-hatched
larva becomes recognizable within the range of my
optics. It is then a mere speck, like a molecule,
of shining silver. Within 36 hours however it is a
perfectly-formed maggot, of a red blood color, cylin-
dric^il in form, no feet, body consisting of ten seg-
ments counting the head and tail two, which are
both white ; back and abdomen red blood colour with
two white longitudinal lines along the undersides.
The periphery of the segment rings are also tipped
with white on the lower sides. But the head is
armed with a most formidable, horny-looking pro-
boscis, long enough to pierce the tcarf skin of the leaf
and penetrate the pulp. For three days after it
makes its appearance it does not move much from
its original position but appears to feed upon the
yellow-coloured rtsiclea which were previously broken
up by the female insect and now assume a moist,
semi-iluid appearance, adhering together in masses.
About the fourth day of its existmce it begins to
show active signs of life, moving freely amongst the
accumulated masses of jfovilla, and in nine or ten
days' time it has attained its full eize, being, as I
have said, about the sixtetnth of an inch in length,
and is then quite perceptible to the naked eye.
It now quits its native spot in search of " frejh

August i, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

95

fields and pastures new " over the surface of the
leaf, leaving the patch on which it previously existed
quite dead. Having no feet, it makes use of its
strong proboscis for the purpose of locomotion as well
as to perform the functions of a mouth, for it appears
to be purely suctorial in its larva state. Into the
portions of the leaf which remain fresh, this maggot
thrusts its proboscis deep into its substance, and, holding
on to it as a sheet anchor, drags along its body, cover-
ing about the sixteenth of an inch of surface at every
pull, and so great is the power which the creature
exercises over its proboscis, that on a cardboard
surface which it could not penetrate, when the point
of the weapon suddenly slipped, the force which
was being exerted would roll the maggot clean over
on its back. An insect armed with such an instrument
as this was not made to live a harmless or innocent
life, and during each insertion of its proboscis into
the leaf it is doubtless at the same time pumping
up the sap for its nourishment, and it may therefore
be readily imagined how soon after the maggot has
begun to crawl the whole surface of the leaf
becomes deeply punctured. The juice (or whatever
may remain of it) is shortly evaporated, and the
leaf blackens all over and drops off. When the
larva is full fed, which it is in about fourteen days,
it becomes inactive and enters on the pupa stage,
but before this it frequently drops off from the leaf
or falls with it to the ground at the roots of the
tree where the larvas shelter themselves until they
throw off the chrysalis.

The perfect insect as it emerges from its chrysalis
is extremely minute but can be perceived by a
good eye unaided. It is oblong, cylindrical, with
three legs on each side of the body and a very long
pair of antenna, the only ovipositor on the females
sharply defined. Body, head, legs and antennte all
of a blight silvery lustre. It proceeds at once to
attack the young leaves by puncturing a minute hole
at -the junction of the midrib and primary veins, and
upon any tree which has been badly attacked, to
find a single leaf that has not been thus punctured
at the root of every vein, is the rule and not the
exception. It is now at this stage of my observ-
ations where I fail for want of a powerful enough
microscope. Do the insects on entering these holes
tunnel underneath the scarf skin of the leaf ? If
they do, then I have great doubts of the so-called
fungus being a fungus at all, but that the yellow-
coloured vesicles are the spermatozoids or sperm cells
of the male insect which emerge through the pores of
the leaf, among which the female deposits her eggs
and which she breaks open to fertilize her spawn,
On removing the skin of the leaf round these orifices
they are also found to contain numerous insects of
somewhat smaller size and shape than the full-grown
insects, but they posseaa the same color, the same
number of legs and long antenniB, and lam under the
impression that the in-,eot is at a certain season of the
year oviparous and at another vivipsl-ous.

Whenever a onfficit-nt quantity of epetlmtpisoide or
ipirmugohet have become developed, the ftmale Insects
tnay be seen issuing frotn the holes and proceed
direct to one or more of the powder spo's where
they soon get so completely covered wiih the yellow
dtist that it is impossible to see inore cf them than |
the action of their legs, Lut they can be perceived
to bo engaged turning over and buittiig open
the yellow-coloured vesicles which v.ry shortly
assume a different appearance from whnt they did
before the insect operates Upon them. Tbey now
become moist-looking andidhere together in detached
niasees. Amongst these masses I have observed the
female to continue for three days without leaving |
the spot, dropping eggs at the rate of three or four \
psr day, covering theai over at the same time with j

the yellow-coloured matter. The newly-laid egg ia
dark brown, oval in shape, with a tail or filament
resembling the sperm cells contained within the
aiithi'ridia of crijptogamia. They appear to consist of
a lymphatic substance, firmly pasted to the surface
of the leaf to which the fovilla of the yellow vesicles
instantly adheres, so that, if the egg is not observed
just as it is excluded, it is imponsible to distinguish
it from the general mass, and might possibly be taken
at tirst tor a spore of fungi.

Such is a brief account of the life-history of this
insect so far as I have been able to trace it with the
appliances at my command. In the hands of a skilled
entomologist doubtless much more light is capable of
being thrown upon the subject.

As a body of planters, however, we care little for the
life history of the insect : our object is to get rid of it
and a remedy is in this case probably more readily
found than for many other kinds of pests. It would
be much easier to root out the scourge from a whole
district than from an individual estate, as, althouoh I do
not think that the germ cells can be borne on the
wind— they are much too firmly glued to the leaf for
i that — still the perfect insect can be carried on coolies
clothes from one estate to another. The best thing to do
is to destroy the eggs by an acid or boiling water and re.
move the medium of the insects' existence for a season
As a trial, I selected some time ago, one or two trees
the leaves of which were completely covered with
larvaj and full-grown insects and had everything
in the shape of a leaf snipped off without injuring
the buds : in fact, put them under a complete
wintering. I then had the stem and branches of
the trees as well as the ground round the roots well
souced with fresh cattle urine, so that the caustio
ammonia might kill any larvaj or insects concealed
amongst the crevices of the bark and keep off the
small black ants which are often seen covered with
the yellow dust. Now a fine flush of new shoots
and fresh leaves have sprung forth on which there
is as yet no trace of yellow spots or punctured
leaves.

On any estate the coffee of which has been badly
attacked, snipping off the leaves will not be a very
difficult matter ; but, in order that this proposed
remedy should prove thoroughly effectual, it is
essentially necessary that an estate should be literally
swept of dead leaves, weeds and rotten branches.
These all harbor the larva; in the pupa state'
and should be carefully collected in bags and de-
stroyed. All moss that sticks to the stem or grows
iu the ground should be effectually decomposed.
Nothing will do this better than caustio lime or
caustic ammonia arising from fresh cattle urine. In
fact I believe the latter is capable of destroying
every kind of living vermin which prey on coffee
trees.

In a letter which I wrote you a short time ago
upon the benefits of licjuid manure which I intended
as a prelude to this, 1 sent you a plan of a simple
method of applying cattle urine or liquid manure on
a large scale, but on which you were good enough-
Mr. Kditrir, to throw a cold blanket by saying that
the cost Would be excessive, whereas I believe Messrsi
Walkir & Greig of Badulla could lay the nhole
thing down for less than K20 per acre. But in order
to convert everything into liquid manure it is neceasary
to have a supply of sulpbuiio acid, and I have no
hesitation in saying that it would pay a dittrct
lite Haputale to have itf own sulphuric acd
manufactory, and, if such an idta should be
contemplated, I should be happy to furnish Messrs.
Walker & Greig with drav. inga of the necessary
apparatus which they could construct perhaps with
the exception of the Ipaden chambers whiph coulil be
got from hyme.

96

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, iSSj,'

My own impression with regard to this insect is,
that, until the matter is set at rest, the planters of Uva'
should hesitate before they root out their coffee or
plant tea amongst it. I have no faith at all in Uva a5
a profitable tea-producing district unless on parldy
land having the benefit of irrigation. I have a very
intimate knowledge of the geological formation of this
large district, and I fear the sub-soil is of much too
porous a nature to yield sufficient flushes of leaf,
especially when prices decline as they are inevitably
bound to do before long. OBERON.

[The coffee leaf-disease is due to a fungus, and no
authority, from Thwaites to Marehall Ward, ever
mentioned an insect in connection with it, except
one which it was hoped (a hope not fulfilled) might
prey on the fungus. Perhaps it is this insect which
this correspondent professes in his extraordinarv letter
to have discovered. As a preliminary to discussing
such a question, surely he ought to have read at least
Marshall Ward's reports. There are insect pests which
affect coffee : grub at the roots and black bu" on the
leaves and stems. But it is the fungus Hemikia vast-
atrtx which enters the stomata and feeds on the life
juices of the plant contained in the leaf-cells.—
Ed.]

CEYLON PLANTING: PAST, PRESENT, AND
FUTURE.

Dear Sir,— The writer of " Ceylon in the Fifties
and the Eighties," refers to visiting agents in a
somewhat humorous vein, and mentions that, in his
early planting career, estates were inspected by the
chiefs of the agency houses or the proprietor, whilst
now "an organized army of V.A.'s traverse the
country, add beauty to the scenery, and make life
and work pleasant to the superintendents whom they
visit. " This remark, I thought, would have reminded
some of the " inflationists " of a few years ago to
Bay something about their old remarks on the '"de-
tractors," or on that one who was said by them
to be the exponent of the class, W. MoK.
Although I never had a V. A. over me, I happened
to be acquainted with one and all the members of
the " army," and still take a sort of interest in
them : therefore I would be glad to see some of those
who wrote against them acknowledge themselves in
the wrong. And to take poor W, McK. as an ex-
ample : one of the infiatiouists wrote of him that
he had done more to destroy the credit of the colony
than any leaf-dis-ase could have done, and that his
shadow was dreaded by every proprietor— especially
in Maskeliya. It is some four years ago since that
was written, and the writer has never yet thought
proper to send a second letter to the paper, point-
ing out that W, McK. was the strongest advocate
for the planting of tea in Maskeliya, and it has
proved a suoocaa there, as far as one can gather
Iro:n the newspapers, whilst we find no reports prov-
ing that hu was wrong wlien ho s.nid that coffee was
doomed iu Maskeliya, and the soouer tea took its
place the belter.

Some years befwe Morris of sulphnf and lime fame
startled the world with an unpublished life history
of the Hemikia vasialrix, W. McK. stayed at my
bungalow, and I showed him some trees which I
had tried with sulphur and lime applied to thoni iu
erery conceivable way, even to the eitent of boring
a hole down tlie centre of the stump, Hlliog it
with the two ingredients and plugging it, but it is
scarcely necessary for me to add, without' any good
effect taking place. I dnresay I tri^d more novel and
heroic ways to euro coft'ee of JT. V. than any other
planter in the island, but the ouly one thai, gave aiiy
good results was rubbing the whole atoms of the
tree* with kerosiug oil, and tliis had the effect of

keeping off the attack of //. Y. for about a year,
but of course the costliness of the cure made it
prohibitive. After seeing the various trees on which
I had been operating, W. McK. seemed only more
convinced in his opinion than ever that coffee was
doomed, an opinion in which I quite agreed with
him, but his strong advocacy of tea, as a means of
restoring prosperity to the island, did not strike me
as being a very pleasant prospect, my belief being,
thai;, although tea growing may be a very good pro-
fe6.sion for John Chinaman, it is not for a pucka
white man. I have not changed my views on this
subject, although I am pleased to see that tea is doing
BO much good for Ceylon. Having been accused of
being a pessimist myself, because I chose to think
coffee doomed, I naturally feel that justice has not
been done W. McK. and others who were, in the
columns of the local papers, abused for giviug their
honest convictions, when asked for an opinion. So
far back as 1874 I wrote in your paper:— "No !
Dimbula, you have disappointed me, although yoii
did make the fortunes of so many young fellows,
who were, luckily for them, obliged to buy land
here, or else go without any at all. How little did
they think that they were being forced into a fortune,
I hope those who bought second-hand will manage
to get their money out of you again." To this sent-
ence Ed. C. O. put the following footnote :— " Mr.
George Smith for instance, who, knowing all the faults
as well as all the merits of Dimbula, has paid £11,500
cash for 275 acres of coffee." If Mr. George Smith
has got his money out of his investment' again I
must acknowledge myself wrong, but, if not, per-
haps you will add a P. &', to your former footnote,
bearing in mind that, however successful Mr. Smith
may have been with regard to tea and cinchona, it
was with reference to coffee that I wrote, Although
W. McK. was singled out as the V. A. upon whom
the inflationists chose to pour the vials of their
wrath, he was not the only V. A. that held pessim-
istic views on the subject of coffee, and several
others openly confessed their want of confidence in
the revival of the old staple of the island, and, in
some cases, this opinion cost them their billets. I
could mention the names of many old and experienced
planters who held just as pessimistic views as W. McK.
but, not being V. A.'s, their opinions were not eircuU
ated, and so they escaped the odium of the inflation-
ists. These men all bflieved in the new product
theory, and those have nearly all turned out fairly
Buceessful undertakings ; and yet 1 see no sigos of
the inflationists making any favourable comments on
the views which the hated W. McK. & Co. ent-rtained
in days gone by, and which have turned out so will,
I might give numerous quotations, which appeared in
the columns of your paper, against the views of \V.
McK. & Co., all of which have been proved wrong,
but no note of admission that such is the case has
come from the writers, and I could give aa many
qnolatious irom the pens of pesaimists, myself amongst
the number, all of which have come right, or neaHy
so ; but these require no comment, they speak for
themselves. Perhaps none of those has proved more
correct than the prophecy of mine, which was pub-
lished about 10 years ago— when coff-e was king
indeed and everything connected with it ttood at a
premuim. Iu that article I foreshadowed the future
of the planting industry, and placed the products
in th.« following order as likely to bo reniuneratlvo
to the growers : viz. c.cao, cinchona, cardamoms, t«i,
ooHoo, cinnamon, and Liberian coffee I placed abjol
titely last. I was laughed at for holding such views
at the time, but 1 leave it to tho present race of
plautr rs to say >vhether I was very far out cit-sr ali
i he old V, A. was not snch a villain us the iua.Uio
ists would feifQ have painted biui, he believed"

August i, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

97

ia himself and, as he believed, he spoke, — but, alas for
him, his belief was detrimental to his opponents'
interests. It is pleasing therefore for me to see that
the views of planting in general, which my old
friends entertained, have to a great extent come
true, and I only wish that the inflationist faction
would be as honest in occording praise which is due
to those that they chose to call "detractors," as
these men were honest in upholding their opinions,
even when prejudicial to their own welfare. — Yours
truly, LANG, LANG 1ST 'S HER !

[Our correspondent will certainly deserve credit for
his opinion of Dimbula and coffee in 1874, provided he
is able to say that he foresaw then the ruin which the
leaf fungus was to work. We, most certainly did not
then foresee that result; nor did " W. McK." nor any
of the other V. A.'s. On the other hand, had it not
been for H. V., we believe it will be admitted, that
both Geo. and Wm. Smith and many other Dimbula
men would have got the handsome coffee returns
they expected. Our advice to young investors in the
palmiest days of inflation, when coffee was 100s and
over, was to count on 3 cwt. an acre and 80s
a cwt., but, of course, leaf-disease was not
then thought of as a serious evil. The fault
found with " W. MoK." was, we understood,
not so much for running down coffee as
for preaching all barren from ' Dan to Beersheba ' and
his only advice to Ceylon planters' seemed to be to
'clear out.' The Oiscno- long before VV. McK., preached
',new products ' in cinchona, tea and cacao, in
season and out of season. In the case of Maskeliya, the
same gentleman led more men to follow his example and
plant coffee than any other pioneer ; and only yesterday
we had occasion to recall a visit VV. McK. paid to
ns in 1879 or early in 1880 when he described in
the most glowing terms the appearance of the Liberian
coffee on Putupaulakande and spoke of this new
product as an assured success. " Lang, Lang "
naively confesses that he put tea after cacao, cinchona,
and cardamoms, in the order of probable re-
rounerativeness and success, showing how he also
was wrong. There is therefore saircely room
for any one (unless it be the chade of G.
H. K. Thwaites) in connection with the past
history of planting in Ceylon, to stand up and
say : — "I was right and you were all wrong." Our
correspondent " Lang " &c. tays be has seen no notes
of " confession of error " in our columns : he has
certainly like Rip Van Winkle been asleep and
saddenly revived. Whit, for seven years back, has been
the burden of our planting correspondence, reports, re-
views and of ourown arioles and writings in the London
J'imcs, before the Colonial Institute, in ' Ceylon in 1381,"
but one long confession of past errors, a bewailing of the
mistake made in putting all the eggs in one basket,
in sticking with the Irishman to one product, and so
forth? But, iu our so oonfet sing, we should like to see
the Ceylon planter of 15 years' stand' ng who can
honestly s ly; "I have nothirg to confis ■." As fir"W.
MoK." we believe him to have been as big a sinner as
any of the planters up till 1878-9, the yiari'wheu neirly
everybody s eyes were opened ; and we began our
crusade in favour of cluchona and tea some time
before then — Ed ]

A GOOD WORD FOR JACKALS, CIVET CATS

AND CROWS.

Madulsiraa. June 1885.
Dear Sir, — After an hour and 15 miuntes with Lord
forrest Hill's hounds, a "who — whoop I" in the open
proved to me, during a punishing worry, a matter I
had long been in doubt about, whether or no jickals
eat cinchona poochies j for a hearty early ten of this
delicacy had btea partaken of. This accounts for
the enormous vUitation of jackals yearly At this seasoi)

j when poochies are in. I have dogs that will take a

] poochie off any branch within reach and demolish it
with relish.* A jackal has been seen performing the

I same feat on this estate. But unfortunately they don't
stick to one diet, having also a taste for the "China

I Kauley." So six more have fallen to this gallant little
pack since above kill, and contents of all examined
containedcinohouapoochies and their cocoons which pre-
dominated amongst the di^bris that would probably
be as puzzling to analyze as some samples of bark
from this district were lately shown to be. Noticing
my hands smelt strong of civet after suckering in

t cinchona clearings, I examined contents of stomach of
next " Poonapu Poonie" "rolled o'er by the mene! "
and found again cinchona poochies swallowed whole
which were doubtless gathered off the suckers.

I Ocular demonstration ia afforded daily of the amount of
these poochies crows polish off: especially the wild

i crow, with its peculiar way of hopping in and out of
thick branches, is particularly well adapted for this
work.t I have seen them over and over again secure
a fine prize and fly oflT with it to their habitation in any
adjacent thorny scrub, be it ever so small, whilst the
ordinary village crows only visit high estates iu fino
weather, and are not therefore quite so valuable,
though they also clear a considerable quantity. As
coolies of almost every caste readily eat the red wild
crow, I trust all iu authority will do their best to
prevent the destruction of these useful agents. A few
years ago when tirst poochies appeared on our cinchonas
great damage was done, and R150 to R300 were spent
by many in coolies' wages collecting them : now it is
the exctption to find any coolies thus employed, due
to our friends the jackals, civet cats and crows, which
also destroy and principally live upon beetles,
cockroaches and grub of all sorts.} So I trust you will
find space in your valuable journal for a good word
for these orfatures, the usefulness of whicti has often
doubtless perplexed many, including, yours faithfully,
BILL THE WHIP.

GIGANTIC SECTIONS OF CINCtlONA SUCCI-
RUBRA AT THE KANDY EXHIBITION.
SiK, — All reports of the Kandy Exhibition have
omitted to mention the two fine sections of wood of
Cinchona Succirubra grown on Sherwood estate,
Haputale, They were the fioe«t I have ever seen,
and 1 am certain better spe m'ns cannot be pro-
duced ia the East. They ard spoiled and almost
beyond ideutificition, besiiita-'ed with dirty varnish.
Tney are to be sett to Englaiid and may pass for the
section of a pear tree sooner than anything else,
having that irregular form of trunk. I did not take
the dimensions of iheb'o.Us, but I dare say Messrs.
Alstons, Soolt & Co. will be p!oas.d to make that
public. J. A.

Roses is Ceylon.— Ab a contribution to the dij-
cussion which has arisen, we suppose, Mr. Archiba'd
Feiftindo, (f E.l Eva Villa, Kol upit.ya, sent ua this
morning half a-dozen bouquets of the most exquisitely
beautiful roses we have ever see in Ceylon. Every
possible shade of pink is npreseted, and there is one
wonderful yellow rose which neema to settle the prob-
lem of "g Id in Ceylon." Tiie roses were t-isteful y
wrapped in maiden ha r aad silver ferns.

* At Sinegar in Java Mr. Kerkhoveii's dogs greedily ate

the bruised masses of llelopeftis collected from the tea

1 bushes, but they never foraged for themselves. That dogs

should be insectivorous is certainly a revelation in natural

history. — Ed.

t The species of Indian cuckoo called " the jungle crow '
is, apparently, meant.— Ed.

JThat crows should feefl on such insects we can understand,
but we fancy our eorrespouJent is the first to notice that jack-
als and civet cats feed on such "stnalj dcot" ft6 poucbie'.— Ed,

gii

tMB! fiWt'iCAL AGKICULTOldST.

[At/ot/st t, ims4

To Tkst Butteu. — Tbe Scientific Jmericaii recommends
this simple teat for oleomargarine : — Stir a little — half a
toaspoonful or less — of tlio suspected butter in enough
sulphuric ether to dissolve it. By the time the grease is
disBiilved the ether will have been evaporated, and the
residuum will show, to smell or taste, whether it is butter,
lard, or tallow. Five cents' worth of ether will suffice for
several tests. — Chemist and Itntgt/ist.

A (,>UK'K Filter. — Take a clear piece of chamois-skin,
free from thin places ; cut it of the desired size ; wash
it in a weak solution of sal soda, or any alkali, to re-
move the grease ; and rinse thoroughly in cold water
before using. Tinctures, elixirs, syrups, and even umcil-
ages are filtere<l rapidly. A pint of the thickest syrup
will run through in four or five minutes. By washing
thoroughly after each time of using it will last a long
time. — 0. F, Nixon, in llriiciijists' Circular.

(.■MJOAK Canb. — For the past three years the cane crop
in the Province, except in well favored localities has
been a poor one, owing to insuflicient falls of rain while
last year it may be said to have proved a failure. The
eeiscnable rains this year however will make the crop, if
all goes well, a good one, In many parts sugar cane
cultivation is being carried on vigorously and aa it is
usual to manure the cane with oil cake, the hongay seed
cake being especially used, the price of this cake, or
hindi as it is locally called, has risen considerably.

Tea Planting in rKVLON.— Messrs. A. M. and .1.
Fergus n have just issued a little work of about 100
pages entitled " Tea and other Planting Industries in
Ceylon in 1885. A good field for Investment ; " a
copy of which they have been kind enough to send
us. This work has b'.en produced with the object of
showing what a magniticent field the isle of Rpioy
breezes offers for the fniplovment of British c:ipital
and euorgy, and the oninpilor has executed his task
with an euthu3ia<m and vigour which wdl convince
every reader of it that the author has the fullest confid-
ence and belief in the truth of his statements.
The claims of C.-ylon to consideration from enterpr z-
ing capitalists are set forth in such a forcible man-
oer that we are surprised they have not commanded
more general attention earlier. The first pirt of
the book consists of a letter written by Mr.
J. Ferguson, who has had an experience in Ceylon
of more than a quarter of a century, to the London
Times on the 2Ith August last year. * * * It is
estimated that eventually Ceylon should have 150,000
acres under tea, which should yield, calculated on the
basis of the amount realized from the present cult-
ivation, about 43 0110,000 lb. At the same time the
planters are carefully mixing the products in order
to avoid a revisit from the dreadful fungus or any
other equally deadly pest. All that is wanted are
young men of energy and intelligence with capital to
restore to Ceylon the prosperity she enjoyed some years
Rgo Chrap free labour there is in abundance. The
book under notice contains, besides Mr. Ferguson's
nble s^at'tnpnt oftheoi^e, r number of papers written
t^y plsntefs of fiXpefioDce, fully dieousBinij the lues-
tloa of tea cultivation, glvltig rules tor the guidanoe
of nay one embarking i.l ihs 6titer[jfi«6| and aqiinntity
of valuable figures cho"iilg the Cost of working estates
and the refill's ob'-alned. It goes without saying that
ttie Chinese tfade will be fiariotisly affaoted if'^the pro-
,j<et-i Wiioh arH bidding falj' to be refill? d in CeJ-lon
lilf tlie growth of taeUcotjl, It haa already euSered
heavily by the competition of the Imli.in planters,
who are bestow ng uu their products an intelligence
which has aire idy gflinod for Ind-an taaS a reputation
second lo none. The eome intallig' nt cultivatoa will
no do bt take pi- 06 in Coylott, and thefe is, there-
fore, every probahilit-y that Chinese teas Will be less
rcqiiiied •'Tid less tl ought of. For a glowing though
unvarnished picture ■ f the brilliant pos^ibii'ties of the
tpa industry in Ceylon, we would commend our readers
to Mi'Mi*. Fcrgusou's liUU wotk,— tVtiHu lUuii,

Toothache Remedies.— Dr. J. K. Irwin writes to the
Xoith Carolina Medical Journal that one of the most
pleasant remedies for toothache is chewing cinnamon bark.
It destroys the een.sibility of the nerves and suspends the
pain immediately, if the bark is of good quality. The
editor of the American Jtruyipst, quoting thifi, adds that
in many cases a teaspoouful of bicarbonate of sodium in
half a glassful of water, to be u,si;d at short intervals as
a mouth-wash, is equally serviceable in relieving the sens-
itiveness of the ttieWi&nAQnms.— Chemist and Uruytjist.

Blister Blioiit.— A planter in the Dibrughar district,
writing on 7th instant, says:— Blister blight has made its
appearance here. I have n't seen any of it since 1871 or
1S72, when we were severely punished in the Jorehaut
district. It u.sed to be put down to shade, want of drain-
ing, heavy wet alternating with excessive heat. It so
happens that I have removed all shade from the garden
thi.s year ; one plot attacked would be the better of
draining, but another plot is very well drained. We have
certainly had a very wet spring, 1,5-89 inches of rain in
April, but wo have had no heat, in fact, blankets are
still in u.se at night. Doubtless the blight is a fungus and
possibly there is no remedy. I just mention the facts in
case the disease should be general this year, and other

of your correspondents should note their observations."

Indian Planters^ Gazette.

Tea Drying.— Owing to excuses having been made
that the teas from certain gardens under one agency had
" gone off," " because Gibbs and Barry's dryers were
used," the following test was appHed. A certain taster,
who had purchased for the above agency a considerable
quantity of teas of various outside marks in Calcutta,
having recently arrived in London, was requested to ro-
taste and report upon these purchases on their arrival iu
1 London, and to be particular to note any signs of their
having "gone off." He did as instructed with the result
that he could find no such signs, yet the gardens of the
marks represented are known to employ the Gibbs and
Barry dryers. There is .■such a thing as use, and there is
also abuse. If people are told that ahorse can drag safely
25 cwt. and they thereupon compel him to drag 35 cwt.
they must blame themselves if the result is fatal. Mr.
Gibbs is against the excessive temperature used by many
in the G. and B. dryer, as also is, I believe, Mr. Karry.
Mr. Gibbs is .showing a new model at No. 1-A. Pater-
noster Row, in which it is said numerous radical im-
provements will be found. I have jet to see this latest
model. — London Cor., Indian Planters'' Gazette.

Tobacco Paper— The American Tobacco Leaf says
that paper made of tobacco stalk is one of the lateit
claimants for public attention. Tobacco paper prodiiofs
a stronger paper than wood, at a much smaller cost.
Samples made under unfavourable circumstances shew
comparatively few defects. A great point in the
manufacture is the fact that only the ordinary machin-
ei-y found in every paper mill is rtquirtd. Tobacco
stalks reduced to a bone-dry pulp shew a waste of only
five Dfr cent. The paper produced is similar to that
found on every grocer's counter, There is no taste or
smell of tobacco left to ^hew the raw mateiial, A year
ago au pxperiment was made at the Jordan paper mill,
A oase of about 400 p 'unds of leaf tobacco, minus the
'•baokboDe/' wa? put through the regular treattnent
o( straw. A flie pulp »as the resulC, hut owing to
the lack of fibre the pulp was crumbly and stuc-li ob-
stinately to the roller, Howevor, several small pieces
Were removed, and after brooming dry preu-nted e.^6ry
appe.'ranoe of §traw paprr, besides being a mote pro-
nounced broWn. The idea of oonveriing the cuttln^js
and stems that aecUmulate in cigar fdotories in'o paper
htt9 occupied the mental Capacity of not a feW. The
lateat result is a smrOth sUrfaoed, fine teiiUied, toUgtl
sheet, frotn a plllp produced from the stems or " back-
bone" of leaf tobacco, and presenting artificial minute
veins all over thf snr'ace. The only defect now h ft is
the slight papery taste and sm> II, with wh oh defect the
inventor is at present labouring, with every indication
of overeorains tlie drftwb^tk. — f , T, /nurnal.

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

99

Cultivation of China Gr^s-^ in Br\zii,. — Accord-
ing to the Central Blatt filr Textil laduHlrie a conoeesion
has been granted to a German firm seciirinu to them
various rights as to the treatment of the fibre for paper-
mal<iu» purposes. Scientific researches have resulted
in fully establishinor the climatic advantages of Brazil
with reference to China grass cultivation. — P. T. Journal.
Coconuts Shipped to England. — I understand that
there is no demand now for coconuts to be shipped to
Kngland which was done to a great extent last year, and
the reason given i^, I believe, a true one ; that the brokers
receiving short notice of extensive orders used to buy up
immature nuts from the ilifferent gardens in the vicinity
of Colombo, which, when shipped to Kngland, and received
tliore, are principally found to be spoilt and unfit for the
purpose required ; hence there is an extensive falling-off
in the Bbi/<ping of nuts this j'ear. — Cor.

Gamfola District has n't experienced auch ajfine
planting monsoon for many years. Today it has been
raining very heavily, preventing outdoor work. The
tea on old Sinnapittia is fast covering the ground
and in a year or two will be nosidea with Mariawatte.
Black-bug very bad and is killing out the few eofTee
trees left. Cacao, X fear, will be a failure in this district
unless shade is planted amongst it. There was a good
blossom out six weeks ago, but hardly any of it set.
Helop'ltia is blamed for doing more harm than
it really does. Thripi is the worst enemy the
cacao tree has got, and if anyone will take the trouble
t) examine the insect under a microscope, they will
find it full of green juice sucked from the young
leaves. On more than one estate in this district they
have done a great deal of harm.

CiNciioxA. — In former years when the Cinchona Indus-
try was in its infancy, and a larger number of plantations
were being opened out by private growers at Ootacamund
and other places, there was necessarily a very large
demand for cinchona leed and cinchona young plants ;
and as the Government plantations were the oldest
and most noted in the districts, the growers naturally
applied to Government to supply their needs. This
went on for several years, until the new plantations I
were able to supply their owners, with what Govern- |
ment before had only been able to produce. Again,
these new plantations are now able to compete with
the Government in the sale of seed and plants. Owing
to the grfat depreciation which has recently occurred
in the value of cinchona bark, the public have been
deterred from increasing their plantations, or from
opening new ones. The miscallaneoua receipts of the
Ooty plantations from 1877 78 to 1SS4 85 aggregated
1^52, 5S2. — Indian Agriculturist.

Ramdoda: District and Weather Report: 30th
June. — The monsoon set in mildly about the end of
May ; and up to within the last few days we have had
most perfect planting weather. Since the middle of
last week however — with the exception of one fine
day (Saturday)— the rainfall has Ijeen so heavy and
persistent as to put a stop to all work. It as still
raining heavily, and we may expect to hear of Hoods
in the lowcountry and mora slips on the railway,
traffic on which no doubt interrupted, na Monday's
Ohsirver has not yet come to hand. Tea is being
extensively planted on mony estates : in some cases
amongst the coffee— in others the cott'.je is being
removed and a fresh start m^de with the new pro-
duct. The latter plan will doubtless prove the most
satisfactory in the end, as the lining, hnlmg and
planting can all be done much better with a clear
tleld to work on. Sill one can quite understard a
planter's reluctance t> uproot coffee that ha? given
good crops in time past, and maij — so many think —
do so ajain if it only gcis fair plaj. Lubour is
f.iirly abundant for present requirements, though some
not overpopular employers fiud it necessary to give
(Ivaoces to obtain cooliei).

( Bauiiinia Vahi.ii, a Gigantic Creeper, the stem
\ of which sometimes atta ua a circumference of five
feet (!) is thus noticed in the proceedings of the Horti-
cultural Society of India ; — From Capta n Pogson, en-
closing a letter to him, from Mr. Smythii^s, Deputy
I Conservative of Forests, Dehra Doon, a id forwarding
a parcel of Bauhinia Vahlii seeds : Mr. Sniythies siys
"this is one of the commonest climbers in India, and
has a wide range. I should be glad if the natives
would eat the seeds, pluck all the leaves, and cut
down all the stems of this climber in our forests.
We wage war against it, and have already cleared
a considerable tract in Rangarh of this we-'d. Tlie
stem is sometimes fice feet in girth, and the leaves
range up to 18 inches diameter. We annually grant
a large sum for the destruction of this climber, and
eventually shall exterminate it ; but it.will be a wuik of
time. In the open forests, I am afraid, it will remain for
ever." Captain Pogson remarks that it is a pity such
quantities of this superior fibre should not be utilized.
Tea Planting IN Darjkelino : No. 3 Sirocco. — No
rain, and a high, parchiogly drying wind every after-
noon have been the characteristics of the weather dur-
ing the last fortnight. I am sorry to say that our ch 'to,
bursal has been a failure and a humbug, with the natural
result that tea planters are beginning to feel decidedly
anxious at the prospect before tbem. As it is the com-
menceoient of the manufactu -ing season «ai later than
usual, and so far aa I can gather the quality of tea
made in the hills 1 3 date is less than last year, while
the quality is by no means an improvement on last
April's ; and, yet, the " experts" who sit "at home at
case" will not Ijelieve that weather can have anything
j to do with the quality of the crop. It ii no v c-;rtaiu
that the second Hush, owing to drought, will not be
ready for plucking as sion as in ordinary years, lloiv-
1 ever, "care killed the cat " and all planters can do is
to hope for more favorable we ither later on, and make
the best of what has been a bad busiuu^s so f'.ir lliij
season. One gUam of comfort ii that l.ibor ii viry
plentiful, so that there will be no difficulty in taking
the leaf oft' when it is fit to pluck. You aaked me tie
other day to let you know wh it I thought of the Ko. 3
Sirocco. 1 give you my opinion in full. 1 arn afraid
it i< not altogether favorable. In the first place, i; ij
e isy to put up, and when up is neat and dean aud has
one very great a ivantage, and tint is you can see and
handle the leaf throughout the whole proceas, and
that there is no fear of burning at any time, it dries tea
quicker than the old way, and the teas certainly have
a flavor of their own. Uettin^' up heat is much more
expensive than is represented by the invoator, for with
dry luood we use from li) to 25 niaunds in a day ; that
is, of course, going up lo 9 p in., and the result is only
7 mauuda of j}ucca tea. Another point is that it is said
only to take a man and a boy to attend to it ; uhereas
when we work for 14 hours, or even 10, it takes at least
.S, sometimes 4, hill men. But, of course, all theje draw-
backs will be more tban compensated for should the
Sirocco dried teas get half more per pound tlian the
cliuhi dried teas. I do not think that at the best of
times we shall be able to do more than 7 to 8 mauuds of
jmcca tea, though the inventor says, I believe, 13i.
The great test of the drier will be as to whether its
teas fetch a higher price. If they do that then we
may overlook its other defects, at present they value it
a little higher in Calcutta. Your readers will see that
in this opinion nothing ia extenuated and naught "set
down to malice," and 1 am sure both the public and
the inventor will be glad of an honest opinion on the
drier. I will have more to say about the Sirocco as
the season goea on, as there is no doubt that a really
perfect tea drier has a great and useful future before
it, and would be a fortune to the inventor ai well
aa an immense saving in the production of te».— »
Iitdiaii iiauUrs' Uazcttc, April 28tl).

109

TUE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

Darjeeling Tea.— There is little doubt but the
quality of tea made in the hills thia year is better
than np to the same date last eeason, but oue must
always take the opinions of Calcutta experts cum
grmio aalis, as they always report more favourably
on the (lualily of samples when the market is rising, as is
the case this year; and besides, sad to say, experts are not
quite infallible. — Darjeeling Cor., Indian Planters' Gazette.
The New Tea Evaporator. — A correspondent from
Assam writes us that he was the first person to intro-
duce, or at any rate use, anything of this kind in
Assam. Hesajs he made one himself from designs
which he saw in the Scientific American, but he
attached a fan to the far end, so as to draw the
heat through the tea. At this time the Evaporator
had not been thought of in America for tea, but only
for dessioating fruit and the like ; and our correspond-
ent thinks that some one who knew the experiment
he had made as to adapting the Evaporator for tea
has appropriated his ideas. Our correspondent says,
however, that he only used the Evaporator for final
firing, for which it answered very well, burning either
coke or charcoal, and with less than 3 maunds of the
latter he could finish 20 to 30 maunds of tea a day.
He does not believe the American Evaporator will
answer ior first firing. — Indian Tea Gazette.

Reform op London Tea Sales.— The manner
in which the tea sales are conducted has caused
much dissatisfaction for some time past, for the reasons
given last week, and a private meeting of a few of the
aggrieved brokers has recently been held to discuss the
subject. In fact, this question is in many respects
even of more importance to the buying brokers than to
the dealers, as is shown by the meeting referred to.
The present system cnlmiuated last week in the pur-
chase of an entire catalogue of congous by one broker,
a circumstance which, of course, attracted the serious
attention of other brokers, many of whom were anxious
to buy at the sale. What took place at the meeting of
brokers which this occurrence led to has of course not
been published in detail, but one of the leading Arms
of brokers this week announced a slight alteration in
the terms on which they would offer tea. Hitherto,
the buyer of one lot has had the option of taking the
following lot, even when he was not the first lidder of
the price at which it was sold. Under the system of
ofifering entire parcels in one lot, thia has increased the
tendency to give a monopoly to a few buyers at public
sale. The change announced thia week was that the
"last year" should not have the succeeding lot
knocked down to him at the sale, unless he was the
first to bid the price at which it was sold. This does
not meet the difficulty that when a parcel of common
tea is offered at the sale there is a simultaneous and
deafening shout of the same price Irom seven or eight
people. In this case the "last buyer" would still
claim to have the lot knocked down to him. Further,
the firm of brokers in question propose to withdraw
the remaining privilege of the "last buyer" in case
the latter buys more than two lots in succession. This
will, in some degree, reduce the advantage enjoyed by
the buyers of a previous lot, and may thus be a sight
palliative to the evils of the present system, but it is
not backed up by a general agreement, so that it is
simply an arrangement made by an individual firm
who hold some of the most important China tea sales.
No alteration, short of the sub-division of parcels into
lots of 25 or 50 packages, can replace the ])ublic sales
of tea on a proper basis. Without this sub-division
there cannot be effic'ent and frre competition, pur-
chases must tend to drift into a few hands, and im-
porters, brokers, and dealers alike muse in time sutler
from the creation of a buying monopoly. Apart from
this question the great disorder which prevails in the
public sale-rooms certainly calls for immediate reform.
—Produce Markets' Jicview, May 23rd.

FiNANciL Cbisis IN BRAZIL.— Customi, almost the
only source of revenue in Brazil, had fallen off greatly
under au almost prohibitive import tarift". The pos-
ition of commerce and finance may be judged by the
following extract from jjroceedings of Parliament, reported
in the Bi<j Neivs : — In the Senate, Sr. Correia read an ex-
tract from the Diario do Brazil from which it appears
that one of our principal banks will shortly commence
its liquidation and that 200 commercial houses here
are bankrupt. The Senator then referred to the in-
creased charge on the Treasury through the lower
rate of exchange and wished to know what was the
floating debt, iucluiling that to the savings banks.

Insect Pe.its. — From Bucharest it it .announc-
ed that locusts have invaded the Dobrudscha in
such quantities that the military have been sent out
to destroy them. We have plenty of plagues here in
England, but, thank goodness, our English pests do not
do things on such a magnificent scale as the Dobrudscha
locusts. If our peaceful countrymen were to read
something like the following in their daily paper, they
would think the editor, stafi' and compositors were all
under the spell of madness : —

"The common or garden-slug has appeared in such
numbers in Hyde-park, that the Guards are under
orders to commence a campaign against them."

" Rata having infested the banks of the Thames in
such numbers, the Channel Fleet has been ordered to
Moulsey to bombard the banks."

" The Government purposes calling out Her Majesty's
Reserve Forces to wage war agaiust the army of
c ickroaches which has seiz<:d upon the Tower and the
Houses of Parliament." — Weekly Lclio.

Flax Firre. — Attention is being given in the United
States to flax fibre as a material for paper making. In
southern Dakota flax is grown for the seed, the fibre
going mainly to waste. Last year 1,000,000 bushels
of flax seed were sent out of the territory. The fibre
is sold for $2 to $2 50 per ton, a price that would
seem to offer an opportunity for a paper manufactur.
ing experiment. It is slated that the proprietors of
the London Telegraph, who own a large paper mill at
Dartford, England, have purchased a large tract of
railroad land in the Mojave Desert for the purpose
of using the yucca plant which grows on it for the
manufacture of paper. The plant will be ground in-
to pulp at a point on the Colorado river, and shipped
by rail to New Orleans, thence by sea to Liverpool.
Apropos of paper making from moss, the Pensacola
Commercial says that the moss crop of Florida is
worth more than the cotton, and can be put on the
market at less expense. The demand exceeds the supply,
and there is not a county in the State in which this
product is not going to waste. — P. T. Journal.

Results op Gold Mining in Mysore and Australia.
— Captain Plummer indulges in no prediction, but
there is a tone of confidence in the outlook of the
mines that he is exploiting, which should be encourag-
ing to shareholders in his Company, and should stimul-
ate the enterprize of other companies on the Mysore
field. It will be observed that ttie assay of the stone
at 173 feet level gave 2 oz. 10 dwt. 22 gr. per
ton ; at 233 feet it gave 3 oz. 1 dwt. 6 gr. to 4
cz. 1 dwt. 0 gr. ; and at 23G feet 7 oz. IS dwt.
10 gr. to 9 oz. 1 dwt. 7 gr. The deeper the
shaft is sunk the better is the result, and
at the lowermost point, "very rich stone" has
been found. The depths of the shafts are particularly
noticeable. Here is Captain Plummer at Mysore
winning S to 9 oz. of gold per ton of quartz at a
depth of only 236 feet, while at Sandhurst, the shafts
go down as deep as l,7liO feet, and a return of 673
oz. of gold from 628 tons of stone, or but little more
than 1 oz. per ton, is characterised fks a "grand
yield." — Madras Mail.

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

tot

Coca Seed. — A correspondent writes from up
country : — " Have you any idea where I could buy some
coca (Erythroxylon) seed ? What is Mr. Blacklaw's
address in Brazil ? Could he procure it, do you think ?
Would he do so, or would he be ani^ry at my re-
mitting money to him for the purchase and dispatch
of some ? Everyone who has got seed from Pera-
deniya has failed in raising plants." Mr. Blacklaw
will certainly not be offended at our correspondent's
request should it reach him ; but he may not be
able to procure the seed. His address is: — "A. S.
Blacklaw, Esq., Mangaratiba, Province of Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil." But what are the enterprizing J. P.
Williams & Bros, of Henaratgoda about ? As the seeds
are successfully raised at the Peradeniya Gardens, may
it not be possible to procure plants there very shortly ?

Telegraph Poles.— Mr. George Simpson writes to
us on the subject of telegraph poles ; — There is one
wood and one only which unites in itself all the
qualities requisite for the purpose, and that wood is the
pi'oduct of our colony of Western Australia. It is the
wood known as "jarrah," a species of eucalyptus,
whose special qualities are that it is absolutely imper-
vious to atmospheric inHuences, it cannot be acted
upon adversely by sfa water or sea insects, is non-
inflammable, and having been tested for shipbuilding
purposes for over forty years, and also as piles for
docks, is found practically indestructible. M. de
Lesseps, no mean authority, has testilied through his
engineer-in-chief that after a teat of seven years the
jarrah used for piles in the Suez Canal sho-ved no signs
of deterioration, and adds that apparently it does not
allow of decomposition or of being deeply afteoted by
rot. Why, then, not try jarrah ? The wood is abund-
ant, and can be readily delivered in this market at
about half the price of teak, and in lengths considerably
exceeding those of the average telegraph poles. — Pall
Mall Budget.

Erythrinas and Leaf-disea.se. — As dadaps have
never been planted as shade trees for coffee iu
Ceylon, and as we have always regarded as absurd
the idea that the erythrinas were in any degree re-
sponsible for leaf-disease, we feel rather sore that in
the following proceedings of the Madras Ai;ri-Horti-
cultural Society the Ceylon Olserver should seem to I e
connected with so unfounded a theory. It was in
Java the idea orij^ioated, which is thus difp ised of : —
Read letter from the Director of Revenue Settlement
and Agriculture, dated '29th January, 1SS5, forward-
ing for information an extract from a letier published
in the Wefklij Ceylon Obserivr for 27th November 1SS4,
which states that the wiiter was told as far back as
1840, that coffee leaf-disease wa.=i caused by planting
" Dadap " trees between the coffee plants for shade,
and that his experience since has convinced him that
this is the case ; for, wherever coffee is planted on
forest land, or where no "Dadap" trees are used for
shade, there is no sign of leaf-disease ; and requesting
to be informed whether from knowledgeand experience
of the subject the statement that planting Erythr'ma
trees for shade causes coffee leaf-diseaee. Read also
communication from the Director of Revenue Settlement
and Agriculture, dated 4th March 1885, No. 388-A,
informing that the enquiry regaiding the alleged in-
fluence of KryOirina indica (Dadap or Indian Coial
Tree) in producing leaf-disease when planted for shade
among coffee trees has elicited replies from several
geutltmen well qualified by their practical knowledge
to speak with authority on the subject to the effect
that there has not been observed in .Southern India
any connection between the presence of KrylUrina
trees and the production of leaf-disease, but that, on
the contrary, the effect of planting Erythrina has been
distinctly beneficial, not hurtful to the coffee trees
which it is planted to shade ; and that the replies
given are in complete accord on the point.

The Putch and English Labour Sv.stems Compared.
— The Jlelboume Lciu/cr, reviewing a work ou New
Guinea, states: — "Mr. Chalmers is an admirer of the
system pursued by the Dutch in Java, but he has had
no personal experience of the working of that system,
so that his opinion does not carry much weight. Per-
haps he is not aware that even now there is such
a thing as forced labour on the coffee and sugar
plantations. There is a Dutch law in force which
provides that the forced cultivation of the sugarcane
is to be totally abolished in 1890, but there is no
such limitation in respect to the forced cultivation
of coffee. The prosperity of Java has ensued from
the continuation of a policy which is virtually a
modification of slavery. It was not until 1800 that
the slaves were nominally set free, and they then
fell under the " culture system." The event waa
also followed by the introduction of large numbers
of Chinese. It should, besides, be remembered that
the Dutch system has not been a success elsewhere.
In Java there are 400 inhabitants to the square mile,
while in the remainder of the Dutch Indies there are
only 13. Mr. Chalmers might have asked himself
this question : If the Dutch system is so excellent,
how is it that there are no fruits of it visible in
the western half of New Guinea ? It would, perhapp,
be hardly fair to ask what the Dutch are doing in
Sumatra. It is certain, however, that, looking all
round the globe, the Eoglish system works better
than the Dutch. Ceylon will bear favourable com.
parison with Java; and if we look to another quarter
of the globe, we see British Guiana showing much
more fatisfac'ory progress than Dutch Guiana. The
English Bystein, when allowed free scope, is entirely
successful.

Ceylon Tea Wanted in China.— A mercliant
writes :— " What do you think of foreigners writing
from China for Ceylon tea 1 You will be interested

in reading the enclosed from . Some friends

at home actually sent him a sample of Ceylon tea,
and so pleated is he with it that he wants to get
supplied direct from Ceylon. This is praise, indeed."
Yes, for the correspondent, a married resident at
•Swatow, has been accustomed to get his tea from
Foochow, and " though in some seasons we can get
it very good, we recently enjoyed the change to a
sample of Ceylon." Hence the present enquiry, which
may lead to many more foreign residents in the
Far East going in for boxes of our product. What
a change since the time, a few years ago, when 5-
catty boxes from Hongkong sold by Messrs. Geo.
Wall & Co. nearly supplied the whole Ceylon market.

Mn. Mylne, of the firm of Messrs. Mylne and
Thomson, of Beehea, recently visited British Burma
with the object of introducing the Beehea sugarcane
tniU into the province. The experiments conducted by
hi.n with a Beehea double-squeeze mill were generally
satisfactory, as far as they went. But it appears that,
owing to the large siz") of the cane grown and the
draught poiver of the cattle, which is great, something
more than the mill experimented with is required for
Burma. The dillicnlty, it is thought, will bo solved by
the coustruction of a doublesqneezo mill with a large
I reak-roll.-r, and Mr. Mylne is going to have such a mill
made in England and sent out to Burma, The several
methods of boiling cane juice adopted in South Behar
were also shown the Burmese cultivators, and the
methods were admitted by them to be superior to their
own. Mr. Mylne, a contemporary says, intends
sending a small party of Indian ngricul'urists to Burma
to try the cultivation of various Indian crops on a
limited scale. The men will be selected from Shahabad.
Sugarcane, peas, wheat, Indian corn, and gram are
among the crops with which it is proposed to cxpori.
ment. — Jiombay Gaztlti,

102

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST."

[AucusT I, 1885.

CoFFEB.— -By last ofBoiaradvioes from Bali the coffee
plantations there present every prospect of a shorter
yield than in previous yeirs, owing to a disease breaking
out among tbe ooffic trees. — Locomntii'f.

The SnrPLT of Tea (Japan) has thus far been
limited, but the quality is pronounced tuperior to the
early products of last year. Prices h ive been high,
and will probably be higher as the seainn advances,
an unusually small crop being expected.— >/((/)«« Weehly
Man.

MaLBERRY Trees have been injured by frosts in
various parts of the country, and growers of silk-
worms are apprehensive that the usu^l supply cannot
be reared this year. For this, and aI.so for reasons
connected with the general distress among the labour-
ing classes, a bad silk season is predicted by native
newspapers. — Japan Weeklt/ Mail.

Java Tea in Britain and in Holland. —
A tea planter, calling attention in the Dagblad of
the 27th M >y to a report on the trade in Java tea
in England during the last live years, which showed
that the importation of that article there increased
from 1.21(i,0001b.iu 1881, to 3,536,000 lb. in 1884, in
spite of a stealy fall in prices, thus c.imraents
thereon : —

" The gradual decline in prices, though disappointing
to importers, has not aflfeoted Java tea alone, but
has taken affect also upon other teag sometimes even
in a greater degree. Nowadays, attention is paid to
good aroma and flavour mire than to the qmntitv
of the leaf, and several Java planters who set to work
supplying strong and fragrant tea found a ready sale
for their produce at good prices under the circumstances.
Messrs. Gow, Wilson i Stanton, the tea brokers
who drew up the said report, give in conclusion a few
hints about the preparation o' tea. Hi'nca not only do
British brokers shew their kindly feelings for Java tea
planters by yearly bestowing a splendid cup to be run
for yearly at the Baitenz )rg races, but their interest
shows itself still more by suggesting improvements in
the article produced and hy tin valuable and reliabie
information which they always furnish to planters
here in their tea tradu reports, accompanied by tabular
commercial statements. Also as to expens 3, above all
in these times of such great importance to growers,
these brokers more than once have shown an inclination
to render them as little burdensoma as possible upon
growers. How unfavonrably does the routine policy
and the indifference .if the brokers in Holland (a few
only excepted) cnutr.ast with the helpful and j udicious
conduct of their British fallows ! Hence it is no wonder
that a large number of Java tea planters shun our
markets, where expenses are heavier, and a good brand
linds much less recognition than in foreign lands. How-
ever patriotic people may be, saving expenses — espr ci illy
in such times as these when prices hardly yield any
profits — is the main consideration, and self preservation
enjoins that a foreigner's hand should be accepted when
tliat of one's countryman offers less suppoct. Instead
of taking this amiss of the Java lea planters and showing
it now and then, our brokeis would do better to follow
the example of their British fellows in order by eo
doing not only io keep what little tea now goes to the
Dutch market, but also draw thither the larger portion
of the consignments, so that, in the l>ng run, the strange
fact shonM not b/come manifest ?/irt< r'()jj.s»wcc.s 0/ Java
l/-a in llolliind /iiive to supp/y tlirmselves for homp. con-
sumption at th'. London marhl. We do not keep pace
with the times owing to the old coloni il commercial
ideas not being yet rooted out. It should not be for-
gotten that a grasping policy always proves unwise, or
in fact that cUugling to old ways of transacting
business no longer suits these times of keen com-
petition."— Netherlands Indian News. Ti-anslated for
the Slmiis Times.

Willow-leap Tea. — It is announced on excellent
authority that more than half a million poundsof willow
leaf were made up at Shanghai last season and palmed
off as green tea.— il/a(/ras Jtlail, June 30th.

Mb. Dk.spelssi.s ok Tea.— Mr. Despeissis, our intel-
ligent Royal Society member, gaveus on the 22nd ult.,
a remarkable lecture on the subject of tea going through
its whole history in a most lucid manner. The Society
of Arts and Sciences ordered it to be printed and de-
posited among its records. It will be a valuable guide
to those who undertake tea cultivation in Mauritius. —
Mauritius R. tt M. Oazette.

Gold on the Segama River. — The Commissioner of
Lands, Mr. Henry Walker, returned from the Segama
River on the 16th May, after an absence of 52 days.
We have not seen his detailed report but the sum-
mary of his investigations is, that in old beds of gravel
in the lands on each side of the river gold has been
found in sufficient quantity to be remunerative if
worked by sluicing, as at present done by the Chinese
in Sarawak. The gold obtained is fine, of good quality,
and would probably have been Ibund to exist ia
large size had time admitted of the bottom being
examined. There are reports of large pieces of gold being
taken from the Saboosow, a tributary on the right
bank, three days' journey above Mr. Walker's limit
if made at high water. Mr. Walker's notes on the
geological strata show it to run at an augle of 120"
from the meridiam or nearly 8. E. by S. and N. W.
by N. which lines produced on the chart will lead
to the suppposition that gold may exist at Silam and
the East shores of Darvel Bay, and on the higher
waters of the Kinabaiangan, the Labuk, and Sugut
Rivers, all of which is borne out by native reports,
and latterly, been proved by observations made by
Captain Beeston and Mr. Davies, the Resident of the
West coast. This represents an immense area and
we may fairly hope it will yield such profitable returns
as may lead to the iutinx of a very large Chinese
population. — North Borneo Heald.

MossooN IN Mercara.— June 12tb. — Thunder and
lightning are rare things after the monsoon has fairly
set in and indicite, so say the natives a light monsoon,
There was very vivid lightning accompanied by thunder
the other night, and I thought the natives had made a
very fair hit when the stars were visible for a little last
night, and the day today was partially fair ; because
we geneially have a spell of 15 days' rain after the
burst ; during which the sun is almost entirely veiled
before a " break " sets in. But it is far too early to
decide whether it will be a light or a heavy monsoon.
The monsoon is a rather gloomj' time of year, but the
most healthful. It is well that it brings much employ-
ment in its train for planters, or else we should inevit-
ably fall victims to ennui ; and I don't know if very
n any of us can escape it now, for the coolies have not

0 ime in as yet, and we have very little to attend to.

1 suppose this is owing to the lateuess of the rains in
Mys irj. But I think planters are rather glad of it, as
we can well do without them f' r the next month or
so, and it will help to keep down expenses. Many
perhapi would rate tliis a false economy — allowing
estates to be overrun by weeds andsupplying vacancies
late. A few coolies should alwajs be at hand
very desirable for supplying vacancies as it is
to put the young plants out early in the season. Aa
to estates being allowed ti be overrun with weeds,
I have seen no permanent evil produced bv allowing
weeds to remain even as late as August. May it not
be possible that weeds are ana'ural provision ajainst
" wash " from which coffee Lands deteriorate so rapidly?
But enough of this. I leave it to the wiser heads to
propound. The blossom showers in March h,id been
so seasonable that planters are elated at the pr. spects
of a heavy crop this year and if prices would only im-
prove !— Spectatob. — Madras Mad.

AtoybT 1, i68j.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

103

FIBEOUvS PLANTS AND THEIR PERCENTAGES

OF FIBRE.

We, in common with our readers, are very much
indebted to Mr. J. W. Minchin of South- East.
Wyuaiid for hia correction of an astounding error
made by a Mr. Halcombe in regard to the proportion
of clean fibre to bulk in New Zealand hemp or llax,
and for showing tliat in re.ility the best tibre-yielding
plants have not a greater percentage of useful and
marketable material than from 2^ to 10 per cent'
the higher percentage being rare. The stems of
plantains and bananas contain very little more than
1 per cent of fibre, even the best Manila plants not
excepted. New Zealand llax, when reduced to its
proper proportions, shows a much better result than
this ; but, if the enormous proportion of water in
plantain stems renders fibre-extracting from them
unprofitable, the difficulty, on the other hand is
almost as great in consequence of the small quantity
of moisture, in the New Zealand plant. Besides the
difliculties connected with too much and too little
water, and great bulk and weight in propcrtion to
fibre, additional impediments to profitable working
are offered by obstinate bark and woody matter
and sticky gum. To clean fibres thoroughly a combin-
ation ol mechanical forces and chemical agencies
are required, and, wlien these can be and are
thoroughly applied, the cost in labour and money ie
too often far more than the market price of the
resulting fibre. For paper-making, generally fibre at a
very low price is desiderated, and even for textile
purposes a high price is only rarely given. We have
seen so many sanguine statements ending only in dis-
appointment and loss, that we are inclined to advise
great caution in regard to experiments. That
in which Mr. Minchin is engaged, of growing rhta
over an appreciable area, is one of the most promis-
ing we know of, and we sincerely trust it may be
Buccessful. The chacccs in its favour include the fact
that the stems yield fibres of fuch varying qualities
that while part is used for ship's cables and cordage
the finer fibres are suitable for replacing or being
mixed with the most lustrous silks and the most
•uperior merino wools. There can be no doubt as re-
gards demand, if only cheap as well as thorough
procesiea of preparation could be discovered and
adopted. If these desiderata are met, we cannot help
th'nking, (hat, next to rhea, attmtion ought to be
paid to the leaves of pineapples, grown as these plants
generally are by the natives of Ceylon in shtdy
places »■> as to develop leaf to the utmo-t. Pine-
gpijlcs have a great advantage over green aloes ap-
parently in not being so exhaustive of the S'il. In
our recent travels through the tea regions r.f f'eylon,
we found the proprlitor of lands In the Kclebokka
Valley (a valley dealincd to be even more famous
for tea thin it once deservedly wai frr c 'ffee) wag-
ing rclentlesB war with aloe he^'gee, on the ground
of experience obtained, that they were fatal to ell
other growth within fifteen feet on either side of
them. As a gen(ral rule, therefore, fibre-yielding
p'aots cannot he grown as subsidiary cultivation,
But mttitbavo special areas (f ground devoted to them.
And not only 10, bat, as crops in successicn are
taken away, fertilising matter hiust be supplied.
Rhea certainly rtejuires rich soil aud ccpious manur-
ing. The quest-ou of "Will it pay?" u-ider such
circumstances hecoiufs urgent, and coitainly as far as
Cey'on is concerned we have not yet heard of suc-
cessful experiments with Hires, if we except the
b!«ck briitly subatacce fuuud ou the kitul palm

(Carijola un'ii^) and the fibre of the coconut (coir), from
the manufacture and export of which certainly fortunes
are not made. Mr. Minchin will, no doubt, coutiuuo
to report progress in regard to the, rhea experiment
under his charge, aud we shall be always glad to hear
from him, — especially if, as we trust, the experiment
results in success.

PERCENTAGES OF FIBRE IN VARIOUS
PL.ANTS.
The Glenrock Company, Limited Pundalur,
S. E. Wynaad, Sind May 1SS5.
(To tlw Editor of the "Tropical AgricuUari'it.")
Dear Siu, — With reference to your article on Fibre
Cultivation in the May number of the Tropicus
ArjricuUuriift, vol. iv. page 806, and your remarks
on the percentage of fibre in difl'erent plants,
read Mr. A. T. Halcombe's statement that Phorm uni
tena.r gives one ton of fibre to three tons of leavia
with great surprize, and at first tbonght it must
be some eri'or in printing, but I see that the figures
are repeated at the end of his letter. The weight
of green leaves of Phormium tenax to the ton of
fibre is stated by various authorities at 5^, 6, tii, Gj, 7,
aud 7i tons, aud is taken at 15 per cent. (See Spou's
Eui'yo. Commercial Products, div. iii., page 9S3.)

Dr. Sutherland, in his answers to the Fibre Committee
at Natal (see Tropical Agriculturist, vol. iii., page
461), gives 10 per cent as the yield of fibre from
Phormiuin tenax. I think there must be some
error in the statement made by Mr. Halcombe which
would show that the New Zealand flax, Phormium
tenax, would give tenfold more fibre, in proportion
to the green stuff treated, than Bcehmeria nivta or rhea.
The percentage of fibre to the weight of greeu
material depeuds mainly on the percentage of water
is contains. Succulent plants such as Manila hemp
and plantain contain as much as 90 per cent of
water. When first cut, rhea contains from 70 to 80 per
cent of water, according to the age of the stems and the
season of the year. Young succulent stems contain
more water than the ripened stem which has begun
to brown at the butt, and there is more moisture
in the ripened stem during the rains than in the
dry weather even under irrigation. It is undoubtedly
the case that fibre plants growing in dry and arid
ground will contain a larger percentage of fibre to
their green weiyht than succulent plants grown in
a moist climate. The leaf blades of the Phormium
tenax contain very little moisture, and this is partly
the cause of the difficulty exjjerieuced in the pre-
paration and extraction of the fibre.

The yucca, which you kindly inform me has been
found to yield 12.J ptr cent of fibre under Mr.
Charles Shaud'a experiments, grows in very dry
samly soil, and would not suit tbe moist soil and
cl.niate of Wynaad. Its principal uso nt present is
for pafjer makiuf, aud its commercial value is small.
I gather that the percentage of fibre frcm the follow*
ing plants is found toba as f..llowB : —

COTTO}i.—Gossypium.—l5 to 30 per cent of the unmerited
seed.— Spon's Eiicye, div. iii, page 9J7.

HEUV.— Canahis saHiU.—O to 12 jjei' cent raw fibre, of
which 25 per cent i« gum soluble in water, 25 per cent
is gum soluble in alkalies. Say 5 to 6 per cent of clean
ultimate fibre. The green stems coutain 50 per cent of
water. — Dr. Korlcs Watson's Keport on Khei, 1975, pages
18 to 17.

Flax. — Linv.m usi'atisHm' m —(0 yiuT cent water, 5 to 7
pit cent raw fibre, of wliicli 35 per cent in gum, half soluble
in water, half soluble in alkalies, tiny 4 per cent clean
ultimate fibre.— Dr. lorbcs Watson ou llhca, IS7.'), page
10 to 1 7.

KiiEA. — Bochiiitria nirea.—bO per cent water, 4 to (i per

cent raw fibre, prepared by baud as China grass, of which

i 30 pec $eDt is gum not soluble in water. Say. 2i to

104

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 18S5,

4 per cent clean ultimate fibre .—Dr. Forbes Watson on
Kbea, page 15 to 17.

YERcmi.—Calolropis gigantea.— 10 tons green stems will
give 582 lb. 6bre. Say 24 per cent.— Strettel's New Sources
of Kevenue for India, 1878.

Aloe. — Agai'e Americana.— 6 to 10 per cent fibre from
leaves 8 to 10 feet long and 1 foot wide.— Spon's Encyc,
div. iii., page 912. But in a report to the Bengal Gov-
ernment published in the Tropical Agriculturist, vol. ii.
page 655, it is stated that it requires as much as forty
maunds of aloe leaves to make one maund of fibre. Say
2h per cent of fibre.

Manila HEMP.-3/Hsa (er/t'is,— Average weight of tree
50 lb. 1-4 per cent of fibre. 3,200 trees may give one ton
of fibre.— Spon's Encyc. div. iii. page 984.

Marul. — Sanseviera Zei/lanica.—FaW-gTovra leaves 3 to
3i feet long, yield at the rate of one pound clean fibre
for every forty pounds leaves. Say SJ per cent.— Spon's
Encyc, div. iii., page 995.

1 have not been able to ascertain the percentage of
fibre from ereeu jute stems.- 1 am, dear sir, yours
faithfully, J- W. MINGHIN.
«

IRRIGATION IN JND14..
Mr. A. B. Fforde, of the Settlement Depart-
ment, has addressed a valuable letter, on "Irrig-
ation Works," to the Times of India; and as
we agree generally in the views expressed by Mr.
Fforde, we reproduce the letter below :— I have read
with interest your leading article on irrigation. The
ryot is, as you say, in the habit of declaring that
canal irrigation is not so fertilizing as well irrigation.
He says that the canal water is too " cold," requires
more manure than that from wells. He does not say
this of canals, from small streams made by himself but
only of Government canals. The reason lor his objection
lies, I think, in the fact which I have often noticed,
that he uses toojmuch water when he takes it from Gov-
ernment canals, and waterlogs his soils. Where the
small village canals are used, he is restricted to a
very limited supply of water, and gets no more than
is absolutely necessary. His neighbours watch care-
fully to see that he takes no more than his proper
share. Where the supply is practically unrestrained,
as in the ose of large Government canal--, he keeps
the water going all day and drowns out his crops. Again,
since he can get much more land uuder water, he is
tempted to spread his available manure over a large
area, and compared with laud under wells the crop
is poorer in consequence. In the Deccan the ryot
will often leave his well unused if he can get water
from a local canal, because the labour is bo much less.
I imagine that, all expenses considered, canal irrig-
ation, even if showing a poorer out-turn, is cheaper
than that from wells— gives a larger profit. As to
deterioration of soil by canal water, that applies
equally to wells. I have seen soil, formerly of the
beat, so ruined by well-water as to be perfectly barren.
la the famine year I saw crops killed by water
from wells. The smaller quantity of wa'er probably
caused concentration of the salts in the water-beating
stratum. If canal water caused the silts to r'.se from
the lower strata where they generally He, so does
well-water, and in such strata the Utter is even worse,
because the water i3 drflwh dil'eot fi'iim the under-
lying strata and is not surface water like that from
canals. AVhtre canal iirigatiou is iltlpraoticable, well
tionstruction would be of great value. Seven yeafs ago
I advcicated, iu one of the Bombay piipera, the con-
struction of wells by private capitalists in suoli dis-
trict?. There is no doubt that wells could be cou-
(truoted and hired to the ryots at rates which would
pay very largely indeed. Such wells woulil be a
most v.aluable property. The comparative failure of
Government canals to return large profits is, I think
due to the fact that many of them are not perennial.
Ike people will not pay high rates £or water, uniees

they can get it during the summer months, and some
large canals are, as I know, unable to give water
all the year round. That the people are willing to
use canal water is beyond doubt. In one taluk
alone in the Deccan there are upwards of 800 small
canals from rocky streams. None of these can carry
down anything but sand or stones on to the soil, but
they are used wherever there is the slightest chance
of making them. Well-water may be more fertilizing,
but very slightly so. It would naturally contain
more earthy and vegetable matter from infiltration.
— Indian Agriculturist.

♦

WHOLESALE TEA DEALERS IN COUNCIL.

At the annual general meeting of the members
of the Wholesale Tea Dealers' Association several
matters of interest to tea-planters were discussed.
The report was read by the Secretary.

The Chairman iu moving the adoption of the report
congratulated the trade on the point which the Associ-
ation had carried, which had put a stop to the
short weight delivery of teas to their customers.
For, as they were aware since October last, the sjstem
of reweighing had been carried out with most satis-
factory results. The next question referred to in the
report was that of Indian tea, and he was glad to
say that by the action of their Association it had
been arranged that when there was any difference
beyond the net weight in Assams, the Customs
authorities turned them out and the tare wag properly
calculated. One or two cases had come under his
own notice in which customers had not had the
weight they were entitled to, but he hoped that by
the new regulation this would be remedied,

Mr. John Harrison then referred to the heavy
charges on the handling of teas in the warehouses,
and believed that if they took united action, they
would be able to get a reduction of them. He
would move therefore, " That this meeting is de-
sirous of entering a strong protest against the ex-
orbitant and very unjust charges made in connection
with warehouse rent, and the handling of teas, and
undertakes to support the committee in any action they
may the, for the purpose of securing their reduction."

The resolution was unanimously agreed to.

Mr. Oglesby referred to the question of sampling.
They might legislate but they oouKl not make the
brokers sample in the same way as the leaders, but
if it was discussed with the former he thought they
would be very likely to content to some mutual
arrangement. He thought the present mode of in-
fpeotion was very far from what it ought to be. He
had recently had a ose iu which the inspection was
most outrageous, the lid had only been lifted, and the
inspector took out a fair sample only stating that thu
surface was slightly damaged, wherias when the bnx
was turned out the back was in a bad condition,
fortunately the box was kept, aud he was able to
taovr it to the broker, but it wa? only after a ureut
deal of correspondence that he got the amount which
he claimed, He oouoidered it most unjust that ihi-y
should have euoh insufficient inspection. He hope I
tliey would be able to get it reformed, for he be-
lieved by so doing they would beuetit merchants as
well as dealers. — //o;?ie and Colonial Mail.

AN OPENING FOR CEYLON TEA IN CANADA.
With very much information laid aside to be dealt
with at a convenient season are papers connec'cd
with a brief visit we paid to Canada in passing
through America last year. It will be remembered
that Mr. Stimson visited Australia, Ceylon and
India in 1883, in connection with a proposed Ex-
hibition at BoitODi He took back with him a con-

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

103

siderable naraber of exhibits destined eventually to
be displayed not in New England, but in Ontario. In
passing through Toronto in March ISS-t, we attended
a meeting of some of the leading citizens at Mr.
Stimson's request, in connection with the purposes
of his intended Oriental Exjosition, and also to
give and gather information as to the best means
of promoting a trade, especially in our planting pro-
ducts between Ceylon and Canada. We may ijuote
a few sentences from the report which appeared in
The Vanadian of March 17th : —

A meeting of a few gentlemen interested iu the pro-
motion of au "Oriental International E.xposition," took place
at tlie Kossin house last evening. Aid. Lobb, being moved
into the chair. The Eev. K. E. Stimson, who has travelled
very extensively in the east and other quarters of the globe,
stated the object of the exhibit, which was to promote
the intercourse between the eastern and western hemi-
spheres. Mr. Stimson has but recently returned from
Cej'lon, bringing with him a large collection of specimens
of the products of the east in general, and of L'ejlon in
particular, such as tea, coffee, precious stones, cinchoria,
etc. Such an exhibition as that proposed, will be a very
gratifying and instructive one, and will enlighten the
people of this country on some subjects connected with
the Orient, of which at present they are lamentably
ignorant.

Mr. Ferguson was then asked to speak and gave a brief
but very interesting sketch of Ceylon. The coffee estates
of that island are, at present, attacked by a disease to the
trees which is of so serious a nature that the cultivation
of coffee in the island will probably soon be a thing of the
past, tea supplanting coffee and being found to thrive ex-
cellently and produce a very fine article. Mr. Ferguson
dwelt on tlie various Ceylon products more especially tea,
which might be sent to the Canadian market and trusted that
Mr. Stimson's exhibit would prove to be as great a suc-
cess as it deserved to be, concluding his address by
paying a very high compliment to Toronto, stating
that, from what he s^iw of it at this season of the year,
he Was certain it must be a very beautiful city in' the
summer.

The Assistant Editor of The Canadian — an ex-
C'eylon planter, well-known in Kelebokka and Deltota
for his powers as a cricketer— rather over-coloured
our remarks about coffee, the total extinction of
which culture we certainly did not lonsider a fore-
gone conclusion a year ago. Cut it is with leference
to tea we lave now to cill stten'ion to the Canadian
market. The Toronto I'xp sition cnnie off in due
coarse some time towards the ind of the yar, and,
while excit ng a great deal of interest and bringing
to many of the Ceylon Kxhib t r-. Diplomas of Meiit
ifesued under the sanciion of the (".inadian Dnminicn
Government, we reg;et to learn from Mr. Stimeon
that, pecuniaiily, he and bis cole guee have batn
heavy losers. The exhibits of Ceylon tea and
other producti — cocinut oil, Librrian colTi e, Ac. — sent
by Messrs. I.eechmau &Co., altract'd niucli altei tion,
we are told, at the Exhibition, snl led ti enquiries
on the pait of local dea er-", wlio, hiwever, in most
cases, consider London far en. u^h to look to for the
supply of their n quirt mtnts, One gentleman of ex-
tennivB business connections throughout Caia'^a and
who is specially interested in t- a has however sent
enquiries to US in Ciybui. From this leiter (from Mr.
Alderman l.obb of Toronto) we quote as follows 1—

Keforring to our conversation at the "llosvin House"
here, where I Lad the pleasure of meeting 3011, I recently
received samples of teas (duplicates of which I forward
per this mail; from Mr. Stimson, who wiiuhl have banded
them to mc earlier but for some ditbculty which ne got
into with the Custom authorities. I have sulimilted them
to some of our leading merchants and they have been
very highly approved, some of them remaiking: "They
were the finest black teas they ever put the water on."
They are undoubtedly a high grade of leas anil could be
sold here, if price would not be an obt^tacle. Uaving no
idea of vour valuation, I can give uo defiuite opinioD, but, if

J4 '

any of your friends would like to consign an assorted parcel
of, say, 100 half-chests, I could test the market here and else-
where and should hope to make -satisfactory returns.
Then follow business and banking references which
will no doubt be deemed satisfactory. The duplicate
samples returned are ot the well-known " K. A. \V."
and " Cullooeu " marks, and the fact that these are
among the finest black teas ever seen in Canada
ought to encourage the testing of that market by
cousigiinients. Ot course, the market iu Canada as
well as the United States, has attracted the attention
of Indian tea-planters, and the Calcutta .Syndicate
have done a coi siderable business through New York,
although the impression we got from leading tea-men
there, was that it would take a considerable timo
to win the American tea-drinkers from their fond-
ress for the artificially-prepared Japanese green teas.
Nevertheless, the process is going on and the value
of a pure unadulterated article is being surely, if
slowly, appreciated. The following letter on the
Canadian market appeared iu the Indian 'Tea GazetCe
a short lime ago : —

THE CANADIAN TEA MARKET— A NEW

MAKKET FOR INDIAN TEA.
Sir, — The tea-planters of India are sufficiently alive to
tho necessity of opening up fresh markets for the jiro-
duce of their gardens, but the persistence with which they
adhere to the original method of making up all their tea
on the model of China black teas, would almost leave it
to be inferred that either they are wanting in enterprize
to push their teas beyond the English market, or they
know nothing of the state of the tea trade iu the other
great markets of the world.

Surely if it were known in India that of the sixty-three
million pounds of tea imported iuto Canada in the first
seven months of the cuirent year, only about one-tenth
was black tea, and that the otiier nine-tenths eousisteil of
Chinese green tea and natural leaf Japan tea, the planters
would make some effort to adapt at least a portion of
their output to this market, and to enter into com-
petition for the supply of the United States,— the greatest
tea consuming country in the world, and equally with
Canada, a green-tea drinking country.* A certain mea-sure
of satisfactory, and presumably permanent, trade in Imliau
teas lias been created with England, hut the demand is
almost limited to pekoes and the liner class of pekoe
souchongs suitable for flavoring up Chinese congous, which
have had their pekoe leaf carefully sorted out for Chiiusi;
home consumption ; but the grades of Indian teas btlow
these qualities give no promi.-e of growing into favor in
England, while the very fine quality of the green teas
manufactured in Upp' r India for the Central .-Vsian trade, lead
me to infer that the Indian leaf is especially adapted to tho
prep.aration of green teas, which even iu the lower giad s
would command satisfactory prices on this side the Atlantic.
I have placed myself in personal cotninunication with
several of my acquaintance-! among the plunters of Uiper
India on this subject, and having established an Agency iu
Montreal, have every facility fur p'acing suitable Indian
teas upon the Canadian market, and I hope to pave tho
way to a consideiable development of the Indian lea trade
in this direction; being perfecly sati-fird that if the Indian
planter will give practical effect to my suggestion, then;
is an ample market for the whole Indian output on this
side the Atlantic.

In the Canadian customs returns .Tapan and green teas
are grouped together, so that it is impossible to determine
the exact projioi tion of each ; hut troni n.y knowledge of
the trade, I should say that the .Tapan teas constitute con-
siderably more than half our total imports.

These Japan ten-s owe littl.- to ai)pearHiiee : they have
apparently been subjected but to little firing, and the U;:it,
which is in various shades of dull olive green, is not
rolled up compactly, but just foldcil once upon itself
as if Hun-dried. The mode of prepauttiou could probably be
ascertained through the agency of our consuls, but tho
subject is of sutbcieut interest to ludian planters to v\arniut
the deputation of a competent man to familiarize himself
with the method of preparation.

* Absurd nooseose and greatly exaggerated statistics.— Ep,

100

'liiL TKui^iCAt AGKiCOLTURlST.

[At'6(J6T ?, J%}

Some few years eince Japan sliawecl suflicient enterpri ze
to make up a lot o£ pekoe for Ibis market in imitation of
Indian pekoes. Theee teas look well, are fully up to the
stamlard for .strength, but they are overtired, anil want the
aroma of the Assam pekoe; and failing to command good
prices, are no more imported. This is an instrnctive lebson ;
the same tea which, fired and got up as a pekoe, scarcely
saleable at sixteen pence in this market, is worth two
shillings prepared as natural leaf or basKet fired.

The one lesson which I wish to convey to the Indian
planter is, that here is a market large enough to absorb the
whole Indian output,* but that if India thinks seriously ot
competing tor a share of the tiade, she must adapt her teas
to the market.

The Canadian demand for Indian pekoes and pekoe
souchongs is limited by the cousumption of congons ; the
trade at present is small, but ruling prices are appro-fimately
ten per cent better than in England, and the trade is
susceptible of some development.

The following are the current iiriccs of teas in Montreal :—

Japans I 0 to 2 2 - English money.

Young Hysons ...

0 i^

6

11
G

The bulk of
businessdone
is ill the me-
dium grades.

Per head,
lb.
5 (about)

1 l-5th „

Gunpowders
Imperials
Oongous

Indian Pekoes ...
Pekoe Houchougs

Upper Indian Souchongs... - - „
These pi ices include the duty paid, ton per cent ad valvnin
with an additional penny per lli. on black, and IJ per poun.i
on green teas.— lam, yours faithfully, , ,, . ,

C. F. AmeRY, Tea Agency, 187, St. Paul Street, Montreal.
There are eome absurd (rrors in the above, more
epu^cially in refering to the United States as ^he
greatest tea-ooal^Ulning country in the world. .he
United ICiiisdom is far in advance, the oompansou
being somewhat as follovv.s : —

Total annual
Oonsuraption.

tjnited Kingdom 170,000,000

United States with Pacific

Oo.ist r,l).i:00.0(IU

Canadian Dominion 12,OCO,0UO aj „

The sources whence the Slates and Canada noeive

their principal supply of tea are approximattly as

follows ;—

Ghina 30,000,000

Japan 40,000,000

India \ 2,000,000

United Ivingdom J

We hope that, before miny years e.

figure for au appreciable ((uantity i

LETTERS FROM JAMAICA :— No. Vl.

CROV TIME ON THE BLUE MOUNTAINS— SHORT CROPS— A
VISIT TO THE GOVERNMENT CINCHONA GARDENS — A
LOVELY VIliW— GROWTH Or CINCHONA— AN UNWISE
POLICY— PROFITS FROM CINCHONA— MR. MORKIS— A
SANATORinM WANTED- PUIU IC OPENING OP A BRIDGE
^RAIN IN .TAMAICA— A GOOD STORY.

Blue Mountain District, May 188,').
De.M( SiK,— This 18 now crop time in the blue
M.'iUitaina, for, as in Hnpumie, Ceylon, most of our
is picUed (Uiniiq Mnrch, April, May and June

ise, Cejlou may
this return.

noticed an improvement in the appearances as the
cinchona fields advance in age, the grass lands and
pastures improve, the many var'egated trees and
shrubs grow up, and the lovely flower bids decked
out in their yay array flourish from seeds sent from
KfW of all the new varieties : indeid nothing reminda
me more of " Home, sneet home," 'ban Cinchona. It
IS a pity this old Belle Vue is not more accessible,
but it is fully twemy-three milts from Kingston
only nine miles of which are cartroarl to Gordon
Town, thence steep bridle-path to Gnava Ridge,
down to the Yallah.s, and then the last tug of all,
a rise of, I suppose, quite 3,000 feet in Ave miles,
fsut the traveller is rewarded by a most glorious view
extending soulhw.ird to Port Royal and the Man-
chester Mountains fsr westward ; to the sea at
*Dnatto Bay on the north side; to Morant Point
to the eastward ; embracing a view most lovely,
grand and extensive, of tea, lull and valley, precipice
and virgin forest with the Blue Mountain 7,350
feet above the sea as a summit, and Kingston Port
l\oyal, and the Pallisadoi-s, at the foot, looking as
if one could almost throw a biscuit and land it in
King Street, for it cannot Le more than 10 miles
distant as the ciow ill s. Words fail me to describe
with full juatice this mist lovely and extensive
pio pcct, which I consider quite equal to many of the
lust \ieW3 1 have seen in niy various wanderings
niid travels. As to the cinchona itself there is no
doubt as to its sncces?, and consequently it is a
pty fi'V Jamaica, that prices have fi lien so low. There
may now be seen Eucoirubra (rei s fully ten to twelve
jears old (or even older) which have been shaved
and XIV ssed and are looking nono the worse ; an
otliciualis field, which hjs yielded three or four cop-
pictd crops and i- now mainly composed of self-sown
trees; vpry beautiful patches ot hybrid and oflicinalia
of younger gr.'Wth, and all the newer sorts, such as
Ledger, Cal saya Ver.ie, etc.. all well represeiittd
»nd"niakiig good progress. In addition plantations
of lori-st tiees and shruhp, specimens from all lands,
are being termed, so that in a few years it will
indeed be a show place, and well worthy of Jamaica.
So thai it seems a p ty tlie Commissioner! reoommer.ded
the aa'e of the larger part of the plantation on the plea
that C4ovirnintiit eh^'uld not compete witLi private
individuals in the Produce Market, and even Mr. Morris
I himself IS of the same opinion, but i have always
thought this admitted maxim might be waived lu
the ease of Jamaica, as the produce of 150 acrea
cannot make much difference in the markets, whereas
it would enable the department to become self-
supporting, and no h.nger a charge on the revenue.
If Govirninent can without prijudice, and for tho
general public good,ownaLd work a Goverament Railway
as in ( e^len and J.imaica, I canUi t see why it should
not aUo own a ci. ohona plantation to enable tbe
Department of Public Oardius and Plantations to
be benilioal to the public without causing a charge
on the revenue, t lus enabliag duties to be diminisbud

th ngi! picking lasts (or fully nine itioiitli9 o. tlio year,
'lie nie"seht aesoou is Vefv bnckwiii'd i thiB has no
Ao'ubt been caused iiy Oulder ai^l more showery
W»i,lh r, wnich has prevailed sincG Jfinuary, though,
Itiwet- d .\»n the w.fit of roiil io much felt; As a
ru 6 crnpB Will not he afi large as last ye.nr I th'S
should k Ip to Ueip nf V^'ceft, as there U now much
lesi good colory coffes in the European markets
than in former years when CeJ'lon and S ulh India
were free of Itafdfl ase. ,,.,-•,.

S nee I list wrote yu, I have paid my third visit
(since 18S-2)to "Cinchona," the Government plantation,
wh^re the old cofifee estate of Belie Vue formerly
existed, Each time I have visited_CinchoLa^I_have
■ # Ab.siird iionipnsr and {,'reatly itxaggerated «fatiMif'(",-K(

on otier impoited goods whioh are now taxed at tha
rate of 12i per c. ut ad va'orem duly. Prices of
cinchona are ci rtainly very low, but there are ihosa
here who, nolWth.iiandinB, still be li ve that will pay,
aud ay tl at at 9 years old it in^y be worth 0u8
sb.iliog a trie) so, with 8.0(0 trees to theaore, tbaS
would mean a value of £\iO an acie, on Which sum
a veiy f<ir profit should be obtained, Mr. Morris
is a most Zealous and hardWoikii g public servant )
he has lately reudued imtni use str' ice to the i, land
as C.ram-.ssiomr at the New Orleans Expnsitim
in bring ug Jan aica prt mi neutly bi fore tlie America ri
public, Hi.d was instruaieutal in f:etting quaiantiia
removed from vessels sailing from Jamaica, so open,
ii.g up the fruit trade for the supply of tho vast
rogion of the Mia iisippi Vnllcy,

AuGvat t, 1885.]

'HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

107

It has alirays beeu a stiiprizs to me that tliere is
no public sanatorium in Ja:ii;iija, as thi'ie is at
Nunara Eliya ia Ceylcu, for the clima'e is siirp'y
perfect from November (after the rains) to April ;iml
May, but Newcastle at 4 000 to 5,000 feet above the
sea 13 a purely military cantonment, only accessible)
to the favoured iew who Un-^w the oilicers, so that
a large hotel oa the Aniencan principle would, I am
sure, pay wo!', if but some enterpriziug New
Eu{;lander would liiid the capital, or get up a com-
pany to carry ou; such a deaideratuni. There are
many sites at -J.COO to 5,000 feet above the sea,
which would sui'. admirably, and even ready-built
lu>u,-es fur a cvramencemeDt : the dittieulties in the
way are lack of cart-reads to get up supplies easily
aud cheaply, aud the lack of good servants, but
these no duubt could be got from the States, aud
I feel mre it wculd pay, as not only would .Liiiiaicans
who live in the hot lowcouutry gladly avail them-
selves of such a good chauce for chauge of air, but
viaitois from America and even fro n i-urope would
ba attracted to the place if they could be assured
of being oumfurtably housed and well fed. I know
of t»o places tucli as Belle Vue aud Flams-
head ou the Port Ko^al range, not much mure
than fuur or five miles from Gordon Town, vhich
would suit lor the purpose; the present good bridle-
road might be wideUfd here and there, so as to make
it passable for those Chine e conveyances called
" jienkslia," so that a^ed visitors who cuuld not ride
could le wheeled up to their mountiiin I ottl.

I was lately present, as one of the Commissiouers
of Koads for this parisli, at the public opening of a
bridge over the Yallalis river connecting the
parishes of St. Andrews and St. Thomas's. There
was a larg; assemblage of buckra's brown folk
and Creoles to witness the ceiemony, which was
made ijuite a gala day in the district. The Member
of Couucil for Portland and St. Tliumas, the Hon.
George Henderson, perfoimed the ceremony in tlie
.■•bsence ef Maj ir-General Mann, r.k, Director of
Public \V"rks, breaking a bottle of champ igne over
the rail.n.im ;d ti'.e structure " Mahogany Vale Briilge."
It spans the river close by that old coffee property,
and 1.1 a srong, well-built iron-girder bridge. It will
confer an immense benefit en tlie travelling public
aud inhabitants of the district, for, nhen the rains
are ou, and the river as they say in .Jamaica " comes
down," it is a wide and most formidable current.
Many, I am tolH, have been the deUhs caused by
perple endeavouring to ford it when in Hoed ; at
preamt, after two or three dry seasons, it is but
an ordinary striam, but in Hiod expands seme 200
to 300 feet, which proves that when it does rain in
Jam dca it cornea down with a vengeance.

1 may ag well conclude my letter by relating a
good story I heard some time ago. A gentLmau and
his friend, having gone to Kingston, bmugbt home
a block if ice and ordered the old cegro woman who
was in charge of the bouse to stow it away in the
" drip," which is the term used here for a large
earthenware water-cooler ard filter, but was obliged
to leave home again at once. On h's n turn shortly
afterwaids he aakerl the old woman for some ice,
when on going to look for it, she found none, it
having melted ; so she came back in a great state
of mind, saying : — " Hi 1 my mnssa, him no derc,
Somebody hav' tief him fa' true." W. S.

PROGP>LSS OF 'IHE CEYLON TKA KNTKR-
PRIZE IN THE FIVE YEABS BETWEEN

18-10 AND 1885.
Messrs, Gow, Wilson & .Stanton have, in a very
interesting and useful piper, summed up the pro-
gress of the Ceylon Tea entcrprize from tho second quarter

of 1S80 to the second ciuarter of the present veer.
The main faots and statistics are grap'iioally described
in a series of diagrams. First are shown (he vari-
ations of prices. Commencing with I lei per Hi. aver-
age in the second ipiarter of 1S80 the course wis reg.
uhrly downwards to 9d in toe first epiarter of

1551. Our tea< have never gone so low as tins again.
From 9d as recorded, the rise was rojulirand rapid
until Is 2d was reached in the Brat ejiiarter of 18S2.
Then came a fall to Hid in tho fourth quarter of

1552, followed by a steady and rapid rise to I.1 5^il
in the last quarter of 188.3. This vrm the higheit
average. Then there came a fall to about Is 2Jd
in the third cjimrter of ISS-t, with a lise to
Is 2Jd in the fourth quarter, and a fall to Is 2JI in
the first quarter of the present year, followed by a
recovery in the second quarter to Is ."id, with which
the record of 5 years ends. Tiie second diagram shows
the shipments in each ejuarter from Cevlon, and a
third gives the annual shipments. We give the
figures in a combined form : —

1880

1881

8,000
000
000
,000

1882 J

C 1st qr. 8,

I 2nd „ 36,

■) 3rd ., 64,

I. -Ith „ 17,'

f 1st qr. .'>4,nOO

J 2nd „ 08,000

i 3rd „ lll.nOO

I 4th „ 78,0110

Ih.

lb.

1st qr.
2nd „
3rJ „
4tli ,.

1:^9,0(10 Ih.
IM.5.0110
1 7!1,( 100
I118.OOO

1883

f 1st qr, .385,1100 I

J 2ud „ 54,S,0U0 ,

] 3rd „ 4ij2,liiil) „

t 4th ,. 204,110(1 „

I]

lb. S

114,845 1b.

311,145 1b,

021,068 lb.

1,593,087 lb.

1881

1

2,285,294 lb.

1st qr. 408,000 lb.

2nd „ 056,000 „

3rd „ 882,000 .,

' 4tli „ 839,000 „

The shipments for the first ejiiarter of the present
ye ir were ti7I,000 lb. Our readers w.ll see that, so
far, tlie bulk of tlie cr.ip has gone forward in the
second and third quaitera of each year. lu each of
the years given, in oreler to find thj entire piodiictiou
of tea in Ceylon, ligures giaduaHy inereas;cg as Chita
tea was displaced, ought to be added for local con-
sumption. The average home oonsumpiion of tea iu
Ceylon in 1875-77 was 80.000 lb. aud probaMy a
higher figure should be added to lea exported, as
the local consumption of tea llllls^ have increased .••iiice
ten years at»o. Let u-i say 120 000 b f ,r home couiump-
tion, and then we get 2,513,000 lb loi tlie total piodvc
Hanoi 1884, adding exports to other places than Britain.

Having thus disponed of tlu d.agrams, we give the
brokers' remarks in full below.

The statement is altogelher encouraging, not only as
regards the quality of Ceylon tea hut as to the prospect
of the market generally. With few variations prices
have advanced with advancing expjits, the estates
sending produce having ri?en from 20 in IS80 to 185 at
the beginning of 1885. It will bo seen that the consump-
tion of tea in Britain has rloubkd in twenty years and
that the proportion of Indian (including Ceylon) is rapid-
ly increasing, being already not far from 40 per cent.

The continental demaud lor the better teas is also
increasing. It seems time that stejis were taken to
follow the aelvice given from so many qu.irtt:rs to call
in the aid of the analytical chemists, to test the
quality of the lea leaf, as well ua to give juelgment
on the constituents o!' soil and the nianuiial substances
which can with best results bo upplied. As regards
the hints at the end, we should like to know the
secret of making tea without dust? Some exporters
certainly seem to hive discovered it. To n^ it is a
mystery equally with the alleged superiority of large

loS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 1885,

breaks. la our owu case our London agents have recently
combined several invoices at one sale, not certainly
to our advantage, however much it may have been
to the convenience of the big brokers.

CEYLON TEA.

(Beport hy Messrs. Gow, Wilson ^-Stanton, Tea Broilers.)

Vt'e beg to submit for your consideration a few facts
bearing on the statistical position of Ceylon Tea, which may
be of interest to you.

The rapid increase in the production of Oeylon Tea,
and the universal favor with which it has been received,
attract attention to the growing importance of this island
as a field of production. In order to convey graphically the
progress made, we give, in diagram* form, a comparison
both of the quarterly and yearly increases, together with
a line tracing the course of price averaged in the London
public sales during the period under review.

The blocks representing the production speak for them-
selves, but a few words in reference to the " price line "
will be of interest to all concerned in the industry. It gen-
erally happens with articles of consumption that increased
production leads to reduced values, but in this instance it
will be seen that the reverse has taken place. Now, we
would ask, to what cause this enhanced value is to be
attributed ? Is it that the price of Tea generally has im-
proved during the past five years? This is decidedly not
the case, and we can see no other cause than that the
efforts of planters, favored by a climate suited to the pro-
duction of Tea, have been successful, and that this success
has so far been appreciated by the consumer.

Referring to the second diagram we observe that the
amount shipped in 1884 is twenty times as great as in
1880 ; and if we examine the number of gardens repre-
sented in the London auctions, as stated below, the
result is exceedingly striking, for while In 1880 the
number was under '20, it has risen in 1884 to 135.

1880.

1881.

1882.

1888.

1884

Gardens

. 13

15

56

Ill

135

Chests

855

705

3,308

11,080

15,139

Half-Chests

334

1,612

4,852

lO.iSO

16,728

Boxes

40

13

1,071

857

710

Total rkgs.

Catalogued

I,2i9

2,330

9,2-29

22,217

82,577

and the present year has already contributed nearly 50
new names.

Large tracts of land recently devoted to the cultivation
of Oollee are now being planted with Tea. As an instance
of this, it is said that in the district of Dickoja alone
which lately contained 27,500 acres of Coffee, the Tea
shrub now covers 11,000 acres, and it is e-xpected that
before the end of the current year these figures will be
nearly doubled. We may therefore assume that the rapid
development of the Tea industry is likely to continue,
and as tbe out-turn from India is certain to inereasi', we
are compelled to ask ourselves whether the supply of Tea
will not soon exceed the demand, and become too gnat to
admit of a profit to the planter.

In considering this important matter let us glance over
the last 45 years, and oliserve the annual quantity of Tea
consumel jjer head of the population of the United
Kingdom in each decade, viz. —

1840. 1850. ISOO. 1870. 1880. 1884.
11 lb. IJlb. 2a lb. 3J lb. 4nb. 4J lb.

The home consumption in 1SG4 was 8S,.500,000 lb. and
in I8S4 175,092,001) lb. and had, therefore, almost exactly
doubled itself in twenty years. Here, then, we notice a
steady advance ; and we are led to infer that the gradual
cheapening of the commodity, together with the amelior-
ated condition of the working classes, the spread of temper-
ance amongst the masses, and the modified social habits
of the people, have largely contributed to a more general
use of the article. There is, therefore, substantial reason
for believing that the demand will continue to increase.

[* We regret we cannot reproduce the diagrams, but the
letterpress is sufficiently explanatory.— Ed.]

With this augmented consumption has come a
demand for improved quality and flavor; and as these
characteristics are especially combined in Indian and
Ceylon descriptions, it is evidently on this account
that these teas have grown so much in favor with
the public ; we find that whereas in 1861 only three per
cent of all the tea consumed was Indian, in 1884 the per-
centage had risen to thirti/sereit. Considering the great
similarity existing between Ceylon and Indian teas, we
may almost treat them as one article ; and there is no
doubt that by the combined efforts of the two sister
countries the percentage of their teas consumed will year
by year increase ; and that the consumption of China" tea
will be proportionately reduced on account of its general
deficiency in strength, pungency, and flavor, while it seems
probable that before many years are passed, the staple
tea of the London market will be Imlian and Ceylon, and
that only such amount as these countries are unable to
produce will be drawn from China. We may add that
the exportation of Indian and Ceylon tea to the Continent
shows a gradual increase, and that there is every prob-
ability of this branch of the trade becoming largely developed.

In furtherance of these ends we would impress upon
planters the paramount importance of keeping up the
quality. Let them never rest until they have succeeded
in producing a " perfect tea " ; until they have exhausted
every virtue which the plant possesses. Do they fully
comprehend the nature of the plant with which they have
to deal ; the soils which are best suited to its develop-
ment, and the situations which are most conducive to its
growth ? Do they understand how to utilize its various
properties for their own purpose, and what qualities they
should strive to foster in their plants; can they accoimt
for " delicate flavor " " peculiar pungency " or " unu.-ual
strength"; in short, do they understand that which
chemically constitutes " tea " ':'

They have already pressed into their service the engin-
eer, who has shown them how to cheapen their manu-
facture, and at the fame time to improve their produce
by the judicious use of machinery. It is now time that
they proceeded a step further, and learned from the
chemist the nature of a " true " tea, and the agricultural
requirements neees.sary to obtain it — whether by manuring
the soil so as to supply the plants with those particular
ingredients in which they might be individually lacking,
or fn so manipulating the leaves in the process of manu-
facture as most effectively to preserve the active principle
contained in them. As soil has much to do with flavor,
an analysis of portions of it might in some cases prove
an advantage.

From on,- own personal knowledge of tea planting, we
venture to ask planters when dealing with " Green " leaf,
to keep the following facts before them, viz. : —

1st. Starch is universally diffused throughout the veget-
able economy, especially in leaves.

2nd. The absorption of oxygen from the air converts
the starch into sugar.

3rd. The green resinous principle of the leaf diminishes
in quantity while oxygen is absorbed.

The excellence of black tea depends upon the management
of the leaves in such a way that the above noted chemical
changes may take place.

The following suggestions regarding Sorting, Packing,
Ac, may be of use: —

Sorting. — It is the custom in the London market to
postpone the sale of Breaks, under eight chests, eight half-
chests, or twenty boxes until the conclusion of the general
sales, when the majority of buyers have alrea<ly left the
sale-room. In addition to this objection the trade have
not the same facilities for obtaining samples of these
" small breaks." We would therefore impress on managers,
especially of smaller gardens, the desirability of sorting
into as few grades as possible. In our opinion four grades
are sufficient, viz.. One fine tea, two mediums, and oue lower
class, and, when necessary, an occasional Dust.

Bulking. — By the new Custom's Kegulations for weighing
nett, the old system of turning out and repacking each
chest in London, by which the tea was frequently injured,
can be avoided, when the bulking has been eflfectively
performed upon the garden. We give these regulations
as published by the Tea District Association, which must
be strictly adhered to.

August i, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

109

1. The packages on arrival to be weighed to ascertain
the gross weight of each package.

2. AVith each eutry the importer to give an endorse-
ment or statement of the nett contents of each package.

3. To test the accuracy of the endorsement of the
nett contents, ten per cent of each break to be turned
out and weighed nett, but in no case should less than
three chests be turned out.

4. It the variation in weight of the test packages be
found to exceed one lb. the whole parcel to be weighed
out ; when the averages of the packages weighed
nett, amount to so many pounds, and a half
or more, the half or more wnll be charged as a full pound ;
when the fraction is less than half a pound, it is to be
rejected and disregarded.

Packages and Maijks. — Owing to the convenient size
and weight of the usual " half-chest " for carrying from
the garden, this particular package is in favor with grow-
ers but for estates which are near a means of transport,
we certainly recommend full-sized "chests" of from 80
to 100 lb. nett, as they are more liked by London dealers
for home trade : some of the choicest kinds might be
packed in *' half-chests " or even '* boxes." "When packed
iu the latter, care should be taken not to let the gross
exceed 28 lb. otherwise a loss equivalent to five per cent
iu weight will result, owing to the trade custom of allow-
ing 1 lb. draft on all packages over that weight. The
only marks requisite on the packages are — the descrip-
tion of contents, garden numbers, and the name of garden
iu preference to any elaborate device.

Uow, "Wilson & Spantox, Tea Brokers, 13, Kood Lane.

INDIAN TKA : ANNUAL KEVIEW.

38, MiNCixG Laxr, London, June 1S85.

The publication of the Statistics on the 1st June com-
pletes the record of another season.

There have been few events in the history of the market
whiJi call for special notice, the feature of most interest
and importance being the large increase in Consumption.

The Deliveries (including Ceylon Tea) have reached a
total of 71,000,000 lb. ; after deducting from this some 2h
million lb. — the probable excess in clejirances due to the
apprehensions respecting the duty — the increase amounts
to 8,000,000 lb. while supply has only increased 1,000,000 lb.

It is most satisfactory to find that this has been attained
without any considerable reduction of the average price
— for although at one time values for certain kinds touched
a low point, the depression did nut last long enough, nor
was it sufficiently general, to materially affect results as
a whole.

It must be remarlted that the growth of Consumption
has not been due so much as in former years to the ia-
teriority of the China Teas, for Indian Tea has had to
compete with a good average China crop selling at a low
range of price. Writiag a year ago, we drew attention
to what we felt was evidence of a growing demand from
consumers for a better article than that with which they
were formerly satisfied ; and this we believe to be steadily
operating in favour of Indian and Ceylon Tea. The sus-
tained competition for the finer qualities confirms this view ;
tor although low-priced tea undoubtedly still fonns the
hulk of the Trade requirements, the comparatively high
prices maintained throughout for fine teas are proof of
the demand for " quality " — and j-robably in no seaPon has
the contrast been more marked between the dead level of
rates ruling for common and medium grades (as in the
China market) and the higher range and elasticity of
values for fine descriptions.

The lowest point was reached during November and
December, under pressure of heavy imports, and large
supplies of tea of inferior character : medium kinds
showed the chief depreciation ; common, by comparison,
being little affected ; while fine sorts scarcely gave way at
all. At that time the short-fall in the crop was not fully
realized, nor had the expansion in Consumption reached
its maximum. The recovery which has since taken place
has been a very slow movement, seeing how unusually
strong the statistioal position has become. The Dealers,
however, are workfa^ from hand to mouth, on very small
stocks, relying upon tile receipt of fresh supplies as soon
as they are wanted.

Anticipations of the future, when so many of its factors
are unknown, are of little practical value ; still, experience

of the past justifies a somewhat hopeful view of prospects
for the coming season. The import of China Tea fell off
9 million lb. last year, and was 21 million lb. less than
it was three years ago ; it is, therefore, not unreasonable
to assume that, owing to the competition of India a range
of price has been reached which checks immoderate ship-
ments. Estimating the supply from India at UO millions,
and from Ceylon at 4 miihons, we get a total of 70 mil-
lion lb., which will not more than suffice for our wants,
assuming that Consumption continues gradually to expand
as it has done year after year. In the estimate of re-
quirements we have not taken into account any material
increase in the demand from other markets ; progress,
however, is being steadily, if slowly, made with the sale
of Indian tea to the Canadian, American, and Russian
buyers through the agency of London Dealers and Ex-
porters.

It is well to consider how the policy of producers should
be influenced by the added experience of another year.
Speaking broadly, results of 1884 have been satisfactory to
those who made fine tea, and to those whose yield was
so large as to bring down cost to a minimum, — but it has
not been equally profitable to those who realized ouly[a mod-
erate yield and made only medium quality; the reason being,
that prices for "medium" have year by year been reced-
ing nearer to the range for " common," until the difference
has become very slight ; wliile difference between
"medium" and "fine" has become wider. The con-
clusion is that those who cannot confidently rely upon
such a yield as will reduce cost to between 9d. and lOd.
per lb. in Loudon, should devote all their energies to im-
provement of quality.

It is often asked, " What is the most suitable class of
tea to make':'" In reply we would say that the taste of
the Trade does not alter, as is sometimes assumed, the
demand from different parts of England, Scotland and
Ireland for ditVereut types of tea— which has been so largely
instrumental in the past in promoting consumption— con-
tinues; and what iu required is, that the distinctive variety
should be maintained and thai each tea should be as good
of its kind as it can be made. We think that an undue
proportion of lightly-fermented tea has recently been made,
especially in Assam ; many gardens whose produce was
formerly distinguished for richness and strength in cup,
having lost these characteristics without having gained
pungency and flavour.

It is also certain that closer attention must he paid to
the important matter of firing— upon which so much has
already been written— in order to discover how to utilize
machinery, which has many advantages and has become
almost indispensable for heavy crops, without imparting
to liquor, leaf, and aroma characteristics which lower the
value. This, however, is a subject for experiment rather
than for theory, and is a question for the tea-maker to
solve, clear and definite expression having been given to
the opinion and requirements of the Trade.

Referring to the course which the market has taken dur-
ing the past year in order to find what light may be thrown
upon the future, it is again to be noticed that prices have
been less subject than formerly to sudden fluctuations. We
referred last year to the causes which contribute to this,
and expressed an opinion that it would be a future of the
future. The main reasons are that the opening quot-
ations for the now teas are not so high as they used to be,
leaving less room for decline ; while at the present scale
of values there are now large operators, with sufficieut
means and confidence to hold stocks, who come in when-
ever supphes are heaviest and prices presumably at the
lowest pouit ; which has a healthful and steadying influence
upon the market. This greater evenness in price and
absence of excitement over first arrivals is likely
to he more marked iu the future, when the large
planted area in Ceylon- estimated at 80,000 acres-
is yielding : for the heaviest shipments from Ceylon arrive
between April and August; so that in a few years
the interval between the Indian crops will he filled up,
and there will be continuous supplies all the year round.

About 2,.ill0,0li0 lb. of Ceylon Tea have been received,
as compared with 1,500,000 liist year. With larger sup-
plies the premium paid for a time in 1883 has disappeared,
and values are now adjusted to thosi> of Indian Tea. In
point of quality, the average has been maintained, some
I that were poor having beea improved, while a few gardens

hd

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885,

have not maile quite such fine tea as before. The average
price of tlie year's sales is Is 3cl per lb.

The import from .Java shows no increase. These teas
do iiot yet sufficiently resemble Indian in liquor to com-
pete with any but low qualities, notwitbstaniling their hue
appearance ; .and tlieir value baa been but little affected
by the recent advance in the Indian market.

The following are the statistics for the past three
seasons : —

larpoET.

1884-85. 1883-84. 1S82-83.

Indian ... 01,472,000 61,535,000) ►„ -p„ r,nn

Oeylon ... 2,482,000 1,500,000 J Ot'.'Ol^.OOO

Ohina and Java ...142,476,000 1.52,222,000 148,6.35,000

Indian
Oeylon
China and Java

Indian
Ceylon

China and Java

Delivkky.
69,109,000 )
2,047,000 1
160.918,000 lri5,261,000 158,407,000

60,469,000 50,621,000

British Indian Co.
Laud Mortgrage

Bank
Borokai Co.
Indian Tea Co. of

Cachar
Heelara
Subong

Bndderpore
Chargola Co.

Land Mortgage

Bank
Land Mortgage

Bank
Darjeeling Co.
Lebong Co.
Pashok Co.

CaOhah.
1,523 386,314

1.268
302

293.386
238.400

689
315
310

207,360

.iO.OOO

104.000

Sylhkt.

JO 52 887

!8 290,032
DAR.TKia.ING.

834

2.652

1,586

960

abont 380

151.633

253

231
297

301
159
335

1R9
319

181

C68.98S 252

473.000 298

292,580 305

112,000 abont 300

0 llf

1 1 4-5ths
1 8

1 3;
1 4i
1 2

1 9

1 15-

1 11-lOtli

29101hi
1 5 2-5I11S
1 4 1 .-.Ik
1 1

Stock 1st Jdne.

13,548,000 21,179,000) lonroAnn

738,000 SOsiooO) 19.069,000

36,279,000 54,717,000 57,765,000

Proportion of Imlian

and Oeylon taken

for Home Oon-

eumptiou ...about 40 p. c. a' out35p, c. about 33 p. c.

We append a table sliowing the results obtained during
the past season for some of the crops sold iu London,
which we have received permission to print. The returns
comprize the produce of 49,283 acres, amounting to 17
million lb, the average of the whole working out at
Is 1 4-7d per Hi. The quantity sold in Calcutta, according
to circulars, was about 28 million lb. the average realized
being 8 as. 9, of which the equivalent to the planter is

Is 0|d per lb in London

at current rates

of Exchange

aud'Freight.

ASSAM.

.Acreage

Yield per

Average

Estate.

Yielding

Amount.

Acre.

Price,

s. d.
" ll'i

Assam Co.

T.Cji.S

2,7:l-T.i;S2

?.j9 lb

.Torehaut Co.

3,816

1,2:6,000

318

1 2 9-lOths

Brahmapootra

2.037

904,893

444

1 2 5-6ths

Noakacharee Co.

1,750

477,600

273

1 2 2-2i

Bishuautli Co.

1.529

47'2.309

309

1 2

Mungledye Co.

1,509

253.858

163

1 2 5-lliths

Doom Doonia*

1,450

926,147

633

1 Oi

Land Mortgage

Bank

1,349

4('.0,952

343

1 1

Talup Estate

1.020

!<06,230

790

e Hi

1 2'

Meleiig Estate

900

2B6,U40

313

Jhanzie Associ-

ation

800

309,455

387

1 03

Eastern Assam Co.

750

252,000

336

on

BorelliCo.

716

360.477

503

1 2 9-16th

Tiphook Co.

700

229.566

328

0 Hi

Jokai Co., Jokai

Division

715

252,565

353

0 111

Jokai Co., .Tiiaee-

rah Division

423

150.399

355

1 2J

Jokai Co.,Muttnek

Division

349

188,211

539

1 c;

Scottish Assam Co.

068

212,762

319

] 3,',

Lower Assam Co.

664

175,604

254

0 9j

Luckimpore Co,,

Bihallie

604

150.010

248

1 31

Lnckinipore Co.,

Mijica Jann

358

107.730

301

1 5

Moran Co.

540

23.'-), 685

436

0 in

Hokun!:;oorie

525

424.203

803

0 10;

British Indian Co.

523

161.576

309

1 0 19-201hs

Dejoo Co.

516

169 648

329

1 1 4-5 tlis

Corramore

476

138.190

290

1 3.4

Maliraaja

460

162,000

362

0 ll'3-5ths

Lyell, McKeir/i.- k

Co.. Attaree Klrit

420

154,132

367

1 3 5-16ths

I.yell, McKnii/i.- .t

Co., Paneery

202

68.663

340

1 23-16ths

Badniip;tr i

bont 400

124.000

about 310

1 21

Panitollah

400

264 202

660

0 m

Moabund

358

12 ,800

363

1 4i

Seconee

218

76.861

3.V2

1 2

Majnlighnr

217

88,8011

40 J

1 15-16ths

Biiiugaon

215

108,891

506

3 3*

Cluirdwjir*

2U

72,980

346

1 a

Koiinbur

205

72,170

352

1 3}

Dooria

180

48,071

267

1 4 2-3rds

(jrliiladar ee

100

58,124

363

I 2i

Tnrzum

224

1 8|

Du()AKS.

161 36,000

CHITTAfiO-J,';,

Land Mortgage

Bank 350 76.743 219 1 o;

Futtickcherra 299 94,030 315 1 5 7-16lhi

' A small portion of this was sold in Calcutta.

Table for 1882-83 comprised returns from 48,663 acres, producing
17,000.000 lb., average price Is 2d per lb.

Table for 1883-84 comprised returns from 43,815 acres, producing
15,000.000 lb., averau^e price Is l^Jd per lb.

RESULTS (IF CF.Vr.dN TliA .SOLD AT ArCTION.

1884-85. Total— 37.400 packages, amounting to 2,500,000 lb.,
:i\ei'ase price Is 3d per lb.

1833-84. Tot:il— 22,800 packatjes, amounting to 1,500,000 lb,
average price Is 4 1-lOi per lb.

Wm Jas. & Hy. Tuomp.son,
Brokers,

CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT.

what is to be DO.VE WITH CINCHONAS AMONG TEA-
PRICES POK BARK — A POOR COMFORT— SLANG EXPRES-
SIONS— EFFECT OF DROUGHT ON CACAO — BENEFIT OF
SHADE — helopfUis IN WATAGAMA— ROOT SHADING — TOO
MUCH OF THE R.A.IN.

6th July 1885.
One of the problems of probl mi which is before
most of us ia that of knowing what to do with our cin-
chona which is glowing aiuong the tea. That it very
much checks the growth of the latler, is too m.Tr.ifest
to all cf us, but to take it out now is such a
sacrilice, that the pleasure of .seeing the two grow
afterwards will hardly compea;ale for the loaa
which wo have all totted np iu our sanguine mo-
ments, when we made our cinchona assets look, — well
perhaps "too handsome by i alf." And yet what is
to be done ? I went over a place just Lately with a
friend, aud found he was cndcelliug his brains on
the same problem. No one lioubts that the tea in
the open is ever so much better ; that under cin-
chona it won't do any good : but when to out it out
is the question? and how long can they be allowed
to grow with safety tide by side? As for the cin-
chona nLiiket, I have heaiii hy the mail now in, that
several rf the shipments of branch and t*ig, sold
just before the mail left, had not re.alized the amount
of freight .".nd charges ! We have had th.at sort of
thirg befoie and there is this comfort that when
things g.-t to their worst they mend, still it's poor
comfort after aU. It is like Carlyle's delinition of
ds|).air — a '' kind of hope.'

Ia the «o -d " shuck " au exclusively slang expression
of Ceylon ? * I have not got the Slang Dictionary hesido
me to refer to, so as to see if it has ke-a netted there ;
but I certainly never hi ard nor saw it anywhere else
than iu this island and its literatu.e. Now that tea
has become our mainstay, and I's nomenclature an
everyday word with us, I hear tint tl ere is a new
slang phra?e trying to warm ittelf into life, borrowed

* We believe it is a Yankeeism for an Irishism from
"Shekin".)— Ed.

AUfiUST 1, lS8^.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

ill

from one of its cl^ises. " He has a good deal of broken
pekoe about him," remarked someone to me the other
day, and I found that what was meant was "side."
Perhaps when one hears it the second time and without
the exiilauatiou, it may have more force in it than it
has now.

The want of shade for cacao, is being seriously felt
where there is none, and there is a considerable rusli to
plant it up. To »ee how the drought in the early parts
of I he ye-M has affected some trees is very grievous and
makes one appreciate the planter's remark that while
ctcao was a food for the body, it was also clearly be-
coming a food for the mind. One is never done with
cac^o scares of some kind or another, and it is too
evident that in very few places indeed will it be grown
with success. The vellow variety is however
holding its ground well, and stands in unall'toted
grandeur alongside the badly-stricken Trinidad species ;
which is a heait-break to see. \Yind, drought,
luiofcltis, and root-disease — are a few of the abomin-
ations with which the cacao planter has to contend.

Some of the places about Kand}', and in Dumbara, i
are looking bad enough from want of shade, and ;
the Hy besides. I bear that some who have got i
cacao growing under fair-sized trees say that they i
do not suffer fiom the fly very much, that it goes
up to the leaves of the trees above, and negUcts the
cacao pods and shoots. The man who gave th:it opinion
ought to know something about it, and if it bo veiified
it is not without r^ome comfort in it.

At Walagama, where cacao grows particularly well
and which has been free from helopcltia, it is not
alwaj 5 to escape. The Hy, I understand, has begun
to appear there, not as yet in any great numbers or
with any deadly effect, but it is unpleasant to hear
that it is about.

The following hint comes from a London broker : —
" He was told lately by a reliable party that keeping
the routs of the trees shaded very much improved
the ipiality of the cacao, and that, this was not
generally known." This, I suppose, must mean littering
the surface around the stem of the tree, although
it is not very clear. That that treatment has a
good effect is not uuknown here.

The long-continued rain has not a little worried
the cacao-curer as well as the tea-maker, Indeed
most of us are getting a little tired of the
constant drip, and especially the high winds which
of late have been to general. The Irishman who was
green mouldy for want of a "bating," had he been
in the Central Province for the last fortnight, might
have got his hiding and not had his condition im-
proved. Peppkkcorn.
♦- ■

A HINT TO PROPRIETORS AND SH«RE-
HOLUEKS OF TEA GARDENS.

TO THE EDITOB OF THE " EXGLISllMAN."

Sir,— Now that managsrs of tea gardens are vying with
one another a» to which sbnll land bis teas in the market i
at the lowest figure, it may not bo out of place to remind
both proprietors and shareholders that, much as agents are
to be congratulated on bringing about this very gratifying
rivalship between managers, it woukl be well if agents on
their part would look Into their own charges, and sati.'ify
their proprietors or .shareholders that these are legitimate
ones. It cannot be denied that, in gardens in which the
mufasal outlay has been reduced to tno lowest figure, Cal-
cutta charges stand out, in a most unproportioned manner,
and do not appear to ever lessen, but on the contrary seem
to be on the increase. In the prceent state of the tea market,
to make tea properties pay a reduction all round must be
made. I now propose to give a few suggestions as to how
this is to be done.

I take an agent of a tea eiitate to be a paid pirsor, or
persons, employed to represent the proprietors or fbareholl-
ars' interest, to enable him to work the estate to the best
advantagp, and not, as it vvowUl appear to be in many cases

a person who, after having secured the keep of a garden,
imposes as many charges on that estate, both directly and
indirectly, a.s the piopi-ietors or shareholders will in their
good nature, or ignorance, allow. I admit that, for tea
agents to exist aud to be dependable, the business must bo
a remunerative oue, and therefore must be well paid. A
good article is never cheap. They should, however, only
be allowed to make one charge, aud th.-it charge should bo
a commission on the gross proceeds. Of course, when funds
are required, the rate of interest should be agreed upon.
When once this has been settled between both parties no
other profits should be allowed to be made, such as on
coolies, stores, or machinery sent up to the gardens, but
the full beuetit of buying stores cheap, by purchasing them
in largo quantities and getting the trade discount, should
go to the garden. I take it to be incontestably a breaeh
of conlidence on the part of the agent to make a profit
on eoolies, stores, 5;c., sent up to gardens. .Shareholders
should insist on their agents only charging the estate the
net price on all stores, coolies, &c.

Many proprietors of gardens find, when they go home,
or even to Calcutta, that they can purchase stores at a
much lower rate than their agents charge ! I know of
several instances of this being the case. I will mention one,
to put the matter vividly before sh.areholders. A pro-
prietor had asked his agents to ascertain the cost of an
iron roof, suiKcient to cover his tea-house. In due course of
time an estimate was sent up. In the meantime this owner
went down to Calcutta, aud whilst there ascertained for
himself, from diftereut firms, the cost of such a roof. The
result of his enquiries was that, by buying the iron roof
direct, the material for such would have cost verv much less
I believe 40 per cent less. Now, is this a legitimate profit
on the part of the agents ? I say decidedly not. Yet
many ageutsdo not .scruple to make large profits on stores
&c., sent up to gardens. They possess their own store go!
downs, which they fill with stores purchased at the very
lowest trade prices, and distribute them to gardens, guid-
ing themselves in their charge for these from the 'prices
put down in the different lists of stores published by the
trade. If proprietors and shareholders followed the fol-
lowing suggestions before they appointed agents, I feel
confident that they would soon see Calcutta charges very
much _ reduced :— Firstly : Agents to only receive a fixed
commission on gross proceeds. Secondly : A fi.xed rate of
interest on advances required. Thirdly: Only net outlay
to be charged on coolies, stores, &c. Fourthly : No tea
agent to be also agent for garden stores, &o.

At present Calcutta cliarges are divided over so many
items that it is impos.sible to put a finger on auyasbein"
excessive. Until the advice I give above is followed Oal°
cuttacharges will always remain an unguessed conund'rum.

A Poor Shareuoldeb.

♦ •

LEMONS IN INDIA.
^ Dr. Bonavia, ot Et;i wall, writes to tlio Agri-Horticultuivl
Society of India in retVieiice to this subject as follows-—
_ " I wish to bring to the notice of your Society a most
important tree, v:z., the Malta lemon tree, which I im-
ported from the Mediterranean many years ago for the Horti-
cultural Garden of Luck now. I lately sent four plants
from here to Dr. King to ascertain how it would stand the
moist climate of licngal. I wis'i your Society would take
it up also and make some experiments to ascertain its
value in that climate. The facility with which it can be
propagated is simply marvellous. It stands the climate
herewith the greatest e.iscaud I believe would do every,
where in India, where oranges and lomou« can be grown
Sylhst, Nagporc, Delhi, Nepal Valley, Kangra, &o., fcc!

If we could obtain citric acid ensilv in India and cheaply'
there is no vea.sonwhy citrate of iron and quinine cuuid
not be manufactured. It is the next important tonic to
quinine, and would be invaUiable for picking up the strength
of the people recovering- fn.m fever. The coniniereial
products of the lemon tree .".)c many. Could ytu kindly
heq) me in obtaining the ^titistics of imports into India
through Calcutta, Ijombay and Madras of the followiuir
commercial products of the U-nion aud orange viz. r

1. Citrate of iron and quiidne.

2. Citrate of iron and ammonia; there are other citrate
drugs, but I think theee are most important, hut soino of
the Calcutta chemifti) m.ay mention others,

112

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 1885.

3. Citric acid for pharmaceutical purposes, and for
.-erated waters, (tartaric and sulphuric acids are often used
now for lemonades, because citric acid is dearer).

4. Essential oil of lemons (of the rinds) used in pharmacy,
confectionery, and flavoring lemonades. The lemonades
are now very important that most of of the army, railway
employes, &c., &c., are becoming. teetotalers.

5. Lemon drops and other confectionery where this
essential oil and citric acid are used.

6. Candied lemon and orange peel.

Oil of neroli (essential oil of flowers of Citrus Bigaradia
and others. The O. Bigaradia, or Seville orange, grows
here just as well) for confectionery, perfumery, pharm-
acy, &c.

8. Petit grain for scenting soaps and perfumery. This
is the essental oil of the ' leaves ' of C. Bigaradia.

9. Marmalade. — Of this, there ought to be great con-
sumption iu India iu tins.

I have been experimenting with this 'citrus lemonum
vulgaris' of Risso for nearly 25 years, and the more I
see of it, the more highly I think of it as an industrial
plant for India," — Madras Mail.

COCONUT OIL, TEA, AND COIR YARN.

I was talking yesterday with a merchant who had been
for 25 years iu the Australian trade, and who happened
to mention that he was open to buy a parcel of Coco-
nut Oil of July shipment, but that iu response to the re-
quest for a quotation which he had "wired to a Colombo
house he was told the price would be £30 in pipes, cost,
freight and insurance ; whereas the present nominal value
in London is £28, at which there are sellers but no
buyers. There is therefore a difference of fully £2 per
ton, and my informant said that this was commonly the
case also with Australian tallow, prices on the other side
being almost invariably £lto£2 higher relatively than the
current quotations in London. Another notable instance
of this kind of thing is to be foimd in pepper, which can
always be bought cheaper here than in Singapore, Penaiig,
or Cochin. The mention of these facts and others having
th« same drift naturally led me to ask my friend how
he accounted for what seemed such an anomalous state
of things, and also for the glut of produce in the con.
suming markets of the world, and his answer as that of a
man of long experience is at all events worth discussins;.
He attributed the relatively high value of produce on the
other side to the excessive competition for it there aris-
ing out of two causes. 1st, that, by the opening of the
Suez Canal and other improvements in the means of inter-
communication, the consuming markets had been multi-
plied and many of the smaller ones now found it advant-
ageous to send orders direct instead of buying
in London. Everyone in Ceylon knows of course that the
has been true as regards coff'ee, and orders for Trieste,
V euice and Marseilles were filled at figures considerably
above the parity of London quotations, so that it was
always more advantageous to sell on the spot than to ship
to London, as those under block loans were .i;euerally
obliged to do. But my friend went on to say that there
was another source of excessive competition whicli had of
late years played an important part, not only in tlie Aus-
tralian but also in the Indian ar.d China trade, and in-
deed to a greater extent iu the two latter than in the first
named. It arose out of the necessity imposed upou merch-
ants of employing their clean credits. Mercantile bankers
like Barings, Matheson, Huth, etc, grant clean credits
on condition that the bills drawn on them shall be covered
by documents before maturity, and of course it these were
flot used they would speedily be cauoelled. Hence
merchants iu India and the Colonies are induced to spec-
ulate in produce even against their better judgment as to
the probable results. In certain trades as we know the
result of such ventures has been cousistently disasti'ous for
years past, but still the shipments go oa simply because
the shippers cannot afford to stop, as this would be to
commit the " happy dispatch." Iu too many cases fresh
bills have to be drawn on London houses, not so much
to purchase produce, which is likely to realize a profit on
realization in Loudon, as to meet reclamations from London
upou previous coneigumeuts, nnd hence the wheel is kept
rolliug as long as credit cau anyhow be niaintaiued. I

have here given the bare outline of my friend's argu-
ment, but it must be for you and your readers to say
whether it is at all applicable to the Colombo markets, and
Colombo firms. It is easy to see, however, that such a
system would give an unhealthy stimulus to prices in the
places of production and tend to that accumulation of
stocks in the consuming markets which has been so dis-
astrous during the last few years.

Fresh evidence has been afforded of the importance
attached to Ceylon TEA in Mincing Lane by the public
ation of a valuable paper on the subject under today's date
by Messrs. Gow, 'Wilson & Stanton, the Indian tea brokers
of Kood Lane. Mr. Gow was himself for many years a
tea planter in Assam and Cachar, and still owns garden5
there, so that he can speak with considerable authority on
questions connected with the cultivation and manufacture.
They have gone very thoroughly into the statistics of
Ceylon tea, and include diagrams showing comparatively
the quarterly and yearly increases in production together
with a line tracing the course of prices averaged in the
London public sales during the last five years. They
point out that "it generally happens with articles of
consumption that increased production leads to reduced
values, but in this instance the reverse has taken place."
Now, me would ask, to what cause this enhanced
value is to be attributed? Is it that the price of tea
generally has improved during the last five years? This
is decidedly not the case, and we can see no other cause
than that the efforts of planters, favored by a climate suited
to the production of tea, have been successful, and that
this success has so far been appreciated by the consumer."
After mentioning the rapid expansion of the tea industry
in Ceylon and glancing at its probable development in the
near future, Messrs. Gow, Wilson k, Stanton proceed to
discuss the very important question whether in view of what
is going on in Ceylon and also in India the production
of these teas will not very speedily outrun consumption.
This same question must often have occurred to the minds
of the more cautious Ceylon planters, and it is satisfactory
to find that there are soUd reasons given in the paper
before me for the conclusion that for many a year such
teas as Ceylon produces ■\vill find a ready sale at remuner-
ative prices, provided always that the quality is maintained.
I am however sending you a copy of the paper itself,
and I do not doubt that you will quote largely from it.
There is one recommendation which will, I am sure, com-
mend itself heartily to Ceylon planters who have so long
been distinguished as the most progressive of their class ;
I mean that the aid of the chemist as well as of the
engineer should be invoked in order to insure the nearest
approach to perfection both in cultivation and manufacture.
Mr. Gow is himself the inventor of a new witherer and drier,
which he claims to be superior to anything previously in use,
and the experimental trials with these appUances were
most successful ; but whether they stood the test of actual
work on a tea-garden I am not in a position to say.

I have j ust had an interview with the biggest broker in
the COIR YARN trade, and he describes the market as com-
pletely demoralized owing to excessive supplies chiefly from
Cochin. There are at present no less than 6,400 tons of
I yarn in stock, including Ceylon, and 2,000 tons on the way,
j making a total visible supply of over 8,000 tons, or a
j quantity altogether unprecedented and far beyond the re-
I quirements of the market. Under these circumstances it is
j not surprizing to learn that the value of medium yarns
' has declined fully £■') per tou since the beginning of tho
present year, and that today, for instance, my intormant
was utterly unable to sell a large parcel of Ceylon yarn
though the importers had instructea him to let it go" for
what it would fetch. Six mouths ago it was well worth
ISs, and a month or ao ago full Us pei cwt., and so ha
put it up at 99, but failed to get a bid of oven :Jd beyond
that, nor in fact would anyone take iteVen at 9s. Tho
finer sorts of Ceylon, yarn from 22s upwards, are somewhat
steadier as being of course in smaller supply, but even
these must leave a terrible lo-s to the exporters. The worst
of it is that my informant could see no prospect of any
improvement unless the Ceylon and Cochin merchints
would cease to ship for some time and let the slock go
down a bit. There were 22 catalogues advertized for to-
day, some of them postponed from a month ago, but not
half of them were got through, and it is needless to say
that the tendency is bU in favor of buyers. — London Cur,

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

113

SUGAR IN NETHERLANDS INDIA.
(Translated for the "Straits Times.")

Batavia, May 2711]. — [From a corrspondent.) Thei'e
is not much uews tegarduig industrial ami plantat en
euterpriz^. One result of tlie suyar crisis is that iu-
vestigatious are 1 eing made as lo how far sugar can
be turned to advantage for other purposes thau those
for which it has beau hitherto used. The result is
that in Britain, Gerinanj-, and Austria, sugar is coming
into use as an article of food for fattening stock.
As a matter of course, only cheapest kinds are availed
of for this purpose. The results gained thereby may
really be termed brilliant, so much so even that animals
fatteufd on sugar exhibited at the last Berlin Cattle
Show surpassed all those on view which had been fattened
on other foods. .\Dother item of sugar ne«s is that
Mr. Eydman, a Java planter, has been experimenting
on the extraction of sugar from megass and molasses
with Steffen's diffusion apparatus so satisfactorily that
the experiments have proved a thorough success. In
Europe sug.ar is rising in value. This year's crop is,
howerer, not expected to be large, owing, in all likeli-
hood, to the depressed condition of the sugar interest
last year. Should, however, prices continue improving,
the amhiiion to have heavy crops will no doubtjgain
the upper hand once more.

COFFEE IN AMERICA AND TOBACCO IN THE

PHILIPPINES.

(Translated for the "Straits Times.")

Coffee GROWiyo. — We dcm interesting the follow-
ing particulars with respect to the cultivation of ilii»
produce article given by a So th .\mirican Journal ; —
Statistics bring out the fact that the coffee plant can
bear great extiemes of temperature, and that difl'er-
ences of i-veu between 20 and 30 degrees do not haim
it. The most favourable ground for its cuUitation
is hdly tracts lying from 1,500 to 4,500 feet above
the sea. level in tin- torrid z^ue, and these betwei^n
25° and .30° south of the eciuator. In Biazil IG varieties
of this plant are f;rowiDg without any cultivation
whatever, but though coffee was not known as an
.irticle of commerce in Brazil until 17-2. tlie ex-
ports of it from there r.'aihed fouiteen millions of
pounds in 1780, those from Cuba during the same
year beii g tweuty-six millions. Towards the
close of the last century, extensive sugar plant-
ations in Brazil were turned into coffee estates.
The exports of that product therefrom increased
in consequence till they an;ounted to9S,£07tons in
IHoO, decline setting in after that date. Coffee from
the State of Colima, in Mexico, where it is grown
on a large scale, enjnys high repute That fr.>m
Cordoba and Or'Ziba in the same country is deemed
equal to the Cuban article, but the Colima product
is regarded as 8nperi> r to the highly famed Mocha
coffee. In Mexico, great impruvements have been
mide in the cultivation of tlic berty, and there is
every prospect that, in years to come, coffee will
become one of the p incipol ariiolfs exported from
that country. At present, coff-e growing is in a
somewhat depressi d condition in Honduras and
Guatemala. Wayi 8 elsewhere have fallen con.sidt rably,
and sl'ould the fall prove of long duration, it may
be anticipated on good grounds tliat growers in the
republic of Colombia, Venezuela. Costa Rica and
Nicaragua will be ruined, while the luckier ones in
the republics of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras will
realize productive yields.

A correspondeut in the Comercia of the 21st May,
takes up the subject of the rii-Rppiiintment to fin. we's
and cigar dealers alike resulting from the aliolitiou
of the tobscco monopoly, thit measures, so he says,
not having met with fair play at the onttet, from
the Treasury authorities having then on hand large
15

stocks of Government tobacco which, coming into
competition, with the first free crop brought to
market, so lowered prices that growers frequently
had to dispse of their produce of what it would fetch,
which too often meant at heavy los.^es, to their grievous
discouragement. The area ui.der cuhivatiou, notwith-
standing thi?, increased so greatly in l>83 that there
was every prospect of a yield amnimting to twice
that of the previous year had not growers, dis-
heartened by low prices, left a portion of the crop
to rot on the fields, what was gathered in barely pay-
ing working expuises. Theoc tidings spread »itli
lightniugliku raiudity with the re ult that in all tl:e
proviucts, even in those mo>t suitable for toliacoo
growing, the cultivation of that article has since fallen
off considerably, the area under crop decreasing about
one-third. A large number of cgar factories have besides
stopped work. The remedies suggested aro State aid
in posliing ou the state of Pliilippine tobacco and cigars
in loreign m.irkets, and the abolition of the import
iluties on these articles in S,>ain, besides opening up
the producing districts by roads and readier means of
communication.

AT

THE MANUFACTURE OF QUININE

CALICUT, INDIA.

On the 28th March last Messrs. Arbuthuot and Co. wrote
to the Chief Secretary to the Madras Govermnent: —

■\Ve have the honor to report that Dr. E. L. Cleaver, who
has been, since December last, at Calicirt conducting ex-
periments as to the practicability of making quinine in
India, has arrived at the conclusion that there are no in-
superable difficidties to the success of such manufactm'e.
We enclose, for the information of Government, copy of
his letter dated 13th instant, and we also send the three
samples to which he refers. It is to bo home in mind that
Dr. Cleaver's experiments have been conducted under some-
what adverse circumstances, it being impossible for him
to obtain some of the chemicals that he deems essential to
the complete success of his process. He is now about to
return to England to lay before the gentlemen who have
found the £1,500 required for the experiments an account
of his mission, and we have every reason to believe that
the next step will be the formation of a company to
manufacture quinine on a commercial scale. "NVe bespeak
the favorable consideration of Government for such a com-
pany, and we will be glad to know whether we coidd rely
ou obtaining Government bark on terms somewhat similar
to those indicated in Dr. Cleaver's letter of l.'ith March,
or if, in any other way. Government can see their way to
encourage an enterprise which, if as .successful as it pro-
mises to be, will be a boon alike to the growers of cinchona
bark and to the irsersof tebriiUL'e of all kinds.

Enclosure. — Letter from E. L. Cleaver, Esquire, to Messrs.
Arbutbnot & Co., Calicut, 13th March 1S85.

I seui-i you by this post samples as follows: — No. 1 Sulphate
of (|uinine, No. 2 Febrifuge, No. 3 Crystalline febrifuge. Sam-
pie of (juinine is not quite as white or as silky crystals as
Howard's, but is quite eqtial to raa'iy commercial sjiceimens ;
and considering the vi-ry limited resources I have at my dis-
posal, and the small scale in which it is prepared, it is I think
a proof that it could be made commercially. It is prepared
from red bark, and it is as pure as could be obtained from that
kin<l. The febrifuge, although similar in color toOovernineiit
prepTration, is different in composition. The whole
of the alkaloiil in it is easily crystallisable while
it is a most difficult matter to crystallise much
from the Government febrifuge. The crystalline febrifuge
is prepared by simply crystaUising No. 'J. I have forwarded
.samples to London .similar to those sent you. As regards the
percentage of alkaloids obtained from working the harks, I
am of course not able yet to say ; but the following tacts may
be of somt; service* t'l you in your negotiation with the (Jov.
ernmeut. The bark sent by tjii^ (5overnraent weighed 2.(100
lb. and should yield, according to the analyses sent by them
at the same time, about 100 lb. of alkaloids; the.se nnaljses,
however, I consider too high, are not similar to analyses as
would be given by Dr. Taulof I.ruidon. From the Govern-
ment paper is.sued on the subject of the amount of alkal-

114

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

oiJs obtained from bark sent to England for manu
facture, I see that the average loss on red bark
is about 1 per cent, of the total alkaloids; there-
fore the 2,000 lb. would yield to Government
if sent to England 801b. of mixed alkaloids obtained of
course by a far better process than I am working, but al.so
more expensive. The cost charged to Government of work-
ing quinine barks in England comes to about 1 shilling per
pound on the bark used exclusive of the freight and other
charges. The following is drawn up by me from the Govern-
ment papers of the 18th October 1881 ; —
Cost of bark to Government as per return of

Plantations, 9 annus 6 pies per pound. £ s. d.

Cost of 6, 104 It) bark ... ... 259 lU 8

Freight charges, &c. ... ... 30 6 8

Return JVcight ... ... 27 4 8

Manufacture charges ... ... 272 18 0

Total ... 590 0 0
from which 295 lb of mixed crystallized alkaloids were
obtained, that showing the cost of crystalline feljrifuge to
them at 40s per pound, of which cost the expenses alone
were about 2'2s 5d per pound. The 2,000 lb of bark sent to
us would, therefore, it sent to England, have produced to
the Government about SO lb but I think less of mixed
crystalline alkaloids at a total cost of about ±;200, of which
120 would be expenses. If the Government therefore
would make any arrangement by which they let us have a
defini.e supply of certain barks we could undertake to
supply a definite proportion of alkaloids, and charge them
much" less than tlif price they at present pay. The per-
centage of alkaloids obtained by the Bengal Government
is about 21 per cent, and I expect the proportion of alkaloids
in the b.irkused is 5|- per cent on the average. This febrifuge
docs not not contain more than 7 per ceut of quinine, and
also contains about 16 per i:ent of various impurities. We
could d> better than this and, I think, might undertake to
give about 3g to 4 per cent or mixed alltaloidsand charge
them either so much a pound on the bark worked, or
so much a pound on the alkaloid delivered. In the above
calculations I have left out the question of araorplious
liquors, which would be handed over to the Government
when produced as done by the English manufacturers. In
the above I have calculated on emplo\ing a ditferent pro-
cess from that used in England but from my experience
of the climate I see no reasnn why the same process as
used at home could not be worked here if required. At
present I am working up all the bark 1 have in hand by
the old soda process, and the amount of alkaloid I shall
obtain will be much less than by the process originally
intended to he u.sed, but still will be a guide.

The letter fr^m Me.ssrs. Arbuthuot &Oo. with the enclosures
and the samples of qniidne were forwarded to the Director
of the Government Cinchona Plantations for full report,
that the latter might be carefully examined by ilr.
Hooper.

Mr. M. A. Lawson, Director of Government Cinchona
Plantations, Parks, and Gardens, Nilgiris, reported to
Government, on 1st Mav : —

"With ro-pect to G. O., Mis. No. 1,716 dated 1st April
1S85, I have the honor to inform you that the three
samples of cinchona alkaloids, which were s.nt by Dr.
Cleaver to Messrs. Arbu huot & Co., have be. n carefully
examined by Mr. Hooper, and I forward, herewith,
a copy of his report on their analyses. From this
report it will be seen that sample No. I. which was for-
warded by Dr. Cleaver as being sulphate of quiuine, ceu-
taius no less than 37'90 parts of sidplnite of oinchonidine
out of 102-07 parts. This large amount of cinchoni due
would, in the pr' sent -iogmatie state of the market, jire.-itly
impair the commercial value of this preparation, though,
as Mr. Hooper very accurately points out. its medicinal
excellence would not be interlered with. Analyses of Dr.
Cleaver's .sample No. 2 are compared by Mr. Hooper with
analy.^es which he has recently made of samples of febrifuge
obtained from the Government laboratory m Sikkim; and from
this comparis{in it will he seen tlutt while Dr. Cleaver's
febrifuge contains no quinine, that frem the Si kkim laboratory
coutaiiM-d 6 97 per cent. On the other haml. Dr. Cleaver's
febrifuge (Contains '3.'>-(!2 per cent of ciuchoiudine, while that
from the Sikkim laboratory contain<d only 1578 per cent.
Therapeutically considered the two febrifuges are probably

of equal value. Of Dr. Cleaver's third sample Mr. Hooper
says that, " although labelled crystalline febrifuge, it is
really nothing more than an unbleached preparation of quin-
ine and cinchonidine sulphates, alraost identical in compos-
ition with sample No. 1." Dr. Cleaver, in his letter to
Messrs. Arbuthnot& Co., and also in a letter to myself states
that he has labored under considerable difficulties in manu-
facturing these febrifuges owing to his not having received
certain necessary chemicals and apparatus. It is therefore
to be presume*l that, under more favorable circumstances
his account of the composition of the samples which he has
sent would have been more exact ; and I have no doubt that,
if a factory were to be established under his (hrectiou a
febrifuge of a high character mig'ht be turned out at a rea-
sonable cost. In an interview which I had with you the other
day, I told you th^it Government had in stock a large quant-
ity of "red bark," which, though low in the amount of sulph-
ate of quinine, contained a large amount of "total," and I
pointed out that the prices oifered for these barks were
wholly unreraunerative; and I urged that Government should
not sell these barks, but undertake the manufacture of a febri-
fuge from them. This manufacture might be carried on
by Government themselves, or it might be entrusted (under
agreement) to some sut-h firm as that which it is proposed to
establish at Calicut. If Mr. Hooper goes to Madras and super-
intends the manufacture of 1,000 lb. of bark into liquid extract,
he will be in a position to inform Government very exactly as
to the cost of its production, and Government would after-
wards be able to negotiate equitably as to tlie terms they
would concede to private enterprise.

ENCLOSURE.

Extract from letter from D. Hooper, Esq., Government
Quinologist, to the Director of Government Cinchona Plant-
ations, Parks, and Gardens, Ckitacamund, dated Ootacamund
1. St May, 1885 ;— The Director of the Cinchona Plant-
ations hashandcd me three samples of cinchona alkaloids pre,
pared by Dr. E. Cleaver at Ca icut. In accordance with in-
structions contained in G.O. Mis. No. 1.716, 1 have submitted-
them to a thorough examination, and have the honor to re-
port upon as follows : — No. 1 sample was labelleil " sulphate
of quinine " and was of good appearance, white and crystal-
line. It had the following composition: —

Sulphate of quinine ... 64'17

Sulphate of cinchonidine... 3790

102-07
The quantity of cmchnnidine present is comparatively
large, but it should be pointed out that all commercial
samples of sulphate of quinine invariabl.y contain some
amouut of this other alkaloid, which has similar medical pro-
perties. Sample No- 2 was '' febrifuge," the dried antl
powdered alkaloids of retl cinchona bark. Tlie color com-
pares favorably with that of other makers, and it is almost
entirely soluble in dilute acids. The analysis is quoted I'elow,
and, for comparison, the analysis of some Sikkim febrifuge,
received last month from Calcutta, is also given —

Calicut Sikkim-
Quinine ... ... None 6'97

Cinchonidine ... ... 35-62 lOTS

Qvunidine ... ... Trace 1'24

Cinchonine ... ... 4429 60-63

Amorphous alkaloids ... ... 10-82 8-12

Moisture, ash and coloring matter ... 9-27 7-26

100-00 lOO'OO
This febrifuue. Mr. Cleaver states, is made from branch
bark, which is usually poor. The process, however, for
its manufhCtm-e is cheap, and it contains a fair quantity
of crystallis.ible alkaloids equally valuable in fever with
ciuiuine itself. Sample No. 3, although labelled "crystal-
line febrifuge." is nn unbleached i)ri,^pax-ation of quiuine
and cinchonidine .sulphates, almost ideniical in composition
with sample " No. 1 ''

On the 2".'nd IM 'y INlr. JI. A. Lawson forwarded a copy
of the analysis of the twenty bales, or 2,000 lb., of hark
supplied to Dr. Cleaver on the 2nd Decemljer 1.S84.
Enclosuke.

Report on the analyses of cinchona hark supphed to Dfi
Cleaver,

August i, 1885.]

THE Tropical agriculturist.

115

Pykara Pykara

Natural Kt-Dew-

Ked etl Ktd

500 lb. 5U0 lb.

Ml) 1-89

2-27 20s

Doilabetta Nadu-
Eenewed vatam
Crown Briiuch
(scraped) Red
500 lb. 50u lb.
Quinine ... 2-iiO DO

CinchoniiUuQ ... lis 1-05

Quinidine ... -Id

Ciuchoi.ine ... 45 1 19 1-47 2-.57

Amorphous alkaloids ... •4-4 'Go "20 '27

Total ... 4-56 4-45 510 6 SI

Crystallised su'phate

of quiuiiie ... 309 129 1-56 254

X. B. — Results expressed in percentage on the air-dried
bark.

(Signed) D. Hoopeb.
Order of Government dated 6th June 1885 : — The report
of the Government Quiuoloj^ist on the samples furnished
by Dr. Cleaver will be communicated to IMessrs. Arbuthnot
& Co., who will be requesteti to torward the whole of the
products to the Government Medical Stores, Madras. It
is observed that Or. Cleaver's letter contams no informa-
tion as to the total quantity of bark supplied to him.
Information on this point is, of course, essential to any
final judgment on his results. The Government note that
Dr. Cleaver's calculations in regard to cost are open to
criticism in several respects. The percentage a^'^sumed as
the average loss iu the process of manufacture in England
is incorrect, as appears from the official papers quoted by
Dr. Cleaver, and this percentage has been appliet.1 by him
to the total quintity of raw bark instead of to the quantity
of alkaloids contained therein. Further the calculation
proceeds on the assumption that the cost of extracting a
febrifuge in the form of mixed alkaloids is the same as
that of extracting from an equal quanlity of bark sulphate
of quinine, sulphate of cinchonidine, and cinchonidine alkal-
oid in their separate states The opinion expressed by
Dr. Cleaver that the Darjeeling febriluge contains about
IG per cent of various impurities is also believed to be
incorrect. The Government understand, on the contrary,
from their Quinologist that it is almost entirely free
from impurity. The cost price of this febrifuge accordini^
to the reports of the Bengal G"vernmeut Quinologi&t, was in
1882-83 K8-8-10 per l^ • d in 1883-84 1! 10-4-8 per lb. Dr.
Cleaver on the othe ^.tml, would apparently undertake to
convert 2,000 lb. of bark into 80 lb. of febrifuge (mixed al-
k;iloitls; for something less than £120. At this rate his
febrifuge would cost something under KLS per lb. for manu-
facturing alone, to say nothing of the value of bark con-
ffiumed in the process. With reference to the request con-
tained in the conclusion of their letter, Messrs. Arbuthnot &
Oo will be furnished with a copy of G. O., dated 20th Oct.
1884, No, 1,154 Revenue, containing the despatch of the
Secretary of State on the .subiect of concession to the pro-
prietors of local factories, and they will be informed that the
Government are not at present prepared to make any such
arrangement as is suggested in Dr. Cleaver's letter. The
object the Government have iu view is the production of an
efficient febrifuge atsuch a cost as will be within the reach
of all classes, and they have recently issuefl orders for the
conduct of experiments on a large scale in the manufacture
of a liquid solution of cinchona under the superintendence
of the Government Quinologist. The question of employing
this or thatiigency on behalf of Government must depend
upon many considerations, and of course, amongst others, on
its ability to turn out what is wanted as or more economic-
ally than can be done by Government agency. — JIadras
Mail, July Ist.

Disinfectants. — Experiments have lately been made
by the Government experts, aided by other scientists,
with all the known disinfectant", for the purpose of
determining the efficacy and value of each as germ
dtstroyers. By actual trial it was found that cor-
rosive sublimate in the proportion of one part to
l,OuO parts of water is found to d'stroy all known
germs. A solution of chloride of lime in the pr.^
portion of one part to 100 parts of water is ttjually
effective. Many oi the commercial disinfectants in
common use were found to be untrustworthy. — American
Cultivator,

PLAiSTING IN CliyLON 30 YEARS AGO
AND NOW : Chapter XII.

COFFEB CULTIVATION TO Ul.MINISH VEAHI.T IN CKVLON—

CJiVLON AS A FIULI) FOR 'IHE INVEST.MENT OF CAPITAL

IS TEA LIKELY TO BE UVEliPROlJUCliD IN CEYLON?

ADVANTAGkS OF CEYLON OVER OTUEK Tl'A OKOWINfJ

COi;.STRlES — Cl-.YLON IN LO.NDON —MINCING LANE

MARK LANE — PRODUCE SALliS— MES.SKS. L. S D & CO.
— ONK's "OWN LITTLE BUSINESS" — TEA IN LUNDON —
THE FUTURE OF CEYLON.

Coffee having now lost its pre-eminence as the staple
of CVylmi, each succeeding year will see the area
uader its cultivation smaller aid smaller, as fi^-ld after
field dies out, or is uprooted to make room for the
tea planted in its old rows. For homo readers a
few words may here fitly be said about (^e) Ion as
a field for the investmeut of c.ipital. Only one thing
now ails Cey on, the liugerin j tflfects of' the recent
coHoe and cinchona crisis, v z., want of confidence
and of capital. The former (coffee) has succumbed
under a providential visiiatiuu, but its downH..id
progress was slow, the dise.ise being gentle ; and it
afforded all interes ed ample time and opportunity to
ward (iff its threateniog const cju-nces. Cuft'ee pays even
now where there is no debt and where working capital
IS available. It was not the fault of coffee it the insh
was into the wioog new product. Surely it might
have been foreseen that a drug like quinine could
ea-ily be overproiUfe 1. and it is not long ago since
the eiiilor of the Observer wrote that "he shuddered
to think of the position of cinehoua it all the seed
planted hnd matured into tre ." It is easy to be
wise after the event, but it is nevertheless true that the
best business men in Louden, as well as in Ceylon,
lost their heads over cinchona, and its presant position
is only what might easily liave been foreseen.

Now tea is the rage, and the same question arises :
"Is it likely to be ovorproduced by the role . ,iion
of Ceylon as was the caa with cinchona 'if" The writer
is not going to prtsiiiue lo answer this question
dogmatically. But he i elieves that not only is the
world's comsumptiou likely to steadily advance but
that Cejlou will ever be the country most suited for
its eoononiic production and mauufaoture ; and that,
however other countries may .niffer and collapse,
Ceylon will always keep its place aa the mo-it pro-
fitable tea.producir:g country in the world. We owe
this position (1) to our situatioQ for cheap and ready
transport from the garden to London, and vice
ivrm for the cheap and ready importation of all
the requisites for its production, manufacture and
packing ; (2) to our geographical position giving us
an equatorial sun together with regular mousoonrains,
ensuriug constant flushes of new leaf limited only to
the matural powers of the soil and plant, which, here,
can bs worked up to exert themselves to their very
utmost; (3) to the inherent advantages of the island,
its railways, roads, hirbrnr and active Sinhalese
army of cartmeu and ait'licers, and peace-loving
people ; (4) its proximity to the Tamil country whence
unlimited labor can be drawn; and la^t, though not
bait, to its unrivalled healthy oud pleasant climate.
At the present moment 1 consider Ceyhm to stand
at the very top of the list as the best of all fields
for the empliiyment of capital, and of the enernics
of that ever-rising army of young Euglishmen looking
bejond their own shores for these desiderata. At
home, evevy where, they hear of the recent troubles oii
Ceylon, but tkete thinyi heloni/ to the pa.-^t, and only
still cling to those, belonging to the pa~t, who still
struggle with their old debts or with the unnatural
absence of the breath of all trade and ent rprize,
onlidenoe and credit. At tha present moment

Ii5

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885,

estates can still be bought for a fraction of their real
value, iind a few thou^aBil pounds of capital judiciously
invested here, now, would most certainly ensure a
large fortune in a very fi-w years. Existing estates
can be cnuverted into paying tea-gardens very cheaply,
and new laud can be purchased and be broughi luto
bearing for only a very little more. But it is not
to be supposed that this cnndiiion of things will last
much longer : the turn will be sharp and complete
when it does come, and those who now have the
means, and employ those means judiciously in Cejlon,
■will reap a rich harvest in a very short tune. There
are plenty of men who know this, but scarcely one
who can turn the opportunity to account because there
is yet absolutely no money in the country. Those who
write of Ceyhin in the nineties will have a very
different tale to tell.

Having had much experience of London as well
as of Ceylon during the period of which tliesi- papers
have treated, I uiay, perhaps, refer also to it, so far
as concerns

C'EVLON IN London.

In order to find Ceylon in modern Babylon, one's
steps are naturally directed, in the Hrst instance, to
that mart of the world's produce, Mincing Lane.
Having but little throughwhceled traffic, it is one
of the quiet thoroughfares of the great City, joining
at its top and bottom two of the noisiest in the
woild. How many times a day is not Fenohurch
Street blocked by drays, omnibuses, cabs and carts ?
all indiscriminately wedged together in one immov-
able mass until seme fallen horse is got up, or the
cross-traffic up and down Gracechurch Street is made
to wait while the jam in Feuchuroh Street is relieved.
Having steered safely through all this, we turn down
the quieter lane, where the subdued hum of men's
voices and the tripping of their rapid steps is all
we hear. A stranger wonders where all the business
is done, for externally there is to him absolutely
no signs of it, except in the quick rushes of black-
coated business-men in tall hats, up and down, in and
out of the various long passages leading to private
offices and to sales-rooms up and down stairs, fiom
basements to fourth and fifth floors of the various
hives. In the next thoroughfare, Mari Lane, we
do, indeed, find a couple of large buildings of the
true market type, where, inside a large open hall
fi ted up with stalls, samples of wheat and grain are
displayed. These are the "new and old Corn Ex-
changes," but we search in v.iin for anything of the
kind in the lane so wdlknown by name to all the
producing colonies of the world. Suppose you are
a "colonial" at home, and yuu know that a large
quantity of your own produce is to be sold that day,
you would like to see how it is done. You have
the address of the selling broker, and you feiret his
private office out. On several of the doors nearest
to the spot in the passage on which you stand, you
see his name painted up with the addition of the
word "Private" on one, "Clerks" on another, and
" Sales-room " on a third. You notice that this last
is kept ever on the swing by men rushing in and
rushing out with curious long blue papers in
their hands. Y'ou enter, but your produce is not sold
in this " tales-room " : only small samples of it are
here, ranged round and up and down the room in
trays of small square boxes, each bearing a number.
You obtain one of the said blue catalogues, or lists
of lots, with particulars of them all : name, mark,
ship, description, number and quantity. Besides your
own you probably find fifty other parcels perhaps
far larger, which knocks just a little bitof the conceit
out of you to begin with. You then notice that these
men move rapidly from sample to sample, and that
each makes a private mark against the lot he quickly
examines, passing ou (no loitering there) to make

rCoin for the next pressing behind. Suddenly the
room is de. erted, but if your coffee (saj) has not
yet actually passed the hammer its fate as to price has
already heeu sealed in that room on those blue papers.
If you wish to see it actually sold, you must be
quick and find the particular auction-room .indicated,
in another building higher up or lower dow n the street.
The Mincing Lane Salesrooms are a collection of such
auction-rooms lu one building, where, simultaneously,
by different brokers, tea, coffee, cocoa, bark, tpices,
&c., &c. are being rapidly sold. Having found Ho. 7,
say, ycu enter and find business has already begun.
At the end is a high rostrum where the s.Uing
broker and his clerk staud, the rest of the room
being filled with benches and u:irrow desks crowded
with the men jou have already met before. Your
biggest lot comes in its tuin according to number
in the list. "Lot No. 20, ' shouts the broker, "a
thousand hundredweights"— but his further words are
drowned by a hideous babel of shouts, yells, catcalls,
squeals, grunts and other noises followed by only a
second's silence when the fall of the hammer is heard;
and if you don't know the last and highest bid and
who made it the selling broker does from long ex-
perience. "The ne.\t lot," calls the broker, and so on
rapidly through the list. There is no dawdling and
no coaxing, the brok-r knows that every buyer's mind
has been made up before he entered that room to
give only so much and to get it cftenyje?- if he can;
but a bundled others are as thaip as he is, so it's
soon all over and the parcel not likely to go either
above or below its value, though you may think so.
The last lot through, either the room rapidly empties,
or another broker mounts the desk to go through
another catalogue in the same way.

Well, here, with the exception of very small samples,
you have not seen much of the produce or many of
the people of Ceylon ; but you have seen where and how
it is all sold ; and it is possible you may go away
with a feeling that you have seen nothing of Ceylon
there, for, probably at the same time and in the same
catalogue, more coffee from Rio; and Costa Rica was
sold than from Ceylon.

If you further search for Ceylon in London you
will find its interests represented by Messrs. L. S. D.
& Co., who will accord you a few minutes' interview
to discuss its present condition and future prospects,
theirs beiuL; one of the mercantile houses doing chiefly
with Ceylon produce, and who found the advances you
used to draw through your Colombo agents against
your crops. In other parts of the City are the oflSces
of various Limited Companies of Ceylon, whose managers
are usually old Ceyluu men, with whom you may
also have a talk. Another centre is your Bank, wheie
you are most likely to i un up against old acquaintances,
but Ceylon business is only a fraction of the whole
there, and nowhere can you find much of Ceylon. So
vast is the business of the City, and so small a f raciiou of
it belongs to Ceylon, that it and you lire lost and
become only microscopical objects. Y'ou follow your
own little business, and you find out and consort with
old friends and neighbours aud talk shop, and that 'sail.

But the most important to you is always your
"own said little business," aud, in pursuing that
from morning till night, you and the people with
whom you deal become for you the true centre of
Ceylon in London. So unfortunately I have had oc-
casion to feel very frecjuently. F<ir some ye&rs there
have been in London private businesses dealing only in
Ceylon produce, the success of which shows that the
proprietors struck out a very good line for their own
advantage, not the least amusing feature being the
struggle of one or other of them to keep the field to
themselves against all comers. iJIany broken Ceylon
men could not do better than start teahouses in
London, rather than go to the Congo ; i. e. Congou in

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

117

London is a better spec for sucli <han the Congo in
Africa. Renumber there are 5,000,000 people in and
about London, who all driuk ti'a, and that the
majority of them can get only poor, adulter-
ated rubbish from C'hiiia ! It will be to the
interest of t!ie aforesaid established businesses to
r.dicule this advice; but it is sound. It only wants
the rig! t men, with sufficient capital to begin in a small
way, to woik up s eadily to an ever-expanding trade.
It also requires a knowledge of London itself which
jierhaps few possess ; but the key to this knowledge,
for tradii g purposes, lies in the fact that " Lomlon "
is an agglomeration of a hundred different towns in
one. That is, it has (within the pcstal elistricts say)
a hundred eliff-rent centres, around each of which, m
circular areas of vast extent, reside an immense popul-
ation, which has so little in common with its nei^h.
hours, tliat many thousands of people almost live
their Uvea and dit^ without seeing auy other part of
'• London " but their own. Even busy City men seldom
visit the We-tend, but for phasure occasionally; and
Westenders may be larely seen in the City oftener
than twice a year, when dividends are due at the
Bank of England. London is an inexhaustible sub-
ject, and Ceylon an infinitesimal one in comparison.
Those Ceylon men who have left the country .ind
are successful at home or in new lields will not regret
having doneso— but doubtless a few years hence will
see many others of them return to their old haunts, where
tncir local experience and knowledge will yet
be in great demand. Ceylon has a great and
immediate " fuluie " before it, undoubtedly. And I
hope and trust that all who are here now, without
exception, but esj ecially the much-tried, olcler resid-
ents, will have their full share in the coming prosperity.

BRAZIL AND JAVA :
REPORT ON THE COFFEE CULTURE IN
AMliRICA, A8IA AISD AFRICA,

BT

K. F. VAX DELDEN LAEENE.

It is a well-known fact that the coffee grown in Brazil
represents one-half of all the coffee produced in the whole
world ; therefore Brazil may be considered to rule the
whole market. As it is for our Government, who derive
a great part of the revenue from this source, of para-
mount importance to be thoroughly acquainted with the
conditions of this culture elsewhere, especially when such
a seriousrival as ]!razil interferes, it was resolved in I.SS.3
to send cut an authorized and quahfied person, to examine
into the state of the coffee culture in Brazil in order to
study it in connection with the interests of our coffee
culture in Java.

Our readers may remember that accordingly in 1883 Mr.
K. F. Van Delden Laerne was charged with this delicate
mission. This gentleman was, by his position as Referendary
at the Dipartment of the Interior at Batavia, and his
known abilities, eminently qualified for this nii.'^sion. Accortl-
ingly he left the port of Lisbon ^Sept. 9th, 1883, and on
the 6th of April lsi^4 he re urned to Europe vinth astore
of materials carefully collected for his report ; these he
worked up with surprisinj? diligence; for, in the short
space of six months afier his return to Europe, his report
w.is ready and delivered to the minister of Colonies.
This repoit, a voluminous octavo volume of GOO
pages, was published in December of last year, and
a splendid specimen of industry and presevcrance it is,
besides bemg provided with maps, views and a number
of statistical tables of great value.

■We hear now, that to render the contents more univers-
ally known, an Edition in French is almost completed,
and one in Eiighshis in course of publication. The inter,
est of the matter deserves this distinction. The hook
is full of carefully collected f.acts with many useful and
practical suggestions concerning our own trojiical cultures.

Thus we find the vital question of labour, the great
BtumbliDg block in Brazil, elave-labour or government cult-

ure, fully discussed. The fiuaucial system in Brazil his
also been an object of close scrutiny ; the overiiroduction
aud consequently low prices, which latter consideration lias
led the Ccntro da Lavoura e Oommercio to look out for
new di'bonc/its for their coffee.

We have further a chapter on immigration which would
be so neccs.sary to replace slave labour in case of com-
plete emancipation, the agrarian and economical conditions
of the country, the means of communication especially
Railways, Conimerco and Bankini; business, and then m. 're
especially the Coffee culture as is it is practised in that
country.

The writer concludes his most interesting report with
a review of the coffee culture in Netherland Imlia, ex-
pressing it as his conviction, that by better pluck and bet- .
ter preparation the Dutch Government could derive much
more advant ' ge from the culture, without oppressing the
native population.

To give the reader a specimen of the work, we will ex-
tract the conclusion of the Chapter Slavery and Eman-
cipation.

" Tho new settlement of the emancipation question
will not, I fear, be effected without a violent struggle,
and even then we shall have to ask ourselves, how it is
to be carried out.

By the proposed bill of the Minister Dantas, which
if it passes will render the above mentioned motion
of De Bulhoes null aud void, — freedom is desired for all
slaves :

a. That have attained their sixtieth year.
Ii. That have not been registered previously.
c. That have been removed from their legal domicile.
It is further enacted :

il. That all liberated slaves of sixty years of ago and up-
wards have a claim to board and lodging as long as ihey re-
main with their former masters ; but cannot insist on pay-
ment for work performed : this is left to the good will of the
master.

e. That, if liberated slaves leave the service of their
masters, they shall be maintained by the State.

/. That within a year after the passing of this Bill, there
.shall be a new registration of slaves— based on that of 1817-
73 stating name, age, colour, size, nationality, parentage,
phj'sicalcapahilities, calling and value. All slaves not re-
gistered are free.
(/. That the registration fee shall be one milreis per head.
k. That the value of the slaves be estimated accoiding to
age, and must not exceed :

SOU milreis for those under 30
700 „ „ „ between 30—40
COO „ „ „ „ 411-5(5

400 „ „ „ „ 60— CO

/. That the compensation paid out of the Emancipation-
Fund shall be calculated according to that standard, with
this understanding, that the slaves valued lowest shall be
the first to be bought out.

k. That a tax shall be paid of 5 per cent in Rio de
Janeiro and the seven largest provincial capitals, 3 per cent
in the other towns, and 1 per cent in the iuteiior.

I. That from this time forward there shall be levied a
tax of from 10 to 2.5 per cent on slaves changing hands
hy inheritance ; 5 to 25 per cent on legacies inter vivos ;
and 10 percent on sales.

)H. That the ecclesiastical orders, after the conversion of
their lands into Government bonds or "apolices" shall
have to pay a duty ef 20 per cent on the interest of these
apolices.

It. That the slaves legal domicile shall be considcied to
he the Province where he is on the day the Bill becomes law,
always excepting such as are attending their masters on a
journey.

0. That all slaves whose liberty has been bought out o
tho Fund, shall be required to continue work for five
years in the district they are in, on pain of fine, forced labour
on public works, or imprisonment.

)). That all work agreements, which must not be entered
into for more than three years, shall be registered.

q. That the minimnm wages to bo paid to the emancip-
ated slave shall be determined annually by specially ap-
pointed judges and arhitors.

)■. That no traffic in slaves shall he carried on on painof a
fine of 5,000 milreis for each offence.

ii8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

s. And lastly, that all existing state taxes on slave-
property, (rausport, etc. are repealed ou the day this law
comes into operation.

It is alleged that, if this motion should be adopted, a
very great portion of the present slave-pupulation will be
able to claim their liberty bv reason of the following fact : —

At the registration of l&ri-73, the slaves imported after
1831 were rejireseuted by their owners as older than they
really were, for fear they should, as emaucipados, be de-
clared free.

It seems now that thousands of slaves who have not
actually attained 60 years, aio according to the old registers
officially above that age, aud consequently have a right to
claim their freedom.

Owing to the reasons mentioned, the exact number of
slaves in Brazil cannot be ascertained within a few tens of
thousands. — Indian Mercury.

COFFEE IN THE PARCHMENT OR IN THE
CHERKY.

AVe copy from the report of Messrs. Ohabot & Andres
at Rotterdam, the following : —

The imports of coffee in the parchment in Netherland
■were in this season only : —

About 190,000 bags, against :

306,621 „ in 1883-84

188,00o „ „ 1882-S3

150,000 „ „ lSSl-82

and show thus a cousiderable decrease.

This decrease cau be accunted for by various causes :

1°. by the smaller crop n\ general.

2°, by the inferior quality of the coffee it.self,

3°. by the constant expectation of higher prices.

The crop was decidedly less than had been anticipated,
and the leaf blight has, in .several places, acted very in-
juriously ou the quality. This year in general there were
very few especially good qualities ; the colour was flat
aud mostly dull and pale ; the berry not large and
shrunken. This we attrib ite to the blight akeady
mentionod aud to the difficulty of drjiug through a
protracted rainy season. In our account of -January 1884
we mentioned that a great part of coffee in the parch-
ment was hidd back, to be disposed of later ou by event-
ual improvement of the nnirket. Instead if improvement
there came a decline, and at every transaction the prices
frittered away. In July, September the remnants were
disposed of before the beginniug of the campaign, and
the results could not but be very disappointi-tg. Indeed,
the decline was more than 8 cents per h kilo. Mainly to
the impression this caused, and to the existing low prices
not giving occasion to expeditious deliveries, it must bo
attributed that in this campaign more coft'ee had been
peeled in Java. The crop was gathered tiuisly, but on
account of the rains the drj'ing did not proceed exped-
itiously, aud as after the gathering the plauters had hands
unemployed, he resolved to proceed at once to peeling
and sorting. We see that crops small in quantity and
inferior in quality at low prices, which hardly remu-
nerate the planter for costs of production, counteract
the treatment in Netherland ; as, under these circum-
stances, it is not advisable to make expenses that would
on an average render the product 3^ ceut per h kilo,
dearer. Having con.sidered what were the causes of
the smaller supplies of coffee in the parchment this
year, we believe we may also state that, in general,
with very special expectations, the results have been in
favour of treatment in Netherland.

In July 1882 we wrote : —

" To resume, we think wo have hereby adduced the
reasons on which we believe that for all superior "W. I.
crops, and we repeat, especially for coarser coffees, the
peeUng in Netherland will find more and iriore encourage-
ment, because it will prove the most profitable, while for
small-berried medium coloured coffee the result will always
remain doubtful, and will be much more subject to all
possible vicissitudes of the market, whether favour.ible
or unfavourable. "We can now, after later experience,
perfectly confirm this.

One example will suffice :

At the Kotterdam market the following parcels of one and
the same crop aud from one aud the same plantations sold.

peeled in this country.

8

October

1884 349 bags ...

46J cts.

5

November

„ 427 „ ...

4-1 „

14

)>

„ 434 „ ...

ii „

25

„ 526 „ ...

m „

6

December

„ 344

Hi »

16

,.

„ 405 „ price

unknown

tax

.38 „

ID

January 1885

peeled in India.
8 October 1884

5 November ,,
14 „

25 „

6 December ,, 896 bags price tmkuown tax. 39 cts.

16

19 January 1885 256 ,, ... ... ... 35 „

19 „ ., . 692 „ 331 „

These prices require no comment.

To the question whether coffee iu parchment can be
stored here for some length of time \iithout detriment
to the quality, the trials made lead to the following
answer : " ^^'ell dried parcels after 6 month's and longer
warehousing, showed no diminution of colour of any con-
sequence whatever, while coffee less well dried could be
observed to grow gradually paler from monih to month,
t'offees from different plantations furnished in this respect
different results." *' Whether a ]>arcel, brought over here
in the parchment is dried in such a manner that it will
not suffer by lying in store, cau be detei mined with sufEc-
eut certainty." Yet it is decidedly injmrious to the
quality for the coffee to lie in the parchment for any-
length of time in Java before being expedited. We could
observe this by ocmparing various lots. — Indiiin Mercury

APPLICATION OF ELECTPJCTY TO THE

PLOUGHING OF RICE AND SUGARCANE

FIELDS IN JAVA.

The firm Siemens & Halske, Berlin, have for severa
ye.irs been making a series of experiments with an Electric
Plough invented by them, and made accurate observations
concerning the labour, traction-power and speed, at
which lUtferent species of soils could be Uio.st profitably
ploughed, and compared these results with the labour ob-
tuined in Java with buffaloes.

The results of these tria!s, which were all made on a
large scale and with great care, are very favourable, aud
prove not only the practical feasability, but also the
advantage that may be derived from introducing Electric
Ploughs in Java.

The plough which Dr. Siemens has had constructed for
tliis ptu'pose, is a so-called doiibhov Inila itce-plonyJi , consisting
of two equal halves, that can swivel ou the axle of the
wheels like a hinge. By this ariaugemeut it is unnecessary
to turn the plough, and you can plough forwards or
backwards, by letting down either the back or the front half_

The ploughs in Java have one plough-share 26 cM. broad,
and go 13 cM. deep; for au electric plough, however, 3
plough-shares of the same breadth might be used and the
ploughing would be as deep, and according to the trials
made 1 Hectare of land might be ploughed in 7 hours ;ind
6 minutes.

For the same work, the Javanese yokes two buffaloes
to his plough, and with a working time of si.-: hours per day,
he would require 26 hours.

Therefore the same labour is done by the Electric
Plough ■— = 3'66 times quicker than by the yoke of
buffaloes. Besides this the buffaloes work only 6 hours per
day, wlule the Electric Plough cau be made to work with
advantage during 10 hours per day. If we take this into con-
.sideratiou the difference becomes much greater, for the Elec-

trict Plough does in y^ =- 0.71 day as much as 3 buffa-
loes do in 1^ = 4.33 days, or ^y^ = 6 times as much.

The driving power serving as standard for these experi-
ments, wasSH. P. In actual practice, however, by making

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

119

use of newer and better electric machines, an available
power of 7i H. P. would have to be reckoned upon, and
the work performed by such an arrangement would be

much greater in proportion, so that 6.1 x '— = 9.15 times

the work of 2 buffaloes can be done, that is the work of
IS buttaloes.

The advantages, then of electric ploughing appear.s
clearly from these results. AVe have now only to answer
the question : How to apply it while observing the claims
of the Indian soils. If we consult the latest inventions
on agricultural appUances, then no doubt (leaving the costs
of purchase out of account) the two-machine system intro-
duced by John Fowler desKrves the preference by far
chiefly by the light and easily moveable portable engine.
Yet this system has a drawback that must not be left out
of account, namely the alternate inactivity of one of the
boilers. The two-engine system is also applied by Sie-
mens and Halske, but without this drawback, as the power
developed in one engine is alteruat<jly transmitted to one
of the ploughing machines. These ploughing-machines
consist each of an electric machine with coil, etc., and
are fit to be moved along or over the field-, their
weight is therefore as little as po.s.sible, the electric con-
nections are partly stationary, partly easily removable.

The primary electric machine, through which the fore-
mentioned electric ploughing machines receive their motive
force, can be moved either by steam or water, according
to circumstances. The motive power, with the primary
electric machine, driven by it, may be quite stationary,
and derived from an existing steam-engine or from a
water-wheel ; it can also consist of a portable engine,
remaining on the road, so that its transport, as also the
supply of fuel and water, can be effected with the utmost
case. The wagons for the electric plouphing-machine are
entirely constructed of iron, therefore vt-ry durable, and
do not weigh much more than 3,000 kilogr. against
7-8,U00 kilogr. of a portable engine with appliances filled
with water. So here, too, there is a great economy of
weight. Kegardiug the costs of arrangement as described
above, we can give the following notes. They ousist :

1st in 2 vehicles with electric machines, coils etc. com-
plete, arranged for ploughing a furrow iOO M. long and
provided with gear to move on so constructed, that ac-
cording to the desired horsepower to be evolved, they
may be removed to a distance of 1,000 Metres from the
primary engine.

•.;''. In a primary electric machine wiih, which 900
revolutions evolves 10 H. P. of which, after deduction of
2-5 H. P. to surmount all resistances, 7^ H. P. remains
for the plough-labour.

The eli-ctric steering arrangement, coils with isolated
conducting wire for connection with the machine, all
otheT conductors and appurtenances.

3^. The balance-plough with four shares, each 29'5 c.M.
suitable for the available labour of 7J H. P.

4^. 400 Metres of conducting-material, for connecting
the two vehicles.

0°. Belts and appurtenances, small material, instru-
ments etc.

The cost of this complete is estimated at/ 15,000, the
expensf? of transport to Java included.

If then you have, at a distance of about 1,000 M.
from the land to be ploughed, an available force of 20 a
25 H. P., you wi'Uld, with a dhect outlay of / 15 000 at
once, and a constant expense of about 10 per cent, for
interest and amortisation, besides occasional expenses,
not here to be sp^-cifi.-d, for wages, fuel, etc., obtain the same
result as by purchasing 18 buffaloes with 9 ploughs includ-
ing interest and amortisasioti, maintenance, food and wages.

■\Ve hear that the " Neilerlandsche Maatschappij voor
Electriciteit en Metallurgie'' at the Hague who represent
the firm Siemens & Halske for NetlicTland and the Col-
onies, are willing to furnish any further details that may
be desired. — Jndutu Mercut-y.

TEA AT HANKOW,

There are some things which improve upon a fuller
acquaintance. The first crop teas of this season are not
amongst those thinjja. Xevtr, perhaps, were first impres-
sious more correct than they have proved themselves to
be this year as regards the leaf : for no one will question
the inferiority of the crop. Nevertheless it is by no
meins the worst crop we have seen of late yeais. It is
not a pleasant thii'^ to have to admit that samples of
one's earlier purchases are not today as good as they
were a fortnight ago ; still, such is tlie fact. The I\ing.
chows have not improved in canister; or rather, with
very few exceptions, they have palpab'y deteriorated.
The " weatheriness 'before alluded to has developed.
The teas, in fact, are going through " no slow gradations
of decay," and some shippers will soon have an experi-
ence of what is known as the " calamitous invoice."

The Hohows are tender plants, and will bear no
handling. In cup they are very "curio," and
it is difficult to understand what virtue that
enlightened Americia cousin finds in these most
unsatisfactory of teas. Tlie Keemuns aluue main-
tain their "pride of place." Inta- ci-cos monoeulus
rex est. In other words these teas " star away "
from the vulgar crowd. Th?y are the finest tca^ <if
the year, as regards "head chops," and the upper
medium class is ripening up. But nothing good can be
said of the lower giades, which are s-knny, choppy,
dusty, and often sour. Rtd leaf Twankays they have
been called.

Amongst the Hankow district teas, Towyuens alone
are fit to be placed in class A. The head chops are
very pretty to look at, and full, strong, tarry teas
besides. But the later packs are already deteriorating
in canister ; sure herald of coming gri<f. There are
some shippers who have tuk n a " view " in the Oanfu
department, and who, in some iiistances, have obtained
good value for their moiipy ; but it is scarcely
ntcessary to refer to the other alrealy loo numerous
cliss'-s of Oooahm tea who hide tfie wolf, the irrepress-
ible SUuntam, in the sheep's clothing of pnrtiy names
like Lowyong, Li-ling, Wing-fung, Kolsew, and a
crowd of otheis. If it were not for the Russian buyers,
Oopack teas would be nobody's children. They are a bai d
lot, and demand a very appreciative palate liegarding
prospects, the early shipments ought to pay, because :

1st. — I'hi-y wer.- not dear.

Sod. — They go to a bare market in London.

3^d. — They will arrive at home shorily a'ter the
trade has proof that the first crop from Hankow is
nearly 5, UO,000 lbs. short. Th- total settl ni. iits to
date are 713,236 halfchesta or 81,000 half-che-ts less
than at same tune last ye.^r ; a diflTereuce which it
setms now imp issible to re<luce.

The jiurchabes f >r England are 540,000 half-cliests or
about 47 000 tons ; not qii,te <-noii:ih to satisfy the
tonnage supply of the season. — Shanyhai Courier.

FLIES ANO BUGS.
Beetles, insects, roaches, ants, bed-bugs, rats, mice, gophers,
chipmunks, cleared out by " Rough on Rats,

W. E. Smith & Co., Madras, Sole Agents.

TEA, CHARCOAL &c. IN NORTH FORMOSA.
18th May. — Queer weather; quite cool again ; ther.
71 to lb; wind, strange to say, is north-east still;
generally caim in the mornings, and a brei z! abi ut
10 am. Two steamers rutaide : tlie "Welle" from
the nu.th and tlie "Ingiaban" from the fui.th. No
lead oil board these ships. .Some 70 000 half-chests
of tea down anfl only had for al.ont 4,000 half-chests.
Chinese packers .ire buying up leaden joss candle-
sticks, etc, to rake leulen linings to lea-chests, and
Hshermcu are sa'd to be parting with the leaden weights
attached to their i ets lor Hame purpose'. lead last
Bta-ou was sold at about $(> per picul ; at the I egin-
ning of the pieS'^nt season tahs were made at .$0
.$10 per picul. In the b-ginning of the pre.'etit month
§l(i per picul miglit have been obtained. Today
packers are willing to pay, people say, |20 per picul.

120

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

Charcoal, which is an important article in the
manufacture of tea, ia also a scarce commodity
just at present. Some years ago you could
nuy it at the rate of $1 for 3 piculs ;
now you can only get 80 catties for a dollar
A very large quantity of charcoal ia used in all the
large towns of Formosa for cooking purposes, but an
enormoua quantity is also rt qui red at Twatutia and
elsewhere for firing teas. Kach tea packing hong has
a large tiring room attached. Small hongs have 50 to
100 tires and large hongs have about 200 to 300 fires
and even more. The fire places are simply circular holes,
abjut two feet in diameter, surrounded by brick
facings. They are arranged in rows, and are
not much more than eighteen inches above the
flior of the room. The tire holes are apart about
half a foot and on the top of these circular holes or
re;eptaole3 for live chnrcoals arc placed the baskets
containing tea. The fires are prepared in a simple
way ; a lagre pile of charcoal ia lighted and allowed
to burn till all the combuatible matter contained
therein has disappeired, and then the red hot particles
are plio d by the firing men ia the circular tire-
places. For several hours the fires are allowed to
flare up and oast forth a flame and glow that few
men can stand for any length of time. If jou enter
a large firing room at the time the fires are being
lighted it is like going into an oven, and the return
to the open air reminds yon forcibly of the heated
atmosphere of Montreal hotel'!, where inside the
temperature is perhaps over 70' and on going out of
the front door you suddenly find yourself in an
atmosphere several degrees below zero. This ia
putting it very mildly, f ir in a room with 300 fires
the heat is far more intense. It takes time for the
fires to settle down, and the red hot charcoal has
to be broken up with iron implements ; the red
heat has to penetrate to the very core of the charred
branches or pirtions of trees, and when no smoke
whatever issues from the fire holes, the firing men
place on top of the emheis a thick covering
of ashes of paddy husk, which deadens and temp-
ers the heat to such an extent that in the course of 12
or 15 hours from the time the blazing lumps of char-
coal were placed in the fire holes it is safe to place the
baskets containing ten kavrs over them. The baskets
are lyliiidrical in shape, about 2 feet in diameter and
about 3 feet high; they are divided iu two by a sieve
partition, and on top of this sieve the tea is placed.
The teas brought down from the hills and tea districts
have undergone the sun-drying and absorbing process,
have been fried m an iron pan, have been twisted by
hand af er pas-mg through the nijiid frying process, and
on oceaaious are basket-fireil upc unt -y. But the up
country process of piepaiatiou is insuHioient to permit
of the leaf lieing shipped away to a foreign country ;
it has, therefore, after you have purchased it, to be
"cured" properly and finally at Twaiutia. Every
particle of moisture has to be extracted in the fiual
process, previous to packing the leaf in lead-lined che-ts.
Wherever Chinese eolonists are sent to — and it is
always inland towards the savago frontier or border
land — their first idea is to make a clearing, build shan-
tes, plant a few sweet potato fields, &c. Then after
squatting and settling down, they turn tlieir attention
to the hills in neighbourhood, which are covered from
bottum to top with trees of all kinds and their jungle.
Without entering deeply into border life, we may
mention that thesu pioneers are for the most part
Hakkas, in fact our old friends the hillmen.
They become squatters — camphor producers or
charcoal burners according to circumstances. They
enter into the business, whatever it may be
with zest, whether wood clearing or hunting,
and in a generation or two become seniisavage iu
their ways and habits. They have to deal with savages,

and in course of time they out-?avage them, having
a poorer idea of honour than the aborigines. They
commit treacherous acts on occasions, and feuds arise,
lasting often for years. These borderers or hillmen
come iu contact wiih the savagej daily, and they
act as a sort of buifer between the quiet farmers
and villagers in the valleys and plains and the noble
owners of the hi ly country. They are therefore looked
upon as protectors and are often paid by the people
aid the Government to check thi savages when mak-
ing raids into Chinese territory, perhaps only lately
acquired. — Daily Press Cor.

I-MPEOVED PrxiuGHS. — It is now some nine months
ago since the Director of Public Instruction experimented
in several districts with some of Messrs. J. &F. Howard's
English Ploughs. The results of the various trials have
been satisfactory, judging by the number of natives who
have now adopted the modern implement. Several native
cultivators have been very successful with them, and later
on we hope to be able to give some tabulated returns
from different provinces. The ploughs can be drawn by
the ordinary country buffalo, and their great merit is that
they thoroughly turn over the -soil, thus exposing it to
the fortilizinginfluence of the atmosphere, while the native
ploughs is really only a one-pronged harrow, simply
scratching the soil without turning it over. The ploughs
are equally suitable for coconut and other gardens, and to
paddy land. In the case of paddy fields the improved
plough should be used about six weeks before the ordinary
native ploughing time. After the ground has been well
turned over by the new plough the old native plough
should be used to mix up the soil, like a harrow, and
then the cultivation should proceed in the usual native
manner. Some of the ploughs may be seen in use at the
School of Agriculture, Cinnamon Gardens. — "Oeylon
Advertiser."

Jaffna Native Resoheoes. — Take care of your pence, and
your poands will take care of themselves, is a trite old
adage, and yet contains the very essence of practical wis-
dom, holding good under all circumstances, and worthy
to be remembered by all classes of our community. We
wish to direct the attention of our readers, and of those
in authoriiy to the gradual failure of our smaller sources
of income which at one time in the Province went along
way to increase our revenue. Thus the export of chauks,
palmyra-timber, fish fins, hides, and ghee, honey, horns,
bones and oils of sorts were at one time a brisk and profit-
able trade iu the Province. In preparation of these
articles, and iu sorting them some have been so careless
and others have been scamping and adulterating them that
importers have sought other places to get the genuine
article, and thus our traders have been penny wise and
pouud foolish It is painful to observe how the export
of most of these articles iu the Province is left in the
hands of Chetties and Moormen, while our coiintr3'meti
fold their hands, and cry that all the money goes into
the hands of strangers. The fact is our young pcojjle feel
ashamed to be seen as they think dirtying their finders
with fish fins and beech-de-mar and think such occup-
ation must be left either to their aged relatives or to the
Chinese who come and settle in the Province derive a pro-
fitable trade, and go back to their country and settle them-
selves there as merchants, while a poorer relative is seut
to take his place. The prep 'ration of beech-de-mar is so
simple and the catching of the fish is such an easy task
and requires not a large outlay of money that we are sur-
prised th.at the trade is left entirely to the Chinese ; more
especially as the article at Colombo commands a good price.
Such localities as Kalmunai and Ariallai, so very close to
the town are the fishing ponds where the Chinese settle
themselves. And yet very few of our young people know
auythiug of their doings or can speak with certainty of
the manner iu whicli the fish is cured and the habits of
their life. The desire for Government employment even
on five or ten Rupees to prove that they know English
aud are anglieized is the secret of the reluctance for any-
thiiur like labor though that labor is certain to give inde-
pendence and be a blessing to others whom we could
comply. — Jaffna " Patriot."

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUKIST,

(2/

AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITS AT THE INVEN-
TIONS EXHIBITION.

Messrs. E. Packard & Co., of Ipswich aiul London, show
under Group 14 the following : —

Phosphoric acid, concentrated superphosphate of very
high quality, phosphates of soda, potash and ammonia
and other compounds manufactured under processes which
comprise the use of a particular form of mixiug apparatus
for dissolving phosphates; the mode of separating the
gypsum and solid mass from the liquid to phosphoric acid
by meaus of filteriui; presses, particularly wooden filtering
presses; the mode of concentrating phosphoric acid sol-
ution so ohtaiued ; and several other processes conuected
with the manufacture of superphosphate, &c. The chief
point of novelty is the practical and cheap method of
manufacturing phosphoric acid from whicli can be produced
superphosphate and other compounds of high couceutratiou,
and, if necessary, of great purity.

Under Group 17 they exhibit: —

(T) A number of samples of sugar manufactured in
Mauritius under the new process invented by Messrs.
leery. Bernard and Ehrmann. By this process a groat
economy is effected in the manufacture of cane sugar,
and the following are the advantages that this process
offers: — 1. Increased yield of suga^*. 2. — Improved quality
of sugar. 3. — Proportion of molasses reduced. 4. — Great
economy effectetl. 5. — Necessity for charcoal filters obviated.
6. — Superior clarification obtained. 7 — More time may be
employed in defecation. 8. — The evils of overtemperiug
comiteracted. 9. — The cost of the reagents recovered in
its value for manuring the next crop. 10. — Greater
proportion of first quality sugar produced.

(■-') Various reagents used in the above process, including
a particular form of phosphoric acid to which the name
of " Ehrmaimite " has been given, and which is entirely
soluble in water and manufactured by the exhibitors
under patents invented by them.

INSECTS ON ROSES.

At this season, when rose shoots are young and tender,
they are very apt to be attacked by green fly and other
insects, which cover the points of the shoots and injure
or destroy the flower buds. I have known many roses,
especially in unfavourable situations, ruined by insects
when the shoots were young; the buds which formed never
opened properly. AN'hen insects are allowed to increase
and ovcrruu the shoots, imperfect development is sure
to happen, and no after-cleaning will rectify the damage.
The only way to succeed is to check them from the first,
and get them cleared as soon as possible. It may be no
easy matter to keep the plants perfectly clean, but all
who care to try may save their crop of flowers. Dryness
at the root will always cause insects to take possession ;
therefore roses thoroughly watered will stand a good
chance of escaping. Cold winds and general starvation of
root and branch will induce hosts of insects; and iu order
to reduce their numbers, the first thing to do is to
have the plants in a free-growing and healthy condition
at the root. Tobacco powder is excellent for clearing
insects off roses; aphiden cannot withstand it. It should
be put inside a fine muslin bag and dusted on the shoots
affected. If put on at night and syringed off in the
morning, nearly every insect will be washed off at the
same time. "When the shoots are dry, and much of the
powder is likely to fall to the ground or be blown off
as soon as put on, the best way is to damp the shoots
first and then put on the powder, which may thus be
made to stick. Soap suds, if applied by a syrinpe freelv,
will clear roses of most kfcids of insects, and nnc wine-
glassful of petroleum to a gallon of water and a small
piece of wa.shing soda, mixed up together, will take off
every living thing, but this must not be allowed to stay
long on the trees ; it shouM, indeed, be Hyrtng:^d off after
being on, say, five minutes. Evening is the best time to
do all this kind of work, and it should be done before the
buds are far advanced, or tlie crop of blooms may be
injured or lost. — Cambkian. — Field.

IG

EXPEPvIiMENTS IN AGRICULTURE.

Dr. Home, writing in 1759, says " Agriculture does
not take its rise originally from reason, but from fact
and experience. It is a branch of natural philosophy,
and can only be improved from the knowledge of facts,
as they happen in nature. It is by attending to thesa
facts that the other branches of natural philosophy
have been so much advanced during these two last
ages. Medicine has attained its present perfection only
from the history of diseases and cases delivered dowu.
Chemistry is now reduced to a regular system by the
means of experiments made either by chance or desigu.
IJut where are the experiments in agriculture to answer
this purpose ? "When I look around for such, I can
fiuvl few or none." "Where are the experiments Y wo
repeat in these enlightened times. To experiments we
undoubtedly owe many of the improvements that have
been introduced. To experiments that have been car-
ried out by aid of the acquired knowledge of chemistry
we are indebted iu the largest degree. With further
study, and experiments I doubt not but that we shall
see " Agriculture " still further improveil from this one
motive power alone. Put when this is done, all will
not be accomplisheil. We have seen how Blythe sug-
gested that new species of produce, those uf foreign
growth, might be with advantage grown here. The
ascertaining that the foreign husbandman did grow
these cost money. For either actual observation was
made of the parts where they were grown, or knowledge
was acquired of the same from book learning. Today
we have as much need to find some new species of
produce as had the farmer who lived in the last cent-
ury ; aye, we have more. Establish your seminaries
with sufficient founds, and your teachers will make it
their business to discover the way that husbandmen in
other countries carry on their business, and will thus
be able to instruct the farmers of the futiu-e. I fear
that experiments made without the founding of semin-
aries are liable to be confined too much to the scienti-
fic class. — S. — Fiehl.

ORANGE GROWING IN FLORIDA.

Sir, — A friend at home in Londtm sends me the Fithl
weekly, and, having noticeil a good deal asked lately
about Florida in reference to orange culture, I take
the liberty to write you this letter. 1 came out here
thirteen months ago through the advice of a friend,
and threw up a very good berth at home to do so,
with the intention of following out my friend's advice,
and starting a 10-acre orange grove. As far as I have
gone, I am well satisfied with the results ; but my
expenses have been a groat dt-al heavier than I anticip-
ated, and one should take many things into consider-
ation before coming out here to make a grove. For the
first year it is very disheartening work, and a man
must have energy, patience, and pcrseTerance to succeed
in this undertaking.

It is no good for young fellows to come out without
capital, say £3(X) or £400, to start a 10-acre grove of
600 trees, and they must not expect any return to
speak of for six years ; so they should have sufhcieut
means to keep themselves and a horse for a period. I
am making a grove on good pine land, but I should
advise those with the means to buy hammuck, which,
with the expense of clearing, costs nearly double the
amount in the first instance that pine land does. AVe
have not many settlers in this vicinity as yet. but the
few young groves round here cannot be beaten for the
time they have been set out.

A good many young fellows from home go a little
further south tn settle, viz.. In Orlando and Orange
Oounty, where land is high, owing to its bfing more
settled up, and they get nearer town, anil have more
chances of spending their money ; but let me advise
those coming here with the idea of starting a grove
with a small cajutal to take n look round hero and
Orescent City. The latter place is six miles on the
main road from here, and is rapidly settling up. There
are several Englishmen, who are starting like myeelf,

who would bo gl'^^i to K'vo Bouud advice to bc^ 99Ba&rs

122

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885,

from the old country. The pine land in this vicinity
is supposed to be as good as any in Florida, and is
owned by private individuals, most of whom started
groves about five years ago, so that it is not advertised
up in any way. Fruitlaud is 125 miles from Jackson-
ville on the St. John river, or tweuty-five miles from
Palatka.— John E. D. King, Fruitland, Putnam County,
Florida, U. S. A., March 22.— Field.

BfiCHE-DE-MER FISHING IN JAPAN.

Sir,— Having just read the very interesting article by
Wr. ■\Vilford Powell on beche-de-mer fishing in your issue
of Dee. 27, 1884, it has occurred to me that a few
particulars about the same industry, as carried on in
Japan, woiddnotbe unacceptable to some of your readers.

Bcche-de-mor (called by the Japanese " irico "), although
found more or less all round the islands which compose
Japan, is only obtained in any quantity on the island
of Yezo and on the N. B. coast of Nippon. From these
pl.iccs it is sent to Hakodati, the only treaty port in Yezo,
and is shipped thence to Shanghai by the foreign merchants.

The mode of capturing the fish is different from that
described by Mr Powell. They are caught here from
small boats, manned by two men ; a small trawl net
is used. The process of preparing, also, differs from
that employed in Australia, and is as follows ; — The fish,
having been caught, are thrown, as soon as the boats
return to the shore, into large boiling pots, and boiled
for about one hour. They are then taken out and
spread on straw mats to dry in the sun. Before boil-
ing, the fi.sh spoil if kept for a longer period than
twenty-four hours ; but .Tfter having been boiled and
dried once, they may be kept for some time without
any danger of their going bad. When thoroughly dry,
the fish are again boiled for about one hour, and then
dried as before. At tliis stage they should be hard ;
if soft, it is a sure sign that they are not sufficiently boiled.

In this state it is bought by the merchants at Hako-
dati, where it undergoes the process of being doctored
for the Ohinoso market. The beche-de-mer most in
demand is the prickly black kind, and the more spini'S
it has, and the blacker it is, the better price it fetches.
Now, although known as black beche-de-mer, yet it is of
a dirty brown colour by the time it arrives at Hakodati,
after having undergone the processes of preparing. As
this dingy appearance would depreciate its value if sold
iu this state, it is subjected to the operation of colour-
ing. This is done by p'unging the fish into a caiddron
of boiling water, in which Indian ink has previously
been dissolved, for about half a minute. AVhen taken
out and dried in the sun, the fish should be hard,
and of a dull black colour. It is then sorteil and put
up in boxes holding one picul (133Jlb.), to be shipped
to Shanghai.— H.—i'/c/-/.

FUEL FOR 'lEA ESTATES IN THE NEW
DISTRICIS OF CEYLON.

Anyone passing through those districts through,
which the newly opened hue of railway has been con-
structed cannot help being struck with the great extension
of tea plnnting now in progress. At Ihe same; time,
the question naturally arises how will the fuel be
obtained necessary for the manufacture of leaf from
sucli immense areas of tc::i ? Coal or wood will have to
be .foinid and tr.snsported up to these districts. If wood,
it may have either to come from Kurunegala or Matale.
If coal, from (■olonibo. This naturally opens up the
(inestion as to whether sonie of the forests which
exist beyond Matale could not be utilized for the purpose,
and so contribute further towards the maintenance' of, the
Matale railway line. It may be of coursn thnt wood
will be found much nearer upon some of the <livitlitig
ranges ; indeed it is to be expecteil that it will.

AVhatever is to be the material used, whether wood,
coal, or coke, it will not be long before the demand
comes, and I look upon it as a (piestion that should be
brought before the public. To utilize the long and costly
pieeo of new railway recently cousliuctcd, rather than

that it should be left solely for the running of a train
or two up and down its length daily, surely fuel might
be carried upon it at rates so low as to look for a
profit upon the consequent down traffic it would aug-
ment. It is time too the question arose, as, thereby,
by the time everyone is ready for it, some cheap and
certain source may be found. The question too is one
which may take our rulers some time to decide upon, but,
if there is wanted an incentive to the extension of tea
in the .so-called new districts, some safe figures as to
the cost of the fuel necessary for the manufacture of
tea would greatly increase it. Now, it is a great and
moot question, which no one can satisfactorily answer ;
consequently few people care to ask it ; yet, it is of
immense importance to all interesteti in tea in these
districts, for the time is not far off when fuel will have
to be purchased for the factory, bungalow and cooly
lines, and the only way it could be cheaply supplied is
either from the forest reserves on the Uva side of the
range or the lowcountry. In either case it should be
carried at exceptional rates.

The nearest spot is the forest along the route to
Haputale, along the new trace, and this may form
another claim for the extension of the railway to
Haputale. — Wn, FoEBES LiuaiK. — Local " Times."

TEA PRUNING.

I have just read Mr. A. K. 'Wright's letter upon
the very interesting and important question of tea-prun-
ing ; referring specially to the two opposed systems most
in vogue among tea-planters.

The one, as he clearly explains, keeps the single stem
of the plant intact and its shape like a small tree with
a flat top, without allowing young wood to grow from
the bottom upwards within a distance of six inches from
the ground. The other system is opposed to this, inas-
much as it, if anything, encourages the growth of young
shoots from the ground, and, as they grow and occupy
the space of the original tree, are allowed to take its
place ; a gradual removal of the original tree by prun-
ing from the top downwards follows until in a year or
two the whole, except a foot or so, has disappeared in
the process ; iine red young wood taking the place
of white. At one period in India, I believe, the first
of these two methods had the larger number of votaries ;
hut of late, upon lowliinds as well as upon hill gardens,
where it has ever been popular, the second system has
gradually grown into favor. For my part, I am in-
clined to believe that the tree-system (in contradistinction
to the bush) has arisen out of the idea of cultivating
fruit and other trees, where matured wood is necessary
for flowering and fruiting, and that the second has, as
a rule, proved with tea the most profitable. Owing to
tho short period that tea has been cultivated in Ceylon,
I am not prepared definitely to urge the advantages of
either, but as far as my experience goes, I am inclined
to believe a better class of wood results after the centres
of bushes have, been cut out, the shoots ensuing after
thepi being both stronger and stouter and more evenly
distributed over the bush. I would, however, in explan-
ation add that I do not oppose the removal from the
treq-stem within (3 inches of the ground of all weakly
branches ami shoots; and also that 1 am not advocat-
ing carpet bushes which should only be grown where
larger ones, owing to wind or general exposure, are
impracticable. As unnecessary height is not desirable I
do not quite see the use of the wasted six inches at
the stems of the trees being kept absolutely free of
young shoots, for, practically, it only adds six inches
of unnecessary height to their stature which may make
them just too high to allow children to pluck them well ;
or it may afford so much more unnecessary wind exposure.
Of the two, the single trees afford by far the prettier
aipcarauce. reminding us of our coffee of former ycirs;
the shorter bushes (to me) appear, however, closer to
their work and have less white wood upon them.

Some discussion, howevej, upon this subject before the
])runiug seiison, would, as Mr. Wright says, be generally
beneficial.— W. F. L. — Ibid.

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

123

THE CAROB TREE.

We have received fi'iiu tbe Hon. K. A. Tarlton, of
South Australia, some seeds of the Carob, or Locust tree,
accompanied by a copy of a letter from that geiitlemau
to the .v. A. Advertucr, aud the coiunients of that jour-
nal on the cultivation of this useful and valuable tree.
Ho writes as follows:— "I au\ iinformcd that tho Hon.
C;. i;. Hawker has a tree that has yielded S cwt. of
carol) pods in one season. Here then is food for one
horse for 1-li) days at the rate of 6 lb. per day. It is
said that Thorley's food for cattle consists largely of
these pods. Baron Ton Mueller, in his book on extra-
trni>ieal plants, readily eligible for industrial culture, has
the following — "The carob attains a height of 30 feet,
and resists drought well ; succeeds best in a calcareous
subsoil. The saccharine pods, algarob.a, or St. John's
Bread, is of value for domestic animals. The seeds germinate
readily. The e.\portation of pods for cattle food from
('ret;i alone is now about 180,000 tons amiually. The
fruit serves for a medicinal syrup, caramel, an imitation
of chocolate, and a liqueur. In some of the Mediter-
ranean countries horses and stable fed cattle are almost
exclusively fed upon the pods. The meat of sheep and
pigs is greatly improved in flavor by this food, the
fattening properties being twice that of oil cake. The
pods contain 55 per cent of sugar and gum. To horses
and cattle G lb. a day are given of the crushed pods,
raw or boiled, with or without chaff." I have been
informed that the Hon. Ci. C. Hawker has been u.snig
this food for stud sheep. Xo wonder he turns out such
magnificent animals. From beans .nipplied by Mr. Hodg-
kiss I have already about three dozen young trees
planted out. I purpose putting in a bean wherever I
have a vacant spot. Last week I put in beans around
all my unplanted fences up at Stirling Kast. The
beans were first put in hot water, and were allowed to
remain soaking for three or four days. The bean is then
plant<-d half an inch deep in the spot where the tree is
inte!uled to grow, as it sends down a long tap root.
As the season is late, put in only so many as you can
manago to water occasionally through tlu: dry summer.
Let me urge upon every farmer to go to work earn-
estly in May of 1(<85 in surrounding his homestead
with the liriug green of the carob tree. It is easily
grown. It is beautiful." This tree would grow on the
Sandpatch, and why should not the Government spend
a little money in procuring seeds and planting them so
that the apparently sterile hill wtiich is blowing into
the harbor may yield a ustfii! product ? The seeds received
we have distributed to suveral gestlemea to plant.—
Aibitny Mail.

KKW COMMERCIAL PL.VN'T.S AN'U DRUG^.

Mr. T. Christy has pubUshcd the eighth part of his
publication on these subjects, comprising a history of the
Kola Nut. together with rtraar)« on guttapercha, the tuber-
ous Solanums,the genus Myristica, Cuca (Erythroxylon Co-
ca), Cuprea barks, and other matters. A paste made from
the seeds of Kola acuminata, it appears, can He used with
advantaj/c to mix with inferior cocoa. "Chocolate made with
Kola paste is ten times more nutritious than chocolate

made with cocoa aurl a woikmau can, on a single

cup taken at breakfast time, go on with bin work through
the day without feeling fatigued." Such statemeuts are
likely to be received with incredulity save by travellers
aud botanists who have long heea aware of the com-
poiition and effect of these seeds, though it is only now
that public attention is being drawn to them. It is many
years since Dr. Daniell published an acouiit of the
plant, anil his statements have formed the staple of
what has been given to the world since up to ipiite recent
times. Tlie good effects of the Kola appear to depend
upon the large amount of proteid (nitiogenous matter)
and of caffein. The fatty matter of ciicoa is here replaced
by a large quantity of starchy material, which, of course,
adds to its outitive properties. The male or Bitter Kola
is a seed produced from a species of O.ircinia or some
a)bV;d geaai, of which a fi^uio and description were given

by Dr. Masters in tho jmtrnal .of Botany for JIarch,
1875. The description given by Messrs. Heckel and
Sohlagdenhaulfeu ailds nothing to the account given in
the work cited, which appears to have been overlooked
by the two writers cited by I\Ir. (.'hristy. The phnting
of the true Kola tree in low damp situations in tho
Tropics is counselled by Mr. Christy, and doubtless he
has good reasons for so doing, for the good qualities
attributable to the true Kola are by no nieans mythical.
AVe say the true Kola (Kola acuminata, K. Brown,
Masters in Oliver, Ftom Tjv/>. Africa, i., 220), because
the Bitter Kola is probably les.s valuable and devoid of
the catfein which renders the true stercidiaceous Kola so
valuable. ^Ir. (.'hristy also recommends the planting in
our colonies of the Uuca (Erythroxylon (/oca), which in
addition to its properties as a stimulant and restf)rative
has lately come into use as a local ana-sthetic. It may
be well to say that the uanK; (Juca has been proposed
and adopted to avoid the confusion arising between Coca,
Cocoa, and (_'ocoa-nut, all three referring to different things.
Tha Tapaw and its derivative papaine, also conies under
notice, and here again the valuable results already obtained
suggest the culture of the plant on an extensive scale in
suitable localities. A similar remark may bo made about the
Simaba cedron, the seed of which is useful in the treatment
of fevers. It will be seen from these remarks th.'it Mr.
Christy is doing good service in introducing to tho
knowledge of couunercial men and practical cultivations
a number of plants whose good qualities have, at least
in many cases, been well known to and published by
botanists. But practical men would no more think of
looking into such books as tln! Flora of Tropica! Africa
for the speci.d information they required than botanists
would consult the trade lists of tho merchants to .asirertain
the names and descriptions of commercial plants. Mr.
Christy's publication is a medium between the two, and
a very serviceable one. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

SOME AVEST INDIAN FIBKE PLANTS.

In the celebrated Lace-bark of Jamaica (Lagetta lintearia),
an arboreous Daphne, we have a bast or inner bark-fibre
which is found enclosing the stfrn,, and consisting of
numerous concentric layers, which interlace in all directions,
presenting in a great degree, and especially when well
prepared, a resemblance to the finest lace.

The purposes to which this lace is applied in the island
— for the manufacture of doyleys and light fancy articles
—are well known. Formerly, when more aboundant than
it is now. it was manufactured into ropes, whips, aud
other articles. It can however, even at the best, be hardly
includetl amongst fire-plants likely to be usetul on a com-
mercial scale. A similar remark would apply to the bast
or inner bark fibre of the Mahoe (Baritium elatuin), known
in commerce — from the fact of its having been exporti:d
from the neighbouring island — as Cuba bast ; as aUo
fibres yielded by such trees, as Spanish Elm (Cordia
gera-scanthus), the Down Tree (Ocbroraa lagopus), tho
Trumpet Tree (Cecropia peltata), the Burn-nose Tree
(Daphne tinifolia), the S:rewTrce (Hi-licteres jamaineu'.isi.
All these yield fibres of certain ipialilies, samples ofwivcli,
prepared by the late Mr. Nathaniel Wilson, are still t )
be seen in the Museum of tho Institute of .Jamaica.

Of plants belonging to the natural order M^lvacero
there are numerous sjiecies besides the Maboe belonging
to the genera Paritium, Sida. Al)util')n, Hd>isctis, and
Pavonia, which are remarkable as atfoiding the every-
day fibre-plants of the M'est Indi''S used by Kuroiieaiis
and natives alike for tying up iirotluce, and indee.t fo."
all purposes when a convenient and cheap material is
required for securing and bintliug.

The fibieconlaine I in the Sugar-bark of the mountains
(MahMviscus arbureus) possesses wonderfvd strength an!
ttuacit'.', and probably ranks next in these respects to
the bast fibre of the f.ace-hark Tree (Lagetta 'iutcaia).

Amongst obscure and little known plants wbich yii-id
fibrous material, mention might be made of Anthnriniu
(Pothos) riolaceum. which is deicribel by Mr. Wilson in
the following words: —" Where strength ami lustre (if
appearance is an object, 'bis plait will be fomid e(|Ua',
if^not superior, to th>-best Ja-ghoiu plait Italy ever produceo.
Tbis plaut, though an epiphyte, aud (jrowiug pleutifudy

i^

tuE fMOPiCAU AGmcvuTvmsr,

[Aifstfs'j' s, M51

M^iBBpaM

at the roots aiul oh the tops of the highest trees, at an
elevation not uinler 1000 feet, may readily be cultivated
in woodland and moist places to any extent. The part
of the plant made use of is the petiole, or foot-stalk of
the leaf, wliich grows from 18 inches to 2 feet lonjii, and
iH readily divided into strips of any dimensions, and con-
t^aius a strong fibre not existing in the common plat of
the Fan-Palm. It has a durable colour."

Remarkable and valuable, however, as the fibre yielded
by these plants may be in a rural sense, they are not
likely, at least at present, to be rendered of commercial
value ; and I refer to them only for the purpose of
supplying a general review of plants capable at all of
yielding fibre and for the purpose of bringing into notic*--
what may be termed the possible ultimate resources uf the
West Indies as regards fibre-plants. — From a lecture hi/
I). Morrts^ M. A.y Director nf Public Gfivdens and J'lant-
atioHs, Jamaica. — Gardeners* Chronicle.

TREES ESPECIALLY SUITED FOR AVENUES

Mr. J. S. Gamble, Conservator of Forests, Northern
Circle, has reported to the Board of Revenue as follows : —
The question of what is the best tree to plant for
avenues is entirely one of (I) climate and (3) soil. The
same trees which would form magnificent avenues along
the roads in Malabar would most of them fail altogether
along those of Bcllary or Vizagapatam. 80 far as the
Northern Circle is concerned, omitting Nilgiris, the
climate is dry, with the few exceptions of the hill tracts
of the Circars or the Nallamalai hills. Scarcely any-
where does the rainfall exceed 50 inches. On the otht-r
baud, the Boil varies extremely trom the alluvial plains
of the Godavari delta to the nearly bare metamorphie
plateaux of Cuddapah and Bellary. Roughly speaking,
however, we may classify the soils as follows: — il) Rice
lauds on alluvium. (2) Laterite and the red soil which
is produced by its decomposition. (3) Decomposed meta-
morphie soils — sand, gravel or saud and boulders. (4)
Black cotton soil. (5> Riversand. Along roads passing
tiirouyh tltti gical iicr country liki- the coast from the
Godavari delta rlown to Pulicat, probably no better trees
can be formeil than the figs, viz, the Banyan (Ficus
bengalensis), the Pipal (Ficus religiosa^, and the Pekar
(Ficus infectoria), with its allies (Ficus benjamina and
Ficus tsiela). Ot these, the first is the best, though to
avoid the daniage referred to in the Board's paraffrapli
2 it might be kept away from bridges or culverts.
There is probably no tree which so quickly reaches a
size fit i-o give shade as the banyan, and it is easily
propagated by cuttings consistiug of stout poles. i)erhai)s
even 6 to 12 inches in girth and 10 to 12 feet high.
They nmst, of course, be planted during the rainy season
ftiid* fcnued, and if the rains fail afterwards, they may
rfMpure watering. In such places also the mango does
well on grouwd slightly raised above the level of rice
fields, and the Kargosft (Melia azadirachta) and Jaman
(Eugenia Jambolana) wil) ^U* thi'ive. Another good tree
tor such places fs the 'Kadam' (Authopepbalus Oadamba)
which is very fast grown and eaMly raised. Near tl^e
ioot of the hills, Pterocarups mo-rsupium might perhaps
Ibc ^lown With advantage. On lateate and lateritic soils
the umtigo generally thrives well, and the jaman will
ajso grow; but the figs should be avoideil. T^ak niay
be grown, l>ut (s h very bad avenue tree as it is le«lless
when shade is most wanted, and the shedthng of its
large leaves is prol-^ibly hfu] fuV the roads. But whiit-
fver is planted, care must be ^-aktttj Ut dig the holes
deeply and to proviile good soil to fill Uif})} wheij the
planting takes place. On high level s;indy soils, thi;
result oi d('Coinii<Kst;d gneiss and sebists, figs may be
},TOwn if th*' NJti is fairly good and the holes are well
dug. So may tb*' ijjango. but the best trees are the
taniarind. the margosa wnd the saukesula (Telugn) Poin-
ciaiiu elulit, Guod avenues of these may he seen in vari-
O IS parts i»r tb'' Uudilapah plateau, in Kurnool, JJellary
wm! Anrtntapur. Altoth^r vi ry good tree is the Kanng;t
(PougiMuia glabra), which gives a good shade, aud hits
a fruit which is valuable for its ojl. The Diii«aua (Al-
liizzia leWieii) is much grown in such places, but is
cntidy and by »o WP/i"^ "O useful as the margosa, which
pM the valiia)>lft property of boing in fidl flower an4

young leaf in the hot season when its shade is most
necessary. On black cotton soil there are only a few
trees which thrive. The tauiariud and margosa . are-
perhaps the best, but a good plan is to grow the Babulf
(Acacia arabica) rather thickly by sowing in large patches
protectetl by thorns and then thinning out to one or two
good stems. Other, but smaller, trees which will grow
are the Parkinsonia aculeata, Albizzia lebbek and Balan-
ites jegyptiaca. "When river sanil has to be planted —
which occasionally happens — probably the best tree is the
palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis), but the iaman,
margosa aud babul may also bo grown, while near the
sea there are few kinds so useful as Calophyllum ino-
phyllum and Terminalia catappa. In some places the
casuarina may be grown, but it is often untidy and
does not give a gond shade in avenues. There are
many other trees which are occasionally planted m this
Presidency. There is the Cassia siamia to which His
Excellency the Governor referred as being so common
round IMadanapalle, though, as remarked by him, it rarely
makes a good avenue tree. There is tiie Deodom or
Asoka (Polyalthia longifolia), which makes a beautiful
avenue tree when it thrives, as it does in places along
the coast. The Cork-tree (Millintonia hortensis) is often
planted and is very pretty and sweet-scented but brittle,
and so is the gold mohur tree, the brilliant Poinciana
regia. Near canals wher the soil is not salt, Sissu
(Dalbergia sisso) is useful, aud as along the Kendrapara
canal, in Orissa, the cocoanut and Calophyllum may use-
fully be grown where there is some salt in the soil.
To sum up, for general purposes, the best trees are
the banyan, mango and uuirgosa, but where special circ-
umstance make others necessary, some of those 1 have
mentioned will probably be best to use. On the subject
of avenue planting, I would recommend the consultation
of Ribbentrop's ' Arboricidture in the Punjab' and Sincair's
' Notes on Arboriculture in the Bombay Presidency,'
a little book lately published by the Bombay Agricultural
Department. Before concluding, I would beg to otfer a
few remarks regarding roads on the Nilgiri plateau,
where tlie presence of avenue trees or an avenue belt
is so valuable as a protection against the cold bleak winds
of eitlicr monsoon. The value of the belt of Blue gum
( Eucalyptus globulus) and AVattle (Acacia melanoxylon
aud Dealbata) along the road fn. m Ooonoor to Oota-
camuud is obvious to all who travel along it in bad
weather, and this belt should be continued along all
public roads. The best tree to use is undoubtedly the
Acacia melanokylon, whjch is stronger and more shady
than the others, and not troublesomo liUe the silver
wattle; but some conifers aud specially (Oupre.ssus maoro-
carpa^ should also be grown, AVhere such roads cross
swampy laud, AVillow (Salix tetrasperma) which grows
most readily from cuttings should be planted. — JIadras alail

THE CULTIVATION OF THE ERI SILKVTORM..

The following letter has been forwarded from the
Director of Agriculture, Assam, to the Hon. R. D. Ross,
51. P.: —

*■ Camp Kangia, December 4, 1884. Sir — In reply to
your letter dj^tiul July Iff to the address of Mr. Stack,
late Director of Agriculture in Af^sam, I have tlje honoiir
to state that Mes.srs. C. H. B. Forbes & Co., Bombay,
have informed me of the arrival of a case of wheat and
other seeds intended for this department. I beg to thank
you for forwarding the seeds, and to enquire whether
you wish for any rt port as to the result of an experimental
trial with it in this country. If quite convenient to you
I .*;hoi]ld be glad to be favoured with an account of any
experiment ma^le wjjh tho saipple of rice forw;ir*b'd last
June. A statement ni the Adelaide Observer M'as brqugbt
under my notice a short time ago, in which the castor-
oil plitnt wa^ stated to grow luxuriantly in South Australia.
If Xh\'< be the case, it might perhai)s be worth while to
tiy if the Kri silkworm will not Hourish there. This worm,
i^s ytni wjll sfe by the accompanying note on tlie subject
by Mr. Stack, is largely produced in A^sam. It is exceed-
ingly prolific, and if its cultivation were carried on upon
commercial principles it might prove a source of considerable
profit. But the Assamese peasant cares for ease aud
|>ersonal rofijfort mncl^ more than for wealth, and ^

AVQVBt 1, J8S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

135

long as the valley is thinly populated and fertile land
obtainable in any quantity, tliei-e is no chance of a large
trade arising in Eri silk. The condition of things is
different in your colony, and it may be that the cultivation
of the worm could be carried on snccessfirlly in Australia.
The two essential advantages the Kri worm possesses over
the Mulberry worm are — that it gives four to six broods
in the year ; that it feeds on an annual plant, which is
cheaply and easily grown, and whose leaves (now wasted)
can be largely utilized without materially impairing the
produce in seed. Its disadvantages are — that it must be
spun, not reeled, and that the silk is not of as fine a
quality as that produced by the Mulberry worm. Should
you be disposed to try the experiment, I shall be happy
to forward you eggs. There may be a difficiUty in send-
ing these without their hatching on the way, but I could
make more than one consignment, some of which ought
to be successful. — I hava, &c., H, Q. Dabrah, Officiating
Director of Agriculture."

A lengthy report on the different species of silkworm
is attached to the letter, and from it we make the follow-
ing extracts, which refer particularly to the Eri worm : —
*' AVe have three kinds of domesticated worms in Assam,
or rather it may be said in Brahmaputra Valley, for
tho iSurma Valley is not generally a country of silk ciUtiv-
ation. These are the Pat or Mulberry worm ( bomby x textor),
the Muga or sum-feeding worm (Antherocce Assama),
who.se cucoou like that of the Pat can be reeled, and
the castor-oil worm (Attacus ricini), yielding a silk which
is never reeled, but spun by the hand. Looking simply
to their commercial potentialities these three species of
silkworm may be at once reduced to two by striking
out the Mulberry worm [Pat\ on account alike of the
costliness of its silk, the scantiness of the present supply,
and the difficulty of extending its cultivation. The two
remaining species — the Muga and Eri^present a much
more hopeful field of enterprise. They are produced in
considerable quantity already, they are thoroughly adopted
to the climatic conditions of Assam (being indeed probably
indigenous to this part of India), and there is no obvious
condition why their cultivatinn should not be capable of
immense development. The Eri is the more promising of
the two, both because ; is cheaper aud more abundant,
and also because being reared entirely indoors its cultivation
does not entail that troublesome necessity of watching
by night aud day which is imposed upon the Muga-breeder
during the period that his worms are on the trees. The
Muga, indeed, yields the finer siik, but as it is only in the
roughest shape that Assam silk can hope to become an
article of demand in the English market, the difference
of quality will perhaps prove to be a matter of secondary
importance. . . . The manufacture of silk plushes and
similar fabrics out of waste cocoons imported from India i
and China is a flourishing branch of the silk industry
in England, and although China has hitherto been the
princijial source of supply, there is no reason why Assam
should not contribute laj'ge quantities of an article which
is produced with so mnch ease in the valley of the
Brahmaputra. The kind of thing that is wanted is described
in the following words by one of the English gentlemen
engaged in its manufacture : — * The class of silk called spun
silk is made by a oombing and carding process out of
the refuse of the thrown silk and out of the cocoons
that are damaged and not windable, aud out of pierced
cocoons, as we name those from which tlie moth in the
order of nature has escaped. It is in this latter condition
that I think wild filks should be found somewhere in
Iiulii. and this is what I principally xvant. I do not wish to
windsuch silk, but to spin it into fine thread. It is no matter
how broken and rough it may look, or how nmch it is i
knocketl about, torn, or crushed- I only want it as free
a:j pos.-ible from the dead bodies pf the worms, and of
such foreign matter as .sand or branches. It will not look
like silk at all till the gum and dirt are boiled aud
washed out of it. You observe I ask nothing from India
that requires .skilled labour or machinery, I'Uly to collect
tho raw material in a state in which it must be almost
valueless in India, and let us by oar superior mechanical
appliances make something of it here. Eri I like best
for its whiteness. I believe it breeds frequently, but I
do not believe any amount of cultlvatioa could gel thrown
silk out of it, \ mean, of couvsc, tg be o{ finy commercial

value. Muga is darker than Eri, but has some other pro"
perties, and are valuable principally as spun silk. No Eri
or Muga waste cocoons have, as far as I know, ever been
sold in the London market. I only know of trifling sam-
ples having been tried, too small to base any value upiui.
Tusser waste silk, however, is regularly sold in Loudon.
It comes both from India and China; tho ]irice is about
Is. 6d. per lb., and it is very dirty ; I should say the
Eri and Muga would be much more valuable. In a letter
from another firm engaged in the same business I find
the raw material described as pierced or spoilt cocoons
— cocoons from which the moth has worked itself out
and escaped, while cocoons with the chrysalis inside them
are not wanted at all." — Suvth Australimi Itigistcr.

THE CHINESE SABAH LAND Co.

Report of Mr. Ernest Major, Chairman of the Chinese
Sabah Land Farming Company, on tho ISandakan Estate
dated the 1st February, 1SS5. I have to report having
arrived in Sandakan on the 12th ult. Sahooija Jistate. —
I visited this estate on the 13th January. It consists
of a felling of about 70 acres, of which aljout 25 a 30
acres are planted, principally with Liberian Coffee. There
is also a little Cocoa, Laroot hemp. Bananas and Pepper.
Liberiau Coffee looks remarkably strong and healthy.
Cocoa looks well when protected from wind. Hemp is
planted too close, and looks weedy. Bananas look well.
Pepper — This is very young, but looks very healthy. By
calculations made on particulars giveu to me, I am of
opinion that Hemp and Bananas will not pay in a
foreign plantation, and the future value of this block
of land will be its adaptabihty for Coffee and Pepper.
It has also the advantage of being within walking dis-
tance (about ten miles) of Sandakan. The present open-
ing will facilitate the future sale of the land. It will
show the capabilities of the land ; will form a healthy
place of residence for planters beginning in the neighbour-
hood, as also a nursery from which to obtain plants and
seeds. If the uncultivated land be divided in blocks of
50 to 100 acres, there seems a fair probability in my
mind of being able to sell the blocks to Chinese planters
in a year or two at s5 a >10 per acre ; such sales
would be also the more readily made it time, say
one to two years, was given for payment conditional on
planting being commenced at once. Clearing, etc., are
finished for some 20 11 30 acres more, which will be
planted over with Coffee, leaving a surplus of plants from
tho nurseries. In view of the cleared vacant ground to
be left annually on the Suanlamber suitable for being
planted over with trees, it would be unwise on th<; part
of the Company to continue extending on the Sabooga.
A staff of 4 or 5 men will therefore oidy bo kept ou
the estate, sufficient to plant out the 20 a 30 acres of
clearing referred to, aud to keep up what. has been done.

Nm)ilamber Entate. — I resided with Mr. Gibson on the
estate for three days. The buildings consist of three large
drying sheds, the Manager's residence, an Assistant
JIanagor's residence, a house for Malays, aud various
smaller buildings. The opening for last year's Tobaeoo,
some 60 acres, is now overgrown with grass. Roads and
new felliULjs have now been completed for 220 fields of
about li acres each, and fellings fur 30 fields more are to
be completed in about a fortnight more. There are 011
the estate some 2fi0 Chinese labourers and 50 Labonani
Malays; also 20 Sulus, temporarily. The programme to
be now carried out is -.—FidtU to bo alloted over to each
n)an ou 1st February, and burning and clearing to be
made separately by each allottee. Nm-xeiie) to be sown
out iiulividually by each man on his own field, a little-
seed at a time each week from 1st March till planting
fiui.vhed. Pluiitiiuj out from mirldle of April till end of
•July, or, if season bad, to end of August. Gatlurim/
licgins end of June. Dri/iny takes about 20 days. Foment-
inif begins when sufficient dried plants are in hand ;
time required depends on quality. Sintinij after fometnt-
ing begnis about Noveinbi-r. Pai-kinij begins end of
December, finishes end of February.

1st Sliipmciit: about end of January. '2nil ShipmciU :
about end of February. This prograimne, Mr, Cibsoji says,
will be carried out in due couise. The !)0 laborers will
finish tlie remaining 30 fields of fellings in about a fort-

126

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[AUGUgT I, 1885.

nifrht, and will then be put on to building drying sheds-
some twenty in number. Mr. Gibson is sending by today's
steamer for forty more Chinese coolies as a provision
against sickness and death, so as to ensure the entire plant-
ing of the 2»0 fields. Everything therefore seems in order
for the coining tobacco season. The abandoned fields of
last year Mr. Gibson has promised to plant at an early date
with coffee and cocoa trees, and he is at preseut sending
to Singapore for sufficient seed to form a nursery with
which to plant out the 250 fields of this year when the
tobacco is gathered. This he considers he can accompli.sh
with his present men. The Company will then, by this
arrangement, have a very valuable plantation of coffee
and cocoa— some 300 acres, if matters are carried out as
arranged. The small patch of sugar-cane planted by the
Company as a test of the power of the land for sugar
cultivation, and which was done at considerable cost, was,
I regret, but money wasted. We are as ignorant of the
capabilities of the soil for this cultivation as before. The
cane was uncared for, and I can get no report whatever
as to quality and yield per acre. It is now all finished.

The Domondonq, as you are aware, has been abandoned.

In Sandakan 'we have the office. There is also the
private residence for the agent. This is a nice house, and
can probably be let for J30 a 535 per month.

Failure of 1884 Tobacco Crop.— The estimate of the
year's crop, as you will have already heard, is reduced to
65 piculs. The reason for this, as alleged by Mr. Gibson,
is that he had hoped for a continuation of fine weather
for a fortnight more, but the season suddenly broke up,
and the growing crops, then very late, came to nothing.

Liberian Coffac. — I am of opinion that this will be one
of the most paying articles of production during the next
five or six years. I went to see this plaut gi owing on
Ohasarios Estate, Singapore. Trees 26 months planted
only were loaded with berries. The estate has been just
converted into a Company at a capital of 5250.000 on
the strength of the great promise of L. Coffee. The
estimate per acre of return is thus made : —
5 catties coffee per tree, which seemed reasonable by

appearance, say 1 ton per acre (over 400 trees per

acre), or pel. 10 @ $10 per acre per annum ... 5160
One man, including all work, can care for 2 acres, say

expense per acre ... •■■ ■•■ ™

leaves SlOO
per acre.
Liberiau Coffee seems quite equal in taste to Coffee
Arabica. You will then see that if we can plant this
year 300 acres of Coffee on the Suanlamber, m 2| years
time we shall stand fair to get an income of 530.000
per annum The matter thus becomes one of consider-
able importance. Tobacco being only a superficiiil plant
will not interfere with Coffee. Mr. Gibson thinks as well
of cocoa, \m\ the plant is a very deUcate one, and not
60 reliable to mv mind as Coffee. I arranged at Singapore
as to sending seed at once to Sandakan of the best kind
to put into the nurseries immediately. The seeds take
C (I 8 months to produce plants large enough tor
transplanting.- i\^ C. Herald.

_ ^

SWEET MANIOC,
The, attention of botli Europeans and Fijians should
be drawn to this uew specits of what is more popularly
known iu Fiji as the tapioca plant. The bitter or
poisonous variety of manioc f .If an! hot ntdi.sniuij and
which may bo distinguished by its purple steins and
leaves has been long ago introduced Uito '■'.lij.i'is
known by the natives as i/abia kai', and is cultivated
nnd used by Ihein in the nianufactiue of two or more
kinds of their madrii, or native bread. The new species,
the sweet or uoa-poisouous cassava (imnihot uipi) and
which ii).-iy be at once iccogiiised l>y its green stems
uiid leaves, is a native of tropical South Aimrica, and
has only been introduccl into Fiji witlii,, the h.st ten year
(prcsumrdily having been fiist imported by Mr. Elphinstone).
This most valuakla plant has now become well known
'in Savusavu I'.ay, where attention was first drawn to it
by the late Jfr. Towsoii, thence it has .spread to other
parts of Vaiiua Levu, and it has been carried by the
rijiauB, who have defiigoated it the ydnu ialii, to tlje

Ra Coast, whence it is slowly spreading and has already
reached Ba, and doubtless it will gradually take its place
among the most valuable food plants that has yet been
introduced into the colony. Like the species already
well known in Fiji, the new species, oc sweet cassava,
is propagated from sets or cuttings of the woody
portions of its stems, the vitality of which is so great
that the cuttings can be carried long distances at sea,
or may be left neglected on the ground tor weeks, and
when planted scarce one will miss or be found to have
lost its vitality, and consequently after the first cost
of introduction the sets may be taken to cost nothing
but the labor involved in procuring them. Planting
can take place from December to May inclusive. The plant
will grow in any dry soil, and assuredly it will grow
and give a return iu soil so poor that in it nothing
else will grow, but the largest returns are obtained when
it is planted in loo.se dry sandy loam It should be planted
iu rows 6x0 feet, and in richer soil 7x0 feet, and in very
rich and suitable soil the plant will reiiuire 8x6 feet.
The labor required for its cultivation is comparatively
small and of the simplest kind, clearing and weeding
the soil followed by a burn off, lining the rows as for •
cotton, and planting with a doko, or Fijian digging
stick, and precisely as a Fijian plants his sugar cane ;
using three sets or cuttings of 18 inches in length,
inserting them each one foot in the soil at an angle
of about 46° and in the form of a triangle, the sides
of which are each one foot in length, this forms a
hill, and when planted 6x6 feet, 1,225 of such hills
will be found in one acre; and as a yield 10 lb. per
hill may be calculated upon for a certainty, in even
poor soil, after nine months, it will readily be perceived
that five tons of tubers may be obtained from an acre
of interior soil, whilst from" better and richer soils ten
tons and eveu heavier crops my be obtained.

The tubers are edible from the 9th to the 12th
month after planting, they confine to increase in .size
until the 18th mouth, but after the 12th month the
tubers gradually become fibrous and fit only for the
manufacture of its farina, from which is made the
tapioca of commerce. Not only is the sweet cassava
thus planted at no other cost but the labour, but its
subsequent cultivation demands less labor than any other
of the food crops, for, if the ground be kept weeded
during the first three or four months, the shade of
the plants will thereafter prevent any after growth of
weeds. "Whilst the cultivation of the yam is so pre-
carious that few Europeans succeed in cultivating this
crop to profit, and eveu amongst the natives two good
yam seasons rarely follow consecutively, no such difficuity
attends the cultivation of the sweet cassava, and its
yield can be calculated upon with unfailing certainty;
nor is the sweet cassava liable to that total destiuction
which occasionally a yam crop sustains from a huiricane.
Hence for the districts of Ka and Ba; and the Tasawa,
Nadro^a, and Lau the introduction of the ^v"'''" i'"'"
will be an inestimable boon to the people.

The sugar companies and planters, employers of labour,
will find the sweet cassava plant to furni.sh the solution
of the food difficulty, more especially those companies
situated in the dry climates of the group, such as
Elingtou, Peuang, and Karawai estates, and the different
island properties of the Mango Ishnid Coinpan.v, To
their managers the sweet cnssava plant will provide ft
large supply of wholesottie find noiirisbing food. And al-
though this food is not to he found on the ration li'ts of
the Ordinances, it l.s yet hurdly to be entertained that
an article which is known to be the staple fond in
Brazil and many other countries will be condemned in Fiji.
At nine niimths and until twelve mouths old the
tuber.s of the sweet cas-ava very much resemble the
yam, and perhaps more closely the tikan or wild yam,
ami like them can be either boiled, roasteil or baked.
l\I(U-cover, the sweet cassava is the only ftiod th,it a
Fijian admits to be upon a par with a yani. and lie
testifies his predeliction by frequent pecilations frnm
his European neighbor's cassava field. When once the
attention of the Europeans is fully drawn to the sweet
cassava, its gioat value will then Vie soon conceded, and
as they instruct their Folyncsini laborers iu the nmiiy
motUods of preparing the root for food, so the Fijiuu,

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

lay

although somewhat deaf to instructions upon anything
new, is yet prone to imitation and will soon pick up
the method ho sees the Polynesian adoptiug.

If a column of the '' Na Mata " could be deroted to
spread the information abroad in the group concerning the
advantages of planting the yabia ruin, a couple of
years would find the whole native population in posses-
sion of one of the most valuable food plants in the
world, and for which it is claimed that it is the food
crop which can he cultivated at the minimnn of cost for
ieedt ctt the minimum of labour required fm' its cultivation,
and that it will produce the ma.rintuin of return and with
the greatest ceriainli/ of any other food crop known in
Fiji, and that is adaptable to both Polynesians and
Fijians. It may be added that as the tubers when dug
do not keep good for any length of time, the sweet
cassava cannot be looked upon as likely to supplant the
cultivation of the yam, but it may either be viewed as
a great addition to the food crops of the natives, and
likely to prove of the greatest value in those years
when the yam crop is ruined by hurricanes or droughts,
and when the cassava crop may still be relied upon.
It should be added that goats and cattle and pigs will
eat both the leaves and the tubers of the sweet cassava
greedily. Outtings of the sweet cassava can be obtained
from Mrs. Towsou, of Savusavu Bay.— J^i/i Times.

MANURES.
The following, for which we are indebted to onr cor-
respondent, Wr. De Mar, is a paper which was read at
a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society,
and will be of interest to many of our readers resident
near the great fishing stations and fish markets of this
country.

The Hon. James J. H. Gregory was introduced to the
meeting, and read a p.iper on '• Nitrogen." After an in1;i o-
duction, showing the very small quantity of mineral
matter in plants — a cord of wood, that might require two
yoke of oxen to draw it and woidd be of the bulk of
"100 bushels, yielding but a bushels of ashes, which the
driver might carry on his shoulder — and the sources of
this matter, he passed to the consideration of nitrogen,
which makes up about four-fifths of the air mass that
surromids the earth for a depth of about 50 miles, the
other fifth being oxygen. This gives unnumbered thou-
sands of tons of nitrogen, right at hand, but never
available, for human knowledge has not yet discovered
a way by which nitrogen can be economically got from
it for plant food. We have to depend for our supply
wholly on what plants and animals have incorporated
into their structure, using their waste in the form of
manure, dead remains, eitheir from land or sea, for onr
supply. The ammoniated liquor from the gasworks is
but the waste produced from the remains of ancient
forests which we burn as coal.

■Wlien nitrogen is combined with hydrogen in the pro-
portion of three parts of hydrogen to fourteen parts of
nitrogen, we have ammonia, otie of the most common
forms, in which forms the waste of both animals and
plants, nitrogen is fed to onr crops.

The other most important source of nitrogen is nitric
acid. This is a combination of nitrogen with oxygen ;
and nitrates, of which we see frequent mention in all
works on manures, are a combination of nitric acid
with soda, potash, and other materials called bases. It
is well to fix in the mind that, in changing nitrogen
to ammonia in any manure analysis, we must add about
one-filth to the quantity given. It appears to be the
settled conviction among men of science, as the result
of many experiments, that plants cannot take uj) pure
nitrogen directly from the air. The theory is that they
are able, in a greater or less degree, to get their
supply through the water that carries it in some form
in solution into the soil, and also from the air indirectly
by the soil first separating it from the air that per-
meates it. Still another source of natural supply for
plant growth is nitrogen in a latent condition, that has
accumulated in the soil, set free by the action of such
substances as lime and plaster. There is a general belief
among agricidturists that plants have ways of collecting
Btill but little known, while some extremists have gone

so far as to declare that there is no necessity of feed-
ing nitrogen to onr crops, for they can of themselves
collect from natm-al sources all they require. There is
a growing belief that their power to supply their wants
from natural sources is greater than has hitherto been
credited to them. It is found also that different kinde
of plants have different capacities for taking up nitrogen.
Olover is an example, for though nitrogen enters largely
into its composition, it has such a capacity to help
itself to the good things which surround it, that it needs
but very little artificial help from the manure pile,
while wheat, though it needs but little nitrogen, is so
dainty a feeder that it insists on a large artificial sup-
ply from which it may pick out that little.

In regard to the sources from which the practical
gardener can obtain nitrogen, Mr. Gregory first considered
hen manure which has by some been compared in value
to guano, but he regarded this as overestimated. He laid
down a grand principle, that no more nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid, or potash can be obtained from the manure
of any animal than is contained in its food. An ordinary
hen will eat about 2 bushels of maize a year, and the
larger breeds about one-half more. From this they must
take the material for about 125 eggs annually, a change
of feathers, keep up the animal heat, and make up the
growth of the body, besides performing the various
functions on which life depends. Now, subtracting what
is required for these purposes, the waste element in our
2 bushels of maize shrinks to very small proportions.
■\Ve must also take into account the fact that the
dropping which we save are confined almost wholly to
those made during half of the twenty-four hours. By
analysis 2 bushels of maize contain, in nitrogen, potash
and phosphates, 4U cents iu value. From this standpont
it Avill be seen that the droppings of a hen for a year
cannot contain nearly the value sometimes claimed' for
them. For many years the essayist collected hen manure
at a cost of 1 dol. per barrel, tut afterwards reduced
the price to 73 cents, ai'd thought it at the latter price a
cheap manure until he tested it sine by side with an equal
value of guano. Moreover, it is a sticky mass ditticult to
handle, and it is worth any one's while to experiment, if it
were only to realise the advantage in the handling of any
commercial fertiliser over hen manure even in its finest
state. It is generally composted with nmck or dryi.sh
soil — three parts of muck to one of manure— and the
compost should be made as fine as possible. A rake is
the best tool to do this with if it is sticky, and it should
be turned over in three or four days, and a sLx-tined fork
is a good implement for this purpose.

Sulphate of ammonia, a by-product where coal is
used for the manufacture of gas, is one of the principal
sources of nitrogen. It looks like rather coarse salt, and
ia often sold in huge casks weighing 1000 lb. or 1500 lb.
It is readily soluble in water, but does not waste in the
air. Nitrate of potash (saltpetre) is usually too costly a
source of nitrogi-n to make it available. Nitrate of soda
is a remaikably stimulating fertiliser, but if there is umch
rain it will waste before plants caii take it up. In dry
seasons, however, it is better and cheaper than sulphate
of ammonia, as the latter needs a degree of moisture to
make plant food; yet, on the whole, the latter is con-
sidered the better investment, for, first, it is not likely
to be lost in the atmosphere ; second, it is not too
soluble; and third, it lias the power of clinging to the
ingiedients of the soil. Clay will hold it persistently,
and even pure sand, when washed with water, will re-
tain a large portion of it. Its ammonia is easily changed
into nitric acid by ingredients in the soil. Nitrate of
soda is very liable to be adulterate<l with white sand or
broken quartz, and with common salt or the cheap potash
salts. The purchaser should see that it dissolves entirely
in water and does not taste distinctly of salt. Castor
oil pomace affords a supply of nitrogen, but it must be
kept from animals, as it is poisonous, and in sjireading
it care must be taken to go with the wind, as it is very
disagreeable to the eyes or mouth. Cotton seed meal
is better fed to stock, and the manure used, which will
lie nearly as rich as the meal before feeding. Gcciisioii-
ally spoiled meal can be fouud in the maiket, and this
as good for manure as the best, and is a very cheap
source of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, AV'ood aud horn

tsS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885,

havings snd leather are very rich iu nitrogen, but they
are not readily available, and therefore they have a low
value as market articles. The last is excellent for mulch-
ing, and iu time will decay and fertilise the ground,
but it worked into tillage land it becomes a nuisance.

The waste of the fisheries is one of the priucipal source
from which manufacturers obtain the ammonia iu their
fertilisers. The largest portion is from the fish called
menhaden, hardheads, moss Ininkers or fat backs. They
are caught iu inunense quantities in nets, and boiled
to secure the oil, in which they are rich. After press-
ing, the pomace or chum is packed in barrels or dried
ground. When a surplus of fish is caught they are sold
to farmers, who put them directly on the grass land
where the effect is very stimulating for a few years, but
the final result is that the soil becomes hard and the
fish have less and less effect, and finally the crop is
almost nothing. The fish are deficient in potash, and
the result is what always comes from continuous manuring
with any substance that deficient in ary one of the
three essentials of plant food. The land can be restored
by using potash. Other fish wastes are found in the
form of spoiled fish, and the heads, sound bones, and
entrails of fish which accunudate at fishing portal. So
immense was the waste of heads, bones, &c., of fish at
Isles of shoals that the harbour had to be cleared twice
by dredging them out. The essayist left a standing
offer with a fisherman, a few years ago, of 25 cents per
100 lb. tor all surplus pollock ; the result was that 20,000
lb. of fine large fish, weighing from 8 lb. to 15 lb. each,
just out of the water, was hauled to his manure heaps.
AH these substances are, however, very disagreeable and
difficult to handle, requiring a vast quantity of soil to
compost them. 'Where bay fishing is carried on on a
large scale, liver or blubber chum can sometimes be
found, and furnishes a very cheap source of nitrogen.
It should be cut with sharp sand before composting, to
make it fairly fine. Halibut chum is the refuse from
the heads of halibut, which are cooked under high
pressure to extract the oil, and the bones are left in
such a state that they can easily be crumbled. It is
especially rich iu phosphoric acid. The skin, bones, and
fins of salted fish, stiipp^'d and sold free of bone, are
another form of fish waste, and the waste of herring
m.ackerel at the fishing stations is sometimes m.ade up
into chum. Dogfi.sh, a small species of shark, are caught
in immense quantities, and are very rich as manure,
t'leir muscles being very firm. The shells and other
refuse of lobsters at canning factories are ground up and
sold as plant food, and are especially rich in nitrogen.
AU fish waste must be composted w-ith a large quant-
ity of soil, or the crops will be burned ; and the com-
post, owing to its great richness, should be spread
broadcast rather than used in the hill. Fish chum may
be used broadcast or composted with poor manure to
enrich it, or with soil, muck, or sawdust. It is sur-
prising how penetiating i.s the ammonia from fish compost,
and, therefore, in making a heap, the bottom layer of
soil should be a fnot or more in thickness. Oases have
been seen when the fish was mixed liberally where the
soil was full of ammonia for several feet below the
surface. The layer of fish should be thick enougli to
just hide the soil, and the next layer of .soil about
3 inches, and .so on, scattering raw ground plaster over
each layer of fish before covering with soil, at the rate
of 50 lb. of plaster to 300 lb. of fish. The heap should
be on level gnmn.l, with a little embankment around to
catch the liquid that sometimes runs from it when the
fish begin to decompose, or may be washed out by
heavy rains, and it will be handy to fill up the holes
that are apt to show on top as decomposition progresses,
letting out bad odours unless closed. Fish containing
much oil are bclti-r composted with stable manure,
and plaster should be .scattered as before directed. If
decomposition is slow to start, unlcached ashes or lime
may be mixed with the nuss ; but be sure to cover
tlie heap with several inches of noW.—Gimleners' Chronicle.
-*■ -
CATARRH OF THE BLADDER.
Stinging irritation, iuHnmation, all Kindey and similar
Ooraphunts, cured by "liuchn-paiba." W. E. Smith & Co,
Madrivs, S ole Agents.

EUCALYPTUS CULTURE.

The following communication, forwarded to Mr. A. H.
Smee by a correspondent in Chili, will be found of value,
especially to our numerous Indian and colonial readers : —

It is not necessary to enter with great minuteness
into those matters on which all are agreed, but rather
to accentuate the points regarding which my personal
experience partially diverges from, or is found in open
conflict with, the current instructions supplied by accepted
authorities. These points are: —

1. The preparation of the seed-hed.

2. The advisability of rooting the seedlings in pots
previously to planting them out definitively.

3. The use of stakes for propping the recently planted
trees,

4. The space to be allotted to each tree.

5. The suitability of marsh land for large plantations.
1. The Seed-bkd.— The plants are raised from a small

and exceedingly hard black seed, which should be
thoroughly soaked before being sown. As the seed germ-
inates with great difficulty, and seems unable to over-
come the resistance of a soil even slightly compact or
tenacious, it is usually recommended to form the bed of
coarse sand or other very light earth ; this plan is, how-
ever, attended with the disailvantages consequent on the
general poorness of such soils, and the still greater one
of the difficulty of remo\ing the seedlings from the bed
without detaching the sand adherent to their roots, which
is fatal to their life if immediately tran.sported to the
plantation, and causes loss even if potted at the edge of
the bed. After experiencing these evils, I ultimately
prepared seed-beds some six months before sowing, com-
posed of some garden earth and a large proportion of
leaves (those of the Fig and of the Eucalyptus itself
are very good) and of sheep's dung, which I had continually
watered and dug over until completely incorporated and
rotted. The decayed leaves impart to the composition a
peculiar mellowness, and, while the bed is kept damp,
that softness so necessary to the successful germination
of this delicate seed, as well as a fertility far superior
to that of the sand usually recommended ; while by
leaving the bed completely dry aud exposed to the sun
for a few days previously to transplanting the seedlings
the dung causes it to become hanl and tenacious, so that
each separate plant may be cut out with a knife, remain
firmly embedded in its surrounded earth, and, being as
easily transported on trays or in carts as little bricks, thus
rendering unnecessary the use of the of ten costly and always
pernicious pot. All depen.Is iu this pbm on the proper
proportions of the ingredients. .Shui:!il the leaves be
deficient or clay be present in the earth, the surface of
the bed will lie sticky and the seed will not come up;
while, should there not be during enough (it must be
sheep's) the bed when dry will not be sufficiently compact
to chug to tlie roots of the little trees when removed
for transplantation. Above all. both leaves ami dung must
be thoroughly rotten, or larv.-e may appear from the latter,
and all operations may have to be postponed for a year
by the complete ruin of the young plants.

I (juite agree with the received opinions that the seed
.should be sown very light, and rather thin, that the bed
should he kept damp by frequent though not too copious
waterings, that the young plants ,~hould be continually
guarding against the small birds which pursue with pa.ssion
the young plants in their early stage, that they should
be protected by mats from the chaiu-e of a frostv night
and from excessive sunshine. As they may all 'be lost
by the slightrst accident, a fresh lot of seed should be
sown every fourteen days during the .season (which lasts,
I .should iiuagine, everywhere more or less from midwinter
till the end of spring), which plan also ensures a succession
of suitable plants, as the work of plantation on a large
scale progresses.

2. Seed P.vns.— Should the sand-bed plan be adopted
pots are necessary as a means of transportation to the
plantation of the young plants, .since the attemjjt to
carry them loose would entail the detachment of their
adherent soil and their consequent certain loss. They
should, however, be left only a few days in tlie :j)ot3
under the penalty of incurring a n;i.-'ftirlune gravely
compromising to the whole future of the pluni.aiou. The

Auor5T I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

129

roots rapidly developing, fill up the entire pot with n
contorted and interlaced mass, and the taproot, twisting
round like a corkscrew, often assumes an upward direction,
with usually causes lingering the death, roots being unable
to disentangle themselves and assume their natural direction
and relative position ; the suiriving plants obtain merely
a rachitical existence, and very rarely become healthy,
and never really fine trees. In large operations any unfore-
seen delay in carrying on the planting with sufficient
rapidity may compel the use of " pot-bound " plants, with
all the explained disach'autages, and I therefore declare
myself hostile to the jiots, anil iu favour of the direct
removal of the seedlings to their plantatiou^ from a series
of beds prepared as related in the first section, so as to
secure by their softness the cert-ain germination of the
seed, while assuming, when thoroughly dried, the tenacity
of sun-dried brick, thus facilitating the removal of the
seedlings without disturbance of their roots. In cutting
out the seedlings from the beds, the severance of many
ends of roots is unavoidable, but occasions no injury vvhat-
ever, since their general relative disposition aud direction
(especially important iu the tap-root) are preserved, and
they have to undergo bo struggle to rectify distortions
such aa they sutfer in the pots. Many large plans have
failed complet-ely, from the plants having been pot-bound,
and the failure is attributed to every cause but the true
one. I know, for instance, of a municipality having ex-
pended a large sum on the formation of miles of avenues
of Eucalyptus, all of which have turned out small, un-
healthy, and distorted trees, and which will never be any
better. The people themselves blame the trees, and
denounce them aa unsuitable to the climate and ugly in
themselves ; but an expert can see evidently that the
cause lies iu their having been grown in sand and pots,
according to the instructions of the local sages.

3. Sl-iKi.NG THE Thees. — It ia generally recommended
that seedlings should on transplantation be tied to a stake,
to prevent their being overthrown by the wind. I think
this practice generally mischievous.

The Gum tree, when healthy— i.e., in favourable soil,
and starting with sound and contorted roots — is quite
as able to resist wind as any other tree, in spite of its
slender superficial roots, since, armed with the whiles of
Nature, they immediately build up a mass of filamentous
root", extending Uke a net in every direction, and throw
out numerous boughs, heavily loaded with foliage of
graduated length, from the ground upwards ; thus present-
ing the aspect of a broad-based cone with its centre
of gravity in the lower third of its height, so that when
agitated by wind they not only hold on by their reticulated
surface-roots but are also sustained by "the actual contact
of their lower boughs with the soil. Kelieved by the
props of the necessity of those precautions, they develope
fewer roots and lower boughs, and running too soon to
height, and shifting upwards their centre of weight, become
top-heavy, and can only be saved hv substituting longer
and longer props, from frctiun with wLich they often
sustain damage, and rarely turn out quite satisfactory, in
spite of the trouble they cause. At the same time it is
doubtless necessary to continually examine the young trees,
and to prop those partially uprooteJ, or which, having failed
to protect themselves by proper boughs and foliage, have
a spindly growth. I may mention that in plantations
the trees jrreitly protect 0 ne another by ii\tercepting the
wiad.

4. DiarwcE at AVhich the ThEe;^ Should he Planted.
—Influenced by the analogy of European plantations many
persons have wasted large sums in planting these trees in
thick clumps, thinking that as their growth progresses
they may be thinned out advantageously, and that those
spared will attain the same development as if originally
planted at suitable distances, only suffering the usual
retardation, Conrinced of the necessity of testing this
before undertaking an industrial plantation. I planted half
an acre favourably situated at distances of 2 metres apart
(that often recommended), and a part even closer together,
with the bad result which immediately became apparent.
Unable to obtain sufficient air and sun, they entered into
tt frantic struggle to overtop one another; tlio.^e which were
distanced in the race were completely deprived of leaves
and eventually died, the remainder could only maintain
a ecanty foliage at the top, and when already 60 feet

17

high (their growth was rapid enough iu height) were not
more than 8 iuches iu diameter, ami their wood was nearly
worthless. Ky thinniug they were not restored to pro-
sperity; as they had formed uo matted surface roots they
were most of them blown down, and those which escaped
this fate showed no sign, when 1 last saw them, of any
serious increase of girth.

The planter should never loso sight of the main
peculiarity of the Blue Gum, viz., that its whole future
is irrevocably fixed in early youth, i. «., before it exchanges
(at from two to three years old) its abundant boughs,
loaded with luxuriant dark blue foliage, for the eparso
ramifications, aud dark, narrow, and almost shadeless
leaf, of its second stage of vegetation. Should its early
roots have been unhealthy ; if on transplantation it has
failed to devt'lope a large crop of inferior boughs and of
healthy leaves; if these inferior boughs have been stripped
of folifige,* or have been only clothed at their extremities
with leaves; or should the leaves, instead of presenting
their healthy tint of glossy dark blue, become clouded with
greyish bloom, be rt'd or yellowish, a perfect development
will rarely bt; realized, and I should recommend removal
and replacement as a saving of time. I may remark iu
this connection that a premature change of leaf is a sure
indication of ill-health.

I ultimately made the large plantation at the distance
of 5 metres, or with 25 square metres to each tree, but
on their arriving at four years old, I was convinced
that even this distance was not sufficient; as, however,
they would not have incommoded one another till long
after the change of leaf thej' might perhaps have been
thinned at about ten years old without damage, i.e.,
obtaining useful timber from those alternately cut down
before any appreciable injury would have been incurred
by those remaining. I think, however that the best plan
is to plant them at 7 metres apart (if not a little more),
utilising the enclosures after a few years where possible
for pasturage, since the matured Gum at this distance
with its comparatively scanty crown aud obliquely st t
foliage would not prevent the growth of coarse herbage,
if soil and moisture were suitable.

The whole beauty and much of the success of the
plantation depends on the exact collocation of each tree
in its place, so as to form to the eye avenues in every
direction; the ground should, therefore, lie previously laid
out with a theodolite, or it may even be done by a
skilful and careful operator witli a large compass by the
well-known methods employed in such cases. AVhen the
inestimable advantage of artificial irrigation exists, the
gutters should be equidistant and parallel, and the trees
placed in them, or at their edge. I must not forget to
mention that the young trees at the moment of planting
must be watered, as they are always quite dry when
planted, whether from pots, or according to my plan,
in little bricks, in order to avoid detachment of the
soil from their roots; when there is no irrigation, and
rain should be inconveniently delayed, they would doubt-
less again shortly require to be watered by hand, which
is a costly aud iroublesome pro<eeding on a large scale.
When once rooted they can exist an ahnobt indefinite
time without rain, tiiough they will not thrive until iliuy
get access to subsoil moisture.

5. Planting in Mawsii Land.— The stranpest peculiarity
of the Gum is its combination of the greatest avidity for
water, which it contains in the form of sap, ancl throwH
off from its leaves in almost incredible quantities, with
the capacity of surviving prolongod drought, and of thriving
fairly iu very dry places when once developed to a cei tain
point by a sufficient supply of moisture. It is, howevCT't
my opinion that the customary statement, that the Gum
tree will grow iu rank marshes, /,r., in land completely
saturated to the surface with stagnant water, is verv
extravagant; and I may boldly state that this tree will
not grow in waterlog^^ed soil, altlinugh it feels much
less aversion to running than to stagnant water ; enduring,
for instance, for a long time complete immersion of itfl
roots in the flood water of a river, while dying rapid'y
under the infltience of the casual elevation of the level

• I neod only mention the nindnms of those p(>r,'*onji who
rpcoramend the removal of th« lowfT branches to slu-ufthen IUr
growtl).

130

THK TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST,

[August t, 1885/

of stagnant subsoil water. It will, however, thrive adniiiahly
in the onlinary marshy grounrl, where it enjoys a spaee
of free soil of from :J to 4 feet Jeep before reaching
the level of the subsoil water, the amount of free soil
required ax)parently depending chiefly on the aeration of the
water ; if this should be absolutely motionless and charged
with snit the Ounis are much less tolerant of its proxim-
ity thiu when ptu-e and moved by a slight dranage current.

I think tb« truth to be that this tree will not endure that
its surface roots should be permanently immersed in
stagnant water, whatever statements may have been made
to the contrary, but that it thrives admirably, although
its ta,i)-root (which is virtually a continuation downwards
of the trunk) shoidd descend vertically into the same;
in other wonls, it can and will imbibe enormous quantities
of water voluntarily, but dies if the water be administered
by force. I feel no doubt that marshes fulfilling this
condition of the existence of a certain depth of unsatm-ated
superficial soil may be comjdetely drained and sanitated
by extensive plantations, provided the subsoil-water should
arise from the imperfect removal by drainage filtration
of the merely local accumulation of rainfall ; but I utterly
refuse to believe that httge sjjongy ))lains completely
saturated, not only with their own rainfall, but, further
absorbing whole rivers discharged from neighbouring hills,
can be restored to human habitation and commerce by
any such insufhcient device. It requires no argument
to show that while each tree can pump and discharge
into the atmosphere a quantity of water far exceeding
the rainfall of the .'■pace it occupies, the trees cannot
deal with an unlimited quantity of extraneous moisture,
and the less so that only the more elevated spots in
such plains are at all suitable for their cultivation.

I find I have omitted to mention in its place an
interesting experience illustrating the bed effect of
superficial stagnant water on Gum trees. I had a flourish-
ing row of large trees growing on the very edge of a
permanently flowing irrigation ditch ; there occurring a
scarcity of water, the ditch was left dry for six days out
of seven, and when dry there remained a pool behind a
sluice at the foot of one of the trees, which suddenly died.
On repeating the experiments with another tree it al.so died.

Seasoning. — The recently felled timber is so charged
with sap that in drying it becomes much warped and
cracked, and there is no doubt that seasoning it is most
difficult and troublesome. I am asShrcd that the Australians
immediately strip the trunks, and then keep them for
a long time in water — sea-water by preference. On a
large scale this difficulty, as well as that of preparing
the wood for market, could be easily dealt with by making
the requisite pools and constructing saw-mills.

AVhen we consider that the Blue Gum averages a growth
of 10 feet a year, that it possesses a bark admirable for
tanning purposes, that the cast bark serves for firewood,
and that its timber endures a crushing or longitudinal
strain gi'eater than Oak, and is unsurpassed by any for
Bhip-bullding and for timbering mines, and is capable of
developing licat fierce enough to smelt sulphurets of copper
in a rcviTbatcry furnace, and that this wood can be grown
In soils often useless for many other purpose, we can find
110 dIfKeulty in believing that a large business might be
jiilfle !)j' industvinl plntitatlon.s In seltetcd localities, of
whlcli 'belt; must atint many in ail the etthtrnpical
eou.Dti-ieS, eithet In >hy stlndy JtlainS accessible to li'l'iijatloti,
!)r on the s'ti-t tjf Itlarr.hlaiuls above descfibed, I new not>
linWever, Insist On IhU uUceSsity Of carefiil study and
fexperlmnnt bcforu ethliHrlting definitively in such il veiitnre,
buUi as reifards the chmifig of the tref! itself thriving,
a.i well as tif the economical condifioHs telating to cxpeusft
nud final disposal of the timber. My oWn e:»pei'ieMtie is
limited to Chi'i, In the north of which country . I inftdfe
ihv phinlations alluded to, but they may jiertaps be of
Dome use to your friends.— (Sn/r/fHtcs' Chronicle.

"rilEE Fd.S'gUS in Russia.— According to the IJttUetin
of tbo Hoclety of Naturalists of JIoscow, the hitherto
unaccountable destruction of Tine forcNts is caused by
the r;ivagcs of a species of Jlushroom which t.akcs growth
on the surface of the wood, and afterwards jicnetrates
iind destroys the tree. Maps are given in which the path
of the destroying fungus is traced through the I'iue woods
vl JKussia, — Gardmeii' Ch>'Oin''lt.

CKNCHONA, TE.4. AND COFFEE CULTIVATION
IN INDIA.

(From 0[/icial Hcport.^ published in ISSo.)

CINCHONA CULTIVATION.

In the Government plantation in Sikkim there was an
area of 2,269 acres under cultivation, containing nearly
4| millions of trees, and there was in addition a stock
of over half a million of seedlings and rooted cuttings
in the nurseries available to be planted out. The out-
turn of bark collected during the year amounted to
30G,1GO lb this quantity being much below the average
outturn of the four previous years. "With the stock in
hand at the commencement of the year there were
469,968ltj of bark available for manufacture during the year,
of which 320,.32olh were issued to the Quinologist for
manufacture, the rest begin stored. Of the febrifuge,
8,464tb were produced at a cost of ElO-4-7 per Iti, and
2501b of the superior crystalline febrifuge at a cost of
K15-fi-U per ft).

Of the trees in the plantation, much the largest pro-
portion (3,.5:52,000) .still consists of Chinchona Succiruhra;
but these are gradually giving place to the more valuable
C. calisaya ledyeriami, of which there are now 854,218
trees permanently planted out. The hybird chinchona
numbers 354,.378 trees. The other descriptions exist in
small numbers only.

The Nilgiri Government plantations contained an area
of 847 acres planted out with chinchona trees, the number
of these at the end of 1883-84 amounting to 1,315,444.
The bark collected during the year amounted to 183,7G51b
of wich 30,610 were shipped to England for sale and
62,6161b sold at auction in Madras, while l,000rb were
issued to the Bombay Medical Department, a stock of
92,526!b being left at the end of the year.

In these plantations the principal kind cultivated is
C. offcinniis (964,000 trees out of a total of 1,315,444).

There is one other Government plantation at Thando-
ungyee in British Burma — a small one containing under
90,000 trees, seedlings, and cuttings.

in regard to private chinchona plantations the inform-
ation accessible is defective. What is known of them
is that at the end of 1884 there were in —

Acres. Plants. Yield of bark." •'-

Bengal ... B.sQ ... 1,116 778 ... 4,80016" i
Mysore ... 23 .. 22,949 ..." 3,473 ' "

Coorg ... 1,808 ... 1,494.385 (Not knomi.)

The small yield of bark in the Bengal plantation is
recounted for by the fact that the plants to a large extent
are quite young.

TEA CULTIVATION.

In giving the figures relating to tea cultivation in India
for 1883, it will bo interesting to compare them with
tho.se for 1875-78, the first year of the series entered ia
this volume:—

1875-76.

1883.

Acres. 'Yield in tb

Assam and Oa-

chnr ...
Hengal ... .„

Xorth-Westefn

Provinces
Punjab...
Madras.,.
Britiiih Burma...'

Acres

Yield in tb

87,301 '20,028,890 180,453 52,171,207
26,378 : 4,9.11,220; 40,753 10,703,IS3

4,303

4,240

2,392

150

031,182

679,949

220,070

23,000

7,819

7,

S,

7,96)
6,424

159

1,202,147

1,300,010

529,490

706

' _Tutal ...1124,836 i2G,526,317i 260,571 '65.90(1,099
'I'hns wjliii'i theSe nine ytars the acreage under tea
iiiete;ist'd by 109 pier cent nearly and the whole outturn
increased by l-ltf per cent nearly.

In the Province of Assam the principal planting districts
ore —

Cachar -19,901 actes.

h5ib,sagjir 40,')a2 „

Ijakliinipur ... ... ... ot)..*^73 ,,

Sylhet 28.0,s3 „

Darrang 1(),001 „

Nowgong 1(1,786 „

Kamrup ,., 6,1'20 „

Al/Gt)gT I, 1885.]

THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

131

In Bengal about three-fourilu of the cultivation are
fouud ill the Darjeeliug district, which had 33,^^17 acres
uudtT tea iu 18S3 ; Jalpaiguri had 9,220 acres; Ohittagong
2,yOD; Lohardug^a 2,752, and Haziirib;\gh 1,02;J acres.

In the Korth-Western Proviuces there were 4,775 acres
ia the Dun, the rest beiug iu Kiimauu and Garhwal
(3,043 acres).

Iu the Punjab no tea is grown except in Kangra
(7,9G4 acres). There was a small plantation at Kotgarh
in the Simla district, but no information has been re-
ceived foucerniug it, and it is understood that it is not
now working.

In Madras there were 4,773 acres on the Nilgiris and
5S0 acres in Travaiicore. Elsewhere in that Presidency
the inilustry is unimportant.

In Burma there is very little tea planting. There is
one plantation of 150 acres at Akyab and another of 9
acres in Tonghoo.

COFFRE CULTIVATION.

The figures are so defective that it is not possible to
make any useful comparison witli former years. In 1^83
the whole area under mature plants was ly5,v:*39 acresand
the entire yield 30} million pounds, a greatly diminished
yield even as compared with the imperfect returns of
previous ye:u's. The causes which have injuriously
atfected the cotfee industry iu recent years are well known,
and as the subject has been fully discussed in the reviews
cf the sea-borne trade of the couutry it is not necessary
to return to it here. The acreage under mature coffee
plant was thus distributed in 1^63: —

Mysore 82,108 acres.

Madras 53,917 „

Cojrg 4l,()00 „

Tx-avancore 6,268 „

Cochin 1,938 „

Jiengal 8 „

Makooes. — There has been a large crop of these fruits,
which means that the poorer people will make an extra-
meal a day. Eat, however large, fine and sweet the mangoes
be iu Jaffna, they have, uulike the mangoes of the ^Vestern
Province, somewhat of an acid taste. This is true in Jaffna
of most of our fruits. The jak in size will beat out
any in tlie Sinhalese country, but those nice bags of
honey, when the fruit is ripe, combining all the delicacies
of tlie honeycomb and the essence of the sugarcane, you
do not taste in Jaffna. Our soil perhaps contain too much
of saline matter ; and our fruit-trees, instead of being left to
grow as well as tliey can, require a lot of cattle-niuniu'e.
But this Ls just what is not done. The fact is, the work-
ing people do not care for the exquisite dehcacy of garden
cultivations, but 'only seek something to .satisfy hunger if
only the article be not absohitely nauseating. — "" Ceylon
Patriot."

Useful Plants i.v the Island of St. Thomas. — In a
recently issued report on the Island of St. Thomas, Danish
AVest Indies, it is stated that attention has recently been
drawn to the possibility of utilising the soil of the island
and making it productive. An attempt was made some two
years since to revive the cultivation of the Sugar-cane,
but it has resulted in heaTy losses, and uow that the
price of sugar is so ruinously low, this branch of industry
will probably be entirely abandoned. The cultivafiou of
Aloes [Agaves] and other fibre-producing plants is now
being tried. The climate and soil seem well adapted to
such plants, the hills are thickly strewn with them, and
if the leaves were collected, many hundred tons of fibre i
could be annually exported without an acre of land being
planted. Actual trial, it isfaid. has, however, demonstrated
that dj. a ton for the crude leaves is the highest price
that can be paid, but as this price does not appear to
offer any inducement to the peasants to collect the wild
leaves which ai-e so numerous, they remain untouched.
It remains to be seen whether cultivation will reduce
the cost of collection by localising plants, and thus rendering
the gathering of the useful jjortion-s easy, rapid, and
economical. — Gurdtneis^ Chronicle.

OoLOKLEss Cement. — The following recipe is said to pro-
dace a perfectly colorless cement : — *' In an airtight bottle
7o grams of indiarubber cut into little pieces, are mixed
with 60 ,i;Tams chloroform. After complete solution of
india rubber, 15 grams of mustic are added, and the
mixture warmed for eight days till the latter is dissolved
also. — Queensland Planitr and Farmer.

Seicds as "Weioiits. — In many provinces of lu.lia tho
seeds of Abrus precatorius are used as weights, the unit
of weight or seed being called the "retti," the latter
term applying especially to the weight. The wei^dit. as
appears from an article by I\Ir. Chubb in the I'/Ktrniuccnt-
i'-al Jo/'rnaly varies from 1'92 grains to r97;» grains.
Mucuna capitata is the seed which is the origin uf the
" massa" = 8 "retti." — GarJeiKr.s' Ckronicle.

Cevlon Tea in Liverpool. — A correspondent writes : —
"It is only just getting to be known here. As yet not
much comes into the northern markets, but it is likely
that in due course it will force its way. The brands ' Black-
stone,' ' llookwood,' and others have come to this market.
What we waut is leaf of the full drinking kind ; yon
know iu the colder northern climes thej say we like a
good, strong cup of tea.'" — "Ceylon Advertiser."

Liquid Manure. — Probably nothing conduces nu)re to
the success of the majority of vegetables than bei-g hber-
ally supplied with liquid manure. It is far more stimul-
ating and quicker in its effect than heavy dressings of
dry manure. The reason for this is ubvious, as it is
supplied iu such a way that the plants are able tu absorb
it at once. It may be made from fresli droppings of the
cnw, horse, sheep, >;oat — ^iu fact nearly any animal. All
that is required is to allow tho water to remain on it for
four or six days, so that, when it is used, it may be per-
fectly clear. Its strength, of course, must be regulated
according to the requirements of the crops for which it
is intended. — Queensland 7*/rt/?/(^/* a/t</. Farmer.

The En31l.\ge Commission. — An inquiry was commenced
last week at the Agricultural Department of the Privy
Council which promises fo have an important bearing on the
future of agriculture in this country. Lord "Walsingham
presided over a commission of agriculturists, who will take
evid-^uce as to the best means of preserving green crops
by tlie ensilage process for the use of stock in the winter.
It is beyond a duubt that the British farmer's best chance
of competing with the foreigner is in the rearing of cattle,
ami some of the witnesses who have been examined state
that they can keep more than double the stock by using
ensilage, which has other advantages, such as making sure
of securing a crop by harvesting it in all weathers and
enabling an extra crop to be had. Some witnesses spoke
of substances that were regarded as waste products of the
laud being greedily devoured by animals, Mr. Harris, M.
P., menti- niug that the lusbes grown in the Devonshire
valleys, and used for bedding, were actually eaten after
acting as a covering for the ensilage and getting its flavour.
The silos for preserving the green crops spoken to by the
witnesses ranges! from structures specially made to ilig-
ging a hole in the ground and merely stacking it, suflici-
ently weifjhted to extract and exclude the air. Lord
WaLsingham's agent (Mr. Woods) spoke to ensihige beiug
a valuablt^ auxiliary to dairymen, as it could In; sent by
rail in casks, and it had actually become an article of
commerce, and was sold at JMalclon, iu Essex, for 50s. a
ton. The general scope of the evidence so far as it has
gone, is that the process only requires to be known to
be generally adopted. Mr. Motiat, agent of llie United
States Department of Agricultur-/, referred to the reports
to the American Government iu the niattfir, and to a
tcur in France with Mr. Kaius-Jackson, the promoter of
the ensilage competition at the SmithfiHld Club, The
Commissioners will recommence their sittings tomorrow,
and evidence will be taken at intervals dui'ing the Parlia-
meufcary session. -^Londou -Times.

" ROUGH ON CORNS."

Ask fi)r "Wells' "Bough on {Vmis.'' Quick relief, com-
plete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions.' W. 1$.
yiiini i Co., Madras, Sole Agents, ^ 'jn^^'i ■ .

^32

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

$orrcspajulcnc-i.;.

To thi Editor of tin " Ceylon Observer. "

:MR. JOHN HUGHES OS BATS' DUNG, &c.
London, E.C., Sth May ISSa.
Dear Sir, — I send you an article on Bats' Dung
Oiiaiio from tbis week's .llaik Lane Express, which
gives some new iuterestiug information about a
natural deposit likely to be most valuable as manure.
Yon will notice tb;>t reference is made to some
analyses by myself, but the details are not given ; so I
enclose the full results of one sample, as jour readers
i»ay know of similar deposits in the caves of Ceylon.
At present moat of this Iv^ts' guano has been fouud
in Te.\."is, but I have had samples sent to me from
Jamaici, and doubtless wherever there are large caves
in a country with a hot climate, we may e.xpeot to
find these valuable accumulations of bats' dung.

I have received yonr interesting book on " Ceylon
in 1SS4." It should be in the librariet of all the
Indian passenger steamers, for Ceylon is now becoming
of general interest to travellers from its central situ-
ation, beautiful scenery and varied productions.
Bats' Dung Ouano from Texas.
■Water .. ... ... 14-53

•Organic matter ... ... 47'5l)

tl'hosphoric acid ... ... 7'30

Lime ... ... ... 14(54

Sulphuric acid ... ... 413

Carbouio acid ... ... 307

Oxide of iron ... ... '40

Alumina ... ... ... -57

Alkalies, magnesia, ;£c. ... 3.94

Insoluble, siliceous matters (sand) 3-66

Total ... 10000

• Containing : —

Nitrogen as organic matter 3-47 equal to ammonia 422
„ nitrates 267 ,. „ 3-24

,, ammonia 1-43 ,, „ 1-79

Total 7-62 „ „ 925

t Equal to tribasio phosphate of lime 1594.

JOHX HUGHES, F. c. 8.
[The Sinhalese are aware of the value of bats'
dnng and nsa it to fertilize their paddy-fields. If
obtainable in quantity and cheaply, it would he
valuable as an application to fields of tea. The long
article sent by Mr. Hughes from the Express is
gi\-en in full below.— Ed. ]

Bats' Guaso.

That the excrement from such small animals as bats
should accumulate in sufficient quantity to be workable
as a source of agricultural fertilisers may no doubt be
a surprising fact to those who learn it for the first
time. The well-knowuf deposits of guano in Peru
formed chiefly by marine birds, have long constituted a
material source of wealth, and the substance called, but
haidly correctly. - fish guano -' is also a familiar article
of commerce. But bats' guano is a comparatively new
candidate in tl-e now extensive field of artificial' fertil-
isers, and a few words as to its composition and mode
of occurrence may be of interest. Although a perfectly
natural product, it, of course, comes under the head of
" artificial " fertilisers, inasmuch as it is pim?hased and
brought on to the farm, instead of being produced on
the homestead in the ordinary routine of farm practice
as is the case with farmyard manure.

The bat, as everybody knows, is a little mouselike
animal, provided with a lateral extension of its integu-
ment by means of which it propels itself bird-fashion
through the air. It is a true mammal — that is, it brings
forth its young ahve and suckles its offsprins, differing
ta these respects from birds. Its nearest allies are to

be seen, not in rats and mice, which are true rodents
fiurnished with well-developed incisor teeth, but in the
moles and hedgehogs, which feed chiefly on insects and
grnbs, and are tlierefore called iusectivores. However
similiu- a bat may appe.-ir to be to a mouse, an examin-
ation of its teeth— always a safe zoological test— will at
once reveal its afliuities to such insectivorous animals
as the mole and the hedgehog. The bat.s that may be
Been flitting about in tho twilight in country districts
are roaming the air in search of insects for food, and
any one who has bandied a live bat has probably not
been long in discovering that the fur of these little
creatures is abundantly infested with objectionable insects.
Some exotic species of bats are fiuit-eaters. and others,
like the vampires of South America, are bloodsuckers,
frequently iuliictiug cruel wouuds on the hides of horses,
cattle, and other animals in their que.st for nutriment.

In this country bats dwell under the eaves of barns
and other outhouses, or in some similar dark or poorly-
lighti d nook, their noctm-nal habits, no doubt, impelUng
them to seek such spots where they may slumber
securely during daylight. In a country not much open-
ed up, underground caves would naturally ott'er to bats
such accommodation as they seem to require, and it is
from such bat-haunted caves in the State of Texas that
bats' guano is now begiimiug to find its way in to the
English market. Texas is one of the most south-westtrn
of the United .States, its southern Injundary being
washed by the warm waters of the Gulf of" Mexico.
Here, in the counties of Uvalde aud Comal, are two
immense caves known as the Uvalde cave aud the Cibolo
cave. Underground caves of this kind are not uncommon
in the States one of the most celebrated being the mam-
moth cave of Kentucky, which extends for' more than
two hundred miles uuderground. Such caves have usually
been formed by the dissolriug away of the rock by
subterranean water-courses, which have eventually dis-
appeared, learing a record of their work in a tunuel-hke
excavation beneath the earths' surface. The river Jlani-
fold in Derbyshire pursues its course for some distance
tmderground, and if from some geological change this
river were to dry up. and \mdergroimd cave would be
seen to be scooped out. The Uvalde and Cibolo caves,
however, are remarkable for the rich deposits of bats'
guano they contain, which have been accumulated by
myriads of hats over an unknown period. Their depth
has been tested by boring, .-uid in some cases has been
found to be as much as 25 feet, while the average
depth is believed to be not less than six feet. In the
Uvalde cave the deposits are estimated to cover an
area of at least one square mi!e. Mr. Moreton Frewen,
who has visited these caves, states the Jaili/ deposits
from the myriads of bats which still haunt them must
at least run into tons.

The oflicial report of the Commissioner of Statistics of
the State of Texas says, with reference to these deposits : —
" In the mountains there are several large caves, in
which are enormous quantities of the richest guano,
the droppings through uutold years of vast numbers of
bats. The guano is of a dark brown colour, about tho
consistence of finely-ground coffee, and is as strongly
impregnated with ammonia as the best Peruvian guano.
Chemical tests have established its great value as a
fertihser, and it is being removed in large quantities
and shipped to Eint)pe by a company organized for the
purpose." The caves are about eight miles from the
railway leadmg to Glaveston and New Orleans, at either
of which ports shipment may be effected for transport
across the ocean.

Bats' guano possesses little or no odour, and it has
a pecuhar felt-hke softness when passed between the
fingers. A cubic foot of it weighs about 73 lb., so that
a ton of it would occupy rather more than one cubic
yard.

As Peruvian guano is so well estabUshed, bats' guano
must stand or fall entirely on its merits, and it appears
that the few parcels which have yet fouud their way
into this country have been disposed of. after analysis
at an average price of £9 per ton, which compares
favourably with the price of Peruvian gu.-mo, prorided
the two fertihsers are equally eflicacio-as. A weU-known
film of guauo merchants v,-Uues it at £i 10s. per ton

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

133

ill liujjo oil tlui I-oiiiloii wharves. With reganl to its coni-
I>(j»itiuii, aimlyBen have licen inud(.' by MesBrf. ISerimrd
Uyer, John Hughus, (J. Uixoii, ami thu lati; ami prcKC-iit
Dr». Voelcker. Glauciiig over the re«ultH of them; iiiialy-
«uM, it in (>eeii that the total nitrogen equal to ammonia
varies hetwuen 'J^S per cent. (Mr. .lohu Jliighes) ami
ll'SU per cent. fl>r. Voelcker unci iJr. John Voc'lcker^,
while the perc<'ntuge of tribaHic jiliOBphate of lime re-
presented by the phoHphoric acid present ranges birtwcen
14-4.'J and 10'74. Judiug from these figures it is likely
that bats' guauo will become no unworthy rival of
I'eruvian guano.

Kielil experiments made during the last year or two
in Knglaud have yielded highly satisfactory n^sults, and
it is proposed to rrpeut these on a large scale during
the coming sumintT. 'j'lio Texas Guano Company, by
whom the deposits are now to be worked, hiid that
there is a local demand for between 2,000 and a,OIJI)
tons per annum, but it is to be hoped that the output
will be sufliciently large to meet the demand which
should arine in this country jiroviding the fertiliser con-
tinues equal in (piality to tlie shipments that have already
been made to Kngland, and there is no apparent reasim
why this should not be so. A fair estimate places the total
quantity t,i bats' guano in the Texas caves of 1,'valiio
and (iljolo at not less than half a million tons. The (;x-
l)erience of any famers who have madu use of this new
fertiliser — for it is practically new — would be of interest.
— JIurk Lane ICxpress.

CUINAG11AS3 AND "kola I'ASTK
155, Fenchuroh Street, London, K. C, 5th June 1885.

Deau Sir, — You will no doubt hear aibout a now
process of treating China-grass. The fact is that it
18 now euggestea to revert to the plan in use in
China, namely, of stripping with the uail the skin
of the rhca fctem, then drying it and sending it over
to this country here to be treated by an alkali to
dissolve the gum. The beauty ol the Smith process
was that the product should bo treated directly it
was cut and while in its soft gummy state on the
plant. These straps— as they are called— come at the
present time surrounding the cotton and fibre bales
and are largely sold in the Liverpool market to paper
manufacturers to improve their paper. They have
aleo been sold to the libre producors and prepared
for spinning. This shows that the " new process," as
it is called, has really no value because it is an old
process, and every detail in the operation is now
practised commercially.

I am Bonding by this mail a sample of the kola
paste to Dr. Trimen. If examined under the micro-
scope it will be found to correspond exactly with
chocolate paste and has much the same flavour of
the raw product as sold preparatory to its beinj; Uavoured
and sold as chocolate. — I am, yours obidiently.

THOS. CUFJSTY.

TEA IN JAPAN AND CEYLON. "

Dear Sih,— Your extracts from Mr. Gribble's botjk
about tea in Japan are very inteiesting, but what
strikes me as the most wonderful thing about it is

the enormous yield th>-y get at thiee years ! viz.

376 lb. of green leaf from 100 tsubo— iOO tsubo are
stated to be equal to .3,000 Kjuare feet, which is
about a twelfth of an acre. So they get nver eleven
hundred pounds o/' mudi; lea per acre <il three years
old ! X presume this 'n due to their manner of
planting, anrl I believe the yield to be possible
considering that they have circles of about 30 plants at
distances of five feet apart. It would be worth while
trying an acre on the same system. I am of opinion
that Mr. Giibblemeiint 3i lb. of leaves as ho has written
it, and not 3i lb. of made lea it its equivalent in
leaves as you take it to be. Look at the cost of
plucking given ! It is over a halfpenny per lb. of
green leaf, and this for the year in which as he states
wages were 23 jjer cent below the rates ruling in the
previous year. Now I shall suppose labour to be very

cheap in Japan, and I wouhl not consider it very
ohcap if gills get more than 2d to .Id per day.
The wages for girls is stated to lie \T> sen per day
and men gut .50 sen per day. As the men get nearly
.'i.j times the wages i f the pluckers, I would fcup[iiiso
that the pluckers are quite small children. I would
think that tea pl.-mted uH the .lapaiiese plant it would
be more dilliuult to pluck carefully than tea planted
on the Indian system. J(,

[Wages (of adults, we suppose) being, according to
Mr. Jjowcn, about 25 cents of a rupee per dicm, prob-
ably tliis correspondent is correct about the pluck-
ing by young girls and the proportionate wages.
15ut what have exjierts to H,ay to the nse of cast-
iron pans in the final drying of tea in Japan ? and
how is it that the leaf retains its green colour
after such intimate contact with iron ? — Ko.]

CEAhA KUIiBEIl TKEES^ '

Mataiig, Sarawak, VMh Juno 1885.

Dear tiin, — 1 have a tew hundnd Cear.-l rubber
trees about three years old, and am dtsirous to pro-
cure a sniiipleof rubbirfrom them. I therefore write,
asking if you v/ill kindly tell im^ the bftst iiienns of
doing so.— Voius truly, LOYALTY i'EAKE,

[Our correspondent should ajiply to Messrs. John
Walker & Co. for one of Mr. H. S. I'laser's rubber
collectors. — Eu,]

JUNGLE AND PLANTATION TEA SEED
HYBKIDI/ING ?
blackwater, (Jalboda, Ist July J885.

Djcar .Sill, — Under separate cover I send some leaves.
The dark bronze ones I know to be tea, but the
pale red ones are so much li<e the jungle tea that
lam in doubt, though they came off a bush at least
seven years old, which h.n been pruned and plucked
for years. A Urge number of the jungle tea plants
were put out by mistake on this estate, the scerl
having blown into the ten nursericM, Is it possible for
the jungle tea to hybrid'zo with tea? There are so
many bushes on this estate lo like the jungle tea,
there is no telling the difference. I have never in all
my experi'iice seen haves so red, though bronze is quite
a coinirion color. — Yours faithfully, C. A. HAY.

[Kvery person connected with tea in Oylon must
be aware that when nurseiies are formed plants of
what is known as " wild tea "spring up iiniillaneousiy
with the true tea seedlings. It is now nearly ten years
since we diew the attention of the late Dr. 'Iliwaites
of the Peradeniya Koyal J'.otinic Gardens to this fact.
From him we then learned, that, except similarity of
leaf, the so-called "wild tea,'' a very common jungle
tree, has noafiiniiy to true tea. The ideaof hybndi/.ing
may therefore, we suppo-^e, be dismissed, even if both
trees have been in bloskom in close contiguity. There
remains tho ulea which the late Mr. Howard pro-
pounded in regaid to cinchona, the insensible inllueuce,
short of hybridizing, produced by plants on each other
when growing in clo-e neighbourhood. The leaves
sent by Mr. Hay are certainly very peculiar, but we
think they are the leaves of a variety of China ])lant.
We would suggest, however, that leaves be sent for
Dr. Trimcii's opinion. — Kn.]

HARVESTING CINCHO.VA.

Deltota. July 2nd 1885.

Dear Sir, — ChrUlie, in bis Prize Essay on Cinchona
Cultivation, states : "From 4 year old trees at a medium
distance apart, I think 80 Hi. n>tt l>ark per cooly
is a good average ; and from old trees 100 or even
120 lb. can be brought in " ; so that the T'J lb.
from trees 0 to 7 years iu Ilewa Elija is after all not
a very good average.

Iu May 127 coolies harvested 18,435 lb. nett bark,
the average for each cooly being 145 j.^^ylb. ; in Juno 67

^34

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

coolies haryested 10,195 lb., the average beiog
152 ;5 lb.; so (or the two mouths May and June
28 G31 lb. were harvested by 194 coolies, the average

being 147 1J2 lt>..

I may here mention that I obtained an average of
197 lb. one day last month, my best cooly bring-
ing in 2.31 lb. nett bark.

I weigh my bark once a day, as so much time will
be wasted iu weighing twice. One ccoly canuot carry
all the bark he shaves for a day ; so ou striking work
another man employed at some other work is put on
for carrying the extra bag. The force I employ for
Bliaving is very small, 6 or 7, ivul the best men are put
on to it. The work was carefully done, because the
V. A. after examining many of the trees found no fault
w*»h me for overshaviug or damaging the trees in any
wav. 1 can account for getting such a large quantity
of bark per man easily. 1 have a small force of coolies,
and aboub the only work I have to do is to look after
the shaving and thatching of the trees, so that_ I can
devote more time to my coolies than other superintend-
ents who have to louk after tea or coffee, or both pro-
ducts, as well as cinchona. B. E.

P. S.— I think there are many estates here that get
above 100 lb. per cooly.

WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS OF CEYLON TEA?

3rd July 1885.

Dear Sir, — Now that what may be truly called
" the rush into tea " has got well under weigh, it
is not out of place to take a glance into the future
and ask ourselves : —

1st. What effect on the London market will
■ 00,000,000 lb. of Ceylon tea have five or six years hence ?

2nd. What profit per acre should we have if tea fell
to an average price of 8d per lb. with a yield of 4001b?

3rd. Would China exports fall off? or stop entirely,
supposing such a limit (81) tn be reached?

4th. Would Indian exports fall off? or would they
abandon their laud as so many estates have been in
Ceylon lately ? the answerer should bear in raiud that
a very large part of the Indian tea estates are the
property of companies who probably have cipital.

5ch. Has the production of any tropical product
been known to suddenly cease through a fall in price? |
ride Brazd, Java, Ceylon and India. I excipt Siii.h i
American bark because that is not a cultivated pro- 1
duct and no money is invested ui the growing it. ^

6th. What is the probable fall in the price of tea, ]
consequent on the future export from Ceylon likely to be V

These questions are what every man should ask
himself now, and the answers, though they may cause
a good deal of disappointment, will save far more
by and bye.

I am not a pessimist by any means, though some
might infer it from my questions. What 1 aim at
is "some forecast of the future. Tea is going in
everywhere and any how in all sorts of land and iu
every district ; with 400 lb. an acre at Is it is coulcur
de rose oi course, and so all the plantiu'i world would
have it not only now but for all time. How it
would be at 8d is the reason of my being

A QUESTIONER.

[With reference to the letter of " A Questioner"
which appears above, the same was no doubt written
before we published Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton's
and \V. J. and H. Thompson's latest reports which
aflbrd tlie best answers at present available to most
of the questions asked. The comfoit which many
Ceylon tea planters take about tea prospects is that
they are bound to beat both China and India out
of competition should the prices fall for good teas.
At tlie 3 line time no words of warning cim be too
weighty ill reference to tlie evils of hasty reckless
planting of bad seed or misera bly p^or jat of tca-
plauts ou poor land.^BD .]

JUNGLE AND PLANTATION TEA SEED
HYBRIDIZING.

Colombo, 7th July 1S85.

Dear Sir, — With reference to a letter from Mr.
C. A. Hay, and your editorial note ou the above subject
in your issue of this date, you will perhaps allow
me to state that the family to which the tea-plant
belongs is called Teenstriemiace.*: from the genus
Ternsticemia, so named by the younger Linnieus in
honor of Ternstrum, a Swedish naturalist and tra-
veller in China, who died in Policandre in 1745, and
the Ceylon jungle tea-plants and the cultivated ones
are both members of this family, but I do not think
they can possibly hybridize, and their progeny be
confounded with the real tea-plant when they are
in flower or fruit. This family was elaborately worked
out by Mr. W. T.Thiselton Dyer, c. m. g., Assistant
Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in pp. 279-294
of volume 1 of the Flora of British India, by Sir
Joseph Hooker, and others, and in which 14 different
genera are given, whilst only four of them occur in CeyloD,
viz., Terustriemia, Adinandra, Eurya, and Gordonia.

The cultivated tea-plants were described by Lin-
Dfeus under the genus Thea, but it is found that
this genus does not differ essentially from that of
Camellia, and, as this latter is the older name of
the two, the tea-plant and its varieties take their
place as Ccmiellia tlieijera, not of Linuaius, but of
Griffith, a modern Indiau botanist (Fl. Brit. lud. 1,
p. 292). The jungle tea-plant of Ceylon belongs to
the genus Eurya, and the leaves are so like those
of the real tea-plant that they are very likely to be
confounded, and what adds to the confusion is the
fact that the Euryas spring up in all new clearings
and nurseries in the higher elevations of Ceylon, and
these are no doubt the jungle tea-plants referred to
by Mr. C. A. Hay and yourselves, though it is to
be hoped that it was not one of them that was
pruned and plucked for years. In this respect there
is surely "a confusion of epitaphs" on the part of
Mr. Hay, because the ubiquitous Euryas after all
differ so much from the real tea-plants that a practical
tea-planter should be able to distinguish them at once.

Iu Trimen's List of Ceylon Plants, p. 8, Natural
Order 20 and Genera 74 to 77, you have the four
genera I have mentioned above, aud of the Euryas
there are two good species, and two varieties which
may aho be good species ; but, though their leaves
resemble those of the real tea, their tiowers are very
small, and tbeir small so-called berries are many-
seeled, whilst the capsules of the tea-plant have from
one to three large seeds in them, aud the flowers are
large aud conspicuous. The most common Eurya
japomca is the " Naya-dasse " of the Sinhalese.—

Yours, W. F.

■ COFFEE LEAF-DISEASE.

Kandy, 8th July 1885.

Dear Sir, — I have no doubt mauy persons must, like
myself, have read with interest "Oberon" 's researches
iu re leaf-disease. I fear it is not within human ken
to give a satisfactory reply to "Oberon" 's question,
" What relation do living zoospores or germ cells, ova
or spawn, bear to the spores of the .sh/>j)os((< fungus?"

"Oberon " is not correct in saying the "maggot"
he refers to has no legs. With the aid of a Codrington
lens of high power 1 have discovered legs restmbl-
iug those of an ordinary caterpillar, and I may add
that the insect progresses rather rapidly, moving its
head from side to side in the maniu-r of a uow when
in the act of grazing. The spores are filled with an or-
iioge-cnloured substance resembling crystallized honey,
aud the maggot* moves frci-ly among the spores
emptying each aud leaving behind him the despoiled

* More correctly caterpillar.

Avavar i, 1SS5-]

THE TROf»lCAL AGKiCULTUKIST.

^35

receptacle, or shell, which is of a whitish colour. A
large portion, however, of the shell or skin is de-
voured with the contents. If the orange-coloured
spores are the means of propagating leaf-disease (?)
we ought to be very thankful that there is s.uch a
voracious little animal as our friend the maggot to
render so many of them innocuous.

I think "Oberon" is again mistaken in Baying
that the larva is armed witli a sharp pi'oboscis with
which he pierces the skin of the leaf, I find many
of these larv^u lying in chrysalis form and perfectly
quiescent among the spores. The supposed proboscis
may possibly be the integument wherewith the
larv;f are attached to the leaf. The "maggots," I
observed, were certainly not indebted to the juices
of the leaf for their sustenance : their attention was
directed solely to the spores. But I can support
"Oberon" in his statement that the larva- lie in
their larva state on the dried blackened portion of
the leaf, originally a pinspot, wliich fact goes to'
strengthen the supposition that a living'organism and
not a fungus is the origin of the fell disease which
has blighted so many hopes and e.xpectations.

lam: aware, Mr. Editor, that I sliall be deemed
foolhardy to appear to question the received opinion
that the propagation of leaf-disease is by means of
the spores, but you may remember tliat General Bray,
brooke, years back, was not afraid to propound the
theory that tlie origin of the disease was in the sap
of the tree, and now "Oberon" Is bold enough to
oome forward to support that theory Y and, if I mistake
not. Captain Bay ley carried on some experiments at
Galle which went far to show that it was iiossibk
the disea'^e was propagated by some means other than
the orange spores, so that the spores may be the
tffect and not the cause of the disease; and is not
this more probable than its propagation by a fungus
which beiug without the power of locomotion is yet
supposed to be able to find its way through the stomata
into the interior of the leaf ?

If the propagation of the pest /s due to the spore
substance, may we not look hopefully for a rapid
diminution of its effects from the wholesale destruc-
tion of all the "shuck" coffee which is being carried
out in every district in the island ? For not only
will there be fewer spores to convey the disease, but
the strong healthy trees may be expected to, in a
measure, resist contamination.

Though plucky enough to send you this, I should
be glad if I could, like the schoolboy, prepare for
my cnstigation by inserting a copybook inside the
seat of my inexpressibles. PUCK.

P.S.—Cd.a any of your readers say whether the
scale-insect, and //. V. are to be found on the same
leaf ? 1 have examined many leaves suffering from
the latter, but In one instance aloDO did I discover
tcale-inaect and then there was only one, and he did
cot appear to be at all iu a flourishing state, P.

[Mr, Dlok of Udapuseellawft some months ago ux-
pressed the opinion that the coffee leaf fungus was.
Itself, in a diaeasnd or dying condition, and that
he could not get n healthy, full-developed specimen
tuch as tilled the back of every leaf sonre years ago.
It is possible therefore that the epidemic may be
dying out, leaving life in the coffee-trees in certain
districts still. So mote it be.— Kd.]

CAN THE CHEMIST PRACTICALLY AID THE
PLANTER IN PREPARING TEA?

DuAfe Sir,— In your leader on the increase of Ceylon
te.is, yon remark that it may now be time to take the
advice given in several quarters lo call in the aid of
analytical chemists.

I think it would be as well to consider what aid
they could afford us in the direction of perfect tea,

If, for instance, they could establish a test to enable
us to tell when leaf was properly withered: that is,
let us say, by taking a pound or so of leaf and mash-
ing in a mortar, by adding certain chemicals, we could
be sure we bad withered up to the necessary point,
then the capacity of the oidinary planter would be
equal to the occasion and chemitts would be a decided
boon. But if the necessary process demanded either
ditiicult calculation or delicate filtration, then, I think
the majority of planters would tight shy of the method.

Practically, too, would such tests tell us more than
our senses of sight and touch do at present ! The
same remarks apply to fermenting and firing.

Of course, chemists could tell us whether teas aro
good or bad when they are made, but so can planters ;
aud if WB can tell what prices our teas will fetch
within a penny or so, we ought to be able to spot
anything serioufly wrong with our method of manu-
facture. Supposing the above remarks are correct
then the benefit which would accrue to us by the
introduction of professional analysts reduces itself to the
question of soil and manure. On these points, of course
they could give us most valuable information, but, at the
same time, such proved of but little practical value
iu the case of cotl'ee, and it's doubtful whether it
would be of more use in tea — in both cases the opinion
of experienced planters seems to have the happiest
commercial result.

Then, as to making perfect tea, I am convinced
that what we require is not so much experiments in
chemistry as better arrangements for the withering
and further manipulation of the leaf. I am not com-
petent to say whether this can be done by Clerihew's
Blackman's, or any of the air-exhaus-t paleuts, but
this I am sure of, that withering is the point ou which
attention is needed.

I am talking of estates that are sending home good
teas at present and under competent management not
of places where tea is just coming into bearing and
the superintendent has had no experience. There
of course, much improvement may be needed in the

whole operation of making {vide the case of .

whose teas doubled in value after the superintendent
had bad lessons from a man who knew something
about tea), but the good places in Ceylon at present
if they have to show much improvement ou their
present make, will do it only by more extended
withering arrangements, possibly assisted by hot-air
machinery. It may be going too far to say that a
good wither ensures a good tea, but most manu-
facturers will agree with me that a bad one generally
has most unhappy results.

The most useful idea in regard to the improvement
in teas and spread of information as to manufacture
&o, , seems to me to be a series of queBtions in your
planting columns, answois bting solicited Irom corte.
spoudents in all districts, at .ill elevations, &o.,— each
estate to slate its metliod of plucking, average ago
Of Hush, ege of tea, and other particulara,
. WlniliiilNo.

1. What percentage do you wither down to ?

2. Have you triui firoccos or tulas as aids to
withering ? and with what results ?

3. Is your withering liouse enclosed or open ?—
state average temperature.

4. Is ttssing tiie leaf in the air, in your opinion
conducive to rnpid withering? have vou found itblackens
the kaf ?

5. State your opinion as tithe most rapid withers vou
have had, with notes oii the te'i made from the same &c

Soon,through rolling, liring, fermenting. bulking,p.ic'kJug'.

The notes aa to plucking should be full aiid explicit'

as, of course, line leaf will wither better than coarse

J or mixed, You will easily find exjierienccd planters

i3^J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[AucusT I, i88j.

to give you the necessary questions, and I doubt not
you would receive useful and plentiful answers. —
Yours, X. 1 . Z.

[Tea-making is a chemical process, and every tea-
maker is more or less a chemist, but the jirofeisional,
analytical chemist might aid plauters greatly by test-
ing for streugth and aroma and suggesting the sub-
stauces to be applied to the soil, and probably changes
and impiovementa in manufacture. To be fully able to
do this, the chemist should first make himself familiar
with all the processes of culture aud manufacture,
aaalyziug soils and leaves in various stages.— Ed.]

HARVESTING CINCHONA.

10th July 1885.
De.\b Sir,— The figures given by " B. E." on
page 134 are in accordance with my experi-
ence. But where I obtained 100 lb. per eooly in
shaving 5-year old cinchona trees when shaved all
round the stem, I found difficulty in exceeding SO
lb, when taking off half the quantity per tree in two
strips. There is of course loss of time when ;the
cooly has to narrowly watch where he is shaving so
as not to encroach upon the two strips to be left.
Will " B. E." kindly give his experience on this
point ? Including lopping I cannot get more than
45 lb. branch and twig per cooly ; nor thatch my
trees for less than A cent per tree, including cutting
grass, which is close, B.

THE ANOMALOUS LEAVES FROM BLACK-
WATER.
Blackwater, Galbodde, July 10th, 1S85.

Dear Sir,— It is evident from "W. F." 's letter that
the leaves I sent you were never examined by any-
one competent to say what they really were.

I was perfectly aware that they were tea leaves,
though 1 expressed my doubt from their color
being of a kind that I have never before seen,
though I have been wandering up and down line3_ of
pluckers for many many years. What I would like
to know is, if the true tree will not hybridize with
the jungle kind, how ia it that the true tree^ on
this occasion has attained the exact appearance? is it
diseased ?

I quite agree with "W. F."that a practical planter
should be able to distinguish the difference between
the two kinds, but, when Assam hybrids take to copying
their jungle friends in color of leaf, it is time to enquire
into the matter. I will send you some more leaves, merely
marking A, B, &c., and if you will kindly get " W. F."
to look at thera I shall be obliged.— Youis faithfully,

C. A. HAY.

P.S.—li "W.F." hasonly seeu the jungle tree growing
in the forest, ho would be astonished at the change
that takes places when the plant is pruned and kept
as a bush : it loses a great deal of the jungle appear-
aiice and its pink color tones down ; in fact it is only
in the young plants that the differeiice ia seen, as the
stem bark is quite a different color though it becomes
very much like tea proper when it grows older.

C A. rl«
[The loaves will be submitted to " W. F." and Dr,
Trinien. As for ourselves, we may be as incnnip-tent
to pronounce ou them as Mr. Hay imagines, but we
retain our opinion that they were leavts of a peculiar
China jdt.— Ed. j

TEA CULTURE IN JAPAN.
I)EAR Sir,— In reply to " R." "a letter iu which he
wonders at the large yield of Japan tea bushts, I
may here mention that I was informed by a gentle-
man of great experience in the Japan tea trade, that the
pluoking with the exception of the firat spring months

is of the coarsest description, and also that before the
winter came on the bushes were absolutely stripped
of leaves, all of which being rendered pliable by the
steaming proce-s are converted into tea and mixed
with better grades, and then sent as fourth crop to
the European tirms, who mix them again and break them
up and color them. The loss on weight between the
green leaf and the made tea as fired by the Japanese
in the first place is only from 10 to 15 per cent ; of
course after the refiring pi'ocefs in the European hongs
there is another considerable loss in weight, but this
latter is to a certain extent made up for by the weight of
the ct.loring matter. The bushes or clumps of shrubs
resulting from the 20 to ;iO seeds sown in a circle
are very similar in size and appearance to our own
bushes, and are in no ways remarkable for their c rc-
umference, and they are kept cut at a height of
about 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet ; in no case did I see
any higher, and only thai height where the tea was
evidently pretty old. As to the wages in the factories
I was shown over, I noticed only ahout 10 per
cent of men, the balance of those employed being
women and girls. 50 sen is the equivalent of 1 rupee
and 12J cents, and, though it ia tlie ordinary wage
of skilled workmen in the hongs, I doubt very much
if anything like that is paid for work in the gardens,
few of which exceed five or six acres, and the majority
of which are small patches of land surrounded with
wheat, rape, raddish or paddy and probably worked by
the peasant proprietor and his family. The cultivation
of land, whether it be of crops or of tea, is most
liberal, manure being used generally, and whether
in towns or villages every pound of refuse of any kind
is bought by contract by the surrounding peasant
farme.'s and applied to the soil. — Yours faithfully,
H. D. DEANE.

TEA FROM AGAR'S LAND, BALAN60DA,
TOPPING THE LOCAL MARKET.

Kandy, 13th July 1885.
Dear Sir,— Your issue of the 11th instant contains
a "Local and General" statement to the effect that
" Kelani Valley " tea has topped the local market
at 84 cents. "Agar's Land " has recently (wice averaged
87 cents. My attention has been called recently by a
"tea-man" to the poor prices "Agir's Land" tea
has been selling at ; hence my bringing the matter
before the public. — Y'ours faithfully,

SHELTON AGAR.

Tea IN" Japan. — A report published by the Kiyoto
Tea Guild shows that the tea plants in the neighbour-
ing districts have suffered considerably ow ng to the
cold, wet weather ; but, up to the present, nothing
of this has been discernible in the arrivals of tea at the

.open ports. — Japan Weekly Mail.

Copra. — There appears likely to be an increasing
demand for copra, so that our northern settlers may
plant coconut palms with a liberal hand. The
Demerara Argosy advertises, as " a new colonial
product," " coconut oil meal," which ia fold In Deme-
rara for 2.J cents a pound and is fed to stock.
The advertisement says that " this oil is made from

i the kernel of the coconut, after the oil has been
extracted ; but considerable oily and other nutritious
matter still remains in the product, and consequfntly
makes it one of the most nutritious and fattening
feeds that can be got for stock of every kind,
especially for fowls. Stock of every kind, which have
been ful on this meal, when cooked have a delicious
flavor, an immense improvement on the tough taste-
less things we have hitherto been accustomed to.
We can quite believe that this article would be all
that ia claimed for it in feeding poultry at any rate. —
Queensland Planter and farmer,

August i, iSSj.J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

137

The Great Bark Cocnthy of Amertca is thus
deBcribed in a recent account ;— Thp Kimaa Cathilic
religion is tlia prevailing one in Bo'ivii. Anyotler
form of faith is merely tolerated, and genfral educ-
ation is much nfglected. Tho leading society i:-
lariiely composed of military adventurers and m'!n
of the bar. The backwardness of the pcoiile at large,
and the miserable trca ons which ever aiid anon jir.-
committed by Government oflioials. c n'i'iua'ly thrcv
ing the codntry into a dreadful state of aiiarclij
and guaranteeing no security for luvestmcntB, hav.
hitherto been II e Btumbliugblock on the rond o.
proijrt ssive life in Bolivia.— 5o!((/i American Joiinial,
.yay loth.

* Published at "Ceylon Observer" Office, pages 77;
price III ; in London, 'i, Bouverio Street, 2i,

18

" TEA, CACAO, CIXCHOXA, ARECA AND

OTHER PLANTING INDUSTRIES IN CEYLON.*''

(A Review.)

As one who has spent over twenty years in diCfereot
parts of the world, I have often been applied to for
advice as to which was the most promising place
for a young man to go tu, and as to the sort of life
which ho would h.ive to lead there. With regard to
the Australian settlemcuts, my advice has alwaj's
been easily given, and the foit of life and prospects
there have been as easily understood, but, when I
came to deEcribe the life of a Ceylon planter, and
the chances of success in the accumulation of money
in that island, 1 have had f.ir greater difficulty in
making myself intelligible to thoso desiring to emi-
grate, fiom ihe fact that tropical agriculture is not
understood by these at ull In a small p.Tmphlet
entitled " Tea and Othfr Planting Industries in Cevlon
in 1S85," 1 have found a rtady solution to the
difficulty, for that work tells as clearly and coucistly
as it isijossible, what the prospects are fora young
man, with a little cipital and plenty of em rgy. The
work is published with the express purpose of point-
ing out that Ceylon is a good field for investment,
and, I think, it has nude a verr good case, without
being too optimistic in its argunidils, for " Moder-
ation " steps in with a very wholesome letter of advice,
which, so far from damaging the case by ti.e tue-
picious which he ventures to express, aotaally leaves
the reader with a more favourable opinion of the Held
for investment, by the very clearing away of those
suspicions by the encouraging reports which come in
answer to " Moderation " s letter. Of courbe. Tea is
held up as the means by which a young man is to
increase his capital ; but other products, such as cacao,
cinchona, spices and even the nearly defunct " King
Coll'ee," are not forgotten, but are all spoken of
favorably ; and when I remember the splendid fields
of cacao in Dumbara and Matale, I think it well de-
serves to be classed well to the front. Philosophers
speak about a nave of depression, which is sweeping
over all parts of the world at pre."ent, and, without
going into the reason why this is so, I think the
pamphlet under notice has proved that Ceylon is no
worse off than other countries, but ii deed may be said
to be in a more favorable way, as the ''wave"se(m8
to have swept past its shores, and it is onco more
on the faT road to repay these who have stuck to
the ship when supposed to be in a sioking slate. Tho
compiler modestly fays that he will be repaid any
trouble it may have coft him if the | ages serve to
interest even a few young men in tho industr'es of
Ceylon. I think I may safely say that not one single
re.ider will I.15 down tie wrrk W'ithout having had
his interest thoroughly awakened in tho subject.

A Retiiied Planter.

In the Old Country, June 16tb,

COFFEE ADULTERATION.

Kandy, 10th July 1885.
To the Editor of the Tropical ArjricuHurist, Colombo.
Sin,— In reference to page 54 of the issue of tho
Troiiirid A'ji-icii/tun-it ioi inly, ]\xat received, I observe
an extraetfrom the Annual Report for 1884-85 of the
Coorg Planters' Association, and think it right to prevent
any misapprehension regarding tho paragraph on
the .adulteration of cofTee to annex a copy of the
letter, which I had addnssed to the Honorary Se-
cretary of the Coorg Planters' Association on the subject.
— I am, sir, your obedient servant,

A. PHILIP, Secretary.

(Letter nferred to.)
Planters' Association of Ceylon, Kandy, 30th June 1885.
<i. I{. Evans, Ksq., Hon. Secretary, the Coorg Planters'
Association, Mercara.— Dear 8ir,— I ob.serve from the re-
port of the proceedings of your Association in tho Jfadms
IVeekiy .1[uil of the 13tb instant that reference is made
to tliis Associalinn iu connection with the steps to be
taken ill regard to the admixture and adulteration of cofTeo.
As von may not be aware of the decision rome to
sometime ago, I beg to transmit by book-post a copy of
proceedings of this Associalion 1883-84, and to refer you
to pages 218-221, &c., &c. The book of proceedings for
the year emling February 1885 will be issued soon
when I hope to have the pleasure of sending you a
copy. I shall bo glad if you will reciprocate with copy
of your proceedings etc. from time to time.— I am, dear
sir, yours faithfully, (Signed) A. Philip, Secretary.

THE TEA INDUSTRY IN INDIA:

Btl Colonel Money.

(If'iittcn fpeciilli/ for the "Ceylon Ohierver.")

THE RAPID GROWTH OF THE INDIAN TEA INDUSTRY — THK HIS-
TOKV OF TEA PLANTINO IN INDIA — MISTAKES MADE UY
THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SELECTION OF LAND AT HIGH ELEV-
ATIONS— THE INDIAN TEA DISTRICTS— MONEY LOST BY
MISTAKES— IBKEPAEAIiLE MISCHLEFDONE BY THE IJLPOETA-
TION OP CHINA SEED — THE DISCOVERY OF THE ASSAM INDIGEN-
OL'S TEA — HIGH AND LOW GROWN TEAS— INDIAN AND
CHINESE TEA MIXTURES — PURE TEA THE EXCEPTION — IN-
CREASE IN THE I5IP0R1S FROM INDIA ,\ND DECREASE IN
THOSE FROM CHINA — THE TEA OF THE FUTURE — INDIAN
TEA NOT A FINANCIAL SUCCESS— SUPPLY EXCEEDING DE-
MAND AND CONSEQUENT FALL IN PRICES — A WARNING TO
CEYLON PLANTERS— NEW MAKKETS - ADVANTAOE.S OF INDIA
AND CEYLON OVER CHINA— TEA FlRlNCi JIACHINERY.

East India Club, St. .lames' S(|uare, S.W., 12tli June 18^5.

Perhaps no great undertaking of any kind has ever as-
sumed larger proporiions in a comparatively short time
than the tea industry in India, which boasts today of nearly
300,00(1 acres under plant. Fifteen years ago tea from Hindu-
stan w.ts virtually unknown in Kn;;'and. The imports did
not then exceed 13 million pounds in the year. They are
nov/ 04 million, or above one-third of tlie whole consumption
of Great Britain.

The history of the lea Industry in India is a very remiu-k-
able and curious one. The iiossibibty of growing tea there
wiisfirft mooted in iS38, and the Indian (ioverntnent started
an experimental ganlen at Lukimpore (As.sam) at that time.
It is perhaps strange this war, not dolw; before, for, as early
as 17'Sil some tea plants had been brouglit from China by a
Colonel Kyd, and were cultivated in Calcutta. As Calcutta
is not a coud climate for tea, the cliaiic< 8. are,' — the plants ditl
not thrive well. However that may be, it is certain nothing
wILs done witli a view of growing tea in India till 1S36. From
183fi till )845 again little or nothing was done. Assam is a
long way from the seat of (iovernim-nt in (.'alcntta. As re-
gards time, it was nuicli farther in those days than Knglaml
is now. There are no records to show how the said experi-
mental garden in Assam flourished ; it failed eventually ; but
in 1845 and following years the Indian Government awoke
to the faetth-tt tea cnn/i/ ho grown in India, and large
quantities of China seed were imported.

The first mistake was then made. Because, presuinafciy

13«

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885^

luclia is hottfi- than China, localities were sought
which, uwiug to elevation, had more or less of a
tempi.-rati- cliniate, ;iud tljus the first nurseries estab-
lished w(-*re ou tlie iiimalayas. This was a mistake, be-
c:ni.-";, though surni; of the best Indian tea is produced in
those el< vuled rejjions, the growth of the plant is very
slow there, and ihe yieltl less than half what it is in moist
climates un the plains. The Indian Govurnnient was gener-
ous in tlmse days. Land, to grow tea in those mountains,
was ottered on easy terms to any individuals who would
essay the cultivation, .-md soedliii^s from the said Govern-
ment nurseries were ottered gratis. For five years, viz., up
to IS.'jU, however, tiovernnient were the only cultivators,
anil then private individuals, seeing it was a .stu:cess, com-
menced plantations in Kumaon and Gurwhal, which are
districts in the Himalayan range.

While I hiK was being done in the north-west of India, the
Assam Company, as early as 1810, bad commenced cultiv-
ation in the south-east, vi?,., in Assam. There are now no
less than 13 tea districts in India, and the cultivation in
each w;i8 conunenced in the following years: — Assam 1810,
Kumaon and Gnrwlial Ifs'lJ, (Jachar lBo5, Dehra Dhoon
I.Soo, Sylln:t 1H.')7, Kangra ISW, D.irjee'ing IHOO, Tcrai
IsOU, Cliittagong 1860, Neilgherries 18G2, Chota Nagpore
1872 and Uooars 1875. Thus, with one exception, it may be
said tea planting in Imlia dates from 18.51), or only a little
more than :!ij years back. What wonderful strides it has
made in that time : wonderful in the quantity now produced,
more wonderful still the improvements in manufacture
over the old Chinese method.

Mistakes are certain to be made in new fields of enter-
prize. With all its wonderful success, with all the per-
severance and energy which have made the Indian tea
industry what it is today, the mistakes made, looked
at with the knowledge experts have now, seem as
wonderful as the results achieved. It is very certain
that had a tithe of the knowledge existing now, been
available in the early days, many millions sterling wasted,
owing to ignorance, would have been saved ; the area under
cultivation in India would not have cost half what it has;
and perhap.s, more important than all, good as Indian teas
are, they would then have been far better.

The last shall be the first explained. A Committee was
appointed in 1834 to report on the possibility of cultivating
tea in India, and, strange as the delav seems, it was not
till 1845 the Government took the first steps, and for some
years continued to import China seed. When the said
Committee was first formed (and strange to say it na.i
possible), had an Individual stepped forward and said,
" No such Committee is necessary, the question you are
asked to solve was settled by nature some hundreds of
years ago,"* he would have been esteemed mad ; but it was
no less true. Again when, in 184o, the Government began
importing China si'ed, had they been told tliey were in-
juring what was destined to bo one of India's great in-
dustries, they would only have been told the truth. At
that time, and for hundreds of years previously, many st^uare
miles of tea trees, the indigenous plant of India, existed
in the sondiic, (lecp and damp forests uf Assam and a part of
Cnchur. 'I'le re nun seed enough at hand for all the re-

3nircments of Indin, and seed of a very superior kind, many
pgri'os liellcr than the China tea seed 1 The most
Viduiiliie livi received how from If.dift Is the p'-oduct of
th'i! iiidl;;enoiis «eed, Tlie best gardens ci'" thoes ll! Which
the tea pill '9, mnotly nmv hjbrid.", pB'ilinilatt' Uturest to
Uieidd'jretioU' litllltre. I'hiiR, Wlii'n India was Hooded with
Clliua lea S'ed.lricpdi'ald!' tnlschi. F wMR done to the cultiv-
ation.t The indigenous tea of India IVas fifft discovered
!n Assam, nbout 1830, by a Mr. ' ■, A. f.riire, to wl om
\(ii« grantee! It rccdal for the discov. ry. But it *a« not
till Jdiroafler that' it became known, as a certain fact, fhe
treps, nilrged tn be lea by Mr. Bruce were really so.* Our

• ".Some liullilredl of years afio" I If, as is generally
believed, tea is IlidlBeno'is to Assam, it must have existed
far back iu time. — ho.

t Colonel Money has constantly repealed tins statement,
but tlio vast majority of Indian planters hold lliat good
hybrids are preferable in many caaes to pure A'«am, being
IcS-i delicitte. — I'*D.

; Dr Wallicli di layed llie uti'iz'ng of the indigenous plant
for teverol years, by insisting that it was a camtllia and not

knowledge of the tea plant was, at that time, confined to the
China bush which is say 3or4feet in height. The trees,
said to be tea, found in Assam were 3U feet high I liut,
little by Uttle, the fact became patent. The trees were cut
down to ii or 4 feet from the ground, new branches and
leaves sprouted, tea was made from the latter, sent home,
and pronounced Ijy the brokers to be wonderfully good.
Then came a great rush for the forests where those trees
were, others were removed, the indigenous seed was sown
in the vacant spaces, and many of those gardens are the
best and most valuable toilay. The indigenous plant of
Iniiia is far the better, but it lacks the hardihood of the
China bush. Had the knowledge we have now been avail-
able then, a little China seed of the best kind should have
been imported, and hybrids carefully reared with a dash
alone of the Cldna in them. We should then have had a
very perfect plant for India, whereas now the plant most
common, in the Himalayas at least, is much more Chinese
than indigenous, some of it entirely Chinese.

Two distinct teas, the produce of high and low elevations,
or in other words of tropical and temperate climes, are re-
ceived from India. They vary much. The high tea is the
more delicate in flavour, but much weaker than the low kind.
In case of those essaying Indian teas for the first time,
th<; former is preferable; but the latter, owing to its greater
strength, goes much farther, and is the more econonucal to
use. After a time it is preferred by many to the hill teaa.
Until 4uite lately the only use iu England made of Indian
tea was to mix it with Chniese, to give the latter the strength
in which some kinds were deficient. Now, of the 64 mil-
lion pounds imported, certainly not more than the odd 4
million are retailed pure. But the taste for Indian teas
grows apace, and yearly more and more will be used un-
mixed with the produce of the fiowery land. Because
Indian is dearer than Chinese tea, the more of the latter
there is in any blend or mixture retailed, the larger the
profit of the vendor. Pure Chinese or pure Indian tea
today is rpiite the exception : the former simply
because the public won't have it, as lacking the body the
partial use of the latter has lately accustomed them to.
i'ure Indian tea is the exception, partly because the educ-
ation of tbe public in that way is not yet complete, partly
owing to its higher cost. The moss of the tea consumed
in Great Britain, today, is a mixture of about two-third«
Cliinose and one-third Indian.

In 183!) the first of the Indian teas were sold in
I/Ondon. The quaotity was small, and fancy prices, 15 to
3.5 shillings a pound, were paid 1 Xot before 1865 had it
eome home in sufficient quantities to attract much atten-
tion, but after that year it increased (juickly, till in 1870
thirteen million pounds were imported, four years after,
viz. Irt74, the imports rose to seventeen million ; 8j;ain
4 years, 1878, they had more than doubled-being thirty-
six niilliftn ; and they went on increasing until last year,
when they stood at sixty-four million, or abov(; one-third
of the total tea imports. While India ha.s been thus ad-
vancing, the imports from China have been actually
decreasing. The yearly largo increase in the consumption
Is more thun supplied by India alone, a« the following
hgurcj (pounds; show i —

China.

85,704,000
U8,89G,C00
110,880,000
The above shows
lion of China is
is advancing with

Years.
IS04
187-1
l8«4

Percentage
Indian. To al. China. Indian'

2,708,000 88,600,000 07 3
I8o2»,000 137.424,000 87 la
61,212,000 1"5,002,000 (j3 a?
at a glance, that, while the consump-
stfadily decreasing, Indian tea
giant strides, for, whereas twenty

years ago India only supplied 3 per cent of the
tea eonsunit'd in the t'nfted Kingdom, last year
her proiinrlion was 3? per cent, that Is nio»c than one-
lliird of the whole. The above figures are also Interest-
ing as sho«ing the enormous inerea.se in the tea con-
sumption each di'cade, an<l that during the last, while
the said total increase was 38 njillion, the increase of
Indian tea was 46 million. Thus there is some ground
for saj ing, as some do, that Indian tea will be the tea
of the future.

A" regards financial results to the growers, Indian tia
has been scarcely a success. AVhen the industry first
Btarted, both tbe cultivation and the manufacture were

August j, 18S5.3

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

139

unknown, and everything was douc exi)ensivcly. There were
generally two or three Obiaamen to be found, in those
early days, on every garden, and in many caseR they
taught us wrong. There are very few now. The Indian
planter thinks, and the result shows he is right, he knows
more about tea than his Chinese brother. Gradually, as
knowledge increased, economy was studied, but an element,
not foreseen, had slipjjfd in. Su})i)Iy began to exceed
demand, botli as regai'dg Chinese and Indian teas, and
prices fell. A few years back Indian planters easily realized
two shillings and upwards for their teas all round, they pet
not much more than half that now. Some fortunes were
doubtless made by the lucky ones in the first good days,
some even with the present low ])rices manage to make
tea pay still, but the days of large jirofits are gone. Take
it all in all, from the first up to this time, quite as much
money has been lost as made by Indian tea.

Still, in sjjite of [he above, there is probably a fair fu-
ture in store for the Indian tea-planter, that is for those
who /(rtif good gardens, liut, with the market as it is now,
it is no less than folly to invest in new cultivation. The
hindrance to success has been that too many embarked
in the industry. Too much tea is alreavly grown in India
and she has now a very formidable rival in Ceylon, where
the cultivation is extending greatly, and whence tea, quite
equal to Indian, is sent home. But the planters in Cey-
lon should be warned by the experience of those
in India, for it is very possible they are rushing too
much ahead. The question of new markets for tea is
an all-important one to the producer. The ta.ste
for Indian tea is spreading in Australia, somewhat
also in America, and the demand from those countries may
be eventually enormous. But that will not be yet. .Shortly,
if supply does not increa.se much, demand will probably
overtake it, and better prices result. Let it do so beiore
the tea area is wideni'd. Some thought, some still think,
the war in China will raise prices : it has not done so yet.

How far Indian tea will eventually supersede China is of
course a question. The figures of the last two years
certainly lead to the behef, that, in the near future, the im-
ports will be at least equal. There is no doubt the teas
of India and Ceylon have some advantages. They are
much stronger, and therefore, though much dearer, more
economical. It is said, that, while many desert Chinese for
Indian teas, the converse is very rare. Some China tea has
hten now and then condemned as adulterated, but in no
one instance has any foreign substance been found in Indian
tea. The fact that Indian tea is all manufactured by
machinery, instead of by hand as in China (tea manufacture
by the hand is not a nice process) ensures its cleanliness.
^\*hen we consider that tea has been cultivated and manu-
factured in China more thau a thousand years, in India
some thirty only, it is almost incrediblt:, but no less a fact,
that in point of luauufacture the Indian planter is far ahead
of the Chinaman.

<Jne proof may be given. In China (it is bo stilly tea
has always been fired with charcoal. The Chinese im-
ported in the early days to teach us tea manufacture in
India, said this was necessary, and that the fumes of char-
coal had some beneficial chemical effect on the tea. We
did as we were taught for some years, for, though charcoal
was a very expensive and inconvenient agent, we then |
knew no better. After a time a series of experiments,
carefully conducted by me, showed that heat from any fuel, ,
if the products of combustion did not mingle with it, was }
equally efhcacious, nay m&de better tea, but it took a
long time ere my convictions were accepted. Not likely,
planters said, the Chinese would have used charcoal for
centuries ha<i it not been necessary ! The result proved
however I was right. The first crude machine I designed I
for the operation, at the .Sooin Tea Plantation in Darjeeliug
in 1S71, established the fact. (See page 23!) of ray Tea Book,
4th edition. > It was soon superseded by more perfectones,
and very nearly all Ceylon and Indian tea is now fired by
the agency of coal, wood, or any fuel. Economy in ninna-
facture is the result. The comparative immunity of the
forests in India is another advantage, and it is now an
accepted fict that superior teas are thus made, that is
always supposing it isuot, by excessive heat, done too quickly,
which seems to bt; the error fdanters are falling into now. [
Whereas in India each and every process in manufacture )
s done by machinery, the Oliinese still make their tea by I

hand as their forefathers ilid belon- them. A well sit up
tea factory iu India is a wonderful sight, when the iufancy
of the industry is considered. Machines are there present
for each and every process, anil tli(y are many. Much
labour is saved thereby, and improved tea the result.

If ever Indian supersedes Chinese tea in England, the re-
sult will be due, in a great measure, to the use of machinery*
in its manufacture, Edw\ri) Movfv
^

THE NORTH BRITISH BOIINEO COMPANY,
The progress of the North British Borneo Conipauy
has always been so in'ereste<lly followed iuCejhm,
and so many of those who have, during the late
years of misfortune, failed to make their way in
your colony have jirocecded to try their luck in
Borneo, that the following rejjort of what transpired
at a meeting of the Company's shareholders this week
cannot fail to be of intertBt to your readers : —

The fifth half-yearly general meeting of the British North
Borneo Company was held yestt-rday, at the CityTerminus
Hotel. Sir Rutherford .\lcock, K. c. B., presided, and in
moving the adoption of the report observed that they had
now been at work for three years, and it might be desirable
that be should make a brief review of the progress which
had been made by them. The total receipts for the year
ended December Slst last had been £20.04.3, being an in-
crease, as eiimpared with the previous year, of 6tl percent,
while the expenditure of 1S84 showed a ili'creaseof 30 per
cent as compared with lI'SH. Their receipts were made up
( f three diff erint items — £15,2-38, the revenue proper — rents,
rates, taxes, &c. ; £2,8!)8, which had been received from land
sales, and £1,717 from interest on investments. He thouuht
with these results before thi-m they would see that they
were in a fair way to attaining the end they were seeking;
but to understand thomughly the significance of the pro-
gre.ssof the conqjany they must remember the very adverse
circumstances in which thi-y bad been working. ^Vlmost
immediately after taking over thecountry there was an un-
exampled depression. There had been great speculation
among the Chinese, both at Shanghai and Hongkong in
various companies, which had endt-'d more or less dis-
astrously, and quickly following on that state of things there
were the hostilities with the French, which had destroyed
all trade on the coast, and all trading intercourse among
Chinese and foreigners in the treaty ports. A comparative
statement of revenue and expenditure for 1883 and 1884 was
given iu the report, and it would be seen tliat the increase in
the revenue had been under every bead with only two or
three exceptions, and the same remark applied to the re-
duction iu the expenditure. They had followed the i-xample
of .Singapore and Hongkong, and tbey now had no import
duties. They had received the must favourable reports from
Governor Treacher of the prospect of an increase in neai-ly
all the items which had been already coiitinualiy increasing,
anfi now that there was a cessation of the war with China,
and more capital would be liberated, tbey might hope that
a considerableextent of land, which had been ullcjwed to lie
fallow from want of enterprise, would come speedily into
cultivation. Timber, tobacco, and minerals had hardly ap-
peared in their returns yet, but th' y now offered very great
promise. Beyond this there was certain jungle proiluce —
sago, pe])per, hemp. Of timber they had practically an in-
exhaustible supply ; tobacco was one of the most fruitful of
tlieir prospects; and, with regard to minerals, without wish-
ing to raise any over-sanguine expectations of immediate
wealth, he might say that they had a.sccrtained, certainly,
that gold was in two of their rivers. As to their iitw
territory, they had every reason to believe that this acces-
sion would prove^very advantageous to tlieni. It had given
them an aildition of CO miles of coast, and it took (hem
down to Brunei Bay. They had obtained this territory on
what they conceived to be very advantageous terms, and
great credit was due to Governor Treacher for the
successful manner in which he had negotiated its
accjuisition. The territory possessed a largo popul-
ation— which of itself v/as a great advantage — and it was
covered with produce, sago, rics, anil other articles, which
were immediately saleable. With regard to their financial
position, they had some £lfi,000 available, in addition to
» With skill and conscientious care,— ljl.p '

140

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

the £18,000 which was out in advances, and cash balances
ill Borneo, part of which were held in reserve against the
treasury notes they had issued. From this it would be seen
that further funds would be required, but not more than
£40,000, only half of which would be imuiediately wanted.
The du-ectors had therefore decided to call up £1 a share,
which would be sufficient until about that time next year,
when another call of the sauie amount might be necessary,
Within the year 1886 it might be reasonably hoped, having
regard to the progress which thoy had already made, under
most unfavourable couditious, that an equilibrium would
be established between revenue and expenditure, unless
some wholly unforeseen circumstances should occur. Rear-
Adrairal U. 0. Mayne, 0. B., seconded the motion. In
reply to Mr. Deuce, the chairman stated that the conven-
tion which had been made between England, Spain and
Germany with regard to the Sulu ArchipeUgo and British
Borneo was entirely to the company's advantage, for until
it was signed there was just a possibility of some question
being raised by Spain about tlieir trade and position and
their immunity as to the Archipelago. With respect to
the duties, there was to be no monopoly, and Spain was to
bo on the same footing with Germany ami England. The
motion was unanimously adopted, and the retiring directors
and auditors were afterwards re-elected. In reply to a vote
of thanks, the chairniau stated that they were founding a
great colony, which he was satisfied would sooner or later
become of immense value to the nation as well as to those
who were now concerned in developing its resources.

I cannot refrain from telliog you how one of your
oldest planters recently expressed himself with refer-
ence to your 'Tropical Agriculturist to a friend of my
own. He said it was to him, now that he had
quitted Ceylon, one of his greatest pleasures and
resources. That he industriously read every word of
it, and never failed to tind in each number much
that was new and instniclivo. He further said he
could not conceive that any man actually engaged
itt planting work in any part of the world could
do without it. This private opinion is but confirm-
atory of that expressed by every journal by which
your useful monthly has been reviewed or noticed.*

"TEA NOTES": BY MR. A. F. UOWLING,

of ihe kornafuli association, limited,
Chittagono.

In noticing this work we commence by publishing
a letter which has reached us from the author. Mr.

Dowling writes:—

" At page 822 of your May number of the Tropical
Agriculturist, I find some ' Generally-admitted Facts with
regard to the Manufacture of Tea ' attributed to the ' late
Mr. Cameron.' They were written by Mr. A. F. Bruce
and myself in May XSSI. It would scarcely be necessary
to mention this, were it not for the circumstance that I
have embodied such of the facts as are not. considered
antiquated now in my 'Tea Notes,' page 31, of which
I recently sent you a copy.

"The -Facts' wore freely circulated, and Mr. Cameron
(or Campbell) must have taken liis cnpy fium this to
Ceylon."

We copied the matter fr.im the local "Times, to
which it seems to l]ave been sent by a correspondent.
In t^e preface to his work Mr. Dowl.ug ii:atcs : —

These notes were originally compiled for the use of the
Kornafuli Association. "Mr. A. F. Bruce supplied thegre.iter
part of " Forest Trees," Mr. A. Watson tlic " Vernacular,"
the rest of the collection consisting </f extracts from the
several Note Books at the A.ssiiciation's gardens.

In the copies offered for sale tlie pages of Areas, Crops,
expenditure, &«•> "•'« 'eft blank, while tlio book has been
iiiterleaved throughout to admit of adiiitious and correc-

There will naturally be found much to alter in a compil-

« And yet, many proprietors of large esjatrs make no
provision for the supply and filing of this periodical (costing
a few rupees or shillings per aniuim) on their properties— bo.

ation of this sort. The book does not claim to be an author-
ity: it is merely a collection of Notes subject to correction.
A better edition may be issued later on, if those who have
occasion to refer to the pages will be kind enough to point
out any errors they may come across, and will offer sugges-
tions tor subsequent improvement.

The " Notes " form a curiously mixed collection of
matter, commencing with a Calendar extending from
May 1885, the date of publication, to December 1886.
There is an almanac and the names of the months in
English and Bengalee, with the Bengalee alphabet.
Then come pages with headings for filling in areas
planted at different dates ; averages and outturns of
tea with garden cost and freight per lb. ; expenditure
under diflferent headings per acre, such as European
and native establishments, old and new cultivation,
buildings, ccoly expenses, manufacture per lij., freight
to Calcutta and carriage and boat-hire per maund,
and general charges, with total garden cost and freight
per lb. deduced. The book was primarily designed
for the superintendents of estates connected with the
Company for which Mr. Dowling is manager, but
it will afford useful hints to tea cultivators every-
where. No fewer than nine kinds of bamboo are
named in the Notes as applied to various purpose?,
amongst which we fiud "slings and binding purposes."
The best time for cutting bamboos is saul to be
December, whtu there is a decided wintering iu
Northern India, the foliage of bamboos being white.
Then as regards '-belt lacings " we get some curious
information us to eel skins : —

The strain on belts isalways in the direction of their length
and therefore boles cut for the reception of lacing should be
oval. Eel skins, when procurable, make the best lacing belts.
Kaw hide lacings are useless, and Indents should express
Dres.sed leather.

FifTures for the dimensions of tea boxes arc given
which we need not quote, but we notice that between
40 Ih. box'S (recommended by the Tea Syndicite
for Australia) and tne 80 Ul chest there is a differ-
ence of cost of HI 10 annas per maund in favour oi
the larger package. Information U given about bricks
and buildings which shows that the cosi of the latter
at Chittagoug is very moderate. The position is laid
down that garden rates sliould be une-third to a
half less than thoBe paid by Government. Of rattan-
oime there are six kinds which are applied to various
purposes, including "slaking" There is quite a
chapter on " the Chemistry of Tea," from which we
quote as follows :— , , it

From the moment pressure is brought to bear on the suc-
culent leaves in the Rolling Machines through the silent
proce.s6 of fermentation or coloring, to the tinio when the
fragrant smelling tea leaves the tires, a variety of chemical
changes occur iu the Dextrine, GluC'jse, Gum, the Tannin,
Nitrogen, Potash, Ammonia, Chlorine and Sulphuric Acid
and Essential Oil, which are found in the extract or''Liquor."
Is it too much to expect that, in the course of time, to the
monotonous report of "greyish, fair tip, brisk, little tiavor',;
mav be added the more desirable information of " fairly
gummv, potash 2-13 per cent ouly, good trace of Essential
Oil " '{ We could then, with our knowledge of manures, sup-
ply after a while the lacking Potash, ami do our best to keep
ui'i the desired proportion of Essential Oil.

lleferringto •' Soils and Manures " for the constituents
of tea leaves and manufactured tea, I add the following partic-
ulars from m.v note-book : —

Jcids redden blue litmus paper.
Alknties or bases give a blu(! color to red papcr.^
Acids und J//-ff/«» have thus a kind of antagouistio func-
tion, and neutralize one another.

Acids acting on liuus from salts which commonly have no
action on either blue or red litmus paper.

T/icive gives Tea its bitter taste— it is very nitrogenous ;
although a base, it does not, as other bases, neutralize an
acid. It does not exist in the leaf in a free state, but as
Taminle of Tlieiiu'. . ,

Tuiniiu gives astriiigency and color to the tea— it is parti-
ally de«ti-oycd during fermentation.

August i, 1S85.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

141

aud the

Liquor,

bright,

pungeut ;

dark green,

dirty,
fair,

soft;
thiu ;
iliU-k :

ordiuary,
good,

wt-ak ;
thick ;

bl'Lck,
gooil,

weak ;
full ;

very bail ;
cloudy ;

Tan consists of uitric acid and resins. It can be manu-
factured from nitric acid and charcoal. A solution of Gelatin
gives a white flucculont precipitate, showing the tannin in
tea, aud ferric acid, \vhich can be made from iron tilings dis-
solved in warm cilute uitric acid, gives a blue-black pre-
cipitate.

Certain couibiualiuus of Tannin absorb oxygen from the
air :ind turn black and all substances containing tannic
acid turn black wheu brought in contact with iron.
The following experiments may be of interest : —

Makes the Outturn
Added to Roll.
Chlorate of Potash ...dulls the tips,
Carbonate of Am-
monia ...improves „
Tannic Acid ... ,, ,,
Carbonate of Soda ...dulls ,,
Hydrochloric Acid ...ordinary ,,
Gum Arabic ... „ ,,
Hydrochloric Acid

and Gum ... „ tt

Nitrate of Soda ... „ „

Tincture of Steel ...dulls the lips,
Nitiate of Potash ...ordinary tips,
tlie taste of the liquor being injured in every instance.

The last experiment but one shows ho,v necessary it is to
ensure that no iron comes in contact with the moist roll, or
the apjiearanee of leaf, color of outturn, and the liquor will
be prejudicially aflected.

What is said about iron is the general belief of
planters everywhere, and yet it has been stated that
a planter who turns out some of t!ie best teas which
go from Ceylon Lares the iron in his roller so as
to let the tea come in direct contact with it ! There
is information ab.jut chaukidars or village watchmen,
which is not applicable to Ce>lou. Damp coal is said
at pack in less space than charcoal, 10 clamps go to
n full chest, aud choolas or drying furnaces, where
used, should be

•25" from ground to top of brick work, an-l 2' 8" square in-
side top. This takes a tray of 2' 10" x 2' 9" x 3" deep. Our
iron ovens are of a size to fit the choola top of the part-
icular garden where they are used, but are always 21 inches
to admit 5 trays, and a lower zinc elide.
We naturally pass over a c-.mple of strangely inter-
jected paragraphs about Lil'eri:'n and Arabian coffee,
aud as to colour contrasts in the case of paint for
machinery, we content ourselves with quoting the
opinion that " a good cheap contrast, serviceable and
clean, is the old-fashioned stone colour and black."
Contract rates for masonry, brickniaking, sawyers,
tanks and excavations are given, and we learn as
re,i;:a'd8 tea boxes that

Carpenter should put together 4 chests from shooksand
3 chests from planks per diem. Tin-smith should line 15
boxes.

The notices rtgarding stakes for planting, bamboos,
withering trays, dallas and ba.skets arc scircely ap-
plicable to Ceylon. As rfg.irds the manufacture of
all th'se appliances, Mr. Dowliug says :—" The work
dnne by garden coolies is invariably better than con-
tiact work, but usually more costly." Fi(»ures as to
weight and dimensions of sheets of corrugated iron
and information as to the (|uality of cotton need not
be quoted. Crop figures state that S.") maunda of
leaf were gathered on an estate under Mr. Dowling's
charge on 4th August 1883, and it is shown that
the period for gathering half the crop extends from
June to September, picking being commenced in March,
we presume. Mr. Dowling states : —

The average of 1882, in which "year we got fair October
showers, was 6th July quarter aud 27th August half crop
date. The average half crop dale of the district for a
number of years is generally accepted as 2-lth August.
There are useful tables

Showing cost, in Shillings and Pence, laid down in Lon-
don, of Indian Tea, at Exchange from Is. 7>1 to Is lOd. pc-r
rupee ; Freight at £3 10s.

There are hints on Gardening, which, being short, we
quote : —

A good mould for seeds sown in pots is: — Half leaf
mould, half common loamy earth with a little sand.
A little pounded charcoal .should be mixed with the
covering soil.

Coal ashes mixed with dry horse maniu-eigan excellent
fertilizer for llower beds. Ked and violet tlowers are bene-
fitted by covering the earth in their pots with about an inch
of pulverized charcoal. The colors are hiteusitied. White
llowers or roses will be greatly improved in brilliancy by
mixing iron filings and ashes with the soil. A dressing of
quickUme also improves the color of flowers.

All creeping plants, such as Verbena and Lobelia, shoidd

have the first bloom picked off before being pegged down

to the surface of the mould. This will hasten the spreading,

AVeeds on paths can generally be destroyed by watering

with a very dilute solution of carbolic acid.

Flaut Fertilizer. — Ammonium suli>hate, 4 troy ozs ; potass-
urn nitrate, 2 troy ozs. ; white sugar, 1 troy oz. Pow-
der, mix and dissolve in 1 quart of water. One tablespoon-
ful of this mixture added to one gallon of water, and
si)rinkled on the plants once'or twice a week, enriches the
soil, aud imparts health and '\'igor to the plants.
Under the heading "Indents" is shown what should
be fpecilied in ordering adzes, anvils, augers, &c. It
seems from a par.igraph on Marine Insurance that
in India tea leaf can be insured from date of pluck-
ing to .30th day after arrival in Calcutta. The re-
cipe for kerosene as an insecticide may be useful
where poochies arc prevalent : —

Kerosine oil 1 gallon, milk 1 quart, water 1 quart, Mix
intimately, and dilute with 12 volumes of water.
Weights of bar iron are given, aud regarding hoop iron
we learn that

Of 2" size, 8 oz. or 10 feet to a tea chest when clamps
are employed. 1 bundle of 561b. thus goes to 112 chests.
Of I" size „ „ „ 100 „

But if the Japan dove-tailed boxes are generally used
in Ceylon, hoop iron can be saved, " Kodales " our
planters know all about. We pass over Government
returns, which are far more onerous in India than
in Ceylon. Under " Land Measurement " it is gravely
asserted that

In measuring Hill lands, the Surveyor takes from top to
top of the Hill. The gain in sloping land, such as the
Thandaehiri Bungalow Teelah, is seven per cent, by actual
measurement.

What have scientific men to say to this? The book
is written for Indian planters, who, doubtless, will
appreciate the information that " the chuckbund of a
KKHjiHins the lionndary ofa?H</irt/"! "Land Tenures"
have no direct applicability to Ceylon, where all plant-
ations are h-.-ld on a peppeicoro tenure. A specimen,
in Bengalee and Roman characters, (d a letter from a
Native Mohnrrir to an estate sup._rientedent is given,
and immediately following is an extract from the
Trnjiical Aiirieuliurist on China "lie" tea. We
quote thus from "Machinery": —

Jackson's Stand.ard Uoller gives its best twist with the
Machine worked at S3 revolutions per minute. 130 lb. of
withered leaf can be completed in 12 minutes.

Jack.son's Excelsior wit h 70 revolutions and 1101b. withered
leaf turns out a good roll in 10 minutes.

Kinmond's Dryer No. 2 at Fenoa consumes H maund
wood per maund of Tea.

The Siroeeo at Kangnnea finishes 2.3 lb. Tea in one liour,
and bums about 2 niaunds wood to I maund nf Tea.

Jackson's Hand Roller Uikvs 4 men at tlu^ handles and
20 lb. withered leaf at a fill. It will turn out a maund
and a half in an hour, aud eight men will finish olf 7 to
8 Mds. within ordinary working hours.
According to this Jackson's Stan</<inl Roller, of
which nothing seems to be known in Ceylon, turns
out (i.")0 lb. withered leaf (equiv-alent to l(i2 lb. made
tea) per hour, and the Kxcelsior IKiO green or l(i,5 lb.
dry lier hour. Tlie Sirocco employed on the estate
referred to by Mr. l>owling u.srs up 2 maunds of
wood to 1 maund of tea. The capacity of Jackson's

142

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August t, 1885.

hauil roller used in ludia i* so low that it takes in
ouly 20 lb. of leaf at a fill, and yet it is said to turn
out I'-O lb. an liour. The rolling must, therefore, be
completed iu ten minutes, instead of over fifteen
minutes to haU'an-hour, as is, we believe, generally
the case in Ceylon ?» Full instructions for working
ateam-engiues are given.

TheNoteson "Manufacture" we quote : —

1. Leaf is best withered when there is free supply of light
and cool air. AVithering space of 600 square feet to the
mauud is required to <lry leaf in perforated Bamboo trays
in damp weather, or s.-vy 67 trays of 3 x 3 with a spread of
IJ lb. per tray. In dry weather a seer of leaf per tray, or 40
trays per maund, will be found sufficient.

2. Withering iu the sun is objectionable, but in bad
weather wet leaf is bettor withered in the sun or in the wind
than by artifici.il lieat. The operation should not be hurried
as diied leaf is not necessarily withered leaf.

3. Under-withered leaf breaks in the roll and gives a
green outturn. Over- withered leaf gives tips, but a liark out-
turn. Leaf withered in the sun gives a reddish tea. A
bright coppery outturn can only be obtained from properly
withered leaf.

4. The leaf gets broken when low rolling tables are em-
ployed, anything under 3 feet high would seem to be ob-
jectionable. If sap conies (juickly in the roll, it shows that
the leaf has not been properly withered, and too much sap
will cause a knobby or lumpy roll. Heavy rolling destroys
the tip and flavour of the small leaf, but improves the strength
of the large leaf. Were it possible to treat the small
apart from the coarse leaf the quality of both would be
bettered.

5. Contact with iron blackens the roll, and all iron sur-
faces in the Rolling Machines should be changed for wood or
bass. Tannic Acid gives a bl.ick precipitate with iron.

U. Coloriug in balls is uneven. The roll spread out over
3 inches thick has a tendency tu get hot and mawkish. A
spread of \h iucb covered with a white cloth, in acoul place,
takes a good and equal color. There is no fixed time for
this coloring or oxidation. The point at which to stop can
only be determined by the eye. The color of the roll just
before brisk firing is more or less the color which will be
found iu the outturn.

7. Pungency or rasp and a light liquor accompany a green
outturn ; thickness and a dull liquor a dark outturn. Over-
colored roll produces a soft tea. Care given to the wither-
ing ensures good color ; care given to the roll ensures
strength, but it will not ensure flavour. There is as yet no
known method by which flavour can be fixed.

8. Leaf opened out to color requires a light re-rolling. If
too heavy, this second roll %vill discolor the tips. A seetul
pattee mat gives gloss and bloom.

9. Drying in the suu gives a black and tippy tea but the
liquor has a metallic objectionable taste.

10. Quick firing over all aglow fires gives a brisker Tea
than slow firing. The teas get softened over slow fires.
The roll spread thick on firing trays gets stewed and dull:
—it has been spread too thickly when the fires cannot be
seen through contents of tray. When three quarters dried
the trays can be safely, and with advantage to quality,
piled up five deep in iron oven frames and the curing
finished over slow tires. The risk of burning is thus avoided.

11. One and a quarter maunds of charcoal to one niaund
of Tea is ample for Teas cured as above.

12. Pucka battying developes nose or aroma. Drying in
the sun before packing completely desiccates the Tea, but
gives it a peculiar and dangerous flavour,

13. IJulking is better before than after pucka battying to
ensure the Teas being packed hot.

14. Tea rubbed over and through iron or brass sieves
becomes nearly white. Grey leaf is caused by smashing
through the sieves instead of breaking with the fingers.
Jjamboo sieves preserve the bloom but the process is slow
anil costly.

Of course our readers are aware that " pucka batty-
ing " means final firing, and as regards what is said
about treating large and small leaves separately, we
may remind planters, that, while Mr. Meggiuson of
Carolina separates the partially-rolled leaf in a coffee

* Leaf grown at high altitudes seems to require longer
rolling.

pulper sieve, Mr. T. Gray of Maskeliya sifts the
leaf when green and professes to be successful in
the operation. Which is the preferable process ?
or are there any objections to both ? or either ? Mr,
Bowling, it will be seen, did not believe either possible.
We need not copy what is said about "Mensuration"
and " Nails," but we may say that for Nurseries Mr,
Cowling states, that, if the seeds are 3 inches
apart, 12 maunds per acre of nursery ground will
be required ; while, if li inch is the distance, 18
maunds will go in an acre of nursery. No preference
is expressed, at which we aie naturally surprized.
In " Paints and Oils " we notice that for an engine
1 pint coconut oil is equal to 1 quart of castor.
Portland Cement, Polish, and Postage Rates we[may pass
over, but we quote what is said of pots for transplants: —
To prepare earth for making pots for transplants, add
half a maund of fresh manure {\ maund if dry) to a maund
of sticky mud, a quarter maund of charcoal dust, and five
seers hay straw or doop grass chopped tine.
"Doop" is, no doubt, the doub grass, so plentiful
in Ceylou. Prescriptions for fever and other diseases
are given, some of which, for instance " Liq. Arsen.,"
ought certainly not to be administered except on the
advice of a medical man. The story in Ceylou was
that a former superintendent in Dumbara put an end
to 30 coolies before discovering the proper dose of
arsenic ! Amongst the miscellaneous information in
this extraordinary book are illustrations of " Proof
corrections." The rainfall for Kangonea estate for ths
months and years from 1875 to 1884 is given, from
which we find, that, as in most other parts of Northern
India, practically the whole of the rain is concentrated
into the five months, May to September, much the
greater portion indeed falling in June, July and August.
Where rainfall is so unequally distributed the climate
is generally insalubrious. The annual falls varied from
a minimum of 73 inches in 1878 to 125 maximum iu
1883. The average for nine years we make to be
somewhat over 103 inches. There are useful recipes
for a planter's everyday life quoted, such as to unscrew
tight-fitting nuts and so forth. From the paragraph
on Roads we see that the estates in Chittagong are
assessed for roads at over half-a-rupee per acre. There
is information about Shingles, Solder and Soldering
Fluid,— aud also about tea seed which we quote : —

16,000 seedlings raised from the 30,000 seeds which a
niaund is supposed to contain, is a fair average to expect.
Planting 4 feet by 4 feet, 2,722 seedlings fill one acre, and a
mauud of seed is thus about enough for 5J acres of new land.
There is an elaborate chapter on Soils aud Manures
from which we extract as follows : —

To know what our bushes extract from the soil, it is ne-
cessary to be acquainted with the constituents of green tea
leaves, manufactured tea, tea extract, the spent leaves and
tea ashes.

The leaves of the tea bush are all that are actually removed
fiom the land, provided that weeds are buried, which in
every case should be returned to the soil to keep up its
fertility. The leaves contain a large proportion of water,*
which is taken back by the soil from natural sources. All
but about 5 per cent of this water is driven off in the pro-
cess of firing the leaf, the residue, or manufactured tea, con-
sisting of the following substances : —
In the extract or soluble part, or Liquor : —

Per ceut.
Dextrine, glucose, gum, principally carbon ...17"55
Tannin ... ... ... ...1100

Theine (the alkaloid of Tea, 28 per cent of

which is nitrogen) ... ... ... 2'00

Nitrogen ... ... ... ... 600

Potash ... ... ... ... 2-75

Ammonia ... ... ... ... '70

Chlorine and Sulphuric Acid ... ... a trace.

Essential Oil ... ... ... do.

* 75 per cent, or3-lths total weight, in case of tea flush
indeed 80 per cent, if we count moisture which finally remain:
iu finished tea.— Ed,

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST.

H3

And in the spent leaves, or insoluble part or outturn : —

Water ... ... 500 per cent.

■\Vooily fibre principally
carbon ,. ... 27-00 „

Legiuncn, a nitrogenous
protein substance, some-
times called vegetable
casein ... ... 1500 „

Other protein albuminous

compounds ... 1000 „

Insoluble tannin and in-
eoluble ash ... 300 „

6000

10000 p. c.
Tea, it will thus be observed, is extraordinarily rich in
nitrogen, so much so that the fresh leaves contain more
nourishing protein compounds than beans and peas ; and were
it possible to render the coarse leaves palatable, they might
be used as anourishiDg article of food.

The whole percentage of the leaf need not necessarily be
returned to the soil, as we have already seen that ])art of it is
derived from the air. To determine approximately the sub-
stances actually extracted and which cannot be restored
from natural sources, we must pay attention to the ash of
maniifactiured tea, the analysis of which is : —

Per cent.
Potash ... ... ... ... 300

Boda .. ... ... ... -10

Magnesia ... ... ... ... -80

Lime ... ... ... ... '2.)

Oxide of Iron ... .,, ... -25

Protoxide of Alanganese ... ... '05

Phosphoric Acid ... ... ... -80

Sulphuric Acid ... ... ... a trace.

Chlorine .. ... ... ... do.

Bilica .. ... ... ... -25

Carbonic Acid ... ... ... 1-00

tVTiile the combu.stible or gaseous portions of the manu-
ctured leaf are : —
Water ... ... 5-00

Nitrogen in the tea

e-xtract ... 600
,, ,, insoluble

Bjpentleaf... O'OO

„ „ Theine ... '50

Owbon ... ... 4000

Otygen ... ... 3000

Hydrogen ... ... 500

i«ulphur ... ... 1-50

... ... 9400

loono p. c.

The bulk of the carbon, oxyi^en and hydrogen of the above
•eing supplied by the air, and existing so plentifully in good
tea soils ; and the quantity of soda, magnesia, lime, oxide of
Iron, and manganese extracted being comparatively insigni-
ficant, we neeil only pay attention to a re-supjjly of the other
substances, nitrogen, potash, sulphur and phosphoric acid ;
the two former, nitrogen and potash, being those of most
importance. There being 12i lb. of the former and 3 lb. of
the la ter in each 100 lb., it therefore follows that a yearly
produce of 400 lb. ♦ removes from the soil 50 lb. of nitrogen
and 12 lb. of potash per acre. Oowdung and linseed, or
castor cakes are the ouly manures which so far have been
used to auy extent by tea planters, and with considerable
■uuccess 60 tar, as a re-supply of nitrogen nn.l some ol the
soluble salts is concerned ; but neither of these manures
contains pot.ish.t It will be an as.sistance to have, a simple
test fortius last named valuable ingredient. Chemical text
books may be sought in vain for any but the most elaborate
means of detecting its presence ; but I find that for a rough
test it is sufficient to stir into the tea infusion (iu a wine
glass) ae nmch tartaric acid as will cover the point of a pen
knife (part of the contents of the white packet of a seidlitz
powder will ilo,) when a slight cloud will indicate a trnce,and
a precipitate an abundance of potash.

Were sea weed available iu any quantity, it might pay to
produce a manure from its ashes, rich in both nitrogen
and potash. Such a manure, mixed with a small propor-

« Dry" t>-'* no doubt. — Ed.

f Outor cak« contains a good deal ef potash,— £d.

tion of bone ash and sulphate of soda, would he an efRcd
ent food for the tea plant, and would need to be appliei-
in moderate quantities onlyj to keep the soil in conditionl
It would seem that tea leaves remove from the soi.
only about one-third or one-fourth the potabh whicli
coffee beans take away, the potash in hit,'h-class Ceylou
plantations being so high as 50 and even 52 per
cent. What was good for coffee, we may rely on it,
will be good for tea : tuperphosphate, bune duet or
steamed bones, castor cake, and especially cattle
manure. If cow-dung cannot be cheaply produced,
then we should think ainmoniacal, substances, such as
dissolved guano, or nitrate of soda, could be substituted.
But the effect of returning all prunings and weeds to
the stirred soil is wonderful.

We pass over Telegrams and Telegram Rules,
with rules about Tea in Bond, Tea Consumption
and Tea Lead. From a table showing working
of tea companies in 1883, we find that pro'!
duction per acre varied from 2311b. lowest to G17
highest. The profits were not, however, in proportion
to yield. The tea in the cas-e of the large yield cost
lO.Jd per lb. and sold at only lUd. In the case of
the highest profit £9 33 7d per 'acre, the cost of
production was Is Id, but the tea sold for Is 8d. Of
23 Companies included, four made no profit, while only
five realized between £5 and £d per acre. The others
■were below £5, down to £1. But in many cases the
profit was calculated upon excessive capital expenditure
per acre, so high in one case as £143 per acre. There is
an interesting notice of the rise of the Indian tea
industry, which we need not repeat. But it is well
to recall the fact that the Committee of eleven Europ-
eans and two natives appointed by Lord Wni. Ben-
tiuck in 1834 ascertained that tea was indigenous from
Suddia in Assam to Ytinnau on the border of China.
The first public Company, the Assam Company, was
formed in 1839, so that really it is not yet half-acentury
since private enterprize engaged fully in tea culture iu
India. But nearly 70 millions of pounds will be produced
in 1885. Mr. Cowling's article concludes thus :—

The future of tea is a subject to be approaclied with
diffidence. Prices have fallen to a figure at which only the
best concerns can work with profit, and, if the lowest point
has not yet been reached, there is a bad time ahead un-
comfortable to contemplate. There is room for any amount
more ol Indian and Ceylon teas in the consumint;' markets
from the circumstance of their being of better qiiality than
their China rival, but the question is, will the consumer ac-
customed to cheap China mixtures, give a price to pay the
grower of the pure Indian article ? In the meantime there
is the consoling fact that the consunjption of tea is increasing
and that of intoxicating liquors decreasing. Poor China
stuff held its own fairly well in the good days of pure
malt ; there need be no fear then of wholesome Indian
tea competing snccepsfully with the mixtures of distilled
rice, strychnine, juniperberries, turnips and ])etroleum which
now-a-days are sold in fancy labelled bottles under the delus-
ive name of " winosand spirits."

The quc-ition of the abolition of the exorbitant duty
of 6d a lb. bus never yet been taken iu hand iu earnest,
and probably will rest till it is realized that the only effective
blow to strike at the root of intemperance is the introduction
of a " free breakfast table."

Production will no doubt right itself like every thing
el.^e. If gardens producing 3 niaunds of tea an acre find
it bard to pay their way, those turning out less than that
quantity must close sooner or later unless very favorably
situated as regards labor and transport. It is a ([uestion
of soil, and, as we all know, there are thousands of acre,
which some daj-, when shareholders have liad enough of them
will revert to jungle as umenuinerativoand worthless.
In a de'Cription of brick tea, it is stated that
the mas.i is sprinkled with />a«;'ec pancel Tlie temper-
ature of the Agonea estate is given now, instead
of in connection with rainfall, and we fiud that
the extremes are 4G' at 7 a, m, in January to
91° at noon in July, From April to August the

144

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[AtfousT I, 1885,

temperature is never below 80°, so that this must be
the great flush season, the rains and the hot
weather being nearly 1 coincident. The extremes of
temperature are about the suuie a? those obtained at
4,600 feet in Dimbula, Ceylou, only Mr. Heelis observed
cold once below 45" and no beat higher than 89°. The
mcdn temperature of the estate in Chittasong must
however, be at least 5° higher than the 05° obtained
at 4,600 in Dimbula. The difference between the two
districts we have mentioned {the one in Northern India,
the other in Ceylon) may be imagined from the
fact that Mr. Dowling quotes a tide table as useful
to planters iu Chittagong. A Bengalee table of
divisions of time is also given, from which we gather
that a week is hopla, a month maliina, and a year hulsur
or sal. We now come to the notices of forest trees, the
greater part of which, according to the introduction,
were mainly supplied by Mr. A. F. Bruce. In connection
with Mimosa stipidacca (Alhizzia stipulata or Assam
sau) it is stated : —

I have not been able to identify with any native of
Chittagong the tree recently described by LIr. Bucking-
ham in bis paper regarding " The Sau Tree, and its remark-
able influence on the tea bush." I thought at first that
this tree (Albizzia stipulata) was our kcrai (Albizzia pro-
cera), but the leaf is entirely different, nor is it our
Chuokwa (Anogeissus Acuminata), the latter being a soft,
while the Sau (or Sow) * of Assam is described as a hard
wood. There is a Sau iu the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta
(Roxburgh Flora Indica 419) which it would be worth
the while of visitors from Chittagong to examine
to see if we have the tree here. It may possibly be the
Tettooya which is a scarce Albizzia seldom found in the
gardens. At any rate there will be no difficulty in identify-
ing it iu a year or two, as there is a good show of young
seedlings at Kodala and Agonca raised from seed supplied
from Assam, and I may mention that they are growing
up remarkably like the Dividivi seedlings grown from seed
supplied to me by Mr. T. G. Burnell of Oodaleah about
the same time. From close observation it would seem that
tea geuerally is better (at any rate greener) under the shade
of the Acacias. At Agonea there is some very good tea
near Korais, while at "Waga Surrah the best tea in the
garden is shaded by an unusually large Ohukwa. The pecu-
liarity of the Sau, as I uuderstaud it, is that it has a
beneficial effect on the soil, and I C8u well imagine this
chemical action is possible, for in Chittagong we know to
our cost what a baneful influence some trees have on the
soil. The Assur injures tea near its base. The banian,
though innocuous to plant round the stem, yellows the
bushes many yards off. The Gurjon, Hoojia, Obamlash and
Mango weaken the soil. The Badhi Peeala exudes an odour
from its roots which poisons the plant fur some distance
round, while the Doomir( fortunately rare)kills the plant out-
right at the time when it bears figs on the bark of its
stem in February-March, It is only reasonable to suppose
then that some of the Albizzias, apart from any benefit
derived from their light shade, have the capa'ihiy of im-
proving the soil. If there are trees which deteriorate the
land, we may naturally look for others which better it, and
the thanks of the planting community are certainly duo
to Jlr. Buckingham for making generally known the ad-
vantages and beneficial influences of Albizzia Stipulata.

Then comti a long list from which wo gather
that a tree called " Assur " injures tea bushes ; that
" Poeala" has poisonous roots ; that the banyan,
although soft and useless and injurious to tea, makes
good aah for manure. Toon timber is, of course
ranked as good for tea boxes, but FicM ylomnata,
while it cau bo converted into charcoal, is bad for tea ;
another lig is simply dismissed as useless. Some trees
yield sweet berries, otiiers dyes it tannin, and " fibii-
fuge bark " is against a number. Hoojia, like the
banyan, maUes charcoal but injnies tea. The name " Oa»-
eia fistula " is, in this list, applied to a rcd-bloseomed
tree as well as to the yellow-flowered. Layerstramia
regina is described as good for " ships and piles."

* A wretched punster insists that the value of the sow
ttee is due (0 its litter^—Ep,

It is an important forest tree in Northern India.
Gliditschia sinensis ia haTi\, makes planks .and charcoal,
and is "good for engine firewood. " Opposite <S'<ercH?ia
villosa is the warning " avoid for charcoal," but
rope is made from the bark. Amoora rohiiika (?)
must be a marvel of a tree, yielding posts, phinks,
canoes, boxes, and illuminating oil. It is new to us
to learn that the leaves and bark of Ficus religioaa
(the bo-tree) are medicinal. The palmyra is " used for
dnain pipes," not a word about rafters or reepers
We learn that the wood of a guttapercha tree Dkliopais
poJi/aniha, (?) is "appreciated in England." 'the
cotton tree, LSomhaj- JUalahariciim, is soft but makes
planks and tea boxes. "Avoid for charcoal " is oppos-
ite wild mango, but the berries are eaten by deer.
There is actually a gigantic mango-creeper.

The peculiarities of the Chittagong vernacular, a dialect
of Bengalee, are eet forth, and a vocabulary by Mr.
Watson follows, from which we gather that " You
will start the tea-house work " runs : " Tu'i cha
gbarer khas doro." "When the dak wallah comts,
tell him to leave the newspapers at the bungalow,
and bring all the letters to me wherever I maybe":
" Dak wallah aile khahbarer (news) kaghus buoglat
raikte rho, aur beg chitti a'r kaei an ja jaibo."
Children are " fooaall," while a good English etjui-
valent for bones is given in the word "hardi."
There seems to be no objection to mention a
mother-in-law, for we get " How is your wife's
mother?" in the shape of "Tur sasuri keman
asi?" Mouth is " mukh," the original of the
slang "ugly mug," A maternal uncle is "mama"!
wife is "bo" ! and grandmother is " dadi " !
There is an elaborate table of wages for a month of
28, 29, 30, and 31 days in rupees and their parts
in Indian money. At Chittagong, we are told under
"Waste Land Lots," the "Pioneer" garden under
the auspices of Government was opened in 1840, but
Mr. D. Fuller is held to have really started the tea
enterprize in the district in July 1864. Tea planting
in Chittagong is, therefore, just of age. It is com-
plained that planters are excluded from the hill tracts.
English and Indian weights and measures ore given,
and it is stated that ''galvanized wire-netting No. 12,
of 33 inches, has proved the be>t for iiring trays,
brass wire being too expensive and bamboo work
being rapidly charred." Firing over charcoal iu choolas
is, of course, referred to. So ends the printed in-
formation of the " Notes," some fifty leavis of good
blank paper being added for each planter to enter
his own notes as they occur to him, a good idea, as
is the book altogether, which planters would do well to
have on their shelves or table.

Insect Destroyees. — A correspondent to the San
Francisco Call, quoted in the Oil and Drug Rtporier,
says, that " after a long series of experiments, I
have at last practically confined myself to the one
■ heap article that seems to be absolutely efiVctual,"
Concentrated lye is efficacious, but too expensive j
whale-oil soap has also good effect, but a dfcocticn
of tobacco is simple, inexpensive, and, if properly
applied, an etfrctual remedy for every class of iBsei;t.
pests. Forty pounds of good strong leaf tobacco,
thoroughly boiled in water, will make about eighty
gallons. This can be thiown ujjuu the trets with a
powerful garden syringe. It should be kept at the
uniform temperature of 130° to 140° F., while it is
being used; hotter than this would be injurious lo the
plants. The cost, however, of this insecticide here,
prepared fiom the duty-paid tobacco, wonli be much
greater than in countries wheie the tobacco 'S grown.
The same writer observes that eveiy keeper of an orch-
ard must grow his own tobacco, whifh he can do, in a
small way, at a cost of two cents per pound, One
acre will produce 4,000 lb., if properly Attended to,

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

145

ANALYSIS OF KAINWATEI! FROM DIKOYA
BY MR. JOHN HUUIIK8, F. C. S.
Planters' Association of Ceylon, Kandy,

lUth July ISSo.
Sir, — I beg to enclose for publication correspond-
ence with Mr. John Hughes, P.O. s, wi^h his inter-
esting report ot' the analysis of a sample of rain-
water collected by Mr. Giles F. Walker of D:koya
during the south-west monsoon of 1884. — I am, sir,
yours faithfully, A. PHILIP, Secretary.

Planters' Association of Ceylon, Kaudy, 15th April 18b5.
John Hughes, Esq., r.c.s., ^Vnalytic.il Laboratory, 79, Mark
Lane, London.

Dear Sir, — Keferriug to your letter of the Utli May last,
I beg to enclose steamer receiiDt for a caFO containing rain-
water collected by Mr. Giles F. Walker of Dikoya during
the -south-we^t niousoon of 1SS4.

filr. AValkcr remarks, that, as this monsoon was so very
mild compared with what the soutli-west generally is, the
analysis of this water, he fears, will not fairly show tlie
amount of salts we get when we have persistent heavy
winds from oft' the sea for days together. But, as, owing
to the unusually light rainfall, it has taken a great many
days to give tho amount of water required the analysis will
be useful for comparison with that of the rainwater last
sent by him, which was collected on only eighteen days as
against fifty-seven this time. I annex table of rainfall dur-
ing the period in which tho water was collected for your in-
formation, should you consider the analysis of the sample of
practical value for the purposes in view. — I am, dear sir,
yours faithfully, (Signed) A. Philip.

Jititn-icater 6 bottles — about I gallon, collected at St. John
Del Key, Bogawantalawa, Ceylon, by Giles F. Waker. Elev-
ation about 4,.300 feet above sea-level.

The water was collected duiingthe S. W. monsoon be-
tween loth July and 2nd Oct. the rainfuU being as follows : —

1384.— July 15th -44 inches, 16th -05, 17th -17, ISth -03,
23rd -2.5, 24th -07, 2oth -03, 2Sth -04, 2Sth -05, 29th -06, and
30th -02 inches ; August 2nd -40, ord -50, 4th 29, 5th -10,
6th -38, 7th -30, 8th -53, 9th -36, 10th -10, 11th -26, 12th -07,
19th -05, 20th -24, 21st ■11,22nd -25, 23rd -15, 24th -23, 25th
•50, 26th 1-14, 27th -CO, 28th -30, 29th -12, 30th -19
and 31st -04 inches; September 1st -52, 2nd 'OS, 3rd -14,
7th -06, 8th -47, 9th •24,10th -iO. 11th -04, 14tl; -08, 15th
■08,17th -56, I8th -60, 19th 1-82, 20th ■12, 21.st ^12, 22ud^l8,
23rd -02, 25th ■07,28th -05 and 29th 02 inches ; October 1st
11, and 2nd ^07 inches. Total 13^97 inches.

Remnrhs. — The S. W. monsoon 'Hiring 18S4 has been ex-
ceptionally mild, the rainfall having been much below the
average, and high strong winds only occasionally prevailing,
end then but for short period. (Signel) Gn.EsF. Walker.

To the Secretary of the Oeyloj PUuters' Association.

Analytical Laboratory, 79 Mark Lane, London, E. C.

June 12th, 1885.

A. Philip, E.sq. Kandy.— Dear Sir, — I have much pleasure
in sending you the results of my analysis of the six
bottles of rainwater sent by Mi'. G. Walker and referred to
in your letter of the 15th April

From the interesting particulars of the daily rainfall
which you have forwarded, it appears that the sample
analysed represents the rain registered between the 16th
July and 2ud of October a period of TO d^ys and amounting
in all to 13 97 inches. Ot this the greater portion was
made up of small showers varying from 02 of an inch to
■60 except on August 20th when 114 was recor<led, and on
September 19th when 1'82 was re^isiered. Tho analysis
(hows that the water so collected was not specially rich in
ammonia compounds, while the niimTal salts, usually
brought by the burstsot the S. W. mimsoon, are not at all
considerable, as indicated by the sniill quantity of chloride
of sodium. Indeed most of the mineral matter consisted ot
finely divided earthy matters which in the form of dust
natur.'^Ily mu-^t get into the receiving vessels during so long
a period as 79 days I should like to know whether Mr.
Walker has made any notes respecting the prevalence of
thunder during the time this sample w.is being collected.

From the absence of nitric acid in appreciable quantities,
I am led to conclude that there was not much thunder
between the dates of collection named above, but I should
be glad of information on tbis point, The question of how

19

iax leaves have the power of absorbing nitrogen from the
atmo.sphere has recently had some new light contributed
through the valuable researches of Jlr. AV. O. Atwater of
Middletown, Oonnoctient, who maintains that some ex-
periments made by himself clearly prove that electncili/
exerci.ses a most important etfuct in promoting the assimi-
lation cf/;-tc nitrogen by plants. I may add that if
further experiments confii'm Mr. Atwater's results, we may
assume that the absence of electricity in the oxpeiimeuts
of Boussingault, Pngh and others may probably explain
their failure to solve this important problem, an j to fully
understand how the atmcsphere which consists of 4-5ths of
nitrogen should be the original source of .supply to the whole
vsgetable world of the most important element of food.—
Believe me, yours faithfully, (Signed) JOHN HUGHES.

Analysis of a Sample of Kain Water sent by Mr. Gilas
Walker of Del liey Estate. Bogawantalawa, Ceylon.
Elevation about 4,300 feet above sea level collected during
the S. W. moiifoou between 15th July 1884, and 2nd Oct.
Total rainfall 13-97 inches.

An Imjierial Gallon contains on evaporation solid

residue dried at
Consisting of

Organic and "^'olatile matters
Mineral matters

Un at = 2^89 grains.
Per gallon. Per acre per'
every inch of rain

1-63 = 5-204 lb.

r26 = 4^069 „

Grams 2-89 = 9-333 „
Also by direct determination: —

Containing Free Ammonia ■OOl grains 1= -003 lb.

Albuminied Ammonia ... -009 „ s: ^029

Chloride of Sodium ... -217 ,' c '700 ',|

This water appears to have been most carefully collected
and preserved for analysis free from any large quantity
of extraneous matters. It contains very little ammonia and
no appreciable quantity of nitric acid. The proportion
of mineral salts is also very small, though somewhat more
than in the sample reported in November 1883.

(Signed) John Hughes.

PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA :
DELI, BORNEO, MACASSAR.
By last advices from Macassar coffee leaf-disease
has appiand in the nonhern distriois ot that pro.
vince which had been hitherto almost exempt fran it.
Messis. Van den Bossche, Meuteu and De Meyer,
as well as the N. I. S. N. Company and the Factory
of the Netherlands Trading Company have, on ap-
plication, been granted have by Govtrn^nent to secure
concefsions from the native authoiities in ICaat IJoruco
for working coal mines, without havirg to refund to
Government the oxpeiiscs attending oliicial survey
of the mining .'election.', and with permission
to stipulate with the native chiefs for exemption from
impoit and export duties. No limit is even fi.\-ed tu
the area of land selected, jjrovided it be proved that
ixteneiou of the boundaries of the selections is called
for to further mining operatioi s, tlie limit hitherto
being 2,000 hectares or 4,940 acres. These unusually
favourable conditions arc aicribcd to powerful ii;flueiico
having beuu brought to bear at the Hague in favour
of the oouccssioraries.

Mr. J. T. Uremer, in an article in a Puloh Macaz'iio
on Kling coolie immigration into Deli, thus poin'a
out how it is that the abovenuncioued class of labour
is in demand there ;— For tobacco groninj', propeily
BO called, Chinese coolies are unsurpasatd, Their
wages are in a great measure dependent on their
zeal and care which can oily be gaugeel after
the Clip has been gathered in. Their calcula'-
ing turn of mind prompts thera in hope of lii^h pay
to bring under cultivation as much land as pofsil le,
for this purpose to work at the land in the cool of
the night by moonlight, to lay tfce'r nurseries care-
fully out, and put the young plants out judiciru-ily,
to clear the g.owing crops of caterpillars and suckers j
in short to do ever.\thiDg in their power to turn ouc
»3 high a yield as poesibk of the Oe»t 'luality, Ex.

146

'THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[AOGUST i, 1885,

perimenta made to bring Javanese, Klinga and Battaks,
to plant tobacco in the same way, have all failed
owing to those people looking no further than meet-
ing their daily wants, and troubling themselves less
about the future than their fellow coolies from the
North. There is every reason for deeming that had
the planters no Chinese coolies available for their
tobacco estates, Sumatra tobacco would soon lose its
high reputation or become a thing of the past. But
it is just because the Chinese are so exactly suited
for this kind of cultivation that it is of 1 ho utmost
importance that their energies should be as much as poss-
ible eiclusively directed hitherto, and not to be largely
wasted in many secondary oi^oratious inseparable from
the work in hand, such as roadmaking, drain digging,
jungle felling, housebuilding, carriage of building
materials and tobacco in bullock carts, &e. For such
kind of work, labourers of other races are more suitable.
But KliDg^ are also particularly required ou the East
Coast of Sumatra for other kinds of crops than tobacco,
it -being hanl to get Chineve to grow them. As it
were from of old, the Chinese are in Deli inseparably
bound up with tobacco growing. The more they earn
by it, the better for the planters. They understand
full well that no other branch of cultivation can yield
them Buch advantages. Tobacco is what draws tbeni
from China. Were Kling immigration in the East
Coast of Sum.atra to be secured, and were it to result
in colonization by great numbers of that useful race
settling down with their wives and children, coffee
cultivation would be as practicable as in Ceylon, and
sugar growing as easy as in Provipce Wellesley, to say
nothing of many other industrial and planting pursuits.
Hence what Deli planters want is the importation of
as many labourers as possible of different races so as
to give each race a sphere of work suiting it in
pnrticular, to bring out as much as possible the
inexhaustible productive wealth of their estates, and
to settle a permanent population on the land alongside
a population which though steadily keeping up in
number is still a floating one.

CEYLON TEA.

{Written for the" Grocer," hy Jfr. John Hiujhes, Chemist.)

Of late years Oeylon Tea has attracted so much attention,
and the competition at the Mincing Lane sales for specially
favoured brands has bi;en so keen, that the eye of the capit-
alist, as well as that of the struggling planter, has been
directed to Oeylon with a view of obtaining a profitable in-
vestment. To all such, as well as those interested in the
production and manufacture of tea we would recommend
the careful perusal of a little pamphlet on Geylon Tea pub-
lished by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo, and which may be
obtained of Messrs. Haddon, Bouverie Street, E. 0.

The book contains valuable information respecting the
most suitable soil, the selection of seed, the preparation
of the land and the cost of same ; also details respecting
the enormous yield obtained on certain estates amounting
to as much as SOO to 1,000 lb, of made tea peracre.

But side by side with this, we find woi'de of warning to the
yowugaud iuexperlenoed and a caution tothoSB Ucwtothe
island which will be doubtless fully appreciated by all who
may be thinking of going to Coylon with a view of trying
their fortune. The healthiness of the tea gardens on the
Ceylon hills at an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet is pro-
verbial and much in favour of the young planters as op-
posed to Assiim.

Special attention appears to bo paid to ttie pfocess
of preparing the tea leaf for market, the forineutatiou
of the leaf, withering and firing being carried an with
every attention to scientific accuracy and with the aid
of the most improved machinery. At the present time
there is a demand for experienced men* who can super-

* Nothing in our brochure indicates this: wo saidthere was
room tor capitalists, Ceylon has abundance of super-

intend the manufacture, and take charge of depots on the
main roads where the green leaf is purchased from
neighbouring planters day by day ; for it is an advantage
that tea should be made on a large scale, the various qual-
ities being sorted out as soon as received for special sub-
sequent treatment.

Time and space prevent us from going more fully into a
review of this little pamphlet, but to all those who may
think of embarking in the Ceylon Tea trade either as plant-
ers or merchants we would recommend a perusal.

intendents for :ill " tea " work at present ;
£««« will bo differeut.— Eu,

later on the

CAOAOl AND CINCHONA BARK IN CEYLON.

Our plantations of Cocao have undoubtedly sufTered
greatly in some places — notably Dumbara— from
Helojyehis, The preventive, it is now indisputably
demonstrated, is to supply shade which at once
stops the insect ravages. An interesting experi-
ment is mentioned to us where a planter erected
a temporary pandal over some rows of his
cacao trees in an almost leafless field. So soon as the
bare trees began to throw out shoots or fresh leaves,
in the open, the Helopeltis at once disposed of them ;
but, under the artificial shade even, the trees soon
became green- and vigorous and untouched by the
pest. In some cases where Cear4 rubber has
grown up into large forest trees, the cacao under the
same flourishes untouched. Cacao-planters in Ceylon
have therefore practically settled the question, and
their cultivated fields will soon be all under shade ;
but the same amount of crop cannot be expected
from the trees shaded as was got from the trees in
the open before Htlopdtis appeared : one-half last
year's crops is the estimate, and yet the cultivation
should pay well. From Matale and Western Dolos-
bage we have favourable accounts of the cacao ; in
the latter, it is being in some parts interspersed with
tea which in that climate is regarded as the great
staple of the future. As regards cinchona, we have
the opinion of a planter who has been keeping his
eyes open while travelling all over the country,
to the effect that Ceylon can supply all the demands
of the European and American cinchona bark market
for many — perhaps 20 —years to come, from the trees now
growing on our plantations 1 This, however, is contrary
to other opinious which indicate that with no fresh
plantings, our exports must run down erelong. We
suppose that if prices prove remunerative, Ceylon can
continue to send, at least, 10 million lb, of bark
for a number of years to come. — A good deal of in-
tere t is excited by the satisfactory coHee crops
gathered ^this year not only in Uva, but iu isolated
oases in the Dimbula and Dikoya districts. A ciop
of 4,000 bushels (SOO owt.) from 200 acres of ooileo
in Dimbula is very satisfactory, and it is asserted
that with px'Aper attention to cultivation, this may be
continued over many fields, especially if they hftve «□
eastern exposure. At the same time everything stums
to have taken a turn tf Uto : even the grass, which
could not be got to grow eatisfact' rily ot laue years,
has been flouriohing this season. — Tea is, of course,
growing everywhere, and although there is a check
in the ehipmenta for the present, any deflcienoy will
Boon be made up,

Tea. — .Some idea of the extent of the competition in
the retail tea trade may be gathered from the following
announcement displayed in the window of a Glasgow
tea shop:--" Tea for Nothing I One Pound of Tea for
Nothing ! — Wo are now selliog this very tine blend of
Indian and China tea at 28 per lb. In every fifth pound
parcel there is enclosed 2s ; every fifth half pound parcel
I1 ; and every fifth qnarter-pnund parcel Gd. The fort,
uia'e purchaseis of these particular parcels shall liavo
their pound of tea for nothing." — //. d: C, Mail.

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

147

Cocaine, the new ana?sthetic, is a colorless fluid
not unlike glycerine. Under its effects a patient at a
hospital the other day submitted to the ball of his
eye being punctured by a delicate spear-head knife,
and in its place a small suction pump inserted, which
brought out some pU3 from a sac which the knife had
punctured, aud all the while the patient, mentally
conscious, chatted pleasantly with the operator, as in-
sensible of the operation as though it were being per-
formed on his hat band. — Ariierican Cullivator,

Tea. — The report of the Central Tea Industrys Asoci-
ation indicates a disastrous diminution of the pro-
duct, this year, and announces that the total yield
will not exceed one-half the amount of ordinary sea-
sons. The chief causes of the decline are said to be
the exceptionally severe winter and spring, and the
inability of the ten-growers, — through poverty, — to
provide manure and proper protection tor the plants. —
Japan Weekly Mail.

The experiment of Mr. J, 0. Douglas, the naturalist,
with imported Itklian bees, has been crowned with
complete success. The bees seem to thrive perfectly
in Calcutta, and have yielded during the seasou, up
to date, eighty pounds of splendid honej'. The
honey is taken straight from the centrifugal extractor,
and without being strained or manipulated in any
way, is pure, cbar, fragrant and delightful to the taste.
— Madras Alai/.

Mexican Coffee. — In Mexico, in the isthmus, on
the Banks of the Coatza Coaloos, wild cofi'ee is found
in great abundance, the quality of which is said to
be superior. It is chaimed by a writer for the
Mexican press that the actual cost of raising coffee
under favourable circumstances is not less than §8
per one hundred pounds. Adding 82 for interest
on capital invested, the outlay will be §8. The
inaccessibility to market makes the general cost of
production average from §10 to §10 to place one
hundred pounds in market. — Atncrican Grocer.

JrxGLE Tea and the True Tea : Differenxe in
Serkatlre ofLeaf. — Masks-liya, 9th July. — Anent Mr.
Hay's letter on " Jung'.e Tea," the difference between it
and the real Simon Pure is that the jungle tea leaf is
"seriated" from top to bottom and the real article
stops about j of an inch from the bottom of the leaf.
This was pointed out to me by a friend who knows
a little abuut plants and their habits. Ha also told
me the two could not hybridize : their seeds are so
different. By the bye I see in your London Letter of a
Mr. Gow bringiug out a tea witherer and drier, aud I
see in a home paper a ilr. Dick has taken a patent
out of a machine for withering and drying tea leaf,
and stme one or two planters here are off their food
and sleep inventing a witheier ; so we will be well
to the front by-and-bye. — Cor.

Sqcirrels and Helopeltis in Cacao. — Raugala,
10th July. — In the T. A. for July, page 4G, you make
the following remarks on "Squirrels and their Habits":
— "We have seen the palm squirrels at Colombo not
only pilfering grain meant for poultry but acluaUij
feedirxj on whileanU which had climbed up the root
stem of coconut trees, so that the amusing little crial-
ure ffems to l>e omnivorous." Now, ie it not just
possible that cacao planters have been doing harm by
destroying the pretty little things? Perhaps the squirrels
were the means of keeping down helopeltis, gobbling
up the horrid insects aa they gambolled from twig
to twig. 1 would suggest that a few equirn la be shot
near spots where helopeltis is bad and the contents
of their stomachs bo carefully examined tn find cut
if they preyed on the insects. I believe immense
numbers of squirrels have been destroyed on cacao
plant aliions.*

* We fear it is beyond question that they are very
destructive to young nuts. — Gd.

Tea.— A Company has been started in London for the
sale of Indian tea, a fact, says a London corre-
spondent, which will rejoice all those who know how
thoroughly superior Indian tea is to Chinese or at
least to the Chinese tea that we get in England, and
who have experienced the usual difficulty in obtaining
pure Indian tea. "Nearly all that is imported has
hitherto been bought up by dealers to mix with the
Chinese and give it llavoiir. Most of the persons with
whom one talks on the subject will say : ' Oh ! but
Indian tea requires to be mixed with Chinese before
it is drinkable.' There never, of course, was a greater
mistake. Had they reversed the proposition, it would
have been true enough, for Chinesj tea is hardly
drinkable without a certain admixture of Indian. The
new company hails from Koymer's in Whitefriars-
street. They receive their teas direct from the Kangra
Valley, Darjeeling, Assam, Kuraaon, Neilghornes,
and Cachar. They are sold here in tins contaiuing
five pounds and upwards, at 33 and 2s Gd per lb.—
Madras Times, June 10th.

Mandfacture of Cinchona Alkaloids in Madras.
—Hitherto Madras was dependent upon Bengpd for
its supply of cinchona alkaloids ; but since the
appointment of Mr. Hooper, as Government Quino-
logist in Madras, it has been considered desirable that
the manufacture should be carried out in the Medical
Store Depot. For that purpose Mr. Hooper recently
visited theMetli.-al Store Depot, and, after an inspec-
tion of the laboratories, found that the appliances
there could be adapted to the manufacture of the
liquid cinchona on a large scale. The coat of the
manufacturo, taking the bark at the rate of the re-
cent sales at Madras, and allowing the usual per-
centage for fuel, labor, &c., was estimated at Rl-0-9,
per fluid pound. This will enable is to be issued at
a price some .30 pL-r cent, lower than the febrifuge
now obtained from the Gov. rnment factory in Bengal
for use in hospitals and dispensaries at this Presidency.
Government, we learn, have now directeti Mr. Hooper
to arrange at once for the manufacture in Madras
of 1,000 lb. of the iiuid extract at 40 grs. to the
ounce, and to personally superintoud the operations.
He has been asked to arrange, in communication
with the Medical Storekeeper, for the association with
himself and instruction of a competent person for the
immediate superiuteudence of all future operations in
Madras. — Madras Times, June 10th.

The Siluet Tea District.— Arrived at Silhetthe
visitor from Calcutta or Dukka will notice a diminished
temperature. The hot westerly winds have given place
to cool moisture-laden breezes, whilst the mercury
stands at a figure some ten degrees less than that
he has been accustomed to in Bengal. The approach
to Silhet, as seen from the river on a fine day, is
striking and pretty. With the great blue barrier of
the Khasia Hills looming in the distance, groups of
low junglo.clad hilU in the foreground and' near at
hand, clusters of the beautiful feathery foliaged
bamboo, mingled with the tall slender stems and
swaying crests of the graceful botel-uut palm, combine
with the bright green stretches of the rice (Icl.ls and
sheets of sun lit water, to form a picture worthy of
the artist. But to the outer world, Silhet will be
known not so much for the picture.squeness of its
scenery as for the fact of its being a district in
which the cultivation of tea is extending inoro rapidly,
^probably, than in any other part of tlio Indian
mpire. Year by year there is an increase of the
European community engaged in the industry ; year
by yoar Largo tracts of virgiu forests give piaco to
tlie neat rows upon rows ot tea bushes, and if, as
appears to be the case, the cultivation can be carried
on at a cost with which less favourably situated
districts cannot compete, then its future shonld bo
indeed a prosperous one. — Calcutta ICngliiihman,

J4?

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[August i, 1885.

The Largest Mat in the world covers the circus ring
of the Oovent Garden Theatre. It is made of unbleached
coconut Hbre, and has a soft pile four inches thick.
Its weight is more than two tons. — Avieiican Grocer.
The Sweet-scented Verbena. — The lemon-plant, or
Bweet-soentcd verbena of our gaarden (Aloysia citrridra)
holds a foremost place among Spanish herbs. Every
leaf of it is treasured and dried for winter use, and
it is regarded as the finest cordi.al and stomachic in
the world. It is taken in two ways— either made into
a decoction with hot water and sugar and drank cold
as a vcfresco and tonic, or, better still, with the morn-
in" and evening cup of tea. Put a sprig of lemon
vet-bena, say live or six leaves, into the tea-cup, and
pour the tea upon it ; you will never suffer from
flatulence, never be made nervous, never have cholera,
diarrhoea or loss of appetite. Besides, the flavour is
simply delicious ; no one who has once drunk their
pekoe with it will ever again drink it without a sprig
of lemon verbena.— GarrfeHccs' Chronicle.

Our Produce in the London Market. — A well-
informed London correspondent writes to us by this

mail : " It is not supposed that prices for Bark will

fall much lower than they are now in spite of the
fall in the price of quinine recorded yesterday, namely
33 Gd for Howard's in oz. bottles. The supply from
South America has entirely ceased, aud the trade are
now prepared to receive some 12- to 13,000,000 lb. from
Ceylon by 30th September. Ceylon Cocoa is again
realizing enhanced prices, while prices for good coloury
plantation Cofifee have risen some 10s per cwt. in the
last month. Common kinds about Ss to Ss during
same period. The Cardamom market is a shade steadier."
The Keelino Isl.^nds. — " A Naturalist's Wan-
derings in the Ea«tern Archipelago." By H. O.
Forbes, F. R. c. s. The first place visited by our
traveller in his long circular tour was that
extraordinary little coral archipelago, the Keeling
Islands, long since made famous in scientific litera-
ture by Mr. Darwin. As no other tourist had
visited the atoll for purposes other than those of
strict business or by stress of weather since 1836,
Mr. G. C. Boss, the king of the islands, was
naturally gratified at receiving in fulness of time
his first genuine morning caller. Mr. Forbes's
account of this narrow ribbon of land,
with a palisade of palm trees its calm la
thundered upon from without by the
artillery of an entire ocean, is one of
interesting portions of a most interesting aud
valuable book. So tiny is this precarious wall of
coral, rising sheer from the bed of the ocean, that
as Mr. Forbes sat talking with his liost on his first
night far into tlie small hours of the morning, he
could fetl the very foundation of the laud thrill
under his feet at every dull boom of the surf upon
the outward barrier. Xet wee as the islets are,
they have none the less a romantic history of iheir
own ; rival dymistics have ruled over coolies jind
cocoa nuts on tlieir coral shores, and a glorified
beech-comber has collfc.ed a harem of all miuuled
Oriental nationalities under the friendly shade of
their remote palm trees. Mr. Eoss hinnelf, the sur-
vivor of the better line, has raised the Keelings
into a little model patriarchal commuuity, judici-
ously tempered with lathes and steam mills, and
parentally overlooked by the benevolent proprietor
aud his wife aud family. The purposu of Mr.
Forbes's visit to this reniute spot was of course to
test the truth of the rival theories aa to the origin
of coral islands ; aud the result of his researches
teu.l to show that the Keeling reef foundation has
arisen iu the manner suggested by Murray, Semper,
and Agassiz, but'that the islets themselvee are due to the
combined action of storms, and the slow elevation of the
volcunically upheaved ocean flooring— i'aW Mall Uudgd,

enclosing

l<>ou, and

ceaseless

the mo it

KiCE CtiLTivATiON AND MANURE. — Mr. John Hughes,
Analytical Chemist, writing on June 19th, says: —
" with attention to irrigation works, Ceylon should
produce more rice and a new industry be called
into existence in the low country. Some thousands of tons
of manure are sent from England to Spain aumially
for the growth of rice where irrigation is in full force."
Thb Labour Traffic in the Southern Pacific—
"Great excitement has been caused thioughout tjueens-
land," says the Brisbane correspondeot of the London
Times, " by the publication of the Report of the
Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the
conduct of the labour trade in New Guinea and the
adjacent islands." The Report reveals awful iniquitits :
there is no question that South Sea labour traffic must be
stopped, and as cooly immigration is not allowed, the
Queensland sugar enterprize, in which 5 millions
sterling are embarked, will be ruined. As for coffee, tea,
cacao, &c., these are all out of the questiim. If sugar
kept up in price, however, white nieu might possibly
do the work. The one thine that seems too much for
them is the cutting and trashing of the canes under a
tropic sun.

Tea Prospects in Japan are very poor, to judge
by the Japan Mail :— At this moment dollar prices seem
to be about on the level of those of 18s4 at the same
period, but there, too, the loss of 10 per cent.^ on the ex-
change into Kiiisatsu must be severely felt. The tea men
also speak of a shortfr crop than the last, owing to
the damage done by late frjsts, and to the poor yield
of the slirubs in consequence of a deficiency of
manure. And tea, no less than silk, has to contend
with low prices in foreign countries. At last dates
from New York, good Japanese tea was selling at 20
cents per pound, owing to small demand and the
prospect of abundant supplies of Ooloongs from
Formosa. If from this price be deducted the export
duty, the packing and curing expenses, the freight,
insurance and other charges, aud the cost of mani-
pulating the leaf, it is impossible that anything what-
ever should be left for the grower of the tea. Alto-
gether it must be confesed that the outlook for
1885 is peculiarly dismal, aud we heartily pity the
poor cultivators who have to face it.

Java Teas.— The aim of the tea planters of Java has
been almost exclusively to secure a large out-turn per
acre and a beautiful leaf : iu both these they have suc-
ceeded, the produce per acre being nearly double that of
the Indian gardens, and their finest teas being the most
beautiful the world produces ; unfortunately, however,
quality in the cup has been almost entirely neglected,
consequently, their teas eujoy and evil reputalion with
blemlers, the general ruu being thin, oaky and earthy,
aud sonic of the lowest kinds are so sour and nasty as
to ruin auy bleud however sparingly introduced. Of late
years, however, some estate managers appear to have
realized the wisdom of amiug at a higher standard of
quality; seed has been imported from India, aud improve-
ments in cultivation aud maiiulaeture have been iutro-
duced with most beneficial results; but for some years to
come Java teas will have to be very cautiously handled
by blenders, and probably the wiser aud safer course is
to let them entirely alone, as the coiiimou grades are
worse than useless, and, as a rule, even the better kinds
rapidly " go oft " if kept.

The classes of Java Tea are as follows :—

AVhole leaf kinds. Broken kinds.

Flowery pekoe BrCiken Howery pekoe

p^.]t(,e Broken pekoe

Pekoe souchong Pekoe dust

Souchong Fanuings

Congou Broken tea

Bohea Dust.

The chests used to be papered in a somewhat similar
manner to Chinese packages, but from many estates they
are now sent plain to resemble Indian chests, and some
lire sulliciently unprincipled to actually mark the chest
as containing Indian teaa.—LewU .)■ Oo.'i Tea Circiiiar,

August i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

149

The Futuke op Tsa ik Ceylos. — The Indian Tea
Gazette writes:— Very sanguine expectations are being
formed as to this matter, which, for the fake of
Ceylon itaelf, even, it is to be hoped may not be
realized. We read as follows: — "The chairman of
the Cejlon Chamber of Commerce, at the recent half-
yearly meeting, dealt with the prospects of the staple
products of the Colony, and went into a calculation
showing that in a few years' time Ceylon would be
exporting 52i niilliou pounds of tea." The " Chairman"
is cautious iu saj'ing how many years he means by
"a few." Ceylon, it is true, is going ahead in tea
cultivation, but the auticipated leap up to b'2h millions
in a presumably short space of time is rather too
much, we should think, even for Ceylon ambition.
Colonel Money has already sounded a note of warning
as to over extension of tea cultivation in the Island,
and we may trust to the common sense of Ceylon
planters for restraining them from overdoing an Indus-
try which, if limited to dne bounds, may do much to
recompense them for the failure of cofifee. All extremes
are bad, and a departure from reasonable caution,
in tlie case of tea extension, would be attended by
a collapse more serious even than that which the
Island has suffered from coffee, ^albeit the collapse
might result from different causes. [The Tea Gazette
should impress caution on tea-planters neartr home. — Eu.]

Tea and Fibres. — Maskeliya, 13th July. — We have
had a very smart dose of the monsoon, but evidently not
as much as down the valley : June measured only
33 '43 here against Theberton 49 odd, and they
must have had more wind. The early tea planting
is criming on very, very well. The cold weather
is against the old tea flut^hing now. In August,
September and October it will come out j then prune.
Our tea " boss," sajs, now is the time to prune, and
also that tea bushes "should be plucked once a
week." Surely this sounds too much Will some of
your experienced correspondents kindly answer this?
I say old tea once 10 days ; 5 0ung tea (up to 3^ years)
twice a month. To add to the general grumble on state
of roads, you may now see the carlmeu driving in
a zigzag fashion actually allowing one vheel go on
the grass, so aj to keep the bullocks' feet on the smooth
road and avoid the darned patches. It is cruelty to
force any beast with cloven foot to pull a weight
having loose, broken, sharpedged stone as a " footing."
"Shuck" is a very common expression iu the South
of Ireland, and ie applied to animals, cattle, horses,
4c.: very leun or worn-out animals, "tinkers' donkeys,"
and horses ; or more commonly to animals that have
not been housed during the winter, only getting a
little li.ay near a sheltered ft-nce, are called "shuck"
cattle. — Any fibre-yieldiug stuff must bf! very ex-
hansting to land, and would requii-e manuring in
bulk heavily, would uot pay out licre I fear. Against
the crowirg of ilix on most properties in Ireland,
there is a prohibitory clause m the lease as a rule, bo
much does it injure land, and always after such a
crop the farmer mmt till the land again (take a crop
of roots) before laying it down with grass seeds.
Leaf-disease showing on our collee again on some
patclies badly. 1 have found in planting at stake
several of the 2nd plants a wild sort of tea, not
in the very least like a lea, and on two occasions
the kernel of the seed was still adhering to the
plant when taken up ; and when I mentioned it
to another planter he declared it to be impossible,
60 there I let it rest. It was not a case of nursery
plants, but planting at stake two seeds in each hole,
the one a goo.l jit tea and the other a jungle or
wild plant. If I can find any more, I will send them
down to you. I am afraid, in supplying they have
been removed. I am now convinced it was a cross of
some jungle tree. Kaining still — not heavy, and this
} ear no great Hood as yet.

Coconut AND its uses.— Britannia needs no bulwarks,"
says the old song, aud we shall need a new version
for old Lanka, if her coconut palms should be found
to yield a product so valuable tor the defence of the
British Navy as that referred to in the following
extract. It is sent to us by a correspondent who
believes it to be taken fi-om the Daily Telegraph : —

It has been discovered in France that a composition
obtained from pulverised coconut cellulose has the remark-
able property, when penetrated by shot or shell, of
closing up instantaneously, so as to prevent the influx
of water into a ship's hold. The name of " cofl'erdam "
has been given to this preparation, for which it ia
claimed that not only will it render harmless the pertoratio a
of a ship's sides by any projectile which strikes them
above water, but that it will also disarm the torpedo of
its submarine powers of mischief. I'"or the present, it will
perhaps be enough to watch whether the French have in
reality made such a discovery as will enable them to
line the armour-plates of their men-of-war with a pre-
paration which is at once light and elastic, and also of a
nature to forbid the admission of water into a ship's sides
when riddled by shot aud shell. If all that is reported of
the Toulou experiments with '■ cofferdam " be true, the
compound seems destined to .solve the armour-plate
controversy by turuiug tbe scale once more iu favour of the
swift or thinly-plated vessel. Haviug built up a target of
cofferdam, made of a mixture of fourteen parts of pulv-
erised cellulose, and of one part of cellulose iu fibre
compressed into a felt-like mass, the French inventor,
lined the side of an iron-plated ship with a layer of the
new compound two feet in thickness. Against this strange
target a solid shot, seven and a half inches in diameter,
was launched, with the highly-satisfactory result that the
projectile carried away with it one-fifth of a cubic foot
of the composition, and that, no sooner had the shot
passed through the target, th.an the cellulose closed up
so firmly that a strong man was unable to thrust his arm
through the hole. A box or tank filled with water was
then hung against the aperture ; and after the lapse of
fifteen minutes a few drops of the liquid began to trickle
through the hole in the cofferdam. When the composition
had been thoroughly saturated, not more than from three
to five pints of water made their escape inwards in a
minute, when they were intercepted without difficulty by
a man armed with a pail. As soon as the cellulose had
become completely soaked, it offered greater resistance to
the percolation of fluid, which finally ceased almost en-
tirely to flow. The spongelike texture of the target resisted
the leakage of water through the hole so effectually that
the breach closed up automatically. The results were
the same whether shot or shell was employed against the
target ; and it W!vs also discovered that, in addition to
excluding water, the cofferdam was proof against ignition
by fire. Ke<l-hot coals were heaped upon the cellulose
without setting it alight, and thus far appearances seem
to warrant the conclusion that an iron-plated ship, lined
with two feet of cofferdam, has nothing to fear, when
]ierforated with shot, from either water or fire. " The
experiments," says our contemporary, " seem to i>rove that
the material in question possesses the prope-rty of closing
automatically a leak caused by shot or hIicII, andof protect-
ing a ship to a certain extent against fire." it will thus be
seen that all maritime nations are vitally interested in
ascertaining whether a backing of coconut cellulose is
really calculated to render ironclad ships impervious to
water when penetrated by a projectile launched against
her by an enemy. T'pon the importance attaching to this
discovery it would be idle to expatiate, althoni^h we must
be permitteif to express the gravest doubts whether
acolfcjrdam will ever be able to resist the fatal efl'ects of <a
torpedo exploded under a ship's hull. In order to in-
vestigate this point thoroughly, we understand that fresh
experiments are about to be tried at'l'oiilon; hut enough,
and more than enough, has already been said to show that
it would be the height of folly for the British Admiralty
to chifio their eyes to the possible valno of a discovery
which may add enormously to the defensive efficiency of
such a magnificent fleet of ironehul vessels as that with
which Admiral Sir CJeoffrey llornby is about put to
sea.

ISO

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 18S5.

"Copra Cake," say a our Paris Agricultural
Correspondent (in his monthly letter for the Tropical
Agriculturist received by this mail), " is becomlDg a
necessity for cattle feeding on the Continent, and
two Companies are in course of formatioa to make
plantations in Belgian and French Congo for the
culture of the coconut ijalm."

Tea Plants in Bombay. — Messrs. J. M. Mody & Co.,
the local agents of the Nassau Tea Estate, Kantjra
Valley, have recently imported into Bombay, at con-
siderable expense a number of tea plants from the
estate. Tue plants are, of course, of no practical use
in this climate, but they are of interest to tho.se who
have never seen the tea plant growing. — Times of India,

High Yield of Tea per Acre. — Unless ther« is
some mistake in the figures the average yield obtained
bv the Doom JJooma Tea Company is almost twice
the general Indian averaL'c. The statement is : — " The
crop amounted to 925,147 lb., and average yield of
the Company's plucliing area of plants (viz., 1,450
acres) was G38 lb. per acre. The superintendent's
estimate of the outturn for the current year, inclusive
of the yied from the newly acquired Moiragoorie
garden, is 9(i0,000 lb. of tea, with an outlay in Assam
of 3a 6p., or about 5d per lb., as compared with 6d
per lb. the past season, and it is hoped that the total
cost will be reduced to lOd per lb. — Indian Tea Gazette.

Planting in Northern Atotralia. — The end of the
venture of Messrs. Poett and Mackiunou and their
supporters in the Northern territory of Australia may
be gathered from the following paragraph from the
South Australian Register : — " Sale of Property in
the Northern Territory.— Mr. W. B. Williinson has
sold privately, to a small company of gentlemen
interested in the Northern Territory, the estate iu
the! Hundred of Goyder, County of Palmerston, known
as Poett'a Plantation. The property c 'Uiprises 1,000
acres of freehold land, 82,793 acres of leasehold land.
In addition to the bungalows, fencing and other
improvements, there are nurseries containing 500,000
coiifee plants and 70,000 cinchona plants iu good
forward condition. The whole of the property realized
£1,220."

Agriculture iij the Northern Province of
Oeylon. — Says the Jaffna "Ratriot": — "Our Botanic Garden.
We have none ; aud we cry shame on those who have not
taken the trouble of establishing such an institution. The
fact is we do not shout so lustily, as our friends in the
Central Province ; we do not grumble and kick up a
dust, as our planters ; and we meekly take whatever
dole is meted out to us, so that we are left out iu the
cold and Government takes in our fat revenue aud a
very small proportion of it is spent iu the Province.
Barbarous Anuradhapura, just out of the shell, quite a
weak chick in comparison to our Province, has its botanic
garden. It makes us almost angry when we read
the foUowiug iu the report of Dr. H. Trimeii, and see
how Anuradhapura takes the shiue out of us.*** Now the
above is a downright outrage of all our rights and privi-
leges. Takiug our palmirahs to decorate Anuradhapura,
and stocking it with flowers and ferns, and speaking of it
as if it was the Northern Province, make us long to fight
a duel with any one who would stand up for Anuradha-
pura, the bastard child of the Central Province, petted
and spoiled with a lavish expenditure. Our late Govern-
ment Agent Mr. Dyke in his broad views of the resources
of the Proviuce had a Botanic garden attached to his
residence, and hence it is called the old Park. Trees of
all sorts were planted iu it. Fruits and flowers in abund-
ance and by the ingenious contrivance of digging broad
pits to the very level of water, English vegetables, as beet
root, carrots, turnips, watercress &c., wore all success-
fully cultivated. The gardens were open to visitors, aud at
the season all were welcome to partake the nectarine
fruits, provided they carried none away. Our present
Agent has endeavoured to keep up the grounds to the
best of his resovu'ccs, and without respect of persons all
have received, for tho asking, cuttiugs of flowers aud

ornamental trees. Yet it is not to be expected that a
jirivate individual, having the claims of a family; can be
expected to keep up a garden in such a way as to
deserve the name of onr Botanic Garden. A few acres
of land iu the interior where sweet water is in abund-
ance, could be put in charge of our Forester, and a
Native assistant, and the beginning of our Botanic
Garden could be inaugurated. We have often wondered
why under the head of Admiuistratiou reports we do
not see the reports of our Foresters. They seem to be
all in the shade. The fact is, you have only to show
yourself fond of out-door exercise, and have some influ-
ence with those in authority, then when they cannot do
anything for you they will make you a Forester. An
apprenticeship at least for a year under Dr. Trimen,
Government might require, just to let the public, who
pay them know that they are at least receiving some-
what of a qualification to be able to discharge their
duties with efficiency. Of late we have heard very fre-
quently of the scarcity of jack-wood, teak and mahogany,
while ebony is nowhere in the province : and this to
to such an extent, that our carpenters refuse to under-
take work on contract with such wood, as their rarity
and high price prevent them to execute the work with
any thing like profit. The natives of Jaffna delight in
getting up Botanic Gardens. We know men who are
extremely clever iu grafting. We have seen the common
cabbage rose tree grafted with tea rose, the common
white rose and the pride of France. A single shoe
flower tree has been grafted with a variety of the species
in all kinds and shades of their colour. A. garden
of roses in Jaffna, where they grow so well, .aud give
a sweeter odour than loses in the Central Province
would beat out anything Dr. Trimen can attempt in
Anuradhapura, or accomplish in Peradeniya. Gi\'e us
the chance, and we will beat you hollow. If ever a
Governor desires his memory to be preserved in attar
of roses let him give us a Botanic garden. Sir James
gave us a Town-clock, which as the Psalmist says of
dumb idols, they have tongues aud speak not; they
have hands and handle not, feet have they and walk
not : neither speak they through their throat. It is only
a mass of dead machinery for which we have erected
a long dell iu a cylindrical form, erect and tall costing
us no end of money."

Tea in Oeylon. — The Standard of Monday last contained an
advertisement for an Assistant Superintendent on a Ceylon Tea
Garden which was described as being 4,000 feet above sea-
level, and iu a delightful climate, etc., etc. The proprietor
undertook to teach his assistant all that appertains to the
cultivation and manufacture of tea, and to pay him
KlOO per month for the first year, K125 per month for the
second and RISC for the third year, after which he was to
have the management of the garden, and all these advantages
were to be secured by payment of a premium of £20U. My
attention was called to this advertisement by a young
fellow who thought it presented a favourable opening in
life aud whose jjarents were quite willing to find the re-
quired pren^ium. He asked my advice as to the advis-
ability of closing with the offer, and I felt bound to tell
him that it was not the custom of Oeylon planters to re-
quire a premium with then* assistants, and that I thought
it probable the advertiser wanted the money, rather than
the man; but one could better judge of this when he had
found out who it was and what were the circumst«nces
of the property. My friend argued that iu every business
or profession a premium had to be paid by the articled
pupil, or apprentice, and be did not see why a tea ]>lanter
should be au exception to tlie rule. This is sound reason-
ing, and I do not see why an experienced and ellicient
planter should not get a premium with his as.sistant on the
lines laid down in this advertisement, provided, of course,
ho is prepared to give full value for the money and is certain
of being able to carry out his part of the bargain ; hut I
think you will agi-ee with me that great; cauti()u should be
exercised by parents or guardians before closing with such
offers in the present circumstances of the i)l3nting enter-
prize. I am told that in this case the advcrtizer received
nearly 100 replies, aU relating to young mcu who were at
all events ready with the money. It is evident, therefore,
that tho premium would not stand iu tho way, it tho
planter can show a fair quid pro quo.

AuouiT I, iSSs-l

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUKIST,

151

IJ^ SECTS AND AGE.ICULTUKE.

lu the primitive couclition of the couutry, as the white
mau found it, insects, doubtless, took their proper
place iu Nature's economy, and rarely preponderated in
any direction to the injui-y of the wild plants, scattered,
for the most part, sparsely throughout their range.
Harmony between organisms, in the sense of the widest
inter-relation and iuter-dependeiice, had resulted iu the
long course of ages. But civilised man violated .this
primitive harmony. His agriculture, which is essentially
the encouragement and cultivation, in large tracts of
one species of plant to the exclusion of otliers which he
denominates weeds, gave exceptional facilities for tho
multiplication of such insects as naturally fed on such
plants. In addition to this inevitable increase of species
thus encouraged, many others have been unwittingly
imported form other countries, chiefly through the in-
strumentality of commerce with those countries ; for it is
a most significant fact that the worst weeds and the
worst insect pests of American agriculture are importations
from Europe. Thus, iu addition to the undue increase in
our native species, as above noted, we have to contend
with these introduced foreigners, and it is no wonder
that Dr. Fitch declared America to be the land of
insects, for, as compared to Europe, we are truly bug-
ridden. As I have stated {Encydopcedia Americana,
" Agricultural Entomology") : — "The losses occasioned by
insects injurious to agricidtiu'e in the United States,
are, in the aggregate, enormous, and have been variously
estimated at from 300,000,000 dels, to 400,000,000 dels,
annually. It will never be possible to fully protect our
crops from the ravages of the many species that
injuriously affect them: but it is the aim of the
economic entomologist to prevent as much of the loss
as possible, and at the very least expense. To do so
eflectually the chief knowledge required is of an entomol-
ogical nature, i.e., the fuU life-history and habits of
the different species; and this implies a great deal of
close and accurate work in field and laboratory. By
means of it we leam which species are beneficial, and
which injurious; and the ability to distinguish between
friend and foe is of the first importance in coping with
the latter, for it is a nocorious fact that the farmer
often does more harm than good by destroymg
the former in his blind efforts to save his crops.
. . , The economic entomologist, to do effectual work,
must possess, not merely a knowledge of the particular
injurious species and its habits with which he wishes to
deal, but must study its relations to wild plants as well
as to the particular cultivated crops it affects. He
must also study it iu its relations to other animals. In-
deed, its whole en%'ironment must be considered, especi-
ally in connection with the farmer's wants, the natural
checks which surround it, and the methods of culture
that most affect it. The habits of buds, the nature
and development of minute parasitic organisms, such as
fungi, the bearing of meteorology, must all be considered,
and yet, with the knowledge that a study of all these
bearings implies, he will frequently fail of pratical
results without experiment and mechanical ingenuity."
, . . Mere study of [insects], however, while essential,
is not often productive of those important practical
results which follow when it is combined with field
work and experiment by competent persons and upon
scientific principles. Many of tho remedies proposed
and recommended in the agricultural Press are either
ridiculous or else based on misleading empiricism ; and
economic entomology, as a science, is of comparatively
recent date.

Insects probably outnumber in species all other animals
combined, some 350,000 having already been described,
and fully as many more remaining yet to be character-
ised. The proper and consientious characterisation of a
genus or species of some microscopic creature involves
as much labour as that of one of the higher animals.
Of the above number a goodly proportion are injurious
to cultivated crops. Lintner recently records no less
than 17G affecting the Apple.

Insecticides. — Of insecticides any number of substances
have been recommended, and many of them tried with
more or less satisfactiuu, pf tUeso may be mentioned

lime, sulphur, soot, salt, wood-ashes, corrosive sublimate,
naphtha, naphthaline, turpentine, alum, carbolic acid,
phenyle, cyanide of potassium, blue vitriol, ammonia,
alkalies, benzine, vinegar, sulphuric acid, quassia, vitriol
(the suJphate of copper), hot water, &c. Most of these
may be safely used for specific purposes, either dry, iu
liquid, or in vapour ; but the three most useful insecti-
cides of general application in use during the early
days of economic entomology iu this country and up
to within a few years, were undoubtedly tobacco, white
Hellebore, and soap. Tobacco-water and tobacco-smoke have
long been employed against aphides and other delicate
insects, and are most useful. A quite recent advance
in its use is by vapourising. The vapour of nicotine is
most effectual in destroying insects wherever it can be
confined, as in greenhouses. Thus the boiling of tobacco
in such a greenhouse is as effectual as, and less iujurioua
to the plants than, the older methods of syringing with
a decoction, or of fumigating by burning; whilo ex.
perience by Mr. AVilliam Saunders at the Department
of Agriculture dm-iug the past two summers shows
that the vapoui: gradually arising from tobacco-stems
strewn on the ground and regularly moistened is Uke-
wise effectual. "White Hellebore, either dry or in liquid,
has long been one of tho most satisfactory insecticides
against Tenthredinid larv», otherwise known as false-
caterpillars, of which the imported Currant-worm (Ne-
matus ventricosus) is a familiar type ; whilo soap,
syringed in strong suds, will kill some soft-bodied
plant-destroyers, and when used as a paint on the
trunks of trees is an excellent repellant against the
parents of different borers. Transcending in importance,
however, any of the.se older insecticides are the three
now most commonly used because most satisfactory.
They are: — (1) arsenical compounds, (2) petroleum, and
(3) Pyrethrum. The first act through the stomach, and
are effectual chiefly against mandibular insects ; the
second and third act by contact, and are, therefore, of
more general application, affecting both mandibular and
hausteUate species. — Gardeners' Chronicle-

Oaloteopis gigantea. — Two out of the three known
species of this genus are flowering for the first time
at Kew. — Gardeners' Clironicle.

Pkickly Peak in America. — In some recently publish-
ed Consular reports of the United States, the following-
interesting paragraph on the Nopal, or Prickly Pear
(Opuntia cochiuillifera) occurs : — " The plant abounds
iu the whole territory of Mexico, Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona, and California, and extends much farther north. It
has flat oval leaves, about 0 inches long and nearly
half an inch thick, covered by long sharp thorns, and
bears a fruit of purple colour resembUug a Pear, filled
with numerous small seeds. Tho plant grows from 3 to
6 feet high. Its fruit is eaten freely by cattle, and tb-j
leaves, after having been burnt in a fire to get rid of
the thorns, are thrown by the cartnien in place of fod-
der to their oxen by means of a long sharp-pointed stick,
especially when on the road where there is no grass.
It also makes an excellent hedge, and once planted will
last for ever. There is another species of Nopal called
Nopal do Oastilla, which has no thorns, and which is
cultivated for the sake of its fruit. This Nopal has.
much larger leaves than tho wild species, and grows
to the height of 10 and 20 feet, and the fruit is muck
larger. Of this species there are a great many dift'erent
kinds, each having its distinct name. They are of
different colours — green, red, yellow, white, and purple.
The fruit is delicious, and in the interior of Mexico
forms one of tho principal means of sustenance for
the inhabitants. Prom the purple Tuna a liquor is made,
called Colonche, and a sort of sweet cheese (qiteso de
Tuna). There is a small red Tuna growing wiUl in the
mountains near to Zacatecas, called Cardona, which is
highly prized on account of its fine flavoiu' and degesti-
ble qualities, and several cartloads of which arc sold daily
in Zacatecas. They are soUl iit G cents for four dozen.
Besides serving as food for men and beasts, its leaves
form tho food oi thu cochineal m>ice\.,"—Co.rdeiX(,iS'
Chrenkk,

153

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[August i, 1885.

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS.

(From Lewis & Peat's London Price Current, July 2nd, 1SS5.)

FROM MALABAR

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADRAS, &c.

BEES' WAX, White
Yellow
CINCHONA BAKK— Crwn

CABDAMOMS Malabar

and Ceylon
Alcppee
Tellicherry

QUALITY.

CINNAMON

Mangalore
Long Ceylon

COCOA,

Chips
Ceylon

l3tS

2ncls
3rcLs

4th!

f SliRhtly softish to good

\ liard bright

Do. drossy & dark ditto..

Renewed ...

Medium to fine Quill ...

Spoke shaviugs

Branch

Renewed

Medium to good Quill ...

Spoke shavings

Branch

Twig

Clipped, bold, bright, fine

Middling, stalky & lean

Fair to tineplumpclipped

Good to fine

Brownish

Good & fine, washed, bgt.

Middling to good

Ord. to line pale quill ...

COFFEE Ceylon Plantation

„ Native
Liberian
East Indian

Native
COIEEOPE.Ceylon&Cochin
FIBRE, Brush

StulBng ...
YARN, Ceylon
Cochin
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted ...
CROTON SEEDS, sifted...
GINGER, Cochin, Cut

Rough

NUX VOMICA

MYKA30LANES, pale ...

Pickings
OIL, CINNAMON
CITRONELLE
LEMON GRASS
ORCHELLAWEED
PEPPER, Malabar blk.sifted
AUeppee & Cochin ,,
Tellicherry, White
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Chips

Dust
RED WOOD
SAl'AN WOOD
SANDAL WOOD, logs

Do. chips
SENNA, Tinnevelli

TURMERIC, Madras
Do.
Do.
Cochin
VANLLLOES, Mauritius &
Bourbon, Ists
2uds

3rds

•Jth

FROM BOMBAY
AND i!ANi;iBAR.

ALOES, Soccolrine and

Hepatic
CHILLIES, Zanzibar

CLOVES, Zanzibar

BUd f «mbti

QUOTATIONS.

Woody and hard

Fair to tine plant

Medium to good bold ...
Triage to ortlinary
Bold to fine bold
Middling to line mid, ...

Low middling

Smalls

Good ordinary

Small to bold

Bold to fine bold

Medium to fine

Small

Good to fine ordinary ...
Mid. coarse to finestraight
Ord. to fine long straight

Coarse to fine

Ordinary to superior

Ordinary to fine

Roping fair to good
Middliugwormy to fine...

Fair to fine fresh

Good to fine bold

Small and medium

Fair to good bold

Small

Fair to fine bold fresh ...
Small ordinary and fair...
Good to fine picked
Common to middling ...

Fair Coast

Burnt aud defective
Good to fine heavy
Bright & good flavour ...

Mid. to fine, not woody...
Fair to bold heavy 1

good „ f

Fair to fine bright bold...
Sliddling to good email...
Slight foul to fine bright
Ordinary to fine bright ...
Fair and fine bold
Miildling coated to good.
Fair to good flavor ...'

Good to fine bold green.
Fairniiddling bold
Common dark and small
Finger fair to fine buhl
Mixed middling [bi'lghf
Bulbs whole
Do split

Fine crystalised (i a llinch
Foxy & red.lish n a 8
f Lean & dry to middling
\ under 6 inches
Low, foxy, inferior and
[picking!

£6 lOs a jE8
.es Kis a £6 108
Is a 3s 6d
Is 4d a 23 63
9d a Is 6d
■M a8d
8d a 2s 6d
Od a 51s lid
5d a Is 2a
2d a 6d
Id

'is a 43
Is a 33

■M 6d a 3s 2d
23 9d a 4s
Is a 25 6d
Is a 4s 6d
8d a Is ea
Sjd a Is 9d
7jd a Is 6d
6|d a Is
4}d a lOd
Hi a 4d
83s a 9(is 6d
45s a 55s
80s a 99s
78s
o6s a 633
47b a 668
40s a 433 nom.
41a a 83s 6d
78s a 125s
63s a 763
J lis a 5-53 6d
10s a 43uom.
£12 a £24
£14 a £25
£7 10s a £11
£12 10s a £36
£12 a £40
£13 a £20
133 a 523 6d
.■!63 a 403
JOs a lOOs
55s a 65s
43s a 503
373 a 423
83 a 12s
s a Bs

lOs a lis 6d
8s 6d a 9s 6d
Ss 9 I a 93
7s ed a 73 93
Is 3d a 3s 3J
Id a 1 l-16d
Ud
40s a 553

7id a 7}d
9d a 2s 6d
143 3d a 16s 63
10s a l.?3 6d
8s a 13s 6d
ls6da lis
£5 17s lid a £6
£i! a £7
£20 a £35
l£10a£lB
9d a la
3d a ad
Id a 2d
21s a 2o8
153 a 1 8s
13s a 16s
<3a93

16s a 25s
123 a 183

6s a lis
Is a Ga

Good and fine dry ... C7 a £9

Common and good ..,j70sa£ti
Good to fine bright .. iOsaSls
irdinary and middling.. 1 1 Is a 483
fine bright ,,,J3ida5,qd
duUtuiiiii ,, jj<la4jd

iirdinary fl
1 J^TOodand f
/Ji^rdiuary d

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZilNZIBAR.

^blue

CLOVES, Mother

,, Stems,

COCULUS LNDICUS
GALLS, Bussorah 1
& Turkey /

green...
white...
GUJI AMMONIACUM—
drop ...
block...
ANIMI, washed ...

scraped..
ARABIC, picked .

sorts..
ASSAFCETIDA

KINO

MYKBH, picked ..

Aden sorts

OLIBANUM, drop

pickings...

sif tings ...

INDIARUBBEE Mozambi

SAFFLOWEE, Persian

QUALITY

Fair, usual dry

,, fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

Small to fine clean
dark to good
Picked tine pale in sorts
part yellow and mixed
Bean & Pea size ditto .
amber and dark bold .
Medium & bold sorts
Pale bold clean
Yellowish and mixed .
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine
Slightly stony and foul .
Fair to fine bright
Fair to fine pale
IVIiddling to good
Fair to good wliite
Reddish to middling .
Middling to good pale .
Slightly foul to fine
que,fairtofine sausage,
„ Ball,
unripe root
liver
Ordinary to good

QUOTATIONS

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, lst3
2nds
3rds

INDIARUBBEE Assam

2d a4d

Id a 1 l-16d

8s 6d a 93

52s a 55b

4-5s a 50s
40s a 44s

50s a 653
30s a 453
£14 a £18
£11 a £13
£5 lOs a £8
£8 a £12
£5 a £8
76s a 803
60s a 723
60s a 753
42.S a 48s
30s a 40s
383 a 423
£6 a £<
85s a 95s
378 a 453
32s a 35s
9s a 133
9s a lis
:lsllda2s
is llda2sld
IsSida ls4Jd
Is 5d a Is 8d
'5s a 153

Rangoon
Madagascar

SAFFLO'R'EE

TAMARINDS

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

Nearly water white ...3ida3Jd
Fair and good pale ... 3 l-16d a 3Jd
Brown and brownish ...I2|da3d
Good to fine ...|ls 7d a 23

Common foul and mixed 6d a Is 6d
Fair to good clean ...|l8 6d a Is lid

Goodtofine pinky &\vhitel23 a 23 id
Fair to good black ...l3 7dals9d
Good to fine pinky ...l£4 10s a £5 10s

Middling to fair ...j£3 6sa £4 2s 6d

Inferior and pickings ...l£l a £1 lOs
Mid.tofineJ/ncA-not stonyjlOsa 14s
Stony and inferior ...i38a68

Foirdry to fine bright ...368 a 388
Common & middling soft 25s a 33s

FROM CHINA, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS

CAMPHOR, China
Japan
GAMBIEE, Cubes

Block

GUTTA PEECHA, genuine
Sumatra.
Reboiled.
White Borneo .

NUTMEGS, large

Medium
Small

MACE

EHUBARB, Smi dried ..

High dried ..

SAGO, Pearl, large

medium ,.
small
Flom-
TAPIOCA, Penang Flake..
Singapore
Flour
Pearl

Fair to fine
Middling to fine

Good, pure, & dry white
,, piiilc

Ordinary to fine free
Pressed
Good

Fine clean Banj & Macas-
Barky to fair [sar

Common to fine clean
Good to fine clean
Inferior and barky
61'8 a 80's, garbled
85'8 a 95's
lOO's a 160'8
Pale reddish to pale
Ordinary to red
Chips

Good to fine sound
Darkordinary&midtUing
Good to fine

Dark, rough & middling
Fair to fine

35s a 40s
iii a Gd

Good pinky to white
Fair to fine

BuUeta
Medium

Seed

j-S0sa85s

293 a 29s 6d
25s a 2(is
20s a 20s 6d
28 4d a 38 34
7d a 2s 3d
6d a Is 6d
Uda l8 3d
4d a lOd
2s 4d a .3s 7d
23 a 2s 3d
Is 2d a Is 9d
Is 6d a 2s 6d
Is a Is ad
Is a Is 2d
23 a 4s
la a l8 Od ■
Is 4d a Is 7d

1 a Is
i;is a 158
123 lid a lis
12s 6d a 14s
11)3 a llslid
ISda 2\A
Uda 2d
ltd a l}d
I5s a 16s 6d
ISs a 16s 6d
13e 93 a 148 3d

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

153

"THE TKA ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON":

REMINISCENCES OP THE VERY BEGINNING OFTEA-PLANTINC}
UKKE by " W. M. L." — ME. ARTHUR MORICe's MISSION
TO INDIA — THE ROCK AHEAD: "OVERPRODUCTION."

London, 26th June 1S85.

Dear Sir, — I am much obliged for the little books
you send me on the cultivation and preparation of
tea, &c. in Ceylon.

Old associations make me keenly interested in all
that pertains to the tea enterprize in Ceylon, though
my interest is almost .-iltogether sentimental.

It may have chanced to one to have loved in its
eatliest infancy some bounie babe, to have played with
the engaging sprite, to have dandled it on one's knee, to
have tossed it in the air. The chances of life part one from
the pet. Years pass by and aaon one hears of the luSty
young school boy and his famous deeds, may be with
bat or oar, may be with pen or book. How
strong is the interest one feels in the opening career
of the once loved infant 1 How benevolent, tinged
not with the slightest touch of sordid considerations,
bat with hopeful anxiety alone, how so much vital
power may develope itself in the future !

Such is my interest iu the Ceylon tea enterprize.
Nineteen years have passed since, as Secretary of
the Planters' Association, I took an active part iu
promoting the mission of Mr. Arthur Morice to re-
port on the cultivation and preparation of tea in India.
That mission, if it had iio other result, caused me
in the following year on behalf of my firm to order
from Calcutta a consignment of seed of the hybrid
Assam plant, and these seeds committed to the cate
of that ever watchful nurse, Mr. James Taylor (who
had already by his fuccefs with cinchona, and more
recently with China tea earned the complete coutid-
ence of his employers for experimental work), fojmed
the beginning of the now famous Loolcondura estate.
In due course (I think m 1S72) I found myself
selling in Kandy to all-comers the produce of our
little garden, and therewith my direct connection
with the cultivation and preparation of tea in Ceylon
ceased probably for ever.

Such bemg .ny experience, it gives me unmixed
pleasure to read now, after so many yiars, that cultiv-
ation is at last being tak'-n up in good earnest and
how, be it for ^ood or for evil, ( eyluu is ntw surely
growinu into a greit tea-pioduc.ng country. It is
pleasant too and enooutagiug to liarn from the di\ers
writings that ycu have brought together that all
possible care and intelligence are belt g used to secure
the utmost economy and ethcieucy iu the various
operations.

That hopes should bo high is only natural.
Looking to all the discourage mfnts of the past, to
forbid hope would be cruc! ; but as I have hinted
above, hope must needs be mixed with some anxiety,
and this for several reasons.

The first reason that I sh.uld give {a very general
one, which applies to any ent rpriz^ equally wiili that
of tea-planting), is set forth in thelat-- Lord Beacons-
field's dictum: "It is always the unexpected that
happen?. " In a business career exttnding now over
30 years, during which many ipecuUtiuns of many
different kinds have been tried, I have been much
struck with the truth of tins sajing. Schemes of
the greatest promise as judged by all past experience
have proved the most complete fiilurts owing to some
new factors in the problem of which no human foresight
could posfibly take coguizince ; and iiwi-C/'utt, in cases
where hope had dki awav, success has beeu achieved
20

contrary to all expectation. To illustrate my meaning :
I remember having heard one of the shrewdest aad
most experienced of Colombo agents say that ho
would value cotTee property only on secured results,
that is on the actual crops for previous years. A
valuation of any of the famous Haputale estates
made on this principle before the year 1S70 would
have given as the full value of the property prob-
ably a less amount than a single year's pn.fits ia
snbscepient years. And there is no need to poiut out
how misleading, though iu the opposite direction,
would be any valuation of coffee estates of late years
based on previous crops.

In all mundane affairs it is unsafe to judge con-
fidently of the future by the past, and tropical
agriculture certainly forms no exception to this rule.
Having thus sweepingly disposed of all hopes based on
the facts and fiyurej which are set forth in your
little publication, it may seem supettluous to con-
sider auy particular reasons why hopes should bs
moderate. And one only shall be mentioned.

The one rock ahead, which iu the impenetrable
haze of the future stands out in unmistakable
clearness, is the so called " overproduction" : overpro-
duction that is for the interests of the producers,
though not for those of the consumers. It is stated
that tea will grow and flourish iu Ceylon from the
sea-level to 5,000 feet above the sea. Given that the
cultivation prove as successful as ia now hoped on the
agricultural side, we may expect from Cej'lou alone an
astounding addition to the imports into Europe within
the next ten years. In a much mora limited zone
of elevation the extent under cofi'tfe some years back
exceeded 200,000 acres. The acreage of tea may easily
be half as great again, yielding yearly 100,000,000 lb.
annually. We have lately seen both in corn and
sugar, and indeed also in nearly every branch of
manufacture, the result of the extraordinary powers
of production developed of late years. Even those
who produce most cheaply have had to sell at a loss.
Under the inexorable laws of supply and demand,
which uot even the most advanced Radical has yet
attemptc<l to abolith by Act of Parliament, the con-
sumer calmly tnkes, not only all the hoped-for profits,
but confiscates also a good slice of the actual cost
of production. But someone will be saying "that
can only be temporary ; see how sugar has already
gone up agxm with a bound." Tea and sugar are
not in like case. B et is a yearly crop, and beet-
growers having lost very heavily last year, do not
sow it again this year. Tea gardens can only be
allowed to cease bearing under pain of loss of the
whole capital invested, both in the ground and in
plant, and they will in no case succumb to the low
prices due to increased production without a long and
stern struggle for life.

It is the old, old story of sic von, non vobis. Tho
tea planters of Ceylon will surely do good service tn
the tea-driukeis of the world. But whether they will
earn the hoped-for abundance of gold for themselves
is matter of doubt. An ominous sign to me is the
cry raised by some for more capital. It is qllito
certain that very moderate realized profits will draw
at least as much capital as ia necessary for sound
development of the tea industry. Within the last ten
years we have seen the effect if an influx of capital.
My best prayer for Ceylou is that it may bo spared
another similar flood.

This is a letter of a pessimist, your readers will
eay. Not so. Were I young and with some small capital
at my disposal, I wool I be ready willingly to cast
in my lot in Ceylon as .1 tei-plauter. It is a fine,
healthy, beneficent employ meut, and offers aa fair
chances of success a.s any other similar work that I
know of, But unless I wished to be disappointed I
ebould not liz mj hopee on liigb {irolit^ fvhicli it is

154

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 18S5.

almost certain will be realized only in exceptional
instances. Woreover, the extrava6;ances of hope will
almost suroly ajjain, as already often in the past de-
stroy all chance that otherwise might exist of its
own I'ullilraeut.

" Nil desperandum " is an excellent motto ; but " ni/
minimum sperandiim " is its logical Bupplemeut. The
infancy and childhood of Ceylou tea-growing have been
singularly free from drawbacks arising from the greedy
hopes of man. While coffee and cinchona have both
been the subject of overhaste to be rich, tea seems
to have been left at all events till lately to those
vpho have studied solely how best to grow and
raauufLoture it. May its adolescence and maturity be
as healthy as its childhood and youth ! And may
the day come when, both in c[uantity and quality,
Ceylou will stand first among the countries of the
world as an exporter of tea !— Yours faithfully,

W. M. L.

The Cultivation of the pearls of freshwater mussels
b»s become an industry of considerable impiatince in
Sa xouy and other xiarts of Germany. The pearls are
generally iuferiur to those of the genuine pearl oysters,
uui occasionally a gem of real excellence is produced. —
American Groc(T.

DiKOVA, July ISth.— We are having what is a most
welcome change : from con.stant rain to bright and warm
sunshhie. Tlie rain has la stRd long enough to enable every-
body who desired to plant out tea to do so to his heart's
content ; and now the warmth of the sun will enable the
plants to put out their first rootlets and lay well hold of
the ground, besides giving the older tea a chance of flush-
ing, which it has not had for ever so long. As for the
effect of the weather on the coffee up here, there is not
much to he said about that as there will be so little left
for crop yieUiiug in the future— the more 's the pity as
some think. I know of at least one substantial proprietor
not Ion" out from the old country who is convinced that
there is" a great mistake being made in the too general
unrooting of coifee. His argument is that, although it is
quite true that some estates give but 1 cwt. the acre
taking the entire acreage of the estate, and that, therefore,
it is not worth while to keep up the whole estate ; but
that in reality the crop comes off a very hmited area,
equal in fact, to perhaps 3 cwt. an acre, and that it is
well worth keeping up the portion giving that amount of
crop, replaciiu;- the rest niih tea. He is confident that
it will be a great mistake for planters to once again cultivate
only one product: the lessons of the past should teach us
the unwisdom of this cour.se in the future; aiid,if forno other
purpose it will be prudent to maintain a certain extent
of laud under cinchona, even through the returns yielded be
not great.— Local '• Times." , ,, •

Effioiencv of Sulphur —We take the following in-
formation from an Italian newspaper. Dr. Vergani of
Naples has just discovered an efifeoine protection agrainst
croup and diphtheria. The abovementioned phyeioian
happened to notice that, in villages w here water charged
viilh sulphur is conlinually used for drmUiug m default
Of Vietler, these dieadfiil diseases are unknown, the result
being tl.at he was led to try experiments on the subject.
To oue of his sons, three years old, durmg eight days,
h« gave nothing but sulphured water to drink and, at the
end of that period, touk him to a children's hospital
where he allowed him several times to play with others
Of his age suffering from diphtheria without the lad
catching it. From the results proving so sattsfactory.
Dr Vcrg^uii prescnbd sulphured water to his children.
For thfin it was sufficient to put a cyliudrical piece of
sulphur in a bottle and fill it every night for use, the
sulphur remaining serviceable for an indefinite period.
It may be tubsti utod by loz-nges of sulphur to be taken
by ciiildren ev.ry morning on rismg from bed and
whenever the abovementioned diseases were nit, each
taking another lozenge in the evening, tfulphur is
besides a powerful means to deliver children from many
Jiiud S.diseaBte,~.-S'<)-«iV< Timim,

THE "CAROLINE ISLANDS:" A NEW FIELD

FOK ENTERPRISE.
Spain has joined in the colony grabbing race, and
proposes at once to acquire the Caroline and Mariana
islands which are situated about 700 miles to the east-
ward of the Philippines.

They may be said to be contained between the 7th
and 10th parallel of North Latitude and extend from
134 degrees to l(iO degrees East Longitude, and to put
it roughly, about 1,600 miles distant from this.

The northern part of the Pellew Islands from Corror
upwards, is moderately high, and could with a more
industrious class of inhabitants be made very product-
ive, as the soil is extremely fertile. The southern por-
tion of the group, with the exception of the Pillelew
and Ngour, is uninhabited. The islands are small and
of basaltic formation, densely covered with hardwood
trees, the cabbage palm, etc. Pillelew has a fine tarro
land, but the root is small, and the natives of this
island are dependent in a great measure on the northern
islands for their food during certain eeasous of the year.
The bread fruit, however, is more plentiful here than
in the other parts of the group. The cocoanut is also
abundant, and from its fruit the Pillelew people made
oil and molasses which they exchange with the northern
people. The Pellew Islands produce beche-demer,
tortoise-shell and pearl-shell, the latter however of in-
ferior quality and known in commerce as the " black
lipped.'' The soil from Corror northwards is rich and
produces a great many tropical fruits (most of which
were introduced by Cap. Cheyne) in abundance and
without any cultivation. Tobacco of a superior quality
is g'owu by the natives, and cofi'ee could be raised with
very little trouble.

The Uap group, lying between the Matelotas and
the MackenzieS, consist of three principal islands, which
are comparatively high, and are thickly inhabited by
a people similar in appearance to those of the Pellews ;
their manners and customs also in a great measure
resemble those of the Pellew natives, but they are
however, a superior class of men and far more indus-
trious. They cultivate large Ciuantities of yams and
sweet potatoes, tobacco and some of the tropical fiuits,
The whole of the coast is thickly planted with cocoa-
nut palms and a large quantity of coppra is produced
annually ; coppra being, I may mention, the dried
fruit of the cocoanut. The reefs surrounding the group
formerly furnished beche-de-iner, but at present only
a very little can be procured. Pigs are plentiful, and
there is also a kind of half domesticated fowl which
can be procured cheaply. Deer and goats are seen,
but the natives do not protect them as they destroy
their plantations. The rat appears to be the only in-
digenous animal, and the large edible iguana is found
in the jungle, but is protected by the natives, who
regard it as sacred. The money of these people con-
sists of large worked pieces (in the shape of a mill-
stone) of a semi-transparent spar, which is procured
from the I'ellew Islands and esteemed very hghly ;
its priuci| al uses are to pay war indemnities and the
funeral expenses of the chiefs. Pearl shell of lar3e
size is gi\atly valued and much sought after, and ve»
sels trading in this group cay supply themselves with
a considerable quantity of provisions for a Sew pieces
of pearl shell. — Hongkong Telegraph.

Seychelles — We hear that the Acting Chief Civil
Comnussioiier has dismissed all the men formerly
employed in the Forestry Department, and that many
valuable economic plants aud seeds that had been
forwaid-d from the Botanical Gardens of Mauritius
have been in consequence abandoned. This is much
to be regretted, for every encouragement should be
given to the inhabitants to turn their attention to
other cultures than the fast decaying coconut, and
"example is better thao ■pTWft,"—JiIerca?tUleSe(or(l
ftni Cammerfitl QoMlit,

September- i, 1885.] fHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISt.

iSS

THE NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA.
HoWLET, Jane 3rd. — A subject introduced at the
meeting held here recently was that of restricting
Chinese imni'gratiou for the future. The past caunot
now DC remedied, as the Chiuese are here and we cannot
well get rid of them ; but we can and ought to prevent
more of them from coming by passing a similar re-
strictive Chinese Immigration Act to the one in force in
South Australia proper. The Chinese now have every-
thing iu their own hands here, and if their coming is
not prevented in the iu' lire it will be impossible fora
European population to live here at all. The country
has never been in a worse state than at present, the
primary cause of which is the stagnation in the mining
districts. This is caused by the gold fields, and even
the reel's (which Chinese are not allowed to work in
other countries) being overrun by them, so that the
white miners, who could have developed the reefs, have
for the most part lelt the cuuutry. Those who are here
will not woik amongst a lot of Chinamen, so that
every known gold-tield and line of reef being occupied
by them, there are actually no places left for a white
miner to try his luck in; and as the Chinese who hold
the ground have already worked out all the suiface
that is easily got (all the mining they ever will do),
and the whites are prevented by their presence not only
from testing the deep ground but from remaining in the
Territory at all. a state of stagnation is the result, which
can only becuied by taking prompt measures to prevent
their coming here any more, except iu such limited
numbers and under such a heavy poll tax as it was
found neccjtary to impose in the neighbouring colony of
Queensland.

The pearling boat "Lammeroo" arrived in Port Darwin
from Western Australia last week, and two others from
the same place will probably be in port by this time.
They have done pretty well, and would have done
much better had not the weather been so persistently
bad as to prevent regular work, besides which measles
and fever broke out amongst the crews.

Messrs. Erickson and J. Wotd, of Port Darwin, are
still on the pearling ground at or near Cambridge Gulf,
and have gut a cood qiiantity of shell. Two pearling
boats anived in Port Darwin last week from Thursday
Island, and reported that between 200 and 300 boats
would probably arrive shortly from Torres Straits, en
route for the western pearl fisheries, as the accounts
from there have been good, and the late pearling season
iu Torres Straits has been rather apcorote.

It would appear that the Western Australian jarrah
is just as susceptible to the attacks of cobra (fererfos
iiarali.-) iu water as it is to those of white auts on shore.
The "\Vhampoa"oD her southern trip took down apiece
cut from one of the trial piles of the jetty, planted
some months ago, which was thoroughly perforated
by the sea worm. As the jetty piles are to be sheathed
with copper, and the woudhas otherwise proved to be
very serviceable for piles, we do not suppose any
alteration of timber will be ordered, a?, as yet, the
cobra has found it just as difficult to cat its way
through melal in the water as the omnivorous white
ants have on shore. True, it may be only a question of
time and education, but until it is proved that iron and
capper are no protection against the insects' eucroach-
meiit-i it may be as well to chance it.

Tbe total inip-.rts into Port Darwin for the quarter
ending March 31 amounted to ijiiid'A, of which £5,053
were from South Australia, £7,460 from New South
Waiej, £2,.iS0 from Queensland, ard £5,803 from
Honykong. J'he exiorts during the same period
amounted to £-22 021, < f whi.h £2,612 went to Victoria,
£14,205 to New .Somh Wales, £4 443 to Hongkong, and
£51 to S.uth Australia. The immigration nnmhered
174 souls aud the emigration ',11 souls. Sixteen vessels
representing a tonnage of 18,82'J tons arrived at Port
Darwin in the quarter. — Ausiralian Begisler,

' PLANTING IN CEYLON.

Ceylon sets to work with a more purely busineag
air, and boldly advertises herself as a "field for the
investment of British capital and energy " in the way
of growing tea, cacao, cinchona aud other produce.
Not coffee, mind ! Oeylou has bought her experience
dearly, and no more thinks of putting all her oggs
into the coffee basket tlian Jamaica does of putting
all hers into the sufjar basket. A few hints, there-
fore, as to what Ceylon planters are thinking of, may
not come amiss to our re.iders in Jamaica and the
West Indies generally. There is, perhaps, a special
fitness in asking Jamaica to take a bint from Ceylon,
seeing that the able Director of Public Gardens and
Plantations in the former island, held only a few
years ago the same post io the " Isle of Spices." If he
only succeeds as well in ifnmaioa as he did in Ceylon
in making the planters Kfrn their practical attention
to new products, he will have doubly deserved the
thanks of the public at large. After tea, cinchona aud
cacao, the latest "new loves" of the Ceylon planters
are cardamoms and areca palms. The last named is
the most recently introduced to the notice of the
planters, one of whom, after making practical experi-
ments nith about 40 acres of land under this crop,
estimates the net profit at about COr. ('ay S")-'.) per

' acre. On good soils an even better return may be
expected, and further profits are looked for in the
utilization of the fibre. As to the maiket, another
planter states that "with praclhaVij an unlimited
demand, hundreds of millions of people in China,
India, &o., using areca nuts, it ranks second to feiv
other enterprizes, and offers at the same time a
safe investment for limited capital." Much inform-
ation on these familiar " new products " will be found
in a handbook on " Tea and other Piantiog Industries
in Ceylon," and in the periodical publication the
Tropical Agriculturist, Loth issued by Messrs. A M.
& J. Ferguson, of Colombo, to whom the Colony of
Ceylon is much indebted for their persistent efforts to
foster Cingha!e§o interests. Mr. John Ferguson, on
a recent visit to England, was " interviewed " by the
irrepressible, but iudispensable, newspaper reporter,
and in the little pamphlet sbove-rr.entiuned he has
issued the foUoning revised version of what he said
on the all-important question of the class of young
men for whom Ceylon has an opening — information
which will equally apply to Jamaica and the other
West India islands. —f'oto«!'es and India,

SPIDER SILK.

We recollect once reading a statement to the effect
that spiders' webs were equal and even superior to
ordinary silk. liut an experiment tiied by shutting
up about sixty spiders together ended disastrously.
In the morning only a few bloated spiders were found,
which had eaten up the others. Tliere may exist
spiders, however, devoid of this cannibid propensity,
aud further expcrimmts with the right soit of spiders
might be more successful. Meantime the enormouij
quantities of strong and dense spiders' webs iu our
jungles, which sometimes impede the progiess of
travellers, might be utilized. A Madras Government
paper which has reached us enibodrea correspond-
ence on the subject initiated by Mr. J. F. Duthie,
Superintendent of the Siharnn))ore Butauic Gardens,
He wrote thus to Sir Joseph Hooker: —

JJy today's mail I am sending you some queer-looking
stuff — spider^s sifk. It was extremely lovely as I saw it
when coining down from iUmora the other d;iy. Enorm-
ous webs of it stretched between the trees and shrubs
overhanging the lake at liliim Tal iu Kumapn. I saw a
notice a 8hf>rt time ago iu some paper regarding the use
which might be made of these strong wobs ; a particular
kind of a golden yellow color, occurring in New Zealand,
was siiecially recoiuiuended, aud iu fact it had been muni-

tS6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

pulated with success as a substitute for silk. What I saw
at Bhim Tal answers very much to the description of the
Kew Zealand kkid ; and if a supply is wanted for an ex-
periment on a large scale, it could easily be obtained from
this locality after the raiuy season is over. In a small
tin-box enclosed in the packet I am now seuiiing are a
few of the spiders, not in very good order, but I had to
send for them.

Mr. Thomas Wardle of Leek, England, reported thus
on the Bilk and the spiders ; —

The fibre is evidently of a silken nature, and, like silk,
it is loaded with a gummy substance. In a boiling soap
EO'.ution this gum or varnish dissolves, leaving
the fibre apparently pure and of the nature of fibroin
if not identical with it. Eight micrometric measure-
ments of the diameter of the fibre in different
parts of the mass showed great irregularity in thickness

/ I J_ J_ I— — 1- -J— ' _i_ \

\.230b' 2800' 3500' 2800' 3500' 3500' 3500' 3500/

giving an average of 3^00 inch. It has therefore a
considerably finer thread or fibre than silk, Italian silk
averaging in thickness ^-qq inch. The average strength
of the spider silk is jjroportionately greater than that of
Bilk, a single fibre of the spider silk breaking with an
average weight of 2J drams (Av.), whilst that of China
silk breaks at 2^ drams. The most curious property of
this fibre is its elasticity, which is considerably greater than
that of silk. Thirty centimetres of it will stretch to an
average length of 36-G centimetres before breakingt while
China silk will only stretch to 34 centimetres. Like silk
this spider's web silk is lustrous and has a round fibre.
Its coatnig of gum or varnish is disproportionate to the
weight of the silk. On boiling with soap it lost 7J oz.
per lb., that is, 1 lb. of the spider silk discharges 7J oz.
of gum. With silk the proportion is much leas, seldom
being over 25 to 30 per cent. Before boiling iu soap the
sjiider silk was well combed to remove all the dirt poss-
ible, but a little remained. The fibre appears to dye
readily. I enclose a small pattern of it dyed, and also
one as I received it and one after boiling in soap. I be-
lieve if it can be obtained in quantity it might be packed
in bales and sent to England where it would readily find
a market for being carded and .spun into spun silk-thread
for sewing or weaving purposes. It is dilBcult to estimate
its marketable value. I dare say it would at any rate

realize 2s per lb. It
some extent detract

is rather dirty, and this would to
from its value as compared with
silk wdste. I have tried to discover how many seripositors
this spider has, but beyond noticing under the microscope
that the fibres often run in pairs but not regularly, I am
unable to trace whether there are two, as in the ordin-
ary silk-worm, or more. Probably an examination of the
spider would show this or an ^^udisturbed portion of its
secreted silk.

Here is an opening for a new industry. Our only
fear is that the scouring of the jungles for spiders'
webs, might end in the destruction of so many spiders
as prejudicially to destroy the balance of insect life,
common llies, mosquitoes and other creatures of the
kind becoming inconveniently abundant. But some of
our readers might 1 ke to try the experiment of
breeding silk-weaving spiders in perforated boxes,
where each mscct, if necessary, could have its own
compartment for wfaving in.

POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF FIJI.

DEPRESSION IN FIJI — CEYLON MEN LEAVING — THE CADSE OF
FAILURE, DEAR LABOL'E— THE NATIVE TAXATION SCHEME
— lOO.OUO I'MIANE — AS LABOURERS AND AS PRISONERS —
POLYNESIANS AND WAGES — PRODUCE : — COFFEE, LIBERIAN ;
TEA ; t A1(DAM0M.S ; SUGAR ; COCONUTS.

Fiji, 20th May 1885.
Formerly I used to see a good many letters
from diHcrant correspoudents out here iu the
Ohsci'ivr, but latterly, none; so 1 conclude those who
uacd to address you, have either left the group for
pastures new or have given up writing. The former

is most likely to be the case, as moat of the Ceylon
planters who were in Fiji have left disgusted at not
having been able to make money or at the poor
salaries they were receiving. Amongst the Ceylon men
who have left I know of Christian, Hedges, Akera,
Thompson, and Whitton, and many more, I feel con-
vinced, would leave if they were certain of getting
in Ceylon or elewhere, even the low salaries they are
iu receipt of now. Fiji has not turnid out the
*' Eldorado " we all expected ; it has in fact just turned
out the opposite. Instead of making, one loses money
in most of the industries embarked in, and, unless things
take a radical change for the better, most planters will
simply become bankrupt — many of them, I should say,
are verging on or in this state already. It 's sad
to have to write in this strain of a new colony, but it 'a
the truth and it 'a no good disguising the fact.

Opinions differ, of course, to a great extent
as to the causes which lave led to this state
of affairs. Some affirm the land is not suitable
for some of the products planted ; others that
the labour, owing to Governmental action, is now
so scarce and expensive, that it would not pay to grow
anything in any country at the lates ruling; others
that the markets are so bad and the prices realized for
products so low, that it does not pay to cultivate ; and
others ngain, who form the majority, say it 'a all owing
to the native taxation scheme, which greatly interferes
with the free working of the native and compels plant-
ers to get men from other countries at a far higher
rate of wages than the Fijian could be engaged for, be-
sides havinj! to pay a very heavy sum for introduction
expenses. The latter subject has been written about
over and over again until it is threadbare, without as
yet doing any good. Whether the freeing of the
F'jiaiiS and allowing thtm to work when and where
they liked in the group would be a panacea for all our
evils, 1 am not prepared to cay. If they were allowed
to do so and pay a capitation tax of £1 each, insttad of
the same amount in produce as they have to do now, I
fancy a good number of them would, at first, be willing
to go out and work, but whether they would keep it up
is doubtful. Every Fijian has laud on which he can
plant the little he requiies during the year, and, when
the novelty of being free had passed over, I think he
would prefer staying at home and certainly rot go in
for regular work. In disposition he resembles, in my
opinion, the Sinhalese : likes grog (yagona) drinking,
smoking sulukas, and eating and sleeping, with a min-
imum amount of work. If you add to these qualities
that they don't caie about hoar ing up money, or for
so-called luxuries, one would naturally ask why does
the Government then not do away with the native tax-
ation scheme? I think the great object is, the preserv-
ation of the race by keeping the people in their towns
as much as possible togeiher. The year before last, if
I remember right, the statistics showed a slight in-
crease in the popjifation ; as yet I have not seen those
for last year, but should say, owing to hooping-
cough among the children, there must be a large
decrease. Whether the race can bo preserved,
only time can show. History points to the fact
that where the whites settle, as a rule, the blacks
die out. Look at Tasmania, for instance, and see how
rapidly the natives are dying in Australia, New
Zealand, Hawaii, &c. Shoula cholera, smallpox or some
other epidemic be introduced, it will be a pt^or look-
out for the race, if we judge by what measles did
some time ago. The present native population is about
100,000, and it certainly appears an anomaly that we
should have to introduce lahoureis from India,
Hebrides, Solomons and other far oflf islands, when
the present planters in the group only require a
few thousands, I should say 10,000 at the outside,
amongst them altogether. The Fijian will never work
Ro cheaply as he did before, and it cannot be expeottd

September i, 1S85.] tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

^57

as owing to the competition the last three or four
years his wages have been greatly increased, and he
certainly would expect to get as much as the cooly
receives. This, planters would not object to pay, if
they could get the men and have an ordinance
enabling them to get a fair day's work for a fair
day's pay, or to be able to get the men duly
punished in default. The present ordinance is
no good. If the man likes to work, he does so ;
if not, he can pretty well do what he likes, and
it is so difficult to get him punished under the
present law, and, even when he is punished, the pun-
ishment is of such a slight nature, that planters
won't go to the trouble of taking theni to court. In
the country jails the hard labour ia a jierfeet force: the
prisoners have no task to do every day that I am
aware of, and I have often seen them idling away
their time, emokiog and talking and, an outsider would
certainly not look upon them as prisoners. It is now
no punishment to any man being in the country pris-
ons, and it won't be until strict discipline is enforced
and he has to do a hard day's work. I have actually
known cooly prisoners receive food and tobacco from
their wives and leave the jail to ccme up 4 miles dis-
tance, to sleep with their wives and leave early so
as to get back to their quarters, without being found
out. This state of things is wretched. Coolies have
often told me they would rather be in jail even with-
out pay, than work on the plantation. This would
not be, if the jail discipline was as it should be.
Malingering amongst coolies is a serious evil and will
continue to be so as long as they can pay a paltry
fine of Is to 3s without being imprisoned. It
is not worth a planter's while to be constantly
taking malingerers to court, especially should it be, as
is usually the case, a long way cff. He may make
a determined stand at tirst and take some of the men
down and get them fined most probably Is each for
the first complaint. .Shortly afterwards he takes the
fame people clown agam and get them fined, say 2s.
If the new men are a lazy lot, this will only have a
slight efiect ; in a few days' time they will commence
shamming again, jou don't like to be done, so take
the men down a third time and say they get the max-
imum tine inflicted if convicted, viz , 3s. After this,
your patience gets worn out, the game is not worth
the candle, if you have to travel far. In my
opinion the cooly ought not to have the option of
paying a tine after the second conviction. If he knew
he would suffer imprisonment fr third and subsequent
ofifencea of a similar nature and it he really found prison
life irksome and the work as it should be hard, it
would act aa a deterrent. Enough .about labour. 1
am sick of the subject as it 's tuch an unsatisfactory
one. I may as well mention, though, before conclud-
ing that the wages of Polsnesians have been raised,
lustead of receiving £3 a year as before, the men
niiw have to get £3 for Itt year, i.'t 2nd, and
£r) for 3rd year. Youths and boys in proportion.
Men who have worked in (,luecnsland or Fiji previously
get it) per year. Of course all clothing, food, to-
bacco, &c., are given to the men in addition to wagts.
Return pasage money has also been raised.

Cofie I look upon as a failure. I do not know
of any estate, except one, which is giving enough
crop this year to pay woiking expenses — this, too,
in spite of a favouiable blossoming seasen last year.
The price is now so low that you require a large crop
to make the estate pay when your lalmur is dear. I
know of six estates that have bsen aliandoned since I
last wrote to you. The owners of the others would,
I am iure, be only too glad to sell even at a heavy
sacrifice. Lenfditease vi-its us annually in a pretty
teverc form, and traces can be seen all the year round.
The export of Arabian ccitlee from Fiji has never
been much and for some years to como won't be

worth calculatirg. It is not at all likely that
new comers will embark in the enterprize, at
any rate for some time to come. The few
patches of Liberian coffee I have seen, look
lie.%lthy and are bearing well, but it is too soon to
judge whether the speculation will prove a remuner-
ative one. rhe fine curing establishment which Mr. A.
R. Wilson erectetl in Taviuni has very little work to do,
— it 's a great pity, as Mr. Wilson went to great expense
and trouble and has completed the work in a most
substantial and workmanlike manner. I doubt it he
will have any ccfi'ee to cure this year except his own.
This, of course, will never p.ay. His estate is the ex
ception as regards bearing which I have already re-
ferred to. The coffee has a decent, but not by any
means what I should call a heavy crop.

Tea. — As I told you in my l.ist we have embarked
in this product and I have now about 200 acres
planted up and wish to get in 100 more before
the end of the year. The ages of the different fields
vary from 4 year old plants to some just planted out.
The major portion of the 200 acres has only lately
been planted, and we have only about 30 to 40
acres off which we pluck. Owing to want of seed
and plants we have not been able to plant up our
land so rapidly as we wished to. The growth of the
plants is rapid, and the oldest tea seems to flush
well. I am a tyro in tea planting, and so am unable
to tell you myself whether the trees are doing so
well aa they should do, but two Indian planters
who have been here, thoroughly looking over the
place, were so satisfied with the appearance and growth
of the trees, that they have bought land and are
planting it up. This looks well, and I sincerely trust
that tea will yet do something for us. It is much
appreciated by the local public, and as yet we
have not been obliged to export any. I have a Ko. 1
Davidson's .'^irocoo at work which does well, and a
Thompson's Challenge Roller fur hand or other power
— I am not fatisHed with its work: it does not
twist the leaf to my satisfaction and takes too long
over its work. The maker, strange to say, never for-
warded any instructions either how to erect or work
the machine, and, although he was written to months
ago for the rtquisite particulars, none have as yet
reached us. In the meantime I have tried the
machine with different charges, leaf withered in teveral
ways &c., but without the outturn in woik I calcul-
' ated on. This may all be remedied on receipt of the
instructions. Strange to say, Davidson also never
sent instructions till a long time after we had received
and erected the Sirocco. Surely makers of tea machin-
j cry would find it to their interest to forward
' pamphlets full of instuctions by post either before,
I or at the sunie time as, they dispatch the machines
ordered!* I will write further about tea when I
have gained more experience : at present I cannot do
\ so with confidence.

] Cardamoms. — At the end of February 1884 I
} planted up a patch under partial shade of original
i jungle. The bulbs were grovin from seed procured
Irom Ci-ylou, and when planted out were nearly or
quite a year old. The plants were so tall that I had
to lop them all. They were plinted out !) x 9 ft.
The growth eiuce then has been most satisfactory.
The stools, if I may so term them, are in some cases
over ?4 ft' '" diameter, and on the 13th February
this ytar I noticed for the first time some were
llowering— a few days ago I picked some fruit, only
a small quantity. If the plants go on as they have
dune, I slall certainly expect a decent crop next
year. They cover all the ground already. The cultiv-
ation promises so wdl that I have been induced to

♦ So one would think ; but our correspondent is by no
means singular in his experiences.— Ed.

1'58

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, tSEPTEMBER i, 1885.

plant up a further acreage, which I still wish to in-
crease by cutting off two or three bulbs from the
original stools and planting them cut. This, I sup-
pose, is the best way to extend as 1 have no plants,
although some slight injury may be done to the plants
from which t e bulbs are cut, and it must to a
certain extent impede their growth. At the same
time as I planted the clearing under shade, I put
out about 40 to 50 bulbs entirely in the open so
as to be able to compare the difference in the growth
of the two. The latter have formed bigger stools,
are not so tall as those under shade ; some of the
leaves, the oldest, have a yellowish tinge and none
have flowered. They look robust and are better than
I expected.

Weat!ie>:—The enclosed table will give you all in-
formation legarding temperature and rainfall here for
last and previous years : —

TAKEN AT ALPHA ESTATE, TAVIUNI.
Hygrometer.
Month. Rainfall. Ga. m. Noon.

inches. D.B. M'.B. D.B. W.B.
January ... 22.14 73 71 84 78

February ... 16.07 75 72 85 79

March ... 13.54 74 73 86 81

April ... 7-99 72 69 8G 80

May ... 8-65 70 68 83 76

June ... 4-56 68 65J 79 73

July ... 2-60 C8 63 78i 73

Aug .. 2-89 (« 63 78 73

Sept ... 12-97 68 66 80 76

October ... 4-11 66 63 82 73

November ... 7-30 70 68 81 74

December ... 3-59 71 69 86 79

Total ...107-31 70 64 82 76

Year 18S3 .. .183-11 71 65i 81 76

,, 1882 ...110-55

Elevation 1,0U0 feet above sea-level. June, July and
August were very dry months for this elevation. Last year
the rainfall for these months -nas 1366, 12-86 and 9-50
respectively. There has been a longer drought this year
than has been known for many years past in Taviuni.

A. J. Stkphexs,
Observer.

Suijar. The sugar planters have been despondent

lately owing to the fall in the price. Since I last wrote
to you I have not been to the Kewa and Navua, the
principal sagar-growing rivers, so am unable to give you
all the information I should wish to do. Planters still
Eay they cannot make the cultivation pay with present
rates ruling. The largest mill ou the Navua and the
plantations couneoted with it have lately come to grief
and wra sold the other Any. The labourers, over 5C0,
have all been removed. This is bad for the Navua in
particu'ar and sugar planting in general, as such a
collapse will frighten other capitalists. On the other
hand two or three new mills have been erected ; one on
Mango, an island to windward, owned by a Mel-
bourne Co. and managed by a brother of Mr.
Borron in Ceylon ; another on an inland to the
-north of Viti Levu ; and one on the Pa coast in
Viti Levu, owned by the new New Zealand Sugar
EetJDing Co., 1 believe. The sugar made is of first-
rate quality, and it is to be hoped all thee mills
have a prosper. ais future bi fore them. If sugar cult-
ivation turns out unprofitable, it will almost be a death-
blow to Fiji. I have often wondered since my residence
here how it is sugar has never done well in Ceylon.
You have just as good a climate and as varied
and many advantages in the way of cheap and
plentiful labour, cheap transport, &c., and I feel
cmviuced if you could only hit upon the proper
kind of cane, sugar planting would prove a grand
thing in Ceylon. Every eflort ought to be made to
introduce all kinds of cane and try them in dif-
ferent parts of your island. I know the experiment
liaa been tried ; that mills have been erected ; that

experienced men have looked after the cultivation,
and that large sums of money have been lost ; but
still, different kinds of cane have since been dis-
covered and some of these might prove a thorough
success where the others were total failures. Whether
it is worth while to go in for cane culture in face
of the enormous beet-sugar manufacture, which
I conclude keeps, and is likely to keep, prices down,
is a question for thofo most interested to decide ;
but that cane could be grown and made to yield
a good percentage of sugar if a suitable variety
were introduced, I feel certain after what I have
seen here.

Coconut Cultivation. — This combined with cattle is,
at the present time, the moat satisfactory here.
Those who possess large properties can make a fair
profit after paying expenses, and I don't know of
another cultivation which is doing the same. The
Ofvners of smaller properties can jog along comfortably
without getting into debt. If one can combine
cattle with the coconuts all the better. There's a
market for fat stock and the beasts thrive and fatten
well. The stock originally came from New Zealand
and Australia. There 's no disease as yet and no
leeches, ticks, &c-, to bother them whilst grazing. Fat
beasts will run from 600 to 800 lb., and the
butchers will give from £S to ^12 for them on
the place. The coconuts are much smaller than
yours and take as a rule 5,000 to 5,500 to make
a ton of copra. You hear somttiraes of 4,500 pro-
ducing a ton. and sometimes it takes as many 6,000
and over. The price of copra at present is from
£9 lOs to £10 lOs per ton in Levuka. There is always
a demand and any quantity can be sold. The major
portion goes to Germany. No coconut oil is made for
export. Fibre and bristles are occa^ioEally sent in
small quantities by ope or two planters to the Australian
market, but the demand seems to be a poor one. Larger
quaotities would doubtless be sent if freights were
lower. Ceylou, I fancy, can undersell Fiji in these com-
modities. No coir matting is made out here which is
a pity, as there ought to be a ready sale for it.
Some of the coconut planttrs have enquired about
a work on coconuts. 1 see you are publishing cue.
Please forward me copies.

I will now bring this lengthy epistle to a close.
A lot of public meetings have lately been held all
over the group for the purpose of trying to git Fiji
annexed to New Zealand. The large majority seem to
fancy that if it is done our condition would be greatly
benc'fited. You will see full reports in the iiji Times
which I conclude you get.— Yours truly, A. J. S.

[A good, sensible letter. We never believed in coffee
in Fiji: sugar ought to be its staple, and tea is likely to
be a success. The soil and climate are better for sugar
and cattle than ours in Ceylon but labor is the diffic-
ulty, especially for tea.— Ed.]

PLANTING IN CEYLON AND MYSORE.

{Notes hy "Aberdonensis.")

"ECONOMr" AS A FINE ART— THE AGENT-V. -A.-
E.STIM.WE SYSTEM VS. THE nAPPy-GO-LUCKY NO-WIEI.'K-
KOLL-ACCOUNT SYSTEM- WEEDIMO UNTIL TIIERE-ARE-N-Q-
WEEDS VS. THE DIKTY-AND-DIGGING PEACTK'E— A PRO-
TEST AND SOMETHING LIKE TEACHING ONe'.S-GRAND-
MATERNAL-RELATIVE-TO SUCK-EGGS— FROM A MY-
SORIAN VISITOR.

Facts are stubborn things and force their way. I
do not know whether personal contact with men
here, or actual observation of methods, or the con-
vincing power of facts and figures combined, have
most to do with this pressure on my mind ; but, the
more I see and hear, the more I am convinced. Men

Seftembek I, ibS^.] TliE TKOPICAL AGKiCULTURIST,

^59

are apt to ask how in the world does Ceylon get all
the money to carry on. But when you see how the
spending of money is carefully guarded, how economy
is made a delicate science, how home proprietors,
money-lenders, Colomho agents, V. A.'s, super-
intendents, are all closely studying how to work the
thing down to the lowest possible degree, — then, I say,
this vigilance makes up for expensive labour as
compared with Mysore, this vigdance atones for a
shattered credit and weakened powers by directing
the precious rupees in the exact direction and at tho
lowest possible rate. What is tho use of arguing as to
the beauty of digging a Dumbara soil, and letting
the weeds up to sweeten the soil and save wash,
when by the process of fortnightly weeding, weeds
disappear in accordance with the arrangements of
expenditure, leaving the superinlendent free to arrange
other worlis on the same precise and delicate balance ?
The man would like to dig just as he would like
more pay, but it is a matter of ways and means.
The "way" must be adapted to the " means"; so
contract weeding is beautifully adjusted to the " Agent-
V. -A. -Estimate system " ou account of straightened
purses. Thus it will be apparent that the managers of
estates are more financiers than agriculturists. 1 might
suggest that your valuable paper be styled " Finance
and Agriculture in the Tropics." It 's all a case of
finance : that is the power that permeates your laud.

Then another thing has struck me. Say, in Dum-
bara or anywhere else, a man says he would like
to dig, and would like to do lots of things but is
not allowed the cost. Why ? Because the estate can't
afford it. Yet the estate can aflbrd large extensions
of area Avhich means weakened power (as military
men or financial men will admit), it can afl'urd to
proceed on the most highly coloured castles in the
air grabbing at the shadow ant^ losing the substance,
and with what result? I see by your contemporary
that someone has been in Dumbara and he has been
free with details furnished. I duu't like close details.
I prefer generalities. All I can tay is that in most
cultivations tried in Ceylon greed and conceit get very
swagger scientific names. If a man is unclean in his
habits, parasites, each with its scientific name, make
their appearance. If a plant is in an unnatural state,
parasites and strange growths and disease all appear.
The Eajawella " pandal " speaks a humbling lesson
mora to Ceylon than to the honest man who
was pushed by financial considerations. The
flushing leaves in that darkened acre call out
to all Ceyion that Finance is the wrong
whip for an agricultural team. You ask "What
is to be done ? " Hold in your horses and
don't burst them because the man inside is in a hurry.
Tell the man inside that the more haste the worst
speed. The man inside is the controlling financier
that uses a red and blue pencil in estimates of
expenditure, cutting them down, and a hardhearted
V. A. and cruel pressure in estimates of crop putting it
ou. The man inside, the V. A. driver, the super-
intendent, horses and the cooly wheels — they are
off on a new track. The best man at figures will
get the cream, and the agriculturist will be driven
out of the country.

I am not going to deal with tea yet. Softly just
a bit. Should 1 be inclined to disagree with the
views of those in power I would like to be on board
ship on my way back before tho howl started. But
I do not anticipate this. Only I dread seeing Maria-
watte store which I am told is the same as figures
in the Olscnxr ndvertis-ement column.

If Captain Webb lad succeeded in swimming
down that fearful channel many eiuiilar fools would
have tried it in vain, but his fate put an end
to the folly. Perhaps the too great success of one
or two pioneers will be jour worst daj}g«v in

elevating your standard (in two senses). My idea
is : " Pick youi- men and trust them better, keep
down your acreages and do not extend operations
until actual result has been reached, and do not have
one brain cirried by various methods of locomotion
from Badulla to Matale, from the confines of
Biutenna to far Rakwana applying one hard rule
to all and various : ' The greatest result at the
cheapest cost with the greatest obedience.' " The
rein of economy, tho whip of greed, the voice
of the man inside, all combined 1 Oh for my quiet
corner in Mysore. W'heu I go back next mouth
I will appreciate it more. ABERDOJNENSIS.

"WHITE-ANTS" AS EiNEMIES TO TEA.
We are sorry to receive the following from a cor-
respondent ; —

" If you have not already heard, you will learn
with regret that a very serious enemy to tea-planting
has appeared. On an estate in Lower Dikoya, whole
fields of fine tea have been attacked with tckile ants,
killing the trees right out, in some places from 50
to (iO per cent. The ants seem to have eaten up
beginning at the root and stopping a few inches above
the ground after ringing the tree of all bark
Curiously enough, the indigenous has escaped, but
the other bushos of every age sutler alike. I never
heard of white-ants eating growing trees before, and
this was a sad sight to see : I put it down to the
severe drought. The superintendent did not know
the cause of the yellow appearance of his bushes
for a long time, but the rain soon cleared the stems
and the reason was appaient." '

The virulence and destiuctiveness of the attack make
this case remarkable, for that the termites, popularly
known as " whiteants," eat living and heallhy tissues
in the case of tea-plants, is a proposition which the
experience of Indian planters, extending over more
than a generation, has, unhappily, placed as much
beyond doubt as that the " white grub " of a
species of cockchafer eats the living and healthy
feeding rootlets of the coflee tree. After all that
has appeared in the Observer on the subject, we are
only surprized that our correspondent, who has been
ong in the island, should be ignorant of ihe formid-
able enemy which tea at low elevations, where alone
the whiteant can exist, has in that insect. Like
our correspondent, wo long cherished the conviction
that only dead or dying vegetable tissues were
liable to the attacks of white-ants, aud we were
naturally confirmed in this belief by what is so
familiar to visitors to the Colombo Cinnamon Gardens
bushes of the spice flourishing wliilo surrounded
and the lower portions of their stems clostd in by
white-ants nests consisting of pyramidal mounds of
earth. It is probable that the essential oils, hot and
pungent, in the bark and leaves of the cinnamon
shrub render It distasteful to the insects, and this may
adord a hint as to remedies. The cumulative we
may say the utiauimous, evidence of ludiau plantrra
long ago com[,elltd us to recognize the facf H f
white-ants did attack and destroy living tea b„,h
and also the wisdom which we previousfy doub 01":^
the expensive Indian process of clearing away all
timber from tea gardens instead of leavina it to r?i
cay and yald fertilizing matter as on c fl!e Vl "I
in Ceylon. And local experiences of the d«ti^clo
powers of white-ants have not been w.intiug About
a year-and-a half ago, we mentioned in the oC°,v!.
wha a planter had told us about tea bushes t /hi
neighbourhood of Awisa«ella being infested w,?l, '".^^0
ants to such an extent that children Were empWed
to go round and scrape away the insects and the^v
earthy coverings from the stems of the trees 1,;^"^
case mentioned by our present correspondent the in
/lects seem to liave commenoed eatmg (i,^ »„' ^'^^^

l6o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 18S5.

from the root upwards, witliout showing any sign
above ground, which is contrary to the usual habits
of the termites. It seems quite probable that the
proti'acted drought at the commeDcement of the year
may have operated so as to have induced the white-
ants to move from the dead wood Ijing on the estate
to the living bushes. The great question now will
be the best means of eradicating the evil. In our
T. A. back issues will be found notices of scores of
remedies for white-ants, of which probably arsenic is
one of the most useful. But the most effectual measure
to adopt, and it will be a measure of cultivation, is
to attack all the ueata on the estate, hoeing down
and spreading over the surface the built up soil and
digging out and destroying in every case the neat and
its occupants, taking care never to miss the queen,
a huge grub-like creature. Fowls would be useful
in the work of destruction, and we believe many of
the coolies would cook and use the white-ants for
food. If all the white-ant nests existing were de-
stroyed and no new ones allowed to be formed, while
unsparing war was waged against every insect which
showed itself, we cannot doubt that the destructive
creatures could be exterminated. Timber could be
gathered and stacked in convenient places. There is
comfort in what seems to be the fact, that only in
their earlier stages have white-ants been destructive
on Indian estates. Then, again, we suppose that all
ettates at altitudes of over 3,000 feet (?) or certainly
3,500 are exempt from attacks by white-ants. What
their exact limit is we are not prepared to say, but
we certainly never saw or heard of any at or beyond
3,500 feet.

A tea planter who has had experience of white-
ants on patches suggests that probably in the above case,
grub had done the mischief before the white-ants com-
menced operations. His experience is that white ants
attack tea trees which have suffered from grub. But
the great point is that in such cases supplies of
tea come on so much more quickly and certainly
than was the case with coffee. Tea has, no doubt,
a variety of enemies in Ceylon as elsewhere ; but
they can all be fought and conquered ; and grubbed
fields, when the attack has passed, may become the
most prosperous on the plantation.

Brazil Coffee. — A New York correspondent assures
the Batavia Dogblad of the 23rd June that iu Brazd
the Rio coffee crop this year reaches fuur millions
of bales. The Santos crop is estimated at two and
a half millions of bales, it amounting ten years ago
to hardly six hundred thousand bales. Advices from
Brazil agree in anticipating heavier yields in years
to come with every prospect of still lower prices ruling.
— Straits Tiinis.

Cotton Tree Seed as a Food.— A French savant
claims to have discovered in cotton-tree seed a nutriti-
ous matter, presenting some most remarkable
features in its compositions. An analysis of the
Beed of cotton-trees, o! which several varieties are
cultivated in Bolivia, shows that this is the richest
of all known grains in nitrogenous substances. He U
convinced that cotton-tree seed will make a flour destined
to take an important place as a fcod t.r mau. — Amtrican
Grocer,

A Spider's Cai'ACITY. — A gentleman scientifically in.
cliued captured a spider, and, by a careful estimate,
made by means of actually weighing il and then confin-
ing it in a cage, he found that it ate four times its weight
for breakfast, nearly nine times its weight for dinner,
thirteen times its weight for supper, finishing up with
an ounce, and at 8 p.m., when he was released, ran off
in search of iooA.— American Grocer. [Unless the spiders
spun web in proportion, it would not pay to keep them
for eilk production, ~£b.]

Tapkoot of Tea.— Herewith (says a merchant) a
specimen of a tea plant 12 months old from Ythanaide,
showing the taproot. This may interest you. [We
should think so : to see a tea plant 9J inches above
the surface of the soil, at a year old, having a tap-
root straight away down measuring 52 inches into
the earth, is rather unusual ! It is worth sending round
the Fort.— Ed]

Plantini! in Seychelles. — In a letter that we
have received from Mr. E. H. Edwards, of MahtS
[an old Ceylon planter] he says: " i'ou will be
glad to hear that I have at last been successful
witli my tea .seed. I find nurseries at a low elevation
are not a success, but some plants that I have put
out at an altitude of about 1,400 feet are thriving
well. Cinchona also will not do at or near sea
level ; I am going to give it a trial at the same
elevation as that where the tea fiourishes. My rubbers
are coming on capitally : nutmeg seeds from Mauritius,
I am sorry to say, are a failure : the time in transit is
too long. A friend of mine has raised some cardamoms,
from seed!; I am promised a few plants. Mr. Scott, of
your Gardens, is rendering me great assistance ; scarcely
a mail arrives but I receive seeds of some kind or
other from him. I wish I could say I had a helping
hand here : the present Head of the Government
appears to be dead against any agricultural innovation
and I have to contend against no little injustice." We
hear that Mr. J. H. Hope was a passenger onboard
the 'Salazie' on her homeward voyage. This gentle-
man arrived in Mahe a short time ago on a tour of
inspection, and he is so pleased with the climate and
general prospects of an agricultural life there, that he
has purchased an estate, and now returns to England
to bring out his family. We wish him every success.
We also hear that Mejprs. Galbraith and Maclean have
purchased the well known ' Cascade " estate. —
Mercantile Record and Commercial Gazette,

Mr. Pkestoe, the Government Botanist of Trinidad,
at the request of the Tobago Agricultural Society, has
just paid a visit of inspection to Tobago, where several
estates have lately gone into liquidation, with a view
to suggesting some form of cultivation which shall
replace sugar. He has expressed himself as greatly
surprized at finding the island so different from what
casual reports had led him to expect, and he declares
that it is superior in natural advantages to either
Gren.ida or St. Lucia. Be that as it may, he saw on his
tour round the island tracts of land which, as he
expressed it, "seemed to have been formed especially
to grow cocoa," alongside of other tracts, abundantly
watered, which he described as "magnificent oanegrow-
ing land, on which central factories ought to be
established. His formal report will shortly be issued,
which we expect will help to dispel the unaccount-
ably bad impression which prevails about the Colony;
but in the meantime an effort is being made to form
a company to take up one of the recently sequestrated
estates for the purpose of adopting Mr. Prestoe's re-
commendations. An estate of about 3,300 acres, to-
gether with all the machinery, building, and live
stock thereon, is to be purchased for .i'4,000, or little
more than £1 an acre — one-half to be paid at once,
and rest iu two years. How many men are there ia
this country who would be glad to purchase such an
estate at such a price for mere purposes of recreation !
Properly handled, snch a property ought to yield an
enormous profit, for even under sugar cultivation the
land is really worth ten times the amount proposed
to be paid for it. The venture will be brought before
the notice of investors simultaneously in the West Indies
and in London, and there ought to he no difficulty what-
ever in raising the money. If one such venture succeeds,
the chance of buying up another such an estate ou
nuoh terms ia hardly likely tQooauT.—CglQnies and India,

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

16

CURRANT GRAPE VINEYARDS IN GREECE.

Few who habitually consume large quautities of the
Ooriuth, or currant grape in the form in which it is
inii)orteil, and especially at this time of year, are aware
of the place at, and the conditions under which the
cultivation is carried on. The currant grape is almost
exclusively grown in CIreece. and the adjoining islands
of Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca and Suuta Maura, The
mainland of Jlorea is cultivated along its northern and
western shores — the quality of the produce deteriorating
as you proceed southward away from the Gulf of
Coricth. At Lepanto and Messolonghi in Livadia. the
industry is pursued with marked success. Greece is so
largely dependent on the currant grape Wueyards that
any temporary failure of the crop is attended with
serious loss as great and as widespread as that attend-
ing the failure of the potato iu Ireland. The olive,
which is another staple product of that part of the
world, is being rooted up to give place to currant vine-
yards. The neighbourhood of the sea is preferred, although
the plantations are not as a rule permitted to approach
nearer than 500 yards to the shore. The finest sites are
at the foot of wooded hills, with a sunny aspect, open
to the free circulation of air. Sea fogs and briny mists
are beneficial. The currant grape affects a rich light soil
with an admixture of sand — the characteristic of most of
the arable lands of the ancient Peloponnesus — and a clim-
ate with alternations of intense heat and cold, the
latter being of short duration. However closely the sites
selected maj' approximate to these requirements, it is a
noticeable feature iu the cidtivation that a uniform
quaUty in the crop cannot be ensured. The soil, exposure
and treatment may be identical, and the properties may
adjoin, but there will yet be a marked difference iu the
fruit. The size or the colour of the berry is sure to
differ, or the saccharine matter or aroma will abound
in the produce of one, and be absent, or deficient, in
that of the other. The Zante currant though smaller
is preferred for its sweetness and fa»our to that grown
in any other part of Greece. The vineyards are kept
free of all other cultivation as the currant is impatient
of shade. Bometimes, however, during the earlier years
tomatos and melons are cropped on the same soil, but
all good cultivators deprecate anything else being grown
between the sets as tending to impoverish the soil,
and withdraw from it the elements of plant nutrition
which do not naturally abound. In the mouth of .Janu-
ary cuttings are taken off the old plants, aud buried
until the following March, when they are permanently
put out at a distance of tour feet from each other.
In four years the vine will fruit, hut seven or eight years
must elapse before it comes into full bearing, and it
will continue, under favourable conditions, and good
caltivation to yield for upwards of fifty years. The
average age of a flourishing plantation is forty years,
after which it nesds renewing, but trees are met with
fully a hundred years old. The produce, however, of these
vetcraus is very small. AVith the object of securing
"bold fruit " the growers " ring out " the stems and branches, j
an operation performed when the fruit has set, and in-
tended_ to prevent the descent of the sap. This treat-
ment is prejudicial to the vigor and health of the vines,
and also to the keeping qualities of the crop, but it is
almost universally practised, It costs £100 to open an
aero of currant grapo vineyard, and the upkeep aver-
ages £10 per annum. This sum makes provision f( r
liberal sulphuring at the rate of Wi pounds per acre.
The sulphur being procured from Sicily in fine powder,
and sprinkled over the vines as an efficacious remedy
against mildew to which they are very subject. The
yield averages 2.000 pounds per acre. The iiest sort*:,
namely those growing about the Gulf of Corinth, along
the northern and western shores of the More a and in
the island of Zante fetch as much as 25 shillings per cwt.
The inferior sorts do not realize over 1,5 shillings per
cwt. Tlic average selling price may be put down at
£20 per ton. which gives the grower 10 per cent on his
capital outlay. Labor is expi-n.sive. and higher on the
Hiainlaud than in the i-stands, varying from 2 shillings
per diem iu the latter to i shillings in the former. In
the ielaud of ijante 10,000 acres are under currant oultiv^
21

ation, and this acreage is gradually increasing as olivef
are being rooted out to find roont for it, yielding annu-
ally 7,000 tons of currants. The entire exports do not
exceed 120,000 tons, and at the present time this appears
to meet the requirements of the world, but the use of
the fruit is extending. It is no longer confined to
confectionery, the ravages of the phylloxera having directed
the attention of French growers to its utility for wine-
making. In recent years over 30,000 tons have been
imported into that country for tins purpose, aud the de-
maud is not likely to decrease. More th.an a halt of the
total exports goes to England, but finds its way out again
to other parts of the world. 12,000 tons go to tha
United States directly, and a great deal more indirectly. —
Madras MaU.

EVILS ATTENDING PLANT CULTURE-
IN POTS.

This is a good time to give advice on this subject.
It is not a good plau to grow any plant in a pot ; but
pot culture is a necessity of horticulture, and as all
gardeners, great or small, grow an immense proportion
of their stock in pots for a shorter or longer sea.son
every year, it follows that they should know all they
can about pot culture an<l its evils. Gardoucrs, and
especially amateurs, are so much accustomed to growing
plants in pots, that we daresay the idea is a common
one, that that is the best way to grow them. It is
not the best way, however ; on the contrary, except
uuder a few exceptional circumstances, it is the worst
way. Very many of the ills which afflict plants are
directly or indirectly traceable to their culture in pots.
It is an acknowledged fact that green fly, thrips, red
spider, mil. lew, and not a tew other pests and diseases
which attack plants are encouraged and aggravated by
culture in pots. How is this? — some one will ask. And
in answer, it may be said that the idea is not a new
one, or broached for the first time. Lindley gave the
subject his attention, and so did Knight ; aud inventors
have devised pots that were said to overcome or mitigate
the evils complained of, but owing either to the price,
or inconvenience of using such articles, they have never
become popular, aiul for mostly all purposes the com-
mon flower pot is .'■till in general use.

One of the greatest disadvantages connected with the
use of pots U the necessity of standing thfui in places
exposed to the air and sun, and the great fluctuations
of temperature and moisture to which the roots of the
plants growing iu them are thereby exposed. It is very
bad for any plant to have its roots in a medium that
is hable to be alternately wet and dry. or cold aud
warm, and these are just the conditions to which pots
expose them ; hence experienced gardeners are always
castnig about for some means of protecting the pots,
and resort to pliuigiug. shading, sprinkling paths, and
devising shelves and ventilating processes, so as to
prevent these agencies from working mischief as much
as possible, When a plant is newly potted in abundance
of soil, and freely watered, the roots are not so much
affected ; but when they reach the sides of the pot,
which they soon do, and there is nothing between them
and the sun and .air but about an eighth of an inch
of porous eiu'thenware, they are liable to serious injury
if not watched attentively. When the soil becomes
parcheil in the pots, it shrinks away from the sides,
leaving a space between the two; active evaporation
begins from the tender root.s, which, instead of absorbing
moisture, as is their function, part with it, and tho
consei|uence is that they are either killed or injured,
and the branches suffer in proportion. ^\' here large collec*
tions of plants exist, or where those in charge have not
time to attend to the wants of the plants, this is quito
a common occurrence at this season, and many a plant
is irretrievably ruined thereby. Kcpular attention to
watering and shading can only prevent such things
happening, and in the case of pot-bound jflants a good
deal of attention is required, becnu.se the toil in tho
pots soon dries up. To fully uudeistniul the cotidition
of a plant situated in a pot as described, it lunst he
remembered that in tho natural state, when a plant
grows in the ground, tbo roots liavB unlimited scope.

S6i

THE TROPICAL ASHICULTURIST, [Septsmber i, 2885,

and do uot experieuce such conditions at all, whereas
in a pot exposed on all sides, evaporation is constantly
going on from the roots, the porous earthenware pot
acting like a wet cloth put rouud a bottle of water to
keep it cool. As regards temperature, the roots of all
plants are naturally subjected to far more uniform
conditions than the tops, that is to say, the temperature
of the ground does not vary nearly so much as that
of the air, anil it is found that the nearer these con-
ditions are imitated iu artificial culture, the better do
plants thrive. This is why i)ine-apple plants in pota
are invariably plunged in a bed up to the rims of the
pots, and they cannot be grown and fruited successfully
in any other way. Orchard bouse trees are also always
plunged when practicable for the same reason, and so
are many kinds of select plants that are found difficult
to grow in the usual way.

The remedies for the drawbacks of pot culture are
vrriou.^. Many kinds of plants have of necessity to bo
grown on stages and shelves in glass houses, where they
cannot be plungiid, aud the cultivator must then do
tl^e best he can under the circumstances. The main
points to attend to in such cases is not to water the
plants during the driest and wai'mest time of the day,
when evaporation is most active, but say in the morn-
ing or in the evening. Next, ventilation or air should
be given gradually, so as to dry up the moisture slowly,
and the pots should be so placed as to shade each
other as much as possible. Plants standing with their
pots touching each other thrive much better than
wht-n the pots are placed widely asunder, and hence
close ranking should be the nde, provided the tops
have room at the same time. Under other circumstances,
the best plan is to plunge the pots up to the rim when-
ever possible or convenient. Plunging obviates many
evils, and it is often a good practice to plunge the pots
of favourite subjects in another and larger pot, fill-
ing up the space between the sides with ashes or soil.
Double-sided pots have been made to meet this end, but
they are too cumbersome for general use. A dry cloth,
a piece of " frigi domo," for example, or a piece of stout
brown paper tied round a pot, answers almost as well.
The object in any case is to prevent radiation aud evapor-
taion, or the escape of heat and moisture from the
soil iu the pot, and so preserve the roots in an agreeable
medium. — Meld .

QUEENSLAND SUGAR PROSPECTS 1885-86.

In accordance with our usual custom we lay before
our readers, as soon as possible after the close of the
sugar season, which is here considered to end on March
31st, a resume of the operations for the past j'ear and
a forecast of the probabilities of the coming season,
based upon the area of land under cane and governed
by the general appearance of the area cultivated. It is
Btedless to remark that the returns for the past year
are of the most unsatisfactory nature, generally speaking,
aud a careful study of the figures we now sidjmit to
our readers, will show that while the return per acre has
been abnormally low all round, it is evident that in a
l&rge number of oases the yield per acre must have been
ae sniftll as to make it queslionaWe whether it would
not have be«li more advantageous to have left the crop
ungarnered, fof slnOe In matiy Instance."! by means of
improved processes and superior machinery the quantity
of sugar produced per ton of cane has bc-n very large,
it follows that hi many cases also the return must have
been proportionately small, The average production per
acre for last cfushiug| is below 17 cwt. per acre, a figure
which has not in this district been reached since 1875,
and when it is remembered that the prices ruling have
been extremely low it will be seen that very severe
losses must necessarily have accrued on a large number
of plantations. The area of cane crushed during the
past season was 13,-19n acres out of an area of 15,638,
which wag twelvemonth ago expected to be fit for
milling, thus showing that over 'JIKIO acres of cane which
was expected to be lit for manuf.acture did not actually
r<ach the mills, ilnw it comes that 1-1 per cent, of the
c; ne returned at this time last year as likely to be fit
fct cra*hi^ remained uncut, c»n only be sccouut^d for

by the presumption that the inferior condition of the
crop aud the low prices ruling caused this large perceu-
lage to be left ou the field. From the area already
stated as having been operated on, the output of sugar
was 11,350 tons, which amount is upwards of -1000 tons
short of the estimated output, a falling-off so serious as
to be a matter of grave importance to the growers,
millers, and, in fact, all residents in the district. The
average production per acre for the season shows a do-
crease of 8 cwt. per acre over that of the previous crush-
ing. The return of the molasses made during the season
is naturally higher than the usual figure, as experience
shows that the proportion of molasses to sugar is always
greater in a bad sugar year than in a good one, the
quantity this year being within a small fraction of 34
gallons to the ton of sugar made. The difference between
this aud the usual 30 gallon-? would not appear large,
were we not to take into account the superior systems
adopted in our mills by reason of which the production
of molasses should be reduced. Turning from last season's
figures we come to those of the current sugar year, and
these certainly give reason for more hopeful results
when placed side by side with the splendid appearance
which the cane generally presents. "We find that the area
under cane at present is 17,770 acres, a slight mcrease
over that of last year, though by no means so great an
increase as was anticipated, and as would undoubtedly
have taken place but for the various adverse circumstances
with which the industry has been .surrounded during the
past twelve mouths. Of this at present it is estimated
that 16,241 acres will be brought to the rollers, but we
must be guided by the experience of the past and there-
fore allow that about 2.300 acres, from one cause and
another, will not be cut, aud this will leave us, in round
numbers, 14,000 acres of cane for this season's milling.
We have made a very careful survey of the cane through-
the district, aud have consulted a large number of the
out most competent growers aud manufacturers, and though
we have observed a tendency with most people to
depreciate the probabilities of the season's output, we
come to the conclusion that in placing the estimate at
23 cwt. per acre we have struck a somewhat low average.
It is is probable that many of our readers will be
disappointed, and some surprized to find so low an
estimate put forward after hearing the splendid appearance
of the crop so frequently commented on of late, but
while the general appearance of the fields is undoubtedly
fine, we are conscious of the fact that the ratoons will
give a comparatively low return, and that many of the
plant cane patches, now presenting a splendid appear-
ance on close examination evidence a larger preponder-
ance of " misses" than is usual. Our estimate for the
coming crop will therefore be a return of 16,000 tons
of sugar. With regard to the financial result of the
manipulation of this amount of sugar we will not pretend
to make any prediction, the conditions under which the
work will be conducted aud the state of the markets
beiug of so uncertain a nature ; but we are sanguine
enough to think that owing to the intervention of
Providence in regard to a favorable season that the
prospects of the planters «re not so dark as they appeared
a fev." months since. Before concluding we would allude
to tho subject of rum-maUiug, aud the figurce before us
show thit some aiterution in the excise duties are
desirable. The quantity of molasees in 65-84 was 450,283
gallons; the figures for 84-S5 were 334,640 gallons; and
a glance nt the operations of the thn e local stills dis-
covers ihf fact that a comparatively small proportion
only of^ the raw material has been manipulated | a i>ro-
portion so small indeed as to raise a very notable
question for enquiry. During 84-8-5, 187.225 gallons only
of molasses were ojieiatpd on at the stills, producing
mth the addition of 8,250 gallons of skimmings a total of
82,460 proof gallons of spirit, while the mola.nses remain-
ing from the previous year's crushing was as above shown
456,252 gallons. This wouM have produced, had the
whole of it been distilled, upwards of 1P(1,000 gallons of
spirits. During the year the export of molasses has been
almost nothing, and thus we find an rnormnus amount
of raw material uuaccouutod for, ami. .as a matter of
fact, gone to wast*. The loss to the country upon this
may b< better estimated when we point out tliat tlie

September i, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGtHCULTURTSt.

163

excise duty alone at 63. SJ. per gallon would have, on
the waste product, exceeded £20,000, a sum of money
which, iu view of the present depletion of the Treasury,
would have helped materially to swell the receipts of
the colouy. — Mackai/ Stayuianl.

ENGLISH FARMING IN INDIA.

Talking with an Indinn zemindar (laudetl proprietor)
the other day. this man, a Hindu, remarked: — "Iwouder
EngHsh capitalists do not buy up laud iu Southern India
and farm it on their own account. They will put their
money into Indian gold mines that wou't return the'n
one per cent, when the land would give them twenty."
And when 1 inquired why native capitalists did not euter
on such a profitable pui'suit, he answered curtly, "They
can get 60 per cent on usury." which is very true. The
great wants of the land in Southern India are water and
manure. The ryots, or peasant farmers, are too poor,
and generally too much involved in debt, to dig wells, or
to do anything that costs money in the way of irrig-
ation, and they burn their cowdung for fuel, con-
sequently the land gets no fair play. Moreover, they never
infuse fresh seed into their crops; indeed, they are only
too thankful to get any seed at a>U. and, of course, buy
the cheapt-st and the worst that is to be had in the
market. As for ploughing, they simply scratch the sur-
face of the soil with an implement that looks like a
wooden anchor; but then their half-starvetl draught bull-
ocks can do no more — so much is all that can be expected
of them. Despite bad years, debts, difficulties, and tax-
ation, an Indian zemindar on a large scale is usually
worth money ; some of them are enormously rich, so that,
however they do it, they make farming pay.

I believe with my friend the zemindar that a large
property in Southern lu'lia in such districts as Coimbatore,
or Godavery, or indeed anywhere that water was easily
obtainable would pay a .S\nidicate or Company able to
expend a considerable capital upon it, and this, too,
though I know of sugar estates taken up by Europeans
that have failed miserably. The fact is, that these
failures were left to native management, and nothing in
India left to native management will pay, whether it be
a State, a regiment, a property, a business, or what not.
Supervision by Europeans is absolutely essential to the,
success of anj^hing in India; because peculation is rifer
and no native seems to see the fun of working fo
another person so long as he is paid for doing so. Active
European supervision will, however, produce wonderful
results if combined with capital, and I confess I am
carious to see what would be the residt of good farming
by experienced men in the South of India. "We all know
that lar^e fortunes have been made by indigo planters
in Btngal; but the South of India will also grow indigo, and
sugar, tobacco, grain, oil-seeds, and other produce of great
value. Euglishmen, nevertheless, have never, to any extent,
gone iu for farming on the plains; they have limited
their enterprize to coffee, tea, and chinchona planting on
the mountains. Not that the climate need deter them.
It is the same climate in which Government civilians
and military men have to work, and no hotter than
many parts of Australia in the summer.

There is a Government model farm at Sydapett,
near Madras, where fancy crops are grown ; but a Govern-
ment model farm will hardly serve as a criterion of
what a syndicate might do with fifty or sixty thousand
acres of zeniindaree land. But it is first necessary to
describe what that land is. It is, generally speaking,
quite unlike an estate at home — unless, perhaps, in the
vrilds of Ireland. There are no hedges or fences to speak
of unless round a standing crop, and not always then,
and the estate may be a vast i>laiD, more or less sandy,
dotted with patches of grain, such as cholum and raggy,
for dry land, and with bright green paddy for wet.
The trees will be chiefly palmyra^s, cocoanuts, according
to the distance fr-)m the sea, and there will be a pro-
digious acreage of scrub jungle, otherwise waste land.
It is n»t because the land is worthless, but because the
native farmer has not the money to cultivate it. He is
over head and earsiu debt to tlie village Shylock. and why
should ho cultivate more land when all the profits must
go into the pockets of Old Sixty per Cent ? AVhy, indeed,

should he do more than just get the handful of graia

that keeps him ali^'e, because anything more than this
would go to the local money-lender and the landlord
together. But it does not follow from this that the land
is not good laud, and capable of producing l;u-^e crops.
Most likely, if it was properly cultivated, and got soma
of that manure it now never sees from one generatioa
of agriculturist's to another, it would give as good a
return as those prairies in the West of Ameiica w8
hear so much of, and it has this advantage over Anu^rican
land, that labour is abundant, and ridiculously cheap.
Even the great and rich zemindars, like my friend, do
not do justice to their land. Not one of them would
ever think of spending a rupee on its improvement if
the expenditure could be avoided, and a zemindar who
drew, say, ten thousand rupees annually from his estate,
would think himself a fool to try and make it, putting
money in the land, twenty thousand. It is here that
Europeans would have the pull over natives. They would
improve, and their profits would increase, whereas the
natives standstill, spend their returns in foolish doniestio
ceremonies, costing all they have, run iuto debt, and are
ruined whenever a bad year overtakes them.

I don't think there woidd be any great hardship for
Europeans in supervising an Indian estate. They would
have servants and luxuries of all kinds tliat the Colorado
or New Zealand colonist knows nothing of. And they
would have plenty of sport and regular employnient;
what more need they wish P The indigo planter's life
used to be considered the pleasantest in India, and etpially
profitable crops ought to give as much happiness as the
blue dye of commerci.^ But, of course, experience of
natives, and native ways, would be essential ; at last to
ensure the profits of the estate. As for the estate itself,
I fancy, that a good large zemindaree could be purchased
in one of the districts I have mentioned on very favour-
able terms, owing to the impecuniosity of the zemindars
as a class, and to the famines in past times, which have
plunged many of them into debt. I don't mean Govern-
ment waste lands, of which plenty could be had for a
trifle; because to clear land would never pay; but to
laud now under crops (i^) save the mark! with a view
only to improvement. My idta is that the English
capitalist would make two blades of grass grow where the
native grows one ; and it is not to be forgotten that
there is a ready market on the spot for whatever is
grown, be it grain or grass. There is not the disadvant-
age of having to export one's grain. India is so densely
populated that the food is insufficient as it is.

I hardly know what the ditiicult might be with the
Brahmins, the ryots, and native neighbours at first, but
probably not much, beciu'^e capital. smooths everything
in India. The syndicate of 50,000 actes would be respected,
and if not, why the law is at hand, unlike the prairies
of America, where there is sometimes no redress. And
natives, generally, are beginning to see their profit iu
the investment of British capital in such enterprises as
manufactories, and would no doubt, be equally glad to
see English money invested iu agriculture. There are some
crops, indeed, which it is almost impossible to bri ig to
perfection without a greater outlay than the half-starved
Indian cultivator can atford. Tobacco imligo, sugur, all
require capital, and the ryot lives frtim hand to mouth.
But wherever money is expended on the land, and nn^nure
and water applied to it, the crops will be found magni-
ficent: the pity is that it is oidy in the neighbour-
hood of large towns and irrigating channels that one
commonly sees anything of the sort. A syndicate would,
of course, take up land along the bank of some large
river, and would dig wells if necessary. In this way there
would bo a good command of water, and all the manure
of the stock, as well as perhaps the sewage of adjacent
town** or villages would be applied to the land. The
stock alone should prove a source of profit to an English
farmer in India, because the natives are singularly
apathetic about breeding cattle, and their acquaintanco
with the veterinary art is so poor that they are always
losing their stock by preventible or curable disease. The
improvement of Indian cattle and sheep by ^ judicious
crossing with the South American and Australian breeds
is a legitimate speculation, and one that would prove
highly profitable to an ^Inglo-Indiau farmer who under-

iC4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

stood his business. Profitable, too, would be the breeding
of horses aud ponies on a well-watered estate with plenty
of fodder. It is for want of fodder, which is want of
iriigation, which is want of capital, that horse-breeding
speculations in India generally fail.

It would be utterly absurd and useless for any syndic-
ate or inividual to undertake the adventure I advocate
upon a small scale or with a small capital. The ryots
are all poor, but the zemindars are all rich. VeiJi. sip.
Tlie bigger the estate, aud the greater the capital to
expend upon it, the better the chances of making a
Maharajah's income from it. And such is India and its
inhabitants, that if an est.ate of 10,000 acres was to
return 20 i)er cent, I should expect one of 20,000 acres
to return 40 per cent, always supposing that the capital
eicpended was in proportion with the increase of the
acreage. In short, I believe that there are greater gains
to be made out of Indian land than out of American,
Australian or other cultivated lands; but that to make
:tny gain at all tlie land must be cultivated on a large
scale, aud a considerable capital put into it. It may be
urged, " Why don't the natives form syndicates them-
selves if the scheme is so profitable?" but a sufficient
reason is that they distrust one another. They would
certainly try to rob one another all round, aud a syndic-
ate of that kind would not hold together. One word
more. I believe that tlie Government would encourage
enterprize of this description for its own advantage, for
great undertakings would benefit Government, whereas
pmall ones would only trouble them. And with Govern-
ment, capital, aud knowledge on its side, an English
Farmmg Syndicate for India ought to succeed.— F. E. W.
'-^(j rapliic.

PLANTING IH JOHORE.

There are now fully 2,000 acres under Liberian coffee,
I am told, and I am certain this quantity will be greatly
increased during the next season. A small shipment of
clean Liberian coffee has been sent home from the
Batu Pahat district, and we are anxiously waiting to
learn the result of the sale in London. The coffee
was cured under many disadvantages, but was, on the
whole, a very good sample of this product.

Tea. — As yet there are only two gardens in Johore; one
belonging to H. H. the Maharajah, about 2 miles from
the town, has been handed over to a gentleman who
has a coffee estate near by for 3 years, so that he
may carry out experiments as to cost of cultivation and
manufacture of tea with the labor at present available,
I am told he has got down Chinese tea-makers from
Amoy, and he is now making tea in the same fashion
as that in use in Formosa. He expects to find a good
market for it in America and Eussia, I believe. The
other garden belongs to the .Johore Tea Company, and
is situated at Tanah Jlerah, 8 miles from Johore
Bahru, on the bank of the Scudai river. There are
about 70 acres planted, from 3 years to a few months
old, and about .30 acres cleared and ready for planting.
About 30 acres at 3 years olil is very good indeed,
aud would compare favorably with great deal of Ceylon
tea I have seen of the same age. The balance, al-
though not bad, is not so good, having been planted
in poor soil. This garden has had many disadvantages
to labor under from the fir,st, through frequent chauges
of superintendents tluou<,'h ill-health ; but great difficulty
has been labor. I understand that only Ohine,se and
Javanese coolies have been available, and such labor is
costly indeed compircd with Indian labor, such as you
have in Ceylon. That the tea will flush well here, and
give tea of excellent quality, has been already demon-
strated, so al! that is wanted to make tea a success
in Johore is cheap labor, aud, while on this subject, I
may mention that we are now almost certain to get it
from India, as His Highness has just goue home, aud
we expect to hear very shortly that the negotiations
which have been going on for some time have been
conqjietfil.

Cacoa.—Ol this product I am sorry to say I cannot
give a satisfactory account, as from all I have seen
and heard it seems to have proved anything but a
success. At first, I was inclined to think the dying-

I out of the cacao I saw, was caused by neglect, but I
I am now convinced such was hot the case, as I hear
I that fields of cacao which have had from the first all
j attention possible in the way of cultivation have begun
to go out just the same. For the first year or two it
I looks flourishing, but after that the branches begin to
get black at the tips, and this soon extends all over
' the tree, which dies down to near the ground. A sucker
may then grow up which survives, for, say, another
year, aud then dies off in the same way. I hear of
one or two fields of cacao which are still looking
I flourishing, but as a whole, I think there can be no
doubt that cacao has not proved a success over here.
Cinchona. — The first thing weich struck me here on
vLsiting some of the coffee estates was the absence of
cinchonas — all the more so as there were mauy parts
of the said estates admirably adapted for the growth
of this product, which could have been grown without
detriment to the coffee ah'eady planted. I only know
of one estate in Johore where cinchona is being tried,
and I am told it is growing splendidly. One or two
nurseries of good seed are being put in this year, and
I yet hope to a good acreage under this cultivation,
as I am convinced both the climate and soil are well-
suited for it. Writing of cinchona reminds me that I
heard from a gentleman planting in Sarawak, the other
day, aud he mentions that his Ledgeriana and Succirubra
of 2 years old have given most satisfactory analysis,
viz, 6 per cent, quiuine from the former and 3 per
cent, for the latter. Liberian coffee of which he has
a few .acres is doing vi.-ry well, but cacao is vtri/ ?(h-
."latisfactori/, ceara rubber is growing luxuriantly and he
has also a field of cardamoms, which promises to give
a good crop this year. Tea is to be tried this year.
Areca-nitts. — I see this cultivation is beginning to
attract attention in Ceylon, aud it may interest you to
know that a large tract of laud is planted with this
product in coujuuction with cocoanut and other fruit
trees in Johore. About 110 miles up the west coast of
the Peninsula, the Moar river j ins the sea, and a few
years a^^o for miles ou each side of this river there
was nothing so to speak but mangrove swamp. H, H.
the Maharajah, who is always doing something to deve-
lope his country aud improve the condition of his
subjects, induced a number of Jaranese and others to
settle near the mouth of the river, and gave them
every help aud encouragement in reclaiming the swamp
land ; and the consequence is that what was once a
mangrove swamp is now a splendid plantation or rather
plantations, of cocoanut, arecanut, duriau, duker, man-
gosteen, mango, and other fruit trees too numerous to
mention. There are, I am told, about 50 square miles
so cultivated along the south of the river Moar. Near
the mouth there is a rising little town named in honor
of the Maharaue *' Bandar Maharane" where there is a
Resident, an intelligent Malay gentleman, a relation of
H. H., who does everything in his power to encourage
and extend cultivation aud improve the settlement.

Health of the Country. — A few years ago there can
be no doubt that the country was very unhealthly and
every planter who came here suffered more or less from
malarial fever, but now, and for some time back I am
glad to say, there is great change for the better, and
you now seldom hear of anyone getting a bail aitack.
Many get a touch of fever now aud again, but uothmg
more than one gets in Ceylon, and I think the best
proof that the country is now much more hcalthj' is
that new comers seems to sutt'er as little as those who
have been here sopie time. Before, it was just the
opposite, the newcomer generally suffering most. As
far as personal experience is concerne I, I can only say
that I have never enjoyed such good health anywhere
else as I have since I have been in Johore. f tiaresay
you saw a letter which appeared in the Straits Times
some time ago, giving an accent of a visit to the
Ohasseriau estate in the island of Singapore. The
writer (who, as most people over here now think,
describes himself very correctly by saying that he is
deficient both of practical knowledge aud conimonsense)
gives, to say the least of it, a verj- inqierfect description
of the system of cultivation rnrried out by Mr.
Chasseriau. To begin with, I need hardly say that thp

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

165

•emark about the lower branches of the Liberian coffee,
trees being cut off is all mistake. The fact is, as a
rule, the Liberian coffee over here does not throw out
branches \vithiu one-aud a-half feet or two feet of
the ground, aud often does not branch till five or six feet
high, in which case it is best to pull such plants out
and plant others in their place, as they will never make
good trees. I have had the pleasm-e of going all over
the Chasseriau estate with the courteous manager, Mr.
Ohasseriau. aud I will now try and give you an idea of
the system which I saw being carried out. The land
now being opened up is old tapioca laud overgrown with
lalaug and other grass. It is more or less undulating,
and there are good, wide roads, on which you can drive,
at conveuient distances all '>vcr the estate. The first thing
done is to put on a gang of Javanese or Chinese coolies
to hoe all the lalang and other grass up and this is
then heaped up, mixed with earth iu mounds about four
feet high and eight feet wide every 40 feet. These
mounds are allowed to remain till the whole is thorough-
ly decomposed, and then, as by that time grass has
grown up all over land again, coolies are put on to
give it another hoeing. AVheu this is finished, the grass
dug up the second time is allowed to dry on the
ground for a day or so according to the weather, and
is then heaped up in small mounds mixed with earth
and liitrjicd. The large heaps are then broken up and
the burnt earth from the small heaps thoroughly mixed
up with them. Holes are then cut 9 feet apart 3 ft.
deep, 3 ft. wide at the top and Ih ft. wide at the bot-
tom. These are filled with the above compost, and, after
being allowed to settle down for a week or so, are
ready for the plants. The planting is carried out in
a most elaborate manner, as follows : — Every plant is,
brought from the rursery to the field in a transplanter
and before planting a hole is made in the compost-filled
holes, and on this being filled with a mixture of good,
bulky maaure, the plant is carefully put in. After this,
coolies shade each plant with ferns, and should there
be no rain at time of planting, as was the case at the
time of my visit, every plant is watered with a watering-
can. Mi I have here described I saw being carried out,
and at the time of my risit from four to five acres
were being planted daily. The field of Liberian coffee,
now about two years old, and which was planted same
as above, was covered with blossom and crop when I
saw it. and is really a fine field of coffee. In fact, all the
coffee I saw on the place is very good indeed, Mr.
I'hasseriau has every facihty for manuring, and says he
has no fear of the trees suffering when older, as he
can give them periodical applications of burnt earth and
other manures, which of course he can easily do, being
only about four miles from the town of Singapore, and
he can cart m.auure all over the estate.

I also saw some fine fields of tapioca, from which
Mr. Chasseriau hopes to get a good profit, iu spite of
the present low prices for this product. After this crop
he does not intend to plant any more tapioca, but only
coffee, and probably tea, of which there is a small field
which promises well. There are large, commodious
buildings on the estate which can be made suitable for
coffee curing at very little expense. Oeyion planters, I
d.aresay, may jump to the conclusion that the cost of
work such as I have de^'.jgjHp^i is very high, and I
confess I thought the sameaSTirst, but I am now assured
the cost is very little, if any more than the system
carried out in Ceylon. Of course, the estate in cpiestion
is exceptionally favoured in many ways, n >t the least of
which is having a scientific agriculturist like Mr. Chasseriau
to carry out tha work. It is indeed a great pleasure to
go over the estates with him, as he is always ready to
give you information about the plantation, and sliows in
everything how thoroughly his heart is in the work.

To revert to the subject of arecanut cultivation: I
may mention that I have been making enquiries amongst
the natives here, and I fiml that, as a rule,, arecanuts
are planteil about .WD to the acre iu good soil, and in
the fourth year from planting j-ou will get upwards of
-■JOO nuts per tree. If I am not mistaken, arecanuts
don't bear in Caylon before the Gth year from planting,
and then I notice a corresponlent of yours gives the
average yield aa 200 nuts per tree ; but he also advocfttes

plantuig 1,500 trees to the acre. No one here would
attempt such a thing, and all the natives I have meu-
tmned this to, expressed tlu-ir wonder that the trees
bear at all, aud say such a plantation can never last
— Local '■ Times."

RHEA FIBilE.

The Manchester mauufaeturer.s are now giving increased
attention to the use of this fibre, and as it is our
provmce to give all the reliable information obtainible
upon every subject likely to benefit tropical planters
we place below some extracts from a paper recently
published by 8ir Joseph 0. Lee, the well-known Jlaii-
chestcr millowner. .Speaking of the difficulty of cheanlv
extracting Rhea fibre, he says :—

_ The problem that many inventors have tried to solve
IS to make a machine or discover a process by which the
work can be done effectually .and cheaply, so that the
fibre can be sold iu London at £40 to £50 per ton in
the nngummed state. Various mechanical apphances and
methods have been invented, but only two of them
seem to fulfil the conditions necessary for successfullv
treating the fibres. The first of these is a machine in
vented by Mr. H. Smith and improved by Messrs. Death
and Lllwood, of Leicester. It is claimed by the inven-
tor th.at this machine will clean any vegetable fibre, and
particularly Rhea or China grass. To this machine was
awarded the prize of 2,000 rupees in accordance with
the recommendation of the '•Committee appointed by
the Government of Bengal to conduct a trial of machines
and processes for the extraction of Indian fibres '•
on the 24th November last ye.ir. The report states that
the cost of a single machine is £55, th.at of a double one
complete, £100. A semi-portable engine to work two'
machines will cost £«2 10s. The quantity of water re-
quired appears to be about 400 gallons per hour tor one
machine, but the water can be used twice over The
I work turned out in ten hours by one machine is 2 200 lb
of green stalks. This quantity might be expected to
give 3 per cent, an out-turn of CG lb. of good clean
fibre The %'alue of this out-turn at £50 per ton would
be about 30s.

The machine is the property of the General Fibre Com-
pany, Feiichurch-street, London, aud is doubtless a valu-
able patent, and will be useful in cleaning some kinds
of fibrous plants. No Rhea fibre has yet been imported
that has been treated by this machine ; we can only
judge of the practical value from the evidence contained
in the official report. In this it is stated that 3 per
cent of fibre can be obtained under favourable circum-
stances from every 100 lb. of green stems. This percent-
age will contain at least 15 per cent. of resinous
matter, which, must be discharged before the fibre is
ready for the spinner. This will give 2-55 per cent of
pure filasse— a small percentage, which cannot be profit-
.'ible if the hbre is to be sold at £50 per ton. Another
ilrawback to the value of the machine is the quantity of
water required to clean the fibre. In a cliiu.ate "like
India it IS not always possible to obtain water in sutfici-
ent ijuantity. Therefore, if only 30s. worth of fibre can
be ohtaiue.l per day from one of these machines (as
stated 111 the report; it can hardly be said to be a commerci-
al success so far as the treatment of Rhea is concerned
The second plan of treating the Ramia or Rhea is one
patented by M. A. Favicr, and is a simple method of
of decorticating the stems of the plant on ficMs where
they are grown. It is as follows:—

1 visited the works at Louviers belonging to the So-
cieti5 de CrOdit , accompanied by a director of the Com-
pany, Mr. Vian, Professor Urbaiii, Mr. Paterson, and
Mr. Casper, of the firm of Messrs. G. Vi\ H, Krogden
& Co., the English owners of the patent, and by .Mr
1'. Niirsey, the editor of the fron, ami others. W'c were
siiowu samples of Haiuia grown in France, Algiers, Egypt
India; all decorticated, some of them by the Favier
process, others by methods unknown. Seven different
growths of Ramia were selected and placed in a large
boili:r or high pressure kier. rrobal.l* half a ton of rib-
bons were thus under treatment, and when they had been
thoroughly saturated by a solution of which one of the

166

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885.

component parts, if not the whole, was apparently caustic
eotla, the top of the kier was fastened down, and steam
at a high pressure (30 pounds) was turned in from the
bottom of the kier. The boiling extended over a period
of five hours. On the kier being re-opened the whole
mass of fibre was seen in a black condition. Mr. Urbain
took about a pound weight of ribbons and treated them
as follows ; — He washed them in cold water, then in a solu-
tion of hydrochloi-ic acid, again in water, then in chloride
of lime, and lastly thoroughly in cold water. The ribbons
then appeared in the form of whitish gi^ey filasse,
ungummed and free from the brown pellicle ; the fibres
could then then be easily separated from each other, and
were apparently in the condition for treatment by machin-
ery. The operation lasted ten minutes. The inventors
claim that by their process 5 per cent of pure ungum-
med fibre is obtainable from the green stems.

I see little difference betwi.xt the process I have de-
scribed and the one used by bleachers of cotton cloth
for dyeing or printing which is necessary to make the
cloth chemically pure, and similar drugs are used to
kill" the husk and brown bark often left in the yarn;
this is done without the least injury to the fibre. J
am of opinion that the merit of the invention consists
in the knowledge, obtained by experiments of the strength
of the caustic soda required for destroying the
pellicle and reducing it to a state of pulp without injury
to the fibre. The after process is a clearing one ; it
removes the gum and pulp, and the chloride takes away
any coloring matter that may remain. This invention
may be considered a satisfactory and inexpensive method
f ungummiug the Ramai fibre, and if the patent rights
, e obtained by the producer of the yarns it will add to
ts popularity.
I shall now deal with the cost and production of the
plants and the probable future of the industry. Of late
years the French have given a great deal of attention
to the cultivation and utilization of the Ramia plant.
It has been grown in the basins of the Gironde and
Khone, in Algeria, and in Egypt. M. Norbert de Landt-
sheer, who has written much on the subject, gives the
following table, showing the latitude in which the plant
can be grown : — ■

Latitude of No. of Names of countries

couutry. crops. corresponding to latitudes.

36° to 46° 2 Bordeaux, Grenoble, Avignon, Turin.

38° to 42° 3 Corsica, Sardinia, JIadrid, Nai)les.

35° to 37° 4 Algeria, Tunis, Northern China, New
Zealand.

25° to 32° 4 to 5 Egypt, Delta, Lahore, China, Florida,
Mexico, Chili, Bns. Ayres, Australia.

15° to 20° 5 Madras, Bombay, Cochin China, Brazil,
Jamaica, Cuba, Hayti.

0° to 10° 5 to C Sumatra, Johore, Gej Ion, Jayana, Vene-
zuela.
He states also that an acre of cultivated Eamai can give
200,000 stems at a cutting, each stum averaging H oz. In
Algeria, where four crops a year can be grown, a profit
of £19 128 6d per acre has been obtained. If we take
these figures as being correct — and I have not he.ard of
them being disputed — we have 20,000 stems per acre
or 18,750 lb. weight, which will produce about 1,875 lb.
of ribijous, and by the Frfimy-Urbain uugumming process
9373 lb. of lilasse, which at £50 per ton gives 5fd. per lb.
I was told by the director of the Societo de Oruilit, &c.
that they had signed contracts for 10,000 tons of ribbons
at £10 per ton, to be delivered in two years, and that
they were jirepared to take 100,000 tons at that price.
Therefore, if we take two tons of ribbons as costing £20
which will produce one ton of filasse ; ungumming, two
tons, at £8 per ton, £16 ; charges, shipping expenses,
£4, or 4hd per lb. — £40 per ton. A ton of cotton cloth
can be bfeached for £6 per ton ; the ungumming process
being a quicker one should not cost over £5 per ton.

Several companies in India are now growing Rhea,
notably tlie Glenrock Company, and a conqiany has been
formed to plant 20,000 acres in Johore where it is ex-
pected that five or six crops can be obtained yearly. It
will be seen that before many years have passed an
enormous quantity of this fibre will be shipped to Europe,
and as the plant ia perennial, and once planted wiUlasj

a hundred years, some idea may be conceived of the
yield in prospect. A manufacturing community like Lan-
cashire cannot afford to ignore the new industry which
will undoubtedly spring up within a few years, I
readily ailmit that a vast sum of money has been lost
by manufacturers in their attempts to develop tliis new
fibre, but, as I have shown, the conditions are now some-
what changed. Formerly, the quantity of fibre imported
did not exceed a yearly average of 100 tons, con-
sequently the value has been much afl'ected by the de-
mand, the price at some periods rising to £120 per ton,
and at others falling below £50 per ton. 'We have now
the prospect of large supplies of the fibre at a reason-
able rate and under more favourable conditions. Makers
of Spinning machinery will do well to give their speciaj
attention to the preparation of machines capable of treat-
ing the long silky fibres of the Ramia, The French
are already at work. During my visit to Louviers the
gentlemen who accompanied me were granted the priv-
ilege of an inspection of the preparing, carding and
spinning machinery, but this courtesy was denied to myself
on the plea that secrets might be revealed before they
were secured by patent right. I was, however, shown
the fibre in the silver and also in yarn equal to to lO's, 16's,
24's, 30's cotton, all of which seemed satisfactory, and
I have since received samples of the fibre I saw treated
at Louviers, which are excellent. It will be a.sked, in
what is Ramia better than cotton or hemp ? I reply that
it is better in many respects. It is nearer in appearance
to silk than any other fibre, and, like silk, it is a non-
conductor, or nearly so. It can be mixed with silk or
wool, and it will give strength to both. It can be
produced more cheaply than flax or hemp, and is three
times as strong. It is stronger than cotton, and takes
better colours — faster and more lustrous. It is invaluable
for healds, ropes, hose, sailcloth, cloth for waterproofing
clothing for men, Indian army clothing, furniture covering
and hangings, cambrics, and summer dresses ; and, in
the words of a well-known chemist, " It is difficalt to
say what it is not good for. It is the strongest fibre
in nature."

Mr. P. Nursey, O.E., Vice-President of the Society of
Engineers, who accompanied Sir J. 0. Lee in his visit
of the works at Louviers, reports as follows : —

I may premise that the successful utilization of the
rhea fibre necessitates that decortication, or the stripping
off the skin off the stems of the plant shall be per-
formed by a method which shall ensure that no frag-
ments of the woody stem shall be left adheriug to the
skin in which the fibre is contained. Sloreuver, the
stems must be decorticated as soon as cut, as the resin-
ous matter in which the fibres are embedded rapidly
hardens, a fermentation is set up which injuriously affects
the fibre, and it is extremely diflicult to deal with the
ribbons afterwards; besides which, when decorticated in
this condition, some of the fibre is left adhering to the
wood, and great waste results. The process of decortic-
ation invented by M. A. Favier having beeu proved to
be thoroughly successful in dealing wilh rhea, and having
inspected its working on two occasions, I think it as
well first to briefly refer to it, especially as it appears
to me to be the most perfect, as well as the most natural,
method of producing +'vi aibbons containing fibre for
further treatment by the Tiemy-Urbain process.

M. Favier's process consists in submitting the stems
of the rhea or other fibrous plants to the action of
steam at a low pressure for a period of about twenty
minutes. The apparatus required is of the most simple
and inexpensive character, consisting only of wooden
trough-shaped boxes and a low-pressure steam boiler, whilst
the operation of stripping the stems after they have
been steamed can be performed by unskilled labour,
or even by children. This process insures the obtaining
of the whole yield of fibre from the plant, without
deterioration or waste, and at a small cost.

The Fromy-Urbain process is the joint invention of
the distinguished French chemist, Profi'ssor Frimy,
member of the Institute of France (wlio is well known
for his researches into the uature of fibrous plants and
the question of their preparation for the market:, and
M. Urbain, who is Trofessor Frcmy's principal assistant

SEPTfiMBM J, 1885,3 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

167

iu the Government Laboratory, Paris, of which the Pro-
fessor is chief. The process consist mainly in an alkal-
ine treatment imder conditions which vary with the
character of the rhca fibre to be treated. A mo.st im-
portant factor in the success of Freniy-Urbain process,
and that which I regard as the crowning feature of the
whole, is the special treatment of the fibre. Tlu-ough-
out the whole process there is not one stage to which 1
exception can be takaa on the score of danger to the
ultimate fibre, whilst there is on the other hand, a
perfect harmony of arrangement and sequence of develop-
ment.

It is unnecessary for me here to enter into all details
of the operations as witnessed by me, and as fully and
unreservedly explained to me by Professor Fremy. Suffice
it to say that upon one occasion I saw about 800 lb. of
ribbons treated at Louviers, and upon a second occasion
about half a hundredweight.

■\Vith regard to the question of dyed yarns, I may
point) out that it is essential, in order to take dyes, that
the article to be dyed shall be chemically pure. I re-
ceived Professor Fremy's emphatic assurance that there
is nothing whatever in either the Fravier or Fremy-Urbaiu
processes which militates against this purity. The Pro-
fessor, moreover, has a formula by which the purity or
otherwise of the material to be dyed can be readily
ascertained.

Taking into consideration the successful results I have
seen produced, and the perfect condition in which the
fibre can be turned out, I am of opinion that the Fri^my-
Urbain process is an invention of the highest importance,
and, considering the value of rhea fibre as regards its
strength and beautifully lustrous appearance when worked
up. I am further of opinion that this material, properly
prepared, would command a most extensive market. That
this would be the case may be inferred from the fact
that there is at present a great demand for rhea fibre,
notwithstanding that it is more or less imperfectly pro-
duced.

From careful observation of the working of the Favier
and Fremy-Urbain processes in conjunction, I am satis-
fied that, as far as the production of pure undamaged
fibre of long staple goes, the two processes are in accord,
and are thoroughly adapted for each other. Properly
conducted, I feel convinced that their results must lead
to an important expansion in the textile industry of
the country. — Planters' Gazette.

THE LIFE OP A PLANT.

BY THOMAS STEPHENSON.

Although the study of vegetable physiology is not
directly connected with pharmacy, it is, nevertheless, of
considerable interest to all who care to pursue the study
of botany a little farther than it is absolutely necessary
to do in order to pass their examinations.

It is not my intention, gentlemen, to desscribe the ele-
mentary principles of botany, which I presume you are
already well acquainted with. And I wish tonight to enter
into the processes of plant life iu greater detail, and also
to view them in ihe light of the most recent researches.

The simplest form of growth is that which is seen in
the formation of crystals. In this case the growth con-
Biets simply in the apposition of fresh particles iu a
definite dureotlon. Plant growth, however, is very much
more complicated, though the apparent causes are very
simple. Whea a seed is put into the ground, we expect
that from nothing but air, earth, and water, it will grow
up and form a perfect plant. If we examine any ordinary
fleed, such as a bean, we find that it consists of an embryo
plant and two fleshy lobes. These latter are called the
cotyledons, and contain enough of nourishment stored up
to give the young plant a start in life. If the seed be
planted, the young plant begins to grow, sending a root
tlownwards, and a stem and leaves upwards, while the
cotyledons gradually die away. Its patrimony being ex-
hausted, the plant must now live on its own account, and
manufacture its own tissues from all the nourishment
acc**ssil)le to it. viz.. air, watijr. and any polublfr matter
which the water may dissolve out of the earth. It is
this procesa of nutrition which we have to consider tonight ;

and as the nutrition of the lower plants forms a special
study in itself, 1 shall coufiue myself to the higher
dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants. Iu a typical
plant, the root absorbs water containing mincr.al matter
in solution from the soil, this nutriment is conveyed to
the leaves and other green parts of the plant, where it
meets with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; the CO^
and H.jO react, forming starch and giving oxgen back to
the air, while the assimilated substances are conveyed to
all parts of the plant for nutrition.

In con.sidering the s\ibject in detail, it will be necessary
to consider ; first the footl required ; second, the means
of obtaining this food ; third, the processes of assimilation
and respiration, and lastly, the influence of external con-
ditions on the vital processes.

1. The Food. — The food required by a plant can best
be ascertained by an analysis of the plant itself. If a
plant be dried at a gentle heat so as to expel all the
water it contains, we find that it loses from 5 to -5 of
its entire weight, so that water must be the most predomi-
nant constituent of plants. If we take the dried plant
and burn it, we find that it disappears entirely, with the
exception of a very small and varying precentage of ash.
Tobacco smoking forms a practical illustration of this.

Chemical analysis shows that the combustible portion of
all plants consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,
and sulphur, this last remaining in the ash in the form
of sulphates. The ash consists of salts of potassium, cal-
cium, magnesium, iron and phosphorus, geuereally also
sodium, silicon and chlorine, and in marine plants, iodine
and bromine. Leaving the water therefore, for the present,
out of the question we may conveniently class the chemical
constituents of plants under two heads, viz., the organic
or essential elements, C, H, O, N, and S, and inorganic
or accidental elements, represented by the ash. Cellulose, of,
which all plants tissue is composed, is made up of carbon
hydrogen and oxygen, being in fact identical in composition
with starch, into which it can be converted by treatment
with sulphuric acid, so as to give the characteristic blue
reaction with iodine. This cellulose forms as it were the
skeleton of the plant. The living part of the plant
consists protoplasm, which is au albuminous body consisting
of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen with sulphur.
Carbon is the most abundant element in plants, constituting
about one-halt the entire weight of the dried substance.
It is obtained almost exclusively by the decomposition of the
CO2 of the atmosphere iu the cells which contain chlorojihyll,
a process to be be explained later on.

if^rfro(/e?i enters into the plant in combination with oxygen
as water, and possibly also with nitrogen as ammonia.

Oxyyen is taken into plants both in combination with
carbon as CO3 and hydrogen as water.

JVitrogcn is not obtained from the air. but must enter
the plant in the form of nitrates, or an ammoniacal .salt.
(The manner in which nitrogenous compounds are obtained
by carnivorous plants has already been treated in an
able paper on that subject by Mr. Duncan.)

Sulphur is probably taken up as calcic sulphate, which
is decomposed by the oxalic acid always present in the
plant (caused by the oxidation of the woody tissue)
forming the crystals of oxalate of lime, so commonly
seen in plants, the sulphuric acid thus liberated giving
up its sulphur in the production of albuminoids, The
inorganic ooiistituouts of plants must now be considered.
These aro more numerous than the organic, and, though
thoy do not enter into the composition of the vital parts
of the plant, are, nevertheless, absolutely essential for
the carrying out of their various functions, it having
been found by actual experiments that growth is imperfect,
and sometimes impossible, n^thout the presence of a
curtain proportion of inorganic salts. The most important
inorganic elements which enter into the composition
of plants are potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium,
phosphorus and chlorine, and sometimes sodium and silicon.
The part which potassium plays in the vegetable economy
is as yet but little understood, but it is considered to be
essential in the formation of starch by the chlorophyll.
Deliquescent salts of potassium are also often present
in the cell sap to prevent evaporation. A certain
quantity of mineral ash. consisting largely of potassium
salt.s, has been found to bo absolutely necessary in
green p»rts of the plant, for the proper carrying out

i68

I'HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885,

of the functions of the chlorophyll, but like many other
known facts in science, the reason of this has not yet
been satisfactorily explained.

Irmi has been found to be necessary for the proper
formation of chlorophyll, it having been observed that
plants which have become pale, may, Uke human beings
under similar circumstances, have their colour restored
by the administration of some preparation of iron, and
that no green colour can be produced without the
presence of iron in the soil. The cause of this is, however,
unknown.

Macjnesium and Sodium also appear to be essential elements,
although no special function has as yet been assigned to
them.

Silicon is to be found in the stems of such plants as
grasses, and in the cell wall of diatoms, in which the
function appears to be the stiffening and strengthening
of the parts. It is doubtful, however, whether or not
silicon is really essential to the plant, as plants are known
to be perfect without the presence of silicon, and the
prevading opinion appears to be that its presence in
plants is, to a great extent, at least, accidental.

Chlvfine has been found to be present, but as plants
can grow equally well without it, it is probably accid-
ental also.

Iodine is also found in sea plants, which form one of
the chief sources of that substance.

Fluoriae is also supposed to be present, as it is found
iu herbivorous animals.

Phosphoric Acid appears to stand in a certain relation
to the production of albuminoids.

Calcium seems to act as a vehicle for sulphuric acid,
and also for precipitating the oxalic acid continuously
being formed, and which is injurious to the plant. It
is thus that crystals of oxalate of lime are so abundant
in certain parts of the plant. When plants are grown in
fluids which contain all the substances essential for their
life, it is found that the substances in solution are not j
taken up indiscriminately, but that different species of
plants supply their wants in different ways. Plants, there-
fore, appear to have the power of selecting for themselves
the substances necessary for their growth. LeguminosK 1
are specially dependent on lime, potatoes and turnips on i
potash, and cereals and grasses on sihca, j

It is on this fact that the principal of rotation of crops
is founded. During one year, a certain kind of grain
exhausts the soil of its own inorganic materials, requiring
next year a crop which feeds on different salts, and so |
on until the soil has again been replenished from other

The system of manuring also depends on the principle 1
that plants require different inorganic salts to feed upon.

2. The Marnier in which this Food is ohtained. — The organ
which is chiefly concerned in the nutrition of the plant
is the root. This organ may be defined as that part
of the plant which fixes it in the substratum from which
it derives nourishment. This definition does not apply
in both particulars to all plants, some roots, as those
of seaweeds, being solely for fixation, and some, as in
the duckweed, simply for nutrition. AVe have, however,
at present to deal with only the nutritive functions of

In"^ most text-books it is stated that absorbtion takes
place only at the tip of the root, which has, on that
account received the name of " spongiole." It has since
been observed that this spongiole now called the " rootcap,
acts simply as a sheath to protect the growmg pomt
which lies immediately behind it. It is the hairs on the
eiiidermis of the root, and these only, which take in
nourishment. These hairs are outgrowths of the epidermal
Cells and, like all other cells, are filled with protoplasm
ajul 'cell-sap. Being very delicate, these hairs are easily
affected by gravitation, so as to lie alongside all the
panicles of soil in their vicinity. The moi.-,ture adhering
to these particles of soil is absorbed into the hair through
the thin cellulose wall, by a process known as endosmose.
This process is based on the fact that when two Uquids
of different densities are separated by any thin organic
membrane they tend to change places, the less dense
liquid passing through the membrane proportionately faster
than the denser one. In the case before us we have the
water in the soil separated from the more dense celli

sap by the thin membrane of the root-hair, and thus by the
law of endosmose the warter enters the root-hair more
quickly than the cell-sap comes out. The water thus
absorbed contains, in solution, the various inorganic salts
necessary for the life of the plant. Carbonate and sulph-
ate of lime and other salts, insoluble in water, are
dissolved by the oxalic acid which is always present in
the cell sap, from causes already mentioned, and are thus
absorbed. In aquatic plants, as the greater part of the
plant is entirely surrounded by water, it requires
few, if any, special orgaus for the absorption of fluid.
The roots are therefore either rudimentary or entirely
absent. In the duck-weed, for example, the root consists
of single long thread, furni.shed with a root-cap at
the end. Absorption takes place from the whole surface
of this root, there being no root-hairs. The roots of some
orchids which grow on the branches of trees never touch
the ground, but derive all their nourishment from the
air. Such plants are called " epiphyte.s." The outer cells
of the root are called " velameu," and have the property
of absorbing watery vapour from the air. That class of
plants called •' parasites " also deserves passing notice.
These do not derive nourishment from the ground, but
get it from a *'host." Take, for example, a plant which
will acquire great importance in society dm'ing the next
few weeks — the mistletoe. This, however, is only a partial
parasite, because, having green leaves of its own, it requires
to take in from its " host " only water containing mineral
matter in solution, this sap being elaborated iu the leaves.
The root is of peculiar construction, one tap-root decending
directly into the wood, while two lateral adventitious
roots lie along between the wood and the bark.

The dodder is, perhaps, the best example of a parasitic
plant. Unlike the mistletoe, it spends part of its life
growing in the ground in a normal fashion. In this state
it consists of a root and a lonjj slender stem, the end
of which gropes about till it finds a plant (preferably
clover) to which it fastens itself, and at the expense of
which il lives all the rest of its life, the other part of
the stem, together with the root, dying away. 'When the
stem finds a host, it coils round it and sends out brush-like
roots to the bast of its host, whence it derives nourish-
ment ; in this case, however, fully elaborated and ready
for use. 'When its host dies, the dodder finds its way
to another, and often spreads so rapidly as to ruin a
whole clover field in a short time.

Having considered the manner in which the fluid is
absorbed by the root, we must now consider how it is to
be conveyed to the various parts of the plant. AVe have
already seen, that about 75, per cent by weight of the
plant consists of water, and that, without that element,
life is impossible. In many plants there is also a con-
tinual loss of water from the leaves by evaporation. To
meet these requirements it is therefore necessary that
currents of water should continually pass through the
plant in all directions. The old theory of -'ascending and
descending sap" is therefore untenable, as the sap has
to go wherever it is required, which is sometimes up,
sometimes down, and sometimes in a lateral direction,
finally passing out of the plant in the form of vapour by
" transpiration." The causes of these movements are cheifly
capillarity and endosmose, but there is also a process of
suction caused by the evaporation of water from the leaves,
and also another force called "root-pressure." When the
roots absorb more water than plant requires, this exercises
a pressure which drives the water further up the stem.
This water exudes on the margins of the leaves, and as
it of ten gathers on the leaves during night, it is fro()uently
mistaken for dew in the morning. The phenomenon of
bleeding, which is seen in trees which have had their branches
cut off in spring, is owing cither to root-pressure, or to
the expansion of air in the phmt, caused by variations
in temperature, thus driving out the water wherever there
is an outlet.

We have now arrived at the most iraport.ant part of
our subject, viz., the processes of assimilation and meta-
stasis. ^Assimilation is the conversion of the crude materials
into substances, such as starch, which may either be
used at once for the nutrition of the plant, or stored
away for future use. metastasis is the conversion of these
'•resetvo materials" into new cells, and also into what

Septejidei? I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

i6g

are called secondary products, and are of no further use
to the plant, such as akaloids, reshis, volatile oils, tannin,
gums, etc. While the process of metastasis can take
place under any circumstances, that of assimilation requires
special conditions for its proper fulfilment. These coudilious
are — (1) the presence of the green-colouring matter called
ohlorophyU; (2) sunlight. Any green part of the plant,
therefore, which is exposeil to light is capable of assimilating,
or, in other words, of mauufactuiiug starch from the
crude materials. The leaves, however, are the organs
chiefly devoted to this purpose, their various parts being
specially adapted for this.

The outside of a leaf is covered by a thin layer of
cells called the epidermis. This layer contains no chloro-
phyll, and, therefore, does not manufacture; it simply
acts as a protective, and prevents undue evaporation.
The epidermis is prorided with openings called " stomata,"
for the entrance of the carbon dioxide in the air, the
carbon of which the plant assimilates, giving back oxygen
— a process to be detailed later ou. Each stoma consists
of two crescent-shaped cells called "guard cells." By a
peculiar arrangement, which I have no time to detail,
these cells separate from one another during sunlight,
and come together again in the dark, and thus the stoma
opens and closes. These stomata are usu.ally situated ou the
under side of the leaf. The middle portion of the leaf
consists of cells containing chloropliyll. The cells near
the upper surface of the leaf, and consequently nearer
the light, have more chlorophyll, are long in shape,
and are arranged side by side in rows very suggestive
of the title given to them of " palisade cells." The cells
below these are arranged more loosely, so as to allow
free passage of air, and also the evaporation of water,
in order that the inorganic salts necessary for assimil-
ation may be more abundantly deposited. These cells
are called "spongy parenchyma."

A closer look will show that the chlorophyll is not
diffused throughout the cells, but is arranged in round
granules. Each granule consists of a network of protoplasm,
in which the green chlorophyll is embedde.l. It is the
protoplasm which does the work, the green chlorophyll
acting only as a shade to protect it from too intense light.

It remains for us now to consider briefly the influen'-e
of external conditions on plaut Ute. It is well known
that plant growth can take place only within certain
temperatures. The lowest of these is 'o ' O. (32° F.) at
which the water freezes, and the highest is from 40'' to
50' C. (about 120° F.) at which temperature the albumen
coagulates. Some plants, however, in which the water is
protected, can live while the ti-mperaturu is below »he
freezing point ; and some bacteria have been seen to live
in boiling water, having apparently incoagulable albumen.

From 20° to 30° U. (".5 F.) is the best temperature for
plauts to live in. The auuual rings in wood are a good
example of the effect of external conditions. Owing to
variations of heat, food, etc., the cambium works at
greater pressure towards the end of the year, thus pro-
ducing ileuser wood. Any number of riiig.s can be artificially
produced in one year by simply tyiug a ligature rnunil
tbu stem, and alternately tightening and loosening this
ligature. The action of light ou vegetation has already
been considered. The effect of gravitation ou a plant
is a tendency to grow downwards. To counteract this
influence, many contrivances arc present in the stem,
8u h as the firmness of the wood, the uniform distribution
ofc foliage and branches, climbing appliances such as ten-
drils, and, in many water plants, air-bladders, Owing to
the great variety of conditions tfl whit-li they are exposed,
a| 1 plants possess a certain power of adaptation to their
e xternal conditions.

There are two forces which I have time to allude to
on'y very briefly. These are heliotropisui and geotropism,
Heliotropism is the force whirh makes the stem grow-
upwards; geotropism that »vhich makes the root grow
downwards. Light and gravitation combined seem to be
the chief causes of these phenomena. But I must refer
you for further iiiformation to Darwin's exhaustive work
on the subje ct.

After this short sketch of what is already known on
the subject, you will see that a vast deal remains jet
to be discovered, mneU of which is of great intereit to

pharmacists, and Wie discovery of which might with advant-
age be undertaken by pharmacists themselves.

Almost uothing, for example, is as yet known about
the formation of alkaloids; whether they are really
useful to the plant or merely accidental, can only be
conjectured.

It is known from experience that plants possess more
therapeutic activity at certain .periods of their growth
but the discovery of a scientific law, which would enable'
the cultivators of medicinal plants to bring these plants
to the greatest perfection remains yet to be made.

This is only one of the many as yet unsolved proijiems
the working out of which would form an interesting and'
profitable study, and would prove that botany, however
much it has been condemned for its predominance of
hard names, is one of the most interesting departments
of natural science.— Fluu-nmcciitical Journal.

A MOTH INJURING DRIED COCOA BEANS.

In the month of October last I received from the
proprietors ot a warehouse at the East-end of London a
box contaiuiug a rjuantity of Oocoa beans, which had been
found to have been exieusively gnawed all over the outer
surface by the larvre of a small moth, together with some
of the grubs, some cocoons all matted together, and some
of the moths produced from them; and again, at the
beginning of December last. Miss E. Ormerod sent me a
quantity of these Oocoa beans similarly infested, which
she had received from Guyaquil.

The appearance of the sound Oocoa bean is shown
in the upper right-hand figure in the accompany engraving »
whilst one much gnawed by the larv.-e is represented
in the left-hand upper figure, which shows a quantity
of the pellets of the excrement of the larv;e partially
detached from the bean.

The caterpillar, of the natural size and magnified, is
represented in the middle of the woodcut; it is long,
slender, aud very active, wriggliug about and running
quickly either forwards or backwards ; it has six anterior,
eight ventral, and two anal claspers ; it is of a dirty flesh-
coloured grey, with the head darker and fibrous brown,
with a patch of the same colour ou the first segment be-
hind the head, in which patch the hind portion forms
two darker spots; all down the back are two rows of
minute black dots, each segment bearing two on each
side of the middle dorsal line, and a third more lateral
dot formiug a triangle with the two dor,«al ones. These
dots are setigerous ; the penultimate segment of the body
has one large central and two smaller lateral black spots,
ard the terminal segment has a transverse black spot
(the anteuniB in front of the head of the ]arv;e are
represented too long aud prominent in the accompanying
engraving, aud the caterpillar itself is too robust). The
chrysalis is of a chestnut shining colour, and is enclosed
in a loose silken web, forming with the other cocoons
attached to the Cocoa beans a matted mass.

The moth measures about two-thirds of an inch in the
expanse of the fore-wings, which are of a pale grey colour,
with a faint ocbreous tinge, especially towards the inner
margin, and with very iudistiuct but darker greyish mark-
ings, forming irregular" bars across the fore-wings. Tho
first towards the base of the wings is preceded by a
pale band, and the second beyonil the middle is grey,
followed by a iiale band ; between Ihese bars are two
small ones in the middle towards the cost a. On submit-
ting the moths to Mr. H. T. Stoiuton. our great authority
on the tiny or Tinea moths, he informs me that they
belong to the family ot the Knot-horns (rhvd<les), and
are the Ephestia i-hitella (I'hvcita elutilla, ' Curtis atid
Stephens;, or the cinereous Knot-horn of Haworth. Ho
believes that the whole of the species ot the genus
Ephestia have similar habits, and devour all sorts of
dried fruits, the hirvse being often found in Ra-sins ami
Figs, and they are fxtremely partial to all preparations
of chocohite, flying by scores in wan-houses where such
things are stored. Mr. Staintou, moreover, believes tha-t
in a wild state they feed upon Ivy berries and nuts, In
an ecouoraical j.oint of view they are noxious insects,
aud they cannot certainly he called beautiful. One of

» Sorry we cauuot reproduce.-rBo,

1 70

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

our coirespondenta suggests that the eggs are laid in the
Oocoa iu the West Indies or South America, aud that they
hatch out and damage the Cocoa here iu hot dry weather
like last summer. He also asks whether the moths lay
their eggs aud the young ones are hatched in this country,
or whether the eggs are only laid in the green Cocoa
bean i' He further notices that as soon as cold weather
commences the moths jind hu v;e seem to be killed, doubt-
ing, hovever, whether the tggs and chrysalids are also
killed. In answer to these inquiries, we believe that in
warehouses where the Cocoa beans are stored, and which
are infe.-ted by these moths, the propagation of the insects
is continuous — very similar, in fact, to that of some of
our small domestic moths, such as Tinea sarcitella, and
the little corn moth, Tinea granella, It may be quf.stioned
whether repeated fumigations with sulphur would not be
injurious ti> the Cocoa beans; it woulrl certainly, however,
kill the insects. Benzine, or, better still, naphthaline,
would also be equally efficacious in destroying the insects.
The subject of tlieso Oocoa de-troying moths was brought
under the notice of the Entomological Society by Mr.
"W. F. Kirby, on November 5 last, when I\Ir. RIcLachlan
iujgested heat as the only remedy for getting rid of
these posts, but Messrs. AVeir and Kitch pointed out the
impracticability of it.s application in large bonded and
other warehouses. In the case before the Society the
stock affected exceeded 20,000 bags. A case was also
reported in which a stock of ship's biscuits was attacked,
and when the biscuits were removed the moths came out
in thou'ai ds.

A memoir on another injurious species of this genus,
Epheetia Kuhniella. Zeller, from North America, which
has become naturalized in the Rhine district (vhere it
is known as the meal-moth), forms the subject of sev-
eral communications in the Entomologische Xachrichten of
1884 and the present year. — I. O. AV. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

Messrs. T. Chuisty k Co. have recently forwarded
a specimen of the flower of the " alveloB," the plant which
has lately been introduced as a remedy for cancer and
allied diseases. The plant was cultivated in a greenhouse
at ;<ydenham, and produced only a few flowers, most of
which, however, dropped oft before arriving at maturity.
The stem of the plant is fleshy, smooth, and cylindrical,
about one-third of an inch in diameter ; the leaves are smooth,
pale green, lanceolate oblong with a cnlate base, sessile
and alternate. The flowers are small and green, and the
involucre has four wedjre-shaped lobes. The flowers have
been submitted to Boissier, one of the best Eu-
ropean authorities on the genus Eiipkorhia, and so
far as can be gathered from the imperfect state of the
flowers, he has decided that it belongs to the genus
Evphorbia, and to a species not described in Martius's
' Flora Brasiliensis,' but almost certaitdy belonging to
tlie section Dichiliiini and nearly allied to E. aiwmala, Salzm.
(/','. iiisulana, Vellosol.— P/iarm«ceH?!.-ai Journal.

The E.MiciRATioN fuom Mapbas.— The number of emi-
grants registered in 1883-4 was the smallest recorded
lUtriiig the par.t in years. Xtore thau the whole of tlie
deerei « : is iici oiiulc<i for by th» fall in the number of
emigH.iits \'< t'eylon «nd liritl.-^h Kurinn, 'Ibe decrease
in iiiiigrHtioli !o" (V'vlon was due to the Ifsncned de-
hn:nd for labour iu that Isldnd oWing t" thd Itrt'CurioUB
tlont.itioii of tlio cotfce-planting industry. Ihe fall iu
IhP lluhibeC of ettlicrahts to Hritish liurmtt is perhaps
explainable bv the tact that etnlgratlon to that provlncp
has been mtide free, and it is possible that Mot all the
emignmts are I'eglstered. Other causes of decrease are
the favourab'e chHraCtet of the season and the great
demand for labor in several districts of the Presidency.
About si.K-sevenths of the total luimber of emigrants
annually go to Ceylon and British liiirma, which emi-
gration' is now practically unrestricted, Kegulated emi-
gratic n to the Mauritiu«,' Straits, Natal, Martinique aud
Uuadaloupe showed only (),Co9 emigrants. There were
no great vaiiation!' in the figures. There were 57,5-17
em'grauts, showing a decrease of 5-29 or 83 per cent.
The number of emigrants who returned slightly exceeded
the number who left India ; 794 per cent of emigrants
retu'iied to Jfadnra and Tinnevelly, and most of the
j5Di«i'"ler t" (iiinjam au(i yizngapstam.— /''oMffrj' Gsf.ftU,

TorATO FuNous. — In the Ganleners' Chronicle (Dec. 4, p.
757 ). Jlr. A. Stephen Wilson figures the sclerotia of the
potato fungus, riiytophthorit iit/t!tta,ts, which are encrusted
with a coating of oxalate of Ume. Some doubt had previously
been thrown on the character of these bodies by other obser-
vers, owing apparently to their not having been carefully
separated from the tissue in which they were embedded
previous to examination, anil to the fact that they were
found in living tissue, in which alone, however, according to
Mr. Wilson, they are capable of germinating. Mr. Wilson's
observations have been confirmed by Mr. AVorthington
Smith, who had previously observed a myxomycetic fungus
coated in the same way with oxalate of lime. These observ-
ations suggest the necessity in microscopical investigations of
using solvents to remove mineral matter when examining
vegetable structures. — Pharinacentical Journal.

Lemox Monsthosity. — A correspondent has forwarded
a singul.ir monstrosity of the lemon fruit in which a small
lemon is formed inside a large one, aud just below the
stigmatic end, nothing in the external appearance of the
lemon intlicating the presence of a smaller one inside.
The smaller one has also a perfect rind. Dr. M. T. Masters,
to whom the specimen has been submitted, states that
although this mode of growth is of frequent occurrence
in oranges, he has not before seen it in a lemon. In his
opinion it is formed by the thalamus, having produced one
wborl of carpels, again starting into growth and producing
a second whorl. In his 'Teratology,' p. 131, is a descrip-
tion of a similar growth arising from the multiplication
of carpellary whorls which subsequently become separated
by the growth of the axis. In this case, however, the inners
lemon has a rind, which is regarded by Dr. Masters as
a development from the axis independent of the carpel .
and ultimately covering them over. — rharm<iceiitica,lJournal

The Cultivation of Tea in Italy.— The French
Consul at Naples gives an interesting accoimt, in his
last report, of the attempts which have been made to
acclimatize the tea plant in Italy. The first is said to
have been made by the English during their occupation
of Sicily at the beginning of the century, when the
plant reached a height of 6 ft. in the open air. There
is no proof, however, that any crop was obtained, and
further attempt seems to have been made until 1871,
when some seeds were sown at Caltanisetta, which is in
much the same latitude as Jamascioro (iu Japan), from
which place they were brought. The seeds never sprouted,
and a fresh trial made in 1875 with another variety,
the thca sint'nsig, also proved a failure. The Government,
however, which had taken up the question, was not
discouraged, and, after weighing the various opinions
which it had elicited, made several fresh plantations of
thea sinensis in the zone comprized between Florence,
Naples, and Sicily. These plantations also came to
nothing, but Signor d' Amico, a landed proprietor in the
province of tiessina, was able to exhibit, at the Agricultural
Show held at Messina in 1SS2, more than a hundred
plants of the thea sinensis, three years old, which had
been grown iu the open. Professor Beccari, too, who
has been to India for the purpose of investigating the
growth of tea, is of opinion that there is no reason why
it should not succeed in Italj- if the plants and the
seed are brought from a climate similar to that of
till! Penin.Mi'.a, for the fact of its growing in the open
air along the Kiviera, upon the .ihores of Lago Maggiorei
aid at Florence prove* that it is to a certain extent a
hiirdy plant, If it has not beeu nmre generally grown
ill Italy hitherto, this is, Piofes.sor Beccan thinks, because
tl.e mode of cultivation has been all wrong, Ths Italians
have thought that the plant wanted shade, whereBs in
Ilid'a and China it is grown in Very open ground and
upon a soil which contains a large proportion of sand
and oxide of iron. He recommends, therefore, that it
should be planted in land not too dry, and in a soil
pre.serviiig enough moisture to aliment the plants, such
as the 0 ivH-g.'owing fields of the Kiviera, the Uarcm-
mn, and Southern Itnly, and that the plants should he
brought from the coldest provinces of Japan. The Italian
Mniislei of Agriculture has determine 1 to actupon Profefsor
Beccari 's i eport, iiiid has already ^eut a large crder to Japan,
besides buying a nuniberof plants from a lauded proprietor at
raliai.za in the proviLCu of Novara, who has met with a lair
amoiuituf .success in his txf miwntn.— Qverlaiid 3M!,

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

171

CHAPTER ON CHICKENS.

There are (writes " Silver Pen ' in the 5. F.
Chronicle) two distinct mnnias at present taking full
possession of the dwellers iu San Francisco, male and
female ; Art — and— Chickens.

There is a wide difference between the two— one lives
after us ; tlie other enables us to live. So I will attack
the latter today because the editor of this pmier (the
one with the maguiticout teeth) is always drumming it
into my esrs to " «rite sumething useful."

Now "What does this womau, wlio writes fashion and
hard articles about the huinau family, know about chick-
ens ?" And I might auswer you, as 1 do : I know a good
deal more about them than you think far. Iu poiut
of fact, 1 am a very respectable old heuwile, aud
have been fouling with chickens for the l:>st 20 years.
I have thr^e di?tinct manias, which are always kept
by me at boiling point. Fi'st, a tiowiT gaideu, in
which I can grub acd watch the heaven-sent things
grow. Next, art. An 1 las-, but not least, chickens ;
chickens, which never lay except when eggs are 20
cents a diun ; chickens, which giow up to be
magniticent creature.", thi-n dr.ip down dead at a
mo'iieut's notice ; chi.'keus, which cost you double
what you pav in the market for them ; chickHns,
which are never truly a success, but still coutinuo my
pet mania.

People fondly think they have < uly to get a few
setting hens, buy some high-priced eggs, sot the
same, leave them to fate, aud tben reap the beneht.
Alas ! mes amis, if your experience is mine, you will
agree with me that twin babies are iufinittly \,st
troubliBome, and, iu the end, far more reinuuerative
and recompensing, thau a whole yard lull of the
choicest chicks ; yet, still, we all persevere in our
ideas, aud go g) fruitlessly looking lorward to that
bright chicken luture which never comes — at least, not
in this city. There is no use iu talking, but this
" glorious climate," which rips the voice cut of the
singer's throat, aUo closes the eyes and kilh with
asthma the daiuty chick. Nevertheless, I will give
my experience in all humility, which may help other
neophytes on their onward chicken course. Jf you
have room in your back yaids to enter upon the
industry, remember it entails endless trouble. You
must rise early and feed your pets regularly, in this
first place, otherwise, if breakfast it not on time,
the erratic things will fly over your neighbour's
fence, and it is tlien always a queati in whether you
find iha' chicken, until he has cume out of the p)t,
or not, f r chicken fricjssee is a cheap dinner when the
next door's fowls come over uninvited.

This is the very season for a lecture, fur now
the hens are all on the sit. What a pity women
don't take to sitting still every now and then for three
weeks, stopping their cackling and being at rest for
that definite period. But to resume. If you are
wise you will eschew boxes for your sitting hens.
Make a hole on the g'Ouod, and lay some straw
therein, round which you can improvise a little fence
of laths, while a good siz-;d box may be used for
a cover over the n-ist. Put within your fence
food and watsr, a'ld let your hen refresh herself
when she chooses, for I find that for the first
week hens only come off the nest every second day.
1 have had tiiem sit for four days without stirring.
That is their own affair, and the plan of hauling
a hen off her nest to make her eat is absurd, but
often done. To save your hens, you should sit four
together aud in tliis ca c make the nests close to-
gether and eul:irge jour fence. When the chicks
appear you will proh.ib!y only get 7 out of each
nest. 'Ihen you can give the entire flock to two
of the heus, aud let the other.s go in order that
they may commence to lay as soon as they feel like it.

Lately 1 have had a novel experience. Out of
three sittings of choice eggs laid by a friend — O,
pardon me— I mean by a friend's hens — that's better
— I have got 0 chicks, aud those I hatched partly
myself. In i-act, I appear to myself this week as a
living incubator. I had a sitting of 1,3 eggs, 11 of
which were duly chipped, but after wrigt;hng about
until the shells had all peeled, leaving the chicks iu
the skin of the eggs, 2 died iu that state of semi,
birth, and I determined to hatch the rc^t myself,
I therefore took the eggs and put them in a ba ketful
of wool, placing the same in the oven ; I then got
a good novel and a stool and sat by that oven all day,
peeling off, by degrees, the skin. I did this at the end
of every three chapters. I never bad a finer day's loaf
for many a month. In 10 hours the chicks ttruggled
into existence, weak .ind apparently at the
point of death ; but I perjevercd, and taking
my basket, well wrapped up in a soft shawl,
carried them to bed {vide the advantage of being a
widow). In this way I kept a sp.nrk of life in
the chicks, and no more. For three days they would
not eat neither could they stand ; but virtue ha' its
own reward, and the chicks now c.it and are well,
thank you. I put my head on the table, with a mess
of chopped eggs adjacent, then I m'm'c the hen ; the
chicks eat, and run under my chin, which for the
time auiwers for mother; and it is funny to see
these small things following me about the kitchen,
Ethel declines admitting them to the parlour, there-
fore 1 am a banished crealure.

I have thus proved that, by taking weak eggs from
the hen, they may be brought ou^, and by keeping
them warm for a few da^s they become strong, for
every one is not aware of the fact that a chick raiely
cats anything for two or three day?. Now what is
the reason of the weak eggs ? I mean eggs the shc'ls
of which peel away. I fancy that theie must be a
want in the food of the hen, and also couflnemeut
goes far to reduce the fertility of the egg. I have
my own hens in a limited space, but I often let them
out for a run, and the eggs rarely fail. Last year j
had an expensive trio of Langshans, and out of three
sittings raised two bens. They weio too clope'y
confined, in my opinion The commm fowl is the
best for the city. They are hardier, aud the eggs
always turn out well — and an egg is an egg, common
or uncommon. To raise fine fowls it is necis'aiy
to feed the chicks abundantly. I keep a long run
for my chicks, and never let them out for two m nths
feeding them with chopped meat, chopped egg, boiled
rice, corned meal, i-c, always varying their food
from day to day. The rejulc is splendid chickens in
three months time. This method lays a foundation
of strength which hereafter will not be broken.

People weary me who let their chicks run about
from the first, throwing them a little food twice a
day. Why should a chicken thrive any more than
a baby, if you only half feed it? Hers in confine,
ment should not be too highly fed. I know this to
my cost. 1 reared 40 of the finest buff L'ochin-China
hens I ever saw last year. They were enormous
in sizi, but the ungrateful creatures took it into
their heads to die all of a hop. Tliinkof it! In two
weeks they were all lying at the roots of the rose
bushes ; but I wish you could see the ros-s this ycir
in consequence — rosea .1 la chicken, I call th in — fine
aud nourishing, still, at a cost I hardly liked to pay ;
but this proves that there is gool iu cverylhing. Xhe
demise of the fowls saved the expense of miniire, and
I wish you had seen me picking up five or fix dead
hens every morning and mournfully, with cpide and
rake, burying my dead.

Chickens of a much inferior mould now fill my yard,
and when I get 24 eggs a day, I say, What d'-es lirrcd,
signify? — i.e., in a town chicken yard iiei-vo me jf

173

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [SeItember i, i88$.

you want to succeed in this city with fowla, for eggs
only, take the common breeds. They lay their egEjs,
and when the reaper gathers them in (the chicken
reaper) you don't care. The houses should be cleaned
out twice a week (I clean mine three times), and well
sprinkled with disinfecting power, the perches washed
with kerosene ; and that reminds me that if you are
compelled to set your hens in boxes, alwava have new
ones, filled with clean straw and well-sprinkled with
coal-oil to prevent insects. Vour hens will then set in
peace. Last year I raised some chicks in a large box
with a wire front ; in the centre I put a coal-oil Limp
made firm, with a " mother " in one corner made of
stripi of old blanket, and those chickens were the finest
I had. It is a great mistake to let a hen run at large
with young chicks, with cats, &c., in perspective ; also
some hens are odious mothera, scratching like fiends and
flinging the chicks right and left, or trampling them to
death. Always choose old, quiet hens as setters, and
by confining them as I say you will lose none of your
chicks unless very weak. Dirty food, as some people
feed to hens, is as poison. Let all they eat be fresh and
sweet. It is not necessary to order from the Maison
Doree, but filthy swill is an abominable thing to give
to hens. Lots of green itufi in summer time is necess-
ary. I am writing for the benefit of amateurs
only. I assure you, to bo a good henwife is like
learning a trade, in the country chickens take care of
themselves, — Sydiiey Mail.

THE TEA ENTERPRIZE IN INDIA.

The publication of the reports of the numerous
Indian Tea Companies, from year to year, affords us,
in Ceylon much valuable information from which we
may derive warning as well as encouragement. The
fall in the prices of tea has rendered many of the
Indian "concerns" unprofitable, but the main cause
of want of success seems to have been extravagant
outlay in bringing estates into cultivation. Even in
cases where every effort was made to " open " at a
moderate expenditure, we can well imagine how, in
the earlier years of the enterprise, the best intentions
■were bafiied by such circumstances as distance from
sources of supply and shipping ports, defective means
of communication and costly and precarious labour,
with j)eculiar liability to epidemic and exceed-
ingly fatal sickness. In regard to facile and cheap
means of communication the Indian planters of tro.
day are far more favourably situated than wee
the pioneers of the industry, or even the immediate
predecessors of those who are now growing tea in
Assam and Darjiling. But neither ai regards menus
of communication, climate and salubriky, or labour
supply, does it seem to us tiiat the ludim it'aoters,
except in rare case?, are equally favored with thi-ir
Ceylon brethren. In any case, we cannot possibly
conceive of such a taU being ever told of a Ceylon
estate as is related in the report for 1SS4 of the Land
Mortgage B*uk of India in regard to one of the pro-
perties of which they are the not very happy poeaeasors.
The season's results, the report statts, in Bylhet (where
fome of the finest teas in India liave been produced)
have been most unsatisfactory, and no wonder, for dam-
aging hailstorms (such as have oocurjcd iu Ceylon only
rarely in a few districts and iu destiuclivenf ss
not for a momi,nt to be compared to the fearful
effects of such phenomena iu India) were followed by
severe bbght, long-continued cold weither, which
affected leaf both iu quantity and quality, while to
crown tlie list of adverse and disastrous oircumstauces,

cholera and smallpox broke out and disorganized the
labour force. No wonder if there was a loss on th.
season's working under such adverse circumstances.
The very title of Land Mortgage Bank of India show
that it was formed to take up the species of businesst
" block loans," which are generally considered to be
opposed to true banking principles and indulgence in
which has brought other financial institutions besides
the late Oriental Bank to the ground. The measure
of success achieved by the Land Mortgage Bank is
shown by its avowed anxiety to get rid of the pro-
perties which iu the course of its operations it has
been compelled to take over and work. From the
very full, clear and candid statement of affairs
which the Bank has published and which we take
over from the Home and Colonial Mail, it appears that
it owns six properties in Darjiling, four in Cachar
and Sylhet, two in Assam and one in the Western
Dooars, the latter district coming up generally to Col,
Money's ideal of a district good for tea but bad for
human health. But without sufficiency of labour
even the rich soil and forcing climate of tlie Dooars ara
of no avail. Our great advantage in Ceylon is
that a very large proportion of our tea-growing region
is equally salubrious and fertile. The total acre-
age of the Land Mortgage Bank's estates is
7,136, of which 6,458 in bearing yielded 1,651,712 lb.
This is at the rate of about 255 lb. per acre for the
whole bearing area, some estates of course yielding
much more and some considerably less. We should
think that in but rare cases can less than nOO lb.
per acre pay, or say 4 maunds, which would be
020 lb. The total expenditure, taking the rupee
at Is 8d, was i:7'i,524 and the gross proceeds of
crop £94,403. The proQt, from which must be deducted
an absolute loss of £3,418 on the working of
four out of the thirteea estates, was £19 297. The
cost of production per lb, was ll'COSd and the average
selling price 13 916d, so that the average profit per lb.
was 2-313d. We notice that the cost of machinery and,
it would appear of 491 acres' extension, were charged
against the cost of the year's pnduction, which is
certaiuly not in accordance with the true principles
of accounts. The report states that the reduced
cost of proiluctiou and the considerable area of new
tea coming into bearing are favourable circumstances.
Indeed, the reduction of cost in the growth snd
manufacture of the tea. ranging up to a saving of 3 69d
per lb. in one case, leads to the supposition either that
there was laxity in the past or that reductions were
made iu ihe expenditure' ol 18S4 which may adversely
affect cultivation in the future. The utmost economy
consistent with efficient cultivation and careful manu-
facture is ceitaiuly a necessity, in view of the extent
to which prices of tea have fallen in the p -at few
years. The expudituro per acre on Ihe whole acreage
seems 10 have Ijeen about iill, or somewhat over
£12 lOa for the area m bearing. The best result is
in the case of a Darjiling estate, Moondakootee, and
it is so wonderful that we feel surprize that attcLtiou
was not more specially attracted to it. On this estate
of 700 acres in bearing, the outturn was 210,430 lb.
(300 )ier acre) at a cost of little over £10 per acre,
or 8-936d per lb. of tea, the lea reilizing 16 814d,
or more than twice the o st of production, the profit
ou this estate beng £7,20'! or a little over .£10 an
acre. Against this we have ihe Western Dooars
estate that pr. duced tea at a cost of 18'113d per
lb., which sold for only 12 725il per lb., the loss
on the year's working being i' 1,693. The manager's
judgment seems to have been at lault in controlling
his labour force and he was dismissed. It was not in
Sylhet alone that circumstances were adverse. There
was deficient rainf.iU in Assam, while severe storms
occurred in Cachar. Darjiling experienced a severe
drougb uud unfavourable weather, which makes the

I September i, 1S85.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

i7i

case of the exceptional estate the more remarkable
and causes us to wish that fuller details regarding
it had been given. What we are told is that the
tea on this estate was produced at a savmg of 2^^
per lb. on 1SS3. If the circumstances are not alto-
gether exceptional, the case of this estate would seem
to prove that with cheap working and careful manu-
facture 300 lb. of tea per acre will pay very well. The
main thing wanting in the table we quote is the
absence of the figuies for capital expenditure per acre,
but these are supplied in the case of other Companies,
and, while we know that the original Assam Com-
pany was ruined, we also are aware that those who
purchased their properties "for a song" have shared
dvidends of over 30 per cent. The fair way to look
at tea planted on coffee land in Ceylon w ill certainly
not be to rate proceeds on the whole original ex-
penditure for opening, or even the half of it. In most
cases, we suppose, the accounts will commence de
novo. The accounts of the Land Mortgage Bank do
not afford any information regarding labour force and
its cost, but from the Report of the Scottish Assam
Company, which appears in the same paper, we gather
that the average number of men, women and children
on GS3 acres in 1SS4 was 736, or only 53 in excess
of one cooly per acre. We should tbink that the
manager's necessity, but not his will, consented to so
limited a force. The proper cultivation and harvest-
ing of coffee, when that enterprise was in its prime,
reijuired three cooliea for every two acres, and with
all possible adoption of machinery (unless the recently
patented tea-pluckiug machine is really as great a
success as that for picking cotton in America is said
to be) we cannot suppose that a smaller proportion
will suffice for tta?

Just as we had got " proof " of the above article from
the printer, we received the following elaborate analysis
by an able correspondent of the accounts of a number
of Indian Tea Companies, which most usefully supple-
ments the information drrived [itom the Report of the
Mortgage Bank. We therefore append our contributor's
article : —

" Most of the Indian Tea Companies made up their
balauoe in Jane, and this therefore is an opportune
season for comparing a few of the results shown ;
and, seeing that the industry according to a writer
in the Statiat represents a capitalized value of some
10 millions sterling and a cultivated area of from
200,ijOO to 250 000 acres, producing roughly ueaily
70 million pounds tea, a cumparison of the re.inUs
shown by the published reports of the more prominent
Indian Companies cannot but be instructive to the
planter in Ceylon.

" The same writer above alluded to says, that the great
defect which at present characterizes tea acconuts is
the want of uniformity, which renders it difficult even
for an expert intelligently to compare the working of
different gardens, or to draw any rational conclusions
as to their relative economic merits. The following
table exhibits some interesting s'atisiics in connection
with the accounts for I8S4 of 15 more or less well-
known concerns. We may give " Spectator" 's letter to
the Statiil in full by and bye. Meanwhile, his state-
ment, that, ' owing to the largo increase in produc-
tion, and the tendency to a progressive shiiukage
in prices, it becomes a matter of increasing importance
for owners of estates to secure (1) the highest efficiency
in management ; and ("2) the utmost economy in
expenditure,' is one which iu the present condit on
of our Ceylon planting enterprize must strike every
planter as a ttiiism which cannot be gainsaid. We
trust however, that there are to be found not a few |
practical men capable of demonstrating, that not only
in the large manufacturing industries of Knglaud is
it possible, but that here also it is an accomplished |
fact, that where the two factors of 'highest efficiency |

and 'utmost economy' go hand in hand, there the
greatest vitality exists. The table is as follows : —

■2 . o.

S "2

ofi-c
1-1 k,

3 I'O^-oS'.^a I

2£

« io

J3 O

0<M

la .

S3

-Wci^*

<56

y,

■ X>

fcip<«

!^p^

?* ..-i

^£

i^B

I*.

: aJ45

5-S

o o <a

^ »> 4)

M —

■^s^s

C-- 3c =£
CM :^ r'

-S*.

ft

05 O ^

Cl c- "*

lQ -^ O

-4. 73 "^ O
ce -£ -f CO

o rc >^

O 51 6c M
2 a r Oi-

J3 *" J^ 1

,_,

r.i3

(M W ^1

«

o

gftS

o; -< CO 00 o ; o •

%D •^.'O T

= a ■» S.

— o n o

n — o o

O W t-gO

OS

t a

'5 0

J - o

Ji; o o o o CO lo
tC '-o o lO ?» «> m

OC IC O « QO s^ '-o

>^9

♦- <cS"'

"The .Jorehaut Tea Company tops the list with a
dividend of 15 pfr cent, closely followed by tlie Assam
Company with 14 per cent. Two Companies pay 10
per cent' viz., Tokai and PanitoU, the Leboug and
Mookhamcherra each 9 per cent, Chargola 74, per cent,

»74

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885.

Darjeeling Company 7 per cent, Moabund 5 per cent,
Luokimpore and Dejoe SJ per cent and 2 per cent,
respectively.

"The average cost per lb. of the produce of 11
gardens for which our table furnishes the requisite
data was ll'50d and the average price realized was
la l'33d, showing an average profit yer lb. of I'SSd.
Of these 11 gardens 7 paid dividends ana 4
show a loss ; the average dividend for the 7 was
9'29 per cent, the average coat per lb. lOSOd, the aver-
age price realised la 2'16d, average profit per lb.
.3'86d. Turning to the yield per acre we find the
average of 11 gardens in the table was 313 lb.
The Assam Company tops the list with 491 lb.
per acre off 7,609 acres, made iis tea for 7id per
lb. and sold it for lljd, and paid the beat divid-
end but one, viz., 14 percent, the Jorehaut Company
paying 15 per cent. The highest price la 4id was real-
ized by the Jorehaut and Moabund Company's teas,
the latter being made for llfd per lb. from an
average jield of 246 lb. per acre nlT ."128 acres.
Here the profit per lb. was the highest but
one, the acreage under cultivation the smallest of
any, but the dividend paid was only 5 per cent. It is
to be noted, however, that the report under review
was presented at the Company's Jiisl ordinary meet-
ing ; and it is stated that the profit is taken after
paying off all preliminary expenses and that the
directors propose to divide only about 75 per cent of
the total available, the balance being carried farward
to form the nucleus of a working fund. Your
London Correspondent alludes to the regret ex-
pressed by the Directors of the Aspam Company at
the inferiority of the tea made by this Company in
1884. The cause is not mentioned, but we have
heard a rumour to the effect that it was considered to
be due to iuexperience in working a new description
of drying apparatus. Both the Jorehaut Company's
and Assam Company's estates are on the same district,
and there is, we suppose, no reason why under ordin-
ary circumstances the teas of the one should not h'tve
been a^ good as those of the other and have fetched
as high a price. Had this been the case in 1884,
and the Assam Company's teas sold at Is 4.id with-
out thereby increasing the cost above 7^d, the profit
per lb. would have heen equal to 8Jd, or very nearly
double what it actually was ; and possihly this Com-
pany might then have paid 25 per cent instead of
only 14 per cent dividend for the year — enough even
as it was, as your correspondent truly says, to make
the mouths of investors water.

" The terms on which the new Ceylon loan has been
issued shows that Ceylon investments are coining
into favour again, and ; when it is known that we
can beat India in yield per acre, chtapness of pro-
ducliou, and quality of tea, there can be no doubt
of the tff ct on the instincts of capitalists. The
danger is, that with the inflow of new capital there,
will be another mad rush and its concomitant evils.
Meanwhile, there is something selfishly consoling in
the thought, that we can place our teas, if need be
in London from about 5i per lb. !

"In India the lowest cost of production is associated
as might be expected with the highest yield per aero ;
but it is to be remarked from the prices realized iu
the cases referred to in our table, that quantity was only |
obtained apparently at the expense of quality. The i
highest recorded yield is 491 lb. per acre; but this
has been in more than one instance considerably
more than doubled in Ceylon, whilst we hear of crops
placed f. o. b, at 25 cents per lb., the general aviraije
sale price according to Messrs. Geo. White & Co.'s
last list being Is 3Jd per lb. as against Is l»d per lb.,
the average sale price for InJiau teas iu 1884 as stated
by Mesere, W, J. & H, Ihompson." |

On pages 175-76 will be found the Report and
tabular statement of the Land Mortgage Bank of
India which we have reviewed above ; also the Report
of the Darjiling Company, from which it will be
seen that a dividend of 7 per cent has been de-
clared, the average for three years being about the
same. The average yield per acre is 323 lb., steadily
decreasing, however, from 369 lb. in 1882 to 2931b. per
acre in 1884. The average cost per lb. and price
realized were both highest in 1883, namely U l'17d
and 1b 6"59d, respectively.

THE FRUIT TRADE OF BADULLA, CEYLON.

In June last year Mr. Jas. Irvine addressed a letter to
the Assistant Qovernment Agent at Badulla on the sub-
ject of a light railway. Towards the end of hia letter Mr.
Irvine remarked : —

*'Give us a cheap railway to Badulla town : the traffic of the
town will pay; thevillagers will find a market for their produce,
even fresh eggs and poultry will find a market. Badulla
is noted for fruit, and in this I speak advisedly :
10 acres of an orange grove supplied to the shipping in
Colombo will pay as well as 50 acres of coffee iu its best
days. Badulla could easily supply two car-loads of fruit
daily, which at RlOO would give E200 daily."

A correspondent having recently referred to this
letter, Mr. Irvine writes to us on the subject, and
from his letter we quote as follows : —

" So far as fruit cultivation is concerned, I would only
ask my doubting friends to look at the enormous fruit
trade of the West Indies. Some of the smaller islands
arc devoted entirely to the cultivation of the pineapple,
and others, high and hilly, are devoted almost exclusively
to the cultivation of the lime. Those who have
read Mr. Cottaiii's letters will note the enormous extent
of plantain or banana cultivation ; the fruit trade of
the West Indies employs almost exclusively a large fleet of
small but fast steamers ; in the United States and Canada
every train has one or more fruit-cars attached to it during
the season ; and on Lake Michigan, steamers .specially fitted
for carrying pe.iclies run from lienton Harbour and
St. Joseph to Chicago, a distance of over eighty miles.
In Singapore the road from the town across the island to
the Old or Johore Straits, a distauce of some 14 miles, is
lined ou each side with regularly-planted orchards the whole
way, and every morning hundreds of Chinese swarm into
the town with baskets of fruit. Mready the Australian
colonies are endeavoiuring to send grapes and pears aud
other Iruit to the English market, and I should think
Calcutta, Madras' and other large towns in India would
prove a good market, especially for plantains. It is the
working classes in the Straits in America, and even in
England, who purchase mo.st of the imported and other
fruit. The villagcrrs in Uva have the ready answer : What
is the use of growing anything ? there is no market
for it. At present with the failure of the native coffee
they arc so poor they cannot pay their road-tax, and I
have been told that Sinhalese from AVilsou's Bungalow and
thereabout have actually been working on the tea estates
on this side, partly to escape beiue put in gaol for their
road-tax, and partly to escape starvation, lie that as it
may, I myself have seen large gangs of villagers run into
gaol in Badulla and sent to work out their ' statute labor '
by weeding the Government compounds, some 20 of these
starved wretches doing about as much work as two ordinary
c oolies. They were well fed in gaol, however, and I have
no doubt these unfortunates look back with unalloy,?d
pleasure to the days of their short iucarceration. Open up he
couutry, railroad it, and give the people a chance of find-
ing a market : a basket of eggs, fruit and vegetables, or
fowls, sold would often enable a villager to pay his tax
and keep himout of gaol, and Government would be the gainer
in every way. A friend told me recently that he had seen
a Hght railway made into a wretchedly poor and neglected
district in Southern Spain by an English Fruit Preserving
Company simply to cet the peaches and apricots which
before were valueless, and the people have benefited
lai-gely." ■ ' "•

September i, 1S35.J THE tROPICAL AdRlCUtl-URIsf.

J 75

THE CULTIV^ATION IN INDIA: RESULTS:

THE LAND MORTGAGE BANK OF INDIA

(CREDIT FONCIER INDIEN), LIUIIEO.

OapiUl £1,697,320, in 05,624 shares of £17 15s. each.
Paid up £262,96(5. Directors : Messrs. J. K. Boyson, chair-
man, K. r. Harrison, L. Fitzwygram, W. K. Bingley, and
H. G. Bainbridge.

The directors' report, presented to the twenty-second
ordinary general meeting of Shareholders held at the Can-
non Street Hotel, on Monday last, contains the following
remarks on tea ; —

AVe subjoin the usual statement showing the results of
the working of the several estates during 1884, and with
a view to affording you f uU information relative to the tea
expenditure we circulate herewith a separate statement
marked B showing the details of such expenditure under
Bpeci&c heads : (we hope to publish statement li in a sub-
sequent issue.)

l)ai-jeeliit</.—J\ie general result from our estates in this
district was fairly satisfactory, and would have been much
more so but for the severe drought and unfavourable
weather for growth and manufacture which prevailed, more
or less, at most of these estates during a considerable por-
tion of the season, and the low prices for tea ruling in this
market. The estimated crop was 7,40iJ maunds or 5U2,0001b.
and the out-turn was 8,3i;2 maunds or H6S,988 lb. The
average sale price of the teas from the I'ppor Division wns
Is lid. per pound, whilst the teas from the Lower Division
realized an average price of Is 413J. per lb. The cost per
lb. of the Upper Division's teas laid down in Loudou,
(taking Rupee e.tpenditure at Is 8d ), was 10 04d. per lb.,
and the cost of the Lower Division's teas 9-66d. per lb.,
the season's profit from the Upper Division being
£4,403 18s 5d. and the like profit from the Lower Division
£9,47o 8s lid. makin;; an .aggregate of £13,879 7s 4d.
The average cost ol production of our Darjeeling teas iu
1884 was less by IJd. per lb. than in 1883, the decreased
cost in the case of Moondakotee being as much as2id. per lb.
and we have fair reason to hope that uuder ordniary cir-
cumstanee?, these economies will be maintained, if not im-
proved. The first moiety of our produce from this district,
owing to the causes before mentioned, and coming as it did
to a depressed market, failed to reahze satisfactory prices ;
but the latter portion of the crop proved of superior ([uality,
and finding a somewhat improved market materially en-
hanced the average price of the entire crop ; the latter
portion of the jfoondakotee teas realized an average price
of Is 7^d. per lb., whilst the earlier consignment realized
only an average of Is l|d. The prospects of the present
season are undoubtedly encouraging, tlie gardens being in
good condition, and promising with a continuance of
favourable weather, to give us their full estimated crops
and of better quality than those of 1884.

Asaam. — There was good promise of the estimated
crop from our estates iu this district being substanti-
ally exceeded, but deficient raiufall at a critical
period towards the latter part of the season oper-
ated as a check and a small shortfall iu yield was the
necessary result. The estimated crop was 5,893 maunds,
or 471,4401b. and the out-turn was o,762 maunds or
460,0601b. being 131 maunds or 10,4801b, short ot the estim-
ated yield. The average sale price of the teas from the
Latlakoojan division was Is IJd pur lb. or l-43d per lb.
less than in 1883, but the cost of production having been
1006d per lb. in 1881, as against ]< IJ 1 in 1>83, showing
a reduction of "'■BOd per lb. the resu t has been a piofit
frojn the diiision of £4,208 7s 6d or £2.967 5s lid in ex-
cess of the profit iu 1883. The average sale price from
the Dilflon division was Is njd per lb, or VI l^er lb. less
than Iu 1833, but the cost of production having been
1137d per lb in 1884, *3 against lo I'o/d in 1883, showing
a reductiju of 2-2d per lb. the result from tliis division
hw been a profit of CGo ISs 3d in 1884, ag.-inst a loss
io 1883. The quility of the produce from tliis district
was wdl np to the general average of Assam te.^s, and
did not fall much below the average of similar produce
in Ks83. The reduced cost in production, ;d led by a con-
siderable arei of new tea coming into be;iriug, arc favour-
able feat;ire8, and afford good grounds for expecting
still more satisfactory results from the further develop'

taeut of these prvpertiei.

Cachar. — In spitu of the severe storms from which our
estates in this district so materially suffered, and the sub-
sequent unfavourable conditions of weather and markets iu
1884, the teas realized about the same aggregate average as in
season 1883, but the serious shortfall iu the estimated yield
necessarily increased the average cost of production, al-
though every judiciiius effort was made by the managers
to economise expenditiu-e as soon as a shortfall iu the crop
was seen to be imminent. Several months elapsed before
Jalingah recovered fi-om the effects of the hail storms in
April and blight did not leave the gardens until September
too late to expect a full or even a fair croji. A'ery credit-
able and occasioually high class teas came to us from
this district especially from Jalingah, and we see fair
reason to hope that the present season will show greatly
improved results. The estimated crop was 4,900 maunds
or 392,0001b., and the out-turn was 3,667 maunds or 293,360
lb., being 1,233 maunds or 98,640lb, short of thi; estimated
yield. The average sale price of the teas from tliis district
was Is l-78d. per lb. against Is, l-74d. in 18S3, but the
cost of production, owing to the short yield, having been
Is. l'90d. per lb. entailed a loss on the season's working
of £136 18s Id. against a profit iu 1883 of £792 9s 4d.

Sj/lhet. — The sea.son's results from our estates iu this
district have been most unsatisfactory ; tlie plants were
much injured by hailstorms, which were followed b severe
blight and a long continuance of cold and most un*, avour-
able weather, which necessarily affected leaf both '%» quant-
ity and quality, whilst the prevalence of ch olera and
smallpox iit Shabazpore curtailed and disorganized the
labour staff to an extent that was most prejudicial (tor
the time being), to the efficient working of the garden.

On the subject of the weather, the manager wrote:

" Throughout the season we experienced a succession
of the most unfavourable weather I could imagine it
possible to have, and the consequence have been dis-
astrous." Unfortunate as the results from our estates in this
district havi; undoubtedly been, we are unable to attach
blame to the management, considering as we do, that the
very exceptional circumstances that prevailed sufficiently
account for the heavy average cost of production. The estimat-
ed crop was 2,575 maunds, or 206,000 lb. and the out-turn was
only 1,895 maunds or 151,600 lb. The average sale price ot the
teas was Isl'lOd per lb. against Is l-26d per lb. in 1883, show-
ing a loss on the season's working of £1,044 7s lid.

Kolabairee laboured under exceptional drawbacks durinoij
season 1884 in consequence of difficulties having arisen in
connection with the- labour force at an important period of
the season, which very .seriously affected the strength of
labour and prejudiced the season's results. Considering that
this state ot circumstances was principally due to want of
judgment on the part ot the local manager, who had been
in the bank's service for upwards of seven years, we deemed
it our duty to put an end to his engagement a iid to ap-
point another of the bank's employes to this charge. We
trust that under the new management the garden will ere
long recover from the effects of the disturbances of the
past year and show steady progress towards profitable
results. The estimated crop was 1,200 maunds or
06,000 lb. and the out-turn was only 069 maunds,
or 76,720 lb. being 241 maunds or 19,280 lb. less
than the estimated yield. The average sale price of the
teas was only Is 0 73d per lb. against Is 2 38d per lb.
in 1883, whilst owing to the shortfall in yield, to the
garden being a comparatively new one, recjtiiring to
be supplied with uiachfuory and builJings, and to the other
j exceptional circumstances to which we have referred, the
average cost of production was IsO'llSd per lb. showing
a loss on the season's working of £1,693.
; Cco/i.— The tot.xl nutturn for 1884 was estimated at
21.970 luaunds or 1,707,600 lb, nnd the actual yield fn-
' mai.uliicturHd ten was 20,616 nmiiuds or 1,651,680 lb. shows
ing a shortfall (arising from the causes before mentioned)
of 1,321 maunds or 105,020 lb. The crop was laid down
! in London Cvith rupee ex])eiiditure taken at Is 8d) at
11 OOd being jd per lb less than the cost of our 1883 crop,
and realized an average sale price of Is 2d per lb. Wo
made no shipments to Australiii or America during last
season, either directly or through the (,'alentta Syndicate.
The estimated oruli for 1885 is 23,12.5 maunds 1,850.0110 lb.
being 2,179 maunds or 108,320 lb. in excees of 1884 crop,
and we liejjcve that this estiinat* will be fully realized

ijB

THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Septemser i, 1885.

it not exceeded. A small consignment of the new seasons
teas from Mooudakotee (208 chests) has been sold in this
market at an average price of la 3"3d per lb. Up to our
latest advices the quantity of tea made was 2,985 mauuds,
Bgaiust 2,805 maunds in 1884. The rainfall at the begin-
ning of the season was short but recentadvices now point
to a fair average season.

Extensions. — During the past year 491 acres have been
added to our planted area.

General. — Oiving to the contingencies already adverted
to, the gross amount of profit from the season's working
was considerably less than we anticipated, attributable
mainly to shortfall in crop at some of our gardens and
the low prices for tea which ruled in this market through-
out the season. But for these drawbacks, which were ob-
viously beyond our control, the aggregate of tea profit
at credit of the profit and loss account, would not only
have covered the current year's expenditure on the bank's
general account, but would have reduced to some extent the
debit balance brought forward from 1883.

11. — Our expenditure on all accounts (other than tea) dur-
ing the current year may be estimated at £21,700, whilst
our receipts from all sources (other than tea), will not prob-
ably exceed £5,000. The e.stimated cost of our 1885 tea
ci'op is below lid per lb laid down in London, but taking
it at lid per lb and estimating the average price at last
season's low average of is 2d per lb, the resulting surplus
would be sufficient not only to cover the current year's ex-
penditure debited to profit and loss, but would leave a
margin of several thousand pounds to reduce the debit balance
from 18S4, In moving the adoption of the report, the
Chairman said that the loan business of the bank had
almost ceased to exist, the amount of the current loans
having been brought down to about £35,000. The only un-
satisfactory feature was the fact that they had not sold
more of their properties in India. That, however, he
thought was accounted for by the condition of the money
market, and a feeling that the property belonging to the
bank, and being locked up, was likely eventually to go for
nothing if would-be investors would hold out long
enough. On Saturday they had received a telegram from
Calcutta stating that a small property had been sold for
20,800 rupees, and the last letters from Calcutta had given
them details of various negociations which, if carried through
would eventuate in the sale of a very substantial amount
of property — several lakhs of rupees. Their debenture
liability had been very materially decreased since December,
1883, and looking at the present amount and the original
figures, he could not but consider that the progress made
in this direction had been very satisfactory. Since the bank
had been in existence they had paid off debentures amount-
ing to £580,920, and this liability had been reduced from
close upon £1,000,000 to £320,800. During the same period
they had had to meet debenture interest to the amount of
£525,000, the two sums aggregating substantially over
£1,000,000. He reganled this fact as very sati.sfactory,
when they remembered the state of things which existed
on the present board taking office, when the shareholders,
thought that a call was not merely probable, but that it
would impossible for the bank to carry on its operations
and meet its liabilities, which at that time amounted to
£50,000 a year for drawn bonds and debenture interests
without making a call. They had not, however, made any
call on the shareholders. Ua concluded by referring to
the growth of their tea estates. The motion was seconded,
after which Mr. Bninbridge stated that if the present pro-
spects of the working ot the tea estates continued for the
rest of the year they would be able to present a better
profit and loss account next time than they had done for
some two or tliree years. The report was adopted after con-
Bideralile discussion. Jlr. Buchanan afterwards proposed
the following resolution : — " That, iu view of the continued
unsatisfactorv nature of tlie accounts, the steady fall in
the average prices of tea, and the probablity of a still
further reduction in value, a committee of shareholders,
to be nominated by the meeting, be appointed to enquire
into the present position and future prospects of the bank,
and submit a report thereon.'" The resolution was .seconded,
but, after a full reply from the chairman, only five hands
were held up iu its favour, and the meetinfj; closed with
the usual vote of thanks to the ohairmau aiid directors.'—
Some cmd Colonial Mail,

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DEpr,Eri.\TioN IN THE Value of L.ixii IN Eng-
land.— The value of land in England still continues
to fall. "A few days ago." says the Land Ayenls'
Kecord, "an estate of some 500 acres in Cambridgeshire
was exposed for sale, but only £22,500 -was oli'.red. A
few years ago the same jiroperty changed hands for
£70,000. Much of the land on another Cambridgeshire
estate is said to be let at 33 an acre to prevent it from
going out oi ouUivatioo, "Sugarcane,

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISf.

177

DAEJEELING TEA COMPAf.Y, LINJITED.

At the twentieth orjinary geueral meeting of this Com-
pany the following report was adopted : — The directors beg
leave to submit their Twentieth Annual Keport on the oper-
ations of the Oonipany during the past year. The weather
during the manufacturing season of 18S4 was most variable
and unfavourable fortheproductionof large quantities of 6ue
leaf, and consequently the tea made was far below the amount
expected by the manager, at Darjeeling when he prepared
his estimate of the crop. For the same reason the quality
of the tea at times was rather disappointing ; some invoices
were, however, received possessing tine flavour, and realized
excellent prices. The average rainfall on the plantation
during the past three s,;asous, up to the 9th November
in each year, was 118 inches in 1882, 91 inches in 1883,
and only 73 inches in 1884.

The great depression in the value of all Colonial produce
that has existed so long, has also been keenly felt in the
tea market, and, under such adverse circumstances, the
results that have been realized, as indicated below, must
be considered to be of a satisfactory character to all parties
interested in the company's affairs. The directors would
desire especially to draw attention to the large savings
effected in the expenditure in 18S4, as compared with that
in 1883, and this was accomplished without in any way
diminishing the elUciency of the labour staff, or curtailing
the necessary operations on the plantations: on the c*)n-
trary, the plantations and everything connected with them
have been maintained in the highest state of efficiency, and
many iirportant improvements of a permanent character
have been carried out. The cash receipts in 18S4 have
fallen short of those in 1833 by about £2.734, but on the
other hand, the general expenditure in 1884, as mentioned
above, was less than that in 1383 by £2,259, so that the
gross profits realized in 1884 have been only £475 less than
in 1883.

The following comparative statements show at a glance
the operations of the Company during the past three
years : —

Total Outturn of Tea, and Cost at Plantations.

lb. per
Acre.
369
303
298
Gross Expenditure and Cost per lb. of Tea after deducting
the Difference in the Kates of E.xchange.
Inl882, £27,256 ... cost per lb. Os 11 82d
„ 1H83, £25,401 ... „ Is l-17d

„ 1884, £23,767 ... „ Is 0 18d

Account Sales, Weight of Tea, Average Prices, and
Proceeds.
Id 1882, 553,027 lb. at .. Is 3-33d...£3.5,3.36

,,1833,463,681,, at ... Is 6 59d...£35,927

„ 1S81, 468,239 „ at ... Is 5-4 Id ..£33,975

The directors beg leave to recommend to the members the
declaration of a dividend at the rate of 7 percent, free of
Income Tax. payable on and after the 1 1th May, 1885. After
providing for this dividend a balance will remain on the
profit and loss statement for 1884 of £782 16s 3d, which will
be carried to the credit of the re.serve fund.
hividends Iteclaied.
On 1882 Crop of Tea 6 per cent.
.. 1883 „ 74 „

,. 1384 „ 7 .,

The total sums set aside from the profits as a reserve
fund, amount to £4,057 17s 2d. The manager at Dar-
jeeling has prepared estimates for 18S5, on the basis that
far average weather will prevail throughout the season;
a diminished rainfall, similar to that experienced during
the past season, must necessarily upset an estim ite pre-
pared in this way, but under favourable conditions the
estimated quantity of tea ouijht to be produced. The
estimated crop of tea and expenditure in ISS.i shows the
total crop at 520.000 lb, and the total cost 179,694 rupees.
Mr. John Farlpy L"itli and Mr. Henry Smith retire from
the direction by rotation on this occasion, and being eligible,
they beg to offer themselves for re-election as directors of
the Company. Mr. John W. Roberts, the auditor of the
Company, begs to offer himself for re-eloction for the en-
suing yeas.— Indian Tea Gazelle.
23

Acres.

lb.

Acre.

R.

In 1882 .
„ 1883 .

„ 1884 .

. 1,534
. 1,562
. 1,586

566,102
473,810
473,206

at
at
at

369
303
298

195,336
182,965
174,932

ASSAM AND JOREHOUP TEA COMPANIK.S' .
The Annual General Meeting of the above conipai y
was held a few days ago, at 5. Lawrenoe-laua, Pouut-
ney-hill. Cannon-street, Mr. \V. Prideaux presiding.
The Re|>ort presented by the directors set forth that
the profit amounted to £27,520, out of which they
proposed a dividend of fourti-en percen^ for the year,
and to carry forward £1,376 19-<. 6d. lu mov.ng
the adoption of the Rep.jrt, the Chairniau referred to
the low price of tea which had prevailed during the
year, observing that it was attributable, he thoupht,
to the inferiority of the quality of the growth. The
c^use of this had been inquired into, and he felt con-
fident that the cause was not likely to be oue of a
permanent character. In fact, on June 14th, he received
an encouraging telegram from the acting superintendent
stating that he had obtained 41,000ib. of tea mora
than in the corresponding period of last year and
there was reason to believe that a much larger crop
would bo gathered in the year than in 1884, at a lower
rate of expenditure. After a short discussion the
report was adopted.

The Annual Report of the directors of the Jorehaut
Tea Company (L mited) states that the quantity of
tea manufactured in 18S4 was l,'20G,G77lb., being
RI6 4631b. in excess of the quantity made in 1883,
and only 9,3231b. below the estimate prepared by their
superintendent at the commencement of the year. The
quality of the teas was of good average standard, but
the great depression in the values of tea and colonial
products generally operated against the realization of
higher prices. In consideiatien of the valuable servicei
rendered by Mr. James Huttmann, as an assistant for
nine years and as superintendent for a further period
of twelve ypar?, the d rectors have had the pleasure of
presenting him on the presf-nt oconsi u as a special
gift with the sum of £500, chargeable against the profit
and loss account for 1884. The reoeipts amouuted to
£82,125 and the expenditure to £61 943, leaving groFU
profi's £21,182, which have been appropiiated as
follows : — Commissions on profits, £3 071 ; directors'
extra fees, £250 ; present to J. Huitinanu. £500; in.
oome-tax, £421 ; dividend at 15 per cent. £l5,000;
and reserve fund, Xl,910 —Home Neus
^

Powdered Rioe as a Styptic Remedy has a great
eff. ct on fresh wounds, much superior to oxide of zinc.
By mixing from 4 to 11 p=r cent, of it with lint, and
using the lint thus treated as a compress, it is very
effectual and more valuable than subnitrate of bismuth,
salicylic acid, or carbolic acid. — Med. Press.

DiKOYA, 27th July. — After a long spell of fine
planting weather we had a few rather bright days
about a week ago followed by some more rainy days,
and today it is again fine and looks as if it would
continue so. A large acreage of tea has been planted
this season as you will see by the returns for your
Directory, and, notwithstanding the extensive nurseries
put in by almost everyone last year, plants
are very scarce and selling at from R5 to R8 per
1,000 according to quality. It is now junt two years
since the rush into tea began in this district, and
a considerable acreage w 11 be giving regular pluck-
ings from about November next. Several new
factories are being started and more being talked of.
One hears very little about ciffoo, and decent crops
are few and far b'ltween ; some have simply none
at all. The ground has been cleared of the trees
in mauy places, so as to give the tea a fa'r chance ;
in othTS the lower primaries have been loppeil up,
aud the coffee that has in no way been interfered
with is getting smaller by degr-es and beautifully less
every day. Tiuchona is lasting out wonderful. y and has
douiitless been the one thing tLat has enabled many of
us to turn the crner. In another two years or so mo^t
estites will he able to get along comfortably withcut it.

178

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

Phormium Tenax, or Bowstring Hemp.— The great
strength of this valuable fibre haa long been known
and appreciated, but comparatively few are aware of
the therapeutic qualities of the plant. Somewhere
about the year 1869 or 1?70, a letter appeared in
the Melabourne Argus, signed by Mr. Francis A. Monck-
ton, bering witness to the extraordinary healing-
properties of the Phormium. tenax, commonly known
as New Zealand Flax, from that time until the pre.
sent he has used it in hundreds of ca'ses, including
lacerations and amputations of every description, and
he has no hesitation in saying that there is nothing
known in the old world that can equal it in pro-
ducing healthy granulations. Mr. Monckton uses a
strong decoction — the stronger the better — made from
the roots and butts of the leaves, boiled for twelve
hours. At one time he had to make it fresh every
second day, as it readily ferments and deteriorates;
but since carbolic acid came into vogue, he keeps
it for any length of time by adding about an ounce
of equal parts of carbolic acid and glycerine to every
quart. Mr. Monckton says he requires no other anti-
septic precautions, but simply syringes the lesions
occasionally with it, and maintains cotton wool or
lint soaked in it, constantly to the parts affected.
If there are no foreign matters to be discharged
there will be no discharge, in support of which he
instances the case of a man whose forearm he lately
amputated after it had been shattered through dyn-
amite. The ligatures were thirty-two days in com-
ing away, and the amount of pus from the operation
up to that time would not amount to a tablespoon-
ful. The same patient had the soft parts of the
other arm torn and blown into such a mass of shreds
that the members of the staff thought it was hope-
lessly lost beyond repair. Mr. Monckton asserts that
with the same treatment it became as sound and as
useful as before, and exhibits only scars, showing
where new skin had been formed. — Planters' Gazette.

Consumption op Commodities in Britain. — Mr.
Goschen in speaking at Manchester on depression in
great branches of trade, such 3,1 the iron and mining
industries, thus depicted the bright side :— I have
spoken of the profits, but profits and savings are
not the same things, and though there have been
comparatively, I believe, fewer profits among mer-
chants and manufacturers, the savings ot the
country seem still to be accumulating. Lord Derby
has pointed to the increase in the savings banks.
That is, doubtless, a most satisfactory point. There
is an increase both in the amount deposited by the
"'working classes in their savings banks and their friendly
societies. Well, then, what other tfsts are there of
the prosperity of the country ? There U one which
it is impoasiljle to pass by — and that is the question
of the consuming powers of the country. Now, with
regard to the consuming powers of the country,
the stalistics are decidedly satisfactory. We have
drunk more tea than in any year before ; we have
consumed more sugir, we have couf'unied more wool
in our manufantoriefl, we have consumed more cotton
in our manufactories, we have enjplnyed more servants,
we have taken out as many licences to shoot, we
have had as many carriages — in none of the great
departments of expenditure, whether touching these
working classes or the well-to-do claascs, was there any
sign of falling-off in consumption, except iu one, or
let me fay, in two. In the consumption of spirits a
decline is noticeiible. (Cheers ) We drink now ordy
ten glasses of spirits for every 1.3 that we drank in
the greatest drinking year, which was the year 1875
(cheers), and we have cut off one Ldass out ti ten
durinc the last four or five years. In tobncco, idso, there
is a vtry slight decrease ; we have cut oil' one pipe or one
cigar out of every 3.^>, and that is Bupposed to be due
partly to the higher duty,— London limes, June 26th.

Ohoc-chou Pickle.— The recipe which I have proved
to be most trustworthy, is as follows : — " Take 2 lb. of
green tomatoes, bruise them, then add two or three medium
sixed onions, sliced according to size, and six chillies ;
scatter salt over it, letting it stand fifteen hours, then
strain away the moisture, and cover the remainder with
good vinegar. Bake this in an ovea for oae hour, and
then press the pulp into jars. Now take a dessert spoon
each ot mustard, pepper, mixed .spice, halt teaspoon each
of sugar and cloves, a little cinnamon, and four chillies,
adding sufficieut vinegar to make this quite thin. Boil it and
pour over contents of jars while boiling hot." Another
good recipe under the heading "Tomatoes for pies " may
also be acceptible to some of my readers who may have
a quantity of green fruit too backward to ripen. Pick
the tomatoes green ; scald them and take off the skius.
Put them into a preserving pan, and let them boil for
half-an-hour. Out them up, and put in 1 lb, of sugar to
3 lb. of tomatoes, and let them cook for balf-an-hour
longer. Season them with the juice and peel of lemon,
and put them away iu jars. These make very good pies
in the winter, and resemble gooseberries. — IHanter and
Farmer.

Fiji. — An old Ceylon planter writes : — "I have often
regretted having come out here. Planting prospects
are poor in the extreme and have been steadily
gettmg worse ever siuee I arrived. One just exists, and
as for making money, it 's simply at present out of the
question. Those who posFess coconut plantations can,
by the greatest economy and hard work, supplement-
ing by food growing, &c., manage to keep their beads
above water. All the others, 1 may say almost with-
out exception, are in dibt and likely to remain so
unless things take a great changf. Labour is the great
bugbear. It is getting scarcer and dearer every year,
Polynesians will soon be a thing of the past
unless their immigration is facilitated and their
cost of introduction greatly reduced. By the
paper I see all Mr. VV. Pillini;hain Parr's
land is to be sold on account of the mortgagee.
I am sorry, as he has been some years out here and
has had a hard fight for it all along. This season
has passed over without a blow. After the lengthy
drouaht everjone predicted a hurricane, but fortun-
ately the prophecy turned out wrong. "

OocoA in Dombaea. — One who has recently been through
the district of Dumbara wi'ites to us as follows : — " I was
very agreeably surprized to see how well all the Dumbara
estates were looking when I visited the tiistrict the other
day. All the effects of tielopeltis and tlrought have almost
diappeared. I am positive that, had the shade and shelter
trees not been ruthlessly cut down, ihe damage done would
have ahuost been imperceptible. The only places where it
can at present he seen are on ihe ridges ou which atone
time many shade trees were planted. I have been told
that the late Robt. Tj-tler would not allow his son to
plant up Pallekelly with cocoa until the shade trees were
well above the ground and would afford shelter to the
young plan':s ; and bow wise this was recent events have
proved. Rajah wella has, I suppose, suffered the most, be-
cause its shade trees were cut down at one fell swoop,
whereas those on Pallakelly were mostly " ringed "by the
superintendent and remained standing for a much longer
time. But planting shade is again being rapidij' proceeded
with, though it will be years before all traces of the damage
done can be repaired. The blossoms now set all over the
valley are most abundant, and Ihe crop to be picked to-
wards the end of the year will be heavy. Trees are in
splendid condition, this south-west monsoon having suited
Dumbara better than any other district. If one could always
rely upon such seasons, cocoa planting there woidd pay
twice as well as tea any where. Koudasala was looking
well as I passed through and Ambecotta is much better
than I expected. The liardworkiug manager is doing his
utmost to replace the shade and shelter he removed some
time ago under the impression that it Avas the best thing
for the estaies. Experience has proved the contrary iu
a most unmistakable manner and all that can now be
done is to wait till the time has replaced what was removed
iu grievous error. — Local ,, Times.."

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

lyg

*■

7V f/ie Editor oj the " Ceylon Ob sender. "

CACAO IN THE LONDON MARKET; AND HOW
TO CATCH HELOPELTIS.

11th July, 1SS5.

Dear Sik, — Has your Loniloa Commercial Con-espond-
ent a 'down' ou cacao ? or perliaps, may be, he ia of
a bilious nature and cannot driuk it; but is that a reason
why it should be left out in the cold ? Just look, and
see what he says : "Coffee fiiirly t;ood," " Tea A 1" — all
the other products are gone to the dogs (at least he
says so in so many words): forgetting perhaps that he
is putting cacao with the rest of them. Tlieu someone
else always says: "Coffee up If, good news for
coffee planters I " but nothing is said when cacao goes
up 03 or so ! Oh no, Mr. tditur, this is rather one-
sided. We cacao planters toil ou quietly in spite of
all, and, thank goodnees, the rains we have had have pretty
nearly washed all the fiy away, and I think there is every
chance of our being able tokeip the small pest down, and
rather more than simply " keep the pot boiling."

I have thought of a plan which may be of use
in exterminating the helopeltis, viz.: Get the chatty-
man to make a false pot, — that is a clay one, — as
near the shape of the real thing as possible ; have it
burnt as red as he can get it, and then till it with
some sweet syrup (jaggery treacle) and poison (arsenic
ie the best for flies) and seal up the end, or oni-k it;
hang it in the tree and the mixture will soak ihrough
the clay and keep it continually moist, giving the
insects plenty of juice with little or no waste of
the liquid : it may act, and 1 should say it would be
inexpensive after the first outlay. Strong tea and sugar
would probably do. I have made a mould and intend
letting you have a pot in the course of a short time,
then you will see exactly what I mean.

By-the-bye the next tour you take in the planting
districts, look at cacao and glance at tea by way of a
change ! —Yours faithfully, BUSY B.

HARVESTING OF CINCHONA BARK.

Deltota, 16th July 1885.

Sir, — I am sorry I am unable to give my experi-
ence about what " B." asks, as 1 never shaved a portion
of the tree leaving two strips. I carnot understand
why this is done at all, as " B." himself says less
work is done per cocly, and when the trees are shaved
a second time the bark will not be as valuable as
when the whole stem is shaved at once. I have
shaved trteu ranging fnni two to six years, and I
have found the yourger trees renew bark much faster
and better than older trees, and I would rtcominend
"B." to take a very thin slice of sliaviuga from the
whole stem instead of having strips. Including
loppmg I got an average of 53 lb. twit; and branch
per cooly. 1 cannot say the exact amount my trets
cost for thitchini! ( the amount of nett bark I harvested
was 28,631 lb. The outturn of dry at .3.S per omt
9,44811). which cost me R6i5'90 : i. e. for harvesting,
cutting rnaoa, ihatchiug, drying, packing and cost of
wa'chman, or at the rate of (i 6 cen's per lb ;cnst of cart
hire, train fare&c, at Scents more will make 9 ti cents, or
a little less than 10 cents delivered at the Colombo stoi e.

Can you or any of your correspondints let nie know
why on some (States trees are coppiced about "2 ftet
from the ground? One ►upi rintendeiit told me this stem
was left for staking the resulting fUcker after cop-
picing. Thia to my niind is as sensible as amputating a
man's leg anrl leaving a piece of bone to stick out. I have
seen coppiced shoots from stems of this kind about SJ to 3
feet high a year or more after cop picing, while where
the stem hai he:a 'awn J It. from the ground the shoots
ue betv eea 4 and 7 feet high at the «anie age, B, E,

MR. A. WHYTE ON HOW TO GROW " ROSES" IN
COLOMBO, WITH HINTS APPLICABLE TO

ALL ELEVATIONS : No. I.
Dear Sir, — In one of your late isiues, I observed
a correspondent asked for information on the best
method of growing roses in Colombo, a question which
has frequently been put to me. I have not had any
experience in the cultivation of the rose at so low
an elevation, but have been successful with the
introduction and raising of many new and choice
varieties in Kandv. As much of the treatment required
here will apply to Colombo and Galle and other elev-
ations, I give, with pleasure, my experiences, in the
hope they may be of some little service to your
correspondent, and others interested in and devoted
to the culture of the Queen of Flowci's. As with most
other pursuits we engage in, unremitting care and at-
tention is necejjsary, if we wish to attain sucoesa
in rose growing ; and the other principal secrets of
that success, will generally be found under the fol-
lo>ving heads, viz., situation, soil, manure, drainage,
selection^ and arrangiment.

I. — Situation is all-important. lu gardens, how
often do we find a large mango tree flourishing in
the centre of the principal flower plot, surrounded
with crot'ius, hibiscus and rose bushes &c. all drawn,
weak and spindly, struggling for an existence,
among the gormandizing roots of the mango ; such a
situation might form a charming spot for a fernery, or
a bit of rock work, where Begonias, Caladiums,
Dracoenas, Alocasias &c, , would thrive, provided
sustenance was given them ; for the rose it is a
cemetery. As has been remarked, " it takes
umbrage in a twoi'old sense ; robbed above and
robbed below, robber! by branches' of sunshine and
by roots of soil, it sickens, droops and dies." Of this we
may rest well assured, that no rose tree worth growing,
will flourish or " blossom as the rose, " under the
drip, or the shade, or even in the proximity of
a mango, coconut or other fruit or forest trees.
Quceu Rosa will brook no rivals, and will sternly
resent their intrusion ; the plot of ground selected
for the rosarium, must be solely devoted to roes, and,
it possible, be so situated as to catclj the first rays
of the fup, and be exposed to them till about noon,
when for the remainder of the day, the rose.s should
have shade from the burnirgsun in the lowcouutiy,
A good plau to get rid of the roots of trees from the
adjoinirg compounds, is to have trenches dug along two
sides of the garden. Thise will not only prevent the
roois from trespassing, but will act as drains in
carrying off the surplus moisture.

'1 he nfxt object we ought to have in view, is shelter
for our roses ; shelter to shield them from cutting and
parching winds, snil from the silt-Iaden sea-breez°, £0
fatal to almost all vegetation. In tlolombo, this ia
a'ready generally proviiicd by the compound walls,
which form excellent shelttr ; in the abiei.oe of walls,
double hedges of Madras Thorn, or HibiBOua (shoe-
flow er) or belts of tall Crotona and Lettuce trees, will
answer well, and for a temporary protection, until
these get up, a fence ofcadjans will »uit admirably,
The best shelter belt plants we know cf for upcouiitiy
are the ac: cias (wattles) with good deep trcrchts aluug
the boundary, to keep the roots from trespassing snd
to act as drams. On the other baud, the rosaiiim
must not be boxed up too closely, ae a free circ-
ulation of air is a.s essential to the health of the
rose, as is a modcate expoure to the rays of the
sun. Pot roses in veraudalis ought to have the
morning or afternoon fuu and be turned out as oftm
as I ossible in dull and rainy weather.

II. — Soil —The principal varieties cf soil to be dtalt
with at Colombo and along the ceacoast, consist either
tii more «r lam decompoecd kterite (cabook) br A

iio

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885,

deposit of sea-sand, or a mixture of the two. We be-
lieve that the average cabook soil, when deeply
trenched, drained and liberally enriched with farm-
yard manure, is by no means a bad one for roses.
When the soil is of a strong, stiff and adhesive
nalui-e, we would stronRly recommend that portions of
it be charred or buiueJ and that it be rendered
lighter by an admixture of strong sand, ashes and
charcoal broken up into small nodules. Another most
valuable toil, or we might call it soil and manure com-
bined, is calcined ant-hills which can be procured
at no great outl.iy. These conical mounds form natural
k'lus, aud when a tlue is opened at tlieir base and
a strong heac established inside the cones, they can
be liioken down and charred by degrees. These ant-
hills will each yield on an average, a cart-load of
most valuable rich soil, admirably suited for roses
and pot plants. The sea-sand deposit, the principal
soil of the Cinnamon Gardens, is by no means in-
fertile, and it is astonishing what it will produce
when manure is freely added to it. To see what can
be done by nn e.arnest and skilful horticulturist, with
this apparently worthless barren stuff, one has only
to visit Mr. Wright's delightful gardens at Turret
Head. There will be found flourishing in great variety,
choioe plants and shrubs of the tropica, aealeo flowers
iiud vegetabUs of more temperate climes, and on one
occasion, we recollect seeing beds of melons producing
deloioua fruit in abundance. We need scarcely say,
however, that this light sand, which sometimes extends
to a ooDsideiable depth, is not euitable for roeee, It
ought to be largely replaced or mixed with strong, red,
rich and, if possible, virgin eoil. A mixture of the sand
deposits, cabook, liberally enriched with farmyard man-
ure, ought to grow rosea fairly well ; but the soil in
which the rose delights is deep, rich, comparatively
strong land, in which to throw down and fix firmly
its long nirehke roots. In preparing the eoil for
the reception of the rose plant', we would recommend
that it be deeply and uniformly trenched and liberally
mixed and enriched with farmyard manure during the
operation. A very common system of planting the
rose, but, in our opinion, a very objectionable one,
Is to dig a huge hole and discard the soil thus ex-
cavated, no matter whether it be poor gravelly inert
stuff, or fine strong red soil, just the kind most suit-
able. This rose grave is then filled in with manure,
leaf-mould, coir refuse and any other rich materials
at hand, without a single basketful of good honest
soil. The drainage from the usually baked soil all
round, natural'y finds its way into this reserroir, the
contents of wh ch soon get saturated, and in wet
weather the whole mass becomes a sour sodden spongy
dung pit CD which gigantic stocks of celery might
he grown, but wh ch is certainly no congenial
home for the rise, Treated in this way, it seldom
dof-B so wpD OB it Would have done on the original
snil, veil trenchedi fiii'ked snd BBisjiBheJ with, my
c.ae=;wtutietli part of ths tnRniil'6 iKuB wasted.
VVheu pUntlng out the rose trees, It is Weil tn mix
■With tfie !!oif all round the roois, a bEsketfnl »[
tild dfcayed fiiaoufe mould, which will encourage add
httstSil the gfowth of new rootlets.

Ill — MANtTRfc, judiciously selected and applied, is
most essential to success in rose gi'oWing. The handiest
and one of the very best manures, is ordiiiary farm-
yaid compost. By this we mean, the dung and
refuse from the stable and cowhouse, pig and poultry
manure and the ashes and refuse from the kitchen,
aI well mixed and fermented. The stage of decay,
at which the manure ought to be applied, will de-
ppud greatly ou the nature of the operation and the
cinslstenoy of the eoil. If for newly trenched land
of a strt clayey nature, it need not be over well
deoomposfd, as the half-decayed litler, when well
a!t,aihali<l Willi the foil acts adiiilralily in render ■

ing it more friable and porous. In the case of lighter
and more porous soils, the coinpott ought to be
thoroughly fermented and well decayed, but in no
cise would we recommend the dung heap to be left
till it becomes little more than rich black mould.
It bus then lost to a great extent, its principal fer-
tilizing and stimulating property— its ammonia. We
can also recommend bones as an excellent and last-
ing manure for roses, and we would advise its being
applied in combination with poonac, and wood ashes,
in tht? proportions of 1, '2 and 3 respectively — the
principal use of the ashes beinp, to ward off the
attacks of white-ants, beetles and other injurinus insects
attracted by the poonac.

Niijht Soil is a very powerful and suitable manure,
for roses, but in connection with it we have the usual
prejudices to contend with, and the difficulty in its
application.

Of fsh mani/re we have bad no experience, but should
imagine it would be suitable, strong and stimulating,.
As rrgards artificial vianures—they are dangerous,
and reijuire to be used with the greatest caution.
Many years ago in the West Indies we had painful
experience of the mischief caused by some of these
manures aud to ibis day ve have a wholesome
dread of them. Guano ard sulphate of ammonia
if used at all, ought to be given only in a highly-diluted
form, and applied as a very weak solution, of, say,
1 oz. 1 drachm lesptotively to the gallon of water,

We will now give as briefly as possible, a list of
manures suitable for ro.*es, and available here, in the
ordtr of merit generally assigned to them, by our
great Engliih rosarian.-, Turner of Slougb, Paul of
Cheshunt, &c., &o.

1. — Pio Manure, very powerful and efficacious.
2. — Night Soil, highly recommended.
3.— Farmyard Manure, one of the best, and least
offensive to our noses.

4. — Bones, an admirable and lasting manure, would

recommend it in combination with poonac and ashes,

5. — Burned earth and ant hills, most useful

manure, especially in the case of wet iind adhesive soils.

6 — Soot, very beneficial, especially for tea roses.

7 — Guano, too stimulating, throws up luxuriant

wood and foliage, but comparatively few blossoms.

Never use a stronger solution tban one ounce to

the gallon of water.

8. — Sulphate of Ammonia, still more stimulating,
and dangerous, and to be used with great oaation
say, 1 drachm to gallon of water.

9. — Blood of animals, very euitable for roses, pro-
ducing fine blooms,

Finally, on the demise of any of our doraettio
animals or pets, by all means let us honor them with
a tomb among the roses. Decaying animal tissue is
most beneficial, but should not Xe placed In too
close proximity to the I'oots, until well decompoiedi
rV.—i*KAiNA'(E.— A free est for all superfluoui
niOistlirei both abore and beloWj is of the greatest
itnporianse, and ih the case of stiS' retentive soils fa
absolutely necessary. In the latter case let parallel
drains be cut, at intervals of 12 or 15 ft. and 3^ to
4 ft. in depth. Tile draining is of course the best, and
perhaps the cheapest in the long run as space is saved,
and no periodical weedings and cleaning out are re-
quired. A'l to the forin of tile to be used, we should
recrmmend simple tapering tubes of say 13 inches in
lengtb, and so made, that the tapering end of one fit*
loosely the thiclt end of the other, for say about an inch;
The : dvantasjes Ih a form of tile has over the ordinary
sole tile, ie, that they o-e lefS apt to get displaced
and choked, aie easier laiddcwn and cheaper. They
oi'st little more than ordinary rrofirg tiles or say
RITi per 1,1 00 feet. The diameter of the tube ma

September i, 1885.] 1*HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

iSi

of course be regulated according to the amount of
water to be carried off, or ssy from 2^ to 4 inches,
and to guide the potter, a plug of wood oufiht be
given him, exactly tlie size of the inside of the tile,
and which he would use ob a mould A. WHYTE.

LOOAL QUININE MANUFACTUKE.

16th July 1SS5.

Dear Sir,— Have you not drawn a wrong infer-
ence from the report made by Dr. Cleaver on this
experiments in India, and the reply of the Madras
Government? You say it is a "warning of difficul-
ties to be overcome," whereas I read it quite differ-
ently. Dr. Cleaver himself reports that " there are
no insuperable difficulties," and complained only of
want of chemicals and apparatus. On the strength of
this his friends tried to bespeak Government support
for operations on a large scale.

But the Madras Government proved that Dr.
Cleaver's estimate of cost of manufacture was ex-
cessive, and that his estimate of returns was too low,
both of which exaggerations on his part (very natural
under the circumstances and the necessity for caution)
(how rather the remunerative nature of the business,
while I search in vain for the "difficulties." — Y'ours
truly, R- W. J.

P. S.—l had not been able to read the paper in your
issue of the 9th until today.

[Mr. Btihringer of the Milan Factory when in Ceylon
dwelt on the high temperature even at Nuwara Eliya
as a difficulty in working the chemicals so as
to manufacture sulphate of quinine, and he said the
argument as to freight of bark told pretty well against
the freight of sulphuric acid, soda, &c., from Europe. —
Ed.]

TEA AT A LOW ELEVATION.

giR _I shall be glad if some of your correspond-
ents will kindly give me the benefit of their ex.
periences on the cultivation of tea at a low elevation
of 300 to 500 ft.

Which is the better variety to cultivate, in-
digenous Assam or a good hybrid ?

Would you plant 5x5 for the former and 4x4 for
the latter ? or at what distances ?

What should be the respective outturn of made
tea from the two varieties planted in good jungle
Boil as above meationed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
years 1

Is the flavour of indigenous tea more delicate
than hybrid, and how do the prices conjpare one with
aeotber ?

VVhich variety is considered the most Jprofitable to
cultivate ?— I am, sir, yours faithfully, 8,

[In reply to " S." '» enquirifs a " Tea Planter "
giv.s the following reliable information ; but ve would
encourate furtijfr discussion if need be ; —
" (1) For very tine toil, in a wet district, elev.
atiou 300 to 500 ft., indigenous tea would be
beet ; but for inferior soil, a good hybrid. (2) I
would I'liUt the former, under such conditions, 5x4)
and the latter 4 x SA or 4 x 3. (O) 1 am not pre-
pared to .'ay exactly what the diffiTence in yield
would be. but believe it would bo in favor of the
indigenous : in rather poor soil, or a ilry district,
the hybr d would answer best. (4) The flavor of
indigenous tea is belie%'ed to be mored'licate than
hybrid, but 1 have been unable to confirm this.
(5) Under suitable conditions the indigenous would be
the most prolitable to cultivate,"— En. ]

HARVESTING CINCHONA BAKK AND THE
PROPER MODE OF SHAVING.

Agrapatana, 20th July 1880.
Dear Sir,— My attention has been drawn to a
letter in the Observer signed " B. E." who seems at
a loss to understand why cinchona trees should be
shaved in alternate "strips" in preferenue to "all
round" the tree. I would refer him to the reasons
given by David Howard who introduced this system
of shaving and, I think, explained it in a letter to the
Obsernr in August or September 1S83. His theory
is that shaving thinly all round the tree does not
make renewed cellular tissue, which contains the
alkaloids, but only the outer skin is renewed. An-
other advantage is that the bark renews from the
edges of strips left on the tree, as well as from
the cambium outwards. I have tried this system of
shaving for some time past, and it has been most
successful. The bark renews much better than it
did when I shaved all round the tree, and the tree
suffers' much less from being shaved in this way.
The trees are shaved five and six times before they
are coppiced, and then the result of coppicing has been
as satisfactory as the shaving.

As regards coppicing 2 feet or so from the ground my
reasons for doing this are, 1st, to prevent the harm
done from excessive bleeding which often takes place
and frequently causes death. By leaving the stump the
bleeding is more gradual, &o., and the shock is felt
less than when sawn close off;2ndly, the stump affords
a good general protection for the yomuj suckers,
especially in coffee where constant works are going
on ; 3rdly, where there is wind, it makes a capital
stake for the growing sucker, and indeed can be used
I for this purpose to advantage anywhere. After it has
I served these purposes, and when the suckers are large
enough to be independent of it, it can of course, if
preferred, be removed; but this is by no means a 'ne-
cessity. The general tendency of the growing sucker
is to get a firm hold on to the root of the old tree
and to strike into the earth. There are some how-
ever which start higher up on the stump, and for the
benefit of these the stump might be sawn down to
make more room for suckers, but there is certainly
no necessity whatever to do this in any other case,
as the lower suckers, which are generally the strongest
and most healthy, are not affected in any way by
the stump, at that stage. I fail altogether to see
what analogy there is between an amputated leg
with a piece of bone sticking to it, and a cinchona
tree coppiced for the express purpose of forcing out
suckers to take its place. The surgical operation
may be something similar, but the reasors for this
operation and the results required are as opposite
as opposite can be

My experience of the growth of resulting suckers
from coppictd trees ie quite tho reverse of " B, E.'"s and
it extends over many yssars and a large acreage, anH
this io Bot m.y experience only,

I eee no reason whftievef nhy tho bark barvest.d
from fairly repre-ientsve trees, from 3 lo G years
old, With mana grass ovailabk for Covering, should
not be delivered at the Col.jmbn store for 10 cents .i lb.
Of course a good deal deperds on tho pioport-on of
"branch birk,"or on the other h»nd " coppio:ngs."
This might make the cost either more or less.

CINCHONA,

LIME JUICE : VARIOUS METHODS OFPRESERV.
ING— WHICH IS BKST?

22nd July 1885.

Sir, — In your Troincal ArjrkuUuriU Vol. IV., page fi,51,

I notice .Mr. John Shortt gives a simijlc meiho ! of

preserving lime juice, by allowing it to stand iu a

cool place for 2 days, and tften bottling and sealing j

lS2

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885,.

but in Vol. III., page 887. an extract from the
Pharma-.euticnl Journal by Michael Conroy, F. c. .s.,
says that immediately ou the juice being extracted
it is run into puncheons and sealed up ; again
another quotatiou from the same journal, page 748
of Vol. III., says by heating the juice to 150 Fahr.
and bottling at that heat, immediately sealing the
bottles, preserves the juice.

Can anyone tell me, which of the above methods
is the best, or what the proper way is for preserv-
ing lime juice for the London market ? and, after
collecting and bottling it, cm the bottle be reopened
and the juice put into casks, and shipped to Eng-
land for sale ? or, if it ia exported in bottles, what
would be the cost, and what would it realize in the
London market. — Yours faithfully ? S. B.

OACAO AND HELOPELTIS ANTONII.

July 24th, 1885.

Dear Sir,— I should be glad to know if any of
your readers who are engaged in the cultivation of
cacao have observed any diminution in the ravages
of the //. Aniotiii lately.

I have remarked a great change in the last three
weeks. Trees, which were till now infested with
these insects, appear to be entirely free, both old
and young sending out fine healthy roots and
suckers, without a sign of the fatal black spots,
suckers having been hitherto especially subject to
their attacks. Many old trees, which appeared to
be dead, are showing signs of vitality once more,
and, most noticeable of all, I have failed to come
across a single specimen either of the young or
perfect insect during a careful search. It would
be interesting to know whether this has been re-
marked elsewhere, and whether it is only attribut-
able to the season, or that better times are in store
for this "distressful" industry.— Yours faithfully,

ROBIN HOOD.

" LOCAL QUININE MANUFACl'URE.

Deab Sir,— Will you excuse me for again referring
to this subject, it being one in which a good many
people are interested ?

There is nothing said in the Madras Report, either
by Dr. Oleaver or the Government, about " not getting
the chemicals to work properly," even in India; and
it would be interesting to know by whom this objection
was first started, or, say, experienced. Did Mr.
Bohrioger speak from his own knowledge and ex-
perience in Italy and America, or did he but repeat
the assertion of some other competent, or incompetent,
experimenter in India? It is well known that duiiog
the summer-months, both in Italy and in America,
the heat ia, both night and day, much greater than
the mean at Nuwara Eliya. Do the factories there
'stop work, or feel inconvenienced at such times?

As regards the other objection," freight of chemicals
to Ceylon," that resolves itself into a mere question
of Ugures, which, when proper comparison is made,
1 think would vanish as a serious obstacle. Let us
take a lesson from the said Madras Report. Dr.
Cleaver ofl'ered to contract with the Madras Govern-
ment to manufacture for them at the rate of R18
pr>r lb. of febrifuge produced. It could probably be
done cheaper here, say for R15 per lb. Take local
values at 25 cents a lb. for bark, and the febrifuges
at R2 per. oz and suppose a planter has 2,000 lb.
of bark for disposal. Of this he sells 1,000 lb. at
25 cents and realizes R2511. But the other 1,000 lb.
he sends to a local factory, as he did hii coffee, to
be cured— or, in other words, to be converted into
alkaloids. On an analysis of about 4 per cent he
would receive 40 lb., or say 500 oz. of quinine
&o.,which at the value, already fixed, viz. K2 per oz.,
be would sell for R1,000, or BTSOroore than for the b»rk,

Out of this he would have to pay the factory for 40 lb.
of febrifuge at B15 or R6uO, leaving him a nett sum
of R400 as against K2o0 for that which he sold.

Now it is evident that only a slight alteration of
any of these figures would bring out vastly difi'ei'ent
results. But I have no doubt that, in practice, it
would be found that these figures very much under-
rate the advantages that would accrue to the planters
from a local factory — for both \hranch and iwirj would
often give 4 per cent for alkaloids, and good barks often
double, so that I believe the planter would more often
double his income from his bark than make only the
above small profit by means of a local factory.— R, W. J .

[We are very pleased to find our correspondent so
sanguine even in the face of the present low price of
quinine. Mr. Bohringer's opinion was expressed in
answer to our urging hira to establish a local
Factory as a branch of the Great Milan concern ;
but of course there was too much at stake in the
latter and therefore his opinion may have been that
of one predisposed to run down local manufacture.
We have had a letter today from the man, of all
others, best able from experience to give an opinion on
the questions raised, Mr. Gammie of Sikhim. He
reads the Tropical Agnculturlst regularly and as all
this correspondence will be reproduced there, we have
no doubt he will favour us with his views in answer
to our present appeal. — Ed.]

COFFEE-LEAF-DISEASE : No. L
Dear Sir,— Your correspondent who writes: "Writers
ou this subject should always remember that all scienti-
fic authorities " (as a rule one leads and others follow)
" agree that hemileia on coffee is as independent of
insect cause as rust on wheat is," is a little dis-
appointing. Surely he does not expect the public to
surrender commonsense for what after all are but theories
of scientists.* I am quite open to conviction, and
will be satisfied if any scientist will explain how a
fungus acknowledged to be without power of locomotion,
can find its way from the upper to the lower surface
of the leaf, then travel to the stomata and burrow
through the tissues? It is but begging the question
to say it does this without demonstrating the " how."
Is it not more probable that the disease has its origin
where it developes, in the tissues of the leaf ? PUCK.

No, II.
Dear Sir,— Will you kindly grant me the privilege
of contradicting a remark appearing in a letter of a
correspondent signed "Puck" in your Supplement of
the 15th instant, as it tends to convey a very erroneous
impression? He states that I am "bold enough to
come forward in support of a theory propounded by
General Braybrooke, that the origin of leaf-disease was
in the sap of the tree." Now, if my gentle "Puck"
had read my letter upon the subject a little more
carefully, he would have found that I said no such
thing. I neither support this theory nor any theory
whatever for which 1 have not got ocular de-
monstration. What I did say was, that, after careful
and patient investigation of the life history of the
insect described by me, I have been led to the con-
clusion that the evil effects of leaf-disease were due
to it more than to the so-called fundus, and I am
now more than ever confirmed in my opinion from
the fact that I have since been able to detect the
insects running through the intTnal tissues of the
leaf, and my own conviction is, whatever may be the
cause and effect of the yellow fungoid mruld which
accumulates on the under surface of cnffee leaves, that
j the primary cause of the epidemic is due in the first

* Not theories, but conclusions from c.ireful observation
and experiment. The spores float ou the atmosphere, and
as soon as one reaches a etumate. it enters, — £o.

September i, 18S5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

tSj

in^itance to the mature aphide and the work of the speedy
decay of the^leaf is accomplished by the larva. Briefly
I mean to assert, that, supposing no physiol or chemical
connection can be traced between the fungoid deposit
and the insect, and although the former were altogether
removed, a still mora formidable enemy would
exist in the shape of its unfortunate host and
its larv<B,

• You said, sir, in your footnote to mj' letter, that
I ought to have read Marshall Ward's reports before
discussing such a question, and doul>tless I would have
done so had they been within my reach ; but probably
had I seen these reports bffore 1 was induced to study
this insect's life, I should not have devoted any
attention to the subject at all, and what you simply
mean, I take it to be, is that we should
■' Rather bear the ills we have
Thau fly to others which we know not of."

I did not, by any means, intend my letter to have
the effects of a hand-grenade thrown among my
fellow planters but as a harbinger of hope,
for the tail of a snake is more dreaded than its
head when the latter is hidden from us. So
it is with leaf-disease. If however we should happen
to stumble upon the root of the evil, surely we can look
at it straight in the face with cheerful fortitude know-
ing that we have soiue hope of applying an effectual
remedy. But if I have done wrong in unreservedly
offering to the public the results of my researches, I
shall say no more about it.

I am not aware what insect Marshall Ward may have
referred to. There are no less than six different kinds
of insects which I hare found existing on coffee leaves
alone, but the one which I have particularly alluded
to is the transparent aphide which is the only one that
penetrates beneath the epidermis.

I a^k no one to accept of my convictions before test-
ing the accuracy of my assertions. Agricultural in-
stinct, in spite of systems, classifications and scientific
frowns, has, before now, fathomed facts, while soieutiats
were hopelessly adrift on the undulating waves of
theory. If my intuition is found to he correct, it must
be admitted that there is little hope of the disease
dying out 60 long a j a single aphide remains alive. It
may be less virulent after a previous attack, as it often
is, or it may apparently disappear for a season until a
fresh brood of insects spring up. On the other hand,
if my theory be altogether groundless,

" Behold ! the jaws of darkness to devour it up."

But the remedy I have suguested, so far as I am able
to judge from the trees on which I have tiied it, is, I
think, the most (^fffctual whether the effect* are due
to a fungus or to the insect. OBERON.

P-^- — On Second thcughta I consider it is my duty,
Mr. Editor, to send jou the enclosed sample leaf taken
from 18 months old cinchona (officinalis) planted
amonast the coffee to enable you to judge of facts for
yourself and give publicity to them or not as you may
think best. This is the effect of the same identical
insect. You will be able to perceive the enormous
holes punctured by these minute creatures at the base
of the veins just as they do with Coffee leaves, and you
may possibly be able to find some of the transparent
aphid* 3 still remaining in the holes. These were full
of them before I pressid the leaf last ui^ht. The fun-
gus however does not appear to be yet ripe or it may,
in this case, assume a different nature.

It was only quite recently that I noticed the insect
attacks cinchona as well as eotfee, and I sinipy .^tard
appalled to conternphite what it may not do to tea
planted among cuffoe or on land where coffee had pre-
viously been.

Whatever yon may think, sir, it is full time that
this insect was being looked after.

I am not inclined to enter into any such nonsenae
as a discussion about the creature's bodily members
and what not. I have pointed out your enemy and
shown its powers of destruction. Go and attack it
at once or you will only be able to withstand it ultim-
ately with rich soil and abundant manure of the
very best quality. 0.

[The leaf sent by " Oheron " has got mislaid : if
he sends another, or better, a few leaves in a match-
box with the insects, we shall have them examined ;
but ''O." is conjuring up a big spectre on a very
slender foundation. — Ed.]

HELOPELTIS AND ARSENIC : A WARNING.

Dear Sir, — Seeing no one else has done so, allow
me to sound a note of warning, s) that your cor-
respondent may hear it, who is going to extermin-
ate (?) helopeltis with arsenic. This poison is not to
be trifled with : it is more than probable that the
insect he hopes to destroy, having abundance of
natural food, will take no notice of the trap ; but
it is quite likely that many other insects, even birds,
rats and sqairrels, may, and no one can tell where
the mischief will end. I have known birds to die
from eating poisoned insects, and cats to die from
eating the poisoned birds. I have known many cases
of domestic fowls dying from the same cause, dogs
and cats lost from eating poisoned mice and rats.
1 once lost a much valued terrier from eating a
poisoned rat. It must be remembered that arsenic
nerer loses its destructive power over life : much
suffering and lo.ss amongst our pets and poultry
could, I expect, be traced to poison carelessly used,
particularly to that pernicious stuff, phosphorus, so gen-
erally used to destroy mice &c. and which is supposed
to be harmless to most other creatures. ZOOZOO.

COFFEE-LEAF DISEASE.

Dear Sir, — If I have trodden on our good friend
" Oberon " 's toes in any manner I apologize by assurance
that it was quite unintentional on my part.

I take it "Oleroii" and "Puck" are one in doubt-
ing whether coffee leaf-dise.ase is propagated by the
orange-colored fungus dubbed "spores." " Oberon " 'a
discovery of an almost transparent aphide (should
it not be aphis?) will be an important factor in
future investigations : so, like a good man, Mr. Editor,
do not choke us off by saying, the spores do, as
as a matter of fact, enter the leaf, but admit the
possibdity of the spores being the fff'ect and not the
cause. I, .at least, must hold this view until it is
explained how a thing said to be without the power
of bcomotion can yet tiavel at its will. PUCK.

["That the spores rn'er the .stomata and that sub-
sequently the inycelmin s-pre.ads through the cells and
feeds on the lileblood of the leaves, are facts as
certain as that the atmosphere consists of hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen in cerlain proportions. To
trace the fungus to insect oriuin would be as scienti-
fic as the ide.i, attrihiiled to Thwailes, but which he
indignantly repudiated, that I he disease was in the
juices of the plant, or th? outrageous rubbisli of that
emptiest of collapsed windbigs, Moutclar, that the
fu )gi deve'oped from ulcers in the suljstance
of the stem ! A gentleman to whom true aeience
and careful observation are dear is lO troubled
about •' Oberon" 's aherr-itions, that he sends us a
copy of Marshal! Ward's ,'atest report to be
forwarded to that writer. 'I he scientist states : —

"Such ignorance I could scarcely have supposed possible
after all that has been rlone in tlie matter. I was
glad to see your deriiU'd edit<»rial comments; but iu
my opinion you should not give such misleading nonsense
a place in your columns. It is everybody's interest — even
the writer's— to sink such rubbish in oblivion. As I have
before said to you, I think, when a writer professes to have

jrg4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

valuable and novel information to give to the public, the
result of personal ohservrrtinn, he ought io be refused
Publication unless he is prepared to put his name to his
Statements. This would not stop any real contributions to
knowledge, but would induce a good many hasty individuals
to pause before committin(» themselves. " It is a fact
that few men can observe accurately and report
truthfully: it requires training and self-discipline
and much patience. How strange a characteristic, too, in
the inaccurate (so-called "practical") man, is that in-
stinctive dislike to the strict methods and well-grounded
results of true observation. Such people are very numerous ;
like heretics they cannot be argued wiih, but only prayed for !"
And so our correspondent will pray for "the five
wits " of "Oberon," that they may be enlightened so that
he may cease to confound animal organisms with
vegetaljl?. But as regards ourselves : ours is not a
purely scientific organ, but a popular journal, in
which even non-scientific and anti-scientific corre-
spondents must be allowed to have their fling.
"Oberon" 's writings and others likethem may perchance
afford men like our scientific correspondent a hint
which, followed up, mii^ht lead to valuable scientific
discovery. " Puck" is a person of considerable in-
telligence, but he and others like him distrust the
scientific conclusions because unfortunately they leave
so little hope of a remedy. They, therefore, catch
at every straw and swallow such chaff as " Oberon" 's.
—Ed.]

EoSE Cultivation in Colombo.- — Cultivators of
roses, and especially, those who would fain follow
in their footsteps, will read with pleasure and
profit, the letter in which Mr. A. Whvte of Kandy
gives so much practical information on pigos 170-180.

Bogs. — I notice in the June number of the Tropin)! jlpri-
ciiUiirist at pages 908 and 909 an article ou " Green Bugs and
Coffee " and learn that an old acquaintance of mine, a
little speckled bug, has been paying Mr. Downall's estate,
Monerakande, one of its periodical visits. I first came
across this hug on Kahagalla estate during the crop season
of 1860 to 18(>1 in very large numbers, the coolies bringing
them in with the " palam " or cherry in thousands. See-
ing several cherries perforatei with a little round hole
near the stalk part, and henring from the coolies of the
depredations of this bug to their paddy crops on the Coast
of India, where it was well-known as the " velama-
poochie " or harvest bug (as I iuterpret it), I collected a
number of the bugs and perforated cherries and sent them
to the late Mr. Alex. Brown, who again sent them to Mr.
Nietner, whose report I got, and, as far as I can re-
collect, Mr. Nietner said the insect belonged to the same
family as the green fetid hug, and that its procreative
powers were not very great and that we need not he
alarmed at the harm it would do, or to the same extent
as we used to be at the ravages of the "black bug "in
the days of old. I think you will find a brief notice of
the speckled bug above alluded to in" Nietner's Enemies
of the Coffee Tree. " The coolies said, at some seasons ou
the Coa.st of India, this bug covered their paddy fields
and destroyed their crops by sucking the iuices from the
young paddy before the grain began to harden, and that
they were obliged to abandon their fields in consequence.
I watched this " droughty " bug at work ou the young
coffee berries : he first cut a little round hole through the
skin Bnd tender parchment and then with a proboscis-like
sucker abstracted the juicy delicate matter which forms
the bean and thus satisfying both hunger and thirst at
the same time, much as the Sinhalese do with a " kurumba"
or drinking coconut. The strangest part of it was that the
operated on tender coffee berry did not lose its vitality,
but continued to form skin and parchment and ripen as
if nothing had occured in its int'^rnal arrangement ; the
operated on side was always empty and I had to put
down 2 or 3 per cent of the crop to c.r/rn light coffee
from this cause. The following season this bug was no-
where, and although I have come across the little wretch
in after years I never heard of its depredations to any
great extent: its visits must be like those of angels "few
and far between." Mr. Dowuall will perhaps be glad to
know this. J, A.

Abyssinian Coffee, we see it stated in an article on
the trade of the Red Sea ports, is principally sent to
Djeddah and Upper Esypt, it is not, however of first-
rate quality, but, at the same time, it has a special
aroma ; it is sold at 16 dollars per canatro of 113 rottoli.

The Red '• Shoeflgwer," so common in Col-
ombo, is greatly admired by all visitors from
Britain or Australia. In India, the natives call this
scarlet hibiscus Suryamani, the jewel of the surt.
The tree so common in the streets of Colombo, and
everywhere around, TItespesia populnea, popularly
called " the tulip tree " from its beautiful blossoms,
is known to the Sinhalese as Swi/a, the tree of the
sun. Michcelia Champac, on the other hand, is Sapu,
the fiower of light. The Hindus call the blue " morn-
ing glory " Suryakanli, sunshine. Those who originally
gave such names were possessed of the poetical instinct.

Enejiie-) op Te.\ Cultivation in India. — In going
over the reports of various Indian Companies, we
find that in two cases aetious loss is attributed
to mosquito blight [helopeltii) and green fly, pesta
from which we cannot hope to be always exempt.
But certainly estates in Ceylon are not likely to suffer
as one of the properties belonging to the Eastern
Assam Company suffered in 1884. Owing to
a terrible outbreak of cholera, which is in-
digenous in Assam, but only rarely visits Ceylon,
the costly labour force had been so reduced that
only a small quantity of tea was made, costing Is l|d
per lb. and selling at only 8Jd.

Gold in Borneo. — The Segami Gold field is thus
referred to in the North Borneo Herald received today. —
The result to date of the Gold ^Yorking on the Segama
River may be considered as fully establishing the fact that
it will yield a profit to those who may desire to follow
the search. When Mr. Walker the Connnissioner of Lands
returned he left behind him a party consisting of two boats
and sis men who had co-operated with him in his investig-
ations. These men worked in the bed of the river until the
rains caused such a rise that they were forced to give up.
The last day the water was breast high and each time the
men dipped to fill their little scoop (a coconut shell) they
disappeared bodily in the water ! The total gold for six
days working was say 3 oz .- 0 dwt : 4 grs : The best day's
work was 80 grs : to the one pan. The highest return to
one pan in one day previously recorded had been 45 grs :
and this had been taken from near the same place, viz :
below Pulo Kawak, but Mr. Walker is of opinion that a
greater weight was probably got when river working for
two days above the Suugei Bilang. Mr. Walker's investig-
ations were necessarily of a tentative nature. The attempt
to find workable beds of gold in the Sungei Bilang, the
tributarv of the Segama River where gold was first an-
nounced proved a failure. The gold in that stream is less
wiirn than any gold since obtained, and the party found it
in the top of conglomerate, but on blasting the rock failed
to find it inside. The existence of quartz in tiie bed of
the stream and the fact that some of the gold is attached
to nunute pieces of quartz, points to that rock as the poss-
ible matrix both for the gold in the tributary and the main
river. The production of gold in appreciable quantity has
caused much interest. The natives ou the river say that
they will search for gold which previously they have not
done, with the exception of the oue man i?augeran Kahar,
who with the Hadji Daud and Sulaman announced its exist-
ence. The Chinese .and Mala^-s of Sandakan are both
arranging parties to go up the river when the fine weather
sets in; and we trust they will be formed of experienced
men so as to contain the first element of success. The next
imi^ortant point is proper working machines and tools.
One Australian Chinaman has brought a plan of a
cradle which the Commissioner of Lands is having made,
but it would be well to get the latest information on these
points from the best sources. Of the existence of other
metals Mr. Walker is of opinion he found no trace, unless
the cbemit-al examination of the specimens brought down
should jn-ove the contrary. Specimens of so-called Cinnabar
and Tin were daily found when washing, but on examination
were rejected as worthless.

September i, 1885.] TI:E TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

185

TEA-PREPARING MACRINEKY.

Mr. Frater, of Messrs. Waiker & Greig, Badulla,
has very nearly perfected and patented two tea-
rolling machines which, if all accounts that reach us
be correct, are likely to attract a good deal of attention
from Ceylon planters in the future. Mr. Prater's
first patent — the Colonial Tea Roller — has alr<acly been
the sub]\ct of some comment in the press. Since
then, he has been haul at work on a tmaller machine
which he calls ihe " Eureka." It will be adapted
for handpower and will not occupy more space than
3i by 2J feet. It can be made of different sizes,
however, the smaller being estimated to roll 50 or 601b.
of withered leaf .TpprcNiinately per hour : the larj,er,
which can have gear to conn^ ct witb a steam or
water motor, to roll 80 lb. per hour. In this machine
there is, we under.-taud, a piinciple iutroduced with
reference to the ci arging of the leaf, quite novel
and which is expected to prove a great success from
its convenience. Mr. Fra'.er is coufid'nt this machine
will be very suitable for young gardens just com-
mencing to muke tra. and he hopei to price the
" Enrekas" at from K300 to I;500 each, the machines
being found very compact, easy to drive, access-
ible in every way, durable (tlie framen'ork being
all cast-iron). These qualities are true, also, of the
large " Colonial" roller, which is lo be made in six
sizes, capable of rolling fiom 50 to 200 lb. of withered
leaf — the latter iuvcilviug two rolls per hour.
The middle No. 3 sze of the "Colonial" is 3 by 4
feet : several samples of the tea rolled by it have
been approvingly reported on by experts, and a
MaduUima plantation will be the first on which a
" Colonial " roller will be erected. We shall look
with much interest for the results of the working
of this purely local invention, and we wish Mr.
Frater all success in his inventions. Mr. Maclnnes
of the same firm (Messrs. Walker & Greig) is, as we
mentioned the other day, engaged in perfecting a
tea-drier, from which a good deal is expected by
those who have' learned something of the desii.n. The
sample of Haputale tea we reported on the other
day was treated in Mr. Mai'Innes's drier. The
use of these new machines is not likely to be
copfined to the Uva district, although the want of
railway communication and the heavy cost of trans-
port are drawbacks to their convenient introduction
into our older tea districts.

A New Gutta-Pekcha Tree. — Instigated by the
threatened deanh of the gutta-percha tre=! (hownidra
gutta), M. Heckel has sought a tuhstitute and claims
to have found it in the BirlyroKperrnum Parkii
(Kotschy) of Equatorial Africa, and ahuodant in lat-
itudes between Upper .Senegil and the Nile ; esppcially
in the forest' of the Niger and Nile regions. It
affects the argillaceous and ferruginous soils of Bam'-
larras Boure and Fonoa-Djalon, where the Africans
gather its fruit which vields a greesa called kartle.
The jui-e or milk is obtained by iucision from the
bark, and on evaporation resembles gutta-perohi. M.
Heckel states that he has sont seeds to various French
colonies, and al-o to England, in the hope that the
latter country will try the ex; erimcnt of int'-oducing
the tree into her vast tropic^d possessions. M. Heckel
also calls the attention of Kngli h liotauistn and
chemists to the divers India Bas.'.ins, as he ii led by
analogy to infer that they miaht furuish mi ky pro-
ducts Similar to the Baaia Farkii. — South nf Iml'm
Observer.

24

LETTERS FROM JAMAICA.— No. 7.

BAIN AT LAST — EFFECT OF THE HEOUGHT — A VISIT TO
" BELtEVUE '■ — TEOPICAL PEODUCTS — FKUIT GKOWINGAND
CACAO CULTIVATION PBOFITAULE IN\-ESTMENTS — A EE-
CIPKOCITr TEEATY WITH CANADA — LAW IN .JAMAICA— A
CBEOLE "BDLL."

Blue Mount.un Di.strict, 3rd June ISS.'j.
Dear Sir, — The much-prayed-for "seasons " or May
rains have come; they were much needed especiallv
in the centre of the island. I have heard of "ptua "
where a large number of cattle weie dying daily
from want of water, and of the owner of the estate
having to send ten miles tor water for household
purposes. Even close here in Ihe valley of the
"Yallahs" the drought has been very severe, and I
fear the settlers will have very short and I'ght crops,
as W'as the case last year. This tlry weather is good
for the Blue Mountain, as it causes the trees to throw
out a good bloosom. In wet Tears crops are very un-
certain, as the tops of the hills seem to be in con-
tinual showers and mist.

On my return from Kingston last week, whither 1
had been to be present at the Queen's Birthday Ball
— a good old custom kept up here .as well as in oi her
colonies, but, strange to fay, there is no lev^e — 1 took
the opportunity of accepting Mr. John Davidson's kind
invitation to pay his property a visit. "Bellevue"
is situated a few miles out of Kingston on the first
rise of what are termed the "Red Hills." The soil
I fancy to be similar to what is met in certain parts
of Devonshire. The house ia some 1,500 feet above
the sea-level, so it is a sharp pull as soon as one
leaves the "Lignanea" plain, and the road is not well
kept, and does not reflect creditably upon the Com-
missioners of St. Andrew's Parish. 'Ihe "great house"
is built on an eminence overlooking the plain, and
commanding a g'and sea view in fr'Uit, and at
the left of the Port Royal and B'ue Mouutain
ranges ; it is a very large mansion built in the old
slave days when money was plentiful and labour cheap ;
it is quite fit for a viceregal r sidence, and might
easily he the Governor's country-hou.'e, for there is
always a breeze, and it is never very hot there :
fancy walla 18 feet high to the ceiling, and a noble,
enclosed verandah or " piazza," 00 to 80 feet long
and 20 feet wide. The property was originally planted
with pimento trees, some of which are now old and
of a large S'ze ; there are also other fine park-like
trees round the residence, which mado Sir Anthony
Musgrave observe, when he visited Mr. Davidion, that
for the first time since he had left England, he felt
once more as if in England. Besides pimento and
some anatto trees, there is coffee on "Bellevue,"
but the products to which the proprietor has of late
years directed his attention are bananas, oranges and
cacao, these are all thriving very promis'ngly, the
cacao (the dwarf species evidently) already yielding
returns which, of course, will increase yearly as the
trees grow older and the cultivation is extended,
the bananas also bearing largely, and the orange
trees commencing to give fruit ; consequently this fine
property must year by year increaie in value. Mr.
iJavidson deserves very great credit for the enter-
prise that made him try the growth of cacao so near
to Kingston, and at such an elevation. I noticed al.'-o
some cardamoms doi.rg very well along a little
swampy ravine : such planes suit them best. I believe
Mr. ^■ant of " Langley " has been most successful
in the cultivation of carflamnm.s on the north side
at an elevation of about 2,000 feet aliove the sea.
The more I see and hear of Jamaica the moie I
am convinced, that, for a young man who has
suflicieut capital and who has first ac(|uiied the
necessary experience, fruit growing and cacao cnliv-

iSS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, i885<

atioa are about as good and promising investment^
as can be obtained in the tropica : there is abund-
ance of suitable laud ou the EOith side within reason-
able distance of the shipping ports, and now that the
quarantine is removed, the trade of New Orleans, the
Mississippi valley, as well as that of Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New York and Canada, is open to our
Jamaica banana and orange growers : there is
indeed a very good prospect and opening for those
•who have the capital and need employment for their
sons. As to Jamaica " cacao " there is no reason why
in time it should not be as much a favorite in the
market as that of Caracas, Trinidad, or Ceylon.

A Commission appointed by the Legislative Council
has lately proceeded to Canada with the object of bring-
ing about a reciprocity treaty with the Dominion ; if
successful, it should be a good thing for our sugar
planters to have that market more fully opened to
them, and the poor people will get their salt- fish, flour,
etc., at even a more reasonable rate than they do at
present. If a treaty of the same nature could be ob-
tained with the United States, the prospects of our
sugar industry would much improve.

As to " law " affairs in Jamaica, there is
a Chief Justice and two Puisne Justices ; the
Supreme Court is held at Kingston ; the Judges
sit also occasionally at Circuit Courts : in the country
parishes. There are also District Courts, these seem to
have become very unpopular, and the general idea seem
to be that they should be discontinueil ; but it strikes
one that an intermediate tribunal should exist between
the Supreme Court and the petty sessions or Police
Courts for the trial of important land cases and
cases involving a large amount of money. The exist-
ing system of allowing,' a dffendant to elect whether
he will be tried by the petty sessions or the District,
Court, even though it be a most trivial ca-e, should
be discontinued, and the powers of the pttty sessions
and Police Courts be enlarged and defined, so that
even trials for trespass, and non-payment of rent,
small debts and such like causes might be tried by
the stipendiary magistrate or local Justicis of the
Peace, who are usually planters or business men, all
well versed in the laws and customs of Jamaica; if
it wtre so, people would be saved the expcDse and
trouble of travelling long distances to obtain legal
redress, sometimes having to attiud two or three times
before their cases can be finallv settled. At present
if I fine a'man for bad work, misconduct, or impertinence,
and he takes me to court, he may, to spite me and
cause me .annoyance and expense, elect to have his
case tried by the District Court Judges at Eisington,
many miles off, where there is no rtsthouse or con-
venience of any tort for travellers ; and in other
parishes the distances poor suilors have to travel to
the District Court are even much greatfr. I hope
therefore that the law will be revised. A Commission
has been sitting to LoUect evidence and sent out a
printed list of (juestions for answers, to all from whom
an opinion would he of service.

I he.ird a vei y good story the other day which will
amuse your readers : it is real Jam-aica. A Creole
labourer came to town on Katorday with his earnings,
and amongst i ther purchases bought a pair of boots :
after long purleving with himself whether he should
put them ou there ami then or keep them for church
next morning, he deteriuiufd to adopt tlie latter plan,
80 slung them over his shouMcr and m-mly went "ii
his way, till coming to a bad gully lie knocked his
big toe against a stone, nearly tearing oil" I he nail j
after wincing and making wry faces and getting
over the paiu as best he could, he (xrliimed; " My
king, worry good ting 1 no put ou dcm new toots."
—Yours faithfully, W. S.

COFFEE IN UVA CEYLON : THE SPRING VAL-
LEY AND UVA COMPANIES' REPORTS.

Enclosed with this letter you will receive the re-
ports of the Spring Valley and Uva Companies.
We have not been led to anticipate that those
reports will be particularly satisfactory ; but they will
at all events, we are informed, set forth certain
facts which justify a contideut hope that the long
lane is being turned, and that those reports which
may follow will be able to anuounce a very improved
state of affairs. In this connection it occurs to me
to mention that very curious intelligence has been
received from the Companies' local management which
seem to atiord ground for hope that the leaf-disease
which has so long distressed your planters is, if not
positively leaving you. at all events showing a dimin-
ished virulence of eli'ect which may herald the entire
loss of power by it to produce ill-effect upon the
coffee crop. On the Uva estates during last autumn
they bad a most splendid blossom. The hope to
which such an appearance would naturally give rise
had, however, too often been disappointed in the
past to warrant the directors building much upon it,
or their agents in estimating for a good yield of
coffee thereupon. Year after year had seen the spring
accompanied by a virulent attack of leaf-disease and
the trees lose both leaf and berry. In accordance
with this precedent, the early months of the current
year witnessed as strong an outbreak of the disease
as ever ; but when the superintendents naturally ex-
pected to see it followed by the usual evideuoe of
weakness in the trees they were as surprised as gratified
to find tlie latter resisting it and the berries holding
on and filling out almost .ts well as in the old days
before the pest had made its appearance. So, just
whtu the directois were writing out urgiag the
greatest economy in expenditure in view of the
ant cipated shortness of crop, they receive from their
local managers the most satisfactory statement of the
prospects fur the coming crop, and they now feel
justified in counting ou a full 5 cwt. to the acre.
Now all this may be stale news to you ; but certainly
no iiUusion to it has been remarked by us in j-our
oveiland issue. What does the fact bode ? It seems
unreasonable not to conclude that the disease, as re-
gards its power for ill-effect on the coffee trees,
has worn or is weaiiug itse'f out. Cert duly, it is
a new phase, so far as we at home are aware, in the
histo'-y of the coffee-Ieaf-disease, and it seems
justifiable to hope that the woist results to be
dreaded from tlie visitation are passing aw..y and that
our old frii nd ciiff'ee may again resume its place as a
highly profitable investment in Ceylon. Whether with
your local knowlei'ge you can endorse this hope
we at home do not know ; but we confidently ex.
pect to bear that you f^el able 10 do so. Everything
that tends to show that the loug-expected "rift in
the cloud" is within sight naturally gives confidence
here, and, should the untie pation of the directors
of the two Companies under reference be fulfilled, it
will be a matter for extreme corigratulation to all those
interested in Ceylou plantinu; enterprises.

Report of Spriii;/ J'a/ltf/ Coffee Company.

The accounts now presenti il to shareholders comprise a
balance sheel. showhiy the Company's financial position on
31st ^[ay, 1885, and the profit and loss account for season
1SP3-84. Spring A'alley crop ameuuteil to the estimate given
ill last year's report, viz., 'Afi^i cwt 0 qrs 10 lb of coffee,
the proceeds of wliieli were i'lO.CiliJ Os Pd, or a not average
of 5Ds 6d per ewt. Oinchoiia bark was sold to the value of
£724 Ills 7il, and .sales of refuse eolfec iu Colombo realized
X'!58 3s 6d, making a total of £11,717 Us lOd received from
sales of produce. The Ceylon expenditure includes £398
8s 8d spent on lea, making the result of the season's work-
ing a loss of £2:;2 i"s 7d. which, drdueted from the balance
of £1,673 7s Gd, brought forward from last year, leaves a

September i, 1885.] __'" THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

187

sum of £1,150 9s Uil. to t^^lic credit of profit ami loss account.
It will be seen that *-"Sie average price obtaiueJ for the
cotfee was 9s 8J piUlfi'cv/t below that of last year, and with
such a small cro'- it is satisfactory to note that expenditure
was so nearly n §fet by produce. For crop 1884-85 now being
gathered, the jjj period of blossoming was altogetlier favour-
able and a f' ii/irly good crop set ou the trees. At the be-
ginning of jr'the present year, however, an unusually severe
attack of.j, leaf disease passed over the estate, and it was at
one tiDr(ae thought that its ravages would prove as fatal as
on pfg.-Jviou8 occasions. Contrary to expectations this atiack
ha'"., proved far less injurious than could have been hoped
' lor from past experience, an<l the latest reports from the
property point to a crop in Spring Valley of not less than
5,400. cwt. Timely precautions had been taken to guard
against a loss iu the event of a repetition of the small
crops of the past two years, and expenditure on coffee was
reduced to a minimum, so that eveu with the present low
prices, the crop now to come forward will show a fair
profit.

The change which has taken place as regards coffee is
very marked, and whether the present vigorous appearance
of the estate is due to a season favourable both for the
blossoming and the maturing of the fruit or to a mitigation
of the destructive nature of leaf-disease it is impossible to
say. Coffee has been replaced by tea on the portion of
Spring Valley referred to in last report, and which, under
the most favourable circumstances could only have been
made to yield lair crops by incurring heavy expenditure on
manuring. The area at present under tea ou the estate
comprises 289 acres, and all the plants are thriving well.
The growth of the experimental patches of tea planted iu
the autumn 1883 has been so highly satisfactory that, not-
withstanding the present favourable appearance of the
coffee on the property, your directors fully believe they are
warranted in taking the precaution of further extending tea
over such area as will prove more profitable under this pro-
duct than if left in coffee. - The area in tea will thus be
made up to about 400 acres, leaving a fine sheet, over 1,000
acres in extent, of coffee in capital heart and growing in a
soil highly adapted to its requirements. In addition to
the above area about ISO acres of tea have been planted on
Oolanakande. With the above areas of tea and coffee, com-
manded as they are by the apphauces lately erected for the
distribution of manure, favourable influences alone are
needed to ensure paying results. It will be seen by the profit
and loss account that £724 Ills 7d was realized from the
sale of cinchona, a httle under 9 tons being brought to
market. About 2| tons of good bark will be harvested this
year. In future this product will only be planted iu seper-
ate patches, as it is found to be injurious to tea and coffee
when planted amongst thera. Mr. Edward Couder, a
member of the Board, retires on this occasion, and, being
eligible, offers himself for re-election. Messrs. Deloitte,
Dever, Griffiths & Co., the Auditors, also offt-r themselves
for re-election.

Spjii^'O Valley Company : Poefit and Loss Account—
Ceop 1883-84.

S 8, d. £ 9. d.
To Ceylon Expendltuie :—

Spring A'alley 12,778 15 3

j^«s9 profit CD Exchange .,. 2,151 19 3

Oolanakande—
Balauce ou the working of this Estate ,„

Expenses-
Mr. Brown's Visit to Ceylon

tondon Expenditure —

Director's Fees 600 0 0

Eent, Salaries and Petty

Charges 3V2 11 2

Audit Fee 15 15 0

10,02a
227
Co

Interest

908
146

£11,970 7 5

By Proceeds of Coffee: —
,Sprinf» Vallev —
a,584 cwt. i) (ira. 10 lbs. average 59s 6i per cwt. 10,«64

,, Refuse Coffee sold in Ceylon 368

„ Proceeds of Cinchona Bark 731

,, Balance carrieil down "2^

To Balance, Loss on Crop 1883-84 ...
,, Balance carried to Balance Sheet

P,y Balauce from last year ...

222 17 7
1,150 <.l 11

£1,673 7 0

. 1,673 7 a

£l,ii73 7 0

£11,970 7 3

Report of Uva Coffee Company.
A Balance Sheet, showing the financial position of the
Company on 31st May, 1885, and Profit and Loss Account
for Season 1883-84, are now presented to shareholders. Crop
1883-84, estimated at 5,000 cwts., resulted iu a total of 4,908
cwt. 1 cjr. 10 lb. The value of this coffee was £13,794 9s Id,
or equal to a net average of 56s 3d per cwt. Refuse coft'ee
sold in Ceylon and proceeds of cinchona bark brought the
total receipts from sales of produce up to £15,215 8s 7d.
The Ceylon expenditure includes £709 7s 2d spent ou tea,
making the result of the year's working a loss of £1,299 Is
lOd. After writing oft' this sum from the balance of £2,408
8s 4d brought forward from last year, there remains to the
credit of Profit and Loss Account the sum of £1,109 Cs Gd.
The report issued last year held out hopes that a small profit
would have resulted from the working of the year now under
review, but the prices obtained for the latter parcels of crop
fell off so greatly that, as will be seen by the accounts, the
average price is 13s 5d per cwt. below that of the previous
year, which fully accounts for the loss sustained. Owing to
"the appliances for the distribution of bulky manure being in
full working order very exten,sive manuring operations were
carried out during season 1883-84, at a small increase of ex-
penditure, on all the Company's estates, especially on such
areas as are intended to be permanently retained in cofltee.
From information just received, the Directors are glad to
be able to report that the effect of these operations, coupled
with favourable weather, has enabled the trees to mature
their fruit iu a most unexpected manner, and the coming
crop which was at one time estimated at 4,400 cwt. is now
expected to yield at least 5,600 cwt.

In view of the low prices ruling last year, and with the
prospect that only a small crop might be secured for season
1884-85, the Board took the precaution of reducing expend-
iture on coffee to a minimum, so as to ensure no loss result-
ing from that year. With the unexpected increase iu the
out-turu of the crop a very fair margin of profit may now be
looked for. In January last a severe attack of leaf disea.se
swept over the estates, causing much anxiety as to tlie effect
it might have ou the crop ou the trees. It however, r,ipidly
passed away and the trees h:ive steadily continued to re-
cover, and by last reports the properties were stited to be iu
vigorous condition. All those portions of the Company's
estates where leaf disease had weakened the coffee trees
beyond hope of recovery have been planted with tea, and
up to the end of last year 362 acres were under this cult-
ivation, and, as far as can be judged at the present time,
the growth of the tea plants is perfectly satisfactory.
There are, however, further areas of the properties which
it is thought would be more profitable under tea than coffee,
the Board have, therefore, given instructions to plant up
these areas, so that by the end of the year there will be a
total of about 650 acres under tea. With the above acrenfia
of tea and the area retained in coffee being in first-rate con-
dition and capable of being readily and cheaply mnnured,
the directors have every reason to look for good paying re«
turns from the properties at no distant date. Cinchona
bark to the extent of 6i tons was harvested during season
1833-84. and the value, as shown by the profit and lo39
account, was £818 28 4d. It is expected that about 10 ton9
of bark will be harvested this season, the amount to be
realized by the sale will not, however, be proportionately
increased, the bark market behig somewhat lower tbau last
year. The further planting of Cinchona is being confined
to patches especially devoted to its growth, as Cinchona is
fouud to be hurtful to both tea and coffee bushes when
grown among them. c.u r. i

Mr. Henry Hart Potts, a member of the Board, retires
ou thw occasion, and being eligible, offers himself for re^
tilection. Messrs, Deloitte, Dever, OriSiHis & Co., tli«
Auditors) »1'0 off** tbemselvee fof fe-electiou,

1 88

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. jg^SEPTEMBER i, 1885

Profit Akd Loss accodnt— Chop 1883-84.

To Ci-yloii Expenditure ■
Gion Alpiu
Uallagalla

HiiKlagalla
Graham's Land ..
Uock Hill

LeP8 Profit ou Fxchauge

£. s. d.

6,283 .s 10

2,013 10 0

3,175 1 1

2,699 9 2

2,553 14 1

1,588 2 8

18,013 2 10

3,1 .i7 16 3

£ B. a

To Evpcuses—

Mr. Hrowu's Visit to Ceylou

To Londou Expenditure-
Directors' Foes ... ... SOfl 0 0

Kent, salaries and Petty Charges 361 2 7
Audit Fee ... ... I'l o 0

To Interest

T 0 Balance, Loss on Crop 18t3-84
To Balance carried to Balance Sheet

883 2
12 0

7
3

£16,514 10

5

1,290 1
1,109 6

10
G

£2,408 8

4

By rrooeeds of Coffee —

cwt. qr. lb.

4,91^8 1 10 Average 56/3 per cwt.

By Eefnso Coffee Sold in Ceylnn

By Proceeds of < iuchona Bark

By Balance carried dowa

By Balance from last year

13,794 9 1

603 17 2

818 2 4

1,290 1 10

£16,514 10 0
2,408 8 i

£2,408 8 4

Tea and Machinery.
Further, with regard to these and associated under-
takings, we understand that it ia Mr, Brown's,
their Managing Uireotor's intention to go out to
Ceylon about November next, when be proposes to
8lay for several months. We hear that the expenses
iiitendaot upon the planting out of tea have been
heavy, as are also those necessary for the provision
of tlie macliinery required for tea curing, and Mr.
Brown, like a careful con.servator of the Interests en-
tnisted to him as he is, feels it desirable to pcr-
bonally superviss those expenses. But, independently
of that ivise intent, there is another and rather
singular question demanding his oversight, and that
is one which, owing to his engineering knowledge,
he ia personally highly fitted to conduct. The power
available on the estates for driving coffee pulpers
and other machinery required for tieitment of that
product ia qu te iuadtquate to the higher demand
imposed by the necetsities of t.a-drying, and it is
found that the wattrwhecls at present erected and
their s urcce of sup, ly cannot cope with the demand
that will be made fir power diiectly the tea tiees
planted beg.n to (lush in any quaulity, At pre-
eent the fUlrt has Ijarelj fuiniB:,ed samples for
testing hy txii.rts at hom- , The reuort Upuu these by
those geiltltu.en haa b.en auat fa Lfaoioi'y an tivi,,i-
feuOing ihe quality of the leaf that can be gro'.vn
b.U tne LFvu tBtatea, and the trees Hush at ao
tarly a stogo of their growth that it is evident
that, unleas provision for extra poWer i3 made at
once, the directois will find th. mar Ives in a difflo-
ul'y. It is mainly towards avo.diig th'S last flat
Mr. Brown's projwsed visit is contemplated. With
that gentleman 1 had a long conversation riepeoting
the relative merits of turbines and waterwheels for
the provision of the increafed power desired. My
twn view w^s exp esstd, that unhfs « vtry con.
sidtrable head of water is available the vvheels
am pieferftble to the turbines, both as regards
(tficiercy and economy. With the former you onn
uiibZ! and multiply mere bulk of supply from a very
low head. With the latter a low head is almost
y»lueless and always wabtcftil, wh'le even ffbpn

"-T ^.l^riotio

great head is available the f\.j _.JTiotion arising from
the high sppcd of a tnrbine 'v'-'^ so rapidly wears
bearing'! Ac, that con.'itaut interrulfAintion to work is
caused by the mceasity of frequent', ^j,_ renewal. As
tlie watsr supply on the estates underi.nj' \Tr. Brown's
directirn is somewhat sparse and afl!tj(,|p',>rds little
pressure, it seems to be most likely .tory that he
will re3olve when visiting the estates tej ff adopt
waterwheels of increased diameter rathei thai than
turbines. But no one can be better -epopt'ed
to determine skilfully in such a matter t.^^, j^an
Mr. Brown himself, whose name will ever bi
associated with some of the finest

some
machinery ever erected in Cejlon.

hydraulic

ta

THE COLOUR OF COFFEE IN THE LONDON
MARKET: THE AVYNAAD PLANTERS.

rianters' A.'^socialion of Ceylon, Kandy, 30th July 1885.
The Editor of the: Trojnca! A</rieultinist, Colombo.

KiK, — I beg to enclose copy of a letter received from the
Honorary Secretary of the Wynaad Planters' As.sociatiou
on the subject of the colour of coffee and its effect in the
London Market on coffee from 'Wynaad as compared with
former times and submitting questions with a view to
ascertaining the cause and in the hope of tiiidine; a remedy. —
I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. PHILIP, Sccretaiy.

■yVynaad Planters' Association, .South 'Wynaad,
Vythery, July 8th, 1SS5.
The Honorary Secretary, Ceylon Planters' Association.

Dear Sir, — Our Association is endeavouring to find some
reason for Wynaad coffee in the last three or four years
being so much out of favour in the Lonelon Market as com-
pared with former limes, and being very generally stig-
matized there as had in cohjr, no matter how gootl the sample
has been pronounced in India. We are anxious to find the
cause, with a view to the remedy, and we trust you will be
kind enough to give us any information in your power.
We are asking the following questions of our friends in
India: —

I. How does the bean of coffee grown under shade com-
pare in colour with that grown intheopen'i'

II. Is there any proved system of eetate-curing that will
affect the colour of the bean ?

III. Is there any marked difference in the colour of the
bean cured at the West Coast, East Coast or Inland Coffee
Works':*

I'V. How do manures affect the colour?

V. Have the different moiles of packing any influence on
the colour ?

" Colour " in every question of course means the colour in
the London Market : reports on the subject in this country
are not found at all trustworthy.

We shall feel greatly obliged to you if you can give us
any information in answer to these questions, or on any
other phase of the matter that we may have omitted to
notice. — I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,

(Signed) Pekcv Batty, Hont/. Secj/,
[Se« extracts and correspondence further on,— Ed,]

SuBICUt.TURIs.— The Rutbor of a recent ortiole on tho
Tnsser 3ilk-wo!-m is Oaptfiia Catanlii, Deputy Con.sefvator
of I'Vi'e.sts. Thin geotlemnn is a. keen arboriculturist and
ha^ devoted mu(;b time and attflltion to this study, and
also to sericulture. He hopes to propagate 60,000 young
trees for the Nizam's Palace grounds at Sooroouuggui'.—
Madras Mail.

Home f hakoiis on Tea. — We call attention to the
letter on page 180, 'U which Mr. John Hamilton farcurs
us and ha Irethren of the plahtir g community in
( eyl m with an accurate and useful Btatement of the
itfiet of the recent changes in the home charge! on
tea. Although Mr. Hamilton still owns estate property
ill Ce\ lo , he has, we believe, fa>rly settled to mercant.
ile business in London, fO th.-et bis information on
the present and cognate suljects may be taken as
relial le, Wo commend his letter to ihe special at-
tention of our several I'liititi I's' Aesociadoav,

S£PTfi>fBER 1, 1883.]

'5-1

THE TROPICAL AdRlCUL'.('UlllST.

i8g

Toi/id Edifr"^«jr of the ''Ceylon Observer."

CEYLOX aCd tuNG-BIRDS : A ^\ORD IN VINDIC-
ATION uf >■' OF THEIR VOCAL POWERS.

^j.^''.- Kaudy, 25th June 1S85.

Dea^ p.1 Sir, — \Ve have often heard it remarked,

but (rft generally by those possessed of very limited

po' \v.»veis of observation, that in Ceylon, and other

tropical countries, where brilliant and varied

colors have been granted to birds and flowers,

sonij has been denied to the one and fragrance to

the other.

The late Dr. Kelaart has already pointed out,
that this is one of those " flippant (/(ueraHzations,
which people are fond of repeating, originally made
without investigation, and perpetuated without
enquiry."

It is in fact inapplicable to the avi/aunn and
flora of Ceylon, e.xcept perhaps as regards our
higher mountains, and the barren sandy wastes of
some parts of the lowcountry, as also in several of
our coft'ee districts, which have been entirely de-
nuded of forest. lu thfse regions, however, there
is a great paucity, an almost entire absence, of bird
life, and few of our songsters dwell or even
sojourn there.

The observation may apply to the avifauuiv of
a few tropical countries, and to my own personal
knowledge it does so, more or less, to the islands
of the West Indies and the Spanish !Main of South
America, where the "Mocking 15ird," (a) is almost the
only one with any pretensions to musical talent.
There, however, the birds far excel those of Ceylon,
in the biillianoy of their plumage. While contrasting
our sor.g-birds with those to familiar to our school-
boy days, and whose neste we were wont to ruth-
lessly plunder, we are apt to forget, that our
feathered friends of the old countrj, are mute for
half the year, or nearly so, and that sweet and
powerful as are the songs of the " Mavis" (b) and
the "Nightingale," (c) the " Lintie " (d) and the
"Laverock," (e) their concerts last but for a season.
Here, on the other hand, our birds may be said to
breed all the year round, and to sing all the year
round. Surely then we cannot expect our song-
sters, to pour forth their melody, with the same
vigour as their congeners of more temperate climes,
wlio give, 63 it were, but a limited number of per-
formances.

In favourable situations, the weallli of bird-life in
Ceylon is simply marvellous, including many more
or leen gifted songters : and here, though
AVe lang to see the broom
AVi' tassels on the lea,
And hear the lintie's sang
0' our aiu couutree,"
we are heverthelen! cheered in the groy d.-Mli of eal'ly
morning by the rich and loog-contiuueei Joyona notes of
thc"Mai!p:e Robin," (/) and, It we aaunter out for a morn-
ing stroll, in a wooded neighbourhood, or the cbaimlug
sylvan retreats of "Lady Hortcn Woods," our hearts
are still more gladdened by the mellow tiute-likt notis
of the "LoDg-laikd Thrush" (y) and the "<lrii.le." (A)
As the morning advance?, a host of musical voices
greet us on all sides, the bell-like uo'es of "Birbets " (i)
tningliiig with the ewett love-song of the " Bulbul," 1^)
ftnd the merry metallic twitterings of "Iiiiah-crecper8"(i)

(a) Tardus polyglottia (U) Turdus musicus. (c) Luscinia
Philomela, (d) I'Vingilla. (e) Alauela arveusis. (f) C'opsy-
chus saularis. {g) Kittacincla macrurus. (It) Oriolus
Ceylonensis. (i) Jlegalaimidio. (j) Pycnonotinw. (A) Mui-
^Mtioie.

I and ''Honey Birds." (/) And here too, while pausing
to admire the romautis scenery, by the banks of
the Mahaweliganga, as it winds its tortuous course
to the Park t'ouutry, we listen to the e-xijuisitely
soothing and plaintive strains of the "Ground Dove," (m)
the ''Nlla Kobeyya " of the Sinlialese.

Even ou the plains of Nuwara Eliya we meet with
some sweet songsters, peculiar to the Highlands :
there on a bright sunny morning, by the snug
little church, nestling among its stately camarlnas and
acacia!^, cau be heartl- the rich and mellow notes of
whole family of " Kelaart's Yellow-eared Bulbul " (n)
and hopping among the tombstones, and llirting his
restless tail, the little black " Nuwara Elij'a Robin" (0)
Binga his sweet " love-song to tho morn," over tho
graves of the departed, whUe, from the jungle hard
by, the pleasing and plaintive ditties of the "Black-
bird " (;j) reach our ear and gladden us.

In truth. Nature, lavish of her tropical gifts, has
richly endowed our fijh'an trarb/i-rs with eniUessly
varied powers of melody, and to the flowers of the
forest and the meadow sweet fragi'ance has been liber-
ally imparted. A. W.

THE NEW SYSTEM OK CHARGES ON TEA.
12, Great Tower St., E. C, July 10th, 1885.
Dear Sib,— As you are doubtless aware, the dock
compiuies and Wharfingers have agreed to adopt a
new scale of charges upon tea, commencing from let
July : the Wharfingers, lam told, have bound them,
selves under a heavy penalty not to allow more
than 10 per cent discount on the dock chai-ges.
The first question we naturally ask ourselves is, how
the new rates compare with the old, and to what
extent will shippers of tea gain or lose by the new
arrangement? Without entering into particulars it is
sufficient to say that the increase in the expense of
selling tea amounts to some 40 per cent. Although
the new scale of charges is lower, no discount is
in future to be allowed by the dock companies
I (formerly the allowance was ,35 per cent), and only
j 10 per cent by tho wharfingers instead of 50 per
cent to b'O per cent — the result being an extra charge
to shippers of 40 per cent. Before raising a cry
against the extra charges it would be as well to
look more thoroughly into the existing working of
the tea trade and see how far obsolete and un-
necessary customs could be dispensed with. It ap.
pears the great competition between the docks and
wharves resulting in enormous discounts, harl reached
such a pitch no benefit resulted to either, which
necessitated some joint action being taken, tho pre-
sent cause of the above loss to shippers. It is quite
possible that large importers of tea will agitate
against these new rates, and it seems to me a favour-
able oppoitunity for all those interested in the tea
trade, and particularly in the interests of a young
tea colony like Ceylon tint the whole question of
the tea trade should be corsideied from every point!
of VitW with the object of finally sweepin;? away
old Useless foims aud customs, expensive in operation
and cumbersome in delHil, ehd of dealing with toa iu
the stirple^ easy wSy that is done with sUgar, cofFee,
ai.d cincl.oha, thereby saving these undue charges m the
maunjuiatlou e f tea «hich dock companies and Whar-
fiuers li self-defence are at prcs' nt CDmpelled to make.
I am not here alluding to tlie bulking rif tea,
which is leally a locd matter, and, it properly
carried out iu India and t'eylon at the factory
itself, would not have to be done In this
country. Indeed wiiere invoo-s are large and the
quality equal, no bulking is now req-uired but a
shipment of small, over-assorted parcels would

(i) Nectarinina;. (m) Obalcophaps Indicus. («) Kela-
artia peucillata. (a) I'ratincola atrata. (p) Herula Kiunisi,

igs'

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [S^;^,

probably be lotally neglected unless bulked. In
cases where it U printed on the catalogue ' factory
bulked,' the merchant takes the risk of after disijutes.
In China bulking seems to be thoroughly understood,
and with a little more experience, and with a larger
quantity available for shipment, I am convinced the
(Jeylou planter with his readiness at acquiring infoim-
ation and unmindful of trouble will soon overcome
all difficulties in the matter. A sufficiently large
shipment, evenness of character, and not more than
three assortments, seem to be the essential^ points to
note.

It is in many respects an advantage to have a
fixed scale of charges, and should lead to a more
healthy tone throughout, but it behoves us especially
to look at the matter from a Ceylon point of view.
The charges on tea already are more than trtble
those on coffee and cocoa, dealers as well as shippers
being affected alike. There must be a reason for
this being so, and a remedy will have to be found. It
is more than likely that in these days of rapid pro-
gress with an extending trade like tea, and one occupy-
ing a more important position owing to the
vast cultivation being carried on in India and Cey-
lon, that every facility for simplifying tea sales will
be adopted when sufficient pressure has been brought
to bear on the subject. One or two clever articles
in the Produce Markets' Iieuiew at (MSereut times have
gone very fully into the matter, thoroughly ex-
posing the absxjrdity of the present system of weight
notes, deposits (a precaution not enforced with any
other article of pi'oduce), and the necessity insisted
on by the Inland Revenue of affixing a penny-stamp
to every separate sub-delivery order used for tea,
although this is not detmed essential on deliveries
made from the weight note, the 3d. warrant stamp
being considered a composition for them. But what
is this ' weight note ' that appears to cause so much
complication ? The weight note is the key of the
whole system. It contains full particulars of the
goods, forms a contract, an invoice, and a delivery
order. The broker having sold the tea makes up the
weight note, and gives it to the buyer who deposits
£1 per chest on the value on the Saturday following
delivrry. To take the calculations in the above men-
tioned liei'iew as an lUustratiou, 600 chests of tea re-
quire 100 warrants and 100 weight notea with 15
separate identification marks and particulars on each,
and 100 invoices. 1,200 weights have to be copied
on the dock documents, and 400 additions of weight,
and deductions of taie have to be made, net weights
are turned into pounds involving 100 more calculations.
Sold price has to be copied 100 times, and .300
calculations, subtractions and arid itions made before the
invoice is completed, warrants and weight notes requite
600 signings and stampings. Before 600 chests of tea
are ready for delivery to the bujer, 5,000 clerical oper-
ations have to be performed, or say SO operations to
every chest of tea in addition to lull descriptions on the
landing account, I have quoted sufficient to show bow
cumberfome aud unnecessary all this detail is and
how expensive it is, in additiou to the ritk of ibo de-
livery of the tea being stopped ow ing to a single error in
these ceaseless operations. In the ca e of eUjjar or
coffee the importing merchant gives the buyer an order
for so many bags orhogs-hsads as he may want them,
for which he paj 8 fo much on account, the balance
being settled at the prompt, after deducting interest.
Tea gives thirty times the amount of work that sugar
does, aud why? — in order to continue a system that
modern requirements are burdened and hampered by.
Whether it is the weight note or the ttsnip on the
separate sub-delivery order that causes the clritf ob-
stacle to a reform is not of the smallest consequence,
for both of these forms must be swept away, and
tea must be worked at the eame rates aud on the eame

EPTEMBEK I, 1885.

system as coffee, sugar and other at)x
is this to be accomplished ? Simply '..jHicles. But how
and bit by bit the wall of prejudict by combination,
away ; but who is to bring it about? E«r . will crumble
ested in tea plantations both in India atseryone inter-
backed by the local Press as a commenceiiC.ud Ceylon
has been done in cinchona where the interestCJient. It
nominal compared to tea, and it has to be done i s were
tea trade where the interests are widespread ^an the
stupendous. To those intei ested in tea plantatidaoand
when the move is once made, the sense of the trade -"is
itself will be added.

I hope you will pardon me the space this
letter occupies in your paper, but the ob-
ject of it is an important one, aud onn which
cannot be taken in hand a day too soon. Five years
hence certainly the voice of Ceylon will be weijjhtier
in the tea trade than now, but the present is the time
to take up the matter, and help to smooth the way
for the great future that is before us. — 1 am, yours
faithfully, JOHN HAM I LTON.

PLANTAINS OR BANANAS IN CEYLON.
Nawalapitiya, 17th July 1885.

Deae Sir, — I beg to submit the following regarding
fruit. Your Directory for 1884 fays there are only
10 varieties of plantain or banana in Ceylon. If you
can insert in this year's book, please note there are
21 varieties of best bananas in Ceylon ; all of these
21 varieties I have cultivated in my garden, and
they are quite different from each other iu appearance
aud in taste. — Yours obediently,
J. P. ABRAHAM.

A RARE BIRD, THE "INDIAN HOBBY"
(FALCO SEVERUS): A FALCON SEEN
IN UVA IN JULY.

Dear Sir, — The following occurrence of a very
rare bird may be of interest to some of your readers.
On 7th inst. (July 1SS5) I was standing behind my
store when the alarm notes of various small birds far
and near attracted my attention ; a robin with a nest
brimful of young under the eaves of my store
gave utterance to notes indicating intense alarm,
which told me the enemy was near, yet I could see
nothing. Suddenly, like a rocket, a dark object topped
my pulping-house a few yards in front of me. No
mistaking the dashing little marauder : it was a male
Hobby, Falco sevents, in beautiful ndult plumage.
The pace that little fellow was going at would
enable it to catch with ease any bird in the air that
I- am acquainted with, not excepting the spine-tailed
swift, which can do something in the way of
clearing epacel It fell to my luck to obtain the first
recorded specimen of Hobby captured iu Ceylon
(in 1867), since which till now 1 have sem no other,
unless a small falcon I saw a few years since dash
across a paddy-field near Wellawaya, was of this
species; it wae too far off to identify properly, but in
my own mind I felt fairly sure that was a young
bird of this species and I asked some friends to look
out for it when snipe-shooting in that direction.
In the present instance there is no room for
doubt, and its occurrence early in July adds
additional interest to its appearance here. Though
a species of fairly wide distiibution in the East,
it seems to be nowhere numerous and not. much
is known of its habits. Lpgge eays : " AVithout doubt
the species is migratory here in the cool season,"
which means the N.-E. morsoon. Now there ig a
great difference between the 7th of July and the N.-E.
monsoon '; so I am strongly inclined to di ubt very
much the above assertion, and to believe it more
likely to be a resident probably to the extent of r few

September i, 1SS5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

191

paira only ; though a few may arrive as migrants as
well in the cold season, certain it is that all our well-
known migrants of the iliuinal birils of prey (I al-
lude in particular to the barriers) come over in that
season, and tlitir coming and going is as well detiaed
as that of the swallow (//. rufticus) orthe grey wag-
tail (;!/. ?Hi'aH«j)e), the latter being the very earliest
to arrive in this district of all our cold season visit-
CT3, and the earliest date I have noticed it at, was the
first week in September, but as a rule it arrives a
week or two later. I am (jnite sure the Uobby in
question was nn adult bird, and therefore almost
certainly to have nested at the usual time, which is
early spring with all birds of prey, and probably a
second batch later on. One can hardly suppose that
this bird was a forlorn bachelor rushing through the
world in search of a mate ! So I commend your read-
ers who tike an interest in Ornitholo{.y, to try and
clear up the mystery ns to whether Ceylon may claim
as a resident ihe Indian Hobby. ZOOZOO.

PRACTICAL HINTS ON TEA CULTIVATION.

Sib, — With books now available on every detail con-
nected with the culture of tea, from the seed to the
cup, and the Tropical Agricidhirist monthly, teeming
with information, it may be supposed that further
hints as regards the elementary stages are quite un-
necessary. Having recently come across more than one
nursery however, that, through want of attention to
ample details, are partial failures, and having in view
the many failures cf coffee nurseries down — shall I
say to the end of the cotf'ee era?— and as the Ohscrvtr
penetrates nooks and corners where books have not yet
found their way, I am induced to offer you some bints
wh'ch I trust may be useful to someone; — beginning with
Nursfies. — The soil for nurseries should be free,
open, loamy, and rich, for the following reasons: — It
is hardly practicable to put in the seed with the eye
placed in such a way as the germ of the root would
be downward aod that cf the stem upward ; but, if
planted in free light soil, it matters little how the
Seed is placed. N-iture has endowed it with sutficicnt
adaptive power to rectify itself. As it grows it will
turn i'self right and form a straight plant. If on the
other haul you put seerl in a clo<e, still' soil some of
those ihat happen to have their eyes down w.U not
be able to come up at all : this .accounts for moie
of the v.-cancies tliat recur when seeel is pbinteil at
stske than is generally thought of. Others will ijrow
up round the seed, not being nble to turn it and will
form a knotted or club-rooted plant which every ex-
perienced planter throws away. There are men who^e
opinions deserve respect, who tell that nurseries thould
be made io poor soil, giving as a reason thar plants
removeel from a poor soil to a rieher turn out the
moit auccesstul. i belie I'e that in more of an accipted
theory than a eound one or one founded on experience
or experiment. Next to good seed, good soil is ne-
ces'ary to get ^ood sturdy well-devel< ped plants.
No one ever beard of a planter preferring to buy the
thmskinned starved wires of a poor nursery if he
could procure the vigorous plants cf a richer sril.
In preparing a tea-nursery seven or eight inci es
depth it enough to dig the seil, and if there is a
hard subsoil so much the better to discourag'; the
growth of a taproot. Four feet is aconTcnicnt 1 readth
to peg cIT the beds, with eighteen inch alleys be-
tween. I mention these small matters because I saw
a nursery the other day, the formation of which had
been left purely to coolies. The beds were more like
potato drills or ridges than nursery beds, the alleys
taking up more of the space than the beds. The beds
should be raked to an even surface slightly raised
in the middle. Cross lines are the most convenient
aud the plauts easily counted in them. They may be

made by using a kind of heavy rake with five or six
wooden angular teeth -l^ or 5 inches apart drawn across
the btd. The seed may then be planted three inches
or thereby apart in the lines and at such depth as
to be IJ inch when the surface is levelled.

Planting. — Now as to planting, whether is it the bet-
ter system to plant seed at stake or to plant
stumps or plants from the nursery ? Both systems
have their advocates, aud circumstances will often
iutluence the decision. In case of the land being
already open and having to be kept clean, and
no nursery available, there is strong inducement
to put in seed : the work is done and the cost of
making a nursery saved. It should be kept in
mind, however, that planting of all kinds should be
firmly done : a loosely-tilled hole keeps too much
water, and the plants have not the same chance
to establish their roots nor resist wind. If to
avoid these evils the holes are well filled aud
firmly trodden after putting in the seed, unless im
light, loamy soil, many of them for reasons men-
tioned will never come up, aud lots of others unable
to turn their seeds will have twisted roots. I think
it is preferable to not tread them very much when
planted, but go over the field scraping in earth aud
treading round the plants whm they get to be a
few inches above ground. Planting with plants or
stumps is, I think, much to he preferred. Then ia
the opportunity to reject inferior plants and twisted
roots. Given a good planting season, little supplying
will be required, and your clearing will come into
bearing ten or twelve months earlier than if planted
with .'■eed. I wished to add something more on plants,
but I fear I have trespassed too much ou your valuable
space already.— Yours &o., ARBORItULTUEIST.

CARDAMOMS IN HAPUTALE.

Wiharegalla, Haputale,27th July I8S5.

DE.4R Sir, — I am sending by this tappal a small
box in which I have enclosed a few seeds picked from
a clump of supposed-to-be cnrrlamoms. As this
palam is three or four times the size of the ordin-
ary caidnmom fruit, I shall feel obliged if you will
let me know (1) whether they are cardamoms ; (2)
if so, whether they are Mysore, Malabar, or in-
digenous, as we have only a one clump producing
fruit of tliis kind in a clearing of 8 acres. — Yours
faithfully. ARTHUR l.E FEUVRE.

[They certainly seem to be cardamoms and look like
Mysore ; but the opinion of au expert is required.
We shall try aud refer the specimens to Dr. Trimen.
-Ed]

HARVESTING CINCHONA.

Deltota, July 29th, IS85.

Sir, — I see that "Cinchona" has .insweivd that part
of my letter and gives reasons for slnving in alternate
strips. The following are against the practice : —
Take, for rxaniple, a tree shaved for the first time.
If shaved in alternate strips, the 2iid shaving (i. e.
the stnp left the previous time) would not be re-
newed birk ; while, if a thin slice were taken from
the whole stem, the 2uel shaving would all be re-
neweel bark. Again see the exccsive cost. If the
whole tiee were shaved, more bark would natur-
ally be obtained from each tree, and each cooly ig
likily to bruia; in more bark fan if strps were
left. The cost of thatchirg would be so much greater.
The same amount of maiia will have to be used,
.although less bark was taken. Taking all this into
consideration, I think shaving the whole tree in-
stead of strips the better, because more economical plan.

iga

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

Against coppicing 2 feet or so from tlie
ground, my reasous are the following : — I have seen
the two ditfertut ways (ione on two adj lining estates,
and the resulting shoots from trees coppiced near
the root give, for the same age, a better growth.
(2) A proprietor tried the plan of leaving the stump
(2 feet) and gave it up, aud his reason he told me
was that it did not throw shoots so freely, and, be-
sides, a lot of them died out. (3) I suppose
" Cinchona" will allow that dead wood does harm
to trees. The high stump left dies oft" soon, as all
the bark ii shaved oft' ; it dne< some harm to the shoots.
The cost (10 c;ut3) of bark delivered at Colombo
was for shaving alone, no branch bark or coppicings
were included. B. E.

CROTOX OIL TREES : CULTIVATION AND
DEMAND FOR SEED.

Polgahawela, 30th July 1SS5.

Sib, — The following opinion of Messrs. Moore & Co.,
wholesale druggists, London, as to the demand for
croton oil seeds m.ay be of interest to those of your
readers who have gone in largely for this product
as a separate cultivation. Grown as a shade for
cocoa, a small return will satisfy ; but as a venture
by itself I doubt if it will pay. Provided there is
a demand for it, at 203 it would pay, but I fear
in a few years there may not be a sale for all that
is exported. Evidently the extract in the T. A. as
to the oil being used for dressing woollens must be
a mist ike. —Yours, WILLIAM JARDINE.

Extract.

In reply to yours of the 16th June re croton oil tree, I
find the supplies of late have been rather larger than the
requirements, aud price has fallen from 50s to 40s per cwt.
I should not recommend exteusive planting, but oO to
100 biigs at a time would sell fairly well.

(Signed) Feakcis Mooke.

Coffee and Tea in Coorg. — Mercira, 14th July. — To-
wards the latter end of uext week planting should be com-
pleted, and it should prove most successful. The weather
has been unprecedented since the 2ud of June, at which
date the monsoou may be said to have burst. There have
been showers and continuous rain ever siuce, uutil Satur-
day the 11th, when the clouds lifted aud blue sky was seen
for a few hours. There are complaints in South Courg,
of great shortness of labor, and conseijuently those estates
are sutYering now. Toere are the borer trees untended no
fresh supplies or young plants got in, during the first
ranis, and weeds grow rampant, which unless quickly got
under, aud light brought into the lower branches, there
will be very little crop to gather later on ; for the leaves
quickly rot and dropoff, and the tips of the br.inches dying
off, speedily kills the branch back. Much of this result
from the policy pursued toward the end of last season,
when labor was ruthlessly cut down to avoid further outlay of
money ; successive changes of management, and a general
air of insecurity has, no doubt, aft'ectei the cooly maistries,
who will not come in with their contracted gangs of
labor. Some men have sent as far as Vellore and Bangalore
for coolies to work the estates, and from the West Coast,
large gangs of men from Tellicherry, principally, are on
their way up to seek contracts. I have seen two clearings
being planted up with tea plants, 4ft. by 4ft. as none has
been grown before, the experiment is looked forward to
with interest; as tea is still a little regarding profit,
behind coffee, plants have been quincunxed with the tea-
seedlings, so that at the end of two years, one can be taken
out. Tea is evidently indigenous to Coorg, for in the
forest. I have seen trees fifteen to twenty feet high, and
well-known to the Coorg villagers, who use it in sickuess
to allay fevers, by pruning the leave, .and then brewing
them, drinking the tea, when it is as hot as can be swallowed.
I have seen a tree of " Magarippa " coffee in bearing,
which, for its age, is short of stature, not robust, and is not
so good a lUutasau average Coorg coffee tree ; the fruit
will not bo ripe until November next. — Madras Standard,
July22ud.

Variegated Tea Leaves. — A correspondent writes :
— " I send you by this post a branch with strange-looking
leaves on it taken from a bush in the middle of a field of
tea raised from Assam seed ; it seems to flush as well as
the rest of the tea round about it : can you tell me what
it is ? " It is tea, with variegated leaves : a common oc-
currence. The gentleman to whom we referred the
branch writes : — " The following lines cnpied from Bal-
four's Class Book of Botany will probably a6rnrd the in-
formation your correspondent asks for; — 'Variegation
in leaves is produced either by an alteration in the green
chromule. or chlorophyll, or by the presence of air in
certain foliar cells. * • ♦ The causes of variegation are
stated to be disease in the cellular ti-sue produced by
climate and soil, hybridization, fertilizitiou with various
coloured pnllen, and grafting.'"

Sunflowers as Fpei,. — A correspondent of the
Dakota Farmer, after having tried "turf," coal wood
and sun-flowers, has settled upon the last named as
the cheapest and best for treeless Dakota. He says ;
"I grow one acre of them every year, and have
plenty of fuel for one stove the whole year round, and
U'^6 some in another stove besides. I plant them in
hills the same as corn (only three seeds to the hill), and
cultivate same as corn. I cut them when the leader
or top flower is ripe, and let them lay on the ground
top or three days ; in that time I cut off all the seed-
heads, which are put into an open shed with a floor in
it, the same as a corn-crib ; the stalks are then hauled
home and packed in a common shed with a good roof
on. When cut in the right time the stalks when dry
are as hard as oak, and make a good hot fire, while the
seed-beads with seeds in, make a better fire than the
best hard eo.al. The seed being very rich in oil it
will warm better and burn longer, bushel for bushel,
than bard coal. The sunflower is very hard on land.
The piece of ground selected to plant on should be
highly enriched with mannres.* In the great steppes
(prairie region in the interior of Russia and iu Tartary)
where the winters are more sevirethan h're iu Dakota,
the sunflowers are, and have been for centuries past,
the only kind of fuel used." — Maciay .t'andard.

Copra. — One of the chief exports of Fiji, as most of
our readers are aware, is copra : and, although the
trade in this article has assumed large dimensions of
late years, it is felt that a much larger business might
be done if some inventive genius would manufacture
a machine which would cut out the kernel of the
coconut. At present the cutting is done entirely by
haul with a six-inch knife, and this, as may be imag-
ined, is a very si iw process. Messrs F R. Yarte&Co,
of Fiji, have called upon Americm inventors to aid
the owners of coconut plantations in the manufacture
of copra, and wa desire to bring the subject before
British nmnufacturers. The firm in question, in their
letter tn the Scientific American, state; — "The machine
wnuld be r- quired to cut out the kernel of the nut
just as it falls from the tree, but with the outer ihusk
on. We could split them open as we do now, with
an axe (at present we have no use for either husk or
shell, except for fuel). It must be adapted to cut nuts
of variable size, as coconuts vary very much iu size
and shape, some being quite round and others oval
shape aud .lU siz^s, simple in const''uction, and strong
wi'hout being heavy, as it would be worked by black
bibour. The motive power could be either hand or
foot. It would not matter what sizi or shape it cut the
kernel out, as long as it cuts it iu solid pieces, the
size we cut out by hand is about three quarter* of an
inch thick by about three inches Innj. If sucli a
machine could he made, a large number would be ordered,
if not too expensive, as our principal produc; of export
is dried coconut (called cobera or oop'a), and every
planter would have some. — European Mail.

* "That's so," as out American friend siys. — Ed.

September r, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

193

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN CEYLON.

It is very satisfactory to leavu that the system of
jiraotical teaching in the principles of agriculture'
which the Director of Public Instruction (Mr. H. W.
Green) set himself so earnestly to ilevelope, is really
taking effect throughout the island. We learn that
in every Government Vernaculir or Anglo- Vernacular
school in the higher s'audards, theoretical agriculture
has been taught tince last January in the same way as in
England, the test-book used being a translation of the
Director's " Primer of Agriculture." Then aga n all
teachers are now compelled !o pass in theoretical agricul-
ture before they can get a certificate — a very important
stimulus. As regards practical lessons, the "Colombo
School of Agriculture " has this jear commmotd actual
work. The students have bjen tra ned in the school com-
pound iu the use of the new ploughs, and they are
going to plough five acres of pa(My land belonging
to a private owner, for which the records of result-
ing crop are to be carefully kept. 'J'he owner of the
land will cultit'ata in the o-dinary way alongside of
this piece of land which the echool cultivates. The
comparison cannot fail to be instructive, and the crop
returns altogether, if carefully <-nt>ied, should be
interesting in connection with the subjec'; of paddy
cultivation. Sertral of ihc more intelligent Govern
ment schoolmasters are, we are glad to leirn, also
cultivating, after this fashion. So soon ns the D rector
can provide teachers, it is, we understand, his inten.
tion to seek leave from Government to start practical
agriculture at several country-schools, a piece of land
being allottid to each school, and the teacher being
partly paid in produce, so as to give him a pecuniary
interest in the proper working of the land. This
ought to prove a most interesting and beneficial ex-
periment; but manifestly Mr. Green will rtijuire a
little time to make the necfs-ary arranjenients.

Altogether, we are agreeably surprised at the pro-
gress made by the Director. And it shows that it
is not f imply through the medium of the Govern-
ment Department alone, the work is being done,
when we learn that sever-nl drzen of the ploughs re-
commended for paddy-tielda have been sold privately.
apart altogether from the Government and without
any inducement from the Director, although the lat er
has otfioially and very properly s^nt some ploughs to j
each Kachcheri. But, after all, we may e.xpcct more
to be done through the gradual iLfluence of the schools [
than in any other way. No doubt the Governmint '
igents, nr at least some of them, will he'p very
cordially : but s-till a Government Agent, even with
the be-t int ntions, can only work on adult men with
grown-up conservative prejudices against r.ew fangled
while the Director of Public Instruciion may

ideas ;

well hope to be able to tran up a certain peromtage I
at least, of the schoolboya who can eventually put
in practice on their own land*" what ijiey learn dnring |
their agricultural training. For the piizjt.kere in
this Department who m.ay carry out in after life the '
lessons they have learnt, the Gov. rnor of the day
will, we have no doubt, be ready to provide encouragement
and reward in the -hapeoftho honrurs so dear to the
native mind nnd heart. By on I b\ e we may find a regular
system established for dra«ing then-.t vea-S'Stants to the
revenue otficers in all the grades o" headn. en, from the
passed pupils ■ f our Agricultural Schools.

DON'T DIE IN THE HOUSE.
"Rough on Rats" clears out rats, mice, beetles, roachesi
bed-hugs, flies, nnU, insect.^, moles, chipmunks, gophers-
W, E. Smith ii Co., Madras, Sole Agents,
25

CONSUiUPTION OF COFFEE AND TEA IN
THE UNITED STATES.

10 LB OF CclFFEB PER HEAD TO IJ LB. OF TEA.

A GRA.VD FIELD FOR PR0PAGATI>G TEE-TOTALIS.M UNTIL

550 MILLIONS LB. OF TEA IS CONSDMED !

I London, 10th July 1SS5.

I enclose copy of an extract from the annual
review of the Trade of the United States as
published by the Corporation of the Chamber of
Commerce of the State of New York, in April last.
It contains some interesting figures iu rfgard to the
increase of consumption of coffee in the United States.
In their annual report, the Committee of the Chamber
thus comment on the increase of consumption which
is described as very considerable, in view of the de-
pression of trade, together with the enforced economies
brought about by a general^ reduction in wages among
the largest consuming classes of the population : —
" It is difficult to determine satisfactorily the
causes that may have led to iucrea^ed consumption
of such an article as coffee, for the reason that those
who ought to be reliable authorities are by no means
agreed as to the influences by which it has been
effected. Increase of population to doubt accounts
for some portion of the increase, but only for a
moderate percentage of so large an increase as shown
by our tables.

" For the remainder it is claimed by some that
coffee is distinctly a poor man's diet, and that when
times are hard, the labouring classes buy more coffee
than in flush times when they are ahl-; to indulge
in more nourishing and expensive food ; others ad-
vance the theory that low prices invariably increase the
consumption of all food staples ; and a third explanation
is that our population are i lowly becoming more
habitual coffee-drinkers than they have ever been before,
and that this is particularly the case with respect to
the large infusion of the fore gn element received
within late years, h'ach and all of these theories
are doubtless true in fact, to a c rtain extent, and
when taken to^ethi r perhaps they sufficiently account
for the mcreas-d corsun'.p'ion shown.

"On the basis of a pnful.Ht'.n of 55,000,000 the per
caj)i(a consumption lat year amounted to OJ lb."

What g'.od news would this have been for Ceylon
twenty years laek? But now the all-important ques-
tion is what about tea ? And it is sad to find that
on this moie interesting pioluct the Chamber has
Iiterilly nothing worthy of record to report. The
whole subject is dismitsed in the annu 1 review in
a few formal linef, and the following figurfs show-
ing the total imports of tea during the past few
years at all ports of the United States explain how
small relatively is the iinpoitance of the American
tea trade ; —

Trade. 18S0 .. 12-^,131,747 lb.

1881 ... .i5 964,2S6 ,,

1882 ... 07,861,744 „
1S83 ... 70 575,478 ,,
18S4 ... 78,3i,0,651 ,,

and it is stated in the riport that " fi.r the seasou
1884-85 the indicatioim are at pie ent that the re-
ceipts of all kinds including indirect shipments from
Great Britau will be about 75,000,000 pounds aga'nst
68.000.000 pounds last season "

The discrepancy between these figures for 1884-85
and those givm above for 1SS4 probably arises from
the year in the former case comincnciDg at some
date other than 1st January.

It would seem then, that, wherens each of the
55,000,000 of Americans consnmes nearly 10 lb, of

194

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

colTee, he consumea lefs than IJ !b. tea anmiallj-,
What a strange contrast to the state of things in
this, the mother-counfi V 1 It wonhl have been inter-
es'iug if the Ch:'mber of Commerce lad ex-
tended the scope of thtir speriilatioiis and put forth
the various possible reasons wbich actini^ together
have caused I'nglislimcn to iliink nothing but t'a,
and their descendants to drinli nothug but coffee.

One thing is char, that the United States of
America open a vast mls?ionary liehl for the Ceylon
t a-planter. Think of a posfil'le consuming power of
550,000,000 lb. of tf a annually, even at this present
date! VV. M. L,

THE COFFEE TRADE.

In our laj^t report we noticed the year 1S83 ii.i the turn-
ing point in the cotfee trade. In the increa.sed con.sump-
tiou, a result of low prices caueed hy an artitieially forced
production, the induslry pa.s.sed into mere conservative
nianageraent, and its results were satisfactory to both im-
porters iiud jobbers.

T.in fortunately this healthy reaction was not maintained,
and from causes, perhaps, not entirely inherent to itself,
tho trade was again, in 18SJ, depressed and unsatis-
factory to all concerned. The liquidation of the Brazil
Syndicates, noticed in our last, was a perpetual menace
to the stability of prices, and caused a timidity in purchases
which destroyed all animation or speculative feeliug.

The total receipts of ootfee for the United States from
all sources was two hundred and thirty thousand tons in
1SS4, against two hundred and twenty-eight thousand tons
in 1883, an increase of two thousand tons. The total
deliveries for consumption were two hundred and
twenty-four thousand tons in 1883, against two hundred
and three thousand tons in 1883, an increase of twenty-one
thousand tons — 10-15 per cent — an increase which has
created some surprise. The per capita consumption of the
United States in 1884 was 9§ lb.

Ot the importations, New York received in 1884 one
hundred and seveuty-seven thousand tons, against one
hundred and eighty-nine thousand tons in 1S83, a decrease
of twelve thousand tons, and the total deliveries were one
hundred and seventy thousand tons, against one hundred
and sLity-three thousand tons in 1883, an increase of seven
thousand tons. There has been considerable change in the
aggregates ot trade at the seacoast ports, Baltimore and
New Orleans having notably increased their importations;
ft result, as is shown, of lower railroad freights from
Baltimore to the interior than from New York, and cheap
river freights from New Orleans. The receipts at New
Y'ork still represent nearly seventy-seven per cent of the
entire receipts east of the Rocky Mountains—less by six
per cent than the representation of 1883, but in excess of
that ot any year previous.

Prices opened at twelve and one-quarter cents for fair
Rio in January 1884, declined to nine and three-quarters
In June, July and August, and remained at this point at the
close of the year.

Experience has shown that no estimates of unharvested
crops, ecpecially of coffee, are reliable. Enough that a full
average crop ifi now anticipated, and that it will prove
ample to meet evi-n the large consumption which is now
Msorded. ^ '

•— ■♦ ' "-^

CAPli GonrfEtDiRKV.— A correspoudeut writeel- -" I
send by poot to you, enclosed In a matob-bix, a
sample of what I think to be rather a freak ofgocse-
berry nature (Cape Gooseberry) ! two berries in one
ehell or skin." Not common, but occasionally occurs
iu mcht fruita of the kind.

CoflTEB Redivivuh.— Lindula, 29tb July.— Mr. A. H.
Thomae haa very great faith in the revival of coffee,
and does not approve of planting tea m cotfee, either
one or the otiier ; and from what 1 've seen all the
way up I agiee with him. Coffee in large fields here
loi Us well and tit to bear, and, if H. V. has worn itself
out and its lite history be oomiog tg ao end, colTeo
^ill flouitUh green again,— W, F.

CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING REPORT.

3rd August 1885.

Black bug continues its havoc, and you hear of its ad-
vance into •' fresh fields and pastures new," appearing in
Udapussellawa, Haputale and elsewhere. I have sad ex-
perience of what a buggy estate means, and those who are
just entering on this hard trial have my deepest sympathy.
And yet there is nothing being done for it, no combined effort
to check its advance. Is it because we all acknowledge that
cotfee like a bankrupt estate is being gradually wound
up? or that we accept the conclusions of the late Dr.
Gardner that nothing can be done — this ipse dixit of
thirty or more years a|ro — and fold our hands? I have an
enttiusiastic friend who spurns such an ignoble course.
" Be beaten with that poocbie !" he says with true scorn,
and then sits down to his miscroscope to renew his
examination of the pest. What time has he not spent
in patient search and ingenious experiment. He can
describe its gait, the action of its mandibles, knows
the number of its legs, the length of its antennie, and
has calculated to a fraction the angle of the cock of its
ridiculous tail. He invites verification of his statements,
sets you down before the instrument, and awaits your
report with an interrogatory "Well?" *'Do you mean to
tell me," he says, "that all the science of the nineteenth
century can't give us a cure for tiiai ?" Aud deprecating
discussion you meekly reply: "I should think not." "Then
why is the thing allowed to go on unchecked ! What has
the Government done to fight it? Has the Director ol"
the Royal Botanic Gardens turned his attention to-
towards discovering an antidote? and where, oh! where
is the Planters' Association, and its Oommittee in the
matter?" So he goes on — a terrible fellow — and yet, when
you think of it, there is " a method in bis madness." He
has a last thrust which comes home to all of us : "What
if it should spread to tea ? " What if it should ? you say
to yourself, conjuring up its results and then — what a
vision ! He may be late in preaching his crusade, but
not too late ; it had been well if sonietliing had been
done earlier, but there are fine fields of cotfee yet to
be spared from ravishment, without considering at. all
the future of tea.

To those who know this insect well, it makes its pre-
sence felt in many ways. It checks your energy, batHes
your skill, leaves you with a heavy deficit, and sits on you
like a nightmare. It lias influences even subtler than these
and affects reo.lly valuable efforts for social amelioration.
Fancy its spoiling the good taste of an orator who
had introduced the pest " to point a moral and adorn a
tale." The audience was a youthful one, and for tlie sake
of the young digestion knowledge had to be crumbled
down. After an introduction our enemy was thus de-
scribed : — '* Black-bug is an insect. It is — well — it 's not the
least like the bug with which you are all so well ac-
quainted " ! ! And to this it has come at last ! I shudder
when I think where it may not next appear. Already on
the platform ; what if it should find its way into the
pulpit ?

Ah ! my good enthusiastic friend, the days surely are
ripa for your sending round the fiery cross. So leave your
micrcscopc, and in the columns of the Ohserwr preach
your crusadf. Peppeboobn.

Nkw Withering Api'abati's,— Tho nrranjgemttits of
the tats on Sem^-nwaita estate, tile joint tnveiitioh of
Mr. U. Fairweathorand h!s assistant, Mr. Westlalld, Is
ctirtaiidy most ingenious. Instead of the sloping arrange*
taent, which lifts up and is let down, to be met with on
most estates, Mr Fairweather 'stats travel between an upright
framework, and are prevented from " sag{iing " by a hook
or a guide attached to wires which pass along the framework
between each tat. A crank, which works a rope, draws
out these tats into position, and discbargts them one by
one in a most simple and effective manner so that the
loaf is subjected to a minimum of handling, whilst great
rapidity io obtained in the spreading of the leaf, 'We
believe the Mariawatte tea factory is being fitted with
the new withering apparatus and we have no doubt that
other factories will adopt this convenient arrangement,
which, for its completeness and simplicity, reflects great
cr»dit on its ingenious iuventors.—Looal •' Times,"

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

i95

ARECA-PALM CULTIVA L'lON.

{By an Old Palm Planter.)

Results op Experiexce and Observation in

tue lowcountry.

I have DOt been followioji the j,iiwak- discussion very
closely, but that makes lutle diflerence, as my opiuion
ou that as on most subjects is entirely independent,
though that again is no measure of thuir value. J ick
Buuaby's opuiiona were hud to get at and turned out
hardly worth the trouble of rtachiig them, so it may
well be with mine.

My tirat proijosition is, that every plant that needs
sunshine reipdrej the space it can cover, at thriving
maturity. In the case of all palnis, the length of
tbe leat from the stem to the e.vtremity of a mature
aud healthy tree is one half the distance that the trees
should be planted in a tield. This rule however, in the
case of the coc 'nut, is modified by the habit ol the tree.
The coconut leif is eiylitten fiet, and by the abjve
rule should be planted thirty-tix feet apart, but the leaf
oulj descends to a right-augle with the stem after it has
done its duty and been succcei'ed by others ; twenty-
tive feet is therefore fuund in that case to be the best
practical distance.

The leaf of tlie artcaiiut is only from three to
four fest in length, at its miturity, and raaiutains
its position at au acute upward angle with thesfeu;
therefore at six feet apart, the leavts of opposite
trees will barely touch. I am thert-fire of opiuiou
that ten feet apart, is more space than is necessary
and that 435 trees will rot take out of an acie of
laud all it IS capable of \ielding. I think seven feet
ample space, aud at that diatance, we get 888 plants
into the acre.

My own experience is the utter failure of nursery
plants, and tolerable success frrni pacing the seed
at stake. Were I now goini; into this cultivation, I
would dig eighteen inch holes, ar.d at the beginning
of the S. \V. rains place the seed three inches deep
in the centre of holes.

I believe the Ceylon arecauuts are the lowest
priced in the markets, and anyone going into the cultiv-
ation should secure the best varieties from ohter
lands. I have seen a kind that would save the vast
labour needed for husking the uxtive varieties, as
the out has a smooth surface aud t'.ie husk is clean
tibre.

THE ACCOUNTS OB" INDIAN TEA COMPANIES.

"Spectator" writPS to the Statist the fillowing
letter wh ch was alluded to in our review of Indian
Tea Companies the o'h-r day: —

"The Indian tea industry r- presents a capital'zed
value tf s 'me ten millions sterling, aud a cultivated area
of from 200,000 to 250,000 acres of plaating, producing,
roughly nearly 70 miili pu pounds of tea. OAing to the
large increase in the production, aud the tendency to a
progrefsive shiiukage in prices, it becomes a niacter of
increasing importance lor ownen ofe::tat'S to secure —
(I), the highest elKcicucy in management; (2), the
utmost economy io expenditure. The attain njent of
these t«o requisites concurnntly appenrs at first sight
scarcely practicalle. Thr.n'Ughly ethcien': management
and administration ("Bpecially of landed property,
where the local executive is to far removed from
central control) must, almost of necessity, be pretty
costly ; and, ou the other hard, any approach to
pinching economy tienches dangerou'ly U|<on efliciency.
In the large m Kufic'.uring indust;rips of this count. y,
however, where conip-'litiou has rendered existence a
simple question 01 '.sui vival of the fittest,' it has been
found pra ticable to combiue the two apparently op-
positej couditioni?, and it is iu tho:^e industries where
the two factors go haud-in-haud that the grealtat

vitality is found to exist. One of the causes which
has mainly contributed to this result is, that by col-
lating and comparing results of working under difi'er-
ent conditions, it has been found practicable to arrive
at the highest point of economy in all the processes
of mauufacture : and to ascertain that what one can
do another can achieve has been mainly attained by
a careful and intelligent comparison of accounts. Iu
the ease of tea-garden compauies and partnerships, a
I more or less systematic method of accounts hns long
existed, and many of the larger concerns publish very
clear and intelligible figures. But the great defect
which at present characterises tea accounts is the
absence of uniformity, which renders it difficult, even
for an expert, intelligently to compare the working of
dilferent gardens, or to draw any rational conclusions
as to their relative economic merits. As this is the
season when most of the companies make up their
balances, I think it is an appropriate time to direot
attention to the que-ttion. If some simple and uniform
method can be adopted, I venture to think that a
much more intelligent interest in the working of pro-
pertie« will be aroused among shareholders, and much
d scontent, as well as sharp and unfair criticism of
executive agents and managers, might be avoided.
I throw out these suggestions in a gineral way, but
should he glad in a subsequent letter to indicate in
detail the forms which, so far as my experience goe?,
would seem most amply and suitably to meet the re.
quirements of the case."

«

NOTES OF A JOURNEY ACROSS THE MALAY

PENINSULA.

Four days after starting from Kuala Bernam, Mr.
Swettenham and his party arrived at the upper reaches
of the Bernam river, which are beautiful and pictur-
esque. Mr. Swetteuham considers thie i ivdr couid ho
shortened by 57 miles by the c nstruct.on of 7 miUs
of cacal, which would require to be both wide aad
deep, the influence of the tide being felt 80 miles
from the mouth of the river. Four days later, tlia
watershed was crossed at an elevation of 3,1.')0 fi et
above the sea level. This ridge is very sharply de-
fined, for not far from the source of the Bernam,
which flows westward, are found the sources of nine
streams which converge at no great distance. Tiieir
confluence forms the Lipis which, together with the
Jelei and Time'lin, forma the Pahang river. About
a mile before PC'rmdtang Linggi is reached, the Lipis
floiss over a slate bed, and gold is found further
down. Toh Bakar, the headman of the district, in
a conversation with Mr. Swettenham, coinplnined
bitterly of the manner in which taxes were squeezed
out of himself aud his people. An annual census is
made, and a tax called hasil banchi, amounting to
Sl'33 is levied from each person, while a more ex.
tortionate system of obtaining money consists in the
Kajah sending worthless articles to his subjects, for
which they are obliged to pay a slated price. AU gold
must be sold to the Kajah, and, when a chiif
visits him, every man in the district has to pay §2
towards his representative's travelling expenses. .Short-
ly after leaving Suiebu, a rock called Batu Kinuui was
passed. The natives suppose that this is the petrilied
body of a tiger, the head being in Jf-lei. At a spot
near Kuala Trucang, 20 Chinese were digging gold.
About a quarter of an acre had been worked by former
miners, who were said to have obtained oA kalis from
a hole 60 feet in diameter, but were obliged to dis-
continue their search because a p"ll tax ot §8 a hea.l
had been imposed. At Penjum, the Chinese Karmeri
hold a complete monopoly, ami hence the great cost
to consumers of ordinary articles. Kor instance, a
tin of keroaine oil costs §2; a kati of tobacco, $1;
10 pieces of gambicr, S cents ; and a ball of cpiuin 22.

196

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885.

Mr. Swettenham says it is a great mistake to suppose
that eooonut trees will not tiouris'i in any place over 50
miles from the sea, because he ha'' seen them everywhere.

Kua'a Teiiiflin is not"d in Pahang for its earthen-
ware, which, owing to the remoteness from any mark-
et, is not manufactured in any large quantities.
The shapes of the jars obtained were considered good,
and the decoration even artistic.

Though it would be absurd to say that there are no
mosquitoes in Pahang, there are certainly fewer there
than in Singapore or Malacca. Agriculture, including
the cultivation of rice and fruits, the rearing of cattle
(bufFiloes are very cheap), sheep and poultry, some gold
washing, and the manufcture of mats and silk cloth
are the chief industries of Pahang.

This was Mr. Swettenham's fourth visit to Pahang,
and he eives a gloomy account of a country which
would, if placed under proper administration, not
only ameliorate the condit on of its people by en-
couraging tliem to utilize the valuable commodities
that lie within their reach, but also enrich immigrants
in various ways. "Without proceeding to details,"
he says, "those whose experience of the Peninsula
has been confined to the Protected Native States
would be rather antnuished at the manners and cus-
toms still prevalent in the governing class in Pahang,
and if Europeans will risk their cipilal in any large
undertaking here, and can manage to comply with
their obligations, get business trinsao'ed, and obtain
justice and satisfaction in their deilingj with thosa
thev are brought in contact with, I think it will be a
little surprising."

[It is time surely that Pahang were " protected"
into good government. There is thn niakiug of a great
and valuable Dependency in the Malay Peninsula, when
t is ruled as India is now ruled. — Ed.]

♦

NETHERLANDS INDIA NEWS.
{Translated for the " Straits Times.")

Batavia, 7th July. — We have received for notice in
our columns, a copy of a work entitled "A Hand-
book for Cocoa Planters," by E. J. Bartelink, a cocoa
planter in Surinam. The firm of J. H. Bussy at
Amsterdam has brought the book out. It is
handy and handsomely got up with every prospect
of becoming an oft consulted authority here. [Of
course in Dutch. — Ed] Cocoa has now come into
fashion in many districts in this quarter of the world.
When foffee proves disappointing, cocoa is often lookrd
forward to as a substitute in many lands. In Deli,
numerous experiments have been made with it on
land no longer suitable for tobacco. L»s9 extensively,
cocoa is a crop in which many landholders take an
interest. The work is written for West Indies peo-
ple, and is based on experieuee gained there. It is
none the less of importance here from iis showing
how growers go to work with cocoa in a country
where cultivating it has proved a success. In
the preface, the author states, on convincing evidence,
t\\''t, in .Surinam, the'e may be found cocoa estates each
yielding high profits which, p.xasing over from generation
to generation as abiding heirlooms, after a long series of
years of continual atteiit on and care, prove not only to
have lost nothing of their original value, but rather to
have risen in value. The difTeronce of soil and climate
brings on however questions which often cannot be
answered on the strength of experience acquired in
another soil and climate. Ttius it appears that, in the
West Indies, the evil so often besetting cocoa here
namelv, tiiat of the fruit on reachioi^ a certain stage of
growth turning black and rottine away, is not wide-
spread enough to be dealt with in this handbook.
Leaving it out is cerl^ainly not due to oversight, for the
description of all that bears upon cocoa growing is, in
his work, sot forth apparently very fully, neatly and
clearly,— JSa<fli)!a Daghlad.

Blue Gdm,— It is generally supposed that the blue
gum is not a good timber tree. Of course there are no
trees over 20 years old on these hil's— but one I had
cut; down about 14 or 15 years old, when the sap was
6uppo>.ed to be in the ground, was cut into scantlings,
large and small, and planks 13 ft. long, 1 ft. broad, and
IJ inch thick, and although these were exposed for
months from the day they were sawn, they did not
perceptibly warp or crack. Blue gum is an exceed-
ingly tough wood, Bnd hardens very rapidly after
being cut down, and unless wrought immediately is
very hard on carpenter's tools. — CW., M. Mail.

Majoe General R. Morgan writes from Ootaoa-
mund, under date 17th instant :—" Mr. Piedmond, in
writing to you about a wire tramway from Coonoor
to Mettapolliuni, observes regarding the Eucalyptus
Globulus or Blue Gum : ' Of course there are no trees
over twenty years old on these Hills.' The Blue
Gum was introduced by me to these Hills as far
back as 1855, and I planted many thousands of them
in that ye:ir. These trees may be found at Tudor
Hall, and all over the Hills, and are now not 20 but
30 years old. One cut down lately at Tudor Hall,
was found to be 200 feet long. Many have 151 cubic
feet of timber iu them. I fear Mr. Redmond takes
too sanguine a view vi their value when delivered at
the foot vf the HiMs."— Madras Mail.

SflENTIFIO A.SSISTANCE IS TeA WITHERING —
Tlia Indian Planters' Gazette writes: — " What wewi-h
to impress upon tei owners is the necessity of a
little )!ractical scientific ass stance At the present
niomtut the chemistry cf tea is unknown, beyond a
few broad gaieralisma. At pnsent, for instance,
the want of withering machine so as to prepare
leaf in wet weather, is one of the great requirements
of the industry, and vith some knowledge of tlie
different grades of teinperature and cheniic..! change
at wljich the diff'er.;rit stages of manufacture set in,
would probably enable some planter to solve the diffic-
ulty and relieve his brother plau'ers of a great deal
of anxiety in the height of the manufacturing season.

I In the meatime it is a much disputed point whether
to keep over improperly withered leaf, or to roll it

I ofl. By the former process ti.e sppearance of the

' tea is improved at the expense of the I quor, and
by the latter process the opposite is achieved. There
is one established fact, andihat is, that cool wither,
ing houses are preferred aud no doubt they answer
th>-ir pu'pose in fine weather, but in wet weather

! what is to be done ? Ijome sort of forcing is necess-
ary to make a way for the incoming leaf, and to

I p.-tvcnt putrid fermentation set ing in the already
phiclud leaf. In former years the ohl style of cAoo/oAs
was used .ind the waste heat from them utilized,
but, as a rule, the tea m;;de in le:if so treated was
far from good, au I invariably in outtuin came out a
dirty green, no doubt due to some chemical change
ciused by the heit generated by the choohihs. In
making namooiia teas in former years it was customary
to put the rolled mass on to the fire before ferment-
ation sent in, and perhaps we may not be wrong in
believing that leaf withered by hot air gives some
hybrid between namoona and 'green' teas, as some
of the stages of fermentation have been set agoing
by the high tempeiature of the house. We do not
say that this is correct ; we merely put it for-
ward as some silution of the (utturn; and we
think this is one of the most important points on
whidi a chemist could be of greit use to the planter.
If the 'Fathers of Tea' will give practical men
practical hints on tea making tluy will confer a
lastiug binefit on the industry." As regards wither-
ing we cannot h'dp rep- ating our impression in favour
of the use of BlacUman's Air Propeller to send
currents through tea-houses.

September i, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

197

Tea Cultivation — The tea committee has found
a very suitable portion of land for the culture of tea ;
i^. U at Quartier Militaire. This gives us hopes that
Mauritius will soon be able to say, we produce more
thau sugar ; we shall no longer be accused of mono-
cultuie ;* we export sugar, but we export other pro-
duce. We are bei^iiiniug to produce our own eoap, which
is sold daily in very large quantities, Mauritian-soap,
]yhich we expect to export to other countries next year,

N. LAKHlMruR.^Beeu having a turn round the
District last week. Gardens I visited all looking
healthy except one which has not yet pot over the
red spider and green H.v, the former still very bad.
Each manager vieing with his neighbour as to who
can make the best tea profitably. In the manufacture
dark cool rooms with thermometers, &o. , all the go
and liquoring several times a day to get the proper
tlivor and color of outturn. Weather showery, fairly good
or tea. — Houi" and Col.viin! .Ifail.

Alleged Fu.ngoid Origin of " Beri-beri." — The
following statement, if Dr. Taylor's discovery can be
relied.'on, seem^ .'ery important : — WeiCliinese Becorilcr)
■ have been favoured by a short visit from the Rev.
•Wallace Taylor, M.D., of the A. B. C. F. M. Mission,
Osaka, Japan. Dr. Taylor's discoveries regarding the
origin of the disease Kakr, better known as beriberi, are
of the greatest interest. He traces it to a microscopic
spore, which is of'eu found largely developed in rice,
and which he has finally detected in the earth of certain
alluvial and d^mp localities.

Cinchona Bark in London. — A mercantile corre-
spondent writes to us from London: — "The sales of
bark at auction on Tuesday, 30tli June, wmt oH' steadily.
The reappearance of Mr. C. G. Meier as a buyer (he
having obtained an extensive Continental Agency) caused
some considerable sensation, and for a short period
had a depressing effect on the sales. The future of
bark apparently looks more satisfactory, provided the
market is not rusthed with oversupplies from Ceylon.
The unit ranges from 4id to 5^d. A very large pro-
portiou of the Ceylon bark ranges now below 2i per
cent. Bogawantalawa lately hai sent in two or three
parcels of renewed officinalis, analysing over 6 per
cent quinine. The Dock Companies and wharfingers
have arrapfed among themselves a new scale of
charge! on tea from Ist July, the main point of which
is the docks will allow no discount on charges, ; nd
all the wharfingtrs agree to allow a unifirni dis-
count 10 per cent of the latlei's charges ; the result will
be an increased charge of 40 per cent on present rates."

Preserving Fishks. — ^ince writing about Ihe Ma-Ira?
taxidermist, so famous for preserving fishes in almost
their natural states, we have seen the following para-
graph in the Indian Agriculturist : — We learn that
Dr. Kowell, principal medical officer in the Straits
Settlem'-nts, has set an example which might well be
followed to a greater extent thau it has hitherto been
in this country, although we are well aware of the
good work done in a similar direction by Dr. Day
and Dr. Shortt. We refer to the fromatiou of a
Bcieutitio collection of the fishes and Crustacea inhab t-
ing both the seas and the rivers of the Ma'a.van
peuintula. Dr. Kowell, we find, obtained the assistance
of a taxidermist traired at the Madras Museum under
Dr. Bidie, and with his assiatance he has got together
specimens of something like 100 difTerent species, in
which the natural colours tf thit fi.sh are mo-t
wonderfully preserved. It is intended to place the
present collection in the Raffles Museum at Singapore,
but Dr. Kowell propns s also to send home duplicates
of as many his collection as possible to the Indian
and Colonial Exhrbiiion n'xt year-, where they may
ba eipected to prove objects of attr ction.

* Curioirs that in all the discussions on coffee in Ceylon no
one has irsej this expressive word. We have constantly ui-ed
the periphrasis o£ " all eggs in one basket." — Ed.]

Agricultuke in Mysore. — Colonel Hay, in charge
of the Amrat M.ahal Department, h.as obtained the
sanctiou of the Dewan to the formation of experi-
mental farms in Mysore, for the cultivation of guinea
and other grasses, and the storing of green fodder in
silos to provide wholesome forage for cattle during
the hot season, the scarcity of fodder during the past
spason having proved such a gi-eat calamity. 111,500
has been sanctioned for the purpose. A recent ex-
periment with a silo on the Kungil farm was productive
of excellent results.^Cii;i7aHii .Vilitary QazclU],

A Second Version op "The Red Siioeflower" &c.
— The red shoeflower is called by the Sinhalese ' wada
mal,' and by them and the Tamils 'sapattumal' io
imitiitioQ of the English from the fact that the flowers
are used to blacken shoes with. I never heard it;
called ' suriya mam.' The Colombo avenue tree,
Thespaaia jiopulnea, c&VcX the 'tulip tree' because its
flowers are lilce those of the tulip, is the " suriva-guha."
The sunflower is the ' suriyakanti ' of the Sinhalese, and
I don't think the morning-j^lory is ever called by
such name. — Cor. [Our correspondent forgets that the
names given were those used in Northern India, not
Ceylon. — Ed.]

Soap at the Whap.p. — The other day some 500
cwt. of soap manufactured from illupei oil were
sold by public auction at the wharf and bought by
Moormen at about RIO per cwt. This is said to have
been imported from India by some Ohetties and con-
tiscated as undervalued. The Moormen say that for
the purposes of duty it w as valued at P^9-75 per cwt.,
and they laugh at the idea of confiscation for the
ditference of 25 cents. The importer is said to be
fortunate in securing ready cash all in a lump and
on so short a notice in lieu of having to wait for
ye.irs to realize his capital by the sale of the soap
iu his boutique. — Cor.

Coppper in Arrack. — In a very interesting re-
port by the Madras Government Chemical Kxaminer
from which we should like to quote largely if we had
room, occurs a paragraph of local interest inasmuch
as the spirit in which copper was detected may have
been distilled in Ceylon : —

Copper iii arrack. — It is noteworthy that a great many
specimens of arrack contain copper iu appreciable quant-
ity. Mr. Newman made an estimation of it in some cases,
but it was never found in such amount as to be injurious
to health. It is probably derived from copper condensers
used ill distillation. The fact is important because cop-
per might possibly be found in dangerous quantities iu
the arrack first distilled through a corroded copper con-
denser; also because a medico-legal (juestion mig'nt arise
as to the preseuce of copper iu spirit used to preserve
substances submitted to chemical analysis in cases of
suspected poisoning.

Col. Money on Ceyi.on Tea. — Col Money writes to
the Indian Tea GaZ'^lle : — Ceylon goes ahead and
some wonderful accounts of the yield per
acie have come home. But it should be
rememl ered young planters are always siuguine.
I believe there have been some large yields, 1,000
pounds and upwards per aore, but there may be ojcep.
tioual causes. One );lauter wriitng lately iu a Colombo
paper assumes .'iOO to 400 lb. as the yield in many
plaC'S. I think the yield iMl probably exceed Indian,
for Ihey iiick pretty well all the » ear round, but it
is a quc-tion if they are wise to do it.* But be the
yield more or less thf generality of Ceylon tens are
very good, and no one can doubt India bai a formid-
able rival in that island. I wish they would calculate
their tea in mauuds as we do. It is simpler and takes
fewer figures.

* I see red-spider is already in Ceylon. How greatly
this pest diminishes the yield in India! It will assuredly
do the same there.

I9S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1S85.

Estates asd CREtrT. — A proprietary Planter,
who, while determined to act on St. Paul's principle,
" Owe no mm anything,' U working his properties i
without agents or cash credits and is therefore de-
pendent for funds on getting hi< produce away and
drawing agaiust shipment, expresses the opinion that
" it means ruin to thinl- of borrowing money in these
days, and that if an estate cannot be kept going on its
own merits it is best to throw it up at once.'

Emaxcipatiox or Civil Wak is' Brazil — The Ifio
JNV«J thus concludes an article on the slavery question
in Brazil: — A compromise, therefore, c mid only produce
temporary lull, sutficieat perhaps to hide from the
country the abyss to which it was softly gliding, bnt
the abysm is none the less there and will be, sooner
or later, surely reached. As there are physical diseases
only curable by heroic remedies, so are there social
cancers oaly to be extirpated by distress, and perhaps
misery for a period, and although this sentiment is
somewhat thread-bare, it will serve as preface to our
project which is : decree the immediate abolition of
8l.»very throughout the Empire of Brazil. I

SocTH CooBG, 7th July. — Our rainfall to date has been j
very favourable, about thirty inches ; the crops are large
and vigorous, but the tendency for prices to lemaiu low
damp the spirit of enterprising owners of the soil. A
good many reiluctions have been effected, and working
expenses cut down to the lowest. The cry of *' no
money in the country " rings in every person's ears,
while one large firm has issued a circular indicating fur-
ther reductions nest year if prices don't rise. This is very
hard on Superintendents who work hard to get the crop
and who have no control over the coffee-market ! Their
prospects are gloomy and each fears to send for his
daily tappal in case the fatal notice of *• your services are
no longer required &c.'' should turn up, but every cloud
has a silver liuing, so let us hope for better things to j
come ; past experience has taught proprietors to economise
now. — Jfadi-as Mill.

Tea is Sylhet. — A correspondent of the Cslcutta
Englishman says:— Until a wtek ago, bright hot days
with rain at nights wss the weather prevailing in
North Sylbet. For tea better weather than this Ci'Uld
not be desired ; it brings on t e flushes in grand
style and accelerates the fermentation of leaf. Profit-
ing by seasonable weather and favourable conditions
generally, most of the gardens in Xort'i S.vlhet are
getting on with th<=ir manufacture giily ; the Lallakhal
Garden being, I hear already upwards of two hundred
mannds in advance of its out-turn fur the correspond-
ing period of la^t year. Bar accidents, the crop for
IS80 shonld be a bumper one. But what is good .
weather for tea is not always enjoyable weather for I
man, and I for one hail the change from hot steamy '
days t3 rainy weather once mors with satisfaction.
Yesterday we had several inchfS ; and as I write,
heavy rain is falling with a persistency that bodes evil
for the d"vellers on low lands. !

Leafdiseask is- Netheklasds I.VDiA. — The follow- I
iag paragnp"! shows that the coffee fundus is pursuing in
the Eastern Archipelago the same deadly course as it
took in Ceylon : — Batavia, 11th July. — Eegarding the
coffee leaf-disease in Mid Java, a Samarang newspaper
gives some discouragng figures furni-h-d by Mr. Mic- '
Gillavray, of the Satirongo estate, on which, in 1SS4. the
crop was only between nne-third and ooe-fourth of that
gathered in ISSo. The information bore upon about
30 estates which, during 1S84, as compare 1 with ISS3, '
had suffered heavily more or less according tj tieir I
respective height above sea-level, but whose collective
yield in I8S1 amounted to only 'Jo 0€o piculs agunst
61 87"2 in 1SS3. On some of these estates, the outturn
fell from l.SOO to 120 picnls. Takea altogether, it
appears that in ltS4 compared with the previous year
the coUeciive crop on these 30 estates was short tJ
the value of eleven hundred thonsind guilders, some
of them bearing a disproportionate share of the Joss.
— Baiaeia DagbUid,

Wood VALr.VBLE por Tea Boxes is thus noticed
in the proceedings of the Aladras Agri-Horti-
cultural Society ; — A small bag of seed of Evoctia
meliix/olia (wood valuable for tea boxes), from J. S.
Gamble, Esq., Conservator of Forests, Northern Circle.

IXDiARCBBER Plates FOR ARMorR. — Under Admir-
alty directions, an extraordinary experiment is to be
made at Portsmouth, and the results are anticipated
with remarkable interest. Targets coated with india-
rubber sheets are to be fi.xed on sides of armour-clad
resistance, and they will be subjected to progressive
gunnery tests, commencing with a six-pounder quick
firing gun and increasing, if possible, up to a Sin,
nine-ton breech-loader. Shonld the trials be attended
with success, as is expected by some experts, the
arming of men-of-war will be almost rerolutionised,
indiarubbei sheets, specially prepared, being largely
substituted for armour plates. — IVeekly Echo.

Snails ast) Eczema or Skis Irrcptios-s. — We
recommend the following cutious experience, sent by
a clersymau to the Standard, to residents in the
Far East: — "Some year ago, suffering from a severe
attack of eczema, for which I could get no relief,
while walking one evening in my garden, and in
great pain, I happened to cast my eye upon a snail,
and as my leg was burning and the snail looked so
cool I at once rubbed it over the itchiug part, and
found immediate relief; so much so that I got two
or three more, and, breaking off the shell, applied
them, letting it dry in. That night I slept in per-
fect ease, and of course followed up my new found
remedy, and in a few days eczema was all gone, and,
I am thankful to say, never returned. I have re-
commended the same to my friends who have suffered
from the like complaint, and all have found relief.
It IS, also an almost infallible cure for skin diseases,
and deserves to be better known than it is.' — StraiU
Tim's.

The QrKKX or Flowers nt Cevlox. — On many
upland es'ates in Ceylon we have teen not only
gArden plots but hedges brilliant with a wealth of
roses. But nntil the receipt (fa basket from Mr.
A. Whyte of Kandy, a few dajs »go, we had but an
imperfect idea of the perfection of form, colour and
fragrance to which the very finest species of roses can
be brought in our island by careful and intellii:ent
cultivation. When the basket was opened, a scene of
exquisite beauty was suddenly revealed, the many-
petalled, conipict and large blossoms displaying every
shade of crimson, pink, glorious golden-yellow and
white. The basket was more than half filled with
damp mess, and in this were placed a number of
pDrons earthen pots which held the bouquets of roses,
the stems of the tlowers being aho in damp moss
with which the pots were half fi led. So packed, Mr.
Whyte told us, he was able to send his roses in good
condition to distances so remote from Kandy as Galle,
Our readers will now know where to apply for the
most exquisite of floral adornments, on occasions of
marriages or ot'aer festive meetings, cr for the brighten-
ing of everyday life, especially to the ladies of
families. There was a large bunch of vari-colonred
and sweetly fragrant roses in each pot, and each of
the bunches was made up of a number of a smaller
bouquets, so that the flowers could be concentrated,
or spread over the tibl-^s of a drawingroom or
boudoir at pleasure. Mr. Whyte, besides being a well-
informed naturalist and a competent taxide mist (in
which characters we trust he may be enr.ploved to add
to the interest of the Ceylon Court in the Co'ooal and
Indian Exhibition), has the instincts and feelings of
a true artist and deserves encourasiement from those
who delight in the curiosities and " things of beauty "
of the animal and vegetable world of Ceylon. lie is
the best practical interpreter of oar natural history
who MB be consulted.

September i, 18S5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

199

AGRICULTURE IN SIAM.
{Translated for the "Straits Times".)

Mr. Hamel, the Netherlands consul general at
Bangkok, draws the following dark pictare of the state
of agriculture in Siam, in his official report for
1884:-

As I have repeatedly set forth in my previons yearly
reports, this country from being intersected generally
cpeakiog as it is bv many large rivers which yearly
overflow widespread plaiDS, is extremely fertile and
were the Goveroment to give the least help or slightest
encouragement, there is no reason why Siam, so far
as rice growirg is concerned, should not run Burmah
and Cochin China very close. Nothing is, however,
done by the authorities in this respect. Neglect of a
matter of euch high importance to the people at large
is rather to be noted than otherwise. Everything
of the kind is left to private enterprize, nowith-
itandine that a large revenue from rice cultiv-
ation flows into the Slate Treasury both from
direct taxation on the standing crops and duties
on grain exports. Whenever the particular inter-
ests of some head official do not come into
play, not the slightest outlay is made for either canal-
ization or irrigation. Even the canals around and
near Bangkok are not regularly kept at a proper depth.
Hence it is that many a time in the dry season cult-
ivators cannot take their proiuce to market from in-
sufficient means of communication. It is generally
taken for granted among rice dealers here that, of
late years, rice, especially the kind styled a field rice,
has fallen off in quali*y and become lighter and more
brittle, and after husking, yields a much larger amount
of broken grain than formerly. This points to the
desirableness of improvement either by importation on
a large scale of better seed grain from other districts,
or by closer supervision over cultivation. With the
exception of small experiments now and then by enter-
prizing private individuals, nothing whatever has been
done in 'his line. In December Ij^t year, I had an
opportnnity of going up the Ban Pa Kong river. Not
many years ago, a great iiumber of sugar mills were
found there, most of which have, however, disappeared.
Caoe is now grown there for lo^al consumption only.
Two rice mills were almost the only [signs of in-
dustrial activity along this large stream. The fertile
fields along bo;h banks lie mostly uncultivated. At
diitances of more than twenty English miles harlly a
dwelling house, much less any cultivation came UDder
notice. In all directions so far as the eyesight reached,
there were stretches of lonesome, unfrequented plains
overgrown with high grass which only awaited the
industrious bands of cultivators to yield abordant fruit.
I also noticed the same state of things alfng other
large streams which traverse Siam, such as the Mekong
acd Tochiii. Even the highly futile valley of the
Mensm is no eiceptioa thereto. I hence deim there
are good groncds for comine to the coi c!n>ion that on'y
a tw.ntieth part of fertile fields of Siam has been
brought under cuhivatir.n. Tears ago an enlightened
and eLt:rptiEiDg Siamese laid be'ore the Government a
Scheme for setting up a large Cultiva'im ("(•mpany,
wit its support and cooperation, to till this waste
lad. and, with that object, to further the immi-
gration if Chinese labourers, but it was rep-atedly
r<jecle<i for fear of poiiticai complications. Yet
it is ti ihe industrial enterpriz' of ihe Chines"
that ■'■iam mainly owes what few impn v- menls have
beeu c. rrieJ through. Even without drfct interference
on the part of the Govercment, a great deal might be
done to make the country more fion i-hing ard pre
duc'ive, were rnlythe Government mii.Hiul of gradual;}
intr' ducipg much needed reforms in its ruing system.
Bud, by the appointment of salaried officials, and
other measure* as well, cbeckiog the extortion aod

arbitrary proceedings of the legion of high an'*
low officials, who, as matters now stand, live ex-
clusively by knavery ard extortion which naturally
works baruifuUy in every way, and cannot further by
any means tlie growth of public well being.

Mr. Hamel further takes note of the circumstances
that in 1884, 13,000 to 15,000 head of cattle were ex-
ported from Bangkok, they being conveyed regularly
to Singapore by steamers carrj-ing on the average
about 200 head each trip as deck loading. This
trade which yields h gh profits is almcst ex-
clusively in the hands of Klinge and Malays under
British and Netherlands protection.

As to teak wood, the consul-general reports that
the Siamese kind as it becomes better known in
Europe, comes into greater demand and reachesalmost
the same value as the Manlmein article. Supplies of
it from the interior fell below the average in 1884
from the low stage of water in the rivers preventing
cargoes of it coming down on rafts. Should the rivers
this year be more navigable, larger supplies than
u'ual may be expected with a prospect of higher
prices from greater demand. The trade in the article
is said to be best carried on in small vessel*, from
their light draft enabling them to pass the bar below
Bangkok, thereby saving much outlay and trouble.
Mr. Hamel concludes the report by noting that direct
trade between Siam and Netherlands India nas smaller
in 1SS4 than in former years from Java needing less
nee from that country, and from fewer of the Siamese
fish called Platu bemg caught owing to its growing
scarcity in the Gulf of biam.

VII.
Till.

IX.

ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON AGRICULTURE
PART 1. IN TAMIL) BY C. BRITO ESQ.
The above is the title of a neatly printed book of 76 pages
a copy of which has been sent to us by the author. Its
9 Chapters are thus distributed.

Chap. I. Arithmetic and Geometry.
II. Astronomy and Geography.
HI. Geology.

Earth Fire Water,
IV. Chemistry.

Elements and Compound Subitances,
V. Biology.
VI. Animal Physiology.
Botany.

Agriculture, Soil, Improvement Vegetable
Products, 3Iauure, "Water, Ploughing, .Sow-
ing, Reaping, Animals, Paddy.
Meteorology.

.\Ithough the concrete sciences are more engaging to
young minds than the absract ouee, yet it is a fact, inexplic-
able as it is, that the former are deferred to a later period
in the students' coarse than the latter. In our schools,
science is taught only in the higher classes, in English
Schools; and it is not at all taught in the Vernacular, perhaps
for the obvious reason that proper text books cau be had
only in English and to lesrn from them they must first go
through the English Grammar and the English language.
Mr. Brito's book professing to tw a Tamil text book of
science cannot be too highly recommended to the vernacular
schools. The curious school boy will find in it many curious
things which cannot fail to excite him to more extensive
pursuits. To know in a practical way how to measure a
piece of laud, how to account for day and night, how two
had poisons can join together and produce our curry salt,
to know that our earth was formerly a round ball of rrck
with fire in the middle, that even now there is fire within
the Earth enough to melt stones and metals that there is
no such thing as fire, but it is only a sign of the separation
of two elements, that water is not an element, that the
great and mysterious tank at Nilavarai can be explained
away as an .lirtesian well, that iliamond is a kind of coal,
ruby alumiiia, that even the simple .ict of a man's walking
is equal to carrying a weight 3C0 c» t., that there are sucli
things as animal trees, that although certain animals are
cQt and backed to piec««, yet erery piece will become a

zoo

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [SEPTEMBfiR i, 1885.

new animal, that trees breath just as men, that the age of
dogs IS 20 years, cat 15, hare S, elephant IC'O, pig 25, horse
30, ass 30, camel 50, goat 12, cow 15, crow 100, peacock
20, fowls 10, tortoise 100 all these and the like are both
amusing and instructive to learn. The farmer, the grocer,
the medical practitioner, the headman, the housewife, the
smith a!id every class of men will find in this book many
useful facts and hints. Mr. B. recommends English ploughs
for our use saying that it costs only 12 annas to plough
an acre with an Knglish plough while with a native plough,
it costs 50 annas. He also tells us that the Americans
cultivate their paddy in a different way from ours which is
so good and suggests that it is thi' very paddy which should
be introduced here as a change for the soil. AYe also learn
that we Tamils are 15 millions strong.

Speaking of the dignity of agriculture his words are so
true and impressive that we will quote them in English as
nearly as possible. " But in our country the soil is hungry,
cattle hungry, tenant hungry, farmer hungry, subject hungry
and the King also hungry. If the hunger of the soil be
appeased " every other hunger will be appeased. We acknow-
ledge the book with thanks. — "Ceylou Patriot," July 17th.

Good Coffee Crop.s. — Not alone in Uva are
there good coffee crops this season : Mr. Cantlay
can show 200 acres on the Mount Vernon property
with 5 cwt. per acre, according to present appear-
ances ; Bearwell has 4 cwt. over 200 acres ; Belgravia
is to <Io well as usual ; while in the Wallaha valley
there are several good crops, if only leaf-disease would
not disturb calculations at this critical time. North
of Kandy, the return of coffee from the older dis-
tricts is almost, if not quite, nil, owing to the
ravages of bug.

The Fame of the Ceylox Tea EsxEErRizE
has indeed reached a height, when at the meeting of
shareholders in the Land Mortgage Bank of India,
one gentleman, Mr. Buchanan, announced as a fact —
and he was not contradicted — that "80,000 acres of
tea in cultivation in Ceylon a year or two ago,
had increased to 540,000 "!— What next? Strange,
however, that a roomful of people, all interested in
" tea," did not notice this gross exaggeration on the
face of it. When Ceylon gets to half this area, or
say 200,000 acres, some years hence, it will be time
for India tea planters to put their house in order.

White-ants and Elf.vatiom in Ceylon. — A planter
writes : — " Re your worthy art'ole on white-ants, what
would be the elevation of Fernlands, PundaUmya ?
There white ants attempt to pull down store and bunga-
low. I do not think it is so much elevatii n, as if they
have a free passage from low-lying paddy-fields to
the estates, but a strip of jungle will stop them-"
Fernlands store in Pundaluoja must, we suppose, be
situated at about an elevation of 3,000 feet above sea-
level. Tiiere is something in what our correspondent
gays. — We have just learned, however, thut the pro-
prietor of Fernlands never heard of his store being
attacked by white-ants !

CoFrEE IN CooRO, Mercara,— Our supply of Jtysore
cooly labor is but slowly coming in as yet, there
has evidtutly been considerable delay in the west province
from want of rain for planting grain and cereals ; men
who have now come in, say that only in the end of May,
when the weather was so cyclouish in Coorg, did thi'y get
sufficient rain to plotigh ; since which time rain has been
general, and grtiin is much chea]>er. I <lo not know of
any new estates being opened this year ; planters are wait-
ing for the clouds to lift a little mure, before utilizing
their jungles. AVe have had some c.ipital planting or
supplying weather since the 2nd instant, when the mon-
soon may be said to have commenced. There has been
rain every day since, and persistent high winds, which
have done some small damage, Vmt it is womlerful grow-
ing weather. There has been some disaiipoinlnient felt
from the effects of Kinger, which in new eleiirings has
largely attacked last year's plants, and killed off about 30
per cent, This insect is never seen st work ; it sleeps by

day in holes in the ground under fallen leaves if possible,
then when darkness comes it emerges forth, eats the tender
bark of the young stem, perhaps halt an inch in width,
but completely round the stem, and does nothing more;
that plant dies, but the grub or Kinger lives on, and
attacks more plants. It was in March last I first saw the
effects of the pest, and was jnizzled to know the evil at
first, ascribing it to grasshoppers ; it was accident which
led to my finding them to be night prowlers, for at fii'st
I procured some thin breasted, long legged, hungry coun-
try fowls, and turned them at libt-rty in a new clearing,
but they only seemed to get lost, witliout checking this
mysterious ringer, which was now getting a nuisance and
a danger : so eventually I had to get lanterns, and with
persuasion mustered a few coolies, to search after dark,
and pop them into bottles. Filling the bottles with boil-
ing water afterwards was quite a pleasure. I have not
noticed any fresh attacks, since the monsoon came on. —
Madras HUiiidard.

Tka in Japan.— As the season progi esses, says
the Japan Mail, of July 11th, people begin to discover
that happily the gloomy prospects outlined in Noti-
fication No. 20, of the Department of Agriculture and
Commerce, are not likely to be fully realized. We
were tcdd by the compilers of that remarkable docu-
ment that the climatic irregularities of the spring
seemed to portend serious agricultural misfortune,
and that the crops of tea ant! wheat bad already
showed deficiencies of fifty and forty per cent, res-
pectively, as compared with normal yields. It was
certainly true, at the time of the notiUcation'a issue,
that owing to late frosts and want of manure, tea
shrubs had not been productive at the first pulling.
But the conditions of tea cultivation render it rash to
foretell definite results at an early stage, inasmuch as
the second crop of leaves may, and frequently does,
prove sufficiently prolific to compensate previous de-
ficiencies. Such, indeed, is said to be the case this
year. The market returns show settlements of ninety
thousand piculs up to the end of June, against eighty-
seven thousand at the same period of IS84.

CocoNDTS AND Cbabs ON THE Keelixg ISLANDS. — Land-
Ward the soil is tilled by the great coconut crab (Birus
latro). It is chiefly nocturnal in its habits, making tun-
nels in the ground larger than rabbit burrows, lined for
warmth (?) with coconut fibre. It feeds almost exclus-
ively on fallen coconuts, using its great claw to denude
the fruit of the husk surrounding it, and to get at the
eye of the nut, which it has learned is the only easy
gateway to the interior. Of the three eye spots seen at
the end of a coconut, only one permits an easy entrance.
The Birgus does not waste its energies in denuding the
whole uut, and it never denudes the wrong end. Having
pierced the proper eye with one of its spindle ambulatory
legs, it rotates the nut round till the orifice is large enough
to permit the insertion of its great claw to break up the
shell, and triturate its contents, whose particles it then
carries to its mouth by means of its other and smuller
cheliferous foot. From this nutritious diet it accumulates
beneath its tail a store of fat, which dissolves by heat into
a rich yellow oil, of which a large specimen will often
yield as much as two pints. Thickened in the sun, it forms
an excellent substitute for butter in all its uses. Mr,
Forbes also discovered it to be a- valuable preserving lu-
bricant for guns and steel instruments ; and only when
a small bottle of it, which he bad had for two years,
was finished, did he fully realise what a precious anti-cor-
rosive in these humid regions he had lost. The coconut
tree as a rule is a branchless palm, but on AVest Island,
one of the Keeling group, Jlr. Forbes noted its rare occur-
rence as a branching tree, which,' instead of fruiting
spikes, invariably produced persistent branches crowned with
a bunch of leaves — adding to the beauty of the already
graceful palm. Tender favourable circumstances, it ap-
pears, the coconut can produce its first fruit within four
years from the fall of the seed nut from its parent tree,
while it can go on for an unknown jieri-id throwing ouj
every month a new fruit spike, bearing from seven to four,
tucn nuts, which require from eight to thirteen montii,,
tg ripen,,— ,fteW

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

20t

FIJI SKETCHER-BY VITI.

OUR COCONUTS.
Our coconuts from Fiji are not unfamiliar objects on
the Melbourne wharves, and are even hawkeil about your
streets. Juveniles are also acquainted with them in the
shape of white shavings, most fascinatingly cry.stallized
over with tinted sugars, and exposed in that fairyland
of delight, a iirst-class confectioner's window. Coir fibre,
coir rope, and coir matting are well known too, I have
no doubt ; but you cannot realize ail about the coconut
in Southern Australia ; and your scenes auil surroundings
are quite different from those in which the handsome
palm and its useful products flourish. Nay, you cannot
know the nut in its proper drinking stage, a smooth
green thing which, when the top is struck off, is a
fountain of clear, delicious liquid, cool and sweet, and
as much as a man can drink. Nor in some merchant's
offices Is the dried kernel, tons of which they used to
regularly sell before the Germans well-nigh monopolized
the trade, known very much about — if we are to accept
the testimony of Mr. William Seed, once a very popular
Inspector-General of I'olice in |Fiji. He asserted that
when visitint; Sydney, he was informed by a leading merch-
ant that copperas formed a large item in the exports of
Fiji. " Copperas '." saiil the astonished Mr. .Seed. " Why,
I never heard we had any there." ** Oh, yes, it is your
chief article of export." " Can't be. It is impossible
that I should not have known it had such been the
case." "Nonsense !" urged the positive and intelligent
Sydney merchant, " I ought to know, for I have sold
hundreds of tons of it." That beat Mr. Seed into patient
resignation to the inevitable, but it came out in time
that copra was what was meant, and as that commod-
ity appears in market reports and price quotations, as
" copras rising" or " copras £!) os. per ton," the mineral
or chemical product, copperas, and the vegetable product,
copra, were regarded as one and the same by the lead-
ing Sydney merchant, according to Mr. Seed. Mr. Seed,
who wa-s well known here to be entirely without the
laump of veneration, audaciously asserted that the same
igrorance existed in lyielboume ! If so, there is an open-
ing even for such an article as this, which is not in-
tended for an exhaustive monogram on the coconut.

The first peculiar and distinctive feature of the isles
of Fiji to a voyager from Victoria is the surge-rimmed
reef ; the second is the coconut palm. As it stands
upon some breezy cape waving like a bunch of ostrich
feathers on a slight cane stem, in the distance it at
once catches the eye as something new and quite a
thing of beauty. Then, as the island shores are drawn
nearer to, the long lines of tall palms fringing the
white coral sand of the beach delight the gazer, and
he feela that he has got into another worlri. The South
Sea islets have a picturesqueness of their own, derived
from high and fantastically broken outlines ; from a
picturesque, if dangerous setting of coral-edged reef-rings ;
from outposts of " patches," over which the sea breaks
with startling force ; and also from the lovely verdure
with which the hillsides are clothed, a perfect" study of
many shades of exquisite green. But a very great deal
of their charm is really due to the elegant and ever-
pleaiiing effect of the palms that crown the heights or
etand in thick groves on the flats, or border with a tall
and stately palisading the gleaming sands. Nature for
centuries has thus adorned Fiji, the long, roUitig waves
of the Pacific washing the plain, brown nuts from some
distant strand, and casting them where aught else would
perish, but where they take root and thrive. The dark
brown, luisightly, unpromising lumps, drifting as mere
waifs of the careless sea, possessed within them the
potentialities of great beauty, and marvellous usefulness,
and future wealth, and as they slowly draw near the
coral lands of Fiji they meant glory to the islands, food,
drink, timber, and cordage to the people, and prosperity
and money to the Jlesfrs. Hennings. Knt the aborig-
ines have supplemented with their own fitful toil the
•low, grand processes of Nature. A large proportion of
the plams of Fiji have been planted, and nearly every
village meant a grove of coconuts, and almost every
grove of nuts iqdiodtcs the site of a, native village,
2«

But in addition to this, to the work of Nature and tho
work of Fijians, a great deal has been done by foreign
settlers, pioneer planters, and enterprizing colonists.
Large areas of land have been placed under cultivation
by these later factors in the development of the country,
and nut planting has been carried on scientifically,
atiil with regularity and stuily— but not in all cases
with success. Nature and the Fijians certaiidy seemed
to have known best. Yet, failures apart, there are
some noble estates of coconut groves in the group.
These are not to be found about Suva, that objection-
able place having scarcely a palm to indicate that there
are any in the country at all, but on Vanua Levu, and
the M'indward Islands. And it is a glorious sight to
look from a vessel's deck upon a hill-side clothed with
hundreds upon hundreds of fine palms, with full, large
crowns of sheeny fronds, the trees set out with mathe-
matical regularity ; or to stand on a flat, grassy area
under a forest of palms, which rear their graceful heatls
to an equal height above you, their tall stems ranging
far away to the left, right, front, and back of you.
" Under the palms " browse cattle, who leisurely per-
form a double duty, fattening themselves for the mar-
ket and keeping the ground clear. In this way coco-
nut trees and cows do well together, provided that the
trees have passed their minority before their bovine
friends are introduced. Some fine coconut estates are
at Savusavu Kay (notably Mr. Fenton's), and from
there comes a supply, too, of beef for Levuka's
" Smithfield Butchery." Attention is now being paid to
the rearing of well-bred stock, as the grazing has proved
such a success. Mango Island has a glorious show
of nut palms growing on its hill-sides and nestling in
thick profusion in its valleys, and there may be seen
the plant in every stage of its growth, from the hoary
old patriarchs planted by the aboriginal residents on the
island to young things that boast more leaves than stem
and have been sot out in equidistant rows by order of
Mr. Borron, the manager. Of these there are over 500
acres, and, from time to time, more will be put in,
until the isle shall be one mass of fruitful green. The
finest coconut beach in the country is to be seen at
Lomaloma, where for miles there is a good wide road,
and many hamdsome avenues of native planted palms.
The most restful, delicious, and altogether Edenlike por-
tion of the group is this same Lomaloma. No one
arriving in Suva could ever imagine that there was a
Lomaloma in Fiji,

I have spoken of the planting of these "royal nuts,"
as Kiugsley called them, by Dame Nature herself, who
washed them on coral beaches by her fast-following
waves ; but it must not be forgotten that the dear old
lady's efforts have been largely supplemented by her
intelligent clnldren, the anthropoids. T'he Fijian took up
the work, and assisteil nature to make the islands
beautiful, though the idea of the beautiful must have
been a very latent motive with him, for he is the most
out-and-out utilitarian that I know. And his mode of
operation is this: — He begins with the nut just when
the Warrnambool planter does with his potato — when it
sprouts. That soft, pale, white mucilage which you see
in the green drinking nut, surrounding the pint and a
half of liquid, becomes the hard, white substance which
you know so well in Melbourne, this may be compared
with the white of an egg. A yellow substance formsand
gradually absorbs the whole cavity occupied by the sweet
liquid, and this, known as "vara" (the indigestible delight
of all children), is the yolk of the egg, and from it
comes the germ of life. Whether this coconut egg,
called a •' griffin's egg" in an old MS., is holoblasfc or
mesoblast may be left to the keen, dividing mind of
him who telegraphed fo wisely concerning the ovum
of the duckbilled platypus to the British A.'^sociatiou at
Montreal. But from this vara springs a tiny shoot which
finds its way out at an eye in the hard shell, with
wonderful foresight bor(d and temporarily doted for
the occasion. The sprout asserts itself, opening the
lough husk with a lance-point, and then throwing out
leaves in the open air. Now the Fijian eye takis notice
of it, and the nut is removed from the ground where

it h'»d f:illrn fi-nrii ihe pfireiit, iKtliil. liiidHniHt'cJ Ijy its great

202

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

desceut, or by the thud with which it had announced itself
as about to begin an independent life: and the owner puts
it in a row with several otliers, all iu like ineresting con-
dition. I have 8fcn hundreds of these infants lying in
a row, and vigorously sprouting all the time. "When the
plant is very fairly outside what originally contained it,
then it is taken to a place where the earth has been loosened,
and stuck in there. A few occasional weedings, and the
youthful palm must, like the youthful Arab of Hotham
or (lollingwood, take care of itself. These nuts are
planted by the seashore (for they best love the coral
sr-rand and the kiss of the sea's salt lip) on the little
Hat deltas, on promontories, liill-sides — everywhere ; even
right in tin- heart of the lull-country, where there is no
saltwater (and coconuts were not supijosed to grow
many miles from the seashore), thfy are found. But
there is perceptible ditTerence between the drinking nuts
grown inland and those that flourish on the littoral.
One canny practice that the Fijians have may be
observed when looking at ridges, especially the crowning
ridges of small isbimN, Here, exactly oa the dividing
h'ne, palms are put so that a« the mature nuts fall
some will roll to one side and others in the opposite
direction, and in that way many palms will rise up
selfsown on both of the slopes. Any plan for the
economizing of personal effort meets the approval of
these children of the sun, the Fijians. AVhere an En-
glishman seeks to save time, they only desire to save
work. In these later years the interests of the coconuts
have been taken in hand by men of a civilized race, and
they have been planted "" according to Cocker," and in
great numbers with almost mathematical precision.
Weeding has been systematically attended to, and no
detail neglected which could bear in any way upon the
very best prosperity and productiveness uf this interest-
ing source of income. ^Mother Nature did well, the Fijians
did better, the white man has done best. But some
visitors in "Wairarapa last year were slow to distiuguish
between the irregularity of nature and the regularity of
man — the uhite man. Turning into a coconut estate on
Vuna Point, where the palms stood in proper regulation
order, like troops upon parade, '* Look here !" they cried,
*•■ here's a coconut grove ; what a lot of them ! And how
singularly even they grow — all the same distance apart.
Wonderful !'* And the worthy proprietor, who had spent
his hours with tape and line arranging this curious equi-
distance, listened while Nature herself received the whole
of the praise. Perhaps, the same tourists on their way
through Kyneton ascribed the long wheat furrows there
to the conscientiously regular action of a small earthquake.
And now, as we have seen the nut palms growing as
nature, Fijians and settlers have placed them, let us see
what use they are put to. The Fijian has the first use,
we niight say ; but in some of the Windward Isles there
is a creature lower in the scale of being that first begins
to utilize the nuts. It is a crab, a huge landcrah, with
most powerful and terrible claws, Bergi'S latro^ the Latins
call him. Ugavuie (Oongahvooleh) he is styled by the
soft-eyed bipeds of the place. Bergus latro " swarms "
up a palm, lays hold upon a promising nut, and husks it;
gets at it somehow, and enjoys the succulence within. In
a list of items presented to the Sydney Museum a little
while buck, I saw mentioned the husk of a ccconut with
the marks upon it of the claws of that thief, Bergus
latro. The natives are said to have an amusing way of
outflanking this big crab, and taking him in the rear as
he deficends from his airy perch and godlike feast; they
tie some grass round the stem of the palm at a good
height from the ground. Monster Bergus descends back-
ward like the bear, and, in time, comes to the grass,
whereupon he straightway imagines himself to have arrived
at tena Jit ma, lets go all hold, and the lietiofhncnt can
be imgined. After the crab comes the Fijian, as claimant
of the seductive uut«. He " goes for them," walking up
the tree, not climHng, a« I defy the most agile larrikin
to do. Squatted in the crown, he h,Ts a choice before him,
for there blooms the tiny blossom and stands the baby
nut and there hang other uuts of all stages right up to
the mature thing which is ready to drop upon the boeooi
of mother earth. Tapping with' his fiuger-nail the smootli
(?reen and yellow p-een globe* around him, be can tell
^y the sound what p«rtif:nlRr wif» art in the proper jst;fge

for drinking purposes, and I much doubt if any Tasmaniau
piano-tuner could do the same. Detaching a number of
the right sort, that come thumping down, he follows after
himself not coming headlong indeed, but with a very
factlis descensus movement by aid of the hands and feet
alone. A stake is chosen, sharpened at both ends, stuck
into the ground, and on the upward point the green-
husked nuts are struck, the stake piercing the tough
covering and an adroit movement of the wrists wrenches
off great portions of this until the white shell is laid
bare. So simple does the operation seem, but it is so
difficult. AVairarapa tourists lightly thhik themselves
quite equal to the performance, and they "job'" the nut
on to the stake, happy if they miss piercing their
fingers as a side issue, and try, and wrench, and push
till their faces grow alarmingly hot, and the perspiration
tide-niiu-k rises on their silky coa's between the shoulders.
One after another tries and fails, when the brown-skinned
lad steps forward again, and with a smiling face easily
does the denuding work, and " without turning a hair,"
as we .say at Flemington. Just a knack, but one not to
be acquired in haste by a European. A blow or two
with a long knife, or a stone, or another nut, and a
round piece is knocked from the shell, and the citadel
has fallen — the nut and all it has is yours. Contrast this
easo and method with the frantic struggles of our boyhood,
in endeavouring to get past the tough l-uisk and hard shell
and into the treasure-house of an old coconut bought in
the Melbourne streets. Of course, the natives have abund-
ant use for the nut, as food, as a scraped concomitant
to various made dishes, as a drinking cup, water monkey,
material for fibre, and so forth ; but the principal commercial
use to which they put it is the manufacture of copra.
This copra is formed of the hard, kernel-like lining, cut
into strips and dried in the sun. Now, it is an easy matter
for a native to make this proiluct copra. He simply
collects the old nuts as they fall from the tree, and with
one blow of an axe cleaves them in half through fibrous
husk, hard shell, and white kernel ; the hemispheres are
then hung upon rude stagings, where the sun hardens,
dries, or toughens them. "Wet spoils the process, and has
to be looked out for. The toughened lining is now cut
from the nut by a knife in strips, and these, dried again,
are put into coarse bags for shipment. A native who
has palm trees can thus easily make copra to pay his
taxes with, or to obtain cash from local traders for the
purchase of such goods as he requires, and may be
considered to be in easy circumstances. Just now the
Fijians are not utilizing their nuts as far as they might,
and there has been a falling-off in the export for the
past year in consequence.

And now comes in the Europeans' share in the business
and utilization of the nut. Not only do they husk and
bag the coconuts whole and send them to the neighbouring
colonies, but they buy of the natives their copra, and
they also make it themselves, for there is no surer income
in Fiji than that from a coconut estate. The said copra
once purchased is collected iu small craft, such as decked
cutter-boats and small schooners, and brought into
Levuka. The U. S. S. Co.'s inter-insular steamer also savours
strongly of the stinking stuff, and half-poisons her
passengers with the vile reek that proceeds from such a
villainous but profitable cargo. At Levuka this cargo is
stored, chiefly by German firms, such as Messrs. P. Hoerder
& Co. and (facile princeps] Mr. VC. Hennings, who is
agent for the South Sea kings, Godeffroy k Co., of
Soraoa. One English firm, Messrs. H. Cave & Co.,
is also in the business. Hither come German barques,
which bring merchandize from Hamburg, and take back
copra, or simply act aw collectors, and sail to Samoan
ports, to Tonga, and then to Fiji, picking up contrib-
utions from each place until they are full. Knglish vessels
arrive from London, and go back to Falmouth, with what
Cave k Co. have got stored ready for them. But
the Germans are, par e.rceUence^ the copra traders of the
South Pacific. Their shipping js ever in these waters,
and they work their old ships so economically and pay
such low wages that th- y defy competition. From New
Britain to Fiji, including the Friendly, Navigator's, and
other groups, the copra trade is almost entirely in the
Ijan^s of the watchmen of the Khiue, The large amount
oi Government copra (paid in by the natives W their

September i, 1885.] TilE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

iof

taxes) is soli! by contract, tenders being made every
year, and the successful tenderer takes all that the state
has to give him at a certain fixed rate jier ton ; and
in more than one instance tiie contractor has burned his
fingers. No coconut oil is made now in the group,
except a small quantity by the uativi?s for their personal
adornment, they being worshippers, just as Mr. Matthew
Arnold says the Parisians are, of the Ooddess of Lubricity,
In the former days a great business was done in the
oil line between here and Australia, and those were the
days of abundant casks and hogsheads, oil drums or
*' coppers," and great square iron tanks, left about in
various parts of the island for the oil to be poured into
and kept till the ship came round. One skipper, who
sailed from Levuka to Sydney with a cargo of casks of
oil, toKl me that when he left these casks were not quite
full, that the vessel made a long run out of the tropics
iu one direction, consequently lying on one side all the
time. That the cold weather into which she ran congealed
all the oil to a hard mass in the casks, just as you may
see is the case whith the hair oil in a barber's shop, and
that, in consequence, w hen she had to ' go about" the
cargo had a decided list to one side, which seriously
affected the trim of the ship. A similar process of con-
gelation takes place in a cargo uf copra on the voyage
to Knrope. Looked at in a Levidca store, it seems like
a railwaj' cutting composed of brawn. But when this
is in the ship's hold it gradually compacts into a solid
mass, and then in the cold latitudes it freezes hard until
it becomes as rock, auil is a <lillicult subject for treatment
by those who wish to get it away into the stores of
Hamburg.

The principal copra merchant of Fiji is Mr. William
Hennings, whose elder brother, Mr. Fred. Hennings, was
the leading coconut-oil trader before copra became the
fa.shion. A good story is tohl in connexion with this
gentleman. Some years ago a Sydney draper, visiting
an island in which he had purchased a share, found
that a boat-load of ^-isitors had come ashore, and he at
once proceeded to do the honours of the island. He had
been but a few days iu Fiji altogether, but very kindly en-
dertook to explain many things; and selecting a quiet and
innocent-looking young man, he said good-naturedly to him,
"This is a banana tree." "Ah! iudeeil ! " wa.5 the reply
gratefully accorded. Presently came another piece of in-
formation as the two stood beneatli a gracious jialm, whose
feathery crown was rustling in the trade wiml. 7'///.s- is a
coconut tree ! " " Oh 1 ah ! yes I " .said the other, and shortly
after that they parted. At lunch tlu? two men were form-
ally introduced, and the Sydney draper, as soon as he heard
his young friend's name, di.^covered that he had been
learnedly discoursing ou bananas and coconuts to Mr.
Hennings !

In closing this paper I may say that the Government Gazette
has just beenis.sued, giving certain trade returns for 1881-4.
Therein it says that there has been a decrease in the export
of copra since ISSl of 1,S8SJ tons, and £17,-100. Theamount
exported in 1»S-1 was 5.613 tons, valued at £fi9,GliJ, GG5 tons
of this being raised outside of the colony and brought into
it, as to a copra rendezvous, before the final shipment
to Europe. Last year £17,PS0 worth went to Falmouth,
£6,432 to Hamburg, £22,9r)l to Lisbon, and jf 17,244 to
Liverpool, £338 to Sydney, and £2,0-.'9 to ]\felbourne.
Lisbon an*l Falmouth simply mean that the vessels go
there for orders, and then sail to the particular port which
is fixed upon as the market. Once I saw a vessel, the
" Aurora," last from Siberia clearing out of Levuka port one
early morning with a cargo of copra, worth £30,0110, which
she was to bear to (iermany.

It is hehl by some in Fiji that the copra production
would be considerivbly increased were the present taxation
system abolished, and a payment in money made ojitional.
That then the natives would h.ave ailditional stimulus to
make the required article and use up the coconuts which
otherwise go to waste; that the amount of compefilion
which exists among t'.ie numerous traders would secure
good i)rices to the prodm-ers, who are naturally shrewd
in little financial transactions; and that the traders them-
selves could more quickly and economically collect the
Btuff and bring it to the depots. That, in fact, trade
would be stimulated by that which is the soul of busi-
ness— competition— instead of being deadened by what

Largely approaches to a monopoly. And, lastly, that the
i'ljiaiis themselves would benefit materially by being
allowed to freely raise their own produce as best they
like, and dispose of it when they ])lease, and to whom
they plcHsr, and as they please. There are those amongst
the well-qualified to form an opinion who hold that the
state would, iu this way, get all her taxes, and the
commerce of the coimtry be quickened and inijtrove.
— Australasian,

PLANTING IN JOHORE.

■Vour correspondent "0. R." having asked for further
informatiou about arecanut cultivation, I liave made
further enquiries, and learn that arecanut trees grow
best when planted in the open as a Rei)arate cultivation.
When planted in conjunction with other trees, they are
iuclined to grow up weak and spindly. Several natives
have assured rae that to grow arecanuts successfully they
should never be planted closer than !) feet apart, and,
if 10 feet, so much the better. They mentioned, as an
instance of this, the fact that at a place, up the west
coast, arecanuts were planted 6 and (i feet apart, and a
few miles further they were planted 10 feet apart, the
.soil being the same in both cases. The trees planted 10
feet apart give more than double the crop from the
close planted piece, and the nuts are both larger and of
fino quality. I fancy the arecanuts over here are the
same as your correspondent mentions, viz., two, which
bear largo, and, comparatively speaking, soft nuts, and
o"e with smaller, but very hard nuts. I am told the
latter are generally sent to the Indian market. When
I told my native friend what " 0. K." says about the
saving in gathering the nuts, wheu the trees are planted
close together, he asked me, it there were no bamboos
in Ceylon, for he says a long bamboo is all that is
wanted. Arecanuts planted 10 feet apart iu good soil
over here give an average of 750 nuts per tree when
six years old, and give a crop every seven to eight
months. If there is any further information I can get
for your friend on the above subject, 1 shall be ha|jpy to
do so. I have seen in a Straits paper an extract from
the Ceiilon Observer giving au account of an interview
with jtr. Wm. Hole, Private Secretaj-y, to H. H. the
Maharajah, of Johore. Mr. Hole rightly enough gives a
very glowing account of the revenue derived from the
gambler and pepper industry, but I regret to see that he
thinks the European planting euterprize of so little
account; in fact, he thmks it has been the cause of
great loss to the Maharajah through '-the construction
of roads and other facilities for them." Now, 1 have
not the slightest intention of denying tliat the I\laharajah
has given great encouragement to the European jjlanters,
having already borne testimony to that effect, but I
certainly think it is very unfair to saddle the European
planters with the cost of road construction, whereas, as
everyone here knows, the gambier and pepper planters
derive more benefit from the roads that have been made
than the coffee planters do ; and in fact the road.s would
have been made although there had not been a coffee
estate in the coiuitry. It is true enough that coffee
Arabica, of which Mr. Watson was the pioneiT, has
proved a failure, but Liberiau coffee h.as taken its jjlace
and will erelong more than recoup all the lo.sses incurred
on the other. No one has done more towards bringing
this about than Mr. Watson has, anil at th<; present
time no one has a larger stake in the jilantiug enter-
prize in .lohore. While the Maharajah has given every
encouragement to the European planters, he has given
equal, if not greater, facilities to the Chinese gambier
and pepper ])lanters ; who, while they swell the revenue
of the country by the taxes on gambier, pepper, and
opium, fin the other hand are doing incalculable damage
by the indiscriminate manner iu which tiiey carry on tlie
eidtivation. For miles on every side of .lohore liahru
there is litth^ or no forest to b(^ sei-n iu)w, where some
2U or 30 years ago there was nothing but heiivy valuable
timber. Now there is nothing but long stretches oflalaug
grass with patches of scrub ami a few strips of jungle
near the few gambier and pepiier gardens left in thin
locality. Now all this is caused by the Gambier nnd
Pepper cultivators who made off to fresh laud furthe

204

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885,

afield as soon as they found their gardens falling off in
yield, instead of applying manure. From the top of
any hill you will see innumerable park-like glados which
are very pleasing to the eye at a distance, but on closer
inspection they turn out to be cultivated and abandoned
gambler and pepper garden'^, the abandoned ones being
overgrown with lalang grass, and are in the proportion
of at least 2 to 1 of those in cultivation. To enable
you to understand how this state of things comes out
I will try and explain the system pursued by the Chinese
gambler and pepper planters. "When a Chinaman wants
to open a garden he generally goes off to one of his
countrymen in Johore or Singapore, enters into an
agreement with him to the effect that the merchant
advances money, food, and opium to the planter from
time to time, taking good care not to let his advances
exceed, say, two-thirds the value of the garden. The
planter for his part has to sell all the produce of his
garden to the merchant at a fixed rate, which rate is
always considerably below the real market value. You
can, therefore, understand that the profits of the merch-
ant are enormous, and that the planter is generally in
del-it. The gardens as a rule are from 8 to 10 acres,
which are planted in the following proportions, viz.,
about 1 or 2 acres of pepper vines and the balance with
gambler. The forest is felled and burned off as for
coffee, the piece intended for pepper is dug up and
prepared most carefully, pepper cuttings planted about 8
feet apart, and a jungle post about 10 feet high sunk
in the ground beside each plant, to which it is even-
tually trained. The balance of the clearing has very
small holes cut about 6 feet apart, in which yoimg
gambler plants are put and left to fight it out with the
lalang grass, ferns, and other weeds, which soon spring
up. In IS months from planting, the gambler gives a
return which helps the planter to pull along till his 1,000
or 2,000 pepper vines begin to give crop when 3 years
old. On each side of a gambler and pepper garden here
is a reserve of forest 8 chains wide, in which he has
the right of cutting any timber he may want for posts
for his vines, firewood for boiling down his gambler or
for making burneil earth, which with the refuse from
the gambler boilers is the only manure applied to the
pepper vines when the garden is any distance from a
town. If a little more care was given to the gambler,
there can be no doubt that, not only would the returns
be greater, but the garden would last much longer — the
gambler being generally worn out long before the pepper
begins to fall. As soon as the planter finds that the
pepper is giving out, he looks about him for another piece
of forest and starts afresh. If this kind of cultivation
is allowed to grow unchecked it is only a question of
time, and that of no great length, before the whole of
the valuable forest iu this country will be destroyed.
The rise in the price of pepper some months ago has
given a great impetus to the opening up of gardens.

The only remedy I can see to stop the destruction of
so much valuable timber would be to try and induce the
planters to grow their pepper vines on trees planted for
the purpose, such as dadap, cotton tree, &e, and they
might also be bout,d down to cultivate their gambler,
at least to the extent of keeping out the lalang, and, if
the land was to be abandoned, the planter should be
bound to plant a certain quantity of forest trees on it.
It is a well-known fact that pepper grown on live trees,
such as dadap and cotton, is much nioro lasting, costs
less in cultivation, and gives more crop than it does
grov/ on the jungle posts; and that the gambler would
be all the better fo>- a little more cultivation is also
certain. When land has been " chenaed " in Ceylon it
certainly deteriorates, but not to the same extent as the
land here after gambler and pepper has been grown on
it. In the former case "cheddy" soon grows up and
eventually jungle trees, but when the lalang grass
once gets hold of the land nothing will grow in conjunc-
tion with it.

I am glad to see Mr. Hole spoke favorably of tea in
Johore. The gentleman who is carrying out the experi-
ment of making Olong tea in the l-'ormosan f»shion
tor the American market has just brought down some
more men from Amoy, also boxes, lead, paper, and in
jaot, everything required to turu out tea similar to the

above. As soon as India labor is available, however, I
fancy he will revert to the Indian method, as there is no
comparison between the cost of preparation with Tamil
and Chinese. Indian labor will be available very soon
now. as the labor question is virtually settled and Johore
will be able to get Indian labor on the same terms as
Singapore and the protected native states. Mr. Hole
would have been more orrect had he said that the
construction of a railway vas contemplated. So tar only
a fiyiug trace has been made for about 10 miles out of
Johore Bahru in the direction of Gunong Pullai. If the
proposed r.ailway is made, it will open up a most valuable
tract of country for planting purposes, and at the same
time the splendid timber will be made available. I very
much doubt a railway ever being made round the island
of Singapore, but, if a tramway was laid down from Singa-
pore to Kramji, on the opposite side of the island, facing
Johore Bahru, I believe it would pay handsomely. The
distance is about 14 miles, and 3 coaches run both ways
twice daily. — G. — Local " Times."

AGRICULTUHE ON THE CONTINENT OF

EUROPE.

(Special Letter.)

Paeis, June 13.

It has now become a maxim that farming profits depend
largely on the superiority of the animals maintained.
Hence, the judicious breeding and rearing of domestic
animals becomes the basis of successful agriculture. In-
ferior eat as much as well-bred stock, are more diflicult
to develope and to fatten. In the case of cows, the milk
is le.ss abundant, and certainly iu point of quality not rich,
^ These iileas are rapidly sinking into the minds of Con-
tinental agriculturists, Iu France, especially in the breeding
of horses, there is progress to note. The Government,
as far as it has been able, has discouraged the covering
of mares with half-bred stallions. A closer eye is kept
on mares, to see they have no transmissable defects. If
sire or dam has straight shoulders, or a large head, the
effort is made to minimize these points, by selecting a
parent which has neither of the faults. Breeding mares
ought to have deep and sloping shoulders. There are
breeders, who in case of draught animals, prefer the
upright shouldei, but this formation is considered to be
at the cost of rapidity of motion. Perhaps the truth
lies between the extremes. Farmers are giving up the
habit of breeding from mares too young. The mother
ought to be fully developed, before beiug put to the
stallion, and such cau hardly be earlier than five years.
Stallions seven years old, are considered the youngest
age for breeding ; their joints will thus bo well-knitted
and the formation of the frame compact. Fat stallions
are not in favor ; obesity is a sign, not of health, but of
disease. It is only wheu 30 months old, foals are now
put to their first farm work, as an amusement rather
than a task, and gently treated.

In feeding horses generally, they ought never to have
too much or too little food ; they must never be
stinteil when in the growing stage or employed at work.
They must never bo overfed, because, hke cattle, pigs
or sheep, they are not destined for the butcher. Encourage
the putting on of flesh or muscle, but not of fat. Ex-
ce.ssive feeding in animals or man induces lethargy. Now
a certain amouut of vigour is necessary for healthy life
aud work. The Percheron horses, drawing ttie busses and
doing van work in Paris, are now in excellent condition
as compared with former years; they receive more maize,
and their fodder is said to be cliatfcd ; they get less oats,
that which has taken the fire, but not the strength out
of them. Experiments are being conducted to test the
value of rye-bread in feeduig draught horses, which is not
an uncommon iliet in Belgium aud Germany. In Belgium,
the farm horses receive white-drinks — of rye or buck —
wheat flour, iu water, aud often a little colza oil-cake is
added. The Flemish farmer seeks ever to have his horse
in the best working condition.

Ill Central Asia, the Turcoman covers his horse day
and night, to be so warm as to melt its fat, muscle being
all that is wanted. Its food and water are reduceil to
an incredible minimum. Dry luceru is replaced by cut

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

205

straw, and oats by barley meal mixed with mutton suet.
For maladies, bleedings, change of diet, and felt-applic-
ations boiled in salt water, and for cuts, washing the
wound, and at uight placing a poultice of horse dung,
mixed in warm water, lu the morning, another careful
washing and dusting over with the ashes of burnt felt.
lu twenty-four hours cicatrisation will ensue. Turkoman
horses have no manes owing to the covering cloths em-
ployed, or they ai-e cut down, so that a top kuot only is
left on the head. They have no bits, but a thin biidle,
neither whip nor spur is employed ; the reins are left
loose; the horse cau do 40 to 100 miles in a day of 20
or 24 hours.

Belgium is generally cited as the headquarters of crop-
rotating. Putting aside all theories, no hard and fast
rule cau be fixed on the subject, as each country is in-
fluenced by dissimilar circumstances. The greater the
variety of crops, the less the cultivator mil be at the
mercy of market fluctuations. Till aud manure the soil
elEcicutly, which, while ever producing, will at the same
time become ameliorated. Asparagus cauuot be grown on
the same ground after fifteen years, yet the soil is ex-
tremely rich for any other plant. The Heliauthus will
kill every strawberry plant for a large distance within
its reach. 'WhyV — we do not know. The advantage of
rotating crops is admitted, but local circumstances ought
to dictate the details of the rotation. Never allow two
crops of the same kind to follow successively, fall back
on a cleansing crop that permit the land to be weeded
and dispense with fallowing.

The Vigilance Committee of Ganized, at Lyons, to
watch the invasion of the phylloxera has centraUzed the
reports of 276 sub-committees, operating over an area of
19,000 acres. The conclusions drawn are as follows : —
Sulphuret of carbon gives only good results when the
arable soil is less than 12 inches in depth, or when it
is so argilaceous, as to become compact, or when the
sub-soil is impervious. In the first case, the diffusion of
the carburet is too rapid ; in the second, too ditficidt.
Further, all the vines should be treated from the first
appearance of the disease not separately but collectively ;
apply doses of ^ to f of an ounce per square yard, and
never more make the injections between the vines, but
never touching the latter, aud close up well the holes,
do not apply it when the sap is in its upward or
downward movement. Manure suitably; the holes are nut
to be more than from I) to 8 inches deep. The same
committee has established schools to teach how to graft
vines, and purchases all fertihzers, 8cc., for vineyards,
direct from from the manufacturer.

Near Castres ( Tarn ), an epidemic has broken out
among ducks, caused by their feeding on the leaves of
tba Ailantus Glodulosa, or Japanese lacquer. The juice of
this plant is very burning, and pi-oduces ir.flammation
of the digestive organs, ending in death.

M. de \'ilmorin was in the habit of raising wheat by
selecting the best grains, and the latter from the most
robust ears. He found this plan de'ective ; better to select
from an entire plant, which presents the greatest regular-
ity in point of growth, uniformity in stooliug, and
equality m height of stems. Thin sowings are essential
to obtain these.

Roscotf, near Morlaix, is a celebrated colony of kit-
chen gardeners, who send their products not only to
Paris, but to England, Denmark and Eussia. It may
truly be said, that it was man, not nature, made there
the soil. Two centuries ago, only onions were cultivated !
the rocks or stones were converted into artificial soil,
by application of seaweed, sea sand rich in animalcules,
and manure. The seaweed proved not only a dissolv-
ant but a stimulant, and kept the dry and scanty
earth humid; the sand prevented the clay from be-
coming compact and hard. All the gardens, varying in
extent trom one-half to leu acres, are cultivated with
the spade. Two men are considered sufficient to man-
age an acre. The rotation is onions, carrots, parsnips
aud broccoli or caulitlower, not only during the samj
year, but on the same gmunls ; by means of simultan-
eous and catch crops, and having recourse to nursery
beds, four crops are obtained from the same plot.
Leeks, a^paragus, garlic and cabbage, are also extremely
Bjsed. The artichokes of Eoscolf «re celebrated: one

stem contains often 25 to 80 heads. Land has risen ia
value three-hundred-fold within the last forty years,
and the cultivation keeps pace with the times, as the
conscripts, after serving their period under the flag, bring
back with them new ideas and fresh experience from
the countries in which they have been quartered.

It is likely that agriculture will be the earliest
in the field to reap the advantages from the new Congo
Colonies. The copra cake is becoming a necessity for
cattle feeding on the Contineut, and two companies
are in the course of formation, to make plantatious in
Belgium aud French Congo, for the eultuio of coconut
trees.

Lime is a specially valuable agent in French farming.
Inquiries have been instituted, to poll as it were, French
ag-riculturists, as to their views ou that substance. The
replies have been summarized as bearing on the physical
and chemical action of lime on soils. The explications
of science are not quite satisfactory so far. Addeil to
clay lands, lime opeus aud renders them more friable,
permitting in dry seasons the moisture to ascend and
bathe the parched soil, while preventing fissures and all
caking chemically, lime induces decay in organic matters
ditficult to be decomposed, transforming them into
assimilable food. Perhajjs, it facilitates the liberation of
potash in clays. In the form of carbonate it favors the
process of nitrification, but not so powerfully as in the
sulijhate state. Quicklime acts contrarily.

A mixture of lime aud manure is held by very many
to be inimical, as it expels the ammonia. But some,
remembering that azote exists in three states in manure,
aud in that primarUy of assimilable nitric acid, whose
formation lime promotes such a gain is not to be ignored.
Again, lime according to competent authorities, renders
also phosporic acid assimilable. Swiss scientists hold lime
is necessary in the soil to induce the action of potash. On
peaty laud, lime corrects acidity; in this case it should
be applied in the quick form. For meadow top-
dressing lime must ever be aijplied in the compost
state ; if farm yard manure be ailded, the earth and lime
ingredients are mixed apart some time previously. The
pasturages of Normandy attest the excellence of this
fertilizing agent. In the case of tired land, lime should
be applied in small and repeated doses.

M. PoUet prepares an excellent compost, aud which
doubles the yield of hay on natural meadow by mixing
chaff, barn refuse, aud cut straw, with phosphates, wet-
ting the mass and so induciug fermentation. Analysis
showed it was three times richer than the best farm-
yard manure, and costs him about Ij fr. per cubic yard.
In Switzerland, superjjho.sphate aud sulphate of ammonia
are the chief fertilizers for grass lands, and where the
first plays the leading part. Strange, chloride of pot-
assium if mixed with these is injurious biit relatively
excellent when applied alone.

In Germany, sugar beet .after being pulled, is allowed
to lie three days on the field. The leaves in fading are
suid to return their potash to the bulb, and as the jjotash
is popularly held to produce the sugar, hence the ex-
planation, why this practice adds to the saccharine
richness.

r.vnis, July 11.

Manure is the chief factor in the augmentation of
the. produce of the soil. Plants, like animals, draw
their food exteriorly, and are admirable apparatuses for
the transformation of mineral matters into living sub-
stances, plants not possessing like animals, the faculty of
locomotion, ought, for their development, to find in "the
medium where they live and die — the soil aud atmo-
sphere, the aliments indispensable to their existouce. On
the quantity of assimilable substances placed within the
reach of plants during the period of their growth, will
depend the intensity of their development, and conse-
quently the richness of the yield.

Of the twelve or thirteen mineral substances, whose
assembly under the influence of life make up the tissue
of^plant.s, four or at most five; but in the majority of cases,
only three are what the fanner will have to take seriously
into account, either to maintain, or increase the fertility
of the soil. These three mineral matters are : Nitrogen,
potash aud phosphoric acid. Lime and magnesia rarely

io6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [SEPXSMBEk i, 1885.

make default, so as to call for a direct restitution.
AVith respect to irou, sulphur, chlorine, soda, silica, aud
carbou, the soil is sufficiently supplied with tlie first
five, aud the air abundautly rich with carbonic acid for
the second, as never to call for special applications.

Except in the case of soils where lime has to be
added for other than plant food ends, the former has
only to occupy himself with potash, nitrogen, and phosp-
horic acid. Now the average yield of an acre of wheat
in France is about 10 bushels, that which means, straw
included, an annual removal from the soil of 39 lb. of
azote, 27 lb. of potash, and 13 lb. of phosphoric acid.
Only a part of this quantity or the moiety at most is
returned to the soil under the form of manure. If then
laud be not unexceptionally rich, its fertility must
diminish. There are grain regions in America and Italy,
where such has occurred to the extent of 50 per cent.
To augment the fertility of the soil, more nitrogen,
potash, and phosphoric acid must be added, than what
the grain, milk, meat, &o., produced, carry away, and that
the ordinary supply of farm yard manure at best, only
represents a part of what has been so carried off.

It was only in 1810 that Liebig and his disciples ex-
plained the true theory of exhaustion of soils. Till then,
it was supposed fertility depended on organic matters.
By the analysis of soils aud the ashes of plants,^ Liebeg
showed that nitrogen, potash and phosphoric aciil were
the essential ingredients of fertility, and that the soil
itself and the atmosphere sufficed for the rest. But
other equally important discoveries remained to be made
to complete Liebig's work : that of the absorbent power
of the soil for fertilizing substances, as demonstrated by
Huxtable, Thompson, and AVay, and what is known as
the dialytic phenomena, revealed by Graham. It was
presumed that the plant took up by its roots the pot-
ash, [ihosphoric acid and nitrogen, that is to say, am-
monia, iu a solution of water, and that these matters
filteretl out of the soil. Now Way has demonstrated,
by direct experiment, that such is not the case; they
are held prisoners by the absorbent power of the earth.
It is not the same with lime, soda and nitric acid which
pass tbro\igh the soil, as if in a filter. This explains,
why in water from field drains, springs, and all land
waters, these substances are present, while a trace of potash,
ammonia, and phosphoric acid can hardly be there detected.

Schloesing has confirmed, that this potash, &c., cannot
exist in the soil in a state of solution. On examining
the liquid of fertile laud, he found these nutritive min-
erals to be absolutely insufficient to account for the
developement of the plant. How then iloes the plaut
obtain its food?

Graham, Sachs, and Foeller have proved by repeated
experiments, that animal or vegetable membrane has
the power, when surroumk-d by a liquid on one side to
dissolve, without filtrating a solid substance placed on
the other side, but capable of being dissolved in that
li()uid. Now the li(iuid in the interior of plants is acid,
and bv virtue of that acidity capable of dissolving min-
eral phosphates in contact with the external tissue— the
membrane, of the roots, and without the aid of any
bathing solution form the soil itself. Hence the practical
deduction, the fecundity of a soil depends, first, on the
state of dissemination of the fertilizers therein, and
next, on their contact vnth the rootlets; the more nu-
merous this contact the better the plant will be nour-
ished and the more superior the yield.

The farmer cannot count then on the rain to dissolve
the potash, phosphoric acid, &c., he must rely on his
own skill to distribute such minutely in the soil, to
allow it to absorb them, and so reach the roots every-
where. The nitrates, those precious sources of nitrogen,
are not absorbed by the soil, as they filter through it.
Hence, apply the potash, phosphate aud ammonia
manures, when tilling, aud cover in, as deep as the
roots of the crop to be cultivated generally penetrate;
but in the case of nitrates, apply them only when
covering in sowings. For getting this distinctmn, may
explain the failure of many chemical manures. IM. Peter-
man has experimented with manures, on the same soil,
at variable depths, with beet, he obtained returns differ-
ing by S.'? to 41 per cent iu favor of manure ploughed
down 6 and 12 inches, as compared with that harrowed in.

INDIA. RUBBER IN MOZ.\MBIQUE.

The collection of Indiarubber in Mozambique is of very
recent date ; but it has so rapidly extended that it
now forms the largest and the most valuable export of
the Colony. Not less than £50,000 worth of Indiarubber
passed through the Custom-house during 1883 ; whereas
in 1873, the export was only of the value of £443.

The rapid extension of the rubber industry is due
entirely to the natives, and in its working they have
been left from the very commencement to follow their
own devices. An enormous number of valuable trees have
been destroyed by them. They also bring into the market
an inferior quality of rubber extracted from the roots of
the trees. When the natives see that no more juice
can be drawn from the stem, aud believe the tree to
be dead, it is their custom to pull up the root<!, and
by pounding and boiling to extract the last trace of
rubber from them. It appears that the Indiarubber
exported from the northern portion of the province, is
drawn from only one species of plant of the genus,
Landolphia whereas there is reason to believe that two, it
not three, species exist in the same locality. Two new
species of this plant, called by the natives Mbuugu aud
Mtoha, were sent to the Royal gardens at Kew in 1878.
One of these, the Mbungu, is to be found upon the
mainland of Mozambique. Consul O'Neil has met with
his species upon several parts of the coast, but now here
do the natives appear to be aware of its value. Grow-
ing upon more humid soil thau the species from
which the rubber of Mozambique is extracted, it yieUI.s
a more watery juice, which the native has not yet dis-
covered a method of congealing. Ou being asked if they
never attempted to collect it, they have replied : " It is
impossible, it is too watery, we can only use it for
making bird traps." Smeared over and about the traps,
it adheres to the feathers of the birds, and retarding
their flight, makes them easy captives. There is also
another species upon the coast land of Mozambique,
called by the natives " Kava," utilized for the extraction
of rubber, and bearing a like watery juice. The milk of
both these may be congealed by the application of the
juice of the lime, as is done in the collection of a similar
species of rubber in Madagascar. The market value of
the rubber drawn from these plants yielding a very watery
juice would probably always be less than that which is
wound off by hand; for in congealing it carries with it
a certain amount of water, it loses weight for months
after collection. " But," says the Consul, "this collection
is easier, aud in the untouched forests that exist of these
distinct species of the rubber plant, I think I may vent-
ure to say, there lies an additional source of wealth to
tlio province." — Indiantl<her and Giittnpercha Journal.

THE AMERICAN RUBBER "CORNER" 01' ISS2.
The annual product of crude rubber amounts to many
millions of dollars, and in its manufacture iu America
alone from 30,000,000 dols. to 40,000,(100 dels, are investe<l.
Yet within three months, by shrewd and audacious and
skilful manipulations, a single individual '' cornered" this
commodity, forced up the price from 95 cents to 1 dol.
20 cents per poand, and kept it at the latter point for
several months, notwithstanding that the nominal price
of crude rubber is from CO cents to Co cents a pound.
The man who diil all this was one J. C. Gon<;alves ^■ianna,
barao de Gondoriz. He bad before shown his ability as
a remarkably bold and successful speculator. Once a
promising clerk in the rubber exporting house of Victor
Itodrigues d'Oliveira, of ParA, Brazil, he was in 1877
admitted to partnership, and soon became controlling spirit
of the firm. His first great achievement was executed
iu 1879, when by skilful scheming he forced the price of
rubber from 40 cents to 1 dol. per pouml, and made for
himself a fortune of several hundred thousand dollars.
In 1881, he attempted a similar experiment, but this time
met with less success. Treacherous contracts made by
his junior partner with New York merchants involved him
in great diflicnlties, and long negotiations, after he saw
that he must fall, resulted in his ])aying 52,000 ilols.
in cash to two of the manufacturers whom he had
treated most shabbily. FaiUng in this attempt, he next,

S2PTfiMDEi« t, 18%,] fHE fROFICAL AGi\ICt/Ll'(/RIST,

^07

in July 1882, bent his energies to organize a gigantic
syndicate to control the rubber market of the world.
At that time the ruling price of Pari rubber was from
00 to 95 cents per [lound, to which price it had been
elevated by purely natural causes. Backed with heavy
capital, he set to work buyiug the new crop as fast as
it arrived at the exporting markets of Brazil. For
mouths he seemed to be completely successful. The
price of rubber went up, up, up. Manufacturers were
astonished at the audacity of one man attempting to
monopolize the market, and at first abstained from ,
purchasing at the extreme price he named. But after- j
wards, being forced to purchase against contracts that
they had already entered into for manufactured goods
they excepted his terms, and sparingly, it is true, bought
to protect those goods. Fortunatenly for the manu-
facturers, the early part of the season of 1882, had
produced about 40 per cent, more manufactured goods
than usual, and as the end of the season drew near it was
seen that the supply of goods was far in excess of the
demand. The price of the raw material had been forced
by the Baron to a dangerous height, and for manufact-
urers to continue business meant for them to accumulate
goods which had an unprecedented cost, and they could
see no market in which to dispose of them. Therefore,
they felt obliged to protect themselves, and many of
them agreed at meetings held about the middle of Oct-
ober 1882, to close their factories until the trade should
warrant their paying the extreme prices which the Baron
demanded. Baffled by this unexpected flank movement,
the Baroii attempted to unload his enormous stock, but
without success. Again finding himself blocked, and that
the rubber which his friends had on hand was costing
him by shrinkage in weight and interest from tiii.iJOO
dols. to 70,000 dols. per month to carry the bold specul-
ator submitted to the inevitable, and the mauufaoturers
soon had good reason to congratulate themselves on the
success of their combination. — Indiuruhher and Guttapercha
Journal.

THE INDIARUBBER SUPPLY.

"We have referred, in previous numbers of this Journal'
to the important subject of the Indiarubber supply,
both in connection with the wasteful methods of con-
sumption adopted in Brazil and elsewhere, and with
reference to the efforts now being made to extend the
cultivation of rubber-bearing plants. That our ' cute
American cousins are alive to this question is shown by
the following paragraphs extracted from one of their
merrtintile journals.

The increase in the consumption of Indiarubber in
this country (says the Boston Commercial Bulletin) has
been very large within the past ten years, and more
particularly within the latter half of the decade. This
is owing both to the great increase in the consumption
of rubber boots, shoes, and clothing, consequent upon
the increase in population, and to the multitude of new
uses to which rubber has been put, to the almost total
exclusion of the horn. Our imports of Indiarubber are
classed together with guttapercha, both being on the
free list, and being, to some extent, similar articles.
They amounted to 21,6-46,320 lb. in the fiscal year euded
June aO, 1883, and valued at 15,611,000 dols. By far the
larger portion was Indiarubber. Our imports from Brazil
alone footed up 8,600,000 dols. in 1883, while we imported
from Central America, United Stntes of Columbia
and other South American countries, to the value of
about 3,liO<V"^ dols., and African Indiarubber, Imported
for the most part, iri Kngland, foots up about 2,000,000
dols. The great bulk of our supply, however, and
the best rubber also, comes from Brazil, where its
collection and preparation iu the crude state for shipment
forms the principal resource of the two great provinces
of the .-Vmazon A'alley : Pani and Amazon. Xext to cotfee
and segar, rubber occupies third plane in Brazilian
ex-ports. Notwithstanding this, hardly any thought is
given to the future of this great industry in Brazil.
The same wasteful and exhaustive system of collecting
the rubbir which has been in vogue for lialf-a-century
is followed today. The industry' is chiefly iu the bauds ,
of an uneducated and half-civilized nomad population ;o< J

Indian mixture, and is pursued iu a crude way, with no
thought beyond immediate profit. In consequence, mil-
lions of rubber trees have been destroyed, and many
others abandoned from premature and cxcessi\'c use.
The waste iu this way is so great that many well in-
formed Brazilians fear that, unless better methods are
employed, this rich resource will, before many years,
suft'er a serious and perhaps fatal decline. In the few
cases where care is exercised in not tapping trees in the
months of August and September, when they change
their leaves, groves have jielded continuously for thirty
years, and are still in good condition. The rubber tree
requires a growth of from twenty-five years before it
produces the milky .sap which forms the rubber. Hence
little or nothing has been done to propagate tlie trees,
and everything about the business is carried on as if
the supply of trees would never give out. Brazil imposes
a very heavy export-tax on rubber, amounting, state
and provincial, to 22 per cent from the province of Par;l
and 21 per cent from the province of Amazou. — Imlia-
rtibber and Guttapercha Journal.

A BOTANICAL PROBLEM.

(To the Editor of the fharmacential Journal.)
Sir, — Witnessing the felling of some trees the other diiy
I was surprised to find in the centre of the duramen
about 3 feet from the ground, of a common elm ( Ulmus
cavtpestri.s), a cavity containing about 4 ounces of a reddish,
coloured substance. Now, as the aperture could not have
been formed mechanically, I was curious to learn what
the component parts of the peculiar earthy matter weri'.
I found ujjon analysis that it was composed of about 80
per cent of iron as an oxide, with lime, silica, potash
and soda, and some organic matter. As this would appear
to me to be an extraordinary amomit of iron to have
ascended in the sap to the point stated, and by its
accumulation filling the niche in the trmik, I shall be
glad to hear if any of your readers and brother-chemists
have witnessed a similar curious phenomenon. — A. Ball,
AValton Place, East Molesey Surrey.

Gathering Caoutchouc in Equatorial Abieeica. —
The tapping of the trees they had discovered was
being actively carried on. The adventurers, clad in rag-
ged pantaloons, the body naked, were behaving like
demons, under the supervision of their chief, round the
gigantic Figs (FirunJ. whose bark they were tearing off
by slashing it off with their hatchets. The operation
reminded me of the process of gathering resin in the
Lanes of Gascony. But here, instead of zinc cups to
receive the resinous juice, the cauchiros placed Helicoiiia
leaves, on which the precious latex flowed, white as milk.
The liquid was collected aud poured into calabashes
(totumas), where it soou coagulated and formed caou-
tchouc, ready to be packed and exported. — Ed. Andhe
in Le Tour da Monde.

Banana Culture in Honduras.— Honduras is rapidly
assuming importance among the larger countries iu
Central America. According to the Commercial Advertiser,
it has increased 50 per cent in population iu the last
ten years. The lands outside of the main towns are
being bought from the Government by citizens of the
United States and by Germans. The object of these
new settlers is to establish Banana plantations. The soil
of Central America is peculiarly adapted to the growth of
this fruit, which can be raised at what would seem to
be a ridiculou.s expense. The market for Biinanas Iu
New York is good, and the .sale of them pays a profit of
about 20 per cent. The purchiise of tlie.se I nuls has
netted the Governnnnt about l,5i:O,0U0 dollars duringthe last
year, and as it owns about 1,000,000 acres, there is a
fair prospect of its enriching itself within the ensuing
five years. — Gardeners' Chronicle,

SKINNY MEN,
"M'ells' Health lienewcr" restores Lealth and vigor, cures
Dyspepsia, Impotence, Debillity. Vt'. K, Smith k Co.,
Madras, Solu Ageuta,

2o8

THE TKOPICAL AGRlCtfLTURIST. (SiPfuMBtn t, 1885.

THE FALL IN PRICES.

Mr. GiffHn, in the able pnper which he h.is contrib-
uted to this month's Contemporary on Trarie De-
pressioD, leaves us in one perplexity. If hi? theory,
which Is also Mr. Goschen's, as to the fall in prices
is correct — and of its correctness in the main we
have no doubt — we do not see why the fall sliould
not go on till a range of prices has been reached un-
heard of in our time. He maintains, and, as we
think, proves, that what is called the "depression"
in trade, is in a grfat degree imaginary. There has
been a decline in the amount of business done by
the nation, hut it is comparatively trifling, a mere
fluctuation, such as has repeatedly occurred, and much
less severe than that which followed 1SG6. The foreign
trade of the country has declined by six per cent,
the goods trafBo of the Railways by about one and
a half per cent, and the production of pig-iron by
ten per cent, but the remaining reductions are nearly
Ira perceptible. There is no reason, as regards the
general volume of business done, for the existing out-
cry, which is due almost exclusively to a different
cause. There has been a fall in prices which has
as'ounded, and, in some oases, ruined, the oldest
calculators, and which apparently proceeds from some
general and far-reaching cause, and which all over the
world has brought values down to a figure previously
unknown. The following table shows in a way every
one can understand the range, the continuousness, and
the extent of this fall in the great articles of con-
sumption : —

Prices of Leading Wholesale Commodities in January
1873, 1879, 1883. and 1885, Compared.

1873. 1879. 1883. 1885.

Scotch pig-iron, perl ton.. .1273 433 47s 8d 41s 9d

Coals, per ton 30s 193 17s 6d 18s

Copper, Chili bars, per ton £91 £57 £65 £48i

Straits tin, per ton ...£U2 £61 £93 £71\
Wheat, Gazette average,

per qr. .. .i5s:lia 393l7d 40s 4d 348 lid

— red 'spring, at New York

per bushel.. ..SI. 70 $1.10 $1.18 9Ic.

Flour, town made, per sack 47b fid 37s 3Rs 32s

— New York price, per bl.....'?7.65 $3.70 $4.30 $3.25
Beef, inferior, per 8 lbs... 3slnd 2b lOd 4s 4d 4s

— prime, small, per 8 lbs Ss3d 4s 9d 6s 53 4d
Cotton, mid. upland, ^ lb. lOd 6gd 5 ll-16th8 6d

•Wool, per pack £23 £13 £12 £11

Sugar. Manilla niusraT^cwt 21s Cd 16s 16s 6d 10s

Coffee, Ceylon, Kood red .. 80s 6ns 78s Od 71s

Pepper, black Malabar ;t*lb. 7d 4id 6«d Sd

Saltpetre, foreign, per cwt. 29s 19s 19s 1.533d

A fall like this, as Mr. Giffen points cut, frightens
even experienced dealers, who, though thoy expect
fluctuations, are not prepared for catastrophes ; and
by raising the impression that calculati< n is futile,
embitters and depresses them even more than their
loepes do. They feel as if fate were against them,
and actually, in some tr^ides— notably cop|ier— refuse
to make calculations, declaring publicly that some,
thing has happened to copper, aud that their ex-
perience is of no value. Moreover, though Mr. Giffen
doe? not mention this, the fall dismays the classes
most able to proclaim their (.ufferings aloud. The
country suffers nothing from it, for tlie distributor
and consumer reap between them the whole b refit ;
but the prorlucers feel as if the heavens h.id snddenlv
been overcast. Every owner of ar.ihle land, every
tropical planter, every holder of minirg propr-rty, aud
evf'i-y wool-grower has become poorer, "tun to a
ruinous extent, and stes no prospect except cf be-
coming poorer still. Take, as two well-known il-
Instiations, the position of mea who hold shares in
Australian sheep-rnns, or in the smaller copper-mines.
The former have been docked of half their receipts.
the la'ter of all, for the fall in copper has pa"fed
the point at which profit is obtainable. Natur.illy
all these (rlasses cry aloud, swell the volume of the
dealers' complaints, and declare that the country,

it

which is quite unhurt, is rapidly progressing towards
ruin. There has been in truth a vast transfer of
property to the multitude at the expense of pro-
prietors, and they cannot endure|the process. Every
man who wants copper get^ it at half the price he
paid in '73 and while he is silent, or perhaps even
ignorant — for the coppersmith pockets much of the
dilfererce — the seller of copper cries with alarm.

The facts are unmistakeable and tot denied, but
there is argument as to their explanation. One theory
is over-production, and no doubt in some trades there
has been over-prcduction ; but this cause alone could
not produce so general a fall. " There is no reason"
says Mr. Giffrn, " to suppose that the multiplication
of commodities relatively to the previous production
has proceeded at a greater rate since 1&73 than in
the twenty years before that. Yet before 1873 prices
were rising, notwithstanding the multiplication of
commodities ; and since that date the tendency has
been to decline." There must, therefore, be some
other cause ; and Mr. Giflfen finds it, as Mr. Goschen
found it, in the appreciation of gold owing to the
diminished production of the metal, and to i's nearly
universal adoption as the currency of the European
peoples. The world has absorbed in thirteen years
£200,000,000 of gold, and the annual production now
scarcely repairs waste, even if with the increased
quantity of coin liable to attrition it does quite re-
pair it. There is, in fact, a " strain " upon the metal,
which it can scarcely bear, — a competition for it
which steadily raises its price as expressed in com-
modities, and which, for one curious result, has al-
most arrested the coinage of gold at the British Mint.
For the ten years ending 1870, the Mint coined
£.^,000, 000 a year, in 1871, nearly £10,000,000 ; and in
1872, £15,' 00,000 ; but since that year the average has
been £1,500,000 only. There is, in truth, too little
gold for the increasing business done ; and as it is
the un versal standard in Europe and North America
the "shrinkage of values" in I^urope aud North America
has been universal, aud has made all men not living
on fixed incomes or on wages, perceptibly less rich.

So far, we understand Mr. (Tiffen and agree with
him, though we might argue that he underrates the
effect of quicker communications in reducing price ;
but we do not understand why he stops iiere. Why
shi uld not the demand for gold go on until it is,
fay, twice as dear as it is, and all prices fall away
when expressed in gold to half their present amount?
The demand for currency is over, perhaps, though we
are not sure of that, a Eussian oemand being quite
conceivable : but population increases, the productim
of commodities increases, the business of the world
increases, and the new multitude of transaciicns have
all to l)e paid for in gold. The production of gold,
however, not only does not increase but diminishes,
till it is doubtful whether, supposirg no increase of
demand, the regular supply would be sufiicieut to repair
the regular waste. Gold is used-up, like everything
else, and the waste in mere ;'ttrition has only this
year perplexed an-1 nnnoyed the British Treasury.
Why, then, should not the process go on. and tiie
sovereign, which uowpurchaS'S two-thir B of a quarter
of wheat, be able, say in lOUO, to purchase a whole
quarter, thus fining the producers of wheal by some
30 per cent ol their apparent receipts? Thcie is no
reason to expect a new supply of gold, and no leason
to believe, as Mr. GiflVn remarks, tliot paper will
relieve it proportionally more than it has hitl-.erto
done. If the use of clieques and b.Tuk-nntes could
stop the demnnd tor gold, it ought to liave done it
already, and it has not done it ! the truth being
that such use of paper is not a substitute, but only
a relief. The amount of paper employed increases
w:th the volume of business, but it does not assume
a new proportion to that bueinees. The strain upon

SEFT2MBER 1, iSSj,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

2og

gold, therefore, ought now to send bII prices ex-
pressed in gold continuously down, and this is the
conclusion to which Mr. Giffen evidently tends ; but
he abstains from a final opinion. In his last para-
graph he talks of signs that the depression is over ;
but his permanent view is evidently e.xpressed in
these words :—" We can hardly be sure yet that the
causes of the recent change in tlie course of prices have
fully worked themselves out. For the present, the
tide appears to have turned. Prices all round ore
Bomewhat higher than they were at the eud of last
year, and the state of the money-market is such that
a further rise may be supported without a stringency
supervening. But we should still rather expect from
period to period a tendency in prices to fall. The
annual production of gold, not having incrtased for
ten or fifteen years, but having, if anything, slightly
diminished and tending still to diminish, is now even
less in proportion to the whole stock in use than the
annual production was to the stocK in use ten or fifteen
years ago. Population and wealth at the same time
are increasing at even a greater rate than they did.
The permanent tendency seems ne-
cessarily downwards. The increase of the means of
production, in order to keep the supply of gold pro-
portioned to that of commodities, should be at a
greater rate and should be proportioned in some way
to the mass of gold existing, and not to its annual
production. But, in fact, the annual production of
gold is maintained with difSculty, while that of all
other commodities increases."

The fall, of course, matters nothing in the long,
run to any one. The producer can accept one sovereign
a quarter for his wheat just as well as two, when
he is paying only one sovereign for rent and wages,
instead of two, and he shares with everybody else
in the general benefit of cheapness. He does not eat
gold, and he gets all the things he wants for less
gold than before. But men have imaginations as well
as pockets ; contracts, especially leases, run for years,
and a reduction of wages, such as is taking place
in America and is possibly coming here, involves a
great deal of class fighting. There will he a great
deal of misery while the process goes on, especially
among producers, and a great readiness to believe in
quackeries like protective duties and projects frr cur-
rency reform. The bimetalliats, who have the ad-
vantage of being fanatic, «ill have the liveliest time
of it ; and we should not be enrprisen if the new Parlia-
ment heard a great d(al about the need for paper
currency. Fortunately, the leaders of opinion are
tolerably sound economists ; for if it weie not to,
most dangerous experiments might even row be tried.
We have not forgotten the way in which the cry
for " the dollar of our fathers " swept the United
States, and have an incurable suspicion that the weak
point in Democracy is its resolute ignorance and in-
capacity in relation to finance. It will tax itself
boldly and EUccessfuUy, that is certain ; but whether
it will bear a decline in nominal wages without
bursting into fury, we none of us yet kaov/.— Spectator.

White-ants.— After tho testimohy borne by
residents in UdapusseDawa and Madnlsima, we
certainly must admit the existence of white ants
in Ceylon at over 4,000 feet elevation, in the dry
favourable climate of Uva. Jvot onlv bo, but Mr
Egan of Pundaluoya shews that in that district the
pests are at work up to 4,700 fact ! This is quite
a revelation to us. There is just one qualification
that the bottom of this estate is said to border on
lowlying paddy fields. Has any one found white
ants in Dimbula, Dikoya, or Ma^keliya ? We certainly
thought that on the Western and Kandy side of
o //,n?'"'°'*'° ranges, we were correct in giving
J>,000 J«et M the extreme limit of the abode of these pests
87

WHITE. ANTS AND OTHER INSECT PESTS.

{Hij an Old Planter.)

Till some years ago, when the white-ants de-
stroyed for me thousands of cacao seedlings, I laughed
to scorn .ill who gave them credit for touching any
living ti.'Sue. I had lived among them for moro
than twenty years, and tijought myself perfectly
acquainted with their habits. That they destroy
cacao plants I have seen ; and am now ready to
believe, on good evidence, that they will devour
other things, though I have only seen the one thing
myself ; and even now I would like to be as-sured
that no other enemy had prt pared the tea plants
for them. I know that they are ready enough to
walk into a tea stem or branch that the borer has
already prepared for them, but hitherto I have not
discovered an attack on a healthy tea plant. Long
may it be so.

I have levelled down many scores of ant-hilla, but
I have not found an aut the less for that ; they are
everywhere, and the least neglect of the necessary
precautions is sure to be punished immediately, out-
side or in.*

Although the white-ant has spared the tea hitherto,
we are not without insect enemies. The borers are
not in great numbers, but I am almost daily coming
on their work, and they are found alike in small
twigs and stout branches.

The flush is regularly ruined on special trees by what
very much resembles the work of helopeltts ; but I
have been unable to discover that or any other
insect, on or about the bushes so affected.

For the first time, about two years ago. I found an
insect located on several cacao plants in great num-
bers, hanging from the under surface of the leaves
which were perforated with many holes. I cleared the
plants at first by picking them by hand, but in a few
days they were as numerous as ever. The cacao they
had fastened on died out, as well as that free from
them, and about a year ago I found them on a
single tea bush, wh'ch I cut down, and it grew up
again free from them. Lately the insect has made
Its appearance again, not on one, hut on many bushes.
Its presence is proclaimed by a general unhealthy
look and many yellow spots on the leaves.

The only remedy I know is to cut down the bush
and burn it. This insect begins life as a very
minute grub, which, at its first appearance, sticks
to the baik of its native leaf under a pyramidal
case, which it m'argesas it grows till it assumes the
form of an open bag, hung by a thread ; out of this
bag he comes out to feed at night, and stays inside aU
day. When he attains to mature grubhood, he seals
himself in, and remains suspended till ho comes
to his perfect state. I have not succeeded in getting
the perfect insect, which is probably a small beetle.
The eubstanou of the bag is as strong aa shoe leather.

London Dock CH.iRoES m Tea.— The comparison
should be made thus i a chest of tea weighing 80 lb.
to 1'20 lb. was under the old rates charged 2s Id,
less 50 per cent discount i.e. net Is 0^ per chest.
Under tbetew rates the charge for a chest of similar
weight will be Is 6d net, a difference of 5.UI per
chest. I.e. an addition of 44 percent on the old ret
rates. As the old rates did not pay, that a change
was necessary, most people were prepared to allow,
but the addition has certainly been more than most
people will approve, and carries the question frcm
one extreme to the other. — C'o)-., Induin Tea Gazette.

* Levelling down the nests is not ."sufficient. The breeding
combs and the queen ought to be Bcooped out and de*
etroyed.— El),

iio

'Mt fROfiCAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

INFERIORITY OF THE WYNAAD COFFEE

BEAN.

[gee letter of Wynaad Planter's Association on page 54.-ED.]

At the monthly general meeting of the Wynaad
Planters' Association, reported in the Madras Mail of
20th June, a matter of great interest to those who
have sank money in Coffee estates in Wynaad and the
Niigiris was discussed, namely, the inferiority of the
Wynaad coffee bean, and the low price it fetches com-
pared with other districts and with former years, and
it Eeems to have beenrfsolved to address a series of
questions to oth^r Planters' Aasociationa asking for
their views and experience on the subject. The first
of these questions touches on the matter of shade, and
its effect on the quality of the coffee bean, and here
the Wynnad Planters' Association are vtry nearly
arrivmg at the conclusion of the whole matter. No
one who has travelled in Coorg and Mysore with his
eyes open, can but have observed that on estates
noted for their fine sample, the open secret of their
superior bean in simply dry climate and dense shade
Mysore coffee always commands the best price in the
London market, and one has only to compare a sample
of it with a sample of the finest Wynaad coffee to
see at once the immense superiority of the former
over the latter, both in size and colour. It was at one
time thought that the Mysore tree, or Munzerabad
chick, a? it is called, produced a finer bean than the
Coorg or Wynaad tree, but this has been proved to be
a fallacy, and Mysore planters are now uprooting
their old Munzerabad chicks, and planting Coorg trees
in their place ; and to prove that the tree has nothing
to do with it, I heard that last year, a wellknowu
Mysore planter sent home the coffee from his Coorg
and Munzerabad trees separate, and on reaching the
London market the Coorg coffee was sold as Mysore,
and the Mysore as Coorg, while I myself know
estates in Wynaad and Coorg with a dry climate,
where shade is being persevericigly planted, and where
the coffee improves in quality and fetches a better
price every year. That any proved system of estate-
ouriug will affect the colour of the bean I do not
believe. I have heard that on some estates in Wynaad
the coffee is washed, after lying only 12 hours in the
lats, the superintendent thinking thereby to improve
the quality of his coffee; but the result would only
be dirty parchment, and no improvement in the colour
of the bean. Neither do I think that it matters
where the coffee is cured, although no doubt something
depends on careful drying, peeling, and garbling, and
I believe that this work would be moat eflSoiently
done on the Malabar Coast. The use of manure could
not improve the quality of the bean, although
theoretically pruning might. The manures used in
Mjsore are the same w those put out m Wynaad,
and all maiur.s, especinlly artitical and stimulating
Ooropouuds, have the effect of making the trees give
exhausting crops of inferior coffee, in regard to the
packiiiij 01 coff e, 1 cannot give an opinion, but I should
think it would always be best to send one's coffee
to the London market by a chartered coffee ship, in
preference to shipping It along with a mixed cargo by
P and 0. or British India steamers. To havt a good
sample of cofiee, the shade trees must be tall, and
I fear that Wynaad planters who only think of
b«..iuningto plant shade now, will have to wait sotne
ciifht or ten years to see any improvement in the size
and colour of their bean. Mtanwhile their only
chance is to ,trv and make up for inferior quality by
quantity, and 'it may be some melancholy saiialaction
to them to hear, that the aj/erage yeild of the Mysore
estates is a good deal below that of Wyraad. To
counterbalance his small crops, t*ie Mysore planter
pays 25 per cent less for bis labour than tbe «\ynaad
planter, and as a rul« it is sbundant ; hi» shade bf ipg

dense, his expenditure on weeding and pruning is
reduced to a minimum, he gets a better price for hia
coffee, and he has practised from the first the most
rigid economy in his estate expenditure. The Wynaad
planter, on the other hand, has to pay a long price
for labour, when he can get it ; his expenditure on
weeding, handling, and pruning is very heavy, his
coffee fetches a wretched price, and many planters
becoming involved are hampered, harassed, and harried
in all their operations by their Agents on the Coast.
His lot has not fallen in pleasant places, he must
patiently wait on if he can, till the clouds roll by. If
he has funds he can grow shade and put out manure
and should all his efforts end in failure he can at leas say

*' 'T is not in mortals to command success,
But we 'II do more, Sempronias, we '11 deserve it."
— Madras Mail, July 1st.

[Shade for Arabian cofiee may be good in the drier
portions of Southern India, but the conclusion almost
universally adopted in Ceylon is that where coffee
will not succeed without shade it had better not be
grown at all. — Ed.]

THE COLOUR OF COFFEE.

In the Madras Weekly Mail of 11th July, the following
letters appear ; —

Sir,— In your issue of the 1st July you have a letter
from a correspondent who treats of a subject of immense
importance to planters in general, and especially to
those of the Wynaad, who have now for two years run-
ning lost money owing to the inferior colour of their
coffee. Your correspondent thuiks that it is an 'open
secret' that it arises from want of a dry climate and
dense shade, such as you may see in Ooorg and Mysore.
I was for two years in a broker's office in Mincing Lane,
when Mysore coffee of celebrated marks was, as now at
the head of the market. But it was never colory coffee.
It was, on the contrary, a thick heavy bean, and
very much coated with the silver skin, and of a peculiar
character of its own. It was always bought for the
home trade, whereas the best colory coffee was bought
for export. So that I think that as far as colour goes, your
correspondeut's open secret may shut up again.

But it is a fact that we in AVynaad cannot produce
colory coffee? I think it is rather that we cannot get
it landed in London as colory coffee. This year I sent
home overland samples which were reported on and valu-
ed as colory, but when the bulk from which the sampes
came arrived in London the colour had gone, and the
new values were not within 6/., or £6 a ton, of the
former ones, though in the meantime the market quotation
had slightly risen. The qestion is : why ? Achbomat.

II.

Sir, — What does your correspondent mean by saying,
when writing of the " Inferiority of the Wynaad coffee
beau," " the of use manure could not improve the quality
of the bean, although theoretically pruning might." On
a heavily-manured estate in Coorg as high as 62 per
cent of A. has been obtained. On another estate in
the Wynaad, into which manure has been poured with
no sparing hand, almost as good an outturn has been
reached. I'his estate has yielded 6^ cwt. per acre,
average for eleven seasons, and 7J tor the last three,
over nearly 400 acres, and the coffee is bought by
grocers chiefly for the purpose of putting iu their shop
windows. Inasmuch as A. coffee fetches the best price,
except someiimsB the small percentage of peaberry, it
is obvious that herein lies the chief point, and I fail to
see what your correspondent means by manure not improv-
ing the quality, &c. Later on he says : — " If he (the
planter) has lunds, and can grow shade, and put out
manure," &c. AVhat is the manure for : to grow the
shade, weeds, or improve the quality and quantity of
the henn 'i Too much attention has been paid to what
may be called ixtra clean weeding, and far too little to
muuuiiug. Ill some districts clean weeding is a necessity j
iu otberA I could came efitates that bare brought ruin on
t^tieijT oiraers tbroU|^|> persisticg in it. In PD$ fue tbf

September i, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

Hi

proprietor got well ioto a good gravelly sub-soil the first
season, and expected coflfee to grow, while the real
richness of his land was far on its way to the coast.
Mysore coffee once held a long lead; I doubt if it does
so now, — other districts have caught it up. I do not
remember to have seen it noticed, that the decline of
the Oeylou estates, and the agricultural depression in
England followed almost immediately after the mania
for artificial manures. I h,\ve seen some that remained
under the trees apparautly unchanged for two years.
I kuow of another lot tliat was applied at the rate of
20 tons per acre, merely to report it as 'applied.' It
had no visible effect or any kind, and the cost of
application was mere waste of money. Artificial manure
from Euglind is dangerous stuff to touch, even if
bought uuder a guaranteed analysis. With a freer use
of bones, fish, poouac, the dry earth system of bedding
cattle, and ensilaging, planters need never go out of
the country for manure. Ooffee is undoubtedly benefitted
by partial shade in some districts, but it is a question
whether heavy manuring and high farming will not do
more to improve Wyuuad coffee than heavy shade.

A WVNAAD OUETTV.

III.

Sir, — The Honorary Secretary of the IVynaad Planters'
Association having inviteil all those interested in coft'ee
to give tbeir news with regard to the present inferiority
of the coffee bean in the Wynaad, I send you these few lines
on that subject. The Association seeks for information on
five points, the first of which refers to shade. During my
connection with several estates in South and South-East
"Wynaad, the difference between coffee trees growing
under shade, and those grown in the open, I could
not help noticiug; in Wynaad shade is of all things
most necessary for the growth of coffee ; trees grown
under shade, especially that of the aitley and jacky
not only thrive well, but they, as a rule, bear very
heavily, and produce a superior quality of bean,
whereas those grown in the open, and iu the same sort
of soil and climate, do not seem to do half as well. I
consider shade, on all estates situated under an elevation
of 4,0CH) feet, very necessary for coffee, antl, as a rule, as
most of the estates in Wynaad only have an elevation
of between 3 and 4,000 feet, the cultivation of attley and
jack trees on coffee will temi more to the benefit of
the coffee trees than patent manures. On the Nilgiris,
where many of the estates are at an elevation of over
4,000 feet, shade is not required ; iu fact coffee trees do
better in the open, and they bear heavily and produce a
good quality of bean, whereas in the shade at a high
elevation, the trees, although they thrive very well and
produce a large beau, yet they do not bear heavily, and
it takes a long time for the berries to mature and ripen.
But on lowlying estates, even on the Nilgiris, shade
answers very well. The second point under discussion
is the curing of the coffee on the estate. This subject
deserves every attention, as the proper curing of coffee
on the estate sets the colour of the bean, aad if the
berries are allowed to ferment, either while in the cherry,
or after once taken out of the vats, the colour is sure
to be effected. Ooffee should be sent through the pulper
as soon^ as possible after it is picked, and on no account
should it be kept in the cherry long enough to heat
after pulping. No hard and fast rule can laid down as
to the number of hours the coffee in the parchment
should be ajlowed to ferment in the vats, as that will
greatly depend on the time of the year, and the temper-
ature in the vats. On the high estates of the Nilgiris between
36 to 40 hours are required to allow the coffee to
ferment just to the proper degree, but on lower estates
and in warmer climates less time is necessary. In
Wynaad, probably 20 to 24 hours' fermentation will be found
to be sufiieient. Either over or under fermentation in the vats
affect the colour of the bean, (.'are, attention and knowledge
of the temperature in the vats, will soon enable every
planter to come to a right decision, with regard to the
number of hours required to allow coffee to ferment
(without over-doing it) on his particular estate. Great
care should be taken not to allow coffee to heat after
it is once taken out of the vats and washed; neither
should coffee be stored up thickly; plenty of ventilation

and careful spreading out of the parchment coffee is
very desirable. The third question refers to the place
where coffee should be cured after it leaves the estate.
I do not think it matters much. When the coffee is
prepared for shipment, it not the locality of the curing
factory on the plains which affects the colour of the
beau, but rather the care and attention paid to the
coffee, after its arrival at the factory, which ensures
good curing. * # *

As to the fom-th question, about nimure, the great
object is to get the tree to thrive ; it does not much
m<itter by what manures this object is gained, provided
forcing manures are not u.sed. Oattle manure is of all
manures, patent or otherwise, the best and safest, but
wheu this cannot be had, bone and potash iu small
quantities and well mixed with sholah earth is a good
substitute. I have often used lime with advant.age for
coft'ee on clay soils. Lime judiciously used is a great
help, and tends to keep off leaf disease. I now come
to the fifth and last question, with regard to the mode
of packing for shipment. This subject can have but
little to do with colour or wether the coffee is packed
in good new double bags, or iu boxes thoroughly dried.
I prefer packing in double bags myself, as coffee so packed
is better stored in the steamers ; cases being very apt
to get broken. This color of the bean will, however,
suffer if packed in steamer containing sugar, &c., and
consequently it is preferable to send our coffee home iu
one of the chartered steamers instead of the B. I. S. N.
Company's boats, which carry goods of all sorts.

Coonoor, 3rd July 18S5. 0. E. P. V.

In the Mail of 17th July the following letters appear: —

Sir,^The alleged deterioration in the color of the Wynaad
coffee been is a very serious matter for planters, and I
am sure the plantinig community will be grateful to you
for ventilating the subject in the illa'il. That careless
drying on the estate is the cause I cannot think, as far
more care is now taken in this matter than formerly.
Ten or fifteen years since very little pains were taken,
and coffee was often despatched with the surface water
just dried off. Sabonachin [.!!>, for Sabonadiere ! — Ed.] in
his book on coffee, published in 1870, considers that two
days' exposure to a hot sun is sufficient for drying coffee
before despatching to the coast. Now every planter knows
that this would barely bring the coffee down to 40 lb.
per bushel. The old generation of planters were much
against having the coffee too dry before despatching.
Their reason was that coffee dried beyond a certain point
would absorb moisture from the atmosphere in transit,
and by this second wetting would lose color when sub-
sequently re-dried on the coast. The rule I was taught
twenty years ago was, to dry until the silver skin would
rub off, and coffee so cured was always of a good color.
Of late years the constant cry of the coast curers has
been that the coffee has not been properly dried on the
estate. I have had coffee at 30 lb. per bushel reported
as "quiet wet." The consequence is that planters have
dried more and more, until now coffee is generally dried
to from 30 lb. to 34 lb. per bushel before despatching.
This saves the coast curers trouble, but is, I believe
one reason of the bad color of our coffee. I heard from
a manager of curing works last season that coffee which
had been despatched at 3S lb. had turned out a better
color than that from the same property at 30 lb. I, for
my part, intend to go back to the old system of drying
the color into the bean, and not out of it again, and
let the curers grumble as much as they like. While I
think the mode of drying has some effect on the color,
I cannot but allow that it is small compared with that
of leaf disease. The latter, I hear, is the chief cause of
bad colour as well as small beau.

July 12th. E. N.

II.

Sir, — In submitting answers called for by the Hon.
Secretary, Wynaad Planters' Association, in his letter of
1st instant, it must be miderstood that these are mere
opinions based on iusufficient and altogether uncertain
evidence. Taking the questions seriatim .- —

1. That grown under shade is a larger and finer bean.
The color too, is, probably better, but that is improved.

ilt

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

Oaylon proJiiees the fluest colory coSea iu the wovld,
and it is all grown iu the opeu. Mysore cofYee oommauds
a high pi-ioe for other reasous th.iu its color.

2. Pulping greea or over-ripe fruit, incipient ferment-
ation iu heaped cherry or heaped parchment. E»oh and all
of these will altect the color of the bean injuriously. It is pro-
bable that drying in shade has a favourable effect ou color.

3. Inland-cured coffee is sometimes equal to, but gener-
ally interior to that cured on the AVost Coast. I have
no experience of East Coast curing.

4. The best soils produce the best colored coffee.
Manures enrich the soil. There can be little doubt, then,
but that they exert a favorable iutiueuce ou the color aud
quality of the beau.

5. I am not aware that different modes of packing
have much effect ou color, but consider that packing iu [
double bags will best preserve the quality of the coffee.
Oue thing is certain, that coffee grown iu rich soil is
superior in color to that grown iu poor soil. Another
thing is certain, that cort'ee grown a proper distance within
the "ghats is superior to any grown ou the ghat line. This
last fact is probably a mere corollary of the first. Ghat
land is often very "productive for a few years, but the
slopes are steep, aud this productiveness vanishes with
the vanishing soil. So far as our knowledge goes, aud
this is a very small way. it is the conditions of soil and
climate which chietiy influence the color of cort"ee. It is
possible that drying under shade may affect the color of
coffee. This remains to be proved. It is probable, too,
that coffee grown under shade is better colored than that
grown in the opeu. 'Whether this has beeu proved er
not is of little consequence, so far as Coorg is concerned,
for it is au umlisputed fact that coffee will not exist iu
the open, beyoud a very limited time. This last fact,
too, mav be found to have to do with deterioratiou of the
soil. It" is well kuowu that shade preserves soil. It is
further known that shade iuiproves soil. The whole matter,
then, appears to resolve itself into a question of soil,
aud Wynaad v)lauters and all planters must exert them-
selves to keep up aud improve the fertility of their
estates. There must always be a great diversity of opinion
as to the best methods "of cultivation to bring about this
result. That shade is the most important factor cannot
be doubted by anyone who approaches the question with
an unprejudiced mind. JIauure is good for the soil, clean
weeding is good for the soil, turning over is good for the
soil. Good soil gives good coft'ee. Therefore all these
methods and others are to be resorted to, if a beau of
good quality aud color is to be produced.

Though much of the above is mere unmatured opinion,
it is all deserving of further observation aud experiment.

Coorg, 11th July. J- 0.

III.

Sir,— I am glad to see that a discu.ssion fraught with
BO much interest to planters has been started in your
journal, and that you have given it your own careful at-
tention The consensus of opinion as yet published points
to shade as absolutely necessary, and in this opinion I de-
cidedly concur. The difference" of cotVee under shade and
in the open is most ni.aiked, and teaches its own lesson,
especially with regard to the size aud appeareuce of the
l«?au, and it is therefore superfluous to enlarge on the
subject. I do not think, however, that what I consider
the real cause of the detorioratiou in color, iu the last
year or two, has been touched upon yet, plantors blaming
coast curing, and coast curers giving the retort co\irteous
to planters^ but with little or no beuefit to the discussion.
I hold that the prim.iry cause of the deterioratiou in color
is the abnormally dry "and hot seasons that have beeu ex-
perienced during the' last two or three years, which pre-
vented any early growth of foliage, and thus partly de-
prived the bean of its chief means of e>dstence. In fact.
1 hold that coffee has t>een suff'ering from temporary as-
phyxia which was bound to atfoct the growth and color of
the bean more or less. Both shaded aud unshaded coffee
appears to have sutfere«l. but of course the latter far
more severely; and I thhik that the fact of Coorg coffee
having beeu "letter than Wynaad is due to the fact that
iu Coorg shade was extensively adopted fully five years

ago, while the majority of 'Wjuaad estates have not yet,

or only recently, gone in for it. The Coorg shade, though,

sufficient to partially beutSt the coffee, and as it grows
larger will do so further, while 'W'yuand on the contrary
is stiU without this protection. Of course there are ex-
ceptions, and it would be interesting to ascertain if well-
shade. 1 estates have suffered as well as unshaded estates,
and if so. in what proportion. I said that this was the
primary cause, but of course in manj- cases it has been
intensified by want of manure. iusutHcient cviltivation or
bad curing caused by a number of planters being so hard
up. I consider, however, that these causes are secondary,
ami ouly apply to individual cases, as it is a fact that iu one
district iu Wynaad the color of, I believe, the whole coffee
was reported unfavourably ou iu spite of manure cultivation
and careful curing : aud this applied to estates belonging
to dift'erent proprietors and under dift'ereut managements,
thus clearly indicating some natural cause which should
be guarded against if not altogether prevented. Again, no
mention is made of the ravages of leaf disease, which,
added to by the absence of early leaf-producing rain, is
enough to make the stoutest-hearted planter despair.
The remedy here again is shade, aud how so miuiy years
have been allowed to elapse without its adoption is a
mystery. CoUee which could fight against disease aud
drought, is now too old to do so, and is being weakened
crop after crop ; and now when it requires shelter and
help, it finds it not.

I h.ave also a stroug objection to the system of planting
cinchona thickly amongst coffee, and I should not be at
all surprised if this proved an aid in depreciating the
value and appeariuice of coffee. M'herever coffee is seen
under large and thickly planted cinchona, it is found to
be iu a very bad way, aud I think that the same dele-
terious influence is c:serted in difl'ereut degrees, according
to circumstances, by cinchona. Taking the above point
of view to be correct, it is seen that the great cause of
the present deterioration iu coft'ee is produced by natural
means, piu-tially beyond the planter's control ; but I maiu-
tiiin that, by attention to good shade, elficient cultivation
and curing, "and also to care in avoiding picking until the
berries are fully ripe, the evil effects of unseasonable and
protr.-Mjted drought can be to a great extent avoided, and
the general price of crops considerably improved. It dies
not come within the scope of the present letter to dilate
ou the subject of proper cultivatiou, this being a matter
that is, or should be, well understood by planters gener-
ally; but on one point, i. «., the effects of maniu:e, I
aui sin-prised, equsiUy with " A Wynaad Chetty," at the
statement of your correspondent iu your issue of the 1st
instant, that manure " could not improve the quality of
the bean." and can only attribute it to an error of ex-
pression. Given a field of coffee equal iu all respects, man-
lu-e one-half aud leave the other half unmanured, aud
there can be no doubt as to which half would bear the
better sample of coffee. ScX)T.

Nilgiris, 13th Jidy.

IV

Sir. — I have perused with interest your leader, and
your correspondents" three letters ou the" above subject in
your issue of the Sth instant. You refered to Ceylon in
"your article. I am an old Ceylon planter, quite as con-
ceited of my planting lore as any member of the brother-
hood ^self-approbative and severely contumacious, as the
Bengalee Babu said of himselfl. and though a deserter,
am still of opinion that the Ceylon planter isthes;»ltof
the tropical planting world, for he gives more time and
puts more individuality into his work than his Indian
confrere is supposed to. The remarkable growth of the
tea industry is the proof, if any was required, of his pluck,
good sense aud ardour; he was wrecked, but for the past
two or three years has been building unto himself an ark.
With tliis premise for excuse (or added insulf), your
planting readers will forgive me for divulging that, in
Ceylon, the Indian planter is deemed gtulty of taking life
pretty easy, aiul arguing theoretically of cause and effect,
when he should be learning opinions, and proviug them
experimentally. If this discussion becomes known to Ceylon
planters, the majority will immediately conclude it iaakin
iu nature to the coiistant controversy in journals devoted
to tea as to the oue true mode of manufacture. Tea house

r on.v recenuv, «..„. m .u> ... .... » .■ ,-. mysteries were quickly laid bare and calle.1 " humbug."

eneraUy speaking, of ouly comparative recent growth, is | aud you must put it down to my early traimng in Uwt

Sbptember I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST-

213

supercilious scliool that I cannot but thiuk the present
diBcuBsioD smacks of twaddle also. Having told you what
a very superior person I should be, now for the inform-
ation which, you will permit mo to adil, was acquired
on eight estates, all varying somewhat as to climate,
soil and ruinfali, and coufiriued by the opinions of three
old planters related to me in different degrees: — (1)
** Each district, almost each group of estates, has its own
particular color, due to climate and soU." Conditions
being favourable, it is certain that an estate in any dis-
trict in a particular year will have as good a color as
is possible in that year, qualified by my remarks given
below. If any portion of an estate does happen to give
better color than the rest, work for it if the reason
can be discovered, not forgetting that no artificial man-
ure, but the phosphates have, so far as my experience
goes, any influence on color, and they only in a very small
degree.

(2.) ' Color' is reported to be modified in more or less
degree by (a) ' /Fea/Aer'-^Deficient rainfall and a big
crop, (h) ' Jiii/ Crop' invariably gives bad average color,
though the first half or three-fourths of a crop may be
quite up to the mark ; watch the picking carefully, keep
the colory separate, advising curing agents of same.

(c) Cultivation. — Scientific pruning and rational man-
uring mollify the effect of dry weather or a big crop,
putting heart into the trees, ai is well-known ; steamed
bone meal and freshly burnt coral lime gave me the
boldest berry I ever picked. It topped the London market
for a month, but the color could not be said to be ab-
solutely better than the rest of the crop. It looked better
truly, but the berry was so bold it shewed deep color
just as a double thickness of glass is apparently deeper
in hue than a single pane. Phosphates of bones and of
lime are very useful in stimulating sluggish trees : trees
which standing on good soil do not crop; these highly
stimulating mamu-es are death to land only too ready to
bear. After a heavy crop it is the ''happy despatch;*' I
have seen a field simply extinguished.

(d) Shade. — If on good soil and at the lower elevations,
and then only, gives good color ; if the soil is wanting,
crop and color are equally poor.

(e) But the greatest factor in determining color, in
any particular year.

(/) Is the stage 0/ ripenas when the hern/ is picJced.
Tho best color is attained when picking is racing dropping ;
it is absolutely essential for good color that the berry
should be diijtinctly over-ripe, and with this is linked
fermentitiy^ for in that condition it ferments quickly and
cleanly. Berries not fully ripe require a longer time
on the cisterns, and if I am not mistaken, require to
kee}) this maximum heat also longer to detach the mucil-
age. In this connection I do not altogether disregard
the opinion of those who contend that damage is done to
color by overheating, but I limit the possible damage to
berries not fully ripe which are more liable to be affected
by extraneous influences. Let any one try the experiment
of allowing good ripe parchment to stand six or eight
hours longer than usual in the fermenting cistern, and
declare on his honor that the color was in any way
atfected ; I have often tried and utterly failed to di.slinguish
any harm. It stands to reji-son that ripeness and good
quality (which most certainly is inculsive of color) are
synonymous. Why should a coffee fruit be considered in
a different light from other fruits ? I write clearly on
this point, for many young planters are so afraid of crop
dropping that they lose for th''ir crop the benefit of a
week's sojourn on the trees, and that the last and most
important week. Watch the rapid development of the
berry in the last month in weight and in color, and
then call me foolish when I say that the week lost may
be a quality lost.

(j) Condition Khert leavini/ the estate. — I u.sed to consider
three scorching days at low elevations — and from four to
seven days on the higher estates — of drying as sufficient;
it kept long in store, another half day before despatch
to sweeten it. 'For a ten days' journey coffee should not
weigh more than 33 lb. per bushel, and in transit, pack-
ing in three-bushel bags is far preferable to heaping a
quantity l(3ose in a cart covered by a mat ; if the cofTee
is not well dried, it is offering a premium to rot.

3. Very much depends on the coast curing eataUishmenti
and X would ad\-ise planters to patronize that store which
has the best account sales; part of the higher prices,
one may be sure, is attributable to better curing under
skilled European management. Distrust all stores where
the manager is not really a capable experienced man,
for without the knowledge, he must depend on his native
subordinates : rotten reeds in such matters at the best
of times.

4. " I'oyaye Home." — Insist on agents choosing a qaick
ship and a clean cargo ; what do they charge commission
for?

5 " Bain." — So long as the rainfall is suflficient so much,
more or less, makes not an atom of difference. If it rains
so continuously that the parchment cannot be dried, keep
it in wet cisterns, with water running through, and it
will be sweet and colory ; why should it lose its color
if kept cool V Negligence excuses itself by averaging " heat-
ing;" it is an utter mistake to pre-suppose it. I have had
jjarchment twenty-nine successive days in running water,
and though it was discolored the berry inside was as well
colored as the rest of that crop.

To sura up, dry weather occasionally affects color;
cultivation perhaps a little. The best results may not be
husbanded owing to ignorance or carelessness, but he who
strictly attends to thorough ripeness when picking, and
dryness when despatching, has done almost all he can for
the color. Careful cultivation especially, pruning with
discretion, and manuring with care gives a bold beau,
enhancing the color and consequently the price • contra
hiEh-priced coffee is customarily called colory by brokers.

M. P.

Then in the Mail of 28th July Mr. Quarme writes :—
» » * »

A. The only difference that is observable in bean
matured under shade, and in the open (in the same
locality) is, that the bean under sh.tde is more elongated,
and has less specific gravity, generally with a marked
diminution of peaberry, and from its more moist properties
ferments quickly.

B. The only means of producing the colour which
influences the London brokers is by fermentation, and
that of course can only be effected on the estate by
the planter himself. The present failure in colour may
be ascribed to the comparative small daily i)ickings of
a few score bushels, instead of as many hundreds being
heaped in the cherry loft, and after passing through
the pulper being placed in capacious cold, chiinam built
vats. It will be obvious that fermentation generates
quicker in a large mass than in a small one, and that
wooden cisterns accelerate fermentation, especially if
some of the previous days fermented slimy juice is left
in the vats. It must also be borne in mind that longer
periods are required to produce fermentation in higher
elevations. I remember in the days of " bumper crops"
in the bamboo district, a planter got behind with his
pulping though working day and night ; the cherry was
tough with fermenation in the loft ; and yet this e.x-
eessively fermented coffee, though very badly washed
for the lack of water, tVtclied exceptionally high rates.
Native cured coffee has often a . better colour than
plantation. Coffee in high elevations .should be ferment-
ed at least 3(1 hours, which fact the late Mr. C. AA'.
Keed successfully proved on the "(iuynd Kstste.

C. This would be better put. Is there no difference
between coast cured coffee and those cured inland ;•' Coffee
is best cured in a dry as well as warm temperature.
All tnings being the same, I decidedly prefer inland
curing. I remember an old Civilian who had kept
some coffee two years in the plains, .and of which a
London Broker offered to buy any quantity at any price
named. The coffee gets a transparency of colour from
the moisture in the bean being absorbed by dry heat,
the oilv matters remaining, and so influencing the colour.

D. Manure affects the .size and weight of the bean ; but
I fail to see how it would affect the colour.

E. Packing in cases and casks preserves the colour
of the coffee Ijetter than bags. All coffee pales, and
becomes transparent in colour from age, as long as it
is not mouldy. « » « •

214

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. tSsPTEMBER l, 1885,

In a later issue of the 3IaU appears the following
letter : — , . , , li

Sir,— I have been much interested m several letters
on this most serious question to us Planters, published
in your paper. I have perused all most carefully, and
there is no doubt a good deal in all the opinions given.
Cherry picked at an insufficient stage of ripeness, kept
too long and allowed to heat before pulping, and allow-
ing parchment almost dry to get wet again, are, I am
almost convinced, the chief causes of bad colour. In
some districts it is almost impossible to keep your
coffee once nearly dry,— for you cannot store insufficiently
dried parchment,— and owing to continued wet weather,
however nicely covered with matting on the barbacues,
rain will get through. Besides, it is very injimous to
cover up half dry stuff like this. This could be re-
medied by having some barbacues built under rather
lofty sheds, open all round, for drying parchment that
has had the water fairly dried off in the open. A
better plan would be to have "Pucka" tables on rails,
that could be run in under the sheds in case of ram;
and the extra cost would pay in the better colour of
the beau. Now as to picking half ripe cherry. The
natives in 'Wynaad never pick their coffee till it _ is
quite purple, and almost tumbling off ; they then "strip
everything at once ; they do pick some greeen berries
then, but these are either fully matured, if not, a very
small percentage not worth reckoning, and I have in-
variably noticed that their cherry, when pounded out
into clean coffee, seems to have a far superior color
to our parchment coffee when pounded out. Every native
will tell you their 'purpu' (clean) coffee has a better
color than ours, for we pick half ripe coffee. Fully
ripe cherry pulps easily ; a far less percentage ' cut,'
ferments much quicker for washing, and turns out a
fine sample of parchment.

25th July. COOBOOMEER.

In the Mail of August 4th a correspondent criticizes
Mr. Quarme, and gives his own ideas as follows: —

Sir,— What shall he say who cometh after the irre-
pressible Mr. Qurame ! I can only leave him to the
tender mercies of my Wynaad brethren, whilst faintly
breathing the hope that the latter gentlemen will not t'ail
to " make a note of it," and henceforth refrain from
picking their crops by bushels instead of by tons. It is
to be hoped that Mr. Quarme is prepared to shew those
reprehensible, supine Wynaad planters where those same
tons are going to come from ! The question under dis-
cussion, I believe, is: "What is the deterioration in
fiuality of Wynaad grown coffee ? " I refrain from answer-
ing, Sir, because I believe, those most mterested are sick
of theories, and the most elabroate statment of my posi-
tion on this point would be met with the impatient reply :
'• Theory, Sir, mere theory ; we have got no money to
throw away on expensive theories." For this reason I
beg to be excused from expressing my views, trustworthy
and well-grounded though I know them to be. Perhaps,
however, I might just venture to hazard the suggestion
of an heroic measure that will make my Wynaad brethren's
hair stand on end. Provided A. B. has still a decent
soil to work on, but which, alas! can only show coffee
bushes unable to mature their crop (or do anythmg
decent for that matter), let him pick out the poorest
bushes, carefully train the best sucker that the bush is
capable of, from as low down as possible, and then stump
the bush. In order to avoid all possibility of being charged
with theorizing, let me here fall back upon well-proved
facts, which will, however, bear recapitulation. What are
some' of the chief advantages derived from shade ?

Firstly. The foliage of coffee-bushes under shade is

generally of a healthy, dark green colour, and altogether
fit to discharge its important function healthily.

Secondly.— The soil under shade does not get ■ caked in
the hot season, and hence remains permeable to the fertiliz-
ing influence of light and air.

Thirdly.— Under shade the farmation of nitrates does
not proceed with such wasteful rapidity as in the open,
and consequently the fertilizing elements of the soil are
better conserved.

Fourthly. — Unless the shade tree be a surface feeder
its roots bring up stores of fertilizing matter which the
feeding rootlets of the|coffee bush cannot reach, and the said
coffee bush ultimately benefits on the deposit of fallen leaves.

These are only a few out of the numerous advantages
to be derived from shade. In conclusion, I may quote
an extract from " Engineering " which looks suspiciously
like theory: —

" Recent researches by M. Slaumen^ have shewn that
the metal manganese exists in various growths as a salt
of an organic acid. The proportion in cacao is very great,
as it is in coffee, tobacco, and especially in tea. In the
fifty grammes of ashes left by a kilogramme of tea, there
were found five grammes of metallic manganese. There
are plants, however, in which no manganese is found,
such as oranges, lemons, onions, &c. Many medicinal
plants contain it, as for example, cinchona, white mustard
and the lichen (Rocella tinctoria). Tea, coffee and other
plants require an abundance of manganese in the soil for
their proper cultivation, and the absence of it may account
for the failure of many plantations."

Perhaps Mr. Hughes, of Oeylon fame, will kindly en-
Ughten us further on the point, and Mr. M. :A. Lawson
will also take up the tale. Leaving these gentlemen to
fight it out, I meanwhile subscribe myself.

Neilgherry Hills, 30th July. One of Them.

Another correspondent is rather harden Ceylon planters: —
SiE,— Your correspondent " M. P.," must pardon me
if I fail to see how he in any way explains the deterior-
ation in colour in the last few years. In the first place,
Oeylon men are and have been quite sufficiently plentiful
in Wynaad to have " proved experimentally " to us how
we should improve the colour, by such care as " M. P."
recommends. That their colour is no better than that of
other planters is proved by the fact that the coffee from
the whole district is much the same, aud the leading Oeylon
planter in this part is one of the most energetic enquirers
at association meetings into the cause of the bad colour
of Wynaad coffee. " M. P." has shown us what the Oeylon
planter tliiuks of himself and others. He must excuse
my saying we have generally found Oeylon planters a
failure here. They do not seem to be able to work with
Wynaad labour, and therefore, perhaps, we rarely see the
results we expect after so much lecturing. The crux which
"M. P." tails to explain, is why the same men on the
same estates, several of them superior Oeylon men, and
working far more carefully than they did six years ago,
cannot produce anything like the bean they did then at
a far lower cost. jVud why, may I ask, " M. P." was
Ceylon coffee such a wretchedly poor sample in London
during 1884, if curing has anything at all to do with it ?
There can be no doubt at all of the cause. The one great
change in our conditions in the last fifteen years has been
the advent of leaf disease. This did not tell much on the
samp'e for six or seven years, but now it has, ami more
especially on crop taken from trees grown from diseased
beans, or say, since 1873, by which time the disease was
fairly established and telling on the old trees. Young
coffee does not grow and cover the ground as it did fifteen
years ago, even though planted on similar soil alongside
magnificent old trees. It grows well till the first check
from crop or drought, and then loses every leaf with leaf
disease. It vigorous coffee on good laud, it will look
magnificent again in three months, but only to get another
shock next dry weather, and it is these drains on the
trees which ruin the sample. Now for a remedy. One
has been found in leaving the ghaut, and going inland to
bamboo land, where the sample always has been better
than on the average ghaut estates, but which formerly
was shunned on account of borer, drought killing the trees
after a few magnificent crops, and fever killing the planter.
Shade now saves the trees, and clearing has checked the
fever, but I doubt very much if shade gives the colour.
Climate, a dry, not forcing climate, gives the colour and
boldness; and shade is necessary for the coffee to last.
Mysore and Coorg are both too hot and dry for coffee
without shade, but it does not therefore follow that shade
and not climate is the cau.se. A second remedy is a
cattle manure with a little bone dust, a sure and certain
remedy mth or without shade, but as it costs at least

September i, ibSf,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

215

K6O per acre, what planter can afford it now even once
in two years ? A third remedy may possibly be found in
bone dust and potash, with or without poonac applied
vnder shade. This could be applied for half the cost of
cattle manure, but is apt, without a shade, to kill the
trees with overcropping, putting my experience is a heavy
crop 11 cwt. per acre, on the trees of a very inferior
sample. Shade I think it very possible may succour the
trees by shielding them from the sun, when it is hottest,
and when exhausted by a heaN-y crop they are least able
to bear it, and by adding vegetable mould, that is moist-
ure and depth of soil, for the roots to work in. But it
remains to be proved if any but bamboo estates will crop
under shade, and will not suffer in the rains from leaf
rot. In any case, I doubt if shade has any effect on
colour, beyond shielding from strain, trees forced either
by cUmate or phosphates into heavy cropping. Of course
the less strain on your tree the more vigorous it is, and
the more vigorous your tree the better yoiu' sample. But
shade alone will not do it. The best Ooorg estates are
all very heavily manured with bones and poonac, and
would not crop without it. Your correspondent " Scot "
is inclined to attribute the falling-off of the sample to
planting cinchona among the coffee, and rightly says coffee
under large and thickly-planted cinchonas is found to be
in a very bad way. But can he tell me if any trees
under which "if large and thickly planted," coffee would
not be in a bad way? It he spends as much money
lopping his cinchonas as Ooorg planters do lopping their
shade, he will find he can grow cinchonas ten feet by
ten in his coffee, and it wiU be all the better for them,
and certainly none the worse for six or seven years. In
time he may have to thin them out, but it is only a
question of light, and not of the cinchona eating up the
coffee, or poisoning it. At least that is the experience of
S. 'Wynaad, 23rd July. -In Indian Planteb.

A question of great interest to planters has recently
arisen as to the causes of the deterioration of the coffee
bean from the standard of former years. Complaints on
this subject appear to be general both in Coorg and iu
■Wynaad, but it is iu the latter district that cultivators
have suffered most. The V.'ynaad Planters' As.sociation
has taken the matter up, and has circulated amongst
similar bodies in Southern India a number of quest-
ions, in the replies to which, it is hoped, some remedy
will be suggested, A correspondent who is familiar with
the Mysore coffee plantation, and whose letter was pub-
lished on the 1st instant, attributes the undoubtedly
superior colour of the Mysore bean to the dense shade
under which it is grown, and to the dryness of the
climate ; he says that 'Wynaad planters are only now
beginning to grow shade, ami that they must wait
another ten years until it has sprung up sufficiently
for any improvement iu prices. Happily for the Wynaad
men, few of whom, we imagine, could stand another
decade of depression, our correspondent has fallen into
the common error of confounding the post hoc with the
propter hoc. He forgets that the Ceylon coffee grown
unaer diametrically opposite conditions to those prevail-
ing in Jlyeore, without a stick of shade, and in a damper
climate than AVynaad, fetches a high price in the London
market. Besides this, it was pointed out some months
back in the Madras Mail that "Wynaad planters are not
now only beginning to plant shade, they hare been
doing so extensively for several years, and none of them
would now omit to put out shade-trees with their coffee
plants. Moreover, the marked badness of colour has
only been noticed within the last year or two. The
e.xplanation mu.'it then be sought elsewhere.

Does the fault He with the method of cultivation on
the estates, or with the treatment the coffee receives
jn the curing yards on the Coast? The coast firms are
naturally ansioijs to .shift the blame on to the planters,
and say that the coffee is picked either before it is ripe,
or after it is too ripe, that it is sent down too wet,
and that sufficient care is not taken of it on the estates.
On the other hand, it has been remarked that no
dit{i>reuce of tr«atmeut on (be varioue iiUutatiuui appetn'i;

to have made any difference iu universally bad jjrices
realized. 'Whether the coffee was grown in the open
or under shade, whether it was maniu-ed with cattle or
artificial manure, or not manured at all, whether weigh-
ing 40 lb. or 30 lb. a bushel when despatched to th«
Coast, the result was equally disheartening. Of course
there may be something iu a district having got a bad
name, in a past season for want of colour, and buyers
being thus made distrustful; but the awkward fact re-
mains, that the overland post samples were iu many
cases valued iu London at £10 or £15 a ton more than
the bulk — from which these samples were, presumably,
taken — realized when it reached home, the market not
ha%-ing fallen in the interval. The samples of "Wynaad
coffee in particular were pronounced, both iu India and
in London, to be unusually good, while the bulk was
phenomenally ,bad. This points to some mismanagement
in the curing yards in preparing for shipment if the
samples were f.-urly taken. Here we would draw atten-
tion to what our correspondents say in their letters
which appear in another page. It might bo worth con-
sidering whether the reduction in the curing charges,
which was almost forced upon the coast firms three
years ago, has not led to careless working. It is generally
supposed that in a good season the average profit on cur-
ing a tou of coffee is R17; at present rates, this would
seem quite sufficient. If, however, the drying and packing
are badly done, it would perhaps pay planters to return
to the old tariff. If the plan now usually adopted, of
shipping coffee in double sacks, does not ensure its ar-
riving in good condition, the R5 a tou that was taken
off would be well expended on barrels or airtight cases.
In the matter of shipping, we would again question
the accuracy of the correspondent whose letter we have
already noticed, and ask why he considers it better to
send coft'ee by chartered steamers than by the British
India line. As a matter of policy it may be well to sup-
port the former and keep alive a healthy opposition,
but it would be difficult to persuade us that coffee
arrives in a worse condition after a voyage of five weeks,
than after it has been knocking about the coast for a
month between Cochin, Calicut and Tellicherry, iu one
of the chartered steamers, which then takes about eight
weeks more on the way home.

So far as we can judge from the evidence already
brought forward on the subject, we are inclined to think
that, while a certain amount of mismanagement may be
charged against the coast firms, planters are also to
some extent to blame. It is a bad time to recommend
the letter to provide increased store room, and to spend
more money on drying the coffee on their estates. But
the low prices they have obtained, are to be attributed
partly to their want of attention to these two matters,
and they should be considered with the first gleam of
returning prosperity, which, we hope, will not be so
long in coming as our correspondent suggests. In a
rainy crop time the parchment is often allowed to get
wet after it has been taken out of the vats, and it is
even heajied up in an unventilated store before it is
properly dried. Should the experimental plantations,
suggested by Mr. Clarke, in the essay we recently
reviewed, be established, no doubt this deterioration will
he one of the first questions investigated. In the mean-
time it is no good telling planters, as our correspondent
does, " to wait till the clouds roll by ;" the clouds have
been rolling by the planter for the last five years, and
the horizon .shows little sign of clearing. It was not
by howling that hackneyed ditty that the Ceylon plant-
era lifted themselves out of the ruin caused by the
failure of their coffee. \\'\ih all their brag and affected
contempt for other disfncts, there is miich in their con-
duct that Indian planters would do well tn imitate.
As long as they could get money to work their coffee,
they maintained that no one but themselves understood
the art; when four-fifths of the coffee acreage in the
island was utterly ruined, they boldly went on for cinchona,
and announced to the world that Ceylon was the only
country where it could be grown to a profit. Finding
this disproved by the bard logic of fact, they rooted out
their cinchona and replaced it with tea; and now they
gaily talk of driving the Indian and Ohinese tea out of
the niftrket. In e ytar cr two mero tbey may be digging

2X6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 18S5.

up their tea bushes and proving in the Colombo papers
that, as an orange-growing country they are on the high
road to smash Florida. As a matter of fact, the Oeylon
planters are having as hard a time as their Indian brothers ;
but they manage to keep a bold face to the world, and
to attract capital to their industries. "With the millions
of cinchona that are comiug forward in AVynaad and else-
where, and witli the possibilities opened out by the
introduction of such products as tea, coca, and fibre, our
own planters have no reason to be so extremely despond-
ent.— Madras Mail.

Tea i>f THE LoweooNiRY : its Tendency to
Blossom. — The following extracts from a private re-
port are given as interesting and perhaps likely to
be useful to tea planters. The tendency of tea bushes
grown in the hot, forcing climate of the lowoountry
to produce blossom in their early stages instead of leaf
is general and has been intensitied by the peculiar sea-
son this year, but the tendency can be counteracted
by judicious pruning and other means. We should
be glad to hear from planters who have had experience
of this tendency of bushes to flower and who have
suoceBafuUy checked it.

3rd August, 1885.

I have been through 's tea fields. The oldest patch is

in its fifth year, and the rest a year younger, aud they
loosely estimate the crop of the last twelve months at
200 lb. per acre. In the oldest field the bushes are large,
many of them four feet in diameter, and the best jats
fully as much in Ufeight. They have evidently kept it
very close plucked, and high and low, wherever young
leaf was. It now appears to me that it will flush no
more, till it has been severely pruned, as every bush on
the place has masses of flower bud, at every reraaiuing
leaf ; indeed the whole place is as bad as the worst you
saw here, and worse, for the bushes are so much larger,
aud none of it has been pruned hitherto. They have
no advantage over us in their soil, and the growth of
the plants is not for their age better. The weed of the
land is pasture grass, which is mamotie weeded, and
buried from time to time in deep holes. They are plant-
ing up more land, which was originally planted with
coconuts , and swallowed up in jungle. On re-clearing they
are taking a crop of kurakkau, while the plants are com-
ing forward in the nurseries — an idea somewhat native.

I have no doubt, that if the fields are thoroughly pruned,
within this and the next mouth, that the crop of the next
twelve months will be very much greater than in the past
season, and that, at present prices, it will pay well.

Mr. holds, that August is the proper pruning

mouth for this district. He may be right, but I am uot
prepared to give in my adhesion to this view, till 1 am
better informed. If we are to be troubled every year with
this terrible rush of flower bud, I am at present iucUued
to spring, instead of autumn pruning. Every joint of old
wood on the bush in ilay will produce its bunch of flower
bud, and not a n»w flush-yielding brauch, while the growth
that extends the old wood is followed up by flower bud
to the ver^v points; therefore it appears tome, thatspriug
pruning will be better than autumn pruniug iu forcing the
growth into young flush-bearing wood, instead of wasting
the strength of the bush in a useless product. It seems
rcaeonHble to supjiosc that a pound of flower bud will
take as much out of the plant as a pound of leaf, and
oue of the chief points of scientific treatment required,
is to repel the one aud force on the other. I believe I will
be able to keep last year's planting from running to
flower, when the season returns, without much trouble,
and what has been done, and is doing, fur the two-year old
plants is telling already. In the promise of a fi'gular suc-
cession of flushes, which we have not had hitherto. The
great point is to permit no waste growth, by cutting back
all the shoots that rush up a foot above everything else
in a few days; tlien suddenly stopping, and growiug a
cluster of flower buds at every leaf. I believe that it will
be well to keep a party always at work, heading back
irregular growth, aud cutting out hidebouud wood,

The "Tropical Agbicultumst." — I am very glad
to bear testimony to its very great value, not only
to people in Ceylon but to anyone interested in
agriculture or planting all the world over. —Cor.

According to Mr. Leeds, a dental surgeon of New
York, caffeine has been found of greater use than
cocaine in operations upon very sensitive teeth. —
Burgoyne, Barhidges, CyrioLX, and Farries' Monthly
Export Prices Current

The Waste Cuttings ot' Cork are now being employe^
for making bricks, which can bu used for wall", impervious
alike to heat or damp. The cork cuttiugs are reduced
to powder iu a mortar and mixed with lime or clay,
aud from this composition the bricks are made in
the usual way. — Overland Mail.

Tea in Western Haputale. — We are glad to learn
of progress in this district with tea, A correspond-
ent writing on Aug. 5th says : — " I have been busy
with tea planting here the last two or three years, but
only began with a small acreage, about 10 — wish it
had been more, as the growth and the flushing are
very satisfactory. Yon will be glad to hear tea
over this side seems likely to do well, two samples
I seat down to Colombo taken from the bulk being
valued respectively: — Orange pekoe 2s 4d to 2s 6d
(London value) ; Pekoe and souchong Is 8d to Is 9d
(Loudon value). I was under the impression that July
and August being such dry months would check the
flushes, but so far the trees seem to flush as well,
if not better, than during moist weather. We are
getting good weather for our coffee, a product in which
I still have faith."

Cave's Monthly Review. — The July-Auguet number
has reached us, the contents being as varied as
usual. We quote the following letter : —

Dear Sirs, — In The Oity of Sunshine, by Alexander

AUardyce, Vol. I. p. 61, I read, " fresh leavesof

the LiM tree were scattered over the bookcase to repel the
white ants, the Indian bibliophile's greatest enemies."

Can you or any of your numerous readers, inform me. —

(I.) "What is the Botanical name of the LimTeee "?

(2.) "Whether the tree grows iu Ceylon, aud if so, by
what name or names is it commonly known ? — I am, dear
sirs, yours sincerely, A Ceylon Bibliophile.

The Itm or iiim tree {I and n being constantly inter-
changed in Hindustani) is the Azadiraclda iiutica,
whicli, according to Roxburgh, grows throughout
Ceylon as well as India and Burma. Every part of
the tree is intensely bitter, the oil extracted from
its seeds being the well-known margosa oil.

White Bug on Tea. — A planter sends us a tea leaf
covered with white scales, and asks : — " Is this another
' enemy ' ? " Our eutomologioal referee writes : —
" Egg-cases and young of a while or mealy hug ;
probably Nietner's P«eAidococcua adon'iduni ; see ' Jin-
emies of the Coft'ee Tree,' page 5." The following is
what Nietner says ; —

Tlie insects, iu all stages of development, are found all
the year round, the propagation being continuous. It ap-
pears to me, however, tbat the males are most plentiful
about Juno aud January, than at any other season. They
aflect dry, hot localities, and are fouud as well on the
branches as on the roots of the trees, to about 1 loot under
ground. The eggs are actually laid and enveloped iua white
cottony substance ; they are o\jl aud of yellow colour. I
am not sure tbat there are not two species in the island, as
I find some communities rather flatter and more densely
covered with meal. However, these may be local varieties.
The white bug of the Ceylon coffee-tree seems to be identical
with the species which is naturalized in the conservatories
of Europe, and is perhaps a cosmopoiiie. It is closely
allied to the Pseudoc. Catti of Liuuajus, the Cochineal in-
sect. There are several insects in the island, resembling
the white bug, but being of the size of a si.\-peiuiy, and
even shilling-piece, these belong to the g. JJort/ufin, and I
have generally fouud the up-oouiitry species upou the st«m
of a haatal—Tetranthera Gardiwri, Ihui,

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

217

KICE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON.

We can do no more today (12th Ang.) than call atten-
tion to Mr. Elliott s paper on this im|.iortant subject and
the discussion which took place thereon last night at the
Colombo Museum. The information thus aflorded has
a very real practical bearing on a good many con-
troversies which have arisen from time to time in the
Planters' Association and the press. We think Mr.
Elliott makes out a good case for the success of
Irrigation works and the satisfactory result of rice
cultivation in certain f.%vourite localities in Ceylon —
mitl«re the extraordioary Bluebook returns of
the grain crops of recent vears from the Batticaloa
district. But we (juite as strongly hold that in
respect of the commencement of large, expensive
Irrigation works in other directions, a heavy re-
sponsibility rests on the Government to make quite
sure of their estimates and of their cultivators be-
ing really available, before voting further big eums
of public money. Mr. Elliott in replying last night
alluded to the tield presented in the North and East of
the island for an extension of Irrigation which would
attract the surplus population of the Jalfoa peninsula ;
but surely (although no mention was made of it) the
ominous name of " Kantalay " must have been at once
suggested to the memory of many present. To a continu-
ance of good work in restoring tanks and channels and
euppljing sluices among the settled agricultural popu-
ation, CO objection can of course be takfn; but the less
said about further large works, surely the better,
until, at least, the result of the very extensive and
costly operations now going on at Kalawewa can be
fairly a[jpreciated.

It 18 not perhaps of much use referring to Blue-
book returns, after what has been said about them ;
but wo have really no other way of showing even
approximately the Grain Supply of the country. la
the following return, the first column is made up from
the Blnebonk, the test from the Customs Accounts: —

z a a

>■ £ < <
d 5 K

« P = §

9 S a «

S 3 ao

c: 2; _^ H

si r^ ^ X ^

M 0 S „

p a g n.

DDY

ESAl
REP

Ric

ir s t

Ph t. ,r

•- - s ^

" < = c

f^'S =

C >^-l

— H Sk

-H P i-

nvfhcU.

Bu.shch.

Bnxheh.

Bnsh,'!s.

IS().5 4,fi'A()05

4,694,119

45.3,576

9 841,30'!

ISKfi 5 -JM.OIO

3,765,716

448,048

9,507,774

18()7 5,2(i9,474

4,54-J,5l4

494.566

10 306,554

1868 4,470.0.37

4,349,553

66P,324

9,488,914

18(59

4,601,.3.=i6

4,42.i,719

4S7.420

9,514,495

1870

5 420,473

4,665,103

530,742

10,616,318

1871

4,908,841

4,383,227

472,602

9 764,670

1872

5,022, 450

5,319,482

574 mo

10,916.132

1873

4,918,356

5.718,106

656,. 34 2

11 3,82,804

1874

4,417,294

5,444,395

660,5:)4

10, .532, 223

1875

4,741, OSS

5,377,785

7ti3,417

10 5.'i3,100

1876

0,006,541

5,744,531

491,2.'?2

12. 142,304

1877t

5,1)06,541

6,572,104

.526.723

13 005,. 168

1878

8,097,503

6,5S8,7g5

.'•.32,312

15,218.610

1879

7,701,935

5,895,414

972,041

14„569,.390

1880

5,773,782

6.002,037

676,638

12,4.V2,457

1881

6,069,178

.5,943 579

748,288

12,761,045

1882

9,421,443

5,67.3, 13H

537,1.30

1.5,631,711

188.'?

6,896.284

.5,660 650

362,836

12,!)) 9,770

1884

6,321,419

5,430,,597

4.-)4 633

12.206.610

The Bluebook returns of produce are m.ide up for
bushels of paddy and these have hithei to almost
universally been reckoned in rice in Ceylon by
the simple piocess of dividing by two — 2 bushels
paddy tqnal cne of rice. Ihis is true as regards
bulk. But some years ago very careful experi-
ments made in India proved that, by weitlit, thiee
bushels of paddy when unhusked (quilled two of
rice and this is the proper proportion on which o\ir falle
is now bas ed. As rfgaids the two districts— M.i tain and
Batticaloa, the contrast betwcrn careful ncd pro-
gressive and careless or backward retuins is so stiik-
icgtbat we tannct do tetltrthau quote as lolltws ; —

Mataba District.

Crop
Paddy.
Ults/ic/y.
500,000
711,610
770,000
768,000

Bushels
Per Acre.

17
20
17

16

24

16

11

6

• Pad'Jv (nee in the husk) imported at Colonilw is chieHy
used for horse food, but in the Nonhe n Province it is
Introduced and converted into rice, for human consumption
at the rata of 2 bushels of paddv to or.o of cleim rice ill
bulk, but in weight 1 bushel paddy is equal to two-thirds
of a bushel of rice.

t Kei urn ot proiluction not published for thii yc.ir, found
to b« defective, and so we l)«ve takou thg same fib'iiros aa iu

S9

Area

Cultivated.

Acres.

1870 30,600

1876 ... 5,583

1883 .. 4,000

18S4 47,000

Batticaloa District.

1870 58,000 1,412,000

1876 59,000 9C3,O0O

1883 ... ... 58,000 630 000

1884 07,550 418,000

As far back as authentic history exteuds, Ceylon
has been dependent on India for a portion of
her grain supply, and so long as there is a large
immigrant, or even urban population to support, we
do not think it is probable we (hall ever bo in-
dependent. Neveriheless the importance of maintain-
ing and extending local rain culture whenever that
can te done with profit to both Government and
people cannot be denied. That irrigation will work
wonders for any branch of agriculture when systematic-
ally applied is almost an axiom all the world over. In
California and Florida we found farmers and horti-
culturists ready to affirm that with irrigation they
could raise as much on 10 acres as could be got
from 100 unirrigated. But the cost was heavy — as
high as £1 10s per acre for supplying 12 inches
of wa'cr over the soil per annum. The point how-
ever is whether in Ceyh n, the (iovernmeut should
not devote a pirtiou of tluir annual " irrigation "
vote and soriie sh'ire c f the energies of their revenue
officers iu certain locilities to the encoui.iijement
of other branches of .ngriculture besides rice. Wh ,t was
mentioned la^t ni;;ht about the change «Iiich native
enterprise and capital, unaided by Government, has
wrought in the Mahaoya Valley thiougli coconut
cultivation, surely teaches a iespou which ought not
to be loit on the aut' orities. If Agents did more
in suitable distric s to encourage and induce the
people to plaut palms acd t-thi r fiuit trfes (as
lasting a culture an grain), and now within the
rainy zoue, tea, we fei 1 sure, that local prosperity
would beprcmoted qui' e as much as by rice culture,
It may be of interest, perhaps, at this time to
give tliB detailed figures showing — lO far as the ex-
ternal trade can — the change wrought by tlie native
extension of coconut onltlvauon within the prtsant
geueialioa in Ceylon ! —

Export Tbade (Customs KetuAns).

Coconut Oil...

Coin

COPKA ... .,.

POONAC .,.

OoC'lfcTs
Total value of Coconut produce
exported... ... about K3,n00,000; about R8,O0O,0OO

H.-re there is cer'aioly onr- branch of agricnlinre
eminently successful among the natives of Ceylon.
T|^6 strange circumutance ia that the eainc people tfIiq

1^55

Owt,

1886.
Cwt,

85,OU0

381,000

48.000

113,000

52,000

202,000

nil

77,000

1 2 million

'J'i millions

2l8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885,

so readily go in for coconuts with their capital do not
care to exteud paddy cultivation, even when they have
found it to be largely profitable. We remember one native
gentleman telling ua that the sale of the sli-aw from his
fields near Colombo repaid hia expenses, the paddy crop
being all profit, and yet he and his neighbours did not
seem eager to extend this cultivation in the same way
that they looked after more coconut land. In this way,
it may be said that Colombo natives with means do
not require encouragement to plant pixlms and fruit
trees, but in other localities the Agents might do
much to make a beginning and also to introduce new
products. We waut, in tact, every Revenue District
in the island to have rts Experimental Farm or Garden
and Annual Agri-Horticultural Show.

"RCIE CULTIVATIOM UNDER IRRIGATION
IN CEYLON."
At the meeting last evening (August lltli) in the
C( lombo Mu3( uin to hear Mr. Klliott's paper on this sub-
ject, th«re were present Hon. W. H. Ravenfcroft (in the
Chair), Hons. P. Rima Nathan and K. A. Bosanquet,
Messrs. A. M. Ferguson, cm. a., T. Berwick, J. Capper,
A. R. Dawson. H. W. Green, J. B. Cull, E. B. Hurley,
R. W. levers, J. G. Wardrop, A. M. Fergufon, junior,
D, W. Ferguson, W. J. Boake, J. Ferguson, J. J,
Grinlinton, W. P. Rinesinghe, J. G. Dean, Treasurer,
and VV. E. Davidson, Secretary, besides several ladies.
After reading the minutes of last meeting, the following
new members were proposed and accepted : — Messrs.
J. Alexander, A. W. Cave, P. de Saram and W.
Wrightson.

Mr. Elliott then read his Paper, which, from its
important btaring on the agricultural intt rests of the
country, and on a subject hotly contested by plant-
ing and other critics of Government measures, we
reprint in full as follows ; —

Paper read before the Eoyai, Asiatic Society,
Oevlon Branch, Hth August 1S85, by E. Eluott, c.c.s.
For many years there has been a widely accepted idea
that rice cultivation in Oeylon does not pay. A dictum
of Sir C. V. Layard has been generally quoted in support
of this, and two \vj-iters many years ago* published certain
statistics which appeared confirmatory of tliis unfavour-
able view ; and these were, I believe, allowed to pass
unchallenged, though they contained errors, which mat-
erially affect the result. However, whether erroneous or
not, tliese opinions and figures referred to a time and to
districts, where the attempt had not then been made to
provide irrigation. This fact has been overlooked in
recent discussions; indeed, both writers and speakers have
gone further, and have asserted that it would probably
pay better to import nearly all the rice required in the
Island, as it is doubtful whether Oeylon can economically
compete with India in the production of paddy.

For many years past, I have been uuable to accept the
low estimate nmdn as to the email profit to be derived
from paddy cultivation | hut whatever doulits I may have
had OH this point have b«cn entirely removed by my ob=
SBrvfttion. pf the Bffe'jts of irrigation, whem that has Iseen
bi'ovlded an v, etitisfactoiry haBls,

Since the queBtion has hem «o prouiluefltly revived, I
have taken conBiderable trouble to further Investigate the
subject ; and I have been able to collect a very large and
varied mass of data as to the yield of paddy, as v/ell as
to the actual outlay necessary to bring a crop to maturity
in the irrigated lands of the Matara and Batticaloa
districts.

The results proved so far more favourable to Oeylon than
I bad ventured to anticipate, that, when inrited by

* Mr. Lndovici's " Paddy Cultivation," and " Speculum" 's
Letters. In " Speculums' " estimate, outlay in labor is
excessive, especially for watching, reaping, threshing and
husking, while Ludovici takes too high a rate of wages,
7d OB the value of a day's labor in a district where no
agricultural labor was at the time remunerated in money,

ptbf r point* to W» «»lett>»tio8 w» fqv>»|l}' pp#s *« qwito.

the Committee of this Society to contribute a paper,
I readily accepted the opportunity for making my researches
public, in the hope of b<'ing able to remove doubts which
might exist as to the possibility of growiug paddy in Oeylon
at a cheaper rate than it can be imported from India.

In discussing this question, it is convenient first to review
shortly the information available, especially as regards the
supeiior fertility of rice hind in India. I have been
unable to meet with any reliable returns of the yield of
grain in North India, but I recently saw it stated in the
newspapers that the average crop in Burma was 42
bushels per acre, and that 1,.500 lb. weight of paddy had been
harvested from an acre of laud in Bengal. The latter is equal
to 30 English bushels by measurement or a return of 12
fold according to the ordinary Ceylon rate of sowing.
Much reliance cannot be placed on such casual notices as
indicating the regulsir returns from an extended area ; but
fortunately I have had access to the transactions oit the
revenue settlement of parts of the Madras Presidency, in
which very elsiborate statistics are given of the yield of
various soils in the irrigated and rich districts, served by
the works on the Godavery and Oauvery rivers.

lu these publications I find it recorded, that in the
Godavery delta soil of good quahty will produce, under
irrigation, about two pooties of SOU seers of paddy per
acre, and the next sort about one-and-a-half pooties.
For the inferior soil about one pooty per acre ra.ay be as-
sumed. As the pooty of paddy weighs 1,200 to 1,400 b
this yield is equivalent to .50, 40 and 26 bushels per acre. .

In South Arcot, in the doab of the Coleroon and Vellar
which is irrigated by the lower Coleroon anient, it is stated
that 300 experiments gave the following results : —

Per Acre.
Harris English
OoUums.* ~
Island and other alluvial deposits ...
Permanently improved lands near village
Best lands with vandel or sandelf ...
Ordinary „ „

Best ordinary rich in sandel
Good ordinary
Ordinary
Ordinary red earth

Col. Baird Smith, in writing of the irrigation works on
the Oauvery aud Coleroon, gives the average yield in the
irrigated lands at 40 bu-shels per acre ; and in his work
on Italian irrigation expresses uo surprise on learning that
in the permanent rice lauds of Mantua and Verona the
average produce per acre was estimated at 30 to 35 bushels
of uncleaued grain, wliile the temporary laud in the same
and adjoining provinces yield about one-fifth more or 40
bushels an acre. He adds: "The process of cleaning re-
duces the rice to about oue-third its bulk, so that for
permanent land the produce would be nearly 13 bushels
of rice."

In a recent order of the Madras Government reviewing
the working of the Sydapet Farm, it is recorded that in
the reply given by the Director of the Revenue Settlement
to the Famine Commission, the average yield per acre of
rice lands lu this Presidency is stated to be 1,884 lb., and
in some localities it exceeds 2,500 lb. These figures re-
pre.icnt H5 and 60 Eoglish bushels of paddy, and wculd in
tlm agciculturnl ;iffi-^flii('(! of Oeylon be spoken of as oquival.
eiit t" a yield of 16» t" SO-fold, on n sswiug of Ji bushels
per acre,

It must be rtrntnibercd that these data arc drawn from
the hurried trial measurements of the settlement officers,
and it has been recently urged, that as these results are
deduced from eSperlmeiits on a limited scale, the tendetic)'
is to exaggerated results;

Nor must it bo overlooked that there Is In India tt
system of cultivation which is decidedly superior in matiy
respects to that followed in this island ; and I have been
also assured that in the Madras Presidency much more
manuring is done than in Ceylon, though there is still
room for iniprovtment in this respect.

Turning to Oeylon, the first matter to be dealt with is
the coxt of cultivation : and on this point I am able to

•» Harris Colfum^ST Madras Stamlard seers of 100
cubic inches=100 Kngliish bushel.i.

t Fine »«d 4ep«sitj4 bj- the llosiis,

45

47i

40

424

35

38

30

32

40

42^

35

38

30

32

25

264

SspTKMBEft t, J885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST/

ji^

give very full information, the result 01 personal enquiry
in the Matara and Batticaloa districts. As the details of
culti\'atiou ditfer in niauy respect-s in these districts, it is
necessary to give a short outline of the practice in each.
In Matara, one or more cultivators jointly undertake thu
tillage of a field. One at least of these men has gener-
ally a proprietory interest in the laud. There is no hiring
of coolies or money payments for any additioual require-
ments. The work is done ou the co-operative or Bee system,
neighbours mutually assisting each other without any special
remuueratiou, beyond a good meal provided by the individual
whose laud is being tilled.

The cultivation of paddy has been so extended in the
Matara district, and the available land is so incessantly
under crop {two harvests being almost invariably taken
from the same land in the irrigated villages), that there
is little or no grazing ground left for cattle, and the
butfaloes especially have to be driven long tlistauces,*
some beyond Tangalla, some 15 miles away, for pa^rturage.
In consequence of this dithculty and the abundant
supply of labor, cattle are very little used anil the fields
are almost entirely tilled with the niamoty. The soil is dug
up and turned thret; times and then sown, and this
occupies a man about 4U days for an area of au
amtmam or 2;' acres.

As the cattle are folded or driven away, there is no
fencing to be done, and watching too has been nearly
given up, as all the people live in gardens border-
ing the fields ; and there are no wild animals, such as
pigs or elephants, to be guarded against.

Keaping an amuuaui e.\teut occupies a man 16 days,
and threshing and winnowing about 30 days for an
average good crop. Allowing a margin for coutiugeneies,
the cultivation and harvesting of an amuuam of land
in the irrigated villages of the Matara district require
90 days of a man's labor or 3l3 days+ per acre ; besides
an outlay of about 4 bushels of paddy for seed and
tools.

I may here mention that Mr. Weeracoddy, in the
report of his experiment in Kegalla, gi\es 34 days per
acre as his outlay in labor, inclusive of certain perman-
ent improvements he had to rmdertake.

In Batticaloa the arrangements for cultivation are not
80 simple, while the lauds are more extensive and a
smaller portion of proprietors cultivate their own lands.
There are two extensive harvests in each year, known as
tlie '• Munmari," which may be termed the winter crop,
and the " Kalawellamai," or Spring crop.

For the " Munmari" it is usual to engage cultivators,
of whom one is termed the head field servant or
Blullakkaran, who has certain privileges and supervises
the other three field servants, or four in all, required
for an ext«nt of ten amunams. As the long drought
which prevails during the south-west , monsoon hardens
the ground, it i.^ usual to wait for the light rains of
September to soften the soil before beginning to plough.
The object kept in view in ploughing with the small
native implement (which is similar to that used in
other parts of the Island) is by frequently going over
the land to thoroughly pulverize the soil. The seed is
then sown broadcast without being germinated, and
left to spring up by itself under the influence of the
first rains, ploughing and sowing going on until stopped
by the heavy rains of October. A description of paddy
which takes six months to mature is sown at first, and
latterly one which requires four months. By this means
the most is made of the time favourable to sowing,
while the rush at harvest is reduced by the crop not
all ripening at the same time.

Cattle are hired for ploughing, and payment made in

paddy varj'ing (for a ten amunam extent) from six

- amunams in the Southern district to four amunams in

"'the Northern, where cattle are more plentiful in pro-

' portion to the arable area.

* In JIatara districts, in IS-S:.', the number of butfaloes

was only 10,162, anil in the chief irrigated pattu, the

Gangabodde, only l,SfX', or one to every 8 acres. In

1 Batticaloa the number was 36,630 in 18S2 or about 1 to

every 2 acres cultivated with paddy.

t I find Ludovici in his rice cultivation estimates the

, labor for cultivating an acre at very nearly the same

I number of days.

lu October and November the field servants complete
the fences and repair the ridges, &c. ; and ordinarily for
three months after this they have but little to do, beyond
sleeping at night m the watch-huts, though they are
supposed at intervals to patrol the fences. Their days
are practically free, and they can eug.age, if so inclined,
in other occupations, which will not take them too f.ar away.
As a fact, all grow plots of vegetables and tobacco
on the higher portions which are to be founil in every
Munmari land, besides shooting game, fishing and
collecting jungle products. In some localities they are
able in January to undertake the cultivation of lands
for Kalawellamai, especially in the Southern districts.
In March the reaping begins and tlie crop might be all
threshed out by the end of April, but in practice it ia
stacked and threshed out later at leisure, to admit of
the field servants taking part in the cultivation for
Kalawellamai now going on.

For reaping, extra assistance is taken on, though not
invariably, and costs from three to five amuuams (for
ten amunams extent) according to locality ami tiie
demand for labor at the time. Threshing out the crop
is done entirely with buffaloes, which have generally to be
hired, and this operation costs from 2J to 4 per cent
of the crop in kind.

Other charges, also paid in kind, are — the " Kuruvik-
karau " or bird-boy, who is employed to frighten off the
birds at the time of sowing and when the crop is in ear ;
also the cost of ploughs and manioties, Vattai Vidhan's fee,
&c.; these charges may be put down at two amunams
for every ten amunams extent.

The cost of cultivation of an extent of ten amunams (or say
25 acres)* with four or six months paddy for the " Munmari"
thus amounts to an outlay (including seed paddy) of
about 26 amunams in gi'ain, anil the services of four
men for a period of 8 mouths or 1)60 days of a man.

The Kalawellamai is sown between February and
May. The paddy generally used is of a kind which
ripens in three months and is germinated before sowing.
The lands cultivated for this harvest invariably lie low,
aud have been generally flooded during the rainy weather
of the north-e.ast monsoon. They are consequently much
softer and more muddy than Munmari lands, and are
trampled with buffaloes (costing six amunams) aud
tilled with the mamuty. The propoi tiou of field servants
required is also smaller, and three can undertake an extent
of ten amunams ; but ou the other hand more additional
aid is required in sowing and at harvest time ; while
the extra charge for reaping and threshing comes to
nearly 50 per cent more, viz., 11 amunams against 8
for Munmari. Then there are the usual charges for bird-
boy, tools, &c., amouuting to 2J amunams more.

The crop is reaped and threshed between June and
August. The cost of cultivating ten amunams exteut or
25 acres for Kalawellamai amounts to an outlay of 32
amunams in paddy, and requires the labor of three field
servants for five months or 450 days of a man.

In this district also no money wages are paid for
agiicultural operations, the regular cultivators being
remunerated by certain shares and perquisites out of the
crop. But if additional assistance is required for any
purpose, the ruling rate is a " Marakal" (a quarter of a
bushel) of paddy a day. At this rate the expenses of
cultivation in grain would average 13 bushels per acre.

This result agrees fairly, though worked out independ-
ently, with a reply furni-shed to a Committee of the
Legislative Council, by Mr. Crowther, a proctor and land
owner at Batticaloa; in which the co.st of cultivating 75
bushels extent by hired coolies is given at 350 bushels
on grain, or about 13 bushels per acre. In another
estimate for cultivating 10 amunams in the customary
manner, Mr. Crowther provides for three field servants
and an outlay of 21J amunams of paddy (exclusive of
ground share or rent, and consumption paddy which
is an advance repaid at harvest time).

• In Batticaloa district it is usual, according to season,
situation, &c., to sow from 2 to as much as 3J bushels
of paddy in an area of an Kuglish acre. I have accord-
ingly assumed .3 bushels to the acre as a fair average
proportion in my calculations. This makes the amunam
sowing extent the same as the Sinhalese districts.

920

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885,

From the InJian reports I find that in the Godavery
district where agricultural services are remunerated in
graiu, the expenses of cultivation are very nearly the
same, and are given in the Revenue reports as 3J
pooties of grain for 1 pooty extent, equivalent to 100
English bushels for 8 acres or 12J bushels the acre-
In other parts of the Madras Presidency the rate is
very much the same.

Perhaps it is as well I should explain that I have through
out dealt with the case of a proprietor working his own
land with his own capital, hiring at ready money prices
any additional aid he requires in men or cattle, so as
to avoid liability for the exorbitant rate of interest charged
for deferred payment, which, in Batticaloa, is never less
than 50 per cent.

All the information which I have collected (though obtain-
ed direct from practical working agriculturists) has been
afforded under the impression it was sought with a
view of increasing their liabilities to Government. "We
may consequently, I think, safely conclude that the figures
given are very outside estimates, rarely worked up to,
and include charges not always incurred. For instance,
1 have made no deduction for the spare time on the
cultivator's hands between sowing and reaping, which a
European employer of labour would doubtless find some
way of turaing to account. Indeed many natives do,
to my own knowledge, utilize it for other purposes,
as already explained, as the only call on them during this
interval is that of watching by night, which is done altern-
ately or by arrangement, so as to admit of at least half
the men being absent at a time, and frequently by the
substitution of mere children.

Again, as regards harvest operations, I found, when
going round, that in many instances these are done by
the regular field servants, sometimes aided by their female
relatives and children (who get no additional renumer-
ation), and no extra aid is called in, unless the crop is
really a heavy 'me and comes in with a rush ; but I have
allowed the full charge in all cases.

I will now pass on to consider the quantity oj padily
that can he t/roini on an acre of laud. But I must
first point out that the yield in Oeylon is generally
spoken of by "fold," and ordinarily without reference to
the amount of seed sown, or the mode of sowing
adopted. In India the seed is, I believe, invariably sown
in small beds and the plants transferred when about
a month old to the prepared land, in which they are
to be matured. Under this system 50 to 60 lb. weight
of paddy, or about an English bushel by measurement
sufiices to sow an acre of land.

In Oeylon (except perhaps in Jaffna on a small scale)
this system is not followed; the seed is sown broad-
cast, and in the Batticaloa district for the Munmari
without being previously germinated as usual in the
Sinhalese districts. This leads, I believe, to great waste, as
much as 3J bushels to the acre being, it is alleged, sown in
some land in Batticaloa and nowhere less than two ; while
in the Sinhalese districts it takes six bushels to sow
an amunam extent, or about 2| bushels to the acre.
A return therefore which might" he termed one of 30-
fold in India would be equivalent to one of 12 in most
parts of Oeylon, and in some parts to only 7i-fold. In ex-
amining the figures for Ceylon, therefoie, it will be well
for piu-poses of comparison to reduce the returns
secured to the number of bushels of paddy per acre.

In Mannar, Baldteus speaks of a return of a hundred-
fold, and Mr. De Hoedt, late Head Olerk of the District
Kachcheri, and a land owner and practical cultivator,
assures me that in a favorable season (in the absence
of proper irrigation) he has ordinarily obtained a return
of 30-fold on a sowing of 3.V bushels or over
100 bushels an acre ; and that 2-5 fold or 87 bushels is
the usual [return, cultivating in the ordinary native way.

In Matara before irrigation was introduced in favour-
able localities a return of 30-fold, or 75 bushels an
acre, was admittedly obtained ; and Mr. Dawson in his
report! as Grain Oommis^ioner speaks of a similar return
being secured in two villages near Hikkaduwa. The.se
returns are exceptional, it is admitted, under exist-
ing circumstances ; but they are mentioned) to show
what can be, and is being, secured in Ceylon without
the stimulus of improved cultivation or regular irrigation.

It cannot be too emphatically insisted that the primary
consideration in regard to paddy cultivation is a regular
water supply. In its absence the best lands give but an
indifferent return, and where it is present the poorest
lands give, I believe, a renumerative crop. In the irrigated
districts of Matara it is now freely admitted a crop of 30
bushels to the acre is regularly secured frequently
twice a year, and in Batticaloa there is ample evidence
the return varies from 30 to GO bushels per acre, with a most
slovenly and imperfect style of cultivation, in which
very little is doue by man and a great deal by nature.

I see it stated in the report of the Irrigation Com-
mittee of ISB7 that the return in Ceylon was at one
time IZg-fold according to an inscription in the Polon-
naruwa tablet. This, I presume, refers to lands irrigated
by the tanks erected by the Sinhalese Kings, and I
have every reason to . believe. . fairly . represents the
return nowadays in the irrigated districts in the South
and East of the Island. I need not here refer to the
evidence on which this opinion is based, as I am content
to rest my calculations as to rice cultivation on more
moderate returns.

We will first take the case of a gross crop of 25
bushels of paddy to the acre, which would be spoken
of as a return of ten-fold in the Sinhalese districts and
of seven-fold in South Batticaloa, where the acre is
considered as equal to 3j bushels sowing extent.

Dealing first with Batticaloa, we must from the eross
return deduct the outlay iu grain for seed, ploughing
&c., already detailed, and the Government tithe. These
first charges amount to 10 bushels per acre for
Munmari, aud leave a nett outturn of 13 bushels as the
return for the 38 days' labour bestowed by the cultiv-
ator iu the sowiug and gathering of the Munmari ciop,
or about 2J days' labour for the bushel of paddy.

This is an outside estimate of the most expeusive
cultivation I know of in Oeylon, and one, I believe,
never touched. In Kalavelama lauds iu which a
quicker growing paddy is cultivated after the usual
deductions, the cost falls to IJ day's labor to the
bushel ; aud if a return of 30 bushels to the acre is
secured, the proportion is still further reduced to 1 day's
labor; while a return of 37 bushels would stcaro a bushel
of paddy for J of a day's labor.

In Matara the proportion is as follows: —

For a 25-bushels crop 1| day per bushel.
30 „ li

37 „ 1^

As I have ah-eady stated, the expenses of cultivation
have erred on the side of liberality, while the return
has been taken at a moderate rate ; I feel consequently,
after a very careful consideratinn of the whole subject,
I am by no means overstating the case iu venturing to
afiirm broadly, that iu a fair land, properly irrigated, on
an average, a dai/^:< labuitr produces a bushel of paddy.

As I have taken a low rate of yield, I have made no
special deductions for unfavourable years, attacks of in-
sects, &c. Flood aud drought are the two great enemies
of paddy cultivation. The former is not hurtful unless
the plants are submerged for an excessive period, fluctu-
ating according to age aud variety, and can be guarded
against by selection of land and timely sowiug. On the
other hand these floods do good by the fertilizing matter
dei^osited on the lands, and in every district I have fvund
the best lauds are those liable to be inundated at fre-
quent intervals. When irrigation is proWded, it is possible
to choose the proj^er time to put in the seed; the
cultivation is practically iudependent of the weather to
a great extent, and the danger of drought reduced to a
minimum. Caterpillars and flies (or more properly
speaking a description of bug) are the next most
important enemies of the paddy plant. Caterpillars can
generally be got rid of with a good supply of water, and
the damage by fliej? is I believe limited in extent. I
recently saw some fields, about which there were loud
complaints, and which were said to have suffered more
than had ever been experienced in that locality. Enquiry
showed the yielil had been reduced by about two-fold in
fields which ordinarily return 7- to 0-fold. In Madras an
allowance of 15 per cent on the full crop of a favorable year
is considered sullicient to cover all adverse coutiogeucies,

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

!jf2I

I have purposely worked out my figures, so far, iu days'
labor aud grain, in keeping with native modes of es-
timating agricultural outlay. Iu addressiu^i a European
audience, it is necessary to attach money equivalents to
these results, based on the value of labor iu each locality.

In South Batticaloa, the ordinary rate of pay on the
coconut estates is IS cents per diem, and the hire of an
agricultural laborer is a niarakal of paddy per diem, which
generally changes hands at about the same rate. The
road commutation tax in both Batticaloa and Matara is
Rljin lieu of six days' labor. In neither district is there
any special demand for labor except for paddy cultiv-
ation Twenty-five cents a ilay is therefore an exceptional
wage, and a very outside value of time in the local labor
market of both districts.

In my opinion the most unfavorable view that can be
taken of the situation is that paddy can be grown in
Ueylon for 31h cents a bushel, and that it is probable
"a liu-ge proportion is raiseil at a cost of 25 cents (six-
pence) a bushelj while it can be sold nearly everywhere
for at least a rupee, leaving a profit of 75 cents per
bushel to meet interest on capital invested, &c.

Turning to India again for a moment, I find that the
average selling price of paddy in the Madras Presidency
has been 94 cents per bushel during 1881 and 1SS2 a'-ainst
fii cents for the three years previous to the famine. To
this, on grain coming to Ceylon, has to be added Customs
duties amounting on both sides to 26 cents per bushel
besides freight and other charges. So th.at it is not sur-
prising the price of paddy is generally Rl-50 in the .Jaffna
market, where alone Indian grain comes into competition
with the surplus production of the Batticaloa district,
aud that surplus comes burthened with charges for trans-
port of over 50 per cent on the cost of production. In
tly3 Colombo bazaar Indian paddy generally sells at E 1 37^ per
bushel, and the Customs valuation for statistical purposes
has for some years been Eli.

This brings me to the consideration of the cost of bring-
ing Ceylon paddy to market. In Matara not nearly enough
is yet grown to meet the demand of the resident popul-
ation, and consequently there is a market on the spot.

In Batticaloa, on the other hand, an exce.ss over local
requirements is produced even in unfavourable years, and
in 1883 over 350,000 bushels were exported to Jaffna
coastwise, besides what was sent inland to BaduUa and
Bintenna, of which no account can be obtained. As
Jaffna ordinarily absorbs an annual import of about 000,000
bushels of paddy, th. re is still a considerable margin
iu this market, so long as Batticaloa can undersell Indian
paddy, as it does now.

Batticaloa is further favoured by possessing cheap trans-
port to this market, owing to the facilities offered by the
extensive backwaters, which are such prominent features on
this side of the island ; and the fortunate circumstance
that both harvests fall within the period when commun-
ication with Jaffna by sea is ea.sy and rapid. A consider-
able number of native ves.sels engage in the trade, especi-
ally during the continuance of the south-west monsoon,
and paddy can consequently be transported from the
threshiug-fioors in the fields to any sea-port market in the
Jaffna peninsula for about 20 cents per bushel.

A grower of paddy in Batticaloa can therefore, in my
opinion, put his paddy into the Jaffna market for about
50 cents a bushel, and secure a profit of about 75 cents
a bushel, possibly a little more.

In Matara the extent of waste land is now very small,
and as there is considerable wealth in the district, fields
in favourable localities fetch fancy prices, running to as
much as R200 to 112.50 per acre.

In Batticaloa the circumstances are very different and
the .supply of land is still iu exce.ss of the demand. For
a limited extent situate in a central locality, an alluvial
well-watered plain known as the Karewagupalam, tlie value
rivals if it does not exceed that for the best lands in
Matara; but the usual price for ordinary paddy land in
cultivation is E30 to R.50 per acre, and at this rate a large
proportion of the fields could be piu-chased. Waste land in
this district can be prociu-eil at RIO per acre and survey
fees, payable iu tour monthly instalments. As the Bat-
ticaloa lands when sold are covered wi(h jungle, after
cutting out any timber available, purchasers hand over
the property for a couple of years to persons who undertake

to clear and cultivate it, taking as remuneration the crops
grown during the interval ; no ground share is claimed,
and the owner advances seed and maintenance paddy
which are repayable but without interest. An expenditure
of about RIO in cash is required to put up the dams
and ridges, which are frequently of larger dimensions
tlian is usual in the Sinhalese districts. It is difficult to say
what the total cost of aswedumizing comes to in money,
but, so far as I can judge, it is not more than E30 per
acre, a portion of which is generally recouped by the timber.

The ta.sk I .set myself is now finished, and I trust it will
be considered that I have shown paildy can be locally
grown, with the aid of irrigation, more economically than
it can be imi)orted. I have endeavoured to give a
truthful fair epitome of the information I have drawn
from the lips of all classes, cbicfiy the practical field-
workers with whom I have been brought more directly in
contact during the past two years, especially in the Batti-
caloa district. As regards expenses of cultivation, my
enquiries are more tlian corroborated by the outside and
independent testimony of others to which I have already
referred.

The only point which is really open to discussion is the
rate of yield. This I have purposely kept low, I believe
below the tr,ith, and I appeal to the gentlemen who have
experience in such matters, if I have not been most moder-
ate in basing my calcuUtious upon a yield iu irrigated
lauds, which would in the Sinhalese districts be spoken
of as v.arying from 10- to 15-fold and of 7- to lO-fold in
the localities where 3J bushels to the acre are sown.

I have selected for the investigation of this question
two districts in which the construction of irrigation works
has introduced a considerable element of certainty in the
cultivation of paddy, and it is practicable to judge re-
sults by pecuniary tests in nccordaneo with European
ideas. AVheu a reliable water supply is absent, and paddy
growing depends on the rainfall, it is probably liable to
more vicissitudes than any other branch of agriculture
in the island, perhaps in the world. It would be a waste
of time to consider its pecuniary capabilities under such
conditions. But fortunately the rainfall in some parts of
the island, and in the more populous districts, is well dis-
tributed, ami paddy cultivation is carried on with results
only second to those ensured by irrigation. Where such
favorable circumstances are wantiug, there is really only
one remedy, and that may be summed up in the single word
"Irrigation." I know no other of equal efficacy. Improved
modes of cultivation, new implements, and fresh seed
are all of secondary importance. Where neces.sary make
the water sui)ply tolerably secure, and we may and caa
rival India, if we do not do .so already, in the economical
production of paddy, though it may be a long day before
we can entirely overtake the local demand. Still the fact
remains that while jjaddy cannot apparently be imported
into Ceylon for nuich under El.V per bushel, we can
produce it in the island for one-third this sum at the
very outside.

Hon. P. 11am.\ Nathan opened the discussion by
statins; that the qu^atiou Mr. Elliott had set himself
to solve was whether Ceylou could grow rice so as
to underaell the Indian article in the local market,
and he had not only answered that qnestion in the
affirmative, but had shown a prolit of 75 per cent
for Ibe cultivation. This was for the Matara and
B'tticaloa districts, where Mr. Elliott had spoken
of crops as high as .So to 70 bushels per acre. Mr.
Elliott had worked out the cost of cultivation and
put it at El.'i per acre. Now there was a very great
divereity of opinion on these subjects, more particularly
as to the yield of rice in crop, and this was shown
by the report of the Irrigation and Paddy Commission
of 18C7 — on which were Sir I!. Morgan, Col. Fyers,
Messrs. Parsons, Alwia, Wise, &c.— who eaid,
among other things : —

The Committee have had under their con.sideration the
returns of the quantity of paddy ja-oduccd in tlie various
districts ofthe island: these data shew that the supposed
average yield of ten-fold is rarely olitaineel, the produce
usually ranging from three or four-fold to about eight-fold,
whilst in other Eastern countries the return ranges be-
tween twenty and fifty-fold. The return in Ceylon during

iii

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, i88^.

ormer periods was seventeeu-and-a-half-fold, according to
the Inscription on the Polonuaruwa Tablet, quoted in a
preceding page, where the tenth is stated to be one amunam
and tliree peias. According to the information thus col-
lected it would appear that the yield per acre instead of
being as usually supposed thirty bushels, is not more than
half that quantity.

The evidence on which this report was based was
of the moat varied and even contradictory character,
and here Mr. IJania Nathan read several extracts showing
how native cultivators gave such returns as 24, 3lj and
9 bushels as the crop of paddy per acre. His own opinion
on the subject was that the average yield tor the
island was between 20 and 25 bushels, and that
2 rather than 2J bushels per acre was the proper
sowing allowance, making the return, in his
opinion, oue of 10- to 124-fold. Aa regards
the C03t of production, he thought Mr. Elliott had
left out certain charges, such as the wear and tear of
implements and tools which he would put at R2 an acre,
and interest R3, bringing the total up to E18 per
acre against a return of 20 to 25 bushels of paddy
valued at Rl each, leaving a margin of from R2 to
R7 per acre. This he would compare with the return
from coconuts which was, at least, R37i per acre,
or from cinnamon even— or, perhaps, tea. (Applause.)
Mr. J. Fekgitson said that all who had studied
this question were accustomed to take their start from
the Keport of Sir Hercules Robinson's Commission
already quoted, in which, after making enquiries and
receiving evidence from all parts of the island, it
was stated that the average yield of paddy in Ceylon
was nearer 15 than 20 bushels per acre, the range be-
ing 4- to 8 fold against 20- to 50-fold for other
favourite Eastern rice-growing regions. Mr. Elliott
had undoubtedly brought together much valuable in-
formation respecting the yield and cost of rice in
India, but he could not help thinking that as re-
gards the rich alluvial lands of the ijangetio valley
anil of Burma especially, the returns were under-rated. )
He had seen an official statement that the average for the
ricefields of Burma was 40-fold, which would m>an
40 bushels per acre according to their way of sowing, |
and Mr. Hallett, the co-traveller of Mr. Colquhoun,
had stated in i-espect of the Shan country, north-
east of Burma, that the people told him in one
large district that they got back 250 times what they '
put in of paddy. The latest Administration Report on
Biitlsh Burma stated that there were 4 million acres
under paddy, and that 100,000 acres were added to
the cultivation yearly, the annual exports of rice hav-
ing risen to a value of £6,000,000 sterling. The estim-
ate for all India was UO million acres under rice.
Looking at the matter broadly, therefore, he
did not think anyone could say that Ceylon
could be put in comparison aa a rice.grow.
ing country with Burma or Bengal. But Mr.
Elliott had confined his paper to certain favoured
districts, and he (Mr. F.) did not think anyone had
ever disputfd the advantage of irrigation works and
rice cultivation in Matara and Batticaloa. At the
Royal Colonial Institute he had carefully guarded him-
self by saying that where the land was suitable for
rice-growing in Ceylon, and irrigation could be pro-
fitably .applied for a resident population ready to take
advantage of it, the unofficial public had uniformly
supported the Government in such expenditure. He
had then the Matara and Batticaloa diatiiuts specially
in view. Further he could add to Mr. Elliott's
instances of very heavy ciops in exceptional cases in
Ceylon, from the authority of the intelligent Kachcheri
Mudaliyar of the North-Western Province (Mr. S.
Jayetileke), who had told him that on the banks of
the Maha and Deduru eyas after Hoods with favourable
weather, there are lields which give a return of 100
bushels per iiore, and others 40 and 50 bushels. Bat
such oases were entirely cxceptioual, and although ho

believed Mr. Elliott's paper to be a generally correct
and most valuable account of grain cultivation in
the Matara and Batticaloa districts, yet it was very
difficult to reconcile it in some parts with other official
statements. For instance, it was his (the speaker's)
duty — a painful one rather — to study very closely
year by year the Government Bluebooks and Adminis-
tration Reports. Now while in the case of Matara
the grain statistics showed good progress and the
rate of yield was very steady at an average of
16 to 17 bushels per acre; in the favourite Batticaloa
district the case was very ditferent. The maximum
of over a million bushels of crop was reached
in 1870 with an average yield of 24 bushels per acre,
that rate had gon« down in 1S77 to 17 bushels ; in
1883 to 12 ; and last year the Bluebook figures posit-
ively only showed a return of 6 bushels per acre. (A
laugh.) So again with the total production of the island :
our maximum seemed to have been reached In 1880,
since then there had been a heavy falling-off in the
local crops. Now they all knew the disrepute at-
taching to Bluebook returns so far as Agriculture was
concerned, but if there was one district more than
another from which they ought to have correct re-
ports, it was surely Batticaloa with its steady in-
dustry and supervised irrigation. However, passing
over that and taking Mr. Elliott's own average of a
return of 25 bushels per acre, produced at a cost of 37i
cents per bushel, leaving a profit of 75 cents, or(leavingout
carriage) let them say 50 cents per bushel, what was
the nelt result? Only RI2'50 per acre ; while as Mr.
Rama Nathan had mentioned coconut (or he might
add areca-palm) cultivation gave the natives a nett re-
turn not under K37i P^"" acre. Again, Mr. Elliott had
almost provoked a comparison with tea, which he (the
speaker) thought the Government ought to encourage
the Sinhalese villagers to cultivate around their huts
and in their gurdens after the fashion of the Chinese.
A bushel of paddy, according to Mr. Elliott, and a
lb. of lei could be produced for nearly the same cost
in CVyldU — the one being worth 75 to lOJ cents, the
other nay 50 to 60 cents on the .'<pot. But then even with
native cultivation and management, the cropping of
tea might safely be taken at 300 lb. an acre and with
a pr. fit of 20 cents a lb. that would be equal to R60
per acre a-ainst the R12-50 for rice, so leav-
ing a wide margin in favour of tea. Confin-
ing attention, however, to the old products
and looking at the country as a whole, in what
direction did the people display most enterprise ? In
Burma, without, be believed, any special stimulus
from Government or irrigation works, there were
about 100.000 acres added yearly to tlie rice-cultiv-
ated area. In Ceylon, 20 to 30 years ago, to tako
one instance, there was probably not a single coconut
pitch bft.ieju Negombo along the Mahaoya towards
Polgahawela — now it was almost a continuous expanse
of that palm and there were unbroken fields of as
many as 5,000 acres. He was not aware that the Ceylon
Government had done anything to stimulate this in-
dustry, by even a single report on the subj ct, save that
the land was surveyed and put. up for sale ; but look at
the result. Our exports now of coconut oil are
between 4 and 5 times what they were 30 years ago ;
of coir stufl's we send 3 times aa much away ; copperah
4 times ; nuts, poonao, &.c., in proportion — and all this
from what may be said to be a purely native industry.
(Hear, hear.) Here then, at least for the Western and
South-western districts, wo have the most profitable in-
vestment for native enterpri-e. But he would not for a
moment iiUege that there were not other di-^lricts, and
notably Matara and B.itticaloa, where rice is best fitted
for native occupation and where the Cioverunient might
well do all they o.in to extend its culture, seeing the
margin of profit is wide enough to satisfy the cultivator
after paying for his rent and water supply. Oue thing

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

223

Mr. Elliott had made clear, that the so-called water-rate,
considering the certainty brought by irrigation, was
most moderate and the Government levy in Cejlon
was far less than in India where, as Mr. Elphinstoue told
the speaker only a few days ago, he found the
people at Trichnopoly gladly paying at the rate of
K9 per acre year bj year for water privi-
leges. In conclusion, he would only say that the
wants and capabilities of each district, and its people,
in the island must be judged by Government on their
own merits, and while he cordially agreed with much
that Mr. Elliott had siid about Matara and Batticaloa,
Government ought not, in other districts at least, to
forget that there were other industries worthy of
direct encoaraaement besidfs rice-growing. (Applause.)
Mr. Bfrwhk thought that the discussion had
travelled a good deal beyond the limits observed by
the writer of the valuable paper to which they had
listened with so much interest. That paper had to do
with rice cultivation solely in the Matara and
Batticaloa districts, and he had not risen so much to
discuss its merits as to gain information on certain
points which puzzled him. He wished especially to
know whether any account had been taken of the
large original outlay of public money on the irrigation
works in districts referred to. Had Mr. Elliott
ta,keu this heavy item into his reckoning? As regards
the gentieman (Mr. Rama Nathan) who apparently
would wish to stop the cullivation of paddy (No, no,
from Mr. Kama Nathan) he would like to know if
he had considered what the effect would be on the
cost to us of imported rice if there were not a large
local production to act as a check. (Hear, hear.)

Mk. a. M. Ferguson' remarked that Mr. Elliott,
by his very interesting and useful paper had proved
himself doubly qualified, by national origin and
acquired experience, to treat of the subject of
paddy. (A laugh.) The facts he had stated with
reference to the districts of Matara and Batti-
caloa showed that good results could be obtained
from rice culture in Ceylon, where a steady supply
of irrigation water bad been provided. But still
better results could be obtained, if only the natives
under good and scientific advice sowed one bushel
of seed to an acre instead of two, germinating the
seeds in nurseries and putting out the plants in the
fields in drills, as was done in India and more
especially in Java, where be had been delighted to
see the careful and scientific mode of cultivation
adopted by the peasantry. Another great improve-
ment in the culture of rice in Cejlon would be the
teaching of the natives to he less e.xtravagant in
the use of water. They flo del th-ir fields, instead
of irrigating them, thus converting what was intouded
to be a semi-aquatic plant into one wholly aquat c,
its produce being less in quantity and deficient in
nutritious properties in proportioQ to the waste of
water. We in Ceylon, with our poorer soil, oould
not compete with fat alluvials of India and Burma,
but Mr. Elliott had shown that rice culture in the
island was susceptible of great improvement and
cculd be so conducted as to hi remuneralive to the
natives. But Mr. John Fergujon's tiguris showing
apparent decadence instead of progress in production
in the specially favoured district of Batticaloa were
80 bewildering, that, however sorry he might be to
say such a thing in the presence of the honourable
gentleman who occupied the chair (Mr. Kivtnscroft),
he was cimpellfd to regard the question as one of
utterly iinieliable Bluebook statistics. (Laughter.)

Mr. J. C/trrER said it should not be forgotten that
nearly all the nee locally produced was r< quired by
the cukivators for thim-elvps and t'eir families —
very little was thro'Tn into the markets for sale.
The Commission of 1SH7 had to deal with the retnrni
fof ^he ieUnd g«a«rall]r in glvieg (b«ir low eitimtt«

of production, bat there had never been any doubt
that under irrigation, the cultivation of rice would
pay and yield handsome returns. As regards tho
Blue-books, the figures were indeed a mystery, for in
addition to what had been iaid about Batticaloa, ho
might mention that the Kurunegala district now
showed the heaviest yield — some ^6 iDushels per aero —
in the country and Badulla 21 against (ii bushels
for Batticaloa. (A laugh.)

Mr. A. R. Dawson, o. c s., could not with so much
confidence speak of Batticaloa, but as regards Matara ho
could with certainty say — nothwithstanding any contra-
diction in the Blue-book returns — that the production
of rice had been steadily piogressive and he would
recommend Mr. Ferguson when in doubt as to tho
crops to turn from the Blue-book agricultural tables
to the Revenue returns which were a sure index to
the amount and value of the crops. In the case of
Matara, the revenue from grain had greatly increased
since the irrigation works were completed. As regards
Batticaloa, the system which had prevailed
there of selling the rents was a very un-
certain, unreliable one and could not tail to
lead to much uncertainty as regards the produce
returns ; but this would all be rfctiHed by the work
of the Grain Commission. In reply to Mr. Berwick's
enquiry he would state that in some cases the expend-
iture on irrigation works had been rapid by the cultiv-
ators benefitted, in a certain number of (ten) annual pay-
men's ; in others by the addition of a rupee per acre to
the rent in perpetuity. He hoped that the paper now read
would be the precursor of others equally instructive on
the Food Supply of the country, and the various
topics connected therewith. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. J. Fergu.son explained that he had not
criticized the Matara crop returns, but only those of
Batticaloa. He thought, that with the Colonial Secretary
in the Chair and so many rising Revenue Officers in
the room, they ought to urge the necessity for greater
attention in sending in Bluebook returns : the Gov-
ernment Agents ought to compare their revenue and
crop statements year by year, and afford in notes
needful explanations, or their own opinions on the
produce figures where large discrepancies occurred.
(Hear, hear.)

Mr. R. VV. Ievers, c.o.s , only rose to mention with
reference to Mr. Ferguson's statemeut about Burma
that in a book he was reading the other day, written
by a traveller in that country, it was distinctly stated
that he (the writer) had learned from the people their re-
turn of crops was fiom 10 to 2,i fold— [Mr. J. F. — I referred
to British, not native, Burma]. He could not sea that
tliH country could ditt'r so much as to allow of a n-
turn in another direction of 250 fold as had been stated.
Mr. H. VV. Grekn (Direoiorcf Pubic Instruction):
I worked out the returns from rice cultivation in Burma
not long ago in company with a friend, and we found
as the result that the crops were equal to 70 and 150 fold
(Laughter.)

Mr, Elliott, in ruply oa the disoussioB, pointed
out that the discussion had gone over wider
ground than he had covered in his paper j indeed,
had extended to the whole question of paddy-growing
throughout the island, WliBrtas he had restricted his
paper to rice cultivation under irrigation, and to
■vVhat was being done without entering on the question
of what might be secured by improved cultivation.
He had in his time advised a large expenditure
in the Matara district on irrigation, and, now that he
could adduce actual results, ho was naturally anxious
to vindicate the correctness of the views he had eo
long held. In reply to Mr. Rama Nathan's objections,
he pointed out he hnd given the details ofcultiV'
ation in his statemei.t ami had provided for tools
allowing in grain 1 amuiiam of paddy or at the rate of
7^ butbela for 25 torea. Mr. Crowtber bad allowed 60

224

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

per cent more, but his total expenaes were under Mr.
Elliott's. In Matara he had allowed 1 bushel for '2|
acres, which he believed «a^ sufBcient. As regards
the quantity of paddy sown in an acre of land, 2^
bushels to the acre had been long recognized and
acted on as the proper equivalent in the Indian dis-
trict. Ludovici also speaks of the usual paddy sowing
basis as 2i acres to the amunam of 6 bushels. In
the IJatticaloa district the figure varied from 2 to 4
bushels, and he had taken 3 as a fair average. How-
ever, this difference but little affected the results.
Again, as regards iHilc/v?*, it was difficult to know what
rate to fix and what value to place on the land. The
lowest rate for money loans in Batticaloa was 1 63 per cent
and on loans of grain 50 per cent in kind. In view of this
Mr. Elliott had only gone into the actual expenditure
on the land in raising the crop, such as a &ui)er-
intendent would have to disburse, leaving what
might be called the " Colombo charges " to be
added according to the circumstances of each case.
Still accepting Mr. Rama Nathan's figure of 20 bushels
produce per acre and an outlay including interest
of Kit), he pointed out that paddy would only cost
80 cents a bushel, against 96 the Madras value and
Rl"50 the usual selling price of Indian paddy in
Ceylou. As regards water-rate Mr. Elliott had
allowed for this in the case of Matara, where it was
a charge (of Rl) in perpetuity. In Batticaloa it was
all paid otf in 10 years and would be properly
chargeable to the capital cost of the land. Against
the low rates of yield quoted by Mr. Rama Nathan,
Mr. Elliott gave some other instances of returns iu
excess of those on which he depended, which had
been committed to him, one of 60 fold at Vavuniya-
vilankulam. He also quoted one from the same report
as Mr. Rama Nathan had of a return of 150 amunams
or 1,125 bushels from 40 acres or 28 bushels the
acre from aland in Batticaloa. As regards the gentle-
man who had quoted Bluebook statistics — which were
admittedly untrustworthy in spite of spasmodic
attempts of individual officers to make them more
correct he reminded his hearers, that, out of
some 70,000 acres of paddy land in the Battica'oa
district, only 30,000 were affected by the expend-
iture on irrigation and some of this area was still imper-
fectly irrigated and require further subsidary works.
He (Mr. Elliott) had always advocated irriga'ion where
there was a nucleus of a population. In Batticaloa
where irrigation had been beaun it was about 70,0(.I0
and it was now over 109,000. He believed that there
was room to make other Batticaloa? and Mataras in
the island, especially iu that part stretching from the
Giant's Tank to Elephant; Pass, to which he believed
the surplus population of the Jaffna peninsula would
flock if the water-supply could be made secure. In
reply to Mr. Capper's query is to the development
of rice cult vatiou in Batticalon, Mr. Elliott gave the
following figures ;-—

AreaAolually Land
Cultivated. Revenue,
Acres. R.

1850 .., ,,, 22, 055 23.906

1SC6 41,380 .S7,157

1876 59,730 77.060

1883 58,9l6 60,757

'fhe general revenue had increased from £6,071 in
1848 lo oidy £7,315 in 1H57, ahont which tirre irrig-
tltion had been commenced in Bttica'o . It then
ivfut up to i;i0,787 in 1858, and £16,855 in 1861 (hut
this included £(1 872 from land sitles. ) In 1865 it was
;£14,840, £21,000 in 1F67, .and £31,000 in 1SS3 (in-
cluding only ,fc;i,38'2 from land sales). The revenue
from tlie anack farm had risen from £680 in 1867
to £2 038 in 1867 and £3 402 in 1883. Stamps gave
£2,283 in 18S3 against ^£1,020 iu 185S.

Before separating, Mr. Rama Nathan wished to cor-
rect Mr. Berwick in the thought that he was opposed
to paddy cultivation or arguing against it — nothing
could be further from his thoughts.

Mr Berwick moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Elliott
for his timely and valuable paper, on one of the most
important subjects which could occupy their attention ;
and this was seconded by the Hon. K.A. Bosanquet,
who said he had regularly attended their mettings in
tlie hope of gaining information, but that this was
the first occasion he could remember on which he
really felt he had been instructed aud was going away
wiser than he came. (Laughter.) He hoped similar
discussions of practical value would frequently
occur. The vote was carried by acclamation.

In replying to the vote of thanks, Mr. Elliott
expressed his belief in the permanency of paddy
cultivation. Rice had been grown on the same lands for
over 100 years and the crops did not seem to be
affected by those general adverse influences of nature
which had so severely tried other branches of agri-
culture in Ceylou.
The meeting separated about 11 p. m.

REVIEW OF THE OUTLAY AND RESULTS
OF IRRIGATION IN CEYLON 1868-83.

As with Sir Arthur Gordon's advent wo may bo said
to have made a new departure iu regard to Irrigation, it is
obriously desirable that the public should be in possession
of the results so far, of the system inaugurated by Sir
llercules Robinson in 1868, aud so energetically pressed
forwai-d by Sir WiUiam Gregory.

A Sessional Paper X, of 1884, gives a good deal o( in-
formation on the subject, but as it was wrapped up in
some sixteen pages of undigested figures, without a single
column totaled, it was but of limited value to any but fho
iiiitiatod. An abstract of this paper in a convenient form
is given at the end of this notice, which renders it possible'
for the pubUo to judge how far the result.s tabulated justify
the expenditure of the past.

From this abstract, it will be found that the total ex-
pendituro on Irrigation Works from ISUti to the end of
iS83 was (in round numbers) E2,600,000, or K46 per acre
over an irrigated area actual ti/ utult-r ciiltiration oi 56 tlUU
acres, of which exactly 20,000 acres have been pm-ehased
from the Crown since 1868 (besides about 1,000 more not
brought into cultivation) .

Against this expenditure a sum of R 360,000 has been
recouped by the sale of Government lauds, while on ac-
count of water-rate a sum of K242,000 had beeu actually
recovered and K154,00U was outstanding on the 30th Juue
1883; but of this, K142,000 was due iu the Batticaloa
district, but outstandings on this account to the end of
1881 have been since got in. Practically therefore we
may treat water-rate as haring brought iu a sum of
E3y6,00O. In addition to this there is a further asset to
be taken into consideration, viz, an annual coutrihutioii of
R8,420, being the water-rate at Kl per acre ivhieh certain
proprietors (chieJiy iu the Iilatara district) have elected to
pay in perpetuity under the prorisions of the Ordinance.
This capitahzed at 5 per cent represents a further re-'
imbursenieut of ^saj) K173,0U0.

Summarizing these results we arrive at the nctt outlnv
as follows : — ' ■*

Total expenditure on irrigation
works fi'om 1868 to lt(83 ... ,,|{2 600 000

By sale of land benefited E 300,000
„ water rate terminable 386,000

„ „ „ iu perpetuity ]
(R8,420) capitahzed at 5 \ 170,000 920 000

per cent ... J ^^_^_ '

Nott outlay ... Kl,(ir4,0i'0

t)r m other words, bovermnent have beeu directlv repaid
over one-third of the expenditure on the works, and must
look tor any further immediate return to an increase in
the revenue ti-om the grain grown on Iho laaide affected
by the additional water-supply prorided.

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

225

It is not stated in the returns before us, what this
amounts to, bnt it is possible to estimate it fi-om otlior
published reports. For instance, Mr. Elliott records Uiat
an increase in the ai'ea cnltivalert in the Batticaloa ilis-
trict of 18,000 acres was accompanied by a rise in tho
grain revenue between 1S66 and 1870 of KJO,000.

Again of tho llatara district Mr. Bawson reports that
" the grain revenue of the dirisions in which tlie irrigation
works lie has in consequence risen from an annual average
of K43,200 between ISGU and 1S75 to one of Koi;,iJOO between
ISru and 1S«2," or an increase of K12,SH0 in a part of
the district where only 6,400 acres have been provided
with irrigation.

In view of these figures referring to three-fourths of
the irrigated area, it is not taking too extravagant a
view to estimate at lilk per acre the additional revenue
due to the expenditiuro "on ii-rigation, or say K81,0UO in
the aggregate.

Looked at in another way the result is very much tho
same, thus: —

Ascertained increase in JIatara District

from 6,000 acres Rli.OOO
Value of tithe o£ now land

at K2 per acre over 20,000 „ 40,000
lucroaed value of tithe

at Rl p.a. on old lands 30,000 „ ."50,000

Total.,

K82,000

,.56,000

Wo may therefore safely take the value of the Govern-
ment share of the increased crops at RSO,000 per aimum ,
which will be equivalent to a return of 4J per cent on the
nett outlay all over the island, including the expenditure
on some of the larger works which have not as yet proved
reproductive, such as : —

Tissamaharama S. P. R210.000 irrigating 450 acres.

Kant.Tlay E. P. 72,0a0 '„ 500 „

NikaweratiyaN.-W.P. bO.OOO „ -.'96 „

Iswewa do. 47,000 „ 75 „

Basawakkulam, Tisawewa,
Yodaela, N.-C.P. 150,000 „ 232 .,

Madavachchi N.-C.P. 26,000 „ 78 ,.

Total...R5C5,090 „ 1,631 „

Deducting the expenditure on these premature under-
takings from the total bill, the additional grain revenue
shows a return of tii per cent from the remainder of
the works.

As the expenditure, R450,000 (nett) on 4,250 acres, in
the North-Central Prorineo has been undertaken admit-
tedly for a special purpose .and without any expectation oi
an immediate return, some may desire to know what are
the residts exclusive of the outlay in this Province. Thus
relieved, tho same data give a return of R78,00O against
a nett outlay of Rl,220,000 or over 6 per cent, which
rises again to 9 per cent if we deduct the heretofore un-
productive cntlay on such works as Tissamaharama, Kanta-
lay, Nikaweratiya ?nd Uswewa.

The expenditure given above includes a considerable sum
for repairs to irrigation works due to a great extent to
the anxiety to do cheap work in tho earlier years of the
era under consideration. AUowanco for this has to be
made on the one hand and on tho other for upkeep which
has risen from R 4,000 in 1S70 to R39,0O0 in lt.83. As re-
gards the past it may consequently be taken as havin"
averaged one per cent on the expenditiire, but this de^
doction will ahnost disappear in the futture, as powers were
taken in the last sessions of the Legislative Council to pro-
ride for this charge by a special lu^sessment.

Considering that we have had 1 1 buy our experience
and that in tho anticty to afford relief the test of "will
it pay ? " has possibly not been as rigidly appHed as it
would probably have been by an Association looking for
a dividend, the resiilt ia decidedly encouraging. Nor in
dealing with the matter mutt it be overlooked wh.at has
been contributed to the general revenue by the paddv-
grower. It may be uaelul therefore to remincl those who
have recently doubted the justice and wisdom of the outlay
ca in-igation that it was recorded by the Irrigation Com'-
29

mittee in l,S67 that "during the past thirty years the
people have contribvited to the local revenue nearly a
million -and-a-half sterling in the shape of grain-tax, ami
that the only (direct) reiurn for that large coniriljutioii hart
been an expenditure of between 3U and £40,000 on Irrig-
ation."

Since l.s(5S tho average contribntion has been at the rate
of R 1,000,000 per annum or a total of 15 millions of
rupees, and the outlay on Irrigation under ono-lifth of
this sum.

The abstract referred to in (he opening; paragraph is
as follows : —

•[tjn^odaaj; k"

(M CO CO fM

. CO

•^ d ^ lO a fM CT -o
C^ClJO'TJiO CO t^ — '

c,f c-i CO vr ,-r ^7]

^ t— C^-f:CC30 lO -1"

CO C OD t^ tM fT 1 CO O

, CO^ UZ^ ^^ TT Ci -^ ^ CO

•^nuorav ti -i oj-ioiot-^ .^5." ^^

•}H3;x5[ J.

Ci CO t

r4"»0 --T r-T

•tioi)t?Ai;jno K Z!,

japtm ptii! pail! £ "r . . _ .

a CJn-i t—CO-t^J'M

•3u.n ^uo4Xo juni^V ■^ S

C<1 O -^ CO '71
(?] o »o o .-<
Tf O'M O ^

— ,

0

T

a

a vi yi

»

cc

(TJ

CO
U3

'8891
•09a 5STg o^ c.9ex p5

t^ Jr O in- -t rH

M M- ^ Ci ?! ^
O^ CO^CO CJ T ^»

n t--Tf O <M O

i—t CO -d^ fH to

.......

2 -2

CO 10 o
O lO -iT

3 «

a

■43 a -J f^

B

m

?^

KS (58

w

■> 0

0

■TT

a

P4

^,

l-Sl"^

Ch

e a

u

0 0 _ ? E

0

y

£ii

fr

SfiS^s

V

'Jj

a

w J; fl 5- 3

^3 oj 0 0

a

9

«

M

LEMON CULTIVATION IN CEYLON;
We have seen enormous crops of " citrons " grown
on upcountry estates, but only a few leiiior.s, and
of those few the coolies seemed to take the lion's
share, as they often do of ijeaolies, plumj, guavas
and other fruits, which European planters cakuL^ted
on for their own table or for presents to friends.
The lemons sent to us by Mr. E. Woodlioiise seem
quite equal to those grown in Europe, are deliciously
fragrant end prove that the true lemon can be suc-
cessfully grown in Ceylon. By a curious coincidence
the same post which brounht us Mr. Wood house's
letter and the lemons brought us also fiom Mr. J. P,
Lewis, Assistant Government Agent, Kandy, the
letter from Dr. Bonavia of Lueknow, whicli we readily
print as an accompaniment to Mr. Wooii house's com-
munication. In contemplating extended cultivation
of the lemon, the tjuestion of a good market would
arise, and from what we saw in Australia, we think

225

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885.

the Southern colonies would take a considerable
quantity of the fruit. With the fast voyages now
made, lemons might even be sent to Europe. Dr.
Bonavia's letter, which is worthy of attention, shows
how local use for the lemon can be found and how
various acceptable and beneficial preparations of the
fruit can be obtained. We commend the subject of
lemon (and orarge) cuUivaiion to planters who feel that
they can not only grow but protect such fruits.

LEMONS GROWN IN CKYLON.
Pallerakelle, Pnndaluoya, 8th August 1S85.
To tha Editor, •' Cii/Ion Ohsertvr."

Dear Sib,— Whilst reading your notice of some
Indian (.■entlrman endeavouring to introduce the
culture of lemon, it appeared to me that you were
possibly unaware that lemons grow very well at an
elevation of about 3,000 feet in Ceylon. I have taken
the liberty of sending you per tappal two or three
grown here.

From the one tree in bearing, we had this season
the first spriokling of ripe crop— about a cnuple of
dozen. Now we have, what in coffee would be called
the first round of picking, 72 ripe fruit. I should
thitk thfre are, at least, a couple of hundred more
green on the tree ; and flowers for the second crop
in the year are beginning to show themselve?. How
do they compare with European cues ?— Yours faith-
fully, EDMUND WOODHOUSE.

DR. BOMAVIA'S LETTER ON LEMON CULTURE.
North-west Provinces, India, 23rd July 1885.
Dear Sir,— Allow me to bring to your Society's notice
the useful " Malta lemon tree." Many years ago I im-
ported it into the Horticultural Garden of Lucknow. It
thrived like a we<-d. I budded it on the native stock largely,
and disseminated it in various paris of India. Its fruit is
equal in every way to that of the Mediterranean, and it
produces it abundantly. It layers with great ease; can
be raised from seed and in your climate probably also
from cuttings, the tops of past years' growth. Since I
came here I again began to di.sseminate it. I sent some to
Delhi, the Himalayas, AUah.abad, Calcutta, Jubbalpore,
Puchmari, &c., and have had demands from Tinnevelly and
Travancore. I am certain it will do well in many parts of
Ceylon. It affonls many commercial products, such as eitric
acid, and all its combinations, lemon oil from the rind on
candied peel, and essential oil of the leaves, but its great
future in India and Ceylon is, I think, the manufacture of
Citrate of Inn niid Q«/«in«', the best tonic after fever. If
this could be produced cheaply, there would be a great
demand for it as a blood tonic. Its ally, the Seville orange,
grows very well also and can easily be propagated by bud
and seed. From it is made the best marmalade, oil of
neroli from the flowers, and •' petit iivain" oil from the
leaves. I would suggest that .your Society try these two
plants, if they have them not. I feel certain they will do
in Oeyloii. Limes srow almost wild iu Travancore. I thmk
there is money I" be wade from oranges and lemons. Voi
might obtain plants of the Malta lemon from Calcutta
from the Ag-rl-Horticultural SoWi'lyof India, Metcalfe Hall,
t sent (hem 50 (iiic plnntsa few ilavR ,ici,— B.'lleve me, he,
tSigntd) C, BoNAViA, J^t. D,, lirig.i.le-Surgeab, 1 M. Depart-
iiieut, Etawfthi ,

f. S.— Ffom the lemon fruit a fine lemou jelly is trhlde !
it la a first rate (*/i(/sco)Vn/<i>.

exercLsed in the matter of Patents, by the Common Law
and the Equity Courts in England, remarking that id
England the fusion of law and equity is not yet so com-
plete as it h.as always been under the Roman Dutch
Law. He would consider two main questions : frst, had
the plaintiff made out a jirnna facie case for the allow-
ance of an injunction pendente lite ; second, if so, had the
defendant shown any reason for depriving the plaintiff of the
temporary protection to which he was otherwise en-
titled. As regarded the first question, plaintiff would
not be entitled upon a mere emphatic assertion of
his right; he mu.st shew (A) a ^jri/im facie chance
of success at the trial, and (B) the probability of
irremediable damage, if the protection be not afforded.
As regarded (A) the learned Judge, having carefully con-
sidered the pros and cms, thought that there w.is sufficient
reason for allowing an interim injunction on the usual
condition of plaintiff's giving a bond with sureties to
answer for any injury the defendant might sustain by snch
injunction. The questions at the trial would chiefly be
(1) the validity of Jackson's patent, as to novelty; (2)
if valid, whether defendant had infringed it ; (3) whether
or not the Crown had granted patents to two persons for
the same inventiou, which last would require the evidence
of experts for its determination. The Court thought without
saying that the probabdity of ultimate success was in
favour of either party, or that the probabilities were even,
that there was such a sufficient reasonable probability that
plaintiff would be successful as to entitle him to temporary
protection. As to head (B) the learned Judge ; cited
Mayiiz, Covrsde llrnit Romnm, § 283; Digest 39-1-19 with
Voet's commentary thereon §§ 1, 2, anri expressed his opin-
ion that rights under a patent fell under the description of
incorporeal rights. He thought this requiiement was
satisfied by the inherent difficulty of estirnating the
damages a person would sustain by the continuauce of
an infringement of his patent rights; and that to refuse
an injunction (as suggested by defendant) on the con-
dition of defendant's keeping an account, was practically
to allow it unless defendant would submit to terms ; and
besides, quite apart from any question of the character of
the defendant in this particular case, the plaintiff would
have g eat difficulty in finding out how much really was
profit and how much cost of construction and sale in the
case of each machine. (The defendant had declined, at
the argument, to pay in all proceeds sale of his maehinee
into a separate account.)

The Court now proceeded to deal seriatim with the matters
of defence relied on.

First, as to grant of patent rights to both parties.
Though Copeland rs. Webb (11 W. K. 134) had
been cited for tne defendant, the Court was not pre-
pared to hold that an action analogous to the English
scire facias was the plaintiff's proper course. The same
principles applied to grants ot patent rights as to grants
of hiud, and yet during 35 years' experieuce the learned
Judge liad never heard of a scire facias being required to
si't aside a Crown grant of laod.' 'Whether there really
were two patents for the same invention, was a question
on whiclithe afSdavit evidence was conflicting; but taking
the s'atimeuts iu Ihe def-ndant's owr afiiiiavits as true,
tlu'V showed that liis was a different invention from the
plaintiff's, Second'!/, as to laches; this defence was not
made out, as the plaiDtiff deposed that he had first heard
ill 1884 of the defendant's patent, ahd did not get copies
of his spiclfication till the end of tlmt year, Thirdlv, as

THK TK.^^ROLLEIt PATF.NT CASE.
D. C. CoroMiiO 94,191— Jackson rersvs Kehe.

Intehiji IN,1UNCTI0N AfOWED.

The District Judge of Colombo f'Mr. Berwick) yesterday
L'ave judgment upon the plaintiff's motii n iu this cnse
for aii interim injiinetiou, the matter having been argued
<in tlu' L'Olhof Julie last.

After remarking that the delivery of ludgment Imd boon
delave.l till Counsel shniild S'Uid in their anthonUes, tho
learned J dge proceeded to consider the jurisdiction

to the rfventnepj ot tne iiiaintm s parent: 'no v.iourii
thought tills ground only affected the nresiuuption as to
tlie validity of plaintiff's patentj which it had alreadjr
colisidered. i , ■ :

An injunction would therefore issue pending the deCisiofI
of the action, on plaintiff's giving Ihe necessary security.
Oi stfi of the motion to bo costs in the cause to abide thB
final result.— "E.Naiuiner."

♦

RUE VS. CCCONUT AND OTHER CULTIV-
ATION rOU THI'] CEYLON NATIVHS.

Mr. Elliott very fairly strengthens liis position as
to the profit.ible nature of pa.-ldy cultivation in
irrigated fields, iu the letter which we publish he-

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

227

low. He doubles the estimated nett prodt ^ler acre
from padiiyby recalliug the fact that there ara usually
under irrigation two croi 3 a year, and he verj properly
dwells on the Urge preliminary outlay and lous^ delay
in waiting for returns from palms and o her fruit-trees,
or even from ciuuamou. This argunieut, however,
scarcely applies to the new product, tta, we may say
en pasmnt ; but there is anotlier fact not speci.illy
pointed out so fir, which tells in favour of encourag-
ing the paddy cultivator, and whicli we nadily hriu^;
forward. It is that paddy cultivation ev>n in the
richest districts and busiest, because moat favouraMe,
seasons leaves the cultivators plenty of time between
Bowing and reaping and reaping and ploughing to
give thtir attention, if they choose, to other cultiv-
ation. The combination, therefore, of gardens of
palms and other fruit-trees with paddy-fiflda is
a very natural one, and equally so of the patch
of coffee around the hut and village which maj' now
be replaced by tea. We see a loinl contemporary
would fain try to make capital out of his un-
founded and misleading charge that we want the
Government to encourage the cultivation of tea
among the people to the superaeasiou of paddy,
or even in preference to it over the i^lind.
Nothing of the kind, as we think a fair perusal of
the remarks publi-shed yesterday will show. We s-iy
that the requirements and cap.ibilities of each
district must bi' judged on its meats, and that the
frovernmeot ought to give more attention to otliT pro-
duct', besides paddy, for which many large districts
are eminently' alapted. We are aware of the fict,
for instance, that au active, intelligent Asdstint
Ageut for a district admirably adapted for tea,
not long ago asked permission of the G.vernmeut to
procure tome tea-siied for expeiiinent in the Kach-
cheri garden and for distribution among the headmen
and villagers — nnd yet he only gut a refusal and a
snubbing lur his pain=. Of course, we cannot expect
the native villagers for nuny ytars to become i x-
perts in the prepiratmn of tea even after the
primitive Chinese fashion ; but there are factories
springing up in all directions, in the Sabaraganiuwa,
Kegaila, Kalutara, Galle and other lowcountry divisions
where the tea-leaf pluuked by the villagers would
be realily purchastd a; a price remunerative to them
as growers We are convinced that t a is des-
tined to become a favourite product for cultivation
with the Sinhalese in many districts. The only
question is, should the Government help or en-
courage the people, in this direction, as well
as in respect of other new products, or confine
their attention, enei'gy and votes, ai^ricultu-ally. all
over the i-lanci, to rice alone and to irrigation
works solely in the interests of this one staple ?
With Mr. Ram* Nathan we may say that nothing
is further from our thoughts than to stop or dis-
courage the cultivation of paddy : our wish ia not
to see paddy neglected, but other products looked
after as well, and so to see the favours of Gov-
ernment and the revenue, a little mere generally
distcibuted.

"RICK CULTIVATION [JXDER IRRIGATION IN
CEYLON."

De.\r bin, — With reference to Mr. Rama Nathan's
criticisms ou my paper, please allow me an opport-
unity of leplying to one or two points which es-
caped me when idosing the debate.

First, I would point out that my original calcul-
ations were all made in native m asurements of
sowing extent and days' lubor, to avoid the moot
points as to the proper rates cf conversion, pay, &c.
But to suit a European audience uot cooversaut

with the intiicacies of amunams, pelas, knru-
nis and marakals, I added the results per acre at
certain approximate equivalents.

It mafers not therefore if it takes 2 or 2Ji
bushels to sow an acre. For instanc-, in Matara
my figures are 90 days for a sowing extent of oua
amunam or •ii.r bushels. If this extent is equal to
t'J acres instead of 2.^ (ps stated by me) the num-
ber of days' labor comes to 30 per acre (and not
36 as given by me).

Rtturning to the native measurement, an amunam
sowing extent will at only <i)i fold give 10 amunams
or CO bushels in Ma'ara B'rom this we must
deduct, for tithe, seed, wati r rate &c.. 16 bushels,
leaving 44 bushels as the rewarel of 90 days or a
bushel for every two days' labour. So at this low
rate of yielel the outsitle cost of growth ie 50 cents
a bushel, and the profit per acre al out R7, on one
crop. These results are, I stoutly maintain, below
the reality in the irrigated districts, and I see no
reason to depart from the figures I have advanced.

As regareis the question of interest and pecuniary
return, Mr. Rama Nathan overlooked the contingency,
nay the certahdy, in the Martara elistrict, of tao crops
a year, which at once doubles his figure". In his
comparison with coconut and cinnamon, Mr. Rama
Nathan also overlooked the larger capital lockeel up
in the investment. A return therefore of K30 per
acre is not more than 20 per cent ou the cost of
creation of Buch property, while a return of K7 per
acre on paddy is eeiuivalcnt to 18 per centou K4lt, the
corresponding cost of paddy land, and this from oiw crop
alone. Aeain paddy will give a return in one year
at the outside, while coconuts take ten at least.

I need not enlarge on the benefits of quick returns
though accompanied by a smaller profit. — Yours truly,

E. ELLIOTT.

RICE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON,

(Local " Times.")
Mr. Elliott wishes us to understand that his I'alcul-
ation as to the cost of production per bushel of paeldy
included the Government tithe as well as the water rate,
and be fiuther jioiiits out that at least three districts —
the lands under the Giant's and Kanthalay tanks and the
Giiriva Pattu-are similarly favorably situated as regards
proximity to the coast and consequent faeitity of transport,
as are the Batticaioa lands, whilst the W'anni, to which
we referred, is not so baeilj otf as we contended. Figures
are given by Mr. Elliott showing that, starting from
Anuradhapura, to IVIatale the cost of transport by cart is
30 cents, and to Jalfna 4lJ cents a bushel. This added to
the a/j cents, which Mr. Elliott eleclares to be the actual
cost of production including ntl taxes ami charges, would
allow paddy to be laid down in either of the two markets
mentioned above at from &ik to 77^ cents per bushel, anil
this— as ill either of those places the ruling rate tor paddy
cannot be less than lir25 — leaves a prolit of about 5t>
cents per bushel. This very satisfactory result i.s, how-
ever, more or less mythical, for tlie simple reason that
the paddy on which this handsome return is to be made
is not forthcoming. The Anuradhapura district has
as much as it can elo to grow sutiicient grain to maintain
its own sparse population, so that except as a literary
exercise it is not mue-h use proving how large a profit
coulel be obt lined, if it only produced an enormous sur-
plus of padily. * We are told that the cultivators are made
to repay the cost of irrigation woiks in ten annual in-
stalments or contribute a late of UL per acre in pcr[,etuity.
That this is so in theory we do not deay. lint where
are the millions of rupees expended by the Government
on the construction, repair, aiul maintenance of the irrig-
ation works of the island? H-'.ve tlie-y ever come back

* To do the Governmemt only baro iustice, this surplus
is what tliey are ainii;i(,' :d in constructing the Kala-
wewa Irrigation ^^'orks, aiul iiidi"-d Mr. Fisher declared in
an ofBcial report that tliere have been large exports of
paddy in some recent years from his nroviuce. — Eu.

228

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885.

to the treasury or are they ever likely to ? » We
do uot deuy that paddy cau be produced as cheaply as
Mr. Elliott contends, simply because we have mither the
materials before us, nor Uie experience necessary, to give
an opinion ot value ; but we have certain stubborn facts
before us which cannot be explained away. The most ob-
stinate of these is that, as a rule, surplus paddy to any
extent is not produced iu any district of the island even
where irrigation helps the cultivators and nolwithstanding
the enormous protit, at which, according to Sir. Elliott, it
can be grown even iu the Wanni How is this accounted
for ? Were paddy-growing the most unprofitable pur.suit
in the island there could not be less desire than there
is on the part of the Suihalese to attempt its cultivation
ou a larger scale than their absolute requirements. How
tlien does Mr. Elliott account for tliis— so profitable a
cultivation and so little de.su-e to extend it^f Surely
the circumstance must have been noted by bim, but we
SCO no reference to it either in his original paper or m
the letter addressed to us toilav, though we especially re-
ferred to it iu our last article ou the subject. To us,
we admit, it is incomprehensible unless the cost of pro-
duction has been very much underestimated. It is obvious
that this estimate is purely an appro.\-imat(! one. Fields
aie uot cultivated by day laborers and paid fur in coin.
By bis knowledge of the subject, Mr. Elliott is able to
sny that on an average l.i days' labor pruducea a bujihel
of padily and from that circumstance infers that the cost
per bushel can be no more than 37-^- cents. But after all,
this IS an intangible sort of calculation, J and cannot be
argued from as if the whole tUing were a business trans-
action, such as Mr. Ediott would have us believe. We
are asked uot to include the water-rate or the amount of
the ten annual instalmeuts which the cultivators are sup-
posed to pay back as the cost of the irrigation works
al-ove their fields, but why not we slionld hke to know p
Whether this expendituio be regarded as capital expend-
iture or not, anyone entering into the cultivation as a
business would certainly expect to derive interest for tlie
amount of his capital invested. Mr. Elliotts letter ex-
tremely interesting, but, after all, the contrast between
the rosy picture painted by him and the actual facts
lieiore us, is most marked.

THE EICE SUPPLY : Mil. ELLIOTT IN EXPLAN-
ATION.

SiE,— With reference to your article on my paper on rice
cultivation, will you allow me a few words in reply and
explanation of the errors of omission laid to my charge
as I thini; I can show, incorrectly ? '

As regard,s the cost of production, permit mo to point
out that I gave ample details fur Matani, and uot for
Batticaloa alone. The results are very much the same, viz.,
IJ day's labor for a bushel of paddy where a crop of 30
bushels to the acre is secured. I may add if is two d.iis
where only a crop of 20 bushels is the return ; hut tliis
is an absurdly low rate of yi^ld iu irrigated lauds. The
money equivalents are 37i- cents and 5U cents per bushel
respectively.

You further say on these calculitions nothing is put down
for commutation tax, water-rate or cost of irrigation. I
would indeed deserve censure if I had omitted any aliowanco

» Here we have ignorance of an official paper published
last year, showing the actual outlay and return for irri"-
ation works. — Ed. °

t This was exactly our argument at the R. A. S, meet-
ing which, however, was ridiculed by our contemporary :
only we confined our criticism to the fact that certain dis-
tricts were more suited to palms and tea than rice growin",
Mr. Elliott, of course, s.ays the w.int of a ri.gular water-
supply prevents extension of rice cultivation. — Ed.

J This is really too bad ; for Mr. Elliott gave themcH
miuule p.irtieulars of every item connected with the work of
pnddy-growiug ; he gave more detail.sin fact than we havefor
cotfee or toa, and so far as I'.utlicalua anil ATatnru are
concerned it is indisputable th.it he made out his pos-
ition. We take up the ground, on the other baud, that the
capabilities of each district and its populalion agriculturally
.should not be judged by any hard ' and fast rule, as if
irrigaliou was a universal panacea iu Ceylon.— Ed.

for the ta.i on paddy lands, but reference to my paper
will shew I have all through cirefully allowed for tha
Goi'eriimriit tithe, which is the tax iu some districts com-
muted, though not invariably, aud when it is, generally to
the advantage of the grower.

Water rate, as fully explained iu my reply, has been
provided for in the case of Matara, as it is a perpetual tax
of arupeeperacre. But it was excluded in theBatdcaloa cal-
culations, as there the people have elected to repay the cost
in ten annual instalments, and the large works have all
been paid for as a matter of fact. It has been in .all oases
under ten rupees per acre, ami 1 consider tliis charge is a
capital one, to he added to the cost of the property, and
not to be mixed up with the crop expenses. It is, I beUeve,
intended to make a charge for upkeep, but this will, in
Batticalo<i at all events, be very small {probibiy 10 cents
an acre) ; but it has not yet beeu imposed, and may at
present be headed as a"uegligable item."

You say further I have omitted the cultivator's
" proportion of the cost of the irrigation works which
supply him with water." As you have already re-
ferred to "water rate" (which in Ceylon is the cult-
iv.itor's contribution on this account) I don't know
what further item you can mean. As you are doubt-
less aware, every hunl owner in this island, who benefits
by an irrigation work, is bound to repay his proportionate
share of the cost in ten annual instalments, or to pay
111 per acre iu perpetuity, which Government accepts as
interest on the outlay invested. Possibly this only covers
the amount spent in upkeep, as remarked by Mr. Dawson,
but Government also receive a good return (about 5 per
cent) on their expenditure by the increase iu the value of
the tithe, whether rented or commuted.

If you roiV'r to the subsidiary distribution of thewater,
I may add that, in the irrigated districts, as a rule the
water is delivered by the works at the head of the tracts.
The further distribution consequently entails very little
trouble, and is attended to by the field servants ivithin
the limits of time I have charged for, as also is the cleaning
and repairing of the minor distiibuting channels, where any
exist, and the water is not simply p.issed on from field to field.

As regards cost of transport generally, I would remind
you that iu at least three districts wliich will probably
become large surplus rice-producers, (viz., the Giant's Tank
and Kandclly lands, for the Tamils, and the Giruwa Pattu
for the Sinhalese) there is a good deal of simUarity to
Batticaloa, viz., in that they he within 10 to 15 miles of
the sea coast where not one shipping to favourable m.ark-
ets is available during at least one monsoon.

As regards the island ports of the Wanny, as I am travel-
ing down the central road I am in a position to supply
you with the present I ates of transport. TakingAuuradhapura
as a centr.al position, where considerable quantities of paddy
are now beint;' produced with a promise of a good deal
more, I find the rate of cart hire to Matale is R12,
or 30 cents a bushel for a load of 40 bushels. To Jaffna
the hire is RI5 for a similar load, or nearly 40 cents a
bushel. Paddy is now selling at 62i cents a bushel at
Anuradhapura, I have been assured by some Jaffna cart-
men taking tobacco to Matale whom I questioned today.
They told me further they intended investing in paddy
on their way back, as they could sell it for 22 to 24
fanams (RlSTi to EPoO) per bushel in their villages on
the peninsula. Thus they will secure a paying load (instead
of probably returning empty) besides a profit of some 50
per cent on their investment. — Yours faitbfullv,

E. ELLIOTT.

Dambool, 15th August, 1S85. — Locnl " Times."

"Tea Box" Writes from As.s.am toa contemporary:^
" Why are not lea planters allowed something for their tea
chests y My tea boxes cost me, landed up here in A«sam,
about Kl-hi each, and I have to give them away to any one
who is kind enough to buy my teas. It i.s not fair." Tea
buyers may say it is the rule of the trade to allow uothing
for a tea box. Perhaps it is, but the sooner the rule is
altered the better for the planter." The planter has the
remedy in his own hands, and usually, we imagima, ajjplies
it by practically including the cost of pacldng in his calcul-
ation.— Mthlras Mail.

September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

229

Correspondence.

— ^ —

To the Editor of the " Ceijlon Observer."

NORTH BORNEO : MR. HENRY WALKER ON
CANKER IN CINCHON.\ AND ITS CURE ;

GOLD AND TIMBER TRADE IN NORTH
BdRNEO.
Land aud Survey Departmeut, 29lli June 1885.

Dkar Sik, — In the April number of the Tropical
AyricuUiirist, p. 70-4, there is a leiter from some-
one in India, asking (or a, cure against grub in his
cinchonas.

I send you the British yorlh Borneo Herald for
April, where a possible antidote may be found (see
p. 2) in a cure for canker accompanied by white
grub in cacao as adopted in tlie Ph.li|piuK?. Tlic
ginger is the wild kind found in the Ceylon jungles
and has small marble-like roots. [Here follows a sketch,
which we regret we cannot reproduce. — Ho.]

A in the sketch represents the ringing of the tree
that is gradually taking place, which must be well
cleaned out, and probably grnb will be found in
the hole or in the adjacent soil. A bit of ginger
should be squeezed in and Uft in the hole.

B is the wedge of ginger to fit the cut 6'.

It is worth trying. — Glad to see you take an
interest in our gold. I t'jok another trip up the
Scgania Eiver in April, and have some 4'z. of gold
to show. In addition I proved that woikil.le gold
exists on about l.iO miles of the river, cither in the
river or in beds of alluvial on the sides of the river.
Very suitable for Chinese and Malays. Our timber
trade is going to le a big thing. No restrictions are
placed on cutting from Government laud, and the
export tax is only one cent a cubic foot. 8ix ships
have sailed with timber to Australia or China, and
the profits are now proved to be very considerable.
— Yuurs very sincerely, HENRY WALKER.

I wag particularly interested in an antidote to
canker, or grub, or beetle, which he explained tome.
It appears that the coco i in the Philipiiiiies has been
for some time atjfected with a difeaae which kills off
the trees at short notice, and from which, Captain
Schucke about a year ago found his plautation suffer-
ing. He tried several remedies but without avail. One
day a convict (tho Governm nt are sometimes will-
ing to lend convict labour at §4 a month) drew his
attention to a sickly tree, and digging round the roof
produced a couple of white grub, and further explained
that a beetle laid its egea in the hark. Their pre-
sence in thebaik causes it to turn to a rediHbh brown
like the canker in the cinchona in Ceylon. Having
cleaned the tree of these parasites and cut .-iway all
the infected baik it was necessary to apply the antidote,
which con-iats of ginger root. A bit of the root is
Sfiueizcd into the cankered places and also into the
bark of the tree, as follows. — A small wedge of ginger
is cut, and a downward puncture made in the bark
of tho tree. The kuife is held in the wound which
is opened by a slight pressure and the wciige tf ginger
i? pu-hed in tight. This should be done say in three
plic-8, and effect on the tree will be seen in a few
days. — British North Borneo Herald.

[It will b; i.otieed th.nt it is canker arising from
the presence of white grub for which ginger is said to
lie a cure. We can quite unders^tand the hot ginger,
whtn brought iu contact with the grub, being inmiic
to the creature, but the remedy would be very ex-
pensive. Canker in cinchona is not due to grab. —
Ed.I

FIRING TEAS: WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF

MANY REPORTS OF CEYLON TEA BEING

" BURNT" OF LATE?

•2'Jth .luly 1885.

De.\r Sir, — In almost every list of tea sales which
has coirje to hand lately, the remark Inirnl appears
against one or more marks in the list, and on several oc-
casions have been commented ou by the London brokers.
So much has this bteu the case that no surprise
need be felt should Ceylon tea erelong become notorious
for this defect. In most instances if enrjuiry is made
as to mode of firing, this will ba found to have
been done by niachiiery, and those who imagined
and worked in the fancied security that tea
could not be burned in the old " Sirocco " doubtless
attributed the burning to some defect in the machine
employed. My cxienence nf r'ryiug machinery is
limited to the No. 1 "Sirocco," but that this machine
with ordinary care will bu'n tea at a lower temper-
ature tnau that recommended by the makers, a recent
sale affords ample pi'oof. I do not mean burned to
such an extent as to show the black or charred leaves
noticeable iu the outturn from tea burnt in the choolah
tr.ays, hut sufficiently high-Hred to impart a decided
burnt Havour to the liquor and entitle the tea to
have rery bnrnt applied to it in the London market,

Messrs. Davidton & Co , in a circular issued some
months ago, pointed to the great advantages tea de-
rived from a fioal tiring in the " Sirocco " and laid
considerable stress upon the fact that tea could not
he burnt at a temperature of 300 decrees, I have not
tlie circular beside me. I, however, took particular
note of that remark — it has doubtlets iiflucnced others
— and decided to work at a tempi rtt ire under that
marked on the theiniometer for the liist tiring and
the final firing at L'60 to be well on the .lafe side.
All through the season th'S system was rigidly ad-
hered to ; nevertheless the tea is clas.-ed as burnt.

I do lol write this in disparagement of the
" Sirocco " — from what I have seen and heard of
other tiring machineiy, I onsidrthe No. I " Sirocco"
the beet and safest yet tried — but users of these
machines should be cautioned against working at a
higher temperature than 250 degrees especially in the
final firing. I ;.m of opinion that it is during this
proocFS that the mischief is done and that the temp,
eia ure ruiht to be reduced to about 220 degrees
for this opeiation. The malty Havour so much valued
in Mincing Lane can bu j-eadily developed at this
ten.perator.-; with little additional expense or loss of
time, and what doe.^ a trifling increase to the cost
signify in comparison with the all-important question
of m:dntaiuing the lepulation already earned for Ceylon
teas. A. F. S.

THE "COLOUR" OP COFFEE OFTEN DEPEND-
ENT ON THE SHADE OP THE MARKET :-HOW
TO SECURE "COLOURY COFFEE" IN
PRACTICE.

Deau Sir, — Did it ever occur to tho Wyuaad
P. A. that there is a sympathetic relation between
the colour of coffee and the io«e of th<- coffVe market?
80 that, in a buoyant market, buyers, in order to place
themselves en rappo't with sellers in the motter of
value, are inclined to stietch tho limits within which
the classification of colouiy shall apply ; whereas ou
a low and depreescd market buyers are naturally prone
to be more fastidious, and tellers for the time liting
to acqiiesce in a im re restricted range ? This kind of
sympathetic relation is however by no means eon-
fined to cofTee and the coffee n arket, but extends to
all with which I am acquainted.

230

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

The pre-eminence gained by Ceylon plantation for
colour ill former days was due doubtless to the differ-
ence in mode of preparation ; but in Inter times
other coffeo-producing countries have not been slow to
take a leaf out of our book, with the result, that the
pre-eminence is less marked than of yore.

That the method of curing coffee has much to do
with its colour cannot be doubted ; and there can, I
think, be equally little doubt that certain conditions
of cultivation promote the end in view also. As
a rule, tlie best formed and most fully fiUed-out bean is
susceptible of the best colour ; and inso far as leaf-
disease, drought, or the opposite extreme, poor soil,
wind, neglect, or any other cause, mars the efforts of
the trees to produce line fruit, so will the task of
the coffee curer be rendered the more difficult and
uncertain.

Given a well-matui-ed crop and the necessary appli-
ances in the way of machinery for curing, and suitable
weather for dryiug the parchment, and, above all,
a superiutendeut who knows what he is about, and
the result will be coloury coffee, provided that no
undue delay occurs in the transmission of crop to
Colombo, and that the cuiers there understand
their business and perform it properly. There
is, however, less chance of harm arising to
the coffee in Colombo than there is on the estate ;
for as a rule cur operations are not so often liable to
be impeded by the weather as they are upcountry.

The colour of coffee depends greatly, although not
entirely, on its freedom from silver skin, that filmy
inte°umeut lyiug betwetn the parchment and the
beau, and if the caring on the estate is such, that this
silver skin incorporates itself with the substance of the
bean, no known process of subsequent curing in
Colombo will wholly remove it : and in proportion as
this skin adheies, so does the finished cofl'ee assume
a more or less grey appearance prir to packing. The
mere adherence of silver skin does not in all prob-
ability affect the quality of the coffee, but it is an
indication that at some stage in the process of curing,
incipient fermentation had occurred ; and we know
that chemical changes of this nature do affect the
flivour a^ well as the appearance, not only of ciffee,
but also of cacao, tea and other products, and there-
fore require to be regulated to a nicety in order to
produce the wished- for result.

The question however is, what part, if any, does or
oufiht fermentation to play in the curing of coffee ?
and the answer probably is, none beyond what is ne-
cessary in the wa-^hing cisterns to separate the mucilage
from the parclunent after pulping. Some planters
advocate heaping the cherry fur 12 to 14 hours prior
to pulping ; l3ut in certain experiments, which I am
informed were made by other plant rs to test the re-
sults from this method, nothing conclusive was ob-
tained to show, that it had any particular advantage
in point of colour attained by the bean, the crucial
test being the price realized in London. Eapid drying
on estate sufficient to pi event heating on the way
down, quick transmission to Colombo, and prompt
coDcU'ision of operations there, including thorough dry-
in", equal sizmt;, and efficient packing in casks or
dcmble ba"3, uro probably the most favourable con-
ditio js for securing the verdict of " good coloury " in
a Loudon sales room.— Yours faithfully, C. VV. H.

[Inother old merchant and estate proprietor sums
up hia advice to the Wynaad planters in terms
al nil st identical with those used by " C. W. H." so far
as the duty of the superintendent i« concerned : — not
to tr> to dry his coffee too much on estate, but to get
it dispatched as soon as ijossible by the speediest means
of iranspurt at his cimmaud to the hot dry coast,
where it cau be carefully attended to in a coffee-curing
eBtablishmeut. — Kn.]

RAINFALL AND TEA IN NORTHERN UVA.

Narangalla, Badnlla, 3rd Aug. 1885.
Dear Sir, — I enclose a return of the rainfall for the
past five years. This hill is generally considered an
exceptionally dry one, and subject to long droughts ;
therefore, I shall be glad to learn your opinion on the
distribution and the amount annually registered, and
whether it is sufficient to encourage the cultivation of
tea, as I believe it has been doubted whether tea
would do on this side. You will observe that the
average for five years equals 104'09 inches, distrib-
uted over 142 days of the same period per year :— .

niM qDiqii ao ?§ S; So c? 5
JtojC qoua ni ^ '"' ^ '^ ""*
siBp JO 'O^

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a Q a Q a

— >
r3«

vi <

I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,

A FORTY-ACRE LOT.
[Certainly the average rainfall and its distribution
ffully justify tea cultivation.— Ed ]

ENEMIES OF CACAO.

Kandy, Ist August 1885.
Dkar Sir,— I am sending you by this post in
a tin box an extraordinary insect, which was found
on a cacao tree. Can you or your entomologist tell me
what it ia ? I hope it is not a new plague.— Yours
truly, CACAO.

Septembek I, 1SS5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

231

[Our entomological referee informs U8 that the insect is
of the Fam. Limacodidee, sp. Naroxa adala (Monre)
but it feeds on rambutan leaves and will not touch
those of cacao, and in any case could do no harm,
being a very harmless moth. Our correspondent must
be in error about it feeding on cacao leaves ? It
would be well if eoine of the food leaves were sent
along with any enemies of products, in future forwarded
to us for report. — Ed.]

WHITE-ANTS AT OVER 4,000 FEET IN UVA.

4th August 1S85.

Dear Sir,— Allow me to inform you that white
ant^ destroy all the timber in buildings iu this
bungalow and othera at a similar elevation, viz.,
4,000. In this climate they seem to come any
height after their food.

I hope they will leave our tea alone in Uva ; for if
our cotfee be condemned and cut out, cinchona not
worth harvesting, cardamoms for the most part stolen,
and tea eaten up by white-ants, verily our last state
will be the worst. — Yours truly, A. C. I.

P. iS, — This is not a Baillie Street scare !

WHITE-ANTS IN PUNDALUOYA AT

4,700 FEET.

Fernlauds, 5th August 1885.

Dear Sir, — With reference to a paragraph in your
paper on white-ants on Fernlands aud its elevation,
I canuot say exactly what the elevation is, but if
the top of Kaipoogalla estate ia 5,000 feet, as it is
stated to be, I can show you white-ants at about
4,700 feet in the timbers of a cattleshed on Fern-
lands which is considerably higher than either store
or bungalow, in both of which they have been for
years.

In your Directory I see Kumbalula is 4,414 feet
elevation, but I don't know what trig, station this
is.— Yours faithfully, HENRY L. EGAN.

WHITE-ANTS ATTACKING HEALTHY
TEA PLANTS.
Eton, Pundaluoya, 8th Aug. 18S5.

Dear Sir, — In your issue of the Cth inst,, a
correspondent mentions that he has never known
white-ants to attack a healthy tea plant. On
Eton estate I have lost a good many plants from
this cause, the stems being completely ' ringed '
just below the level of the ground. As the plant
takes some time to show the effects of this treatment,
the animals have generally cleared off before the
damage is discovered. But on one occasion I found
the white antj actually at work.

I am inclined to think that the ineeote are
originally attracted by the pegs, which are often
eaten clean off below the ground, and that from
these tbe.T turn their attention to the tea plants
close at hand,

A plaat that has been riuged will continue to
grow for two or th ee months, the leaves pradnally
turning yellow and dropping off when the stem
dries up , or it may Oi;oasionally throw down fresh
toots from abofe the injured part.

Another species of termite — a little yellow insect
— is very destructive to garden plants and vegetables
dt thii elevation, and m.ikeg ihe cultivation of
po'atoes an iniposaibility. — Yours faithfullv,
E. E. GHEElif.

WHITE-ANTS IN UVA.

Padulla, 10th August 1885.

Dear ^\v„ — With rcfcrciRu to what his lately

apiieavd in your columns respecting white-ants, I

find them here at an elevation of from .'5,700 to

over 4,000 ftet, destroying the bark of living and

healthy blue gum, fir, fig and cinchona trees : in
the case of the latter, they were attracted by the
covering of maua grass put on the trees after a
shaving. They also attack cofT«^e in instances where
leaf disease has worked its debilitating effect. — Y'nurs
faithfully. Q,

WATER-CRESS IN CEYLON.

(Conimnnicated,)

In Moon's time — IS24 — the common water-cress,
{Nanturtium officinale, L.) was pretty well naturalized
in Ceylon, and since then nearly every stream running
through the estates in the Kaudyan country has the
water-cress growing iu it, the plant being known to
the Sinhalese as kakkvta pdla.

In reference to the idea of Natural Selection, we
some time ago alluded to the facts recorded by Sir
Joseph Hooker, that the water-cress introduced into
New Zealand found such a congenial climate there
that it grew to a length of 1'2 feet, and one inch in
diameter, and it cost Government £300 per annum to
keep the mouth of one of the -ivers clear of this intro-
duction to enable the stream to be navigated. A corre-
spondent who took a stroll on t.'e bauks of the Damba-
gastalawaoya from Cymru as fav as Elgin, a few days
ago, informs us, that, seeing a donse mass of green
vegetation on the other side of the river, covering
the banks up to the level ground on the top, and
not recognizing it, he got a handful of it picked by
one of the men in the lines clot e bj', when he found
it was a bed of water-creo^; one of the top bits of
which measured upwards of h feet in length and
^rd of an inch in d'ameter, and ^p. believes that
entire plants in that bed measure 6 feei nnd J inch,
so that we can grow water-cress in Ceylou ^ue-half
the size attained in New Z 'aland !

Heavy Crops of Rice in Ceylon. — In re-
ference to the large returns of paddy from flooded fields
iu the North-Western Province, it is worth quoting a
letter from Mudaliyar S. Jayetilleko of Kurunegala, with
fuller information : — " In this district there are a very
few first-class fields ; on the banks of the Mahaoya and
Deduruoya, which are flooded yearly during the heavy rains
there are fields which, with favourable weathcrif cultivated
at the proper season, give forty-fold, that is to s.ay 100
bushels to an acre. Fields of this di'scription may be counted
on one's fingers, but with all the advantages you
describe, viz:— a good paddy field, where the water is
never wanting and the soil good, and if cultivated dnj-ini/ ihe
proper faiiOH a return of tn'entl/fold is sure to be realized.
Such fields cannot be cultivated for two harvests in the
year, and if cultivated (with plenty of water) &c., the
highest crop that could be realized is fifteen-fold. Such
fields are few and far between."

PLA^TINO IV Brazil.— The Oazeta de Notictae says
that a large planter of S. Paulo has notified the
Sockdadc Ce.niarl de Iiiimigrafdo that he is ready to
accommodate, within 24 hours, .300 families of im.
migrants upon the following conditions : 1st. Cultivation
of the coffee trees before bearing, at 50$ per annum
per 1 000 trees 1 2iul, Cultivation of the trees without
payment, the immigrant to receive ,500 reis per 50 litres
of cherries gathered : 8rd. Cultivation of the trees at
$10000 per cnyi/Hrt and p.iyment of 240 reis per 50 litreo
of cherries : 4th. House and f'-ee land for planting
cereals: 5th. Rations, farm iniplemi nts and clothing
during the first year, to be paid for by deductions from
the profits as Verilied. A very fair advance, and a
further proof that 8. Paulo continues to I'-ad the rest
of the empire in the immigration ijuestion. — liio Neics.

"WELLS' ROUGH ON CORNS."
.Ask for Wells' "Konyh on Corns." (,>nick relief com—
pli-to. pvniKincnt cnri-. Corns. w:irls, bunions, W. K,
Smith Js; Co.,. Madras, Sole Agents.

232

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885.

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS,

(From Leiois ib PeaVs London Price C^irrent, July 30th, 1885.)

FROM IMALAHAK

COAST, CK)C11IN,

CEYLON, JNIADRAS, &c.

BEES' WA>:, White

Yellow
CmCHONA BARK— Crwu

Bed

CAKDAMOMS Malabar

and Ceylon
Aleppee
Tellicherry

QUALITY.

QUOTATIONS.

f Slif,'htly softish to good
\ hard bright

Do. drossy & dark ditto...

Renewed ...

Medium to fine Quill ...

Spoke shavings

Branch

Renewed

Medium to good Quill .,,

Spoke shavings

Branch

Twig

CHpppd, bold, bright, fine

Middling, stalky & lean

Fair to tine plump clipped

Good to fine

Long Ceylonjjj.^,^^.^^ to good... 1.
2„^, Ord. to fine pale quill
3rds

Woody and hard
Fair to fine plant,
Medium to good bold
Triage to ordinary
Bold to fine bold
Middling to fine mid.
Low middling
Smalls

Good ordinary
Small to bold
Bold to fine bold...
Medium to fine
Small

Good to fine ordinary
Mid. coarse to finestraighl
Ord. to fine long straight
Coarse to fine
Ordinary to superior
Ordinary to fine ...
Roping fair to good
Middlingwormy to fine.
Fair to fine fresh...
Good to fine bold...
Small and medium
Fair to good bold...

Small

Fair to fine bold fresh ,
Small ordinary and fair.
Good to fine picked
Common to middling

Fair Coast

nrr r'rS'\',\-MO\ Burnt and detective

LEMON GrIsS ::: Bright & good flavour
UUCHELL.V WEED ...

PEPPER, MiilabarWk.sifted
AUcppce & Cochin

CINKAMON

Chips
COCOA, Ceylon

COFFEE Ceylon Plantation

,, Native
Liberian
East Indian

Native
COLRROPE.Ceylon&Cochin
FIBRE, Bru>h

Stuffing ..
YABN, Ceylon
Cochin
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted ..
CROTON SEEDS, sifted ..
GINGER, Cochin, Cut

Rough

NUX VOMICA

MYEABOLANES, pale .

Pickings

Tellicherry, White
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Chips
Duat

RED WOOD

SAPAN WOOD

SANDAL WOOD, log.5
Do. cUifS

BENSA, Tinnevelli

Mid. to fine, not woody.

Fair to bold heavy ]

„ good „ 1

TUKJIEEIC, Madias
Do.
Do.
Cochin
VANtLLOES, Mauritius &
Bourbon, Ists
'iuda

Fair to fine bright bold..
Middling to good fmall..
jSlight foul to fine bright
[Ordinary to fine bright ..
{Fair ana fine bold
Middling coated to good
IFair to good flavor

lijood to fine bold (jreen...

JFair middling bold ....

iComtnon dark and small
Finger fair to fine bold
Mixed middling [bright
Bulbs whole
Do split

£6 10s a £8
£.■) 10s a £6 103
Is a 3s ed
Is id a 23 tjd
9d a Is 6d
2d a 8d
Sd a 2s 6d
Gd a 23 6a

d a Is 2i
2da6d
Id

3s a 4s Sd
2s a 3s
2s 6d a 3s 2d
is 9d a 43 2d
Is a 23 6d
Is a 4s lid
Sd a Is 6d
»iA a Is 9d
7jd a Is 6d
6Jd a Is
4|d a lOd
Md a 4d

8s a 903
l-5s a 6"8
8.3s a 10.53
64s a 80s
■iSs a 635
his a 5Ss
[Os a 433 nom.
34s a 46s 6d
78s a lOOs
P4s a 763
163 a 53s
i0s6d
£13 a £24
£20 a £32
£7 103 a £18
£12 lOsa £36
£12 a £40
£10 a £17
20s a 523 6d
36s a 403
69s a 1003
50s a 65s
42s a 50s
37s a 40s
Ss a 12s
7s a 8s

9s 3d a 10s 6d
7s M a 83 6d
.88 6d a 9s
6s .3d a 7s
Is 3d a 33 3d
11 a 1 l-16a
IJd
408 a 553

7Jd a 75d

9d a 2s 6d

14s 3d a 163 63

ICs a I.3s Bd

Ss a 13s 6d

IsGda Us

sa 17s ea a £6

£6 a £7
£20 a £,35
£10 a £16
Pdals
(Sd a 6d
lid a M
ISs a 21s
Ids a 1 7s
13s a 163
«» fid a 9s

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

Fine crystalised 6 a Pinch
Foxy & redilish 5 a S „
3rds I r Lean & dry to middling
4th \y under G inches

,Low, foxy, inferior and
[pickings

ALOES, Soccotrine and

Hepatic..
CHILLIES, Zanzibar

CLOVES, Zanzibar 1

ftud Pemba /

Good and fine ilry
Common and gor-d
("rood to fiiu' bright
Ordinary aiiii middling..,
viooJand tine bright ...
Ordinary dull to fail ,.,

16s a 26s
12s a 183

Gsa lis

33 a 53

£7 ft £9

709 a £8
16s a 508
Ilsa45>i
•Ida 5id
4ida5d

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

CLOVE.S, Mother

Stems..
COCllXUS INDICUS

GALLS, Bussorah 1

blue

& Turkey

green . ,
white..
GUM AjniONIACUM—
drop ..
Mock.,
ANDII, washed .,

scraped..
ARABIC, picked .

ASSAFCETIDA

KINO

MYRRH, picked

Aden sorts
OLIBANUM, drop

pickings..

sittings ...

INDIARDBBEB Mozambi

SAFFLOWER, Persian

Fair, usual dry
, fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

QUALITY

QUOTATIONS

Small to fine clean
dark to good

Picked fine pale in sorts,
part yellow and mixed
Beau & Pea size ditto ...
amber and dark bold
Medium & bold sorts
Pale bold clean
Yellowish and mixed ...
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine
Slightlystony and foul ...
Fairtofiue bright
Fair to fine pale
Middling to good
Fair to good white
Reddish to middling ...
Middling to good pale ...
Slightly foul to fine
que,fair tofine sausage...
1 „ „ Ball...

unripe root
liver
Ordinary to good

2d a4d

Id al l-16d
a 10s

50s a 55s

483 a Sis
42s a 16s

50s a 65s
30s a 45s
£14 a £18
£11 a £13

£5 10s a £8
£8 a £12
£5 a £8
75s a 8(te
60s a 72s
60s a 75s
45s a .'iOs
32s a 42s
.38s a 42s
£6 a £8
|85s a 953
i35s a 453
|28s a 333
1 93 a 13s
9s a lis
ls9da Is lid
Is9dal8lld
Is 3Jd

Is 4d a Is 7d
5s a 15s

FROM CALCUTTA AKD
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists
2nds
3rds

INDIARUBBER Assam

Rangoon
Madagascar

SAFFLOWEE

TAMARINDS

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

Nearly water white ... 3Jd a SJd
Fair and good pale ... 3 l-16d a 3^d
Brown and brownish ... 2|ti a 3d
Good to fine ... Is 7d a 2s

Common foul and mixed 6d a Is 6d
Fair to good clean ... Is 6d a Is Ud

Goodtofine pinky &white 23 a 2s Id
Fair to good black ... Is7dals9d
Good to fine pinky ... £4 10s a £5 IDs

Middling to fair ... £;!osa £4 23 «d

Inferior and pickings ... £1 a £1 IDs
Mid. to Raebtacknot stony 10s a 14s
Stony and inferior ... Ss a Os

Fair dry to fine bright ... 3.8s a 41s
Common &. middling soft 203 a 36s
Fair to fine " ...35s a 40s

Middling to fine ... 3Jd a 6d

FROM CHINA, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS

CAMPHOR, China

Japan

GAMBIER, Cubes

Block

aUTTA PEECUA, genuine
Sumatra,
Keboiled...
White Borneo

NUTMEGS, large

Medium
Small

MACE

RHUBARB, Sun dried ..

High dried ..

SAGO, Pearl, largo

medium ..
small
Flour
TAPIOCA, Penang Flake..
Singapore
Flour
Pearl

Good, pure, & dry whit» 1. 77, „ g.i,
„ ,, pink] J "

Ordinary to fine free ... -lOsa 31s
Pressed ...12i'sa27s

Good ...il9s6dalPs»d

Fiue clean Bauj &. Mflcns-jis 4d a 33 Sd
BarUy to fair [sarjid a 2s 3d

onimou to fine clean
Good to fiue clean
Inferior and barky
6l's a SO'*, garbled
85's a 9.5'3
lOO's a 160'b
Pale reddish to pale
Ordinary to red
Chips

Good to fine sound
Dark ordinary & middling
Good to fine
Dark, rough & middlin,
Fair to fine

Good pinky to wliite
Fair to fiue

Bullets

Medium

Seed

Od a Is 6d
lid a Is 3d

|4d a ICl
lis 4d a .3s ;d
•i< a 2s :3d
Is 3d a Is iid
Is 6d a 2s 6d
Is a Is 3d
Ud a Is Id
2s 11 4s
Is a Is 9<l
Is 4d a Is 7d
7d a Is
12s Gd a I. -is
12sai:!s6a
12s a L^s
jOsa lis
IJdn 2id
JMda2d
jUdaUl
'lis a Ids
148 6d a 1 GstVI
Us a 14s 6d

i6d

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

233

TEA PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION

IN CEYLON.
As regards our tea enterprise, we may say that
one of the most useful and reliable estimatfs
of our preseut position and future prospects yet
made, is that which we reiiroduce on page 234 from
the pen of Mr. H. K. Rutherford. This gentle-
man has exteDi^iv6 tea proprietary interests in
several districts : and he has evidently studied hia
snljeot to some purpose, the result being worked up
in the paper contributed to the local monthly trade
publication, "The Ceylon Advertiser" (Missra W.
H. Davies & Co.). It will have been seen that
Mr. Rutherford gives the probable export for the
current season at 3,880,000 lb. There are, now,
only six wc-ks more available of the present season,
but we hope to see 4 million lb. of exports touched
if not exceeded. As regards his ealiinates for three
succeeding seasons, we think Mr. Rutheiford must
be near the mark although we shall be in a better
position to judge a little later on when our statistics
of acreage are available. The basfis on which Mr.
Rutherford's calculations are made is, of course,
the figures of our planting enterprise, compiled for
last " Handbook and Directory" ; but a good deal
more uncertanty attends the "probable yields"
estimated by him as follows : —
188.5-8G... Total jieUl of tea 6,300,000 lb.;

local consumptiou I30,0i 0 lb.; export6,230,C00 lb.
1886-87... Do. 12,120,000 lb.;

160,000 1b.; do 11,960,000 1b
1887-88... Do. 20,800,000 lb.;

200,000 lb.; do 2O,600,C00 lb.
Mr. Rutherford's estimates of yield per acre are
very moderate — in the face of the publi^hed returns
from certain estates — ranging as thiy do for t' a of 4
jeais old and upwards at from 2S0 lb. to 330 lb. per
acie. There is much l.owever in what is sai'i in
criticism of the figures of acreage already recognised
as contrasted with the actual export ; but when
it is remembered how much has been done of late
to cultivate and properly work tea which bad former-
ly bem comptratively neglected, we cannot help
thinking a much better average, 360 lb. nil round
at leait, should be established from next year on-
wards tor all tfa over 4 years old. We should be
inclined to dispute the acreage return rather than the
yield, if the export figur. s did not bear out this ratio.
It is most diffioult to estimate a proper acrea^^e
for tea planed among c. ffee or cinchona, and in
this way proprieiors are apt to exaggerate the
actual extent under fach product.

Then as r<gards "local consunipion," we think
Mr. Rutherford is a good deal below the mark
in his figures for the present rjuantily consumed and
eepecially for t'e consumption of coming years. He
finds that in 1877 the import of China tea was
87,000 lb. ; and it so happens that that year taw
the maximum consumption of foreign tea in Ceylon.
But we submit that if 87,00011). of tea selling at
from Rl to RI-50 per lb were taken up by local
consumers five years ago, we may viry well double
that Cjuantitv when we consider how large a pro-
portion ot the dust and other cheap tea diunk by
the natives cos's no more than 25 c nts, while
very fair drinkible tea is oblainable for 50 cents
per lb. Another point is the great extent to which
the natives along all our main roads and in the
villages have substituted tea for coffee as their
drink. Wnen the native coffee gardens were flour.
30

ishing and everything prosperous in Ceylon, we
estimated that tlie local consumptiou of the beiry
could not be le-s tlian 50,000 cwt. — fi^ miilous
lb. At present, we suppose there is nut a fifth of
this quantity locally consumed. But tea is every-
where iu demand to take the place of coffee, and we
should really be inclined, hearing wl at we do of the
way iu which tamby pedlars are travell n^' every-
where selling tea, to double the above figures
aud nay that there must be 400,000 lb. of tea drunk
iu Ceylon in this year 18S5 ; and threc-fi.urlhs of
this quantity by people who never touched tea so
long as coffee was freely available aud so long as
they could only buy the highpiiced foreign tea.
And this process of an increasing local demand is
to go on and the consumption of tea among the
2i millious Sinhalese and Tamils mu t rise rapidly,
until by 18S7--8, not 200,000 lb as estim ted by Mr.
Rutherford, but 800,000 lb. will be n quired to n eet
the local consumptiou in Ceylon, the (.reatir pro-
portion of course being of the very ch' apest sorts.
This, however, after all, affeo's the estiii ates of
yield and expert only to a slight extent, aud in
other respects we do not feel called on at present
to criticize, but m'-rely to ca'l attention to Mr.
Rutherford's carefully woiked-out and very useful
summary. This much we may say, that we feel
sure, if it errs at all, it is on the side of moder-
ation and that a good deal might be lad for
estimates which would run for the three coming
seasons as legards Exports:— 7 milliou, 13 million,
and 2.5 million lb. Probably the a.-tual roult will be
found between these aud Mr. Rutherford's tigu.es
as given aburc.

CEYLON UPCOUNIRY PLANTING REPORT.

A VISIT TO MAEIAWATTE TEA FACTORY, NEAE GAMPULA.

17th AuKUBt, 1885.
The store is not yet completed, although nearly
SO- It is built of iron and brick, measures about
two hundred and eighty feet in lenj,tb, and eiglity
feet wide ; lias an upii* r llorir boarded wiih pine,
secured to iron liiains, and which is to be u.sed
as a withering loft ; the lower floor is la d with
concrete to a depth of abi.ut six inches, and will
have a covering of pure ceno nt on the top, the
withering 1< f t is very well liglited and suited for
the purpose fir which i', was intended, but tlie
lower floor strikes one as being somewhat dark.
Why piiiewoi'd should have been sebcted for
the fl oriug I cannot very well make out, imported
too from Scotland, for it is very liable to take
fire, and as for white-ants I fancy they would
travel miles to gtt at it, so much is it appriciated
by the teiniite. There is however not much ciiance
of whit' -ants ever reiching the wrod. The ground
floor is like a showroom of Me^sr.'<. Jackson's
machinery. There is an engine and boi er, two
"Excelsior" roller.s, a large sized "Victoria " drier,
"Eureka"8orter, and the new "Invincible" tea mill or
cutter, all supplied through that eminent firm, and
manufactund by Messrs. Marshall, Smis & Co. of
Gainsboiough. Tie engine was 12 horsepower,
with 14 horse-power boiler, which 1 was tolil could
e».''ily devekqr 40 horse-power wlien n quired.
Althougli not a prof' ssonal. I could not but note
the ease and sweet working of the eneine : and the
boiler seemed a fine specimen of Engl sh woik-
manship. I don't know how the makers mai i grd to
make the boiler so smooth and n und : not a
hammer mark to bo seen on the fiances or rivets,
like a piece of turned ebony in tact. From the
engine a belt pa ses tj the loi t' line of shafting
thiough which p'lwer is conveyed to the rollers
and other machines.

234

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

There are two "Excelsior" rollers, and room is
provided for an additional two, when required.
One of the rollers was fitted with a granite stone
rolling cap, which one might fancy heavy enough
to crush tea leaf into a pancake : but it seems
it does not do so, nor break the leaf in the least.
I did not however see the machine at work, as the
lower table which bad been fitted with a facing
of marble slabs had come to grief, the slabs having
got cracked through the shutting of the door under-
neath. Mr. Jackson is going to try a brass-
faced table as an experiment, which is thought
■will do well. The marble one, I was told, gave
complete satisfaction, before the shocks of the
banging door cracked it. The new brass one is
not likely to go in this way. As to the big "Victoria
drier, it's a great machine, does a great deal of
■work, and costs a great deal of money : on it has
been expended a wonderful amount of brain and
thought, and it has b»en brought to such perfec-
tion that two coolies can easily manage it and
enjoy, at the same time, that much coveted ideal
of the Tamil— an easy job. The hum from it is
like a spinning mill ; it has potentialities which
I feel sure were never dreamt of by the inventor,
for I fancy it will yet become a favourite deity
with Ramasami, and have fowls, arrack and fruit
offered to it, so that the teahouse coolies may
find grace in the eyes of the roaring Swami
within. In the days gone by there was, on most
estates, a water-wheel Muniandi, who insisted on
his due share of divine honour ; but in these late
years I have heard very little of him. Unlike
our own people, who want hard times to make
a saint of a sinner, the genius of the Tamil race
runs in an altogether different groove. Big wages
with them seems to be an essential to the lull
development of the religions emotions, and, for the
very good reason that an afternoon sacrihce is
only another name for an evening revel in the
lines. Short work and little pay did more to
dethrone " Wheel Muniandi " than— well the labours
of the Tamil Cooly Mission, faithful though they
be ; and although it seems a big thing to create a
cod, still I fancy that the good wages of the tea-
house coolies will be potent enough to accomplish
this, and house him in the " Victoria Tea Urier.

The -working of the drier is evidently perfection.
The leaf is tumbled in at the top, and comes out
at the bottom without any handling during the
process— the manufactured article. But it has been
already explained fully in your pages, when the
Carolina drier was described. The Mariawatte one
however, is a very much larger machine, and
Mr. Jackson is of opinion that m full work it
could deliver considerably over 300 lb. of dry tea
an hour. As to the quality of tea, we will soon
learn how it pleases in the London market, as a
break from flie Carolina drier was sent home
some time ago, although unluckily detained owing
to the late block in the Canal. .

The "Eureka" sorter did its work well, and is a
complete handy machine. To the end of it was gear-
ed the new "Invincible" tea mill or cutter, a toy ot
a thing in size, into which the large bold leaf
was sifouted, and reduced into a beautiful regular
sample, and this uithont much dust. The machinery
I understand, was erected under the supenutendence
of Mr Jackson, and started witliout a hitch, grati-
fying alike to that gentleman and the fortunate
proprielors of Mariawatte. . ., , t i. i

But after our eyes had been a.atisfied, I turn to
figures and ask :-"How much does this complete set
of tea machinery cost erected in the factory ; and
the answer is "Somewhere between KIG OUO and
K17,000 1" It is not everyone who can dance to

that measure. Indeed when the factory is com-
pleted it will be a costly building, and E60,000
or KTO.OOO will more nearly represent its price
than the E40,000 which was the original estimate.
There are few proprietors in Ceylon in these days who
have such a sum to expend, and fewer still have
the cour.age to spend it. Nevertheless to have such
a complete factory in our midst, whose best points
we can cojiy, and whose mistakes we may avoid,
is a great boon to Ceylon. Mr. Jackson, whose
experience of Indian tea gardens is considerable,
does not think there is an equal to it in India.
This may be a prejudicial opinion ; still for all
that, Mariawatte has evi-ry reason to be proudly
satisfied. Mr. Jackson has "a wrinkle " for extin-
guishing fires inltea-houses. It is simple enough :
buckets all round the building and always full ot
water. When a fire breaks out at night, the watch-
man has at hand what in most cases Bill at once
extinguish it,', whereas to run for help, gives the
fl.ames time to spread, and the help arrives often
too late. This seems to me valuable advice.

Mr. Jackson is leaving for home now. Don't you
think it well to have him interviewed ? I hear he
has some ideas on the advantages of turbines over
waterwheelB for tea work, and has stores of tea lore
in general which would prove interesting to the
readers of the Observer as well as those of the Trap.
ieal Agriculturist.

I cannot close this long letter, without expressing
my thanks to Mr. Jackson and Mr. Orchard, for
making a chance outing such a pleasant one, and
our party returned from Mariawatte feeling that
like the three jovial huntsmen we had

" Powlert up an' down a bit, and had a rattlm' day."

Peppercorn.

YIELD OF ACREAGE UNDER TEA IN

CEYLON.

This subject has not, as far as I am aware, been en-
tered into by others, at least I cannot find any record
of it in the Tea literature of Ceylon.

Many individual Estates have been quoted as pro-
ducing heavy crops, and Proprietors and Supenntend-
ants have vouched for the large yields which are being
obtained per acre off certain Estates.

When, however, we compare the acreage under Tea
in the island with the amouirtr of our exports of the
product, it does not, up to date, shew that the average
yield of our Estates is likely to exceed that of ladia,
for many years to come.

The last published returns of Indian Tea Companies,
representing 42,355 acres, showed a return of 311 lb.
per acre, and it will be seen with a reference to the fol-
lowing statement that we have only reached an average
of 210 lb. per acre, and will not exceed this before 18»8.,
This, of course, we attribute to our trees not being
matured, but look forward to, at any rate, as good a
yield per acre as India in the future. In my opinion,
it is doubtful it our average yield will exceed that ot
India to any appreciable extent.

I think, we can, with a fair amoimt of correctness, tore-
tell what the yield of our .icreage will be up to 188S,
but any calculations going beyond that date would not
come within the pale of accuracy or practical usefulness.
I have for the year 1888 estimated a yield ol
20i million lbs., and I think it is reasonable to suppose
that wo shall obtain in that year au average of 210 lbs.
per acre off P9,000 acres in bearing. , , _ ,

Mr W. Anderson in Jlarch last published a statement
showing that there were 85,800 acres under Tea in Cey-
lon at the end of 1 884. I am of opinion this is somewhat
in excess of the actual acreage at that date, and 1 proter
to take 72,000 acres as being nearer the correct amount.
No statistics .ire yet available for the acreage P a"*^^
this year, but I think in taking the total at 102,000
acres to the end of 1885, I shall not have exceeded tho
actual amount planted.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

235

■Witb regard to the local consumption, there is no data
available to enable us to say with certainty what
quantity is consumed, but I find in 1877 there were
87,000 lb of China Tea imported into the Island, and
when it is considered that the Burgher and Native
population, who a few years ago drank Coffee, now
consume Tea, I think it is reasonable to suppose that
the local consumption will rise to 200,000 lb by 188S .

H. K. EUTHEEFOED.

17th July, 1885.

CEYLON TEA CROPS.

Shewin gyield per acre from the year 1882.
1882.
Acres. lb. Exported.

Planted previous to.. ./SO 5,600 (gt 1251b. peraere 687,500
,, durinS ... SO 2,774 Not in beariDg

1,000 Seed

Acres at eud of

.../30 9,274

Local consumptiou say 64,203

1883. 62.3,29

Planted previous to.../81 8,274 @ 193 lb. per acre 1,596.832
„ during .../81 3,726 Not in bearing

1,5C0 Seed

Acres at end of

, 81 13,500

Local cousumption say 74,000

1884. 1,522.882

Planted previous to.. .,'82 12,000 @ 1971b. peraere 2,364,000
.;82 7,000 Not in bearing

2,000 Seed

during
Acres at end of

Plantedprevious to.
,, during

Acres at end of

.../82 21.000

Local consumption say 101,161

2,26,-5392
1885.
.IBS 19,000® 210 lb. per acre 3,990,000
.../S3 11,000 Not inbeariog

2,000 Seed

...,'83 32,000

Local consumption say 110,000

Probable Export. 3,880,000

Tea 4 years old and up-
wards
3 to 4 years
2 to 3 „
Not in bearing planted

1884
Seed

PROBABLE YIELDS.
1885—1886.

Yield per
Acres. acre.

Export.

12,000 at 310
7,000 220

11.000

39,000
3,000

100

3,720,000
1,540,000
1,100,000

72,000
Local consumption, say

6,360,000
130,000

5 years old aud up-
wards

4 to 5 years

3tol „

ato3 „ - ...

Not in bearing, planted
1885 ...

Seed

1886-1867.

6,230,000

12,000 at 320
7,000 280

11,000
30,000

30,000
2,000

220
100

3,840.000
1,960,000
2.420,000
3,900,000

102,000
Local consumptiou, say

12,120,000
160,000

€ years old and up-
wards ...
5to6years
4 to 5 „
3to 4 „
2 to 3 „

1887-1888.
12,000 at 330

11,960,000

7,000
11.000
39,000
30,000

310
2H0
220
100

3,960,000
2,170,000
3,080,1100
8,5S0,000
3,000,000

Local consumption, say
—Ceylon Advertiser.

20,800,000
200,000

20,600,000

PLANTING IN JAVA: TOBACCO.
(Translated for the "Straits Times,")

To show the scant encouragement givea to Europ-
ean plantation enterprise in Java, a correspondent
draws attention in the Locotnoikf of the let July,
to the circumstance that, recently, a Chinaman was
granted by Government 1,000 bouws of land South
of Lumajang for tobacco growing, from its being
remarliable that, in such applications for waste land,
Chinese meet with scarcely any hindrances in their
way, whereas Europeans too often have to wait for
months and even years before decision are come to
on their applications.

On the 4th July, so says the Locomotief, trials
were made in experimental gardens at Samarang
with a Dutch plough drawn by buffaloes and
managed by Ja-anese under European supervision.
The experiments were so far successful as to show
that one bouw of land can be ploughed in a single
day at a saving of sixty guilders per bouw com-
pared with the customary method — a lessening o£
outlay by no means to be despised. Next yearj
ploughs of the same pattern will be set to work on
to estates in Java.

ROSESi REAL AND IDEAL.

It was Coleridge, we believe, who remarked how
inimitably graceful children are before they leara
to dance. Some such sentiment is aroused by the
contemplation of what are known as florist's flowers,
particulary by certain forms of the modern roso
exhibited at the show of the National Hose Society.
The poets' flower lias suffered strange transmut-
ation by scientific culture. Legitimate progress in
its develo]pment has long since touched its ultim-
ate point, aud in all descriptions save teas the long-
suifering rose is being vulgarized. In colour, in
form, in odour, the process is well marked. In
some mere size is the aim, grossness the result. In
others, cold, crude purple tones mingle with dull
crimson, with fleshy petals almost scentless. Roses
are seldom rosy nowadays, and one goes far to fiud
the "roses blushing as they blow" of the Elizabethan
poet. In truth, they blush little and flaunt
much, with a stiff peacock pride from the broom-
stick heights of standard briars. Not merely in
the individual bloom, but in foliage and in habit,
have esthetic principles been violated by florists.
Reaction will doubtless come, but protest is delayed
by the caprice of fashion, which tends to favour
current artifice.

In old novels the hero is much given to "pull-
ing" a rose and presenting it courteously to the
heroine. With the modern rose he would find it a
hard matter unless armed with a knife, while the
monstrous growth would embarrass the maiden's
bosom. If ever the more beautiful and shapely
forms are stamped out by modern improvement,
the many allusions to the rose in our poetic litera-
ture will need annotation. The roses raved of by
Laura Matilda are scarcely known. Cowper's rose
that was " washed, just washed by a shower,"
was probably a cabbage-rose, or some old allied
form. The famous bower by Bendemeer's stream
was formed of some delieately-petalled variety akin
to the China type. Tliese and the " damask
roses " of Herrick now linger in quiet old gardens,
together with the sweet produce of Provence, the
elegant rose of Japan, the Austrian briars, the
quaint York and Lancaster — "part rosylike, part
candidate" — and many another old-world growth.
AH these made a shy ehow at South Kensington,
but they were hopelessly routed in the estimate of

•2,36

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

the multitude by^ the last new thing in circum-
fereuoes. These charming old flowers live retired,
liki- meek worth " left to herself unheard of
and uuknown." For such the popular voice is not
raised. They Id 10m only for a little cUn of enthu.
siasss, wh 1 : tie prodigious hybrids of the florist
me -t with geneial acclamation.

The National Rose Society might do well to
disc.iiirage the aims of those floriets who denatur-
al.ze the ruse. No artistic results are produced by
forcing ihe rose to assume the guise of the camellia
or pe ny, or to make it emulative of the exuberant
Totundiy of a savoy cabbage To combine the
tiuer forms of the various types is the true ideal
d' velopment, not to vie with the artificial flower
manui.ictuiei, and to follow after ugly eccentricity.
It is ii.itaiple that the old roses more than held
t e r owu in the contest though some of the
best were ill represented. Among these were " La
France" and " Mar(5chal Niel." Yet, these have
never been exelled, nor the attar scent of " Charles
Lefebvre," nor the beauty of form and colour of
many an old rose now temper rily dethroned. A
really good new rose that may compete with old
favourioes becomes yearly of greater rarity. While
it is in the interests of cultivation to recognize
new varieties, it is an un-ound policy to reward
co.irsp aud siaring prodigies. — Saturday Review.

CETLON TEA.

Of lute years Ceylou tea has attracted .so much atten-
tion and the competition at the Mincing-laue sales for
specially f.ivoured brands has been so keen, that the eye
of tlie capiialist, as well as that of the struggling planter,
hasbeen directed to Ceylon with a view of obtaii.ing a
profitable investment. To all such, as well as to those
interested iu the production and manufactm-e of tea,
we would r. -commend the careful perusal of a little
pamphlet on Oeylon tea published by A. M. & J.
Ferguson, Colombo, and which may be obtained of
M' ssrs. J. Haddon, Bouverie-street, E. 0. The book
coutai'is v.iluable information respecting most suitable
soil, the selection of seed, the iirepiration of the laud,
aud the cost of same ; also details respecting the enor-
mous yield obtaiued on certain estates, amounting to
as much as SOO lbs. or 1,000 lbs. of made tea per acre.
But side by .side with this we find words of warning to
the young and inexperienced, and a caution to those
new to the island, which will be doubtless fully appreci-
ated by all who may be thinking of going to Ceylon
with a view of trying their fortunes. The healthiness
of the tea gardens on the Ceylon bills at an elevation
of 4,000 to 5,000 feet is proverbial, aud much in
favour of the young planter as oi^posed to Assam.
Special attention appears to be paid to the process of
prepaiing the tea-leaf for market — the ferineutation of
the leaf, withering, and firing beini; carried on with
every regard to scientific accuracy an. 1 with the aid of
the moet improved machinery. At the present time
there is a demand for experienced men who can
superintend the manufacture, aud take charge of
depots on the main roads where the green leaf is
purchased from neighbouring planters day by day; for
it is an advantage that tea should be made on a
large scale — tlie various qualities being sorted out, as
soon as received, for special subsequent treatment. —
Time and space prevent us from going more fully into
a review of this little pamphlet, but to all those who
may think of embarking in the Oeylon tea trade, either
as planters or merchants, we would recommend its
perusal. — Grocer, June 20th.

the most satisfactory results. This remedy, as some of
our readers may remember, consists in the administration
of the Chanteaud granules of sulphate of strychnine Sini
hifosci/amine, according to the dosimetric method.

The granules contain l-130th of a grain of active
substance in each case. They were given one of each
kind, together, every quarter-of-an-bour, up to 8 or 9,
.when the nausea and sickness usually vanished, and
generally gave way to a little refreshing sleep.

Dr. Embleton had supplied himself with the Chant-
eaud granules simply for his own use, in case he
should require them for himself on the voyage. The
supply was therefore very limited ; but small as it
was, it enabled him to treat no less than seven severe
cases with the most satisfactory results. The cases
were seen by the medical man of the vessel, the
" Trojan," and reported by him (Dr. Lory Marsh)
in the Ciipe Argus of the 4th of February, and a
full account of these interesting observations pub-
lished in the following July number of the Joar^ial
of Medicine and JJusimctric Therapeutics of London.

We sliould add that these same medicaments have
been often empL>yed in similar cases by Dr. Gesner,
between Dieppe and Newhaven, aud several times by
Dr. Hurggraeve himself between Ostend and London,
at the time of his discovery. — Monthly Magdzine of
ritarmacy.

STRYCHNINE AND HYOSCYAMINE IN

SEA-SICKNESS.

In a voyage to Madeira, which he made In the

mouth of January, 13S2, Dr. D. Embleton, F. r. c. p.,

ete.. of Newcastle-on-Tync, had an opportunity of

ayp'yiug Dr. Burggraeve's remedy for sea-sickuess with

INOCULATION IN PLANT LIFE.
The decrease now apparent in the virulence of
the coffee leaf-disease, and still more the supposed
waning of the effect which its attacks exercise on
our coffee trees, have given rise to considerable
discussion — as we are informed by a home corre-
spondent— upon the bearing such facts may have
upon a theory of inoculation by use among plants.
The basis of such discussion appears to rest upon
observations of the long continuance of disease
among the potato crcp~. of the United Kingdom,
and nntably among those of Ireland. When that
disease was most rife, the generality of scientists
pronounced it almost impossible that the plant could
survive, aud that it was inevitable that for many
years at least the cultivation of the favourite tuber
would have to be abandoned. Still, the necessity and
the force of long-continued custom caused its plant-
ing to be persevered with year after year ; each
successive season, albeit the disease was still present,
witne^sing a diminutiou in the force of its attacks
and a more than corresponding decrease in the effect
of such attacks on the crop.

Now, as with the potito, so, it is argued, it may
be with coffee. At no previous period of its history
perhaps, since Sir Walter Raleigh brought the pre-
cioos tuber tiom America, has the cultivation of the
potato throughout the United Kingdom been more
extended thau at the present time. Although, as
we have said, year after year signs of the disease,
which was previously so fatal to it, are still to be
observed in many widely divergent localities ; yet
this in no way interferes with the healthy pro-
pagation of the root or with the successful cropping
results obtaiued by those who plant it. In Devon-
shire, as we learn today from a returned Ceylon
planter, during the present seaeon, so abundant is
the potato crop, that many acres are not being
lifted at all: theie being no profitable market!
What has occuired in respect of the disease in the
one case therefore our scientists hold may well be
expected to follow in another, and there are a good
many interested in Ceylon, we learn, who think
there is every reason to expect that coffee may

October I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

237

furnish the illustration in proof of that hypothesis.
We are told to look back through history in orler
to realize how cuch a hypothesis has been applicable
in the case of diseases attacking man and so to
furnish ourselves with data for conclusions respect-
ing the somewhat analogous life of plants. The
sweating iickness, which, peculiar to England and
not spreading to the continent of Europe, broke out
as the results of the gathering of camps during the
memorable Wars of the Roses, appearing during
several successive years in a modified form, soon
ceased its visitations altogether, never — so far as
can be foreseen — to return. History furnishes many
other instances proving that diseases arising fnm
special causes cease to be operative or to possess
the power of ]">ropagatioii when those causes are
withdrawn. A< with human, so with plant life.
The planters of Ceylon are now credited with re-
moving the reproach which probably indicated —
what we ourselves have always regariled as — the
primary cause of the outbre. k of coffee leaf-disease,
namely, the de.-otion to a single cultivation of vast
areas of disforested country. Our planters are to
be comforted by the hope therefore that fresh genus
are not likely to be evolved, and that the propag-
ation of tlie disease will receive no aid by a renewal
of first causes.

But, independently of that fact, scientists at hom»
— according to our informant— hold to the opinion
that nature at 1 ist accommodates herself to the con-
ditions under which she has to work by a process
of iuoculatioD, so to speak, which provides in suc-
cessive generations of plant life its own source of
protection again.->t disease. It, in fact, becomes
adapted to it, absorbs a certain element of the
disease itself, and so becomes fitted by a partial
assimilation to resist the overpowering attack which
at first destroyed its vitality. The accounts lately
received from Uva are regarded as stronglj bearing
out the view thus adopted by a large number of
qualiHed men in Eng'and. The accounts from
BailuUa estates especially seem to furnish absent
proprietors with evidence that in spite of an ap-
parently most violent outbreak of leaf-disease in the
early spring, yet the coffee trees subjected to it in
that district iiave parted with neither leaf nor berry,
but are rapidly bringing the litter to a maturity,
which gratified the expectations of crops largely
reminding them of the days of former prosperity
when the HfmiUia v.istntrix was unknown in Ceylon.

If there be anything in this theory of inocul.^
ation — and, as we have said, home scientists think
they have much evidence in support of it — we mght
perhaps accept it as afT'irding some ground for hope
that the worst days of misfortune for coffee are
over, and that the prediction of those who have
always held to i^uch a hope are in a fair way for
realization. But there nill then remain the ejues-
tioQ as to whether the course of inoculation de-
scribsd may not have so ii jured the quality of the
Ceylon coffee-berry as permanently and seriously to
affect the high reputation it has heretofore enjoyed
in all the markets of the «orld. Only time can
satisfy critics on this point : but as the quality of
the potato growth of England has returned to and
even surpassed its earlier normal standard, we are
taught to look for a similar rehabilitation in the
case of cur own once famous product !

Nevertheless, we cannot forget that there must
he a wide dff rence between the favorite tuber
with its annual cropping and planting and our
perennial coffee tree : the former affords opportun-
ities for varying seed and modes of cultivation
which are entirely wanting in the case ofthc latter.
Unfortunately, too, for the theory of home scientiits,
leaf-disease at this moment is raging in some districts

or, at any rate, on some estates as vigorously as in
days goce by ; and in other places, a worse enemy
in the shape of black bug has appeared, no doubt,
on account of the enfeebled condition of trees re-
peatedly attacked by Hemileia vasiatrlx. On the
other hand, it will be interesting to watch whether
iu Uva, free as it is of bug, a change for the better
in coffee generally has been inaugurated with the
experience of the piesent season.

PLANTKRS AND MIDDLEMEN.

The Miidraf! ^^ail hns the followfug timely remarks
on asijl.ject often discussed in Ceylon. One difficulty
in ('oing away with midJlemeu is the extent to
which they inlUi nee the supply of capital to planters.
Mr. Go.schen iu speaking at Mauciiester described
the way iu which the cotton trade used to be cou-
ducte ' ; —

A New Orleans man consigned his cotton to New
York ; the New York hou.se consigned it to Liverpool ;
Liverpool to London, London to Hamburg, and Hamburg
sold it to Chemnitz in Saxony or some other spinners.
But now the Chemnitz spinner goes direct to New Orle-
ans ; the agent visits him there, and a number of inter-
mediate profits and commissions are swept away." Now
ruutati^ iitutaiidh, this description of an obsolete way of
doing business, which American Saxons have found un-
workable in these days of narrow margins, and keen
competition, apjjlies very closely to what is still going on
iu our midst. Indian planters have so long supposed
themselves unable to sell their [M-oduce without the in-
tervention of middlemen, that it may bo diJiicult to per-
suade them that they are mistaken ; but it is at least
possible to show that they ought at least to make an
effort to secure better arrangements.

To take au instance with which many of our readers
are familiar,— the "account sales " furnished to planters
— we find that the London charges amount to rather
more than 12 percent, of the price realised by the coffee
when sold. It we omit freight, and marine insurance —
at 2^ per cent, by the way — these charges amount to
four shillings per hundredweight. It is not necessary
for our purpose' to criticise these charges in detail, though
it might be argued that with English banks discounting
at IJ per cent. 4 per cent is rather a high " intcre'st to
buyers," and that with steamers at Bombay competing
for freight at sixteen shillings, forty-seveu and sixpence
per ton is rather an extravagant rate from Malabar.
The charges are, however, made by a firm of undoubted
respectability, and are, we presume, merely what is
customary. A coirespondeut recently informed us that
" colory " coffee is usually bought for export, and as the
coffee we are writing about came under this description,
we may suppose that after its sale, it was reshipped to
some continental port, again incurring all the charges for
fire and marine insurance, brokernge, commission, dock
dues and freight. As none of those were less than in
the former instance, we may at least add another six
shillings per hundredweight, or £10 per ton iu all, which
has, quite unnecessarily to our mind, gone into the
pockets of the London brokers and merchants. Why,
we may ask, are growers and consumers to be taxed
for the support of these sentlemen ? Why cannot plant-
ers follow the example of the cotton growers referred to
above, and deal direct with the continental consumer?
Mincing Lane is a great institutiou, but the planter does
not exist solely for its benefit ; aud Mincing Lane cert-
ainly does not exist for his.

The foregoing facts are enough to give our planting
readers considerable food for reHcction, but they only
deal with part of the subject, and we next have to deal
with an equally important point, namely, the astounding
discrepancy between the wholesale and retail price of
tropical produce. The shipment of the coffee with which
we are dealing fetched an average price of 56 shillings a
hini'lredweiglit ; au examination of any London co-
operative store-list will show that, even whtTC ready
money prices arc charged, coffee is priced at from one
.shilling to one .shilling and six-pence a pound, nor has
the recent fall iu jirices affected the sum paid by the

238

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

small consumer. "The Stores" are supposed to make
the smallest profit compatible with covering their
working expenses; are we, then, forced to conclude that
the buyer at the coffee sales is able to make from one
hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent on his
bargain, and if he does not, who does? And why, more-
over, should not this magnificent difference go to the
producer, or at leastj be divided between him and the
consumer r' The tea-planters, who are just as badly
situated, liave made an effort in London to reach the
consumer direct. The scheme, although, as far as we can
hear, not very heartily supported, has met with some
success, and should, we think, be joined in by all classes
of Indian planters. Both coast agents and planters
would also find it to their advantage to endeavour to lift
them.=elvos out of the groove in which they have been
running for so long. Produce need not as a matter of
course be shipped to London ; if a better market offers
elsewhere, it should be sent there direct, instead of in
the roundabout way it now reaches it. Planters should,
above all, try to take a more cheerful view of their
position than they u.sually appear to do judging from
the letters that we publish. They should lose no oppor-
tunity of pushing their respective districts and products.
An opportunity for an advertisement on a very large
scale will shortly be given them in the forthcoming Indian
and Colonial Exhibition, where we trust that our various
planting districts will be found well represented. The
time for preparation is none too long, and the Secretaries
of Associations ought to bestir themselves. We believe
that the Government is willing to give assistance in for-
warding exhibits, and in securing space. In spite of Board
schools and higher education, our tea and coffee districts
are no more than names — if even that— to nine-tenths
of the inhabitants of Great Britain, and nothing that may
make them better known to the investor should be
neglected. There has never been a time when more
capital was seeking an outlet. People who are rushing
to put large sums into places like Florida and Texas,
where they will have to work like slaves for years, should
surely have their attention directed to thi'< country,
where labour is cheap and abundant, wliere they would
be under British rule, and where they can Ijuy cultivated
land for less than they have to pay to "land graljbers"
for jungle in Florida.

PLANTING NOTES FROM UVA, CEYLON.

WEATHER AND CKOPS— BAD AND GOOD PRUNING— TKANS-

POKT — HAPUTALE TEA— HIGU PillCED PATANA

ILLEGAL SPORT.

Haputale, 18th Aug. 1885.
The month of July was fine and dry up here, and
passed with bright sunshine and very little rain,^
scarcely an inch of rainfall durmg the entire month
above the Pass, which led us to hope that the mat-
uring of young wood on the coffee bushes would lead
to another good crop next year. Unfortunately, how-
ever, two or three tliuuderstorms, accompanied by hail
and lightning during the first week of August, and
a continuance of wet weather, rather damped our hopes
and reduced our expectations. A small blossom has
been out during the last few days, but tho appearance
of spike for the big .\ugust and September blossom is
very backward, and, unless there is at least another
month of very dry weather to ripen up the young wood
and cause it to blossom, the prospect for next year
is not so very cheering. The coffee bushes.are looking
in very good trim, and not much punished after the
late heavy crop. Unfortunately also for good blossoms,
leaf-disease is very bad and pretty prevalent through-
out the district at present. Pruning is being proceeded
with rapidly, and a better style of pruning and the
use of the knife more liberally adopted on many
estates than was the fashion of late years ; still there
are some people who stick to the wretched plan of
"docking primaries" and " knife-handling " as it is
called, which means picking out the most insig'nificant
quantity of old superfiuous wood with the knife, and
leavinn- everything that is likely to bear crop on the
tr. IS, "which has a very untidy and unsymmetrical
look ; it is easy to learn a bad system of pruuiug, and

once taught to S. D.'s and coolies they never unleara
it. Some people, I know, are models of "knife-handlers "
and a zigzag fashion of pruning, allowing cross wood
in all directions, bending twigs back and planting their
trees iu a most uncouth manner. It seems to please
them to have lots of wood on trees, forgetting that
in order to get crop, especially at high elevations,
plentiy of light and sunshine should penetrate tho
trees to ripen wood and produce crop. Some dull-heads
will never learn a better, once they have been taught
a bad style of pruning. Transport of crop to Colombo
via Katnapura has been actively going on, and some
estate stores are empty, having finished the dispatch of
every particle of crop, including dried cherry and clean
coffee. Cattle-disease along the road has been less
prevalent and carts have been plentiful, but, owing to
the Badulla planters having raised the rate of hire,
cartmen and carts have been crowding down to Demodar
and Badulla. I hear the rates given at these places
are 70 and 75 cents per bushel respectively. The
planters down there excuse themselves for raising the
rates of hire, in consequence of an incautious state-
ment of a correspondent from Haputale stating that a,
proprietor up here was offering " one rupee per bushel "
to get off all his crop. I cannot find out who this
long-pursed gentleman is, and fear the correspondent
most have drawn on his imagination. Hapootella and
Sherwood estates have comj^leted the dispatch of some
17,000 bushels perchment from the top of the Pass,
at the rate of 50 cents per bushel parchment, and iu
no instance gave a higher rate this season. Carts
have been passing down to Badulla by hundreds and
loailing down there at 70 and 75 cents per bushel, and
only a few have missed the opportunity, and now have
any bushels in store here. The European firm at Hal-
dummuUa who has the greatest share of supplying
rice and transporting crop, and who did so well in past
seasons, were quite unprepared for this large crop, and
the unexpected outbreak of cattle-disease ; but I hear
they are trj-ing to meet the demand for carts and
offering £1250 additional hire per cart to bring up rice
from Colombo — which latter commodity is going up in
price, I see. Some people employ chetty contractors
to supply their estates with rice and transport crop,
but these chetties are failing in their contracts, and
not keeping up to engagements. Why people employ
these wily fellows I can't see. Generally they are up to
some dodges, bribing kanganies to accept inferior rice for
their coolies and " not let master know anythiug about
it," and " scrimshanking " with the parchment en route,
for which they are always buying garden parchment and
hght coffee, which they resell to the cartmen very cheaply.
Tbose people who have a likingi for or " are under oblig-
ation" to these wily "cusses" will be sold in the long run»
Since date of my last I have been over at Gonamotava
estate seeing the manipulation and manufacture of tea
by Mr. T. W. Hills,5who has had both Indian and Ceylon
experience as a " tea-man." As far as I could judge,
and in the opinion of some other gentlemen qualified
to express an opinion, the tea manufactured by Mr. Hills
was as well-made, fine-flavoured and as ^ood a sample
of tea, as any we had seen in the island. So much for
Uva tea. Thousands of acres are being planted with
this product, and, if the prices at home only keep np,
many acres of Uva patanas will be flourishing tea
gardens. This reminds me of Mr. Challiuor's lucky p'a-
chase of the excellent piece of patana land between
Kahagalla and Koehampton estates, 40 acres, for K2,020,
or R50-50 per acre; so you see the bleak and barren
patanas on the Haputale Pass are not so worthless
after all, and there are hundreds and thousands of
acres of such lanil still to be had for tea cultivation
in Uva. The hailstorm about the beginning of the
month was chiefly confined to the] patanas between this
and Bandarawela. The hail stones were about the size
of one's thumb nail and oval shaped. During one of the
thunderstorms 12 head of cattle were killed on Nahakcttia
estate, so I heai-d. Two inquests are reported from near
Walawe, one on the body of a Bengali tailor stabbed to
death by a iroman for"bis interfering in a quarrel she
was having with his wife ; the other inquest was on
the body of a Tamil man, who blew off his hand and other-

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

wised injured himself with dynamite, while trjing to
kill fish in the Walawe river. Large gangs of coolies
from the estates, with nets and pariah dogs, are in the
habit of going about the jungles and patanas battue-
fauutiug indiscriminately, 'killing all the game they come
across in season and out of season, aud no notice is
taken of this wanton destruction of game and infringe-
ment of the game laws by the native headmen, the
Police Magistrate, or Assistant Government Agent. Mr.
Downall should again bring this matter of battue-hunting
before the Legislative Council and stir up these lazy
officials ; not unfrequently village cattle and buffaloes
add to the game-bag of these mighty hunters, for it
18 unreasonable to expect that one or two hundred coolies
would be satisfied with an elk or red deer, a few hares
and civet cats; so they make sport of the poor villagers,
cattle.

THE CEYLON" PLAxVTING ENTERPRIZE :

IN CACAO AND CARDAMOMS MORE

ESPECIALLY ;

"SEEING OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US."

{Notes by " Aberdoninsis." — No. Ill .)

THOROUGH INSPECTION OF DUMBARA, MATAIj; AND POL-
GAHAWELA — CHANGE IN DUMBAEA DDHING THE LAST

THBEE YEABS A SEVERE ClilTICISM ON CETLON M.ANT-

ESS — A TRAGIC-SATIRICAI. SKETCH OF ' HOW THEV
DO IT ' IN CEYLON — FIBSTLY TO TWELFTHLY WITH

THE 'NEW PBODUCT ' ADDED — CACAO CULTIVATION

SHADE — BIRDS — ECBBER— WAERIAPOLLA DBIEKS — CLE-

BIH?;WS FOK CACAO AND CAKDAMO.MS : DIFFERENCES
OF WORKING IN CEYLON AND MYSOEE — THE RED
CACAO — THE PROPER METHOD OF CULTIVATIO.N — HOW
' HELOPELTIS ' COMES AND THE REMEDY.

I have had a very favourable opportunity for
observing various cultivations, and, though it
may appear presumption on my part to " lay
down the law," yet I may be pardoned for at-
tempting a review of the effect on my mind of
■what I have seen. I have been thoroughly over
Dambara and visited Matale and Polgahawela.
My vifcit to Warriapola confirmed and strength-
ened me in the opinion I formed in noticing
the change in Dumbara in three years. Cacao,
like most other products, has gone through all
the well-known stages seen in coffee. First, there
is a great r<ading-up of books on the subject of
a new product. The agricultural literature of the
world is ransacked and calcvilations are caiefully
made and a liberal allowance is always added on
for " the well-known systematic and piactical
methods and untiring energy of the Ceylon
planter.' Secondly, friends at home are pressed
to come forward and share the spoil of a new
Eldorado, and the wherewithal is arranged. Third-
ly) large arfas are at once planted up according
to the diverse interpretations of facts collated from
the aforesaid literature. Fourthly, the rumour gets
about that Jones has discovered quite a new idea
which totally upsets all those idiotical statistics
given in the aforesaid literature. Fifthly, someone
goes over to the country where men have been
carefully studying the requirements of the plant,
and, after irritating the residents with snobbish
self-assertion and upholding the well-known eutrgy
and system aforesaid, and, consequently, losing
what he might have gained by courtesy, he brings
back a piece of paper full of calculations ; — " If
men in that country get so much per acre costing
BO mnch ptr acre or per cwt. of produce with their
slipshod way, surely in Ceylon with our ' energy '
and 'systtm' we can, at least, double the yield,
and then our forcing climate will allow very liberal
additions.'" Now we have arrived at the dilemma.
There is a man who has out of his " inner con-
gciousncsa " diecovered an entirely n(w nay, up-

setting calculations derived from "literature," and
also a man "who has been" over there "himself."
Now we must join these two, and, si.xthly, we have
the Ceylon style developed. Seventhly, crops and
prices are quite startling so ;is to warrant enorm-
ous outlay in stores aud machinery , ftc, &c. " Why
man, you can't g^t past these Hyures. We can put
so many cwt. at so many rupees in London, and
the broker's report speaks f.ir itself." Eighthly,
money comes out with a rush and all are hard
at work spending it. Gold mining is notliiug to
it. The thing is as sure as the bank (what bank?)
Then, ninthly, some fool who pokes about with a
microscope says he has noticed something queer on
the plant, a little Liter on he cills out a note of
warning, and the press, the planters, the im-rchants
all hound him into a quiet spot and there is qiuet-
ness .igain. Theu the crops eomeliow don't b'-ar
out expectations. It requires manure, and, tenthly,
we have the analysis of soils gone into by an ex-
pert. No, that does not effect what is wanted ;
and after one idea after another we have, eleventh,
an entiimoloj^'iit and a cryptogamist and lots of
other " 'isls " investigating the roots, the ttims,
the leaves, the fruit, the manure, the earth aud the
sky. Twelfth, we have " ipecijics," and all cultiv-
ation is stopped in tlie panic, for behold the calcuU
ations are not fulfilled. The specifics do not
come off and then the country is in a worse plight
owing to stoppage of cultivation. Then, thirteenth
and lastly, we have a New Product. Oh for the
weariness of it ! The s-yren songs of your beauti-
ful island are leading you on, on a veritable will-
o'-the-wisp hunt. The forcing nature of your
island climate with heat and moisture combined
in conjunction with the forcing niture of your
British p!u:k aud energy forms a power that will
not let you rest and be content, but beckons you
on and on with golden dreams and nothing more.
The Dead c!ea apple is only found out when it is
grasped. There is no more mortifying disappoint-
ment than that which comes exactly at the moment
before actual possession of what is desired. You re-
proach me for being a croaker and say that is an
easy role. Well I see your leaders, with humbled
heads, greyer beard.s, and empty pockets, fighting
fiercely and stubbornly as only a Britisher can. 1
see your young men soured aud bitter with daiknets
ahead and a loathing for the country. I have heard
of extreme distress. But on the other Land I
hear of money beginning to flow in safe quiet
channels and not in sudden violent streams. I hear
a rattling of dry bones in the valley. The dry
bones have begun to assume shape. The hopeful
thing is in the quietness of many. There are many
of the former style, taunting ludiau men with
their slipshod ways aud want of system, boaetiug
that they can beat the world, and forgetting that
if they do so they will be "btstinrj" themselvis.
If Samson managed to pay off his enemies he hadn't
much regard for himself when he loosened the
pillars with his biceps. I have heard that 1,G00 lb.
per acre of tea has been reached —fadlis descensus
Averni.

I. Cacao. — "Literature" caused men to believe
in shade. The tffect of wind and exposure on the
cacao near the Mahaweligarga confiiinod that idea.
A lifetime spent by a patiiarch taught him the
precept, "Never plant a ridge and never cease
from digging." Moreover weeds along with shide
did not trouble the planter in deep fine soil as
they have in Dumbara, and they were eradicated
when they were in the way. Let me describe an
old-fashioned Dumbara or Matale estate. Thejak-
trees with their soft foliage and stems bristling
with fruit making work sater for both European

240

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

and native by shadiug from a fierce sun. The
coffee below with its rcots kept cool and moist by
the shadow and the litter of the leaves. A rich
aromatic smell of the pungent fruit pervadirg the
•whole atmosphere. Birds lifting their sweet and varied
notes as they hunted the insects and obeyed the
behests of their Creator. Ah! biids, where ore the
feathered songsters on the dry blighted ridges where
once thejak flourished and bem fitted man, bird,
beast, and plant? Your sweet notes were wont to
waken the planter and fill the gladts with rich
music as the yellow rays of the sun spread themselves
over " the happy viilley." Your busy bills and
sharp eyes were in full operation and were better
pest searchers tbau little boys with the medicine
phials. Little boys know where it is still possible
to get a ripe jak fruit, and l.ttle boys' bellies get
tilled by otlier means than " helopeltis," therefore
little birds who dfpeiid on insects for their food
are the best. Prevention is better than cure.
Birds are better than bug-doctors or mould-doctors
or any other doctors.

Why say more about Shade? I was glad to see
a very nice crop setting beautifully two days ago
and the young flushes seem to bo growing unblighted.
The majority of the men are putting in Rubber
because they are thoroughly scared by light, and
similarly to the wicked who *' love darkness
rather than light." Now rubber is a particularly
dense cover. It injures plants below it when it
begins to fruit. It .stands lopping as well as a
scho dboy enj ^ys hacking. You can hack it but it
fills up the gap — ai d so you must " keep on doing
it" and that costs momy. Try rows of it and you
find that the gain by lateral shade is equalized or
neutralized by the loss by vertical shade ; try clumps
of it with the same result. Then when jou find this
out cut it all down and " here ye are again," and
not quite in the same pilace. You remember the
parable of the man who had the devil taken out of
him and deliberately invited seven other devils,
** and the last state fj that inan was worite than
the Jirsl." Thus with rubber. You will have lost
time, money, opp rtunity, and now you have your
land filled with tubi rous roots which are as inimical
to good husbandry as the celebrated " coia piUuo"
which is sufficiently known in Dumbara.

The " Bois Immortelle" has its indigenous
sister in the jungles of Ceylon. The " Inga
Snman'' and the "' lunamadilla" are both indi-
genous as also the syoarnore (or true fig) tree.
The "charcoal" tree is a light cover and does
no harm and is also found m your jungles. I
need not enlarge on this, nor need I invite any-
one to Mysoie. At WaniapoUa as I ai'companied
the hospitable, travelled and deepthinkiug young
owner I could only say : " Surely this is not; Ceylon.
It is the land of Mysore." He m exact line
with R. B. T. is aimii g at a "West Indian"
property. The Dumbaia "lights" aimed at a
"Ceylon" property and they have got it with all
the concomitants. Kurunegala and Polgahawela
are said "lobe good for ti-a." That has rather a
dubious sound, at any rate as regards any other
product.

I do not arree with the style of Clerihews.
In fact a "Fruit Drier" is moi'e in accordance
with my ideas, and these ideas I found to be iu
perfect consonance with the only man who ii.=es
one of those admirable machines. The Sirocco is
said to be a " crib" from ihe American inventon.
Nov in drying material the objtct is to have
moderate heat with thu moist draught sn as to
save fuel and remove steam. Oiei balance this
and you will find a waste of fu' 1 as compared
with the drying power of your heat. Having worked

a Clerihew for three crops in drying cardamon $
I am interested to see how they use them in
Ceylon. In Mysore a long room twelve feet wide
and fifty feet long with a reepered lluoriug is the
style of thing. At one end there is a battery
of a few and large pipes with a large furnace (in
Ceylon they have many and small pipes, with a
small furnace). This leads into the room and
pours in a hot blast. Now if you attempted
shelves you would end in rather a mess. But in
Mjsore we can get 160° at the fan end of the
room and keep that up. One man said he could
get up far above this. " How did the coolies
stand it ?" I asked. " Oh, I stayed myself two
hours." I then asked where the thermometer was,
and I saw where he was. But Dumbara men say
heat must be very gradual and moderate, as the
colour which has been acquired by fermentation,
is all driven out of the cacao. At WorriapoUa
I was told the West Iniliau plan — and Cjuick
sudden heat was there advocated. Dumbara men
then point triumphantly to the market, and
" prood " men are they. The market is really the
test. To continue the desciiption of a Clerihew,
I must first state that they are used by only one
man in India and he it is who maintained the
monopoly of the cardamom market m the world
for years. Messrs. Walker & Co. of Ceylon (the
planters' right hand) sent a man to put up Cleri-
hews on this cardamom place many years ago,
and they have been worked there on a very
simple jjlan ever since. I l.ave described the
size of room and style of pipes and fuinace. The
fruit is laid on soft cloth through which the air
is easily sucked and care is taken that it be very
thinly spread out. The soft cloth is spread on
the floor and on one permanent plutform and the
double fan at the end creates a strong draught.
This is the simple "Clerihew." Ceylon men fill
up their room with shelves. So thiit their theory
of gradual moderate heat is very difficult to carry
out, anrl is attempted by a crude aud clumsy
arrangement of moving the trays al out. The risk
of fire must be very great. Then they have
wooden ceilings. I should say that that must be
dangerous. We founil in India that fireproof ceil-
ings made of lath and plaster were much to be
preferred. Before that was adopted serious loss
by fire was the result. You can't improve on the
sweet simplicity of Clerihew. I saw two Black-
man's Air Propellers. It's a fancy article, and,
on account of its requiring less power to drive
it, is a gain iu a district where firewood or water
is a difficulty. It cuts the wind out, wheieas the
fan knocks it out. To use trajs properly each
layer ought to be in a separate division with com-
munications with the hot flue and the fan. When
the air rushes in at the orifice it goes bang into
the near and central shoves and dries them,
moistening itself and neglecting the side-shelves.
To put this riglit they put coolies on to exchange
the hot fiuit for the cool fruit and so on, as I
said before crudely and clumsily. The weak point
lies in the self-sati^fiedness in results. There is
always room for improvement aud this very thing
baa caused Ceylon as compared to the plauting
districts of India to be as America is to Great
Britain. I know that the cacao which fetched
the highest prices was dried in very fierce heat
on Ihe floor on the primitive Clerihew system.
Increase your air-exhausting power .nnd your fur-
naces aud you will have a drying machine that
beats any newfangled notions. If you wish shelves,
have them isolated along the whole length so
that a current of hot dry air will pass over ojj,
surface aud remove the moisture in steam. A\\

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

241

have all gone iu for statiouary heat, ami carcLunoms
and cacao mildew at a very high tt-mpcratiiit; where
tliere is no draught or ih-ying current. Tboy have a
room similar to a laundry-maid's drying room with a
stove. They only want a chair and a loijy ot
the Fiivnly Herald and the perspiring, portliness
and rounded outlines ol a buxom lauudrymaid to
complete the picture. Ius.t.;ad of liuen, there are
tiers upon tiers of shelves, and iu this stationary
heat they complain that their capsules split. But
I am ofi' to cardamoms before the time.

The vulgarly known " common red" oacso is by
far the fiuest and most delicate in the world.
The new yellow variety is a coarse robust kind
and is said to resist disease. That has an ominous
yet familiar sound in Ceylon. Something is sorely
wanted to resist disease, but it is the conditions
rather than the coaiseness of te.vture or quality
that should be looked to.

Cacao is eminently a plant that resists artificial
pressure. It sulks, it sheds its blossom, it fur-
nishes foliage to make up for undue exposure to
the sun. In fact, is not this the case with coffee ?
Cacao is an elephant not a horse. Force an
immature elephant to do a mature horse's woi'k,
it will do it but for a time. Men in Ceylon pre-
ferred to get experience at their own cost instead
of gaining by looking at 200 years' experience in
a cacao country. Experience is a lamp that only
hangs astern ; but often thit l.^nlp is ignored and
difficulties which have been alreaily sately passed
by the beacon-carrying vessel ahead are rnu against
through inattention to the warning light. "Cacao
is another myth " was a remark the other day.
Aye, only so far that it is not the golden-fruit-
bearing tiee that was supposed, but not a myth
in the sense of a paying industr}- if carefully studied.

I am thoroughly ot opinion that Hehpeltis
Antonii is a plague bred and fosttred by the
sweetened juices of a weakened tree, and the only
remedy is to return to the wise, plain, simple
rules that guided your fathers. Yeu know the
old story of the sons whose opinion if their
father changed as they grew older until they
confessed as old men that the old man himself was
right after all.

♦

CHINESE SABAH LAND FARMIXG COMPANY.

[Report of the Directors for the half-year ended
31st December 1S84.]

The reports of Mr. Gibson, the Manager of the
Snanamber Tobacco Estate, continue satisfactory.
His last letter, dated the 21st June, 1SS5, stated :—

" The tobacco is really growing beautifully just
now, and everything at present looks to promise
a favourable result. I hope by the end of .July to
have finished planting with 2,000,000 trees. Immedi-
ately this year's tobacco crop comes aS the ground
I shall hole before undergnwth omes tip, and
plant out all this clearing with Libcrian coffco. We
shall then at a very small extra exfnie have
about .'iOO acres of cnfFee, which I am certain will
be very valuable. I am busy now holing for coffee,
and in a few days shall commpnce planting out the
fine nurseries which I am going to bring over
from the Sibooga."

The Chairman (Mr. V. Maj^r) stated that the
first call of Tls. 7 per share, h.id b?cn paid on 2,052
shares, and the second call, of Tis. 2 50 per
share, had bsen paid on 1,027 shares. In ad Ution
to that, ti;ere were many foreign shareholders,
some of them in England, whom they cxi ected
to pay the calls by-and-bye. They had made these
calls to carry on the tobacco cop of I8&.5 ; and he
was glad to say that this was coing on as success-
fully as they conld wieb. They had all read tb«

SI

report, which contained -an extract from a letter
of Mr. Gibson's dated the 21st June, and since
then they had received another letter from Mr.
Gibson, dated the 3rd July iu which he said : —

" I am g'ad to be able to report; well of our
progress here. The tobacco commences to grow
very well, and the weather is all I could desire.
We have planted out up to date 950,000, nud are
still busy planting. It is now July, and in a month
more we shall start on jungle-felling for next crop."

Continuing, the Chairman said the prospects of
the Company, if course, depended entirely upon
the success of the tobacco. They had received-
altogether about Tls. 87,000, of which they had
written off Tls. 34,000. This Tls. 34,000 included
all preliminary expenses and evcrythinr;, to that
they started their tobacco estate clear. Tlio bal-
ance of about Tls. 51,000, included the value of
all the land, and the survey fees expended upon
it. Their only difficulty ahead seemed to he about
going on next year, and this they would have to
discuss later on. .Mr. Gil son's letter said that in
another month it would be necessary to cnmmence
felling for next year's crop, but beyond that he be-
lieved the expenses of the 1880 tobacco crop would
not commence till aljout February, telling would
cost .§1,500, so it would be uecetsary for them to
decide whether they would spend this ljl,500 or
wait two or three months, aud see whether tho
present crop turned cut favourably enough to en-
courage them to do so.

The Chairman mov'd : — " That the Directors'
report, and accounts for the half-year endiug the
Slat Dec. 1884, be passed as presented."

Mr. Rivington seconded the motion, aud it was
carried.

The Chairman remarked that they were doing
all they could to make the present tol^acco crop
a succes.« ; and it was generally acknowledged that
they had in Mr. Gibson about the best man they
could get. If any shareholders had any question to
ask he would ba happy to answer them. — Hongkong
Daily Press.

The Maeiawattk Tea Factory is tho sub-
ject of a graphic liescripti^ n by our correspondent
" Peppercorn " on another page (2.'?.") to which we
attract attention. With reference to Mr. Jackson's
movements, we may mention that ire is not yet leav-

I ing us, hut means (now that he has got a good deal
of responsil'ility about machinery off his shoulders)
to make a trip round the tea districts, after which
our readers will learn some more of the opinions
of this piact C!il and experienced visitor in reference

I to the condition aud prospects of tea in Ceylon. —
We are glad to see that the 3Iaekeliya Planters'

I Association have secured the services of Mr. C. S,
Armstrong to read a paper on Tea Machinery and

j Preparation at their next meeting. This is sura
to bo interesting,
The latest novelty in paper productions is

' a pianoforte. Wood is discarded in favour of com-
pressed pulp, which takes a high poli'h and, without
staining, shows a cream-white colour. It is said
that the " short broken character of the sounds
emitted by the ordinary pianofortes" is replaced by
"soft, full, quasi-contiguous tone ro.iemblirg that
of the organ." If this ba true, another horror has
been added to the noisy ttn'ors of I fo iu teaming
cities. It 's difficult enough now to try and live at
peace with one's neighbours with the ordinary
pianoforte of commerce tinkling maddeningly and
persistently through the livelong day. What exis-
tence woulel be like with the solemn swell of
miniature organs booming every hour it is imposaiblo
to realize,— //owe Nevja,

242

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885

The Musical Instrument Trade in Saxony. — i
This industry, which employs raauy hunflred men
in Upper VogtUul, was not very satisfactorily
silua'ed cluri g 18fl4. The imports from Zanzibar
have up to the present been very small. Cocoa-
wood was dearer than in the prectding year, and
speckled wood rose from 50 to 70 psr cent. Brazil-
wood aud horse-flesh maljogany showed no change,
and (he liner qualities of red ebony brouuht a little
higher prices. — Kiihlow'>< Oeriauii Trade Ufview.

Tobacco.— According to Mr. Crowe, British Consul
in Cuba, cigars, suited to the taste of tha British
smoker, are very difficult to obtain in Havannah.
Mr. Crowe allows that there is plenty of "dark,
powerful tobacco," of tine quality, at moderate,
though by no means low rates. But if a smoker
desires a light leaf, with aroma such as the
" educated palate of an Englishman " seeks, he must
be prepared to pay for it. Only about 10 per cent
of the tobacco harve4 of Cuba can be classed as of
this quality ; and apart from the cost of the raw
material, the best makers of the best cigars obtain
wages which alone would render tlieir handiwork of
va'ue. As much a=i 40 dollars in gold are paid to
skilled labourers for turning out l.O'O "first-class
goi'fls," Tiiis m-'ini that a cigar of this grade
costs two pence for the mere rollmg, apart from the
Ijoxing, the price of the tobacco, th« freight, the
Cuotom-house duty, the interest on the capital ex-
pended, or the profits of the two or three middlemen
before it gets between the bps of the European
consumer. — H. and C. ]\Iai!.

Cinchona Febrifuge Manufaotuke in India. —
Says a Calcutta contemporary : -" The capital outlay
by the Bengal Governintnt on the cinchona plant-
ations in Bengal, and the manufacture of febri-
iwe, bioce the fir.st commenoement of tliegardins,
has been RIO, 84,202, wlio', ve are told, 1 at bem
recoup! d more than twice over by the sav ng
effected by the substitution of cinchona febrifuge
for quinine in the Government medical institu-
tions. Looked at in a more purely commercial
light, the operations of last year realized a profit
of rv37,.'iS2, which is equal to a dividend of about
3J per cent on the capital outlay, exclusive of
the saving from the use of the febrifuge. The
total re\enue for the year was Rl, 24,225, whilst
the expenditure was KS1,7 6. The crop for the
year amounted to 339,201 lb. of dry bark, of
which 325,125 1b. were red, and 14,07() lb. yellow
baik. The whole of this crop, with but a small
exoeptiou, was made over to the febrifuge factory
for disposal. The demand, however, for the febri-
fuge seems to be decreasing, fur tie au.ouut issui d
last year was only 7,152 lb. 4oz,, as against P, 144 lb.
12 oz. in the previom year,

AiinownooT.— A coiTeaponJcnt, writinu; from Coomcra
Oil 2()ih July, sayfl ;—" The arrowroot-making id uncnra-
monly late this year, only one or two milLs haviug as yet
begun the work, Shortueiia of water is still the cry in
Son e ca.srb, and in olhcrs the machinery is rot yet
reaily. There is a good crojj of bulbs which the frost
will not iiijure, biit delay into the warm and growiug
tVeather will lessen th(i flower of the bulb by the less
tvbifh slioots will occasion ; yet is there no probability of
»icariity in the article, or reduction in the quafity, there
htint' liberal stocks on hftnd from last ytar. Theexten-
.«!< (1, however, in the area under arrowroot appears to
have received a check from the reduction in price of the
pa-t and present year. Maize is generally a poor crop,
and VI ry little, if any, can be spared for town after local
wiiLts are supplied. I know of no sales under Is. From
the hit h hills the severe effects of the frosts of June are
vi-il'le on .ill sides in the whiteness of the canefields,
and tie light-brown of the grass, but the cane on the
h'llsis treeu, and some of it is fven now growimj. The
luiUs aie cfusliin^- their own caue with ail speed, 3u4

putting off that of other growers until their own is safe
but their will be hardly time to save all before some even
of that is unfit for sugar-making ; the rest will prob-
ably be a loss to the gTO-mers.—Queen.dandei:

AGEXCULTURE t IN THE CENTRAL AND NOETHEKN PbO-

VINCES. — Qtiot homines, tot scntciitiuo: as many men, so
many opinions : as many places, so many methods to
suit circumstances. In the Central Province, where the
Kandyans, whatever you may say, know not what it is
to do without a meal a day, we can understand the
necessity of teaching them to take more out of the soil
than they usually do, telling them of the necessity of
strenuous exertion. The fact is the Kandyans go in only
for one tillage during the year, with all their heart, and
tliat is the inaJia harvest. It is only of late, that in the
out-skirts of towns a few of them, languidly, grudgingly,
because goaded by authority, go in for the ijcdla bar.
vest. The Kandyans altogether live on their native rice
They think it a shame to sell their paddy : and it necess-"
ity compels them to do so they do it on the sly. It is
a fact that all the beggars in the Central Province are
in nationality, cither low-country Singhalese or Portu-
guese descendants. A Kandyan, a bona fide Kandyan
beggar is a "rare bird." The Kandyans rather desire
to rot and die than disgrace themselves by begging.
They have enough : their soil supplies them the grain
for the year : their garden gives them their vegetable
store; their jungle gives them their meat; and their
garden provides them the few rupees with which they
purchase clothes. They do not indulge in luxuries. Their
idea of happiness is to lie still. Your glowing eulogy
of trade and enterprize, of improving agriculture and
getting the best out of the soil are quite wasted ; they
go liome and in dignified sarcasm tell their wives of the
fool who wants them to betake themselves to extra
labour for no earthly reason at all. Necessity is the
mother of invention ; and till the Kandyan is driven by
necessity, you cannot expect him with all his heart, to
espouse the new invention of a plough, or a more educ-
ated S5'stem of agriculture. In the Northern Province it
is otherwise. We live on what the land yields us ; and
when that fails we starve ; or go about pawning our
jewels. Agriculture here is our very life and subsist-
ence. It is so with all of us ; either in our fields, in
our tobacco gardens, in our coconut and palmirah plant-
ations, or in our vegetable gardens. We live by the soil.
In no other province do you see gardens so cleanly kept,
fenced and enclosed and trees watered by the Egyptian
pulley in quite a skilfiU method of irrigation. Drains or
water-courses ramify the garden, conveying the water to
a wide basin, dug out round each tree, so that really
it is rivers of water that our trees enjoy both morning
and evening. Our fields are plentifufty manured. We
have seen cart-loads of seaweed, which, otherwise waste
their "stink" in the sea-shore air, propagating malaria
among our fishermen, carried in bullock carts and buried
in our fields. We have seen branches of trees and
bundles of green leaves from our jungles undergo the
same operation. We have seen all dried leaves of Pal-
mirah and oadjans readily asked for to manure our fields.
Wu hwe seen bones, ashes and cart-loads of other
refuse made use of to enrich our soil : which after all is
but a Burfaoe-mould of manure. The Province eeeras,
originally to have been but a sand-bank, created by the
o.iprice of mother ocean who set her children, wind and
wave, to play all sorts of tricks with it. In such a place,
and to Bucli liard-workiiig cultivators, your ideas of better
ploughs, and a more scienfiSc method of cultivation are
all tneoties which to them seem but the mirage of the
desert, Wc want water. Give us artesian wells. Give
il6 fniiks. tet tis not depend upon the former and the
latfet rain, aud what we can reserve of rainfalls in our
bunds. Let us h.ave a plentiful supply of flowiug water :
and the JafVna cultivator Hill teach you a lesson or two
of successful agriculture. Let no Enclishniau think wei
do not know to farm, or cultivate grain. When your
forefathers went about dyeing their skins, and ealitig
only green cheese and curd, wc produced the grain that
fed us well and our loom produced the cloth which then
as now clothe us. Give us water. Give us water ; and
there shall accrue a revenue from grain produce that will
enable you to make a Eailway to the, not moon, but the
distant sun.— "Ceylou Patriot," August i^lth.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

243

— -^

To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer.'^

NOTES ON INSECTS AND OTHER MATTERS.
South of India, 29th July 1885.

The Editor of the " Tropical Acfiiculturist." Colombo.

Sir,— Will you kindly forward for identification some
small flies on the underside of the tea leaves and twig,
which I am dispatching by post, and wliich may or may
not reach you, according to the mysterious decrees of
the iiostal authorities whereby a similar parcel dis-
patched to you last year was returned to me on the
score tint the parcel was under a certain size ? Perhaps
Mi's parcel will be returned also as being ovrr a certain
size. However you will perceive that the leaves have
been sent iu a box ten times the .size really necessary
in order to propitiate the said authorities. In f orwanling
this box I am called upon to fill uj) a form iu which
the said authorities hive the exquisite cruelty to require
me to put a value upon these pests !

Are Messrs. Armstrotg, Hay and Owen yet decided
in their opinion as to the reason of Oeylon teas possessing
such a superior flavour over Indian teas? It is not
becoming iu me to have any opinion on such a subject,
vet nevertheless I venture to think that I am not a
hundred miles off the mark.

Allow me to take this opportunity of tendering you
my hearty thanks for the many valuable suffgestions
given in your excellent periodical, and which suggestions
oidy require consideration and observation in order to
turn them into practical use.

To such of your readers as to do not regard their
coffee or tea bushes as virtually mere machines which
can be made to give crops to order, allow me to recom-
mend most strongly two very valuable books, viz.,
Johnson's " How Crops Grow " and " How Crops Feed"
(American publications: they always (/ iW push into the
front those American.s) .*

On page 126 vol. 4 of the T. A. it is stated on the
authority of the Leader with reference to var.
Eucalt/p'tiis salulmi, that its foliage " contains an
extraordinary abundance of oil which renders this species
significant." Can you, Mr. Editor, verify this statement V
Mr. Bosisto gives the following percentages of eucalyptus
oil :-

per cent.
E. amygdalina ... 3-250 volatile oil.

E. oleosa ... 1-313 do.

E. leitcoxi/hii ... 1-060 do.

E. goniocalyx ... 0-914 do.

E. globulus ... 0-719 do.

E. obliqita ... 0-500 do.

So that in his list E. saluhris is not even mentioned !
It is a most important question to decide which of
the eucalypti (cultivatable in India andCe\lou) .supply
the largest proportion of oil. Perhaps Dr. Trimen will
come to our help ? — Yours faithfully,

ONE OF THEM.

[The insects are aphides or plant lice. There are
various remedies recommended in " Garden Pests " for
getting rid of them in green houses and small gardens,
which would be too expensive far application on a
large srale. We cannot verify the statement regarding
j?. "sa/iibris.—Y.D.]

MR. A. WHYTEON HOW TO GROW "ROSES"

IN COLOMBO, WITH HINTS, APPLICABLE

TO ALL ELEVATIONS:— No. II.

{Continued from ]>a<ie ISl.)

To assist their action, a few small holes may

be pierced on the npper side of the tiles, and

when laid down they ought to have a covering of

brushwood to allow the water to percolate freely

and to prevent choking. Another very serviceable

and cheap drain may be made from lengths of

bamboo, cl' ared of the inside transverse partitions,

perforated on the top and fitting loosely into one

» They are American reprints of English works. — Kd.

! another. When laid down in a green state, these

will last for a long time underground. While ou

the subject of carrying oS superfluous moisture, we

I may touch on the application of moisture or H-aiifr/Hy.

' This of course will seldom be required in the

rosarium, except in dry weather, when the trees

ou^ht to have a good soaking every evening if the

[ ground is porous, and every alternate evening, if

I the soil is clayey and retentive ; frecjuent and partial

watering, which does not reach the roots, often

does more harm than good. Syringing alter the

scorching sun has passed over the rosarium will be

of great heuefit in reviving the roses. Roses in pots

under shelter will of course require water daily,

but ought not to he kept constantly wet and sodden.

In po'. culture perfect drainage is half the battle.

As to soil for the pots, let it be the best strong

virgin soil procurable, well mixed with, say, one-third

of decayed farmyard manure. And now we come

to the choosing of suitable varieties or

V. — Selection. — Great mistakes are liable to be
made in purchasing roses unsunable for the climate.
Many of the grandest show hyhrid perpeltuds will
never bloom in the lowcouutry, or in Kandy, and
are even very shy in flowering with our most skilled
rosarians upcouutry. We must therefore confine
ourselves to a comparatively small assortment of
these splendid roses, a few of the most suitable of
which we will name, viz.: —

Baroness Hullisehild, a first-rate rose, light rosy
pink and large.

Captain Christy, a grand rose, light salmon Mesh,
large and robust, well-built form.

Duke of Connauijht, rich, velvety crimson of
perfect shape.

Duke of Teck, crimson, large and full.

Eliza Boille, white full free flowering and of
good form, first-class.

La France, a very grand rose, silvery white, very
large, full and tine form, free flowering.

Madame Laclinrme, free, white, rouud form.

Marquise dp. Ga.-<teUane, a superb rose, bright,
pure rose color, very large.

Nardi) Freres, rich liolet rose color of peifect
form.

Seuatetir Vaisse, very fine showy reel rose of good
form .

Coque te des Alpes, charming pure white rose.

Qloire Ducher, superb, very full large deep crim-
son rose.

Madame Asse, very fine red rose, with shade
of purple.

The above varieties ol Hybrid perpeluals will gener-
ally be found to flower freely, anel arc all superior
roses.

The Tea Roses, as a class, are very much more
to be relied ou as free flowerers and most of them
are deliciously fragant. We give a li.st which we
cau recommend as suitable for the lowoountry, and
which of course will arrive at still greater perfection
upcoiintry, viz. : —

Caroline Kuster, bright lemon yellow, beautiful
shape.

Catherine Mermet, a charming light flesh-coloured
rose.

Devoniensis, the good old sweet-scented tea rofe.

Devoniensis climbin;i, creamy white like old variety.

Etoilc de Lyon, «ulphur yellow, perfect shape, one
of the very best.

Gloire de Dijon, a matchless salmon-colored rose,
superb, will dn either as a dwarf or creep r.

Homer, rose-colored with salmon centre, large
and Hue.

Jean Ducher, yellow shaded salmon, large, full
and fj've flowering.

M4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885,

Jules Finger, rose with silvery shading, large and
fine.

Madam LnmbartJ, bright rose-colored, free and
large.

Madame Mai-gottin, citron yellow, large, full and
fine form, oue of the best.

Mada'uc Wdlermoz, white, centre salmon, large
and full.

Maddiiu- Welch, light yellow, largo and full, a
line rose.

Niphdos, a lovely waxy white rose, large and full.

Sombrenil, pure white, iu hunches, very fine.

Aline Sislei/, white and rosy peach, good and free.

Ootiilesse Panisse, coppery yellow, tinted violet,
large, very full and free flovvfring.

Madame Joseph Schwartz, white, pretty and very
free llowering.

Belle Lyonnaise, deep lemon, large full and fine
form.

Madame Berton, straw like Gloire de Dijon but
quite distinct.

The majority of the above teas will be found
suitable for pot culture, as well as for the rosarium.
Besides these aud the hybrid perpeftialsenximerate(l,
we have among the other classes some choice roses,
suitable for all elevations in Ceylon, viz. : —

The Noisette Soses, in which class we find
the matchless

Marielial Niel, the deep yellow creeping beauty
now so well-known.

Lamnrque, pure white shaded sulphur, also a
magnificent climber.

Celine Forestier, a chaiming yellow beautifully
crimped climber, and Cloth of Gold, also a Hue
yellow fragrant, rambling beauty: and then we may
select from among the Bourbon Roses

Madame Isaac Perera, a very large light carmine
rose.

Charles Latoson, fine hvbrid Bourbon, vivid rose
colour.

Souvenir de la 3Iahnmson, a grand, large, very
full, white rose well-known and introduced here
for some time.

It space would permit, we might mention many
more suitable varieties from the different classes of
roses, but we think it advisable to name only those
which we know from personal experience, to be the
best and most suitable, especially for low elevations.
Besides the roses enumerated, we have many more
common varieties introduced long ago, and these,
though wanting in ."ize and symmetry iind fullness,
ousjht not to be despised. What they lack in these
good qualities, they make up for iu profusion of i
bloom aud sweet perfume. They are very old friends
with a claim on our aS'ectious, and most useful as
out roses in bouquets and for table dicoiation.

For edging purposes we would recommend the '
rich crimson China Cramoise Supirieitre, and from j
the Polyauthas, the pure white Ma I'arqueritte, aud
the rosy pink Mirjnonctte.

We will now consider as briefly as possible the

VI. — Arrangement of Our Roses. — In planting up
the rose garden, it will be well to study the nature
and habit, as also the colors, of the difforent varieties.
It is quite evident we should spoil the general ell'eot,
were we to indiscriminately plant up the space
available, with rampant climlnng roses, and tiiose
of moderate growth and delicate form, all mixed
without regard to the habit, height and shades of
the different sorts. If the plot be circular, an arbour
or snmuierhouse iu the centre, formed of climbing
rosea, is useful and efl'eotive in displaying the beauties
of, siy, Climbing Devoniensis, Cii'vlin'' Kmtrr Gloire
de D/jon, Celine Forestier, :ir\(\ Mart'xhul Niel. The
gallant Marshal, like most truly great characters, is
modest in his deportment and droops his noble head.

We cannot fully appreciate his matchless face and
brilliant uniform, unless we look up to him. The
Marshal, when trained as a weeping rose, on an
umhrella-shaped frame and in full bloom, is a glori-
ous sight. Around the summer-house let the taller
and more vigorous hybrid perpelua/s and tea roses
be planted, and gradually as we approach the
outer circle, the less vigorous and moderate growing
teas will display their lovely blooms. The same
rule will apply when the borders for the roses are
alongside of the garden walls, the latter being
covered with the showy creepers, until they become
literally walls of roses. A tall archway of roses
over the gateway will be in keeping with this
arrangement, and will be most effective. Hedges
of roses may also be formed by planting stout tarred
stakes, at intervals of, say, 1 foot with a strong
top-rail, or ridge pole. The hardy creeping roses
festooned from pole to pole will look very beautiful,
and will form a substantial fence and shelter from
wind. In all cases, give your roses ample space, so
as to derive abundance of nourishment from
below, and enjoy a free circulation of air above,
— say not less than 3 ft. x 4 ft. for your dwarfs, and
at least double that space for your climbing
roses. Thin out and prune your roses after aseason
of rest. Just before the arrival of the little S. W.
mon'ioon, is a good time. Practice will soon indicate
to what extent the knife may be used. As a rule,
don't spare it.

VII. — Insect Pests. — With rtference to in.secl and
other pests, to the attacks of which toe rose is
liable such as black and white bug, mildew fungus,
beetles, and the lar^x of diurnal and nocturnal
Lepidoptera, &c., the best, cheapest and most
efficacious cure I have yet tried is a mixture of
(1) oue of lime, ("2) two of kitchen wood ashes, (3)
three of sulphur, all finely sifted and dusted on
the leaves while covered with dew. A jam-tin
with a perforated lid will make a good duster. This
mixture will be found to act both as a preventive
and a cure, and is most valuable to ward off insrcta
from seed beds. Fumigating with toliacco leaves
and syringing with lobacco water are also effective
cures, but the best of all antidotes for caterpillars
are our insectivorous bird?, if ihey can only be
attached to and induced to visit the garden regularly.
White-ants are a terrible nuisance in the lowcountry
and often ring the rore trees near the surface of
the ground in the same way as they injure tea
and cacao. The above mixture keeps them off, if
applied freely round the stems. lar everything
exposed to them, especially all wooden work, and
the bottoms of rose-pots, and raise the pots on tarred
bricks. Allow toads and lizards to liave the run
of the garden, and, if white-ants and caterpillars are
making headway, turn a hen with a guod big brood
of chickens into the rosarium every morning : she
will soon give a good account of these pests.

It must be kept in mind that we cannot nnder
any circumstances grow roses in Colombo or Galle,
or even at the cK-vation of Ivaudy, to anything
like the same size and perfection, as can be done
iu the cooler climate of the higlur mountain ranges.
Still, though we cannot alter our climate, a very
great deal can be done, by careful selection and
judicii us treainient, aud there is no rtason why we
sliouM not have lovely rosea, even in our seaside
gardens.

But, finally, if we would attain to sign.al success,
we must iiave enthusiasm. If we long to have delight-
ful rosaries — anuenei rosaria — and It-vely fragrant
show bl:oins on ourtabhs, wf must have roses in our
liearts. Wi r.-hip with faithful dovotiou at hcrshriue,
if you would court the smiles and favour of the
Queen of Flowers There is no royal road to

October i, 18S5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

MS

roBe-growing, and Queen Rosa rewards alike the
labours of her ardent lovers and devotees, he they
peers peicsajits.

A. WHYTE,

P. S.—Aa pointed out by one of your correspon-
dents lately, a number of the roses introduced
here an known by wring names, which is apt to
create great confusion. I give a few of the misnomers
which have come to mv notice : —

La Fiance, beautiful large silvery white rose, is
often called Baroness Rothichild, also a fine large
light rosy pink flower.

Oloire de Dijon, the splendid salmon-colored rambl-
ing rose, is often misnamed Victor Verdier, which
is of a warm rose color, shaded carmine,

Madame Margottin, line jellow globular rose, is
known .is Gloire de Dijon.

Souvenir de In Mahnaison, a grand large white rose,
is erroneously named the Hundred petal Hose

Paul Neron, the enormous rose-colored rose, is
misnamed Mrs. Williams, and also I think Mrs.
Campbell. Devoniinsis, the sweet-scented cream-
coJored tearose, is known by the general term Tea
Sose.

Lord Raglan, splendid but sky-dark ro?e, is mis-
named the '■ Black Rose."

NipTielos, beautiful pure white rose, sometimes
with tinge of yellow, misnamed the Wa.v Rose.

There are a good many more misnomers, but
these are all I can remember at present.

The term Rosa centifolia is applied to or
includes all the varielies of the Province or Old
Cdlbage rose to memory so dear ! A. W.

SUCCESSFUL HARVESTINQ OF CINCHONA
BARK.

Agrapatana, 11th August 1SS5.

Dear Sir, — The latter part of my previous reply
to " B. E." was certainly intended to show that
8ha%'ing in alternate etiiijs was quite as economical
as shaving all round the tree, for I saw no difficulty
whatever in sending down tlie bark for 10c. per lb.
It is quite evident that " B. E." has never tried this
"strip" shaving himself, while I have tried both
plans and hive no hesitation in saying that after
the tirst or second time I have had no diffieulty
whatever in getting quite as good, and even better
tasks from coolies than I did when I shaved " all
round " the tree, and I attribute this to the bark
having renewed so much better tlan it used to do.
My mossing only costs me about h cent per tree.
But even supposini; that there were a slight excess
in cost of harvteting the bark in this way, this
would liy no means prove it to be a less economical
plan thin the other ; for the extra yield of hark
which the tree most decidedly gives and its in-
creased value must of course be taken into consider-
ation, and is of far more importance than a mere
difference of a cent or two in the harvesting of it.
The analysis of some of the bark which was lately
shown me in Colombo, from trees which had been
shaved five and six times, completely bears this
out. The tree can be shaved the jirst time all
round if required, only leaving one narrow strip,
and this can be afterwards followed up by shaving
the renewed bark in strips ; the principle of which
I have already explained. I have just made up
the cost of some of the bark sent away from here,
and I think even " B. E." will admit that it is not
excessive; and that as increased quantity and quality
in the bark ia secured, he will see that harvest-
ing bark in this way is not such a bad thing after all.

Cost of bark d-livert-d in Colombo including cost
of two (•-') coverings of all shaved trees and of
all transport from atoro to store, from trees scatt-

ered all about and not from clearings : —
Xo. 1 lot 43,831 lb. stem including 1 ton of root bark
14,008 „ branch bark

57,839 lb. cost E2,925-41 or say 5§c per lb.

No. 2 38,4891b. stem (with chips from dying trees).
7,451 „ branch

4.5,940 lb. cost E3,2530S or less than 7§c per lb .

No- 3 19,930 lb. as above

2,833 lb. cost Pa,349-82 or 6c per lb.

22,8131b.

Total of these 126,092 lb. cost R7,52S-31 or say 6c perlb.

If " B. E." will come up here I will be glad to
prove to him the success I have had in leaving
the stump on coppiced tree?. I gave my reasons
for this in my last letter. Different conditions give
different results, but I have scarcely such a thing
as suckers dying off, and in fact very few failures
of any sort which cannot be aocoauted for on very
different grounds.

CINCHONA.

TEA STATISTICS OF COST OF CULTR^ATION
AND PRICES FOR INDIAN TEA.
De.\r .■^ir,— Referring to the tabular statements
in your issue of agth ultimo, the first thing that
strikes one is that it is not sufficiently compre-
hensive to be as reliable as might be desired. Take
for instance the average gross expenditure, which
is stated, as corrected in jour Overland issue of
1st instant, to bu H'oOdper lb., and the average
price realized Is l-33d : this shows an average
profit on the operations of 11 Companies of 1 SSd
per lb. Since then, however, we have had the reports
of two more Companies viz : the Tiphook and British
India showing results which raise the average
gross expenditure to ll-64d per lb. and lower the
average price realized to Is 0'40d per lb. and
consequently also the average profit to 0-76d per
lb. With a still larger number of concerns to
deal with, the average might be susceptible of further
modihcation ; and it must be borne in mind that
the figur s in the statement are only representative
of about 26,000 acres and 9,000.000 lb. of tea or less
than Jth of the total production of the neigh-
bouritig continent. Moreover it is evident that all
the i'ea Companies enumerated do not adept the
same sy.^tem of accounts, a sine qua non in com-
piling rel.able statistics of this nature. In the Home
and Colonial Mail of 17th July I notice a letter
from Messrs. P. R. Buchanan & Co. offering to
give i the necessary information with respect to
the gardens in which they are interested on certain
conditions ; and it is to be hoped that others simil-
arly situate.1 will follow their example, for the pub-
lication of a statistical table of all Tea Companies
showir.g their relative costs of production, bearing
areas, costs of extensions, management, agency and
dividends earned could not, but be of the greatest
value to the tea industry.

Meanwhile, limited as your table is, it seems
to bear out some remarks which are to 1 e found
ia the Home and Colonial Mai/ (oi 10th July, which
are as follows : —

Results of 1884 have been satisfactory to those who
made fine tea, and to those whose yield was so large
a."" to bring down cost to a minimum,— but it has not
been as profitable to those who realized only a moderate
yield and made only medium quality ; the reason being,
that prices for " medium ' liave year by year beeii
receding nearer to the range for " common," until
the difference has become very .slight ; while the
difference between " medium " and " fine " has become
wider. The conclusion is thai those who cannot con-

^4^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

fidently rely upon such a yield as will reduce cost to
between 9d and lOd per lb. in London should devote
all their energies to improvement of quality.

In the report of the Assam Copiuany's meeting
there are also some remarks to much the same
effect. At this meeting Mr. MeSwiney said : —

That he must admit that he was to a considerable
extent dissatisfied on account of the very low prices
obtained for their teas during the pa.st year. He was
further disappointod at finding that their chairman
had not been able to inform them at present wliat
the mysterious cause was wliich deteriorateil the quality
of their tea. The result of that deterioration to the
shareholders was very important. He saw by the report
that their average price of tea was lijd.' per lb.
The Chairman: It is a little better now. It is Is.
Mr. MeSwiney found that their predecessors in Assam
obtained an average of Is 3d per lb. which was about
4d per lb, more than they did. That was a startling
fact, and he very much regretted that there was no
erplanation of the cause of it. He was the more sur-
prised at that, because he believed that Company in
former years was famed for the excellent quality of the
tea it produced. Teas of that Company he understood,
in past years realized the highest prices in the London
market; but now on account of these mysterious causes,
their teas appeared to fetch about the lowest price.
The Chairman, in reply, asked the last speaker to
do what they had done, and try to ascertain what
had been the result iu profit land loss to those
Companies which had made those large prices, and
he would find that it was anything but encouraging.
Their business, and the business of every person
engaging in an enterprise of that sort, was to work
tor a profit; it did not matter how that profit was
made. He perfectly agreed with huu that it was not
satisfactory that the quality of their tea had deter-
iorated. But to throw out one hint to him : supposing
that one cause of the inferiority had been the increase
in the quantity and supposing that it was not possible
to obtain quantity and quality, it might be a very serious
question whether they should sacrifice quantity to obtain
quahty for their teas. In former years, when they were
making small quantities it was easier to make high-class
teas; but in making a crop of tea very little short of
3,000,0001b. a very great deal of low-class tea must
be made. If they could make 3,500,0001b. which they
might come to eventually, and they got 2d per lb. profit,
making it at 8d and selling it at lOd they would be
doing very much better than any Tea Company had
ever done. There was but one Company in Assam
which had ever worked at anything like the profit they
had done. It had worked exceptionally well that year.
He was perfectly alive iu saying that he believed that
there was some inferiority last year ; and when he said
that they did not come to anything like a definite
conclusion as to the cause he said what was true, because
they had been gradually introducing machinery, and he
thought it quite possible that the inferiority might have
arisen owing to some defect in the drying process

Turning again to your table I find three Com-
panies aggregating 9,638 acres, the yield of whose

gardens was an average of 452 lb. per acre, viz. :

Sale

Yield Cost Price Profit Divid-

Acres. per acre, per lb. per lb. per. lb. end

Jokai ... 1,4.33 418 /7-45 1/075 /5-30 10 7

Assam ... 7,609 491 //-SOO /1175 /4'25 14 °

Panetola... 59ti 446 /9-87 1/0-50 '2t>3 10 „

9,638 452 ^ /8-27 I 0-33 /4-06 11-3
On the other hand, Ifiad three Oompaniis aggreg-
ating .5,43 i acres, the average selling price of whose
teas was 1/4 '21 per lb. They are : —

Sale
Yield Cost Price Profit Divid-
Acres. per acre, per lb. per lb, per lb. end
Luckimpore... 911 28.3 1/1-50 14-12 /202 3i7
Moabund ... 528 246 0/11-75 i/4-2;5 /4-5n 5'\°
.Torehaut ...4,000 301 1/0-25 1/4-25 '/400 15 „

6,439 27T 1 0-50 1/4- 21/3-71 Ts3

Thus the average diflerence in favour of quantity
over quality is ■35d per lb. in the case of these
Indian Tea Companies, or an extra dividend of Si
per cent.

In Ceylon quality need not be sacrificed to
obtain a yield of 400 lb. per acre ; and Is 2d
per lb. in London is a moderate average selling
price to reckon on according to the standard thus far
arrived at. With a yield of 400 lb. per acre, it
should not be difficult for us to lay do-wn our teas
in London for 8d per lb.— Yours faithfully, C. W. H.

DOMBA NUTS: THE CULTIVATION AND
USES OF "CALOPHYLLUM INOPHYLLUM."

13th Aug. 1885.
Dear Sir,— In a recent issue| under the heading
of "Curiosities of the Customs" you mention the
export of Domba nuts for their oil. It so happens
that last year I was induced to make enquiries on
the subject by noticing a number of these nuts
shelled and being dried in the sun along the road
to Galle, and from all I learned from different
sources as to the value of the cuts, yield, &c., for
these alone it appeered it might be made a remun-
eiative cultivation. In consequence I was tempted
to put iu a small nur-sery, the plants in which have
grown freely. But it is not alone for the] nuts
or oil that the tree is valuable, but it seems that
for certain purposes, in the construction of hackeries
and riggers and ribs for boats &c., it is the only
wood used owing to its toughness and the ease
with which it can be bent to shape, and trees of
small dimensions are consequently of value. As
to the age at which the tree may be expected to come
into bearing I have only been able to get very
conflicting and I do not think in any case reliable
evidence, and this is a point you may perhaps be
able to settle. It would also be useful to know the
wholesale value of the nuts and oil respectively,
at Colombo or Galle, and the extent of the demand.
I believe it is largely used as an adulterant for
mixing with coconut oil. R.

[The " Callophyllum Inophyllum " is the teldomba
gaha of the Sinhalese and the punga of the Tamils.
Some fine young trees— in fruit and flower a few
weeks ago— are to be seen in the General Cemetery,
Colombo. All we know of value is that 1,205 bags
of punai or dumba nuts exported in 18S2 were
declared at the Customs to be worth E3,000, but
the weight or how many nuts in a bag deponent
sayeth not. — Ed.]

MINERALS IN CEYLON.
Dear Sir, — Like the man who felt inclined to
kick the postman because the letters he brought
were all duns, I suppose I ought to pitch into you for
causing my "platinum "to turn out only "iron
pyrites." " O what learning is!" as Juliet's nurse
exclaimed. Metallurgy and mineralogy are sealed
books to me, but I judged it was not silver from
its being too hard and not white enough. I there-
fore oscillated between "tin" and "platinum";
and as, in human nature, " the wish is father to^the
thought," I chose the latter. Boo, hoo ! Will "you
kindly supplement your information with a little
further instruction, and inform me britfly how sulp-
huric acid &c. is made from the pyrites? A course
of "Lyell" has since opened my eyes. The meta-
raorphic rock which contains the veins of iron
pyrites is the gneiss, snapstone, argillitp, schist,
or whatever it may be called, and is easily broken
up with a jumper. I will send you down some
fair office samples for yourself and the Museum,
if they have none there. — Yours ungratefully,

PLATINUM.

October i, 1885,3 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

247

[A geologist answers the above euquiry as follows : |
— "Iron pyrites ( Fe S.;) 13 a sulpliuret or sulijhiile
of iron, consisting of one equivalent of iron and
two of sulphur. The metal is oxidised and dissolved
by boiling with concentrated nitric acid, the sul-
phur separating and rising to the surface of the
solution in grey flakes and eventually fusing into
yellow globules. A portion of the sulphur thus ,
separated becomes oxidised and forms sulphuric acid. ;
In making the sulphuric acid of commerce, there
may be some simpler method of reducing and utiliz- (
ing the pyrites. Mr. Cochran would no doubt be
able to give you reliable information on the sub-
ject, being a practical chemist." The position of a |
country in the ranks of civilization being fixed by its j
consumption of sulphuric aoid, according to a well-
known saying, a simple method of manufacturing '
the article in Ceylon would indeed be advantageous ;
but we fear this is out of the question aud that
the process is complicated and expensive. — Kd.]

KOSE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON.

Down South, 17th August 1885.

Dear Sir,— I read with cousiderabli; interest Mr.
Whyte's letters which appeared in your issues regarding
the cultivation and growth of roses in this island, and I
am sure that your readers will agree with me, that, he
deserves our thanks for the valuable information con-
tained in them.

If you will oblige me by referring to your vol. I of
the Tropical Agriculturist you will find that I started the
inquiry on this iuteresting branch of tloral-culture and
sought in vain for some time for reliahle information.
Having been obliged, since then, to work " on my own
bottom" so to speak, I have myself acquired experience
on the subject and can now with better confidence
proceed with the cultivation and growth of roses.

Your readers will observe, that Mr. Whyte's letters are
however silent regarding the preliminary steps to be
taken in the cultivation of the '' Queen of Flowers." In
the first place I should like to know, whether it is
possible to propagate rose plants from its seed ? Second-
ly in the use of slips (which we have now recourse to)
for planting, what is the nature of the slip and the
mirsery soil required to receive it, to make it grow? I
quite agree with Mr. Whyte that cabook soil with an
admixture of old farmyard manure is the best suited
to make roses grow ; but we cannot dispense with the
preliminaries if we wish to ensure success, I believe
it is well-known that a layer of bits of charcoal spread
over the surface soil of the tree, considerably improves
the colour and the fragrance of the flower.— Y'ours
faithfully, TEA-KOSE.

The Nelli Frvit, — A correspondent of the "Jaffna
P,itrict " writes : —

"Nelukay. — Thin fruit is so delicious when properly pre-
served in syrup is the largest of the species to be found In
Oeylon and also numerous in the Provmce. A frioud has
•ent me a bottle of these very nicely prepared and candied,
Do pleaee ask the Committee to send a few jars of these
to the exhibit. And if there be not a large demand for
the fruit English taste must be very hard to please."
The nelli of the Sinhalese (ndlikay is, of course,
Tamil) is one of the two trees most common on
our patauas, the kahataijiiha being the otliPr, The
foliage is somewhat like that of the tamarind.
It is Phi/llanthun pmhlica of the botauists, aud
children are very fund of the neUi-rinli a fruit
like a groin plum, sub-acid. Wood duralde under
water and used for well work ; also for agricultural
implements, building and furnitnre. Bark used
for tanning and in medicine ; chips of wood said
to clear muddy water. Fruit is the F,mblio Myro-
balan and is used as medicine and for dyeing,
tanning and food and preserves. The Nelli is often
cultivated for its fruit.

Tea in Mauritius. — The Secretary of the
Mauritius Societc d' Acclimatation writes to us : —
" I am requested to tender to you the best thanks
of the Society for your valuable information respect-
ing the diflferent kind of tea-leaves, samples of which
were forwarded to you with the request to indicate
the species to which they belong."

Tea Statistics. — We call attention to the letter
of our correspondent ' C. W. H." analysing the
returns of certain Indian Tea Companies. It is
especially instructive to note the cnuiparison between
two i-ets of three representative Companies : in the
one case an average yield of 452 lb. per acre is con-
trasted with an average sale price of Is 0'33d ; in
the other the average yield is down to 277 lb. and
the Bale price up to Is 4'21d. "C.W.H." like
most of us counting on a yieKl of 4U0 lb. per acre
from average Ceylon tea estates, does not see why
our tea should not be laid down in London at Sd
per lb. But, how about the low averages worked out
by Mr, Kutherford 'f we are inclined to ask " C,
W. H. " and others.

Artesian Wells in Madras. — In December 1884 the
Madras Government made an engagement with M. Cornet
for the sinking of an artesian well in or uear Madras.
The depth of this well was estimated at 393 feet, aud
the cost at K 15,000. Upon the recommendation of Dr.
King, of the Geological Survey, who selected the People's
Park, as the be^t spot for an artesian well, borings were
commenced in March last, and after reaching a depth of
58 feet, granit rock was met which was found very hard
and difficult to bore through. In order to ascertain
whether this granite was merely a detached boulder or
part of the strata of the earth in the locality, trial
borings withiu a diameter of ,50 feet were made, but
they all showed that the same granite was to be met
with. The boring operations in the Park were accord-
ingly abandoned, aud the result of the search of the
country around indicated that a stratum of granite ex-
isted for two miles north of the Fort and some miles in
land. This being the case, the Government has stopped
the oi)erations for the present, pending a selection of
some other site by Dr. King. — Mailras Mail.

So.'UE CuRiors Facts about Er:e are brought to
our notice by a Colombo merchant who has, in his
day, bought Chittagoug rice at Rl.] per bat; (equal to
40 cents per bushel of paddy). He knows of no
rfason why it should not be sold as cheaply now,
from Burmi and Bengal, considering the greater
facilities for transport to counterbalance the rise in
wages. How then has the price so greatly advanced ?
Simp'y through the influence of rxrha'iiijp.. A great
part of the Indian and Burma crops is shipped
to Europe and the competition for produce is keen.
Nevertheless, at this moment rice is rep rted to bo
4j per bushel in England while it is R3'50 iu Colom-
bo ! NiLepence a bushel used to be the price of
paddy in Saharagamuwa and other planting disti lets
at a time when the native crops were far less plenti.
ful thun at f resent and before Sir Wm. Gregory, ,Sir
Herculeo Robins n or even Sir Henry Ward had
begun to spend Urge sums on Irrigaiion V^'orks,
How different th' market price now, through the
increased dr 'and caused by tho planting enterprise
(lud the irflncnca of cheap silver, -and yet, not'
with.slanding all that hai been said, done and spent,
hov/ little impression h.TS the local productioli made
on the local market, The reply has often been,
that the apathy of the .Sinhalese in t Mending orcven
keeping U|i paddy cultivation is owing to ilio hmd-
tax or rent on paddy ; quite forgett iig that the
Customs levy on inipoi ted grain is even heavier in
)iroportion and is therefore prote.tive of the local
rice- L'i owe? s. Never in fact was an industry so
fostered, aided and encouraged b^' a Government as
the Ceylon paddy-growing enteiprise and yet s mie-
kow it does not result iu mucb progress looked
ot »s a tvboli).

248

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

Minerals in Ceylon.— A Dolosbace resident
receatly sent us two pieces of stone which veBem-
bled jade in their green colouring and pent-ral
appearance ; but an expert pronounces on them
as follows :— " The green sample is very like ne-
phrite or jade, but is in my opinion one of the
softer forms of quartzite tinged green with an infu-
sion of copper: there is no trace of linie." Another
sanguine planter sends us two specimens, one of
which he was inclined to think "silver" or "plati-
num " ; but he was not here during the gold fever
two or three years ago, when we had samples of
similar "silver" from all parts of the country,
only unfortunately they were no more than " iron-
pyr-ites"— sulphuret of iron, as our referee reminds
us, util-ized for the manufacture of sulphur and sul-
phuric acid :— " Iron pyrites,— A very cominou min-
eral in metamor-phic rocks, such as gneiss, So.
Color, pale bronze, graduating to silvery white
and distinguished from copper pyrites by being
proof against the edge of a knife."— The story
is that one planter carefully tilled up two of his
almirahs with the rich silver ore he had carefully
picked up on the otherwise barren totuni, during the
mining fever of 1881-3 ! Our friend sends us another
sample, which is pronounced upon as follows : —
"The black sample is a form of talc schist (talc
and quartz), a sort of .soapstone (soapy feel), a steat-
ite as known to geologists." In answer to an enqu-
iry of ours : — " I believe we have trap rock such as
basaltic rock, greenstone, &c. in the island, and
there is no doubt of the existence of granite. A fine
out-crop of it was found near Balangoda in the form
of graphic granite consisting of felspar and quartz,"
CiGAKS. — Considering the increased demand that takes
place every year tor Uurma cigars, a note by Mr. Oabaniss,
Assistant Director of Agriculture of British Burma, on
cigar making in that province, will be read with interest.
Mr. Cahanias personally inspected a number of the
manufactories of cigars in Burma, and also a large
number of cigar makers working at their own houses.
AV^hat seems to have struck him most was the un-
necessary waste of good material and the universal
habit of converting good material into bad material. The
cigar makers generally purchase tobacco of two qualities:
the first quality for the wrapper, which frequently costs
R120 per 100 viss, and the second quality for fillers,
or the in.side of the cigar, at prii:ps varying from K60
per 100 viss. If mixed qualities are jpurcbased at about
E90 per 100 viss, the sorting of leaves has to be done
by the makers themselves. It seems somewhat strange
that, as Mr. Oabaniss tells us, the smoking quality, or
the second quality, is quite as good as that of the first
quality, the large difference in price beiug entirely due
to the leaf of the latter being larger and more suita-
ble for making wrappers. Mr. Oabaniss, however, does
not tell us whether the tobacco lie alludes to is that
grown in British Burma, or that imported from Bengal
and Madras. A great deal of waste is occasioned iu
cutting the wrappers, though the trimmings from these
Me often worked in as filling. A larger quantity of thr
leaf is more or less damaged when made into cigars
by the use of an impm'e gum or paste (or fastening
the wrappers. This soon becomes sour, and the cigar
becomes mouldy .and unsaleable. Notwilhstanding all
Ain n-aste, the prices charged for the cigars, wliich are

bV i^W's"eri./iW to <"'<-■ '■"P^"^ I"'"' '""' ''^''^■" " '"''K^ !"■"'''
lit Mr OabaniS" thinks that, by the introduction of

more careful systt«. of working as recommended
u )m tlie price could ^ reduced to eight annas a
bnndml -Calcutta ICnglhhv...

Mu D MOEBIS OS TE J..MAICA MUi9EtTM AND

' • ■_'i;he Jamaica CWoKi,,; Standard thus
"' ;,„ps a comprehcrive anu able address by
"""'",';';"';io,r,s :-•• We pblished i,, „„r issue .ff

l'8th"inst!"a full reporof t^he addreog delivfrod
Mr. 1). Morris at '''"' ' *

auspices of the Go
during the »U yt»«

^^ Mr"'!)" \i orris at the Civertazione given under
tho auspices of the Govcrnonf theiivr,^\cB. Institute
j.,rinpthe sUytarsofiU i-it&acB, Herefen to

the enlargement and improvement that have taken
place ill the Library and the Museum, and quotts,
with high appreciation, the eloquent remarks of
the late Richaid Hill — one of the most gified sons
of .Jamaica — on the usefulness and advantage of a
local Museum. In couneotion with this pai t of the
subject, he mentions the great progress that has
been made during the past four years in bringing
together collections of the Hsh, the birds, the insects,
the shells, as well as an illustrative collection of
island productions sueli as coffee, cacao, pimento,
annatto, fancy and furniture woods, spijes and
condiments, meal and starches, dye-woods, essential
and fixed oils, medicinal substances, honey wax, and
other objects pertaining to minor industries. Mr.
Morris also takes personal notice of the collection
of the land and Iresh water shells of Jamaica, and
states that the task of classification and re-,arrange-
ment hss been undertaken by Mr. Henry Vcndryes,
" whose reputation and standing in this particular
branch of science are a sufficient guarantee that
the collection will ultimately be brought to the
highes-t condition of elBciency." After mentioning
the fact that the grand and noble collections in
the British Museum had their beginning in the
materials brought together in this inland moie than
two hundred years ago by Sir Hans Sloaiie, Mr.
Morris m.iintains that in a purely agricultural
colony like Jamaica a Museum should possess a series
of all that relate to local industries and to a careful
and economical utilization of time and money and
proceeds to say : — " The importance of such a col-
lection as we trust ultimately to bring together
within these walls in aiding the development of
local industries cannot be over-rated. To our
planters of all classes such a collection will be of
iucalculable advantage, as it will place before them
the nature and character of raw materials and manu-
factured products and lead them to acquaint them-
selves with the best methods for extracting dyes,
fibres, perfumes, drugs and food products from native
plants; while at the tame time, they will have
before them the raw and manufactured state of
foreign prcducis for which both the climate and
soil are well a lapted, tending to lay the foundation
of new industries. 'Ihe great drawback in the
way of prosecuting new agricultural industries is
not so much the. growth of the | lan's th'iuselves,
but in finding out how to prepare the produce for
market in an economical and suitable form and with-
out wasting time and money " in blundering (hrough
a host of tiials" to the desired ends. Mr. Morris
makes due reference to the valuable operations of
the Library of the Institute which under the able
direction of the energetic Librarian, Mr Priest,
" contributes in no small decree, to the diffusion of
the best class of current literature, not only amongst
the people of Kingston and tha neighbourhood, but
by means of its brauohee through many other j.ortion
of the island." Meatieli is also made of what the
Institute bae done in eslnhlishing a series of publio
lectures obtaining the extension to Jamaica of the
Cambridge Local Kxamination, and arraUf^ing on
behalf of the Government and Ihe community at
large, for the proper representation of Jamaica at
the seveial industrial exhibition which have taken
place during the p.ast lew years. In connection with
this matter, we deem it right to record the high
appreciation which the people of Jamaica eutertains
of Ihe service Mr. Morris hai done, not only in
making Jamaica take such a prominent place at the
New Orleans Exposition, but in using his endeavour
and influence to bring about a removal of the
quar.antino restrictions which prevented anything
like regular, satisfactory, comniunicatioD with New
Orleans,

October t, i88j.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

249

BRAZIL AND JAVA:

REPORT OS THE COFFEE CULTURE IN

AMERICA, ASIA AND AFRICA.

BT K. F. VAX DELDEN LAEUVE

In our February Number we gave a short uotice
of this importaut work. Since that appeared, the
tnglish version, then mentioned as in the press, has
been pubhshed,* and the handsome volume lies now
before us. Printed iu Royal Octavo, it occupies 637
pages, besides plates, maps and diagrams.

As we said before, the writer treats the subject
of coftee-culture well nigli exhaustively. To the extract
we gave in our former number we now wish to
add a passage taken from Chapter X., on the Coffee-
culture in Brazil, to show our readers how thoroughly
the writer enters into the merits of his subject.

After treating in a previous chapter the state of
Brazil as to her Revenues, E.xports and Imports,
means of conveyance (roads, shipping, etc.). Weights,
Measures, Coins, etc., Coffee-Trade in its special aspects,
the author treats in Chapter X. Coffee Planting.
In a general view he discusses the different soils,
whicli m so extensive an area are of course very
various, their capabalities for coffee and other cultures,
the mariagement and arrangement of the estates, and
the differeut sorts of coffee produced. Moreover
Lands, Fazeudas: Clearing, Division into gardens,
Garden paths, Terraces. He then proceeds to
riaiiUtig, A itrseiy-Beds. Space btUccen Plants, Trees
yieldimj slmde, Dressiny, Manure Diseases and
Enemies of the Cqfiee-shnib
u I'w if """It *''?, P'='"ters, of the Rio and Santos,
both follow the old ancestral custom of transplanting
three or four-year-old mudas or seedlings out of the
gardens. °

The mudas are pulled by hand out of the ground,
which bas previously been slightly loosened. If the
tap-root does not break at once, then part of it is
cut off, care being taken, however, not to injure the
hbrous roots more than can be avoided

The plant itself is also lopped to a height of 1 or
Li palmos (22 to 23 centimeters). The stumps, about
as thick as a man s finger, are conveyed to the gardens
in baskets covered with leaves, by the slaves charged
%'";,*'»e planting of them. On the broken ground
ot the Kiozoue this is performed iu the followmg
way:-On the piece of ground to be planted, a
quantity of earth IS scooped out ou the face of the
incline Ihis is done with the enxada, an mstrument
resembling the Javanese pat/ol, but almost twice the
size and furni.shed with a handle six feet long By
this means a small spot of level ground is obuined,
a kmd of tmy terrace, or as it is called in Java, a
little petak. Ou this are planted two or three muda
s uraps su!« by side or in a triangle. The earth
that has been scooped out is now heaved above
the level spot, and pre.ssed down a httle: it is
meant for a temporary dyke to shelter the mudas
from the streaming ram-water. Gradually, however,
these grooves are filled up again by the earth of t he dyke

i. it. T u '"f P™1?"' ,*^ 5"°"°^ plant', as far as
18 practicable from the heat of the sun, some dried
or charred boughs and chips of wood, or leafv twigs,
are piled up about them. . e >

For the last three 01 four years pepinieres have
been making for the new plantations; or, to speak
more coi-rectly, for the necessary substitutes. The
use of pepinieres. however, i.s not so general as Dr.
touty seems to beheve.

The reason why planters have pepinit-res made
now IS simply this : that in former days there was
no time for it ; now there is. Four or five years ago,
^^^1 i L P'-'^°t»t»°°'' were constants being extendid
so that there were no hands to spare; now the -e is
very little more planting done than is necessary to
keep up the e,xisting cafesaes.

People shrink from the thought of laying out new
gardens „ow, not only because of tlio low price obtained
for coffee, which of itself paialyses_thehKlustrv

, * Y'- H.Allen &O0., 13, AVa'terloo I'Uco, Tall 1m,'
JLondon.

but because they are no longer certain of being able
to gather the fruit of their labours. The scarcity of
labourers is making itself felt more and more, especially
now that the traffic iu slaves between the northern
and southern provinces is rendered pr.actically im-
possible by the levying of provincial export-duties
amoimting to from p. st. 160 to p. st. 200 per slave.
There is thus more leisure, more opportunity for
careful plantiug.

But the reader will make a great mistake if ho fancies
that the Brazilian Pi-piiiiijres resemlile the carefully-
constructed, solicitously-tended, nurserybeds of .Java.
I have seen three sorts of nursery-beds. The first
consists of a less or more open spot on the skirts of
the capoerao or not very dense wood, where all the
youug mudas from 10 to 20 months old, that can be
got uold of iu the gardens, are stuck into the ground.
A collection of those plants of unequal age is called
a nursery bed or \-iveiro. The more advanced coffee-
planters, those that pa,ss for specialists, obtain their
viveiros by direct sowing. In the middle ot the
capoeirao, for the matta virgem or virgin forest is
too shady for the purpose, they have the ground dug,
and plant the coffee-beaus in rows or strips of from
1 to li palmos broad. If all the trees come up, the
rows are a little thinned out, but even after this
process, these crowds of little plants jostling each
other present a very strange appearance. In viveiros
of this stamp, clods containing from 10 to 20 plants
are dug up. These clods are placed in square wooden
boxes, and conveyed to the plautation in heavy carts.
There the seedlings are removed from the clod ' one
by one, or torn out of it, and planted in the way
described above. I must, however, note in passiug,
that I saw this comparatively careful method of plant-
ing on only a very few fazeudas, such as 8. Clement,
Matta Porcos, Bella Vista (Oantagallo). A third sort
of viveiros are those that are made in the gardens
themselves between the coffee-shrubs. Such viveiros,
however, do not contain more than 25 to 50,000
plants. On the fazeuda Sete Quedas in the Santos
zone I saw viveiros of this last mentioned kind,
which were laid out after a new method. The scattered
seedlings were brought from the gardens into the
viveiro, but in such a way that every group of 5 or
6 mudas made as it were a whole, and were from
Ik to 2 palmos distant from the next group. When
transplanted into the new garden, or taken to fill
gaps iu a 1 old cafe.sal, those mudas, now two or three
years old, are not taken from the ground one by one,
but form by their groups of five or six a clump of
earth, which is transferred to a pit three palmos
deep by three palmos in diameter. This pit has been
prepared by slaves six or eight months previously.
When the plants are placed iu it, it is not quite
closed. People only fill up the crevices between the
clump of earth and the pit. In this w.ay, I am
assured, the fruit-bearing is expedited by the timely
arresting of the growth of the plant. But this
advantage is counterbalanced by the great disadvant-
age, that this way of planting takes a great deal of
time, and is consequently very costly. For, while one
slave can in one day plant from 400 to 450 ot these
pulled and lopped mudas, he cannot possibly transport
more than 70 or 80 clumps. In the Santos Zone,
on the fazenda Hicaba, I' saw coffee-shrubs planted
iu yet another manner. The first step there is to
dig a pit from 2 to 2i palmos square, and of equal
depth. It is immediately filled up half a palnio with
the earth that has been thrown out, which the slave
presses down a little. Then a mudas slump is taken
and placed at one of the corners of the pit, in such
a way as to allow the fibres to spread out. After
these have been covered with a little earth, a second
mudas is plauted,and .so on till there is one at each
of the four comers.

The earth, which is now shovelled in, is stamped
down by the slave .vitli both his feet. Iu this way
the pit is halt filled up again. The ])Ianted hollow is
still from half a palnio to a paliiio deep, and remained
uulevelled. At the same time .sonic dry grass or
leaves are heaped in and aroaud the pit, to prerent

250

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

the scorching effects of the suu. Kain gives the
plauter no concern ; for the terra roxa and the terra
area, Khen^ this method of p'antiiig is usually practised,
is ^0 porous that the water cannot remain long
Knoii';h lu the pits to cause the roots to rot. In this
way no more than 100 or iL'O pits can he made and
filled oil a day. When no nmdas are to be had, the
plants havf to he reared direct from seed sown. But
theu Vnini 5 to 8 btans are planted close to each
other in a shallow pit made by hand or with the
enxiida, coiisequcutly the direct opposite of the method
employed oo i^ome fazendas in the Oantagallo (for
inttau'ce, those of the Viscondis de S. Clement and
Nova Friburgo) ; which is to plant the beans roimd a
little mound which is afterwards levelled down les-s
or mure by the rains.

If the ijtans on one spot all grow, at the end of
from 7 to 10 months so many are pulled up, that
only throe or four of the most vigorous plants remain
standing. The seedlings weeded out are then used
as mudas to fid up the vacant spots or falhas. The
usual plaMtiug is September, October and November,
although gardens may be planted on through January
and February. Several fazoudeiros, however, assured
me that transplanting may be done at any season of
the year, provi led it is made a rule to remove
uninjured, that is to say, unlopped seedlings in the
rainy !ei^on only, and not against the wiuter or
dry season. The mudas stumps can stand the drought
better, aiid recover their vigour after a few days'
rain. It is needless to observe that this method of
planting does not produce Brazil single-trunked coffee-
tieLS. such as are almost universal in Java, but very
wide-spreading coffee shrubs, that is to say, a brood
of 8, 10, or 12 sleuder stems branching out from the
mudas stump. Old cafesaes seen from a distance,
struck me as presenting a strong resemblance to plant-
ations of huge inverted besoms, all the more because
the protracted drought of 1^83 (from April to Sept-
ember) had exerted its parching intluence everywhere,
but especially on the soalheiro plantations, I have
seen gardens almost quite denuded of foliage, the
blossoms being dried on the twigs. The thicker and
fuller the coffee-shrub grows, the better. In the
more fertile lands of the Santos zone, therefore, four
mudas are generally planted instead of tl^o or three,
as is customary in the Rio zone. I retain a lively
recollection of a Pauli.st fazendeiro, who, attempting
in my presence to overcrow a Rio coffee. planter, told
him, that one coffee-shrub in the Santos zone is fully
equal to a bouquet of three coffee-shrubs from the
Rio zone. Although the Rio gentleman held his peace
and thus tacitly owned himself defeated in some
degree, yet the simile was a trifle too. . . . Paulistic.
Without" fear of exaggerating, however, we may say
that the coffee-shrub in the Santos zone is much
larger than the coffee-shrub in the Kio zone, besides
being almost as productive.*

The spaces left between the plants are not uniform
evervwheie. According to differences of soil, to the
ph.\sie.il aiipect of the estate and its height above
thi) eea, planters in the Kin zone generally leave
si'.aoes of V2 by 12, la by \i, li by li. end here
and there oveu 15 by 18 paluios; while in the Santos
Ecne thfi spaces arc 14 by 1-i, 16 by 15, and by
Viv of experiment during the last 3 or 4 years,
Botnelmes IG by 16, 18 by 18, and even 20 by 20
palmos. One canuct, however, without fear of con-
tradiction, venture the general statement that as to
the former ^nnp the average space between the plants
i« 12 by ll palmos ; that is to say, 2(14 by 3a>8
meters. While in the latter it does not exceed 15 by

1 .-, : that is to say. 3'30 by ^30 meters.f

» Accordmg to the Statistics of coffee-planting, the
remit is even more favourable to the Santos zone;
but we must not forget in comparing them, that
c. ffee-growing in the Kio zone has been carried on
for a long time, while in the Santos zone it com-
nii need cjuite recently.
1 1 Khidelaud foot =-0-3130165 meters.
\ ,. rood =- 12 Kb. feet == 3-"67358 meter».

X EngUih (oot mfOZOi'9'Z njetew,

But the coffee-shrub attains such an immense size
by the time it reaches its 10th or 12th year, that it
must be admitted that those spaces are by no means
too large. Trees yielding shade are unknown in
Brazil. It is true that at one time an experiment
was made in the Serra Abaixo to protect the cafesaes
situated less than 100 meters above the level from
the scorching heat of the sun, by planting the
Angico.* But it never went further than an experiment.
Considering the climate, I think the planters have
done right in banishing shady trees from their cafesaes.
For the coffee-bean ripens during the winter or dry
season, at which time the temperature is so low that
the slaves that work in the gardens are dressed in
baize. No groves are planted anywhere to break the
force of the wind, although many places in both zones
suftVr from tufaves or violent gusts. The diggiug of
the gardens is considered, even in Brazil, the principal
part of the tillage: Yet it is vei:y much neglected
in the Rio zone, a fact which is easily explained.

Firstly, there is the dread of landslips, the natural
consequence of a too deep or frequent loosening of
the soil on those steep, unterraced slopes.

But the real cause of the neglect lies in the want
of labourers. During the period when prices were
high, the new plantations formed were in excess of
available hands to work them ; and this could no
longer be redressed by the purchase of slaves, on
account of the high import duties.

A slave of the ro(;a, that is to say, a slave employed
in fiehhvork, ought only to keep and dress (in the
Rio zone) a maximum number of 4,500, or at the
utmost, 5,000 trees ; seeing that, besides maintaining
the roads and bridges, he has to attend to the plant-
ing of maize, beans (filaoes), mandioc, batatas, in
short, all that is needed on a fazenda for the con-
sumption of the work-people. "Well, the passion for
planting has been so violent, that in most districts
of the Kio zone, a slave has now to attend to
more than 7,000 trees. To keep those overgrown
plantations in anything like proper order, the owner
is now obliged to grow less rice, beans, and sugar-
cane, and to buy those commodities dearer than he,
could rear them himself. The sitiantes and small
fazendeiros have availed themselves of this circum-
stance to make their coft'ee-plauting a secondary
consideration, and devote themselves more especially
to the cultivation of the abovenamed articles of food,
which may be disposed of to the large fazendeiros in
the neigbourhood, or even in the Rio market.

Such planters, because they have stooped to the
pequena lavoura, or small farming, are often nicknamed
quitaudeiros.f It certainly does seem very strange
that the cultivation of the first necessaries of life
is so nuieh looked dowTi upon in the coffee and sugar-
producing provinces of Brazil, that even maize and
beans have to be imported from the Southern pa'-ts
of tho Empire and the United States of America.
Hence it comes that the so-called quitandeiros drive
such a lucrafrive trade, that the profits of their small
farming clear the expenses of their plantations. The
same nickname is applied to such fazendeiros as sell
eggs, buttor, cheese, and liigs, and I have known
lege cofiue-planters who, constrained by hard times,
do this— or rather have it done for their benefit— by
ths' wives of their feitors or over-eers. To return to
the dressing of their gardens, In former times the
cafesaes were weeded three or four times a year. No\*
the dressing has to be confined to capu.ar or cutting
down the weeds once or twice, nnd the carpa or
thorough dressing of the gardens before the beginning
of harvest, generally in the month of Blay.

The capillar is performed with a chopping knifp
or foice fastened to a handle five feet long ; or with

* Piptadenia colubriua, Bth. Acacia virginalis, Pohl
Acacia angico. Murf.

t Derived from quitauda, a basket of edibles, fruits
and diinties, which the uegres.ses in Rio offer for
sale. Those fruit or cake-vendors, who, according to
custom, carry theii- wares about on their are (hade,
e»Ued ^ttitasdeirM.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISr,

251

a sickle, which, known as celfador, segador or segaJeira
dynamica, is to be had for three or four milrei^. The
ground is loosened merely on the surface— or deeper
where the ground is less steep— with the euxada or
patjol. In order to arrest the slow but constant wash-
ing down of the alluvial soil, or rather to make up
tor It in some degree, the loose earth and weeds are
heaped up round the rows of shrubs. But even this
work IS lor the most part done injudiciously.

Instead of heaping the loosened earth and weeds
horizontaUy against the slope, and thus forming by
degrees a sort of terrace, people heap them in transverse
l^ues, consequently along the slope of the mountain,
They acknowledge the inefficiency of the method,
which IS finding more favour of late years in the
district of Oantagallo, and that it is tuo hard work
to be demanded of the already over-worked slav.;8.
In the Santos Zone, where the coffee-shrub yield
aimost double the average produce of the p!ant in
the Kio zone, plantations are attended to with greater
care. As a rule the cafesaes there are dressed with
the enxada (carpa) five times a year. In the draw-
ing up of agreements, at least, this is one of the
first conditions laid upon the colonist. On plantations,
however, worked by slave-labour alone, where the
same error had been committed as in the Eio z)ne,
the soil cannot be turned over more thai twice or
thrice a year. The capinar is also resorted to ia S.
Paulo, but only by way of preparation for the carpa,
or digging of the soil, and not as in the Bio zone
instead of that process.

The laying out of new gardens can here and there
be agreed for by the job with mineiros or natives
of JImas Geraes, who now and then establish themselves
in a place. The owner hands over to those people
a cafesal planted by slaves, on pondi'ion that they
keep and dress the young trees carefully during four
successive years, receiving in payment a lump ^um cf
from 300 to 400 reis, that is to say, from Tid to 9id
per shrub. - *

Those people are bound to fill up falhas or gaps,
caused by the death of young trees, with new mudas
In return, they -ire entitled, during the four years
they have charge of the garden, to plant between the
coffee-shrubs everything they require for their own
consomption.

The following crops are usually planted between
the coffee-trees in both zones: —

a. Turkish wheat or milho, against the months of
September, October and November.

b. Beans or feyaoes (black in the Eio and red in
the Santos zone) agamst February and ilarch.

c. C'assave or mandii^ca, against the same time.*
Although in several districts the sugar-cane is also

planted between the coffee-shrubs, this is not so
general as the cultivation of the three articles of
food mentioned above. The sugar-cane, rice (that is
the Javanese padi gogo or mountain rice), the various
sorts of batatas and other tubers for feeding pigs,
are in the Eio zone grown in the valleys between
the morros ; in the Santos zone, near the cafesaes.
Plantains are never grown in the gardens, but, like
the orange-trees (laranjelras) and cajueiros (Anacardium
occidentaie, Linn.), along the garden paths. The
dressing of the above-mentioned plants is of course
beneficial to the coffee-gardens. It is a curious sight
to see these turmas or gangs of slaves working in
the fields. A turma consists usually of from 20 to
25 slaves, male and female, under charge of a feitor

When the price of coffee is high and the harvest
large, sugar is bought ready for use, and not manu-
facture.! from the sugar cane. On the fazendas the
cut canes are left lying, and prepared as they are
wanted during four or five years. If it is not planted
in the cafesaes, the cane may be left from 16 to 20
years ! The mandioc, the Indian obi dander or sinkong,
may be left three or four years in the field ; it is
harvested as it is wanted, so that this crop, which, like
maize and beans, is easy to harvest, is regularly
cultivated by the slaves. On moist lands the mandioc
cannot he left so long, at the utmost two years

or overseer, who is generally himself a slave Every
turma has a male or female cook, who prepares their
food on the spot. If several turmas have to work
together (I have seen gangs of from 100 to 125 souls)
there is a Portuguese overseer, often termed admin-
istrador, to superintend the work. As the enxa f/as
are provided with very long handles, with which
moreover they do not make such a sharp angle as
the Javanese patjol, the slaves work almost standing,
and mostly m a row. The work is constantly accoiu
panied with a soft monotonous chant or quaver- oalv
during the ro9ar in the forest, I have often heard
them singing and shouting. If anybody conies to see
the work, or passes the field, they always greet him
in chorus, with the words, " Louvado seja Nosso
Senbor Jesu Ohristo!" (Blessed be our Lord Jesus
Uhrist :) on which the other answer .- "Para sempre '"
(for ever 1). If one meets a slave alone on the road
or in the field, he or she will stretch out the open

>>'°;,.'!^'°^a'4f'"*°^'";,°®r' ('^''eise, they pronounce
itj— that IS Bless me" and stand still till the answer
"Dios vos aben(;oe-Ihe (God bless you!) gives pr-rmis-
sionfo pass on. To return from coffee-planting to
the cultivation of provisions, it may be accepted as
a rule that, as long as space permits, provisions will
be planted between the coffee-shrubs, and that the
whole year through. On this account new gardens
must occasionally belaid out. As I have already said
plantations in the Bio zone suffer greatly from the
morros being denuded of their alluvial crust This
incessant waste causes the trees to undergo a perceptible
change at the end of 12 or 15 years. The washing
away of the soil bares the foot of the trunk to
I such a degree that one can distinctly see that the
shrub is not formed of from 10 to 15 coffee-plants
I as I thought at first, but of one compound trunk'
I that IS of from 2 to 4 mudas grown togeihe The
i part bared often stands from 10 to 20 centimeters
I above the ground. Now, when we reflect thai; the
mudas were originally planted in hollows or fcooped
I pits from 10 to 15 cen»imet«rs deep, we mu,-,t be
, convinced that in the course of 12 or 15 years the
alluvial crust has become shallower by from 20 to
3.5 centimeters; that is to say from 1 to 1? palmos.
Another reason has been pointed out to me why the
foot of the coffee-shrub is bared f.o nmcli. As the
Brazilians have not the custom to pull the loi.ts
as much as possible out of the ground, they giartu.-.Uy
putrify, and make the soil looser and more porous
The rains press down the soil, so that it tinks on
the whole; so that the baring of the foot of the
tree mu.st not be attributed altogether to the wa-hing
away of the soil.

However this may be, it is a fact that the older
the gardens are, the more the roots of the coffee-
shrubs stand out above the soil.

Owing to this gradual exposure of the topmost
fibres, the plantations begin to suffer greatly after
they have reached the age of 15 or 1& years. The
shrubs assume all manner of forms. They no longer
wax so full and luxuriant, no longer preserve an
equal proportion of breadth to length, but begin to
change into saias and pernudos.

Bv saias are meant the coffee-trees that at a height
of 3 or 4 palmos produce a large number of secondary
branches, which gradually get entangled with each
other and form a sort of petticoat or crinoline about
the trunk. Tliis petticoat or saia is the more con-
spicuous, because the upper part of the shrub is
quite naked, or bears at the very top a green phime,
which, as a rule, is heavier or lighter according as
the plantations happen to be noiiteijai or soalheiros.
The pernndos are those coffee-shrubs that have few
or no branches close to the ground, but branch out
largely farther up.

The leafless pernudos present the exact appearance
of gigantic inverted besoms or tagsvurai.

By far the greater number of saias are found on
soalheiro lands.

I could obtain no satisfactory explanation of thU
phenomenon, universal as it is throughout tjie Kio
zone.

252

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

Od my travels through the Parahyba Valley, how-
ever, as I steamed past the almost, endless succession of
coffee- clad morros, I was struck by a fact I had noticed
but little on the spot itself. It was just the greater
distance that enabled me to perceive what had escaped
me wheu tjuite near. I saw distinctly that the
shadows of the rows of coffee-trees projected into
each other; that, so to say, the one row shaded the
foot of the other, and sheltered it from the heat of
the sun. AYould it be too rash to draw the conclusion
tliat the lower part of the already half-exhausted
shrub, beiug thus protected from the greatest heat
of the day, obtains up to that height a new life,
but at the e.Kpense of the upper part?

The peruudos are mostly found on the oldest plant-
ations, and consist for the most part of old saias
stripped of their petticoat. At the age of 25 or 30
years they are generally exhausted, and, after being
pollarded, may perhaps yield a few average crops at
intervals of 2 or 3 years.

This cutting, or rather sawing, the plant down to
a stump, is done as a general rule when it is from
20 to 22 years old. It is seldom that the whole
shrub is cut down to a height from 2 to 4 palmos
above the ground. For the most part the oldest and
largest lateral branches are first removed, thus reduc-
ing the size of the shrub by a half. This must be
done as soon as practicable, after the fruit is gathered,
if possible iu the beginning of September and October.

On the authority of information and data which I
received and examined on the spot, I am able to
state that the coffee-tree in the Rio zone — for instance
in the Serra Acima — att.uns on an average I he age
of from 25 to 30 years, in the Serra Abaixo and
Espirito Santo it leaves scarcely 18 or 20 years.

I think it not quite superfluous to note in passing
that, by age, I mean the period during which the
paying fazendeiro thinks it to his advantage to maintiin
the plantation, consequently the period o' production.

I have visited old cafesaes where very vigorous and
healtby-lookiug 'xees were pointed out to me (for
instance on the fazenda Foitaleza de Sant Anna,
belonging to Senator Diogo Velho), which could boast
of having attained the venerable age of 40, 50 and
even 60 years. But these were regarded as a curiosity.

It is very well known that trees upwards of 30 or
35 years of age are, as a rule, of very little further
value to the Grande laroiira; conseque"ntly the fazen-
deiros do not take them into account wheu valuing
their plantations, though they will be the first to
affirm that the Brazilian coffee-tree may bear fruit
for 50 years and upwards.

So those old trees are never met with in extensive
plantations; but here and there, by fives and sixes
in old plantations which, so to say, have gradually
been planted afresh.

As regards the height of the shrub, though it is
difficult to state an exact average, seeing that the
breadth and growth of the plant frequently depends
on the altitude of the plantation, yet we may safely
assume that in the Rio zone the full-grown coffee-
tree is from 8 to 12 palmos high, while in the Santos
zone the standard varies from 10 to 16 iialmos.

The value of the plantations may be gathered from
the subjoined :^

According to Senhor Luiz van Erven, who has been
for more than 10 years superintendent of all the
fazendas belonging to the Viscondes de S. Clement
and Nova Friburgo, and is frequently called on as an
expert to value plantations, the trees could be valued
six or seven years ago after the following standard :—
Trees of 1 year old = 60 reis = IJ d
>. „ 2 „ 3 = 100 „ = 2| „
„ „ 3 „ 5 = 160 „ = 3* „
., ,, 5 >, 8 = 200 „ = -It ,,
„ „ 8 „ 16 = 280 „ = 6i „
>. ,, 16 „ 20 = 180 „ = 4J ,,
„ „ 20 „ 25 = 120 „ = 3 „
Upwards of 25 =60 „ = IS ,,

To what extent these prices are to be obtained at
present, will appear below.

As a general rule plantations from 12 to 15 years
old are manured. But artificial manure is never used,
and stable manure very seldom. All that is employed
is the offal of the coffee, that is to say, the red and
the horny husk, which in point of fact, is gathered
very carefully. A few fazendeiros have indeed tried
experiments by manuring their cafesaes with guauo,
stable-manure, lime, calcined bones, &c., but the
results were so unsatisfactory that the experiments
were finally abandoned.

He then proceeds to enumerate the different diseases
and enemies of the coffee-plaut, the harvesting and
picking of the crop, and further operations for pre-
paring it for the market. The different kinds of
coffee then come in for discussion ; but it would
carry us too far to mention all the heads deserving
of attention. "We will therefore conclude, merely
recommending those who wish to know more about
the matter to the book itself, which is published.
London, W. H. Allen & Oo., 13, Waterloo Place,
The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff. — Indian Mercury.

CINCHONA-BARK STRIPPING.
At present one of the great industries in India
is the production of cinchona bark, and a very lively
interest appears to be taken iu this branch of com-
merce, if we may judge from the prominent place
which it occupies in periodicals that reach us from
that part of the world. Several of these have called
attention to the careless manner in which trees are
felled and bark stripped from them. Experience has,
however, now come in time to allow a remedy to be
applied, and in numerous plantations the chincona
trees are dealt with very differently. Various plans
are in use. One, which is very common, consists in
stripping off the bark in longitudinal strips, taking,
say, four strips from each tree, and then immediately
! bandaging the stripped parts with damp moss.
This process is found to protect the cambium between
the bark and the wood, and to prevent the wood
dying while the bark on eithtr side of the wound
is extending itself to cover the part. Another process,
called the " Karslake method," consists in making
two longitudinal cuts iu the bark at such distances
apart as it is intended to strip, then passing some
sharp instrument through from side to side, moving
it up and down, and so separating the bark neatly
from the wood, leaving it uncut at the top and bot-
tom of the strip ; but as soon as the separation is
effected, the bark is allowed to return as neatly as
possible as it was before. This bark is intended to be
cut, top and bottom, when the process of healing
has fairy set in and the new bark has begun to
form underneath the servered portion. This method
is said to be really economical and ready way of
securing the crop. AA'e may also add that the Calisaija
Ledgenaiia and some other varieties are now largely
grown bv planters iu Jamaica, as well as in the East
Indies. It is asserted that any elevation of 5,000 feet
above the sea in Ceylon and about 6,000 feet in
Jamaica are the most favourable altitudes, above
which cultivation of the cinchona is more or less
profitless. [So writes the Client i.it and Drntj^i^t, but
we believe ilaclvor's stripping process has been largely
superseded by shaving, while we are not aware that
the Karslake process has been in practice and largely
a success!' — Ed.]

A WoKt) TO THE Wise. — It is a great mis take to
stop advertizing when trade is dull. In ''dull" times
people have more time to con the advertisements ; iu
" dull" times business changes are made, and plans mat-
ured for the coming season; in "dull" times men are
more easily impressed with the advantages of new
things which seem to promise a change from the ex-
isting dullness. Advertizing is planting, and the harvest
follows in duo season. The truly wise plan is to ad-
vertize at/ the time — but, whatever you do. don't drop
off in the dull season — people will think you are dead,
and customers usually prefer live firms to deal
with. — Indiarubber and Guttapercha Journal.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

253

TEA PLUCKING.

[^VLat follows applies to Darjilinf, which is iu 27'^
North and close to the Hiumlayau snows, and to
Kaogra, which is still further uorth and much colder.
Both places, equally with Dehra Dun have marked
winters, and of a real winter we iu Oeylou know
nothing, except in shape of chill monsoon wiuds aud
rains. But the remarks on plucking are of general
application. The proprietor of the estate in Ceylon
which has sent the highest quality tea (judged by
prices obtained) into the market states that liis two
chief secrets were fine plucking and rather under
fermentation than over. — Ed.J

Pickini; Leaf. — For the first two years, from seed-
lings, all that is necessary in this way is to present
any shoots running away from the main body of the
plant ; and in the third year, when picking properly
commences, great care should be taken not to overta.'C
the energies of the plant. In Kangra, at any rate,
if one gets during the third year from sixty to
eighty pounds per acre, and double that quantity in
the fourth, it is as much as can be expected, though
iu Darjeeling one might get one liuniU-ed pouuds
for the third year, and three maunds (two hundred
and forty pouuds) for the fourth.

"We place the average yield of an acre in full
bearing iu Kangra at rather more than 200 lb. per
acre; lai.ing the whole of large area; though iu a
small acreage, highly cultivated, and carefully tended
300 lb., or iu exceptional instances even more, might
be obtained.

In Darjeeling the average of a first-rate garden
making really good tea ought to be placed from four to
four-and-a-half maunds per acre ; and for an area,
say of a hundred acres, the property of an able
man, managing on his own account, an outturn of
400 lb. per acre of good tea might reward his exertions.

Of course, the amount of tea that could be obtained
from a limited area, under special treatment, is more
a matter of interest to the curious than of practical
value to the planter. The greatest amount of tea
we ever heard of being made from one acre of
land (belonging to an Association with gardens run-
ning fnim the hills to the Terai) under such special
treatment, was nineteen maunds (1,520 lb.) Possibly
in Assam or elsewhere a higher result may have
been obtained. The different systems of picking leaf
now in vogue all have their advocates, jlost are in
favour of what in Darjeeling is called Kitppo paro
(leaving a jiortion of the lowest leaf plucked to protect
the coming shoot) ; but it is difficult, especially in a
heavy Hush, to make the cooly follow this system,
and pick a proper quantity of leaf, especially as
the top of the thumb and top of the first finger can
alone be used to do it properly, and these soon get
tired when very much has to be picked. It is a
great protection, however, from tearing the leaf off
the trees, which coolies are only too fond of doing.

The thirl leaf often happens to be unsuitable for
picking: Lave that leaf; but where the shoot has
a sufficient quantity of leaves (five or six), not to
pick the third is to delay the new shoot, as it (the
third leaf) as well as the lower ones on the shoot,
have tj harden before a free flow of sap can he
afforded to the the new shoot.

Of course, the finer the leaf that can be obtained
without plucking it before it is ready, and thus in-
juring the tree, the higher price will be obtained for
the tea ; and considering the high cost of carriage,
and the general disfavour that medium and indif-
ferent Indiiin teas etperience in the Home market,
our attention must be devoted to the manufacture
of really fine tea ; but it is very easy to run into
the other extreme, and in seeking to avoid the
Scylla of in lifferent tea, get (for the season, at any
rate) wreck d on the Cha-ylidia of making such fino
t»'a that th': outturn hardly pays working expenses.
Two hundred pounds an acre at fourteen annas a
pound, will probably leave a profit; one hundred
poutids at one rupee two annas will likel3% if not
inevitably, bring a man on the wrong side of his
books. As the main object of the planter, and of

those whose capital is invested in the enterprize, is
pounds, shillings, and pence, and not amusement or
philanthropy, the happy me lium must be hit. The
ni )st paying tei in Kangra would, as a rule, be
what in an ordinary market would be a fourteen
anna tea; and, if this price is not obtained all
rt)uud, it is hardly worth of a man's while to engage
iu tho enterprize, with its attendant risks. Iu D.tr-
jei'ling a twelve-anna tea would pay very well; but
viewing what has been already stated, fourteen anna
standard might also be kept in view, and would
doubtless, by raising the character of the teas, im-
prove their value, the further aud further they were
n-moved from the ordinary run of Ohina tea: and
it is from falling into this category that all the
Indian hill districts have to keep aloof, if they wish
to maintaiu their distinctive character. It is to the
Lmdou market that Darjee'ing, at any rate, has to
look as the purchaser of its te;is, as it costs the
same to laud a tea that fetches fifteen pence, as it
does to land one that realizes two shillings. — Indian
Tea Gazette.

AREC4NUT PALM CULTURE .

Sir, — I feol very much obliged to your correspond-
ent for the further information he has kindly taken
the trouble to collect in reply to my questions re-
garding the areca palm cultivation at the Straits.
It certainly, as regards the correct distance apart to
plant, entirely supports what he said before ; and
further directly corroborates Mr. Borron's opinion.
.Still "fajt" is an unassailable argument, ami, how-
ever true it may be for particular localities that
wide planting is to be preferred, with the proofs
existing from which I have drawn my own conclu-
sions, I can only believe that it rather argues a
similarity of climate between the Straits Settlements
aud Matale East (was it not stated, either by your
ourrespoulent or some one else recently writing from
the Straits, that, whilst Liberian coffee was a success,
tea, though the plant grew well enough, was
p'actically an unquestionable failure there, owing to
the long-continued droughts, sufficiently severe to
crack the soil?) than supplying a rule applicable
generally; and it will take a good deal of practical
evidence to shake my faith in the belief that on a
closer system the heaviest gross yield is to be
obtained in a climate similar to Udagama, by liberal
cultivation, or on conditions of soil being similar
without. I even am almost lincined to go so far as
to believe, from what I have been able to notice,
that the number of nuts per tree will hardly be
m'lch less on the closer system. But your correspond-
ent has raised a fresh point, one on which I could
not venture any certain opinion at present, and that
well deserves considering, viz., that the widely planted
tree produces a finer sample, which no doubt must
raise the market value, aud would tend to equalize
the yield by weight. All I can say on the subject
of sample is that I believe that in the arecanut it
is markedly influenced by the quality of the soil,
whether rich naturally or manured ; and also by
not merely the variety, but by the standard sample
of the produce of the trees of any given variety
from which the seed nuts are taken, though I do
not know that it would be right to say that an
accidentally small seed from a select tree would
necessarily manifest much deterioration in its off-
spring ! I can give you, I think, iu each case an
instance in pomt. I bought a good number of" Haraban"
pooacs last year from different villages, and from
one of which they invariably averaged at least
double the size of those from elsewhere. On intpuring
the reason I was told it was on accoinit of the
better soil ! Again, on a well-Vnown propi-rty near
Kandy, on which I am not aware that the soil is
exceptionally poor, as I believe it has grown fine
cocoa, as well as fruit trees and other products
luxuriantly, there are a number of arecas of tlie
"Singalee" variety, but their produce is so small that
ou very good authority, I was told they brought fa'

254

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

below the ordinary price. Now, to what other cause
can this be attributed than that the trees sprung
from deteriorated seeds — to degeneration in fact?
It may be true — I should be very sorry to write
dogmatically — that the wide system is generally better
for estate cultivation, but, on the other band, if not
invariably found so, those who adopt it prematurely
may have reason for regret hereafter, and as it does
not cost much extra to put in the adilitional nuts at
stake, my advice, certainly for wet localities, would
be meanwhile to do so, and, if unabl ■ to sum up
the courage yourself to do the thinning, if eventually
thought best, trust a neighbor: it will be at least
two years before the plants are likely t > affect each
other. Your frienrl at the Straits I .s !e seems to
differ from Mr. Borron as regards the :i Wantage of
shade. But I would wish him to te!! his native
friend that the "bamboo trick" will ha ■ lly get over
the difficulty of collecting the nuts here— inless indeed
the plant be adopted of going in for two curing
processes, viz., the ripe nuts whole, a id the green
nuts slUed! Green unmatured nuts woild certainly,
I suould say, not produce a highly-priiiid or sound
sample, and, if all were to be cure 1 whole, to
ensure this, the nuts, as for coffee, mu-^t be picked
on as they ripen ; this would be impo .siblo with a
bamboo, and must be done by hand. But, further
than this, however it may be at the Straits on
whatever system of planting (and granting^ the
varieties are as your correspondent supposes identical),
in Oeylon, as the trees grew oUl tliey would entirely
outreach the longest bamboo, and thi'refore to be
able to pass from tree to tree without descending is,
I must maintain, an advantage. The common or
Singalee variety I think grows tallest as a rule, but
I may instance a " Hamb:ui" tiee, growiiig quite in
the open, and apart from other trees, which at my
request was stripped, the result being at least 1,000
nuts for the one crop (I count ed over 750 and was
assured that fully a third bad already been gathered)
and the bunches of which no bamboo much shorter
than a giant stem from Peradeuiya could have
reached. We live to learn, but on a comparison
it must not be overlooked that for bftter results,
planted so wide as 10' « 10' the yield per tree
requires to bo enormously greater, or the sample
immensely heavier or more valuable. — 0. R. — Local
" Times."

EUCALYPXr.

The very limited number of Eucalypti capable of cult-
ivation in this country, does not convey to the mind any
idea of the vast importance of this genus to the great
Australian continent, nor of the large numb.-r of species
which it comprises, although, according to Baron F. vou
Mueller, it is second only to Acacia in this^ respect.
T he Eucalyptus trees, he tells ns in his valuable Eucu/ypto-
q i-apliia, " form the principal timber vegetation nearly
all over the wide Australian ooutinent, and for all ages
the inhabitants of this par^ of the globe will have to
rely largely, it not mainly, on eucalyptis for wood
supply." The rapidity of growth of some of the species
and their salubrious effect in miasmatic di.stricts have
led, in great measure through Baron von Mueller's
energetic and perservering efforts, to theii- widespread
cultivation in other countries, wherever the climate has
been found su'table, so that the leaves and oil obtained
from Eucalyptus globulus grown at Nice already form
articles of export from the South of Fran. e.

Comparatively few of the species are su table to the
English climate, only B. coccifera, E. Gunnii, E. pauci-
tlora, E. nrnigera, and E. vernicosa being able to brave
frosts and snowstorms. Neither of these are remark-
able for beauty. E. globulus will not bear severe
winters, but forms a very effective .«hrub for planting
out in sutnmer, and will withstand milil winters. E.
GuLinii contains so little volatile oil in the leaves that
it is readily browsed upon by .sheep and rattle, wher-
ever the dwarf procumbent form of the tree is met
with near the coast. The young foliage of E. pauciQora
must also be possessed of some value as fodder, for

opossums are so fond of it that the tree often dies out
where these animals are not kept down by the hand
of man. The sugary Eucalypt (E. corynocalyx) appears
to be the only other species attractive to cattle, which
readily feed on its sweetish leaves. This species, how-
ever, is better fitted for arid deserts, being capable of
bearing the protracted droughts and extreme heat of
such regions. Other species also suitable for such dis-
tricts on account of their rapid growth are E. bicolor,
E. ochrophloia, E. polyanthema, E. salmonophloia, E.
terminalis, and E. salubris. The last named is also re-
markable for the large quantity of volatile oil contained
in the leaves.

One of the most important economic products of the
Bucalypts is the volatile oil obtained from the leaves.
This varies very considerably in amount in the different
species. Although E. globulus is often mentioned as
the source of the Eucalyptus oil of commerce, this is
by no means always the case, and for the simple reason
that it does not yield so much oil as other species,
A table given under E. amygdalina shows that, whereas
1,000 lb. of fresh leaves of E. globulus yield ouly 120
ounces of oil, the same quantity of E. oleosa gives 200
ounces, and of E. amygdalina 500 ounces. The two
last-named species have been until lately the principal
source of Eucalyi)tus oil, which is now prepared also
from E. dumosa. Further details concerning the per-
centage of oil in other species may be found under B.
olecsa. Eucalyptus oil is started to be produced in
Mr. J. Bosi.sto's factory to the extent of 12,000 lb.
annually, and is extensively u.sed as a solvent of various
resins especially of the Kauria resin, asphalt, and some
varieties of copal. It also dissolves indiarubber, and is
used in antiseptic surgery. The odoiu* of the oil of
a few species is remarkably pleasant — E. citriodora,
which is regarded by Baron Mueller as a variety of E.
maculata, possessing that of the Citron in a remark-
able degree, aud E. Staigeriana that of Verbena, so much
so, that the oil might easily be mistaken for that of
the oil of Verbena of commerce.

The sap of several species contains a considerable
amount of astringent matter, consisting of kiuo-tanuic
acid, mixed with a variable amount of a resinoid sub-
stance, the first constituent preponderating in some
species, aud the second in others. This gum, as it is
called, either exudes from the bark or collects in fissures
in the trunk. It is most abundant, according to a table
given under E. leucoxylon in that species, and E.
macrorhyiicha,the former being said to yield 21 '94
per cent, and the latter 13'41 per cent of kiuo-tannic
acid. Several varieties of this astringent exudation
have from time to time been sent over to this country
under the name of kino, but have not met with a
ready sale, owing to insuflicient care having been taken
to collect the kind most soluble in cold water ; that
of E. obliqua is, however, stated to dissolve completely
in boiling water and to remain clear when cold ;
that of E. Planchoniaua is lecommended for its great
astringency. For tanning purposes it is quite possible
that a small percentage of resinous matter might
prove advantageous rather than otherwise in enabling
the leather to better resist external disintegrating
influences.

The species of Eucalyptus which are most valuable
as sources of timber appear to be those in which
resinoid matters are present in larger proportion than
the kino-tainiic acid. Of these, E. marguiata, yielding
the celebrated Jarrrah wood is one of the most
important to the colony ; white ants will not touch it,
it is unsurpassed as regards durability: and is worked
with greater care than most other Eucalyptus woods.
E. rostrata also affords a much prized timber which
is capable of bearing an enormous downward pressure,
and is ouly slightly subject to longitudinal shrinking,
and is very durable in wet ground and in fresh
or salt water, but is harder and more difficult to
work than the Jarrah wood. E. leucoxylon also
yields timber of extraordinary hardness and strength.
These three woods are placed in the first class
for ship-building by the Au.stralian Lloyds, and E.
globulus, which is valuable chiefly for its extreme
rapidity of growth, is placed in the second class;

October x, 1SS5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUKIS.T.

255

E. corymbosa, E. diversicolor, and E. obliqua come
next in value; E. rediinca, E. resiaifera, and E.
cornuta arc also mentioned as yielding excellent timber.
A remarkable use is made by the natives of the
roots of E. micrantbera. These are lifted up from
the depth of about a foot, and at a distance of
about 15 feet from the tree; they are theu cut
up into pieces, about as thick as a man's wrist and
about 18 inches long, and are allowed to drain into
a vessel, or blown into by the mouth at one end. In
this way a quart of water may be obtained from
good samples in about half-an-hour. Eoots nearer the
stem are less porous, and do not yield water so
easily. The water is stated to be beautifully clear,
cool, and without any unpleasant taste. The roots
of E. oleosa and E. populifolia are used for the
tame purpose, but yield water less readily. — Gardeners'
Chronicle.

DO PLANTS ABSORB ATMOSPHERIC
NITROGEN ?

Probably no doctrine in the whole realm of agri-
cultural chemistry makes a greater impression on the
mind of the student who hears it for the fii'st
time than that which teaches that, although four-
fifths of our atmosphere consists of free nitrogen
gas, plants are nevertheless unable to assimilate this
valuable ingredient directly from so inexhaustible a
reservoir. To every farmer the doctrine is brought
home forcibly and practically enough in the sums of
money he pays away iu the purchase of nitrate of
soda and other nitrogenous fertilizers. The experi-
ments, well termed classical, of Boussingault on
the one hand, and of Lawes, Gilbert, and I'ugb on
the other, were regarded for a long time as setting
at rest any doubt which might be entertained on the
subject. And yet in later years the Kothamsted
investigators themselves have felt some difficulty,
and have suggested perhaps somewhat extreme hypo-
theses, to account for the behaviour of leguminous
crops, which, after providing themselves with the
large amount of nitrogen they are known to require,
yet leave more nitrogen in the soil than the latter
contained at the beginning of growth. Facts such
as these are sufficient to justify the increasing feel-
ing of scepticism as to whether the nitrogen ques-
tion— for such we may briefly term the discussion
as to the sources of the nitrogen of vegetation — has
been fully sifted, or whether more remains to bo
discovered. In any case, it is a difficult point, which
can only be settled by the most laborious and
exact experiment, and the few remark.s we have
matle are simply prefatory to passing briefly under
notice some recent investigations by Mr. W. O. At-
water, of Middletomi, Conn., " On the acquisitiou
of atmospheric nitrogen by plants," the full report
of which appears in the American Chemical Journttl.

Tlie investigator rightly observes that it is very
difficult to explain how certain plants, particularly
legumes, obtain their nitrogen, if not from the air,
8ud he sets himself to attack the problem as to
whether plants, grown under normal conditions, ac-
quire any considerable amount of nitrogen from the
surrounding atmosphere. Two sorts of experiments
Were made, the plants employed being "Early
Philadelphia" dwarf peas. It is not neces-sary to
give the details of manipulation, but every care
appears to have been taken by the experimenter.
The first series of experiments showed in every case
an excess of nitrogen at the end of the experiment
over that contained in the mamirial solution and in
the seed, while the more detailed experiments of the
second series gave larger gains of atmospheric nitro-
gen. Rain and dew, which carry down nitrogen
in solution, were prevented from gaining access to
the plants.

In those e.iperimenta in which the conditions of
growth were approximately normal, the excess of nitro-
gen in the plant over that supplied by the nutri-
tive solution with which the plants were watered,
•nd by the seed, averaged i)0 lb, per acre. In the

case in which there was no considerable apparent
hindrance to normal growth the appropriated nitro-
gen rose to 122 lb. per acre— twice as much as the
total nitrogen in grain and straw of a wheat crop
of thirty bushebi, and more than the total nitro-eii
of three tons of clover hay. And, observes the author,
this remarkable gain caunot rejiresent more, and'
may be les.s, than the actual quantity of atmospheric
nitrogen which the plants acquired during the brief
period of seventy-two days of growth.

In discu.ssing the results the lirst question asked is,
was the atmospheric nitrogen absorbed directly by the
foliage of the plants, or was it first ab-sorbed by the
nutritive solutions and thus communicated to the plants
through their roots ? Experimental and other evidence
is adduced to show that the plants in which the conditions
of assimilation were most nearly normal, absorbed an
amount of nitrogen which was probably more than 47 per
cent of the total nitrogen of the plant (equivalent to
ILS lb. per acre), which could have come from no other
source than the atmosphere, and through no other
channel than the leaves.

It is next inquired, Was the atmospheric nitrogen
acquired by the plants in the form of combined
nitrogen ? Of course, this nitrogen must have been
either free or combined, but the author quotes Sir
Johu Lawes and Dr. Gilbert to the effect that the
broad-leaved root crops, turnips and the like to
which the formation has with most confidence been
attributed, do not take up any material proportion
of their nitrogen by their leaves from combined nitro-
gen in the atmosphere. But Mr. Atwater, although
he admits that plants do obtain some combined iiitro-
geu iu the atmosphere, maintains that in his own
experiments the supposition that the plants could
have obtained more than a fraction of their atmo-
spheric nitrogen in this form is out of the question.

The only possible remaining question is, Did the
plauts acquire free nitrogen Irom the atmosphere?
To answer this question in the affirmative is to
enter the lists against all the best authorities on the
subject. Mr. Atwater points out that the experi-
ments that are most decisive against the assimilation
of free nitrogen, namely, those of Boussingault and
of Lawes, Gilbert, aud Pugb, weiu conducted under
gla.-:s covers connected with the earth. Berthelot
has shown that tree nitrogen may bo assimilated
by vegetable substances — de.v trine cellulose, &c.. un-
der the influence of electricity of tenisou similar to
that which a brick obtains near the surface of the
earth, iu the strata of air iu which our cultivated
plants grow. It may be inferred that the compounds
in living plants nuiy asimilate nitrogen iu the same
way. But this electrical tenisou might probably be
abseut iu the experiments with plants uuder glass.
So Jlr. Atwater thinks that the hypothesis of the
assimilation of free nitrogen ly plants through the
agency of electricity, aud the absence of that agency
in the experiments of Boussingault, aud of Lawes,
Gilbert, aud Pugh, would, with the effect of scanty
food supply, e.xplaiu the discrepancy between their
experiments and his own, in which the conditions
of growth were normal, and which would clear up
the greatest difficulty in this niuch-ve.xed question
of the sources of nitrogen of plants.

AVe can sympathize with the author's desire to
interpret his own results iu such a way as shall be
consistent with tliose obtained by the reuowued in-
vestigators of Kothamsted. Much— we may say every-
thing—depends on the scrupulous care with which
the experiments have lieeu conducted. I'resumiug
they are thoroughly trustworthy— ajul theju does not
appear any i;viilence to the contrary— the nitrogen
question is presented to us in a new and interesting
light, and it is possible that we may now be on the
threshold of a fresh stage of the eontrover.sy, the
ultimate settlement of whiih may not unlikely be
fraught with a great, a significant, and a salutary
modification of some of the cardinal practices of
modern .agriculture. — Mark Lane I'Jxjyrcss.

[The above article has been sent to us by the
writer, Mr. John Hughes, who made reference to

«56

mt TROPICAL AGRlCULTURISf. fdcroBER i.

its subject in a recent communication to tlie Dils-
oya Planters' Association, ou analyses of rain water.
There seems no doubt that leguminous plants
equally with clover leave more nitrogen in the soil
than they found in it, but if leguminous plants
absorb nitrogen from the air, the puzzle is why
pulses should in this respect have advantage over
wheat, oats and other grains. — Ed.]

♦

Palms in the Open Air.— The cultivation of
these noble plants is fast making way in .Southern
France and Algeria. Some that are shown at the
Exhibition of Paris by M. S. Oherier, of the
domain Aube, in the Riviera, were grand robust speci-
mens, abundant in foliage, exceedingly handsome, and
capable of^ withstanding much ill-usage, as house
decorative plants. In our account of M. S. Ohevier's
exhibit in the report of the show last week, the species
cultivated are noted. — Gardeiifrs' Chronicle.

BuHMAH Cheroots. — The following account of cigar
making in Eurmah is given in a recently issued official
report. Little or none of the native grown Tobacco it
seems is used, the only kind made up into cheroots
being imported from Madras and Kiugpore. The che-
roots are made somewhat in manilla shape, but they
are about the same thickness at both ends. The leaves
are first damped and then put away for a day ; they
are then rolled very carefully with small wooden rollers
to smooth out the creases, and are kept for four or
five days wrapped up in a cylindrical form, they are
then ready for manipulation into cigars. Women only
are employed in this manufacture. One woman can
make about 400 to 500 cigars in a day of twelve
hours. No machinery is used, the leaves are simply
cut into their proper shape by scissors, and then rolled
by hand into cheroots. The small ribs are not removed
as is often done in Havannah, and this omission
often gives the Burmah cheroots a rough uneven
appearance. — Ibid.

Oalifobnian Citrus FEniTS. — An Associated Press
telegram, dated New Orleans, April 4, says: — "Today
California has been awarded the sweepstakes Gold
Medal against the world for the best varieties of
Citrus fruits; also, two other Gold Medals, eleven
silver ones, and thirty premiums. The most formidable
competitor was Florida, which had the advantage of
nearness to the place of exhibition, and made great
efforts to carry off the prize. Her advantage was
overcome by the liberality and public spirit of the
Southern Pacific Kailroad Company, which not only carried
exhibits free of charge, but made siaecial efforts to
excite the interest of Californian fruit-growers in the
contest. Over lUO car-loads of goods were carried
gratuitously to the Fair from California. Great strides
have been made in fruit-growing within a comparatively
recent period. There are now no less than ninety-eight
varieties of bearing Orange seedlings in Los Angeles
and San Bernardino counties that were unknown to
our soil fifteen j'ears ago. California Oranges, Lemons,
and Limes are now formally and officially declared
to be the best in the world." — Ihid.

jAMAirA Ferns. — Jamaica, as is well known, Is partic-
ularly rich in Ferns. Although the island is comparat-
ively so small, it contains about 500 species of Ferns,
which is one-sixth of the Ferns of the whole world.
To express its richness in another form, it is mentioned
in the last report of the Botanic Gardens of Jamaica,
that within an area about the size at Wales. Jamaica,
contains twelve times the number of Ferns found in
the British Islands, and more than ten times the
number of Ferns found in the whole of the United
States. The Jamaica Ferns are remarkable, not only
for their number, but also for their great variety and
beauty. They are found in all sizes, from those scarcely
a quarter of an inch loug to large tall-towering trees
40 to 50 feet high, aud with stems 6 feet in circumference.
Again they are widely distributed aud found in all
districts, from the arid plains of St. Catherine and
Clarendon to the highest peaks of the Blue Mountains ;
from the calcareous rocks of the northern coasts,
bedewed with ocean spray, to the cloud-capped ridges
pf the highest moaotaias, — Ibid,

The Manufacture ok Outch in Burmah. — The manu-
facture of the well-known astringent substance, Outch,
from the wood of Acacia Catechu, so much used for
tauning purposes, is carried on in Burmah chiefly in
the Thayetmyo, Prome, aud Tharrawaddy districts.
Three men generally work together, one to cut down
the trees and to drive the buffalos that drag them
to the site of the furnace, another to clear off the
sapwood and to cut the heartwood into chips, and a
third to attend to the fires aud boil the chip's down.
The chips are put into cauldrons filled with water
each cauldron holding 4 gallons, and the whole is
boiled for twelve hours. The chips are then taken
out, and the liquid placed in large iron pans, and boiled
and stirred till it attains the consistency of syrup,
when the pans are removed from the fire, but the'
stirring is continued tiU the mass is cool. It is then
spread on leaves in a wooden frame and left for the
night ; in the morning the substance is dry, and ready
for cutting into cakes for the market. The daily outturn
varies from 25 lb. to 36 lb. It is calculated that three
men working steadily for eight months can make
about 3,050 lb. of Cutch.— /?.;d.

Uses of Vegetation.— The proper function, or one
of the right uses of aU vegetation, is to produce food
and clothing for us from the refuse matter of our
large towns. Every little green leaf, apart from its
individual beauty, has a share in the great work of
purification which all leaves carry on. In malarious
countries the Blue or Fever Gum trees is now largely
planted, because it grows rapidlj', and its roots and
leaves suck up moisture so rapidly that a few of these
trees actually drain any swamp or marsh near or in
which they are planted. It is so with our own Poplar
trees, which in wet low-lying places act most efficiently
as the best of natural drains for a .stagnant bit of marsh
land. Now, if you drain a swamp in the ordinary way
yovi simply carry pollution from one place and deposit
it in another place; but tree roots suck up offensive
matter, aud tree leaves actually purify it. The leaves
throw off pure water by evaporation, and with it
life-giving oxygen, instead of the poisonous gases of the
atmosphere. What is true of large trees is iu degree
equally true of the smallest window plaut. The highest
mission of plants is not merely to please our eyes with
colour, our mouths with delicious fruits; not only do
they do this and more, but they are ever silently but
surely eating up what is impure and injurious to
ourselves in the atmosphere ana in the earth all around
our home.s ; and any dwelling iu which plants are well
healthily grown will be more likely to be cl.an and
healthy house than if the plants were not there.— Ibid.

Kainfall and Sugar.— The report of the Botanic
Gardens of Jamaica observes that the que.stiou of
rainfall is one of great importance to the well-being
of that island; indeed, the prosperity of its planting
industries is dependent so directly aud entirely upon
the maintenance of a high raiufall that Mr. Maxwell
Hall has been able to form a comparison (stated in the
" Jamaica Rainfall " published iu the Supplement to
the Jamaica Gazette, October 4, 1884), between so
many inches of rain per annum and so many casks
of sugar per acre. These are indiccated by the returaa
of several years, as follows;— 1'559 cask per acre with
79 inches (preceding) rainfall aud 1-411 cask per acre
with 50 inches .preceding) raiufall, "no that,"a» he
says, •' the difference due to a larger or smaller island
rainfall is on an average nearly one-tenth of the island
export (sugar) crop." This one-teuth of e.Kport crop (for
sug.aranil rum) represents in value neatly £100,000. If,
however, we take into consideration coffee, pimento,
and other island produce, the difference in export
value dependent ou good or bad seasons as regards
rainfall, would amount to a very considerable sum.
These considerations indicate tn a large extent that
the present generation is resi)onsihle for the maintenance
of forests ou all well-marked lines of wat<Tsheds, for
the protection of the feeders of the streams, and, in
fact, for the care of all tliat cnncerns i\w preservation
of raiu-water and the due humidity of the climate —
Ibid,

October i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

257

PLUiMBAGO :— CFYLON'S ONLY MINERAL OF

TMPORTANCK.

(Summon/ of a Fajh-r read before the Ceyhn Branch

of the ' lioifal Asiatic Society, ott Aug. 38, by

Mr. A. M. Ferguson, C. M. G.)

PLUMBAGO: With Special Reference to the Pogition
Occupied by the Mineral in the Commerce of Ceylon; and
the Question Discussed of the AU eyed Existence in the Island
of the Allied Substance, Anthracite.

Mr. Forgiison commenced by ptMing that tlie mineral of
whifli his paper treated was a form of carbon, the sub-
stHUce which constitutes so large a portion of organized
nature, more especially of the vp^etable world. Graphite
was in truth vegetable matter mineraiiz-^d by those various
forces of moisture, heat, friction, pressure, ami electrieitv
or magnetism, which have so marvellously metamorpJiosed
the primitive rocks in which the mineral is generally, if
not eschisively, found. In Geikie's Handbook of Ofology^
graphite is mentioned first in the list of rock-furmiog
raineraU, sulphur and iron following^. before silica in its pro-
tean forms is specitietl. In a more (ir less detinifejy crys-
tallized, foliated, columnar, needle-liUt-, or massive shape,
the mineral embodies the altered rfmains of some of
the earliest plant forms which appeared on the earth, when
the fiat was uttered in the far back agrs of creation, ''Let
the earth put forth ^rass. herb yiehlincj seed, and fruit tree
bearing fruit." Those of the au<lience who entertained
a vivid recollection of the fascinating paper by Dr. Trinien
on tlte Flora of Ceylon, recently read in that ball, could
imagine the delight it would afford that eminent natural-
ist and thousands of other scientists, could the brilliant
steel-grey to jet-black "re they were considering reveal
ihe secretg of its vegetable origin and show the fibres, llie
leaves, the flowers, and fruits cf the earliest herbage of the
morning of the times, from which it has been transformed,
in like manner as ordinary coal also generally speaks of the
early days of the geologic aeres. But erapbite (so called
frnm its earliest use in the formation of p^^ncils for writing
and sketching.) whicli there can be little doubt is closely
allied to coal, although generally older in origin, and the
subject of more intense and long-continued metamorphio
intiuence tl>an the carbonaceous substance so valuable
as fuel, is too highly mineralized (with the exception, per-
haps, of the formations in Canada) to display a trano of the
vegetable tissues from which it claims its descent.

To the seeker f"r fossil remains of ancient organic life,
therefore, graphite, like our other primitive rocUs, gneiss
ami crystalline limestone, is less interesting than are the
coal measures, with their wonderfully preserved specimens
of plants and animals and shells, on which human eye
pro^'ftbly never looked until the operations of the toiling
miner reveale 1 their, in some cases, almost perfect linea-
ments. Graphite seems, in truth, to be the most highly
crystallized form of carbon next to the peerless diamond,
which poetically, if not with perfect scnentific accuracy, has
been described as a drop of pure li'juid carbon crystallized.
Graphite (to whieh, when burnt, the diamond reverts) has
n beauty of its own, an^ as small diamo 'ds have actually
been formed by artificial means, t'>e time mny possibly
arrive when the form of caruon wbiih niinuralogists r:ink
only next below the diamond may, by means of tlie ap-
pliinces of progressive science, be advanced from the
second to the first place. Let us only attempt to imagine
a mass of pure graphite equal to a quarter of a ton,
finch as that sent to Melbourne in 1880, and the still
larger mass vhich will probably figure in the Court of the
Colonial and Indi:in Exhibition of 18S6, metamorphosed into
diamond " of purest ray serene." and try to conceive the
thing of beauty it would be, even if shrinkage in the trans-
formation process reduce<l its eize to one-tenth or even one-
hundredth of the original bidk. Meantime itsecms cutious
that Ceyhm, so rich in "precious stones" which with all
their brilliancy are simp'y crystallized and coloured clays,
should be utterly destitute of specimens of the king of nil
gems, seeing that diamonds are found close by us in Southern
India and in formations similar to tbdse existing here:
hit' rite, occasionally, and especially in association with corun-
Huni, which in Ceylon is so common and of which our most
precious sapphires and rubies are but hijjher forms.

The paper then stateil that of more value to Ceylon c cnn-
ondcally, beyond all comparison, would be the real discovery

33

amidst its rocks of that form of carbon which ranks next to
the diamond antl graphite, and wliich seems to be giiiphite
and perhaps diamond in a less altered form. It needs scarcely
be said that coal is referred to.

The autlnu-ity of the late Dr. Gardner, formerly of the
Koyal Botanic Gardens. PeraileTdya, the late Rev. Dr.
MacVicar and Dr. "Wifiam Kiug of the Imiian Geo-
logical Survey, was quoted, to show the imprebability of the
existence of coal where, as with us, prindtive rock formed
the surface strata, and the reader proceeded to discuss fully
and to show the utter baselessness of statements made by
Dr. Gygav, a Swiss minerolo^ist. and endorsed by
Teiment. to the etfect that iiiadilition to nnllions of tons of
iron, which could be laid down in Colombo at £6 a too,
anthracite, in association with plumbago and basaltic rock,
was equally abundant and could he laid down in Colombo at
18si)erton,after cost of digging ami conveyaneo from Sabara-
gamnwa. If Gygax and Tennent considi-red the alleged dis-
covery of anthracite iiujiortant with reference to steam
navigation in 1843, how much more important would such
a disc'ivery be now, when the powerful but odourless and
smokeless heat which the form of coal called anthracite
yielils would be ju>t what is wanted by oiu* expanding tea
iudusfry, while, as regards the requirements of steamers,
it need only be mentioned that between 1880, when Colombo
Harbour first nlFonicd moorings fur steamers, ami 18S*4,the
imports of coal into Ceylon bad gone up from Hit. 000 to
nearly 2iH),000 tons, the average value being over l\'20 per
ton. But while bituminous coal was found in India anthracite
did not exist there, the nearest approach to it being crushed
coal near Darjiliny', which had been converted into semi-
graphite. But, while dogmatism was deprecated, entire
scepticism was expressed as to the existence in
Ceylon of anything more closely resembling coal
than the peaty matter found, amongst other
places at Nuwara Eliya, and which, compressed and
dried, might be useful as a fuel, "What seemed beyond
question certain was that nei'herDr. Gygax nor any other
human being liad ever seen anthracite in our gneiss rocks,
and as to the alleged discovery of Ihe mineral in enormous
quantities, Mr. Ferguson said : In the histt^ry of scientific
exploration and report, an^l of colonial history and progress
there seems to bo no greater fiasco.

A curirus circumstance in coimection with the alleged
existence of anthracite in Ceylon was mentioned. The
late Mr. John Armitage. a well-known and enterprising
merchant, saw in the British I\luseum a specimen of
fine iridescent anthracite labelled as from Saffra-
gam, Ceylon. It was said to be from the collection
of a Colonel Greville, a name not prominent in the
annals of Ceylon, aud Mr. Ferguson added ; — To show
how confusion may arise, I need merely mention
that through the dropping of a comma, plundiago is
represented in successive works, iuciiiding the Eiicyalopa'dia
Jhiianniea, as found in " Travancore Ceylon." as if the
localities were one. There h the case of cof/(mh/f root, too,
which received that name because ships touching last at
Colombo brought the bitter root to Europe from India.
But the croA-ning absurdity was that theEmigralion Com-
missioners, who had in 1840 the ordering of such matters,
instead of saying to Messrs. Armitage and Tii'dall, ''We will
refer to the Governor of the colony for iuformation," or.
*' You go and prospect and let us kiiow what you find
and under what circumstances, make your offers, and we
will consider them," jumped instantly to the conclusion
that anthracite of such quality, in such plenty, and in
such circumstances of cheap acquirement, existed in Ceylon,
that 4f) per cent would be a fair royalty to charge! There
the matter ended, until Gygax's alleged discovery was an-
nounced, two years subsetjuently. It seems just possible
that in both cases the supposed anthracite was the rocky
hard form of plumbago, which tln^ natives call i/ahora or
iron dross. It was suggested that finally 1" set at rest
the question of what minerals or metals nu'ght md might
not be expected to occ.r in our Ceylon formations, the
Asiatic Society should press on (iovernment the propriety
of asking for the loan of the services of a crtinpetcnt
geologist liko Dr. William King of the Indian Geolog-
ical Survey, who, with his experience acquired in India,
could pronounce on all important points in a period of
time probably not extending beyond a year.

Passing overmuch detail of a more or less interesfing
character, wc quote as follows; —

258

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[October i, 1885.

But if the diamond, amber, coal, an.1 petroleum
are absent from "ur rock formations, liappily there
can be no question as to either the quality or
the quantity of our minfral carbon in tlie shape of
Plumbago, of which indeed, in the form most valuable
for the manufacture of metal-melting crucibles, Ceylon
seems to have as much a natural monopoly as she has of
first-class cinnamon in the vegetable world. There are,
no doubt, vast deposits of graphite in North America, es-
pecially in Canada, but the mineral seems to be gener-
ally diffused in rock from which it is difficult and ex-
pensive (labour being scarce and dear) to separate the
small p!»rticles. Graphite, although rare in a form eco-
nomically valuable, seems very widely d'stributed over
the face of the earth. In India plumbago has been
found in a large number of places, and has been
the subiect of many experiments and much dis-
cussion, but the results have been hitherto disappoint-
ing. It generally appears sparingly in very quartzy
rock, and in heavy ferruginous gneiss. The mineral is
deficient in lustre, contains much iron, and one specimen
gave 35 per cent of lime. Lime i.s, perhaps, even more
fatal to the value of plumbago than iron, and although
graphite may occur in the magnesian limestones of Cey-
lon (I never heard of but one instance), it is quite mani-
fest that digging in the dolomite need never be resortsd
to, the mineral being so plentiful in our quartzy gneiss,
where the only enemy encouutered,and that, happily, not very
frequently, is iron. Like some other adversaries, this one
sometimes appears in guises the most radiantly beauti-
ful, in the (uesent case as pyrites varying from splendidly
crystallized masses, with facets polished like finest silver,
and again simulating auriferous treasures by putting on
the most glorious colourings of gold, shading away to a
lovely and delicate green, indicative, tliis tint, it is supposed,
of the presence of sulphate of copper.

This auriferous coloured pyrites is appropriately named
in Sinhalese diija rat-ran, or "water genigold," the re-
coguition of water as the agent to which the formation
and its brilliant colours are largely due being, curiously
enough, in perfect accord with the conclusions of the most
advanced geological scientists.

To Mr. 'Williams, Acting Government Agent of the North-
Western Province, I am indebted for a collection of in-
teresting specimens from Polgola on the road to Dam-
bulla, showing how plumbago is associated with and forms
round a nucleus of crystalline or semi-opaque and some-
times garnetiferous quartz (ihe position of the minerals
being, I am told, occasionally reversed), and quite a num-
ber of pieces of rock which the non-scientific might well
be excused for regarding as coated and permeated with
brilliant golden ore. These may be regarded as thetiowers
of the subterrannean regions where plumbago is mined.
I am bound to state, however, that the brilliancy of iron
pyrites has no effect in modifying the inimical feelings
■with which those connected with the plumbago enterprise
regard the mineral, while they talk with di.'sapproval and
disgust of the i/aliora=(a)!/a iron, iora dross: iron dros.s,
the h.ard iron-like form of plumbago ; and anyone desirous
of procuring specimens will be made heartily welcome to
what in the eyes of the plumbago dealer is associated
with a rocky inferior and unsaleable product. But truly the
pure st,tt mineral itself, in its various forms of crystalliz-
ation, the most prevalent being a radiating star-like arrange-
ment, and its variation of sparkling colours from steel
grey to pktes of jet black, may be regarded as a veritable
" thing of beauty." A collection of first-class lumps, each
highly polished and lustrous, intended for sliipmeiit to
Germany, which could be seen at Mr. W. A. Feruando's
store recently, was ceriainly a striking sight. In connec-
tion with this collection ot silvery masses, Mr. Fernando
showed us specimens of a dark-coloured variety, of needle-
like formation, which he .said he had been requested by
his customers to make up .separately, as the ordinary
mills could not easily grind that pariicular quality. Graph-
ite generally, hke iodine, shows a bright metallic sheen,
but it is at once distinguished from the true meta's by
its soft and unctuous mechanical condition. I am speak-
ing of first-class mineral, for, showing us a specimen of
plnndjago formed, apparently, over an irenslone imcleus,
Mr. Fernautlo declared such ore to be unsaleable. In truth,
i»he reasons why our Ceylon graphite is so much sought

after, are the entire absence of lime from the mineral,
and in most cases its equal freedom f i om ferruginous
particles, the small proportion of foreign substances, if
any, being volatile matter and minute frag-
ments of silica and alumina. Besides grinding to extreme
fineness, an acid bath is used thoroughly to purify graph-
ite used for certain delicate purposes, such as electrotyp-
ing, when the finest and purest dust is required to coat
surfaces of wood, jilaster of Paris, and guttapercha, kc,
to render them conductive. An authority, of all in the
world, perhaps, best qualified to .speak, describes Ceylon
plumbago as combining the two qualities of being almost
as refractory as asbestos and at the same time the most
perfect conductor ot heat.

The various portions of the world in which graphite is found
were then enumerated, from North America to Japan, and the
fir.st mentions of Ceylon plumbago were traced, evidence not
being forthcoming to prove Bennett's assertion that Ptol-
emy, who wrote in the second century of our era, had re-
ferred to the mineral. The historical records of Ceylon
are as silent regarding plumbago as they are with r. f er-
ence to cinnamon, but a medical treatise of the four-
teenth century, (about the date of a MS. extant in
Enr«pe said to be ruled with black lead) tptaksof lalu-
miiiiran (black mica), as a medicine when boiled and sub-
jected to the detergent influence of Euphorbia juice. The
Oumberlar.d black lead was also sought after as a medicine
about a century and a half ago.

To quote again :— The officer of the late Ceylon Eifle
Regiment who wrote a book on Ceylon stated that Thun-
berg, the Scandinavian naturalist, who wrote in 1777, was
the first to notice plumbago as a product of Ceylon. This
was an error. Robert Knox, who wrote in 16S1, mentioned
the existence of the mineral ; and Valeutyn gives a letter
of a somewhat earlier period by the Dutch Governor
Ryklof van Goens, dated ■24th September 1675, addressed
to his successor the Ooverror-General Jan Maatsuyker, in
which he mentions veins of plumbago (pot/oo() in the hills
and mines in the lowc^untry. He described it as a pro-
duct ot quicksilver, an error which, repeated, may explain
the alleged discovery of a mine of quicksilver near Kotte
soon after the British took possession of Colombo, So im-
portant was the latter discovery deemed at the time that
a military guard was placed over the mine ; but sub-
sequently" the existence of quicksilver in Ceylon became as
mythical as that of anthracite seems now to be, or the
alleged di.scovery of coal by the Dutch who are said to
have disregarded it in view of the abundance of wood
fuel. * * * A Mr. Ive, who wrote apparently in 1755,
professed to have di.scovered '-black lead" and copper ores
in Ceylon. Mr, W. P. Banesinghe has unearthed for me
the tradition that the last King of Kandy, infamous for
his cruelties as he is famous for his esthetic taste, added
to his many-sided character a development of the com-
mercial instinct, supplying, it is s.aid, plumbago to merch-
ant ships, more than seventy years before such enter-
prizing traders as the Fernandos and De Mels appeared
on the scene. The tradition seems also to indicate that
some of the plumbago in which the monarch traded was
dog from a mine on the lands of Molligoda Disawa.

Then followed references to notices of plumbago by
Cordiner and Davy. Bertolacci, although he dealt
with every export of any importance in detail up to the
end of 1813, makes not the slightest mention of plumbago.
The export of the article must have Cdmmeuced between
1820 and 1830, however, for Mr. Joseph Dixon, the fou'ider
of the great Auurica:. Orucible Couipany, obtaiucd a
shipment of Ceylon plumbago in ISrJ'J, In that very year
Col. Colebrooke, one of the Commis.sioners on Ceylon
affairs, stateil in his report that provision had been
made for the delivery of cinnamon and black lead in the
Kandyan Provinces ( then irclnding Ihe Seven Korairs) at
fixed rates, KL-fcrence to the Government (lalendars shows
thai there is i o mention of plumbago untd 1S31, when it
was ii.c'udcd in the list .f articles liable to export duty,
the rate beilis Wd. per cwt. The amc.unt of revenut' at
this rate in 1S3-' was £22 18.< (W. The niim-ral di<i not,
ho.vcvcr. assume real importance in Ihe conmi' rce ot Ceylon
until 1834, and for the half-century which has elapsed
between that year and the md of 1S84 I posse ss, thanks
to the courtesy of the Assistant Auditor-General, Mr. C.
Dickman, full details of the rise, progress and fluotu-

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

259

atioDS of the trade until from small begiunings it has in
the past five years att-jiiiKnl truly important tiimensions,
whether regard be had lo the i^uantity and value of the
mineral exported, or the r*^.veuue derived by Uovernmeiit
from a royalty filially fixed in 1S77 at the very moderate
rate of K5 per ton.

For the first three years of the period beginning with
1I53-4 uo export duty was levied on this article. From 1»37
to 1»4G, and again from ISoS to ISlii), a duly of 2J per
cent was levied, which yielded in the earlier period sums
so low as R12-25 in 1839, rising to R759 in 1840. In the
second series of years, when export duties were levied
expressly for railway purposes, the duty rose from K1,U10
in 1S58 to the appreciable sum of K22,240 in 1869. The
latter sum was levied on 22tj,lb2 cwt. valued at K8b9,620.
The rated duty seems, therefore, to have been as nearly as
possible one-tenth of a rupee per cwt. The only customs
impost to which plumbago is now liable is, apart from
the royalty, 7 cents per barrel, recently exacted for
harbour purposes. As each barrel contains 5^ cwt. net
of mineral, the burden is only a fraction over one cent
per cwt., in addition to the royalty which since 1877 has
been levied at the rate of R5 per ton, or 25 cents per
cwt., equivalent to 2i per cent on the {Justoms valuation
of RIO per cwt., but "rising to 5 per cent if the real value
is only about RlOO per ton. Previou.sly to K'iSt no royalty
was levied, and the varying rates sirce then have been; —

In 1864 per ton... 16s.

„ 1869 30s.

„ 1873 „ ... RIO

„ 1877 RS

In 1851 per ton... 4s.

„ 1862 5s.

„ 1859 „ ... 7s. 6d

„ 1S62 „ ... 14.V.

There can be no possible question, it would seem, of
the propriety of exacting a royalty, moderate in propor-
tion to its market value, on this mineral, which ie entirely
an article of export, and which is as much the property
of Government, or the people of Ceylon, as are the pearly
treasures of the "oyster" banks off Ai-ippu, — providing, too
as the revenue from plumbago does for the constiucti-in,
amongst other public works, of means of communication
which facilitate and cheapen the operations of the dig-
gers. AVe could only wish that copper, tin, nickel, and
other ores which have been eo positively written about
as occurring in Ceylon, with gold, which beyond question
does exist, were found in quantities sufficient to add ap-
preciably to the revenue in the shape of royalties. The
one necessary qualification is, of course, that the amount
of the tax should be such as not to bear heavily on an
enterprise which is always toilsome and often precarious.
Taking the average value of plumbago at RIO per cwt.,
the Customs figure, the present impost of 25 cents is, as
noticed above, only equivalent to a rate of 2^ per cent,
which certainly cannot be complained of as unduly onerous,
however justifiable complaints and remonstrances were
when 14s, IGs, and even 30.s per ton were exacted, or
RIO between 1874 and 1877. The present rate has the
merit of being light, easily collected, and productive, for
in the five years ended 18S4 an average export of nearly
12,tK)0 tons per annum, of an annual value of R2,4fcO,OUO,
yielded royalty equal to a yearly average in round numbers
of R60,000. When the proceeds of digging licenses and
leases of Crown lands, and stamps on those leases, are
added, the average may be raised to R65,000. The maxima
of quantities exported, total value, and total revenue were
reachetl in 1883, when the figures were : —

Plumbago exported
Value @ RIO jier cwt.

( Royalty ... R65,694 j

(Leases k licenses 4,727 )
Wonderful contrasts these, even if we reduce the Customs
valuation by one-half, to an export of only 423 cwt. in
183U, valued at only R490, or a little over Rl per cwt.,
and yielding to tho revenue of the Colony only 1{I2'25, a
sum scarcely worthy of collection ! The totals for the
whole period of half-a-century of the export trade in
Ceylon plumbago are striking, viz. : —

Quantity exjiorted .. cwt. 3,52C,f)00

Value of this quantity ... R25,742,00O

Contributions to revenue ... R841,000

Crediting plumbago revenue with items brought to
account under stamps and other headings, the amount
might be raised to R900,'jOO, and, had Government always

Total revenue

cwt. 262,774
R2,6S7,737

R70,421

got its own in the shape of royalty, the round million
ot rupees would be considerably excelled.

Taking averages of qualities and periods, it is probable
ihat K200 per ton is too high a valuation for this mineral,
and that twenty millions of rupees would more nearly
than twenty-five millions represent the total value of
the plumbago exported in fifty-one years, for which
figures are given. At any averiige price of less than RlOO
per ton it would probably not pay to dig plumbago, aud
as a matter of fact what was evidently over-productiou
between 1880 aud 1883 led to a reaction in 1884, when
not only did exports tall otf but operations in the pre-
paring yards in Colombo were stayed for a time by
general consent, seme not opening again even when the
probability of a war with Russia gave a fresh fiUii) to
the trade.

It is a melancholy fact that plumbago is one of the
class of articles like ''villainous saltpetre" and some
others, the trade in which prospers when war has broken
out or when wartare is threatened. The reason in the
case of our staple mineral is, that the chief use by far
to which Ceylon plumbago is put is Ihe manufacture of
crucibles, nozzles, &c., employed in the preparation of
Bessemer and other steel, now in such large requisition
for shipbuikling, plates for ironclads, torpedoes, shot,
shell, &c.; this, in addition to the melting ot the precious
metals, for which crucibles of refractory plumbago are
eminently suited from their superior strength and perfect
smoothness. There are many minor uses to which plumbago
is put, as will hereafter be shown, but I believe I am
right in stating that its extended consumption (if that
word can be correctly applied to an article which is '
almost unconsumable) in recent years is due to the
great and rapid advance of the steel industry on both
sides of the Atlantic, not merely to provide materials
for ships, durable aud light, but for the dread weapons
and appliances of modern warfare, such as Krupp aud
Armstrong guns, steel shot, ^c. liut the abuntlance of
the ore in Ceylon, aud the enterprise and activity with
which the mining, preparing and shipping of the mineral
have been pursued, have in this case, as in so many
others, recently led to production considerably in excess
of demand, so that the profits of the pursuit, never
very great and always precarious, lia\e recently been
low or nil.

Wheu at its highest market value I do not suppose
that Ceylon plumbago ever sold for moie than £50 per
ton ; indeed the highest price of which I have evidtnee
is £48 realized by Mr. W. A. Fernando, of Browurigg
Street, Colombo. What is this to the celebrated Borrow-
dale pencil ' black-lead." mines, which, after having been
worked since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, recently gave
out, so that now pei.cils picked up at Keswick as curios-
ities cost sixpence each ! In the report ot the Watara district

for 1870 the Assistant Government Ai;snt stated:

''To meet Ceylon plumbago in Cumberland was cert-
ainly a surprise ; but when recenth at the Eiigli.sh Lakes
I learned that plumbago from this Island was mixed
with the local graphite to make good pencils."

In the palmy days of the piumoago mines of the North
of England the black-lead obtained from thtm was
valued at 30s. per pound, or over £3,0(10 per ton, or
within about two-thirtls of the price of ordinary gold.
We cannot be surprised therefore to Itaru that a couple
of centuries before the woild heard o! the gold escorts of
California and Australia, the black-lead of the English
Lake rei;ion was guariled in its transit, in carts, trom
mine to manufactory by parties of military, the robbei-y
of black-lead mines being, by an Act of George II.,
constituted a felony. The Act, curiously enough, recited
that black-lead was employed for divers useful purposes,
and more especially for the casting of bomb-shells, round
shot, and cannon-balls. The connection, therefore, with
the art of war of the mineral so long as.sociated with
the most intellectual ami humanizing of the arts of peace —
writing and drawing, to wit — does not date from yesterday.
The quality of the Borrowdale ore, dark-cidoured, pure and
soft, rendered it eminently suitable for pencils of the finest
descriptions, aud for about two and a-half centuries the world
was practically supplied with pencils from this one source.
From one pound of the ore, worth 30s., or at the rate of
£168 per cwt., the number of pencils cut averaged from 18

36o

^HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

to 20 dozens. The miueral was stated to be fuuud iu pipes,
slriogs, and irregular masses called " sops," a description
■which, substitutmg modern terms for oldeu, applies equally
to the 1. eyloii graphite iormations. Since the exhaustion of
the Oumberland mines, the best ore for pencils is said iu
some books to be obtained from Siberia, while no doubt the
massive and softstove polish black-lead, occurringiu various
parts of Germany— Bavaria, Bohemia, &c.— is applied
to the manufacture of pencils. It canuot-be questioned,
also that some of the finest quality Ceylon plumbago is
thus usid iu Britain, and also in the United States.

Thenfollo'vcd notices of the various methods of manu-
facturing pencils, from the pi riod when bliicks of black-lead
were sawn into pirces until Coutc of Paris in 1705 discovered
the method i.uw univer.9ally adopted of mi.ving finely ground
graphite and clay together nnd subjecting the mass to
pressure and heat, plumbago crucibles being used to give a
final firing to pencil leads. Iu the one city of Nurnberg
250,00ii,0U0 of pencils, worth £400,000, are turned out an-
nually, so that Mr. Ferguson felt justified in tsiimating the
production of the whole world at 1,000 millions, worth at
least £1,500,000. Clay in varying quantities is used to give
adhesion to crucibles, but those with the largest proportion of
plumbago are of course the best.

To quote again: — The Canadian and United States plum-
bago is of as pure a quality as that of Ceylon, but good as the
American ore is, when freed from the rock in which it is gen-
erally scattered after the fashion of mica, I suspect the high
cost of the labour necessary for first mining .-ind then separ-
ating the mineral by the wet process— for the dry has
proved a failure— will prevent continued and successful com-
petition with Ceylon. ^Ve shall soon see, however, for the
Joseph Dixon Crucible Company had produced in 1S82 a
quarter of a million pounds of native plumbago, against
16,000,000 pounds inipoi ted from Ceylon, and a determin-
ation to "go ahead" was expressed. Some as y.t un-
thought of machinery, cheap chemicals, and appliances must,
however, be brought into play before the pure, massive Cey-
lon product and our far chea]jer labour are distanced in the
race. And if, as Professor Dawson states, .some of the Can-
adian oie is fibrous enough to indicate by its texture its
vegetable origin, thi.re is room to suspect that, however pure
the mineral may be as carbon, its mechanical condition can-
not be so good as that of the more highly crystallized Ceylon
plumbago. One important element in the question is, that,
according to our American friends themselves, enterprize and
competition have had such influence, that Ceylon plumbago
can now be obtained by them at 25 per cent of what it cost
some years ago.

The effect of competing demand for the substance, nowever,
between 1^50 and 1«70, chiefly on the pari of the Battersea
Crucible Company in England and the Joseph Dixon Com-
pany in the United States, was to enhance the value of the
ore to such an extent in Ceylon as to produce temptations
to cheating, which the native headmen, whose business it
was to weigh the output and collect the royalty at the
pit's mouth, were unable to resist. These estimable serv-
ants of Government cheated the diggers out of bribes by
threatening to report them as having surreptitiously re-
moved plumbago on which royally had not been paid, and
they imp;irtially cheated Government by accepting bribes
to largely uuder-report the quantities really dug and re-
moved. The Customs figures enabled the Government au-
thorities to appreciate th') vast extent to which the de-
moralizing system had gone, and so in 1S73 legislation was
initiated, the main object of which was the collection of the
royalty at the custom-house- a mode in itself far prefer-
able to the direct system of collection previously in force,
and securing everv sixpence of royally due, because, pract-
ically, every huiidredweight dug is exported, the quantity
as yet u.sed in local foundries or for any local purpose be.
ing quite insigniflcaut. I believe a few crucibles tor gold
and silversmiths' use are locally made, and the result of
inquiries made by Mr. W. P. Kanesinghe at my request,
is that Ceylon potters occasionally employ the mineral for
giving a glaze to pottery, as is the practice in India.

The mercantile community strove hard in 1873 to make
out a case for the entire abandonment of the royalty, but
the Press supported Sir William Gregory's Government in
resisting the pressure brought to bear in this direction, only
that the Observer strongly urged a rate so low as It.') per
ton, which after four years' experience of ElO per ton, under
which exports declined, waa conceded iu 1877. Under this

rate which is still in force, the exports more than trebled
in the six years between 1878 and 1883.

Then follows a desciiption of the largest plumbago mine
iu Ceylon : —

Mr. De Mel has been amongst the most pr.'spcrous of
all who have engaged iu the plumbago digging enterprize
iu Ceylon, his prosperity btuig mamly due to the rich yield
of his Kurunegala district mine, which is by far the most
important in Ceylon, having been suiik to a depth of -i.JO
feet near the base of a lull, Polgola, which seems to be
Largely composed of fine quality plumbago. From this
mine Mr. De Mel obtained an average of 8U0 tons annually
for eleven years, his profits, he authorizes me to say, be-
ing at the rate of £2,000 per annum. No wonder if, not-
withstanding lessened pioduction and profits in the past two
years, couneettd with this mine there is a steam crane for
raising water and a considciable length of De&iuville rail-
way for the carriage of the ore from pit mouth to cart, or
that the enterprising owner has commenced a base level
tunnel at an estimated total cost of £2,000 to freeandkeip
the mine free of water, whether the result of springs m
the rocks or of monsoon rains. The eifect of the latter
during the recent exceptionally heavy burst of the south-
west monsoon in May was to fill up the pits and put a stop
to digging everywhere. This, irrespective oi a fall of £2
per ton from the price to which the miueral had been sent
up the war scare.

The tunnel in Mr. De Mel's mine, when completed, will
not only carry away water but facilitate the output of
miueral from the lower which are generally the richer strata,
besides ventilating the mine so as to prevent injury from
mephitic gases or inconvenience from the smoke of the ex-
p'osives employed iu blasting. The draft will also alleviate
the heat in the interior of the mine, which the workmen now
complain of as sometimes intolerable. F'or blasts under water
large quantities of dynaiuit.: cartridges are employed, in
addition to gunpowder used in portions of the galleries com-
paratively free f lom moisture. The wages paid to diggers
iu this mine, chiefly lowcountry Sinhalese, vary from Sid.
per diem for coolies to Kl tor those who perform the bor-
ing and blasting operations. In the Pasuun ICoralo there
is a system of payment tor labour by shans in the pro-
fits, alter all preliminary expenses defrayed by the ca, itah.st
have been reimbursed.

The hill in which Mr. De Mel's mine has been opened—
Mr. W. A. Fernando having another at a higher elev-
at.on than De Mel's with a depth of 330 feet— seems to be
permeated in its whole extent by generally horizontal veins
of the richest plumbago, associated with beautifully snow-
white crystalline to semi-opaque quartz, the latter oc-
casionally shtnving specks of garnet and bands of soapstone,
and Mr. De Mel brings to the surface practically pure
plumbago. As regards the generality of pits, he agrees
with the estimate of Mr. \V. W, Mitchell (who has prob-
ably purchased, prepared and shipped to America as well
as Europe more plumbago than any European merchant
who ever resided in Ceylon,; that the > xtraueous matter
iu the shape of earth and rock brought to the pit's mouth
is equal to one-half of the whole, about 10 to 15 per cent
being the proportion carried to Colombo and separated from
the ore in the preparing yards. Mr. Fernandn's estimate,
howtver, of foreign matter brought to Colombo is 5 per
cent for pieces of quartz round which plumbago adheree,
and 24 per cent for minute fragments of silica, iron, A;c.,
mixed with the smaller pieces and dust. Any person who
has wituested and appreciated the difticulty and the ex-
peusiveuess of the processes whereby small fragments of
rock are separated from the lower classes of plumbago m
Ceylon, can well imagine the obstacles to profitable separ-
ation of the mineral Irom rock iu America, where there are
no masses but only scales of the mineral distributed
throughout the rock.

Then followed a notice of a mass of plumbago only 11 lb.
short of (3 cwt. which De Mel exhibited when the Pimce of
Wales visited Colombo, and the statement that large masses
are sometimes although pure carbon yet of such Imrd con-
sistency as to be coniuaicially valueless. Mr. Ferguson
suggested that this form of plumbago and not the softer
kind should bo used for sculpturing elepluinis and other
objects. Then followed a description of the various sys-
tems in force in the three Provinces to which plumbago
mining is practically conline.l. In the North-Western 1 lo-
viuce all the mines are tiu private properly. In the Soulheru

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST*

261

Province only licenses to din aio i:luii»ed, at the rate of ElO
per Huuum, but no rent. In the "Western Province, besides
the charge for licenses, a rent-niyalty of one-tentli of the
plumbago dug or its eiiuiv.ileiit value is levied, which adds
considerably to the reviiiue. Sir AVm. Gregory iu 1873 an-
nounce.; ihat the policy of the Uovcrnment would bo tu lease
and not to sell plumbago lands, so as to prevent a monopoly iu
the hands of the rich. Mr. .SiiuivUrs is, however, iu favour
of selling such lands ouiright, lut only iu small lots. He
quotes m favour of hisvrew tlie results of a sale in ISSO, when
a lot of 1 acre, 1 rooil and 13 perches realized K8,150. As a
general rule the rent-royalty exacted in the "Western Province
is somewhat below the sum of Ho per ton chaiged on ex-
port, .so that the total impost on such plumbago is RIO per
ton. Uwneis of private ii.iiits an-i diggers on Government
lauds in the Southern Province pay only K5. Mr.
Ferguson said of the leasing system : —

The merit of the system, provided the rent-royalty is
moderate, is that the lessee of the land pays only and just
iu proportion to the productiveness of the land he has leas-
ed, payment being accepted ill money or in kind. At the
end of eacli year the lease can be either renewed or aban-
dunud, aud plumbago Isinds which have been for a certain
time abandoned, and which evidently do not contain appreci-
able quantities of the metal, are solil on the terms applied to
ordibary Crown lands.

At preseiit as sources of plumbago the Nortli-"\Vestern
Province seems entitUnl to first r.ink, the "Western follow-
ing as a good second, while the Southern is a distant third,
the Galle Customs retunis showing an export of one-tenth
of the whole plumbago sent away against iiine-tenths from
Colombo. Three fourths of ail the plumbiigo exported
from Ceylon are dug in the Kurunegala aud Kaiutara
districts. It was then noticed that exaggerated figures have
appeared iu the bluebooks as to the number of plumbago
mines in the island, from the inclusion of abandoned
pits and mere holes. While the pits opened from first to
last must amount to thousands, those being worked at any
one time may be taken at a few hundreds, fiom 3U0 to6fl0.
"Water iu the soil and from rainfall is the great difficulty.
To quote : —

As a general rule, graphite seems to exist not far from
the surface, on which its presence may be revealed through
fissures, while, in regard to this mineral as well as gold and
other ores, indications iu streams guide explorers up to the
including rocks, generally quartzy gneiss, in which the
mineral IS embedded or diffused. Mr, l)e Mel tells ine that
very good plumbago is often found near the surface, but
that, as a general rule, the lower the digging operations go
the better the quality and the larger the quantity of the
mineral. Ui course, the purer the finds are, and the larger
the Dia.sscs the better, but a v;.-it to any of the preparing
yards in Colombo will show that besides the cost of pro-
specting aud mining aud the uncertainty of idtimate suc-
cess, a good deal of expense is iuvtlved iu conveying a con-
siderable proportion (already noticed) of extraneous matter
to Colombo, there to be lianuncred, cut with small axes,
picked, sifted, and washed out.

Still, with all its drawbacks, the plumbago enterprise is
valuable tn the country, not only for the revenue it yields
but tortile generally remunerative employment it has given
to many thousandsof the population (from I .i,0(RI to 20,000
meu, women, aud children, probably, including cartmen and
carpenters), especially since the period when the collapse
of the once great coffee interest led to so much distress
in the country. The Kurunegala Administration Keport
of 18/3 stated that iu that district alone the plumbago in-
dustry had civen emp'oyment to some 5,000 pei'sous. The
(ialle report for 1872 estimated that each mine required
from two to eight or ten miners, and even up to fifty or
sixty, at high wages. At a period when the plumbago in-
dustry was at the height of its prosperity, Mr. De Alel and
other mine owners had almost concluded an arrangement
with Messrs. John Walker & Co. for a light railway line
from the mine region to the Govornment railway. De-
pression in prices caused this <lesign lo fall through, but i
the day caunot be far distant when Kurunegala at least will
beounocted with the Government railway system at Pol-
gahawela, forty-five miles from (Jolombo. The Western
Province plumbago found in the I'asduu Kora!c (a korale
which is famous for the quality as well as the quantity of
ore it produces) does not come on the railway at Kaiutara

Once it is loaded iu boats it comes by water all the way to
Colombo.

A return furnished byMr.Pearce shows that nearly one-
half of all the plumbago exported from Geyion comes on
the railway at various points, maiulv at Polgahawela, the
quantity so carried in i(jS2 being no less than 5,612 tons.
To show the vicissitudes of the phiinbago enterprise f
may quote from th.' Sabarasauiuwa lt.'|,ori; ol lS7o to the
eftect that plumbago, which lioinierly sold atK2UUpertou
then realized only E90, while the working i xpeuses had
considerably increased in consequence of the enhuiited prices
of labour. It will be remembered that 1873 was the year
m vvhich the change was made to the coUeetiuii of royalty
at the Custom-house, iu anticipation of whiuh the great
manufactories iu Biiiain and America had picvuled them-
selves with stocks of the mineral. Hence ii fall iu exports
aud prices. Eleven years subsequently, in IbSo, Ceylon
sent away her largest export of plumb..go, hut the depres-
sion had even theu .set iu, which led to greatly reduced
shipnuuts iu 1884. In the one matter of c.idk-makiug
however, the increase in the export uf plumbago during
the p.ist five yiars must have largely filled up the void
created by the decrease in coffee. Hora, one of our most
inferior timbers, cau be utiUzed for plumbago casks and as
thocasks are uniformly made to hold a quantity somewhat
over a quarter of a ton (.i^ cwt. nett), an average of 4.3,000
casks per annum for the p.ist five yea' s, or a lotalinthe quin-
queumum of 22.),000, must have given, in their manu-
facture, remunerative employment lo a con.Mderable num.
ber of carpenters who had previously been largely depend-
ent in cask-making for coffee.

The industry now so wonderfully successful in the
i\ or th -"Western Piovince is apparently of quiie recent
origin. Gate Mudaiiyar Jayatilleke slates in r. ply to my
queries as to whether there were anyihing hen duary, or a
system of p.aynient by shares, .amoi gst the minii g J.ass :—
" All the plumbago quarries that are now wurked in
the Di--trict are pui chased from the Crown. No licenses
have ever been applied for or granted to <:ig plumbago.
The diggers are paid wages, aud they arc co dies from
the feiyaue and Hapitigam Korales, in the Wi stern Pro-
vince. Very few Kandyaus are employed, as tley are not
han.iy in blasting and excavating any depth of more than
15 or 20 feet."

I may add that but few Tamils are employed in the
Ceylon plumbago mines, which are, I believe, i xclusively
owned by .Sinhalese, although no doubt the ubiquitous
Chetty of Southern India is iuterested in the recovery of
advances ni-ide or supplies furnished in some cases.

To Mr. G. S. Williams, the Acting Government Agent
ol the North-"Western Province, 1 had previously been in-
debted for responses to my questions, thus : —

'•The pits are about sixteen miles north-east of Kurunegala
oil the pambulla road. There is a good resthouse at about the
ILth mile, and the journey in decent weather is easy enough.
"The tr.ade altogether failed last \car— 1 mean no dig-
ging was done— on account of the faU'iu price, but this year
operations have been resumed, aud I am told that about
2,000 men are employed. The plumbago is found in rocky
ground in which are very large crystals transparent like
Derbyshire spar.* De Mel is the owner of the principal
pit. The resthouse is at Gokerella. It is nut mentioned in
Fyers' Itinerary, but is between Polgola (about a mile
beyond it) and Ambanpola. On page 20 of the new edition
(18Sl),Part I., you will find Wetakeyyapota, wli ch is 15-65
miles from Kuruiifgala, and 0-55 mill' beyond that, or 16-10
from Kurunegala, ' minor road to plumbago pit on right.'
There areother plumbago pits, someactuallyby the roadside."
It thus appears that the best deposits of plumbago at
present worked in Ceylon are situated at the 1 ase of the
north-westeru portion of the mountain zone. The mineral
exists at high elevations, up to Nuw.ara Eliya indeed, but
apparently not iu paying form or c]uantity. It would appear
that while the veins of plumbago run generally from south
to north in the Western Province, their direction in the
Kurunegala dirtrictarc from east to w est.

It seems pcssi hie that if digging for gems aud plumbago
coutioues on a large scale, and becomes widts)iread, legis-
lation may be needed such as exists regarding the pro-

* Crystalline quartz, of course, as lime taking the form
of spar, seems to be non-existent in Ceylon ?

262

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[October 1, 1885.

tection of wells, and that measures to prevent accidents
from subterraneous blasting and the collapse of tunnels, as
also to secure free ventilation, may be necessary. Though
not so much so as gera-diggiug, plumbago mining is, no
doubt, largely a speculative pursuit, involving the loss and
demoralization which ever accompany gambling pursuits.
The ultimate result is, however, beneficial to the people
and the country.

From some of the Administration Keports consulted,
it would seem that the plumbago industry is a recent
one in the district of Sabaragamuwa, although the ex-
istence of the mineral must, surely, have been revealed to
the gem-diggers who have for jiges been engaged la search-
ing lor the sappbires and rubies for which the region
around "the city of gems" (Ratnapiua) is so famous.

A vivid idea will be formed of the extent to which Gov-
ernment— that is, the public — were formerly cliea*ed under
the system of collecting the royalty at the pit's mouth,
when it is mentioned that while cwt. 22t),000 were exported
in 1869, the royalty recoveied was only iil6,U00, against
R65,000 on cwt. 263,000 in 18S3, the rate in the latter year
being only one-third of that in the former.* The extreme
rate of oOs per ton in 1869 evidently proved an irresistible
temptation to diggers and headmen, and the royalty re-
covered was only one-tenth of the sum which ought to
have been collected.

As has been proposed in the case of chips in the cin-
namon trade, it would almost si-em desirable that low
quality dust should be excluded from the exports. Bu} ers
are strongly inclined to confine their attention to lump of
best quality, and I have heard that some of the local dealers
have injured their own reputation, and that of the article
in which they deal, by mixing lower qualities with the
higher. As matters staiul the proportions in which the
mineral seems to be exported are ; — lumps, 1st and 2ud
quality, 50 per cent ; chips and dust, each 25 per cent ; so
that dust is only one-fourth of the whole. In the home
market during the past five years of unprecedented outturn
I am informed that prices have ranged from £20 per ton,
the highest for lump, down to £1('. In Colombo, apart from
the exceptional case in the experience of Mr. W, A.
Fernando, already mentioned, the highest prices ever known
are stated to be K320 per ton for fine, K270 tor ordinary,
K95 for dust. In the old sailing ship days plumbago was
taken at an exceptionally low rale of freight as " dead
weight." Since 1880 the average rates for a ton of 20 cwt.
have been: — steamer -lOs; sailer 35s.

The United States are our best customers in the case of
plumbago, the C'eylou form of which the late Sir. Joseph
Dixon saw and appreciated in 1827, and of which he secured
a first shipment in 1829. In 18»2 the quantitv received in
the United States from Ceylon was stated at 1(1,000,000 lb.,
and of the cotnparotively small quantity of 22^ millions of
pounds sent from Ceylon in 18S4, more than half went to
the United States. But a memorandum showing the various
countries for which the plumbago exported in the past five
years was destined will clearly indicate how important a
customer for cur mineral we have in the United States with
its large steel manufacturing industry. The general result
is that of the whole export of 1,170,000 cwt. in the five
years, 641 ,000 (or very considerably more than one-half of
the whole) went to the United States, the United
Kingdom taking the bulk of the remaining 529,000 cwt.
Out of an export of 263,000 cwt. in 1883, Britain took
119,000 and the United States 142,000, leaving only 3,000
cwt. for all other places. The memorandum referred to
is appended as a note.f It seems probable that three-

* How striking is the illustration here afforded of the
value of indirect (and especially Customs) taxa' ion, rather
than a direct levy, in the case of Orie-ntals. No greater
fiscal boon could probably be conferred on the jteople of
India and Ceylon than— if it were possible — the collection
of all Government dues through the Customs Department,
BO saving an amount of oppression on the one hand, and of
bribery and t'orruption on the other, of which Kuropeau
administrators never get more than a faint idea.

t Plumbago exported in each of the last five years, show-
ing the countries J to which the mineral was shipped: —

1880. 1881. 1882. 1883. 1884.

cwt. cwt. cwt. cwt. cwt.

United Kingdom 70,276 89,709 143,450 119,312 84,981
Holland .. — — — 438 946

fourths of all the plumbago which Ceylon exports is used
in the great crucible factories of Britam and the United
States, that established by the Messrs. Morgan Bros, at
Battersea and the crucible factories of Jersey City, Kcw
Jersey.

Kotices then foUowedjot the Battersea Crucible 'N^'orks, and
those of the Joseph Dixon Company, New Jersey, and It was
stated that a vast fund of inlormation regardmg plumbago
and the very numerous and varied uses to which it is
put were quoted from desciip^ions of those extensive
establishments.

The Battersea ^Vorks were founded by the Brothers
Morgan in 18:''5. The American establi-shmeut had been
at work long before this period, but no doubt its pro-
ductions did not go beyond local demand, for in a notice
of the Battersea works we find it stated that previou.sly
to 1855 crucibles were almost exclusively imported from
Germany. Now that country, together with other cen-
tres ol industry on the Contiuent, is principally supplied
from Battersea, where crucibles are turned out at from
8d per dozen, up to a gigantic melting pot costing £6 5s
and capable of taking m 1,000 lb. of steel. Such a cruci-
ble can bear from 8 to 10 meltings, while in the case of
gold a crucible taking in 1,200 ounces can sometimes stand
seventy meltings. So in the case of brass, while crucibles
for assaying the precious metals are very carefully manu-
factured, being rendered porous by the use of chaicoal.
The absence of coal fuel from Ceylon is probably a fatal
objection to local iron or steel manufacture or any ex-
tended scale, but for srp.all quantities of superior steel for
.special local use, 1 would, with some dithdeuce, suggest
that crucibles composed of our indigenous plumbago and
kaolin clay, both abundant and cheap, might be profit-
ably used. The existence of "millions of tons" of iron
ore in Ceylon is not so apocryphal as that of anthracite,
and those who owe their origin to Britain aro not likely
to forget that her wealth in iron quite casts into the
shade all the treasures of the diamond mines of Gol-
conda aud the gold diggings of Oalilorma and Australia.

Mr. Ferguson said, commenting on a very able paper by
Mr. Orestes Cleveland, of the Joseph Dixon Company ; —
In most of the works consulted m tlie preparation of
this paper — and they have been many and various^the
credit of having first made and used plumbago crucibles
has been giv^n to the Germans. Mr. Cleveland awards
the credit to the Dutch, and it is certainly significant
that the Dutch name for the mineral should be potluut,
or pot lead, the lead of which crucibles are maile (?) —

Again : — And so our plumbago, like our coftee, sutt'ers
from the •' wajs " that ae literally "dark " of the
adulterators. Mr. Cleveland, in a kind of despair, ex-
claims .■ — " Perhaps no article except mustard cau be so
successfully adulterated as plumbago.'' He means, of
cour.se, lor stove polish, because adulteration in the case
of plumbago used for crucibles would soon be betrayed in
the trial by fire, one great value of the pure plumbago in
crucibl&s being that it conserves carbon in sttel when
being melted.

As a lubricant for metal surfaces, journal boxes, carriage
axles, and all metal bearings, we can easi.y uudtrslaud why
only the very finest plumbago should be used, the chuicist
lumps being pulverized till the partic.es will not glisten but
the mass becomes a dead black. It cannot, Mr. Cleveland
slates, be made fine enough by bolting (he means sitting
through silk), but must be floated either in v ater or air.

I notice, however, from odvertisen.enls in the American
papers, that "mica grease" as a lubricator is couijietiug
with plumbago, hut how far successfully I cannot say.

Trieste .. 107 4,217 1,828 — 210

France ,. 607 699 300 294 884

Hamburg .. — 4,031 — — 816

U. S. of America 133,.5.'i6 160,259 113,451 141,664 94,083

British India . . 1 ,095 109 999 326 606

Australia .. 197 885 118 — —

China . . — — 12

Hongkong .. _ ^ 8 739 —

Total . . 205,738 259,909 260,166 262,773 182,425

October i, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

263

M'hat I know is that the writer of a recent article on
American miufrals strongly supports Mr. Oltn-eland's view
as to the great superiority of plumliago as a lubricator.
I am not awiire that it is so used to any txtent in Ceylon,
either in fouutlries or on the railways, althoufjfh if all stated
regflrHing its value be correct, Ceylon plumbago ought to
he much mere largely used in Ceylon than it is at present,
as a lubricant and for other purposes. For ail uses it
would seem that grinding to extreme tiueness is essential.

AVe now, said the reader, come to some miscellaneous
and curious uses to which plumbago is put, the mineral
being applied to articles so different as musical instruments,
hats ami boots, bottles, paint, boats and yachts. Listen: —
'* For pianos, plumbago is employed to coat the bridge
over which the wires are drawn, because of its perfect lubric-
ation ; it prevents the wire from adiiering to the wood, and
should be as free from impurity as that used by the electro-
typer, but need not be pulverized as finely. For organs,
it is used to lubricate the sides, and should be the same
as that used by piano-makers. The German black-lead
imparts a peculiar tone to the colours and a softness and
smoothness to the touch of felt hats. The very best lump
only should be accepted. As it has once been washed and
dried in lumps, they uill readily separate again in water,
and no pulverizing is needed. For colouring dark glass for
carboys, bottler, kc. the best German black-lead is used
in lumps, hut no inferior grade v/ill answer. For paint,
plambago has long been known as possessing great
.value. The elements do not exhaust it, water sheds
from it as from oil itself, and fire does not affect
it. The grade need not be the highest. For the bottoms
of boats and yachts' it has long been used, especially for
racing boats; but only the best Ceylon plumbago, very
finely pulverized, is valuable."

A substance which, used as a paint, resists the action of
the atmosphere and is both waterproof and fireproof, is
surely of great economic value, and ought to be specially
useful as pamt for the numeroua tea factories erected or in
course of erection in Ceylon.

To quote again : —

Mr. Cleveland's very interesting and valuable notices of
the American Crucible Company, and their varied manu-
factures of plumbago, is supplemented and brought down
to so late a date as 1883 by the writer (.Mr John A.
"Walker) ot an article on Plumbago in a volume on the
"Mineral Resources of the United States," prepared by the
National (ieological Survey Department, and supplied to
our Library by the Smithsonian Institute, to which my
attention was attacted by our Honorary Secretary, when he
asked me to write ibis paper. In the summary prefixed to
this volume it is stated that the amount of graphite mined
in the States in In82 was 425,000 lb., wortli crude at the
point of production 34,00U dollars, equivalent to about
R70,0<-K). During the first six months of 18.^3 the production
was estimated at 262,500 lb., worth 21,000 dollars. From
Mr. Walker*s detailed account we learn that graphite is, as
a mineral, widely distributed in the United States ; as an ore
it is found in but few places in sufficient quantities and
purity to be profitably worked.

The attention being paid to the mineral in America may
be judged from the fact that samples had been received and
reported on by the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company from
no fewer than 33 localities between October 1877 and
January 1882.

The Joseph Dixon Company had laid themselves out to
produce 500,0001b.; altogether 52r,.00O lb., valued at 8 cents
per lb. Let us .say 18 cents of our rupee currency, and
we get the high value (founded on co^t .is uell as quality ?)
of K20 per cwt., or R40U per ton. 'Ilic local production,
however, w^is certainly not much to jdace ngaiust 1(1,000,000
of pounds imported from Ceylon in 18&2, with considerable
quantities in the two following years.

Referring to analyses of Canadian and Ct ylon grajihites,
quo!ed froni the American Huthority, Mr. Kergvison said : —
l5otli are alni'>st absolutely jHire, a-'d tlid the (.'aiindian and
Uidied S'-ate-i mineral eceur in such a foi m in the enclos-
ing rocks thai it could be cheaply mined and prepare<l, there
wouhl of cour.^e be nil i Tid of tlie export of CeyliUi plumbafjo
to America. Hut i', in Afn* rica, plumbngo, huwevtrpure,
is only oistributed in the proportion of 8 to 15 per cent
mineral to Jt2t()85 rock, those connected with the Ceylon
enterprise need nt.t, it would seem, concern themselves

greatly with the competition in America of indigenous ore
with that from our islaiid.

Lender th'^ heading " M.inufiictures " there is interesting
summarized information, winch 1 quote ; —
Proportionate Amounts of Uraphile used for Different
Purposes.

Kinds of Grapliite Per

Manufactures. used. cent.

Crucible and refractory articles,
as stoppers and nozzles, cruci-

bles, etc.
Stove polish

Lubricating graphite
Foundry facing, etc.

Graphite g'reases
Pencil leads

Graphite packing

Polishing shot and powder

Faint

Electrotyping

Miscellaiu'ous — piano action,
photograpliers', gilders' and
hatters' use, electrical sup-
plies, etc.

, .Ceylon, American ..
..Ceylon, American,

German
..American, Ceylon ,.,
..Ceylon, American,

German
..American
..American and

German
..Ceylon, American ..,
..Ceylon, American ;,,
..AmeiicHu
..American, Ceylon ...

35

32
10

100

A table like this will give many of the readers of this
paper a new view of the multifarious uses of the mineral
carbon called plumbago. It will be observed that, next
to the manufacture of crucible articles, the great use of
the mineral is for polishing and preserving from rust the
ranges of btovts and other cooking appliances, which
contribute so much to the neatness, cleanliness, health, and
comfort of modern abodes. Tiie proportion used for this
purpose in Europe — in Britain -it least— cannot certainly
be below that given for the United >5tates. There are
graphite greases as contradistinguished from lubricants,
and the mineral seems to be used for the packing of engines.
From the largest forges where tons of steel are manu-
factured in Pittsburg, down to the studio of the photo-
grapher and the shops of the gilder and hatter, plumbago
is of valuable use. And not only is it called into requis-
ition to produce the highest order of steel guns and
steel armour for war-ships, but it is good for polishing the
sportsman's powder and shot. Gunpowder used for blast-
ing operations is also greatly improved by receiving a
glaze or varnish of graphite, the philosophy of the oper-
ation bemg that thus the gra'ns are prevented from ah-
sorl)ing the moisture which exists in mines and quarries.

Graphite enables the electrotyper to prepare and pre-
sent to the world, cheaply and at will, casts of coins, wood-
cuts, copperplate maps, A:c., equal in the most minute and
intricate detail to the most highly prized and costly ori-
ginals. But next to the boon which the real discovery of
anthracite or natural coke in Ceylun would be. is the
certainty, of whi( h we are assured, that in our teeming sup-
plies of plumbago the tea planters of Oeylon can get a
paint for their storrs, equnl in its lire-resisting properties
to asbestos paint. If this should prove to be correct, and
we see no reason to doubt the statement, the prospect ia
that Ceylon will l)e .'■peedily exporting, instead of importing,
fireproof pfiint. -Mr. Walker m..y well say in conclueiou : —
*'The growth of the giaphit<* industry has kept jiace with
the aire, each new development in metallurgy and engineer-
ing offering some new field of usefulness for graphite.
For instance, it fui tiishes the pois for the manufacture
of cast steel, and the nozzles and stoppers used in the
Bessemer process. It is used in the manufactur<' of elec-
trical supplies, &c. Fifiy years ago graphite was little
known and mis-nained. Now it is of constantly increasing
inipitrtiinec. From .in insigtuheant he;.'inning in the pre-
sent century The industry has gr wn to its present pro-
portions."

A list is th'U given of twfnty-five Aiufritan firms en-
I gaged in the ]dumhngo indus ly. of " bh-Ii the Jo.^eph
I Dixon Conip:oiv ot JerM-y City. New Jersey, takes the lead,
emrh'iii'g <"iOO hands in the manufacture of everything for
j which griiphite is us(d. The same number of hands finds
I employment from the Eagle Pencil C ouipany ; while A. "W".

264

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

Faber, probably au immigrant or descendaut rf an im-
migrant from Nlirnburg, employs 160 persons in bis pencil
factory. OrluMS employ lesser numbers, six firms giving
crucibles as tbfir exclusive maJiufacture ; tbree, lead pencils;
four, foundry facings and lubricants ; seven, stove polisb
and lubricants. It will thus be Sfren that except in the
branch of pencil-makinci', and perhaps cloctrotyping, the
New World has gone, oris rapidly going, in advance of the
old in the plumbago industry, which means corresponding
advance in the ^teel industry. It is surely a striking incid-
ent in the romance of commerce that this ancient eastern
isle of " Serendib,'' the scene of the mythical adventures
of Sindbad the Sailor, should be the main source of sup-
ply of an article so useful in the industries and elegan-
cies of life, the iippliances of peace anrl war, and the pur-
suits of the artist anil literary man. not only to countries in
the eastern henii'<phere, but to the regions of the Far
Western woi-M.

Having noticed the leading establishments in Europe and
America, where our Asiatic ore is so largely utilized, let
us now turn to one one of the compounds, or yards, with its
brick and tar *' barbecue " or platform, and surrouniling
sheds, in which Sitdialese men, women, and boys pre-
pare, assort, and pack the mineral when receiveil in
Colombo from pits, none of which are nearer than thirty
miles, and some of which are so distant as the District
of Hambantota at the eastern extremity of the Southern
Province. Tlie chief exhibitor of plumbago at the Mel-
bourne Exhibition of 1880-81 was Mr. W. A. Fernando, of
No. 1, Erownrigg-Strcet, Cinnamon Gardens. Colombo,
and a desciipti<ni of bis establishment, which the editors
of the Ceyloii Obserrci- gave in their jr.iper of August 12th,
1880, is, in all sulistaiitial details, correct in August 18S5.

The description was then stated to be reproduced, and
the closing remarks were to the following effect: —

We now icel confident that the number to which the
pursuit gives employment was much under-estimated in
1880, and that, considering thnt 5,000 persons were said
to be engaged in mining in one year in a single district
ot the Nortli-W( stern Province, our higher estimate of au
average of 20.000 men, women, and children at present
engaged in the various operations of mining, carrying, pre-
paring, packing, and shipping Ceylon plumbago, is not be-
yond the truth.

It is curious that the Sinhalese women should entei'tain
a prejudice against plumbago as poison, seeing that it is
included in the native pharmacopceia. We should have
expected members of what Artenius Ward called " the
female sect " to have been more trouliled about the soiling
of their pi r-ons and clothes by contact with the mineral,
but in truth a coating of the shining ore, while easily got
rid of by the \\-e. of water, jjroduces no such hideous effect
as that so fandiiar to us now in Colombo of the truly
uncanny-looking coaling coolies, when proceeding to their
houses after Icatling or unloading the bunkers of one of
the multitnde of m.-ignificent steamers winch now resort
to our harbour. A polish of person, if not of deportment
and manners, is the re.'ult of working amongst even the
dust of pininbago, and it is curious to sec the darK-skinned
coolies of liie pinmbasio stores walking about with their
bodies shinine' as if they were electrotype statues vivified.

In its further metamorphic progress from vegetable to
mineral, the foi m of carbon we call plumbago has ccrt-
tainly taken a great step in advance of the carbon we call
coal, in getting rid of smoke entirely, and also of dirt.
Coal, however, cannot be accused, as plumbago .justly is,
with causing a whole roof-covering of tiles suddenly to fall
off, from the sh'])periue!s created by wind-blown particles
of the greasy ndneral. We were greatly amused by Mr.
Fernando's slate ment at the time, but others, Europeans
included, who have to do with the preparation of plum-
bago, have fully confirmed his representatien as to the
incompatibiliiy of p'l mbago dust and tiled roofs. In this
connection we would advise visitors to |ilumbago compounds
to be careful bow they bear themscdves in such slippery
places. A sud.Un step on to the polished platform may
end in an uidignified tumble. And this reminds me of the
sensation produced many years ago in Mincing Lane by
the peculiar n])pearaiice of some Ceylon colTee which hall
been dried on a barbecue where plumbago had been pre-
viously spread. An attempt to impart a factitious colour-
ing to tlio iieans was suspected until the requisite ex-
planation was afforded.

As this paper may be read beyond the limits of Ceylon,
it may be as well to explain that caflj'jn is a word, curi-
ously enough of Malay origin, applied in Ceylon to plaited
branches of coconut palms, used for roofing houses, sheds,
carts, &c. Comjiound is a yard or enclosure, and barbecue
is a platfo! m.

I have ah-eady shown, what I maybe allowed to repeat,
that for the average shipments of 1 2.000 tons per annum
of plumbago fiom Ceylon for the past five seasons, the
yearly supply of casks must have been 45,000 and that the
manufacture of these alone must have given welcome and
remunerative employment to carpenters out of work by
reason of the partial collapse of the staple colo' ial in-
dustry; this apart from the large numbers of persons
(estimated above at 2n,0i)0) engaged in miiuug, carting,
preparing, packing, and shipping tiie mineral.

Let us, therefore, hope that the plumbago industry of
Ceylon may cc-niinue to prosper and extend, not as the
result of wars or rumours of wars, but because of the steady
and beneficial progress of the peaceful industries anrl arts
which contribute to the elevation of humanity in all th-it
constitutes comfort, happiness, and means to cultivate the
joftier instincts and destinies of our race.

The Cultivation of ],]Bi'ia\N CorFi?Ecn fhe M:r-
gui experimental plantation m H.uimi O' ntmues to
be sn.^cessful, but it is jet dcu'-ful whether Ar;-bian
coffee will thrive in Mergui. 'I'lf experim'Ut- in
the cultivation of cocoa, nutmeg, i.nd vanil a le' d to
show that th^se Ueei can proba! ly be grown and
propag.Tted successfully, but further trials in ihepio-
pagatiou of t')e nutmeg, and the fi ound^i'iou !■' the
vanilla plant are necessary to demonstrate this. — Madras
Mail.

Pumpkins .48 Fodder — Attention has been dirfcicl
in Queensland to the value of pumpkins as fodc e ■
for horses. One writirsays :— " I c nsider pumpkins
a first-rate winter feed, ki oping the bowels opfn
and giving a gloss to tie coat. It I^ very hard toget
horses to take to them. I ha^■e irietl almost ever\- wav 1
could think of— chopped tbejumpkins up and tdven
it with chaff ond corn, (lut salt mo the nosi bajs,
boiled it — to no purpose. We h:d a good supply
last winter, and wanted to ftid eiu nor^es i n if but
they would not touch it. i be > i ly way is to get
a horse which has been fed on pumpku s and let
them go with your horses. When oi ce a boi>e takes
to them he becomes ve y fond if iliis feed. Kor feed-
ing prize stock tbey are of great value. One beiled
jiunipkin is wirlli two uncooked ones ' — Madras Mail.

The Tea Tkade in Austkalia — M Jules Joubert
writes from Melbourne to a C.deiitta p pet ; — " yir.
During my slay in India I used unreniiti,nii; ell", rt.s
to induce parties inteiesUd in the tea traiie to alti r
their taciics and enlarge their biisiuisj with cur co'on-
ies, where a laige and prolitaile market ex.sts lor
Indian tias, pr.ivided it be [ropeily and judiciously
exploited. May I once moie vtniure to advihe tta
planters c r tea syndicates to open in the great centres
of population in these colonies retail dejor.s of the
genuine articled Let a tii:il be in; de in Sydney snd
Melbourne first ; the expi n = c would not be veri great.
Indeed I know many tnisfwertliy p' I'pio in ei hi r city
who woidd gbidly undi rtake the 'bu.«in'ss' and ni k"
all necesiary advances, pr' v ded an agieemcnt be en-
tered into by some resp.msible firm or syndicate to keep
them supplied with regular sliiim irs. As ir is, ili-
majority of fhe te.i shippid is used for mixing wiili
rubbish. Theco; sequence is that 'Jndianteas' iire i ot
inlhodtmiid thiy would beif tbe;. were sold in tlieu-
unadulu r Hid state, when 1 fi cl cmilii cut tb.y hi uld
very soon take the lead ot all o'lers." [VV. be !■ ve
that Mes-is. J.iines HM:1y & In. <l Melbi u:i.e and
Messrs. liv,''!-!. Brown & Co. of Sydui\ have d.no and
are doing tlip'r best, but ihc Au- raliaii colonists do
not yet und rit. nd giving an ad quate price for a
good artic'e, having been so long accustomed to cheap
China rubbish, — Kd.]

October i, 18S5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

265

CEYLON TEA IN THE LONDON MARKETS.

We give prominence and specially call attent-.on to
the letter with which the eminent tirni of London
Brokers, Messrs. W. J. & H. Thompsan, have favoured
us by this mail. Their remarks will be carefully
weighed by our planting readers, and it is most
encouraging to note that we have in Ceylon— iu the
managers of Loolecondera and Blaokstone estates —
the models whose practice may be copied with
advantage in regard to the preparation of our teas.
We notice that a respected member of the Maakeliya
Planters' Association has given notice of a motion
"that a SnbCommittee be formed in order to obtain
all possible information from tea makers, in aud out
of the district, on the subject of Tea-planting,
Manufacture. Transport, Machinery, &c." This is a
good idea, and we would suftgest that as the most
practical step for the present, the .Sub-Committee of
the Maskeliya planters should resolve themselves into
a Deputation to visit — with the permission of the pro-
prietors of course — the Loolecondera and Blackstone
estates and draw up a report on the result of
their observations and on the 'wrinkles" which
we have no doubt tbe managers would be glad
to piint oat or illustrate as aiiiing to secure the
marked success referred to by Messrs. Tbompsun.
There can be no particular mystery ; because as is
mentioned, other well-known marks of local estates
approach closely to the tine prices received for the
teas in question, and nearlv all our bearing tea
p'antations have at one time or another secured tip-
top prices, although with the sreater rush of crop,
and perhaps less care in manufacture, a falling-off
in price has been, in some cases, latterly noticeable
Care, patience and intelligeuce, in fact, comprise all
the mystery, and our rising generation of tea planters
will do well to lay to heart the lesson which Messrs.
Thompson considerately afford in the following
letter : —

CfTVLON Tea is the London Market: Eepoet
BY Me-ssr.s. W. J. & H. Thompson".

38, Mincing Lane, 7th August 1885.
To the Editor, "Ceylon Observer,"

Dear Sir, — We forward herewith a copy of our
circular containing details of the important busi-
ness which i3 passing in Ceylon Tea. In the last two
weeks 5.800 packages have been sold, as compared
with 2,400 packages during the same time laet year :
and it is most encouraj>in2 to find that a growing
demand enables us to sell these larger (juantities
without having to make any abatement in the price.
The rapid development of the iodustrj- is attracting
attention in new quarters : that is, am"ng some
of the larger consumers, who have hitherto held aloof
on account of the unevenness of supply and the
difficulty of buying regularly, sufficient for their
requirements.

You will observe in our circular a special reference
to the teas from Blackstone and Loolcondura estites
— these standing away from others in the prices
realized. The results are so exceptionally good
that information as to the assortment in tbe invoices
is likely to be asked for : we have therefore printed
TUE FCLL p.*RTicrLAP..s— just as the teas were sold in
om AltTiON — the transactions, as far as this market
is concerned being public.

As it will be asked by many : " In what points are
these teas so superior toothers?" we would s.iy in
anticipation: " Id almost every point which distin.
guishes 'fine' from 'ordinary' tea." Although of
different appearance and type, both the Loolcondura

34

and the Blackstone teas have a very fine, closely-
twisted leif, quite fret) from coarse reddish or II iky
leaves : the btter has also plenty of bright yellow tip:
the firing is perfect, abundance of aroma, without
approach to the "scorched" or burnt llivour : the
infused leaf is deep reddish with scarcely any of
the green or darkbrovvn leaves usually seen, while
the liquors are rich and full, and in eac'j case
possess the distinctive Gtylon jiavour.

These are by no means the only good Ceylons nnw
coming forward, as the quotations for the KooUwooi,
Glenti;t, Orurie, Barnagalla, KAW, and many others
show, but we have written you specially about them
as we feel the traneactions to be of more than
ordinary interest.

The lesson which they teach, seems to us to be
the reward in store for those who determine to make
" quality " their aim and object— a lesson which we
have from the beginning endeavoured to incubate,
aud which we are extremely glad to see is being
impressed upon planters iu the Tropical AgriciiUiirist.
— We are, dear sirs, yours faithfully,

W. Jas. & Hy. Thompson .

From another well-known firm of Tea-Brokers we
have a communication, from which we quote remarks
which are al-0 of practical service : —

13, Rood Lice. London, E. C, 7th Aug. I8S5.

Dear Sir, — We thank you for your notice of our
circular on the subject of Ceylon tea in yonr valuable
paper. In reply to one or two of your observations, we
would point out that we suggest that " when ne-
cessary an occasional dust should be made " ; and
as to size of breaks we would remark that though in
the slack season it is not of so much importance, yet
when the large sales begin there are often over 300
breaks for bujers to taste and value between 9'30
and 12 o'clock, and this has to be repeated four
days in each week, so tliat smiU lots have bu' small
chance of being looked at hy the large buyers We
take this opportunity of sending you our circular
issued today, and with reference to ours of 24th instant
would correct an error in <'Ur list of averages, viz ,
for 51 packages. Abbotsfr.rd which should have been
lOi, not 9i as printed. — We remain, yours faithfully,
Gow, Wilson & Stanton.

Apart from the information given in our com-
mercial column, we may mention that the Produce
Marht-t Hevirw—tho organ of wholesale Tea-d-alera
— has been declaring that although the Indian teai
this season are beyond the average, th y are sur-
pas.'cd loth by ""tie new China black b af and
Ceylon teas," which "just now ofl"er much better
vrtlue than Indian orowths." The Home and Colonial
Mail on this remarks that -'undoubtedly Indian tea-
pUiitershave very formidable rivals iu their l cylnn
competitors, and it behoves the former to do their
best to maintain their bold on the market." The piece
of advice may, of course, be equally applied ot our
local planting readers, who, we hope, will do all in
their power to maintain the prestige of Ceylon teas.

The ELEPii.\NT Sugar-cane in Jamacia. — The Eleph -
ant-cane, says Mr. Morris in the report of the
Botanic Gardens of Jamaica, continues to maint.iin its
pre-eminence as a rapid grower, with early maturity ;
but it requires very rich soil, a moist climate, and to
be taken off as soon as it i.s ripe. It " ratoons" well
the second year, but, like most vigorous growers, it
retiuires to be renewed iu the third or fourth year.
In favourable localities the Klephant-cane, where it
has been tried, throws immense canes, looking almost
like clumps of Bamboos ; tbe yield per acre has not,
however, been quite ei]ual to the show of canes,
but it has yielded at the rate of 2 to 2i tons of
sugar per acre, which is far beyond the average of
ordinary caucs in .Jamaica. — Ga/dtrntn' Chronicle,

266

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

CEYLON.

The " Tropical Agriculturist," published monthly
at Colombo, Ceylim, by the Messra. Ferguson, and
eold in this country, together with a variety of
other Cingalese publications, by Messrs. John Haddon
& Co., 3, Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, contains a
variety of information valuable to those who engage
or intend to engage in tropical agriculture, including
principally coffee, tea, cicao, sugar, cinchona, rubber,
palms, rice, cardamoms, and a variety of fruits. Its
articles teach how a planter should act in reference
to the insect enemies which attack the crops, the
modes of cultivation, soils, &c.

A pamphlet, also published by Messrs. Haddon,
entitled "Tea and other planting industries in
Ceylon in 1885," undertakes to show how that
Ceylou is "a good field for investment." The
quoation of how much capital is required to start
with is often asked as well of Ceylon as of other
places, and in reference to Ceylon at a meeting of
the Royal Colonial Institute Lord Denbigh asked
the chairman, Sir Charles Clifford, "What capital
is required to start in the Island as a planter ?" to
which Sir Charles Clifford remarked that he had
also been asked the same question in reference to
New Zealand, and he said —

■' I will answer it by one short anecdote. I myself
took out two servants. They landed in New Zea-
land both with wives and families, and when they
landed they only had their clothes on their back and
eightcen-pence in their pockets — that was the whole
ot their worldly goods. I also knew another man,
who bad £150,000 when he landed in the colony :
In result the one who landed with eighteeupence
has now an estate worth £40, 000 ; while the gentleman
who landed with i£150,000 died a pauper. Anybody
with brains can do well ; and, of course, anybody
with brains and money can do better than in
England ; but if a man has neither brains nor money,
he had better stay in England, where he will have
the work-house to fall back upon."

This was a good gtneral answer, but of course it
needs a specific answer, for a man having ever
so many ounces of brains in his cranium must have
some money to make a start with, for if he
manipulates his credit arrangements as to mortgages
or rental of the soil and buildings, he must have
a working plant, and even if that vsere arranged
for, he must have cash for wages and other expenses,
and he must make his outs and ius so dovetail as
to meet his interest too. It is shown on page 7
that a tea planter having a t' a garde ; of 200 acres
should have a capital of ■'iijOOZ., which should give
him "20 per cent., or 1000/. per annum. On page
51 a smaller capital than "JOOOi. would noi I'e
recommended for a cinchona estate of 100 to 150
acres. Ceylon is but three weeks' run from England,
and those who do not object to a warm climate
might do worse than enter tipon the cultivation
of some of its attractive crops. — [Frum the £'s(o<es'
Boll a monthly sheet published by Dowsett & Co.
of Landed Investments, &o.]

MANILA NEWS.
(Translated for the "Straits Times.')

Philippine Top.acuo CoNfRAOT, — TcL gr.iphic ad-
vices have been received announcing that the con-
tract for supplying cigar factories in Spain with
201,2(j'l quintals of Philippine tobacco has been
adjudged to the Philippine Tobacco Company at the
rate of §22.73 per quiutil.

Provinck ok Negeos.— From Baeolon a corre-
spondent writes to us as follows under date 12th
inst. : — There is now splendid weather here for the
growing cane crops, notwithstanding a provaltut

scarcity of small coin and the low prices cultivators
get for their produce. Greater exertions in cultiv-
ating are now being made and more land has been
put imder cultivation than had been expected. The
slijht rise in prices setting in at the close of the
crushing season has, so to say, not been of much
advantage to cultivators from most of them having
sold their crops before the rise took place.

NETHERLANDS INDIA: COFFEE DISEASE.

(Translated for the " Straits Times.")
In the district of Assahan, so reports the Resident
of the east coast of Sumatra, several Europeans
have been looking out for land suitable for tobacco
growing with such success that the opening out
of several estates there may shortly be expected. On
the ICsperauce Ptrbaungan estate in Serdang
disturbances recently broke out from forty coolies'
withstanding the arrest of two of their number by
the Controller of Serdang for ill treating a tindal,
until the police on the spot making use of their
firearms wounded four cnolies, put the others to
flight, and subsequently arrested seventeen of the
rioters. On auotuer estate in Labuan Batu, order
was disturbed by Chinese coolies also, but quiet
was restored without bloodshed by the Lieutenant
of the Chinese with the aid of eight policemen,
the ringleaders being afterwards duly punished.

By last accounts, the coffee leaf disease has
reached Bali. In Java, so says the Souiabaya
Courant of the 25th July, matters are going from
bid to worse so that should the disease go on at the
present rate, not a small tree in mid Java will be
frte from it within two years. On the Sakiwongie
e&tate in Cheribon a complete diSusinn apparatus
for extracting sugar Iromeane has been set up and
is in full working order by way of trial, the technical
difEcuitieB encountered biiug so far ovei-come that
there is every prospect of the experiment proving
successful. Eydman's method for drawing sugar out
of canes without cutting them is also being experi-
mented with in Java in combination with Steffen's
process for the extraction of that article from mul-
asses. Should these methuus stand the test, a
grand future awaits cane growing in that island and
Java sugar may erelong hold its own brilliantly
against be^t root, were every effort made to check
a disease called sereh which by attacking the roots
of canea withers and drifs up the sialk, no remedy
has been found eft'eoiive in stoppng it. This disease
has also seized up'jn n>aize and groniug p-iddy
crop.i and may result in bringing ou famine should
it steadily gain ground as at present.

THE TEA REPORT FOR ASSAM.

Taken in the light of recent political events
the Assam Tea Report for 1884, which has just
been published, is a document of con.iiderable
importance. It has already been long knowu that
the past season was a bad one in many respects,
prices falling lower than they have done for
some years past, and the outturn of tea falling
considerably below the oareful forecasts of the Indian
Tea Association. The official report on the subj'-ct,
which is mainly a C'mpilation from the various
tea reports frum district officers, naturally throws
a great deal of light on these points, and it will
be read with considerable interest and anxiety
by miny whose taitii in tea as a inont'}'-m:iking
commodity has received many a rude shock of
late. Out of tlie 970 gardens wh:ch exist in
Assiii), 294 are in Silhet and K;iehur, the Surma
Valley, — and the remaining G7t> are all included
in the upper districts, or the Brahmaputra Valley.

October j, iSSj,] THE TROPICAL AQtttCVttVJiaS't,

267

Thi3 great superiority of the one valley over the
other in the number of gardens is not maintained
when the acreage under tea and ttie outiuru of
tea is compared. Whereas the gardens ot the
Surma Valley number less than one-third of the
total number of gardens in the province, the
acreage under tea in the Surma Valley— which,
incUidiug hoth mature and immature plants,
amounts to 83,195 acres — is not less than two-
fifths of the acreage under tea in the whole
province (189,852 acres). Moreover, the ana under
mature plants in the Surma Vallvy shows an
iucrease over that returned last yciir, whereas
ihe same are;i in the Bruhmaputra Valley is
decreasing ; besides which the area under immature
tea in the Sunua Valley greatly exceeds that in
the Brahmaputra Valley, chowiug thereby that
more capital aud energy is being expended on
the new bidi lauds in Silhet than on the older
gardens of Assam proper. Similarly the outturn
of the Surma Valley is more than one-third of
that of the whole province, t':e figures given by
the Tea Association, and contirmed by the Tea
Report, showing an outturn of slightly over 17
million lb. in the Surma Valley, as against a
total of 31i millions lb. in the Brahmaputra
Valley. The moral to be drawn from these hgures
is that the tea trade of the Surma Valley is
rapidly increasing in importance, aud that before
long the bhils of SUhet will be formidable rivals
to the slopes of the northern hills. After an
elaborate explanation of how the apparently large
diminution in the area of land held by tea-
plauters in the province is raoscly due to a careful
overhauling of registers and correction of statistics,
the compiler of tne report comes to the conclusion
that there has been a merely nominal diminution
in the number of gardens, and that, although
land has been relinquished, it has been relinquished
only in small and really uuimportaut quantities.
In this the author of the report is almost
certainly right, as, while many a ;;ardeu has
struggled against much adverse fortune of late,
the maaagers are stiii hoping againtt hope that
there is a good time coining, and have uoc got
to that stage in which large retreuchmtnt is
absolutely necessary in order to carry on business
at all. This question of area ,s treated ut very
fully in the report, aud as the Tea Association
contiues itself mainly to statistics of outturn
and sliipment, and the endless reports of brokers
are wholly concerned with these matters, it may
be Worth while to look into thim somewhat more
closely. A. comparative statement of the laud
under mature and immature plants for the last
six years shows that there has been more planting
out done in the past ytar than in any year since
1880, the total acreage undo;- immature plants
amounting to no less than 31,694 acres. At the
■•me time the acreage uuder mature plants has
really inorea«ed (ihe figures fi r the Lakhinipur
district being set aside by the author of the report
as untrustworthy) which thows, as is remarked
in the report, that the relinquishments of tho year
have not been sufficient to counterbalance the
extensions. Taking the figincs of the various
districts separately we see that K.-ichar stands
above any other district so far as the area under
oultivat on is concerned, having 52,3:;3 acr^auader
both kiudj of plaut, and is followed in the list 1
by Sibsagar, which has 43,882 acres under culti- |
vatioQ, Silhet come third on the list, aud Lakhinipur ;
lOJrtb, tiie otner districts following at a very
reapecfai distance behind the lait-named. On the
vexed question of outturn we have s^eval sets '
of figures given in the report, from various j

sources, for purposes of comparison, and ,by
combining figures given by district officers with
those shown iu the trade returns and with those
given by the Indian Tea Association, we should
be able to attain to sume cousiderablo degree
of correctness. The estimate made by thu Tea
Association, on May Srd, 1SS4, of the crop of
the year, gave 33i million lb. as tha probable
outturn in the Biahmaputra Valley, and 18.+
million lb. as that of the Surma Valley, This
estimate was reduced on various subsequent dates,
and on May 4th, 18S5, tlie actual outturn was
announced to have been 31J million lb. in the
Bialimaputra Valley, and rather over 17 million
lb. iu tho Surma Valley. The figures given by
the Assam Government Trade Rsturus show
smaller totals than the^e, but on the whole
attest their cmrectness. The returns furnished
by district oflicera give a higher total, fouuded
in many cases on somewhat optimistic estimates
by sanguine managers. On the whulo the figures
given by the Tea Association are probably the
nearest to the truth, erriug, if at all; on tlie tide
of caution. The crup of 1883 was returned by
the Tea Association as something over 29 udlliou
lb. in the Brahmaputra Valley, aud feomethiug
over 17 millions lb. iu the Surnia Valley. Thu.--,
while the outturn in tha Brahmaputra Valley has
increased, the other valley's production is stationary
for the present, although the rap.d maturing of
many acres of immature plants will probably soon
produce a chauije in this respect. The total out-
turn shows an increase of two million lb. ever
that of ISS3, an increase less thau that of former
years, but one that shows that the demand lor
Assam teas has not yet been substantially checked.
The wonderful development of the Assam trade
in the past few years is demonstrated by the
fact that an outturn of about 33 million lb. in
IS80 has increased to one of over 43 mllliou lb.
iu 1884.

Taking the outturn of tho various districts
separately, we hud Sibsagar heading the list in
the position held in 1883 by Kdchar, with an
outturn of over 13 million lb., Kdchar comes
next with 12J iiuUious lb., and Lakhinipur next
with II J. After them loivjo interoullo, come
Silhet snd Darrang. The outturn in K.lcliar
has fallen from 284 lb. pir acre to 272, and the
total is diminished by 261 per cent. Sibsagar
has increased its outturn by 4'96 per cent., and
Silhet by no less than 8'08, another proof that
the last-named district will become before long
one of the most important in the manufacture of
tea. The figures for Lakhinipur are uns^itisfactory,
giving as they do au outturn of 4371b. jier acre,
any may be rejected as fabulous. Of the other
districts, those in the Brahmaputia Valley show
an average outturn of about 324 lb. per acre,
and in the Surma Valley Kdchar produces at the
rate of 272 lb. per acre, and Silhet at 298.
These rates are all higher than that taken by
the Chairman of the Indian Tea Aesooiation iu
his statement at the meeting of the 26th February
1SS5. In that statement he gave his reasons for
putting the average outturn at 257 lb. per acre,
but the present report would seem to show that
by an overestimate of the land actually under
tea he was led to reduce his estimate per acre
uuduly. In calculating such an estimate the area
under immature plaut should not be included,
as it produces no tea at all, and consequently if
that be excluded the figures of actual outturn
given by the Tea Association will show an out.
turn per acre of 305 lb. This is probably a more
oorreot figure than tlie one of 'iid lb., given in

268

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. TOctober i, 1885.

the report, and shows a considerable advance on
the 2S6 lb. produced per acre last year. The failure
of prices la t yar is too well-known, and h?s I
been too sadly commented ou to need further
rimaiks. It will be sufficient to state that this
report fully confirms preconceived impressions, and \
goes far to show that the fall amounted on an /
average to nearly two annas per pouud. On the j
vexed question as to how far the fall in prices was \
due to the inferior quality of the teas sent for- i
ward, the report ►peaks ou the whole on the side
of the complaining London brokers. The Chair-
man of the Tea Association, in his statement
above referred to, expressed his opinion that the I
complaints were unfounded, bnt in tbis report we
have the Superintendent of a large company, the
Deputy Commissioner of Sibsagar, and the Deputy
C'ommissioner of Kaohar, all plainly hinting that
coarser leaf was plucked, and that quantity
was made to f'o duty for quality. Krom all sides,
brokers, managers, ctficials give evidence pointing
to less careful manufacture, and it is greatly to
be feared less Assam tea may be by these means
discrtflited in the home market. The season is
ehj«ri to have been an unfavourable one so for
as climaie consideiations were concerned, and the
l-ed ep-der and Assam bug blight proved greater
pest than usual. The rainfall in all parts of Assam
shows great variations from year to yenr, and even
from month to month, and it is seldom indeed
that rain is so fairly distributed as to give a
year of ' bumper months.' The fipues of the export
of tea seed show that something like 15,0110
maunds were exported in 1884, or nearly three
times as much as in 1883. This would show a
large demand for Assam indigenous tea seed, and
an II crtasing appreciation of that species of plant.
These are the chief points that are dealt with in
this important statiHical report, but it is to be
regretted that some information, which might have
been easily compiled as to the ultimate destination
of Assam teas was not given. The returns of
the Tea Assoc ation would show that most markets
except that of Great Britain are closed to us.
The exports to Australia are, it is true, more
extensive than in 1883, but even in 1884 they
do not reach two million lb. The exports to
Americ.-i, always insignificant, are dwindling to
vanishiug point, and 61^ millions of our total
outturn fiood the markets of Great Britain. The
report is, however, a valuable ard satisfactory one,
and the repeated thanks given to managers for
their submission of .'eturBS sliow that, when returns
are of real use and serve some visible end, the
tea planter is by no means so contumacious about
lending them in as some officials are apt to buppose.
Thfl im|ioitance of the report cannot be gainsaid
When it is considered that, out of some Otj million
lb, of ten yearly esportod from British India,
•bunt 50 million lb, come from A<sani, and it is
to be hoped tbat neJtt yftti'» 8gu8« will show
aome decided impfovem«oti on those of this yeal',
til although tbo psaacii of 1894 wae not an aN
together bad ore, it it ilnrossible to say how long
Home of the gardens and companies that have been
of late apparently burying their capital in tea
will he able to strugg'e sgainst the depression
from which at the preent nifnnnt the Indian tea
trade is BnSerwg.—Snglishmnn's Overland Mail.

"ROUGH ON RATS."

Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, ants, bed-bugs,
bei'tlcs, insect.-, .-.kunks, chipmunks, gophers. Druggists.
fV, JB. ijmitb k Co., Miidra*, Sole Agu,t«.

BRITISH SCHOOL OF FORESTRY.
It will be of interest to learn what course the
Ceylon Governmeut is likely to pursue when the
new School or College for the study of Forestry is
opened in England. The British in the past, have
been so far behind the great Contiueutal nations in
the study of this important branch of Agricultural
science that it is matter for congratulation that the
apathy that has heretofore been displayed with
respect to it, is no longer to be permitted to exist.
That Forestry, should rank high among those scienc-
es which are submitted to close study has long
been acknowledged; but, until the subject was
dealt with during the present Session of Parliament,
no steps were taken to give effect to that acknow-
ledgment, and we have, as a nation, remained de-
pendent for the training of the oflii ers destined to
serve in the Indian Forest Department upon the
Schools of France and Germany. Although the
scheme for the establishment of a similar School
in England is as yet but in embiyo, no doubt
is entertained, but that it will before very long,
become fully developed, and th it the Empire will
then possess an institution fitted by the varied ex-
perience which its Professors will possesi to impart
ii structioa of as high a standard as any of those
Continental Schools upon which we have bad here-
tofore to rely.

Now, what is to be the course that will be
followed by the Government of Ceylon whtu such a
School is established, as to its relations with our
own Forest Dtpartment? Most of the gen'lemen
who have acted in the past, as Foresters in guarding
and preserving our large reserves of woodland,
were, when they entered upon their duties, wholly
untrained in Forestry. They had, in fact, to proceed
by rule of thumb, or at best upon such acquaint-
ance with the subject of forestry as they could
areiulre by study of publications relative to the
science produced by the Governments of India,
France, and Germany. It will not be denied that,
so far as it has been possible tor them, most of our
Foresters have done good and efficient work j but
it will be acknowledged even by themselves, we
should presume, that they are even yet deficient in
many of the branches which go to make up the
sumtotal of the acquiremMits desirable for thorough
elficiency. They have had to learn their business
at the expense of the colony ; for during their
training it is impossible but that many mistakes
must have been committed by them. Indeed, Mr.
Vincent's Repoit on the Forests of Ciylon proclaim,
fd aid sustained such an indictment; and, if
this is to be removed in the future, it is evident
that it can only be done by restrioting further
admlssloDB to the Department to those who have
b come conversant with their work before reipon-
sjblllty is entrusted to them. In this light, a recent
ai pouitment must bo exoepti d, for it is well"
known that Mr. Al xtrder had a special training .-s
Forester bi fore h- came to Cejion.

Wo learned from Mr. Vincent's Report before
alluded to how varied are the attainments neces-
Fary to constitute a thoroughly efficient Forestry
Ollioer. Forestry is like all other professions : pro-
ficiency in it does not and cannot come hy intuition.
It involves not only questions to he dealt with by
the scientific Aboriculturist, bnt others of a purely
ecom mU char.ic'er, tbo Imowletlge of which can
only be acquired by study nnder those whose ex-
perience had i'cen largo and varied. To thosa
who h.ive attentively read Mr. Vinicnt's Uepi rt
tb« iinportaoce of llii« division of the profeesiou of

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

26g

Forestry will have been strikingly apparent. The
coarse to be follow edin dealing with our forests
must be largely dependent upon the condition of
the markets in which their produce is to he disposed
of. It is manifestly injudicious to foster the growth
of timber which at maturity costs more to remove
to our coasts than it will fetch in the markets of
India, China or Europe, The tastes and wants of
the consumers of timber elsewhere must be studied
and consulted if our foresis are ever to be made
to yield any financial return for the expenditure
incurred in their preservation and development.
We may cite in illustration of this point the ex-
traordinary results observable in America owing
to the want of the knowledge which should control
forest operations. We have heard of one case
where the stumps of destroyed trees of the wild
cherry on land in tliat country, had sold for six
times th'i sum originally paid, — but a few years
before — for the land on which they had been grown.
The American walnut, which is now in such ex-
tensive use for furniture and cabinet work in
England, was for a long time a mere drug in the
market ; but of late years we are told it has more
than trebled in value, and the demand for it is
growing far beyond the possi'de rate of supply.

Having thus briefly illustrated some of the points
involved in the profitable study of Forestry we
may return to our original question, as to the
best course for our Government to pursue when
the English Forestry School is open to receive
students. It seems to us that most of the gentle-
men who now compose our local Department might
well be sent home one by one to undergo a course
of training. There are, we should imagine, but few
of them who would object to this arrangement were
their reasonable expense guaranteed, and then,
future advancement might and should be made
dependent upon these Forestry officers being able
to furnish evidence that they had profited to the
full by the course of study opened to them.
We do not want to see our present staff, who
have borne the heat and burden of the day, super-
seded by men from the English School. But we
must not sacrifice ffficiency even to this con-
sideration, and promotion should be made depend-
ent upon present members of the staff qualifying
for it, if the means for obtaining such qualific-
ation are afforded as we have suggested, by the
Government, Bat apart from thus dealing with our
present Staff, it is manifest that we ought to look,
in the ojse of all future appointments to quolified
Btudents who will receive the diploma of the new
School. Under such conditions we may hope to see
removed any cause for such etrioturea as were con-
tained in Mr, Vincent's Keport.

RICE CULTIVATION IN JAPAN AND
CEYLON,

It is a ourioua fact that just a^ we have been
discussing the proflta from Kice Cultivation lu
Ceylon under Irrigation, and comparing these with
the re«n!t9 ac'ii' V'd by the Sn.liale^e in other
agricultural industries, papers from Japan should
reach us full of a discussion on the same subject
and advocating in some cases the supersession of
rice growing alt'igetber. This is the policy which
a cjntemporary most unjustifiably attributed to
One of the speakers at the recent meeting who,
hoB-ever, never fftid one word about the people
abandoning existini; paddy fields or turning them
to any other purpose than the cultivation of rice.
The goutroversy in Ceylon, however, has a direct J

benriag on the future extension of native cultiv-
ation : whether, under the auspices of Govern-
ment it should be solely directed to rice-fields
and the growth of p.addy under irrigation works
wliich may be restored or repaired ; or whether
Government should not rather in certain districts
encourage other agricultural industries suited to
the climate, soil and the genius of the people.
This latter policy, we need scarcely say, has received
our support. But we find our Japanese con-
temporaries after cnmpaiing the great advantages
which their huge neiijhbour China with its
far-extendiug alluvial plains has for rice-growing
over their own islands with their broken rugged
configuration,— (just as we have been comparing

Northern India or Burniah and Ceylon) calmly

advocating 'the total abandonment of rice cultiv-
ation and the conversion of their fields into
mulberry plantations for the establishment of sericul-
ture ! The following summary from the Japan
Weehy Mail shows that English editors well
acquainted with the condition of the country give
the propo al of their Japanese contemporaries a
general approval. The reasons adduced by the Mail
are of considerable interest to us in Ceylon, We
secured, when in Tckiyo, a series of photographs
by a native artist of tlie various operations con-
nected with the outdoor work in the rice (and tea)
fields in Japan, and there can be no doubt of the
superior advantages of sericulture to a people and
laud so admirably adapted for its promotion. And
in the same way there are dL-stricts in Ceylon where
official encouragement might well lead the natives
into new industiies likely to prove as beneficial
to the people and the country at large, as paddy-
growing. We quote as follows ; —

Sericultuee versus Eioe-growing,

Ohma being a country of grand rivers has been,
in a manner, condemned by nature, to periodical
inundations. But the case is different with Japan,
where, owing to the peculiar configuration of the i.slauds',
no river of more than second class magnitude is to be'
found. Japan ought therefore, to be proportionately
free from inundations, were it not for her people's
peculiar device of building up the stream.s until, their
beds becoming raised above the level of the surrounding
country, they are couverted into huge mill-races, ready
to pour their waters out upon the neighbouring
district through the smallest Haw in their banks. This
is especially the case in the regions about Kyoto and
Osaka, auil the consequences have been forcibly illu.strat-
ed by the recent disastrous floods. The Jiji Shimjio,
with characteristic thoroughness and daring, recommends
a heroic remf dy against the recurrence of similar
disasters ; namely, the al>audoumeut of rice cultivation
and the conversion of the rice fields — for the irrigation
of which these elevated rivers are used— into mulberry
plantations. Our contemporary points out that the
gross Income derived from an acre of land devoted to
sericultural purposes is from 60 to 150 ^en, whereas the
income derived from the same area devoted to the
production of rice is ouly from 3B to 43 i/en. To this
argument may be added, what is unquestionably the
case, that the labour entailed by the cultivation of
rice is of a far severer and more degrading nature
than that required of sericulturists. Considering these
things, it seems to us that the Jiji Sliinijio has struck
a note which ought to harmonize with the instincts
of all true reformers in Japan. In connection with
the special object of the suggestion, namely, the
prevention of iimudatious, an objection of course
presents itself. The mere act of abandoning rice
cultivation will not ccmrine the rivers to their every-
day beds. Doubtless the Tokyo journal's meaning
is, that these elevated streams have ceased to perform
the functions of imtural drains, and that their waters
should be conducted out of such artificial channels
into rout's where au overflow would no longer be

'i^6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

a calamity. But, in all probability, this could not
be effected without an outlay of toil and funds which
would Buflice to secm-e the rivers, in their present
form, against serious accident. We do not profess
to speak with any confidence upon this point. It is
one that demands special knowledge acquired in loco.
We only say that whether rice cultivation be abandoned
or persevered with, the rivers cannot be left to take
care of themselves, in their elevated channels, and
that unless the trouble of cariug for them can be
obviated, the advautnge of the proposed _ exchange
of industries ceases to have any direct bearing on the
problem of muudatious. But with regard to the
general question of sericulture against rice-growing,
the recommendation of the Jiji Shiiiijw deserves
support. Kice farming has long been recognised as
one of the most trying forms of labour. Nothing
could be more injurious to the health than a business
which keeps people, from morniog to evening, wading
in deep mud with a fierce sun beating down upon
their heads and pestilential exhalations rising up all
round then). It is a cruel sight to see women and
young girls condemned to such toil, and one feels
that the intelligence of the rice-farmer must necessarily
remain undeveloped or his lot would become intolerable.
Sericulture, on the other haad, makes no large
demiind on the physique, and is essentially an
occupation consistent with reiinement and civilization.
It is at least as well suited to the soil and climate
of Japan as rice-growing, and very much better
suited to the nimble fingers and artistic instincts of
the people. It possesses also another advantage, not
to be Ughtly regarded in this country ; namely that
it provides for women an employment not only adapted
to their capacities but calculated to improve their
social status. In no parts of Japan are wives and
daughters so happy or so well considered as in the
silk districts ; whereas the wives and daughters of
the rice-farmers are condemned to toil that degrades
their mind and disfigures their bodies. There is no
apparent reason why rice-land which requires elevated
rivers for its irrigation should not be converted into
mulberry plantations, to the great moral benefit and
largely increased profit of the people. That such a
change would result in over-production, we do not
for a moment believe. It may be a long while
before the people of Europe and America use silk
as largely as the people of Japan, but the demand is
likely to increase steadily,! and will certainly not be
outstripped by the productive powers of these islands.
The time ought to come, too, when the Japanese
will export their silk not raw but manufactured.
Labour is cheap, and the intelligence of the working
classes is considerably above the average. It is a pity
that the abilities of that remarkable outcome of
Japanese civilizatiou, the artist-artisan should be
confined to the production of objects of vcrtu and
that the exquisite fancies which make the weaver
and dyers of Kyoto so famous in their own country,
should not be employed in the wider field of manufact-
uring silk goods for the world.

NETHEBLANDS INDU : COFFEE, CINCHONA,
BREWING.
(Traii)lated for the " Straits Times:')

Batavia, 8tb Aug.— The present year's Govern-
went coffee crop in Java was officially estimated
at 614,890 picula on the 30th June, the estimate
being 31,H40 piculs lower than on the 3lBt May,
and about half the average yearly yield. The estate
coffee exported from Java during the first and
second quarters of this year show a falhng-off
amounting to 39 per cent when compared with
the figures for the corresponduig period last year.
More sugar has been exported in the same period
owing to large stocks of it having been held hack
at the the close of last year.

The German New Guinea company mtended, on
the 6th July, to despatch fi-om Berlin an exped-
ition charged with making the needful arrange-
ments for establishing stations there. It will pro-

ceed via Marseilles and caU at Batavia to engage
labourers there.

The Government cinchona crop in Java for the
present year is estimated at 400,000 pounds. The
system of shaving the bark from Ledgeriana trees
has proved so unsatisfactory from trees thus dealt
with becoming so diseased that many of them had
to be uprooted, the result being that experiments
in that line wiU only be conducted on a small
scale.

Batavia, 11th August. — From what we hear
private plantation enterprise is going forward with
rapids strides in Assahan. No less than four to-
bacco estates have been started there of late.

A novel branch of industry is about to be taken
in hand at Batavia. Often has the question been
put why it is that we have to import beer here
at heavy expense from Europe while is quite poss-
ible to brew the article on the spot. The
possibility of doing so has become greater still by
quicker communication with grain producing coun-
tries. Moreover British India and AustraUa, lying
as they do at shorter distances from the colony,
may at present furnish the gi-ain required for beer
brewing. Hence it does not surprise us to hear
that Mr. Dermont Van Schereningen intends, along
with his brother, to start here a brewery the
machinery and other appliances for which along
with the working staff to manage them are to
leave Holland for Batavia this month. When shall
we drink the first glass of Batavia brew ? — Batavia
Dagblad, 12th August.

New Guinea Pkoduot.s. — A few days since a
notice appeared in the Gazette giving the boundaries
of the British and German possessions in New-
Guinea, and portion of the public were reminded
that such a place was marked on their maps. A
correspondent who has spent some time in that
tropical land gives us some interesting particulars
as to its resources. Sugarcane and coffee produce
good crops, ginger grows wild, pepper aud nutmeg
are found on the moist coastlands, the sago palm
flourishes nn the south-weet coaet, while tobacco
is cultivated in all parts; cotton grows luxuriantly
in the uppr valleys, where the land is also
suitabl? for cocoa, cinchona, maize, and arrowroot.
— British Trade Jonrnal

Ceylon Tea in Minxisg Lane.— A gentleman in
I the "tea" business in the Lane writes under date
London, 14th AugVLni:--" The Tropical Agricidtiirist
I for June and July reached me in due course, for
i which accept my best thanks. I ought to have
i written before this, but my time has been so fully
occupied with the new season's China and Indian
teas, that I have not been able to give as much
attention to Ceylon teas as I should have hked to
have done. Our market for Ceylon teas still re-
mains firm, although for the commoner grades it
is a trifle easier. For Indian teas the market has
not been in as satisfactory a state as importers
could have wished, many of the Calcutta bought
teas showing a loss of 3d and 4d per lb., and in
some cases even more. One of the principal features
of the sales last week, was the high prices ob-
tained for some teas from the Blackstone estate,
the broken pekoe fetching 3s 2d, the pekoe 2s 2Ad.
and the pekoe souchong Is 7id. giving the splendid
average of 2s 2Jd. An invoice from the K. A. W.
estates sold yesterday brought very good rates, an
orange pekoe going for 2s 2Jd. and the broken
pekoe 2s 3Jd, which is an improvement on former
shipments. .\n improvement is also to be noticed
in the teas from the Blackwater estate, especially
in the firing."

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

271

FsAORANT Floweks. — The perfume uiBunfacturers
of Nice aud Cannes crush ir)4,000 lb. of Orange
blo3som3, 13,-200 lb. of Acacia tlowers, 154,000 lb. of
Rose petals, 35,200 lb. of Jaeraiue blossoms, '22,000
lb. of Violets, 8,8001b. of Tulieroses, aud a relatively
large amount of Spanish Lilacs, Rosemary, Mint,
Lime and Lemon blossoms every year.

TosiATOEs. — An American contemporary states
that during the past season there were put up
48,508,248 cans of Tomatoes in the United States,
being one-third less than the pack of 18S3, the
decrease in acreage being lieaviest in the eastern
States. It is said that a farmer in Salem County,
New Jersey, last season raised S3 tons of lomaloea
on 6 acres of land. The crop was sold in the can-
ning establishment for 7 dollars (nearly 30s.) pei top.
Kaoi.i>i i.v the Madras Presidency. — It is stated
that Mr. B'oote, of the Geological Survey, has como
across, during his operations about 20 miles from
Trichinopoly, two veins of kaolin and felspar which
promise to be of good quality. Instructions have
been issued for these veins being investigated, as
these materials (the latter being calcined and used
chietly in the manufacture of plaister of Paris) can
be utilised largely and is required much by the local
school of art. — JJadms Times,

A Xew Vise Pest. — The unfortunate province of
Bessarabia which has been sufTering grievously for
some time from a visitation of locuats is now bub-
jeced to a fresh misfortune. It apppears that a
destructive insect whose rapaciousness exceeds that
of the phylloxera has made its appearance in the
extensive Bessarabian vineyards. The insect is
described as of simiUr siz-i to the phylloxera, but of
a different and unknown species, A special com-
mission ia leaving Odessa for Bessarabia in order to
Lt" suit O' means for the destruction of this new
p.rtgue - DrtiVy Nnus.

A xoviiL use, siys an Eastern paper, is being made
ofoister ^ hells by a Hartford, Conn., man, who ia
c I'uing money in his now enterprise. The shells are
plac'd in a patented mill and ground. It has a
cipaoity of five tons a day. By an ingenious ar-
r ngemeut sieves are kept at "work assorting the dust
mtu tine, coarse and insufficiently treated. The tine
and the coarse are taken by the elevator belts to
the floor below, where, through canvas chutes,
re. ulated by wooden slides, barrels are rapidly filled.
The product is sold for chicken feed. Twenty tons
and rn >re aie sent yearly to San Fianc'sco, orders are
filled from U'estern States, and Bermuda and the Sand-
wich island-! have been supplied. — European Mail.
Cinchona Bakk Sales. —Local sales of Govern-
ment cinetioaa (crown) bai k will continue to be luld
in Madras until further orders. To give stability
and certainty to the market, however, and so to
reduce the risk of loss within the narrowest possible
limitn, the Government directs that salen be held in
Mairas on the first Monday of September, October,
November and December in each ye.ir. T" add still
further to the stability of the market, and so to
enable home deaUrs to make arraugenierts, if they
wish, for buying bark in Madras through corre-
spondent', the Government resolve to guarantee that
for the next two years, a quantity of " crown" baik,
not letiS than 17,500 lbs. will be placed on the
market at each of the four sales to he held in each
year. They will also arrange that samples of the
bark to be offered at each .sale, with oliemical
analyses attached, shall be avail.ableat M.-.dras for a
fortnight .ind at the India Office for six weeks or
80 before the dates of sale in Madras. For this
purpo3e, the Direc'or will send the samples direct
to the Master Attendant in time to enable that
officer to ship thomr so that they may be at the India
Office by the proper time. — Madras Mail.

Planting in Brazil.— A well-informed resident

in Rio de Janeiro writes to us by this mail :

"The planters here are really hard-up. As yet
there is no interest manifested in the improved
methods of cultivation which your journal so ably
di.-cuBses ; but I am inclined to think that when
slavery goes the old planting methods will begin
to yo also."

Tea Machineuy. — A planter writes : — " I send
you a lithograph of Baillie's Tea Breaker made by a
Glasgow House ; also a lithograph of a Tea Drier by
the same firm. One or more of these driers have
been sent to India and a report is waited for. The
breiiker gives satisfaction in India. The drier is in
shape like the old sirocco ; the firing arrangement
is quite different, being much stronger and I be-
lieve better in so far as the quantity of fuel re-
quired is concerned. Could you make known some
particulars of the patent law in Ceylon ? [Onr
coi respondent can have a copy of the Patent Ordin-
ance No. 0 of 1859 for a few cents.] As far as I
have heard it, it is monstrous. 1 suggested to
my friend a top for his drier like the newer Sirocco
but before he could adopt it the newer Sirocco was
brought out, aud is, I am advised by Messrs.
Davics & Co., patented The late tea roller cases too
seem hard on new arrangements. When at home
many years ago I saw a machine at work in Glasgow.
The motion, us far as I can rt member it, was the same
as Jatkson's tea rollers. The machine I refer to was
called astfam ma.'Ou, and was need for grinding down
stones toau even surface. Would the importation of
that machine be an infringementcf Jackson's jatent ?
I am writing home for particulars of it."

Feakful Mortality of Poltnesians in Fiji.— "A
Fijian White " writes to the Fluiiters' Gazette : — "With
further reference to labour, the men who have experience
of other labour, such as may be obtained in the Southern
Provinces of India, are the best judges as to the value
of the Fijian as an estate labourer; and they have
informed me that the Fijian is utterly useless for general
work. I am clad he refers to the Polynesian slavery
as being ' repugnant to the sentiments of liunianity,'
but as he has omitted to statei the rate of mortality,
I may as well enlighten humanity at a ilistiiuce. In
18ti2 the death-rate ou an estate on the Eewa Eiver
was upwards of 60 per cent ; ou auotaer place in 1884
seventy odd men were recruited at a cost of £27 per
head ; they .all died within six months. On another
place in 18S1 or 1882 forty-seven men were recruited,
and they all dieil to a man within a few months. Items
of this sort are not included in my statement of cost
at 2s per day. Your correspondent is further mistaken
as to tlie cost of Indian coolies in 1884, they cost £24
per head, with a recent intimation from the immigration
department that the rate for 1S85 will exceed that of
1884. That is, double the cost to Mauritius and some
of the West India islands. The immigration depart-
ment itself is probably the worst managed of any in
the colony, and the man who till recently occupied the
appointment of ' Ageiit-Gi-neral,' is held "in the greatest
contempt by planters gn-at and .small. The service in
Fiji, or as they themselves term it, the ' forlorn hope,'
consists of ruined cotton planters and Fonie reformed
tipplers, who have been excommnnicated from the
society of their early life, — with the excention of the
very able man who has been acting as administrator
during the absence of Kir Wm. Des Voeux and Mr.
Thurston, there is not one among them who has had
experience oi oiKcial eniplovment out of the Ci>lony.
True, Jlr. Horn did write a jiamplilet on the nature
and resources of the country, and it is e<jiially true that
he arrived at conclusions that have since been proved
to be erroneous. Where are the coffee estates that ho
said would rival Ceylon ? where the cotton, cinchona,
aud half-a-dozen other products Iw refers to? they
remain only in the memories of the unfortunates who
possessed them, and in the peculiar imagination of your
correspondent."

272

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885,

SuoAB Making. — The following extract from
the "American Cultivator" describes a new process
which, if successful, ought to revolut onize sugar
production : — " The new process of siiyar making
brought forward in Berlin by Trobach is purely
chemical differing matfrially from the mechaniol
process now in use, and, in the opinion of author-
ities on the subject, w^ll. if it shall prove to be
all it is claimed to b?, elt'ect a revolution in sugar
manufacture and cheapen the article still more.
This method dispenses with crushing and pressing
altogether. The cane is cut into slices by means
of machinery, and the water extracted from it
by alcohol vapor, which, haviug an affinity for
the water, absorbs it, but leaves the saccharine
in the desiccated cane ; this is then treated with
liquid alcohol, wich extracts the sugar, and after-
wards the sugar is extracted from the alofhol, or
the alcohol from the sugar, by filtering through
lime and chalk. There is by this method no
difficulty in extracting all or nearly all the
saccharine from the cane."

OSTBICH Farming.— I paid a flying visit to the flourish-
ing and picturesque little town of Gawler, during my
st.ay in South Australia, and visited the ostrich farm
about four miles away. This particular farm, I under-
stand, pays remarkably well ; and there is no reason
why more of them should not exist in Australia. The
farm includes about 170 acres. The inteihgent manager
of the farm, Mr. Kankiue, was very ready to give one
all the information required. There are about 100 adult
ostriches, which are enclosed in '2G paddocks formed of
wire fencing. The ground is left in its natural and
uncleared state of bush. One male and one female bird
are usually enclosed in each paddock, for although
ostriches are not monoganiic, yet if two females are
placed in the same paddock with the male, the latter
usually selects one as a favorite, to the neglect of the
other. The eggs take about six weeks to hatch. For-
merly the hatching was arificially performed by incub-
ators, but it was subsequently found that the birds would
sit and hatch the eggs themselves. In this task the
male assists the female bu'd, so that the old story about
the ostrich burying its eggs in the sand and leaving
them for the sun to hatch is a zoological libel. All the
birds were in a most healthy condition, as was evidenced
by the bright colour of the legs and mandibles. They
are fed twice a day on lucerne and cabbages, with au
alternative diet of maize and turnips, aud of course
the birds get the necessary pebbles and stoues for
gizzard trituration for themselves out of the ground. I
was much amused as 1 drove round the farm by the
humorous old manager, a genuuie Scotchman, addressing
the long-legged, long-necked birds — which frequently
came much too near to be pleasant — by antique Scottish
patriotic names. One is "Roderick Dhu,'' others "Bruce"
and " Wallace," &c. The breeding birds for this farm
(which was only started four years ago) cost £100 each.
lu some of the paddocks were docks of six and eight
young ostriches — pretty little objects, with peculiar
stripped markings. They are altogether of a different
colour to the parents, aud in the Zoological Gardens
I was very much struck with the striking resemblance
the young of the emu bear to those of the ostrich —
illustrating the zoological truth that the young of the
species of the same or nearly allied genus approach e.ach
other much more nejirly than do the adidts. It is not
until the youug male is a year old that be begins to
assume his chrtracteristic black coat. When the young
birds are only eight mouths old some of their feathers
may be taken. As they get older the feathers are
plucked every four mouths, and as many as weigh one
pound and three-quarters are not unfrfMpii'iitly taken
from a single bird. There is a feather storeroom at the
farm, where we saw the h:n'vcst. I was pleased to hear
that the Ciawler Ostrich Farm was a success, inasmuch
as it is only "ue out of nuim.ous similar euterprizfS
which the clirnnt'' of Australia will profitably enable its
inhabitants to undertake. —^lK.s(r<iJii.<i«H.

Jip.iN Tea. — It is said that the Yamashiro districts
produce nearly one-third of all the tea grown in
Japan, and that very little more than half the tea-
plants will be saved from destruction in those dis-
tricts in consequence of being so long submerged by
the recent floods. — Japan WceMij Mail.

A Wash to Kill Scale. — Kerosene, three gallons
whale oil soap, half pound ; water, one gallon. Dissolve
the soap in hot watf^r and add boiling hot to the oil,
Ohurn the mixture at least live or ten minutes, if possible
through the spray nozzle of a good force pump. The
emulsion is a thick cream which should adhere to the
surface of glass and show no oiliuess. For use dissolve
one part of emulsion with ten parts of water. The above
formula is for thirty gallonsjof wash. — Gardeners^ Jfoitihij/,

Sugar, Cacao &c. in Trinidad. — Says the Dom-
inica Dial of 20th June : — The Port of Spain Gazette
" understands " that Mr. L. Agostini has formulated
a scheme for loans by the Government to the Trini-
dad sugar planters, on the security of their annual
crops. The cash is to be advanced by the Colonial
Bank on the guarantee of the local authorities, the
Bank waiving all claim to crops. The Trinidad
Agricultural Society have passed resolutions with
the view of "preserving birds and cultivating
fibre." Much apprehension has been awakened in
Trinidad in respect of the locusts, a " swarm of
young creepers " having been found destroying cacao
leaves.

Tobacco. — I send you a sample of Deli tobacco
grown at Kudat by a peripatetic Australian. It is
only partly fermented, but is declared by Mr. Lind,
Manager of the German Tobacco Company's Estate
at Bauguey, to be a really good sample of tobacco
of fine fallow colour. This sample is from a small
trial planting produced on Success Hill Estate with
a vitjw of testing the soil and to obtain acclimatised
seed for next year s operation. There are thousands
of acres of land equally suitable for the production
of tobacco without going far away. If the Company
will only give reasonable encouragement to euter-
prizing Europeans this industry can be made a
source of substantial wealth to the North Borneo
Company. — airails Times.

Coffee Flourishing in Assam: What next? —
Fifteen degrees north and south of the equator have
always been given as the outside limit for the
successful growth of our old staple; but we learn of
a cofl'ee clearing in Assam extending over lUO acres
being in a most flourishing condition with no sign
of leaf. disease and with the portion in bearing
yielding at the rate of IJ lb. of a line sample of
beans per tree. The history of the experimeut is
that Mr. T. C. Audersou, of Dikoya, when passing
through Calcutta on a visit to his brother, an Assam
tea-plantei', took with him some coffee stumps from
the Calcutta Botanic Gardens which so succeeded
in growth that it was determined to give coffee
a full trial. Mr. Anderson accordingly sent a stip-
ply of carefully selected and sulphured .'^eed from
Ceylon, and he also sent up some coolies to do the
nursery and planting — th". said coolies being also
sulphured to get rid of any of the fungus germs !
The result is a clearing of 100 acres of as tine coifee
as could be desired ; it was reported on very favour-
ably not long ago by a Ceylon planter, hi^ only
doubt being if the berries would ripen up properly.
But the latest news is that the crop is coming in
most satisfactorily. It will bo a curious circum-
stance, if coincidently Ceylon planters should give
their .\s-iam brethren a uew and pr.ilit ilile pr.iduot
in coffee, just as they are beginning to compete with
them seriously in tea.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

273

Mr. C. SPEAEJIAN ARMSTRONG'S LATEST

CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITERATURE OF

THE TEA ENTEEPEIZE IN CEYLON.

Surely the Colony, the (Tovernment and especi-
ally those engaged in the culture and manu-
facture of tea owe a heavy debt of gratitude to
Mr. Armstrong. One of the earliest pioneers of
the enterprize in its practical and appreciable as-
pect, Mr. Armstrong has brought to bear on our
new staple faculties keenly observant and a mind
singularly retentive of all valuable facts, whether
developed in the culture or the manufacture of
tea. But he has not contentend himself with stor-
ing up facts and jirinciples for his own use and
guidance. On the contrary, nothing has been more
conspicuous in the career of this model planter
and gentleman, than the frank and unreserved
readiness he has ever shown, at the various stages
in the progress of the industry, to place at
the disposal of his brother planters and the pub-
lic at large 'the results — contirmed correct or modi-
fied— of his accumulated experience as a tea-grower
and a tea-maker. In his successive papers we have
information on which we can rely as conscienti-
ously correct, including his latest deliverance to
the effect that from Ceylon estates tea can be
placed free on board at Colombo for a maximum
of 36 cents of a rupee i^er lb., a fair average
being 30 cents. Mr. Armstrong adheres to his
high estimates of yield, stating his conviction
that estates giving an average of only 300 lb. per
acre will be more rarely found than those which
yield 500 lb. He takes the sensible business \iew
that good, substantial pluckings, realizing average
prices of Is 3d to Is 6d in the London Market,
will, in the end, pay better than very tine pick-
ing with correspondingly high prices. Mr. Armstrong,
also, while deprecating and avoiding " odious com-
parisons, " holds that, after a certain period of
growth, the yield on elevated hill estates and low
valley gardens will be fairly equalized, the finer
tia\our of the high-grown leaf asserting itself more
than it seems yet to have done. If the charge
of optimism is brought against Mr. Armstrong,
he has a ready answer in the encouragement
which his own experience has afforded for " length-
ening the cords and strengthening the stakes,"
of the well-managed and evidently profitable " con-
cern " he has built up on Rcokwood amidst the
ranges, over which the liionarch of Ceylon mount-
ains, Pidurutalagala, looks out, to and beyond
the plantations of Hewaheta. AH who have pro-
fited by the knowledge so freely communicated by-
Mr. Armstrong will cordially wish him success in
a degree which, the greater it is, the more they
will rejoice in its realization.

A great and most valuable characteristic of
all Ml-. Armstrong's utterances is the candid hon-
esty with which he gives his opinion as to the
relative merits of the appliances for the manu-
facture of green tea leaf into the dried product,
which are competing for the favour of the tea
planters. Like the vast majority of those who
have practically tested the merits of varied and
rival machinery, Mr. Armstrong emphatically awards
the palm to Mr. Jackon's rollers; the Hand Roller,
Universal and Excelsior being good, lietter, bestj
only in their superior capacity for work. But,
when it comes to drying the "tea and sorting it,
he prefers Davidson's siroccos (giving his reasons)
for the one process and Gore's recently invented
33

and very moderately priced sifter, for the other.
He is not blind to the merits of .Jackson's mach-
inery, but he evidently feels as we do that the
eminent tea engineer, whose inventions receive
such justice at the hands of Messrs. Marshall & Co.
of Leeds, is in no sense a cheap Jack(son). But
Mr. Armstrong shows his appreciation of quality, by
advising planters to spend their last cent, rather
than not have at their disposal, when the "rush"
crisis comes, a large, well-ventilated, well-furnished
factory. In justice to Mr. Armstrong's political
economy and financial morality, however, we feel
bound to point out his recommendation that the
last cent is only to be spent on a complete tea-
house and tea machinery, when it is available, in
gradual instalments, as yield and profit increase.
In the matter of a hand roller at R.500 and its
lierformances, however, while accepting Mr.
Armstrong's account of his own experience as be-
yond question, we feel bound to say that ours has
not by any means been so favourable. The roller,
whether worked by cooly or water-power, has done
its work well, but, so far from its capacity being
equal to 40 to .50 lb. of green leaf at a fill, 87
has been the maximum on an estate in which we
are interested. Half-an-liour, too, has been much
nearer than 20 minutes, to the time required for
rolling. Altitude, which is high, but not much
higher than Rookwood, may account for the longer
period required for the rolling; but even a gen-
tleman interested in the roller, to whom we left
the tilling of it, did not blame our leaves. We
fear we should require Mr. Armstrong's help to
get l.fiOO lb. of leaf rolled in 10 hours by the
hand roller. But more curious still, while Mr.
Armstrong is emphatic in his approval of the Uni-
versal roller, which costs considerably more than
twice the price of the hand roller, he represents
the former as doing 'very little more work than the
latter, l,(iOO lb. of green leaf rolled in a day of 10
hours, or 2,000 lb. if pressed. The logical conclu-
sion from Mr. Armstrong's statements would seem
to be that the owner of a tea estate should (the
Ceylon roller, prepared at Mr. Armstrong's recom-
mendation, not being ready) pass from the hand
roller to the Excelsior, which is stated to be cap-
able of rolling 8,000 lb. green leaf (the equivalent
of 2,000 lb. of dry) per diem. The difficulty is
that most coffee estates, converted into tea estates,
have got water-wheels of only 16 feet diameter,
with buckets the capacity of which was estimated
with reference to the friction offered liy a coffee
pulper. That is our difficulty, requiring as we do
the services of an excelsior, and during our recent
trip through the tea districts, this question of water-
wlieels and their power was a subject of special
interest to us. On Imboolpittia, thanks to the
courtesy of Mr. Hogg, we saw a wheel 21 feet in
diameter, but with buckets narrower even than
those of our 16 feet water-wheel, while the water-
supply did not certainly exceed that which for most
of the year we can command for the whole of the
year by means of dams; evaiwration at nearly
6,000 feet altitude not being great. By the help of
a Jiij-ulieel the Imboolpittia wheel was equal not to
one excelsior merely, but, we believe, to two. Then
on Windsor Forest and Pen-y-lan we saw. twin
wheels, 14 feet in diameter, but with buckets of
fully one-third capacity more than those of our 16-
feet wheel. Those 14-feet wheels turned Excelsiors
easily and with power to spare. Having observed
all this, we ventured to dispute the dictum of the
leading engineering house in Colombo, although en-
dorsed by Messrs. Jackson and Armstrong, to the
effect that a 16-feet water-wheel, as supplied by
Messrs. John Walker & Co. for working a pulper,

274

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

couUl not be made equal to working an Excelsior
roller. "The capacity of the buckets can be in-
creased," we insisted, "and a fly-wheel can be add-
ed, to increase momentum," and finally we made
a "paction" with our good friends M-essrs. John
Walker & Co., that if a member of their firm would
make the alterations and additions we wished, the
responsibility of failure to work the Excelsior, if
failure accrued, should be ours, not their's; and,
accordingly, the experiment of adapting a Ifi-feet
diameter coffee pulper wheel to the working of an
Excelsior roller will be shortly tried at Abbotstord
and the result published. The letter of "D. K. M. "
which reached us while writing, which will be
found elsewhere, and which impeaches Mr. Ai'm-
strong's infallibility as to hydraulic laws, or at any
rate the principles on which the power of water-
wheels depends, gives us fresh hopes of success.
In fact, we believe our good, though at first scept-
ical friend, Mr. Walter Lamont, of Messrs. John
Walker & Co., is himself now convinced that suc-
cess is possible and is determined to achieve suc-
cess even if he has to gratify our whims of en-
larging the wheel buckets and having a fly-wheel
attached.

We feel bound, after some observation and
reading, entirely to agree with Mr. Armstrong's
preference for the upright water-wheel as com-
pared with the turbine. But we cannot help
believing that Mr. Armstrong has not sufficiently
appreciated the value to Ceylon tea planters of
what our American cousins call "water privileges."
To a very large number of the mountain plant-
ations of Ceylon can be applied the dictum of
the Scotchman about a place in Ambagamuwa.
Addressing the proprietor, he said, " I dinna ken
aboot yer breed, [bread] , but, my certy, yer
water will be sure." It is not simply the volume
of water but the fall which can be secured that
tells in the obtainment of power, and we think
our readers will sympathize with the feeling
which led us to resent the suggestion of import-
ing a steam engine to an estate which is known
to the Tamil coolies as Anivi Tottam, the Water-
fall Ciarden. A steam engine requires skilled
attendance, and if not carefully managed is apt
to " burst up." Of course steam power must be
employed where water is scanty and the fall slight
or nil.

But on the vast majority of the hill plantations,
at least, of Ceylon, water jjower is abundant,
and we may be doing some of our readers a
service, by quoting a few details regarding the
force of element, and how that force can best
be utilized: —

(From Mohsv^oTilCs Pocket Book of EnfjinenruKi Fovnr
•ulce 31st Edition.)
Theoretical power being 100

Undershot water-wheels '35

Poncelct'.s undershot water wheel "60

Breast wheel '55

High breast 'GO

Overshot wheel '68

Turliine "70

From the above it will be seen that the super-
iority in power of the turbine is not such as
to compensate for its admitted greater liability
to accident. Where there is abundance of water,
there is, clearly no motor so effective and at
the same time so simple and so little liable to
get out of order as the overshot water-wheel.
But the effectiveness of the overshot wheel de-
pends not only on the number and capacity of
the buckets and the mass of water projected on
to the wheel, but also on the direction in which
the water is made to fall, so that in running

away it may offer the least amount of resistance
to the movement of the wheel in its lower portion.
This is very clearly explained in the well-written
article on water power in Cliumbers's Encijclo-
piedia : —

The most usual, and generally the most eligible,
mode of applying water to the driving of machinery
is by means of a vertical wheel ; and the wheel is
put in motion either by the water acting on blades
or floats by impulse derived from its velocity acquired
in fading, or by the weight of water being applied
to one side of the wheel. The former mode of ap-
plying the water is generally adupted in low falls,
say under six feet or thereabout, and to what is
called an undershot whctl— i. e., a wheel where the
effective head of water is below the level of the centre ;
and to make the applicatinn efficient, that portion
of the periphery of the wheel measuring from the
point of impact of the water to a point directly
below the centre, requires to be surrounded by a
casing generally of stone, but sometimes of cast-iron,
called the arc, closely fitted to tbe rxtremiti of the
floats, so as to prevent any considerable escape of water.
The other mode of applying the waler to a vertical
wheel hy making it act by its gravity, is the more
perfect and economical mode, where circumstances
will admit of it, and is generally adopted in falls of
any considerable height, say of six feet and upwards,
and where the water can he let on above the level
of the centi'e. The wheels are called respectively
hi'east and oecrsliot wlieih, according as the wati r is
let on more near to the level of the centre cr to the
crown of the wheel ; and they have, instead of
straight floats curved or kneed buckets, according as
they may be made of iron-plate or of wood, and of
such a shape as to retain the water down to the lowest
p issihie point. There are generally in good wheels
ventilating openings in the sole for the escape of air.
The overshot wheel has this disadvantage that, as the
water has little or no power until considerably past the
top centre, the wheel is burdened with a useless weight
of water.

The direct overshot wheel without changing its di-
rection, right over the top, which arrangement has
this advantage that as the top of the wheel moves
in the same direction as the stream, it gets the benefit
of the whole initial velocity and impulse of the water ;
but, on the other hand, the bottom of the wheel, if
at all immersed in water, which it generally is to some
extent meets with obstruction by moving ag.allist the
current.

Tho pitch-hack overshot is a modification of the last,
making the water to pass alongside tho wheel, and
then to return and be let on the top of the whejl
hi a contrary direction. This requires longer and more
complicated troughs, and by the change in direction,
part of the impulse from the water is lost, but the
bottom ol the wheel moves in the dh-ection of the
tail-water, and is not liable to be impeded by being im-
mersed in it.

On the whole, it is generally thought better to apply
tho water at about 30 degrees from the top of the
wheel. In such high-breast or n>arly over-.shot wheels,
the water is let on the buckets over the top of the
sluice, which is made to open by lowering, and shut
by lifting. In this way, however small may be the
quantity of water, it is always applied the highest
possible lei'el, which is of importance when it is its
weight multiplied by the height of decent, and not its
impulse, that yields the effective power.

The structure of the overshot and breast wheel is
nearly the same as that of the undershot, excepting in
the substitution of curved buckets, or angular buckets,
for straight floats; but even in the undershot wheel the
floats are sometimes made with a slight curvature.

In reckoning the power of water, its weight being
e2i lb. to a cubic foot ; theoretically, 528 feet falling
vertically 1 foot a minute, would he cijual to 1 Boulon
and Watt horse-power of 33,000 lb. lifted 1 foot a
minute ; but the effective power is far short of that, and
60 per cent of it, requiring 880 cubic feet, falling 1 foot

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

275

a minute, is generally reckoneil a fair allonaiice for an
effective horse-power. Ses-enty-five per cent, rcriuiriLig
704 feet, falling 1 font a minnte, is about the highest
that has ever be-u spoken "f, and it is doiil)tful
whetliLT even more than 70 per cent has ever
been attaineil ; while with low falls and imperfectly
constructed wheels, it is often reckoned that a horse-
power requires nearly 1,(100 cubic feet a minute.
Even without the diagrams, we think the main
principles here enunciated, will be easily under-
stood by intelligent readers and will justify our
contention that the 16-feet coffee estates water-
wheel, so numerously scattered over the country,
either is ^ or can be easily altered into a motor
quite sufficiently powerful to work at least an ex-
celsior tea roller. The experiment will at any
rate be tried. Mr. Armstrong agrees that a coftee
store can be transformed into a good tea
factory, a fact of which we have entertained no
doubt since we saw the transformed store on
Oonouoogalla.

But not only does the tea planter, even if he
dries his tea by means of siroccos, instead of
Jackson's motive machines, require more, more
complicated and more expensive machinery than
did the coffee planter, but the difference in addi-
tional cubic and especially in horizontal space,
necessitated by the exigencies of the new and
more delicate staple, is tremendous. A single
pound of green tea leaves, thinly spread so as
to enable the "withering" process to be properly
carried out, will occupy fi square feet of floor or
Heshi.i.n cloth shelf. .Supposing, therefore, that a
tea estaLe yields the quantity of leaf which Mr.
Armstrong estimates will give an Excelsior roller
employment for a day of 10 hours, viz., 8,000 lb.,
the horizontal space required for the withermg
leaf alone would be 48,000 square feet, and as
passages must be left clear, the real space en-
closed must be about 60,000, counting floors and
superimposed shelves. But the time is coming
when at certain seasons of the year, the leaf
gathered on good sized estates will be not merely
8,000 lb. per diem, but fourfold that quantity.
For such a gathering 200,000 feet at least of
square horizontal surface would be required, and
the feeling of despair superinduced by the con-
templation of such a requirement, causes us to
turn with thankfulness to Jlr. Armstrong's assur-
ance that, after all he has said in favour of wither-
ing m a moist atmosphere, and a shade temperature
not exceeding 80°, drying in the sun's rays can,
in cold weather, be resorted to without damage
to the tea, or any chemical effect beyond a red
colour which the men of "the Lane" do not object
to. Now, although we are aware, that the exposed
thermometer is not altogether a safe guide, when
it indicates, say, lli0° in the sun against 80°
m the shade, yet *e know that between the subdued
temperature of a shaded space and that of a bare
spot, exposed to the fuU glare of the head and
light rays of the sun, is exceedingly great. While,
therefore, not disputing a statement which we feel
sure was well considered and the result ol sufficient
experience, and which had often previously seen
made m Indian publications, especially with refer-
ence to the preparation of green tea, we should
much like to be informed of the philosophy of
the matter. If withering in the sun answers so
well as iMr. Amistrong points out, why are plant-
ers generally so anxious to protect their gathered
leaf from the direct action of the sun, and why
do Mr. Armstrong and other experts press upon
them so emphatically the provision of enormous
shaded space for drying in a comparatively cool,
It moderately moist atmosphere ; the suggestion
being made that blankets should be placed over

heated siroccos to secure the sine qua non of
warm- moisture. But surely all external moisture
and a good deal of internal must be rapidly dissip-
ated by the direct rays of the sun ? In truth
our mind is much exercised in regard to this
question of withering. Our inclination was to be-
lieve in cool, breezy, frequently changed air, and
so we strongly recommended the use of Blackman's
air propeller. We felt rather inclined to question
if harm instead of good was not done by the
warmth of the siroccos, but we feel bound to
accept Mr. Armstrong's testimony in favour of
warm moist air, exposure to which will give the
softness of fine silk to the leaf, without either
soddening or desiccating it. But we are still
considerably puzzled about withering in the sun.
Perhaps a good compromise would be, a very
short exposure to the outside sun and a finishing
off on shaded but not darkened floors and
shelves ? Boiling, thanks to Mr. .Jackson, is now
" rolling made easy," but when we come to
consider the fermenting process, its delicacy, diffic-
ulty and frequent uncertainty, owing to atmo-
spheric causes, we are deeply impressed with the
conviction that to be a good, efficient tea-planter,
a man must not only be' a competent engineer,
able to ajipreciate the principles of machines, and
when need arises to put them together and re-
pair them ; but have also a fair knoAvledge of
chemistry, and especially the doctrines of ferments.
The change which takes place in a soft moist
covered-up mass of tea leaves, the tissues of
which have been crushed, and the cells of which
have been broken by the action of the roUer,
cannot, with strict scientific accuracy be called
" fermentation," but rather oxygenation, because
neither opportunity nor time has been allowed for
the operations of the minute organisms on which
the setting up of fermentation depends. But Mr.
Armstrong significantly speaks of the danger of
delay until xii/iia of lii'rumposition appear. In such
a case, we suppose, true chemical fermentation
would speedily supervene, and the difficulty — the
great difficulty of the tea-maker seems to consist
in so using a kind of instinctive sense, the result
of long experience and careful observation, as to
draw the line where the oxygenizing should be
stojiped before it passes to the boundary where
the ordinary chemical fermentation process, de-
pendent on the presence of peculiar spores, is
ready to be set up. Withering, though it requires
care and attention, and all possible light and
fresh air, can be conducted in conditions so
varying as sun and shade. The worst effect of
severe rolling, appears to be the obliteration of
"tips," whether silver grey or golden yellow;
while the question of jiroperly firing the ferment-
ed " roll," seems to depend on long or short
exposure to a temperature, not much exceeding
2i;0°, so as to dessicate without burning. But,
with all the care and attention which the most
accomjilished tea-maker can bestow on the process
of so called " fermentation," the final result seems
so largely dependent on meteorological conditions
which cannot be controlled and only slightly
modified, by all the appliances of skill and science,
that the more we know and the more we read
of the tea enterprize, the more we feel the im-
portance of the factor of "weather" in the pro-
duction of first-class, or inferior " makes," for which
the superintendent sometimes gets more credit
than he merits, but much more frequently greater
blame than he deserves. A short time ago, we
asked the owner of an estate famous for its ex-
ceptionally high prices, what the secrets of his
success were. He replied: "Fine picking and

376

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

umler rather than over-fermenting." And so we
determined that the system should he tried. But
here is Mr. Armstrong, our great and trusted tea
authority decrying very fine ijlucking and stating
that, as regards fermentation, we must use our
nose as well as our eyes, after periods extending
from IJ to 6J hours — the longer the period, the
greater the necessity for frequent examinations !
It is in truth evident that a skilful and successful
tea-maker must have all his senses alive and
active and intent on the various and comiilicated
process of his vocation.

Those processes, unlike the few and simple oper-
ations connected with the pulping, washing and
partial drying of coffee — water and not tire being
the chief agent employed — go on, more or less all
the year round, and, unless there is space to
spare and machinery galore, the work of day fre-
quently steals more than a few hours from the
night. Tea-planting is comparatively easy work,
but the manufacture of green leaf into dry is
anything but child's play. Where space, machin-
ery, tea and money are plentiful, however, there
are compensations for hard and continuous work,
which we trust may amply reward Mr. Armstrong
and all our tea-planter readers.

May we ask Mr. Armstrong when the Hibernian
element came into his family ? It asserted itself
when he wrote : — " I have seen, we have all
seen young bushes jticheil to death, to give tine
teas." And then he naively added ; — " How can
these bushes ever develop themselves and give us
the cover which we should get ? " Aye, how in-
deed can these dry bones live ? When they do,
we may exjiect trees which have been " picked to
death " to be able to perform the feat of devel-
oping themselves. There has been nothing better
since the Irish Colonel in India said to his men :
" Ye ate too much, and ye drink too much, and
ye kill yerselves ; and then ye write home and
tell yer mothers that the climate killed ye ! "
There is a story of a Glasgow bailie insisting
that " the defunct " should be called into court,
but that must be " a weak invention of the enemy,"
as Scotchmen never make bulls : they are supijosed
not to have imagination enough. But Mr. Arm-
strong desfrves free forgiveness for a slip due to
the vehemence of his indignation against the
practice of destructive picking of immature tea.
Let planters lay this and Mr. Armstrong's other
lessons to heart, and let them be grateful for
the full details given respecting the best style
of bin construction, fur which many another man
would have secured the benefit of a patent. Be-
sides Mr. Jackson's rollers, Mr. Armstrong strongly
recommends a tea-cutter by the same inventor.
We had somehow got the idea that tea-cutters
had been banished as unorthodox, and, of course,
the finer sorts of tea are not subjected to their
action. Mr. Armstrong feels strong objection to
the far travelling of tea-leaf in the process of
sifting, confirming the feeling we have long en-
tertained, that the sifting process, as generally
carried out, the finishing off being by coolies, is
about the most trying of all to the quality of
Ceylon tea. Frequent handling is deprecated, but
the severe friction which too often accompanies
the sifting and Hnyliiiti processes seems to us, be-
sides accounting for a large proportion of broken
tea and dust, to be the solution of dull-looking
and inferior pekoe. The swinging arrangement
described by Mr. Armstrong seems certainly sup-
erior to the knocking of sieves against hard
substances, in vogue amongst the sorting labourers.
Mr. Armstrjng contemiilates a cement Hoor (than
which nothing could be better), masonry pillars

and wooden walls, jjosts, rafters, reepers, and, we
presume, shingles. Such being the case, we are
rather surprised that he did not enjoin precau-
tions against fire : at least that the woodwork
should all be carefully coated with asbestos or
plumbago paint. The manufacture, or introduc-
tion from America, of the latter substance, by the
way, should engage the attention of Messrs. John
Walker & Co. Factories composed mainly of ii'on
would, no doubt, ofler more chances of inmiunity
from fire, but we fear that such buildings must
be very expensive. We are not aware if any
information has been published regarding the
mammoth iron -buildings imported and erected on
Mariawatte ? We cannot doubt that accompany-
ing models of tea factories and manufacturing
appliances, which are to be sent by the Planters'
Association to the London Exhibition (after being
shewn locally), much valuable information will be "
given as to Mr. Megginson's slielves and other
improved contrivances. Mr. Armstrong anticipates
the best results for tea leaf naturally dried in a
temperature of 75° to 80°. We suppose he
means shade temperature, not infiuenced by sirocco
heat. In that case, how are the high Dim-
bula estates and especially the very lofty plant-
ations of Nuwara Eliya, Kandapola, Udapussellawa,
and Maturata, to manage : a shade temperature
of 75° being rarely attainable, while 80° is a
very exceptional extreme '? We observe that Mr.
Armstrong believes in separating large leaf from
small before withering, but he does not advert to
IMr. Megginson's practice of separating the two
classes of leaf after partial rolling : firing the
small and returning the large into the roller for
further manipulation. He is properly careful to
warn planters not to allow their coolies to squeeze
or bruise the green leaf, which is, in truth,
to be treated as gingerly as Isaac Walton treated
his worms used as bait for fish. We have heard
many stories of tea being fired by a jiroportion
of 1 lb. of firewood to 1 of tea. Mr. Armstrong's
average of 1^ lb. of dnj wood is much nearer
the mark, 2 lb. being required if the firewood is
not well-dried. The difference in toughness and
delicacy of leaf in different districts is recog-
nized, and of course season has its influence.
Mr. Armstrong, too, reminds tea planters that
superior tea cannot result from the first few pluck-
ings after pruning : the leaves being what the
Scotch call " fusionless," with abundance of moist-
ure, and but little tannin, theine and essential
oil. It is a "wrinkle" to "take note of" that
tea is not to be left in the drier until fully desic-
cated, but taken out with moisture in it which
will soon evaporate ; while the finishing off is to
be done at 2li0° and the leaf ixtobe pached ithile
hut : hermetically closed at once, of course. Mr,
Armstrong speaks of good teak as the best sub-
stance for roller tables, but what about paper,
which, subjected to severe pressure, actually takes
a polish, and can by chemical treatment be made
transparent, like glass ? We are still looking for
papier-macli(5 tea boxes, and meantime Mr. Arm-
strong bears favourable testimony to the wooden
boxes from Japan. It is quite evident that too
much attention cannot be paid to keeping the
roller table cleair, as also the cement fioor, on
which Mr. Armstrong sugge!-ts that in the case
of a full bearing estate "bulking" should be per-
foi-med, that is that each particular kind of tea
prepared on diiferent days should be carefully
mi:;ed so as to secure uniform quality, really in-
ferior makes being, of course, excluded. In the
case of a young estate, it is recommended that a
one-ldnd of tea should be sent to market, which

OcTOBF.R I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

277

is just what the owners of young places will
specially object to doing.

Mr. ^Vimstrong's valuable paper is so suggestive
that we oould add further remarks and (jueries.
But here we must close our review, with a
renewed expression of our own gratitude as well
as that, we feel sure, of our readers, that gentle-
men like Mr. Armstrong are so ready to make
public the results of their experience and observ-
:ition.

TUK M.-LN'DFAOTUKE OF TEA: .MR. AKM-

.STRONG'S PAPER.

Dcdtota, 24th August 1S85.
Jlr. Chairman ami Genllemau. — It is my pleasing
duty to give you toda3' my expeiieuct', so far as it goe.-^,
of the mauufaetnre of tea aud the machiuory we at
prcseut use to ai.i us iu tbis. It may not perhaps be
out of place to digress a little, and begin with wliafc I
cousiiler the cheape.st and most suitable form of build-
ing foi' iiur purpose. Thegroundfloorof ourfactorysbould
be 24 ft. wide from cimtre to centre of tlie pillars,
with wings 14 ft. wide at each side, thus giving us 52
ft. clear width for all machinery, bias, packing &:c.
and tllis floor should be of cement. Above tliis «e
should have two floors at 24 ftet wide f r withering.
Length of factory depends on the siza of the gardens
but say 1.32 ft. by 62 ft., upper floors 24 ft., giving
us space as follows : — 24 ft. by 52 ft. for rollers. Motive
power being iu au outride building — 24 ft. sj»ace, vheu
sirocco pit at IS ft. by 8 ft by 5 ft. (J in. Agaiu with 24 ft.
between each, two more Sirocco pits — each pit at 18 ft.
by 8 ft. by 5 ft. 6iu. holds two T siroccos, we have thus,
for withering purposes, spread our .siroccos well over
our bnildiug, giving ample room between each for
bins, picking, sorting, packing ^c. Should more wither-
ing spjce be required a building at 24 feet wide wiih
three floors can be carried out from the centre of the
factoiy, and if a Blackman's air propeller was iu use,
this could be moved to tlic end of the addition and
serve the whole of the withering space, except the
lower floor of the addition.

U'ltheriiKj Shelres. — The cheapest and best I know of
are those invented by Mr. .Megginson at " Carolina,"
Jute Hessian, cut in lengths ttj suit the factory, but
not to excO'-d 24 ft. say, lieing rather uumauugeable
if longer than this; a reeper 1} iu. square is nailed
at each end of the length of ttessian, and projecting H iu.
beyond its width at each siile ; one end is rounded, the
other left square, we then have uprights at 4.3 in. be-
tween each i. e. the widili of the Hessian, aud at tlie re-
quired distance apart, one of which has keyed slots
cut at 6 in. apart, the other a \\ in. augur hole at G in.
also. One cooly fixes the reeper at his end into both
uprights, another cooly oppo site fixing in the rounded
6bd only, rolls the reeper till this is pulled forward at
a gooil slant when he then pulls the .square end back
into the .slot thus stretching the Hessian quite taut.
If the shelves are more than 12 feet in length, an up-
right, about the centre of the shelf will be required
with reepers at 6 in. apart nailed across it, which sup-
ports the shelf, and prevents sagging, 24 ft. lengths suit
best, and are most economical. In collecting leaf for
the roller, each shelf is lifted out, its contents emptied
into the trolley, or on the floor, and replaced ready
for fresh leaf. 12 shelves at 6 iu. apart will be found
most convenient.

Ifitherhii/ Floors. — We cannot obtain a healthy wither
without light and fresh air, and lots of both. The tend-
ency in Ceylon is, I fear, towanls too wide a building
with a floor at 36 to 40 ft. wide as some are. It is almost
impossible, however many windows we may have, that
light auil wholesome air should get to our centre
shelves, through the mass of leaf ijitervening. A double
row of .Mr. Meggin.son's .shelves down the centre of the
floor including S in. centre posts, will tike up 8 ft. 0 in.
At the side walls we have window< ti ft. by 3 ft., at Cft.
apart, and withering shelves between each ; these with
supports &o. will take up 4 ft, (i in. clear, leaving a pass-
a^'e o ft. 3 in. between them and the centre shelves,

Shelves m.ay be stretched across the windows at night,
when pressed for room, being taken down the first
thing m the morning, when the leaf can be re-spread on
the other shelves, as they are emptied for the roller ;
every, scrap of room may be thus utilized.

li'itlit>-iii(/.—Lu:\,{ can hardly be spread too thin,
provided the day is uot too hot or dry. (i feet will hold
I lb. of leaf thiiili/ spread, :i, shelf 21 ft. by 'i It. i) in.
will hold therefore 15 lb. of leaf thinly spreail, or up
to double this should necessity arise, make your
calcvdatious at 2U lb. say, aud you will be right.
Leaf cannot have too much light and f n sh air,
and the best results will be obtained from leaf
withered uaturally, in a temperature of from 75°
to 80° with all wiudows open. In our wet, cold
weather, withering is our one great difficulty, and
at present we have no machine to help us here. Char-
coal won't do, nor will .Siroccos, with leaf applied
direct. Hot moist air is what is required, drawn
rapidly thiough our leaf, and I hope to obtain the
desired result by drawing the not moist air through
my withering lott from the T Sirocco after it pa.sses
through the roll it is firing, with the aid of a black-
mau's Air Propeller, to which our frieuds of the
Observer have so often called ourattention. The Siroccos
are spread throughout tlie whole length of the ground
floor as already shown, there arc doors in the upper
floor above each Sirocco, so that the heat may be
closed oft if not required. Shovild we have no roll
to fire, we can get our moist heat by spreading a
blanket over tlie siroccos kept damp by au occasional
sprinkling of water. I have every faith in this suc-
ceeding, aud am now thus adapting my own fac-
tory. The sooner after plucking, the leaf can be
withered — uaturall,y — ready to roll, the better, but as
night work should be avoided itpo.ssible, it is best for us
to arrauge to have our nioruiiig's delivery ready for
rolling by 4 to (J o'clock the next morning, when our
wither Irom the morning's leaf will be found perfectly
sweet, even up to 10 o'clock. We can generally manage
<luring the dry hot weather to keep our leaf from first de-
livery till inoniiug, by excluding light and .spreading it a
little thicker than is usual. Improperly withered leaf
cannot lesult iu good tea, either as to liquor or outturn,
and our careful attention is necessary in the withering
loft. When leaf is properly withered it is .soft and
silky to the touch, and should uot be hard or dry,
pricking the hand when squeezed. If from leaf getting
ahead of us, our plucking is coarse, separate the finer
from the coarser leaf with 0 No. 3 sieve, and withereach
separately. Do not allow your pluckers to bruise or
squeeze the leaf in their hands or baskets, and as they
empty their plucking basket or cooty sack, as the case
may be, into their store basket, make them turn over the
leaf in the basket, so that it lies lightly. Do not col-
lect your withered leaf for the roller till just before it is
wanted. If necessary leaf may be sunned to bring it
up to the proper point. In cold weather I have found no
harm result from withering my leaf entirely in the snn.
Care must be taken to see the leaf does not get dry,
and it should be moved indoors before it is <|uite fully
withered and allowe-d to cool, by which time it will be
withered to th* degree required. Suu-withered leaf
gives a reddish make and fine strong liquor. A red-
dish make isnotdisliked in the Lane provided it is well
twisted. I'liJeni-illuri, I \ta,f gives a thin light-coloured
liquor with a light greenish outturn. Over.vithered or
dry leaf gives a thin liquor fairlypungent with a ilark ir-
regular outturn. Leaf spread too thickly aud allowed to
get sodden gives a dark thick mawkish liipior, strong and
flavorless, sometimes sour, and a dark outturn. Allow
yourscKes double the withering sijat-e you estimate
you will require, even if a temporary .shed has to be
built, or when your best months come, you will find
yourselves with lots of leaf and nowhere to put it, or
so overcro vding it as to make your worst teas when
you should be making your best. A stronif healthy
)lu.sh, resullingin heavy pluckinss, will f;ive the best lea.
And simply for want of withering-room you may stand
to lose 2d per lb on your t^as. I^'mir to si\ coolies will
attend to l,GUO II> of leaf, with an occasional time off
lor picking out red leaf or work at tea below stairs.

278

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

Rollers and RoUtnf/. — There is no doubt, I think, that
Jackson's rollers are immeasurably superior to all
others. They will roll, according to pressure and speed,
coarse, medium, or fine leaf, equally well. Other rollers,
many of them aclmirable in their way, will only roll
well withered, Juic leaf, satisfactorily ; and are at the
best not half the machine Jackson's is, so I need
not take up our time in expatiating on tlieir good
or bad qualities iudividaally.

As you are aw.ire Mr. J;\ckson has been trying ex-
periments with marble and stone tables, the marble
table I understand has so far not been found
a success, and the Obstrver tells us a brass table is
to be tried. It may be considered great presump-
tion on my part to advise bo clever a patentee as
Mr. Jackson, yet I do not believe any table will be
found better than wood, and for this reason — no mat-
ter how careful we are, we cannot prevent sand and
fjrit getting among our leaf. It is this grit that in
time wears away the bottom table, and I fear so it
will brass or any other material used. IMy table
in constant work, all the year through, sometimes
day and night, lasted nic 2^ years. AVith ready
planed teak planks from Messrs, Walker & Co., one
carpenter can fib in a new table iu a day. As
far as cleanliuess goes, if we souse our tables
well with water as soon as our day's work is over, we
leave them as clean as the day they \vere made. Jack-
son's Rollers are so well-known it is hardly worth while
my going over them. They are : —

Mis Ha,i'l liuller, price at Colombo E500. tit.kiug at
a fill 40 to 50 1-b. of withered leaf, working best at the
smaller fill. Requiring 4 coolies at 25 minutes up to 30
minutes to finish the roll. Muximiim capacity 1,(500 lb.
green leaf per day of 10 hours ; if worked by power
ordinary working capacity 1,000 to 1,200 lb. tureen
leaf per day of 10 houi's. And this roller may be
attached to a water-wheel or other motive p wer, a
14 it. wheel v/ith lots of water will work it.

The Unric^'sal RoUcr^ price at Colombo £92*] 5 sterling.
About the same capacity as above, 2,000 lb. green leaf
maximum, or 1,600 lb. per day if not pres.sed. Roll
finished at 20 to i.'5 ndnutes.

The Ceijloa Roller, price at Colombo £130 sterling,
capacity about 150 lb. withered leaf at a fill, say 5,00)
lb. green leaf per day of 10 hours.

Ike Excelsior Roller, price at Colombo £15815 ster-
ling, capcait-y 240 lb. withered leaf at a fill, or about
8,000 lb. green leaf per day of 10 hours, roll finished
at 20 to 25 minutes.

In starting our Factory if we have not a 16 ft. water-
wheel, or if we have, and economy has to be studied,
the Hand Roller should be purchased. With this before
us, hand-rolling itself is not to be thought of. If iu
the future our motor is to be steam, then is there ;i!]
the more reason to purchase, to begin with, the hand-
roller, as there are often days on which we have small
pluckings when it will pay uk better to work by luui'l
than to get up ste.<im. And with steim a baiid-ro!h r
is never thrn^vn aw.iy, as u;.e never can tell wliin it
may not be wanted.

If we have a IG ft. wheel «nd lots of water, and
money to spare, then begin ^vith the Huiversal, which
is everlasting.

The Ceylon Roller. — This was built at my sug-
gestion to suit our special want-^, it can be
driven by a l(i-feet water-wheel, and with
one of the smaller rollers to back it, is. equal to a
200 acre garden, to at a pinch even 250 acres if we
have lots of water. Most of us who are converting
our poor diseased cotfec fields into everlasting fieldst.
of tea, already have valuable KJ-feet or 18-feee
water-wheels, without the Cti/lon, Roller these aro
useless lumber. Any garden thenforo of from 100 to
250 acres with water-wheels reai]y fixed and water to drive
them, have here the very roller to suit their purpose,
always beginning with oue of the two SMialler rollers.

The Excelsior. — This re(iuires at the least a strong
20 ft. to 22 ft. wheel with /o/.s uf water to drive it, and
may be purchased by auy garden of over 200 acres having
no motive power ready fixed. If an engine is to
work it. I would reconnnend 10 H. P. to be purchased.

6 H. P. will work an Excelsior, but the more power
wo have the more eccnomical it will be in the end,
and we may have to work 2 Excelsiors at one
time, besides other machinery.

Motors. — The most satisfactory and the most
economical is the water-wheel, but wc must first
satisfy ourselves we have lots of water and to spare,
A dam will be of no use, as it will be required
most during the dry weather, and we arc not
now working a coffee-pulper, a matter of 2 to 4
hoars. It may be nece.ssary to work S to 10 hours
at a stretch if not longer. A dam must be larger
then than we can generally make, to be of any use
to us. We will require to conduct half as much
water again to our wheel as we used in our colfee
pulpiug days. I know but few larje estates that have
sufficient water to work all the year through, although
perhaps they can do so for 8 to 9 months. A water-
wheel when once started costs nothing. Use this
power then if you can for 8 months, ami work your
engine for four; the saving in fuel and upkeep
will be great.

The Turbine has its advocates. Of these I have
not sufficient experience to write for or against,
further than to note, they do require a large water-
supply and they do get out of order. If there is
any doubt as to water-supply, steam should be our
motive power, rather than risk the turbine. I know
from sad experience it does not do to work with too
low a power, rather allow 2 to 4 H. P. over what
you calculate you will require. Machinery is then
under command, and full work, can be got out of
it, with less strain to it. Running power too close
to actual requireuients is the falsest economy we can
be guilty of. Working then a garden of 100 acres, 4
H. P. is the least we should have. 150 acres 6 H. P ;
200 to 250 acres S to 10 H. P. ; above 2-50 to 500
acres 12 to 14 H. P.

Rolling. — The roller box should be packed evenly
and not too tight. Do not put too much pressure
on to begin with, but keep on taking it off
for the first five minutes, to let your leaf work well ;
for the second five minutes put on more pressure,
only occasionally easing it ; at the entl of this
five minutes take all pressure otf, and turn your
loaf well, thoroughly breaking it up, aiding the
machine in doiug this, by the hand ; when for the
last ten minutes (we are supposed to finish our roll in
twenty) allow full pressure, taking it off, halfway up,
twice, to break the roll. It is only necessary to see
that the press works with the leaf, rising with a
jump now and then as the roll turns, if the press
is not working with the roll, take off pre.>sure for a
little and break up the roll ; if after this it does not
work, remove some of the weights on the press, which
are arranged to allow of this behig done. Work with full
weights if you can, but the press must work with the
leaf or an uneven roll, or a mash, will be the consequence.
It takes me with ordinary leaf 20 minutes, working at
100 revolutions with the Universal. The Excelsior
shoulil be driven at about 90 revolutions. Alt the
rollers from the baud to the Excelsior are worked
in the same way and take the same time to com-
plete their work. Oa some gardens it takes 30 to
■15 minutes to complete the I'oU ; this is owing to
some local peculiarity in the leaf, stoutness or tough- -
ness. Once find out the right time for each class of
leaf, and it need never be changed. Rither over-roll
than under-roll. lender-rolled tea, although it may
have a gODd appearance, opens smooth in the outturn,
and does not give out its full strength. Well-roUid
tea shows a crinkly outturn, and gives out
its full strength. A^ery tippy tea, from light
roUitig, pleases the eye, but will not give as
good liquor as the s;imc leaf, heavier rolled
with the tips stdned out of all recognition, and it
IS liquor we want more than appearance nowatlays,
although a gooil inak<-, 'i.e., a tight even twist, is a
great thing, auil this with Jackson's roller will always
\)e the case with good liquor. Our roll, if proptily
grished, will show a well-twisted leaf — not in any
■^yay mashed— soft and gummy to the touch. If tippy

October i, 1S85.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

279

tea is wanted, when the roll is lialf fiuisheJ, sift it
through a No. 4, auil ferment otl" what comes through,
rc-i-olHug what renjaius iu. Directly the ilay's work
is douf , thoroughly wash the roller, easily ilonestheu,
but very ilitUcult if left till the juice begins to harden.
Have the top table always turned over out of work ;
it is theu e:isy to be seeu whether it is cleau or no,
and gives no chance to the cooly to leave hit work
half done.

FeiineiUatioK, or, as it is now expre.ssed, oxidization.
I think though wo sliould hold to the former,
thoroughly sift the roll through the hands and break up
all iunips and put litihUi/ into a basket lS"x!)"xG"
at bottom, or into a tray 2 ft. x 2 ft. or 3 ft. x 3 ft.
and 3 inches deep, occasionally shaking it down, not
pressing it. This, covered with Hessian or blankets,
not damped unless the weather is very dry, shoulil
be put in the coolest part of the factory, and left
alone for an hour. KoU thus treated should not be
turned during fermentation, nor should fermentation
on any account be hastened. No time can be fixed
for fermentation to reach perfection, if kept as cool
as possible, it will take any time from \\ to 6^ hours,
the longer the time the more constantly must it be
examined. Examine it after the first hour, and di-
rectly, without too close an examination, it shows
a bright copper colour ; turn it out on tlie tables,
break it up well, a light hand rolling will do it no
barm, and put it in your driers. "With properly
withered leaf well rolled, except in very dry weather
a bright copper outturn is a certainty. In very dry
weather we cannot get a bright outturn, and there is
no use in waiting ou the roll to get it. Young leaf
i.e., leaf for the first three to four rounds after
pruning, will not give a good outturn, being a dark
olive green in color, with a .«moky burnt flavored
liquor. In deciding ou our color we must use
the nose as much as the eyes. .So long as the roll
has a bright appearance aud smells sweet, we may
wait to get colore hut without gaining color {copper
color) should it begin to look dull, wait uo longer or
the nose will next tell us we have waited just too
long — and decomposition has begun.

iJiiers ami Fiiinij. — I need only, I think, refer to two
makers with regard to driers, viz , Davidson and
Jackson. Both driers are excellent in their way, it
being a mere matter of opinion which is the best, —
ray fancy leaus towards the Sirocco; (1) because the
outlay at any one time is less; {2) because they are
most simple to work and require no motive power;
(3) because I would rather have three driers for my
money, than one, as even the best machinery will
get out of order; ' 4) because I can spread the heat
for withering purposes more evenly over my factory;
(5) because in slack time I can roll up to one or two
or more Siroccos as required. For an ordinary sized
garden of 300 to 350 acres say, I would prefer Jackson's
Venetian to his Victoria— the former is said to fire off
801b tea per hour-, about the same ag the sirocco,
costing £100 sterling in London or £127-15 ster-
ling at Colombo as against £00 sterling for the
T Sirocco. As then I could aiTord three or more
Venetians, instead of one Victoria, but although there
is not so much difference in cost here as compared with
the Sirocco yet again comes the objection as to
motive power being required. This where steam is
used is felt all the more, as after all our rolling is
fini.shed we have to keep up steam to work our
driers. For ordinary sized gardens then I would
select before all others the T .Sirocco ; this will
work off 80 lb. made Tea per hour easily, and as
now built are much mere lasting than formerly,
and should the diaphragm plates burn through they
are easily replaced. A pit 18 ft. by 8 ft. by 5 ft. G iu. wiil
hold two of these, and if our g.irden is only a small
one we might have only one in each pit, a loss in
.stoking only, so as to spread the heat throughout
the withei ing lofts, a pit 8 ft. by 10 ft. by 5 ft. (i in. will
then be large enough. If the factory is built ac-
cording to the plan I have suggested, the
smoke chimney should bj led beyond the
upper floor through the roof of the wing, by an elbow

bend, thus not interfering with our witheriug slulves
— a chimney running through the withering floor is an
olijectiou also iu the way ot drying leaf in its immedi-
ate vicinity, and causing extra laKor (if space is not
wasted), in moving leaf perpetually as it withers and be-
fore it gets dry.

The T sirocco is too well-known to need description
Nor need 1 waste your time iu explaining how it is
worked, as very clear instructions are given bv Mr.
Davidson with each Sirocco. Suffice it to say 1 find
14 lb. of roll to each tr.ay give the best results. It
should be worked at S7o°. SO lb. an hour of dry tea is
well within its capacity. 1 cooly will stoke 2 siroccos
it in the same pit. With 2 coolies to each sirocco to
attend to the firing, aud 2 coolies carrying and prepar-
ing roll, thus 7 coolies are required to work 2 sirocco in
one pit; if 4 siroccos are iu use 1 cooly can be saved
in preparing roll, or 4 siroccos will require 13 coolies,
aud will turn out .S2ii lb. made tea per hour, at a oou-
.sumption of IJ lb. of dry wood i)er lb. of tea. Some
small gardens of lflO;to 12t) acres may stdl with advant-
age work the old form of No. 1, and I hope Mr.
David.son will keep a few on hand aud give them to us
cheap. If the old form of No. 1 could be obtained at
^loHjigurc, it would pay young giirdeus, or gardens of
small area, to purchase one or more of these, even
in preference as I said above to the T sirocco, as
No. 1 will work well up t.j the limited rolling power
then_ used. Firing by charcoal should be avoide<l if
possible, as the waste in firewood and cost is so
great. That different gardens owing to some local
differences in leaf give differKT\t results is quite
patent. In rollers taking twice the time at the s«me
speed and with the same pressure to give the same
results, and in driers worked at the same
temperature turning out far less tea, as witness the
difference in Mr. Hay's experience at Blackwater ami
mine at Rookwood, as previously shown: my No. 1,
turued out 46 and 48 lb. made tea in oiie hour
whereas Mr. Hay's trial only gave 30| and 331b. in
the hour. I quite lately tried my No. 1 with there-
suit that iu bi hours' working I got an average of
43 701b, per hour, aid from a converted No. 1 at O.V
hours' work an average cf 73 lb per hour : both were
worked at 275° as near as we could keep it, and the
converted No. 1 was working under the greatest dis-
advantage being in a temporary e:irth-pit with no
dr.aught. In making pits for the T siiocco we must
provide for a good draught by opening a funnel to the
outer air, or having windows close-by and low down.
From experiments tried I am jierfectly satisfied that
the T form of sirocco will turn out an even brighter
outturn than the No. 1, and complaints brought against
it of stewing the roll or oau.^ing a dull outturn is tho
fault of the manager and not of the dri.T. AVe are
constantly hearing of our teas being overfired. Tea
should never be turneil out of the drier completely
fii-ed, it should be cri.sp yet moist (steamy slightly)
to the hand. Evaporation goes on for some time by
itself from the heat of the tea, and tea slightly under
fired will tho next morning when taken out of the receiv-
ing bin be found quite crisp and dry. At the side
of each sirocco we should have a rec(;iving bin: on no
account should freshly fired tea be turned out on
the Hoor. I find a very convenient arrange-
ment is this. A bin 3 ft. G in high ai:d
say 7 ft. long by 3 ft. wiile. The lid opens
in two halves: on one half the spare tray ready
loaded rests; the other half is opened, and the
tray just tiiken from the sirocco is put iu bodily ; the
newly-filled tray takes its proper place on the sirocoo,
when the tray previously emptied and left in the bin
cm be cleaned ami jilaced ready for refilling and tho
bin-lid shut down. The back of the bin should have an
edging say 4 in. high mi which the back rim of the tray
rests, causing the tray to slope and .'^o allowing any fine
tips to drop fiirougli. .As the lid is lifted these tips fall
into a trough fitted at the back of the bin to receive them,
and are fired separ.'itely. Each half (»f fhe lid should
have au edging 1.', in. high round sidi's iind front. This
form of table bin fs most useful also in final firing, receiv-
ing any dust or fine tea remaining in the iiekoe sou-

28o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

clioiig,aDd which will t\iU through the tray as tea is spread,
which may be turned out into the trough at the hack
hy opening the lid.

Sortiiuj. — As soou after firing as our tea gets cold, we
may begin to sorfc. Before beginning tliis operation it is
as well to taste the make from each sirocco to see if
all is right. It is as well to .-^ort and pack sepjirately all
inferior teas, if our garden is of any size ; as
inferior teas will only bring down the value of our best
makes, without projiortionately increasing their own
value. Do not tlierciore try to disguise inferior makes
by mixing them with your better teas. All being fouml
as it should be, on tasting, we will now proceed to turn
out all our receiving bins, and put the bulk into a
No. 8 sieve. Teas retained by No. 8 are souchong and red
leaf; this is put aside to have the red leaf picked out,
after which the souchong is broken through No. S,
broken tea and dust removed, and then niixtd with pekoe
souchong natural, made in a No. 10. Tcxs passing through
No. S are then put into No. 10 which retains pekoe sou-
chong natural ; pekoe, broken pekoe, broken tea and dust
passing through. These are then, according to make,
put into a No. 12 or a No. 14: if fine the Utter; if coarse
the former ; which retains pekoe ; broken pekoe is
then separated from the broken tea and dust, with the
shologoo (nrdioary rice winnower) and dust separated
from broken tea by No. 24. This will be pekoe dusfc.
In firing <juito 50 per cent of broken jiekoe, dust,
&C-, passes through the sirocco tray and is not of course
mixed again with the bulk, but sorted by itself and
then mixed with its class. In cleaning the souchong,
broken through No. 8. the dust taken from it is tea
dust. The broken tea is mixed with broken tea natural
taken fromthe broken pekoe. Souchong is best cleaned
through a No. 12, or if only a little of it, by the
fhologoo as wilh broken pekoe. If our plucking is at
all coarse, congou, a round knobby-looking make, will be
left in No. 8 after breaking souchong through; this may be
shipped as congou or broken by the machine and mixed
■ with tilt; broken tea. So much for sifting by hand, result-
ing in broken pekoe, pekoe, jiekoe souchong, and broken
tea, or 4 classes. Wilh tea dust and pekoe dust which
need not be looked upon asaclass, and are unavoidable.
In sifting by machinery we have to choose from An.sell's,
Jackson's Eureka, and Gore's. The first is very good
although rather expensive ; the second also expensive,
£81-5-1.) at Colombo, is a most ingenious and clever sifter,
but the tea travels over too much ground to please me,
giving a grey make. In Gore's sifter we have a cheap
and very efficient little machine : its cost is K350 and i^,s
out-turn about 100 lb. teas per hour, of 4 classes as above.
A little hand work is necessary to clean the broken
pekoe out properly, which is also necessary with the
other machines. Gore's has one advantage over the others
in that it separates the broken tea from tlie broken
pekoe and the tea travels over very little ground. This
machine is for work by band, one couly turning it easily
whilst another feed.s. A larger and strorger sifter can
be made to order, to be driven by power, costing H450
to 11475, but I do not think it is yet determined
what work this will do per hour. I can strongly recom-
mend the purchase of Gore's hand sifter at H350.
A very good and cheup sifter can he made at
the factory necessitating the cleaning by hand of
the broken pekoe oidy, thus: — .sling three trays one
above the other, strongly joined together and about
18 in. apTrt. Kach tray is 8 ft.byoft. inside meas-
urement. These are slung inside a strong framework
or on to strong cross beams and worked with an
ordinary crank, 6 in. stroke fixed on to the bottom tray
all must be good work and strong. The top tray is
No. 8 mesh and receives the bulk, souchong passing
out in front. The -second tray is No. 10— the tea fall-
ing through No. 8 drops on to a sheet of galvanized
iron leading from the mouth-end of the top tray to
the feeding end of the second at a good slope, thus
delivering all teas that have passed through No. 8 to
one end of No. 10 : this passes out pekoe souchong
to the right end (of No. 10) by a littlo iron spout.
Teas passing through No. 10 are delivered by another
sloping sheet of galvanized iron to the head of the
bottom tray, which as explained in sifting by hand

should be a No. 12 or 14 mesh acconling to circum-
stances ; this delivers pekoe to the left end of the
tray, by an iron spout sloping in the opposite diiection
to that delivering pekoe souchong above. Under No. 12
or 14 and at a good slope forwards should be fixed
No. 26 mesh,— on light reepers only. The broken pekoe
and broken tea falling on to this are dusted and fed
into a box in front of the sii'ter to be then separated
by shologoo as in hand sifting. A sifter like this I
made for myself, sorted GOO lb per hour as above, and
cost about 11300 — this cannot be driven by hand, bub
is a very efficiont and cheap machine. If wood has to be
purchased teak will be thn best, but it wid bring up the
price to Ky50 to U375 about. Unless then one's
garden is a very large one, it wid pay best and
give least trouble to buy a Gore's.

I have spoken above of breaking souchong
and congou &c. We have a very eificient ma-
chine and perhaps the best in Jackson's re-
ently invented one, the Invincible Cutter, price
at Colombo £23-10-0, which may be seen at Messrs.
Walker's. A breaking machine is almost a necessity and
saves much labor. 1 have so far been usiug a Keid's
machine ; this is an excellent machine for making congou
or fanuinss into broken tea. but is not good for use
with souchong. Therefore, Jack.son's is the one to get
beyond all others.

After sorting for the day is finished our teas are
packed away in bins. A skeleton framework 7' x 3' x G'
high inside measurement of wood -3" x 2^" lined
with zinc sheeting which costs about K20 per cwt., 8
to 9 sheets running the cwt., makes the neatest and best
bins. There may be a wooden partition in the middle,
of h inch planking, and the bottom should be of 1 inch
plank.s; there should be a sliding door of h inch plank
at the top throui:;h which tea is put into the bin, and
directly underneath it. at the bottom, another sliding
door by which the bin is emptied. So that one padlock
may suffice for both doors, the lower door may have
a handle reaching level with the top of the bin, the
staple is fixed on to this handle, the hasp on to the
top door, and ail can be made secure with one pad-
lock. A bin of the dimensions above will take 7 zinc
sheets to line it top and sides. Bins can be made of
any size to suit the factory, but should never be less
than 7 ft. long, and in larg-e faetoiios to save space
may be 8 ft. high. All bin.s should be raised off the
fioorsay G inches to allow of the floorunderueath being
swept. Stale lea lying about in corners or under bins
may be the cause of ruin to a break, or breaks by getting
mixed accidentally, during the packing or bulking.

Packiiin and Ftna Firinef. — In an ordinary sized
garden say of 2n0acres, packing should be done every
Monday; or in the busy time it may be done twice a
week. The sooner tea is packeil the better. Monday
is a good day, as there is no manufacture to be done.
Final firing in siroccos .should be done at 200°. The
tea need only be turned once a tray takes fromtwoto
three minutes, and tea should bespread (|uite level wilh
the wooden edge of the tray. It is sufficiently fired
when the hand (not a horny haml about pruning time)
can just bear the heat, and v.dien held to the face
it does not feel steamy. Final firing requires as much
attention as any of the other operations, and our best
liring-men should be told off for this. Tea should be
packed hot, straight from the sirocco. I have a No. 24
mesh for firing broken pekoe and broken tea, or muslin
over an ordinary sirocco tray will do. liut the
No 24 mesh is preferable. In packing we have a
P;h1 of hessian to fit our chest and tea is presseil well
down by the coolies* feet, a coolv standing inside the
chest " marking time." I know of no better plan than
this. Half-chests may bold -1 to G oz. more than the
declared weight; chests 0 to S oz. more. The size
of package entirely depends on the accessibility of
the garden. The chest is the cheai)est as we well
know, but if we have any carriage to the main road
tlie half-chest is infinitely preferable. ]\Ir. Deane has
well met our requirements in the way of chestr*
now. For gardens on the cart-road his No. 1 chests
at 83 cents will be found raost suitable. For gardens
further off the rond his No. 3 at Qlh cents will be

October i, 1S85.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

281

found the best. The chests are light and the tares are
even, and good as our Ceylou chests are, the Japanese
are better and cheaper. Cejlon made half chests need
not be hooped; chests must be. Japanese chests of any
size will not require hooping, another advantage they
have.

Marking. — Do not write a book on the sides of your
chests, as is sometimis seen. On the lid have your
gardeu No. ;ind shipping mark, say initials of con-
signee in diamond, with Loudon underneath ; in front
have Xo. corresponding to that on lid, and garden
mark; at back have class of tea and uett weight ouly,
the other two sides plain. Wa are advised to make
our breaks us large as possible to get full value for
our teas, and we are told that the sale of breaks of
under S chests or half chests or 20 boxes are post-
poned till after the general sales, when the best
buyers will have left the room. With youug gardens
then, after picking out red leaf, I would break all teas
through No. 8, dust and ship as pekoe souchong ;
put congou and red leaf through the breaking ma-
chine and after mixing ship as broken tea.

Bulkini/. — If this is done at the factory and it will be a
saving if it can be done, " factory bulked " should be
stencilled above the class of tea i"u the chest. Bulk-
ing must be done after final tiring, and the teas thus
packed cool, a slight disadvantage, but not so great
perhaps as the teas suffer in being bulked at the docks.
To bulk then, have aU your siroccos at work, throw
your tea as fired into one large heap ou the floor
and as soon as any one class of tea is finished firing rake
out the heap well over the floor, say 3 in. thick, then
heap again, the cooly working from the centre to-
war ;< bim, forming a ring round him, the cooly then
leivcs tjB ring, again piles the tea in a heap, and
again rakes it out and heaps, when the bulking will be
finished and tea ready to pack.

I have purposely in this paper, so far, omitted all
mention of cost; of the works touched on. AVe have
these so often given us before, I would but have
wasted your time in again going into them. I may
however briefly state, that ga.-deus in full bearing
can put their teas f. o. h. at Colombo at from 27 cents
to 86 cents per lb., that with careful management and
with good machinery, on an ordinary average gardeu
you may positively count on being able to ship your
teas at 30 cents per lb. In August 188.3 when 1 had the
honor of reading a paper on tea before the Dikoya
Planters' Association, I then estimated cost f. o. b.
making every and ample allowance at 39 rents, and
stated it w.as more than I should allow at a yield of
400 lb. per acre, and it is 3 cent,< per lb. over what you
will find tea need cost you. With regard to yield a
garden giving an average" 5 ield of 300 lb. per acre will
found to be more uncommon than one giving 500 lb. as
an average at 6 years upwards. Lunger experience has
shown us that there is not eo much difference in yield
between the lowcountry and the hills. Hill tea is slower
at first, but wherever it has soil to work on it will be
found I think at 5 to 6 years and upwards ei|ual to any
tea of the same age in the lowcountry, and when we
put our millions of lb. before the market our hill
flivorwill go for .something depend upon it, where all
is good, comparisons arc odious, so no more of this.

To revert again for one moment to factory and
machinery. Having formed your garden, spend your
utmost farthing in erecting a large and commodious
factory, with ample machinery, and it will all be returned
to you one hundredfold. You may begin your factory
as soon after your planting is done as you like, and
you must begin at the end of your first yeir, money
is always of object so it is not to be supposed yuu are
to badd the whole of your factory right off. Adopt-
ing the plan I have suggested you would begin then
with a building say Sti ft. in length by 2A ft. wi.le,
with two upper floors. Your bottom pillars would be
12 ft. high by 2 ft., on them 18 in. pillars 8 ft. high and on
the top door poets fi in. by Bin. to support the wall-plate.
The two upper floors can be walled by either weather-
boards, or wattle and daub plastered inside and outside
with lime. The bottom floor is walled with a tem-
porary wattle and daub wall weather-boarded outside.
36

AVhen the time comes to add the wings both weather-
boards and windows can be used for them, so there is no
waste. Here is the foundation of our permanent factory
then — to bt added to as more space is wanted
or as funds allow. If you have a good coffee store
which can be converted into a factory by all means let
this be doue, but if your store is not a permanent one,
and you can do without it pull it down, and use what
timber you can for your factory. Temporary factories
are most unsatisfactory things : an actual waste of
money in themselves, and perhaps losing your pence
per III, ou your teas. If then you cannot begin your
factory on a proper basis sell your leaf till you can.

In deciding on your machinery it must be borne in
mind that to finish your work in daylight you are
working your roller 5 to 6 hours not 10, and your driers
also half time. Estimate then what you want and
multiply by two— the same with withering space. A
few large flushes come upon us and we cannot avail
ourselves of them as we ought, for Mant of space.
K1,000 or so spent in more withering room
will be represented in the gain on tea both by quantity
and market value in one month perhaps or even less.
Money if it can be spared will be well .spent in the
purchase of a small circular saw for cutting firewood
into lengths without waste, among which firewood alas !
comes our coffee trees, just too long in many cases for
the sirocco, and they are tough subjects for the axe.
In clearing out your coffee do not burn the trees to
waste, as I have seen done, merely to clear the land in
a hurry, but stack them for firewood, or for making
charcoal. Do not aim at making too fine teas. It is
pleasing to see an out-of-the-way average, but what
does it mean ? Too tine plucking, costly, and result-
ing in injury to the bush, a less yield which with
heavier cost, quite I think, outbalances enhanced value,
a large yield with good medium teas fetching a fair
average value at from Is 3d to Is 6d will pay better and
keep our bushes healthy and everlasting. I have seen,
we have all seen, young bushes plucked to death, to
give fine teas. How can these bushes ever develop
themselves and give us the cover we should get. Apart
from the injury to our bushes, and as I do not be-
lieve a low yield and high price pays as well as a high
yield and lower prices, why educate the public taste
up to a standard which we will not be able to main-
tain as time goes on, both on account of impoverishing
the husband — with no coffee to rob of its labor insuffi-
ciency of pluckers. Let our standard be an all round
average according to the richness of our soil and suit-
ability of our climate at from Is 3d to Is 6d per lb.
and we will have no cause to grumble, I can assure you,
with our tea gardens a permanency.

And, now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I must close.
As you are aware in a paper of this kind, it is impossible
to enter fully into the subjects you were gooil enough
to ask me to bring before you, as time is insufficient.
I Tru^t however I have said enough to be of some as-
sistance to those wh» require it, and thanking you for
the honor you have done me in asking me here today,
I leave my humble effort in your hands.

0. Speaeman Aemstkonq.

Tea is .jAJtAicA. — By the way Mr. D. Morris is very
hopeful of making Jamaica a tea-pro iucer. He has 4,000
plants in bearing in one of the Government Gartlens
under his charge, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, and a
sample of made tea which he sent home recentlv has bf en
very favourably reported on by Messrs. Geo. "White ^ Co.,
who valued it at fr^'in IsGd to ls8d per lb. Jlr. Morris
estimatt s that by the labour of boys and girls tea can
be ])roducod in Jamaica, so as to he laid down in
TiOndon at 7d jier lb., but experienced planters would, I
fancy, add considerably to this, if they were to revise
the calculation in detail. Mr. Morris thinks that .Tamaica
may occujty her.«elf for some time to come with sup-
plying the local consumption, and that of other A\'est
India colonies, without competing in the London market.
He is planting out 15 acres on the Government cin-
chona estates with tea, so as to test it ou a commercial
scale. — London Cor.

282

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING KEPORT.

"UBBEK CULTIVATION IN CEYLON — " TIPS " FOB TAPPING

A NEW PRUNING KNIFE A WONDERFUL CHANGE

FOR TIIE BETTER IN CACAO EXTENSION OF ROOKWOOD

" — RAIN WANTED — A CHECK TO PKEDE AND VANITY.

31st August 1885.
We hear very little in these days of rubber, and
yet there are amongst us those who firmly be-
lieve that it will yet become one of the paying
products of Ceylon, and that it has a fine future
before it.

" But we must wait," they say, there being as
little reason in trying to draw milk from a calf,
as tackling a young rubber tree, and expecting it
will " bleed " for your advantage. They add also that
it must be grown in large acreages, so as to be
economically cultivated, and cheaply gathered. There
is no doubt that the plant grows weU: once estab-
lished it is very difficult to kill; "ringing" seems
to have little effect on it. As to this " sweet by
and bye," however, only a few believe in it, and
those few strengthen each other's faith by invent-
ing tappers, double-bladed knives, sappans, and other
requisites. Every now and again there is a gleam
from the outer world, which encourages their hearts
and brightens their prospects, as for instance the
new indiarubber armour plating — and how anx-
iously they await the result of this novel experi-
ment can well be imagined. I got the other day
the latest "tips" in tapping: a sort of summary
of the faith of the faithful few, and well worthy
of record. " Use Dobrce's double-bladed knife, cut
upwards, after having peeled the outer bark, and go
on tapping the trees once morning and evening.
Take sixteen trees say at a time — or even up
to thirty — which after finishing go back again to
where you started and gather what has coagulated.
Go on with this process for at least a fortnight,
adding a few fresh trees every day. The first tap-
ping will not be so rich as the following ones, but
don't run away with the idea that there is no
rubber in the tree because it cannot be seen.
Immediately the roller (Eraser's) touches the tree,
or the bark be run over obliquely with the thumb,
a small fine siring will appear, and a slight press-
ure of this against the roller wiU make it adhere
and it will come off in strings. A little patience
and practice will develop good results. In the
case of a tree producing a gummy liquid — leave
it as not yet ready for tapping. Eubber, with due
patience shown to it, will jiay. There is no faster
method for collecting than by Eraser's roller. A
cooly can, when practised, collect from half a pound
to one pound daily, but he umst have his heart
in his work." So far for the method, and as
for the future, let me raise the curtain and give
you a peep at tlie vista which dazzles the eyes of
the believing rubber grower : — " i\Iy trees," he says,
" will be allowed to grow, and the day shall come
when they shall show hundredweights of this valu-
able product"! Although this is a kind of note
which has been often heard in Ceylon, and also
too often has proved a mocking one, still it usually
comes before an enterprise has been at all tried. To
hear it of an industry which has been all but univers-
ally pronounced n failure, changes its tone somewhat.
I had a specimen of a new Pruning Knife
sent me the other day. It is imported, I under-
stand, from Smyrna, where it is used for
vine pruning. It is made of a fine thin steel,
with an edge like a fine saw, and is a good tool.
It can cut through a thick branch of a tea bush
with much greater ease than an ordimary English
primer, and is intended I undirstimd to do away
with the necessity of a saw in the field. It is

really astonishing what thick stems it can seven
and with ease. It has one fatal objection — the
price, costing more then the ordinary English
pruner. If cheap enough I have no doubt it would
be a favourite knife for heavy pruning, and if
the importers really mean to place it regularly
in the market, they should see to this.

It is a pleasure to report a wonderful change
for the better in cacao. What a sickening ghastly sight
some of it was a few months ago, need not now
be dwelt on; rather let us rejoice at the change.
Trees which looked before as if they had been
blasted are now trying to cover themselves, and
on those less severely attacked there is blossom
as well as foliage. But it is clear to all of us
that cacao is a fancy article, whose ways may
lead us a dance at times ; a prize nevertheless to
those who have all the necessary requisites for
its successful growth, and worthy of a good stout
fight to gain them. In Ceylon what will a man
not "clout" his enemy with? Think of helopeltis.
Will the cacao planters have taken as allies
against this foe the red ant : in Dumbara. Sinhalese
bringing them in by the sackful, at a tew cents a
nest ; they have dusted its back with unslaked lime,
ti-ied' even a mixture of sulphur and lime, and
some are taking to growing the tomato on their
trees, hoping that will rout the dreadful fly. Ahl
it's pathetic. V. A.'stell you that thay hate to
hear the very name of cacao, and, as that is
about the lowest deep the thing can touch, there
comes the improvement, and we take heart of
hope again, and like all the race of planters for-
get the past, and think of the future.

I hear that Mr. Armstrong is opening outmore land
near Bookwood. He will soon have over 800 acres.
Here we are sadly in want of rain, and yet it does
not come. It is very trying on the tea seed
planted at stake, although after all it can
stand a good deal. For giving a man something
on which to keep his mind employed, commend
me to a fair acreage planted at stake. There is
food for thought and a check to all pride and
vanity. What with not coming up at aU regul-
arly, the more promising being laid low, eaten
down by some insect or another, the ever-chang-
ing appearance of the field, inspiring you with
hope today and despair tomorrow ; the msane hunt
at times to see if the seed was ever really put
in ; the worry with the weeders and your own
impatience— all this does not make you feel as
if you were in Paradise, nor incline your heart
to talk the language thereof. Yet troubles must
be good for the Ceylon planter; if it had been
otherwise he should have been a fiend long ere
tjjjg^ Peppercobn.

COMMEBCIAL BEPOBTS : JAVA.

From the report by Consul McNeill on the Trade.
Cnmnn.n-01', and General Matters relating to the island
of J.iva for the year 1884. marked Couiiuei-cial 19
(IS85) [0—4,44(5]," we e.ttrnct tliH following :—

" Th^- pnst year, though net niarkei! by any serious
natural disturbance, such as the volcnnic eruption nt
Krakntan in A"!;ust, 188;i, lias in anoaier re.=pect,
namelv. from a financial point of view. Icon o calam-
iious 'one for the islam! of Java. The h.w prices
ruling for sugar brought heavy losses on both planters
aid nie:chant.«: thri e lai ^-e iinn^ of nhl st .iiilin); su.'-
pinded pavmcnt, and several mercantile and haiiking
institutions" were involved m diflicunits, from which
they were only extiicated by the issue of debenture
sh.aros. The.se" were almost exelusivclv taken up in
Ho. land, and whal threatened at one time to berome
a nic.rt seiicuis commercial crisis was happily averted.
The total amouutsubscrjbcd was over ,ili,000,000 sterling.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

2f^3

Exports.
Sugar. — The crop was au abundant one, being
generally eslimateil at. about 0,000,000 picuils,
again-st about 5,000,000 4,500,000 and 1,000,000
in the previous three seasons respectively ; the
quality too was all that could be desired, but
owing to the exceedingly low value of the article iu the
consuming countries of the world, the result to planters
has boeu on the whole disastrous. Js'early two-thirds
of the crop was shipped to Europe on planters' ac-
c:iunt. tShould the present low value of sugtr con-
tinue, mai.y plantations will be unable even to pay ex-
pen.ses, while others, already in difficulties, will be
compelled to stop working altogi'ther. On the other
hand, there is no doubt that owiuijf to improved machin-
ery now used on most estates, a more scientific sys-
tem of working generally, and the yearly increi.siug
facilities of transport, the cost of production of Java
sugar has of late been very materially reduced, and
estates well situated and well managed may still be
worked without loss. Some mills are indeed able to
produce sugar at a profit even on present rates, but
this is quite exceptional. On tiie whole Java, owing
to its favourable soil and climate, and last but not
least its unlimited supply of cheap native labour, will
always compare favourably with any other cane sugar-
producing country, and it is to be hoped that some
improvement in the value of the article may soon again
restore the industry to its former prosperous condition.
COFFKE. — This year's crop has generally been unsatis-
factory, both iu quantity and quality, which may be
attributed in a great measure to the ravages caused
by the leaf-disease in the early months of the year,
in the plantations situated in the central and eastward
districts of the island. Should this disease not show
itself during the wet monsoon months in the begin-
ning of 1885 a considerably better yield may be looked
for next season ; but it must not "be overlooked that
the late frequent attacks of this disease have greatly
exhausted the trees, and it must take some time be-
fore they again recover their normal produciug power.
The Government Java crop shows a decrease, viz. :
1,011,767 piculs, against 1,072,402 in 1883.

The tobacco crop has been above the average of late
years, and tlte quality has proved snpeiior ; the cult-
ivation of the leaf has not, however, much increased,
and bears no comparison to what it was formerly.

Tea. — This industry is continuing to make rapid
strides, but it is doubtful whether, with the low prices
ruling in Europe, the returns to pLanters are very re-
munerative ; the opening- up of the new gardens points,
however, to the probability of the estates being worked
without loss. The total exports in l.-^n-l were 2,fi04.567
kih-s., of which it is worthy of note that more than
two-thirds went to the London majket.

Cinchona.— The cultivation of this tree is being
pushed with energy, and though the exports from the
Government gardens show a falling off, those from
private estates show an increase. Prices in Europe,
although considerably lower than in past year.-^, are
still at a pa3;ing level, and enable planters to extend
operations with vigour.

GOVERN.MKNT RAILWAYS.— During the past year great
progress has been made with these railways, and several
liues have been completed. The main line from Soura-
bays to Soerakarta, via I'aron, Modjo, and Sr.igon,
has been finished, so that there is now rail connec-
tion between the principal coast ports, Sourabaya and
Samaraug. The rail between Toeloenagoeng and'Blitar
is finished, thus completing the branch from Kerto-
sono to Blitar. Passoeroean and Probolingo have also
been connected during the past year. The western
line was completed as far as Tjitjalenlia last Sejitember.
Batavia Harbole Works.— Operations during the
past year have been confined to completing the per-
manent way and constructing sundry Government oflices
in the immediate vicinity of the harbour. Thonmr.shes
surrounding theharbour are being tilled up by degrees
and the albi/zia and sunflowers which have been planted
there have produced good results. Fever does not ap-
pear to have been nearly so prevalent at the harbour
during the past twelve months as in the previous year,

and the complaints of ship captains regarding tlie
health of their crews whilst there are considerably less
than formerly.

Tra.mways. — Two steam tramways have been com-
pleted during the past year- one between Samaraug
and Joaua, liii Demak, Koedocs, and Pali ; and the
other between Batavia and Meester-Coruciis. The for-
mer line has a length of sixty miles, whilst the latter
is about seven and a half miles long.

SuMATltA.

The report by Consul H. G. Kennedy on the trade
and commerce of Acheen during the year lba4, with
a notice of the Deli tobacco districts issued iu the
same volume, states : —

The total quautity of pepper exported from Acheen
(Olehleh and Edie together) in lSa4 was about 73,000
piouls, of which nearly US.OOO piculs were sent from
Edie. Comparing tliis total with the quantities for
the preceding five years the result shows as follows —
18S4, 73,0uo piculs; 1SS3, 122,579 ; 1S»2, 10e,255 : IBSl
107, ISO piculs. > . . ,

The average price of pepper ruling iu the Penang
market during the past jear has exceeded ,§17 and
for a considerable period there was none at all oiier.
ing for sale. The average price iu 1SS2 was §14.71;
in fact, pepper has continued to rise steadily in value since
1S7S, when a picul of Acheen pepper fetch §(5-82 iu Penang.
Deli.

The Deli district is about 4° north of the equator, iu
longitude 98' —00" E., and is made up of three States :
Deli, the jidcst, in the centre, under a Sultan ; Eangkat,
to the uorih, under a native chief, called a Panghoran;
and Sirdang on the south, also ruled by a Sultan.

As is weli-knowu, tho main cause of the prosperity
iu Deli is the tobacco,thotirstcrop of which was shipped,
as I am informed, in 1809.

Tho crop for 1884 will turn out about 122,000 bales
(each bale equals 170 lb. English), valued at £2,080,000,
Prices for Deli tobacco have ruled on the whole fairly
high, the special quality of the leaf lying iu the fact
of its being light and elastic iu texture, with thin fibres.
The tobacco estates cousist of grants of land taken out
by individualsor companies, and are, as a rule, of such
an extent that every year a new district cau be cleared
and used for the coming crop, and this state of things
will continue for many years to come. The planters
consist of three or four large companies, principally
Dutch— such as the Deli Company, the Amsterdam
Deli, and the Batavia Deli, — a'i well as of individual
planters of many nationalities, Germany and Switzerland
being strongly represented, while there are al.so a good
sprinkling of Englishmen, the principal English firm
being the Laugkat Plantations Company, with its head-
quarters in London. Tlie grants of land are taken
direct from the chiefs beforementioned, and are only
valid after confirmation at Bengkalis. The term is for
seventy-five years, and tor such a grant a sum of money,
amounting to from jglto §2 per bouw (equal to an acre
and two-thirds), is paid in cash, while an annual rent
of c. 4()a bouw, payable at the expiration of the fifth
year, is also reserved. It is estimated that at least
£2,000,000 sterling is now invested in the tobacco in-
dustry iu the Deli district.s. The tobacco wheu ready
for shipment is all sent toClambiaou the Langkat river,
to the Deli river, or the Sirdang river (as the case may
be), and is dispatched thence via Penang or yinga))ore
to Amsterdam. 11 is worth remarking that the wiiole
of the carrying trade in connection with the Deli
tobaccos is in the hands of Messrs. Holt's line, the rate
of freight from Deli to Amsterdam being about £3 2s (id
per ton. The shipping season may be said to last
from January to June. The tobacco crop of 1884 i.s
estimated to yield about 20,000 bales in excess of that
of 1883, but the crop in 18S3 was a short one, owing to
unfavourable weather. Tlie 1884 crop is the best one
ever obtained, both as regards quantity and quality.
The forests when cleared for tobacco |)laiitations af-
ford siilenilid timber, aud this is utilised for con-
structing drying sheds and coolies' quarters, buta good
deal of tlio wood which might be exported for build-
ing or fuel is wasted for want of conveyance and burnt
on tho ground. As a compensation there can be no

284 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

doubt that ibis burnt timber, or rather the ashes of it,
supply an excellent manure.

The labour employed maybe distributed under three
classes. There are, firstly, Malays and Batalc tribes-
men, who fell heavy timber, do general clearance, and
build sheds; then come the Klings from the Madras
districts, who occupy themselves with drainage and
roadmaking ; and lastly, we have the Chinese for
planting, sorting, and preparation of the weed. The
plauliug is conducted on a co-operative system. Ooolies
h&ve their fields allotted to them, and plant at their
own risk under supervision. Their payment depends
on the yield. An industrious coolie would, un an aver-
age, net iu the course of a year 100 to 150 Dutch
florins, and on this sum he pays to the Dutch Govern-
ment 2 per cent by way of income tax. The cooly,
however, arrives in the country with a deVit of from
fl. 100 to fl. 150, and thus as a rule is not clear and able
to leave with a balance in hand till the end of the second
year. The coolie is engaged for a year, but he generally
re-engages, and takes his departure in the begiuning of
tho third year.

The Dutch Government regulations with regard to
the maintenance of a medical man by every estate
and to the erection of hospitals for sick coolies are
stringent, and, on the whole, the coolie-lines, con-
sidering their temporary nature, are adequate, so that
the lot of the coolie in Deli may be regarded as a
favourable one, even when compared with places where
he is under British control.

The importing of British Indians, as is well known,
is not tolerated, though many have found their way
into the country uuder the stimulus of high wag:es,
the latter running from S? to §10 a mouth, according
to capacity. The act recently passed by our Indian
Goveroment to regulate coolie emigration to the Straits
Settlements will, it is generally feared, close the out-
let in Deli for Briti.sh Indian labour. This is a matter
for regret, more especially in respect of those coolies
who, having already worked out tlieir contracts in the
Straits, are anxious to improve their prospects.

The difficulties of communication of course tend to
make the cost of living dear, and as a consequence of
the isolated position of most of the planters the choice
of food is very restiicted. On the whole the health
of the country may be considered good, the nights
and mornings being fresh and cool, though unseason-
able weather often brings with it epidemics of lever
and berri-berri, especially among new comers, many
of whom arrive in a sickly condition, which naturally
predisposes them to such ailments.

DKY LANDS IN SOUTHERN INDIA AND SUIT-
ABLE CULTIVATION.
Southern India is more liable to drought than the
rest of the country. It is nearer the equator. Its
rivers are entirely rain-fed ; they have at their sources
no snow-capped mountains to supply them during the
hot season ; and the courses of most of them are short,
and, on the whole, steep ; and the land in which these
have their source and course, has not much forest to
retain moisture ; and hence the rivers are either in
high and rapidly flowing iiood, or dry. For a few
days or weeks in the year they cannot be crossed from
the excess and violent flow of water; tor a few more
weeks they have water enough in them to justify their
being called rivers ; and then they become sandy or
stony wastes, nearly as hard to cross to tho hare-footed
pedestrian, from their burning heat, as at tlood time.
The high western mountains, which have nmch soil
on them, and at whose base there are considerable
forests, receive much more rain throughout the year
than the country east of them, and are more retentive
of the water they thus receive than the other hills in
Southern India, which are generally bare and rocky.
Hence the rivers that rise in the Western ghauts have
more water in them than those that rise in the central
table-land or among the Eastern ghauts ; and their
longer course is less steep on the whole. Of course.

all the rivers have more water, and have water longer
in them, at their mouth, and in the long belt of low-
land plain between the Eastern hills and the sea, than
in the interior ; and there their flow is gentler. It is iu
this i)lain, therefore, and at the deltas of the larger
rivers, that there are the most considerable dams
and canals for irrigation in all India. And in the
interior, in most of the jilaces where the contour
of the country admits of it, dams are constructed
and a little at least of the annual rainfall is re-
tained. Thus it comes about that in the Madras
presidency there is a larger proportion of irrigated,
to what is called dry, land than in the rest of
India. For all India the proportion of irrigated
land to cultivated dry land, is less than seven per
cent. In Southern India it amounts to twenty-one
per cent. But even this is far too little. And,
indeed, it must, we fear, be admitted that the
high ratio of wet to dry laud is iu part due to
the large extent of dry land which, though cultiv-
able, is not cultivated. If the area of irrigated land
were compared with the area of all the cultivable
dry land in the presidency, the ratio would show
less favourably for the irrigated land. In Southern
India not only is there a vast area of cultivable waste
land ; but much of the cultivated dry land, though
of good quality, yields very poor results, because
of drought. The land parched, and the air is dry.
In the low Carnatic plain, and in the Northern
Circars, the soil contains moisture throughout the
year to a far gi'eater extent than in the interior
uplands, from which the drainage comes to it, while
its low and level condition prevents its passing its
moisture on to the sea as rapidly as it receives it.
Moreover, as the atmosphere of the jjlain near the
sea, receives moisture from the sea, it is far less
dry and siccant than in the interior, and there is,
therefore, less evaporation from the ground. For
these reasons, even with less rainfall, and with a
poorer soil (as soils are commonly estimated) cult-
ivation can be carried on through a greater
part of the year, and yield better results, in
the littoral regions than in the i^lateaus. In
the latter, here and there, near a large tank
or resei-voir, there is an oasis during the early
part of the hot weather ; a thousand or two acres
of a second sowing of paddy or other wet grain
preserves a little moisture in the air above it, and
in the immediate vicinity. But when even that
crop is taken up, so dry does the air become, that
none but hardy plants can endure or survive it,
even though watered and sheltered from tlie flcrce
sunlight. This fact — the extreme dryness of both
the soil and of the air in the interior — seems to
have been overlooked by Mr. C. K. Subba llau,
when, in a lecture before the Agricultural Stud-
ents' Association in March last, he argued thus : —
" Of the lt)| millions acres of dry land in this
Presidency, only 478,371 acres, or scarcely half-a-
million acres, carried a second crop during 18«2-S8,
when the season was very favorable, as the Ad-
ministration Keport for that year will show. What
was done with IG^ millions acres of dry land
during the year ? It must, of course, have been
lying waste. These l(j^ millions acres could have
been made to produce two crops of horse-gram
for green manure or fodder, one before, and tlie
other after the cold weather crop. Even the
478,371 acres could have been made to produce
one crop of horse-gram previous to the hot weather
crop. The weather was very favorable in l88'.^-83
for growing horse-gram during any three months
between .January and iUay, and again between May
and September. In ordinary seasons, the harvest-
ing of the cold weather food corn crops may be
arranged to take place early in January. It will

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

285

then be possible to gi'ow horse-gram even in the
ab!,ence of any rain, proviiled the land is ploughed
on the very day that the crops are reaped. . . ,
Three or fourploughingsevenwith the country plough
and about six measures of seed are all that is required
to produce a crop of horse-gram for manure. It is the
duty of all men who have the welfare of the country
at heart, to use their influence towards the general
adoption of this highly beneticial practice of green
manuring. In this manner many million tons of
organic matter may be added amuially to the soils
of the country. As any number of crops can be
grown on dry land without extra assessment. I
do not see what dilficulty the ryot will have in
adopting it. Some^some of the dry lands are so'defi-
cient in organic matter as to be unfit for cultivation."
Mr. Subba Kao then advices that such lands be
planted with casuarina, of which the sheddings ought
to be allowed to enrich the soil. And he also sug-
gests that there can cultivation between the lines
of casaurina. But all the above argument is mate-
rially affected by the fact that the lecturer argued
from the condition of things at the Sydapet farm
to what may be done in country which is under
very different concUtions. On soil very poor in
organic matter horse-gram was grown in the Sydapet
farm. How is it that horse-gram grows on such soil?
Because it is nourished simply by air and water,
just as casaurina trees are. And the soil is sim-
ply the medium through which the nourishment
contained in air and water is most conveniently
conveyed to the plants. But it is quite possible
that casuarinas will refuse to grow both on similar
soil in other parts of the country where there 's
no moisture ; and also that, even though there
may be moisture, they will refuse to grow on land
which is very unfavorable to its ready percolation
and to the penetration of air to the roots of the
plant. And so it is with horse-gram. It is not
much moisture that it reiiuires ; but some it must
have ; and the soil on which it is planted must
be rather loose or light, so as to admit of [air pene-
trating to the roots. On the Sydapet Farm, with
all its •■ blowing sands," it would be impossible at any
time of the hottest year to dig a few inches
below the surface with the hands or with a stake
without coming upon moisture, or to dig a few
feet without coming upon water. And, however hot the
surface of the sands may be, that very heat
must be constantly bringing up vapour from below
to the surface. In fact, the subsoil moisture is
inexhaustible, because tlie soil is loo.se and the
sea is near. But how totally different in regard
to moisture and the cordition of the soil is most
of the dry land in the interior ! A little below
the surface it is in many jilaces as hard as rock,
and the digger may go down to primeval granite
without finding water, as the tentative borings for
artesian wells showed. And in some places even
the upper soil is unfavourable to the penetration
of air. Then again, it is not only by their root-
lets tliat ))lants and grasses receive nourishment,
but through every part of Uiem : the very leaves and
grass-blades absorb air and moisture. And when
the air is destitute of moisture, even watering
the soil of individual plants does not, in some
cases, avail to their nourishment. Moisture 'in the
air is essential to their existence. And what a
difference there is between the atmosphere of the
coast and tliat of the interior In this respect ! Only when
the landwind greatly prevails do we in Madras ex-
perience anything like the parching scorching heat
that prevails in the interior. The greater density
of the air and the moisture it contains near the
coast, make the heat there more oppressive to
animal life ; but these conditions are more favor-
able to vegetation than the arid heat of the in-

terior. The absence, therefore, or great deficiency
of moisture in both the sub-soil and in the air
in tlie interior of the country is the reason, which
Mr. Subba Bao could not see, why the ryot can-
not adopt the plan he proposes of raising three
crops a year on dry land ! ! I ,So tar from being
able to raise one crop of horse-gram before, and

one crop after, the winter crop of food grain

and that on all the IDJ million acres of dry land
that now bear but a single crop a year — Mr. Subba
Kau must learn that on many an acre of land the
ryot would be glad it he could always raise but
one good crop of horse-gram as his winter crop.
And if he could, so far from using it for man-
ure, the poor fellow would eat the gram himself,
and feed his cattle on the rest of the plant —
roots and all — which is full of nourishing matter
for cattle, and is most carefully preserved and
doled out to them daily with the other fodder
as a treat. The students and others at the Syda-
pet Farm should be on their guard and about
generalizing too freely from their experience or
observation on the farm. As we hope to show
further at some future time, very good land in the
interior is at a great disadvantage, in some respects,
compared with the inferior soil of the Sydapet Farm.
— iJadras Times.

PLANTING IN DELI.

(Translated fur the" Straits Times.")
New Staple Products. — Planters in Deli who, this
year too, may rejoice in splendid financial results
arising from the sale of the 1884 crop, have,
often and not unjustly, been reproached with the
fact that, in this country, so pitifully little has
been done in paving the way for growing new
products and setting the example in cultivating
them, from every effort and all their energies
being directed upon tobacco only, without paying
heed at all to the likelihood that, some day or other,
all may be over with high prices. We do not
range ourselves among those wOio hold gloomy
views as to the future. We on the con-
trary, are convinced that Sumatra tobacco, with-
in the last few years, has gained a particularly
high reputation throughout the commercial world
and that heuee it can only be ousted from this
vantage ground by a product possessing at least
the some good qualities. Moreover, one tran-
i quillising circumstance for Deli planters is that the
, country competition from which most has been
j looked forward to, is still an unexplored region.
{ But, notwithstanding this it is our opinion that
I prudence counsels the utmost attention to be
I steadily directed upon the cultivation of all trop-
ical products likely to make the East coast of
Sumatra more independent of tobacco. For that
Deli tobacco will continue to be a permanent ex-
ception and that the vicissitudes which charac-
■terise wholesale trade in all colonial produce
articles will never befall it we would rather not
believe, the more so from tobacco being concerned,
as to which trade and cultivation have ofteii
undergone changes for the worse. We rather look
upon a reaction as being merely a question of
time, than feel uncertainty whether it will come
or not. That many jilantei's are regardless of
the future so long as tliey do well in the present
is easy to understand by bearing in mind the
price ruHng within the last few years. Neither
is it any wonder either that they do not feel the
least inclination, in consequence, to make experi-
ments. When, however, low prices once set in fur-
ther delay will be dangerous, and the question
what is to be done will we hope not be, then
put too late. What we fear is that, then, thi

286

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

needful information and guidance will be lacking
upon which the cultivation of new products can
be started in this settlement ; from the few ex-
periments in growing different crops taken by the
I)eh Company and several private individuals hav-
ing led to unsatisfactory results, so that, when
the time comes, no produce article sure to be in
great demand can be pointed out as a culture
suitable for future plantation enterprise here. The
indigenous nutmeg cultivation has, within the
last few years, whoUy come to nought from the
trees dying out and other products such as
coffee, cocoa, and rameh, experiments with which
have been tried, have only been slightly success-
ful. As crop for 1884, about 400 piculs of coffee
were recently forwarded from here to Holland.
Eegarding the Mariendal estate, where the Deli
Company cultivates this article on the largest
scale, it is stated in the latest Official Colonial Be-
port that one imijortant subsidiary crop grown on
the same is common and Liberian coffee with
every prospect of further extension. According to
available particulars the number of trees increased
there in 1883 to 215,000 including 200,000 of the
common kind which in general presented a very
promising appearance, of which the older portion,
numbering about 50,000 trees were beginning to
be more and more productive, so that in 1883,
one hundred piculs of berry were gathered against
35 inl882. This product brought 40 cents per
half kilogramme in the Netherland market. The
15,000 Liberian coffee trees looked less promising.
They suffered severely from leaf disease and died
in great numbers. Eegarding the Petanic estate
worked by the same company it is reported that
an experiment with Liberian coffee wholly failed
from the young plants all dying out within a
few weeks! Kespeotiug the St. Cyr estate, we read
that of the coffee trees under cultivation, the
Liberian ones only looked flourishing but that the
remainder presented a stunted appearance. Thus,
while so far as coffee is concerned the outlook is
unsatisfactory, matters with regard to cocoa are not
one whit better. The Deli Company report about
it that the cultivation of the same will be extended,
but it is still uncertain whether success would be
achieved, though the crop growing on the St. Cyr
estate appears to promise well for the future. The
rameh regarding which, at one time, great ex-
pectations were entertained, has of late years, been
shoved more in the background owing to the
expensive and wholly unsuccessful trials with it in
Java. The Deli Company which made experiments
in growing this article on a large scale, reported
that trials in cultivating it were being continued
with regard to the kinds styled virca and utilix.
The crops looked well in the fields and several
times yielded fair crops. Samples forwarded to
Holland did not, however, answer expectations from
the machinery used proving unsuitable for separat-
ing the rameh from the stalks. Shortly, how-
ever, improved machinery will assuredly become
available. Without regarding the cultivation of the
three abovemeutioned produce articles as having
proved a failure, everyone will agree with us that
they cannot be looked upon as future products for
Deli, and that it is worth while to look round
for something else wherever there is anything
to learn on tliis point. Would it not be worth
while, for instance, to try jute, the cultivation of
which has proved so successful in Bengal ? — J)eli
Courant, 8th August.

♦

CATARRH OF THE BLADDER.

Stinging irritation, inflamatiou, all Kiadoy and similar
Oomplaiuts, cured byl"Buchu-paiba." W. E. Smith &
Co., Madras, Sole Agents.

COFFEE AND GOLD IN SOUTHEKN INDIA.

The annual statements of the quantities and official
valuation of coffee shipments from India begins
to show the declining jirosperity of the enterprise of
coffee planting, and the decreasing area of cultiv-
ation. The wonder is that the statistics have taken
so long to reflect the melancholy change that has
come over the position and prospects of planters.
The figures we refer to are as follows for the last
twelve years, it being premised that we have re-
converted the pounds sterling in the othcial state-
ments into rupees, at par of exchange : —

Year. Quarterly. Official Value.

cwt. E.

1873-74 ...

367,132

1, 49,94 ,9.-,0

1874-75 ...

312,874

1,30,79,190

1875-76 ...

373,499

1,63,33,950

187i;-77 ...

304,158

1,35,15,880

1877-78 ...

298,587

l,34,-;6,380

1878-79 ...

342,268

1.54,84,810

1179-80 ...

361,037

1,03,311,320

1880-81 ...

370,713

1,60,25,940

1881-82 ...

351.981

1,46,07 .1^90

1882-83 ...

364,0118

1,41,91,310

1883-84 ...

340,025

1,43.88,630

18S4-85 ...

328,317

1,24,55,060

It thus appears that the quantity of coSee ex-
ported fell between the beginning and the end of
the period, to the extent of 38,805 cwt. or by about
lOJ per cent, and the value by 1125,39,900, or by
17 per cent. This is serious, but not nearly so much
as one might look for from the actual state of
affairs in the coffee districts of this Presidency.
The explanation of that state of things is not far
to seek. Planters have been <lisappointed of season-
able weather, and have been victimised liy borer,
leaf-disease, and maistries ; but their chief cause,
for complaint is that the coffee that they have suc-
ceeded in sending to market has fetched unremuner-
ative prices. The consumption does not increase
with the supply, or with the increase of population,
and the cheapening of the article. Compare, for
example, the consumjrtion per lb. per head of popul-
ation, in the United Kingdom, of coffee, tea, and
cocoa, for twelve years : —

year.. Coffee. Tea. Cocoa.

1872 ... 1-00 5-047 0-25

1873 ... rOl 5-502 0-26

1874 ... 0-99 5-940 0-28

1875 ... 1-01 6-517 0-31

1876 ... 1-02 5-l^39 0-32

1877 ... 0-99 5-666 0-30

1878 ... l-Oll 0-097 0-30

1879 ... 1-04 6-113 0-30

1880 ... 0-96 6-233 0-31

1881 . . 0-90 6-277 0-31

1882 ... 0-89 6-230 0-34

1883 ... 0-90 6-636 0-36

Taking, as before, the first with the last year
of the period under notice, and the consumption
of coffee is found to have declined 10 per cent,
while that of tea has increased 31J jier cent, and
that of cocoa 35 per cent. A glance at the official
average of the price of coffee in the United Kingdom
in the latest ten years of which statistics are yet
available, show the real cause of the distress now
prevailing in the planting districts of this Presid-
ency.

1874 £5-03 per cwt. 1879 £4-44 per cwt.

1875 4-73 „ 1880 4-44 „

1876 4-68 ,, 1881 3-87

1877 4-83 „ 1882 3-81 „

1878 4-66 „ 1883 3-51 „
"0, Hamlet, what a falling off is here !"

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

287

From 1S55 to 18G5 the young fellow who " went into
coffee " was usually regarded by his friends as one
who was bound, it he exercised but ordinary prud-
ence, and lived economically, to make a very neat
competency wherewith to return to his native land,
and the bosom of his family, long ere the prime
of life had been passed. He was, at the same
time, regarded with much amiability by Banks,
bankers, and the devotees of commerce. But,
by a lamentable concatenation of events, for which
they are not themselves responsible, the planters,
with few exceptions have been reduced from com-
parative affluence to approximate poverty. The
bankers who were once so ready to advance money
to them on mortgage for the extension of estates or
in anticipation of crops, now, with one con-
sent, refuse to advance a rupee, and are
foreclosing in self-defence. The credit of plant
planters has thus temporarily gone, and only those
planters remain in India who are unable to get
away without sacrificing the savings and labours of
a lifetime. Estates, when forced on to the market,
fetch the most ruinous prices. Coffee is overdone ;
cinchona is overdone ; and tea, it is feared, is also
in course of being overdone. The gloomy position
of coffee in India, Ceylon, Java, Brazil, etc., deters
the entrance of new men into the business ; pre-
vents the investment of fresh capital ; contracts the
area of cultivation (for the estates of some planters
who had no funds to go on with, have been
abandoned, and have retarned to jungle) ; and must,
in the course of time, reduce the supply of the
berry to the consumer, and thus bring about a
partial remedy for the present state of things. But
it will need many good years to restore the con-
fidence of capitalists in planting enterprise. All
this must contribute to the commercial disadvantage
of Southern India.

There is reason, however, to hope, that what the
Presidency may lose by coffee, it may make up by
gold, and other minerals. The prospects of gold
mining in Mysore are certainly very encouraging.
The Mysore Company is said to be whining gold
of the value, on an average, of over E8,000 per
mensem. It is weighted with a capital of £135,000,
■which is out of all proportion to its wants. £45,000
of this went to pay for a square mile of unproved
land, and much of the rest was dribbled away.
Any profit now being made will afford but a small
dividend on the whole capital, but if £30,000 be
taken as the fair value of the comparatively smaU
piece of land now being worked, and of machinery
purchased and mining operations to date, then it
will be seen that the Company is doing well. It
has convincingly established the existence of gold
in paying quantities, within (as compared with
Australian mines) a short disttnce from the sur-
face. The greatest depth reached, so far, is 235
feet, and the deeper the shafts are sunk, the more
rich is the stone. Probably the Mysore Company
■will reduce its capital by selling bits of land
advantageously. The Nundydroog and Ooregum
Companies have actually resumed operations, and the
Ballaghat is hard at work, and hopeful.

The home public having been once bit about
Indian Gold Mining, will be shy about further
investments in the development of the latent wealth
of ■nhat they can but regard as the Land of the
(Jolden Fleece. Hut in lHSO-82 the public was
grossly misled, and again and again did we protest
against the foUy of the hour. Now, however, the
case is different. "Kesults" which were vainly
craved for in 1880-82, are now before us, so far
as Kolar is concerned, and these are handsome
enough to encourage further enterprise. Gold is
the trj'ing wani of the age, as the supply is far

below the world's requirements, and prices are being
disarranged by the portentous fact. If, then, Madras
should eventually become — as seems probable — the
outlet for a large and steady supply of the com-
modity, her own fortunes will be beneiicially affected.
We wish we could add that gold mining prospects
are improving in Wynaad, but the industry is
believed to be hopeless there, though the revival of
interest in the Kolar field may exercise an en-
couraging influence upon the Western Coast. The
business of gold mining will now, it is fair to
believe, be conducted on sound business principles ;
and as in Australia, so here, success in a search
for gold should stimulate investigation into the iron,
copper, and coal resources of the Presidency. —
Madras Nail.

NATjVL: depressed AGRICULTURAL PRO-
SPECTS.

From Sir H. Bulwer's Speech to the Legislative
Council : — The past season has been accompanied
by a drought of unusual severity, which has entailed,
I am sorry to say, considerable losses among the
natives living in the thorn districts, and has already
caused a rise in the price of produce above average
rates ; but although farming has been carried on
under somewhat exceptional difficulties, the year has
been marked by increased activity on the part of
those engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits.
The evidences of this are visible in an enlarged
area of cultivation, in many improvements in the
method of farming, and in the extensive enclosure
of land. The variety and excellence of the articles
exhibited at the different agricultural shows re-
cently held, affords a proof of what can be done
in the colony ; and a comparison of the entry lists
of the agricultural societies with the list of imported
articles affords a further proof that many things
now imported can be produced in the colony.
The sugar planting industry in this, as in all the
other colonies where it is prosecuted, has entered
upon a period of serious and anxious depression in
consequence of the severe competitive struggle that
it has to carry out with the produce of the beet
in the home markets. The best way for carrying
on this struggle will probably be found in the' im-
proved modes of growing the sugar-cane and in the
careful prevention of all waste, whether of material
or of labour, in the manufacture. It is satisfactory
to know that the sugar planters of the coast have
not been discouraged by the great reduction in the
prices obtained by them, but have on the contrary
shown renewed activity, and are steadily adding to
the area of land under cane cultivation^ while the
recent partial recovery of prices in the home market
is a cause for further congratulation. Notwith-
standing the leaf-disease and other causes which
have led to a falling-off of late years in coffee
planting, this industry has now been to some ex-
tent resumed with a fair prospect of success. The
growth and manvifacture of tea gives promise of de-
veloping within a few more years into a profitable
enterprise. At ])resent the consumption of these
two products is almost exclusively limited to the
j colony ; but I trust that it will not be long before they
take place amongthe articles of our regular export."
From the reply of the Council we quote as
follows : —

" We regret the continued depression which exists
in conmiercial circles ; this depression, however, is
not peculiar to Natal. No doubt, the decrease in
our imports is partly oau.sed by the diminished prices
obtained for our eliief articles of export, whereby
the purchasing power of the community is reduced.
This is beyond our control ; but it will be our

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

duty to watch and take care that the recent in-
crease in our tariff has not acted prejudicially on
the internal trade of the colony, and that it has
not also diverted the course of trade into other
channels. If the extent of our trade with the Diamond
Fields has decreased, it is a question whether ad-
verse tariffs have not had more to do with the
diminution than the inactivity mentioned by Your
Excellency. The interest taken in all farming pur-
suits at the present time is in gratifying contrast
to the apathy which but too reecently prevailed.
If the country is to prosper, it can only do so
by the persistent and intelligent working of the
land, out of which all wealth must come. It is
to be hoped that the sugar industry has now seen
the end of the severe struggle it has had to
maintain in the markets of the world ; and the
fact that our planters have not been discouraged
by the adverse circumstances with which they had
to contend in recent years, must be a source of
congratulation to every true colonist. We trust the
day is not far distant when our supplies of coffee
and tea will be produced in the colony, and that
these products will soon take their place in our
list of exports."

♦

Sea-Sickness. — An eminent American physician has
discovered a certain preventative for sea-sickness. The
remedy is bimplicity itself; and so, probably, is the
promoter of it. The patients are simply rtquirtd of
stand on their heads while afloat, and the miseries
of mal de mer are banished from ttie catalogue of ills
that flesh is heir to. I do not, however, think that
the ingenious doctor's treatment is lilcely to be uni-
versally adopted. It would be somewhat inconvenient;
though, on the other hand, the spectacle (if the
Channel boats arriving daily at the pier at Folkstooe
of Dover, with the whole of the passengers in an in-
verted position, would add considerable zest to the
pleasure of the usual crowd which delight to meet
them.— Jl'etkli/ Kchi, July 26tb.

" Tekne " PLATK can easily be distinguished
from properly tiuned sheet iron by the sense of
touch when handled by experienced persons, unless
the terne coating contiins an unusually small
proportion of lead. Fordoz's test may, however, , be
depended upon as final. Clean the surface of the
suspected plate, using a little ammonia to remove
every trace of grease, and dry thoroughly in a
gentle heat, after applying a drop of nitric acid.
Let a drop of the otheiii.'il solution of iodide of
potassium fall on the plice where the nitri acid
was laid. A yellow spot will appear if the leas
lead is present. This t^st, as has been shown,
is a good one for » xamining the quality of tiiamels
of co'ikina ves'els. — vlmif/icaii Cultimtor..

The following, which we extract from the Farmer's
Rerieic, is not cheerful reading : — " Prof. Kiley,
Entomologist for the Department of Agriculture,
announces that this year we shall have two
distinct species of locusts, the seventeen and seven
year locusts. It has been two hundred years since
these two kinds have appeared in the same season.
Neither are destructive to crops; their chief injury
is to trees by depositing their eggs in the tender
twigs of the new growth, which cause the portion
beyond the egg deposit to die. The Hessian fly
and chinch bug is reported as at work this spring
in the wheat in those districts where it was
present last fall. These are the new croj) hatched
from the eggs deposited on tlie plant last fall. There
is no remedy for them now or notliing which can
be done to prevent their damage to the wheat.
Grasshoppers are already reported at work in
Texas, and the bark louse is present in unusual
.numbers upon fruit and shade trees in wide
districts of the country. Altogether we are likely
to have a Ittimiy season." — Imliuii Aijriculturisl.

New Guinea.— The following from Colonies
and India is of more than ordinary interest :— There
13 a strong desire amongst Australasian Colonists
at home to know what the new Conservative
Government intend to do in regard to New Guinea,
and with a vie^T to eliciting some information
Viscount Lymiugton questioned Colonel Stanley
ou the subject in the House of Commons on August
5th. The hon. momber for Barus'aple wished to
know whether Her Majesty's Government had
decided upon the foriu of Government under which
the English portion of New Guinea was to be
administered, upon the proportion of the expenses
of government to be borne by the Imperial Ex-
chequer, and upon efficient means of peimanently
securing the yearly contributions of the Colonial
Pariiameuts. Colonel Stanley, in reply, said he
was not in a position to make any definite state-
ment. It was hardly necessary to be told that
the proceedings whicli had taken place in respect
of N w Guinea had been somewhat interrupted
by the change of Government, but it may be
hopfd that the various arrangements which Colonel
Stanley says "are not yet concluded" are progressing
satlsfactnrily, and that Her Majesty's Goveiument
will shortly be in a pontiou to make some definite
and satisfactory announceuKnt on the subject. We
seem to hear more ab.ut the German than the
Euglidi half of the island. From the last number
of the Nnrhrichlen fiir und fiber Kaisir Wil/icbn's
Land und den Bismarck- Archipe.l, published by the
New Guinea Company, we learn that Friedrich-
Wilhelm's-Haven " is the best ani safest haven
on the north coast of the island." The largest
armour-plated vessels, we are assured, could lie
there securely, as the harbour is land-locked. The
natives cultivate plantations on the c;)ast, and it ia
remarked that it would be a difficult, matter to
find out the real proprietors, since .''everal settle-
ments take part in one plantation. A high mountain
chain, far inland from Astrolabe Bai, aud rising
some 5,000 or 6,000 metres, but not given on
any map, baa been named the Bismarck range.
The land opposite Bill Bili, in which are large
plantations, is said to be extraordinaiily rich and
fertile. Behind Astrolaba Bay, liowcver, all is
difi'erent. From Cape Kiguy for sixty miles east are
creeks with low banks bordered with trees. There
are no coral reefs, but the sea attains a great
depth. Havens and anchor-grounds are also lacking.
The land is considered well suited for cattle and
sheep rearing, and also for ilix cultivation. It
i<i everywhere accessible for horses and beasts of
burden, so that travelling is eiisy. There must
be an abundance of water even in the dritst sea-
son, for Dr. Finsch, who sends the abave information
acounted 19 large river?. While the advices received
from Dr. Finsch concerniog the northern part of
the island and its c'imatio conditions are rf the
most favociable character, the New Cuinea Company
is desirous that all reports, whether favourable or the
reverse, should be receiveil with caution pending the
result of further iuvestigatiou. It may be remember-
ed th it a sliort time ago an expedition, under the
leadership of Herr Graliowsky, left Germany for
New Guinea. It is to call at Java for the purpo,sc cf
recruiting labour, so that it will not arrive at
Kaiser Wilhelm's Lm-l till October. But the real
scientific m ssiou which this explorer has to guiile
into the interior will not leave Gerniauy until
November or December next. Herr Grabowsky
ia a naturalist of repute ; he h.as had some ex-
perience in the mana^'emini. of plantations in Borneo,
and is, withal, an excellent linguist, so that he is
particularly suitable for the leadership of so difficult
au expedition.

October i, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

zSg

To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer."
PLANTING IN BOLIVIA.

COFFEE— CINCHONA. — COCA.
[AVe attract the attention of Messrs. Jobu 'Walker
& Co., Mr. ■\Ve8tlaud, ami others interested, to the
following letter.— En.l

Hacienda " San Franci.sco," I'rov. Yungas,

Bolivia, April 10th, 18S5.
Messrs. Batts, Hendy & Co., Agents of the Jl'eeUy
Ceylon Observer, 37, ■Walbrooli, London, E.G.
Deab Si i;s,— Towards the end of last year, and
through the medium of Mr. G. A. Witt, agent iu
Londou of Mr. Otto Kicliter, La Paz. we became sub-
sciibers to the Weekli/ Cri/lon Observer, wliich since
has been regularly forwarded to the addicss of Mr.
Maximo Schmidt, c/o Mes.srs. Eichter, Lehue & Co.,
Lacna. The numbers received by us up to the pre-
sent we have read with great interest, and also found
therein several articles of great importance to the
planting districts of Yungas, situated iu the interior
of Bolivia.

Allow us to remark that "planting" in Yungas
meets with nearly every imaginable dilBculty, «i!h
perhaps the only exception of climate and ground,
these being of the best. Scarcity of labour is a great
drawback ; the Indian almost the only workman to
be had, belonging to a most stubborn, lazy, sluggish
race, and takes no heed of the future, and only
works with but few exceptions when be is compelli d.
The indifference of the white native is equ.Tllj'
astonishing; the meaning of "Go ahead" and "Time
is Money" being absolutidy unknown to him, nothing
can induce him to abstain from following the example
of his ancient ancestors the " Licas." whilst a foieitjiier
(so-called "gringo" here) most naturally looks for pro-
gress iu every direction. All work is done by hand,
a machine of any kind being a completely unknown
tiling, and even looked upon as most superfluous.
We have endeavoured to construct a pulper and a
peeler for coffee, although in a pilmitivo way, but
suflncient for a small crop of coffee. We began,
however, extending our coffee plantations, and would
now wish to introduce a more i>ractical system of
coffee cultivation than has hitherto been known
here, the old system being still in its childhood one
might; say. It is desirous of doing this that we take
the liberty of addressing you on the subject. No
doubt you will be able to furnish us with drawings,
or at least full descriptions (price list) of the new
machines now used in Ceylon. E.specially obliged
we would feel to you if you would kindly indicate the
best peeler, pulper, and drier now used, and also give
us full <let.iil8 regarding Westland's improved sieve,
mentiolned in your No. of 1st Dec. 1884, p. lOOn. Climate
and ground here being very adequate for the cultivation
of coffee, coca, &c., &c., and we are of the opinion it
would be so for " tea " also, and would esteem it a
great favour if you could procure us, through your Ceylon
friends, some fresh seeds of the best Ceylon tea, in
order to make a trial. A few pounds wiuld be
sufiicient, but as we have never tried the cultivation
of tea before, we would request you to send us at
the same time a Tea Planters' Manual, in every con-
sideration as complete as possible, especially as regards
the planting, etc.

LiBF.niA Coffee. — AVhat is your opinion of Liberia
coffee? Do you think its cultivation here would be
of great use? Would it be po.ssible to obtain some
fresh seed ? AVe received some seed some vears ago
through .Mr. Christy, but it arrived spoilt. We believe
a business with Liberia coffee could only be made
by a very heavy crop. Yungas coffee is of the finest
quality, and we believe even better than Ceylon.

Bark. — Besides coffee we have for years past cidtiv-
atcd "best calisaja of Hi and 7i iJer cent," and as
several of the foreign houses in La Paz (four days'
journey from here) have often sent, and still send,

37

"best calisaya seed" to India, perhaps it might suit
your Ceylon friends to receive some direct fiom us.
We could otfer some at more moderate prices, and
even of better quality, especially as we ourselves
gather the seed with greatest care, and would dispatch
same to London ourselves at the lowest possible rate,
availing ourselves of the services of our partner in
La Paz.

Coca. — This product we also cultivate on a largo
scale, and having heard that some of Ihu foreign
houses in La Paz have begun to export plants as
well as seed to London, presumably for the t'olonies,
we could also, if convenient to you, and desired by
you to do so, send you plants and seed as well as
coca of first quality, under the same favourable
conditions as referred to under " bark."

Tkxms. — You may rest assured that any order from
you would be executed by us with the greatest possible
care, and as cheap as possible, i.e., cost price. At
the same time we request you, on transmitting your
orders, to name the firm iu Londou you authorize
us to draw on against shipping documents and invoice
attached to draft. The amount to be drawn on 90
days' sight for value of invoice on board "Arica "

The amount of my order above, if possible to ex-
ecute same, you may receive from Mr. G. A. Witt,
London, 4, Cullum Street, on delivery of the parcel
with orders for same to be forwarded to Mr. MiLximo
Schmidt, c/o Mr. Otto Eichters, La Paz, Bolivia. Await-
ing your estemed reply, we remain, dear sirs, yours
very truly, LOHSE h SCHMIDT.

P. S. — We are sending copy of above letter to
Messrs. A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo. J'cile.

FERMENTATION— AND NEW PRODUCTS.

London, E. C , 31st July, 1885.

Df.ar Sir. — Following up the information con-
taiued in "New Commercial Plants," No. 8, upon
the cjuestion of " fermentation," as I have furnished
some papers with information, I send you detads
for your readers as the channels through which I
have communicated the information may not reach
Ceylon for sometime. I found that many plints
that yield grain do not suthcieuily mature their
s<el, an 1 that, ly asiisting ua'ure iu the following
plan, a very superior article of food is produced
as in cocoa. I would suggest the following ex-
pcrimentf, if not already known to some of your
readers in Ceylon and India.

When they observe that the rice is considered
ripe, that is to say, before the Hag or stem is
entirely dead, if these planti are cut down and
rapid f.rmentation set up, while the grain is still
iu the ear, and it is then cooled iff and dried
and the grain taken out, it wdl be found to hav
immensely improved the quality and flavour of
the rice. The length of time ot fernipntation de-
pends upon the s ze of the grain, and .ilso upon the
maturity of the rice when out. but it would be
safe to let it ruu up to 13S° Fahr, if not r.ither
higher. I need hardly say how glad I shall be
to receive through your medium the information
of corres))ondents who will try this and leport
their results.

In the edition of the Ceylon Observer just to
hand, the editorial note is perfectly correct, and
I have done my best to get a supply fioni Ceylon
and India of the different varietits of Erijllirorijlon
Cocn, and I hope shortly to be able to record
tests for cocaine from leaves obtained from South
Africa. A small quantity was stnt home by Dr
Bidie from Madras, but when I appln d to th<-
authorities at Kew, they could not spare me su'"
cient to make a test, hence there hns been a de';y
of many months, and now that Krylhro.njl r. toca
lecves Lave fallen to la GI per lb., there may not
be Iho same anxiety to obtain new varieties.

agio

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885,

.1 am noiv reaily to supply plants of CilhanxijJon
latum. This tree yields a good timber, is hardy in
oliai;icter ; tlie fruit is very much the shape of the
olive, and (he stone or berry wlieQ stripped of the
pulp yields a beverage, the Hivour of which is
considered to be littween cocra and c iffee. — lam,
dejr fir. yours truly, THOS. CHRISTY.

MB. J. HUGHES ON TEA MANUFACTUBE
AND OTHEB TOPICS.

London, 14th Aug. 1885.

Dear Sir, — I have to acluiowledge with thanks
receipt of the work on the coconut palm, which is full of
valuable information to those interested in such plant-
ations. As regards the scientific manufacture of tea
there can be no doubt that young men with a know-
ledge of chemistry will prove useful in tea factories.
It is true that the whole operation is mechanical,
but the different stages depend on the result of
chemical changes going on, and when the best
method of treatment is once decided upon a few
simple tests will enable assistants to carry out
the manufacture with great precision and to obtain
uniform results.

Mr. Arnold White, late of Ceylon, has an article
in the August number of Good Words which you may
have noticed already. I had hoped to have written
more, but am much engaged at present.

An article in the June Tropical Aiirifultiirist on
the Queensland sugar enterprize, copied from the Field,
was written by a personal friend to myself from
Queensland.— Yours very truly, JOHN HUGHES.

CINCHONA BAEK.

6, Mincing Lane, London E. C, l-lth Aug. 1885.

Dear Sir, — We beg to hand you co])y of a
special circular which we have issued on the sub.
ject of cinchona bark grown in your island, which
may be of interest to you. — Dear sir, yours faith-
fully, LEWIS & PEAT.

6, Mincing Lane, London, 14th August 1S?5.

Gentlemen, — In our regular fortnightly Price Cur-
rent on this important article, we bad the tratiflc-
ation of reporting a very satisfactory result of the
enormous auctions held last Tuesday, when nearly one
niilli'jn pounds of Ceylon and East Indian Eiirk were
sold at firm prices, the finer qualities at some advance.

In this sale many parcels were of good rich quality,
a large p,^rt of renewed (in proportion to natural, about
one-tliirtl) both Officinalis and Succirubia testing ex-
tremely well. The quality and condition of Ceylon
shipm-Mits has certainly much improved this season,
and tlie estates are reapiug advantage from the greater
Cftre in harvest ing and packing.

Succi.'ubra iSjwki'tiliaviiii/s when bold clean and of fresh
color, have been com[teted for frequently for 2)r7u/-
(■//.si.,' purposes; quills, mostly for the same purposes,
have soUl at low anil disappointing prices, and gener-
ally speaki.ig we doubt the profit of sending such, un-
less when grey mossy quills can be shipped ; but only
moderate quantities can be sold to the Drtiggists. and
they must be bold e\'en lengths, not broken, and in
cases. We have had much less of ti''i(/s and youitti
branch than in former seasons— all odd mixed poor
lots, cut too thin or too woody have sold at relatively
low rates. Sevcr.tl parcels of good clean liont have sold
at high prices as high as 2s 4d p.'r lb. for Otbcinalis
and Is ■Id per lb. or Succirubra, but the average of
the latter is very low compared with the former.

In recent auctions stem and trunk chips and sliav-
ing< of which the greater part consists sold at—

per 111.
s. d. s. d.
Officinalis, part renewed and renewed ... 0 S.V to 2 11
natural ... ... 0 5 to 1 5

Succirubra, part renewed and renewed ... (I G to 3 0
natural ... ... 0 'A to 1 7

Oalisaya has been very disappointing and sold at low
rates ; Hybrid rather better. The total quantity oifered
(and practically all sold) since Ist January reaches the
large total of

Ceylon. East India. Java.

fc. lb. lb.

7,2n0,n00 361,200 88,300 in 18S5
Against to same date 5,120,000 404,000 61,250 in 1884
The almost total cessation of Imjiorts fruni Central
America of Soft Columbian, Pitayo, and Ouprea^only
about 923 packages since 1st January and of OalLsaya
(Bolivia) about 915 packages — and the continued good
deliveries to date, viz. : —

4.1,099 pkgs. delivered to Ist Aug. 1885 )

Against 49,240 ... ... 1884 V*

50,385 ... ... lSs3j

Eesult, in our Stock being reduced to : —

75,552 pkgs. of all sorts... 1885

Against S8,94ii ,.. ... 181

94,nC8 ... ... 1883

The unjirecedentedly low prices for Sulphate of
Quinine has attracted the attention of speculators ; to-
day's lowest quotation of 2s lid to 3s per oz, shewing
an advance of 4d from the lowest price reported by
manufacturers, who have been unwilling to sell in large
quantities both here and in America; therefore we are
hopeful that the worst is over regarding prices, and
that though trade generally is so depressed, we may
see firm if nnt higher rates maintained for Cinchona;
as we do not think we shall receive any quantity from
Central America for some time to come, ou account
of the revolution there which stops all trade and col-
lecting of produce. It is almosl needless for us to
remark that odd part-els of 1, 3. or 3 packages do not
meet with attention always, and sell below their act-
ual value as, when manufacturers have so many sam.

pies to test, they do not all analyse the small lot

Your obedient servants, Lewis & Peat, Brokers.

COCA AND COCAINE.

- London, E. C, 14th Aug. 1885.

De.w Sib, — It is as well for planters who are now
on all sides demanding seeds and plants of "Eiyth-
roxylon Coca" to know that they have got the South
American markets against them which j-ield an
enormous weight of coca leaves a year, and a few
pence would induce the idauters to sell to shippers
in place of selling to the shop and storekeepers for
home consumption. The Italians have been pur-
chasing coca leaves at a high price to make an ex-
change operation, as they require a medium for pay-
ment of their goods.

The price of coca leaves has fallen today for good
quality in London to 1/ per lb., and cocaine is selling
here at 3/ per. gi-amme tube or CO/ per oz. They
have got up the jdeld with the new leaves to as
high as two grammes of cocaine to 1 lb. of leaves.
There is no doubt that the coca will be used in Ceylon
and India for making liqueur and wine, and as
the process has been so fully described in your
journal for manufacturing cocaine, there is notliing
to prevent chemists making it on the spot w'ben the
price of leaves falls.

We have today received from Bolivia cocaine of
really good quality and white in colour for us to
examine and report upon. To save freight, one
house has started a manufactory at Lima for making
the crude extract of cocaine, which will enable
them to finish oft the cocaine here at a low price.
On considering the future prosjiccts of price, it is
not improbable that it will go down to Id a grain
for first quality cocaine, or 40/ per ounce.

No doubt you will have called the attention of
your readers in the Observer or the Tropieal Agri-
culturist to remarks that have appeared in the paper

* East India packages as a whole are noio large
than formerly.

GcroBfiR T, 1885.2 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISl".

291

this month, showing that low qniility silk can be
treated with a preparation of glrcerine and converted
into imitation catgut, which has tiner propecrtiea than
that ordinarily supplied, for it is stronger than cat-
gut and is not so easily acted on by the atmo-
spheric changes. — I am, yours obediently.

THOS. CHRISTY,

ECOXOXIt IN TEA-LEAD.

The Cevlon Tea and Coffee Co., Ld., 1, Guildhall
Chambers, 33, Basinghall St., •21st Aug. 1S85.

Dear Sir, — Amongst the many things in which
keen competition here has necessitated strict eco-
nomy being practised, there is one item which may
be serviceable to your planters. In conmiencing to
lead boxes, half-chests and chests for our English
and foreign trade, tea-lead in the ordinary sheets
was used. But the cutting to waste was great. I
then considered the possibility of obtaining the lead
in three pieces for each case : a top, a bottom and
one piece for the four sides. I have had the tea-
lead for 20, 50, and 100 lb. cases cut at the works
in these three pieces, thus saving waste, time, and
soldering. I commend this to your tea-planters, who,
I find on examination, lose greatly in the turnover
and extra solder and labour, a chest often con-
taining six pieces and rarely less than five. I
pack all sorts of tea here, large and small. — Yours
faithfully, A. L. HUTCHISON,

ilanafling Director.

[Very like an advertisement ? — En.]

THE YIELD OF TEA PER ACBE IN
CEYLOK.

22pa August 18S5. •

Dear Sir, — In commenting on my letter which
appeared in your "Overland" issue of 19h instant
you a-k : " Bat how about the low averages worked
oat by Mr. Rutherford ? "

Now, in the fir t place, I would cirefuUy avoid
committing myself to an aver.ige of 400 lb. per acre
for the island, tor some years to come at all events, ;
although I see no reason why that rate of yield
should not be obtained under fair average con-
ditions as to soil, climate and cultivation, without J
sacrifice of quality in the 6th year from planting. |
Individual escates may produce heavier crops whilst 1
others are left f.<r behind, and will be so proSably
to the end, for reasons which are obvious enough
without particular zation.

Mr. Rutherford's Ftatement affords its own ex- '
plana'ion of the p^int r-aised by your inquiry,
inasmuch as he attributes the low yield for 1885
which he puts at 2101b. per acre to Vne immaturity
ot our plants ; and that this dops in great part
account for ii may be seen from the fact, that
whereas acoordins to his tible the average yield
rises in 1886 to 212 lb. per acre, it Mis in the
followimj year to 175 lb. nnj'ig to th- addition
of .SO.OOO acres planted in 1884 and jieldiii? only
100 lt>. per acre to the bearing acreage for 188')-7.
It is this disproportion in the eri'ly yerr? of the new
enterprise between tho acreage of tea only just
com'neDcin^ to giv*- leaf and I hat of our older tea—
the ratio being 50 under 4 to 19 over 4 years old
— which reduces the average yield. lu 18S7-8 the
disproportion is lessened, the rates beinc t>9 to 30,
and a correspondingly be ter average yie'd is shown.

We have however to account for the low average
yield shown by .Mr. Rutherford for t°a 4 years old
and upwards ia 1S85 6 ; and >ou will observe that
I do not challenge the subjtan'ial accuracy of hia
estimate.

The reason must, I think, bo sought for in the
fact that at first we planted much too widely, and
thus had too few trees to the acre, This Trid« '

planting wcu'd tell most unfavourably in poor lu d
Tlius 4 X 1 or 4 X ,"1 m-.iy be the right distance op^rt
for tea under cert.'''-' conditions, whereas uider
others 3x3 or even 2 x 2 would have to be tho
di^tance in order to secure a remunera'ive yield of
leaf. I know of gardens which were origimlly
planted nominady (5x6 and actually 8 x 8 to ullow
for the spr. ad which was expected from iho magni-
ficent jat scipprsed to have been laid down. This
was c irriid out under Inf'ian authority ; and ytars
afterwards the same authority agreed flat in'er-
plantiug would be advisable. ) have no doul t otheis
than my self are acquainted with the fame procffs.
—Yours faithfully, C. W. H.

ixPORT OF CINNAMO.V.

Colombo, -4ih Aupu.'t ISP.'i
Dear Sir, — In your last London crmmeicial httf r
reference is made to the rumours circulated thtre to
the eft'ect tl at there would be "a U'arked nccline in
the exports of tinramon frrm Cevlon during the next
few months." Why or how this decline is autic'pati d
I cannot guess. But I find that the exports of cin-
camon during the present and the past three years
were as follows, viz. : —

Bales lb.

From 1st Oct. 1881 to 20th Aug. 1882 l,lt'0,.';i9
„ 1S82 „ 1883 1.072,L'70

„ 1883 „ 18S4 l,3.^3.a2C

„ 1884 „ 1885 1,242,372

This shows that the exports ot 1883-4 were niu h
in excess of those of 1882-3 or U8I-2. Tliere was a
slight falling- fi' in the exports for lSSI-5 as com-
pared with 1883 4, but they compare very favorably
with the exports of the two preceding y- ara. The
slight falliug-off isduetoihe lite setting-iu of the
southwest moneron, which is the season lor peeling
and curing. But this will not materially afhct 1 he
trade'. CincaT-.on is not usually afficted to any
very considerable extent by the failure of rain or
protracted dry weather. To say that cino. men
has been short in pirdnct on o«ing to the exten-
sion of coconut and tea planting is sin'ply a
fallacy. Cinnamon has in no place been upri ot^il or
burnt out to make room for other new pn du' ts.
But thes'? who ur;;6 this as a reason to account for
the decline in tho expirts of cinn.amon forget
to take an account of land which is being
newly converted into cinnamon plan'a'ions. The
slight decline in the exports, besides being due to
the lateness of the working season, may also be
accounted for by the unprecedentedly low prices
which have ruled for some time in the einnairon
market-prices which held out little or no induce-
ment to proprietors of cinnamoo propeit'es to pre-
pare the article for shipment. That the lighter
kinds are in greater favour is easily explained. The
owners of small patches of 0 nn«mon do not grudge
to pay higher wages to the peelers and o'hers enpaged
in the curing trade in order to give to their snia 1
consignments an appearance very much (he same as
if not quite equal to that of the product of 'arce
estates. This is easily accomplished by giving tho
bark a finer appearance. But after a'l this consists
only in appearance, not in quality, Cinnamon if an
article which has to be tested by taatc, not by sight.
— Yours truly. H.

THE USE OF CO.AL IN TEA FACTOKIESi
EXPERIMENTS ON KINTYRE.

Kintyre, 27th August 1885.
Dear Sir, — Annexed I send you the result of
experiments made with coal in my tea factory.
I think as far ac the sirocco experiments go, they
are sutisf-ictory. The coal cost E45'00 a ton on
the estate and was not. I think, of very pood quality
being email in lize. Of coarse, iq calcnUtiiag cost

292

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

per pound of tea allowance must be made for re-
firing aiid for stoppage of "work consequent on the
roll not being always raedy for firing when wanted.
If wo could get coal at liSO a ton, which we shruld
be able to do when the demand is greater, there
need b" nn more anxiety on the sf^re of fuel. —

Yours faithfully,

H,D. DEANE,

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FUNGUS ON LIBERIAN COFFEE.

24tli August 1SS5.

Sin, — i bog to submit an old question in a new
light, if you think it worih while to entert.r:n it.

Enclosed substance is scraped from leaves of
Libetian coBee, and oon-iets, 1 believe, of gummy
exudation therefrom and atmosphi-rie depisit upon
the gum. I have a few trees growing under lee
of la ridge of rocks which lies about N. W. and
S. E. and those few trees are comparativtly free
from the deposit. I think that the weakening
effect of this deposit is indirectly the cause of
scalebug. Guavas, oranges and Arabian crff'H in
some situations ai-e all subject lo it. Perhaps
your chemical referee may like to examine the
substance in this light. — Your respectfully, A
QUKRIST.

[The floky substance sent by " A Querist " is
comijoscd entirely of a fine netwoik of fiingus ia
fruit, which is planily visible under (he micro;>cope
so our acientific referee reports. — Ed.]

ME. AEMSTEONG'S PAPEE ON TEA :
THE POWEE OF WATEE-WHEELS.

Colombo, 2nd Sept. 1885.

De.vr Sir, — Mr. Armstrong's valuable paper on
tea manufacture, read the other day before a meeting
of the Maskeliya Planters' Association, bears one
blemish, his allusion to a subject of which he
has a very feeble hold — the water-wheel.

It is surprising that a man of Mr. Armstrong's
calibre should share the opinion of every novice
and believe that the power of a water-wheel
depends chiefly on its diameter. " Lots of water "
is vague in the extreme, as no wheel requires
more water than its buckets can contain. Is it
not time our teachers understood that the power
of a water-wheel should be reckoned from the
quantity of water passing through its buckets,
while the fall or diameter of wheel is really
of secondary importance ?

A given quantity (say 480 cubic feet) of water
per minute passes over a 20-feet wheel (Mr.
Armstrong's excelsior size) — pass the same water
over an 18 or even 16 feet wheel (those that would
have been "lumber" but for the advent of the
" Ceylon Boiler") and state the difference in
power developed.

SpUt the hair. Oh ye would-be teachers 1 — Yours
truly, D. K. M.

»^

GEAFTING LEDGEBIANAS UPON
SUCCIEUBEAS.

S. India, Sept. 1885.

Sin, — My attention was lately called to a very
iijteresting letter, by Mr. W. T. Kemp, on this
.subject in the T. A. for November 1882.

1 see it is Btated that for all grafting done in
the open-air the grafts must either be protected
by a bamboo cylinder or else bottomless bottles :
is this protection absolutely uecessary ?

Another question : of what length should the
Ledgeriana cuttings, to be grafted, be?

All answer to the above two questions will
greatly oblige, yours ■ faithfully,

CINCHONA PLANTEB.

[Perhaps Mr. Wni. Smith will answer these
questions, as he was the planter who first tried
open-air grafting and was most successful. We
believe ho at first sheltered his trees by bottom-
less bamboo baskets, inverted, but that he ultim-
ately discarded shelter of all kinds. Had the
value of cinchona bark kept up, he wcnild have,
doubtless, persevered with tlie process and made n
larjje fortune,— Ep.]

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

293

COFFEE VERSUS TEA.

LauKilale, Liiiflula, 4tli Sept. 1885.

Siu, — I send you an extract from a liome
letter : —

" You ask it we drink Ceylon tea ? and the
answer is, the grocers do not care about it, they
say it cannot be depended upon, it varies so much;
and if so, why cultivate it ? Then again, doctors
are setting their faces against tea : two doctors
advised me not to drink it at all. So we only use
it for afternoons, and even then at many houses
coii'ee is ofi'ered at afternoon tea parties, so many
people are not allowed to touch tea. In the
hospitals now coffee is - given as a stimulant
instead of brandy, and everywhere it is being pre-
ferred ; so why turn your coffee into tea plant-
ations ?"

You may make any use you wish of the above
extract.

Weather still very dry, not at all seasonable : we
want some rain. — Yours faithfuUv,

AKTHUR HEELIS.

[The reply to which is that the consumption
of coffee in Britain has decreased, while that of
tea has rapidly increased. If coffee trees continued
to grow and yield well in Ceylon, no one, of
course, would thmk of superseding them by tea
bushes ; but, alas ! in a large number of cases
there is no choice but to say of coffee : " Why
oumbereth it the ground ? " — Ed.]

THE POWER OF WATEE-WHEELS.

Colombo, 4th Sept. 1885.

De.vk Sik, — In reply to " D. K. M." 'sletter in your
valuable paper of 3rd instant, the difference in
power between a 16 ft. and 20 ft. diameter water-
wheel with 480 cubic feet of water per minute
passing over them is that the 20 ft. water-wheel
will develope 13-7 H. P. while the IG ft. wheel
will only give 10-9 H. P. The power of a well-
made water-wheel or turbine may be easily calculated
by multiplying the cubic feet of water per minute by
the height of the fall and dividing by 700 : the
quotient will be the horse-power of the wheel.

In driving a double pulper and crusher about
2J H. P. is generally used, and most of the water-
wheels on Ceylon estates have been built for work-
ing at that power, but they are calculated for 4 H. P.
which gives a good margin of safety for the pur-
pose they were intended ; if driven above that they
are liable to break down, as neither shrouds, axles
nor spur-wheels are safe for more.

Jlr. Armstrong in his jjaper on Tea Machinery
is inclined to give his preference to water-wheels
instead of turbines, and 1 agree with him that
where small power is only wanted with medium falls
the water-wheel, has many advantages, but there
are few estates in Ceylon that can afford 400 cubic
feet of water per minute on falls of 20 ft, (equal
to about 11 H. P. ) which is what a medi-
um tea estate will require, but many of
them with half that quantity of water and double the
fall when turbines can bo used with good effect.

I extr.;ci ihc follov,-iiig irom one of the best
publications on water motors that I know of,' which
I think will be interesting to many of your readers : —

"If a ponderous vertical wheel be applied to a
verj' high waterfall, its diameter will be so large,
and its revolutions so very few, that it mnst be
connected with a great deal of auxiliary machinery
to impart that rapid motion which is generally
required. On the contrary, the turbine being com-
paratively so small and its revolutions so numer-

• Name?— Ed,

ous i" ,'' given time, its motive power can be ak
once transmitted.

" Moreover, what operates as a disadvantage
in the ordinary wheels, contributes to the more
efficient working of the turbine ; for the higher
the waterfall, the smaller, and consequently the
less expensive, the turbine adapted to it ; and also
it is applicable on falls of water so high that
the ordinary wheel cannot be used. Another great
property of the turbine is its constant and
uniform motion, which arises from the diffusion
of the impelling water over the whole of the
circumference at the same instant. This perfect
uniformity of motion is a peculiar feature of the
turbine. The turbine is capable of working under
the back water as long as the surface of the
fluid in the reservoir remains the highest, during
which time it will jDroduce a moving force pro-
portional to the difference between these two levels,
without a perceptible diminution of the useful
effect, thereby evidencing that it is exempt from
the casualties to which the vertical wheel is so
often subject.

"If a turbine be connected to a steam-engine
during the dry months while ^^■ater is scarce, it
can be made to transmit the highest obtainable
power from the quantity of water by which it
may be supplied, and it can be made so large
as to drive all the works in the wet months. Saving
the expense of fuel, economising that liquid that
commonly runs to waste, and giving sufficient time
for any repairs that might be required on the
steam-engine, clearly showing the great advantages
of the turbine over the vertical wheel, for it could not
be made so large as to receive the extra water in
wet weather, without lessening the effective power
of the smaller quantities in dry weather.

" It is a fact of vast importance that turbines on
the improved principle of construction, supersede
in America, France,, and many other part of the
Continent every other description of water-wheels,
and after long experience of their superior work-
ing power in impelling machinery, however ponder-
ous and complex, have been stamped with the
approbation of the most eminent mill-owners and
manufactures. And I am firmly convinced that their
general introductionis now a mere question of time."

I trust the above may be of service to some
who may be seeking imformation about water-power,
and remain, yours truly, WALTER LAMONT.

Colombo, 7th Sept. 1886.
Dear Sir, — I am pleased to see in your issue
of Saturday evening that Mr. Lamont, an ac-
knowledged authority, has stepped to the front
with an answer to my simple question on the
power of w'ater-wheela. Those who liave investig-
ated the subject are aware that the various works
treating on water power as applied to the ordinary
I vertical wheel, although at one approximately,
i yet do not all agree in detail, important facts
being pointed out which are worthy of consider-
ation when estimating the effective power of
small wheels, such as are employed in Ceylon ;
as, however, the columns of a newspaper are not
the place to enter into calculation, I accept Mr.
Lamont's theoretical formula, and apply it to the
case of the numerous water-wheels in Ceylon
(which he says are mostly calculated for 4 H. P.)
as follows : —

175 cub. ft. of water per minute applied to a
20 ft. wheel give exactly 5 H. P., while the same
quantity of water applied to a 16 ft. wheel gives
a result of exactly 4 H. P., but credit the latter
irith the advantage it possesses over its bigger but

294

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, i8S^.

less active brother, the 20 ft. wheel, in not having
so much of its power absorbed in the raising of
speed (a point ignored in theory) and it will be
found that the difference in power available for
transmission to machinery has been materially re-
duced, while in the case of the 18 versus
20 ft. wheels the hair-splitting has become a very
fine operation indeed. But to the point ; we have
the 20 ft. wheel giving 5 H. P. with a supply of
175 cubic feet of water per minute, increase the
supply of water by 45 cubic feet (only f of a foot
per second):;^ 220 cubic feet and apply it to the
16 ft. wheel, when the same power will be ob-
tained theoretically, but somewhat more in practice ;
add another } of a feet per second and we get
over 0 H. P. and so on ; these figures, I submit,
make good my assertion that the diameter of a
water-wheel is not the all-important key to i^ower
that our teachers would have us believe.

The common water-wheel is one of our oldest
motors, and having been practically cast aside by
the modern engineer of the great machinery-using
■countries, it has escaped the " paring-down "
process to which other motors and machines have
been subjected, and retains the proportions it re-
ceived from the " old school " men, proverbial for
erring on the safe side as regards strength of
material. Makers of the present day claim improver
ments and point to their wheels as models, but
when compared with the models of over a quarter
of a century ago very little difference will be ob-
served either in proportion or design ; in short,
their strength is such that I have no hesitation in
saying, that the despised 10 and 18 ft. wheels calc-
ulated by the orthodox rules for 4 H. P. are capable
of carrying water sufficient to develop a power far
exceeding that of the motor known as a four-horse
engine. — Yours truly, D. K. M.

[We are, ijersonally, much iruJebted to this writer
for hia encouraging statement as to the power to
which 16 ft. water-wheels can be worked. What
we were told by experts was, that if we attempted to
turn an Excelsior roller by means of such a wheel
the resistance would tear the wheel to pieces. We
mean, however, to try the experiment. — Ed.]

SULPHURIC ACID.

Dear Sie, — Since you were kind enough to turn
my platinum into iron-pyrites, I have been favoured
with the loan of a pamphlet on the subject of
the local manufacture of sulphuric acid, by the
late Mr. U'Halloran, so long ago as 1874, with
extracts largely from your own columns.

The study of this has proved to be most inter-
esting, and fully answers the question " How is
sulphuric acid manufactured ? '' When I asked that
question, I had it in my mind only as a sub-
sidiary process and aid to the local manufacture
of quinine ; but this pamphlet shows that that
would only be one of a very great many import-
ant uses to which this acid is put in agriculture
and various manufactures.

But the subject, as set forth by the late Mr.il
O'Halloran, is a little surprising. After proving
to the plantera the immense importance to them
of an inexhaustible supply of cheaii sulphuric
acid, ho offered to commence to muimfactiire it
in Colombo, and to sell it at £14 a ton (against
the limited supply only that it was possible to
import at £37 Os 8d per ton) if only orders should
be guaranteed to him of 500 tons ! equal, as he
put it, to only 7d an acre for the coffee then under
cultivation !

Looking back now, it is amazing that tliis en-
couragement was not given to him, for, had it
been, who &ball eay that luuch, vey much, of

the coffee now gone out would not still be in ex-
istence and paj-ing well ? With an abundant and
cheap supply of sulphate of soda, and of dilute
sulphuric acid, ,';11 these yearSj the leaf fungus
itself might have succumbed ! But surely what
was possible then is possible now ? And with the
now added demand for sulphuric acid for the
manufacture of quinine, with so much tea planted
in patana soils, and with a possible supply of
iron iJji'ites in the country, the manufacture of
this acid ought to be the best jiaying speculation
of the day in Ceylon. PLATINUM.

[In the case of Mr. O'HaUorau's proposed com-
pany, "the senior editor" for once, and in view
of the public benefit likely to result, broke through
the editorial rule against becoming connected with
any local Company, helping Mr. O'Halloran to all
available infoimation. We received a ratlier severe
lesson to adhere to our rule. Makers and im-
porters of manures were all antagonistic, and the
de sign collapsed. — Ed.]

WATEE-WHEELS.

SiE.^Fred. J. BramweU, in his address to the
Institution of Civil Engineers, makes the following
statement : — " I will merely call your attention to the
improvement in water-wheels in France, an im-
provement by which it is asserted that as niucjr
as 85 per cent of all the energy residing in a low
fall of water has been converted into power, a re-
sult due to the decreasing of the speed of the peri-
phery of the wheel, and to the making of the
buckets very narrow and great depths.
In turbines, also, there has been considerable
development in these twenty-two years, and they
now take their place as very efficient motors, poss-
essing many advantages, where, on the one hand,
a very high fall of water has to be utilized, or
where, in the case of a low fall, great differences
in the working head and in the level of the tail
water, have to be provided for." C. E.

De.^r Sir, — It is not surprising that your cor-
pesondent " D. K. M." should have such " feeble
hold" of the object he wTites on — water-wheels ;
but it is a little, that he has the temerity to
criticize Mr. G. S. Armstrong's remarks on tlie
same. The man who can make such teas as Mr.
Armstrong does must have spent much time
and care in finding out how and the reason tvliy,
and it is not surprising that he should have a cor-
rect idea about water-wheels as well.*

The laws which govern the motion and power
of a water-wheel were found out long ago by
Newton and others, are quite fixed beyond ilispute,
and have only to be understood to be applied,
If " D. K. M." would consult some elementary work
on the laws of matter and motion &c., he would
find that Mr. Armstrong is right, and tlmt ho
(" D. K. M.") has, probably with the best intentions,
prematurely rushed into print — with crude ideas.
Oh ye teachers ! Beware !

Come to the rescue, you, I had almost said
thou, of the great '• Old Bag" sitting there, sur-
rounded with cart-loads of books of reference,
and a head on your shoulders, like to long for
more ! What is wanted is a chapter on water-
power in the new Directory, or if more convenient
in pamphlet form. Then every planter could have
a" copy, and, after paying for it, be happy for
ever, at least on that one thing. Sucli a pub-
lication at this time would save voluminous cor-

* We have great respect for Mr. Arni.stroiig's opin-
ions, aud yet we have ventured to differ from him as to
the power of water-wheels,— Ed.

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

295

vespoudence ynth agents ancl absent proprietors &a.
about dams, rainfall, wlieel-pits, relative cost of
steam, Ac, etc. But to the point : a Hi ft. water-
wheel with a given quantity of water gives i h. p.;
then a 20 ft. wheel with the same will give 5 h. p.,
and a 2i ft. wheel will give 6 h. p. (allowance for
fi-iction etc. must be noted). Why, oh! "D. K. M." ?
Because in the one case a weight has been acting
through a olfaU 10ft. and in the other through24ft.
So you see the diameter of the wheel is not '•raillij
of secondari/ importanci:." Try it on the weights of
yom- eight-day clock. This in regard to overshot
water-wheels of ordinary construction ; re-action,
centrifugal and other forms of water-wheel or motor,
requires separate consideration.

Mr. Editor, your idea of fly-wheels for Jackson's
rollers with water-power is good. A water-wheel
for ordinary purposes seldom requires a fly-wheel,
but in case of driving that roller, the advantage is
likely to be great. By using a heavy fly-wheel at
high speed, you wiU be able to run your water-
wheel at the lowest speed possible, and so utilize
the greatest possible amount of tlie available
power. — Yours faithfully, WATEB.

Bice. — The British Trade Joia-nal s&js that "Rice
occupies no less than one-half of the cultivated land
in Japan, where there are 250 varieties of seed.
Probably no country raises such a variety of legum-
inous plants for food."

A ViLUABLE EEitEDV FOE Hkadache. — Wc desire to

call attention to a simple, and at the same time

wonderfully eiBcient, treatment lor headache. We lay

no claim to originality, nor do we know who the

originator was, but having used it for a year or more,

and iu many cases with remarkable results, we feel

disposed lo give our endorsement, and desire to make

it more generally known. The remedy is nothing more

nor less than a solution of the li-sulphide of carbon.

A widemouth glass-stoppered bottle is half filled with

cotton or fine sponge, and upon tbis two or three drams

of the solution are poured. When occasion fur its use

occms the mouth of the bottle is to be applied to

the temple or as near as possible to the seat of pain,

so closely that none of the volatile vapor ^^ ay escape,

and retained there four or five minutes or longer. For

a minute or so nothing is felt, tben comes a sense of

ti ngliug, which in a few minutes— three or four usually —

becomes rather serve, but wliicb subsides almost

immediately it the bottle be removed, and any redness

of the skin that may occur will also quickly subside.

It may bo reapphed, if necessary, several times in tlie

day, and it generally acts hke magic, giving immediate

relief. We believe this was the basis of a once popular

nostrum. The class of headaches to which it seems

especially adapted is that which may be grouped un^ier

the broad term of "nervous." Thus neuralgic, periodic

aud hysterical headaches, and even many kiiids of

dysprptic headaches, are almost invariably relieved by

it. "ri-ue, the relief of a mere symptom is quite another

thing from the removal of the i-.ause, yet no one who

has had the distress, and even agony, caused by .-cvere

and frequent recurring headaches (and wbo has not seen

it ?) but will rejoice to be able to affonl relief in so

prompt and simple a manner ; besides, it is sure to

secure the hearty gr.atitude of the patient if he has

suffered long. As to the modus operandi we have

nothiug more definite than a theory to offer, and that

is that the vapor being absorbed through the skin

produces a sedative effect upon the superficial nerves

of the parts to which it is applied. We know by

experiment that its influence is not due to its power

as a counter-irritant. We, however, know that it does

act, and if we do not clearly see in wbac way it acts,

that is no more than can be said of several other

remedies which are firmly established in professional

favor and confidence. — riiysicUms' and Sioyeom' Ini'est-

iyaior.

Tea Withering. — From the London Tea Letter of
the Indian Tea Planter's Gazette we quote as follows : —
Mr. Greig — not the one already known to planters
— managing director of the Blackman Air Propeller
Co., is at work on an appliance for drawing oft'
moisture from wet leaf to assist withering, in which
appUance he proposes to use a Blackman Air Pro-
peller. He has an initial eft'ort on show at the
Preston meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, but it is too embryonic to allow of any
opinion being passed upon its merits as yet. This
much may be said, it is a step in the right direc-
tion, and may have in it the making of a success,
which is indeed much to be hoped, as some means
to properly eft'ecting the end aimed at is badly needed.

A Valuable Discovery has been made in Cali-
fornia by a Mr. George Downie, of the efficacy of
Eucalyptus for removing scale from steam boilers,
which has proved to be of more than ordinary
value, so the San Franrisco Neu-s Letter says. The
Downie B.I.R. Co., of that city, to whom his many
patents from different countries have been assigned,
have already built up a thriving industry that gives
promise of attaining much larger proportions iu
the near future. At their works at Piedmont they
have already manufactured nearly 100,000 gallons
of the preparation from the Eucalyi:)tus for remov-
ing scale. A majority of the boUers, both on land
and steamboats, on the CaUfornian coasts, are using
the preparation, and the engineers speak of it in
very high terms. A good scale remover has long
been sought by engineers, and if this preparation
is what it appears to be it will be a great boon.
— Leaders.

Ceylon nj the London Exhibition and Bird
Life. — A home correspondent writes by the mail : —
" I read your article on the Exhibition with
pleasure as I quite agree in your views as to the
objects which should be exhibited, with the excep-
tion of stuffed animals which should be left to
India, unless indeed you could send a specimen of
an authentieated devil-bird, but that has yet to
come. I also much dislike the notion of at all
denuding our Museum. Remember Ceylon is being
visited by persons of all countries, and these visitors
will be in many cases grievously disappointed if
they find specimens which they would wish to
study, removed. I greatly wish you had some very
active secretary going about and collecting such
articles as would be suitable. — I hear a very un-
pleasant account of the slips on the new line, that
most of them might have safely been predicted as
being the results of bad work. I heartily hope the
extension will be placed in the hands of the P. W. D.
which will carry it out far more economically and
completely than any contractor. Pray keep ' pegging
away ' at the destruction of small birds in Ceylon.
It is both cruel and mischievous, and I have no
patience with the toleration of cruelty and mischief
in order to foster a stupid and vulgar taste. I
hear it is expected that the I'rmeess of Wales will
do her best to discourage this kind of finery as
heartless as it is underbred."
We entirely agree with our correspondent's sentiments
as to the barbarity involved in the destruction of
small birds merely to foster female vanity. Tlio
case is bad enough on the continent of Eiu'ope,
where the little birds are killed for food. As to
stuffed specimens, in any case, we should send the
birds figured in Legge's book as peculiar to Ceylon.

FLIES AND BUGS.
Beetles, insects, roaches, ants, bed-bugs, rats, mice
gophers, chipmunks, cleared out by "Rough on Rats."
W. E. Smith & Co., Madras, Sole Agents.

294

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, i8S^.

less active brother, the 20 £t. wheel, in not having
so much of its power absorbed in the raising of
speed (a point ignored in theory) and it will be
found that the difference in 2>"i''ei' avaihihlc for
transmission to machinery has been materially re-
duced, while in the case of the 18 versus
20 ft. wheels the hair-splitting has become a very
fine operation indeed. But to the point ; we have
the 20 ft. wheel giving 5 H. P. with a supply of
175 cubic feet of water per minute, increase the
supply of water by 45 cubic feet (only J of a foot
per second) = 220 cubic feet and apply it to the
16 ft. wheel, when the same power will be ob-
tained theoretically, but somewhat more in practice ;
add another J of a feet per second and we get
over 6 H. P. and so on ; these figures, I submit,
make good my assertion that the diameter of a
water-wheel is not the all-important key to power
that our teachers would have us believe.

The common water-wheel is one of our oldest
motors, and having been practically cast aside by
the modern engineer of the great machinery-using
countries, it has escaped the " paring-down "
process to which other motors and machines have
been subjected, and retains the proportions it re-
ceived from the " old school " men, proverbial for
erring on the safe side as regards strength of
material. Makers of the present day claim improver
ments and point to their wheels as models, but
when compared with the models of over a quarter
of a century ago very little difference will be ob-
served either in proportion or design ; in short,
their strength is such that I have no hesitation in
saying, that the despised 16 and 18 ft. wheels calc-
ulated by the orthodox rules for 4 H. P. are capable
of carrying water sufficient to develoj) a power far
exceeding that of the motor known as a four-horse
engine. — Yours truly, D. K. M.

[We are, personally, much indebted to this writer
for his encouraging statement as to the power to
which 16 ft. water-wheels can be worked. What
we were told by experts was, that if we attempted to
turn an Excelsior roller by means of such a wheel
the resistance would tear the wheel to pieces. We
mean, however, to try the experiment. — Ed.]

SULPHUEIC ACID.

De.ui Sir, — Since you were kind enough to turn
my platinum into iron-pjaites, I have been favoured
with the loan of a pamphlet on the subject of
the local manufacture of sulphuric acid, by the
late Mr. O'Halloran, so long ago as 1874, with
extracts largely from your own columns.

The study of this has proved to be most inter-
esting, and fully answers the question " How is
sulphuric acid manufactured '? " When I asked that
question, I had it in my mind only as a sub-
sidiary process and aid to the local manufacture
of quinine ; but this pamphlet shows that that
would only be one of a very great many import-
ant uses to which this acid is put in agriculture
and various manufactures.

But the subject, as set forth by the late Mr.^i
O'Halloran. is a little surprising. After proving
to the planters the immense importance to them
of an inexhaustible supply of cheap sulphuric
acid, he ottered to commence to manufacture it
in Colombo, and to fell it at £14 a ton (against
the limited supply only that it was possible to
import at .tH7 6s 8d per ton) if only orders should
bo guaranteed to him of 500 tons ! equal, as he
put it, to only 7d an acre for the coffee then under
cultivation !

Looking back now, it is amazing that this en-
couragement was not given to him, for, had it
been, who shall say tbiit much, vey much, of

the coffee now gone out would not still be in ex-
istence and paying well ? With an abundant and
cheap supply of sulphate of soda, and of dilute
sulphuric acid, all these years, the leaf fungus
itself might have succumbed ! But surely what
was possible then is possible now ? And with the
now added demand for sulphuric acid for the
manufacture of quinine, with so much tea planted
in patana soils, and with a possible supply of
iron pyi'ites in the country, the manufacture of
this acid ought to be the best i^aying speculation
of the day in Ceylon. PLATINUM.

[In the case of Mr. O'HaUoran's proposed com-
pany, "the senior editor" for once, and in view
of the public benefit likely to result, broke through
the editorial rule against becoming connected with
any local Company, helping Mr. O'Halloran to all
available information. A\ e received a rather severe
lesson to adhere to our rule. Makers and im-
porters of manures were all antagonistic, and the
de sign collapsed. — Ed.]

WATER-WHEELS.

SiE, — Fred. J. Eramwell, in his address to the
Institution of Civil Engineers, makes the following
statement : — " I will merely call your attention to the
improvement in water-wheels in France, an im-
provement by which it is asserted that as much
as 85 per cent of all the energy residing in a low
fall of water has been converted into power, a re-
sult due to the decreasing of the speed of the peri-
phery of the wheel, and to the making of the
buckets very narrow and great depths.
In turbines, also, there has been considerable
development in these twenty-two years, and they
now take their place as very efficient motors, poss-
essing many advantages, where, on the one hand,
a very high fall of water has to be utilized, or
where, in the case of a low fall, great differences
in the working head and in the level of the tail
water, have to be provided for." 0. E.

Deak Sir, — It is not surprising that your cor-
pesondent " D. K. M." should have such " feeble
hold" of the object he writes on — water-wheels :
but it is a little, that he has the temerity to
criticize Mr. C. S. Armstrong's remarks on tlie
same. The man who can make such teas as Mr.
Armstrong does must have spent much time
and care in finding out how and tin' reason irliy,
and it is not surprising that he should have a cor-
rect idea about water-wheels as well.*

The laws which govern the motion and power
of a water-wheel were found out long ago by
Newton and others, are quite fixed beyond dispute,
and have only to be understood to be applied.
If " D. K. M." would consult some elementary work
on the laws of matter and motion &c., he would
find that Mr. Armstrong is right, and that ho
("U.K. M.") has, probably with the best intentions,
prematurely rushed into print — with crude ideas.
Oh ye teachers ! Beware !

Come to the rescue, you, I had almost gaid
thou, of the great " Old Bag" sitting there, sur-
rounded with cart-loads of books of reference,
and a head on your shoulders, like to long for
more ! What is wanted is a chapter on water-
pon-er in the new Directory, or if more convenient
in pamijhlet form. Then every jjlanter could have
a' copy, and, after paying for it, be happy for
ever, at least on that one thing. Such a pub-
lication at this time would save voluminous cor-

* AVe have great respect for Mr. Aiinstrong's opin-
ions, aud yet we have ventured to differ from him as to
the power of water-wheela. — JSd,

i

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

295

respoudence with agents and absent proprietors etc.
about dams, rainfall, wheel-pits, relative cost of
steam, ttc., itc. But to the point : a 1(5 ft. water-
wheel with a given quantity of water gives l h. p.;
Uien a "20 ft. wheel with the same will give 5 h. p.,
and a 21 ft. wheel will give 6 h. p. (allowance for
friction ttc. must be noted). Why, oh ! "D. K. M." ?
Because in the one case a weight has been acting
through a of fall IGft. and in the other through 24ft.
So you sec the diameter of the wheel is not '•ivallij
of .srco«(/<i)7/ importance." Try it on the weights of
yom- eight-day clock. This in regard to overshot
water-wheels of ordiuaiy construction ; re-action,
centrifugal and other forms of water-wheel or motor,
requires separate consideration.

Mr. Editor, your idea of fly-wheels for Jackson's
rollers with water-power is good. A water-wheel
for ordinary purposes seldom requires a fly-wheel,
but in case of driving that roller, the advantage is
likely to be gi-eat. ]3y using a heavy fly-wheel at
high speed, you w-ill be able to run your water-
wheel at the lowest speed possible, and so utilize
the greatest possible amount of the available
power.— lours faithfully, WATEE.

Rice. — The Dritish Trade Joiinuil sa.ys that "Kice
occuijies no less than one-half of the cultivated land
in Japan, where there are 250 varieties of seed.
Probably no country raises such a variety of legum-
inous plants for food."

A Valuable Eejiedv foe Hkadache. — We desire to
call attention to a simple, and at the same time
wonderfully efficient, treatment for headache. We lay
no claim to originality, nor do we kuow who the
originator wa?, but having used it for a year or more,
and iu many cases with remarkable results, we feel
disposed to give our endorsement, and desire to make
it more generally known. The remedy is nothing more
nor less than a solution of the bi-sulpbide of carbnn.
A wiilemouth glass-stoppered bottle is half fiUed with
cotton or fine sponge, and upon this two or three drams
of the solution are poured. When occasion for its use
occurs the mouth of the bottla is to be applied to
the temple or as near as possilile to the seat of pain,
so closely that none of the volatile vapor ^ray escape,
and retained there four or 6ve minutes or longer. For
a minute or so nothing is felt, then comes a sense of
ti iigling, which in a few minutes— three or four usually —
bi'cunies rather serve, but which subsides almost
immeiliately if the bottle be removed, and any redness
of the skin that may occur will also quickly suiiside.
It may be reapplied, if necessary, several times in the
day. and it generally acts Uke magic, giving immediate
relief, ■\\'e believe this was the basis of a once popular
nostriun. The class of headaches to which it seems
especially adapted is that which may be grouped un-ier
the broad term of " nervous." Thus neuralgic, periodic
aud hysterical headaches, and even many kii.ds of
dyspiptic headaches, are almost invariably relieved by
it. True, the relief of a mere .symptom is quite another
thing from the removal of the i:ause, yet no one who
lus had the di.stress, and even agony, caused by .^evere
and frequent recurring headnches (and who has not seen
it ?) but will rejoice to be able to afford relief in so
prompt and simple a manner; besides, it is sure to
sccnre the hearty gratitude of the patient if he has
suffered long. As to the modus operandi we have
nothi..g more definite than a theory to offer, aud that
is that the vapor being absorbed through the skin
produces a sedative effect upon the superficial ncrve-s
of the parts to which it is applied. We know by
experiment that its influence is not due to its power
as a counter-irritant. We, however, kuow that it does
act, and if we do not clearly see iu whac wiiy it acts,
that is no more than can be said of several other
remedies which are firmly established in professional
favor and confidence. — rhi/iiciam' and Surgcom' Invest-
iyutor.

Tea Witheking.— From the Loudon Tea Letter of
thaIiidianTeaPlantcfsGa:ctte\;eqnot(ie,s, follows:—
Mr. Greig— not the one already known to planters
—managing director of the Blackman Air Propeller
Co., is at work on an appliance for drawing off
moisture from wet leaf to assist withering, in which
appliance he proposes to use a Blackmail Air Pro-
peller. He has an initial effort on show at the
Preston meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, but it is too embryonic to allow of any
opinion being passed upou its merits as yet. This
much may be said, it is a step iu the right direc-
tion, and may have iu it the making of a success,
whicli is indeed much to be hoped, as some means
to properly effecting the end aimed at is bacUy needed.

A VjILuable Discovery has been made in Cali-
fornia by a Mr. George Downie, of the efficacy of
Eucalj-ptus for removing scale from steam boilers,
which has proved to be of more than ordinary
value, so the San Francisco Xeics Letter says. The
Downie B. I. R. Co., of that city, to whom his many
patents from different countries 'have been assigned,
have ah-eady built up a thriving industry that gives
promise of attaiuiug much larger proportions in
the near future. At their works at Piedmont they
have ah-eady manufactured nearly 100,000 gallons
of the preparation from the Eucalj^itus for remov-
ing scale. A majority of the boilers, both on land
and steamboats, on the CaUforniau coasts, are using
the preparation, and the engineers speak of it in
very high terms. A good scale remover has long
been sought by engineers, and if this preparation
IS what it appears to be it will be a great boon.
— Leaders.

Ceylon in the London Exhibition and Bibd
Life.— A home con-espondeut writes by the mail :—
" I read your article on tlio Exhibition with
pleasure as I quite agree in your views as to the
objects whicli should be exhibited, with the excep-
tion of stuffed animals which should be left to
India, unless indeed you could send a specimen of
an authenticated devil-bird, but that has yet to
come. 1 also much dislike the notion of at all
denuding our Museum, Remember Ceylon is being
visited by persons of all countries, and these visitors
will be m many cases grievously disappointed if
they find specimens which thev would wish to
study, removed. I greatly wish you had some very
active secretary going about and collecting such
articles as would be suitable.— I hear a very un-
pleasant account of the slips on the new line that
most of them might have safely been predicted as
being the results of bad work, I heartily hope the
extension will be placediu the hands of the P. W, D.
which will carry it out far more economically and
completely than any contractor. Pray keep ' pegging
away ' at the destruction of small birds in Ceylon.
It is both cruel and mischievous, and I have no
patience with the toleration of crueltv and mischief
in order to foster a stujiid and vulgar taste, I
hear it is expected that the Princess of Wales \vill
do her best to discourage this kind of finery as
heartless as it is underbred."
We entirely agree with our correspondent's sentiments
as to the barbarity involved in the destruction of
suiall_ birds merely to foster female vanity. The
case is bad euougii on the continent of Europe,
where the little birds are killed for food. As to
stuffed specimens, in any case, we should send the
birds figured in Legge's book as peculiar to Ceylon.

FLIES AND BUGS.
Beetles, insects, roaches, ants, bed-bugs, rats mice
gophers, chipmunks, cleared out by "Rough on fiats,"
W. L. Smith & Co., JIadraS) Sole Agents.

298

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

the privilege of beiug introduced to Mr. Jnhn G.
Horsey, the maiiagiug director of the company, who,
finding that I was iuterestcl in the subject, kindly
invited me to visit the worlds, and I was well repaid
for the hour and a half spent in following the life-
history of a brush, more especially as every detail
was carefully pointed out and explained by the very
intelligent an 1 obliging manager of the works, which
are situated in Copperfield Road. Mile End. Euormons
quantities of ba?8 or Piassaba, as well as Kittool are
u.'ie 1 by this.company, and as they have lai ge contracts
both for the (rovernmeut as well as for some of the
principal railway oorapanies, are always very busy.
At the time of my visit the employes were for the
most pirt at work ou Piassava. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

IN.SECTS AISD AGRICULTURE.

Pktroleitm, in its various forms, has long been
recoi^nised as onfc of the most effective insecticides
in ovir possession, all only substances being particularly
deadly to insects. Unfortunately they are also injur-
ious to plants, and one of the problems, the solution
of which I* have had in mind for many years, has
been their use in such dilution as to kill the insect
without injury to the plant. Refined kerosene has been
used to a limited degree by forcible attenuation in
water and spray, while some plants withstand doses
of the pure oil. But the safe and general use of
kerosene for the purpose under consideration dates
from the year 1880. Of the various substances used
in al tempts to emulsify and mix kerosene with
water none are more satisfactory then soap and
milk, both being everywhere accessible and cheap.
Milk was fir.^t suggested in 1880 by Dr. W. S. Barnard,
while carrying on experiments for me against the
Cotton-worm, and subsequent experiment, especially
by another of my assistants, Mr. H. G. Hubbard,
has given ns the simplest and most satisfactory
method of m.iking the emulsion quickly and perman-
ently. All eniul.'-ion resembling butter can be produced
in a few minutes by churning with a force pump
two parts of kerosene and one part of sour milk in a
pail. The liquids should be at about blood-heat.
This emnlsion may be diluted with twelve or more
parts of water to one part of emulsion, thoroughtly
mixed, and may be applied with the force-pump, a
p-.iy nozzle, or with a strong garden syringe. The
strength of the dilution must vary according to the
nature of the insect to be dealt with, as well as to
the nature "f the plant; but finely sprayed in twelve
spirts of the water to one of the emulsion it will
kill most insects without injury to the plant. An
equallv good emulsion mrjr be made as follows; —

Kerosene, 2 gal.; common soap, i lb.; water, 1
gal. Heat the mixture of soap and water, and add
it 1)0 ling hot to the kerosene. Chuin the mixture
by means of a force pump and spray mozzle for
five or ten minutes. The emulsion, if perfect, forms
a cream, which thickens on cooling, an.l adheres
without oiliness to the surface of glass. Dilute with
cold water before using, to the extent to which experience
will indicate is best.

The simplest discoveries are often the most valu-
able, and this discovery of so simple and available a
means of dihiting, ad libitum, oil with water is
important and far-reaching in its practical application.
Pyeethkuji.
Pvrethrum roseum, a plant native to the Asiatic
countries south of the Caucasus Mountnin.s. and
Pyretbrum cinerariicfolium, a native of Dalmatia,
have long been known to possess insecticide properties,
uspecinlly in the powder from the dried and pulver-
ised tlowcrs. The powder, .sold under various names
by druggists, was chiefly used against household jiests,
however ; and though Mr. 0. AVillMmet, as early as
KSoT in France, and Jlr. William S:umders, in 1879,
in Can.adn, tried it in powder form on some that
are injurious to plants, its importance as a fielil in-
Boctido did not appear till in 1880, when, in prosecuting

the work of the United States Eitomological Oom-
mission, we discovered that it could be used in liqudl
solution. Both species proved to be hardy throughout
the greater portion of our country, and Mr. G. N.
Mdco, of Stockton, Cal., has for some years cultivated
cinerariffifolium quite extensively at great jirofit, the
product being sold under the name of " Buliacli."
The insecticide property dwells in a volatile oil. It
acts only by contact and its action on many larv;o
is marvellous," the smallest quantity in time paralysing
and ultimately killing. Its influence in the open air
is evanescent, in which respect it is far inferior to
the arsenical products; but being perfectly harmless
to plants, it can frequently be used on vegetables
where the more poisonous substances would be dangerous.
Pyretbrum is supposed to have no effect on the
higher animals, but that is a mistake, as my own
recent experience is that the fumes in a closed room
have a toxic influence, intensifying sleep and inducing
stupor; while the experience of Professor A. Graham
Bell with the powder copiously rubbed on a dog
showed that the animal was made sick aiui was
affected in the locomotive organs very much as insects
are. The wonderful influence of this powder on
insects has led me to believe that it might prove
useful as a disinfectant against fevers and v.vrious
contagious diseases by destroying the microzoa and
other micro-organisms, or germs, which are believed
to produce such diseases. It should be tried for
that purpose. It is remarkable that these two plants
of all the many known species of the genus should
alone possess the insecticide property.
Bisulphide of Cadbon.
Of all insecticides to be used against root-feeding
or hypogean insects, naphthaline, sulpho-carbonate of
potassium, ansd bisulphide of carbon are the chief.
Dr. Ernst Fischer, in a recent w(jrk, has shown that
naphthaline in crystal may be satisfac torily used un-
derground, destroying by slow evaporation. But
bisulphide of carbon still holds the first place in
France against Phylloxera vastatrix. It is conveyed
beneath the ground at the rate of one-half to one
kilogram per Vine by special injectors, or by more
complicated machinery, drawn by horses. I believe
that petroleum emulsions will supersede it as an un-
derground insecticide, and prove to be the best we
have, cheapness, safety, .and ofliciency considered.
After the discovery of a .satisfactory insecticide, how-
ever, various important problems must be solved, and
particularly how to apply it to greatest advantage,
having safety to man and stock, harmlessness to pl»nt,
and economy in mind. The .solution of these points,
and others that the peculiar habits of the insect to
be controlled involve, brings us to the question of
mechanical contrivances and appliances; for while
much ingenuity has been exhibited in devising mechan-
ical means of dureetly destroying noxious insects
without insecticides, it is chiefly in the proper application
of these last that the greatest mechanical advances
have been made both in this country and in Europe.
Here, again, the subject is so vast that I cannot
enter into details.

It will already have been gathered, from what has
precedeil, that the chief insecticides are applicable in
liquid form, and as Hquids have an advantage over
powders in field use, instruments for atomising and
distributing liquids coustitute the most important part
ot insecticide machinery. The d'sidenita in a spray-
nozzle arc, ready regulation of tho volume to be
throwu; greatest atomising power, with least tendency
to clog ; facility of cleansing or ready separation ot
its component parts; cheapness, simplicity, and ad-
justability to any angle.

I will content myself with exhibiting one which
meets, perhaps, more of these re(iuiremouts that any
other in use, and which works_ on a new principle
appli('able to many other purposes than th;it for
which it was designed. It is what has been described
and illustrated in my late ofKcial repo ts as the eddy
or cyclone nozzle, and consists of a small circular
chamber with two flat sides, one of them screwed

dcTOBM 1, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

agg

on so as to be readily removed. Its principal feature
consists in the inlut Ibrough wLic-li the hquid is forced
being bored tangeutially through its wall, so as to
cause a rapid whirling or centrifugal motion of the
liquid which issues in a funnel-shaped spray through
a central outlet in the adjustable cap. — Prof. Eiley in
American Entomohgiit.

EDIBLE BIRDS' ; NESTS.

The nature and composition of the edible birds,
nests of which eve-youe has heard, and which any
visitor to the International Health Exhibition at
South Keusiugton might have tasted if he pleased,
is a problem the solution of which has puzzled
naturalists as much as did at one time the question
concerniufr whitebait.

The nests in question, so much prized by the
Chinese, are made, as mo.st people are aware, by a
species of cave-haunting swift of the genus CoUocalia,
which breeds in colonies, in caverns sometimes by the
sea, sometimes inland, according as they are foimd
suitable for the purpose. They are to be found in
India, Ceylon, Borneo, and Java, and we have seen
some very perfect nests of the kind which were brought
from the Andaman Islands. Mr. E. L. Layard has
described the appearance of a cave tenanted by these
birds in the breeding season in Ceylon; and Mr. AV-
B. Fryer has published an equally interesting account
of a visit which he paid to the so-called "Birds-nest
Caves" at Gomanton in North Borneo, where hundreds
of the nests were to be seen glued, as it were, to
the sides of the cave, many of them at a considerable
height, from which they were detached by the natives
with the aid of light bamboo ladders. The formation
of the nests differs. Some appear to be formed of
flakes or threads cemented together, making an
almost solid nest; others are composed entirely of
viscous matter. The exterior exhibits many nearly
straight threads, which incline or are attached to
each other ; the interior, which is rather shallow,
shows many layers of irregular network, formed of
a multitude of threads that cross and recross each
other in every direction.

The best— that is to say, the whitest and cleanest-
are of a semi-transparent fibrous texture, having the
.appearance of being foimed of isinglass. Those less
sought after are much discoloured, sometimes almost
:black, and are iutermised with dry grass, hair, or
-leathers. The question which naturalists have sought
to determine is '• how the nest is made, and of what
it is composed T' Several theories have been advanced
on the subject, and different observers have professed
to detect in its structure either a vegetable origin
from seaweed or fungus, or an animal origin from
agglutinated and dried fish spawn, or the hardened
saliva of the bird itself, produced iu large quantities
from special glands secreting it. Mr. Pryer, who has
collected a great number of these nests in Borneo,
says (Zooloqist, 1SS5, p. 46): "The nests are made
from a sort of fungoid growth that iucrusts the
limestone in all damp situations. It grows about an
inch thick, outside dark bhowu, but inside white.
The birds make the black nests from the outside
layer, and the best quality of white nests are of
course from the inside. It is taken by the bird in
the mouth and drawn out in a filament backwards
and forwards like a caterpillar weaving its cocoon,"

Upon this statement Mr. G. Murray remarks {Zoolof/!st,
1885, p. 147) : " The alga of microscopic dimensions
found by Mr. Prytr in the cave inhabited by the
swifts which build the edible nests is an undescribed
species of Crococcus. The members of the group to
which it belongs are very commonly found growing
on the walls ot caverns. In this case the incrustation
produced b> the accumulation of the algse is of
unusual thipkneiju„-!d of horny consistency when dry,
but turns pulpy when taaked in cold water. On the
outer surlace there is a dark layer (black to the
naked eye, but very dark greenish yellow when
viewed with the microscope,) consisting of the living
jilga, Beneath this outer dark layer the mass of the

incrustation is white, and consists of a dense accumul-
ation cf innumerable dead bodies of the sdgx, the
structure of which is barely distinguishable. In none
of the edible ne=t- which I have examined, however,
is there any trace of an alga, and it appears to le
definitely settled that these are constructed from
materials which are the intrinsic product of thn
bird. Jlr. Pryer states his opinion that certain nests
are made from the bbtck outer layer of the incrustation.
If such a nest were examined, it would give conclusive
evidence either way, since the black layer, as just
mentioned, consists of living algw, the structure of
which would be far more readily di-cernible than
the traces of the white pirt of tho incrustation."

We do not know whether Mr, Pryer has seen this
note, being, we believe, still in Borneo, but iu a
further communication of his own, which has since
been published (Zooloyist, 1885, p. 29S), he appears
to have altered his former opinion on the subject,
for he says, "With regard to the material from
which the nests are made, I regard the algffi theory
with great doubt. The natives say the birds skim
up froth or scum from the water, and use it as the
material. I myself think it is simply a natural
secretion of the birds themselves." That is to s.iy,
he adopts the view expressed by Mr. Murray, and
before him by Dr. Jerdou "(Birds of India"), BIyth,
and Sir Everard Home.

Dr. .Jerdon writes : " The nest, when pure and of
the first make, is composed entirely of inspissated
mucus from the l.atge salivary glands of the bird.'.
In a posthumous article on the Oypselid;e, published
in the Zoologist, 1884 (pp. 300-327), the late Mr
BIyth observes : " The animal origin of the edible
nests is at once detected by simply burning a bit
of one ; and Mr Laidlay informed us that, upon
analysis, he found the constituent elements to be
those of inspissated saliva." Sir Everard Home, so
long ago as 1817, published the results of a dissection
made by him ot a specimen of the bird (CoUocalia
nidifica) from Java (Phil. Trans 1817, p. 3o7),
wherein he described a peculiarity iu the gastric
glands, pointing out that a membranous tube surrounds
the duct of each gland, which, after projecting a
little way into the gullet, splits iuto separate portions
hke the petals of a flower, and suggesting that the
material of which the nest is composed is secreted
by the surfaces of these tubes just as the gastrip
juice is secreted by the glands themselves.

One of the latest writers on the subjict is Mr J,
R. Green, of Trin. Coll,, Camb,, who in an article iu
the Jonrmd of Phi)siology for April last, after quotiug
Sir Everard Home's views, points out that they have
since been confirmed by Dr Bernstein (Journal jiir
Ornitiioloyie, l^o'.), p. Ill), who found in CoUocalia
nidifica two large salivary glands, which secrete
mucus in large quantities. He then proceeds to detail
the results of a microscopical and chemical exan in-
ation made by himself of a specimen of the nests
used for soup at the International Health Exhibition.

The most careful examination, he says, with both
low and high powers, failed to show the presence of
vegeiab'e cells, or of any dihris arising from .such ;
while the chemical tests applied appeared to him to
indicate that the material of which the nest Is formed
is the product of the activity of some gland iu the
body, which bears out the view advocated by Sir E.
Home and by Bernstein. It does not appear, however,
from them whether the gland is a peptic or a salivary
one. Evidence on this point, says Mr. Green, Is not
forthcoming so far ; for " the most careful examination
has failed to show any ferment property attaching
to the nest." The result of Mr. Green's experiments,
nevertheless, sufficiently refute the tlieory of xeriftahk
origin, and support his view that the substance in
qUHstion is au animal product closely allied to mutm,
and is derived from glands which are remarkably
developed in the nesting season, as remnrked by
Bernstein, and afterwards become atrophied.

Capt. Lewis, who saw much of the.=e birds iu the
Nicobar Islands, states that the edible uests, as we
8«e them, are only the lining, which eoto^ put entjr

Jay

THE TROPICAL AGKICtJLTtJRlST. [Octobek r, 1885,

though independently affixed to the rock, being under-
laid by a network of some vegetable fibrous substance
placed on the ledges (the Urococcus above-mentioned),
which the gatherers are careful not to remove. It
is generally supposed that these edible nests are made
by only one species of swift, Collocalia nidifica; but
Blyth determiiied the birds which Oapt. Lewis found
making Hmilar nests in the Nicobar Islands to be
OoUocalia fuciphaga, remarking that the natives who
gather the nests are much given to mislead inquirers
who interrogate them on the subject, which may
account for the erroneously published statements that
Collocalia fucijjhaga does not propnce an edible nest.
—Field.

THE PITCHER PLANT.

TO THE EDITOR OF " NATCEE,"

The variety of the Pitcher Plant {Samicenia variol'
a}'i:i) found in North America is carnivorous, being a
feeder on various animal substances. Mrs. Mary Treat,
an American naturalist, made a few years ago several
experiments upon the plants of this species to be
found in Florida; and to the labours of this lady the
wiiter has been indebted, in some measure, in the
preparation of this paper. The iSrirrncenia derives its
name of "Pitcher Plant" from the fact of its poss-
es-ing the following curious characteristics. The medi-
an never is prolonged beyond the leaves in the manner
ot a tendrd, and terminates in a species of cup or
urn. This cup is ordinarly three or four inches iu
depth, and one to one and a half inches in width.
The oritice of the cup is covered with a lid, which
opens and shuts at certain periods. At sunrise the
cup is found filled with sweet, limpid water, at which
time the lid is down. In the course of the day the
lid opens, when nearly half the water is evaporated ;
but during the night this loss is made up, and the
next morning the cup is again quite full, and the lid
is shut. About the middle of Jlarcli the plants put
forth their leaves, which are from six to tivelve inches
long, hollow, and shaped something like a trumpet,
whilst the aperture at the apex is formed almost pre-
cisely iu the same manner as those of the plants pre-
viously described. A broad wing extends along one
side of the leaf, from the base to the opening at the
top ; this wing is bound, or edged with a purple cord,
which extends likewise around the cup. The cord
secretes a sweet fluid, and not only flying insects, but
these also that crawl upon the ground, are attracted
by it to the plants. AJits, especially, are very fond
of this fluid, so that a line of aphides, extending
from the base to the summit of a leaf, may frequently
be observed slowly advancing towards the orifice ot
the cup, down which they disappear, never to return.
Flying insects of every kind are equally drawn to the
plant; and directly they taste the fluid they act very
curiously. After feeding upon the secretions for two
or three minutes they become quite stupid, unsteady
on their feet, and whilst trying to pass their legs
over their wings to clear them, thsy fall down. It
is of DO use to liberate any of the smaller insects,
every fly, removed from the leaf u^jou which it had
been feeding, retured immediately it was at liberty
to do so, and walked down the fatal cup as though
drawn to It by a, species of irresiatible fascination,
It is not alone that flies and other small iuBocts are
overpowered by the fluid which exudes from the cord
In question, Eveu large iusects succumb to it, although
of eourse not so quickly. Mrs. Treat says:— •• A large
cockroacb was feeding on the secretion ot a fresh leaf,
Which had CHUght but little or no prey. After feed-
ing a short tiiue the insect went down the tube so
tight tliat I could not dislodge it, evtn when turning
tbe leaf upside down and knocking it quite bard. It
wai late iu the evening when I observed it enter;
the next morning I cut the tube open; the cockroach
was etili alive, but it was covered with a secretion
produced from the inner aarface of the tube, and its
feg< fnli off as I extricated it. From all appoarance
he terrible Haryaccnia was eating its victim alive,

^tid /et, p«rl>ajp«, I tbould not mjt ' teriiblt/ for (be

plant seems to supply its victims with a Lethe-like
draught before devouring them."

It only afew insects aliyht upon a leaf no unplea-
sant smell is preceptible during, or after, the process
of digestion ; but if a large number of them be caught,
which is commonly the case, a most offensive odour
emanates from the cup, although the putrid matter
does not appear to injure iu any manner the inner
surface of the tube, food, even in this condition,
being readily absorbed, and going to nourish the plant.
In tact, it would seem tliat the Srrracenia, like some
animals, can teed upon carrion and thrive upon it.

In instances iu which experiments have been made
with fresh, raw beef or mutton, the meat has been
covered in a few hours with the secretions of the
leaves, and the blood extracted from it. There is,
however, one difference between the digesting powers
of the leaves when exercised upon insects or upon
meat. Even if the bodies of insects have become putrid
the plant, as has already been stated, has no difticulty
in assimilating them ; but as regards meat, it is only
when it is perfectly sweet that the secretion of the
leaves will act upon it.

The Pitcher plant undoubtedly derives its principal
nourishment from the insects it eats. It, too — unlike
most other carnivorous plants, which, when the quant-
ity of food with which they have to deal is in excess
ot their powers of digestion, succumb to the effort and
die — appears to find it easy to devour my number of
insects, small or large, the operation being with it
.simply a question of time. Flies, beetles, or even
cockroaches, at the expiration of three or four days
at most, disappear, nothing being left of them save
their wings and other hard parts of their bodies.

The Sorraccnia is, indeed, not only the most voraci-
ous of all known species of carnivorous plants, but
the least fastidious as to the nature of the food upon
which it feeds. "W. 0. M.

Perhaps you will allow me to set "W. 0. M."
right with regard to Sarracenia va-j iolaris and pitcher
plants generally. I am afraid the sources from whenee
he obtained his information were not very j.ehable,
as will be seen from the following: —

There are six species of Sarracenia found in North
America, all of them characterised by the same tr uinpet-
shaped leaves growing in tufts, and in several ot the
species attaining a length ot a yard. In addition to
these there is the Dar/iuytonia californica, which has
long twisted trumpet-shaped leaves, the top ot which
is curved over, forming a sort ot hood, and having a
rather small aperture on each side. These constitute
the whole of the pitcher pl.ants ot North America.
" W. 0. JM.," whilst professing to describe the " curi-
ous characteristics" of the Sarracenia, really describes
the leaf and pitcher of Nepenthes, which, as almost
evrybody knows, are tropical plants, mostly natives
of the Indian Archipelago, and well known in this
country as ornamental stove plants. The pitchers vary
much in size, some of the species producing them
quite eighteen inches long and capable of holding a
quart of water, whilst others have pitchers no larger
than a thimble. "W. 0. M." is quite wrong in say-
irg that the lids of the pitchers of Nepenthes, or
indeed of any pitcher-plant known, close again after
they have once opened. When the pitcher is about
full-grown, the lid pushes open, widely in some species,
only slightly in others, and remains quite stationary
till the pitcher dies. When the lid opens, the pitcher
is found to be about one-quarter filled with a sweetish
watery liquid, L'^uder cultivation it is necesisary to
keep the pitchers filled with water, or they soon
shrivel) and it is found that, however frequently the
water is renewed, it soon acquires a slight sweetness j
60 that the secretion of " honey " going on in the
pitcher must be somewhat copious. If the water which
19 iu the pitcher when it first opens dries up, there
is no further secretion of liquid — at least such is the
case with cultivated plants. At Kew the oldest pitch-
ers on the Nepenthes attract insects as long as they
ciintnin moisture. The Sarracenias have their pitchers
formed by tbe folding and joiaiDi; of tbe odgu of tb$

October t, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

301

leaves, so as to make a long funuel which is wide at
the mouth and narrowed to almost a point at the
base. Over the mouth the flap-like lid is fixed aud
in some of the species stands erect so as to admit
rain-water into the pitchers, whilst in others the lid
curves over in such a mnmier as to hinder the rain
from falling into them. In 1815, the then President
of the Linnean Society. Dr. James McBride, read a
communication on the fly-catching propensity of Sarra-
cenias, from which the following is worth quoting, as
it describes accurately what we have repeatedly observed
in the collection of Sarracenias cultivated at Kew.
He says, writing chiefly about t^airacenia vufiolaris:
" If, in the months of May, June, or July, when
the leaves of these plants perform their extraordinary
fimctions in the greatest perfection, some of them
should be removed to a house and (ixed in an erect
position, it will soon be perceived that flies are attract-
ed by them. These insects immediately approach the
fauces of the leaves, and, leaning over their edges,
appear to sip with eagerness something from their
internal surface. In this position they linger, but
at length allured, as it would seem by the pleasures
of taste, they enter the tubes. The fly, which has
thus changed its situation, will be seen to stand un-
steadily, it totters for a few seconds, slips, and falls
to the bottom of the tube, where it is either drowned
or attempts in vain to ascend against the points of
the hairs. The tly seldom takes wing in its fall and
e.scapes. In a house much infested with flies this
entrapment goes on so rapidly that a tube is filled
within a few hours, and it becomes necessary to add
water, the natural quantity being insufficienfto drown
the imprisoned insects. The leaves of other species
might well be employed as fly-catchers ; indeed I am
credibly informed that they are in some neighbour-
hoods. The leaves of Surracrnia Jiara, although they
are very capacious, and often grow to a height of
three feet or more, are never found to contain so
many insects as those of other species. The cause
which attracts flies is evidently a sweet viscid sub-
stance resembling honey, secreted by, or exuding from,
the internal surface of the tube. From the margin,
where it commences, it dors not extend lower than
one-forth of an inch. The falling of the insect as
soon as it enters the tube is wholly attributable to
the downward or inverted position of the hairs of
the internal surface of the leaf. At the bottom of a
tube, split open, the hairs are plainly discernible jjoint-
irg downwards ; as the eye ranges upwards they
gradually become shorter and attenuated, till at, or
just below, the surface covered by the bait, they are
no longer perceptible to the naked eye nor to the
most delicate touch. It is here that the fly cannot
take a hold suflaciently strong to support itself, but
falls. The inability of insects to crawl up against the
poiuts of the hairs I h.ave often tested in the most
satisfactory m->.nner" (Trtin^. lyinncan Society, vol.
xii.). I have again and again released blue-bottle flies
after they have been trapped, and have never yet found
them act in any way that would suggest sn intoxic-
ating property in the secretion which they had fed
upon— this is contrary to the iuformntiou of " AV. 0. M.,"
who says:— "After feedii-.p upon the secretion for two
or three minutes, they [the infects] become quite
Btupid, unsteady on thtir feet, kc." To prevent the
pitchers being injured by (he large number of insects
Which are lured into them, we find it nrccsary at
Kcw to 611 (he mouths nf the pi'fhirs with cotton,
wool; this p cvcids tie inseits f oin falling in. Be-
fore this precaution was taken mAuy of our finest
pitchers were lost, owing to the decay which was caused
by the rotten mass of insects which had accumul-
ated in the bottom of the pitchers. "\Y. 0. M."
will bo surprised to hear that, in .spite of this cutting
fcff of the supply of insects to the pitchers, tlie plants
were in no way affected as lejarded growth or vigour,
but that the length and gi-nt-ral health of the i)itchers
were more satisfaitory atter the insects were not
allowed to enter them, than before. The concluding
sentence in his remarks is rather startling, as, so far
H investigations conducted by pbysiologistt Jiave goue

hitherto, the Sarraf?nias are not known to be carni-
vorous. Jlr. AV. H. Gilburt, of the Quekett Micro-
scop,...; Olub, says:— "The pitchers contain fluid, but
nothing corresponding to a digestive fluid has been
detected ni them; so that, .if the insects which perish
m the pitcher are of any value to the plant and
afford any nutriment, it must be simply by maceration,
and the glands can be regarded as "absorbent only."
Of course it may be s.iid that Sarracenias would not
havb been constructed with what appears to be a view
specially to catching insects, if the insects were not to
serve some usefid purpose in the economy of the
plant. Anyhow, at present it is only safe to say of
Sarracenias that they allure and ultimately destroy
insects, but we do not yet know that they obtain
nourishment from them. Certainly under cidtivation
there is_ abundance of evidence to prove that these,
aud in fact all those plants which are considered to
be distinctly carnivorous, grow and thrive at least as
well when insect food is not allowed them as when it is.
Kew. -\Y. -Watson. '

♦

CINCHONA NOTES.
About the time of the Franco-Prussiau war, when
scientilic observation was more or less paralysed over
the greater portiou of Europe, some seeds of Cinchona
ojpcinalis were sent by the late botanist, Decaisue, of
the Paris Jardin des Plantes, and by M. Moriu, to 'the
small French colony of Reunion, and were immediately
planted near the shore.

The little shoots were soon afterwards transplanted
to the neighbouring hills, where they were set at an
altitude of about 2,500 feet above the level of the
oceau. For the next four years the plants were watched
with much anxiety. At the end of that time the ex-
periment was proved to he not only interesting but
practically successful; a cutting from one of the first
little plauts had then become a tree more than U yards
high.

These cinchona plants at Keuuiou produced both
flowers and fertile fruit; and the bark, when submitted
to analysis, proved rich in alkaloids. As early as 1875
Dr. A'inson, a resident, had upon his own plantation in
the island no less than 300 cinchona trees, and his ex-
ample was soon followed by several other gentlemen
who possesfed laud in that district. It was in this way
that the culture of Cinchona officimdis in the island
of Keunion, which is said to be giving promise of be-
coming very profitable to the landowners, was set
about in the first instance. AVh»n the trees of the
original plantations were about eight years old, the bark
taken from them and analysed showed that so far the
attempt to introduce cinchona had proved a'l evident
success; 2 lb. of this bark yieleled 210 grains of eiuinine
and 7i grains of ciiichonine.

It thus appears that the maritime climate of Ke'iniion
Ishind, aud, perhaps, its volcanic soil also are well
adapted to the cultivation of Cinchona ofxcinidi.i. It
is, p.-rhaps, needless to remark that among our British
pos.sessions are to be^ found a very considerable number
of islands which would show similar favourable con-
ditions, but where, up to the present time, no attempt
has been made to introduce the cinchona frees.

AVhile we were all discussing, not long since, the
prospects of the cinchona plantations in Ceylon, to
which we shall refer presently, a letter appeared from
Dr. Sacc, written at Buenos Ayres, in which he treats
of the culture of the cinchona trees in Bolivia, and on
certain other chemical and pharmaceutical products of
that country.

Many readers nlll call to n:ind that it was (he reck-
less miinnor in whicli the Bolivian trees were and
are still struck down in order to collect the bark
which c:iused it to be feared that in the course of a
comparatively short space of time the supply of cinchona
bark from South America would f:ill sliort of the
ilemaud; and finnlly, perhaps, cease altogether. It
was this circumetance which caused sncli strenuous
efforts to establish cinchona plantations in Java, India
Ceylon, Bourbon Island, &c.; so that at jnesent these
various districts are actually competing, more pr less

3oi

THE TROPICAL AORlCULTUKlSf. tOcTomn t, M5.

energetically, with South America as sources of quiuiue
barks of tlie first quality. * ^

Nevi'rtheless, the most contradictory testimony exists
as to the compHrative value of the barks grown in the
new and old localities. It may be taken for granted
that Sacc's letter above referred to, which was ad-
dressed to the French Academy, endeavours to make
out that the South American barks are still the best,
though we have occasionally seen directly opposite
statements. It is probable that many j^ears must be
allowed to elapse before it will be possible to decide
this question with anything approaching to scientific
accuracy. '1 he plants in the new districts must have
time to acclimatize themselves thoroughly before their
full alkaloid-yielding power can be expected to become
manifest. f

However that may be, the results from India and
Ceylon have been most encouraging, and clearly in-
dicate that better results still are probably in store
for these Eastern localities.

It is satisfactory to know that for the last ten
years great efforts have been made in Bolivia to im-
prove the culture of cinchona trees and the modes
of collecting the bark, advantageous efforts that will
be felt throughout the world ; and we are assured that
the wanton destruction of the trees has been checked.
Dr. Sacc informs us that new plants are being reared
by millions. These are sown in special beds, w^henco
the owners of plantations come and fetch them as
soon as the shoots are large enough to find a per-
manent home on the mountain slopes. There are, at
the present moment, seven Bolivian villiages where
the number of young cinchona plants amounts to a
total of no less than 3,942,000, all of which will be at
their prime in ten to fifteen years hence, j;

Two lb. avoirdupois of the calisaya bark of Bolivia
yields about 1 oz. of sulphate of quinine, according to
the French chemists ; and in spite of the well-known
dilBculties of transportation, 2 lb. of this bark, which
is j.said to be worth 5s. on the spot where it is pro-
duced, can be sold in Paris at 8s. or 9s. [Hem !— Ed.]

One of our correspondents, writing from South Amer-
ica last year, informs us that it is still the custom to
cut down the trees in order to strip them of their
bark; but that endeavours are being made to induce
the planters to make some trials of strijipiug with-
out felling, as is done in Southern Europe with the
cork trees. In this way it is hoped to obtain the bark
and preserve the tree. , . .

Bolivia occupies a space much larger than that of
Great Britain ; its superficies is estimated to be twice
as great as that of France. It is covered with mount-
ains to tbo west and south, whence numerous streams
arise and How down into the torrid plains of the north-
ern and eastern districts, which are thus irrigated and
enjoy a nio.st fertile soil. The new railroads which arc
in contemplation, or in course of construction, will, no
doubt ensure fur Bolivia better prospects for the
future; and their inlii'ence will make itself felt in .some
ew years' time, when aline of railway that connec'S
this vast province with the Argentine Republic, and
other lines in cnntemplatiou, shall be in full working
order. Thus Bolivia would eventually be connected on
one side with the Pacific and on the other with the
river Paraguay, finding a ready outlet for its cinchona
bark, coffee, cocoa, maize, sugar, alpaca wool, A'igoyna
wool, gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, tin, bismuth,
sulphur, alum, nitrate of soda, guano, jaguar .skins, tapir
skins, guanaco skius, &c. But to inspire the confidence
of Europeans, an 1 to induce them to invest capital
in r.oiiviii, something more than the natural resources
of that country and its actual i xports must be taken
into consideration; namely, thecharader of the popul-

*^Ye do not believe that E6union has exported a
bale of bark.— Ed. , , ,

t At an early date in the enterprize Howard declared
the Hast ludia Bark to he superior, and uotliing from
South America can compare with tho Ledgenana
bark of Java. — Ei>.

I" All of which"! No; only a percentage will sur-

afious, their capacity for work, their numbers, and the
nature and stability of the Government.*

New species or varieties of cinchona are continually
attiacting attention, the idea being prevalent that .some
kinds .are more easily acclimatized and more profit-
ably cultivated in various parts of the world than
others. A very short time ago Cincliona Lediicriana
absorbed a large amount of notice, and now a good
deal of attention centres on C. ntprea. f

Other valuable varieties have been talked about in
London as likely to become more or less celebrated,
whether grown in Ceylon or elsewhere. Among these
we may mention " Calisaya morada veluta " (or C'(K-
clion-i calisat/u, var Bolieiana, subvar. pubeicens) and
the so-called " Cali.saya verde " {Cinchana calisaya,
var. olilouffifolia). Besides these two we have also the
*' Calisaya fina " (Cinchona caliaaya^ var. vtrii.)

"We trust that the species and varieties of cinchona
have ceased to form the subject of pharmaceutical ex-
aminations; otherwise, we pity the candidate who has
to answer the questions !

Of the Ca'isai/a vcnle, Mr. Markham says he was
told it was a very large tree, wholly devoid of any red
colour on the leaves, and usually growing very far
down the valleys, and even iu the plains. From 600
to 700 lb. of bark is the habitual yield of a tree of
this kind, whilst the Ca/isat/a Jina is said to yield
only about half that quautity.

Uu the other hand, Mr. Holmes seems to aiJirm
that Calisaya vmle is the most satisfactory cinchona
plant for profitable cultivation, and something to the
same effect reaches us from Bolivia. It is asserted
that, although this tree yields only G}, to 9 per cent
of pm-e sulphate of quinine, \\hile the best Ledi/ct'iana
b.ark yields about 13 i^er cent in favourable circum-
stances, and other varieties not more than C per cent,
yet, as the Calisaya rerd6 yie (Is ohont tuice tJte cunovat
of lark that the others do, its product is equivalent
in reality to 13 or 18 per cent of sulphate of quinine.
The Calisaya verde appears certainly to be a more
vigorous tree than the more delicate Ledyeriana, and
as it will grow at a lower elevation, li is obvious
that it might be cultivated to a much greater extent.
It may also prove valuable for grafting the Ledi/eriana
upon it; though the attempt to graft the latter upon
Cinchona sncciriilira has proved quite unsuccessful up
to the present time. [This is new to us and will be
new to Mr. Moens.— Ed.]

As we have just mentioned C. sttccirubraj we may
allude, iu a few words, to the efltects of altitude on
the yield of quinine, as brought to light by the cul-
tivation of this species of cinchona iu Ceylon. "X'ery
carefid analyses have been made of this bar\!, taken
from two trees of common oiigin, one of which had been
planted at an altitude of 5,5C0 feet, and the other
at a height of 1,500 feet only above the level of tho
sea. Both trees grew in the plantations started in
1803, and, when the said analyses were made, were
close upon twenty years of age. According to Trinien,
they had vegetated in precisely similar conditions, with
the exception of the difference of climate due to 4,000
feet diftereuce of altitude. The tree at 5,500 feet
had reached 37 feet iu height, measured from the
ground to a point where the stem is only 1 inch
thick. Near the soil it was 37 inches in circumfer-
ence. It yielded 25 lb. of Jry liark, which is equal
to about 77 lb. of fresh moist bark.

The other tree was about the same size, but cnly
measured 20 inches in circumference near the soil,
and yielded not more than 7 lb. of dry Inirt (equivalent
to about -1 lb. of fresh moist bark). Here arc the
analyses alluded to: —

Svdphatc of quinine
(Quinine
(.'iuchonidine
Cinchouiue

Altituilt , Altitude,
5,500 Fe-»„*g;,'^SlH) Feet.

- 'i'P- If tbe-wi;"?;

::: 5Sfe.'"-%-,i5

OCl

1-67

•Labour is dcnr and bad, and the country
generally in a state of anarchy. — Ed.
t 'Which is uot a true ciuchona.— Eu,

October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

303

Altitude, Altitude,

5,600 Feet. 1,500 Feet.

Quinidine ... trace ... 030

Amorphous alkaloid 0 66 ... I'OO

Total alkaloids 6-SO ... S55

The much larger yield of sulphate of quinine
from the bark grown at the greater altitude is uot
only remarkable, but agrees with a former observation
by Broughton respectiug Cinrhoiia officinalis (O. ptm-
via/ia). This species, as cultivated at Neddiwattam,
is notable for the large amount of cinclioninc which
it contains (3*84 per cent), and by the ahstnce of
guinine. When, however, it is grown at a greater
elevation — on the mo.st elevated peaks of the Dod.abetta
Hills— the amount of cinchouiue diminishes, and that
of quinine comes up to 0"67 per cent.

It is obvious that these observations, like those re-
fen-ed to by Howard, De Yrij, and others, point to
the great influence which the altitude exerts upon
the yield of total alkaloids. 1

The relative value of the different cinchona alkaloids
in the treatment of intermittent fever, and in that
of other kinds of pyrexia, has attracted considerable
attention of late years. Much stress has been laid
recently upon the advantages likely to accrue from
substituting cinchoniitins for quinine in cases of inter-
mittent or remittent fevers. The reputation of quinine
and its salts is well established in this respect, but
positive facts leave no doubt that other alkaloids of the
cinchona bark possess the same properties to a very
great extent; and when the cost of quinine com-
pared with that of cinchonidine, and their respective
therapeutic properties taken into consideration, there
is much to be said in favour of the latter alkaloid.
Oinchouidine was discovered by Pasteur in 1853. It is
anhydrous, and isomeric with cinchouiue. It deviates
the plane of polarisation to the left, and does not
give a green colour when treated with chlorine
water and ammonia, as both quinine and quinidine do.
According to Howard and Weddell, not only certain
barks yield no fji'inine at all, but the forests which
yield the best bark, as far as this particular alkaloid is
concerned, are fast failing to supply it. Moreover, the
Indian plantations have proved that the barks which
appear to be the most robust in that climate are not
those which contain the most quinine. It became,
therefore, an exceedingly interesting question to in-
vestigate the therapeutic proiierties of the otltei- al-
kaloids, and to this effect careful observations were made
inlndia with c/»c/io«iH«, ciHi:'/(OH(//)e and qninidine. Up-
wards of l,OnO patients were treated with these
three bases in Heu of quinine, and a report issued
at Madras stated that the therapeutic effects scarcely
differed at all from those obtained with quinine. Of 1,145
patients 1,111 were cured in almost equal proportions
which ever ol the three "other" alkaloids was given'.
It would ajipear, therefore, to be a matter of in-
difference whether patients .suffering from intermittent
fever are treated with quinine or with one or other
of the different alkaloids present in the cinchona
barks. This being admitted, the preference would, of
course, be given to that alkaloid which could be
obtained at the smallest cost.

Howrttd has shown that rjnmdiae cannot be got
cheaper than (jitiiiinc, so that the question has to be
fought out commercially between cinclionine and cinchon-
idine, either of which can be obtained at about one-
third the cost of quinine.

Cinchona accumulates in manufactories where the
cinchona barks are specially treated for quinine
(which it usually accompanies). Its price is now low,
but that would cease to .be the case if physicians
should recognise that other bases can replace quinine.
Then cinchouiue will accumulato no longer, and, as
it rises in pi ice, attention will be turned towards
cinchonidine. It does not appear probable that the
price cf the latter will rise for many years, for not
only the trees whose barks yield it e.xist abundantly
in the forests of 8outh America, but tl.c most robust
tree of the Indian cinchona plantations is the Cin-
chona sHccirubra, the bark of which is rich in
cinchonidine.

The medium does of sulphate of cinchonidine for
adults appears to be between ih and 6 grains, and
M^eddell goes so far as to say that certain cases of
intermittent fever which quinine failed to cure were
immediately relieved by sulphate of cinchonidine.

It is not very long since the Government of
Madras gave an order for 16,000 oz. of sulphate of
cinchonidine at the price of 1 rupee per oz. (about 2s.),
and it has been largely used of late in some of our
London hospitals, so that it is uot improbable we
may hear more about it, either one way or the
Other, as experience is gained.— C7ie«i Mi and Dniggist,

Indestkuctible Fence Posts. — A farmer writes that
twenty-five years ago he set split white Oak posts for his
garden fence, putting about a peck of air-slaked
lime about each, and they are all good yet. He
attributes their good condition to the effect of the
lime, in which he is doubtless correct. A board that
has been used in a mortar bed, and thoroughly satur-
ated with lime, is almost indestructibly from decav.
— Florida Dispatch.

The " Tropicus Agbicuiturist." — Mr. W. T.
Thiselton Dyer, in an article on the square bamboo
in Nature of Aug. 27th, refers to the T. A. as
' an astonishing repertory of everything relating
to the economic botany of the East." To the above
favourable opinion we may add the foUowing from
a planter, who explains his reason for discontinuing
the Indian Tea Gazette by remarking : — " Yonr
Tropical A. is really ample for anyone."
It certainly contains every scrap about tea and
in the handiest form for refereno. Mr. Dowling,
author of the " Tea Notes," also writes to its
as follows : — " I am indebted to your valuable
paper which I receive regularly, for several hints.
I went over Ceylon in Dec. 1881 w^hcn tea was in
its infancy, and am much interested in reading in
your valuable paper of the strides it has made
since then."

Local S.\les of Tea and London Prices.— Referring
to the remarks made by us on this subject in yester-
day's issue, a mercantile correspondent writes to us
as follows :— No doubt the purchaser of the break of
Agar's Land tea that realizeil 2/1 in London made
money on the transaction, but this is not always the
case. It is generally very difficult to trace tea bought
at public auction here, but here are a few which may
interest your readers : —

Colombo London
price. average

Theberton ... 96 hf-chs. ... 64 cts ... 1/2J-
>! — 56 hf-chs. ... 70 „ ... l/af

Doranakande 12 chs. ... 68 „ ... 1 .5.1

The buyers of the first two lots did not make much
on their bargains. — Local " Times. "

HiBH Prices FOR Coffee in London, — With middl-
diug plantation quoted at 68s., there must be some
difficulty in realizing really high prices for coffee of
however excellent quality; it is therefore all the more
creditable to an estate, and particularly to the curers
of the coffee, when an exceptional rate is realized in
Mincing Lane. The m.ail just in brought what is really
a splendid sale of Berragalla coffee, the results of
which »e subjoin: —

Sale of Berragalla Coffee (Haputale), London, August
26th.
OO ... 3 casks ... 104/6
O ... 5 „ ... 93/6

No. 1. ... 2 „ ... 71/

P. B. ... 1 „ ... 90/

Triage ... 2 „ ... 5,56

It is estimated that these prices will nett "Ss. per cwt.
equal to at least KSl f. 0. b. in Colombo, which is most
satisfactory. The coffee was cured by Messrs. Wm.
Law Si Co. — Ibid.

304

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885.

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NKW PRODUCTS.
(From Ltwii> <t Ptat's London Price Current, Awitiat •J7th, 18S5.)

FROM MALABAR

COAST, COCHIN.

CEYLON, MADRAS. &o.

BEES' WAS. White

YfUow
CrSCHONA BARK— Crwu

Red

CARPAJIOMS Mnliibar
ami Ceylon
Aloinu'o
Tt'lUi'horry

Mnntpilort*
L'^ng Cevlon
ists
S3iuls
Srvl*
4ths

CINSAMON

COCOA,

Chips
Cevloii

QUALITY.

/ Slishtlv soflish to iiooil

\ h:\ril" brk-ht

;>o. ilnv^sy & iliirk ditto...

llonowod ...

dt'dium to line Quill ...

^)K>ke shavings

;imnoh

Renewed

tHliniu to good Quill ..

Spoke shavings

linuich

I'wig

'lipptM, lK»ld. bright, tiui
Mi.Ullius;, stalky Ji leai
air to Juiepluiupelipped
.» ood to tine
liivwuish

lxhI & tine, >viished,bgt.
MiiUUinj; to goo^l...
Onl. to tine ivtle quill

QUOTATIONS.

COFFEECeylon Plantation

,, Native
laberinn
East Indian

Native

COIRROrE.Cevlon& Cochin
FlURE, "Brush

Stuffing .
YARN, Ceylon
Coi'hiu
Do
COLOMBO R01>T. siftwl .
CROTl>X SEKllS. sifte.1 ,
GINGER, Cochin, Cut
,1
Bough

NUX VOMICA '.'.

MYRABOLANES. pale ..

' \Voo*ly and htuil ...
Fair to fine plant...

■ Bold to good bold
M^Mium

Triage to orvlinary
Hold to tine Iwld
Middling to tine mid.
Low middling ...
Smalls ... ' ...
Go*h1 ordinary ...

■ SnviUtobold" ...

■ BoKi to line bold...
Medium to line ...
SnuUl

^ tiood to line orvlinary
Mid.iwirse to linestraight

■ Ord. to tine long stmight

■ Cot\i^e to tine

'Or»linary to superior

'jOrtlinarv to lino

•'Roping iair togood
•(Middling wormy to line..
• Fair to tine fresh

Oooii to tine IkiKI

SnutUand metlium

Fair to good bold

■• Small

'• Fair to tine K1UI fresh ..
Smallorvlinaryand fair..
" Oooil to fine piektsl
llVramon to mividling ..

p. . . ..Fair Coast " ..

-.. ""''"S', Burnt and defei-live ..

Lo?oN fiii^vss ::: , «"^"" * s^'«' "--o"' ••

??.^,"viJ'MS^y''''rVl. f, ■jlMid. to'tine.not woo>1y"
l>Ein>KK.JlalalMrl.lk.sifte»lu.,..;. ,„ k.,i.i >,»...... ■'

Alleppe^ & i.\x*hin

Tellieherrv. White

jFair to bold heavy
goovl

PLUM lUGO, "Lump

Chips
Dust

RED WOOD

SAFAN WOOD

SANDAL WOOD, lo^
IK). chip

SENNA, TinnevelU

£6 l(h a £3
Hi Hh a £(> lOs
Is a 8s (!d
is Id a 3s tSd
VM a Is (VI
M a $d
Sd a is M
Gd a I's lid
:<d a Is -M
M a tld
Id

is a <s 3d
fti a 3s

tj<l a 3s
:^ Ski a 4s
Is a :is Cd
Is a 4s (M
Sd a Is Id
SJd a Is 9d
"jd a Is lid

uid a Is

lid

I'd a Hid
Ijdu 4d
S:is ft 95s
feaSUs
L'is a 5Sd
S3s a UHs (3d
()«s a 83s (hI
7s a &fis
4(>s a d($s
10s a 4^ uoiu.
8li8 a Ms
Ss a ItWs
tMs a 7()s
I (is a 5:is
.'H>> *)d uom.
£10 a est
i3tia£;y

It^ a £18
Cli U>sa jf3(i
£l^a £40
iUin £17
:<0s a 3:.'s 6d
;iCs a 40s "
tt*s a DSs
4Ss» (j2s
41$ a 4tis
:6s a 39s
Ss a 12s

a Ss
Ss iM a 10s 3>l
7s txl a Ss lid
Ss tU a Ite
(>s 'Sd a 7s
Is 3<1 a 3s 3d
M

Uda IJd
40s a o.>s

7Jd a 7Jd

UVl a & ikl
I4s .'id a Ills 6d
10s a i:!s (id

'"iFair to fine bright KMd

[Middling to sro*.Hl small...
'••|Slight foul to fine bright *s a l:4s (id
•• OrxUnavv to fine bright ... 's W a lis

• Fairan.i fine N)K1 ' ... CiH (Hla£610,
••Middling eoatevl to gootl £0 a £7

•• Fair to gooil tla^•or " ...ItiiOa £35

••| £10 a £10

"lOoo*l to fine bold green. ..Kl a Is
Fair middling bold ...\M a Od
Common dark and small'ld a 2il
••Finger fair to fine lKd.ijl•*^* a ^Is

• Mixeil middling [bright 'js «' Is

• Bulbs whole (life a Uia

110 split .sod a 98

TURMERIC, Madras
II0.
IV>.
Co<'hin
VANILT.OES, Mauritius &

Bourbon. Ists pj„^ cr\Ntalis«l 6 a <iineh|l6s a 9Ss
""'"• Foxy &" rwldish .•> a S „ l*s a ISs
3rds 1 Lean & drvto middling!
ith ^ under Ginehes ...^Gsalls
Ix»w, foxy, inferior and liis a 5*

_ ' " [pickings

FROM BOMBAY I

AND ZANZIBAR.

ALOES, Soecotrine and l3«od and fine dry ... £7 a £9

Hepatic... iVaimou anl giwd ... lite a £6

CHILLIES, Zauiihar ... Oo^vl to line bright ... S-vs « 4i>s

Or^linary -ind middling... ^t^s a :i7s tU
CLOVES, Zanfihar 1 Good and fine bright ...MaSid

uidPcmbik I Ordinary dull to Csir ... 4|da4^d

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

QUALITY

Iquotations

CLOVES. Mother

,, Stems..

COCULUS ISDICrS
GALLS, Bassorah Vki

& Turkey I"""
green..,
white..,
GIUI AMMONUCUM-
drop ...
block..
ANIMI, washed ..,

scraped.,
ARABIC, picked .

sorts...
ASSAFCETIDA

Fair, usual dry
„ fresh

Fair to line dark
Good

...!ai a 4d
...ild al l-16d
..,j(»s a 10s

... 50s a 553

.,.l4SsaSIs
...lllS a 4tis

Small to fine clean ...!4!vs ft 0(.\9
ilark to jood ...j30s a 4os

Picke>l hue ptile in sorts, l£I4 a £lS
liart yellow and mixed|£Il a £13
Bean & Pea sire ditto ... £5 10s a £3
amber and dark bold ...ICS a £13
Me<linin & bold sorts ...|£5 a £8
Pale bold clean ...|75s a 80s

Yellowish and mixed ...i6l(s a 723
Fair to fine ... lliOs a 753

Clean fair to fine ...'4iisa50*

Slightly stony ami foul ...i32s a 435
Fair to'fine bright ...!40sa453

Fair to fine jiale

KINO

MYRRH, picked

Aden sortsjMidvUing to good
OUBANU.M, irop Fair to good white

„ I Reddish to middling
pickings.. .(Middling to good pale
siftings ...isiiglitly funl to fine
INDIARUBBER Mozambique, fair tofine sausage.

unripe root
jliver
SAFFLOWEB, Persian ...'Ordinary to good

FROM CALCITTTA AND i
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

.:£6 a £S
$5sa 95s
l.'Us a 45s
27s a 3;!3
9s a 13s
9s a lis
Is 7d a is 9id
Ball...Is7dals9Jd
... Is 3d a Is -ild
... Is Sd a Is 5d
... 5s a 15s

...[Nearly water white
...iFairand goodm

CASTOR OIL, Ists

3nds ...(Fairand goodjMle

Srils ...'Brown aiiil brownish

INDIARUBBER Assam ...IGood to fine

Common foul and mixed
Rangoon ... I Fair to gooii dean
Madagascar Goodtofinepiuky &white
[ Fair to govnl black
SAFFLOWER ...kiood to'fine pinky

JMiddling to fair '
llnferior and pickings ...
TAMARINDS ...iMid.tofineW.ic*nol'slony

;Stouy and iuXerior

... SJd a 3Jd
... 3d a Sja

2}d a aid
Is 5d « IS lOd
4d a Is Sd
Is4dals9d
Is 9A a Is lOjd
Is.->,la IsSd
£4 11^ a £5108 I
l-S.Vsafiasedl
£1 a £1 lOa
lOsa I4s
3sa0s

FROM I

CAPE OF C.OOD HOPE.

I

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWKOtvr Natal

...iFairdr> to line bright ... 3ds a 37s 6d
...iCcninion & middling soft 30s a 34s
...'Fairtofine ...35sa405

... -Middling to fine ... 3.W a 6»1

FROMCHINA. JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS.;

|7S

!vs a S3s

CAMPHOR, China ... Good, pure, & dry white

Jatmu ... ,, „ pink

GAMBIER, Chibes ... Ordinarr to fine free ...;«sa3lB

|Hr.>ssed" ...'SUsaSTs

Block ...iGood ...!l9sii»la30s

QUTTA PERCHA, genuine Fine clean Banj& Macas-2s 4d a & 3^1
Snmatro... Barky to fair [sar!7d a 2s Sii

Reboilevl...iCommon to fine clean ...l-^l a Is tid

White Borneo

NUTMEGS, large

MtHlium
Small

MACE

RHUBARB, Sun dried

.'Gooil to tine clean
■Inferior and l«rky

... 6rs a jiO's, garbled

...'S5"sa95's

... lOO's a IftVs

...Paleretblish to pale
Onlinary to red
il'hips

...iGood to fine sound

.Ild a Is 3d
...!4d a lOd
...I2s4da3s7d
...rii a 3s ;!d
...lls:Uals9d
... Is &1 a as 6d
... Is a Is 3d
... Udalsld

. ;^a 4s

I>arkori1inary& middling Is a Is M
High dried ...jGoOvl to fine

Dark, rough & middling
'Fairtofine

SAGO, Pearl, large

medium ..,; „ „ „
small ...' „ ,. „

Flour ... Good pinky to white

TAPIOCA, Penang Flake...; Fair to fine
Singaiy>re ...I ,, „

Flour ...I ,, .,

Pearl ..,IRaU«ts

i Medium
Se«d

Is 4d a Is i
7d a Is

13s (kl a 139 6d
13s»13s6d
IJsaI3s
lOs a Us
IJdaa'd
HdaSd-
lid a lid
Us a l>^s
I.%« a 16s 6d
Us «d • 15s

KovEMBER 2, 1885J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

305

PEODUCTION OF TEA IN INDIA:
QUALITY AXD PBICES.

Some time ago we quoted from the Calcutta
Kmilhhman a notice of the official report tor 1884
of tea cultivation in Assam, and now wo take over
an elaborate article from the Pioneer, in which some
thing more than cultivation is dealt with. There
is considerable ability and equal inconsistency dis-
played by the writer. He first shows that the
lands held for tea cultivation have doubled in six
years, and that, from the tendency of separate
estates to aggregate in the hands of Companies,
economy in workiBg will be more and more se-
cured, and yet he ends by anticipating the col-
lapse of the Indian tea enterprise in the face of
competition from China tea which is heavily burd-
ened (besides its inferior quality) with export duties
plus multitudinous squeezes ! The addition of
30,000 acres in one year does not look like being
conquered in the race, even although prices in
1884 were unprecedentedly low. On the other hand,
cost of production and manufacture has been so
economized that on teas produced at a cost of
about lOd, a prjtit of M per lb. is estimated. The
area taken up by tea-planters in Assam is somewhat
less than a million of acres, giving an average of
about 1,000 acres for each property, but as only
lyO.OOO acres are under tea, in all stages of giowth, the
average per estate of cultivated acreage is only about
•200 acres. The yield per acre of land in bearing,
which, a few years ago, was reckoned at 2801b.,
has been increased to 30.5. The estimates are now
subjected to such checks that they can be fairly
relied on. Counting Ceylon, the yield of Indian
tea is increasing at the rate of five millions of
pounds per annum, and the Pioneer is at a loss
to know where a miUiou additional consumers
per annum is to come from. But the writer forgets
that in Britain the consumption of tea per caput
has increased, and is likely to increase, considerably
beyond increment to population. That Australia
should soon grow its own tea, we consider, looking
at tlie labour difficulty, a wilder idea even than
that of the process now going on being reversed, and
China forcing Indian teas out of the market. The writer
himself says : " It seems on the whole improbable
that tea cultivation in India will seriously decrease,"
and he adduces the provision of a better and swifter
cla=.s of steamers and the extension of railway facilities
as good reasons for this belief. We prefer the
optimism of the Pioneer to it3 pessimism. To the
article from the Pioneer, v!ea.dA two Ivom the Indian
Tea Gazette as well as a paragraph speaking highly of
a new sifter.

The writer of "The Tea that Pays" takes the
commonsense view that it is medium and not very
fine teas which will pay the producer, but surely
twenty year old estates cannot be so worn out as
is represented. We observe, however, that the man-
ager of Singell, one of the oldest estates in
the Kurseong division of the Daijeeling district,
is thus quoted in the report of the Company: —

" Want of soil," the Manager says, " is another cause
of decrease in the outturn. In a garden that has
been in existence as long as this, the loss of soil from
wasli and other causes becomes very apparent, and
to correct this, as far as possible, is a work tlie im-
portance of which can hardly be ovcn'ated."
But oUmate and season must have very nmch to
do with the quality of tea, judging from what tea
planters «Tite. for instance : —

Joili u, jc.th Augaet,— Our Jorhat cowespontlent

33

WTites : — We have been having a good deal of rain this
last week, whirh though faroiirahle for ieaf has not ^teiii
cwiduci- • to good utaunfactare. hetif coming in v'ct in
dilpi::t]t to wither, and it has to be kept perhap? fcr
two days n-hen it d -'rs up rather tiian iritt,,'rs an 1 girfH
a dull j'ernieutatiun in the enp. Tins last week h: s
been rather a poor one for outturn, but the wcaMii r
is more promising now for good flushes.
Again : —

N. Lakhimpiir, 15th August. — Leaf has been nmn'mi
rather xtij' during the past week, arid luoldni/ a hit
hardisi/ in most gardens.

And in a review of the season lS81-8ij, the paper
from which we quote attributes disa.strous effects
to the failure of the ehiitii biirsot nr little monsoon
and to the great lieat which acconii>aiiied rain when
at length it came. Tlie tea biu-lics were not able to
renew their withered rootlets until comparatively late
in the year. Tlie rain when it came was excessive : in
Sylhet beyond jirecedent. Low jn'ices were not solely
due to inferior lea, but to a reaction from tlie China
war and the budget scare. Teas produced in the
second half of the year we are told, are always
more mellow and ripe than those of earlier growth ;
but the great point for Iiulinn planters to keep
in view is to produce their teas at n price irliirli n'ill
defi/ competition. How the demand of tlie English
brokers for extra tine teas and this advice are to
be reconciled, is the difficulty, but the writer in
the Planters' (iazctte, contra the Pioneer, sees no
reason why with tlie experience of past years " n-e
slwiitil not he able to nin our Cliinesc neiglihours out
of the market," notwithstanding the receipt of
several driers by the Hongs in China. What we
in Ceylon as well as in India have to do is to
produce good quantities of tea per acre which will
go into consumption on its own merits, without
either adulteration or blending, with as few dis-
tinctions of quality as possible. To this end
simplicity of machinery as well as etiiciency, es-
pecially in the important operations of sorting
and sifting, are desiderated. The writer in the
Planters' Gazette evidently has not seen Jackson'a
leaf-breaker, and we confess neither have we.
We do not think the coolies can influence the
use of machinery to the extent attributed to them.
The more we consider the matter, the more, cert-
ainly, do we share the sentiments of Mr. .Armstrong
as to short travelling of tea on tlie sifting machine,
and those of the Indian wi-iter wo quote as to
the loss of aroma inevitable from long exposure
to the atmosphere (and to handling) in the final
manipulations by coolies.

PADDY (RICE) CULTIVATION IN CEYLON.

The fact, that Moormen and Chetties, who know
the real value, and relative value of Rs. and
cents, as payii g investments, think it a fortune
to be owner! of paddy fields, ptove.! that it is
all gammon, and downright nonsense to tell us
that paddy cultivation is not paying, more e«ppci-
ally, as to a largo number ofpeanants, out of town,
labour has no marketable value. Men work in paddy
6ekls not 80 much for money, but for food and 9.ike
of company.*

But we should like to put down our thoughts why there
is such a large import of grain from India. The larger
number of people who consv.me the import are the coolies
in our estates, and the town people cbirliy conipoeod
of Moors, Chetties, Portuguese, Dutch and Knglish
descendants and others who as natives neitiier po8ses.«:ed
lands nor inherited them. All over the interior the
native paddy affords the rice, which is the staple food
of the Natives.

* This is an amusing .sample of the native style of
non-seqnitur, because labour lias no ninrketable ^•alue^
thircfore paddy cultivation pays.— Kn,

3d6

^iiK fnoPiCAt AGkicutrijRisr. [Novemsek 2, 1S85,

The iinlivi' paililj'is not converted in large quantities
into rit^e. When the rice is wanted for food, the
paddy is boiled and exposed to the air, under shade,
and then the husk is pounded off, and the required
mo licuni is ready for food: Consequeutly unless driven
by necessity, native rice is never seen in market.
■\Vhat vv(! want is persons, who would buy in our paddy,
and convert it into rici : and this requires knowledge
of tlie science ; we use the word science advisedly.
Paddy 111 the granary, for at least five or six mouths
goes ilu'ough a |irooessof fermiMitation ; and the p.addy
then iscalleil sour ; after which it becomes sweet, and
is fit for conversion into rice. Then native rice being
full lit saccharine and glutinous matter is liable when
iu large quantities to be infested by weevil; lieuce inludia
in curing rice they use a large quantity of lime. So
Eui-o])eans. who have lazy cooks, careless about cook-
ing 1 ice, go in for dysentery in eating rice and curry t
and we know of long residents in the island, to whom
physicians have prescribed rice .and curry, to keep
their inside iu good condition; yet it is a fact beyond dis-
cussion, tliat rice and curry is the most wholesome food.
The truth i.s, the cooking of rice is a greater art
than the cooking of curries. The .Tamils say that if
the rice be properly cooked, there is no need of curries.
Thus the Tiiniil yruithful peasant when asked why he
seeks a wife, re.adily answers that he wants some one
who would cook his rice (soru) for him. The ex- [
ported rice must be well pounded in a mortar, till
all tlie lime is brushed off: then it is to be sorted,
taking off" all husks, and pi. king out the black grain,
which is tlio consequence of over fermentation :
then it is put into a chatty, which is like a sieve,
wdiere it is rubbed down, till every particle of lime
h;is m clkauce of keeping on the grain : then it is re-
peatedly washed, till the last bucket of water receives
no colouring matter, but is aa pure as spring waier.
The water in the sance-pan is boiled to steamin j heat,
and haudfuls of the gram are put in. A gentle fire
gives you your dish of rice. When it is brought to
table, 'it is pearly white ; and wdien the delicious curry
and gravy are poured on it, and you turn it up with
the spoon, adding just a tiny bit of sumbol, you taste
amhrnsi.al food. We, as Natives, therefore, prefer our
rice and curry to all what English cooks can make out
of fish, flesh or fowl, boiled, roasted or basted. Now
native rice not cured by lime, requires no such pro-
cess, and yet when brought to our doors, we beat it
down in pric', and refuse to buy it, but at very low
rates, simply because it is native rice. Nothing is good
in Ceylon, but what is of a foreign market.
So hawkers come to our doors and say that it is
"Rud,gess" cloth, "Rudgess," note jiaper " Kudgcss "
pen, .simply because the steel of Kodgers manufacture
is. thought to be the best. We know of a native trader
who, whenever he presented his goods for sale, said, it
was "England made" and "London bought." 80
we do not go in for native rice, we turn up our noses
at it: W' bent it down in price; and run it down with
faint praise and cry that native rice is nowhere.

If rice cultivation in Ceylon is to obviate the import
of rleo, then the land to lie looked to for Mich produce
U the Centrnl IVovi-ice. 'i'lie v:il!;.\s atf rich with the
fliliiviiil deprtiit of tile a;es beyond the Hoods: they lire
fed by tlie cfystftl sfreaiiis c dd and ewret, tlniving
from tlie siinimit of hlUs an' inoil-falns, whrro rilin
doudu rest, ttftcr iraVelliO,' IV.iiii the liistprll .and West.'
firii «cas, 1 ringing refreeliliiff shdwerd: even llie. sun
Jihcds a nieliow I, eat, that br!;ig the Hap gently; to be
the blaile, and full ear of corn. The peasants go ill only
ftir one I'lil'ii alloii. They .scrape only the surface for the
[ilautiiig if the rjiddy. Tliey u--e no manure. ^ They do
iiot care for weeillng ■ eVen th 1 so called " llviiiy " of
water is done slovenly, for muly anight, the man who
is iouiil 'o do so, prefers iiis warm heel of straw rather
than expose liiinself to the bleak cold wind of the
mountain, (to to Wilson's hungahw, I"ukiude:go ;n
Uva:go to the valleys of Kadugnnnava: go to the
range of laud sloping down into the va''ev,
the, terraces of our |i:iddy cultivation, and then
vi^it thi granaries bursting with corn : look at
tbc laeu aiul women, the very j)iclui-i; of hfalth,

a living evidence of an abundance of food supply, and
tell us if we are exaggerating, when we say that the
Cent rill Province can yet produce rice enough to stop
the import of grain. Batticaioa and Matara can do no
more. — "Jaffna Patriot."

♦

JOHORE TEA AT HOME.
(From the London Tea Letter of the Indian Planters'
(ia:etli:)
I had some Johore tea sent to me this week by a
friend from Singapore. It was made on a European
owned garden, the first opened out iu Johore, and the
tea certainly promises well. It was not of a make to
eomjiare with teas made for the market, as it was
" rough tea," and being somewhat higliiy fired its real
quality would be uulair to gauge. I have seen, how-
ever, much worse " rough tea " than this is in India,
and the growth of the bushes is more luxurious than
in Assam even, judging by accounts I have received —
ten feet high in twenty months !

THE SIERRA LEONE KOLA NUT PLANTING
AND TRADING COMP.VNY, LIJIITED.

Under this coinpreheu.sive title a company has just
been formed in the West African colony, with an in-
fluential local Board, and a capital of £2,300 to buy
laud and plant the kola nut. At any rate, this is its
primnry object, but let the prospectus speak tor itself
as to the multifarious and rather mixed intentions of the
directors : —

" Affricidtnm'. — To grow be.sides cocoa and coffee,
I0,0()0 kola trees, which will produce nuts of commercial
value in five years with the aid of .artificial manure
as prepared by Messrs, Oblendorff and Co., of London,
for the colonies, to meet the increasing demand for this
valuable dietetic article eaten in its green state by the
natives of West Africa and the interior, and iu its
dried state for export to Europe as a ' New Temperance
Beverage' iu connection with coffee, iSc. ' Kolatiua '
will in the near future be ' the cup that cheers but
not inebriates.' About 15 acres will be set apart for
experiniouting in tobacco, potatoes, ciunhoua, iic.

*' Votninercial. — This Company will open a small fac' ory
in the plantation tor the convenience of labourers
and others, and to buy palm kernels, &c. ; and barter
manufactured trade goods with the natives at (,>ui,ah
Land and its vicinity, and to burn lime in the vicinity
of the plantation where oyster shells in abundance can
be had ; and to supply Preetown with mangrove wood."

There can be no duulit that the demand for the nut
is steadily increasing, for we .see by the Customs re-
turns of Sierra Ijeone that in 1883 nuts to the value of
£35,000 were exported, whilst the value reached a
little over £ 10,000 last year. A correspondent of one
of the local papers who has been engaged iu the cultiv-
ation says ; —

" I am glad to learn from the inaugural address of
the [wesident of the Sierra Leone Association that the
iirticle was mentioned among others in that address for
encouraging its systematic cultivation in our gardens
and yards in the settlement.

" The kola nut is a hardy plant, and a tree In full
growth has been known to produce nuts iu one year to
the value of twunty pounds. It commences to be a
fruit-beariog tree on the fifth yeir after planting, and
to deciy in it" flflietli year. One of its peculiarities
ic, that it Ht'nd.s it? roots not so deep in the soil ao oil
thi .surf toe, It is singular enough that all the largest
kola nuts ai'e exported from the settlement las the ex-
port trade demands) and that almost all the smallest
and unhealthy-looking ones are t'olisumcd in it. It iS
generally known tliat the .Vfricans Who llabituallj' uSt*
the kola nut live to a very old age, and when toothles.s
from ;ige the inits are ground before eaten. It h.^.H
the won lerful properties of nllevlatiug hunger, keeping
aivay sleep and when made into a decoction, an im-
me.ii lie cure for drunkenness. I have been told that
in au is'and on our coast the natives, from circnm-
st luces, subsist for weeks solely on p.ilm wine and kola
nuts, that is before the yam season. 1 therefore cannot
6:iy too much in recomnieDding- this article for extensive
cultivation,"

N0VEM8ER 2, 18^5-] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST;

iOI

TEA cultuel: in as«am.

{From the Pioneer.)
The annual rei'ort on tea culture in Assam, bring-
ing facts and figures down to the end of I.SSI, is a
more interesting worlt than otiieial documents of tliis
sort nsually are. Not only does it;possess the adviint-
age of dealing with the living energies of a great
industry instead of dry statistics reprtseuting merely
the manipulation of Government machinery, but it
actually shows traces of an intelligent interest in the
subject. Pains have been taken to correct extravagant
estimates and to get at the true area and outturn of
tea gardens, or as near it as calculation can go in
those ca>es, yearly becoming rarer, where planters,
from suspicion or dislike, or inditfereuce, have refused
or neglected to furnish the needful information. The
fact which comes out clearly after all these corrections
is that in spite of llooded markets and low prices,
tea cultivation in Assam is certainly not going back-
wai^. If land has been relinquished, it is oi ly in
places which have been found unsuitable for tea, and
when the total extent of tea-grants is stated as 1)13,000
acres in lt'84 against 923,000 acres in the year pre-
ceding, it must not be forgotten that a good
deal of tWs apparent decrease is due to the more
exact ascertainment of acres, in the game way as
a more careful classification and numbering of gardens
h.asded to thiir reduction from 1.030 to 970. Of course
the whole of this OlS.OtK) acres is not cultivat(d ; the
Assam planter takes up large extra spaces of laud tn
view of future extensions, and also to supply the garden
with the needful timber for his buildings and forest
produce for the domestic requirements of" bis coolies.
The tea-producing area is little more than one one-
sLxth of the total extent of estatts, or 158,000 acres,
and 32,000 acres besides are under young plants, which
will be yielding tea in the next two or three years.
The extension of tea criltuie during the last si.'w years
is very remarkable; there were only 112,0f)() acres
of mature plants in 1379 and oidy ()()5,(!0O acres
of tea grants altogether, so that the increase since
that date has been one of 50 per cent , and there
is every prospect of its continuing, for the area
under young plants is larger at present than in any
previous year. A great advance was made in 18S3,
when new gardens to the extent of oO,000 acres were
opened on the southern edge of the Sylhet district
among the low hills and jungle-smothered plains
which abut upon the native State of Hill Tipperah,
a virgin border-land into which the dense pojjiilation
of the rice-tracts further north, though subsisting in sjme
places upon half an acre of cultivated land to each
human being, has not yet spread itself in its slow
southward overfiuw. Yet this fringe of hill and jungle,
though untenanted save by a few f.amilies of roving
Kookies, who practise the kind of nomadic agriculture
known as jhumiuy, is subject to claims on the pait
of distant iand-o^vners who have never even seen its
borders, and the company whose agents first discerned
the capabilities of the laud for tea have been obliged
to compromise these claims, or at least to purchase
the good-will of their most powerful neighbour by
sums which can be counted in lakhs of rupees. No
better example could be cited of the power of land-
owuersbip to tax the earnings of labour and capital.
The outturn of the tea gardens of Assam can be
estimated with tolerable accuracy by means of
statistics obtained from three different sources.
The Indian Tea A.s.sociaticn makes its own calc-
ulations on information supplied by planters.
The traile-registering stations at Dhubri and lihaiiab.
Bazaar give the declared exports from the Brahma-
putra aud Surma Valleys respectively ; and in the thir<l
place there are the figures furnished by the official
returns. The outturn rendered by each of these three
methods is respectively 48i, 4.54, if"' ol millions of
pounds. The trade-registrars do not catch the whole
export trade of the province, but only that by the two
main waterwaj's, and the lowness of their estimates
can thus be understood. It is doubtful, again, whether
the Tea Association embraces all the 970 gardens of

Assam, but the discrepancy between its estimate and
the official one arises not so much from this cause as
from the high average outturn officially reported from
a single district; antl if this be correcteii into sunie-
thing more modest and probable, the otHcial estimate
of 51 inillioi\s fails to 49j millions of pounds, and
c^^mes into close agreement with the Tea Association's
return. These figures exceed the outturn of IS83 by
three million pounds, aud the average produce per acre
appears as o05 lb against 2St) th in ISf'S. The Sylhet and
Cachar planters, however, do not seeni to ha\'e shared
in the benefit of this increased productiveness, which
was pecu'iar to the valley of the IJrabmaputra, and
even there the season was not regartled as a gootl one.
The cost price of a pound of tea varies greatly oii
different gardens, but in 1884 it may be reckoucil, on
the whole, at about 3 annas 8 pies for cultivation and
4 annas for miinufacture, or 7 aunas 8 pies altogetlier.
This is a .small figure ; but the cost of production has
not yet been cut down to the level of the low prices,
which must henceforth be expected. In 1884 prices
fell unprecedentedly low. The average of the Calcutta
s.ales from May to December was 8 annas 11 pies per
pound, and generally the fall is estimated at 2 annas
per pound — a decrease which, for the majority of
gardens, means a frightful diminution of jjrotit upon
the tea delivered in Calcutta. The causes or the fall
in prices are vaiiousiy alleged as the extension of tea
cullivation, the rapidly increasing supply from Ceylon,
the plucking of coarser leaf, the spoiling of the lea by
too rapid drying in the new machinery, and, in the last
resort, climatic causes which give a crop of inferior
Haveur. It is certain that the London brokers have been
complaining of the poor quality of Assam tea, but the
main reason why tea is so cheap seems to be the fact
that the production of tea has increased faster than
the habit of tea-drinking. A few figures will illuslrata
the strides which production is making. The crop of
lsS4 throughout all India (e.xcluding Ceylon) was 63
million pounds, of which Assam furnished 4,S| and Dar-
jeeling lui millions. The crop of 1885 is estimated at
bSJ millions. Then Ceylon exported li million pounds
in nine months of 1883-84 and 2| million pounds in
the same nine mouths of 1884-85. The increase in
production during a single year may therefore be reck-
oned at four or five million pounds, even altera large
reduction for over-liberal estimati s. This means an
ailditional supply sutficicut to meet the wants of a
million new consumers, and it is evident that consumers
cannot go on incn-asing at the rate of a njilliona year.
The talk about raising the duty gave a momentary
disturbance to trade, but something like a revival of
activity has now set in. There are only too good rea-
sons for suspecting that this cannot last. Tlii^ stocks
of Indian tea in London have suffered a tempoiary
diudnution, and stood at II J- million pounds hist June
aganut 17 million in .June 1883 ; but Ih'y will soon bo
replenished if export go on at their present rate. During
the months of May ami June. 2^ million pounds were
exported to the Ij'idteil Kingdom in ISbo, 2^ million
in 1884, and nearly 4^ million in 1885. Any deficiency
there may be iu stocks will obviously soon be made
good, and if the crop of 1885 answers to expectations,
stocks will be larger than ever by the end of the yi'ar. It
is becoming plain that the Australian market cannot be
counted on to take any larger quantity. It took 1.'.
million pounds in 1884, but this is hardly worth count-
ing, and the time is not far distant when Au.stralia
will begin to grow its own tea as it now grows its
own sufiar. The Assam planters feathered a dart
against themselves when they sent tea-seed to Noumea,
where the introduction of the new industry has caught
the eye of the Australians. In short, tea cannot hope
to escape the influence of the geneial tendency to
lower prices, which our best authorities" on
economic matters arc beginning to recognize as a
great characteristic of thi- modern industrial age.
Il seems on the whole improbable that tea cultiv-
ation in. Inilia will ever seriou.sly decrease. Gardeis
are not likely to be ab.indoned because it no lorger
pays the owner to produce tea upon them. Thecffcct
of falling prices will rather be to awaljeu effuits

3o8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [NoVEMseR 2, 1885,

tln^a■d^ ihe niluctiou of Iha cost ot (Ultii'ation and
iiiimif ic'.ure. Jn thi* ailempt tbe plante-s will be
li.' ptd t • 6om5 degree hy he gei:e.-jl progre^-i oi India
in inatar.al ci . ilization. This can already be I'erceived
in Assam, waire the i.uw swift d .ilv steamers du thj
l>:ahniaputra replaciui;- the old weakly oues, hav •
materially leJuced tie average c^st of each cuoly ti
(he tea-pla iter, and t le further i.x' elision of tbe Kauni i
Railway towards Assim will cheapen C-Oy transport
still mort'. In Sylhet and C'aohar there is every
prospect of a daily sleamer fervi e or at
least a service of swift steamers twice a week,
raking tbe place of the present tedious method
of briugiug up coolies in country boats — a method
which may strictly be calieil a slow proiess oi ibolt-ra
inoculation, alteiided by a fiightful mortality, deplor-
able alike in the interests of humanity and in those of
the planter, to whom each coolie safely lamled c sts
so nunli the more in proporlion to the number of the
batch who have succuuiljed to the poisonous etfectsof
the water of the rivers and creeks, from which they
driidi in their three weeks' progress upcountry wi bin
the cramped and noisome limits of a eo\ered Bengalee
river-boat. Improved communications will doubile.-s do
much towaids reducing the cost of production; hut
there is aim her way in v. hich still larger savings can
be made, and that is by the aggregation of li a estates;
in a word, by an industiial revolution similar to that
which we see going on in tbe great agricultural Sta'es
of Anreri a. Wealthy cumpanies dealing with large
anasare able to eliect economies in labour and super-
iiiteiidmee to apply machinery to the fullest advaut-
uf;e, and to bring ouilay and outtuiu towards an average
uniioimity which tends to counteract fluctuations in
price s anei variations in the character of seasons. The
elajs of single gardens seem to be numbered. In Assam
at least it is probable that in the future we shall see
less ai d bss of the planter-proprietor and more and
more eif the great companies which add grant to grant
and effect each successive extension at a smaller pre)-
poriijuate outlay on la'. our, management, and appli-
ances. Oue result will be the disappearance of what
litilc interest native Indi.cu capital now has in the tea
Indus' ry, and monopolisation of the business by EugUsh
capital mure exclusively than ever. Yet large as is tie
stake of Kiiglish capital in Indian tea, «e cannot gel
rid of a feeling of unrcaHty in contemplating the
whole bu iness, as it it existed really upon sufferance.
Indian tea has not yetcerue seriously into competition
with Chinese tea, lor lie demand for the latter his
scarcely begun to show f gns of dimimdioii, audit is
evideiiilj not the intere.-t of the Chiua houses to push
matter? to extremities. But if ever the competition
should become vital, there can be little doubt which of
the two rivals h;iB the larger resources and the greater
staying power, if the China houses should see cau.se
to 'force down prici-s, it might speedily be discovered
that tea in India is only an exotic, and that the task of
siippl\iiig the world with lea had better he left to other
countries where Nature has prescribed more favourable
conditions for its production.

THE TEA THAT PAYS.

The season opened with a great flourish of trniu-!-
ets and for a couple of sales fairly high vahn^s
were oblained. Things are rather ditferent now, and
we are anxious to si-e how, at the end of tbe seeison,
the brokers are to get out of their dilemma, unless by
a"ain resorting to the old stock excu.se of deteri r-
ation in Indian tea. We could point to some well-
known marks celebrileil both for liquor in cup and
general manufacture, which lasryear, in an extremely
depressed market, commanded high rates,whilst I his ye'ar
they are relegated to a lower than even the medium
claes How are the brokers to account for this ? Quality,
iiuality has been the cry for Ihe past fewye!ars, anel we
firmly believe that this has bci n sacrificed* at the expense
of eiuantity. The tea Imshes thus s'ripped yearliy year
have lost somt-whatof their vigor, and, in conseeptence

» The wrItJc meant " jjained."— Ep.

somewhat of their former properties which gave full
anil puMgeut liquors. Doubtless in this stitement we
are running counter to a great deal that has been
written on this subject. In the annual tea report we
are aevare that men-e than on-j Deputy Commissioner
gives it as his opinion that eiuantity has been more
attenlel to than quality, but we venture to hold an
entirely oppj«i'e opinion, and if our readers take time
to consider, we believe they will agree with ns.
It does not staud to reason that tea planted
20 years ago, wliii'h has been couti'nding against
red spider, mosquito blight, white _ ants, et
Iioc f/eii'i.i omne, besides baing expected to give a good
vielei per acre, can give the same vigorous flushes it used
to. Some of our planter friends may »ay, " Oh, but then
look at our extensions maele with high class plant ";
true, but then bear in mind that these extensions are
not more than representations of perhaps one-third, or
one-quarter, of the bearing area. Indeed, if we take
away those new extensions from many gardens, there
would be precious little left to leaven the mess, and we
would see those old gardens of twenty years' standing
le-ft behind, and distanced in the race for prices, insteiad
of being nearly always as they are now placed. If Indian
ti a has deteriorated so much as we are made to believe by
the Coi/niKiriiili at home, vviU they explain how it is that
low clii.ss Indians are boldiug tli'-ir own notwithstanding
the drop on the m irket? If our readers carefully examine
our tabulated list of prices", and compare them for some
sales back, they will see that low class Indians hold
their own well. A year or more ago we ventured the
statement that the high prices for Ceylon would not
bold ; and that in a short time we should see these
ruuniug si.Ie by side with Indiau.s. In the review of the
year'.s outturn and manufacture, we note that the Home
brokers .say that Ceylon have receded to Indian prices,
with Ihe exception of one or two well-known marks,
which I ave w. 11 held their own. Now, exactly the
sjme might h>- said of Indian teas, only it is not so much
notici'd. beeau-e the names of the estates are legion,
whilst in Ceylon, although the list is increasing fast,
op to date the marks that stand out were easily
seen and followed. We flatter ourselves, too, that
for some time back we have been insisting upon
our planter fi lends producing so much per acre at a
price that would defy competition, the only sure basis
I'pon which to go. We feel sure that our views have
not been lost, and that those who have followed us
uiil not now repent of doing so. Quantity isquiteas
much to be kept in view as quality if Indian tea is
to hold its own and be a paying speculation. The
ilrop in the price of high class te is this year, we think,
points conclusively to the advancement made in cultiv-
ating the British taste for pure Indians: and besides,
the grocers and dealers find that it is cheaper and
more suitable for their customers to get a tea quite
unaiUdlerated, or, ifyouwi.shto call it by a more polite
term." blended." This is wliy lowclass Indians are hold-
ing their own. They offer better value for the samu money
than the same class Chinas ; they require no blending;
they pass straight from tbe box in which they are
packed on the tea factory into the hands of ihe ce.n-
sumer, except, and so far as in beiirg handed out in
small packets aceoidiug to the consumer's reejuire-
ment. The market for fine teas to be used in this
way is but limited, and to be used as a blend entails
various petty expenses wliich constitute a profit in
the other lines. Whilst thus advocating a large out-
turn per acre we by no means desire to create tbe im-
pression that quality is of no account. We are merely
suggesting a likely method to give the best results in
a l.irge outturn per acre of good sound tea, the greater
proportion of which could be passed straight to the
consumers ns a good drhdcing tea, whilst the remainder
could he made into a hi;4her class, suitable for blend-
ing purposes. — liuViaii PI j liters' Ga;citc,

" ROUGH ON RATS."
Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flics, ants, bed-bugs,
beetles, inse'cts, skunks, chipmunks, gophers. Druggists.
W. E. Smitli k Co., Madras, Sole Agents.

November 2, 1885-] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

30^

TEA MACHINERY AND THE QUALITY

OF TEAS.

Simplicity is giving place to eliiboratiou in machin-
ery, if we compare tne "Excelsior" in use in most
factories with the antiquated proctuctiou which Jlr.
Jackson first brought out — a conglomeration of steel
rods, and extraordinary looking joints, the change
is very apparent. We believe that those well-kno^vn
makers, Messrs. Marshall and Company, have ex-
pressed satisfaction with the design of the "Excel-
sior," both on account of its durability and simplic-
ity. As yet it camiot be said that we have pro-
gressed in the way of sifting machinery. It is true
that we have the " Ansell," the " Eureka," and one
or two more old-fashioned sieves, imitations of win-
nowers at home in the one case, and of an ingeni-
ous method formerly used to separate the leaf into
different grades before tiring — none of them combine
a perfect sifter. We should like to see the tea put
in at one end as it comes from the driers, and turned
out at the other end of the sifter in its different
grades. So far, a great deal of manual labor is ne-
cessary with all of those machines above referred
to, and without, over and above this, a breaker of
some kind in conjunction are comparatively useless.
The breaker most commonly in use is one known
as the Reid's. That the breaking machine has been
a gi-eat boon we do not wish for a moment to deny,
but like all other machines it has its defects, althou.hg
perhaps, to judge from its popularity, these are
fewer than its rivals ; some complain that it
makes a large quantity of dust, some that it gives
, the tea too much of a made appearance and arouses
the suspicion of the broker. So far as we have been
able to judge there are ways and means supposed
to exist to prevent all these defects, for one seldom
goes mto a factory in which he does not get a tip
as to the right way to do this and to do that, for
oui" Assam planter is by no means a protectionist.
But the most of those ways and means are depend-
ent upon the ser\ices of that universal helper in a
tea factory — a cooly. and entirely depend upon what
view he may take of this imiovation, whether it
tui'ns out a success ,;or otherwise, bo loug as his
master is in \-iew he will no doubt follow strictly the
hookuifiy but in most instances, when the planter's
back is turned, he has an idea that he can im-
prove matters, and very often finds to his cost that
his idea does not meet with approval. M'hat is
wanted is machinery to turn out tea in a uniform
manner day by day, and the less elaborate such
a machine is the better. In the damp, moist climate
of Assam a great deal is lost by the escape of aroma,
etc., from 0, longer than necessary exposure whilst
the process of assortment is going on. During the
last five years a tendency has been observable by
following the course of the London market towards
quoting Medium Pekoes as rather lower. Now, what
is terjued Medimn Pekoes would have been a few
years ago taken as good lines, if not first class, and
the above is we think merely a proof, that our new
medium Pekoes are suffering a little, as tliey are
not quite good enough for mixing purposes ; and yet
they show better values to pass straight into con-
sumption than Chinas, and we feel sure that a
good medium Pekoe is the tea to make, of
course always observing that there is a large per-
centage ; and in many instances it is almost certain
that making a large proportion of medium Pekoe
would show better results than trying to make a good
I'ekoe Souchong, without making a really first-class
Pekoe. The day is not far off when Indian planters
must be able to give the grocer a slightly better
quality for the same monev over what he could
obtain in China. The whole tendency latterly in
the London market, and by whicli we must be guided
is to depreciate anything but first class lines, so
that any thing with a tendency to medium has often
lost money, and the safest lines we think to go upon,
is to assort into as few kinds as possible. We are
glad to notice that brokers have Ijeen advising a con-
siderable reduction of numbers of class lately, but we
think there is still room for more. One of the bset

judges in tea a few years ago advised the following
assortment, a first class Broken Pekoe and Pekoe, a
Medium Pekoe Souchong and a Broken Tea con-
taining everything else. His reasons for this were
sensible, and these were that the high class grades ob-
tained such prices that they carried off the lower
grades, and the result was a fair average price.
We consider, however, that now-a-days times
have changed considerably and had the same
authority been alive now he would probably,
have recommended the assortment into three classes,
say. Pekoe, Broken Pekoe, or Broken Pekoe Souchong
and a very high class Broken Orange. The heavy fall
that has taken place in prices this year is prin-
cipally in the high classes, which naturally leads to
the inference that there is but a limited market for these
lines and that they are decidedly overdone. It must be
well known that such high class teas are seldom, if e\or,
sent into consumption pure, but are principally used
for mixing and blending purposes, and that possibly
the only place in which they are drunk in any quantity
is in the north of Ireland. S"or some time past quality
has been so dinned into the ears of planters that a
good few have made nothing more than these line
teas, and in consequence the market cannot stand the
strain, and simply because when it has to be blended
the grocer is begiiming to find out that he can help
himself to an equally" good article all ready to his
hand, in the large assortment of medium from which
he has to pick and choose ; and which render blend-
ing, packing, and repacking urmeeessary, thereby
effecting a considerable saving to himself, in fact
adding largely to his profit, for he makes no
allowance to his customer. The small quantit)' of high
class Orange Pekoe made by the class of assort-
ment we recommend would be quite sufficient to
meet the requirements of the trade for blending
purposes, and in the Pekoe, or Broken Pekoe, or
Broken Pekoe Souchong left in the assortment we
would have a tea ready to go into consumption tliat
would beat any China out of the field for quality in
cup and price. This would reduce the cost of sorting
to a minimum, and would invariably give a uniform
tea. If in addition to this a factory could bulk its
crops, the advantage would still be greater, as the
buyer at home instead of having any trouble and ex-
pense could take his tea from the docks, and pass
it over to the gi'ocer, who in turn w^ould make it over
to his customers pure and unadulterated, a savomy
beverage, which would soon make its way into every
hearth and home in England. — Indidii Tea Planlrrs'
Gazelle.

THE PEPPER-TEEE.

Br. Taylor, editor of "Science Gossip" has the
following paragraph in the Aiistidhisutn: —

South Australia had lieen panting and thirsting for
rain for many weeks, nnd a few days before I landed the
rain had .at length descended. The hot and fertile earth
had burst forth in iiniteful greeuery.and the rpvived vi'gc-
tationshad broken out into a new spring. Tlie garilens
were full of lush, almost tropical growth. AVhat sur-
prised and pleased me was to see how almost ail kiuds of
trees and shrubs grow comfortably and prosperously to-
gether upon Australian .soil. .Some of the larger g.irdens
are like botanical parliaments, where representatives
from all parts of the world meet side by siilc— "pepper"
trees(Schiii/f'i ■ntvlle) from the Brazils, drooping their
gi'aceful leaves anil clusters of pink berries, palms from
Africa aud India, cactuses and aloes from America, pines
from California .and Norfolk Island, and a floral crowd
of herbaceous plants of cosmopolitan disttibution. Not
even in their native coiiutries do these several species
grow more rapidly or luxuriantly than in Australia.
Formerly it was imagined that the best way to ac-
count for one kind of plant being found in one
country, and a different plant in another, was
that they were placed where the .soil climate, &c., were
best fitted for them. But horticulture lias upset that
idea by growing all sorts of plants together in the same
spot. Consequently we kaow that the geographical

3t6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [November 2, 1885.

distribution of plants — the reason why onelsintl grows in
America, and a second in South Africa, and a third iu
Australia— is connected with the repeated physical
changes which the surface of our old planet has been
uuderi^oing ever since vegetable life began. Hence we
see liow plants of high antiquity may become extinct in
one place, so that the only evidence we have that they
ever lived and grew .there at all is from their being
found in the fossil state.

Have we the pepper-tree in Ceylon? Is the Schinus
moUe the tree which grows on the border of the
bay of Naples lining the Chiaga? The following
is the reference in the Tieasunj of liotamj: —

ScHINos. — Thi Greek name for the mastic-tree,
Fistiuii Lciitisciti, bu;. now appUed toa genus of Aiiifar-
rf(«(Y'«', consisting of trees and shrubs, nitivesof tropic il
Aineric.i, &c. The leaves are unerpiiily pinii ite, the ter-
mmal lead 3t very loiig. Theflowers are small white, iu
terminal or axillary panicles, diteclous; cilyx five-parted,
persistent ; stamjus ten, inserted beneath a wavy fleshy
disk; ovary solitary; styles three or four, terminal, very
short; fruit succulent round, the stone one-celled one-
seeded, il,s outer surf ice traver.sed by six longitudinal
channels filled with oih

' I'he leaves of sime of tho species are so filled with a
resinous tluid, that the least degree of unusual repletion
of the tissue causes it to be discharged; thus some of them
fill the air with fragrance after rain ; and .S'. .Voile and
some others expel their resin with such violence when
immersed in water as to have the appearance of spontan-
eous mjtion, iu cousequeuee of tlie recoil.' — liotctnicai
Mcgtstir, t. 15S0.

S. Areirn is said to cause swellings in those ^rho sleep
under its shade. The tre.sh juicy bark of this shrub is
used in Brazil tor rubbing newly-made ropes, which it
covers with a bright dark-brown varnish. The juice of
this plant is used iu diseases of the eyes. Tbe root of
S. MoHc is used medicinally in Peru, while the resin that
exudes from the tree iscnployed to aslringe the gums.
From the fruits is prep,ared a kind of wine in Chili. The
small twigs serve for toothpicks. Tbe specific name
31o!le or Jliil/i is an adoptatiou of the Peruvian name for
the shrub. [M. T. M.]

" QUAKEKS " IN COFFEE.
(From the A)nerican Grocer.)

We present below, from the pen of the leading
broker in mild colfee, the first of an article in relation
to " quakers," or the white beans that are frequently
found in roasted cotfee, together with some comments
upon trade peculiarities. We are not prepared to en-
dorse ad he says, especially in re^Nrd to manipulated
coffee. We do, however, unqualifiedly agree with him
in his denunciation of tbe frauds practiced by placing
"milled" or "sweated" cotfee in other than the
original bags. Tuere is at least one compauy that
steadily refuses to rcsack manipulated coffee in other than
original coverings. That is a Iraud too frequently pract-
iced, and itis only by exposure it can be checked. In
referring to these various matters, " B.oker " says :

The common grades of any given variety of coffee
will, as a rule, roast freer from white beans th.an the
higher grades. Genuine Mocha, the highest-priced cotfee
on the list, has the greatest proportion of white beans.

Java, the next highest-priced unwashed cotfee, the
brst varieties of which come from Humatra, contains
many " quakers," and jet it is justly a univer.sal favor-
ite all over Europe and in the older settled portions
of the United States. Next in order we have a cotfee
almost entirely consumed in the XTuited States viz.,
Maracaibo. Tbe highest grade is called Uucuta and is
to a great extent used iu place of .Java cotfee, which it
so closely resembles in flavor that it would be safe to say
that no "conmiittee" of coffee experts could pick out
from a dozen cups of an infusion made from the two sorts,
the six which were made from Padang.T:iva and the six
from Cucuta. This favorite Marac:iibo almost inv.iri-
ably roasts, showing many '■ quaker-s." When a seller
shows a sample of it roasted that is entirely free of
white beans, I would consider it a point in favor of

doubting if it was genuine Oucuta. I believe the bulk
of the real Cu3uta is retailed as Old Government .Java,
aiid that much of the Mar-icaibo so'd consists of the
common grades, which are generally bejter roasters
than the higher gi-a les, or some one of the numerous
substitutes palmsd off by dishunest dealers as the gen-
nine article. For this purpose any quantity of inferior
CDffee, such as Santos, etc., is used provided it is cheap
enough to make the fraud pay. The imposition is facilit-
ated by the buyet', who insists on having milled instead
of " natural " cotfee. These imitations frequently roast
much better than the genuine, but the flavor does not
seem to be taken into account. This milling business
is a comparatively new tiling, the advantage gained
being a smoother-looking roast. No one, however, has
as yet claimed that it improves the drinking qualities,
J'ochas or Javas are not milled by any one, and tiiey
certainly roast rough enough. The practice has
opened the door to fraud wider than ever. As an in-
stance, we might mention the importation of Mara-
caibo coffee, which can be roughly set down as 230,000
bags, yet perhaps 500,000 are solii. It is said some
people buy little or none and sell much, having .an
unlimited supply, at short notice, of any favorite mark.
Now, how is it done ? The seller takes a Santos, worth
say 9 cents, has it milled, and sells it frr say 9| cents,
h iving had it resacked in Maracaibo bags and then
sold as a straight Maracaibo coffee milled. If it looks
well and roasts well the buyer, who, ten to one does
not care how it drinks, takes it and does not want
to inquire too closely into its pedigree, so that he
can sell it with a clear conscience for what he knows
it caunot be, as he did not pay price enough to get a
straight article. He tacitly aids and abets the decep-
tion. A large percentage of tbe buyers, however,
certainly w.oit straight goods whatever grade the^' ask
for, and they pay enough for their goods to entitle
tliem to an honest delivery. Yet, iu tbe face of facts,
these buyers insist on "milled" coffee, often being
shown a sample roast free from white beans, the latter
result being obtained by a breed of nimble-fiugered
and rubber-conscienced salesmen who pick out tho
quakers. Milled coffee should ho bought only when
milled by some reliable concern that will not put colfee
in bags dift'erent in kind from that in which it was
when imported. It should not be difficult to find or
create such a concern, as it would soon have all the
honest business.

In all coffee consuming and producing countries, ex-
cepting the United States, the test of desirability is
the cup quality. They buy for the palate and not
for the eye. Many a lot of coffee that looks poor
green is, when roasted, excellent in the cup. Tlie
drinking quality is the true test, and no one should
buy an article, such as tea, coffee, chocolate, etc.,
that comes to our table in an entirely changed form
except for its agreeableuess and purity. The coti'ee most
pleasing to the eye is frequently sold roasted for a
higher price than one showing " quakers," yet really
of greater intrinsic value.

An enormous quantity of " quakers " might make a
coffee driuk as if made from peanuts. It is also quite
.s.afe to s.ay that no one, no matter how 'cute he
thinks he is, couKl pick out drawings made from coffee
with an average quantity of '* quakers " than if made
from others entirely free from them. This "i|uaker"
business must appear ridiculous to outsiders, and so it
is ; but it has a'-sunied such enormous proportions that
it has become a great evil iu the coffee business. It
is based on the rankest nonsense. What a tiouble it
is people will nuderstaml when they are informed that
large buyers roast samples of almost every 50bag lot
of mild coffee before purchasing. Sometimes five or
six jobbers do this on one invoice of cotfee in succes-
sion, exhaust the samples and they do not buy " because
it is quakery." If coffee was roasted sutiiciently high
instead of merely having it toasted, ami then consumers
knew how to properly prepare it. wddcb is the princip-il
secret of obtaining a good cup of colfee. we would bear
less about white beans. Some can make a fair cup of colfee
from most any kind, and some could not get a good
cup out of the finest.

Ko^EMBER 3, i885 •] 'i'Hfi TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

311

TEA AND COFFEE COXSUMPTION IX THE

UNITED STATES AND EEITAIN
are thus noticed by the American Grocer : —

The detailed yearly statement from tlio Bureau of
Statistics enables us to study from official data the
coDsumptiou of tea and coffee.

Diiriug the past four years of depression and liquid-
ation tlie country has steadily increased its per capita
consumption of coffee, while that of tea has steadily
declined.

The imports of coffee for the year ended June 30th
were the largest on record. Those of tea exceed the
previous year about five million pounds, and with that
exception are Hghter than for any year since IS'SI. The
tables below exhibit the gross imports of hot li articles,
exjwrls of the same, the difference between the two
being considered consumption.
Tea.

Year Oonsump- Per

ended Imports. Exports. tion. Capita.

Jane 30th lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs.

1885.. .81,843,988 5,T3O,.501 CG,372,7(i5 1-54

I884...7S,7e9,0e0 7,603,9U9 60,001,944 1-46

1883...73,479,164 3.881,219 89,597,94-5 128

1882...G7,665,910 1,578.000 77,191,060 120

1881. ..72,103,3.56 2,713,139 79,130,849 1-16

The population is based upon bureau estimates, ex-
cept for 1885, we estimating it at 57,000,0(10. We
believe this reduction in the popularity of tea as a
beverage largely due to 1 he average quality of tlie leaf
being below what it should be to captivate the palate.
It has always been a mystery why the people cling so
tenaciously to the harsh flavored Japan in preference
to the delicate and deliciously aromatic teas of China
or some blend with the rich and full flavored product
of India.

COFFEE.

Per
Tear ended Imports. Exports. Consump. Cap.
June 30. lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs.

1885 572,.599,552 33,335,146 539,264,400 9.46

1884 534,785,.542 26,152,679 508,632,863 9.(18

1883 515,878,515 37.376,390 478,502,125 S.83

1882 459,922,768 24,343,479 435,579,289 8.25

1881 453,189,534 31,913,062 423,276,472 8.23

Here 's a gain of 1"23 lb. per capita in the consump-
tion. VThy is it ? Because the coffee trade has taken
pains to secure the distribution of the bean in a roasted
rather than a green state, and this added to the con-
petition of rival dealers and the portable coffee mill
has resulted in enabling consumers to make a more uni-
form infusion than when the beans were roasted at home
in skillet or frying pan. In the South, where five ye.irs
ajfo scarcely any roasted coffee was sold, it is fast dis-
placing the raw bean.

In the United Kingdom, where China and India
teas are consumed and no Japan of account, and
where adulterated coffee is the rule, we find that the
per capita consumption of tea has increased, while
that of coffee is about stationary, as the followiug table
e-xhibits ; —

Tea. Coffee. Per

lbs, Per capita, lbs. capita.

1884... 175,097,983 482 83,016,258 (i-91
1883... 170 812,6P7 474 32,448.080 090
1S82,., 16.5,0T9,S81 4 62 31,962,,i60 0-89
1881... 1 ■0,225,789 4 54 31,043,403 090
18^0... 158,.i70 331 4(0 5i,56Bfiii 0-96
Tbc Tiulef, ill a leading rtici-; on the rejjcift of the
Inlanil Revenue Cohimissioners, .fays:" The I'onsiimp-
tiiiii of t a, it is true, contiimes to hicrease, which is
a j»ign that the ma.is of the people Were better off
ill 18^4 t tan some people woul 1 have us believe."

Statistics are looked upon as dry reading, but we think
the above tables are very suggestive and mighty in-
teresting to every merchant handling the articles and in
love with their business. We can see no good reason
■why the same determined effort on the part of dealers
in tea to improve flavor and raise the standard should
not result in a gain in consumption quite as pro-
jjouuced as that in the world's moiSV lumwis berry,

In rcferriurr to this matter, James Cook & Co., of
London, iu :,:.a-ch last said:— ''If we had some clear-
sighted men in uur coft'ce trade, such as you have, the
cc:: K'nptiou could be pushed very nuicli ; but we ex-
pect cheapness has much to do with it. Tea here is
relatively cheaper with coffee than with von, and prob-
ably one pound would make seven or eiglit gallons of an
iufusiou such as the worldng classes would be satisfied
with." Taking the economical view of the question, we
must then couchule that the resources of the working
classes here are far greater th.an in the United King-
dom, whereby thiy are enabled to become free con-
sumers of coffee. But we must not forpet tliatbeer
costs consumers iu Victoria's realm far more than coffee
costs consumers iu the United States; and that is on
reason why the moral tone of our laboring cla.sses i^
so far above that of those living in the United Kingdom^

BAELEY OE BEAEDED WHEAT IN CEYLON ?

We have received two stalks, inscribed " Barle
groAvn at Hakgala from Indian seed?" The grain,
which is well developed and set, may he barley,
but the heads look remarkably like the " bearded
wheat " we first eaw growing in Italy and sub-
sequently around Muttra, in Northern India. From
the latter locality we brought some heads, sowed
the seeds on Abbotsford estate, and obtained several
successive crops. Wheat can be obtained so cheaply
from India, tliat we should thuik there cannot
be much encouragement for its culture in Ceylon,
hut we noticed in the recent report of the proceed-
ings of the Ceylon Agricultural Society, that Mr.
C. H. De Soysa had reported a successful experi-
ment on his own part. AVe suspect the Bakers
were not over-successful with their experiments in
barley-growing at Nuwara Eliya. At any rate, we
know they imported malt from Britain and com-
plained grievously when a duty was imposed on
it mth reference to its relation to imported beer.
It remains to be seen what the new Brewery Com-
pany will do. Not only barley but hops can, wo
suppose, be grown iu Ceylon, but we suspect the
Company will find the imported articles cheaper
and better. ,Some of the finest hops in the world
are grown on the banks of the Mitchell Eiver iu
Gipps Land, Victoria, and on the banks of the
Derwent in Tasmania.— Fortunately, before publish-
ing, we have had the advantage of Dr. Trimen's
opinion. He was a little puzzled at first, but
finally pronounced the grain to be '■ six-rank barley,"
HonUiiii lif.rastidlioii.

MANURING TEA WITH BONE-DUST

AND CASTOE-POONAC MIXED, AND

WITH CASTOR.POONAC ALONE.

Mr, F, McL. Carter, the Manager of Chandpora
Tea Estate, Chittagong, has comniunioatsd to ths
Indian Tea Gaiettc the results of an interestiub'
and evidently a very carefully conducted e.'cperi.
raetit in the tnanuring of tea. The substances
chosen were those so familiiir to coffee-plantei's--
bone-dust and castor'pooflac— and it will scarcely
excite the siuprise of readers familiar with tha
subject of manuring to learn that, while the
phosphiitic substance alone told more ei't'eetually with
us in increasing the fruit crops of coffee, the ani-
moniacal substance alone gave the larger increase
in the leaf crops of tea. It is right to mention,
liowcver, that bone-dust alone was not used by
^ Mr. Carter in his experiment, but that (he com-
^ parison was between 18 cwt. per acre 0' bone-dii*!,

31^

Tke TROPICAL AdRICULTURigf. [November j?, 1^85.

and poonac (in the proportions of one-lltinl bone-
dust and two-thirds poonac), and 24 cwt. of poonac
alone. The increased yield may, therefore, poss-
ibly have been due to the 6 cwt. additional fertil-
izing matter. In both cases tliere was a very
considerable increase of crop over the unmanured
plot, besides improvement in the quality of the
tea. The good eiKeots of tlie manuring, it had
become evident, too, would last up to the third
year, at least, and it seems reasonable to conclude
that bone-dust would contribute materially to
this lasting eifect. But we trust similar experi-
ments conducted in Ceylon may lead to certainty
on this and other questions in regard to the
manuring of tea. It wiU be curious if the ex-
tended cultivation of tea in Ceylon has the effect
of reviving the large demand which existed in the
best days of coffee for bones and castor-oil cakes.
Mr. Carter commences by explaining that the
elevation of the land is " about SO feet above
(IhanliCts" probably, creeks or sea inlets (?) per-
fectly flat, surface soil sandy loam and sub-soil
ferruginous clay and sand. The climate is hot,
moist and forcing, for, although Chittagong is in
23" north, yet the moan temperature is as high
as 77" (H" only cooler than Colombo). The aver-
age rainfall at the station is given at 106-.50, and
there are heavy doAVS and fogs at night. The
estate on which the experiments were tried, some
twenty-seven miles inland, apparently, has a lighter
rainfall, and Mr. Carter complains that

The season was unfavorable for quantity, and like-
wise for the quality of the crop, although the rain-
fall amounted to 91 inches 16 cents, which was only
Cinches 64 cents below an average in 15 years of 97
inches 70 cents annually. The rainfall, however, in
August, one of our best leaf-producing months, was
10 inches 45 cents only, or about half the average.

I attribute the falling off in yield and quality to
a great extent in consequence of the general lowuess
of the temperature throughout 1884 as compared
with previous seasons, which was, so far as my re-
gister indicates, quite exceptional. Thus the average
of the tliree previous years at C A.M. the max. and
min. thermometer on cold side registered 71°-'.3, and
on hot side 79°7o in the year, whereas in 18S4 at
6 A. M. the thermometer averaged on cold side 6S°75,
and on hot side 70°25, which shows liow much cooler
it was in that year ; in fact, the temperature in
daytime was actually less than in iii(jhts of years 18S1
to 1883.

The exceptionally cold season, thei-efore, makes
the forcing effect of the manures on vegetation
the more remarkable. Mr. Carter gives the following
interesting details regarding the property which
was the scene of his experiments ; —

J4t of plants, a fair Assam Hybrid, transplanted from
nurseries, in 18(37, at 4' x 4' 2,722 per acre. Pruned
down to 24 inches in January 1884, and all old non- i
leaf producible wood removed as usual. Pruuings
buried between lines when green, as in all other sea-
sons. Deep hoed to 12 inches once on 26th February,
and weeded at intervals three and half times sub-
eequently = total i^ hoeiugs and weediugs in season.
Average height of bushes at

end of year on No, 1 Plot = 29 icches.

Ditto ditto 2 „ =33 do.

Ditto ditto 3 „ =34 do.

thetefore No. 1 plot had grown 5 inches in season.
,, 2 ditto 9 ditto.

„ 3 ditto 10 ditto.

Oommeuced plucking on March IStli.

Finished ditto on Deccniber 31st.

Hlyleofpliickinij. — From former date to June list
inclusive, or 3 months, two and three leaves with stalk,
the bud coinited as one, were taken from shoots that
eanied 3 aodl matured leaves above pruning mark,

and from 22nd •Tuno to end of season, the system of
tilling off tiivee /eaves tor/ither vilh the stulk was given
up, and the usual method hitherto pursued on this
garden of plucking off 2 leaves, and 2J leaves (the
bud as one) again reverted to as being the most profit-
able. There were 23 flushes in the season over entire
area of cultivation of 550 acres.

It will be seen that 23 flushes were gathered at in-
tervals of 12i days, and that out of the 365 days there
•were only 77 days of rest. Our readers will notice
that the growth of the pruned bushes on plot No. 2,
where the mixture of bone and cake had been ajj-
plied was 9 inches against 5 on the unmanured
plot, and 10 against 5 where cake alone, but in
larger quantity had been used : that is to say, that
24 cwt. of castor-cake per acre doubled the rate of
growth of vegetation between pruning time and
the end of the season. As our readers will see
from the extract which we are about to take
over, the yield of tea per acre was increased
by bones and poonac, from 629 lb. to 82.5 .
lb., rising to 914 lb. where a large quantity
of poonac alone was applied. The reacly inference
might be that poonac alone was the manure to
use, but in this case there were 6 cwt. additional to
pay for, carry and apply, and Mr. Carter's care-
fully arranged and analyzed figures would seem
to show (?) that while in the case of the second plot
the profit on the increased yield of 196 lb. was
55-3 per cent, the profit on an increase of 285 lb.
in the case of the third plot was only 10-35 per
cent ('?). But the smaller profit is a very good one
and the results of manuring are altogether en-
couraging. Here are the details : —

The experimental plots Nos. 1, 2 and 3 comprised
^ acre or 680 bushes each, and were contiguous to
each other, and properly fenced in. The three areas
were always jjlucked by the same women (the best),
and green leaf weighed accurately by beam scales :
therefore I can guarantee the absolute correctness
of the results.

Ou plot No. 1 no manure was applied.

r-» 1 1. XT o ( 4 oz. Bone dust p. b.= 6 cwt. p. acre.

On plot No. 2 J , ^^ OastorCake,&c.=12 „ ,,

Total. ..12 oz. of the combination=18 cwt. p. acre.

On plot No. 3..1 lb. Castor cake alone per bush ^21
cwts. per acre.

The manure on both foregoing polts was, previous
to application, mixed with ll.rrr linn's its bulk of dry
earth, (in the absence of anything better) to cnsirre
equal distribution m the soil, and was put rmuul the
bushes about 12 inches frow the stems and 4 to 6
inches below the surface of the ground, and covered
over on the 25th March, previous to which date the
1st flusli in season had been gathered, but tliis was
practically of no importance. If the niiinure had been
applied earlier,' say 1st or 2ud week in February, I
am of opinion better results would have been obtained.
The let fiush from the plots was taken off on 8th
April, and the last on 23rd December, making 22
gatherings from them in the season.

The out-turn of green leaf was as follows : —

lbs. oz. lbs. lbs.

PromNo. 1 plot of i acre^-R2S 12=2,515 p,a. or 629 tea.
„ „ 2 do do =825 8=3,302 do or 825 do
„ „ -A do do =913 14=3,6.56 do or 914 do

On a comparison of plots Nos. 1 & 2 the increase of
crop per acre on the latter, due to the manure, is
equal to 196 lbs. of tea, or 31 per cent: between Nos. 1
and throe, — an increase on tho latter of 285 lbs. of te.a,
equal to 45J per cent. To ascertain what tho profits
will be, if any, per acre ; or what is the same thing,
whether it pays to apply the above mentioned
uniuures acconiimj lo llir (/iianliti/ .•'jxeilieil in fmli o/
the tn-o i)hts,the cost of the same, and all the ex.
penses for transport and putting it in the ground, nuisl
be calculated.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

313

. 58 5

0

i 14

8

. 2 1

4

Thp castor cake was 0' tained from Calcutta packed
in bags which containtd 2 niauiiih each, or une ion in
14 lags, ami cost K£8 per ton. The boue dust was
also piocured from Calcutta packed iu bags, and coii-
taiuirg 2 mauuds 5 seers iu each or 1 ton iu 13 bags
and cost K55 per ton.

Tlie dififerent it«ms tor a ton of each of the manures
on garden are as follows : —

R. A. P.
To 1 ton castor cake at E28 ... ... 28 0 0

,, Freight account per steamer from Cal-

eut'a toChictagongat K16-7-4 per ton 16 7 4
Landing charges for do., at 4 annas per
bag ... ... .•• 3 S 0

,, Transport for do., via the khal in boats,
(about 25 miles) from station to
iPookareah garden, at 4 pie per bag 2 14 8
„ Transport of lio. in carts (a distance
of 2 miles) to Garden, and apply-
ing do., at 6 annas per cwt. ... 7 7 0

Total cost per ton

„ „ cwt,

,, ,, maund

To 1 ton Pone dust, at H55pertou ... 55 0 0

,, Freight account on do. from Calcutta
per steamer to Chittagong, at R25
per ton ... ... 25 0 0

„ Landing charges at 4 annas perbag... 3 4 0
„ Tran.sport from .Station in boats to
Pookareah Garden, at KO-3-7 per
bag ... ... 2 14 8

„ Transport of do. in carts to Garden,
and applying the same, at 6 annas
per cwt.

Total cost per ton

„ „ cwt.

„ „ maund

Cost pel' acre.
On plot Xo. 2.
The Bone dust applied at 6 cwt. per aero

will cost
And Castor cake applied at 12 cwt. per acre

Total cost of combined manure of 18 cwt.

on plot No. 2 per acre ... G3 1 9

Ou plot No. 3

Cost of Castor Cake applied alone at 24 cwt.
per acre 70

ResnH per Acre.

2 Plot-

1 — 629 lb. tea per acre, selling at say an

averag'i of 8 annas per lb. ... 314 8

2—825 lb., do do do ... 412 8

No.
No.

No.

0 0

In favor of latter an increase of 196 lb. or

31 per cent at 8 annas ... 98 0 0

Less cost of manure at 18 cwt per acre ... 63 1 6

No.
No.

No.

Therefore profits per acre ... 34 It 6

or 55'3 per cent.

3 plot—

] — b29 lb. tea per acre, selling at s-iy an

average of 8 annas per lb
3—914 do do do

In favor of latter by an increase of 285
lb., or 45-3 per cent,
do
Less cost of manure at 24 cwt. per acre

314 8
457 0

0
0

142 8
70 0

0

0

7

7

0

1)3

9

s

4 10

11

'6

5

fi

K.

A.

V.

28

1

0

35

0

y

40

Therefore proBts per acre ... "2 8 0

or 103 5 per cent,

In the foregoing calculations I have assum-il thai
the realizations of a garden's tea will average annas
8 per lb., hut if the crop exceeded th it price, the
proBts derivable from the application of manure woul 1
.I'so be hightr, auti , uteris paribus, of smaller amount
if the tea averaged less than S annas per lb.

It should be pointed out that the qualitv of the
tea will be improved, also, when the ground is
adequately manured, enhancing the value by 2 pie
per lb. and upwards according to the broker's report
on the simples from the experimental plots ; but I
have not taken this item into the account : other-
wise, the results could be shown to be more satisCict-
ory still.

It would, therefore, seem that while an increased
yield of 31 per cent gave a prolit of over of 55 per
cent, an increased yield of over 45 per cent gave
a profit of 103-5. What we should now like
to see, would be experiments with bones alone,
poonac alone, and a mixture of the two, at the
rate iu the three cases of one ton per acre, in-
stead ^ of the varying quantities of 18 and 24 cwt.
But, in looking at the experiments from our Ceylon
point of view, we suspect we must add very
materially to the cost of both bone-dust and oil-
cake, as compared with prices in Chittagong.
Will anyone, possessed of the necessary inform-
ation favour us with figures for bone dust and
castor poonac, in the Colombo market at present?
Our transport charges per rail and road would
generally be heavier than the Chittagong boat
charges.

In \\Titing that a mixture of bones and castor
cake gave a less profit result than castor cake
alone, Mr. Cai-ter wites

On a oompari..Jo:i between the yield on plots 2 and 3
(llie castor c.ike costing R0-14-G, or 11 per cent more
per acre on latter), the iiieieaseof crop over former
was al.>iO 11 per cut, and the profits due to this ex-
cess equal lOTj per cent, which is conclu.sive that not-
withstanding the greater cost of the castor cake when
applied at 24 cwt. per acre, it is much more remuner-
ative than the mixed manures at Id cwt. ja-r acre on
plot No. 2 that were less expensive. I do not say,
however, that because these experiments have prnve'd
the ca.stor cake alone iu the proportions given per
acre the most suitable of the two for this gardeu, it
would answer similarly elsewhere.

I would strongly recommend this manure, neverthe-
less, for tea bushes ou soils akin to " Chandpore,"
where it is being used largely in current season, and
let me add with marked success. In order to
convince my planting friends that if the
cjstor cake can he laid down on the gardens,
applying 24 cwt. per acre (I should not advi.se a lesser
quantity on ii-orn out soils)— at even doiilile the cost I
have stated, or R70 by 2 = KUO per acre, there wo'.dd
still be a small profit of E2.S, or IJ per cent, per acre,
subject to conditions .stated further on.

'rhere is no rea.son why any of the Tea estates in
Chittagong district sboulil not be able to apply this
manure at the price I have done, and may be for less;
but for tea properties at a great distance from Calcutta,
such as thtis? in As-am, Cacbar and Sylhet, &c., the
cost of fr.'ight and local lauil transport, &c., will pro-
bably be much higher than it is here: therefore the
profits will not be so remunerative.

Now, I do not sujjpose the cost of carriage, &c., to
the more distant gardens situated in above pnivin'-es
or districts will be so excessive as to increase the en-
tire outlay by 75 per cent per acre above the price
the article can be landed here for; but assuming such
will be the case, then the profits per acre staud as fol-
lows— viz: —
No. 1 p'otuo manure, 6291b. tea per acre, at

as 8 ... ... ... 314 8 0

„ 3 „ castor cake 21 cwt. ditto 914 at

aa, 8 .„ „■ ... 457 0 Q

314

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

in favor of latter by 2851b at as. 8 ... 142 8 0
Leas cost of manure per acre (iucreaseil by

75 per cent)... ... ... 122 8 0

Therefore, profits per acre ... ... 20 0 0

I do not think those results are to be despised. I
must again reiterate that the improved quality of the
tea due to the manuring ami consequent enricliiug
of the soil has not been allowed for in this calcul-
ation either. In addition to what has already been
recorded, I may notify that the experiments on plots
1, 2 & 3 in 1884 are being continued this season also
and wit/lout any further application of the respective
manures, in order to ascertain whether the bushes
derive any benefit in the 2ud year; and so far as the
outturn shows at present, i. f., to 2uth July, when
only 11 flushes iiave been plucked out of the 26,
there will be in this season the increase of leaf on
plot No. 2 over No. 1 of 13 per cent., and on plot
No. 3 the excess amounts to 32 per cent, of leaf
over the non-manured plot No. I, wliicli is most
satisfactory, as it will still further augme.it the
profits per at-re.

It seems, therefore, that for the first year at
least, the experiment is largely in favour of a
heavy application of castor poonac alone, against
a lighter application of a mixture one-third bone-
dust to two-thirds castor-cake. Mr. Carter then
goes on to show his brother planter.s that he has
obtained his castor-cake this season at a price
32 per cent lower than last, and he shrewdly
suggests : —

I am disposed now to think that a single application
of 24 cwt. ol castor cake per acre will exteutl its b ue-
ticial itifluence in the soil for nearly three seasons;
therefore it would be advisal)le at commencement of the
4th to (naiture again : otherwise the ^ ield would fall off
which is (mly natural w'len the plants or bushes find
iho food tliey have been accustomed to, and thrived
upon, is no longi-r at their service. We all know
the close analjgy between the ani'iial and vegetable
kiugtlom, and I am sare if we bad t^een for some *ime
accustomed to ^rood wholt^some diet which jigrce.l with
us, we should i-utf.-r niateria'ly if saddfuly deprived of
it.
And he adds

Judging from e.spericDre der.ved from tviah conducted
on t..is estate, theie can be 1^0 d;juut tliatwlien oiu-e
stimulating/ manures h;ivf: been applied to an exhauste.i
01 even WMak sud, the practice must b.- continued eveiy
3rd to 5tl- >e;.r, dependent upon the I'lescriptiin and
qtiji. tity u>>'^l p.'V acre, and age of Inishrs. If from any
cause this is uegb cted the results will be disnstrous. and
the mrn.ey '-xp iiuod on the previous maiiuiing will h.ive
hern to a great -xtent wasted.

T''os.', yierffnv, who are tbinki''g about -iipplying
tiieir Tea G rle .r. with stimulating manures should,
oiice resolved upnn, make up their miiuis alsu to co>'-
tinue u-ing thei^ at cfriain fixed per'ads, which oui:ht
to be asct-r jtiintd exper-iino'-tAl'v t'T each, as soil.s
differ so nii cb tbnt ^ir (;e ei il ra*e »• -uld answer for
all, especia''y wht-n loeated in .itbei districts, and I
may s-iy, I'Iso, whcj uar, lens are situated some distance
apart in ttie same dis'tict even.

Mr. Carter enters into calculations as to the ord-
inary yield per acre of an estate which would
justify manuring, and he sums up thus : —

It will thus be seen by the abi've computations
bflsed upnn the data Mctually obt'dne-' on experi-
mental plot No. -J, that the ordinary or i.nrnial outturn
if a ga''ib:L mus' not bo less than A mat' nth of tea pry
ftcre^ [320 lb. .Kd.1 otliMrwi.'.e the cost 01 itnin-
nring with casLor cake (whetlier in qnuititi - :>< 24
cwt., 18 cwt.. 12 cwt , or even 0 c^■ t, to tli-' acre)
will not be rd overed. Tbi^ holds [>;ood however on
t' e supposition. Istly, tlmt the calce costs exactly
R70 per arre ; 2ndly, 'hat 24 cwt. for that area will
benefit the tea buslies for one season O' ly ; anil Sriliy,
that th'' tea is not improved in quality by tlie inanurc,
find sells at same price as the crop from bushes ou

land without any. Now I have shown previously that
in this season the same quantity of castor cake per
acre was put in the ground for K53. which is much
less ; and 2ndly, that the original application is increas-
ing the yield also in following year ; and lastly, ex-
perts have valued the tea 2 pie to 3 pie per lb. higher
on manure plots in the 1st season, though I doubt
if th(;re would be any difference in the 2iid year ;
consequently, when these altered conditions are allowed
for, the average outturn of tea per acre in an ord-
inary season on a garden that has never been manured
need not be so higlj as before stated, in order to cover
the cost of tiie manure.

He then enters into calculations to show that it
will pay to manure gardens yielding 2i maunds per
acre or 180 lb., or even less, and then he goes on to
add together the two years' profits ou his manured
plots, thus : —

The nett profits I ought to have shown before, per
acre, in 2nti season on plot No. 3 when the manure
costs R70, I estimate due to an increase in yield of
30 per cent, at EU9-8 . . 142J per cent

To which add 45'30 per cent.

at 1172-8 .. .. 103*

Total in two years 7.5'3 per cent.

equal 11172 or .. 245J

The nest profits per acre in both seasons, when the
manure costs R53 as in 1885, I estimate as follows : —
No. 1 plot 629 lb. tea per acre

@ 8 as. . . . . 314-8 per acre

No. 3 914 lb. tea per acre

(§'8* .. .. 46G-8 „

Increase of yield, 285 lb. or 4.5-3

per cent. .. .. 152-0-0 „

Less cost of 24 cwt. nianiu-e

per acre . . . . 53-0-0 ,,

Therefore, profit . . 99-0-0

or 186| per cent
The 2nd year by estimatation.
On this Garden l-3rd or 33-3 per cent, of season's
outturn, is generally made by 2tith July, which hap-
pened to be the exact date the last iJusb was plucked
from experimental plots ; therefore the final outturn
on these acres at end of season should be in
Plot No. 1 6()3 lb. tea per acre, at 8 as. 331 8 0
Do. No. 2, 802 lb. tea per acre, at 8 as. 431 0 0
Increase in yield, 199lh. or 30 per cent. 99 8 0
Less cost of manure nil

Therefore net profits .. 99 8 0

per acr,5, or 18t;j per cent.
Add profits 1st year .. 99 8 0

or 18H^ per cent.
Total profits in 2 years .. l'J8 8 0

or 374 i per cent.
Mr. Carter promises to give the actual results of
the second year on his manured plots, and the
valuable paper winds up thus : —

It should be observed, liy judging from the experiments
with Castor cake alone, at 24 cvts, per acre, that this
quantity will not prob: bly be of much ben. fit to the
tea bu.shes beyond the 3 year, il so long: therefcre
at the expiration of that oer'od a renewal of the
application, or some other, will become ane.-essity, and
I am not quite sure whether a larger quantity per acre
won'd not be more remunerative, and continue to do
good over a longer time; but tins is merely conjectural,
and cnnnot be nnule sure of until ascertained experi-
mentally. I hope next season to make trial of 30
cwts. and upwards per acre, and as many believe small
ijuantitieK applied ^t shorter intervals will Rive the
best resu ts. and be nio.-e profitable than the former
method, it wiii be as -* II at same time to experim-^nt
in this wa\ :ilso. 1 h ;ii', however, Mr. E. liter, that
some of ;our c< lis' *■: ..iswill co-op rate in the wcrk,
as I -au assure y..M ; nrrimental's ug, to b.: 01 y
[Tactical value, nee Is ^inat car., constant atten;i .1,
some expense, and not u little tronl.le. Those who con-
template manuring with Castor cake can draw their
own conslusions from foregoing trials, and I hope I
have made everything clear and understandable ; but
if an entire garden is to be manured similar to Plot

KOV. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

315

No. 3 from Jrd. to Jth at leapt or tliP area must be done
yeii^i/, and for the reason I have indicated. I hope
"to send you for putilication trials with other kinds of
manure, and on pruning and weeding, &c., wh^n 1 oaii
get the papers ready.

Tea planters in Ceylon, as well as in India, owe
a debt of gratitude to Mr. Carter for the inform-
ation he has furuislied. Of course, manure made
on an estate and collected in cattle sheds or other-
wise is of great value. But to keep cattle merely
for manure and occasional sales for the butcher,
is very expensive and can only in rare cases be
profitable. When the time to manure tea estates,
therefore, arrives, and it will come early in tlte
case of old coffee estates, " planted up " with tea,
it is well to know that if we can get our old friend
ichile castor poonac, at a moderate price, it will
furnish just the combination of ammonia and
potash desiderated for the growth of flushes of
vegetation, while, for the sake of wood as well as
leaf, the addition of small quantities of steamed
bone-dust or superjdiosphate, would be advisable.

CEYLON UPCOUN'THY PLANTING EEPOET,

TEA SEED PL.4NTED AT ST.KKE UXCERT.^INTV OF OUT-
TURN— DIFFl:RENT OPINIONS — THE I-IiOSl'El!lTY OF
CEVLON DEPENDENT ON THE .PLANTER — THE REAL BACK-
BONE— SVl'ERIMTENDENTS' P.W — THE INDIAN SYSTEM

A GOOD EXAMPLE.

As to tea seed planted at stake, it is wonderful how
well it stands where it is already through, but when
it is not above ground it 's a real vexation of spirit :
you may speculate till your heart is sick, as to
what proportion you will lose, or whether any
will come up at all, but, like most forecasts, there
is also in this one a vile element of doubt, more
than usually tantalizing fronr its instability, and
which varies according to the clearness of the
skies, or the cloudiness of your own mind. Ordinary
speculation is barren enough : but to begin
guessing at the probable outurn of tea seed planted
at stake with little or no rain for nearly a month is
as barren an employment as the wits of man can be
set to. And yet a good many of us are at it.
" It 's sure to come all right," said one man to me ;
" I had some of the seeds examined, and theis
are roots six inches long although it has not be-
gun to shoot up at ail." There was a kind of
comfort in hearing this, but when another man looks
even wiser and says : " You don't catch me plant-
ing at stake again if I can help it," you feel that
a good deal of your former joy has somehow evapor-
ated. To bother yourself about it, is a vicious
circle to get into, tending (o shorten your days
with worry, without increasing in any way the
success of the stake-planted clearing.

Since the evil days of the failure of coffee it has
been too clearly demonstrated to every class that
the prosperity of the whole island depends on the
planter. When he is suffering there is suffering
everywhere, when lie is juosperous all the land re-
joices. I don't fancy any will gainsay this —
the truth is today too patent to all.

Now the backbone of the planting interests is not
the moneyed man, nor the agent who is authorized to
fend, nor the in.spector, nor the cooly, but the super-
indendent. Without him wliat would liave become of
the planting enterprise in Ceylon ? In the worst daj-s
of the failure of coffee he clung to his old ship until
his allowances had in many cases almost reached
the vanishing point. I remember of one man who
got so very little at last for his services, that he
used to do his work from his verandah of his bun-
galow with a field glass in his hand, explaining
■with sorrowful regret that it was the most he

could do for the pay he got ! I believe he adopted
this unique style of service on the grounds of the
field-glass being a link connecting liim with happier
days when he had the pay of a European gentle-
man, instead of that of a native conductor, and
he did not like altogether to lose touch of civiliz-
ation ! . But he was an exception, and for that reason
he is introduced hero ; oiUcrs did good work for
very little ami made very little by it, for estates
were pretty ma'-h in the position of a man \A\o
had unobserved fallen overboard in mi^Vocean and
whose shii5 was fast leaving him.

Again, when the new tea enterpri' e was started the
superintendent was read}- to do his best to tiiake
it a success, working for bare subsisieuce with the
hope that if it turned out a payng spec he too
would eventually prosper. Now it, crn.:ot be said
that lea docs not pay, and yet I have heard of
proprietors who are making very handsome profits
indeed, and yet give to tht ir responsible managers
a remuneration wliich is miserably mean. I don't
believe this sort of thing pays in the long run.

In Indian tea gardens it has been long recognised
that to give the manager a direct interest in the
concern is the bc^t thing for all, and this stylo is
also being found out to be a good plan for Ceylon.
It can be carried out in different ways, by a salary
and commission, or simply by a 'percentage on the
receipts. I know of one Ceylon proprietor, a gentle-
man who knows the v;.lue of the rupee as weU
as any man, who likes to have his work
done cheaply and well, and who has adopted
the Indian system with marked success. Before this
he had his managcis on salaries, but somehow
his teas did not fetch high prices nor get for his
estate a good name. All this, however, was chpuged
when the fixed remuneration was dropped and a
10 per cent commission on the gross proceeds was
awarded to the manager and 0 per cent to the
assistant. From that day the qualities of the teas
steadily improved, the working was as cheap if
not cheaper, and now his mark is rapidly taking
a high position in the list of the crack estates.
With the results he is perfectly satisfied, his pro-
fits have been eonsiderably enhanced, his managers
tyork for him with heart and soul, while they
themselveB are more than satisfied, having almost
doubled their former incomes.

It is a pleasure to be in a position to record
a case of this kind, such a pleasing contrast to
the graball meanness of some proprietors who could
well afford to he liberal. I can hardly expect that
the screws " will see it be to their advantage
to adopt a more generous treatment of their men ;
still for all that the ijolicy they pursue is a bad
one. There are so many ways ojiened for a
superintendent who is satisfied to reciprocate in
the same kindly spirit in which he has been
dealt with, which the under-paid man fails to see,
or seeing, fails to avail himself of. — Peppekcoex.

The Isl.\nd oe Beunion. — The sugar-cane is the
principal article of cultivation in the island, tho
quantity exported in 1H8.S being Hli.OOO tons. But
these are now being replanted, and the exports for
IKH.'J were about (iOO tons valued at i.Sa.OOO.
Vanilla is also grown in the oastern part of the
island, the exports for 1883 amounting to 2;i tons,
varying in value from 8s to His a pound accord-
ing to the quality. Tobacco, cotton, tea, quinine,
silkworms, cocoa, and cloves are also grown, and
witliin the last two years experiments in vine-
growing have given promise of being very success-
ful,— Overland Mail.

3if

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

FISH-CUEING EXPERIMENTS IN THE
MADEAS rRESIDENCY.

Now that the Ceylon Government is about to
initiate tlie system of issuing salt at a cheaiJ rate
for the ijurpose of encouraging fish-curing on
a larger scale and on better princijjles than have
been hitherto adoptetl by the fishermen, we naturally
regard with more interest than ever the very in-
teresting reports prepared by Mr. Bliss, the Salt
Commissioner of the Madras Presidency, and which
we owe to the courtesy of the Madras Govern-
ment. While good, well-cured fish is a wholesome
and nutritive article of diet, it is pretty well
established that the use of putrid salt-fish, often
badly cured with salt earth or mud, is the cause
of leprosy, elephantiasis and other loathsome dis-
eases. It is of much importance, therefore, that
all legitimate encouragement should be given to the
capture and improved curing of large quantities of
the numerous and varied fishes which swarm round
our coasts. We trust the example of the Madras
authorities will be followed in liberality which led
at the outset to some loss of money which
is now being rapidly made good. Officers of the
Government, too, have been successfully employed
to teach the fishermen a better way of curing,
by which means and the experience gradually ob-
tained, the proportionate weight of salt to fish has
been ]n-etty accurately ascertained. The result is
that somewhat under 14 lb. (about the consump-
tion per caput of the population of Ceylon) is sufficient
for the curing of a maund weight of fish. We
suppose that in this case the usual Indian maund
of «0 lb. is meant. If we are right, then it would
appear that the proper proportion of salt to fish is
about 17 per cent. Some fish, such as shark, will
require a large supply of salt, while long thin
fishes recjuire quantities below the average. The
natives have to be corrected in their wasteful and
inefficient modes of curing. We hoj^e that some
one acquainted with the best modes of (ish-curing,
will be appointed to aid the experiments in Ceylon.

Mr. Bliss states that the demand for the superior
fish cured by his officers cannot be met. The
apathy and the ignorance of the people have to
be combatted, and seasons will be unfavourable
for fishing, while in the latter portion of
1883, cyclones, floods and a violent monsoon
destroyed curing yards, boats and nets, and
in some places put a stop to fishing oper-
ations. But in the face of all difficulties, the
first quarter of 188.') gave most satisfactory results
as compared with the corresponding quarter of 1884,
the number of yards worked shows an increase
of 14, viz., 123 against 109, and, in spite of the
damage by floods in some portions of the
Southern Division, there has been an increase
in the quantity of fish brought to be cured of
()2 per cent. .namely, 14,844 tons against 9,141 tons.
The applications for cheap salt had been 83,838
against ril,883 ; weight of hsh brought to be cured
404,074 maunds against 248,83(i ; weight of salt
issued ri."),(i80 maunds instead of 42,24li ; value of
salt sold K43,.524 against R28,027 ; salt to each
maund of fish 13-33 lb. against 13-!)7 ; expenditure in-
curred by Government E13,622 against E12,701.

We may quote a few suggestive passages from
the Commissioner's lieport : —

Chicacolc J)irision. — Compared with the correspond-
ing half of the previous year, the result of the di-
vision as a whole, are very encouraging, the number

of application.s, thequ.intity of fish brouglit to be cured
and the weight of salt issued having mo[ e than doi-ibled.
The most remarkable feature of the half-year under
report, however, is tlie fact that all th>" yards 01 the
division, without a single exception, have made a start.
This result is doubtless duo to the greiter efficiency
of the preventive operations of the deparlnient, as
already explaiucd inMr. Willock's letter prined with
the Board's Proceedings, No. .311, dated iiythJauuary
1385. The difficulties experienced in this division, more
especially in the Vizagapatam District, in stiirting the
industry on the new basis, are now in .a fair way of
being overcome. The proportion of salt issued to fi.sh
cured has decreasea, being 9 05 lb. per mauud against
11'35 lb. in the corresponding half of the proceeding
year. This is mainly due to the fact that for about
two months of the half-year under report, the greater
part of the takes of fish along this part of the coast
consisted of a long narrow fish, the name of which
is apparently unknown, which required little more than
drying in the suu, and for the curing of which, there-
fore, very small quantities of salt were used. The in-
crease under expenditure was due to the increase in
the number of yards and to the expansion of operations
generally.

Masu/ipatrtm iJivision. — The reason for the comparat-
ive failure of the yards in this division appe.irs to be
the want along the coast of the Godavari and Kistna
districts of a fishing population provided with adequate
appliances for the capture of a larger quantity of fish
than can be consumed locally while fresh. The yards
cannot, however, for this reason be closed, as such a
course must either endanger the salt revenue or prove
oppressive to the fishermen. B.ickward thuugh the
yards are alt but two yards have advanced, and the
quantities of fish cured and of salt issued in the di-
vision have more than double since last year.

A'dlore Division, — The resjlt have been satisfactory
in all but two yards, Kottapatam and Kundurpalam,
where the season is reported to have been unfavorable
for fishing. On the wliole, the division shows a marked
advance, the quantities of fish brought in and of
salt issued having be»u 7.633 maunds and 938 maunds,
against 4,(557 mauuds, aii.l .392 maunils, respectively.
The opTations in the northern part of this division
are, however, still but small ownig to the poverty of
the fishing classes, Some Jlussalmen have lately started
a wholesale curing business at Pakala, however. This
may stimulate the industry. The proportion of salt
issued to fish cured was 10 12 lb. per maund, against
0 91 lb in the corresponding half of the previous year.
This proportion is still low. Still, it goes to show that
the successful experiments conducted by Inspector
Mr. Beeson in this division have had a good efTeet.
The meaning of this is that under European
superintendence fish had been better cured with
a much smaller proportion of salt than the waste-
ful natives used. In one case the method adopted
by the fishermen was

Sprinkling the fish with salt and shaking the latter
off before the removal of the fish. The fishermen,
it would appear, decline to use the refuse sjU a
second time for fear of maggots and prefer its
perinilicnl destruction by the Inspector.
To quote again : —

Ctiiti-al ])iv$ion. — The progress made by this di-
vision, which comprises considerably more than lialf
the operiitiens of the whole presidency: is exceed-
ingly satisfactory, tbeve bping an increase of tver 60
pet cent under all heads. 'Ihe bulk of the opera-
tions is, as usual, in the tMalabar district, all the im-
portant yards in which shov,^ a steady advance.
The quantity of fish cured in the yards had risen
from 1,33(1 tons in 1880-81 to 20,108 tons in 1884-85.

THAT HUSBAND OF MINE
Is three times the man he was before he began
using Wells' Health Renewor." Druggists. W. E, S.MITH
& Co., Madras, Sole Agents.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3i;7

THE AGRICULTUKAL POLICY OF THE

MADRAS GOVERNMENT.

Extract from Gov. Order dated 10th February

1SS5.

The proposal was revived hist year on the ground
that all othtr educational charges were charged to
" Provincial— Educational." The Director of Public
Instruction was consulted, and in paragraph 4 of his
reply (printed in G. O., Report, 27th July 1883
No. 919), ativocated the separatiou of the functions of
Principal of the School ami yuperintcudent of Govern-
ment Farms. The views of the Board and Director of
Agriculture were then called for on this and other
matters. Thoirreplies are recorded in G. O., 7th Janu-
ary l!-84, No. 3. Mr. Wilson, with whom the P.oard en-
tirely agreed, was of opinion that an Agricultural Re-
ptrter could not travel about and makebimself acquainted
with the agricultural conditions of the presidency
so long as his connection with the School of Agriculture
rentaiued uuspvered. He showed .tlso that the school
had been a failure chiefly btcause it was impossible to
give the students that careful and individual training in
practical Ijirming, which was an indispensable prelimin-
ary of the scientific course, ami which in otiier countries
is given beforehand by independent farming their
own properties. His prcr^ -ed remedy involves the
separation of the school^, om the Agricultural
Department, and the L"^'-nng of the latter
into more practical and ^^"iniate relations with
the agriculture of the couutr^ he'Veci.sely as contemp-
lated by the Government of India'. Under his scheme
the School of Agriculture would be purely scientific,
and the Agricultural Department nothing if not
practical. After a while, it would be made a condition
precedent of admission to the school that the candidate
should have studied practical farming tor two years.
For the purpose of affording this practical training,
Mr. Wilson at that time contemplated the establish-
ment of Government example farms. But this idea he
seems since to have abandoned. His Excellency tlie
Governor in Council concurs entirely with the latest
expression of the views of the Director of Settlement
and Agriculture. With regard to the future agricultural
policy^ of the Government, His Excellency the Gov-
ernor in Council proposes in the first place to abandon
the Sailapr-t Farm on its present .scale as a practical
failure. The work there has excited some general
interest among the agricultural population in improved
agriculture machinery, but little more than this
has been accomplished. The farm is too small for
stock breeding, its soil is unsuitable and our
knowledge of Indian crops too limited as yet
for useful experiments. No new farma will be
instituted, but experiments will, where nece,s.sary be
carried out, with the assistance of private agency
under the general supervision of the Agricultural Depart-
ment. Meanwhile, native .agriculture and the analysis
of districts willbe carefully studied by the Agricultural
Reporter with a view to introduce better methods where
they are wanted, hut theyareonly. Further than this
the Government are not at present disposeil to go. To
assist- the Agricultural Reporter in investigation, the
(government propose eventually to entertain a small
body of District Agricultural In.'.poctors, whose salaries
will be met from the savings which will accrue from
the abolition of the farm. These men will, previous
to their eutertainment, have undfrgone a course of
traiiiing at the Government Agricultural School.

The further propos.al of the Director of Public In-
struction to attach some 30 or 4i) acres of land to
the college, as a farm annexe, as a field for practical
demonstration and training for the students of the
college is approved ; the management of this laud will
be under the control of the educational Department.
The necessary details of administration of the agri-
cultural school, and the course of instruction to be
followed therein, will receive consideration in the Educ-
ational Department, to which department these papers
■will be now communicated.— J/arf)-«s JIail.

PROFESSIONAL TEA TASTERS.

MEN WHO SIP THE CUP TH.\T CHEERS AS A BUSINE.SS
PURSUIT.

A large, somewhat bare looking apartment ; a number
of shelves along the walls, like those in a druggist's
shop, upon which are ranged row after row of small
tin canisters containing samples of tea ; here and there a
priut of a scene in the Flowery Land looking dim and
feeble, as if exhausted in the eiiort to shed an Oriental
glow over anything in the hopelessly mater of fact
ocality of Wall street ; in a corner a large ofhce desk ;
in the centre of the room a circular table upon which
stands a burnished urn, flanked by a diminutive cojaper
scales and surrounded by a number of tinyOhiua cups —
such is the orthodoxtea broker's oflice in this city.
Offices of this kind there are about two ilozeu in New
York, that being the number of tea brokers, large and
small, engaged in the trade in this city. These offices
are chiefly situated in Wall, Water and Front streets.

TEA TASTING.

One of the most important figures in the tea broker's
office is the professional tea taster. To him is in-
trusted the work of testing the various samples and
fixing their respective grades and values. The manner
in which this work of testing the samples is conducted
is as follows: — A silver half dime is thrown into the
scale on the one side and enough tea to balauce the
coin is dropped in on the other side. The tea thus
measured is drawn into one of the little cups, which
are capable of holding half a gill. The samph s to
be tested having thus been disposed of in the vaiiiUs
cups, boiling water is poured npon them from the urn.

The tea taster then holds each of the cuijs in turn
beneath his nostrils to catch the aroma, which is of
great assistance to him iu determining rhe quality.
When the tea has sufficiently cooled to be not much
more than lukewarm the expert proceeds to test it
by tasting it. This operation is conducted with much
deliberation and even so'emnity, the tea taster clos-
ing his eyes as if to shut him.selt away from the
outer world and sometimes even insistiitg upon the
most absolute silence being maintained by those
about him as long as the test is in progress. He
only takes a few diinty sips from each cup, ami some-
times lie applies himself a second, a third and even
a fourth time to the same sample. The tistj having
been made, he renders decisi.m as to the quality of
the different teas he has sampled and the values at
which they should be rated in the market.

DELirACV AND ACCURACY OF TASTE.

By many it may be thought that the decision as to
the quality of different kinds of tea must depend
largely upon individual ideas and tastes. As far as the
professional tea taster is concerned this is a mistake.
Tea tasting is very decidedly a p^ofe^sion in itself,
and has to be karnfd by dint of apidicatiou and e.x-
pL'rience. That it is not merely a qu._-st;on of indivia-
ual taste is demonstrated by the fact that when, as
is often the case, a certain set of samples is submitted
to several tea tasters acting indepemh-nt of each other,
the various opinions rendered as to quality and value
are almost invariably identical. So delicate are the
perceptions of the professional tea taster that he not
only quickly .and accurately grades the diffi-rent .samples
submitted to him, recognizing the most minute grail-
at ons, but he is also in many instances able to determ-
iiii' the part of the country in which a certain tea
w.'is grown. In the same way the judgment of the
tea taster purchasing the tea in China for the im-
pnrtera here, as a general rule, coincides with that
of the tea tasters here.

PROFITS AND PENALTIES.

The tea trade in this city in divided into four dis-
tinct branches— the importer, the broker, the jobber
and the retailer. The wholesale price of lea ranges
from ten to .seventy cents* per pound. The importer's
jirofit is a moderate but remunerative one. The largest
percentage of profit — from forty to sixty per cent —
goes to the retailer. When a cargo of tea is received
by the importer, samples of the consignment — often

* Of a dollar, of course. — Ed.

3i8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885,

consisting of vavious liinds of tea — are sent to the
broker. He disposes of it to the large retailers or to
the jobbers, who ill turn sell in lesser quautities to
the smaller retailers. The broker receives oue per cent
commission on all sales effected by him. The tea
taster acts in the interests of the broker, to whose
advantage it is to have a correct estimate as to the
qualitie.s and values of the different teas he is hand-
ling, in order to meetthe requirements of his customers.
— lieit' York HeraUl.

EXPERIMENTS WITH MANILLA HEMP,

PLANTAIN AND THE WILD PLANTAIN

OF SOUTHERN INDIA,

cleaned in Death & Elwood's machines, are recorded
in a paper sent to us by the Madras Government,
and are of the usual unsatisfactory nature: —

Rciid—'.he lollowjng letter from J. W. Jlinchin, Esq.
MaiiHtser, Glenrnck Onmpany (Limited), to the Ooilectur
of Nilgiiis, dated Puudalur, l.--t April 1885: — I have
DOW the honor to inform you that a trial in the treat-
ment of Manilla plantain hemp was made here in the
Death & Ellwood machines, belonging to the Com-
pany, on 31st January last. Mr. Guard sent from
Captain Cox's Naiken Shola estate well-grown Manilla
pl.«ntain stems obtained from Manilla hemp stock re-
ceiveil from Mr. Ballard, Collector of Malabar, in 18C3-64,
and since growing on that estate. One hundred and
seventy-nine large stems were delivereil at the mill,
which weighed 10,973 lb or about fiO lb. each stem, and
after passing these through the Death & Ellwood
machines there was produced 159 lb of clean fibre,
say 1-49 per cent of the green stuff. The cost of treat-
ing this fibre, drying, .'■orting, and preparing for market,
was R4-3 0, or at the rate of RH3-8-0 per ton of clean
fibre valued in London at £28 per ton at present de-
prtssel rates. I enclose statement of the outturn. There
is 00 per cent of water in the green plaintaiu stalks, of
the remaining dry vegetable matter we saved 15 per cent
of good fibre.

In the Philippine Islands the cost of preparing the
fibre is calculated at one-half the value realized on the
coast, and the people employed at this work are paid
accordingly, an expert hand being able to prepare about
12 lb. of fibre \->tt day ; and the average produce is one
pound of fibre from each stem said to average 100 pounds
in weight.

Wild plantain stalks have also been treated here at
this Company's mills ; some being sent to England with
the Manilla plantain fibre from Naiken Shola estate
fur valuation and comparison. The sialks of the wild
plantain are not so large and well grown as those of
the Manilla plantain, very few attaining to 50 lb. in
weight ; but there seemed little difference in the
strength or appearance of the two fibres.

I find the Khea fibre most worthy of consideration,
and hope to have 250 acres under this cultivation shortly.
Outturn of Manilla Plantain from Mr. Guard.

January 28th 1885, number of stems, 179 ; weight,
10 973 ; number of machines worked, li ; time occupied,
5 h. 2b m. ; good fibre, 140J ; discolored, 4J ; waste or
beatings, I4J ; total 159^ lb.

Result 1-49 per cent, clean fibre ; say one raachme in
32J hours. .S37 lb. green stuff per hour 4—9 lb. Fibre
perhour.* Labor cost R4-30 or RC.S-S-O port ion of fibre
for treatment in machine .and preparation drying.
« Eight men machine. I Six women drying and sorting.

One boy carrying. | Two men beating.
(True Copy)

(Signed) 0. J. L.MIGE.

( „ ) J. W. MiNCHIN.

Endorsement by J.F.Price, Esq. Acting Director of
Revenue Settlement and Agriculture, dated Madras,
9th July 18S5.

Submitted for tlie information of Governnient. This
paper has been delayed in view to obtaining the re-
sults of the valuation of the fibre ; these have now been
received. , . .

The account of the experiment, though interesting,
contains no details of the number of the plants carried
oa an acre of ground, or of the number of cuttings

of ich can annually be made, or of the cost of carriage

11 < raw material from tlieplace where itwasgrown
to that where it was prepared, or of the charges con-
nected with the carriage, &c. of the fibre to England.

The valuation of the Manilla fil-re is given at not more
than £10 per ton, sayR125. The cost of treating, dry-
ing, sorting and preparing it for the market was, at the
place of manufacture, alone R(>'?-8-0 per ton, or rather
more than half of the value of the fibre in the English
markets. When other charges come to be deducted,
there wouldb e, ifay margin of piofit, but a very small
oni indeed.

Alibough the stems used for the experiments were
evidently of conciderable age, the plantation from which
they were obt;nned havuig been put down so far back
as 1863 04. the outturn ot fibre as compared with the
stem used was not quite 1| per cent and this is described
by the experts who examined it as containing a very
considerabh' pr<»])ortiou of exceedingly indifferent stuff,
so poor as tor' nder the price per ton of the whole far
below th it meetif'ned by Mr. Miuchin. The wild plant-
ain fibre was still worse.

It seems clear that unle-s much improvement, both
in the method and cost of preparation of this fibre, can
be made, cultivation of it cannot possibly be made
remunerative.

A copy of the report of Messrs Collyer & Oo. on the
fibres transmitted to them by the Glenrock Company is
enclosed.

Ciipy of Messrs. f'ollyer & Co.'s Report.
ll'dd l^hntoin.

Very mixed and irregular, mostly very weak, a small
portion fairly strong, a good deal being flaggy refuse
with scarcely any fibre in it. When the fibre is fairly
strong, it is fairly well cleaned, but apparently a good
dealisir.tritisically too poor to br ar cleaning efficiently.
The proi'ortion of stronger fibre may be too small to be
worth separating, otherwise it would appear desirable to
ship that portion only in future, and then it might
reahze £15 per ton and upwards mixed as it is ; the bulk
is too poor for use alone, and for mixing purposes it
will only realize very low prices, say £7 or £8 per ton.
Manilla Plnntnin.
From Captain Cox's Naiken Shola Estate.

A somewhat similar fibre to above, with a larger pro-
portion of strong, a small part being good, useful, clear
fibre of good color, somewhat approaching ordinary
Manilla hemp, but the great bulk is poor, weak, flaggy
stuff ; the same remarks as to cleaning apply ; where
the fibre is suflnciently bold and strong result is satis-
factory, but on the whole, unless the stronger fibre can
be kept separate, the price must be very low, say about
£10 per ton the best alone should be worth £25 upwards.

" CEYLON AS A FIELD FOR
INVESTMENT."

Reading the pages of a work called " Tea and
Other Planting Industries in Ceylon, in 18S3,'' has
opened a field for argumcut and thought, which I
feel inclined to step into, and I fain would touch
upon some of the subjects in a desultory sort of
a way. In a report of the coffee industry of
Ceylon, in 1875, emanating from the Ohxcrver
Oliice, the following sentence occurs : — " The
export of coffee in 1875 was 924,266 cwt,
and, as the value in the consuming markets was
probably five millions sterling, we have here a
proof of the overshadowing importance of coffee
in Ceylon. Take it away, and exports dwindle to
a small sum.'"

Things have altered very much since 1875,
for I find, on reference to the statistics of
1883-84 that the exports, other than coffee, do
nnt dwindle away to a small sum. On the con-
trary I find the export of cinchona, oil, tea, iVc,
so large, that one is surprized at what a few years
has brought forth. The following quantities and

* Quite correct at the time,— Ed,

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

319

values are the best arguments in favor of Ceylon
as a field for investment, as showing that,
although coffee may have succumbed to disease,
the resources of the island are far from being at
an end. The export of various articles, for 1883-81
and the estimated values thereof are as follows : —
Tea, ■2,263,000 lb. at 60 cents . . Kl,3.37,800-00
Cacao, 9,863 cwt. at EW . . 394,o'20-00

Cinchona, 11,.500,000 lb. at 22 cents 2,530,000-00
Cinnamon and palm tree products 10,000.000'00
Mention is made of the capital which had been
introduced and the revenue which had been created
by coffee, and which had enabled Government to
devote large sums to the restoration and construc-
tion of irrigation works, and in supplying village
sluices and tanks where the people were reaibj to
make use of them. During my wanderings in the
lowcountry, I came across plenty signs of the
coffee planters' money spent on these irrigation
■works, but in no one instance did I come across
a native rendij to make use of them. Indeed some
splendid fields, handy to those tanks, were lying
idle, and felt strongly inclined to apply to Gov-
ernment myself for the right to cultivate them,
thinking that I could get the work done by the
S'nhalese living near by, but, on making emiuiries, I
found these lazy fellows much more inclined to
sit down and wait for the paternal Government
to send them rice to prevent their starving, than
to make any attempt to help themselves. That
there are paddy fields near these tanks that would
pay well for cultivating, I feel quite sure, but the
labour question is the difficulty to be solved, as
no dependence conld be put on the Sinhalese for
help. How differently the two races behave
under trying circumstances ; when anything hap-
pened to the paddy crop, the natives sat down
and waited for assistance ; but, when coffee failed,
the Europeans did not look to Government for
help, but just set their teeth and worked the
harder at the cultivation of new products, with
the splendid results we now see. As an old coflee
planter I more than ever grudge the money which
has been wasted (yes! wasted) on irrigation works
which the natives never use ' and in making roads
over which scarcely a score of carts roll during
twelve months. Had that money been spent in
carrying railway communication into Uva and in
completing the Colombo harbour works, already
a marked difference would have been seen in the
welfare of the country, and the revenue would
have reaped something more than it has done from
such unproductive works as roads radiating that
the ruins of Anuradhapura to .i.e various sea-
ports of the island. . One cannot help wishing that
coffee would hold its sway still tn a certain ex-
tent, and who knows but the reduced acrengc
new under this shrub may drive tiie fungus back
to its original lair. I tni.st that, when 1.^0,00')
a.ires are under tea, no bUght will come to drive
it away as llemileia vustatrix has done with what
was once the staple of the island. To me the
finest flush of tea leaf or the heaviest crop of
cacao pods can never compare with the perfumed
sheet of white which clothed an estate when the
coffee blossom burst, or the red whicih flashed
from the bushes when a shower of rain brought
crop on with a rusli.

A good deal of the advice given to young
immigrants has been dearly bought in the past,
and yet even at that time there were those
who preached moderation. I remember ask-

• Uur corre.spond(;nt — an ex-Ceylon planter, now at
home, — had not read Mr. Elliott')) papnr, nor heard of
the good results from irrigation expenditure in the
Batticalos and JIatara di-stricts when he wrote. — Ed,

ing some of the planters in the young districts
why they built large bungalows and stores
on their ground, when they did not expect to reap
any crop for two or three years. I was in an
oliice at that time, and had not yet become a
planter, so I was only laughed at when I asked
the question. I gave what I considered to be
parallel cases in the way the squatters of Australia
and New Zealand acted, when they took upcouutry
in the back blocks. There, for the first two or
three years, they lived in small huts and shore
their sheep in temporary sheds — I myself once
shore my sheep in a shed made by stretching
grey blankets over a frame built of rough bush
sapling— sand not until the returns warranted the
outlay did the squatters of these days build a good
shed or a respectable-looking house. I was laughed
at again, squatting and coflee planting were two
very different things, more money had been made
by sales of estates than sales of crop, and there •
was more chance of selling an estate with a good
bungalow than one with a house like a set of
cooly lines. This was too true, and was one of
the reasons why speculating in estates became so
fashionable. Young immigrants nowadays have
the past experience of planters for nothing, and
will know not to spend money in an unproductive
way, such as building stores for a crop which is
not due for some years, and in erecting bungalows
that require considerable capital to keep up. With
the splendid climate of the hill districts in Ceylon,
one does not require to build a palatial residence
and live in the most extravagant manner, on the
plea that one's health would suffer otherwise. With
all the experience that a past generation has paid
for, and which is at the disposal of every one,
the immigrant lauding in Ceylon has a much
better chance of doing well than he would have
had in years gone by, and the thousand and one
ways that the planters of today could, if they
would, reduce expenditure must be a great saving
to those with short funds and no 0. B. C. to
give cash credits. For instance, the plan adopted
by Mr. Rossiter, who sends his own coolies to pluck
on other estates, bringing the leaf to his factory
and paying the estate owners by weight. Why this
plan is not more commonly adopted, I cannot
conceive : a group of estates all taking the tea
leaf to the one factory, where the best machinery
could be erected, either by one man or by
the proprietors of the whole group conjointly. Nor
do I see any reason why, when two estates are
opened up, one bungalow is not sufficient for the
two proprietors, some terms being arranged for
the payment of the one upon whose estate the
buig.ilow is built, for the use of it by the other.
Several clerks in the of'tices in Colombo live together
Without quarrelling, and surely two planters might
do so. There are many other ways of economiz-
ing, which were never dreamt of in the palmy
days of the coffee enterprise, but strict economy
is the burden of every one's song now, not only
Ceylon, but in every part of the world. Cosmopolixk.

The Aphides, or plant lice have hitherto been sup-
posed to be the most prolific of living beings ; and it
is disappointing to find a writer iji the Field who
has been at the pains to count tlip progeny of a
single rose aj^his, declaring that the individuals
only number 32,708, 000,000,000. 000,000. He no
doubt did not take a fair sample of aphis, and we
hope he will try again with a result that will do
more justice to this interesting insect. If he would
also take the trouble to write the result in words
instead of figures, ho would gratify many persons,
— Muilras iJail,

S^o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov, 2, 1885.

AGKICULTUEE AND LABOUEEES' PAY
IN ITALY.

According to the Eeport of the Commission ap-
pointed by the Italian Parliament in 1877, and
whose inquiries extended over several years, the
lot of proprietors and farmers, if not brilliant, is
at least tolerable, whereas anything -worse than
the condition of the labourers it is hard to con-
ceive. The members of the Commission failed to
arrive at any exact conclusion as to the average
pay of these unfortunates. According to some it
runs from threepence to lourpence a day, accord-
ing to others to sevenpenee, without making any
allowance for loss of time, either through bad
weatlier or ill-health. For this pittance they have
to work like galley-slaves, and out of it such of
them as have families must provide food for their
children, and keep a roof of some sort over their
heads. The utmost that a labourer can earn, witli
the help of his family, says Signer Ai'cozzi Manio,
a large landowner, is 384 lire a year, equal to a
little more than tenpence a day. Their food con-
sists of a coarse black bread, made of a mixture
of rye and maize of inferior quality, rice soup,
and dry haricots dressed with rancid oil. Wine
and flesh-meat they never taste. " Hard labour,
combined with insufficient food," writes Signor
Mereu, in the Bibliotlic<jiie Universelle, "necessarily
reacts with disastrous effect on the health of our
agricultural masses, who are forced by want to
live in wretched hovels, destitute alike of sunshine
and fresh air." The Eeport of the Commission
gives in this regard details which cannot be read
without a shudder. In Lombardy, as well as in
the South, whole frTr.iUes live pell-mell in huts
reeking witli every sort of abomination, and " in
a state of revolting promiscuousness." " It is in
the neighbourhood of rich and opulent Milan,"
writes Commander Jancini (a gentleman who has
published a summary of the chief facts contained
in the Eeport). that the labourers are the most
wi'etched ; the fever of exhaustion {peUarira) and
phthisis make terrible ravages amongst them.
They are worse fed than dogs." The supjiosed
fertility of the Peninsula is a pure myth. Two-
thirds of it are occupied by the Alps and the
Apennines, a vast region with a rude climate and
an ungrateful soil. Of this region 56,000 square
kilometres are either covered with snow of strewn
with rocks, and utterly irreclaimable. In other
districts denudation has wrought irreparable mis-
chief, and the neglect of jiast generations and
former Governments has allowed once fertile plains
to become malarious swamps. Even the legendary
luxuriance of more favoured regions turns out to
have been greatly exaggerated. With the exception
of the Valley of the Po and of a part of Lom-
bardy, the soil is only moderately jiroductive, not
only because it has been impoverished by long-
continued croppings without any adequate return
in the shape of manure, but by reason of the
dryness of the climate, which in the absence of an
artificial system of irrigation puts really efKcient
farming out of the question. Italy does not even
grow a sufficiency of cereals for her own wants,
albeit the area of arable land is reckoned at
4,500,000 hectares (11,215,000 acres). The average
yield of corn per hectare is equal to 11 hectolitres,
as compared with an average j'ield of 33 hectolitres
in England, 22 in Holland, 20 in Belgium, 23 in
Germany, and 15 in France. Facts like these should
make us more tolerant of our own variable yet
not unkindly climate, and less envious of that
blue Italian sky under which, while there are so
much of grandeur and beauty, thove is also so

terrible an amount of misery and want. The young
and vigorous who desire to better themselves leave
the country in droves. Those of them who can
raise a few Uras go to Austraha or America ; the
less fortunate foot it over the Alps, and seek work
in Germany, Switzerland and France. According
to oflicial figures, there are now living in divers
foreign countries upwards of 1,200,000 Italian im-
migrants ; and this estimate is beUeved to be much
below the mark. Ten years ago the emigration
was at the rate of 40,000 ; last year there left the
kingdom 140,000 individuals, by far the greater
part of whom were adult males in the prime of
life. But this exodus has its good as well as its
evil side; for, although the vast majority of the
exiles never revisit their native land, a certain pro-
portion return in greatly improved circum.stances,
and few in their prosperity forget the less fortunate
whom they have left behind. In France, for in-
stance, there are at present some 200,000 Italian
workmen, all employee! ; and it has been ascertained
that they send to their kinsfolk at home half their
earnings, said to be fully four francs a day. If
this estimate, which is given on the authority of
Signor Mereu, may be trusted, the amount received
in this way by Italy from France alone averages
very nearly five millions sterling a year. — Spectator.

A Gekman paper says that forty parts of paper
pulp, ten parts of water, one part of gelatine, and
one part of bichromate of potash, with ten parts
of pliosphorescent powder, will make a paper which
will shine in the dark, and which will be suit-
able for labels, signs. Ax. — Indian Agriculturist.

The Gekm.vn Agricultukai, Colony in Br.^zfl. —
From an interesting account of a fecent visit to
the German colony in Eio Grande do Sul, the most
southerly province of Brazil, written by Herr W.
Spielberg, member of the Landtag, we" learn that
tlie colonists first settled in the Sao Leopoldo and
Hamburger Berg districts, favourably situated for
trade with Porto Alegre. The clearing of the
land they secured has been a difficult task, but
many of the older settlers are now on the point
of deforesting the last quarter or third part of
their sections. Several later colonists have secured
more favourable situations on the Lower Marata,
in the neighbourhood of Sao Sebastiao, Sao Lou-
reni^o, *c., but they have the same hard work in
clearing tlie forest. Still later arrivals have, as
at Triumi^ho, on the Jacuhy, near San Joho, on
the Cahy, &c., begun by settling on the so-called
" enclosed land," a wrong term since enclosure and
forest alternate, and the real enclosed land
runs in a southerly direction from the Jacuhy.
This land is not much inferior to the forest
land in the first years in fertility, but it
is lighter and can soon be worked with the
])lough, while the proximity of the lands to the
rivers Jacuhy, Taquary, Cahy, ,Sinos and Gravatahy,
navigable at all times of the year, and running
into the estuary of Porto Alegre, makes trade with
this port easy. The climate of this delta in quite
as cool and temperate as in the mountain dis-
tricts. Herr Spielberg does not think the position
of the colony is anything lilie what it has been
represented to be — and certainly cannot be com-
pared to that of the twenty-year-old colony in
Ontario — but there is nothing like want, and the
people all Uve and clothe well, the old ones l)eing
al)Ie to give their children a little money to set
them up. Of the social circumstances of the

colony not so favourable a report can be given, ,

Kiihluic's German Trade Hevieic,

Nov, 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

321

(fiovrespondenoe.

To the Editor of the " Oetjloa Observer."
CITRONS.

Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa, 27th Aug. 1885.

De.u! Sir, -I read with interest the communic-
ations which appeared in your valuable journal
on the subject of tlie culture of lemons in Ceylon,
and now take the liberty of sending you per train
a tew specimens of the fruit grown here from a
cutting sent to me by Mr. Fonseka of Pittagon
Eliya estate. Kaliitara. Please let me know your
opinion of them. Crops of from twenty to forty
are plucked each season. I have seen the parent
tree in Kahitara in a most thriving condition.— I
remain, yours faithfully,

W. S. GOONEWAEDENE.

[We regret that this letter should have been
overloolced. The fruits sent were not true lemons,
but " citrons," which are less juicy and much more
thick-skinned. A preserve is made of the citron
skins, but the fruit is less valuable than tlie
lemon. — Ed.]

BAELET GROWN ON UVA PATANA LAND.

15th September 1885.

Deab Sir, — By this post I am sending you a sample
of barley grown on Uva patana land, at .\lbion. The
seed was sent to me by the Murree Brewery Company,
but did arrive in Colombo till late in .January, and the
dry weather setting in so soon after it was sown was
very much against the experiment proving the success
I believe it would have been, had the seed been
available tor sowing in December. As it is I only
got about the same quantity that was sown, but
being only a small patch the rats and fowls
from the lines did a lot of damage before it was
ripe, and it suffered very much from drought. — Yours
faithfully, ARTHUR J, KELLOW.

WATER-POWER ON TEA ESTATES.
Matale, 10th Sept.

SiE, — The enclosed simple directions for ascertain-
ing the quantity of water available from any given
stream may, perhaps, be of service to your corre-
spondent " Planter, No Engineer," and to others.
—Yours faithfully, R. R.

Turbine wheels have gone into such general use in
this country that an overshot whci'l is now very seldom
seen. The turbine is so much cheajier nnd so much
easier to set up and manage tliat it is generally pre-
ferred wherever its merits are kuiwu; but in tropical
countries the turbine has not yet become very much
known and is little understood. It is a very" simple
wheel to understand and manage, and in many local-
ities is by all odds the best wheel that t^au be used.
The turbine can be used anywhere that an overshot
can be used, and in many places where an overshot
would be practically out of the question. For high
heads and a comparatively small quantity of water the
turbine is the only wheel fit to be used.

We frequently n-ceive inquiries and orders for wheels
without any data being given to enable us to judge
the kind or size of wheel needed. For instance, a
planter will order a certain sized sugar mill "with
a water wheel of the proper size to drive it," with-
out giving us any intimation of the quantity of water
or the height of fall. As a large quantity of wnter
and low head requires an entirely ditierent wheel from
a Bmall quantity of water nud a high head, we are,
of coursp, unable to build tlte wheel until wc are furn-
ished with tlie^e data. They should always be given by
those iuquiriiig about or ordering a wheel. The quant-
ity of water in a large, open stre;\m can be ascertained
with sufticient accuracy by giving the velocity of the
water, and the area of a cross section in square feet,
41

The velocity may be estimated by throwing a float-
ing body on the surface and noting the time required
in passing a given distance. The area of cross seofion
may be ascertained 'jy measuring the average
depth and width of the stream. F.ir smaller streams
the wier dam measurement, as illustrated on a follow-
ing page, is best. It is always well to send us a
rough sketch of the stream and ground where the wheel
is tea be located and inform us on which side of the
stream the machinery is to be located. In ordering
turbines state which way they must run, whether with '
the sun, that is from east to wept ou the south
side or against the suu, that is from w st to east on
the soutli side; the former is sometimes called I'iKht-
handed and the latter left-handed.

To construct a weir dam for the purpose of measur-
ing the water, a single board or plank, long enough
to reach across the stream and rest in the bank at
each end, should have a notch cut in it about two-
thirds the width of the stream, and deep enough to
pass all the water to be measured. The bottmn and
ends of the notch should he bevelled ou the down-
stream side, so as to pass the water freely ; then go
several fe't up strream and diive the stake E iu the
bottom of the stream till the top of the stake is on
a levil with the water when it first begins to spill
over the bottom of the nutch iu the weir dam. When
the water has readied its height, and a full volume
is pouring through the notch, the depth of the water
iibove tlio top of the stake B can be easily measured
as shown in the engraving, .and will give the length
of the line C D or the depth of the water passing
over the dam. Then knowing the length of the notch
A C by referring to the table on the next page the
nunjh^i of cubic feet iier minute passing over the dam
can be ascertained. The height of the fall cm be
ascertained by measuring from the surface of the water
below the fall to the level of the surface above the
fall, as shown by the line E in the engraving. Then
in writing to us give us the depth of the water over
the top of the stake B, or in other words the length
of the lino C D. als ■ the length of the notch "w the
line A C, also the height of the fall on the line E,
and we can then easily determine the size of wheel
needed.

[Unfortunately we cannot reproduce the sketch
of the waterfall, etc., hut our corresf ondent, who
does not give his full address, has forgotten to
send the table referred to. We have further letters
with useful information on tliis subject to publish.
—Ed.]

DO. USEFUL FORMUL.E.

Colombo, 19th Sept. IS85.

De.ir Sib, — In reading the communication of
" R. R." in your issue of last night one is impressed
with the idea that something more complete and
more concise is wanted as an aid to planters in
estimating the power residing in their streams.

Construct a temijorary sluice with square sides
(for small streams an old door with a panel knocked
out will do), place it on the brink of the fall, direct
all the water through the aperture and lower the
slide until it is skimming the surface, then measure
the opening and multiply its area in feet by the
square root of the height in feet and by 2111 ; the
result will be cubic feet of water discharged per
minute.

Suppose a sluice is set as above described passing
all the water a stream supplies and the aperture
measures 1 ft. 3 in. wide by 1 ft. 3 in. high, then,

Area Sq. root of height
in sq. ft. in ft.

1.5() X 1-12 X 210 = 377 cub. feet

water discharged per minute, nearly. The approx-
imate h. p. will be found by multiplying the cub
feel water by the height iu feet of the fall and

322

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 2, 1885.

dividing by 700. The fall in this instance is, say
1(5 feet, then

377 X 16

= 8-6 h. p. nearly

— Yours uly,

700

D. K. M.

No. II.
Colombo, 17th Sept. 1885.
Sir, — Keferring to the article in the Ceylon
Obseni'r of 14th instant, headed " Water-power
on Tea Estates," I beg to enclose extracts from
Moore's "Universal Assistant" and Trautwine's "Civil
Engineer's Pocket Book," which I believe may
prove useful. — I am, yours faithfully, P.

{Extracts referred to.)
In the measm-ement of large open streams, first
ascertain the mean velocity in feet per minute, and
also the area of the cross section of the stream in
square feet, when the product of these two quantities
wall give the required quantity of water afforded by
the stream. The velocity of such stream can be
estimated by throwing floating bodies on the surface
of near the specific gravity of the water and rating
the time accurately required iu passing a given
distance. It is generally best to ascertain the veloc-
ity at the centre and from this ascertain the mean
velocity, which has been found by accurate and reliable
experiments to be 8.3 per cent, or about four-tifths
of the velocity of the sm'face of the stream.
The cross section may be estimated by measuring
the depth of the stream at a number of points at equal
distances apart (these points being in a line across the
stream) adding the depths togetlier, and multiplying
their sum by the distance apart in feet of any two points.
'This will give the result required in square feet of
cross section, when the product of mean velocity in
feet per minute and cross section in square feet, obtains
the quantity of water that the stream affords in cubic
feet per miimte. — Moore'--< Ihiirer.sal As:^L-ifarit.

The 'Surface Vrloeitii sJioitd he tiieasnred in jterfectly
calm irealher so that the float may not be disturbed
by wind ; and, for the same reason the float should
not project much above the water. The measurement
should be repeated several times to eusure accuracy.
In very small streams the banks and bed may be
trimmed for a short distance so as to present a uni-
form chanuel way. The float should be placed iu the
water a little distance above the point for commenc-
ing the observation so that it nuiy acquire tlie full
velocity of the water, before reaching that point.
Remen'iber, if the chaimel is m common earth,
especially if sandy, the loss by soakago into the soil,
and by evaporation will frequently abstract so muclr
water" that the discharge will be less and less, the
farther down stream it is measured. — Trautwine.

TEA IN JOHOfiE:

LIIlEEI.iN COFFEE — CLIMATE — SOIL — L,VD0UB.

Sib, — Under the above heading your correspond-
ent " W. H. G." endeavours to answer to the ques-
tion " Will tea pay in .Johore ?" and the conclusions
he appears to arrive at are

(a) Tliat the rainfall, though sufficient, is not
well distributed ;

(6) That the soil of Johore consists almost en-
tirely of clay, and tliat the root of the tea plant
cannot penetrate ;

(r) That the class of labour available, and
not so much the cost of it, I gather, is unsatis-
factory.

Hence tea cannot be grown in Johore to pay.

It is not my intention in this letter to discuss
the question of tea cultivation per se, but ra-
ther to draw attention to a few facts in con-
nection with the climate, soil, and labour of
Johore, and thus enable your readers to form a
fair estimate of the capabilities of the country.

In the opening paragi-aph of his letter to his
friend, " W. H. G." makes a statement to the fol-
lowing effect : " that planters of experience have given
the country of Johore a lengthened and determined
trial which has proved unsatisfactory and unprofitable
without an exception." This remark calls for con-
desirable modification, almost tantamount to contra-
diction. The words " unsatisfactory and unpro-
fitable trial " must be confined to the original at-
tempt made to grow Coffea Arabica, and which
venture, as is AveU-kno\\'n, proved a failure.

Though the time has scarcely arrived when we
can speak with certainty as to the ultimate re-
sult of Liberian coffee cultivation, yet I can state

I from personal observation and experience that no
X'foduct tried here gives fairer prospect of success
than this. Leaf-disease, which has proved so de-

i trimental, not to say fatal, to this jjlant in Ceylon
has little or no effect here beyond retarding the
growth for a short time, the trees throning off
their sick leaves and resuming their normal vigour
very speedily.

Crops are now coming in, one group of estates
at least having already shipped produce home

. which, I learn, has realized very satisfactory
prices. Other estates wiU shortly follow suit, and
the prospective returns may be looked on as

I anything but unsatisfactory and unprofitable.

I Liberian coSee at any rate appears to have found

1 a congenial home in Johore.

Climate. — Your correspondent seems to speak
more from hearing than from actual observation
for any length of time of the climate. The usual
sicknesses (fever, ague, &c.) attendant upon the
opening-up of new land are no exception in
Johore. The town of Johore-Bahru, or the
shore of the Straits, is, as might be expected,
healthy. In the villages situated otherwise that
on the sea coast, on gambier and pepper plant-
ations worked by Chinese, fever is not at all un-
common ; and though mostly found in a mild form
is of frequent recurrence. On the other hand pro-
perties which have been under cultivation for some
time are quite healthy.

The rainfall varies in different districts or parts
of the country, the further inland tlie greater the
amount ; but speaking generally I think I am within
the mark when I give the annual average for the
last four years at over 100 inches. I speak under
correction as I have not the figures by me at this
moment. This quantity is pretty evenly distrilmted
throughout the year, the driest months (and this
year they were the driest on record) being those from
January to May. l''or the remainder of the year
the rain is well distributed, and tea flushes freely,
a ten-day plucking being necessary. The daily
temperature in the shade ranges from 7:">'^ Fahr. to
92'-' in the lower districts ; on the hills, from
70" to 8.3° Fahi-.

The " hill districts " so-called are Gunong Pulai
(700 ft.) and Batu Pahat. Wliere tea is planted in
Johore, the land is very little above sea-level and very
slightly undulating, though to the eye of an Assam
planter this may seem otherwise.

.S'()(7. — The soil of the country, though not a
rich one, is good, the magnificent timber standing in
virgin forest being a sufficient proof that the soil
is very far from a poor one. Many analyses have
been made and will compare very favourably witli
those of average Ceylon soils, the only chemical
compound of which there appears to be a general
deficiency being lime.

It is fair to the country and to the tea gardet
to which allusion is made by your correspondend
" W. H. G." to say that the estate was ojienen
upon what was once a pepper and gambier plant-

Nov. 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3^3

ation, but having become exhausted by constant
cropping was abainlouej and Iiad, at the time
operation began, become a fieUl of liilang. Such
land is plentiful in the neighbourliod of Johore
Bahru, and being easy of access was in this instance
taken up and opened for experinienlal purposes.
That the " clay " which " W. H. G." speaks of is of
such a consistency that even the tap-root of a tea-
plant cannot penetrate it, is contrary to fact, your
correspondent himself contradicting the statement
when he writes, a few hues, lower down, that " the
growth of the tea plant here (Johore) as far as
wood is concerned, is, I must say, very rapid."

Labour. — The experience of those who have been
longest in the country does not support the ideas of
your correspondent on the subject of labour in Johore.
The labour available for the cultivation of estates
consists of three classes : Chinese, Javanese and
Malay, with occasionally a few Ivlings. The first-
named furnishes an almost unlimited supply, but
except for contract work and the opening-up of new
land (reading, draining, holing) is too expensive.
Javanese are also easily procurable from Singapore,
though in Umited numbers. Malays are always to
be got for felling contracts, and generally, as occasion
arises, for such works as hohng, line-building, etc.
That the type of Chinamau procurable in the Straits
is not of the best, and that Javanese are not the
most industrious workers, I am ready to admit; but
pioneers must be content to take and adapt to their
purpose such labour as they find in the country,
moulding it by degrees into workable material.
There are many reasons wliy Chinese are impractic-
able as (lay-labourers, but chief amongst these is the
fact that they are ever-shifting, never remaining
more than a few months at the outside on one place,
though the mandore may continue the same origin-
ally engaged ; secondly, on account of our in-
ability to converse with the coolies directly in their
omi language, all instructions having to be given in
Malay through the mandore, whose knowledge of
this is always very meagre. Javanese, on the
other hand, though slow, are steady workers, and
will in lime, doubtless, settle down to our Europ-
ean ideas of quantity and quality. Contract work
seems unintelligible to them, or, as is most likely
the case, they find it more advantageous to them-
selves to engage for daily wages. Wo .-.uticipate
being able soon to obtain Tamil labour on the
same terms as those imposed upon idanters in the
Native Protected States, if report speaks true as
to the iirelimina^y arrangements in connection with
the immigration of Tamil coolies to Johore having
been satisfactorily settled during the Maharajah's
visit in England. Meanwhile we uuist be content
with the labour which is to our hands, and which,
though sufficiently plentiful, is not yet as cheap
as we could wish.

7V«.— Given a good jdt, the making of good tea
depends. I take it, caterii< paribus, upon the skill
of the superintendent in charge of the estate, whether
in Johore or elsewhere. Your correspondent must
have been on this tea garden at an unfortunate
and exceptional season, when he saw what he
describes as " seed developing at nearly every axis of
the leaf." It has been my good fortune to see Hushes
in every way as healthy" and regular as tea Hushes '
in Ceylon, and this extending over many months, t
The question of cost and supply of labour, much
more than that of flushes, is the one which re-
qoirea solution in connection with the querv " Will
tea pay in Johore?" W. H. G. seems anxious to
call in the support of •olherit' to his statements,
thus showing weakness of conviction on his part
or perhaps lack of what is termed crperience in
the country oi which he hae become a devil's ad-

1 voeate. Perhaps in his next he will enlighten ik
' further, but meanwhile the country has not nuieh
I to feai from the idle outpourings of one whose

resilience in Johore has been but too evidently a
, brief one. PIONEER.

1 Since wn-iting the above I have succeeded iu
I obtaining the rainfall returns for five years, and here-
I with enclose them for publication. At Guncng
j Pulai, where only consistent and reguliir records
I have been kept, the average over this term exceeds

100 inches. Unfortunately Batu Pahat figures are

not to hand : there the rainfall is higher than at

Gunong Pulai.

f •TIMOJ^ . .

I I ojotfoj;'

S J, ■!S2"TX

j5 'BM03

— X «: t> c^ irl :

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•Ilipij; X C-. o C-. 9 .^ 91 cr. ■!: .* t- -!■ I ■^.

('H"ct tfi 1^ 9 3-. :c o --s It; >^ •.£ IT X rH

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^-^ft^rt-^e!il-T,^-^<la;0!ap

VENTILATION.
De.ik Sir, — About 1.5 years ago I was for a lime
considerably troubled and perhaps somewhat ala' nied,
■eat the signs of extremely rapid deterioration of
beams, joists, etc., iSrc, of an upstair floor built for
and adopted as a copra store. Deterioration of
timbers generally resulted from moist heat from
copra, arising from contact with semicircular corrug-
ated iron roof, such contact during the night
giving rise to condensation and a constant drip,
drip, drip, back to the floor again. In my efforts
to remedy the evil, if possible, I fried the dotiblu
draught ventilator I have drawn your attention
to, and I believe very raucli good resulted therefrom,
drip being considerably reduced and the room less
favourable to fungus. My experience seems to say
that variable measure and degree of humidity is
no mean factor in the promotion of atmo-
spheric circulaticn. Such being the case, a portion
at least of "J. B."'s arguments are gi-eatly in favour
of, yours respectfully, TEV.

A VENTILATOR FOR A TEA-HOUSE.
Deak Sii!, — I forward this rough sketch of a
double draught ventilator which I venture to think
would answer well for tea-houses, especially for
those who have a pretty tight roof on them which
all ceiling ventilators absolutely require. It should
be attached to and flush with a ceiling and will
work well under such circumstances. Any ordin-
ary good tinsmith could fit them up on the

324

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

estate. Size such as would slip tlown between
two rafters. Sciile of tliis sketch is about l-l'2th.
Best maiei'iiil, stout zinc. Parts A, IS and C
should \)i' well stitl'ened with a ring of g's round
iron.

If the building be a two-storied one, and the
lowermost specially needs ventilation at some given
point, the cyUnder of this ventilator by being
l^rolonged through the upper room nnd floor would
accomplish it and be always under control need-
ing no power.

I have lived in an old English house built two
and a-half centuries ago, and all the window panes
were cemented into stone mullions, and our sole
means of ventilation were back and front doors
and one of those ventilators over the well of the
staircase, and our atmospheric condition was lirst-
class. For tea-house purposes 1, 2, 3, or 4 of
them could be fixed and draught regulated by
ope -ling or closing any one or all at pleasure.
Most suitable roof, I think, would be zinc tiles
underlaid with Willesden paper. — Yours &c.,

TRY.

[We are sorry we cannot reproduce the diagrams,
but a gentleman whose opinion we value writes
as follows. — Ei>.]

DB.iR " OnsEHVEB," — The enclosed plan of ventil-
ator is of approved pattern, and works well in
suitable conditions. It is constructed on the prin-
ciple, that, with two tubes (or two sides of a divided
tube) foniiing two perpendicular conduits from the
outside to the inside of a heated room the cold
air will come down one, and the hot air go up
the other. The one admitting the cold air has no
advantage in being beside the. other or descend-
ing perpendicularly, so far as effectiveness is con-
cerned. It would be equally good at the bottom of
the room ; only the arrmii/i'iiwiit is more convenient,
as it roiiuires only one hole in the roof, and one
ventilator.

Its conditions are, that the heat of the room be
considerably greater than that outside. If the
room and outside air be of the same temperature
no ventilation ensues. If outside air be 40 deg.
and inside (JO deg. there would be a considerable
current. If outside 30 deg. and inside (iO deg. a much
stronger one. If the room be not very hiriie a good-
sized ventilator will sutlice with a moderate current.
The conditions of the tea-house are different. The
room is large and ventilation is most needed when
the temperature outside is hottest, ;. e. when the
current force is least. Suppose inside temperature
100 deg. and outside 100 deg., there would he no
current at all. The air outside is rarely more than
SO deg., so with a u-ldc enomfn exit and entrance
ventilation could be effected ; the taller the per-
pendicular tube tlmt eari'ios off the heated air, the
Ktrouger the current ; the wider tl'.e tube, the move
hBatC'd uif will be carried oJt It U just another
form of )i cliiiiinej-, turnac^, nsid furnace-door, A
high wid" (jhimne.V afordi* Hcope fof a lai'jie current
bi uil'i If !<■ b<: highly hoated thu air yoi-s up
ijiiickl.V.. If the dooi- allowing all' to tht' fiti'na'jO is
bptmfed, a gi'ei.t delil of uir will jiasii,

Tij have a good current in thi.s countl-y, a tall, wida
fiA^ is rc(|uired, or a fan, A plan for ventilating a tea
utoi-l wotild have to be made to suit the arrange-
menif) Kf the stove. Give me plans &q. and I would
furnish one for tl'lah— Voiivs fvu1y, 15.

/'. ,s'. — I see the write! of tliis \\m Hot under-
stood the principle on wiiich his ventilator
works. In his sketch he places arrows showing
air currents going out at both sides of the
dividend tube. The only advantage of the di-
vision is to make two passages out of one hole in
t)ie voof, so that cold air may enter byone

and hot air escape by the other. I see no use
for your incurving the expense of engraving it, as
it is the ordinaiy ventilator in use. OX course
it either the back or front door of the house
described were opened, the hot air would go out
at both holes, the cold air entering by the door ;
but in that case of course the division of the
tube is no advantage. .J. B.

BUC4,— NOTHING BUT BUG.

Dk.iiII Sik, — I am glad to see that the publish-
ing of Dr. Gardner's Eepovt on Coffee "Bug" has
attracted your " editorial " notice. You have had
many hints of late about the damage " black-bug "
was doing, but up to now you have shunned the
subject as if it was a Gould-created scandal.* I trust,
that, now you have taken tbe matter up, you will
worry away at it as if it was a "railway extension
to Uva." Y'our offstart, however, is not encour-
aging, and I trust you will see the error of your
ways, like Macbride, and mend them.

I have just re-read your pavagvaph to make
sure of what you have said, and really the article
is so unlike anything you put forward usually, that
I fear you must have been very busy when you
wrote it.

You begin the article by saying "Dr. Gardner's
report on coffee ' bug ' first saw the light in 184k when
it was fully discussed in the Ubscrrer." Will you
please say how many of the present generation of
planters this discussion enlightened ? What we do
know is that it was bavven of any good vesult.f
Y'ou go on to say:. "It (the report) is of historical
and personal rather than of practical or scienlific
interest. In fact, it is so far behind, in its scientific
portions, the level of the knowledge of the present
day, that it would probably be treated as absurd
and childish by advanced scientists." So far I
entirely agree with you. Y'ou then quote a
passage from the report itself to the ett'ect that
"black-bug" must wear itself out; but conclude
your article by saying "and there the discussion of
' bug,' like that of leaf-disea.se, must, we fear,
rest for Hie present." Rest for the present : I repeat
your closing words with emphasis, and ask, is the
Obsereer going to change its motto of Fiat Justitia
to lehiihodl Here is a scourge sweeping over the
land ruining all it touches. W'e don't know any-
thing about it, beyond the great d;unage it does.
We appeal to Government, who tell us a Dr. Gard.
ner wrote a report upon it 40 years ago. This
paper is got and handed to the conductors of tha
"press" for public enlightenment. The Observer in
noticing the vepovt calls it " absuvd and childish "
but fini-shes olf by saying " here the matter must
rent fur the present." Perhaps 40 years ago when the
subject wu , last discussed in the Db/erver this
conclusion was come to, and perhap.s thin may
be vepe.ttPd 40 yeni'i. hence, when th? BUbjecl
again ronien up fo!' discUiiijioni I always uiider-
fitooi! (he editors of thti obscrrnr took up a
matter of this* kind like an Ivishlnan did his
" isliilldlah," and Vapped evei'.vbody over the hc^ds
till they found out " who hit nie, father."

I have just )iai!sed tf) light my cheroot, and seeing
how much and what I have written, I tremble,
and I must conclude by honing you won't be hard
on me. But before closing let me earnestly entreat
you to take this matter up, and never stop, till

• We have repeatedly noticed it as a very old topic
on which there wasuothing new nor profitable lo be
Slid! — Eu.

t Quits so, and why reprint the paper or discussion ?
-El'.

Nov. 2, 1885]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

325

we know as much about it as we do of leaf-disease.
This last-named pest has been " worked out," and
we know the worst, which, if a poor, is a reliable
satisfaction. We are expected to " leave footprints
on the sands of time." Dr. Gardner's " footprints "
you admit .tre no good on this subject. Why then
should we let the matter '• rest tor the present " ?
No, no. " Now 's the day and now 's the hour," I
say : let us know the worst, if worst it is, so that
40 years afterwards our work can stand the light
of day and not be called " absurd and childish."

I don't expect you will do all I ask tor ray sake,
and 1 don't thinlc you would do it for your own
sake, but I do expect yon will do it for your adopted
country's sake. — Yours truly,

A BLACK-BUGGED SUPERINTENDENT.

rUoe!> this much-tried superintendent wish us to
advocate the employment of another Mr. Marshall
Ward, to obsen'e the working of bug, in order to
write its Ufe-history, and to tell us, that, as in
the case of the coffee fungus, the phylloxera, and
other similar pests, there is no practical remedy
within the reach of the agriculturist ? After the " leaf-
disease campaign " we should suppose that even
" bugged superintendents " would have cried" Hold'
enough," in referent e to further discussions of t he
same complexion. However, if our present corre-
spondent, or any other sufferer, has observations
to record, or opinions to express, we shall be glad
to hear from him and to discuss his views. — En.]

A Piece of Amber, weighing eight pounds, is at
present being exhibited in the Mark Museum at
Dantzig, for which the owner has refused £1,500.
It is probably the largest piece in the world without
blemish. — Pioneer.

Dii. Gardn-ek's Report on Coffee " Bug "
which first saw the light in 184S, when it was
fully discussed in the Uhscrver, and is now reprinted
at the instance of the Planters' Association, is
of historical and personal, rather than of pract-
ical or scientific interest. In fact it is so far be-
hind, in its scientific portions, the level of the
knowledge of the present day, that it would probably
be treated as absurd and childish by advanced
scientists. Dr. Trimen is responsible for remind-
ing the Planters' Association of the existence of
this Report, but we question if the worthy Di-
rector has been flattered by the request to have
it reprinted after a lapse of well-nigh forty years.
However the paper is a curiosity in itself" and
we may reprint all, or selected portions, in the
Tropical Agriculturist. As regards remedies,
Gardner had just the same story to relate as
regards " bug" as we have since experienced in
respect of "H. V." or tho leaf fungus; — numerous
remedies tried: none have had the desired effect.
Dr, Gardner closed his report, with the passage
\v8 have so often quoted, namely ;—•

" From all I hava seen of the pest, I am Inclined to
believe that i: is not under huuian control ; and that,
if over it disappears from the island, or at least
becoxucs 80 r.u;ch ftmel;or.T,;ed in its effects as
to be productive of but littlo injury to the
coffee estates, it will be by rumiing itself
out as blights of a somewhat similar nature
have been kiio\ni to do in other countries. But
whether this may prove to be the case with the coc-
cus of the coffee is micertaiii, as the experience of the
last live years goes to prove its permanency.
And there, the lUscussion of " bug" like that
of "leaf disea.se' mu.st, we fear, rest for the
present. In a subsequent communication to Gov-
ernment, we think Dr. Gardner recommended
pumping warm water on bug-infested coffee trees!

The Dominica Estates.— -A contemporary says : —
"The sugar crop for the year is over. Notwith-
standing many drawbacks during cultivation, it is
not below the average. The greater part of this
( ) -> has been sent to New York, as was done last
year in consequence of the depressed state of the
English markets. .\. temporary ad\ance in these
markets a few mouths ago, it was cx)ifcted, would
cause a larger proportion of sugar to tind its way to
England this year than last, but the rapid decUne
in prices which has lately taken place, with a still
downward tendency, has rendered a much further
trial of the English market this season exception-
ally doubtful." — Overlaml Mail.

Fi.ii Tea.— Mr. Inglis, of Inglis, : Brown * Co.,
Sydiiey, writes in a letter to our address. " The
Indian branch keeps steadily progresing. We have
had very good samples of tea from Fiji. I send
you a couple. Ceylon tea w-e would like to handle,
but as long as you can get such good prices for
Ceylon-grown tea in London, it would be no use
sending it here, as the colonial mind still hesitates
at giving a good price for a high-class article. If
we could have a real and not a sham inspection at
this port to exclude deleterious and artificially
doctored China stuff', both India and Ceylon would
reap large benefit."

To Mr. Wilson of Messrs. Somerville A Co.,
vc are indebted for the following opinion on the
Fiji teas. Pekoe ,Souchong, lO^d — rather loosely
twisted blackish gi-eyish leaf, rather dull flavor thin.

Orange Pekoe, is lOd on account of tip — blackish
brownish mixed leaf, some peokoe ends dusty, fair
flavor rather thin.

N.B. — In consequence of the above samples having
been kept so long in paper, they have been rendered
dull, the valuationsare therefore a httlo uncertain.

Anthkactte is China. — Four centuries ago
China obtained procelain clay from Ceylon. It
is impossible, in view of the following paragi-aph,
that China may yet, by a reverse process, send
anthracite to Ceylon for tea drying and other
purposes. China is more richly blessed with coal
than, almost any country, and is remarkable chiofiy
for its enormous deposits of anthracite. Rapheal
Pumpelly estimates the area of the anthracite fields
of the Chansi Province at 14,000 square miles,
with an average thickness of 40 feet of coal,
while the smaller basin in the south of Hunan
has the advantage of being tapped by a navigable
river. — Ameriani Grocer.

An Indian Tea Gomivuny. — The report of the directors
of iheDurrungTea Company for the half-year ending
30lh June last is not a very insinriting affair. The
balance in hand at the commencement of this year,
after making provision for a dividend, &o,, appears
to have been some K9,808. Tea sold subsequently
has realized E23,019, and there is due to tho
National Bank and to the Agents E9,237. Some
B40,099 has been expended on account o£ 1885, and
there is some 112,009 in the manager's hands. Of
theR40,099 so spent, only E15,1J18 appears to have
been expended on cultivation, new cultivation, pluck,
ing, manufacturing, and bonus and freight on coolies;
the balance having gone in European establishment,
agency charges, .and the thousand and one little items
which make a tea company's account resemble a
coaclibuilder's bill, much cry and little wool. Of
course there has been red spider and curly blight — ■
no tea agent's report would be complete without
them ; if there could only be a murrain among tho
charges extending unto the agents, the shareholders
could better enilure it, but tea agency charges always
show a " llush," and unfortunately there is no one
to prune them. — " Fionccr," Calcutta Cor,

326

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885;

The Soma Plant of Hindu Mttholoov. — The
naturalist with the Boundary Commission has, he
believes, found the Soma plant, the e^dstence of
which has for so long remained a mystery. The
plant grows like a weed near Herat ; and is a most
insignificant specimen of the botanical world. There
are two kinds found there, one with a large reddish
brown fruit, and the other bearing a smaller fruit.
The plant has no leaves, but consists of a number
of jointed twigs like the fingers of a hand starting
from a stumpy stem. It answers the various descrip-
tions given of it very closely, and is still used by
the fire worshippers in Persia and Bornbay for their
tire worship. The Pathans make an infusion of it,
which is extensively used as a tonic and stimulant ;
and it is also dried and afterwards pounded for use
as snuff. — Madras Mail.

Coffee Consumption in Amemca goes on in-
creasing after a fashion which leaves Europe en-
tirely behind. The American Grocer states: —
Wliile the consumption for the first third of the
year shows a gain of over 28 per cent, the de-
crease in May and -June has reduced it to a gain
over the first half of 188-1 of 16-07 per cent. We
will not be surprised if the movement for the next
six months cuts down the increase to 10 or 12
per cent. We recognize, however, elements at work
that must result in heavier gains in consumption
than could be expected six to eight years ago.
Fifty years ago there was not a complete appar-
atus for roasting coffee in this country. The first
was brought over from England in 18.33 or 1834, prior
to which time a machine operated by band fiUed
all the requirements of this great city. Now we
have giant estabUshments, one of which employs
dozens of large cylinder roasters and turns out
1,000 bags of roasted coffee daily. In every city
of respectable size one finds the large cylinder
roaster in operation. This is the work of the past
twenty years, and the result is a slow revolution in
changing the demand of consumers, especially in
the South and Southwest, from green to roasted
coffee. This has made the berry a greater favorite,
because the professional roaster has given the con-
sumers a better and more uniform roasted berry
than they could secure at home by means of
skillet or frying pan. The result has been the in-
fusion is more pleasing to the palate, and therefore
more generously used. Within a few years it has
become the fashion to liave cofl'ee served at lunch
counters and soda water fountains, it being a pop-
ular beverage with tens of thousands wlio have taken
to its use in lieu of spirits or malt liquors. It seems
to be a pleasant and powerful stimulant, and as
its good qualities become more widely known, it
grows in favor as a beverage, and is supplanting
other articles of drink in and out of the household.
While the consumption advances here it has not
gained much, if any, in Europe. The May de-
liveries were 54,247 tons, against 53,503 for the same
month in 1884, and 30,630 in 1883. For the first
five months of 1885 they were 159,157 on the
Continent, and with the deliveries in the United
Kingdom added they foot up 173,901 tons, against
148,992 in 1884, 200,("l50 tons in 1883. The European
trade' fell off heavily in 1884 as compared with
1883, and thus far the loss has not been recovered,
the ' deliveries for the first five months being
sli"htly below the average yearly distribntion for
five years. Messrs. James Cook & Co. of London
report the deliveries for Europe and the United
States to Mav 31st at 273,134 tons, against 227.272
in 1884, 279,115 in 1883. If the consumption in
Europe ' had increased as rapidly as it has in
this country prices would undoubtedly range
higher.

A Grave Mistake. — The following is from the
American Exporter : — " We get coconut oil from
India and Ceylon at gi'eat cost for freight, etc.,
each tree being taxed one rupee by the Govern-
ment, while right under our noses the coasts of
Honduras are fringed for miles and miles with
coconut palms which pay no tax and cost not a
cent to anybody for creature. The '• cohoon "
palm or the " coroso," as the Spanish call it,
is absolutely unknown to our commerce, and yet
the oil produced in the comparatively small kernel
of the adamantine, marble like nut is as delicate
as the finest olive oil, and with American machinery
could be made an important adjunct to our wealth."
Coconut palms in Ceylon pay no tax, unless
they are devoted to supplying juice which fer-
ments as toddy and is distilled into arrack. Trees
producing nuts, used as food or expressed into oil,
pay not a cent. — " American papers please copy."

SwMjips. — Our swamps produce abundance of veget-
ation— white papeiy-barked melaleucas and other
aromatic plants — which may account for their non-
malarious nature. Supposing, by circumstances, that
these swamps lost their coating of vegetation, an un-
healthy atmosphere would most likely be generated
and malarious fevers be produced. Probably the paper-
barked melaleucas would be better in warm countries
than Encali/pti. Their leaves give off much oil of the
Cajepiit quality, and they will live with their roots for
long periods submerged in water. When, however,
permanent water forms over their roots, a quantity
of fresh rootlets are thrown out at the surface of
the water, so that such roots can respire the air
necessary for the vitality of the submerged roots.
These submerged roots are never water-logged, and
small sections of them made will even float from
the quantity of air they have circulating through
them, and such roots no doubt tend to aerate water-
logged soil and ameliorate its exhalations. — Queens-
lanter land Pand Farmer.

The Pkoposed Loans to Planters. — At a recent
meeting of the Trinidad Legislative Council, Sir
Arthur Havelock, tlie Governor, said : — " I have
to communicate to the Council a telegraphic
message which was received by me from the
Secretary of State on .July 4th. At the time of its
receipt I communicated it to one or two of the
unofficial members of Council, and the message
became a matter of public notoriety. l!ut before
taking further action on this telegraphic message
I thought it would be as well to await the poss-
ibility of receiving further expression of opinion from
the Secretary of State, but by the mail which
arrived on July 31st I have merely received from
the Secretary of State a duplicate of the telegraphic
dispatch that he sent me on the 4th, without any
further explanation. I think it probably useless
for me to await further information, and I will
therefore bring it before the Council. (His Ex-
cellency after reading the telegi'am, which had already
been published, continued.) This matter seems, in
the opinion of the Secretary of State, to rest with
the Legislative Council, and it seems to me that
perhaps the best plan for arriving at some definite
idea of what is wanted would be to ask a com-
mittee of the Council to consider the terms of this
despatch, and to lay the result of their delibci-
ations before the Council for lurther consideration.
I would therefore ask the Colonial Secretary. Mr.
Fenwick, and Mr. P'inlayson to be kind enough
to form a Committee to consider tliis dispatch,
and report whether there is any matter arising
out of it which they can recommend for the
consideration of the Secretary of State." The
■uggeetion was agreed to. — Colonies and India,

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

327

A Physician of S. Paulo, Dr. M. Axinda, claims
for the juice of the manriabeira (Hoticronia speeiofa)
pieat curative properties iu pulmonary consumption.
The immense mortality caused by this disease all
over the empire makes this question oue of inter-
est. A drawback to the treatment is that the patient
must reside on the spot where the plant gi-ows
and take the juice freshly extracted. — Bio AVics.

Greex Koses. — A correspondent wiites : — " There
is to be seen in the compound of the School of Arts
a green rose tree, the property of the Superintend-
ent. The plant was ori-rinally imported from
Darjeehng by Captain Tufnell, of the Commissariat
Department. — Jlodrax j\Iail. [Creiltit ! Some shade
of yellow, probably, affected by an abnormal growth,
petals being but another form of leaves. — Ed.]

Ginger. — The Britisli Trade Journal says : —
" The cultivation of Ginger in Jamaica is said
to be dj-ing out, on account of the persistent
cultivation of the same plant on the same land for
a long series of years. Only the richest and best
lands are suitable for the cultivation of Ginger, and
as it is a very exhausting crop, the production of
the article sn the island depends on the resene of
good land still available where it is cultivated."

Macatios-i with Tomato Sauce. — Break half a pound
of mac;uoni into inch-lengths, and cook twenty
minutes in boiling salted water. Meantime, take a
cup of broth from your soup ; strain, boil and skim
it, an 1 slice into it four ripe tomatoes. Stew tended
and strain through net or tarlatan, into a saucepan.
Season well ; stir into it a great spoonful of butter
rolled in flour. Simmer five minutes ; put the
macaroni into a deep dish, sprinkling gi'ated cheese
over each layer, and pour the hot sauce over it,
opening the mass with a fork, to let it reach the
lower layers. — Dinner Year Book. [As tomatoes seem
now to be plentiful and cheap, some of our readers
may like to try the above. — Ed.]

Tfa Cultcbe in Natai,. — Mr. HuUett, in the
cour-e of a letter to the inj/icw on the subject
of tea culture, says : — •• It may be safely assumed
that .50,000 lb. weight of tea mil be made in Natal
during the coining season, with a very large in-
crease each succeeding year." Mr. Hullett and
other experts show in tlie Witness that the acreage
devoted to tea plants is rapidly increasing in Natal,
where a dozen plantations aheady exist, and the
climate is not too dry for the scrub. Coffee, how-
ever, does not thrive, as it requires a heavy rain-
fall and humidity to give fair crops. It also re-
quires altitude, which causes much expense in labour
ai d transport. The Natal tea is now prepared skil-
fully, and s liked by connoisseurs. — Colonics and India.
'Ih' h'olonial Polilixrlie Cnrrespoudenz , in an article
upf n the flcrman stations in Eastern .\fnca, states
that the German East African Company has suc-
cjcded in bringing under the (Jerman flag 4,500
square miles of fertile and salubrious territory in a
ctntral situation. The article continues as follows :
— " The experiment of estabhshing a factory and a
first agricultural station at Usugara has already
bfen made and the company now proposes'to estab-
lish five military stations, upon an agricultural
1 asis, which on the one hand will servo for the
militarj- instruction of the negroes by capable officers
now on the spot, with the object of forming a native
(orps of defence, while, on the other hand, experi-
ments will be made of working plantations by means
of native or Asiatic labourers. Messrs. Krupp have
provided guns of the new construction for the de-
fence of these stations, which are to form the cen-
tral point of the labours of the German East African
company, and a field for the investment of private
capitalists interested in Eastern Africa."— Or^r-
land Hail.

A M.iNGANESE Mine.— For some years past (says
ihe Port Aafiiista Despatch) the existence of a de-
posit of manganese ore near Gordon has been well
known, and the lode was once worked for some
time by an Adelaide Company. The lirst shipment
of ore sent to England realized about £2 per ton
profit, the second just paid expenses, but on the
third there was a loss, and the mine was then stop-
ped. Mr. George Prout, a gentleman well known
in mining circles in tliis colony, has now taken the
property in hand, and will give it a more exliaust-
ive trial than it has yet had. He has visited the
locahty, and is confident that he can raise a
large quantity of ore of a percentage sutliciently high
to yield a profit after defraj-ing the expenses of
working and shipment of ore to England.

Decay of Gum Forests.— The Eev. Peter Jl-Pher-
son's paper on some of the causes of the decay of
Australian forests which was read before the Eoyal
Society_ last week was both valuable and interesting.
There is no doubt concerning the fact of the decay.
In some districts there may be seen hundreds of
acres of gum forests in this condition. Mr. M'Pherson
advances the theory that the destruction has been
caused by opossums having devoured the leaves, and
in this way produced the disease of tree consump-
tion. The circumstance that this decay on such
an extensive scale is a recent phenomenon Mr.
M'Pherson explains, by the assumption that the
opossums have largely increased in consequence of
the disappearance of the aboriginals, who used to
cat the animals, and by that means unintentionally
limited their power to do mischief to the forests.
There are weak points in the induction ; but Mr.
M'Pherson's theory is supported by intelligent squat-
ters and farmers, and also by the blacks. — Sydney
Hail.

[Many square miles of withered gums which we
saw near Sale, in Gipps Land, were said to have
been destroyed by leaf-eating moths.— Ed.]

Tba-Deying by Siroccos. — With reference to the
complaint of a conespoudent signing " A. F. S."
in our columns some weeks ago, Messrs. \V. H.
Davies & Co. forward to us a letter from Messrs.
Davidson & Co. of Belfast dated 3rd September,
from which we quote as follows:— " We notice
' A. F. S.,' the writer to the Observer, on the bOth
July states in italics that we laid considerable
stress in a circular issued some time ago on
the fact that ' tea could not be burnt in a temper-
ature of 300 dey. F.' Now we nerer did say any
such thing, and ' A. F. S.' must be ([uoting from
our pamphlet No. (i'2, copy of which we send you,
and on p. 8 you wiU note that we say .TOO dcg. F.
can be used if the teas have become soft-fla cored,
BUT very great attention is required at this' temper-
ature, because, left long in this temperature, dis-
coloration of the infused leaf would be the result,
whereas at 2<i0 deg. F. the leaf is scarcely percept-
ibly darkened in color no matter how long it may
be left in the machine at that temperature, Ac.
We always pointed to 2G0 deg. F. as the right temper-
ature for air to pass through the tea at. Although
our No. 3 Sirocco thermometers were marked at
320 deg. F. yet the currents mixing therewith ought
to have reduced it to 260 deg. F. befoie striking
the bottom of the lower row of travs. In point of
fact however in the No. 3 this dilution did not
properly take place, and point of impact on first tray
was often over-dried and burnt. In the T shape,
however, the mixing and dilution is perfectly
eiTected, and we now do get the amount of drying
done claimed for and at the safe temperature of
2G0 deg. instead of 320 deg."

328

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov, 2, 1885.

Chocolate from Palm-teees. — The good people
Bt home seem to be uncommonly bothered by the
two products cacao and coconut. Messrs. Fry *
Sons, who have made a speciality of " Ceylon
chocolate," illustrate their advertisements of it
with the picture of a man cUmbing a coconut
pahn and throwing cacao beans down to the
gatherers below !

EoTTiNG Timber. — The Bnihler, referring to the
rotting of timber, makes the following remark, which
should be noted : — " The MeniJius hii-ri/iiniiin is flic
connuon wood fungus that destroys nine-lenths of the
wood witli which we are acquainted. The reason
of it being common to new buildings and not to
old, is that moisture, one of the constituents,
of its existence, is more present in new green
buildings than in old dry seasoned ones. The two
prime conditions of its existence are moisture and
heat ; it moisture is present without heat it will not
grow, and hence its depredations in the winter
time are unknown. If heat is present without
moisture, it will not grow, and hence ventilation
for the passage of a current of dry air will prove
fatal to its existence. — Indian Agricultnriftl.

The Depressed Position of Fiji is thus indicated
in an article in the Fiji Times : — Production
has ceased and labourers are in excess of
demand because proprietors are no longer cultiv-
ators. In many cases the tardy Indian relief was
too long in arriving. Before the small planters
could avail themselves of it, cash and credit was
exhausted. In others, even the advantage so offered,
cannot tempt to a doubtful venture under con-
ditions as to the return in labour which reduce the
chances of success to a minimum. Therefore those
who aforetime actively devoted their energies to
agriculture now vegetate as coconut collectors. In-
stead of cultivating, they watch palm trees grow.
To gather^ tlie nuts and to raise tlie little produce
necessary for household consumption a few local
labourers are employed, where the once prosperous
settlers can afford it ; or if he cannot, he, his wife,
and children, make the copra and grow the yams.
As a simple naked fact, there is no class of small
producers. Those who once composed it have suc-
cumbed to the force of officially created circum-
stances. Hence the prevailing stagnation ; and
hence the triumphant success of the Government
policy evidenced by Fijians seeking in vain for work;
by Polynesians and Indians in excess of demand,
because demand has ceased; and bj' small proprietors
who, from the tact that they are no longer small
producers, are neither in want of labour now,
" nor likely to be in any want for some time to
come." If Fiji is to recover from its present state
of depression it must be by again making these
small i^roprietors actual producers. First, the Fijian
labour supply must be rendered practically avail-
able, so that the men now searcliing lor work may
find it on tlie abandoned plantations, to tlie mutual
benefit of tliemselves and their employer. When
these are profitably engaged, arrangements must be
made to renew the introduction under deferred jiay-
ments — a matter which will then present no diffic-
ulty. Witli the small planter, the small trader
must also be recalled to lite, by a considerable
modification, if not an entire abandonment of the
native tax-scheme, and with these two classes acti\'ely
and profitaldy engaged the prosperity of the country
will rapidly return. If this course is not adopted,
there is before Fiji a future as the areua for the
operation of a few large sugar Companies, but as
a field for settlement its career will close in the
irretrievable ruin of all lliose who have been so
long associated with its attempted development.

A Small Dose of Sulphub given to pigs once in
two or three weeks, will keep them free from disease .ind
^;-eatly increase their general thr.ft.— Gui-A iirs' Mufdlih/.
Coconut Balls. — One pound coconut finely grated;
one pound sugar ; two whites of egg. Put them all
into a saucepan, and stir, over a brisk fire, for
twelve to fifteen minutes, then turn out on a marble
slab and let it cool. Mould them, with your fingers,
into small, round balls, the size of an English
walnut, place them on a buttered tin sheet, and bake
to a light brown tint, in a moderate oven. They
are also called cones, or drops, when they are moulded
into those foi-ms, respectively. — American Grocer.

SnoAB in Fiji. — If only labour can be plenti-
fully and cheaply obtained and sugar can be sold
at remunerative prices there seems a great future
for Fiji as a sugar-producing colony,— that is to
say if the average yield is anything like what is
recorded in the Fiji Times :— It is satisfactory to
learn that the Eewa cane yield is even surpassing the
expectations founded upon the magnificent appear-
ance of the crops. From a very considerable area the
big mill has obtained a return of three tons of sugar
to the acre, and in one case this has been doubled.
On the Vunicibicibi Estate, Messrs. J. C. Smith &
Co.'s, a portion has yielded at the rate of over GO
tons of cane, and six tons of sugar per acre. What
this means may be guessed from the fact that in
other sugar growing countries 25 cwt. is an average
yield.

Coffee in Brazil.— The result of the 1884-85
coffee crop becomes a subject for remark and
offers a further proof of ]io_w necessary has it
become that some system be organized, through
which a fairly correct estimate of the probable
out-turn of a crop may be arrived at. We have
had no syndicate in Rio during the past year,
and the stock held by tlie banks for account
of the defenders of Brazilian interests has been
shipped, whether for realization, or as legitimate
purchases, we are not prepared to state. We
were persuaded so far back as October last that
the estimate of 3J million bags as the probable
out-turn of the 1884-85 crop was. erroneous, but
our information was against our persuasion and
we could only repeat what was reported to us.
The croji year shows receipts of over i millions of
bags and furnishes yet another factor for discredit-
ing estimates based upon information furnished
by interested parties, such as planters and their
immediate representatives, the factors. The ex-
planations given for the large receipts, when the
crop was considered a small one, were that the
planters were pressed by their fac tors and
obliged to market Iheir crops as rapidly as possible ;
very favorable weather had assisted to prepare the
crop for market ; every excuse was offered, except
the principal one, that the painters and their
representatives were in league to endeavour by un-
reliable information to influence consming mark-
ets and thus rc-conp a part at least of losses
made in their patriotic attempt to prop up prices.
We defy any disinterested person to dispute our
assertion, that there is a systematic attempt,
year by year, to blind exporters as to the coffee
crops. The factors, who are in direct communic-
ation with the planters, are directly interested iu
maintaing prices, and amusing results, at times,
occur. It is not new that a croji has been repre-
s(mted at 200 per cent, less* than a preceding one,
nor that a planter declaring his own crop to be
above an average one, asserts that his neighbors are
suffering from all the ills to which coffee planters
arc liable. — Rio News.

* 200 per cent »i ore is possible : but 200 per cent less ?
Surely 100 per cent less meaus nothin;/ ? — Ed.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3%

The Darjeelixg Tea and CHnccnoyA Assor--
ATiox, Limited, soon after they had efifeci:>i
the purchase of General Angus's property, ma-ic-
urontlrous pi'ofit?- by cinchona bark. But such
times for India and Ceylon both have departed,
and in the latest report of the Company they say : —
The einchoua plfLutatiou has been kept in good
order and tlie trees are making good progress. It
is, however, now proposed not to cut any I.ark
this seaion as besides the increase another year
will make in the thickness and consequent \-aXue of
the bark, the market at present is so dull that it would
not be advisable to make any shipment. — rioiwer.

The Ri-ssiax Tea Tkade. — A new dangei- to
British commercial interests is indicated by our
Consul at Hankow. Mr. C. Alal)aster. Hithei-to a
large proportion of the tea supplied to the Russian
markets has reached its destination in English
ships I'ia London, but the direct trade via Odessa
has enormously increased during the past tour years.
In 1880 only 4,84.i),4531b. went direct to Odessa,
but last year no less than 11, (581, 1401b. were shipped
to that port in Eussian and Cienman vessels. The
export to Russia lia Tientsin and the Annu showed
a slight falling off, though still largely in advance
of past years. Altogether 24,000.0001b. went direct
to Russia against 37,000,0001b. to London, show-
ing a steady progi-essive increase in the former. As
everything points to Russia being eventually'the
chief market for China teas, it means, says Mr.
Alabaster, our being ousted in great measure, if
not entirely, from the trade.

Agbiccltdiul Educ.ytiok Policy in Madkas.
— The saparation of the School of Agriculture from
the Agricultural Department, and the bringing of tlie
bitter into more practical and intimate relations with
the agriculture of the country, precisely as contemp-
lated by the Government of India. Under his scheme
the School of Agriculture would be purely scientific,
and the Agricultural Department nothing if not pract-
ical. After a while, it would be made a condition
precedent of admission to the school that the candidate
should have studied practical farming for two years.
For the purpose of atfording this practical training,
Mr. 'Wilson at that time contemplated the establish-
ment of Goverimient example farms. With regard to
the future agricultural policy of the Government, His
Excellency the Governor in Council proposes in the
first place to abandon the Saidapet Farm on its present
scale as a practical failure. The work there has ex-
cited some general interest among the agricultural
population in improved agricultural machinery, but
little more than this has been accomplished. The farm
is too small for stock breeding, its soil is unsuitable
and our knowledge of Indian crops too limited as yet
for useful experiments. No mew farms will be instit-
uted, but experiments will, where necessary, be carried
out, with the assistance of private agency under the
general supervision of the Agricultural Department.
Meanwhile, native agriculture and the analysis of dis-
tricts will be carefully studied by the Agricultural
Reporter with a view to introduce better methods where
they are wanted, but there only. Further than this the
Government are not at present disposed tn go. To
assist the Agricultural Reporter in investigation, the
Government propose eventually to entertain a small
body of District Agricultural Inspectors whose salaries
will be met from the savings which will accrue from
the abolition of the farm. These men will, previous to
their entertainment, have undergone a course of train-
ing at the Government Agricultural School. The
further proposal of the Director of Public Instruction
to attach some M or 40 acres of land to the college as
a farm ajmeirr. as a field for practical demonslration
and traim'ng for the .students of the college is approved;
the management of this land will be under the conti-ol
of the Educational Department. The necessary details
of administration of the agricultural school, and the
cousreofiiistroctionto be followed therein, will receive
consideration in the Educational.Department, tolwhich
department these papers will be now commumcated.

42

TiTF, BiiAcKEN Fekn, Ptfris esciilenta, seems to
be as great a nuisance to the agriculturalist of
these parts as the rabbits are to the squatter.
The rich volcanic soils feed it well, and it spreads
and developcs accordingly. It costs a good deal,
both in trouble and money, to keep it down.
Burning the fern only seems to make it grow
all tlie more luxuriantly next year ; chopping the
;• roots" apparently tends to spread it. Would
It be deemed impertinent if I were to offer a hin,
for coping with the bracken fern difficulty? Per-
haps it would be as well for me to give the
reasons why my hint would prove useful. The
so-called "root" of tlie bracken is in reality an
undergi-ound stem, or rhizome, the same part which
111 the tree fern we regard as the trunk. Within
this stem, underground or aboveground, there is
stored each year a supply of starch and other
plant food. Every year's fronds contribute to the
supply. The young opening fronds draw upon the
vegetable banking account until they are fully de-
veloped, and tlien they repay the parent by con-
tributing towards the stored up supply in the
stem. It is evident, therefore, that if we cut or
mow down the young, half-coiled fronds of the
bracken, just at the time when they are developing,
and when they have been abstracting the nourish-
nient from the stem, the latter will be impover-
ished. If we mow them down year by vear the
stems must wither and die. They will be quite
bankrupt, in short, for the mown ferns will have
consumed all iiie available capital. This may seem
a rather tedious process, but in a few years it
would prove an effective one.— Dit. Tavlob in
Australasian.

Agriciltukal Education at Ho.me and Abboad.—
Although the French Government voted 3,512,000f.
for agricultural education this year, the Edio Auri-
colc says it is not enough, aud that the several
departments need to complete the organisation. In
England we are accustomed to think that agricult-
ural instruction is very liberally provided lor iu
France; but our French contemporary complains
that they have in France only one institute of
agriculture, one national school of agriculture, and
one of horticulture, 14 schools of pracHcal agricult-
ure, two shepherds' schools, one school of pract-
ical horticulture, two foraging schools, 2:; farm schools,
one cowhouse for breeding, two silkworm rearing
schools, two primary agricultural schools, one agri-
cultural and two horticultural courses of lectures in
primary schools, 42 orphanages and agricultuial
colonies, 85 departmental professors of agriculture,
tiiree chairs of agriculture iu Algeria, four chairs
of agricultural chemistry, and 31 agricultural ita-
tions ; while Germany has 14 agricultural institutes,
4.51 primary agricultural schools, 71 school of agi-i-
culture, seven veterinary schools, nine superior
institutes of pomology and arboriculture, 04
agricultural schools of various kinds, 15 schools
of practical horticulture, 11 dairy schools, fiv 0
schools of agriculture for girls, one school of
sugar refining, one school of distilling, 30 special
courses of agricultural lectures, 65 agricultural sta-
tions, and 37 professors of agriculture. Italy,
most persons will be surprised to learn, has
tlirce superior and 22 practical schools of agricult-
ure, all created since 18S0, six special schools,
four of which are for viticulture and wine making,
and 1!) agricultural orphanages and colonies depend-
ent entirely upon the municipalities. Even little
Denmaik has an agiicultural institute with 223
pupils and 22 professors, 10 practical schools of
agriculture, and 40 superior primary schools which
give agricultural instruction.— i'tiro^jjenH Mail.

330

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

FNov. 2, i88j.

Mr.s. Atzf.roth, who is said to have raised the
first col'fee in the United States, now lias twenty-five
flourishing coffee trees on her i^lantation at Manatee,
Florida. — American Grnrer.

A New Sifter. — We would direct attention
to a very cleverly contrived tea-sorting machine,
the invention of Mr. Vietor Miiller, of the Borelli
Tea Co. It is called the Borelli Tea Sifter, and,
judging from the certificates obtained by Mr.
Miiller from managers who have used it, it is a
decided acquisition to tea machinery. It gives
less trouble and does quicker work than any other
sifters, and one great advantage in it ie the ab-
sence of that deafening noi.se and lieavy dust
which render a sorting-house a Pandemonium. A
trial of this sifter should inevitably lead to its
adoption. — Indian Tea Gazette.

The Yield of Tea in Java. — The yield of tea in
Java is nearly double that of Indian gardens, but
although Java teas are finer in appearance than
Indians, they lack strength in the cup. Some very
good prices have lately been obtained for Java teas,
their appearance being much in their favour. Java
teas used to be packed in a somewhat similar manner
to Chinese, but from many estates packages are now sent
forward plain, to resemble Indian chests. — JU.Mail,
[The average for Indian gardens being '605, it follows,
if this statement is correct, that the Java average is
610 lb. per acre. But we should like to see the
statement confirmed. As to sending Java tea away
in boxes resembling those from China, we may
mention that from Mr. Kerkhoven's estate at
Sinagar, we took specimens of paper coverings for
the chests on which were lithographed Chinese
designs, the printing being done in the factory. — Eu.]

Calcutta and the Indian Tea Industry are thus
noticed by Mr. Thomas Farr, in an account con-
tributed to the local " Times " of a trip to the
Indian tea districts : —

The streets of Calcutta are in most cases a disgrace
to such a wealthy city, and the "metal," which is
brought over from Ceylon and Bombay by ships as
ballast, is only imperfectly blinded with brick-dust.
There is, however, an air of wealth about the whole
place which cannot but strike one most forcibly, and
tea appears to be an important factor in this appar-
ent prosperity. Carts laden with tea are met with
everywhere, and in the large sheds along the jetties
enormous piles of tea chests are awaiting shipment.
In every street of the European quarter of the city,
names of tea companies engraved on marble slabs
are seen near the palatial offices of the agents, and
I caimot help endorsing the opinion of the licad of
one of the leading houses in Calcutta, that in a few
years Colombo will acquire a large share of this
prosperity. The high yield of our Ceylon estates,
and the high prices obtained for our teas, are at-
tracting considerable attention in Calcutta, and are
viewed with some alarm by those interested in
Darjeeling, but it is believed that the Dooars, Cacliar,
Sylhet andj Assam will hold their own against Ceylon,
both in yield and in the quality of their teas. One
can only hope it may be so from increased consump-
tion, and that there is every reasonable prospect of
this must be conceded. At present tea has not
found its way to any extent amongst the enormous
native population of India, whilst the inliabitants of
Thibet within easy reach of Darjeeling draw all
their supplies from China. It is the winter which
prevails in India during five months of the year
which should give Ceylon priority in yield, for, if
in seven months, four or five niaunds per acre is
secured in India, surely 10 months' plucking will do
as much for Ceylon. I should not wish it to be
thought that I write this in .any spirit of rivalry.
Far from it indeed, for, after the cordial hospitality
with which I w'as everywhere received, I should
appear ungrateful, but I merely express my convic-
tions, and I can only hope there will be room in the
world's markets for us all.

Wild Bieds as Insect Destroyers. — With reference
to a resolution passed at a meeting of the Trinidad
Agricultural Society, we understand that a communic-
ation has been received by the Secretary to the
effect that the Acting Colonial Secretary has issued
instructions to the Wardens and Police authorities
with a view to strictly enforcing the provisions of the
Wild Birds Protection Ordinance of 1881, which was
taken from the English statute on the same subject
(43 and 44 Vic, chap. 35). — Coloniex et India.

Salt for the Throat,. — In these days, when diseases
of the throat are so universally prevalent, and in so
many cases fatal, we feel it our duty to say a word
in behalf of a most effectual, if not positive, cure
for sore throat. For many years past — indeed, we
may say during the whole of a life of more than
forty years — we have been subject to a dry hacking
cough, which is not only distressing to ourselves
but to our friends and those with whom we are
brought into business contact. Last autumn we were
induced to try what virtue there was in common
salt. We commenced by using it three times a
day — morning, noon, and night. We disolved a
large tablespoonful of pure table salt in about
half a small tumblerful of water. With this we
gargled the throat thoroughly just before meal-time.
The result was that during the entire winter we were
not only free from coughs and colds but the dry
hacking cough had entirely disappeared. We attrib-
ute the satisfactory results solely to the use of salt
gargle, and most cordially recommend a trial
of it to those wdio are subject to disease 'of the
throat. Many persons who have not tried the salt
gargle have the impressions that it is unpleasant,
but after a few days' use no person who loves a
nice clean mouth and a first-rate sharpener of the
appetite will abandon it. — The Monsehold.

A Chakcoal-iliking Kiln. — In Ceylou as well as
Southern India, the Moreau Charcoal kiln, costing
about R700 to E7o0, may be found useful. Mr.
Gamble, Conservator of Forests, in api^lying for
one through the Madras Government, stated that
the return of charcoal to timber would be 2.5 per
cent. We quote as follows : —

I have the honor to submit copy of an office note with
endorsement to the Collector of Nilgiris, No. 8-C, of 4th
JMay, with his reply as well as eiiclnsures, being (1) the
translation of a tetter from Messrs. Bichon and Co. of
Paris, and (2) the description of a clojied irou charcoal-
making kiln, and to ask tliat the Board will either
accord sanction to my purchasiug one of the kilns for
experiment or send indent for it on Her Majesty's
Secretary of State in the prescribed manner iu such a
way that it may be received at the beginning of next
official year. "NVith the Bo.ird's approval the fuuds
neces.sury will be provide'! in the bfclget for 1880-8";
this year they would not be available. 2. In reg.iid to
the Collector's remarks as to the amount of wood one
machine would take, 1 have the honor to say that the
couttnts of the kiln would be 200 cubic feet nearly, so
that, reckoning 70 cubic fict of slacked fuel to the ton,
it would hold nearly 3 tons, and give at least oiie-fourth
or 15 cwt. of charcoal. 3. The purchase of the ap-
paratus is, 1 confess, but an experiment. So far as can
be judged by the account of it, it appears to me to be
likely to prove very useful and to save the trouble and
damage tu the ground which result fi-om the ordinary
sy.stem, while giving a better outturn and also a con-
siderable quantity of tar. If it proves successful, it
will make it possilde to utilize the produce of forests
now too distant for working, and more especially in
the Nilgiris to make the produce of the Oooiioor plant-
ations, for which there is at present very little demands
and where good flat })laces for ordiuary charcoal kiln,
are very difficult to find, available for the supply of
Ootacaraund and even of places in the plains. If it
proves as successful as I anticipate, 1 expect that the
accruing products, tar, &a., will alone pay for its costs
the first year.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

331

■SVOODS AND FORESTS IN EUEOPK AND
AMERICA.
Area iu statute Woods and Forests

£ussia iu Europe
Norway
Sweden
Denmark ...
Germany ...

Holland

Belgium

France

Italy

Australia Proper ..
Hungary

acres.

1,244,31)7,351

76.71ti.9«5

100,614,950

8,573,396

133,075,923

8,1109.328

7,2^0,3G2

30,557.281

73,UI1,SS2

C9,3S8,4S2

83,205,120

acres.

527,420,510

18,920,509

42,305,938

398,877

34,181,974

532,714

1,073,452

22,687,716

9.031,310

23,280,412

22,514,450

Woods and Forests in England, 1881.

In Grazing counties

In Corn counties

England l

Scotland (say) \ Totalarea,77,COO,000

Ireland (say)

761,892

704.146

r 1,466,038

! 750,01:10

350.000

America ' 2,291,355,048 380,000,000

From a Lecture by Dr. Lyon. — Toitrnul 0/ Fore/tri/.

CULTIVATION OF TEA IN MALABAK.

On tlie higher portions of the Nilgiri Hills and in
the AVynaad, 400 lb. of tea per acre per annum is
looked "upon as an excellent return ; but I think the
time has now arrived when the South Indian planters
should take the initiative from those of Ceylon, and
plant at lower elevations than they have hitherto
attempted. Taking into consideration the tact that
some of the Ceylon tea estates have yielded from
800 lb. to 1000 lb., and even so high as I,20O lb. per
acre per annum, lilalubar and Wynaad, with superior
soil, facilities for manure, cheaper and more constant
labour supply, lo say nothing of the forcing climate,
Kliould compare favourably wilh Ceylon, even to the
extent of exceeding these excellent results.

According to Ceylon estimates, the upkeep charges
are put at 45 rupees per acre, exculsive of manur-
ing; but, as I have advocated the system of liberal
manuring, almost from the commencement, I have
placed the upkeep charges at SO rupees per acre,
and assuming these figurres the cost of a pouud of tea
should be as follows: —

400 lb. 600 lb.

per acre, per acre.

an. pi. an. pi.

Cultivation 3 3 2 2

Crop charges 16 16

Trau8p,.rt,packing&shipping 0 2 0 2

800 lb.

per acre,
an. pi.
1 7
1 6
0 2

Cost per lb. free on board 4 11 3 10 3 3

The London charges, including freight, amount to

41d. per lb., which gives the gross cost as follows: —
400 1b. 0001b. 8001b.
s. d. s. d, B. d.

London charges inclusive 0 4i 0 4J 0 4^

Indi m charges as above: —

4an. llpi. at Is 8d.
exchange ... ... 0 6 — —

San. lOpi. at „ — 0 5 —

3au. 3pi. at „ — — 0 4

0 101 091 0 8i

V.i'.iiu ; I'm tev at only 1< pj.- lb., the follow ing table

will give results: —
Yield. Profit. Profit. Profit. Interest on

ner acre per lb. per acre, per 100 acres, capital.

' £. s. d. £. s. d.

400 1b 1^ 210 0 2.50 0 0 about IU per ct.

600 lb. 2j 6 5 0 925 0 0 „ 28 „

800 1b. 3| II 13 4 1,168 0 0 „ 56 „

[Given as an extract in the Indian Tea Gazette, but

not credited to any paper, a practice now too common

with Indian papers.— Ed.]

MANGO INSECT PESTS.

Dr. E. Bonavia writes to the Indian Ayricidturist
in reply to the question of a correspondent, regarding
the larvae of some insect which destroys the mango
fruit: — I regret to say I have not studied the habits
of this insect, as in the North- West and Oudh
mangoes are not often injured in this way, but peaches
are. I think it probable that it may be a moth
which deposits its eggs iu the flower, and when they
hatch they work their way iuto the young fruit, as
it sets, and grow with it and ultimately emerge from
the ripe fruit. If some of the mangoes containing
the larvie are sent to the Director of the Entomological
Department of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, he may
take steps to secure the perfect insect, when it emerges
and throw some light on its habits, whether a moth
or a beetle which would be a great step. I might
also suggest that some one should during the flowering
and setting seasi-.n endeavour to observe what insects —
moths especially — visit the mango flowers, either by
day or after sunset. They might be abto to observe
with a large magnifying gla.ss what they are about
if they see any. As long as ouly a few mangoes are
spoilt by these insects, it does not much signify, but
when the fruit of a whole district is thus destroyed
it is time to study the cause and search for some
remedy. If the insect deposits eggs on the young
ovary, either before or after setting some insecticide
syringed over the young fruit when set (not while
the flower is in pollen) might destroy the eggs or
young larvas before penetrating the young fruit.
Tobacco juice iu water is often used for destroying
insects on plants; caustic ashes iu water, and other
solutions might be tried. Of course, the insecticide
should not damage the fruit also. But the first step
is to get a clue to the natural history of this insect
whatever it is. As it destroys so much fruit, there
can be no harm done by making some experiments
with a garden .syringe or pump, and nothing the side
of the tree, or the whole tree on which experiments
have been tried. Some of the very young fruit should
be examined with a good magnifying glass to ascertain
whether there be any evidence of a hole or broken
surface, through which the minute larva may have
crept in, and also to cut open the very young fruit
and explore it wilh a glass in every way. In short to
obtain a clue how this insect gets into the mango
fruit, and when and then endeavour to work out its
history. If the study of Entomology has any u.ses at
all, a great one is to discover a remedy against
the worry insects give us, and the loss they entail.
But until we learn something about their " manners
and customs," we may be only w;isting time in fruit-
less attempts to circumvent them. Another observation
is worth making— are all the mangoes iu the districts
named attacked by this pest ? If there be some which
are not, then the "seeds of those ouly shoulil be sown
there, and grafts from those only taken. The extreme
dampness of the climate of those districts may facilitate
the ravages of this insect. Other kinds from upcountry,
such as the solid fleshed ones, safida, bhadania, and
others might be also tried. There may be a hundred
(lodges by which one cau oppose these little pests. —
Madras Mall.

4.

RICE IN MEXICO.
The United St.ates Consul at JIanyanillo says that
the State of Colinia is the principal rice-producing
State of the Mexican Republic, having produced dur-
ing the year 1883, over 4,000,000 lb., and this pro-
duction is steadily on the increase. The adjoining
State of .lalisco produce, during the same period, over
2,500,0001b., and Michoacan a'. out 2,000,000 lb. The
method employed in the production of rice is as fol-
lows:—The field suitable for the cultivation is plough-
ed in July, and the seed rice is sown broadcast
over the field, by hand, then cross ploughed. The
irrigation water is" allowed to overrun the entire ground
as soon as the yoang shoots are from three to four
inches high, and the field is left under running water
until the plant has attained a height of about two

332

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

feet, which is in about a month or six weeks. The
young plant autl weeds are then cut, by hand, down
to a height of about three inches from the ground,
with a curved implement called guadatui, and during
this time the water is dammed up and the field is
diy. Tlie cut-off portions of the plant, and weeds,
are left on the ground to rot; the field is again
put under running water, after which, the rice grow-
ing rapidly, it is left to itself until the time of har-
vest, in November or December, when the cutting
commences, with a species of sickle caMed the r a sadera.
The farm labourer is provided, in addition to the
rasadera^ with a common straw or rush mat, about
two feet square, which he spreads on the ground, and
upon which, having cut as large a bundle as he can
hold in one hand, he strikes the ears a couple of
times for the ripe grain to falf out on the mat.
"When this mat is covered with the grain, it is taken
up, and the grain emptied into sacks which are brought
to an open platform near the houses of the hacienda,
made up of a kind of cement or hydraulic mortar,
upon which the uushelled rice is spread out and exposed
to the sun to dry. When dry, it is again put into
sacks, and stowed until tlie proper time for hulling
bas arrived. The hulling and cleaning of the rice is
performed in the following piimitive manner. Under
a shed, or in the hacimda, are placed at intervals
of about three feet, in single or double rows, from
ten to fifty round wooden trunks cut from the stems
of gooil-sized trees, about two feet and a half high
by two feet in diameter, firmly set into the ground.
In the centre of each trunk is carved out an in-
verted cones-haped hole, upper diameter about ten
inches, and twelve to fifteen inches deep. In this
biile is placed some unhiilled rice to within about
one inch of the top, and a labourer, with a heavy
wooden mallet in his hnnds, hulls the rice by pound-
ing it for a considerable time. Th** rice, together
With the loose husks, is then taken uut and put in
baskets. The hole is refilled with unshelled rice, and
the laborious hulling goes on from daj' to day and
week to week. The rice is cleaned or separated by
lifting the baskets up in the air above the head,
and jetting it slowly fall upon a mat, whereby the
hght husks are carried off by the wind. This oper-
ation is repeated once or twice if neces.^ary. The
rice is then put into sacks of about 175 lb. each,
and is ready for market. Occasionally, instead of
single trunks or mortars being pbced separately in
the ground, there is used a long, hi-avy, square log
of about two feet square and tlurty to forty feet
lon^, wiMi a number of holes carved out at certain
intervals. — Journal oj the Socitty of Arts^

UTILISATrON OF INDIGENOUS FIBRES.

A few weeks ago Mr. Price, Acting Director of
Revenue Settlement, submitted a report to Govern-
ment on some small tibre experiments in Cuddapah,
Tinnevelly, Tanjore, Vizagapatam and Kuvnool, and
he took advantage of this opnortunity to submit,
for consideration, the futility of the amateur experi-
ments with fibres which are, from t'me to time,
carried out by Revenue officers in different parts of
this Presidency. He said: —

The results, as far as my knowledge goes, have
invarialily been financial failure. It could hardly be
otherwise when the fibre has to be prepared by
hand and by unskilled workmen. I most fully concur
with the Board of Revenue in the remarks made
in para2;raph 3 of their Proceedings, No. -,).%',
dated I7th July last. We know most of the fibres ;
we know the value of a large number of them.
"What is now required is certainly as to the sup-
ply— naturally or by cultivation — of tlie raw material
and means for the cheap, rapid and eflicient prepar-
ation of the fibres. As re<^ards the former point, it
is, in the case of certain fibres, c. (/., aloe, the
Calotropis. Fourcroya, 8ansievera, &c., assured. The
latter is that which still awaits a satisfactory solution.
Until this is arrived at, it is, I submit, throwing
way time, trouble and money to produce by hand

indifferent samples of fibres which are, owing to
the method of their preparation, costly, and which
being indifferently got up, are priced at considerably
below their proper value. There is, no doubt, a
mine of wealth in tlie fibres of this Presidency if
properly worked. I venture to throw out the sug-
gestion that the time has arrived when the subject
might well be placed under a specialist, and be
taken in hand as that of mineralogy has recently
been. The most energetic and zealous of Collectors
can really do very little. Tliey are overburdened
with other work and have to leave details much
with subordinates, and few if any have any but
the most superficial knowledge of fibres and the
proper methods of preparing them, even after the
native fashion.

With reference to these remarks the Government
observes that "the problem of cheap, rapid, and
efficient preparation of fibres is not one which can
be solved by the creation of a special Government
agency apart from the Agricultural Department. It
is a question for inventive genius and enginneriug
skill, and the prospective profits of a successful in-
vention seem sufficiently bright to encourage private
investigation in this direction. It is noted that the
prize of R2,000 offered last year by the Government
of Bengal was awarded at the Calcutta competition
to Messrs. Death and Ellwood's Universal Fibre-
cleaning Machine, the working of which was found
to be ' rapid and effectual.' The Government concur
in the opinion expressed by the Bengal Government
that the further question, whether this or some
other machine can be profitably introduced in this
country, * may well be left to be decided by the
commercial public' "—Madras Mail.

COCA AT THE SOURCE OF SUPPLY.*

The Government org^uiaation of the United States
has been utilized to ascertain where the best varieties
of coca are found, the be>t moile of preparing it for
transportation, and how it cm be brouglit v-ithin
reach of the American pureiiaser. Dr. iSquibb has
had access to the reports reeeived, and has communic-
ated with his own correspond'.nts. He has received a
bale of coca from Bolivia by way of the tributaries
of the Amazon and Para, but it had been ill-packed
and was badly damaged.

Messrs. V. Farfan & Co., of La Paz, Bolivia, is one
of the best and largest houses dealing in the article
at the centre of the coca trade of Bolivlia. Peruvian
coca is smaller, narrower, thinner, and more fragile
than the Bolivian; and 0 small propnrticm of the leaves
want the characteristic faint iiuls forming a narrow
ellipse with bharp ends on the underside of the leaf.
Peruvian coca is bright green wlifu fresh, changing
to a "duller, lighter, yellowish green"; Bolivian is a
dull, deep, olive green on the upper !^ide, much
lighter beneath, and Tx'comes yellowish brown or
brown. The two varieties shade off into each other,
and both are divided into wild and cultivated, the
latter being most esteemed.

The tree is cultivated on hill-sides 3.000 to 6,000
feet above the sea-level, on terraces on the sides
of deep narrow valleys. The seed is sown in August
in beds or boxes, transplanted in June to tho ter-
races about 3 feet apart. The soil must be rich
.■•.,id free from shade and weeds, aud is rapidly

■ L.tusted. The shrub grows to the height of from
■J to 6 feet, but the largest do not yield the host
i '.ves. The crop is gathered, leaf by leaf, by Indian
*omen and children. The first gathering, called tho
March crop, commences in January, the Saint John
crop begins in May (St. John's is Midsummer day).
All Saints' crop is collected in October, and then
the shrub is completely stripped of leaves. Great
care is taken not to touch tho top of the bush.
The leaves are dried in thin layers on hot pavements
exposed to the suu, four hours' exposure being

* Condensed rom the KphemerU.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

333

generally sufficient. They should not be laid out
till the stones are quite hot. They are then packed
for transportation across the mountains, and must
be kept cool and dry. They are rarely hantUed or
transported in damp weather or during the rainy
season, which lasts from January to April. The
only safe way of transporting them is in soldered tin
or zinc-lined cases. fc>alaverry, the port of entry of
Truxillo, is the principal place of export of the Peru-
vian drug, Arica of the Bolivian, MoUendo being now
closed by the civil war in Peru.

The Peruvian Government records a production of
over I5,00i1.000 lb. per annum, the Bolivian Govern-
ment 7,500,000 lb. Of the latter quantity, Jlr.
Gibbs, the United States Minister at La Paz, says
about 5.5 per cent is consumed in Bolivia, 15 per
cent each in the Argentine Kepublic and Chili, and
10 per cent in Peru; while the remaining 5 per
cent, or 375,000 lb. is exported to the United States
and Europe. If Peru exports the same proportion,
the quantity received by the United States and Europe
would be about 1,125,000 lb. The market report in
New York ijk that one manufacturer of cocaine in
New York and another in Europe have secured the
entire crop for the year, while a third has secured
** the remaioder.'* A million pounds would j-ield at
least 2,500 lb. of cocaine, while a fourth of that
quantity would probably overstock the world *

Hon. S. L. Phelps, United States Minister to Peru,
located at Lima, states that on a plantation producing
good coca it it sold in packages of about 14 oz.. at
a price which — including tins, packing, and transport
to the seaport — is equal to s31'75 per Spanish quintal,
or about 32c. (l.v. 4(Z.) per lb. ou shipboard. Minister
Gibbs states that the price in Bolivia varies from 26c.
to 6-lc. per lb. The whites of these countries seldom
use coca except as infusion, aud then the first water
is thrown away as being too strong. The habitual
use. of coca is said to prevent toothache and preserve
the teeth. There is no evidence that the enormous
demand in Europe and America has caused the slight-
est increase in Peruvian and Bolivian prices ! Dr.
Squibb points out that a drachm vial of a 4-per-
cent solution will last the ordinary practitioner a
long while, and he asserts that it is highly prob-
able that every manufacturer in the United States is
overstocked with alkaloid. "With coca yielding 4 per
cent of alkaloid, or 2S grains per lb., at a moderate
price, cocaine could be sold at 15c. per grain, aud
any one of the four manufacturers in the United
States could supply the whole demand. The Jledical
Department of tlie Army offered to contract for
2,000 graiu.s. The competing bids were 18c., 19c., lOic,
20c., and 22c. per grain or thereabouts. In con-
sequence. Dr. Squibb reduced his price to 20c., less 10
per cent. — Cliemut and J/n/f/^/iat.

HYDROCULOR\TE OF COCAINE.

Dr. Freud, of Vienna, published in August a re-
•earch on the alkaloi.l, which stated that it caused
local anesthesia of the tongue. Dr. KoUer argued that
if it deadened tlie sensibility of the nerves of the
tongue it would have a similar effect on the nerves
of the eye. After many experiments on animals, on
himself anil freinds. and afterwards on patients, he
published his discovery at the Heidelberg Ophthalmo-
logical Congress in September.

We will give a short account of the results that
seem to have obtained in various departments ; —

The Eye. — One or two drops ot a 4 per cent
solution instilled into the eye cause at first a stinging
sensation, la.stiug a few seconds. On repeating the
application there is a sensation of cold, then comes
a feeling of weight or tension anil drvness. The
eye protrudes somewhat. If the instillation is repeat-
ed the pupil dilates. Five minutes after the first
instillation the cornea can be handled (piite roughly,
cut, cauterised with silver nitrate, pitted by pressure.

» N .B.— Ed.

without causing the slightest pain or even sensation-
There is simply no feeling. AVhen deep incisions are
made, as for iridectomy, pain has; been oljserved by
some though not by others. It is as yet doubtful
how deeply the anaesthetic effect can be made to ex-
tend ; it passes oflF at the surface in about twenty
minutes, and, as it app;uentiy takes time to reach
the lower structures shown by the dilatation of the
pupil, it would seem that the application must be
repeated to obtain the best effect. The eye remains
dilated for some time, but vision is not interfered
with, and the eye gradually returns to its normal
state. AVe find reports of threo cases where inflam-
mation has occurred after the use of the drug
among a very large number in which it was not
observed. One patient who had undergone two iridec-
tomies under ether had the globe of the eye excised
by Mr. Carmalt Jones, under the influence of a 2
per cent solution of cocaine. His remark was that
it was a great deal better th.au that beastly either.
EvRLiD. — Mr. Bader has crushed a tumour ou the
eyelid without causing pain to the patient.

The ToXGrE. — Mr. T. Smith applied a 20 per cen
solution to the tongue of a patitnit three times witht
in ten minutes. He then applied fuming nitric acid
freely two or three times, so as to produce a definite
burn. No pain was felt during the operation.

The Nose.— Mr. H. .J. Butlin records his own
experience. He has twice had the turl/inated bones
of his nose burned by Dr. Senion at intervals of
three weeks. The first operation caused intense pain
and prostration. At the second the surface of the
bones was painted thoroughly, twice over, with an
interval of five minutes, with a 20 per cent solution
of the hydrochlorate. *' The effect was marvellous,
far more so than I — ^or even he, I think — expected.
The burning was not felt by me more than the
introduction of the brush in painting ; I cannot say
I did not feel the operation, but the sensation must
be described as feeling, not pain."

The Laeynx. — Dr. Semon has also removed growths
from the larynx of a lady in whom, at the seven
pre\nous operations, the mere introduction of the ia-
strument had caused alarming shocks. After painting
the interior of larynx with the 20 per cent solution
once, and waiting five minutes, he was able to
introduce the instrument four times, aud remove
considerable portions of the growths, without the
patient experiencing any pain at the moment or
subsequent shock hypodermicaliy.

Messrs. J. H. E. Brock and 0. J. Arkle, of Univers-
ity College Hospital, have tried the effect of hypoilerraic
itijections. The effects which were common to all
the injections were, .smarting, followeil by numbness;
redness round the point of injection; in from two to
three minutes, sensation to touch was diminished, to
pain and temperature completely abolish'-d. In every
experiment except the last, when half a graiu was
injected into the forearm, the anaesthetic area was
more extensive immediately above the point of in-
jection than below. The extent of surface on which
the above effects were produced was about half an
inch above and a quarter of an inch below the poiat
of injection; while for about half ai> inch around
this area there was a slight diminution to tactile,
painful, and thermal irapi-t isions. They have performed
two minor surgical opertions painlessly after an in-
jection of one-seventh of a graiu.

We have given only some of the more striking
pieces of evidence that have been brought forward.

Dr. A. Hughes Bennett mtk-.-s a sugijestive remark.
He says that in an inve-tigation uulertaken in 1»72
he demonstrated that the phy^iologi :al properties of
tht'ine, caffeine, theobromine, guaranine, and cocaine,
when administered hypodermicaliy. w-Te to all appear-
ances the same. ".Should it be proved that they
have also similar effects when ay)plied externally to
the mucous membrane.s, it would be of importance
from an economic point of view, as cocaine is
eitremely expensive, while, the ot:iersare comparatively
cheap." — Ohemisl and Drui/ijist,

334

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

"A NEW THEORY:" FIXED AND SOLUBLE
INOKEDIENTS IN THE SOU.

BY flU J. V. I.AWES, BART. IL.D., F. K. S.

A friend residing in Virginia lias drawn my atten-
tion to an article in the October number of the
Sovtherii F/aiitcr. It is called "A New Theory,"
and I do not think that I shall misrepresent the
views of the author if I sum them up as follows: —
That those fertilizing materials which exist in the
soil or are ajiplied in manures cannot be washed out
of it by water, whatever may be the quantity applied.
The author further says, "this arrangement is so
wise as to wear the impress of Deity." In the
observations I propose to make regard to the new
theory advauced in the pages of the ,SoiitIiei)i Plantci;
it will be my endeavor to show that while some
ingredients of plant food are fi.xed in the soil, others ai e
perfectly soluble; and further, that for the purposes
of vegetation it is absolutely necessary that these
last should he soluble. lu one of our field at
Eothamsted we have four rain ranges, each contain-
ing an area of forty-three square feet. One is placed
on the surface of the soil to catch the rain as it
falls, while the other three are placed underground,
and receive the rain after it has passed throut;h
twenty inches, forty inches and sixty inches of soil,
these being the resprctive depths at which the gauges
are fixed. The soil is that of an ordinary arable
field, with the exception tiiat no vegetation is allowed
to grow upon it. The rain water which falls on the
Burface gauge, and that which passes through the
three depths of soil has been collected and analyzed
for a number of years. Rain water always contains
a considerable amount of common salt.* At first
more salt was found in the water which passed
through the soil llnu in that caught in the open
gauge, thus proving that common salt, or some
substance containing chlorine, had been used on the
land as manure. All this excess has now been
washed out, and fur some years the amount of salt
passing through the soil is almost identical with the
amount which is found in the rain water taken f»im
the surface gauge. Here, then, we have an instance
of a food of plants— not I admit, a very important
food— which is not in any way fixed in the soil, but
circulates with the water.

I now come to a more important substance. Rain
waUr contains a considerable amount of ammonia,
and very little nitric acid; but after it has pas.sed
through a cultivated soil, it contains very httle
ammonia, and a considerable amount of nitric acid.
It all the nitrogen in the rain water which falls up-
on an acre nt land during a year— both in the
form of ammonia and of nitric acid— passed through
the drain-gauge .soils, we should not obtain more
than from four to five pounds, whereas actually we
obtain eight or nine times that quantity. We will
omit all questions regarding the source of this
nitrogen, and confine ourselves to the question of
solubility. Here, then, we find a substance of the
highest importance as a food for plants, passing
through a soil live feet in depth, every year, in
such ipiaiititics as w«mld, if taken up by plant.s, be
sutiicient to grow crojis, much exceeding those grown
upon an average on the soils of the United States !
Such are the results obtained on a soil without
vegetation. In our iiermanciit wheat fields we have
ordhiary drain jiipis laid at three feet from the sur-
face, and whenever sutliciently heavy rains occur
for the drains to run, the water is collected and
analyzed. Portions of this fiehl receive an apphcation
of salts of ammonia, and other portions nitrate of
soda. If a Inavy fall of rain takes place within a
day or two of the apiilicatiun of these manures, the
drainage water from the plot which received the
nitrate will contain a large amount of nitric acid,

* Yes: and we feel more and more couviueeil that
the anomalous " mortifying" di,sea.se which attacked
eucalypti and cinclion;iS in Ceylon in 1S,S2 was mainly
to excess of salt iu the excessive raiufaU. — En.

while the drainage water from the plot which re-
ceived salts of ammonia will contain very little
ammonia or nitric acid. Your correspondent may possibly
say that the nitrate has not had time to assimilate
with the soil. This idea will not, however, explain
the facts which I am ab(iut to relate. In a few
days the drainage water from the soil which receives
ammonia will begin to yield large quantities of nitric
acid, and if the two manures are sown in the
autumu with the wheat, and there is sufficient
rainfall during the winter, by far the largest part
of the nitrogen, applied in the ammonia and nitrate,
will be found in the drainage water. On the other
hand, if the drain runs iu the summer, when the
wheat is in the full vigor of its growth, the water
contains no nitric acid whatever, though at other
times, even on those parts of the field where no
substance containing nitrogen has been applied for
forty years, nitric acid is always to be found in
the drainage water. The only explanation that can
be given of these results is that ammonia, on its
first application, becomes, fixed in the soil, but rap-
idly becomes converted into nitric acid, which is
perfectly soluble in water, and forms no combination
with the soil. A great deal of our time of late
years has been spent in tracing the course of this
•ubstance through the soil and subsoil, and in some
instances our analyses have reached the depth of
nine feet from the surface. Some of our agricultural
plants have very deep roots, and as plants evajiorate
an enormous amount of water dining their growth,
it is certain that water, ard any salt dissolved in
the water, must be drawn up from below the area
of the roots.

It is a fact about which there can be no doubt, that
while some important ingredients of the food of
plants are retained by the soil with great teuacity,
other.s are perfectly soluble, and are only fixed by
the vegetation growing on the surface. It is the
plant, therefore, and not the soil which prevents
the escape of the soluble substance; and we see in
this a beautiful e.vplanation of the fact, that the
operation of nature is always to cover the soil with
vegetation of some kind, while man, to supply him-
self with food, grows annual plants, the result being
that the soil is left bare of its natural clothing
for several months in the year. I have more than
once pointed out that the exhausting character of
grain crops is due not only to the ingredients which
are removed in the crop, but also to the loss of
those ingredients which the crop has failed to take
up ; these, in the absence of vegetation, are washed
out of the soil. When we find nitrates existing in
the sea, iu all springs and rivers, and passing through
all fertile soils, while they are absent in barren
and rocky soils — such as are often found in the
highlands of Scotland— and when further, it is borne
in mind that European agriculturists spend millions
every year in the production of nitrate of soda, we
cauuot either deny the importance of this ingredient
as a food of plants, or the fact of its solubility in
the soil. The chauges which take place in the organic
substances in the soil; the extreme solubility of the
nitrogen as it exists iu such forms of vegetable
matter as coal or peat, and the various changes
which occur before it assumes its ultimate acting
and solulile form of nitric acid, are likely to occnjiy
the attvntion of those who study the science of agri-
culture for a long time to come.

In the slight outline I have given of whiit I venture
to think is more in accordance with the laws of
vegetalde growth in relation to the food in the soil,
than the views brought forward by your correspondent,
I trust that he may equally see, so far as they are
ill accordance with the truth, the impress of infinite
wisdom in which the world and all things in it
were created. — Southern Phiiiler

"ey.

Bladder

BUCHU.PAIBA.
Quick, complete cure, all annoying Kit
and Urinary Diseases. Druggisls.

\Y. E. Smith & Oo., Madras, Sole Agents,

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

335

Destroying Weeds on Walks (/. C, Cheshire).— &.
short time ago several methofls were described in
the JourDal of destroying weeds on walk-f. Salt is
only objectionable by making some walks too moist.
In the case of dry walks and positions this objection
vanishes, and applied in dry weatlier salt is effective.
Arsenical solutions will kill weeds. Boil 1 lb. of
powdered arsenic and 2 lb. crushed soda, then dilute
with seven gallons of water. Add one part of common
vitriol to thirty parts of water, mix and apply. Mix
»n ounce of " crude carbolic acid to each gallon of
water prepared, and with this water the gravel.
Petrolum will kill weeds; the quantity to use you
can easily ascertain by experimeut. Whatever is used,
Box or Grass edgings must be protected.— /ocrna^
of Bort culture. „, ,

The Sweet Potato. — The editor of the Vnarleston
News says he has always been of the opinion that
the great value of the sweet potato crop in the
Southern States was not duly appreciated and
suiliciently utilized. Eoot crops are always more
prolfic tliau grain crops. They exhaust land less and
give more in return for labor and manure. Of course
they are not as nutritious pound for pound, as grain,
but in great increase of niateiial they yield more
nutrition to a given quantity of land than any of
the cereals. [X. B. as regards Oeylon. — Ed.] Irish
potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, both in Europe and
in our Northern States, are all justly prized as the
most valuable of farm crops. The sweet potato is
superi(n' to them all as food for man and beast. It
may be used for all the purpo.ses to which the others
are applied, and for many others besides. In the
first state, just out of the ground, it makes an
excellent substitute for arrowroot by grating the
pulp into water and allowing the starchy matter to
subside. As a vegetabe, it is a favorite on every
table, cooked in great variety of ways. As a desert
it makes a better pudding or pie than a pumpkin. It
is good food for a stock of all kinds^horses, cattle,
shrcp and hogs. We know an old planter once who
always raised an abundance of corn and other pro-
visions for his stock, but who was an enthusiasm
over the sweet potato crop, esiimating it, on the
vield returned from the labor be!-towed as of more value
"than any other food-producing crop. — Suuthern Planter.
Spores Floating is the Aik. — Those who are
puzzled to understand how poores of Hemileia xastatrir
gel into the stomata of coffee leaves may find some
help in the following statement quoted in a recent
lecture : —

It was not till 1876 that the systematic ob-
servations of air-borne spores was commenced at
Mont Souris by Dr. Miquel. Taking the average of the
four years, 1S79-82, Dr. Miquel found that each litre of
air coiitainril from 12 to 1.5 spores, and that, in general,
they were slightly more abundant during hot years. Tlie
effects of season were well marked. Thus in
there were G'6 spores per litre of air ; in
16-7 ; in summer, 22-8 ; in autumn, 10 8. By
of a most ingenious registering aero-
Dr, Miquel has been enabled to observe the
fluctuations in the number of spores. This
fluctation is very great indeed, and the causes of it
are not always apparent. One fact seems to come
out clearly, viz., that a fall of rain has the effect
of partially clearing the air of spores for a time.
The causes of the hourly fluctuation are, according
to Miquel, mainly two, viz., remote and local. Let
us imagine a mass of air travelling from north to
south. Coming from regions of ice, and orginally
very pure, it strikes a continent, and the mass of
air which impinges on the soil makes almost a
clean sweep of floating spores, and largely enriches
itself at the expense, as it were, of the masses of
air following in its wake. Thus the richness in
spores dimijiishes as long as the air blows strictly
from one direction. Among local causes of variation
■may be mentioned the neighbourhood of great
towns or other centres of spore productions. Again :-—
Spores of cryptogams are the most common of all orgauio
particles found in the air.

winter
spring,
means
scope,
hourly

WooDEiV Labels for Trees. — A correspondent
writes: — I don't know how they preserve the wooden
Labels used at the Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya, Ijut
here is a method which seems to have been attended
with success elsewhere : — The following method of
preserving wooden labels that arc to be used on
trees or in exposed places is recommended ;— Thoroughly
soak the pieces of wood in a strong solution of sulphate of
iron ; then lay them, after tliey nre dry, in lime water.
This causes the formation of sidphate of lime, a very
insoluble salt, in the wood. The rapid destruction
of the labels by the weather is thus prevented.
Bass mats, twine, and other substances used in tying
or covering up trees and plants, when treated in
the same manner, are similarly preserved. At a
recent meeting of the Horticultural Society in Berlin
wooden labels thus treated were shown, which had
been constantly exposed to the weather during two
years without being affected thereby.

Destructive organisms in the air and their in-
fluence ON HUMAN HEALTH Were thus noticed in
Dr. Poore's lecture on climate and health before the
Society of Arts : —

Seeing how omnipresent are the micrococci, bacteria,
and bacilli, of which we have been speaking, how
they infest the air, the soil, the water ; and seeing
again that it is an undoubted fact that the organ-
isms of disease may live and grow in suitable
putrescible liquids outside the human body, it is al-
most a matter of surprise that we are any of us
alive to discuss the question. From what we have
been saying, however, it appears that for the flourish-
ing of infective organisms three things are neces-
sary, in addition to the organism, viz., some degree
of warmth, a suitable condition of moisture, aud a
"soil" apt to grow the organism. It is when we
get the coincidence of all the conditions that we
get the disease in its marked form. The cold of
the Arctic winter seems to be sufficient to i>revent
putrefaction, and to prevent the spread of many of the
zymotic diseases. In tropical countries, where putre-
faction flourishes, zymotics flourish, and if we want
to enjoy health in hot countries we must exercise
tho greatest care and circumspection in dealing
with all putrescible matters, whether cxcremental or
otherwise ; finally, it is only unhealthy persous who
become a prey to parasites, and a healthy man is
probably more thana match for most of the so-called
patholosica'. organisms.

Mr. Forbes' residence for three weeks in the Keel-
ing Islauds enabled him to note what changes had
occurred since Darwin's vi,=it nearly half-.a-century
earlier. These are very slight, aud seem incompatible
with the theory that any subsidence has taken place,
because the inner margin of some of the islands next
the lagoon are sometimes half-a-mile distant from the
outer edge, and the greatest cyclones do not carry
thi^ coral rlehris nearly so far. It is now generally ad-
mitted that the celebrated " subsidence theory " of
the formation of atolls aud barrier reefs is unsound
as .1 general explanation of the facts; yet it so fully
and plausibly explained all the details of coral struct-
ure known at the time, as to eummanvl universal
acceptance and unbounded admiration. We have hero
a remarkable instance of the danger of founding a
general explanation of widespread phenomena 011 an
assumed basis, for the fact of long-continued subsid-
ence, which was the very foundation of the whole
theory, was in most cases quite incapable of proof.
It is also now apparent that the theory was to some
extent inconsistent with the views as to oceanic islauds
which Darwin himself originated and which are now
ger.erally admitted to be sound. His great argument,
th:it no single oceanic island possessed ancient strati-
fied rocks or contained a single indigenous mammal,
was equally an argument against the view that the
widespread coral archipelagoes of the Pacific and
Indian Oceans were due to the subsidence of co-ex-
toisive tracts of land, since it is almost impossible
tlirit all the higher points of these submerged lauds,
spread over nearly half the surface of the globe, should
b« without exceptiou of volcanic origin,— ..VafKre.

336

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

Is Cotton an American Plant? — Mr. Bourke, in
the Snake Dance of the Jfoquis of Arizona, p.244,
says : — " The Tunis weave the same Iihid of cotton
mantle, but do not grow the fibre, preferring to
buy this from the neighliouri^, the Mnquis, whose
fields, exposeil to warmer suns, have yielded the precious
bolls from generations long prior to the advent of
the Spaniards." He also (p. 241) refers to Davis'
Conrjuest of New Mexico, p. 100, which speaks of the
inhabilants possessing " blankets of cotton." I always
understood that Cotton was an Old World plant
used on this side of the Atlantic centuries before
American was di.«covered, and that the first t'otton ever
sent from America to England was a little lot, the
fill of a woman's apron ; as that was approved of,
the next shipment was one bale from, I think. Sa-
vannah. But if Cotton was an Old World plant how
could it he u.sed in the New AYorld " centuries before
the advent of the Spaniards"?— J. E. Hay.— Gardeners
Chronicle.

Cultivation in ALGEruA.— The cultivation of cereals
in Algeria is declining, in consequence of the irre-
gularity of the crops, due to the uncertainy of the
seasons. A series of good years, it is stated, is
often succeeded by droughts, when the agriculturist
hardly gathers in the amount of corn he has sown.
Oompetition abroad is so great that he cannot obtain
remunerative prices for his produce, and in some
places, where the land is best, the means of communic-
ation are so defective, that it will hardly pay the
Arab to take his grain to market. Near the sea the
production of early vegetables and fruit for the.
markets of Europe promises to be successful, but
beyond all doubt the great hope of Algeria is in the
A'ine. The gradual recovery of this plant from
Phylloxera iu the South of France will probably
prevent the colonists in Algeria from making as
rapid forrtunes as appeared probable when that scourge
fir.st commenced its ravages, but there is every chance
of the wine of Algeria commanding a remunerative
price both at home and abroad. There is no reason
why the European should not imitate the Kabyle,
who cultivates his small patch of mountain land with
care usually devoted to an orchard or market garden.
— Gardeners'' Chronicle.

The Cincinnati Floods.— The dictum of the late
Charles Marsh that forests affect rainfall, long im-
plicity received, is being queried in many quaters,
and in none more emphatically than in the new issue
of the JoiirnnI of the S\'atnral Histori/ Socictj/ of Cin-
cinnati. The devastating floods of the Ohio of February
last have awakened scientific inquiry, as well as popu-
lar alarm. And it appears that they are but one of
a series, happening periodically since 1774. They have
been of greater frequency in later years; but it is
only when the river has reached a depth of fifty feet
or more that destruction to life and property has
supervened. Last year the river rose from a depth
of 15 feet in J.muary to that of 68 feet in February,
but it gradually subsided to i5 feet deep at the end
of that mouth. On fifteen occasions from 1770 on-
wards, there have been parallel sudden rises to such
a height as that mentioned above, and these have b5en
usually accompanied with signal destruction, human
and otherwise. Dr. Dun, the author of the paper,
treats his subject in miuute statistical detail. He has
further been indulging in European travel, during
which he has seen the great floods of the Khine and
Danube, as well as of the Po, in 1832, all occurring
iu conutriis where the strictest forest conservancy
prevails. He holils, then, that the mere planting of
the headlands of the Ohio would not prevent floods.
The Olio valley is the track of both warm aud cold
storms, one .setting coming from the Mexican Gulf,
the other from the North-West. Hence the .snows
and rains causing flood. Of course it is not proved
that forests might not ameliorate such climatal con-
ditions. Only the natural configuration of a country
must be taken as the main factor in aridity or rain-
fall, however these may be modified by secondary
influences.— Joioviai of torcstrt/. [This is the sober truth
of the matter, — Bd.]

Palm-nut meal is commencing to be more extens-
ively employe<l for stock fattening. For pigs, it is
generally mixed with boiled roots or potatoes ; some-
tnnes a handful of oats or barley is atlded to give a
flavor; salt is never forgotten. One farmer recom-
mends, wdienever the occasion offers of a horse bein"
slaughtered, to secure a quarter and make it into
soup to wet the pigs rations. Maize, pumpkins, and
.lerusalem artichokes, with the uut.meal, make appet-
izing feeds for hogs.— Par/.s Cor.

Tobacco in Banguet.— The German Borneo Com-
pany have made considerable progress since they com-
menced operations some five months ago. On the 20th
ultimo, H. E. the Governor, accompanied by Mr.
Herrings and the Colonial Secretary, visited the estate
and were received by Mr. Lind, the manager, and by
whom the party were conducted over the clearings
which at present extend over some fifty fields, of
wbich about thirty are under cultivation. Mr. Herring.s.
who was formerly a Director of the Deli Maatschippe
Tobacco Company— a company whose success has been
remarkable dividends of as much as one hundred
and thirty per cent per annum having been declared —
expressed himself well satisfied with the appearance
of the plants remirking, that they looked strong
and healthy, with a large leaf. A fair bullock road
some sixteen feet wide, and about three quarters
of a mile long, runs from the landing place at
Limbuak to the plantation. Altogether the Ger-
man Company are to be congratulated on their en-
couragiug prospects especially having regard to the
fact that planting was commenced somewhat late in
the season. ]\Ir. Herring having completed his visit
of inspection returned to Singapore on the same day
en route for Berlin, but he pro|«<es to return next year
with a view to opening up planting on a considerable
scale. He has recently been making a tour round the
tobacco growing countries, amongst others Sumatra,
Java, Phillipines and Sulu, aud it is .satisf.actory to
learn from a gentleman of his experience that the
Banguey tobacco promises to compare favourably with
the best samples of the countries referred to.—Xorth
Borneo Herald.

Hot Wateu Treatment for Plants. — A corre-
spondent calls our attention to the following from
the Garden and inquires whether there is anything in
it: — " The Florist asks, Has any one tried hot water
as a restorative for .sickly plants, and then proceeds
to say that M. Willermoz some time since related
that plants in pots may be restored to health by
means of hot water. Ill health, he maintains, ensues
from acid substances in the soil, which, being
•bsorbed by the roots, act as poison. The small roots
wither and cea.se to act and the upper and younger
shoots consequently turn yellow and become spotted,
indicative of their morbid state. In such cases th'e
usual remedy is to transplant into fresh soil, in clean
pots, with good drainage, and this often wi*h the
best results. But his experience of several years has
proved the unfailing efficacy of the simpler treatment
which consists in watering abundantly with hot water
at a temperature of about 145 degrees Fahrenheit,
having previously stirred the soil of the pot so
far as may be done without injury to the roots.
Water is then given until runs freely from the pots.
In bis experiments the water at first came out
clear, afterward it was sensibly tinged with brown,
and gave an appreciable acid reaction. After this
thorough washing the pots were kept warm, aud the
plants very soon made new roots, immediately
followed by vigorous growth," To our mind there
is a great deal in it. We know to a certainty
that sickly peach trees are often restored to vigorous
health by the ohl fashioned German farmers of
Pennsylvania by pouring boiling water on the
ground about the peach trees. It cools, of course
somewhat before reaching any of the roots. Here'
however, it is believed to be beneficial by destroy-
ing parasitic fungi. But, let the reasoning be what
it may, we are willing to indorse it as good practice. "^
— Gardeners' Moiitlili/.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

337

TEA AT A HIGH ELEVATION IX CEYLON.
Ground covered with tea in fuU leafage, particularly
when the landscape features are undulating, is a pretty
sight ; but for continued and varied beauty old cofi'ee
certainly bore away the palm. " Handlin;; " and
even pruning in the case of coffee left the soil still
well covered, and to luxuriant and handsome foliage
were, in due season, added the snow-white and jas-
mine-scented blossom, and the green, yellow and
ruby-red shades of the fruit contrasted with the
green of the leaves. But, excepting the few bushes
preserved as seed-hearers, tea is not allowed to
blossom or fruit, and when the time for a thorough
pruning comes there is such a cutting down and
away of wood, that, at any distance, the soil looks
as if it h.id been completely bared. In from two
to three months, however, the close carpeting of
golden green is restored, and the process of picking
goes on until the cutting-down time has come
round again. Simultaneously with the pruning of
bushes of good age, the stems have to be rubbed
clear of lichens and mud, by means of the naked
hand or the hand aided by a bit of sacking. The
stems of the coffee trees would be rubbed also
were it worth while to bestow further labour
or expenditure on a cultivation which was onco
reckoned our mainstay. A visitor fresh from
the eastern side of the range, where coffee is
still worth cherishing, said to ns a couple of days ago :
" Surely you will preserve that fine-looking coffee."
The answer was to point to the miserable sprinkling
of berries at distant intervals amongst the really
luxuriant foliage. Amidst the crop of leaves the
fungus had to be searched for, but so had the fruit,
and as the leaves cannot be converted into a
merchantable and profitable product, the Une-lonkhuj
coffee must go, however severe the pang may be of
parting with what, if Hcmileic n'.ttiilri.r had not so
fatally intervened, wonld be now in its prime of crop-
yielding. The final decision to uproot the old
product in favom- of the nc-w must be much more
trying in these young districts than in the old,
where coffee did not fail until for more than a
generation it gave paying, in some cases largely
profitable, returns. But the decision must be arrived
at and carried out, to prevent the tea bushes
planted, amidst coffee growing up feeble and spindly.
The branches and leaves of the coffee bushes will be
buried, while the stems go to feed the tea furnaces,
— the old king being cremated, in tact, to the tune
of reqniescat ht pace ! Peace be to its ashes, with
their appreciable proportion of lime extracted from
a soil, the ferruginous nature of which renders it
far more favourable for tea than for coffee, although
the latter iireiv well enough and would have yielded
fruit as well as leaves, had the eniecbling fungus
not been developed in 18G9, to be at first made light
of, l)Ut finally recognized as one of the most disastrous
blights which has ever depressed, if not quenched, a
great, advancing and prospei'ous enterprise. Java
and the whole Eastern world are rapidly following
in the wake of Ceylon experience, in this matter,
and it really looks as if those of us who can afford
to indulge in the luxury of a cuj) of coffee nuist
erelong pay the cost of having it imported from the
Western Continent. Let us fervently hope that no

such dread visitation awaits the now most promising

tea enterj)rise.

Some readers of the TrnpienI Ariyiriillnrixt may
recollect notices of plants, the result of seed obtained
from Assam as " indigenous." Tlie ))lant3 were
put out along the sides of estate paths,
at elevations rising from .5,200 to .5,500,
in July 1880, and until now their progress has
been so slow and unsatisfactory as to lead to
43

the belief that indigenous Assam tea was unsuited
to the chmate of this altitude. But whether it
has arisen from the recurrence of several genial
seasons, or that the plants have, at length, been
able to adapt themselves to the conditions of their
new situation, certain it is that they have taken
a spring and promise to make up for lost time.
They are, in common with the suijerior hybrids
amongst which they are scattered, putting forth
luxuriant foliage, many of the leaves being large,
corrugated and serrated after the marked character-
istics of indigenous Assam tea. The progress
and comparative yield of these plants will be
watched and reported on. Meantime I may men-
tion that the effect of altitude even on hybrid tea
bushes is, that some allowed to grow up as future
seed-bearers show not the slightest sign of any
tendency to blossom, although they are now eight
to, in a few cases, ten years old. With similar
trees in the hot low country, only a few hundreds
of feet above sea-level, the difiioulty is to contend
with the per.sistent tendenry to run all their
strength into, flowers and fruits.

Could the conjunction be made to pay, our
experience is decisive in taTouv of growing cinchonas
(especially C. ofliciiialis) amongst tea, whicli evid-
ently benefits the fe\er plants liy opening up and
draining the soil. But bark prices recently have
been such as to make cinchonas stink in the
nostrils of planters, almost as much as coffee ;
indeed more so, because hopes of retrieval were so
largely based on this new and at one time most
hopeful product. A large proportion of planters
will, of course, harvest and market the bark from all
their cinchona trees, ceasing to supply the soil
with any more. The result may be profitable prices to
those who can hold on. Many who would hold on can-
not, because at a certain stage the choice must be made
between tea and other cultivation — not only coffee
but cinchonas. We suppose it is this desire to do
full justice to the tea plants, which has led to the
ringing of so many euealyi^ti in the neighbourhood
of the Nanuoya station. We take it for granted that
the trees which have suddenly changed their hue
from bluish green to yellowish white liari; been ringed,
preparatory to their removal. So opinion changes.
The blue-gums were and are still believed to be
beneficial as wind-breaks and soil-drainers in cin-
chona fields ; but tea, unless it makes an exception
in the case of the sau tree,

" Bears, like tbo Turk, no brother near the throne."

CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING REPOBT.

28th Sept. 1885.

Coffee — what there is on our side — is not looking
very promising. There was such an attack of leaf •
disease some time ago, that the trees are now left
pretty bare, whereas the ground is thickly littered
with fallen leaves. When the regular heavy
rains of the north-east set in, the drains will amuse
us. There is a little coffee ripening up ; but the
blackening at the points is as excessive as ever in
was. Half-a-bushel picking of this sort of stuff', to
a quarter of a cooty-sack of cherry, has been
gathered at the first round, and even a worse; re-
sult in some places. The husk is not so emply
as one would have expected from the long dry weather
and may nett something above the cost of gather-
ing, now that the rupee has fallen among the
desjiised things of the earth. Black-bug seems to
bo checked somewhat : still it's about, and evidently
ready to wipe out what little of the old product
remains at the slightest encouragement.

I saw an analysis of some renewed snccirubra bark
grown on Fairieland estate — just above Kanc'y — which

338

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 18851

showed the handsome figures of 4-35. It is somewhat
of a surprise to authorities that at so low an elevation
such a good result could have been attained.

Cacao still keeps looking well, and if the fine
blossom out is any promise of what the crop in the
early months of the year will be, there are good
prospects ahead. But then it is such an uncertani,
treacherous product, and has so many enemies, that
one is afraid to build one's hopes on aught else than
the nibs in store. Even the yellow variety, which has
been admitted to be so much more robust than the
red, does not seem as if it were to escape molest-
ation from the everyday enemies of the cacao. I
saw one tree lately' every pod on which had been
badly punctured by a sucking bug of some kmd,
if indeed it was not hchpcltis. It did not seem
to have injured the nibs inside, but it could not
have done them any good. It will be rather dis-
gusting if what were thought the strong varieties
are going to turn out like the disease-resisting
Liberian coffee a sell after all.

I have heard it stated by one who ought to
know that the variety which we call " CarAcas "
is really not the true thing, but that it is actually
the red which we have growing here, and which
is so sensitive to blights of all kinds. It seems
that about thirty years or so ago the red was
pretty universal in the West Indies, but that
it was almost wiped out by some blight or an-
other. It was then replaced by the stronger
varieties, such as have lately been imported into
this island. The red kind so common with us
came from the West Indies before the yellow
had taken its place. The full plump bean and fine
flavour of our cacao is also said to have been a
peculiarity of the true " Caracas," whereas what
now goes" by that name has a iiattish nib, and
does not win the London buyers as tha other
does. Of course, it is only aspcculation yet, but
nevertheless a very interesting one.

I trust it is an exaggeration, but I was told
of an unfortunate jilanter who at the beginning of
the late dry season put out 80,000 tea plants, all
of which or nearly so have succumbed. Even if
it were half as bad, it would be distressing enough ;
and still the last six weeks have been very disastrous,
will, 1 fancy, be remembered for a long time to come.

Pkppeecorn.

PLANTING IN NETHEKLANDS INDIA.
{Tirinslaicd fnj the "Straits Thne.n."

Coffee estates in Java have of late been sold
for an old song owing to low prices and leaf-
disease. The Home Government has directed the
authorities there to be less forward in shipping
coffee to Holland owing to the depressed condition
of the market arising out of the enormous over-
production of that article in Brazil. The outlook is
gloomier still from the hopelessness of any change
for the better in a great many coffee estates in
Mid Java where Hemileia Tcistatrir has got firm
foothold.

A disease called Sfivh which by destroying the
roots of growing cane in Cheribon, was threaten-
ing the sugar industry there with ruin bids fair
to be of a fleeting nature owing to diseased plant
cane having produced healthy canes, thereby show-
ing that aerch arises from something in the en-
vironment or in the soil.

The Sourabaya Vonyaiit of the 27th August, re-
commends as an unfailing remedy for snake bite
the juice of the papaya fruit dropped on the wound.
The venom becomes speedily sucliod up hy that
milky fluid thereby warding off the deadly con-
sequences o£ the bite.

By last advices from Java (12th September)
the Treasury is so short of cash that in some
districts the land tax began to be collected in
August instead of in November when it legally
falls due, to the great inconvenience of the cult-
ivators whose minds such fiscal exactions render
more open to the seditious influence of Zealots
and fanatics who leave no stone unturned to stir
up a spirit of disaffection against the Government.
Their efforts are seconded by a secret Mahomedan
sect which is steadily gaining ground especially
in west Java, where even native headmen have
show-n signs of fanaticism. Ko far the Govern-
ment has taken no notice of the movement, at
least no action is taken against the fanatics,
though it is manifest that by taking iirecautions
in time more rigorous measures hereafter will be
avoided. The Samarang Loi-umotief of the 26th
August points out that, in these times of screw-
ing 111) taxation, it would not be amiss to take
into account that it is one-sided and wrong to
have only fiscal gain in view. Care should be
taken not to arouse discontent among the people,
from fanaticism differing as it does from devout-
ness, being highly dangerous in Netherlands
India as nobody acquainted with both country
and people can deny. At present the mischief
done 13 so slight as to be easily remedied, but if
the foretokens of danger are disregarded, the re-
sponsibility for consepuent disaster rests on the
Government.

THE CULTIVATION OF TEA IN CEYLON.

To show what a London •' City man " interested
in tea generally thinks of Ceylon and its new
staple products, we publish the following contribu-
tion handed to us a .short time ago. The writer
evidently possessed himself of a copy of our
" Tea Enterprise " pamphlet and proceeded
to give a summary from a rather sanguine jioint
of view of the prospects before the investor in
tea in this island. He stops short before com-
ing to the working out of his estimate, but
this may follow in a second paper. The chief
point is that this contains the ideas (after per-
using Ceylon reports) of one who has had long
experience in Indian tea and " city " business.
It is well to see what is thought in such
quarters : —

(Commiiniaitnh)

In consequence of the ravages of the leaf-
disease, or coffee fungus, among coffee plantations
in Ceylon, and the partial failure of the cinchona
industry, estates and land can at present be pur-
chased at very low rates in the cultivated dis-
tricts of this island, and land is still obtainable
from Government at the moderate upset price of
BIO (lbs) per acre, but the suitable and desirable
portions have now mostly been taken up ; and of
these latter, I am told, Government are disinclined
to make any large grant, and I hold a letter from
the Ceylon Colonial Secretary, in which he in-
forms "me that " the extent now available is
limited " ; and, however preferable these virgin
soils may ultimately prove, great care must be
exercised in their selection.

These facts, however, go far to prove that iww
is a very exceptional time for the tea enterprise
in the island, more especially for the abandoned
coffee estates, or those on which the coffee is

Nov.

1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

339

steadily " going out.'' Also many estates are now
in the hands of the mortgagees who are only too
desirous of reaUziug, and in some cases accepting
even a loss rather than continue in having their
resources locked up in a distant country.

The climate of Ceylon has proved itself simply
perfect for the growth of tea, the b\ishes actually
'■ flushing " all the year round, whilst in India
this only occurs, generally speaking, during some
7 months out of the 12, the result is that here
we got a most extraordinary crop, some estates
raising their returns up to 1,000 lb. of made tea
per acre. I propose, however, to base my calcul-
ation on the very moderate return of 450 lb. per
acre. .So many causes bear upon this point that
it is somewhat dillicult : to arrive at a fair ai-eniye
estimate elevation or rather altitude of the laud,
richness of soil, and rainfall are the principal
things that must be considered. In fair average
soil on the low-lands or at low altitudes, the
planter may depend on SOO lb. per acre ; whilst
when he may plant 2,000 ft. to 3,000 ft. higher,
his return per acre will probably be reduced to
500 lb. to 000 lb., and then another 1,000 ft. or
2,000 ft. to about 400 lb. to 500 lb. per acre. What
he loses in quantity, however, he is likely to gain
in quality, for the hill teas undoubtedly possess
generally ° more "bloom" or aroma than those
grown on the low-lands. However, in taking 4.j0 lb.
per acre, I think 1 am well within the mark.

.\s to quaUty, Ceylon teas have already with
their limited import of some 2,.500,000 lb. made
such a name for themselves on our London market,
and are getting so generally appreciated by all
who can tind the opportunity of securing them
"pure" (that is unmixed with other teas), that
I purpose merely to state, that from my extended
knowledge of teas and the taste of the British
public for tea of this character, the more they
get known the greater will be the demand for
them, and, where they can be procured unmixed
with other growths, they will go far to supplant
both China and IniUan teas : this fact will be
found very important, as will be seen from the
figures I shall produce further on. The grand
peculiarity of well-made Ceylon teas is that they
are perfect in themselves, and do not require to
be blended with other teas, as do the majority of
both China and Indian production — they, of course,
at the same time can be successfully used in
improving other teas by being blended with them.

The exceUeut comiiiunications by railways, roads,
rivers and canals render Ceylon certainly superior
to any other tea district in the world, and this
fact is enhanced by having the splendid and
economical shipping port of Colombo, nearly all
Eastern steamers calling there.

The labour in Ceylon is some of the very best
that can be procured, Tamil labour, and the
supply is inexhaustible, as we have 12,000,000 of
this race on the opposite shore of youthern India.
These are only too willing to cross over and re-
ceive the enhanced pay they command in Ceylon.
The present price of labour is about 7d to 8d
per diem. In Assam a cooly costs about Is
per diem, after the heavy cost of getting him on to
the estate (about £8), and then he is by no means
so etiicient as the Tamil cooly.

The rainfall combined with the tropical heat of
Ceylon alone accounts for the extraordinary growth
we see among the tea, the rainfall being so uni-
formly spread over the year, ami not coming in
the violent monsoons peculiar to India. I'liis
rainfall varies considerably according to the dis-
tricts : about 130 inches to 2.j0 inches is what may
be put down as favouring the tea districts.

The tea plant hitherto lias scarcely any enemy
in nature, the red-spider, bug and blight being the
only ones, but these I tind generally only occur
where the tea is sickly, or from exceptionally dry
weather, neither of whicli circumstances are likely
to occur in this redundant climate. The tea
jilant itself is a most hardy one, and throws down
deep into the ground a long strong tap-root tluia
sinking deep into the ground for its sustenance,
which fact may account for its apparently not ex-
hausting the soil as is the case with coffee, and
this enables the tea-plant to be so independent
of any drought littlo as there is any fear of tliis
in Ceylon.

AN AMERICAN PEACH FOREST.

Mr. .John H. Parnell, a great Ameriaan peacli-
grower, has been letting out some of the secrets of
his peach forest, which have more interest as Mr.
John Parnell is the brother of another and more
famous member of the family, Mr. C. S. Parnell
himself. " In my early days," said Mr. Parnell to
the correspondent, " I was advised that there were
excellent chances for inves-tment in the South, and
especially in Cieorgia. It was my idea that thus
located there was money in cotton, so I paid cash
down 12,000 dols. for 1,500 acres. To this original
purchase I have since added 500 acres, making my
possessions 2,000 acres in all. P'or three years I
planted cotton, only to find it a delusion." It was
in this fortunate moment that Mr. Parnell made up
his mind that there was money in peaches. The
great peach forest is described as containing acres
and acres of ground, stretching indeed into miles,
covered with every variety of tree. The trees, which
number 150,000, are planted twelve feet apart, and
are kept trimmed to the ground, so that a person
standing can pluck the rosy fruit from its fastness.
When the first blush comes upon the cheek of the
dainty beauties 100 men, women, and children are
set to work, each armed with a Hat basket, return-
ing to the rendezvous when the bottom is covered.
Thus they keep on day after day until the season
is over. The story of Mr. Parnell's venture is brieHy
this : — He invested 12,000 dols. in his plantation.
He has spent over H,000 dols. since in trees, seeds,
and labour. Upon this investment he makes from
8,000 dols. to 10,000 dols. a year, and would not
sell his peach forest for less than 300,000 dols.
Great as Charles Stewart Parnell is as the uncrowned
king of Ireland, greater is .John H. Parnell, the peach
king of America. " I found it necessary to have re-
course to English varieties. It was clear that a
hard, firm peach which would bear handling would
be a gold mine. In 1871 I brought from England
5,000 budded trees — the Beatrice, the Early Rivers,
and the Early Louise. I have found that these
three varieties meet every requirement. I have
developed a hybrid, to which I have given the name
of Parnell. This peach is destined to rank in the
peach family as the Le Conte does among the pears,
i secured it from an accidental seedling. I made
iny first shipment of this peach live years ago,
when it went off at 25 dols. a bushel. I have now
seven thousand trees of this variety. It has a dark
red skin, white flesh, and is firm and hardy for
shipment. The next is the Foster, a jieach of yel-
low skin, saffron flesh, and firm mould. But one
crop in three of this peach, however, is fit to ship.
Of the Amelia peach, dark-flcshcd and brownish red
cheek, I have over 8.000 trees. I have spent much
lime in experimenting, and believe that I have now
solved all the difliculties of this neighbourhood.
As old trees die I replace them, and also make a
regular annual increase of 25,000 trees,"

34°

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

" The worst enemy of the peach orehai-il," re-
marked Mr. Parnell, " is the half-taught horticult-
urist with a pruning knife. Tliere is no doubt but
tliat peach trees understand the art of growing, and
should be let alone. The borers will not do as much
harm as the man who tries to exterminate
them. If a tree yields bad fruit just cut it
down and replant. The principal danger, however,
is winter killing, which is a misnomer, because the
killing takes pilace owing to the absence of winter.
Where no winter comes the sun never sinks. A
sudden cold day chills the tree, just as it does a
man. I have fully exploded one idea prevalent,
that it won't do to plant a new orchard upon the
site of an old orchard. Thousands of my best trees
are standing upon ground which has been the site
of half a dozen previous orchards. Trees set out to
the north-east never fail to have fruit. Peaches
flourish in alternate years, sometimes one variety
and sometimes another. In lB7o there was a wonder-
ful yield of early peaches. In 1S78 the crop was
equally good, but in 1879 there was a peach famine
whii'h caught me two ways. The famine in Ireland
deprived me of my rents, and the famine in peaches
deprived me of my income here. In alternate years
since, with wonderful regularitj', the yield has up-
held the theory. The earliest shipment ever made
to New York was on the IBth of May, an.l the
latest the 10th of August, when the Delaware croiJ
cuts off the Georgia sales."

" The demand tor Igood fruit has never yet been
met. I always have more orders than I can fill.
New York is the great market, because it is the
distributing point, and always offers regular prices.
Philadelphia stands next as an Eastern market.
Cincinnati is the great peach depot of the West.
I once got 25 dels, a crate in Cincinnati. My
heaviest shipment in one day was 900 crates to
the New I'ork market. Large quantities I send by
freight and small quantities by express. In one
year I netted 11,000 dols. This year I have already
shipped 1,000."— P«H il/«;/ Bmhjet.

EICE GROWING AND OTHER INDUSTRIES
IM JAPAN AND CEYLON.
The Hoiujkomj Daily'Press has the following; — " The
suggestions made by a correspondent of the
Japan Mail that there is too much rice cultiv-
ation in Japan and that some of the land now
devoted to this crop should be put under mulberry
and European grain and vegetable crops is well
worthy the serious attention of the Japanese Gov-
erumei^t and people. There is no doubt that
among the causes of the inferior physique of the
Japanese race, the malaria arising from the rice
swamps may be placed in the front rank. With
the patient industry and careful cultivation of the
Japanese farmer, more remunerative crops than rice
could be raised, and the means afforded for a more
nourishing and sustaining diet than is at present
enjoyed by the mass of the population. The
Japanese Government have accomplished some-
thing, in an experimental way, towards introduc-
ing new industries, but a great deal more might still
be done. The attempt to breed sheep m Japan
has failed owing to the prevalence of the bamboo
grass, which gives the animals lesion of the bowels
but could not an effort be made to exterminate
this grass in some district or some of the islands
in the Inland Sea? It would be a great boon to
Japan if this could be done, and it is worth mak-
ing an effort for. Possibly, too, some breed of
mountain sheep not yet tried might be found which
would bo unaffected by the bamboo grass. PouKry
might also we tliink, be bred successfully on a

much larger scale than is at present the case.
There is unquestionably far more poverty in the
Laird of the Rising Sun than ought to exist. The
soil is exceptionally fertile, the people are indus-
trious and ingenious, and there is no waste in their
system of agriculture, but neverthless the vast maj-
ority of them live from hand to month, and the first
failure of crops is sure to plunge them into the
direst distress. It is true that only a very small
proj)ortion, we believe one-tenth, of the area of the
Japanese islands is under cultivation, and that the
uplands are almost entirely covered with forest and
grass, but more might be made of the available land.
The beds of the rivers might be secured against
overflow by the aid of engineering science, and
some portions of the uplands might be utihsed as
grazing laud if the bamboo grass could be eradic-
ated. The resources of the Hokkaido are as yet
undeveloped, and the attempts hitherto made by
the Government to open up that valuable island
have been too tentative and spasmodic to make
much impression. Meantime, the taxation presses
heavily on the agricultural classes, and its pay-
ment in money instead of produce as formerly
aggravates the pressure. The Government must
of course have a revenue, and the taxation would
perhaps not be unreasonable were the farmers
more prosperous. It becomes the duty of the Gov-
ernment, therefore, to help the agriculturists
in every way, and this can best be done, as the
writer in our Yokohama contemporary points out,
by importing fresh seeds from abroad and supplying
them at a low rate to the farmers. In any case
the cultivation of rice round the towns should be
discouraged as much as possible. Wheat, barley,
oats, and clover all thrive amazingly in Japan,
and almost every kind of useful vegetable can be
raised with success, so there need be no difficulty
in substituting other products for the rice."

CINCHONA PROSPECTS IN WYNAAD.

To the Editor " Ulailnis Hail."
SiK, — It is about four or five years since cin-
chona first began to be planted on a large scale
in Wynaad, and, at the present day, the whole
district is thickly studded v.'ith cinchona trees of
various ages, and different varieties. In 1880 one
paid a rupee apiece for a plant of the Ledgeriana
species, and now 1,000 of this variety are to be
had for 1U.5 to R20. This affords some idea of
the strides that are being made in the cultivation
of this valuable medicinal jiroduct. In South
Wynaad, at the piresent moment there cannot be
fewer than five million cinchona plants of different
ages. Recent analyses show that spoke shavings
from suceirubra bark from tlie Vythery district,
give two to three per cent of Sulphate of Quinine
and fetches 8d to Is 8d. per pound in the London
Market. A suceirubra tree can be shaved tour times
in four years with impunity, and will yield at least
a quarter of a pound dry bark each time it is
shaved ; it can then be coppiced, when it will
yield as much bark as three shavings. After
coppicing the tree will have yielded about 2 lb.
of bark, which at the very lowest valuation would
be worth a rupee a pound, and say the stool
is valued at only 8 annas, and it appears that
valuing the tree at Ri-6— a figure which would cover
a heavy fall in the price of tjarit— the cinchonas in
South Wynaad are worth 7u lakhs of rupees or up-
wards of hall a million of English :noney. lint
everything points to a rise rather than a fall in tlie
price of bark. London Urokers value the unit at
one-sixth of an ounce of quinine, so that with the
unit at ud. quinine ought not to cost more than

Nov. i, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

341

2s. OJ. an ounce in bulk. With quinine at this low
price, the consumption should increase enormously
with the population. Eastern nations have vet to
be educated to its use, and that the Hindoo is
beginning to appreciate cheap quinine, is clearly
proved by the fact, that enterprizing natives are
selling quarter ounce bottles in the Wynaad bazaars
at Kl a piece. So far as one can see at present.
Southern India promises to be the great cinchona
producing country of the world, for 5d per unit
drives America out of the market. Cinchona \vill
not thrive in the stitY, clayey soil of Jamaica. In
Daijeeling the land placed under this cultiv-
ation by private enterprize is only about '2,000
acres : so that we are thus left face to face
with Ceylon and Java as the two rivals we
have to fear. Ceylon planters seem to think that
Cinchona leaves them too small a margin for
profit to make its cultivation worth their while,
and at the last Annual Meeting of the Ceylon
Chamber of Commerce, the Chairman, referring
to the large exports of cuichoua, remarked that
this result had only been achieved at the ex-
pense of the tutuve, and that tliey could not,
therefore, expect to see exports on a correspond-
ing scale in future years. And it is probable that
the exports of bark from Ceylon wiil never again
reach the figure they did this season. Ceylon
cannot grow cinchona so cheaply as Wynaad, and
the Ceylon planters are now turning their atten-
tion more exclusively to tea cultivation. Java is
a rival much to be feared, but the long wet
season there with its intermittent rain from Uctober
to March, and the ravages of Helupeltis Antoiiii
may serve as some check on its exports of bark,
but it must not be forgotton that Java, with
its rich volcanic soil, ought to produce a splen-
did sample of bark, and the Javanese
are the best agriculturists in Asia. The Madras Gov-
ernment, with its 3,000 odd acres of cinchona,
stands forth as a formidable rival to private enter-
prize, and now that the plantations have served
their object in encouraging and stimulating the
cultivation of cinchona by private individuals, the
(government, by putting their estates up for sale,
would not only benetit the planting community
by retiring from the held, and ceasing to compete
with private industry, but if it at the same time
threw open the Government Keserve r'orests, they
would Snd themselves in possession of some ready
cash which might help to make up the Budget
deficit. \Ve thus rind that, looking at things from
an unprejudiced and dispassionate point ofjview,
boutheru India bids fair to be the great quinine-
producing country of the future, and that prob-
ably the part of Southern India where cin-
chona can be most successfully grown is
Wynaad. There is still a large acreage
suitable there for cinchona, though not
quite adapted for coffee cultivation. When planted
with the coffee cinchona costs the planter, if we
except a small yearly sum spent in lopping,
little or nothing in cultivation, and the idea that
cinchona does any barm to the coffee under it,
has this year been abundantly proved to be errone-
ous by the fact that notwithstanding that there
is now so much coffee imder cinchona, it is being
remarked by all old planters that never since
the uays of leaf-disease has coliee lii \V'ynaad
lookeu ^o green, so fresh, ana so vigorous as now.
Wynaad may now be saw to nave turned
the comer, and in the course of a year or so, we
shall probably see a great ru=h of capital into the
district ; the last four or live years have been trying
and anxious ones to all iilanters, but by their energy
pin lanting cinchona, and the economy practised

in their estate expenditure, they have again proved
the truth of the proverb that " Fortune waits for
those who have I'atience and riinsiiVER.\xcii."

THE HAKGALA EXPEKIMENTAL
GARDENS : CEVLON.
In turning the sharp corner just before coming

111 sight of the Garden gates the extensive stretcfi
of patua lands of tlie Uva liistrict suddenly comes
in view, and the whole of the di.stiict Ironi Idul-
gashena (iap and Haputale Gap to ivamunakuli and
beyond to the Madulsima Hills is seen from this
point. One hundred yards or so farther on you
enter the garden gates, aqd after passing through
the Casuarina and Acacia avenue and turning to
the right, leaving the outlet of the new drive to the
left, a very fine peep is got of the west peak of
the grand Hakgala rock with its almost perpendi-
cular face. The large Wanduru Monkeys are fre-
quently to be seen jumping fioin tree to tree in
the jungle on the top of, and around the rocks, their
locahty being made known by iheir peculiar shout-
ing or barking noise. Passing on up the drive
and looking to the left a new ornamental piece
of water is to be seen, the shrubberies on each
side being planted with ornamental trees, shrubs
and garden plants. Good specimens of t upressiis
tonihim are to be seen on the upper side of the
drive, and when passing the sharp bend, and look-
ing to the left down the gully, a pretty peep is
gained of the water trickling down between banks
of native ferns into the sheet ol water below.

Hounding the next corner a good specimen of
the Flame tree, Stenitlia uceri/ulia, is seen,
its trunk being covered with a cream-flowered
creeper — t'vbau scaiuh'iis, in/'. <(lba. Close by this are
also two good specimens of the Japan Cedar —
C'ryptomeriii jtipoiiiia, and a very tine specimen of
t iipressiii iiKicrocarpu, under which is a branching
tree fern, HeiiUulia ]i'alkei\e. This is a well-
balanced specimen, with a trunk 5 to G feet high
and at about 3 feet from the top spring three
branches, the largest being about 18 inches long and
the smallest fully a foot long, each branch carrying
a head of from 4 to 7 fronds. This branching of
tree ferns is rather uncommon in Ceylon and very
rare in the West Indies.

About 50 yards farther on is the new, or lower,
entrance to the Fernery. In the gully to the left
there is a very line clump of young tree ferns
the Alsophila criiiita. Turning to the right
into the fernery, and passing a large Fuelisia oed
on the left, you come on a piece of rocK-work,
some 23 yards long, planted entirely with foreign
ferns and" Begonias, the fern plants being nearly
all raised from spores received from England, and
among them are to be found some good specimens
of the line-leaved Adiaiitttnis, or maiden hairs,
and one very rare and beautiful Gymnograniina,
iiijmnng!-amma schizophijlla. At the top corner
of this rock-work is a healthy young jjlaut of the
Nilgiri tree fern, AUophila latebrosa. Crossing a
path here and going into the body of the fernery
a very line group of the native tree fern, Ahiyphila
crinitu, is to be seen, with trunks 18 to 20 feet
High, and one specially fine one in the centre has
a large graceful head of fronds of fully 16 feet iu
diameter. About 1.0 feet from this on the upper
side is a healthy j-oung specimen of the .New
Zealand silver tree fern, ' i/«//i< ./ deatbata. The
under i;ide of the fronds are of a very Ught
glaucoui colour which is in striking contrast ^vlth
the dark green above. The fernery contains about
8,000 lilants of ferns, the greater jiart of these being
native, planted among them and beside the nu-

342

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

merouB winding paths, are such plants as Begonias,
Primroses, Cowslips, and a few other plants, including
several of the native terrestrial Orchids and on
niiiny of t)ie trees, which are left for shade, are fixed
epiphytal native orchids and lycopods.

Passing out of the fernery down a path some 40
or 50 yards long with rock borders on each side,
planted with similar plants to those in the fernery, and
looking to the right just before leaving this, two
young plants of Australian tree ferns Dichsuiiia
untarctUa, are seen, one on each side of the rivulet
which crosses underneath the path at this point.
These tree ferns, although they are young ones,
show how very much stouter the Australian tree-
ferns grow than those in Ceylon, though for grace
and beauty it is hardly possible to beat the Ceylon
species, Ahujiltilu ii-inita, which Col. Beddome, the
illustrator of the Ferns of British India and Ceylon
says is the finest of all the Asiatic tree ferns.

Coming out into the drive again the visitor comes to
the junction of four ways, and on turning down to the
left for about 30 yards a handsome plant of the
John-Crow-bush of Jamaica, Bocconia fnitcsceim,
is seen. The foliage is in shape very like that of
the jakwood tree, but is much lighter in colour
and is softer. At the present time this plant, which
is about 12 feet high, is loaded with over two
dozen large bunches of flowers and fruit, the bunches
being from 1 to 2 feet long. Retracing this 30
yards and continuing up the road to near the
superintendent's bungalow and looking to the right,
near the thermometer shed, is to be seen a large
handsome specimen of Piiius loniiifuUa. This tree
is iO to 50 feet high and its long needle-shaped
leaves — 10 to 14 inches long and 1 line broad —
make it quite a feature in this part of the garden.

Bunning parallel with the superintendent's bung-
alow is a terraced flower-garden with the beds cut
out in turf and planted with such plants as pansies,
violets, geraniums, verbenas, phlox, petunias, mig-
nonette, ttc, itc. Passing on across the tlower-
garden and up the steps the propagating-house is
reached. This house is filled with a great variety
of plants, chiefly in the rearing stage, and a lew
stock plants of tender kinds. A curious and in-
teresting fern will be noticed hanging up in the
middle of the house. This fern, Platycerhim (jraiuJe,
is known by the name of elkhorn fern. The top
part of the frond very much resembles the horn of
the elk. Among other interesting plants here is
Osmantlms iUcifvlius, a Japanese shrub with leaves
exactly like those of the variegated holly. From
the path in front of tlie propagating-house a good
view is obtained of the rose garden and some very
pretty peeps of the Tjva and BaduUa mountains.
Turning to the right near the flower-garden the
path leads to the plant sheds, three in number,
which are filled with a great variety of plants
for distribution. To the right of these sheds is a
bed of the medicinal jalap, Exuyoninm purya. It
grows and flowers remarkably well, but does not
make many tubers, which, of course, is the main
thing from a commercial point of view. The ele-
vation is evidently too low. It is, however. 11 \ery
pretty creeper and grows rapidly. A little further
on from this is the nursery garden in which a large
stock of plants are kept in beds for distribution
of ornamental trees, fruits, shrubs and garden plants.
Near this nursery, growing over a large rock, is
a large plant of " cho-cho," Hcchinm ediile, a veget-
able resembling a vegetable marrow, recently in-
troduced from the West Indies. The plant is
thoroughly established and promises to become a
very useful addition to the mountain vegetables ; the
same may be said of the '* arracaolia," --Irn/tv/c/ia
esculenla, which is growing near by. Also near this are

plants of the '' tree toma.to," Cyphomaiidm hetacea,
which is thriving very well indeed, plants only a
little over 18 months old are 9 ft. in height and
bearing a gocd crop of fruit. A short path from
the nursery leads into the rose garden, which is
laid out in a large circle and planted with about
80 different kinds of roses. Opposite this is a bank
planted with 120 different kinds of trees and shrubs,
among which is the Knglish laurel, lilac, laburnum,
box, heath, berberis, broom, strawberry tree, winter
bark, red trumpet tree, azalea, black and red cur-
rants, tSrc, &c.

Going down the path from the N.E. outlet of the
rose garden and crossing the new drive and on down
the Uttle path for about 80 yards, the visitor comes
to the picnic arbour which faces the Uva
country. More of the lladulsima hills can be
seen from here than from any other point in the
garden. The tops of the church and new mission-
house at Haputale can be distinctly seen from this,
and the road winding through the rolling and beauti-
ful XJva patanas to BaduUa can be made out in
several places. Looking to the N.W. from this point
is to be seen a fine stretch of unbroken forest
which is in great contrast to the patana view
looking to the east and south-east.

Turning back over the same gi'oimd into the new
drive and crossing it again, and going on along
the winding path through the shrubbery to-
wards the little summer arbour, and when " about
half way, looking to the right, is a large speci-
men of the Abyssinian Banana — Musa Eiisete' — with
leaves 10 to 12 ft. long and two feet or more broad.
The midrib of these large leaves being a deep red
colour sets off the leaf to great advantage. This
species is said to be the largest Banana in the
world, a full grown plant has a trunk some 20
ft. high and leaves from l(j to 20 ft. long. The
bunch of fruit is large and handsome but is not
edible. Near this are some young plants of the
West Indian "Cherimoyer" — Anoiui (iu-rimulia — a de-
licious fruit, in size and shape like" Sweet Sop" but
very superior in flavor to that fruit, and said by the
Creoles of the West Indies to be the most delicious fruit
in the world. It is also by some called the
forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden. A hundred
yards or so from this is a plant of the true English
Oak, and a few yards farther on, tlie ornamental
pond, and the sexangular shaped arbour is reached.
The arbour is covered with Chinese honeysuckle.
Looking across the water a very fine view of Hakgala twin
rook is obtained. This is one of the prettiest spots
in the garden, the reflection of these rocks, which are
1,500 ft. higher than the pond, is often very
plainly to be seen in the water. Planted round
the pond are several interesting plants, among them
being the wedding flower — ilonra Robinwiiiana so
named by Mr. Moore of the Sydney Botanic
(jardens in honor of Sir Hercules Eobinson —
from Lord Howe's Island, very like a gigantic
Iris ; one llower spike contains from 120 to 200
blooms which come out a few at a time but only last 24
hours; the plant is in llower for several months. Cerem
iliyaiitcus is another interesting plant here which
Howered freely last year and is again sho\ving a
number of flower buds. The flower is about six
inches in diameter, white and sweetly scented, but
unfortunately it opens in the night and the beauty
is all gone by i) or 10 o'clock in the morning —
other plants to be noticed here are Mountain Papaw —
Ccirka cuiliiininarceiii'is — the common and variegated
New Zealand Uax and the tree fuchsia — Viuli.sia
iirloreii, wliich when in llower is very ranch like
the lilac and has often been taken for that plant.
Leaving the pond to the right, taking the path to the
left the visitor again enters the new drive, and just

KOV. 2, 1885.1

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

343

before enteiiug the old di-i\c which leads back lo
the entrance gate a very pretty bit is seen looking
up the new ornamental piece of water, which is KiO ft.
long, at the end of which is a very handsome
clump of tree ferns, and looking round in the
opposite direction the Madulsima mountains are
again to be seen. The Eucalyptus plantation is
situated a short distance above the fernery
and is reached by a path leading from the N.W.
side of fernery. The plantation is planted up
with small clu'mps of between 10 and 50 different
kinds and is interesting as containing young
plants of some of the largest trees in the
world. The " Kauri Gum " — KiicnUiptKx ra^o.ssfo —
and the narrow-leaved Peppermint (ium — K. (imijyd-
alhta — have been known to reach a height of
400 ft., and to measure in girth at a yard from
the ground 7.5 to 100 ft. The wood of these and
several of the other species grown here is exceed-
ingly strong and very durable. Other interesting
species are E. Guuiiii — the Tasmanian Cider Tree
or Swamp Gum of Gippsland, E. lencoxiilon —
Victorian Iron Bark, E. iiinrflinntn — Jarrah or Maho-
gany Gum, E. piperita — Peppermint Tree, 7','. riiiiiii-
(i/i.— Victorian manna Gum, and E. citn'mlora —
the Lemon-scented Gum. W. Nock.

THE LONDON COFFEE TEADE.
At the Commercial Sale Kooms, Mincing Lane,
on Sept. 1-lth a very numerously attended
meeting of coffee importers, buyers, and brokers
was held to consider the position of the
coffee trade in London. Mr. Peat, the chair-
man, stated that coffee was an important item
in the commerce of the world, and especially in
the commerce of England ; but he was sorry to
say that England did not now occupy that high
position in reference to coffee which she used and
ought to do, and she did not do the fair proportion
of the trade to which she was entitled. That was
apparent to any one who would compare the total
stock of coffee in Europe at any one time with that
which came to the port of London. He found that
in 1882 the total stock of coffee in the chief ports
of Europe was 175, .571 tons, and of that London had
28,000 tons, which was a very small proportion. But
in 18»5 that proportion was still less ; for while
in the chief ports of Europe there were 217,1)29
tons, in Lomlon there were only 20,000 tons.
That very considerable falling-off was due to a
rariety of causes, and while they had no remedy
for some of these causes, he thought they had for
others. If there were any regulations in tlie terms
of commissions which tended to diminish their trade,
they ought to find a remedy if possible. He then
stated that among the questions wlrich deserved
consideration, and for which a representative com-
mittee might suggest improvements, were the con-
ditions and allowances, which might have been very
benelicial in past times, but which were not suited
to the altered state of the present day ; then there
were the discounts, whicli were very uncertain
and objectionable ; and another subject for con-
sideration would be that of dock rates. Mr. Asser
urged that all the various interests of the trade
should join together, not only lo keep but if
possible to increase their trade, which had been
diminishing for some time, and was going to
other ports of the world. Mr. Eucker said
that at one time London w-as practically the import
port for the whole of the trade, but that time
had gone by. As to the Central .Vmerican trade, they
should endeavour to offer some inducements to
increase that trade. He should like to sec the
obnoxious discounts done away with altogether. Mr.

-Miljor also hoped that the discounts and all the
aiitii^u.ited allowances should be knocked on the
heail. Mr. Whales complained tliat no specific
suggestion had been nuide to improve their position,
and, so far as he could gather, the promoters of
the meeting desired to take away some advantages
which the trade now had in order to improve the
trade of the port of London ; but no intelligent
body of men would agree to such a course. All
the efforts made to bring the trade to London
would be futile if it meant making the article
dearer. iMr. Hicks observed that the desire of the
promoters was to take away the obstacles to
trade. After considerable discussion a resolution
was submitted for the appointment of a represen-
tative committee ; but an amendment that the
meeting should be adjourned was carried by a
large majority, and the meeting closed with a
vote of thanks to the Chairman.— Howtc ISfen-s.

"BRAZIL" IN THE BIUTISH ASSOCIATION

Mr. Colin MacKenzie read a paper on Brazil.
He held that Brazil was an enormous undulating
plain or slightly elevated table land, H,:i00,0H0
S(iuare miles in extent, with a coast line of 8,70 0
miles. There was no volcano, and hardly any
desert or barren country. The country might bo
divided into three divisions — the littoral, the settled
belt, and the virgin forest. The littoral contained
all the towns, with an extensive commerce in
sugar, coffee, hides, indiarubber, and drugs. The
settled belt was a mere fringe, comprising all the
cattle, sugar, and coffee estates of the country.
Laud was opened up for cultivation by setting
lire to the forest in the dry season, a most waste-
ful and destructive system. All the rest of the
empire was virgin forest. Nine-tenths of it was
witliin the tropical zone, and so rich was the
soil, so vigorous and varied the vegetation, that
it formed one of the wonders of the world. No
industry was carried on in the forest except the
gathering of india-rubliev and medicinal herbs.
The population was 10 millions, the basis of which
was of Portuguese descent. They were affectionate
to their families and kind to the dependent races,
the Indians and the negroes. The latter were
being emancipated, partly by the action of the
law of free births in force since 1871, and partly
by private benevolence. In about 10 years the
system of slavery w'ould expire through the causes
now at work, and this immense and fertile country
would be opened up to spontaneous immigration.
The northern races of Europe could not stand
tlie heat, but the Latin races from the shores of
the Mediterranean could work anil flourish there.
Brazil was nearly as large as Euruiie, and could sup-
purl a greater population to the square mile. The
a\erage population of Europe was H7 to the square
mile, which would give for Brazil nearly 300 millions
of inhabitants.

In the discussion which followed Mr. K. N. Cust re-
marked that a large number of natives still inhabited
Brazil who spoke no less than 20 different dialects.
Brazil is the last stronghold of slavery.

Professor Trail, of Abenleen, said that when acting
as botanist in an expedition sent out to explore tho
Amazon valley he travelled for many hundred miles
in the Amazon river and its tributaries, and found
that they were navigable for great distances from the
sea. The whole valley was well watered and was
extremely fertile, and cattle could be reared there
with great advantage. It was to be regretted that
the native races were generally treated with great
barbarity. — London Times.

344

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

THE WHEAT SUPPLY OP THE WOELD.
A very comprehensive revieiv of the probable require-
nieiits and supplies of wheat throughout the greater part
of the world during the new cereal year has appeared
in IJeerhohiji'g List, and as last year's estimates by this
authority have turned out remarkably near the truth,
the pre.'eut calculations are entitled to some amount
of coufidence. The details of the estimates are fully
worked out aud explained in the article ; but we can
give only the summary, as tollows : —

Probable re- Probable ex-
quirements port surplus
qrs. qrs.

United States and Canada — 9,000,000

United Kingdom 17,500,000 —

France ... O,.'if}0,000 —

Belgium ... 2,00n,ii00 —

Germany ... 2,000,000 —

Holland ... 1,000,000 —

Austria-Hungary _ 1,000,000

Bussia and Roumania — 6,500,000

Switzerland ... 1,500,000 —

Italy ... 1,500,000 —

Spain and Portugal 1,000,000 —

India ... — 6,500,000

Australia aud Chili — 2,000,000

West Indies and China 2,500,000 —

Greece ... SOO.COO

Egypt and sundries — 1,000,000

Totals ... 35,000,000 26,000,000
These quantities, which i'lclude flour reckoned on
wheat equivalents, show a probable deficiency of 9,000,000
quarters, whereas last year the quantities about balanced.
The conclusion is that, although the deficiency will be
.somehow made up, it can only be by drawing upon
reserve stacks all over the world, the effect of which
upon prices can scarcely fail to be great and gradu.illy
increasing. As to reserve .'-tocks, it is jjossible that they
may have been over-rated. At any rate, many persons
will learn with surprise that returns of wheat and tiour
held in seven of the eight principal grain ports of the
United Kingdom, with the estimated quantitv for London
added, show a surplus equivalent to only 220,000 quart-
ers of wheat over last year's stocks; and Beerhohm
puts the total reserves of the United Kingdom at only
500,000 quarters in excess of last year's total. A simil-
ar calculation for the extra reserve stocks in the United
States is 6,000,000 quarters, to which is added 2,000,000
quarters of the new American crop and 1,000,000
for quarters Canada, to make the total quantity available
for export in the two countries.

An AfiKicci.TUEAL Catechisji. — Mr. M. Bhavani
Shenker Eao, Local Cattle Disease Inspector, Coim-
batore, has jitiblished " A Catechism on soil and their
improvements. Embracing Soils, Manuring, Tillage
Operations and Irrigation." He says in his preface: —
" This country being purely agricultural, the ex-
hausted condition of our soils, and the deterioration
of the agricultural produce, claim our attention to a
knowledge of the principles of rational agriculture,
the study of which is second to none in importance.
The object, therefore, in publishing this pamphlet is
to aid in diffusing a sound and precise knowledge of
the elementary principles that underlie the success-
ful cultivation of soil. It is intended to follow it up
by two other similar pamphlets, one on the Staph'
Product!^ of the Presidency, and another on the Live
Stock and its iiiaiinfiemriit, should this find favour
with the public." Mr. W. E. Eobertson, the Principal
of the Madras Agricultural College, states that he has
read the Catechism witli much interest and pleasure.
" It contains much useful practical information, and
should prove of great use to persons beginning the
study of agriculture in this country." — Mail rax Mail.
[Query : if the Ceylon Director of I'ublio Instruction
should not introduce some copies of this Catechism
into our schools? — Ed.]

Pepper Cpi.tivation at Poxdichekrt.— Monsieur
Eeynaud, Professor of Agi-onomy at Pondicherry,
has demonstrated the fact that pepper can be
grown with profit on the East coast. He has
lately gathered a good crop from a small plant-
ing, and the quality is said to be equal to good
Tellicherry. The chief considerations seem to be
I soil and suitable trees for climbing. — Madras Mail.

I CocounT Fibre. — We believe that many of our
I readers are not aware of the many uses to which
coconut tibre can he brought. Among others, it
; has been found most useful in planting coffee and
tea seedlings. A correspondent, who has tried the
experiment, says that not only is the fibre a very
good protection for the tender rootlets of these
plants, but that it acts as a capital manure. Tea
and coffee planters should take note of this. —
Indian Ai/ricaltiirist. [The fact has been long known
and acted on, but the substance is ccconut refuse,
not fibre. — Ed.]

Teas.— Fault is still found with the quality
of some of the Indian tea now offered. The
G)-occc says :— " As the season is a month later
than usual, the quantities coming forward are on
a very moderate scale. At the same time, the
general quality of the teas is poor, and inferior
to the average run for eai-ly arrivals, and oilers
little inducement for the" trade to purchase.
There is also the increasing attractivenes of
Ceylon teas to contend with, as to buy these'
the dealers more frequently turn from the Assam
kmds than they were wont to do a year or two
ago, and this withdrawal of support often leads to
some weakness in prices. This is more plainly
apparent in the commoner sorts than any other,
especially as they are most plentiful just now,
and are saleable only at and under Is. per lb.,
whereas at this period last year the same grades
were being disposed of at and about Is. 2d." — Home
and Colonial Mail.

A Copr.A-curTiNG Machine.— Messrs. F. R. Yarte
and Co., of Fiji, write as follows iu a recent issue of
the Scientific Americnn:— "'We ioMc the liberty of ad-
dressing you with respect to a which is greatly felt
by the owners of coconut plantations in Fiji ; and as
iu your coinitry inventions for the economy of labour
are of daily occurrence, we feel assured you might,
through the medium of your valuable jourual, induce
some of your many inventors to endeavour to make a
machine that will assist in the manufacture of cobera
{i.e., the cutting out of the kernel) aud saving of la-
bour. At present the cutting out of the nut is done
entirely by hand with a C-inch knife, wliich is very
slow process; and as the co.st of labour is very liigli,
steadily increasing, and supply limited, it would
be of the greatest importance if such a machine
could be made satisfacttorily. The machine would
be required to cut out the kernel of the nut just
as it falls from the tree, but with the outer husk
on. We could .split tliem open as we do now,
with an axe (at present we have no use for either
husk or shell, except for fuel). It must be adapted
to cut nuts of variable sizes, as coconuts vary very
much in size and shape, some being quite round and
others of oval shape and all .sizes, simple in construction
and strong without being heavy, as it would be worked
by black labour. The motive power could be either
hand or foot. It would not matler what .size or shape
it cut the kernel out, as long as it cuts it iu ' solid '
pieces ; tbo size we cut out by hand is about three-
quarters of ai\ inch thick by about three-inclios long.
If such a machine could be made a large immber would
be orclered. if not too expensive as our principal product
of export is dried coconut (called cobera or copra), and
every planter woidd liavo some."' Austr;ili:in genius
has ])roduoed a superior water auger, and it may be
hoped thut it will anticipate American genius in prc-
duciug a oopra-cutting mttcldne.— Sydney Mail.

Nov. 2, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

345

To lilt Editor of >lie " Oet/loH Ohsevva:"

TKOPIC.U. PltODUCTS : NEW PROCESS OF

PKKPARIN(f KriiBER ; ■• MAN'dARKIHA "

Rl I'.HKR ST'ITKD TO CEYLON ; ALS(^

Till': I'lASSAVA PALM.

BvHiA. null AuKUst ISSn.

(iKNTi.EMFN.— Wi> liuv.' pciuspd wiUi ii Ki'Piit (leal
ol pleasmt> voiu- valiiiihlf book on " Iiuliaiiibber,"
anil seeing tlmt joii are imich interested in the
•■ article," we wisli to inform you that we are
the owners of a new process of preparing rubber
direct from the milk doiuK away entirely with the
tedious metliod of evaporatinf< or smoking. We
can at a trittiuK oost and in a few hours convert
into marketable rubber any amount of milk, i>ro-
ilucing a rubber eiinal, we say even superior, to
the finest I'arii, out of the '• Manj,'abeira " milk,
which is the rubber-tree we have here in abund-
ance, hut, uufortnnately, all tlie trees have been
so badly cut by the natives that they do not
yielil any milk at present, whilst, if properly bled,
they slioulil f;ive milk every montli. We enclose
a sample of Mitii<iiili,iiii niUlicr made by our pro-
cess. As you will notice, it is perfectly dry and
differs totally from the spongy Btull known as com-
mercial Mangabeira rubber. We came here a short
time afjo hopint; to t,'et larfje quantities of milk,
as we had been informed that there are here im-
mense tracts of trees, which is true, but we weie
not aware that they had been so badly damaged.
We shall therefore liave to move very far into
the interior where there are still thousands of
tree.-i intact, before we can apply our process on
a larfje scale. We had some thoughts of going
up the -Vmazon, but health considerations have de-
terred from doing so, one of us here lia\ ing already
being carried away by yellow fe\ er. We should
be very glad to make an arrangement with some
of your planters to sell them our process for
Ceylon ; if there is suliicient interest evinced, one
of us might go out to Colombo to demonstrate
by /i'i'(.'i the value of the invention. We should
state that samples have been submitted to manu-
facturers in Europe and America, and after trial
declared to be excellent and applicable to all the
different requirements of the rubber manufacture.

Caniiiibeira. — .\s your book contains very little
information about this tree, it may interest you to
know that tlie plateau on which it grows is not
4,000 or 0,000 ft. above the level of the sea, but only
about oOO or tiOO ft. It grows o«/;/ in sandy soil,
and where it grows there are only one or two
other trees to be seen.

I'iiinnuvu {Attulmi fiiiiifera). — We are interested
here also in the manufacture of oil from above
palm-tree, the nuts of which give from ."JO to (iO
per cent of a beautiful oil ; besides this same
tree supplies tlie piassava or Xlexicair fibre used
for making hawsers, ropes, brooms, brushes, etc.
The shell of the nut is expoi-ted to Europe, where
it is to be turned into buttons and other articles.
There arc huiulreds of square miles of these trees,
especially near the seashore, for it grows only on
a. sandy soil, or rather that is the soil best
adapted to it. It seems to us that this tree
could be planted with great advantage in Ceylon
and many other colonies, and we will be very glad
to give you any further information you or your
friends might reijuire.

Cocoiiiits. — In return we should ftel much obliged
if you could f.ive us any information about the
planting and prowing of them, also on the manu-
44

facturing of the oil and desiccation of the nut :
we understand that large quantities of desiccated
nuts are .shipped to Europe from the Eiji Ishuuls,
and, as coconuts are very abundant along the
coast, we should like to turn tlieni to account.
They can be had for :iO/ to 40/ per 1,000, delivered
at a sea-port. Would that be considered a low
price with you ? .\ny infonnatioji about coir would
also interest. If you can send us any book treat-
ing of these subjects, we sliall feel nuicli obliged
and remit cost to your agents in Loudon.

Trusting that you will soon f.avonr ns with a
reply, we remain, yours verv trulv,

MARVAL IRM.JiOS.

I We are obligi'd to our correspondents for this
interesting letter. Ceylon is rather too young as
yet, as a rubber-jiroilucing country, to make much
of the patent process, althougli we shall be glad
to put any of our readers interested, in communic-
ation with the writers of the above. The sample
of rubber, \astly superior to anything as yet
gathered in Ceylon, can be seen at our office.
We should be glad certainly to see " Mangabeira"
rubber introduced, ami. if our correspondents send
us some seed, they will confer an obligation. The
I'iassava ought also to be a useful ijitroduction,
to judge by the following extract from tlie 't'ndxHrij
III' liiitiinfi :--

.1. /m«//>'/-(/, called by the Brazilians Piass.aba, yields
a tilnu of much value, derived from the decaying of
the cellular matter at the base of the leaf-stalks,
and the consequent lil)eration of the fibrous portiona.
This tibre is much used in Brazil for the purpose
of rope-making, and in this country is employed for
making brooms to sweep the streets. A fibre, having
the siiuie name, is also produced from another palm
called Liiiiiohlliiia I'tu.ssalja. The seeds of A . fiiiufna.
are known as Coquilla nuts ; they are three or four
inches long, oval, of a rich brown colour, very hard
in texture : hence they are mucli used in turnery for
making the handles of doors, umbrellas, etc.
We .shall send " .VU about Coconuts" to our cor-
respondents, which will give them the information
they require; but, meantime, we may say, that,
though Ceylon produced perliaps a thousand millions
of coconuts last year, we have never known the
)u-ice so low as .'iOs to 40s jier thousand — (lOs, or,
allowing for exchange, l.")S to .'iOs, is more like the
price here. Another correspondent however suggests,
.see below, that dollars may be meant.— En.]

C0C0NT"1'S IN liKAZIL: DOLLARS AND
RUPEES.

Dimbnla, 7tli Oct. 1SS.">.

Diait Sill, — Allow me to suggest, that, in connection
with the very interesting letler that appeared in
your issue of yesterday from Messrs. Marval Brothers
of Bahia, a mistake must have occurred, by which
the price of coconuts is made to appear to range
between 30 and 40 shillings per thousand : for
sliillings, I am pretty sure, dollars would be the
ciu'rect reading, as accounts are kept in dollars in
Bahia and not in English money. — Yours trulv,

TAINKAI.

1 Very possibly our correspondent is correct, but, the
letter being in English, the sign use I was clearly that
applied to " sliillings." — En.j

FLUID EXTRACT OF CINCHONA.

London, E. C, 11th Sept. imr,.
Dv.m: Sill. — I send you a drug list by this mail
and beg to call your attention to ])age 14 No. IHIi
" Fluid Extract of Cinchona." This has been made
at inij suggestion by Messrs. Howards of Sti af-
ford (after considerable work) who have securerl a
good supply of the Cinchona Calisaya Verde which
yielils a lemarkaljly rich extract. There is no

536

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

Is Cotton an American Plant? — Mr. Bourke, i n
the Snake Dance of the Moqiiis of Arizona, p.244,
Bays : — " l.'he Tunis weave the same kmd of cotton
mantle, but do not grow the fibre, preferring to
buy this from tlic neighbours, the Moquis, whose
fields, exposed to warmer suns, have yielded the precious
bolls from generations long prira* to the advent of
the Spaniards." He also (p. 241) refers to Davis'
Conqvrst of New Me.rico, p. 100, which speaks of the
inhabitants po.ssessing " blankets of cotton." I always
understood that Cotton was an Old World plant
Tised on this side of the Atlantic centuries before
American was discovered, and that the first Cotton ever
sent from America to England was a little lot, the
fill of a woman's apron ; as that was approved of,
the next shipment was one hale from, I think, Sa-
vannah. But if Cotton was an Old World plant how
could it be used in the New AVorld " centuries before
the advent of the Spaniards" ? — J. R. Hay. — Gardeners
Chrunicle.

CuLTiVATTON IN ALGERIA. — The Cultivation of cereals
in Algeria is declining, in consequence of the irre-
gularity of the crops, due to the uncertainy of the
seasons. A series of good years, it is stated, is
often succeeded by droughts, when the agriculturist
hardly gathers in the amount of corn he has sown.
Oorapetition abroad is so great that he cannot obtain
remunerative prices for bis produce, and in some
places, where the land is best, the means of communic-
ation are so defective, that it will hardly pay the
Arab to take his grain to market. Near the sea the
production of early vegetables and fruit for the.
markets of Europe promises to be successful, but
beyond all doubt the great hope of Algeria is in the
Vine. The gradual recovery of this plant from
Phylloxera in the South of France will probably
prevent the colonists in Algeria from making as
rapid forrtunes as appeared probable when that scourge
first commenced its ravages, but there is every chance
of the wine of Algeria commanding a remunerative
price both at home and abroad. There is no reason
why the European should not imitate the Kabyle,
who cultivates his small patch of mountain land with
care usually devoted to an orchard or market garden.
— Ganlrnrrf'^ Chronicle.

The Cincinnati Floods. — The dictum of the late
Charles Marsh that forests affect rainfall, long ira-
plicity received, is being queried in many quaters,
and in none more emj^hatically than in the new issue
of the Jonrmt! of the Xatiiral HiAtorij Society of Cin-
cinnati. The devastating floods of the Ohio of ]?ebruary
last have awaken, d scientific inquiry, as well as popu-
lar alarm. And it appears that they are but one of
a series, happening periodically since 1774. They have
been of greater frequency in later years ; but it is
only when the river has reached a depth of fifty feet
or more that destruction to life and property has
supervened. Last year the river rose from a depth
of 15 feet in .T.nnuary to that of 68 feet in February,
but it gradually sulisided to -5 feet deep at the entl
of that month. On fifteen occasions from 1770 on-
wards, there have been parallel sudden rises to such
a height as that mentioned above, and these have b^en
usually accompanied with signal destruction, human
and otherwise. Dr. Dun, the author of the paper,
treats his subject in minute statistical detail. He has
further been indulging in European travel, during
which he has seen the great floods of the Rhine and
Danube, as well as of the Po, in 1882, all occurring
in countries where the strictest forest conservancy
prevails. He holds, then, that the mere planting of
the headlands of the Ohio would not prevent floods.
The Ol'io valley is the track of both warm aud cold
storms, one setting coming from the Mexican Oulf,
the other from the North-'West. Hence the snows
and rains causing flood. Of course it is not proved
that forests might not ameliorate such climatal con-
ditions. Only the natural configuration of a country
must be taken as the main factor in aridity or rain-
fall, however these may be modified by secondary
influences. — Journal of torestrt/. [This is the sober truth
of the matter. — Ed.]

Palm-nut meal is commencing to be more extens-
ively employed for stock fattening. For pigs, it is
generally mixed with boiled roots or potatoes; some-
times a handful of oats or barley is added to give a
flavor; salt is never forgotten. <.>ne farmer recom-
mends, wdienever the occasion off"ers of a horse being
slaughtered, to secure a quarter and make it into
soup to wet the pigs rations. Maize, pumpkins, and
Jerusalem artichokes, with the nut.meal, make appet-
izing feeds for hogs. — Paris Cor,

Tobacco in Banguet. — The German Borneo Com-
pany have made considerable progress since they com-
menced oi)erations some five months ago. On the 20th
idtimo, H. E. the Governor, accompanied by Mr.
Herrings and the Colonial Secretary, visited the estate
and were received by Mr. Lind, the manager, and by
whom the party were conducted over the clearings
which at jjresent extend over some fifty fields, of
which al)out thirty are under cultivation. Mr. Herrings,
who was formerlj' a Director of the Deli Maatschippe
Tobacco Company — a company whose success has been
remarkable di.'idends of as much as one hundred
and thirty per cent per annum having been declared — •
expressed himself well satisfied with the appearance
of the ])lants remarking, that they looked strong
and healthy, with a large leaf. A fair bullock road
some sixteen feet wide, and aljout three quarters
of a mile long, runs from the landing place at
Limbuak to the plantation. Altogether the Ger-
man Company are to be congratulated on their en-
couraging prospects especiady having regard to the
fact that plantiug was commenced somewhat late in
the season. Mr. Herring having completed his visit
of inspection returned to Singapore on the same day
en route for Berlin, but he pro|.«-ies to return next year
with a view to opening up planting on a considerable
scale. He has recently been making a tour round the
tobacco growing countries, amongst others Sumatra,
Java, Phillipines and Sulu, and it is satisfactory to
learn from a gentleman of his experience that the
Banguey tobacco promises to compare favourably with
the best samples of the countries referred to. — North
Borneo llerahl.

Hor Water Treatment foe Plants. — A corre-
spondent calls our attention to the following from
the Garden and inquires whether there is anything in
it: — " The Florist asks. Has any one tried hot water
as a restorative for sickly plants, and then proceeds
to say that I\l. AV^illernioz some time since related
that plants in pots may be restored to health by
means of hot water. Ill health, he maintains, ensues
from acid substances in the soil, which, being
absorbed by the roots, act as poison. The small roots
wither and cease to act and the upper and younger
shoots consequently turn yellow and become spotted,
indicative of their morbid state. In such cases the
usual remedy is to transplant into fresh soil, in clean
pots, with good drainage, and this often with the
best results. But his experience of several years h-aA
proved the unfailing efficacy of the simpler treatment
which consists in watering abundantly with hot water
at a temperature of about 145 degrees Fahrenheit,
having previously stirred the soil of the pot so
far as may be done without injury to the roots.
Water is then given until runs freely from the pots.
In his experiments the water at first came out
clear, afterward it was sensibly tinged with brown,
aud gave an appreciable acid reaction. Afti-r this
thorough washing the pots were kept warm, aud the
plants very soon made new roots, immediately
followed by vigorous growth." To our mind there
ia a great deal in it. AVe know to a certainty
that sickly peach trees are often restored to vigorous
health by the old fashioned German farmers of
Pennsylvania by ponriug boiling water on the
ground about the peach trees. It cools, of course,
somewhat before reaching any of the roots. Here,
however, it is believed to be beneficial by destroy-
ing parasitic fungi. But, let the reasoning be what
it may, we are willing to indorse it as good practice,
— Gardeners' Monthlv.

iSIoV. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

337

TEA AT A HIGH ELEVATION IN CEYLON.

Ground covered with tea in full leafage, particularly
when the landscape features are undulating, is a pretty
sight ; but for continued and varied beauty old coffee
certainly bore away the palm. " Handling " and
even pruning in the case of coffee left the soil still
well covered, and to luxuriant and handsome foliage
were, in due season, added the snow-white and jas-
mine-scented blossom, and the green, yeUow and
ruby-red shades of the fruit contrasted with the
green of the leaves. But, excepting the few bushes
preserved as seed-bearers, tea is not allowed to
blossom or fruit, and when the time for a thorough
pruning comes there is such a cutting down and
away of wood, that, at any distance, the soil looks
as if it had been completely bared. In from two
to three months, however, the close carpeting of
golden green is restored, and the process of picking
goes on until the cutting-down time has come
round again. Simultaneously with the pruning of
bushes of good age, the stems have to be rubbed
clear of lichens and mud, by means of the naked
hand or the hand aided by a bit of sacking. The
stems of the coffee trees would be rubbed also
were it worth while to bestow further labour
or expenditure on a cultivation which was once
reckoned our mainstay. A visitor fresh from
the eastern side of the range, where coffee is
still worth cherishing, said to us a couple of days ago :
" Surely you will preserve that fine-looking coffee."
The atiswer was to point to the miserable sprinkling
of berries at distant intervals amongst the really
luxuriant foliage. Amidst the crop of leaves the
fungus had to be searched for, but so had the fruit,
and as the leaves cannot be converted into a
merchantable and profitable product, the Une-toohiiiri
coffee must go, however severe the pang may be of
parting with what, if Hcmileiu vr'.stiitri.r had not so
fatally intervened, would be now in its prime of crop-
yielding. The final decision to uproot the old
product in favour of the new must be much more
trying in those young districts than in the old,
where coffee did not fail until for more than a
generation it gave paying, in some cases largely
profitable, returns. But the decision must be arrived
at and carried out, to prevent the tea bushes
planted, amidst coffee growing up feeble and spindly.
The branches and leaves of the coffee bushes will be
buried, while the stems go to feed the tea furnaces,
— the old king being cremated, in fact, to the tune
of requiescnt in pui:c ! Peace be to its ashes, with
their apjjreciable proportion of lime extracted from
a soil, the ferruginous nature of which renders it
far more favourable for tea than for coffee, although
the latter (ircw well enough and would have yielded
fruit as well as leaves, had the enfeebling fungus
not been developed in 1869, to be at first made light
of, but finally recognized as one of the most disastrous
blights which ha's ever dei:)ressed, if not quenched, a
great< advancing and prosperous enterprise. Java
and the whole Eastern world are rapidly following
in the wake of Ceylon experience, in this matter,
and it really looks as if those of us who can afford
to indulge in the luxury of a cu.j) of coffee must
erelong pay the cost of having it imported from the
Western Continent. Let us fervently hope that no
such dread visitation awaits the now most promising
tea enterprise.

Some readers of the Trnjiical Auriciiltnriat may
recollect notices of plants, the result of seed obtained
from Assam as " indigenous." The jjlants were
put out along the sides of estate paths,
at elevations rising from .'J.aOO to .5,.0OO,
in July 1880, and until now their progress has
been so slow and unsatisfactory as to lead to

43

the belief that indigenous Assam tea was unsuited
to the climate of this altitude. But whether it
has arisen from the recurrence of several genial
seasons, or that the plants have, at length, been
able to adapt themselvea to the conditions of their
new situation, certain it is that tliey have taken
a spring and promise to make up for lost time.
They are, in common with the superior hybrids
amongst which they are scattered, putting forth
luxuriant foliage, many of the leaves being large;
corrugated and serrated after the marked character-
istics of indigenous Assam tea. The progress
and comparative yield of these plants will be
watched and reported on. Meantime I may men-
tion that the effect of altitude even on hybrid tea
bushes is, that some allowed to grow up as future
seed-bearers show not the slightest sign of any
tendency to blossom, although they are now eight
to, in a few cases, ten years old. With similar
trees in the hot low country, only a few hundreds
of feet above sea-level, the difficulty is to contend
with the per.sisteut tendency to run all their
strength into ; flowers and fruits.

Could the conjunction be made to pay, our
experience is decisivQ in farour of growing cinchonas
(especially C. officinalis) amongst tea, which evid-
ently benefits the fever plants by opening up and
draining the soil. But bark prices recently have
been such as to make cinchonas stink in the
nostrils of planters, almost as much as coffee ;
indeed more so, because hopes of retrieval were so
largely based on this new and at one time most
hopeful product. A large proportion of planters
will, of course, harvest and market the bark from all
their cinchona trees, ceasing to supply the soil
with any more. The result may be profitable prices to
those who can hold on. Many who would hold on can-
not, because at a certain stage the choice must be made
between tea and other cultivation — not only coffee
but cinchonas. We suppose it is this desire to do
full justice to the tea plants, which has led to the
ringing of so many eueal;>iiti in the neighbourhood
of the Nanuoya station. We take it for granted that
the trees which have suddenly changed their hue
from bluish green to yellowish white hat-r been ringed,
preparatory to their removal. So opinion changes.
The blue-gums were and are still believed to be
beneficial as wind-breaks and soil-drainers in cin-
chona fields ; but tea, unless it makes an exception
in the case of the sau tree,

" Bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne."

-$-

CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTING REPORT.

28th Sept. 1885.
Coffee — what there is on our side — is not looking
very promising. There was such an attack of leaf-
disease some time ago, that the trees are now left
pretty bare, whereas the ground is thickly littered
with fallen leaves. When the regular heavy
rains of the north-east set in, the drains will amuse
us. There is a little coffee ripening up ; but the
blackening at the i)oints is as excessive as ever in
was. Half-a-bushel picking of this sort of stuff, to
a quarter of a cooty-sack of cherry, has been
gathered at the first round, and even a worse re-
sult in some places. The husk is not so empty
as one would have expected from the long dry weather
and may nett something above the cost of gather-
ing, now that the rupee has fallen among the
despised things of the earth. Black-bug seems to
be checked somewhat : still it's about, and evidently
ready to wipe out what little of the old product
remains at the slightest encouragement.

I saw an analysis of some renewed succirubra bark
grown on Fairieland estate — just above Kandy — which

3^»

1PHE TROPrCAI, AGRrCULTURIST,

[Nov. 2, 1S85,

WvNAAD. Sept. I9th.— Truly it is a difficult tljing to '
plcas'e fvcr} body all round. A month or so ago we were
crying out. bfcau.se tbure was tco much wet, and our ;
yomii^ cleaiiTigs, iicwly planted, were i]i clanger of being j
-twanjped out. Now, these are recovering ttnd getting
on well, but still there remain tlie "foolish virgins"
(rtictaphorically) who have waited too late abeil and
who are left to mourn over bsked earth, and blazing
sun. and delicate plants not yet out of the nurseries !
It is :istonisl ii?g how rnpidly the. country appears to be
drying np already. The chan^je in the weather
is also affecting the crop, which in places is turning fast,
so that the picking season will ])robably commence
early this year. I regret to say that the general verdict
on crops seems to he unfavorable as to (juantitj', 1 ut we
hope lor better things in the matter of prices. I lately
noticed a new disease (at least it is an unusual variety)
on some coffee trees in this neighbourhood; the young
snrouts of leaves seemed suddenly to curl and shrivel
u'p, becoming black and dry. A small jwochce is gener-
ally to be found .'somewhere about the affecteil )iarts.
The old cinchona c'earings are exceedingly tiourishing in
ap]>earance ; very little signs of canker, and a general
vigor ot growth, which, with the rei)ort of better prices
in prosi.iect, is a splendid panacea for drooping spirits.
South Wyiniiid seems esjjecially adapted for the cultiv-
ation of the Ledger variety; and on one fsfate an
anal\>is, made at home, on the bark of some four year
old Ledgers, produced a result of S per cent quinine,
than which nothing much better could be desired.
Canarese labor literally swarms all about here, though
our neighbours in the Batiery direction etill seem to
differ from difficulty in obtaining sufficient coolies. —
Modi'fia Times,

A Household FiltiiE. — A correspondent sends us
the following — In your issue of the 7th instant yon
give a few remarks on the general results of L)r.
yrankland's experiments with filtering nieilia for
purifjin; water for drinking purposes. Many of your
readers would, I am sure, hi' glad to know how to
make a simple good filter ; and this they may easily
do ly attending to the following directions which
are based on the facts that when water is treated
with powdereil clean iron, organic matter is decom-
posed and living organisms killed ; that a Inyer of
Hakes of talc forms an efficient mechanical st.raiDcr
not subject to oxidation. The filter may be made
with two or three chatties like the common country
filter, or a patent tiltir maybe converted on the same
principles after the original filtering medium has been
removed. The best form of powdered clean iron is
caslirou borings. These can generally be obtained
from any workshops where cast-iron is worked up,
and may be procured at little cost. Talc abounds ill
many parts of India, and is for sale in most bazaars.
Small pieces, not larger than a rupee, answer best
for filters. Boil the talc in walerto make the lamhuB
neparnte easily; split it up into the thinnest Hakes,
Wash it two or three times in d'an water with a little
permangftnalo of potaeh or Coudy's fluid. If chatties
lire to be used, niiike six or cijiht lioli s close togetln-r
In ttjc bottom of the u) ppr and middle chatties. Ii\t>i
!hf«e plit Mi<?i('ieiif of tlie tab' Hakes to loni a biver
ith'iiit thiVeqllartei" nf Ru inch t liii'k. fnto |lieii|)per
'■hitty f'"' ilboiit kIx tiibh-.'ipooiitfiil of the ('. ni-iron
! itriiig", flttd into the niMdli' ehulty tilioii! one (|'iiii-lt!r
t)f :l [loiin.'l of l^owdl'tttl chaicoitl over (be l.Hyer.i of
laic. ('Ml the npller rbalijvilth w.-.liT, ;lvd U't It dr'p
(lirough the two challie.s until it bee 'Un'S (jMife cb'iil';
itieii ji'aee tile low'-r cliatty willi a le,'i.«pooiifnl of
iliH boiiM;;.s III it nllderU' .itli, ftn.l drilw the diinli'ng
yiitet from this 1 wi !■ cli)ltt> onlvi (.)nep a itionth or
so leiuoVe the t Ic, iron, allil i hnrcmd from tin' tlireF
din I lies waali the tbiioer in pi rlnauganalR of potash nnil
tVHter, and replace itaiid renew tlieboiings and eliar-
eoal. Water thus liltued fihouM be uned not only
for drinking hut for m.-.kmg t"a, coffee, kc, aivl for
boiling v.'getabhs in. The la, ler will be foniul unieh
more tasty when boiled in filtered than nrdinary un-
tiltered water. When praeticable, the water to be filt-
ered shoiilil first he h(>'t\i'(\.—!pwiirn;

A Pearl five-sixteenthi? of an incli in diameter,
and estimated to be worth from loO to 9100, wa-
lately fonnd in a clam taken from the river in Mids
dlesex, Yt., by a citizen of that town. — Anuiiraa
Grocer.

Los.s OF WmcnT ix Cinn.^mon, kc. — In a recent
article we commented on the very serious loss' of
weight which cinnamon account sales show, and pointed
to the need there exists for united action or firm in-
tlividual remonstrance to secure relief. "With tea a losa
of three per cent is considered excessive ; and even
the reduced loss of 1;! per cent in a recent shipment
was considered by the proprietors of the '* Ceylon
Advertiser" — enterprising business men in the Fort —
to be capable of still further reduction. M''e have tow
before us an account sale of cinnamon sold on the
2Tth .July last, and ref<r to some of the figures in
the hope that shippers will carefully scrutinize their
own accounts and see how heavy and unjvistifiableis
the loss they are called upon to bear. The Fhipment
consisted of 20 bales weighing 2,000 lb. and two bags
(cuttings and clippings) weighing 112 lb. ; total weight
2,112 11>. The account sale accounts for only 1,970 lb.
— the loss being 142 lb., or about Gl per cent.
! That ]iroprietors cannot afford this loss at pre.sciiL
I prices does not need proof; but whether th(y can
afford it or not, is the loss justifiable L^ ^Vethi^kDot.
The usual draft is said to be a lb. on every parcel —
heavy enough in all conscitnce — and will account for
I 22 1b. What then has become of the other 120 lb.
I worth, according 10 the prices realized, at least SiG
I sterling '^ Appropriated by someone at the warehouses,
or by careless weighing made over to the purchasers.
' Surely, lo.«ses like this shouM not be submitted to
without demur. The shipper in question had, by fre-
quent letters, succeeded in reducing the loss in weight
from 7 to iihont Z\ per cent, and rested satisfied.
His silence for .'^ome time has resulted in the
lo.<s in weight being doutjled again ! It cannot be any
error in weighing here, because reniostrances led to a
reduction in the loss. It cannot be that the loss was
due to driage, because dnnamon shipped with 7 per
cent of moisture would not reach in a fit condition
to be sold. It will bo mouldy and have to be thrown
away. The loss represents the carelessness or dishonesty
of the employes of the 'Warehouse and Dock Companies
or some of their li;iugers-on ; and Loudon agents should
be pressed not to permit such outrageous appropri-
I ations. "We may say that the shipment was sold with-
! m a month of its arrival. This leads us to the warehouse
charges which amounted to £8-10-3 on 22 parcels lor
3 weeks, and against ,£11:1-10-3 gro<s procr^eds. The
bulk of the charges is owing, no doubt, to tho un-
' doing and re-doing of e^vry single bale of cinnamon
— a ruinous operation, which fari itates and explains
the loss in weight. The loss in weight is a matter
which each shipper must deal with individually with
his own agent ; but united action, through the Agri-
cultural Association or otherwise, is necessary to do
away with the system, involving both loss and expense,
of opening out every bale of cinnamon. The only
parties heneSted, so Inr an wc can sec, ore those inter-
e.sfe 1 in the •v'trebr.oses ; and |iErhap^ London agents
lire iiiiii-e interested In liictn tlttti tlieir Ceylon priu'
tipalsare ,iwi!rc'. The fiime 'yetrtri of utjpaoking every
(liicel tihUilicd with tea, but vii<. rolls I'elhonislrimce
has led to Its liliandonmcnti Ahy Wliy, \le ces ho
fe/isoii iVIiy it .iholilil not be silfficlrht to OpCIl oiiS
liale of eiich qliality for a ."Jimplc. Sliippere are not
iik. ly to attempt to practise Bny deception, find rUd
the ii>,k iif Iiavinga niised or udulterflti'd bHledpelied;
for this Wotdd rigitlat',' the rate for their good cin-
namon. It Is to their nuiiiifi et interest to be fair ;
alid if the lending sliip)iers combine, there is no reasoii
why they should not sicnre the abiindonnient of a
system which imposes an unneces.sary charge, damages
, the spice by exposure, and renders abstraction poss-
' ible. We trust we have written enough to induce
cinnamon proprietors to endeavour to guard against
losses and charges which, wc think, can be guarded
pgaipst.— " Kxaminer."

Nov.

1885.3

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

349

TiiK Tka Meucu.^ts in Harima. Tajima. Settsu.
Tambu. ami Awaji have cnieicd into an aKicc-
Uient that they shall not sell ailnUeiated tea, or
lea tontaminnlcil by any substance injurious to
health, sun-ilrieil leaves, or. in faet, anything
that is eaUulnted to injure the business of honest
merchants.— //(>«(//.()",'/ Ihtilij Pn'xx.

C.u-y. Tr.x is heard of as remilarly as the sea serpent.
A oentlemau of Middleburt;h. Cuiie Colony, writes
to a contemporary :— " It nuist he pretty well kiiovyn
that there is a wild tea growing m the western dis-
tricts. The preparation it undergoes is of a very prim-
itive description. The leaves are gathered from the
shrub and placed in an oven until dry and crisp, and
afterwards packed in leather sacks, and sold upcountry
for about six-pence per pound. Staying at a friend s
house. I tasted this tea one eveiung, and considered
it very "ood. The next morning our host gave us tea
for hrealifast, and enquired how we liked it. We con-
sidered it the same as we had the previous evening,
until we were assured that it was China tea— so little
could we distinguish any difference between the two
sorts. It appears that the colonial tea must be boiled
before it can be used, which would take some time;
therefore, if you are in a hurry you must use the China
tea, as vou have only to pour boiling water on the lea\ es
tt hen it" is ready for 'use. if this wild tea will grow here,
is China tea not worth a trial ? I am of course referring
to the coast lands. The. China tea is successfully
growu in other couutrics as well as China. Even the
wild tta which we have may be turned to better accouut
if properly preiared ; but, even as it is, 1 am tuld
it is i|uite"a common beverage in the western distriels.
Both from patiiolism anil economy it should be ia
general use. This Cape tea should become the common
leverage of the people, aud should be sold in hotels
and public houses in the place of beir aud spirit.s ;
it is far more refresbiug than either. In Australia,
farmers ami travellers drink very little coffee ; tea is
their favourite drink from morning to night. No
doubt it is very healthy bevei-age,aud preferable tocofTee.
Some farmers have told me that, after great tatigiie,
they have found the Cape tea a wonderful restorative,
aud that a taste issoon acduired for it. With some
the taste is disagreeable until accustomed to it. Per-
haps some one who has Blue-books at home could
tell us lu'W much a year we should save, as a nation, by
BUbstituling colonial tea for coffee and China tea." We
are not iiuite dependent upon (.hiua for our tea supp'y.
Mr. Alahasti'r, British Consul at Hankow, points out
anew danger to British commercial interest. Hitlurto
a large proportion of the tea supplied to the Kussian
markets has reaclifd its destination in English ships
1(17 London, but the direct trade via Odessa has
enormously increased during the past four years. In 18,s0
only 1,845.-153 lb. went direct to Odessa, bu' Listyiar
no. Ic.'s than 11,681, UU lb. shipped to that jiort in
Bu6.'ian aud German vessels. The export to HusMa
I- <' Tientsin aud the Aunu showed a slight falling
off, though sli'l largely in advance of past year?. Al-
together 24,000,000 lb. went direct to Russia
37,000,000 Ih. to London, showing ag.iingt a
"teadily progressive increase in the former. \s every-
thing \:niaU to Ku.'Bia beinn eventualiy tbc chief
market for China teas, it means, says Sir, .Vlabaster.
out being omted in grnit nieaetire, if not entirely
fi'oni the trade. Of last week's sales of Indian tea, the
fJiocei' says :— " The returns relating to the movements
bt Indian tea at the Port of I,ondon duriug the mouth
hi Augu.'t Mill for sp.cid riin:irk, they having been
Hardly so favonrable as in ISSl, but no increase of
stock lias taken plact!, aud, as compared with that of
>a»t year, there is .still a defieiemy of l.flll.H.'O lb.
fji'pplies I'V auction have bee" much more considerable
tlisn of la'tc, amounting to 17,050 packages, against
about n,LliO jlickagi" last week, but containing u large
and varied assortment, tbeV met a good general demand
from the trade, who arc free buyers of strong liquoring
teas of all makcH. and for tin sc fully previous rates have
been obtaiiu'd. The portion consisting of poor and
thin qualities, however tngiged only a partial degree
of attention, and was in some c;i8<;s realized at slightly
t«sier prices,"— /T. 4' ^'- •Vai'.

1'l.AXTINi; IN TUE C.VnOLIXE ISL.\NDS. — The

Governor of the Caroline islands has been-
authorised to obtain seeds of tobacco, hemp, coffee,,
cocoa, c. .•.Lii, dycwood, indigo, and of every kind
of kitchen g..rden plants for sowing them in those
'ands. to secure their advancement. The Clov-
Oinor, the head missionary, several private indi-
viduals, a detachment of soldiers, and a force of
convicts were to leave ('avite fin- the islands in
the transport " San Qnentin" on the 1th .\ngust.
The largest collection of clothing for the benefit of
the (Caroline islanders was made in La Erinita, a
ward in Manila, amounting as it did to niiward
of 2.000 suits of wearing apparel chietty for women.

SNAKii lliTKs AMI Ciuks.— Coiiceniing the ques-
tion lately raised in these columns of cures for
snake-bite. Messrs. Lazarus aud Co., of the
Medical Hall, Lenaies. write to us :— " We have
been asked to report our cases of snake-bites. If
you think it will be of beiieht to the public,
please insert the 'following. From 1st August to
(ith September we liave had 15 eases brought to
us. Seven males, eight females. One niale, aged
00, was brouglrt in as good as dead, and (jnite
unable to swallow, and died after a few minutes.
Another man. not included in the li> cases, was
quite dead and cold when seen by us ; he had
been brought in from a distani-e of some 10 miles.
The remaining 11 cases were successfully treated."
— I'iiiiu'i'r.

Tavov, BniTisH BciiMA. IHtli Sept. — Products tliri\ -
ing here far beyond my expectations. Some already
covering the ground. I have been most successful and
the ciiief Commissioner. Mr. Bernard, has given
me another 100 acres free for '20 years of all taxes.
Coolies' pay ilown to six annas, about 'M cents.
I was offered 500 at that rate yesterday, and willing
to hind themselves for two years. P. W. 1>. now
only pays six annas per day tor their labour, iuid
any amount of coolies offering; they like this district.
I am to write yon a long letter and give you full
details for some time back of my experience here.
1 am to plant up some S acres witli hemp, and
some 7 acres with maize anrl tobacco, on other
ground outside my grant that I have got for ex-,-
peiimental purposes. You are all terribly daft on
tea ! and Ceylon men deser\e success, which is
sure to he attained ou favourable situations with
good varieties of seed, and your most modern
machinery. Heavy rains this season : 172 inches
already, but 1 am in excellent health and so also my
men ; a few got knocked over with fever in the
: hist of the rain.

CiNCitoNA.— Messrs. Oakes & Co. write to us: —
Amxexed we beg to hand you results of our sales of
Government Cinchona Bark held on the 7th uUiiuo.
and this day, shewing quality of bark, analysis of
each by the "Government Quinoloj,'ist, aud the priooa
realized, from which you will sue tlui.t the ratea
obtained toda,y arc much more fa\oural)lo tliau thosu
ruling last month. This may he justly altrlbutablu
to the fall in exchange, but the market at home fot
Crown bark is decidodly firmer. Wc think the ad-
vance exhibits a better market generally for bal;k :— ^
Halo of 7tli September. ^ :

! I'crcentage No. of I'rlcii

of Sulphate bales, p. halo.-
of Quinine. "

Uodaijclta Natural Crown Bark ..I'lS
Do do do ..IIS

Nttduvatam Root do . . 1 Hi

Sale of today.

Uodabctta Kenewed Crown Bark". .I'Ot;

JJo do do . .4'Oli

Do Mossed do ..4'70

Naduvatam do do . . 1'05

I Do Koot do ..IW

• —tl'jJrai ?Iai!, Oct, otb.

(!0

'JO

m

8«

:«

m

10

1'2S

ISl

124

11

n-1

11

113

la

1'^^

35<^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. INov. 2, 1885.

Mothek-ok-Pkaiil, the material of which ornament-
al buttons, buckles, fan sticks, card cases and other
fancy articles are niilde, is the principal production
of Tahiti, and makes a commerce variously estimated
between |.20,000 and $100,000 a yenr'—Ameriraii
Grocer.

DiiPKEKSiON IS Java. — On the 5tli Septeniljer,
trade, industry, and plantation enterprise at Batavia
continued greatly depressed, one conseiiuence Ijeing
a heavy fall in the value of real estate and wide-
spread financial mistrust. Withdrawals of work-
ing capital resulting in stoppage of work ou estates
were then of daily occurrence. Cultivation was
checked by obstinate drought. Tea estates and
other plantations inland were suflerihg heavily
from want of rain. CoiJee estates have become so
depreciated in .Java, since low prices for that
product set in, that recently two of them assessed
at 117,000 guilders were sold together for only
100 guilders. — Straits Tillies.

Wateuwuei'i. I'owEH. — I have read with interest
what have been said on waterwheel power, but
as some of your readers may lia\e waferwhccls
working badly from some cause —and there are
many badly constructed wheels in the country — it
has occurred to me to send you a very rough way
of ascertaining the working h. p. of a waterwlieel.
Here it is on a separate sheet if you understand
it and think it is correct. I may be wrong, but
I think for a rough calculation it will be useful :
As one-fourth only of the number of buckets of
an ordinary waterwheel contains the effective
water, note what depth of water there is in tlie
buckets when the wheel is working. Each cubic
foot of water weighs G'2^ lb. ; therefore multiply the
total cubic feet of water in the buckets by Ii2.l and
the product by the number of feet the mean
circumference of the wheel travels per minute and
divide by HiH.OOO — answer, the working horse-power.
—Cur.

Tka in ■inn LowEK I't'SHELLAWA I'lSTiacr. — Con-
founding Mahavilla with Kiverside estate, some time
ago, we did injustice to the latter flourishing pro-
perty belonging to an old and much respected
colonist (Mr. W. S. Bennett), and which has taken
a new lease of life under the influence of the all-
prevailing new product tea. Eiverside, which was first
opened in coffee a good many years ago, lias 'I'^'i
acres cidtivated. of wliieli '2'i7 are tea, ami tlie re-
mainder cardamoms and cacao. The cacao appears
rather a failure as far as can be judged ; the
cardamoms are fairly good; but the tea (of which
the estate ahnost entirely consists) is looking ex-
tremely well, and promises to give large yields of
leaf, 'it is at present too young to crop. The
climate is hot and steamy, I'iO inches rain, any
amount of water power on the estate. On tlie
«'holc Kiverside is a flourishing young estate, and
ought to do very well when the tea comes regul-
arly into bearing, so that our old friend Mr. I
Bennett in to be heartily congratulated on his pro- I
misiiig property. j

Tea TiiADE. — According to tr.ide authorities tlie tone
of the tea trade generally is perfectly steady and settled.
This is satisfactory at li'ast. The Urocir says: — '■ ,VII
Is i|Hict and free friim outside, influences ; and as re-
gards statistics, there is nothing in tbem calculated to 1
create distrust iu the result of future operations, rather
the reverse, as demand at present seems to be over-
taking the supiily,— and while this is so, low prices
cauuot be expected to go lower still." This is the
pleasant stale of things that planters arc looking for- 1
ward to with hope, and the eooner it comes the better
for tbem. The 6'roar has something favourable to say [
about ludiau tea;—" Uotwitbstauding the stronger I

competition that tlireatens them on all sides, Indian
teas may be said to throughly maintain their position in
the market, aud, having gained a firm hold upon the
taste of consumers, there is little fear of their losing it
by either undergoing a ileterioration in quality, or by
becoming permanently dearer than other teas. What-
ever may have been thought of some of the earlier im-
ports iu July — and we know for certain that the opinion
of several experts iu the matter of tasling was strictly
adverse, — the shipments received since have been of a
much improved character, aud bid fait to keep up tlie
reputation of the teas grown in Assam for their ex-
cellence aud superiority over those of other countiies.
Not only has the assortment on offer become larger aud
more varied, hut it has consisted of more numerous
breaks of the choicest and finest growths, which have
met with grcati.T competition, and been taken off lit
stitfcr prices. In short, the tone of the whole trade has
been much healthier tiiau of late, as even the commoner
sorts which were uniformly dejjressed last month, have
been of readier sale ; and those importers who held back
their teas on account of the depression then exist'ug,
have since realized firmer rates than if they had
forced them upon unwilling buyers iimnediately upon
the landing of the teas in this port." On the sub-
ject of statisiics the same authority says: — *' The
consumption of Indian tea is large and increasing,
the deliveries in Loudon alone during the past sc,ven
months having reached ^9,77-5,600 lb., against 36,060ra50
lb. last year, and 33,758, nJO lb. in the .same pe iod
of 1883. All this while the imports here were on
a diminished scale, compri'^iug only 23,077,750 lb.
this year, as compared with 25,719. 1-50 lb. in 1884
and 25,019,450 lb in the first seven months of 1883,
The consequence was, that by the end of July
the stock ri'maining on hand or in bond was reduced
to 10,568.550 lb., against 1 3,480,450 lb. and 13,003,900 lb.,
in the two preceding years. ^A'itll these deficiencies in the
available su^iply of Assam teas staring them in the
face, it is no wonder that both the dealers and the
retailers have given more attention to Ceylon and
Java teas, which have been found to serve as good
substitutes for Indian sorts at the fag-end of the
season, as they have not only been tolerably abund-
ant, but also rather cheap; and, po^se-ssing several
characteristics of the tea plant in Darjeeling. C'a-
char, and the Sylhet districts for pungency ami
general excellence of qualitv, the above-mentioned
kinds have fairly satisfied the general requirements
of the home trade. The early arrivals of Indian tea
this sunnner were of decidedly inferior quality, con-
taining a larger proportion than usual of poor and
thin-liquoriiig grades; for wliich buyers refused to
compete, and importers pressing sales rather (ban
otherwise, a material decline, say of about 2il pet-
lb., was established for these by the beginning of
the present month. In (-omparison with thnsf; now
ruling for China descriptions, prices of Indian are
rather bisher for the finer as well as the lower
qualities, but cheaper for the medium qualities, be-
sides being also easier to buy than atsth's time last year."
It is useful to read the comments of the trade
papers on Indian tea, although they are not always
remarkable for profundity of wisdom and foresight.
This is what the /'rm/ifn-JAr-^ir-i /I'tt-iVc- sa.is .-— " The
Indian tea market has been well supplied, chii-tty with
new season's growths, the \ roportit)u of really fine teas
being sniall, although there is a general improvement
in the quality offered. Competition A\as active for the
choice parcels of Darjeeling and otbe' fine growths,
for which, iu most case-, extreme prices were obtained,
while all good teas have comnianded previous high
rates. It ihe supply of equally line kinds contiiiuea
rates are likely to decline, as the consumption of the
better sorts has become more limited. Indian teas at
about Is do not compare favourably with China
growths, and (|Uotations for the less desirable kinds will
probiibly give way as .soon as a better scKction is on
oft'cr. The imports from the Cachar districts seem, so
far, inleiior, and unless the i|iiaIityof future shipments
is more attractive, the result is likely to prove dis-
appointing to importers,- //0J"C awj Colmiinl Mnil,

Nov. 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

351

THE SQUARE BAMBOO.

Tlie cylindrical form of the stems of grasses is
60 miiversal a feature ill the family that the report
of the existeuee in China ami Japan of a bamboo
with manifestly four-angled stems, has generally
been considered a myth, or, at any rate, as founded
on some diseasetl or abnormal condition of a species
having stems, when properly developed, circular in
section.

Of the existence of such a bamboo there cannot,
however, now be any kind of doubt. It is figured
in a Japanese book, the "So moku kin yo sin."
(Trees and shrubs with ornamental foliagd), publishe 1
at Kyoto in 1829, and the figure is rapi-oduced by
Count Oastillon in the Rcinie llurtUule (1876, p. il.)
It is further figured in a work for a copy of which
we are indebted to my fri^'ud Prof. Kinch (formerly
of Tokiyo), called the ".lu-moku Shiii-ynku" — i.e,
a .short description of trees (of Jap.in^. Finally, in
IStiO, Sic'ssrs. A'eitch presented to the Kew JIu.seum
fine specimens of the stem of the square bamboo,
brought from Japan by their intelligent collector
Mr. C. Maries.

M. Carriere states, in an editoral note to Count
Castillon's article, that the plant had been introduced
into France at that date, antl was indeed actually
on sale in the nurseries near Autibes.

Nothing, however, till quite recently, appears to
have be.ii known as to the existence oi the square
liamboo in China, from which country, however, it
is LXtremely probable that the Japanese procured it.
Thus, Jlr. F. B. Forbes, whose personal knowledge
of the Chinese flora is only secontl, perhaps, to that
of Dr. Hauce, informs me.- — "I have never seen
the .square bamboo growing, and I have always sup-
posed that its 'squaiity' was artfioially produced."

The first authentic account of its occurrence in
China is, as far as I know, due to Mr. Frederick
iS. A. 1-iourne, of H. B. M. Chinese Consular Service.
Jlr. Bourue wrote to us, October 1-5, 1S8'2, that he
had made a journey from Foochow to a distance of
lilJO miles to the western border of the Fokien
province, reaching Wu-i-kung, the celebrated monast-
ery in th'j Bjhea hills— a place, Mr. Bourne 3tates,
"only vis. ted by a Kuropean once before, I believe—
i. 0., by Mr, Fortune, about the year 184.5." In the
gardens of this monastry he found several clumps of
the square bamboo grooving to the height of about
eight feet.

The Tropical AgnCHltm-Ut (an astonishing repertory
of everything relatiug to the economic botany of the
Eist) cont:iins in its issue for November, 1882 (p.
44.5), an arliele extracted from the NorWi tliimi
lUrald, also relating to the square bamboo, plants
of which, destined for the park at San Francisco,
h;id been obtained by Dr. Macgowan at "VV^enchow.* * *

Dr. Macjowan being well known to botanists for
his intelligent interest in all that relates to the
vegetable production of China, I ventured to write
to him to ask his aid in lirocuring living specimens
of his interesting plant for the Koyal Gardens.
Through bis kindness and that of Mr. E. H. Parker,
late acting consul at ^Venchow, we were fortunate
enough to receive a Wardian case filled with plants
of the square bamboo, some of which at least appeared
t) be alive an 1 hkely to grow. Besides these. Dr.
iMacgowan sent us specimens of walking sticks and
pipe--tc-nis mads from it.

I quote the following ])assages from the very
interesting communication with which Dr. JIacgowan
was also good enough to favour us: —

"Its ge .graphical range is fiom 25' to 30° N.
latitude, littoral, and westward farther than I have
been able to discover. Unlike other varieties of
bamboo hi're. its shoots are developed in the autumn,
not in the spring. It sprouts in September or October,
and the steins grow until they jire arresterl liy
December cold, by which time they attain a height
ot from two to four or five feet. In the spring
following their growth recommences, when the grass
attains its full height, ten to fourteen feet. The lower

portion of the culms bristle with short spines; iu
the second or third year their squareness is far less
strikiug than when matured by several years' growth ;
that quality is sometimes so marked that native
botanist describes them as appearing like rods pared
by cutting instruments. I have seldom found the
corners much more .sharply defined than in the largest
of the specimens herewith transmitted. It is cultiv-
ated chiefly for ornament in gardens, in temple
court.s, &c. ; the stems (sometimes as much as an
inch-and- a-hiilf through) are used for staves; the
smalU'r ami less squarish for stems of opium-pipes ;
and the sm illest and less mature for tohaccj-pipe.s."

He fur. her adds: — "Its anomalousness is attributed
by Cliiuese to supernatural powers — occult agencies
varying with each district. The ^V!Hf//)0 6'rt--f«. (V tells
how Ko Hung, the most famous of alchemists (fourth
century a. d.), thrust his chopsticks (slender bamboo
rods pared square) into the ground of the spiritual
monastery near that city, which, by thaumaturgical
art, he caused to take root and to appear as a new
variety of bamboo — square."

As no flowering specimens of the scjuare bamboo
ha-ve reached the hands of botanists, its taxonomic
position must .at present be regarded as doubtful.
Kiviere " Bes Bambous," p. 315) refers to it as the
Baitihm carre, and Feuzi, quot'iig from Kiviere, (A'art.
Soc. To.<c. di Orf., 18j0. p. 4(;i), gives it thft name
Jiinnhusa fjttatJrunf//ihir/s.

I cm discover no reference to it in the late
General Monro's dassicil monograph of the Bamhvsacerr
(Trans. Lin. Noe., vol. xxvi. ). Of the three groups
into which he divides the genera, in only one, '/\ t-
fy/nssr/", is theie any tendency to depart from the habit of
the order in having anything but round stems; and
this only occurs in the small genus J'kyl/odaflii/s, in
which they are somewhat laterally flattened," The
stems of Jiij/l/ustuchi/s iiir/ra are often used iu Kiirope
for walking-sticks and light broom-handles.

But I do not think the square bamboo will turn out to
be a Ph/l/ostaclii/s. Munro has a JJaihhusa anyulata
which is distinguished from all its allies by having
the branches of the panicle angular. This is the only
tendency to angularity of stem which I have dis-
covered among the true IJamlnise(f.

For the present, at any rate, the species must be
known provisionally as BamJn'sa quadrauriu/ar is, Feny.i
W. T. THtsEi.TON "Dyeb. — yature.

THE TRADE IN SAFFLOWER.

With the exception of Madder there is no veget-
able dye that has been so largely interfered with as
Saftiower, by the introduction of the .artificial dyes
prepared by the chemist. It is chiefly a product of
the East, and there it still retains some value among
the natives. From 18.51 to 1855 the ofticial value of
the SaBiower imported into this country ranged from
£71,000 to .il34,(IOO. Sixteen years ago we received
over 32,n00 ewt. Last year our imports fell below
1,4()() cwt,, valued at but £3,-500. In contrast to this
our imports of aniline dyes from abroad (exclusive of
those made at home) exceeded in value £710, (H)0.
Carthamus tinctoiius [a Composite plant | is grown
exten.sively all over India, mostly as a subonlinate
crop. That grown in Dacca is the best in Indi.a. and
ranks next to that of China. It is an annual, growing
to 1 to 2 feet iu height.

The plants begin to flower in February, when
about 2i feet high ; from then till M.ay the flower
are picked off each day as they appear, leaving the
llower-heaus on the stalk. All that is detached is
the fragile-looking corola, which issues from the
summit of the prickly Teazle-like flower-head. When
these are picked off, their subsequent treatment
depends on whether they are to be made up into the
Salllovver of commerce or whether they are merely to
be prepared for dyeing purposes in the country. If the
former is intended the florets are damped with water
and pressed into lumps. A rough strainer is made by
stretchng a mat on a wooden frame; on this the lumps

3P

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

of florets are laid, and water is slowly poured over
them, while a man trends ihem out with his feet,
supporting himst-lf on two sticks, used as crutches
In this way the yellow colouring is eliminated from
the flowers, the presence of which would detract from
the beauty of the crimson tint, for which they are
chiefly prized. When the water (^which at first is
coloured yellow) comes clear through the strainer the
process is eomple're. The flowers aif then made up
by hand into round fl.it cakes, the water squeezed off,
and they are dried in the sun. In this form they are
known as the Satflower of commerce.

Saffiower intended for local use in India is not
washed in the method above described at the time
they arc picked. The flowers are .simply dried, in
which state th^y are sold by cultivators.

There are thus two pigment principles in Safflower
— Safflower yellow, which is extracted by pounding
and washing, and SatHower red (or carthannn), which
is the dye of commerce. The carthamin is a resiuoid
substance, giving to cloth a beautiful crim.son colour,
which, however, oxidises yellow in light. It is one
of the chief ingredients in rouge. It is soluble iu an
alkali, which is used to e.xtract it from the cakes of
florets; an acid precipitates it. The colours, however,
obtained from this vegetable dye are not very fast.

The following shows the exports of .Safliower frora
India in the years eiuling March ^il : —

Cwt. Value.

1877 7662 £3U,4<>7

1578 ... ... 36i)8 14.880

1579 4077 1J^,67I

IHirO ... ... 2411 18.145

1S81 ... ... 6675 35,115

18.-2 2293 9,475

18^3 SQ08 9.203

18^4 2333 6,449

Tiie shipments are principally to the I7nited King-
dom, the rest goes to China and the Straits Settle-
ments. There can be no doubt that the competition
of chemical dyes has ousted this beautiful aud once
favourite colour from the home markets, and it is
very unlikely that it will ever regain tin* position it
once held. — P. L. S. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

BTTRMESE LAOQUER.

The lacquer manufactures of India, IJninia. and
Japan, are, as is well known, important industries
By far the best known in Europe is the lacijuer-ware
uf the Japanese, the production of which has been so
well described of late in a report by the British
Consul at Hakodate. Specimens ot Indian lacquer-
ware are also often seen in this country, but are not
so common as the last, while the Burmese work is
much mure rarely seen than either. These three kinds
ot manufactures are vei-y distinct iu their character,
in their mode of preparation, aud in the material
used to give the well-known polished surface. Thus,
while the Japanese luctiuer is obtained from the juice
drawn from the trunks 0* Rhus vernicifera. the lu'liau-
lac(|uer is prepared from Jac, which is produced by
the puncture of an insect on species of Fiitus ; and
the Burmese lacquer is the juice obtained from Me-
lanorrhuja usitata. "Wall. Though this lacquer, or
varuish, is largely used iu Bi.n-ma, but comparatively
little has been written on its preparation .lud uses;
the following notes from a recently issued report on
the subject will therefore probably be interesting: —
The Varnish-tree, as it is called, is a large deciduous
tree of ftlmmipur, Burma, and Tena.sserim. The lac-
quer-ware used in Burma is described as of two kinds —
that in which the article is made of basket-work
lacquered ov(*r, and that in which the article is made
of wood. All the lac(|uer-ware of tlie basketwork-furm
conies from I'pper Burma, where it constitutes a very
important trade. In liriMsh Burma the trade is con-
fined to the production of wooden articles laccpiered
over, such as the large round platter with a raised
eilge in which tlm family dinner is served, round and
8(piare boxes, and bowls. Aiul the Jiurmese aritists
produce ri<ddy gilt Imxes useil in tlit; mojjastei'ies for

holding Palm-Ieaf manuscripts, the bowls with a
p:igoda-shaped cover employed for carrying food to
monasteries, and pagodas and shrines on which to place
images of Gotnma. The culTers refered to appear
as if covered with pictures drawn in black on a gold
ground, aud the effect is so good that a small de-
maud for tables, panels, bowels, iS:c., of the same work
has sprung up. If a black-coloured lacquer is required,
the sap of the tree is used alone, but a ileep red
lacquer i.s mueli used, and is prepared by mixing the
sap of the Licijuer-tree with Vermillion iu the pro-
portion of 12^ parts to 10.

The wooden bowels, platters, vS:c., are scraped »lown
with fine steel scrapers, to nuke the surface as smooth
as possible before laying on the lacquer. All cracks,
holes, and chippe4l edges are filled aud built up, as
it were, with a putty made of the lacqu';r itself
mix'd with Teakwuod sawdust. The articles .are then
put away uatil the putty is dry aud tjuite hard.
The raw Iac<pier is next rubbed all over the article
with the bare hand, so that the least particle of .sand
or stone maybe detected, and the article put in a cool
and airy place to dry — not, however, in the sun, which
would cause it to crack or blister. The articles are
sufficiently dry iu three or four days to receive a thick
even coaling of " thayo," made of ''thitsi'" (the sap),
rice-water, and Paddy-husk ashes. The article is again
put away to dry and harden, when it is smoothed
down with water and Paddy-husk ashes aud stone
polishers of graduated fineness from sandstone to a .
smooth pebble. This proce.ss removes all gloss or
polish, and the last coating ot either black or red is
given to the article as a polish. The grounding is
invariably black, and oidy the last coating red, if red-
coloured ware is required. The black enamel used is
made of two ]>arts lead, one part silver, and one part
copper, melted in a fierce lire, and sulphur addeil at
discretion. — Gunh'/urs' ( "lironich-.

Wooden, Metal or Steel Sleepehs. — At the re-
cent Railway Congress at Brussels the question
whether it would be economical and desirable to
use iron or steel instead of wooden sleepers was
fully discuf^sed. It was stated thai metal sleepers
of various patterns are being used iu Holland and
India to a consitierable extent, aud that they are
being ti'ied experimeutally in Belgium. England, autl
other countries. An opinion wasexpressed that sleepers
of the description which is being tried in Englanl.
would afford good material support for the rails on
main lines, although .some inconvenience might be
felt from a quoin of wood being used with it. It
was also considered that other metal sleepers which
are being tried in Hfjlland and elsewhere had given
srtisfactory results. The cost of metal sleepers is
higher than that of wood. They require good ballast,
and there had not been sutficient experience from
their u.se, iu regard to their duration and maintenance,
to enable the .section to state specifically the relative
advantages of the new description of sleepers. It
was therefore considered that further experience is
necessary. The difliculty of arriving at a conclusion
as to what would be applicable in all countries and
under all circumstance.s was exemplified in the discus-
sion of this subject by the representative of the Egyptian
railways. He stated that, iron or steel sleepers can-
not be economically used in Egypt, because they
become corroded by the saud. The representative of
the Indian railways, on the other hand, informed the
section that iron or steel sleeper.^ only can be used
in India, because the white ant destorys wooden
sleepers, ('onsiderable discussion took place as to the
construction of railways in regard to the curves,
gradients, and works generally, including tlu- question
whether lines with a comparatively small traJhc
.should be laid with heavy or light rails. It was.
however, fouiul impossible to lay down any general
propositions which could be adopted under nil the
circumstances iu which railways have to he made,— •

Nov. 2, 18S5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

isi

HOW TO LINE ACCUKATELY.

.Sir,— When so nnny are enga^eil ia planting, per-
haps the following "plan for lining may be of nse,
as by adopting it the Hues are liountl to be paral-
lel, howt'ver ignorant the coolies may be.

Give the coolies at each end of the rope a car-
penter's sqnare, say 3 ft. x 4 {•:. or ;ii ft. x 3i ft. —
A h ('. I'laci- A on any peg in base liiie ami C on the
next peg. The next line will run from 13 li, ami
,iiiiil be parallel, as A B cunt be.

li \ li

.\ rs It. (' (- -^

at less than a right angle to A C. With a simple
4-feet stick to measure the wiilth, lines vary con-
siderably, ^. ^, ^^

I^XOTK nv Ku.— This is a good plan, but unless
the squares are held l,ii,-i:ont,illi/. ami not with the
slope of the ground, lines will yet vary consi.lerably].—
Local "Time.s."

♦

l''lKK-(Mfr,riVATIOX IN THK EAsT INDIAN
HIIJ-S.

Allijemeiiie Fuist lilld Jul/d-Zeitiinff : Tin- (Iriiiyitl
./oiiriuil of Fovesti-ji tnici the Cliasr. Published l.j
.1. D. Sauerlaeuder, Frankfort-on-thc-Maine.

The Foist iiii,l.lagil-/eitiin(j for November contains
an article of gre.it interest and con.sideiable length
by Dr. D. liraudis, late Inspectator-tiener.al of For-
ests in Hritish India. It is entitled, " On Fire-t'ultiv-
atioii in the Kast Indian Hills, more particularly in
Unrnia." an<l it w:us writtrn to be read at the last meeting
of till- Westphalia and Lower Khine Forest Associ-
ation on the -':ith of July. It was not, however,
read'thi-re, as the author was unfortunately prevented
by illness from being present at the meeting. In
this paper the country is described, with its veget-
ation and the iliffei-ent races who practise nomadic
cultivation, with preliminary burning of herbage ami
jungle. Toin-^iija (meaning a mountain field), or briefly
//a (a field), has come in Burma to imply fire-cuUiv-
atioii, and in the forest service the same words
are appliiil to plantations raised after the rice crops
on the burnt fields, or to forest covert proceeding
from sei^d sown simultaneously with the rice. It has
thus been contrived to turn the customary and al-
most indispensable fire-cultivation to the advantage of
forestry. The credit of having thus turned a destruct-
ive enemy into a helpful ally belongs undoubtedly
to Dr. Hrandis himself, although he docs not here
speak of it nor claim the distinction. — Journal o; Forestry.
[Where chenaing or henaing is permitted in Ceylon,
could not the sowing of forest tree seeds with ''dry
grain " be insisted on ? — Ed.]

MANUKIAL USES OF TAN.

Has spent tan any manuiial value V Applied to
grass land, either in a fresh or rotten state, it gives
no good result at all— its presence seems, if anything,
detrimental Does it contain any essential plant food ?
and if so. do certain deleterious properties counteract
any benefit that might otherwise accrue from that
plant foody. .Vt inauy leather-tanning establishments
throughout the country vast accumulations of spent
tan exist, for which there seems to be difficulty in
finding suitable use; yet I am impressed with the
idea that it .should have its uses in aiding fertility
in the soil, or at least in awakening dormant fertility
in close difficulty workable .soils.

I'oor land, v\hether of the light dry sandy or
extremely stiff clayey oriler, is greatly benefited by
admixture with hninus, although the humus contain
no plant fooil in its composition; for humus certaiidy
etnds to modify certain defects in both these kinds
of land; it lends a retentiveness of moisture to the

45

dry sandy, and tends to keep open and pervious to
water the stiff close clays, by l)0tli meclianical ami
chemical action. That pure humus is not, and does
not contain, a plant food, such as plants take in by
means of their roots, has long sincti beei> demon-
strated by Ijiebig. Psually, however, huuiua is by no
means (chemically) pure, and it is c jusidered that
great benefit is derived from it by plants, when, on
its decay, it yields up these impurities (prob.ibly
valuable plant foods) in that soluble eomlitiou in
which thev (the plants) can make use of them.
What we now want to know is— Is tan, when fully
rotted, pure or impure humus? and, if the latter, are
the impurities containeil in such humus good plant
food, or merely harmlesi, or re.ally deleterious matters?

Till science has thrown more light on the subject,
I hold that ipiile rotten tan is humus, and it is wall
known that may kinds of soil are, as before stated,
much improved in condition and consequent produc-
tiveness, by having hcimus niixe.l into Iheni, although
that luimus contains no plant food whatever.

I have had large heaps of tan jilaced close to a.
dead well, and whenever the letter has become full,
the contents have been pumped out on to the tan, the
water subsequently draining away, while the virtucor
at least .some of it, remained in the tan.

This saturated tan applied to grass land appears to
give very good results so far. In the absence of scienti-
fically conductel exprements. however, it is of course
impossible for me tn judge whether all the goodness
out of the dead-well stuff is retained by means of the
t.in, or even so much of it as wouhl be retained by
using in a similar manner charcoal, dried peat, or earth
of some kind. I have also for .some years used tan
mixi^d with ordinary farmyard manure, rotted ilown
together, as a mulching for F,oses .and fruit trees in
hot dry soil, and the result has apiiarenlly been very
beneficial. I imagine ground coprolites mixed intim-
ately with tan by being thrown on a heap thereof,
anil at the same time turning the tan well over,
would shortly have the phosphates rendered as soluble
as in superphosphate, and in the abovenamed soils
(especially where phosphoric acid is deficient) would
then make a very valuable manure. Kainit and other
potash manures would also have their solubility much
increased, and so become mucli more v.dnable by
being mixed with the tan some time before its
application to land.

If any of your correspondents learneil in sc entific
agii-horticulture would give us. through the medium
of your columns, theirj opinions on this subject, they
would, I feel .'ure, interest a large class of your
readers.— .J. B. E. — Gardeiurs' CliriMicli:

I'ADDY (RICE) CULTIVATION IN THE
CENTRAL PROVINCE OF CEYLON.
(Bv a Cei/lone.10.)
The soil in the Kandyan fields is a species of
black clay. When the ploughing is done, and the
water is let in, the whole becomes pulpy, for we do
not say muddy. And as the sower walks it, scat-
tering his seed, knee-deep in mud, each time he
lifts his foot he draws out with it a large clod of
clay, so that his footmarks leave, so to speak tiny
))its of water, and not soil. I'nder such conditions,
the theory, that making nurseries of paddy and tran.s-
plautiug them would be an improvement among the
Kandyaos is a dream which will not be realized. The
graphic description of grain cultivation in Palestine,
as told us in the parable, is but the jjicture of
paddy cultivation in the CcEitrol Province. It is note-
worthy that the occupation of the sower is the
especial privilege of one or two men in a village
■ whose hand is thought to be "lucky." It is not
every one who can do the work.

The preparation of th(^ seed corn is carefully attended

to. The stalks that stand upright without fallmg

to the ground, and, not containing damp, are thought

1 to be the healthy-bearded grain. They are cut; the

1 grain together with the straw is stacked insL.le Ihi'

354

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

hmise, being laid on in a conical shape very much 1
lil^o a clagoba. Then when the cultivation season
approches, the grain is carefully taken out audput 1
into a basket ami covered with leaves, or it' in a ;
hag, the mouth is tied up, and the basket or bag !
is left iu running water for thirty-five Sinhalese
hours, that is, if you put it in the stream at six
o'clock in the moruin?, you take it out at tour or j
five o'clock in the evening. Then it is laid aside !
for three days, when the grain germinates. Soon ]
afterwards it is taken otf and spread on the floor,
the heap being so laid as to be three or four inches
ill depth. You have to cover it; thickly with plant-
ain leaves to prevent the action of the air on the
seed-ccru. This lasts for a whole day. The germin-
atod seeds are carefully separated so as to be all
single. Then behold the sower goeth forth to sow;
some seeds fall by the way side, the footpath, some
on the stony places, as boulders iu the field ; some
on Hioriis fenciug the tiilane, and others fall on
good ground, and bring forth fruit, some an hundred-
fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty. fold. A good number
of widows hve by giving out seed corn on interest,
the rate beiug fifty per cent, so that one bushel of
sowing paddy will bring you another half-a-busliel as
interest.

But let us mention what circumstances of late
have been at work iu the Central I'rovinee making
paddy cultivation a precarious livelihood. In some
districts the denuding of forests on the adjoining
hills has dried up the sources of water or lessened
their quantity. In other places the water flows
from the plantation into the ella or channel, bring-
ing the debris from the pulping house, and the
heat of the cofl'ee pulp is no dainty to paddy,
which wants cold water, the coldest being the best.
The fermentation of the pulp is poisou to the youug
paddy. Then the pasture ground tor buftaloes have,
by the opening of estates been circumscribed, and so
tiiese cattle have not multiplied ; they are on the
decrease. So that you have now to liring buffaloes
tar from the interior parts, and pay a rupee as hire,
defraying the expen.ses of the drivers.

Much has been .said of late of there being not
au overplus of paddy by cultivation. The Kandyan
chiefs and owners of extensive fields will tell you
of paddy in their gran'.ry that is six or seven years
ill age. Attcr that time it is thought that paddy grows
bitter, and every seventh year in a chieftain's village
is a year of jubilee, when paddy is freely distributed
to tlie poor. ' ^Vhen a Kandyan wants to boast of
his wealth, he not only speaks of his exten-sive lands,
but of the quantity of padily in his aranary, and of
ll-cir age. In our next we shall speak of paddy
culti:ation in our own Province. — "Ceylon Patriot."

STRIKING A LIGHT.
Iu the new edition of Mason's ISnrmn we read
that among other uses to which the Bamboo is
applied, not the least useful is that of producing
fire by friction. For this purpose a joint of thoroughly
ilry iiamboo is .selected, about \k or 2 inches in
iiiiimeter. and this joint is then split in halves. A
ball is now prepared by scraping off shavings from
a perfectly dry Bamboo, and this b.all being placed
on some 'firm support, as a fallen log or piece of
rock, one of the above halves is held by its ends
firmly down on it, so that the ball of soft fibre is
pressed with some force against its inner or concave
surface. Another man now takes a piece of Bamboo
a foot long or less, and shaped with a blunt edge,
something like a paper-knife, comineuecs a sawing
moti(m backwards and forwards across the horizontal
piece of Bamboo, and just over the spot where the
ball of soft fi'n-o is held. The motion is slow at
first, and by degrees a groove is formed, which soon
deepens as the motion inereases in quickness. Soon
smoke arises, and the motion is now maile as rapid
as po.fsible, and by the time the Bamboo is cut
through not ouly smoke but sparks are seen, which
soon ignite the materials of which the hall beneath

is composed. The first tender spark is now carefully
Ijlown, and when well alight the ball is withdrawn,
and leaves and other inflammable materials heaped
over it, and a fire secured. This is the only method
that I am aware of for procuring fire by friction
iu Burmah, but 011 the hills and out-of-the-way
parts, that philosophical toy, the " pyrophorus," is
still iu use. This consists* of a short joint of .a
thick woody IJainljn.t, nearly cut, which forms a
cylinder. At the bottom of this a bit of tinder is
placed, and a tightly-fitting piston inserted composed
of some hard wood. The tube being now held in one
hand or firmly supported, the piston is driven viol-
ently down on the timber by a smart blow from the
hand, with the result of igniting the tinder beneath.
Another method of obtaining fire by friction from
Bamboos is thus described by Captain T. H. Lewin
{mn TiacU of Chittaijiiiui, ami tin- />ir,l/trx Thrrein:
Calcutta, ISOSS, p. .S3), as practised in the Chittagong
Hills. The Tipporahs make use of an ingenious
device to obtain fire; they take a piece of dry
Bamboo, about a foot long, split it in half, and on
its outer round surface cut a nick or notch, about
au eight of an inch broad, circling rouud the senii-
- circumference of the Bamboo, shallow towards the
edges, but deepening in the centre until a minute slit
of about a line iu breadth pierces the inner surface
of the Bamboo fire-stick. Then a flexible strip of
Bamboo is taken, about lA foot long and au eight
of an inch iu breadth, to fit the circling notch or
groove in the fire-stick. This slip or baud is rubbed with
fine dry sand, and then passed mund the fire-stick, on
which the operator stands, a foot ou either end.
Then the slip, grasped firmly, an cud in each hand,
is pulled steadily back and forth, iucreasiug gradually
iu jiressure and \'elocity as the smoke comes. By the
time the fire-baud snaps with the friction there
ought to appear through the slit in the fire-stick
some incandescent dust, and this placed, smouldering
as it is, in a nest of dry Bamboo shavings, can he
gently blown into a flame. — Garfk'nei'»^ ClironicU.

THK CULTIVATION OF THE STAR ANISE

TREE AND THE PREPARATION OF THE

OIL IN ANNAM.f

The star anise, or badiane, called by the Anuamites
" bac-giai-qua " or •' qu.a-hoi," is the fruit of a tall tree
that is cultivated in the mountainous regions of
Auiiam, upon the slopes covered with earth. The natives
afiinii that it is nowhere met with iu the mouutahis
in the wild state. At the village of Na-naiu. iu the
mandarin route, twelve kilometres from Ijang-son, it
has been ascertained by inspection that the seedlings
and yonng trees are the objects of attention by the
Annamites, who surround them with bamboos ; also
that the larger trees are planted in a regular manner.

The " qua-hoi," the trunk of which is as straight
as that of the poplar, bears branches resembling (hose
of the eucalyptus. It is met with everywhere in the
mountains around Ha-long, Dong-dang, A'au-qn.an and
Pho-vi, which are the principal centres of culture
and production. The oil is prepared at Lang-son,
Ki-lun, Dong-dang and Ha-long, industrial centres of
manufacture.

During ten years, the " bac-giai-qua " grows very
slowly. At the" end of that time it attains a height
of about three metres. Up to that tinier it proihiee.s
very little, ecarcely yielding more than ojio or two
Annaralte kilograms (1200 grams). From its tenth year
itssiae and its production increase rapidly up to thirty
or forty years, at which age the tree eunuuences 10
fall oft" and die. A tree of ten to fifteen centimptres
diameter yields an average of twenty Annaniite kilo-

* It is also made of a solid cylinder of buffalo's
horn, with a central hollow of S-lGth ou an inch in
diameter, and 3 inches deep hurnl into it. The
piston, which fits very tightly in it, is made of
ironwooJ or some wood equally hanl.

■I' I''roni the /'Hit Jfoi'ilei'r fir, la /Vi.icwrrrfV, .Tuly.

Nov. 2, J885] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3'^5

The manufacluif
that was coUfctcil
the sanif time the
viuce of I.ant'-son.

grams of fruit; a full-sizeil tree, with a diameter
of forty to Bfty ceutinu-tres, gives two hundred Uilo-
grams. . Th« fruit is sold whilst green to the manu-
facturers of the oil at the price of four tiens the
Anuamite kilogiam.

The Annaniites sow the seed of the " hac-giai-qua ''
iu mauareu soil. I he young plauts issue from the
soil after about twenty or thirty days, and in two or
three years they attain a height of twenty or thirty
ueniinietres. They are then transplanted and pricked
out at a distance of five or six metres from each
other, Intt alwu3's upon the slopes free from stones
and never at the bottom of a ravine. The treeliears
a small yellow and white flower in the fir.st or second
month of the Annaraite year and fruit in the sixth
to the ninth month, but it yields fruit only every
two years. The collection of the fruit is made by
hand' The cultivation is not subject to any impost.
The fruit is purchased either directly iu the villages,
or in the country markets, at a half ligature the Annara-
ite kilogram.

uf the oil was siibjecfc to a tax
by the " tuam-pl;u," who was at
farmer of star anise for tlie pro-
The tax varied according to the
extent of the operation : it was three ligatures for a
large distillation of ten kilograms of fruit, and one
!igature-anil-a-half for a distillation of three or four
kilograms. This ta-; w.is paid for every distillation
and authority to distil had to be renewed each lime.
The only existing apparatus is of the dimensions suited
for one" or other of these two quantities. The oil is
the product of a dittilkition couducted as follows: —
Into a first recipient, which is an iron pan about
seventy-five centimetres in diameter, are placed ten
kilograms of star auise and water, which quantity
nearly fills it. A secouii iron pan, pierced with a circ-
ular opening about twenty-fivi' to thirty centimetres
in circumference, is placed upon the first, bottom
upwards, so as to form a cover. Over the opening
iu this pan is placed an earthen vessel, having three
small orifices in the lower part, which allow the access
of the vapour into tliis vessel. These orifices are
covered, on the inside of the recipient, by small ear-
shaped houds that have for their object to throw the
vapour upon the side of the vessel. Lastly, this earthen
vessel is covered hy an iron pau which performs the
part of rcfrigeraut, and into which a contiiuious cur-
rent of cold water is made to pass by means of a b.amboo
pipe, from a vat placi:d near the apparatus. The
jomts of the first two iron pans are luted wrh a mastic,
that of the earthen vessel with the nfrigerint by
means of rag bandages. The vaj.oer leaeliing the
earthen vessel is condensed when it strike.-* upon the
bottom of Ihe pun holding the cold water, and falls
into a small circular trough running round the bottom
of the vessel, from wliicli it escap.'s through a small
pipe. The small pipe opens out into a bamboo which
conducts the proiUicts ot distillation into a closed tin-
ned vessel fidl of water, where the oil, rising to the
top, drives out a corresponding quantity of water.

A distillation las^s two days and the yield from ten
Aunamite kilograms of star auise is two-.aul-a-hal£
decilitres of oil. The lesidiie of the dstdlatiou is
thrown awav. A single mauuiacturer, and there are
many, would distil 150 to ISO Anuamite kilograms
of oil yearly.

The oil is enclosed in tinned recipients and sold in
China at Ijong-chau. Before 1 he French occupation of
Hanoi and IJac-ninh, a pait of the products went by
these two places into 'J'onquin, but siuce then the
Chinese dealers have remaiuort the masters of the
market. — I'harninceiiticnl Journal.

Anottiki; Ti;,\ Meiich\nt nt Kobe has been dis-
covered in an attempt to sell sea-tlaraaged tea mixed
with sound leaf. The mixture has been confiscated,
and the delinquent will be dealt with hy the Tea
Uuikl.- i/aj^u« Weekly Mail.

REPORT OF THE OOMSHTTEB OF THE'
MADRAS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOU
THE YEAR 1SS4.

[ The report of this useful Society, although deal, ng
with circumstan:- s of climate different from th^u.se
existing in a large portion of Ceylon, will be
found very interesting. — Ed.]

The Society has throughout the year earnestly con-
tinued its work with a view to compassing the objects
for which it was founded very nearly fifty years
ago*, namely the promotion of Horticulture anil the
encouragement of improvements in Agricultut-e, and
its labours have not been imrewarded, thougii the
season on the whole cannot be called a good one.
The prO(!eedings of the Committee passed .at their
montlily meetings show that the Society's energy has
not flagged ; while the books of account show that
its monetary affairs are in .an highly satisfactory
state. In the office letter books will be found lfii;\
letters, many of them of much importance, written
and entered during the year, which of course do not
include numerous notes written by the officers of the
Socu-ty of which it was unnecessary or inconvenient
to keep a record. The correspondence of the -Society,
which is to a great extent a rough gauge of the
amount of work it is doing, has very nearly doubled
during the last 10 years, and trebled since 18t»l).

The i^eitsini. — As stated .above, the season cannot
be called a good one, the even and fair distiibulion
of the rainfall on which Matlras gardens depend for
their .succes.s having entirely faili^d us, i hough the ■
overage allowance of rain was greatly exceeded.

For the following particulars we are indebted to
the returns from the Goverumeut Observatory published
weekly in the Fort 8t. (ieoriie GazHtr. In the month
of .Tanuary, 18SJ, we had on three days 3'14 inches
of rain, in February none, and in I\Iarch none, agnnst
an av^'age fall in the first quarter of 1'6.5 inches.
In April we had a thunder-storm which gave us
I'Cfi inches. In ?day we had on four days 1-48 inches,
and iu .lune OOl of an inch, making in the fiist
half year •5'29 inches against an average of 0-5()- In
.Inly, August and September there was a fairly wril
distributed raintall of lO'TO inches, 3'.55 in July, Ivl)
in August, and 5'56 in September, giving pronnse of
a very good season, though it brought the total for
the i) months up to 15'99 only against an average
of 19-:i5 for that pt-rioi

But promises were speedily soattero.l by the ileluge,
or rather deluges which followed. Betweeti < Ictulj; r
10th and November 10th we had a fall of 12 I niches,
against an average ot 27' 0 for the North-East mon-
soon,— including in October, on one day 3'7(), and on
another 2'2!l inches, in November, on seven of the
first nine ilays 2-31, 31b, 2-20, 4-G2, 5'T2, S-Ki, and
372 inches, and iu December, between the 15th and
22ud 13-S-5 inches. In October, the rainfall was 14-41
inches, in November, 34 23, and in December, 14-41,
making during the whole year a total of 78 92 inches
against an average of 48'Vl inches.

Such excessive rainfall is particularly destructive,
more so than a scarcity. Seeds and seedlings in the
seed-bed, and plants delicate in this cliraale perish
wholesale as if from chill, while large aud hardy trees
and shrubs, even casuarinas, die in numbers, drowned
by standing water.

To add to the mischief done by the excessive rain
we had on the morning of the 21st November, a
severe cyclone which did considerable damage iu the
Society's gardens though happily little, if any, of an
I irreparable kind. An interesting report by the Super-
intendent giving the full details of the damage done
was published in the proceedings of the Committee
! of Ulh December last.-f

I I'roccnliiuis of 6'oi'f(-ii.-"f-H(.— During the year many
Proceedings of Government on Agricultural, llctanical,
and kindred topics of interest to this Society have
been communicated and carefully filed, the receipt of

* 15th July, 1835.

+ Vide Vol. Ill, New Sericii, pa&c 447.

35S

fHS TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [Nov. 2, 1885.

(iardeiis" but tlie plauts now beiug raised are from ,
seeds and cuttings of a young jilant received la
November lSti3, f-om Ootacarauud, which has grown j
and seeded freely. A very powerful anesthetic agent
found in the leaves has lately brought the plant into j
notice, and enquiries have been addressed to Europe i
as to the method of preparation. The extract of the
leaves relferred to, is said to be likely to become ol
\'ery great importance to facilitate a certain class of
surgical operations. The dried leaves were not i
obtainable in Loudon when the last mail left at ten
shillings per pound; the extract from the green
leaves was selling at ten shillings an ounce, and
the alkaloid had been as high as twenty two shillings
and six pence per gramme.

Crotoii 0(!.— A thousand croton seeds were obtained
from Oeylon, but though many germinated' and pro-
mised well all died during the rains. This valuable
medicinal plant ought to grow well in the Gardens,
as many of its near relatives do, but so far all
attempts to induce it to do so have failed.

.U„lw/<uii/.— On a reference from Government, a
report was' prepared and submitted recapitulating as
far as possilile the information possessed by the
Society regarding the introduction and growth of
Mahogany in this Presidency.

Little was unfortunately done during the past year
in distributing the tree. Though seed was asked
for from .Jamaica direct* none was received. Two
parcels containing 3,100 seeds were received from
Calcutta, but, as is usual when the voyage is in any
way prolonged, nearly all had lost their vitahty,
and 40 plauts only were raised in spite of every
care.

By actual experience it has been found that a
very much larger proportion of Mahogany seeds reach
Madras without losing tbeir vitidity when sent in bags
by post, direct from the West Indies, than when sent in
casks first to London and there transhipped. It tor
some reason it be more convenient to send the seed
in casks, it would probaldy tnn-\ with greater safety
if tightly packed in soil to prevent shaking and
excessive dryage.

Nothing has yet been decisively ascertained to
explain why the Society's old Mahogany trees which
flower so freely bear no fruit. .

A small parcel of seed of Sapiitdas sapoiiana, iHe
berrv of which is used for soap, was received trom
Jtr Morris, Jamaica, but only one plant survives.
Nothing mori^ has been heard of the success or
lailure of the Society's attempts to introduce the
handsome American Cat al pas. The young plant raised
and presented to the garden by T. (.ovrada Row,
);si|., mentioned in last report, died.

rianls nV llic Australiun Salt Hush, .-llrlj'/cr nitm-
inidiirki are to be si*n growing well in the gardens,-
but they have as yet shown no signs ol sowing
their own seed or otherwise proMdmg lor taking
care of themselves, which is required before they
tan be said to be successfully introduced.

Seed of l\nt.via u.f/aUi, Australian "Sheep-bush,"
was again written for and received from Adelaide,

but did not succeed. .

Araciuhii which has been long enquired for was
again written for, but not received.

A spleuded coUectiont of seeds was^ received from
Kew in July, large numbers of which germinatt'il,
hut were caught in the critical seedling stage by
the bad weather. Many, however, survive, and it is
still hoped that we may succeed in rearing numerous
valualile acquisitions from amongst them.

Manv fine batAcs of seeds have been received
fr<m. he Neilgherry Hills, particularly from Charles
[ r V Fsq , ctonoor, which have been sent to, eorre-
fluomieuts u other parts ot the world, par icularly
to Kew, Australia, and Natal, where it is believed
they are especially welcome.

» Vide Vol, III, New Series, 405,
+ Rde Vol III. New Series, page 414,

Affciicy. — Etforts were as usual made to comply
with all demands on the Society made by both
members and others in Madras, and at a distance,
to act as agents to engage gardeners, and obtain garden-
ing and agricultural books and implements. Many
tools were made for sale and to order in the Gardens.

CULTIA'ATION OF THE GllAPE VINE IN

NOKTH OEYLON.

(C ommv.iUcutid.)

A good number ot your readers know that Jatt'iii
is famous for its grapes. The grapes are rips in
May .and September. The cultivation of the grape-
vine requires as careful study aud attention as any
other delicate plant. A grape-vine, carefully attended
to, bears at the first year. To those who wish to
cultivate the grape-vine, the following may be useftil :—

1, You should be careful to select your plant out
ot the sweet vine. There are two kinds of grapes
in Jaffna. One of a greenish colour aud sour, however
ripe the fruit may be. The fruit is also not so Large
as that of the sweet vine. The fruit of the sweet
vine is of a hght bluish colour. The seed could be
seen through the rind when the fruit is perfectly ripe.
It is as large as au ordiuary marble. The plant is
obtained by buryiug one of the branches.

i'. The pit, before you plant your vine. shouM be
well manured, at least three or four months previously
It should be about the depth of 10 or 12 feet and
8 to 10 feet in breadth. The manure to be useil is
cowdung. The vine does not thrive when other
manure is used. After the vine is planted a circle
about four feet in radius should be made round it,
so as to hold the water that is let in. It sbouhl then
be watered twice a day, till the pit becomes a muddy
pool. If it is not done so, the plant dies on account
of the heat arising from the manure.

3. After the plant has sent out its branches, ami
these begin to creep, the next thing it requires is a
platform. This is ordinarily made out of Palmirah
timbers ; and several plauts could lie allowed to creep
on one. It should not be very high ; a man s height
would be quite sufficient; so that a m'n could stand
underneath and pick out the bugs and caterpillers,
that may eat up the leaves.

4. The mouths for iiruning are January and .July.
The pruning is generally done ou a new moon. Tin-
uruning coujists in cutting olt the secondaries or thin
branches ou which tlure are leaves. The primaries or
thick branches should uot be cut. After the pruning
the iirape vine aupears quite bare, with only jealless
branches spread out on the platform. What the vine
then wants is manuring. This is done by digging out
the soil, from the pit, and exposing the roots ^ ou
should be careful that the roots, especially the tap
or main root shoald not be cut, while digging ; ana
water should not be then let in at all. After allow-
ing the roots to be exposed and well dried, the pit
is then to be filled with manure, and covered up with
soil The manure as I have said before, should be
cow-dung, which ought to be dry aud well-powdered
before it is used. Uorse dung, ashes and other man-
ures are destructive to the vine. After the manure
is put in, vou shovdd let ill water twice a day, once
in the mor\iing, at sunrise, aud once in the evening;
at sunset, till the pit becomes a muddy pool. Manur-
ing once a year iu July is quite siirticieut.

'-, The grape vine requires exposure to the sun, and
should not be planted where other trees ca.st their
shadow. Coconut and Palmirah trees are destructive
to the grape vine as they send out their roots, and
hinder the roots of the grape vine from si'";a'b"ff-

Lastiv care should be taken that no rubbish or
fishy substance be left to accumulate m the pit, where
the" vine is planted.

If careful attention be paid to the planting, man-
uring and pruning of the grape-vme, it « sure to
, growweU, ami be remuuerative--' Ceylon Patnot. '

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

359

ANNUAL REPORT ON THE BOTANIC

GARDENS, SINGAPORE, FOR THE YEAR ISsl.

OE the plants introduced in pi-evious years, the
following show signs of aceonioilating themselves to
the soil ami climate of the country, viz.; -"Coca"
{En/thii>.ryl,i>n coal) which has flowered ami fruited
h'eely during the yi^ar. From this plant is produced
an alkaloid called " C'oeaino, "' used in tlie troatment
of asthma, &c., and at present attracting much
attention amnng medical men. I think it might he
grown in the Colony with profit.

The plant which produces the so-called Mvuritius
hemp is a native of South America, and is well
adapted for cultivation here. Sonic planters who
have tried it have sent large orders for a further
supply, and have, I believe, ordered nuchinery from
England for its manufacture.

The plants of C'utnamomiun cassia, which produces
the Cassia Bark of commerce, grow very freely in
the experimental nursery, and will probably become
one of the Colonial products in course of time.

One of two varieties of C.irdamTm, introduceil
during the year frO'n Java, has flowered and fruited
very freely, and would no doubt pay cultivation well.
Liberian cotfee has now been carried by cultivators
beyond the limit of experiment, and I refer to it
only as among the plants introduced into the Colony
by tins Bitablishment. The Panama rubbers, so
admirably cultivated by Sir Hugh Low, were also
fir.'it introduced by the Botanic Gardens.

Plants of the African " Kola uut " planted in the
experimental nursery, have grown well in the alluvial
soil there. The plants of " Avocada i)ear, " planted
out in the Economic Garden some years ago, where
their growth stood almost stationary, have been
removed to the nursery just named, and have grown
with extraordinary rapidity.

Plants from seed of the Lima Beau of Brazil have
been grown in the nursery with great success, and
form a desirable addition to our vegetable supply.
The names of other vegetables which have succeeded
in the nursery were given in last year's report .and
need not be repeated here.

A quantity of nutmegs and cloves have b^en
introduced from their native habitat as fresh stock
for experimental purposes. Plants of Peach, Apricot,
Grape Vine, Olives, and Figs in variety have been
ordered from Sydney, but the season of the year
there when the order arrived not admitting of the
despatch of the p!aats. they were not received within
the ye.ar, and therefore fall to the share cf next
year's report. I may be permitted to mention in this
connexion that, although there are some good speci-
men plants in the gardens, a point is not being
made of growing such plants to the exclusion of
propagation, the object of the gardens being to
introduce desirable plants into the < olony and cultivate
them for such length of time only as will demonstrate
their adaptability or otherwi.^e for cultivation in the
soil anil climate of the settlements, and to propa-
gate such as appear suitable, for distribution to
cultivators and specimen growers. — Straits Times.

ate cultivation through the coffee zone from Matale to
Madulsima has been abandoned, and the planter
now looks to tea, .and to tea almost alone, to help him
over the style. There are, however, certain favored
spots in which ciuehouas appear to thrive as they
do in their native habit it far away on the steep
slopes of the Ailes, wh^re cinker is ahmst unknown,
and all is prolilic growth. E/eu at pr.is!nt prices the
cultivation in sudi plioes is mire remuierative than
either tei is or coffee wis, but with one exception
wo do not hear of any neir cinchona clearings being
opflned this year, and that one is in one of the
favored lo^i'itie, refered to by ui. We hear that
Mr. Jas. M :Laren, of Nuwara Eliya, is so satisfied
with thj retu.-ns from the acreage already under
cinchoai in the Park estate, that he is putting 40
acres m )re of jungle under that product. That the
vicinity of Nuwara Eliya is the home of oficimilis
in Oeylon does not admit of doubt. No where else
does that delicite variety of cinchona grow with
anything like the luxuriance and vigor which it
exhibits there in certain aspects. Hfr. McLaren has
shavad so:ue of his OJi^inalis as many as four times,
an then coppiced the trees, which have thrown out
strong, hsalthy suckers as vigorous as the origi lal
shoot. No wonder, considering the high profit obtain-
ed per acre from his cinchona, that Mr McLaren
should prefer to put his remaining 4(1 acres of jungle
into cinchona rather than tea. which, thonsh even
at that altitude yielding handsome returns cannot
hope to equal cinchona. We hope th.at what will
pro'^ably prove one of the last large new clearings
of officinalis in Ceylon ra,ay be as successful as the
earlier ones in that localitj', where the product seems
to grow like white weed.

It is useless to attempt to cultivate cinchona where
it will not grow, and as the area in Oeylon where
it J"/// grow is not large, we look forward to its
careful and permanent cultivatioii in those spots where
experience has taught us it thrives luxuriantly, the
most noted of which being the vicinity of Nuwara
Kliya and Ma_dnlsiraa — ^Local "Times."

THE POSITION OF THE CINCHONA ENTER.
PRIZE IN CEYLON.
It is really astonishing how little interest is now
taken in, or attention paid to, the cultivation of
cinchona, it we are to judge of the matter by the
reference made to it in the public press. The once
all-absorbing topic has completely died out as if such
a thin? as cinchona never grew in the island. One
would hard y think that as much as 10,OOi>,OOl) lb.
of cinchona bark had been shipped from the colony
to date since the commencement of the fiscal year.
much more than equal in value to the quantity of
tea exported fr'>m the island during the same period ;
yet so it is. The cause for this ai>athy, however, is
not far to seek. ^Vith the exception of certain local-
ities, restricted in area, cinchona has not been
found to be a profitable cultivation. Its indiserimin-

PitYr.i.oxEHA IS Greeor.— The following official
i communication has been forwarded to us for public-
I ation : — "Considerable alarm is felt here about the
possible .spread to this country of the Phylloxera,
! whicli is said to have appeared in the neighbour-
1 hood of Constantinople. Stringent measures will be
adopteil to prevent its introduction, the importation
of all trees, plants, fruit, grass and hay from
eastern countries, including Candia and Kgypt, being
1 prohibited under very severe penalties. Things are
i)ail enough in (Greece as it is, anfl the scourge,
should it reach this country, would almost consum-
mate its ruin from an economic and financial point
of view. — I have the honour, &c., (Signed) Horai'E
KuMbOLD. The Eaid Gkakville, K.G." — Gardeners'
Chronicle.

M.4NUI!IN(! Te.\. — In the extracts from Blr. .T. MeL.

Carter's paper on this subject on pages 312-14, there

are a number of misprints, the corrections of

I which, in a later issue of the Indian T>'.i Oazettr,

did not reach us until after the above pages were

I printed off. On p. 312, eol. 2, line 2(! from below,

for fro«\ read frnm, and in line 30 from below, for

polls, read plots. On p, 313, col., 1, line 16, for f/arrlm

read f/oiloira. and after at add As. H-; line 2^>, for

tiardrti re til f/o>loi'-n ; in the estimate of cost per acre

on plot No. 2, the figures under P. shoidd be, (i, 0,

and 6 ; for Hcsiilt per acre read Eesnlls. On the same

page, col. 2, last line but one, after 914 read Ih.

On page 314, col. 1, line 4, after anv read eijnal,

and add, between lines 4 and 5, or 16'3 °/„. On the

I same page, line 2fi, read R8T2 ; line 27, for n/:st read

' nft ; after line 28 read Jlic first year e.rartli/ ; line

I 32, after 8 J read as.; line 37, after p/'o/?/, read <y/H(7/s ;

I line 39, read estimation.

35^

•THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURI^.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

GardKiis" but the plauts now being raised are from
sueds and cuttings of a yoimg plant received iu
November 1882, £"om Ootacamund, which lias grown
and seeded freely. A very powerful anesthetic agent
found in the leaves has lately brought the plant into
notice, and enquiries have been addressed to Europe
as to the method of preparation. The extract of the
leaves retferred to, is said to be likely to become of
very great importance to facilitate a certain class of
surgical operations. The dried leaves were not
obtainable in London when the last mail left at ten
shillings per pound; the extract from the green
leaves was selling at ten shillings an ounce, and
the alkaloid had been as high as twenty two shillings
and six pence per gramme.

Ciotuii Oil. — A thousand eroton seeds were obtained
from Ceylon, but though many germinated and pro-
mised well all died during the rains. This valuable
medicinal plant ought to grow wed in the Gardens,
as many of its near relatives do, but so far all
attempts to ii\duce it to do so have failed.

>l/(i/(oi/«;!.(/.— On a reference from Government, a
report was prepared and submitted recapitulating as
far as po.ssible the information possessed by the
Society regarding the introduction and growth of
JNIahogany in this Presidency.

Little was unfortunately done during the past year
in distributing the tree. Though seed was asked
for from J;imaica direct* none was received. Two
parcels containing 3,11 KJ seeds were received from
Calcutta, but, as is usual when the voyage is in any
way prolonged, nearly all had lost their vitality,
and JO plants only were raised in spite of every
care.

By actual experience it has been found that a
very much larger proporticm of Mahogany seeds reach
Madras wiihout losing their vitality when sent in bags
by post, direct from the West Indies, than when sent in
casks first to London and there transhipped. If for
some reason it be more convenient to send the seed
iu casks, it would probably travel with greater safety
if tightly packed iu soil to prevent shaking and
excessive dryage.

Nothing has yet been decisively ascertained to
explain why the Society's old Mahogany trcea which
tlower so freely bear no fruit.

A small parcel of seed of Sapindus sa'poiiai-iit, the
berry of which is used for soap, was received from
.Mr. Morris, .Jiimaica, but only one plant survives.
Nothing more has been beard of the success or
lailure of the Society's attempts to introduce the
hanilsome American Calalpas. 'i'be young plant raised
and presented to the gardc^n by T. (iovinda Kow,
lOsq., mentioned in last n'-porl, died.

rUiuts of the Au,strali:iii Salt I'.ush, Jti-ipli.v iii'.m-
mi'hiviii are to be seen growing well in the gardens,-
but they have as yet shown no signs of sowing
their own seed or otherwise providing for taking
care of themselves, which is required before they
can be said to be successfully introduced.

Seed of I'mt.via xii-i/ahi, Australian "Sheep-bush,"
was again written for and received from Adelaide,
but did not succeed.

Araauha wdiich has been long enqun-ed for was
again written for, but not received.

A spleuded collection t of seeds was received from
Kew iu July, large numbers of which germmated,
hut were caught in the critical seedling slage by
the bad weather. Many, however, survive, and it is
still hoped that we may succeed in rearing numerous
valuable acquisitions from amongst them.

Many hne hat;;hes of .seeds have been received
from the Neilgherry Hills, particularly from Charles
t4r-iv lisq Coonoor, which have been sent to corre-
spondents in other parts of ,the world, particularly
to Kew, Australia, and Natal, where it is believed
they are especially welcome.

-Ir/eiici/. — Efforts were as usual made to comply
with all demands on the Society made by both
members and others in Sladras, and at a distance,
to act as agents to engage gardeners, and obtain garden-
ing and agricultural books aud implements. Many
tools were made for sale and to order in the Gardens.

» Vide Vol, III, New Series, 405.
+ Vide Vol III. New Series, page 414,

CULTI'S^VTION OF THE GKAFE VINE IN'
NOKTH CEYLON.

f'Co/nnumicaU'd.)

A good number of your readers know that .lall'n.i
is famous for its grapes. The grapes are ripe in
May .and September. The cultivation of the grape-
vine requires as careful study and attention as any-
other delicate plant. A grape-vine, carefully attended
to, bears at the first year. To those who wish to
cultivate the grape-vine, the following may be useful : —

1. You should be careful to select your plant out
of the sweet vine. There are two kinds of grapes
in Jatfua. One of a greenish colour and .sour, however
ripe the fruit may be. The fruit is also not so large
as that of the sweet vine. The fruit of the sweet
vine is of a light bluish colour. The seed could be
seen through the rind when the fruit is perfectly ripe.
It is as large as an ordinary marble. The plant is
obtained by burying one of the branches.

2. The pit, before you plant your vine, should be
well manured, at least three or four months previously.
It should be about the depth of 10 or 12 feet and .
8 to 10 feet in breadth. The manure to be useil is
cowdung. The vine does not thrive when other
manure is used. After the vine is planted fi circle
about four feet in radius should be made round it,
so as to hold the water that is let in. It should then
be watered twice a day, till the pit becomes a muildy
pool. If it is not done so, the plant dies on account
of the heat arising from the manure.

3. After the plant has sent out its branches, ami
these begin to creep, the next thing it requires is a
platform. This is ordinarily made out of Palniirah
timbers; aud several plants could be allowed to creep
on one. It should not be very high ; a man's height
would be quite sufficient ; so that a m'n could stand
uuderneath and pick out the bugs and caterpillers,
that may eat up the leaves.

4. The months for pruning are January and July.
The pruning is generally done on a new moon. The.
pruning con?ists iu cutting off the scccmdarics or thin
hram-hes on which thi re are leav(^s. The primaries or
thick branches should not be cut. After the pruning
the grape vine appears quite bare, with only leafless
branches spread "out on the platform. What the vino
then wants is manuring. This is done by digging out
the soil, from thi- pit, and exposing the roots. You
should be careful that the roois, especially Ihe tap
or main root sho-ald not be cat, while digging; and
water should not be then let in at all. After allow-
ing the roots to be exposed and well dried, the pit
is then to be tilled with manure, and covered up with
soil. The manure as I have said before, should be
cow-dung, which ought to be dry and well-powdered
before it is used. Horse dung, ashes and other man-
ures are destructive to the vine. After the manurn
is put in, you should let in water twice a day. once
in the morning, at sunrise, and once in the evening;
at sunset, till the pit becomes a muddy pool. Manur-
ing once a year in July is quite sutiicient.

5. The grape vine requires exposure to the sun, luul
should not be planted where other tree» cost their
shallow. Coconut and Talmirah trees arc destructive
to the grape vine as they send out their roots, and
hinder Ihe roots of the grape vine; from sjireading.

Lastly care thonld be taken that no rubbish or
fishy substance be left to accumulate in the pit, where
the vine is planted.

If careful attontion be paid to the planting, man-
uring aud pruning of the grape-vine, it is sure to
grow well, and be remunerative—" Ceylon Patriot,"

Nov. 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

359

ANNUAL BEPOET ON THE BOTANIC

GARDENS, SINGAPORE, EOR THE ITiAR 1881.

Of the plants iiitroJiiceil ia pi'svious yoavs, th<>
following show signs of accomodating themselves to
the soil anil climate of the country, viz.: -"Coca"
{Eruthni.vi/lon corn) which lias llowereil and frniteil
fi-eely eturiiig the year. From this plant is produced
an alkaloid called " Ooeaiuu, " used ia tlia treatment
of asthma, &c., and at present attracting much
attention among medical men. I think it might he
grown in the Colony with profit.

The plant which produces the .so-called Mvaritiiis
hemp is a native of .South America, and is well
adapted for cultivation here. .Some planters who
have tried it have sent large orders for a further
supply, and have, I believe, ordered nnchiuory from
England for its manufacture.

The plants of Oinnamoiiiuin cassia, which produces
the Cassia Bark of commerce, grow very freely in
the e.tperimental nursery, and will probably become
oue of the Colonial products in course of time.

One of two varieties of C.irdam im, introduced
during the year fro^n Java, has (lowered an 1 fruited
very freely, and would no doubt pay cultivation well.
liiberian cjtfee has now bean carried by cultivators
beyond the limit of experimeot, and I refer to it
only as among the plants introduced into the (^olony
by this establishment. The Panama rubbers, so
admirably cultivated by Kir Hugh Ijow, were also
first introduced by the IJotanic Hardens.

Plants of the African "Kola nut" planted in the
experimental nursery, have grown well in the alluvial
soil there. The plants of " Avocada i)ear, " planted
out ill the Economic Garden some years ago, where
their growth stood almost stationary, have beeu
removed to the nursery just named, and have grown
with extraordinary rapidity.

Plants from seed of the Lima Beau of Brazil have
been grown in the nursery with great success, and
form a desirable addition to our vegetable supply.
The names of other vegetables which have succeeded
in the nurseiy were given in last year's report and
need not be repeated here.

A quantity of nutmegs and cloves have b^cn
introduced from their native habitat as fresh stock
for experimental purposes. I'lants of Peach, Apricot,
(Jrape A'ine, Olives, and Figs in variety have been
ordered from Sydney, but the .season of the year
there when the order arrived not admitting of the
despatch of the plants, they were not received within
the year, and therefore fall to the share cf next
year's report. I may be permitted to mention in this
connexion that, although there are some good speci-
men plaut,s in the gardens, a point is not being
made of growing such plants to the exclusion of
propagation, the object of the gardens being to
introduce desirable plants into the Colony and cultivate
them for such length of time only as will demonstrate
their adaptability or otherwise for cultivation in the
soil and climate of the settlements, and to propa-
gate such as appear suitable, for distribution to
cultivators and specimen growers. — Straits Times.

THE

POSITION OF THE CINCHONA ENTER.
PRIZE IN CEYLON.
It is really astonishing how little interest is now
taken in, or attention paid to, the cultivation of
cinchona, if we are to judge of the matter by the
reference made to it in the public press. The once
all-absorbing topic has completely died out as if such
a thing as cinchona never grew in the island. One
would hard y think that as much as lO.OOi.OOf) lb.
of cinchona bark had been shipped from the colony
to date since the commenc(unent of the fiscal year,
mnch more than equal in value to the quantity of
tea exported fr'Uii the island during the same period ;
yet so it is. The cause for this apathy, however, is
not far to seek. With the exciplion of certain local-
ities, restricted in area, cinchona has not been
found to be a profitable cultivation. Its indiscrimin-

ate cultivatiou through the coffee zone from Matale to
Madulsima li.as been abandoned, and the planter
now looks to tea, and to tea almost alone, to help him
over the style. There are, howevi-r, c;crtaiu favored
spots in whieli cinchonas .appear tD tluive as they
do in their native habit it far away on the steep
slopes of the Aides, wh;ra canker is aim 1st uulcnown,
and all is prolific growth. E/tjn at pr.is^it prices I he
cultivation in su;h plvoes is more rem.iucrativo than
either tea is or coH'io wis, but with one exception
we do not lieir of any nev oiuchoui clearings being
opan'>l this y.iar, and tint oue is in one of the
favored lo ■ I'itiei reforeil to by U5. \Ya hear that
Mr. Jas. M:Laren, of Nawara Eliya, is so satisfied
with thi retu-us from the acreage already under
cinchoai in the Park estate, that he is putting 10
aere^mira of jungle under that product. That the
vicinity of Nuw.ira Eliya is the liome of oficiiui/is
in Oeylon does not admit of doubt. No where else
does that delicite variety of cinchona grow with
anything like the luxuriance and vigor which it
exhibits there in certain aspects. Mr. McLaren has
shivad soma of his Ot]i:nmilis as many as four times,
an then coppiced the trees, which have thrown out
strong, healthy suckers as vigorous as the ovigiial
shoot. No wonder, considering the high profit obtain-
ed per acre from his cinchona, that Mr McLaren
should prefer to put his remaining -111 acres of jungle
into cinchona rather than tea. which, tlioun'li even
at that altitude yielding handsome returns cannot
hope to equal cinchona. We hope that what will
pro'-ably prove one of the last large new clearings
of officinalis in Ceylon may be as successful as the
earlier ones in that locality, where the product seems
to grow like white weed.

It is useless to attemjit to cultivate cinchona where
it will not grow, and as the area in Ceylon where
it v'i!/ grow is not large, we look forward to its
careful and permanent cultivation in those spots where
experience has taught us it thrives luxuriantly, the
most noted of which being the \'ieinity of Nnwara
Eliya and Madulsima, — Local " 'J'imes."

Pirvr.r.oxEH.v tn Grekck.— Tho following otKcial
conimurication has been forwarded to ns for public-
ation: — '-Considerable alarm is felt here about the
possible si>read to this country of the Phylloxera,
whicli is .said to have appeared in the neighbour-
hood of Constantinople. Stringent measures will be
adopted to prevent its introduction, the importation
of all trees, plants, fruit, grass and h.-iy from
eastern countries, including Candia and Egypt, being
prohibited under very severe penalties. Things are
iiad enough in (Jreece as it is, and the scourge,
should it reach this country, would almost consum-
mate its ruin from an economic and financial point
of view. — I have the honour, &c., (Signed) Hor.M'e
ItujiuoLi). The Earl Gu-vnvillk, K.G." — (ionleners'
Cli>'o)iit:le.

Manuking Tea.— In the extr.aets from Mr. ,1. McL.
Carter's paper on this subject on pages :i 1 2-M, there
are a iiuniljcr of misprints, the corrections of
which, in a later issue of the Indian IV-.i Giizetif,
did not reach us until after the above pages were
printed off. On p. 312, col. 2, line 2(i from below,
for fiOw, read from, and in line 30 from below, for
polU. read plots. On p. 313, col., 1, line IC, for i/urilcii
read f/Ofloirn. and after at add J.t. :]■; line 2f), for
(iaiili'ii reol i/odoirn; in the estimate of cost pi^r acre
on plot No. 2, the figures under P. should be, (i. 0,
and 6 ; for licsiilt per acre read licxiilts. On the .same
page, col. 2, last line but one, after 914 read /h.
Oil page 311, col. 1, line 4, after arn- read eijval,
and add, between lines 1 and 5, o,' 16'3 ";„. On tho
same page, line 2H, read K872 ; line 27, for nest read
iiKl ; after line 28 read The first year crartli/ ; line
32, after 8J read «.«. ; line 37, after /ico/T/, read <vy«rt/s;
line 39. read e.Himution.

360

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 2, 1885.

To t^oT.T.EC'T THE Odor OF FLOWERS.— Uoses and
flowers containing perfumed oils maybe niiulc to yield
their aromatic qualities by steeping tlie petals i^u a
saucer of water, and setting it in tlie sun.^ The
water should be soft, or rain water, and a sufficient
quantity allowed for evaporation. lu a few days a
film will cover the water. This is the essential oil of
the flower: every particle is impregintcil with the
odor. It must he taken up carefully and put iu tiny
vials, which .should remain open till all the remain-
ing water is evaporatc'd, A few drops of this will
perfume glove boxes, apparel, etc., and will last a
long time. — Soi/ihern Planter.

l'noi.iT.\iii.n Fruit Ci'i.TrRK.— Jfr. Watkins, a
practical fruit grower, in a paper read before the
members of the Herefordshire Chamber of Agri-
culture, cited two successful cases of Apple growing
last sea.sou that came under his own notice. In one
case a small orchard of about three acres was recently
planted with standard Apple trees of good sorts for
table and kitchen use. The trees were properly
cared for and manured, and as some .sorts were found
to be growing too freely they were root-pruned.
The result was a "magnificent crop of fruit last season,
which realized about £lii per acre after iiayiii? all
expenses. In an exposed situation plaut rather thickly,
say IS feet to S) feet apart ; but if you have a sheltered
situation, with a good deep and generous soil, give
the trees plenty of room — 30 feet or more. Apple
or Pear trees may be planted alternately with Plums ;
the Plum trei! is a much sluirter-livjil tree than the
Apple or Pear, and comes into hearing sooner, thus
bringing in a return till the other trees get fairly
grown. A strong grower and a small grower may be
placed alternately each way. Yet another plan is to
plant them in hexagonal form instead of square:
that is, instead of the trees lieing exactly opposite
eaeli other in adjoining rows, they are midway, thus
giving more room to each individual tree without
increasing the distance between or iu the rows. In
filling up old orchards never plant in the old holes ;
it is better to get the trees planted irregularly than
to do this. Beep digging is essential in planting;
but the trees should not be put in too deeply. The
want of care in picking and iiacking the fruit is a
frequent cause of loss. Mr. ^\'atkins prefers autumn
planting, except in cold wet sods, where he would
plant in spring, not later than .March.— (.'rt)v/f/ifrs'
Chronicle.

(^EVLON Tea at Hkih Alttti'des.— AVe have very
encouraging news of tea at high altitudes. AVe believe
the returns from Abbotsford this year will be most satis-
factory as to quantity, whilst the young )il.aces near
Nuwara Eliyaare giving returns far in excess of previous
expectations. As far as can be judged from the
evidence before us, we see no reason to suppose that
estates situated as high as, or higher than, (i.nOO feet
will give a very much reduced return of leaf per
acre than tho.se at sea level. Some time ago it was
thought that the lower estates would give quantity—
up to 700 lbs. per acre— but not the best quality,
whereas the very high estates might be expected to
yield a tea of surpassing flavor, though not in great
abundance. So far as we are .able to argue from
actual facts before us, the superiority of highgrowu
tea has not as yet been very forcibly demonstrated
to us, though we are far from denying that it will
eventually establish its pre-eminence. But, as we gain
experience from the growt'i of the industry in the
island, one thing is becoming more and more plain
every day, and that is that, the small yields to be
expected from tea grown at very high altitudes are
certain to be very much exceeded, and that the tea
l>lant can be grown to pay handsom(dy at almost
any pos.sibli^ .altitude in the' i.sland. Yields of 800 lb.
an acre at the elevation of Nuwara Kliya may, and
doubtless will, be events of rare occurence. Iiut we
confidently look forward to .500 and /OO lb. an
acre as what may be cxpr-cted from carefully planted,
well sheltered, land, no matter what the altitude.
The slowness with which the extreme elasticity— if
we may use such a word iu this connection — of the

tea plant has been realized by planters in Ceylon is
KOiji.'.vhat curious, as we have remarked before. Though
it w.is known to flourish in the hot steamy plains
of Assam, on the bleak, almost frozen, heights of the
Darjeeling hills under the very .shadow of the ice-
clad Himalayas, yet we in Ceylon were some time iu
realizing that it could be sucessfully grown, and be
made to produce aliuudantly, at aui/ altitude iu the
island. The fact is only now lieginuing to dawn upon
us, and men win are busy planting up coffee land at
from 5,000 to U.OOO feet with the more hardy tea
plant are not now regarded as madmen, as they
were a short time ago. In the same way the suitability
of [Tva for the cultivation of tea, for a long time
denied, is now at last becoming .accepted as an
incoutrovertihle fact, which time alone can effectually
prove. There are very few places iu 1,'va where cinchona
anil coffee are now cultivated, which are not admirably
suited for tea ; and from rainfall returns now before
us, many have as well-distributed a fall as the majority
of estates on this side of Nuwara Klij'a. — Local
'• Times ' '

Oban'ge Flower.?. — In a paper recently reail before
the New York State Pharmacijutical Association, Mr.
Ijemberger stated that he had succeeded in distilling
from orange flowers gathered iu Florida and salted down
a water comparing favourably with that imported from
the south of Europe. As orange trees are now grown
abundantly iu Florida the petals are eonsecpieutly
plentiful, and he suggests that a new industry siioukl
be started iu that .State, in which low priced labour .
might be utilized in gathering the blossoms, especially
of the wild or bitter orange. — FluuimicrutiaU Jour-
nal.

Tea: The Green Leaf Separator and .Siftinti
Macuin'E, which has been patented by Messrs. Fair-
weather and Gdruth, of Sembawattie. has been named
the '-Success," and seems likely to justify its title.
The machine, in its first trial with rolled leaf, worked
most satisfactorily, finishing off one fill of Jackson's
large "Excelsior" roller iu five minutes, dropping
the fine leaf iu the centre, and the larger at the
sides. A large machine is now iu course of con-
struction iu . Colombo, capable of beiug driven by
steam-power, and others will be taken in hand for hand
or steam. Mr. Gilruth thus writes of the machine.' —
The machine will be the means of reducing the
tea-house cooly staff by i to 5; on a larger
estate in greater proportion. It will also be a great
saving of labor iu this way: when the roll in its
separated state is fired, it will not require so much
sitting, and therefore accomplish at the same time
the aim and object of all planters, i ,., preserving
as much as possible the bloom on the tea. It also
offers other advantages. The roll can be separated
into three different grades, and in such a marked
style. A tea-house manager, with care and knowledge
of his work, will be able to accomplish with ease a
long-wished for desire, i. e., to have each and every
leaf according to their class of the same uniform
outturn in the cup, from being able to ferment each
kind separately a long or short time according to
his fancy; thus preventing the old inevitable com-
plaint being made every time a mistake h.appens in
the fermentation, which on many occasions is used
and also abused, namely: as follows: — "Oh, I tried
to get my course leaf as near an approach to my
Pekoe as I could, and just waite I a little too ioug.
That is the reason I have such a dull outturn." And
then again, on the other haiiil, it has ;i green out-
turn. Why y " Oh, because I did not want to sacrifice
my Pekoe tor my Pekoe Souchong or Souchong, as
the case might be." Perhaps, if he was an under-
strapper, anil had no interest to make good tea. as
he might think, through not getting a T) per cetn
commission, he might try and make any of the above
cxcu.scs pass when tlie fault lay oujhis w:uit of juige-
ment, or he is perhaps careless or too anxious to get
away from bis work. With the .system the "Success "
olfc'rs this cannot be done, or it is proof positive
that it is due to rarelossDCSs.— Local "Time*."

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

361

LEXTEBS FKOII JAMAICA.— NO. 8.

SM.\T,r. COPFBB CBOPS BUT GOOD PBICES AND (!00D I'ROS-
PBCl'S— Mli. COIT.Am'.S CBITICISSIS— J.\M.4IC.V .\ND CKYLON
sySTEM?; OF CL'I.IIVMIOX — THE rUIIlT INDl'STllV AND
E4II.WAV E.VIKNSIO.V— THE I'ANAilA CANAr..

Ulue Mountain District, Jamaica, Aug. 18«;j.

Our 151«e Mountain crops have, as I led .vou
to expect, turned out small : but I am glad
to say that prices so far as tlie coffee has yet
been sold in the Liverpool nnuket have been very
satisfactory, Clifton Mount, Newton, Sherwood
Forest, Clydesdale, Chestcrvale and Kadnor produce
has sold at prices ranging from ISDs. to lids.
per cwt. ; the first-named continues to bear the
imhii. Tlie season has again been very dry, tlie
lowlying colfee must have suffered from tlie
drought, but it lias been very suitable weatlua- for
the top muuniaiii properties. The blossoms liave
as yet been good ; there is another very good one on
the eve of coming out, so that, unless unforseen
bad weather comes, we may look for a "bumper"
next year. Tlie old experienced planters say it
will be a very good season from all present signs.

The remarks of your old correspondent, Mr.
Cottam, relative to Blue Mountain cotfee estates,
which appeared in your Waehlii Ohserrrr of
2Stli April last, are somewhat too trcneliaiit, and
the remarks upon the overseer of Sherwood
Forest estate anything but polite. As to Jamaica
coffee estates, everyone admits they are not as
well or expensively cultivated, as was the rule
in the good old Ceylon days when planters
could spend £12 an acre, in cultivation,
manuring, supervision, etc., and yet make profits
of £8 to £12 an acre. Jamaica planters say
they •' must cut their coats according to tiie
cloth " ; they cannot afford high cultivation, and
they " must make both ends meet." Of course the
question remains, whether, if they weeded and
pruned more frequently, the result would not be a
success. 1 myself think it would ; but the soil and
climate jvre so good for coffee, that the trees do
not seem to suffer as they would in Ceylon from
being weeded only 8 or 4 times a .year, and it
certainly saves •• wash," which is a consideration.
Had Mr. Cottam had an opportunity of going
over some of the properties he names he would
have found cultivation better attended to than he
supposes, some of the estates being added to by
new clearings ; and as to Sherwood Forest, be
would have found it a very fine property of about
200 acres coffee, kept very fairly clean, trees in
decent order, and the most compact of all the Hlue
Mountain properties. It is therefore not just or
correct to state that " there is no extension of
coffee cultivation in the Blue Mountains," as Abbey
Green, Clevelands, ArnkuUy, Corner Post and
Whitfield Hall are all being extended, and we
also hear of some projected estates on the Northern
slopes.

I send you a Jamaica paper which contains
interesting articles on our I'ruit Industry, and also
about the present state of the Panama Canal
works. As regards the former it is much to be
regretted that the finances of the island do not
admit of the extension of our present railway
system to connect the northern ports with the
capital, for I am sure it would be a success;
and not to go on, is as bad as stopping the
Ceylon line at Nanuoya, and not pushing on all
these years to Haputale and BaduUa. It would
help to revive the agricultural iirospccts of the
island, and confer benelits not only on sugar plant-
ers and fruit-growers but on the general public.
I am sure the lands along the line would soon be
4«

taken up for banana and coca growing, as well as
other tropical products ; any scheme that helped
tlio iilauteis ami ])en-keepers in cheapness an(' cert-
iliuty of transport, and enabled tlioiii to get up
manure at a cheap rate, would be beneficial. 1 trust
therefore the day is not tar iifl' when tlie (iovenior
will see bis way to sanctioning the expenses of a
survey to select the best and clie!ip:'sl. route ; there
should be no diltieulty in raising a guaranteed loan
at liouie for the construction. Mr. Espeul points
out the delicacy of fruit, and that it cannot bear
to be kept long ; if therefore the railway jn'oves
the fastest feeder to the several shipping jnnts,
there is no doubt it would be well supported hy
the growers both F.uroiieaii and creolc. .\s to the
Panama Canal, if affairs are as it is stated,
matters seem to be in a very bad state for the present
bondholders; neither will the work be aeconiplished
as cjuickly as was promi.sed. Where has all the money
gone to? Echo answers where. Indirectly it has
been a tine tiling for (he Jaiiiaica Inliourer, who has
found well-paid employment, and as so many sugar
properties have suffered from the low prices, and
lia\e not been able to employ so many hands as
of yore, the work so near at hand must have been
a Godsend to the Jamaica creole. Here, on our
side of the island, owing to the drought and
people being short of provisions we liave not suffered
from want of labor. We hear ninreover of several
win have gone to Colon in search of work until
better seasons return. Felling and topping, pruning
and all job works have been done cheaper on many
esi.ites owing to the above causes. The prices for
felling, topping and clearing up ready for planting
are dearer than in Ceylon, though the Jamaica
fove^l as a rule is not nearly so heavy : the custom
has been to pay -Is per square chain, or .t'2 an acre for
the simjile felling. W. S.

TRA PLANTING ON THE HILLS OF
CEYLON.

TEA PEUNtNG — EfFECr Of liOBVIHG patJSINO-i AND
WEEDS — LDXURIAST FLUSH— TIIH TE.\-LEAI' JIOTl! —
VSK OF SPIDEliS — TWIN AND THINE TEA l.KAVES —
"WIT.D tea" — OLD KING COFFEE IN HIS DOTAIIK — A
" SPUING CHOP " IN DIMBULA — A .MAlfKET FOIi "COFFEE
tea" WANTED.

Tea pruning and the burying in longitudinal
holes of tlieprunings, weeds and rotten timber debris
are going briskly forward and wonderfully trim and
clean the ground looks where the processes have been
completed, while the tea bushes are scarcely cut down
when they begin to put forth a fresh wealth of buds
and W'Ood. The mechanical as well as the manurial
effect of the burying process must be most bene-
ficial to the soil as weU as to the plant, as is
shown in the luxuriant Hush on (lie trees pruned some
months ago.

Yesterday I wrote that the moth pre-
valent in Dikoya had not reached this locality.
That is still true of the higher fields, but on the
lower, evidences of the presence of the insect were
this morning seen in curled-up leaves. The con-
solation is that this pest chooses not fiusli but
mature leaves whereon to lay its eggs, — eggs whence
the maggot escapes, sucks the juices of the leaf
and is gone (as a moth ?) in a time so incred-
ibly short that it is but rarely the (laterpillar can
be seen. It is now Unit the value of spiders and
their beautifully ingenious webs of all shapes,
sizies and designs can be appreciated. The spider
I has not heard of I he theory of the balance of
I animal life, but he works diligently on its lines,
as the tea moths experience.

3<52

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov, 2, 1885,

Some of onrtea has tal;pn to producing two and even
tliree leaves united, except at the points, and the wild
tea, in order, I suppose, to show its athnity, is follow-
ing suit, a doubled leaf being found amongst a brilliant
red mass of foliage this morning. The persist-
ency with which plants of this spurious tea spring
up beside " the real Simon Pure " is as curious as
it is annoying. But the rich pink shoots of the
really pretty jungle plant ought to render mistake
inipossiljle. The true tea occasionally shows a
diirl; flush, but pink or red never.

With all due reverence to old King CoiYee, it
must be told that his present conduct in Uimbula
shows him to be in his dotage. Having heard of
railway extension to Uva, he evidently fancies him-
self there, and has been making desperate eft'orts
to produce a spring crop. Not only has blossom
been profuse over large surfaces, but a good pro-
portion has set. We are not to be deceived, how-
ever, for we know from past experience, that, of
the many rows of incipient cherries, only a
small percentage will arrive at the " palam " stage
of redness and ripeness. If there were only a
paying market for coffee tea, the temptation would
be strong to utilize the tender leaves, before it is
finally said of the once valued bushes : " Away
with them to the tea factory furnace ! Why cum-
ber they the ground ?"

CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING REPORT.

DBVINO COCOA — CIUIING COCO.i ; k TKI\L — THE RISE IN
THE CINCHONA MARKET — THE CMlrNU " BOOM " —
THE WEATHER AND NURSERIES — OLD COFFEE AND
SOONG TEA.

l'2th October 1885.

The drying of cocoa in wet weather has ever
been a trouble, and the great expense some
estates have gone to in erecting " Clerihew "
and such like stobs — not to speak of the quantity
of firewood consumed — has made this matter
rather a serious one for the cacao-grower ; yet
we all know that something had to be done, as
liable is cocoa to mould in showery or damp weather.

Wlierc the acreage is not very large the dif-
ticulty can be got over by the use of " chnlas,"
which have been very successfully employed for
tills purpose, turning out at the same time a
fairly good sample. But to this there is a limit.
From the " chula " to the " Clerihew," has
been recognized as the necessary step to take ; but
now that .Taokson's " Victoria " tea drier has
entered the field, there is opened up a new era
in the curing of cocoa, and let us hope also of
profit to the manufacturer of the drier.

A trial of curing cocoa by passing it through
the " Victoria " drier was made last week, with the
following re-ults. A bushel or so, in its prime
shiny condition, was ted into the drier at a heat
of 200^ , and this in one passage through the
machine brought the nibs to a state of dryness,
equal almost to a first day in dry weather.
Put through a second time at a higher temper-
ature, if was still more dried ; and a third passage,
I was told, finished it off. Between each passage
through the machine there should lie an interval enough
to allow of the nibs getting perfectly cool. A samjile of
cocoa, which had been treated in this way, and wliich
I saw, seemed to have (juite as good a colour as sun-
dried. How long a time it took to pass the stuff
through I did not learn, but to be independent
of weather, a]id to have a handy machine of
this kind, to run one's cocoa through, wlien

the weather is unfavourable for natural drying, is
likely to prove acceptable for the growers of this
product. It is possible also that a machine on the
same principle, but less expensive than the present
tea drier, might be made and become jjopiular.

The rise in the cinchona market is a matter
we all hail with pleasure, and just liope tit will
continue. And yet what a lottery is bark growing.
I heard of a very tine sample of quill bark, wliicli
had all the appearance of being rich in quinine,
but when analyzed had hardly a trace, some
0'03 being the result obtained, whereas 3-00 might
with reason have been more naturally expected. On
the other side, again, some branch bark with
some chips thro'svn in sold at over 30 cents a lb. to
the astonishment of the worthy man who owned
it, and who secured his broker's cheque as a sort of
" treasure trove." Another man sent down a very
fine sample with an enquiry as to what pi'ices were
ruling, and got a reply to the effect that for such a
superior quality of bark as his parcel consisted of
there was not at present very much demand ! It was
quite a treat to Usten to the planter on receipt of
this letter, as to the inscrutable ways of the Cidombo
broker, and the difficulty the. agriculturist had in
trying to please him. Yet " all 's well that ends
well," and with little or much demand the planter
has realized at about the rate of E1,00U an
acre. Lucky dog !

I was glad to see the other day in the Ohxerver
that in the world's metropolis the feeling of confidence
in Ceylon is gaining ground, and taking the practical
form of investment of capital. I too had been en-
quring of a gentleman just from home if lie had
heard or seen aught of the coming "boom"
when in London, but had not a very cheering
reply. He found everyone deUghted with tea and
tea prospects, but tlu' holders of pi-operty were all
sellers ; and as to the buyers — well, they were like
" the boom," had not come to the front yet.
Everything in time.

The weather has just been perfection for plant-
ing, and we have all been busy putting out tea
plants. The only drawback is the failure of nurseries
to meet the calls upon them.

Coffee is ripening up somewhat, and the sample
coming in is fairly good. But there is so little of
it to be had, that we go about that part of ouv
work with the melancholy satisfaction one feels at
a funeral when you are paying your last respects
to an old and valued friend. Meanwhile the young
tea is growing apace and hope grows with it.
Young tea in Elkaduwa is coming on well. I
heard of a place in that district where the year
old plants have now reached from two to three feet
in height. Pei'Vercorx.
♦

THE TEA TAX IN CHINA.

From the Pelan Gazette of Sept. lOtli qviotcd by
the North C'liiiia Herald, we have some curious in.
formation as to the doingsof tlie Chinese (ioverument
connection with their levy on tea: —

A Memorial from t!ie Acting Governor of
Hunan reporting on tlie difficulties which he finds
present themselves in the way of imposing an in-
creased tax on tea as suggested by the ]5oard of
Revenue in their Memorial to the Throne on the
methods of improving the Imperial Revenue. One
of the three ways by which it was proposed to
secure this object was to effect a reorganisation of
the taxes on tea by cue of three alternative methods
viz : —

1. — To adopt a system of "labels" on packets,
as in Kansu, one label being attanlied to every five
catties of tea, and costing three tael mace wliich
is collected from the grower.

Nov. 2, 1 885. J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTTJRIST.

363

■2. — To adopt the system in force in Ning-hsia,
^ in-an, Yiiliu and Sui-le in Shensi, where offices
are established in the tea i)rodnciug districts at
which the tea. is insiiected and licenses are granted
to the exporters, each 100 catties of tea paying X3 9,
in addition to kkiit and other taxes at Barriers
along the lino of route.

o. — To charge, in addition to tlie above fee of
Tls. 3. 1» for each 100 catty license, a further sum
of Tls. iJ. !l, on Tls. 7. 8 in all, which is to free the
tea tiom all fui"ther miscellaneous charges whatsoever.

These proposals of the Ijoard, with the elasticity
of which tlie Memorialist was profoundly impressed,
were at once referred to the Commissioner of i''inance
and the U'hin tax othce for consideration as to the
best means of giving effect to them, and a report on the
subject has now been received from the financial Com-
missioner and the Taotai in charge of the lekiu offices.

In this report those officers state that "red tea,"
of which An-hua iisien is the great producing
centre, is the staple of the tea grown in Hunaa :
other producing districts, such as I'a-ling Hsien,
etc., fixing their prices in accordance with the
Huctuations that occur in An-hua. In earlier days
the tea growers of Anhua Hsien used to sell their teas
at an -average rate of about -10 odd strings of cash
(say, 10,000 cash) per 100 catties, but of late the
price has fallen to thirty strings, more or less,
while no reduction is possible in the charges tor
rent of land and cost of the labour rcixuired for
picking and drying the leaves. If, theretore, a tax
of three tacl mace per five catties be levied in ac-
cordance with the ."label" system of Kausu. every
picul of tea will have to pay Tls. Six more than
it does at present, thus increasing the charges upon
it aud diminishing the profits proportionately, an
eventuality which has cause_d much agitation
amongst the growers.

It IS suggested by some, say the Commissioner
and Tao-tai, that there could be no harm in
slightly raising the price of the tea at the time of its
sale, and that by this means the grower would not,
after all, be the sufferer by an increased tax ; but
this suggestion is made in ignorance of the fact that
foreign merchants keep down prices by so many
means (hat no dealer wouKl care to augment tlieiu.
As regards the system of purchase pursued by
the tea merchants, the tea is pickeu aud pre-
pared at An-hua, where, by the rule which has
always prevailed in Hunan, it pays a prelimin-
ary duty ot Tls. 1.2.5. jier 100 catties, this pay-
ment being repeated upon arrival at the Hankow
Customs, making a total levy on tea the of Tls. 2.5
per picul. Add to this tiie prime cost of the tea and
the cost of water carriage, etc., and the total
value comes up to something over Tls. 20. If, in
addition to the above, a further tax of Tls. 3.9 is
charged, exclusive of lekin and other dues at
barriers cu route, or the alternative total duty of
Tls". ?.«, the tea will cost to lay down something
more than Tls. HO per picul, white it now sells for
Tls. 20 odd, insteaaof Tls. lOas it used to realize.
Under these circumstances, the dealers, whose only
aim is to make a profit on their transactions',
would all find themselves in the embarrassing pos-
ition of ha : I price.

The tota; « on tea in Hunan

is about '1' lax being levied at

an office -^ tliat purpose in

An-hua Hs, places iiayiag their

lekin into lUc neaitoi siaiiuu. To the An-hua
dealers the privilege is further accorded of paying
lekiii in advance into the central cUice at the pro-
vincial capital at the rate ot Tls. 1.2.5. In fonner liays
ihc payments in advance thus made used to realise
some Tls, 50,000 to Tls. 00,000, but the payments on

j account of the new season's teas this year plac.-l
on the market were very inconsidenilile. Carci'ul
enquiry into the origin of this falling-olj has elicited
the discc..-y that the runinur of an additional
import caused the dealers to form such anticipations
of the results th:r ..juld accrue that they were
unwilling to go into the country to make purchases.
Thus, before the intention of iiicrcnsin'j; the dniics
has been put into effect, a marked and sudden
diminution of the Ickiii revenue has manifested itsfli,
and a general consideration of the whole cinostion
ifaduces the framcrs of the report to recjuf^st that the
Memorialist will pray His ivlajesty to allow the ultl
.system of taxation to be conliiuied.

In submitting the foregoing remarks for His
Majesty's consideration, the Jlemorialist begs (o
state that they represent the acUial facts of the case.
While, however, an increase of revenue from this
source is not feasible, it is essential tliat measures
be taken to prevent any diminution, and in order
to remove all doubts on the subject the Financial
Commmissioner and Taotai determined to issue
proclamations tlnough the Irkiii office announcing
that the h'khi on Hunan teas would continue to be
levied on the old scale. The result has been that
during the last month or so dealers have gone one
after the other into the hills to purchase tea. None
the less, the receipts at the Ifkiii office from pre-
Uminary payment of duty have only realised Tls.
30,000 odd.

The Memorialist, in conclusion, while expressing
his entire sympathy with the endeavours of the
Board of Revenue to raise additional funds in these
days of financial exhaustion, regrets that the circ-
umstances of the tea growers of Hunan are such
that any attempt to make them contribute to the
desired increase would ha\e no beneficial results,
and would even do harm instead of good.

Every ert'oi-t shall be made to give cifect to the
other proposal of the Board for the improvement of
the revenue, and these will be considered in a
seperate Memorial. — Hesciipt : Let the Board of
llevenue take cognizance.

THE I'LANTEKS' ASSOCIATION 01'' FIJI.

We have ivceived a cojiy ot the Amiual (ienernl
Keport of tlie Connnittee of this Association for the
year ending liOlli .lune l.S«5, iwesented at the annual
general meeting of the Association, held at Levuka
on the evening of August (itli, 1H85, the Hon. K.
Beckwith Leefe, Chairman, presiding. The first
subject dealt with in the lioport was tlie Native
Labour Ordinance, it being stated that though the
si^ecial committee ajipointed to ciKjuire into and
report upon the best means (it any) of improving
the enactment had not sent in ilieir report, tho
over rigorous administration of the Ordinance
formerly complained of iiad been very sensibly re-
la.xed, so that it is now by no means difficult to
obtain native laborers either tor sitort term or
muU-r annual contracls of sorvieo. 'ihe next sub-
ject treated of was Cooly Labour, and it was stated that
the recommendation of the Committee as to the desir-
ability of combining the Tamil with the Bengalee
element remains unanswered. The disallowance of
Ordinance No. X, 1881, again created serious diffic-
ulties in the way of carrying out the general
scheme, but these were removed by Sir William
Ues Vu-ux's introduction of Ordmance No. XVI,
188-1, to appropriaSe ilO.OOO for this service from
the unexpended balance to the credit of the public
accoimt ; and the introduction of coolies for allot-
ment under (he system of deferred payments has
already connnenccd. The third ;^nbji'ct dealt with
in the report was the iutcrruptiou and subsequent

3^4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885.

resumption of correspondence between the Associ-
ation and the (Jovernnient, the latter refusing to
receive communications signed by the Secretary,
who was a jwrKuini hxjriitn witli the Government
The other subjects referred to were as follows : —
Association Meetings at Suva, lieciiirocal Com-
mercial Treaty with Victoria, Annexation to New
Zealand, Meteorological Eecord, Fiji Committee, Con-
tributions etc., and Finance and General. With
regard to the last we learn that the financial,
position of the Association is a sound one, and
that it carries a balance forward to the new year.
Nevertheless, the expenditure has again exceeded
receipts, and the Association has had still further
to draw upon its cash balance. After the reading of
this Keport the Chairman delivered an address, review-
ing the events of the year. We quote as follows : —
The labor question, which is one of the chief factors
in all agricultural undertakings, and which has lately
brought our neighbours in Queensland to the brink
of ruin, does not licrc, now, assume so serious an
aspect. Many of the coolies Ijy the " Leonidas "' are
now free men. Plauters arc well supplied, and year
by year this will become a subject of diminishing mi-
easiuess to the planters of the colony. The Poly-
nesians, may I think, be considered as practically played
out. for. from \arious causes, which it is unnecess-
ary for me to mention, such a dead set has been
made against their indenture that it is impossible
for so small a coninnmity .as onrs to " kick against
the pricks ;" and although we know that, so far at
any rate as this colony is concerned, the abuses have
been enormously exaggerated, and that under an in-
telligent system th*; men are still to be had. yet we
nmst. I think, in policy concede the point and be con-
tent to look upon coolies and Fijians as the labor of
the future. The Fijians, our third supply of labor,
are being more and move dispensed with, although,
personally, T look upon theiii, more particularly for
the liard work of opening plantations and landing
nuicbinery as the best of tlie three. The reasons for
this are not far to seek, but will be found in the un-
wise restrictions placed on their engagement by the
Labor Ordinance of .January fSHH. Plante^.^ got dis-
gusted, despaired of overcoming the obstacles m
theii- way. and supplied themselves with other labor;
the result being that, as his Honor the late Admin-
istrator has lately told us, there .are large nuud^ers
trying for employment and cannot get it. Well may
the Fijians say " protect us from oiir friends." lu
my iu.-.ugur.al address T pointed out several particTilara
in which in my opinion, improvement in the Ordin
ance could be etfeeted. These, I think, have not
since been touched upon owing to the commission
appointed by the Grown to examine into the whole
subject not having sent in its ie])ort. .\t any rate
that report has not yet reached it ; when it does, I
trust it will receive very serious consideration at our
hands. Hiit of one thing I feci sure, that were
Fijian.s only paid, a.s is the case with coolies, for the
(lays on wbieli they worked, they would be the best
labor ill the world! Whilst on 'tliis subject I wish
to say a ft'w words on the aimoxation movement for
ft closer connection with New Zealand. Fears have
heen t-npresscd by some, not otiierwi.se inimical to the
meiiKini,', that if it came about our su|iply of coolie
labor would Iw stimped, that the Indiau Government
will not allow coofi'iii io be spiit to a colony enjoy-
ing ropi'csentativo (lol'crninijrit, lUid that Oueensfand
and Smith Australia have in vahi tried to get Hieni.
Now g'lUtlemeii, this is a delusion. It is not that
the ludiiiil GoVKWiiient will not allow their people to
go to colonicH having reproffciitative govoniment, but
it is this, that llic Indian (nivemuieiil will not al-
low tbiiii to go to any country until certain pro-
tective measures which it iiisistrf on have first been
passed bv the legislature, and it is because in the
colonies 1 have named the democratic and iiiimigraut
elements have hitherto been strong enough to inevent
the>c measures passing, that coolies are not there
now, and I cannot therefore but think that these
/'ears have for us no foundation whatever.

TEA AND COFFEE IN filUT.MN.

Strange as it may seem, it would really ainiear
to be the fact that English people are drinking
less liquid, of any sort, than they formerly imliibed.
The Excise has fallen off, and this was thought Io
mean that temperance diinks, more particularly
tea and coffee, were in the ascendant. As regards
tea precise information is wanting, though tlieru
is no doubt that more tea is now drunk than
formerly; but, on the other hand, coffee is much
less patronised than it was. This painful fact came
out very plainly from some statistics quoted in
the course of a City meeting of coffee buyers,
importers, and brokers lately held in Mincing-iane.
The gathering was unanimous in its laments on
the small amount of coffee which finds its way
to London compared with former years. Three
years ago the stock of coffee carried to London
came to twenty-eight thousand tons, while in all
other European ports put together the stock iiii-
porled was one hundred and seventy-five thousand
tons ; now (he Metropolitan coffee supply has
fallen to twenty thousand tons, while tlie
Euro])ean stores of the luxury have risen consider-
ably above two hnudreil thousand tons. A 'drop
of eight thousand tons in three years is of course
a very serious matter in any business where the
article is entirely imported. There were many sugges-
tions made to account for this doleful state of
the coffee market, and it was asserted that dock
rates, brokers' commissions, and other obstacles of
the kind seriously affected the prosperity of the
trade in London.* This may be the case, and any-
thing which injuriously affects the profits of im-
porters and sellers must be harmful to the public,
for they will be supplied with a worse article. It
would certainly be of no use to make coffee dearer
in the hope of recommending it to the consuming
public; hut at the same time "cheap and nasty"
is a pleasurs as applicable to coffee-dealers as to
any other tradesman. The worst policy to recuper-
ate lost trade i.s to foist on the public an article
of bad quality, with the bait of cheap price; for
the coffee or tea drinker becomes disgusted, and
the whole trade suffers.

A reason for this falling-of in coffee-drinking
may possibly be found in a direction which the
importers and merchants seriously suspect. 1'he
restaurants in London, the eating-houses, cofl'ee-
shops, coffee palaces and taverns, where coffee 0
really good quality can be obtained at any price
are lamentably few. In many so-called coffee-
houses the princiinU attention is paid to the sujiply
of chojis and steaks, or plates of meat and
potatoes, and it seems to be considered by the
proprietors that to long as these tolid articles of
nourishment are fairly good and reasonably cheap,
the custoinerB do not inHch mind liow inferior the
Rccomjianying drink may be. This is undoubtedly
a veiy great cause of the comiiaratively Biimii
success which coffee-palacee, bo called, have cii =
joyed in the Metrojiolis. 'They began some years
ago « ith a great flourish of tvumpcts, and, "frOra
the number of these cstoblishments which siuang
Up in nearly every street, it was coutidently hoped
that intemperance had been conquered, that mi
Englishman would hcnceferth care for his "drop
of good beer," when he could obtain a drop of
good coffee, and a slice or two of bread and butter,
at the undoubtedly reasonable rate at which the

* Of cour.se the lost biisiue.-^s more imniediiitely
coiupliiimd of was a rc-exporliiig ami ilistrilmtiiig.
lalhir tliau » home, busincis.— Ed.

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

365

coffee-palaces supply them. There are some temper-
ance lestaurants where proper care is taken over
the production of the tea and coffee ; and in these
places the management reaps its reward in tha
accession of custom which ensues on the supply
of a good article. As a general rule, however, it
is lamentably true that the stuff' which is sold as
coffee in coffee-houses and coffee-palaces would
fail to be recognized as such by a discerning Arab.
It is, to begin with, not pure coffee at all, but
adulterated either with chicory, which is not so
bad, or with burnt sugar wojked up into the
form of " caramel," which makes it both nasty
and injurious to health. This so-called coffee is
handed round to customers in large cups at a
small price, an<l most of them would probably be
heartily glad if the cups were smaller and the
a)nount of coffee essence proportionately increased.
The working man cannot be rationally expected to
prefer this weak and washy compound to a glass
of ale, although the consequences of continued
potations of the .'latter are more disastrous than
those which follow drinking any amount of weak
coffee and warm water. It would certainly be
difficult either to cheer or to inebriate anybody on
the stuff which is unblushingly sold as coffee in so
many London restaurants. Some authorities on
dietetic matters recommend the use of coffee in pre-
ference to that of alcohol as a stimulus to the
brain ; others declare that the coffee-drinker is
exciting his heart to a dangerous degree. The
student, however, who desired to solve a difficult
problem in mathematics, or the poet who was in the
habit of "gaining a pious rapture," from an oc-
casional " cup of finely-tempered coffee," vould neither
of them go to the average vendor of the .Arabian
luxury in London in search of an adequate stimulant
for their intellectual toils. Every evil has its
accompanying consolation, and it is at all events
well to know that the warm water and chicory
solution tended to the average consumer of hot
diinks could not harm the nerves even of an infant.
The liot fluid might interfere undesirably with the
baby's digestion, of course, but its nerves would be
undisturbed by the coffee itself, and its slumbers
would not be in any way impaired. Nervous patients
who are recommended -'never to touch strong coffee"
had better take their Mocha regularly at a Metro-
politan coffee-palace.

It would be a thousand pities if coffee were to go
out of use altogether as a favourite drink among all
classes. Yet there is more precariousuess about the
tenure of the beny than about that pertaining to
tlie leaf of the Bohea shrub. When it was first
introduced into England, coffee-drinking became all
the rage. Coffee and talk were the staples of the
tavern -keeper's trade, and snull-taking and tobacco-
smoking were additions to the eujoyments of these
places. Vary possibly the coffee-house when tirtt
started would not have sprung into such general and
instant favour but for the fact that it answered all
the purj'oses now subserved In* dubs and news]>a])ers.
'riiere the visitor was sure to meet his friends and
tiicn wonh knowing, and there, too, all the news
Of the day was heard, The coffee-house was the
Londoner's home, as Macaulay has said ; and
foreigners who wished to find a gentleman did not
ask were lie lived, but whether lie tre(jucnted tlic
" Grecian " or the " Kainbow." The Court and the
(ioverniiient looked on these establishments with
little favour ; they savoured too mu<li of pulilic
opinion turned into a ■fourth estate." At this period
a multitude of coffee-shops and coffee-houses were
established to meet the |)revailing fashion, which it
was fondly trusted would prove a permaiieut one.
toon, however, cluba sprang up, and the proprietors

of coffee-taverns saw with disgust that coffee was a
passing fancy in the high world of fashion, and
that the ordi- -ry Urilisher preferred his strong
ale to any foreign concoction. There was a dan--
gerons rival, too, in tea, which entered into use iir
Engj;-..,1 like the proverbial lamb, and has grown,
to moi'e than the dimensions of a lion. So the
coffee-house keepers found it to their interest to
cater for the more substantial needs of "cits" ;
and gradually they transformed themselves by
common consent into chop-houses, patronised by
the clerk and the apprentice during their midday
interval of repose. Of course the rise of tea into
popular respect has curtailed the sale of coffee ;
but it may well be qjestioned whether as a break-
fast drink, coffee is not medieinally superior to
its rival. If tea be taken in the morning, then
tea recurs again at eventide ; and doctors, although
they agree about hardly anything else, are almost
unanimous in asserting that two or three large
breakfast-cups of tea during the day is more than
is good for any constitution. The dire consequences
of tea-swilling are jieriodically trotted out for in-
spection— flatulence, gastric catarrh, dyspepsia, trem-
ours of the hands, and other physical mischiefs
are said to arise from it. Coffee-drinking in the
morning and tea-drinking at niglit do not seem
to produce such terrible results ; but it can hardly
be denied that coffee is less used than formerly
as a morning drink. It is more and more taking
its place as a modest after-dinner beverage, sipped
out of very small cups of dainty and delicate work-
manship, and so is developing into a liqueur. It
is thus that the Algerian Moor drinks it at this
day, without the unnecessary Anglican additions
of milk or sugar ; and he relishes the grounds as
the best part of the beverage. At present the
bodily effects of taking any hot drink whatsoever
are often pronounced to be hopelessly bad ; so
that soups would be prohibited as well as tea
and coffee. Yet as long as mankind shows its
existing liking for raising the internal temperature
of the physical frame artificially, coffee should
hold its own as being at least equally nourishing
and inspiring with tea, cocoa, chocolate, or any of
its numerous substitutes. And the only way in
which the sale of coffee can be much increased in
the Metropolis and elsewhere is for dealers in the
ready-made commodity to manage to combine
cheapness with au excellence of quality which is
now chiefly conspicuous by its absence. — Dailij Tele-
ijriipli.

♦

I'LAlN'TIXCi IN NETHEKLANDS INDIA.

(Tramlutcd for the " Straits Times.'')
Mr. Zylker. the liolder of a concession to work
petroleum springs in Langkat, has returned to
Batavia bringing word that the trial borings on tho
spot under direction of an official mining expert
have yielded enough petroleum to prove that thera
is abundance of that oil underground.

The cultivation of I'eli tobacco has been so suc-
cessfully introduced in the Lampong districts in
■Sumatra, that erelong a case containing sample-i
of the yield will be sent to I'eli to be fermented
and sorted there.

Of local matters there is not much to say here.
Commercial, planting, and indcistrial enterprise it
still heavily depressed tliough quotations for sugar
give some reason for satisfaction. From .Surabaya
transactions in that article at 12 guilders per
picul were recently reported. Another remarkable
fact worth also drawing attention to is that, accord-
ing to statistics in one of our contemporaries,
po less than 22 Netherlands vessels are lying o»

360

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885,

To C'OTT.EOT TirK Odob OF Flowehs.— Roses aud
flowers containing perfumed oils maybe itiiide to yield
their aroinatie qualities by steeping the petals in a
saucer ot water, and setting it in the sun. ^ The
water should bo soft, or rain water, aud a sufficient
quantity allowed for evaporation. lu a few days a
film will cover the water. This is the essentia! oil of
the (lower: every particle is impregnated with the
odor. It must be taken up carrfully and put iu tiny
vials, which should remain open till all the remain-
ing water is evaporated. A few drops of this will
perfume glove boxes, ajiparel, etc., aud will last a
long time. — Soiitlieni Planter.

l'Roi.'rr.\ni.E Fruit Culture.— Mr, AVatkius, a
))ractical fruit grower, in a paper read before the
members of the Herefordshire Chamber ot Agri-
culture, cited two successful cases of Apple growing
last season that came under his own notice. In one
case a small orchard of about three acres was recently
planted with standard Apijle trees ot good sorts for
table and kitchen use. The trees were properly
cared for and m.anured, and as some sorts wore foinid
to be growing too freely they were root-primed.
The result was a •vagnificent crop of fruit last seasou,
which realized about £16 per acre after payin? all
expenses. Tn an exposed situatiou plant rather thickly,
say 18 feet to :30 feet apart; but if you have a .sheltered
situation, with a good deep and generous soil, give
the trees jileuty of room — 30 feet or more. Apple
or Pear trees may be planted alternately with Plums ;
the I'lum tree is a much shoi-ter-livod tree than the
Apple or Tear, and ccnnes into bearing sooner, thus
bringing in a return till the other trees get fairly
growu. A strong grower and a small grower may be
placed alternately each way. Tet another plan is to
plant them in hexagonal form instead of scpiare:
that is, instead of the trees being exactly opposite
ea«h other iu adjoining rows, they are miilway, thus
giving more room to each individual tree without
increasing the distance between or in the row.s. In
filling up old orchards never plant in the old holes ;
it is better to get the trees planted irregularly than
to do this. Deep digging is essential iu planting;
but the trees should not be put iu too ileeply. The
want of care in picking and p,\cking the fruit is a
frequent cause of loss. Mr. A\'atkins prefers autumu
planting, except in cold wet soils, where he would
plant in spring, not later than JIarch.— (■'iic'c/icrs'
Clironieh.

Cbvlon Tea at llion Altitudes.— "We have very
encouraging news of tea at high altitudes. "\Vc believe
the returns from Ahbotsford this year will be most satis-
factory as to (juantity, whilst the young places near
Nuwara Kliyaare giving returns far in excess of previous
expectations. As far as can be judged from the
evidence before us, we see no reason to suppose that
estates situated as high as, or higher than, 6,000 feet
will give a very much reduced return of leaf per
acre than those 'at sea level. Some time ago it^ was
thought that the lower estates would give quantity—
up to 700 lbs. per acre— but not the best quality,
whereas the very high estates might be expected to
yield a tea of surpas.sing flavor, though not in great
abundance. So far as we .arc able to argue from
actual facts before us, the superiority of highgrowii
tea has not as yet been very forcibly demonstrated
to us, though we are far from denying that it will
eventually establish its jn-e-eminence. But, as we gain
experience from the growt'i of the industry iu the
island, one thing is becoming more and more plain
every day, and that is that the small yiidds to be
expected from tea grown at very high altitudes are
(vrtain to he very much exceeded, aud that the tea
plant can be grown to pay handsomely at almost
any possible altituilft in the' island. Yields of KDO lb.
an acre at the elevation of Nuwara Eliya may, and
doubtless will, be events of rare occurence, but we
confidently look forward to .500 and .600 Hi, an
acre as wliat may be expected from carefully planted,
well shelteri'd. land, no matter what the altitude.
The slowness with which the extreme elasticity — if
we may use such .1 word in this connection— of the

tea plant has been realized by planters iu Ceylon is
souK'rtrhat curious, as we have remarked before. Though
it was known to flourish ia the hot steamy plains
of Assam, on the bleak, almost frozeu, heights of the
Darjeeling hills under the very shadow of the ice-
clad Himalayas, yet we in Ceylou were some time iu
realizing that it could be sucessfully grown, and be
made to produce abundantly, at ani/ altitude iu the
island. The fact is only now beginning to d.awu upon
us, and men win are busy plantiug up colfee laiul at
from 5.000 to 6,000 feet with the more hardy tea
plant are not. now regarded as madmen, as they
were a short time ago. In the same way the suitability
of riva for the cultivation of tea, for a long time
denied, is now at last becoming accepted as an
incontrovertible fact, which time alone can effectually
prove. There are very few places iu IJva where ciuchonti
and coffee are now cultivated, which are not admirably
suited for tea; aud from rainfall returns now before
us, mauv have as well-distributed a fall as the majority
of estates on this side of Nuwara Kliya. — Local
■' Times"

OuAXfJE Flowers. — In a paper recently read beforts
the New York State Pharmaceutical Assnciatiou, Mr.
Lemberger stated that he had succeeded in tlistilling
from orange flowers gathered in Florida and salted down
a water comparing favourably with that imported from
the south of Europe. As orange trees are now grown
abundantly iu Florida the petals are conseiiueutly
plentiful, and he suggests that a new industry should
be started in that .State, in which low priced labour
might be utilized in gathering the blossoms, especially
of the wild or bitter orange. — Phuniuu'tnticat Jo/T'
mil.

Tea: The Green Leaf SEPAEAroii and .Sii-riNf;
Mac'Hin'E, which has been patented by Messrs, J'air-
weather and Gilruth, of Sembawattie, has been named
the "Success,"' aud seems likely to justify its title.
The machine, in its first trial with rolled leaf, worked
moat satisfactorily, finishing ofl: one fill of Jackson's
large "Excelsior" roller in five minutes, dropping
the fine leaf iu the centre, aud the larger at the
sides. A large machine is now iu course of con-
struction iu . Colombo, capable of being driven by
steam-power, and others will he takeu iu hand for hand
or steam. iMr. Gilruth thus writes of the machine- —
The machine will be the means of reducing the
tea-house cooly staff by 4 to 5; on a larger
estate iu greater proportion. It will also be a great
saving of labor in this way: when the roll iu its
separated state is fired, it will not requiri- so much
sitting, and thi'refore accomplish at the sanur time
the aim and object of all planters, 1 v., preserving
as much as possible the bloom on the tea. It also
offers other advantages. The roll can bi' separated
into three different grades, and in siuh a marked
style. A tea-houso manager, with care aiul knowledge
of his work, will be able to accomplish with ease a
loug-wished for desire, i. e., to have each and every
leaf according to their class of the same uniform
outturn in the cup, from being able to ferment each
kind separately a long or short time according to
his fancy ; thus preventing the old inevitable com-
plaint being made every time a mistake happens in
the fermentation, which on many occasions is used
and also abused, namely: as follows: — "Oh, I tried
to get my course leaf as near an approach to my
Pekoe as I could, aud just waite.l a little too long.
That is the reason I have such a dull outturn." Aud
then again, on the other hand, it has a green out-
turn. Whys' "Oh, because I did uot want to sacrifice
my Pekoe for my Pekoe Souchong or Smichong. as
ihe case might be." Perhaps, if he was an under-
strapper, aud had no interest to make good tea, as
he might think, through uot getting a .'> per cetn
commission, he might try and maki- any of the above
excu.sus p;iss when the fault lay oujhis want of ju'^ge-
ment, or he is perhaps careless or too anxious to get
away from liis work. With the .system the "Success "
olfcrs this cannot be done, or it is proof positi\'e
that it i.s due to carelessness.— Local "Time«,''

Nov. 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

361

LETTERS FKOM JAMAICA.— NO. 8.

SSIAI.I. COFFRB CROPS llUT GOOD PUtCES AND GOOD PKOS-
PXCTS— MK. COTTAM'sCHITILISMS — JAMAICA AND CEYLON
SV3TEMS OF CULTIVATION — THB I'KOIT INDUSTRY AND
nAIl.>VAV EXTENSION — THE PANA5IA CANAL.

Blue Mountain District, Jamaica, Aug. IK.s.j.

Our Blue Mountain crops have, as I led you
to expect, turned out small : but I am glad
to say that prices so far as the coffee has yet
been sold in the Liverpool market have been very
satisfactory. Clifton Mount. Newton, Sherwood
Forest, Clydesdale, Chestervale and Badiior produce
has sold at prices ranging from 139s. to 110s.
per Gwt. ; the first-named continues to bear the
palm. Tlie season has again been very dry, the
lowlying coffee must have suffered from the
drought, but it lias been very suitable weather for
the top niuuutain properties. The blossoms have
as yet been good; there is another very good one on
the eve of coming out, so that, unless unforseen
bad weather comes, we may look for a "bumper"
next year. The old ejcperienced planters say it
will be a very good season from all present signs.

The remarks of your old correspondent, Mr.
Cottam, relative to Blue Mountain coffee estates,
which appeared in your TlVt'A/i/ OhsciTfi- of
28th April last, are somewhat too trenchant, and
the remarks upon the overseer of Sherwood
Forest estate anything but polite. As to Jamaica
coffee estates, everyone admits they are not as
well or expensively cultivated, as was the rule
in the good old Ceylon days when planters
could spend £12 an acre, in cultivation,
manuring, supervision, etc., and yet make proKts
of £8 to £12 an acre. Jamaica planters say
they " must cut their coats according to the
cloth " ; they cannot afford high cultivation, and
they "must make both ends meet." Of course the
question remains, whether, if they weeded and
pruned more frequently, the result would not be a
succe.ss. 1 myself think it would ; but the soil and j
climate -are so good for cofiee, that the trees do
not seem to suffer as they would in Ceylon from ;
being weeded only 3 or 1 times a year, and it |
certainly .saves "wash," which is a consideration, j
Had Mr. Cottam had an opportunity of going
over some of the properties he names he would !
have found cultivation better attended to than he
supposes, some of the estates being added to by j
new clearings ; and as to Sherwood Forest, he I
would have found it a very tine property of about
200 acres coffee, kept very fairly clean, trees in
decent order, and the most compact of all the Blue
Mountain properties. It is therefore not just or
correct to state that " there is no extension of
coffee cultivation in the Blue Mountains," as Abbey
Green, Clevelands, ArnkuUy, Corner Post and
Whitfield Hall are all being extended, and we
also hear of some projected estates on the Northern
slopes.

I send you a Jamaica paper which contains
interesting articles on our Fruit Industry, and also
about the present state of the Panama Canal
worlis. As regards the former it is much to be
regretted that the finances of the island do not
admit of the extension of our present railway
system to connect the northern ports with the
capital, for I am sure it would be a success;
and not to go on, is as bad as stopping the
Ceylon line at Nanaoya, and not pushing on all
these years to Haputale and Badulla. It would
lielp to revive the agricultural prospects of the
island, and confer benefits not only on sugar i^lant-
ers and fruit-growers but on the general public.
I am sure the land-^ along the line would soon be

46

taken up for banana and coca growing, as well as
other tropical products ; any scheme that helped
the i)lanteis and pen-keepers in cheapness and cert-
ainty of transport, and enabled them to get up
manure at a cheap rate, would be beneticial. 1 trust
therefore the day is not far off' when tlic (iovernor
will see liis way to sanctioning the expenses of ii
survey to .select the best and cheapast route ; there
should be no difficulty in raising a guaranteed loan
at hoiup f'lr the construction. Mr. Espi'ul piiints
out the delicacy of fruit, and that it cannot bear
to be kejit long ; if therefore the railway jiroves
the fastest feeder to the several shipping ports,
there is no doubt it would be well supported by
the growers both European and Creole. .\s to the
Panama Canal, if aff'airs are as it is stated,
matters seem to be in a very bad state for the present
bondliolders; neither will the work lie accomjilished
as ijuickly as was promised. Where has all the money
gone to? Echo answers where. Indirectly it has
been a fine thing for the .Jamaica labourer, who has
found well-paid employment, and as so many sugar
properties have suffered from the low prices, and
have not been able to employ so many hands as
of yore, the work so near at hand must have been
a Godsend to the Jamaica Creole. Here, on our
side of tlie island, owing to the drought and
people being short of provisions we have not suffered
from want of labor. We hear moreover of several
win liave gone to Colon in search of work until
better seasons return. Felling and topping, pruning
and all job works have been done cheaper on many
est.ites owing to the above causes. The prices for
felling, topping and clearing up ready for planting
are dearer than in Ceylon, though the Jamaica
forest as a rule is not nearly so heavy : the custom
has been to pay Is per square chain, or £2 an acre for
the simple felling. W. S.

TEA PLANTING ON THE HILLS OP
CEYLON.

TEA PRUNING — EKFECT OK BURYIMG PRUVINOS AND
WEEDS — LUXURIANT FLUSH — THH TEA-LEAF MOTH —
USE OF SPIDEF.S — TWIN AND THINR TEA LKAVES —
"WILD tea" — OLD KING COFFEE IN HIS DOTAGE — A
" SPRING CROP " IN DIMBULA— A MARKET FOa ''COFFEE
tea" WANTED.

Tea pruning and the burying in longitudinal
holes of the prunings, weeds and rotten timber debris
are going briskly forward and wonderfully trim and
clean the ground looks where the processes ha\e been
completed, while the tea bushes are scarcely cut down
when they begin to put forth a fresh wealth of buds
and wood. The mechanical as well as the inanurial
effect of the burying process must be most bene-
fieial to the soil as well as to the plant, as is
shown in the luxuriant fiush on the trees pruned some
months ago.

Yesterday I wrote that the moth pre-
valent in Dikoya had not reached this locality.
That is still true of the higher fields, but on the
lower, evidences of the presence of the insect were
this morning seen in curled-up leaves. The con-
solation is that this pest chooses not flush but
mature leaves whereon to lay its eggs, — eggs whence
the maggot escapes, sucks the juices of the leaf
and is gone (as a moth ?) in a time so incred-
ibly short that it is but rarely the caterpillar can
be seen. It is now tlial the value of spiders and
their beautifully ingenious webs of all shapes,
sizes and designs can be appreciated. The spider
has not heard of the theory of the balance of
animal life, but he works diligently on its lines,
as the lea moths e:ipcricncc.

368

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. 2, 1885,

their rations, that they would like the chniate
ami they could work well in the climate, because
he and 'his brother fathers work with the spa.le
and hoe out at the Mission Station at Kapid Creek.
So certain is he that Silesians will come, and so
interested in it too, that he has written a letter to
an mtluential gentleman (Herr Heinrich Foerster, of
Trebnitz), fully stating the case, asking hiin to
ascertain whetlier his countrymen would be wilhng
to enter upon engagements on tlie terms specificil.
He, of course, only puts it as a hypothesis, and
requests an immediate reply. I have endorsed his
letter witlt the following sentence :— ' I should be
glad if the information asked for by tlie Rev.
Father Christian can be obtained and coiiimunicated
as early as possible, with the fiew of bringing
the subject under the notice of the Uovernment of
Soutli Australia.' " Great praise is due to the
Hon. Mr. Parsons for the interest he is taking
in endeavouring to provide suitable labour for our
Northern Territory, and I think the shareholders
of this Companv "should take steps to bring the
question prominently before the Government and
urge upon them tlie desirability of immediately
taking action to induce a number of Silesian emi-
grants to settle ill the Northern Territory. Pro-
vided cheap labour is procurable, I am convinced
that the Territory has a gi-eat agricultural future
before it, as from a personal inspection of the (iov-
ernment Gardens at Palmerston and from convers-
ations I have had witli the talented gardner, Mr.
Holtz, there is no doubt in my mind that a large
variety of tropical products may be successfully
cultivated. Messrs. Gardiner and Boult were elected
Auditors. Mr. Solomon, refering to Mr. Moule's
motion in the House of Assembly re the exten-
sion of time for the bonus of sugar-growing m the
Northern Territory, said they ought to be thank-
ful to hiin for introducing it. In the interests of
their Company, however, it was desirable that
the period sliould be three years instead of two.
It was resolved that a deputation should wait upon
the Minister of Education the following day, and
request the Government to extend the time for the
bonus, three years. — Adelaide Ri'iiinlc'i-.

Aloe Fibre in Cevlon.— We are glad to hear from
Mr Alfred Payne that he has exported about :^U
cwts of aloe fibre with fairly satisfactory results.
The best quality realized at the rate of £ IS per ton,
the second ilCi,' and third, or refuse fibre ili per
ton The latter was really tlie most profitable quality,
as it required less liandling than the better sorts.
The fibre was cleaned with a machme oi Mr. Payne s
oven construction, but as he has a large acreage un-
der cultivation he is strongly of opinion that special
machinery would enable liuii to realize handsome re-
sults Mr. H. Brown of Matale is, we believe, also
successfully growing and exporting two or three dif-
ferent kinds of fibre. ■ -r a, j

OvsTEus —Edible oysters are numerous m JafTna and
easily procurable. At tbe rainy season you cau have
them for the trouble of picking. The nioormen here,
look upon it as a luxury and under the name of MatUe,
TOU find the little tambies carr.\ing bundles of them
At Bentota while tbe little oysters stewed or pickled
or raw with a pincli of pepper and few drops of vinegar
are delicacies to please the most fastidious taste, the
oysters here seem to be too heavy and chuusy ami cert-
ainly hard to .ligest. Perhaps we are getting old and
our digestive organ-; are not strong as when we roosted
at Bentota. At Mullaifivu at tbe r.duy se;,.son the
women go with pots to Cbinaar and gather oystcr.s (Mat-
tee) and also pluck tlu' leaves of a plant called M„-=,Ulu.
These are both b.'ilrd tn-ether, and make <|Uite a
breakfast in their p .verty. In the evemng tbey return
home- and the Mu^i^ftn leaves make a chii.Htnl or nnnced
leaf g'reenage while the oysters as a curry make tbe
vegetable diet a .leligbtCul repast.-" Oeyluii Patriot.

The Trade in Carol with Tka. — It may not be
generally known that there is a fairly good trade be-
tween the North- west and Cabul in tea. tbe figuies
for 1884-.T showing supplies sent forward of 8,S26 nids.
This trade is capable, however, no doubt, of much
further expansion. — Iialian Tea (Jazette.

Coffee in Cookg.— Mercara, Sept. 25th.— Our
labour supply has again been very short, work has
been delayed, and the coffee has suffered from being
so long buried in weeds. There are estates which have
had no coolies upon them for six months, ami are,
only, at this prescut time securing their labourers no
plauiiug has been done, consequently a year's delay
is incurred. Tamil coolies were plentiful for two or
three years, some coming trom Salem, and others from
Vellore. Of these maistries who had contracted to
supply coolies, upon the estates, not 10 per cent have
come in. Crop promises were brilliant, and the wages
for men were then lU) against Efli per mouth iu
Coorg, so no people could be got to come. Tumkoor
labor has also failed, various reasons are given for it,
but our demand was so greit during June, July and
August that 10,000 coolies at RB a month could have
found employment, and steady work: our Mysore labour
is only now coming in, aud the dry season is fast
approaching on. This year seems to have b'sen most
unusual in suprises. A steady monsoon from the 2dc1
of Juue, continuing rain without intermission until
the 'ind of August : again it poured without ceasing
from the 10th until the 2'iud of August.
After which no rain has fallen- ceasing as suddenly
as it began. Such weather has not occurred before.
in any man's experience. Rice was suceessf ally trans-
planted before the present drought cinieon, and as two-
thirds of the fields are watered by irrigation, it will
not suffer much. Cardamom picking commenced about
the first week in September, the capsules are large, and
well-favoured, there should be a good harvest this
season as the drying weather, always so showery, has
been all that could be desired, and tbe coloring of the
pods, so important an item at selling time, will as-
suredly be a certainty. Prices were very low last year,
and hardly paying for the gathering, curing, and hire
or rent of the cardamom jungles. — Madr.is Staiulard.
The QoiNiNE Manufactory at Milan.— AV^e have
learnt several interesting particulars concerning this
well-known quiniue factory from Mr. 0. E. H. Symons,
who took the opportunity when in Jlilau the other day
to visit it. It is not strictly correct, however, to design,
ate it as a "Quinine Factory:" it is iu reality a
manufactory where a great variety of alkaloids are pro-
duced. Amongst other cbcmieals in;ule here is that
deadly narcotic "strycbninc ", but, without doubt, quin-
ine is tbe chief article turned out, and just now they
I are producing about 130 kilos daily, ec|ual to 2{)0 lbs.
I weight. Our readers will doubtless remember the circ-
I umstance which some time ago caused the firm work-
ing this fad ory to pass into liquidation. They are still
winding up the aff.iirs of the old concern, but are
allowed, during that process, to carry on the manufact-
ure, on the uudcrstanding flat tbey make only in
execution of actual orilers ; consequently, they cannot
put themselves in stock. They are, therefore, ouly
buyers to a limited extent, buying merely from hand
to mouth. Our informant, who has just returned from
! Italy, after paying a visit to tbe factory, de.scril-es tbe
premises and the proceedings therein as highly interest-
ing ; and, though he was not of cour.se inducted into
the'mysteries of quiuinc-making, he came away widi
the knowledge of a simpl-r and more perfect mode
of analyzing cinchona, which he intends turning to
' good account iu Colombo. So soon as the affairs of
the late firm are closed, a Oonipaiiy will be floated to
carry on the manufacture, when they will at once enter
the market as active buyers. No doubt the eptry of
tbo new Company, when formed, on the cinchona
market will help to impart .strength to quotations, and
it is a noteworthy feature that the managers of this
l:irge concern use 'little else than Ceylon cinchona, with
just a modest admixture of cuprca, but tbey do not
i appe;rr to care about South American bark.— Local
■ "Times,"

Nov, 2, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3<59

TEA PLANTIXO ON THE HILLS OF CEYLON.

EXPKRIMEKT AT WOKKISG AX EXCELSIOU BOLLEU WITH
A 1(>-FEET WAIEU-WIIKEL— 300 I.B 01' LEAl' ROLLED
IN- A\ UOrU— ll-:.i AT HUllI ELKVATIONS KEUIIUINO
MORE TIME TO BOLL THAN TUAT Ar LOWER ELEV-
ATIONS—TlIB TCltUlXE ON' CALSAY — THE " TEA rLANX-
ER's VAUE MECCM " — TEA AT HIGH ELEVATIONS IN'
CKVLON — IXCOBRECT i'. TRrE STATEMENTS^THOrSANDS
OF ACRES OF FOREST LAN"D SCrrABLE FOR TEA CULTIV-
ATION'.

Upper Linucla, 13th Oct.

The wpathor is simply glorious, and today we
were able to try our Excelsior roller with a feed
o( 300 lb. of well-withered tea leaf. Readers of
the Ohserrer may recollect our contention, that,
with the addition of a tiy-wheel, a Ki-feet water-
wheel (such as are so common on cofiee estates)
ought to supply motive power sutKcient to work
an Excelsior. We took upon ourselves the full
responsibility of the experiment, and the trial,
which occupied between 12 and 1 o'clock today,
gave at least satistaetorv piomise of success. The
addition of a fiy-wlieel does not, we are told by
engineering authoritv, add to the jjower of the
water-wheel, but it so regulates the power exerted
as to render it more effective. The result, today,
was, that the Excelsior roller, when loaded with
MOO lb. of withered tea leaf, was worked at a rate
rising from Jl revolutions per minute to 53. We
are told that 70 revolutions per minute can be
nttaineil, but the newness and consequent stiffness
of the niachinerv and gearing must be taken into
account in regard to today's trial, the result of
which was that the 300 11). of leaf were
thoroughly rolled in a few minutes short of the hour.
We feel prefectly certain, therefore, that, as machin-
en- and gearing get eased with use, we can accom-
phsh the thorough rolling of 300 lb. of leaf in i'>
minutes. That would he equivalent to 4,000 lb. of
withered leaf or fully 1,000 lb. of made tea per day
of ten hours. The volume of water which moved
the wheel was IJ inch in de])th by 2'2 inches wide.
As the 22-iBch wide pipe is (i inches in height,
it is just possible that greater How of water
might secure more jiower. Be that as it may, the
details of our experiment today are as follows: —

About 7 minutes were occupied in i^ushing 180 lb.
ot leaf into the orifice of the roller. Not a pound
more could be crammed in, and so the water was
turned on and the roller commenced operating on
the leaf.

Eight minutes further were required to add 120 lb.
moi-e of leaf, which found room as the leaf already
in was compressed by the rolling proccsss. An at-
tendant was constantly em])loyed not only in adding
the new leaf but in counteracting tlie tendency
of the rolled leaf to collect in the leftliand side of
the orilice and form solid masses.' This, I under-
stand, is an invariable effect in the earlier stage
of rolling, and of cour.^e the blocking-up hindered
considerably the revolutions of the roller. The leaf
had constantly to be pulled out ot the lefthand
side of the receiving orifice and pushed in at the right
side. In 15 minutes from commencing to fill the roller
and in 8 from the time of turning on the water,
the whole supply of 300 lb. of withered leaf was
fully under the influence of the rolling apparatus,
and in about 40 minutes more the leaf was turned
out beautifully finished, only a small proportion
of leaves having escaped the bruising and twisting
process.

Of coarse 300 lb. taking one hour to finish
is different to 320 lb. in half-an-hour, to which the
Excelsior roller is uniVf to be equal; but, apart
47

from the stiffness of new machinery an 1 gearing,
our leaf at tliis altitude (tea-house .lituated 5.800
feet above sea-level) sucms to require appreciably
more time to roll than that grown by our friends
lower down. If, as I feel perfectly certain, our
autioipatious are realized, and we get an average of
(iOO lb. rolled every three hours of a workiui^ day,
we shall be well sati-jtied. We inteml trying the
experiment of loading the Excelsior witli only
200 lb. ot leaf, putting 50 lb. into the Univei'sal,
and working both simultan,_-ously. In tli',\t way
we may get leaf rolled a', the rate of 250 lb. iu
half-an-hour, which would be 503 lb. per hour, or
5,000 lb. (equivalent to 1,250 lb. ot made tea) in
a day of ten hours. The results of further ex-
periments will be made known for the benefit of
other planters who, like ourselves h'lve Ki-feet-water-
wheels available, supplied by Messrs. .John Walker
ct Co. in tlu! da^ when the machwiery sought to
be moved consisted of only a coffee pulpur, and who
may be doubtful as to the power they can ,:^et out
of such a wheel. Ours was supplied with reference
to the tea factorv, but we believe it is identical,
in construction and power, with the otlier Ki-feet
wheel, which stands, (literally staiuls) 1,200 fe;t
lower down in the coffee store, and by means of
which (a tly-wheel supplied) we hope at no very
distant date to turn another Excelsior.

The well-qualitied engineer gentleman from Messrs.
John Walker it Co., Mr. Malcolm, who erected our
Excelsior and added the fly-wheel to the motivi'
machinery, is now up at Calsay (the fields and
buildings of which are in full view in this lovely
weather) completing the more powerful motive
machinery of a turbine, and we and the rest of
the planting communitv will be glad to heie of
a full success in that quarter. We, at one time,
thought of a turbine for Abbotsford, but happily
our water-sujiply (judging by *.he minimum in
thirteen years) was considered insulKcient, and so
(at a saving o' probably £300 at least,) we have
tried what could be done with an existing KJ-feet
water-wheel with a fly-wheel added.

Oct. 14th.

In the recently published " Tea Planter's Vade
Meeum," at Calcutta, in which we find that the
compiler, Jfr. Wyman, adopts a characteristic
article by the (.'/-(/rrHH/ editor of the local "Times"
as truly representing "Tea Climates in Ceylon."
As we read the terms of this article \ce wonder
whether it is all a dream that our tea bushes
are basking in tinpical heat and yielding at the
rate ot nearer (iOO than 500 lb. per acre per
annum. For did not the writer utter his [dicta,
thus :—

" A contemporary, who uiiii/tt to be an authority
on tea, has been writing in praise of high altitudes
for that cultivation, and bases his arguments in
their favour on tlie allegHti facts that certain estates
in Darjccling at 3.(MKI feet hnvt; done better than was
expected, though we are not told what constitutes
' better,' and. the writer in question goes on to argue
that if tea will do well at 3,0(.M) feet in a latitude
of 27U from the equator | in , of couise, wrote 27°]
we may safely .go to (>,0(K) feci and over in Ceylon :
a theory from which we beg to dissent. In an island
like Ceylon, exposed to the full violence of the
south-west monsoon, very much dejiends on position
and exposure. Were we writing of the Uva side of
the counti")'. we should unhesitiLtingly adojit the
theory, but certainly not on tlie Kandy side of
Nuwara Kliy;i, where, a,s a conqjcnsation for the
heavy rainfitU, tlu^i'c niubt be heat, if paying flushes
arc to bo had. Will anyone venture to assert that
the upper portion of the Kamboda Pass, or the bleak,
exposed portion of Upper lauduhi, can ever beconie
profitable localities for tea '.' 'J'o talk of tha hcaltlii-

370

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 2, 1885.

ness of such eituationa is altogetlier beside the
qxiestion." „ ^, , i n* t

Ami then follows a quotation of Colonel Moneys
long exploded fallacy, untrue almost everi/ichcre
in Ceylon : — " A really pleasant climate cannot be
a good one for tea."

We need not tell our readers that tea is grown,
and with profit, on such estates as Tukvar in
the Darjiling district, up to and above 5,000 feet,
and experience on the place where we now write
has more than confirmed our contention, that it
tea could be well and profitably grown at 3,000
feet altitude in 27° north latitude, in the heart
of a great continent and on the sides of the
vast mountain range which is named " the abode
of snow," the cultivation might safely be earned
to twice 3,000 feet in an insular locality only
7° from the equator. We felt sure in our theory,
and we feel more than satisfied with an ex-
perience, which is not ours alone, but that of
Inverness, Dessford, Calsay, and many other places,
which are situated in " the bleak, exposed portion
of Upper Lindula," as much as is the property
specially sought to be depreciated. The owners
of tea estates up the Ramboda Pass can speak
for themselves and defend tlieir interests so wantonly
assailed to gratify personal spite, but as regards
tea in " the bleak, exposed portions of Upper
Lindula," we know that visitors to Abbotsford are
loud in their admiration of the tea on the higher
fields from 5,400 to 6,000 feet altitude, from which
rich pluckings of flush are now being taken ; but
we are quite contented to refer to Calsay, with a
similar altitude and higher up the " bleak" valley,
wliere results and prospects have demanded
the erection of new buildings and machinery, just
as here we are preparing room for produce
which next year is likely to approach 150,000 or
even 200,000 lb. of made tea. So much for the
performance of " bleak, exposed Upper Lin-
dula " The true and honest statement about
tea in Ceylon is, that, while the plant flourishes
at low elevations, it flourishes also at altitudes
up to the verge of 7,000 feet above sea-level,
and that not in genial Uva alone, for Oliphant
estate is in the district of "bleak, exposed
Upper Lindula." But " the pity of it, oh lago,
is that the statement is embalmed m " Ihe lea
Planter's Vade Mecum" as a true and honest
ri'presentation, by a Ceylon authority, of "Tea
Climates in Ceylon." Ceylon readers can make
the correction for themselves, but Indian planters
and others, who do not know the value of the
authority quoted in the " Vade Mecum," will accept
gross misrepresentation as truth. From where 1
write I look up over an expanse of thousands of acres
of forest, rising from " bleak, exposed Upper Lin-
dula" to the sides of Kirigalpotta and Totapala,
a large portion of which can be successfully
cultivated with tea, if only some fuel can be
found for the Nanuoya-Haputale railway, which
will enable Government to set the mountain forests
free to healthy and profitable enterprise. But, if
the ci-deviiiit editor is to be believed, it would be
equally " a fatal mistake" to grow tea along the
railway line, as, in his opinion, it would be to
make the railway on which Uva depends not only for
revival but for very existence. I believe that the
railway will bo made, and that profitable tea
cultivEUion will follow its course, until the fields
of " bleak" Lindula are joined m one bright
chain to those of genial Uva.

Oct. 15th.

The intense heat, succeeding to the dense mists
and pretty copious rainfall, which ended with the
niglit of the 10th, is Laving the effect which might

be anticipated on vegetation generally, but especi-
ally on tea. A long walk through fields of the
plant this morning was most interesting. I read
last evening in the " Tea Planter's Vade Mecum,"
that the varieties of hj-brid tea amount to one
hundred, and of these we have a good proportion.
Our intelligent Tamil conductor confirmed this
morning the opinion which the Europeans con-
nected with this estate have long held, that the
largest leaved bushes are by no means the best
yielders of flush. What we desiderate is a bush
with a wide, dense surface of long and pointed
leaves. On one twig of such a bush Ahira this
morning counted a dozen leaf shoots and
remarked: "If all the bushes were like this,
1,000 lb. per acre would be regularly gathered." The
end bud or tip of such plants is possessed of con-
centrated strength, such as is not to be found in
the very large-leaved plants, even when the latter show
"tip," which some of them seldom do. Ventur-
ing to differ from Col. Money on this question
as on that of tea cUmate, I have always held
that the introduction of China seed by Mr. Fortune
into India, in Lord William Bentinck's time, and
the resulting hybrid between the Assam and the
China plants, was fortunate instead of the reverse.
Pure Assam indigenous for low elevations, by all
means, but for all altitudes above 3,000 feet I
suspect good hybrid is best.

Since yesterday our Excelsior worked alone, has
been finishing off rolls of 250 lb. of withered tea
leaf, in forty minutes and in excellent style, with
no tinge of dark colour. I have no doubt
that, ere long, we can regularly accomplish the
full load of 320 lb. I take this opportunity
of correcting an error into which I fell in
previous communications, in dividing withered leaf
by four for made tea. That rule applies to green
leaf as gathered, which loses one-fourth of its
weight in moisture in the process of withering.
300 lb. of withered tea represents 100 of the finished
article.

THE VICTORIAN

BI DK. J. E.

taylor, f.g.s., f.l.s
"science gossip."

FORESTS.

EDITOU OP

My English agricultural friends know little or
nothing of the hard labour and great expenditure
requisite to keep an Australian " station " in good
condition. One of the squatters with whom I stayed
(and whose station is by no means the largest)
told me he had fenced no less than 100 miles of
it, and that it had cost him £80 a mile.

Our route to the forest lay along grassy, unused,
one-chain roads, along which v.'aggons and other
vehicles were in the habit of winding their devious
ways. In many places it was a euphemistic form
of speech to call them roads, for they differed from
the rest of the country in nowise, except the rough
fencing on either side, (iumtrees, dead and living,
and also abundance of tree stumps, of all sizes
and in all positions, crowded the " road," along
which, I hope, few people are obliged to travel by
night. Processions of dead trees — studies in black
and white — seemed to pass us by as we drove along.
They are the scarred remnants of bush fires, and
they alone arc sufficient to mark the road. Flocks
of brilliant green parakeets rise up from beneath
our horses' feet, lovely lowry, rosella, and 151ne
Mountain parrots flash across us in the sunshine
like living gems, crowds of cockatoo parrots (eorella)
soar above our heads; numbers of white, sulphur-
crested cockatoos screech as if a screeching match
were on, and every bird was confident of winning.
They fly from dead gumtree to dead gumtree, and

Nov. 3, 1885] THE TROPICAL AGRfCULTUKlSIf^.-

^7;*

cluster on the branches as i£ they had broken
into blossom. All along the road the Australian
" robins " precede us, Hitting from fence-top to
fence-top, and turning their glowing, incandescent
red breasts towards us, as if they were askmg
whether our humbler English robin red-breasts could
equal them. The crow shrikes, or magpies (surely
the most delightful as well as the most useful of
Australian birds), were everywhere, basknig and
frolicking in the sun like so many kittens, and piping
their lovelv flute-like notes like the half-forgotten
refrain of 'some old song. The pretty but more
silent and smaller magi)ie-larks were almost eiiually
numerous. Occasionally we got a glimpse of the
male of the beautiful blue wren, but he was too
proud to show much of himself. The yellow wrens
were not halt so shy or so scanty, whilst the fly-
catchers were abroad, and busy in great force.
The black crows had possession of the semi-cleared
country, except where a few jays disputed with
them. Overhead, a pair of kites or an occasional
hawk soared and screamed. But the parrots and
parakeets and cockatoos were by far the most
numerous and varied of all the feathered tribes, as
it is right and proper they should be in an Aus-
tralian forest. In one place a number of those
stately grallatoral birds known as " native com-
panions " were going through all the movements
of a quadrille party, bowing to each other, retiring,
advancing and retreating, as if to some unheard
music. They are handsome birds, for their crimson
heads contrast well with the generally French grey
plumage. The ordinary blue cranes were not ucomn-
mon, plovers or curlews were numerous, and we saw a
few of those much sought-after birds, the bastard,
better known to sportsmen, perhaps, as the "turkey."
The forest grew denser and swampier as we
penetrated it. There was a thick and almost im-
penetrable undergrowth of young gumtrees, heath,
myrtaceous plants, prickly acacia, climbers and
bracken, and one felt what a capital haunt and
breeding-ground such a place must be for snakes.
One had to reverse the old proverb about not being
able to see wood for trees, here we could hardly
Bee trees for wood.

Snakes are gradually getting scarcer in Austraha.
A war of extermination is being waged against them,
which is getting hotter and fiercer every day, for
there are more people joining in the attack. The
more a country gets cleared for pasturage, the
less are She chances for snakes. They are then
belter seen by their natural enemies, among which,
perhaps, their most deadly are the laughing jack-
asses {Dacelo ginaiiteu) - a kingflsher wliichhas taken
to kilUug and feeding on snakes instead of on flshes.
We arrived at a clearing in the forest, where
there are one or two small but comfortable wooden
houses, at one of which we passed the night. A
good many half-wild cattle roam about (my friend
owned 2,000). They lead a semi-savage lite, a few
being trained to come near the station to be fed
and milked. A number of rough forest liorses,
brought up in a similar way, also hung around tlie
place. We mounted these, and rode about eight
milcB into the more unfrequented parts, where the
kangaroos still abound. They had recently been
much disturbed through rabbit shooting ; but 1 saw
two red wallaby kangaroos and one "old man"
(iiuuropm major). I had never seen them before
alive, except in menageriei and zoological gardens,
and as a naturalist and geologist I- was therefore
deeply interested in seeing them in their native
haunts. They are the oldest race of man:mals
in the world, and lived in England during the
Becondaiy period, whicli must have been many
millioiia of yeara ago.— Australasian.

THE MAXUFACTUKE OF QUININE.
The price at which sulphate of quinia, the quinine
of the druggist, is uow selling is lower than it has
ever before been in the history of the trade. At
the time liiu 20 per cent, duty was removed, in July,
187'J, quinine of American manufacture was being
offered at f3.3o i',-- ounce in bulk, or #8.10 in ounce
vials, while the price of the foreign artcle, duty un-
paid, was about 50c. per ounce less. As soon as
the duty was removed the price of the foreign drug
advanced to about the level of the American.
Foreign manufacturers, finding the -American iiiailicl
open to them, sent large quantities of quinine to
this country during the six montlis immediately
following the date of the removal of the duty, which
in the face of the light demand caused prices to
fall, the price of American quinine near the close of
187".) being $2.(10 an ounce in vials. .Shortly after
.January 1st, 18S0, there was an active demand both
in the United States and abroad for quinine, and
prices advanced to S'3 an ounce at the close of the
month. Since that date the price of sulpliate of
(juinia has fluctuated, the foreign and domestic article
both being offered today at about the same prio«,
8(lc. per ounce.

What has been the cause of this great reduction
in the price of quinine since 1880 ? lias the removal
of the duty alone had the effect of cheapening the
drug .so greatly during the past live years, or have
there , been other causes that have contribut.:d to
this result ? While the removal of the duty has
been an important factor in Uie cheapening process
it lias by no means been the only cause. The law
of supjily and demand, wliicli largely regulates the
prices of all commodities, has to a great extent led
to the reduction of the price of this drug. Quinine
is cheap to day in England and on the continent of
Europe as well as in the United States, partly because
the cinchona bark, from which it is obtained, is
cheap, and the cinchona bark is cheap because it is
in large supply. For many years South America
supplied practically all the liaik used by the quinine
manufacturers of the world, but through the active
exertions and costly experimentsiof the British and
Dutch Governments over twenty years ago the cin-
chona plant was introduced from South America into
the East Indies, Java, Ceylon, etc., so that large
quantities of bark are now yearly obtained from these
sources of supply, in addition to the amount furn-
ished by South America.

Ceylon is now one of the main sources of supply
for bark, and it has only been during the past ten
years that the shipments from this island reached
any appreciable amount. In 18(11 the flrst seeds
were received in Ceylon, and in 18()'J tlie export of
bark was only 28 ounces, but in the season of 1882-
83 the exports were (i,'.)2.5,oy5 pounds, and in the
season of 1883-81 they were 11,500,000 pounds.

The American manufacturers do ■ jt ^eem to have
been so seritusly alTected by the removal of the
duty on quinine as to be compelled to close their
works. While they are not producing as much
quinine as belt re the removal of the duty, it is
certainly a noteworthy fact that they are running
and obtaining a profit even with free quinine, 'llie
American nianufactuiers claim that the result of
the removal of the duty has been to make the
United Stales a battle-ground lor foreign manu-
facturers ; that the suxpius product of these manu-
facturers has been sont to this country in lur^e
quantities, and Uiat the treeing of quinine has
stimulated and iiicreoscd its production abroad.
As all of these results )u,\e ccntnLuted to the
cheapening of the price of quinine, th; Ameiican
consumer is thereby so much benefited by the le-
tuoval of the duty, cveu il the quinine mauufact'

if^

'I'HE fnOPiCAL AGRiCVtrVPJSf, [Nov. 2, 2S85,

ories of lliis country, of which there ars but five,
thrff ill Philadelphia and two in New York, are
compelled to restrict their jiroduction. The Hvcatest
good to the Hre.'tertt number is the proper view to take
of the niiiller. Instead of our manufacturers closing
their works it would seem from the imports during the
past year of cinchona bark into theVnited States that
they were increasing their output of quinine. In
the fiscal year ended .June SOth, 1HH4, the imports
of bark into this country for the numufacturc^ of
quinine were •2,.580,0.'/2 pounds, valued at 1717,614,
while during the fiscal year ended .June 30th, 188.5,
the imports were .S,513,.S'.)1 pounds, valued at
|i)ll,nOS, an increase of nearly 1,000,000 pounds
in one year.

As the sulphate of quinia is upon the free list,
and it is undoubtedly the intention of Congress to

webs are equally moved for receiving or delivering
leaf and which last opeiation can be perforuied by
one man whether there is a large or small quantity
of Ic if ; 8th, the web is iirnr rolled up whether leaf
is oil it or not : if the web gets wet through wet
leaf it is not liaJile to rut throufb the web never
being rolled up or doubled together or coverLd close
up ; Dth, the machine can be increased in width
every year as the tea garden increases its yield
by lengthening the rollers or web drains at a very
small cost ; liltb. the webs have pliable galvanized
strand v/ire sides which run into grooves cut into the
side of each roller, preventing the web from slipping
or bellying in any way.

According to Mr. .^rinstroiig's calculations it requires
(j f eet space per 1 lb of leaf ; such beiug the case, one of
these machines, 10 feet high l.j in. broad and 80 feet long,
webs (J inches apart, would take about r5,80O \h. ; if
the webs were placed 3 inches apart it would of

keep it free, refusing, as it did, when the tariff" bill , course take more than double this, i.i\, over 7,l>0olb

of 1883 was under consideration, to reimpose the '"■- - ' "■" '— ' — '^- --'- -' — -

duty, it is certainly not the intention of our legis-
lators to close the American quinine manufact-
ories by offering a premium to the foreign manu-
facturer by taxing the raw materials used by our
own manufacturers. If our producers can make as
good and as cheap a brand of quinine as foreigners,
and certainly no one can say that American quinine
is inferior to that made abroad, they are justly en-
titled to free raw materials. As quinine is free of

Two men can put this leaf on the webs at one oper-
ation, while one man puts the webs in motion fast
or slow as the two spreaders require it. It only
requires one man to discbarge the leaf from the webs
and which can all be acted upon at the same time
to discharge large or small quantities without any
trouble or loss of time while filling the rolling
machine.

By a system adopted in connection with this apparatus
of giving either a vertical or side motion to the webs, leaf

can, with perfect safety, be spread much thicker

duty ail the raw materials used in its manufacture and get withered as fast from the air around and

should be exempt from taxation. Our manufact- about the webs being kept in motion by an arrange-

' ■ inent fixed in the centre of the webs connei;ted with

a spring or other mechanical driving power, and con-
sequently caiising a much more rapid evaporation,

urers of quinine import the bark free, but pay a
tax on the raw materials used in extracting the
(piinine, while their product competes in the home
market with foreign cpunine made with free barks,
free solvents and cheap labor. The item of in-
creased labor cost is a sufficient drawback to the
American manufacturer with further discrimination
in the way of taxed raw materials.— iJr»(/-srirt'('.«
(AVic Yorli) Journal.

which is a great desideratum whore leaf conies in
wet or moist. Withering web machines are in course
of construction and will be fully advertised at an
early date.

MOKE IMPKOVEMENTH IN TEA-PBEPAMNCi
ItEQUISlTES.

The latest improvements brought under our notice
are " Gilrnth's Continuou;. Withering Webs," of
which the following is a desGription — a patent has
been applied for : —

The arr.'.ngement and working of this machine seem
▼ery simple .and plain, .after a little close inspec-
tion ; its advantages, wdiich are niany, are
at once better seen than described, and it has been
found on careful calculations that it will be likely to
supersede all other systems yet in use. cither in Ceylon,
Java, or Assam, and will economize by ."iO per cent
or more, in labour, space it occupies, Ac. ttc,
on the now old-fashioned window-blind system
introduced some t\:o >r three years back in Assam
and lately in Ceylon on some of the tea estates.
For cheapness, compactness and neatness undoubtedly
it has no equal and cannot but bo sure to continue
to warrant these iinportaut advantage!, especially
when it is made and constructed of the very best
material -, it ma.y be termed almost everlasting, .and
cannot help taking the place of all others which are
so uuHiiti^factory and costly in the long run.

The folloHiuK .are tlie iid\antHgeH claimed for this
iipl)iiratus:--lst and iiio«t important, the great saving
ef laiiour brought about ; 'Jnd, »iiiallne«« of Hiiace it
occupies; 3rd, large amount of leaf it Hill take.
Laving no part of the level web but what call re-
ceive leaf; Ith, leaf easy to spread, leaf on the
webs, as all parti) of the webs pass within easy reach
of the leaf spreadirs stationecl at the ends of the
apparatus and who are able to spread while the
webfl arc in motion which can be made to go fast
or «i(iw at the will of the leaf spreader.
r>th. eas> to handle and not lialile to get out of
order; Olli, the inachinccan Lie made any size, length or
)i«i^'bt; 7tb, by tlj« motion or ivctiou of out wheel all

I'EAKLS.
The over-fishing of the last fifteen or twenty
years is doing for pearls what it long ago did for
oysters. Fashion also bears its part in raising
prices, and a good set of three black-iiearl shirt-
studs cannot now be got wholesale much under
£40. Four years ago they could be had for less
than a third of the jirice. Mother-of-pearl has
risen in the market too, and now costs nearly
l.'i the pound at the fisheries, where four pounds
could be obtained for the same money twehe years
back. The fisheries of the Red Sea and the Bay
of Bengal are still, however, as celebrated as they
ever were in classic days, although the fair can
no longer hope for the produce by the jieck, as
Varro — at second-hand— said they used to do :
" .\ltera exorat virum semodiura margaritarum."
For all the scarcity of pearls, we now get them
also from the Sunda Isles of the Malay Archi-
pelago, the seas of China and Japan, from Panama,
Tahiti, the (rambier islands, and from Australia.
The pearl-market is no longer at Borne, at the
iMargaritarius porlicus; but in the hands of the
Amsterdam, Hamburg, Loudon and New York
dealers, who buy up all this harvest of the sea.
There are numerous bivalves which give pearls,
bad, indifferent, or better ; but the true pearl-
oyster — if oyster it can be called, for it is exactly
like an exaggerated cockle — is the Miilihis nuir-
tfiiriliffnix, or VinUidiiui m,, which meilsHl('.« from
four to six inches in diameter and an inch ftnil
a half in thickiu'ss. The oceanic variety diffcra
from the East Indian, and gives a finer gem.
The Tuamotu Archipelago, to the east of the
Society Islands, is perhaps the greatest pearl-fishery
in the" world. Of its eighty islands there are only
some half-dc^zcn whose waters do not produce the
pearl-oyster. The natives ol this group know iig

Nov, 2, 1885-1 THE

,,'iCAL AGRICULTUIJIST,

373

iuilastry bnt fishing. Men, women and children,
they aU dive like sea-fowl, and the women are the
most expert. Two women especially of Faili, and
one of .4naa or Chain Island, are well-known in
this trade — more dreadful far than samphire-
gathering — for plunging into twenty-live fathoms
of water, in the teeth of the sharks, and remain-
ing as long as three whole minutes under water.
A famous diver of Anaa escaped not long ago
fronr a shark with the loss of a breast and an
arm. and many of them go down never to come
up again. If they make too many pUuiges in their
day's work at the beginning of the season, which
comp rises the summer months, from November to
February, they bring on hemorrhage or congestion ;
and after some years passed in the occupation,
paralysis is certain. Few of these divers work for
themselves, but can earn i.< a day from the pearl-
traders. With a wooden tube some 10 in. long,
10 in. square, and glazed at one end, they prospect
from their boats the bottom of these trauslucid
seas ; the glass end. which is put into the water,
serving the puiiiose of suppressing the eye-puzzUng
surface-ripple.

Tlie diver of the Persian Gulf or of Ceylon at-
taches a weight of some 20 lb. to his feet to aid
iu his descent, and carries 7 lb. or 8 lb. more of
ballast in a belt. He protects both eyes and ears
with oiled cotton, bandages his mouth, and goes
down forty feet with a rope. He remains down
from fifty-three to eighty seconds, and helps him-
self up again by the rope. But the Pacific diver
practices the conjuror's boast of " no preparation."
Just before the plunge he or she draws a full breath
rapidly three or four times running, and finally,
with the lungs full of air, drops feet first to the
bottom, not forty feet but twenty-five or thirty
fathoms (1.50 ft. to 180 ft.), and comes to the surface
again with extraordinary swiftness, unaided iu any
way. Each dive generally lasts from sixty to ninety
seconds ; and only very occasionally the astonish-
ing maximum of three minutes. The divers hardly
ever bring up more than one oyster at a time :
but this is chosen as likely to contain pearls by
some fancied rule of thumb of their own. grounded
on age, form and colour ; and they hold the shells
tightly together as they mount, lest the envious
oyster should shed the iiearl, which the divers them-
selves are very quick to conceal by swallowing if
the employer's eye is not fixed on them. Diving-
bells have been introduced by some houses in the
trade ; but the natives will no longer work in
them, saying they bring on early paralysis of the
legs.

Like his edible relative, the pearl-oyster also has
his enemies and parasites. A flat-fish, called
tuhcrcta by the natives of this Polynesian archi-
pelago, makes great ravages among the young fry ;
it resembles the eagle-ray, which is so destructive
iu European oyster-beds. There is another, a long
fish with powerful jaws for crunching the full-
grown oyster, which is called the oiri or kotolie:
and does not seem to have been identified by
naturalists. There arc also two univalve shell-
fiah — a murex, which spends its time boring holes
light through the oyster, and a pholade, which
BcoopB a nest for itseli in the upper shell, just
80 his fellows do in the rocks of our own coasts.
But the worst pest of all is probably a marine
worm, locally called tlio necdle-worni, which pierces a
network of galleries, like the book-worm or the
teredo, between the outer and inner surfaces of
the shell, and so ruins the mother-of-pearl; which
when .«o damaged i.s known in the trade as womi-
eaten. There is a small parasitical sjwnge, too,
ffbiclj btaios or "spots" the mother-of-pearl.

Polypi, Ascidians, and Serpnla; all mingle in the
fray ; and while the older crabs remove the young
oysters from their beds with their nippers, to be
eaten at leisure, the crab fry get inside and billet
themselves ;iL bed and board on the grown oyster
until they have oaten their host out of house and
hui.:^. It is very possible that some of these
enemies are the irritant causes of the pearls ;
in the centre of which there is almost always
some foreign substance, such as a grain of sand
or a fish's egg. A great number of small pcarla
arc sometimes found in one bivalve ; one with
115, from Elizabeth or Toau Island, hi the Toauiotu
group, was shown in Paris in 1878. Some pearls
reach a great size ; and one from Panama, which
was presented to Philip II. of Spain in 1579, is
recorded to have been as big as a pigeon's egg.

Imitation pearls — and admirable imitations the
best of them are — are not uncommon just now.
They were first invented in IGoli by one Jaquin,
a French enamellcr on glass. The little glass
globules of which they consist are first lined with
a mixture of isinglass and " essence of the East,"
and then stuffed with melted wax. This essence
j d'Orient is made of the pearly matter which is
found at the base of the scales of the whiting,
preserved in ammonia. — St. James's Gazette.

A CEYLON "ESTATE."

" ESTy^TK" OR "G.inDEX"— NO SUCH THING NOWADAYS AS

A "COFFEE ESTATF."— R. I. P. "LAY" OP ESTATES — THEIR

SITUATION AND ELEVATION — HOW WORKED — COFFEE
LAND— TEA LAND— WEEDI.N'G— UOADS AND DRAINS —
SDPERINTENDENT's work— lining — BUILDINGS: (1)
COOLY LINES ; (2) TEA FACTOEV ; (3) BUNGALOWS; (4)
CATTLE-SHEDS — WHO ARE OUR COOLIES ? — A DAT's
ROUTINE— GRAND3I0THERLY G0VERN3IENT ENCOURAG-
ING CRIME — CONDUCTORS — TEA-MAKERS.

Now, in the ' eighties,' the tendency seems to be
to prefer the word " garden " to " estate," in
accordance with the custom that obtains in India.
The old planters, however, will continue to use
the word to which they have been so long ac-
customed, and which the eternal fitness of things
appears to waiTant ; for a property of many
hundreds of acres, valued when in full beating
at many thousands of pounds, is surely an
" estate," and a very desirable one to boot, while
in Ceylon a " garden " has hitherto meant only
a native's jjatch. The w-ord " plantation " long

; ago feU into disuse, being retained only to designate
the coffee produced on an estate.

A "coffee estate" xmre and simi^lc, such as
was universal only a very short time ago, scarcely
exists in Ceylon in the present day, and to
describe one would be a work of supererogation.
They are either defunct and abandoned, or so

i much mixed up with " new products " as no

longer to be recognizable in their old glorious and

lamented simplicity. Let, therefore, their memory

rest in peace, and turn we to the things of today.

The Ceylon estates, then, for the most part,

[ occupy all the high laud from 2,000 to, say, now-

■ a days, 6,000 feet elevation, covering the steep
sides and hollows of the mountainous region
occupying the centre of the island — and tea
is also being planted in districts only a very
few feet above oea-level, where ooft'ee would
not grow. As, therefore, tea flourishes, and will
be cultivated, at altitudes both considerably higher
and considerably lower than was possible with coffee,
the ultimate area under tea will be much largci'
than was ever under coffee cultivation ; especially
as, in addition to this fact, much of the land
ou the old estates considered unsuitable for coffee

i is being planted up with tea. Before the advent

374

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Nov. i, 1835

of the Briton in 1815, \Yhat are now "estates"
was trackless forest, the sons of the soil never
having, for thousands of years, pitched their
villages higher up than the open country far
away down in the valleys. Tliis was possibly
owing to the depotisni under which they always
lived, but it also suited their own temperament
and love of a hot climate and lazy habits. There
are often several thousand feet of difference
in elevation between the bottom and top of an
- estate ; and to get about it, in looking after the
various works going on, is no child's play, but
requires all the go and strength of vigorous youth.
Steep land, as a rule, bore the best coffee ; but for tea
an easy " lay " (as it is called in Ceylon parl-
ance) is far the best. For this there are two
reasons : one, and the principal one, being, that tea
thrives better in flats and is cultivated with
greater ease, efficiency and economy ; the other
reason being the greater number of times in a
year the ground is gone over by the coolies than
was the case with coffee. The land is, or should
be (in Ceylon), weeded once a month lor ever ;
narrow drains are cut across the sloping fields,
and narrow paths or roads wind and zigzag
through every part of the estate. It is part of
the work of the superintendent to trace all these
roads and drains, in new estates and in new
fields of old estates, and to mark out the land
in " lines " or rows, 3 to 5 feet wide, along
which the tea is planted from '1\ to 4 feet apart.

The " buildings " of an estate consist almost
exclusively of (1) " lines " for the coolies, of very
j)rimitive architecture, being only rows of rooms
about 12 X 12 X 8 feet high, %\ith a door (but
no window) opening on to a six feet
wide verandah running their whole length.
(2) The tea-factory and withering-house, which
may be as simple or elaborate, as small or ex-
tensive, as the ijroprietor's means will permit :
some have cost thousands, and others not
so many hundreds ; some are expensively fitted up
and filled with costly machinery, at others they
still " roll" by hand, and " tire " over stone-built
" chulas," but this is the exception, not the rule,
and nurchinery for every jjossible purxiose will
soon be universal. (3) The bungalow, one or more
for the manager and his assistant, conveniently
placed to be central to the work, and away
from the coolies, whose ncigbbourhood is not always
very odoriferous. (-1) Cattle-sheds.

The coolies are immigrants from the coast of
India to Ceylon, specially to the estate for
which they have been engaged, and upon which
they often stay for many years, though at liberty
to leave at any time by giving a month's notice ;
or only 21 hours' notice if their pay is more than
three months in arrears.

They are called to work early every morning by beat
of tomtom, or sound of bugle, and are " mustered " by
the superintendent and told off in gangs to work
by 6 o'clock, and at 4 o'clock in the after-
noon the " horn blows " again to " knock off."

The work of the estate hm to he done, and, as
coolies n'Ul shirk all they can, they have to be
looked alter by the superintendent |and his assistant,
how much or how little depends upon the man
himself. Uesides this tield-work, and the work
of the tea-house, the construction and maintenance of
the buildings, and the care of the machinery and cat-
tle, the superintendent has to keep all the accounts
of coolies' jiay and work, and of all that is ex-
pended on the estate, and produced bii tlie estate,
to be furnished monthly to the proprietor, with
ruled spaces lor every conceivable particular of work,
crcjj and expenditure. lu addition to this a jjiraud-

motherly Government insists also upon certain
returns being made quarterly, and that an estate
" register " be kept ; and that all cases of illness, or
death, or birth, be reported within 24 hours. This
restlessness of certain Ciovernment officials in framing
laws "for the protection of the cooly" has defeated its
own object by tending to sap up" the interest and
humanity of tlie superintendent, who inreturn for
being harassed by Government throws upon Govern-
ment aU the responsibility which he can by any
possibility avoid.

The same Government keeps the jails of the

country chokeful of starving and lazy natives, by

turning them all into convicts for the sake of the fat

; fare supplied to them in prison. This single cause

is rapidly demoralizing a great part of the native

population, who commit the most atrocious crimes

for the sole purpose of getti ng into prison to be fed

j on the fat of the land, warmly clothed and lightly

I worked (or rather only gently c.veiri!:etl) during the

day. But this en jia^^int.

I have thought it desirable to add this separate
chapter on the " working of an estate," wdiich
will make much of the first part of the " 50's and
80's " inteUigible and be valuable to enquirers at
home.

If a superintendent has no European assistant, ho
has nearly always an English-speaking and English-
writing native '• conductor," many of whom arc
exceedingly useful and trustworthy men, keeping th«
fieldbook (checkroU) and tools, rice and other ac-
counts, and are out with the coolies all the day. They
also act as interpreters whenever occasion arises
for a serious confab, but the " tea-house " also
requires the exclusive attendance of either an-
other assistant or professional native "tea-maker."

PLANTING IN CENTRAL AMEKICA
(GUATEMALA).

(By (in Ex-Ceylon PUinter).

The effect of these revolutionary times on my
cinchona nurseries was the worst thing that
could possibly have happened. Most of the labour
was taken off' the plantations, and the planters
l«st interest and heart in everything, and quite
neglected the cinchona plants. This happened
unfortunately just at the time that " pricking
out" operations were in full swing. However, 1
think tliat, altogether, I have over a million left,
which is much better than none at all.

I should like to tell you a lot about this country
and its present position, but as I leave tomorrow
morning at 4 o'clock, on a visit of inspection
upcountry, and have to make some preparations,
call on the I'residcnt, and say "good-bye" to oiu'
Consul, my time is short. I have to ride 140
miles before I reach the coffee districts where my
work begins, I cross 10,000 feet elevation on tlie
way, so you see it would not take me long to
trot round Ceylon with my mules ; by the time
I had got round, I should only have begun to feel
I had started on my journey. The Indians here
will beat the cooly out and out in carrying burdens
or running distances. The maxiiuum burden
allowed by law is 100 lb., but this is never
adhered to : the load ranges from 100 to loO lb.
and often a great de?il more. In regaid to
running, a week ago .1 visited Antigua and
Zapote, and returning from Zapote to Antigua I
found my servant had forgotten my shoes ; I
was very wroth, and ordered him back at onco
for them, and to punish his forgetfuluess I left
Antigua and rode to Gnatcmala without him
the next day. Wliat was my aslonislimcnt
to find the " boy " iu Gyateiuiila at a o'clock

Nov, 2, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3fS

the next morning wnth my shoes ! He had gone
from Antigua to Zapote 25 miles, back to Antigua
25 miles, then to Guatemala 27 miles, altogether
77 miles in 2S hours.

In regard to the endurance of these little mount-
ain mules I mav mention that I rode " Mootamah"
from Coban to Eanzos in 27 hoiu-s ; I only stopped
on the road to unsaddle, and let the dear little
thing roll and pick a little, then mounted and
went on again. I would not have been so long,
but I had a pack mule which I had to lead, and it
was very troitblesomc. These stoppages were never
longer than half-an-hour. I had to catch the steamer
and was in a hurry. No more till next time.
— ♦

ExEstiKS OF Tea. — A planter writes: — '•! sent
you yesterday some caterpillars which I found eat-
ing the young flush on lately pruned tea trees.
Have you heard of their doing damage on other
estates ? Are they likely to do much mischief ?"
Our entomological referee writes : — " The caterpillars
appear to be the larva" of some moth. I do not
think their identification would be of any service
towards getting rid of them. The only remedy
would be to collect and destroy them, if it could
be done at an expense that would be less than
the loss caused by injmy inflicted by the
creatures.!' An Ambagamuwa planter sends us some
tea leaves covered with white scales, on which
our entomological referee reports as follows: — "A
minute species of scale bug that appear to be very
common on tea. judging from the number of speci-
mens that have been sent to me. It is to be
found in some Colombo gardens, but much scattered
and only on a leaf or two of the same plant,
and does no harm."

Or.\xge Wine. — Some time ago in the Querists' column
oi the Queen^iltintler the subject of making wine from
oranges was mooted. In response to our rci|uest for
practical information a vinegroweraiul wine maker who
has within the last few years visited many of the Kurop-
ean continental vineyards called upon us". He informs
us, and wishes the fact to be made widely known, that
a most exceileut wine can be made from the juice of
the orange, and that since the troubles caused by the
phylloxera a large proportion of the "sherry" of com-
merce is orange wine. Moreover, if properly prepared,
he says this orange-sherry is a most pleasant and health-
ful wine ; indeed, in his opinion it is only a matter of a
few years and the greater part of the wine m the world
will be made from oranges, for the product is equal to
that made from the juice of the grapi- and the yield per
acre considerably more. His .argument is that in conse-
quence of this discovery the planting of orange groves
iu suitable localities in Queensland cannot be overdone.
As endorsing these conclusions, iu the Melbourne L'ailer
we find the following paragraph : — '• It is stated the
manufactureof orange wine is (levclo])ing into averyex-
tensive business in Florida, where a magnificent
American wine is being made in large quantities from
the juice of the sweet oranges surpassing in purity any
of the European wines. ' It is said to be the best tonic,
medicinal or otherwise, that can be taken into the human
system. It is nourishing, of agreeable flavour, and,
what ia more, a perfectly pure native wine' No part
of the fruit is used in the manufacture of the wine but
the pulp of the perfectly ripe oranges, and none of the
wine bottled from the casks until it is at least three
years old. In taste, it ia marvellouily palatable, and con-
tains but 8154 percent of absolute alcohol and slightly
over 5 per cent of sugar. Florida, filleil with orange
presses, says the l'hila<ielpbia riuies, will outrival the
famous vineyards of F'rauce and Italy in time, for the
manufacturers of this splendid wine are pushing ahead
with new and improveil machinery, are setting out count-
less orchards of the precious fruit and investing thousands
of dollars in the cnterprizc, which they .arc satisfitd will
soon become one of the greatest industries of the
couutrics. Thi- supply now is no ways e.|ual to the
demand." — Queemlander.

I Oeteon Tea in Lovdon.— Messrs. Geo. White & Oo.,
the well-known Tea Brokers, in the course of a busi-
ness letter to our publishing otfice, add the following
encouraging note:— '• It is a matter for congratulation
to notice the increasing demand for Ceylon Teas and
the way in which tliey continue to grow in favour,
.fudging from the information we receive from time
to time, this industry promises to become a very im-
portant one, and we trust that planters will use every
effort to maintain the quality which has so justly
earneil for them the high position they now hold in
public esteem."

COPPEE IN Yeecattd, October.— The result of this
abnormal weather seems yet destined to bear a bitter
fruit in the futnre, it we may judge from what has
already been disclosed. A planter, on cutting some
coffee berries to see how the beans were (developing,
found, to bis surprise, they contained only the empty
parchment skins and on others doing likewise to
ascertain if they were in a siniil.ir predicament, arrived
at similar results. One planter went so far as to get a
measure of b<-rries, I am told, and, on oijening them,
found that the whole, with perhaps a few exceptions,
contained only the empty skins without any beans! !
Cheering results to arrive at after spending and
being spent in coffee, to be sold outright in the end !
Anyhow, dark though the prospect is at present, let
us hope there are bright days iu store for us, and
that the star of coffee will yet be in the ascendant
and maintain its character. — Madras Times.

Copra.— Five or six hundred sacks, partially opened,
lay on a San F^rancisco wharf the other day, and were
the object of much curiosity. The contents consisted
of small particles of some substance that resembled
dried leaves, and the lookers-on wondered what poss-
ible use such apparent trash could be put to. Inquiry
showed that the bags contained copra, which is one o"f
the leading staples of the Polynesian islands. The
copra came from Tahiti. In a conversation with one
of the sailors the following facts were learned about
the product. Copra is nothing but the dried meat of
the coconut. The natives break the fruit into small
pieces and allow them to dry in the sun until the meat
is thoroughly dried and hardened. When the coconut
is thus exposed it becomes of a dark brown color. It
is then packed and shipped. Copra is made by all the
islands of Oceanica. The natives manufacture'eoconut
oil out of copra, and also a marine soap, which lathers
with the sea water. But the great bulk of the staple
is shipped in its dried form to the United States and
Europe. It is used in the manufacture of candles to a
large extent. Beside pomades and coconut oil. copra
fmmsbes a volatile oil which is used in the manu-
facture of perfumery. The importation of copra into the
United States is yearly increasing. — American J'aiiei:

ExTHACTiON or Aloe FasEE.— The Jlauritius Gov-
ernment recently sent to the Government of Madras,
to acknowledge the receipt of a letter asking that
working models or specimens of the ' Casse-fi-tc ' and
' Gralteuse ' used iu Mauritius for the extraction of
aloe fibre might if possible, be despatched to Madras.
' With reference thereto,' writes the Colonial .Secret-
ary, "I beg to transmit to you the enclosed copies of
the reports from which yon will see that the machines
mentioned in Mr. de Ohazal's pamphlet are the same
that were used on the estates where the accidents
alluded to iu Mr. O'Coimor's report occurred, and that
they are considered inefficient. Some i'>-provrmcnts have
been made rendering their use safer, bu( they are still
considereil as machines requiring caution in their use.
The feeding of these machines is reporteil to be danger-
ous, although a ' guard has been devised to prevent
the operator's hand from conuJig into contact with
the 'gratte' as it revolves. But this has not cpiite
attained its object." The Goverinent of Madras has
decided that "in view of the existing imperfections
pointed out in the letter read above in the various
machines used for the experimental extraction of the
aloe fibre, the Governmeul of Mauritius will bo in-
formed that no specimens or models will at pri^sent be
required by this Government."— J/arfras JIfail.

376

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[MoV. 2, 1885.

MARKKT RATKS FOR OLD AND NKW PRODUCTS.

(From Lewis cb Peafs London Price Current, September S4th, 1885.)

FROM MALAEAU

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADRAS, &c.

BEES' WA>:, White
Yellow
CINCHONA BARK— Cvwn

Red

CARDAMOMS Malabar

anrl Ceylon
Aleppee
Tellieherry

QUALITY.

MiuiKalore
L

CINNAMON

Chips
COCOA, Ceylon

COFFEE Ceylon Plantiitio

Native
Liberian
(■:a-il IialiaM

Native
COIRROPE,Cevloii&Codii]i
FIBRE, Brush

Stuffing ..
Y'ARN, Ceylon
C'oehin
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifteil ,,
CROTON SEEDS, sifted ..
GINGER, Cochin, Cut

Rough

N)IX VOMICA

JIYHAIJOLANKS, iBile .,

Pickings
OIL, CINNAMON
CITKONHLLE
LEMON UHASS
ORCHELLA \V KED
PF.PPER.MalalKirlilk.sifteil
AUeppee & t^o.-biil ,.
TelliehiTi-y, White ...
PLITMBAGO, l.mnp

Chips
Du.st
REDWOOD
SAPAN WOOD
SANDALWOOD, logs ...
Do. ehips ...

SENNA, Tiuuevelli

J Slightly softish to good

^ hard bright

Do. drossy & dark ditto...

Renewed ...

.VIedium to fine Quill ...

Spoke shavings

Branch

tUenewed

\iedium to good Quill ...

Spoke shavings

Branch

Twig

Clipped, bold, bright, flue
Middling, stalky & leau
l''air to line plump clipped
Good to fine
.nvi^ Hrownisli
Ceylon Gooit & tine, washed, bgt

isls ..Middling to good

2nds Ord. to line pale quill ..
arda „ „ .. .. •■

«hs .. ■■

... Woody and hard

... Fair to fine plant

... Bold to good bold
Medium

Triage to ordinary
[Hold to fine bold
.Itiddling to finemid. ...

Low middling

I.Smalls

... Good ordinary

... Small to bold

ISolii to line bold

iVIedium to line

Small

Good to fine ordinary ...

.Mid. coarse to fiuestraight
lOrd. tofine long straight

.jCoarse to tine

.Ordinary to superior ...

Ordinary to fine

Hoping fair to good

Middlingworniy to line..

Fair lo fine fresh

Good to fine bold...

.Small and medium

Fair to good bold

[.Small

iFair 10 fine bold fresh .,
jsmall ordinaryand fair..

Good to finei)i(ked

Common to middling ..

Fair Coa^t

Burnt and defectiv

QUOTATIONS.

Good to fine hea^-y
Mright & good flavour .

Mid. to fine, not woody.
Fair to hold heavy
,, good ,,

JE6 10s a £8
£5 1U3 a £6 103
Is a 3s M
Is 43 a 2s 6d
9d a Is 6d
■2d a 8d
3d a 2s 6d
Gd a 2a (id
.id a Is 2d
■3d a lid
Id

23 9d a 4s .'id
2s a 3s
■is Gd a 33
2s a .■is .'id
Is a 2s .'id
3s Od a 4s 6d
8d a Is 4a
-<;d a Is 9d
;.'ld a Is (id
u'.d a Is
Jj.l a llld
U.l a 4d
SSs Gd a 948
7."»s a S^s
4.5s a G5s
S83 a Ui2s
GSs a S.'is
i7s a 63s
Itis a Dtis
:Ws a 43s nom.
3Gs a .51s
«ns a lOds
G4s a 7ti3

10s a 533
r.Os (id nom.

C13 a £24

£-2(1 a £32

£7 10s a £18

l;12 lOsa £M

ei2 a £40

CUia £17

20s a .'j2»Gd

3fi3 i( 40s

67s a U.'^s

IRsa (i3s

41s a 4tis

iGs a ;i9s

.■^s a 1 2s

7s a Ss

,ss !ld a IDs M

7s i't\ a 8s (id

.Ss (id

lis 3d a 7-1

Is 3d a 3s 3d

J I a Id

ijil a 13d
Ills a .'..'(s

ijd a i^d

lOd a 2s Gd

lis 3d it 16s Gd

lOs a 1.3s r,d

Ss a 13s Od

|4.,fida lis

Ca 12 lid a £0

TURMERIC, Madras
Do.
Do.
Cochin
VANILLOF.S, Mauritius &
lUinrb.ni. Ists
2nds

Fair lo tiue bright bold.,
iMiddling to good email..
I.SIight fonl to fine bright
Ordinary to line bright ..
V'air and fine bold ...,- -

Middling coated to good' £« n -Ci
. Fair to good llavor ... £20 a £36

£10 a £10

iliooil to fine bold green... 9d a Is
.Fair middling bold ,..|3daGd
Common dark and small I'i •» 2d
Finger fair to fine bold l'''* a 21s

Mixed midi
Bulbs whole
Do split

ug [bright

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

Fine crystalised G a9iuoh

:ird3 Foxy Sc reddish .5 a 8 „
11 f Lea n ^ dry to middling
"1 under G inches
Low, foxy, inferior and
[pickings

ISsa 17s
13s a 115s
9s a 9s (id

IGs a 22s
12s a His

6s a Us
33 a .53

ALOES, Soccotriiie and

Hepatic.
CHILLIES, Zanzibar

CLOY ES, Zanrihor 1

a,ud Pemba 1

Goodnnd finedry ... i:7 a £H Ills

Common and good ... I iOs a £6
Good to fine bright ...i3Ss(i 13'
Ordinary and middling... 1323 a 37s lid
Ooodandfiiie bright ...lljd a 5|d
Ordinary dull to fait ...jl jd aiii

FROM BOJIBAY'
AND ZANZIBAR.

QUALITY

I QUOTATIONS

CLOVES. Mother

,, Stems..

COCULUS INDICUS
GALLS, Bussorah 1^^^
& Turkey J

green.,
white..
GUM AMMONLACUM—
drop ..
block.
ANIMI, washed .

Fair, usual dry
fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

scraped.
ARABIC, picked

ASSAFCETIDA

. t2d a 4d
.!ld al 1-lGd
. 9s a Ids

..'.52sa.57»

..l48sa52ii
..l45s a -473

KINO
MYKEH,

picked

Small to fine clean ...|45s a GOs
dark to good ...!30sa45s

Picked fine pale in sorts, t£14 a £18
part yellow and mixed[£ll a £1."1
Bean & Pea size ditto ...|£5 Ids a £8
amber ami dark bold ...!£8 a £12
Medium & bold sorts
Palo bold clean
Y'ellowish and mixed
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine
Slightly stony and foul
Fair to fine bright
Fair to tine ]iale

Aden sorts^Tiddliiig togood

OLIBANUM, Irop

pickings..

siftings ..

LNDIAEUBBEK Mozambi

SAFFLOWTiR, Persian

FROM CALCUTTA AND ,
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. |

Fair to good white
Reddish to middling ..
Middling to good pale ..
Slightly fonl to fine
que.fair tofine sausage..
,. Ball.,
lunripe root
jliver
.Ordinary lo good

£5 a £8
83s> 90s

;0s a 803

75s a S8s
(4.5s a 50s
j32s a 42»
1 40s a 4.58
■£6 a £8

tos a 1003
|3«s a 45s
i37s a 33s

9s a 133
I9s a 11«

Is 9d a Is 101
ils9da Is lOd

Is 2d a la 2Jd

Is 3d a Is 5d

f)s a 1.58

CASTOR OIL, Ists

2nda

3rds
INDIARIIBBER Assam

lUingoon ,

^Nearly water white ...'3id a3fd
iFaira'ud good pale ... 3d a S^d
Hruwii and brownish ...|2}da2Jd
iGood to fine ...Is 5d a Is lOii

Common fonl and mixed' Id a Is 3d

iui.iKw Fair to sood clean ...Is 4d a Is 9d

Madagascar Good to line pinky &white Is HAd a Is lo;*
Fair to good black ... lis od a Is t<il

SAFFLOWF.R ...(iood to line pinky ...li;4 Ids a £.1 10s

.Middling to fair ... £3 .5sa il 28 6d

llnferiorand pickings ... £1 a £1 lOs
TAMARINDS ...l.Mid.lo fineWoc/not stony 10s a Us

Stony and inferior ... 3.3 a Gs

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

Fairdry to fine' bright ...i33s a 3G«
Ccmmoii & middling soft'20» a 328

... Fair In fine
...iMiddling to line

35s a 403
3.>.d a Gd

FROM CHINA, .TAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS.

CAMPHOR, China

.Tapan

GAMBlElt, Cubes

Block
GUTTA PERCHA, genuine
Sumatra.
Reboiled.
White Borneo

NUTMEGS, large

Medium
Small

MACE

Good, pure, & dry wliiti? 1 -^^ ^ j,,,,

„ .. pink I J

Ordinary to line free ...i2.Ssa 30s
Pressed ...i2(isa278

Good ...!9sGdn20s

Fine clean Bauj &Maca8- 2s 4d a 33 3d.
Darky to fair [sarjVd a 2s .Sd

RHUBARB, Sun dried ..

High dried ..

S.VGO, Pearl, large

medium ..
small
Flour
TAPIOCA, Penang Flake..
Singajiore
Flour ..

Pearl

'onimoii to fiiii
Good to tine clean
Inferior and barky
Gl's a 80's, garbled
85's a 9.5's
lOO's a IGO's
Pale reddish to pale
Ordinai^y to red
Chips
Good to fine sound

dean

Darkordiiiary&middling Is a 1

3d a Is Gd

Ilia a Is 3d
|4d a lOd
'2s .5d a 3s 7d
2s a 2s 4d
lis 3d a Is lOd
Is Gda 23 (id
lis a Is .3d
Ud a Is Id
2s a 4s

9d

(rood to fine

Dark, rough & middling

Fair tofine

Good pinky to white
Fair to fine

Bullets

Medium

Seed

Is 4d a U Id

7d a Is

12s lid a Ms

Us lid a 13s Gd

lis Od a 13s

Ills a lis
'■■ Ijda 2id

l.;da2d
.. lid al}d
... lis aids 6d
1 1.53 a 10s6d
'ii 14s 6d a 15a 6d

I

Dec, I, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AaHICULTURIST,

37/

MraOB INDUSTEIES IN CEYLON AND INDIA.

GAHDEN PLANT LABELS AND TALIPOT LEAVES— KAPOK
COTTON— PEESERVED BANANAS — PALM OLA FANS.

The prosperity of any country cannot rest sole-
ly upon a few chief items of production. The
staple exports may, and of course do, constitute
the chief factor affecting the trade and revenue ;
but, socially speaking, a very great deal depends
upon the successful exercise of minor hadicrafts
available for the employment of those unfitted,
either by sex or owinj:; to physical defect, for active
or arduous labour. Hitherto in Ceylon our lead-
■ng industry furnished wide employment suitable
.'or women and children, such as the picking and
sorting of the coffee ; btit in the present, and for
-it must be feared — some time to come at least,
Jthough the drying and packing of cinchona bark,
the picking of cardamoms, <tc., have afforded some
little relief,— there is the certainty that this branch
of employment, must be largely curtailed. We,
therefore, desire to see an extension of what we
characterize as minor industries and that these be
made available for the employment of those who
conio within the category abovenamed. We are
induced to turn to this subject by the perusal of
a letter from Dr. W. C. Ondaatje to the Gcirderierx'
Chronicle, which will be found below, on the
subject of the adaptation of the leaf of the
talipot palm for plant labels. We see in that
adaptation the creation of one of those subsidiary
industries which we greatly desire, in the interests
nf our native population, ito have widely extended.
It affords an instance of what may be produced
in this direction, and we would thankfully give
publicity to any hints which may tend towards
further extension. A proper substance for plant
labels to resist weather and tear and wear generally,
is a matter of great importance in thousands of public
and private gardens throughout the civilised world.

It cannot be doubted, we think, but that there
are many further adajitations of our common island
produce wliich might find a market in Europe.
A'.r riihilti nihil Jit, and we would strongly recom-
mend that every attempt be made, by the furnish-
ing of hints such as we have expressed our desire
to receive, to start further emplojTnent for the
many thousands of Ceylonese women and children
in thei]' homes which may aid their chief bread-
winners. Our Agricultural and even our Friend-
in-Need Societies might, if suggestions were invited
and considered by them, exercise a markedly
beneficial iuHuence in this respect. How often
does the remark occur to us, based upon some
passing notice, tliat such and such articles of
native production would meet with ready sale in
England. It is in order that publicity should be
given to such impressions and that they shouldbe
followed up by practical experiment, that we now
write. As affording evidence of the value such
suggestive hints might possess, we may recall a
proposal referred to some time back in the letters
of our London correspondent that the delicious
preserved bananas, so common a sweetmeat among
us, should have a trial shipment made of them.
That proposal passed unheeded by, and now we
are informed that there is not a confectioner's shop
m England which does not offer for sale those
jireserves, a ready and increasing trade being done
in them. We are told that our enterprising
American cousins are the authors of this new-
industry, which promises to be a very remuner-
ative one for them. Had our correspondent's
suggestion been acted upon at the time it was
made, it is just possible, notwithstanding greater
distance from the market, that Ceylon might ha\e
forestalled America in the new effort, and .1 really

paying einployment, one which might have brought
comfort into many of our island households, would
have been secured to us. To give an instance
again, of the successful initiation of a new minor
industry, we can refer to " Kapok " or tree cotton
as a rc' ular article of export, but which was not
heard of under that term or for shipment, before
notice was called to it by the Ceylon Commissioner
at the Melbournu iixhibition, and now the export
trade affords regular employment to a goodly
number of the Ceylonese employed in gathering,
carrying and preparing this article (used in stuffing
mattresses, &c.) for export.

Such instances, it appears to us, should prevent
us from regarding as worthless even very .slight
or _ slender suggestions. Big things, we know,
spring from little things, and the more sources
of employment are multiplied among its mem-
bers the more prosperous must any community
become. In Dr. Ondaatje's little promising venture
we see what may possibly be one of those
aforesaid " little things." Cannot many of our
reader.s afford help in the way we have pointed
out, so that similar efforts may in the end furnish
resulting "big things"? The avidity with which
the trifles offered by the natives who board ships
calling at our ports are purchased by the jras-
sengers as mementos of their visit would seem to
show that such things only demand a wider
market to secure an extent of sale which would
lead to a -n-idening of the area of employment in
the Island. Such shops as "Liberty's" in Kegent
Street, London, would probably gladly add to their
stock of eastern curios and fabrics which have
so extensive a sale, the elephant-tooth paper-
weights and similar little matters which sell so
freely to our island visitors. All we can ourselves
do in directing attention to this subject is by way
of suggestion ; but those of our readers who have
the welfare of the Ceylonese at heart will do well
to endeavour to add to its scope. We are told
that the .Japanese now do a large trade in ola
fans, a trade with which our natives possess great
facilities for competing. A higher taste shown in
decorating these, such as we have occasionally
come across, would probably secure fur a Ceylonese
export a successful coniijetition. Our palm trees
offer almost boundless opportunity for the exercise
of ingenuity and taste in utilizing and decorating
their lesser products in a manner fitted to tempt
European purchasers. As we have said, instances
are of daily occurence which cannot fail to strike
the observer as affording capacity for development.
Even in respect of raw products, as lately shoM-u
in our series of articles on "Curiosities of the
Customs," there is much room for the extension
of trade in minor industries. It will be a pity if
our notice of tlieni, and tlie opportunity for utiliz-
ing them, be lost in the same measure as attended
the proposed export of our preserved bananas.
Everything must have a beginning, and it would
aft'ord evidence of public spirit, if, under the
auspices of the local Agricultural Association, some
of our exporting houses would undertake trial
ventures. These coukl, at the most, entail but a
loss trifling in amount ; whereas, if the taste of
our European friends was once seized, many
profitable openings for the extension of small luune
industries among our Ceylonese population miglit,
be created. The Government Agricultur.il School
might possibly afford an opportunity for cxi)eri-
ment in respect of some of our various minor
products in turning them to use for expert purposes,
Wc trust our remai'ks on this suliject may not lie
altogether witliout fruit, in new and pr< fitabir
directions,

378

THE TROPiCAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1S85.

TALIPOT PALM LABELS.

Since my arrival in England, in May last, from
Cey on! my friend, Mr. E. M. Holmes knx ly drew
„,7att;ntion to a pargraph in the G"'-''-^'>; ^^'™",-,
Icic of March 28 last on "Palm Leaf Labels
and I have through your courtesy been able to read
the paragraph, so as to be able to give such additional
infonnation about the labels referred to as may be
of some interest to your readers.

The labels are made from the unexpanded frond
or leaf of the Talipot palm (Coryiilia umbraculifeia).
The leaf is fan-shaped about 30 feet '« -f ^ fsionT
when full grown, and divided mto 113 divisions,
he tip of each division being emarginate and green
Eacl division is split into two, made into small
roUs' and boiled in water for a few hours. Aftei
boiling he strips are dried in the shade soaked
n water for a few minutes, and both sides
moothed with an iron. .The smoothing iised^o
be performed in a primitive manner by lubbmg
the strips on a polished cylindrical piece of wood
t ed between two stumps or trees. After smooth-
fZ it snecessary to roll up the strips of leaves
quick y, to prevent curling, each roll con aining
50 to 100 or more strips. When «ie surface is
nolished it is easy to write on it. The use of the
Sh ng iron facilitates the process greatey, especi^
ally "d en the strips are spread on a table covered
'v^^th a piece of blanket^ the manner - "^^ ^ ^
have frequently performed the "f*;!-^ ;°"/ ,?^^;" ge
when thus prepared are called " Olas By ine
Natives, and used for writing upon with a style,
as is well known in the East.

It is a fact that Palm-leaf books have been
preserved for more than .WO years. It may be
rtle'lthat the durability of the leaf is owmg o
its being covered with a silicious cuticle, which is
one of the most beautiful polarising objects of the
vegetable kingdom, displaying the colours mdigo,
blue violet, red, orange, yellow and green.

oAe of tire Buddhist priests of Ceylon informed
me that the Talipot leaf was used tor writing
Buddhist doctrines in "i^, B|"^'|ll"«\ "'% f p^:, "'
before A.n. 510. An Oriental scholar, also of Ceylon,
^fo opinion that the leaf was used in this way
nrore than a thousand years ago. The exact time
however, cannot be ascertamd. In India theie is
i^ason io believe that the leaf has been m use
for the last two thousand years or more.

To return from this digression to the subject of
making the labels, I may slate that the " Olas
o strips of the leaf, are laid on a piece of smooth
board The labels are cut out by means o a
Tinp, which is hammered with a wooden mallet
mid twelve or more labels can be cut at one
B amp ng The dimensions of the strips for making
the labels niav be briefly stated as follows :-

U.iiglh of longest «trip 'aMncU"''^'"'

Krcadth of broadest part ji, mcnes.

" narrowest part ' '""?•. ,

r,enpth of -bortest striii ... .... 4 feet 9 inches

Jirradth, the came as l(inge.'it strip,

One KtrilMnnkes on >in average f9''t.V;"'"« ''jbel'.

Of ordinary si/.e. One hundred strips give 4,000 labels.

As egardH the ciuoslion of the mode <.l wntin

iiuon these iabelB, I can only endorse your sug-

Su, viz,., of scratching the leaf and applymg

fhe colouring matter. The common mode ol willing

J s prntiscd in the East is by means of a style,

nd Indian ink, charcoal, or other colouring niatlei,

s ubbed upon the scratched writing. A specime

of a label written on with a style 1 send herewith

1. vou inspection. The mode of wntmg witli a

Btvle is no doubt foreign to Europeans and inaj

til hi .0 e»«lj' aecoiuyUshecl as kj- the natives

of the East ; but some pointed instrument may be
devised for writing on the Palm-leaf.

I have used these labels extensively attached to
animal and vegetjible specimens immersed in spirit,
and found them in good preservation for a long
time The parchment labels attached to stone
corals which I took with me to Ceylon turned
into a pulpy mass in some months. Talipot labels
attached to plants exposed to the tropical sun
and rain were uninjured tor a long time. Accord-
in.^ to Mr. Holmes' suggestion, I had .some labels
written on with strong sulphuric acid, and held
to the lire in order to develope the writing. The
acid was used with a quill pen.

The cost of 1000 labels, without brass eyes, is
2.S 6rf I shall be glad to supply any one with a few
labels for trial.-W. C. Ondavt.te F L. S. (retired
Colonial Surgeon, Ceylon), 85, Finborough Road,
S. W., Sept. 3. — Gardeners' ChnmU-Ie.

COFFEE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION:

THE ENOKMOnS DEVELOPMENT OF BB.\ZIL AND ■I'.U-LXNG-
OFF OF CEYLON— BBAZIL COFFEE lUE llEST BY ANALYSIS
IN THE WORLD.

Under date " London, Sept. 23rd,"' our esteemed
correspondent " W. M. L." sends us the following
interesting report on what the Brazilians are doing
about their staple :— , ^, , ,i,„

I lately sent you some remarks, taken irom tne
New York Chamber of Commerce, on the consumption
of coffee in the United States.

I have since chanced to come across a pamphlet
dated this year and entitled "The Empii-e of
Brazil at the World's Industrial and Cotton
Centennial Exposition of New Orleans, the
special object of which is to make known the over-
1 powering supremacy of Brazil as^ a colfee-pro-
ducing country and to promote the fm;ther de-
velopment of its resources in that direction.
The information collected seems to be not quite
of so recent a date as that given by the New lork
Chamber of Commerce ; for whereas in the latter
the per capita consumption of coffee in the Unitert
States is stated to be nearly 10 lb., in the pamphlet
now in question the United States is placed fourth
among the nations of the world as a cottce-cou-
suming country with a consumption of .-^'27 lb.
pei head. Holland comes first witli 17-00 lb. per
head, Belgium second with 9-13, and Norway third
with 8-73. The pamphlet goes on as follows:—
" Taking the whole population of the 1 nited States
into account, Mr. Joseph Nimmo jr., the chief of the
Bureau of Statistics at Washington, rightly places the
United States in the fifth place as having a per capita
consumption of 7-42 lb. next to Cape Colony with
7-72 But if, leaving aside the general rate per capita,
we consider the real quota of consumptiou ot the
different groups of States, we shall fand three-
fourths of the consumptiou belong to the countiy
from New Orleans to Chicago and that the con.
sumption per capita is 15 lb for the inhabitant,
of that region, which would place it in thfc
gLond rank, next to Holland with 17-00 and
above Brazil with 10 lb„ which t<>o countries
probably, on account of the extensive use ol
this beverage, are considered as the most telnperato

in the worUl." , , , i • ^ ,; i '....

And then, with tlie combined object of maliiiig
the Yankees sober and increasing the consumption
of Brai-il coffee, direct communication is advocated
bet vxccthc Brazilian ports and New Orleans, so
that the coffee in place of reaching the great
consuming districts by New \ork and thence by
rail should have the advantage of water carnage
up the Mississipjn.

Dec. I, i88j,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

i74

The present producing power of the Brazilian
Empire is thus dealt with : —

" Brazil has received the name o£ the land of
ooflee, and certainly it deserves the appellation,
since it produces" 55 per cent of the world's
total production. This total production is at
present (ifiO.OOO.OOO kilogramme per annum and is
thus distributed : —

Productionof Brazil 3(i0,000,000 liil.

Production of all other countries 300,000,000 „

Total world's production.. 600,000,000 kil.
And yet in 1800 Brazil exported only 13 bags of
coffee ! ; in 1817 it exported 6(3,085 bags ; in 1820,
97,498 ; in 1830 484,222 ; 1,037,981 in 1840, and
3,765.122 in 1876. Today the annual production
of Brazil is more thanj 6,000,000 bags of 60
kilogrammes each."

What a ijainful contrast to the figures for Ceylon
coffee ! The exports thence, which m 1870 were
about one-tenth of the world's supplies, are now
shrunk to less than one-thirtieth, and that in
face of an unprecedented expenditure of capital
on extension, directed too by the much and justly
vaunted skill and energy of the British planter
and yet for several years the doctrine was
preached, aye and faithfully believed in too, by many
among us, that the day that should see the slaves
of Brazil emancipated would see also her failure
in the race of coffee production, and that then at
last was the good time coming for Ceylon and her
planters. As regards quantity Ceylon must now fairly
admit herself completely outstripped and beaten
in the race. But it will probably be a surprise to
Cf-ylon producers to learn that in tjuality also Brazil
stands first. The analyses given in the pamphlet
under review show that Brazilian coffee has 1-16
to l-7o per cent of caffeine against 0-87 per cent
in wild Ceylon (as they term it), 0-709 to 0-849
per cent in .Java, and 0-54 to 0-83 in Plantation
Ceylon and 0-60 in Mocha. The percentage of
caffeine in all other kinds of coffee is given at
much lower. Of the remaining chemical constitu-
ents of coffee of nutritious value, viz., the fats,
the albumeuoids and the sugar, an equally favour-
able report is given. But, your readers will ask,
if this be so, why does not Brazil coffee top the
market ? Hear the sad answer to the question : —

" At present, as we have shoT\m, no cofl'ee in the
world excels in intrinsic value the good Brazilian
grades, and but few can be compared to them. Up to
the present this important fact is known only to the
producer and the dealer ; the consuming public, even
the best informed, not knowing that the best coffee
in the market comes from Brazil. The cause of this
in the handling of the intermediaries through
whose hands it passes in going from the producer
to the consumer. The planter consigns his coffee
to a commission merchant, and from him it goes
into the hands of the sacker who assorts it,
habitually mixing the better with the poorer sorts.
It is next bought by the exporter in quantities
from 500 to 5,000 sacks and shipped cii mnsau
to Hamburg, Bordeaux, Havre, Marseilles, Liver-
pool iVc. Here a commission merchant sells it by
wholesale to the sijeeulator, who subjects it to all the
manipulations from which he expects an advantage
to his pockets. He assorts it again ; gives to the
better sorts the name of ' Superior Moka,' ' .Java,'
' Ceylon,' and introduces them under these names
into the markets. Only the inferior sorts, the
refuse, are sold as native Brazilian eott'cc; and
even these are stiU further deteriorated by llie
admixture of the poorest Costa Eica and Venezuela
ooSee. In this way the speculator secures a double

gain, since he lessens the demand for Brazilian coffee
as such, thus compelling the planter to sell his
crop for low prices, and on the other hand selling
the greater part of bis cheap purchases for the best
possible price. The indifference of the planter who
even at a low price reaps large profits from his
coffee plantations has made these manipulations
of the speculators quite easy.

"In view of these it is easily ualerstood that, in
spite of the enormous quantity of the coffee of
Brazil imported into Europe,, and despite its excel,
lent qualities, so little should be heard of it. As a
matter of fact the greater part of that coffee
planted, gathered and sold in Brazil, and whieh
we so much enjoy and buy so dearly as
'Moka' or 'Ceylon' has been rebaptized by the specul-
ators of Hauiburg, Bordeaux, Ac, with a false name
and sold at a large profit."

The aggrieved Ceylon planter, much suffering
at the hands of Colombo and Kandy agents,
will surely shed the tear of sympathy with the
deeper woes of his Brazilian brother. His coffee
at all events (if indeed he is lucky enough to
have any) is not forced from him at a low
price only to support the reputation of his competitors.
The remedy proposed for the evils complained
of is publicity, which is sought to be obtained
mainly by Exhibitions of Brazilian coft'ee to be held
throughout the world and in a lesser degree by
the publication from which I have quoted.

COCOA-DRYING IN MATALE.

Mr. R. S. Eraser, proprietor of WariapoUa, is good
enough to report : —

Mk. J.\ckson's Tea Drier is a perfect cocoa drier
both in the very large quantity it will get through in
a very short space of time, and the way in which it
does it. The fan is the whole secret. It would
almost do it without fire heat — the draft of cold
air, I mean. Then again it is perfectly innocuous
to any tea work that it has to perform as well, there
not being a vestige of taint left, after the fan has
run for ten minutes. I think Mr. Jackson as lucky
a man as you can well find anywhere in these days,
as in trying to kill one bird he has unwittingly made
a machine that can be appUed to several purposes.
It will alter the whole idea of cocoa, and with
the big drier of Jackson's to overcome the first
iliUiculty of drying cocoa, after the washing,
anybody fortunately possessing a No. 3 Dehydrator
can compass a lot of cocoa drying in a day. And
the dehydrator also makes a capital finisher or puoka-
battying machine, as it will do a large quantity
at a time. It also comes in handily as a witherer
in the case of very wet leaf. I have ordered a
Venetian to meet my immediate wants, and have
ordered a large drier for next year when the
Venetian will take its position in order of
merit and utility. By the bye Mr. Jackson's
killing two birds in this way, unexpectedly
reminds me of the account in your paper
yesterday of th« feat performed by Mr Turner in
killing two tigejs. Mr. Turner is a great friend
of mine, and sO is his companion B., who was
an old Eton schoolfellow. They are both of
them inveterate sportsmen. KnA one of them, B.,
the eldest son of a wealthy Baronet, accompanied me
out here in the " Hydaspes" in 1879, on his way to
India on a sporting trip, and as guest of the Duke
of Buckingham, and so great is his love of sport that
he has never returned home since, but has devoted
himself heart and soul to his loved pastime, much
to the chagrin of his people at hgrne.

380

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

VEGETABLE MARKOWS.

The Colombo Scliool of Agiiciilture, Oct. 12tU, 1S85.

Dear Siit,--I hopt' the following account of my
v«'^etiible marrow plantation may iiitt'.rt-.st, if not be
useful, to your numerous readers, as I have heard it
said marrows do not often prove a success iu the low-
country,

in the ordinary cinnamon garden soil round holes
were dug a foot and a half in iliameter and depth, four
fci't apart, and dry leaves and other rubbish put in
and burnt. "Well-rotted- cow-dung was then applied.
The .seeds three in each hole were put in on the 19th
of August last and were found germinated in a week's
time. On the 10th September pigeon-duug dissolved
in water was applied to plants in a few of the holes
only, the others being left tu feed on the ash and cow-
dun^ previously applied. This afforded me a good
opportunity for comparison, and the result has shown
nie the decided advantage of the application of pigeon-
dung. For these plants to which I applied this rich
manure are veiy healthy and productive. The heavy
downpour wliich we had lately has been very destruc-
tive to my marrow-plants; many pistilate flowers and
young fruits have decayed. But notwithstanding this
drawback I have been able to get a good produce
trom the vines, and several of those to which pigeon-
dung were applied have yielded fruits weighing from
4 to 7h lb. I may also remark that these latter plants
have braved the late inclement weather much better
than the others. Care also was taken to wrap the
young fruits round with rags to prevaut attacks of in-
sects which infest the plants. This is a very import-
ant precaution for very rarely does a fruit enjoy im-
niuuity from these creatures when it is not thus
treated. — Yours faithfully,

J. A. G. KODRIGO, Agricultural Student.

TEA ;

AN INDIAN CBITIC ON CEYLON TEA
PROSPECTS.

We must congratulate the tea-planters in Ceylon
upon having brought their wares before the market
in a most noticeable way. At a time when India
was producing about the same quantity as Ceylon
now is, little, or nothing, was heard of it. Judg-
ing from the prices at hrst obtained for Ceylon
growths, we are forced to the conclusion that any
new country producing a small quantity in what
we may say an experimental way, can always
command more than its market value, and we
are already beginning to hear a complaint
now and again that Ceylon teas are going
off, even although the quantity to date is so
small, and we have not the slightest doubt
tluxt all with one or two exceptions, as in
Assam, will come to the same level of prices, and
that in a year or two. It will not take Ceylon teas
so long to suffer so-called deterioration as it has done
Indian teas, for as the supply increases so will the
fastidiousness of the brokers and dealers. When
Ceylon tea was first talked about we heard of nothing
less than 10 to 12 maunds per acre, Mariawattie and
some others being quoted as examples. Now, it is
strange that the yield should have come back to
something lilce what we predicted when first we
noticed this point, so far our predictions were
correct, and we very much doubt whether
Ceylon will ever be able to turn out its tea as cheaply
as India can. As instances of large yields in individ-
ual cases we can point to Doloo in Cachar, and
I'aijitola, Doom Dooma, Talup, and Hilika in Assam,
aud Chatlapore and Chaudpore in yylhet, so that
we may say that every district in Assam has its
own " ilariawattie,'" but it does not necessarily
follow that every inch capable of growing tea
will turn out at the same rate. Ceylon will not
for many years be able to come up to the average
of outturn of India, and wo therefore fail to see

how Ceylon tea can be any better an investment
than Assam. We do not think that there is any
doubt, that given a reasonable time, the consump-
tion at home and abi-oad will expand suliiciently
to take oft' what will be produced, but if exten-
sions go on at the rapid rate they have been
doing for some years past, we do not believe that
the result can be anything but disastrous, aud
we will not be at all astonished if there is some-
what of a panic in a few years, as prices are
bound for a time to fall below cost of production
on many old estates. Looking through the tabul-
ated list, the cheapest rate which anyone can
lay down his crop in London is 9Jd, Chargola
Tea Co., Ld. ; whilst the most expensive is Is.
7d, the production of the Mungledye Co. We
will now take the lowest price obtained, which is
lljd, obtained by the Panitola Co., whilst the
highest is that of the Borokai Co., namely, Is
8d. The quantities per acre stand as follows :
Cargola, 301 lb. ; Mungledye, 1(58 lb. ; Panitola,
SGO lb. ; and Borokai, 297 lb. With regard to
profit, Borokai makes the lai-gest per cent, Pani-
tola next, Chargola last ; whilst Mungledye is
out of the running, making a good loss. We must
not forget to take into account the capital per
acre, which is respectively £48, £61, £48, and
£102, thus Panitola and Borokai carry the same
capital, whilst the Mungledye Co. has double,'
and Chargola, we may say, one-third more ; taking
this into consideration Borokai pays a better per-
centage, and can afford to stand a decline in prices
better than any other, but it is an exception, and
must not be counted upon as a general factor, and
we consider that Chargola is a better representative
than Borokai on the one hand or Mungledye on the
other ; there may be circumstances particularly
favorable to the one and as disastrous to the
other. Suppose we take Chargola as an instance
then the initial cost of the tea is Slid., and
the gross price realized is Is l|d., or a net
profit of 4d per lb., equal to 7^^ per cent on
the capital ; supposing the market should drop
2d per lb. all round, this reduces the profit
by half, and is scarcely an investment much to
be desired. The question then comes to be,
can the Chargola and other companies turn
out these teas any cheaper than they are doing ?
and this we doubt much, but we will even go so
far as to say they can buy Id per lb., that is to say,
for Sdperlb., and say the market does drop con-
siderably, yet the crop realizes Is per lb., and we
still retain our 7i per cent. That the market will
be affected by the large extensions coming into
bearing, we do not doubt for a moment, but so long
as companies can be managed in this way thei'e
need be no fear. We come now to the question of
Ceylon teas, and naturally ask the question can
the tea be turned out on a cheaper scale than the
above ? We unhesitatingly say, No 1 It is true
some of those heavy yielding gardens to which
we have referred, may do so, because they
were begun under particularly favourable auspices.
Had they not the old factory buildings to fall
back upon ? had they not the lauds cleared, and
ready to plant'? abandoned coffee lands at least.
Allowing all these ailvantages we come to the more
important one of labor, and this is perhaps the
equalising point ; the Ceylon planters are the same
as our Indian planters, obliged to import the article,
and if they do not give bonuses they give higher
rates of pay, and we imagine with one thing and
another they cannot import more cheaply than their
Indian brethren. So far, we have heard but little
of the many pests that tea is heir to, but it will
be indeed be a land flowing with milk and honey

Dec, I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3S1

i£ they should escape all these. There is nothing,
however, Uke a flourish of trumpets to bring an
article into public notice, but we are not in the
least alraitl tluit our Indian planters will be beaten
in the race by their juniors of Ceylon ; and so long
as our managers give Id per lb. profit, shareholders
need not grumble, nor be afraid. — Indian Pldiitfi-x'
Gazette, Oct. 13th. [There is nothing Uke hearing
the other side of a question, and seeing ourselves as
others see us I — Ed.j

♦

REMINISCENCES OF A TEA DEALER IN
ENGLAND.
In your issue of 81h ultimo I observe your
London Tea Correspondent again warns planters
against going liome'to set up retail tea agencies.
He should have said wholesale and retail, for
those who only "retail" tea do not as a rule
employ '• travellers." In support of his caution let
mo give you a gUmpse only of some of my ex-
periences in the tea trade at home.

In 188 — I left Assam to commence business
under very favorable circumstances, in the City,

of as a wholesale tea dealer ; making a specLility

of " Assanis." but selling Chinas as well. I bought
iny teas in the best market, engaged travellers, (ex-
perienced men, mind,) and "placed" a lot of tea.
As an extra precaution against making bad debts,
I even went so far as to subscribe to a number
of "Trade Protection private enquiry offices," and
before teas were forwarded, I had ascertained by
telegraph the supposed stability of my would-be
customers. Although a considerable discount was
allowed for "payment on delivery," my cash buyers
were very few and far between. Some of the
travellers, however, did not do sufficient business
to pay their salaries and expenses ; for vvhicli they
gave the following reasons. Many of the trade had
just laid in a stock ; others again were satisfied
witli the treatment they received from the firms
with whom they had dealt for a number of years,
and conseiiuently were not desirous of opening a
new account, etc. ; and a few hinted they could
" match those samples at half the price," which
was .of course absurd. This took a considerable
amount of the gilt off the gingerbread, but that
was not all. At the expiry of three months from
date of sale, when the dillerent accounts fell due,
more than one grocer had gone to the wall ; some
were offering a compromise, failing to arrange this,
they threatened bankruptcy, and the remainder
either squared up in full or paid something " on
account," with a request that the balance might
be allowed to stand over till "you next come
round."

When a profit and loss balance was struck at
the end of the second quarter, I found myself
several hundreds of iiounds on the wrong side, and
finding out, when it was too late, that there was
nothing to be made in the "wholesale" business,
I decided to try the " retail," making a sjjeciality
of what- is known as the "packet" trade, which
was aU the go then. It is true raoi-e profit is to
be made in the retail business, which may bo looked
upon as cash, but the amount sold is so small
compared with the " wholesale," that of the two,
were it not for bad debts the latter would prove
the more remunerative. A shop in a good quarter
means a heavy outlay in the first instance, for
fittings and fixtures alone, besides which the rent,
necessarily very high, must be thought of; also
gas, taxes, etc., and shopmen's wages. In the
"packet" trade the "paper-bag" and "printer's
bill " is no small item, and, — just stop to consider
for a moment the number of pounds, half pounds
and quarters which must be sold to pay for all

these and provide an income for yourself, and per-
haps family as well. I hear you say " surely a
shop selling nothing but really good tea at a
moderate price might to pay, and moreover, you
might establish agencies througliout the length and
breadth of the United Kingdom (if you have capital
enough to do so, and it not tlicn as far and
wide as your capital will go) tor the sale of
your tea ? " " This omjlit to pay," you roitorate.
So anyone, who has not tried it, would flunk.
1 will try to show you why a beginner cannot make
it pay.

I found when I had launched fortli in the retail
aiid packet business, that the upper and middle
classes have, as a rule, a running account with
their grocers, and they find it more convenient to
order their tea with the groceries. The balance
of these two classes and the lower, continue to
buy tlieirs from the places where they are accus-
tomed to deal or from the nearest sliop to their
homes. In every town of any size there are estab-
lishments which sell nothing else but tea — and
perhaps coffee— thus rendering it simply impossible
for a man to make any thing at the game, unless
he has set the ball rolling years ago. As regards
the " .\gency" business, that also is equally over-
done. Point out a public house at home where
you will not see a show card of " The Licensed
Victualler's Tea Company," where the non-teetotal
British workman buys his quarter or half pound
after receiving his wages on Saturday, in some cases
getting a glass of beer yratix. Where is there a small
post office in the United Kingdom whence packets
of what is known as "Post Office Tea" may not be
purchased, supplied by a big London tea deakng
firm trading under the name of the "Post Office
Tea Company, Limited"? Who has not heard of
the " Book Tea Company," a wholesale house
which has agencies throughout the length and
breadth of the British Isles? They, like the rest,
are not particular who represents them so long as
the money (which is generally paid on delivery)
is right ; confectioners, down to China-ware dealers
and baby linen establishments, sell their tea. For
tvr-o shillings you get a pound of tea and a new
six-penny book; a shilling book and a pound
of tea for two and sixpence, and for three
shillings and sixpence, a two shilling book and
one pound of tea ! Good books they are, some of
them. I wish I could say as much for the tea.
Show me a big commercial street in a large town
where there are no "Gift" or "Present" shops,
where in the window you will see "two pounds of
finest tea and this rare old curiosity for four shillings"
— or "any one of these handsome articles' given
away witli three pounds of tea for six shillings."
And so on, a<l. lib. Tlie curiosities and handsome
articles are, however, not worth much. Then, again,
there is Horniman, every person knows Iloriiiman,
by name at all events. I remember seeing his teas
advertised when I was quite a little boy. He
must have made a pile anyway. He is still to
the fore, and heaps of other tea companies and
people of whom neither you nor I have ever heard.
Since the license for the sale of tea was abolished
every little shop sells tea, even chemists and
draggists are agents for different firms. Wlio then
is left to sell or buy your tea ? The trade, whole-
sale and retail, is so cut up, that, except for old
established firms, there is no getting a livelihood
let alone a competency out of it now-a-days. The
foregoing remarks will apply ccjually as well to
Indian teas by themselves, which by the way
the general public do not rehsh " pure and un-
adulterated." Hence the excuse the trade make
for adding China. The only thing against the

$8i

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. r, 1885,

practice' is that inf tea^l of mixing a little r/ood
olasseil China with it to soften clown the tone of
the India, they use cheap stuff to enable them
to reap a larger profit.

I believe, Mr. Sam. Davidson, an old planter, is
about to start a big retail store in Belfast for the
sale of his tea at one price, iv>., two shillings a pound.
He will have the advantage over most of us — I
mean those who have gone or intend going into the
tea trade at home — from the fact of his being
in a position to offer to the public tea direct from
the gardens in which he, the retailer, is largely
interested, where but one kind of tea will be pro-
duced, /.('., one hundred per cent, put through a
Pekoe sieve, miiws the dust, as well as from the
knowledge that he is a man who " can live where
others starve " or, in jilainer words, he will succeed
where others have failed. More power to his arm,
say I, and may his shadow never grow less. But
this is a digression. Finding the tea trade, like
every other trade in England, overdone, and no
money to be made in it, I drank the profits,
smoked the losses, gathered together the pieces
that nothing (more) might be lost, as well as to
pay the rent, and returned again to " sudden
death" and curry bliat, a wiser and certainly a
lioorer man.— Indian Planters' Gazette.

THE

UEOWTH OF THE INDIAN TEA
TEADE.

It is apparent that the rapid growth of the Ind-
ian tea trade of late necessitates some departure
from the customs which have hitherto regulated
its sale. Some correspondence has recently ap-
peared in these columns on this subject, and the
letter of Mr. Shillington draws attention to a state
of friction in one department of the trade, which
requires a remedy. The question is not one be-
tween broker and dealer alone. The planter is inter-
ested in the removal of all obstacles in the way
of the development of the Indian tea trade and
although he he has no control over the method of
transacting business in Mincing Lane, he will be
anxious that any " clog to the machinery " as one
correspondent puts it, which regulates the customs
of broker and dealer should be removed.

There i.s another and in some respects a kindred
question, vi?.., that of tasting samples. Consider-
ing the magnitude of the trade now as compared
with a few years since, it must be recognised that
the work of tasting is rapidly becoming a super-
human task.

Some suggestions have been discussed among the
Indian tea buyers for lessening their laborious work
of tasting '200 to 250 samples before the noon sales.
In giving publicity to some of the ideas mooted
in the Lane we are desirous of hearing both sides
of the question, and willingly open our columns to
buyers aud sellers alike for their opinions. As a
means of facilitating the work of tasting it is sug-
gested, in the first place, that the size of non-
sampling breaks be raised. The minimum of sampl-
ing breaks at present is : —

8 chests, or about . . . . (JSOlb.

8 half-chests -lOOlb.

20 boxes , 40nib.

We think the net weight of tea, rather than the
packages, should be taken as a basis to %\ork upon,
and if the limit be increased to 12 chests, 20 half j
chests, .and .'iO boxes, the weight in each instance j
would be about 1,000 lb. j

Next, it is suggested that the plan of general |
bulking should be adopted by importers. Breaks of
10 or 15 chests of similar teas might be bulked into
one lot wherever it was at all practicable. This would !
dispense with the numerous small sampling breaks '

found in every catalogue. It is thought that buyers
could not grumble at 30 chest lots' as they do at
three lots of 10 chests each. The dift'erent garden
marks could be given or if too numerous could be
printed as "various," Thirdly it is thought that
greater facilities should be afforded by the
Custom authorities to the importers for bulk-
ing two or more shipments together, especially in
the case of garden invoices airived by different
steamers, and, lately, the opinion is that second-
liand teas should follow on with the small breaks
at the close of auctions, — only a very small minority
of the trade being interested in either of them -~
II. d- C. Mail.

THE PEOGEESS AND PEOSPECTS OF

INDIAN TEA.
Thanks to the compiler of the Directory and
Handbook published at this office, there are fairly
accurate figures available showing the progress of
the tea enterprise in Ceylon, and that progress is
such as to create astonishment and even alarm in
the breasts of our Indian friends, who seem by no
means sure of the correctness of the figures" re-
presenting the progress and position of their own
great tea industry. On the one hand, we see it
stated that large areas taken up for tea cultivation
have been abandoned, not because the land was un-
suitable for the culture, but because the culture itself
had become unremunerative. The Indian Plantera'
Gazette contends that it must be so in aU cases
where the annual average yield per acre does not come
up to .5 maunds, that is 400 lb. per acre. In that
case the vast majority of Indian "Gardens" must
be worked at a loss, for no returns that we have ever
seen for India as a whole have exceeded 4 maunds or
820 lb. per acre, although in exceptional eases ;'>00 lb.
7001b. and even 1,0001b. per acre have been gathered.
The figures contained in the official returns
are denounced as too low in some case
and too high in others, and certainly, when (iov-
ernment oJficers attemijt to guess the cost at which
tea is produced, they make a mess of the matter,
their estimates varying from the ridiculously low
figure of 4i annas per lb. to the equally ridicul-
ously high figure of 8 annas !) pie, or more than
halt a rupee. The Deputy Commissioner of
Nowgong is considered to have come near
the mark when he stated the cost of cultivation
at E70 per acre per annum and the cost of
manufacture at 7 annas per lb., the equivalent of
nearly 44 Ceylon cents. It is dilficult to sec how
any price less than one shilling per lb. in the
London market could leave the slightest profit in
such a case. But much Indian tea sold for
considerably less than this average last year, a
year in which yield is asserted to have been
specially lessened by the almost universal preval-
ence of drought and blights, drawbacks from which
Ceylon has been remarkably exempt. In all
the tea districts of India, without exception,
the rainfall is said to ha\'c been less tliau
the average of the previous five years, aud
this is taken to account for the poorer quality
as weU as the lesser quantity of tea made. But
in the face of all difficulties, including heavy
Government cesses, and while some have aiian-
doned land taken up originally for tea culture,
others have gone in for large extensions, especially in
Sylhot. The truth seems to be that only by extension
can some old and unprofitable places be retrieved,
aud many Indian planters, especially companies,
have enormous areas over which to operate. Tlie
original Assam Company, for instance, possesses
somewhat over (i,000 acres of land. In many such
cases, plots on which to cultivate rice and other

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

383

provisions are given to the labourers and their
families, and, when we hear of low money wages
in Darjilint!, we must not forget the fact that the
coolies get land to cuUivatein iiddition to their money
wages. The large sales of tea seed recjuired tor
the extensions we have mentioned in India
and tor others in Ceylon and elsewhere have
helped a good many old estates in Indiii, but
this source of revenue is now likely to lUminish.
We may mention in passing that the crop of tea
seed on" many estates in Ceylon, especially on
those at a liigh elevation, has this year been a
gieat disappointment. We know of a " lowcounti7 "
estate where the trouble is to prevent the bushes
running to blossom and seed, while on another,
between 4,(J00 and 6,000 feet altitude, large trees
of eight and nine years old show sign neither of
blossom nor seed. Probably the removal of super-
fluous wood and the application of bone-dust,
might be useful in that later case. But to return
to tea in India. From gardens and extensions recently
opened, crops at the rate of 7 to 10 maunds per
acre (560 to 800 lb.) are expected, in which ease
the most productive properties in Ceylon must
look to their laurels. From an article in the IiuUuii
Tea Gazette we quote as follows : —

Unless tea can be produced at some very low 6gnre
indeed, it cannot pay. Prices are low and the tend-
ency, allowing for an occasional temporary spurt up-
wards, is downwards. And yet we heaj of new exten-
sions in every direction, not only to existing gardens,
but also the opening out of entirely ne.v ones. In
South Svlhet and in the Dooars new gardens are bemg
made at a rate which seems incredible to the old
stagers. The South Sylhet Tea Company has put
some six to seven thousand acres under tea within the
last two years : the North Sylhet have done a good
deal of extensions chiefly in the Dooars : and Messrs.
O. Steel and Co. open out their new gardens in blocks
of .''OO to 1,000 acres per annum. Ceylon, too, is rapidly
extending its area and increasing its outtuni and other
countries are taking to growing tea. Will demand
keep pace with supply, or will prices fall so low
that it will not pay to manufacture?

Will the increased quantity of higher class teas,
produced by the increase of area of good Jdt plants,
and the greater care yearly exercised m plucking and
manufacture, readily find purchasers at existing rates ?
The argument in favor of extensions of area, and opeu-
ing new gardens is, however, a strong one. It is gener-
ally admitted that many of the old gardens, with their
broken up aud scattered cultivation, their inferior
jot. and small yield per acre, will not pay now, though
they used to "do so. Good Jcit and good outturn
per acre,— at least five mauuds — are necessary to enable
a garden to pay even a small profit. Old China gardens
must either exteud largely with good jdl, or expect to
work at a loss aud shut up eventually. They cannot
hope to compete with the gardens recently opened out
under the new Ughts, mauy of which give, or will give
when in full bearing, seven to teu inaunds an acre.

A cogent argument in favor of new extensions on
old gardens is that, as the profit on a pound of tea is so
emnll now, eo many extra pounds must be turned out
to realize anything worth having. AVben a planter
could clear sixpence a pound on his outturn, he only
wanted to put .JO.OOOIb. of tea on the market, ;. c, make
ftbout .iOO mnunds of tea, to clear £1,0(10. But if he can
barely clesf a [.enny a pound, by mosh careful and eco-
hcmical working, be must naturally (urn out six times
fts much as before to clear the same profit. Ot course,
I'steiisions do not grow spontaneously; they co.st money
alld labor, and thus add to the cost of production ol'the
bearing tea. IJut many of the hading planters of the
day believe strongly that they pay in the end, notnith-
a^aiidiDg the outcry against over-production.
Such being the feeling and such being the eon-
sequent action, the great question is how to
find markets for the increased quantities of
t«a wliicU lodis, plus Ceylon, wU epeedily pro-

duce. A writer in the paper from which we have
already quoted states : —

There is no doubt that in a few yeai-s, with Ooylon
opening out at the rate it is doing, tea outturns will be
doubled. A^''> have all along contended that, in the
native bazaars throughout India, a splendid field for
Indian tea hiis been neglected for many years
p..^'. Instead of being able to calculate the con-
sumption ill thousands, we ought by now to have
been calculating by millions. We hope things will not
be allowed to drift on, or matters dealt with, as, in the
case of the Australian market where a large ciuantity
of tea was wasted for no good apparently, although,
possibly, it may have introduced Indian tea to some
who never saw it before. We have now an Indian Tea
Association, which is supposed to have the interests of
tea in its care, and it might not be altogether outsiih;
the limits of its functions to adopt measures for tho
opening out of new markets. In addition to the ordin-
ary bazaar market, which is eminently suited to take
off coarse teas in small packets, we have heard of no
attempt being made to introduce our Indian tea iu brick
sh.ape to the Thibetans.

And then the writer proceeds to show how the
Indian planters might utilize their coarsest leaf
to supply bricks to the Thibetans, if only tho
Thibetans would accept them. That question wiU
be soon tested, for the probabilities are, that,
owing to the present friendly relations between
Britain and China, the long-sealed land of the
Lamas is likely speedily to be opened to trade
and travellers from India. But conservatism has
to be overcome and the Thibetans have become
as much accustomed and as much attached to
the cheap and nasty brick tea of China, as the
mass of Australians have, from long use, come to
like the cheap inferior leaf tea sent them from
the same source. For good Indian and Ceylon teas
to make their way in Australia and the Western
Continent, will be a matter of time. So with
Eussia and other continental nations. What we
have mainly to trust to is the largely expanding
demand in Britain for realty good teas. Were the
millions of natives in India and Ceylon only
somewhat more wealthy than they are, local
markets for our second-class teas and dust
would open up and expand indefinitely. That
day will yet dawn, but it is in the still
distant feature. Our wisdom in the present, no
doubt, is to go on supplying the London market
with the high quality teas which have already
found so much acceptance with the tea drinkers
of Great Britain, next to China itself the greatest
tea-drinking country in the world.

CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTING BEPORT.

SHOWERY WKATBER : ITS TWOFOLD EFFECTS — A " SHUCK "
COFFEE-TBEE AND A POOH BELIEVER— TEA — WHITE-
ANTB— COOLIES — THE " T. A."

26th October 1885.
The fine showery weather we have beeu having
for some time now, however suitable it may be for
the planting comnuuiity and the young tea plants, ia
a dead stop to anything like floating news. Every
day lately has been bringing its extra work i every-
body has been busy, aud the neighbour who
usually drops iu with a cheery remark, or the latest
•■ tale that is told," has been absent, being Us fully
occupied as one's self. And still the days pass : all !
how swiftly — and tho time is round again for another
letter.

It is not to church one goes for planting' news^
and yet one sometimes hears fumiy things aoout it
from the puliJit. I was much interested the other
Sunday, at a preacher working out tiie analogies
between a " shuck " coffee tree and a believer in
poor circumstances. XJp to a certain point the thing
weut along beautifully, aud told, as oiuy illustratiouf

THE TROPICAL ACmCVLTVl

fpZC. 1, 3S§S'

drawn from real life can. But " tlie rub " came
when the teacher tried to show the unimportance of
the present, and the higli future destiny reserved
even for the poorest believer, and to work that idea
around the " shuck " coffee tree at the same time.
How interested I became, feeling assured that we
were on the verge of an important discovery, regard-
ing the future of coffee, and that to me should be
given the opportunity of bringing it before the pub-
lic, in the space you reserve for these letters.
AJas I alas ! like many auotlicr honest man who
has had to do with coffee, the preacher ^vas landed
in difficulties, made a stout fight to get rid of them,
and, amid big swelling words and much noise, was
at last glad to drop all coimection with coffee,
" shuck " or otherwise, and try soiiiething else.

Tea is gi-owing well in this forcing weather, and
plants and seedlings are doing their very best to make
up for lost time. I saw some tea seed which the hard sur-
face of the soil, baked in ths late hot weather, had
prevented from pushing through, and it was lookin"
very queer. The shoot had wandered about in the
loose soil inside the hole, vainly endeavoui'ing to dis-
cover a weak point through which it might pass"
into the light until it had become an entangled
mass. I question if it will come to much good, now
that the conditions for its growth are more favorable.
It is rather disgusting to see fine young tea plants
die out hero and there over a field, ringed just
mider ground by some grub or another. But
besides this " pestilence that walketh in dark-
ness," _ I observed the white-ants busy ubore ground
attacking the living plant, liaving eaten a branch
through, which was almost as thick as a pencil.
I have seen living rose trees destroyed by white-
auts, and should the termites follow the public taste,
and take a liking for our teas, they will be rather
a formidable foe to meet. That is a £ind of patronage
we will be all willing to dispense with.

Coolies are plentiful and to spare, and I hear of
casea of gangs paid off, that cannot get work else-
where, and hang about their old estates in the hope
of being taken on again. By-and-byc there will be
lots of work for tliem. and for the Sinhalese also, if
they care for it. Coffee is ripening up in the low
districts, and the late showery weather has brought
the little tliere is in with a rush. The natives too
have been sliowing their customary liking for the
old King, and have as usual been helping themselves.
In this part of the country we are, however, nearuig
the end of this woe, and don't exactly as yet see
the form in which the coming one will clothe itself.
Still that there trill be a coming one we never for a
moment doubt.

Looking over some Indian agrionltiu'al papers the
other day, I was struck with the number of quot-
ations, and extracts taken from the Tioi^U-al Atp i-
cuUurist. Evidently they looked upon your monthly
as the fountain-head of all reliable information, in
things relating to agriculture in the tropics, and well
they may. Peppekcokn.

A NATIVE BOTANIST IN ENGLAND.

The Jiulian Daily Neivs writes : — In the spring
of the year we took pleasure in wishing Godspeed
to our fcUow-tow-nsman, Babu S. P. Chatterjee,
the proprietor of the Victoria Nursery, Narcoldan-
gah. The Babu iu the pursuit of his business,
had visited all parts of India, the Straits, China,
the Philippines, and Australia, but this year he de-
cided to visit England and the Continent. Many
of his compatriots liad made the same journey
for pleasure, to study for the Civil Service, the
Bar, the medical profession, on political missions;
but as far as we know Babu S. P. Chatterjee
is the first instance of a native proceeding to,
England to extend his business connections, and
to gain a further knowledge of his trade. The
Babu left Calcutta on the iiOth April, taking
with hiui a considerable collection of orchids and
I'are plauts, aud armed with numoi'ous letters

of introduction from his Indian clients. On his
arrival he first called on Sir Joseph Hooker, to
whom he carried a letter of introduction from Sir
Eichard Garth. Sir Joseph was kindness itself
to his Oriental visitor, entertaining him as his
private guest and personally acting as his Cicerone
to all the wonders of Kew. Babu S. P. Chatter-
jee, who, having visited many gardens in Australia,
is no mean judge, was overwhelmed with the beauties
and perfections of the out-door gardens and the
celebrated Palm House, but was less impressed
I with the conservatories, which, in his opinion,
I could not compare with some of the private
I collections. Through the kindness of Sir Ashley
I Eden, the Babu obtained an introduction to Lord
Hartington, who at once conuneuded him to the
good offices of IVIr. Thomas, the head gardener
at Chatsworth ; the gardens and conssrvatories
of which splendid estate the Babu places first in
the list of those he visited, one of the most
beautiful features being a rook garden of some five
acres in extent, veined with rivulets and water-
falls and planted out with pines and ferns. The
fernery is almost by itself a glass palace, having
been built at an expenditure of 1:6.5,000. The collec-
tion here is perhaps the finest in Europe, and
Mr. Thomas, with the sanction of the noble
owner, presented his visitor with cuttings from
the collection of the famous Chatsworth Pines.
The Babu also visited Worsley Hall, the seat of
the Earl of Ellesmere, and here, as apparently
everywhere else, he was made a welcome guest.
The rhododendron avenue, and the out-door bed-
ding especially attracted his admiration. The
collections of Mr. Hardy, Mr. Oaskill, and Mr.
I'ercival, all near Manchester, w^ere also visited.
Each of these gentlemen is noted for liis collection
of orchids, several varieties of these plants being
named after them. Babu S. P. Chatterjee was
made none the less welcome by being introduced
to these gentlemen by Mr. Bruce Findley, the
well-known Director of the Botanical Gardens at
Manchester. At Treutham, the Duke of Suther-
land's seat, the Babu met an old friend in the
Musa Cavendish, vulgarly known in Bengal as the
CabuUi Kala. This esculent fruit was flourishing
under glass, and, as the hothouse jiine in Ejigland
is always superior to its out-door fellow in the
tropics, so was the Duke's plantain a more
delicious morsel than our familiar and some-
what despised Calcutta friend. His Grace
grows for the market, and his hotljouse
plantains bring in a handsome revenue. Messrs.
Veitch and Son's celebrated Nursery at
Chelsea was also visited, and the Babu was received
with the greatest kindness and interest by the
proprietors. The show of orchids, lilies, and earn-
ations, and the enormous extent and ramifications
of the business of this establishment, with its
connections all over the civilized world, filled the
visitor with surprise. Thousands of Wardian cases,
huge specimens of palms in enormous framework
boxes, were being prepared for transport to the
Continent and America. The packing and despatch-
ing of seeds from the perfectly arrange 1 and vent-
ilated seed houses was another interesting study.
We regret that our space will not allow a fwther
reference to many other interesting visits to well-
known gardens and coUcclions. amongst wliich via
may mention Mr. Chamberlain's famous orchid col-
lection at Bii'mingham, which supplies the Kadical
Member with the rare button-holes, for which he
is noted in the House. Privately and publicly Babu
8. P. Chatterjee has been received with a kindness
otwhicli he speaks most feehngly. His professional
brethren recognised his merit and worth with a

Dec. I, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3S5

hearty enthusiasm, whicli will doubtless result in
a valuable connection iu the future. We must
not omit to mention that the Babu served a
week's apprenticeship at Covent Garden in pre-
paring bouquets and wiring flowers, and we shall
be surprised if the result of his experience is not very
noticeable in our ball-rooms during the forthcoming
season. During his stay at Covent Garden, he
was allowed to assist in preparing the bridal
bou(iuets for H. K. H. the Princess Beatrice. The
Babu has brought back with iiim some forty
cases of South American orchids, and a large
variety of horticultural sundries, ferns and roses,
all of which will doubtless be in bloom at the
Victoria Nursery in a few weeks. After lca\nng
England Babu S. P. Chatterjec visited Brussels,
Ghent, Antwerp and Paris, to all of whicli places
he carried introductions to the various curators,
&c., from his English friends. — Pioiieei:
♦

5L\NUFACrURE OF SULPHURIC AciD IN JAPAN.— It is

state<l tlint the extensive sulphuric acid factory of the
Japanese Mint at Osika has been I. ased to the Tokio
Drug Company for seven years. The export of sulph-
uric acid from Japan to China is very considerable.

Fou Keehinc, oi-i' .Mosqcitoks the Jng/er recom-
mends :S ]ru*ts oh've oil, 2 parts oil of pennyroyal, 1 part
glycerine, 1 part ammonia. To be well shaken before
applying to face and hands. Avoid getting the niixture
into the eyes.

Tea Ci[.TiBR IN Cai-h-obnia. — An effort is being
made tu introduce the cultivation of tea in that state,
and it is said there are now over 200 pl.nnts in a very
thriving condition. There is no reason why tea should
not sneceed there, if only labour cost can bo kept
suiiiieutly low. — Iin/iun Tea Gazette.

Tea Cultivation in Abakan. — A very fair amount
of success appears to have attended the attempt to
grow tea in tbe Hill Tracts of Arakan. At the Pa'.et-
wa Garden the irees which were cut down .short appear
to be again sprouting, and are looking very well and
healthy, and this tea garden, with a smaller one a
few miles off. has been leased to a Mr. Pereira of
Akyab for K 100, for one year, up to the 2l,st of March
next. At the Kyaukpandaung Garden tea cuUivaiion
is on a much larger scale, the number of scale, tbe
number of trees and young plants exceeding 12.000,
of foiu- ditYerent kinds. The gardener in charge b;is
been ordered Ui make one pound of tea from each tf
the four, whi'h are to be submitted to an expert for
inspection.— /'lo/ieer.

Natal Tka. — A correspondent writing with reference
to our comments on Cape tea says : — " Is it generally
knowu that Nntal (next door neighbour) produces tea
equal to any of tbe finest samples of Indian or Cejlon
growth to be found in Mincing Lane y The quantity is
certaiuly small at present, but the (|uality is A 1, and
the acreage undercidtivatiou is increasing every year.
From four new samples submitted last week to a lead-
ing firm of brokers, a Natal-grown golden flowery pekoe
was tasted againsta similar sample from Ceylon, with
the result that the Natal Pekoe was considered of equal
value with the Ceylon, and was valued at Id to I'd p"r
lb. more on account of its magnificent appearance. The
Ceylon tea had been sold tbe previous day at 2s 6d per
lb. (less duty)." Will there be an exodus of Indian tea
planters to Natal in consequence ?—M. ^- C. Midi.

Planting Bonus rx NoiiTiiEr.N Australux Tebrit-
ouv.— Mr. Moule moved "That the time for the bonus
for sugar-growing in the Northern Territory be extended
for two years." He was sony the Government
had forced him to bring in a formal motion for
this extension of the time, because if there van
anything woith encouraging it was our natural
productions. Some years ago £.5,000 was placed
on the Estimates for the encouragement of sugar
growing in the Northern Territoi-y, and the then
Minister of Agriculture promised to advorti.';e the
bonus in all the sugar-piodueing countries of the
world. lie said the very liberal tenus upon which J
49

the land was to be given tor plantation purposes
in the Northern Territory could not fail to induce
many persons to undertake the cultivation of cane.
Since then nothing had transpired to justify
in any wnv the withdrawal of the bonus. The Daly-
River Cc,i.ipauy held 10,000 acres of land situated
on the Daly Kiver under the conditions of tlie
Act of 18S0. V,'-.!. was now being vigorously
pushed forward with every chance of ultimate
success. Mr. Otto Brandt had spent £25,000 in
the attempt to grow sugar and the (iovernnuiit
Resident reported that Mr. Brandt and the Daly
Plantation Company would i>rolmbly he the only
competitors for the bonus during the next two
years. Brandt's cane was magnitioent, but the
mill could not be erected in time to crush it. Good
results were expected next year. He found that nt
the Government Gardens, at Fannie Bay, about
twent}' acres, had been planted ; the cost was nut
known. The Dclissa Company held 10,000 acres,
and planted 1S2 acres at a cost of £20,000, and had
since abandoned OyAv land. Owston"s Daly River
Company held the same area and had also abandoned
it. The Palm Company held 10,000 acres ; fifty were
planted, and then the lesise was abandoned. Sergison's
(now the Hon. .lames Munro's) lease comprised 10,000
acres and was shortly to be stai-ted. Otto Brandt
had vol acres. Last year he planted 70 acres,
and next year would plant 250 acres, but he had
spent .-£2,500. The Daly Plantation Company with
1,000 acres was to be started, and John Munro
had ;iO,000 acres on the Adelaide River, which
would probably be succes.sfully cultivated. Erieson
and Cioppenberg and Harris and Head both held
small plantations at West Point, anil were cult-
ivating rice, arrowroot, Ac., as well as sugar. To
cut oil the bonus would be a great injustice. The
conditions of the Northern Territory were the same
now as ten years ago. We still needed, to develop
it. Besides the two large plantations in operation
we had Sergison's and Munro's both about to be
started, but they would not start if the bonus
were not continued. Mr. Tennant, seconding, said
the bonuses stimulated private enterprise, with-
out which the resources of a country could not
bo discovered or developed. He hoped this bonus
for sugar-growing would be continued. Mr. Basedcw
supported. He would sooner encouriige native
industries by bonuses than by a high tariff. North
Queensland had succeeded in sugar-growing, and
the Nortliern Territory was similar to North Queens-
land. Bonuses were not a new thing, and som.c
help was necessary to start new industries in a
country, as experience had lo bo obtained at (he
gi-eatest cost. Mr. Furner said (hat there had been
great mismanagement in connection with the sugar in-
dustry in the Northern Territory. He believed from
his personal observation that the industry could bo
made a success, and he would support the
motion. Mr. Beaglehole saw some objections to bonuses
but believed them specially applicable (0 the indus-
try in question in the Norlhcrn Territory. The
bonuses should be extended for at least three years,
as a plantation could not be established in two. He
moved the substitution of the word " three " for
" two ". years. Mr. Landscer seconded the amend-
ment. Good sugar could be grown in the Northern
Territory, but the undertaking had not been long
enough established to render it payable. It had
only been owing to the extraordinary depression
that sugar-growing had not been the most success-
ful pursuit iu North Queenshiiul. Tlie Ministe;-oi
Education moved the adjournment of the deb if.
Carried on the Speaker's casting-vote, nineteen \,!-
ing on each side. Adjourned for a week. — A I'!-
uidc Observer,

386

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec. I, 1885.

CE LLl'LOID.

The application.s of celluloid are legion, and only
the more prominent can now be mentioned. It is
best known as a substitute for ivory. In Ibis cap-
acity it has been very successfully employed. So
perfect is the resemblance that a close inspection is
required to distinguish the counterfeit from the
genuine. The absence of *' grain" is, perhaps, tlie
readiest peculiarity by which celluloid goods may be
detected, but for all practical purposes it is not
only as good as ivory, but, in some respects, better
than that material. It possesses the strength and
elasticity of ivory, but it does not warp or discolour
with age. On these accounts it is now largely
used instead of ivory in making piano and organ
keys, and billiard balls, combs, backs of brushes
and h.and mirrors, frames, handles, &c. Not the
least of its advantages is the fact that it can be
niouldeil so that the most delicate and elaborate
decoration can be produced at a fraction of the
cost of the same ornamentation executed in ivory.
For most purposes hard rubber, on account of its
cheaimess. can hol<l its own against celluloid very
well ; but trotoise-sbell, malachite, amber, pink coral
and other costly and elegant materials are so success-
fully imitated that an e.\pert must look sharply
to tell the original from the copy. In imitation of
tortoise-shell it is made in such articles as combs,
card cases, cigar cases, match boxes, napkin rings,
&c. The pink coral, so popular for jewellery, is ad-
mirably imitated and sold at low prices, as are also
the imitation of malachite and amb(,-r. It is a very
common substitute for tLc last-named material in
the mouthpieces of pipes, cigar holders, &c. As a
substitute for porcelain in dolls' beads, celluloid stands
any amount of hard usage. It is used instead of
hard rubber in many spectacle and eyeglaass
frames ; and also for shoe tips, emoi-y wheels,
knife sharpeners, &c. In combination with lineUj
cotton, or paper, it is manufactured into shirt bosoms,
cuffs, and collars, which are at once elastic, strong
and durable, anil wbfii soiled only need to be wiped
over with a damj) .sponge to restore them to their
orginal lustre. — Iiidiaruhber and Giitlaperiha Joui-nul.

UIUNGE CULTUEE AND SOIL.
Corre-spondents have written to us respecting the
analysis of soil suited for orange trees in our issue
of ilth instant, saying tlKit it was tantamount to
pure siiic;i, in which nothing will grow; also point-
ing out an error in the fayures, making the sum
total 104 instead of 100. This error arose through
the quantity of coarse sand being printed 78 parts
iusteatl of 74 parts, but it makes no dilference to
the assertion that such soil must be almost pure
silica, and consequently as barren as soil can be.
Nevertheless the fact is as stated in our issue. It
is a fair analysis of the soil of the celebrated orangery
belonging to the late Mr. Pye, of the Parianiatta
Kiver. Of course it must be imderstood that we
state this upon the authority of the work from
which we quoted the analysis, and which we again
mention to be a book published by the authority
of the New Zealand (Jovernment, and entitled
"Orange Culture in New Zealand." by Geo. E.
Alderton. In writing of this matter the author
(iays (1 age 17);— "In Australia, Sir. Pye, the oldest
orange iiianter, finds that a suitable soil, well takea
care of iind lu'pt free from weeds, is all that is
heeded ; and j'ays further that artificial stimulants
iiidy spoil the fruit. And one thing is very certain,
that there can be very Utile organic matter in his
light sandy soil ; the mulch of forest leaves he uses
supplying the sole vegetable matter for his fine
trues. In another place it will be seen by the
anil lysis made of Iiis soil by Mr. Skey. of the Well-
ington Museum, that it consists of nearly pure sand.
Nevertheless, I feel that most iieople will persist
that they know better, niid will go on using strong j
manures, to the great detriment of the industry, j
,i"y oue who will study the matter closely will fi'jd 1

that the orange tree succeeds best not so much
from any inherent fertility of the soil as from an
abundance of moi,sture and heat; in fact, it lives on
the heated humidity of the atmosphere." Om- readers
^ nuist not argue from this that thev can plant
orange trees in sand and get good crops without
fui-ther trouble, but that if they possess sandy soil
and heat and moisture, then by keeping it free from
weeds and applying annually a' light dressing of or-
ganic matter in the. form of mulching— old forest
leaves for instance— then they may e.xpect to get
the best of oranges.— Qiiemdandei:

EUCALYPTUS.

You publish from time to time in the Gm-deners'
Chronicle notes on Eucalyptus, which greatly interest
me. I have not only studied the numerous species,
but I also interest myself in propagating them wher-
ever there is a chance of success. This explains the
interest that I have in reading in your journal of
the attempts that are made in England. The greater
part of the experimenters only work with E. globulus,
which is not the one th.at succeeds best in Northern
climes. There are species much more hardy, such as,
for example, E. viminaHs, E. Gunnii, E. poiyauthema,
E. coriacea, and E. coceifera. It is believed, more-
over, that E. globulus is the quickest grower, and
certainly it is clas.sic under this head; but I possess
another undetermined species which grows at least
twice as quickly. My tree at the present time, five
and a-half years old since the sowing of the seed,
is over 12 metres (more than 37 feet) in height, and
more than 1 m. in circumference at the base. It
is a very handsome tree, and of regular pyramidal
form. _ Moreover, it is about to flower, and probably
will yield seeds; so that the species may lie pro-
pagated. I have reason to believe that this remark-
able tree has not yet been described or recognised
among other species of similar appearance, for here
the confusion of species is easy and frequent when
there has been no opportunity of examining the young
plants. If it is really new — and that is extremely
probable— I will publish it under the name of E.
Muellcri to commemorate the labours of the great
Australian Eucalyptographer, who has contributed more
than any one else to the propagation of Eucalyptus
in the South of Europe and Algeria. The services
which he has rendered us are iuestimable, although
the public is too prone to forget them. It is an in-
justice to be repaireil. The Gunlc nri-/ Chioiiicli: has
frequently noticed the ICiicah/jitoi/mjjIiio, which con-
tains a detailed description of a hundred .species. To
properly understand the difficulty of such a work it
is necessary to be occupied specially with Eucalyptus,
the incredible variability of which seems to defy the
perspicacity of the most skilled botanists. Bentham
himself, with the information supplied to him by F.
Blueller, declared this difficulty "almost insuperable,"
and this assertion is not exaggerated. I have now
hundreds of young Eucalyptus obtained from seeds,
where individuals vary from germination to such an
extent as not to be recognisable. It is said that the
same species take different characters according to
the locality whence the seeds are collected, and the
(luestion is presented, "Are there truly fixed species
iu the genus Eucalyptus?'' Acacia aiid Melaleuca
seem to mo every bit as difficult to unravel, but that is
a matter I leave to others.— Cli. N.vuDijj,— Co/UeHCT**'
Chrotiit'h.

DisiNiKCTANTS.— A gfeat deal of disappointment
may be experienced if people do not realize ihat
deodorizing .snbslnnces, and even anlisejitics like green
vitriol, are not true disinfectants. Tiiey have their
advantage in removing evil odour, or checking pu I re-
faction, but they do not necessarily kill the germs
on whose life and activity many "epi.lenuc diseases
depend. Destruction by fire of infiited m.-itcrial, and,
where that is not pr.icticable. chloride of lime is the
best germicide for geueral use, — Gardeners' Chreniele,

Dec. I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

2^7

HOOT STKUOTTTKE.
The variation iu the appearance of roots accortUnjj
as tliey grow below the surface, in the air, or in
water, is well known. Latterly M. Constauiiu has
pushed the in»|uiry further and has examined the in-
ternal structural mollifications which accomi»any the
more obvious external changes. M. Coustantiu examined
the structure of the root in terrestrial and in epiphy-
tal Orchi.is respectively, and also made comparative
experiments by causing aerial roots to grow under-
ground, and othei-s exposed to light or immersed iu
water, and so forth. M. Coustantm's general conclusions
are as follows ; —

The growth of roots in the air — 1, diminishes the
bark, and, on the contrary, increases the pith ; 2, causes
an increase in the fibrous system of the bark, as well
as of the centre ; 3, causes an increase in the number
of ligneous vessels; 4, renders the endodcrmic cells
liarder aiul more impermeable.

When, on tlie contrary, the root developes in water,
the following results are apparent: — I, increase in the
size of the spaces between the cells; 2, diminutions
of the pith; 3, reduction of the fibrous and vascular
systems.

These observations show plainly that the roots adapt
themselves in the same manner as do the stems when
under different condition*.

Like the aerial stem, the serial roots are character-
ised by the great development of the central cylinder,
of the fibrous and vascular systems.

Like the rhizomes, the subterranean stems are dis-
tinguished by the great thickness of their rind, the re-
duction of the pith, and the small importance of their
fittres and vessels.

Like aquatic stems, the roots produced under the
water are similar in structure to subterranean organs,
but dilTer in haviug interceliular spaces, and in the
lesser development of the vascular elements.

The analogy remains even when blancheil stems are
compared with roots, which have grown in air and
obscurity, the rind and ligneous .system being of less
importance than in subterranean organs. The root is
therefore as liable to modification as the stem, and
if its organisation seems very uniform it is because
it is most often developed under the ground. It is
to the influence of the medium, terrestrial or aquatic,
that we must attribute the feeble development of the
pith of roots. The absence of this tissue consequently
does not serve to characterise the root anatomically.
The most striking result of these experiments upon
the ro-jt as well as ou the stem, is that the woody
matter is formed with relative difhculty under the
ground, iu water, and in darkness. The consequences
of this are very important, as the functions of the
fundamental tissue and of the endoderm, are tluis
found to be entirely altered. — Ganhneis' Clu-vnide.

ftREEN MANURE.

TO THE f:DITOK Ol' THE " MADIiAS TIJtKS."

Sir,^Iu your issue of yesterday you say : " Of the
dry coast lands, some we may consider deficient in-
deed iu organic matter » » « #^
IJut not all the dry lands in the plains along tlie
coast may be deemed deficient in organic matter and
re<iiiire green manure." If there is any class of
soils in the plains of India which contain more or-
ganic matter than others, it is the black cotton
soils, as everybody knows. Even these do not contain
as much of organic matter as would satisfy an Kng-
li.=h or American farmer. A soil containing all the
elements of fertility in xery fair proportions should
contain about 12 per cent of organic matter at least,
and a moderately fertile soil, not less than 5 per
cent. Soils containing less than 5 per cent of or-
ganic matter are considereil but poor in it in England
ami America. In the " Standing Information regarding
Administration of the Jladra.s Presidency," riih page
204, it has been very rightly remarked of the black
soil that '■ it contains very little organic matter,
usually not more than 4 per cent." Can there be
any doubt, then, that the other kinds of soils contain

but far less? When I wrote that the black soils
are ricli in organic matter, I meant, of course, tliat
they are so in comparison with other kinds of soils
met with in the plains. The prevailing soils iu this
Presidency are light-coloured, which are, of course,
extremely deficient in organic matter. It cannot be
disputed that in a tropicil climate like this,
there is greater need of organic matter in the soils
than in England. It nuist also be borne in mind
that, while the organic matter in the soils of the
Indian plains is uaurally liable to be slowly dissipated
by the great heat jirevailing there, the ryot makes
matters worse by burning all things which would in
England and America go to form vegetable compost
anil thus add organic matter to the soil, tlreen-
nianuring is really quite as beneficial to the black
cotton soils a.s to others which are very poor in
organic matter. A vci-y serious defect in the black
soils is excessive stillness. One of the best and
simplest means of impro\'ing them is greeu-manuring.
15y this, very stiff soils, it is well known, are ren-
dered looser, and very loose soils, on the other
haiul, more stiff.

If horse gram is to be treateil as a food-corn
crop, the best time for sowing it is towards the
cessation of the heavy monsoon rains, for instance,
about the end of November in flladras and a little
earlier in the interior parts. It not sown in its proper
seed-time, it cannot mature satisfactorily enough,
and is then best tn^ated as a fodder or green-manure
crop. It is, ou till- wholly preferable indeed to use
the catch-crop for fodder, proxided the ryot eon-
serves the dung anil urine of his cattle properly
and applies them to his land. But sin<-e the tenqjt-
ation to use cattle-dimg as fuel, either through
pressure of poverty or through ignorance, is too
great for the ryot, green-manuring may be specially
reconiraended. In most jiarts of the Presidency,
scarcely 5 per cent of the cultivated dry land carries
two Ciops in the year, and consequently the ryots
and their cattle are idle during a great part of the
year. I have shown how the ryot might find useful
work for himself and his trattle by growing catch-
crops of horse gr.im for fnddi'r or green manure at
times when his land woulil otherwise lie idle.

('. K. SuHu.v R.\o.

A M.'VLAYAN FOllEST.

Tropical forest would be a better term than
jungle, and less likely to be misunderstood ; for it
is a forest of noble trees, mingled with .saplings,
tall and slender, growing as closi- as may be. M'hen
one tries to analyze the constituents of the mass,
the eye soon loses itself in the confusion of stems,
vines, branches, and foliage. There are, however,
three kinds of tree conspicuous, that is, tall saplings,
shorter trees as tall and straight, a. foot or so in
diameter, with a green or grey smooth bark ; and
finally the large brown heavy stems with ^rugged
scaly bark (Dipferocarpus and Dammar Pines). Prom
the latter hang loose swinging vines of every size,
from the thickness of twine to stout hawser, some-
times leafy, sometimes like loose cordage, or the
tangled rigging of a ship. Then the leaves are of
every shape — minute or immense, opening like huge
und)rell!is, or spreading in feathery sprays like a
mist over the water.

I must not omit to mention that .several of the
fruits are very ornamental. The crin\son Modecca
is just like a large Capsicum ; the fruit of a Dysoxylon
like an Orange, whilt: the open seod-pods of some
Pithecolobiums equalled any flower in brilliancy.
The i\Ialays biought us iu wild fruit such as Mango-
steens, Lunsats, and some wild Orapes, but none
very savoury ; indeed, some of the party suffered
nuich from a burning throat and tongue after eating
the Grapes.

I'or vegetables we had Yams (Dioscorea) and the
white inner leaves of a Cabbage Palm, which was
very agreeable when cooked, besides the stalks of
the Begonia leaves already inferred to. AU the

3SS

l-HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1S85.

shrubs are juicy ;>nd succulent, as one might expect
in a country where rain, rain, rain is the usual
weather.

Gutta trees of the genera Icosandra, Bassia, and
AViUughbeia were common. A sr.r'.'.l incision into the
lattiiT, which bears a larf;e eJible fruit, exudes a
thicls visciii white juice, whicli one can wiml off in
round balls. In a few minutes it becomes elastic,
like iudiarubber. There are many trees liere with
milky juices, but only a few hr.rilen into a good gutta.
The Jlalays of Keddah, however, have a method
of hardening some of these sufliciently to make tlieiu
useful in adulterating the valuable kinds of rubber.
My men showed me how this was done. They
collected about a pint of juice and mixed it with
common salt, which caused it to curdle. The com-
pressed curds from this juice made a hard white ball
about Ih inch in diameter. It was not elastic, but
broke into pieces like enamel, yet not without a
hard blow. The substance wants all the elastic
(jualities of good gutta, but still might be turned
to many useful purposes. The tree from which
the juice was obtained was conspicuous for its enorm-
ous leaves, shaped like a Fig leaf, and often 2
feet in diameter. It is a species of Pterospermum
(acerifolium?), and is common throughout the Malay
peninsula and China. I also noticed it as oue of
the most common trees in North Borneo.

It was rather amusiug to notice one way in which
the Malays made use of the true gutta juice.
M'htn their thiu calico clothes were torn — the lacer-
ations, I need hardly say, being frequent and con-
siderable— they used to mend them by bringing the
edges together and plasteriug the rent with gutta
juice. This made a permanent and strong joint,
with the additional advantage of being waterproof.
J. Texison Woods. — Ganlenris' Chronicle.

IIUBBEE NOTE 5 FK(.)M BRITISH AND

AMEKIOAN CONSULAR REPORTS.
Z.INZIBAE. — A volume of British Consular Reports,
presented to I'arliament in May, 1885, with which
we were unable to deal last month, owing to jjressure
of spjL'.', contiiius an interesting coramuuicitiou on
the subject of native African guttapercha, sent in
December, 1883, by Sir .John Kirk, our Consul at
Zanzibar, to Earl (rranviUe, the late Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. This report w;is accom-
panied by a sample of guttapercha, the produce of
a practically uuknown tree, which Sii John found
at Mombasa. It appears that several samples of
this article had been brought to Mombasa from time
to time, and offered for sale by the natives ; they
had, howevei*, been set aside as useless, and regard-
ed as an adulteration of Indiarubber until the
Consul detected their nature, and indicated the
great demand likely to arise provided it could be
had to any great extent. Sir John Kirk, in his
despatch, stated that he was not aware that gutta-
percha hatl hitherto been discovered in Africa, and
m view of the importance of the matter he requested
Jjord Granville to send a sample of the guttapercha
to the Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, with
a view to a technical opinion being given with re-
gard to its probable value and quality, remarking,
further, that it was not ten years since he "estab-
lished Indiarubber collection from plants growing
wild on the mainland, the value of which amounted
last year (1882) to £3(10,000, and the plants which
yield this are now being grown in India and all onr tro-
pical colonies." In a supplementary despatch Sir
.John report.s the success which has attended the
planting of rubber trees in Zanzibar. He says : " Five
years :igo I received from the Director of the Royal
Gardens, Kew, in exchange for plants of onr African
Indiarubbers of the genus Limilo/pliia, other sorts
of [ndiarubber-giving plants, amongst which were
the Para tree, or Jfnnliiot (llaziovii. This, I find,
grows here with the geatest rai)idity, and propagates
itself freely in the worst soil. It is only now
however, that I have been able to obtain a sample

of the Indiarubber likely to be produced, and on
which the value of the new introduction entirely
depends. I find that trees only begin to yield
when five years old, and no doubt these are, even
then, too small to be remunerative. I have collected
a sample of the produce, which I forward by this
mail, and which I would ask your lordship to he
good enough to forward to Sir .lo,eph Hooker, at
Kew, to be reported on. If the quality of this
Indiarubber is found to be goo), I can then con-
fidently encourage the Sultan to plant widely the
new tree in thi^ unoccupied parts of the island. It
stands the climate, grows freely, needs no care, and
would be a source of income on which his people
might fall back in the event of other crops failing."
lu compliance with the wishes of Sir John Kirk,
the samples were sent to .sir Joseph Hooker, who
placed them in the hands of Jlr. S. W. Silver,
F. L. S. The latter, besides studying the samples him-
self, consulted other experts, and the results of the
examination may bo briefly stated. First, as regards
the guttapercha, there is a general opinion that
the kind discovered in Zanzibar will prove an accept-
able addition to preseut supplies. Sir .Joseph Hooker
considers that the discovery of a substance resembling
guttapercha in Central Africa is of extraordinary
interest, though the authorities at Kew were not
unprepared for it, the floras of tropical Africa and
of Malaya being so similar "that guttapercha-produc-
iug trees, which are so characteristic of the latter,
might be confidently expected to be represented in
the former. The rubber-producing vines of each area
are, though distinct, so closely allied, and, indeed,
inutually representative, and the possibility of the
same tact should be borne in mind in connection
with gu>tapercha." Mr. J. Y. Bailey, of the India-
rubber, Guttapercha, .and Telegraph Works (Limited),
writing to Mr. Silver with rLspuet to the samples
sent by Sir John Kirk, remarkcil : -'The sample of
guttapercha is not so good a specimen as we get
from other parts of the world ; nevertheless, in its
present state, we may put the value at> about lOd.
per lb." Secondly, as regards the specimens of India-
rubber from Zanzibar, it is poiiiteil out that there
is some discrepancy, as Sir John Kirk appears to
have mixed up two distinct plants. It is toler.ably
clear, however, to the experts that what he h.as
sent is Cear;i rubber, and not that of Pani, and
that the plant producing this is cultivable with such
ease, that it is much to be hoped that it may form
the basis of a new and profitable industry in the
Zanzibar dominions. Referring to these samples of
ludiiinibber, Mr. Bailey says : "Indiarubber codected
from the trunk of the tree would be at the
present time commercially worth about Is. Od. to
23. per lb. The sample collected from the ground
we could put no value to." The action taken by
Sir John Kirk might be imitated with advantage
by British Consuls in other parts of the world
where there is any possibility of Indiarubber or
guttapercha being producetl.— /jirfinrKWier anil (hitta-
ptrclm Jownal.

♦

THE DATE PALM.
In the GanUners' Chronicle for February 21, 18S5,
page 240, the following statements occur, (pioted from
iVdfKjr, under the heading of "The influence of direct
sunlight on vegetation." Regarding the I'h.cnix
dactylifera, L., it is stated that "it never forms dense
forests;" that "the Date Palm is indigeuons to the
Great Desert (Sahara);" that "nowhere else does the
plant vegetate so rapidly ; " that "when cultivated with
success, it is also in a desert climate, as, for instance,
in that of .Mnrcia in Spain ; " that " the cause of its
being without fruits in the Mediterranean is the ilry
summer, their being no subterranean wells, as is the
case in the Sahara."

I think these theories are erroneous, as I shall en-
deavour to show further on, but before doing so. I
wonlil call attention to an article in the (iarilcn of
February 28, 1885, page lUS, on the "Palms at Bor-

Dec. r, 1SS5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

3S9

dighera," iu the Mediterranean. II says, " Bat by fai-
the most lucrative trade is in Palius. Tliey are planted
ill every avaliable spot, and most carefully cultivated ;
the soil is excellent and suits them well. As the plants
attain a certain height they are swathed, or tied up
ia the same way that we treat Lettuces. Large quant-
ities thus blanclieil are sent to Rome and other places
fur Palm Sunday, while a considerable number find
their way in the month of August to different Jewish
communities for the I'east of Tabermaclcs." [See also
illustration in Gartlenei-s' ^Chronicle, April S, 187G.]
Further on, it states that " Many old Palms have
strings or orauge-coloiu'ed Dates depending from the
crowns, but these are never fit for food." The group
of I'alms selected for the illustration in the Garden
certainly does not show careful cultivation. They are
growing out of a hillside, where they could get little
water, either from rain or other sources.

I do not know whether the Date Palm is indi-
genous to the Sahara desert; but this I know, that
it has been disseminated wherever the Arabs have
gone. All along tiie North of Africa, up the Nile,
into the Soudan, into Spain, whence it could h.ave been
easily introduced into Bordighera, on the lliviera, by
" Dominican monks somt^ centuries ago," as the Garikii
.states. In Mooltan, Siudh, and adjacent countries the
Date Palm grows iu hundreds of thousands. There is
a legend ihat the seeils were introduced bv the Arab
coiiijuerors of Mooltan iu the seventh century. It is
largely grown on both co.asts of the Persian Gulf,
whence the best Dates found in the London shops
come. The Date Palm is more likely, I think, to
have been indigenous in Arabia (or wherever the
rbieni.t sylvestris has its home), ami then to have
found its way to the Sahara with the Arabs. There is
no doubt that most trees reipiire direct sunlight to
grow lu.\uriantly and strongly, jirovided they get
moisture at their rootji, and I sliould say the Date
Palm is no exception to the rule. I know it grows
badly under trees, but I would not be certain that
this happens because of the absence of direct sun-
light, and not because it i.s robbed of nourishment
by the trees. The I'luenix dactylifera and the P.
sylvestris are, I believe, bolanically indeutical. At the
foot of the Ivalka Hill, in the Punjab, there is a dense
forest of the latt.^r. The wild Date Palm is also to
be seen all over India. It is one of the "Toddy"
Palms in Jlysore, the Deccan, North- Western Pro-
vinces, and even further north. In many parts of
t^his district tEtawah) there are groups of the wild
Date Palm, with numbers of young Palms growing at
the foot of the old ones; and in the latter case their
soiirce of water can only be from the clouils, in the
rains, as the subsoil water is too deep (often 60 or
70 feet) to suppose that their roots get down to it.

I think the Date Palm will vegetable rapirlly where-
over it gels water at its roots, at the same time that
it has a suitable soil ami a sufficiently warm atmosphere.

In Bengal immeu.se plaut.ations are made of the
I'li.eiii.x sylvestris. Date-sugar is made from its sap.
In Jessore alone, in l,SS2-;j, oihcial reports state that
there were 24,122 acres uniler Date cultivation, and
that the value of moist and dry sugar in that year,
came up to K-kJ,-(G,241. In Bengal the subsoil water
is near the siirtace, and the atmosphere is more or
less damp throughout the year. This P.dm is grown
there only for its Kap, and the Palms are so planted
that their leaves touch, when full-grown.

A.S to the Phujui.'C dactylifera, the cultivated variety,
I have 8tuilie<l it more closely. In the Persian Gulf
there is a great t.ade in Dates with Europe and
.\merica. From information obtained through the
British Political Resident, it apjiears that in the Gulf
there are upwards of one hundnd varieties of Dates,
that some do not ripen their fruit beyond the red or
yellow stage, which is crisp and astringent, or sweet,
according to the amuuiit of ripeness. These are called
" Kharek," and thn.^e kinds which are exported to
Kurope in boxes, after i>assMig through their •' Kharek "
stage, become soft and sweet, and acquire the well-
known amber-brown colour, and when allowed to be-

come semi-dry on tlie trees are picked and packed
for exportation. These are called " Khoorma."

Now everywhere in the Gulf the lUtu Palm is very
carefully cultivated. Plantations are formed of female
offsets only, the trees are irrigated from whatever
source may be possible — rivers, widls, springs, rain
torrents. Irrigation appears to be an important matter
iu Date cultivation. The trees are also well manured ;
iu short, they are treated in every way as fruit trees
are from which a first-olass crop is expccteil. When
iu flower artificial fertilisation is practised, wit'iout
which, they say, a crop cannot be relied on. i\[ore-
over, they say that " unfertilised Dates are stonoless
.and insipid, and only fit for goats." It the Palms
are well cared for and in good soil, they begin to
bear in five or six years from offsets. All along the
Gulf, at Busra, Biishire, Lar, Bunder-Abbas, Bahrein,
El Hasa, &c,, the Date Palm has the influence of the
sea; iu the interior of Arabiii it has not. Palgr.ave
met with it througliout his jcnirney, but always in
oases, whore it could be watereil from some source
or other. He says, "it is the .staff of life and the
staple of trade." In Muscat it has also the eea
air. There the annual rainfall is only (5 inches. On
the other hand, iu Mooltan, it grows from seed spont-
aneously. It is never cultivated. In Sindh, Baha-
wulpoore, Dehra, Ghazi Khan, Dehra Ismail IClian,
and as far as Banuu, it is equally .abundant. Jlr.
O'Brien, Deputy Commissioner of Mooltan, informs
me that the P. dactylifera grows literally in hundreds
of thmisiiuds, so that in the Mooltan district alone
the Government revenue, at the nominal rate of one
anna per female tree (four farthings) comes to
R12,084. At this rate there cannot be less than in:!,.344
female trees. There are, however, many exemptions,
and the male trees are not taxed. The annual rainfall
in Jlooltan is 7 inches, and there is no such thing as sea
air. — E.BoNWH, M. D., Etawah. — Garden, r.i' Chronicle.

COLOKY COFFEE.*

In the Madras Mai! of Aug. llth, the above subject is
continued and Ceylon planters are defended, as follows : —

Sir, — Allow me a little further .space to tell "An
Iniliau Planter" that I entirely .agree with him, that
leaf disi^ase is the sole clause of the deterioration of
the coffee beau, and am sorry I did not say so, but
it is a matter I have always taken for granted. If
he will ro-re,ad my letter, he will find 1 do not vent-
ure to give the AVynaad planters an answer to their
questions, nor a specific methoil how to grow coffee,
but out of my parallel experience advise them as to
the best w.ay of securing color in a particular year.
I said plainly that I thought the discussion as to color
futile, because, in my opinion, easily to be inferred
in my former letter, color has not deteriorateil iu
nearly so great a degree .as the size and fullness
(iiuality) of the bean ; they really fix prices, not the
color, for color is not the criterion, but the confirm-
ation of quality. Colfee is apparently doomed, and
the most intelligent jjlanter eauTeally do little against
le.af disea.se. If ever the pest .abates in viruleuco, the
bean will improve, and up will go prices and color.
As to low prices of Ceylon coffee in 1884, I cannot
speak from personal kuowleilge, being absent most
part_ of the_ year, but would attribute them to deficient
rainfall during the early months, and consequent want
of size in the bean. Surely an "I. P.," is aware that
cultiv-ation has been cut down in Ceylon from K120
to R4.5 per acre during the last few years; so lie
must not attach the whole blame to planters.

I am \iii-y sorry to hear from an " I. P." that
Ceylon men turn out badly in India, but find it
difficult to reconcile the statement with his reference
to the " several superior Ceylon men " now in the
AVynaad ; an " I. P." may assure himself a great number
of " superior " Ceylon men have bi;en given occasion
to leave the island. l\lr. .lowitt is que pretty well
known Ceylon man India has secured. lie is the
Wynaad Chairman and (in confirmation of my theory)
is the leader among those trying to gain iuformation

* See p. 210 ef ffq, — Ed.

390

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885,

" experimentally " as to the cause of the deterior-
ation of the coffee bean. I imagine the large majority
of the AVynaad men were weeping and waihug and
gnashing their teetli. but doing nothing, and he, with
others, is doing his bust to pull them together.

Ceylon or Indian, we are all of one blood, and it
only needs earnest and sensible men like an •' I. T. 'and Mr.
.lowitl to remind their brothers in affliction, that they are
Englishmen, for them like the chivalrous knight of old,

"To fight the light"

"Though e'er the night"

" Their ' toUams ' pass away."

5th August. M. V. -

Another correspondent writes as follows:- —

Sir, — The \\'ynaad Planters' Association, in bringing
forward the very important subject of the deterior-
ation of their coffee beau, may perhaps fiud some
cousolatiou in the fact (although it seems hard to
say so) that the other districts of the country could
tell much about the same tale. I find from parti-
culars of London coffee s.ales for the past two years
that coffee from all the planting ceuties of Southern
India has been reported upon as more or less poor
in quality — not excepting even Mysore, if we leave out
Oanuon's and one or two other standard brands, the
remarkable prices paid for which no fellow can under-
stand, especially when Shakespeare says "what's iu a
name? " And ]i, I. coffee, while being generally poorer
in quality, is iu itself nut solely to blame, because
all medium to good middling qualities have suffered
from undue depression, while fancy prices have been
paid for a few choice lots of particular boldness and
color. The last two months have witnessed a consider-
able turn for the better, and a rise in the prices of
our B. and A. qualities of 10s. to 15s.. and they are
again. I find, taking the lead of M. T. Oeylon. This
is as it should be. A good sound coft'ee. although |
lacking somewhat in color, will geuerjilly find its level — |
and what I would say iu the matter in this " Don't ;
despair." A\'e shall yet have Pulney days. I have read
with interest the several and various theories put ■
forward by numerous correspoudeuts in your columns '
regarding the deterioration, or want of color, in the
bean, and as a practical planter I can't say there
secims to me much to be learnt in these days about
the curing either on the estate or the coast — if there
were, the logical deiluction would be that during the
last two seasons every planter and every Coast Agent
had been careless in their curing — a palpable absurd-
ity. I should say it is something iu the seasons, and
it would not be a bad idea for our omniscient Gov-
ernment to import a special I\Ieteorological Reporter
for the benefit of the planting communiti, now they
have a craze on that way ! Combined with topsy-
turvey season.^, I thiuk there is one point — and a
very material one — that seems to liave been either
entirely lost sight of— or but barely aliiuled to, and
that is, what do the majority of planters now spend
per acre oi; their properties ? ' It used to be nothing
i<nder 10(1 Ks. as a rule; then 80 Rs., and now
it has come down to, well goodness knows what. I
hear some parties who have had a large experience
in the industry expect estates to be worked on
l!4n per acre ! And so we go on, — wo shall be lauding
into the twenties eventually— and then I should think
the cry will be, not Where's the color and quality,
but where's the bean y

As far as AA'ynaad and the Nilgiris are concerned
too, I am presu,aded that the gold mining mania of a
few years back has much to answer for. Many a
poor coffee bush could tell a tale of lliotc days.
A\'hy, of what value was cott'ee if you could oidy prove
that you had a gohl r<^cf or two under ground, not
to mention a tr/w Ji.tstur rein '.' AVas not every one
hastening to be rich with gangs of estate coolies delv-
ing hito the bowels of the earth all over the coimtry,
.and besides the prospective lakhs, was not all tlic
talk about the "dip" and "strike" of one's reefs'
I don't forget that grand stalking hor.se " leaf dis-
ease" it is so convenient to trot out and put all the
blamo ou. It is an insidious disease and does its
work Btealthily, but you will find it delights to revel

in neglected plantations and, like all diseases, may
be expected to attack our enfeebled constitution first.
It has been, and always will be, I hope, of little

consequence on well-cultivated and manured estates

with rare exceptions. I am alluding to .Southern
India, solely, I may add not to Ceylon. I don't want
a Ceylon man to vent his spleen on me. The con-
ditions in the exi.stence of coffee have always been
different iu that far-famed spot of the earth, I main-
tain. Coffee wants a dry season to give the tree a
rest, winter in, harden its wood, force out blossom,
and free it, or the soil from fungoid and parasitical
growths, such as leaf disease for instauee. It is a
wonder to me coffee has lasted so long in Ceylon,
with its all-the-year-round moist climate. I fear few
coffee planters in Southern India realise what a bless-
ing our dry season is, because, unhappily, it often
lasts too long. I don't think the AVynaad Planters'
Association can be congratulated on the wording of
some of their queries, which is a pity. For instance,
it said " and variably fetches a lower price, compared
with that of other districts, thair it did iu fromer
years." I have said at the outset of this letter enough
to show that other districts have also suffered, and
if it would not be that I should be taking up too
much of your space, I could fill in a huge column
of prices from Mysore down to Cape Comorin for
comparison; and I am much surprized to fiud that the
Association should apparently be ignorant of the fact
that coffee produced on the Travancore Hills — about
Permaad — is invariably the lowest type of coffee
produced in India, if I am to judge from the prices
it alw.ays sells at. And surely one would have ex-
l^ected them to know that there are still estates in
"Wynaad that can show a record of good prices even
in these days. While the older districts in "Wynaad
in the open seem to have about had their day,
there are several promising young districts sprung up
protected by shade. One wonders rather at the Associ-
ation damning its district with such faint praise.
Surely, with a favorable situation, good soil, and
careful cultivation, coffee yet does and will yet do
as well as ever it did, but for, say, an occasional
attack of leaf-disease, or a bad season. Leaf-disease,
I think, we must expect nrore or less of at times,
but according to the degree we cultivate will be
determined the extent and damage of the attack. I
can't believe, myself, that there is any deterioration
in the coffee tree as such: for the sitnple reason that
seed is alwys picked from the robust and healthy
trees, and although it is quite right to say that,
this, it can scarcely be believed has always been
carried out; yet e%'en if it be allowed that seed has
been picked from poor trees too, it can scarcely
amount to any argument in support of a deterior-
ation iu the tree in general.

Before closing, I would also state my belief that
shade under 4,000 feet does seem generally to improve
both the size and colour of the bean. From my o^m
experience on two properties adjoining each other —
one under shade, the other in the open — the one
under shade does better, both in colour and size.
But both quality and colour depend, I thiuk, a good
deal upon whether you have a heavy crop, a medimn
one, or a light one. The coffee crop of South C'oorg
of 1884-85 was a heavy one, and prices, as a ride,
were very low, quite as low as AVynaad coffees. The
crop of season 1SS5-86 — just past — was a light one,
an<l has getu'rally been well reported on for tjuality and
colour, .and has fetched wonderfully good prices generally.
Take Naiduvuttum coffee — the synonym for the Ouch-
terlony valley. Their crops for the past two seasons
have not been large ones, and their jirices corre-
spondingly good, but two seasons b.ack, I remember,
when they had rather a he.avy crop — the general
rnu of their prices was much lower.
Nilgiris, 31st July. Anon.

♦

A Mic.v MiN'i'., from which sheets twenty feet in
width are taken, is said to have been discovered about
ninety miles from Virginia City, Nevada. — American
Grocer.

Dec. I, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

391

COCA AT

SUPPLY.*

THE SOURCE OF

BY DR. SQUIBH.

Very soon after the effects of cocaine 011 the mucous
nicmbraues were cstiblished beyonii reasonable ilonbt,
;uul the scai'city of good coca, from which to make
the alkaloid, was realized Dr. F. M. Uuunell, the
Surgeon-General of the Navy, took an active intere.st
in the subject of the supplies of coca, and the causes
of the scarcity, and the interior quality as received
in this country. Having written to the medical officers
of the Navy on duty along the western coast of
South America, he took the subject to the Hon. W.
E. Chandler, Secretary of the Navy. Secretary
Chandler addressed the State Department on the subject,
and about the middle of January the Hon. F. T.
Frelinghuysen, Secretary of State, addressed a circular
letter to the diplomatic and consular officers of the
United States in Peru, Bolivia and Chili, " in regard
to the difficulty of procuring coca for the United
States of a reliable ([uality, and inquiring where the
best varieties of coca are found, and the best mode
of preparing it for transportation, and how it can
be brought within reach of the American purchaser."

Medicid Director L. •!. AVilliams, of the Na\'y—
himself personally familiar with the western coast of
.South America— had some good correspondents there
to whom he wrote on the subject ; and finally the
writer corresponded with several intelligent gentlemen
more or less familiar with coca at its source of supply.

The writer is very much obliged to Dr. (iunnell
not oidy for his own efforts in the matter, and their
importance, .and for copies of his correspondence,
but also because through him was obtained all inform-
ation from the correspondence of the Department of
State. The writer is also very much indebted to
the Hon. Kichard Gibbs, U. S. Jlinister to Bolivia,
for some years resident at La Paz; and to the Hon.
S. L. Phelps, v. a. Minister to Peru, who has for
some years been located at Lima. Each of these
gentlemen favom'ed the writer with private letters
on the subject, as did also Consul F. 'W. L. Dauelsberg,
of vVrica and MoUeudo. Dr. William H. .Jones, of the Navy,
also supplies nmch useful and important information.

The writer has long had a very intelligent corre-
pondent at Para, ]5razil, and knowing th.at the
tributaries of the ..\mazon ran through fertile coca
districts of both liolivia and Peru, he supposed that
a commerce in the article might be started down
the Amazon, thus avoiding the transportation across
the Andes to the western coast. An opportunity
occurred of meeting this correspondent, Mr. "William
Brambeer, of Piu-.i, on his way home. He was shown
the article, which he had never seen at Par;i, and
was instructed in points of identity and quaiitj', and
took with him a sample of Bolivian coca of fair
(juality ; and in less than three months' time the
writer received from him a shipment of coca which
came down the Amazon to Para.f

" From Ephemeris, May.

t This shipment, however, turned out badly. The
leaves were evidently a very good variety of wild
Peruvian coca, just what they purported to be, and
there was no discoverable admixture of other leaves.
But when the bales were opened the leaves were
found to be damp and mouldy, aud with neither the
odour nor taste of coca. Although put up in three
thicknesses of bagging-, and one clumsily applied
covering of tarred cloth, they had evidently become
(lamp and heatel during transportation. Upon a.ssay
these leaves, although looking pratty well, yielded
a very simll proportion of alkaloid, and were not
worth working. The whole cause of this great
sacrifice of an originally good article, was in the very
bad way in which they were put ui) for transportation.
Had they been put, when quite dry, in metal lined
boxes and soldered np, they would have been worth
1'30 dollar per pound on their arrival, and even in
ordinary times would have brought half that price.
Any such price as (i'">c. would have yielded a profit
of say 20 per cent to the shipper. It is very much
to be hoped that such results will lead to better I
packing. I

From all these sources the following information is
compiled; and the information is believed to be more
complete, more recent, and perhaps more trustworthy
than any hitherto publi.shed.

The most elaborate and most complete of all the
communica'.; .;j on the subject, is the report of U.
S. Minister Gi'.'.s, of La Paz, to the Department of
S ./-^s. La Paz is the great centre of the coca
trade of Bolivia, and the business in it there is very
large, the Government deriving a vi'ry large revenue
from the ta.x upon the coca. There are many large
dealers there, and Mr. Gibbs gives the names of
Messrs. V. Farfan & Co., as one of the best and
most important, as it is one of the largest, commerical
houses of Bolivia (.lealing in coca. Tins house has
four large plantations in as many yungas, — or deep
narrow valleys in the sierras or mountains. Mr. (libbs
states that nmch of his information was obtained from
this firm.

There appear to be two very distinct varieties of
coca, the Peruvian aud Bolivian, each eomitry claim-
ing each \'ariety as being the best. I'eruvian coca is
a smaller, narrower leaf, and so ranch thiimej- and
more fragile in texture that it is much more br(tken
in gathering, drying aud ' packing. It is of a much
brighter green colour when in best condition, and
by age and change during transportation it becomes
of a duller, lighter, yellowish green, while the
Bolivian becomes yellowish brown or hruwn. The
Bolivian is the larger, broader, rountler, thicker aud
stronger leaf, less broken up, and when in its best
condition is of a dull, deep olive-green on the upper
side, and much lighter beneath. The characteristic
faint lines on the under side of the leaf, which
form a narrow ellipse with sharp ends ^lanceolate),
the midrib passing through the centre, — are more faint
and more frequently undistiuguishable in the Peruvian
than the Bolivian \-ariety ; or, rather, the lines aro
seen on every leaf of good Bolivian coca, but are
not discoverable in a small proportion of the Peruvian
leaves, even when unadulterated. The odour and
taste of the two varieties are almost identical, but
differ much with the quality.

In both tUe ([uality is uniform throughout each
package, and is gooii or bad. not so nmch from the
original character of the leaf, as from the damage
in curing ;uid transportation. These two varieties,
of course, shade olf into each other, as the districts
from which (hey come lie nearer to each other, so
that it is often difficult or imposibic to tell whether
certain parcels are Peruvian or Bolivian.

Each variety is subdivided into the wild and cultiv-
ated leaf. Coca from wild plants is larger anil
thinner, and is generally considered inferior, but of
its inferiority there is much doubt. It reaches the
markets more broken, and less carefully put np, and
this may cause a prejudice against it. If in good
condition it yields about the same proportion of
alkaloid as the cultivated coca ; but as there is un-
doubtedly a value to coca which is not measured by
the yield of alkaloid, the i)roportiou of alkaloid does not
disprove the alleged inferiority.

The general method of cultivation seems to be
common to Peru and Bolivia. The best coca is saiil
to be produced on hill sides which aro from 3,00l) to
(),0U0 feet above the sea-level, and it is grown upon
terraces of various widths on the sides of deep nan ow
valleys called ''yungas," The seed is sown during
August in beds, or bo.\es filled with earth, and by
the following June, when the plants are 8 or 10 inches
high, they are Iransplanted on tin; terraces about
tliree feet apart, in a soil kept free from shade and
from any other growths. By November the first or
lower leaves are of the deep olive-green coloiu- which
marks maturity. A rich soil is needed, but fertilizers
are not .iscd, and, however good the soil, it is said
to be rather rapidly exhausted by the plants, so that
a succession of fresh plantings is kept up. The shrub
grows to the height of from 2 to 6 feet, but the
largest plants do no yield the best leaves. Each
buth yield.s, as a rule, three crops a year, — or in
exceptional localities four crops. The first is culled

392

THE TROPICAL AGRrCULTURlSf.

[Dec, I, 18S5.

the March crop, the gathering porameuciug in Jan-
uary. The second is tlie Saint John crop. Iiegiuuing
in May, and the third is All Saints, collected in
October, and then the slu'ub is completely stripped
of leaves. Moist seasons produce the most delicate
leaves of finest quality, and droughts are very de-
structive to the crops, but as droughts in these
mountains do not extend over very larije districts,
the total crop is not often seriously varied from this
cause. The croi)S are gatheri.'d leaf liy leaf, chiefly
by Indian women and children, who stoop in front
of each bush and collect only the leaves which are
mature, in their aprons. Minister Gibb's authority
tells birn that the women are careful not to touch
the top of the bush, for, if this be tnuclied by man
or animal, '* it withers and dries up." ]M en visit the
women from to time, and take the gathered leaves,
in large sacks, to an enclosed yard, which is paved
with smooth iiat stones or slates, laid with very close
joints and kept very clean. These pavements are
so situated as to get the full Force of the sunshine,
and the first gathering of leaves is not brought to
them until they are very hot from the sun's rays.
The leaves are then spread thiidy over the hot pave-
ments, and being loosely raked aud turned from time
to time, are dry in from three to four hours in
favourable weather. Sometimes, however, they have
to be left overnight, and arc then liable to be
damaged liy dew. No gathering is done in very
cloudly or damp weather, and damage ouly occurs
from changes during the day after the collection
has begun. AVhcu dry, the leaves are packed at
once by means of a rude wooden press in square
bales, of coarse cloth, of a cesta or about twenty-five
pounds each. Two of such bales are put together
under another envelope, generally made from the
bark of the banana tree, aud such a package of
about fifty pounds is called a tambor, or drum, and
measures about 11 .-< 15 x 17 inches. 'Wlien these
parcels have to be sent across the coast range of
mountains for exportation, three are jiut together in
a tarpaulin-covered package of one hundred and fifty
pounds, and two of such packages make a load for a
mule or other pack animal for this transportation of
several hundred miles through mountain passes. Coca
is very easily damaged by the combined effect of
heut and moisture, and is, therefore, always stored
in cool, dry warehouses, and rarely handled or traus-
])orted in damp weather or during the rainy season.
This rainy .season is from Jiinuary to April, and,
therefore, tliat stored on the west side of the coast
range is alone available for exporo during the rainy
seasou. "When exported it is said that it usually
starts in very good condition, and will reach its
destination in the same condition, if carried in a cool,
dry place. Such transportatiou is always stipulated
for in bills of lading, but the proper precautions are
generally neglected, aud hence the worthless condition
in which it is often seen. The only absolute
security for it in trausit is, therefore, to have it
soldered up in tin or ziuc, enclosed in wood, and
such parcels geuerally contain two tambores, or about
a Spanish quintal of a hundred i>ounds. Although
shipped from many ports along the whole coast, the
principal port in Peru seems to be Salaverry. the
port of entry of Trujillo or Truxillo, and the principal
port for liolivia is Arica, — MoUendo being now closed
by the civil war in Peru.

Much of the difliculty in getting good coca during
the past year or two is attributed by all the corre-
spondence to the demoralization incident to the civil
war.

Coca seems to be produced throughout the whole
Andean plateau from Ecuador to tho Argentine
Republic. The Peruvian Government is .said to record
and tax a proiiuciiou of over 1. 5,000,000 pounds per
auuum, and the Bolivian Government about 7,500,000
pounds. Of the latter quantity, Mr. Gilibs says,
about nS per cent is consumed in r>olivia; — .'Vrgentine
Kepublic aud Chili, each 15 per cent, aud Peru, 10
p er cent, while the remaining 5 per cent is exported
to the United States aud Europe ; thus giving about

375,000 pounds a,s the export of Eoliria. As Peru
produces about double the (juantity credited to
Bolivia, it seems probable that about double tho
quantity may be exported, or, say, 750,000 pounds;
and if this, too, goes to the Uuited Stales and
Europe it would make an aggregate of about i,lL'5,000
pounds.

The market report here is that one manufacturer of
cocaine iu Europe and one in the United States
hav<! each secured this entire cro]) for this year, aud
a third manufacturer has secured " the remainder. "
If these reports be true in the aggregate, cocaine
will be very plentiful, since l,0oVi,000 pomiils of
coca would yield at least 2,500 pounds of cocaine,
while oue-fourth of that quantity would probably
overstock the whole world.

Mr. Phelps gives some important statistics in regard
to cost price. His data are obtained from the owner
of a hai'ienda, or coca plantation. This hacienda of
Seuor Don Carlos A. Gonzales Orbegoso. of Lima,
Peru, lies north-east of Lima, is .about thirty leagues
in extent, and jields about as good coca as is to be
found. On the estate it is sold in packages of
about fourteen ounces, each at 2.V to 3 reals. The
cost at Trujillo would be about 3o sols ot silver ppv
Spanish .|uintal of one hundred pounds. The cost of
tins and packing, aud of transportation to tbe seaport,
Salaverry, would be about (i sols additional,— total
■11 sols, equivalent in bills on New York to 31'75
dollars per Sijauish quintal of one huiulred poimds, or,
say, 32 cents jier pound on .shipboard, with freight to
New York at about 1-50 dollar ))er cubic foot.
But the o^vner ipialifies this estimate by saying that
_ any unusual demand might put up the price.

Bfinistcr (libbs says the price in Bolivia varies with
the supply and deniaud of different years from 1875
to 1884, between 8 and 20 "soft dollars "' per cesto.
The " soft dollar " is stated to be equivaleut to 80
cents, and the cesta or cesto is about twenty-five
pounds, so that the extremes of price seem to be
about 20 to (il cents per pound,— and this, by
inference, at the .seaports of Arica or Mollendo. the
I .shipping charges and freight still to be added. It
is retailed to the consumers by the small shops and
on the sidewalks, from the original packages or cestas,
at the rate of about 5 cents for twenty-one or
twenty-two grams, or three-quarters of an avoirdupois
ouuce, or about TOO dollar per pound— or by the
single pound at about SOc.

The consumers of coca both in Peru auil Bolivia
are the native race.s, and among these the cousum(>tion
seems to be a nearly univcr.sal habit, and this habit
must have descended from the times of the Incas,
since I\Ir. Gibbs .says he has found buried with the
ancient Peruvians small quantities of coca and the
small earthen vise used with it to hold the lime or
potassa of the eoca-chewer.

The whites of these countries seldom use c.ica
except as an infusion, and then the first water i.i
thrown away as being too strong.

Mr. Gibbs is informed that habitual consumers of
coca know nothing of toothache, and have their teeth
in good condition to the greatest ages attained.

The habit seems to be not uulilie that of chewing
tobacco, and the efltect obtained from it, — or supposed
to bo obtained, — is of a similar kind, although it is
doubtless a restorative or gentle nervous stimulant,
rather than a narcotic.

There is no allusion in any of this voluminous
correspondence to any advance iu prices, ihie to the
late excitement aud demand, either in Pirn or Bolivia,
and it is therefore probable that the enorni'ius advarce
in prices here and in Europe has yielded enormous
profits to the holders, while the supply at these high
prices, in the New York m.arket, has been abundant,
though the quality has been very low.

Looking hack over the past six mouths in the
lights id' all the trai\sactions of the market Hie writer
now believes the scarcity in this market to have heeu
a fictitious one, maintained solely in the inierests of
price and profit. And the reasons why a lictitiouH
scarcity could be maiutaiaed so long were, Hint that

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

39S

the holders were very few in number, aud could
control all arrivals, while the demand was very sharp
and greatly beyond the real necessities of the case.
Next, because the exciEenient in tlie market came at
a time between the October ami JIarch crops, and
liming the rainy season, when but little coca could
safely cross the coast range to the seaports. Aud
finally, by the civil war among a people who, at
best, are very slow to respond to the demands of
trade, though very greedy of gain, and always impecu-
nious.

The great danger now seems to be that all this
^\ill produce a corresponding reaction. The writer
has not known the time when a tou or two of
coca of inferior (ju^lity, yielding fairly of alkaloid
to the improving process, could not have been easily
bouo-ht in this market, but at very high prices, — say,
from r25 dol. to 1'75 dol. per pounci, while for two
months past the arrivals have not been large enough
to make much impreSBiou on the price. The March
crop is now gathered and in the home markets, aud
if, stimulated by the reports of tlie high prices in
the United States and in Europe, large quantities
are thrown into these markets, the price may be
ruinously depressed.

No one seems to think how small a quantity of
the alkaloid will really be required for all the uses
to which it can be put,— or how far a drachm vial
of a 4 per cent solution really goes in the ordinary
practice of any physician or surgeon. It is now
highly probable that every manufacturer in this
country is, in common with this writer, overstocked
with. alkaloid, and wishing that he could find a sale
for it that would enable liim to make it on a larger
and therefore more economical scale. The writer has
as.sayed samples of good coca sent by Dr. Jones,
Mr. Gibbs aiul Mr. Dauelsberg, and they all yielded
over •3,') per cent of cocaine or about twenty-five
gr.dns to the pound. Assays of two lots, which ar-
rived during the past month, gave each about 4 per
cent ei|nivaleut to about twenty-eight grains to the
pound. But thus far all these lost are controlled in
the interests of his;h pri es, none that was good
having been met with at less than 100 dollar per
pound. From such coca, at a moderate i)rice, the
salt of the alkaloid coidd be sold at a fair profit at 15c.
per grain instead of the recent price of 30c., and
any one of the four manufacturers in this country
conld easily supply the entire demand.

Late in April, however, tlie price of the hydio-
cldorate, though pretty firmly held in the wholesale
market, was reported to have declined in private
channels. The Medical Department of the Army was
in the market for 2,000 grains, and although the
quantity was so small, the competing bills were said
to be 18, 19, 1!U, 20 and 22 cents per grain, and
this report, if not entirely correct, was believed to
be very nearly so. This gave the writer another
opportunity of reducing his price without risk of
being bought out for conjpetition. He had been selling
at 30c. per grain, subject to the 10 per cent discount
of his list, and had not varied from that price. But
when others were offering at ISc, he also reduced
his price to that figure on May 20, that is, to 20c.
per grain, subject to 10 per cent discount upon the
conditions of his list of prices. This price is quite
high enough now that coca of fair quality is coming
iu so freely that the high prices cannot be longer
maintained.

The quality is improving very much with the
quantity arriving, and soon, upon the arrival of that
shipped in tins, there will be an opportunity of
making a good fluid extract again.— I^harmacextica/
Journal.

GnowiNfi FonKST Turks. — Save in the case of high
mountain sites, or where large tracts have to be laid
down under wood in a short space of time, and
with a scanty supply of labour, modem foresters have
clearly established the superiority of planting over
sowing, on the grounds both of economy and tho
hotter results obtained.— /"/(A',

50

I DOUNDAKK AND ITS BARK.*

(• Quinquina afi-ieiiiii," or "Kina du Rio-Nmuz.")

UY E. HECKEV. AND F. SCHI.AQDKNHAtlFPEN.

The doundakc although doubtless used from the

remotest aniiquity by negroes iif .Vfrica, has only

during the last seven or eight years been suspected

t by_Kuropeans to have any true value. It was only in

18"() that it was pointed out by M. N'enturini, a

French naval pharmacist, as being possibly eap.ible

of other use than as a charm or fetish among the

I uegroes. This author affirmed that the active principle

I of the bark was salicin, a statenieui that has not been

[ confirmed.

The doundake plant was first described, though
imperfectly, by Afzulius, f who created for it the
genus A'urcoce/iliaiii.i, .and named it 6' esulentus, on
account of the agreeable taste of its fleshy syncarpio
fruit, which caused it to be much sought after by
the natives. The description has been reproduced in
a condensed form, but with some additions and
rectifications by Oliver.J This author, however, whilst
mentioning the popular names of the plant in two
or three dialects, such as '■ doy" (15a,s.sa) and
"anielliki" (Sierra Leone), does not mention the name
"doundake," in the Sousou dialect, which is cerlainly
the designation under which this plant is best known.
Oliver places the genus kurcucepludus iu the tribe
Nauclea?, in the Kubiacese, and he only mentions
two species as occurring iu Africa, S. enciiliiitiis,
Afz'^l., and &'. Riis.<e{/e.n, Kotchy. The former is almost
exclusively limited to the literal of the western coast,
whilst the latter grows in the interior. So closely
do these two species re.semble one another that
Jles.srs. Heckel and Schlagdenhauffeu thiuk it prob.able
that what is said about the hark of the doundake
will apply equally to the bark of the tree growing
iu the interior. On the other hand. Dr. Corre has
reported that he saw a plant in the forest of M'bour,
between Joal and Portudal, which had the general
appearance of the doundake, though its bark was
white and devoid of bitterness. But as he did not
.see the flowers it is not certain whether this plant
was identical with S. Jliisser/epi or a third species.
The authors of the present paper having received
further iuformation ooucerniug the doundake plant,
together with flowers, leaves and brauches preserved
iu spirit, have drawn up the followiug description: —
Sarfocejihiihis fscii/rnUis, Afzel.— A .shrub, with a
short, robust and knotted trunk, gnnrled and thickset
like the small Breton oaks, hut of less dimensions,
sometimes attaining the thickness of a man's leg.
In young plants the branches spring from the stocks,
forming a loose cluster, .and attaining a great length
without any ramification, or at the moat, in a very
slight and apparently aborted form. The smooth or
puberulous shrub occurs .sometimes under the aspect
of a climbing bush, three to seven metres high. The
stem is covered with an uneipial, rugose, fissured
bark, but differing very much iu appearance according
to the age of the plant ami the loc;ility in which
it has grown. In the adult state the barks coming
from the Kio Nunez differ in apjjearauce from those
coming from Sierra Leone. The former have a corky
aspect, which explains the name of Naudfa saiit-
hiuina given to the plant by T. M'interbottom.
Usually, this hark is grey in the young condition,
but later is of a more or less deep yellow. The
subjacent layers, which sep.arate in thin lamellre
throughout the whole length of tlie stem, are of
a more or less decided orange-yellow colour, but most
frequently rather bright. Tlie young branches have
a thin greyish bark, fissured longitudinally, and covered
with small blotches or small bluish, marly cylindrical,
or slightly tetragonal .spots. Leaves ojipositc, coriaceous,
slightly acuminate, obscurely narrowed or nearly
rounded at the base, with limb entire, glossy, glabr-
ous on both surfaces, slightly a.symmetric, undulated,

* Abstract of a paper iu the Journal de I'hirmacie
for April 1 and 15, [5], xi., AC'j, 468.
t ' Transact. Hort. Soc, London,' vol v.
} ' Flor. Trop. Africa,' vol. iii., p. 38.

394

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

witli seven or eight etroug nerves on each side,
t rmiiiating in au arc before reaching the margin
of ipitf, shining gi'een below, pale green above, 005
to 0-20 m. long; petiole short (0-005 to 0020 ni.)
twisted; and rose coloured. Stipu.es intermediate to
the leaves, short, obtuse or slightly acuminate at
the summit, minutely ciliate and of a purple-brown
colour. Calyx tubes coherent ; calyx-teeth 4 or 5,
provided with filiform clavatn nppendages, caducous,
and disappearing rapidly on the development of the
corolla. Corolla white or yellowish-white, funnel-
shaped, much narrowed at the base, slightly fleshy,
4 to 6 lobed, and with imbricate estivation. The
corolla is caducous, and has an agreeable odour of
orange-flowers or honeysuckle. The stamens are in-
serted in the throat of the corolla, and have a
very short filameut supporting an elongated anther
dehiscent longitudinally. Disk, none, or inconspicuous.
Style brown, filiform, longer than the corolla-tube,
supporting a snow-white stigma, thicker than itself.
Ovary buried in the syncarpium with two cells formed
by septa that never unite completely. Syncarpic
fruit 0 0(i2m. to O'OSni. in diameter, globular, with small
parietal cells separated by membranous septa, reddish-
black to brown when mature, with a fleshy core
occupying one-fourth of the diameter of the fruit.
Seeds small, whitish, ovoid, smooth. Old plants are
said to produce a gum, a specimen of which is in
the museum at Kew.

The Sarcna'phalns is distributed widely in Africa,
from Senegal to the Gaboon, especially in Senegambia,
Dakar, Casamance, UioNiuicz, Iles-de-I,aos, Eio Pungo,
Sierra Leone, TTpper (Juinea, Monrovia, and the Niger.
In Sierra I.eone the natives call the fruit the peach
or fig of the country. At Dakar it is sold commonly
in the marltets, l)cing obtained from a neighhouring
locality called Hann, where the plant grows spont-
aneously in abundance. The tree flowers in May,
June and .Tuly, and the fruit is ripe in October.
According to Schweiufurth the fruit may be oom-
parrd to n strawberry, but its odour is rather that
of the apple. Eaten in excess it acts as an emetic.
The plant prefers the neighbourhood of the sea-coast,
but it is also met with in the interior. SChweinfurth
.says it occurs in the Nile region, and also that it
is cultivated in the north of (luinea.

The bark being the only part of the plant employed
in medicine, the authors have submitted it to a close
examination, -and give a number of histological details,
from which the following are taken : —

rrimuri/ Burl;. — A section of a young branch shows
a villous epiderm, with short lymphatic, not very
numerous conical hairs, r.elow this epiderm is a
collenchymatous zone, with elements rich in proto-
plasmic contents and a great number of them in
addition showing reildish-yellow contents. It is in this
zone, and in these culls, that the yellow resin
considered to be the active principle is thought to
be probably partially localized at first. This zone,
consisting of only three or four slightly thickened
oval cells, passes to a layer of similar cells, but
polygonal in form. Immediately below these two,
which the authors term the collenchymatoiil and
describe minutely, is a lacuuous parenchyma i-omposed
of spherical elements with thickened walls, half of
the cells being strongly coloured. This layer is in
virtue of its size the most important in the primary
bark, but no more than a trace of it remains in
the definitive bark, llelow it a dense parenchyma
prevails, in which the cells are polyhedral. The
contents are of the same nature, coloured matter
occurring in a certain number of elements. Next
comes an intermediary zone, closely approximating
to the liber, which may be considered as liber paren-
chyma, and which is composed of very small elements,
interrupted by numerous large, closely i)acked, ovoid
elements full of yellow colouring matter. A soft
liber finishes the cortical series.

Secondary and Vrjinithu: Unrl:. — In the adult bark
of the stem and old braiiches is found a suberous
zone, which extends to the sclerous elements and is
compcsed of brownish cells with sinuous walls. This

suber is produced by the formation in the secondary
parenchyma of a generative zone, which occurs next
in order, but which becomes effaced in old barks
The secondary parenchyma constituting the remainder
of the bark is formed of cells with somewh.at thickened
sinuous walls, colourless and without contents, except
some shining granules of a proteic nature. Throughout
this tissue sclerous cells are distributed abundantly,
either singly or in groups varying from one to fourteen.
The sclerous elements are of varying lengths, have
their walls thickened and strongly coloured yellow,
and do not at all resemble Ihe fibres of the wood or
Mber.

To sum up : doundakiS bark, from whatever source,
presents first a suber layer, and secondly a cellulous
parenchyma with sclerous elements. The layers in
the primary bark, referred to as the lacunous paren-
chyma, the dense parenchyma, the intermediate
zone and the soft liber, disappear with the primitive
epidermis. It is thought probable that these primary
layers, at first much reduced by compression due to
the secondary development of cellular parenchyma,
become atrophied or crushed against the wood, and
remain adherent to it when the bark is removed.
The authors distinguish between two forms of this
drug, dilTering in aspect, if not in chemical compos-
ition and structure ; one of these comes from Boke
(Rio Nunez) and the other from Sierra Leone.

The Sierra Leone bark, from adult branches, is
externally greyi.sh and fissured, but has a general
smooth appear.^nce on the surface, with here and
there small hard excrescences of a darker colour. As.
the branches become older the fissures multiply and
the suber cracks in pl-ites; the colour moreover
deepens, so that the blackish excrescences, which also
become multiplied, are lost in the genera! yellow
colour ijredominaut in the bark ; some plates of grey
suber are, however, still noticeable. The very old
barks are rougher still ; the fissures multiply in every
direction, especially around the black excrescences,
which become larger, and the underlying yellow
cellular parenchyma becomes exposed to view by the
removal of the suberous plates, which assume a russet-
grey appearance and fall into a reddish powder.
The interior of the bark is of a yellow-ochre colour
and the surface is striated longitu<linally. The cellular
parenchyma, which constitutes the greater part of the
bark, separates easily in thin flakes imiform thick-
ness. The taste of this bark is freely bitter, resembhng
that of quinine, or perhajis better comparable to that
of quassia amara. It is localized in the yellow tissue
of the parenchyma with sclerous elements. The
suber, easily separable in square flakes, owes its
astringency to the tannin it contains ; it has no
bitteruess.

The Boke bark derived from full grown branches
resembles the preceding externally, but in that taken
from branches and stems, the suber rapidly assumes
an ochrey colour, and becomes spongy and pulverulent;
it is much smoother than the Sierra Leone bark, and
free from the blackish excrescences. The internal
surface is a deeper yellow, but it has the same lam-
ellar fibrous structure. The suber is less astringent,
as it contains less tannin; the cellular tissue has a
clearer, more decided and less ochreous yellow colour ;
the taste is rather more bitter. There is the same
anatomical structure in the two barks.

The douudake barks frequently arrive from the
coast of Africa mixed with barks from the .^forhnia
citrijolia and another species of Vorhula which the
authors suggest might, if it proves to be a ntw species,
be named J/. Doundali-. These barks resemble doini-
dakc bark in many respects, and are said to be used
by the natives for the same purposes ; but they
may easily be distinguished by a histological examin-
ation.

As a result of an earlier examination of douiulakf
bark, Messrs. Bochefontaine, Feris and Marcus had
announced that thry had succeedi'il in isolating
au alkaloidal substance crystallizing in rhombnlL,>,lric
form, and soluble in water and in alcohol. Thi,s body,
which they named '' doundakine," was desevibed as

Dec 1, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,-

395

being obtained by exhausting the bark with dilute
sulphuric acid, filtering the extract, adding excess
of lime, evaporating to ilryness, and exhausting the
residue with alcohol. They also described the result
of some physiological experiments made with this
substance. The authors of the present paper operat-
ing in a similar maimer obtiiined a substance
which gave the same physiological residts when
administered to frogs, and "guinea pigs, but did not
correspoiid to the chemical auil physical characters
attributed to '• doundakiiu-." It is true that it was
precipitated by the double iodides and the phospho-
molybdate and pliosphotungstate of sodium ; but it
was devoid of alkaline reaction, did uot combine
with acids, and could not be obtained in the .specified
crystalline form. The authors, therefore, operated
upon the bark with a scries of solvents after the
manner laid down in DrageiidorlT's 'Plant Analysis.'
The bark reduced to a lino powder was first
exhausted in a continuous displacement apparatus
diuring si.x hours with light petroleum spirit. Upon
evaporation the spirit left equal to 12 per cent of
residue, consisting of two fatty bodies which were
not completely investigated.

The bark was then treateil with boiling chloroform, the
percolate being yellow liquid with a very in tense
green fluorescence. This lii|uid left on evaporation
a residue which gave up to very dilute hy<lroch!orio
acid a small quantity of yellow matter. This
hydrochloric solution gave with double iodides and
phosphotungstate of sodium reactions which seemed
to point to the presence of an alkaloid. Hut when
it was evaporated to dryness, the residue treated
with water, and the solution slightly aciilulated and
carefully filtered, the reaction was no longer obtained.
The authors, therefore, consider (he xjrecipitates
obtained in the first place were not charscteristics
of an organic base. The portion of the chlovoformic
extract insoluble in acidulated water dissolved to
a considerable extent in cold alcohol, and the re-
mainder was soluble in boiling alcohol. The cold al-
coholic solution left upon evaporation a very bitter
residue which proved to contain nitrogen, and yielded to
water some substance which gave with double iodides
precipitates analogous to those of organic bases. But
the addition of a small quantity of acid to the
solution caused a fresh precipitation quite as volum-
inous, and the residue after evaporation dissolved
in pota.sh in the cold ami behaved generally like
the petroleum spirit c',.xtraet. The authors the'refore
concluile that chloroform removes several bodies from
the bark, one containing nitrogen, of a rusinoid nature
and soluble in alcohol, the others being a mixture
of wax and fatty bodies.

The bark was next extracteil with alcohol as long
as any colour was imparted to the menstruum. The
tincture was of an intense yellow colour, with a
very pronounced green fluorescence. Examined spectro-
scojiically it gave results corrcspiuuliiig with the
presence of chlorophyll. Upon evaporation equal to
6'95 per c-^nt of residue was obtained, which was
only partially soluble in cold water. The aqueous
solution gave reactions showing the pre-sence of a
small quantity of tannin, and it re.Iuce.l Barrcswil's
liquor. It was also precipitate<l by the double iodides,
picric acid, pliosphomolybdate and phosphotungstate
of sodium. This precipitati n appeared to show the
presence of an alkaloid ; but when ths solution was
conccrtratcd and treated with dilute hydrochloric
acid, it gave a similar precipitate, from which the
authors conclude.l that the principle dissolved was
of a resmoid nature and not an organic base.

The pitchy-lookiug residue, insoluble in cold water,
was first treated with hot water and then with
boiling alcohol, and in this way three separate bodies
were obtaimrd, two of them containing nitrogen and
the other not. The first (uj was of a yellow-red
colour, very intter, soluble in hot water and in alcohol,
and gav(- upon analysis results represented by the
formula (.^jS 11|9 ^'l>|3. The .second (i) was yellow,
insoluble iu boihog watei;, but soluble in alcohol, and
U represented by the formula O19H16NO9 The

third ((•) was kermes brown, insipid, insoluble in
boiling alcohol or water, but solubhi in caustic potash
Evidently this last was a proiluct of alteration,
probably a colouring matter. Both a and b can be
used to dye silk or linen and give with indigo blue
fiine .sbides of green.

FurtLci- treatment of the bark with acidulated
watei removed i'.'Mlii per cent of allniininoid, amyl-
aceous and 5.1.11 i matters, leaving UI'liDS per cent
of ligneous residue, yiddiug GD7 per cent of ash ou
iuciner.ation.

Doundake bark from Bio Xuiuz (Boke) when
treated in the same manner gavt; similar results.
A larger yield of the yellow matter .sohilile in wale r
and that soluble in alcohol was obtained, which is
what might be expected, as (he Boko bark is much
more intt;ustly yellow than that from Sierra Leone.
The Boko bark, on the other liand, contained only
a trace of tannin, whilst the alcoholic extract g-ave
no indications of the presence of chlorophyll. The
authors are of oi>iuion that the active principles of
the Boke doundake bark consist of two colouring
matters, havii>g a j)ronoun(;<;d ta^tl■, ami ident<-l
in respect to chemical and physiological properties
with those obtained from .Sierra Beone bark, but;
dilCering manifestly in the brightness of their tint.
l''urther examinations of the two barks by other
processes gave identical results. The authors there
fore consider themselves justilied in saying — (1) that
"doundakiue'' as a cvystallizable alkaloid does uot
exist, but is is suggested that the name might bo
appropriated for the colouring matter to which tho
bark owes its physiological action; (2) that tlic: bit-
terness of iloundake bark is due to two colouring
principles of a resinoid nature, both containing nitro-
gen, one soluble in water and the ()ther in alcohol ;
(."i) that the barks yield another principle, tasteless,
insoluble in water, but soluble iu caustic potash, as
well as glucose and traces of tannin.

Upon a consideration of the foregoing facts, and
of the different solubilities of the two resinoid bodies
that appear to be the active principles, Mes-rs.
Heckel ami Schlagt.leuhauS"en recommend the use of
a dilute spirit in making a preparation of doundako
bark for therapeutic purposes. Iu their experience
the best results have been obtained in using 60'
alcohol, which gave a dry extract equal to 21 ]»('r
cent of the bark. The use of a hyilio-alculinlic
menstruum is also in conformity with the practice
of the nativt\s, who macerate the bark in wine. In
this form it has been reported to be a good sub-
stitute for cinchona bark, especially' as it is bctti r
tolerated by the stomach for a long time. The
authors are, however, disposed to accord to doundake
bark a secondary place, similar to that occupied in
relation to cinchona bark in South America by the barks
of /.anthoxi/lum carihacuiu and Z. I'cnoiletti. There
appe.-irs to be no doubt that doundake bark possesses
.astringent and tonic febrifuge propeities, but the
authors consider there is ro atisolutc justification for
its designation as " quinquiua' africain or " quinquina de
Kio ^anez."— I'kanmceiitical Journal.

To Restouk and Peesehvk Fi.owehs.— Kadod (lowers
may be generally more or less restored by immersing
them half way up their stems in very hot water,
and allowing them to remain in it until it cools, er
they have recovered. The scalded portion of the
steins must then be cut off, and the Howers placed
in clear cold water. In this way a great number
of fadcil flowers may be restored ; but there are
some of the more fugacious kimls on which it proves
useless. Flowers may also be jireserved, and their
tints deepened, by adding to the water a little .sol-
ution of carbonate of ammonium and a few drops
of phosphate of sodium. The effect of this in giving
the flowers a deeper colour and a stronger appear-
ance is quite wonderful; and, by cutting off every
other day about halt an inch of the stems of the
flowers with a sharp knife, they may be kept as
long as their natural life would last.— i)irfi«W Ourdener,

30

•THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[Dec. I, 1885.

KUCALYPTDS GlOBULTJS IN FiOWER IN SCOTLAND. —

Mr. Dunn, of the Dalkeith Gardeu-s, kindly forwards
a branch of this in iiower with the following note : —
*' The plant, or tree, was raised from seed I received
from Melbourne, Australia, in 1870, and sowu in
the early spring of 18S0, and grown under glass
for two years. In 18S2, when about .5 or 6 feet
high, it was planted out, in the month of June, in
the middle of a Kose bed in a sheltered spot in
the grounds, where it has grown freely and uninjured
since. It began to show its adult leaves last season,
and on the branches on which they were borne
the llower-buds appeared in Blay this year. The
first fiowers opened on the ICth inst., and they are
now opening freely, and present rather a striking
appearance on the young tree. The tree is about
18 feet high, and the flowers are produced on the
branches trom the middle upwards. I am not
aware that it has flowered out-of-doors in Scotland
previously. — Gardeners^ Chronicle.

Tea from Jamaica.— What a Colonial botanist
can do to stimulate flagging industry and develop
new resources is well exemplified by Mr. D. Morris,
the Director of the Botanical Department, Jamaica.
"We have before us the broker's report on the first
commercial sample of Jamaica-grown Tea, sent into the
market mainly through the energy and forethought of
Mr. Blorris : — " A\^e have carefully examined the sauiple
of Tea, and now beg to hand you our report on it. The
leaf is very fairly made, though if intended for our
market we think it would be well if the slight
glazy appearance it possesses could be avoided. After
infusion the leaf is liriglit, indicating good quality
and careful preparation ; while the liquor has fair
strength and good flavour, combining to a great
extent the peculiar characteristics of a fine China
black leaf, and a Oeylon Pekoe Souchong. AVe consider
the value of the Tea here to be from Is, 6d, to
Is. 8d. per pound (in bond), and if yuu could send
a fair-sized parcel, no doubt it would meet a good
reception from London buyers. If at any time we
can furnish you with information, or assist the de-
velopment of the Tea industry in your island, we
shall have much pleasure iu so doing. ^Ve beg in
the meantime to be permitted to congratulate you
upon the specimen of the manufactured article you
have now sent us, — (Signed) Geo ^ymTE & Oo." —
Gardeiie's' Chrouicle.

BAJinoo. — In Burma, as in most tropical countries,
the Bamboo is in great demand, and to the mass
of the people is invaluale. Of Bamboo alone a com-
plete and comfortable house, absolutely proof against
the troijical downpour of rain, can be erected in an
incredibly short .space of time. A roof made of large
Bamboos split in half, and laid over and under,
like tiles, is absoluti'ly waterproof. The drawback,
however, of Bamboo as a house material is that it
lasts but a few years, and is, of course, simply swept
away by fire ; but to a native of a country abounding
ill Bamboos, from which iu three days he can re-
construct his dwelling, this is a trifle. Other every-
day uses are scaffolding, bridging, fencing, and de-
coration—carts, boats, fittings, malting and donn^stic
Htpnoils, and a variety ot indufitiial and economic
purposes too numerous to detail. A fine mat of
split Bsmbw forme the basis of the exquisite Burma
boxes, the one industrial specialty of I'ppt-r Burma.
The younj shootn of Bainb,jn« are edible, ami pickled
by the Chinese, wlitl.it (be softer wooded species
.Vield a highly l)i-oinising inatriial for the manufacture
of paper, .'■ilira is contiiiiied ill l.-irgc ((uanfity in
both the leaves and "tern of Bamboos, and in held
in solution in the Huid contained in the growing
etems of many species. This fluid is often limpid,
but as it dries u]) it become^ millty, and finally
deposits a cake of gelatinous opaline .silica at tho
tiottom of the .loinf. known as " (.abasheer," piisse-is-
lug curious o)>ticid propcrli(^s. These little discs of
" taliHsheer " may often bo picked up in a bamboo
forest after the bamb 0 which yielded it has decayed ;
H11.I when a bamboo forest has been destroyed by
»,- tb.'.se white calcined di.scs form quite a feature j

Vegetarianism. — Professor Gubler, iu his recent
researches as to the cau.ses of cretaceous degeneration
of the arteries, has made the very interesting dk-
covery that a principal cause lies iu a vegetable
diet, and thus explains the frequency of cretaceous
arteries among the French rural population at the
early age of forty. This is the more iniportaut,
because it is well understood that "a man is as old
as his arteries," nud that chalky degeiuratiou of the
arteries is the most fatal kind of premature ageing.
Further proof he finds iu the fact that the Trap-
pists, who live exclusively on vegetable food, very
soon show arterial degeneration. In districts where
chalky soils load the drinkiug-wafer with earthy
salts a vegetable diet acts more rapidly in all'ecting
the arteries than regions of siliceous formation. —
Bi-itiAli Jledical Journal,

To Keep Down Worms in Pots.— There are few
who have gardens and pliints in pots who do not
require at some time or other to place the pots
out upon the ground — perhaps iu the shade during
summer, or plungid in ashes in winter. "Worms
in such cases,'' writes a correspondent of a garden-
ing contemporary, "are often troublesome, and to
keep them from entering pots is a desideratum.
Having during the past winter, to set a large
quantity of plauts iu small pots in a frame placed
on the ground, I first levelled and flattened down
the soil, and then strewed all over it fine slaked lime
to the thickness of about a qu.arter of an inch ;
over this again was placed half an inch of fine
ashes, and on this bed the pots were placed. As a
result, although three months have elapsed, not a
worm has given sign of its presence iu any of the
pots, aud I feel that the plan has proved entirely
successful." — Indian Gardener.

Oompbessed Teak for Loom Shuttles. — A corre-
spondent in the Garden states that the increase in
the price ot Box-wood, largely used iu the manu-
facture of loom shuttles, has directed attention to
the possibility ot producing some cheaper material
equally suitable. It has been found that compressed
Teak will answer the purpose, aud a powerful hy-
draulic press has just been made by Sir Joseph
AVhitworth of Manchester for Mr. Eobert Pickles
of Burnley, to be used in compressing this class of
timber for the manufacture of loom shuttles. The
press consists of a strong cast iron top and bottom
steel cylinder, with a large ram. In the centre of
this ram is fitted a smaller one, with a rectangular
head fitting into a die which is placed on the top
of the large ram. The timber is put into this die
and a pressure of 14 tons per square inch applied.
The timber thus treated is made verj' dense, uuiform,
and close grained, and is capable of taking a very
high finish. — Indian Gardenrr. [Query; — whether sutiii-
wood, thus compressed, would not be equal to box for
wood engraving. — Ed.]

PiiOKMiUM Tenax and othek Plants in Scotla.vd,
— The finest plant of Now Zealand Flax in this dis-
trict is growing in the garden of Mr. Wm. Walker,
Strathkiness, Some of the leaves aro nearly 8 feet
in length. At present there are two flower-steuis,
the tadest of which is 0 feet. This bears e dozen
trusses of deep crimson flowers. (I kuow of one
catalogue and one dictionary in which white is given
as the colour.) Note was tiik'-u of the rale ot
growth, when at its quickest. This was found to
be 2j( ioehfcs in 24 hours — Ij during the day, aud
\ ini-h during the night. The soil is strong loam,
and there is Itut little shelter. This plant, which
hns flowered twice beforcj is a peeilliog froiu seed
ripened iu the open air by I^r. Traill, Orkney. In
the snmc plot is a &ne eSample of Veronica Tr»-
Ver.'ii, t feet in height, 5 feet acros.s, and completely
covered with bloom. In a small cool greeuhouso,
amongst luxuriant native iiiid hardier ev.otie Ferns,
is an Adiautum pedatum, with stems ^11 inches in
length, and leaves almost L' feet from tip to tip.--
J. W., St. Andrews, N.B. [The usual colour of
I'hormtum temix is orange.— Ed.J— Oafi/£wr<' Chi'onielc,

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

397

To ihe Editor of the " Ceijlon Obsa-vcr."

THE JAVA PLANTEKS ANXIOUS TO GET
INFORMATION .VBOUT CINCHONA CULTIV-
ATION IN CEYLON.
Baudoeti},' (Java), 20th September 1885.

Dkak Sir, — Kcquestcd to acquire as much know-
leilge as possible relati\e to the cultivation of cin-
chona. I take tlie liberty of requesting you to
enlighten me as to the following questions ; —

a. How large is the plantation at Ceylon ? and
from what year does it date ?

h. What rates are on the products directly or
indirectly, such as emphyteutic rent, ground tax,
license patents, Ac?

c. In what way is it cultivated ? how is it
gathered, dried, packed and transported ?

d. To how much do those costs amount ?

e. How much must be paid for warehouse dues,
shipping, iusurance, landing, expenses in Europe,
commission fees, ttc. c^'c?

_/■. How and for what price may analyses be had ?

(/. What machines are used in gathering and
drying the bark ?

h. What is the average quality of the bark?

Any further information as to expenses, kind of
cinchona that has being planted, &e., will be
gratefully accepted, as I shall be happy to give
you any details acquired also from foreign lands. —
i have" the honour to remain, respectfully yours,

W. TOUSSAINT,

Secretary of the Planters' Association at Bamloeiig.

[The above is of interest as showing how our
neighbours in Java concern themselves about our Cin-
chona planting industry. We shall send Mr.
Tonssaint our publications with the needful inform-
ation, as far as it is available : as for " emphyteutic"
(improving) leases, such are unknown in Ceylon. — Bd.]

BE WATEE-WHEELS.
The Scottish Trust & Loan Company of Ceylon, Ltd.,
London. 10th Oct. 1885.
Dejir Sir, — When a proprietor has two water-
wheels on his estate or group of estates, let him
place one behind the other, tandem fashion, the
one uphill running free, but connected with the
one below driving the machinery, by a wire rope,
and my conviction is, good power will be obtained.
I mean to see it tried on my Knuckles properties.
—Yours truly, THOMAS DICKSON.

[A very good idea. Our own was to have a
separate shaft for the extra wheel, with belting con-
necting it with the shaft by which the machinery
was moved. We suppose Mr. Dickson means
that the wire rope should go over and under each
other wheel in a gioove on the rim of the wheels.
-Ep.]

" WATEE-WHEELS AND TBA-BOLLERS.
Colombo, 16th Oct. 1885.

De.ui Sib,— Eefcrring to your senior's article
" From the Hills " in last night's Observer giving
the performance of the "Excelsior" worked by
a 16'fcet water-wheel, will you permit us to
say that a 12.fect water-wheel has reeently been
erected by Messrs. J. Walker it Co. on Blackstone
estate, and is now working the No, 3 Challenge
roller with a small supply of water ? The pioprietor
of the estate infonns us that the machine now
turns out with the greatest ease 80 lb. of withered
leaf every quarter of an hour, or 3,200 lb. per day
of 10 hours, against about 2,000 lb. obtained j
bv hand-power. This is not so bad for a begin-
BJjiS.— I'vurs faithfullj-, W, H, DAVIES & Co. j

TEA LAND IN THE LOWCOUNTEY.

Sir, — Referring to Mr. Dc Soysa's lands in the
Western and Southern Provinces you state that
some of these vuidulating lands would rouse the
envy of .\; ..111 planters. Now, I do not mean to
depreciate Mr. I'o Soysa's or anybody's land, for there
av. oxceptions ; but as a rule, when diligently hunt-
ing in the loweountry districts favored with a good
rainfall, in rnmihinii witit an Assam pianlcr, wo
found such lands, as a rule, very poor and the
hilly and high lands near or adjoining nuicli
superior. I can only account for it by the system
of •' chenaing" in vogue in ancient times. Only
20 miles from Colombo in the neighbourhood of
Labugama could bo found flats suitable for tea
but of poor soil and not of a lastinn character,
while a few miles off, in the hilly track round
the reservoir, are plots very desirable for a product
like tea, but unfortunately the preservation of those
forests is necessary for the Colombo water-supply !
and they are most properly reserved, save a few
hundred acres which Government are likely to sell.
The lands referred to by you are well suited tor
other products, as well as tea, and Mr. De Soysa
should be " a pioneer" as respects these. Without
disrespect to that gentleman, I think it absurd to
call him " a pioneer" of an enterprise which has
made its stand three years ago and when this
gentleman, like others of his nationality, would .
not have dropped one cent in it. R.

'Our correspondent should have seen by our
second paragraph tliat Mr. De Soysa began plant-
ing tea three years ago, and is therefore, decidedly,
a pioneer in the neighbourhood to which we referred.
—Ed.]

ANOTHER TEA-ROLLER: THE INVENTION
OF A LAWYER-PLANTER.

Nawalapitiya, 23th Oct. 1885.

" The cry is still ' They come.' ' — Shakcspcrc. " The
more the merrier." — Popular proverb.

Snt, — As everything connected with the economy of
tea-machinery is of immediate public interest, I
venture to send you a few remarks on a new roller
which I saw at work yesterday. It is no secret
that the energetic proprietor of Blackstone, who
may be said to be in tea manufacture the senior
wrangler of the year, has been for some lime devoting
his natural acumen, doubtless considerably sharpened
by the study and prolonged practice of the law, to im-
provements in tea-rolling, and the result of his labors
is a machine which, combining quantity and quality
of outturn with economy of cost and molivc
power, bids fair, I think, to supply the great
practical want of the day. The machine, which is at
present driven by a 12 ft. water-wheel, or by six
coolies, turns out easily eighty ponnda of withered
leaf, thoroughly rolled in fifteen minutes, without
breakage of leaf or discoloration of tip : and the
great advantages it possesses are that little time
is wasted in loading or discharging and that it will turn
out any smaller quantity as well finished as the
maximum to which it can be worked. I am not
a sufficiently good mechanic to be able to describe
the roller to you, and it would be premature to do
so if 1 could, but I send you by this post samples
of the grades into which I saw a roll from this
machine sifted, which, I think you will agree with
me, leaves notliing to l)e desired, Mv. Barber ia
about to patent his invention, and, I believe, it will
be found at a grentely reduced exi>cnse of money and
motive power to compete favorably as regards out-
turn with any of the heavier and more costly
maehines now in vogue. — faithfully youis,

J. L. SHAKD,

398

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISl'. PDec. i, 1885.

TOMATO CULTURE IN COLOMBO.

Agricultural School, 28th October 1885.

Dear Sir, — The foUoniiig experiments in tomato
cultivation have been tried by me at the Agricultural
School. My first exj)erinieut was tried in ordinary
cimiamon garden soil. Seed was sown in a box filled
with soil and manure (cow-dung). Meanw'hile holes
two feet apart were dug in the selected ground, the
soil therein being enriched by a slight addition of
well-fermented farmyard-manure. M'hen the plants
in the nursery attained the height of about three
inches, they were carefully rooted out and transplanted,
two in each hole. When the plants were just begin-
ning to put forth dowers, liquid-manure (cow-dung dis-
solved in water) was applied to a few of the holes, a
topdressing of saltpetre (potassium nitrate) to some
more, and the rest were left to feed on the manure
first applied. The result of this experiment was, that
the plants to which liquid manure was applied yielded
a greater produce than those left to feed on tlie manure
first applied, whilst those that received saltpetre yield
about twice the produce of the liquid manured ones.
Besides this, some of the ijlants were topped. These
yielded fruits that "were actually much bigger and
better shaped than those produced by the others.

Having been successful in this experiment (per-
formed about January last) I proceeded to follow the
same course of treatment with some plants grown in
Jmie last upon a somew'hat moist soil of a peaty
character. These at first, to my great satisfaction,
grew more luxuriantly than those on the sandy soil,
but suddenly plant after plant began to show symp-
toms of declining health which was indeed a very sad
sight, because at this time all the plants had young
fruits. A tree once attacked never recovered. On
examination I found that the sudden change the plants
underwent was partially due to the excess of water
in the soil, caused by the few heavy showers that fell
diu'ing the month. Another probable reason was, that,
as the plants increased in size, their roots began pene-
trating into the sour soil beneath, thus allowing the
injurious matter to complete the rest of the destruct-
ive w'ork. The chief lessons to be derived from my
experiments are as follows : —

1st, that tomatoes thrive better on rich sandy soils
than otherwise ; '2nd, that an excess of water is higlily
injurious ; 3rd, that manure applied in a liqmd state
is very desirable ; 4th, that a topdressing of saltpetre
makes the plants more productive ; and 5th, that top-
ping increases the size of fruits.

Dur-ing these experiments the plants wera not quite
secure from disease. Black spots on the surface of tlie
leaves and blisters upon the stem were caused by a
minute fungus, which was prevented by the applic-
ation of bisulphide of potassium during the early
stages of the attack, but w'lien the disease was fully
established the plants never recovered.— Yours tnrly,
TV. ARTHUR DE SILVA, Agricultural Student.

CINCHONA BARK HARVESTING.

SiK, — Can you or any of your correspondents give
me information on the following subjects?

What is the most advantageous length of time
(after first shaving) to wait before shaving healthy 5-
year old suceirubra trees a second time ? When trees
have been covered with inana grass for six months,
is it advisable to remove the covering during the
wet monsoon weather ? Is it advisable to shave
Ledger trees ? does renewed Ledger bark analyse
better than original? CINCHONA.

[A year is the usual time, we believe, to wait
between each scraping, but the longer the interval
the better. We should think covering would be
needless in the wet weather. Renewed Ledger bark
is decidedly richer than original. Bee Owen's Ciii-
chona Planter's Manual. — Ed.]

FLIES AND BUGS.
Beetle.'!, insects, ronilus. ants, licil-biiys, rats, mice
gophers, cbipnnnilts, clciu-id out by "Rough on Rats."
\y. i). Smith & Co., Madras, Solo Agents.

The R.u.vf.vll at Cherrapunji from the 1st of
January this year up to the 27th of August has been
280-11 inches, as compared with 222-45 inches dur-
ing the same period of last year.

R.iVAGES OF THE YeLLOW RiVEI! AND ReI-AIU

OF THE B.iNKs.— Says the Japan Weekly Mail : —
A correspondent of the North-China Herald
sends an account, which reads like a romance,
of the methods employed to check the ravages of
the Yellow River. It appears that double lines of
einbankment are erected, the larger of the two
being about a mile from the river on each side, and
having a width of 75 feet at the bottom with a
height of 10 feet. This barrier, however, has
proved quite ineffectual. The river burst over and
through it last June twelvemonth, and the work
of repairing appears to have been going on at
intervals ever since. The method of effecting re-
pairs is extraordinary. It is thus described :—

Earth and kaoliang stalks by the million are added
in either end of the broken dyke, the two ends are
so made as to approach gi-ad'ually, and when all is
finished the appearance is somewhat that of a horse-
shoe curve. When the two ends have approached
sufficiently near, cablelike ropes are passed back and
forth net fashion, upon which are placed mats and
stalks and earth, layer upon layer, all pressed down by
stone weights lifted by a score of men. When this
new formation has reached a sufficient height, about
equal to the depth of water swiftly flowing under-
neath it, the supports are suddenly removed ; all goes
down with a rush and a crash and a splash and a
plunge. Sometimes the same thing is effected by
means of an old boat heavily loaded, whose bottom has
been previously knocked out. In either case this
huge plug, so to speak, loaded with workmen as well,
is not unfrequently overturned by the force of the
water thus suddenly arrested in its wayward com-se,
and lives not a few have thus been hurled into a
watery giave. At one time thirteen persons perished,
and during the -year a hundred or more have been
drowned or killed in connection wdth the work on the
river. Some of them were hired men from the cotuitry
near by, but most of them were soldiers. They are
kept at w-ork in dangerous places by means of the lash
in unfeeling hands. The officials are not supposed
to know of this loss of life. It is never reported,
except in the case of some official or icci-i/iiaii who
has fallen with his men. For this more dangerous
kind of work the men demand extra reward.
One way they are paid is as follows. Bach couple
of men carrying a heavy load of earth between
thein, Chinese fashion, are allowed to have as many
cash as they can grab at one snatch as they pass along
each time, the loose copper cash being hi an open
basket on the ground. If considerable time elapses
before the gap is filled, a good roimd sum of money
may thus be picked up. The men risk their lives
for the grab. Pavment at other times is by the
barrow load according to distance, or by the foot.
Ten feet square one foot thick pressed down hard
rolled and poimded are paid 180 real cash. Very much
depends upon the nature and time of the pounding.
If done well it will be to the advantage of the Gov-
ernment and the flooded districts, but the poor work-
man will have less money for his good work. If
done hastily the number of square feet will be in-
creased; but the bank thus made will not resist water.
There is, strauge, to say, a sort of preniiiim upon
poor work. Low wages, "poor pay, and many squeezes
make it the advantage of the workmen to pile upas
much earth as possible before the pounding is com-
menced, and then by making the outside very hard
and level to raise more quickly tlie high and fine
looking mound. If well done, tlic inspecting ofticial
is none the wi.scr. Thesub-insipectorH do not report
the fraud, being somewhat interested in a s(|ueeze
of their own when the work is paid for. The work
on the whole appears much better this year than
last, and but lor tiie large opening made last year and
still open, the Second bank would probably be' effectual
in its object.

Dec. t, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

399

Mk. E. J. C. Brace, formerly of the Nilgiris,
a well-known tea-planter, who wrote an essay on
tea for us some time ago, writes as follows : — " I
hope to be able to send you ere long a paper on
the laying-clown and management of eucalyptus
plantations as a source of fuel in connection with
the tea industry, a matter of no small import
wlien your plantations begin to yield heavily. Just
at present I am fuUy occupied with a translation
of M. Arthur Noel's valuable ' Essai sur les
Kepeuplements Artilieiels.' "

Cacao in Kvmd.apola, H,u>dt,ale. — We learn that
a field of about two acres of the so-called
" Caracas or pale yellow variety of cacao," (but
" Caracas " is usually spoken of as red) planted
with seed at stake during November 1882, is now
loaded with fruit and blossom. The fruit, when
about halt-grown, has a beautiful pale-green tint,
which gradually changes into yellow. The ordinary
cacao planted during the same monsoon has also
grown well and is in fruit and flower but not to the
same extent as the yellow variety. Our informant
is one of the pioneers of new products in Haputale
and is in great spirits over the prospects from
cacao, having over 1.50 acres of line forest thoroughly
suited to the cultivation of this product.

Peahi.s in the Pehsian Gulf. — Major-General Sir
Le»-is Pelly, writing m the British Trade Journal,
siiys : — " The pearl trade of the Gulf has been famous
from the earliest historic j^eriod ; and the pearl banks
of the island of Bahrein, aiid of the small maritime
chieftains known as Dobai, Shargeh, Ainulgawaine
and Rasulkhyma, on the Arab shore-line of the Gulf,
are stiU the richest pearl-fishing grounds in the world
and yet, perhaps, the finest pearls still swill about
on the sands at the bottom of the Gulf waters.
The law seems to be that the deeper the water the
finer tlie pearl or the oyster, and the deeper water
along the banks has never yet been fished. The
Arabs pursue their fishery by diving from small
craft, whicli during the pearl season may be seen
audiored by thousands along the banks. Seven
fathoms is the maximum depth of their diving,
while their ordinary fisheries are pursued in from
four to five fathoms of water. Now, as the water
deepens very slowly off the Arab coast, and as this
shoal water over tlie banks extends some hundreds
of miles— from the reefs of B.ahrein and El Khutiff
to (Jajie Mussendoom — it seems probable that, were
tlie deeper water along these banks to be exploited
by steamers fitted with regular diving apparatus,
miraculous draughts of pearls might still be obtained."
— Pifinerr.

Cor.oNEii Hunt's Lecture on Stock-f.vrmieo in
India travelled outside the lines of the subjects
generally fhscussed at the Simla United Service
Institution, Ijut was none the less valua))le on that
account. Tlic lecturer entered at much detail
into i|UCStions regarding the improvement of
cattle and sheep by better grazing and the stor-
age of foddin- supplies. He warmly approved of
ensilage, the experiments in w-hicli he considered
were promising in India. He pointed out how
much tlie ryot would lienefit if better stock were
raised and means taken to secure an ample supply
of forage fodder. Mr. Buck expressed his
pleasure at finding tlie important question of the
impro\ ement of agricultural stock taken up outside
his own department, and endorsed the lecturer's
views on ensilage. He hoped that the experiments
would be continued. Sir Steuart Bayley, who pre-
sided, said that the subject was of extreme im-
portance not only to Government, but to the ryot.
The latter liad more cattle than he could feed in
bad seasons, and consequently many were allowed
to die. This would be prevented by the introduc-
tion of the silo system. The great object was to
secure publicity being given to the results of
exijeriments. — Pioneer.

The I.VDIAN Tea Districts.— News from Assam and
Darjeehng districts still continues to be unfavor-
able, and from the Terai there are serious com-
plaints of blight, which will affect the outturn. In
Cachar, blight is on the decrease, and tlie weather
IS reported more favorable.— iri7/(rt,» jVonin d; C'o.'s
Market nej)ort, Calcutta, 6th October.

Maeiawatte, which gave 1,1001b. per acre last year
will not repeat the performance this. I believe the
manager does not expect get to more than 800 lb I my-
self tliink this an excellent result after such a heavy
crop but I think the proprietors expected at least
1.0001b. an acre would be obtained whicli is most
unreasonable. The average price obtained for n// the
teas of this estate lam certain will be about Is. 3id.
and I know for a fact that the average cost/. 0. b.
in Colombo is not more than 34 cents. A simple
arithmetical calculation will show you the profit
made by this estate annually when you know that
were the rupee at par, .W cents is just a triflemore
than Sd.— but tlien the rupee is far from being at par
and this still further increases the profit.— r;Vi//ciM
f^'nr, '' Indian I^/anters' Oa::effe."

Malta Lemon Plants for Ceylon. — Amongst com-
munications to the Horticultural Society of India we
find the following :— From Dr. H. Trimen, Director,
Royal Botanic Gardens :—" Dr. Bonavia, of Etawah,
has lately wi-itten to Ceylon strongly recommending
the introduction of a ' Malta Lemon ' and lias sug-
gested that we might obtain plants from your Society.
I should be glad to give the plant a trial liere .aiid
should feel obliged if you could afford me a few pbuits.
The easiest plan to send thenr to me would be to for-
ward them to Dr. King at the Botanic Garden, who
is in frequent communication with tliis cstaljlishment,
and could forward theni in the next Wardianeasehe
is sending us. If I can be of any service to your Society
in return, I should be glad."

OoPFEE Planting Prospects.— Our Koppa (Mysore)
corre.spondent writes: — We are having very good
weather for the late plantings, wliicb a number of
planters have gone in for, in consequence of a former
.■icaroity of labour. The ryots now appear content
with the amount of rain we h.ave had, wliicli up to
the ;!nili ultimo was mare than the total gauged for
the wlinle of last year. The coffee crop in the Bam-
boo will turnout a fair average one, and if the prices
will only go up, there will be good times for the
lianilioo planters. Plantation prospects have changed
considerably for the better. OoftV-e looks charming ;
this season's plants e.'^pecially, have put on a spurt, a.s
if to brace themselves up ag.ainst coming hot weather.
This punshine and rain will go a long W!iy towards
brineiiig the crop to maturity, and picking may be
ex])ected to commence a month, or at least a fort-
niyht, parlier ihnn usual. Labour is scarce and it is
with difficulty that estates can keep their weeds
under. In a month or so tbe 'kandayam ' may compel
many, who are now having a happy idle time, to seek
estate work. — P> S. — Mndnis Mail.

A LAiiOR QnANTiTT of land in North Eastern Ben-
gal has, says the Ten I'lanters: Gazette, been given
up by tea-planters as unsuitable for tea. This is
due a great deal more to the unprofitable nature of
transactions in tea for the last few years than to the
nature of the land. A few years ago it was quite
easy to start any number of tea gardens, in fact, the
name of a new garden had but to be mentioned and
the investment was jumped at. In consequence of
this many young planters took up large tracts of land,
and after paying rent for a few years found the
burden so heavy that they had to abandon the
idea of trying to open out an estate. People are
not so sanguine uow-a-days with regard to tea
as an investment. Although much laud has been
abandoned, there has also been a large area put
under tea in Sylhet and Cachar, in districts proved
to possess a more rapid tea-producing soil than
any yetdisooyered. — Madras Mail,

40O

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885

Thb New Bit.— The Iiiclian Plaiitfrs' (hizi'tte
writes that the attention called to Die ijeii'ection
of the American indiariibber trotting liit let! to such
a ran on them that all Calcutta saddlers are sold out.
Indents have, however, been telegraphed, but the bits
as are only procurable from the patentees in New York,
some time must elapse before their arrival. — Pioneer.
Red Bark. — Messrs. Pati-y & Pasteur have the
followiiig par.'if^rajih in their market report of 21 ;h
Sept. : — We are happy to be able to inform gi-owers of
red bark that the steriiiig qualities of Succinibra have
been recognized in tbe new British rhariuacopieia, the
legal standard for the manufacture of all ilruggists'
preparat'ons. In the new edition just issued, the
cinchona decoctions will in future be made from Red
B.irk instead of as hitherto from the Yellow Bark or
Oalisaya flava of South America; this will probably
cause an enhanced demand for the Ked Ceylon and East
India barks.

Coconut Pi..<ntations : How to Destroy Beetles.
Have you or your valuable contributors on coconuts
never heard the latest contrivance to destroy beetles
in young coconut plantations which are so destruct-
ive as yon know ? I heard this from a well-known
Kurnnegala plumbago-dealer who is proprietor of
extensive coconut plantations, and, as I have no reason
to doubt what was told me, repeat it here for the bene-
fit of your readers. It appears that he and some
of his neighbours fix a hogshead in, say, a 10-acre
block of his property, which hogshead is Ijrimful
packed with "kekima leaves" over which water is
filled, some tender twigs and branches are also
thrown in. Within a fortnight a strong smell, I
would say stink, arises from this cask , which attracts
all the beetles in its vicinity and lures them into
the cask. In the evening a couple of boys are told
off with a guimy bag, to" go round the property and
pick off the cask all the beetles that have dropped
in : as many as :iO or 40 beetles it appears arc some-
times picked off one cask alone. In a short time, the
beetles gradually disappear. Of course all the beetles
gathered are daily destroyed over a special bon-
fire. As I said before, I have never heard of this
cheap method of curtailing the ravages of one of the
enemies of coconut plantations, and will be glad to
hear if any of your readers have ever heard of it or
given this system a trial. — Cor.

K\ju (tiim. — We translate the following from the |
Indisrld' ilerritiir of 3rd Oct. : — Mr. J. H. Ferguson,
the Netherlands Minister in China, has made an
interesting ccnnmunication to the Council of Manage-
ment of the Colonial Museum at Haarlem regard-
ing kaju gum from the West Indies, which variety of
gum is eminently suited to take the place of gum
arable, which is becoming dearer and dearer. Accord-
ing to Mr. fi'erguson, the kaju trees are found, not
only on the island of Aruba, but also in exceptionally
large i|uantity on the island of St. Martin, where
they thrive well in the moist sandy soil between
the mountains and the sea, being nourished by
the rain-water which springs up from the
mountains through the sand. This variety of gum
is found in such quantity in Ht. ftfartin that it
is used in the whitewashing of houses, to give the
lime-watei- suflicienl colesion, on which account it
is used for the painting of woodwork. Boors, window-
blinds and also outer woodwork are painted
with the lime-water thus ]n-epared with kaju gum,
to wliich any coloring material is then added. Con-
sidering the great value, from a commercial i)oint
of view, of kaju gum, the cultivation of the kaju
tree {Aniicardiiim oa-iileiitale) in the East and West
Indies is recommended by thu Colonial Museum.
In the West Indies these trees grow wild, and in
the East Indies they thrive very well. The well-
known ' Achin nuts ' .ai'e derived from these trees.
The fruit is railed in Malay jiunhn mom/et. I''ine
specimens of kaju gum are to be seen in the
'Museum. .The attention of tiovernment will also
be drawn to this subject by the Committee.

PflEsEHViNO Plants, &c.-Mr. P. Henuings states
tb.at durmg the last three years certain fruits, flowers
and other portions of plants liave been preserved in thd
botanical museum of tbe Berlin Uuiversi'v by means
.solution eonsistiug of -1 parts of water and 1 part
ol alcohol, saturated with alicylic acid.

of

^ The Bone Industry of the United States is an
important one. The four feet of an ordinary ox
wiU make a pint of neatsfoot oil. Not a bone of
any animal is thrown away. Many cattle shin bones
are shipped to Europe for the making of knife
handles, where they bring »40 per ton. The thigh
bones are the most valuable, being worth $80 per
ton for cutting into tooth brush handles. The
foreleg bones are worth »H0 per ton, and are made
into collar buttons, parasol handles, and jewelrv
though sheep's legs are the staple for parasol handle's'
The water in which the bones are boiled is re-
duced to glue, the dust which comes from sawing
the bones is fed to cattle and poultrv, and all the
bones that cannot be used as noted", or for hone
black, used in refining the sugar we eat, are turned
into fertilizers and made to help to enrich the
soil. As regai-ds waste, it is the storv of the pio
Nothing is lost except the squenL—Fxrhaiuie.

A Substitute for Coffee.— At the Commercial
Exchange, Cape Town, there were recently exhib-
ited some specimens of a root, umpimvisa, which
had much in common with chicory. The follow-
ing letter from Mr. Hampden-Willis, Und<r
Colonial Secretary, accompanied the exhibits :—
" With reference to a letter from tbe Civil Com-
missioner of Peddie, I am directed to forward, per
separate parcels, some specimens of a root known by
the name of " umpimyisa," viz., a piece cut off
the root, some pieces roasted after being passed
through a mincing machine, and two packets of the
ground material. The root is largely used by
farmers and others, who make a beverage from it
resembling coffee in flavour, but sweetish. The
process employed in preparing it is to pass it
through a mincing machine, roast, and grind it.
Some Cape farmers also make a syrup from it, by
cutting up the root, boiling, and skimming it. This
resembles golden syrup, with a slight cinnamon
flavour. It is thought that, with proper machinery,
this root could be utilised as a substitute for coffee
as an artiale of commerce." — Colonies and India.

Successful Potato-growing near Nuwari Eliya.

22nd Oct.— I have just taken up a crop of potatoes
which I think will show that they can still be
grown in this locality very protitablv. On the 8rd
of August I planted 3G sets which weighed .5 lb.,
and I have today— 11 weeks and 3 davs from the
time of planting— taken up ;i.5li sound 'marketable
tubers weighing 50 lb. They were planted in a
single line on ground that had been trenched 18
inches deep last year and a good dressing of m.anure
was applied to the ground then. The sets, which
were whole tubers, were planted about 1 foot apart
and i inches deep. No fresh manure was used
but a little lime and wood-ashes was sprinkled
round each set at the time of planting and they
received i doses of liipiid manure during the dry
weather when tliey were in active growth. Tliey
were also earthed up after each watering. It is
only fair to mention that two plants were de-
stroyed by grubs and 1 died before any tubers were
formed, so that the 150 lb. were taken from 33
roots. We had heavy rain yesterday from the E.
It began at 1 p. m. and by 3 o'clock 1-83 inch
had fallen ; from then light rain continued to fall,
and this morning the total for the il hours was
2-43. There was scarcely any wind with it and
the total horizontal movement of the air for the
24 liours was only (il'SO miles.— Cor.

Dec. I, 1S85.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

401

THE NILGIIU CIXCUON.V I'l.VN TATIOXS.

The rei>ort for ISSHI.sr, |ia< iv.ichi^.l ns, and we
timl itsre'iallv intoivsliiii; in vit-w of the fact that
Mr. Iloojiir, (hf lu-w <iuiiiohij;ist, has takpii up the
important work of analysis anil oompavison so
sadly intiTrnjjIfd by the mysterious disaiipearance
of poor lirouKhtoii. The one f;reat fact tliat strikes
us in readin!< the cinchona reports from hoth
Xorthern and .Southern India is, liuil. aiiart from
the successful introihiction of lln- Andean plants
and the cheapening of the febrifuge, beyond what
could possibly lie expecteil, tlie operation viewed
merely in the liglit of a commercial transaction,
has yielded a high money return. Apart from
Ihc value of the properties which till remain ni
the hands of the Madras (lovernnient, their own
balance-slieet shows that while the expenditure
from first to last, including simple interest, was
K-i,(;0.5,000, the nett revenue was Ii;{,ir>7,()00 ; show-
ing a )irofit of l!'i"i2,000. In the pai^t year, not-
withstanding the lower price of bark and the al-
most entire cessation of demand for seed.s and
seedlings, the balance to the good was no less
than E(i2, 474. In Northern India much was done
to cheajwn febrifuge and place it within reach
of the jioorcr classes by the preparation of the
mixed alkaloids, against which the only objections
have been that large doses of it produced nausea
(itself a curative process) in some cases and that
a considerable proportion of the alkaloids failed
to be extracted by the cheap and simple process
adopted. As the bark has been produced so plenti-
fully and so cheaply, this latter objection was so
far weakened. The result of .Mr. ISrougliton's failure
to produce a satisfactory febrifuge in the south of
India, led the Madras (iovernment to sell the
bark from their plantations, first in London and
of late years in Madras, and they have also tried
the experiment of getting parcels of their bark
manufactured into the various alkaloids in London
on their own account. Lately they placed about
2,000 lb. of bark at the disposal of Mr. Cleaver,
a chemist got out, apparently, by Messrs. ,\rbuthnot
iV: Co., and others, with a view to establishing
the munufaclure of quinine and other alkaloiils
in Madras, and in the government resolution on
Mr. Lawson's report, it is deemed jiroliable
that a company will be formed and a
manufactory established. Meantime, Mr. Hooper
the new (|ninnlt)g|st, had been so successful in
preparing a li.piid preparation of the bark that
Surgeon-tieneral Cornish, before his departure, had
rci|UCBted that 1.000 lb. of the febrifuge in this form
might be sui)plied to the Medical Department. The
one objection to what api)ears to be a most
eflicacious medicine, in this case, api)lies to the
bulk and the danger of breakage. Hut stone bot-
tles can be used, and as to cost of carriage, we
have to set against this the fact that tbelicpiid
febrifuge is ready to be adminislereel, without
weighing or mixing, doses being imlicatcd by a
quarter of a wineglassful, a half or a full glass.
We cannot but confess to a strong feeling iji favour
of tlie liquid preparation, altlmu^di, ot course, we
arc aware, how easily and rapi.lly Howard's eleg-
ant preparation, to which physicians are natur-
ally wedded, can be diluted by means of sulphuric
51

acid (itsdi medicinal) and water. We await with
ijiterest the r.-p,>rl on the tlionsand pounds of
liqniil febrifuge which Mr. Hooper wai ordered to
lirepare, and the result of .Mr, Cleaver's mis-
sion and t xperiments. It is stipulated that the
■• cinchona liquida " should contain 10 grains of
alkaloids lo the lluiil ounce. Mr. Lawson takes
no such favourable view as the (Unernnient
of Madras does of the result of i\fr. Cleaver's,
experiments, but he distinctly enunciates
the opinion that " the cinchona alkaloids eari be
isolated as well, and ninch more cheaply in India
as in any other part of the world." It is natural
to think so, but attempts in the home of the ))lant
in Bolivia have failed. The Howards and others
have secrets, by which th(!y are enabled lo extract
the last trace of alkaloid from the barks they
operate on, but now that the raw material is so
exceedingly cheap, the necessity for such exhaustive
chemistry is not ap|>nrent. Mr. Hooper seems to
have pursued the special study of cpiinology at the
Hague, under the direction of Dr. de Vrij. the
originator of preparations of mixed alkaloids, obtained
by the cheap chloride ot sodium process. One of
the first services he rendered to the (Iovernment
was to supply aruxlyses of barks which they had
for sale at Madras, the figures regulating the re-
seive prices. Mr. Hooper made analyses of KJ
sijecimens of crown bark (G'. (i^c/h,(//.v) and (i red
bark. The crown bark gave such excellent results,
in quinine alone as, from natural hark H-IH, mossed
4-0!t, renewed 1-22. branch 1-CiO, and root t-JO,
In this case only the lulnl (illitluiiU in red bark
were shown, but (piinine is separated in other re-
ports. The percentage of total alkaloids in the
red bark were :— Natural ")-10 ; mossed (;-87 ; re-
newed n-m ; branch 4-4r) and ;i-07 ; and root H-17.
The percentages .-ire, of course, calculated on
the dried barks, wliieh are lighter by nearly one-
third than the green bark. Our readers will observe
that the mossing process, first adopted by poor
Mclvor, is still persevered with in the Madras plant-
ations, and rightly so, where moss can be
obtained abundantly at a low price,- for an
experiment made by Mr. Hooijer confirms
the conclusion arrived at by Mr. Bioughlon many
years ago, that exposvu-e to the sun and light is
adverse to quantity and quality of alkaloids. Here
in Ceylon but few owners of cinchona trees can
afford covering of any kind.

Mr. Hooper gives a table (quoted on pages
117-41H) in full, showing the alkaloidal value of
the princiji.il sp<cies of cinchona growing in (iovern-
ment and other estates. From the figures we
gather that ('. oillriiinlh, natural bark, gave r,-21
total alkalods, of which, 2-71 was (piinine and
1-28 cinchonidine ; mossed ()-07, ot which quinine
3-.58 and cinchonidine l-:!0 ; renewed, only ry'.)i
total alkaloids, but then 4-11 of this was quinine
and only -'.M) cimhooidine. The increase of the
more valuable alkaloid in the renewed bark (renewed
under moss), is very marked, it will be observed.
The narrow leaved variety of (^ t,jji,-iniilis, known
as niipiisti/olio, when mossed, gave 8-';!.") total alkaloids,
of which ."<-(iO was cpiinine. This looks well, but the
trees are (00 small to be worth cultivating extensively.
The hybrids are really better, because they yield
so umcli more bark. The baik ot ('. i),ih,''sirii.s
gave G total alkaloids of which :i-.f2 was quinine.
The best J.rdjjriiiiihi from South Wynaad (one of
Cajit. Cox's trees, we sui)pos(!) gave '.)•'.) 1 total
alkaloids, of which 8tl was quinine. This, of
course, would be the! kind to cultivate if clin'iate
and soil were suitable and plants of the true type
procurable, r. muruda and C. r«r(/c ot 20 months
old gave such promising resultR as 4'78 total

402

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec. I, 1885,

alkaloids, of which l-SH was f|uinine. Tlie crown
bark was taken from trees growing on Dodaijetta,
some of which wore 22 years old, some 111 and
some 14. The younger trees gave belter results
than the older, and, whatever may be the ease
in the Andean forests, it seems clear tliat here
in India, cinchonas pass their prime soon after
the tenth to fifteenth year of their existence.
As the hybrids are now so largely cultivated in
Ceylon, we quote what Mr. Hooper writes about
these : —

The bark from liybrid trees between ''. Oljiiiwihn
and C. succiiiihiti has received of late a great deal
of attention from planters. There are t\\o kinds,
named respectively C. MoainfoUa and <'. pvhract'vs.
The first approaches in general appearance the Ojfi-
ciiia/is, and the second very niucli resembles in growth
and shape and size of tlie leaf the peculiarities of
fSinrirvhia. But as regards the alk:iIoidal composi-
tion, as far as my analyses h.ave gone, tlie reverse
seems to be the case, for in the alltaloids of tlie
Afafjtii/iilni. bark the cinclionidine predominates as in
Siiri:ii ithra, bnt tlie rnhisti us b.ark forms cliii^dy quinine,
and so exliibits a relation to the t'/fniim/is. In the
accompanying table, the analyses of the Natural IMagni-
folia bark is the aver.age of se\'en analyses made on
selected trees at Naduvatam. The chief alkaloids are
cinchonidinc .and qninine, and the totals very often
reach as much as 8 per cent. The highest total in
a bark, I have met with, was from a hybrid tree
grown in the Oucbterloiiy valley ;itga\e on analyses
4'4 per cent, of quinine, the other alkaloids bringing
the sum up to lu per cent. This bark very readily
yields more qninine by stripping, mossing and renew-
ing, a face which is seen in tlie table wliere the in-
crease appears to t.ake place at the exiJense of the
cinclionidine. This feature will be observed more dis-
tinctly by quoting the analyses of some samples lately
received, also gro\Mi in the Ouchterlony Valley; —

Qninine. Other Alkaloids Total.

Origin.al bark . . IHn 5-.S7 7-2'2

Once renewed . . 2-4() 4''2'2 {'.(IM

Twice renewed .. .H-(iO 3i)i» 7a'.t

The analysis of the Pithe-^cnifi w'as made on a nat-
ural tree planted in the year IHlt.^j ; there is a fair
amount of total, more than h.alf of which is quinine.
The Ledrifilanii barks operated on were found to
be very thin, whereas the .specimens we saw from
Yarrow estate in the Tussellawa distiict, were re-
markable for their thickness. A succiruhra tree
2.S years old, 31 feet liigli, growing at Naduvatam
was divided into parts each of which Avas analyzed,
witli the general lesnlt thus staled by Mr. Hcioper : —

The table shows that the minimum yield in the stem
was ill that part at which the branches were given off,
and that the smaller and thinner bark of the summit and
branches contained more tlian the thicker bark , at the
base. The ratio between the quinine and cincbon-
idine remains constant tbroiighout the stem and
branches. 'I'be root is an exception to this rule as
the quinine is in the .ascendant, and as usual is rich
in quinidine. The whole examination is a proof that
trees when neglected and exposed deterior.ate very
perceptibly in their alkaloidal value ; also that in
fast-grownig cinchonas a maximum yield of alkaloids
is reached at a somewhat e.arly period, and unless
the yield is encour.aged by removal of the natu.arl
bark and renewing under shelter, a decrease of the
alkaloids takes place.

As a general rule, cinchona bark gives H-oO per
cent of ash. Ceylon tea gives 1 to 2 per cent more,
which seems an unexpected result ? Mr. Hooper ana-
lysed other products, and we quote the results in
two cases as of local interest : —

Mniiiiffii (hull. — The gummy exudation of the Horse-
radish tree (.l/f»/7;»/ff /th ii/t/o.ynrnni] consists cliemic-
ally of a large quantity of bassorin or insoluble gum
with a small proportion of arabin or the soluble kind
and a trace of moring»tannic acid. It swells up to
a remarkable extent when steeped in water, gelat-

inizes with ferric chloride, give.s an .abundant preci-
pitate with subacetate of Icatt, and is soluble in caustic
alk.alies. In these and other respects it resembles the
Gum-Hogg of .Vmerit-a. tJnm-Hogg is derived from
an unknown source and imiKute;! from the East Indies;
it is used in marbling paper for binding books. It
seems not improbable that .Moringa gum if not ident-
ical with it, could be used for the same purpose in
the arts.

/iry/ov// /luii'. Ihc intllji sifi-rtioii of Ihr Jitrk j'niil
(Aftm-arims iulcyi-ifoUa). — This was a thick white
tenacious substance similar to bird-iinie, with no
marked odour and taste. It contained "2(1 per cent,
water and the residue burnt with a bright tianie giving
oti a sooty smoke. It was insoluble in water, partly
so in alcohol, and entirely in benzol. It was a variety
of caoutchouc, and as such would be useful as a bird-
lime, and a cement for ijrokcn articles.
The season had been distinguished by drought at
Dodabetta, only Cl"20 inches having fallen spread
over 12:i days, most of the rain falling in storms.
At Naduvatam, which gets the south-west monsoon
in force, the rainfall was !12'.l(i inclies spread over
141 days, a great delieiency on ordinary years. A
storm of IW'HS inches in .luly with fierce wind de-
stroyed the .June planting. The following passage
will sound very strange to Ceylon planters; who believe
in Iceeping the ground perfectly free of weeds : —

Of the II-si( inches which were recorded in October,
no less tb.an ll'lj inches fell in about thirty hours.
Of course such a continuous downpour necessarily
caused some wash, but owing to the gi'ouiid beipg
well covered with weeds, the damage done was com-
paratively triHing.
Again, Mr. Lawson writes: —

Tioihthdla. — The trees on this estate, taken alto-
gether, are in a fair condition. Those parts of the
plantation, the trees on which I stated in my report
of last year to be past their prime, have been cop-
piced and interplanted. The coppiced stumps have
.already nearly all of them thrown out shoots, and
the interplanting is also doing well. For fear of
denudation of the soil taking place during the heavy
spring rains and before the ground would be covered
with weeds, I had a number of brushwood revetments
made on all the steeper slopes where the trees had
been cut down.

Naduvatam, which had been neglected, was in course
of resuscitation, and the plantings of 1KS2 and 1S<8H
looked exceedingly well bei-iinse tln'ilkadhtvii liheiaUij
mnniircil. Much attention is paid to manuring on
the Nilgiri plantations, cattle being easily and cheaply
kept and Mr. Lawson had added to the establishment.
Of course a great deal of the bark which went
from Ceylon in former years received the benefit
of the manure applied to the coffee in wliich so
many of the cinchonas grew. About 400 plants of
0. Oartlieneiia are reported as growing well and so
with a single remaining specimen of the SkiiIu t'6
species. Mr. Lawson states in his report on Nadu-
vatam : —

I jiropose groupiug together in thi.-- part of the estate
all the dirtereiit species and more strongly marked
varities of cinchona which have been growu in South-
ern ludia, in order that those who take an interest iu
the history of the introduction of the ciiichoua into
this country may have an opportunity of studying the
different kinds side by .side. .Vgaiu, berause many of
the species so freely hjliridize, the plants which 1 pro-
pose tT establish here have all of them 'lieiii rai.sed
from cuttings which huve been taken from the trees
originally introduced by Mr. Clemonts Markhani and
others.

It will lie cnnvenieiit to mention here that Mr.
Jamieson has rai.'cd from (he seed sent by Jlr T. 'J'hisel-
tou Dyer from Kew about "JHO healthy )ilants of the
llemijia, which yields the Ci'jnca bark. These I shall,
before the end of the season, plant out also at Naduva-
tam,

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

403

We should tliiuk it scarcely worth while to grow
this latter tree beside the true cinchonas. The trees
on the Wood estate had been destroyed by " the
pestilent sambur," what we caJl the elk in Ceylon
nnd whicli seemed to liave ceased their ravages in
Ceylon. Mr. Lawson makes rather an Irish state-
ment : —

I have ordered at a cost of lvGL*l-ll-(i barbed wire,
with which to entirely fence the estate, as I have
t'ouud that trying to sboot the sambur down is of
little aviil; for as fast as one is shot aiiotlier takes its
place. Jlr. Uliodes Morgan, Di'puty Conservator of
Forests in the iSouthern Oirnle, who has spent much
time in patiently investigating tlie habits of these pests,
informs me that the Siimbur is migratory, and that there
is a cousiant stream uf tlicm passing at om^ time of
the year from tlie plains to the bills, and at another
time of the year from the hills to tliei>lains. This, if
correct, fully explains why there is no apparent de-
crease in their number notwithstanding the assiduity
of the Uoverument shikari.

Now, surely, whether the sambur (Hiixu An'stutrlis)
is migrntoiy or stationary, surely constant
shooting woulil thin the numbers if it did not ex-
tirpate the deer. From our hills this great animal
is likely soon to disappear. We quote what J(r.
Lawson writes about hybrids : —

There are two notable species of cinchona, viz. : —

(aj 0' titiccifitlhtt.
(b) C- officiiitili:!.

These two species freely hybridize. Some of the
hybridize approach more closely to C. fiKccimhrtt
while others approach more closely to ('. oi/kinali.^.

('. iiilm.ita is the name whicli has been given by
Dr. Trimen to alf such hyi>rids.

O. jiitfn-M:riis is the name given on these hills to
those Uyhriris which more closely approach < '. .vhcci-
rii/tra. This form thrives best at a moderately low
situation and in more sheltered places. It has the
light green tender leaf of C. stircirnhra and tlie same
habit of growth, but it is slightly more hardy.

('. iitatjui/nlia is the name given to tliosc hybrids
which more closely approach V. aliicimtlix. This form
grows well at high elevations and on exposed and
rocky ground. The leaves in its most characteristic
form are of a dark, rich glo.ssy green; they arc
also tough and leathery, which enables it to resist
better the evil effect of high winds. In its habit of
growth it is similar to ('. nuccirubm, but is much
more stnrdy.

Kxperunents which 1 have made on the keeping
properties of cinchona seeds show that it loses its
germinating power if kept several mouths exposed to
the air, but that if the air is excluded, the seetl retains
its vitality for a considerable time longer.

Perfectly fresh ripe seed ought to bo a pale green
color, but a short exposure to the air turns this to
a dull red. UTiis change is due to the oxidation of
the fixed oils which the seed contains in great abund-
ance. This change in color is by no means necess-
arily indicative of the seed having lost its germin-
ating power.

The bark taken off tlie trees in the year was
118,000 lb.

The following items are interesting : —
J''i:ki. Sdi'I'I.v. — In my last year's rejiort, paragraph
.S<>, I stated that the shulas upon wliieh the estates
had hitherto been dependent for fuel weie nearly ex-
hausted, and that I proposed replanting the old

sholas with /■'mithl/ifu.t and Ai-Ufia mr/ann.if/tint. This

was in a great })art done, but owing to the nnseason-
ableness of th<! weather immediately after the plant-
ing had been effected, nearly the whole of the trees
died out. I do not now intt-nd making any provision
for a fresh supply of fuel ivrvH as i have reeeutly
leariieil that tlie Forest Department will be able to
give all that is needed by tin: estate at a reasonable
cost close at hand.

LAnou. — I am happy to say that I have been able,
at last, to do away with the system of paving the
maistries on the Nadiivatani and Hooker c'states a
commission on tlie; earnings of thoTcooliea emploved.
The maistries are now paid fixed s.llaries only. 'J'liis
alteration has been made possible during "the last
year only on aiu:onnt of tlie .yrcat deerease which has
occurred in the deiaaiid for labor in the Wynaad.

The piop r storing up of m:imne has hitherto been
sadly neglected, tlio suboidinates on the estates liav-
iug been utterly ignorant of the first principles upon
wliieh tbis branch of agrieulture ought to be conducted.
I have, therefore, during the past year paid special at-
tention to this subject. Formerly tbe daily produce of
the cattle slieds was thrown out in loose heaps, where
half of the valuable annnaniacil salts, according to
the season, were eilher evaporat>*d or washed away,
I have now bad pits dug eight feet deep and tbe jiroduce
of the cattle slieds well trodilen down when it is put
in and, whenever necessary, watered. I have also at
Naduvatam, llookir ami Wood, where the rainfall is
excessive, put a roof of tliateh oier theijits. l!y these
means I look to beini,' able to turn out in all seasons
exactly tbe sort of manure I wish to bavc — that is a
short well-rolled eoiujiost very rich in animouiacal salts.
NcusKriii-.s. — 0>vinj,' to the small demand there ia
now on the part of the public for ciucboua plants, I
have ivdui-'cd the numlMi- cd' nurseries on all the estates
to one a |iiece. This is aniplefor the requirements of
the ]ilantations and will Iso suffice to accommodate
100,(100 of each of the more commonly grown varieties,
sliould a deniaiiil for plants again arise, I^ast year
some 1,00(1,001) seiullioys were thrown away as useless.
From the accounts we see that the expenditure on
manure last year was no less than IKi.Hlil. We
notice that the ipiantities of green bark obtained
from trees under (he stripping and mossing pro-
cesses, were .'( lb. per tree ; eopi)icing and uproot-
in;; 1 lb. per tree ; scraped i lb.

The (iovernnient order on the reports takes it
or giiinted that the Nilgiri hybrids will be repre-
sented in the collection which Mr. Lawson
proposes to bring together ; the result of the ap-
plication ill former years of artilieial manures is
asked for, and it is stated that tlie result of Mr.
Lawsou's expcrinieiit with silos will be watched
with great interest. From this order we gather
that the liquid preparation of ciiiclioiia can
be obtained 'M per cent cheaper than the
North of India febrifuge and that it is hoped the
prico may be still further reduced. The sales of
bark were better than had been expected. The
estimates were liOO bales of 100 each at 117.5 per
bale, but the actual sales reached 81!) bales at a
fraction over 100 rupees each, — that is Kl per lb.
average.

The detailed papers (which are given on pages
■117-118) will be found interesting and useful, now
that cinc'haiia is rather looking up again.

KEPOKT ON THE GOVERNMENT CINCHONA
ENTEUPUI8E IN JAVA FOR THE 2ND
QUARTER lHHr>.
(Tniualdli'd for till' " Tropical Aiiririiltiiriiit.")
The weather continued very rainy during the first
part of the ipiarter. About the middle of May a
severe drought suddenly commenced, which lasted
till the end of the past quarter. The drought was
accompanied by strong east winds, and the temp-
eratnru went down at night almost to freezing jioint;
at Tjibitoeng night frosts even were ex periencu-d, wliieli
however dill 00 iiariii to the plants. The dry weather
and tbe higli teoiperatnie (huiii(4 tbe whole of the
day exercised, after tbe eontiniioiis and abundant rain,
a very fiivonrable iiifhieiK-e on tbe plants, and the
harvesting ,was carried on vigorously without hindr-
ance. Of the crop of IssS, which was estimated to

404

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec. I, 1885.

reach about '100,000 pounds, and of which about
130.(_HX) halt'-kilo^ranis have been gathered, Ml.SnO
half-kiloy were dispatched to Katavia by tlie end of
the quarter. At the beginninj^ of tlie second quarter
several Ijedgoriiina dcscundaats, whicli were sliaved
on both .sidcH duriiifj; hist year, began to droop to
such an extent, tliat it was considered necessary
to uproot the sickly individuals. At Tjiiijiroean
and at Nagrak only traces of a temporary droop-
ing were noticed, at Tjibeureuni such was in a
suuill measure tlie case, while at Tjibitoeiig and
at liioenggocnocng tlje damage done is pretty con-
siderable, and an unseasonable harvesting is therefore
absolutely necessary. The drooping and dying of the
scraped trees is probably due to insufficient working
of tlie .soil in some plantations, so that tlie trees
were uiklMc to recover quickly fruni tlic oj>eration
performed on them, ami also originated in an in-
sufUcient expiry of time between the successive oper-
ations, liut in all probability the abundant and con-
tinuous rain also exercised an injurious influence.
Altogether about r),(jOO six to seven year old Ledger-
lanas, chiefly of inferior quality, were dug out.
But in close plantations also at KioLn>.:goeuoeng, which
Viiid yielded only a single crop of Ledgenana shavings,
the scraping method gave leii's favorable results. It
is true that no dying trees were there met with,
but the plants remained dooping for a considerable
time, and the long-continued rain caused the uncovered

Eortions of bark of a very few indi\iduals even to
eginto rot. As the experiments carried out with the
scraping method have not yet given'a decisive answer to
the question, how and when it ought to be performed,
the results obtained call for reflection and caution,
and the experiments will for the present be car-
ried out on a more limited scale. Should it
appear that the trees in close plantations camiot
undergo the operation without danger, then, on account
of the great advantage which such close plantations
offer, through the formation of a maxhnum of pro-
duct with a minimum of upkeep and the formation
of humus in a large measure and the physical and
chemical improvement of the soil which accompany
it, the practice of the scraping method must be en-
tirely aoandoned as soon as possible. At the end of
the past quarter a commencement was made with
the clearing of a Calisaya plantation at Tjbeureum
which yields a pharmaceutical bark perhaps surpassing
in form and appearance anything sent as yet into
the European market cither from the American forests
or the Asiatic plantations. On 7th May and nth June
sales of cinchona seed were held, which realized
respectively /I ,G;V2-'2.'> and fSM). The search for
Ledgeriana trees of high quinine yield among the
descendants of the mother trees '2'^ and 88, reserved
for artificial propagation and for the production of
rich seed plants, has been carried on also during
this year. The results were again very satisfactory,
as among the 7 and H year old descendants were found
eight specimens which seem to contain more than
11 per cent quinine ni the bark. A series of analyses
of succirubra hybrids raised from Ledgeriana seed
gave rather important results, as will be seen by tlic
accompanying statement. Although shape of l)lossom
and habit of a tree give no riglit to infer a very higli
quantity of quinine in the bark, yet tlie hybrids
chosen, agreeing witli Ijcdgeiiana cither in habit
and form of leaf or blossom, were distitignished
throughout by a very high collective yield of qiiiniiu\
Analyses ;t and 1 are specially noteworthy, as they
exhibit, with a modiuni yield of quinine, which is
also met witli in typical Ledgerina of a similar a^e
— H years, a yield of cinchonidine whicli cx<'ceds
even that of succirubiii. barks. The experiments are
l)eing continued, cluctly \\ith the object of finding
among these hybrids trues which an be set apart
for the supply of seed, like No. 2'M' , whose bark is
distinguislied by a high yield of tjuimne of Ui:(;j
per cent, and in wliich neither cinchonidine nor t;in-
cbonino is met with.

Van Komunok,

/)irtc(ur v/ Hoi I. Ciuchona fC)it(i jh tsi .

iiuiideon{j, 3rd July 1885.

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110 fo A'pi.io 1^-° g .

PLANTING

NOETHERN

IN AUSTRALIAN
TERRITORV.

The following is from an abstract of tlie very
interesting and voluminons (juarterly report on the
Nortliern Territory hy the (iovcrnnient Resident
(Hon. J. L. Parsons) : —

I'ahnerston, 1st, Jnly 1885. — The cloud of mis-
fortune has not lifted yet from Agriculture, about
which I, for one, however have an unshaken con-
fidence uf its ultimate prosperity, and of the settle-
ment here of hundreds of luippy fiimiiies i>n;,'aKed
in the cultivation of tropical products. It is, no
doubt disheartening to see failure after failure,
and delay succeed delay, for which not the climate
nor the soil are responsible, hut the want of prud-
ent foresight and of business nuinageuicut. Even
liberal expenditure will not make amends for the
want of timely juejiaration and readiness, when
everything depends apou the season. Two strong
survey parties, under Jlessrs. Kingston and Cuth-
bertson, have gone to the Daly. By the close of
the present dry season it is expected that the whole
of the suitable land on both banks will have been
surveyed, and the (Jovernirjeul will then be in a
]iosition to )ilace agriculturists upon a birge area Of
country. Letters continue to reacdi nie from t^tucens-
land, Fiji, Mauritius, and elsewhere, containing en-
tjuirics respecting our laud laws, climate, soil, and
other particulars, with rclercni:e to troi>ical agri-
culture.

Toit Darwin, 21sl Sept.— .Mr. Olto lirandt has
com)ilcted his sugar factory at Shoal I'.ay. Al-
though the cane is several weeks past its prime,
he obtained the satisfactory average of nearly one
ton and n half of tine wliite sugar per acre, He

Dec. I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

405

expects to liitve 2.jO acres under crop next season.
Tlie Daly Kiver Plantation Company are vigor-
ously i)lantint; tlicir nursery for next season's rat-
toons ; they are also trying other tropiial pro-
ducts,— South Austruliiiit iieyiittfi'.

TKA XIANUKES.
Bv Mil. John HccHfis.

Experiments with 15oxE-i>rsT axu Castob-pooxac.
Analytical Laboratory. 7'J. Mark Lane,

London, K. ('.. <»th Oct. l.s.sr,,

I have carefully read the interesting account of
Mr. v. Carter's experiments with the abovenamed
manure!^ as published in the Tri'pudl Aiin'riiltiiri^t
(see pafje Hll|. and have no doubt that the
elaborate and detailed calculations in reference to
the results obtaine<l thereby have long since been
duly criticized by many experienced planters in
Ceylon as well as by numerous fellow-workers in
India,

The general opinion will probably be that the
increased yield of made tea was not sutlicient to
compensate for the heavy cost of manure, and
that the outlay of I{(>3 in one case and as much
as R70 in another experiment is far too great, if
any, substantial profit is to be made from the estate.

The experiments however, so far as they go, are
highly suggestive, and the author deserves the
gratitude of planters for publishing his results.

It is [K-rhaps a matter of regret that the two
experiments were not made more directly repre-
sentative of htiiu^-ditst as opposed to i-ttstitr-pofnuir^
each being used separately ; instead of a mixture
Oi these two in plot 2. and an innnense dose of
castor-poonac in plot 3.

It will be remembered that in plot 2, IM cwt,
of a mixture consisting of one-third bone-dust
and two-thirds castor-poonac was applied per
acre, the result being an increased yield equal to
liKi lb, of made tea, as ojjposed to an increased
yield of 2M"» lb. from plot :i. where 24 cwt. of
castor-poonac alone were applied.

If we assume that, for the extra <i cwt. of
|K)onac, there was an equivalent increase, as com-
pared with la cwt. (if such had been used over
a separate ]>lotJ, \vc can reduce the increased
yield of 2S5 lb. to 214 lb. ; and this result would
still compare very favourably with that from
))lot 2 where the mixed manure was used as stated
at the rate of IS cwt. and cost KfiO, whereas
the IM cwt. of castor-poonac would only cost E-i2:',.

He this as it may, theic can be no doubt that
the general result of these cxi)eriuients suggests
that castor-poonac is, weight for weight, a more
remunerative manure for tea during the first year
or two than ordinary bone-dust, but whether the
results are likely to be so lasting, is, of course,
another matter and remains to be seen in the
future crops

Mr. Garter does not state anything res])ecting
the composition of the mateiials used, but we
may conclude that the bone-dust was of good
quality, coritaiiiing .50 to r>2 per cent phosphate
of lime and H-70 nitrogen ecpial to 4i of ammonia.

As regards the castor-poonac. it is important to
know ttliitlier the white rich cake containing as
much as 7 |)er cent of nilrogi-n was used, or the
coramou brown cake wliich only contains 4. J of
nitrogen jwr cent.

In Comparing the relative advantages of castor-
poonac and bone-dust we must icmember the
character of the crop we jjroposc to take otV tlw
land. As I have already shown in my original
urlicle on tea iiiamnes, nitrogen is tlie element

which is most required ; next conies potash; then
phosphoric acid ; and lastly lime. Now in every
100 parts of the white castor-cake we tind at
least 1)0 parts of nitrogenous and carbonaceous
organic matter containing from 7 to 7A parts of
actual nitrogen which on deconqiosition will be
equal to from 8,J to 'J per cent of ammonia,
while the renniining 10 jmrts of mineral matters
are speciall> rich in potash and phosphoric acid
in a form admirably adapted for assimilation by
the young rootlets of the tea bush.

If brown castor-poonac is used the percentage
of nitrogen is only from 4 to 4.^ per cent on
account of the largpr proportion of husks left in,
while the amount of mineral matters is also re-
duced in proportion. In bones however we have
only .'!;! ])arts of organic matter yielding 8-70 of
nitrogen in every 100 i)arts, while the mineral
portion is as much as (17 parts containing at
least oO per cent of phosphate of lime in a com-
paratively hard condition so that some years are
required before the full value of the fertilizing
elements can be utilized as plant food. Lastly, the
proportion of potash in bone-dust is very small
and cannot be considered as a ready source of
sujiplying this element. In conclusion I may re-
mark that it seems much more reasonable to ajiply
a moderate dose of manure every other year, than
to give 24 cwt. of a highly rich nitrogenous
fertilizer one year and to allow the tree to suffer
from famine during the next ten years, which would be
especially trying under a stimulating climate. Where
we have a poor soil and an exhausting climate
it appears imperative to apply manure in small
doses, year, by year or at least every second year. In
days gone by there have been plenty of examples
in Ceylon alone, when over-manuring has very
materially contributed to the i)rcmature abandon-
ment of many good coffee estates.

In regard to tea it may therefore be well to proceed
carefully in this matter, and to be on om' guard
against producing a coarse quality of leaf, wliirh
would certainly be the result of too nuieh manure.
Used in moderate quantity I have every hojie that
castor-poonac will be found a most excellent nuiinn'C
for tea.

TEA PLANTING IN CEYLON.

Extract from Mr. Irvine's letter dated Awisa-
wella. 20th October lrtH.5 :~

You nuiy put the following remarks down as
general and simple axioms: —

1st. Tea, though a hardy plant, recpiires more
care and skill in cultivation than cott'ee.

2nd. Tea will frequently be found to grow well
on soil not adajited for coffee, or on worn out
coffee land. Tea however will not grow well or re-
innneratively on every poor soil and frequently not
well on soils commonly supposeil to lie rich, (rood
soil will tell both in the yield and (juality of the tea
as with any other ]ilant -the better the soil, tlie
better the tea.

;h'd. The quality and tlavor of the tea will vary
with the soil, aspect, climate and elevation : no two
estates will ju'oduee the same tea.

Itli. 'J'lic cultivation nnist vary or be adapted to
the clinuilie and othei- eotidilioiis of eiieh rlistrict.

oth. What is commonly c:.lli'<l the jiit of the
plant is not sullicieiitly considered with reference to
climatic and local couditiotis, piiucipally of elevation
and soil : a variety of tea good on unr estate nniy be
worthless on another.

tith. Climate, soil, asjiect and elevation are
already having a most marked cITrct on the tea ]ilant;
a few years hr-nee the acclimatized ten plant of
Ceylon will have its well deliiied and distinct

4o6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

characteristics as the "Eobusta" amongst cin-
chonas, which by the way is not a "hybrid."*

7th. (- ultivation good or bad will have as marked
an effect on tea as on any other cultivated plant.

8th. The .system of cnltivation on some estates
is already telling injuriously on the tea plant, which
ehows unmistakable signs of deterioration or
stagnation.

ilth. The " manufacture " of tea begins in the
field.

10th. A bad leaf can never make good tea.

11th. I'runing and judicious plucking are the
first requisites in making good tea.

I'ith. Tea making is in itself simple and re-
quires no elaborate process, but constant care and
watchfulness is absolutely necessary to produce a
good tea even from the best leaf.

13th. Machinery will never make liner tea than
carefully made by hand tea, but machinery of the
best description will be found absolutely necessary
to meet the requirements of a large estate and
insure the minimum cost of production and a " uni-
form grade" of tea. J.V5ies Ikvine.

PL.^NTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA.
(2'ranslateil for tlw " Straits Thiwu."}

NEW RUIXEA — J.iV.\ — SUG.ili : COFrEE .\ND KAILW.iT.

The Batavia Daphhid of the 24th September
makes public the Charter granted by the Emperor of
(iermany to the German New Guinea Company in
which tlie territory brought under its jurisdiction
is defined as that portion of New Guinea not under
British or Netherlands sovereignty now bearing the
name of Emperor William's Land and stretching
out, on the N. E. Coast of the island, from 141'"
East longitude southwards to the Sth degree of South
latitude on the E. coast, and on the West coast, to
where the r)th degree S. cuts the 141st meridian.
It also takes in the Bismarck archipelago which com-
prises the islands lying off' the coast of this portion of
New (iuinea, as well as those heretofore incluiled in
the New British Group and all others to the .^I. E.
of New Guinea between the eijuator and IS deg. S.
and between 141 dog. and 154 deg. E. In return
for the company undertaking to organise the
government of the territory and meet the resulting
outlay it is granted full governing powers along
with the exclusive right to take possession and
dispose of land within the boundaries fixed, and
make treaties with the natives regarding land and
claims tjieri-to, under reservation, however, of
the right of the Supreme Goverimient to frame
rules and regulations for the protection of the
natives. The Supreme (iovernment also reserves
to itself the power to settle the administration of
justice and direct the management of relations '
between the authorities of the protected ter-
ritory and foreign Governments. The com-
pany must, however, be, legally formed and re-
cognised as such before the 17th May next. A
noLitication has also been published announcing
that securing land there without permission from
the German Government will henceforth, be not
legally valid, and that only long standing rights
will be protected and recognised. Arms, anuiiun-
iti(jn, and explosives as well as spirituous liquors
may at present not be supplied to the natives.
Natives may not be carried away from territory
imder German protection for employment as la-
bourers except for Gernum plantations but in this
case, only from those i)ortions of the l-Jismarck
Archipelago where it luis hitherto lu'cn permitted,
but exclusively under control of (ierman ollicials.

* The general opinion, scientific as well as popular, is
opposed to Blr. Irvine's dictum.— Ed.

The second yearly report of the Deli Railway Com-
pany dated 25th September 1885 has been published,
showing that the works in hand had been delayed by
long continued heavy rains. It is, however, anticip-
ated that the railway will be completed before the 3rd
November 1880 the term fixed in the concession.
There is every prospect of heavy traliic when the
line is once open, from the spread of tobacco grow-
ing and the establishment of eofi'ee plantations. It
is becoming more and more apparent that Deli
and Langkat are eminently suitable for tobacco
cultivation and are far preferable for that purpose
to the other petty states on the East Coast of
Sumatra. Landholders in Deli seeing this, are ex-
erting themselves in keeping their fallow land in
cultivable condition by encouraging the growth of
jungle thereon. These circumstances point to in-
creasing prosperity as being in store for the rail-
way company.

The Java Ciovernment Gu:i:tti- contains the
report of the Netherlands Consul General at
Saigon for the year issl in which, besides
giving much information on other matters, he calls
I attention to the circumstance that sugar growing in
Aunam is carried on extensively, the raw sugar
j extracted with native appliances being exported on
a large scale. Sugar making in tlie European fashion
has fallen into disuse for some time from experi-
ments on two estates proving very unsatisfactory.
Though tobacco plants under cultivation thej'e
look strong and healthy, they seem to lack the
chemical constituent part so highly prized in Europe.
This at least may be inferred from the fact that
the Government have stojiped further experiment-
ing with tobacco cultivation. Coffee growing in
Cochin China nowhere yielded satisfactory results,
though it must be acknowledged that no endeavour
has yet been made to plant Coffee at as great height
above sea level as in Java. Of Netlierlands Indian
products such as coffee, arrack, and coarse sugar, not
more is imported than is necessary for the troops.
In Cochin China lUO Idlogrammes of coffee brought
17'3 francs wliilo 100 kilogrammes of sugar HT-a
were laid nut on the average. The trade in arrack
which was formerly great from its great consump-
tion among the natives has greatly lessened in conse-
quence of high import duties.

. ^

TEA KULE.S FOK NET WEIGHMENT.

(Eroui the Ilunic and Colonial Mail.)
It will interest our rciulurs to Icani that a joint ap-
plicatiou in tliu following t^'ruts has been unule to lier
JMajesty's Customs by tlio reiu'osentativos of the plant-
ing interest and the Il-i InuU- for penuissiun to have
certain sliglit alterations made iii tlie above rules so
as to admit of the satisfactory working of the sj'stem.
The advantage of Indiati tea reaching- the consumer
in its original package without having lieeu turned out
and repacked is now generally recognised.

The following is the applicition referred fco; —
To the Coin mis.-av Iters of Ifa' J/tz/f^/.y'^ Customs,
Indian Tea Districts Association,
11, St. Mary Axe, E. 0.

O.t^her 1st, 1S85.
^Ve, the undersi;^ned, spi^aking on bchaU of both
importers and dealers, beg respectfully to draw the
iitteutlou of the commissioners of her Majesty's Customs
to certain grave dcftets revealed in the practical work-
ing of the new rules, issued on Sept. 11 ih, 1SS;J, for
the weighing of Indian to;is in bond, wliich go far to
frustrate the objects aimed at in framing them and to
pritpjse a few simple amendments by which the.se
ilet'ucts would, it is believed, be otfectu.iUy removed.
AVe hero subjoin the rules :is at prest-nt lU force, and
in the amended form proposed for adoptii. n.
Existing 11ui.ks.
1. The packages on arrival to be weighed to asceit-
aiu the gross weight of each package.

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

407

2. 'With each entry the importer to give an endorse-
ment or statement of the net contents of each package.

3. To test the accuracy of tlic cmlorsement or state-
ment of the net contents, ten per cent of each break
to be turnel out anil woigheil net, bnt in uo case
should less than tliree chests be turned out.

4. If the variation in weight of the test packages
be found to exceed one pound the whole parcel to be
weighed net.

Rl'LES 1,1 .\MKSDF,r) rORM.

1 The packages on arrival to bo weighed to ascertain
the gross weight of each package.

2. With each entry the importer to give a stiitemcnt
that the teas in each break have bren bulked in India
and the chests of each break contain even nit woi,i;hts.

3. To tost the accuracy of tliis statement, t"U pi.-r
cent of each break to bo turned out and weighed net,
but m no ease should less than tliree chests be
turned out.

4. If the variation in weight of the test; packages
from each other be fonuil to exceed two po\inds the
whole parcel to be weighed gross and tare. For in-
stance, if the test packages weigh net 70, 80, 81 lb.
rospectively its variation would not exceed *2 lb., luit if
one«i)aokage be found to wei-h 7'.i lb. and any other
82 lb. or more, thcu the wholi! bri.'ak wouUl bo welglied
gross and tare.

5. That all teas bulked in this country shall 'e
weighed gros.s and tare. .

The declaration of net contents recinii-ed by rule :, is
for all purposes ot utility virtually superseded liy rule 3,
which determines the actual contents of the packages
liable for duty to the Customs and for which the buyers
have to pay.

But while thus of no practical beneficial use or pro-
tection to either her Majesty's Ki'venue, importers or
dealers, it is found to be a const.ant source of iiicou-
venience and disturbance to the .satisfactory working of
the system as a whole.

This arises from the restiiclive influence it is madi- to
exercise on the free operation of clauses 3 and 1 — in the
requirement that the contents of the 10 per cent test
packages shall not only bo of even net weight in them-
selves, but shall also be in exact accord with the "en-
dorsement or statement of net contents" contained
in rule 2.

'Whether from atmospheric iuHuencc or other causes
discrepir.cies, more or less material, are very frequently
found between the weights invoiced from the tea
gardens and given in thu declaration under rule 2 and
those actually ascertained under rules 3 and 4 result-
ing in the entile contents of the invoice being turned
out to the serious detriment of their condition, ami re-
gardless of the fact that the 10 per cent test packages
may have fully fulfiUed the condition of uniformity of
weight prescribed in rub- 4,

The proposed amendment in rule 3 is made merely
to bring it into harmony with rule 2 as amended.

As the margin now proposed is still well within the
range of variation allowed in the treatment of China
teas, we trust this as well as the other amendments will
be SHUCtioned.

Our chi.-t aim, in fact, is to as.similate the two sys-
tcms as far as possible in all essential points while
retaining the privilege of net weighmeiit for tens
bulked in India so as to obviate the necessity in such
Ciises of a uniform tare weight.

For the Indian Tea Districts Association,

EnNEsT Tye, Secretary.
For the AVholesale Tea Dealers' Association,

R. Skdowicks, Hon. Secretary.

S031E svjrri.rs of Queensland sugar that have come
under my notice lately have created not a little
astonishment among Mincing Lane experts in such
matters. What has been most noticeable in the
specimens noted is their extremely high sweetening
power as compared with good West Indian varieties.
Certainly, if Queensland can send us sugar like
that in question, a very largo trade in this direc-
tion may be very certainly anticipated with the
United Kingdom, — European Mail.

THE DUTCH tiOVEHNMENT AND COLONIES

The Netheiii.ands Tiunixo CoMr.\N'v.

From the August number of the licviic Colaiiiulc
Interimtionale we translate the followiii" : —

During 188i the Company received from the
Dutch Government the following produce, which was
sold publicly by the Company on account of the
State : —

f.
927,800 bales of eoffea which realized o.'?,.517,OG2 4G
12ll.nn3 bars of Bauka tin )

:«.!):« „ „ Billiton „ j " 4,2bl,yi.l-,2

2,9,■^9 packages of cinchona bark „ 347,818-51

Total. ../■3:^,15ii,812-()!)
On its own account, the Company sold /'.j.ao'.^liOti^
worth of produce, comprising eotfee, liillitou tin, cin-
chona, tobacco, tea, copal gum, tigs, rum, arrack,
margarine, petroleum, and gold from Surinam. It
disposed of this produce for 3, (17.3')9-47 florins in
the Dutch markets, and l,8p2,247-0r) florins in the
English markets. It also exported, on account of
third parties, the following produce : —

To Netherlands India to a value of 3,(;iil,os;i iloriiis
„ British „ 9.1,:;9IJ „

,, China and Japan ,, .sil,.')9:i

It likewise exported, also on account of thinl parties,
a sum of 2,199,9.53-78 florins in specie.

With regard to tlie operations of the agency
(fiictorij) of the Company at Batavia, tlie report
gives the following details : —

The Company cultivated on its own account 1
colt'ee and 4 sugar plantations ; it assisted in the
cultivation of 1 coffee plantation, 1 sugar estate,
and 1 sawmill ; the contracts of the Coniiiany com-
prise 25 sugar factories, (j coffee plantations, 1 cin-
cliona estate, 1 indigo do., 1 arrack distillery, 1
sawmill, 1 tea estate, 1 birdsnest concern : of these,
13 sugar factories, 4 coffee plantations and one
arrack distillery are hypothecated to the Company.
T;-.o poor production of the coffee plantations has
been the cause of somewhat serious losses in the
working, and the estimated value of these plantations
has had to be considerably reduced. The working
of the sugar factories has also given rise to losses,
in spite of the largeness of the crops, in con-
sei|uenoe of the fall of the produce ; the estimated
value has been kejit at a low figure, iu spite of
the extension of one of the factories, necessit-
ating a considerable sum. The next crop pro-
mises to exceed that of 1884. The dissolution
of the connection of the Company with a rice
plantation and a sawmill has been equally
unfavorable in both cases. Altogether the agricult-
ural business has caused a loss, in round num.
hers, of 1,100,OOJ florins. The various concerns
produced: — 1,019,937 piculs of sugar (the picul
equals 01-71! kilos, or 133-33 English lb.), 27,330
piculs of coffee, 135 piculs of indigo, 113,151
pounds of tea (the .\msterdam pound equals 0-49109
kilo, or 2h English lb.), (V.ll.J casks or arrack,
i),482 pounds of birdsnests, and 2li() piculs of cin-
chona bark. The sugar crop of 1884 was sold in
I'.urope at prices nnremunerative on the whole.
The new crop is selling better. The Company has
done all in its power to assist the companies and
houses threatened by the agricultural and financial
crisis, even those in which it had no dii-ect interest.
The financial operation.", 'fil the Company in
Netherlands India have been greatly extended ; a sum
of 7,700,000 florins was advanced on the security
of merchandise, of produce and of titles ; a sum
of (), 400,000 florins was received in deposit by the
agency of its branches. The total result of the
operations of the agency was, in round numbers : —

4o8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Df.c. I, 1885.

rrofits :
Oil account of commission ,

ji interest

,, bills of exchange and

insurance

/•

611,000

981,000

310,000

from which must be deducted ;

./ 1,908,300

Expeuses of working

Losses ou produce and
merchandise

Losses ou debtors ...

„ agricultural con-
cerns.,.

/■
3!M,O00

40,000
153,000

1,100,000

1,688,400

Balance to the good /22O,00O

With regard to Dutcli (iuiana, tlic report records
the following facts: —

The return from the sugar plantation "Eesol-
utie " was much below that of 1HH3: it was only
527,000 kilos, against 1,039,000 the preceding year.
The great drought which prevailed in l.Sisl totally
destroyed many fields of canes. The price ob-
tainable for the produce was low, so that the
working entailed a considerable loss. The cultiv-
ation of cacao on "Mon Tresor" plantation is
progressing slowly. The central sugar factory
received Kl.tiOO.OOO kilograms of canes, the yield
being advantageous from an industrial point of view,
but the financial result was nevertheless unfavor-
able, on account of the fall in sugar. The working of
auriferous lands was equally barren of good results.
Finally, in consequence of the fall in sugar, the
estimated value of the properties has been lowered,
so that the Surinam agency gives a total of losses
amounting to 019, 000 florins. The pronounced
rise in sugar permits the ho])e of a belter result
in the future, although the greater part of the
last crop has been already sold at a low price, so
that the financial year lHHf) does not promise
much.

The Company holds, to the value of 9,371,700 Horins,
stock and shares of the .State, of colonies, towns, mort-
gage banks, colonial banks of issue, of railway com-
panies both in India and in Holland, of steam-
ship companies, of canals, of dry docks and coasters,
of agricultural, commercial and industrial societies.
The interest and dividends yielded, in 1.S.S4, .S02,000
florins, while the loss by the end of December I
had reached 222,000 florins. The Company has |
obtained the concession of a railway from Batavia 1
to Bekassie, which concession it has given uj) to
the Eastern Railway Company at Uatavia, which j
was started to work this line with a cai>ital of '
1,700,(JOO florins, of which capital a large ]iart was
subscribed by the Trading Company.

The total result of LSHl has been for the Com-
pany, in round numbers : —

I'lnn'ts : f.

Batavia agency . . . . 22i>,llOO

Connnission .. .. 913,(HW

Interest l,.SOIi,(XKJ

Stores and property . . 1(;,(I(HI j

Bills of exchange .. ., l'.l,0()0 !

Foreign debtors .. .. l.(KIO

Various receipts .. ., 1(),(|()0

2,45(.),(XK)

Deduct for losses :

/■

Merchandise from India.

. 21,000

to „ .

. (1,000

Agricultural enterprise .

019.(KK1

Stock and bonds . .

222,(K)(I

Bxpenses of working

183,00(J

l,0.i4,000

to which must be added a balance of rn,003-30
from the year 1KR3, which allows of the distrib-
ution of a dividend of 10 florins per shale of 1 000
flonns on the ejipital of the Company, which amounts
to 3.5,783,000 florins.

Balance to credit

/1,4S1,000

Tire SviUT of Maidenhair fern is suielv a nov-
elty. It IS said to lie valuable as a medicine.
Few would have thouglit that there was much to
be got from this beautiful and fragile fern though
of course there is any amount of sweetness Gen-
erally speaking in the maiden, abstractedly from
the fern. The maidenhair abounds on these hills
and If it can be made useful as well as orna-
mental our chemists ought to be up and doin" —
Sniitli iif Ivilid Obaeri-i'i:

Caxauies.— I liave been very successful both here
and in England in rearing canaries. I find that
here the young birds are very weakly and do not
leave the nest nearly so soon as in England. The
nests here should not be lined and the cages kept
m a cool place. If the cock-bird docs not destroy
the eggs, or disturb the hen, it is better to have
him in with her. Only once I reared four young
ones out here, out of one nest. I left home for" three
or four days, leaving the birds in my boy's charge ■
when I returned they were all dead of starvation
at the bottom of the cage. The way that boy ran
round the bungalow would have been amusing to
see.— C'o)-.

TiiK " QfAi;Ti:iu.v .Toi-iixai, of Veteiuxaiiv Scii;.\ci;
IN Ixdia."— The October number of this quarterly,
which has reached us, contains a good deal of
interesting matter relating to veterinary science in
India. Tlie following extracts from a paper on
" Snakes and the Prognosis of Snake fiite," by
" Snipe," may be useful to our readers :—

I have often been surprised .it the ignorance dis-
played by members cf the profession on this .subject
in a country where sn.ikes are socomnion. The truth
however, I .siippo.H' is that so very seldom do they do
mischief to man or animal that our attention is but
rarely called to them in the course of our profes-
sional duties. Usually when a snake is killed the
nearest native is appealed to, who, a hundr-d to one,
declares it to be a " bora kharab sanp," the sahib
gives a slight shudder at h.iving been ,so near such
a brute, .and goes on his way rejoicing, unconscious
that he has killed an animal .is innocent .as a lamb
anil one of the gri'atest destroyers of rats, mice, and
such like noxious vermin, that we have in India. One
minute's trouble would have settled the matter satis-
factorily, if he had only known how to set to work
AVhen yon have killed a snake and are doubtfni
about hnn. put your foot on the .side of his head
so .as to force the mouth open, and |>ass the blade
of a penknife or a piece of stick along the edge of
the upper jaw, tliis will erect the fangs if it be
of a poisonous variety, if there are no fangs it is
harmless.... The Jlnhoin J-:/,f/rnis, also called Hii.ssit'i
fi/icr and the C/(»;« J'i/m: ' In Ceylon he is well
known and much dreaded, ami goes by the name of
the Tic PdlniHjii. Once noticed this snake will after-
wards be always recognized, for his Hat triangular
head, blunt nose, well marked nostrils, and con-
stricted neck are unmistakeable. On (jpening the
month the enermous fangs at once attract nttention ;
he is a true viper, and does i.ot bite hut strikes with
these fangs. In the larger specimens which run up to 3
feet 6 inches or perhaps t feel, tijeri' are .si-ries of oral
white rings wliich make ipiite a hanilsoine pattern on
the dark skin ; in the sniilbr ones there is a chain
of these oval rings running from head to tail. He is
far from nncomnion round Secunderahad, and I have
seen him at T.angalore, Bellary, and Saugor, so that
he is fairly distributed over the Ma Iras "rresideney.
He is a slothful brute .■uid if lying across a path is
just as liki-ly to st.ay there till you tread on liini as
not ; should you do so, bis slothfulness vanishes at
once and he strikes like a Hash of lightning.

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

409

TO EICE FABJIElis.
\\ L' are iiulcbtetl to tlic Covenmieut ^Igent for
the followiiij;: —

KKROSINR OtL AS A MEANS OF KKF.riNG OTT
n.lKS FUO.M I'ADDY CROPS.

Kcport by HiiUiijallo Jtatemaliatmnya to the Goveru-
iiicut A^'cut, Xortiieru-AVestcrii Province.
No. 151.^ 130. UiiluiMlla, 27th Sept. 188.3.

Sir, — I beg to report th;it korosiue oil is evidently
a preventive to keep off flies from paddy crops.
Numerous tracts iiave suffered seriously during the
current Ya!:i, and otlicrs have been totally abaudoued
iji cons<'.|uv*uee of these flies, notwithstanding every
conceivable precaution the people appear to have
adopted to protect their crops, until I thought of
trying the effect of kerosine oil in a tract I have
cultivated. Just as the crops began earing, swarms
of these flies set in, and knowing that nothing effective
had as yet been discovcired, I devised a very simple
plan for the application of kerosine oil. Taking a
thin rope to the length of the paddy beds, I soaked
this iu oil, and getting two men to stand at the
two ends of one side of the bed, holding the rope
over the crop, I had them to drag it (piickly on
over to t!ic other end ; and continued this application
that day only iu a few beds, where I noticed the
cro[) had fiist commenced earing, and the flies were
conseiiuently plentiful, and for fear, moreover, that
the oil might perhaps damage the ears. The day
following and the ue.xt the flies hatl all disappeared
to that part of the tract where I had not tried
the expi-rimt'nt, and, so far as I could have judged,
be^'oned reach of the sniell cf the oil.

I subsequently discovered the oil to be perfectly
harmless, so far as the tender ears were coucerued,
in the manner I had apprehended, and, not being
too lato, I repeated the appliacatiou in the remain-
ng part tif tlur tract where the crop had now begun
earing too. The tract has since been quite free
from tlie.s, and the crop, I am glad to report, is
doing as well as I could have possibly expected,

I cumnniuicateil the success I have exj)erienced to
many, but I regret to state that this has been rather
late, the time for earing having already elapsed, .and
the destruction occasioned by flies being now irremedi-
able.

I think this experiment might bo tried in the other
districts, also with advantage, where flics are equally
destructive; and I have no doubt the people will
readily adopt it when they come to be satisfied of
the re.''ult I have experienced. — I am &c., 0. G. J.
Hui.utiALl..^, KatemaXtatmaya of Wanni Hatpattu.

O11LOEU.E AS Plant Food. — A German exchange says
that chlorine is a very important nutrient for plants.
To all appearance the chloride of potassium exceeds
the nitrate in nutritive value as long as the quant-
ity does not exceed a definite limit. When there
is too much of tile chloride, the quantity of chlor-
ophyl dicreasesj the plants ripen sooner, but the
oxalic acid increases in ciuautity. In fact, it acts just
like hydrochljric acid would. — Irulian Merciiiy.

Dem News. (Traiuilatcd for the Straits Times.)— "Shu
approaclrng tobacco crop does not look so well as the
preceding one. Such is our answer to inquiries on the
subject made by a dealer ui Kurope. The long con-
tinued drought at the bcgiuuing of the year, wliereby
putting young plants out was prevented and the Uii-
ceasing rains iu July and August, have, in a great
measure, taken away every bojie of securing a crop as
heavy as that of last yc ir. Ou the up country estates
in p.irticuhu-, the yield is Dcitber so largo nor of such
good quality as was the casein 1S8-1. The plantations
opened out in lower lying land have had less to suffer
but tlie complaint is gem ral that never before have
there been so many worm eal<;D leaves. It is dismal
to SCO bow tearful li;ive l)e<?n the ravages of wormson
some estate.s. Wh.it these charming creatures have
spared iia.s been destroyid by heavy rains anil high
winds, lliough it is liacd to make an estimate, it is the
general bclii f that the crop will be 20 to 25 jiet cent,
eborter tUetu tliat of tbe yvar beloic,
52

THE TAPAW.

The accounts given by travellers and collectors of
the uses and marvellous properties of tlic papaw tree
(Carica I'ap.iya) are as well-kuown to students of
plant history as is that of the u|ias tree. We have
most ;' us read how the application of the juice of
the Carica fruit to a piece of tough meat wouKI
cause di.sintegr.: i m of the fibres and conscc|ueut
tenderness. In his "Natural History of .Tamai.'a,"
Browne says that meat quickly becomes tender if it
is washed in water to which some p:ipaw juice has
been added, and if left iu such water for ten niiiiutes
it will droj) from the spit while roastiuff, or se|).iraie.
into shreds while boiling. It is also said that in
Barbados, as well as in other West Indian Islands,
it was once the custom to feed pigs on the gri;en
fruit; but it was found that if the animals consumed
any very large quantity without sulVioient proportion
of other food, they not only suffered in health, but
death actually followed in some cases from the intensity
of the chemical action.

The Papaw tree is a native of the tropical iiarts
of South Ameri"?, but it has become common in
many parts of the world. It usually attains to tlic
height of about 20 ft., with a stem averaging 12 in. in
diameter tapering towards the summit. The leaves
are sharply pointed and deeply cut iuto seven large
lobes. The margins arc irregularly wavetl or gashed.
They often measure as much .as 2 ft. iu diameter, and-
are borne on long foot stalks. The fiower.s, which are
small, arc borne in racemes which start from the
bases of the leaf stalks. Ihe sexes are on different
trees. The fruits vary in sliape and size, but are
more or less ovoid, sometimes ribbed or lobeil and
from G iu. to 10 in. in diameter. They are orange-yellow
in colour when ripe, and consist of a thick lleshv
mass, with numerous black seeds in the centre.

The Pap.aw tree is often seen in cultivation in this
country, and some good-sized plants are iu the
national collection at Kew. Owing, however, to Wny
interest that has of late sprung up. not only with
us but also on the Oontineut, regarding its clieniical
action, a great demand has arisen for t he plants. In
Brazil the tree is scarcely cultivated, or with but
very little care, its continued planting being .self-
effected, not by shoots, but by seeds falling to the
ground and germinating. Seeds often get sown by
the use of the fruit as manure, or by the agency of
birds, and trees thus rise up. The tender young
pl.ants brave all weathers, and are very tenacious of
hfe, are not eaten by animals, and, after growing to
a height of about ten inches, few vicissitudes afl^cct
their qiuck growth, which is even more rapid than
that of the banana. One writer says : —

The improved variety called " Mamao melao," which
yields a fruit as large as a pumpkin, is treated with
somewhaf more care, and its management may even
be called cultivation. The seeds are i)lantcd together
with the flesh of the fruit, in a light .soil, not too
moist, an<l containing abuudnncc of organic matter.
If they be planted without the flesh of the fruit,
only trees that yield the original fruit of the uncultiv-
ated kind are obtained. I had <loubts respecting
this, but have satisfied mysinf of its correctness by
numerous cxjieriments. 'When the plants arc about
three or four inches high, they are transplanted, and
for this a lighter soil is selected, which is not too
shady, and too nmch watering nmst be avoided ; this •
is usually left to the weather. After fourteen or
eighteen mon*,hs the tree-like plants bear fruit throush
the entire year without cessation. After four or live
years of this fruit-bearing existence the top commences
to decay, and it ilics from above downwards, Ihe
stem being eventually conqiletely destroyed by the
wind, if not in-eviuu.sly ninovid by man.

This fruit, like the luiiiana, is culleclcd in the full-
grown, but still green, condition, .';o .ns l.o ripen
in the house. If perfc^ctly rim: wlu-n taken from
the trci^, the flesh, especially in Ihe neighbourho.. I
of the skin, is bitter; nrorcover the ripe fruit is
ditliiadt to secure against destruction by birds. — I .V. I ,

410

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

MR. VMIK ON UVA AS A TEA PRODUCING
DISTRIC^T.

Sir, — Tliu suitability of ITva for tea, tlie subject of
your " special correspondent's '' .article iu your issue of
the 17th C)crober, is of great iuiportauce to a large
portion of the planting cflinmunity; and, although I
v.oulil not wish to detract from the merits of Uva as
a tea-producing district, I would suggest caution be-
fore embarking heavily iu this product. iVIy acquaint-
ance with Uva is limited to a stay of a few mouth.'?
on i'itaratraalie. Dambateune, and the neighbouring
estates in 1S70, hut I can remember enough of those
places to feel confident that tea can be successfully
grown in that part of Uva.

"SVhether the drier portions of the district would
prove as suitable I dare not say. On my return from
the Darjieliug tea districts, I, too, like IMr. Christie,
nioditied my views with regard to the suitability of
various climates for tea; Ijut, upon mature reflection, I
am not prepared to accept witliout reservation the
statement that a rainfall of about 100 inches per an-
num in itself constitutes a suitable climate for tea.
My impressions, after becoming acquainted with
the climate of Bengal, with its five months of winter
or drought, were that by comparison the clim.<\te of
Uva would be far more suitable for tea than that of
Darjeeling, but the rainfall returns as given by your
corrrespoudent are not to my mind so satisfactory as
they might be, whereas I should consider the rain-
fall of Singtou (Kington?), as given by Mr. Christie,
very nearly perfection for an Iniiuii tea estate. By
reference to the figures befo-r- mc, I note that of the
total rainfall of llfl'40 inches, as ranch as 118 29
inches fell iu eight successive months, unbroken by
any semblance of a drought.

Now, although r.ri'cssiru rain with no gleams of
sunshine has a prejndical effect on the Hushing capa-
bilities of tea, there are no climatic conditions for
luxuriant vegetable gi-owth equal to thorough 'and
excessive moisture wtth licnt; and the Darjeeling
climate when tea is growing is more like a vapour
bath than anything I know. A thick and steady
drizzle all day, with an occasional break in the clouds
and a gleam of sunshine alternated with heavy shower.s,
is the nearest description of the Darjeeling cliinate
I can give. Ferns, orchids, mosses, and begonias sim-
ply revel iu the moistiu'e, and if pulled uj) and thrown
down on a hare rock in May would ])robaltly be found
growing iu Septenilter.

Now, has Uva 7 or 8 months of anything like this?
And is the rainfall distributed in the same way as
iu lud'a? If so, with its more jrcnial climate all the
year round, and its rich soil, this favored district
might have every acre under tea with safety. There
is nothing in Nature so prejudical to the rapid and
free circulation of sap as lack of moi.sture in the soil ;
and if dvu'ing the rainy months iu Uva droughts of
3 or 4 weeks should occur, I fear flushing would be
checked very materially, and the planter would be
divided in opinion as to whether he should prune a
second time or not in the same year. For tea to give
high yields, coniinuouf flushing is necessary, and on
the duration of thi.s continuous flushing depends the
number of mauniis per acre secured, I do not fear a
drou^iht for tea by any nieaiis, but what I ih fear is
two or three 4lvoughts or a plucking season broken by
iutervii's ni very dry weather combined with a light
and free soil, the intention and scope of this letter
Is net to fO'u'cl a note of alarm with regard to Uva
as a tea-producing district, hut to urge caution in em-
bark ng ill it on a large scale. In a soil retentive
of moisture, tea wou'd probably stand a few ".spells"
Of dry weather without any appreciable diminution in
yie'd, but it must be borne in mind that i he even and
vigorous How of sap desirable for free and eoidinnous
liiishiug may be checked by excessive wet on a cold
and clayey soil or by droughts on a fret; and dry soil,
and the.<le checks indnee " bangy," and consecpiently
a decreased yield ; but I have no doubt that the
liguics of the Uva rainfall will in numbers of cases
b« found all that could be desired.

With regard to Kaluphani, if wind is the only ob-
stacle there to the successful cultivation of tea, I
wouhl say plant it by all means, for steepuc^ss is of no
consequence if surface wash is provided against; and
iu the Darjeeling hills wind is not fcai ed by the plant-
ers except for their buildings, the roots of which
are kept on by means of large stoncts plaet^d upon
them, though these are occasionally carried awav, roots
and all, in the windy month-*.— Tnos. l''.viat. Lyndford,
Oct. I'J.— Local "Times."

ABOUT THE PEESEKVATIOX OF WOOD.

CAllBOLINKUM AVENAKIU.S.

{Imiiortitnt for Exportation.)
[The substance thus noticed iu the Indiun Mi^rcuri/
is worthy of attention, especially now that it is so
difficult to obtain railway sleepers which will not rapidly
decay. If Oarboliueum will really enter the pores of
the wood, than the only limit to its use will be its
price — Kd.]

Everywhere where wood is much exposed to the
weather and the wet, constant and just comiilaiuts
are to be heard respecting its speedy decay. AM
the coatings of paint or tar are useless in the attempt,
of staying the ravages of decay, for they cover only,
stopping the pores, the surface of the wood, and thus
at most resist the influence of air and damp from
without. But in the case af timber which is only
imperfectly dried, these means prevent evaporation
of the natural moisture of the wood, causing stag-
nation when it will frequently be observed that
timber left entirely uncoated will withstand decay
a much longer period. In the preservation of wood
the success depends not alone upon the exclusion
of air and water, but equally upon an aijplicatiou
of such a means as may secure the destruction of
the nitrogen embodiment of the same.

Already some years ago a specific preparation to
oppose the cause of these complaints — an antiseptic
oil known by the name of '• Carbolineum Avenarins"
found iutroductiou, which owing to its incontrovertible
advantages in the preservation of every class of
timber and its extremely low price, has recently
been accorded in Germany, Austria, Switzerlaiul, &c.,
a much more general and ever increasing application
by the state, the military and civil authorities, for
railways, in carriage-building, house-building and iu
the industrial establi.^iraents, as likewise and promin-
ently ia agricultur.al circles.

Few discoveries of recent date will he of such
general interest to so many branches of trade and
of agriculture at the same time, as a cheap and
approved practical prei>aration, which may be applied
by anybody with the greatest of ease for the pre-
servation of timber.

That a demand exists for a means of preserving
wood which is used for such a variety of purposes,
is evidenced by the manifold efforts made everj'-
where to achieve the object.

'• Carbolineum" is a very liquid oil, of less gravity
than tar, and far exceeds the latter iu eflicieucy,
beauty of appearance, relative cheapness, iu fact to
eucli au extent that even gas-companies producing
tar as a bye-product able of di.sposiug thereof
without costs, prefer to apply the former.

Carbolineum is easily applied, to dry wood as well
a.'» green timber, readily enters into the pores of
the wood conferring upon the same a tasteful
appearance resembling a coating with varnish, whereby
the grain of the wood is not extinguished, and
durability united to cheapness.

Carbolineum may be applied even on the top of old
tar, or oil-paint coatings, as on the other liand also
after complete iliyiug, l.insced oil varnLsh lu' oil-paint
may be coated upon the former. In connection with
railways for the coating of goods-sheds, goods-waggons,
&c.. it apjiears of immiueut importance. Tar affords
only a black, after sonic little time a dirty grey
Luc, which is not to be compared with Catboliufum,

Dec, 1, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

411

Respectiug tbe costs we are instructevl that in
comparisoa with oil-paiut Carbolineum is just as-
touishidgly cheap ami compared to a coating of
tar, of the liquiil oil only a very small quantity is
required for the same seperficial space ; 1 kg, being
usually calculatoil to 0 Q-m.

In danger of catching fire Carbolineum is by no
means,* and if stored it will keep unchanged for any
length of time. For the pui-pose of rendering damp
walls dry, at^ainst fuugii *Vc., Car^olineunt has lllje-
wise proved ctfective. In stables it has proved not
alone a means of preservation but a disinfectant as
well, as it is said to eradicate vermin and even
rati. Owing to the great and universal interest
felt for the preservation of every wooden structure
and utensil from the evil effects of tbe weather
and tho wet, to which they may be more or less
exposed, to save building-timber, verandahs, wood-
ornamentations and panuelling, sheds, fencing, doors,
shutters, field and garden utensils of every descrip-
tion, vineyard posts, &c., from rot and delapidation
we may be pardoned in drawing attention to so
valuable a material, which is at the same time so
simple in its treatment. The material to which we
here desire to draw attention is obtainable from yiv.
V. Lechler in Stuttgart, where from the Factory-
stores South, and Middle-Germany, and the entire
Kxport finds supply, where every further information
is furnished on application, and where small ([uant-
ities for intended trails are obtainable.

TEA TASTER'S OCCUPATION.

A medical writer of an article iu the Midical
liecoyif on tea tasting by brokers and dealers in
tea, maintains that it is a healthful occuiiation,
which is not in accoi-dance with the conceived' opinion
of other writers on the subject. In support of his
assertion he reports cases of living men far advanced
iu life wlm have followed the business of tea tast-
ing for periods ranging from thirty to forty years
without injury to their health. 15ut whether the
writer'.s conclusions are correct or otherwise, the life
of a tea taster is a curious one, aud the process
of examining and deciding upon the qualities of
the article is one not generally known.

There are, says the correspondent of the Medical
Record, probably more than a hundred firms engaged
in tea tasting in the City of New York, for instance.
In all of their offices there are large tables with
round, revolving tops. A circle of teacups is p'.aced
along the edge of these. The tea taster sits down
before the display of crockery, and tastes one cup
after another, moving tbe table-top around. In the
centre of the lable is a pair of scales with a silver
halt dime in one of tbe balances. Une or two large
kettles are kept constantly with boiling water in
them. When a sample of tea is to be tasted, as
much is weighetl out as will balance the half
dime. This is put in a teacup and the holing water
poured on. The tea taster then stirs up the leaves,
lift them on his spoon, and inhales the aroma. At
the same time he generally takes a sip of the
infusion, holds it in his mouth for a short time,
and then spits it out. Enormous brass cuspadores,
holding two or three gallons, receive the tea thus
tasted and the contents of the cups that have beeu
examined. On some occasions, when a large amouut
of tea of a certain knid is to be bought, many samples
of this are brought in from different houses. The
buyers and sellers sit around the revolving table
with the samples made into infusions into the trups
before them. These are tasted all around, the '' body",
" finoue.ss", " toastiuess", &c., are learnedly discussed,
and the poorer specimens discarded. Then those
that are left are tasted again and the number
further reduced. So it goes on until the article
which unites the desired quality and price is obtained.

The skill displayed at these "drawings" is quite
remarkable, A tea taster will detect not only the

* The German idiotu is amusing. — Ed.

quality of a tea .as reg.ards age, strength, flavor,
fineness, &.C., but he can tell in which of the nu-
merous districts in China tlie tea was grown. The
facts regarding tbe dilTereut samples are sometimes
put on the bottom ,of the cups, are then mixed up,
and tho infusions tasted again and sorted out by
their fiavors,

A great deal of tea may \w t.istcil ln'fore these
tea drawings .are finished. It is hard to tell tln^ amount
that a tea taster takes dnrin,u' a d.ay, for it varies
a great deal with the activity of business. F,;w of
the gentlemen whom I a^kd could give any idea.
Sometimes, however, as many as four or five hundred
cups are tasted in a day. It is ipiite the custom
to h.ave to be tasting tea steadily for the most of
a djy, or for hours at a time. Trobahly an average
of two hundred cups a day throughout the vear
is a low estimate. The poorer kinds of tea are often
not sipped at all. But the sense of smell is de-
pended on. Of tbe better <|ualities of tea, some is
swallowed, and some spit out. Indeed whenever tea
is taken into the month a little of it is swallowed.
The tea gets into the system, therefore in three
ways: by inhalation. l>y absorption through the oral
mucous membrane, and by the stomacb. More tea
is siniply taken into the mouth without swadovviug
than is inhaled alone; but all ihe tea is inhaled,
even if it is fasted also. It is only a small pro-
portion, amounling to not more than two or three
cups a day, that is swallowed. A silver five cent
piece weighs I'lS grms. (gr. XVIII). Estimating
that an average of two hundred cups of tea are
tasted per ilay. about one-half of a pound would
repre.5ent the whole amount used.

Japan tea has of late years become by f.ir the
most jiopular variety.* aud more of it is importeil
than of all other kinds together. Green tea, on the
other haml, is much less extensively used than
formerly, —hidian Mercury.

♦

TflE BOTANICAL C4AEDSNS IN .JAVA.

During the last few years so many useful and im-
portant improvements have beau made iu the botan-
ical gardens at Ijuiteu7.org and Tsi-liodas that it
might uot be amiss if the attejition of the readers
of Xiilnrf were «gain drawn to these valuable seals
of systematic and philosophical research.

On entering the gardens at Jjuitenzorg the stranger
is at once struck with the wealth and luxuriance
of the vegetation he sees, the great h(Mght of the
trees whose trunks and branches are in many cases
covered with heavy creepers, the dense copses of the
different species of bamboo, the eccentric-looking
.screw-pines and the hand.somc palm trees; but the
scientific observer is also stuck with the care that
has been taken to arrange all these many varieties
of tropical plant life in, as far as pos.sible, tl eir
■systematic order, and that each specimen has its
scientific, and iu many cases its IMalay name also,
clearly and distinctly pi i ited on a little board by
its side.

It is not difficult for any one to find his w.ay
about the ganleu, and in a very short time he can
discover the particular family or gronp of plants
which he may desire to stuily. Many families have
probably more repi-esi^ntatives in these gardens than
in any in the world. Tbe Sapatace.at, for instance,
so rarely seen in Eur.'pis are here representid by a
great variety of genera and species, and tlu; I'alin-
aec.-e, the llubiacea;, the liurseracea;, the Orehid-
aceie, and other families have now a large number
of rare and interesting represinitatives.

The herbarium which is attached to the garden
contains a large eullectioii of dried plants and seeds
collected together from the many expeditions into
the little or unknown parts of the archipelago and
from othn- sources. Attached to the herbarium there
is a comfortable and convenient little library which

* In the United States.— Ed.

412

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

contains most of the important botanical books and
lourunls.

The laboratory, which, thanks to the energy ot
Vr. Treub, the ilircctor, is now completed, is a large,
lofty and, for these climes, particu>,..ly cool room, and
i« well fitted out with reagents and apparatus for
carrying on botanical research. Tlie generous invit-
ation which Dr. Treub has issued to natur.ilists, and
to which the attention of the readers of jVature
has already been directed !.xs attracted several
scientific men of different nationalities, and uome
excellent research has already been made in this
hdioratory.

When I arrived in Buitenzorg, Dr. Treub was at
Tsi-Bodas; so, after spending a few days in study
in the gardens, I made the jom-ney across the niount-
aius to pay him a visit. The road from ]iuiteuzoi-g
to Tsi-Bodas crosses the roeiichuck Pass and is full
of interest and beauty. On the way the traveller
p:\sses quite close to the Talaga Werner, the crater
ot an extinct volcano which is now filled with water,
and forms a most beautiful little lake hidden in
the dense foliage of tlie mountain slopes. The path
from the road to the lake is through a dense wood
of fine forest trees, and amongst the undergrowth
is found many fine shrubs and plants which are not
found in the low-lying country beneath.

The gardens at Tsi-Bodas are situated on the
slopes ot the Gedeh Mountains, at an altitude of
5,(100 feet, and here I found Dr. Treub at work in
the comfortable little house which is attached to
the g.ardens.

From this spot a very wide range of vegetation
may be studied, from the rich and varied vegetation
ot the plains to the interesting vegetation of the
Predeh and Pangeranso peaks, at an elevation of
JO.OOO feet. In the gardens themselves a very fine
collection of Ooniferas from America, China, Aus-
tralia and other parts of the world has been got to-
gether, and spaces have been cleared for the growth
of the various species of Eucalyptus, Cinchona,
.•uid otlier plants. Year by year the surroundmg
forest is being encroached upon by these gardens
to make room for new importations. I was ex-
tremely sorry that I could not prolong roy stay at
Tsi-Bodas, but I had to return to Batavia to catch
the Molucca boat. I saw, however, enough to con-
vience me of the great importance of these gardens
for tlie advaucerneut ot our botanical knowledge
and the great opportunities they afford for research
into all branches of the science.

1 uei:d hardly say that the climate in this region
is extremely pleasant and invigoratuig, and the neigh-
bouring village of Sindanlaya is much resorted to
by Europeans and others whose health has suffered
i.n the coasts or low-lying districts of the Archi-
pelago. At Buitenzorg the climate is by no moans
mnjleasant or unhejUtliy, but as it lies a few thou-
sand feet lower than "Tsi-Bodas, it is naturally a
good deal wai-mer ; but I am assured that several
Europeans liave worked there for several years
witliout feeling their healtli the least bit affected.
It is hardly necessary to add that every O'ie who
has come over to Java to work in these gardens
has been amply repaid for the time spent in the
long journey over the sea, for the insiglit which
can he gained here hito what tropical botany really
is is one whicli can be gaineil nowhere else in the
world so well, and leaves an impression which is not
likely to be forgotten in a lifetime.— Sydnev J.
IlciKSOK. — JVatiire.

♦

Utilisation op Iron Sl.vg.— An ingenious application
ot a material hitherto regarded as worthless has
been made in the utilisation of iron slag as an
ingredient iu the manufacture of foot pavement
cement. The powdered slag being harder than the
cement with which it is mixed, wears down less
slowly, always presenting a rough surface, which is
not slippery, and apjiarently of great durabiUty. The
pavement has been laid down iu front of the Gaiety
Theatre in the litrand. — Fidil.

KICE CULTIVATION IN THE CENTRAL PRO-
VINCE OF CEYLON.
Sir, — The Central Province is a good large territory and
it's not given to everyone of your readers to know the
boundaries, but, when we have distinct reference to Uva,
including Udakinle aud M''ilson's Bungalow, we know
where we are, aud probably the writer of this glowing
description could not have hit upon a worse exem-
plification of his theory. The people of Udakiude are
some of the poorest in the Central Province, and
liave lately been actually fed at the expense of Gov-
ernment, aud, pcrh.ips, it would be as well if the
reason of this poverty were explained, and I may by
and bye state what my experience has taught me. In
the meantime the great reason why Udakinde, and
the rest of Uva cannot grow more rice lies iu the fact
that all the irrigable lands have already been occupied :
this of coarse as a general rule. There are doubtless small
pieces of land here aud there that with great labor
might be irrigated, but after all the total of them is
insignificant. That this is the fact is plain enough to
anyone who passes through the country aud keeps an
eye open for tlie purpose. The miles upon miles of
elas, from the Totajiella aud Nuwara Bliya r.anges, con-
vey the water an immense distance, and all available
lands connected with them are already cultivated, and
the only way to bring into cultivation any other por-
tions of appreciable extent is the construction of re-
servoirs and ch;mnels at great expense aud mill little
result. I am perfectly well aware that the idea pre-
vails, amongst Europeans especially, that the villagers
could cultivate rice to a much greater extent than the.y
do. But if careful consideration is given to the sub-
ject, and something more than mere casual observ-
ation when travelling through the country, it will bo
foimd that whenever water cau be got amongst the
hills, advantage of it has been taken to asswedamise
the land ; even the smallest portion is not neglected.
Then again I presume the writer in your contempor-
ary suggests that with more care and trouble the
villager could get a greater return for his labor ; and
here again there is a good deal of supposition that is
in error. The surface of the soil is * scratched ' as
deep on the hills as it is in Jaffna, aud with double
the amount of labor, from the j nature of the small
terraces on the steep hillsides, aud the expenditure
of time and trouble on the paddy fields of the hill
country exceeds in an immense degree that on the
same cultivation in the lowcountry, where so much
baud labour is unnecessary. Then the hill fields are
weeded, aud left clean by gangs of women, with no
small amount of trouble. There is little or no man-
uring; where are the villagers to get the manure from,
aud what appreciable benefit woulil they get from the
return? The whole system ot terrace cultivation,
where the water flows over the laud, precludes any-
tliing but careful, expensive manuring operations, and
after all the resulting benefit would be very small.
As for neglect of attending to the w^ator-supply,
there maybe such in fever-striken and poverty-striekeu
villages, where disease and despair render the people
callous and inditt'erent, but such is not the rule. Of
course, as the writer puts it, on cold, wet nights a
warm bed under cover is preferred to a tramp in
the diu-k up and down steep slippery paths, but we
must recollect that on such occasions the falling r.ain
obviates any necessity for water to be turned im the
fields. Laying all these aside, suppose for the sake
of argument, each field in ITva could he. made to
double its present yield, the result wouldn't feed the
villagers, the coohcs, and the gener.il inhabitants of
the province itself, much less "stop the import of
rice." Aud what is true of Uva holds good in respect
to all the hillcountry of the Central Province. You
see a tract ot land apparently capable ot cultivation,
and you will find it is Crown land, or in the bauds
ot Europeans, or there is no water-supply, or some-
thing which ihas prevented its being availed of for
the purpose.

In one respect, the Jaffna " Patriot " is right, though
lie evidently doesn't mean it. The Central Proviiic
is not altogether confined to the hills, and in on

Dec. I, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

413

portion at least encroaches on the lowcountry to I
great exteut, and there is tlie place to grow rice, a
alliiile to the Hinteiiiie country. Go ilown to li'm-
teiine during the S3uth-\Ve,st mousaoii and see what
can be d.rae by the one tank of Ftoraborwewa, aud
then tlie turn along the bank of the Jlahavilligaiiga
anri see the immense voUime of the river, sivolleji and
muddy with the monsoon rains, witli its millions of
toiLs of fertilizing ;wiiter aud silt, flowing illy ami
uselessly to the sea, through a pircheil and dried-u[i
country, fever-stricken aud almo-ct uninhabited.

Let tile .Taltna " T.itriot " picture to himseUt" the result
of one or two anicnts thrown across the bed of the
river, or one or two pumps at work, throwing this
fertilising water over the surrounding country, where
in places you might have level beds a mile in length.
There is the water, aad there is the soil ; what is
reiinired is the application and that is iu the hanils
of men. And it must not be forgotten that the ex-
posure, over a large surface of water on the ground,
h.as a corresponding etVeet on the climate in drawing
moisture from the clouds, and iu course of time alter-
ing the condition oil the dim ite Itself. In this portion
of the Oeutral Province there is room for exten.sion,
but this is evidently not what the " Patriot " is think-
ing about, he spealcs of the hillcountry, aud his con-
clusions are wrong.— O. E., Pallerakelly, 8th Sept-
enilitr. 1SS5. — Local " Times."

♦

CALIFOKNIA.

(TO THE EDITOB Or Tin-: " rifXD.")
Sir, — Seeing in your issue of May 9 a letter under
the above heading, signed by Mr. U, A. Vachell,
aud, boasting on my own part of some experience
in this State and iu the vino and fruit interest,
I orav(! space in your i)aper for a few words on
the subject, and to show that the inferences to be
drawn from the letter referred to are totally at
variance with the condition of things existing here.
With all due deference to the writer of this letter,
I do not agree with his statement to the clfect
that Callforul* oilers gooil opportunities to emigrants,
aud ultimately a competency from vine and fruit
culture; aud I wl'l endeavour to prove to you, by
figures and facts indisputable, that the business is
not what it is represeutcd to be.

.Ml the accessible and ea-sily tillable land Iu local-
iiles suitable for vine culture has long since been
taken up, and held at prices that do not justify
reiutonable anticipations of a fail' return alone for
capital and labour, to say nothing of a conipctency. A
little land is still to be had in the foothills of the
Sierras, but some distance from market, aud everyone
netpiuuited with farming operations knows that a
hilly farm is a costly business. Some land is also
l^) \n: h;id in certaui parts of Soulhem California at
ri^Lsiinaliie figures, but next to useless withont irrig-
atiini — a costly alternative.

The wi-itcr of the letter in question estimates profit
IK-r acic at £U0. Let me go in for a few details.
W'k will begin mtli cost of land at his figures, £3
an acre. At the usual distiiuce of 8 ft. apart each
way, (JSO vine cuttings will be required per acre.
These cuttings will cost 12s. per thousand. Prepar-
ation of ground by deep ploughing twice and harrowing,
then marking out and planting, after that careful
cultivation to keep <iown weeds, will cost £',i 10s.
an acre fur first year; for second year, ploughing
and constant cultivation, aud to destroy weeds, will
cost £1 4s. an acre; the same expenses for third
year; tin; fourth season from jilanting, the owner
may consider himself fortunate if he can gather li
ton per acre for first yield, and 3 tons thereafter as
an average crop; cultivation and pruning each follow-
ing year will cost not less than £1 IBs. an acre.
A friend of mine in the Napa Valley planted some
eighteen acres with Zinfandel vines; this was In the
spring of 1S81, aud in 18SI he gathered his first
crop, receiving' in round numbers 000 dels, or £120
for same. From this amount must be deducted —
cost of boxes, picking, and hauling two aud a half

miles to the winery. The Ziufaudcl grapa (a cliiret
grape, by the way) fetohe.l the hi;,'hist price at the
winery that s.!a-)ju, £-S a ton. \Vit!i reginl to the
above return, I m.iy m.Mition tint one of the most
l)r.actical mju in the district oonsidorod it a very
fair oue for a first piekiig. The v.iluo of laud in
this Ciisa w.is £20 au acre, at the least.

Truly, in some localities l.'trger returns are to be
obtained from cultivation of table grapos, but tho
nurki^t for this article is very limited, and the oust
of bjxing and freight to an Eastern m'U'ket, after
deduutiins for commissions, &e., is so considerable,
that little m.argin is left. The estimated wine yield
of this Stvte was some l-),l1{)a,(liJ0 gallons for 1881,
abj.it otjUiil to the demand. Taking into cousidor-
atiou the immense acreage of vine.y.irds that will
coran into benviug during the next three years, it
is estimated bv practical men that the wine yield
will at least reach 8D,O00.OOI) galloTis by ISSS; aud
where is this to be disposed oV? The Amerioans
are not consumers to the extent the French are .
aud again, C.alifornia wine has not been favourably
received iu Europe ; whether this is from prejudice
or not I am unable to say. Already the price for
wine grapes is on the decline. In tho season of
1883 the wine makers made; offers for the crop be-
fore it was ripe, the average price being £0, all
round, per ton. Last year, 188 1, matters were reversed,
for the wino m.akcrs formed a riug and dictateil their
own prices, the lowest figures being offered for
mission grapes, £t 12s. a ton, less a ilollar (4s. 2d.)
jier ton per degree of saccharine strength below a
fixed standard of 22°, the average being IS' obtained
by the usual test.

In certain houses in Oalifornia, not.ably at Palace
Hotel in San Fiancisoo, if native; wine is called for,
you are informed that only the ]''rench article is kept.
Jiut it is generally well-known where this so-called
French wine comes from ; the " braml," tridy, is
French.

Now as to the possibilities in the fruit Ijno
People in this State have grown almost cranky on
the question; the yield within tho uext three years
will be so enormous as to overch.arge the mark(;t,
and so fetch little or nothing. I wdl mention, by
way of illustration, one; Instance of a unrs(;ryman,
who disposed of 100,000 fruit trees this spring, anfl
in the .sjime town there were two others who bad a
fair share of busin(!ss. This wholesale planting is not
ccnifined to one locality ; It has been going on all over
the States? Where is it to end? With present sup-
plies the mai'ket is often glutted; and as for canning
and di.sposal eastward, the cost of same, adding heavy
freight charges ("for the railway monopolies h.ave the
Golden State by the throat), not forgetting also
that labour here is considerably clearer than in the
Ciisf; — where, by the way, a lot of fruit, is grown —
will not admit of making a fortune ; of ten the bianco
is on the other side.

The vine business has been overdone before. About
nine years since vineyards were rooted up for this
very reason, and we shall liave the same thing over
again, all of which is quite charncleristic of the country,
and an insatiable love for the "alntighty dollar." To say
nothing of mildew, &e., phylloxera is making terrible
havoc with the vine, which will not stand above teui
or twelve years, under such conditions. Tho result
of planting resistant stock does not yet seem to l)av(!
been fully demonstrated. So anxious have people been
to embark in the vino and fruit business, that
mortgaging has been the order of the day. The
mortgages in one small county, Napa, represent nearly
three million dollars. Mortgages have been very
general on the whole of the Pacific Coast, and I
do not think it will be found that 10 jier cent of
the farms are free from inonmbrance.

As for California being a favourable field for white
labour, Chinese are so very plentiful that white men
cannot compete! with them. They are pairl at the
rate of 4s. 2d. a, day; and 6d. a day will keep a
celestial, who is content with any kind of shelter.

4H

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

I have heard a great rlcal about the glories of the
''Croklen State;" but what strikes me as beiug most
iucousistent with a " goUleu " comhtiou of things is
the presence of so many tramps looking for work — ■
swagmeu as they are termed in Australia, the swag
beiug a bundle of blankets carried at the back.
— 0. II. Godfrey, Napa, California.

♦

" MADAB."

BY C. J. H. WARDEN (ON FURI.OI'RIl) .\ND L. A. WADDEL,

Surf/eons H. JI.'s Bciuitit Army.

Botanical Chiii-acters. — In India, under the popular
name of "Madar," two plants belonging to the N^it.
Ord, of Asclcpiadiaceio are known — the ( 'nlotrojiis
yiyaidea-f or Aadepia'^ gigantca, and the Cahtropis
procera, or C. Hami/tonii. The former is one of the
commonest weeds throughout India, and is most
abundant in the lower provinces and Eastern India;
while the C. procera, which most closely resembles
it, is found chietiy in the drier parts of Northern
and Central India. Botanically, the C. yii/antea is
thus described by Drury* : — ^Shrub 6-10 feet; leaves
stem-clasping, decussate, eblong-ovate, wedge-shaped,
bearded on the upper side at the base, smooth on
the upper surface, clothed with woolly down on the
under side; segments of corolla retle.fed, with re-
volute edges; stamineous corona 5-leave(l, shorter
than the gynostegium ; leaflets keel-formed, ciroiuately
recurved at the base, incurved and sub-trideutate
at the apex ; umbels sometimes compound, surrounded
by involucral scales ; follicles ventricose, smooth ;
seeds comose ; flowers rose-colour and purple mixed.
Flowers all the year. Both varieties grow well on
the poorest soils, and are largely cultivated in some
parts of the country as a hedge (Watt). * ♦

Emnvmic- Uses. — Certain of the ecouoraic uses of
the madar plant have already been noticed, and we
would here refer to the employment of the inspis-
sated sap as a substitute for gutta-percha, and to
the use of the fibre for paper making. Dr. G. Watt,
in his work on 'The Economic Products of India,'
states that madar is, in fact, the most interesting
and most hopeful plant not belonging to the natural
(U'llcr of Saijotacere, which can be said to yield a
substance resembliug gutta-percha, ever likely to obtaiu
a commercial reputation as a substitute. Dr. Riddell,
the Superinteudeut Surgeon to the Nizam's army,
was apparently the first to separate and experiment
with this gum, and his results were first [jublish-
eil by Captain (the late Colonel) Meadows Taylor,
in a letter to the Secretary of the Agri-Horticultural
Society of India.f Afterwards, Dr. Kiddle republished
his discovery in the Homhai/ l\mis. As these letters
may not be accessible to persons bkely to be
interested by this subject. Dr. Watt republishes the
more important parts, narrating the actual experiments.

" My dear Sir, — I observe in the last number of
the tiocietifs Traiisratiuns, that the mM\iir—Ascl»pia
(/i'yffHtea— affords a very valuable kind of hemp or
"flax, and I have now the pleasure to communicate
to you another valuable property it possesses, which
has beeu lately discovered by a friend here, under
whose permission I make the present connnunicatious
to you.

"Dr. lliddell, the ofliciating Superintendent Surgon
of the Nizam's army, had for some time been employed
in extracting or determining by chemical experi-
ments, the well-known medicuial properties of this
plant, and during his investigaficni, having ^ had
occa.siou to collect the milky .■^ap, and expose it to
the air, fouud, as it gradually dried, that it became
tough and hard, and not unlike gutta-peri'ha. This
iiuhiced him to treat the juice as that of the gutta-
pcircba tree is ilone, and the result has been the
obtaining of a substance apparently [irecisely aualogous
to gutta-percha, of which 1 have the pleasure to
send you a specimen, beariug the impression of his
seal marked No. I.

" The mode of preparing this substance is as
follows; — _

« ' Useful Plants of India.'

•)• Ayri-Uortic. Soc. Journ., vol. viii.

" The juice or sap to be collected by iucisiou. An
open slit may be made in the birk, and a pot tied
to it, when the jiuce will How into it; or it may
be collected by cutting the bark and catching as
much as flows out at once. Dr. Riddell calculates
that ten average-sized plants will yield as nmch
juice_ as will make a pound of gutta-percha substance,
but it is not kuowu yet how far the plant \vill bear
tapping without injury, nor how often, or at what
intervals the extractions of the juice might be made.
The juice extracted may either be exposed to tho
sun in a shallow vessel, or left to dry in the shade :
by the former process the substance becomes a little
darker than by the latter. When it has attained a
tough consistency it may be well worked up in very
hot water with a wooden kneader, or boiled ; either
process serves to remove an acrid property of the
juice, as also all other matter but the gutta-percha
itself. It is believed that the more it is boiled and
worked up, the harder it will eventually become
when cool.

"Comparison with the true gutta-percha gives the
following results.

"Sulphuric acid chars it.

" Nitric acid converts it into a yellow resinous
substance.

" Muriatic acid has very little effect upon it.

"Acetic acid has no effect.

" Alcohol, ditto.

" Spirit of turpentine dissolves it into a viscid
glue, which, when taken up between the fiuger ami
thumb, pressed together and then separateil, shows
numberless minute aud .separate threads.

"The above tests correspond exactly with the estab-
lished residts of the real gutta-percha. The
substance, however hard it may have become, becomes
immediately flexible in hot water, and readily takes
any form required, receiving and retaining impressions
of seals, etc., etc

"If the madar could be profitably grown for its
hemp alone, it is evident, if this new substance
proves in practice what it now appears to be, that
an acre of cultivation of it would produce a large
(|uautity of juice, and thus materially enhance its
value. The poorest land sufflces for its growth, but
I have no doubt that if cultivated, and plentifully
irrigated, not ouly would the yield of juice be larger,
but the growth of the plant, and the fineness of its
fibre when made into hemp, materially increased."

Dr. Kiddell subseijuently wrote —

" As regards my experinu-nts with the miuldar
juice they are as follows; — Having collected about
18 fliud ounces I had it strained through a cloth,
and exposed 18^ ounces to solar evaporation on a
flat dish. In three days it became firm, separating
itself from the dish, and easily removed. I then
placed it in boiling water, and worked it well about
with a spatula, and when cool enough to handle,
kneaded it with my fingers ; when cool I fomul it
to weigh a little more than six ounces. I then
boiled it, and, as it cooled, worked it well again:
and on weighing the substance found it had lost one
ounce. I then pulled it out into shreds and boiled
a second time, kneading it whilst cooling, and four
ounces two drachms, apothecaries' weight, was obtained,
of what I call muildar gutta-percha.

"The next experiment was with four Duces of the
juice, and placing it in a basin 1 poureil about one
quart of boiling water on it, stirring it up, and
leaving it to stand, when it broke into curds which
fell to the bottom.

"I then partially poured off the fluid, .and filtered
the residue through paper, aud on its being sufliciently
dry to be removed found it to weigh one ounce
six drachms. It was then worked well in hot water
two or three times, and formed into a mass which
weighed six drachms, thus loosing one ounce. On
the whole it will be seen that the most economical
method of preparing the juice is by solar evaporation,
the residue being nearly double that of tlio second
experiment."

Dec. I, 2885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

415

Dr. Watt* states that Sir, Leotard publishes, iu
his memorandum on the materials in ludia suitable
for the uiauufacture of paper, the opiuion of Pro-
fessor Iveihvood upon m:Klar- gutta. "The Professor
considers it possesses many properties in common
with gutta-percha of commerce. The specimen so
reported upon was collected by Captain O. B.
HoUings, Deputy Commissioner, Shahpur (in the
Punjaub), iu the year 18-53, little more than one year
after the date of the original discovery of the gutta.
We have learned nothing further iu thirty years,
and uncountable riches of fibre and gum have all
the while been wasting along every roadside and
over every rubbish heap."

."Mr. W. S. Strettell, of the Forest Department, m .
his 'New Source of Kevenue for India,' states that
the mudilar must "afford a material for paper as '
good as, and cheaper than esparto." In this opiuion I
he is strongly supported by the Curator of the
Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay, who pronounces |
this as one of the finest of Indian fibres, its extended
use being restricted only by the difficulty of extraction.
In the Kew Report for 18S1, howerer, an opinion is
i-xpressed by Mr. Itoutledge quite opposed to this;
he believes that "neither it (rauddar) nor any other
exogenous plants of similar cliaracters can ever com-
pete with esparto, nor be produced at a sufficiently
low cost to admit of its being employed as paper-
making material." Paper is prepared in the following
districts: — Bellary, Madras, Furruckabad and Meerut,
in North-Western Provinces. The plant is abundant
in the Puujaub, and, together with *he next species, is
to a small extent made into paper. The cotton or crown
of hairs from the seeds, .as also tlie fibre from the bark,
or both, is capable of being used for paper (Watt).t
Two otlicr economic uses of muddar may be inen-
tioncd. The fibre knowii as iotcstrini/ hemp is obtained
from the stems, and is perhaps the most valualile,
as it is the strongest, of Indian fibres. While this
has been well known for many years and the fibres
repeatedly brought to the notice of Europe, it has
up to the present day not attracted the attention
which it deserves (Watt).{ The milky sap is well
known in tanning. It if made into a paste with the
flour of the small millet {rcMciUaria spicata) and
is used previously to colouring the skin with lac
dye. Alone it imparts a yellow colour to the skin
(Watt).S The juice is also stated by Dr. Watt to
be employed to remove the offensive smell of fresh
leather. » • ♦ « * . .*

The fact that the sap of the madar plant contains in
addition to caoutchouc two principles analogous to
the alban and fluavil of gutta-percha is a point of
some interest, especially as madar gutta-percha has
been recommended as a substitute for the ordinary
commercial article. Whether or not the madar plant
can be employed as a commercial source of gutta-
percha is a question which can only be solved by
actual experiment. The supply is unlimited, and, as
already mentioned, the plant will flourish on sandy
plains, where other vegetation cannot grow.

We are well aware that our examination of madar
is by no means exhaustive, but we trust at a
future period to be able to resume our investigations.
In conclusion it only remains for us to acknow-
ledge tho kindness of Professor Dr. Sell, of the
Gesundheits Amt, Berlin, for permitting certain of
our experiments to be performed in the chemicid
laboratiiry of the institution, and for his ready
advice in the conduct of our experiments. — Pharm-
tictutlcal Journal.

♦

Macassar Oh,. — Sunflower oil, 100 grammes ; goose
grease and " kamfett", of each 1-5 grammes ; liquid
atorax, oil of eggs, oil of thyme, cacao butter, of
each 8 grammes; neroli, -I grammes; Peruvian
balsam, 06 gramme; otto of roses, 005 gram. —
Jwl.iun Mercnrj/.

* ' Economic Products of India.'
t /*. Part III., p. 12.
i /*. Part III., p. 12.
I /*. Part II., p. la.

Part I.

The DBOiGur in Enu land. — Mr. G. J. Symons writes
to the j!Vj«c.s" (xVug 1885) as follows; — " Rainfall oliserv-
ations have now been made uninterruptedly in this
country for 100 years, not, alas ! at any one place, but
by careful calculation I have obtained values which
are, I beli* \ .-, very near the truth, for every year
from 1721) to 1SS5. During the whole of this long
) ' r'od there is no instinee of more than five con-
.scLiitive years being wet until we come to recent years,
and then we have the uni)recedented fact of nine con-
secutive years ( 1S75 to 18S3), each wetter than the
average ; in short, the quantity in those nine years
was as great as usually falls iu ten years and a quart-er.
In ISSl (ju.st as in 1834, 1844, 185"4, 1804, and 1874)
the fall was below the average, and complaints of
drought and of deficient water supply immediately
arose. I have not had time to thoroughly examine
the records of the early months of 1885, but my im-
pression is that up to the middle of June the fall
did not differ materially from the average, but the
letter half of June was very dry. I now come to|JuIy,
which has been so remarkably dry. — Gardcners'ChroiticU
Fungoid Disf^ASEs in Fruit Thkes: Peach Buoht. —
A coniiuunication was received, through Sir J. D.
Hooker, from Mr. T. Kirk, Wellington, New Zealand,
asking for advice as to remedial measures. In some
districts the fruit trees are being destroyed by the
mycelium of a ground fungus— a small I^uffball- —
though the author suspects that several Agarics
affects thcni. When the ravages are most serious
the reproductive state is but rarely developed. It
first appears as a circular patch, in which all vegetation
(as iu fruit trees, Oaks, Walnuts, grass, Sorrel, Straw-
berries, &c.) is more or less " blighted," tlie plants
exhibiting a withered appearance, the leaves becom-
ing slightly curled, droop and fall long before their
time, and the plant dies. The roots are more or less
covered with mycelium. The effects extend in a most
singular fashion, travelling half-way across a garden
or orchard from one side only, at others extending
in all directions. It is most fatal to fruit trees. It
is almost exclusively confined to hght soils, on which
Fern (Pteris aquilina) has grown. Damp or dry
soils have no attractions for it. It occurs abundantly
in the decaying rhizomes of Fern, transferring its
attention to fruit trees whenever the opportunity
is afforded. The first parts on which the alfection
shows itself is the juncture of root and stem. The
bark becomes absolutely rotten whtrn permeated by
the mycelium, and emits a nauseous odour. Plum
trees usually show but little mycelium as compared
with Apples, but the trunk is more obviously affected,
and exudes gum freely. Experiments are being carried
out in the folliiwing directions : — (1) Soaking the soil
with tar-water and dressiug the effected ]iarts with
the same; (2j dressing the soil with soot: (3) with
sulphur; (4) with ini'd brine washes, both for trees
and soil. So far the tar-water seemed the most
effective, but the author was inclined to think tliat
sulphur will have the most pernruu'iit effect. Tlio
author adds, that in all parts of the country the Peach
is dying wholesale, but the cause is most obscure.
The trees appear to flower with their accustomed
luxuriance, and the fruit to set as usual. If a
sudden change of temperature, or a severe frost
has been experienced during the flowering time,
the fruit does not swell, the leaves make their
appearance readily and fall qidckly — minute orange-
coloured blotches are seen on the twigs, These
become confluent and black, and then the buds decay.
At this stage the jilant may die, or if the season
prove favoiuable, a weak autumn growth may be
made, ami new leaves developed, tassel-like, at the
tips of the branches ; but a renewed attack the
fcillnwing spring proves fata!, anrl the plant dies.
Plants one year from the seed are attacked as read-
ily as the oldest. Occasionally a free partially
sheltered has suffered less than its neighbour or lias
escaped entirely ; while two kinds lappear to roist
the disease more tlian others, viz. Cornet and Salway,
but they are certainly not blight-proof by any means,
— Uardencrs' ChroiiicU.

4i6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS'y. [Dec. i, 1SS5,

Cultivation of Scnflowees.— Iu reply to W. 6.
andO. v., we give a few notes upon the cultivation of
sunflowers as carried out to a great extent i.i America.
The two varieties most commonly grown are the
Giant and the Egyptian. The seed is sown broadcast,
or drilled in March or Apul, according to season, at
the rate of 6 ib. to 8 lb. per acre, the plants being
left about a foot apart. By leaving the plants some-
what clote together, they are protected against high
winds, and the yield per acre is larger. Sunflowers
will grow on almost any soil, but perfer a dry one,
and for good returns it should of course be rich. It
is the custom to plough in with a good bold furrow
plenty of good farmyard manure, and when the seed
bed is ready, just before sowing the seed, ptut on a
few hundredweight of guano, harrowing in the seed
and guano together with light barrows, as with barley
or oats. The yield per acre is about 25 bushels, the
crop ripeniug about August or September. The
leaves are sometimes stripped off and given to
stock, but we should not recommend the practice.
The conditions as to soil and climate described by W.
G. appear most favourable for the growth of the
plant. We do not know a work on the subject, but
will inquire and give results. — James OAurEit & Co.,
237 and 2o8, High Holborn, ^Y.C.—F!lM.

Anothkr New Tea Machine. — We learn that
Mr. D.avid Fairweather, of Sembawatte, has invented,
and, we believe ijatented, a machine for breaking
up the balls of rolled leaf after coming out of the
roller. This machine, if a success, will undoubtedly
save a good deal of labour. The le;if will now pass
from the withered state direct into the rollers, then
into the "ball breaker," and will drop from this
into the "roll sifter." It is then placed to ferment.
Following up the arrangement which is now in force
on Mariawatte estate, the tea will then pass through
the Automatic Victoria Dryer, red leaf being separ-
ated by hand. The tea next passes into the sifting
machine, the coarser teas being discharged direct
into Jackson's Invincible Cutter which is driven from
the sifter. It will be seen that throughout the whole
operatiou the oidy handwork is the picking out of
the red leaf. We are afraid this is a portion of
the manufaeture that will always have to be done
by hand. The above description shews the strides
we are making in perfecting and simplyfyiug the
art of tea manufacture. Mr. Fairweather deserves
credit for not only this latest but many other im-
provements introduced by him into the mauu-
f actm-e of tea, all of which can be seen by the visitors
to Sembawatte or Mariawatte factories. — Local " Times."

Cactus Hedoes. — The Cactus makes an admirable
hedge, and is easily propagated by cuttings. Snip off
a piece and bury its end in the ground, and it will
generally grow. Some nervous people, however, object
to it foj- its sujjposcd property of harbouring snakes
or vermin, and the authorities, in some places, wage
a war of e.vterminatiou against this useful plant. A
sort of Cacticide epidemic raged some years ago m
Madras, and a native medical officer won both honour-
able mention and a tangible reward by divulging to
the authorities his discovery that the " (?occus," or
Cactus bug, was the natural and ajipointed destroyer
of the Cactus tree, and should be therefore enlisted for
its destruction ! The suggestion was rapturously re-
ceived. The labours of gangs of coinicts employed in
grubbing up and burning the plant were dispensed
with, and iu lieu thereof a departmental issue of
Cactus bugs was at once ordered on the most profuse
scale. For motiths the luckless postal runners gro.aued
beneath the weight of jiarcels of the Cactus plant,
with healthy '■ cocci " adliering, pieces of which in-
fected i)laiit were to be distributed in spots where the
Cactus was plentiful, that the great battle of Coccus
versus Cactus might I'C Fairly fought out. It reads
like a scheme disinteired from the archives of the
philosi)hers of Lajiuia, but was actually conceived and
earrieil out iu Madras, and is too curious an example
of intellectual idiosyncracy (o be passed over iu sileuee
by the con^cientious iiibloriau. — '• MASOH'ij iiUKMAII."
•-Gardentii' Ohimiicle,

Oamphoe in China. — Reporting on the trade of
Tamsiu, China, the Commissioner of Customs says
that the trade in camphor is re])resented iu the
returns by such an insignificant figure that there is
great fear of its total extinction iu the near future.
The immediate cause of its rapid coUapse may be
traced to the eagerness of the Chinese to acijuire,
by all possible means, as much territory as possible.
During the last three years hills thickly wooded
with camphor ti-ees have been burned over by the
Chinese, in order to compel the savages to withdraw.
Destruction on so large a scale naturally tells on
the camphor trade. Forests of camjihor trees >lo
still exist further inland, but tlie absence of all
beaten tracks across the mountains renders them
difficult of access. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

Seed Adultf.eatiox. — The Act that was passed a
few years ago does not, it appears, suffice to en-
tirely i)revent the evil j^ractices of seed-doctors, or
probably that fault lies with those who should avail
themselves of its provisions and do not. A\'e h.avc
before us samjjles of very old Trifolium seed and
other samples of the same seed sulphured and re-
polished, and intended presumably for mixing with
geuuiue seed. We are informed that as it is requis-
ite to wet the old seed to enable it to tske up the
sulphur there is ah increase of weight of about 20
per cent, which more than pays all the expense of
the operation. The value of the old seed, we are in-
formed, is about -Is. the cwt., while the doctored
seed sells for 20s. or thercabAits the cwt. "Wc do
not know where or by whom this bit of meanness
is perpetrated, but are astonished that farmers do
not it not taste at least try before they liuy. The
much derided ilower-pot experiments are sufticicnt to
reveal the state of the case, for on trial we fiiul about 23
per cent of failures in the old seed as against LHI per cent
of failures iu the doctored seed. — Cfaydcncrs' Chronicle,

Vegetable Pboddots of Nice. — In a report from
the British Consid on the trade and commerce of
Nice for the past year, it is st.ated that the Olive
crop suifered considerably from the long droughts.
As the harvest commences iu October, and lasts
till March, when the drought is very prolonged, the
Olives .shrivel up and drop off before coming to
maturity, while when suffering from drought they
seem to be more easily affected l>y the ravages of
the '*keirou" insect, the damage done to agricult.-
ure iu this department by the wholesale destruction
of birds is said to be incalculable. The subject is
attracting the serious attention of the local agri-
cultural society, and is also being ventilated from
other motives by the Societies for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals of Nice, Cannes, and Meutone,
and it is hoped that their luiited efforts n)ay lead
to a beneficial change in this respect. Another in-
stance of short-sighted policy referred to is the
wholesale destruction of the forests. Tlie wise rt-
loisemcnt commenced during the limpire has been
discontinued,. pro!>ably from motives of economy,
until the last three years, and the ignorant mount-
ain communes have been growing rich on the pro-
fits of the destruction of their remaining timber. The
matter has, however, been taken up once more by
the Government, aud the reboisemcit of some dis-
tricts is now being energetically carried on. The
cidtivation of flowers for perfumery purposes and
the manufacture of perfumery for exportulieu havo
been carried on for years on this coast, but the cul-
tivation of flowers for direct exportntiou is au
industry of quite recent birth, and is due to the
additional railway facilities, the accelerated service,
and to the establishnxut of the Parcel Post. They
have led to the establishment of the Socieli Florala
Company, who grow their own Bowers, anil export
thi'in to all parts of Huroiie. 'J'he British Consul
expres.ses himself as being sati.-fied th.tt this is an
industry which is capable of great developmrut, anil
which will well repay the producer. What is wauteil
for the local gi'ower is to be put into liirc c t com-
munication with the flower tihupii of Louduu aud Paris. —
(ja riioieis' Chron kh.

Dec. I, 1885.]

fHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

417

THE NUiIGmi CINCHONA PLANTATIONS.

JIK. M. A. IAWSOn's RKroniS FOR 18«l-85.
la adilitiou to the iiotice ot these reports taken
over on pages 401-3, wo now give detailed extracts; —
3. Season and 1;ainfai,l— (<0 J)o(labetln.--TakKn
altogether the season was not unfavorable for
carrying on the general work of thci estate. The
total amount ot rain registered during the year was
01'20 iuehes, and was spread over 12;! days, but of
this <|uautity more than half, or 3177 inches, fell
iluriug the two months of October and November.
The early part of the year was unusn.xlly dry, and
until the end of April, hardly any rain fell. In
both Jlay and .June 5 0 inches were rccor<led, but
the greater jmrtiou of this fell in a very short spac(^
of time, during one or two violent thunderstorms.
The result of these heavy showers, falling upon the
dusty earlh, especially ou the steeper slopes, was
that the water ran otf before it had time to sink
into the ground beyond a few inches. July, again,
was an exceedingly dry month,. ISi inches only being
recorded, aud it was not till the end of August that
the earth was sufliciently wetted to begin planting.
In this month, 639 inches were spread over 20 days.
The following mouth of .September was very droughty,
and some of the plants which had been put out in
the end of August died in couseiiuence. October and
November, liowever, were, as I have already mentioned,
most uuusally rainy, aud the ground was thoroughly
soaked and our failing springs rc-establishcil. Some
damage was done on the steeper slopes throvigh the
earth being washed away ; also in one of the ravines,
two hmidred trees or more were destroyed by some
large rocks which were undermined, aud ou being
dislodged from their site, clashed through a portion
of the plantation immediately below them. The
trees thus destroyed were some of the finest ou the
estate. After this heavy bu.-st of raiu, the weather
continued propitious till the end of December, so
that all the plants which had been put out were
well established, and able to withstand the prolonged
drought of the next five months.

('1) XtulnvaUim. — The rainfall on this estate for
the past year was 92i)6 inches, and was spread over
lU days. The earlier months of April and May
received 3 and 4 inches respectively, ahd in June
7'34 inches fell. This saturated the ground, so that
the planting, of which a very great deal had to be
done, was commenced as early as possible. lu .July,
19-35 iuchcs of rain fell, but at the same time this
rain was accompanied with such violent storms of
wind that the whole of the Jime planting, at least
all those portions of it which lay at all exposed to
the south-west were destroyed, had to be
replanted later on iu the season. Aiter this the
weather continued normal till the end of December.
.V large portion of the planting was not completed
till the end of November, and I greatly feared that
the plants would not be sufficiently established before
the rains ceased, to be able to withstuml the dry
weather of the ensuing spring. However, to give
them the best chance of prospering, I had them all
double ferned, and I am glad to be able to report
uow, after having received our first spring showers,
that they have survived, and are beginning to grow.
(If the 1-lSO iuehes which were recorded iu October,
no less than 110 inches fell in about thirty hours.
Of course such a continuous downpour necessarily
caused some wash, but owing to the ground being
well covered with weeds, the damage done was
comparatively trifluig.

('■) y^../,vi-.— The rainfall recorded on this estat<!
for the past o.Ticial year was 101-27 inches and was
spread over 13G day^^. The weather thrnu-hout the
year was favorable for all kinds ot work, and great
strides were made in the restoration ot this- plantation.
Til' c\tcnsivo new planliEigs and renewals are all
<luing well.

;</) U'ooJ. — The total amount of rain which fell
on this estate during the past year was SOOli inches
and was spread orer 139 days. So far as the season
53

was coucern>.ii, nothing further couM have been
wished for.

•1. IvKCEii-r.s AND E.xPENDiTuiiK — (rt) Receijits.—'Vhe
revised estimate of reciipts for the past year {riil.e
O. O., dated 8th November lRf>4, No. 1229, Koveuue),
was KJ.5,900. Tho actual amount realized has
been !;. 1,895. The dilTercuco between the estimated
aud actual receipts, viz., .I!38,995. has been due
partly to a lar;; i- quantity bl bark biiug sold by
auction in Madras than was originally inti'uted, Kl,S,so
lb. were sold instead of fiO.OUO lb., partly owuig to
a larger proportion of the more e-ist.ly crown as
compru-ed witji the cheaper red barks lic-iiig .sold than
was originally proposed, and partly duo to a slight
recovery in the prices realized. Statem(;nt No. 7
shows liie rise and fall in the prices which have
been offered for the different kinds of" (Jovernment
barks at the auction sales in Madras since December
18S3. The receipts ou account of tho sale of cinchoua
seed aud jjlants amounted to 111,033 as against
the estimate of K700. Again, under Miscellaneous
items, KSIO \Terc realizcil as against the estimate
of K50. This increase under the latter head was
due chiefly to a market being found for the stems
of the trees which wore coppiced the year before ou
the Dodabetta estate.

(h) lv.rpen<IHure. — The budget allotment for flu;
working and other charges ot the depart-nent w.-is
K9L215 {'tide G. O., dated Sth November lS.s4,
No. 12-9, lioveune, paragraph 8). This included the
sum ot K2,100 for the pay for six months for
the Government Qninologisf. The actual expenditure
has been RS7,i)l)3 or E3,342 less than the
budget allotment. CV-rtain unexpected charges have,
however, been paid out of the allotment, which
altogether amounted to B9,.5.35. 15ut for these,
therefore, the saWugs would have amoimted to
Ill2..->r7. These unexpected charges were partly those
connected with the establishment of the Quiuologist's
Department, which altogether amounted to R6,853,
and partly to an old Kuglish debt of 112,(131, which
had been contracted in the year 1S82 for lb.^
manufacture of bark into febrifuge.

5. PEitstANENT rLANT.\TioN — (fj) DodtibUta. — Tile
trees on this estate, takpu altogether, are in a fair
condition. Those parts of the plantation, the trees
on which I stated in my report of last year to be
past their prime, have been coppiced aud interplanted.
The coppiced stumps liave already nearly all of
them t u'own out shoots, aud the inter-pl.anting is
also doing well. For fear of denudation of tho soil
taking place during the heavy sjiring rains and
before the ground would be covered with weeds, I
had a number ot brushwood revetments made on all
the steeper slopes where the trees had been cut
down. The following table shows the number of
trees which were growing in the " Perm.anent Tlaut-
ation" on tho 31st of March last to be 633,487:—

Number Number Number

of trees Number Number ot Trees cf Trees

on 31st of Trees of Trees planted ou 31st

Blareh uprooted, coppiced. out. March
1884. 18S5.

489,305 200 5,618 150,000 633,iS7

(/i) JVmliivatmii. —Thts estate is )m))roving, but it
will be many years before it again arrives at its
former state of perfection. The plantings ot 1882 and
18S3 look remarkably well. This is dtie to their having
been liberally manured. The stumps of the trees which
were coppiced the year before last, as also those
which were dealt with in a similar maimer last year,
have thrown up shoots most satisfactorily, and 1 shall
therefore continue to coppice small portions ot the
estate year by year, whenever the trees show signs
of having past thtiir prime. The accom|)anying table
professes to show the number of trees growing at
the pri-seut time on the estate, but it must he ])ointpd
out that the table credits the pl.antation with all the
plants put out during the ye.ir, whereas the .hum and
July failures ought to bo deducted. Unfortiniately ,
owing to gross irregularities which beguu to fa>Uo plucu

iiS

fUE TROPICAL AGRlCULftj^t^T^. [Dec. i, 1S85.

in the management of the estate about this time,
the numb et of these failures have not been recorded : —

Number

of Treis Number Number

on olst of Trees of Trees

March uproot* cop-

1S84. ed. piced.

298,610 5,052 1,837

Number

Number of Trees
of Trees on Slst

planted March
out 1SS5.

1111,370 43:>,091

About 4U0 plants of Cim-huna Cnrllicu/eim have now
been put out in a plot of grouud near the drying
sheds. They an; growing well ami seem to prefer the
climate of Naduvatain to that of Uodabetta. Some
of the older plants flowered for the first time both
at Naduvatara and in Sim's I'ark at Coonoor.

The single remaining specimen of Cinchona Santa Fe,
which I reported last year to have been saved from
death by Mr. Jamieson, was planted out last January
in a plot adjoining the C. Carthar/nias. It is perfectly
healthy and has grown considerably since it was planted
out. iie.sides this specimen, I have a dozen others
in the propagating bouse in the Government Gardens,
all or most of which will, I hope, be sufficiently
advanced to admit of their being planted out before
the end of the season. These dozen are cuttings from
the original plant; the largest of them is only about
four inches high though nearly two years old. They
have been most ilitlicult to raise, and have required
the greatest possible care and attention.
* * *

(c) Hooker. — Great advances have been made during
the past year in the renovation of this estate. Large
tracts have been cleaveil 'j'i the wortble.ss trees which
were growing upon it, and replanted. The ground has
been deeply tilled, and all the young trees have been
manured. The accompanying table shows the amount
of planting which has been done during the past year:—

Number Number

of Trees Number Number Number of Trees

on 31.st of Trees of Trees of Trees on 31st

Slarch uproot- cop- planted March

1884. ed. piced. out. 18S5.

331,P51 2,685' ... 223,000 555,166

(d) n'ood. — The condition of this estate I can only
characterize as being increasiugly miserable. The
planting which was done in the early part of the
year was disgraceful. That which was carried out
during the latter months under different auspices was
good, but whether good or bad nearly all the plants
have been destroyed by the ravages, which have been
committed by the pestilent sambur. [See extract in
article.]

I append no taMe to show the number of trees
growing upon this estate, as, owing to the evil circum-
stances which have attended all planting operations,
no accurate calculation is possible. I can only hope
that next yfar, after the barbed fence has been put
up, I may be able to give a more favorable report.

6. Upkeep. — The weediug at proper times, deep
tilling, the maintenance of the roadways, clearance of
drains, he, have been thoroughly well executed on
all of the three first plantations. On the Wood estate
much is still required to be done in this respect.

7. Manuue— («) Jhchihctta. — The whole of the
liiaiiuve collected during the hist year had been used
for those plots, which have been more recently planted,
so tbfit there w.is none ai'ailahle for the older trees,
I havf, however, been able to make arrangemeDts by
which the stock of manure will for the future bo
gieatly imrea.sed, and next season I hope to have cunugh
to enrich a large portion of the ohler parts of the estate.

(/;) iVii(!Hrn(«)H.— Thi.s estate is very bailly_ off for
triftnnre, and mpas\ncs will have to bo adopted to increase
the supplv,

((•) Ilonln- and (</) Wood. -'RoWx of these estate.'!
Rre fairly well supplied by the cattle which arc bn.ugbt
III) by the coolies who work up jn t ho plantations.
' ' » » »

8. Soils.- During the la.-,t winter the cattle on the j
estates fell into a very miserable condition, owiog to

their not getting a sutliiciency of proper food. I have,
therefore, put up on the Dodabetta and A^'ood estates
siio.i for the prcseivatiou of fodder during the wefc
season. I have had hitherto no personal experience
of sUo:i, but it seems to be an establislu-tl fact that
they are most valuable for storing up iiutrili»uis food
in climates siu'h as obtains on these lulls, where herb-
age is j)lcntiful only at those times when the
preservation of it in a ilry state would be impossible,
I hope I shall be able to ri'port next year that the
experiment has proved successful,

^ ft »

There is still a small demand for seed, the varieties
which were chiefly sought after last year being O.
i<i'-c'cinfhra d.ud C. jnfbrt.'cens. A complaint was receivetl
a short time ago from a gentleman that an order lio
had given had not been properly attended to, but upon
investigation it turneit out to be due to his Iiaving
been confused by the names C. fn'.bf^cfna and C. roht>.-iUi.
I therefore give below the nomenclature as understood
by this department, with the view of preventing a
similar disappointment ui the future.

* ■ » »

10. Crop.— The total amount of bark taken from
the trees on the estates during the past year was
11H,017 lb. Besides this there remained over on 31st
March 1884 P2,526 lb,, making a total of 210.513 lb, as
specified in the table given below. Of this quantity
84,88 1 lb, was disposed of during the year, so that the
balance at present in stock is 125,663 lb: —

Crown lied

Name of Plantation. Bark, Bark, Total,

lb, lb, lb.

Dod,al)Ptta ,09,874 ... 9fi,,-*74

Naduvatam 27,580 45,775 73,355

Hooker 100 14,300 14,400

Wood DOO 22,014 22,914

Total..

128,454

82,089 210,543

15. The Qdinolooist Depaktment. — Mr. Hooper
was appointed last summer by the Secretary of State
for India to act as tjuinologist. He arrived in Madras
last October. He commenced work immediately, and
within a fortnight of his arrival had so far eijuipped
his laboratory that he was able to begin the an:ilyses
of the Government barks, Mr. Hoojjer has submitteel
a report on the work he has done during the last
half-year. It is full of iuterestiug matter and argues
the possession of great professioual skill aiul industry
on his part. It will be seen from the report that
Mr. Hooper has not confined himself to the study
of the cinchona barks only, but that he has also in-
vestigated the properties of many other products of
economic interest.

One of the first things wdiich Mr. Hooper turned his
attention to was the manufacture ou a small scale of
the liquid extract of cinchou a as originally ilevised
by Dr. De Vrij of the Hague. A gallon of this pre-
paration was sent to Dr. Corni^b, the Surgeon-tren-
eral, for experimentation, and just before he left lor
Enflaud, Dr, Cornish reported in very ftivorable terms
upon its therapeutic and keeping value. In con-
sequence of this report, Government have ordered Mr.
Hooper to produce 1,000 lb. weight of this fluid
e.xtract with the view of having it still more fully
tested, Mr, Hooper will, therefore, as soon as possible,
carry out these instructions in the laboratories comiect-
eJ with the Medical Store Dcpartmt^nt in Madra.i.

The advantage of the nbove-mriitloued prejwratiou
over other kinds of febrifuge is the great economy
and simplicity of its production. So simple, indeed,
is the method that any ilruggist and chemist could,
60 long a.s he had a biu'k of a deterniiucd alkaloidal
value. in;d(e the extract without any difUcnlty in his
own shop.

ir the liquid extract Continues to hohl the !\igli
ripnlation which has hicn given to it by Dr. (Cornish,
and I see no reason to doubt its doing so, t!ovorn-
ment will liave at last as cheap a febrifuge as can
possibly be turned out.

Dec. I, 1S85.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

419

Dr. ( 'Ornish in some sense speaks rather ilispai-ag-
iiigly of the febrifuge whicli is manufactured by
(lOvernniout in Northern luiiia. He says that it pro-
duces nausea. ^Ir. Hooper lias analyzed samples of
the Darjeeling febrifuge and regards it not unfavorably
as a drug ; and the experience of those who have
told me that tliey have administered it to their
servants and others, when on tour in feverish parts
of the country, leads me to regard it as much better
than it is conmiouly believed to be, though no doubt
it may fretpiently cause distm-bauce in p-irticular con-
stitutions when given in large tloses. Of course, if
it were possible, one would desire to administer
uolhiug but the pme alkaloids ; but the great cost
of manufacturing these forbids their being used oil
any large scale, and one must therefore be content
with placing within reach of the poorer classes a
supposed slightly inferior but much cheaper com-
moility.

At the request of Messrs. Arbuthnot and Oo. of
Madras, 2,000 lb. of bark were sent to Oalicut to be
there manufactured into quinine and febrifuge by
their expert. Dr. Cleaver. The results, so far as they
have gone, are not very satisfactory ; and no account
has yet been j;iveu of the proportionate amount of
the alkaloi'ls which have been extracted from the
bark. Bnt I do not see why further experience should
not be productive of better resuIt^s. There can, I
think, be now little doubt that the cinchona alkaloids
can bo isolated as well and much more cheaply in
India iis in any other part of the world.

1(>. Maps ok Kst.\tes. — I enclose three maps show-
ing the amount of planting and coppicing which has
been done since the year 1S82, on the Dodabetta,
Naduvatam and Hooker estates.

EXCLOSUKKS.

T,"tter from D. Hooper, Esq., v. c. s., Government
Quinologist, Ootaeamund, to the Director, Govern-
ment I'inchona riantatious. Parks and Giirdens, Nil-
girls, dated Ootacamnnd, 6th July 1885.

T have the honor to make the following report on
the analytical work conducted in the Government
Laboratory for the half-year ending 31st iSIarch 1885.

2. I arrived at Madras on the 6th October 1SS4
and proceeded to Ootaeamund. A bnilding had been
proviih'd for me, which, after certain adaptations and
tixtnres made in it, became converted into a moder-
ately eilicient laboratory. The chemicals and appar-
atus which I had used in the special study at The
Hague were bronght out with mn ; I was therefore
able to commence work about a fortnight after arrival.

3. My appointment was made with a view to ad-
vance the practice of cinchona culture at the Govern-
ment Plantations " bj* analysing the bark of a very
Urge number of their trees in different stages of
their t^cowth, when treated undtir different systems,
and when grown at different altitudes."

4. The peiiodical sales of bark which are now
made by public auction at Madras have been accom-
panied with an.alyses of the various samples. In
November, l.S samples were reported upon, and for
the February and March sales four samples were
tested. Of these, 10 were crown and C red bark.
The percentages of sulphate of quinine in the former
were —

318
4-09

Natural, average of 5 analyses
Messed „ 3 „

Renewed „ 4 „ ... 422

Branch „ 3 „ ... 1(50

Boot, one analysis ... ... ... 4' 40

The percentages of total alkaloids in the Red barks
were Natural ."i-lO, Mossed 6 ;<7, Renewed 681, Branch
4 4',. 3 07, Root b- 1 7.

These analyses were printed and circulated amongst
the buyers at the sales, and liave enabled a reserve
price to be placed on the various lots.

6. With reference to paragraph C2 of your last
annual report. Dr. A\'. H. ( 'm nish, the then .Surgeon-
General, suggested that ji liquid )>rep;Lration might be
made uf the rod bark, which you say does not com-

mand a remunerative price in the market, anil the
preparation might be similar to those of De Vrij,
Schacht, Paul and Unmey a.lvertised in the British
Medic:d papers. -Whea in Holland I w:is conversant
with the process for making •• Cinchona Liquida " of
Dr. .1. E. De Vrij, the well-known (,)uiiiologist, and had
mad" a samjilo before Dr. (Jornisli's suirgestion arrived.
At his request a further supply of a gallon was
made, and this was distributed to various disijensaries
in the Presidency, iu districts where fever was most
prevalent. .Such good reports on the efficacy of the
liquid extract were sent in by the resident meilieal
officers that a much larger supjily was called for.
Having no appliances m this station for manufacture
on a large scale, iu accor.lance with a Government
order, I went to Madras to see if this could he done
in the Medical Store Department, After an inspection
of the laboratories, I r^-ported that such a quantity
as a l,n(X)lb. could be made, but a continuous manu-
facture would seriously interfere with the arrange-
ments of the department. This quantity has mw
been ordered, and as soon as I have analysed a sample
of the mixed jjowder, 1 will be prepared to go to
Madras and superintend the manufacture of the first
batch, which, according to Dr. Cornish's request, shall
contain 40 grains of alkaloids to the fluid ounce.

6. When samples are taken for analysis from trees
in the Government Oinchon.a Plantations, I have al-
ways endeavored to be present, so that observations
as to situation, soil and habit of the trees miglit be
uote.l. Most of my visits have been to Doilabetta
where the Crown barks chiefly grow, but I liave also
been to Naduvatam, the home of the Red barks,
and to the estates of Hooker and Wood at Pykara.'
I should like it to be understood that all my ana-
lytical results are calculated in percentage ou the air-
dried barks as they are received,

7. The following table comprises 40 analyses show-
ing the alkaloidal value of the principal species of
cinchona growing in (i ovorument and other estates:

•|«I"J,

•sp!0[i!>|[y

sno

-i[d.iouiv

•on;
-noqouiQ

•onip
-innif)

•anipi
-tioqonig

•oiiiuino

.-0 ',2 O L^ '.is 00 t- t- ® 'f3 O O 10

ffi w o; »c ro -^ CO .rj- :p T- 35 ;^ ^

1^ .re -H ■I.I Oi ^ C5 1- CT IN Ml 5i OT

71 io ^ i^ n ih ^ i-i &z vi ^ ^i ^

t:* CO CI rH CO t-

TO 3i -» Cf t- 10

1^0 CO di -^ -i*

eg ^ ^ 21 ^ Ob
0 C -H CI ci ^

r^

CO r— 1,0 JO CD *^

C-l —. jj ^ ^ ^

CO - -.^

trace

trace

•09

'N ira 10 (?? S OS

<-t i-i

CO 0 fiD 1-) c3 C<J

lit! -r c] -T 10 CO

iC fM M Jo ^ ^

•J< 3

2^1

VI c;

it.

5 05 ,

^'A'i^

7^ o ■
•=af

'-i'-i

: o 0-:

,00 *

1!

0

a>
1-

'O

0

72

0

0
a

0

ffi

1

0

s

^

«

9

a

bo

-2
la

aa

s

= £_ a

.-. h-.

'^O

420

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec, I, 1S85.

8. ('. oiJicinalis. — The samples of this species were
suiucted from typical trees growiug oa the Dodabetta
plaiitiitious. The analysis of the natural bark is the
average of eight analyses made on trees of 23, 19, '
and 11 years of agf. and dilferiug in having broad <
and ii»i*row leaves. The mossed and renewed are each I
the average of three analyses made on trees of dif- '
fereut ages. As far as these few results go, it appears
that, on the whole, the younger trees are siiperior to
the older ones, and the uarrovv-leaved variety than
tlie broad-leaved. The follo\viug amounts of quiuine
were determiuGd in three kinds of crown bark from
trees of the same age : —

Narrow leaf. Broad leaf.

Katui-al 2-85 2-95

Blossed 4m 3-47

Kenewed 4-48 3-85

These experiments were repeated on three trees of
a younger growth which showed a marked difference
in shape of leaf. The trees had been planted in 1SG9,
and coppiced in 1879. The respective barks gave the
following percentages of quinine ; —

Very narrow. Narrow. Broad.

3-15 2-71 2-44

9. The variety of this species, named Anffustif^fia,
some years ago created a widespread interest on
account of the extraordinary amount of quinine founcl
in it by Broughton and Howard. The samples were
taken from a tree 20 years old ; it was 10 feet high
with a circumference of 18 inches. The results of
the analysis shows its superiority over ordinary crown
bnrks, but in its present condition it appears to
have no claim whatever to be a prodigy in, cinchona
culture.

12. The Pitai/e/isis bark is characterised by yielding
an unusual quantity of the alkaloid quinidine. The
first sample is from a tree twelve years old raised
from seed brought by ]\Ir. Gross from Pitayo in New
Urenada; thu second sample hiid been raised from
seeds not from Pitayo, but from a district passed
on his return journey. These two varieties will be
subjected to fui-theL' coiisideration.

13. The analysis of tlie Ledf/eriana tree at Nadu-
vatam is fairly representative. The bark, although
old, is very thin. This demonstrates from a commer-
cial point of view, that a planter should not ouly
look for a large alkalnid yield, but he should consider
a iM)orev treu producing rapidly a large quantity of
bark to bo of equal iinpnrtance to a richer tree pro-
ducing slowly a very thin bark. The broad and uarrow-
leavod vavieties were from C^oonoor and of three years'
growth. The cinchonine is so high in each of tbeni
that they cannot be rcgartled as pure tjiies of a
Jjcdger. The Ledger bark from the South Wyiiaad
was an average sample of shavings taken from 21
trees of 5^ years old; the amount of quinine is equi-
valent to ll'Jil per cent of the crystallised sulphate;
this is ouo of the highest I'csults obtained in South
India.

11. The samples of C. morada and C vfnle were
from young trees grown in the same estate near Cali-
cut. The first was taken from "20 average trees,
with a girth of 5K inches, broad leaf, dark olive green,
red midrib, and under surface purple or tiesh-colored."
The second was taken from "20 average trees with
a girth of six iuclius, narrower leaf, color light-greeu,
yellowish mid-rib, and xqiper surface of the leaf smooth."
The analysis and thickness of stem are exceedingly
good for such young plants, and those results appar-
ently contradict the unfavorable statements made in
certain (piarters respecting them.

15. Complete OMaI(/sis of a tree. — In December last
a tree of Cinchona svccmihra growing at Naduvatam
was subuiiUed to a thorough examination, in order
to discover the distribution of alkaloids in its various
parts. Tlie tree was 23 years old and 31 feet high;
it had grown in an exposed situation, and had never
been barked or mossed. The stem was cut into 11

lb.

oz.

2

8

20

14

3

VJ

1

G

equal lengths from base to summit. The whole yielded
of dry bark —

Koot ...
Stem

Brauch ...

Twig ...

Total... 27 14
Leaves dried ... ... ... 2

A portion of the bai-k from u.ich length was then
examined separately, also samples of the root, branch,
twig and leaves.

In the following t.ible the results are recorded ; the
amount of moisture in each is reduced to the same,
so that the whole may be comparable. The first seven
are each the mean of two analyses : —

a .S a

Is 1 .^

3 .H^^ '3 .3

0,M

Root bark ... '98 -66 -45 209 117 5-30 3-25

Stem below ground -73 1-1.5 trace VS9 •!14 4-21 3-SS

2nd portion of stem -GS 1-04 ... 1-.52 '75 397 342

3rd do do ... •e3 -97 ... 1-2!) •02 3-81 3-43

4th do do ... -65 -0.5 ... 1-30 77 3-67 3-35

.■^th do do ... -72 1-00 ... 1-21 -78 3-71 3-3S

Gth do do ... -75 1-01 ... 1-11 73 360 320

7th do do ... -78 l-U ... 1-17 -80 3-8(i 3-10

8th do do ... •S^ 1-23 ... 1-13 -82 4-05 3-32

!)th do do ... -97 1-32 ... 1-30 -60 4-19 3-31

10th do do ... -98 1-36 ... 1-42 -65 4-41 3-56

11th do do ...1-01 1-37 ... 2-28 -.51 5-17 3-83

Branch ... ... -95 1-35 ... 2-10 -60 S'OO 4\S6

Twig -29 -34 ... -34 242 339 5-01

Leaves ... ... 23 ... "02 -45 -70 5-74

IG. The effect of sun-light and shade upon the
amount of quinine in cinchona bark w.as the subject
of an iuvestigatiou by my predecessor Mr. Jolni Brough-
ton, but to know if tliese influences were still' at
work, and if so, to what exteut, the follmving ex-
periment was made. A tree of C. puhesrens of twenty
years' growth was taken at Naduvatam. It was on
the margin of a plot, and so situated tliat its south
side was freely exposed to the sun, th t north siile
was protected and shaded by the other tr<'es in its
vicinity. A strip of bark from each side was taken,
ih'icd and analysed. The percentage composition was
as follows ; —

Quinine

Cinchonidine
Cinchonine ...
Amorphous ...

South.

North

2-G3

400

1-81

205

0-28

0-22

OoO

0-50

Total

u-77

17. Moisim/ and Reni trim/.— The ptuekss of •• nios.s.
ing" has now been adopted in the plantations for
about twenty years, and has been most valuable in
increasing the amount of alkaloids .'md es)ieeially of
([ninine in cinchona bark. But whether the system
is still successful when applied to older trees miiler
cultivation, appeared to be an important subject for
in(|uiry. The following experiments were made upon
trees of C o//ii'(«n/w nearly twenty years old from
riot 12, Dodabetta. Early in October last saniiiles
were taken for analysis from three individual trees,
as natural, mossed and renewed hark in strips. The
trees wore respectively covered with mo.ss and labi lied,
and tho sam|)les analysed. After six moiitlis' interval
the trees were again visited and samples taken. The
renewals had not sufficiently developeil to enable
then\ to be tested, thev were very thin niid adhered
closely to the wood. A portion of the bark which
had been lunlcrmoss six months, and further portions
of tho mossed and renewed barks were separated.

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

421

TUe analyses of the sis samples are aunexeJ: —

1-^ V.

1— 1

1

« 0

K

*3

S 2

0

"5

n 3

S3

0

S«

?;

tc,

a

3

s:

S

Quinine...
( "inthomdine

332

4-21

3-98

4-22

3-80

4-33

105

1-83

194

1-77

(1-8-J

OGi

((.iiiii'liiK;

. 0-24

O-l'I

0-33

0-30

0-31

0-34

C'iuchouiiieaucl

Amorphous ..

. 0(i«

103

OUl

104

0«8

1-52

Total... 5»7 7-33 TIG 733 563 CSG
It will be seen that the mossing his improveJ in
e.-ich case the three varieties of bark, and the im-
provi-ment has not only been in the total alkoloid but '
al!«o in quinine. From the analyses of such a small num* 1
ber of trees it would be injudicious to form too
strong an opinion; but I think it shows generally (1)
that old and original trees still increase their alkaloids
bv mossing, il) that mossed barks are increased by
further mossing, (3) that renewals continue to im-
prove.

19. The scales which form on the outside of Ledger
bark/i, and which are readily detached when the sample
is dry. have been considered by some planters to be
the richest portion. From the sample of Ijcdger re-
cti i id from the Wyuaad, I was able to remove I
„,- ;.. T if the scales to analyse. It afforded quinine
juidine 0 62, quiuidine Oil, ciochouine O'OG,
alkaloids nm ; total 4-58 per cent. The
ana.j.-.3 H very 'tic of this species, but it

will be seen tL - alkaloids only amount to

about half the q- ,. --^ud in the entire bark.

19. 27k oih of Cmciicna, bark. — In every analysis of
bark it has been my custom to determine the amouut
of ash. The average of over 100 estimations of all
the kinds of bark that have come under my notice,
I find to be 3o0 per cent. As a rule young and
branch harks are the highest, and old barks are lowest
in their amount of mineral matter.

20. Besides the work of a quinological nature I
have to report on the investigation of some other
plant products which you have from time to time
forwarded to me. The apparatus and chemicals I
have at my disposal are not suiiicicnt to make com-
plete researches into these -specimens as I think the
nature of the work requires. But as there might be
gome interest in the work already done, the fol-
lowing notes are given.

21. H'<iras. — The resinous and powdery glands
covi-ring the i;>ods of i-V. .uingia cvngesta afford a very
|)eniianent dve and much resemble in appearance the
Kamala of the rharmacop«i!as. A proximate analysis
of this bubstance gave the composition as follows: —

Moisture 344

Kfetius 7310

blatters soluble in water ... 8'20

Cellulose 9-60

Volatile oil trace.

Ash 603

Total... 100-37

Tlie coloring principle resides in the resin which
is so'nb!'* in rth'T. alcohol, benzol, chloroform and
cau- ' "1. Wlien a concentrat- '

solii to stand for a day r

a m.i - . a . crystals, similar to thosij _......

by Doctor Anderson in "Kamala" (el:in'U from the
fruit of an E'!i)1iorljiaceous plant). \\'hr.n th"; color-
ing matt "". -s was examined - ■ with
that of '.' means of a - the
amount u; -. .j — :i was identical ;.. ^^ .. .-c, all
the spectrum was darkened throughout except the
re"l end which alone was visible. .V dy-bith was
made of the \\'araF. and pieces of c .. wool
and silk were immersed. The color - that

of a bright orange-brown, and tl>e t; .. . d was

much superior in the animal fabrics as silk and wool,

than in the vegetable tissues of cotton and Imen. In
these respects it resembles the dyeUig properties of
Kamala, As a commercial undertaking, however, it
would not be profitable to collect Waras, as the
amount obtained from the plants is so small in pro-
portion compared with the yiehl of Kamala,

22. The (taxes (J Erythro-rylon Coca. — I'lie uses to
wluch cocaine has been put in surgery by the Faculty
has rendered it desirable to test the amount and na-
ture of alkaloid from plants grown in India. Some
leaves which had been carefully drie<l in the shade
from trees in ISarliyar have on three occasions been
analysed by me. The first sample was examined by
Trupheme's method ; it yielded 2 per cent of an
alkaloid which gave no characteristic results in physio-
logical action. The second sample was treat^jd ac-
cording to Castaing's method and gave about the
same amount of alkaloid which produced distinct
numbness on the tongue, but i)r. Drake-Brockman
of the Eye Infirmary, JIadras, reportc<l that it pro-
duced a smarting when applied to the mucou.s surface.
A third sample had been tested by Dr. Sqnibb's
process which afforded SO per cent crude alkaloid,
and -30 per cent cocaine hydrochloratc. This had a
very marked numbness on the tongue and has been
sent to Dr. Brockman who has kindly promised to
report upon its value.

» » » «

34. 27i« funides of the Black Wattle (Acacia
melanoxylon) — are in the shape of pink contorted
bands, and were suppjsed to coutain a dye. They
were free from starch and tannin and yielded 6 per
cent 01 moisture and 2 [ler cent of ash. Their chief
constituent is an albuminous matter similar to the
white of an egg. About 30 per cent is readily ex-
tracted by macerating thn funieles in water. When
this solution is heated, the albumen coagulates and
the pink coloring matter is destroyed. Being of no
use as a dye, their peculiar office seems to be that
of affording nourishment to th'S seed.

* * * *

26. I have lately received a large quantity of in-
digenous gums, and other vegetible substances for
examination. These will be tested whenever an op-
portunity is afiordeil, and a report forwarded upon
them in due course.

3I1SCELLA.VEOUS.
Okdeb — dated llth September 1885, Xo. 1016,
Keveuue. In the first of the papers read above, the
Director of Government Cinchona IMantations, I'arks
and Gardens, Nilgiris, submits his report on the
cinchona p'autations for the oflicial year 18»4-S.v and
the report of the (Government Quiiiologist for the
latter half of the same year.
i 2, State of the Season. — The season was ou the
, whole not unfavorable, although on the Dodabetta
i estate some damage resulted in the earlier months
, of the year from drought and in the months of
October and November from unusually heavy rain.
At Kadnvatam nenrly the whole of the June plant-
ings were destroyed by violent winds in the fnllnw-
1 ing mouth, but the damage done was easily rejiaired
later in the season. Ou the Hooker and \\Vk><I
1 estates the weather was all that could be de.«ired.
3. Condition of the Plantations. — The plantations
on the Dodabetta and Kaduvatam estates were
generally in fair condition, the trees coppice.1 last
year having thro%vn up shoots satisfactorily. At
Naduvatam the plantings of lSiS2 and 1883 are de-
scribe<l as looking reiuarkalily well, the result of
their having been liberally maunreil. It Is presumed
that in replanting vacant plots the intention an-
nounced last year of confining particular varieties
to particular plots lias been carefully carrie<l out.
In his present report Mr. J.aw.son proposes to convert
a small portion of the Xadnvatam estate into a kind
of botanical garden for the use of students hv
grouping therein all the different si)ecies and the
principal varieties of cinchona now growing in .South-
ern luilia. The siigge.stion commends itself to
Government and will l>e carried out, as pronose'l
i by means of cuttings from the trees originally Intro-'

422

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec. I, 1885.

duced from South America. It is presumed,
however, that the A'ilgiri hybrids will also be re-
presented.

4. No mention is made of the plants of C. Car-
thiKjaWj planted out in former years at Dodabetta,
but it seems clear that the climate does not suit
them, and that they do much better at Naduvatam
and Coouoor (Wim's Park),

5. The one survivinf;^ platit of C. Santa JV, which
was removiul from ] )(idabftt;t to the Govcrnnieut
(Sardens ami siibsfqut-ntly planted out at Naduvatam,
has ijrowu considerably and is in i)erfect health. A
do/eu cuttings from this plant arc- now in the
propagating house at the Government Gardens, and
will, it is hoped, be fit for jjlauting out before the
end of the season. About two hundred plants of
Reviij'ta rurdieuna, which yields the Cnprea bark,
have been raised from the seed leceived from Kew,
and ^\'ill also be planted out shortly at Naduvatam.

(3. The Hooker estate has much improved, but the
condition of the AVood estate on the other hand is
described as '• increasingly miserable." This is ascribed
partly to the ravages of the Sambur (Rush An'stoti lis),
to eouuteract which it is intended to fence the
entire estate with barl>ed wire, and partly to the
ineiheiency of the overseer, Mr. Burrows. On the
latter point the Government desire to receive a full
report. It is observed that Mr. Burrows has been
called upon to take two years' furlough, but the
(_Jovernment cannot regard this as a sutilcieut remedy
for pruved inefficiency. By a recent order, the Wood
and Hooker estates, which have hitherto been super-
vised by the head overseers of Doilabetta and Nadu-
vatam respectively, have been combined and constit-
uted a separate head overseer's charge. Mr. Barrows'
appointment has thus been abolished, and the Gov-
ernment desire to know whether it is intended to
retain him in the public service.

7. The development of private plantations and the
present depreciation in the value of cinchona bark
h.ave together brought about the extinction of the de-
mand which used formerly to exist for plants and
seedlings from the Government estates. The Director
has therefore reduceil tb^' number of nurseries to one
for each estate, which will sufiice to meet the re-
quirements of the plantations and will also suifice for
the growth of seedlings euougli to meet any exter-
nal demand that is likely to arise. Of seed about
251 lb. were sold during the year, realising Rl,()33.

8. The drying house and store at Naduvatam com-
ni'*nced by the Public Works Department in 18S1 -Sli were
completed during tlie year under report at a total
cost of K37.8'J3. The only new work carried out
departmentally during the year was the constrnelion,
at a cost of 1127' *, of a set nf cooly lines from the
materials of the olvl jail recently dismantled.

U. Excluding the Wood, estate, for which no accur-
ate return can be furnished, the mnnber of trees
standing on the plautati<ms on the 31sl March 18y4
w.as 1,\'22.1F>(). Of thesis l.f'iii were uprooted and
7,455 cojipiced, and .t13,370 trees were planted in
the course of the year. The total number on the
31st March 1«85 was thus lfi20,';4-i. The rcjiort
does not specify the varieties to which the neivlv-
planted trees belonged. Some iraformation on this
point seems desirable.

10. Ose of J/anurefi, 4''^. — The stock of cattle
manure collected during the previous year was
utilized as usual during the year under report, but
the supply proved insufficient, and arrangements
have since been made for the proper storage of a
snflicieut quantity in the future. No allusion is made
in the report to the elfect of the artificial nnmnres
applied in April 1SH3. In the report for 1883-84 it
was stated that samples of bark had been collected
from the trees so treated, and would be analysed
in due course. The <T0vcrnment desire to know
whether this has been done, and, if so, with what result.

11. It is noted that in ronsequence of the want of
grass experienced during the last cold weather, the Direct-
or has constructed .•.//as- for the preservation of fodder on
the Doilabetta and Wood estates. The residt of the

experiment will be watched with interest by the geuei-al
pubhc, and should be carefully reported. A file of
papers on the subject of ensilage will be forwarded to
the Director from the Government oflioe.

12. Ceo/).— The crop of the year was 118,017 lb. of
ilry b.irk against 183,76-5 lb. in 18S3-S4. The high
figure in the latter year was due, as was noted at the
time, to the unusual amount of coppicing ami uprooting
that was found to be necessary. Adding the balauce
remaining over ou the 31st March 1881, the total a\ail-
ahle quantity was 310,.54.3 lb., of which 84,S80 lb. were

tb.

Sold by auction in Madras 81,880
.Supplied to Bombay Med-
ical Department 1,000
Supplied to Dr. Oleaver
for experiment 2,000

Total..

84,880

disposed of as marg-
inally noted, leaving
a balance in stock of
125,063 lb. Five local
sales were held dur-
ing the year at which
81,880 lb. were sold
for l!82,34a,the prices

realised comparing

favorably with those of the English market.

13. Towards the close of the year Messrs. Jenkins
and Phillips drew the attention of the Kight Honor-
able the Secretary of Stale for India to an improve-
ment in the English prices of bark. A copy of their
letter having been forwarded for the information of
this Government, the present poHcy of local sales was
reconsidered with the result that it was decided to
continue it as it gives a wholesome stimulus to local
trade, while, from a comparison of English and Indian
prices, it would seem to entail no loss, at present at
least, on the Madras Government. In order, how-
ever, to give certainty and stability to the market,
it was proposed to appoint fixed dates for the salo
of bark and to guarantee that for the next two years
not less than 70,000 lb. of bark should be offered
for sale each year. These proposals were accepted
by the Plight Honorable the Secretary of State for
India, and arrangements have now been made to
carry them into effect.

14. Subordinate itaj'.—ln December last the Director
reported that extensive defalcations and framis had
been discovered in connection with the Naduvatam
e.^tate. The (Jollector of the Ndgiris was at once
directed to institute a thorough inquiry and scrutiny
of the accounts with the assistance of Mr. Lawsou,
whose establishment was not suited for such work.
It appeared from the Director's report that Mr.
Hillier, the head overseer of the Nailuv.ifam estate,
was luiable to accoiuit satisfactorily for sums received
by him on account of the estate, amounting in the
aggregate to Kl. 005-5-1(1, and that he had also mis-
appropriated about eighty pieces of corrugated iron,
besides timber, window frames, &c., from the nniter-
ials of the dismantled jail. The result of the Col-
lector's inquiry was that Mr. Hillier was prosecuted
for crinnnal breach of trust as a public servant and
sentenced to rigorous imprisonment ior two years and a
fine of K155. Sams aggregating K 1,227-7-3 had to be
written off the accounts as irrecoverable, while, as
regards an outstanding advance of ii242-I3-8, a final
report is still awaited. The Manager of the Director's
(->(iice, V'enkataratnam Nai<lu, was also prosecuted for
misappropriating R200, the property of Government,
and for accepting an illegal gratification from a con-
tractor. On the first charge ho was convicted l)y the
Sessions Court, but was eventually acquitted by the
High Court on appeal. A departmental code of rules
and forms of account is now under prepanition by the
Treasury Deputy Collector of the Ndgiris. who has
also been requested to undertake the annual audit
of the head office accounts.

15. Jlaniifmtmv nf Quinine, ij'x-.— Proposals have
from time to time been nvide for the establishment
of a private quinine facti>ry in this coiintry. Certain
concessions were asked for in regard to fuel and the
supply of bark from Government est«tes, but these
the Kight Honorable the Secretary of State was not
prepared to grant. Certain English capitalists resolved,
however, to send out a .scientific chemist. Dr. E. L.
Clc.xver, for the purpose of conducting experiments ;
and from a letter addressed to Government by Mossrs.

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

423

Aibuthuot & Co., of Jitailras, it appears that, in con-
setiueuccs of certaiu experiaients raado by htm at
Calicut with 2,0001b. of b.irk supplied to him from
the Govertiment estates, the jjeiitlemen who sent him
out will now in all probability proceed to form a
compauj' for the estjiblishment of a private factory.

16. QuiHologi/. — The Governmcut -note with plea-
sure the very useful work done since his arrival iu
this country by Jlr. Hooper. His report shows that
a satisfactory stirt has lieeu made iu ihe scientific
iuvestijjation of cinchona culture and of the coinlilions
which etfect its alkaloidal value. During the year
uiuler report, however, his attention has been largely
devoted to the practical question of inaimfacturiiig at
a minimum of cost the liquid extract of cinchona
devi.ied by Dr. de Vrij of the Hague. A sample of
this preparation manufactured under Mr. Hooper's
directions has been tested in some of the hospitals
with the most .satisfactory results, and instructions
have been issued for the preparation of 1.000 lb. of
the e.xtract in view to further trials. It has been
found experimentally tliat the liquid extract can be
produced at a price about 30 per cent lower than that
of the febrifuffe obtained from Bengal, and there
appears to be good reasons for believing tliat event-
ually the cost will he found to be still lower. In view,
partly, of this fact, the question of establishing
agencies under the Local Fund Boards for the dis-
tribution of cheap medicines to the poorer classes has
been referred to those I5oartls for consideration.

17. Receipts und Jii-i>cnilitu>\. — The receipts of the

n. A. p. year amounted to

Value of bark sold K8i,895-7-5 as detail-

hically 82,344 2 0 ed on tlie margin

\'alue of bark supplied against a revised es-

to Bombay Medical timate of R4.5,900.

Department 1,007 8 0 The bulk of the in-

Sale-procceds of seed, crease in due partly

&c. 1,033 2 0 to the sale of a larger

Miscellaneous 510 11 5 (juantity of bark

than was anticipated,

Total... S4,S95 7 5 partly to the iuclu-

sion in the lots sold

of a larger proportion of crown bark than was at first
intended, and partly to a slight recovery iu prices. It
was expected that some COO bales would be sold for an
average price of 1175 per bale, but eventually 819
bales were disposed of for a fraction over 100 ruptes
each.

18. The expenditure, as reported by the Director,
was K87,903-4-10 against a budget estimate of R83,S00
3931b. febrifuge £ s. d. and a revised estimate of

atSJ. peroz. 209 12 0 R91,240. This includes a
Packing ... 4 18 3 sum of K2,681-6-2 adjusted
.\ualysis ... 3 3 0 during the year and re-
Labels ... 0 4 0 presenting the cost of

maimfacture of the .393 lb.

Total... 217 17 3 of febrifuge adnsed iu the

Secretary of t^tate's des-

Eqitivalentat U. patch recorded iuG. O., No.

7JJ. per rupee. R2,()Sl-6-2 705, dated Ith Juue 1884.
Of this amount, however, a sum of KlOl-11-1, represent-
ing the three latter items noted on the margin, has
ah-eady been deducted from the receipts of 1883-84
in taking credit for the net value of the 393 lb. of
febrifuge. The balance, viz., 11^,579-11-1, should have
been deducted at the same time, but was by an over-
night omitted from the calculation. The deduction
will now be made and the receipts of 1883-84 will
then i-tnnd at K85,'i.S0-13-2. The charges for the
year under report will coiisequeutly be rerluced by
the whole amount, viz, U.'.GKI-O-i To tlic figure
tliu., arrived at must be added the charges (Kl,iJ02-7-»)
iiicurrel by the I'id)lic Works Department in the
construction and repair of cinchona buildings. The
whole charges for 1S8-I-S'> will thus amount to
f!>i8il 0-4.

li). The fibular .sLatem. nil which accompany the
Director's report have b t n reiuiidcUial as directed
iu G. O., 17th September 1884, No. l.O.JO. It is ob-
served, however, that htat<niciit III still shows the
e.'ipen.lituie of the head oUJce for each month of the

year. This is not necessary, a statement of annual
charges being alone required, which should he com-
pared with the budget and revised estimates. The
Director is requesteii to report whether it would not
be possible in future years to prepare statements,
similar t those furnislied iu connection with the
Bengal plaut:i' ions, showing the uumber and distrib-
i''iou of the ilifTerent varieties of plants on the
^ . cral estates. A comparative statement should also
bo furnished, showing the cpiaiitity of bark uf the
different kiinU iu store at tlie commencemeut of the
year, collected and disposed of during the year, aud
remaining in store at its close.

20. 'J'ho statement of capital and revenue account
appended .shows the financial results of the cinchona
enterprise from its commencement to the end of
1884-85. The net result is a surplus of 115,51,743-4-7.
In future the exact amount and valuo of bark sup-
plied to the (.'ovi;riitmmt tjuinologist .should be reported
for inclusion in this statement. A statement is also
aj)peiided showing the receipts and charges of the year
calculated in the manner directed iu the Secretary of
State's despatch, dated 14th September 1S82, No. 31.

ENSILAGE OP MULliKRKY LKAVES.

During the silkworm rearing season in Northern
Italy a largo quantity of Mulberry leaves arc sent
by rail from one place to another, and hi many
ca,ses the railway administration run special lu'ght
trains for this purpose. The leaves are packed loosely
ill sacks, and often arrive at their destination far
from fresh, aud conse(juently, it not totally unfit, at
all events cannot afford a wholesome food for
the nourishment of these insects. An expenraent
was made during the present season, by a silk pro-
ducer in Lombardy, in sending the leaves compressed,
and for this a bale was made, weighing 110 kilos.,
by placing tbe leaves between two round pieces of
board (in this case the bottoms of barrels), and
compressing them iu an ordin.ary wiue-press ; the
bale was then firmly secured with iron wire. By
some oversight this bale of compressed leaves, made
on Jlay 23, was not forwarded to Jlilau, and from
thence to Niguarda, until the morning of the 31st,
and consequently it did not arrive at its destination
until later. On opening the bale the leaves, with
the exception of about 2 inches iu thickness rouud
the outside, were foimd to be perfectly fresh and
sweet, and even these wore only faded, and found
to be not unfit for food.

This is a conclusive proof that the nutritive tpial-
ities of the leaves can be preserveil for some time,
if compressed, and the air thus excluded from thom ;
care, however, must be taken not to crush them,
and injure their tissues by excessive pressure. l''rom
that it WDiild appear that a system of ensilage
might be adopted with advantage for preserving Mul-
berry leaves in the same way that it is for forage.
Another advantage of such a plan would be that the
leaves so compressed would be reduced in bidk, and
consequently fewer trucks would be required to
carry a given quantity of leaves than there is iu
the ordinary way; and by ensiling the leaves grown
on the warmer side of the Apeuniues — as, for in-
stance, on the " Keviera" of Genoa, &c. — it woidd be
possible to supply the silkworm rearers of Piedmont
aud Lombardy during backward seasons, or wheu,
from other causes, the leaves are scarce and ex])eus-
ive. — Journal of the •Sockti/ of Arts.

-♦-

THE POrATO.

It is tltn imiver.S!j custom about here amongst
cottagers when they dig up their I'olalos to divide
them into three parts, aeeording to their <|tialilv.
Tlie best tliey eat, Ihe .s.eoud-best lliey gii-e to the
pigs, and the woist liny save for seed. Suicidal
policy indeed. Mr. Terry, the author of the A J> C
of I'lttolo Culli'n, aud o..c who has spent the greater
part of his life iu the bubiuess, walks over bis 29

424

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

acres while the men are digging, and selects the
very best at once for seed, and so he is always im-
proving the stock.

The next thing I would mention is aliout banking-
up. Now, this custom is, I think, all but universal
in England. Most people think that it is necessary
to_ a crop, hut the reason does not clearly appear. If
it is thoujjht that the Polntos will grow out of the ground,
then plant them a little deeper, taking care that the
soil is well prepared before planting. There are many
advantages to be gained by letting the ground re-
main level (or nearly so), especially during a dry
season like that we have had lately. It is well
known to gardeners that when the weather is dry
it is a very good plan to water with the hoe— i.e.,
continually stir the surface, and the sun will then
draw moisture upwards to the roots of the plants. Jlr.
Terry has e.\pcriraented on the same soil for years
and years, and he always gets the best crop from
the level surface. There is also considerable judg-
ment recjuired in our changeable climate as to the
time when to plant late Potatos. "To secure the
largest yield Potatos demand moisture and cool-
ness during the last month of their growth ;" there-
fore do not plant too soon. I was accidentally
hindered this summer from planting my late
Potatos about a mouth; the result is that my
Potatos are looking green aud flourishing, whilst my
neighbours' are as dry as hay.

Now for a little more about the seed. I suppose most
people are pleased to see a dish of Potatos served up
mealy and about one size. This can be done by careful
selection of the seed, and cutting the pieces to one
eye. "When you get to the top and find several eyes
close together, remove all the eyes save one. Take
care to cut nice fleshy pieces to each eye, aud let
each eye have as long a piece of flesh as is pcssible, aud
let each piece be about the same size. — AgnEs. —
Ganltiicrs^ Chn>niclc.

Tjik (Juowtii of Peppeemint for the .sake
of its oil apiio.'irs to be carried on largely in New York
State. According to a statement in the 0/7, Paint mid
Dmj Rtim-trr, one farmer in Koso County, which
seems to be the centre of the industry, has this
year (U'er thirty acres of land devoted to the cul-
tivation of the plant, aud expects the yield of oil
to reach tliirty-thrce to thirty-five pounds per acre. —
Plairmaccitticid .Journal.

A NKW ALKALOID, named " lantanine," has been dis-
covered by Dr. Negrete, in Lantaim Ira-iilieiixis, a
plant which has been used by Dr. E. Buiza, in the
Central Hospital at Lima, a.s an antipyretic. Dr.
Buiza had been in the habit of administering the
tincture, which has a very bitter taste. At his re-
quest. Dr. Negrete aualyscd the plant to ascertain
whether a better pharmaceutical preparation of it
could be made, and this led to the detection of the
alkaloid (A'o«ii. Rem., Sept. 15, p. 282). Lantanine,
.ike quinine, depresses the circulation and lowers
the temiieratnre. It is tolerated by the most delic-
ate stomach. Intermittent fevers, which h.ave not
yielded to treatment with quinine, have given way
under the use of 2 grams of lantauiue. The doso
hitherto given has been one to two grams during the
twenty-four hours, prescritied in the form' of pills
ccMitaining ten centigrams each, given immediately
after the commencement of the hot stage. In ninety-
five cases out of oue hundred, the return of the
hot stage was prevented.— rhaniMcuittical Joiinial.

CoCATNE has already been tried in the vomiting of
pregnancy, and now it is )n-ought forw.ird as a ren.edy
for sea-siekness. Dr. Jlanasseiu, of St. Petersburg,
reports in the Jlrrl. klin. Il'ivh. (August ;,1). that he
went on n voyage on jnn-pose to (est tlie elliency
of cocaine in sea-sickness. Jle states that two hidividuals
to whom ho administered the hydroehlorate of the
alkaloid on starting weif. for the" first tune in their
lives, free Irom sta-sickuess during a period of forty-

eight hours of rough weather and enjoyed a good
appetite the whole time. A child, .six years oh!,
attacked early ia the morning with sea-sickness',
was able to play about during the storm after taking
the cocame. In another case, in which a girl of
eighteen years of age had been sick for tweuiv-four
hours before taking the cocaine, six doses proved
effectual. Dr. Manassein thinks, therefore, that he
is quite justified iu inferring that in cocaine hydro-
chlorate we have a certain and harmless reme.ly against
sea-.siekness. He reports also that he has u.sed it
with success in two cases of cholera nostras. Cocaine
and its salts still continue to attract undiminished
attention from the medical profession, and it is
probable that numerous applications will yet be found
for one or other ot these products. Sea sickness, as
already stated, is one of the latest evils for which
It has been used with advantage. The supply of
coca leaves is now becoming sufficiently abundant to
admit of cocaine being obtained at more moderate
prices, and though dilferent parcels are very unequal
m their yield ot the alkaloid, this circum.^t lUce may
probably be due to defective procedure in the pre-
servation of the leares after they are gathered, lead-
ing to a total or partial decompo.-!ition of the alkal-
oid. The remarkable facility with which cocaine is
decomposed is a reason for especial care being taken
m harvesting the leaves and iu protecting them from
injuiious mtlueuce during their transit to this country.
Some samples of cocaine hydroehlorate have been
met with presenting indications of being contamin-
ated with an admixture of some other substance which
may be iuert or even prejudicial for the purpo.ses
to which the salt is applied iu medical practice.
■\Vhether this foreign substance originates from leaves
that have undergone fermentation or heating, or
whether it is produced in the course of manutaeture.
IS as yet uncertain, but it is the more important
that the true characteristics of cocaine and its salts
should be correctly aud precisely defined. In this
respect, unfortunately, the article "Cocaimo hydro-
chloras" in the new issue of the British Pharmaco-
pojia is merely a chemical conundrum. It describes
a process by which cocaine hydroehlorate may be
obtained, though it is by no means the best among
several that are available for the purpose. Under
the head of "characters aud tests" a defiuition is
given presum.ably of cocaine hydroehlorate, but it is
so utterly erroneous that any substance possessiii"
the specified characteristics ivould not be either
cocaine itself or the hydroehlorate of that alkaloid,
and many who take the trouble to follow the direc-
tions of this authority in testing the quality of
cocaine hydroehlorate would be entirely misled and
mystified. Assuming that the defiuitiou applies to
cocaine hydroehlorate, the statement that it is readily
soluble in ether is erroneous, yet this eliaract<:r is
assigned to it iu the British Pharmacopieia parallel
with the solubility in water, of which cocaine hydro-
chlorate retiuires less than its own weight. The
definition ot the Pharmacopioia does not apply more
correctly to cocaine itself, for, though the alkaloid is
readily soluble iu ether and alcohol, it is not readily
soluble in water, but only so very sparingly soluble
in that liquid as to come almost within tie limits
of substances insoluble in water. Apiirt from the
positive inaccuracy already mentioned, it may be
pointed out that the description of cocaine hydro-
chlorate is extrtmcly meagre in regard to all' the
more important character.s of the salt, ami that it
really affords no iu<licatiou of means by which the
purity of the substance can be ascertained.
Giving a yellow precijiitate with gold chloride and
being chaired by hot sulphuric acid aud by heat,
are certainly not, in themselves, likely to" be of
much utility in eleariug up a iiuestion as to this
point, and it wmild, at any rate, not have been
superlluoiis to llav(! slated the ih'gree of .-iolubilit.y
ill water and other menstrua, as well as to have
given .some decisive cine to the identification of
iho salt aud of the alkaloid itself.— y^/»ii)/H,iCti!«(arf
Jouriail.

L'Ec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

425

Tkiims L'sep bv Indian- Tea PI-.^NTEns. —
"Namouna" is tBe HimUistani for pattern, speci-
men, muster, niuitero. A 12-aiina lire is a lire
o( r2-16ths strength ; a fall strength lire would bo
■ a Ki-anna fire (i. e. a whole rupee tire). Thus,
a jmlfje who is considered right in 3 out of 4
of his judgments is called a 12-anna judge. He-
{larding other Hindustani words, " jAt " simply
moans " caste " a much niore generally intelligible
woid than " jat." " Gymkhana ". is tlio proper
spoiling, not "jymlihana": it means a place of meeting
for feats — "gym" meaning a feat, trick, dodge, in-
genious way of doing anything.— Cui:

CcLriv.vrioN' on Piaxtatioxs. — The dilficulty of
tabulating the information respecting the acreage
undor different products may be judged from tlie
following extract of the letter of an extensive iiro-
prietary planter:—" Some of the figures are not,
strictly sj'eaking, correct with regard to tea area.
\Vc are planting more tea now and throughout
the next few months, and the total area in tea
is what the acreage should be before the year is
out. There is another thing : a considerable area
of lea is planted in the coffee, and, though next
month all the non-bearing coffee where the tea
is growing well will be cut out, it has not yet
been cut out. In some cases, too, little patches of any
good coffee in certain fields have not been planted
through with tea, though the greater part has.
It is very difficult, therefore, to be anything but
a]iproxiniate with regard to ten areas. In a coui)le
of years this will all be rectified."

Tiiv. — The Cci/foii Ohnrrvct- publishes a letter which
lias been received from London by one of its corrcspoud-
cntif. The writer of this letter writes to bis Ceylon
friend as follows: — " Tou ask if we drink Ceylon tea?
and the answer is, the grocers do not care .about it,
tliey say it cannot be depended upon, it varies so much ;
and if so, wliy cultivate it f Then again, doctors are
setting their faces against tea : two doctors advised
me not to ciriuk it at all. So wo only use it for
afteiTjoons, and even then at many houses cofiee is
ofl'ercfl at afternoon tea parties, so many people are
not ull'jwcd t:) touch tea. In the hospitals now cofiee
is given as a stimulant iustead of brandy, and every-
where it is being preferred ; so why turn your coffee
into tea plantations r " The writer, doubtless, gives the
result of his own experience, which, we imagine, is
nut very great. Ceylon planter.s are not likely to be
inllu.ucid in the smallest degree by such a eoninmnic-
utiiin, which, in face of the growing dtniund for Indian
and Ceylon tea and the decrease in the consumption
of coffee, is absurd. The letter referred to contains a
reference to the medical tbeory about tea which is
worth noting. Jfedical opinion, as those who have bad
the misfortune to seek it, know to tlicir cost, is veiy
diveisificd and eccentric on the matter of diet and
drink. One medical man recommeu'ls strong wine,
where another advises abstention from alcohol. Others
tell their patients to drink coffee and avoid terr, while
iu some cases coffee is strongly condemned, ^\■e have
nodpsireto find fault with these various views. Medical
advice is frequently conflicting, but who shall attempt
the delicate tiisk of deciding under such circumstances.
Anyway some medical opinion is not against moder-
ate tea drinking. Cups of ten. coffee, or nny other drink
taken at shortintcrvals throughout the day may he as in-
jurious in their way as ''nips" of alcoholic drink, but un-
adulterated tea taken in moderation is not hirmfiil,
except in isolated cases. By the way it may interest
Indian and Ce) Ion tea planters to learn that a fiinnd of
lea retailers who makes Indian and C<ylon t' as a specially
recently received a letter from a well-known lady, in
which, the writer praised their tea, stating that China tea
always made her nervous, but she could drink India
or Ceylon tea without any ill-effect, and that she should
henceforth recommend these teas to her friends on that
account. This view may be legarded as a srt-off to
the medical testimony vaguely referred to in the letter
from Loudon to C'eyluu and it i« of at least equal value
AS a matter of opinion. — Moitw 2\eKi,

Pn. Tim:!::: on " C.iuams" C.vc.w.— We call
attention to the letter from Ih-. Trimen (on
page 121) .summing np very clearly the
amonnt of practical and scientific knowledge at
present available as to the .several varieties of
cacao. Wo may supplement what tlie Director
says by the foilowiuf; extract from "The Cacao
I'lauter's Manu.al," — by K. Berthelink, Planter of
Surinam, — roccu.y xntblishcd :— -

The Car:ica.-i sort is red. The .Surinam cacao i-;
tho ordinary yellow sort, and is planted everywbeiv.
In a Cacao-liold many diflercnt varieties _ of Cai-ao.
sometimes even as many as l\\'ont.y, :ire found. Tho
best sort, however is the so-called Prreplain Ciican,
distingiiishi d by a thin, smooth shell, anil tho fullness
of its beans.

Then you have (he Male Cacao-tree. This disHrt-
gulfihes ilselr by constantly jiroihicing a ({uantity of
blossoms, and very few (at most 3 or 4) fruits. These
fruits, if they do oonie to maturity at all, <njly contain
as a rule 2 or :i suiall beans. l''ortnu.iteIy this spe-
cies is very rare, one tree only uooin-rinii' within ait area
of twenty acres. Tho red Cariicas sort is rarer than
tho ordinary ycUuw sort. The lUfl'eronce holwecn those
two is considerable. The Car;icas sort sluiofs up nioro
vigoronsly aod !u\ni'i;i,ntly, disiilays more growth, (Itinr-
isbes more exuberantly and bears a groak'r f[uanlily
of fruit iiian the indigenous species; il Ijcu.i's also n.nch
better the vicissitudes of the seisons. Caracas cacao
long* prosorves its properties in fioMs wbero it is
pbinted alono: but planted botween the iniiigonous, it
degonorates and assunn^s the properties of the i-onimon
sort. The first se ds of (^ar.icas cacao were lironubt
hither by the C.overnor R. F. Von Itii dors in 1SI."> or
'Uj so not more than 40 years ago.

Tm! " Tea-Planters' Vade Mecum," compiled
by the editor of the Iniliuu Tea Gazette, seems
an admirable and invaluable work. No tea-
planter, however varied his experience or wide
his knowledge, can afford, we imagine, to be with-
out it. Every detail connected with the history,
growtli, manufacture, and market of tea seems ex-
haustively and systematically dealt with, and
brought carefully up to date. The book has a
coin]irehensivc index, and an appendix of ruled
blank pages for the cultivator's notes upon his
own experience or the contents of the work. The
subject is. conveniently divided into sections. 'The
first treats of the history and geographical dis-
tribution of the tea-plant, and the second of llio
climate, drought, and rainfall. The third dc:ils
with tea from the scientific point of view of the
botanist and chemist — the latter leading naturally
to section four on tea adulteration and. the sub-
stitutes used for tea. The next nine sections are
concerned respectively with the soils, manures,
drainage, seed-sowing, transplanting, cultivatimi,
blight, pruning, and plucking of tea. and one
section is de\'oted to the relations of the sau-tiee
to tea-growing. Section fifteen describes the ne-
cessary buUdings with the latest iuiprovenionts.
and the three following deal with the iiiiportaiil^
subjects of steam and other maclunery, and
the inoihiH ojKratuli of manufacture. Section iiiue-
tcen treats of tea-sorting and bulking ; section twenty
of the timbers suitable for tea-boxes. Then follow
sections devoted to tea-weighment, the brick tea of
China, Jlurina, and Thibet, Indian tea outi^ldc
Bengal, Ceylon tea, tea outside India and Ceylon
and finally tea manufactured in China and .lapan.
From this ■summary it will be seen that the "Tea-
Planters' Vade Mecum" contains all the knowledge
that the variest tyro reipiires, and muoli that tlie

' most experienced planter ihould not be without,
We catniot wish better, both t ir the cnmpiler and
the Indian tea-industry, that a copy of the wol I.
maybe found on the shelves of eveiyjjei-sju'intei-

' ested in the subject,— Pfoiei;/',

426

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec. I, ibt<5.

Dii Candolle calls attention to the fact that a
branch of a coffee-tree, preserved in a solution
niailc hy boiling water, with about seventeen per
cent of common salt, retained its green colour for
fifty-three years. — Indinn Oardciier,

TuK largest field of pineapples in the world is
on an estate in the eastern district of New Province,
Bahamas. From one spot it is possible to see at a
single glance 1,200,000 pineapples growing. — Madras
Mail.

Thk Means of Communication between Assam
and Calcutta seem still very unsatisfactory, to
judge from the following statement which appears
in the Indian I'laiiters' (iazette : — The journey
of a tea box from Sylhet to Calcutta, if related,
would contain some amusing episodes. It is
shipped first at Ivurimgunge, transhipped again
at l"'enchoogunge, sometimes, we suppose, at Narrain-
gunge, always at CJoaUmdo, and finally transferred
by bullock gharry from Sealdah to the brokers'
godowns. It seems somewhat incredible that the
same steamer that ships the tea at Kurimgunge,
should not continue the journey right through to
Narraingunge and save all the trouble of tranship-
ments which must cost money, and risk damaging
to the tea. Why should a steamer retxuire to lie
24 hours at I-'enchoogunge ? and then only steam
the following day tor two hours ? Wherein consists
the profit to the company itself? the steamers can'
only bank fires, they cannot put them out. There
is surely something strange.., incongruous in all these
ari-angemcnts. For a liigh charge for (irst-class ac-
commodation, one naturally expects a high rate of
speed to be maintained, but here he gets neither
comfort nor speed. Our Assam planters in the
districts of Sylhet and Cach:ir should agitate and
have this state of things altered. We trust soon to
hear that the journey from Calcutta has been re-
duced to such limits as will not deter intending
visitors from undertaking it.

New Era Comek. — We have been asked by many
of (.ur readers, " What is the New lira Coffee 'i
Wiiat is it made of ? " anil if it is a cbeap
substitute for coffee, etc. We are pleased to in-
form all wbo have asked these iiueslions, and
for the benefit of others that have not, who,
CO doubt, have seen tlie advertisement ou the
front cc.ver of the American Grocer, that New Era
Coffe.- is for pe. pie who cannot, or slioidd not
drink the regular importrd cofTee and teas. It ia no
cheap substitute for tea or cnft'ee, hut an article of
great merit, and every grocer should keep it in
stock, as they all have mure or lefs customers who
never buy cue dollar's worth of either tea or coffee,
and are drinking hot water and milk for their
breakfast or other meals, because tliey have not been
informed of something better, and never get rid of
their dyspepsia and constipation, nervousness, etc. It
in made entirely from wheat by Pulnalu's patent prc-
C0S1 of treating, steaming, drying and roasting, which
lake* seviral days to complete; it is unequalled as a
UUtlitious, healthful and strengthening table beverage
«ud really supplies a want that has long existed : it
contains "health-producing elements net posstssed by
ten Of coffee : it« energizing effects ate not followed
by reaction. Tliis .s. iintific proce.«s, occupying as it
does several dajs, the olij cilonable pioperties of tlie
grain arc removed and the .-tarch aud glutinous pro-
perties ore so changed that the kernel is rendered
h.ml, brittle and seini tinii = |iari'nt. One excellelit
fi-it.ii'rc <if ibi- *^'' "■ l'>a Coirec is its entire freedom
from any properties that can iiijme the most delicate
organisation : therefore, it is very nice for children,
who thrive on it as a beverage. AVe can reconimcrd
the goods \ery h-gbly to the grocers, and we hope
lb v will «ipreci.tc its merits and give their custoiu-
urs ii than 'e to buy a good article.— .-Imfricffn Gtocer

[ : ut wliy. dishonestly, call it coffee if made from

)i A f It i» a cb 9t i-f the woret kiud.— JJp-1

The Tea Trade in the British Pkovinces. — A
provincial tea agent in the old country reports a
considerable improvement in his tea business during
the past year, in spite of all the principal grocers
having Ceylon tea now. He thinks the jiopularity
of Ceylon tea is now at its height. Of those who
now sell it, there will undoubtedly be a proportion
who will give it up. Se\eral who used (o advert i'^c
it for a while, don't have any now : ho suppo.-es
because they have dilKcuUy in iiialchiiiii, as they sold
out, and as all" changes of style and ijuality inter-
rupt trade, they have thought it better to put
confidence iu their own blends. He attributes his
own increase of trade to advertising.

Laiiocbeks per Acre in English Aiuiitiu/runi:
CoMi'AiiED WITH Tkopic.u,. — Nothing struck us more
forcibly in Australia than the small number of
hands employed on vast pastoral runs : a couple
for each 500 or 1,000 acres, except in slieep shearing
time. The following passage from Lord Salisbury's
Newport speech, shows that one man per 100 acres
suffices for grazing land in England, while in eollce
culture and much more in tea culture in Ceylon,
at least A coolies for every 8 acres are reijuired,
or say 300 persons for 200 acres. Here is what
Lord Salisbury said : — The growing of wheat has
become, over a vast extent of the country, an
unprofitable occupation. A farmer knows that on
the growing of wheat depends the continuance
of arable land, for if the wheat crop does not
pay the chance of his arable land paying is
very small. The consequence is that iu every
part of the country, especially on the east of the
island, large tracts of land are going into grass.
Grass does not pay well, but it pays moderately,
and the landowner, farmer proprietor, or occupier
naturally takes to farming that which is most
profitable to him, and the invariable result is that
the number of hands required in agriculture
diminishes — three men for every 100 acres feipiired
for arable land, and one man to e\cry 100 acres
for pasture land.

Coca.- -The latest information respecting this
new product is not very encouraging to would-
be cultivators of the Kri/thro.ii/luii Coca in
Ceylon. An e.xhaustive paper by Ur. Squibb ou
' Coca at the Source of Supply," which we are
republishing in full in the Tropical Aiiriiiilliirisl
among other things tells us about the production
and consumption of coca. Coca seems to be pro-
duced throughout the whole Auuean plateau
from Ecuador to the Argentine Republic. At
present, Peru and Bolivia seem to be I he exporting
countries : and in the former 7.t million lb. arc
said to be gathered, of which all but 37^,000 lb.
are consumed in the country. The Peruvian (.iov-.
eminent are said to tax a piodu.tieji of over 15
milliou lb., but only 5 per cent, heie again, is said
to be a\ailable for export. 'J'liat makes a total
export to the United States andEurope of 1.125.000 lb.
One million lb. of coca would yield at least 2.500 lb.
of cocaine, while one-fourth of lliat quaulity
would probably over-stock the mark-.ns of the whole
world. .Surgeon-General Balfour, addressuig II c
India Ollice in July last, inentio:ud that Mr.
Howaril had bought all the coca leaves in the
English market at 3s per lb., but that, Bs 30,0(10
lb. were on the way from New York, it was ix-
peeled the price would fall to (id per lb. If,
however, the coca leaf, as Dr. Balfour seems to
think, may yet take its place in India and Europe
alongside " of tea and coffee, there may then be
room for profitable cultivation in the East. Dr.
Balfour's paper will also be republislied in full in

our T. J.

Dec. I, 18S5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

427

• (illiOISG Kf.KIXED CfOLD A>'I> TuROWlN'B A

I>KiiH:jiE OS THE Vioi.KT." — We ill Ceylon have
no mean opinion of our tea, bnt let us listen to
Messrs. Lewis ct Co.s superlatives ! Here tiiey are: —

NEW season's CEVLllNS.

Half-chests Ceylou flowery pekoe (ixliibitioii .ipeci-
mcii ^rt— a blaze of golden "tip, perfection in liquor —
ahanliilelii iiwUlilexs.) :i 9.

Half-clii'sts superb now season's Ceylon orange pekoe
(handsou.e leaf, full of tip, full, rich liquor, with
superb quality) i 'i\.

Cliesls extra choicest new season's Ceylon broken
pekoe (hauilsome tippy leaf, strong, ripe, sappy liquor,
with exquisite flavour.) l.Uj.

Cli, sts extra choicest new season's Ceylon broken
pekoo (very handsome, with tip, strong, telling liquor,
with highest quality) 1 liJ.

Chests extra choicest new season's Coylou pekoe
handsome leaf, with tip, fragrant, rich and extra line)
1 :>\.

Half-chests extra choice new season's Ceylon pekoe
(well made leaf, with tip, strong, thick, powerful liquor,
with finest flavour) 1 31.

Chests e.vtra choice new sejison's Ceylou pekoe sou"
choug (handsome, full, rich, mellow liquor, with high
est quality) 1 1.

Chests choicest new season's Ceylon .souchong (hand-
some, malty great power, choice quality) Il^d.

Chests choice new season's Ceylon pekoe fauniugs
(tippy, treble thickness; worth 2s in liquor) II Id.

Il.alf-chests choice new season's CeyU)n lirokcn (leafy,
gooil cobur, strong, telling liquor.) 81d.
The gradation of adjectives is wonderful and the
ll.id tea being worth 2/ in liquor is the linishing touch.
'' The "Qcestion of the Dav : How to Make
Money." — Under this heading a correspondent
writes to the Hongkong DuUij Vrcitx pointing out
various undertakings in the Malay peninsula in
which money might beprolitably invested, such as
mines and agricultural companies : with regard to the
latter, iie says : —

I caiuiot understand how is it that the rich agri-
cultural soil of a coimtry so well adapted for the pro-
ducing (Jf tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, gambicr, sago,
tapioca and all the tropical products of the liastv is al-
most entirely neglected ! There are in Johore only a few
small colTee estates, the trees on which, now in their
second, third, and fourth years, have surpassed all
cxpe-etation ; and the cultivation of Liberian coffee is
now an unqualiKed success, and new plantations are
rapidly being opened up. There is the .Johore Tea
Planting Co. started by a London syndicate some three
years ago which is also a great success ; and the j
company -is now clearing and plautmg on a large scale.
Small quantities of tea are bemg shipped every month
to the i/ondon market, the quality prouounced equal
to the tinest produced in Ceylou, superior to the i
China as well as the India teas. I hear of an Agri-
cultmal Company about to be started in Johore for '
the production of tea, coffee, tobacco and hemp and
other tropical products. This, I should think, with
facts now before me, will meet with success, as every
new enterprise which has for its object the opening |
up of a fertile countrv richly deserves. I enclose you
an article entitled " Liberian Ci'ffee Prospects,'' which 1
appeared some time ago in one of the Singapore
papers, which, if you will kindly insert in your valu-
able columns, I am sure will be read with very great
interest by niany of your subscribers. Since this 1
article was written, the Chasserlau estate in Singapore [
lias been formed into a public limited conq)any, with |
a capital of S'230,OfX) all subscribed for by about i
twenty-five shareholders. The area of the said estate
in Singapore comprises .S,20() imperial acres.
He also adds : —

1 have before me a Manila prospectus for the pro-
duction of hemp in the Philippine Islands, showinga
profit of something like HO per cent per annum. It is
wellkiiown that the profit 011 hemp cultivation in the
I'bilijipinc l.-,land3 is over lixi per cent per annum, bnt
Ijij-'lisii c.ipital once invested in .any business in those
(iciiglitt'ul islands is seldom or never seen again. This
I know from sad experience.

I A Bo.mbav tirm ia advertising Itussian kerosine

I for sale. This is the first time, probably, that

; the produce of the famous wells at Baku has

reached India. Last year, India imported over 20J

million gallons of kerosine ; and nearly all of it

came from the United Stales. — Matlnis Mnil.

Dei.i News. — By last advices from .\morica it
appears that the consequences of Peli tobacco of the
1S81 crop lacking showy colours were lieginning to
be felt, it having become ditlicult to dear off stocks
of that article. The imports of Sumatra loljacoo
into .\merica from .Tune IHBI to June l.MSo reached
the total of two millions of guilders in value. — Stniiln
Times.

The Countuv which the Gekma-ns are aiming at
from Zanzibar, and which is now to be the scene
of another Boundary Commission, has been de-
scribed by an English missionary, Mr. Last, who
has lived 111 it tor eight years. Beginning about
twenty miles from the coast, it runs back among
mountains which rise to the respectabk! height
of 7,000 feet, and are covered with valuable
forests. The fertility of these uplands is depicted
ill attractive colours. The crops raised by the
natives are Indian-corn, millets, beans, pumpkins,
cassava, and bananas : of the latter (hoy have
eight varieties. The soil readily yields much more
llnui the actual wants of the agriculturist require.
Irrigation is, commonly practised, especially in a
dry season, and the abundant supply of water upon
the mountain slo]ics makes it (^omi)aratixely easy.
At an elevation of 4,000 feet Knglish vegetables
can be grown to perfection, and potatoes in part-
icular attain fabulous dimensions. Ordinary Kng-
lish llowers also do well. The fruits are the com-
mon onus of India and other sub-tropical coun-
tries, while on the higher ranges the raspberry
and blackberry grow wild and can be raised to the
level of Englsh garden fruit by domestication.
Rice is produced in the iilains and valleys, to-
gether with three varieties of sugarcane. One tract
in the hills is famous for iron mines. The climate
at a height of 4,000 feet is said to be healthy.
There are summer rains for a month about Nov-
ember, and the autumn monsoon from March to
June. During the cold season the temperature at
sunrise is about 50° Fahrenheit, rising to 70° at
midday, and tires are necessary at night ; in the
hot month-j the thermometer marks DO", but one can
sleep without a punkah. The people are extremely
]ieaccable, not to say cowardly. If they can possibly
run and hide in the jungle, they greatly prefer
doing so to fighting. 'I'here is said to be jilcnty
of waste land, which the local chiefs will sell for
a piece of cloth, or give for nothing to any white
man who will do them the favour of coming to
live among them. These chiefs divide the country
between tliem, and thongh owing a nominal allegi-
ance to Zanzibar, they are practically independent.
Possibly they will change their views as to the
desirableness of white settlers after a short exper-
ience of German military colonists. Hitherto the
benelicent missionary had been their only type of
white man. Mr. Last mentions a report that the
Crcrmans are about to make a railway up from the
coast; and if this be true, the happy idyllic life
of poor (Juashee has not much longer to last. At
the same time it is more than doubtful if his coun-
try will ever be worth anything .as a German colony
in the true sense of the word. The fertility of the
land may be all that Mr. Last describes it, but those
who have had ]iractical experience of the tropics
will be slow to believe that Europeans can increase
and multiply in a country situated six degrees south
of the line, and where wheat cannot be grown. —
I'iiini'i'r.

42.S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec-, I, 18S5.

A CrriE FOB Buo. — An old Ambagamuwa planter
of the "forties" and "fifties," who in his day
had every tree on the estate bugsed and who
h:ul long conferences with Dr. ll..idner about the
pestiferous insect, is certain from what he has
lately seen that the bug now troubling the coffee
norlii of Kandy is the same, and that lime and
sulphur (though inefficacious with leaf-fungus) will
bf: found a radical and cffb'otual cure for bug.
Will our ■' blaelcbugged" corresiJondent try this
ciiio and report progress?

To riLEAcii ferns, take one half-pouud of chloride
of lime and one pound of washing soda, add three
pints of water to the lime, and five pints to the soda.
in separate vessels : let each stand twenty-four
hours ; tlieu pour them together, and a lluid re-
sembling mill; and water is the result. Allow to
reltle pour the clear liquid over the terns, and
li-t tliem air until bleached: then take them out.
put tliem in cold water for two or three hours,
take them out upon paper like seaweed, and press
tiiem after they are a little drained. — Indian Gardener.

Can.uues. — Referring to "Enquirer" about breed-
ing canary birds, I have successfully had several
out of a pair from China. They should have a
well ventilated cage (rather large) in a secluded
spot with good air, but not to be caught to a
draught; the nest must be covered with lint, allowing
them a little cotton, fibre and small feathers to
complete it. As soon as you know the hen has
laid the lii'st egg remove the male, and as soon as
the eggs are hatched allow thcni to grow up on
tender salad leaves and a small qunatity of the
yellow of hard-boiled eggs with fresh supplies of
seeds, fi-esh water, keeping the cage clean with a
sprinkling of sand and ehunam. — Cor.

I.N'uiAN Tea Prices. — The Indian Tea I'lanlerx'
(iazeltii contains an analysis of the working of
various Indian Tea Companies, and appends the
following note : —

-Av.'raf^L' gross price procfeils s:ile of crops iiicliuliiig all re-
ciipls excepting Kain in Exchange :
1S79. "=""
per
II). 'lb. ib.
I SI 1/21 ijj
1/2J 14?

1880. ISSl
Jier per

1884.

per.

lb.

Assam Cotiipaiiy

HorelliTea Cnmiiauy \'h\

Doom iJnomu Tea Com l/.'if

Willaa Tea Company l/Sj^

1KS2. 18.53.
Ijer per
lb. lb
1,21 1.1 Sl-32 imj
I'lj ~]/2 1/2 13-Hi
1/1 l-'d* 1/0 O'llJ I'OI
1,03 1/3} 0/11} 1/OJ 1/Oll-IH

What is noticeable is the serious fall in prices in
ISSO as compared with IST.K the recovery in 1881,
and tlien the nmch lower prices for three years
ending 1884. The adoption of machinery and other
improVeraents may possibly secure economy of manu-
facture such as to atone for the serious difference
in prices.

Pi.uMiiAOo FiiOM luos. — It has been announced
that !\I. Fourquignon has obtained graphite, or
plumbago, in an unusual manner. He treated
cast iron in a vacuum to a temperature of from
1G30 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit without melting,
when he found the metal became malleable and
its surface uniformly black and dotted with black
grains of amorphous graphite, his explanation of
the process being " that the formation of carburet
of iron, or plumbago, is a function of the temp-
erature." This description is open to objection,
for graphite, or plumbago, is an allotropic form
of carbon, and is not carburet of iron at all.
Certainly, graphite often contains some iron, but
the quantity is so small and uncertain that its
presence may be regarded as accidental. It is
only iu old chemical text books that plumbago is
described as a carburet of iron. Graphite cau now
be obtained quite free from the uuntal. The ex-
periment is nevertheless an interesting one, and
it may lead to something of industrial importance.
— " tKdipus" in Leader,

The Kaddam for Tea Boxes.— Mr. Peal writes:—
I am planting out Koglui here (.1. Vadnmba). and
expect it will be fit to saw up iu S to '■) years, Some
were planteil iu June lSS-1, and now say 18 months
old, are 24 feet high, and 12 and 14 inches -girth.
From what I see I think one inch per annum ,<idius
can be relied on for the first eight years, after which
it gets .slower ami slower, down to quartir iju-h at
16 years. The plants are got from my tea nurseries,
and no one so far can raise Roghu from seedf, but
thousands sprout iu all clearings.* — Jmiian I'ore<ler.
[Has A. Cudawha been introduced to Oeylou? — iiu.J

New Electkic Plant. — A recent (4erm,in pnblic-
acion contains a description of n new electric plant
that lias been elirister.ed PJn/talncea thcfriea. which
possesses strongly marked electro-magnetics projierties.
in breaking a twig the hand receives a shock th,it
resembles the sensation proilnced by an induction
coil. Experiments m.ade on this plant showed that
a small compass was alfected by it at a distance
of about twitnty feet. On a near approach the nei'dle
vibrated, ami finally !)eg:in to revolve t]uite r.apidly.
The pheunnienou was repeated in reverst; order ou
receding from the plant. The energy of the intiueuce
varied with the time of day, being strongest at
about two o'clock p.m., and becoming almost nothing
during the night. It was also greatly increased in
stormy weatlier; and when it rains th'b plant seems
to wither. It is said that no birds or insects are
ever seen on or about this plant. The soil where
it grew contained no magnetic metal like iron, cobalt,
or idekel. and it is evident the plant itself possesses
this electrical property. — Iiiduiruhher and. Guttaperclin
Jovrnat. — Hum ! [Ed.]

Lettcces and Potatoes in BIaueitius. — The
President laid on the table some seeds of the Citiehnjia
Ledjceiiiaj Ciitclioua Hyhrid and Dieidivi. He said
that the Cinchona Ledjcritia was very rich in quinine.
The President then presented two new varieties of
lettuces where were sent to him by the Hon. Mr.
Fraser who obtained them about two years ago. The
Hon. Mr. Fraser said last year he did not succeed
with these two new varieties, but this year the result
was satisfactory, the lettuces were large and hard,
but they were somewhat bitter. Mr. Vankeirsbilck
presented six varieties of potatoes, three introduced
by Mrs. Vigier Latour and three by himself. The
three introduced by Mrs. "S^igier Latour were the
"White Elephant,'* two tubercules of which h.ad pro-
duced 110, others and which in Eui-ope gives ot'OCO
kilos per hectare, the " Anderson '' two tubercules of
which had yielded 130 others, and. the Magnum
Bonum." The three varieties introduced by Jlr. "\'an-
keirsbilck were the " Snucisse de Hollaude", •* Belle
Blonde " and " Ma Tante." He presenteil also some
potatoes obtained from cuttings. The Hon. Mr. Fraser
said that he planted half an acre with Bourbon Pot-
atoes, and the yield was about 8,000 pounds an acre,
out of which 2.5 jier cent were large potatoes, TiO ptr
cent middling and 25 per cent small. This at two cents
per pound would give $l(iO. This result could only
be obtained in four months. He had this to say, that the
potatoes produced here conld not be preservcal,
whilst those of Iteuuion kept well. It was the same
thing witli the Beaus. The Presiileut said that the
best manner to preserve tliem would be to have them
in ensill.age. — The Acelimatatian {society, 2nd Septemiier
1885.

* There is also a difficulty about ensuring germin-
ation of the Hnldu (Jdina cordifnlia), a plant allii'd
to the Koghu or Ivaddam, but wo have succeeded iu
raising seedlings of the latter, iu raised beds of line
charcoal dust, in the same way as Ficii^ efmiica is
sown iu the Charduar plantation iu Assam. — Ed. /./■'.

CATARRH OF THE BLADDER.
SriN'OlNQ irritation, inllauiation, all Kidney and simi-
lar Complaints, enreil by " JJuchu-paiba."

AV. E. Smith i>c Co.. Madras. Sole ^Vgents.

Dec. I, 1SS5.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

429

$ovrcspon(lonci-.

To the Editor of the " Chjlon Oh.wnr."

TEA FOR AUSTIiAIiU.

Syaney, 21st Sei)t. 18S5.

Siii, — As tile growtli ami manufactiivo of tea in
Ceylon are making vast and rapid strides, we offer
llie lollowln^' suggestions in view of your opening
u^i a more extensive trade in Australia. Tlie
classes of Ceylon teas likely to be most suitable
for importation into this market ai"e : —

1. Fa iini 1111:1 or hrolvii teii< (not diixt), not too red
in tbe leaf, with tliiek rich or pungent cup, packed
in chests of 80 to 90 lb. costing from Hd to ls2)er
111. laid doicii ill Si/iliiei/.

2. I'el.or .loiicliuiiiis with even, fairly small or
•• milled " leaf, pungent or (lavory cup ; in chests or
half chests, costing from il.Jd to Is l.Jd jjer lb. laid
down.

3. Pekoes, good, wiry, well rolled tippi/ leaf,
clean rich Havory cup, packed in half-chests only
anil costing lid to Is Sd per lb. laid down.

.\void teas "that are too highly burnt. Several
parcels have been sacrificed lately through over-
tiring.

The market here for Indian and Ceylon teas must,
of course, for some time depend on operations in
Calcutta, but for the past 18 months, Indian ship-
ments to the colonial markets have shown satis-
factory results, and there is every prospect of their
continuing to do so.

We would suggest trial shipments from different

di.<lriil.^ for the purpose of classilication which woulcl

enalilc a more decided opinion to be given upon

the future prospects in Sydney. — Yours faithfully,

CAMPBELL, SYNNOTT A Co.

DISEASED TEA.

(ialle, 2nd Xovomher 18S5.

Drab Sir, — I have the jileasure *^ of seuiling- you some
disi-ased tt-.-i plants from tbe nursery of St. Georgci
I st.ite, Brnltltgania. The leaves are covered with a
pectili:ir kind oi spots, ri'semblin^ very mticii like the
spi cks on (titniamon leaves, 'i'he plants die away in a
very shOi-t time, I have .some experience of tea plant-
ing and could not remember ever having seen a disease
of this nature.

Could jou or any of your nWrierous correspondents
1ft jne know what it coidd be ? A corner for this in
your valued paper will oblige, yours faithfully,

" TOM r.OS.'S MACK.

[The ti':i bushes sent are covered with warty excre-
sci'nees cnnsed probably by an obstruction ;o the flow
of 8ap, cither by disease or tbe attack of some insect. —
Eo.]

CARACAS CACAO.

Pcradeniya, 4th Nov. 1.S8.5.

Sib, — I observe that you have recently called
attention, by an extract, to some remarks in my
last Oardcn Report upon the characteristics of the
varieties of cacao grown in Ceylon, especially with
reference to the so-called '■ Caracas." It has always
been obvious to me that this name had been mis-
applied here, and I have never nsed it. Perhaps
1 may be permitted to quote from a previous Re-
port of mine (for 1882) as to the nomenclature
of these "pale-fruited" varieties, so far' as could
then be judged of them by comparison with the

• A droll idea of " pleasure." — Ed.

descriptions of writers on the subject : — " In recent
years several other kinds mth jialer pink or yellow
fruit have been imported into Ceylon. Of these
some were introduced in 1873 by Mr. Worms, and
others by Capt. 13ayley, the Ceylon Company, &u.
Some were obtained direct from Caracas, and con-
sequently the plants have been generally known
as 'CarAcas' in the colony. Several varieties of
this sort are in the Henaratgoda Gardens ; the jxids
vary in colour, pale glaucous green ])assing into
yellow or orange, pale pink or pale crimson, and
the seed is always flattish and jjalor or darker
purple in section. It is clear that the. true
' Caracas'— also known as ' Criollo' (crcolc) eaeao
— is a different variety from these, as it is stated
to have the pods almost invariably red, and the
seeds nearly globular and pale crimson on section.
I am thus inclined to refer our pale-fruited kinds
to the varieties called in Trinidad 'Verdilieo' and
'Cayenne.' "

The fruiting of the selected and named
varieties sent from Trinidad in 1880 and Ins],
has since shown that all these names (Cnndeamar,
Cayenne, Verdiliv", &c.), are applied to forms ot
what is known there as " Forastcro " cacao, ami
tliat none of the purple-seeded kinds are of llin
"Criollo" or " Car.acas " variety. It will therefore
be well to use for the future the name " Fora-
stero " for thern here also.

This being the case, the question naturally arises
as to the ordinary red eaeao of Ceylon : \\'liat
variety is it ? and is there anything like it grown
elsewhere ? For some time I have been bceoming
more convinced that it is tliin that is the " Ca-
racas" or "Criollo" cacao, and I might have taken
stronger ground on the matter tlian I did in my
last Report. Mr. Morris of .Tamaica, who lias had
good opportunity ot investigating the caeaos, both
in a wild and cultivated state, tells me that ho
knows of "only one kind with the cotyledons while
or whitish, and that is what is known as Caracas
cacao." This, it is well-known, is now a rare
kind in the West Indies, and scarcely to be found
in Trinidad estates, having died out, though formerly
largely grown there. Evidently Cuylon olitained
its i>Iants before this change had ocenrred. The
high quality of " Ceylon cacao " is thus explained,
as well as its delicate temperament. — I am, sir,
yours faithfully, HENRY TRIMEN.

! Cinchona Babks. — A change of very great import-
. auce has been made in the olKeial barks of cinclnina
I and the preparations therefrom. This baa tiecn
' rendered necessary from the increasing ditliculty of
obtaining the bark from its native sources and from
the greater facility with which cultivated bark rich
in alkaloid may be procured. Hitherto our I'har-
I macop<uia has containetl three varieties of cinchona
I bark, the pale bark with -5 per cent of .alkaloiils,
the yellow with 2 per cent of quinia, and tbe red
with 1-.5 per cent of alkaloids, and the pbarmaceut-
, ical prrparations have been all ordered to ho niadi'
with tbe pale or tlii> yellow hark. In the new
_ Pharmacopceeia other varieties of bark are mentioneil
'merely as sources from which the alkaloids m.^y la-
obtained, and the red alone is to be used in jjre-
parations. This is d'cscribed, under the name of
"cinchonie rubra; cortex," as "the dried Imrk of the
stem and branches of cultivated plants of Ciiiclwiia
siiccinihra," and is re(|nired to contain not less than
" between 5 and G per cent of total alkaloids, of
which not less than half shall consist of (jniniuc and
cinchonidine." .ADIioiigh this is a so nnioh higher
perceiitaire of alkaloids, such bark is now (*asily
obtainable in commerce. — Notes on the l^ew Hritisji
1 Pharmacopiuia, IS15, by N. H. Maktin, K.L.S. —
j riiarmaccutieal Journal.

430

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 1885.

NILGIRI FLORA.

The moist evergreen forests of the Nilyiris are grand-
est on the western slopes and between 3,000 and 4,000
feet elevation, where the trees often attain 200 and
250 feet in height. They are all evergreen, and the
great varioty of foliage and color render them exceed-
ingly heantiful, some of the young leaves coming out
pure white, others a bright crimson, others all possible
tints of brown, yellow, red and i^reen. Those tricfcs are
exceedingly moist from the first showers in March till
the end of December, and dini.ig that R{!ason abound
with leeeiies. The trees art- often covered with Ej>-p}njtir
orchids* ferns, mosses, balsams, and there is a glorious
profusion of raitans, tree ferns, climbing ferns, and
fine creepers. ^Vhat may be said to be mostcliaiacter-
istic of these forests is the genus StrohilttnUit-^ (Acan-
thaceiuj, large shrubs which form the principal under-
wood, and of which at least oO species are found on
those hills. 8ome of the.se flower every year, others
only after a growth of six or seven years, when
they die down, and renew themselves from .seed. They
have all showy flowers, and many are very beautiful.
The two palms Orryota iiren:< ix\\<.\ Arcnga Wif/htii are
very conspicuous in these tracts; also several species
of rattan Octlamus, and two very fine reed-bamboos.
Ferns are in great profusion, including several tree-
ferns, amongst whicli the Abopidla criiut<7, — not yet
we believe introduced into hot-houses— is unmatched
in any cduntry. Very beautiful A'ortmi«s and L'dlsams
arc n\so in profusion, Gattifevie^ Rahiac.ce and Euphorh-
i(ice(e ari' the orders most copiously represented.
Above '1,000 feet these forests begin to decrease in size,
and towards the plateau they gradually pass into what
wo term s/io'as. These moist forests never reach quite
down to the plains any where round the Nilgiris, though
thoy do so in parts of South Canara, Coorg and Travan-
core; they always give way at about one thou.sand feet
from the base, to deciduous forest er tracts composed of
nothing but reed-bamboo.s. — iS", of /. Ok-n'rvi r.

("Nearly all true ot onr mountain forests in Ceylon
except 1 he iLbundancc of rattanH, AVe have tlieni,
btit not in " profusion."— Ed,]

ADULTEKATEU CHINA TKX,

There has been no outcry of late a!)out tea adulter-
aliuii, and no doubt many innocent ;c(msumers are
under the impression that the art of tea adulteration
i-i nearly lost, and that the bland OelesiiitI is njending
bis ways. Tln^ following report from tho Ccnnini-;sioners
td' Customs on the examination of teas in !)ond, made
by their analyst under section .mO of the Sale of Food
and Urugs Act, 1S75, is therefore interesting read-
ing : —

livport of Kvaiui nations of Tea made nnchr .section 30
of ihf Sale of Food and I)i'p(/^ Act 187">.
liuard of Uu.stoms.

Honourable Sirs, — The particulars of the analyses of
teas under the Fond and Drugs Act, for the year end-
ing Dec. 31st, 1881, are asfollows: — There were received
870 samples, namely — r)23faced green. "jG unfaeed green,
30 caper, 88 congou. 37 sweepings, and 30 tannings. The
teas, which 850 of those samples represented, were de-
livered by the analyst for heme con.sunjption, their
c|uality exempting them from the condenniatory clauses
of the Act.

One sample was delivered by tho liuaril, and the
teas rcpi-esentod l)y the remainiug 19 samples were
restricted to exportation. The analyses of these 19
samples, representing !)78 packages, siiuwed them to be
of a very inferior tlescription 'f different classes of
teas, as follows: — 203 packakos of groen teas with a
la,rge admixture of decayed aiul exhausted leaves ; 334
packages were ctmgous (these two contained a con-
sid-rable proportion of leaves which hail been pre-
viously exliausted); IG wero also congous, v/hich, being
packed damp, had become deprived of their proper
strength ami (pnlity. The remaining Mo packages
were capers ; these contained from 10 to I 1 per cent
excess of silica. The luunber of samples analy.M.d in
the last five yoars, with tins manner in which tiio

ISSl.

1S82.

18S3.

I.S,S4

I,li42

941

t-52

>s7n

990

9-5

8:iS

850

252

l(j

14

20

14

222

2

88
14

104

14

1

19

litis 978

teas wuro disposed of, is shown iu llie following table :—

1880. ■"■ ■"- -

Samples analysed... .2,844
Delivered by analyst 2,440
Eeparted to the Boai-d 404
Delivereil by the Uoard

for home consumption 84
Delivered by the Hoard

for exportation... 27G

Number of packages

represented... 30,195 44,443

.Seized ... 4-1 l(i

Nninber of packages

represented... G,225 1,153

The adulter.ints present in the teas of the past year
were of the usual character, and, with one exception,
the parcels subjected to restriction were composed of
China teas.

(Signed) G. Excell, Analyst.

Although— owing more to increased tigilance on the
part of the Customs authorities than to any qualms
of conscieuce on tho part of the Chinese grower, or
shall we say manufacturer, the trade in adulterated
tea is not so brisk as it used lo be, there are indic-
ations in the above report that it is not yet e.x-
tinct.-;/'.t)'-(7, i^aiV.

THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT ANDEEVTHOXY-
LON COOA.

A paper sent to us contains letters on this subject from
Sir Joseph Hooker and Surgeon-General K I ward Ilal-
four. The first reported that nothing can lie added
to the statement as to the metliod of drying made
by Deputy Surgeon-General G. Bidie, c. i k., in the
pamphlet upon coca recently published by him at Mad-
ras. Slow drying iu the sou appears to be the whole
art of the matter.

I aui also to state that, from a letter received from
Mr. Lawsou, the Director of Government Cinchona
Plantations, Parks and Gardens, Nilgiris, ilnteil J.'ird
April last, there is reason to think that the diiiiculty
met with had been overcome.

Surgeon-General E. Uall'our replied at greater li'U'th
and managed to mak<' several references to the Re-
cently published editim of his Cyclop dia. He wrote :

"Your letter of 23rd ultimo enclosed a comnuniicalion
from the Government of India asking inlorm.ilion re-
garding the mode of preparing ciiea leaves for tlm
market; also instrutious regardmg the cultivation of
the plant, and how the leaves are connnunly used in
Soutli America. I have given a very con^derable amount
of information on these points under the lieadin".s
" Coca " and " Eryihvuxjlon " iu the 3rd edition of
my Cyclopedia of hnlia ; liut, on receipt of your letter
I waited on Mr. Gale, of iMessrs. liell & Co., who has
given mo much information, and has obligingly obtained
from Mr. Tanner, the aceoflipanying samples of the
leaves, flowers, and fruit.

2. Mr. Gale is of opinion that the leaves, when dry-
ing, naturally retain a flattened form, just as senna
leaves do, and it is considered unlikely that anv par-
ticular drjiug process is followed. lUit the Foreign
Office, through Her Majesty's Consults co ild obtain
all the detail.s as to cultivating, and as to gathering,
drying ami packing the leaves, with the' ordinary
niiirket price in the locality, and tho various modes iu
which the leaves are used. I could apply to the Con-
sular Department to obtain tliis information, thowli
such an application might, perhaps, come bettor frmn
your.self. 1 have, however, ascertaiue 1 that at present
the records of the Foreign Office do not contain any
notice of this plant.

3. I may here mention some points id' interest which
have become known to mo whilst i w.-is collecting tlu'
information necess.iry for replying to your letter.

The leaves as suen in the maiket, are ot the green-
ish hue observable in the accompanying sajnple.

The price of the h'aves has fallen so |,iw, with a
prospi'ct of a still greater fall, that it is not. at pre-
sent, deemi'd advisable for any grower to incur any
largi' expenditure lor its cultivation.

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

431

I am informed that Mr. Howard recently brought up j
all the leaves iu the market at three shilling's the ■
poiuui ; anil, as a cmsigiimont of 30,001) lb. is on tho '
way for Xew York.' Oo.-many and London the pric
is e.tpectcd shortly to fall to six pence the pound.

It is brought to tliis country in bags, in which the
leaves are found much broken. 1

At present, about ten grains of the cocaine alkaloid
are obtained from one pound of the leaves ; and, on the
26tli June, .Messrs. lisU Ji; Co. were selling it lo medical
men at one shilling the grain, and a retail price of ono
sliil!iu<{ and three pence the grain. •

4 IJ-sides thu use of the cocaine alkaloid as an
Rn:eslhetic in ophthalmic surgery, and during oper-
ations on the nuiath, ear, and throat, pharniacoiitists
have alreadv prepared from tho leaves a medicinal wine
an.l an ixtr.-.ct, and I think it possible, even probable,
that the leaves may take their place as a tea plant, or
as a valuable addition to the tea and coffee of cotn-
tucrec.

5. Also, it is yet to be ascertained whi'ther the species
Ei-iithiori/luii growing in the East Indies* may possess
properties identical with that of the Enithroxiiton coca.
"When this view occurred to me, I asked Surgeon-General
Sbortt to ascertain its importance. I meant that the
leaves mi^'ht be rh-.ved as a masticatory, in the manner :
that thev were use.l by Weston the pedestrian ; but 'I
Dr. Shortt has not informed me if he tried that nioilo.
He iStnt, however, to Mr. Edmund Blyth, the Analyst
for the .Marylebone district, twenty pounds of the leaves
of the E. muHOi/i/iinm. That quantity was too small for
exiierimonting with, but Jlr. JJlyth authoritatively as-
eertaini'd the presence of an alkaloid. There wodM
be a valuable addition to the food plants of the whole
human race, if it be a.scertained that the Indian specie-S
of Kii/tliioji/lun possess, like tho E. coca, the staying
properties ol" tea and coif ee.

C. The institution of inquiries of this kind has over
formed a pomineut feature in the British adminstration
of India, and I 1 hink that this is one meriting investig-
ation. But under the headings •• Coca " and '• Ery-
throxylon " in my " ('yclupiedia of India," just ))\ib-
Hslie<!. where I h;ive noted the alkaloid and the species
of genus, it was necessarily only with the brevity ri;-
quired for keeping eacli article in the due subordin-
ation to the other 3"),Ui)U which the book eoutain.s.
-Vnd, if the suggested inquiry be undertaken, it seems
disiriihlc that it be cou<lucted, as regards the verific-
ation of tho plants, under the superintendence of Sir
Joseph Hooker, in onler to make certain that the
proper plants ha\e been gathered from, as the species
of tins genus have presenteil difiicidties to botanists,
and tbe plants and their species, as they now stand,
have been slotted to other genera and other species.

PL.VNTING IX FIJI': AH'H.\ TAVILNI.

<jil.i and Alpha are by no means twin brothers as
the erne was called into c.xister.co long before the other
and both are carried on indei>eudont of one another as
far as nnu and capital are concerned; nevertheless,
Ihey iirr closely connected, not only because the pro-
prietor is the same, but because Qila is the seaport
of .V'pha. Here supplies are lanced and taken inland,
and from hence the tea. coffee, and other produce is
shipp (1.

• E. B rmauicum, Oriff., of tbe Eastern Peninsula,
And iin 11 », and Tcnaesarini, is E. retusura, Bauer.

E. Kuithianuni, 'Wall. Oat., of Eastern Bcni;al and
Khas-'a.

!■;. lai ceolatum, AVright's 111, AVeste-n Penin'^nla, it)
So'.'ria h nceolata, Thw. an.l S, erytbroxyloides, AVight.

K. lue dum, Moon'^Cat of Ceylon, is Seltria acumin-
a' a, ,Vri', Wight, Thw.

K. mnr.ogynura, Jlo.xb. Cor. I'l. of Oeylon .ind Wch'-
ern I'lrinsula, is E. Indiea, Dedd. and Sjeltria ludica,
D. C.

K. ohlu? foriim, Thw. Kn.. is of Ceylon.

E fideroxyloides, Fani. is of Mauritius.

Alpha is about foiu- miles inland from Qila. There
is a Government road rumnng f om the beach to the
estate autl thence on to tjaleci. I was surprised to
find it so clean, and in such an excellenl condition as
most of the public roads on Taviuni are overgrown
with wee:'-. This was, however, explained by the
fact that tuu r'Jid is kept clean by men iroin the Alpha
f'^tate. It is a pleasant ride from QUn to .Vlpha. The
\ i .V to seawanl is magnificent, but I have so much
to say about the cultivation of tea that I cannot stay
to give a dcscriptiou of it. The road rises gradually
until it reiichcs an altitude of 1,100 feet from the sea
levi 1 when it enters the Alpha cstato which is uml-
ulating table land protected by adjacent hills.

It was only when cotton failed that the Hon, iMr.
Mason turnnd his attention to coffee and from lliu
cultivation of the bean he hoped to win the fortune
which the snowy ami fleecy cotton refused to give him.
Operations were ecnnmeueed in 1875 by felling the
bush and forming the imrsery. Mr. Lanyon, who had
considerable experience in the culti\'ation of coJfee in
Ceylon had the honor of opening up, what I suppose
must be regarded as, the first coffee estate in Fiji.
Small patches of the bean had been cultivated on
Wakaya and some other places, but, as the name
indicates, this was the first estate that was opened
out for the planting of coffee on a largo scale. If
Mr. Lanyon may be judged by his diary ho was an
iotelligent cultivator of the soil. This document., which
is still in the hands of tbe proprietor, contains nuich
usefid information, and many shrewd and valuable
remarks on the climate, the soil, the uatmo of the
country cleared as well as the kind aiul quality uf the
timber felled to make the nursery. As soou as this
was planted, clearing connneuced in right good eiiruest,
and day after day tho axe gleanined in the sunlight
and the crash of falling trees was heard as the
woodman felled them. Eventually the young coffee
plants were taken from the nurseries ami trausplantetl
on the plantation, but three long anil weary years had
to elapse before the covered fruit could hi; gathered.
It can be imagiaed how carefully tho * developnu-nl
of the young plants would be watclied ; but palience.
and industry had their reward in the appearance of the
first blossom which was soon followed by the fruit;
and the maiden ci'op was ready to he picki'd. It was
a magnificent one, s.itisfactory both to manager and
proprietor, .Vbout this tinie Mr. .Stephens, the present
manager of Alpha, appeared on the scene. He came
from Ceylon, where he managed several large estates
atul had considerable experience iu the cultivation of
coffee and tea, Mr, Stephens, like many others, was
not sati.stied with making money slowly, hejice he
threw up a good position and came to Fiji where he
hoped to make a rapid fortune, and when lie saw the
maiden cnffee crop at .\lpba he thought he had found
an cldor.-ido. There was a rapid fortune in coll'ie if
crops such as these' could be grown. iSIore laiul was
obtaiuod and the Alpha estate enlarged. The confid-
ence, which Mr. Stephens, a practical coffee planter,
felt in the ultimate success of coffee inspired the UoJi,
Mr, Mason with renewed conHdeuce, More c.-ipilal was
invested and another 200 acres of laud were cleared
and planted which made 400 acres altogether and when
this point was reached the results were patiently waited
for, but no future crop was equal to the first, and
eventually leaf disease, and black leaf made their ap-
pearance and played such liavock among the trees that
coffee ctiltivatiou had to be abandoned and ten has
taken its place.

Mr. Stephens brought some tea seeds with him when
he came from Ceylon, and jilanted ihem at Alpha and
the seeds from these plants have been carefully pre-
served and plantid in nurseries. Tea is rapidly taking
the place of coffee. Already more than 200 acres
are planted ; 100 acres more will be plnnted by the ■ nd
of this year, and nnother 100 acres will be ready for
planting Ui xtyear, while there are nearly 30(1 acres of
virgin forest suitable for further extension. There ari!
five nurseries of tea seedlings on the estate which are
looking remarkably well and which contain jdaids
for 1,000 acres extension it uecctaary, or for sale to

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

.[Dec. J; j'cc

those gotug into the tea imluatry, Tliere are two or
three kinds of sciil oji the estate. There wi re ro.l aiul
choeolate loams, aiul scoria, vvhicli is so universal on
Taviuiii. T^eth climate and soil appear specially adapted
to the cultivatiou of tea. The rainfall is regularly
taken ever.v day at noon aud obs^Tvatioug ahout the
wind aiul weather duly recor4led. The average raiu-
i'all is l.iO inches par annum.

There are 112 laborers ou the estate comprised of
Indian coolies, aud Polynesians. There are of course
the usual houses for the comfort and convcnicuces of
the laborers. l"he supply of food is plentiful. The
soil and climate of Alpha are remarkable foi- t\n^ vigorous
growth which they infuse into all plants. I noticed
some every tall banana trees which were fully three
feot higher than attahmd by the same kinds ou the
coast.

Work in all it.s branches appeared to bo in vigorous
o])eration on the day I visited the estate. As I passed
over it I saw some laborers picking tea. In another
fielil-weeders were at work, in a third several men were
at work holing and preparing for the future exten-
sion of cardanujms. At the tea-house I saw a few
ntelligeut Polynesians who could speak. English engaged
under the superintoiidancc of the manager, making
tea.

Mr. Stephens appears the factotum of the estate.
Everything jiasses thr(nigh his hands. "When I went
up from ^.^»ila in ilm early morning I fovuid him iu
the Held superintending his overseers and looliing after
.some men engaged in picking a tlusli of tea. "When
each man brought Iris basket of leaf to thetea-house
it was examined by Mr. Stephens, and should an old and
hardened leaf be found iu the basket it was
pointetl out to the picker and he was directed
not to gatjiersuch leaves. It may be necessary to say
the men were new to their work, Polynesians who had
only been two montiis ou the estate, and therefore
were under training. After a little experience they
become expert pickers. Soon after this the manager
is found at the tea-house superintending the manufact-
ure of tea.

The cost of jirodtiction is reduced to the lowest poss-
ible point by the employment of coloured overseers, one
of which is a Polyuesian aud two are Indians, and they
appear to manage the labour well and secured obedi-
ence. During the summer months there is a flush of
tea every ten d^iys and throughout the year the te.a
flushes regularly, excrpt when it is pruned, when it
rests for six weeks before it begins to Husli again.
Fortunately a flush was being piciied when I visited
the estate which gave me an opportunity of seeing the
manufacture of tea in all its branches.

The large local market absorlis, lor the present all
that can be manufactured on the estate and the time*
is n()t far distant Avhen the importation of tea into the
colony must eea.'^e. Blore tea, however, will soon be
manufactured ou the estate than can possiblj- be con-
sumetl in Fiji, ami arrangements are been made for the
exportation of tlie article to the Australian and New
Zealan i markets. Already samples have been sent for-
ward, anil the reports received from colonial tea merch-
ants and tea tasters are most encouraging and gratify-
ing. ShouUl the commercial reciprocity treaty between
Fi.ji and the New Zealand and Australian colonies
which is now talked of become a fact the Alpha tea
will practically have a monopoly of the market. In
anticipation of next year's yield and of entering tlie
Australian markets, timber and tea lead have been
secured for making tea boxes for the purpose of ex-
portation. It is worthy of remark that the tea at pre.
rent made is picked from young trees, when these get
older the yield will be greater and the quality will im-
prove.

Altogether the prosi.ectn of tea cultivation
appear cheiriug and encouraging, aud if the Hon.
J. K. Jlasou and his capable and energetic
manager — Jtr. Stephens — succeed in this enterprise, as
tiiey deserve they will have no reason to citmplain.
One cannot but admire the ])lodding pertinacity of
Mr. Mason iu his search after fortune. Worsted in
cotton he turned his atteoliou to coffee aud haviug
failed to iteciiie a ealisfactory retiua ttom the coffee

j bean he turned his attention to tea. Sncli perseverance

1 and pluck deserve to be rewarded by success. Trans-

j ferring the estate from coffee to tea was an easy anil

I comparatively inexpensive operation. Tlie lai.il wa.s

mostly cleai-ed and the coffee trees were pulled up and

j the tea plant took their places. The pulpint; and

colfee drying houses have been turned into the houses.

I In one of these 1 saw the primitive looking tea trays

i where the first tea of Fiji was manufactured and which

I the ingenuity of Mr. Stephens called into existence.

. These looked wnsiguificaiit when compared with tlie

sirocco but they possessed aud interest for me wliich

I the sirocco did not. As I inspected them I could not

help thinking here is the beginning of whiit may prove

a great mainstay to Fiji, and which may bring fortune

J to many. However much the future may develop the

gi-owth and manufacture of tea in Fiji to this little

primitive machine must belong the uuilying honor of

j having manufactured the first tea in this colony.

I There are .several other matters claiming attoution,

j but I can only refer to them in briel. There is iho

I very excellent climate, the healthiness of which is

proved by the tact that only one laborer luis died on

j the estate during the last two years. About 20 acres

1 of cardamoms are planted under shade, and these are

! looking so well and give such promise of future results

; that an extension of 15 acres is to lie made forthwith.

! The land is cleared, holed, and ready for iilanfcing. A

few acres more are plauteil in the open as an e.xpi'ri-

i ment, and these, although looking well do not appear

as vigorous aud healthy as those under shade.

The cinchona, several" acres of which is planted, shows
marked improvement during the past year and may
prove a success.
I I noticed a fine grove of mandarin oranges. A grand
crdp was gathered about two or three uronths ago;
the fruit was large and the flavor good.

The residence of the manager is large and com-
modious, and the estate appears to possess every con-
venience and requisite for successful operations.

Before I close I must refer to the facilities for ship-
ping which Qila and Alpha jx),s.scss. The interiiisnlai*
steamer calls twice a month to take produce and con-
nect with the ocean-going steamers, and shipnunts can
be made to the New Zealand and Australian markets
with regularity and despatch.— -i^yj T mes.

TitE Sau Tbee (Albh^iit stipulatn), forms the subji'et
of a communication in. the October nnmlier of the
Indian Forester, the conclusion of which we quote : —
"I have seen tea bushes growing under both the sail
and koroi trees, and have been much struck by their
luxuriance in comparison with adjacent bushes, and
have considered these trees the panacea for all tea woes.
But a "change has come o'er the spirit of my dn am."
aud no longer have I implicit faith iu koroi and sau
trees. Koamiug promiscuously over two ditfirent tea
gardens 00 miles apart. I found tea growing iind.r
koroi trees of great growth, and lo I the tea buslns
under their shade were, if anything, inferior to tho.-e
beyond it ! A change of quarters immediately aft.T-
wards to where tea is not grown, has deprived me ^f
opportunities for furtlier ob.servation, but it would
be well worth the attoution of well-infonii'd ob.servant.
men like Mr. Peal, to trace this further. My own
experience therefore leads me to the belief, tint no
advantageous chemical properties .are imparted to <he
soil by either the sau or koroi, aud that it is only
the shade afforded by them which is bemlicial, ami
that only whilst they are young, for once t'jey att aiu
niaturity and a great size, tiic shade, slight as it
may be, becomes too dense, and the piolongalion of
the surface roots becomes inimical. All the •■videnro
obtained hitherto, as far as I can 'learn, in favour of
the sau or koroi, rests upon those trees seen when
immature and of small size." — /ndtan tWcftcr. [Happily
for us in CeyIou,we know nothing of hot win 1< such
as .scorch the tea plants in some parts of India. Wf

I are, therefore, less interested than our continental
neighbours in the sau tree cout.oversy. Tin-; writer

I of the paper acknowledges that his esperieuce has

' been but limittd.— £d,j

-Dec. I, 1885.] THE TROPICA!, AGRICULTURIST,

433

SUGAS CULTrV^iTIOX IN BRITISH BUIiJIA.
A long report was lately published in the J/ritl-'lt
Bimna Uazttte on the system of sugar cultivation
adopted in that country. The system seems to be more
elaborate, and is certainly more expensive than that
adapted in Bengal. The 'land on which the cane is
grown is divided, into two tracts, one tract of shift nig
cultivation, in which the cane grown is generally
used for eating, and another tract of permanent cane
cultivation, in which the juice is pressed out and
manufactured into r/oor. The first is hardly wortli
uoticuig, as it consi^ts of only about 280 acres, divided
chietiy into holdings of one acre each, clcareil in the
evergreen jungles along the tidal creeks. The ]uice
contains but little saccharine matter, and no amount
of boiling causes cry.stallization of the sugar. The
quantity of land under permanent cane cultivation
is about C,9S0 acres, chieHy situated in the valleys
of rivers, the soil of which is generally deep rich loam.
The canes grown are chieHy that known as the
Madras or white cane, which grow to a height of
from 10 to li feet. The mode of cultivation is clnofly
by planting. The land is generally turned up with
a hoe in May or .lune, and is let alone till September,
when the cultivator digs holes about 10 inches deep
and one foot wide, at a distance of about 18 inches
from each other. Three pieces of cane, about five
inches long, are then placed in each of the holes,
and pactly covered up with loosened earth, care
being taken that one end protrudes about an inch
over the top of the hole. There aie generally three
joints in each of the three pieces, and each joint
has one eye from which the new canes spring. About
ten days after the pieces have been planted, the
earth is loosened in the intervals between the holes,
and the cane pieces are further covered up. This
operation is again repeated in January, and in May
the land is again cleared of weeds and grass, and
the plants are left until the month of August or
September, when they are cleared of the leaves that
have become old and withered. Irrigation is hardly
ever resortod to, except in a very dry season. The
canes bloom in November, when they ore cut down
and prepared for the mill. The cost of cultivation in
such a plantation, worked entirely with hand labour,
will amount to about R'M per acre; but as most
of the cultivators with their families work their own
land, the cost is estimated at from 1115 to R20 per
acre. The cost of manufacturing the goni; which is
at present done in a very crude fashion (although
this will probably soon be improvcil, as a partner
of the well-known firm of Thomson & Jtyhie lately
risited Burma and showed the people the advantage
of using his mills) comes to about R6n per acre.
The average outturn per acre is about :>,.500 lb.,
which is worth R2.30 ; and the net profit per acre,
therefore, not including the cost of living, would be
■about KIOO. The average amount of rjooi- .being
2,800 lb. per acre, the amount of sugar produced
in one year would come to about 8,750 tons. The
whole of this, with thi- exception of a small quant-
ity exported from Akyab to Chittagong, is consumed
in British Bnrm:i, aiiil, as about 7f<,8GO cwt. of
sugar are imported every year, there seems to he
abundant room in British Burma for an extension
of sugar cultvation. — Calcutta Enylishmun,

HOW COFFEE iS PREPARED FOR SHIPMENT.

Few people, perhaps, ever give a thought, when
drinking their morning cup of coffee, of the ways
and means used for procuring them this refreshing
beverage. 'Without going into particulars of the
troubles and difficulties experienced by coffee planters
in acquiring and opening out land, clearing and felling
jungle, planting, and \vaiting prttienlly for three
years for their virgin crop, a few detail.** of the different
processes the bean undergoes from the time it is
taken off the trees, till it is shipped, may be of
interest.
55

The coffc:> berry when ripe is of a bright scarlet
colour, and the fruit itself is very sweet and pleasant
to thi! taste. AN'hen gathered it is carried to the
puljility-liiiitsi; where it is measured and passed up
to a loft, from wliiek it passes into a receiver which
feeds the pulper. This pulper consists of a cyliii-
dric;;' iron barrel, fitted with copper sheets, which
revolves under a toothed coinb-liUe projection ; it i.s
generally work'd by cattle power or by a water-
wheel and :ulni.iling the fruit separates the outer
skin or rind from the bean or seed, which then
passes into, a cistern or vat. It is left there and
.allowed to ferment from 12 to IM hours, which
contributes greatly to facilitate the w,-isliing. AVhen
the beans are being washe.l there should be a con-
stant flow of water through these cisterns or vats,
and it is therefore absolutely necessary, when a
planter chooses a spot whereon to erect his ;)"/yi-
hou/sc, that it should be on low ground cominanding
a liberal and consLint supply of water. Failure of
water has been known to have seriously im-onvenienced
pulping operations and ruined the ontliini of what
otherwise should have b( en a fair crop. After the
bean has been well washed and rid of :ill the pulpy
matter it is culled pim-hmr ,it rnffW. This niinie is
given to it in consequence of the husk or parcliment-
like covering remaining on the bean after it has
been pulped and washed. It is then removed from
the cisterns on to the barbecues or drying grounds
on the estate, where it remains for a few days till
it is dry. In the absence of barbecues, the coffee is
dried on tables, made by stretching coir matting
over temporary bamboo or other wooden structures.
Great care is required in drying coffee before it is
despatched to the curing works, as unless the coffee
is sufiiciently dried it is apt to ferment, and thus
discolors the bean and lowers its marketable value.
When dried the coffee is sent away in carts to the
curers on the 'Western Coast or elsewhere. (Those
remarks apply to coffee grown in Ooorg.) The
ordinary country cart is used, each cart carries 1(1
bushels or about half a ton of parchment coffee, packed
in bulk in mats; the journey from (loorg to the
"Western Coast occupies from three to four days,
the carters however are usually allowed six d.ays and
take it easy all the way, travelling when it suits
their convenience best. Cart hire varies yearly. A
couple of years ago it ran very high owing to the
prevalence of disease among cattle, but ordinarily
it ranges from Rl 1 to 16 for the double jouvney ;
that is to say, a cart that takes down coffee to the
coast brings back a load of manure and vice verm.
This year, however, the shears of economy have been
vigorously applied on .all sides, and very little manure
is likely to be sent to the estates; this will naturally
enhance the cost of transport as comp.ared with
other years. 'When the parchment coffee arrives at
the curing works it is remeasured, aiwl put out
again on the barbecues, there to dry a little more.
and when the parchment or skin becomes nice :ind
crispy it is put into the peeler.

Thi! peeler con.sists of two large iron wheels ribbed
round the rim ; these wheels are )nopelled vHtli great
velocity by a sm.all steam engine, and run in a circular
masonry gutter or groove into which the parcliment
coffee is shot, and by their rotatory motiiui tlie coffee.
bean is deprived of its parchment-like covering or
husk. The coffee thus cleared falls into a cistern
from which it is taken up into a loft and thrown
into the fizivf, the chaff being separateil froin the
beans by means of a fanner. This chaff alone is used
for working the engine, or perhaps a little wood is
sometimes .added. These sizers are large cylinders of
perforated zinc or iron. In three of them the perior-
ations are oblong and of different sizes, and circular
in the fourth. The sizers revolve an. I tb.- eotlee falls
out of four different kinds or sizes
A or No. 1 the largest

B „ 2 the next .and . , , , ,,

C ,. 3 the third size; through the circular lioles all

1 the globular beans find their way and are called I'la

' Berri/. This sort of coffee commauds geiiewlly a superior

^M

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[Dec. I, 1885,

pvii'o in the Erglish market. The peeler, sizers, &c., are
all connected and the whole machinei-y is worked by a
single engine. 'When the coffee has been sized it i.s
given out to be garbled or sifted and cleared of
stones, broken and blackened beans, &c. This work
is done by women, and on the 'W'estern Coast the
Theelns are great adepts at it, as they learn it from
their infancy, anrl it is no common thing to see
little mites, no bigger tlian the sieves they carry,
competing with grown-np women in the quantity
they are required to garble. After being garbled
the coffee is packed in .single or double Bags in the
order in which it has been sized, 1, 2, 3, each bag
contains 1^ cwt. : it is then shipped per chartered
steamer or 13. I. S. N. Co.'s boat via the Suez
Oanal. Jlost if not all the plantation or parchment
coffee finds its way to England, little or none goes
to the Continent. The triage or defective and broken
beans and black coffee are similarly sized, packed
and shipped, the refuse being sold in the country.
Even the stones that have been taken out during
garbling fetch a good price when sold, less on ac-
count of the little coffee they may contain than for
the puipose of adulteration hereafter.

What is generally known as lUitn-e coffee is what
is shipped to the Continent. This description of
coft'ee receives dift'ereut treatment during cultivation
and curing. The trees receive less attention and
are permitted to grow to their natural size, where-
as on European plantations they are kept at a
uniform height ot from 3J to 4 feet, being regularly
pruned aud all superfluous wood and new shoots
removed at intervals. This is not done on the Native
estates. The fruit is galliered in the same manner
as parchment coffee, but it is not pulped, it is merely
dried. When the cherry is sufficiently dry it is
poimded and winnowed. The pounder used in Coorg
is of a very primitive description, being simply a
piece of wood placed on a pivot and worked by the
foot, the coffee being placed in a hole in the groinid.
When the coffee beans have been cleared of all the
chart' they are sent down to the curing works,
garbled, packed and shipped in the same manner.
It is seldom sized like parchment cottee. Native
cort'ee has a more pleasiint ffavuur, retaining more
of the aroma of the fruit which the bean absorbs
during the process of drying; it is chiefly for this
reason it is so much better hked on the Continent,
and it is comparatively cheaper than plantation. —
CoOKii. — Madras Mail.

THE DATE PALM.
In Luckuow I introduced the Date I'alm from the
Persian t4ulf, through the Government of India, both
by seeds and by imported offsets. There are some
hundreds of many varieties of both kinds in Luckuow,
and many hundreds from seeds in many parts of Oudh.
In Luckuow they were imported between 1S69 aud
1S73. These had been under my care aud close ob-
servation up to 1877-8. Since then I have often seen
them. They are growing very luxuriantly, and are
irrigated during the hot winds from wells 20 feet or
so deep. During the rains they are subject to an
aveiage annual rainfall of 30 inches. lu the winter
there the temperature has been down 5° Fahr. below
freezing point, and in the hot winds I am afr.iid (o
say what temperature they are .subject to, and there
is no .\ea-air, Ufany of the Tatcknow Date Palms have
lieen flowering aud fruiting— artificial fcrtih'sation is
(ir: ctised in most cases. Mr, Hidley, under whose care
tbty are at present, has stated that their fruit is good,
iiud it is stated that some are delicious. I have tasted
flonie, aud found them very sweet aud nice. Another
O'Kccr from Pert«abgurh says, that those which ripens
fruit .■>re delicious.. Even the small skinny fruit (.tf the
P. sylvcstiis. when not tapped for " toddy," is eaten
by uati^-es. I cannot, therelore, understand how it is
tbat the Date Calms in the .South i)f Eurojie are said
to be witluuit fruit, ami that " tiie cause is the dry
summer, there being uo tubterraueau wells, ns is the
ta.se in the Sahara."

From the study I h.ayc made of the Phienix sylvest-
ris .and P. dactylifera (which are in reality two vari-
eiies of the .same species) I am of opinion that neither
subterranean wells nor a desert climate are essential
to its liLxuriant and successful growth. We nmst,
therefore, look for some other reason to account for
its being " witliout fruit," or for its ftuit " never being
fit for food" in the South of Europe.

I have shown that the P. sylvestris grows luxuri-
antly in a moist climate like that of Bengal, aud in
all other climates, from North to South India. But
as it is annually bled, aud its sap converted either
into sugar or toddy, its fruit, when it is able to give
any, and when it becomes fertilised, is not fit to eat.
The P. sylvestris is nowhere irrigated as far as I
know, luit depends for moisture upon rain or upon
what it can suck up from the .subsoil. I have shown
also that the P. dactylifera will bear a variety of
climates and conditions, and still give good fruit. In
the oases of the Sahara and all along North Africa
and in Murcia, in Spain, jirobably it does not receive
any special cultiv.ation. In the interior of Arabia,
where there i.^ not much commercial iutercourse, and
where the poor people are almost wholly dependent
for food on their Date crop, the probability is that
.■I great deal of care is given to it. In Mooltan,
Sindh, and adjacent countries Mr. O'Brien says it is
nowhere cultivated, but grows spontaueously from seeds.
There are many varieties in Mooltan, and he sent rae
samples of five varieties. They were small (about the
size of the Muscat Dates) but sweet, and they formed
a gre.at part of the food of the Mooltanis aud Siudhis,
In Lucknow, where the couditions are different from
the places before mentioned, it also grows well.

But the climate where it appears to come to great
perfection, and where it is cultivated with great care
and skill, is that of the Persian Gulf. There it is
tended as if it were a child — irrigated regularly, man-
ured with either fish or other animal manures. As
there are only female plantatioas the flowers of each
bimch are carefully fertilised by males brought from
anywhere (sometimes from another district.) The
irrigation is stopped for several weeks after fertilis-
ation, and finally only from eight to twelve bunches
of Dates .are left on the tree out of the twenty-four
or so that it bears. Nevertheless, with all this care
and .'ildll they say that those Dates which by ac-
. cidcut have uot been fertilised are "stoueless and
insipid, and only fit for goats."

Palgrave, in his, Jotimey tln-oni/h Arahia, says that
of all the kinds of Dates he had eaten the " khalis "
of El Hasa in the Gulf is the facHi: pt-innps of the
Date kind. He says it bears the same relation to
the ordinary Date which the jungle Jlaugo bears to
the Bombay Mango. In the (iiulf the Date tree re-
ceives as much cultivation as Oranges or any other
choice fruit trees receive iu Europe.

Let us glance now at the cultivation of Date Palms
iu the Riviera. Irrespective of any irrigalion, uianiu--
ing, iSte., which are uot mentioned, the leaves at cert-
aiu seasons are swathed, hke Leltuccs, to b'anch
them for church ceremonials. They are cut at Easter,
for .supplying leaves for Palm Sunday to Koun.' and
other places, aud also in August for Jewish observ-
ances. Now, considering that the leaves to the plant
arc what the stomach and lungs are to the animal—
that they are required to be, not only luxuriant, but
in large numbers, to supply healthy sap for the
growth of the tree and the production of its fruit—
we need uot, I think, trouble ourstdves about either
"underground Wells," or dry summers to account for
the P.ordighera Diite Palms giving either •• bad fruit,
or none at all." [All the Palms on the Eiviera are
not so treated, and yet ripe fruit is almost unknown.—
En.] In the Persian Gulf, they say, the D.ite Palm
is not tapped for "toddy." It could be tapped, how-
ever, they say, "but at the e.\pen.se of the fruit."
It is a wonder to me that the Date I'alins of the
South of l"',urope continue to exist at all, nmier Si:ch
treatment; 1 should say, however, that they can be
swathed, and that their leaves can be cut off, tp

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

435

supply bleached leaves to Korae and other places,
leaving the whole place with a '• disreputable look,"
but all this cau be done -'at the expense of the fruit."
Moreover the Bordigliera Palms may all happen to be
of the kind which does not become soft and sweet,
and goi« no further than the red or yellow stage,
called '• Kharek." In my opinion, the borders of the
Mediterranean basin are eminently »uited to growing
first-class Dates. The sea air appears to be an ad-
vantage to the choicer varieties. It is not so partial
to a desert climate as one would suppo-se. AH it
wants for the production of choice fruit is careful
cultivation, like any other fruit tree, with irrigation
when necessary, manuring and stirriug of the surface
earth ; artificial fertilisation when tbe males are not
well intormixed with the females. It requires also,
like other fruit trees, that half the bunches should
be removed to produce fine large Dates. The con-
dition which I think is a great advantage to the per-
fection of the fruit of the Khoorma kinds is that
during softening and ripening time the atmosphere
should be dry. Fiually, to obtain choice fruit the
Date I'alm should not" be tapped or swathed, or have
its leaves blanched and cut off; but that there should
be many of them, and the more direct light they
get the better, as long as water is suplied to the
roots. AN'hether this come from underground wells
or from rivers, or springs, or the clouds, I think
signifies little.

I should say Cyprus, Candia, Greece, and its archi-
pelago, Sicily, Sardinia, and the south and east coast
of Spain, are all eminently suited to the cultivation
of the choice kinds of Dates. Offsets from the
Persian (!idf coiUd be obtained with the greatest ease,
and planted in nurseries, and watered regularly till
they root, when they could be put into permanent
plaiilations. I think there is no part of the world to
which, if the climate and soil were suitable, Date
offsets of the proper age and weight could not be
taken. They will bear a great deal of exposure before
planting without injury. The woody stinup acts like
a bidb, and throws oiit roots when jjlanted under
propiT conditions. If we do not except the cow to
give good and abunJaut milk without proper feeding
and careful treatment, it is hardly reasonable to except
the Date Palm to give good and abundant fruit with
no feeding and '•atrocious" treatment.— E. BoSAVIA,
M. D., Etawah. — Ganhne.s' Chronicle.

FEEDING OF PLANTS.

As the food of plants existing in soils is subject
to distribution, and does not remain in solution for
any length of time, it is evident that there cannot
be a circulation of such food towards tho growi'ig
plant, but the roots of the latter must go in search of
nourishment.

AVhen we consider the vast root surface in the case
of a Vine, and that myraids of rootlets and root-hairs
unite their action to feed the comparatively narrow
stem, we can understand the importance to the gar-
dener of studying the ramification of the roots of all
the various species of plants he cultivates in order
to adapt his system of manuring to the feeding cap-
acitie; of these plants. Plant-roots may be considered
in three distinct stages of growth, namely, in their
primary development, their stage of ramification, .ind
their enlargement in receptacles of nutriment. Sup-
posing, then, moisture, warmth, and air, to be reaily
in their proper measure, the water is absorbed by the
substance of the embryo of the seed, dissolving its
contents, carrying them into the young plant as
rapidly as they are re<iuired ; in fact, the seed may
be considered as a miniature laboratory, in which
numerous chemical actions are taking place for tho
nourishment and development of the young growing
plant.

As the radicle breaks its bonds from the mother
seed it will be nourished and fed after a .short time
directly from substances existing in the soil, and will
profit very indirectly by any mitritive matters which
may yet remain in the seed itself.

80 important to the future welfare of the plant is
tho addition of elements which can be obtained from
tho soil only, even in the earliest stages of growth,
that before any secondary rootlet is produced the young
radicle in many cases pushes out from its superficial
cells a mass of delicate fibrils, every one of which is
employed in active food-absorption ; therefore, while
the first wants of the young plant depend directly
upon seed nutrition, it must never be forgotten by
the gardener that this supply lasts for a short time
only, and that the ultimate vigour and productive-
ness of the plant must depend upon the fertility of
the soil; consequently, for the successful rai.sing of
any plant from vei'y minute seeds, it is absolutely
necessary that suitable food should be within easy
reach of the delicate and small roots, and also in an
extremely soluble condition. Thus we find pounded
rape-cake, soot, or a moderate dressing (10 to 20 lb.
pur st-iuare yard) of superphosphate among the very
best materials for applications to soils when it is required
to raise a crop of healthy young plants in a short
period of time.

It is, however, a great mistake to suppose that be-
cause plants are often grown without a direct supply
of nitrogen in manures they are not dependent upon
this substance for their very life and sustenance.
Those gardeners who do not apply manorial dressings
with their seed depend naturally upon the store of
nitrogenous plant-food in the soil. IMany a plant
which looks vigorous enough on its first appearance
abov. 'ground ?oon wears a sorry aspect when the food-
supply is deficient or of the wrong kind.

Nowhere is this fact better exemplified than in the
extensive experimeuts at Kothamsted where the con-
ditions as to source of nutriment and disentegration
of the soil hy root development are so various. In
early spring each description of plant experimented
with, whatever may he its character or its manurial
supply, starts much alike ; there is but little difference
to be discerned between one plot and another ; \'ery
soon, however, those without any manure at all begin
to show signs of weakness, then the imperfectly man-
ured plots lag behind, while those receiving a full
supply of all the necessary ingredients of plant-life —
potash, phosphoric acid, lime, and nitrogen — advance
steadily on to perfection.

This is furthia- illustrated by the following table
which shows the average annual produce of various
crops, and the increase obtained by different manures.
The quantities arc in pounds per acre:— •

Description of
Crop.

lb. lb. lb. lb. lb.

Potato f Produce. 5,208 S,24G 7,l(i8 lG,4-50 lO.lSG

tubers (Increase. ... 3,038 l,!)(iO 11,242 5,278

Swede (Produce. 1,232 5,82,1 2,128 11,424 13,888

bulbs I Increase. ... 4,592 H'M 10,192 12.(i5G

3^

g

?2

C..2

0 0

as

QJ "3

"0 til

to

a "^

^10

■3^

&

Mangel ( Produce. 9,G32 11,312 29,792 43,450 31,584
bulbs (Increase. ... 1,G80 20,100 33,824 21,9.52
Meadow ) Produce. 2,380 2,492 3,962 C,384 4,602
hay (Increase. ... 112 1,-582 4,004 2,282

AVe gather from these results that while a certain
amomit of increase of crop is obtained when super-
phosphate, which sujiplies to tho plant phosphoric
acid and lime, or wluui uitr.ate of soda, which fur-
nishes soda and idtrogen, it is not until the com-
plete fertiliser (minerals and nitrate soda), which
supplies phosphoric acid, potash, lime, soda and nit-
rogen combined, is given that a full crop is harvested.
This is further illustrated by the fact that farmyard
dung, which is supposed to furnish all the essential
elements of plant food — but the ett'ects of which are
spread over a considerable nundjer of years — rarely
yields so much produce as the minerals and nitrate
soda together, the latter being so nmch more easily
assimilated hy the gi-owing plants, The next question

436

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [Dec. i, 1885.

wliioh arises in connection with plant-roots is the
power they have in the selection of their food.
That they have some is apparent from the fact that
(litfereiit species of plants in the s?.me soil will ap-
propriate different quantities of chemical ingredients,
und.that some exhaust the soil more rapidly than others.

Fibrous roots have frequently enormous power of
penetratiou, which enables them to search for food at
groat dej>ths. This property sometimes becomes ?.
surious evil if the subsoil does not contain the parti-
cular ingredients required by the plant. In the orchard
many a fruit tree thrives so long as the roots are
superficial ; but when they penetrate deeper, nutriment,
either insufficient or of an improper character, is
absorbed, vitality is impaired, and various forms of
cankt;r and unproductiveness are the consequences.

One great end attained by pressing the ground of
light soils before or immediately after setting out
plants, or sowing seeds, is to encourage lateral root-
lets as much as possible, that they may avail them-
selves of the more abundant and more suitable food
constituents accumulated in the surface soil.

The third stage to be considered in the feeding of
plants and root development is, that many roots be-
come reservoirs of nutriment for future use. Roots
vary considerably in character : some penetrate deeply,
remaining fibrous and thread-like to the end ; some
throw out laterals, and luxuriate in the surface soil ;
some merely absorb the necessary dady food, while
others, as Asparagus, Turnips, Carrots, Parsnips, &c.,
devote certain of their parts or ramifications to the
especial office of storing up nutritive matters, often
in enormous quantity, and in great rapidity. All
underground plant ramifications which serve as store-
houses are, however, not to be included in the same
category. The bulb of the Onion, the Leek, the Tulip,
the Hyacinth, or the tuber of the Potato, &c., though
answering to the same end, are either furnished by
the base of the leaves, or are underground stems.
In certain biennial plants there is a strong disposition
to deposit stores of nutriment for the perfection of
seed in the ensuing year, wliile in the case of [teren-
nials and in some Orchids a special part is devoted
to this purpose. In fruit trees the deposit often takes
place in the bark and branches, hence the necessity
of rest, and the notorious fact that many trees will
bear a crop only in alternate years. Doubtless this,
which is the result of exhaustion to a very great
extent, might be obviated if proper feeding with
nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid were adopted. —
V. T. W. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

ACACIAS AND GUMS ON THE NILGIPlS.
Mr. (iambic, the Oonservutor of I'orests, Northern
Circle, recommends that the Forest Department
should revert to the propagation, especially for
revenue purposes, of the Acacki, J/e/onoxi/lu7i, which
was the subject of its earliest planting operations
on the Nilgiris. The tree is of umbrageous habit,
the outlinu mostly pj'ramidal, and it affords a dense
shade throughout the year not being deciduous in
character, while it takas a firm hold of the soil by
its numerous and widespreading roots. It was first
systematically planted on the Nilgii-is in 1S5G, when
a C'aptain Campbell was entrusted with the experi-
raeut of forming a plantation, at Jjleakhouse, Coouoor,
mainly for the supply of firewood for the military
at Wellington. In Ootacamund the Acacia Mc/ono.vi/hn
has been largely utilised as an ornamental tree.
Existing specimeuft in the station are mostly of the
growth of twenty or twenty-five years ago, the
propagation since having been practically nil. AV'here
the elevation is suitable, that is above 6,UU0 feet, it
thrives, though its growth is slow. As but a limited
luimljer of trees have arrived at xnatiu-ity, the
timber has not been practically and commercially
tested. In Australia it is highly valued for carriage
buihling and agricultural implements, being exceed-
ingly tough, but on the Nilgiris it i.s found to
possess few quahties prized by the cabinet-maker
and builder. It warps even aftor many mouths of

seasoning, is not easily worked, and is not as dinrable
as other timber accessible to the residents of the
hill stations. The slowness of growth is much against
the tree, and where it has been tried, in two
instances, as an avenue tree, it has proved a failure.
The worst featnre, however, is its liability to attacks
from a parasitical plant not unlike the mistletoe,
which spreads rapidly among the branches and cannot
be easily disengaged. ludeed the complete removal
of this parasite has had no beneficial effect in arresting
decay, as when it h^s once become established at
the crown the progress downwards and laterally is
merely a matter of time, the parasite appearing
over and over again ay often as removed. "Whether its
presence is due to unfavourable conditions of the
soil and situation is not yet determined, the tree
being equally affected in every site and soil in which
it has been planted.

With past experience so decidedly against the
Acacia Melono.vifloa it does not seem desirable to
attempt experiments, the success of which is problem-
atic, and which if again unfavourable will be a
serious loss of time to the Department. As a fuel
tree it is not prized as highly as the Acacia Dcal-
bata also an importation from Australia, and known
as the yellow-blossomed wattle. Ootacamuud was,
till recently, completely over-run with this wattle,
but owing to the persistent crusade waged against
it both by the Municipality and the house-owners
its progress has been held in check only a few full-
grown trees being left, though much remains still
to be done to e.^terminate it. The myraids of suckers
which spring from the extensive and encroachrag
rootlets come up with renewed vigor and amazing
rapidity as fast as they are cut down, and afford an
inexhaustable fuel reserve. In alluding to this variety
of the acacia, a late Conservator of Forests observed
that if Ootacamund were abondaned the whole station
would in an iucretlibly short j space of time become
an impenetryblo forest of Acacia Dcalbata. A few
attempts have been made to open new plantations
of this tree and of the Melonoxylon — but these are
the exceptions, and results are not encouraging for
timber or fuel, the gums being superior and univers-
ally* preferred. These were introduced to the hill
ranges by Sir >Villiam Denison, and have taken so
kindly to the soil and climate as to be looked upon
as the future timber and fuel tree of the district.

The Eucalj/ptus globuhtSj or blue gum is to be met
with everywhere. It thrives in the most exposed
situations, and the poorest soils. Under adverse
conditions, a growth per annum of from 3 to 4 feet
may bo ensured, but in forest soil, and a sheltered
situation, a growth of from 10 to 12 feet is not un-
common. At an elevation below 4,000 feet, the blue
tree has a struggling stunted growth, but above that
and up to 8,UU0 feet, no finer or more rapid growing
hard wood tree can be found. Private enterprise
has taken up the planting of blue gum for fuel with
an energy which in a few years wiU probably clothe
the hillsides with an endless succession of plantations
in every stage of growth. The ryot has also become
impressed with its value, and is growing it in every
available spot in and around his field. The CTOveru-
ment possesses 1,000 acres of plautatiou on the
Nilgiris, the greater part of which consists of gums,
namely, GUO acres in and arouud Ootacamund, and
400 acres in the neighbourhood of Coonoor and
Wellington. Considering how general the growth of
fuel has become, it would seem as if no further
attention need be devoted by the State to this subject.
At the present time private vendors are underselling
the Government. For instance at the Ootacamund
fuel depot 1,000 lb. of blue guin wood is charged
Rs. 3, and the purchaser has to provide his own
cart to remove it. Contractors are offering the same
quantity and quality at the same price, aud will
deHver it free within a reasonable distance of the
source of supply. No serious inconvenience will arise
therefore if Government should close its depot, and
leave the town entirely to private enterprise, in the
matter of fuel.

Dec. I, 1885,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

437

AVitU regard to timber the case is differeat.
Capitalists cauuot art'ord to wait while trees are
maturiug their wood. Goverumeut uot ouly can
att'ord to do this but cau grow its forests for more
important cosmic purposes, for the amelioration of
unfavorable climatic iuUucuces or the preservation of
favorable ones, for the regulation and distribution
of the rainfall, if such cau be considered to be the
result of forest growth, and the maintenance of
springs and streams. As a timber tree the several
varieties of Australian gums are unsurpassed. The
Jarrah, for instance, when mature, yields a timber
that is che.iper than teakj is ornamoutal in a high
degree being close, fine grained and mottled ; is
capable of takmg a high polish ; and is of great j
strength, hardness and durability. It is proof against j
insects, and especially the destructive white ant. It
defies time and decay. The white and red gum
are not much inferior to the Jarr.ih in the above
(lualities, they are close grained aud hard, will stand
great heat, aud are proof against insect destroyers.
tiovernment planting operations are too restricted
iu the choice of forest trees on the >i'ilgiris. The
oak and the chesuut grow well, and so do the family
of Ficuscs and the Walnut. The lluualayau Ceiar
grows up to 9,000 feet elevation, and thrives with a
temperature ranging iu the cold weather from 35° to
50\ aud in summer from (m^ to 70^. Hainfall anil soil
are equally suitable for its growth on the Nilgiris.
With a wide range of valuable timber trees to select
from the Forest Department has coufiued itself al-
most exclusively to the acacias and gums, excellent
trees in their way -but failing in one important
respect to compass the ends of Forest Conservancy.
Both tlie acacias and gums act most prejudicially
upon the soil and water-supply. They impoverish the
former, and absorb aud dissipate the latter. Neither
shrub nor weed will thrive under their shade, nor
have we any record that they favorably influence their
immediate vicinity iu the interests of the agricul-
turalists.— JLitdras Jlail.

[The tone of the above article in the Madras
Mail differs from tliat of the official reports, but
we fear there is a good deal of truth in what is
said of the Australian trees. The gums grow rapidly,
but, except as firewood for the preparation of tea, we
do uot know that the timber will be of much value.
Have sleepers of Ceylon-grown blue gum yet been
tried, and, if so, with what results Oaks auo chest-
nuts are certainly not suitable for the hiUcountry of
Ceylon, although the oak will grow slowly. By the
Himalayan cedar we .suppose the deodar is meant,
ami we doubt its suitability for Ceylon. AVe are
much more favourably impressed with the so-called
red cedar {Cedrcia Toona). Of the Australian trees
grown on Ceylon estates (r/'t'rtV/ea YobtaUt seems the
most promising, — Ed.]

FOREST DEP.VRTMF.XT (STR.YITS
SETTLEMENTS).

In July 1833 Mr. Cantley, Superintendent of the
Uotauical Gardens, Singapore, published a Jleport on
the Forests of the Straits Settlements, aud the
result we are glad to notice has been the formation
of a small Forest Department, with Mr. Cantley as
S\iperiutendfnt, assisted by four Europeans, under
whom are some subordinate officers, together with a
number of forest watchmen.

The report is largely filled with accounts of the
topography, geology and mCiteorology of the country,
ami the description of the forests shows how greatly
they need protection. In the introduction he says
that—

" It is apparent that no sofficient attempts have
been made to conserve the Government forest lands,
and that nothing has been done towards ntilisting
the extensive grass wastes that are to be seen
throughout the Settlements. The present state of
affairs is the result of a reckless, migratory cultiv-
ation carried on by the Chinese, and this extensive
deforestation has brought with it its attendent evils.

Our timber supply has fallen tar short of the demand,
and the cliniAte of the colony is becoming sensibly
affected."

The Straits Settlements are formed of four separate
districts —

1. The Island of Singapore, containing Sill square miles

2. Malacca, „ HhQ „

3. The Island of Penang, „ 107 „
•1. I'roviuco AYellesley, „ 265 „

Total area ... 1,257 „

The Government forests occupy about 131 square
miles, or nearly ijjth of the whole area, the largest
forests beiu;? founti on the mainland in Malacca and
I'rovince AVellesley. In addition to this there are
about 33 square miles of private forests, whilst the
waste lands are extensive in Singapore, occupying
about 10.000 acres in Mabvcca, but are scarcely of
any importance in Penang or AVollesley.

The forests belong to that class kuown as evergreen
tropical forests, which chiefly lie within the tropics
and in countries subject to heavy annual rainfall,
aud a high state of atmospheric moisture. Many of
the trees are nevertheless tieciduous for a very
limited period, which in most cases extends over a
few days only. The me.an annual temperature is
above 80^ ; the hi ghest scarcely above 90'^ ; the lowest
not mucli less than GO". The humidity of the
atmosphere is generally very great, and in Singapore,
counting saturation at 100, the annual average is
794, aud is never below 78. The annual rainfall is
about 100 inches, and roughly speaking there is rain
every other day throughout the year. Mr. Oautlej'
however, says that, although — ■

"The total raiufall of the j'ear has not decreased,
owing to the removal of the tree covering — that great
equaliser of raiufall — .showers have become less
frequent and more local thau formerly ; and droughts
of unprecedented length have occurred, thereby in-
creasing the possibility of epidemics. These fertilising
showers, which once watered the whfile surface of
the Settlements, are now confined more frotjueutly
to the hill tops and higher elevations, the soil and
the prospects of .agriculture being thus impaired, and
the temperature of tlui plains being raised. The hill
streams run with greater irregularity, and many of
the smaller streams have become entirely dried up."
In Singapore we find that —

"Such Crown forests .as remain uncut are widely
distributed in isolateil patches oviir the island. These
forest patches or clumps are of various sizes, from
half an acre or so to about 25 acres, their distance
from each other averaging about half a mile. The
interspace is generally waste grass land, which supports
as a rule only strong growing gras.s, which chokes
any seedlings of forest trees which might otherwise
spring up."

As an iustauce of tho state of the forests in
Malacca, wo quoti! tho description of the stale of
the .Ins reserve of 25,000 acres, and of the ICesang
reserve of 2,000 acres.

" The amount of well-wooded land does not exceed,
I believe, one-third of the total area. AVithin the
reserve boundary there are a large number of squatters,
whose houses are thickly dotted over the comparatively
denuded portions. They are allowed to cultivate
paddy iu the swampy land of the reserve, nnd to
p'ant fruit trees on more elevated portions, privileges
ofl which they seem to have extensively availed them-
selves. Tho greater portion of the Kesang reserve
has been under tapioca cultivation, with the exception
of a narrow belt along tho outside, which sct.-ius to
have been left as a screen. There is therefore but
little timber of value left in this reserve, and as the
denuded portion contains only stray plants of tapioca,
it will have to be re-stocked artifically by planting."
In Pcmang the forests generally occur iu isolated
patches as in Singapore, whilst in Wellesley good
forest remains in the southern districts. Tho most
valuable forest products appear to be the Serayah
wood, or Singapore cedar, a species of Shorea, Gaharu
resin yielded by two distinct species of trees, viz.,

43S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. i, 18S5.

AquiUaria malacceiisis and A. Agallocha, and JIalacca
cane.

In the appendices to the report will be found
nseful lists of indigenous trees, shrubs, creepers and
parasites, including a list of those growing spontaneously
on waste lands, also lists of exotic trees recommended
for introduction, and of trees reconiuiendetl for road-
side planting. Amongst the indigenous trees are
several Indian and Burmese species, such as Pterocarpti^
indii'iis, Tfinniihdia Cittapptu Miinnsops indica, Ahtonla
sckolarh^ Uhizopkora muci'nnitd, and Heritiehi littorali^.
It is estimated that Singapore requires aunuilly
810, OOi) cubic feet of timber, of which nijre than
half is used by I'epper cultivators, and 101,000 tons
of firewood, of which half is consumed by Gambler
planters and coasting steamers. For the other
Settlements no estimate is given, but the consumption
is known to be considerable in Penang and \yellesley.
The measures recommended for the better manage-
ment of the forests are thus summarised —

{«). Treveutiug the felling of forests and the

clearing of forest lands.
(i). The redemption by exchange, or otherwise, of
such land as is selected for planting with
forest trees,
(c). The survey and demarcation of such Orovn
forest lands as are still undetermined, and
the preparation of good and reliable maps
showing the forests and the topographical
features of the various lands throughout
the Settlements. This is a desideratiou that
should be looked upon as a first duty of
the Survey Department.
((}). The formation of local foi'est leserves for the
supply of wood for general purpo.ses ; and
mountain ami river reserves for protection
where necessary.
{('). The establishment of a Forest Department to
take charge of all Grown forests whether
proclaimed as reserves or otherwise.
(/). The marking of certain blocks of forest near
the chief towns of each SettlcMnent of a
sufficiiuit size to serve as reserves for the
supply of fuel and small building wood!
f('V The a])pointmeut of a boily of Forest I*olice
for protective purposes, to be quartered in
the country districts throughout the iSettle-
nients.
(A). The immediate collection of seeds of the best
indigemous timber trees, jind the formation
of nurseries for the prop.agation of such
seeds.
(/). The introduction of an ordinance for the

better conservation of the Crown lands.
From the first Annual lleport of the new Forest
Department, we are glad to find that sti'ps have
already been taken to give practical effect to a large
number of the measures advocated, so that the
recommenilations (a), (!)), (ti), (e), (/) and {ij) have
already been either entirely or partially carried out,
as will be seen from the statement, made at the
beginning of this review concerning the organisation
of the Dop.artnient, and from the following brief
Rummary by Mr. Oantley of the work taken in hand
during the past yeiir: —

"I would point out that the forest re.serves dealt
with to a more or less extent are 15 in number;
that do miles of boundary line have been opened,
at an average cost of <^% per mile, inchnling the
planting up of 1- miles with fast-growing trees; that
the area of land laid out in nurseries is over 20
acr(«; and that some H90,000 plants have been pro-
pagated in these nurseries, at an average cost of SI
pi.T 100.

"Seventy acres of waste land were planted with
about 118,000 plaats. at an average cost of SI- per
acre, or per 2,000 plants. The stock in the nurseries
at the clos \ of the year ninnburcil about 200,000
l)lants. It will be noticed that the area of waste
land planted with trees is comparatively sm.xll, but
wliat was of most importance, viz., the demarcatiou
of reserves, to prevent further encroacUment, had to

be first undertaken. Over 1,160 It), of seeds have
been got together from various quarters and utilized
for the benefit of the reserves. The buildings erected
niclude quarters for the overseers, .stations for the
forest watchmen, coolies' houses and plant sheds-
iu all 27 in number,"

To conclude, we wish every success in the future to
the Forest Department of the Straits Settlements.—
Indian Forester.

Fruit Preservino in Frji.— In addition to their
extensive hanan a trade, Messrs. Armstrong and
Go. of Suva, have started a fruit preserving com-
pany. The last boat from Sydney brought a first-
class man for packing tlie preserves ready for ship-
ment, also a large quantity of preserving jars, tins,
etc., together with the most brilliant labels yet
seen in Suva. The preserving industry of Fiji will
yet assume very large proportions on the export
list.— i''yi Times.

KosEs AND OuEMicAL M'OBKS.— A correspondent
writes:— "I send you a parcel of Rose ' foliage ' (what
a mockery !) which is a sample of what the chemical
works about a mile away has done for me. Of course
they are not all as bad as this, because some sorts
are able to resist it better than others, and while
such sorts as Marie Baumann, Alfred Colomb, and
Marie Rady are almost destroyed by it. Baroness
Kothsehild and M. de Oastellane are not a very great
deal the worse, although, of course, they all feel it
more or less. It begins by a sort of purple discolor-
ation on the young foliage, which afterwards turns
brown or black, and in some cases the leaves are
burnt through. Some of my neighbours won't admit
that it is due to chemicals, but I have no doubt on
the .subject. M'hat do you think 'f It is a great dis-
appointmcMit to nie, as I used to get such pleasure out
of them, and now out of 400 plants I have not got
one that I could call really healthy, as besides ruin-
ing the^ foliage it takes all the colour out of the
blooms." ^\■e share our correspondent's opinion, as the
appear.ances on the leaves are quite consistent with
his statements, and, so far as we know, there is no

other cause that would produce such an effect.

Gariieneri' Chronicle.

AnrojrATic InaiOATiON. — In very dry seasons there
is a great demand for water in most gardens, and
any ai>paratus which eflfects tb saving of the gardener's
time must of necessity prove invaluable. Messrs.
Merryweather, of Long Acre, have devised various
systems for automatically distributing water. They de-
vised a system of non-corrosive metallic tubes in short
lengths mounted upon easy running carriages and con-
nected with flexible joints. The metal pipes being per-
forated throughout their entire length, the water will
run through a length of CO or 00 feet, dispersing it-
self on the land through the whole course of the
pipes by means of the perforations. It is very easy to
move the apparatus from place to place at intervals.
Another system consists in similar movable pipes with-
out the perforations, at the extreme end of which a
distributing nozzle is attached. This nozzle is capable
of throwing the stream ' iu either a jet or a spray
at the will of the operator, who can of course walk
about freely dragging the tubes after him. A third
apparatus is both ornamental and u.seful, as it consists
in a portable revolving fountain upon a itand to which
hose m.ay be connected. Garden hose or lead or iron
pipe so small as k mch diameter can be coimeeted
to the inlet-coupling, anil the water supply taken
from a source 8 feet or more above the fountain.
The sprinklers rapidly rotate by the action of the
issuing water, scattering a fine shower over a wide
area. The. adaptation of this latter appears to be a hajjpy
idea, as it is arranged inverted to screw U|> to the
ceiling of fernery or conservatory, and thus scatter
the water downwards and sideways. — Gtintcners' Chron-
ic U.

Dec. I, 1S85.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

439

CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTIKfr EEPOBT.

TEA MACHINEUV — WTIATHER : COPFEE A.ND CACAO —
UIVEKSITY or OPINION.

9th November lS8y.

Those who hare tea machinery for sale arc feel-
ing the effects of the improved times, and are book-
ing large orders for erection next year.

The weather still continues very favourable for all
planting operations. It is i-ipening up the coffee
also, which as far as I have seen still continues to
be a tine sample. But with little of it. and fulling
prices, the poor old thing is considerably neglected.
Cacao is looking woU, where its surroundings are
favourable, and the plumpness of the bean now
being harvested will surely cheer the hearts of the
bonbon uianufactvfrers, and give tine prices to the
grower.

1 hear that there is considerable diversity of
opinion rrgai'ding the quality of the sample which
was cured in Jackson's tea drier. Some have praised
it highly, atlirmiug In addition that the bitter llavour^
which is sometimes prascnt was completely done
away with, leaving the nib sweet and nutty ;
others again don't esteem it as at all equal to
that which has been naturally dried. These opjios-
ite estimates are from men who know what they
are talking about, and who have considerable ex-
perience in cacao curing. What it is to be an
authority! The other day I heard a discussion on
the merits of tea seed jjlanted at stake, germinated
and ungerminated, and the man who had i)ut it in
ungcmiinated seemed to have succeeded quite as
well as if not better than the other. If the weather
turns out dry after planting, the ungerminated seed
does the better of the two ; while showery weather,
which suits the germinated, is also favourable for
the other kind.

PEPrEKCOEN.

CEYLON AS A FIELD FOR COLONISTS

BY A 1'LANTER's WIFE — 1.

A good deal has been written lately about colon-
ising in New Zealand and Australia with regard
to "What shall I do with my sons ?" Perhaps it
may not be altogether out of place to say some-
thing about colonising in Ceylon. The island is
such a short distance from India, that Anglo-Ind-
ians are inclined to overlook it as a Held for
colonising, for, amongst all the i^lauters I have
met, I cannot remember having come across one
retired Indian otlicer. Y'et they abound in New
Zealand and Australia, and they are roughing it
there to a far gieatcr extent than they would have
to do in Ceylon. Of course I shall be told that
Ceylon is played out, and that there is no further
field for either adventurers or investors. This may
be true with regard to adventurers but it is not so
with capitahsts who have money to invest ; and
the Indian officers who go to Australia and New
Zealand generally go as small capitalists. I should
like, therefore, to describe my own and my hus-
band's experiences in Ceylon as agriculturists.

My husband went out to the colony in 1869,
with no more money than would keep him whilst
he learnt the language (Tamil) and a little knowledge
of coffee planting. Coffee was than beginning to pay
in that wonderful way which so completely turned
men's heads, and George had no difficulty in getting
a berth. As soon as he had gained a httle practical
knowledge, he obtained work on better pay. The
planters, with their luimpcr crops, were a liberal
set of men, and they were rejoicing in prospective
fortmies too nmch to be stingj' with their rupees.
C'corge was equally led away by the furore, and

j was as full of faith in the resources ot the island
I as the rest. Coffee, they said, would grow any-
I where, down in the valleys, upon the steep hill
sides, even on the carl-road if you could only plant
it there. The successful planters built spacious
stone bu''ngs tor store and pulping houses; uu-
ported expetive machinery; la'd out new roads,
■liich area credit to 'the island to this day, and
j biult bridges, churches, and handsome bungalows
i in the certainty that their El Dorado was found.
On the strength of a rciliunerativo berth, George sent
for me in fuKilment of our eng»gement. He told mo
to bring out my saddle and piano, and all the
> pretty things I could gatlier together for my house,
as I should have a good deal ot entertaining to
do. Full of hope, and congi-atulated by all my
I friends, I left ray English home under the impres-
j sion that I should return in a tew years with a tor-
tune. George met me at. Colombo, and supported
I by a bevy of his Ceylon friends, we woro married.
I The journey up country was delightful. The line
to Kaudy is a never ending joy witii all its trop-
ical beauties, and to this day it has a charm for me
each time I pass along the wcU-romenibered route.
My new home was on the other side ot Kandy,
high up among the hills. It was a pretty little
bungalow, built of wood off the estate, and the
necessary furniture, such as chairs, beds, sideboard,
tables, &c., was provided by the owner of the estate.
I had plenty to do in putting up curtains, and spread-
ing out all my wedding gifts and pretty orna-
ments. The housekeeping seemed a formidable
aft'air at first sight, but, under my husband's
guidance, I soon mastered the intricacies, and took
a delight in teaching the cook new dishes. He was a
Tamil and very apt at learning. My other servants
were West Coast boys — as they called themselves —
from Travancore. Servants in Ceylon, who
are not Singhalese, always speak of their
native country as their " coast," and ask per-
mission to take a holiday so that they may go to
their " coast " to see their relations. The com-
paratively easy and idle lite I led was a revelation
to me. I had quite prepared myself for hard
colonial labour, such as I had heard ladies in
New Zealand and Australia undertook, and I was
agreeably serprised to find that I was not obliged
to cook, or make beds, or clean rooms, or fetch
water. In fact the lite was more luxurious than the
one I had left in England. I had time for gard-
ening, sewing, reading, writing, or music. I rode
out to see my neighbours, and entertained them
when they could find time to come and see me.
I walked out with my husband on the estate, and
found amusement in seeing him teach the coohcs
their work. How often I have seen jjruning taught.
George would take the knife from the coolie, and
cut a few branches himself. Then we would stand
and watch the man till he seemed to have got
into the knack of it. But the moment our backs
were turned the conservative Tamil would go
back to his original mode, and slice and chop away
at his own sweet will.

Wc were very happy and free from care in thoso
days, though we were not altogether without our small
troubles. What happened to disturb our peace of mind
was something which, I fancy, is a common experi-
ence to many young couples. AVc did not gauge our
income. When young people first begin' house-
keeping they are sometimes hardly intimate enough
to go minutely into defails concerning the expend-
iture. The bride shrinks from questioning her
husband about how he has been accustomed to spend
his income ; and the Inidegrroom likes to give his
wife curie blum-lic, and throw the whole matter into
h«,r handa with a confideuce which is meant as a

44«

THE TROPICAL AGRICUtTURlST. [Dec, i, 1885.

compliment. The consequence of tliis iiroceduro is
that young i^eople cxccetl their income quite un-
intentionally, and before they know what they are
abouL, they find bills coming in wliich they hardly
know how to meet. This is exactly wliat liappened
with us. Our extravagances — I call them extra-
vagances inasmuch as' they were beyond our income —
were incurred in this innocent and somewhat foolish
manner. One day the dinner was not as good as
usual ; there was a sameness about it which did not
make it appetising. I had bee"h so interested in my
new garden and its extensions, that I had left the cook
to his own devices. George, wlio seldom grumbled,
made a remark to the effect that the cook was falling
off in his cooking. " It is the everlasting beef which
is so difticult to manage," I exclaimed. "If we
could only get fish occasionally, or if my fowl yard
would grow a little quicker I could make a change
in the food." My husband replied, "You can get
fish from Colombo once a week if you like. It
will come up to Kandy in ice by rail, and I can
send a coolie for it, who will bring it in the same
day." And so the tish was ordered, and we rejoiced
in the change of food, as well as our friends, who
often dropped in to the eleven o'clock breakfast.
But when the bill was sent in, and we came to
that understanding of our expenses which must
inevitably be faced by all young married couples,
we found that our income would not meet it. The
same thing happened with regard to my pony — an
addition to the establishment on my arrival. He,
like the fish, was one straw too many. I at once
advocated retrenchment, but my husband said "No,
there was no need." He was to have a percent-
age on the coffee crop when the profit exceeded a
certain amount and he was sure that that percentage
would come, as there was every promise in the
blossom of a bumper crop. He suggested that we
should pay part of the fish bill, and continue
having the supply of fish ; and he vowed that the
pony should on no account be sold. But this
dependence on the future did not suit me. After
much discussion, it ended by a discontinuance of
luxuries we could not afford. We cancelled the
standing order for the iish, and sold one of the
ponies.

It was now for the first time that I heard of
the Chetties, and their use, They are native merch-
ants and bankers — generally of Indian origin —
who supply rice for the coolies, and other merchandise
needed for the house, or the estate ; they cash cheques,
discount bills, and advance money. As their rates of
interest are similar to those of the sowcars of India,
it is needless to say that the planter is wise
who keeps out of their clutches. When I
asked how our neighbours, the Browns, man-
aged to live as they did, with no greater income than
our own, I was told that Brown " wrote orders on
his chetty" : that is to say, he asked the chetty
to advance the money for the bill. This the chetty
did at a higli rate of interest ; and the Browns
were steadily accumulating a debt in this way which
they hoped the coffee of the future would pay off.
All around me I saw extravagance and expenditure
carried on upon the strength of future wealth. I
had been brought up in the good old school that
taught that there should be no expenditure till the
money to meet it was in hand. But now I was
in a new element, and my neighbours were ex-
isting on golden dreams which had yet to be re-
realized. The substantial stonestore, sheds and
pul))ing-liouses, and the expensive machinery — the
pride and glory of the planter — were raised partly
on borrowed money. The i^lanters were so certain
that their crops would pay off these debts in a
eboct time, that tbey did uot hesitate about plung-

ing. They accepted money at the hands of agents
and chetties at high rate of interest, and they reck-
lessly burdened their estates with such millstones
as eventually dragged them to utter ruin. I
trace a good many of my friends' misfortunes to
this fatal spirit of extravagance, quite as much as
to bad seasons, and poor crops. In all mercantile
operations it is necessary to allow a margin for
reverses. The merchant or speculator who lives up
to his income, or exceeds it in the expectation
of an increase in the future, paves the way to
ruin. The cofl'ee planters of Ceylon- came of a
class that knew nothing of mercantile transactions,
and they very easily fell into errors. They were
the sons of country gentlemen, doctors, lawyers
and clergymen, and had been bjMught up to see
their fathers living on incomes which never fluctuated,
and might therefore be spent with impunity. Not
to spend what honestly came to hand was almost
a crime in their eyes. They felt as if they were
Hot acting up to their moral standard if they did
not dispense their money as freely and generously
as they received it. I have more than once heard
a man spoken of disparagingly because he showed
himself careful over his rupees, and declined to
live up to his income. He was called a " rupee
gatherer," and was avoided as unwholesome com-
pany. When the heavy reverses did come the
despised rupee-gatherer was the only one who
weathered the storm.

In my next paper I shall have to toll how we in-
■vested in an estate, and with what success. — Madras
Mail.

li ,

16

12 „

14

10 ,

, 12

i ,

8

J

VANiLLA.^The weather has been very unpro-
pitious to the preparation and we cannot expect
any Vanilla of good and sound quality before next
month. Owing to the high rate of exchange on
Paris and London, there has been a fair demand
for tliis staple in the shape of remittances. A lot
of about 1.50 kilos (fine quality) was sold at R16
per kilo. We understand that the total outturn
of this crop will uot be e(juivalent in quantity to
that of last year. The following quotations are
nominal.

per Idlo.^ §.

Crystalised 1st quality . . E16 to B18 I S

2nd „ "

Good to middling

Inferior (reddish)

Vanilloes

— MuKritiux Gazette.

AsBusTos. — It may interest some of our readers
to learn that an asbestos mine exists on the spur
of a hill about two miles from tiundagai. New
South Wales, in which the lode has been driven
upon for a distance of !)0 feet, and a shaft 100
feet has been also sunk. The mineral occurs in •
a serpentine formation similar to ijuartz veins, and
is mined in the same manner. On the same pi-o-
perty another class of asbestos has been discovered
and worked in connection with gold. Tiie lode
is peculiar in character, and with one or two minor
exceptions is almost identical with the fanious
Lucknow lode, which has proved so rich in gold.
In some instances veins of calcspar make their
api)earance in the lode, bringing gold with them
every time. Arsenical and iron pyrites are abundant
and so far as the lode has been worked it has
proved payable by crushing tests, without one failure.
— liitliurulihcr Trades Journal.

"ROUGH ON CORNS."
Ask for AVtlls' •'Kougb on Oonis." Quick relief,
complete, permanent cure. Corns, warta, buoionSi
W. E. Smith & Oo., Madras, Sole Agents.

Dec. I, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

44f

PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA.

{Tnaishih-d/oiilu- "titiaiu Tiiiiex.")

A horticultural journal appearing in Holland as-
serts that at Tottenham, in England, a very rare
plant the Priiiiiihi Impi-rialh has been induced to
tiower. This bit of information, liowever seemingly
uninterestins to many, will bo found of interest
when it is borne in mind that this kind of plant,
so far as known, is found ouly on the top of the
Pangerahgou, a mountain ten thousand feet high
within the Preanger Regencies in Java. Hitherto
endeavours had been made to grow it within hot-
houses in Europe but always with little or no
success. Thirty .>tars ago, unless we are mis-
informed it Howered in Holland too, but afterwards it
was no more seen in hothouses. In the Himalaya, a
I'limiiUi is met with resembUng so greatly the above-
mentioned variety as to be almost identical.

Messrs. De Lange, Van Den Berg, Suermondt,
and Van Delden, four of the principal and oldest
European Residents of Batavia, thoroughly experi-
enced in commercial and plantation matters, have
petitioned the King of the Netherlands for the
appointment of a commission made up partly
of oUicials and partly of private individuals with
a high official at their head to imjuire into the
state of plantation enterprise throughout Nether-
lands India.

By last advices the coffee leaf disease has shown
itseff at Bonthain and Macassar, and has even
made its appearance at Menado. As contagion is
inadmissible, from these places being so widely
apart, the disease must have arisen from local
causes. On one estate in Java where diseased
cotiee leaves had been systematically plucked off
and burned, the disease has been so effectually
checked that the trees looked healthy and bore fruit
which fully ripened.

The Java < viirnnt has just published returns of
the vicUl of produce in private estates throughout
Java" and Madura in 1883 and 1884 the figures
showing : —

piouls

Coffee
Sugar

1884.
. . 250,(143
.G,4',)3,248

1883.
.. 338,143
. 5,348,867

Tea..

.5,335,3!IIJ

. 4,911,888

Cinchona

. Cti7,fty6

. 379,728

) Amsterdam
\ pounds.

Mr. Juta, a retired naval officer and now busi-
ness manager in Surinam, affirms in a Java idaut-
ing journal that the Death and Ellwood machine
which, during the competition held in November
1881 at Calcutta gained a prize valued at 21,000
guilders as the best working libre separating mach-
ine, answers satisfactorily not only for rameh but
also for jute, hemp, aloe, pineapple leaf and New
Zealand Hax. By means of this machine, with-
in the tropics, during fairly dry weather,
rameh may be cut in the morning, passed through
the machine, pressed into bales, and forwarded
before sunset. The General Fibre Company at
London now. buys u\> rameh at about 420 guilders
per ton which yields it a handsome profit. Accord-
ing to him rameh growing will assuredly en-
sure enterprising persons an abundant source of
income.

Another con'espondent of the same periodical ad-
vises planters in Java now that coffee is borae ;
down by leaf disease, low prices, and enhanced j
land assessment to take to cinnamon giowing. It I
seems, so he says, that cinnamon growing well as I
it does up to height of 1.500 feet above sea level .
requiies less care and less e.tpense at the start than
coffee besides having the advantage of commg into
60

I bearing within live years. The bark, branches, and
I leaves of tlie cinnamon tree all may be turned to
I profit in some way, even oil and tallow being
[ among its products. He estimates tliat a cinnamon
tree in bearing yields yearly a net gain of 1,000
guilders per boiiw.

I ♦

I HEMILEIA VASTATRIX IN SOUTH jVFRICA,

1 The destructive coffee leaf fungus has now reached

i Africa, tiie very home of (he coffee plant, and as

there is frequent communication between tlie South

African British colonies and Brazil, all the chances

! seem to be that the disease will soon reach the

I latter country. We may well ask if coffee is

doomed. We quote from the report of the Durban

Botanic Society, which has been sent to us : —

Ilcmikia Vaxtutii.v.— On 24tli 5Iay, lHt(4, I re-
ceived from Lower TJniziaikuhi tluco leaves taken
from a Coffee Tree affected with "Leaf Disease."
After a close microscopical investigation of these
leaves. I became conviuced that the fungus upon tbenj
was undoubtedly the destructive ll,mil,ia Wixtalri.r ;
but, for furtlier certainty, I immediately forwarded a
portion of the leaves to Professor Macowen, Director
of the Botanic Gardens, Capetown, a gentleman who
has made this class of plants a special study. Ashe,
however, did not feel quite satisfied, he forwarded
the specimens to the Ihrector of Kew Gardens, with
a request for a telegraphic reply. On the 3Uth of
Juno I received copy of telegram from Kew, confirm-
ing the decision at whicli 1 had arrived as to the
identity of the fungus. In the meantime, in couipany
with A. H. Bisset, Esq., recently engaged in coffee
cultivation on a large scale ui Ceylon, where the
Hemileia had been so destructive, bad an interview
with the Colonial Secretary on the matter, as a re-
sult of which. Government agreed to reimmerate the
owner of the piece of Coffee for as much of his crop
as it might be found necessary to destroy. In doing
so, every precaution was taken to prevent the snores
from being carried to adjoining estates, and up
to the present time I have not heard of the disease
having appeared in that locality, and the owner of
the infected estate, in answer to my enquiry, says : —
"The Coffee in tliis District is all looking remarkably
w'ell, and there is the promise of good crops. "

I am glad, therefore, to report that the prompt
action of Govenmient in this matter appears to have
Ijeen attended with complete success so far as the
District of Lower Umzimkulu is conoerlied.

On August 14th, 1884, I received from Mr. Behrens
General Manager of the Natal Land and Coloniz-
ation Company, Limited, specimens of diseased
leaves from Coffee, Trees on that Comijany's estate
at Reit Valley, whicli microscopical examination
showed to be literally covered with the fungus
lleiiiilria ]'usfut,i.i- in full fructilication. It should
he stated that the Ileit Valley estate is at least
100 miles in a direct line from' where the fungus
was first noticed, nor can 1 learn that there had
been any direct conimuiiicatiou between the two
estates. On Kith June, I bad written to the Manager
of I!eit Valley, calling his attciitiuii to tlio a])pear-
aiice of the disease at Uuizimkuhi, and asking him
to keep a good look-out, so that the matter might
be dealt with on its first appearance. On the ISHh
June, ho replied "up to this date 1 have not seen it
hero." I now learn that nearly the whole estate of
Reit Valley is infected and that the trees will have
to be destroyed.

At the suggestion of the Assistant Director of Kew,
I issued a i:iruiilar recommending a trial of Morris'
Sulphur and Lime process on any estate where the
fungus may again appear. Coffee estates in Natal
arc now so few and so far apart tliat there is hope
that by vigilance the Colony m.ay be; cleared of the
pest, if planters will only assist by keeping a good
watch on their plantations and destroying all aband-
oned or useless trees.

During the past year, IHKI, two ether pests have
appeared in the Colony, each of which will require
careful watching to prevent serious losses; —

444

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [Dec. i, 1885,

Ciiwiita sp, (most likely C. trifoUi, Bab.). This plant
appeared in two fields of lucerne, near Durban, and
specimens were sent to me for identification. Notice
was sent to the local papers urging that every effort
should be made to exterminate the plant, and recom-
mouding that all lucerne seed should be carefully sifted
before sowiug. I learn that in Mauritius a plant of
this genus threaten.^ to do cousideralile damage, and I
therefore hope that farmers and planters will keep
a good look-out, and destroy all plants of this nature
wherever they may he found iu their crops. It may
be as well to mention that we have two, or p,;rhaps
more, indigenous Cn.-.cata.i, one of which bears a close
resemblance to C. Iri/olii ; but I have not yet heard
that this plant has been found in cultivated crops.

The other pest referred to is an FrtUaiio (U deslmens
Duby). This parasite has attacked the native grass
(Cliloii.i i-oinjii-raxn). usually planted for lawns, and I
have been informed that in some places, the grass
lias lieeu killed by it. It has made its appearance in
the Gardens, but lias yet not to any serious extent ; it
is being carefully watched, and should it increase or
threaten to damage the lawns, an attempt will be made
to destroy it, and the results duly made known.

f'i'ilreln (hloiiitn. — A tree iu the Gardens which I
found without name attached, flowered near the close
of 188*2, and examination sliowed it to be this plant,
but for further certainty I forward specimens to Ivew.
The Assistant Director, in reply, says, "This is the
West Indian Cedar, the wood of which is so much
iu request for the manufacture of cigar boxes." Tliis
is a handsome tree, and appears, so far as I can
judge, not to be a favourite with white ants, and its
gi-owth seems to be almost as rapid as that of most
Eucalypti, We have been successful in rearing plants
both from seed grown in the Gardens, and also from
seed sent to us from Kew, and the plants have been
distributed to different parts of the Colony, with the
view of testing the suitability of different soils and
districts to the growth of the tree. We have a large
number of distribution now on hand.

Perinit me to add to my report that I think that
a number of Railway Sleepers should be tried by our
Govermuent from Gvm Trees grown in the Colony.
The trees should be identified before being felled, or
in consequence of the confusion in the popular names
of the Eucalypti no reliable result can be expected.
I am convinced that all the replacement sleepers re-
quired for all our lines of railway can be grown by
ourselves in the Colony to the Colony's profit and
advantage ; and to this end I offer to co-operate fully
with the Committee of the Society.

The attempt to form a Jioiteetr, on the slope beyond
the conservatory, resulted iu complete failure. Sixty
Kose plants were set out in sjiring of 1883, but before
the winter (1884) was over, all, except two or three
of the commonest kinds, had been destroyed by white
ants, in spite of all our endeavours to preserve them.
Tlie piece of ground laid out for the Roses has been
filled with other plants. We are now attempting to
grow a few Roses in tubs : each tub" stands upon a
square block of concrete, in which four glass bottles
are ciiibcddcd, bottom upwards, upon which the tub
stands. So far, this method has been successful ;
we have not found that the ants in any one case
have reached tlie tubs. We have therefore placed
the large pots containing our Tree lierns on similar
blocks, and believe they will be safe from the ants
in future. The concrete blocks are made at the
Gardens at a very moderate cost, and with ordinary
care are almost indestructible. The unsightly steps
in the main avenue, which had been formed of tree
trunlis, have been reidaced by concrete blocks, also
made by cnir own people. The improvomcut is well
worth tlie small expense incurred. Tlie Ciuisirrahini
and Fetiieni have been well attended to, and tlio
display of plants from these Gardens at the Horti-
cultural Society's show, November, 1881, suHicieutly
marked improvements iu this direction, and Iiorc
W'it;iess to the skill and care of the Head Gardener.
The Fenterii is already too small to contain our col-
lection, increased from less than '20 species, which
were in cultivation 3 years ago, to about 1(10 species,
nil of which are growing vigorously. I intend adding

to this number whenever opportunity occurs. It will
therefore be necessary either to enlarge the present
temporary building or to erect another of a somewhat
similar character, audi hope to be able before the
close of the wmter, 1885, to make some addition of
this kind.

A PROSPERING CEYLON PLANTATION
COMPANY.

It is with no ordinary satisfaction that we reprint
the past year's Report- of the "Scottish Trust and
Loan Company of Ceylon, Limited," wbicli was
laid before a meeting of the shareholders in Edin-
burgh on the 28th ult. It tells its own story in
a very suociuet business-like waf, and that story
is of steadily reviving prosperity in the planting
industry of Ceylon. The Company may well be
congratulated on the result of the past year's
operations and on their prospects. The estates
which they have been obliged to take over, and
which stand in their books at the sum of .t;i2,771,
have earned for them during the year the sum of
£5,915, or considerably more than 10 per cent, and
if the Company only continue to do justice in
cultivation and to extend; tea judiciously, while
very wisely maintaiuing intact all good coli'ee and
cinchona, there can be no doubt that in a few-
years their profits from the estates they hold
ought to be considerably larger. iUessrs. Cumber-
batch A' Co. are evidently doing all the justice in
their power to the properties and business of the
Company. We extract from the report at length,
because it is of interest to this commuity gener-
ally :—

In accordance with the resolution passed at last
General Meeting, the date of balance lias been clianged
to 31st August, and the Accounts from 30th Septem-
ber 1834 to 31st Augiist 188.5 are submitted liorewith.

Though slow, the improvement iu the condition
and prospects of Ceylon has steadily continued ; Coffee
and Cinchona are commanding better prices, while
Ceylon Tea has already established itself firinlv in
public estimation, and promises to he a very import-
ant factor in the future prosperity of the "Island.

As foreshadowed in the last Report, in comiectiou
with the failure of the Oriental Bonk Corporation,
the Directors have had to take over three other
Estates, in order to protect the Company's advances
and insure proper cijtivation.

Consideriug the state of these Properties when
taken over, the result of the years opperations is
encouraging. '\STiile Alnwick, "as in the last year,
has contributed the great portion of the Profit, three
other estates have been fairly remunerative, and
two more — Kaipoogala and ."'udallie— would have
shown credit balances had it not been for the lieavy
expenses of foreclosiure etc. (i'tiLS, Gs lid), which
appeared iu last year's Balancc-Sheet under Sus-
pense Account, and are now written off.

The estates in the Company's hands are entered in
the Balance-Sheet at the net amount of tlie original
loans respectively; all arrears of interest, together with
the expenses of foreclosure to date, having been
written off.

All the Company's estates have been reported on as
suitable for Tea cultivation, .and already 8(X) acres
have been planted up. Some return may be expected
next year, but the bulk of the Tea now' planted will
not come into full bearing until 1887-88. The Directors
intend to continue the extension of Tea planting, but
at the same time they will use their best endeavours
to maintain the cultivation of the existing products-
Coffee and Cinchona — where their growth is found to
yield satisfactory results.

The iutcrost on mortg.ages has been well met. With
the exception of £166, 13s 4d, the interest in an-ear
has since the close of the aocouut, been either paid or

Dec.

1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRlCCLTURIST'.

443'

secnred by consignment of produce. Several payments
have been received daring the year in reduction of
loans.

A considerable portion of the produce in hand has
been reahsed .•^iuce the close of the accounts, at price.s
which fully warrant the estimated value entered in the
Balance Sheet.

The OriKUtal I'.ank has already paid 12s Gd. in the
pDuufl on the balance due to the Company, and thtre
is reasou to believe that payment in full will ultimately
be obtained.

The Dtbenture Delit has been reduced from £68,820
to fd4,925.

The balance at the credit of profit and loss .iccount
amounts to £G.SOh 8 G.

This sum would admit of the Comp.iny declaring a
sub>tantial dividcui on its i)aid-up capital; but the
Directors, after mature cousi<leratiou, are of opinion
that it would be more to the permanent iulerest of the
shareholders to strengthen the Company's working re-
serves with a view to do the fullest justice to its estates,
than to make a present disliibution by way of dividend.
Thev accordiniily propose to add to

■Reserve I'und 3,500 0 0

Leaving f3,30.-) 8 B

which they propose to carry forward until the spring,
when the question of an interim dividend will he
considered after the requirements of the Company's
Estates for ISSo-bG have been ascertained and the
probable returns estimated.

B.u.\xck-Shekt .\s at 31st Au«. 1885.

Loans made in Ceylon,

Keal Kstate at the Amount of the

Bonds foreclosed,
Tea cultivation — Amounts expended on

Kstates for year,
Advances for cultivation, crop 1885-86,
Oa.sh Ttalancps —

Royal Bank of Scotland, £3,039 4
Chartered Mercantile Bank. 1,407 12
Sunison Temporary Deposi':, 3,500 0
Ceylon Agents, 3 5

£60,816

13

4

42.770

16

8

1,236
32.5

9

0

4
0

£7,950 2 5
/*.«— Due Secretary 23 0 5

7,02G 13 0

Capital— First Issue of lo.O'lO Shares of £10
each, whereof £3 per Share have been
called up. £45,1.00 0 0

ie.is— Call in arrcar. 50 0 0

Balance due by Oriental Bank Corporation,

in Liquidation (ex Intirest), 92S 0 10

Interest in Arrear aud Accrued on Tuve.st-
ments, £l,7;iO U 11

Lesi — Accrued on De-
bentures, 1,061 0 5

729 11 0

^'alue of Kstate produce on hand or

iittraii.-iitu, as estimated, 6,689 U 2

Office Furniture ^London), £52 19 10

LeiS — written off for de-
preciation, 22 19 10

30 0 0

£I21..'02 l."S in

£41,950 0 0

Borrowed nn Delienturc", 64.9i5 0 0

H'«erve KiKid, 2,000 0 0
Bills pnvable. drawn ajjaiust produce and

for cullivalien, 2."fi8 10 7

Outstanding .VccountP, 753 10 9

Profit and Loss Account for Balance, r.,ii(i5 P 6

£1L'I,'02 15 10

-Frofit and Loss Account for Kleven Months toSUt
ugust 188.T : —

J>r.

Interest on Debentures paid and accrued

Commission to Ceylon agents

C'ommission on Debenturos ...

General Charges, including Office Rents,
Aut"! 't's Fees, etc.

Ch-n;es in Ceylon

Telegrams

Advertising

Debentures Stamps

Home Salaries

Directors' Kemuneratiou

Postages

Income-tax

Depreciation on Office Furniture (Londcu)

Balance, being luofit —

At ;iOth Sept. 1,S84 ... £l.41S 1 1
At 31st Aug. 1(5,S5 ... 5,387 7 5

£ s.

d.

3,297 2

7

99 3

4

95 10

0

106 16

s

2! 9

2

20 11

3

7 0

0

7 17

6

4.'1.T 11

0

200 0

0

ID 11

5

35 ■>

III

2.' lU

10

0.805 8

6

£11,230 13 1
C):
B.ilanceat SllSepl. l8S4l>rcu,i,'ht t'cnw.ird, £1,418 1 1
Inerost on Invosllnents —

Received £.').5'2o 5 S

Less Accrued at 3(ltli
SepttmborlSSl ... 3,559 16 8

£1,9(;3

9

0

1,051

1

1

704

19

4

Accrued to dite.
In .Vircar,

Bank and Deposit Ii,terest receive d ami
accrued, ...

Discotuit and Exchange,

Kegistriition Fef s, ...

Roluni from Kstates in Company's poss-
ession,

3,719 9 5

140 .n 9

311 0 3

1 12 r,

5,915 0 1

£11,230 13 1

EXPEBIMENTAIi CULTIVATION OF PEAKL
OV«TEKS A FAIMKH :
Rr.TiTiiN OF Cai'T. Donnax.

Our Master Attendant, Capt. Donnan, got back
this morning from SillavatUnni aflrr ii very un-
pleasant trip, llie weallier being so wet nr.d
boisterous. We very much regret to sny (hut his
mission lias been an unsuccessful one alro,
since he fouitd all the oysters in the experimental
bank on the reef dead, with the exception of a few
which looked very seedy and had not grown a
bit since they were put into the bank in March
last. Capt. Donnan is naturally very mucli dis-
appointed at the failure, since he hilly expected
that pearl oysters would liave lived and thrived
in that bank as well as anywlicro, and as they
have not he is very doubtful of the success of
preserving them anywhere off their " natural
beds," which, .we fear, must now be looked to as the
only source of supply.

- ■ -*-

Con-KH. — Tlie wet weather of the past few
months has brought out a tine blossom, and
set it too, on som6 Nilgiri coffee estates. The
berry has not made the necessary progress
towards niaturity but looks too fresh and teinUr
to carry it tlirough the ensuing dry weather.
A late crop wilt pndmbly be the result, if it does
not drop off. In a way this would be tlie best
thing for the estate whidi will rejiay handsomely,
other cireunistancrs l^eiiig favmalile, next scasrii.
Few planter.- can atiord to lose now. to reap
ten fold hereafter. We tinst however they will
be able to weather through the distress and enjoy
future prosperity which we have no hesitation in
saying will be hardly earned. — Hotttli oj' India Ubeciver-

444

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec, I, I 885.

Some wine has been made from wild grapes grown
by Mr. Barnes on the hill slopes of his Vergomont
Estate neixr Kaini Tal. It is said to have a very
pleasant flavour. Some samples, which were sent
to the Punjab, were said to be highly commended. —
Timi'x nf India.

Db. James D. D.\n.\, in the Ameriran
Juunial nf ficieni-e for August, has a paper
on the ' Origin of Coral Eeefs.' He states
that the arguments raised by Dr. Archibald Geikie
against Darwin's theory of subsidence as an ex-
planation of the formation of atolls, or barrier
reefs enclosing a lagoon, are based on misunder-
standing of the facts. The subsidence indicated
by iitnlh is shown to be real, and not an apparent
change of water level. — Atlieiuriim.

The Te.v Chop. — It seems now almost certain
the Ku(jlishma» says that the tea crop for the cur-
rent season will fall short of the original estimates
by at least two million pounds. After allowing
about two million pounds for exports to the Colonies
and America and one million fi\e hundred thous-
and pounds for home consumption, the quantity
available for shipment to Great Britain is not ex-
pected to exceed sixty-three and a half million
pounds. — Pioneer.

Adulterate!' Tea in QuEESLANn. — From the re-
port of the Queensland Government Analyst, Mr.
Robert Mar, F. C.S., for the year ending .list July
last, it appears that of i07 teas examined, thirty
were adulterated, and six of these were reported
"unfit for human food." Tl e adultersnts found
were : — Exhausted tea leaves, (from 1 to 10
per cent (foreign leaves, starch, gum, catechu,
magnetic oxide of iron, clay, and sand. One of the
six teas condemned as " unfit for human food "
contained only about .'50 per cent of genuine tea.
Thf other live were less sophisticated, and in these
cases I added, to the results of examination and
analysis, the considerations from physiological ex-
periment— upon myself — before maldng report. l!ut
this is net a convenient method for contirmiug an
opinion, and yet is the only one possible in doubt-
ful cases. I therefore suggested that those teas
should be prohibited from going into consumption
which in quality fell below the British Public Ana-
lysts Society's limit, as is the case in New Zealand.
This suggestion has been acted upon, and an extra
ofhcer of the customs (whom I instructed, and
who has shown aptitude in apprehending and skill
in following the instructions given) has been deputed
to make a preliminary examination of all teas
coming into Brisbane. The result of these ar-
rangements I have tested by making analyses of teas
imported in previous years and comparing the same
with those , of teas pres<?ntly coming into Queens-
land, and find the proportion of adulterated
tea sent has materially decreased, and a sensible
impi-ovcment has taken place in the quality of non- I
fldiilteiatecl teas. Of this lattev fact I ^\e ii coni- i
parfl'iv'j Instance; - ;

Tea Imported, Tea Importedi J
188', 1S83.

Moisture .1 I'-gi ,. (i-7.5

fex'i-act ,. Sfi'OO .. 8100

Afh .. 5-S'i ;; .vno

Eoluble ash . . 3'80 , , i'-0(i

An AMrsiNo and sensational article appeared In the
3Ioniiii(i PokI the other day on the Sugar (juestion.
Colonial planters and European beet growers were
told to look to their laurels, for the insignificant little
Hower otthc'Mahwa" or " Moola" tree, one of the

f;iants of the forests of Centra! Hindostan, "seemed
ikcly to completely revolutionise the whole of the sugar
industry," and the writer weut on to bay; "It i» :

already asserted that in a not very distant future
the beet will be discarded from the extracting pans
of the continental sugar bakers, and the caoe of
the West Indies become as extinct as the carbonised
palm-reeds of the pre-historic coal measures." The
readers of the Morninc; Post were favoured with a
! most minute description of the tree, and were told
that it demanded no special culture, called for no
attention, no pruning or fertilising, was easily pro-
i pagated, and that it flourished in the poorest soil.
"With a becoming consideration for the capitalist,
the tree does not even ask to be picked. It is a dc-
: ciduous plant, and spontaneously sheds its flowers
during the darkness of night. The Bheels residing
in the forest have only to stand under the tree and
j the sweet harvest falls at their feet. A single
I shower often yields a hundred pounds of the Mahwa
blossoms." Such a description is enough to take
one's breath away. The writer proceeded to say that
an acre, containing from 200 to 250 trees, would
produce enough blossoms to give 100 to 120 tons of
sugar, and naively added that " competition would
be out of the question." We should think so in- •
deed. But the writer, whoever he may be, seems to
have written about a subject of which he knows next
to nothing. The " Mahwa," or rather " Mowra,"
trees which abounds in the southern half of Hindo-
stan, has been known for ages past, and has
ofttimes been reported upon. It is true the leaves
contain a very considerable proportion of saccharine
matter, but, so far as we can learn, all the ex-
periments made up to the present have been un-
productive of satisfactory results, and the period is
certainly very remote when the " Mowra" will enter
into competition with eitlier the sugar cane or beet.
Our contemporary, the Produce Markets Review,
points out that Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, officiat-
ing Political Agent at Bhopawar and Commandant
of the Malwa Bheel corps, gave full particulars of
the trees some time since in the Indian A(iriciiltiirist.
That officer stated that probably not ' more than
forty trees could be planted to the acre and that yield
per tree appeared to vary from three to six kutcha
maunds, or about 120 to 240 lb. of flowers. If it
be true that the flowers contain half tlieir weight
in sugar, this would mean a yield of one to two
tons the acre. The weights given are of the flowers
that fall, for the natives do not appear to gather
them. There is all the difl'erence between these
figures and those of the Morninri Post, where a ton
of blossoms is spoken of as being yielded by each
tree, and a yield of 100 to 120 tons of sugar per
acre is also given as that which may be obtained
from the Mowra, Jlahwa, or Moola tree. Colonel
Miller, though he gave many particulars of the
uses of the flowers and fruit in the article named
above, made no mention of sugar being obtained
from the flowers, but stated that the juice had
" a strong and rather disagreeable smell, like that
of wild beasts, tigers, Ac". Mv, William Fox, i-,t.s,,
of the Laboratory, Great Tower Street, nl-io
writes fo say that the flowers' submitted to analysis
gave the following result; — "Honey, ilO'A per cent.,
cane sugar, I'Oi pet cent. ; ash, 2'32 percent.!
cellulose, dc, i2'20 per cent. ; and water, 12'il
per cent, total, lOO'OO. No gi'ape sugar was pi'e-
sent." He adds : — " It will be impossible to inakd
ortlhiary or cane sugar from a substance yielding (he
above results, so that the cane or beetrobt siigar
industry can only be alYected to a very slifjlit ox-
tent, as the sugai' coiilained in the Mowra can only
bo utilised for browing or distilling purjioses. The
flowers. 1 may add, are all male flowers." .-Vftor
ihis, it may be expected we shall hear very little of
the "Mowra" as a sugar producing tree for soms
time to come — European Mail,

Dec. I, 1885.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

445

To the FA'tlor of the " Ceifhm OhstTver."

EUCALYPTUS OIL IN BOILEKS; ALL ABOUT
COCAINE.
London. E.C.. Oct. 2<)th, l.s.'^,5.

De.u-. Sir.,— I learn that you have published
some information respecting the emplo^-ment of
eucalyptus oil in boilers.

For fear of its leading to disappointment, owing
to the large quantity of oil used for this pur-
pose, I thought it "was advisable to apply to my
friend Mr. Hawkslcy, who has obtained a reput-
ation in England for making tirst-class boilers.
He informed me that many boilers arc entirely
spoiled by the use of grease and oil for removing
shale, so much so that he is now frequently
called to examine boilers which are said to be
leaking, and he almost invariably finds out that
oil has been employed where lime has been found
troublesome and to be predominating in the water.
He gave me a drawing (which I enclose you)
which has been published by his firm. Messrs.
Hawksley. Wild * Co. of Shcflicld, showing how
they get rid of the gi-ease where water is scarce
and «lear, by using the waste steam which has
passed through the cylinder.

CalUng his attention to the remarks on eucalypt-
us oil. he said: " Without having an intimate
knowledge of this special oil I should certainly con-
demn the employment of any sort of oil in boilers."

Changing now to entirely another subject I may
report to you that cocaine is being manufactured
in very large quantities, so much so that the price
of leaves of first quality has risen to 2s and 3s
fid per lb. when fully matured and strong. It is
this class of leaf which yields a large percentage,
up to -8 ptr cent of cocaine, but at the same
time there is no doubt that these leaves also
require very careful treatment, because in several
samples of cocaine that I have had lately before
me I find they have a strong smell and a tinge
of yellow colouring whicli is objected to by
many surgeons where cocaine is required for delic-
ate operations. It is said that the yellow colour-
ing matter, which comes, I believe, from the
chlorophyll contained in the leaves, produces
irritation in the eye, or in the bladder, or in
the urethra. Cocaine has not yet responded to
the rise in the price of the leaves, but there is
no doubt that it is beuig well used now that it is
sold as low as 2s (id to 3s (id per gramme which is 1.5^
grains. Lozenges and pastilles are being supplied
largely containing J grain of cocaine, and with
these passengers by the steamers report that they
have an immunity from sca-sickncss. To sift this
question thoroughly, as one of the American line
of packets would not entertain any proposition
direct of purchasing, I supplied some of their
surgeons with tubes of cocoainc. asking tliem to
bring me back a report of their experience.
AiiA'onc having made long voyages knows how
quickly anyone prostrated by sea-sickuess can
recover: Cocaine has a most singular action not
only upon the brain but upon the stomach,
and paralysing the action of the nerves of the tongue
and throat, also greatly assists the action. — Yours
faithfully, XHOS. CHKISTY.

JAPAN WOOD TEA BOXES.

Kintyre. Maskeliya, llth Nov. I.SH"..
Dkak Sin, — As there hain been rather a doubt about
the smell of the cedar wood of .Japan tea boxes, owing
lo souit of the Cvloiubo buyers U^hliug shy of them,

will you kindly publish the enclosed copy of tele-
gram received from Messrs. Wilson A Siuithett (of
London) today? and you will oblige myself and many
of your readers, no doubt. — Y'ours faithfully,

H. DliUMMOND 1)]',ANE.
/J..S'._Of \:i from this factory some 20,000 1b.
had arrived in London packed in JS-incli Japan boxes
hi ' ;■(! this message was received.

Copy of telegram translated from code:— "Japan
boxes are a success : smell does not intcrfci c with
tea. Would, however, advise half-inch wood being
used." True copy. H. De\.ne.

ORANGES SUCCESSFULLY SENT FROM
UVA TO ENGLAND.

Koslanda, l(Jth Nov. 188,5.

Dor Sik.— It maybe of some interest to you and
your readers to know that a box of oranges I
forwarded to Norwich from Haputale (through the
London and Colombo Forwarding Agency) reached
that distant locality in capital condition, my friends
observing that they looked so tempting and were
getting very sweet. When fresh from the tree they
are of a very refreshing sweetness with a dash of
acidity which gives zest to their Havor, particularly
on a hot day. Is this the first shipment of oranges
from Ceylon ? S. B.

[We are very much interested in experiments
of this kind, and congratulate our correspondent
on being the first, so far as we know, to send a
considerable iiuantity of oranges from Ceylon to
England to arrive in good condition. Being pulled
before they are ripe, while still the acid predom-
inates, is part of the secret ; but wc snppose
besides that our friend packed them in sawdust
and had each orange wrapped separately in tissus
or other thin paper? Although the distance is
too great for Ceylon oranges to compete with
those from Spain, the Azores and Florida in
England, still something might be done in send-
j ing shipments to friends, while peaches in Ceylon
ought to be more freely preserved. — Ed.]

Mr. Clement L. Wr,.iGGE, late of Ben Nevis
Obseiwatory, has been authorised by the (Queens-
laud Government to report " as to the best means
of establishing meteorological stations in Queensland,
including Cape York Peninsula and Torres Straits."
Mr. Wragge commenced this important work early
in September. — Aihciucum.

Canakv Bhkeding in Cevlon. — "Enquirer " writes i —
*■ I have to tliaiik two of your corref*pondents for so
kindly coming lorwartl in reply to my wish for in-
turiiiution as to tlic best method of breeding canaries.
Tbo information supplied ha.s beeu useful, but I cau't
uiider-tund »vliy the removid of the cock-bird should
be iusisted ou after the hen has laid. I have been
so far successful that 1 have the htii-bird sitting on
ihrco eggs uow ; this is the 12th day. This raoru-
iug after perusal of your lust night's issue 1 took your
corrtepuudeut's advice and removed the cock-bird, but
the poor little hen was 30 much distressed that I was
obliged to remove some part of the covering of the upper
portion of the brLodiug cige, and place the othi r caye
with the cock-bird alougside, after which the hcii-biid
settled down to her nest. There 15 no doubt ibat
hard-boiled egg (the yellow) will do ; but I find
that whenever I do feed my birds on it ants find
thiir way into the rage somehow or other, whethir the
cage is fixi d to a wall or liuug ou ii whv, ice. Can
any of your coirispondiMits inform me the best way
of preventing ants from getting into the cage; if tluy
do, after the young arc hatchid, woe he to the hirdiis,
their tenure of life will not be long. lu how many
days cau I expect the eggs to hatch ? "

445

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec, i, 18S5.

Le.vf Disease. — We learo that leaf iliseaae is very
prevalent on some coffee estates on the Nilgh'is.
The russet extends in some instances over the
whole urea, in others is confined to particular
spots ; native estates are more affected than
European. The disease must be looked upon as
the immediate consequence of the economy,
amounting to starvation, practised within the
last year or two in respect to upkeep and working
expenses. High cultivation is the only known
remedy tor leaf disease, but this means money,
and money is not forthcoming at present, and
future prospects are equally dismal. — <S'()»(/( or India

TiLK-JiiKiNfi IN CooKG. — The firm of Morgan &
Son, of Mangalore is I hear going to open a tile
manufactory at Siddapur in South Coorg. A site
where abundance of good quality clay is obtainable
has already been pitched upon, I believe, but the
land will have to be bid for at a public auction most
probably before it is secured. The firm already
possesses a manufactory of the kind in Mangalore,
and the tiles which arc called Mangalore tiles turned
out are of superior workmanship and finish. The
same may be said of the tiles turned out at the
Basel Mission factory also at Mangalore, but the tiles
made at the Mercara factory owned by Mr. East, a
planter, don't give the same ^mount of satisfaction.
If Morgan and Son's factory is one established at
Siddapur and turns out tiles as good as their factory
at Mangalore does, it must do for the one at Mercara.
— B. S. — Madras Mail.

I'l.iNTEKs here are just now pelted with machines of
all kinds — rollers, .sifters, and driers — and the individual
about to erect a big factory and purchase new machin-
ery suffers a good deal from ciniian-as dc choise. A
planter well-known here and once on an Indian garden,
Mr. Fairweather of Sembawattie, has just brought out
two improvements in tlie niechtmical appliances of a
tea factory. Oue is a machine which he is about to
patent tor .sifting and .separating the fine from the
coarse leaves after rolling, and the other is a contriv-
ance for easily spreading leaf on the withering shelves
I have not yet seen the " Leaf Separator and Sifter "
as Mr. Fairweather styles his new machine, but from
descriptions of it I should say it is likely to be a success,
being simple in construction and very effective. The
roll passes from the roUi-r into this new machine which
breaks up all balls of leaf and drops the finu leaf in the
centre of a ring formed of the coarser leaf, thus allowing
each to be fermented separately. Naturally this is a
great advantage allowing neither the coarser leaf to be
sacrificed for the sake of tlie pekoe, uor the finer leaf
to be sacrificed for the sake of the lower grades of tea.
The leaf spreader is nut a machine, but an ingenious
contrivance whereby the coolie spreading can do all
his work without moving from one spot. Each shelf or
"tat" is of jute hessian on a roller and is drawn along
horizontilly by a cord worked by a pidley from the
other end 'of the withering loft by a boy. This pulley
is no constructed as to have the cords of all the tats
attaclied to it, and as the leaf is spread by the coolte at
one end the boy at the other draws the whole out-
very nmch in the same manuer aa a v.'iudow blind.
More tba)} one a large factory hero have adopted this
method which appears to give satisfaction wherever it is
tried. * * * Talking of drier.s reminds me that attention
ha.s been called lierc to tlie higher temperature at which
planters work them as compared to the custom in India.
We are told that Indian planters deem 230" Falir. quite
hot enough for their macliiue-s, whilst 200° is qiule
common with us, Inasmuch as onr leaf contains far
less moisture than that on Indian gardens, it is argued
that we overdo the firing and tluis burn our tea.s. This
certainlv secerns plausible enough, for complaints on this
score have been pretty frequent of late from London,
Whv your leaf should contain more moisture tlnm ours
it is' hard to say, but the fivct remains nevertheless.—
Cei/lon for., Indian Flaiiters' Ga:etU.

CINCHONA SALE.

■ At Jlessrs. Oakes k Oo.'s sale of Government hark
held yesterday, 177 bales Vere disposed of at the fol-
lowing prices : —

Dodahetta Crown Hark,

Natural — 6 bales containing 600 lb. sold for Kl-lli
per bale.

Branch — 54 bales containing o,J00 lb. sold for ItIS
per bale.

Koot — 6 bales containing 600 lb. sold for 11155 per bale.
NadtivnUim Croivn Jliirk.

Natural — 58 bales containing 5,80U lb. sold for K130
per bale.

Renewed — 27 bales containing 2, 70o lb. sold for It 1 05
per bale.

Branch — 2G bales coutaiuiug 2,000 lb. sold for K70
per bale.

The prices are very high when compared with those
at the sales in October. — Madras Times, Nov. Urd.

CENTRAL A51ERI0AN COFFEE.

In the March consular reports Consul Sehrnaler, of
Costa Rica, has an article in reference to Anicriran
trade with that country, in which he speaks of the cullciJ
of Oo.sta Kicaand Guatemala. The government statist-
ics for 1833 give the following table : —

Costa Rica :

Coffee plantations .„ ... ... 7,400

Number of coffee trees 23,440, 27S

Pounds 40,502,a0i)

Value, at 9J cents per lb S3,025,3.'i0

Guatemala :

Cotfee plantations 5,131

Number of coffee trees 50,081,283

Pounds 43,42-5.555

Value, at 10 cents per lb $I4,342,.555

The result of the coffee harvest indicates the super-
iority of the Costa Rican soil. Its trees give nearly two
Ijouuds of coffee per tree, while in Guatem.ala not much
more than oue pound of coffee per tree is obtaiiUHl. Two
pomnls ot coffee per tree is regarded as rather a lean
harvest, but a higher average quantity can not be ob-
tained, as the trees have not been mamtred for fifty
years. Men of experience have found tbat hy .applying
manure thr^ colfee trees \\\\\ yi<-Id easily onepounri nior(\
This would increa.se the harvest 23,440,278 pounds of
coffee, or in other words, increase the purchasing power
of the country by nearly Jt2,250,000. ]5ut tlie people
prefer to let nature alone, because to do otherwise would
require some labor. — St. Louis Grocer.

Cevi.on Pi.axts.— a systematic catalogue of the
flowering plants and Ferns of Ceylon has been pub-
lished by Messrs. Dulau k Co. for Dr. Trimen. This
must needs be a very useful publication.— Onriioifi-s'
Chronicle.

SAncocKPB.\r,us Eset-T.KNTi-s.— Probably many will
recognize in this an old friend, as it w.as said to be
common in the gardens around Loudon many years
ago, but had not fruited. It ir\ known as the Guinea,
or Negro Peach, from its size and .shape, but of
course has no relationship with the real Peach. It is
a member of the Cinchona onler. and remarkable in
the first place for producing its flowers in denselv-
]iacked, globnso beads ; and secondly, for the rxcoji-
tioual manner in wliich the .separate fruits beoonie
amalgamated with oue another, and with the recep-
tacle, forming a sort of compound fruit, as we have
in the Custai'.l or Pine-aiqjli'. the resemblance to which,
however, in the iircsent instance is merely .supi-rficinh
not one of alliuity. Tlie lloweis are creamy-white, and
agreeably fragrant, with long ])rojecting styles, tbat
give the heads a brislly appearance. A flowering
slH'eimen may now be seen in the Mcononiiehunse at

i Kew, and the [ilant was fiifured in the // rtwdfrral
Tran^arlioii^, v., t. IS, where it was des,-i-i),e.l l.y Sfltiipp,

I — Gardeners' Chronicle,

Dec. I, 1885,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

447

SuoAB. — Notwithstanding the depression in the
sugar trade, a new liind of sugar is auuounce.I, It
is niidefrom tlie date palm by making incisions in
the lower branches, and collecting the sap which
flows thence contirually from November to ^March.
The sap is afterwar.ls clarified and boiled down. — Dr.
J. E. Tavloe in Jri/iis.

CorfEE. — At the Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincing-
lane, a meeting ot importers, buyers, and brokers
connected with the coffee trade has been held, to
consider the advisability o£ alterations of the terms
for tlie sale of coffee in London. The chair was
occupied by Mr. \V. H. I'eat, and there was a
very numerous attendance. There was a long dis-
cussion with reference to the abolition or ecjualis-
ation ot discounts, the abolition or reduction ot draft,
the sampling of coffee, and also a proposal that
the dock and wharf companies should be reipiested
to alter their rates and reduce their cost of re-
weighing and re-housing. The chairman spoke of
the great importance of the meeting, owing to the
depressed state of trade, and the need of the appoint-
ment of a thoroughly representative committee, who
would give their attention to the matters wliich
affected all sections of the trade. Mr. E. Eucker
remarked that whereas in the United Kingdom
since IHdO the consumption ot tea had gone ahead with
enormous strides and the consumption of cocoa
had also very largely increased, that of coffee had
diminished very much. The imports, which in 1881
■were (i'J.OOO tons of coffee, had fallen off to 41,000
tons ia 188i, which was not much more than half
what it was four years ago. He hoped that all
connected with the trade will combine together and
see it they could find out the cause of the decrease,
and do something to improve the trade. He especially
hoped that they would endeavour to tackle the
question of adulteration, which, he thought, was
greatly injuring the trade. After a long discussion
the meeting elected a representative committee of
importers, brokers, and exporters to consider the
questions affecting the sale of coffee iu London
for the purpose of reporting to the trade and ob-
taining their sanction to any alterations which might
be deemed advisable. — L. iC C. E.vpn'ss.

The Soil. — As all my readers understand, there are
few practical applications of modern chemical discoveries
of greater value than those applied to agriculture. Hence
the eagerness with which our liritish scientific agricul-
turists (and I am proud to note there are such
men, and al^o that their number is daily increasing,
notwithstanding agricultural depression) read any-
thing which comes from the jjens of Dr. Gilbert,
Sir J. B. l.awes. or Mr. "Warrington. The latter has
just published a paper on " Nitrification." As some
of my rcadi rs are doubtless aware, ab^-ut two years
ago considerable astonishment was createil by Sir
John Lawes's expression of o]>inion that nitrogen
was made available for the use of plants by the presence
of nndlituiliuons 01 ganisnis in the soil. Mr. "NA'arrington
uow steps in to corroborate this opinion by further
observation, as far as ob.^ervation has gone. He has
not himself the slightest doulit that soils contain what
he calls ''nitrifying organisms," and he shows that
they are ruled by temi?erature. He proves that nitrific-
ation does not take place in soil brought up from
great depths, where his theort.ticul organism has not
penetiatid. Indeed, nitrification seldom takes place
at a greatta' depth than nine inches from the sin-face.
His general conclus-ions are as follows: — Nitrification
proceeils far more rapivlly in summer than iu winter;
it is most rapid in darkness; the pre^:ence of oxygen
is necessary; a solution receiving an abundant supply
of the nitrifying ferment willexliibit speedy nitrification ;
the latt(;r will not take pbico in acid solutions;
alkalis are iiece>s.^ry, and lime appears to be the
liest means of inilucing it (hence the pr.actice of
" liming the land," now nearly disused, was scienti-
fically correct); sewage camiot be nitrified uidess

abunilant carbonate of lime is present. The strongest
solution in which Mr. Warrington has found nitrification
commenced contained carbonate of ammonia equal
to 3()i miUogramines of nitre per litre (the litre
being a little more th.an a quart) wben carbonate
of ammonia is in excess (and m\ny people think
they can't put too much of a "good thing" into
their land), the nitrification of the soil is effectually
hindered, .although all the other necessary elements
may be present. In the absence of phosphates
no uilrific.atioii can take place. If the soil is
chloroformed uitrificatinu cea.ses ; if ic be heated to
a high degree the .same thing occurs. When sewage
is heated to the boiling point it is useless and
steiUizeil, although nitrification can be started in it
when cold by adding a few drops of a nitrified .solution.
The evidence is gaining weight that our soils are
nitrified by the presence of multitudinous bacteria. —
Dr. J. E. T.4Yr.oi£ in Aiyits.

The Use of Lime.— it is a sort of axiom among
farmers that " where lime is used the land and the
farmers are rich." This is .an old but true adage and
deserves to be made one of the established axioms of
agriculture. It is true in two ways — one, that
lime is an exceedingly valuable fertilizing agent of
itself, and in addition exerts a most beneficial influ-
ence upon the soil as a solvent of the silicates, chiefly
of potash, and also in decomposing organic matter in
the soil and favoring its nitrification and the produc-
tion of the iudispensable nitrates which so greatly
enrich the soil, the other that its use is one of thos*
higher attributes of skilful farming which is consist-
ent only with the best culture of the soil and the
most thorough and systematic working of it. It is,
in fact, in the farmer's bands, one of those instru-
ments which is rarely or never found excepting where
every part of the farm work is done iu the most
excellent manner, so that it is not so much that the
tanner uses lime as that he uses it as a part of a
system of farming which is thoroughly e.xcellent, and,
of course, very profitable. Lime is thus not to be used
in a liaphazard way, and simply to extract from the
soil the la.st vestiges of fertihty it can bring out.
When thus used another common adage, that "lime
enriches the father and impoverishes the son," will
surely be found true, because it is like a last turn of
the screw which squeezes the last drop of juice from
the cider mill. The place of lime in good farming is
its application^ to the land at the Fall season when
rye or wheat is sown and grass and clover seeding
follows. The lanil has then become more or less sup-
plied with organic matter from the roots and waste
of previous crops, and it has accumulated a store of
nitrogenous and carbonaceous matter which cannot be
made available until it is decomposed nor until a
sufficient quantity of mineral matter h,as been set
flee in the soil to balance the supply of plant food
required for a new rotation of crops. Besides, at this
season and with Fall grain the regular manuring of
the land is given, and the manure is generally coarse
and uridcciunposed. It is precisely nndcr such con-
ditions that lime is of the greatest usu and value and
fits the soil for a new round of crojis. 'J'he quantity
of lime usually applied is 40 to 50 bushels per acre
freshly burned or stone lime. In the air-slacking by
which it is prepared for use it swells to three time's
its original bulk and becomes a fine [powder which
is spread from a wagon, with a long handled shovel,
evenly over the soil. This should be done upon the
plowed land inunediately before sowing, when it is
h.arrowed in previously. As lime is quite soluble in
this fine condition, requiring only TOO times its own
bulk of water to dissolve it, it should never be plough-
ed in, or it will be very quickly carried down into
the soil below the reach of the roots of any plants,
excepting those clover. Clover is one of the plants
which .are wonderfully benefited by lime, and it is
for this reason among many others, that its use is
to be encouraged, because it provides the skilful farmer
with one of the mo.st valuable sources of manure
riz., a lioavy clover sod to be plowed in. — Seir York
Times, given in Noulliein Plitnter.

443

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Dec. I, 1885

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND tJKMV PRODUCTS.
(From Lewif «fc Peat's London Price Current, November Sth, 1885.)

FBOM MALABAR
COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADUAtf, &c

BEES' WAX. White

Y.-Mow
CINCHONA BAUK— Crwii

Red

CAItnAMOMS Miilalar

QUALITY.

/ Sii{i:litly softish to gooil
I hui'.l brifjlit
iJo. drossy & .iarlc ditto.,

R.'ii.'wc.d

.M.'.lumi to liiic (Juill ..

Sjiolic shaviiif^s

Uniiili

Uenc\r'-cl

Wdiuin to good Quill ...

iSpok.? shuviiiga

Brancli

Tvvis

Cl'pj.ed, bold, briiJ:Iit,fiiie

and Ceylon Middliiifi, stalky & lean

Aleppee [Fair to tlneplumpelijiiied

TellielierryJGood tu Hue

|Browiiish

Man)»:ilore |Good & fine, washed, bgt,

Long Ceylon MidiUing to good

Ists lOrd. to fine pale quill ...

ands' „ „

ardsl „ ,, „ „

4th8;Woody and hard

...IFair to fine plant

...;Bold to good bold
...Medium

jTriage to ordinary
COFFEECeylon Plantation, Hold to fine bold

Middling to fine mid. ...

Low middling

Smalls

'tTOod ordinary

.Small to bold

. Bold to fine bold

Medium to fine

Small

Good to fine ordinary

QltOTATIONS.

CINNAMON

Chil>s
COtWA, Ceylon

„ Native
Liberian
East Indian

Native

COIRROPE,Ceyloii&Cochiji Mid. coarse to linestraiglit

FIBRE, Brush

Stutiing ..
Y'ARN, Ceylon
Coeliin
Do
COLOMBO KOO'l', sift.-d ..
OKOTON SEEKS, sifted ..
GINGER, Co hin, Cut

Rough

NUX VOMICA
MYKABOLANRS.pa

Pickings
OIL, CINNAMON
Cri'RONELLE
LEMON GRASS
ORCHELLA WEEll
PEPPER. Malabar blk. sifted
AUi'ppee & Coihiii ,,
Teiruberry, White ...
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Ord. to fine long straight

jCoarse to fine

lOrdinary to superior

Ortliiuiry to fine

Ro})ing fair to good

-Middlingwormy to fine...

Fair to fine fresh

Good to fine boltl

Small and medium

Fair to good bold...

Small

.jFair to fine bold fresh
ISmall ordi-narj-and fair,
. :Good to fine picked
iCoinmon to miildling .

Fair Coast

Burnt and ilefective

Good to fine heavy

Bright & good flavour .

Mid. to fine, not woody
Fair to bohl hea\7
,, good ,,

Chips
. Dust
REll WOOll
SAPAN WOOll
SANDAL WOOD, logs

110. chips
SENNA, Tinnevelli

TirRMERIC, Madras
llo.
Do.
Cochin
VANILI.OES, Mauritius &

Bourbon, Ist.s jFine eryatal
2nds Fo.>ty &. red '

8rrts

Fair lo tine bright bold..
iMiddling to good Email..
Sliglit foul to tine bright
Ordinary to tine bright ...
Fair aiul fine bold
Middling coated to good
Fair lo good (lavor

Good to fine bold green...
Fair middling bob!
Connuon dark and sinuU
Finger fair to line bold
Mixed middling [bright

Bulbs whole

Do split '

£0 10s a £8
£5 10s a £6 lOs
U a ;l.s (kl
Is Id a L's lid
9d a Is (id
■2d a .-(d
1 a 3s lid
I a ;^s (id
1 a Is 2.1
2d a (id
Id

•2s Gd a Ss Kd
2s a 2s ia
2s .1,1 a 2s (id
is a .'Is M
Is a 2s :id
■Is a 4s (id
8d a Is Id
llld a Is <l,l
■Sid a Is U,l
(da Is 2d
5Jd a lod
IJd a 53.1
86s a sria
72a a ,s(ls
3.5s a 70s
S8s a l(l(is
07s a blis
■>lis a CIs
51s a (iOs
•IHs a 4;{s nom.
10s a 41is
84s a I(l7s
C4s a 8(ls
l()s a ais
10s a ■508 nom.
Cl:la £24
£20 a £32
£7 a £18
£12 10s « £38
£12 a £40
£11 a £17
(ids
:iOs a ^Os
137s a y»s
48s a 02s
:W3 a 42s
:i4s a 38s fid
8s a 12s
's a 8s
■Ss Dd a IDs M

7s M a ss ea

8s lid

(is .Sd a 7s

Is Ma 3s

31 a Id

IJdal.'d

40s a .5.5s

Jd a 8(1

Kid a 2s Cd
I2sa Ms
10s a 13s
.Ss a 13s
4s Cd a Ills
£;il2/(ida £G
£li a £7
£20 a £3^';
£10 a £10
Kd a Is
;itl a (id
Id a 2d
bSs a 219
1.5s a I7.S
13s a I (is
10s

4th

FROM BO.VIBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

>d (la 9inch 10s a 22s
h .5 aH ,, 129 a lUs
f L(^a(( & drylo middling
1 (((ulcr B iiiibes ...fealls
Low, foxy, inferior and l:!s a .Os
I pickings'

ALOES, .SoCfOtrine and

llepatie..
CHILLIES, Zanzibar

CLOVES, Zanzibar 1

and Pemba J

Good and fine dry
Common and good
Good to fine bright
Ordinary and middling
Good and fine bright
Ordinary dull to fair

,.. £7 a .£8 10s
.. 70s a £f)
.. 35.9 a 3.SB
.. ;i2s a 31s (id

.. 55d a lid
..O.'daSJd

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

QUALITY

QUOTATIONS

CLOVES. Mother

,, Stems..

C(JCULIIS INDICUS
GALLS, Bussorali 1 , ,

& Turkey r^"'
green,,
white..
GUM AMMONIACUM^
drop ..
block..
ANIMI, washed .,

scraped,,,
ARABIC, picked ..

sorts...
ASSAFffiTIDA ...

KINO

MVBUH, picked ...

Aden sorts

OLIBANUM, Irop

pickings...

siftings ...

INDIAEUBBER Mozambi

SAFFLOWER, Persian ..

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAl'E OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists

2n(ls

3rds
INDIARUBBER Assam ...

Rangoon ..".
Miidagascar

, I Fair, msual dry
.1 „ fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

Small to fine clean

dark to good

Picked fine pale in sorts,
part yellow and mixed

Hcaii & Peasize ditto .
inbcr and dark bold .

.Medium & bold sorts .

Pale bold clean

Yellowish and mixed .,

Fair to fine

Clean fair to fine ,',

Slightlystony and foul ..

Fair to fine bright

Fair to fine pale

.Middling to good

Fair to good white

Reddish to middling ..

Middling to good pale ..

Slightly foul to fine

:iiue,fair tofine sau.s:ige..

) .. ... Ball..

unripe root

liver

tOrdiuary to good

..,'2d aid
,,,1.1 a I 1-ltid
...Us a Ids

,.. 52sa57s
...MSsa 52s
,,.i45s a 47s

, 45s a 609

.30s a 45s

£14 a £18

£lla£l.S

£5 Ids a £8

£8 a £12

eSa £8

.s,5s a sl,5s

70s a S49

75s a SSs

1,5s a 50s

32s a 42s

Ids a 4.5s
. £6 a £8
, HSs a 100s
,U0sa539
,|32sa383
.Hsa lis
,!i1sa Us

Is Hil a I.s lOJd
IsWa IslOjd

Is ^1 a IB 1(1
Is ;)d a Is 7d
5s a 15s

SAFFLOWER

TAMARINDS

Nearly water white ... .Ijd a 4;d
jFairand good pale ... 3da3Jd
Brown and brownish ... 2Jd a 2Jd
Good to fine ...{is 5d a Is lOd

Common foul and mixe(i 4d a Is 3d
Fair to good clean ... Is 4d a Is 9d

Good to fine pinky &nhite Is Hjd a Is lid
Fair to good black ... IsSdalsSd

Good to tine pinky ... £4 Ids a £^108

.Middling to fair ...'£3.5sa £4 2a 6d

Inferior and pickings ...:£la£l 10a
Mid.tofi(ie/>/rtc/jnotstony!10sa Ma
Stony and inferior ... ,.3s a Cs

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

...jFairdry to fine bright ... .329 a 3l9
...'C'cnimon & middling H0ft2lis a 3l9
,,,'Fair loline ...'3.5s a 4(l9

...i-Mid.lling tofine „, 3.1.1 a M

FROM CHINA. .TAI'AN &
TH E EASTERN ISLANDS.

CAMPHOR, China

.Tapan

GAMlilER, Cubes

Bloik
GUTTA PERCHA, gemiini
S((mafra..
Reboiled..
White Borneo

NirTMEOS, large

Medium
Small
MACE

RHUBARB, Sun drie.l .,

High, hied ..

S^MIO, IVarl, large

medium ..
small
Flo((r
TAPIOCA, Penang Flake..
Singapore
Flour
P..arl

Good, pnrc.'i: dry ^hltej.^^yg^g^

Onlidury lo fine free ... 2.SS (i.1 a 293 ed
Press(9l ...i22s (id a 2.39

Goo.1 ...ilHs3d a IHsfid

Fine clean Banj & Macaa-,2s 4d a 3s 3d
Barky to fair [sar (i.l a 2s 3d

"oiiimod to fine clean ...[id a Is Id
Goo.l to li((e cli'aii ...llld a Is :l.l

Idferi.ir and barky ...iltl a 8.1
Si's a Sd's, garbled ..J2i 1.1 a :l9 6,1

,S5'sa9.5N ...J2sa2s3.1

Idd's a IGO's ...lis .3.1 a Is lOd

Pal.^ rcldi.sh lo pale ...!ls Gil a 2s (M
Ordinary to red ... Is Id a Is ;{il

('hips ...lid a Is

(Jood lo line sonn,l ..,2sa 4s
I Hark ur,linary& middling Is a Is i>,I
(lou.1 to fine ,.. Is 2d a Is lid

(Dark, rough & middling 7d a Is

'Fair loline

(tood pinky to \, hil.
Fair lo fine

Hnlb'ts
I Medium
ISced

, 12s (Id a 14s
... 12s a 14s
... lis a 13s
„, Ills a Us
... i;.la2;d
... I,',da2d
... ljdal},l
... Ms (1 1.59 (id
...|Ms lid a IGs Cd
...14s6da 1,5s Hd

jANiARY I, i886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

449

THK PRODUCTION OF TEA AND THE
V/VLUE OF HUMAN LABOUR IN CHINA

AND JAPAN.
The effects of the continued existence of that
ci-ime against humanity, slavery, in Brazil, in
swamping the coffee markets of the world— bring-
ius» down prices indeed to so low a level, as not
only to injure competitors emplo}'ing free labour,
but working retribution on the slaveholders them-
selves,—afford fresh proof, if proof were wanted,
that none of us can say: "Am I my brother's
keeper?" even though the brethern referred to
should be " Imlians " in Peru, Mongolians in
China, or slaveholders and their human property
in the South American F.mpire. Japan, we are
glad to see, by our exchange papers, is going
ahead with railways; and, happily, there is now
reasonable prospect that in China the era of the
iron highway and the iron horse is at hand. Bnt
why should we, in this " utmost Indian isle,
Taprobanc," specially and fen-ently desire that
railway construction, on a scale as gigantic as
the Empire is vast, should at once become the
policy of China ? For all reasons of general phil-
anthropy and for the one special reason that
the retrieval of the past and the prosperity of
the future in Ceylon depends on the success of
her tea enterprise. Railway construction in China
on anj-thing like an extensive scale, would at once
raise the value of human labour in that densely
peopled country, where so many millions of almost
stariing toilers" continually send up the equivalent
of the cry, —

•' Oh Ood ! that bread should be so dear.
And flesh and blood so clieap 1 "
Wliat with the burdens in the shape of export
duties and " squeezes " imposed on tea in China
and the low net prices which the vast bulk of
China tea realizes in the consuming market, the
reasonable cabulation seemed to be that, at length,
even the wretchedly poor peasantry of China would
cease to cultivate the tea-plant and gather its
leaves. It may be that the time for such a re-
sult is at hand, comparatively near, because there
is ever a natural reluctance to abandon a pursuit
which has, heretofore, been profitable. But cert-
ainly the figures representing exports of tea from
China and Japan for the expired portion of tlie
season show no sign that the tea-growers of the
Far East have begun to slacken in their industry
in face of the competition of teas grown in India,
Java and Ceylon (it will soon be India, Ceylon
and Java) ; on the contrary, after deducting a
small decrease on exports to Continental Europe,
there is this season, so far, an increase of ex-
ports on the same period of last season, of no
less than seventeen millions of pounds. In the
severe competition, therefore, which seems ap-
proaching, our reliance must be on the superior
quality of Ceylon tea.

CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT.

K.>;vcFKBiA onNATA.— This is a Borr.ean introduction
of the Compag ic C'ontineutale of f Shent, and ftgured
at t. .137 of the Illnstrniion llnrlicole. The |)laiit has
long-stalked, lanceolate leaves, bright green above, with
a central band of white. The lower surface is wino-
purple. and the margin somewhat undulate. It is a
handsome stove foliage plant, the general habit of
which is chown in our illustration, which wi; owe
to the courtesy of the <Jompaguic Continenlale. —
Gard'-ners' Cliit/iticlc.

TFST1M0SI.UJ1 Foil TEA-MAKINO MACHISES — THE " COLO.S-
IAL" — COMI'ABATIVK FAILURE OF THEI- RESENT CROP OF
TEA SEED— LOCAL AND DIl-ORTED SEED— THE WBATHE.l
— TEA ON THE KANDY SIDE.

23rd November 188.5.
These certainly seem to be the days of testimonials
• for tea-making machines. They arc about every-
where: you SL'O them in the most prominent page of
the public prints in large .staring letters ; and in the
form of hand- bills these testimonials come to you by
post. To the budding teii-maker who wants a machine,
this plethora of excellence is somewhat confusing.
He has little to buy with, and ail of them have
nuich to offer, and when he contrasts their fullness
with his emptiness, he is inclined to say:

" How happy could I be with either.''
This sort of thing will, I fancy, in time work its own
cure, like those gushing addre.sses which in the early
days of the Canal, every steamer captain had pre-
sented to him towards the end of the voyage. No
shin like it; no such superexcellent skipper, odicers
and crew; no such passengers ever sailed together
before; no such joy when the circle was iinbroken;
no such grief when the parting came. After a bit the
' monotony of tone became tiresome and ridiculous, and
the practice died out. There is one thing aljout these
testimonials to the new tea machines, that they don't
do the thing by halves. AVhen a planter is satisfied,
he is heartily so, and about that there can be no mis-
take. It is just the other day that I heard a planter's
report on the Eaiulla firni's tea-roller, " Frater's
Colonial," which had this superlative ring in it, so
cheering to the heart of those concerned. It was
said to give "perfect satisfaction" and " it will drive
every other machine out of competition." This is
surely more than the inventor ever dreamt of, and
if not satisfied, — well, he ought to be.

The multiplicity of rollers, and especially good rollers,
is all for the benefit of the planter, and I for one
hail the "Colonial " with pleasuie and bid it welcome.
Studying a tracing of it I am able to see that the
machine consists of three discs with concave faces
of wood bolted to centres of iron. The two outer
discs go in one direction, and the centre disc and
barrel in which they -Aoik in the opposite one. The
opposite motions are got in rather an ingenious
way, and one which, if I mistake not is, quite a novelty
in tea rolling machines, or in fact in .any other
machine. It is an inverted spur wheel, with teeth
inside the ran, instead of outside. This works into
a small brass pinion, and it in turn works a spur
which is connected to the outer discs. The leaf is placed
between the revolving faces which are corrugated,
through a door in the barrel or outer shell. Pressure
is applied to the leaf by means of two screws, and
hand wheels, which are placed in front of the
machine. Altogether it is very compact, roller occupy--
ing a space of only H ft. x 2 ft. 'I'he iouttuni i.^ said
to be about 80 lb. of leaf an hour. The price asked
for the "Colonial " is R.'iOO. When this new roller
has been longer in the licld, and has had a more
ex-tended trial, it will be interesting to see how it
will compete with its rivals. In the opening market of
Ceylon there is "a fair field and no favour" for all. And
let testimonials gn.sh as they like, they won't eventually
do any more for a machine thjm the machine will do
for itself. But numerous as ttre tlie rollers ranging from
R40() and upwards, there are many planters who would
be pleased to see a ser\iceablc machine for say half that
price, something to carry an estate over its first year
or two of bearing, and who would gladly go in for the
; bigger and hotter article later on. when nior(' able
toafford it. l!ut the inventors and engineers of Ceylon
' are all believers in the day of big things, and tho
I planter who is committed to the new hope has to
dance to their measure with what gr.aci; he may. All
I tho same, there is room fur the small cheap niacfaiiie
I speak of, and a public willing to buy it.

The comparative failure of the present crop of tea
) seed is sending our planters far afield for a suiiply of
! their wants. 'This failure seems to be pretty general,
I and has had a tendency somewhat to raise prices for

450

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

the best qualitieB of local growth. Considerable
orders have gone to India, for indigenous as well
as hybrid, so that the local price is regulated by the
ruling rates there. Those who have experience tell
me that they prefer local seeds to, Indian, other
things being equal. It does better inj every way. A
similar experience was noted when Liberian coffee was
first intfoducfd into the island, plants grown from
Ceylon seed being healthier and stronger than those
produced from tlie imported ones.

The wet weather seems to be clearing up, although
we are still having showers daily. What a monsoon
it has beeu fur planting and the growth of weeds.
And this last big hurst from the S. W. too! If we
are to get the usual rains from ^he N. E. as well,
the registt-r of rainfall will be a ^ery full one, spite
of the dry weather wc had some weeks ago.

Tea on the Kanily Fide is doing very well, and
will in a year or so make it:s mark. The nrw Han-
tane clearing is a perfect marvel of growth, to be
only a year old. It could match a great many estates
of twice the age, and nut be much put out either.

rEPI'EKCORN.

Mother tree
•s^uvw^^ unknown.

ERPoRT <m TH]': uovkhnment cinchona

ENTEKPRIZE IN JAVA FOK THK THIKD

QUAltTEll 1885.
(TroHshitetl fin- the " Cnjhm Ol>s,.'rrer.^^ )
The drought which set in suddeidy in the middle of
]May continued during the past quartt-r and was broken
by only a few sliowers. At lljagrak on the Tang-
koebanprahoe niouutaiu however abait the middle of
August there fell in a few hours about 100 mm.
[about 4 inches J of rain, which being accompanied by
hail did some damage to the plants in some parts*
Night frosts were experienct-d in Jidy ;ind September,
but caused little or no harm, as they occurred on
those places which were affected last year, and which
it is not intended to replant. The supply of labor was
very large, so that not only could the harvesting be
carried on uuinterruptedly but it was also possible to
bestow the greatest care on tin..- upkeep of the plants.
The deep stirring of the soil, now everywhere carried
out, shows its good effects even in the height of the
east monsoon, the plants presenting a steady growth and
healthy appearance in spite of the continuous drought.
The good results will be even more anil better seen on
the setting in of the rain, aud the thorough stirring of
the soil will certainly exercise a beneficial influence on
the production of 1886. During the past quarter about
tiOO.OOii pounds of bark were dispatched to liatavia.
Altogether, duriug 1885, about 1100,000 pounds of bark
were gathered, of which 283,403 pounds were sent to
Batavia. The produce gathered during the past; few
luonthsconsistedchiefly of barkof C Josepkiaita,oi which
variety some plantations at Tjibeureuni and Nagrak
were uprooted. The produce from the plantations situ-
ated on the Malabar was distinguished by a handsome
appearance, which increases its value as a pharmaceut-
ical bark. The uprooted plantations are intended
for the planting of C Lvd ycriana : a beginning has already
been made with the terracing of the fields. AtTjinji-
loeau a, large new propagating-house was completed
and is very satisfactory, whilst a commencement hi:s
already hc-n made with the building of another one.
On t21tb July and lOrh September sales of cinchona
seed were held, which realiz<;d respectively /'1, 827':;5
and /l,500"25. At the hrstaale good prices were paid,
whilst at the second a very large (piantity of Si-ed was
refused at low prices. Tiie examination of succirubra
hybrids raised from Ledgeriana seed was continued
during this qu.irter and gave similar results to those
recorded in the report for the second ([uarter. as will
be seen by the annexed statement. The liigh yield
of quinino met with in the b^rk of thehybriil 7'ju^lifies
its urtihfial propagation but makes it h-f-s suitnd as a
iovmdation for seed plants on account of the presence
of cinchouidine. Van KoaiuNDE,

Director Government Oivchona JCiittr^trize.
Bandoeng, 2na Oct. 1885.

m^^A^^^C^O'Qii

5 ^ cs 'O :C CO f-t ',
3 CM-;*"'* XO-^C

:*? CO I— t 'o 1^ O

-''"•—* c-i o -o

6

o o

C N -

l"*^dj Oir-«'^J"*0--'— 'Til— I
rH'-l'-l.-'t-lrH---^

l'i'\L' 'llV 00 ^ lO M CO 03 Oi r- i-H GO

sno^it.foiity ,!( ; ■ ■ " ■ ■ - -r- •

W CO

VH?p."'."^?> J * • * : o : ' ■ *

O O O C-J t— CO (M Xi lO »
•M'lpV'OlpinQ^ M •* {= ;'c A^ "^ O ih w

•tliMO.to Tjiuiiroean.

/O 90D2J

'uuoip C.Ledgerianwith hy-

■mj Jo fh 'Ui)^i hrid appearance.

^ ci cc T* >o iC I- ao o: ^

CEYLON AS A FIELD FOE COLONISTS.
BY A plantee's wife— h.
{Ciintiuiied from p. 440.)

For two or three years after I arrived in Ceylon
coli'ee continued to pay, and to deceive. Our
salary was raised, and we began to put by a little
money, in spite of increased responsibilities in the
shape of babies that came to brighten our home.
In 1873 my husband had a legacy left him of £2,000.
He was delighted. It seemed to him as if the
door to success and good fortune had suddenly been
opened. He had the money sent out, and began to
look around for an investment. It was not an easy
matter then to find anything to take up for so
small a sum. Men were ready to sell their estates
in full working order for £20,(100. but no
one had anything small enough to dispose of for
such a paltry sum as £2,000. After nmch dis-
cussion with his friends, (ieorge at last decided
on buying jungle, which he would clear and
plant. It would necessitate a cha->ge in our life,
because we should have to live within reach of
this jungle wherever it might be, and possibly we
should not find so comfortable, or so remunerative
a berth in its vicinity as the one we now occupied.
Experienced superintendents, however, were not so
plentiful in those days, and, in a short time
my liusband heard of a new situation in a valley
where there was some promising jungle for sale.
Eefore long we found ourselves the owners of an
estate of virgin soil, which had never owned an agri-
culturing master, and which had veL to be named. It
lay on the slopes of some hill, at a height of four
thousand five hundred feet above the sea, and the soil
was snid to be excellent. It was five miles from our
new berth, and could be worked easily at that dis-
tance, especially as there was an assistant to help
George on the new estate of which he had charge.

Full of hope and life we moved ourselves and
our belongings, rejoicing in a more bracing clim-
ate, and looking forward across years of willing
labour to a wealthy middle age. My Imsband
paid £1.500 for his jungle, and reserved the
remaining £."300 for clearing. Wlien tlie £.")00 was
spent a good deal of the jungle was cleared, but
the place had yet to be planted. Our savings

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

4St

went towards this, and we had a quarter of the
land hiid out with young coffee bushes. It never
entered our heads to wonder if coffee would grow
at that altitude. We took it tor granted, like
the rest of our sanguine neighbours, that coffee
would grow at any height. All our friends con-
gratulated us on having got such a snug little
bit of land, and the knowing ones made our
hearts glow with pleasure as they praised the
cleared soil and the site,' and prophesied fortune
for us. Wc should have been wise if we had
rested at this stage, and waited to see what coffee
was going to do. But wisdom was not a char-
acteristic of the go-ahead planter in those days,
and my husbrnd's next step was the placing
round his neck a millstone which has been a
burden ever since. He raised £1,000 by a primary
mortgage on the estate at 8 per cent. " How
foolish ;" I can hear the wiseacres of the present
day exclaim. It was foolish, most foolish, but we
did not know it then. I instinctively shrank from
contracting any kind of debt, but this was a
business matter about which I, as a woman, was
supposed to know nothing. There was no in-
iquity in the matter as there would have been
had the debt been made for gersonal extravagance.
I was told. It was purely legitimate speculation, and
the lender was as glad to put his money out at such
a good rate of interest as the borrower was to secure
the use of it. Then the matter was put on paper in
figures. The estate would begin to -pay at such
and such a time. It would bring in an increasing
income each year; and at a certain period, not .so
many years distant, the mortgage would be paid
off, and we should be in the possession of an un- j
incumbered estate yielding a handsome income. It
all looked so clear on paper, and every (riend who
came into the house conlirmed the calculations, that
at last my mind was quieted, and I forget mj-
doubts and anxieties in my nursery duties, even
though I had to face the gravt; fact that from
thenceforth for some time we sfiould have to find
the £80 interest on the mortgage out of our income.
But as we had always lived within our means, and
had easily saved money,, the liability could be
covered by what had hitherto been our yearly savings.
It was only to be for a few years, in fact until
the estate began to i)ay.

Thus the rest of our juugle was cleared, and a
good deal was planted, and, for a while, all went
swimmingly. But before long clouds began to gather.
They were veiy small clouds certainly ; but there
they were, the forerunners of bad times, though
we did not recognise them as such then. The
coffee blossom came as usual, making the bushes
look as if they were laden with snow, but, owing
to bad weather, it did not set properly, and the
crop fell off. Then came leaf disease, and crop
after crop was poorer than the last. At length,
the planters recognised the sad fact that coffee was j
a failure, just as I am told they had to recognise
it in India. Our young jjlants were then coming
into bearing, and, judging from their wealthy i
appearance, we had hitheito had no anxiety on their
account. But, at the time the crop should have
come, leaf disease made its appearance amongst
our bushes, and we too had to recognise that we
were in no better plight than our neighbours. It
was useless to try to sell. No one would
have unprofitable land, even as a gift. We had
nothing before us but to hold on at a loss, or let the
mortgagee foreclose. We were tliinking seriously of
this latter course when there came a new hope to the
planters in cinchona. Cinchona was to revive their
drooping fortunes, and set them on their legs again.
They grasped at it as drowning men clutch at straws.

Cinchona was to fulfil what coffee had failed to
perform, and save planter, agent, money-lender and
Chctty alike from ruin. Like the rest of the
community we rushed into (ho new craze.

Our coffee was undoubtedly a failure. Ir. the best
of seasons it would never yield prolifieally at that
height, and though some of the young plants did
fairly well on the lower slopes, they barely paid for
the working of the ground they stood upon. It was
quite certain they would never give a profit to pay
off the mortgage, nor even find money for the
interest, however economically they were worked.
But to plant cinchona required a certain outlay. We
could not do more out of our income than find the
interest on the iiiortgage, unless we pinched, and
screwed severely, and then it could only be a small
sum which would be useless by itself in the purchase
of seed and plants. It ended in our tieing another
millstone around our necks. My husband borrowed
another f'lOO at 8 per cent on a second mortgage.
We hoped by careful livitig and economy to be able
to pay tl'p additional £iO for this C.500 out of our
salary, and with fresh hope in our hearts we soon
saw our money in young cinchona plants on the hill
slOjics. There was certainly more anxiety with that
hope this time, and wc felt the additional respons-
ibility of the increased debt. The hope which had
flamed up so suddenly was extinguished all too
soo.i. .\ tew seasons passed, and then the verdict
went forth. Ciucliuna was a failure. There was
exactly the same tolly displayed in the planting of
cinchona as of coffee. The planters were filled with
the idea that cinchona would grow anywhere, and
anyhow. But cinchona refused to grow in straight
rows like turnips on slope and plain. It needed even
morn careful drainage than coffee. It is hardly
necessary to repeat the sad tale, tor it is as
well-known, tlu-ough bitter experience, in India
as it is in our Island. The constant showers
of the Ceylon climate made the young plants
come up full of promise. They gi-ew rapidly, and
threw a mantle of bright green over the estates.
But those very showers which seemed to make the
plant thrive, produced by their moisture, a canker
which gradually extended up the stem till tree
was destroyed. For a year or so the young plants
looked green and healthy, and then, suddenly,
some of the broad glossy leaves turned an autumnal
scarlet. A close examination of the stem showed
an uneven line of blemish from the canker which
was spreading upwards, and gradually the; plants
lumg out their red flag, dropjied their foliage, and
died.

We lost two-thirds of our cinchona trees, but
the remaining third flourished, and we learnt a
lesson from them about drainage, for the survivora
were those which were planted on very steep
slopes, or at the edge of landships and drains.
When they became of a barkable ago they
brought us in something, and would have
proved very profitable if bark had only held
its price. But it fell from something like Is Od
to Is (Id per pound, quite upsetting those seduct-
ive calculations, on paper, of future wealth. It
has fallen still more during the last fifteen months,
so that where we looked at £1,000 a short time
ago in standing trees, we can now only see
i;.">00. In spite of the low price of bark our cin-
chona was a considerable help to us in keeping the
estate going. The trees yielded a fair quant-
ity of bark, and grew rapidly, increasing their
yield each season. My husband continued to plant
as he cut down, on ground that he knew to be
favourable for its growth, and he was fortunate,
or wise in his choice of plants. He chose a hybrid
which has adapted itself to the climate. It is a

452

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

cross between succiriihra and uffidnnlis, and its
seems likely to answer better tlian any imported
kind, as it possesses great hardihood, as well as a
high percentage of (luinine in its bark.

With the failure of cinchona came hard times
for us, as well as our neighbours. Ilcductions in
expenditure were made on all sides. No more
substantial stone sheds were built, or expensive
machinery imported, and many of tlie assistant
managers were paid off and dismisised. A great
many deserving young men were throAvn out of
employment, and, worse still, they had no means
of conveying themselves out of the sinking .ships.
My heart has ached for the poor fellows. Many
of them were ideasant, well-educated, well-bred
youug men, the sons of gentlemen, and they really
did not know which way to look to procure them-
selves the barest necessities of life. Some of them
were helped by kind and compassionate friends and
sent home. Some managed to raise money from
relations. A few found their way over to India
and got into the Salt and Police De))artment3 ;
and a few went to the coffee and tea districts of
India ; but many of lliem succumbed to fever.
The climate of the Indian tea and coJfee districts
is not to be compared willi our Ceylon climate
in point of health. Those were Ceylon's darkest
days for the present generation, and, in my next
paper, I shall liave to tell how we weathered the
storm, and to what straits wo were put in so do-
ing-

III.

With reductions taking place on all the estates
around us, it was not likely we should escape.
My husband suffered with the rest. First, he lost
his assistant, and thus had all the work thrown on
his own shoulders. Then came a more serious
matter. Our salary was reduced, and certain
allowances cut down, which curtailed our comfort
as well as our purse. The reduction in our in-
come was a very serious thing for us, although,
looking at it in the disastrous light of those
days, we might consider ourselves lucky in hav-
ing kept our berth at all, for many estates, at
that time, were actually abandoned, and allowed
to revert to jungle. The lantana has since
taken possession of tliera with a firm grijj,
and nearly effaced the once well-kept trim path.
I should not have minded the reduction of
salary so much if it had not l)een lor that
wretched debt, for which we had made ourselves
liable. It had to be paid in English money too, and
we felt the fluctuations of exchange severely. Anotlier
thing began to trouble us, and this was the ir-
regularity witli which we reccivoil our salary. Some
times the estate was in arrears for want of ready
money, and we suffered with other creditors— the
chetties, and the coolies. No irregularity, however,
was allowed in the payment of the interest. The
money had to be ready to the day, and each
time as the date for payment drew near; I was tor-
mented with anxiety lest the money should not
be forthcoming.

As the lirst signs of hard times I reduced my
establishment, and cut down all unnecessary ex-
penses. I sent away two ayahs; who were receiv-
ing, according to Ceylon custom, li'i.") and R20 a
nronth respectively, and took a good Englisli nurse
on K30 a month. She not only saved me in the matter
of ayahs, but she also he Ipcd me to do without a
tailor. In a climate like ours she could stir
about, aud do as active a day's work as she could in
England. I sent away my experienced cook,
and took a raw hand, at a fourth of the cook's
wages, and taught him to cook. My husband sold

his remaining pony, and learnt to walk his twenty
miles a day, when necessary, with the gi-eatest
ease. I liad always kept cows and been fond of
my dairy, but, hitherto, I had used the cream,
the butter and milk in the house. Now, I de-
termined on turning my dairy pro luce in;o money.
I knew I should lind a ready market for my
butter in Kandy or Colombo, as home-made butter
was a scarce commodity. It might be thought
that in such a green Country as Ceylon, where
every square inch of soil is covered with veget-
ation, cattle would flourish on the grassland, and
that good milk and butter would be plentiful. But
it is not so. There is a certain supply of milk,
but it is from native cows, and the butter is no
better than ordinary country butter in India.
The cattle are small, and yield poorly, the grass-
land in the valleys is so infested with leeches,
that it is almost useless as pasture for cither
sheep or cows. The leeches enter their nostrils, so
that they are tormented into a restlessness which
keeps them thin and unnourishcd. The patanas are
also undrained, and a cow will sometimes lose
its lite through getting bogged ; and they all
suffer from the damp. I had always kept line
Mysore cows, which now stood me in good stead.
I had a small piece of upland grass on the sunny
side of one of our upper hill slopes, where it was too
dry for the ubiquitous leech, and here my cows
were herded during the day. At night they stood
in the spacious cattle-shed once full of line o.-^en,
but bare and empty now, in these poverty-stricken
days. I was obliged to supervise everything per-
sonally, as I had rascally herdsmen to deal with. I
saw the cows milked, and led, and I saw niy butter
made, packed off for sale. I still had plenty of
milk for the children, although it was no longer
new. In our cool climate it was perfectly sweet
after it was skimmed, and it made excellent pud-
dings, and bread-and-milk breakfasts and suppers
for my hungry little brood. I sacrificed my flower
beds, and turned three (piarlers of my garden into
vegetables, which also found their way to Kandy
and Colombo. And we gave up whiskey and beer:
This was a great saving ; not because we were great
drinkers, but because our friends who came in
frequently had to be entertained, aud our bill for
liquor was sometimes alarmingly heavy. Whilst the
whiskey was in the house I could not help offering
it, but when it was not there, I could honestly say
I had none to give. I was very sorry to have to
pursue this course, but it was absolutely necessary
if we wished to keep our heads above water. My
husband was quite ready to become an unpledged
tee-tolnliet till better times c.xme, but he often
found it very hard not to be able to offer a drink to
thirsty friend who had called in on his way by.

So, by hook or by crook, we managed to tide
over stormy times, wlien we had to see people, as
good as ourselves — perhaps better— irrevocably
wrecked. Sometimes I used to wish that our estate
would serve us as others were being served, and
put us through the Bankruptcy Court. We seemed
to be only throwing good money after bad : and
screwing and pinching ourselves to feed a horse-
leech's daughter, which ever cried "give! give!"
It we had invested our £2,000 legacy in some safe
security at tlie outset we might have been in re-
ceipt of £100 a year from it ; and not only that,
but we should not have been burdened with a del)t.
We were virtually [laying fl20 in hard cash per
annum for the luxury of having received a legacy
of £2,000. We pulled through some very severe
years, thanks to good healtli, youthful hope,
and luck. Our luck consisted in not being
sent adrift. Most fortuntitcly for us, the owner

•JANUARY I, i886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

453

of the estate my husband was working had
other sources of income, and he was able to
remain in England, and aUow us to continue
working the estate for him, although, as I^ said
before at a reduced rate of salary, and single-
lianded. Three years ago, just as we were won-
dering for the twentieth time if our little pro-
perty was worth holding on to, came a perfect
godsend to us, in the shape of a gift of money.
My father, whose sons and daughters were now off
his hands, sent us toOO. I was for paying off
the second mortgage with this sum, but my hus-
band said no, he must have the money for tea.
Tea was the new hope— we ought to miikc one
more effort on behalf of our children, and try what
tea would do. As for the mortgage, if we could
only hold on indefinitely it would one day be clear-
ed off by a little inherited money we might ex-
])ect to receive in the ordinary course of events.
Toil was sure to pay, as it had been tried in the
island in a small way for some years previously,
and had shown no signs of failure. It was said
to grow better at an altitude of 1,500 feet than
lower down. Our land would he exactly the right
soil — and so forth. It was the same old tale,
and it all looked so plausible on paper. I am
learning to distrust e^-ery speculation that has to
be worked out on paper. As soon as tlie planter
brings out his notebook and pencil, and goes in
for a golden dream in figures, I only see in it
a fatal and delusive road to the Fiscal sale and
the Bankruptcy Court. The ,£.500 went in tea
plants, and I smothered my anxieties once more
in my household duties. Three years have passed,
and i am beginning to allow hope once more to
spring up in my heart. What coffee there is on
the lower slopes pays for its weeding and gather-
ing. The cinchona stands, representing a certain
sum, and yielding bark each season. And the
lea is really and honestly flourishing, though I can
hardly believe it to be true. At present, we sell
ihe green leaf, and pluck very carefully, as the
bushes are quite young, but every month we can
see their increased gi-owth. If no canker, no bug,
no borer, no leaf disease, and no great depression
in price comes to work ruin once more, we shall
escape shipwreck, and bring our vessel into har-
bour. But we must not look to tea for a fort-
une. Tea, even on paper, will not pay as
coffee and cinchona promised. The most we
can hope for is a competency in our old age,
which will bo an equivalent for my Anglo-
Indian brother's pension. We shall have one
advantage over the Anglo-Indian, our income
will not die with us, but will benefit our children
after our death, and provide an occupation for
one at least of them.

My story, so far, may sound like a warning,
but it is not meant for that alone. I would not
only point out what is to be avoided, but what
is to be grasped with judgment and prudence.
There are so many estates in the market, so many
abandoned bits of land which might be bought
cheaply, and opened up for tea, at far less ex-
pense than jungle. Money is scarce in Ceylon just
now, and capitalists at home are thoroughly afraid
of having anything to do with estates there. They
are too far off to be able to look after their
money. But for men Like retired officers, who have
time at their dis)>osal, and who have their pen-
sions to back them, it seems a likely field for
moderate success. If the retired officer is to be-
come an agriculturi'it, it is piobal)lc that, from
his previous knowledge of India, he will make a
far better colonist for Ceylon than the raw youth
from England. He will not have such a rough

life to contend with in his old age as in Australia
and New Zealand, nor will he have to see his
daughters become drudges in the house, for want
of projHT servants. It is very pleasant to hear
people talk of the dignity of labour, and so forth,
but it goes against the grain to see carefully educ-
ated gills labouring in the kitchen with dirty
saucepans and buckets of waters, doing work which
the most ill-educated woman could probably do
better. It is possible in Ceylon, as I have found
out by experience, to do a great deal in the house
oneself, and conduct the housekeeping on strictly
economical lines, but there are always servants to
be got to carry heavy buckets, and do rough work.
It would be easy for the retired officer to reside
in the island on his pension whilst he looked
about him. Most of the planters would honestly
give advice, or relate experience to a neighbour
who sought instruction and information. Being on
the spot, he would be able to see for himself what
his projected investment was like, and all the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of climate and situ-
ation. He would be able to make a civilized
and happy home tor the sons who failed in their
professional examinations at home, and see
them on small estates of their own before
many yi>ars had passed over his head. I
do not piTtend to say that they will make their
fortunes, and it will be a mistake to start with
that idi^a, but they will make an honest living,
and, after all, that is only what forty-nine colon-
isls_ out of fifty accomplish. Of course I do not
advise any one to follow our example. I have
given our experiences, and our tollies, just as
they stand, that others may know what to avoid.
Above all things, I would caution young and old
against raising money on mortgages. They have
proved more fatal to the Ceylon planter than
bad seasons, insects, disease, or anything else.
It is also a most excellent thing — and this holds
good all over the world— never to live up to one's
income. — Mndnis Mail.

WiOF.s IN Tk.v Gakdens. — The Superintendent of
the Darjeeling Tea Company has issued circulars to
planters in the hill portion of the district, asking them
to combine ami follow the movement initiated by
the Terai planters and the majority of those in the
Mahanuddy Valley, tor the reduction of cuolies'
wages by Kl all round during the five cold weather
months. Upon this the local papers observes : —
" That Mr. Harcourt's proposition is feasible is be-
yond question, if only planters would be true to
themselves for once, would bury petty jealousies
and personal spites, and unite for the common
good. The Parjeeling Company is the largest as
well as the most liberal employer of labour in this
district, and when the superintendent can see his
way clearly, as he evidently does, to what is
practically 2 per cent saving on garden working we
say without hesitation that those employers of labour
who do not back the Darjeeling Company up in this
movement will be making a most serious mistake.
If (he coolies were underpaid or overworked we
would hesitate in advocating a reduction of wages,
but knowing practically how well off the tea garden
coolie is, how nmch better off he is in every way
than the ordinary farm labomer at home, and how
infinitely better off he is than in his own country,
we say without fear or hesitation that if the em-
ployers of labour in this portion of the district do
not follow tin; lead set llieni, they will only have
to thank themselves for the results of their re-
missness hereafter." — fioneer.

454

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886,

VITALITY OF SEEDS.
■\Vit.h very few exceptions all seerls retain their
geimiuating jjower for at least a year under ordinary
conditions; and, when placed in eircuuistances sjiecially
favourable, they remain fresh for a very lengthened
period. Several remarkable instances of this have
already been mentioned, but cases even more remark-
able tliau these are recorded. In the ground, when
buried deeply, the length of time seeds will retain
life is indefiuite — according to some authorities, even
luiliinited. The accounts of seeds which had^ been
taken from ancient Egyptian tombs germinating on
being placed under favourabli^ conditions, and other
similar cases of an astonishing nature, might be men-
tioned. These are, however, of little or no jiractical
moment, beyond showing us how wonderfully tena-
cious of life is the tiny germ which lies enclosed in
its often thin and delicate wrappers. How long a
seed will remain good when placed umler the con-
ditions sujjplied in the seed-house, or when sown and
treated for gei-raination, is a question to which we
may turn for more u.seful information. A seed, when
properly matured and kept dry in an even and suit-
able temperature, will remain healthy for a n\ore or
less lengthened period, according to whether it is oilj'
or starchy, or whether it belongs to the exalbumin-
ous or tlie albuminous kinds. Oily seeds usually perish
in a comparatively short time, so that it becomes
necessary to sow them as soon as possible after they
are ripe ; such seeds are those of Tea, t'offee, Oamelia,
Theobroma, Acorus, Brazil-nuts, AValnuts, &c. Seeds
of a starchy nature are generally much longer-lived.
It is, however, impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line
between long-lived and short-lived seeds, as there are
so many conditions other than those we perceive, and
often aUogcther beyoud our control, which affect the
vitality of seeds. Lindley says :— " Seeds are probably
possessed of different powers of life, some preserving
their vital principle through centuries of time, while
others hai-e but an eijhemeral existence under any
circumstances. Tlie reasons for this difference are
unknown to us." In the case of many of our mo.st
popular and long-cultivated plants, however, we have
data sufficient to enable us to perceive how long their
seeds may be expected to remain capable of germin-
ating. The following list was prepared by the well-
known seed merchants, Vilmorin-Audrieux & Co., of
Paris, and with it is incorporated a portion of a list
printed in I'.urbridge's Propagation and Improvement
of ritints:—

AvEIlA(iK DlIR.\Tl0N OI- THE GERMINATING
rOWER OF THE SEEDS OF SOME CULTIVATED pLANTS.

Years. Years.

Acacia many Lentil 3

Alder ... 1 Lettuce 5

Amaranth ...

Angelica ...

Anise

Artichoke ...

Aster, China

Asparagus ...

Balsam

Basil

Beans, Broad

Beans, Kidney

Beetroot

Borage

Burnet

Cabliage ...

Capsicum . . .

Caraway

Cardoou

Carrot

Chervil

,, Tuberous
(Uiicory
(■orn Salad...
('ress

(_*ucumber ...
Egg I'lant ...
Endive
Leek

many

Jjentii

1

Lettuce . . ,

S

Maize

1

Mallow

3

Marjoram ...

5

Jlelon

1

Mustard ...

4

Nasturtium

many

Onion

0

Parsley

6

Parsnip

3

Peas

5

Potato

3

Purslane ...

o

Kadish

5

Kampion ...

4

Rhubarb ...

2

Kocket ...

7

Kosemary ...

4

Salsify

•)

Savory

1

Scorzonera

,S

Scakale

5

Sorrel

5

Spinach

5

Strawberry

7

Thyme

9

Tomato

2

Turnip

5
5
5
2
3
2
.4—5
4
S
5
5
3
2
4
3
2
3
3
2
5

2-3
. 5
. 5

The above table docs, not prufe.ss to give in every
case the longest time possible for the seeds to re-
main good, but only the average time during which,
mjder the conditions supplied in an ordinary st-ed-room,
they might be expected to retain their ]>ower to
vegetate. Cabbage seeds have been known to germin-
ate after being kept for ten years, and Kidney
Beans after five years. As above stated, the conditions
which affect the «luration of life in seeds are too
often beyond control, or altogether liidden from us.

It has been already pointed out that imder cert-
ain conditions some seeds will remain dormant iu
the ground for along time without lo.>-ing their \itality ;
in like manner seeds will sometinu-s lie for years
without commencing to grow, e\en when the con-
ditions under which tlu\v are placed are what we
consider favourable to germination. Lindley mentions
various instances of this, all tending to show how
necessary it is to have i)atience in the management
of seeds, and more especially when the age of the seeds
is miknown. O'd setnls always germin.-ite more slowly
than young ones ; the hardeuing of the testa or .seed-
coats through long exposure, no doubt, accounting to
some extent for their tardiness iu starting. ]iy steep-
ing in warm water or by removing the outer shell
from seeds, germination, as shown above, is much
forwarded. Fruits of Hawthorns, Hollies, Birch, and
other hardy berry-bearing trees are generally subjected
to a softening piocf'ss before their seeds are sown.
This proces is what is termed the '■ rot-heap," and
is managed as follows: — The fruits are gathered in
the autumn as soon as ripe, .and are thrown in heaps,
a ipiantity of .sand, ashes, or light soil is mixed- up
with them by frequently turning them ; they are
I then buried in a pit, or placed in heaps and covered
with turf, where they remain till the following spring.
The whole is thi'u prepared for sowing by partly dry-
ing and then sifting. In this manner the scads are
sepaiatcd, whilst the warmth and moisture in which
thi-y were stored through the winter has softened
the liaril shell of the .seeds, and, no doubt, has excited
the germinative process.

Seeds of plants belonging to the Ranunculus and
Primrose families sometimes remain in the ground
for several years without moving. Mr. Anderson-
Henry states that some seeds of Ranuncidus Lyalli,
the Shepherd's Lily, sown by him in lt^78, did not
germinate till 1S81 ; and in the ease of seeds of a .second
species of Ranunculus, germination took place four
years-and-a-half afterwards. The same extraordinary
slowness has often been observed in seeds sown at
Kew. How far this slowness to vegetate may be
considered as natural to the plants, or whether it is
due to some untoward influence to which the seeds
had been subjected, is not clear. Seeds of Hanunculus
Lyalli vegetated in about eleven months at Kew. I
suspect that with most of those plants the seeds of
which usually remain in the soil a long time before
growing, it would be better to sow the .seeds immedi-
ately on their becoming ripe. Mr. A. Henry found
Primula japonica and (Gentians slow to germinate, but
when the seeds of these plants are gathered and
sown as soon as ripe, they generally germinate in a
few weeks. It is saiil that Colchicum-seeds generally
take over two years to start into growth. It is always
best to select the largest and heaviest seeils in all
cases where robustness of growth is the first aim ;
.smaller seeds being slower to get away, and contain-
ing less vital t'orci; than lar^jer ones of the same kind.
It is also supposed that large seeds retain life for a
longer tinui than smaller ones do.— W. \\'atsi).n, in
" Cassell's Popular Cardeiuug."- (>'iic((i»er.<' Chronicle.

Tb)> Kino of the Pvmpkins.— The heaviest Pump-
kin (acconlin^ to M. de Vosl. presented at the Paris
market in 1^84 weighed KtD kilogrannnnus. Translated
into Engli.sh, this means that the (Jourd in iiuestion
weighed abo\it the same as twenty-eight legs of mutton
of 10 lb. each.— GiD'Awfrs' Chronicle.

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

455

MORE ABOUT LOCAL PRODUCTS.
Sir, — Your correspondent " X. Y. Z.," seems to ]
think my assertions about being able to live on local
products iis rather a joke than otherwise — " made mure
in jest than in earnest — a grim sort of humor." I fancy
by the time he has to live on K40 or 1\5I) a month, knock
otf his milk and Latter and all his foreign products,
and go on half allowance of potatoes and liquor, and
after all find himself some K2il to the bad at end
of the month, he will find it a very grim sort of
humor indeed, so much so that it will be all grim-
uess and uo humor. However, let that pass. He
goes on t« say luy narrative is "entirely a myth;"
not possible at all : •' two-thirds of the planter's in-
come are spent on articles that are imported" (in-
cluding rice and flour), ".lud quite unavoidably so, •
unless he wishes to live as a native, wear a comboy
and drink arrack." -'X. Y. Z." is very positive in
his assertions, but in the first place he has forgotten — [
or choo.ses t > !i;nore— my putting Ceylon, India, and i
the .Straits all under the same heailiug of locality j
as the si.ver currency rules iu tlie.se countries alike,
so that lice ainl Hour (forbieadi, which he says will I
always he importe.l, must (coming as it does from 1
Bombay) be put under h':«ding of local products,
and of" course ditto rice, cotton goods, and a variety
of articles which we get from India. He first takes
exception to locally-made boots, and uses some
rather strong language about them, leading to a
belief that he had beeu indulging iu words still
stronger when wearing the boots. For (R?) rupees
sevco he can get from I>. Ca.ssim, outfitter, (Jampola,
a pair of good, strong, well-fitting and good-looking
planter's boots, which will last him a long time, and
save him from breaking one or more of the ten
commandments. .\ud further, I see Colombo men,
visiting agent*, and others wearing country-made boots
very comfortably. This reminds me that years ago
we used to get bools for K3-5(l at Welikada jail,
made by the native prisoners under an European
foreman, who took your measure as courteously as
if he was iu Regent Street insteail of a prisoner
iu Colombo. If I remember right, the clerk of the
works put on 5U cents or a rupee on his own
account, and by and bye got into durance vile himself
for beiut; guilty of emijczzlenieiit. I don't know if
the lambs of W'elikada and the other jails still
make boots; if they don't, there's a tip to lioveru-
uieut iu the way of employment. Suppose they supplied
the troops, say, or the police force, as well as the
general pubUc. If "X. Y. Z." real'y supposes I
meant to imply, he could at once, and for all, give
up imported articles, say, from to-morrow mtrning,
and live only ou local products. I ipiite go with him
iu thinking lie would have a very hard time of it.
It will reqidre time, energy and capital to get
everything started ; and there will lie many failures
before success is attiiued. ^^ait, of all things, he
says, must always be imparted — really now you know.
I venture to sny that iu 181i(), nine planters out of
ten hal bazaar-.salt cleaned and whitened by their
servants. We sent to Saibu for a lb. of .salt and
a couple of eggs, and somehow or another we got
fine dean salt on the table. I have now . serving
me the same oKI boy who .served me then; and
no duubt he will be happy to instruct '*X. Y. Z."
in the art, siy, for a small consideration. Rut that
is not what 1 want. My proposition is that salt
should be bought and refined by the ton under
proper regulations, ami the inipert of " table" reduced
to a minimum. There will be always some products
.;lu:.'iM-r to i-port than to proiiiu^e — and very prob-
ably tatile-salt would be one.

I do not advise "X. Y. /.." to drink arrack. I
.sav we vvaiit a distillery to niiike a drinkable, whole-
sdijif. and cheap spirit. In ^Mauritius 1 have seen
the inland revenue peon chfcking the mauufacttire
of rum on sugar estates — and this rum i.s very
palatable. In mauy places you get rum with a pod
of vanilla steeping in it. 'NN'hy can't we make rum
and put in a pod of Tanilla'i' Why can't we make

a spirit from paddy and from toddy — a spirit we
can drink and can atford'? ''X. Y. Z." says it's an
impossibility. Why':" We have in Ceylon the de.scand-
ants of a Mauritius gentleman, and some of his
coitfi-ivts too, who made spirit out of colfee pulp
long years ago. The Govtrnment of the tlay came
ilow u ou him," seizt^d his still, aud fined him, I
believe, for illicit manuf.^cture of spirit. If I had
said a few yeurs ago "drink your own brewed beer"
it would have been an impossibility, but the ease
is different now; and iu the same way locally-proiluced
spirit is quite a possibility, and I think not a little
singular such an industry has not claimed attention
before.

It is rather a curious coincidence that, whilst my
letter was iu the press, there appeared an account
in one of the paiicrs of the commencement of pro-
duction of dyed cotton goods in India — Rombay, I
think — an<l here is an extract you have quoted from
the Pioneer, a good deal to the point :—" Oll,l)0tl
Rritish troops and l(iO,000 native troops are clothed
and equippeil almost entirely with materials made
by the natives of India, and some 3U()(i(l police are
.similarly clothed. Harness aud accoutrements are
turned out at Cawnpore, clothing from Oudh, tents,
ropes, and blankets by the ton from native work-
shops ; beer brewed at Murree. ; cotton goods for
the million are spun in the country ; woollen goods,
even for the ordinary clothing of Europeans, come
from the looms of Oudh." This latter assertion is
new to me, and comes as an addenda to my first
letter. Imlia seems already to have awakened to
the fact that local productions must .satisfy local
wants. "When will Ceylon follow suit':* Then "X.
Y. Z." will have it jam and sauces must always be
imported, whilst your correspondent ■' Economy"
aays ; — " U. E. speaks of preserves. Surely these can
be locally produced; the ouly objection would be
that sugnr would have to be imported, for Radde-
gama could only supply a small portion of our
wants. Marmalade, I know, can be made better in
Ceylon than procurable from home." I thauk you,
sir, and you might have gone a good deal further,
and mentioned how citrons grow almost wild, orang-
ges of all kinds, aud fruits of every description,
not to mention wild ones, and then peaches. In
T^dapussellawa they grow splendidly, and might
just as well be put into syrup as allowed to drop
and rot. It is a fact within my own observation
that bushels anil busliels of peaches were given to
the pigs at the big bungalow on Delta estate. In
my own garden I have had Seville oranges literally
rotting on the ground by huudreds; and, from what
I have .seen of the old liewaheta and Jlaturata
estates, I should say there is enough fruit grown
on them alouo to supply the wants of half the
European community ot the island, not to mention
the villages of Kaduganiiawa and Kotniale. Eaticy
a factory of the kind in Kandy, employing a lot
ot the needy Rurgher women that have now to
apply to the Frieml-in-need Society ; ye.s, and many
others who have no such need ; aud I go further
still in this matter. I think that Ceylon fruit
preserves might be put into large packages, say,
kerosine 4 gallon tins, and exported iu bulk for
iMoir & Sons or Crosse & Rl.ackwcll to put into
attractive tins ahd jars. The very names, and labelled
" Ceylon," would be sure to procure a rapid .sale. AVIiat
need is there to mention loquots, mulberries, Chinese
guavas, Ice, and even the despised pumalow ; they
are all available, and no one need purchase an im-
porti'd till of jam when once a local factory was
starteil.

"Economy" gives us .a hint about smoked fish
which may be very useful, but there are other
native-cured fish which, good as tb. y are at ]ires,nt,
mav easilv be made better. .Sardiiu-s (Ceylon sanl-
ines) pickled with "goiaka" fruit, I believe, iind
tamarind are very nice, and anyone living in native
houses at lieruwaia will find casks of sni.ill fish .salted
down for use. Then there is (or was) a dried fish
known to Tamils as "sinna karrawaddy," a thick,

456

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

deep fish, slashed across and across and dried, Tliis
JB a capital addition to a curry. Then there was
a fish in Sinhalese very much of the same name
as the ant-eater, " Kabbelawa" I think ; a small
modicum of smoke and less salt would make these
fish very like herrings. But I am only wearying
your readers, and will ouly mention that some en-
terpriziug individual, according to a recent letter
in a local paper, has heen rescuing coast sardines
from the manure manufacturer, putting them up in
tin, and shipping them to Europe. When tbesc
sardines appear in sucli immense shoals ay they do
on the east coast of Ceylon, at times so multitud-
inous that at the point opposite Trincomalee wliere
the lighthouse stands— Foul Point, is if:*— they can
be baled up in hand-nets, and surely some might be
cured iu some way, and turned into food. One would
ntiturally suppose that, when Government instituted
cuiiiig yards for fish, they would likely do it where
there are fish to catch and fishermen to catch them,
instead of at Hambantota, where there is neither
one nor the other, and plenty of sand drifting con-
stantly iu the windy, dry weather to spoil the lot
if it did ever come to anything. I will, if you t}nnk
it likely to interest anybody, demonstrate what I
mean by this assertion. And al.so, if you think fit, I
shall be happy to try ajid prove that the only way
to reduce the price of imported goods is to knock
on the head the "■ general emporiums" of Colombo, and
go into smaller concerns, each sticking to its own
last. — D. E. — Local " Times."

WASTE OF FORTY PER CENT IN SUGAR-

TO THE KJJITOR OF Tiii: *'l-ltoUUCE MARKRT.s' IlEVIEW. "

Sir, — In a late iftsue of your valuable publication
I noticed with satisfaction some very opportune and
pertinent remarks made in the way of comment up-
on the "Circular of the Agricultural Society" of
this island, advocatiug the establishment here of
Central Sugar Factories, &lc. That circular is not free
from mibtukes in some particulars ; chief error, per-
haps, being found in the statement that "only about
tii lb. of Sugar and Molasses are obtained by the
process ordiunrily iu use in this island." It had
previously beeu said that "the Cane in Barbados
contains 18 lb. of crystal lizable Sugar in 100 lb.
weight of Cane." It would have been more correct
to have said, iu 100 lb. weight of juice ; and bett'T
pktill, "containing at lea.st 18 1b. of saccharine matter
iu each U 0 lb. weight of juice;" for although thf o-
retirally, or by chemical aual3'sis, all the sacchariue
contained in the cane is crystaiiizable, it »:> not
possible to obtain practically any such result, a certain
proportion of the saccharine in the Cane juice being
inconvertible Sugar, yielding I\lolasses, and being
lost and wasted in the operations of converting
that juice into Sugar. The statement lust reTirred
to is therefore, to some extent, misleading. How-
ever, the chief mistake is in saying that ''6.', lb.
only of Sugar and Molasses, are obtained," ^c. It
should have been Qh per cent of Sugar only ; for
there are also obtained about 2'5 per ceut of
Molasses, making a total saccharine product of 9
per cent, got out of 18 to 20 per cent which does
exist in good Cane juice. Surely the case is bad
enough, without the argument beiug weakend by
inadvertent statements. 1 beg to forward to you
two slips cut from the Ai/ricidtKral Ueportcr of this
phice, and which give .•*omewhiit elaborate statements
and calculations, treating of the particulars which
have been referred to. The object of those articles
is to demonstrate, once more, that which should long
ere now have been an ailmitted certain fact, beyond
all question, all cavil, and disjmte — viz., tliat Caue
Planters who make Muscovado Sugars by the ordinary
l)^oceb.^, do not get, on an average, mure than (iO
iKT ceut of the saccharine which exists in the Cane.
They loio in absolute waste two-fift)is of the Sugar
in the plant, and they produce an imperfect, impure
article, of whioh, moreover, after all the expenditure

of time, trouble and money used to get it, one-
tentli part is lost through drainage. Yet, who shall
convince such people that Beetroot Sugar, despite
artificial aids, lives upon sufferance, and thrives in
consequence of the apathy, ignorance and obstinate
adherence to routine shown by Cane Planters ? The
Beet contains naturally a far smaller proportion of
Sugar in its juices than does the Cane, but the
beet is induscrially nearly twice as productive as the
Cane. In the making of the Beetroot Sugar nothing
is lost, everything practically is gained; Cane Planters
lose iu sheer waste about one half of that which
Nature has placed in their hands; they will persist
in doing this, and instead of endeavouring to help
therosflves, they howl after fi.scal protection, which
they never will obtain. The Agriculturist Society of
Barbados and the most enlightened men in this
community are quite alive to the truth of the pos-
ition, and are anxious to avail themselves of the
advantages offered by the Central Factory sy.stem,
which is an application of the wise and efficacious
principle of a division of labour. But it is to be
feared that the most .sensible and business-Hke
propositions will fail to overcome the obstacles opposed
by ignorant prejudice and stupid self-sufHciency.
When there are planters who at this day will still
assert that they extract, with their absurdly inetficient
windmills and old rattletrap toy engines, of .'^o much
donkey-power, all the juice that it is possible to
obtain from the Cane (they get in reality 55 to tiO
per cent); when there are men, professing to know
their business, svho declare that they get a yield
from the Cane of 10 per cent and more in Sugar,
when the fact is they gee 6 or G\ per cent, it
is useless to throw away any effort iu endeavouring
to convert such peuple so utterly devoid of common
sense. They must inevitably be stamped out, and
make way for better and more useful men. — I am, Sir,
youfs faithfully, PracticA!. Pr.ANTER.

■*^^* OwM correspondent's facts are confirmed by the
two recent letters he sends from the Karhudos Aqri-
ci'Hural Repori^T, treating of this matter in full
detail, and arriving at the conclusion that HO per
cent of the Sugar iu the Caue is extracted, and 4(1
per cent lost. At the same time, we can hardly
think that any but a minute fraction, if that, of
the Barbadian Planters take the views attributed to
them by " l*ractical Planter," or that they are so
blinded by prejudice to obvious facts as to deserve
the certainly severe remedy of "stamping out," which
he names as their inevitable doom. It is, indeed,
l)retty obvious that it is their poverty, and not their
will, which consents to the prosent deplorable .state
of things, and an assumed stupidity is often service-
able to those who do not wish to acknowledge lack
of cash. The Germans, either by the Strontium,
Substitution, or Osmosis ])rocc.s.ses, now extract the
whule of the Orystallizable Sugar from their Molasses,
and our Cane Planters can do the same. — Eo, P.

SoLPiiiBE OF Por.A.ssiUM. — Your correspondent. Mr.
Badger, calls attention (p. 339) to the use of sulphide
of potassium against tnildew, red-spider, and a])liides.
Gishurst Compound among other ingredients contains
sulphide of sodium; a soluble sulphide has therefore
been a long time iu use. — The luveutor of Gishurst
iu the Gai-denrrs' Clironicfe.

A PKOPitiKi'AiiY mtKPAuTiON brouglit out recently in
Germany under the name of '* Eichelcacao " (acorn
cocoa), and which has been reported on favourably as
yiehling a beverage that has been found useful in
cases of chronic diarrhi^n. especially in children, is
described (PlifUin Ztit., Oct. 24) as consisting chiefly
of cacao powder and an aqueous extract of roasted
acorns, together with sugar and roasted flour added
for flavouring purjjoses. It is said to form a brownish
powder, with a slightly astringent tnste, whicli is
accounted fur by the fact that Professor Fresenius
has found it to contain nearly 2 per cent of tannic
acid, — I'kannaftutical Journal.

/anuary I, iSS6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST*

457

DOUBLE-HEADED COCONUT TBEES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " MADH.\S TIMES."

Sir, — In a place called " Konilall," in Sheally
Tatuq, Tanjore District, close by a temple, stands a
doiihU he<uUd coconut tree bearing coconuts on
hotft- the heads, and to profusion. On enquiring
further, and on e.\amiuiug it fully, there appears
to have been another head about 10 feet below,
which the late storms had crushed down. Thfs is
quite novel, and one will scarcely believe until he
8065. I have seen in several districts date trees
having 2 or 3 heads, but never came across coconut
trees of the description I now see here. It would be
edifying to know the cause of tho phenomenon, and
men versed in gardening will be thanked for enlighten-
ment on the subject. Bauyan trees sometimes take
root in palm trees, the seeds having been deposited
by crows and similar birds, and palmyra trees also
take roots amid the cliffs in large '-peepul," banyan,
and other trees, the results of the acts of inuuceiit
cow-boys, who, after glutting themselves, deposit
the nut in a hole that they may happen to see on
a tree on which they have their noon-day repast of
the sweet smelling Palmyra '•fruit" juice. How
coulil a coconut tree, after a height of 15 feet,
give out another shoot, and another shoot, after a
further height of about 10 feet, is a mystery, to bo
solved.

Ooleroon, Oct. 1. P. K. N. P.

Sir, — If any one would take the trouble of driving
into St. Thome, he would see in the compound of
the church of •' Our i\lother of Clod" belonging to
the lloanese Mission, a coconut tree similar to the
one alluded to by your correspondent P. R. N. P.
in his letter of October 1. This tree has a double
trunk and a double heail too, but, unUke the one at
** Kondall," it does not appear to be a very healthy
tri^e, nor does it yield fruit to any great extent.
St. Thome, 7th Oct. M'lixiE.

THE DISPUTED IDEXTITY OF THE EED
BABK OF THE NILGIKIS.

BV W. T. THISEITON- DYER. C.M.O., F.R.S.,

A^.<ist<mt Diri-rlor, Roi/al Gardens, Kew.

A paper so headed in the fhcnnacc I'.tical Joi'Viml
effectually disposes of the fantasy of Jlr. Cross that
the red barks cultivated on the Nilgiris and in Ceylon
were not t'. snccirrhni but 0. micnmiha. Botanists
like Dr. Bidie and Jlr. Grant Duff gave Mr. Cross
oocular demonstration of his error but all in vain.
Trimen effectually disposed of the matter, and Mr.
Thiselton Dyer's final verdict is thus given : —

*• At Kew we had exceptional opportunities for testing
immediately the accuracy of Mr. Cro.ss's statements.
Colonel Beddome had sent us a splendid set of ilricd
specimens of every cinchona form grown in the
Nilgiris, on which we reported early in 1882. Besides
these we posses in the case of C. micrantha authentic
specimens of the South American plant collected by
Weddell and by Pritchett, in addition to what is
presumably a type from Ruiz and Pavon's herbarium.
Besides abundance of Indian specimens we have one
in particular known to have been raised at Ootacamund
from Pritchett's seeds, and the accurate determination
of which has been verified by Howard. In this case
of C. sitccirtfhya we have Spruce and Cross's own
specimens from the slopes of Uhimborazo and a speci-
men, presumably from Ruiz and Pavon's herbarium,
verified by Howard. Colonel Beddome's admirable
specimens were carefully examined by my colleague.
Professor Oliver, the keeper of the Kew Herbarium,
and he found no reason to' doubt that the species of
Cinchona which passed as micrnnthi and .•tt'ccintbra
on the Nilgiris were what they professed to be. Dr.
Trimen, the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens,
Ceylon, also examined them (together with the further
set collected by Dr. TJidie) with mo while he was
at home on leave in 1882, and we could see our way
to no other conclusion."
58

, -LIQUID EXTRACT OF CINCHONA,

! A paper on this subject by Professor Redwood
appears in the T/i<tnn,u\iitu-a! 'joiinwl, but it is of
too technical a character to be extracted. By the
agency mainly of hydrochloric aciil and heat 90 per cent
of the alkaloids are obtained from powdered bark.
But the Professor states : —

"In the.se experiments I have exclusively used red
cinchona bark, good samples of which may be readily
obtained, especially among the barks taken from
cultivated trees. Those on which I have mostly worked
have been quilled succirubra barks, containing from
5 to 0 per cent of total alkaloids. Jlost of the
samples of Hat rod bark I have met with have been
South American, and have been deficient in alkaloids,
but unduly rich in (piinovin and cinchona red, two
of the constituents of cinchona barks that arc least
credited with any useful properties. I would suggest
that for this and other siniiliir purposes in pharmacy
i|uillcd red bark only should be used, and that it
should contain from 5 to (i per cent of total alkaloids,
of which at least oue-half should consist of quinine
and ciuchouidine. If this proposition were acceded
to it wnulil be the duty of wholesale dealers to select
bark, of the specified description, while it would be
the duty of those who might have occasion to use
it in the production of pharmaceutical preparations
to satisfy themselves that what was supplied to them
corresponded in characters and properties with that
which was officially reipiired." We may add that Dr.
Paul and othir eminent chemists were incredulous
as to i'O per cent being obtained and olijeeted to
hydrochloric acid. It is the main agent employed by
Blr. tiammie at the Sikkhim manufactory of mixed
alkaloids, sulphuric acid being used to precipitate.

^VITHEKING MACHINES.

Blr. John tireig, .luuior, for John Greig & Oo.
writes a cm'ious letter to the Indian Tea Gazette,
portion of which we quote, with the remark, that if
all which is stated is corre(rt it is strange the Geylou
press has not been furnished'with the information : —

The XL-.\TjIj Drier and AVitherer is now complete,
and together with a wliole set of simple and economic
Machines are now at work in Natal (XL-ALL and
factory-shafting lately sent there) besides siugle
Machines in nearly every district ; also a whole set
for every stage at Messrs. Jas. Brown & Co., Uatton,
Dikoya, Ceylon, who have lately sent a report on
the Withering and Drying by XL- ALL, together
with samples of tea from the bulk and unassorted,
just as it was dropped out of Machine. Report says,
actual results of first attinipt, without practice,
gave, as a self-acting Drier, 130 lb. dried perfectly
in 20 minutes. All the samples are marked leaf
i''ltlu.red (while in a wet state) and dried by XL-
ALL, withering a maund each fill of Machine in a
few minutes. A note in Report stati's that we find
that the leaf that was withered by Jlachine, and
after rolling same by our Link and Ijcver ]\Iachine,
takes exactly the same time tofrrnu^it as leaf withireU
■natnraUy by the ordinartf Cleans. I now como to the
report on the bulk ami unassorted samples of this
.same tea by Messrs. Geo. \\'hite & Co., of London.
" Ceylon tea, black greyish curly, brii/lit infused leaf,
hri-^k and pungent jhivor, prices up to I'lfk/. per lb,
in bond." The point here in evidence of its being,
as your correspondent, like many other unprejudiced
and thoughtful Planters ardently desire, is the
character of all the five sain])les Uriiikt infused leaf;
there is also the verbal evideiu^e of the taster of
the Civil Service Stores, London, that he never saw
a more regular fermfntntimi or a hrif/htcr liquor.
What does this show, but the most perfuct wither-
ing (by fire heat) and more rapidly and without
labor than any thing else in existence. From the
fact of mo It)" dried in 20 minutes, and with practice,
Messrs. Brown .say they will be alile shortly to declare
better results; it shows by the character brisk and
pungent flavour, a first-class Drying Machine. But
they say as » Withering Machine alone it ought to

45«

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Janoarv r, 1886.

tpke. It enables Planters to make first-class tea
(luriug any kind of weather, be it rain, fog or sun-
fhine, as air of any degree of heat can be used
ueciiriiingly, and they can time t!ic withering to the
vuUing and, save all chalouies, lofts, large sheds, their
aniHiid repairs, labor, and worry infinite. It is a rapid
D.'.vlng M;ichiue one minute, and a splendid ^yitbe^-
ing Machine the next. Any degree of withering can
be given ti) prevent frothing and loss of watery
juice, particulary at the first of the Assam season ;
concentrates the mucilageuous matter in the leaf,
and holds the roll; rolls up quicker, gives bright
llowery or orange nibs, enhances the price of the tea.
I apologize for this long letter, but your corre-
spondent's exclamation — " AVho will come to the front
wilh agood Witherer," has prompted it ; and as a duty
to ourselves and the Tea Industry, and but for that
I would have remained quiescent until the i)romi6ed
still more surprising results, with the staff in thorough
trim and practice in Ceylon, where my system of
fri'sh leaf equalizing (making first-rate etjualized
I'ekoe Souchong, or all the classes, without sitting
or" otherwise, and without broken tea and dust) is
being carried out by my several inventions, and by
instructions given during 12 mouths in our "Works to
a young Engineer who is now there.

THE AVEST INDIAN CEDAE (OEDBELA

ODORATA).
This tree is a native of Jamaica, Ouba, Antigua,
Mexico, &c., and grows to a height of 80 feet or
more, with a diameter of from 3 to 5 feet. It is a
near ally to the Mahogany, to which the wood has
some resemblance, though it is softer, rather more
open-grained, aud not so durable; nevertheless, when
properly S'asoned it is a valuable wood, and has an
agreeable fragrance, very uulike that of the fresh
plant. It is used for wainscoting, cabinet work,
drawers, &c., a.s it is stated that no insects will attack
it, on account of its scent. Singles made of it are
reported to be very durable, and they, moreover, have
the advantage of lightness. L\uian, in his Horlus
Jamaicensis, says, " The trunks of the trees often .so
large as to be hollowed out into canoes and periaguas,
for which purpose it is extremely well adapted, as,
from the softness of the wood it is hollowed out with
great facility, and being light it carries great weight
on the water. Canoes have been made of it 40 teet
long aiul G feet broad." It is from this wood that
the C!uba cigar boxes are made, aud the wood is also
imported iuto Hamburg in logs for the purpose Of
making boxes for holding German-made Havauas ;
these boxes are made in exact imitation of those which
come direct from Ouba. The wood reconmiends itself
for this purpose on account of its even grain, freedom
from knots, aud its non-liabihty to split or crack, and
also on account of the ease with which it can be cut
into thin planks, suitable for box-making. Three re-
markable Icjgs of "West Indian Cedar were recently
landed at the West India Docks from Ouba, our at-
tention having been drawn to them liy Messrs.
Churchill k Sim, of Olemeut's Lane, to whom they
were consigned. These logs were from the bases of
three separate trees, and were each of pretty nearly
similar bulk, measuring about 7 feet high, and S feet
or more in diameter. They all had their bark re-
moved, and tiieir pecvdiarity was that instead of tiie
grain running up and down or perpendicularly it ran
round the trunks in a spiral manner. So distinctly
defined was the course of the grain th.at the logs
atracted the attention of the habitual workers on
the timber wharf, and one of the attendants who cut
off a few chips for us from what in an ordinary
trunk would have been the transverse section remarked,
tliat in order to obtain a section showing a lougit-
udinal grain it was necessary to cut it across the
trunk. The three logs were sold by Messrs. ('hurch-
ill & Sim to Messrs. W. Olivir & Sons, of Bnnhill
Kow, who obligingly cut for the Kew Mu.-souiu a large
sUce from one of the trunks. From this it would
seem that the arrangement of the woody fibres of
the trunk was in their younger state quite normal,
but after they had attained about half their fidl dia-

meter, the course of the graia changed from a per-
pendicular to a sprial direction, so that in planning
what must for convenience be called a longitudinal -
section, the course of the grain was out through at
three different angles. A section cut across the trunk
showed 111 decided rings, but a continuatiun of a
longitudinal grain running round the trunk. These
logs, though curious, would bo almost useless for
working, in consequence of the eontiuued crossing of
the graiu. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

"lISE AND COMrOSITION OF (HLOAKE.
In purchasing small quantities of cake, when
a scientific analysis is not thought necessary, it may
be roughly tested by grating (not pounding) a small
portion of it. A kitchen grater will do, .and will
leave the bran and extraneous seeds unaltered. Mix
hiilf an ounce of cake with five ounces of water, and
if the article is good it will produce a stiff jolly,
agreeable to smell and taste. If it has a disagreeable
odour, like that of a stale canary-birdcage, you may
be sure there is a large mixture of camelina seeds
in the cake. A microscope will enable you to detect
the seeds, which are not those of flax ; and after
diluting the paste with water and stirring it, you may
recognize both the sand and the bran, one of which will
sink, the other float. You may test rape cake for
mustard by placing six ounces of cold water aud half
an ounce of powdered cake in a stoppered bottle, kept
in a warm room, when the pungent smell of mustard,
if there be any, will be developed within twenty-four
hours. You may test by tasting too, since rape seed,
thoUj^h pungent in taste is not so strong as mustard
seed, and does not bite the tongue hke the latter.
In the foUowing remarks on cotton seed cake, I
must acknowledge my indebtedness to a useful hroclmre
on " Artificial Feeding Stuffs," published last year
and written by Mr K. W. Jones, the mau.ager of
the Pboinix Oil Mill Company, Liverpool. The best
cotton cake is made of Egyptian seed, which is
more free of cotton fibre than any other. Tea Island
cotton seed rauks next in that respect, and those who
have lost stock from the effect of balls of refuse
cotton, in the stomach are aware of the importance
of purchasing cakes made of superior seed, instead of
a low kind of seed which is covered with dense, coarse
wooily fibre, which cannot be separated from it. Only
high-class cake should be used for stock. Its colour
should be bright green; the LiUl or husk, which is
not removed, as in the case of decorticated cotton
cake, should be ground by powerful machinery that
it may be well pulverized, aud it should be used
fresh, as cotton cake, even of the best quality,
moulds easily, and then becomes unpalatable.

Decorticated cotton cake is now exported from the
ITnited States ground iuto meal, which must be put
into new bags, and therefore costs about 12s. 6d, per
ton more than the cake itself. In regard to an article
that varies so greatly as decorticated cotton cake,
and which has destroyed a great deal of live stock
through its having been too hard pressed, or from a
mixture of unwholesome iiigreilients. the u^otto Vuv-
eut ewjutor should be kept in mind. Decorticated cakes
of variable value contain from 10 to 22 per cent of
oil, 42 to 49 of albuminoids (rendering them most
valuable for manure), and from 3 to 11 per cent of
iiidigestible woody fibre. The buyer may well beware
of tlie Texas cake, which contains the last-named
substance iu excess.

Dr. Voelcker gives the following excellent advice:
"If yon want to improve your gra.ss land. ... I do
not know any fooil more calculated to give an econ-
omical result than decorticated cotton cake, if you
can get it of really fine quality." The nutritious
qualities of the cake, which arc contained iu the
kernel of the seed, aro far greater than those
of the common cotton seed cake, which has the
coarse husk of the seed mixed with it. Nevertheless,
the latter may be recommended iu preference to the
other for feeding on pastures iu had weather, or during
the flush of grass in spring, or when the grass is
watery, ou account of the astringent ijuality of the

r^S-.

iROPlCAL AG-KlCULTURfST.

459

husk, which checks the tenrteney to scour, so common
witli cows at those ptriotls. Ahout 3 lb. per heail per
day of the last-iiapieil cake, or 2j lb. of decorticated
cake, have been recommended, ft seems rather ped-
antic to duide a poraid of cotton cake into two
p.irtfi, as well make two bites of a cherry.

Sir John Lawes has laid down a great deal of
grass land at Eothamstead, and he attributes, the
comparatively rajjid formation of good turf to the
free use of decorticated cotton cake given to his large
dairy cows at the rate of 3 lb. to 5 lb. each daily.

In using cotton cake in yards and stalks, without
an nbuudance of succulents, it should be ground into
meal, and nii.^;ed with ground maize or barley meal,
grains which are rich in starch and other nou-nitro-
gcnous compounds and comparatively poor in albu-
minoi.ls; and with this hint, which is particularly
applicable to the present season, these remarks must
be concluded.— H. E.— Field.

CULTIVATION OF STEAWBEERIES.

Sir,— Would you mind publishing (in reply to " R.-
I,. S." 26lh iustant) the following, extracted from
an old Indian work in my possession ? "Strawberries.
Frmjnriii. — Thi.s pl«ut multiplies itself from runners
anil suckers ; the old plant, after it has ceased bear-
ing, throwing them out. As soon as the rains have
set in, these ruuuers may be remored into a nursery-
bed, for their being more easily looked after, and
should have the space of nine or ten inches allowed
between them ; they will throw out other runners,
the whole of which may be separated, and transplanted
at the proper season.

Soil. — They thrive best in a light soil, witli good
old stable manure, as well as vegetable manure at
first; and as soon as they show a disposition to
(lower, may have old goat's or sheep's manure added
around each plant, a couple of double-hand.iful be-
ing suflicicut.

l.'iiltuif. — In no parts of the Ueccan should the
plants be put out for fruiting before the close of
the rains ; the latter part of September being qxiite
early enough. Suckers that I planted out for experi-
ment at the commencement of August grew to very
fine bushes, and did nothing for ten or twelve weeks
but throw out suckers, which were continually re-
moved, and, after all, fruited badly; the finest and
most prolific crop were got from suckers put out in
the beginning of October. Some strawberries were
gathered in >;overaber from the plants put out in
A\igust, but they were so few as in no w.iy to induce
me to try the experiment again. Varii-ties can only
be procured from seed ; and to procure the seed,
select the finest ripe fruit, rub it on a sheet of paper
and tlry it. When the rains commence, soak the
seed in water, reject all that float; the remainder,
sow in baskets in a light loam, when they will be
fit to remove in about six weeks, and ;thould be fit
to remove into other baskets five or six inches apart,
and taken care of until ready to be transplant<?d
into beds, where they are to remain. As these
plants throw out suckers very fast, they must be
constantly looked after and removed, unless you
have a scarcity of plants. They will coramenco
bearing in six months from the time of sowing the
seed You may, as soon as the rains have ceased,
put your suckers that have rooted, into square beds,
each not hss than ono foot apart five in a row;
this will give you twenty-five in a bed — as many as
can be easily looked after and gathered without
trampling on the bed and thereby iujuring the plants.
AVhere the earth is of a clayey consistence, T have
seen the strawberry cultivated on ridges. Some think
this is a good pl.>n; however it can easily be tried.
It is sometimes necessary, in consequence of flood-
ing your beds, to put tiles under the fruit to keep
it clean, but this also attracts the notice of birds;
if straw or grass is used then the chances are that
white ants destroy your plants. This it is that makes
the ridge system of growing preferred by some, as
they 6»j tUo fruit is clettuer in consfiiuunce. All I

know is, that fine fruit may be grown either way
and if ou ridges, tb.c same distance must bo allow-
ed between the plants as in beds — and, even in
the latter, the plants may be put in raised cones
of earth. The common vegetable manure is all that
is required at first, till near flowering, when a hand-
ful of i-'^at's or sheep's dung should be put around
the plaui, I pening the earth and scraping it togetlier : —
water the plant during the evoniug, and very early
in the morning.

I have known finely powdered sulphur, tied in a
little muslin bag, and used over the plants, beii.--
fical against the ravages of the catei-pillars, white
ants, grubs, &c. Another plan is to have a pair of
English bellows, with the' nozzle fitted with an affair
like the rose of a watering pot. Taking off the
rose, and putting into it a little lighted charcoal, with
some tobacco, begin to puff away at your plant-;,
as much underneath as you can, and you will sonn
clear out your objectionable visitors, A tln'rd plan
is to lay a few cabbage leaves in the paths between
the beds: then after the dew comes, late on in The
evening or very early in the morning, examine yniu-
leaves and you will most probably find a few score
to extinguish. One more is the use of the " Sarco-
stemma ViniinaH' (Hind, name, " Seom"). "Tako
a bundle of the twigs of that jjlaut ; put it into
the trough or jjot by which the Led or field is
watered, along with a bag of .salt, hard packed, so
that it may onlj' dissolve gradually, \rater so
impregnated destroys insects without injuring the
plants. Dry twigs answer as well as green. It abounds
in the Decoan, and all Gogah, and the coast of
Kattywar." — Jxo. Davidson. — Afad,-us Times.

CULTIVATION UF THE OLIVE AND WATTLE.
Two reports furnished recently to the Legislative;
Council of South Australia by Mr. J. E. I'.rown, the
Conservator of Forests in that colony, contain sumo
suggestions which are worthy of much attention from
Australian farmers. It will be remembered that the
International Exhibition of 187i) in this city afTordeil,
by the completeness of the South Australian Court
and the courtesy of the commis-sioner in whose chiirge
it was placed, a comprehensive idea of the suitableness
of the olive for culture in Australia. 31r. Brown, in
a clear and concise style, shows that such culture
should afford good returns for the labour bestowed
on the trei'. Accuding to his experience, the climate
and soil of many parts of .Vustralia arc highly suited
to its rapid and successful growth, and from the
excellent oil which has alreaily been produced in
South Australia from the fruit there is every re.-i.son
to conclude that a highly remunerative and permanent
industry could be established in our midst by the
extensive cultivation of the tree. It is no exagger-
ation to state that both the climate and soil of
Australia are in many respects more generally suited
to fhe growth an.l fecundity of the olive than are
these physical teatures of lis indigenous habitat.
AVhere land is already fenced and cleared the planting
of olives would cost, ordinary farm, labour being
employed, about -lOs. per acre. The trees, planted
2') fei t apart, would give TO trees per acre. They
should come into full bearing between the tenth and
twelfth years' growth, from which tinio the net
yearly proceeds would be about £3 per acre. It is
said that the olive, tree reaches maturity between
the fiftieth and sixtieth year. It, however, continues
to bear prolifically after that period, and has been
known to live until the age of 300 years and more.
There is a great variety of oHves. Some grow success-
fully oidy in moist ami temperate climates, while
others again do best wi'h less moisture .ind a compara-
tively high solar heat. Again, some varieties are
disposed 10 favour soils of a fairly rich charnct.T.
but whici) are free in consistency ; while other vaiietii-s
peter sites where the s.iil is of a warm calciferous
character. From these fact-, therefore, it will b.
seen that in the predilections of the vaiious varieties
of the olive tree, both as ri'gards soil and c'imate,
tbere could b? selected kinds to suit the variouu lo;«I

46a

•¥BE ItROPlCAt AGRiCVLTVmST. [January x, 1886.

physical peculiarities of our vast agricultural areas.
The great ilrawback to the industry is the fact that
a dozen years must pass lieforo a monetary return
can be had for the labour bestowed. Australian
farmrcs aro advocates for quicker returns, but, neverthe-
less, they might in that leisure time which occurs
on most farms devote a few hours to the planting of
olive plants, the cost of which Mv. Brown estimates
to be about 2d. .each.

Many farmers of Australia are fully coguizant of
the ])rofits derivable from wattle trees, although few
have done mucli in the shape of planting. The Forest
Department of this colony is at present making an
experiment with wattles on the vacant ground along
railwoy lines; and ]\Ir. Moses, a tanner of Armidale,
has a wattle farm. Mr. Brown shows on paper that
wattle cultivation, although years have to elapse before
a return can be expected, is a branch of agriculture
which will pay handsomely. He says : — " At the
distances apart which I recommend the trees to be
grown — namely, 4 feet to 6 feet — there will be an
average of 1,200 trees to be the acre. In order, however,
to make due allowance for barks, I shall base my
calculations upon there being 1,000 only to each acre.
At the present time bark is selling at £7 10s. and £8
per ton, and there is every chance of a still higher
pric; being obtained for it during the next few years.
Still, to be on the safe side, I will put its value
down at £5 per ton only. I give five tons as the
probable yield pes acre. That this is a low estimate
will be admitted, when it is considered that this
only allows for 101b. of bark to be takei^ from each
tree. I shall now give a statement of the probable
revenue and expemliture during a period of seven
years, in connection with a wattle plantation, formet'

upon 100 acres of land sp'

purchased for the

purpose, and upon which wattles hail not previously
grown." The expenditure, allowing £3 per acre as the
price of the land, would be .£1,792; the returns would
be the value of .500 tons of bark, £2,.500 : value of
property, say £400 : total, £2,1)00. The profit, therefore,
would be £1,108. The report upon the subject is one
which will repay perusal. Copies of it may be easily
obtained by those persons who feel disposed to learn
more about wattle culture. — Si/djiri/ J/nil.

KAINIT AND ITS VALUE.
Among the fertilizers that are less known to the
general farmer than it should be, and hence not jiro-
perly appreciated, is the < lermau Kainit. Its use in
Germany has become ijuite general, .and in this couu-
try its use is rapidly increasing as its value is be-
coming better known. Kainit is a mineral salt found
in Germany at a depth of frnm 30o to 1,200 feet
below the surface and in such ahtuidance as to be
practically inexhaustible, being found and mined near
Strassfurt; it is also called Slrassfuit Salt.

Its great fertilizing power is largely due to the Urge
amount of sulphate of potash it contains as well as
other chemical salts. It is imported into this country
finely pulverized, and put in sacks of 200 pounds
each, and is of very easy application.

I copy from Bul!etin No. XXVII of the New
Jcr.tey Agricultural Kxporimont Station, its report of
the amount (A potash that kainit coutain.s, " Station
analysis No, 411; Kuinit, Alexander Kerr & Bros.,
I'hilfid'Jlphiai Potash per 100 pounds of Kainit 12 80
{jounila ; cost of potash per pound 03'!) e ; co.«t Kainit
ilO-tiO pet toti."

I give tUe ftnalysia of that of Alexander Kerr &
tiros, because it Is flrst on the list and also being
snpciior. A full analysis gives the following compos-
ition (lerton of 2,(J(l0 pounds.

Sulphate of Potash 4S3 pounds.

(, ,i Magnesia ;. 28(3 „

Chloride „ , 252 ,j

„ ., Sodium J 640 „

Comnion Salt J

iMoisture ... 2SS „

Insiduble <•• 3S „

Total,

.2,000

/;

It will be seen by the analysis that the quantity
of the Sulphate of I'otaeh Is very large, and that of
the Sulphate and (Chloride of IMaghesia also large. '
The salt, G40 pounds, is also in most cases valuable,
leaving only the moisture and insoluble matter a trifle
over 300 ]3ounds that is valueless. The mauurial value
of the potash in Kainit can be easily undcrstoo«l by
comparing it %vith ashes. Unleached ashes, as usually
sold in moist condition, contain, on an average, of not
over 5 per cent of potash, or 100 pounds per ton.

Kainit, by the Station analysis, contains 12'80 pounds
of potash per 100 pounds or 25(3 pounds per ton. Leached
ashes often contain less than 30 pounds per ton of
potash. Kainit at SIO'OO per ton, good wood ashes
should, to be equal, be worth S4-00 per ton. The
value of Sulphate and Oliloride of Magnesia, supply-
ing as they do Chlorine Sul2)huric acid and Magnesia,
in soils that are deficient in them is sometimes worth
the cost of the whole. Kainit is also valuable to mix
with compost or for stable use, to absorb bad smells
or prevent the escape of free ammonia.

For the above uses it is superior to land plaster,
being more soluble, and also from the disposition of
the Sulph.ate of INIagnesia with Ammonia to form a
double salt of JI.igne.sia and Ammonia, fixing all es-
caping smells and free Ammonia.

Kainit, similar to ashes, is caustic, and must not
be put in contact with the roots of plants, for when
applied in so concentrated a form it will burn the
plants as quickly as ashes. The best plan to apply
Kainit is to sow it broadcast over the land as evenly
as possible at the rate of 200 or 300 pounds per acre,
as long before the crop is planted as possible, but if
that cannot bo dono it can be sown after the crop
is planted, and will mix with the soil while cultivat-
ing the crop. I have used sLx tons of Kainit on corn,
beans, potatoes and buckwheat with the best of re-
sults at the rate of 500 pounds per acre. A smaller
quantity oftener applied will be better in most cases.

On fruit trees its value cannot be over-estimated,
especially on peach trees. I have a small orchard of
300 one-year-old peach trees, that before I used the
Kainit were yellow and sickly-looking. The leaves
were all curled, and were so hopeless-looking that
I was advised to dig them up and burn them. I
applied .^00 pounds of Kainit broadcast per acre, and
as much more in a circle of four feet around the
tree, carefully spread, and on the balance I used a
peck of fresh wood ashes to each tree.

The change made by the Kainit was complete. No
finer growth of wood and leaves can now be found.
The trees where I used the ashes were, after a fair
trial, so far behind the others in vigor and health,
to save them I used Kainit also, but as yet are be-
hind them in growth. — By Eli Minch, Shiloh, N. J.
— iSot'ihcrn rhinttr,

[(^uery, whether not useful as a manure for tea 'f
witU same soluble guano phoshato of lime and castor
or cococake added. Is there any chemical objection,
such as compounds being formed, to such a mixture y
Mr, Hughes always contended that phosphate of lime
gave all needful potash. — Ed,]

-*

THE ACTION OF ,S.VP,

In a paper read by Professor liobsou, of Kaiisn.'ir
before th« Missisippi llorticultural Society iu January
1884, he brought to notice many facts regarding .s.ip,
which he had personally witnessed, which went far
to overthrow many of the theories e:-tant regarding
its circulation. The old theory was that the snp
ascended was elaborated in the lea^'' s. tlipn <lpscended,
forming wood in its course and became finally lost
in the tree. Now the Professor maintains th:it the
.sap does not descend, but "is iluhoratcd, rctdu^'d,
spread, riiiened and compressed over the entire inner
surface of the tree during its upward flow." Now
this theory is entirely opposed to the old ideas on
tlie subject of the elaboration of the sap; for in-
stance, Liudley a great authority, writes :— It is to
the action of the leaves, to the decomposition of
their carbonic acid, «n(J of their wat«r; to the

January 1, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

4C1

separation of tlic aqueous particles of the sap from 1
the soli'l particles that were dissolved in it. to the j
deposition thus effected of various earthy aud other
substances, either introduced into plants, as silex aud
metallic salt«, or formed there, as the vegetable
alkaloids to the extrication of nitrogen, and probably
to other causes as yet unknown, that the formation
of the peculiar secretions of plants of whatever
kind is owing. Aud this is brought about principally,
if not exclusively, by the ageucy of light." This
idea or theory is directly opposed to the Professors
who distinctly lays down that the sap is elaborated
before it reaches the leaves and is exposed to the ;
light. He proceeds to exemplify his theory by facts.
In the year 1^32, being in charge of a Conserv-
atory, he trained twelve Black Uambourg vines in
the following manner : — The stems were outside the
bouse, the roots in a rich border, at three feet from
the ground the vines branched into two stems each
thirty feet long, one branch of each vine was trained
inside the house, where the heat was early in
February 70'. The other branches were trained out-
side of the glass roof. In a short time the branches
inside, pushed their buds, extended their leaves and
had large bunches of ripening berries, whilst th 1
branches outside, where just beginning to showa
signs of life. In the meantime, the fruit inside
had ripened; the leaves having performed their '
functions, had become yellow and were falling fast;
whilst the branch outside was making vigorous
growth. The Professor asks, how did the descending
sap from the branch inside rush down that three
feet of stem, through which was rushing a resistless
upward flow of sap towards the vigorous branch out-
side i For eight years this trial was repeated, and
yet no protuberance was formed at the junction of |
the limbs, which should have been the ca.se, if the
theory of sap desceudmg was correct. The Professor 1
instances the case of a cherry tree, when some of
it-s branches were enclosed under glass and precisely !
the same effects observed. Again a fig tree was
treated in the same manner, and whilst the figs
inside were being gathered fully ripe, those outside
were hanl and green. Yet another instance, — a lady
trained some branches of climbing rose, through
the windows of her room, and at Christmas when
there was a hard frost outside and not a leaf on
the parent trees, the branches inside the room were
covered with sweet smelling roses I The Professor
declares from numerous examples which he has practic-
ally witnessed, that the theory of the downward
flow of sap is a fallacy, and that to cause an upward
flow, light, moisture and heat are necessarj', for if
these be excluded, exhalation is entirely prevented.
Further, that the flowing sap begins to move in the
upper branches, long before the o..<ceiiding sap begins
to move from the roots. We think the Professor
has to a great extent made out his ca.«e, though
perhaps, the oher theory of the descending sap may
be correct partially. It was always a puzzle to account
for the fact, that in many vineries the roots arc
outside, and when the house is startetl in say Febru-
ary at 70' the buds at once sprout, whilst the roots
which are probably in a temperature of 30" to 40"
and the stems are dormant. The facts adduced by
the Professor of one set of branches outside and
one set inside, explain clearly how the sap may be
ataftcd in the branches before the flow from the
rest* begins. Again, the Teak and Blackwood trees
have (when wounledin the trunk near the ground)
a curious habit of climiualiag from the soil where
none exists to the eye, solid pieces of lime, as
much as four feet in length and six inches in breadth,
now this looks very much as if the lime hatl been
deposited outside of the stem by the ascending sap,
father than by the descending, as the theory is that
on descending the sap is gradually absorbed by the
tree, consoqaently so large an amount of lime would
hardly have been left to be deposited all at one sjjot.
AVe are inclined to think that the truth of the two
theoricJ! lies midway, that much of the ascending sap
does under uertaiu conditions deposit in its upward '

course, and that in certain cases, a residuum of the
sap is left which after being elaborated by exposure
through the leaves finally descends aud is absorbed
in the tree. AVe think the Professor, when he assumes
that nearly the whole of the sap descends, is ascrib-
ing to the other theory, more tlian it claims, or ever
even asserted. Practical planters are very much in-
debted to Professor Robsou for his very interesting
theory and ..> practical results. — J* tauten' Jietietc.

TOBACCO CULTIVATION.

Letter from H. Caine, Esq., Assistant Manager,
Poosa Tobacco Farms, Tirhoot, to the Superintendent
of Andamaus and Xicobars, dated Gth October 1SS5,

I have been requested by the Secretary of Revenue
and Agricultural Department of India to send you
full instructions as to the method employetl here for
cultivating, preparing wjil, sowing, planting and treat-
ment while growing of tobacco. I shall endeavour to
do so in as clear and concise manner as possible and
hope you will have no difficulty in following out the
instructions.

Frepiiiations of So!?.— Tobacco land should be well-
drained upland which has lain fallow some time or
that has had some light crop in it; this land sfaould
be well manured with well-rotted manure. AVe plungli
our lands twice monthly. .Just before the time for
tran.splanting the soil is ploughed up and well pulvf;rize<l
by a henger or beam of wood dri(Rm by bullocks
over the ui>tumed soil so as to bend it and to briak
up any lumps of earth. The soil should be sufficiently
dry for this* purpose so as not to cake and liarden.

Sred-hcds. — These should be made up in a suitable
situation, that is, protected from the hot afternoon
sun, having some building or grove of trees on the
west side. The seed-beds .should be raised some six
inches off the ground and have trenches dug all round
so as to carry off any superfluous moisture, the beds
should be well worked with a kodalie and good, rotted
manure well worked in. After pulverizing the soil
and levelling it, pick off any stones or other rubbish
and it will be ready for sowing the seeil. The size
of the beds should bo about 4 feet x 15 feet; this
is more convenient than square beds as it enables,
the plants to be attended to without risk of destroying
them by trampUng on them.

Soieiny the Seed. — The seed is sown broadcast with
the hand, mixed with .some sand or ashe.s so as to
sow evenly ; care should be taken not to sow too
thickly. About one chittak of seed ought to be found
sufficient for one of these beds which woidd furnish
enough plants for one beegah of land. .^Vfter having
sown and if there is a hot sun. it would be ailvisable
to cover the beds mth light mats. The seed should
germinate in 7 or 10 days at least. American seed
does ; Sumatra takes much longer. The plants may
require watering, which should be done with a wat«;r-
ing can with a rose, when the plants are well up and
large. Only water seed-beds in the evening. As soon
as the seedlings have leaves of the size of a penny,
they are capable of bearing transplanting. Before
taking up the seedling to transplant, water the beds
well an hour beforehand ; this is dona to looseu the
earth about the roots so that the plant* may b«
taken up without injury. To take op the seedlings
they should be seized by the underside of the two
largest leaves by the finger and thumb having one
leaf on each side, not by the stem, then pull up
gently, taking care not to break the leaves. They
may then be placed in an open basket. AVheu the
basket is full, it should be covered with a cloth if
the sun is hot and the seedlings slightly sprinkled
with water and then carried off to tran.splant. The
seedlings are planted out in rows .3 feet x 2 feet
apart, for which purpose a knotted cord is used —
the knots being 3 feet apart. This cord is drawn
by two men — one at each end. Across the field
or portion of the field at a distance of 2 feet from
the outer edge, the cord in drawn out and then
trampled upon by coolies. The knots leave an im-
pression in The soil where the scedliuge have to bo

462

THE -TROPICAL AGRICULTUmST. [Jascasy i, 1886,

plantud. The cortl is theu raised and jiut down again
at another distance of 2 feet from the first and so
on till sufficient land 1ms been marked ott. This
work can be done during the day and the transplanting
in the evening.

Tinmjiladtinij. — Transplanting should be done in the
evening if there is any sun; in cloudy weather it
can be done all the day long. Eainy weather is
most suituljle as it dispenses with watering and the
plants settle better. A boy takes a basket of seedlings
and walks up the row, dropping a plant here and
there where the marks have been made; he is
followed by a man who makes a hole with a kv.rpie
into which he jjlaces a seedling and theu presses
the soil around the roots firmly with his fingers and
then goes on with the rest. As transplanting can
hardly be done hero without watering, a boy carrying
a can without a rose follows the mau who is trans-
planting and waters each plant he comes across ;
but, as I mentioned above, if the transplanting
could be done in rainy weather, the watering would
be unnecessary. When growing the young plants
require some attention. After the plants have been
planted about a week or so, weather permitting, it
is advisable to loosen and open the soil around them
with a kurpie and also to eradicate weeds which may
appear. Later on a kodalie may be used to work
the earth between the rows. As soon as the plants
have made growth and begiii to throw out (lower or
seed-heads, whick will take place in about eight
weeks or so, they should be topped, viz., the flower
heads should be broken off before they (lower in
this way. The stem on which the head was found
should be seized about two to three feet from the
ground and suapperl clean oif by the hand or fingers.
This toppiuf^ will cause the plant to throw out heavy
leaves. The higher up the stem is broken off, so
will the leaves of the plant become tliinner and
smaller. We generally' leave about ten to twelve
leaves to each i)lant. After topping, numerous suckers
and offshoots will .spring up ; these shouhi be promptly
broken off as soon as they appear, as they take a
lot of nourishment from the i>lant. The plant ripens
in about three mouths. AVe cut here in January,
and none but ripe plants should be cut.

How tu oit ripe plants. — A tobacco plant is known
to Vie ripe if the leaf cracks when taken between
finger or thumb and pressed, and also when the
leaves present a swollen appcarauce and have a bea^y
look. The s1,em when cut is fidl of sap, very thin
rind on edge, the leaves are carved i>ver and look
mottled, the ribs of the plant get brittle and are
easily broken off ; when fully ripe, the plant is cut
at one stroke close to the ground. The best instrument
to cut the ))lant is with a kurpie. When cut, the
plant is allowed to hang over on its side and wilt
or droop in the sun. This wilting takes from one to
two hours according to the strength of the sun.
AVhen sufBciently wilted (which is known when the
plants look drooping and the ribs can be bent slightly
without breakingl, the plants are placed in a cart
and taken off to the curing-house. Plants should not
be cut in rainy or cloudy weather as it is obvious
the sun would not be hot enough to wilt were the
weather cloudy and the rain Avashos off the gum
and thereby decreases the weight of the ]ilant.
Plants should not be cut after the rain uuless the
gum has returned to the leaves which is known by
their stickj- gummy feeling. Trusting the above in-
structions would prove sufficient, I beg, &c.

Bulb ('t.T.TUUK in Holland. — We ijuote the following
detailsfrom the J llustniiion Horiiculc ; — In thirty parishes
in the neighbourhood of Haarlem alone, an area of
ui)warils of 5!)5 hectares is devoted to culture of this j
kind, viz.. Hyacinths, :;;j I hectares; Tidips iinS, Crocus i
7li !^pir;ea, .lloteia, ami Dicentra eollcetively, 22 I
hectares; Narcissus, I); and miscellaneous bulbs, 52
hectares. A hectare is about eijual to 2i acres.— j
Gardtners' Cluonick, •

BRANCHED PALMS OF S. INDIA.

The most extensively distributed Palms in Soutlieni
India are the Palmyra, or £orassus flatillifurmis.
and the Coconut or Cocns nucifera; but of the
several genera, 'the Hi/pltane Thebaica, or Doum-
palm, alone has a branched stem, the division
being dichotomous or in pairs; but there arc ex-
ceptions to the general rule in the case of the
Palmyra and Coconut, which are sometimes found
with branches. Since the subject first attracted my
attention, some two years ago, I have been searching
for these during my peregrm^tions over Southern
India, in connexion with my own immediate work ;
and in that time I have seen some million of
Palm-trees, both on the coast and some hnmlreds
of miles inlaml ; and neither my own researches nor
the results of my iuquiries have enabled me to
trace more than six of the Palmyra and two of the
Coconut with branches. The latter I have not seen,
but have received <lrawinga of them from my
friend Dr. Pulney Andy.

In the Palmyra the branching is irregular; but
in the Coconut the tendency to division in paiis
exists. Twin plants from the Palmyra are very
common all over this portion of India, but such au
occurrence in the t'oconut is a vareity. I ha\e seen
but one instance of it, and that was in my own
garden at Chingleput ; and a couple of humlred
yards from it, beyond my compound, a twin Palmyra
of the same age was found growing.

Since this jjaiitr was written, I observe, from a
late number of the Jfailras Times, that in a horti-
cultural show the other day at Travancore a Coco-
nut was exliibited with five or six shoots growing
out of a single root. At the same time a plant
of th(! Areka Palm was also said to be exhibited
having from seven to nine heads; this is ahso au
exception to the rule.

The following are the localities in which these
branched Palms may be seen ; —

1. A few miles from lyiasulipatam, on the road to
Bintrinully, a Palmyra tree existed with twelve
branches. During the last cyclone ten of these were
broken ; of the remainhig two, oue has withered,
the other exi.sls ; seven of the broken branches are
lying close by, and three stems have been washed
away to some distance.

2. At Palghaut, about three miles from the town,
on the Cormbutne road, and about half a mile frmu
the road itself, exists a branched Palmyra. It is
a twin plant, and one of the two has six branches.

3. At Madura, on the northern bank of the river
Vegay, there is a I'almyra tree with nine branches ;
one is broken, aud the other eight exist ; this is a
male tree, shown in the accompanying woodcut.

4. At IJanmad, on the bank of the river Vegay,
is to be seen a J^almyra tree with four well-fornuMl
branches of equal height ; below the division the
stem is covered with numerous other shoots of
different sizes.

5. Ou the road to Chellembrum from Manargudi,
I am told, a Palmyra exists with branches, which
I have not seen.

6. A Palmyra tree, from Travancore, with five
branches, sent by Dr. Pidtiey Audy.

7. Two branched Coconut-trees, from Travancore,
also sent by Dr. Pulney Andy.

Dr. Pulney Audy thinks that the Palm weevil,
calitndm /mlmdruin, has something to do in the
branching of the Coconut: as it perforates the leaf-
bud, the original beetuues di\'ertetl to one side, and,
he thinks, this in a mea.sure gives occasion for a
second shoot forming. This may be possible ; but it
requires further observation and research to determine
the (juestion.

In the genus I'licrnix the Plutnix acaiilis, Buch, is
common to all the low liill ranges in Southern
India to the height of 6,0011 feet above sea-level. I
have seen it on the Shewauys, Kotagherry and the
Pulney Hill.s, where it grows commoidy and luxuriantly
into a bush caused b^ numerous suckers tluown out
ni ouud it, wuvtUiug like the plontuiii. I bav« couuted

^ANUARV 1, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

463

as many as a dozen suckers around the parent stem
ami, with one exception (on the Pulueys, where a
plant Imd ;itV;iiueil tlie height of 8 feet), the stipe
never exceeileil tl>e heijjht of 2 or S feet; anil in
the exceptiov;il iii«t;iuee where it hail attained 8 feet
there were no suckers around the p:irent stem. Tlie
natives eat the fruit, and are partial to it. The
fronds are also made use of in various ways, but not
t> the same extent as the P/i<(«i> si/(vesteris and
PkamU- dacti/lifeia.

A monstrosity, if I may so term it, ha-s been ob-
serveil as ocuuring in a Coconut Palm, in wliich from
one of the Uowers on "the spadix, a shoot of spring
leaves is thrown out. There is a slijjht tendency to
fructification from the llower, and tlion it is con-
verted into spring leaves, apparently forming a young
shoot. Tliis specimen was taken from a I'oconut tree
in the prorince of Travancore. Thi> plant is of the
usual size of an ordinary Coconut tree ; but it never
puts forth well-developed fruit. On the contrary,
the (lowers terminate in vernal leaves ; thus, at an
average, each spadix or branch bears about thrity
to forty such shoots at a time. The leaves are
generally considered by botanists homologues of the
llower, altliougli their functions are different, the
former being engaged iu the conversion and assimil-
ation of food, whilst the latter takes on the otlico
of reproduction, but the type of all being the leaf.
This frequently occurs in the Jfango-tree, where,
from some inherent cause, the tlowers fail to show,
and their phice is taken up by the pushing forth
of numerous leaves.

Plants, we know, require a period of rest to form
flowers, and this is obtained by the cessation of the
action of the leaves and roots for a time. During
this period the vegetative activity of the sap is
directe>l to the formation of flower-buds ; but should
this rest not occur, it continues to produce new
leaves and roots in the place <if Uowers. Thus the
absence of rain proves sometimes beneficial in arrest-
ing the formation of new leaves and roots ; and
this favours the production of flowers.— ./ow/na/ of-
the Liniuean Societi/.

♦

SUPPLIES OF THE FINER TIMBEKS.
The wood exports from India consist chiefly of
te!>k and sandal-wood. The following table gives an
idea of their importance. (The oflicial years in India
end in March).

ESFOBTB FKOM INDU.

Teak to

1

Other

Ye.ars. l.nited

Other

Sandal-

Ebony.

orna-

Kingdom

woods.

wood.

mental

only.

woods.

1 Tons.

Tons.

£

£

£

1877-78 ' 49,339

1,2;)5

30,306

350

160

1MS-7U 23.479

2,348

30,778

1,581

814

187980 2«,ii57

1,053

37.995

891

193

1,SS0-81 53,71.'5

1,002

2(i,.588

1,091 .

178

18.S1-S2 ■l.s,989

1,273

39,858

937

6,213

1882-.S3 50,231

1,082

40,293

54

35G

1883-84 27/)5(3

1,274

2.5,.'i:i4

197

1,188

Sandal-vood. — The revenue derived from sandal-
wood in the State forests of Mysore is very large, it
baring been a (Jovernmeut monopoly for 50 years.
The tree springs up from self-sown seed, and grows
luxuriantly in many parts. The cuttings were formerly
restricted to 500 tons of growing trees, but iu 1878
this was extended to 1,000 tons extra, making 1,500
tons in all. The surplus revenue was: —

Vt-ars. Surplus. Total Receipts.

l.s:)3-n 12,789 14.079

ISIS-.W 14,568 10,745

^rir,■.^.G?, 17,5.58 29,.i,'i2'

l,S|-,:!.73 23.147 34,2^)

In 1873-79, the sales in Mysore were 1,0S0 tons,
at an average of nearly £34 a ton. In the fnllowing
year 1,39B{ tons were sold at £35 a ton, bringing
in a net profit of £39,431. The marked maturity of the
tree is judged to be a« soon as possible after the

formation of the heart-wood. The crop value of a
fully stocked sandal plantation, cut at 40 years, sup-
t>>.siug it at that time to contain 100 mature trees
per acre, of a net value of £;j each, will be £300 per
acre. The demand for sandal-wood in Europe is
inexhaustible, but it is chiefly sent from Bombay to
China, where it is used for ornamental work of
various kinds.

Indian blackwood (ViMergia latif'iliii), generally
called rose-wood among timber merchants and wurkmen,
is used for furniture; but it is not much iu deniaud.
ThtM-<^ are plenty of trees of it in the fiin-st of Mysore.
Tin: wood is sound and ruus large so that excellent
slabs and planks can be got from it. l<"rom Siam
37,217 piculs (of 1\ cwt.) of this blackwood were
sbi[iii«d in 1870. In 1882, ornamental Indian woods
to tile value of £78,281 were sent to various Presidency
ports, chiefly Kiuubay. What is known as Moulmeiu
cedar is the Toon w(tod of India {('rdrvht toona),
niuversally used there for furniture of all kinds. It
fi'tclies in Uurmah about £0 a ton. If sent in well
stjuared hewn logs about 15 inches sijuare and 12 feet
and upwards in length, it would fetich nearly 3s. a
cubic foot, as a substitute for mahogany. In Uengal,
Assam and Hurmah it grows to a very large size,
trees, 20 feet girth with a height of SO to 140 feet
of clear stem, being not uncommon in forests v/hich
have been little worked, like those in Dumsong a!ul
some parts of the Ohittagong hill tracts.

If it can be delivered iu any large quantity at
Obittagong or some IJurmeso port, it might bo pro-
fitable to send shipments to Londou, though exports
from the forests of Northern India are out of the
question. The S.al timber {Shon'i rohu.sta ), for which
Bengal has been so famous, exists largely in most
of the forest areas. In past days there was much
unnecessary destruction and irreparable waste of these
trees, and it may be doubted whether the timber
resources of the eonntry are now equal to its pro-
spective demand. The boondri trees {HeriliciYt sp.)
of the Soonder-bnus furidsh the best wood for the
boats which are built in such great numbers through-
out Eastern Bengal. Time would fail to permit me
entering into detail on oth.er Indian woo<ls.

Orylon. — The timber trade of this island ought to
keep up and increase in importance for a long series
of years to come. Their extensive forests, of the
more valuable kinds of wood, are as yet practically
untouched iu the Central province, and a proper
system of conservation ought to render them comparat-
ively permanent sourc(>s of revenue to the colony.

New South "WauEs. — The reported area of woods
and forests under the care of the conservator iu this
colony, amounted in ISSl to 3,759, 70i) acres, and
the timber cut from them during the year was
stated at 3,923,727 feet, from which a revenue of
£10,156 was derived.

It is impossible here to enumerate or describe even
the principal woods of this colony. The llooiled gum
is remarkable for its durability as a shiplnulding
wood ; specimens taken from a steamer plying incessantly
for twenty years, were .as sou'ul throughout as when
built. Black iron-bark [Eucult/ptiis Iti'CM.ri/lon) is a
wood of great merit for strength and durability, very
hard and of good colour, but enotniously heavy. It
is very useful to the coachmaker and wheelwright,
and is also valu.able for many purposes iu shipbuilding.
The blackwood {Acacia melaiio.ii/lo7i) is a magnificent
wood for every description of cabinet work, as it
has a beautifully marked richly-coloured grain, which
takes a polish freely, and gives an elVect not even
surpassed by walnut, to which it has many points of
similarity. It is very close graincil and heavy, and
is useful for all purposes where lightness, combined
with strength and flexibility, are required. It is
Largely used by coachbuilders in the colony in evi^y
department of their trade. Tuli|) wood (Iln' pnli'm
jtendula) is a largo tree, 50 to 60 feet high, with a
diameter of 14 to 24 inches. The timber is very
strong, beautifully marked with dilferent shades, from
black to yellow. It takes a good pcdish, and is much
esteemed for cabinet work.

464

THE TROPICAL AllRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

Queensland. — The timbers of this colouy are as
valuable for their variety and use for commercial
purposes as those of the adjoining colony of New
Houth Wales.

The cyprtiss pine {Fresnelia rhoinhoidca) is another
Queensland tree, attaining a height of fifty to seventy
feet, with a diameter of twenty to forty inches.
The linjber is an article of great importance, being
durable, fine-grained, fragrant, and capable of a high j
polish. It is used for piles for wharves and sheathing
boats, resisting the attacks of the Teredo iiav<iliz and
Tirmitef. The root is valued by cubinet raikers for ;
veneering purposes. The market value of this wood
in the cohniy is 10s. per hundred sui)erftcial feet.
Tlie brush or bastard box {T,-ift'nii,i eunfcrta) grows j
to a height of eighty to one hundred feet, with a
iliameter of four to five feet. It furnishes a valuable
timber on accomit of its great durability and immunity !
from wliite auts. As ribs of vessels, it has been |
found perfectly sound at the end of tlurty years.
Beef wood and swamp oak (Casiinrhni ti'riilom, and
C. eiiuisilifolia) give woods close grained and beautifully
marked, and furnish handsome veneers. Kosewood
(Vi/o,ci//ou ]''ri(.icrnnum) is a beautiful wood, dark,
hard, close-grained, fragrant, and, when properly
seasoned, capable of being worked into the best kind
of furniture, and is useful in turning.

Myall (.4c-i(i.-/ii homalopJa/U a) is a dark, close-grained
wooil, well adapted for cabinet-making purposes, but
it is not of large size. There are sever.al kinds of
sandal-wood in this colony. The timber of Exocarpus
latifolia is very hard and fragrant, and e.Koellent for
cabinet work. That of /iantali'M laiiceolatum is close-
grained and takes a good polish. Both these trees
are from fifteen to twenty-five feet high, with a
diameter of six inches. The timber of the bastard
sandal. wood {Ewmophila Mitchelli) is hard, beauti-
fully grained, very fragrant, and makes handsome
veneers for cabinet work. The tree grows to twenty
to thirty feet high, with a diameter of six to twelve
inches.

Western Australia is very rich in good timber,
which is now being largely developed. The forests
of Western Australia cover an area as large as Great
liritain. There are more than 30,000 square miles
covered with eucalyptus, 24,000 miles of which consist
of the white gum (E. rim'nudls) and jarrah (E. mrirg-
iiiiita). The latter is a most important shipbuilding
wood from its imperishable nature and immunity of
attack from insects. The tooart (B. yompkocephnln)
and red gum (E. calophi/lla) are also excellent woods.
The scenled sandal-wood (S'anttdiim ci/iiiwrian) has
for sonic years contributed largely to the productive
industry and profit of Western Australia, but unless
now plantations are formed, it cannot very long continue
to do so, as the distance which even now it has to
be carrieil to the ports of shipment raises its ])rioe
BO much as to leave no great margin of profit. A
scentless .sandal-wood {S. pevsicm-um), called locally
manibon, is very plentiful in the colony, and from
the fineness of the grain of the wood, might be made
use of for wood engraving.

The average consumption of mahogany in the
tUiited Kingdom would seem to be about ."iO.OOO tons,
and the supply appears to be very even, seldom ranging
more than about 5,000 tons above or below this
quantitv.

Veneers are also imported from abroad, but there
are no recent returns of the quantity D:imed obtainable.
The imports were iu

C'wts. Owts.

ISGO :V'01 ISCl 4.S86

l.siu 3,186 18(5.5 4,'Ml

18.i2 3,772 1S70 4,0G3

After 1870, veneers were, by the Hoard of Trade,
.summarised with the furniture woods. The timber
used for veneering in the Uniti'd States is principally
ciirled and bird's-eye niaphs beech, birch, cherry, ash
and oak. These all grow in tlie States, and the
beautifully-marked and grained timber of the American
for>.'sts finds fitting places in the ornamental uses these
veneer are put to.

The finest and most costly of the veneering woods
is what is known as French walnut, but which does
not come from France at all, but from Asia Minor
and Persia. The tree is crooked and dwarfed, and
is solely valuable for the burr that can be obtained
from it. In these large tough excrescences the grain
is twisted into the most singular and complicated
figures, and the symmetry and intricacy of these is
one of the elements determining the value of a burr.
Formerly walnut burrs were in good demand, and
fetched high prices, some rare ones, as much as £10U
to £200; indeeil, one shown at the Paris International
Exhibition in 187S, sold for £1,000, or about Ss. a
l)Ound weight. But now there is very much less demand
for burr veneers in the cabinet trade, the consumption
being limited to pianoforte makers. There are oc-
casionally met with burrs in rosewood and maghogany,
but these are of little or no value.

Oi Satinwood the imports into Liverpool chiefly
from St. Domingo, were in

1877 469

1882 n,320

1883 2,G(i7

The following figures show our supplies of ll'txhint'
wood for a short series of years : —

Imports in the United Kinodom.

Years. Tons.

1860 4,'580

1865 S.GKa

181)9 6.53G

1870 0,;!I5

Ebonij. — Next to walnut, ebony is probably the
most valuable of the cabinet woods. Occasionally a
fine piece is found, that brings even a better price
than French walnut. For a particularly fine piece ,£l
the pound has heen paid, the main thing being size,
for it is difficult to get large jiieces that can be used
without cutting. Prime large logs from Ceylon fetch
readily £14 per ton and upwards. Our annual supplies
of this wood are never large, 1,000 to 2,000 tons
being the greatest imports. The ebony wood of
commerce, so much used for inlaying, is the duramen
of several species of I)ii>:ipt/rox, a very large genus of
trees, natives chiefly of Africa and Asia. From its
hardness, durabiIit)^ susceptibility of elegant polish,
and colour (which has almost become another name
for blackness), ebony has always been held in higli
estimation. Ebony was for a long time supposed
be obtained from Diosplnjroa Ef'i'nastcr alone, but, in
fact, several other species, scarcely differing from
one another, yield this wood, in lutlia, Siam, Ceylon,
the Philipi>ines, Mad.agascar and Mam-itius. The
commercial descriptions of ebony are generally ranged
under three kinds, according to the (;ountries from
whence they are drawn — Jlamitius, East Indian and
African. The Mauiitius ebony is the fiju'st grained
and the blackest, as well as the hardiest and most
beautiful, but it is the most costly and unst)und.
The East Indian is of inferior colour and coarser
grained ; the African is the least wasteful but the
most porous.

DvEwooDs. — Although the various dycwoods can
scarcely be classed as timber, yet a brief glance at
.some of these will not be out of place before I
close my paper, forming as they do inii>ortant foreign
forest products, and our imports reaching iu value
over half-a-million sterling. Loifn'ood forms the prin-
cipal item and has increased rapidly in iiuiintity, for
whilst in 1837. we retained but l.'),000 tinis for home
use ; iu 1850 the quantity exceeded 30.000 tons ; now
the average annual imports ai-e double that amount
as the statistics given below will show. Our sup}ilies
come from Campeachy. Honduras. St. Domingo and
tlamaica. The other dyewoods we import are red San-
ders wood [Pteruearpits saNtn Irons), sappan wood
{Carsnlpinia w/yj/Jd/i) both from India; fustic. {Jfiic'irra
tiiietrrria), from the Spanish JIain and (.'uba; Brazil
wood iC<esafpinia hrasilitiisis), and camwood and
b.arwood (A''i;j///(i nllida) from \\'est .'Vfrica. Nicaragua,
or peach wood, is Cnr.'Mlpinia eclunutin. — P.L. 8lJIJioN'l>S
in Journal of the Socioti/ of Arts.

January i, 1886.] .THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

465

TEA MANCKES.

Ob this subject \vp aiipend an interesting and ira-
povtant letter from Mr. John Hughes, which we
recommenJ to the attention of tea-planters. Castor-
poonac (white) is one of the best applications to
tea, because not only i« it rich in nitrogen (7 to
7J per cent) but it is also offensive instead
of attractive to insect life. The importance of
Mr. Hughes' letter on this occasion lies in the
advice he gives as to the treatment of otlier
manures, such as fish-guano and cattle-dung, so
as to prevent their becoming the food of noxious
insects, instead of benefitting the cultivated plants
to which they are applied. Most of the fish-
manure used in Ceylon comes to us from the
coast of Malabar, where there is a large fish-
curing industry, and, as a great portion of the
fish is cured by being simply placed on the sand
of the seashore, Mr. Hughes' warning against the
existence of sand as a large constituent of the
fish-manure offered for sale is worthy of attention.
The planter having obtained fish guano contain-
ing the minimum of valueless sand, the great
point then is so to treat the rotten fish, rich
in ammonia, as to render it unpleasant to insects :
ants in the lowcountry and lower hill regions and
cockchafer or other grubs everywhere, from sea-
level to the highest altitude at which tea is grown-
What Mr. Hughes advises, and the advice seems
sound and judicious, is, that to fish, cattle-dung
and all amuioniacal substances used as manures
should be added a proportion equal to 10 per cent
of superphosphate of lime. This should be. done
previously 'o application, time being given for the
acid in the superphosphate to jiermeato the whole
mass. We need scarcely point out that the super-
phosphate, besides the specific crt'ect for wliich
M« Hughes advises its application, has itself a
highly important manurial value, containing, as
it docs, some potash besides the phosphatic matter,
wliich will tend to support the trees under the
luxuriant production of leaf which the nitrogenous
castor-cake, fish or cow-dung wiU foster.

We cannot but feel that we and our readers are
greatly indebted to Mr. Hughes for the readiness
witli which he places the results of his professional
kn.iwledge at our disposal. Where tea estates have
boen opened on virgin soil and are still young, of
course the only manurial application necessary is
the burying of primings, weeds and the clebiis of
rotting timber. But a very large proportion of
the tea estates of Ceylon occupy the sites of more
or less old and exhausted coffee plantations. For
such lands the application of manures becomes
necessary at once, if the expense can possibly be
afforded. Tlie usual estimate for old cofitee land
is about 300 lb. of made tea per acre. We should
suppose it quite possible to raise this average by
means of manuring to 500 lb., the qitaUty of the
tea, in respect of strength, following the increase
of i|uantity. The whole ijuestion, then, is one of
comp.iiativo expenditure and additional returns
with higher prices obtained. We well know how
expensive manuring is, not so much in its first
cost and carriage to the estate, as in its apphc-
ation, not to 1,200 bushels per acre as in the
case of coffee, but to from 2. -500 to 1,000 in tea
cultivation. If the necessary money can be oli-
taiued, however, we feel certain the returns would
be profitable in every sense.
69

7',l, Mark Lane, London, R.C.,
23rd Oct(.ber 188o.

lu my runiarks upon Mr. Carter's experiments
(contained in my letter of t)ctober Dth), 1 pointed
out the probable reason why the results of the
application of castor ■pouna(: liad proved more satis-
factory 'lan those obtained frnni the use of bone-
dusl, namely, that, inasmuch as nitrogcMi was
thi' principal m- ■■nre ingredient roi[uired by the
tea-plant, it wu^ only n^isonable to conclude that
the fertilizer which supjilied the largest proportion
of this v.-iluable constituent in a form suitable tor
assimilation was the most suitalilo and economical
manure for tea plantations.

If, therefore, white castor-poonae pontaining 7
to 7J per cent of nitrogen can be purchased in
Colombo at about I{:i.j per ton, it is to be pre-
ferred for tea to bone-dust containing only ;!-70
per cent of nitrogen, and wliich would probably
cost KfiOper ton. In addition to castor, other kinds
of poonac will doubtless be found useful, thus
dried blood, woollen refuse, fish guano (vhich is
finely ground dried-fish), and many other materials
of a similar chniaoter whose value, however, will
be largely regulated by the proportion of nitrogen
they may be found on analysis to contain.

Indeed, well-prepared fish manure free from sand
should be a cheap and readily procurable fertilizer
for tea in Ceylon ; but, it it is used, I should
like to add a word of caution to the effect, that,
if planters wish to benefit the tree, and not to
feed ants and grub, it will be necess.nry to treat
the fish manure with some chemical such as
sulphuric acid or soluble phosphate of lime.
In other words, to mix the dried fish already
finely ground into a meal, with some concentrated
superphospate, say, 5)0 parts of the former to 10
of the latter, and allow the mixture to remain
in a heap for some days before niiplying it to
the land.

In the West Indies, I am infoniu'd, thai in
dry seasons on any soil lish manures have helped
to feed ants rather than to noiu'i--b the sngnr-
c.ine, and it is highly important that planters in
Ceylon should take all necessary precaution.; to
avoid similar result.-i on their tea estates. Of
course, the climate of Ceylon is naturally humid
and long droughts arc very unusual on the hills,
still it is {piite possible that many of the severe
attacks of grub at the roots of coffee trees may
be indirectly due to the in-cvious use of catllo
manure, fish, or even poonac — and that if such
materials were mixed with some superpho.-phate
in a heap protected from the weather, for some
days before application, the future I'esults would
be more satisfactory, and, while improving the
I character of the fertilizer, would also ma'ce it un-
palatable to insects and grubs. This is a matter
I certainly worth the careful consideration of practical
I planters, for it seems a distinct waste of manure
1 to apply it in a condition in which it may con-
tribute food for grubs, itc.

That tea plantations will require manure sooner
or later, there can be no doubt whatever, and
the poorer the soil and the more forcing the
climate, the more immediat? netessity will there
b« for its application, hence the importance that
planters should select these manures which arc
likely to prove practically the most economical.
Judging from the letters I have already received
in connection with this question of tea manur-
ing, it would appear that Indian planters, as we i
as those in Cevlon. ,are lieginni ig to recogniz,^
the future importance of really suitable fertilizers.
JoH.N HuoHES, F.C.S.

466

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

A LOCAL SULPHUEIC ACID FACTOET.
I'or some years past we have -written very freely
respecting tlie great advantages of a local factory
for the extraction of the valuable alkaloids from
cinchona bark, and how by selecting on the spot
the best qualities, we niight produce a febrifuge
that would compete with that prepared by the
best makers in Europe. The difficulties in the
way seeiued to us latterly to be considerable, in
view of local depression and scarcity of capital ;
but we have printed several Iclters from a cor-
respondent who has studied the subject, full of cun-
tidence in the success of the project. Whether
such a factory would answer or not would, we
are assured, depend chiefly upon the management
rather than upon any ijuestion of local climate;
and having regard to the course of the market
there can be little doubt that the present practice
of sending large tpiantities of bark at a considerable
cost for freight into the home market is not
likely to continue long, especially as the price of
the pure sulphate of quinine has become so very
much reduced during the past few years. There
is, however, one indispensable preliminary before
quinine can be extracted on a commercial scale
in Ceylon. It is absolutel)' necessary that sulphuric
acid, connnouly called oil of vitriol, should be
locally manufactured ; for, the high freight of this
article would be fatal to the profitable manufact-
ure of quinine. .\nd even, if hydrochloric (muri-
atic) acid should be found superior to sulphuric
for quinine manufacture, ;...;' the latter acid is
necessary to the manufacture of the former on
the spot, such local manufacture being in either
case deemed indispensable.

It is therefore quite time to consider seriously
the establishment of a local factory for the manu-
facture of sulphuric acid, which shall be available
not simply in the interests of cinchona but also
for the manufacture of a cheap supjilj- of aerated
waters so largely required both for local consump-
tion and for the supply of calling stermers of the
different Companies. The one previous attempt to
establish a local Acid factory failed, because in
reality the project was not taken up by men hav-
ing a practical knowledge of the business. At
any rate it certainly did not fail because such a
factory wi'.s not reipiircd — for in good hands the
results would have Ihcu a decided success. So far,
we have said nothing in reference to the value
of acid for what was the main purpose in view
ten years ago, namely, the manufacture of really
cheap and useful manures for tea, cacao, cinchona
and ci'ffec plantalicns ; but in this respect alone
a ready tjupply of acid for dissolving bones — as
well as for saturating Hsh manures and castor-cake
t\'ith ,• cid sulphate of lime so as to prevent these
hialerals being eaten by grubs irjslend of nourish-
ing the tree—is a matter of great local importance.

A gentlemaji who has by a recent mail com.
ihlmicated wiih us is in constant communication
Vith Acid Facteries ki home, and he has taken
l!." titiuLle to nuike some enquiries relative '.o the
acdml t'r.st for a snuill factory, and in order to b( able
to ;_ive us reli. ble figutes he lias conitnunicatcd with
the authority who prepared (he plans and specific;
Rt'ons for a mall Acid wi rk lecently erected in
Eaibados, West Indies, which hr.s given most satis-
factory ixsuils to the pr( priteor. We learn that
a factory caj able of prculucii g "lOO tons of su)) hnric
acid of jpfcific gravi y l;i<i() w> nld not casl more
than tl.'-OU to be erected complete,, and the plans
and full partic 'ar.i of coui'ruction could be ollained
for the sum of A50 st«r! Pi', so that it is opeu

to any one in business in Colombo to calculate
whether such a factory would prove remuncrativo
or not. The daily cost for labour, we were told,
would be very small : one man to look after the
chambers by day and another by night, being really
all that is required. Our authority says that a
good man could be readily secured to put up the
works if desired and see to the working for one
year. The necessary sulphur could be obtained
from Sicily, and the nitrate of soda either from
Europe or Chili direct as most economical. The
sulphur which is daily removed from the gas as
an impurity might be utilized in Colombo for the
manufacture of acid in the same way as it is
employed in EuroiJC— and the acid so inade could
be used in the scubbers for removing the valuable
ammonia compound.

So fully convinced is tlic gentleman who sup-
plies this interesting practical information of the
-great use, indeed of the ultimate necessity, of an
Acid Factory in Colombo, that provided Clovcrn-
uicnt would grant a monopoly for ten years, and.
the undertaking were taken up by good hands,
he would be quite willing to invest two or three
hundred pounds sterling himself in the establish-
ment of a small Works on the most recent and
economical iirinciples. This offer of one-fourth of
the capital from a gentleman who, though not
unacquainted with Ceylon, has no personal stake
in the island is a strong proof of the success
which can be achieved in the establishment' of
a Sulphuric Acid Manufactory, and we commend
the subject to the attention of the parties in-
terested in local quinine preparation, and indeed
to the C'hairmau and Committee of the l'Iant<?rs'
.•\.ssociation as most interested of all in the question.
We saw the other day that a Sulphuric Acid k"actory
m Japan was a success ; and it is evident that
the aid of the working chemist must be called
i in, in several directions, if our planting indus-
tries are to be maintained in a satisfactory ■
and progressive condition. The degree of civiliz-
ation of a country is said to be proportionate to
its consumption of sulphuric acid. Ceylon has
surely reached the stage when it can afford to
manufacture its own article. The preparation of
cinchona alkaloids and of artificial manures on a
large scale and the aid of practical chemists in
many ways to planters would inevitably follow.
There can be no hesitation, therefore, in supporting
a movement for the establishment of a Sulphuric
Acid Factory ; and if there is one direction more
than another, in which we should be inclined to
make p.n exception to our Obseiccr editorial rule
of holding no shares in local Companies, it would
be in favour of an attempt to give our Planting
Enterprize the benetit of a Chemical V'orks and
Establishment on a scale such as is hero describ-
ed by our London authority,

♦.i

DVSJKXI'ERV A.VD Tim hihl Oil Wooli.U'PI,E i'ltlTf , ■

Two instances have lately corao under our notice
of planters who attribute tlieir recovery from
dysentery which had become almost chronic, to the
use of the well-known "bael" or woodapple. n
time-honored remedy, but one which apparently ha!<
been falling out of notice, seeing that in one case
of a gentleman who has been for some years r.
sufferer, it was only very recently this remedy wut
mentioned to him. This is not our fault; ior if
planters consulted the Medical Hints for I'lantCTS
published at this olTice, a copy of which used (o
be in evi'ry upcountry liuiig.-ilow. Ihcy would find a
small quantity of tlie quince apple (ln'ligcdi or
marmel) morning and evening, recommended nli-ii
an attack was subdued in a dysenteric patient.

jANirARv I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

4^7

CEYLON TEA. GA-BDENS.
Ftom I. A. liiicker iC- liencraft's jint lint of Ceylon
Tt'ti " Gtirdcns " or Estatcii.
Annexed i» a List of Ceylon Tea "Gardeus," so far
aa our present information goes. For the benefit of
tliose interested in the Planting. Shipment, or Im-
portation of Ocvlou Tea. we purpose adding to this
List from time to time, so as to show the growtli of
Tea Cultivation in the Island. We take this oppor-
tunity of asking those friends who arc aware of our
Ion;; conneetion with Ceylon Produce, and our deep
and sterling interest in the prosperity of the Colony,
to enable us to make these t;'.l>les as full aspossible,
by Gsadiiig for publication the names of any New
I'lautations that they beeonio aware have been put
under Tea, and if they will add estimates of the
fttreage present and prospective, we shall be able to
give Planters and Importers valuable information as
to possible e.vtent of yield, course of markets, itc, Ac.
Roughly speaking, we may look for about li.OOO.UllO lb.
from Cevlon during the twelve months commencing
1st October, hvst season's shipments having reached
3,800,000. From the greater number of the Gardens,
whose names we append, we have not seen any
samples as yet. Those plantations yielding more or
less during the past season, the produce of which has
passed under the hammer, are marked with an as-
terisk. The other names are those of Gardens or
Estates, we understand are in course of cultivation
of ■■ The Loaf. " V/e have to acknowledge our in-
debtedness to Mes-rs. A. il. A .T. Ferguson, whose
able .and most comprehensive " H.andbook " of l.SS.^-1,
we have laid under heavy contributions. Where
marks are given we do not know the District or
Plantation, and any information on this head would
be giatefuUy received. It would be a great convenience
to the trade if Planters would adopt Mr. .Vrmstrong's
suggestion, and simply mark the packages with the
name of the CJarden or Estate. We do not mean that it
is any comfort to anyone to have to say " Gikiyana-
kanda ' instead of "D in a diamond," but at any
late the name of one Garden is not likely to be
confounded with that of another, wliile for purposes of
tracing sales and following country orders, marks
arc likely to confuse both Dealers and Brol.-crs.
When figures are subject to immediate correction and
alterstion by those to whom we ad.lress this very
imperfect li.>-t, it would obviously l)e futile to give
c.\act additions or to base any "ice calculations on
the results of our work. Suffice it to sav thai there
were apparently some 43.000 acres set aside in 18S3-S4
fur tlie cnltivatiou of tea in Ceylon. To bring next
.season's (1»85-.SG) .shipments up to 6} million pound.s. j
we should only require 150 lb. from each acre. As
many of our readers are aware, it is by no means
unusual to get 500 to 800. and even in favouiable 1
circuuistanccs 1,000 lb. of tea per acre, so it will be i
.se. n that K-ilhou' fiirlliff aildinij to the are.a of i-nllir-
uil,\i, the acreage comprised in our list is capable of
sending forward at 500 lb. per acre, at least 21 .500,000 lb.
of tea. Since Mcs.srs. Fergusons estimates were made,
planting has been ra]>i.lly pu.shed forward, and pri-
vate ailvices arc to the effect ihat something like
70,(IOii acres are in cultivation. This would point to
an ultimate exjxjrt of from ,50 to 60 million pounds.
This, Ii(i»-.-ver, is n..t in the near future, and at
p^esfnt the <lata we have to go upon only warrant
the a.'i<uniptiijn that the Ceylon tea business will in-
cre;i8e with a rapidity that "may early introduce a
cluDge in the standard of values of tea generally.
It woui.l be well to bear in mind that the great
bulk of tea consumed is purchased from the Grocer's
"is canister," and that this means a Mincing Lane
basis of not over Is per lb. We are not of those
who think China teas are to be ousted from Ibis
market. Indeed it ii quite conceivable that there might
be even a partial revulsion of public taste fnim the
strong and piiiifdit Indian tea in favour of the lighter
and more delicate China. Sh uld this come about
Ceylon wo.i'd hold their position in the consump-
tion, beiug \a our taste more like a blending of the
better classes of India and China.

[It is a pity Ihat our London friends should not
Usvp waited for our Directory li^t now priuliug.— Ed.]

PLANTING IN BURMA, AND WAB ON
THE FKONTIRR.

{From all ex-Ceylon Planter.)

TIIE WAR WITH BfRMA UPPKIl BUKSIA I.IKK LOWER EOVPT—

THE IKKAW.\nDV — UBPEIt IIUIIMA : ITS I'EOI'LF. AND NAT-

IIRAI, WEALTll^COAL — GOLD AND lUBIES WASTE L.4ND

FIT I'OK THI)P.ICAL AGnH^tlLTVHE — LABorR— EXPEHIME.NT-

AL Cl'LTl'ItES VOLVNTEEKING — THE ANXEX-4TI0X OP

rPPElt nUUMA — MR. C. E. BEIiNAltD.

Tavoy, British Burma, Gth Nov. 18S5.
I am sending you a budget of information by
this mail for the T. A. — all the ditfovent e.\periincnts
in new products and also silos and ensilage in
all parts of the world.

War to the knife sure enough. The Indian soldiers
have now arrived, and will be on the borders of
Upper Burma by tomorrow and ready to strike. What
a splendid country U. Burma is. When I first ar-
rived in Burma, I took up a trip to within 30
miles of U- Burma. It reminds one of Lower Egypt
20 years ago. The magnificent Irrawaddy reminds
yon of the Nile, and the great expanse of land is
exactly like the cultivated land in EgyiJt. The Irra-
waddy at some places is several miles in width
and the climate is a nice dry bracing one.

The natives of the country themselves seemed
to be in good health, hut, poor creatures, to see them
huddled together like so many animals in tlieir
villages would make anyone sorry, and the small
pieces of ground cultivated ; in fact, the
whole of thispeople'senergy islostto this line country.
By the time you get this letter the' people will
be freed from' the li/rKnl-mnrilerer, and we will be
in Mandalay and we shall be in possession of one
of the richest countries to England in the wide
world. You will be s.T,ying: "Hold a bit." No, not one
inch will I hold, but rattle on, :ind I am able to
inform you that I have seen the trees growing
with their roots entwined in pure carbonized
coal, coal that burnt down to pure carbon almost.
Now, can you tell me of a greater wealth to the
euergy of England than coal '? Coal is one of the
greatest energies of the world, and it has been
predicted by experts that we have not coal in
England to last more than forty years. In Burma
there are whole forests gro\ying on coal, with no
mining required — only to go up a creek with your
boats and fill them with pure carbonized coal.
When I went up to U. Burma, I brought down
with me a great lump of pure coal from " Gala
Creek " and presented it to the Chief Commissioner,
and you could see the roots entwined in the veins
of coal. I also brought down a splendid specimen
of petrified wood ; I saw the stumps of ti-ees turned
into stone. Of course, there is gold in any quantity
and ruby mines ; but I look upon the coal in
U. Bui'ma as of more importance to England than
all the other things put together.

Then there is the great expanse of " waste
land "ready for the steam plough and grubber. There
is a chance for those who may try their hand at whe.at-
farming and raising of stock. Buy a few thousand
acres and import a few good bulls and stal-
lions, also the best varieties of seeds of kinds, and
a man is bound to get on.

The great ranges of hills are suitable for tea
and coffee, cacao, cinchona, cardamoms, and in
tact all tropical fruit, grapes and mulberries.^ Silk
is now manufactured to a certain extent. Thei-e
is also a field for the indigo plant, jute and fibres.
I think I hear you say : " Oh, but where is your
labour got ?" Mr. Editor, will you believe me when
I now inform you that I am only paying six
annas (about 37 cents) for able-bodied men, and
they arc coming now to Burma by the thousand
monthly.

The chettics of Madras have bought a

468

TI!S TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January r, 1886.

steamer, the " Madras," and she rims between
Negaimtam and liaugoon regularly, and also the
ii. I. S. N. Company and the A. Cle. 4,000 coolies
arrived last month ; when they come to Burma
lliey seldom leave it now.

1 am getting on very well, and now my success
is an established (act. CoflVc in perfect health,
no leaf -disease, and 1 shall li.ive a crop this com-
ing year. Cacao doing well since I got up the
shade. Tea growing nicely ; also divi-divi and croton-
oil trees. Liberian coffee simply splendid. Collee
now beginning to cover the ground and showing
bud already. I have three acres ot paddy and aliout
live acres of maize (American nurize). The paddy
takes me up to the neck, a fine crop now showing
seed. The maize is only just sown, it is a cold
weather crop here. I am to sow a few acres in
hemp, and am to put down about 20,000 betel-nuts,
Tongoo variety, that fetches ElO per cwt. I have
betel-nuts now growing first-rate ; also />'(>(( Orel-
Iditu, oranges and limes, doorians and guavas.
I'lantains for shade, sjdendid plantains. Chestnuts
grow well ; also gamboge of two kinds. I have
sown three maunds of best indigenous and hybrid
tea seed ; also six lb. ot croton-oil trees sent from
William of Henaratgoda. I am to put in more cacao ;
am oitly waiting for the seed. I am exceedingly
well pleased with myself and am in excellent health.
I am a brave Volunteer, have put in ray 29
drills already. We are about .39 strong, a spirited
little band, commanded by Lieut. Palmer and Capt.
Duke: Duke is Commander-in-Chief, and we have
sworn that we will defend our beloved Queen and
country even to death.

I trust by the time you get this letter that
Upper Burnia may be annexed and that the well-
deserving Chief Commissioner, Mr. Bernard, may be
elected as Lieut. -Governor of British Burma, a better
num could not be appointed ; he is a regular go-
ahead man, all energy and perseverance.

THE MACIIINEKV.

Wc .would draw attention to an advertiseiaent ni
another column to a now patent tea sitting and sort-
ing machine, the invention of Mr. Mudge, a tea planter
of long experience, it is styled the " Hinge and Lever,"
which is most appropriate as it carries with it an idea
ot its construction; we have seen specification and
drawings of the machine, and, so far as we are able
to judge froiu these, it appears to us to bo a very
good tiling in every way, being simple in design aud
offering altogether many advantages. 'Not tlie least
of its recommendations is the variety of \vays it iiiay
be employed for sorting tea so as to suit individual
taste or circumstances, for in consequence of it being
a double row of trays, each two deep, with remov-
able sieves, it becomes apparent that any size mesh
of netting may be placed and used as desired, so tliat
no hard-and-fast line assortment is laid down. One
row used iu eoniunctiou with the other it is capable
ot giving five grades of tea at one and. the same time
or the rough bulk tea fed at upper tray on either
side, it will gi\'e three classes of the same from each.
The trays, which are three-sided, work on a level,
having all their four sides shut iu. This the patentee
claiuis will ensure athorough sieving of each class of tea,
and we should be inclined to think so too. When the
traya have become fairly full of well assorted teas, they
are easily and rapidly discharged of their contents by
tlie very simple operation of unkookiiig a lever, which
causes them to fall to a slant, being secured on hinges
(iuside a suspended frame) at the back end, and the
IVuut ends ilrop iu front, aud this is so ingeniously
contrived that tin' lever does not go to aud fro with
(lie quick rtciiiiocatiiig luolion of tlie sifter at work,
ho that it does not become necessary, or even desirable
to throw the belting on to the loose pulley and so stop
tlie Miachiue for tliis purpose. There is ample space
lielweeii the irays foi- cleaning the netting, and the

tea on each and all-of the sieves is open to manipul-
ation, neither for feeding, discharging, or cleaning the
netting need the machine be stopped. The •'Hinge
and Lever " sorter is <lesigned to do a large amount of
work jier diem and is well adapted tor big gardens.
We believe it will do its work well ami tliat without
havhig first to pass the tea through a bri^akiug machine,
as a man is able to stand alongside, crushing the tea
on the trays as much, or as little, as need be. M'e
uuderstand that arraugeraeuts iiave been luidc with
a well known firm of engineers to make these machines,
and arc also informt'd that one will sliortly be on view
in Calcutta. Planters and .all others iutcreste.l in tlie
manufacture of tea having the opportunity of seeing
it would do well not to lost^ the chance of doing so.

There are sifters witii the trays on a fixe,! incline,
aud probably sifters also with the trays or sieves that
work on a level, but a machine such as Mr. Mudge^s,
with the trays working horizontally combining the
power to bring them to a slant at pleasure for pur-
pose of discharge is quite a new idea, and a capital
one. The price, all things considered, is very moderate.
Jtessrs. Mitchell, Reid & Co., are the Calcutta Agents.

With regard to an advertisement which appears on
another page a correspondent from Ceylon writes
us : — " I have had the pleasure of seeing another of
Mr. W. Jackson's new machines at work, namely his
Venetian Dryer. Like many others in the island I
have hitherto had imidicit faith in the Siroccos, be-
lieving that iu simplicity and eflicieucy of working
they could hardly be surpassed, but I now say. the
Venetian certainly crrries the ]ialni. It woulil do you
good to see how well this m-at little machine gets
through its work. ''The cool-e pulls forward a lirawer-
shaped sort of feeding and drying surface aud on tins
he spreads a charge of leaf and pushes the drawer
back again, aud waits for about 'Jk minutes (during
which he can stoke or take away the dry tea). Then
he begins near the bottfim of the machine fiy pull-
ing a handh' which, by au ingenious arraiigeim-nt,
working similar to the action of the Venetian blind
of a window, the drying surface is openc'd up. and
the dry tea is delivered down info a tiolly, which,
when full, is withdrawn just like a charge of leaf
from the well-known Excelsior Roller. *' Having shut
this handle he moves the one next above it, c=iusing
the tea nearly dry to descend on to the surface just
emptied, and in succession he moves the next one
higher u\>, and so on till the charge he i>iit in 2.V
n'inutes before is delivered down one surface, when
a fresh one is inserted. All this is doue in much
less lime than it takes nie to describe it, and the per-
fect way the tea is turned over on these surfaces, can
only be well understood by those who have spen it
at work. A No. 3 Sirocco stands idle beside this
Venetian, aud, if I mistake not, is likely to remain
311. Mr. Jack.son has been long iu coming forward
with his driers, but the opinion here is, he has at last
made a leap past everybody else."— //. t^- C Jfail,

MrrsnuooMS. — A corresjioudeut asks : — " Could
you tell me it there is any easy way of distinguish-
ing edible muslirooms from the poisonous ones '? I
have mushroom beds where the mushrooms have
just started, and, though it seems pretty certain
they are the real ones, yet it is just as well to be
perfectly certain." The article " Mu.^hroonl " in
the Encijclopieilia liritannia gives details regarding
the difi'erences between edible and poisonous mush-
rooms, which are too lengthy for us to quote, but
the following may help our correspondent : —

To summarize the characters of a true mnshi-oom :
— it grows only iu pastures; it is of small size. dry.
and with nucliangeable Hesh ; tho cap has a frill ; the
gills are free from the stcni. the spores brownhlack
or deep purple-black iu colour, and the stem solid or
slightly pithy. When all these char.acters are taken
ti>gi:ther no other ninsbroom like fungus— and nearly a
thousand snccios grow in f^ritaiu — r^ui he confounded
with it. I Seo page 172.

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

469

TEA AND COl-FEE IN CEILOX.
The utmost activity eoutinues to prevail among
oar tpa-planteis, and machinists are very busy
over the needful preparing machinery for the tea
factories, in ail its varied forms of rollers, dri ers
withenrs, sifters, etc. Planters whose gardens
are just coming into bearing are glad to
be able to sell their leaf at remunerative prices
to their more advanced neighbours, and we hear
that as much as 13 cents per lb. is being paid in
Maskeliya for newly plucked leaf, at a rate equal
to '.»d a lb. (or the dry leaf. But, after all, the
ambition of estate proprietoi-s is each to have his
own set of machinery and factory as soon as poss-
ible. This may be all right where there is a con-
siderable area under tea, but the convenience of

central well-equipped factories wliere their leaf is
bought (or even prepared on account) must be
more and more appreciated by smaller gardens. One
proposal mooted which deserves serious consider-
ation from the owners of tea-gardens around Kandy
is tu attach a tea-factory to the well-known ISogam-
bra Mills of Messrs. John Walker & Co. where
there is plenty of power in water and steam to
drive the reipiisite machinery. By and-hye we may
expect lo have similar favourable central positions
in the lowcountry taken advantage of, for the benefit
more particularly of native growers of tea.

There is another department in which a renewal
of activity may be anticipated with progress in
tea, namely in the import and local preparation
of suitable manures. And as the foundation for any
such work and indeed for many more useful oper-
ations (more esjjecially the establislnnent of a
local manufactory of cinchona alkaloids if not of
quinine itself) we have had a proposal laid before
onr readers by a Loudon correspondent of practical
experience for the establishment of a Sulphuric
Acid Manufactory in Colombo. A pattern one has
already been set agoing with success in the little
island of Barbados in the West Indies, and there
is abundance of room for one in Ceylon, so that
the project is likely to take shape ere long and
directly and indirectly to afford the aid of the
chemist to the plantmg coniiiuniity.

That new life is springing up in the community
is evidi'iiced by the sales of lea property and
forest-land -the latter by private parlies at I{:10 per
acre, while a share in the Kandaloya tea estate
has been disposed of for 17,1)00 cash. The tea-
plant in Ceylon certainly astonishes old eotfee
jdanters by its ready adaptation to climate and soil :
a report on tea at an altitude of from fl.OOO to
C,800 feet in Udapussellawa stated that the growth
and Hushing were almost as good as in the low-
country ! From sea-level to the top of I'idurutala-
"ala even, the tea-plant in its several varieties will
.■Iiparently llourish. The hivrdy variety of the Assam
•Indigenous" has given very good results at an
elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in Ceylon
where there is shelter, abundance of rainfall and
fairly good soil. There are some, too, who have
planted " Indigenous " lower down who are satisfied ;
but, as a rule, those who have tried or watched both,
much prefer a good Hyhiid as the liardier and
generally more satisfactory plant. This opinion an
old Assam proprietor and practical planter i)assing
through Colombo the other day fully endorsed to us.
The 'Indigenous,' which costs from Kl'iO up-
wards on the estate in Assam, is too delicate a
plant in our climate as a rule, while the kind
which succeeds is tliat sold in Colombo at from

E70 to ESO under the name of 'Indigenous,' but
which is probably move a high-class Hybrid.

From tea we may turn for a moment to coffee
to mention, that, wliile, taking the country as a
whole and especially the old districts, there is
scarcely any crop to gather, yet in some planmtions
we hear of wonderfully g®od picking's which is
the rule in the fine Udapussellawa district where
also the promise is very favourable. Oxer '270 acres
of comparatively young coffee on Peacock. Pussellawa.
Mr. \Vm. Smith who has recently gone therefrom
Bimbula, has got such a crop as lias ke))t him
as busy as in the palmy crop days of the
years ago. Pulping by lantern liglit to a late hour,
picking against time to save crop from dropping,
and even gathering coffee from under the trees are
all novel experiences of late years, and yet we
cannot help hoping that where good coffee is kept
up in cultivation and surrounded with other products,
old diseased trees being pulled out, there may be
profitable crops gathered for many years to eome.
In the midst of his hurry in crop, Mr. Wm.
Smitli found the greatest possible help and satis-
faction in Mr. Westland's recent invention, the
sieve-plate for preventing good coffee beans drop-
ping among the rubbish from the pulper. It is
simply perfect as a labour-saver and ought to
have made the fortune of the inventor -most
simple as it is — had he only appeared with it 20
or HO years ago in Ceylon. As it is, Mr. Westland
ought to be able to get "royalty" from Java,
Biazil and Central American planters for a con-
trivance which cannot help being greatly appreci-
ated wherever coffee is "pulped."

PiiYLLoxKRA Laws. — -The kiugdoin of Greece is
the last which has fuuud it imperative in the interests
of the vineyard culture— an import.njt one indeed
for the ininiatun^ moiiirchy — to forbid all trade
with North and South AniL-rica, Avistralia, Africa,
the coast of Asia Minor, and the whole of liurope,
\vith the exception of Holland, Belgima, Denmark,
and the Scandinavian kingdom, iti trees and plants
of every kind. fr(!sli fruits and tiu-ir foliage, fruit
jiiicts in natural or mixed state ; tlovvfiiiiij l»ull)s, and
friisli tlcsby roots of every description, \'ine slakes
which have been useil iu vineyanls; and, lastly, hay
ill biuiilles. The rtigulafioii dates from .fuly 5, 1883.
As usual the rtjstrictions are for the uiost part absurd
anil unnecessary. — G'afileiio'a' Chronicle.

LoeAii Sales ok Cinchona Eauk. — In a letter from
Mr. M. A. Lawson, Director of Government Cinchona
Plantations, Parks and (Jardens, Nilgiris, to the
(tovernmcnt, reporting the result of the auction sale
of Cinchona bark on behalf of Governnieiil, on the
Tith October, he says: — '■ It will be observed thai the
Hoot Crowu bark sold very well {iiVl^t against 11112
at the auction of September 188.5) but that the
price realised for the Kcnewed and Mossed Crown
viz., E124 and K122, respectively, is somewhat below
that obtained at fhe February and March sales, viz.,
1U:S0 and K12H. This is due to the comparatively
low price which the Naduvatiini .Mosseil Crown
fetched (l{ll:i) compared with that of Dodabetta
(Rl!t2). This latter has sold better than any of those
in February or March. The rate per pound, however,
(Is 11^1:1) compares favorably with the last London
quotation for the same kind of bark (lis IJd), that is
after making a due allowance for freight, insurance
and other charges ; and on the whole. I think, that
the results of the sale may be considered fairly
s.atisfactory. Messrs. Oakes & Co. mention that a
Bombay Firm of Chemists was among the pur-
chasers, while heretofore, Tiouses of agency in
i Madras have been the only purchasers. This is an
I evident sign that competition for the bark in Madras
' is on the increase.— J/<((/r«.N Mud.

470

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

DinnnOARn — Oonsiderablt dissatisfaction is very
geuerally expressed at the remarks of tho Obief Com-
missiouer on the official report by our divisiouil oilicer
in which he averaged the yield per acre of bearing
plant throufiliout the district to be over four hiuidred
poniKls. Tliis amount that resolving dijimtai'y regards
as fabulous. He is not perhaps aware that this large
average is decided by (lie enormous oulturu of (he Urge
Upper Sadiya road gardens. Itoughly sjjeaking there
are ln-re about .'ix thousand acres of mature tei, be-
tween the Cliota Hapjan and Dholla. Of this, two
thousand five huiulred yield at Ihe rate of no lest- than
eight hundred pounds per acri'. and tlie remain ler,
with the exception of two insignificant gardens — Dholla
aiul Mesai — average between six hundred and tlurty
and seven hundred and fifty. The two gardens which
promise to bead llie list this year are Besakopie
( Doom-Dooma) and Hilika (R. G. S. estates). Up to date
their outturn has been at the rate of eight maunds per
acre, and they hope to make eleven before they have
done. The manager of Talup, who used to .show us all
the way, has decided to stop at ten maunds per acre,
an.l go in for quality more than he has done. To give
tliose of your readers, who do not know our district, an
idea what work on these gardens means, when the manu-
facturing season is at its heiffht, I may mention that
most of our tea here is made ^ July, August and
September, and that Talup and Hilika are a thousand
acres each and ]5e.sakopie nearly six hundred. — Jiidian
Planters Gazette.

Ckylonese Agricultubal SrUDENTs. — It may interest
Mr. Green and other friends of agricidture to know that
a Geylonese is now prosecuting his studies at Cirencester.
lu a private letter lie writes : — " Though I was a week
late in entering, I have almost got into the swing of work.
It is all very novel. The theoretical part, in which
we have lectures, is of course altogether scientific. It
includes geology, physics, chemistry, apriculture. Ve-
terinary and book-keeping. Then there is a farm and
hospital class, which is novel in the extreme. The
farm class is a " locomotive on"," and it is a thing
one has to get used to, to walk 2 or 3 miles over
fields through slushy soil (leather gaiters are of course
indispensable) to examine crops and soils and animals,
I doubt not this will be pleasiut in other weather,
but it is liorrilily cold now. AVe have about 130 stud-
ents, from nearly every part of the woi Id — even from
Biiimah — but the bulk are sons of English farmers.
We have even fanners themselves ol 30 and 40 who
cam« down to attend the lectures. Tho vacation com-
mences alout the ISth December and lasts six weeks
at least, possibly eight; and we cannot remain at Ciren-
cc'ster at all. It will make tliree weeks next .Sat urd.ay
that I have been here. I stay in town in a licensed
house, the College being situate about a mile or more
from the town. I am up at 7 every moruing, and after
In-eaklast start out for the College where work begins
at !> sliaip Mondays and Tuesdays keej) me there
till 4, and then I am obliged to lunch at College, but
(Ml other days lam back for dinner. The theoretical
work takes us 2 or % liours, and there is one prac
tical ilass each day in analysis of soils, plan-drauing,
and the farm class — the latter in the ojien air where
we discuss crops, soils, manures, dairies, sheep, beasts
of th<' field generally, and watch the different processes
in the diHercnt departments. The College is beauti-
fully situateil, and the country about is v<:ry lovely
just at this time. A\'e have a delightful park, the
grounds of the Karl of Uathurst, open to the pub-
lic, thvongli which I return from College, It extends
seven miles. 'I'he central road is lined on eitherside
with regularly planted elin-^, and the view of these
stretchin.g as far as the eye could r(;aeh. with their
various shades of green, yellow, brown and red, is very
pretty. ' Cirencester is a neat lilth; town, the only ex-
citing timi's being the hunting season, the Fairs, nnd
the " Miip " when the hiring of farm-labourers takes
place. 'J'liere has been a good deal of excitement lately
over the election. This is a fearfully Conservative oM
place, (for ol 1 it is, since you will be shown a }»oman
arch in every kitchen! and when a liberal candidate
called Winterbothani came with Mr. IJroadhnrst, II.

P., to address us at the Corn Hall— our great public
building !— there was a fr.>e fight aud a smash up."
We trust the writer of the al)ove will prosecute his
.studies so as to prove an acquisition t) the island oa
his return, whether to put into practice on his own
laud the knowledgi he has acquired, or to be the head
of an enlartred ami flourishing A;,'rioiiIturaI- College.—
" Examiner."

Inohn Plouohino. — The improvements intro-
duced by civilisation in every industry and every
occupation of life seem to reach agricnlture last
of all- This is so in England, and in Europe
and also in India, as we read in an interesting
paper on " Punjab Ploughing " by Mr. Kennedy
in the current number of the Calcutta lievicte.
" Looking at the actual state of tillage in India,"
says Mr- Kennedy, " a scientific agriculturist will
be perhaps, inclined to think that the Indian peas-
ant has made but little advance upon the primitive
tillage which yokes a buUock to the branch of a
tree .for a plough and a thorn bush for a harrow,
and with tliese rude appliances roughly scratches
and harrow.s the soil. Ho may be inclined to think
that under British rule, agriculture alone of all
the arts has not progressed, and still remains
in the state it was before European skill and
energy were brought to bear upon the industries
of the East." But if we examine more closely
into the subject and compare the efforts of the
agriculturist with those of his ancestors, there
may be found signs that the inlluence of scienti-
fic improvements has not been entirely unielt.
Too much must not be expected. In P^urope, and
especially in England, labour is dear, and every
invention of machinery which can perform the
work of men or horses, and every extension of the
application of steam to drive such machinery proves
efl'ectual from the cheapness of fuel and the
dearness of labour. But " in India labour is still
cheap, and labour-saving machines have not
hitherto proved a success. Machines, on the otlier
hand, to increase tlie agricultural ou.lurn, such as
the Bihia Sugar Mill, oil-expressing machines,
etc., have probably a great future before them, lint
until we thoroughly understand the conditions
under which native husbandry is carried on, the
merits or demerits of the various operations of
tillage the farmer practises, and of the various
implements and tools he uses, and thoroughly
understand the general principles which guide his
practice — and such knowledge is still in its infancy
— it would be unsafe to too rashly condemn his
methods, or to ask liim to forego tho use of ap-
IJliances which he understands, and adopt others
of which he is ignorant, and the advantages of
which ai'e siill problematical." And Mr. Kennedy
docs a service in pointing out that improvements
which work well in England may not do so in India
and ought not in such cases to be forced upon the
acceptance of tlie agriculturist, who is almost of
necessity conservative in liis habits and of a low
intellectiial development. An instance is quoted
from the Punjab Famine Report, which is very
instructive. Mr. Hume, the writer, says : — " I
remembor once seeing a practical English jilough-
man plough up a piece of land on I he Knglish
system, that is, throwing the soil inland ; the
operation was beautifully performed, the crop
germinated well, but v.lien the time came for it
to he watered, it naturally jn-eferred to remain in
the furrows between the land : the. result was, the
cro|i came to nothing. This system of i)loughing
in lands ill England is employed on purpose to
caiisi^ a siu'face drainage : in the Punjab we do all
we can to keep moisture in the soil." VVihcs i\f
liulia.

Jani'akyIiJ886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

471

~ . — . — «

J'o the Ediior of the '■ Ceijloii Obsa-vir."

TEA IN DADULLA.
Dotland Instate, BacluUu, "ilst Nov.- 1885.

Dear Sin, — By this day's tappal I send you sam-
ples of tea made here from two-year old trees,
rolled by Frater's new tea roller, and tired on
estate.

If yovi will jjive me an opinion on it, as to
w heHier the same would find a market in Colombo,
I would esteem it a favor. I have aUeady some
1". acres planted, but before extending the acreage
would like to arrive at what price this class of
tea is likely to be worth. Uehig so heavily handi-
capped in iiadulla in the way of transport and
fuel likewise will be a serious item to eost of
production (especially should we have to use
coal or coke for our machinery) compared to
the more favored districts south of Kuwara Kliya,
where the principal estates (giving laige returns)
are very near the Government cart-road or along-
side of a railway station.

The present season is and has been all one
conld wish for planting and a large acreage has
been put in with many thousands of cinchona.

Coffee is looking very well, and very little leaf-
disease to be seen, but no doubt it is there, but
nothing like in the form it was two years back. —
I am. dear sir. yours truly, T. J. E. .JOHNSOX.

The tea is certainly marketable and very good in
make for iirst samples. — Er>.]

FLORAL :

TBK nOR3E-T.UI. CREEPER, POR.INA VOLUBILIS, UlTM.,
AND THE CtOATS-FOOT irOSKEA.

Dear SiK, — In my notes op "Hints on Garden-
ing specially adapted for Ceylon, by W. Cameron,"
which appeared in your Directory for 18G.3, pp. 205-
'224, I made the following note at p. 212 in refer-
enci! to the Convolvulus family : — " A member of
this order 'called the horse-tail creeper, Parana
rnlKhilix, sent to me by Mr. Dyke from Jaffna
some time ago is now, Dec. 1862, in full flower
in the Fort Garden, and with its hundreds of
small white flowers which hang down in festoons,
in the shape of horse-tails, is a fine plant and
will soon be a great acquisition for trellises in
Colombo " ; and the nisgniticent sight of this plant
in full flower all over Colombo during the last
few days confirms the truthfulness of my assertion
made 22 years ago.

The addition of this splendid creeper to others
now in Colombo deserves a few notes respecting
its introduction, and others which may be of interest
to the readers of the Ceylon Oburver and Tropical
Aurirnlinriit.

• When passing through Jaffna to or from Madras
in 1849, I saw this plant for the first time in full
flower in the garden of the late Mr. Minor of the
American Mission at Manippay, and it was then
called the Pulney or hor.-etail creeper as it was
brought by one of the missionaries from the Pulney
hills, in the Madras districts, .Southern India. Ciit-
lings of it which I got from Mr. Minor then failed
to grow. In 18.59 Government veiy kindly gave me a
free passage in the steamer " Pearl," then bound to
inspect the Pearl Banks oil Arippu,' with Mr. Vane,
Inspector of the Banks, and Mr. I>yke, Government
Agtnl of .laflfua. al; o passengers, Captain Donnan in
com.iinnd. Tin- ** Pe:irl "' went on diifct (o .(alTna to
land Mr. Dyke, and then cauie baik to the I'earl
Bank;-, which were inspected and surveyed, and
plans made o{ them. On our return to Colombo

i the ■■ Pearl" encountered a cyclone in tl)o Gulf of
Mar::ar, and ray belief is that we passed through
the centre of it ; an account of this would be
interesting, and Captain Donnan has no doubt
correct notes of it, but sulHcG it to say tliiit
during four voyages round the Cape and tlu'ce by
the overland route I never encountered sueli * a
storm as •■ : went through on that occasion. We
did not renip- 1 long enough at Jaftiia to enable
r:' to get another supply of the horse-tail creeper
h\.: the late Mr. Dyke promised to send me some
rooted plants, and two of these in separate
flowerpots came shortly afterwards, but the plant.s
wore eaten down to the surface of the soil by
goats which were on board the vessel that brought
the flowers. On examination, however, it was
found that the plants were still alive, and one of
them was plaiiled by me about 18(10 in the centre
of what was then called the Fort Garden, the
space now bounded on four sides by the
Government OtJices, 8t. Peter's Churcli, the
Grand C)riental Hotel, and the Rcotcli Clunch, &c.
and from tliis plant all those now growing in
Colombo are offshoots. It appears from Moon's
Cat. p. 1;-!, that tlii^ jdaut and another, J', ^jtoa'c-
iihitii. were introduced into Ceylon before 1824,
and I believe these are still growing in the Boyal
Gardens at Peradeniya, but they do not flower so
well there as in the low hot part of the island,
and no attempt has been made that I am aware
of to cultivate them until those froui Jaffna were
brought to Colombo as stated above.

The genus Poraiui (probably j^ureiio, to extend,
or journey, from the rambling branches) was
established by N. L. Burman (son of J. Burman,
author of the Tltemuriis Zfijhuiicus) in his " Flora
Indica " in 17'i8, the present plant being tlie. type
of the genus. It is described on p. 51 and
figured in table 21*, figure 1, but universally
quoted as tab. 21 f. 1 which is an error, as there
are two tables, viz., 21 and 21*.

The above notes were written exactly this time
last year, and the free flow'ering of the horse-
tail creeper, now makes them as applicable as they
were then. These flowers in many respects remind
one of the hawthorn or may flowers of old Kngland,
and if "a thing of beauty is a joy tor ever"
surely the " horse-tail creeper," now in flower all
over Colombo, is a joy to the lovers of flowers of
many lands. — Yours faithfully, W. F.

P.S. — And this reminds me that another plant
with an apjjropriate conmion English name, the Goat-
foot Ijioma'a is now in full flower, and remarkable
for its large purple-colored flowers, and two-lobed
leaves resembling a goat's foot, close to the Fort of
Colombo. Some years ago the seashore from the
Fort to Mount Lavinia was lined with this beauti-
ful plant, patches of which occupied the roadside
on the Gaile Face parade ground, the branches of
■ those on the shore spreading till they were dashed
back by the waves, thus proving that it is one of
the best sand-binding plants in Ceylon. The plant
is such a favorite as food for rabbits that the
owners of these, almost entirely rooted out the Goat--
foot Ipomo?a in this place with the exception of
some enclosed in the compound of Aloe .\vcnue,
but even here it is an eternal struggle to keep ths
plant from being stolen. Pressure having been put
on the Superintendent of Works of the Colombo
. Municipality to plant some ornamental trees in the
1 triangular piece of ground in tiont of the police
station on (inlle Face, he had some cartloads of
this ]ilant removed frr>ni the bar of the Kelani
! river, which were planted here and along the .sea-
i shore at Galle Face, as a beginning, and before
tlie last rain» Le took tbe liberty to plant the open

472

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Januaby i, 1886.

Space between Norris Koad and the breakwater
railway, ppposite to the guard-room, without
asl;iii^' for or receiving tlie consent of the Brigaile-
IMajor, and if that functionary will have the patience
to wait a short time, he will find a display of these
large jiuriilo flowers where erst the grass-cutters
constantly cut up the sward, and whose
oucu]jation will soon be gone here if the Goat-
foot Ipoiiiua is allowed to remain. This plant
used to be the very familiar Ijioimm pes-i-apnc
of botanists, but it was first described as the
/. bitohit by Fopskal in his "Flora of .Egypt and
Arabia," and this name now takes precedence of
almost half-a-dozen others, some of which, such
as IiiDDurii mtiritiiiia, are equally applicable to it,
which surrounds the earth within the tropics and
some places a little beyond them as a seashore plant.
May I express a hope that the police will protect
these plants from destruction. W. ¥.

THE AFRICAN OIL-FALM IN CEYLON.

26th November 1885.

Ukah Hilt, — Tliere arc a number of African oil-
palms (hat were remarkably healthy and have grown
with apiiarently the greatest luxuriance here, thougli
in habit ahnost more resembling a cardanioni-
stool than a tree — the blossoms forming at the
foot from the ground upwards. These were planted
about four years ago, and with a good show of nuts
at present, as fai' as yield goes, seem to promise
success for the cultivation with little or no trouble,
or heavy expense. If not going over old ground,
can you or any of your readers kindly give any
information, as to when the plant may be sup-
posed to be in full bearing, the correct distance
to plant, the yield and gross return per tree
per acre that is considered fair, what has to be
set against this for crop expenses, and how the
nuts are collected, etc.?

If the tree is as a heavy bearer as the coconut
and the oil as valuable, from what I can judge
of tlie appearance of the trees on Udagama estate
next this, it seems to me as an industry it
promises well, and worth collecting data. This
is what struck me on walking through them
lately.

UDAfJAMA.

A CURIOUS CATERPILLAR.

"Lodge Harmony," Bambalapitiya, 2()th Nov. 18S5.

PiiAU SiK, — I beg to forward under separate cover
a caterpillar found by me on a croton plant.
Several of my friends have seen it and showed
great delight at its beauty, but no one could tell
me the name or the order to which it belongs in
the insect family. Will you tlicrcfore bo good
enough to forward the caterpillar to your natural
history ivl.rco and obtain full particulars ? You
will please observe with what fineness the feet
arc formed and the very pretty moss covering all
over them. — Yours faithfully, I

DAELEY ALTENDORFF.
;Ouv entomological referee writes : — " The
Urva of a butterfly, Atli)lias rasaitld, Moore, '
counnon about mango and cashew trees. Has
a sharp rapid flight, settling on the ground and
on leaves of trees with its wings open. The
male is a glossy blackish brown on the upper side,
the female chocolate brown with a white discal
bnnd on the ujiper wing ; unrlersidc of both sexes
ochrcous gray. The larva feeds on mango. Tlie
laterally projeeting finely branched spines, of which'
there arc ten ))airR, are not feet, .and are of no
assistance in progression. I should say it probably
dropped or was blown from a mango tree on to
the croton plan!; on wbich it was foimd."— Bi>.] i

HOW TO TEST MUSHROOMS.

Kandy, 1st Dec. lSi?.5.
De.vu ^ Sii!, — The simplest and surest way of ascert-
aining if the mushrooms be edible, is to put a
silver spoon in the saucepan or jian with them
while they arc cooking : should the spoon tnni
colour, beware of the fungus in your pan ; should
it rcldiii its colour you may be sure your mushrouBis
are good.— Yours faithfully, E. N.

The " WooDAi'pLE " ash Dysentery. — A writer
in the local " Examiner," with a wondrous assump-
tion of superior knowledge, is anxious to correct the
Obneirer as to the value of the "woodapijle" in
cases of dysentery. The position taken up is that
by the popular term " woodapple " appUed to two
fruits, alike only in having a hard shell, the
acid " Indian quince," Fcronia clejiliiiiitum, would
be understood and not Acyle Muniwlos, the Imcl
of India, Mi of Ceylon. The latter is immensely
more common than the former, and is the fruit
any Englishman would understand by the term
" woodapple." Its curative properties are due to
the principle of opium which its mucilaginous pulp
contains. In cases where the pulp may be deemed
too coarse, it is made into a slrained jelly. The
acid " woodapple " may be a favourite with people
of this country, but, wc believe, not one English-
man in a hundred has ever tasted it,— certainly
not a second time. Its odour is generally sufficient.
As to the hcU tree said to grow in swamps, we
liave not the remotest idea of what the " wondrous
wise " writer meant. Here, however, is what a
competent authority says iu the Treasury of Butunij
of both trees : —

JCijIe. The name of a genus of plants belonging
to the Orange family (Anrantiai-ci). The fruit known
in India as the Bhel fruit, is the product of .K.
Maniiflns. In appearance it is much like the orange.
The thick rind of the um-ipe fruit ijossesscs astringent
properties on which account it is used jin India iu
cases of dysentery and diarrhcoa. The lipu fruit has
ail exquisite flavour and perfume. Not only the fruit,
but other portions of tlio plant arc used lor medicinal
purposes ; and a yellow dye is prepared from the
riud of the fruit. The genus is distinguished by its
numerous disunited stamens from the Orange (Ghu<j,
to which, iu other particulars, it is closely allied.

h'rruiiiu. The Wood-apple or Elephant-apple tree
of India. F. clciihuiiltun, is the only species of this
genus of .tiiruiiliini-ir. It is common throughout
India, Burmah, Ceylon, and Java, and forms a laiije
tree, yielding a hard, heavy wood, of great streiigUi
but not durable. When wounded, there Hows from
it a transparent gum, which is mixed with other
gums and sent to this eouutry under the name of
East India Gum Arabic. The tree has pinnate leaves
composed of shiuing stalkless leaflets, and the flowers
are arranged iu racemes containing a mixtiu-e of
male, female, and perfect blossoms; these have a Hat
five-toothed calyx, live (occasionally four or six) white
sproading petals, ten stumuns and live-cullod ovary.
Tho fruit, which is about the sizo of i\n ajiple. has
a very hard, rough, woody rind, and contains a pulpv
flesh with numerous seeds iiubeded in it. This pulp
is eatable, aiid like that of the Rcngal quince, wliich
is the fruit of a closely allied tree, it e.scil-i a bene-
ficial action iu cases of dysentery and diarrhoea; a
jelly resembling black current jelly is also prepared
from it. Tlie leaves liave an odour like that of anise,
and tho native iudian doctors employ them as a
stomachic and carminative.

BUCHU.PAIBA,
(^^ui<^k, compbite cure, all annoying Kidney. llUilder
ami Uriuary Diseases. Druggists.

\Y. E. Smith & Co., Madras, Sole Agents,

Janiury I, i8S6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

■173

THE COLONY OF NAT.VL.

TO THK EDlTOn OK THE " ACSTKALASIAN'."

Sir, — Mr. Litton complaius of my strictures being
aucalled for. I respectfully ask Mr. Litton for an
explicit reply to the following questions: —

* » « »

Second. — Have you ever drank a cup of roflfee made
from Natal-grown berries? If so, how does it compare
with the Java or Ceylon article V

Thinl. — Can you certify to the fact that a single
hag of Natal-grown coffee, or 20 lb. weight collect-
ively of nutmegs, mace, cloves, cinnamon, cassia or
pimento, also the product of that colony, have been
at any time exported thence? — P. L.

SUGAR FROM THE DATE PALM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "AUSTRALASIAN."

Sir, — -I was must amused by a paragraph in the
.scientific column of your paper, mentioning as a new
discovery that sugar was to be obtained from the
date palm.

It is now quite forty-three years since I, then a
lad studying engineering, was gaining practical ex-
perience and at the same time acting as inspector of
works on a large sugar factory in course of erection
in the Jessore Zillah in Lower Bengal, during which
time I also learned something of sugar work, and I
cau safely- say that most of the sugar made in that
part of Jessore and adjoining zillahs was from the
date palm, the sugar being quite equal to cane sugar,
the only objection to the use of palm-juice boiug
that the molasses was at that time considered unfit
for <listillation, therefore cane was preferred as it
gave a bettt^r return.

For how many hundreds of years the date-sugar
industry of Lower Bengal had been in existence, I.
being, as I .said, a lad, never thought of inquiring ;
I only know that it was no novelty then, so far as
my m.mory serves.— I am, &c., Old QuOi Hv.

COFFEE LEAF DISEASE.

TO THE EUirOR Of THE - MADRAS MAIL."

Sir. — With reference to your article on Htmileia
vaatatru-, let me say that the various members of
tlie vegetable kingdom— like those of the animal
kingdom — are, in a minor degree of course, endowed
by nature with certain functions, upon the due ex-
ercise of which the health and (eventually) the life
of plants depend. So long as (what man chooses to
term) nature holds the reins, these functions will
ever be exercised in their proper order and degree.
When man, however, steps in and— for the fiuther-
ance of some special purpose — takes upon himself to
control or arrest any one of these functions, he there-
by rnns the risk of ultimately causing great mischief
to the health of the plant unless he possesses a most
thorough, intimate; acquaint.ince with all the laws of
plant lito.

Suppose a man, in the exercise of his own per-
sonal functions, devotes his entire energy to the ex-
clu.sive exercise of (say) the function of brain power.
Unless that man be careful to preserve a balance
between this and his other functions, Natiu-e will
sooner or later remonstrate, aud, if the remonstrance
be unheeded, will directly interfere to prevent such
abuse, and'to restore the deranged balance of functional
energy. This iutervention will probably be manifested
in the form of di.seaso (in the case in question of
mental disease probably) ; and that man will continue
prostrated thereby until the disturbed balance of func-
tional energies be restored to their normal state.
Inspired truth teaches us that if one member ofonr
body sulfors all t.ur nif ml>ers fuffcr with it. In like
manner, if one function suffer from abuse or excess-
ive exercise, all the functions will suffer because
Nature's even balance will be upset. One of the
main functions of plant life is that of reproducing its
kind, and this fiuiction the coffee-bu«h. with its
clusters of bright berries, performs very freely at
Xature's o(¥n commaud. But niau comes along, and
GO

; virtually says to the unfortunate coffee bush, " Let

I all your functions be held in abeyance, as far as

possible, to the furtherance of the utmost possible

exercise of your function of seed-bearing, and to that

end off with all that reduudant foliage which, if

retained, would, whilst temlingto preserve the balance

of the normal exercise of all your healthy functions

greatly curtail my bumper crops ! Nature is. on the,

whole, very patitnt and long-snifering under abuse,

but sooner or later she is bound to protest. At last

Nature — addressing these who perhaps have not ears

to hear her silent warning — indicates that the function

of seed-bearing having been forced to the highest

possible pitch, to the exclusion more or less of the

exercise of other functions, man must either allow the

exhausted tree to revert to its normal condition, and

rest, or otherwise Nature will be under the necessity

of suspending the functions of the ti'ee (which have

all sutiered} and compel an enforced period of rest

until the balance of functional energies be restored to

the normal condition. Hence leaf disease and red

spider, which are but symptoms of the disease of

functional derangement and exhaustion. You, sir,

rightly remark that coffee growu under shade enjoyed

iniinui.ily from leaf disease. And why? Because under

shade the coffee hush preserves its functions in a

normal condition for a longer period of time, its en-

vironn.rut being unfavourable to excessive forcing on

any one function. A\'hen I hear of Ceylon tea estates

yielding 1,000 lb. of tea per acre, I know that means

a stes'^y advance towards functional exhaustion and

derangement, and that by and bye red spider will

denote the arresting of the functions of the exhausted

tea bushes. Novice.

THE USES OF COTTON-SEED IN AMERICA.
It is well known that Cotton-seed is, as an arti-
I clc of commerce, a comparatively modern iutro-
I duction. Not many years since the seed, which
; was produced in such abimdance in the Cotton
I plantations of America was, not only a waste proiiuct,
' but one which the growers scarcely knew what to
do with. Of late years the oil has been expressed
in continually increasing quantities, and applied to
a variety of useful piu-poses, not the least important
of which is its substitution for Olive oil, for Cotton-
seed is now purified so carefully that the result
is a clear bright limpid oil, equal in appearance if
not in taste to the best oil obtained from Olives.
Jlills for the expression of Cotton-seed oil have been
erected iu America in increa.sing numbers of late
years. In 1870 there were only twenty-six mills, and
iu ItfSO forty-seven, six of them iu New Orleans,
At the present time these mills are scattered through-
out the South in all the important Cotton centres
on tho rivers and on the railways, and number 108
in all. The average yield of seed is about 3h lb.
to every iround of lint. Tho amount of seed annu.ally
crushed in the United States averages about 4l'(),0<i0
tons, a ton of Cotton-seed yields 35 gals, of crude
oil, 22 lb. of cotton, 750 lb. of cake of average
value of 19 dols., making the total v.alue of the
Cotton-seed product of the South S.ODO.DOO dols., or
3 per cent of that of the Cotton crop.

Cotton-seed cake — the residue of the seed after the
expression of the oil — is used chielly for stock feed-
ing and for fcrtili2ing purposes for this purpose;
it is generally ground into a meal known as Cotton-
seed meal. Blost of that used for feeding purposes
is shipped to this country, where it is extensively
used for fattening stock; it is also said to be a
spleudid food for cows, causing a rich and phintiful
flow of milk. The cake is shipped from America
iu sacks containing 2U0 lb. each; it is of a rich
golden colour when fresh, and has a sweet, nutty,
oleaginous taste. It is a very valuable fertilizer for a
large number of plants.

The oil from tiro Cotton seeds has been applied
to a variety of uses in America, such as tho manu-
facture of the finer kinds of so.ap, also for mixiug
with paint, and for lubricating purposes ; it, however.

474

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Januarv i, 1886.

dries too slowly to be valuable for the first purpose,
and is too gummy or sticky for the second. Auother
product is glycerine, but this manufacture has beeu
but little attended to as yet. One gallon of crude
oil will make 3^ lb. of glycerine. Its chief use, as
before stated, is as a substitute for Olive oil, and
the following extract will show the state of pcrfectio n
in which the oil is now prepared: — "It is nearly
impossible to detect good Cotton-seed oil from the
best brands of Olive oil by taste, smell, or any other
process ; this the Olive growers of Italy have been un-
willingly compelled to acknowledge. An instrument
called the oleometer has been invented to distinguish
between the two oils by means of their different
specific gravity ; but this is confessedly an uncertain
aU'f unreliable test."

The hulls or shells of the seed are used as fuel
to drive the oil-expressing machinery, and containing
some oil. they burn well and produce a good heat,
and are used exclusi\ely without any other fuel. It
was recently stat"'d in America that before long Cotton-
seed would yield all the Grape sugar demanded by
the commerce of the world. It is estimated that, "if
all the seed produced was used and crushed this
little article, once despised and deemed of no value,
would be worth between 80,000,000 and 100,000,000
dols. annually." — Gai'dcnei's' Chronicle.

WILD MANGOES.
The Jungli am, which is the original steck of all
the fine IMaugoes, is not ofteu met with in its native
habitat, and less frequently in fruit. I have just
received a few fiue specimens of several varieties of
Jungli Mangoes. From the fruits it appears they
vary quite as much as our cultivated ones; and as
to shape, they are the exact counteriiart iu
miniature of many of our best varieties. My specimens
came from the Kangra Valley, and were collected
by a gentleman much interested in the frui*". I once
saw the true Jungli Mango in the Dooars, and again
atterwards growing at an elevation of about 2,000
feet in Sikkim. It is very unlike the cultivated
sort, having generally a straight trunk, whitish smooth
bark, and thin leaves, forming a fine round-headed
tree. The fruit rarely weighs 2 oz., often only 1
oz. The common country Mango, called "Beju." or
" Desi," in Tirhoot, is really an inferior kind of
cultivated Maugo, and not the proper wild Blango
of the forests.

AVild Mangoes are found from India through Malay
to Manilla, and some of the Pacific islands, and it
is not really known if there is more than one species.
The wild and cultivated sorts are so widely dilferent
in shape of fruit that they could almost be called
distiuct species, but every intermediate connecting
stage may be found to bring them under one head.
The flowers of the wild and cultivated Mango are
exactly the same in structure, except that in the
wild one there are often more stamens fertile.

It may not be known to most people that generally
in a Mango flower there is only one stamen out of
tho lot fertile; this one is curved round just over
the pistil in a peculiar way, to facilitate the fert-
ilisation. The so-called " nak," or nose of the Mango,
is the placo the pistil adhered to in the flower. All
this can be plainly seen with a moderately powerful
reading-glass or lens when the Mangos are in flower.

PliOTKCTINO MANCO FuUlT.

A very good way to protect Mangoes from the
attacks of birds and insects is to get a lot of very
finely-woven, round. Bamboo baskets made, say
4 inches wide at top, 5 inches at the bottom, and
as long as may be required for the fruit. See that
there is no room fcr a fly to get -in through the
basket-work. Then put the Alango inside as it hangs
on the tree, push a long thin peg through tho top
of the basket by side of the stalk of the fruit on
one side, and another similar peg on the other siile,
and the Mango will hold the basket np itself; then
tie a little c;dico over the top of the basket, taking
care not to tie the Mango stalk, and also to com-
pletely shut up the top of the basket. The Maugo

stalk must be quite free, because when the fruit is
ripe, or nearly so, it will fall of its own accord, and
will be found to be just fit to gather. If a net be
suspended under the tree theu all danger of bruising
the fruit will he avoided. Theu shake the tree, to
gather only the ripe once. These should be kept
on a "machan" for a few days till quite ripe, as all
Mangoes improve by keeping a little, and should never
be eaten perfectly fresh from the tree. — 0. IVLvHiES,
in Indititi A'jrici'UurUt.

—¥

THE COCHINEAL INDUSTRY IN GUATEMALA.

The following paragraphs describing a visit to a
"cochineal range" in Guatemala are taken from the
ilontreal Daili; Star: —

" In this queer country the raising of hemipterous
insects of the bark-louse family — especially the Coccus
cactus or Spanish cochinilla — is a profitable if not a
plaasant industry. In this portion of Guatemala vast
plantations are given up entirely to the cultivation of
the ** Indian fig," or nopal, of the genus Cacti {O/nuitia
cochinUixfera)^ upon which these bark-lice feed.

"Sciior Espauosa's plantation of Opuniia cochiiiiU ijera
which was the one we visited, includes nearly a,
thousand acres, and the jiiouh^ operandi of cultivating
the insect is most curious. They require about the
same care that is ordinarily bestowed upon silk-worms
and the occupation is not more disagreeable aosoug
crawling bugs than wriggling worms. Immediately
before the annual time of violent rains, great branches
of the nopal, covered with insects, are out off and
stored in a building erected for the purpose, to
protect them from the weather. At the close of the
wet season, four or five mon'hs later (about 'the
middle of October), the plantations are again stocked
from these supplies, by suspending little nests made
of henequin, maguey, jute or any sort of woody fibre,
upon the spines of the growing cacti, each nest con-
taining about a dozen females. Warmed by the tropic
Sim, the insects soon emerge from their semi-comatose
condition, and begin to lay eggs with marvellous
rapidity, each female producing more than a thousand
young. These spread over the plants with marvellous
celerity, the young females attaching themselves to
the leaves and immediately swelling *0 iucre*ble size,
adhering so closely to the nop.^l as to become almost
a part of it, resembling vegetable excrescences rather
than animated creatures.

" In this condition they are gathered for cochineal,
none but the pregnant females being valuable for
commercial purposes. The males are comparatively
few in number — not more than one to two hunilred and
fifty females — and are of no use for colouring pur-
poses ; but, as in the higher or.lers of existence,
escape most of the pains and perils of life Wbi'*
the male are thus left to disport themselTes undisturbed,
tho females are picked ofi: with a blunt knife, collect-
ed into baskets and killed by dipping them into
boiling water, or baking them in a heated oven, or
ou plates of hot iron. The first crop ia gathered about
the middle of December, and suijsequently several
more of as many successive generations — the last for
the year being late in May. These tiny insects, of
the family Coccidir, are in the form of rounded scales,
tho body covered with deep, transverse wrinkles,
abdomen of daik mulberry colour, with short, black
legs, and bristly on the posterior part. The male has
two erect wings, the female none.

"A labourer of ordinary skill can pick only about
two ounces of cochineal bugs in a day. These lose
at least two-thirds of their weight in the process of
drying. As it requires no less than seventy thonsanjl
insects to weigh a pound, and the average retail price
of cochineal is only sixty cents per pound, it may be
inferred that the business is by no means a sinecure.
By the method of immersing the insects in boiling
water they turn to a reddish-brown hue, losing nnich
of tho white powder with which the wrinkles of
their bodies are loaded. Wheii dried in an oven they
ret.ain this, and then their colour is grey, and when
killed on but iron they become black. This is the
cause of the varieties knowu in the market as ' silver

J.vM'AKy X, jgfif'.] THE TROPICAL AORJCULTVniST.

473

grains,' ' black grains,' and ' foxy,' the latter (killed
by tlie first plan) boiug iireferroil. A\1ieu dried, the
cochineal presents the form of convex griiius, each
about au eighth of au inch in diameter, with the
transverse wrinkles still visible.

'• An inferior i|Uality of insects, called si/leestre,
which is indigenous to a wild species of cactus, is
frequently gathered and sold for the better variety,
and sometimes the species become mixed without
design on the part of the planter. Occasionally a
bug distemper breaks out and devastates entire
plantations, ns in Gualeniala a few years ago, when
the haciendados were obliged to clean out the old
stock, root and branch, and begin anew, 'i'he Coc<-ii.^
Ciicli are also fed upon by birds, mice and the larvse
of other insects — the latter destroyers sucking out
their bodies and leaving oiJy the empty skins."

A LICOUICK PLANTATION.

Several days ago, while at the ranch of Isaac Lea,
some two miles north of Florin, in this country, a
representative oC the '15ee' had his attention cal'ed
to a field covered with what appeared to be alfalfa,
bnt which he was a.«8ured by Mr. Leu was licorice,
and any dt)ubts were speedily dispelled when a piece
of the root was dug up and sampled. Blr. I.ea has
thi'oe acres covered with this valuable root, will plant
another acre this Winter, and contemplates adiling
to his field every year. This is certainly the only
licorice plantation this side of the Kooky Mountains,
and, so far as known, the only one in the United
JStates. The following hiterestiug information in
regard to the matter was gathered in conversation
with ?lr. Lea. It seems that twenty years ago he
had a package of roots sent out to him from Kng-
land by mail for planting, but they failed to reach
him, and three times since ho has had cuttings
mailed which invariably were lost in transit.

About Sevan years ago he prevailed on a friend
to bring some of the root from England ui his
trunk. It was ten weeks before it reached Mr. Lea's
hands, anTl in that time had grown several inches
in its wrappings of moistened paper. It was success-
fully planted, however, and from it has come not
only the three acres seen by the writer, but a consider-
able (juantity which has been sold and sent to different
sections for planting.

The plant, as it grows in the field, so much
resembles alfalfa that only close inspection will
detect the difference. A single green stalk grows
above the ground about the size and general appear-
ance of an alfalfa stalk, with similar little green
leaves. There are two systems of roots to each
plant — first, the tap root, of a chocolate color, which
is sometimes as much as three inches in diameter,
and will run down as much as six feet. In soils of
this de;)th there will be but one such root, while
in shallow soils there will be three or four. A
little below the crown of the tap root grow out
the lateral roots in all directions. They are of a
lighter color and much smaller th.iu the tap root,
increase in diameter as tliey go away from it, and
bear mimerons buds about an inch apart. The tap
root has no such buds. Every year the end of each
lateral root buds and sends out five or six shoots,
which will attain a length of .ibout eight feet in
the season, and then the end of each one buds
and sends out more shoots until the ground is a
perfect uotework of roots. The top lies down in
the Autumn and comes up again from the root in
the .Spring. The jilant is very tenacious of life
and spreaila and multiplies as rapidly as morning
glory. The fibre of the root is very tougii »ud
wonid make excellent tics for hop*"!", if it were not
more valuable for other purposes. The jilant matures
in three years, and the crop is then harvested— in
England by digging by hand, bnt here where
labor is high it is found "belter to use a plow which
penetrates about fifteen inches. The lateral roots
are more juicy and valuable than the tap roots,
though both Rie ut'ilizcd, As soon as a field is

I cleared it is replanted, and of course a succession
of crops .should be provided for by planting a, fi»ld
each season.
j For planlii;;, tha small ends of the lateral roots
I are used, cut into pieces of about three inches in
! length, that securing several buds on each. These
cuttings are planted one every ten inches in rows
four feet apart, and then cultivated between until
the growth of the roots interferes with cultivation.
Mr. T a has given but little care to his crop. It
mi-fThL iiQ added tliat tho soil on his place is a red
cla^', not more than from fifteen to thirty inches
deep, with tlu- • ^ .Irock immediately below it. Li(;o-
rice is valuable, not oidy for me licinal purposes,
hut for otiier and widely ililTerent ones as well. In
Kngland the green root is kept for sale in every
candy store, and the children purchase anil enjoy it
as thoy would candy. To retain its juice for tins
and other purposes it is packed in eand immediately
after being dug and kept there till needed. The green
root is also used in the manufacture of porter, bi^inif
boiled in tho malt ; and doubtless one reason that we
import all our jjorter is because wo do not grow
licorice. The dried root is used in mediciuc and
extensively chewed by the .\mericau youngster because
the luxury' of the green root is ludcno-.vn to him.
Mr. Lea states that llie yield per acre is between
30 and 4U tons nf the green root. Taking the lowest
figures he will liavo from an acre f)0,OG'0 pounds
green or 20,000 pouuds dried licorice, which, at 13
cents, would biing Si!,CiOO. Allowing S200 for plant-
ing, cultivation and gathering of erup ami sending
it to market, he would ■ have $2, -100 net return from
one acre in three years. Eight huudi-od dollars per
acre is not at all bad. — SjACr.vjiento Bee. — Madras Mail.

NORTH-WEST NEW ZE.'ULAND AND SUB-
TliOl'ICAL CULTIVATION.
Mr. Alfred Yarborough, an old resident in Niiw
Zealand, has published an interesting little pamphiet,
entitled, " A New Field for Kmigration — the North-
Wcst of NtMv Zealand." As he truly saya, the Noi th-
Western corner of New Zealaiul has not hitherto
received that attention at the bands of the F-nglish
public that its capabilities merit. SVhether because
the climate partakes of a sub-trupical nature, or be-
cause the fear of native dilliculties has kept tlie
emigrant away, or becau.se the natiu'e of the soil is
not tho same as that to which the Knglish farmer is
accustomed, is not clear; but the fact remains that
there exists here a fairly extensive field for E\iro])ean
emigrants who have the co irage and the technics] know-
ledge to go a little out of the be>ateu tracks. If English
emigrants lio not care to venture upon silkworm cult-
ure, or wine and olive growing, or on the other similar
industries for which this district is admirably sniteil,
Italian emigrants, whose eyes seem turiu'd more t -
wards .South .V'nciica than any o'.her part of the world,
would find a country here after their own heart, with
opportunities for self-advancement denied to them in
their own country. A few Italians have already
settled their. Mr. Yarborough states that an Italiin
Colonist, Federli by name, has given a great deal of his
time to the rearing of silkworms and the culture of sub-
tropical fruits, and has now settled down with some
friends in Hokianga, with the intention of throwing
his whole attention into the subject. It is quite clc.ir,
from his experiments, that so far as climate and other
natural conditions arc concerned, the north-west of
New Zealand is exceedingly well adapted for the in-
dustry, bnt it will be necessary to grow the white
mulberry to an extensive degree bef< re this industry
can bo greatly develope<l. The land is well suited for
the growth of this tree, as well as of the olive and
orange, ami many other fruit-growing plants. Vines,
especially the more hardy descriptions, such as the
Isal)ella, grow in the grcalest profusion, and bmr
remarkably good crops, the snil, whirli is volennie,
being admirably adapted for tile cultivation of Ibis
plant. The majority of English settlers, however.
have uot the ruijuisitQ knowledge to bring tlio fruit-

476

THE TROPICAL AdF^ICULTlTRIST. [January i, 1886.

bearing qualities of the vine into full perfection. In
187^ an Italian priest put a few acres into cultivation
as ji \'iucyar(l, and had splentliii results. He made an
excellent wine, some of which he Bold, "but," adds
Mr. Yarborough, '-ho left the di.strict shortly after-
wards, and his vineyard became completely neglected,
and has now, I believe, disappeared. In other places
I know of the Isabella vine growing perfectly wild,
the branches trailing over the grass, and bearing the
finest bunches of grapes in great quantities. Three of
these vines, in their wild state, gave 1-^ ton of grapes,
saleable in Auckland at least 3d. per lb. A German,
near the Kohu Kobu, has now jdanted a few acres
of vineyard, which look exceedingly tlourishing. and, as
he understands his business, he will no doubt do well.
Last year he made a lai-ge quantity of wine from the
Isabella grape, and isold a portion of it at a fair price.
The remainder is being kept for a few years." Con-
cerning the cultivation of other plants I\lr. Yarborough
gives some interesting information, which holds out
most hopeful prospects to the right class of settlers.
As lemons, oranges, date palms, citrons, figs, olives,
loquats, bananas, Oape gooseberries, mulberries, pea-
nuts, tobacco, guavas, maize, ginger, vine, castor oil,
Manilla hemp, peaches, plums, &c., grow more or less
in wild profusion, it is reasonable to suppose that they
are capable of a high cultivation. Lemons are com-
mon; a few orange trees planted by early settlers
are luxuriant in their foliage and fruit, and thousands
are now being planted ; date palms gi-ow readily :
bananas require warm and .sheltered spots to do well,
but all the other plants or trees mentioned appear
to enjoy the climate and soil. It is a curious fact
that wherever a patch of brush or fern land has been
burnt off for sowing, there the Cape gooseberry may
be found during the course of the following few years
bearing in quantities. (^>uinces do remarkably well, and
bear in a wild state, while "j ;'le, pear, and other trees
common to both England and the Colonies, are ex-
cellent bearers in the district. Strawberries and cherries
are produced in abundance, but gooseberries and cur-
rants are hard to rear; melons of all sects, and all
vegetables commonly placed under glass in England,
are easily reared. .Some portions of the district are
better adapted than others for orchard and fruit pro-
duce, but it is not difhcult to select land of which
at least parts are eminently suited, owing to their
sheltered position and northern aspect, for the cult-
ure of the more delicate descriptions of fruits. Peach
trees grow wild in great numbers, and the fruit is
produced in such abundance that the pigs frow fat on
them in autumn. In some places you may almost
walk ankle deep in peaches; they are not the luscious
fruit which is obtained from greenhouses in England,
but are \'ery palatable, and make excellent preserve,
or may be dried and sold to advantage. The peach
tree, properly cultixated and attended to, produces
a fruit very little, if at all, inferior to the tlessert
peach in England, while the quince in its wild state
gives enormous crops of cxcelh'ut fruit. — ISiiropeun Mail.

-♦-

CUSCUTA CKEEPEB.

Woods and Forests Board,

ISth January 1S85,
Tlie Hoiioratilr the Culdiiial Secretary,

Sir,— I have the honof to enclose copy of a report
from the Acting Director of Woods and Forest.?,
on the "cuscilta" creeper, and ou the steps taken
)u view of its destruction — which was read and con-
sidered at ji meeting of the Woods and Forests
,t-'.oard held on the U'tii instant,
. The l5oard requested Mr. Scott to use his best
endeavours to destroy the "cu.scuta" as fast as he
can oh Crown Lands, taking if necessary some
additional men to help the present members of the
staff so as to secure their more rapid destruction.
Aiul, whereas, according to Mr. Scott's report, the
proprietors of " Atnm'' and " Har-le-Huc," winch now j
i'orni one anil the .same estate, are the only propri-
etors who seem to have t.aken steps for its destruction i
on private property. The Board further suggests that
His Exceileucy the Covernor be pleased to consider '

I whether it would not be desirable to enact an
I Ordinance directing private proprietors to destroy the
"cuseuta"' creeper on their property, and in case of
defaidt by them so to do— witliiu a reasonable
delay— authorizing the officers of the AVoods and
Forests Dep.artraent to enter their property, except
private dwelling-houses, and to destroy the creepers
at the proprietor's expense.

I have the honor to sumit these recommendations
for His Excellency's favourable consideration.

I have, &c.,
V. Naz,
Chairman,
Enclosure
A/J? I2th January 1885.

The Chairman of the Woods and Forests Board.
As you requested, I beg^to submit for the inform-
ation of the Board a report on the Cuseuta creeper.
This parasitical creeper belongs to the Convolvulus
family {Vonvolvidacea-) and is known by the common
name of Dodder. There are seven or eight different
species, but as I have not as yet examined the flower
I am unable to say at present what species we have
in Mauritius, and I have been informed that there
is more than one. There are three or four different
species indigenous to Europe and the temperate
parts of Asia. It is also found in Kussia where
it does great damage to the Flax crop.

It is difhcult to say in what way it was introduc-
ed into INIauritius, but most likely with foreign seeds.
I have not foinid, I believe it was seen at Quartier
Miiitaire in 1882, and the rapidity of its growth
accounts for its now being so abundant. It has been
found in the Districts of Moka, Plaiues Wiihems
and Grand Port.

Here is an extract which throws soine light on
the method by wlrich the Cuseuta first becomes
attached to the plant on which it grows. " The
see germinates in the soil in the usual way, and
by the long spiral like germ makes one or two tight
c o ils around its future support, and during the time
these coils are progressing the foster parent is in-
creasing in size. The compressing of the former
around the latter becomes tightened, thus causing
the bark of the foster-parent to become more delicate,
while the parasite is preparing a series of serai
roots to penetrate it. It having done this, its pos-
ition is firmly established. Its own natural root dies
away and thenceforward its true parasitic growth is
astonishingly rapid."

It will thus be seen the great difbculty there is
in exterminating it, for, should even half an inch
of the stem be left on the br.anch of a tree it will
again grow and increase; therefore the only plan to
adopt is to cut down the branches and burn or
bury the whole.

No trees have as yet been seen killed by it, but
I saw ou the Reserves of Iliver Moka some Framboises
Jlarronues which appeared to have been killed by it.
It has been proved that it has been S])read to a
great extent by the Indians carrying it from one
locality and throwing it on to trees in another, under
the false iilea that it was the "Liaiiesans fiu"/Cas-
sytha filiformis) which they use eb a medicine iu
certain casci.

There arc at present three forest keepers einp'nyed
In clearing It out where it is most abundant. It is
intended to send six other keepers to assist in e\-
terminaliug it.

The only Estates that arc clearing it from private
forests .as yet are "Alma" and " B:tr-le-Duc," and
I should suggest that a Forest keeper 'oe si;nt tcl
work alorg with the men sent for the jnirpose of
clearing it away. WiLf.iAM Siott,

.Voting Directtor. Woods & Forests.
I would add that the Cuseuta is not without its
medicinal qualities, and the juice of the fresh plant
is prescribed iu sub-inflammatory comjilaints, and the
powder of the dried pl.ant is stri'wi'd on fresh wouuds,
the healing of which it is said to promote. — W. S.
The above i\Iinutc was referred to ijie Law Comnv't-
tee. — Jianiilins .Ucrointitc Recotd.

jANiURY I, iS86,j THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

477

LETTUCE GEOW'IXG : A THING WOBTH
KNOWING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "' PIONEEJU."

Sir, — In the Lucknow Horticultural Ganleii is
grown an aixlimntised cos lettuce, witL a selocteil
pi-iligree of ujiwarils of 15 years. No newly-import-
eil kiuils come up to it, as far as sulitability to this
climate is concerned, yet it is hardly known beyond
the sphere of official reports. It is a large and tall
cos variety; the tips of the leaves cabbage or fold
over each other, so as to blanch the inner leaves
■without the bother of swathing. Tlease note what
those who have tried it have said about it. Some
years back a trial of the Lucknow cos lettuce seed
was made at the Saharunpore Botanic Garden, which
resulted iu the following report:— "A splendid variety;
three sowings were made, and all made heads
superior to any" imported variety we had. En<]uiries
were made by parties who received it in dixieC!',
where the seeds were obtained from." (!) In 1SS3
I sowed some seed of this superb cos lettuce iu
Etawah, and sent some heads of it lo fritnds. They
said they never saw anything like it for size, whiteness,
sweetjiess, and crispuess. Last year I grew it again.
I sent a few heads of it to a lady who had come
to Ktawah. She said she never saw anything so
good. On returning to Agra she asked me to send
her .some heads of this lettuce, that she might show
the residents of Agra what fine lettuce ought to be
like in India. Later on she did not forget to write
for some of its seed. Now there is a little secret
about growing lettuce for s'ed, which may not be
generally known, and which the sooner it is learnt
the more easily will the grower be able to improve
his seed for future sowings. First, always get hold
of the best acclimatized strain jiossible. Second, sow
the seed, not too thkkhj, in well-prepared beds of
rich soil, in October (iu the N. AV. P. and Oudh).
Third, when big enough to handle, prick out the
young plants carefully, 12 or 14 inches apart, in
rich soil of the beat quality, where they can get
plenty of air and sun. M'ater at once with a rose,
and then irrigate the beds regularly at intervals
and watch the result. The growing lettuce should
never want water, that is, it should never be checked
in growing ; being a leaf-vegetable, it should have
the richest possible soil. Of course weeding and
other ciUture must be attended to. Choola ashes
appear to suit lettuce, but of course it is possible to
give too much of a good thing. "When the heads
are coming on towards being fit for the table yon
will linil that most of them will fold the tips of their
inner leaves one over the other, that is. they cal'lia;/i:
TItes' are the ones you should select for seed. Do
not fancy for a moment, however, that you lose the
heads for the table by keeping seed from these plants.
Not a bit. AVIien the head is ready for use, cut it
off close to- the ground, leaving only three or four
leaves on the stump. Plunge the he.id iu clean
fresli water at once, and use it afterwards as required ■
for salad. 'Within a week or so you will see little
sprout-') coming up from the stumj). These are the
tidt .-li'ioli of the lettuce, and it is fiom these vidy
that good seed for the next generation can be obtained,
that is, if you wish to have lettuce that will grow
slowly and cabbage, and will not " run off into /lower
like rocket'.'' Plea.sc note also the following: — Any
lettuce he.ids which do r\nt cabbage and remain open
like endive, take up scrupulously Inj the roots and do
what you like with them. This you must see done '
your.self. as your mali will not do it, but wih leave
the stumps of the open-headed leltueos also in the
ground, the shoots of which would seed like the rest and
leaven and spoil your stock with lettuces fit only
for cow.'f and goats. The stumps with their flowering
stems should be irrigated regidarly as before until
you gather all the seed you want. Keniember the
seeils, when ripe, are attached to little tnfts of
cotton, and will b'- soon blown away anywhere
after expanding. They should therefore be collected

daily, after the sun has dried off any dow. A second
selection may be made while the flower stems are,
growing. The fewer stems you leave on each stump,
the more nourishment will they get and the stronger
wi i the seed ultimately he. The stunqis of the
earliest heads taken off cutefis jiiiiihiis are likely
to give better seed than the latest. The former
will have a good bit of the cohl weather to grow
and perfect themselves iu, v/hile the In Iter will have
the beginning of the hot weather to do it in. Yet
a third t ! ctiou may be made. By winnowing the
seed, after c ' auing it, in a gentle breeze, over an
•xteuded sheet, you will be able to seijaratu the
|. uipe.st, and therefore the soundest and heaviest
seeds from the chalfy, light ones ; the former is what
you should keep for stock. If you follow this advice
strictly, aud see to it now and again yourself, you
will not Lo disappoiuted with your acclimatised seed.
Moreover, by growing already acclimatised seed and
keeping your own every year, this lettui:u will adapt
itself, with a little intelligent niodificatiou iu the
treatment, to all the climates of the N., S., E., W.,
and centre of India. One word more about the seed.
As it would be useless to go to war without keeping
your powder dry, .'■o wouUl it be useless to take all
the foregoing trouble about nursing aud selecting if,
after all, you do not k(C/> your seed dry. Bottles
well corked or tin bo-ws with tightly fitting covers —
never too full — are the best for keeping seeds in.
Take advantage of dry bright sunny days to air and
sun your seeds on a blanket spread on a eharpoy (not
on the grouud), with' a boy to watch the .squirrels.
Now there is a reason for most things in this world,
and the reason why the side shoots of the lettuce
plant are better than the main shoots for keeping
seeds from in India is this: the main stem tends
to shoot up ijidck/i/, and its seeds will produce plants
with the same tendency. Therefore lettuces fi-om
the main stem seeds would disappoint you by Hying
off like rockets into flowering stems before you would
have time to consume them, and ou the slightest
provocation from warm weather and dryness at the
root, while your object should be to make them grow
.slowly, and have tlicm fit for the fcdile throughout
a longer period. This yon can bring about by keep-
ing .seeds fiom the side shoots only, which will give
plants that will grow more .slowly. Kemember that
the winter in ludia is very .short ; no sooner are you
rid of the raius and their liot-house atmosphere than
the coldest part of the winter is upon you (when
most vegetables are at their best), and the next
warm weather soon following up. Curiously enough,
natives do not care about lettuce, although they who
are fond of eating r.iw v<'get.ables might eat the raw
blanched and sweet leaves with :uh'antage, especiclly
if they first dipped them in lemon juice aud then
in salt. T use this fine ens lettuce, liowever, every
winter for prisoners, while I keep the stumps of the
prime ones for .seed. In the prison the lettuces are
chopped up and boiled as other vegetables, aud a
flue thing they make when properly done up. For
soldiers nothing could be better than this fine veget-
able. Last of all it is uot impossible that this
lettuce grown largely without much richness of soil
would yield an opium called lacttianiiim, ivhieh is
useful in medicine. It is collected from incisions
in the flower stalk, aud the root is said to yield an
extract which is stronger than that made from the
leaves. 'J'hc medicinal properties of Laclncaiium, or
fhe extract, are said to be sedative, narcoti(^ gently
laxative, and powerfully diuretic. Whether the cultiv-
ated kiud can be made to yield this aijparently
useful drug is, however, a matter for experiment.

K. BO.NAVIA, M.D.

THAT HUSBAND OF MINE
Is three times the itiaii he was before he began
using ^Vells' Health UenewcT." Druggists. 'W. IJ. .Smith
& Co., Jladras, Sole Agents.

47n

THE TROPICAL AGmcULTUSJST. Ummm t,

i88S.

AGEIGULTUEE IN BRITISH IJUBMA.
\X(i have received a mass of papers from Mr. 'Watsoii,
who l.ituself obtained them from the Government of
British Burma, from which we extract the Chief
ComiuiHsioiier's order on two reports ou experimental
cnltivation at Paletwa and Kyaukpandaung in tlie
Araknn Ifill Tracts dnring the past year. The Cliief
Cumtni.ssioner has read the reports with interest, and
I ani^ to ask you to convey Mr. Bernard's thanks to
Mr. Fanshawe for tlie care and trouble he has taken
to make this e.xperimental cultivation successful. At
Kyaukpandaung the cultivation of tea has been
successful, but coffee, jiotatoes, and the English fruit
trees do not appear to thrive, with the exception of
the raspberry trees. At Paletwa the cultivation of
tea, pepper-vine, cinnamon, Liberian coffee, Manilla
hemj) has been successful; potatoes, however, have
failed here as well as at Kyaukpandaung, 'anil it
would appear useless to plant again potatoes with which
the climate or the soil does not agree. BIi-. Fanshawe's
suggestion that sugarcane-cultivation should be attempt-
ed may be adopted, and cane-cuttings from Bilin can
be sent forexperimi-nt during the present rainy season.
Tobacco seed of different kinds, as well as cotton seed
will also be supplied immedintely. The cxperimenlal
cultivation has shown that it is possible to grow
varied products in the Hill Tracts, but there is no
hope of attracting there for the present European
settlers, as the labour difficidty and the climate are
obstacles to any successful plaaiting enterprizc ; the
hillmeu may, however, be induced to grow staples
which are useful and necessary to them, such as
sugarcane, tobacco, and cotton ; and if the result of
these experiments is to introduce the permanent
cultivation of these products among the wild tribes of
these hills, the money expended on these grants will
not have been uselessly spent. The Chief l.'ommissioner
agrees to coutiuue tor another year the grant of
Bl.OOO for expeiimental cultivation on the Kyaukpan- i
daung and I'aletwa gardens, but he trusts that the
grant will be expended ou the introduction of products
which are of immediate use to the hill people.

From Col. Sladen's report we take the following
extracts: — At Kyaukpandaung, or rather the spur
known as Alicetaung, it may be generally taken for
granted that tea and cinchona thrive well, and may
be cultivated with success. The tea-garden is already
assuming large proportions, and the time is coming
when, with a little .skilled labour for curing processes,
the trees will yield a returu which ought to make the
garden more than self-supporting. The number of trees
and young plants exceeds 13,(IIMI, and this number is
capable of large extension, so as to form the nucleus
of a fairly good tea-estate, which would pay well in
any part of the country where labour was procurable
at ordinary low rates. The fact, too, that we have
over -ttX) cinchona plants or trees at Kyaukpaudaimg,
all doing well, particularly the larger ones, seems to
prove that the locality is favourable to the growth
of this very important vegetable product. I am not
in favour of spending money ou an ICnglish vegetable
garden, or on coffee, but I shall ask the Deputy
Commissioner, after tea and cinchona, to give his
attention more to the cultivation of betel-palms and
pepper-vines, both of which should grow abundantly
nnd, possibly, in time yield good results. I will also
endorse Mr. F.inshawc's suggestion that ho may be
supplied with varieties of tobacco and cotton seed.
The ttibacco already produced is very good of its kind
nnd fetches a good price in the local market. JJut
unfortunately, owing to si)arsity of population, the
production both of cotton and tobacco is very limited, j
ami there is none available for foreign export, for I
which, otherwi.se, these jirodvicts are well suited, j
Mr. V. ('. F.inshawe reported: — The ciiuiamon trees j
are getting on excellently. Any number could be
brought .lown from Kyaukpandaung. where there is '
a small forest ot them. The young coffee i)lants put
in last year are doing fairly well. About half of them
were put in inider the shade of plantain trees and
nbout half (near, and partly shaded by a kamauug

tree; about half ot the latter and about three-fom-ths

11 Jv"'™",", "'■"'' ''"'"» *"'' "^<*" 'o "JC getting on
well. The old trees have grown and look healthy
The experimental cultivation in the Arakan Hill Tracts
has done little or nothing, I am sorry to say to
induce the peasantry to try new products, and I am
atraiJ that, as long aa theyjive the life that thev do
at present they will never attempt anything new.
1 heir staple products are of course rice ami sessamum
tor home consumption, and tobacco and cotton for
both home consumption and export. Theu- time is
pretty well taken up ir. their taungy.as and tobacco
faelds, and the month or two in which they have
nothing to do they spend in a series of feasts. The
ground used for the cultivation of tobacco could not
be used tor permanent garden laud as it is all under
water during the rains; and it tauugyas were cut far
trora the water, the labour would be immi^use to keel>
the ground properly watered during the hot weather,
and that is just the time that they are all hard at
work cutting theh' taungyas for planting paddy, A;c
Ihey are too lazy and indolent to put themselves cut
m any way, and as long as they have enough to eat
and drink, with a few ruiiees to spend yearly, thev
are quite contented. Different kinds of tobacTo and
_ cotton they would willingly sow I thhik; and if Mr
Bridges supplies .seeds next yc™- as hehas very kindlv
ottered to do, I have no doubt that the experiment
will be a success. Even if planters were induce.l to
settle up here, I do not think they would find culliv.
ation profitable as the great difficulty of course would
be cooly labour. The peasantry here simply wouki
not work ngularly, and all the labour would have to
be imported; and even then I am afraid the coolies
would be constantly down witti fever, for the first vear
or two at any rate, and unless they were paid at
ruinously high rates, they would desert whenever thev
got a chance. At Kyaukpaudaung the scarcity of water
would be a great drawback; but coolies, if well paid
might be induced to live there, as the climate is good
all the year round, and the policemen there keep
wonderfully free from fever. '

It is curious to find Mr. Fanshawe desiderating a
fuller work ou Cinchona than Dr. King's Manual.
He should get Owen's, and as he says he knows nothing
of tea, there is the Tade Mucum recently published'!
c *"';i,^^^ Taliiier, Esq., Deputy Conservator of Forests,
South Tenassenm Division, reported on the Mergui
I lautatiuu tor the year 1884-85, dated the L'l'nd J.me
loSo, as lollows: —

There are I,;ia0 be.aring Liberian trees, 708 young
trees and 2.1M-1 seedlings. The growth of this coffee
nas been very fine ; the bearing trees are 8 to 12 feet
in blight, age a^ years, and gave last season a heavy
crop. It IS not possible to give any definite quantity
ot coffee produced as the whole amount was collected
oy the plantation gauug.

2. I gave Mr. A\'atsoii, tli<> planter at 'J'avoy fi
cwt., and some seeds (a note of the quai.titv was not
taken by plantation gaung), Ua>e been sown in the
plantation. The trees have flowered very well this
year, and I expect a bumper crop next season. Some
arrangement for imlping the coffee must be made
lext year, as there was great dirticulty in getting this
done this season. I am sorry to say that whiteaiits
are beginning to attack the coffee, though they have
as yet done very little harm, nor do I think they
will ever do much. This cofTee wants shade, thousli
too dense a shade seems to draw it up too quickly.

fbi!.r , 1°?^' "*'■>'" ^"^""•■.fif^t year or twi fairly
thick and then thin out heavily

:<. There are P20 bearing trees and 1,288 seedlings.
The produce Iroui these trees this last .season was very
sinall and has all been sown in the pl.aiil,iti»n. No
dehuite idea of the amount of seed moducid can be
given as the plantalinu gauug .lid not 't«ke the trouble
to measure the quantity. This coffee does not succeed
nearly as well as the I.iberi.ii. U is, however, oidv
•1.. years old, nnd perhaps in another two yews the
results may he better.

4. There are 22 trees altogether. Several of the trtree

jANOASy I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

479

are flowering, and mil, I hope, form pods. This tree
wUl, I tliiak, succeej exeeeilingly well at Mcrgui,
provided it is kept uuder slmde. I have had them
all fenced in to protect the pods from the monkeys,
which are very tioublesomo at times.

5. There are li.'0 young trees in the plantation, all
growing admirably. There can be no doubt as to the
succe^s of this tree; the only difliculty is iu getting
tlie seeds to germinate. I shall try some experiments
this year with the seed, as the percentage of seed
which do not germinate under our present system of
sowing is very large.

6. Two hundre.1 and fifty-one creepers altogether.
Two of these flowered this year auil formed 30 flowers.
I trieil my hand on fecundating these, but am afraid
I have not succeeded. I cannot miderst-and Mr. Connor's
mode of fecundation. 1 intend starting a vauillery
this year, so as to get the creepers all close together.

7. During this next year I hope to distribute a
large number of coffee seedlings amongst the Burmans
and Karens of the Jlergiii 'district. I believe
thoroughly that it once these men see that cott'ee-
planting pays, they will go in for it heavily, especially
if Government will undertake to purchase the produce
of their g.irdcns at the market rales.

PoT.iTO Celluloid. — According to a Vienna journal
a substance may be produced fiom potatoes poss-
essing the properties of celluloid. For this pur-
pose) the peeled potatoes are boiled for thirty-six
hours in a fluid consistini^ of eight ])avts sulphuric
acid and 100 parts water, then dried between
blotting paper, and relieved of the superfluous water
by pressing. Pipe bowls are at present made
therefrom in France that can barely be distinguished
from real meerschaum, and billiard balls are like-
wise made from it by strongly pressing. — Electrical
Tnnle.-i Journal.

SwEirr Tm. of Ssu-cn'u.\s.— In a report of a journey
through Central Ssu-ch'uan in June and .July last,
Jfr. Alexander Hosie mentions the discovery ^by
Mr. Barber of a peculiar kind of Tea, in the follow-
ing words : — •' If my memory is not at fault, he
[Mr. B-'irbcr] was regaled by a priest on mount (J-mei
with Tea possessing both the flavour of nulk and
sugar. It m.ay have been iu the very temple on
the mountain-side in which I am now writing that
Sir. Barber was agreeably surprised. At any rate,
I am ^ipping an infusion wbich i.s, without doubt,
sweet, and which is declared by the priest to be
brewed from a naturally prepared Tea leaf. It is a
large, ilark brown leaf, and is very sweet when chewed.
The people at the bottom of the mountain, whom I
first ipiestioued regarding this Tea, asserted that the
leaves were sweet because they were first steeped in
molasses; but the balance of evidence, a.s I have
since found from extensive inquiry, is against any
such artificial preparation. The tree is said to grow
in only one gorge in the mciiuitain, whence the leaves I
are brought for sale." AVe are indebted to Mr.
Hosie for a sample of this Tea, which consists of
the entire leaf rolled up loosely into little balls, and
almost black in colour. Upon chewing a portion of
a leaf it is found to be decidedly sweet, with a strong
suspicion of liquorice rather than molasses, as stated
by Mr. Hosie. 1/pon soaking the leaves and flatten-
ing them out they were found to be those of Viburn-
um dilatatiim, Thunberg. To prove that the leaves
of this plant possessed no natural sweetness, we ob-
tained a few leaves from a growing plant and dried
thcin, and found that neither in their fresh, and still
less in their dried state, have they any marked
flavour. INIoreover, the leaves of the Jlouut 0-mei
Tea are transparent, as if they had been steeped in
some s ilution, while those wliirh I gttbercd and
dried arc opaijne, and yet rebtin their green colour.
It seems certain, then, that this singular Ti-a owes
its sweetness to some foreign substance, as stated
by "the pfloplc at the bottom of the mountain,"
and that substance may be molasse', but is in all
probability liquorice.— GarrfeHers' Chronicle.

The Productiok of HEiT iu flowers has often
been ohseivod and measured, and the general chem-
ical explanation given of the phenomeuon is no <loubt
true in the main. It depends upon oxidation or the
union of oxygen gas with the tissues of plants or
their contents, and to the " oombiisti(m " or destruc-
tion that goes on in consoquouce, accompanieil by the
emission of carbonic acid gas. In an earlier stage of
the plant's life the process is just the reverse. The
leaves and green portions of the plant wlien exposed
to sunlight give nut oxygen ga^j; the process is one
of deoxidation, and w^ith it occurs a process of evapor-
ation of moist vapour; from the surface, both cool-
ing processes; so that while ou the one band during
the flowering period and duriug the ripening of fruits
and tho germination of seed we may expect the
temperature of the plant to rise : on the other, all
the time assimilation of carbon is going on in tissues
still green and exposed to light the temperature may
be expe<^ted to be no higher than that of the sur-
rouu<ling air. — Gardeners' ChronicU.

PnORBtlUM TKNAX AND ITS TlIEHAPEUTIC VALUE. —

Among tho botanical products of New Zealand there
is one item for the Matena Medial that \\ill prove
a valuable auxiliary to the surgeon as soon as its
therapeutical effects have become generally known.
Prom ISfiO, when the properties of the plant were
first made known, till the present, I have used it
in hundreds of cases, including lacerations and am-
Ijutations of every description, and I have no hesitation
iu .saying that there is nothing known in the old
country that can eipial it in producing healthy granul-
ations. I use a strong tlecoction— the stronger the
better — made from the, roots and tho butts of the
leaves, boiled for twelve hours. At one time I had
to nialce it fresh every second day, as it readily
ferments and deteriorates, but since carbolic acid
came into vogue, I keep it tor any length of time
by aildiug about an ounce of equal parts of carbolic
acid and glycerine to every quart. I reiiuire no
other antiseptic precautions, but simply syringe the
lesions occasionally with it, and maintain cotton wool
or lint, .soaked in it, constantly to the parts affected.
If there are no foreign matters to be discharged
there will be no discharge, in support of which I
will instance the case of an Austrian, named Louis
Ivourich, whose forearm I lately amputated, after it
had beeji shattered through dynamite. The ligatures
were thirty days in coming away, and the amount of
pus from tin^ op. -ration up to that time woubt not
altogether amount to a table-spoonful. The same
paticflt had th(i soft parts of th<; otlier forearm torn
and blown into such a mass of shreds that the
mendiiirs of the stall thought it was hopelessly
beyond repair. I ni'ed only say that with the same
treatment it became as soumi and useiul as before,
and exhibits only scars showing where new skin had
been formed. .Some time ago a navvy on the Wiiiton
Kailway works had a loaded truck go over his foot,
doubling it on the sole, bursting the integuments
and leaving the os calcis nearly bare and the flexor
tensions dijjping loosely with bits of skin and fascia
under the sole of| the foot. The man lived iu a tent
near the works. 1 instructed one of bis mates how
to boil down a billy of Plax every day, and suspend
it with a drip-rag over the injury, and the case recovered
perfectly, with no appearance of pus, except on one
occasion for twenty-four hours, through his mates
leaving him for smne sports or races with an in-
sufiicieut supply of decoction, which compelUtil him
to use water instead. In this case no carbolic acid,
or anything, was used but the decoction of Flax by
itself. I might adduce proofs by scores of its
elbcacy, but if, owing to these facts bfing made
prominently known through the Australaaian Medical
Gazette, medical men can be induce^l to test the
remedy for themselves, it will require no assertions
from nio to cnu.se the Phorminm toiiax to lake the
premier place as a granu'atin? agent. — FkanX'IS A,
MONeKTOV, M.B.C.SE., Surgeon Superintend.iii, K,i-
mara Uospital. — Gurdenera' Chronicle.

4So

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

OAMPnoE IN OniNA. — Reporting on tlie trade fo
Tamsin, China, tlie Commissioner of Customs says
that the trade iu camphor is represented in the
returns liy such an insignificant figure, tliat there is
great fear of its total extinction iu the near future.
The immediate cause of its rapid collapse may Ije
traced to the eagerness of the Chinese to acquire,
by all possible means, as much territory as possible.
During the last three years, liills thickly wooded
with camphor trei'S have been burned over by the
Chinese, in order to compel the savages to withtlraw.
Destruction on so large a scale naturally tells on the
camphor trade. Forests of camphor ti-ees do still
e.vist further inland, but the absence of all beaten
track.s across the mountains render them difficult of
access. — Journal of the Societi/ oj ArU,

Orchid Puunino. — A good deal of information is
likfdy to be gained incidentatly by the discussion of
this scdijei-t. Some people ask whether the old
psinidobulbs are of any use; because, if not, they
might be cut away. At Mr. Lee's the other day we
saw the use to which they, or some of them, are
put in that establishment, where the requirements
and peculiarities of Orchids are so thoroughly met
and understood. The bulbs of Deudrobiura uobile
nobilius are tied down horizontally to a board just
as babies are in some countries still, and hung up
near the gl.ass, kept in suitable temperature, and with
sufficient moisture, when, after a little, buds present
themselves at the nodes, by which the plant may be
propagated. It is clear, then, that the reserve food
and growing power of the old bulbs are not exhausted.
— fjfti'deiierti^ Chronicle,

Thk Hmali.-leaved Lime. — Where a neat, some-
what low-growing .shade tree is required, Tilia cordata
is preferable to either T. platyphyllos or T. vulgaris.
At Metz, and elsewhere in western Germany, and
also iu eastern France, &c., where the tliree species
were often growing in close proximity, the contrast
bi^tween the bright, cheerful, fresh appearance of
the first-named and the parched-up, almost leafless
state of the two latter was very marked last month.
In some towns the street avenues, and the trees
planted thickly in the squares for shade purposes,
were almost all T. corclata, which seems rarely
planted in Britain. It may be as well to remark
that T. cordata is the correct name of the species
gi'Ui'r.dly mentioned in works on British botany as
T. parvifolia. T. platyphyllos and T. vulgaris are
both included under the old name, T. europrea;
th<! two species are, however, thoroughly distinct,
and iu nu)st cases can be. readily recognizml by the
leave's alone. The first has soft leaves, mrjre or less
ha-iry on both surfaces, and flowers earlier than T.
vulgaris, which has leaves glabrous except in the
axils of the principal veins. — GanUners^ Chronicle.

NoTRs nv TiiK Way. — .Tust at a time when coflee
planters and importers have their cups full if one
may use such a figure of speech, som(^ ingenious
bid,aniKt has discovered a substitute for coffee. At
the ( 'omniercial Exchange. Cape Town, there were
exhibied recently some spifcimcns of a root, t'mpitnt/iftu,
which has much in common with chcuu-y. The
t'olliiwing letter from Mr. Hampdexn-Willis, Tinder
Colcmial .Secretary, accompanied the exhibits: —" With
referi'nco to a letter from the Civil (Jommissioner
of Peildie, under date 14lh ult., I am directed to
forward, per scjiarate parcels, some specimens of a
root known by the name of ' umpimyisa,' viz., a
piece cut off the root, some pieces roasted after
being passed through a mincing machine, and two
packets of the ground material. The root is largidy
used by farmers and others, who make a beverage
from it resembling eolfee iu flavnur, but sweetish.
The process employed in preparing it is to pass
it through a mineing nmehiue, roast, ami grind it.
Soini' fanners also make a syrup from it, by cut-
ting up the root"., boiling and .skimming it. This
resembles giilib'Ti syrup, with a slight ei-mamon flavour.
It is thought that with proper machinery this root
could be utilized as a sulistitutfl for eiiffee as an
article of commerce." — Home ami Colonial Mail.

Wynaad, Nov. 11th.— The weather with us of late
has been most unusual. October we generally expect
to be showery, but not a succession of storms and heavy
rams. November, as a rule, is dry, with land winds. We
are now havini; heavy .showers almost every afternoon
the rest of the day being still and hot. It is "fine
gi-mving weather " at any rate, and the cinchonas, both
Ledf/erifD.aund Succirnbra, show their appreciation of it
by looking most luxuriant, our eofli'ee crop is pretty
fairly on taking the estates " en bloc," the crops appe.ar
: tfl be very irregular— good in some places, and sadly in-
1 ddlerent in other. Today a meeting is being held for
the especial consideration of the great question of the
day, i. «., the discoloration of coffee, its causes and poss-
ible prevention. It is a subject of very particular inter-
est to us, as Indian coffee appeared to be so seriou.sly
depreciated last season on this account. Of course
opinions diff'er considerably in the matter ; but we must
hope that a satisfactory discussion m.ay be arrived at in
today's council, on the principle of many heads being
better than one, where so vexed a question is under con-
sideration. In my next, therefore, I hope to be able to
write niore fully upon this (to planters) most interest-
ing topic. I hear that those concerned are still very
.sangmue as to the results of the experiments iu fibre
cultivation which are being carried on at Devala under
the direction of IMr. Miuchiu. Those also who have gone
ill for cardamoms seem very hopeful of their future.
Tea, the little we have of it in the district, looks well'
and has cropped very satisfactorily ; so that, taking a'
1 view of Wynaad affairs, I think I am safe iu say-

general

ing that a more hopeful spirit is rising amongst us. It
will, however, be many a long year before we can wludly
recover from the terrible depression of the hard times

with which we have of late been so .sadly acquainted

Madras Mail.

Pbotecting Rivee Banks from Cavino. — A novel
.system of protecting river banks against the consum-
ing action of an ever-flowing current is being applied
near Memphis, Tennessee, along the Mississippi, where
a caving bank rises straight up from the water's
edge from 10 to 50 feet. There is an incessant
lapping and chaling by which the bank is slowly
worn away and undermined, and, as a conserpicnce,
it breaks ilowu piece by piece, and is dissolveil and
carried away by the river. To clieck this steady
but flow disintegration is the problem which I'nited
•States engineers are trying to solve fatisfactorily.
The idea of a blanket placed along the slope of
the bank from high-water mark to the bed of the
river naturally suggested itself, and the contrivance
adopted, a willow and pole mattress, represents the
bl.iuket theory. The woven webs are some 50 feet
wide and from I'UO to 1,000 feet in length, with
flexible willows worked iu for woof and pules and
wire for warp. These are made on boats having a
length equal to the width of thct mattress, and as
the mattresses are completed thi^y slide away into
the water. The sunken mattresses, it is said, prevent
underiuiuing below the low-water line, and thi- grad-
ing down of the overhanging bank stops the under-
nuning above that line. The space between the
upper edge of the mattressis and the tup of the
bank is protected with willows and stone. All this
mattress-grading and stone-covering is embraced in
the term revetment. The work already ,lnne l.v the
American engineers and the st:iff of woikmeu iinder
them is described as being of the most substantial
character. The appropriation of 21)0.(100 ,l„l.s. secured
from the last Congress for this work will, it is estimated,
be suHicieut to place maltr<s>es along the river
front from AVolf River to the foot of Beal or Linden
Streets. The work will probuhly be completed be-
fore the next rise of the river. It remains to be
seen whether it will hold the bank aid prevent it from
further caving. Next .spring, when the flou.ls turn
the Missis.sippi into an inlaml sea. the practicnl test
will be made, and, if the mattresses hold the
banks successfully against thi^ impinging and under-
mining current, the mattress-revetment theory will
be sustained,— /coi! quoted in Public Opinion.

January i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

481

THE PRUNING OF TEA IN CEYLON.
Jlr. I-oj^an of Assam and Wr. Teaie of the
Nilgais — gentlemen who are largely interested in
tea and who, between them, make up about tifty
years' experience of planting, — have just made a
round of some of the principal Ceylon districts.
They first visited Udagama, in the Galle district,
and neither with the tea nor the soil there, were
ihey much impressed, and they began to think
that they had made a mistake in intermitting their
voyage to Madras and Calcutta, for all that Ceylon
had to show them. But the trip to the Central
Province altered this opinion. They travelled up
by railway to Nanuoya, and making Nuwara Ehya
their headquarters for a few days, they visited
all the tea and cinchona plantations available in
the neighbourhood, being much pleased on the
whole with what they saw. Separating here, one
visitor travelled down by way of Udapussellawa,
Maturata and l>eltota, while the other took Dimbula,
Ambivganuiwa and the fartanied Mariawatte plant-
ation more at leisure. Mariawatte would undoubted-
ly be considered an exceptionally fine tea-garden
anywhere ; but Messrs. Teare and Logan have
some home truths to tell us which it is well we
and Ceylon tea cultivators generally should examine.
They do not consider that as respects economy
of labour Ceylon has any advantage to show over
the avei-age Indian tea districts. Mr. Logan gives
ICi.T a head as the first price ijaid for coolies in-
dentured for live years, and who if well treated
usually go on for another five years, their wages
being R-j a mouth or say with bounty R5i to
RC) ; while in Ceylon our average must be nearer
RS to RIO for monthly wages. So in respect of
cost of transport, our visitors will not admit we
have an advantage considering the greater cheap-
ness of railway and river transport in India, while
freights to London positively average less from
Calcutta, than from Colombo. The only admitted
gain of Ceylon is in respect of a fortnight in time.
But we should scarcely mention in this prominent
way the visit of the above two experienced Indian
tea planters, were it not far the serious warning
they have tendered to us as respects the system of
pruning they found almost Universally observed
during their trip. Messrs. Teare and Logan call
it destruction, and ruinous to the tea-bush, and
that a very tew years will afford sufficient proof.
The Lnckinipore Company was instanced as one
case where tea gardens had been pruned after the
present Ceylon fashion up to about the time the
late "Mr. W. Cameron" came to Ceylon, with
the result that for five or six years heavy crops
and splendid dividends were relized ; but then came
the reaction and a blank with a debit account for
several years, and only after very careful nursing
did the trees come round. The strange part is
that while Messrs. Teare and Logan condenm
nearly all the pruning they saw, they both declare
that nothing can be better than the advice and
instruction given on this subject by Mr. C. S.
Armstrong in the pamphlet republished at this
ofKcc. Can it be true that our tea-planters, as a
rule, refuse to follow Mr. Armstrong's teaching
as regards the pruning of their tea bushes ?
61

JOTTINGS OF A .TOURNEY UPCOUNTRY,
CEYLON.
The tea in .\uibagamuwa being now planted will
no doubt do well, but at present, in passing through,
many places look red and bare through the rooting
out of the cotlee ere the tea is planted. This may
be the better way, but is it a shock to sse tho
tea IS months old and gradually prune down the
coll'ee, and only remove altogether when the tea again
make the hillsides green, and it is a shock
where you knew good-looking coffee had been of old
now to see bare acres. Coffee up to Dimbula
through the Kotagaloya valley seems wretched, but
so]ne estates with tea growing well underneath looks
like business still. On Craigie Lea a lot of tine
young tea is coming on round and above where the
resthouse was, and it is being extended ; and on
Forest Creek there is good young tea among tho
cofl'ee in the _lield by the church, and many acres
being planted. At that end of the valley Mount
Vernon tops the coffee in look and crop facile
priiiccps. St. Andrew's has 'a lot of good young
tea also, and a coffee crop. As one ascends the
valleys coffee improves towards Lindula and Agraa,
though crops don't seem too abundant ; and at the
farthest point reached that way the coffee looked
really ijood. Tea of about the same age seemed to
be on every estate, but men there seem loath to prune
and shape extremely big bushes: why, can't tell 1 Up
to the end of railway coffee looks seedy, although
the best crop I saw anywhere was on Louisa I
think, at any rate, under Mr. Mackie's charge, and
the portion I saw had really a fine crop.— A'c^nMi'
Valley K. C. B.

"*■ :

EXPERIMENTAL CULTIVATION OF PEARL
OYSTERS.
Captain Donnan's report is to the following
eft'ect : —

" I regret to say that out of 12,000 oysters
placed in the experimental tank on the reel off
Silavatturai in March last, I found only 21 re-
maining alive. Some of the oysters may have been
washed out of the tank by the S.W. monsoon sea,
as it was not completely sheltered from the wash
of the waves, but the bulk of them have, I be-
lieve, died off and been destroyed by some fish
preying upon them. About 100 dead shells were
found in the bottom of the tank, many of which
bore evidence of having been bored through and
nibbled away. It is just possible that some fish
may have got into the tank and preyed upon the
oysters either by getting over the coral barrier
around it, which would be slightly under water at
high-water, or through the interstices of the coral
underneath.

" The experiment so far has been a failure,
which may be attributable to four causes : 1st,
overcrowding the oysters in the tank ; 2nd,
deficiency of nourishment in water so near the
'surface : Hvd, destruction by fish which had got
into the tank and preyed upon them ; Ith, by
excessive agitation of tlie water in the tank dur-
ing the S.W. monsoon sea; or pi-obably to all
these causes combined.

" I shall try tho experiment again in March
next in a tank to be made on a more sheltered
part of the reef, with the embankments raised
above water and fewer oysters jilaced on it."
Wc are glad to sec that Capt. Donnan means
to persevere in experiments which, notwithstand-
ing previous failures here and off tho coast of
Southern India, are, wc cannot doubt, destined
in the end to be successful. There are many ap-
pliances of modern science, such as the electric
light which could be applied and whioh it would pay

482

■The tropical agriculturist. [January i, 1886.

to apply so as to secure success in the culture
of the pearl-bearing bivalve. Besides the reasons
for failure adduced by Capt. Itonnan, it seems
quite possible that the higher tenijicrature of com-
paratively shallow water may have had an in-
jurious effect. I'nlike the edible oyster, tlu' pearl
mussel seems to flourish best in comparatively deep
water, from four to seven fathoms. Not only is
the sea-water still at such depths, but it is cpiite
possible that many of the predatory fish, which
are so destructive to the shells, do not exist
at, or but rarely visit, such deep floors of the sea
as constitute the habitat of the " pearl oysters.''
The results of successful culture in converting a
capricious but welcome source of revenue into con-
stant productiveness would be so important to
the colony and all its interests, that we cannot
doubt (:io\ernment will afford Capt. Donnan all
possible aid as well as encouragement in his inter-
esting and intelligent efforts to cultivate the pearl
oyster.

— ♦

TE.\ IN THE LOWCOUNTEY OF CEYLON.

Coi.oMiio, r>th Dee. 1885.

The land actually under tea in tlie lowcountry
districts, principally in the Kelani Valley anil
Kalutara or Kaluganga ^'aIley with outlying estates,
cannot be less than 14,000 acres, which is being
added to every day ; the greater portion of this
is not yet in full bearing, but, as low tea gives a
good return within two years, tlie whole of this
large acreage will be in fnll crop witliin the
next two years. That the cultivation of tea in the
lowcountry of Ceylon is an umiualitied success, no
one can doubt who has seen tlie estates. .\ good
deal of poor land has been planted which will
probably run down unless manured, but the greater
portion of the land under cultivation or about to
be planted is good tea .soil, and the low lands where
not too frequently Hooded both in the \alley of
the Kaluganga and Kelani rivers are admirably
adapted for the cultivation, whilst the high land
even on steep slopes of the lower ranges of the
hills is not only far superior to what I expected
but there is an e\en regularity in the fields which
is very beautiful and very pleasing to the eye. and
what is of much greater imjiortance to the planter
the yield from the hill or steep land though in-
terior to the heavy soil of the flats is very satis-
factory. It is difficult to arrive at anything like
a true average of the yield from the low districts
as the tea is of all ages and much of it has
been planted to replace Liberian coffee or cacao,
and the tea has not had a fair chance whilst
some of the fields have been planted as wide as
fi X fi and others arc as close as 3 \ 3. I saw
one field five years old planted (i .5 which

gave 700 lb. cured tea to the acre. I consider 100
lb. a fair but safe average to look fur from the
Kelani and Kaluganga valleys.

The acreage of available land adapted tor tea
cultivation within a radius of fifty miles of Colombo
is practically unlimited, but the manner in wliich
the land is being blocked out and sold seems to
me to be without system, and at present the estates
are detached or in small groups, making tliem
more or less difiicult of access and difficult to
road systematically. Why there should be any ob-
jection to opening up, say, the whole of the Kelani
Valley from .\wisawella to CTinigathena with the
various attluents and valleys of the Kelani river.
I cannot see: the rainfall is not only ample but
superabundant, and the climate even for tea would
be greatly better if the rainfall was not quite so
much. There is very little virgin forest left, but the

wilderness of bamboo and thorny chena makes the
country almost impenetrable, cattle cannot graze,
and tlio laud is at present not only utterly useless
Jnit it harbours all manner of \ermin destructive
to poultry and everything, and the damp rank
vegetation and decaying matter renders the country
during the dry months tevev-stricken and unhealthy.
Some 200,000 or 300,000 rupees have already passed
into the hands of the villagers for felling and
roading, and every acre felled means one cooly to
feed and his p.ay mostly spent amongst the villages.
This being the case, wliy there should be any desire
on the part of tlovernment not to allow the country
to be opened up, I cannot conceive. At present
everything away from the tea estates is in a state
of stagnation. I have never at any time known the
road between Colombo and Awisawella so bad as it
is now apart altogether from the Hooding of the
low places ; and as for the road from Awisawella
to Yatiyantota it is simply a wilderness, the drains
are overgrown with lantsina and the middle of the
road is a grazing ground for cattle, whilst the"
minor roads are unbridged and dangerous. It is
fortmnate for the tea-planter that the river aiJ'ords
good and cheap transport, or he would be utterly
at a loss to get his crop away.

The District Association should take up the matter
of transport and road extension and improvement.
The proposed new road from the '27th milepost
near .\wisawella to Labugama, if opened up, will
prove not only a very valuable and useful road,
but will open up a large tract of valuable tea land
at present useless and waste and enable the pro-
prietors to get out much timber fit for staves and
tea boxes. J.^sies Iiivine.
. -^

FOR PL.A.NTERS AND CI'LTIVATORS fJKNEK-

ALLY:— ONE OR TWO THINGS AVORTH

KNOAVING :

TREES I'OR SHADE — A MAHKET KOU ORANGES AND LE.MONS
IHOM CEYLOX— MEDICAL USES 01" IITHON FKUIT— CULT-
IVATEU FEUtTS.

Kaiidy, L'!)th Nov. 1S85.
Sir,— I understaud that in some jilautafions trees
are grown, such as the jak and ethers, fur shading
coffee, cacao, &c. On the way up from Colombo, I
have seen jak so grown. This, however, is a tree that
1 will goon growing and extending its roots, to the
probable disadvantage of the shrubs iu the plantation.
I would suggest tbe trial of the ..It/nti i/i\niiHttorii. I
have been making experiments with it in the S.-W. P.
j of India, where it grows verj- well. For shading plants,
I think there is notbiag liki- it. Its leaves are piiiu-
I ate, anil its foliage of the [-roper density, .so that the
rays of the sun are broken up into liglit and sbaile,
which cross each other below, and make a delightful
half-shade of the straiigth ueediil by plants tbat'sutfrr
by direct sunlight. It grows so rapiilly from seed, if
.sown at tbe commencement of the rains, tbat in one
yew, iu t'pper India, it attains tbe height of 20 feet.
I In Ceylon its growth might be still more rapid. Tbe
stem in one year is three inches in iliameter. It grows
straight and has a bead about 10 foet acruss. Up to
the height of a manor more it can with tbe greatest
ease be kept to one clean stem, so tbat it offers facil-
ities for weeding, &c. The height to which the lower
branches can l>e stripped off can lie suited to tbe
. needs of the plantation. SbonM it be found tbat it
j tikes too much out of the soil wlinii full-grown, a suc-
I cession of trees can be kept up, and the older ones cut
j down. Finally the .\giti is not at all a useless tree in
! otherrespects. Every part of it is fit for food. The lea es
make good .snnp, and are eaten by natives as vegetables.
The tl.iwers make a good curry and mixed with butter
or whipped eggs make good fritters; tbe young pods
can be eaten boiled, as French beans ; .and T have nn
doubt (though this [ have not tiiedl the seeds might
be eaten as • dal,' or roasted and eaten as parcbeil iirani,
so that the lower branches, as the tree grows, would

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

483

furnish vegetables for the coohes, so would its large pea-
sliaped flowers aud its long sleniier pods. I feel certain
that a trial of it would meet with approval, as far
;ia ihii proper amount of shodiity for pla.ntatifms iscin-
ctrned. In L'pper India, itis called 'Agist ' ; in Tamil,
'Agati' (and probably from this it.s botanical generic name
haslneu taken) ;and in Sinhalt-se. * Katuru Murunga.'

A ft-w words now alout Oranges and Lemons. In ibe
Cfylou ijUi-erxer of the 18th November I >ee that some-
one has been energetic enough to sand Ceylon oranges
to Kuglaud, aud that they reach there in good con-
dition. I think there is an opening for the orange tratle
nearer Ceylou than Knglaud. In the iJombay market,
orange*, lemons, and limes sell at a high price. It
may not perhaps be generally known that Jioinbay im-
ports oranges all tho way from Zanzibar (called Mo-
zambique oranges), and sweet lemous (called iimfts; all
the way from Mu-cat in Arabia. Bombay in addition
imports oranges from Poena and the surrounding country
and all the way from Xagpore, in the Central Provinceji
of India. The P. k-O. steamer takes about four days
from Colombo to rioml)ay, andabouta wt-ek to Calcutta,
another goo-1 market for Ceylon oranges. ToCalmtta,
oranges (called * Kambia Nimbiio ') are brought all the
way from Sylhet to Goalundo by country boats, _ and
thence to the capital probably by rail. Oranges fetch
a high price in Calcutta. A writer iu the Indian
Ayruti'turi^t of the lOth October last, signing himself
" Olil Mallee," says that "he realizes 8 annas a score
for the .Sylhet oranges he grows in Ifengal ; that bis
income from orange growing is K700 per acre at 10
feet apart (he says this is too close), which only costs
him RPiO in expenses, so that he netts K600 per acre.
He considers well decayed night-soil, cow-dungr, and
bUck tank soil, with an ailmixture of slaked lime, or old
mortar finely powdered, the best for oranges. He
buds on the ** kbatta. " or sour orange. He grows the
Sylhet variety principally.

The commercial value of the ordinary products of
the orange and lemon tribe are too well-known to need
mention here, but the medicinal value of the fruit of
the citrus has only lately been brought pron)inentIy
before the medical prcfe.-sion. I mean Dr. Maglieri's
** decoction of lemon," I will here give the result of
my experiments with the decoction of lemon, which
will sufficiently indicate its value, as a remedial agent.
Th« experiments in each class am notjsolitary but ma,if/.

A. — In simple <|Uolidiau fever (that is without ;iny
other complication), even if it is of some days' standing,
the decoction of lemon, given only once a day, acts like
cinchona febrifuge.

IS. — Iq enlarged spleen of recent occurrence (that is
of soo)e months' staniling, not jye^ri), there is only one
remedy I know which e-|uals the decoction of lemon
in power, and tliat is "fluoride of ammonium." In
many cases this de'U)ction has removed enlarged spleens
of some months' standing, even when the spleen reached
within an inch of the middle line of the abdomen, in
Usit than one mouth, sometimes much more rapidly.

C — In lo.'-fi of appetite and weakness after fever, or
other debilitating ailments, I am not ac<juainte<l with
any drug or remedy that picks one up so quickly.
After the second or ihird dose, the appetite not only
becomes normal, but the digestive powers keeps pace
with the improveil appetite, and vigor pervades the body.

It wid be seen that the lemon contains a drug of no
mean value. Tu p!ant( rs in districts subject to fever,
the lemon would be a cheap and most efficient remedy
always clo.-.e at band. I have tried experiments with
the decoction of tho Malta lemon, which is the same as
the Italian, Sicilian, and Portuguese lemon, the identical
one sold in thel.jndou fruit shops. I have also trii d
the common small sour lime, which is found all ovir
Ceylon, aud all over India. I have also tried a tliird
kind, the *khatt;'i' or ' karn* ' of India. All appeared
to be e«|ually vahi ible at remedial agents in the abovc-
mentione«t ailments. The choiei-, I think, lies between
the more or less pleasant flavor of the decoction, and I
think the best flavored one is that of the Malta lemon. I
I ljelie.re that this important remedial property iscon-
tained in all the soor fruit of the citrus, even in the '
unripe orange, but of this I cannot yet speak with

certainty. It is not improbable that at no distant period
the active medicinal princijial of the citrus will be isol-
ated and then orange and lemon plantations would prob-
ably beconte more valuable, but in the meitntime the
result of the foregoing experiments, and the value of
the decoction of the fresh fruit may be worth know-
ing. As everyone may not have read how thig decoc-
tion is made, I give it here. Take one .Malta lemon,
or a sour orange or three sour limes, cut them into thin
slices, rind, pulp and .^11, add three breakfast cupfuls
of water, and buil in a glazed i)ot,or enamelled sauce-
pan, until the liquid is reduced to about one cupful.
Then leave it exposed all uiglit to the air, and next
mornin^T strain and squeeze llirough a rag, and drink
the liquid early, on an empty stomach. My experiments
have all been made with one do>e a ilay, but there is
no reason why, in urgent ca«es, two dosos a day should
not be given, one in the morning and one after
midday. In that case a dot'.hle quantity of everything
should be used and boiled down to one-third and
after straining tlivided into the two doses. Jn Kandy
I have found two kinds of citrus which would be in-
valuable for this preparation : one tho ' cidrang,' a large
round lemon, which would do for two doses with
double tlie amount of water ; the other is the '■natron,*
an oblonj^Tt warty, sour citron, which would be enough
for one decoction.

I think the way to set about making orange plant-
ations, for commercial purposes, is not to plant any
kind on a large scale, but to try all the good kinds on
a small scale first (it is only the choice kinds that
will hear the cost of transport, in competition with those
already in the market), and ascertain which variety
does best in any particular locality. I think nothing
is more certain than the fact that all varieties do not
thrive equally well in all localities. Y r instant, the
Sylhet atd Nagpore oranges do well in Lucknow. while
the Delhi Suutara does badly, and the Manrlaiin is
quite un.suited to the climate of Oudh and the N. W. P.
I think the best kinds for experimenting with are the
following: — The Sylhet, the Nagpore, the Uelbi Sun-
tara, the refd Mandarin (totally different from those
called so in Colombo and Kandy), obtainable from
Lucknovv or Jlalta ; the Malta VdooJ and egg oranges
(these might be more readily and cheaply obtained
from IMalta, but the egg orange is also obtai'-able in
Lucknow, and the bIoi»d (.'range in Gujerat. Punjab) ;
finally the Zanzibar orange. Those who know the latter
state that it is even better than Malta or Spanish
oranges. Government might introduce the plants^ bud
them on common kinds, and distribute them. Ex-
periments might be made also by seed, obtiined from
Caleutta. Bombay, Zanzibar and other places.

Finally it should not be forgotion that choice froit
is only to be had by (ultivotion, especially where the
climate and soil are not rxactf;/ what is needed by
the orange and lemon trees. Besides ordinary manures
the citrus are benefited by wood-ashes and leaf mould,
and in particular want Ume m the soil, as itis a large
ingredient in the ashes of the orange noor/. Iron in
the soil is, I think, of great inqtortance. It probably
gives flavour and juiciness. This latter ingredient how-
ever is not wanting in many soils of Ceylon, as Sir
KmersoD Tennent says the ' patana ' lands are im-
pregnated withiiron. The annual fall of orange leaves
should on no account be removed from an orange plant-
ation ; when they decay, they form the best manure
for the orange and lemon trees. The packing for ex-
portation should present no difficulty in dry weather,
the orange being ripe in December and January. Kach
orange should be wrapped in a hit of tough tissue-
paper aud twirled at both ends (hair-curling paper, or
tough bamboo paper, would answer). Then the oranges
so wfHpped should be packed closely in <//y boxes
(about 2 feet X 1 foot x I foot). The object of the paper
is to absorb any moisture and the close packing to
prevent wabbling and bruising. Before packing the
oranges should be aired for a few days on lofts or
sheh'es to rid them of excess of moisture, and, vto.-tt
important, shoidd be handled cartfulhf at alt times to
prevent braising. E. B^NAVIA, m. n..

Brigade Surgeon, I. .Af. D.

484

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, i88fe.

No. 3 AND T SIROCCOS.

Puliiuwi qui meruit ferat.

To tlie Editor " Indian P/anter's Gaxette."

In your issue of <Jth October your correspoutlent
"Arid" made a vehement attack on Mr. Davidson's
No. 3 Sirocco, and with a wrong interpretation of t!ic
cause that led Mr. D. to give the alteration pieces
gratis to all, clenches his reasoning by adding " this
IB equivalent to an open avowal tliat the oilier is a
failure." X too was mucli disappointed by tlie tiuie
the No. 3 required to turn out one maund of dry tea,
and in face of the statements nnide by nvMiy Ceylon
planters and othersi could not get it to surpass tlie
useful and compact No. 1 in the matter of time ; I
tried many experiments and got satisfactory tea out
of it, but it utterly failed to •• Inru vnl one nnmnd of
dni tea in an lionr" as advertised.

But to " Arid " and all others who have No. 3]b,
it is well to know that "balm in Gilead" still
remains and, if disappointed, they should lose no
time, in having their Siroccos altered to the T-shape.

I have had mine altered, and for the first time tried
it yesterday with the following satisfactory result.
Having the thermometer up to '2KU" I had the first tray
charged and placed at '2 p.m., which was taken out
quite dry in twenty-one minutes. The last tray was
taken out at .')-21 and the tea dried in that time
(3 hours) weighed 3 maunds .5 seers.

The tea was rather full-fired— not burnt ; and I am
of opinion that, with a lower temperature— say, '270°
to '260°— it will give fidly dried fine aroma'd tea with
as little|trouble as the No. 1 gives. Craig Ph.vprick.

Eastern Dooars, 4th November 1885.

B.^MBoo. — There is nothing like science for enlarg-
ing the mind. Take bamboo for instance, which most
people would dehne as a hollow, jointed stick of
varying size with lance-head-sliaped leaves. Bamboo,
we all know, is one of the most useful produc-
tions of nature. But we can scarcely recognize
our old lend, when described as a plant the leaves
uf which " are said to be tussio, tonic, anthelmintic,
stomachic and carminative, and the root " cooling,
tonic, and alexipharmic." Another species " is
prescribed in the form of a decoction of the leaves or
root in diseases of the head, chest, etc." A'wash of the
leaves in certain other diseases. " Bamboo juice is
prescribed in catarrh, fever, acute cerebral, spinal,
and bronchial aflections," and soon. But this really
quite carries our familiar acquaintance into another
world. I knew that the use of the bamboo Mielt fre-
queuily caused " acute cerebral affections " (vide
police reports i)a!<xim). It is news to learn that its
juice taken internally provides a cure ! — Singapore
Free Press.

Inwan Mills. — We notice that while in the
twenty-one years the number of the local nijlls
has increased from ten to forty-nine, the upcouiitry
ones have increased from three to nineteen, the
total advancing from thirteen to sixty-eight. The
number of spindles have increased locally in round
numbers from '250,000 to 1,.S17,000 and iipeountry
from iiii.OOU to 30.'i,000. Total increase from '286,000 to
1,030,000. Tlio number of looms has increased
locally from 3,400 to 1'2,000, and upcountry from
'200 to '2,000. Total from 3,000 to 14,000. la 18fi.i,
but 7,400 persons — (j,G00 in Bomb.iy and 800 up-
country — were daily engaged in the mills of the
Presidency. This year over .'■)1,000 were similarly
occupied, of Avhich nearly 4'2,000 were employed in
the city and suburbs. A record of the cimsuiuption
of cotton previous to 187H is not obtainable, but in
that year we see the local consumption is given as
over 07,000 bales (of 39'2 pounds eacli), and the up-
country has 7,500 bales, a total of close on 7ri,000
bales. Twelve years Uiter---30th .June this year -
the local consumption is stated as over 31)'2,000 bales
and the upcountry as over 73,000 bales a total of
nearly 406,000 bales.' -Times of India.

Water-wiieels.— In reply to " Scutifer," it is gen-
erally admitted amoug engineers that turbines give a
better result than the best vertical water-wheels.
They also run much more quietly, and less gearing,
shafting or belting is required to comieet them with
their work. The power may be conveyed twenty
yards or upwards by means of a wire rope with very
little loss of power. Mr. Mann's assertion that a turb-
ine re(pnres '' a greater au{l moro conoentraleil fall
than a water-wheel" does not agree with my expf-ri-
encB. If "Scutifer" will state Lis county, I shall
prob.-vbly be able tn ineiitiou an application of a turbine
hi bis neiglibourbood. For very small water supplies
a water-wheel ia sometimes preferred on the score of
economy in jirime cost. — OiiAS. Louis Hett. (Exchange

Club, Biigg, Oct. '24th.) Seeing an incjuiry in your

colurans as to water-wheels and tHrbines, I may state
that Messrs, A. H. Williams, Worthy, A\'ine"bester,
are at present erecting a turbine here, tn drive
my saw mill. There are about 220 yards of Sin. iron
piping l(-t up the side of a pretty steep hill into a
reservoir, giving a fall of 70i't., which is to give off
37 h. p. indicated, at the turbine. The diameter of the
wheel is, I think, 14in. I have formerly driven the saw
mill by steam, and I anticipate a great s.aving in fuel,
absence of engine driver, &c. The turbine will be at
work in .about a fortnight, and I shall be glad to
furni.sb further particulars if wanted. — O. H. Di'Rrant
Stedaut. (Dalguise, N. B.) — Field.

Musk Kats and Tainted 'Wines.— In the Field of
Sept. r2th, I see two notices of the supposed power
of the Indian musk rat or shrew (Sorex cierulescens)
to taint wine by the simple process of running over
the bottles. The explanation is simple enough. The
shrew, which lives on cockroaches, scorpions, small
lizardi, snakes, and the like, runs round the edges
and eoruers of rooms to hunt ihein, chiefly at night
and by day, if possible, finds a soft nest not far
from bis hunting ground. I do not tliink that he
often burrows, or even uses the burrows of true rats ;
but on this point I stand open to coricction. I do
know that he will willingly take up his quarters iu
any basket, box, or other nook where he has a soft
bed. Now, his neighbour, the native "khitniudgar,"
*' boy," "bearer," or otiier servant, is very much given
to wiping glasses with any rag handy; and, as the
"Sahib" anil " Mad.ani Sahib" very seldom intrude
on the "dispense klmna " or pantry, the same rag
does duty for many dajs tin end, and, afier use, is
not huug uj} or waslied, but thrown down into any
corner, and used again next day, or, perhaps, after
several days. In the miauwhile it has very likely
been the bed of the musk shrew, and aetjuired enough
of his flavour to cominimieate it to the glass and
to any wine poured into it. I have known the same
thing to happen with keresiiije oil, the same rag having
been used first to a lamp and then for a wineglass;
yet no one attributes mystical powers to keroaine.
I WHS once in the bai'it of keejiing wine, soda water,
ke-.y in a basket in a room olf my ofllce, with glasses
and other necessaries for luncheon. A musk rat estab-
lished himself on some folded napkins among the
bottles, and I, to try the matter, Jeft the contents of
the basket untouched for a fortnight, merely opening
it daily to make sure that he was still using tile
nest. They are gentle creatures, and not timid unless
bullied, and he soon found that I meant him no harm,
and treated bis tlaily inspection as a mere form. At
the end of the fortnight I asked several friends
to taste the liquor and tell me if they could detect
any llavour of musk i-at in it, but neither they nor
I could find it iu either the wine, which had foil
capsules over the cork, fu- the soda water which Iiail
the cuiMMion wired c rks. But Ihe napltins were
*' fit to kill at forty rods." and coMnnmiicateil their
flavour, when damped, to glasses: they were useless
till thoroughly washed. If Auglo-In,li.ins gcerally
knew the true habits of the pnoi- musk slirew 1 bojie
! tli'-y would st^ip jiersec-uting that liuinliie guardian
of their shores, and lay the bliime lui the dingy
stiouldcr.s of their dirty servants, where it is due. —
KEWAL4. — Field.

January i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

485

i^oiTCspnndcncc.

To the Ed! /or of the " Ceylon Obsm'er."
LOSS IX WEIGHT ON TEA.

Colombo, -i'.ltli Nov. 1H85.

Dk\k Sir,,— I am constantly receivinK complaints
from constituents in London as to the heavy loss
in weight on shii)tnents of tea from (,'pylon.

My attention was drawn to a case the other day
where the tares of teas from a certain well-known
estate were 1 ox. over the pound— incurring a loss
of 1 lb. per package.

I will instance an extreme ease to show your
planting readers what <•«» be lost by not seeing
that the gross weights of their packages are rather
over the pound, with tarej; slightly under the lb.

Suppose a half-chest (jfi lb. 15 oz. gross, Itj lb. 1 oz.
tare. The Customs in London would return this jiack-
age as (ili gross, 17 tare, or net I'.l lb., whereas the
package actually contained 50 lb. 11 oz. of tea.
Had the package weighed 07. lb 1 oz. or even ()7 lb.
gross, tare Ki lb. or under, the Customs would have
returned the weight as 51 lb. nett (gross (;7, tare
Hi), making a dilTerence of 2 lb. per half-chest or
4 per cent. .\dd to this the loss incurred by the
trade allowance of 1 lb. per package draft and you
have a loss in weight of (l per cent, whereas by a
little care it would have been reduced to '2 per cent
(draft allowance).

It appears to me so easy for a planter, especially
if he used a lever scale, to make his packages up
to witliin, say, 2 oz. of the lb. by adding sheet or
lumps of lead, and then packing J of a lb. of
tea over and above what he invoices and marks
his packages. This } of a lb. could save, in the
case given above, 1 Id. 11 ox. in London.

TEA BUYEE.

JAPANWOOD TEA BOXES.

Colombo, 30th Nov. 1885.
Ue.vb Sik, — At the request of Mr. H. D. Deane
we have the pleasure to send you herewith 'i samples
of .Japan tea chests made of the following woods
half-an-inch thick: —

(1) Cedar wood, which, though objected to by some
on account of the smell, has been pronounced by un-
doubted authorities in London not to taint the tea.

(2) Momo wood.

(3) Matsu wood.

The names of the respective woods will be found
marked on one side of the chests, and on the lid
the weight of each. We may also mention that
each chest will contain about 70 lb. nett of tea.
—Yours faithfully, .1. .M. HOBKKTSON * CO.

[The specimens referred to can be seen at Ohxerver
Office : Mr. Deane has decided to have no more
boxes under h inch thickness. The cedar wood
box onlv weigh Hi lb. ; the other two, l8t and
21 lb.— Ed., '_

TEA-BOXEH AND SEASONED TIMBEB AND
THE " TAKE " BECKONING.

Dinibula, 2nd Dec. 1885.
Dkak Sii:, — "Tea Buyer" 's dodge with the bits
of lead will not quite get us out of the dilliculty.
The wood of a half-chest, and a portion, there-
fore, of a full chest (in Ce;.lon, whatever may be
the case elsewhere) will ta'.u- up or Irse, in pro-
portion to its condition as to seasoning, and accord-
ing to the weather it meets with, nmch more
than 2 oz. So that a well-seasoned paeknge weigh-
ing 2 oz. under the jjouml in the fiiclory, might
Weigh I oz. over the pound in Colombo, and
Heaven knows what it might weigh in London I
1 believe well-seasoned wood shows the least vari-

ation. A full chest made of half-seasoned wood
will lose, a pound in a very short time in the
temperature of an ordinary tea-house. For which
reasons I have long ago given up marking the tare
on my packages, as the weights marked cuinwt
be correct when the chests reached their destination.
Well-seasoned chests (which are very hard to come
by, however) will do something to mitigate the
evil, and so will the bit of lead dodge, which
1 have tried, but the real remedy would lie in in,
ducing the gentlemen of the Customs to t.ike thg
trouble to weigli correctly. But this is of courij^,
out of the question. TEA MAKEK.

Tea. — Efforts to cultivate the tea plant are now
being extensively made in several parts of Europe.
In France, on the Loire, the plants have been extens-
ively Set, but it is still a question whether the leaves
will retain their cimr.ictoristic aroma on a foreign
soil. lu Sicily, the plants set three years ago at
Jlessina are strong and healthy, aud have liourislied
in leaf and seed. Kujsia baa also made the attempt, the
first planting being at 111 versts from Aleschbri, ou the
Dnieper, and proving satisfactory ; aud plants have
also been sent from Odessa to Suchura. lu Cierniany,
the Silesian Committee of Agriculture have received
seed and direetious from Professor Giippert, of
Breslau, with a i-econmieudation to attempt their
cultivation. — Vcuny I'ictorical Xiws.

East Indu Gums are of dark aud light mixture,
being in fact a conglomation of rubber, leaves,
dirt, and bark. Thi is also true of African rubber.
The presence of so much foreign matter in the
East India rubber has ever been a great drawback
to its successful use in manufacture. The ditiieulty
is, however, obviated in part, by running the "mats"
when in process of washing through a machine which
both crushes the foreign element and, by stretch-
ing the sheet, liberates it, the particles Uying in
every direction. From 30 to -18 per cent, of the
originial bulk is lost by this process of thoroujjh
washing, before the gum is sufficiently pure for use.
African rubber, unless kept from the sunlight in time,
decomposes, and becomes like tar in appearance,
aud is entirely useless. — Electrical Trade.i ,/ournii!.

De. Bon.vvia's letter (page 483) has, we regret to
find, been rather too long delayed. He gives us some
useful practical information about citrons and
oianges which we commend to the attention of
growers of these fruits, and the advice tendered
to parties attempting the systematic cultivation of
the orange tree is manifestly sensible and useful
We are not, however, quite with Dr. Bouavia
about the Ai/ati iirciiidiflora as a shade tree for
estate products, for, although a quick grower, it is
also of but short duration. " VV. ]•'." 's notes
written hi the Uhserrcr on the subject are not at
hand, but we quote from the 'Vreaxiirij nf Ikiiitinj
as follows : —

Agati, A genus of the Pea family (fiii/KminnDu}.
A. gruiidijlora is the only species. t is a native
of the J'^ast Indies and tropical of Australia,
but is connnonly cultivated in trojjical countires
for the beauty of its flowers. It, in a small
slender tree twenty or thirty feet high, of rapid
growth and short duration; its leaves allernate,
abruptly-pinn.ate, with from eight to ten pairs of
small le:i.'lets. Flower stalks axilliary, bearing from
t\.o to four large pea-like reil or white flowers. The
poils are ul) <ut eighteen incbe-! lung, and as thick as
a common <iuiH. In India tin; II ,wcrs, po<U and young
Iea\ es are used by the natives in tin ir curries ; a juice
is pressed from the llowers and useil in curing dinniesa
of vision ; and the seed are eagerly sutigbt after
by birds. The Iwrk is powerfully tonic and bitter,
and considered effective in snirtllpMX. The woo<l is
useless except for fuel. The tree beiug a fast grower
and sparinly clad with leaves is used for the purpose
of traiuing the Betel (fijiir JSctle.)

486

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

TOEREYA CALIFORNICA :

THE STINKING CEDAR Olt CAUI'ORXIAN NTJTiME<i.

This is ilescribed as a tree 60 to .so feet high, with
a trurjk attiiiniiig 'i feet in diameter, and iuhabitiiig
the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of Califonii;i,
from the Mendocino County to Zulare C"ouiity.
During my visit to California I had not the go(>d for-
tune to se^* a good specimen of this most interest-
ing tree. The only place in which I remember to
have met with it was in the gorge of the Yoseniite
V^alley by the rocky stream, some miles below the
hotels, where it formed a scraggy tree 20 feet high,
or thereabouts, growing interspersed with Pinus con-
torta and various deciduous shrubs. The colour of the
foliage was bright green, and the large green rium-
like fruits, produced in abundance, had a very singular
appearance. The wood is descrilted as light, soft, not
very strong, very dose grained, compact, susceptible
of a fine polish, and very durable in contact with
the soil. It had all the appearance of a slow growing
tree, and this is its character in cultivation at Kew.
The genus is one of the must interesting amongst
Conifers, on account of the rarity and remarkable liis-
tributioM of the few species it is known to contain.
There are, besides the Califoruiau, the T. taxifolia,
Arnott (Saviu or .Stinking Cedar of Florida), confined
to swamps in the neighbourhood of Bristol in 'Western
Florida, and very rare there; T. Crandis, Fortune, of
North China ; ami T. nucifera, Seibold and Zuccarini,
of Japan. — J. D. Hookeh. — (iarileners' Chronicle.

SOIL FEETILISEBS.
The following is the summing up of the main
points in a lecture upon this subject delivered bv
Profe.s.'ior O. C. Caldwell, Ithaca, New York, before
the Massachusetts Horticuliui'al Society: —

1. That if the elements needed for the food of the
gardener's or horticulturist's crops cannot be obtained in
sufficient (pmntity from stable manure, or other animal
waste, they can be procured in the trade in unlimited
quantity, and in every degree of availability depend-
ing on dilferent grades of .solubility, and in the greatest
variety of mixture^, so as to suit any whim or fancy
of crop or crop grower.

2. That priifitable crop-growing can be carried on>
for many years at least, with these commercial fertil-
isers alone.

3. That the most evident distinction between stable
manure and commercial fertilisers, and the distinction
upon which we should, therefore, naturally base an
explanation of the greater reliability of the former, is
its large proportion of vegetable matter, or hunm.-i-
fonning material, of which commerciiil fertilisers con-
tain practically none.

4. That soils contain, in a difficulty soluble con-
dition, and therefore not easily fed upon by the cri'ii",
large supplies of all the needed elenu-nts of plant food.

h. That humus, tlirougli its decay in the soil, furn-
ishes carbonic acid among other solvent agents; and
this carbonic acid appears to play an important part
in the nouiishment of crops by bringing the native,
insoluble stock of plant food within their easy reach.

(>. That even if we add water-.solnble plant food to
the soil it becomes 'argely insoluble before the crop
can fee.l upon it, or m^eds it; therefore soluhle p'ant
food ailded to the soil in commereial fertilisers needs
also the help of the huunis, finally, for its solution.

7. That plant food in most animal and yegelable
residues used as nnuuu-es costs much less than in
commercial manures.

8. That, in .spite of the disadvantages which, mider
some conditions, atteuibthe use of comnieriial fertil-
isers, they are, nevertheless, a very important and
necessary help in crtip growing.

!). That in using these fertilisers the wisest course
appears to be in make one's own mixtures of the
raw materials, as well for securing a better manure
as for economy in first cosi. — GanU'nent' Cliroiucle.

I'LANTINef

IN SOUTHEKX
CEYLON.

PKOVINCE,

pro-
prosperity

For many years an industry has materially contri-
buted to the welfare of the iuhabitants, but this too,
as with other products, is gradually feeling the
effects of over-production. More than a score of
years ago we are told of citronella oil fetching 2'G
per ounce in the London m,ir kels. The same sub-
sbvnce now realizes under 3d. and this lowness of
price has naturally resulted in less care '
duction and conseijneut f.dling-otf i
among all employed in its muuifacture.

The citronella is to all appearances like mana grass,
growing just in the same manner. It is not indigenous,
is planted upou forest land and should be weeded
after each cutting, which should take place twice a
year. Now, however, less care is observed in its
production. I have even heard of kerosine being
added to increase its bulk. One travels very few
miles in this province without coming upon land
which was onco a pro.sperous garden of citronella,
the cultivation of which is now restricted to a few
acres of badly-kept grass. The oil is what is called
an essential oil, and is extracted from the grass by
distillation, the grass being steamed, which forces
the volatile oil with a certain ipiantity of pungent
vapor through the still, from which it falls in a
small stream of green water and oil. It soon, how-
ever, comes to the surface, is skimmed otf and put
in handy bottles, and in this from shipped to Europe.
Its chief uses are in scenting soap.

It is not generally kuown that the hog-deer in this
part of the island is more coiuinou than the sambnr
axis, or munt-jac, and can be easily shot by anyone
so disposed. It is in size almost as large as the axis
or spotted deer. Snipe are at times very plentiful
iu the swamps and paddy fields and quail abound on
the oiiitUis. Teal too abound upon the lakes which
are not unfrequent.

Tea is being tried in various parts and is so far a
success; indeed those who are searching for land
would not go far wrong in having a look at the
Southern Province before they finally decide where
they will plant. Sinhalese labour with some care can
be procured iu plenty, both cheaply and in quality.
Most places are healthy and the province is not by
any means badly roaded, having in addition river
and lake navigation to assist transport. — Local " Times "

♦

EECENT EESEAKCHES ON OAK-GALLS AND
THEIR MAKERS.

The oak has always been a favourite in this
country. The ancient Britons worshipped under it,
and held even its para^itic mistletoe scared ; their
.successors for centuries built their "wooden walls"
of it ; and once a year at lea.st the mistletoe is still
a thing of consequence, although it is from the
apple and not the oak that it is now chiefly obtained.
Valued by man as the oak li.as been, it is much more
essential to another and lower order of living
creatures. It is both nursery and foster-parent to
the gall-flies, whoso eggs it envelops in its own sub-
stance, and whose young are reiirt'd to maturity on
the same juices with which it feeds and ripens its
own acorns. The most casual observer of oak trees
cannot have failed to Lotice the numerous excres-
cences which occur on ditfercnt parts of their surface.
These are oak-galls, the hatcheries anil nurseries of
a family of hymenopterous insects. They are found
on every part of the tree- its roots, bark, leaves,
twijjjs, and flowers ; and show a great variety in
form, size, and colour — .i variety roughly corresponding
to the number of kinds of gall-flies which form them.
On the under surface of the leaves there occur, for
example, thi; " cherry-galLs," of a bright .scarlet colour,
or a mixture of white, orange, au<l red. like the
colours of a Newton pippin; also the '"oak-spangle"
galls — button-like disks of rus.set brown; and the
" currant galls of the oak," yellow or red, that hang
from the leaves like bunches of berries. The " oak-
apples" grow from the siualier branches, and justify

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

487

their name by their appearance; while the "artichoke
giill,'' resembling a miniature artichoke, takes its
risi: from a linii. ' I-e-^s kr.own forms grow ou the
roots anil bark. Of foreign oak-galls the most
important are those known to commerce as " Aleppo
galls," which grow ou a species of oak common in
the Levant. Galls are importcil into Britiiiu in
considerable (luaatitics, the imports for ISf^;! having
amounted to 39,.50l) cwt.. Valued at £108,ti00. It
ought to be stated, however, that more than half of
that <iuautity came from China, and that the Chinese
gall of commerce is the work of a ])lant-louse on a
dillerint tree from the oak. Galls are used in the
manufacture of uik, that useful material being a
mixture usually of green vitriol, a decoction of
oak-galls and some gum arabic. Their value for
this purpose is due to the abuuilaut tannin they
contain— as much sometimes as 77 per cent. The
British forms are comparatively poor in this constituent,
although the "Devonshire marble gall," now one
of the must abundant in Eritain. yields 17 per
cent of tannin, and is said to make excellent ink.
The Dead Sea Fruit or .Vpples of Sodom, described
by .Tosephus and others as lovely to the eye, but
uau6eou8 to the palate as bitter ashes, arc generally
identified with the larger JIec:a galls which grow-
on a species of oak in the neighbourhood of the
Dead Sea. Among the most carious of oak-galls are
those known in California as " flea-seed." They
grow on the leaves of an oak, from which in August
they get detached and fall to the ground. So ex-
ceedingly lively, in this instance, is the living kernel,
that its jerking movements within the thiu-walled
cavity cause the entire gall to skip .ibout.

What is the history of the growth of these veget-
able excrescences ? The gall-tlies are small insects
with bodies seblom bigger than garden ants, but
wiih four large clear wings. They belong to the
same order as bees and wa.sps, and when the time
has come for depositing their eggs, the female
eelect-s a spot on leaf, bud. or bark of the oak, and
pierces it with her ovipositor. This is a slender
organ projecting from the creature's abdomen, and
is but a slightly modified form of the wasp's sting.
After piercing a hole, the blades of the ovipositor
open, and au egg jiasses down betw'een them into
the ])!ace prepared for it. There is then injected
into the aperture a small quantity of an irritating
fluid, and the work of the parent insect is completed.
This fluid, which is at least suggestive of the poison
of the hyrocnopterous sting, has a remarkable effect
on the tissues of the plant, causing them to swell
into tliose globose knobs known as galls. In due
time the egg of the insect becomes a grub, which
finds its proper nourishment in the abundant juices
of the gall. When it.s transformations are over and its
natural term of imprisonment expired, the gall-llj tunnels
its way through the enclosing tissues and emerges
into daylight. How such puny insects can make
their way, for example, through a Hungarian gall,
which is as hard as the most seasoned oak, is al-
together mysterious. That they do tunnel their way
through is evidenced by the little hole on the
surface which marks their points of exit. "Where no
such aperture occurs in a sulficiently mature gall,
the insect has failed to make its way out ; and
thus, no doubt, the strongest gall-flies are " naturally
selected'' before they ever see the light. Sometimes,
however, the strongest may fail, as in the case
mentioned by the Kev. J. G. Wood in which two
galls had united. The insect in the one gall escaped,
but that in thf other unfortunately bored into the
jjart joining the two, and being unable to timnel
farther than the distance which under ordinary
circumstances would have brought it to the out.side,
it died. In order to secure the' insect reared within
th» gall, it is necessary to jilace the branch in a
bottle of water and cover it over with gauze.
A diflicultj', however, occurs here from the fact that
a c<uisiderHble variety of insect species usually emerge
from a single gall. Some of those are clo.sely allied
forms that do not grow galls for themselves, but

which, like the cuckoo among birds, drop their eggs
into the nests of others. Thes : are lodgers or guests
of the true gall-dies. Others, again, are parasitic ou
the latter, and the.se, feeding on the juices of
its luxly, ultimately destroy it. ll is only the en-
tomologist who has specially devoted himself to the
study cf this family of insects that can readily
identify the fly that has emerged froni a particular
gall. It might be suppo-sed that, in seeming this
fly, the observer ha<l got an insect similar in every
respect — supposing it to be a fem.Tle — to the one
which had placed its egg in the juices of thc^ oak-
leaf. In some species at least this is not the case,
and the probability now is that it is seldom, if ever, so.
The r.:cent researches of Mr. ]!. Walsh in America,
and still more of Dr. .Vdler in (4crmany — au excellent
summary of which is given by I'rof. Trail, of
Abenlee's in a paper recently communicated to the
Perthshire Natural History Society— show that the
gall-flies exhibit IJ/iHO/'/'///.-;j«, or " alternation of gener-
ations." Dimorphism, according to i'rofessor Trail,
consists e-sentially in thi.s, " that there are in the
full life histnry of any species in which it occurs
two forms of the inject, or, as it is at times expressed,
two gi-neration, of which the one possesses both males
and t'» ma e.s and produces offspring in the usual
way. while the other consists of so-called females
aliiic, an.l reproduction is effected by what we may
regard as a piocess of budding from a part of tht;
body of the parent, not by the tru<: sexual method."
Before dimorphism was thought of in the case of
gall-flius, there were mysteiies in the life histiry of
these insects which no fellow ^of the ICntomoIogical
Soci*-ty) could understand. For example, there is no
reason to be'ieve that the life of the particular fly
which emerges from the " curr-ant-gall ''of the oak
in June is prolonged beyond the autumn of the
same year. How comes it, then, that in the following
spiing a new crop of those oak-galls appears on the
young leaves and male catkins, seeing that the
gall-makers have been all dead months before the
appearance either of leaves or catkins y The answer,
according to Dr. Adier, is, that the fly producing
the " currant-gall " has existeil through the winter
in a totally different oak-gall ; that the fly itself
differs so entirely in form from the insect into
which its eggs develop — i. r., its own offspring — a
to have been hitherto regarded as belonging to a
totally distinct genus, but that these ort'spiiug deposit
eggs which, after surviving the winter as grubs
emerge in spiing in the likeness of their grand jjarents.
This cycle of generations will appear more clearly
if we trace in detail the lite history of this currant-
gall fly. As already stated, it emerges from its gall
in the month of .Tune, and the brood contains both
males and females. In July the impregnated eggs
of the female are deposited usually on the lower
surfaces of oak leaves, and soon after they give rise
to what are knowu as " spangle-galls." Of a russet
>)rown colovu- and flat lens-like from, the.v are totally
utdike the " currant-galls." The spangle-galls" fall
to the ground slun-tly before the leaves, and there
lie concealed among the fallen foliage during winter.
In this position they enlarge and bccouto much more
convex, while within the insect is undegoing its
metamorphoses. In spring it emerges, but the form
that now ajipears is never male, but always what
Professor Ti-ail terms u:tt\rt(ttl. It is what the bov
said his canary was when askeil by a possible jiur-
cha.ser as to i*s sex. Not wishing to commit himself
before he knew what was wanted, he replierl, " It 's
a kind o' she, and not a she either." 'The spangle-
gall fly is a kind of female in so far as it deposits
eggs, but inasuuich as these eggs are not i)roducetl by
the true sexual methoil, the creature is in reality
sexless. It is these unimpregnated eggs deposited by
the spangle-gall fly in spring that give rise to the
" currant-galls " in May, and to the male and female
currant-gall flies in .June. This dimorphism has been
traced through a considerable number of species ;
and in the list of Scottish gall-flies given by Professor
Trail, nine species, belonging to four genera, are

48S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

regarded as merely diniorpliic forms of nine other
species belonging to four totally different genura.
Of several otiiers, only the one form is as yet known
in Scotland, althougli both forms have been deter-
mined by Dr. Adier in GL-rniany; while there are
a ft'w IJritish galls, such as the " JDevonshire i\Iarble,"
common also ou the Continent, of which no one
seems yet to have found the alternate generation.
In seeking for these missing forms, on iutf-restiug
pursuit^is opened up to IScotti:^h entomologists. — ScotM/iaii.
♦

The Adikondack roUKyr.s. — A report has been
presented to the State of New York, dealing with
the present condition of the forests of the Adiron-
dack phiteau, a region ill-adapted for agricultural
operations. The forests have been, as elsewhere,
reckles-slj' destroyed, but what remain are considered
as osseutial to the continued pi'osp(_iity of the State,
and their destruction must lie followed by wide-
spread commercial disasters. The Commissioners have
obtained proof that the flow of the rivers has decreased
within the memory of living men from 30 to 50 por
cent, whib? the damage from .spring floods and sum-
mer droughts is increasing. The report ends with a
series of prectical suggestions applicable to the partic-
ular case diawn up by the Commissioners, among
whom is Professor >Sargent, of Harvard Universit}'. —
Gardeners' Chruviclc.

MrtDKw. — The Journal Officiel publishes a report
addressed to th© Minister of Agriculture by M. Pril-
iieux, Inspector-General of Agricultural Instruction, as
to the results obtained by the use of a mixture of
lime and sulphate of copper in counteracting mildew.
It lias long been the custom in some parts of the
Medoc to sprinkle the Vines bordering roads with
lime-water, to which a salt of copper was added. At
one time verdigris was used, but it was expensive,
and 80 sulphate of copper was substituted. The pur-
pose of using it was to prevent children and <lepred-
ators from pulling the ripe Grapes which were within
their reach. They were afraid to eat the sprinkled
bunches. A belt five or six stocks wide was treated
in this way along the sides of the thoroughfares. "When
mildew spread to a serious extent in the INIedoc it
was remarked that the Vines which had been sprinkled
with the mixture suffered less from the disease than
the others. The leaves attacked by the Peronospbra
withered and fell oti' prematurely everywhere except
along the roads, where they remained green, and where
the Grapes ripened. At Dauzac, the property of M.
Johnston, the sto<'ks had been carefully sprinkled by
M. MiHardet, Professor of the Faculty of .Sciences,
and M. Gayon, Professor of Chemistry at Bordeaux.
After studying the results in tliis ami a large number
of other places, it was discovered that the .sprinkling
of Vines with a li(juid containing about S per cent
of sulphate of copper mixed with lime-water checked
the progress of mildew, and enabled the Vine which
had been attacked to rijjen its fruit. Tho treat-
ment is easily applied, and cheap. The earliest applic-
ation gives the best result. The action of the mixture
is not yet uuderstood, but MM. Millardet and Gayon
hope soon to be able to throw light on it. It seems
to M. Prillieux that tliis unexpected renn^dy may prove
useful to Northern agriculturists. Tbt; Peronospora
of the Vine is clo.sely related to that of the Potato,
and it seems not improbable that if it is an etflca-
eious remedy in the one case it may be so' in the other.
The hypothesis has already been supported. At
f)hateau l^aDgoa, belonging to Messrs. Barton. Tomatos
were attacked by a disease to all appearance due to
the development of the Peronospora of the Potato,
which is known to attack also tlie Tomato. M. Jouet,
t\ui steward oti the estate, who is a scientific agri-
culturist, treated the 'J'omatos like the Vines, and
succeeded in ilestioying the disease. Isolated as this
fact is, M. Prillieux thinks it should be made known,
so that l*otato growers may make in their fields, from
the first appearance of the ilisease. attempts similar to
those which have been carried out with such success
this year as regards the Viue in the Bledoc. — Garden-
irs' Chronicle.

Tea in California. — A Oaliforaian paper thus refers
to Californian tea :^*' About four years ago Jlr. Gould
received from the Agricultural Oepartmeiit u package
of Japanese tea-seed. He planted and carefully cultiv-
ated it, and now at his ranch can be seen what is
a curiosity in this country — a large plot of tea plHnts.
They have done remarkably well, and he has raised
quite a quantity of superior tea. Some years ai;o the
experiment was tried in El Dorado (.'ounty without
success, but Mr. Gould has accidentally or other-
wise hit upon the right method of raising the plant,
and his success is a pointer for other farmers to
provide themselves with this luxury. i\Inre than that,
the find growth and excellent quality of this tea looks
as if its culture might be engaged in as a profitable
business. There is apparently no limit to the poss-
ibilities of Placer country if she tries." — Indian Tea
(tazrtU: [Tea may grow well, but where is the cheap
labour to he found? — Ed.1

Oranges in Dominicv.— The weather has again
become excessively dry. Bain is much wanted for
the crops, especially for the lime and orange, which
are estimated as likely to fail short of even last
year's small harvests. In consequence of the past
drought a blight has fallen on the fruit of the orange
trees in certain localities. In others the fruit pro-
mises to be of fine size and flavour though small in
quantity. Buyers for the American markets have
commenced operations, but there is no reason why
freight to ioudon or Liveriiool should not be so
much lowered as to tempt large shipments of ffuit
at this season of the year, when neither St. MichaeVs
nor Mediterranean consignments are to he found in
English centres of consumption, and when the lioyal
Mail steamers return home half full and the Direut
Line has to seek elsewhere a homeward cargo. —
Dominica Dial.

Cocaine. — The Sethia indica having been sent to me
under the name of Erythroxylon monogynum, is found
upon examination to contain a certain amount of
alkaloid. The Sethia acuminata, which has also bueu
.sent to me as a variety of Erythroxylon, is a drug
that has long been in use in Ceylon as a vermifuge,
and I have for some time distributed it in the form
of a fluid extract. At that time I was not aware that
it had passed under the name of Erythro.xylou. As
soon as further supplies of these two drugs arrive a
therapeutic examination will bo carefully made with
the alkaloids. I am glad to be able to record some
further valuable information of general interest re-
specting Erythoxylon Coca. Dr. Mamussein, of St.
Petersburg, gives au interesting account of the employ-
ment of the drug in sea-sickuess. Dr. G. H. A. Dahbs
reports this week in the Briti.-ik Medical Journal (p.
41'-^) that he has used cocaine most successfully in
four consecutive cases of childbirth, and that it is his
intention to use it in future cases. I can only add
that in one American journ.al that reached me last
week there were twelve notices of the employment
of cocaine, and in no one instai.ce have I as yet
been able to trace any ill efiV.cts from its use.
The employment of tlie Erythroxylon Coca has now
gone from the barbaric stage of deponding for the
effect by chewing the leaves (which might be fresh or
stale; this means that they might contain hardly any
percentage of cocaine, or, on the other hand, they
might contain 055 per cent), to the employment of
the alkaloid where the doses can be most accurately
a]>portioucd. Tlie solution of hydrochlorate of cocaine
with water is always better when made fresh, and it
is safe to apply it in any case of pain, even vvith
chihlren, by rubbing it in. It is most easily mixed
with vaseline, and rapidly allays pain in the joints.
A small quantity of the alkaloid may be put with
water and then placed on sugar, and it has a marked
eifoct upon any one suffering with a sore throat.
Thii price having fallen to about \<L per grain, it is
quite within the reach of any one.— T. Ohristy,—
Gardeners^ Chronicle.

jAt^vARY 1, me.] THE TjROpjcal agriculturist.

4%

SUGAB PKODUCTION IK RUSSU.

The recently issued report of the Kussioii Depart-
ment o£ Indirect Taxation for- 1553 contains some
useful statistics regarding the progress of the sugar
industry in tlie C!z::r"s dominions. For several years
past the volume of m<iiiufa' tured sugar turned out
of the Russian refineries has increased so rapidly
that the production iu 18S2-liSS3 was more than
double that of 1S72-|3, as may be seen from the
following table: —

Y Number of Sugar produced

^ '^■'"'' Factories. Poods.

lH72-;3 23.1 8.479.1S7

1873-74 2UI 9,133,380

1874-75 249 8.060,853

1875-7U 254 9,507,015

1S76-77 2C0 12,0i'i9,594

1877-73 245 I0,Go2,918

1S7S-79 240 n,ioi,oi;3

1879-SO 239 12,54-1,1)28

ISSO-Sl 23ti I2.a99,837

1881-82 235 15.9:«i,7I4

1S82-S3 237 17,537,890

These 6gmes have been compiled fr»m the manu-
facturers' returns, but it is believed a close investig-
tion wouhl show that the output for the last three
years has averaged aunually l^,(JO(i,000 poods. The
duty has, of coiursc, increased iu proportion. Since
1881 the duties upon sugar have been twice raised
w-ithout, however, any evil effect upon the production.
In I883-l''84 an additional area of 41,70(J dc.yoiinen
was devoted to the growing of beetroot, but the result
was not very satisfactory, though the twelve months'
production dirt not fall below that of 1882-18S3. In
the latter year the 20 refineries in Eussia — mainly
scittered about the Governments of Moscow, Kietf,
Charkoff, and St. Peter.sburg— turned out 9,150,701
poods. Since 1882 the (rovernments of Pultava, Kieff,
and one or two other provinces have grown sorghum.
The Department of Imperial Dominions has also tried
this experiment, and for the encouragement of sor-
ghum growing the duty has been remitted. — FinaMial

OPEXIXG OF SILO IN SUJ.IAN NIWAS
GAKDEXS, OODETPOEE.

Mr. Thomas H. Storey, formerly of Madras, and
now Superintendent of Sujjan Niwas Gardens, Oodey-
pore, writes to us as follows: —

We had a splendid crop of Ilurialce grass (Dube)
which enabled me to carry out the experinu-nt. I
first intended packing the grass in pucka-built tank,
but owing to the uimsual heavy fall of rain, I was
unable to make it water-tight, and so gave it up,
and dug a pit on the side of a little hill, about 10
feet aliove water level. I dug the pit 32 feet long,
16 feet wide, and 8 feet deep. I had no idea the
quantity of grass a pit of this dimensions would
hold until I began to fill it. I had 217 men cutting for
two days, 16tU and 17tli of October, and ou the
18th carried the grass up, weighed one maund, and
put it in a box cart with both ends out. It held
a maund exactly, and X liieu bulked the remainder.
■\Vhen the two days' cutting was packed in, it looked
very little when tramped down, so I covered the
grass with mits, and had to begin to cut again on
the 19th with 96 men, so the total number of hands
cutting was 313 for tliree days. The mats were
lifted and the gra.«s carried up on the 29th niorning,
and packed iu. I had the grass well shaken cfuite
even all over the place, from the very bottom, and
continued till filled, with as many men as conld
conveniently stand in the pit trampiug it, so that
they could not i)ress it any more. I sent up to
the palace for au elephant to give it a finishing
touch. The huge animal almost sunk a foot iu it
and kept w.dkirg round, anuising himself, by throw-
ing the grass at the men, till he conld not press it
any tighter. I had bamboo' mats placed on the top
of the grass ami put a l.iycr of perfectly dry soil,
$ift«d fine, ou the top to a depth of two feet, i
63

have read of plastering the top with wet soil, which
I consider docs not answer the purpose so well as
the dry earth, for this season, that should a crack
open the dry soil would fill it up of its own accord
aud exclude air, whereas a plaster of wet soil is almost
suro to open and remain so. On the whole I out
fo\ir feet of soil and had it well beaten. I vi«ited
the pit daily for a month, but not a crack was to
be seen. I may mention that the grass wos cut
after the rains, and was packed quite green, contain-
ing all its own natural sap, and on the 21st it was
completely finished aiul sealed up. It remained so
fri 21st October till 21st of February, .so tlat it
v.'as sealed up for exactly four months. I opened
it in the ] rnce of Oolonel "\ralter, the British
Resilient, A. W'ingatQ, Esri., revenue settlement officer,
aud a few other gentlemeu who take an interest iu
silos. The grass had a very alcoholic smell, and
was very brown to the depth of an inch on the
top, but when shaken up to the sun and air for a
little, it soon lost most of its strong srnell. The
grass under was very Cue, and pronounced by all
the gentlemeu present to be one of the most success-
ful silos that they had heard ^f. I maj' mention
that our garden bullocks are. iu fine condition and
they eat the ensilage in preference to the jungle
grass they have been used to get. The quantity of
grass placed in the silo was 567 maunds. I am feed-
ing all our bullocks on the ensilage, exce;)t one
that is getting the usual jungle grass, giving each
animal six seers per diem; the reserved bullock is getting
seven seers every day, and I shall be able, in the
course of a month or so, to see which of the animals
are in best condition. — Jlladras Mail.

MEXICAN SANDAL WOOD BAEK.

BY H. SIIBI'.KN, M.D.

In Mexico and some of the Central American
Republics, where it is indigenous, there is used, no
doubt from reasons of economy, for fumigating pur;
poses iu churches, in the place of frankincense, the
bark of a tree, particulars of which I have been unable
to obtain, but which I am strongly inclined to cou-
sid(T as some species of .TO/ro,fi//oii or Myrospermv.m,
leguminous plants.

This bark occurs in irregidar, more or less smooth
or unevenly corrugated pieces, of a light whitish
cinnamon colour, with d;irk, liard epidermis, a?id of
an agreeable, custard-like smell, and aromatic, slightly
.acrid, balsamic bitterish taste. A small ipiantity,
coarsely powdered and sprinkled over burning coals,
emitted a balsamic, mixed aromatic odour, devoid of
the pungency of burned frankincense.

A thin cross-section manifested, at about 75 di.a-
meters linear, in the miscroscope. oil cells interstriated
with apparently semi-vi«cid, resinous matter.

Nine hundred and sixty grains of the bruised bark,
including about one-sixth its. weight of the dark-
coloured epidermis, were exhausted with aU^ohcl, aud
yielded, after removal of most of the alrohiil by .slow
distillation ou the water-bath and final spontaneous
evaporation to syrup-consistence, 9'o grams, e<p>al to
148'5 grains, or about 15'25 per cent of a clear, rich
brown, sweet-scented balsam-like substance, not dissim-
ilar to Peruvian balsam in appearance. In the
process of final condensalion of the alcoholic extract,
something like an ethereal oil partly separated to
the surface in oily drops, but afterwards reuniteil
with the denser parts,

A sample of this alcoholic extract yielded, with
pota.ssium hydrate, crystalline, quri.draupular tablets
of a yellowish colour and of the flavour of- ccumariu,
which, distilled with water and a little a'cohol, g.';vc
a milky product of insi|id, indifferent taste and smell,
while the residue reaf-senitd, after a few day.s' standing
in the retort, the previous coumarin odour, indicating
no essential thai.ge by distillation. This rcfiduc,
treated with sulphuric acid to slight acidity, yielded
a viscid, brown mass, of the exact fmell of sto^nx,
while the liquid, which dtpositcda slight ameinit of
cinnamio acid, was of cinnamon odour. 'ri)«i alcohoM''
extract is soluble iu caustic alkali,

490

•THE TSOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 188O.

A small amount of the bruised bnrk was distilled
with water, when a slightly milky distillate was
obtained . of faint cinnamon smell, with a very slight
oily suiface, tlio ijhlegma being of a muddy brown
colour.

Another quantity of the bruised bark was macerated
for a fow days with water, with the addition of a
small quantity of caustic potash to sh'ghtly alkaline
reaction, the result, after expression and filtration,
being a yelliiwish-brown liijuid of same flavour as the
bark. Sulphuric acid caused in the liquid a whitish
turbidity with subsequent yellowish, crystalline precip-
itate ; with hydrochloric acid also a whitish turbidity
with sub.sequcnt brownish crystalline, precipitate ;
both liquids, after addition of the acids, separating
also on the walls of the precipitating vessels resinous
matter as a Hocculent, brownish mass. The yellow-
ish, as well as brownish precipitates mentioned proved
to be cinnamic acid, more . or less contaminated with
precipitated resinous matter.

Continued experiments proved that the odorous
principles rest in an oily substance, cinnamic acid and
its combinations, and resinous matter. Benzoic acid,
as a proximate -principle, could -not be identified,
neither is there an alkaloid present in the baik. The
peculiar action of potassic hydrate on the alcoholic
extract, producing the exact coumarin flavour, deserves
continued attention, which I shall give it in due time.

Although, as a rule, not comparable to frankincense,
which is a pure resin, and of a pronounced, strong
ami penetrating smell upon ignition, this bark, from
its milder, l>ut more aromotic odour, may be con-
sidered a good substitute for fuudgation in churches,
and the oltobalsamic constituent, being contained in
the bivrk to the extent of 15 per cent, will, uo doubt,
be found adaptable to many uses, and many event-
ually replace Peruvian balsam, than which it is much
finer and more delicate. — .',;,'rican Di'vgi/ist.

DICJC4ING AMONGST SHRUBS.

Oi)inions about the advantages or the disadvantages
of digging amongst shrubs are not all on one side,
as, although the practice is not favourably looked
on by the majority of cultivators, on account of the
injury more or less done to the roots that lie near
the top, especially when the work is canied out
thoughtles,sly, still, there are those who contend that
by the loosening of the surface soil the rain is enabled
to descend more readily, and thus convey to the
roots the requisite moisture, much of which, if the
top crust were left undisturbed, would run off to a
distance beyoiul the reach of siu'h roots as most need
it. In this, as in most other things cunnected with
gardening, soil and situation make a ditference in
the course best to pursue. On ojjen or fairly porous
soils, csijecially where the annual rainfall is above
the average, or where th^ shi-ubs are for the most
part young, and have not to strugg'e for sustenance
against the uioistiu-e-cxhausting intiueiu'e of the roots
of large tree.s. there can be little question that even
shallow digging— as amongst shrubs it ever should
be— is «o far a Jui.^take that tliere is no need for it
on tile score of enabling the winter rains to soak
(lowii and suthclently moisten the sidwoil, on which
til a great tmasiirr the roots have to depend djuing
Ihc Slimmer. Ihit where, hi addition to the rainfall
being light, the ,^oiI Is of » ehaiaeter that causes if,
daring the dry season, to form a close, linpervions
fcrusfc, the greater part of the much-needed autumn
and winter rains run away, leaving the under stratum
^Ontimlousiy in ,a semi-dry condition from one year's
end to another, so as to make h(\Tlthy growth iin-
|>ossible. This state of matters is most apparent
amongst old shrubs that are more or less overhung
with the branches of trees, and equally under the
moisture-robbing inHuence of their roots. After the
past very dry suninier, the state of the large quant-
ities of shrubs that exist under such contlitions
lequiries consjfleration, as regards the moisture in
I lie soil indispensable for their future well-being. The
ime for loosenins; the soil— digging amenget root*

has an ugly sound for persons who fully realise the
importance of their not being injured — is at hand;
and, taking into -account the still unusually dry state
of the subsoil in many localities, there is little doubt
hatt loosening a few inches of the surface will lielp
the much-needed water to get down. An important
matter bearing on this suliject is the proportion of
trees allowed to remain where the joint occuimncy
exists. To keep the surface of the' giouiid, when
interspersed with old trees, fairly clothed with shrub.s
is often indispen.sable, and it is only by juilicious
management in retaining uo more trees than will
admit of the undergrowth of evergreen shrubs growing
fairly, that the surface covering can be kejit in a
satisfactory state. How often may be seen unsightly
objects, such as buildings that would have been better
hidden, standing exposed through the undergrowth of
shrubs not being able to thrive, on account of the
trees above being so much too close together, that
the combined shade of their branches, aa^l the im-
poverished, moi.stureless state of the soil caused by
their roots, reduce the growth of the shrubs to a
bare existence. Nor is the condition of the trees
when under such joint posses.sinn calculated to prolon"
their existence, especially if they have reached
maturity and are in a dry locality; as the roots of
the shrubs inflict only homewhat less injury on the
trees than those of the trues do on the shrubs, the
difference being that the tree roipts stretch out fur-
ther in search of food and moisture than those of
the shrubs are capable of doing. As may be seen in
places innumerable, the joint occupancy of trees over-
head and shrubs below can bis satisfactorily mauagi'd,
even up to the time when both have reached what
may be termed old age ; but only by keeping a fair
balance between the top and the undergrowth can
this be secured. — Fxekl.

AMEEICAN FLOEICULTURE.
There are, it was stated by the President at the
recent convention of the .Society of American Florists,
not fewer than 8.000 florists engagei I in the business,
either growing plants or raising cut flowers for sale.
Allowing 400 feet of ghass-covered .surface to each
florist, gives us a total of 3,000,000 square feet ; in
other words, (i^O acres. Calculating that half of tho
glass structures are used for gr(iwin„' plants, and that
one- third of the .sp.ace is actually covered with them,
and averaging the size of pots used at 3 inches
diameter, ami allowing two crops each year, tho
number of plants would be about 40.000,000.

The remaining half of the glass structures are used
for the purpose of growing cut flowers ; the actual
number produced is almost incredible. I can state,
liowever, that during the past season — beginning with
November art! ending with April — nine large grower.s
of Hoses sent into the New York market close upon
4,000,000 of flowers, and when I state that Ibis wan
not 50 per cent of the Koses sent to New Vork
alone, the magnitude of Rose growing will be imag-
ineil. The Koses grown around I>oston. Philadelphia,
Pittsburg, Oleve'and. Chicago, 'Washington, and all
other places, could not be less ihan twice as many
as were produced for the New Vork market. Thi»
vvoidd brmg up the niimher of cut Koses proJuccl
during the pJist .^eason tn L' 1 ,000.000. It Would be
fcry s:ife to multiply the number of Oariiation (I iwers
produced in the .same time from all ."ources bv at
least five; this would give IL'fl.OOO.OOO. Fabulojs as-
this niay seem, I feel that my calculations are rather
under than over tlie actuil number placed in the
maiket. It would, moreo\"e", be very safe tn .'-tate
that at least one-fourth as many Koses and '';\rn"
ations are annually raised by gentlemen fot their o-.vn
enjoyment, which represents as nv ch \ alue as if tlu-jwu
on the market and sidd over the counter. Of vaiioufs
otlier flowers, thongli iiot in the same proporli-in,
there are produced many niillions.

The bulb trade, the bulk of which is represented
by importation, has grown to be a source of great
value to the business, and as there is « dutv of 20

January i, 1886,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

4gi

per cent on all bulbs imported, it is a source of re-
veuue to the couutry also; aud, while I have no
actual data to make a close estimate of the value
imported last season, it is safe to say tliat uot less
than :;00,(ii)0 dollars' worth were actually imported
in the last twelve mouths— the bulk of these being
Hyacinths aud Tulips, more than one-half being used
to force for cut flowers: tliis does not include more
than r),oa),000 of Lilies of the Valley, which are uot
dutiabit?.

Thus far I have not said anythiug about a very
imi)Ort.ant branch of the business, or those engaged
in it. 1 refer to that brauch kuowu as the florists'
supplies aiul requisites, which has grown to be a most
important factor in the trade. The number engaged
is estimated at 700. The most important articles
are shapes for floral designs, such as oru.imeutal
baskets, vases in glass and porce'aiu, aud other w.aros ;
wire work, holders for bouquets, tinfoil, wire for
stemming, diffeient papers for packing aud wrapping
flowers, aud other articles used iu the business. The
actual amount of capital invested in this branch of
our business is in the aggregate many hundreds of
thousands of dollars, employing more labour in pro-
portion than does the florist proper, paying iu many
cases enormous routs for their accouwuoditiou. J\Iost
of those engaged in this brauch have other business
relations, either a,s seedsmeu or de.^lers in bnlbs or
cut-flowers. Then we have the army of cut-flower
men, those who are not producers, but make a busi-
ne.ss entirely of selling flowers, either made into shapes
or loosely. This is a growing branch, and today there
are not less than 2,0U0 employed in it.

Tne laml occupied with iloweriug plants and bulbs
of all kiuils scattered over tha couutry must aggreg-
ate at least 12,0(10 acres, in addition to seveial
thousand acres used tor g.-owiug fiower-seeds. This is
accounting only for Land so occupied iu Ami.rioa. It
would not be too much to siy that fully half as much
land ill Europe is also used in tlie same manner for
the .-Vmerioan tra le. In addition to this there is
nearly as nuich area of laud, aud as much glass , aud
more than half as much labour devoted to the cultiv-
atiou of flowers by gentlemen who can make a plea-
sure of .so doing; yet, with all this, the florists" and
gentlemen gioners of America have been unrepresented
by any organisation, until the .Society of American
Florists w.is established. Just think of an industry of
such magnitude without a voice or a word in its
own interest I — Gardenei-s' Ulironicle.

NOTES ON SOME JAPANESE OILS.*

BV E. M. HOLMES, r.t.s.,

Curator of the Museum of the Pharmuceuticnl Societi/.

At the close of the International HeaUh Exhib-
ition at South 3Cen.eington, some specimens of the
fixed oils used iu Japan were presented by the
Japanese Commissioner to this Society. These seemed
to he of sufhcient interest to demand a short notice
iu the columns of our Journal. This I had intended
to have given later on, but my attention liaving
been called by Jlr. R. H. Davies to some oils im-
ported from China, very similar in character to some
of these Japanese oils, the present moment seemed
to be the fitiing one to notice such of the latter
as appeared to resemble the Chinese oils, reserving
a notice of the rcmaimler to a future date.

BfiAssiCA Oh.. — Two cjualifies of this oil were ex-
hibited at the Interualional Health Exhibition, one
of a yellow colour aud of "superior quality' and
closely resembling European colza oil in appearance
and odour, and without any pungent taste; the
other .'imilar in colour to linseed oil. The former is
probably obtained from the seeds of the Almraiui
of the Japanese {brasiica campestris, L.), of which
threes varieties,— early, common and late,— appear to
be cultivated to a considerable extent in Japan. The
oil is used for culinary and lighting purposes. Accord-

* Uead at an Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical
Society of Great Britain, February 4, 1885.

iug to Dr. E. Meiie it is also used in tobacco inauu-
facture to prevent the leaves falling to powder after
rapid drying. Lampblack tor use iu making Chinese
I ink is also made by buruing the oil under conical
receptacles pierced with holes iu tho upper part.
The residue after the exiiression of the oil is used
for uLxnuriug plantations of Camellia Japonica and
other plants.

Tlie dark coloured oil is probably obtained from
the seeds of the Pttsui (Briis.ficu t^inf/nis) aud is
used for similar purposes. It is also employed in
medicine as a purg.ative, and as an external applic-
ation iu certain diseases of the skin. Bi-asxica sincisia
is also grown iu immen.se ijuantities iu China
especially iu the Yangtse-kiang and Haukiang valleys,
iu the province of Hupeh aud to some extent also
iu tlie provinces of Kiaugtsu an<l Chikyang. The
seed is ripe iu May. It it probably this Itind of oil
that has reeer.tly been sent to the Loiulon market,
and which Mr. Davies has now examined and reported
upon.

Oamei.li.v Oil. — The specimen exhibited at the
International Health E.ikhibition was labelled oil of
OameHia japoniia. It is of the colour and consistence
of ol've oil, aud in consequence of its containing
very little solid fat, and uot yielding a deposit when
exposed to CGUSiderablo cold, it is employed by
watcli'aakers in Japan, according to Mr. Murai. In
Siebuld aurl Zuccarini's 'Flora Japouica' (p. 157) it
is stated that the oil obtained from the seed is
mixed with Japanese wax {Hhiis sncccdarw am) and
perfumed with oil of cloves and other essential oils
to form a pomade which is in common use in .Japan.
A similar oil is obtained iu China from C. olrifera,
according to Mr. C. Ford,* who observed the shrub
iu cultivation in the ueighbourhood of tho West
Kiver.

In that district it is used to supply tho growers
with oil for culinary purposes and for anointing their
hi-ads, but is uot gi-oivn iu sufficient quantities for
export. It must, however, be largely cultivated in
other parts of China, .since I find, from a statement
in Spou's Eucyclopredia (p. 411), it forms an import-
ant article of trade, having been exported from
Hankow to the extent of 3,G40!, piculs (of 133.1; jb.)
in 1ST3, and 5,82(1 piculs in iMrt); Shanghai "also
imported 5,792j piculs in 1871) and exported 2,99U.
The oil is obtained by crushing the seed to a coarse
powder, boiling, and then prossiug. The .seeds of
CmiirUid japouica are ripe in September. It may
be mentioned hero that the seeds of 'I'kea sinm-sis
i Camellia Tliea) were recently offered in the London
market under the name of " tanne" seeds (" tanne"
meaning seeds according to Mr. Murai). The seeds
are capable of yielding one-third of their weight of
oiljt and according to a recent examination by Peckolt
yield also 13'8 per cent of starch and 1 per cent
of theiue.J

The "camellia oil is non-drying, very fluid, of pale
colour and free from unpleasant odour, anil doubt-
less if prepared by cold pressure would compare very
favourably with the best olive oil, and judging from
the price in t!hina (about 4d. to 6iJ. per lb ) could
certainly compete witli almond oil for many uses in
thin couutry, if not with olive oil.

"Woou Oir.. — Tho Japanese oil exhibited under this
name is stated on the label to be the product of
lilii-ococca conlatu.^ It must not be confounded
with the oleoresin known as wood oil or gurjum
balsam, obtained in India and Jlalaya from liiptevo-
carpui tnrbinatiis aud other species. The Japanese
wood oil is a fatty oil, obtained from a eupliorbiaceous
tree called "abura giri" i.e., oil tree, and " yani
kiri," i.e., niouut.ain or wild kiri, — '■ kiri" being the
Japanese name for /'r(»;«ii'/(i« imperi'ilis, whose leaves
are very similar in appearance. The tree grows wild

« Journ. f!oc. Arts. 1833, p. 513^ '

t Spon's Encyclopnnlia, p. 1411.

X Phuim. Jiinrit., [3J, XV., SOS.

§ I am reminded by Mr. W. T. T. Dyer that tho
genus Eheococca has been sunk by IJentham in Alouritcs,
The name should therefore be Ahuritc$ coidata.

492

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January r, 1886,

in the warmer parts of Japau, and is also cultivated
ill niountaiuous places auJ woods, as well as by
roadsides, chiefly in the provinces of Homodak<;i
and Figo, in the central parts of the Isle of Nippon
uiul in the provinces of Suruja, Sagiunl, Musasi and Idzu.
The seeds yield 35 per cent of oil by cold expression,
Imt the specimen presented to the Museum of the
Scn:iety has probably been made by boiling the
crushed kernels previous to expression, siuce the
coll drawn oil is colourless, inodorous, and nearly
tasteless, and according to 01oez» has a sp. gr. of
0'93()3, moreover it solidifies rapidly when exposed
to light in a closed vessel filled so as to exclude
air. The Japanese oil, on the contrary, has a brown-
ish colour and a higher specific gravity, as has
been shown by Mr. Davies; it remains perfectly
lluid when exposed to light. The wood oil, or " dou-
coua," as it is called in Japan, is employed to fill
the pores of wood before applying lacquer ; it is
also used, like tar, to render wood impermeable to
moisture. It is stated by Oloez to be the most
di-yiuf oil known. In medicine the oU is used in
skin diseases, and mixed with other ingredients to
make an application for ulcerated wounds and car-
buncle. The cold-drawn, pale-coloured oil is, accord-
ing to Dr. E. Mene, used tor varnishing furniture,
umbrellas, paper, and paper leather.

In China the oil is oue of the iirincipal articles
of native manufacture; in the provinces of Kyangsi,
C.lnkyang, and Szechuen it is universally employed
for painting and caulking junks and varnishing and
preserving all kinds of woodwork. Hankow is the
chief market for the outward trade, and exported in
1878 as much as 3.36,053 piculs (133J lb.) and 203,830i
piculs in 1879. The importance of this commercial
product has already attracted the attention of the
Director of Kew Gardens, for it is stated in the Kew
Report for 1880, p. 11, that seeds of the tree had been
obtained from Szechuen and distributed to Oeylon,
Demerara, Dominica, .Jamaica, Zanzibar, and the
United States. An attempt to naturalize the tree in
Algeria has also been made by the French.

In view of the frecjuent adulteration of linseed
oil with resin oil, etc., the appearance in the market
of an oil possessing still greater drying proper-
ties may be hailed as a cu-cumstauce likely to lead
to the production of a purer and equally valuable
drying oil by our colonial possessions.

Mr. Naylor said that the meeting was very much
indebted to Mr. Davies for the information winch
he had given upon the chemistry of these oils, and
also to Mr. Holmes for giving them some particulars
respecting their history and commercial uses. He
had been particularly struck with the sample of tea
oil which had been handed round. Some time ago
a sample of oil had been placed in his hands along
with several samples of olive oil. It was a kind of
oil which could not be well identified -with olive,
and he rather gathered from the observations which
iie had just he:ird and from the examination which
be had made that the oil of which he spoke must
have been either tea oil or a product very closely
related to it. He was a little surprised that the
sample of lead plaster had not come out somewhat
better. It appeared to be rather greasy. Perhaps
if different proportions of litharge and oil hail been
used and the mode of preparation somewhat altered,
a very fair emplastrum plumbi might heve been
obtained. The drying oil was really a very remark-
able body. He did not think that it was approached
in its drying qualities ))y any oil mot with in this
country. There was a large demand for an oil which
would possess drying powi;rs superior to those of
linieed for the preparation of gutta percha and
rubber compounds. Some further information as to
the commercial value of these new oils might be

interesting. j. c ■ j. ..

Mr Groves said that a great amount of interest

attached to this new drying oil. He had been won-

* Com2>tes I'kndKs, vol. Ixxxi., 1875i pp. <160.

dering whether it had any purgative effect like that
of castor oil and similar oils. If it could be obtained
at anything like the price of linsee<l oil it would
be extremely valuable, for linseed oil freipiently was
contaminated by products derived from cruciferous
seeds.

Mr. Tanner said he had been more especially in-
terested with the tea oil. He did not quite join in
the condemnation of the lead plaster. He wished
to know whether Mr. Davies used the proportions
of oil and Htharge ordered by the Pharraacopiuia,
and whether he followed the instructions as to the
boiling. The soft condition of the plaster would, he
thought, tend to show that a larger proportion of
litharge was requisite.

Mr. Allen said he had always heard that a certain
fortune aw.aited the man who could introduce an
oil which would dry quickly and not deteriorate
paintings. The drying oil which had been described
seemed to be of such a remarkable nature that Mr.
Davies would do well to investigate it further. The
camellia oil which had been spoken of was another
example of an oil which might become remarkably
useful. "Watchmakers had the greatest difficulty in
finding an oil which would not dry, and as many
clocks were placed in elevated positions in a heated
atmosphere, especially in pharmacies, perhaps the
oil could be advantageously used in connection with
such clocks. The pharmacist's clock exercised a great
deal of the watchmaker's ingenuity.

Mr. Chubb said he should like to know whether
Mr. Davies had tried the effect of sulphuric .acid
upon the oil in respeet to the heat that was produced
by the action of the acid upon the oil. That heat
must of course be tremendous. He should also like
to know whether Mr. Davies had tried the effect of
solvents upon wood oil in order to see whether alcohol,
for instance, woulil extract anything from the oil.
As to the other two oils, he understood that the
amount of acid in them was practically nothing. A
short time ago he examined a whole stock of oils
for a large manufacturer in Liverpool, and after
that he obtained about thirty samples from different
brokers in Liverpool, and out of the whole of the
samples there was not a single specimen of fatty
oil which contained less than J per cent of free
fatty acid. He had understood that in a very large
stock of oils examined in France the average was
about 3 per cent of free fatty acid.

Mr. Watson "Will said that the tea oil had been
stated to be closely allied to olive oil. He wished
to know whether it contained the same amount of
fatty acid. If it contained a larger amount of free
fatty acid, that fact would explain the reason why
the lead plaster was greasy. He should like to know
the specific gravity of the brassica oil.

The Vice-President said that he hoped Mr. Davies
would prosecute his intpiiries upon the chemical
side of this research. He thought that it would be
right for the meeting to recognize distinctly the value
of the work which had been done iu that direction.
As Mr. Davies had told them, the work in that
direction was not complete. That seemed to be the
case with nearly all chemical research. Investigators
never seemed to approach finality, even with regard
to those substances which were the very alphabet
of their pharmaceutical existence. Looking com-
mercially at the subject which had been brought
before the meeting, his own impression was that
there was a vast future iu the direction of the
exports from those comparatively unknown countries,
China and Japau. .Japan was a most interesting
countiy, with a civilization strangely antique and
strangely new, and at present we had access to the
country only through the Treaty Ports. Sir. Holmes,
in his paper, referred to the fact that one of the
oils was used for cooking' imrposes. He (the A'ice-
President), confessed that though the oils exhibited
very elegant pharmacy iu respect to their colour
and the handsome bottles which contained them, he
should not like either of thorn to be used for cook-
ing his omelette.

January I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

493

Mr. Davies, in reply, said that he was very much
gratified at the interest which had been raauit'ested
with respect to tho.^e oils. As reg-arded the emplastruin
plunibi. he mast say that it was not at present satisfact-
ory. T.nt lie was not at all prepared to say that
a good plaster could not he made witli the oil. The
PiKirmacopojia proportion of lithm-ge had been used
in this case, and the time of boiling had bean about
tour or five hours. In such matters " rule of thumb '
was bouuil to obtain to a certain extent. As to the
fatty acids, he had given in each case -the amount
produced by a given weight of the oil, and the pro-
portion dissolved by the washing water, and of what
they might call insoluble fatty acids. He had not
compared the percentages of the fatty acids with those
of olive and almond oils, but he had compared the
new oils with olive and almond oil in respect to the
amount of potash required to saponify a given amount
of oil, or the saturation equivalent, as it was called.
This comparison pointed to the similarity which he
had indicated being very great. In this respect the
tea oil very closely resembled olive oil, and there
was a resemblance also with regard to the specific
gravities of the two oils. The cabbage oil hore a
resemhlance to rape oil in respect to the saturation
equivalent. The wood oil, however, did not resemble
any other oil with which, he had compared it, and
thenfore probably it would be found that in the ease
of the wood oil there was a distinct acid, different
from anythiug else Avhicli had been previously dis-
covered. "While speaking of the drying oil he might
mention that its drying character was exceedingly
apparent. He hail not been aware that anyone else
had worked at these oils until he saw the statement
in JMr. Holmes's paper, Ijut it appeared that Cloez
Dublished, in the CuuipUs Rendus for 1S75, an account
of a seed yielding one of these oils. But the oil which
Oloez described differed from the oil he (Mr. D.^vles)
liad found, inasmuch as it was of a lighter colour.
With regar<l to the action of solvents, he had found
that alcohol effected a considerble ditference in the
appearance of the oil. When the oil was boiled with
alcohol a portion appeared to dissolve, and it was
dilHcult to tell while the liquid was hot whether
the oil was all dissolved or not, but when the liiiuid was
allowed to cool, the oil commenced to deposit, and
when it was collected it was found to be much
lighter in colour. It would appear that at any rate
one constituent of the oil was soluble iu alcohol,
though as a whole the oil was not soluble. ^Vith
regard to the commercial aspect of the question,
he" had done his best to obtain information, but he
had altogether failed in that respect. Eespecting
(lie iiiteiual administration of the oil, about which
Mr. liroves had asked, he was not aware that any
rxpeiimtiit had been tried. He should feel much
ilillidfiice in taking himself any oil derived from
the Kiiphorbiace;e, but he was quite willing to
supply oil for the |iurpose of the experiment. The
lubricating quality of the camellia oil bad been
alluded to in the paper. Wiiether the oil would
rcfusi! to dry under the action of a warm atmo-
■ sphere he did not know. He had exposed some of
till! oil upon filter papers in the tolerably warm
temiierature of the laboratory without auy percepti-
ble drying. He had not ascertained the amount of
lu^at (levoloped by any of the oil.s under the action
of sul[ihuric acid. He did not see what useful end
would be served by such an exi>erimeut.

Mr. Holmes said that ho could add nothing with
regard to the medicinal properties of the wood oil.
Ill- could only suggest that as the oil was used for
application to ulcerated sores, he should think that
it might be used with comparative safety internally.
A.S to the adulteration of tfic^ wood oil, the Chinese
had an excellent character fur imitation and adulter-
ation, and unless tlie oil could bo obtained 1 hrough an
English factory or an English firm, he should very
much doubt wbethi-r it would always be exported puro.
The camellia oil which had been exhibited w.as not
obtained from the Camel/in Ihea, but from the Camellia
japoiiica, and as far as he had observed, the latter

did not possess auy perfume. The camellia oil which
was exhibited was not derived from the seeds of the
tea troe (from which indeel it seemed to differ,
since a specimen of od in the mu-ieam, and which
was labelled oil of the seeds of the tea tree, had
become semi-solid), but was nbtaiund from the plan t
known in this couutry .as the camellia {OiiiielHii
;ij;»»'im), thi flowers of which were so commonly
worn in button-holes. The Chinese oil was apparently
obtainel from another species, UaiiiiUia nlrif'ei'a. In
.speaking of the uses of these oils in .Tapan he did
not intend to point out that they might be so used
in this country. It was quite possible that the .lapanese
and Chinese might not object to the Hivour of must-
ard or cabbage iu the oils used for culinary pur-
poses—tastes differed in such matters. Tbe camellia
oil moreover might in some samples have a acrid
taste, which was very preceptible in the seeds, aud
might easily be communicated to tbe oil if it were
obtained by hot pressure.

A vote of thanks to the authors having been
passed, at the rerquest of tbe Vice-President —

Mr. Holmes called attention to various pharm-
aceutical specimens which were exhibited cm the table.
Among these were specimens of various salts of
cocaine presented by Jlr. Merck, an alkaloid which,
as they all knew, in a very short time had obtained
a great reputation as an ancesthetie, There was
also a series of specimens of medicinal products from
Jamaica, received from the Director of the Botan-
ical Department at Gordon Town. The Director had
piad great attention to the cultivation of the various
drugs, as cinchona, jalap, etc., in the island, aud
recently he had turned his attention to the pre-
paration of Barbadoes aloes, a specimen of which
was on the table, while a small duplicate was at
the disposal of any member who would be willing
to examine and report upon it. Some leaves of the
Eucahiptus citriodora had been sent by the same
donor.' These had exactly the ordour of citronelle
oil, and would probably yield an oil that might
compete with it iu fragrance. A specimen of the
stem of the Canella alba with the outer bark attached
also came from .Tamaica. The bark being dried on
the stem did not possets the white colour which
was generally seen in the commercial article, but
showed the outer bark, which is removed in its
preparation for the market. The Oui-ator also direct-
ed attention to a specimen of a bark which had
been recently recommeu led fur luse in diabetes,
Sii-Jiifiiim jamholaiwma, A specimen of spurious musk
pod,' sent by Mr. H. A. ^\'■ooluough, of Hong-Kong,
cousisted of a piece of the skin of the musk deer with
the hair attached, and was very nearly sewn up so as to
resemble a true pod, but the contents were worthless.
There were two very fine specimens of pip-menthol pre-
pared from tlie true peppermint by Mr. A. Tod, of
Jlichigau. It was proposed to introduce this into cora-
inerce to compete with the Japanese methol. It
appeared drier than the Japanese drug, but opinious
seemed to differ as to its superiority for use in medicine.
A clnstor of pods of the Mexican v.anilla, growing
on the original stalk, had been presented to tne
Museum by Mr. II. (Jocksedge. It was very rare to
.see it iu eommerCe in this form. He should like to
know whether the vanillin exuded, from the fruits iu
the form of vapour aud then orystallized, as the
crys';als extended in some cases to fully half an
inch beyond the pod, and as these were formed at the
ordinary temperature it would seem as llioiigh it was
volatile at about that of the air. A large spci-imen
of -'mandrake root" had been sent for exhibition by
Mr. C. Osmau, of Sutton. It might not be known
to all pharmaceutical students that white bryony root
{Bri/'iiii'i iilli'i) was sold uuder this name; it should
not" be confounded with the pl.int called mandrake
in the United States (/'o<i'u/>/tyW»iH.;)f/(irt«m), nor with
the ti-ne mandrake (/Itm/m mandrarjiira). A specimen
of the fal.so cubebs which had been mentioned in the
Journal hail been placed upon the table for examination
by the members present, since it w.as possible it might
como into commerce. This was the article that had

494

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, i886.

been offered recently as cubebs in the Loudoa mai'ko t,
and might serve as a warning to chemists to be on
the loolc out for adulteration whenever a drug goes
up in price. A very interestiug specimen of the
Chinese insect wax in .-titn on one of the plants,
FrtLviiius cliiitfiifti.'i, on which the insect feeds, hail
been received that day from the Director of Kew](rard-
ens. Also a specimen in fruit of another plant, Liiin^ii'^nn
liicidiim, upon which the same iusect feeds. — P/mnii-
nceiUical Journal.

NEW TEA MACHINERY.
From intovmation supplied by Mr. Rutherford
to a local contemporary, it would appear that Messrs.
A. J. Main & Co. are in the field with " Dick's
patent mechanical tea packer." It is claimed for
tliis machine that it will compress into 800 boxes
a quantity of tea, which, by tlie usual methods
of packing, requires 1,000. There would be thus
not only a saving of 20 per cent on boxes, nails,
Ac, but a corresponding saving in land carriage
and sea freight. The cost of this wonderful com-
pressor is stated to be so high as £147 10s (note
the odd 10s) f.o.b. at Glasgow. This is a heavy
sum when charges to the estates are added, and
the whole converted into rupees, but it would doubt-
less pay large estates to use the machine, if, be-
sides compressing the tea, it fulfilled the further
claim made on its behalf, " without breaking the
tea, or other injury occurring." It seems to us
impossible that, with the pressure applied, the leaves
should not be broken, and more than this con-
verted into a solid mass. The tea, in fact, would
be compressed tea, such as some years ago was
widely advertised as especially convenient for
travellers. We tasted the compressed tea, and found
that the crushing process had developed tannin
at the expense of theine, and that the infusion
tasted strong and coarse. It was a modified brick
tea, in truth. Until, therefore, tlie owners of very
large estates, sucli gentlemen as Mr. Euthevford,
have adopted and reported on the work of this
automatic packer, we fancy tea factories in Ceylon
will continue to pack tea after the fashion now in
vogue, viz., that of a cooly treading on a clean
cloth spread over the tea in each box, half-chest,
or chest, until the package is full or contains the
regulated quantity in proportion to size.

Mr. Rutherford, it seems, is about to give a trial
to another invention by the Messrs. Main, the im-
portance of which, if it achieves the success claimed
for it, cannot be overrated. The difference between
high quality and low quality outturn of tea de-
pi^nds largely on tlie proper withernig of the green
leaf. But the success of this process depends
largely, almost entirely, on the state of the pro-
verbially fickle atmosphere which surrounds our earth,
and which in a climate good for the culture of tea
is for a considerable portion of the year saturated
with moisture. Now one of our highest, if not the
highest authority on tea manufacture in Ceylon
desiderates a warm moist atmosidiere for the pro-
per withering of green tea leaves. If such an atmo-
sphere is necessary, then grave doubts must arise,
whether the principle of Main's appliances for
withering tea leaves is correct. It is thus de- i
scribed : —

M<wsrs. A. & J.. Main & Co., after having made
careful and elaborate experiments for the last two
years, socm to be confident they have at hist solved
the problem, .-ind statetbey can effectually vvithcr green i
leaf in from 1 J to 2 hours, while all " stewing," " scorch-

ing," or other deleterious effects are avoided. The
fundamental principle of their patented appliances is to
desiccate or dry the air before it is allowed to oper-
ate on the leaf. This is done by au absorbent, perfectly
innocuous, cheap at first cost, and which does not re-
quire renewal beyond the evaporation of the moisture
absorbed. The desiccated air is then applied to the
leaf in a simple, but effective, manner at the normal
temperature of the atmosphere, or about 86 ' to 90',
while light is freelv admitted.

This sounds well, but the idea of the application
of desiccated air is certainly a new one, and our
fear would be that the leaves would be left, not
soft and satiny, but hard and crisp, semi-desiccated
themselves by the desiccated air, which, of course,
would keep absorbing moisture as long as any re-
mained in tlie soft vegetable substance with which
it was brought in contact. This is certainly not
the orthodox tea-house idea of withrriiifi. It is a
drying process, rather, in anticipation of the final
drying by fire heat. Either the experienced tea-
planter, Mr. Armstrong, is wrong in his philosophy,
or Messrs. Main & Co. in the principle of their
invention. But we may hope soon to learn the
result of a practical test. The same firm have in-
vented a drier, which is thus described :—

The next invention is by the same makers, and is a
"Tea Firing Machine," for which they claim that it has
the power to " fire " at any desired temperature at the
option and under tue control of the operator ; and that
it will fire its charge at 200 " in 15 minutes. One size
of dryer takes 200 lb. at one charge, and the otber 80
lb. — or equivalent to about 800 lb. and 320 lb. per hour
respectively. We are not inlormed if this quantity refers
to green leaf, fermented leaf, or made tea.
Then Mr. Kinmond, Mr. Jackson's rival in rollers,
but unsuccessfully so in Ceylon, has, in conjunc-
tion with a Mr. Richardson, invented a new roller
which is thus described : —

This machine is described as differing from all other
tea-rolling machines, in that, at each stroke or revol-
ution of the rolling surfaces, the tea leaf is presented
to the rolling surfaces at a different angle, and no two
points in the rolling surface give the .same rolling action
to the leaf , which is subjected to a multiple action, the
cousequeucs being a harder twisted leaf and a total
absence of flat leave*.

The motive power required is 3 b. p., and it is stated
to be capable of rolling 9l30 lb. of green knif per liour.
The price in England is £100, and the makers are Messrs.
Kobey&Co., Globe Works, Lincoln.

Seedling Fruit Trees.— Seedling Apples. Pears,
and possibly other fruits, may under the conditions
of the soil and climate, &c., of the districts in
which they have originated be found to be possessed of
quahties which they will not retain when transferred
to other localities where similar conditions do not
exist ; while on the other hand, varieties may have
been discarded on being found of little value in the
locality where they originated, but which might, under
the influences of other soil and climate, be found to
be possessed of desirable qualities.— C/(m/fn«\s' Chronicle.

EuCALYprs. — At the Linnean Society on November
5, there was shown for the Haron von Mueller a
characteristic collection of .-.keleton leaves of species
of Eucalyptus prepared by Jlrs. LewcUin, of Melbourne.
These confirm liarou von Mueller's observations as to
definite layers and the relation of these to the .skele-
tonising process. The leaves in decai'ing produce no
bad odour. Mueller's observations do not support Mr.
Kiviere's statement that the bamboo is as good as
Eucalypts to subdue malaria; the former dry up, but
do not exhale the volatile oil, as do the latter, and
the JCncalypts, moreover, absorb moisture as (piickly
as Willows. Poplars, and Uttinboos.— (^n/'rfc/ifrs' t7(/»«-
ide.

JANUARY i, iS86.] -fHE TUOPiCAL AG RrcULTURIST.

495

^

To the EiUlor of the " Ceijlon Observer."

CUKE FOR DYSENTKBY; TEA AND FIBBES

IN SOUTHEEN INDIA.

2nd Dec. 1885.

llE.ui Sir, — Your note on the value of the bael
fruit as a remedy for dysentery reminds mo to
send you the enclosed extract from a letter lately
received from a yentleman, deservedly an authority
on idanting matters, in South India, that may
otherwise be read with interest : —

"Ootacamund, 17th Nov. 1885.

" T heard of a man at Coonoor who yave 1190,000
for 50 acres of tea and -50 acres of scrub. The
bushes give 400 lb. an acre, and they say they
make 7 per cent on the purchase, but matters
here just now are not looking up, as there have
been many failures, especially of a large firm that
did business in eoffce and tea plantations. There
is no doubt that any plantation of tea that gives
5U0 lb. an acre must pay well, specially with the
price of silver falling, if you would avoid too
much blossom at that low elevation plant nothing
but the best sort of Assam, no suspicion of China
about them. Did you ever try the Maseekoy nut for
dysentery ? It acts like a charm. It can be bought
in the bazaar. One nut ground down with water
is generally enough. The rhea here under Mr.
Minchin is doing well, and likely to be a success.
I know him very well, and lie told me that he
had 250 acres i^lanted, and was going to adopt
a process for cleaning that was certain to succeed.
But the plant requires high cultivation to yield
wuU : plenty of irrigation and manure." -

Unfortunately the name of the nut is rather in-
distinctly written. It looks to me like "Maseekoy"
nut. Perhaps you can identify it — with further
particulars— and say if procurable locally '? RDO.OOO
■ sounds a good selling figure for 50 acres of tea
giving only a third the croii average of JIariawatte,
and, say, Jiatf of our less sanguine hopes elsewhere
here ; and 7 per cent rather a more modest interest
than men in Ceylon, I expect, would care to calc-
ulate on as their maximnin from an agricultural
investment, with its hard work, anxiety, and many
uncertainties. A pity a few more of these less
avaricious investors from India don't come over
here with their jwckets full : little doubt but they
would find themselves met in a friendly and fair
spirit ?

It would bo interesting to have fuller particulars
of this new fibre-cleaning process, and I hope to
get them later on. I expect it has reference to
the use of a cheap chemical, lately discovered, that
I read somewhere had been found to answer,
The only thing nece»sary was to boil rhea ribbons
for a short time in a solution, with no further
" plant " than a few inexpensive boilers-and I
euppose a baling press— required to produce a sample,
perfect under every test I I-'roni what I could make
out from a friend who has recently visited Mr.
Minchin's estate, with the idea of cultivating fibre
here, we arc out of the running as regards rich-
ness of soil, but our climate and facilities for
irrigation and manuring sulficiently greater to more
than make up for this ! Rupees one hundred per
acre seems tu be the annual profit anticipated in
India. R.

rMr. Minchin has written twice to us explaining
llis fibre work : his Ictlcrs will bo found in the
Tropical Aiiriciiltiirist : the BiOO per acre have not
yet been made.— Er.j

TEA PLANTING IN UVA.

BaduUa, 5th Deo. 1885.

Deau Sin, — A great deal of valuabb, if not pract-
ical, information regarding the progress of cultiv-
ation of tea in the Uva districts ought now to bo
reaching you, but it is not nearly so full as it
might be, and, considering the great importance
of the subject, any special effort made by you to
furnish us more frequently, and with fuller inform-
ation, would, I feel sure, be greatly appreciated by
all who have (and who has not?) the success of
the enterprise at heart. The figures of the area
under tea in Uva in your new Directory will prove
, ry interesting, and doubtless the information will
be as complete as possible up to the date of public-
ation, but the aspect of things is changing with
us every day, and so much is being done in a
quiet determined fashion, which is only known to
those immediately connected with the carrying out
of the work, that many of your readers would be
glad to see a larger space in the Ohserrcr under
the heading of " Planting Notes " devoted to " Tea
in Uva." In this connection Mr. Johnson's letter
in your issue of the 2nd inst. is of considerable
interest, but not of much value. It it interosfiug
to know that a marketable tea can be grown on an
estate situated as Dotlands is, in the midst of a
large tract of patana, and a rainfall which docs
not compare very favorably with the returns pub-
lished from other properties in the district where
tea is being planted on a very extensive scale, and
if it can only bo shown that tea will grow and
pay on Dotlands, it would prove a source of great
comfort to some of us. If the only thing which
stands in the way of Mr. Johnson's extending his
area is the price which his tea is likely to fetch in
the local market, his doubts on this point would
be most cflectually solved by bis sending a sample
for report and valuation, accompanied by the small
sum of Ro, to one of tlic many expierienccd tasters
now resident in Colombo. But I fear that some-
thing more than this is required, tor, until his tea
is a good deal older, he will not be able to say
whether Dotlands is capable of producing the article
at a figure which will show a balance on the right side.

It is true we have to pay somewhat heavily for
the transport of our i>roduce and supplies, but the
difference on this item will not be found so much
in favour of districts served by the railway, as Mr.
Johnson's remarks would lead one to suppose. Were
the profits on the cultivation of tea in Uva to be
calculated on so fine a scale as the difference in cost
'twixt road and rail transport, the prosi^ect would
not be a bright one. The reasons that might
be urged in favor of railway extension to Badulla
are legion, and I must say that you have consist-
ently and persistently brought forward the whole
array on every possible occasion when their recapitul-
ation could be of any service to us, but perish the
thought that the absence of a railway should Btand
laetween us and the successful and p)o(itable cult-
ivation of tea. The question of transport and
almost every other item which is likely to crop up
in connection with tea has already received most
careful consideration at the hands of some of those
who are foremost in the enterprize, and it should
be encouraging to those who hold suitable land in
this district to know that one of its earliests pioneer
(Mr. John Brown) is now one of the strongest ad-
vocates for the extension of tea on the large pro-
perties in which he is still interested, and with
whose management lie has for so many years been
closely connected. The rate of transport has not
been prohibitive in the case of coffee, neither will
it be 60 with tea, Indeed the benefits of quick
traospovt as regards collee are of vastly more im-

4i)0

TBS TROPICAL AQRlCVLTUniST. Gf;vvtv»«- i, iSSC

portaneu than they arc in the case of tea, for my
Goloniljo Agents have repeatedly told me that ten
shillings a hunilredweiglit was uo overestimate
of the extent to wliich my coffee was depreciated
by the long liausport via Eatnapura. Just think,
Mr. Kditor, what a huge sum of ni'iney ten shillings
a hundredweight on the crops ot Uva from its
palmy days down the present day of small things
would amount to. It would almost pay tor the
construction of a railway, I should think. On most
of the estates, hoth here and in Madulsima, where
tea is being largely planted, there are considerable
reserves of forest available as fuel, and, in addition
to this, large numbers of fast-growing trees are
being planted, so that for a time at least we shall
not all have to depend on rail-carried fuel, but
when we do have to indent- for ton's of coke and
coal, I hope the means of transport, in the shape
of a railway right into Badulla, will be there to
meet our wants.

I believe I am right in stating that some thous-
ands of acres arc already under tea in Uva, and
if the men who have borne the burden and heat
of the day, and are pegging away at it still, would
tell us Occasionally something of the progress of
the young plants, it would add greatly to the
interest and value of your paper. If you would
just give a hint to the effect that those planting
tea in Uva might be a little more communicative
of their doings, I feel sure it would have the desired
effect. ICH DIEN.

lOur Directory figures show some 4,500 acres
of tea planted within the Principality, and they are
certain, as our correspondent says, to attract atten-
tion. We shall be liappy to receive and publish
communications of the nature desiderated. We
have ever believed in the suitability of Uva for
tea culture, and a new and strong argument for rail-
way extension lies in this fact, of which wc have
not failed to make use. — Ed.]

THE PACKING OP TEA.

Dimbula, 10th Dec. 1885.
Dkau Sik,— There is an error in your printer's
rendering of my letter. I said "a fortiori", and
not " a portion of." As I am again on this subject
I may point out how nuich more profitable it is
to employ full chests rather than half-chests or
still smaller packages. For the extraordinary
arithmetical manccuvre described by "Tea Buyer"
can of course be practised on each package, and , I
have seen an account sale of tea shipped in small
packages in whicli 15 per cent loss in weight
was incurred. Tliis most [objectionable weighing
trick and the i lb. draft arc public scandals, and
should both be abolished. — Vours truly,

TEA MAKEB.

.Sul.i'mTHic Acid: Loe.a, MANNnv.vcTPTii!!. — A plant-
er writes : — " I don't quite agree with your views
about that SO;i Company. The loss of the Ceylon
custom would not reduce the home price by a cent.
The local Company would of course want to make
as nuich profit as it could, and so the public would
merely in all iirobability gain but a very sliglit
reduction in price, say just something under what
the acid could be imported. A ten years' monopoly
would be bad. Let Government however olfer a
handsome bonus on the first 10 tons acid nuade
and remit duty on its imported machinery and
material." The proof of the pudding is in the
eating: if a success in the Barbados, why not in
Ceylon? With abundance ot sulphnrio acid locally
available, there is uo saying what can bo douo I

Ivy FOB ScufiKjjs. — I have froin time to time tra-
velled a good deal abroad. Recently, when at
Darmstadt, I noticed a very good ])lau of ivy for
screens, which was the growing of ivy ag.tinst wooden
uprights painted green, stuck iu lung, narrow, hut
deep woodcii boxes, also painted greeu. These boxes
could be easily moved about as reipiired, and a screi'n
some three j'ards or more iu height, as reijuiM-d,
could thus at ouce be produced. — C.^V. (I'au, 13:usses
Pyrenees, France). — Field.

A Method oi- Wateking PLAs-rs i.v India. — At a
meeting of the committee ot the Agri-HorticiOtural
Society of Madaa?, Deputy-Surgeon-Gcneral .Tobn
Shortt, concerning watering iu India (on the Shi'va-
roy Hills) said : — " I also resort to the Gurmh mode
of watering plants, that is. the common water-pot
styled co(h'm on the JIadras side, having a small
month. It has a small hole knocked into the bottom,
and the pot is buried to a depth ot one-third its
size, as near to the stem of the phut as possible,
and it is kept constantly filled with water, which very
gradually oozes into the soil througli the minute
opening at the bottom, giving moisture to the roots
of the i)lauts without causing waste by spilling or
evaporation. I find this method a great success."—
Gardt net's' Chrotiicle.

A\'oNDEKrui, Catekpillars.— A Demerara contempor-
ary says :— " A country correspondent has been good
enough to send us a bottle containing a number of
caterpillars, about G inches long and about a i|nartec
of an inch thick. They are round in the body, the
back being a glossy black, and the under side a
marled white with Vermillion spots ; the heiid is a
bright vermilliou. Our correspondent says: — "These
worms are destroying all the sweet cassava in Sisters
Village; they are so numerous that some of the
people cannot get into their beds to work or reap
their crop. Fields of cassava arc destroyed by them ;
they are also interfering with tlie coffee trees'. The
farmers in Good Intent, Sisters, and La Ketr.aito
have suffered much. It is something wondirful to
hear them feeding." It is to be hoped that Demerara
will send specimens of tliis scourge to the Colonial
and Indian Kxhibition. — Colvnics and India.

Tea in Persia. — The Fiotner, commenting on the re-
export trade from Bombay to Persia, says: — "No
fewer than 933,000 lb. of Chinese tea were sent
from India to Persia, and only 40,000 lb. of Imlian
tea. We have often reminded our tea-planters of the
neglect of their own interests shown by them in
not cultivating the Asiatic market, but these figures
place that neglect in a strikiug light. India, which
affects to be a tea-producing country, actually scuds
to Persia 25 lb, of Chinese tea for every pound ot
Indian tea. This evidence of want of enterprise amoug
our tea-growers is perhaps the most discouraging
feature in the whole prospect of Indian industries.''
These are hard words, but we are afr:iid they are
deserved. Why should not the Tea Symhcate exploit
Persia.— /«(/«<»! 'i'ta Gazette. [We learned in Java that
a good deal of the tea of that country is sent to
Persia.— Ku.]

AViiEN TO Eat Feuit. — Fruits, to do their best work,
should be eaten either on an empty stomach or siniply
with bread— never wilh vegetables. In the morning.
before the fast of the night has been broken, they are
not only exceedingly refreshing, but they serve as a
natural stimulus to the digestive organs. And to
produce their fullest, finest eU'ect, tbey shouUI he
ripe, sound, and every way of good quality ; moreover,
they should be eateu raw. What is better than a
bunch of luscious Crape or a plate of berries or
Cherries on a summer morning, the first thing on
sitting down to breakfast ? Or a fine ripe Apple,
rich and juicy, eaten in the some way':* In our
climate Apples should conslitute not the finishing,
but the beginning of tlie mc.al, particularly the
breakfast, for at least four nioulbs in the year; and
fruits, raw or cooked, sh idd make a p.art of the
morning and evening meal (providetl suppers are eaten/
dining the entire year. — Form and Jli inc. quote I i •
Oujiitheri' Ohronkk,

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

497

BAT GUAXO.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MADRAS MAIL."

Sir, — In reply to the letter of your correspoiulent
"Amateur," which appeareil iu your issuu of the
ami instaut, relative to the use of Bat Guano as
a mauure for flower gardens, I beg to state that
the guauo in question is extensively used by farmers
for the rapid and luxuriant growth, and rich produce
of certain vegetable.-^, such as the Snake Uuurd,
Trichosanthcs An*;uina ( Linu\ Cucurbitaeea-, known
as Poodaliargai in Tamil, Brinjnl or egg plaut,
Katherre kai. T.imil, Solanum Alelangera (LinnK
common chilly, MoUagah, Solanum Anuuin, Solanace.v
and some others. Tho guauo Is employed as a top
dressing to plants before they begin to tlower, by
powdering the dung, and mixing it with cattlo or
vegetable manure, but not by itself. I have seen
the giuino from bats very largely used by gardeners
at Manargudi, where it is procured in abundance
from the Hindu tomples, at a very little cost. The
interior contain thousands of these nocturnal animals,
which have been their dwelling for ages; hence it
gives a strong ami offensive, or unpleasant smell to ;
people visiting these temples. 1 have never seen bat ,
guano resorted to as a manm'e for flower gardens,
but a trial of it can be made, mixed iu the same
way as ilescribed above. It should be watered regulary i
and plentifully, otherwise the plants will die. I find
in the 2ud volume of the "Pharmaceutical Times
and .lournal of Cliemistry/' 1867, one Mr. Tbomas
Dickson, of Lincolnshire, an eminent farmer, speaks i
of the extraordinary supply aud use of the guano from
bats, and states that when he was employed as a !
manager of an extensive estate in Jamaica, a consider- ,
able increase of sugar was being procured there by
applying a new guano as tillage. Dr. J. H. Balfour,
of Ktlinburgh, speaks very highlj' of guauo or the !
dung of sea fowl as a special manure, its value
depending partly on aniniuniacal salts aud partly on
pho?(phates. The special manures may be called
" rapidly acting manures." They are composed of in-
gredients which are intended for the special benefit
of the crop to which they are applied, while comparat-
ively little effect is produced on those that succeed
it. Tanjoru.

BOHEA TEA,

(From the '* Indiiat Jifvietc'^s' Cream of Monthlies.)

Extract from an article iu Cornhill Mac/azine,
entitled *'Sorae Recollection of Buddhist Monasteries."

Following the course of the river Miu at about
eighty to one hundred miles above Foochow, the
traveller comes to a region of most beavitiful scenery
where the mountains tower to a height of from six
to eight thousand feet, and the river winds amid
majestic crags, all broken up intu fantastic forms,
gigantic towers, Cyclopean columns, an majestic
ramparts. This is the celebrated Bohea tea couutry ;
the cultivators are Buddhist monks, whose very numer-
ous monasteries nestle among the huge rock, or
are perched on the summits of perpendicular pre-
cipices, which, seen from the river, appear to be wholly
inaccessible.

The tea fields where these agricultural brethren toil
so diligently are most irregular patches of giound
of every size and shape, scattered here, there, aud
everywhere among these rocky mountains; but, like
all Obinese gardening, the tea cultivation is exquisitely
neat, and the multitude of carefully clipped little
bu.shes have a curiosly formal appearance, in contrast
with the reckless manner in which Nature has tossed
about the fragments of her shattereil mountains.

From these strange fields the carefully gathered
leaves are carrie»l in large basket-work trays of split
bamboo to the monasteries, there to be sprea»l on
mats and left in the fcun till they are partially dry,
after which they are placed in very largo flat circ ilar
trays, and barefooted brethern proceod to use their
feet as rollers, and twirl the leaves round and round
till each has acquired an individual curl. (This does
not sound very nice, does it?) Then ■ the whole

process is repeated a second time; the leaves havo
auother turn in the sun, another foot-curling, and h
more elaborate hand-rubbing. Then once nior« they
are exposetl to the sun, till they are so thoroughly
dried that no trace of green remains. They are tlieii
packed in bugs, each weighing about si.vty lb., and
despatched from tho monasteries on the shoulders of
tea-coolies, each of whom carries two bag.s slung from
the ends of a bamboo which rests on his shoulder.
Thus they are consigned to the foreign tea-merchants,
to be fired under their own supervision in the great
tea-hon|^*, where the hitherto unadulterated leaf
receives that coatini;' of indigo and gypsum which
imparts the bloom so highly prized in the Kuropeau
market, to wliich it is shipped in bo.ws labelled
'* pure uucoloured tea," greatly to the edification of
the heathen Ohinee, who is not so much astonished
at the fraud as at the singular taste which is said
to necessitate its practice. It is needless to remark
that tho Chinese merchauts have themselves taken
the hint, and prepare specially coloured tea for
foreigners.

THE MANURIAL VALUE OF FRESHLY
FALLEN LEAVES.
Our knowledge regarding the manurial value of fallen
leaves has recently been added to by Professor Emnier-
ing and others, in a communication contributed to the
current number of the Jiiiil. Centr.y 1SS5.
The results are given in the following tables: —
■(snin^sq
snuidiBQ)
mBaqajojf

-Aj.Cs sn

-(jnqo.r
snojanf))

I^O

•(nsominiS

snniv) lapiv

nouiuioj
-(snuB^^Ij; op
-nosj joay)
. oaocasOifs
2 '(BqiB
t B|n}9a)
d qajig -iSAlFi^
". -(Ba^uaSjB
2sn|ndi>,i) .ii![
^ -do,[ JO.\-,!s;

i. '("qi"

Z "IFS) «oi

g • (saaosauBO
?H snjndo.x)
j«ldo,[ iaJO

o ':^ >-':' S ?5 3D ■^

z^

CO t- -t U? -H- r-( CO

c: o» xj CO X M t>.

nH CO O C-1

OI

O CO 01 O lb -^ CO
rH O^ i-H rH

L"? L- r- :£ O) (M Xi

n c:: iO ffi -+ 00 ^

o

O

1
1

a

40 r^ M -f IN .O 00
IC Tl- ^ Ol L- GO GO

c >c 6i -i -^ p: ei

— 0» CO

X 1- t~- CO t— 3C >o
1- 71 O t- ic :o CI
('- -ji r'- lis <ji C T'S

i-H X LO CO

CO

01 « t- 30 --f CO if)
w Ol 01

■o -t ■-* — « -f ■-* o
O CI 1- c: *?! t- -rr

I- ri X -o ih er CO

rH X i-H 1.0 .-I

6i

f- 1- CO O CO -^ CO

GO -f O 1- wo r- o

1' f» tx* c o ib o

Tf -s r-l

■^ :o s: c; O — < 1— 1

I- 01 CO to ^ ?:) 3C
r- 01 -js -i o^ 00 c:

i-t 30 UO *1

r-l

■T- oa 6 i) M CO fM

r-* CO CO

CO r-- LO CO O O t—
I - -M C O i;- fH ip

i!o -^ lb ?:i z; Ci oi

r-l K r-t O 01

30

6

6

5

CO xu^ QO^-^JC:

t- -^ t- I-O r- CO CO

OJ -rf •-< -^ CO rt W
rH CO Ol

rH C-, -" oi := -^ lO
r: 'o lO -+ o "^ o

CO -^ oi<io A< 6 1^

(-<» ^ iOt OI

o
p

OJ

t-- CO- -r »io 00 oi — '

Ol t- 1' -^ CO »- o

~

o-j » toco j-2

CO to »— ' " *^ ^ "

o oi ^ «:> -- cr, i-

Ct I- ^ I.O --»

01

^

01 <M "— '

X 01 (N cr. --t -* ■-.

GC ^ lO O TT ^ IC

o Ci f^ <b do as b-

C-I t- »-i Tj. 01

^

a

■-a
>*

.J3

B

'" ; : g4 h u •

i - ' "si's ■

ir, p, ./J ^4 r-. P-. x tn

■ "S -< St 'J £ 3

fea> ^ '

te >> : jaUBOi

A glance at these figures will show the imrncnce
variation in the constituents, and conse<piently in the
manurial value, of different plaut leaves, but it must
be remembered that a few analy.ses of plants or their
separate organs th» not sutJice to decide what kind and
what amount of plant food a crop neetls, and still
less iu what combination they produce the best effect ;
they simply tell what kind and amount the plan

498

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, i?

un'ler examination contains at that particular mo-
ment. It is a well established fact that the same
variety of plants, whether raised upon different kinds
of soil or upon the same soil of a vai-ying degree of
richness, may contain a widely ditferiug ahsolute
amount of the same kind of organic '• volatile " and
org-auic '' fixed " constituents.

It appears that about :i,000 lb. of perfectly dry Pine
timber are produced with a consumption of only 2^-
Ib. of potash and 1 lb. of phosphoric acid per acre
per annum ; with Ber-ch trees the (piatititics required
are rather larf^er. The growth of trees and shrubs,
therefore, plainly less exhaustive to the soil than
ordinary garden culture. 'J'he demand on the soil
becomes, moreover, considerably greater if all the
fallen leaves arc removed. — J. J. 'W.^Ganhners^
Chroiiicfe.

CARRAWAY SEED.
VTii have received from Messrs. Praschkauer &
Co.. of 12, Savagegardens. London, a diagram

illus-

trative of tlie fluctuations in the price of can-away
seed from 1^75 to ISSl inclusive, which show a
maxiraura of iOs. a cwt. in 1877. down to '^:is. in 1882,
the closing ]>rice at the end 1.^84 being 33s. It would
appear from statistics furni-hed that the supplies are
very short, and that something like scarcity is anticip-
ated. Holirmd is the ju'incipal producer, and a
succession of low prices luis caused a considerable
reduction of acreage. It is suggested that, as the
crop can be successfully grown in the sovitheru
counties of England, its c:; tended cultivation is
desorviug of attention. It requires two years to
come to maturity, and can be sown with some other
crops, such as Vjeaus and i)eas.

AVe are quite of Messrs. Praschkauer's opinion, that
any crop that offers a fair prospect of remunerative
growth deserves careful attention at the present time.
It is said that carraway seed can be grown on strong
land, so it might be taken iu place of wheat. The
following details given by ^lessrs. Praschkauer as to
cultivation in Holland may therefore prove useful and
interesting: —

Iu Holland the carraway seed is sown mostly for
its seed-crop only; in other parts, principally in
Germany, it istreated more like a fodder-plaut, which,
with its exquisite properties and it delicious aroma.
forms a valuable green food, to be either grazed otf
or made into hay, the second cut being allowed to
run to seed ; in this respect it is similar to clover.
Most of the Engli>li farmers will be familiar with
tlie various preparations of cattle-spice, which they
u.se either to sweeten musty hay, damaged grains, or
other food for cattle not palatable enough by itself.
In all these preparatinis ground carraway forms a
chief ingredient, and it stands to reason that it would
bo just as well to grow the seed sprinkh-d amongst
votber pasture seeds, in the meadows. This is done
iery extensivtly on stock farms in Germany. There
ts also the additional advantage that it would sweeten
he hay, particularly that drawn from silos, which is
more or less liable to lose its aroma through its long
confinement.

AVe may mention that in Holland the mode of
cultivation deviates from that of similar grains only
in so far that iu the first year it is .«soni(times sown
together with mustard seed, sometimes wjtli peas or
beans. In those parts of Clermany where the agri-
cultural sy.stem is nearer like the English, there arc
two modes of cultivation as a rule. AA'e will first men-
tion that thetiuantity of seed required is 1^ lb. per acre.

Fiist St/ii/C)ii. — Wow barley or other cereals in drills,
then crossways, also in drills carraway seed, best in
March or April, then hoe the barley only, and take
no notice of the carraway seed, which, when the
barley is ripe, is only about 1 in. to 2 in. above the
ground. AVhen tlie barley is cut hoe the carraway,
and remove thn p'ants that have sprung up irregularly,
so as to give full scojie to the plants in the regular
drills. In the late summer cut the carraways. making
an excellent hay of it, or turn your sheep on the

field to graze off the plant. The latter is best where
applicable, as the sheep loosen the soil, and by
leaving behind their manure give to the plant fresh
vigour. The plant then gradually makes way again,
winters thruugh, and produces a crop of seed next
June or July. Before that, in spring, liberal hoeing
is requisite, so as to keep the ground clean.

After the seed is cut in July, the stems are left
as plants, and produce then another crop iu the
following year.

Sfcond Sp-<tim. — Use land that ia going to be in fallow
according to the usual system of rotation; ulaut
carraway seedlings (young shoots) on this laml, which,
will produce a crop of seed next year without iu any
way interfering with the rest the ground required ,
for instance from a cereal crop. — Field.

PHORMIUM TENAX:N. ZEALAND FLAX.

This liliaceous plant is indigenous to New Zealand,
and may frequently be seen in this country, where
it is cultivated for ornamental purposes. To call it
flax is a misnomer, but it contains a fibre which
endures a great strain, and is valuable as a rope-
making material. In its native habitat it is found
almost everywhere — thickly clustered In huge swamps,
sometimes on hillsides, but more commonly scattered
in the vicinity of streams, and it is iu the richest
soil that it attains its most luxuriant growth, fre-
quently reaching a height of 6 feet and upwards
In its natural condition it is a most serviceable plaut. "
and may be described as the twine of the country,
being used for a variety of purposes — from tying up,
a horse or repairing a fence to replacing a broken
girth or a missing saddle strap. From the earliest
days of European settlement, the Maoris have been
accustomed to trade in the fibre, which they extract
by a wasteful and laborious manual process, and use
for makiug ornamental mats.

How to utilise the fibre on a large scale for in-
dustrial purposes, is a problem that has long engaged
the attention of scientific men; and large sums have
been expended in experiments with a view to its
solution. Having closely studied the question — both
in England and in New Zealand — my experience may
perhaps be deemed of interest to Colonists and other.s.

In 187-4 a series of careful and patient experiments
on leaves which were grown iu this country or brought
from a distance resulted iu an ingenious invention
known as Andrews' patent, hy which the fibre was
eflicieutly cleansed by a hammering process without
its strength being impaired, and the gummy or
resinous matter removed by jets of water which played
uuder pressure during the operation. It was confidently
believed that the fibre which resulted from this pro-
cess would prove suitable for textile fabrics, and some
bolts of excellent canvas were produced at Dundee
and Belfast. The manufacturers found, however, that
to work it up on a large scale would necessitate con-
siderable modifications in the jute and flax machinery,
and this they were not prepared to face unless it
could be iucoutestably shown that a regular supply
of material ecjual to sample could be guaranteed.

AVith a view to ascertaining this point I consented
to visit New Zealnnd, au<l traversed the principal
phormium-growing districts in both islands, from
Invercargill to Auckland. I found that a rough-and-
ready process of preparing the fibre by the use of
revolving beaters and scutchers was extensively in
operation, and large quantities were being shipped
to the Lonilon market. As a result of my investig-
ations I emphatically pronounced against the cotn-
mencement of operations in New Z»*aland on several
grovmds. Firstly, the leaf, as jtro;'urable in the Colony,
was (if varying sizo antl tenacity, owing to the action
of high winds and of fires, and it was all but hope-
less to count on a uniform crop. In this res(>rct it
was found to differ materially from the home-grown
or imported specimens wdiich had beeu used for
experimental purposes, anil, consequently, the machin-
ery dealt less efficiently with the natural \o\i.
Secondly, the Phoi-mum ienax was most abundant

JANUARY 1, 1886.] tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

499

in fertile tracts which only required draining to
adapt them to the prolific growth of English grasses
and a variety of paying crop!, to make way for
which the most eligible "flax liclds" were doomed
to extinction at no distant date. Nor couLl I recom-
mend the cultivation of the plant in view of the
time required to mature a crop and the high price
of labour, which then amounted to i*s. a day. Con-
sequent on these represenutions the project was
abandoned as regards New Zealand, and wisely so.
It may, however, be mentioned that the^ pUuit has
been cultivated with marked success at St. Helena,
aud consideraWe shipments of fibre were at one time
made from that island, but the cost of freight and
charges, coupleil with the depressed condition of the
English market, soon killed the industry. The con-
chisions I have arrived at, after careful ohservatious,
are that the phormium fibre is unsuitable for the
manufacture of textile fabrics in this country in
competition with (lax and jute; that the price it
comiiiauds in the I-ondon market in comparison witli
Manila hemp is not such as to enable its shipment
from Xew Zealand at a profit; but that it is admir.ably
adapted for ropemakurs to utilise on the spot. I
believe I am correct in stating the bulk of the rope
used in New Zealand is made either from phormium
fibre pure and simple, or else in combiuatiou with
the well-known product of the Miisa te.rlilis.

It should be mentioned that the mills aud rope-
walks in the Colony afford employment to upwards
of 400 persons. The exports of phormium in !>>',()
were valued at l.'i2,.5;S?. ; in 1S71, 90,011/.; in 1S72,
99,405/. ; and in 1»73 the amount reached 143,799/.
Then there was a falling off until 1879, in which
year the exports represented only 7,874!. ; but in 1KS2
they rose to 41,955/.— J. S. 0'H.—Colom(s and IniHa.

♦

THE BEETBOOT SUGAB QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " OLASCOW HERAI.D."

Greenock, 2(ith February 1885.

Sir,— I have delayed replying to yours of the 28th
ult. in order that I might complete some inquires I had
set on foot aneiit the cost of beet sugur production in
Germany. 1 am inclined to believe the following to
be facts — i.e., to represent a fair average condition of
the elements of cost in ordinary years:—

1st. Koots cannot be grown with even the slightest
profit under 90 pfgs.=18s per ton delivered at factory,
the pulp being returned free to the farmer.

2ud. That even the best factories cannot work-
pay wear and tear and 5 per cent on capital — under
10s per ton of roots worked.

3rd. Taking an average of the last five years, it re-
quires (in districts of average fertility) 10 33 cwt. of
roots to make I cwt. of sugar of 955 polarisation=(say)
Xil-D net analysis. In this calculation after-products
aud molasses are reduced to the standard of 955, and
included in the weight.

Now let U3 calculate on this basis: —

Koots cost 18s per ton

AVorking expenses ... ... 10s ,,

2«s
Therefore 10:i:: cwt of roots aud expenses... i.O 11 (i
Knot duty, 10-33 x 80 pfgs ... 9-25
Drawback, 1 cwt 900

Gain or bounty on export 74 pfgs= 0 0 0

0 13 9
Deducted l.\ degrees @ 3d. calculation being
1 cwt. at 891 f " ■^i

Costof 88 P cent delivered loose on factory floor 0 13 4^
Add — For discounts and lo.ss of interest,")

Bags,

Transit to Hamburg,

t>month.s*io^.tof iIlt^:^^ftOll(lm^^l»ack, >- ...0 10

Shipping expenses.
Insurance,

'2 months' interest st 5 per cent, j
Cost price on EDglish coiiditious, f.o.b. Hamburg ... £0 14 U'i

In reference to the cost of roots, I may say tbas
iu the Dantzic districts, where rents are low roote
can be grown 10 pfgs. to 15 pfgs. per ton bolow tlis
price calculated, but then there are some (lisadvantagef
also in those districts, ami owiiig to the position or
the factories the whole proiluctioa has to he sold fos
exp ort, and the fabricant gets a lower price lor hi*
sugar f.o.b. Dantzic than f.o.b. Hamburg. Some fact
orici wark below 10.-i per ton of roots, but the average
is right. The yield of 1 cwt. of sugar I'rom 10'3:i cwt
of roots must not be taken as applying to this year
or to the most fortunate fabricants. A yield of 1 cwt.
from 8"31cwt. of roots has not been uncommon, but
the past two yeais have been of such an exceptional
cbaiacter both as regards weight of roots and richness
that it would be unfair and imprudent to reckon on
their repetition. By the employment of the villmorin
seeil ami high manuring, jields of 14 percent to 15
per cent have been reached, but always with a diminu-
tion of weight iier acre, and at a heavy expense. At
present jirices there is not a suHicieiit premium to
pay for this " forcing" of richness. Many competent
agriculturists and fabricants consider that, counting the
cost, i'^ is more profitable to cultivate the kinds giving
a large yield per acre and a moderate richness. I
think that cultivators who are not fabricants (about
20 per cent of the whole in Germany, about 20 per cent
iu Austria, aud about 50 per cent in France and
Belgium) will not sow soot unless they can make con-
tracts for roots at above the prices ottered by fabric-
ants, and I think the latter won't see their way to
bid higher aud will not be sorry to see less sown.
If the bills now being discussed iu Germany aud France
become law promptly, then I feel certain that the
average diminution of sowings will be 25 per cent.
Another point to be consideret.1 is that farmers gen-
erally in Germany aud Austria Have not dune well
lately. They are in many cases economising their
labour and manure expenses — just letting the laud
produce what it will by its unexhausted fertility. This
I hear from several people who sujjply the German
farmer with manure. The results will surely be that
the yield per acre, aud possibly the richness, will fall
below average instead of being, as it has been for two
seasons j.ast, above average. — I am, &c., H.

THE REGENERATION OF THE POTATO.
There seems to he good ground for the theory
that the cultivated potato is to a certain extent "run
out," and that its increased susceptibility to disease
in these latter days is partial!}-, if not entirely, due
to this diminished vigor or vitality. This has led to
the suggestion that the plant may be regenerated or
re-vigorated by judicious "crossing" of varieties that
seem to resist disease better than others, and more
recently it has been proposed to cross the cultivalnl
potato with some other species. Some interesting ex-
periments have been made in England during the
past year in the way of thus * introducing *• new
blood "into the worn-out and degenerate tuber. Mr.
J. G. Baker, the eminent botanist connected with
Kew Gardens, was led to make a careful iuvesligatiou
of the history of the jiotato, its geographical range,
and tile dilferential character of its varieties, or their
relationship to each other. He made his report in
the form of a " Uevicw of the Tuber-bearing Species
of Sulanum." from which wc learn that .-dl the cult-
ivated species of potatoes consist solely of one species,
Huluninn lulii rusvm ; that there are six species of
iiotatoes which produce tubers; aud that some of these
seem to be worthless, while others yield good crops
of tubers uuder cultivation. Mr. Baker fixed upon
Stilniimi llciiiliii as the best species for the purpose
of hyliridizing with the cultivated potato for the pur-
pose of invigorating the breed. He selected it partly
on account of its largo production of tubers, and
partly for its vigorous growth, and its habitat as a
native of a moist and cool climate on the coast of
South AniCiica; while our cultivated plant is a native
of the mouutaiiis of Chili, growing at an altituds of

^00

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

•ight thousand or niae thousand feet, in a dry atmo-
sphere. It is not surprising that our potato does
best in a dry, hot season. Dr. Lindlej', who himself
recorded so many improvements in fruits, flowers, and
Tegetables as the result of hybridizing, used to s.iy,
*' Hybridizing is a game of chance jilayed between
man and plants." He added that a good player can
judge of the issue with tolerable confidence, and that
skill and judgment have all their customary value. It
is too early, perhaps, to estimate the probable results
of this new experiment in hybridizing the potato;
but it is something, that hybridzied potato-seed has
been raised in England for the first time, after many
futile attempts. An English journal explains in detail
how this was accomp'ished, and we condense the
account for the benefit of our readers.

At the re4|uest of Lord Oathcart, Mr. A. W. Sut-
ton of Reading undertook to experiment with some
tubers of Sofanum MagUa and iSohmj'/n Jamesii sent
him by the former. Of the tubers so received, only
three of Svhntitm Jamtsii and forty of Sofanujn Mayfia
were raised, although they were carefully treated in
pots under glass. The plants were put out in the
first week of Juno in a carefully selected plot of
ground, and were accompanied by two specimens of
t^olanuin Connut ysonn. The three species made rapid
growth, but .Vt>/(Oi"m JamcsilixnA Solanum Commtrsorili
showed signs of ripening off about the middle of
August. tSotainttii Jfaglia, which continued growing,
resembled, in its habit and general character, an
ordinary variety of So/anum tvberosutn ; and, when a
portion of the crop was lifted, it was found that the
majority of the tubers were of a dee])-red color, with
here and there a few pale, almost white, specimens.
The sets had been carefully divided into two sections;
the pale and those distinctly red; but the produce
as well as the growth was practically identical.
Solaiiinn Jtnnrsii was totallj' ditforent in every resjiect.
and to an ordinary observer would not have been
considered a potato at all. The height was only about
eight to ten inches, and the loaves excessively small.
The Solani'.Hi CoDninrsonii somewhat resembled the
Solanion Jamesii, although it was more robust, and
in every way more nearly approaching the type of
an ordinary potato-plant. Each of the three species
produced an abundance of flov/ers, the corolla in each
case being white. As the flowers appeared, every
possible care was taken to fertilize them with pollen
from some of our best disease-resisting potatoes ; and
Mr. Sutton, in the case oi Solmiiim .ifagliii.oht&mei\
three fully developed berries well filled with seed.
These he hopes to sow next year, watching with great
interest the development of the seedlings, :uul noting
what practical result has been obtained by thus hy-
bridizing the two species. Both Sofayvm Jumfsii aiid
Solanum Coiitiiiersonii resisted every eflrort at fertiliz-
ation.

It was found that the tubers of these species hail
not been materially a Itered by cultivation, either in
form or size. In th^ SolunVM Mai/lia, however, the
effect of cultivation was most marked. The tubers,
as received from Lord Oathcart, were about the size
of a pigeon's egg ; but the produce consisted of tubers
quite as large as an ordinary potato, and as many as
eight to twelve.tubers to each plant. A few specimens
were cooked, and proved to be of fair quality for
table. As the Sohinmit Maijlia has not hitherto been
known to hear a seed-berry, there is reason to be-
lieve that the three berries which Mr. Sutton has ob-
tained are the result of the impregnation with pollen
of Soliiniini tiil'ii-o^iiiii ; and there is. consequently,
every ground to hope that the new seed may be
the origin of a race of potatoes more suitable to the
climate of the British Isles than the varieties we
have at present. — Popu/ar 'Vcitnce ^''errs.

SUGAR

ROUGNON RATS.
Clerra out rats, mice, roaches, flics, ants, bed-bugs,
betles, insects, skuikks, chipmungs, gophers. Druggists.
W, E. Smith & Co., Madras, Sole Agents.

IN GERMANY AND THE UNITED
' STATES.

The German statistical returns for December furnish
the result of the past Beet season between August
1st, 18S3, and July 31st, 1884. The Prat/er Zveker-
miirk:t publishes from this volume the following
intersting particulars, in which the comparison is, of
course, made with the previous season, namely that
ending on July 31st, 1SS3: —

There were 376 Beet Sugar factories at work, with
, 3,715 steam engines, of 46,158 horse power, against
358 factories (against 15) extracted the juice by
other means than diffusion. The quantity of beet-
root worked up was 4.459,065 tons (against 4,373,576
tons), and i'-^l per cent was grown by the Fabricauts
themselves on 352,100 acres. The average crop
obtained was 0 tons to the acre, against 0 tons 18
cwt. The Betroot crops of 1882 and 1883 were,
each m its own way, unprecedented, the former
m respect of its immense quantity, and the latter
owing to the extraordinary saccharine richness of the
Beet. A total of 608,440 tons of saccharine matter
was obtamed, against .546,778 tons, from which were
made 470,055 tons of raw Sugar, and 103,98U tons
of Jlolasses, against 415,098 tons and »8,652 tons
respectively. This result includes the Sugar extracted
from Molasses, so far as that process was conducted
in conjunction with the working up of the Beet;
and 37,100 tons of Molasses, against 34,902 tons, were
carried over from the previous season, or were drawn
from other factories. The quantity of Beetroot
required to produce 1 cwt. of raw Sugar, if the
Sugar obtained from Molasses be reckoned, was 479
cwt., against 525 cwt. The duty on the home-grown
Beet amounted to £7.270,000, against .£7,00(1,000, and
the import duty on foreign Sugar to X70,00ti, against
.€85,0flU. The repayments for drawback reached
£4,815,000, against £3,720,000. The consumption of
Sugar per head of the population is estimated at 16B4
lb. raw Sugar, ag.iiust 17f2 lb., and against an aver-
age of 14i»6 lb, in the thirteen seasons, 1871-2 to
1SH3-4. The quantity of Beetroot to be worked
up during the present season of 1884-5 by the 408
factories which have commenced operations, is estimated
at nearly 5,000,000 tons, against 4,450,065 tons worked
up in l,S.S3-4 by 376 factories.

We abridge from the Berlin Deutschr Zuckci- Iii-
i/«s(ny a communication from a Louisiana Sugar-planter,
who is stated to be well acquainted with the conditions
of the German Sugar industry. His remarks are
worth the careful attention of those who imagine
hat a reciprocity treaty and the admission of West
Indian Sugar duty-free would restore the prosperity
of our islands. Doubtless freight from the West
Indies to New York would be less than from New
Orleans to New York, but there is a great western
and local market where freights would be immensolv
in favour of Louisiana. If, therefore, with no duty
and with freights in their favour the Louisiana planters
cannot hold their own, how could the miserably
made Sugar of the West Indies do so ? I'remising
that in his opinion the time is approaching when
either Cane or Beet Sugar must assert its supremacy
in the world's market, and force its rival from our
field, the Louisiana Sugar-planter, whose letter suggests
these reflections, proceeds to examine the influence
which the United States is likely to exert on this
contest ; —

The question of Beet Sugar production in the
United .States and in Canada may be regarded as
settled. The solitary Californian Sugar factory in
Alvarado must cease work directly Claus SpreckeLs
loses the monopoly of the I'acific coast, and prices
in that district fall from their artificial height to
the normal level of the New York Sugar market,
jdus the usual freight. Sorghum or Amber f'.iiie has
not fulfilled the hopes of the late Commissioner of
the Department of |Agriculture; and although some
Sugar is i>roduced under the stimulus of heavy State
bounties on the cultivation of and manufacture of
Sorghum, the aljsence of any practical result has

January i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

SOI

provei.1 that this section of the Sugar iiuestioii must
also be reganieil ;is disposed of. It therefore only
remains to consider the Louisiana t'ane Sugar pro-
duction, in order to arrive at a conclusion whether
the GO.DOi 1,000 people in the Vnited States can in
any way reckon on a supiily of home-grown Sugar,
or wether they will i\ol rather be compelled to
import the whole of the Sugar they require. A
few years before the Civil War broke out, the pro-
duction of Sugar in Louisiana increased at an important
rate, so that in IS'JO and l^Gl it was at the height
of prosperity. In those day.s the lAjuisiaua Sugar-plant-
ers—nicknamed the •• Slave I,ords"— were considered
to be the richest, most independent, and most to be
envied caste of tue American people. I'.ut an avenging
Nemesis has overtaken tlieni, and with a terrible
power. The former slave lord is tod.ay himself a
slave; and just as the slaves of those days h.ad no
hope of liberty, the Louisiana Planter now despairs
of freeing himself from his chains ; he works with a
millstone round his neck : he is the slave of the
commission merchant. If iu former days the Sugar-
planter wielded his slave-whip only under e.'iceptioual
circumstances, aud then mildly, the commission
merchant flourishes his moral lash with pitiless
cruelty. Of 1,100 planters iu Louisiana, at most 50
are able to exist, or. rather, to vegetate, without
advances from the commission merchant; the other
1,050. however, obtain advances under the most
oppressive comlitions, and in the most hutuiliathig
fashion, and must then pay 2.5 to 4.5 per cent interest.
Nominally the rate is less, but only nominally !
The pay 8 per cent actual interest, and '2h per cent
commission ; 2:^ per cent for buying, 2.j per cent for |
selUng. Then come brokerage, uisurance, cooperage, j
weighing charges, and whatever else each lengthy
Charges Account includes. The contracts which must j
be entered into to obtain advances, and in which a i
mortgage is given on the whole plantation, with
everything npnn it moveable and stationary, dead
and ahve, .are usually so formed that the planter not oidy
loses all control over tho Sugar, but over the grow-
ing crops as well. Jlany planters worked up all their
Cane last season, retaining no s^d for a fresh crop ;
and numerous tields, formerly cultivated with Cane,
will this year be sown with rice. Thereby the planter
is rendered less dependent on the commission merch-
ant and on low .Sugar prices, but the extension of
rice-growing fearfvdiy aggravat(*s the ah-eady existing
malaria ; still he seems to prefer to fall a victim to
malarial fever rather than to the commission merch-
ant. Unless, therefore, some miracidous and prompt
intervention should prolong the existence of the
Louisiana Sugar-planter, this once so prosperous branch
of the I'nited Slates .Sugar industry must be
looketl upon a.s a relic of the past. Then it will only
remain for the (Jerman Fabricants to take steps to
secure the market of these 00,000.00<J people, ('uba
and Porto Kico resemble Louisiana, and their situation
is not much better. I^'t nobody suppose that this
sketch is exaggerate*! ; on the contrary, it does not
come np to the reality. The (ierman Sugar Fabricant
may, therefore, be of good hope, especially when he
recognises how vastly better is his position than that
of his unfortunate Cane Sugar brethren. — Piojuce

PEPPKK VINE.
Colonel E. 13. Sladen, Commissioner of Aracan,
has very courteously jdaeed at our disposal the
following report fiom Captain C. A. Cresswell, De-
puty Commissioner, Sandovvay, on the results attend-
ing the experimental cultivation of tlie Pepper Vine,
in the neighbourhooil ' of the town of Sandowaj'.
Before making any remarks on the cultivation of
the pepper vine and its probable success, it would
be as well perhaps, as this is the fourth year of
the experiment, to give the actual position as re-
gards number and size of plants as actually counted
about the 14th February 1S.'<5, and which will be
entered as I8S4 and compared with those of 1883
counted in Jlarch I8.S4 and entered as 1883. '

DODXVSU.

Blocks.

Under one From one to Over two
Foot. two Feet. Feet.

1HS3.

1884.

1S.S3.

1884.

1883.

1884.

— '

.

-

.

565

oil

Gl

12

f.

1,380

416

42

52

:^5

58

1,220

811

25

62

5

14

320

G04

41

326

16

164

Block (1) ...

Block (2) ...

Block (3) ...

Block (4) ...

Total ... 3,485 2,342 172 4.52
* Of which 62 were over 4 feet.
Kv.M-xD.vvxf;. — 1884.
Under 1 ft. From 1 to 3 ft. From 2 to 4 ft. Above 4 f

52 »236

— ♦-

A Poi.KE Force or Asrs. — A queer way of em-
ploying ants is reported by an English gentleman who
has been travelling through one of the provinces of
Obina. It appears, that, in many part.s of the pro-
vince of Canton, the orange-trees aro infested by
worms; and, to ritl themselves of these pests, the
natives bring ants into the orangeries from the neigh-
boring hills. The ants are trapped by holding the
mouth of a lard bladder to their nests. They are
then placed among the branches of the orange-trees,
where they form colonies ; and bamboo rods are laid
from tree to tree, to enable the ants to move
throughout the orangery.— Po^'if/ai' ScUnce Netes,

188 73 30 28!)

A gi-eat part of the Dodaung cultivation is now, I
find, not fitted for the pepper vine. The orginal
acreage taken up was 10.5 acres. The decrease in the
number of plants is due to the fact that in March 1884,
over 400 plants were destroyed by fire in Block 2, and
further from Blocks 1, 2, and 3. I have now throw'n out
about 40 acres as ground upon which the vine is not like-
ly to succeed. The grouiul will not be given up but
wdl be simply left to take care of itself; if the young
cuttings at present existing struggle up, they can be
looked after hereafter. The acreage, as at present
looked after by the two gardeners in Dodaung. is 62 acres
only, ami in April and May I .shall again inspect the
whole of this ground, and finally decide what is worth
keeping up.

Block (4) I intend to devote .special attention to
as the ground is good and the trees are doing capitally
I have taken on to Block (4) at the cost of five
rupees, an old sugar-cane plantation of over 3 acres,
anil there I have put down one hundred cuttings of
tho liri/thnna Indira, most of which have struck
and will be ready for the young vines to be planted
at their feet next .lune. This is the method adopted
on the jMalabar coast, and is, I think, a far better
plan th.an planting the trees in a jungle, where the
ground is not of uniform quality,' and the vines of
course have to be spread over a large area. By this
method (the Jlalabar plan), about 225 trees can be
planted to an acre, and after four years an average
crop of one lb. a tree might be expected. The yield
in Sumatra is however very different; there an 'acre
of first class vines will yield from 1,161 pounds of
pepper. In Malabar the average yield from 1,000 plants
is only put down at 4.50 lb, or less than i lb. a tree.
From which is actually gathered from trees in Sandoway',
I think I am justified in putting down 1 lb. for each
tree. Seven pounds is looked upon in Malabar as a
very high yield for one tree. Seven pounds is some-
times realized from the old and nneared for trees
round Sandow.ay. The price at jiresent here is
l!l-12-0 a viss. \ valuable product in comiiaratively
small hulk, and oue which will bear the expences
of triinsport which paddy rarely does in the Sandoway
District. In Dodaung I expect from .50 to KJO trees
to fruit next ye;i.r, iu February l.H.sG. In Kyaung-
daung from 200 to 2.50 in Fehruary 1S8(!, or say
a total iu the two plantations of 300 trees and a
produce of say 300 lb. of pepper, and taking tho

502

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

produce of the year at 8 annas a pound, 150 rupees
ought to be realised to March ]Ss5.
The allotment \\as in —

18S2-83 K500

188a-84 „ 500

1S84-S5 , 3CK)

18S5-N0 200 (proposed)

For 1885-86 I only propose to keep one gardener,
and I propose to limit the expenditure to 200 rupees.
This woulil give tiic receipts as 150 rupees on an
expenditure of 1,500 rupees, or say ruugldy 10 per
cent. In 188(i-87 a far larger yield might he looked
for, and the gardens shoula be not only self-supporting,
but should give a surplus over the expenditure for
that year. I do hope that the gardens will be kept
up till April 1S8C, and then Government will be fairly
able to form an opinion whether the experiment has
been a practical success or not. Of course in an under-
taking of this sort I had at first no practical ex-
perience. I\Iy first idea was that deep shade was
necessary, and that the soil was, comparatively speak-
ing, a secondary consideration. The first place I fixed
upon was Dodaung. This had been frequently worked
as taungya, and consequently large shady trees were
only to be found here and there. This led to the work
being scattered over a large area. By the second and
third year from the undergrowth being cleared away,
&c., the trees had sprung up considerably, and more
shade was obtained and more trees fit for planting.
But still the vines only flourished in certain places,
and that was in places were there was the best soil.
Ciiven good soil, shade seems to be an unimportant
factor. In Malabar alluvial soil is said to be the best.
As I have already said, I think the Malabar method
is likely to be the most successful.

Cuttings of Ei-ythrina Ini/ica (Penli Kathct) are put
down 14 feet apart in tie dry weather, and by .Tune
next are ready for the pepper vine plants or cuttings.
They are all planted in straight lines, and a plant-
ation is easily watched and inspected. In four years
the vines begin to fruit and last for 25 years in the
case of cuttings; 40 in the case of seedlings. One
of each is usually planted at the foot of each tree.
This method of cultivation is somewhat similar to
that adopted by the jieople for the betel vine, so
that they will be more likely to take it up. Tliere
is no diihculty attached to the cultivation of the pepper
vine. Cattle will not touch it nor even goats. In a
healthy state, the vine has few enemies. I have only
found two— snails and a long thin brown caterpillar-
like grub, with a horny head. Will the people take
it upy I think they will; already it is being tried by
them in different villages on a small scale, but not on
any systematic plan. I am inducing people to visit
the Government Plantations, and see for themselves.
People are beginning to talk about it, and from what
I can hear, a good many attempts will be made next
rains. As regards Dodaung I have not gone into cal-
culatians, nor mentioned the precentage of deaths,
and number of plants put down, simply because a
great many were planted under conditions which, as
we now know, were hopeless. Further, a good dtal of
ground, viz., about 43 acres, has been thrown out. In
March 1884 there were in four blocks of Dodaung (105
acres) 3,70!) plants alive, of which only 52 were over
two feet high, and 400 of these were ilestroyed by fire
in May. During the rains of 1884, 1,700 plants were
put down in the reduced acreage of 63 acres, and now
there are 3,030 plants alive, of which 23(i are over two
feet high ((i2 of them are over 4 feet high). I have
also j)Ut down c'uttings of Ki i/thriiia Jndica, of which
1(X) are alive, and will be planted with vines in .June
1885, and before the end of Ai)ril, I hope to have another
hundred down.

IvVAVN<i-D-UNi;.

In March 1884 there were 430 plants alive in this
nmall plantation of 3 acres; 2.50 plants were put down
in the rains of 1881; and in February 1885, 580 were
alive, sliowing a percentage of deaths of cuttings
amounting to 33 per cent as against 3G per cent last
year. No record of the height of these trees was made in
March 1884 ; but in February 1885, out of a total of

580, over2S9 were more than four feet, and 103 other"
between one and four feet high. Here the soil is re-
markably good ; more trees are springing up fit for
planting, and ne.xt year probably 150 more plants can
be put down, bringing up the total to 730 trees, which
gives about 243 vines to the acre— rather more than
the number per acre on the Malabar method of planting.
Suppo.sing all these vines in fruit, and allowing 1 lb.
a tree, these three acres would give a production of
730 lb. of pepper, worth at least 365 rupees for three
acres, or an average of say 120 rupees i)ei acre.
No comparison exists between this and the produc-
tion of ijaddy, cither as regards labor or profits. To
any one, who can afford to wait and work uj> his
ground, fruit trees can be used for growing the pepper
vine with just as much success as any other tree, and
with the double result of fruit from the tree and the vine.
An easier or more paying cultivation does not exist.
I think Kyaung-daung may be considered a thorough
success. It is not as if the fruiting of the vine were
doubtful ; that is an ascertained fact. From some trees
in Sandoway 5 to 7 lb. of pepper are gathered an-
nually. I have done my best in travelling about the
district to explain the advantages, method of culture,
ic. As I have already noted, its euUivaticn is here
and there being attempted. On the arrival of the
Thugyis with the laud Revenue rolls. I took the whole
of them to visit the gardens and explained tlie principal
points. A number of the inhabitants of .Sandoway
have also visited the spot.

Sandowny, with its network of creeks from Saudo-
way to Mai, wants nothing but a valuable production
of this sort to bring it forward from its present back-
ward position. Boat or canoe transport would cheaply
bring the pepper to any central point at very little
cost, and we might then hope to see a little more
trade in the district. If Government should feel in-
clined to sell or lease Kyanng-daung now that the
vines are well established there, I think there would
be plenty of applicants. I should then simply continue
the experiment on the best part of Dodaung, at the
same time testing the Malabar method of planting
in straight lines on cuttings of the Erytlirina JmUca.
— Induin ji(jyicidtii^M.

The Indian Cohal Tkep;. — The enquiry instituted
by the Department of llevenue Settlement and Agri-
culture, last month, regariliug the alleged influence
of the lOrythrina Indica (Dadap or Indian coral tree)
in producing leaf disease when planted for shade
among coffee trees has, according to Mr. AV. Wilson,
the Director of the Department, elicited replies from
several gentlemen well (jualified by their practical
knowledge to si>eak with authority on the subject to
the effect that there has not been observed in
Southern India any connection between the presence
of Erythrina trees and the production of leaf disease,
but that on the contrary the effect of planting
F>ythrina has been distinctly beneficial, not hurtful
to the coffee trees which it is planted to shade.
The replies given are in complete accord on the point.
—Madriii Mail.

EsPAKTO IN Trxis. — Reports from Tunis state that
the Esparto-grass trade is now carried on there on
a large scale, and large tracts of Esparto-producing
fields have been bought by speculators. The Anglo-
French Esparto Fibre Company are developing
their trade at Abouhedma, and a tramway is now-
being laid ilown by the same to carry the Esparto
fibre to the coast, But export duty is very heavy on
this article, and competition by Tripoli and Algeria,
where Esparto pays no export duty, is telling much
on the trade. This trade is said to be amongst the
very foremost resources of the Lousa district. " Through
good and bad, dry or rainy years, there is always
a crop of it. The Arabs fall back on it chiefly in
times of scarcity, when successive years have brought
them deficient crops. But the duty on this article,
especially at Lousa, is so heavy as to deter the Arabs
from ]ndling ami bringing it to the market, except
when they feel the pinch of poverty."— G'nrrftnfi-s'
Chronicle,

January t, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

503

How TO Make Belts Ecn on thk Centee of
Pullets.— It is a common occurrence of belts to
run on one side of the pulley. This arises from
one of two causes : — Ist. One or both of the pulleys
may be conical, and of course the belt will run
on the highest side. The most effectual remedy
for this would be to straighten the face of the
l)ulleys. ■2m\. The shafts, may not be parallel, or
exactly in line. In this case the belt would incline
off to the side where the ends of the shafts come
the nearest together. The . remedy in tliis case
would be to slacken tlie hanger-belts, and drive
the hangers out or in, as the ease may be, until
both ends of the shafts become parallel. This can
be determined by getting the centres of the shafts
at both ends by means of a long lath, or a light
strip of board. — Electriad Trades Jininial.

Fbater's E0L1.ER AND Otflef, Matters. — Badulla,
if it has lost some of its ancient " prestige"
as the land of coft'ee, is likely to come very promin-
ently info notice as having produced one of the
best mechanical appliances used in the manufacture
of tea. It is now about 18 years since Mr. .lobn
Walker of Kandy started the Bon .\ecord Iron Works
in Badulla, the firm being Messrs. Walker &
Wilson, afterwards changed to Walker ct Greig.
From a small beginning these works soon increased
so as to be a rival to Kandy. Notwithstanding the
great difScuUy of transport on iron and heavy
goods. With the decadence of coffee the workshops
became almost silent, and no longer were heard the
busy hum of machinery driven at speed and the
noisy steam-engine; but this is not to last long, for has
not the Bon Accord Works or rather Mr. Frater their
manager turned out a machine w-hich, with the
rapid increase of tea cultivation in Uva, will test
the capacity of the works to the fullest to keep
pace with the demand which is sure to arise ? I
have already frec[uently expressed my views as to
Uva tea proving not only successful, but I still
maintain that I'va will produce both the maximum
yield and a quality of tea second to no district in
the island. I consider the Bailway Extension as
good as sanctioned to Haputale, and if to Haputale
certainly it will go on to Badulla : for if the Legis-
lative Council sanction the loan for railway purposes
it is not likely to be rejected at home, and at
last the long and bitter cry of neglected Uva is to
be partially answered by giving the much-needed
relief of a Government Agency separated from
Kandy, it immediately becomes all the more necessary
that the local Government be placed in more rapid
and easy communication with Colombo and the
Executive. — J. Irvine.

Sugar OnowiNn in New ZE-iland. — Although little is
being done at prefont to carry out the proposals of the
association recently formed in Christchurch to establish a
farm for silk and fruit culture at Hokianga, other indus-
trial undertakings are being considered which, ii given
effect to, caimofc fail to exercise a beneficial influence
upon this part of the colony. During the last session
of Parliament encouragement was given for the I'ro-
dnctiou of sugar from plants grown within this colony.
A bonuB of £l.fi*>(; was olft-retl for tile jiroduction
of the first 1,000 tons of sugar of either beet, sorguui,
or any other sugar-jiroducing plant grown in the
colony, and the produce prepared for market by
raacliinery permanrntly fitted up in the colony. The
settlers in the Waikato di-.trict are at jjresent con-
sidering the advisability of securing this handsome
bonus offered. Several meetings have been held,
and to some extent an agreement has been come
to with the farmers and the rapitalists who wouWl
provide the manuf;tctory plant. It is suggested that
the manufactory should be erected in the neiglihour-
hood of Hamilton, and a number of farmers .are
willing to grow the beet at IGs. per ton. The capital
required is estimated at about £25,000, and should

I the enterprise be put fairly afloat, it cannot fail to
I have a most beneficial effect upon the "Waikato
district generally, and iude(!d upon the colony a«
; a whole. At the present time about .£700,000 is
; sent out of the colony for sugar, in its various
i forms, every year : and if a portion of this drain-
age of capital covdtl bo stopped by the production
within the colony of the sug.ir required, the a.ldi-
tional capital in circulation will produce a vivifying
effect wherever it is felt. Years ago the experi-
ments carried on in various parts of the ^Yaikatu
district sliowi^tl that sugar-beet, could be grown well
there, and the content of sugar was large, ranging
tip to upwards of 1-1 per cent. With one manu-
factory in successful operation others would soon
follow — thus, not only saving the outflow of capit/il,
but providing a large amount of profitable labour
for our jjeople, and the employment of our spare
c&^\ta\.~-Ait(ilo~Nt:ii:-'/.ealiii(dei'.

iNSEcr AYuiTE Wax. — There couhl not be a prettier
illustration of human labour as consisting only in
moving matter from one place to another than the
accouut of the " insect white wax" trade in China
given in a Parliamentary lieport by Mr. Hosie, a
member of our consular staff at I'ekin. In the west
of the pnivince of Ssu-cbuan (the province bordering
on Thibet) grows the insect tree, an evergreen with
thick, dark lBa\es. In March and April peasbaped
excrescences or galls are found attached to the
bark of the boughs, and in each of these galls
there is a swarm of brown creatures, each with six
legs and a pair of club antennae. In the east of
the province, on the other hand, grows the wax tree —
usually a stump about six feet high, with numerous
sprouts rising from the gnarled top. In the early
part of May the insect carriers are buiiy carrying
the insects from the insect trees in the west to the
wax trees in the east. Packets of galls are suspend-
ed close to the branches, a few holes are pricked
with a needle in the packets, and the insects creep
rapidly up the branches to the leaves, and excrete
the wax. After ninety or a hundred days the wax
is about a quarter of au inch thick ; the branches
are lopped off and the wax removed by hand. The
Chinese then place the insects themselves in a bag,
squeeze them until they have rendered their last
drop of wax, ami finally throw them to the pigs —
a depth of ingratitude in which, alas ! " that Heath-
en Chinee is not peculiar." The accouut of the
journey through Central Ssu-cbuan which Jlr. Hosie
undertook in order to forward specimens of the
insect wax trees to Kew is very readable, and if
the libraries were in the way of subscribiug to Parlia-
mentary Papers would be widely read. Mr. Hosie
and bis party struck westward to the city of Chia-
tiug, on the right bank of the Min river; visited
the famous Jlount O-mei, ami did not .see the
"Glory of Buddha" (they " viewed the mist, but missed
the view"); and then went southwant to the highest
Hiivigable point of "the Kiver of Golden Sand.'
All along they journeyed thi-ough fertile country,
bathed in happy sunshine .and smiling industry, pa.ssing
here a potter by the roadside shaping his clay,
there a herd of swine, all carefully shod with
hempen shoes. Some native verses which Mr. Hosie
found scribbled on the wall of au inn, and of which
he gives a translation, have a more European, not
to say Cockney, ring in them : —

Within this room you 'II find the rats.

At least a goodly score,
Three catties each they 're bound to weigh,

Or e'en a little more.
At night yon '11 feel a myriail bugs,

That stink, and crawl, and bite;
If doubtful of the truth of this,

(iet up and strike a light.

" Oatties," it shovdd perhaps be explained for the
uninitiated, are not animals, but weights, a "catty"
being eciuivalent to l,j lb. — Pnll Mall lUulyet.

504

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

THE PEAEL FISHERIES IN WESTERN
AUSTRALIA,
The fitaniltinl of Nov. 23rcl has an interestuiK
article on the discovery of pearl banks in King
Sound, Western Australia. " The locality," it says,
" is just the spot in which one would expect the
gem-bearing oyster to breed. It is a deep and com-
paratively quiet inlet of the warm sea which leaves
the shores of Western Australia, and therefore in
every way suited for a mollusc which loves quiet-
ness, and has an insuperable objection to cool cur-
rents. The chances are all in favour of the pearl
oyster being found in greater or less abundance
in the majority of the bays and gulfs around the coast.
Niokol Bay has long been a famous ' fishing ' sta-
tion ; the oyster abounds in nearly every suitable
laooon of the Pacific Islands ; and for many years
past the 'fishery' has formed an important in-
dustry off the sliores of Queensland and North
Australia. It is true that neither in size nor in
water can the pearls of Torres Strait and Western
Australia compare with those of Ceylon, Panama,
the West Indies, or the Persian Gulf. Yet the
shells within which they grow are much more
valuable for the cabinet and button makers than
those which yield the finer gems of tlie Orient
aud Tropical America. Indeed, the Australian and
Polynesian pearl oyster is ' fished ' not so much for
the pearls which they may or ' may not contain
as for the shells. Hence, though the occasional
profits of the business may not be so great as
those of the industry as pursued in Ceylon,
yet the returns are steadier. For, gem or no gem,
every oyster brought to the surface represents so
much money. There is — as there must always be
in any trade pursued under the surface of the sea —
a certain gambling element in it. But the risks
are infinitely less than those attending the work of
men who depend on pearls alone for their reward.
Until lately the ' fishers ' have, for the most part,
confined their operations to the strait between
Queensland and New Guinea. They have, however,
for some time stretched along the entire extent of
coast likely to yield the object they are in search
of, and we may be certain that before long we
shall hear of fine hauls being made in some of
the half-explored or wholly unvisited bays and gulfs
of Papua. Hitherto it has only been the extreme
risk run by the fishers which has prevented the
extension of their operations in that direction. Still,
if the necessities of the Colonists demand it, we
cannot doubt but that a gun-boat will be sent to
protect the divers, just as, at intervals, the Navy
has extended protection to the establishments
which pursue their calling in the islands in Torres
Strait, which, for this very reason, we permitted
the Queenslanders to annex some six years ago."
Mr. E. W. Streeter, of Holboru Viaduct, writes
to our contemporary to say that, being largely
interested in the pearling industries of Australia aud
Ceylon, he has read the article with much atten-
tion, and adds : — " The so-called now pearling grovnid
at King's Sound has been known for some time,
but owing to the depth of water there, varying
from 1,5 to '20 fathoms, it coufd never bo worked
by naked drivers, and it is only lately since apparatus
divers have been introduced along the coast that
the ground has had a fair chance of being pro-
perly tried, and you know with what success;
but even now its depth is detrimental to the health
of the men and also to the amount of work they
can do per day. The Western Australian fisher-
ies, however, have produced pearls which in
size and quality can compare with the
finest the world has ever seen. One )iearl which
was found along that coast last Boxing Day by one

of our boats was as large and round as an ordin-
ary marble, and for it the present owner has refused
over 1,.SOO?. We have visited some of the half-ex-
plored bays and gulfs in New Guinea, and dis-
covered fine shell there, but the unhealthiness of
the climate was found to be a far greater draw-
back to work than the hostility of the natives. In
fact, so many divers died of that peculiar disease
known as Beri-Beri that few care to go again.
Those engaged in shelling have to undergo many
hardships caused by the scarcity of fresh water,
the frequency of hurricanes, and the dangers of
navigation in close waters, of which only incomplete
charts have been made ; but though fortunes have
never been won at this industry, the better class of
shelters have conferred many benefits on the natives
belonging to the difTerent coasts where they have
worked." — Huropean Hail.

COOL-DAV-AIR : A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY.
An American inventor, Mr. Jennings, of Boston,
has discovered a method of drying quickly, and
without injury to the material, such substances as
green mahogany, slabs of English oak or elm, corn
harvested in wet seasons, hides and skins, wool
and various descriptions of fibres when thoroughly
saturated with moisture. No problem ever seemed
simpler than the mere extraction of moisture from
the substances we have enumerated, and yet few
have more obstinately balUed human ingenuity. A
solution has now been found to this problem in
the " Cool Dry-Air Process." The name indicates
the whole secret of its success. Materials to be
dried are placed in a chamber through which a
current of moderately warm dry air is passed
continuously, and the test of experience shows that
air so deprived of moisture acts as an absorbent
in a manner that without such a test would have
been deemed impossible. In the first instance, the
current is drawn through a small furnace, in
which it is heated to about liOO deg. F. At this
temperature the atmosjjhere is, of course, without
trace of vapour. After being thus heated, it is
cooled by a vigorous circulation of external air,
which lowers the temperature to between SO deg.
and 00 deg., and in this condition is propelled by
fans, driven by steam, through the drying chambers.
Within these chambers the temperature is that of a hot
summer's day, but the air is so "greedy" of moisture
that everything within its wonderfully penetrative
influence is desiccated. A machine just erected on
this principle shows the practical operation of the
system, and gives some results that are equally re-
markable from a scientific as from a commercial point
of view. A package of wool, lib. in weight, was
saturated with water ; it then weighed SJlb., and in
this condition was placed in the dryiug-room. In
twenty-eight minutes the moisture was almost wholly
evaporated. Timber, as is well known, takes years to
season. It has a perfectly surprising power of ab-
sorbing aud retaining moisture. Thus -11 cwt. '2qrs.
of liirch were subjected to this process for ninety-
four hours, and then examined, \\hen it was found
to be completely " seasoned, free from cheeking,
rents, or warping," and it had given out in tlie
operation lOcwt. 'iqrs. 211b. weigli of water. The
industrial value of this important discovery can
scarcely be overestimated. The s-cientific and
social interest is not less significant. It appears
that fish, fresh jirovisions, and fruit may be pre-
served for an indefinite time after being subjected
to this mode of freitment. It is slated that " a
beef-steak cut from the loin a year ago, and dried
at 75 degrees F. in one hour, is as sweet today as
when cut, and would keep tor years ; its moisture
having been removed, decay is impossible."— £cfco.

Januarv I, i886,] THfi TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST.

505

ANTIPYRIN IN SUNSTROKE.
(Extract from the Gennan-Anierican Phariiiaceutieal
Gazette, Vol. \1. No. 10.)
Dr. We.stbrook, chief medical oHicer of St. Mary's
General Hospital, Brooklyn, publishes iu the \ew
I'ork MnUcal Journal a report ou the treatment by
antipyrin, and with favourable result.s, of two men
suffering from sunstroke. The remedy was injected
subcutaueously, iu the form of a 50 per cent solution,
in doses of one drachm. In the first case, which
was the most .'severe of the kind which the author
ever met with, enemas of chloral hydrate and
whiskey were administered ; at the same time bleeding
and leeches were resorted to, and for some time com-
presses of iced water also. In the second case no
blood-letting took place, nor were any cold compresses
applied except that ice was placed ou the head. The
favourable result obtained iu both c.ises is remarkable,
the author says, as the cases were characterised by
high fever and signs of profound vital disorder. The
first case was probably somewhat influenced by the
continuous application of the cold water compresses.
The successful issue of the secoud case appears to
prove that the outward application of cold becomes
unuecessary where antipyriu is used. Another inter-
esting observation was ' that even after the temp-
erature had decreased the mitral symptoms continued,
which seems to show that even a short period of
intense heat and arterial cxcitemeut may paralyse
the. vascular system to such an extent tiiat several
hours are required for its recovery. A remedy which
rapidly lowers the temperature like autipyrin may
therefore prove most valuable. Further observations
are requisite, however, but from experience thus far.
Dr. AVestbrook considers hall'-a-dracliin sufficient to
attain the objr^ct in view. A solution of 50 per
cent can be easily made, and causes only slight excite-
ment when injected subcutaueously.

INDIAX FIBROUS PKODUL'TIONS SUITABLE
FOK ROPKS.
Among the various firms in India who deal ex-
tensively iu coir-ropes and cables, those who have
made the most out of the fibres which are largely
found all over India, seem to be Jlessrs Ahmuty
and Co. of Calcutta. We are partly indebted to
that firm for the following interestiug particulars
in regard to the Indian fibres. Cnir, or the fibre
from coconuts, has deservedly earned the foremost
place among the Indian fibres. It is very vahmble
for its extremely elastic qualities, and u\ cases
where "give and take" is required, no nthf^r known
rope-fibre, except liair, we know, can e(iiial it. As
coconut trees do not thi-ive beyond the intluence of
sea-air and salt, good coir is produced only from
trees on the coast and in the islands such a.s the
Laccadives, etc. Nothing has yet been done wit^h
the coir produced from trees cultivated in the inland
parts of the country. True to the agencies uuder
which tje coconut tree thrives, its coir cannot be
preserved for any great length of time without the
iufiuence of salt water. Immersion iu fresh water
without immediate dryage results in deterioration
and ultimate rot, while constant or occasional ini-
mer.'iou in salt water will, with fair wear and tear,
preserve it for probably three or four times as
long as a rope of any other fibre would last under
the same conditions. Where a dead stvaiu or heavy
lift is required, coir is not rccommeudcil as a safe
or reliable rope, the fibre being too short and elastic.
In Bengal, coir is very largely used by Marine
Department for riding cables and spring.s for the
Light Vessels aud for towing-hawsers, warps and
running-gear for the Marine Service. The coir trade
seems to have declined somewhat on the West Coast.
Not many years ago a good deal of coir yarn was
shijjped from Calicut, but now the trade seems to be
centred at Cochin. There is at present little or
nothing done in the coir business in North Malabar,
where the coconut husks which contain coir is now
largelv u.sed for tueli The coir trade in North Jialabar
64

has therefore still to be developed. But iu South
Malabar with the exception of Calicut, the coir trado
presents quite a different aspect. The increasing tap
which iu some months prooee.ls from both the banks
of the I'onnani canal and backwater, aiul which a
traveller hears as he skims along in a boat to or
from Cochin, is indicative of the brisk trade that
is now done in coir yarn with Cochin as the port of
preparation and export. To express iu a condensed
form the uses of coir, we may say that it serves
for various marine uses inclndiug its extensive if
n ! sole use in native crafts for light work anil
i-ui.iih usage, and for matting. There is yet another
iibrous prodi-'tion grown on the JIalabar Coast and
known as ; ; Calic-ut-hemp. It is of great strength
and fineness, and is especially suited for small ropts
and lines. It is very little inferior to the best
Kussiau hemp, and is a most reliable rope, second
in this country, where Kiissian hemp is not used,
only to Manilla-hemp. Considering the valuable
properties which experts attach to the Calicut hemp,
we see no reason why with proper cultivation, curing
and preparation of it, we should not dispense
altogether with the Uussian hemp. Cousideriug its
value as an article of trade, we are surprised that
Calicut hemp is not more largely cultivated in

j Malabar. Shernad is the only place in the district
where vakkti nat; as the Calicut hemp is termed in

I Malayalani, is grown to any extent. There are ex-
tensive tracts of laud in the Kurumbarnad Taluq

I for example, which are e-xcellently adapted for the
Calicut hemp.

Another species of Indian hemp, which is much
coarser than the Calicut hemp, is the Jiihlm/jjorc litmp,
which is in general use for heavy cordage. In utilizing
this material there is much wastage, but it turns
out a very satisfactory and reliable rope, is tough
and strong, and will stand much rough usage. Hemp
ropes are largely used by the Marine, Ordnance,
Commissariat and Public Work Departments. — Malabar
'Specta,tor.

■ ■ ♦

MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES.

( 'omplaints are commonly made by gardeners of
ruit trees not coming into bearing so early as
they desire. Complaints of that kind are not alto-
gether reasonable, for though some varieties are
naturally less precocious than others, whoever plant-i
them, knowing their natures, should wait with patience
till fruit comes in the natural course. But if it is
really necessary that fruit of these parlicular varieties
should be had, then we maintain that it is the defect
of the g;»rdener if l:e does not oljtain it when
recjuired, and hot that of the trees, i'or although
the most profitable mode of treatment of a fruit
tree is to allow it to continne to grow without check
till it naturally commences to begr, it may be forced
into bearing by artifical mi'ans. It may be taken
as an axiom that strong wood-growth is incompatible
with fruit-beariTig, so that if we have one wo cannot
havo the other. It is, however, generally tho case
that a cajwhle gardener can have which of the two
l>e chooses ; if he wishes his trees to make wood,
he feeds them, and cherlts tlnir fruit-bearing
propensities, but if fruit is the desideratum, then
he checks production of wooil and tluuxi^y enrour.ages
that of fruit, to effect which l;e has a plurality of
means at his command. It may be accomplished
by meaus of pruning the branches, and more effectu-
ally .and rapidly by root-pruning. But whother
pruning the branches produces the desired effect
or the contrary depends entirely upon the season in
which it is performed. Pruning in winter tends to
the production of further wood-growth while summer
pruning produces an "pjjosite effect. Properly practi*ed
sumnier pruning is simply placing fertile power where
it will be found next year in a plentifid crop of
fruit.

A tree must have attained a certain stngn of
maturity before fruit-bearing commences; the growth,
iiutead of being vigoroua aud groi<8, aa'is goncrully

Hiy AiikiUiJi/i'UHiBT, {JA«UAi?y h Mb.

tho case with bealthj- young trees, assumes thfi
stuutea or- stocky appearance so well known to the
practical gardener as being iurlicative of a disposition
to i,ioiluce flowers and trait. This condition tnay be
brouf;Iit on prematurely by repeated checking of
the "young shoots while they are making growth.
By this means the flow of the sap is checked, and
inste.nd of continuing the development of leaves and
shoots, it is thrown with greater force into the re-
maiuing hud, and, if the work has been judiciously
performed, and uot carried -to an extreme, organises
thei!i for a future year; but if the stopping is
overdone, the wholo of the buds may break, an'!
thus the the object of the operator is defeated. It
is evident, then, that summer pruning with the
object of inducing a fruitful habit, requires some
amount of observation and experience to ensure a
successful result. If commenced early in the season,
the stopping of a shoot does not produce any great
or lastiog effect, and the process must be repeated •
again and again, perhaps three or four times before
the desired object i» attain»a. We have peen trees, |
not cf extreme luxuriance, brought from a state of
barrenness into one of fertiUty in a single stason
by pinching the tops of the shoots . towards the
end ot the summer, after the season for exuberant
growth was past while the sap still flowed with
considerable vigor, though not so mnch as to cause
the buds, or at most only, a few ot them, to start
into growth, hut still sufficient to fill and cause
them to swell into fruit buds, instend of remamirg
as wood buds, which they would had the sap be(n
allowed to flow past them and eNpend itself in the
formation of more leaves and wood. It is, however,
a very nice point to time tho operation of stopping
tho shoots so as to produce the desired clfect, for
by the weather or other causes, the process might
be spoiled either by inducing too large or too
small a flow of sap; in the first case causmg tho
buds to break at once, anu .a the other preventing
them from swelling owing to the deficiency of sap.
Tender some conditions, trees may be brought into
a fruitful state by leaving them altogether unpruned ;
for, as a rule, the more a tree is pruned the more
wood it makes, but if left alcne its supprfluous
enci'gies become exhausted in course of time and
fruilfuIu'-SR supervenes. A similar effect may be
produced by ringing the branches, by which means
a ciieck is given to the sap that almost invariably
throws tbcm into a bearing st:'.te. The sap may
be flso checked by bending the tops oi the branches
towards the gi-ound, by which racaua fcrility can
bo generally produced in the course of %Be. or two
years.

itoot pruning is, however, the luost rapid as
well as certain method of inducing f^rtility m a
vi''orour» tree; by this means tho flow of sap can
be" checked to such an extent that growth may
almost entirely cease and the whole of the leaf
bulls bo transformed into fruit buds the following
year. And it has this advantage, that by the time
the fruit buds are formed tho young roots, if
properly fed, are roady to supply an amount of
Jiourlshmcnt sufiicient to bring the crop to perfection.
This process also requirss a large share of skill and
experience lo enable the operator to carry it out
to the proper extent, so that, while the \ngor of
tho tree i.^ sufficiently reduced, the pruning may not
be so sovcrc a?- to cau.se H to be starved and rendered
iooa'ptib'o of producing either leaves or fruit. The
pruning must, therefore, Ijo in exact proportion to
(be vigor of the tree. As a rule, it is best not to
overdo it. for, if it is found in the ensuing
teasou that it hai not been severe enough a few
more roots can at any time be cut through. The
t unmon practice is to cut only a portion of the
roots at one operation, leaving the remainder until
a further check is required. Boot pruning gives the
na-deuer great command of the vita! energies of a
ir.e ■ he csu, at any time, by lessening tlie supply
of sap, slop the too vigorous growtb, while it is
also in Ills power to increase the vigor by extru feed-

ing of the young roots that are quickly formed in
place of those cut off. Thus- the process may be
even made use of for the renovation of partially wurn
out trees. For when a tree has got into a stunted
condition its roots become almost inactive and incap-
able of furnishing sap in suflicient quantity to
maintain a state of \-igor in the tree. But if the
roots, or a portion of them, are cut through they
pre.seutly send out young fibres, and if these are
supplied with rich food and plenty of moisture thoy
increase rapidly in strength and vigor , and are
presently able io impart new life into the parent
tree, bringing it back to a state of growth and
fruitfulnes.'i, which may be maiutained for an almost
unlimited period by periodital root pruning, first
one side of the tree and then tho other.— iendor.

SOILS.
Lime is one ot the most important ingredients of the
soil. 1st, lime is in constant requisition for building
up the framework of plants and animals ; 2udly, it
absorbs moisture and carbonic acid gas from the atmo-
sphere and from the minerals which surround it in the
soil, and, owing to its great affinity to acids, it facilitates
several chemical changes that take place within the
soil (decomposition of vegetable and animal matter, &c.).
In combination with clay or alumina, lime forms a mixt-
ure called m.irl. It has been pointed out that we eau-
not form a lump of marl by simply mixuig up, ever so
intimately, diJfereut proportions of clay and lime ; a
piece of such substance as would appear to he perfect
marl, put into water, is .sep.arated again into clay and
lime, which form distinct sediments at the bottom of
the vessel. "VVe have found also that a piece of clay
soaked in lime water changes into true marl, and we
may thus presume that the enormous layers of that
sub.stance which we occasioually find have been formed
in nature by a similar process ot ii\filtration of lime
water into clay. Marl is easi'y distinguii'hed from clay
by its containing lime. On application of hydrochloric
acid the lime will testify its presence by causing an
eftervesceuce ; the lime takes up tho hydrochloric acid
and gives oif its carbonic acid. Pure clay shows no
effervescence. The difi'ereut kinds ot marl may br classi-
fied according to the quantities ot clay, lime, magnesia,
and sand which they contain. There is—

1. Marly clay; it contaius 5-10 per cent of lime and
9005 ot ciay.

2. Clay-marl ; it contains 15'28 per cent ot lime and
75-85 of 'clay.

3. Common marl ; it contains 25-50 per cent of lime
and 60-SO of cUy.

4. Loam marl ; it contains 15-25 per cent of lime and
20-25 of clay ; the remaining portions being sand or
silica.

5. Chalk marl contains 5000 per cent of lime ; In 25
per cent of clay or silica. It effervesces in nitric acid.

6. Magnesia marl, 10-30 per cent chalk; 20-50 clay ;
10-40 per cent magnesia. It effervesces with byilro-
chloric acid.

7. Clayey marl, 90 per cent lime and 10 per clay —
which may always be called chalk soil.

There are also marls containing gypsum, &c. Tho
important featureof the marl family is their temlency
to lose all coherence when they are exposed to the in-
fluence of the atmosphere. For this reason they are
more easily cultivated than stiff clay soils. This pro-
perty, as well as the power of marl to absorb moisture
and gases as clay does, greatly depends upon the pro-
portion of the clay or the magnesia to the lime in the
mar! : the greater' tlie proportion of c!ay_ the greati r is
that power of absorbing, and ot retaining also what
has been absorbed. C4reater p>-rcent-iges of lime, on
the contrary, interfere with the absoibiug power of the
clay and more readily give up again the water uuder
the influeiicii of heat, The capacity of cl.iy nf holding
back greater quantities of water than lime iloes is the
cause that clayey marls generally form cold soils ; they
require greater heat to act upon them .so as t« infuse
the warmth necessary for tho process of vegetation

jANiuRY I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

507

tlu'oughout their whole substance ; but they also letaiu
better stores of heat thus accumulatL'd thau chalky
marls do.

If lime is preJomiuaut water is uot rea<fily absorbed.
The substance of the marl absoibs heat quicker be-
cause there is uo water to monopolise the lieafc for
itself; heat is th-LTefore easier imparted to 'Uailcj marl,
but.it also loses that heat more readily by radiation.

Amongst tuo other minerals ihat eou.^titute the chief
iugredieuts of a good soil are potash and soda. They
are likewise derived from rociis. Their im]iortanoe
in agriculture will be discussed ou a later occatiou.

Ordinary soil is chit fly composed of claj% lime, or
clay-lime (marl), sand (miuute particles of si'ica),
potash, and soda. There is tuother substance generally
Found in good soil which is uot of mineral origin but
which is a nioilihcation of carijou called humus.

Humus is a suustance formed out of vegetable matter
in a stale of decomposition. Takmg a dead leaf as an
instance, we notice that its natural green colour
gradually changoo into yellow, from yellow into brown.
When dead leaves, chips, .«awdust, or other vegetable
olfal, are e.>;posed to the influence of the atmosphere,
thej gradually change into a dark brown substance
not uulike peat. In fact, peat is vegetable matter uot
perfectly decomposed. The beginning of the decay of
deail leaves, &c., is chiifly due to the influence of light,
moisture, and other atmospheric agencies. The process
of decomijositiou, however, is greatly promoted by
certam threadlike microscopic fungi called baotnviM.
How quickly decomposition will spread if the bacterise
have once got hold of vegetable substance is easily seen
in a case of iruit; if one apple or orange begins to decay
many others are also very quickly infected. During
this process of decomposition of vet,etable matter
several chemical changes take pkce, which, omng to
their subtle natm-e, we cannot well desciibe here.
Several acids are formed in succession — ulmic, humic,
crenic, apocrunic, and finally carbonic acid. This form-
ation of vegetable matter into carbonic acid gas aloue
is of great interest to the farmer. This process may go
ou very gradually, and humus, in its first state of
decomposition, may remain a long time in the soil before
the chemical changes to \vhich 1 have alluded actually
take place. Humus, when dry, is an earthy powdery mass
whicn does not dissolve in water, bat which absorbs it
readily, and forms a spongy muddy substance ; it grad-"
ually breaks up into a perfectly disintegrated state,
forming a soft mud which, alongwitli water, can be so
perfectly absorbed into clay or marl, and in such quant-
ities, that it serves as a store of vegetable food for
any plants that may grow on that soil in the course of
time. The several acids (ulniic, humic, crenic, ice. ) into
which humus successively changes have the remarkable
jjropprty of rendering soluble, in the water in which
they themselves are dissolved, mineral substances which
cannot be dissolved in ordinary water. These acids
facilitate thus the absorption of mineral matter by the
plants. Hunms is therefore not only vegetable food
for the young plant itself by being gradually changed
into carbonic acid, but it is the mediator for the diges-
tiou of mineral matter for the plant.

There is another substance of interest to the farmer
which, however, we can in this place only briefly men-
tion. It is geiue. Like humus it is the result of de-
composition of vegetable matter, and it is found at the
bottom of ponds, lakes, and other stagnant waters.
ISrought into contact with carbonates, geine changes
iuto geinic acid, a substance which, owing to its corros-
ive nature, is highly detrimental to plants. Kxposcd
to the influence of the atmosphere, geinic acid grad-
ually changes into crenic and a pocreuic aeid.a snbject
to which further reference will be made on a later oc-
casion ; likewise to the substance called peat.— .J. S.
Herm.\ns fiCBiiiDi-.—Queenslandei:

To PEEvtNi MusrAiiD-PLASTi.E from biioteiing, mix
with the white of an egg. — •boutkern I'fanltr.

To Keep Inse.cts out of bird cages, tie up a little
sulphur iii a bag and suspend it in the e^ge. ifed
ants will neter ee roui.d iu a close' or drawer, if
a small bat,' of sulpiuir uc kept constantly in these
places. — Situtharn Planter.

SIK WILijIAM HOOKER AND. KEW.

The auuoHLC.-mem, that at the end of this month
Kew Gardens wiil be without a lloulter at their head
will be ruid nc-i only with regret, but with some-
thing apijroaching 10 consternation. Kew and Hooker,
Hooker and Kew, .vere, as it seemed, so hiseparaoly
combined tuat no severance coidd take place. If a
Hooker diu not plant the seed he tr,.nsierrr(l it
from the seed-bed and nurseil it till it bteame a
goodly trt^, while another Hoiker still further developed
the tree liil it bore abundantly jf flower and fruit
and see . lup'.aiucr t-srmi, Sir W'iUi&ni Hooker foimd
the g.:,-uen at its lowest ebb. Shortly lefore his
aoces.ijn to the office of L/irector, to such a state
of 8'.,_-naiiou hud the garden ai'rived that it was
seriously proposed to hand over the collections to
the Horiiicultural Society. In consequence of the
report .ind recommendation of the former Editor of
this journal, Sir Wihi.ini (then Dr.) Hooker removed
from Cila.sgow, where be had already done wonders
iu establishing and maintaining a botanical c:>rre-
spondencs and interchange of plants with all parts
of the world, and assumed the post of Director of
the iioyal Gardens, Kew. Those who remember the
okl state of things, speak of Hooker's transforming
touch as^ something magical. By his clear-hoadedness,
his uaCiring diligence and zeal, his extensive knowledge,
his stately courtesy, antl the encouragement he
extemled to all occupied in horticulture and botany,
he ri.ised Kew iu a very short time from its low
estate, and with the assistance of the ex-C'urator,
who still sm-vives, mide it the botanic garilen of
Euroi'B. Actually dyiug in harne-ss, at a ripe old
age, just twenty years ago, Sir William was succeeded
in the directorate by Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker.
The career of the sou is well known, at least its
main features, to evei-y botanist, and to most gardaners.
His early travels iu the antarctic regions with Sir
tlames Koss, his adventurous wanderings in Sikkim
Himalaya, whence he introduced so many of the
glorious Khododendroiis, gave him fame, if uot fortune,
and on his return from India he occupied himself
with the determination and distribution of the ininionse
collections made by himself and Dr. Thomson, and
shortly after became Assistant-Director of the Gardens
under his father, so that on the decease of Sir
AVilliam in 1865 it was universally felt that he, and
he alone, was a fit successor.

During the twenty years that have elapsed, the
record of Kew is one that the proudest admiustrator
might euvy ; the area has been greatly extended,
the succulent-house, the T-range, have been erected,
old houses have been removed, the herbaceous ground
remodelled, the frnticelum and rock garden con-
structed, the arboretum vastly extended, the museums
(three in number) greatly enlarged and improved,
the new herbarium built, the "North" gallery in-
stalled, the Laboratory erected. The two latter
establishments tistify to the confidence reposed iu
the Director. .Such mum'ficent gi:ts would never
have been made to the public had there not been
a general admiration of the admiiiistrativo ability
and competence of the Director, ^v bile all this new
work has been undertaken and carried to a succe.ssfnl
issue, -the maintenance and improvement of the old
have been such as to elicit admiration ; and herein
the chief has been well seconded by the Assistant-
Director, Mr. Dyer, Mr. John Smith (.vho occ.ipies
the same position that his namesake did under the
directorate of Sir AVilliam), and the othet otiicers
of the estabiishmeut.

So far we have alluded to results which all e.=m
SCO for themselves, but ail the time that this work
of extension, supervision, .Tnd maintenance has be":n
going on, a vast amount of work nas been tlirowu
upon Sir Joseph, or rather he has himself developed
it in couuecliou with India and oi'.r colonies. 'J'he
father, Sir W'liiiani, early endeavoured to makf K'?w
the great ijuia'iical tcKtre of th >..i.g.isii-sptf.diiiig
world, and ILe hJea has beea f tliy devc^tp-fl by
the son. Kew U n".v the head centre of a lerias
of botanic gardens aiiU similar establishments through-

SoS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886,

out the empire. The diffusion of iiit'ormation, the
interchange of plants has been most beneficial, but
it has eutailcd on the directorate at Kew a vast
amount of correspondence on all matters connected
jiot only with scientific botany but with practical or
economic botany, and with methjds of cultivation.
In this way Kew has taken a large sliare in the
collection and dispersal of the Cinchonas in India
and elsewhere, which is of untold and ever-increasing
vaUie. A similar statement may be made with refer-
ence to Tea, to Gutta-percha, and Caoutchouc yielding
trees, and to very many more useful plants distrib-
uted mainly through the agency of Kew. This is,
indeed, a vast work, but one of which but few of
the hundreds of thousands of annual visitors to
Kew know anything. While all these labours have
been carried out uniutermittingly, Sir Joseph has
found time to undertake and carry through an
amount of purely scientific work which if he had
done nothing else would have of itself been con-
sidered remarkable. We have not space to do more
than mention his many classical papers, on system-
atic Botany and Botanical Geography, his Floras of
the antarctic regions, of New Zealand, of Tasmania,
and his co-operation with the late Mr. Bentham
in the elaboration of the Qrncia F/imtartim. When
one calls to mind the amount of detail and drudgery
which must have been encountered to bring such works
to a conclusion' it becomes a matter of astonishment
how in the midst of the official duties of adminis-
tration so much can| have been achie\'ed. But this is
not all. While all this was in progress Sir Joseph,
abaniloning the traditions of his early education, warmly
adopted the now generally accepted Darwinian views
of evolution, took his share in the government of
the Linnean, the Geographical, the Geological, the
Royal, and of other Societies. For a few years he
filled the chair of Newton at the Royal Society ; he
has presided over the British Association, and taken
much active interest in the Royal Horticultural
Society, over the Scientific Committee of which he
has presided for some years.

It is no matter for wonder that Sir Joseph should,
after twenty years' such labour, varied by travell in
AVestern America, and in Syria, and in the far less
accessible Jlorocco, desire to be relieved from the
strain and rcspoTisibility of official duties, but his
reasons are characteristic. The Flora of British India
has occupied several years to bring it to its present
state, with the assistance of several collaborators;
at least a third remains to be accomplished. Apart
from his pre-eminent capabilities as a botanist. Sir
Joseph has a knowledge of local and .special matters
relating to Indian botany that no one else possesses,
or is likely to posses. To obtain leisure to complete
the Flora of 'Jndia is, then, one of the main
reasons which .have induced Sir Joseph to tender
his resignation. It is some satisfaction to know that
the completion of this work will necessitate his
frequent presence at Kew (though in an unofficial
capacity). There, in the noble herbarium orginally
formed b}' his father, so largely extended by himself,
and in which so much of his own life and work has
been spent, Sir Joseph will, it is to be hoped, find
leisure to complete those works which heretofore
must have been sadly hampered by administrative
duties. — Gardeners^ Chronicle.

Ikdueuubeu in Nicaragua. — Reports from Nicaragua
on (he rubber trade coutnuie to refer to the falling
off in the supply. The rubber trees, it is stated,
aleng the banks of the river San Juan and the neighbour-
hood of Greytuwn have been almost entirely destroyed
by the short-sighted ])oUcy of the rubber cutters, and
the entire want of efficient police supervision. The
men who formerly worked in thcae forests, who bought
their provisions and sold their indiarubber in trreytown,
are now dispersed along the Mosquito coast. — Gardeners'
Chronicle,

, EEE-CULTUEE IN INDIA.

[ I have read with interest the articles under the
I above title that have appeared from time to time
in the British Bee Journnl, especially those of Mr.
J. 0. Douglas in the number for Dec. 1st. Did
time permit, I would gladly detail a number of my
observations and experience in connexion with the
bees, bee-hunting, and bee-keeping in India while
on a journey there during the winter of 18S0-81
after new races of bees, more especially the great
Apis doi-suta. However, though the greater number
of these observations have not been printed, on
account of my ill-health as well as lack of leisure
to put theiu in shape for pubUcation, I cannot for-
bear a word or two regarding a few of the points
and allusions made in Mr. Douglas' article.

Mr. Douglas speaks of the unicomb bees, A.
dorsata and A . Jiorea, and the multicomb bee, A.
Jndica. It is very probable that each swarm of
Apis form only build one comb, as all that I saw
had but a single comb, and I was repeatedly told
that they did not build more. Moreover, as these
tiny bees do not frequent the forests as much as
they do the more open cmmtry where shrubs and
bushes form the greater part of the vegetation, it
is reasonable to suppose that they choose the latter,
so as to find near the ground suitable twigs upon
which to build ; and, in fact, all that I found were
in such locations. The pasturage of the ope.n
country may very likely suit them better, yet as
there are always some large trees among the bushes,
they might choose elevated places if they wished.
As, however, the single comb is generally attached
to a small branch or twig, there is room for but
one. This at the top is built around the twig so
as to envelope it, the cells being deep for storing
honey, the thickness of the comb at the top often
reaching two or three inches. Below, where the
brood is reared, the comb is, however, but three-
eighths of an inch thick. The tiny he-xagonal wax-
cells, of which there are eighty-one on each side of
a square inch of surface (160 on both sides), are
very beautiful. Of course it is easy to imagine that
a swarm constructing a single comb not much larger
than a man's hand can never be made very avail-
able, even if it can be kept in hives. I succeeded
in taking one hive of these bees from Ceylon to
Cyprus, and they behaved much better than hives
of the two larger species. An accident resulting in
the death of the queen at a time when no brood
was present iu the hive was, of com-se, the virtual
extinction of the stock.

Most of the A. dorsata stocks which I saw con-
sisted of but one huge comb attached to a large
branch, or to sonu; overhanging ledge of rocks.
But this giant honey-bee (it surely deserves the
name ' hoaey-bee,' although it is not cultivated)
doos sometimes build several combs side by side,
for when in Ceylon I transferred iuto a mammoth
moveable frame-hive a stock which had built three
parallel combs in a. cavity of the rocks. I found
these bees in the Kurunegala district at a place
known to the natives as Barabera-galla fA. dorsata
rock). It was a wild forest region, some miles from
any habitation, rarely visited, so that I had much
difficulty in transporting my hives and implements
to the place, and getting up to the top of the rock,
which, perched on the side of a mountain, towered
up nearly a hundred feet from the lower side, as
near as 1 could iudge. The walls on all sides were
either perpendicular or ovcrhauging ; and I w^s at
first at much loss to know how we were to get up
to the dozen or more huge stocks of A. dorsata,
whose combs depended from two to four feet l.om
one of the oxerhanj^ing ledges near the sumrnit.
But the natives, of whom there were a dozen iJiesont,
led me by a crevice just large enough to adnut a
man's body into tile interior of the rock, and, by
building a ladiler of jiples and rattans, we reached a
.■^loping ledge some forty fet-t up; i hence v.i[.ding
around we came near the summit, and at last found
a dark passage leading rijjht up through the centre

January i, t886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

509

of the rock. The top was nearly level, and about
ten feet s<jiiare. A cavity euclosed on all sides but
one, and partially rooted ovtr, cout;iiued a large
stock of A. Jcrsata, which of course I had not
been able to see from below. The bees drove us
down iu the daytime, but at night witli the ail of
a torch and smoke I cut out the combs and iittod
them into frames which were placed into a hive
hauled up over the sije of the ruck. I had learned
that the best time to approach these bees in their
forc-ft lodgment is at ui^lit, as they do not fly
much then. The fr.ames of my hives were about
12 in. deep by IS in. long, and so the combs were
cut accordingly. I think larger frames would have
been better, but not so easy to transport. As the
A. <io/-A-(i(rt comb is one and three eighths inches
thick, the bars of my frames had been made of
that width. There were some fifty to sixty pounds
of honey in the combs of this stock, and after I
had given the bees a fair supply, the natives had a
nice feast, and some was left over; besides, they
eagerly devoured the bits of brood which did not
find place in tlie hive.

As this was towards the close of the season when
the bees fiud little honey, just before the swarming
sea.son, it is fair to presume that the amount of
honey would be much greater at most any other
time, and the huge combs would have made a nice
lump of wax. We secured but one other stock of the
dozen that were on the overhanging ledge of rock ;
the risk to limb and lite being too great to try for
any more there, so we moved on to other localities.
Once iu moveable-comb hives, I did not find .4.
dorsatu intractable, but there are other reasons why its
culture mat/ never prove successful, altliough it is an
experiment worth trying.

The little A. Imlica builds its parellel comhs (five-
eighths of an inch thick: thirty-sbc cells on each side
of a square inch) in hollow trees, rock cavities, etc.,
aud is cultivated to a certain extent in earthen pots,
wooden skeps, etc., yet I do not believe with much
profit. The queens are polific, and the workers in-
dustrious, but it is what the Geiinans would surely
call a xwarm-bec. And if kept in moveable-frame
hives, the great diflicidty, as .Mr. Douglas well remarks,
would be the absconding of the bees at nearly every
manipulation, notwithst.-inding the presence of brood
and honey. I have lively recollections of getting the
bees of a recently transferred stock whose combs I
was fi.xing a little, back into their hive six times in
succession one morning, performing in these processes
a good many gymnastics on the roofs and trees in
the vicinity of ray apiary. ]5efore I learned of this
peculiarity of Apis Indici I formed (juite a favour-
able opinion of it, though, from all that I saw, I
should think 24 lb. reported as its yield in the Wy-
naad rather hij<h, thou^-h, of course, I judge merely
by the amounts I saw in the combs of the stock I
captnred. As the cause for absconding seems to lie
in the very (Xcitable nature of these bees, I would
recommend the use of smoke only when absolutely
necessary. They can generally be driven from combs
by blowing them strongly, and become less excited than
wnen smoked. They ci'n be brusheil or shaken from the
combs easily. As the worker brood-combs are but
five-eighths of an inch thick, tlie bars of frame-hives
intended for these bees should be but five-eighths
wide instead of «even-eights to one inch, as for
Api^ nifVipca, and the spacing but one-quarter in. to
threH-eiphths at the most.

In Ceylun I found two partief who had got out
hivtrs from England, which of course were adapted
to Apis melUjica and htd frani ,s whose birs w.rc
seven-eighths to one incL widr , and spaced so a . to
remain three-eigh'bs t,c biilf-i.ici. a,,arf. Ol e uis. ,
these p.-irt.ies could not und .i.-'tai,u why theiv I'Ces
would not do toe way the books said other peopl 's
bess wrc accustom. I fc do. r.;':>' ■<, build the comNs
regularly ind put one -n a frami . never Of. "e dream-
ing that, not only were they not of the san'! race, but,
even more, they belonged to quitj distinct species.

^V^aateve^ may be the result of any attempt to
eukivate the honey-producing bees native to East
India, I still feci sure that, in the hands of a bee-
master of suificLiu exp.Tieiice and knowledge of
principles to enable hbu tj adapt himself, or rather
his mauagemeut, to circumstances, any of the races
of the species Apis meUiJicn cm be made to thrive
in India. Certain I am that those stocks of Aitis
meUijlca. which I took to Ceylon thrived very well
indeed during the lime I had them u.uler niv ob-
se; ,-ation .

I look fenv.inl to the time when bee-culture in
India ivill be a source of no ineonsiilcrable revenue ;
in fact, I fe.ir the time will yet co?ne when 'Brother
Jonathan • across the water will find that his Ions
of delicious nectar will have to compete iu the
English market with tons of sweets gathered on
' India's coral strand.'— Fb.ink; Ben-to.v, Munich,
German;/.

THE EUCALYPTUS IN ABRAN, SCOTLAND.

No tree so fully realises the beautiful sayiug of
Scripture, ' The leaves of the tree were for the heal-
ing of the nations,' .as the (J-um Trees of Australia.
They heal the land by drying the poisonous marsh.
They heal the air by emitting quantities of ozone to
purify it, by removing injurious organic matter. They
heal man himself by preventing the spread of disease ;
by arrestius; the violence of fever; by allaying the
irritation of cough, and by giving sleep to the sleepless.

We rejoice to be able to report that many species
of this tree grow in Arran. They are as follows :—

1. The Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus).— This is
the best known, and the most extensively planted of
all the Gums. It germinates freely, grows rapidly,
and attains a great height— as high as 330 feet.'
When young its leaves are soft, and covered with
a flue bloom, and diffuse .ibunilantly a camphoretic
odour. It also abounds iu that oil which has been
found so beneficial as' a medicine. Like most of the
Gums, its appearance in the earlier years of its growth
is very different from what it hecome.s when the tree
IS more advanced. Then the leaves acquire a scimitar
shape, become leathery, diffuse less perfume, and the
tree is altogether much less attractive. In this country
it has also the disadvantage of being delicate— no
tree in Scotland, growing in the opeu air, having sur-
vived the .severe winter of 1880-61, except the one
at Captain Brown's, Oraigyard, Lamlash. It is now
aliout 30 feet in height, and is I foot lO'- inches in
girth. Another plant grows at Strabane, Bro*ck.
The species is named from the form of the leaves
when the plant is young. It has not yet bloomed
in Ai-ran, nor any of the other.s.

2. The Twiggy or Manna Gum (E. viminalis) --
This may be called the Weeping Blue Gum, for while
It differs from the Blue Gum in the leaves being
small and roundish, and in the branches being very
slender, the leaves much resemble the Blue Gum in
perfume, bloom, and also in hue, though this i,s some-
what more of a plum colour. This species is very
hardy. A large tree grows at Whittinghame, East
Lothian. One lias been planted this year at Lamla.sh.
It is named E. viminalis, from the slcnderness of its
branches— Manna Gum from manna being obtained
from it.

3. The Almond-leaved Gum (E. amygdalina).—
This and Euc»lyptus colosea are the tallest troes'in
the world, growing, in some instances, to the height
of nearly .luO lert. A tree nf tl.is .sp( ci.s has ;:rown
at Or. m a, C'. rrie, for about fourti-t-n yciirs. It is
somewbai .slow in gr ,wth, b. ing ct o ly about 2"
fe.t ii. height and 1-3 inche- in g.rtb. Tins Gii.:. i
rn.i.e hardy than tlie Line Guru, i.ut not so

bs >ome other >|jecies. It i» n.in. . f,, n, telii,,.^
sembling those of the Alino..d n,e. Ii .md ib. E ue
Gum are the species fii ni v hich the od of coin-
mi-rce is principally obtained.

4. The White Gum (E. p>.ucilloia syii. coriaceal.—
In 1870 I received see.i of tids sp. cies fr ni Mr
Bailey, Goveriimt nt Botani.^t, Que. ns », ,i ; it hr,l hen
gathered on the Blue ilouuui^o, Xew &outL \Vale»

510

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886,

I sowed it at ouce. The following year (1880) it was
plauted at Oraigyard, Lamlash. It is already I83 feet
iu height, and IJ inches in girth, and probably will
one day be the tallest tree of any kind iu Scotland,
and probably iu Britain. It is so hardy that not
even a leaf was browued in the severe winter of
1880-Sl. Its leaves are very large, approaching the
size of those of the Blue Gum. Tliey are covered
with a whitish bloom. It is called the White Gum
because of the whiteness of the trunk after the
annual aheddiug of the baik. It is a n:'*We of Tas-
mania, and its white trunks give a pecu.iar cbaracter
to the forests of that grea', island. Plants of it grow
also at Brodijk and Oorrie.

5. The Alpine Gum (E. alpina). — This tree is a
very interesting and important addition to the forestry
of Arrau, as it i-i altogether diverse iu habit from any
of the Gums formerly introduced. lis leaf is large,
thick, and remarkably broad, 9 inches by 4i. It is
specially illustrative of that feature in the trees of
Australia which enables them to expose themselves
edgeways, instead of horizontally, to the sun, for the
development of one side of the leaf is almost twice
that of the other, and thus the superior weight of
the one side causes it to hang down, and to make
the opposite side stand erect. The habit of the tree
also corresponds to the shape of the leaf, beiug broad
and close. This tree also illustrates the well-known
fact thut some alpine plants grow well in tlie vicinity
of the sea. This tree, which, as its name denotes,
is a native of the alpine regions of Australia, is at
Oorrie Hotel, Arrau, growing in fullest lu-^iuriauce
within 35 yards of the sea, at high water. It was
planted last year, and is now .3§ feet in height. I
send a leaf.

a. The Cider Gum or Mountain White Gum (E.
Gunnii). — The leaves of this Gum are small, of a
light green colour, and are highly odoriferous. It is
very hardy, anil grows in the open air at Kew. A
plant G feet 5 inches in height grows at Oraigyard,
Lamlash; a smaller one at the Free Olmrch Manse,
W hitingbay. It receives the name Older Gum from
the liquid that Hows from it when the hark is pierced.

7. The Urn-bearing Gum (E. uiriigera). — Tbe
leaves of this species are of medium size and of a
dark green colour. It grows at Strabane, Brodick, and
is very hardy. It receives its name from the shape
of the vessel containing its seed.

8 The Ooccus-beariug Gum (E coccitera).— This
differs from most of the Gums in the lea\«8 being
leathery, even when the plant is very young. They
are siflall and of a dark bluish colour, and look as
if covered with bloom. This species is very hardy.
A tree of it grows at I'owderham Castle, Kenton,
Devonshire, more than CO feet in height and more
than a foot in diameter. A tree of wh.at I consider
this species, though the authorities at Kew have
pronounced it to be E. amygdaliua, grows at Oastle
Kennedy, Wigtonshire. It grows at several places in
Arran.

In addition to the above mentioned Gums already
ill Arran, through the kindness of friends allowing
me to plant them in their gardens, I may mention
that I have specimens of the FIg-leavcd Gum (E.
ficifolia), from Broken Inlet, AVestern Australia, the
leaves of which, as its name denotes, resemble those
of a species of Fig. It is also remarkable for dowering
when comparatively young, a'ld from the tlowers
being of a crimson colour ; I have also a iihmt of the
crimson-flowered Irou-I!ark (E. leucoxylon var. eoccmea).
whose tlowers are magenta-eiiinsoii in colour. Its
leaves are small and narrow, and the branches sleiuler,
so that it much resembles a Baijylonian Willow. lis
wood is said to excel that of all other trees in hard-
ness, I have also the red Iron-Bark i. E. siderophlia,
the bark of which, as its name tells, i.s almost iron-
like iu hardeess. Its leaves much resemble these of
the Tuikey Uak, the veiris ar;: red, on accouut of
whicii it is named the red Iron-Bark.

Tills sumn:er I have further, through Willlatu
Stewart. Esq.. been favoured by receiving from Sir
r. Mueller, Government Botanist, Victoria, seeds of

E. conifera — these have just germinated; also of E.
pauciflora, the 'White Gum already mentioned, as grow-
ing so well in Arrau. I have also received a similar
favour from Mr. Bailey, Government Botanist, Queens-
land, who has sent the seeds of ' a rare and most
valuable Lemon-scented Iron-Bark' {E. staigeriana) from
the Palmer River, Queensland. It also has germinated
under the kind care of my friend Mr. Gray, gardener,
New5>'ld.

I only add that plants of several of the most
hardy Gums, such as B. pauciflora, E. Gunnii, E,
urnigera, and E. coccifera, are now growing at vari-
ous places of the west coast of Scotluni — at Kuojk-
dolean aud Auehearue. near Balaiitrae ; at the Estab-
lished Mansi , Kosneath ; and at Balliuakill, Cantyre. —
Gardeners' Chronicle,

RnsTON Tools.— The Farmer's Adeocate says there
are several easy ways to prevent rusting of ploughs
and cultivators, and to keep the teeth bright. One
is to give them a coat of thick limewash as soon as
they are brought iu from the field ; another is to
dissolve an ounce of rosin iu four ouuces of linseed
oil and while hot mix this with a quart of kerosene
aud stir well. This is laid on to smooth iron with
a paint bru.sh. Another way is to dissolve an ounce
of camphor in some turpentine aud add this to four
ounces of lard and one ounce of pulverized black-
lead or stove polish, and mix well. This mav be
rubbed on with a rag, I'o remove rust from ploughs
or tools nothing is better thau a mixture of a half
pint of oil of vitriol poured slowly into a quart of
water, and apply this to the rusted metal, ^\'ash
oft' with water. — Florida JJispatrh.

Fire-Prooi- Paint fou Roofs.— A correspondent
of the N. Y. World, writes : — I send my receipt for
fire-proof paint, which I like for many reasons. .Slack
stone-lime by putting it into a tub, to be covered
to keep iu the steam. When slackeil pass the pow-
der through a fine sieve, and to (■ach six quarts of
it add one quart of rock salt and water one gallon ;
then boil aud skim clean. To each five gallons of
this add pulverizeil alum one pouud. pulverized
copperas one-half pouud and still slowly add pow-
dered potash, three-quarters of a pound ; then fine •
sand or hickory ashes, four pounds. Now add any
desired color and apply with a brush. In my opinion
this looks better thau paint and is as durable as
slate. It stops small le:iks iu roofs, prevents moss
and makes it incombustible. — Florida /Ji:ipatck.

The Mango in Qukexsla.vd. — The present season
has proved to be a non-bearing one for the mango.
More particularly is this the case in the Northern
districts. Last year enormous crops were gathered ;
the trees beiug loaded to their utmost. It is evident
from this experience that the mango does not
differ from other fruits in requiring a year of rest
after one of great productiveness. The extraordinary
growth of these trees anywhere on the coast line of this
colony, their (iroductiveuess, aud freedom from disease
point to the fact that before long they will be the com-
mon fruit tree of Queensland. As the mango is a fruit
that can be exported to such distances as the southern
colonies aud New Zealand, and also cannot be grown to
perfection in those parts, there is no reason why a
profitable export trade should not spring up. The pecu-
liarity of the mango is that although almost everyone
dislikes it iipnn first t.isting the fruit, yet it dues not
take many trials before the singular flavour becomes
most fascinating to the palate ; therefore the sale for
them, when once the lartc mHrketsof the southern cities
Pie rt achi:d, will be very great. Selec'ors coiihl not do
bfjttei- than plitnt. Tbe t?ees grow readily from seed,
and as long as ilue care is taken to plant only g(>o<l seeds
from good mangoes they will come tolerably true to
variety. Otherwise, if the exact variety is desired to be
ro'dntained. then prafting en ■needling storks must be re-
si rted tn; nnd grafting id' the mango is difficult — iu
fact, itcauonly be done by iu-arcUiuj;. — Quftnslander.

■JA^iMyi,imrj THE TVtQPiCAt AGRICULTURIS-T.

5U

THE HOMING PIGEON.
It would bo diiScult to say how early in the history
of maukiud pigeons were dumestic'atL-i.1. Tho dog lias
been the friend and companion of man since long be-
fore the dawn of historic times ; and his bones now lie
with those of his pre-historic master in the cave dwell-
ings of a race that left uo record of its existence hut
its bones, a few flint arrow heads, stone hammers
and scone hatchets. The horse, like the dog, has fol-
lowed the fortunes of man from a very early period
and ranks in fidelity and courajje with its humbler four-
footed companion. The pigeon may not claim so long
a friendship with man as either of these two faith-
ful servants aiul friends, but it was domesticated very
early in the history of the civilization of mostr.ices
of men, and probably it is the smallness of its bones
alone which prevents its being identified as the com-
panion of that race of cave dwellers whose lives are
much closer hnked with the geologic past than they
are with the dawn of mythic history. We do not
maintain that fossils and relics of smaller boned animals
are not preserved in the earth's crust. Whoever knows
anything of say, the carboniferous system knows the
delicate tracery of fronds and fragile shells to be found
in shale, but our contention is that the bones of the
pigeon were crunched up and eaten by his master the
cave dweller, and thus U ft no trace behnid. There are
soaud evolutionary reasons for believing that, without
exception,' tho whole of the present existing perplexing
varieties of the pigeon, domesticated and wild, are trace-
able to the common blue rock pigeon. At all events
that is Professor Huxley's opinion and we do not feel
disposed to ditfer from him. The pigeon is the most
plastic of creatures, and every pigeon fancier knows
what beautiful results can be obtained by cai-eful
selection, breeding and crossing. Of all the varieties
of pigeon, the one we desire to deal with at present
is, what old-fashioned people used to call, the " Carrier,"
but which in these latter days is known astheKaeing
Pigeon or the Homing Pigeon. Some variety or other
of the homing pigeon is to be found in almost every
country in the world, and probably the Belgitim bird
is regarded as the highest trained. All homing pigeons
possess the same qualities. Let loose, after training,
long distances from home, they tly with incredible speed
In a straight line for home, far outstripping, in many
instances, the steam engine. It would be an easy matter
to give records of distances, but what we are at present
immediately concerned wi(h is the uses to which homing
pigeons could be turned in India. Every frontier sta-
tion in India could easily have a few trained birds
which, should ever an emergency arise, could carry
messages with a speed and certainty which no cou-
trivance of man could attain. The news of an outbreak
of the Nagas or any of the other hill tribes bordering
Assam could by means of homing pigeons be com-
municated to tho authorities within a few hours of the
occurrence and immediate steps could be taken. On
the North-Western frontier a regidar pigeon post across
Afghanistan will one day, sooner or later, be found in-
valuable. Simla, the seat of the Imperial Government
for eight months of the year, is liable to be cut off
from all communication with the plains by heavy raiue.
Here, too, homing pigeons would be invaluable.
Planters in the Mofussil might train a few birds for
their own purposes, and they would find that some
day, sooner or later, their care would be rewarded. In
a case of sudden and serious illness the arrival of a
medical man a few hours earlier than ordinary dak
could carry the message, might mean a great deal,
and there are dozens of instances where the service
of a pigeon post in theHIofussil would bs highly ad-
Tantage 'US. Pigton posts are not unknown in India.
In the Bombay and Madras Presidencies as well as
id the Upper Provinces racing pigeons are not nn-
conimOD. 8on)e years ago a regular pigeon post was
worked between Nagpore and Hyderabad, some 270
miles. Some 2(HJ birds were kept for this purpose at
Nagjiore an<I were cared foi- by fakirs. Racing or
helming pigeons sciittered the seeds of rebellion
all u\t:r India before the outbreak of the Mutiny,
Bud at tli« preseot day tlieir use for vaiiotis pur-

poses by natives is not unknown. Before the Crimean
War, Jlr. Ferguson, of the Cci/loit Vhsirvei; established
a pigeon post between Point de Galle and Colombo,
a distance of "'2 miles and pigeons did the distance
invariably within an liour.* This pigeon post brought
He first news of the fall of Sebastopol to Colombo.
With favourable conditions of weather and wind,
homing pigeons can fly with ease 60 miles an hour,
and 15 miles an hour for eight hours on end has been
accomplished by pigeorrs. There is a case on record
in which in a race between the Crystal Palace and
Brussels, the winning bird beat the telegraph by ten
minutes. We are glad to say that the Government
of India h3^'•, during the last three years, given some
•ttention to the breeding and training of homing pigeons
Ijr military purposes, and it would be weTl, if the
gre:it value of trained pigeons "as more practically
realized than it apparently is. No contrivance of man,
not even the steam engine or the telegraph, can equal,
on emergency, the speed and certainty |of the homing
pigeon, and its advantages for military jnirposes are
obvious. — Indian Planteis^ Gazette.

PLANTING PROSPECTS IN CEYLON.

A gentleman with considerable interests in Ceylon,
writing from London under date Nov. Kith,
is good enough to state : —

"I am pleased to notice from time to time in
the Overhuid Obnerver, which I receive regularly,
your continued satisfactory reports regarding the
tea enterprize in the Colony. Since my retirement
from the life of coffee planter in your island,
I have increased my stake considerably in the
colony, and naturally read your reports with interest.
On my last visit I found a very favourable view
in regard to the ultimate success of this product,
so much so that I at once commenced operations

on properties which I trust may prove a

lucrative concern, but in these days of blights and
pests it is as well not to be too sanguine; so far
however I have cause to be satisfied with a large acre-
age planted up, a portion of which is already pro-
ducing .lOO lb. per acre, and I hope to eatend
still further before many months are over, but
proprietors must look ere long to a substantial
fall in prices : they are good at present and per-
haps may continue so for another j'ear, after
that we must be prepared, I think, to content
ourselves with Is, which price, there are reason-
able grounds for believing, should be reauzed.
by fair average qualities of Ceylon teas. It is
wonderful to notice how these teas have risen iu
favor with the British public during even the past
nine months. A year ago, I had considerable diffic-
ulties in persuading people to drink them ; now
I am pestered from all quarters for supplies.
" There is little doubt in my mind that pro-
prietors are making a fatal error in sacrificing such
large quantities of cinchona bark at the present time
A decided upward tendency has sat in in the
value of this article in the London market, and
before long, in my opinion, we shall see a further
rise of Id to fiO per cent. My advice to those who
have bark and can keej) it, is most decidedly to
do so : they will reap a golden harvest by-and-bye.
Poor King Coffee in fame districts doubtless is a
thing of bygone days, but it is not true to say
that 'no more coffee is to come from Ceylon' as I
have heard remarked from time to time. As an.
instance I may quote a property in Haputalewhicht
this past season has yielded a crop of over 7 cw
per acre on the fuUy hearing coffee. It is hard
enough to tight for the credit of the island on

* Not i|niet this : good birds in favourable weather
have been known to lly thi' distance of 72 miles in l-^
hour, or about a mile a minute. "(Jenerally within two
botirs " would be about correct.— Ed,

5i2

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. IjA^UAiiV i, 1886.

this side, without receiving damaging reports of
such a nature emanating from men wlio are sup-
posed to liavc a knowledge of such things but
wlio though perhaps liard hit themselves, ought
to be more moderate in their remarks, if only
for the piresent and future welfare of ' old
Lanka.' On commencing this letter it was not my
intention to have enlarged so freely, but when one
begins talking on the subject of Ceylon interests
it ia a tempting topic."

For Catarkhai. Colds. — One drachm of camphor,
coarsely powdered or shredded, is stirred iuto a vussel
containing very hot water. A paper cone, placed
large end downward over the dish, is the means by
which the camphorated steam is inhaled through the
nose. Dr. G. E. Dobbson asserts positively, through
the Lancet^ that if this treatment is continued for
twenty minutes, and repeated three or four times in
as many hours, great and usually permanent relief
follows. — Popular Science Nrma.

Tea in Oevi.on. — Many absentee proprietors are now
in such haste to liurry iuto Tea, that the necessary
instructions are being conveyed to their &Iauagers — not
by means of letters but by telegrms. Kalutara — the
youngest of our Tea districts — has just rececived its
second Tea Roller — intended for Torwood Estate under
the Superintendence of Mr. J. A. Cochar. The first Si-
rocco will also soon be on its way to the sajne district.
It has been remarked tb;it many of the Dimbula aiul
Lindula 'J'eas are below the average standard of Tea from
other districts, notwithstanding the use of the most
approved Macliiuei'y. The Teas are said to be thin and
W(;ak in the cup. It must be rennjmbered that in
the districts referred to much of the Tea is planted
in with the Coffee, and we think this fact alone is
sufficient to account for the complaint. When the
Coffee is eradicated the quality may imjirove. — "Ceylon
Advertiser."

Orchid Exportation from Brazii,. — We confess to
a certain feeling of satisfaction at reading the
following extract from a letter written by one of
the Compnguie Ooutinentale : — "The Jlnniciijal Council
(of the island of St. Catherine) has also imposed a
tax of 500,000 leis (=2,500 francs), (m lach individual
leaving the island with plants, and an additional tax
of 5 per cent provincial dues ; and all this because
a collector last year boasted to have t.iken from tlie
island more than 100,000 francs worth of Orchids,
saying that the Brazilians were simpletons who did
not know the value of their weeds, as they call the
OrchHs. I for.see the time when, all the couutriis
acting m the same way. Orchids will become very
rare - in Europe, and where it will not be easy in
future to introduce them in hnge masses. It is
alleged that certain tlistricts formerly rich in Orchids
are no longer so now. The great fault does not,
however, depend on an excessive quantity of Orchids
sent to Europe, but on collectors, who after having
obtained the desired numbers, set the forests on fire
and thus destroy the plants and prevent them from
being collected by others." If this be true, hanging
i 8 too goo<l for such murderers. — Gardeiitfs* Clnviicle.

Oil Mills.— The Poiidicherry Steam Oil Mills
Company, which was formed in Pondiclicrry about a
year ago, for the pui'pose of extracting oil from seeds
and groundnuts by means of improved machinery,
worked by steam power, has just completed the factory
and buildings, and the erection of the machinery, and
crushing operations will, it is expected, commence
some time this month. The machinery was oflicially
tested last week, and its wm'king sanctioned by
M onsieur Jemeau, the Cliiet Engineer of the colony,
assisted by the Chief Engineer of the Messageries
Maritimes" Company's steamer "Tibre." The pro-
moters of tlic undertaking base tlieir claims to
success, firstly, on account of the greatly reduced
cost at which oil can be produced by machinery
as compared with native country presses, and,
eecoudly, by teasou of the larger outtuiu, and saving
from wftst«. Tlie Company eeems to liave seemed

a good bargain in the press and steam engine,
which were bought second hand eijual to new,
and. which with the buildings, works, offices and
preliminary charges, complete, will represent a
total capital outlay of under E10,000. The share
capital of the Company is 1150,000, so that there
will be a working cash balance available of
ElO.OOO. It is intended, for some time to come,
to confine the crushing to ground-nuts, the pro-
duet of which is mostly shipped to Burinah and
Mauritius.* The chief drawback against cheap
working will be the cost of fuel ; in other res-
respects the Company's arrangements appear to
be such as to insure economy. The shares are
held by a a tew of the leading residents of Pon-
dicherry, mostly merchants, a committee of whom
control the management gratuitously. An artesian
well has been successfully sunk in the factory
compound, the water from which being pure, is
well adapted for steam iiurposes. — Madras Weekly
Mail.

Labor in TwNiD.iD. — Public Opinion, a paper
published at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, in its issue
of Oct. '20th laments over the customs returns for
September, which show a decrease of £15,000 for
imports and £2,300 for duty paid, the total decrease
for the nine months being £740,070 for imports and
£17,100 for duty. On this our contemporary remarks:-

"W^ouUl we could say that a considerable part of this
decrease was ilue to increased production of native pro-
visions to replace foreign imports, but no such so-
lace ia admissible. The decrease simply means the
pauperization of our poj)ulatiou and their consequent
iiiability to purchase. Years 'oefore this great crisis
the present writer, and others who bad the real
interest of the country at heart had raised a warning
voice that the abandonment of the liberal policy of
Sir Arthur Gordon would sooner or later, bring forth
its bitter fruits. All our laws have tended to tester the
prepoudtraiice of eue industry to the exclusion of other,
and, at the first crisis, we are all prostrate. Fosttrlhe
sugar industry by all means, but do so in an intelligent
and broad spirit. It is our mainstay, therefore does it
require to be propped up by minor industries.
The writer then goes on io compare Trinidad with
the sister colony Barbados, and states that the
depression in the latter is caused by the high price
of landed property having burdened estates with a
load of interest. The writer then proceeds : -

In Trinidad we bavi: many advantages which do not
exist in Barbados. In the first place we have other
industries, other products which, on the whole, almost
equal in gross value our sugar crop, and, nt the pre-
sent moment, especially, far surpasses it in nett pro-
fits. Our cocoa crop alone is equally in gross value
to fully two-thirds of our sugar crop. Next, in re-
gard to sugar, our lands are more fertile and do
not require the heavy expenditure in artificial manure,
without which no result c^n be obtained from the in-
ferior and exhausted lands of Barbadoes, But against
those advantages, we have the terrilde drawback of
dear labour. It is calculated that the indentured cooly,
if all the expenses of Ids introduction iuto the colony
and those which bear exclnsivciy on the planter, such
as indenture fee, Iiospilafand otliei expenses are added
up, cost about 50 cents for a full day's woi k. This is
enormous.

We should think so. The Creole laborer earns 20
to 25 cents per task, but he cannot live on this,
so supplements it by other means ; in Barbados the
laborers receive about (id a day, but they work only
four or live days in the week, the rest of the time
being occupied in the cultivation of gioinid juo-
visions : this system, the writer in Public Opinion
considers should be introduced into Trinidad.

* What product? The oil, we nmlerstood, wi'iit to
Marseilles to take thi' place nf olive eil. AVe [iresinue
it is the oil cake wnicU ie sent to Burma and
Mauritius,— E».

jANDARy X, lese.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

5'i

HOW TO MAKE POTASH.

Baron Ferd. von JEueller, K.C.M.G., of Victoria,
writes as tollowa how to make potash: — The wood,
bark, branches, and foliage are burnt in pits sunk 3 feet
or 4 feet in the grounJ ; tlie ineincrction is continued
until the pit is almost filled witli ashes. Young
branches and leaves are usually much richer in potash
than the stem-wood, hence they should not lie rejecteil.
The ashes thus obtained are placed in tubs or casks
on straw over a false bottom. Cold water, in moderate
quantities, is poured over the ashes, and the lirst strong
potash liquid removed for evaporation in flat iron
vessels, while the weaker fluid is used for the lisiviation
of fresh a<-hes. While the evaporation proceeds, fresh
portions of strong licjuid are alted until the concentrat-
ed boiling fluid assumes a rather thiuk consistence.
At last, with mild heat and final constant stirring, the
whole is evaporaterl to dryness. This dried mass
ri'presents crude potash, more or less ini)iure, according
to tile nature of the wood employed. A final heating
in rough furnaces is needed to expel sulphur combin-
ations, water, and empyreumatic substances ; also to
decompose colouring principles. Thus pearlash is
obtained. Pure carbonate of potassa in crude potash
varies from -10 to 80 per cent. Experiments, so far as
they were instituted in the laboratory, have given the
following approximate result with respect to the
contents of potash in some of our most common
trees. The woods of the Casuarinas, or Ste-Oaks, as
well as th.at of the black or silver Wattle, are some-
what richer than the wood of the British Oak, but far
richer than the ordinary Pine woods. The stems of
the Victorian Blue Gum and the so-called Swamp
Tea-tree (Melaleuca eiicifolia) yield about as much
potash as Eu'-opean Beech. The foliage of the Blue
Gum proved particularly rich in this alkali, and as it
is heavy and easily collected at the sawmills, it might
be turned there to auxiliary proiitable account, and,
indeed, in many other spots of the ranges. In the
(Queensland coast country the ^langrove could be m.ide
to yield potash in inunense quantities, as it is richer
in this alkali than almost any other native tree or
shrub ; and even if the JIangrove were not used for
the manufacture of potash, the Ash being rich in this
valuable fertiliser, could be easily and economically
applied for manurial purposes. Of couise British
woodmen are aware that it is hopeless to compete
with the ext^-nsive mineral depo.sits in Germany,
whence most of the potash of commerce is now made.
— Forestry.

♦

GINSENG IN THE COREA.*

The most important product of this part of Oorea,
(Sont'ilo) is the drug known as ginseng, .=o highly
prized as a tonic by the Chinese. I visited [several
of the numerous ginseng gardens in this neighbour-
hood, and saw the plant at various stages of its
growth. It is gi'own frem seed which is sown in
March. The seedlings are planted out in beds raised
a foot above the level of the surrounding soil,
bordered with upright slates and covered in from
8Un and rain by sheds of reeds three or four feet
high, well closed in except towards the north side,
where they are left more or less open, according to
the weather. These sheds are placed in rows with
just room enough to walk between them. In the
first or second years the ginseng plant is only two
or three inches high, and has only two leaves. It
is trnnspl.drted frequently during this period. In the
fourth year the stem is about six inches high, with
four horizontal leaves standing out from it at right
angles, and in tiftli year a strong healthy plant has
reached matuiity. though it is more usual not to
take it up until it has reached the sixth season. Mould
containing jiienty of rotten leaves is the only manure
used. It has to be carefully guarded against thieves,
especially in the late stages of its growth, and in
CTery ginseng garden there is a shed raised high on
P'>Irs, where a watchman sits night and day.

* From a Bepoit by Consul-General iUtoo.
65

The ordinary ginseng is prepared by simply drying
the root in tlit^ sun, or, when the weather is un-
favourable, over a charcoal fire. To make the red
or clarified ginseng, the root is placed in wicker
baskets, which are put in a largo earthenware vessel
with a clos:''v-fitting cover, and pierced at the bottom
with holes. It is then placed over builins water and
steamed fur a longer or shorter time, accortiiug to
the age of the plant, four hours being an avt-rage
time.

The export of this quality of ginseng is a strict
mon-^noly, which afl'or<ls a consiilcrable revenue, and
is Sii. I to be the king's personal pertpiisite. De:itli
is the punishme'it". for smuggling it out of the country ;
but in spite ul prohibition, considerable quantities
find their way abroad by illicit ehauneis.

The annual amount exported to China is 202
piculs, which is vahied at forty nyang a catty, or,
say, forty dollars a picul <1.3:ji lb.). The white gin-
seng is worth about half as much. It ia the wild
ginseng for which enormous prices are sometimc^s
paid. Ginseng is also grown at Yong-san, in the
Province of Kyong-sangdo. — Fliarmacetttiaal Jovrnal.

TOBACCO IN BURMA.
That the soil and climate of Burma are admirably
suited for the cultivation and curing of tobacci has
long been admitted, and it is very satisfactory to learn
that tiiere are uo,v good reasons to hope that the
cuUivation of tobacco is b"giiining to be popular and
to take root in tiie Province. The farm at Kayuktan
in the Hauth.iwadi ^listrict h.as been of special benefit
in this respect. The cultivators, both Burman ami
Karen, had free access at all times to the plantation.
Several cultivators in the immediate vi'-inity took to
the cultivation. They were preseutel with seed and
seedlings, and their plots were visited by the .Vssistmt
Director of Agriculture, who afforded them bo*h advio;
and assistance. The result was highly satisfactory ;
all got good crops, and one or two succeeded in raising
excellent tobacco. They were shown how to dry and
cure the tobacco. A large number of jieople flocked
in to verify what they had heard about tuc successful
cultivation of tobacco, and, after judging for them-
selves, no less than 500 or GOO landholders have
since started tobacco cultivation. It is believed that,

1 by this new impetus, an additional area of something
like .500 acres has been brought under cultivation.
In other parts of the Province much is also being
done. In the !Ma-ubin Island, grants of land aggreg-
ating about 10,000 acres have been made to cultivators,
a considerable number of whom have agreed 'to
start tobacco cultivation. A small farm has also been
started on the Island ; and the cultivation and curing
will be carried on, as at Kyauktan, under the eyes

' of the people, and it is hoped that results similar
to those obtained at Kyauktan may be achieveil. In
addition to the above measures, steps have been
taken to revive the cultivation and proper curing of
tobacco in Arakan. Mr. Roberts, formerly a tobacco

I and cigar manufacturer in Kokonad:i, was deputed
to I'aletwa in .July liSfiL', to start a small plantation
of the indigenous tobacco and prepare as large a
supply of leaf as possible for trial in the local and
home markets. The object was to ascertain what
were the real quality and value of the K.aladan to-

' bacco under proper treatment. The experiment wjs
successful. .Samples of this tobacco dried and eu-ed
at I'aletwi, and samples of American tol)acco
grown and cured at the Kyauktan farm, have been
sent to t'.vo large London tobacco importers ami
manufacturers for valuation and report, and a .sample
of both the Kaladan and Kyauktan leaf has been
sent to the Erench Government at the retpic-t of
the French Consul at Ilangoon. The London tobacco
manufacturers are, it appears, keen to find t ew source.s
of tobacco supply; and the French Government is

j the largest single purchaser of foreign tobacco in
the worlil. It is hoped that, if th(^ reports from
these .sources arc satisf.ictory, a favourable outlet for

1 the tobacco of Burni.i may be obtained. — Calcutta
Enylinhman.

m

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. jA^VAsri,tt

TOKENIAS.

The rest plants to which I wish to draw attention
are thp Torenias, and all those who admire the-
perennial Torenia Asintica T.'ill also appreciate tlic
e(iually beantiful annual species T. Bailloni and T.
Fonrn'ieri. The flowers of the former are yellow with
a pnrplc centre, and those of the latter species are
a blue, somewhat resembling T. Asiaticn. The genus
belongs to the natnral order Scrophnlariacere, and
consequently is allied to many of popular garden
flowers, such as the Foxgiove, Snapdragon, Toadflax,
Mimu!us, and Calceolaria. Like T. asiatica the
species under notice are as well adapted for culture
in baskets as for pots, l)e;ug of a pendant habit.
The leaves are small, and produced in pairs, the
flowers springing from the axils of the leaves. All
the species in cultivation are imp.atient of stagnant
moisture at the roots, but at the same time they all
require abundant supplies of water, consequently it
is necessary, in order to achieve even a moderate
share of success, to secure perfect drainage and use
an open soil. The seed, which is very small, should
be sown early in spring in pots or pans that are
well drained, and containing 2 or ?> inches depth of
fine soil made level, and watered tljrough a fine
rose previous to sowing the seed. If it is decided
to cover the seed with soil great care must be exercij5ed
in doing so, but anyone who is acnistoroed to raising
Lobelias. Celery, and herbaceous Clalceolarias from
seed v.ill not be likely to err on that .score. In my
own practice I find it the best to never cover very
em.all seeds with soil, but after sowing I cut a piece
of newspaper to fit the out>ide diameter of the .seed
pan, and then prtss it gently down on to the surface
of the soil, and thus leave a margin standing up all
round and close to the sides of the pan. and if the
pan is stood level, as it ought to be in any case, the
water which is p,.ured o^. t'-e paper remains tliereon
and keeps the soil niulerncath constantlv moist, and
not a .seed is disturbed. As the .seedlings appear the
paper can be removed at will, and replaced to shade
from the sun or too strong a diffused light. Water
the young Torenias previous to transplanting them,
and." as with Tbuulergias during growth, freqi-ent
syringings will 1 e benofirial, and will keep red spider
in check. Should black thrips appear, light and
frequent fumigations will destroy tbem, but an extra
strong dose of tobacco smoke would, in all prob-
ability, be as fatal to the Torenias as the thrips. The
annual Torenias are the most diflicult plants to rear
and cultivate of all that I shallmention in this paper;
and if amongst my readers there are any amateurs
who can boast of " never having failed with any
plant they have yet taken in hnnd— and I know
one or two who can truthfully say as much so far—
to them I heartily commend for their cidture. and if
thev only succeed in raising and tlcwering 10 per
cent of the seeds sown, they will be amply repaid
for their trouble. -J. W. H.—Joiirnal of Hmiicultin-c.

[The.s» are ^■cry beautifid plants and suitable for
verandahs, but like uiaiiy otlier thin5;s here, the
Kcde are generally covered deep, ami they never
uao ttp.— En.]

— — — — ^

CiUTTAtERCHA.

IJiOW and Eooiongftti, Sasaynp snd Sainbakong'
ulni the interniedi.'ite rivers, produce all sorts of
guttapercha, that of the Inttrr port being chietU-
'■iiiixed quali'ies," I.e.. the diffeirnt varieties mixed,
1 fliij.'rrtnflf.siiig produces gu'taperchn as well a« other
[ortseji thesoutli and wist of PoMiro, but the rivers
(X'ending Uorlii into the interior nccoinits for flic
evjiorts lit tlie.se southern ports. There is also a
I'l'ce i|Uoutitv of romn.on .sorts of guttapercha
oi tained on the north-east coast of Borneo, viz., at
Pnrnwak and Brnni, and is imported from I.abuali.
\Vithin a recent perioil guttapcriha trees have been
diseovrio.l towards the east end of the Celebos (still
hitliin (lie limits). Outtnpercha has been exporteil
f'Oni Ihii region, but it is not quite apparent as to
hhnt qnalty, it i» fin-p'y drscribed as " fair quality."

The second and third sorts or classes of guttapercha,

' viz., Gutta Jlookas and Gutta Kapur gi-fw within

ten miles of the sea coast, and on low. but not

I swampy land. They grow, too, on some of the islands

* such as Trakkan and Boenyoet, but the best kind,

viz., Getah J^anyiit, is .seldom obtained at le.-.s than

thirty miles from the sea coast, and at an elevation

, of 10(1 feet from the sea level ; and it is worthy of

remark, that the inferior kinds all disappear 100

miles from the coast, and the best Icind only is

found at that di.-^tance. These trees are found growing

in groves, each variety being in separate groves.

These groves number from '-00 to 500 trees ni each.

antl grow on the hill slopes, with higher forest trees

suri'ounding them. The natives affirm that at times

guttapercha trees are fouiul at an elevation of COO

feet above the sea level, aihl where so found yield

a better and more abundant supply of gutta. The

soil in which they grow is rich, and witli a rocky

subsoil. The rainfall is greater than in .Singapore,

and the dryest months of the year are November

and December; the rest of the year is always moist.

The average temperature (in the shade) for the

year may be stated thus: —

May to October
Nov. to April

( Highest range

{ Average

( Highest range

(Average

Day Night .S. a.m.
00° Fahr. —
T-S*^ „ ... ee^Fahr.
95" „ ... -
84-^ „ ... 70" „

All accounts .seem to agree that guttapercha trees
flourish best in a moist temperature, in light loamy
soil at the foot or slopes of hills, thus having plenty
of drainage and also surrounded by primitive {not
aecondart/) jungle.

As guttapercha trees are indigenous to Singapore,
although only now seen as curiosities, its climate,
although somewhat modifieil l>y the denudation of
its own forest trees and from the adjacent peninsula,
will give the best index to the requirements of these
trees. The Singapore year may be divided into three
periods of four months each; 1st, from .Tanuary to
April, during which the rainfall is very variable aud
uncertain; 2nd, from May to August, which may be
called the dry season, in which period as a rule the
rainfall is least: and 3rd, from Stnitember to December,
which may be called the wet sea-son, during which
the rainfall is greatest. The yearlv rainfall in incheu
in 18G9 was 00 03, in INTO 12.3-24," in l.sil lO'J 45, is
1872 75-30, and in 187:-! tSu'tiO. The following was
the temperature for the same period ; —
1869 1870 1871
Highest temperature 1)2" m" Ol'^S'

Lowest O'!)"-' 69° UO''

— Indiaruhbcr and Gnttapcirlia Joiirtftl.

1872
92»
67'

1873
92'^5'

F:

MANGABEIEA KUBBEE.

This rubber is likely to attract considerable notice
in cousequenc*^ or a recent favourable development
in the manipulation of the raw material. When
first imported, owing to the careless way in which
it was collected .and prepared, it only fetched about
Bix()encc a pound. But it has recently been import-
ed by a Brazilian merchant in very fine condition,
and tho article when submitted to some of the best
London firms, has been declared to be worth thtee
and four-pence a pound. The rubber is o.-pecially
suited for springs of railway and tram cars, and
for similar purposes.

Through the kindness of Messrs, Christy, we are
enabled to piesent our readers with some inform-
ation concerning this rubber, us well as with « picture
of the plant from which it is produced. T!i:' .^[:ln-
gabiba. Mangaha. or i\Iang;djeira Tree, as it is willed
in Brozil, is a -small tree belonging to the Jjiori/iM ('—'
with an eleg^int mode of growth, like a weeping
birch, })aving drooping bra-iches and small oblong
leaves, slnu-p at the base, but with a short rounded
point at tlie apex. The tree yields an excellent
rubber, but is tuore fre(|ucntly grown for its fruit,
which has a most delicion-. taste, and is a great
favourite with the Brazilians. It is about the size

Januakv I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

S'^S

of a i>Iam, of a yellow colour, and lunrked with
reU spots or streaks. It is ouly lit to eat when

pitrfectly ripe, or after being kept for a sli jrt time.

Heuoe the tree has the double advantage of boaiiiig
fruit which will bear exportation, and of j-ieKling a
valuable rubber. The tree is now attractiug atten-
tion in its native country, haring been undeservedly
neglected, as may be seen from the following note,
taken Ironi the Journal of the ii'ocUti/ of Arts, June
4th, UvMi, p. tiU:—

■'The inhabitants of Pernambuco are beginning to
realize the vast stores of undeveloped weaitn existing
in their virgin forests, and rubber is being exported
from that province, whicli may soon rival I'ara in
the extent of its .xports of the article. Ueceiitly
Senhor Jose l""ernaulez Lopes issued a circular. April
20th, 1880, calling attention to this important source of
wealth, and giving practical instructions for the
collection and preparation of the rubber, from which
the following is extracted : — ' The process of extract-
ing the milk from the Mangabeira is very simple and
easy. Kach per.^on must be supplied with fifty or
more small tin basins and a small axe. He should
make oblique cuts sloping downwards at a little
distance from each other, all round the trunk of
the Mangabeira, cutting only the bark, and placing
immediately below eacli cut one of the basins, securing
these either witli adhesive clay or nails. These
small basins will collect the milk that exudes from
the cuts, and when full they must be emptied into
a larger vessel. This process should be continued
during the whole day, and thus three or four b jttles
of milk may be collected, according to the fertility
of the trees. The cuts should not be deep and a
great number of incisions should not be made on
each tree, as these may weaken or kill the trees,
which has been the case in some instances with the
Seringueira, the tree from which the Pari rubber is
obtained.'

•' The rubber is prepared from tlie juice as follows: —
Put a little powdered alum into a teacupful of
water, mixing it well, then put a few spoonsful of
this solution into a vessel in which three lioltles of
the milk have been placed, properly strained to
clear it from any extraneous matter. Immediately
the milk coagulates, which will be in two or three
minutes, the ruljber must be exposed to the air on
sticks, and allowed to drain for eight tlays. After
thirty days it is ready to send to market in cases
or barrels."

To the above it may be added that in incising the
trees it wouUi be better to use a guarded axe, 7. c,
one thickened iu the upper part of the blade to
prevent its penetrating the bark beyond a certain
distance, so as not to injure the cambiiun or jtiicy
layer, for if this be pierced the tree is likely to
dec-.y.

The use of alum or salt, or any such substance,
to coagulate the rubber, is liable to roniler it wet
and spongy, unless it be prepared iu sheets and
siibiected to stiong pressure. The best plan is to
evaporate the mill; in thin layers, over smoke (a.» is
done ill Paral, c- in sImUuw pans in st current of
hot ail. — Indwrvhber aiul tjiUUipercha Jottfntil.

PLAXTCS'G IN FIJI.

(From F'ji " Timen" Qofrtspcndeni.)
Kafislla or, a the plotirietci- calls It, Mount Vernon,
is. the p:'>7.-i»-v -'" "•■-- V:,-'.i'p. The native'? i.—i-r-
;.Uy na^
or 80,^.

the north by ^fidailii. When the present proprietor
came to it not an acre was cleared. It was ))ash
ani jungle from high water mirk to the hitjhest
hill ; now -"0 acres are cleared aiid planted with
coconuts, coffee, tobacco, corn, yams, kc. The major
jiortinn of this area is planted with coconuts, and
170 acres are bearinij fruit. CMlTee was grown on
the bills, and the area would have been extendPil
but for the colfee leaf disease which tiurnetl a pay-
ing industry into *a losing one, and the cultivation of
the berry was abandoned. The soil and geneul
feature^- of the estite are similar to those already
described — an extended notice is therefore imueceasary.
Considerable attention has bee^i given to pastoral
pursuits. The estate is partly fenced and divided into
paddocks to fjcditate the breeding and fattening of
stock. There are 25 head of cattle and 250 she^^p run-
ning under the coconuts and doing the work of cultiv-
ation. Both cattle and sheep do remarkably well.
These sheep are famed, on I'aviuui, for the very
excellent and full flavoured mutton which they make.
Mr. Eiiunie has been trying to improve the c:irr.vliig
capacity of his run by planting au imported grass
from -be Southern States of America named affafa.
This is said to be a species of clover which makes
.splenilid feed. It grows most luxuriantly in a warm
ciitnate and is most suitable for cattle, being very
nutriti jus and very fattening. It is said to be in
great favo jr and demand on all cattle runs in South
America.

There is every convenience on this estate for pulping
and drying cotfee as well as for curing copra. There
an! 30 running vutas for sun drying the copra and
a house under which they can be placed for shelter
in a few seconds. There is also a large drying house,
with pipes au'l furnace, &c., where the copra can be
dried during the wet season. This hou-,e is also a
great convenience for drying cotTee and corn as the
temperature can be regulated. There is also a large
two story building used for storing the produce
awaiting shipment. Another two strong b'lililinga
fit'ed up with sleeping vatas is used for labourers'
rpiarters. There is a detached kitchen for cooking
the labourers food. A little further away is a very
neat weather-board cottage where the Indian over-
seer lives. AU tiiese buildings are on the beach
facing the main road. They arc all vei-y well placed
and bailt of hardwood frames weather-boards or iron
and all covered with iron roofs.

The dwelling house is situated on a hill, and is
reached by what appears au endless flight of steps
up au almost perpendicular hill. » • » #

The dwelling house is a weather-board building
with a flower garden iu front, in which crotons,
roses, &c., were growing. The situation was beautiful
and the outlook was majjnificent. Mr. Kannie is 100
well known to need »u iutrudur;tion to your readers.
When he w:iS introduced to me for the first time
it was as one of the successful planters of Taviuui.
Here was a riira ntis, for I had not met many
succscssful iilanters before iu Fiji, t'.nd I was g!ad to
meet even one. Air. Kannie is what some people
woulfl call a lucky fellow (many people regard suc-
cess iu life as au evirtenco of luck r.ither than of
ability or good management). Most of the things
tal-"eu in hand nave jirospertd, and generally
•1;; he lias planted tho.se tlungs that would pay
.^.undoned li.i-m when they would no longer pay
(or cultivaiion. When Cotton would uo longer pay,
'■^ wrt'^ ?'V'-'> "f> ?"d I'nenM'its ]^1o"ted, and now

oi- !i„n
ears ;

vbich used to prow 1
^'r Kannie juay 1
he ■'' 1 l>eit '■f .,idciit ' ■
avs i^f v, ulf-h .i 've b'
K «iii'-'ng the fir:.t oi ■
. end (1 tiie i.'.land. Ti
- on Tavinni was op.
cotton rush. It confaiuM alvjut

apd ju-.iicious man'*ger.

.as B "I'ainiy Scotchman,

'lie came from

placeo tun tji.

and is bounded on the south by Tuvanjaca, and on 1 ilovotcd entirely to the cnltivation of food and fruit —

uri

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* [January i, 1886,

yams, pines, peanuts, and bananas. It was purchased
with the special object of gowing pines and bananas
for exportatiou to the Australian colonies and New
Zealand. With the S. S. " Suva " running regularly, as
she does, to catch the outgoing steamers, special
facilities are offered to fruit growers on Taviuni. The
fear that the steamer may be taken off the line has,
perhaps, somewhat retarded cultivation in the fruit
direction. But a pushing energetic company like the
If. 8. S. Co. of New Zealand is not likely to abandon
a trade if it gives any promise of future success.
I'.efore I close I may say there is a plentiful sup-
ply of water on this estate.

FRUIT PEESERVES.

The ppst season has been in many respects an ex-
ceptionally good one tor the mauufactu:er of fruit
preserves. This industry is increasing yearly in im-
portance, and seems likely, before long, as in the cise
of many oti^er industries, to fall almost eutirely into
the hands of the larger houses who have the command
of bufficient capital to bring the resources of machinery
to bear upon the different processes employed.

During the height of the preserving season we had
an opportunity of visiting the London factory of Messrs.
0. Moir & Sous, where fruit of all descriptions is
preserved on a large scale. The raw material, con-
sisting of baskets of strawberries, currants, goose-
berries, &c., is gathered in the market gardens which
surrouml the metiopolis at the earliest hours in the
morning, it being a point with this firm that all fruit
should be converted into jam before the evening of the
day on which it is plucked. In the boiling room there
are long rows of jacketted copper pans each of about
60 gallons capacity. Steam at a pressure of about 50
lb. to the square inch is admitted into the jacket and
the fruit is poured into the pan. Each pan is served
from above by a trough through which the loaf sugar,
having been previously crushed in a mill and weighed
by an automatic apparatus, is shot on to the fruit and
tiie whole is boiled for a sufficient time. Some of the
pans are made to swing on truunions, the steam passing
through the latter as in an oscillatiug engine, whilst
others are provided with an ingenious valve arrange-
ment for emptying, in which case the necessary oper-
ations can be performed without tilting at all. The
latter arrangement is found a great convenience in
practical work, as it takes less time and occupies less
space. In order to preserve the flavour of the fruit
it is necessary that no water should be used in cleansing
it, and consequently many ingenious devices have to
be introduced for the purpose. In the case of red
currants, for instance, which seem somehow to possess
a special power for attracting " matter out of place,"
a cylindrical sieve containing revolving brushes of a
peculiar description is used. This runs at a speed of
1,'JUO revolutions per minute. The fruit passes through
the sieve, whilst the stalks and other refuse are dis-
charged at the lower end perfectly dry.

For making fruit jellies the fruit is boiled and the
first of the juice separated by means of open straining
bags. The fruit is |then placed in a centrifugal separ-
ator, consisting of an open-work basket rotated by a
vertical shaft. This runs at a great speed and almost
instantaneously separates the fluid parts of the fniit
from the hkins and seeds. There is also a somewhat
extensive hydraulic plant, consisting of pumping engines
and presses, which is used with some fruits in place
of the centrifugal machine for making jellies. As these
jellies are slightly acid earthenware vessels, pipes, and
taps are used in their preparation.

It is said by those interested in this trade, that
through the excessive competition of the present day in
the jam-making industry, firms that manufacture a good
article from sound fruit can only manage to exist by
means of the closest attention to economy in pro-
duction. However this may be, Messrs. Rloir & Sons
appear to have brought their labour-saving appliances
to a high degree of perfection, and this most noticeably
in the "filling room." The material is here carried in
copper pans with wheels running on a tramway, and

passes by gravity on to a hydraulic lift which raises it
to an overhead gantry. Eeneath the latter is a range
of filling ves.sels, and the pan, which is fitted with a
valve at the bottom, stops over each vessel and delivers
the exact quantity of material required, lleueath the
filling vessels the jampots (which have been pi-n-iuusly
washed in a steam-driven machine) are brought up by
an automatic arrairgemeut, each pot slopping in turn
until it receives its full complement of preserve, when
it passes on to make room for the next. In this way
thirty to forty thousand pots of jam are fiUeil in an
ordinary day's work, the attention of one man or boy
to each set of apparatus being alone required. It is
the fashion now to pack a good deal of the best quahty
of jam in gla^s bottles, and these are filled in the same
way. No mrchinery has, v.-e believe, yet been devised
by which ine or'tmary cover can be stretched and tied
over a jampot, but the uottles have long been closed
by an automatic arrangement. The stopper consists
of a stout tin ca^-sule, inside which is a tbi.i disc of
cork provided for the pui-pose of preventing contact
between the fruit and the meta,. The cork and
capsule having been put in position, the bottle is held
firmly in a revolving holder by means of a weight. A
pair of rollers are brought up to the capsule and close
it under the projecting flauge on the neck of the
bottle. Each nnichine will turn out about oOO bottles
pL-r hour inordinary work. The quickness aud precision
with which the jampots and bottles are automatically
taken from the stacks and marshalleil into rows, and
are then brought up to be filled by the various machines,
is not a little comical at first sight. In another
department of this factory pickles are made by the
ordinary process, or rather what should be the ordinary
process, only distilled vinegar being used in place of
the coarser acids which are employed by less scrupulous
manufacturers.

There is a building set apart for making the tins
used on the premises. Here there are power presses
and stamps driven by a separate engine. We under-
stand that over litiOO packages an hour are sometimes
turned out from this departiiient. Steam machinery
is also used for stamping the circular pieces of paper
which are used lor covering the jampots. Although
the machinery here in use for making tin packages is
comparatively new, it will shortly be superseiled by
an entirely fresh plant of novel de>ign by which the
labour will be still further reduced. The machines
have been especially designed for the firm, aud we hope
to be able to publish particulars of them at a future
time. This firm has other factories at Abeuleeu,
Wilmington, Delaware, and Seville. At the latte
establishment urange niarmalaile alone is made. Th
works of Messrs. Moir & Sons are instructive it only
for the purpose of showing how largely machinery is
now used in every branch of industry, even in one so
apparently simple as making jam. — Eiiyineerinc/.
^

Sooi-Watek for Plants. — The London Qarikn says:
" If you merely make a mixture of soot and water,
you have a crude aud dirty thing to deal with ; and
the right way is to put a bushel of soot into a well-
made canvas bag, into which a heavy piece of old iron
lias previously been thrown as a sinker; then tie up
the bag tightly, and tbrovv it into a tank or large
butt of pure fain or river water. None of the crude
carbon makes its escape : but you have all the ammonia
aud other essential component parts of tho soot, which
are really soluble ; and, either for syringing or water
ing, it is of the utmost value." — Popuhtr Sciciwe Nen'.-i,

QUININK MANUlAt'TDHED I.N CUVI.OX HV MES.SUS. SvMONS

AND CocHKAN. — We have had the opportunity of iu-
specting about a pound of Sulphato of Quiaine locally
manufactured by Messrs. Symons and Cocliranat their
laboratory. Tlie quiiiiiio ii a beautifully white color
but is nut so flaky as Howard's ciuinine. We do
not supiiose that c|uiuiue will ever be locally man-
ufactured for the market, for it is not a meivautile
speculation which many men would car.- to eml ark in,
hut tho sample of .juiuiue mnde by the tfto above-
named gentlemen is worthy of inspection for all that.
—Local "Times."

January i, iSS6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

5*1

PLANTING IN SUMATRA.
(By an ex-Ceylon Planter.)

CEVLOS TEA 1-. SUMATRAN TOnACCO.

It is with the greatest pleasure I read both these
publications (the Weekly Ceylon Ohserrer and Tropical
Aijrieultiirist). the former for news concerning my
old home and the latter for intorination on all
sorts of agiioultnre. It is cort;iinly a most invalu-
able magazine, shall I call it ? and many are the
iiuestions 1 am able to sol\e by reference to it.

I am glad to s.-o ihai Ceylon is again coming to
the front «-i:h its tea, and have no doubt it will
rcf^rtin its former proud position. Commend me to
tlio Ceylon planters for pluck, but they must keep
tlieir eyes open, as there will soon be plenty of
keen competition, though I do not apprehend
they have much to fear eitlier from this
part of the world or the Straits Settlements, as
these Settlements must long suffer from [want of a
snfllcieut and cheap supply of labour.

Here we arc wholly engrossed in tobacco, and it
is impossible to get planters to look at anything
else so long as it pays handsomely. Cent per cent
is notliing unusual, and many are the fortunes that
have been made within the last few years.

Things progress very slowly under the Dutch Gov-
ernment ; or rather want of Government (but it is verj'
good, however, _ at collecting taxes) ; and it is only
the occasional murder of a European by Chinese
coolies that rouses the apathy of the official mind,
and if the murderers arc caught and hanged two
years afterwards, we are apt to cry out, " Well
done the Government," though 1 doubt if such tardy
justice conveys to the native and Chinese minds
that sense of might which is supposed to appertain
to a civilized power ; but rather that the Govern-
ment have suddenly discovered in their jails some
criminals who deserved to be hanged (and there are
always plenty of them unliauged) , and it would be
better to get rid of them.

Tobacco crops have been very fair this season
as regards quantity, but there is a great deal more
broken leaf than usual. We were terribly bothered
during the eaily part of the season by worms, whicli
taxed alike the powers and patience of European
superintendent and Chinese cooly : where they all
came from will rer.iain a mystery, since let them be
picked off every tree ever so carefully today, they
would just be as bad on the morrow.

The Crr.TnAXtox of the coconut palm is said to
be the most remunerative branch of Aniei'ican
farminft. The trees do not produce much fruit
until they are ten years old ; but afterwards they
continue prolific for nearly a century, and the
yearly jield of each is worth, on the average,
Hftcon shillings in New York. In the extreme south
of Florida an enterprising native of New Jersey has
planted 200,000 palms. Land, labour and trees have
cost him only £20,000 ; and he expects, in two or
three years' time, to be earning a clear £120,000
annually, or fi.OO per cent, interest upon his in-
vested capital. The prospect is a seductive
one ; but lest British fathers with younger
sons should dream of sending their hopefuls to
grow coco-palms in Florida, we may as well add
that in the northern hemisphere the valuable nut
can only be cultivated near the sea, and south of
lat. 27, and that the New Jersey speculator, with
commendable prudence, has bought up the only
tract ot land in the United States that is exactly
Buitable for the pm-pose. — St. James's Budget.

CEYLON TJPCOUNTEY PLANTING EEPOBT.

BLACK BUG ON COFKEE— "TEA UEliUI SITES"— THE BONOS
SYSrEM IN TEA MANUKAOTDRE— THEITS CI' CINCHONA
BARK — Mlt. L. O. HOLLAND — THE CACAO CBOr— WHAT
TO i)0 wrJH COll'EK.

21st December, 1885.
. Black bug and its doings have now but a
limited cirvlo to interest, a circle, too. which is
ever lessening. Still, to those who belong to it, in
other words those who are growing cotVee, it will
be a pleasure to them to know tliat the scaly
abomination which has of late swept over some
districts, with the distructiveness of tire, has from
some cause or another got a very decided check,
and that there is reason to hope that the pest
is passing away.

A friend of mine who has taken considerable
interest in the subject, and written in the Observer
on the matter, has the honour as far as I know
of being the first to notice this change in regard
to the bug. On examining a branch they will
be seen to be covered with a white substance like
fungus, and to be quite dead. Even the young
leaves of the coffee, which formerly only appeared
to be immediately turned into favourite feeding
grounds, are now mostly free from the presence
of the pests, while on the older foliage the full-
grown bug, which has wrought such havoc, and,
like the much quoted ■■fierce light," has "blackened
every spot," he is dead. If all were gone it would
be well, but some of the young ones are still
lively, from, let us charitably suppose, the thought-
fulness of youth.

A sample branch was sent to the Direetor of
the Peradeniya Gardens, and his reply, which has
been placed at my disposal, is as cautious as
those which usually emanate from the true scientist.
Dr. Triuien says : — " I have examined the condition
ot the dead ' bugs' on your coffee. They are
all as dead as mutton, but the cause of their
deparLure is not evident. When I say all I
should except juany of the young ones which
are still lively. I am not quite satisfied that
the white substance is a fungus, and if it be
it may have come on the dead bodies, and not
have destroyed living ones, death having occurred
from some other cause. But I will look further
when I can get a little time."

It is but little comfort there is in these days in
regard to coffee, and I chronicle the above as a
probable cause of rejoicing.

Cacao seems to flourish in those showery iays,
and is full of promise for next crop. The one now
being gathered is a tine quality, but in some estates
which suffered from the drought in the early part
of the year, it is a great deal less than it should eb.

ON MAKING WREATHS.

[A con-espondent writes : — " I enclose a very good
piece from the Journal of Ilortieitllure on making
wreaths, which I came across last night. I wish
it had been a liltle earlier : it would have been
useful to ladies for the Christmas decorations."]

The first step after having decided the required size
of tlie wreath when completed will be to form a circle,
which is most fre([uently used, and for which 1 have
adopted the name of "skeleton." These skeletons are
very deceptive, and it is one of the commonest errors
with the uninitiated to imike these much too large,
and if the supply of Mowers be somewhat scant the
wreath in turn will present a very lean appearance.
With a view of overcoming this I will brietly cite one
or two examples. Presuming, then, that ii wreath
when complete is required to" be aboiii !■> inches in
diameter, the size of tbc skeleton on which to build it
should not oxc ed t! inches in diameter when flowers
snch aa Ctarysauthouiimia and Camelliiis arc iu season,

SiS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886.

bat which may be iucreased to 7 or tj inches when
choice flowers, as double Primulas, Bouvardias, Koman
Hyacinths, and Lily of the Valley, are employed. The
diameter of the first-named may be a surprize to
many; it is, however, fully justified by experience, and
is more readily understood if the breadth of a very
ordinary Chrvsonthemum, Camellia, or Eucharis be
taken into account ; with a moderate-sized flower of
either of these, and some smaller sprays to fmnish
the sides, and with Fern fringing the inner and outer
margins, it will be seen how easily the size may be in-
creased twofold. My idea of a full-sized wreath when
linisheJ and ready for use is 15 or 16 inches in dia-
meter (above that size I turm them specials), and for
this size a skeleton of 9 inches diameter will be ample.
Having sho^^-n, then, something of how the size may be
gauged, we must now construct the skeletoii.. and for
this purpose galvanised iron wire will be louud to
answer well. Having got this into .shape and of re-
quired size, next secure a hazel or willow to it and
round the interior. This will prevent the wire revolv-
ing in the hands of the operator, and which frequ-
ently misplaces a flower or two, thereby causing in-
convenience and annoyance. Haviug secured the hazel
or willow to the wire, some fresh green moss shuuid
be bound tightly over it with small twine, which when
finished should be slightly flattened. Wheu tliis is done
a fii-m surface about an inch wide will be the re-
sult, and all will be ready for placing the flowers.
There are several other ways of preparing these
skeletons, some binding tbem with cotton wool
which I object to, on the gionndof a green base for the
flowers to rest upon being more suitable. Further,
when the bulk of the flowers are arranged it fre-
quently happens that by inserting small choice bits
here and there a great improvement is made in the |
wreath. This mav be done easily where moss is em-
ployed as a foundation, having a piece of stem wire ;
to pierce the moss, and doubling it back .as it emerges
from the opposite side secures it in position. When ,
cotton wool is used it will not allow of wire pas.-;ing '
through it. For these reasons, and for the fact
that moss retains the moisture considerably longer
than cotton wool, which robs the flowers of the
little moisture which is about them, 1 am strongly
in favour of a moss fouudatioa. .Wreath skel-
etons made in various sizes are sold by horticultural
suudriesmen, but all 1 have seen are anything but
suitable for the purpose. They consist of two wires
arranged in circles at about li inch apart, and fixed
by about four cros.s wires. This leaves a large cavity
with which it is difiicult to deal, and also uses an
immense amount of binding wire in the work of ar-
ranging the flowers. One of the simplest ccuriv-
ances I have se-sn is male of block tin cut in circles
abjut t;i.-ce-iiu-.rt»rs of ao inch in width, r they
may be made of scraps ai.d soldered together. In
the" latter way, though a little more trouiile in mak-
ini;, they are" firmer than when cut out in one piece.
Any tinman will make them. 1 have used these in
qua.itity ill sizes ranging from 5 to 12 inches ju
di vmi'ter. It may not be out of place for a moment
to refer to the arruugcnient of a wreaub, though, as

I be-o:e reiaaikod, much w.li aepend on iniUnduai
♦aste. Frefumiog, Iheii, the flowers are cut. suck as
Bouvardias, L-.iy of the Vaiii-y, Koman Hyacinths,
Oardcnias, T'l'iuiosts,- Eucharis, Azaleas, aud douuie
riv-o.^iu-^' ..-i;; ucrd wiib.e, aii.i Cumelli-'S and I; v.ses

id need piercing, tne !oi ■■ er on account of the
u^tx'ni tu l.^^<.L >il{ th« H.oi.'^rs with no wood at-
lticu«i, hence stemlcss, and b- prevent them from
f liiug ; uud Xbf latier to keep lUtin from beconiiiijj
t"j gai.uii;. If at h:.nri s.iine small sprays of Cu^.-
iv-tsus Laws -i.iaiia will be scr^iciable, and ,"';si.=^t m
111^ ic..i.;m>s^g i.f M...Jeiiuaii Fci-ii, which is jjeueraliy
a .^wlCc ar.icle at this Jiuie of year. He^m the arr-

II gtiioei.i, tut'i, bv i.yi.gaspray i>f ('ypioss a..d uptu
wliic. pi.^.e 11 fiiiii'vi d JI j.»-iih.)ii, rbe latti-r .lomewhat
t ud.i.g ami net iio dti; tli.-i comes a Cum.ila,
Kucbarn, or Gard uii— or, ii fact, i.iiv of the lait,er
and more proiniueut flowers to occupy the ceite,
filling iu the sides with smaller flowers. Ijly ol the
VaUeji Deutzia gracilUs, aud Eoman Hjraciuths do

well for fringing the sides. Continue the use of the
Cypress, and insert bore and there a small spray of
Fern, firmly bimting them as you proceed, and using
a snuU pinch of moss on the stems of the flowers.
This will keep Ihe wire from cutting the stems,
and will also supply moisture to tbem. alwavs avoid
a heavy arrangement and overcrowding, and allow as
far as possible the flowers to assume their natural
position. Use the flowers in as much variety as pos:
sible, and, if procurable, a few wtll-coloured sprays
of Panicum variegatum will be found very pretty
aud effective jutting out here and there. It is pro-
iluctive, too, of lightness and elegance, which should
characterise the arrangement throughout, and with it
and Maidenhair Fern interspersed among the flowers
a very pleasiuL' and elegant wreath may he formed.
In -case of packing this is easily done by placing a
stick across the skeleton, allowing it to rest on
either side under the flowers, and attach a string to
its centre: ihen make two holes iu the bottom of
' the box, fast a string through aud fasten .securely
underneath it will travel safely thus, and the persen
unpacking it will see at a glance how it is secured —
J. H E.

IXDIARITSBEE IN THE DCICH EAST-IndiES. — N. Mc

Xeill, Esq., the acting British Consul at Batavia,
informs us that the exports of Indiarubber during
the years 18S1, I8S2, and 1883 were, respectively,
otl, 765, and 1,217 piculs (a picul equals 140 lb).
The trade in this article of produce has been very
dull lately. Tht- Indiarubber is obtained by the
natives from the bai"k of the trees, and always con-
tains more or less woody fibre intermingled with it.
It is also occasionally adulterated with woody fibre
to increase the weight. The island of .Sumatra is
richer than Ja\a in the production of Indiarubber,
the principal producing districts being Beucoelen and
the Lampougs. The rubber obtained from the latter
is generally consiiiertd tho better of the two. The
prices have varied duriug the past year from 120 to
.^0 florins for Beucoelen and from IbO to 110 florius
for Lnmpong per picul. (The Dutch East Indian
florin is worth Is. SJd.) It is better to attach
fixtures to a lathe spindle by means of the screw
than to ho!d them by ius"rting a sliank iu tbe socket
where the centre is put. The turning centre should
run perlecrly true, and where a prac*^ce is made of
iiiserting drills, reamers, shai'is, and otner tools, the
surface of Ihe centre seat may be so marretl and
enlarged that the rotation of tbe centre will be
out of iuie with the axial rotation of the spindle. —
/iidiiindliei- and Gui'ttapeycha Jonnial.

Should Hoeticcltcbe be Taduht in ocr Public
Schools? — This question was ably handled by Pro-
cessor ^','ickersh;' "1. late L;ipfrintendeut of Public
Jnsiruetiun of ^he State of Peunsyivaru.i, a' the late
State Horticultural meeting. Objection was made
that studies were now lc;i num'^rous for tht six
hours a day, and six or eicfht months in the year
of public sclioolieg, b"t. the Professor explained that
he did not reconimerid tht ;ati-oduclioo of this ;»nd
pirailar studies in addirion to tho*iH aire.ady in^tuct^il,—
bit in the place of smub othv:rs. He cont,-nded that,
Bs the result of a car'Tut .tiijy of public education,
t'at a Wrgc propTt^ .•. of :i;ne sjert in geo;jiaphy,
grai^m.'r. e^:«n^pie«, aiit^ so fovth, was ajsoUitely
ilirown away, — I'lat tho aim of public educ tiou
shonid not b" so ii^uch t.' educate as t j plara children
ou th" parh t6 euacatt, tbeitiselves. Public tcboKl
tcchin? s1>o<aM siioiy ,uinisi c:iuJ-.a .vitb t.ieto, .«
b- which t'ley co'.'tl ■ i ivf tht-ir .^o w»t as 'vrcum-
stances should iri*'", a.i.i >c io (it Tihem fT e.uy fiaiii-
cidar way. Chi: '■ t" tajg't to observe, to

t. u<k. and to ]ii lid .lave a gT'rdeu attached

to ev. ly puMi. >l-. ..i. i. .'. I 'l:e tl.; hour s.)'? ; a
gc'srnphy or ;;ra.uniar, and Wi^h '.'.i^ children iu 'he
girdeii, with the living piacts before them, and a
t' acher ctpable of explaining thiu?-. do ni re gO' d
than the V.ook siU'iies of a who'e we«k. The te marks
of the Professor made a deep imprcssiou.— f.'iu-rfcH<-rs'
Moiithlj/.

JANVAny J, iSSe,) THE TROPICAL AGRICULTl/RlSr,

P9

♦

To the Edilor of the " Ceijlon Oltserrer."
FISH-CUKING IN OEYLON.
Burma Koad 247, Peuang, 7th Dec. 1SS5.

Dhak SlE, — I saw in your advertiser editiou some
over " fish-curiuK yards " but caunot find it back I
It is possible you can be so kind to give me some
informations over tl>is trade ? It is not so loug ago.
I read it perhaps Juli.

Very much is it for my interest what I saw iu the
TiOjiicni Ay,-k!ilt>'ri-:t over wood from Japan for thr
boxes imported now, prices etc., having plenty useful
wood in Sumatra, " no smell," it should be very agree-
able to be in conection with a wood merchant of your
country.

I be a Dutchman residing in Sumatra for short time
here, to be informed and hope you have not to much
trubJes for it. I can only offer you my best thanks,

GUST. DIEJIANT.

[All about the fish-caring experiment will be found in
the Tropical Ai/riculturist, which is filed in Penang.—
Ed/1

THE ANNUAL MIGBATION OF BOTTEK-
iXIES.

Dear Sit., — You have for many years drawn publis
attention to the singular migration of butterflies, so
striking a spectacle each year, that all must feel
some interest in it.

Despite your repeated record, nothing has yet
been done "towards compiling and editing a scienti-
fic and comprehensive record of annual observ-
ations, recorded and unrecorded, especially those
which are exceptional.

Thus you recently noticed broicn butterflies as
joining in the migration, and many years ago, at
Gampola, I witnessed a singular migration of one
of our largest and most gorgeous butterflies, the
great emerald gieen Papilio Grino.

I propose to all interested in such matters, that
volunteers come fonvard to watch for migration of
butterflies, and send a postcard bulletin to an
editor of such records, noticing date, direction of
flight, direction of wind, weather, and specie.
All amateui' observers to send a specimen foldd
flat in paper, of one fly of each species noticed
to ensure scientific accuracy.

A most competent natmalist has offered to re-
vise, assort and edit aU such notices, once or
twice a year. and. if your columns are open, I
have no doubt will gladly send you a short peri-
odical bulletin of progress, should the matter prove
popular enough, to occupy yom' spare corner now

Will ladies and gentlemen Avilling to join this
"butterfly league" send me their names'? No
scientific knowledge is needed, and no apparatus
beyond a net. a few pieces of paper, and a pen

The naturalist who offers to edit these notes
has kindly consented to publish his annual sum-
mary in my journal, and hence I propose to co-
operate by arranging preliminaries. — Tours faith-
fully, H. NEVHiL. Editor of Taprobaniaiu

TEA KOLLING MACHINEKY : GBEAT SUC
CESS OF BABBEBS NEW BOLLEE.
Strathellie, Nawalapitiya. SOlh Dec. 1885.

I'k.iu SiK. — I notice in yesterday's Obxeivcr re-
ference made by Mr. Barber to the trial of his
roller at Blackstone at which Messrs. G. A. Talbot,
W. S. Thoma.'*. A. Scovell. J. H. Barber and my-
self were present. As the matter of selection of
tea machinery is one which is exercising the minds of
so many, I venture to give further details of the trial.

As ^^r. Harber .-^tale.-, 2 of the rolls were |inl -htil
iu lU minutes each of actual rolling. The roller
was not stopped until the Itli roll was finished,

12 noon

12-15

12-15

12-30

12-30

12-12

12-42

12-56

and, including the time taken in filling and deliver-
ing, the following is a record of the exact figures
of the consecutive rolls referred to : —

Started at Finished.
1st roll 801b. not sufficiently

withered
2nd „ 85 ,,
3rd „ 85 „
4th „ 90 „

Bevolutions of the roller disc3=30 per minute.
Motor used, 12 ft. water-wheel with 3 ft. buckets.

The above results show 3.50 lb. of withered,
or about ."JUO lb. of green, leaf rolled in the hour.
The quality of the roU, too, left nothing to be
desired, as was evidenced from the finished teas
which .1 subsequently had the advantage of
inspecting and tasting. Mr. Barber introduces
an entirely novel device into the art of tea-
rolling by macliinery, in his movable oblate
spheroid, or fluted globe, which in combination
with his " Barber " battens alternating with
other, raised and newly designed, battens on
discs travelling in opposite directions (at about
30 revolutions per minute) gives to the leaf a true
and complete centrifugal motion.

I am of opinion that the sooner and more
generally this machine can be brought before
the public the better ; for the above results lead
me to the conclusion that the roller is likely to
command attention from many of those now
introducing maehinei'y into their factories, more
especially those with deficient or expensive motive
power.— Yours faithfully, AETHUB SCOVELL.

Syluet. — Tea production inSylhetis rapidly increasing
and the district will soon be one of the most prominent.
The number of gardens is 111 against 46 in 1876, cert-
ainly a very rapid extension. The order of the Chief
Commissioner prohibiting low lauds being given to
planters in the Pratabgarh tahsil is a little astonish-
ing. The resolution says : — " This order naturally caused
some dis.satisfaction at the time, but already a large
portion of the land thus protected has been occupied
by ryots, who would otherwise have been excluded."
By the lease granted to tea-planters for tea for a
term of years one of the conditions is, that the same
be sold by public auction in the Deputy Commissioners'
office, after being duly notified in the A^sam Gazette^
and notices posted locally on the ground. It is difficult
to see why Government should step in, .nnd stop pri-
vate enterprize. If the ryots want the land, let them
attend the auction and bid for the lease. In addition to
this, why did those ryots not take up this land before ?
Simply, eithtr because they did not know of it, or else
were quietly waiting by, till the tea-planter had drained
the atijoinmg lands for tea, and thus rendered the
portions lying; higher, before unfit for rice caltiv-
ation, now suflicieutly dry to permit of their being
cropped. M'ho discovered that these low " hhed " lands
were the finest of soils ? No one but the tea-planter,
and hid reward is a prohibition by Government to go
any further in his searches, as be munt give way to
his Aryan brttbren '. How comes it that Sylhet has
been in existence for bo many years without its being
discovered tbat these lands were valuable? Was it be-
fore, or after the heavy influx of Europans and capital
that has poured into the diotrict the last few years ?
Europeans discovered it. and are entitled to it, and this
embargo placed upon taking up land, is simply a part
and parcel of the wretched, siiortBigi. ted policy, which
always has been the order of the diy^'th the present
Govtrnmeut. Not content with hampering the open-
ing out of new gardens, with vexatious cooly regul-
vtioDS, the next step is taken, when foiled in this direc-
ction, in prohihitiug the free acquisition ot land, not-
withstanding that planters may claim to have discovered
its value. — /nJian Ptanters' Gazette. [Here we have a
repetition of what was once a great grievance in Ocylon.
Holilers of piitches ot land near coffee estiites gathered
abnormal crops. But tea leaf is not so easily stolen
and .utilized as was the case with coffee berries, — Eo.

S2* THE TUO-PICAL AQmCVLTUmnf, (jAffVAin t, me.

MARKKT RATES FOR OLD AND NE^W PRODUCTS.
(From Lewin ik Peat's London Price Current, December 3rd, 1883.)

FROM MALABAR

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADRAS, &c.

QUALITY.

QUOTATIONS.

BEES' WAS, White

Y'ellow

CINCHONA BARK— Crwn

T Slightly softif
\ liar- • • •

Bed

CAKUAMOMS Malaljur

and Ceylon

CINNAMON

sli to good
luird bright
■ Do. drossy & dark ditto..

Renewed ...

Medium to fine Quill ..

Spoke shavings

jBranch

Renewed

Medium to good Qtiill ..

Ispoke shaviiigs

jBranch

Twig

'Clipped, hold, hright.finc'
JMiddling, stalky & leiiii
Aleppee IKair to tineplunipelipped
Tellicherryloood to fnie
iBrownish
Mangalore |Good & fine, washe.l,hgt.
Long Ceylon iMiddling to good...

Ists lord, to fine pale quill
• 2ncLsi __ __ ,, „

3rds| ,, ,, „ „
IthsW'oody and hard ...
Chips ...JFairto fine plant...

COCOA, Ceylon ... Bold to good bold

."iMedium

Triage to ordinary
COFFEECeylou Plantation Bijirt to fine hold

Middling to fine mid.
Low middling ...

Smalls

Good ordinary ...
Small to bold
Bold to fine bold...
Medium to fine ...

Small

Good to fine ordinary
yloui** < 'oehin ;Mid. coarse to finestraight
Ord. to fine Ion,
j Coarse to fine
]Ordinary to superior
iOrdinary to fine ...
iRoping ^air togood
iMiddlingwonny to fine.
iFair to fine fresh...
IGood to fine hold...
Small and medium
Fair to good hold...

Small

Fair to fine bold fresh .
Small ordinaryaiid fair.
Good to fine pickeii
iCummon to middling .

Fair Coast

PiekingslBurut and defective
OIL, CINNAMON" ... Good to fine heavy

CITRONELLR ..-iBright & good flavour .

LEMON GRASS ...| ,, ,, „ ,,
ORCHELLA WEED ...JMid. to fine, not woody.

PEPPKH.Matabarblk.sifted.Fair to bold heavy

,, Native
Liberian
East Indian

Native

COIRR<-IPE,C
FIBRE,

Biii-h
Stuffing ..
YARN, Ceylon
Cocliln
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted ..
CROTON SEEDS, sifted ..
GINGER, Cochin, Cut

Rough

NUX VOMICA

MYRABOLANES, pale ..

£6 10s a £8
£6 10s a £6 lOs
Is a 3s 6d
Is 4a a 29 63
9d a Is 6d
2d a 8d
sa a 2s 6d
6d a 2s tia
hi a Is 3d
2d a 6d
Id

2s ca a 3s sia
I's a L's -Id
ts a.l a 2s'6rt
2s a .3s 3d
0.1 a Is <id
25 Gd a 4s (id
8(1 a Is 4d
ind a 2s
9d a Is (id
7.ja a Is 2a
lid a lid
2id a BJd
858 a Wis 6d
76s a 78s Ccl

a 70s-
82s oa a lots
03s a 8»8
■i6s a CUs
tSs a .=i5s
38s a 41s nom.
30s a 44s
80s a lOOs
^25 a 7.5s
16s a .Ws
tOs a '^Os lumi.
C13 a £31
straight) EDO a £.33
£7 a £18
£12 lOsa £38
£12 a £40
£11 a £17
2.ns a 60s
.36s a 40s
SOs a lU5s
-57s a 7.5s
3Ssa 41s
33s a .38s 6d
8s a 12s
.5s a 7s

8s 3d a IDs .W
7s (id a 8s
8s

Alleppee & Cochin
TelUcherry, White
PLUMBAGO, Lump

good

6s 3a a 7i
ls3<l a 3s
Jd a la

!jd a na

409 a .55s
■Jd a Sd

Chips
Dust

RED WOOD

SAPAN WOOD

SANDAL WOOD, logs
Do. chips

SENNA, Tinnevelli

TURMERIC, Madra:
Do.
Do.
Cochin

lOd a 2s 6d
12s a 149
10s a 13s

■ .^Fair to fine bright hold...
[Middling to good email...

• Islight foul to fine bright |8s a ISa

• Ordinan- to fine bright ...'Js 6d a 10s
. Fairand fine bold ...'£S12 eda £6

• [Middling coated to good £li a £7

• Fair to good flavor ... £20 a £3.5

.' i£10a£16

-jGoort to fine bold preen... fd a Isod

IFair middling hold ... 45d a Sd

Common lUirk and small l^d a 3§d

-, Finger fair to fine bold 21s a 2.3s

■ Mixed middling ttn-'gllt '"-'' * 203

■ Bulbs whole 158 a 17s

. Do split lOsOdallsSd

V'ANILtOES, Mauritius &,

Bourbon, Ists iFine crystalLsed 6 a Oinch.lGs a 22s
2nds Poxy & reddish .5 a S „ Il2s a 1«9
3rd8 ; Lean & dr,- to middling'

I under 6 inches ...^Gsalls
4th [Low, foxy, inferior and J39 a 5s
[pickings'

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZLBAR.

I

ALOES, Soecotrine and
Hepatic,
CHILLIES, Zanzibar

CL0V£9> Zauiibar
and Femha

iGood and tine dry ...£7n£«lL'

Common and good ..,70s a £G
i<lood to fine bright ... 47s a .5(ls

lOrdinary and middling.,., 4-59 a 16s
I Good and fine bright „. Sli & Itjd
'lOrdinaryduUtolalt .„'5i<la!>}d

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

QUALITY

QUOTATIONS

CLOVES. Mother

,, .Stems..

COCULUS INDICUS
GALLS, Biissorah 1 . ,

& Turkey ;""«
green.,
white..
GUM AMMONIACUM—
drop ..
block..
ANIMI, '.'washed ..

scraped..
ARABIC, lacked .,

sorts..,
ASSAFtETIDA ..,

KINO

JIYRRH, picked ..,

Aden sort^

OLIBANUM, Tlrop

Fair, usual dry"
, fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

...I2d a. Id
..MIA
... 9s a 10s

... 52s a Dis
...I48sa52s
..,f45s a 47s
I

Small to fine clean ...|4.5s a Gos

dark to good ...,3lisa45s

Picked fine pale in sorts. ]£14 a £1K
partyellow and mixed£Il a£l-3

Bean & Pea size ditto
amber and dark bold
Medium & bold sorts
Pale bold clean
Y'ellowish and mixed
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine

l£5 103 a £8
,.l£8a £12
, |£5 a £8
,.'88s a 100s
,.i7"sa 8.5s
.i7Ssa S8s
,'453 a .553

pickings.,
sittings

INDIARUBBER Mozambi,qne,fair tofiue

Slightlystony and foul ...;32s a 44s

Fairtofine brght

Fair to fine pale

Middling to good

Fair to good v bite

Reddish to middling

Middling to good pale

Slightly foul to fine

root

'ausagc
Ball

SAFFLOWER, Persian

'unnpe 1
liver

...jOrdiuarj- to good

, ItOs a 4.53
,.i£6a £8

J8.53 a 1009
"llSsaSSs

323 a 40s
■psa lis
. 93 a 1 is

IslUdaisUjd

. Is Id a Ik 2d
. Is ea a Is !ld
53 a 153

FROM CALCUTTA AND '
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. !

CASTOR OIL, Ists
2uds
.3nls

INDIARUBBER As«am

Riingooii

SAFFLOWER

TAJW.RINDS

Nearly water while ... ^'d a I'd
(Fairand good pate ...3da3^d
'Brown and brownish ..'. 23d a 2Jd
iGood to fine ... Is 9d a is Sd

Icommon foul and mixed "da Is 8d
.iFair lo:;.)od clean ... Is Sd a 2s M

Madagascar, Goodto fine pink v&white 2s a 2s Id

Fair to good black ... Is 7d a Is 9d

Goo<l to fine pinky ... £■• 10s a £5 lOs

Middling to f.iir ... £35su £4 23 (id

Inferior and pickings ... ^1 "^ £1 lOs
... Mid.tofineWrrrtnotstony ^Ohh lis
Stony and inferior ... 3s " IJ'

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

.[Fairdry to fine l.nght ... iJs a 30s
.jCcnmion & middling soft 17s a 2(is
.'Fair (o fine ... :«salU3

. Middling to fine ... ajd a Od

FROM CHINA. .T.\PAN & |
TH E EASTERN ISL.4.NDS.,

..Good, pure, ife dry white
..I ,, ,, " pink ,

..'Ordinary lo fine free ... 29s a 29s 6d
Pressed ...[23s a 243

Block ...Good ...|2l8a21s6d

GltTTA PERCHA, genuiuelFine clean Banj & Macas- 29 4d a 3s 3d
Sumatra. ..'Barky to fair [sar t>d a 2s 3d

Reboiled... ^"onitnon to fine clean ... Id a Is 4d
White Borneo ... Good to fine clean ...IldalsSil

Inferior and barky ... Id a tnl
l61"s a SO's, garbled
8,5's a fl.5'9
llOO'sa Ifio's
Pale reddish to pale
'Ordinary to red
Chi|is

Good to flue sound
Darkordiiiarv* middling 1» a Is od
Hood lo fine' ...la 2d a Is

Dark, rough & middling 7d a Is

CAMPHOR, China

Japan

GAJIBIER, Cubes

NUTMEGS, large

Medium
Small

M,VCE

RHUBARB, Sun dried
High dried

I 72s oa a i

2s a 3» 5d
. ts 8d a 28

Is Id a Is 7d
' Is (W a -ii lid

Is Id a Is .'id
■ lid a 1»
Mi 4s

. Fair to fine

SAGO, Pearl, large

medium ...,

small ...' ,. ,, ,,

Flour ...Good pinkv to while

TAPIOCA, Peimng Flake... JFair to fine
Singiipore ...j ,,

Flour
Pearl

.. BuUeta
I Medium
.'Seed

12s «<1 a Ms

12s a lis
" lis a lis

liH a 1 1s
" Uda 2Jd

lid a 2a
'..IJdalJ.l

1 Is a I. 5s (id

.'.' 14» lid a 1G3 lid
.,'148 tfd a Ids (id

i
I

Feb. I, 1886,.

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

52i

INSECT PLAGUES.

The distingHished lady naturalist who presides
so ably over one important department of teach-
ing at the Eoyal AKrieultural College at Ciren-
cester has put forward an opinion to which we in
Ceylon should do well to give the fullest con-
sideration. There is, we apprehend, scarcely a
country in the world which has suffered more
than has Ceylon from the ravages of insect life.
Hardly one of our agricultural industries has escaped
unscathed from their attacks. Coffee, cinchona,
cardamoms, coconut trees, — and probably, erelong
tea — have their productiveness aft'ected by these
obnoxious visitants. If, as has been asserted by
the lady in question, there exist means whereby,
in a general way, such plagues may be guarded
against m the future and eradicated in the present,
our debt of gratitude to those who would show us
how to accomplish such a result would indeed be great.

But it is acknowledged — and it must be evident
to us all in Ceylon as the result of past experience —
that individual effort can do little in such a direc-
tion. It IS only, we suspect, by legislative enactment,
and its full enforcement insuring co-operative work-
ing among all classes of our .agricultural popul-
ation, that the desirable end can be attained.
There exist among us plenty of intelligent men
who have already devoted much of tune and money
to the endeavour to rid themselves of those noxious
enemies. But what can single effort avail upon a
single estate or garden, or groups of estates and
gardens, when on adjacent properties the evil is
left to develop without any attempt to cope with it ?
We have recently had practical demonstration in an-
other colony of the useful effect of (iovernment
interference in the direction referred to. In Cyprus,
antecedent to British possession of that island, the
constantly recurring plague of locusts prevented
the hope that so long as it was allowed to con-
tinue the newly acijuired colony could be made
prosperous. Acting upon the advice sought and
obtained from those best qualified to advise upon
such a matter, the authorities in that island took
vigorous measures to deal with the evil. Hundreds
of miles — we do not think we exaggerate in saying
so — of canvas screens were erected, over which
the locusts in their wingless state were compelled
to march in their steady migi-ations. On surmount-
ing these screens they were compelled to drop into
troughs of water prepared tor their reception, and
the result was that in one single season it was
computed that a slaughter of these had been
effected to the extent, we believe, of over 200 mil-
lions ! What has been the result of the steady and
conliuued application of this principle? We are
under the strong impression that the plague will
no longer visit the colony in any serious degree.
It is at all events certain that for several seasons
we have heard very little about the crops of the
Cypriotes being destroyed by the agency of the locust.
Now it strikes us that what has been accom-
plished in one colony with such success could not
entirely fail of accomplishment, though by a
different method perhaps, in another. There must
and— according to the dictum we have quoted—
there do exist means for realizing a similar success
with respsct to the destraction of obnoxious insect
life in other lands. It is true that in Ceylon our insect
life is of a more diversified character than that
dealt with in Cyprus ; but nevertheless we should
hold that the principle has been proved, and that
it is to the application of it that our attention is
desirable. Nearly all varieties of insect life psss
tbioagh certain diatioct phases, In the ooe or
66

1 other of these phases, the creatures possess but
limited power of mobility, and are thus open to
j organized attack for their destruction. It is in the
j selection of the one particular .stage to which
■ effort should be directed that the chief duty of our
, naturalists consists. That point being determined,
I the further duty rests with them of pointing out
[ the method to be pursued whereby attack maybe
most effectually made. To enable these two duties
to be properly fulfilled, it is evident that opportunity
mn=t be afforded for the study locally by an expert
in ,-.uch matters of the habits and peculiarities
of each fomi of insect plague to be dealt with.
Such oppoil.uiity can only be afforded by Gov-
ernment aid, and it appears to us that we shall
be— in view of the importance of the matter as
regards its revenue — fully justified in calling upon
our authorities to see that such aid is afforded, when
next the necessity arises. When the ravages of
leaf-disease upon our coffee trees first became
strongly apparent, experts were called in to study
the question. It is generally held that in that
instance the course pursued was not productive
of much practical result; but, although this may
be true positively, it is far from, being the case
if we take the negative value of Mr. Ward's life-
history of Hemileia vastatrix and his inferences into
account, in sliowing in what directions outlay was use-
less, and so saving money, time and labour. The
enemy was of a particularly insidious character in that
case ; but the same disability scarcely applies to the
evils which may assail, and have assailed, our
more modern industries. Science asserts that such
evils generally can be coped with. We hold that
such a (11,-tifm, so strongly expressed as it is and
justified by the results already obtained as we
have pointed out above in the case of Cyprus,
deserves attention on the part of our rulers. When
once experts have decided on a course best to be
pursued in Ceylon, whether it be in respect of
an enemy of tea, cacao, coconut palm or any
other staple, let the most stringent measures
be taken to ensure its adoption and pursuance.
There should in such a matter be no half-measures.
To be successful too there must be united action on
the part of Europeans and natives alike, and the
only way to ensure this is to make its avoidance
liable to serious iicnalty. In any step towards
this desirable end that our Governmont may have to
take, it will have, we feel sure, the unanimous and
steady support of all interested in the welfare of Ceylon.
^

THE MINCING LANE WHOLE-BEBRY
COMPANY (LIMITED),
with a capital of £10,000, in 20 shares of £.nOOO
each (the first issue of shares has been fully
subscribed), is announced. The prospectus is of
more than ordinary interest:—

This Company has been formed by Merchants,
Growers and others interested in Coffee, to combat
the adulteration tliat has been going on for years,
and to supply tile public with Coffee direct from
the Colonial Market, /n\i/, ivastrd, in small quaut-
ities suitable for faniilicB, clubs, hotels, restaurants,
and other public institutions, thus avoiding all
iuterniediatc ch.arges or profits. That no article of
Colonial produce is subject to so much adulteration
as Coffee is amply pro\ed by the various analyses
made from time to time : but we wish to draw
p.articiilar attention to an analysis made in ISS-> by
the public analysts. Messrs. Wigner and Uarland, of
S7 siiriii)les purohascd 011 the same day at :i7
different shops in the Metropolis, and which gave
the foUovying results :— Two samples were genuine,
one contained 68 per cent and .3.3 samples from 7
up to 57 per cent of Coffee, the whole averaging
32 per cent of pure Coffee and 63 per cent of
chicory, dat^t, daudeliou and other northlese veget-

S^i

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb. I, iS86,

able substances, with a certain quantity of finings,
wliilst a sample called Dandelion Ooffee contained
no Guffee at all, and one labelled, " Siiecialhi
lirejya.i'd Fniieh Cul/'rc," contained M per cent of
Uotfee, the remainder being chicory and finings.
Every drinker of Coffee knows well the great differ-
ence there is between a cup made n-itli frrsh niustiil
iiKdifi'uviid berries, and one made with Coffee which
has been roasted or ground for weeks or perhaps for
months, such as the public purchase in the majority
of shops throughout the United Kingdom ; tlie latter
can only be compared to a glass of stale beer, or
to the dregs of a decanter of Claret which has been
opened for some days. The system which prevails
in this country, of roustinci lan/e rjiiantities at a time
the bulk thus losing in a short period most of its
aroma, is but a remnant of ignorance wliich
this Company intends to do its utmost to remove.
The worst treatment, however, reserved to Coffee, is
that resulting from the wholesale adulteration practised
under the sanction of Government.* "Whoever buys
ririmml Coffee in order to save himself a very little
trouble, will be supplied in shops witli tins or packets
bearing such attractive names as " deliciaiis (O freiicli^
coftr" or"i<tqir.rior r.ofrr. ii-ith a little ofthrliiirxicliicory,"
•tc, etc., and the stuff he gets will in most cases
be made up of a little Coffee and a quantity of chicory
or other vegetable compounds, which to say the least
are as nasty to the taste, as they are devoid of any .
of the refreshing or invigorating qualities of real
Coffee. The sellers and manufacturers of those mixt-
ures derive enormous profits from their trade, for
they sell what costs them perhaps -id. or "id. per lb
at the price of the genuine article, say lOd. to Is. per lb
hence the persuasive efforts made everywhere to in-
duce the public to buy their tins and canisters.
The taste for good Coffee " has not " disappeared
in this country, but the difficulty of procuring the
genuine article is such, and the public is cheated
so systematically or mioi^J so cleverly, when pur-
chas'ing it in small quantities, that it is no wonder
there lias been a diminished demand hero, whilst
everywhere else the consumption of the fragrant
bean is increasing, and nowhere more than amongst
our transatlantic cousins, or the hardy populations of
Northern Germany and the Scandinavian Wtates. The
following table shows the consumption per head of
population in some of the Continental States : — Holland
21 lb.; Denmark, 11 lb.; Belgium, 13J lb.; Sweden
and Norway, 10 lb.; Switzerland, 7 lb.; Germany, .5 ;
lb.: France, 2J lb.; United States of America, 7J lb ;
and United Kingdom, 0 lb. 15 oz., agaiust 22 oz,
in 1854, notwithstanding an increase of population of
more than 0 millione ! ! thus Great Britain, which does
the greater part of the carrying trade of the world,
whose Colonies grow Ooffee in abundance, and whose
opportunities for obtaining good Coffee are unequalled,
consumes less per head of population than any other
civilized country.

It is intended to sell four qualities only of roasted
Coffee '

No. i Whole-Betrv at — lOd pet Ih., (a Good Strong
Coffcel No, 2 Whole-Berry at Is Od per lb., (Strong
una of Good Ouality) No. 3 Whole-Berry at l8 .Sd
per lb., (Fine "Quality and Highly Kecoiumeiided).
No. 1 Wnole-Berry at Is lid per lb-, (selectioua from
the Finest Marlts), , , , , ,j ,t

I'aitiiiteri conlminng 1 lb. can be had at la J'd' lb.
c/tra wJtich will be allotced irlien the tin is retunia!

Every piicl!i«ge will beat' the Eegistered Trade Mark
of the CoiMpttny. ,

No. 1 will bo qiiita equal to anythifig now retailed
lit Is 2d, and the finer qualities w-ill be selected
from first class growths of Jamaica, Mocha, East
India, Ceylon, Costa Eica, Guatemala, <Sfc., possess-
iiiy delightful fragrance and flavour. It can be pnr-

• Aci-onliiiKto'thc Customs nnd Inland Eeveuue Art, otlss2,
the prenanilidu and sale is allowed of cliknnj or any "ilur
rtgelal'l' i^utis'aiieN. in linilnlicm ../, or for use as coffee or cincor;/.
under an Kxiisf Duty, Uvi«l bv means of an adhesive Uiht-l
Sumip t.r one hulf-iicnny for fvcry J lb. packet of miiture. tlui^
giving official sauctiou to tlw most rtckless and uDpnucijilcd
(lauHcriitlon.

chased in 1 lb. packets, or delivered free through
the London and Suburban districts, in packages of
3, 5, 7, 10 lb. and upwards, and will be sent to any
Town in the United Kingdon at a small charge for
delivery. The first order of 'S lb. and upwards, will
be p.ac'ked in .a good strong tin canister, which is
to be retained by the purchaser for the storage of
future parcels, iind the Company will provide a strong
mill, if required, at the trilling cost of Is Od to in-
duce the buyer to f/mtd thf f'njf'er onhj at the timr
of niahiiii/ : the Company will likewise supply siin^de
Machines for making Coffee at moderate prices.
This is the only way of retaining the delicious aroma
of Coffee, and it is universally practised on the
Continent where good Coffee is always to be
had, even in the humblest cottage. The Com-
pany will also sell unroiisted Coffee of Nos, 2, 3
and 4 at 2d per ]b. under the above roasted price?!,
its connections with growers and importers from every
part of the world, placing it in an exceptional position
for suppl\ing the public with every kind and quality,
at the most moderate rates. A simple Gas Roiisting
Machine, which every faniily can use, will be supplied
by the Company, at a charge of 20s. .Vs soon as
practicable the Company intends to open a Central
Depot in each district in l,oudo^. as well as in tlio
large rpivincial Town.s. If consumers will only buy
their Coffee ''fi-esli lonsted" in small .luantities, and
erind it every day a,s they require it, taking advant-
age of the facilities which this Compauy otters to
them. Coffee will soon be restored to its position as
the most delicious, stimulating and healthy of the non-
alcoholic beverages.

A local correspondent, in sendiug us a second cnjjy of
the prospectus, says : —

" I enclose prospectus of a Company which has
been most successfully floated and all capital sub-
scribed, the objects of which will be very pleasing
to all coffee planters. A perusal of the document
will, I am sure, be most pleasing to you, and who-
ever grows fine coffee will certainly share in the
benefits which this Company is about to afford to
Ceylon planters. The promoters of this enterjn'ize
deserve the thanks of all coffee producers here,
and the names of Messrs. Patryltt Pasteur of Mincing
Lane should not be forgotten so long as coffee
lasts in the island."

TEA PACKAGES, WEIGHTS AND TAKES,
M,VKKING, Ac.
.Tudging from sundry Ceylon Tea Invoices, and the
Weights and Tares stencilled on each package, much
time and money is lost in trying to weigh into a series
of packages varying consideraldy in size and Tare, an
exact number of pounds of Tea, i>0 lbs. iictt, 80 lbs.
nett, or 100 lbs. iictt, as the case may be.
The chests are then carefully marked :^

Gross . . Ul 115 120 lbs. isay)
Tare .. 31 35 40 „ „

Nett . . 80 80 80 lbs.
all of which i") really lost time and expense, for with
such variations in the weight, it is impossible for
the Customs or the Trade to strike an average gross
and average tare, and bulking ensues with all its
consequent expense and deterioration as a matter of
course. It is understood we are writing chiefly for
those who are newly turning their attention to Tea,
and not for those shippers who have made thcBO
matters their study for sonic years, and can now
arrange their packages as to escape bulking hriu. The
difficulty of the varying Tare might, wc tliiiiU, be
partly got over by weighing iOO or 200 empty pack-
ages," and carefully assorting them according to their
sizes and wei;'lits; a chalk mark on each when assort-
ing is all that will be necessary. It should in this way
be possible to get at least 20 to :I0 chests each weigh-
ing exactly :10 lbs., then 10 to 15 each weighing some
other number of lbs. alike, and so on. If the
packages measure the same, .flVMlicm /';<//, and do not
Usavc space lot i lbs. in each pavUagu of nay 'JO baU<

Feb. I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

523

dieats, in order that each -may contain exactly 50 lbs-
otherwise freight will be payable on eqnal to one
'* dummy " package in every U). There should then
not be a variation of a pound either way iu a break
of *20 or 'M) packat^es, and if the Teas were carefully
bnlked before packing, there should not be any ir-
regularity of quality, and the Teas should pass inspect-
ion without the necessity for a bulking order. We
have seen 20 chests recently of which the Tares ranged
all the way from 31 lbs. to 42 lbs. This difficulty can
be surmounted, and is avoided on some estates, and our
suggestions are made in the hope they may be practic-
able at any rate to some extent.

Marking should be as simple as possible. One ob-
jection to stencilling the Tare on the package is that a
package may Tare 40 lbs. in Ceylon, and only HU lbs.
here. The Grocer who is allowed 3;l lbs. Customs
Tare immediately thinks he is being "done" out of a
pound. Mr. Armstrong's suggestions on this bead
are well worth attention. Get rid of and avoid com-
plicated marking. Print the name of the plantation,
the Invoice number, and the kind of Tea. Every
package will be weighed here, and if they run evenly,
an average Tare will be allowed by the Customs, if
not, they will be bulked and every package Tared.
Here are specimensof the Markings on two chests: —

IXrOIOE NO. 14.

-

GROSS 10:1 Lli.'^.

0

TAKE ;«

a

NETT 70

fi .

BREAK NO. ^X

&w

\ P /

i^j

JV 0

■Jr

•0

/Q\

0

FACTORY

BULKED

BKO OR PEKOE

'^

A!t they uio

MAGILLIOUDDY

No. 3:S

CEYLON

IIUOKEN ORANGE

PEKOE.

As they might be.

Packages.— Some packers adopt the plan of insert-
ing and nailing a small batten in eacli corner of the
chest. This gives great additional strength and rigid-
ity. Packages which are not quite full are very easily
damaged and broken — " like so many band-boxes,"
as an ancient dock labourer said to us.

Small Breaks. — So much has been written on this
head we nniy seem wearisome it we repeat that the
Trade will not look at them, and Planters would do
well to bulk unassorted the produce of their estates
np to twenty or thirty packages. The price obtain-
able here, will, we venture to say, be fully equal to
the average price obtained for assorted parcels eon-
sisting of from two to six chests of each kind, and
much labour and anxiety be saved into the bargain.
We have before ua two Tea (Jatalogues printed for
Sale by Auction in Mincing Lane. The one con-
tains l.H.SO nackageg China Tea. represented by 11
samples. The other contains 1«0 packages Ceylon
Tea, requiring the drawing, tasting and valuing of
24 samples. A few days ago there were sales of
Indian Tea to the extent of 30,000 chests, and it
was physically impossible properly to taste and
value the 1..300 samples on which they were sold.
We repeat, justice cannot and will not be done to
Ceylon Teas printed in so many small lots.

I. A. RucKEB * JBencbaft.

COFFEE ESTIMATES.
(Hupptt iteiit to James Cook <1> Co.'s Wfekly Despatch,
Deccmht'r lllh, lS8i.)
Crop Kstiniates as fur hs tlit'y have t-ouie before us ;

Estimate About lust
of present
.supply.
Hass.
Rio.— ISAi-i;— 4 to 4,.'iOO,000 ba^s,
giviuj; ;i probable export of fully
4,000,000 bags. Wry favoratale ac-
counts of llowvriti;^ for tlie lSi^(i-7 yield,
reacbiufc figures hithi'rto unkuown, un-
less some calamity oeeurs

Santos. — The crop advices 18Sii.7 re-
garding Rio, apply also to Santos.
18S3-(icrop e.stimated !>t 2,200.000 bags,
including buliincB of old coffee, but ex-
clusive of l.'iO.OOO bans in stock 2,200,000

years

tig ores.

Hags.

4,000,000 4,Oil7,Sll

Baliia. — No special information

120.000

Pieols.

5211,870

12l,.'iOU

22.^,000

100,000

2,l(i4,470

ll.^,4S.i
Pieols.
1,0111,000
141.000
2.111,000
110,700

Cwt.

2:!0,000»

Tons.

18,000

Bags.
2110,0110

Cwt.
.114,811

Tous.
IB, 000

Bags.
I-W.UOO

Kilos.

Kilo.s.

_ral2,S2«,0.iO
«10\«l:i,7,i2,818

Java. — ttovernment crop ISjSo-6

Padung.— do do

Java.— Private

Macassar. 'IVimor, JScc

Ceylon. — Some estimates are as low
as l.iO.OoO cwt. Plantation, and it looks
as if tlu- yield would barely exceed
10 to II. lino tous, say, with the
*' Ouvah " iTop remaining over from

last yeiir. Die exjiort will be

BritisI, Kust India.— Alleppy, Cochin,
Beypore, Ca.liciit, Badaghara. Telli-
eherry and Cauuanore. Kxport let
July, 1,8S4, to .iillh June. 188.i, 10,:t74
tons. Willi > adrasand Dombav probably

in all .. , .*.

Costa Rica.— The 1886 crop was ex-
pected lit one time to be 300.000
bags, bnt eslVnates lire now being

loweretl, and at pie^eul slaud at

Vene/.nela, La Uiiayra (a) and Puerto
Cabello (6). — t^oniii.g crops do not pro-
raise well. In the low hands de-
cidedly smaller than the last, probably
.io per cent is nnder the mark. In
tlie hifch lands it is no worse than
ISSl-."). but fears are entertained that
the drought may diminish production;
quality has not improved, in fart,

learesmuL-h to be desired 21,000,0tti

Maracaibo.— Political troubles ...
Colombia have prevented the coffee
from being marketted in time to take
advantage of tlie swollen rivers :
exports, owing to drouglit, have been
small during the past eight months,
and the new crop, with about .10 per-
cent of the old, will be arriving to-
gether. Next crop say 240 to 250,000

'J-'KS 18,000,«,% 12,912,034

Porto Rico.— As with Domingo, a
short crop is looked for; some ac-
counts reduce to one half

Hayli.— It is generally expected
that the crop will be about ooO.OOG
bags. The quality will be above the
axerage, as the weather dnriag the
spring has been dry, and the new
coffees seem to be turning out of a very

good description

African.— A smaller crop is reck-
oned upon this season than last,
probably not more than two.third.s of

1884-5

New Granada, Guatemala, — The ex-
ports have been hindered by revol-
utions, aud a ooiisider.ible guanlily,
it is thought, remains iu tlieeounlry
to rnme forward with tliis years

coffee

liuatenuila likely to be' gm'aller •
picking, according lo October advices
on the Coast, just beginning, while Ihe
crop in the higher districts had not

reached maturity

.lamaicn.— Leas expected than last seiuion
Manilla.— Kxports January and Dec-
ember, 1SS4, ii.',,iisi pieols. Exports
January and tictober, iHti:t, 7t},.Sii7
pieoLs, with probabh' shipments Nov- Piculs,

etuber and December, say 80,nOO

The cotuiiig crop of Balangns is reported on favorau'v. and
the yield will probably be large.

18.000

Tons.
.■12,000

.,600

25,000

Tons.
.17,000

8,500

1.1,000

18,00.)

uls.
,081

• T o higt, wofear: we gave 20n,oo.) ,wt. as onr outside
expectation,— Kn. ^

S-4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886,

PLANTING IN NETHEBLANDS INDIA.
(Translated for the Straits Times.)
Coffee leaf-disease now so prevaleut in Java is
said by a planting expert in thn TSoii: to be no-
thing new, from its having been known there
during the last 50 years, but to be in fact so sel-
dom met with that hardly any notice was taken
of it. Formerly the stricken trees were simply dug
out and their places taken by healthy ones. The
causes assigned were various, the most genera! one
being that the disease arose from deterioration brought
on by coffee trees being forced by means of man-
ure to bear when barely two years old. The
planters were driven by necessity to take this course
to avoid financial difficulties. Judging from the
saying, " Soon ripe soon rotten" it stands to reason
that trees so forced into bearing cannot in the
long run yield sound and healthy berries, and that
those reared from beans secured under such circ-
umstances cannot fail to bear with them the germs
of lingering disease sure to pass over into plants
sprung from them.

THE BLACKSTONE TEA KOLLER.

Sembawatte, Nawalapitiya, 21th Dec. 188.5.
Dear Sir, — I have had the pleasure of au inspec-
tion of the '• Blackstoue " Roller, and I consider it
from the work I have seen it perform, greitly superior
both in the quality of the roll and the quantity
turned out to any roller yet introduced. At 1'2-2.S we
started with a roll ot 90 lb of withered leaf and
finding the machine had the capacity to hold more
I added 10 lb which made the round 100 lb withered
leaf, equal to 140 lb of green. Within the short
apace of 1-2 minutes the roll was discharged in a
perfectly fresh and cool state, with a nice even
twist : the Pekoe leaves wore in a beautiful state
of preservation, free from breakage, whilst the Sou-
chong was all that could be desired. At 12-40
another charge of 100 lb withered loaf was put in,
and at 12-.5LI (just 13 minutes) this was completed in
as satisfactory a manner as the former.

The great rapidity with which the work is done
is due to the novelty of carrying the leaf round a
spheroid.

The invention is as successful as it is ingenious
and appears to be based on a correct apprehension
of the principle of rolling, which is gradual oom-
pression. This is done most satisftctorily by this
new method employed, while the construi^tion of the
discs with alternately raised sogments keeps the leaf
Local *' Times," from breaking while revolving round the
spheroid. The arrangement of the battens too apjiears
to be the result of careful experiments. This machine
gets through 400 lb of withered, equal to about 6.)0 lb of
green leaf per hour, thus in a working day of 10 hours,
G,000 lb of leaf can be worked off.

I consider it quite capable of meeting the require-
ments of an estate turning out 100,000 lb tea per
annum. — Yours faithfully, D. Faibweatheh.

— " Local Times."

" CoLORY Coffee." — Mr. T. Christy writes to us
by this mail as follows in a semi-private note ; but
surely he has no reason to suppose that there is
any falling-off in tho jtrcparatiun of Ceylon coffee ?
With so little crop to attend to, the work of pre-
paring ought to be more carefully done than ever
before: — " There is an enormous crop of coffee in
Brazil, and great feara are expressed as to the price. I
wish you could get someone to work up the
question of fermentation of coffee berries ; there is
more in it than you think, tor, if people wish to
secure the extreme price, something nmst be done
now when labour is cheap to put on more ' finish '
60 as to top the market. You would be surprised
to find what a difference this makes."

THE CLIMATE OF THE HIGHER HILL-
COUNTRY OF CEYLON.
The rain record of 188.5 being now closed, I give
tho figures for the past three years, with th e aver-
ages for the months and for the twelve mon ths :—
Rainfall for Abbotsford : —

Averages

1885.

1884.

1883.

3 years.

January

... 1-57

■61

4-17

2-12

February

... 2-11

•72

8-44

3-76

March

... 200

6-34

3-78

4-04

April

... 2-72

1-12

6-29

3-37

May

... 5-20

5-80

11-61

7-54

June

... 28-54

9 00

7-93

15.15

July

... 14'12

11-19

16-77

1403

August

... 6-58

1439

15-00

12-00

September

... 4-84

7-85

5-71

6-13

October

... 919

12-86

704

9-70

November

... 5-86

8-45

7-36

3-22

December

... 6-97

6-80

6-00

6-59

Total... 89-70 85-13 100-10 91-64
For the abnormally wet and stormy year, 1882,
the record is imperfect, but we have good reason
for believing that the total deposit for that year
was not much under 140 inches. But let us "take
the figure at 130, and the average rainfall will be
raised from 91-64 inches to 101. As it is not
likely that the low figures for the tlirei' past genial
years, are all referrible to a reaction from the ex-
cessive rainfall ot 1882, it now seems certain that
the figures we have been in the habit of taking as the
average for this place, viz., 110, are too high and
that 100 would be nearer the mark. The reason
we fixed on 110 was that the late Mr. Heelis had
obtained 106 as the average on Laugdale at 4,60 0
feet. Our rain-gauge being placed 1,400 feet higher,
and in a position facing the south-west monsoon,
we naturally supposed our rainfall would be higher
by at least 4 inches. But it is the fact that the
rainfall increases in the Dimbula valley, the farther
away the position is from " the dividing range "
behind which Uva lies and the nearer to that other
dividing range which separates Dimbula from
Dikoya and Ambagamuwa and "the Peak " region.
In the Kotagaloya Valley, tlie average rainfall is
I believe, about 140 inches. Ours, it is now evid-
ent, is closely represented by 100 inches, as nearly
as possible the figure tor Nuwara Eliya. In this
matter of rainfall only, however, does the com-
parison hold good. Our climate is much more
genial, not only because of our lower elevation by
400 feet, but from the fact that this place has
been opened entirely in woodland, while Nuwara
Eliya, a damp, grass covered jjlain (the bed, doubt-
less, of an ancient lake), has its temperature lowered
by tho double effect ot evaporation and radiation
of heat on clear nights.-* Although the results of
three years are not sufficient to settle fully the
averages of the months, and although June 1885
gave the excessive figure of 28-54 inches, as a
reaction from deficiencies in the two previous years,
yet the figures are sufficient to give a fair general
idea of our rainfall, apart from mists and sus-
pended Bioislurc. It will be observed that while
a large proportion of our rainfall — 41 inches out
of 91-64 — falls in the three south-west monsoon
months, June, July and August, only 20 falling in
the three north-east monsoon months, October,
November and December, yot there is no rainless
month, although in the fine season, January to
April inclusive, there is only just enough
of rain to make the weather pleasant, about l.S
inches for the four months, or au average of 3J

* Tliis, however, has e\'idently been niodiHed at oni* t'lui of
Nuwara Eliya by Luke Oregory ivhicli has helped to cijualize
the temperature— Ed.

Feb, I, i«86.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

525

inches for each of the four. With a mean temper-
ature of about Gl" for the whole year, the climate
ig about all that could be desired for heilth
while good lor luxuriant ve:^etatiou as gre6n and
Kolden flushed tea, up to 0,000 feet proves. We
ought from the experience of 18S5 to know the
best time to prune tea, as the process has been
going on over all the months of the last half of
the year, the fields first pruned being in full
bearing again before the prunings from those last
dealt with have been buried. Here, as in India,
it might bo supposed that November would be the
best month for using the knife. But the difficulty
here, within 7' of the ecjuator, is, that tea pruned
early in November lias a coating of tender flush
on to endure the north-east winds of December.
When the rubbing of moss ol3f the stems, making
good-sized longitudinal holes and burying prunings,
weeds and rotten timber are addf>d to pruning,
a good deal of time is occupied. But, of course,
the holing and burying next time will be lighter
work. Apart ti-om the winds of December having
affected some of our young buds and flush on
recently pruned tea, our only trouble at present
is about very minute black bugs which appear on
some of our flush, a dozen small specks or so on
a yomig leaf, here and there. We are assured
that there is little to fear from this minute insect,
which seems to dififer from the destructive coffee
bug, and this is reassuring, for, under a power-
ful microscope, the creatures look in shape like
turtles and in coat like flying foxes, while each
has his proboscis inserted in the substance of the
leaf. The affected leaves are, however, few and far
between. — A couple days ago, I measured the stem
of one of our tine seed-bearing tea trees. It was
round and well formed — siugle and not a junction
of stems— and a Uttle above the ground its circum-
ference was 26 inches. The tree, for such it is,
is nine years old.

HvDEANGEAs AS Law.m Shkcbs. — The hydrangeas
planted out may not be altogether a scarce plant in
gardens, but it is scarcer than it should be, for few
flowering shrubs last so long in bloom or are so
effective when in. that condition. It may not perhaps
be suitable for exposed positions in the northern
counties, as it cannot be said to be quite hardy ; but,
seeing that it lives for many years in sheltered
coraers in the neighbourhood of London, it is clear
that it is hardier than many imagine. Here in
Somerset it has endured 2(i' of frost in a position
fully exposed to the north-e-ist wind, and has not
bicu seriously injured. We have plants of it struck
from cuttings fifteen years ago, that are now 12 yds.
in circumftreiioe, witli more than two hundred heads
of flowers upon thum. and many of the heads are
so large that they would not go into a gallon measure.
I should add, however, that our soil seems to suit
them better thau some others m.%y do. It is a sandy
loam, and moderately deep, resting ou the red sand-
stone. The plants to which I allude are standing on
grass, and have plenty of room on all sides in which
to develop themselves. They commence to fliwi^r in
August, and invariably last in good condition until
the end of Novemher. In one part of the pleasure
giounds the flowers come quite bin*, while the others
retain their normal pink colour. Our pl.ants give us
no trouble in the way of tultivatioo. The old flower
heads are cut off as soon as they fade, which is all
the attention they require. I jnay aid that the
flower heads are larger in a moderately damp summer
thw in a dry one, lik." the past. This shows that
the roots like a fair amount of moisture while in
active growth, and those wlio may wish to have
specimens of hydrangeas in the best conditiou may
make a note of this fact.— Taitston. — Field,

StLK OoTTOS-TREE. — From a miss of oorrespindenoe
relating t. > vvirit".e silk-ottoii-trae (E'-iodendron anfrao-
t-iosum) commonly known as Sififnsr<f'i<f^iifn\i in
Oanarese, we learn that the tree is most atjuiidaut
in oertiin Taluks of the Tumkiir, Mysore, Shimoja,
and Hiss.in districts, and in the forasts of Shimoja
and Hissan. The reports of ?Ie^,'ri. I,)vorv aud Ci-ahim
Anderson are of special interest. In cultivation, the
tree is extensively used as a supp>rt to the hetel-vine,
a purpose for which its rapid growth and niked under
stems render it well suited. Mr. Dickinson, the
conserv-ttor of forests in t'oorg, is of opinion that
the moister cliiuite of South Canara is better adapt-
ed to its requirements than any part of Mysore.
The tree can be readily propagated from pods or
stakecuttiugs, which is an important matter in
facilitatiui? the quicker development of fruit-bearing
plants. f'L<tpoK- is ready for harvesting in the begin-
ning of summer or in the mouths of February and
March. After separating and well clearing, 22 lb.
of k-(ipoIc were divided for despatch to the valuatorB
at London and Rotterdam. The reports submitted
from the latter are favorable as regards quality and
condition of tbf samples submitted for valuation ;
but the prices offered are so low that the expediency
of taking any further steps to advance this industry
is extremely doubtful. Where kapok is plentiful in
the forests, it might pay to collect aud export it,
but certainly not in any limited area of cultivation ,
The Lmdon market does not require kapok, but
they are anxious to obtain a few similar materialfi
at low prices. — Indian Affriciiltural Gazette.

Cinchona Cultiv.ktion in- India. — We regret
to find that our friend Mr. Gammie of the Sikkim
Gardens was unable to keep his promise to visit
Ceylon on his way home or out, during a recent
trip to the old country. Mr. Gammie however
paid a visit to the Nilgiris, and we venture to
extract the following interesting information from
a letter he has sent to us : —

" On my way out I made a flying visit to the
Nilgiri plantations. The Government plantations of
Dodabetta and Neddivattum are very fine indeed.
Better, indeed, could scarcely be desired. Ossing-
ton was also looking magnificent under Mr. Row-
son's excellent management. The Madras Govern-
ment made a great mistake, I think, in not
retaining his services. He had collected over
100,000 lb. of dry bark by the stripping process,
when I was there, and intended colIeetiHg over
20,000 lb. mote by the same plan. The stripping
plan is certainty a gi'eat success in that part of
the world, and I can't understand anyone there
preferring the shaving process to it. I also saw
several most promising young C. offichialis plant-
ations. I only wish cinchonas would grow in
Sikkim half as well as they do in the Nilgiris.
We go on in the usual way, and will do so, I
suppose, to the end of the chapter. 'Uprooting'
is the only plan we can make pay. Wc have a lot
of very promising— 1. e. for us— young hybrids and
Ledgers. Our experience to date is that Ledgeriana
follows as a second crop better than any other
variety, but another year or two's experience is
necessary before that point can be decided with
any certiainty. I am glad to hear that tea is do-
ing so well ' with you. Having been away for the
summer I don't know much about this tea season's
working on our hills, but believe it will be about
an average, and almost every tea garden of any
age, in the hills, will show a fair profit on the
season's outturn. I have not yet had time to read
over the correspondence in the 7'. A. on the pro-
spects of quinine manufacture in India, to which
you directed my attention. But I may at. once say
thiit I have no faith in the success of any Com-
pany that is likely to be started for thai purpose
in .Southern India,"

526

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [1'ku. i, 1886.

WVNAAD Plantehs' ASSOCIATION, Dec. 2ncl.— Colour of
Coffte.— Mrs. Jowitt the Hon. Secretary of the .special
committee submitted the following report:— At a meeting
held ou the Uth November the correspoudenoB ou the
subject of the colour of coffee was sifted and discussed.
The statements therein contained are conflicting and
the subject at the outset presents many problems
difficult of solution. The committee have called for
further figures which they hope may materially assist
them in their investigations and have decided on certain
experiments which they hope to carry out in the
course of the next two months.

BmiiiKK IN 'West Africa.— According to a work by
Mr F T Valdez, formerly Arbitrator at Loanda, the
process of extracting caoutchouc or Indiarubber takes
place in June, July, and August, and is carried out by
slaves. An incision is made in the tree, and a vessel
placed under it, which, by means of a conductor, is filled
in about twenty-four hours. From this the caoutchouc
is poured into moulds of various forms, which have been
well smoked with the massic, or palm-tree, from
which the gum that gives the black colour, which
they consider indispensable, is procured. AVhen they
think that the Indiarubber is of suthcient consistency
they open the moulds.— Indh-ri/bber and Guttapercha
Jouriuil.

iHE INTBODUCTION OF THE POTATO IN GeRMANY.—A

corresiKindeut in an American paper writes :—" While
travelling in the upper Rhine countries, we found
ourselves obliged to pass the night and part of the
day in the little village of Offenburg, on the borders
of the Black Forest. While looking about in search
for the marvellous that is always to be found in
some form in these bonier villages, we came upon a
huge monument, upon the pedestal of which was the
figure of a man in the dress of the Elizabethan
courtiers. Our wonders increased as we siw loosely
piled upon the broad, projecting base, quantities of
Potatoes carved in stone. It was a monument to
Sir Francis Drake and the esculent tuber ! The
cavalier and discoverer holds extended in one hand
a Potato plant, and upon the four sides of the
pedestal are inscriptions expressing the gratitude of
a great people for the blessing that the Creator had
been pleased to bestow upon them in time of famine."
—Garileners' Chronicle. . ^ , ,tt c. » %

FottESTs AND Moisture.— At the Boston (U. b. A.)
Society of Natural History meeting recently, the
subject of " The Influence of Forests upon the Atmo-
sphere" was presented by Dr. G. L. Goodale.
His conclusion, in brief, was that their influence is
very slight In regard to moisture their direct action
in throwing off. moisture is, he said, insignificant, but
their indirect action in holding back the water
which has saturated the soil in rainfall is very great.
Droughts and excessively dry atmosphere are consequent
upon an extensive cutting away of forest growths.
In the debate which followed it was stated, without
question or contradiction, that two broad conclusions
have been drawn heretofore concerning the desert
coasts of the south side of the Mediterranean Sea,
and that other causes besidcis the cutting off of Forests
must be recognised as having effected, in part or wholly,
the result now seen. One speaker thought it to be
a matter of conjecture whether there ever were
any forests there.— «n»dfHe;'s' Chronicle.

Planting the Fokeshouks of a Lake.— I observe
that your correspondent J. M. W. asks for advice m
ulantiug up the foreshore of a lake. Willows are
not, perhaps, the best subjncts to plant in any
numbers- but a few trees of Salix albi might be
put down here and there. Round the immediate
edge I should give a prelerence to the coinnioli abler,
planted clo.se, more especially if cover for the purpose
of approaching wildfowl, &c., is one of the objects
in view Among tbes ■, or at the back of them,
Taxodiuni distichum will be found a valuable as
well as an ornamental tree. Theu,as the laud recedes
from the water's edge, Piniis rigida (pitch pme),
Abies (Tsuga) canadensis, Abies (Tsusa) Mertensiana
vel Albertiana, and Quercus palustris, are all ex-
oelleot varieties for your correspoiideiifs iiurpose,

and should, as they develop, yield profitable timber
results. The common spruce adapts itself well to
bog-lands, provided they are not of the worst class.
If the 'ground is very full of stagnant wet. the sys-
tem of planting known as " buttage" — -i.e.^ in small
artificial mounds — will materially aid the result.
When thus protected during the first season, plants
are enabled to set up a healthy root action, and are
able to stand a much greater degree of wet than
would otherwise be the case. In Germany the practice
prevails to a very great extent. Open horizontal
drains, cut at intervals of 20 yds. to 40 yds. apart,
will, if there is any slope, contribute in a great
measure to the success of the plantation, and, if
practicable, should be made about twelve months
previous to planting. With regard to the rabbits,
wire netting is the only effectual protection that I
am acquainted with. I should be only too glad to
hear of some less costly substitute. Even with that,
in the case of forest nurseries, constant attention is
necessary to keep them completely out.— E. J. 0. B.
—Field.

The Blackstone Tea Roller. — Ambagamuwa,
24th Dec— At the invitation of Mr. Barber,

1 visited this estate with some friends with
a view to seeing the new " Spheroidal"
Roller at work. Mr. Scovell and others have
already noticed the excellence of tins machine
and have given details of the amount of work
done, to which I can certify. This roller, I believe,
will eclipse all the rollers at present in use, unless
Prater's roller hold its own; but even here
the Blackstone roller has a great^ advantage in
Mr. Barber's special invention or spheroid which
{^ives centrifugal motion to the tea and prevents
the roll from "balling," making a more equal roll
than any machine I have seen at work. The
work is perfect, and when the roll is taken from
the machine it requires almost no breaking but ia
ready for the sieve at once, the hard leaf, of
which there will always be a little, rejected or
rolled into little balls which can be pushed out
at once : from the roller to the sieve is but 2 or
8 minutes. The sieve, though of the simplest con-
struction, does its work equally well with the
roller and takes out 80 per cent to 40 per cent
of the pekoes. I have sampled the Blackstone
against some of the best teas in the island, and
their superiority in make is at once apparent. As
to quality, when infused they hold an equally high
position, as the sales will prove, I attribute the
beautiful Hnish of those teas entirely to the
machinery, and the ipiality of the tea is largely
due to the perfect sifting, and separation of the
fine leaf before fermentation and firing : in fact
the two machines should be worked together. I
would recommend every tea planter to visit Black-
stone estate. There are no costly or expensive
buildings to see, but apart from the intrinsic
value of the machinery there are many small
details in the manipulation of the tea from pluck-
ing to packing which will not fail to interest.
Mr. Barber is adopting, what I recommended some
time ago, a separate room with sirocco tor final
firing and packing. The advantages of Mr. Barber's
roller may be briefly summed up thus:— Simplicity,
small power required to drive the machine say

2 or 8 horse-power, easy adjustment of pressure,
the spheroid speciality of the machine, ease
with which the machine can he charged and dis-
charged, and finally its great capacity for rapid and
perfect work, the outturn being equal to not less
than four rolls of 80 lb. each within the hour.
The sieve is so perfectly simple that any good
carpenter can make the whole in one day ; it is
the effective manner in which the roll is timslied
that makes the sieve so valuable— Jaues Irvine^

Feb. I, 1886.}

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

527

♦

To the Edilor of the " Ceylon Observer."

PLANTING IN THE LOW COUNTBY IN

CEYLON: THE IDAGAMA PLANTING

DISTEICT : TEA AND OTHER

PRODUCTS.— IN ANSWER

TO CRITICISM.

Udagama, 15th Dec. 1885.

De.U! Sir., — I am quite certain it is as little
their intention as youv.si, and I therefore would not
wish to trouble you now were it not that formiii.
the tirst subject of remark in your leader of the
10th inst. on an interview with two entitled tea
authorities from India, what is said regarding our
district may be likely to unfairly prejudice outside
opinion against a neighbourhood, where planting
has yet been attempted in it, only now passing
through the universal transition era of tea for
coffee, be it " Arabiea" or •' Liberian." This
largely due to the fact (which alone, by the way,
fonus rather a suliicient argument against any-
thing said) that the latter, though it be little to
boast of, has proved, with us at least, a greater
success than in most other districts. Were there
an extensive acreage of tea here, as in the Kelani
Valley, already in bearing, it would be nuite im-
material ; practical results, as in their case, would
be amply sutlicient to refute criticism ; but mean-
while, and until the district has assumed its certain
destiny, it is as well to be candid and speak the
truth. We cannot afford to have capital un-
deservedly frightened away : on the contrary, what
of all things we want is that investors should
tind their way here, nor could they do better. Having
had the pleasure of a visit from Messrs. Logan
and Teare, it is but polite and just, I should say,
to believe that their opinion is fully as valuable as
the opinion of any experienced Indian teaplanter
on Ceylon as a tea country, and tea in Ceylon
under the varied conditions, from those pertaining
to the regions of natural ice, to a perennial hum-
idity, but that Assam can boast of for six months
only, and has practically to bemoan the absence
for the rest of the year, despite the refuted argu-
ment for a period of hibernation as natural and
necessary. As for drawing invidious comparisons
between the various districts where all are so good,
I have not a thought or wish, but it is only fair
to remark as a point your friends seem to have
overlooked entirely, that it is, as to the possession
of this unvaried condition of heat and moisture —
elimate, in fact — that this district or rather, I
should say. section of the island, extending over
a large area, not strictly at the coast, but from
some distance inland from Galle. can probably
claim priority. As for soil : it has never been
argued that the surface soil here can compare
with much of the ground upcountry — only, that
we generally possess a free and deep subsoil,
strongly impregnated with iron. Ground, \n fact,
that, taken on an average, will compare favour-
ably with that of any other lowcountry district,
where the climate is also suitable for tea. And on
this point, I think, you will accept the opinion of so

pood an authority as Mr. , though I do not

feel entitled to give his name publicly, a» worth
more than that of any passing visitor. He inde-
pendently noticed, which I take to be one of the
main points of consideration for tea, this depth of
free soil, and it is fully borne out by the distance
down to which tree roots can be found extending.

There is. in I'dagama. but a small and scattered
area of old bushes at present, that have most
of tliem been allowed to run up for seed, but

which, taking them all in all, will, I think, com-
pare well witli any others similarly conditioned
in the island, of a like age ; and it was, in fact
the absence of pruned bushes to judge from, that
-.cally disappointed your friends in their visit.
With the growth of the only last year's clearing —
opened under a certain order, and, most of it,
not planted till December with plants from seed
(partly Abbotsford) not sown till June — they
expressed themselves especially pleased with. What
they, or rather Mr. Logan, did not seem to like,
as a new experience to him from the stoneless
alluvial tiats of Assam, was the steep ground, and
especially rocky nature of this particular clearing.
As for " iiuality of leaf " : I have a favorable report
by Messrs. Forljes <fc Walker on a few lb. made
experimentally with a solitary No. 8 sieve,
over an amateur oven. As with other lowcovmtry
teas, it shows, you will notice, the pronounced
strength and flavour, that — according to a gentle-
man (a planter of full experience) I happened to
hear discuss the subject lately, largely and, I be-
lieve, equally interested in tea at both high and low
elevations, and who, therefore, must be taken as an
impartial authority — is likely in the long run to give
the advantage in price and fixed demand to the latter.
His verdict was, that, though a superior delicacy of
flavor, though comparative lack of strength and
body, in the high -grown teas may find them now,
and, at tirst. slightly higher prices amongst con-
noisseurs who will pay, their number is not suf-
ficiently legion to absorb more than a limited
quantity, and, as a tea to satisfy a wholesale
democracy it needs the strength and pungency the
lowcountry leaf excels in. As for the opinions of
Messrs. Logan and Teare, coming one from the
Neilgherries and the* other from Assam, they can
hardly be coupled as one — rather amusingly
shown on an appeal by one to the other, after
pruning a sample bush, as to whether his friend
did not think " that about right ? " in tho re-
ply that it was, except that for himself " he would
cut a little lower, as his women would be hardly
tail enough to do the plucking otherwise "I On
subsequent measure, though still a tall tree, it
hardly argues well for the standard of labor
procurable ! and this brings in a point : whilst
arguing comparative cost of labor in Ceylon and
Assam Mr. Logan seems, in speaking to you, to
have used a discreet silence on, or rather his
lack of knowledge prevented a very material com-
parison being drawn. Though granting his figures
as to their actual wages, his admission when here, as
I gathered it, that Is per lb. is their lowest rate
of production, sets aside all argument of com-
parison under the headings collectively that go
to make up our respective totals of cost. But on the one
question only, however much there be, we may think,
we have reason to complain of. it only needs but a
few words on the subject, to gather the Gov-
ernment begotten paralysis under which, as a
fact, they are prostrated in Assam as regards
their labor. The hand of Government, in a
manner no Ceylon Governor or Government would
think of, in everythmg, adding supplementary
items of cost under almost every heading in
which labor forms a part, and its beneticont
influence extended to save the coolies from kill-
ing themselves in any other employment than
sleeping or eating their heads off. At least so,
I confess, I concluded on being told th.it (i plants,
ball planted (take it at (ifl as mislicard, though
I think not I), was a day's task ! this being
elicited on looking over a nursery the fine plants
in which attracted attention ; and which, by the
way, are now going in, largely k ball plants,

528

THE TKOPICAL AGKiCULTUfRIST. [Feb. i, i88g.

at the rate of 250 to 300 per diem. Apply the
parallel generally as to the comparative amount
of work done ; add to this Government extras,
loss on premiums by death, and the numerous
other sub -charges we are exempt from ; and as
regards cheap labor, with whom really stands
the advantage ? As already said, the proof of
the pudding is in the eating ; facts are things
that won't budge, and the comparison afforded by
the published results of every Company, and the
many private gardens in Assam and India gener-
ally, gives practical evidence, it seems to me, no
planter from thence can attempt to qualify in
their favor. They are out of the running in fact
with Ceylon till they can see their way to reduce
their expenses, say by 3d per lb. That is on a
400 lb. crop, a profit in our favor of £5 an acre,
or say on a 200 acre estate an income £1,000
a year : in itself an interest on a capital outlay of
£4,000, that mightgenerally be considered sufficiently
satisfactory? A BESIDENT.

CHEMICAL DYES AND THEIE DAKGEBOUS
CHAEACTEE: A WAENING.

Dear Sib,— Not a few persons, even in Ceylon,
have experienced in person the dangerous ill-effects
of the many beautiful but deadly poisonous chem-
ical dyes. The evil consequences to health are
subtle and present themselves from the most un-
expected quarters— from deadly colored papers, socks,
sweetmeats, and even down to children's toys. The
report of the Society of those interested in German
chemical industry (Verein zur Wahrung der Inter-
essender Chemisteu Industrie Deutschlands) is
a Tory serious blow to this branch of chemical
enterprize, and many alluring pigments should cease
to offer themselves to the public as the kiss of death.

The Commission defined poisonous coloring
materials to be all those colors or color preparations
which contain antimony, arsenic, lead, chromium,
copper, mercury, cinnabar, gamboge, picric acid (which
represents the many dangerous tar colors), barium,
heavy spar, cadmium, zinc, tin. After reading the
terrible list the wonder is we are not all dead men ;
for the use of these fascinating but deadly colors is
not merely common at home, but they have also been
largely introduced into India.

The sale of articles colored with these poisonous
materials is to be made illegal by Act of the Ger-
man Tarliament. And the sooner this good example
is followed by England, India, and every other
eountry, tlie better will it be for the health
of the people. Further, a fair field will then again
be afforded for the many really beautiful and harm-
less Indian natural dyes, which, by the comparative
cheapness of the chemical poisons, were being
rapidly driven out of use. In this particular
matter I am afraid " Judson " must be regarded
as a dangerous character, while every tar color
should be avoided as more than suspicious.

Surely this subject is not beneath even the atten-
tion of the Ceylon Government.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

BUBBER IN CEYLON: THE IMFEOVED SYS-
TEM OF GATHEBING MILK— SHOULD
HAEVESTING BEGIN?

London, E.C., Dec. 2nd, 1885.

Dkar Sir, — I have read the letter Messrs. Marval
Irmios have addressed to you. I am aware of the
nature of their process and can fully coiiarm wliat
they say. I caunwt agree with your reoiarks when

you say that Ceylon has not sufficiently advanced
in rubber culture, because you have the Crypto-
stegia grandiflora and other nibbers which yield
milk and they are quite amenable to this process
which is both simple and inexpensive. Dr. 'Trimen
will confirm the fact of my having sent him some
years since Mangabeira rubber seed, telling him at
the same time that it produced a very fine rubber. —
I am, dear sir, yours truly, THOS. CHRISTY.

CAEDAMOM PLANTING IN INDIA.

Mercara, 21st Dec. 1885.
Dear Sir, — "Cardamom Planter" in your Nov-
ember's issue of the T.J. says, it would be highly
interesting to know how Imlia is standing the
present crisis in cardamoms. I am glad to inform
him that we can still manage to make both ends
meet, even with the present low prices. The
general opinion here is, cardamom prospects are
done for. Some of our AVynaad friends, however,
think differently, as they are going in extensively
for tliem, and seem very hopeful for the future.
I am afraid they will be rudely awakened from
their fond dreams one of these days. The cultiv-
ation is being extensively increased all over Southern
India, both by Europeans and natives, especially
the latter, who are following the example of
Europeans in planting up their jungles, and pick-
ing the fruit as it ripens, instead of stripping the
racemes as they used to do. I know one native
who got as much as 23 tons of cardamons last
season, and I hear he expects from 18 to 20 tons
this season. He is still going in for more jungle,
having bought about 3,000 or 4,000 acres more
last year. Prices in the local market have declined
in the last 3 years from E70 to B20 per mauiid
of 28 lb. and there is no doubt the prices will
fall still lower. Wr are having very wet weather
here for December, the sky being overcast all
day, and consequently great difficulty in drying our
coffee crops. — Yours faitlifully, YELAKEE.

A Healino Plant. — la the Archit ik-r Pliuimucie
(November, p. 817) Dr. V. Zipi)erer describes and
illu.strates the striictiue of the root of t'tii\'.m'.i'ia
vitliteidi'ia., lladl., which is ustLl by the natives of
the riiiHppine islands as wl'11 as by the residents
there to furnish a kind of balsam that possesses
remarkable bealint; properties. This is kuown by
the name of Cebii or Tggulaw.iy balsam. It is pri--
pared by boiling the baik of the roots ami twigs as
well as the leaves of the plant in cocoa nut r>il,
and forms a yellowish-white oily liquid having a
peculiar odour. Dr. Zipperer's examiuatiou of the
plant shows that it coutaius S'S per cent caoutchouc
in its tissues, and 3 per ceul resiu sjkible in alcohol,
and to these constituents its value appears tu bo
due. Dr. Zipperer stati.-s that during two years'
residence in the Philippines he had seen the balsam
used by Pluropeau doctois, as well as by the natives,
with great success in various skin diseases and for
healing wounds. It appears to promote an unusually
rapiti cicatrization. The plant is a climber growing
iu the mountainous declivities of the I-sland of Cebii,
whence it is chieily (jbtainod. The fragments of
leaves and twigs in the pllss^s^ion of Dr. Uudikofer
were .sufficient to enable this eminent histologist and
botanist to assure himself by the microscopical
structure alone that the plant ditfered from the only
two other species of Paramcria known, vi/., P.
yhifiihiMfera, J5enth. (see Kew IJcport for l.s.sl, p. 47),
and r. jtlii/i/'/itiisis, Bunth., alfoiiling another ctample
of the value of the microscupu iu phariuacogao«y.
— i'liarmaceutical Journal.

Feb, I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

5'-0

NEW SPECIES OF PRIMULA FROM THE

MOUNTAINS OF TtJN-N.VN, AVESTERN CHINA.

The genus Primula is uow in the ascendant, and
the number and diversity of the species in certjiiu
regions, especially in the mountains of Asia, seems
almost iuexhaustible. "When that part of Sir Joseph
Hooker's Flora of British India^ containing the
Primulace^i. appeared some three years ago, it afforded
a great surprize iu the large number of new species
of Priunjla described, chietiy from the Himalaya
Mountains. After the reduction of a largo number
of forms that had previously been described as
independent species to P. obtusifoUa, P. Stuartii, P.
petiolaris, and others, there stitl remained, including
one iu the addenda, forty-four admitted species. And
every fresh district visited since has yielded some-
thing new, so that the publication of additional new
species from the Himalayan region may be expect-
ed at any time. It is noteworthy that no species
of Primula has hitherto been detected, either on
the moxntuius of the western peninsula of India,
or on those of Ceylon. One very fine and distinct
species, P. imperialis, inhabits the mountains of
Java, and the familiar P. prajnitens (sinensis) and
P. japonica are the most conspicuous of the few
species inhabiting the extreme east of Asia. But
lying between Eastern India and 'Western China is
a vast tract of country, the interior of China, con-
cerning the vegetation of which comparatively little
is known. '\'arious French missionaries, notably
David and Delaway, have, however, made consider-
able collections in the western j)rovinces of China,
and M. A. Franchet has tleseribed a great many of
their novelties in various publications.

His latest contribution * to Chinese botany is a
synopsis of the species of Priunila colb'cted iu the
mountains of Yuun.-in by Delaway. The collection
comprises twenty species, nearly all found around
Lake Tali ; and of these twenty species, sixteen are,
according to Franchet, absolutely new ; throe are
referred to Himalayan species, and one is treated as
a remarkable variety of P. auriculata, a native of
the Caucasus and Siberia. The greater number of
the Primulas of the lofty mountains of Yunnan,
Franchet says, are singularly remarkable for the
beauty of their flowers, surpassing even the Himalayan
species in brilliancy of colouring. — Uanleners' Cliranicle.

EEPOBT ON THE HORTICULTURAL GARDENS,
LUCKNOW.

Fruit CuUurt. — There appears, on the whole, to
have been a fair crop of fruit. A number of English
varieties of vine and an English variety of fig fruited
in the gardens for the first time this year. It is
expected that when thoroughly acclimatised these
varieties will prove superior to those hitherto cultiv-
ated. Considerable advance has been made in the
knowledge and cultivation of the Arabisn date palm,
and it is hoped to overcome the difficulty incident to the
lat*- rijiening of the fruit by observation, selection, and
hybridising with the native variety. The demands
on the garden for fruit trees, especially of the orange
tribe, has been in excess of the supply, and the
ar«a tor nursery work has therefore been considerably
enlarged.

t'egetaUe and Farm Culture. ~lt was in this pro-
vince that the effects of the hail-storm were,
perhaps, mo.st severely felt, all the vegetable crops
being much injured. The experiments with rnusk-
mi'lun and white Belgian carrot were thus checked.
On the other hand, American table corns have
succeeded better than in the previous year, and
further success has been achieved with Dwarf French
and I'olc beans and " Queen " onions. Of the cottons,
the China and Arabian seed of Nankin cotton failed
here as eLsewhere. The cro.ss obtained between New
i)rleans cotton and acclimatised Nankin was so far
encnnraging, that the plants flourished in a season

* Bulletin de la Socwte Botaniqut de France fl885), '.
xxxii., p. 2W. I

67

i when cotton of every description was elsewhere
I comparatively a failure, but iu point of colour the
, results are not yet satisfactory. Further sowings will
'■ be tried. Prickly Conifrey, introduced in l.sM.'i, will
be a valuable addition to our fodder plants if it
succeeds, of which there seems good hope. The hail-
storm however has temporarily checked the record.
Withunia ctnigulatis and Salt bush (Atri/)h\r Xtimmul'
arr'ir) continued to do well. The vlemand foraccliniatised
i seeds continues to increase, and that for imported
seeds to decrease, an evolution which is distinctly
satisfactory.

Flower Culture. — There is little under this head
to note beyond general progress. Is was at one
time hojied that Hippeastrum bulbs would find a
sale with English Florists, but it now appears that
Auslralian custom promises better appreciation.

Arboriculture. — Of the stock of seedling mangoes
raised for gratis distribution, 7.080 were disposed of
without effort, and the distribution of all kinds
amountcrl to 12,400. There are 27,<)6il young trees
now in the nursery.

E.voti c Plantation. — The acre of Divi-divi, grown
for the purpose of practically testing the commercial
value of this tree, continues to flourish. A kbarif
crop grown between the lines paid for aU charges on
this acre tluring the year and left a small profit.
This eNperiment, while testing the profit from Divi-
divi, will secure a double purpose in exemplifying
how inexpensively a grove may be formed. Of other
trees in this plantation the table gives particulars,
which, owing to the hail-storm, must this year be
considered inoperative.

Datr rhintoiion. — This appears to be making
fair progress. The plants have done well. The
plantation has been fenced in, two wells have been
siuik, and a good deal of surface levelling accom-
plished. It is yet too early to discuss the prospect
of the scheme.

J/)/jrriitires. — There are 15 boys on the roll,
some of whom are fpialified to take o\itsitle appoint-
ments.* Ten applications for mails were received
during the year.

TEA CULTURE IN NATAL.

TO THK muTOH OF THK " COLONICS ANIJ rNDIA."

Sir, — I have great pleasure in haniling you the
oiclosed slip from the Natal press, which I will
thank you to publish at foot of this, for the inform-
ation of the public desirous of fiudiug an outlet for
capital and labour.

Mr. Hulett writes us that the industry may be
pursued with a commencing capital of 500/. upwards,
the occupation being agreeable and interesting. In
a condensed form I have furnished the Field with a
general outline of this communication, and I shall
be hapi)y lo afford your readers any further inform-
ation in my power they may desire. Mr. Jtulett is
preparttfl to purchase the leaf as picked from the
plant from beginners at an agreed price, thus
obviating the need of machinery and want of
knowledge in manufacture or preparing the tea for
the market, antl he will give every assistance
possible, advice, iic, to those desirous of such.

From broker's report on samples I brought home
last year, I i|Uote the following values in the London
market in bond: — No. 1. 1.5. Xrl. to 1». 4(2.; No.
2, Is. Orf. to Is. 10»/.; No. 3, 2s. 3d. to 2.< 5d.
per lb. ; ami wouhl have been worth more if leaf
had not b(^eu so lirokeii. Samples were brought home
in ray portmanteau, and freely handled on the
voyage. I am, A:c.,

MottTON OilEEN.

Brixton Rise, S. W., Aug. 29, 1885.

TO THE EDITOn OF THE " NATAIi WITNESS.

Sir, — For the benefit of all those who take any
interest in productive development, allow me to give
results of last season's yield of manufactured tea on

5i<i

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb. ,i 1886.

this estate — i.e., between September, 1884, and June,
18S5, the maautacturing season: —

lb.

i an acre originalf'imported) plantedNov., 1877 . 600

5^ acres planted out Nov.; 18S0, 70) I'u. to acre . 3,850

2(1" acres planted out Nov., 1831, 500 lb. to acre . 13,000

18 acres planted out Nov., 1882, 250 lb. to acre . 4,500

50 21,950

It will be understood that the amounts per acre
for the various ages can only be approximate, seeing
that the variously aged trees are picked at one and
the same time and leof mixed. But seeing I have
manufactured 22,000 lb. of tea, if we reduce the
amount per acre for one age, we must increase the
amount per acre for the other. I am aware that
tlie yield will appear excessive, considering the age
of the plants, but the total result is as above, aud
area picked over as stated. Surely this return, in a
very dry season, will settle the question of sufficiency
of rainfall in Natal for tea-growing.

It may be interesting to give a general view of
the present position of the tea industry. The letters
are placed in lieu of names of estate.'!, as I have
not applied to the owners for leave to publish the
names .

LOWEK THOELA DIVISION, VICTORIA COUNTY.

A Estate, 110 acres planted, 10 to 20 acres

preparing for planting coming summer

B „ 7 „ 13

*^ »j n 7 ») V

D „ 50 „ 20

E .. 20 „ 5

F „ 30 „ Unknown „ „

^^ 51 ' », ,, ,1 ,,

H „ 5 „ „ „ „

^ »» 4 „ ,, „ „

" „ 5 ,, 5 „ „

DnUBAN COUNTY.

K „ 20 ,, Unknown „ „ .

ALEXANDBA OE ALFRED COUNTY.

I" » — 11 50 „ „

M .. — » 50

2os „ 762 ;', "

It may be safely assumed that 50,000 lb. weight
of tea will be made in Natal during the coming
season, with a very large increase each succeeding
year.

In conclusion, I think I may fairly lay claim to
hive proved that tea-growing in Natal is a success —
not merely that it will grow, but that it will grow
to pay, and pay well, as an article of export. The
initi.al iliHiculties have been overcome, and the future
will doubtless show great improvement in the manu-
facture as e.xperience is gained. — Yours, &c.,

J. Liege Hulett.
Kearsney Tea Estate, Nonoti, Natal.

Tea IN THE Caucasus. — One of our Russian
correspondents informs us that under the auspices of
a society the cultivation of Tea in the Caucasus is
likely to be successful. Experience has shown that
the shrub thrives at Souchoum-Kale, Batiim, aud
various other places near the eastern shores of the
Black Sea.— Grtr(/e/ic/*.s' Clironicle.

Swollen Mouth aftek Eitino Pineapplk. — i.
correspondent of the Bi-ilUli Medical Journal states
that '* A gentleman about forty years of age received
a Pine-apple as a presiint. The fruit had an unusually
dark rind [Black Jamaica]. He ate several slices after
dinner, carefully cutting off the rind, none of which
touched his mouth. Within a few hours his lips began to
swell. The swelling did not disappear for twenty-
four hours. The tongue was not affected. The
gentleman had no other uneasiness or pain." \\Ve
had a similar experience in some Pine-apples raised
from suckers that came ashore from the " Tyne " Mail
steamer, which came ashors off St. Albans Head in
1853.— Ed.] — Gardeners' Chronicle.

ANNUAL REPOfiT, BY DR. KING, OF THE
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA FOR

THE YEAR 1884-85.
The progress of the garden during the year has,
I think, on the whole, been very satisfactory. Various
plants of economic interest, and oipecially lil)re-
yielding species, have received attention during the
year. At the request of the Government of India,
a further attempt was made to introduce into the
Iirovince of Bengal the kind of plantain {Miisa
Itxtilis) from which Manilla hemp is derived. Pl.ants
of this species were accordingly distributed to the
Magistrates of districts. As I anticipated, this at-
tempt {like its predecessors) was a failure, and from the
.same cause. The low temperature of the cold weather,
proved too much for the plants aud they all died
A small patch of rheea continues to be kept up in
the garden, from which quantities of green stems
were made over during the year to persons interested
in discovering an efficient cheap method of extracting
the fibre. Quantities of roots were also distriliuted
to several applicants. Bow-string hemp is a fibre
which of late has attracted con.*iderable atti-utioii.
It is no doubt an admirable fibre, and is not difficult
of extraction from the plant (,>Sanseviera Zci/lanicn)
that produces it. The plant is not indigenous in
this part of India, but it grows well here; and a
good many plants of it have been distributed during
the year. In several of my recent reports I have
referred to the .lapan paper mulberi'y as a hoi)eful
source of paper fibre for Bengal. I am happy to
say that the trees of this species in the garden
continue to grow well. Although now only three
years old, they are twenty-five feet high aiid have
proportionately thick stems. The fibre contained in
the bark is one of the best materials for paper
known. It is easily separated, is strong, and reipiires
little bleaching. As the tree grows thoroughly well
and coppices freely, I think it quite possible that,
in the course of time, natives may be induced to
grow it on the odd corners of land which are so
common near Bengali villages. It is gratifying to
find that the bhabur or sabai, a native grass to
which I first directed attention in my .annual report
for the year 1877-78, has now become a recognised
raw material for paper, and that it is largely used
in local manufacture. Mahogany and the various
plants yielding Indiarubber continue to be propagated
and distributed as the resources of the garden permit.
Much attention lias of late been directed to the
coca plant, the leaves of which contain an important
alkaloid called cocaine, and efforts have been made
during the year to prop.agate quantities of thi plant
for distribution.

In former reports I described the havoc committed
in this garden by the grubs of a cockchafer which
appeared iu the soil of the garden in myriads and
ate up almost every plant that it contained, sparing
only the larger trees. During the year under review
this pest gradually disappeared, and towards the end
of the year Mr. Jaffroy had succeeded in ro-stocking
the garden with plants of sorts. But many of the
rarer kinds, got at considerable expense from Europe
and elsewhere, have disappeared, and their rejilace-
raont must bo a matter of time. The grub is, I
hear, extending its ravages in the Darjeeling district.
It is to be hoped that it will confine itself to the
weeds in tea gardens, aud that it will spare the
tea bushes.* The sides of the sanitarium hill above
the garden (by slips from which the garden suffered
considerable damage in former years), appear at
last to have become consolidated ; and it is to be
hoped no more damage will occur from that source.
The vegetable garden owned by the municipality, but
worked by I\Ir. .Faffrey for the Municipal Commissioners,
having been greatly damaged by successive landslips,
gradually became a losing concern, and was towards
he end of the year resumed by the Ooniraissioners,

* The cockchafer grnba, so destructive to the
rootlets of coffee, have certainly, as yet abstained
from attacking tea. — Ed.

lev, J, me.] THE TROPICAL AGMCUtTURTSt,

53 i

vibo threaten to build either bazaar huts or wash-
iug tanks for dhobies on the site. The interposition
between the grounds of the Eileu Sanitarium and
liotanir Garden of buildings of this sort would be
a great blot on the amenity of the neighbourhood ;
and I trust the Commissioners may reconsider their
decision juid see their way towards restoring the
ground to horticultural purposes, Sales of plants to
the extent of 'i\&25 (against an estimated revenue
of RHI«') were ma<-le at the garden during the
year. Mr. Jaffrey has worked with much enthusiasm
and energy under rather depressing circumstances.*

The thanks of the Lieut. Governor are again due to
Dr. King and his subordinates for the escoUent work
done during the year.

♦

EAETHING-UP.

The ridge, consisting of earth heaped round the
base of the plant, exercises very diverse actions ;
often useful, it is sometimes without sensible action
— occasionally the effect is even hurtful. The practice
considerably modifies the physical constitution of the
soil ; it. moreover, exercises a very important inrtuence
on the manner of growth of plants. The temper-
Rtiu:e in the raised mound, as compared to the
temperatUBS of the level ground, has been found
greater by V to 2 .5 C. at mid-day at a depth of
III centimetres during the day from .June to August;
this fact has been proved in various soils. At night,
on the contrary, the temperature has been found to
be 1° lower in the ritlges. During winter it is
generally the raised soil which is coldest. Generally
when the sun is shining, the ridge aids the heating
of the soil ; when the sun has set, the ridge pro-
duces a coaling effect. These results are easy to
explain ; the ridged soil offers a greater surface to
the sun, it receives the rays less oblitiuely, the soil
there is very dry, and it takes a less quantity of
heat to warm it; thus it is natur.il that it should
be warmer during the ilay ; during the night, on
the contrary, the radiating surface is greater on the
ridge, it is more mellow, more easilj' penetrated by
the cold air ; if there has been rain, the surface of
evaporation is more extended, the temperature
necessarily falls lower there than in the level soil.
This increa.sc in the toniper-iture of the soil re-acts
on the plants by aiding the development of root.s,
by favouring the absorption of water, and generally
by hastening their development. Experiments have
shown that the more carbonic acid there is in the
soil the colder it is; now the presence of carbonic
aeiil proves the existence of inferior org niisnis whose
work it is to elaborate the organic matter which
forms the nourishment of plants: it is thus in the
ridges that the phints find most food. But, it must
not be forgotten that these inferior organisms only
work when the soil contains exactly the proper
amount of water which is indispensible to them ; if
the soil is too dry their work stops. If by earth-
ing up wo dry the soil Loo much we lessen or even
destr.ty its fertility, and this explains to us why
this practice may even become injurious. During
one >eason the quantity of water existing in different
sorts of soil, both in ridges and on the flat, was determ-
ined. One hundred parts of soil contained of water —
Sand : Sand :
Olay, limestone, flint Peat.
On ridges ... 16-35 10-3.3 1-22 43-99 17-74
On the flat ... 17-48 1-2-23 2-52 51-64 20-01
This table clearly shows that the soil of the ridge
is always the drier ; but it is in the siliceous sand
that it loses the greatest proportion of water, so
that it is in this kind of soil that the disadvant-
ageous results are chii fly manifested. To sum up,
the ridge will be useful on compact soils, rich in
humus, holding water, and situate in moist climates;
wlnle in dry regions cultivation should be carried ou
on the tl-it.

We have said that the ridge e.xercises a very
important action on the manner of development of

* Uis death bae since b«eu reported,— Kd.

Ridge.

Flat.

3.59

391(i

93

27-5

507-6

525

875-S

934-1

plants. On many species of plants, in addition to
favouring the development of true roots, it promotes
the development of adventitious or secondary roots;
this m.ay be seen in kidney lieans, broad Beans aud
m Turnip.!. Some species have not the power of
making a 'ventitious roots. Grasses, for example, as
■Wheat, Kye, Bariey, Oats, Millet, Buckwheat, da
not form new roots. | ?] Such plants do not rcpiiro
the earth to be heaped up rounil their stem. There
are even plants which are enfeebled by *his tci-.>(-
ment, because it causes an unueces.sary lengthening
of their stem, as in th.ise plants in which the stem
tei. i:iates at the surface of the soil in a rosette of
1 -aves. If you put earth ou such a stem you
induce it to elongate so as to produce its leaves on
the surface to a length equal to the depth of Iho
soil over it, and this lengthening is etfected at the
expense of the materials which were destined to
develop the other organs of the plant. Some very
interesting eomijarisons have been made betneeii
Beetroots grown undur identical conditions, with the
exception that one lot was grown on ridges aud the
other was not. The average for one Beetroot is
found to be : —
^'eight of the leaves ...

,. ,, J, radicles ...

1, I. •, root

„ ,, „ whole plant

The ridge produces a diminution in the numbers
of the leaves and in the development of r.adicles;it
promotes lengthening above the ground, aud with
the lengthening of the stem there is a corre.spoml-
ing diminution of the imdergrouml and useful part
of the plant. Evidently the ridge had lessened the
total weight of the plant .and the weight of the
underground and utilisable parts.

In the case of Turniiis, it may be noticed that
the riilge prevents the crown from becoming green
so that it remains tender and preserves the texture
of the root ; this latter is a great advantage in a
plant used for food for cattle.

The ridge is greatly used in the culture of
Potatos; it produces such marked results that the
tuber is planted almost on the surface; but if the
Potatos are plante.l deep the ridge is of no use,
and is even often hurtful to the plant. In those
kinds of soil where ridges produce bad results
becau.'se they draw from the soil the humiilitv which
is indispcu.sible, the tubers must be planted "deiply,
and allowed to develop in level ground. Let us
remark here that the culture on the flat will slightly
favour the growth of weeds, on account of the main-
tenance of too great an amount of moisture in the
soil; but these can ea-ily be got rid of with tlxr
hoe. Wth the gre.-iter luiinber of plants for «-liich
the ridge is useful, it is important to hoe the weeds
as soon as possible; if we wait too long we risk
touching and injuring the plants. In growing old
they have partly lost their faculty of f.rrning ad-
ventitious roots, and they profit much more from
the work of new roots than from those which were
formed earlier. 'With Potatos the tubers which ;ire
devi-loped on the new stolons have more time to ripen.

We have seen th.it the soil is drier in ridged
land than in the plain ground, it would thereforo
be useful to sow, in certain lands, plants on the
ridges, although these plants do not derive any direct
advantage from it, for example. Beetroots. The
ridges running north and south have a much mere
uniform temperature than those going from east to
west; the south side is always drier than the north
side. The ridges directed from north to south
exhibit great uniformity in the evaporation of water
from both their surfaces; it is evident that the.se
arc conditions favourable for the development of
plant.s. Some Beetroots from ridges running north
and south were ripe in September, tho.se from ridges
running cast aud west were only ready in Octolu-r,
the former contained 1225 per cent of sugar, the
latter 10-62 per cent.— Dii. WotiNV iu Annaici
Agronomiqaci.—Gardentii' Chronicle,

S3'

fMU "TROPiCAL AGUlCVLTUmBf. [fe^. i, iS86.

ISSUE OF DOTY-FEEE SALT IN INDU.

The foUowiug is a Resolution of the Goverament of
India, dated L'3rd Decembnr, 1885:—

One of the chief objections taken to the salt duties
is that, owing to the resulting _ high prices, cattle are
stinted in their supply of salt, while manufacturers
aud agriculturists are required to pay duty on salt
employed in industry and agriculture. The attention
of the Government of India has been give to the
matter for some years in tho hopq that an unobjection-
able method of freeing from dutysalt rcnuirod for the
purposes above indicated might sooner or later be
discovered.

No satisfactory way of affecting this object, and at
the same time of protecting the State from risk of fraud,
has as yet been found. The issue of duty-free salt
on a simple guarantee that it will be used for certain
purposes and for no others is, in the absence of special
safeguards, •ut of the question, while the provision of
such safeguards would entail the entertainment of
establishments at inordinate expense, or the adoption of
measures harassing to the section of the public con-
cerned. The only plan which would fully meet tho
requirements of the ease would be the denaturalisation
of salt so as to render it unfit for human consumption,
whilst it remained (it for use by cattle and as manure,
or for industrial purposes, the salt not being easily
restorable to an edible condition by any of the methods
which could in ordinary circumstances be employed
in India. If salt were thus prepaied, it might be freely
issued .it little over cost price without danger to
the revenue. So far, however, all attempts made to
discover such a process have proved more or less un-
satisfactory in their results.

2. The first experiment was made in 1876 by Mr.
Wood, then Chemical Examiner to the Government
of Bengal, consequent on an application from Messrs.
Burn & Co., of Calcutta, for the remission of duty
on salt used by them in llie manufacture of glazed
stoneware, pipes and similar articles. Mr. Wood re-
ported that he was unable to find out a process which
fidly complied with the conditions laid down, namely,
the discovery of an inexpensive method whereby salt
may be rendered unfit for human consumption and
can he again rendered edible only by a process, the cost
of which would equal or exceed the duty levied on it.
But te suggested an alternative method, namely, the
admixture of salt with coal tar, the tarred salt being
issued to manufacturers of glazed stoneware free of
duty, upon a per.soual guarantee for its use exclusively
in manufacture. This method was adopted and is
still practised, the salt being issued subject to certain
special rules framed by the Government of Bengal.
The arrangement works satisfactorily on the limited
scale on which it has been tried, but constant super-
vision is required, aud tarred salt cannot be used
except in pottery manufacture.

3. In 1877, Dr. H. Warth was directed to make
experiments after tho German method with some of
the refuse salt of the Punjab mines. A mixture of
salt with colocyuth {CitiuUux coh^siiiitlils) and another
with lignite, oil-cake, aud cotton seed were tried, but
the reeult in both cases wa,s unsatisfactory, pure salt
being easily recovered from the mixtures, and the ex-
periments were discontinued. On application to the
Secretary of State for information showing precisely
the proce.'s of denatiu-alisation employed in Germany,
it appeari.-d that salt wa.s issued for agricultural pur-
po.'-es in two forms, (1) a coarse powder consisting of
n mixture of oxide of iron and vermouth powder
(Artimhin db^iiithhim), and (2) blocks for beasts to
)i, k, the salt being mixed with oxide of iron and char-
cual powder. Salt for manure was mixed with charcoal
dust, ashes, lamp-black or ordinary soot, in different
projmrtions. These mixtures, though effective in
Germany, would not be so in this country, where the
salt duty is much heavier, aud cheaper means of
restoring the salt exist.

4. In 1870, the Government of Madras forwarded
an application from Mr. Barter for jjcrmission to use
duty-lree salt in the manufacture of manure. The
Oonjtnieeioner of Salt Bovenuc, Mstlras, referred ty

the various processes of medicating salt used in France,
and recommended compliance with Mr. Barter's ap-
plication, provided the salt was first mixed with
poudrette in accordance with the French method. The
Board sup])orted the recommendation of the Salt
Commissioner, but the Government of India considered
that the issue of a mixture of the kind to the people
of this couutry w?s oijviously objectionable, as leading
to serious misapprehension of motives. The proposal
^as therefore negatived.

•5. The European methods of medicating salt having
been found unsuitable, and the experimeuts made in
Bengal and the Punjab having proved unsuccessful,
the Government of India, in its Re.solation of the 22nd
August 1883, cited in the preaml)le, invited local
governments and private individuals to make careful
aud systematic expeiraents for the discovery of a
satisfactory process. Various attempts have been
made in compliance with these instructions, but none
of them can be considered completely satisfactory.
The following is a brief summary of the suggestioui
received, and of the causes which render them in-
effectual.

(1) Lieutenant J. F. Pogson, Dehra Dun.— A
mixture of salt with slaked lime or chuuam.c.irbonatc
of potash, powdered charcoal, rice flour ain\ water.
Experiment showed that the preparation was useless,
puresalt being recovered from the mixture by solu-
tion in water and subsequent evaporation. A sample
of cattle salt prepared by Lieutenant Pogson, of which
he declined to name the ingredients, was tested by
the Chemical Examiner, Pimjab, and also founil use-
less.

(2) Captain Davie.s, Barrack Master, I'mballa,
suggested a mixture of salt with green succulent grass
in the proportion of 4U or more parts of the latter
to one of the former. Edible salt can he easily
recovered from the mixture.

(3) Mr. C. J. Simons, Mahmarra Tea Estate, .Vssam.
—A mixture of edible salt with sulphate of .soda Ikliari
niiHiil;) in the proportion of 4 tcj S and oi suljiliur riniin,
black salt and mustard oil-cake in small proportions.
The mixture was examined by the Chemical Examiner,
North-Western Provinces and Oudh, who reported
that edible salt could be recovered from it by an easy
process.

(4) Dr. Warth. — A mixture of salt with cfUi; bran,
oil-cake, and grass. Experiments made by the Super-
intendent, Experimental Farm, ^'orth.^\'cstern Pro-
vinces and Oudh, failed, edible salt being easily
recoverable from the mixture.

(.5) Surgeon-Major J. B. Gaffney, Civil Surgeon,
Seoul, Central Provinces. — A mixture of salt with
" mahwa " refuse from distilleries. Experiments made
in accordance with this suggestion by the Assist-mt
Commissioner of the Sambhar Lake Division failed,
salt being separated from the mixture by the simple
process of recrystallisation.

(W) Mr. 11. Murray, of Lahore. — Mr. Murray
suggested four alternative methoils of preparing cattle
fodder — (1) a mixture of hay, wheat, bran, grass,
fodder, aiicl gram with caramel, molasses (mixed with
green fodiler juice), and .salt; (2) a mixture of bran,
salt, and caramel; (3) a mixture of hay, bran, and
various descriptioi s of fodder with cotton, nuistard
seed, caramel, molasses, and salt; \-i) a mixture of
wheat meal, gram, caramel, oil-cake, and salt. Every
facility was afforded to Mr. Murray at the JIayo Salt
mines, and salt supplied to him free of duty. He made
a small quantity only of fodder by way of experiment,
but, owing to the cost of conveyance by rail of au
article .so bulky as this preparation, it was found
impossible toi)lacethe fodder in the market ;it .'i price
which woulil be remunerative and attract puchascrs.
The experiments have been abondoued.

(7) Mr. 1!. liomanis, D. Sc, Chemical Examiner,
British l!urma.-A mixture of salt with sulphide of
antimony, sulphur, and charcoal, or lime freshly slaked.
This method fulfils the conditions laid down by the
Government of ludia, but competent authorities, who
were consulted as to its cllicacy, report that fatal
reeults may ioUow fiom coutiuued coQtumptiun of a

Jit, i, iSSO.j l'H£ rUOPtCAt AGRlCULTURlSf.

Si3

mixture which contain autimouy, » cumulative poison.

6. Various experiments were made by district medical
officers in Bengal, but none proved successful, Ihe
difficulty being to prevent the easy restoration of piire
salt from the mixture. The Chemical Examiner to
the Government of Bengal is of opinion that a sol-
Htion of the problem cannot be expected under the
conditions laid down, which in their entirety are im-
practicable. This view is concurred in by the Chemical
Examiner to the Government of the Punjab, and iu
Madras and Bombay it has been held that the problem
is insoluble.

7. As already stated in the Resolution of 22nd
August, 18S3, the Government of India stillhopes that
a process may be discovered which, if not completely
satisfying all the conditions hithsrto prescribed, may
yet be sulticient for practical purposei. In this view,
the Governor-General in Council (is prepared to grant
a reward not exceeding R5,000 to the inventor or
discoverer of a process which will satisfy the main
conditions, namely («) that the cost of the proces»
must be moderate, not exceeding about 4 annas a maund,
and (Zi) the preparation must be such that edible salt
cannot be easily extracted from it by any of the ordinary
processes in use amongst native salt-workers. If
several gotitl processes are suggested the highest reward
will be given to the inventor of the process which may
appear to Government to be the most satisfactory
iu all respects, and a smaller proportienate reward
will be granted for the next best process. I'he details
of th» attempts hitherto made to discover a suitable
method of denaturalisation have been printed in the
form of a phamphlet, copy of which may be obtained
on application by persons who desire to make experi-
ments,— jiladras Times.

ECONOMIC XATUKiVL HISTOET OF BUEMA.

The Burmese possess a strong liking for animal
foods, but, being prohibited by their religion from
slaughtering domestic animals, they are reduced to
seeking their supplies from among the lower orders
of the headt world. Foremost in this respect come
the various kinds of fish and shell-fish, not only
from the sea and the rivers, but from inland pools
and flooded low-lands, which become teeming fishponds
during the annual inundations.

Commencing with shellfish, the "ladies' slipper''
oyster, or jinjouk (Ostrea cucullata), is edible and
pleasant when gathered in localities freely covered
by the waves ; but it is unwholesome, if not even
poisonous, when taken from spots that are exposed
for hours to the sun and air. The creek or rock
oyster, or kama (Ostrea talienwahensis), attains nearly
a foot in length, and flourishes in compact clusters
iufet below the level of spring tides, on solid ground,
whence it is detached by the aid of an iron bar. and
forms a wholef'ome article of food. A smaller kind,
called kameh, sometimes promoted to the dignity of
a separate species {O. circumsuta), is probably only
a diminutive variety. A large, handsome mussel, of
dark apple-green hue, highly esteemed as food, is
apparently Alytilus .smaragdinus. similar use is made
of several species of Area, which move about in the
mud of estuaries, and of some burrowing species of
Venus.

In the backwaters along the coast, Hatula diphos
is found in abundance. It is much sought after for
food, its rapture being affected by thrusting a stick
into its hole in the sand. A species of razor shell
(Solen) lives vertically buried in the sand, and repays
the labour entailed m securing it by affording a
succulent dish. The boat-shpeila chitton nicobaricus
frequents surf-beaten rocks in company with limpets.
and is gathered for eating. A like end is served
by the ahahbew n'hyllanthus emblica). the " water
hen" or yejiet (a sepia sp.), and the "water monkey"
or yemyouk (Cistopus indicus) The last-named is
very common on the Aracan coast, ami is sought I
for in the pools left by the tide. Its retreat is iu-
dicatwl by a small h'lle in the aaml, surrounded by
{rsfiueDt* of crab ibeU, Xbe bait uaed i» a crufbed

crab, secured by a string held in tho captor's left
hand ; when the animal is enticed out to seize the
bait, the fisherman stabs him with a bamboo spike
held in the right hand. Finally, a kind of squid
or cuttlefish (Argonauta owcnii) is utilised for f»od,
;;5 some allied species are in the Levant.

Turning to fishes proper, and commencing with the
bottom of the scale, the cockup or bekti (Lates
heptadactylus) holds an important place. The young
are distinguished as kakadit, and the adults aa
kathaboiiug. They are excellent eating when caught
beyond the influence of fresh water, salting well, and
contributinj: some of the best *' tamarind fish" of
India. The air vessel is thin, but affords good is-
inglass. The species of serranus yield edible flesh,
coarse when large. The name ngatouktu is given
to 8. malabaricus in Aracan. Tho species of Am-
bassis consist of little bony fishes generally much
less than 6 in. long. The ngazinzat (A. baculis) and
kyoungmasa (A. nalua) are eaten by the poor, and
easily dried without salt. A Datnioides (D. polota),
called ngakya and ngawetma, inhabiting tidal rivers
and estuaries, grows 1 ft. long, and is eaten by the
poor. The species of Gerres are little esteemed, on
account of want of flavour and bonj' character, but
are dried and salted in quantity — notably the ngawetsat
(G. filamentosus). The ngapathwon, or poradah (Scato-
phagus argus), is a foul feeder, but well flavoured
when caught at sea. The ngawa, or black rock cod
of Madras (Chrvsophrys berda), grows 30 in. long, and
is excellent eating. Cirrhites forsteri is a firm-fleshed
wholesome fish, Iri in. hng. The ngapongna, or man-
goe fish (Poljnemus paradiseus) grows 10 in. long,
and enters the rivers to spawn during |the y.-AV.
monsoon and the cold months. It is highly esteemed
as a delicacy, especially the roe. The ngatakhwoukha
(Trichiurus haumela) is delicate eating when fresh.
Of the pomfrets, the black, or ngapamoung (Stroma-
teus nigerj, grows 2 ft. long and is excellent food;
the while, or ngamu (8. sinensis), is less admired; the
grey (S. cinereus) attains over 1 ft. in length, and is
the most esteemed. A kind of seer fish, called kun-
shat (Cymbium guttatum), and another C. lineola-
turn are eaten dried. Light and wholesome food is
afforded by the ngarui (.Sillago sihama) and S. maculata,
which may be captured at all seasons. The ngathabok
(Gobius giuris i though possessing an earthy flavour,
much esteemed for food, and largely used for stock-
ing ponds. A Trypauchen (T. vagina) grows 9 in. long,
and is eaten by the poor. "Widely distributed and
excellent eating is a kinTl of spinncd eel, the ngamyu-
wedo (Khynchobdella aculeata). The ngamyuwedo
(Mastacembalus armatus) grows 2 ft. long, and is an
esteemed table fish; and the ngazyn {Mugil corsula),
reaching a length of lift., is similarly admired. A
small fish, seldom exceeding 8 in. long, is the ugabyema
(Anabas scaiidens), highly esteemed as nourishing
food. The ngayoung ( Arius burmaicus) is inferior as
food, but largely useil in a salted condition ; the
same may be said of the ngayeh (A. jatius). A
kind of butter fish nganuthan (Callichrous maeroph-
thalmus), is well-flavoured. The ngabat (M'allago
attu) attains a length of 6 ft., and is good eating.
The flesh of the ngagoo (Clarias magur) is reckoned
highly nourishing. Invigorating properties are .Tseribcd
to the flesh of the ngagyi (Saccobrauchus fossilis),
and tanks are often stocked with it. The ngakyin
(Cirrhina njrigala) grows 3 ft. long, and is an excellent
tank fisii. 'J'liu ngathaing (catia buchanani) attains
() ft. in length, and is a good fish for stocking tanks,
hut its llesb becomes coarse when the size exceeds
2 ft.

The ngakhnng (Barbus Jchola; attains a length of
.5 in., but its flesh has a bitter flavour ; the same
remarks apply to the ngakhongma (B. stigma). Chela
clupeoides grows to 0 in., and is good eating. A
kind of shad, th(^ ngatlialouk, ".s.Tble fish" or "hilsa"
(clupea ilishai a.'-ceuiitt the rivers to spawn, and when
taken full of roe is excellent eating, though rich,
but alter spawning it is unwholesome. Jlouopterus
jaianensis, found in fresh and brackish natvr. is es<
teemeii iur food,

S24

THE Tkvri^^ns. AUKivUi^iURISir^ [tzv, 1, iBSe,

Fishing as a recreative sport is, of course, unknown
to the IJurmau ; his object is to catch as man^' fish
as possible with the least expenditure of trouble.
Heuce his methoils possess some peculiarities. In ihe
case of air-breathing fishes, of which there are many
kinds in Burma, the local fishermeu ate in the habit
of removing the water from a tank, and covering the
mud witli a cloth for two or three days. At the end
of this period the fish have become half suffocated,
and their capture at and near the surface of the
mud is a matter of the greatest ease. Another fav-
ourite practice is the use of narcotic plants to stupefy
the fish. AV'ith this object a c??/-f/(*-,vac is formed, into
which the fish pa'^s, the mouth being closed by a
netting of bamboo. AVhen surrounded, the fisli are
narcotised. For this purpose a herb called einbizat
(ISpilauthes paniculata) is commonly used ; also a bark
named guu (unknown to botanists). AVhcn the fish
within the iuelosure have all been taken, the netting
is removed, and a new supply allowed to enter. The
process of stupefying is repeated at intervals of five
or six days. Small fish caught in nets are thrown
into boats and kept alive by frequent changes of water
till the market is reached ; large ones are strung by
the gills or lips, and towed ta market.

In the moist heat of the Burmese climate, fish be-
comes tainted very soon after removal from the water.
The necessity for utilising the vast quantity* of food
which woidd otherwise be sacrificed from this cause
has given rise to a peculiar method of preserving fi^h,
for which the country is lemarkable. The prepar-
ation is termed ngapee, and is alluded to in empLatic
language by every traveller wlio has encountered it.
There are sevei'al kinds, deserving of separate dc-
acription.

1. Ngapee-goung, or "whole ngapee" — so called
because the fish is prepared in the whole state — is
eaten fried, roasted, or in curries. As a rule, little
regard is poid to the kind of fish selected, but the
ngagoo (Olarias magur) and ugakye (CalHchrous sp.)
are undoubtedly superior, The heads, fius, tails, and
entrails are removed as well as the scales. The last-
named process is effected by hand when the fish are
large ; when small, a number of them are tossed into
a wooden mortar almost before they are dead, and
a bamboo, fiaycd into a kind of brush ' at one end,
is worked among them. Next they are all well rub-
bed with salt and packed in bamboo baskets, where
they remain to drain under weights during a night.
On the morrow they are released, again ruitbetl with
salt, and spread on a mat exposed to the sun. After
lying for a night, t-hey are ^Ited down in alternate
layers (one of fish and one of salt) in jars, and stored
away in a cool place. In course of time a saline
liquor collects on the surface of the jars, and under-
goes evaporation, by which a layer of salt is left
covering the contents. This occupies about a mouth,
by which time the article is ready for sale. Sliould
the supernatant liquor become infested by maggots
before desiccation is complete, it is drawn off, and
more salt is applied. The brand made at and near
Bhooragyee, in the Angyee township of the Rangoon

district, is said to be esteemed all over Burma.

2. A modification of the foregoing kind is that termed
ugathaloukuagapee, from the fact that the ngathalpuk
or hilsa (Clupea ilisha) is exculsively used in its pre-
paration. Each fish, having been disembowelled, but
not deprived of scales, head, tail, or fiiis, is rubbed
with salt, and exposed to the sim for a day; then a
number of the salted fish are packed in a mat-fioored
bhed, covereil with matting, and pressed by adding
weights during three days, when the curing is com-
plolc. Bluch care is taken in the handing.

3. Small fish, especially Sluroids (being scaleless),
as well as bhrimps, are chosen for the manufacture
of toungtha-ugapee or dhameng. These, in an un-
cleaned state and without salt, are spread on mats
in the sun for two days, by which time decomposi-
tion has made some progress. Next they are pounded
with salt in wooden mortars, and finally placed in
heaps uiulcr a roof. Hollow sections of bamboo are

giixck iuto the bcapb to afford means of ebcapu for

a saline fishy liquor called nganpyare, which is col-
lected in jars for sale as a flavouring for curries.
The solid ngapee or fish piste is dug out when ripe,
and forms a highly odoriferous appetiser universally
eaten with boiled rice.

4. Another kind, in which shrimps only are admitted,
is a'l eipiivalent for the balachong of the Straits
Settlements, termed ngapee-kgnyeng in Aracan, gwai
in Tamoy and M»^rgui and tsientsa or ** raw-eaten "
(because edible in an uncooked state), in Kangoon.
Both brt)wn and red shrimps are used in its composi-
tion. Small ones are exposed to the sun's rays im-
mediateiv (usually) they are caught; when half dry,
salt is added, and the mass is intimately kneaded by
hand thrice dailj- for three days, with iutervals of
sunning, till it foi'ms a paste, when it is potted for
use. The treatment of large ones differs only in
pounding being substituted for the kneading, and that
taking place but once a day. More pronounucd
odour and flavour ai-e secured by postponing the sun-
drying process. If this is delayed a .sliort time after
the shrimps are caught, the product is ternietl rekpyaii-
ngapee; if a day elapses before the drying commen-
ces, the result will be rekoopugapee.

5. The variety known as kek-ugapee, made only for
export to Kangoou and Maidmain, con.sists of large
shrimps packed in baskets and subjected to prtissure
for twenty-four hours, then sun-dried for a day, fin-
ally pounded with salt, and repacked and pres.sed.
These several 'forms of preserved fish are the mpst
distinctive article of the Burmese dietary. The chief
domestic animals are buffaloes and cattle, used for
draught purposes; goats, preferred to sheep, as giving
more milk; and jioultry. The only maminal forming
an object of the chase is an animal about the size
of a small dog. called h:imney, or tlutmney, whose
fur is very close and long, and highly esteemed.
This creature lives in the mountains and is very
difficult to capture. Several wild game birds are
sought for diligently and esteemed on the table. These
iuclude jungle fowls and pheasants of moi*e kinds than
one, aiui a species of water-rail (Rallus indicus), called
yaychik or yakyeet. The Kakhyens are expert at
trapping forest fowl. One ingenious plan consists in
building in a miniature fence with openings holding
concealed snares, a dense clump of bamboo behig
selected for the purpose. The fence is composed of
stems of tall jungle grass, and the snares take the
form of a pliable barabuo firmlj- jilanted in the ground,
with a running noose attached to the free end, wUich
is lient down and secured only just lightly enough
to prevent it springmg up of itself. The birds seek to
leave the cover by the openings, and thus ensnare
themselves.

Another effective snare,- adapted for small birds, is
generally planted against the roadside edge of a patch
of jungle. It consists of a wooden perch attache. 1 to
a long bamboo and smeared with the juice of a local
.species of ivy, representing our owu birdlime. Conls
are stretched across the prongs of the perch, baited
with winged ants, so fastened as not to impede the
use of their wings, the continual flutter of which
serves to attract the birds, who alight on the limed
perches in order to feast on the insects, and are un-
able to escape.

Tin; ilesli of the python is much esteemed by the
Karens for fond, and the gall bladder for medicine.
All lizards of the Varanidie family are highly valued
for food, and sought for in hollow trees by tho aid
of dogs. The Karens steal up the trees With a noose
at the end of a bamboo, and snare them while leap-
ing for the water, or catch them in a boat beneatli
the tree. The head is deemed venomous ; but the
flesh of the other parts is preferred to fowls. If not
needed for immediate consumption, the captive is
rendered lu^lpless by breaking some of the t^es, and
knotting the sinews. The eggs are equally estt-emed.
The padat (Lioli-pis guttatusj is herbivorous, and in
high favour as a viand. The flesh of tho niijyoung
(Urocodilus porosus), which is very common and re:\chcs
yu ft. in length, is in great request for fooil. A kind
of turtle (Morcuia oceiiata) during tho inimdatloa

Feb, I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

535

becomes scattereJ about the eoimtry, and on the sub- [
siJence of the floods, and during the grass-buruing in
April, many are either caught alive, or their scorched j
boSies are found afterwards, and greitly relished by
the people. The flesh of the soft turtles is generally
eaten by the Burmese, aud may be good, though the
animals are carnivorous. The leiUpyenwon (Ohelonia j
virgata) is algivorous, and is the ' edible turtle "of
India. The boatmen on the rivers make it a practice,
when mooring at a spot, to hunt in the neighbouring
thickets for lizards, chameleons, snakes, aud similar
reptiles, with which they flavour the invariable dish
of boiled rice. Even lizards found <iead are esteemed
a great delicay when cooke<l.

The iiurmese exhibit decided peculiarities in their
choice of comestibles. There is a small kind of beetle
whicli fabricates balls of clay and dung as a nidus for
its progeny, about the same size as tennis balls, and
buries them in ground where cattle are stalled.
These balls are eagerly sought after by *^be Hurmese
for the sake of the dainty grub contained within,
which they devour with uacommon relish.

Another curiosity of the Hunuan lanler is a species
of ant, probably Formica smaragdiua, which exist in
large numbers, and constructs a nest i>f united leaves
placed up in trees. Tne Karens regard these auts as
unite a delicay, and eat them in curries, to which
their acid flavour gives a certain pitiuancy.

The domesticition of bees receives no .attention, but
wild honey is gathered in large c|uantities by ascending
trees to the nests at night, ami smoking out the
owners.

The eonsumptiou of thousands of salted hill rtas
every year by the Karens is, psrhaps, due less to a
natural taste for rat-tlesh than the force of circum-
stances, for these roilents swarm in such multitudes
at some seasons that the Karen must eat the rat, or
the rat will eat him.-O. G. W. J..— Field.

experimental sale. The plants would not he killed
in the cutting of the twigs for barking, such prun-
ing would probably have the ert'ect of incrnasiiig
the number of shoots in each plant for tlie ne.st
season's iTop. — VT. S, Pbick, Asst. Settlement Oftieor,
Kevcnue Survey, .S. I\I, Country, Uharwar. — Iiidiftit
Ai/i'icitltifral Gazette.

A PLANT KIUH IX TANNIX.

In the August number of the Indian Agricultural
Gazette there is an article recommeuding the cult-
ivation in India of the Australian Wattle, as it
is said to yield •' the best material in the world
for the purpose of the tanner. There is on
this side of India a pLaut which, in the estimation
of the Indian tanner here, is superior in tauning
properties to all plants used in ludia for the pur-
pose. • In districts where Jtarathi is the X^ernacular,
the native name for the plant is Tarw.id. In (lis-
tricts where Canareese is spoken itis called Honawrigida
or simply Awrigida. Its botanical name is Cassia
Auricula ta.*

Leather cured by the bark of this plant turns
out softer, is preserved better ami lasts longer thau
that cured by any other material, at any rate this
has been the invariable reply to oft repeated eu-
i|uiries I have made on this point. In the Bombay
Presidency, the habitat of the plant is chiefly the
open treeless- districts. It grows there wild in every
variety of soil, from the richest to the poorest, and
in any situation, hill, dale or plain. It Is a har<ly
shrub of quick growth, and if cultivated to the
extent of simply giving up space to it, probably
neither Kuropeau planter nor Indian ryot need wait
for the introduction into ludia of the Australian
Wattles for a good investment in a tannin proiluc-
ing plant. Whether the cultivation of this plant
would be a paying iirvestment or not might be tried
by the government, through the Forest Department.
The cheapest way to do this would be to .set apart
a few acres in waste ground, in the open country
for the growth of this shrub alone, all other shrubs
in these area.s btiog destroyed. Self-sowing wovdd
do the rest in multiplying the plants. After three
ycArs the shrubs would probably be in sufTicient
nnmb>TS and of growth sufliciently large to yield
enough bark to place ' in the local markets for an

~ » It is pretty common in C«ylon, but has never, we
believe, been cultivated. A trial should be made.—
Ed.

BURMESE RICE MEASURES AND RICE
STATISTICS.

[There is much interesting information in this
article, and amongst other items the rate of pro-
duction in Burma, viz. 1,60L) lb. of padtly per
acre, say about 1,000 lb. of clean rice. — En.]

The necessity for compulsory action on the part of
the i^xecutive for unifying the various stauilards
used in Burma in connection with the Trade in
Rice, will be acknowledged when the inconvenience
occasioned by the great diver.^ity that now prevails
is fully e\[>lained. There ar(^ no legal weights atul
measures in the country other than those of luilia,
which have not been adopted and are not recog-
nized as current anywhere in the I'rovince. Kice
being the staple of Burma, the attention of the
local authorities wouKl appear to have been first
directed towards regulating the capacity of the
'• basket" which here scrve<l the purposes of the
English bushel in the grain market. Rules were
prescribed fixing the size of this measure, which
was expected to secure uniformity from Prome to
Tavoy and Akayab to Shwegyn. These regulations
were, however, more honored in the breach thau the
observance, and the outcome is confusion worse con-
founded. The " basket" varies in different places,
aud different baskets obtain in the same place at
tie same time. The last state in this respect is,
in fact, worse than the first. But so long as the
inconvenieuce did not affect Governmeut interests,
the uecesssity for legislative action did not ap])ear
imperative. But now that the .State Hallways fiud
the dithculty of the dift'ereuce in stauilards in their
Traftic working, inquiries are instituted with view of
definite and final settlement. The importance of
the vast interests involved may be iuferred from
the fact that there are now over 83 millions of
acres uudcr rice in the I'rovince, aud that this
paddy-laad is more than 88 per cent of the cult-
ivated revenue paying area, which is ste.adily in-
creasing at the rate of 100,000 acres per annum.
The total yield of these rice lands of British Burma
is, according to the Administration Report for 1883-84,
in an average year, about 2,615,930 tons of paddy,
equal to 1,933,783 tons of cargo-rice. The total
requirements of the Province for homo cousumption
having been estimated at 91/,000 tons leave a
balance of 98>,0()0 tons available for export. It may,
therefore, be safely laid down as the rule for ordinary
year.s, that, a-half of the whole crop is the export-
aVile surplus. But, as under exceptional conditions,
the export of rice has been known to reach nearly
1,100,000 tons in a single year — 1832, the necessity
of controlling such a large trade by a commercial
basis or fixed unit of measure will be now obvious,
particularly as there is a constant and preferential
demand for Barman rice in the markets of tho world.
Britisli Burma is practically able to export as much
rice as all the other rice exporting countries in the
East together, aud it is worthy of note that Saigon
and Bangkok rice fetches in Europe Z."! per cent
less than Burma rice. Furthermore, coinparati\-,'ly
very little of the Bengal, Saigon, and Bangkok rice
goes to Europe, while nearly all, certainly upwards
of three-fourths, of the Barman rice is shipped to
European markets. A surprising featur<? in these
comparisons is the fact that the rice exports of
Bengal show a tendency to decrease rather than in-
crease. Saigon has only since 1881 commenced to
export rice to Europe, wbicli accounts for France

$36

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb, i, 1886.

taking only 1,000 tons from Burma in that year. No
Burman rice is exported to either Australia or New
Zealand, possibly due to the unique import duty of
3(/. per pound levied with the object of stopping
Chinese immigration. It is satisfactory to learn that
although the export duty of 4^ii per maund is eijual
to lO^s. per ton, add 6J per cent to the price of
milled cargo-rice, still the rice merchants of Burma
are not pressing for the abolition of the duty. The
average yield of rice in the husk (paddy) is com-
puted at 32- baskets (1,000 lb.) per acre; and as the
selling price of paddy in the villages last season
averaged about 7s. per hundred baskets, while the
Government demand for land-revenue wa.s under 4s.
per acre, the difference goes to show a rather hand-
some margin of profit to the cultivator. Hence, the
people of Burma are, as a rule, much better oft
than those of India. The extent of these transactions
in the chief staple of the Province coupled mth
the obvious di.sadvantages of having different rice
measures in use, makes it desirable that the vexed
question of the Burmese rice-basket should be dis-
posed of at once and for all. — Indian Ayricultural
Gazette.

♦

Sweet Potato Floub. — The Americans assert that
the flour made from sweet potatoes is sure to come
largely into use, as it is most economical, requiring
hardly any sugar to be mixed with it. — Indian Ai/ri-
cultunil Gazette.

The Rice Trade of Bassein is expanding consider-
ably. The exports for the current year already
reach 170,000 tons, and are expected to reach 200,000
as paddy is still coming in large quantities. The
season has been the best ever known there. — Inrlian
Atirimihnral Gazette.

The Government iron works near Eaiakur appear
to have done a large trade in the year 1884-85, as
the sales of iron rose from 122,000 to 408,000 tons.
Both coal and iron »re are plentiful near the works,
and a good supply of limestone has now been secured
by paying a royalty to the owner of the land. On
the other hand, the coal trade fell off considerably
the exports from Raniganj being only 035,921 tons
as compared with 706 937 tons in the previous year
Mes.srs. Burn and Company's pottery works at
Raniganj continue to flourish, and they give employ-
ment to 700 men a day, whilst the value of the
last year's outturn is estimated at R215,00(). — Jmlitin
Ayriciilttiful Gazette. [Who will start superior pottery
works in Ceylon? We have fine chiys in great abund-
ance.— Ed.]

Indi.an Cattle .^nd Sheep.— Messrs. Higginbotham
& Co. of Madras send us a copy of the second
edition of " A Manual of Indian Cattle and Sheep,
their Breeds, Management, and Diseases," by Dr.
John Shortt. The first edition of this work is so
well-known that we need only quote the preface of
this new edition to show what are its special
features : —

A second edition of the Cattle Manual of India has
been found necessary to follow the first edition which
was publislied several years ago, and worked its way
slowly but surely to public favour. Its success will
I hope, with its faults, be more nniversally and rapidly
extended to the present volume. As space forbids
an exhaustive treatment of the subjects brought to
notice in the work, it has been my endeavour to be
not only accurate and useful, but as brief as possible,
and to make it a trustworthy companion on the subject
of which it trtiats. The whole work has been care-
fully revised, with a few statements here and there
struck out, and some forty pages of fresh matter have
been added. I have stated nothing that my own
personal experience has not verified during a long
series of years of cattle-practice in India.
At the end of the book are a list of English and Tamil
names of cattle diseases and a memo on fodder
grasses, giving the Latin, English and Tamil names,
and remarks on them. All owners of cattle in
Ceylon ahould have a copy of this excellent work.

Atlas of Plant Diseases. — Dr. O. E. Zimmermann
is publishing under the title of AtJiis der Ffinnzen-
krankheiteii, a series of photographic illustrations
•representing the microscopic appearances of the fungi
affecting plants. An explanatory text accompanies
the ])Iates. The photographs are direct from the
microscope, and are mostly very clear. It would be
a convenience if the divisions of the micrometer
scale were in future photographed with the objects.
The work may be had of Messrs. Williams &
Norgate. — Gardeners^ Chronicle.

Oevlon Cinnamon. — Herr Hilger reports {Archiv,
Now. l,p. 82(3) that having received from Holland a
large number of commercial varieties of Ceylon cinna-
muu, derived from different districts with different soils,
he has had some of them estimated as to ash. Five
samples of entire quills gave the following results :
(1) 4'5 per cent of a.sh, of which 53 per cent was
soluble; (2.) 4 8 per cent, with 72*3 per cent soluble ;
(3) 39 per cent, with 881 per cent soluble; (4)
4'3 per cent with 61*7 per cent soluble; (5) 3*4 per
cent of ash. — Pharnmcevtical Journal.

Linnean Society, Dec. 3rd. — A paper was read
" On Costilloa elasticn, Cerv., and some Allied
Plants," by Sir .J. D. Hooker. The author states
that under the name Castillon elastira probably
more than one species exist. The true plant first
described by Cervantes has flowered and fruited in
Ceylon ; it is now fully described and rigured with
remarks on allied plants also yielding Panama
india-rubber. Seeds collected by Mr. Cross in 1875
failed to germinate, but cuttings were also intro-
duced, and from them plants were flistributed to
various colonics. Some difheulty is found in pro-
pagating by cuttings, as the side branches which
are deciduous will not strike root, but seedlings
have now been raised at Peradeniya, and the culture
is, therefore, assured. An account of the introduc-
tion of the plant is appended. — Athenieiim.

More Cinchona Biiyees on the Colombo Market. —
The small number of buyers of cinchona bark on the
local m»rket has often been a matter for regret
amougst sellers. We are therefore glad to inform our
rea<lers, most of whom are interested as planters of
cinchona bark, that Mr. Christian Biebringer, who
recently arrived from Europe, has taken up his re-
siiliMice in Colombo, and will commence buying cinchona
bark for direct dispatch to two or three quinine
factories in America. This should help to strengthen
the local market, and in any case is pretty sure to
increase competition. Mr. Christian Btchringer is, we
believe, a younger brother of ]\Ir. Alexander Birh-
ringer, the bead »'f the Milan factory, and the prime
mover in the once -powerful quinine Syndicate. On
the failure of the Milau factory, both Messrs Alex,
and Christian Biehriuger, whose experiences of the
iutri'-acies of the cinchona bark markt.'t and the actual
manufacture of quinine is not surpassed by that of
anyone else, left for America and have since, it ia
believed, become connected with certain houses there
glad to avail thamselves of their services. The pro-
prietors of the Matmlieim factory in Baden, Messrs,
Bcohringer & Co., are, we believe, cou.sins of Messi-s.
Alex, and Christian Bcohringer, whilst the firm in
Stuttgart are also relations. The name is redolent of
quinine, and we hope that the advent of Mr. Bub-
ringer in our midst and his purchases for the American
market will he satisfactory alike to himself and to
sellers of bark on the spot. We believe this is not
his first visit to Ceylon. He wa» here some three
years ago on behalf of the Milan firm, but made uo
stay. Ou(* result of Ids purchases will be that all
hark purchased by him will most probably be sbippeil
direct to America, relieving the ho»ne market by
that amount. Last shipping season, from the 1st
October 1SS4, to the 30th September, 18S5, only
102,000 lb. were sent from this direct to America. We
expect this will he much increased during the cur-
rent .season with mutual benefit to buyers and plant-
ers.— Local " Times,"

Feb, I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

537

THE PACKING OF CEYLON CINCHONA BARK.

4th January 188G.
I hear that mnch dissatisfaction has been ex-
pressed by the London bark buyers owing to the
bad condition in which the cinchona bales have
lately been aniving. A circular has been issued
signed by all the manufacturers or their
representatives, wherein they offer two sug-
gestions to remedy the evil complained of : —
(11) That no bale of bark should weigh over
250 lb. nett.

(6) That stout guimy cloth, not thin Hessian
canvas, should be used in packing.

The circular goes on to say that " the large
and unwieldy bales so often shipped from Ceylon
are in dock more or less unmanageable ; to draw
fau' samples from such packages is most diiticult
and the wear and tear is naturally excessive. The
thin Hessian canvas so often used by shippers
gives way directly the goods are handled, and is
often the direct cause of loss to the buyers."

Peppekcokn.

AN ASSAM TEA PLANTER'S OPINION OF
TEA IN CEYLON; AND A REPLY.
An Aberdonian wrote to an Assam planter asking
his advice as to tea planting in Coylon, and for
some practical hints on the subject of what soil
was most suitable for the plant. His answer was
forwarded to rae to reply to, which I did to the
best of my ability, and the following I copy from
his letter, as I think you might wish to print the
remarks, and shall be glad to see what footnotes
will be attached to them by the Editor. You will
have no ditticulty in discovering a dislike to the
little island of Ceylon underlying the whole of the
remarks, but I have got accustomed to that tone
when Assam planters are (luestioned on the subject
of Ceylon prospects. Ex K. C. B.

"Soil for tea must be porous, imbibing and jjart-
ing with water freely. Stiff soils of every kind are
to be avoided.
" No one believes in the permanence of stiff soil.
" Tea thrives best in light soils for the simple
reason that the ends of the feeding roots are veiy
tender and do not easily penetrate any other.

" Clay when dry is too hard for these rsot points,
and when wet is too cold and too sodden for tea
to thrive in it.

'• In .\ssam we tind that to grow tea thoroughly
pays us better than to experiment with coffee and
cinchona, but one conclusion I come to is, that
eitlier of them is a far more satisfactory plant to
deal with than the tea plant.

" The tea plant has no tap-root. Tea hates wet
feet, and as long as the roots are sodden will net
yield any quantity of leaf.

" With reference to Ceylon the inference one is
intended to draw is that tea will grow anywhere,
and in any soil and will do anything so long as
it is only planted in Ceylon. Come on boys ! plant
it in Ceylon ! ! yon 're quite safe there ! I !
is the ciy, and it is just the echo of the reckless
trumpet-blowing that has already landed many
an unwary one, and I am astonished to find a good
many astute Aberdonians to boot.

"The Iiidiiiii I'laiticn' Gazette continually sounds
a warning note concerning the rasli way, in which
all sorts of land and soils are bcinr; rushed into
t«i in Ceylon.

" 'The quantity made in Ceylon this year is
nothing like up to the amount which we were
jubilantly assured it would be in IMS.'J.

" Ceylon crops are obtaiued artificially by manure,
wherea.s in Assam good gardens give as large a
68

yield without any addition to the natural virtue
of the soil. Climate, of course, also helps us
Ahready we hear of acres of tea being cut out
and bm'nt owing to blight and disease, a disaster
I never heard of in Assam.

" Mariawatte, the sweet Ceylon garden, about which
such jubilant sliouts were raised, is in no better
a pliglit than its neighbours. The last number of
the IiiiJiaii Phmters' Oiizette tells how the yield of
that garden has come down.

" This place has exceptional facilities for manure,
being right beside a village. Its drop from 1,100
lb. per acre to 800 lb. has made the shouthig
gentlemen ' sit up.'

" This is only one notable case, and I hope, from
all I have written, if you are thinking of investing
in tea planting in Ceylon, that you will not do so:
keep out of it, there 's death in the pot."

But for the presumption that you know your corre-
spondent and are satisfied of his lio'iui liile-i, I
should pronounce the letter attributed to an .\ssam
planter a hoax ; so crass is the ignorance dis-
played and so malevolent is the animus. Pitiful
jealou-jy and petty spite breathe iu every line, and
that laight pass as natural to the writer ; but that
any man should profess to be an authority on tea,
who knows so little of the plant as deliberately to
state tliat it " has no tap-root," indicates imp'ud-
•ence in proportion to ignorance. If there is one
cultivated plant more than another distinguished
for its long and powerfully piercing tap-root, it is
the tea plant. On the side of the cart-road which
passes through a portion of the estate whence I
now write, an exposed tap-root of one of our seed-
bearing tea bushes can be traced down to 8 feet
from the surface, and on the sides of our paths,
uncovered tap-roots measuring 5 feet and there-
abouts are quite common. And not only so, but
we have been uuich interested in watching the
effects of the instinct which has led some of those
partially exposed tap-roots to send out feeding
rootlets at a depth of two and even three feet
below the horizontal surface. I have repeatedly, in
writing from this estate, mentioned the fact, that,
in consequence of the piercing and opening up of stiff
clayey subsoils by th« stout, strong tap-roots of
tea plants, cinchonas have flourished on localities
where previously the fever plants had died out, when
not associated with tea. In my notes, too, on the
lowcountry tea districts of Ceylon, I mentioned the
fact that a planter at Awisawella had sent to a
mercantile hoyse in Colombo a block of rocky ca-
book (laterite), with the tap-root of a tea plant which
had managed to pierce a substance so intractable.
The tendency of even tea seedlings to produce
inordinately long tap-roots is so well-known
to tea planters,. and is a source of such in-
convenience in "planting out," that great care is en-
joined that in the formatign of nursery beds for
tea seed the ground should not be dug too deep.
With every precaution taken, portions of the long
tap-roots have generally to be cut away. That the
man, who, professing to be a tea-planter, does not
know, or pretends not to know tliat the tea plant
has a tap-root, should be ignorant of t)ie distinc-
tion between cl.ay and clayey soil!;, or should pre-
tend to confound things so different, is easily ex-
plicable. Who ever (tsserted that tea would grow
in pure clay, or that tea, or any save aquatic and
semi-aquatic plants, would grow in positions wlxu-e
they would have perniaiioutly " wet feet " ? Much
of the soil in the mountain parts of Ceylon is
argillaceous, clayey ; but that Is a very different
thing from saying that the soil is entirely or even
preponderately.clay, such as exists in swanipy local-

53^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Fe15. I, 1886,

it'e ) andfrom which excellent bricks and tiles can |
be made. There is just enougli ofclay in our Cey-
lon soils to render them so tenacious, that they i
are not washed away from steep '^hillsides, as the,
no doubt, excellent but over-free alluvial soils of
Assam would be, if cultivated and exposed. This
quality of tenacity or stiffness, in spite of the very
orifjinal dictum of this wonderful Assam authority,
gives a lasting quality to our soil. The conclusions
established by the series of analyses and the care-
ful observations made by the accomplished agri-
cultural chemist, Mr. John Huglies, were that the
soils of our young districts were very good in
quality, although lime and forking were recom-
mended to improve the mechanical condition ot the
ground, somewhat stiff for coffee and especially
for cinchona. The proportions of alumina and
iron, in a considerable number of cases, indicated j
a soil better tor tea than coffee, and experience lias
proved that what with the piercing and opening-up
power of the long stout tap-roots ot the plant,
tillage by means ot the hoe and especially three-
pronged, fork is amply sufficient to bring the soil
into good mechanical condition, irrespective of hme,
which, in any appreciable quantity, does not appear
to be desiderated in tea cultivation. The truth is,
that after the lapse ot nearly half-a-contury
of experience with coffee and other products,
we in Ceylon have made the discovery that
our soil and climate are eminently suitable for'
the cultivation of tea, and our rapid success with
the new culture, and the favorable verdict on the
quality of our produce delivered by Mincing Lane
and tea drinkers, in Britain, account — of that there
can be no doubt — for the miserable spirit of jealousy,
spite and detraction which actuated the opinion
from Assam sent to an Aberdonian. As to the yield of
Mariawatte estate, no secret was ever made of the fact
that, the exceptional yield from that estate was ob-
tained by means of manure. Mr. Rutherford, too,
who is, I believe, interested in that property, has
estimated the average yield for Ceylon not at the
exceptional figures ot Mariawatte, but at the modest
rate of 400 lb. per acre per annum. With so many
very old and worn coffee estates converted into
tea estates, and from which 300 lb. per acre wiU
be a fair yield to expect, the average may possibly
be lowered to Mr. Rutherford's rate ; but there can
be no question that for estates opened on virgin
forest we may safely estimate 500 per acre on
high estates and 700 on low, or a general average
of fiOO lb. per acre, without manure, against little
more than half that figure on Assam estates all
opened on virgin land. Then as to salubrity ot
climate, of which the Assam man carefully avoids
niention, there is no possible comparison. Over
the vast proportion of the Ceylon estates, the
climate is all that could be desired. The very re-
^■ersc is the case in Assam, many portions of
wliich are pestiferous t» such an extent that an
Assam planter who visited Ceylon said to us that
he would gladly exchange his well-salai'ied position
in India, for half the money advantages in Ceylon.
He stated, in order ij illustrate the nature ot tlie
climate in Assam, that he had been compelled to
send his wife and children to England, be-
cause it often happened that when he re-
turned from a round of the property on which
lie resided ho found his whole family pro-
strate with fever ; his wife being the only survivor
of (our English ladies who a few years previously
had come out to get married to Assam tea planters.
Surely health and hfe are blessings worth preserv-
ing? It is quite news to us that tea Mights are
so bad in Ceylon. And then, as to labour supply,
one of our late visitors to the contrary not-

withstanding, we are immensely better off than our
Indian competitors, all of whom we should be glad
to hail as friends, if they would only act and
speak as such. In regard to communications, there
can be no more comparison than in regard
to climate. Besides excellent roads, graml lines
ot railway now run through our principal tea dis-
tricts, while Assam is mainly dependent on very
long river transit occupying weeks for our hours.
But we have no wish to depreciate Assam, the
premier Indian tea district, to the hard-won ex-
perience of whose planters we in Ceylon owe so
much. Of them, we feel persuaded, the person
who has compelled us to write so strongly on
the defensive is no fair or worthy specimen ; but
a black sheep, such as is found in all large Mocks.
We wish our competitors in Assam and elsewhere
in India well, and we trust the vast majority of
them reciprocate this feeling. There is, and there
will be for a long time to come, room tor all of
us and for all the tea, only differing in degrees
ot excellence, which we can supply for the benetit
of the human race. Assam tea is distinguished for

strength : ours for delicacy .

^

TEA MACHINERY IN CEYLON.

We urged on Mr. Jackson, as a tea planter and
machinist 0! considerable and varied experience in
Northern India before ever he saw Ceylon, that
before leaving us this time he should prepare some
useful hints for the Ceylon tea planters based on
what he had seen of local circumstances and re-
cjuirements. We are glad to find that Mr. Jackson
has not gone away without writing the " few notes "
required, and with the permission of his agents an^
publishers, Messrs. John Walker & Co., we now
reprint from a handy little pamphlet which this
linn is issuing to its constituents, " Mr. Jackson's
Address to the Tea Planters of Ceylon." It will be
read with interest and no doubt duly considered : —
To TUE Tea Planters of Ceylon.

Gentlemen, — I have been asked by many interested
in tea if I could not make a few general suggestions
that might be of use to them at this, practically
the coiiiineucement of the great new Tea Industry
of Ceylon, and having been made so welcome during
my first visit amongst you. I have now compiled a
few notes before leaving the island, and in doing so
have confined myself to factory buildings and the
manipulation of the leaf.

There is no doubt that the time is coming when
there will be keen competition in the production of
tea, and I daresay at this juncture you might readily
take a wrinkle from the present state of matters in
Great Britain, where sharp competition in nearly
every manufactiuing industry has of late years led
to tlio pulling down of the old irregular buildings,
those being replaced by well-thought out and com-
modious work-shops, adapted to receive every modern
labor-saving machine procurable, the arrangonieiit of
wliich is so complete, that the article to be dealt
with is received raw at one end of the factory, and
loaves it ready for the market at the other, with the
least possible handling during the manipulation, and
everytriiug is done to avoid the cn.rrying backwards
of the material at anv time after it has entered tha
factory till it passes from it, and it is these wcU-
arrauged British establishments that now so success-
fully compete with, and keep their own against, all
other nations.

The same tiling in my opinion strongly applies to
your now proposed factories in Ceylon for making tea.
In -scheniiug out these it should be clearly borno
in mind that the arrangement bo so complete that
the tea leaves will not have to traverse the same space
twice dming the process of manipulation, for twice

Feb, I, 1S86.J THK TKOPiCAL AGRICUI.TUKlST,

539

over meaus twice the expense, leads to confusion, has
ii bad effect on the tea honse staff, a deleterious
effect on the tea, and in all probability a nasty effect
on the profits at the end of tue year.

The tea leaf should he received in the green state
at the end of the factory, be weighed, passed on to
the withering-room, then to the rollers, and thence
to the driers, and so on till it is packed and ready
for dispatch. This may seem a simple suggestion,
but it is one that is often neglected till too late for
remedy.

My opinion of a tea f.octory is that it should,
if possitle, be bnilt in three wings : — One main
building in which the machinery should be ar-
ranged; then one wing passing out at right angles
to the main structure at one end for withering, and
at the other end of the main structure another wing
for packing and sorting.

By snch an arrangement, a nice compound is
formed, hemmed in on the three sides by tlie build-
ings, and on the fourth by a railing, and such com-
pound will be found most useful for a variety of
purposes, such as loading and unloading carts, spread-
ing leaf in the sun, &c.

If the square caimot be formed, then one straight
building is preferable to a number of detached
small ones.

Verandahs to Tea factory buildings are a mistake.
They exclade the light from the giouud tloor, and
they arc an expensive kind of roof for the space
they cover.

Light is essential in a Tea factory, and I would
advise, where practicable, the walls of the build-
ings should be entirely composed' of glass between
the columns.

A portion of the glass between each column should
be fitted in sliding or hinged frames to provide
openings when desired, particularly in the wither-
ing-rooms.

Buildings entirely composed of iron are in my
opinion preferable to the composite ones of masom-y
and woodwork.

In selecting a site for the Tea factory, the planter
will be guided by circumstances.

If water is to be used to give the motive power,
then the most convenient position for the application
of this should be sought for.

If steam power is to bo employed then it will be
desirable to have some forest land not far off.

The main building should be the first erected, and
be large enough to contain sufficient machinery to
eventually manufacture the whole crop of the estate
when in full bearing, but in the meantime it would
probably be sufficient to make all the Tea for the
first few years, and as the yield increases, first one
wing, and then another, could be added as required,
thus completing the f.ictory square.

1 am of opinion that two-storeyed buildings through-
out will be the best, aud with iron columns, all
fixings necessary for the line shaft, &c.. will be
easily attached.

A good many old coffee stores can be readily
converted into good Tea factories by partially
pulling down the walls, and introducing large windows
in them, and where practicable the large masonry
pillars usually found inside the coffee stores should
be removed, and channel iron or old rails substituted
otj columns.

Where the woodwork of the coffee stores is
matcriany decayed, the floors low, a lot of masonry
to remove, aud the position of the store not
very central, or suitable, it should at once be
abandoned, as nothing will be more disheartening,
than to find, after having spent a lot of money
on the biiildiiig.s that they they arc at the best
only second-rate, and probably incur a daily
loss to the estate on account of not being
central.

Old buildings like these might be used as withcr-
iug-houita, or for cattle-sheds or other ))Hrposcs,
but unless they h.iw special advantages for con-
version into 'i'ea stores, they bad better be left
alone.

It w;ill he found a pleasiu'e to manufacture Tea
in a film large commodious factory whore no con-
fusion can exist, but where the buildings are small,
irregular, and the machinery crammed in hither
aud thither just where it can be got, a thoroughly
effective mid remunerative system can never be intro-
duced, and the whole thing will Jreraaiu a muddle
to the end.

A good deal has been said for and against the
use of Turbines as motors for driving Tea
machinery.

I am decidedly of opuiion, when properly made,
t! ■■ will be found superior to any description of
water-wheel. Unfortunately, however, planters hither-
to have lirl rarely thought of stating in their
indents to manufacturers, that the turbine they
require must be made to run almost daily all the
vear round, and I have known of planters in India
being supplied witli a Himsy turbine made to drive
a j-iritish fanners' barn thrashing machine, riiiiiiing
perhaps once in three weeks, and for six months
in the year. Could it be wondered at, therefore,
that such turbines come to grief when applied to
drive heavy Tea machinery '?

A Turbine, if constructed in a manner similar
to what IS now being made for driving dynamos
for electric lighting, %viU undoubtedly give the best
results.

Wlieu water is admitted to a Turbine, it at
once developes .1 corresponding amount of power,
.and it can be just as quickly stopped, and being
a quick-speed motor, any variation of the pressure
applied to the leaf being rolled does not materially
effect Its speed.

This is not the case with the overshot water-
wheel, which must have time to fill or empty
its buckets before the speed is increased or
diminished.

Where only one Roller is driven by the over-
shot wheel, the attendant can, by careful watching,
get along fairly well with it, particularly if the
lay shaft is fitted with a fly-wheel, but where two
or more intermittent feeding and discharging
Rollers are to be driven by such a wheel, there
will be very serious risk of accident on account
of such wheel not being under prompt control, but
apart from this altogether comes the question of
quantity of water, fall, and first cost, all of which
will be found in favour of the Turbine.

The power can be conveyed from the Turbine to
the machines entirely by betting, and the planter
will .at once see the great value of this, insofar that
any coolie could mend a belt in a few minutes, where-
as in the overshot wheel a coolie can neither tell
when a tooth will break out of the segment spur-
wheel or pinion, nor can he put such a tooth back
again when it does break out.

'i'et one more point in favour of the Turbine. A
'* governor " could be very readily applied to it to
control the speed if deemed desirable.

I have been frequently asked whether the method
of transmitting power for a considerable distance by
steel wire rope is a good or desirable one.

What I advise is, if possible, get the Turbine in
the factory, but if this is not possible, and a suitable
fall or site for the Turbine within .'lOO yards, then
use the steel wire rope rather than put down a steam
engine.

A steel wire rope, say five-eighths of an inch dia-
meter, will transmit about HO horse-power if driven
at the rate of one mile a minute, and such rope
would probably wear out every second year. Tlicse,
ht)wever, are not very expensive to replace.

With regaid to the steam engine, 1 will only re-
mark that I consider the horizontal fixed type, de-
tached from the boiler, with the locomotive ninlti-
tubular boiler, the bust suited for Tea factories. The
boiler should be two or three horse-power in excess
of the engine, aud have a special large fiie-box for
burning wood as fuel. Where a good elficient water
heater is provided, compouud cuguics effect \C'ry
little saving under Hi horsepower.

These locomotive boilers can now bo had in
several pieces for ca.9y trftiisport (0 hilly eatatcs.

3'45'

THE, fnOPiCAL AGkiCUVVVmST. [p££. i, nSm

There appears to be au erroneous impression j
akroad tliat a water-wheel and engine cannot be 1
made to give off their power in unison with each |
other on to the same shaft. I

Suppose, that I had a Tea estate on which I \
would be quite certain of sufficient water for three
parts of the year to do all ray work. I would at
once put down a turbine and an engine as well
(such engines being able for the work alone), and
I would so arrange these by means of belting and
pnlloys, that they would be both connected to the
main" Une shaft. Then, when water began to get
short, I would light the fire in the boiler, then
turn on all the available water on the turbine, and
make up the balance of the power required with the

steam engine. . , .„ ^ ^

T find a number of gardens will have to
take [this in considertion, and I advise, where
fuel is scarce and expensive, even if there
is sufficient water for half the year, that a com-
bination of the turbine and engmes to work together is
desirable. . ^ •,, ^ u

There are only one or two points I will touch on
with regard to the management of Tea machinery, and
the first is cleanliness.

I would suggest to those who have not done it, to
try the effect of a little soft soap and water on the Tea
Hollers and other machinery at the end of the day's
work.

Every drop of waste oil, grease, dirt, and tea juice
should be daily washed off the machines, and if this
bo insisted on, it will be found no task after a time.
It will have a wonderful effect on the durability of
the machine, and will stimulate a desire on the part of
the Tea-house staff to keep everything else clean and
tidy to be in keeping with the machinery.

It will also bo found of considerable advantage to
have the machines painted annually. .

With regard to the lubricants that are now being
used for the machines, th^ie is perhaps nothing has
a more important effect on their successful ruimiiig
and durability. Still it is one of those things very apt
to be neglected, for, as a rule, if the coohe has any
kind of oil to pour on the machines he is quite
satisfied, and, if heated bearings result, of course con-
struction of the machine is blamed. Castor oil, it it
is properly filtered, and the oil-holes of the machine
daily cleaned out, answers fairly well, but it is a dirty
sticky lubricant for Tea machinery, is often mixed
with sand and grit, and has frequently led to accidents
and stoppages. i • -n i

The liest lubricant I know of at present is lingel-
bert's, which is used most extensively in Great Britain,
is not expensive, does not clog or get sticky, the
waste oil is easily cleaned away, and it has given the
greatest satisfaction in India, where it is now ex-
tensively used on our machinery.

Messrs. John Walker and Co. keep a stock of it in
Ceylon, and any planter could readily satisfy himself
of what I sav by giving it a fair trial.

\Vilheriiiii'.—\ hope, all being well, to caiTy out
some experiments next summer, with a view of try-
ing to bring this under control artifically, and T trust
that sooner or later this difficult question will bo
solved, as it is the only thing wanted to enable the
Tea grower to carry through the whole process of Tea
nianniulation independent of the elements.

/lulliiiq.—l am very gratified to know that our
Hollers have done, and are doing, such good work in
C'tvlwi. and nothing will be wanting on my jmrt to
add littlu improvements to them from time to time as
may seem desirable, the latest being the apphoation of a
i/i-aiiitc Ciip, with a l.rass-faced lower rolhng table, both
uf wl.ich ({ivu every Butisfnction in working, and it
emu only bo- a question of time when they will be
Kcuerally adopted. ^ i ^ j i * •

Most planters know what a close-twisted leaf is,
but I am not sure that all know what constitutes a
properly rolled one, and I would ask those who have
not done it, to take a large leaf from the cup after
iufusicu, unfold it, and hold it up, so that it wiU be
transparent in the light. If it has a cloudy appear-
ance of ^jreen and ilirty copper color, then the cells

ef tlie grtcij portiufls b»vB qot busm sufficiently

broken, and it is only the copper. colored portions of
the leaf that have properly infused, conseqnently
harder or more severe r^'Uing is necessary, notwith-
standing the leaf may have appeared closely twisted up
when it left the roller , but on the other hand if
the leaf has the dirty copper color transparency all
over, then the rolling has been quite sufficient,

Fermentinf/ is done in so many ways, and under con-
ditions so widely different, that it is difficult to say
which is the best.

I believe, however, that a very good plan would

be to make a number of light wooden boxes about

two feet six inches square, say two-and a-balf inches

j deep, each box being provided with two handles and

I a movable light wooden cover or lid.

Fill these boxes with the leaf to ferment, and place
them in a rack 3 or 4 above each other, carrying
them awivy to the Drier as the leaf is ready. Such a
plan would save much space and handling on tables.

Drying, — In some recent comments under this head,
I believe several important points liave been over-
looked.

In my opinion, when the fermented leaf is putiu
the machine to dry, it ought not to be taken from
such machine again till it is dry, and the ofteuer it
is removed from such machine, and exposed to the
action of the cold atmosphere during the process of
drying, so much less brisk will the tea bo. I have
proved that this is so bf^yond doubt, and I think .the
generality of planters will bear me out, that the No. 1
Sirocco gives a better liquoring tea than the Sirocco
of later design, where the leaf is much more exposed
to the cold air, showing clearly that my theory of
having the leaf completely enclosed in the hot-air
chamber for desiccation is the correct one.

It has been said there is some objection to our
Victoria and "N^eretian Driers requiring motive power
to work them, but if such motive power saves labor,
produces automatic action in the machine, and a better
liquoring tea, it will hold its own against all argu-
ment. The tea is not only turned over inside the
machine, thus obviating exposun? to tlie atmosphere, but
a large number of coolies' work is saved, and there
is absolute uniformity in drying, which cannot be
obtained when the hands of a number of coolies have
to deal with it.

Then it has been said that motive-power Driers are
further objectionable, particularly where a steam en-
gine is used, but here again I say the objection will be
overruled when it is borne in mind that there will be
almost sufbcient steam left in the boiler when the
rolling is done to complete the drying, as the power
required for these machines is only fractional.

It lias further been said that a number of small
Driers are preferable to one large one for fear of
breakdown.

This is, in my opinion, a myth, as the same argu-
ment would apply with more force to KoUing machines,
and yet one largo Uolltr is preferred to a lot of small
ones. Our motive-power Driers are made in three
sines.

aiftitKj.— 11 Tea were only a grniuilar substance like
sand or grain this would not long remain a ve.scd
question.

It has been stated that our continuous action Kureka
.sifter mskes the tea grey during Its passage through it.
This is entirely under control by simply reducing the
height of till' lower end of the machine, .•sO that Iho
tea will travel over quicker, as it simply comes to the
■same thing whether the tea travels slowly over a
limited distance or quickly over a longer. Tea will
bpccme quite grey in a hand sieve if shaken about
long enough in it. I hope, however the, da.\ is not far
distant when the bulk will be equalized before sorting,
when a much less Mfting surface will answer.

Jk'ltii'ij.—l am of opinion that iiidiarubber bands are
best suited tdi Ceylon.

I have lately seen several five-ply straps that were
sent out with our first rollers some years ago, and
they are practically as good as new, the reason in my
opinion being due iu a great measure to the use of
Harris's patent clip for the joint,

fee, 1, im,] THE TROPICAL AGmCVLTVRIST,

ii+l

lu nearlj- all cases it is the jointing of the belts
that gives trouble.

Coolies are often careless and punch holes in a very
irregular way to form a joint, and it is this irregular
cutting up of the straps that usually brings them
to grief.

Another fruitful cause of the destruction of belts is
too short centres between the pulleys over which
they run.

In designing permanant factories it should be ar-
ranged tliat the driving pulleys of our Hollers shall bo |
fifteen to twenty feet away from the line shaft, and I
foranoi'in driving belt, twenty-five to thirty feet cen- |
tres will be found about right.

Tools.— As Tea making depends much more on tlic
efficient working of the machinery than cotfee did, I
would advise every estate to become possessor of a |
complete set of mechanic's tools, which will be found i
invaluable at times. I

Fiit. — I have been frequently asked what is the I
best precaution to be taken against the outbreak of
fire, or rather, in event of it, what is the best extin- 1
guisher, and, having had some experience in this way
just before leaWng England, I am able to to say that
a firm there, having suffered considerably, made every
enquiry into the use of Fire Engines as extinguishers,
including manual pumps, and this eminent firm came
to the conclusion, after full investigation, that almost
all modern appliances were defective, insofar that by
freqiient long disuse they often got into an unwork-
able state, and were practically useless when required.
They therefore decided on what I consider the best
of all arrangements for a tea stores, namely, to hang
up sets of six buckets full of water on rack pins
fastened to the walls about every thirty feet apart all
over the establishment, several thousands being re-
quired to fully equip the factory, contending, and I
think rightly so, that it is just when the fire is dis-
covered that it is easiest put out, and instead of hav-
ing to run about for men capable or acquainted with
adjusting and working the fire pumps, all hands would
know exactly what to do, and bucket after bucket of
water woidd be dashed on the flames with the least
possible delay ; and this, I think, would apply well to
tea stores, for if these buckets were fitted up all round
full ot water, the coolies, instead of running about
and wondering where to go, would all make a dash
for the buckets, and a volume of water would be
poured on the flames quite sufficient to extinguish
them if they had not got possession of the buildings,
in which case, most likely, nothing on earth could
save them.

Such buckets or the patent Harden Star Hand
Grenade fire extinguishers are not expensive, would
not take up any useful room in the store ; and, although
the suggestion appears a very simple one, I cannot
too strongly mipress on proprietors the desirability
of weighing over its value and application.

"William Jackson.

A eorrespofldent of a mechanical turn and much
practical shrewdnesg. after a perusal of the above,
expressed his opinion as follows : —

■' I have read the pamphlet carefully. I think Mr.
Jackson is right, however, about the store and about
the turbine aiid the engine in aid. Also about belts and
wire bands, dc. I am glad to find that his experience
confirms a view I have always held, that the tea
drying process should be a continuous one : on
the score of saving in fuel, was my argument ;
his is on the score of better tea. A cheaper style
of coutiuuous drier than Jackson's Victorian, I think
will be llie tlricr. About the buckets of water, ex-
perience is only of value.'

We ha\ e a favourable account of the small Hand
Kollcr now advertised by Messrs. Walker & Co.
from a i)ractical tea planter wlio has given it a
careful iiisi)ection : in a few days one of these is
to he shown at the Colombo Iron Works driveo
by steam.

The title-imgc of Messrs. Walker & Co.'s pamphlet
to which we refer is as foJIowb ;— I

A Few Notes by William Jackson on Tea Machin-
ery and Tea Stores.

And besides a full price list and catalogue of W.
& J. Jackson's Tea Machinery together with a
series of authenticated testimonials, it gives a list
of Marshall & Sons' steam engines and boilers ;
an engraving and explanation to enable the oorreot
measurement of water in a stream or mill-lead to
be made, with a table for weirs ; with a good deal
of other information respecting road-tracers; hygro-
meters ; lire-extinguishers ; fireproof paint, itc.
We quote the following passage in illustration : —

So much has been written in praise of Jackson's
Tea Machines, that we have experienced some diffic-
ulty in deciding what to reprint in this pamphlet.
Mr. .Tackson's larger Kellers have been so long awarded
the highest place by the Planters of India, Ceylon and
Java, that is not necessary to republish at this date
any of the numerous testimonials received regarding
them. The Hand Koller, though only hrouglit out in
1884, has proved ec|ually successful, and in 12 months
nearly 100 of these machines have been sold. A few
letters received regarding this Roller are printed further
on, together with some extracts from Mr. Armstrong's
paper on " The Manufacture of Tea.''

"The Jiattle of the Driers" which has been waged
so fiercely in Ceylon may now be considered settled,
and the letters which follow, together with a few
extracts from the Indian and Ceylon press, may be left
to decide with whom the victory rests.

PLANTING IN JAMAICA.

A Jamaica proprietor who reads the Tropica
Agriciittiiriyt, where he found Mr. Cottam's letters
(or rather all that referred to x^ractical tropical
agriculture in them), writes to us as follows: —

I have read Mr. H. Cottam's letters from Jamaica
with considerable interest. He seems to have made
good use ot his time so far as taking in the
condition of the Eastern end of the island is
concerned. I am afraid his remarks about the roads
in our first clearing are more or less correct, they
being after the style prevailing on Blue Mountain
coffee estates before Mr. F, D. Marshall showed us
the Ceylon style. I have taken Mr. C.'s advice
and altered my ways. Since Mr. Cottam was
in those parts, we have planted 10 acres on the
north side of the main village in tea, which
promises by its growth to do well. The great pro-
blem that remains to be solved is the cost of
production. I am afraid we shall never be able
to compete with your cheap rates of production
in Ceylon. We shall have i(o acres planted in
cinchona by the end of the year. We find that
it grows far better on the north side of the main
ridge than on the south side, the climate being
more equable on the north side, and not so exposed
to night winds. I shall be glad to know what you
think about planting cinchona in new clearings
among tea and coffee. There seems to ho very
different opinions held on the subject by your
correspondents. 1 should hardly think if the cin-
chonas were kept well-topped and planted 8 ft. by
8 ft. or 10 ft. by 10 ft. they would do much
harm to either tea or cotfee. as they would he
dug up and barked when about six years old be-
fore they could do much injury. jThe general
feeling in Ceylon is now, we believe, ad-
verse to planting cinchona in clearings with
other products. Along boundaries, roads and
pathways, howcxer, there is a good deal ot
scope for cinchona.- -En. J Notwithstanding the
general depression and low rates ruling for
all descriptions of tropical produce, the liliie Mountain
coffee has kept up its reputation, as high as liiSs
per c\vt. having been obtained in the Liverpool market
for tiomc of the beet uiarke. The sugar plnutere

542

THE TROPICAL AGK2C0LTUKIST. [Feb.

188&

have had a trying year witli short crops from
drought, low prices for supar, mortaHty among
their working stock, and scarcity of labor from the
exodus to Colon. The high prices obtained for
flavored rums have helped many estates to pull
through and a few must have made fair profits,
as high as 7s per gallon having been obtained
for some rums suitable for the German market.
Penkeepers who depend chiefly on the planters to
buy their stock have sufl'ered eipially with the
planters ; long and protracted drought in some
districts with lessened demand through so many
estates being thrown up, and the remaining
estates supplying their needs from their herds of
broken stock instead of buying young stock from
pens have lowcr»d prices. Pimento, which with
logwood is the penkeepers' great stand-by, has been
almost a complete failure through the drought,
and logwood roots after making a great stir for
a time on the south side have ceased to be renmner-
ative to get out. The banana, orange and pine-
apple trade from Montego Bay has largely increased
during the last two years, but the low prices ob-
tained for fruit do not encourage any one to
enter largely on the cultivation. The business is
almost entirely in the hands of the negro settlers
who supply Messrs. J. B. Kerr & Co. with fruit
for their steamers which run between Montego Bay
and New York. The bananas in this district are
all grown by settlers around their Iiouses, any
attempt at extensive cultivation being checked by
thieves, who gather one's bananas with the greatest
regularity. The oranges are almost entirely grown
on the pens : they thrive best in the rocky pastures,
but they more often result in a loss through one's
cattle getting choked, than in any profit that
can be derived from selling them on the trees at
5s (jd to 5s a thousand. Coconuts have gone down
in value lower than they have ever been, realizing
only 40s per thousand instead of 70s to 80s, which
they fetched two years ago. We greatly need a
magazine like the Tropical Ayriciiltiirist in Jamaica,
where we have no planting paper, and I have
advised some of my sugar planting friends to be-
come subscribers to your magazine."

PEABL.S AND PEARL FISHERIES.

AN INTEBvrEW WITH Mli. STHEETi:!!.

[J reprcsciitatinn of <i PeurUn;) Stntioit appeared in
the Fall Mall Uhtstrated Supplement.]

One or two curious facts came out in the recent
correspondence in the papers respecting the pearl-
ing grounds in the Southern Seas — a subject surely
of universal interest. Mr. Streeter, the famous
pearl merchant, was himself one of the corre-
spondents, and we are indebted to him for giving
to our representative the following account of his
fisheries in Southern waters : —

There are not many visible signs of jewels in
Mr. Streeter's handsome rooms, which command
a fine view of Holborn. The pearl mei'chanfs first
necessity, after the pearl, is light, for by nature's
light only can a pearl be judged. The tapestry
curtains ward olf intruding draughts, and their heavy
folds partition off the room when di\ ision is necess-
ary. But the eye of the stranger falls first on
the safe, with its doors thro\vn open, like an angel's
wings. There the eye wanders to the tables clothed
in black, to the burnished scales in their covers
of glass, to the pearl pliers which lie in a tray
on the table, to the cases ranged against the wall.
At a table near the window sat Mr. Strecler,
gazing with rapture on a lovely pink pearl. After
we had had some conversation he said he would

show me some of the "riches of the earth."
and bade me plunge my hands into bags full of
rubies, bags full of sapphires and emeralds. He
opened mysterious drawers, which shut with a
sharp spring, and produced shabby cases holding
gems of priceless value. Hero are strings of
iridescent pearls gleaming with prismatic hues.
Here dazzHng diamonds, shooting forth brilliant
rays, tliere a ruby worth thousancls, here a cat's-
eyo fit for a monarch's finger ^diamonds, rubies
pearls, and emeralds, sapphires, and cat's-eyes,
there they lay before me. But only for a minute.
For these things are not exposed.

GEMS AND GEWGAWS.

" The pearl is the most aristocratic jewel. No
one but the rich aristocrat can afford to own it.
To be inestimable in its value a pearl should
be perfectly round like a marble, pure, and spot-
less. A black pearl is a rarity, and from a
thousand shells you might obtain one. I suppose
one of the Rothschild's has the finest collection
of pearls in tlie world. Lord Tweedraouth comes
second, and Lord Bristol is a close third.
The fashion in jewels alters rapidly, though pearls
always take the first rank. At present the emerald
is the fashionable jewel, why, I cannot say ;
then come rubies and sapphires ; the diamond is
but a common gewgaw. Everyone can buy dia-
monds nowadays. I remember'in 1870 diamonds
cost £14 a carat. The price has fallen to £5,
the result of too great a supply. But a reaUy
magnificent jewel, no matter whether pear! or dia-
mond, always retains its value, and a collector,
if he chooses to invest large sums in the pur-
chase of the best article, can always sell at a
profit. One of the greatest difficulties in dealing
with diamonds is the operation of cutting, which
needs an apprenticeship of a lifetime to make an ex-
pert. There are a few good cutters in the world,
and there is actually only one man who can drill a
diamond."

IN SOUTHERN SEAS.

Mr. streeter and his son, Mr. George Streeter,
who, although young, has himself been on the
pearling grounds, visited New Guinea, and ex-.
p ored Cape York. He gave an account of tlie
Streeter pearl fleet which is at present at worl; on the
north-west coast of /Australia. The fleet numbers
thirteen decked boats, including a couple of 150 ton
schooners. " Our boats have long been pearl prospect-
ing in North .Australian water.s, and only recently they
visited the deeply indented shores of southern
New Guinea. There they discovered shells in
abundance, but the unhealthiuess of the climate
wrought sad havoc among the men, who died of
a disease peculiar to these Southern waters. The
disease is a sort of heart complaint, known as
bei-i-beri. So we withdrew the boats from such
dangerous regions. I am most proud of the organ-
ization of my pearling fleet, but the expense has
been enormous. Perhaps I have s))cnt .t'10,000 up
to now, and I ani just beginning ' to secure a
return. Do not imagine that pearl fishing is hoh-
day work. It is like any other commercial enter-
prise, and needs steady application, great iudustry,
untiring efforts, and readiness of invention to reap
any substantial reward. Singapore is nominally
our headquarters, and (he operations are under
the control of three Europeans, I call them ' my
boys ;' one is my son, another is Mr. Haynes, anci
third is Mr. Chippendale. They are the white
bosses, and my most trusted and devoted servants.
They have under their command about a hundred
and fifty Kanakas and Malays, of whom thirty or
/orty are divers. For each one of these I gave

Feb. 1, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

543

a guarantee to their respective Governments, engag-
ing to pay them a fixed wage. Each diver has
£2 a month, and an allowance of £13 upon each
ton of shells which ho brings up. The shells run
2,400 to a ton "

HOW THE FISHERY IS WOKKEI).

■ Mr. Streeter then showed me some shells which
had recently arrived, about ten inches in length
by eight in width. "You will see," he said, "by
these perforations in the back how many enemies the
pearl oyster has," pointing to the back of the shell,
which was much honeycombed. " If they succeed in
boring clean to the flesh it is all up with the
oyster. The theory of the pearl is that some
foreign substance, a bit of grit or shell, finds its
way within the harness, and the oyster, to avoid
the irritating friction, begins the process of pearl
manufacture by the peculiar secretion. The pearl
is generally found in tlie beard. I need not tell
you that the shells are highly valuable articles of
commerce. When the opener has passed his hand
in to feel for the pearl he throws it to the cleaner
who does his work, the shells are packed up in
hogsheads, and when they arrive in London tliey
are sold by auction in Mincing-lane to go to the
manufacturer, for the shell has taken the place
of ivory. The pearling season lasts from March
to the middle of December, for in the summer
months the hurricanes render their fishing im-
possible. The plan of operations is something in
this wise : the fleet is distributed over the fishing
grounds, and one or two of tliem see to the
supply of fresh water and stores. The mother
ship generally lies at anchor in the bay, and
the small boats leave her every morning ' to go
to their various gi'ounds close by. At night they
return with their cargoes. The ' decked boats go
further afield, and bring the results of their labor at
longer intervals. At certain times the mail steamer
whicli calls at Freemantle ships the cargo which comes
home, the pearls themselves being sent through regis-
tered letters, and passing through post."

THE MVEr. .\Nri HIS DRESS.

" A year or two ago the divers suffered great hard-
ships, always going in naked, when they could not
stop beneath the water toi- a longer period than a
miiuile and a half. The apparatus we use is made
by Mr. Heineke, and of these we have about -twenty,
eaeli costing £130. The dress is not like that we
see used on our own shores, comprising only a
he.idgear and a breastplate, the legs being free, but
the natives like it very much, tor they are able to
stay under for longer, aliout two or tjiree hours. I
have never lost any men thiough sharks ; they don't
seem to like niggers ; but the divers, by a trick
which they have learned, when they see a shark
ai)]>rijaching, squeeze out some air, which throws out
a most vivid stream of air bubbles, effectually
frightening the beast away." Each diver has a
tender, that is tlie man who directs the rope, and
four pumpeis, so that the working gangs are divided
into ijuintets.

In one of Mr. Streeter's rooms hang a dozen im-
posing rolls, each of them worked by a string. Pull-
ing the one marked Australia and Houth Pacific, the
whole of that immense area was placed before my
eyes by his son. Upon these trackless oceans, stud-
ded with a million isles, many of them laid down
upon the chart without nuich pretence to accuracy —
for the reefs and the sounds and the channels are
always shifting — among these tropical wastes Mr.
Streeter's brave little fleet has found its way, and
the King of Pearls, although he has never "visited
foreign parts, is able to follow the various routes
which they have adopted, and these are marked by

tortuous lines on the map. Somerset I was informed
was played out. Somerset lies to the north of
Carpentaria, and sure enough there was the mark on
the map.

THE LATEST NEWS PR03I PEARLING GROUNDS.

"We are working," says Mr. Harry Streeter in
his last letter from the fisheries, which was
read to me, " with small open boats and two
four-ton ketches, which are perfect in any
weather, only coming every second day to
give up their shells. The only flaw in our arrange-
ments is that the open boats are too small
for the work; in case bad weather sets in they
get too leeward, and have to be out in a heavy
sea and take their chance of swamping, while the
ketches, being decked in, ride like ducks. Many
a time after a hard day's work, and all hands
thoroughly tired out, we liave had to get up anchor
and make sail after some poor beggar going out to
sea, and not able to reach the ship. If a boat
sinks the pump goes down with her, and there is a
dress lost. One of the boats has sunk twice, but
luckily close to the ship, and we have sent a diver
down and got everything np without damage. At
present we ai'e under the lee of an island, and as
the wind blows from south to south-west every
night we lie as snug as possible ; but when the
first came down we were Ijnng in the middle of the
gulf — blowing a gale of wind every night, and dipping
bows and stern ports under, though she had forty-
five fathoms of chain out, and the anchorage was
only eight fathoms. I would n't go pearlmg with
(Queensland niggers on any consideration. You
have got to ride for a couple of months uncountry
to catch your men, and after you have got them
they must be watched night and day to prevent them
' putting.' Then every one on board literally pigs it
out during the time they arc on the grounds, having
to sleep and eat on deck, no matter what weather.
Fancy fifty niggers, six white men, and .50,000,000
cockroaches all chumming together,- and all
living on damper and tea. That 's what it
really amounts to. The men, who receive a
handsome percentage, work like demons if we say
nothing to them, letting them go out when they
like and return when they like, and I assure you
they are out at daybreak and not in till seven
o'clock at night. Your experience of Torres Straits
will tell you that if tjiey go down there for three
hours a day they think they have done weU. Good
eyesight and confidence are all tliat are wanted for
apparatus-diving. All there is to do under the
present system is to count the shells on arrival.
This takes from an hour to an hour and a half each
morning. Chips, myself, and the mate open them.
This takes from two to four hours, de-
pending on the number of the shell, and then
they are washed and put in the sun to dry for
twenty-four hours. The shell is broken into two
pieces, the inside edges clipped, and then packed
away in hogsheads. Though the shells run
so small here, we have close on twelve tons
in nine weeks, and if they had run the
average of West Australian shells— 1,200 to
l.-'JOO to tlie ton — we should have close on twenty
tons on board, as to make our present amount we
have over 2.';,000 shells on board."

THE JIYSTERIOUS PACKAGE AND THE FADED
IHNUSCRIPT.

Most of US have read Mr. Haggard's vivid ac-
count of the search for and discovery of King
Solomon'.s mines, in which three adventurous spirits
guided by a faded map done in human blooil on
a fragment of linen 300 years old set Joi'th to
discover the vast treasure which King Solomon

544

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb.

i886.

was supposed to have hidden in the bowels of a great
range of mountains in mid-Africa. How they found it
and what happened we leave our readers to tind in
the book itself, sufficient is to say that the story
is one of the most fascinating pieces of fiction that
have appeared for many a long day. I have said
this because Jlr. Streeter, who may certainly be
considered the greatest expert living in diamonds
and precious stones, mentioned the book to me,
affirming tliat wlierever Mr. Haggard got the found-
ation for his story, he would almost be inclined to
accept some of it as sober facts. You would think
me a Mnncliausen were I to tell you of the strange
applications which are made to me to provide funds
for such expeditions. If you have ever walked
througli some of the great picture galleries of Flor-
ence, you will notice that all the women are painted
with most magniticent necklaces of pearl. What
has become of them ? Where have they gone to ?
People do not wantonly destroy such things. If
you gave me an order today tor a pearl necklace
to cost £40,000, it would take me a year's careful
inquiries to fulfil your demand. It might take even
longer, for I do not know where sucli a one exists.
Of course, I should have to collect the pearls singly
from all quarters. " Every mail," said;Mr. Streeter,
" brings me strange documents from remote and
forgotten towns of South America, from the east
and from the west, from all quarters of the world.
Now, here is one," handing me a small p.ucel
bearing the Spanish postmark, wrapped in brown
grass paper and carefully tied up at the ends.
" Yon may open it and see for yourself wliat it con-
tains." i carefully untied the mysterious package,
wondering what riches it would disclose. The riches
were but on paper. Nothing more than a tracing,
showing a river, a few villages dottted about on
each side, and a few sketches which showed the topo-
graphical features. Besides the thin tracing that
cracked in my hand tliere were numerous writings
on thin foreign note-paper. " That came to me a
day or two ago from a correspondent of mine in
remote Spain. The plan shows the route to a
long forgotten mine which my correspondent has
discovered. Here you see " — reading from the faded
manuscript — " are accurate and minute directions
for approaching it, with close and detailed descrip-
tion of the surrounding country, the rivers and the
mountain passes, the character of the people, and
the whole story of the mine. I'ou need not
trouble to read it, but the legend may amuse you."

k SAPrniEE KIVEE.

" I have projected many expeditions," said the
Kin gof Pearls; "some have been successful, others not.
It is a great gamble, and one must take the good
with the bad. Men come to see me here from all
parts of the world with their schemes ; some I take,
many I reject. It is a. hazardous business, for one
has to trust to individuality. When a man comes
to me with a proposition to work a mine, in Mexico
say, I try to read his character in our talk, and if
I like him and he produces details that seem to
me credible, if he has character and decision — he
is generally well travelled — we hit it off well enough.
Sometimes they go, and for a time all is well, then
they disappear for ever from view. In 181)9 I sent out
Professor John to the Diamond Fields in the first
rush, and the party of three bought three claims for
half a guinea a piece. For one reason and another
they worked tor awhile and then sold out. Since
then these same claims have produced millions.
That was a big slice of bad luck if you like. In
Ceylon I have taken rivers for cats-eyes and sap-
phires. I once tried Cashmere, but could never get
a oonoes8ioOi though the BajaU seut my wife the

handsomest shawl I ever saw. I have sent exped-
itions to tha Sulu Sea, and all round the coast of
Australia. I have now a party working a Brazil
river for gold and diamonds. Then, just before
the Burmese war broke out, I was negotiating with
Theebaw for a concession to work the famous ruby
mines which lie above Mandalay. We have plotted
out the road, for which we were to receive (payinj^
j;20,000 for the mine concession) eight miles on
each side of the Irrawaddy, along which the road
lies.— P. M. Biiilftet.

Frpit TttEE5 ON S.vxo.v HrcfHWAVs.— The planting
ofth) hisfbw.iy* in Sixouy with fruit trees is proving
finxucially a very suioesjfut experim'sut. During the
last three years the State receive i from this source —
18S2, 87.Stl Mirks; 18SS, 110,161 MirUs ; 1884,
103,313 Mxrks; to-ether 301,21? Marks. Wood sold
also produced from 13,000 to 13,000 Marks. These
am )aats were rejeived after the expenditure incurred
in leasing and in siactioas had bean deducted. —
X«/^'o»'^^' Gertntni Tradr Rfvieir.

Sulphur. — A depositof sulphur was lately accidentally
discovered in the Narsapur taluk in Godavari. In
digging on a piece of waste land, some earth was
turned up, the peculiar appearance of which attracted
the attention of one of the passers-by, the village
magistrate, who, having secured a small quantity of
it forwarded it to the Civil Surgeon. A rough
analysis of the earth disclosed that it was strongly
impreguated with sulphur, and a further examination
of the locality in which it was found resulted in the
discovery that the deposit extended over a considerable
area. — InJiaii Aqricullural Gazette.

Tea in the roNJAB. — The cultivation of tea in the
Punjab or rather in the Kaugra Valley is making
considerable progress. During last year there were
1,925 plantatious of wliich .34 were new. As many as
1,880 gardens are owned and worked by natives of
India. The total area undi-r tea during the year w»»
S,172 acres, of which G,4oO ucres were under mature
planting. Other 1,7.50 acres have been taken up for
planting. The outturn for the year reached 1,334,002
lb., .showing an increase of 34,000 lb. — Indian Agri-
cilltand Gazette.

Baling of Cinchona Bark in OEyLou. — At the last
public auctions dissatisfaction was expressed by the
London bark buyers becau.se bales of bark often arrive
at their final destination in bad condition, heavy loss in
weight frequently having to be Ijorne by the manu-
facturers. In order to r*^medy this it is necessary, firstly
as regapds shippers — (a) — That no bale of bark should
weigh over 2.50 lb. nett. (b). — That stout gunny cloth
not thin hessiau canvass, should be used for packing.
The large and unwieldy bales, so often shipped from
Oeyiou, are in dock more or less unmaiigeable ; to draw
fair samples from such packages is most ditJicult, and
the wear and tear is naturally excessive. The
thin hessian canvas so often used by shippers
gives way directly the goods are handled,
and is often the direct cau.^e of loss to the buyers.
Secondly as regards docks and wharves — (a). — It is a
sine qua non that samples should be absolutely unim-
peachable. (/))■ — It is necessary that iron boops, re-
moved to facilitate sampling, or for the purpose of
tariog, be re-adjuste-l or replaced by stout cording. It
is invidious to mention names, but two wharves undoub-
tedly deliver barks in a better condition for re-ship-
ment than their comi)etitors. The rates which impor-
ters paj' to docks and wharves justify the trade in de-
manding that the work be done thoroughly and that
barks be delivered to the buyers with every iron hoop
adjusted or re-adjusted, or with ,a stout cord in lieu <if
any missingboop. Kmdly treat this matter as uf im-
portance, and we rely upon you to put this letter for-
ward iu the proper quarters. — We are, dear sirs, yours
faithfull", (Hhinrd) ;i. ;>. H. Buchler, P. Buehler, W.
H. Cole & Co., < 'orhyn, Slacey it Co.. Howards ^ Suns,
Kram^ois le Mair h Kivers Hicks, O.G. Meier & Co.,
.T. 0. Robrweger, Fred. Thomae 4 Co., Thos. Whiffen,
Wideiunann Broioher & Oo,— Local "Times,"

Feb. 1, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

545

THE PEARL OYSTKR.

TO THE EDITOR 'OF THE •' COLONIES AND INDIA."

Sir, — ^Vu interestiug article in the Standard of
Mouday, Nov. 23, reyarding the iliscovery of great
pearl-ojster banks in King .Sound, 'NVestem Australia,
induces me to draw attention to the faot that oyster
beds, which would seem to be inexhaustible, extend,
as far as I heard when in the Uoiony, ahuost con-
tinuously along the eastern shores of Southern Africa.
As early as 1829 Dr. Alexander Oowie, of Lower Albany,
and his friend, Mr. Benjamin Green, who travelled
through Kaffraria to Delagoa Bay, where they unfort-
uiiatt'ly both died of fever and exhaustion, left a re-
cord of the coast being abundantly supplied with oysters
of two descriptions; a'ld one place is mentioned, be-
tween IJnizimvooboo and the Umzimculu, as being
"twenty or thirty miles in extent, which v/&s littralli/
n-liite" with these bivalves. I have two very fine
specimens of the pearl oyster shells which were brought
to me from Port Elizabeth last year, and which I
understood were gathered not far tiorth of that place.
There are great quantities of the edible oyster every-
where along the coast, and, as mention is made of
tiro kinds, the shells which I have doubtless belong
to the second variety.

The Kev. Stephen Kay, an American missionary and
explorer, travelled through Kaffirland in 1S25-6, men-
tions in his visit to the Chief Daapa that he had
seen numbers of oyster shells scattered about the door
of the hut. The Kaffirs do not eat fish of any kind,
but Daapa's mother, Quma, was a white woman, who
had been wrecked on the coast and had been taken
by the Chief Daapa's father as his principal wife.
There are also, I have been told, great quantities of
oysters in and around Delagoa Bay. "Would it not
be worth while to inquire whether these immense beds '
consist in a measure of pearl oysters, as, if the in-
dustry pays so well in Australia, why should it not
do the same in a country so much nearer the Home
market, and where labour ought to be plentiful?
— I am, kc, M. Caret-Houson.

I instantly ensue. The same difficulty is experienced
when drying them ]ust as the stems are decaying ;
the watijr finds it way down the stems and settles
in the top, duing the mischief without being dis-
covered. In the event of the tubers having been
shaken out of soil in the autumn and stored away
they should be examined at once, and ascertain if
they are sound and plump. If so shallow hoses will
be found serviceable for starting them in. In this
caso either of the following ways or both may be
aiiopted — i.e., place them on coconut fibre or soils
and bury onc-hilf thi'ir d<'pth, or employing similar
material place the tubers ujiside down, and just cover
with soil. By adopting the last-named process there
is no fear of water settling in the liollow crown at
the top, and, what is more, the summit of thetuber is
kept more uniformly moist than where they are par-
tially exposed. A more uniform moisture might be
maintained were the tubers kept dark till they began
to start, when they may by degrees be gradually
inured to full light. This is more readily accomplished
where there are only a few dozens; where they are
in large numbers special attention will bo requisite,
and spe.ial quarters also for them. Those placed in
boxes with the crown downwards will need looking
at in about a fortnight, when the m.ajority will be found
to be Irraking freely. These may then be reserved,
for new roots soon will be emitted, potting them ac-
cortling to their requirements. Exercise forethought
at all limes iu the man.agement at starting, and es-

"pecially so iu watering, for by injudicious watering
at this season many hundreds are anmially lost. A
temperature of .'>"" to 5.5'' at night, with a rise to 65"
by day, will suit them well, and if accompanied by
sliglit bottom heat so inucli the better, keeping the
atmosphere moist. — J. — Journal of Horticulture,

TUBEROUS BEGONLVS.

The time has arrived for agiiin starting Tuberous
Begonias into growth, and as their culture is not so
generally known as it ought to be, a few plain pract-
ical remarks on this particular point might prove
of service. The season of rest with the Begonia is
practically at an eiul, and those tuber.s that have
sccurabed to injudicious management by either re-
ceiving too much water or not being sufficiently
moist will be easily detected now. Though the Be-
gonia can be wintered under conditions similar to
the Gloxinia, the former is injured more by extreme
dryness than the latter; not that the Begonia prefers
moisture when at rest, for such is not the case, as it is
natural for them to lose most of these roots annually. A
large percentage of annual lo.sses may, however, readily
be traced to insufficient care when drying tliein, which,
iu many instances is done far too rapidly ; tlie more
gradual the drying process the greater the chances
of retaining the tubers sound and plump during their
season of rest. Presuming the pots to still occupy
the pots in which th'-v flowered last- summer, the
first thing to be done is to clean off the surface
soil so as to bare the tuber, after which crefully re-
move the soil so as to form a gradual slope from the
apex of the tuber to the inside of the pot, leaving
the tuber thos partially exposed in the c<;ntre. This
is of great importance until growth has fairly com-
menced, when the danger is considerably lesscneil, and
water must be given somewhat sparingly. For the
first week or two it should be given round the side
of the pot, and on no account be allowed to reach
the summit of the tuber. Too much importance can-
not be attached to this, for at the summit of the
tuber, and in the p'isition occupied by the main
flowering stem of last year, will be found a large I
hollow cro\vn or receptacle; if the watcir gains a j
lodgment there and is not detected failure must
60

THE OFFICIAL RED CINCHONA BARK.

It may be useful as well as interesting to consider
the present position vvith regard to cinchona bark for
pharmaceutical preparations.

The British Pharniacopreia, I8S5, directs that all the
ollieial preparations shall be made from red cinchona
bark, which it describes as occurring " in quills or more
or less incurved pieces, coated with the periderm, and
v.arying in length from usually .a few iiiches to a foot
or more." But for the restriction as to length this
description might be held to include shavings of bark
as well as what are generally known as quills. When
it is ■ considered that shavings, as recently etaterl by
jMi'. .Irthn Moss, constitute at least 95 per cent of the
total ir]q)orts of red bark into Loudon, the question
.'irises. Why is so large a proportion excluded ? It
wouUl be interesting to know what form of bark, shav-
ings or quill, was used by the operators whose results
hive rcciintly enriched (txperimental pharmacy. Pre-
suming that the experiments were made with a view
of testing the ofiicial process for liquid extract of
cinchona, we should conclude that i]uill-bark was
operated upon. Due operator, howevor, who removed
only 56 percent of the total alkaloids, admitted that he
hat! used shavings. IMr. iVIoss, using quill-h.irk, succeeded
in remf)ving 88^ p('r ctuit of total alkaloids; and,
during his remarks on this subject, iu the course of
the recent discussion on the Pharmacoptcia, the sugges-
tion was accepted by Professor licdw(>od that the
explanation of this dilVerenci; in result was to be found
in the difference in the form of bark.

A hop(^ was indulgivl that Professor Kodwood would
have explained mor(! fully tbt^ cimseof the diffiereuce,
.and give the meetiiig tin: bcanjfit tpf his l.irgi; experience
on this point. He did not, lK»W(^ver, refer to it in his
remarks, and the explanation has still to bo found.
Professor Kedwood's view, when amplified, we take to
mean that red bark occurring iu (piilts is so constituted
that when reduced to ]towder and treated with water
containing free hydrochloric acid it yields up its alkaloids
more ejisily and freely than does red bark occurring
in shavings when similarly treated. It is difTieuIt to
conceive why this should be so. Suppose a proper
tree be selected, and the bark from half the trunk be

54^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886.

removed iu strips, which, wheu dry, curl up and form
quills, atid the other half has the bark removed by
shavint! it otf, is it meant that the former will behave
ditferi'iitly from the latwr to the sama menstruum i*
We cannot think that this is tlie rrotessor's' meaning,
and yet are unable to perceive any oiher. It would be
well if he would enlighten pharmacists on this point.
Meanwhile, we trust that those who make the Uquid
extract of cinchona will experiment with shavings,
and give the results for comparison with those obtained
from quills ; and if it be found that they do not very
greatly differ, it may be possible to obtain official
recognition for the former. This would be to the great
advantage of pharmacy, which benefits in proportion
to the removal of restrictions on the materials with
which it works. Mr. Brady says that, with regard to
Java, he believes there will be an increased quantity
of scraped bark and a diminished quantity of the peeled.
There can be little doubt that this will hold good of
India, and if there be only 5 per cent or less of peeled
bark now, what shall be used in pharmacy when there
is none 'i — Chemist and Druggist.

THE OEIENTAL PLANE THEE.

Platanus orientalis [and its varieties], that orna-
mental introduction of 300 years ago, uative to the
Levant, Asia Minor, and Persia — not the American
or ^\'esteru Plane tree, P. occi.lentalis— has been
largely planted in recent years in situations where, as
on the Thames Embankment, the million can admire
it, and where, as time passes, our Planes, like our
Oaks, will inspire veneration, and elevate the thoughts.

Referring briefly to the Planes of history, among
the many famous trees growing on the shores of the
Mediterranean, one of the greatest antiquity, most
justly venerated, grows in the pass of Thermopyle.
None of the Planes of our own country have yet
lived long enough to have attained old age, according
to the period of their existence in the East. There
are, for example, the so-called " Seven Sisters "'
growing on the shores of the Bosphorus whose age
has never been discovered, and no remaining record
is likely now to reveal it ; but they are known as a
matter of undoubted history to have sheltered a party
of English Crusaders in the eleventh century. They
are believed to be the oldest Planes iu the world.

Such was the beauty of a large Plane tree standing
in its prime on the soil of Greece, on land which was
no doulit sheltered, watered, drained, and fertile,
that Xerxes, on his invasion of that heroic little
eouutiy, was fascinated by it, and remained chained
to the spot for a whole day. A Napoleon or a
(iladstone would have cut it down and marched ou,
but Xerxes remained quite entranced gazing upon
the tree and sitting down beneath it. In war and
garflening delay of this kind is fatal, and so it proved
to the luxurious monarch, who passed on at last and
was completely beaten by the Greeks. Among other
f.amons and historic Planes Pliny mentions an aged
tree which he himself had seen in Phrygia, and
among whose boughs the vain musician Marsyas, as
the story ran, had been suspended by Apollo wheu
he flayed him alive after his defeat, the unhappy
miirlal having challenged Apollo to a trial of skill
Another Plane of romantic inti-rest was that which
Helen of Troy planted in Arcadia, and which
Pausanias desoribed as a tree of great beauty, as
well as size, at the age of 1,300 years.

lnt(!risfing notices of another tree were sucoe.ssivo!y
publisherl l)y tlie three travellers, Hobhouse, Bucking-
ham, and Ohaudler, who each described a noble
Plane growing on the banks of the Selinus, near
Nostizza. To this tree has been assigned a diameter
of 15 feet, a "lesceptive measurement, which must
have included spurs at the base, and which conveys
to the raincl no idea of the size of the free, in
Persia tliis stately tree, called there the Chinar, is
frequently met with iu avenues, or in compaii}' with
the ]jon\lwrdy Poplar, affording shade and ornament
to the dwellings of the peasants, or along the niarguis
of the streams and watercourses.

Planes may readily be found in England 14 feet in
circumference, measured fairly at ,5 feet from the
ground, and reaching a height of 8) feet. They
require suitable soils and situations for their greatest
growth. They .are not perhaps fastidious, but there
are two or three essentials to their most successful
cultivation, which must not be overlooked inplauting
them.

Unlike the Sycamore, an Acer which was dubbed
Pseudo-Platanus, and which rUus over the hills of
Europe, a native of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany,
.and doubtfully indigenous in Britain, a hardy tree,
with stout twigs bearing storms well, the Plane loves
shelter. It is a tree for vales rather than hill-tops,
and requires proper soils, while the Sycamore can
accommodate itself to a variety of soils as well as
sites. The Plane cannot endure a clay soil, and the
shade of other trees proves obnoxious to it. It also
requires good land, light rather than heavy, with
natural drainage, but at the same time moisture at
the roots, and a deep, free soil. In i)roper situations,
in short—and, it may be added, wherever the Lime
grows best, as single specimens or as groups upon
the lawn, where it spreads itself wide and may be
distinguished from the Maples at a glance by the
scaling off of the bark and the round rough fruit — the
Plane may be often observeil. I noticed some very
noble specimens last summer at Hursley in the shrub-
bery among other trees, all favourites of the .late
Sir William Heathcote. Tho - Plane is a common
ornament of English parks and gardens, as any
observer of trees may know if he consults his memory
(having travelled much), or Mr. Loudon, if he has
read that delightful writer.

An enthusiastic admirer of the Plane has said of
• it that there is a mild majesty in its asi)Oct and a
grace iu its form and in the disposal of its foUage,
which admits light playing amongst its leaves and
creates shade beneath the canopy of its branches,
and renders it one of the best models of elegance
which the vegetable kingdom can exhibit. Owing to
its great beauty, therefore, as well as its tolerance
of smoke, the Plane is obviously the best ti-.'C for
the embellishment of great cities,"the best for populous
and conspicuous places for the improvement of public
taste. — H. E. — Gard/mers' Chronicle.

COLLECTION AND PHEPAEATION OP
GUTTAPERCHA.

The collection of guttapercha generally takes place
directly the rainy season is over, as in the dry season the
gutta does not flow so reailiiy, and during the rainy
season the collectors are more liable to attacks of a'jue
and jungle fever, aud ofieu after cutting down a
tree a heavy i-ain will wash away the gutta as it
flows out. At times the collectors go in companies,
often receiving advances in money, clothes, food, .and
tools, to be afterwards deducted from the proceeds
of their expedition, although cases are not unknown
where the trader who maltes the advances loses
principal and interest from the non-success, death, or
knavery of the collectors. Sometimes the natives
who live in the vicinity of the trees collect the
gutta and exchange it at the trading .stations for
goods of which they are in want. There is a curious
belief amongst the natives that if a tree be cut ilowii
at the time of the full moon, the result is betti-r than
at any other time, as the juice flows ni.u-o r(;adily,
although, on the other hand, other nativ« aftirm that
the seasons make little or no difference.

Yield. — The yield of a well-grown tree of the first
or best variety is from 2 to 3 lb. of guttapertdia,
such a tree being about 30 years old, 30 to 40 feet
hicrh, and 30 inches to 3 feet in circumference. A
full-grown tree sometimes measures 100 to 140 feot
to its first branches, and with a girth of :10 feet
at a distance of 14 feet from the base. Such a
tree will somcdimes yield .'SO to 'iO lb. of gutta-
percha, which quantity loses about 35 per cent of
its weight iu six months from drying. There is also

m6,] THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

54/

a great difference in the relative yield of different
varieties, sometimes amounting to 20 per cent.

Mtthvd of i:.rtractvhj. — tiuttapercha is extracted in
much tliu same way amongst Malays, Chinese and
Dyaks. The trees are cnt down just above the buttresses
or bauees, as tbi y aie called ; and for this purpose
a staging about 14 to 10 feet high is erected. The
tools used in felling are either " bcliongs " or
" parang's." A " beliong " is a chisel-liko axe, used
by the Malays in cutting down trees, building houses,
&c. The blade, as will bo seen, is of a chisel-
like forn). and is secured to the handle by a lashiug
of •' rotan" or ca;<e. The Chinese often use an axe
perfectly wedge-shnpeJ. The '" parang" with its short
sword-like blade, is used to cut the rings round the
trunk ; it is a box of tools in itself in the hands of
a good Malay, as with it he can cut up his food
fell a tree, or building a house. They are made of
various sizes, the one figured was given me as a
keepsake by a Uadji from Talembang, on his as way
to Mecca, and is drawn quarter size. All these tools j
are forged by the natives themselves, and are used 1
with considerable dexterity.

As soon as the tree is felled, the greatest haste is
made to lop off all the branches, the natives asserting
that if this is not done all the gutta would ascend
to the leaves. Captain Lingard relates one instance
where, it being late in the evening, one tree was
left with the branches on, and the result was that
in the morning, iustead of obtaining '10 to (JO lb.
of gutta only 10 lli. wn.-; obtained. The next operation
is to cut and remove narrow strips of bnrk about 1
in. broad ami about 0 in. apart. These cuts do not ex-
tend all round the tree, the under part of the tree being
buried in the soft earth as it falls, and thus much gutta is
wasted. Some natives also strike the bark with mallets, in
order to accelerate the flow of milk. The milk or
gutta flows slowly (chaugiug colour as it flows) and
rapidly concretes, and is of a diffeitnt colour in
different varieties, varying from a yellDwish white
to a reddish or even brownish tinge. The gutta. as
it flows, is received in hollow bamboos, doubled-up
leaves, spathes of palms, pieces of bark, coconut
shells, or even in holes scraped in the ground. Only
two-thirds of the gutta is thus extracted, as one-third
is buried in the ground. Captain Lingard told me
that once he induced a native *' pungulu." or head
man, to roll over a tree which had been felled
four years, and even then a large quantity was
extracted. If the quantity collected is small,
it is prepared on the spot by pressing it together
in the hands into a mass, and making a hole in the
one end of the mass and passing a rotan through
to carry it by. Often it is sent into the market
iu this state, and is then known as " raw gutta"
or " getah rauutah," the latter word in JIalay meaning
'* raw." If water gets into the juice, the gutta
becomes stringy and is considered deteriorated, but
after iifing boiled appears quite as good. Sometimes
the gutia is kept in the raw state for a month or
two, and then undergoes the next step in preparation,
that is, of boiling, lint this should, I believe, take
place imiiui/iaic/'/ after collection. The boiling is
generally conducted in an iron pan or '■ kwali."
These are cast or stamped pans, 1.5 inches' in diameter
and 6 inches de(-p. with two handles ri\'etted on.
Those made in iSiam are generally preferred. The
boiling is either made with simple water or with the
addition of lime-fruit juice, salt, or coconut oil
Lime-fiuit juice and salt are added to hasten
coagulation. If one pint of the former be added to
three gallons of gutta milk, the gutta coagulates or
coagulates imnte<liately on ebullition, and this addition
expedites the prejiaration very materially, (,'oconut
oil is aiMwl t<T give a better appearance to the
product.

When the gutt.i arrives at the port of shipment,
before it is exported it generally undergoes an
examination with a view to cla.ssification in suitable
classes. As it isreceL-^d it prcsent.s great diversities
as to appearance, shape, size, and colour ; from
cruuibliug, hardly coherent, whitish or greyish " raw"

or getah muntah fragments, to reddish or browui^h
blocks as hard as wood. Sometimes it is made up
into all manner of grotesque shapes, and nearly
always adidterated with sago, flour, sawdust, bark,
clay, stones, &c. The Chinese are great adepts in
assorting .';nd classifying gutta, and frequently" reboil"
the guttapercha by making small parcels of different
varieties up to a certain " standard sample." This
is done by cutting or chopping the gutta into tln'n
slices and boiling with water in large, shallow iron
pans, keeping the contents constantly stirred with
p^'fs, and adding good gutta and even coi-uiiut
oi. to give gutta a better appearance. \A'heM
sufficiently hoileil, the gutta is taken out of the
l)ans, pres-fi into large moulds, and packed for
shipment. — Jndiimthher and Guttapercha Journal.

THE SCIENTIFIC DEYING OP TEA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HOME .\NI) COLONI.iI, JIAIL."

Sir, — It IS amusing to see how old processess ami
patents are re-invented and announced with a grand
flourish of trumpets as "Remarkable l>isco\eries."
A large mare's nest of this order was '• discovered "
about a week ago, by the J)ailt/ Trleijravlt, and the
big egg that it contained has been handed •' arountt "
(as our American cousins say) for general woniler and
admiration, until your talented correspondent, Arlemus,
cracked the shell and reve&led, not a Thienix rising
from the fl.nmes, nor a Spread Eagle soaring to the
■skies, but a half-fledged ugly duckling, with no loftier
note than an ominous " quack, ([uack."

The fact that air may be rendered chemically dry
by being drawn or driven through many wellknown
simple and inexpensive chemical absorbents goes with-
out telling; also that dry air will reabsorb more
moisture than damp is not a very remarkable dis-
covery ; hence, it any of your numerous readers who
already possess our drying cylinders will care to put
this matter to the test of practical work, the.y can
do so most easily and thoroughly at the cost of a
few shillings. It would be merely necessary to adjust
a box containing the absorbent in front of the fire
and cause all the air required for combustion to pass
through that box : they would thus have air siqjplied
to the cylinder perfectly freed from moisture, how-
ever damp the atmosphere might be.

Dry, warm coke broken into pieces of about the
size of a walnut is a very good absorbent; and woidd
cost really nothing, because as soon as it was s.-itur-
ated it could be changed for a fresh charge and put
upon the top of the furnace to get dry and warm
again, and thus serve the purpose ai/ injiiiitiaii.

I agree with ^rtemus that it would be very well
worth trying this dried air for "withering;" fortius
purpose the fire should be reduced to a mere hand-
ful of hot fuel, and the cylinder lowered and rntated
so slowly as only just to turn the leaves over from
time to time to insure each leaf getting its fair share
(and no more) of the withering action. The temp-
erature of the air could be regulated to anything
that practice proved best from 60° to 13U° or any
degree higher that it might bear. The same sinipic
arrangement might be useful for drying also, because
dry air at a lower temperature will do as good work
as damp at a higher.

If the withering process were a success by this
arrangement, I should advice cither a modification of
the cylinders, whereby they could be most economic-
ally constructed to do this special work or an ar-
rangement that has been in successful operation for
many years at the Jtoyal Gunpowder ^V'orks. This
machine was constructed from one of the motiels of
my patent, after .Sir Frederick Abel, ( 'olonel Young-
husband, and Mr. Anderson (of the firm E.'iston,
Amos & Co.), had- hem up to my place to test
the action of that model. It is simply the well-known
arrangement of a series of endless bands, one above
another, receiving the chargt^ on the topmost, bartd
and carrying it to and fro from band to band ui Id
it arrives at the exact ))oiut of dryness required. My
patent, therefore, is not for eudlcs-i bands and heat,

i0

iiiii jLkUi-'iC/ii^ hi^KlL'aL'LUbiih'l,

{i'tif, i, ibSti

ing arrangements prr sc, but merely for simpliiic-
stious and economies of conBtruction, and accurflcj-
cf peiftii mance. ThcRC economies could bo carri(;d
jtiU fur'her whore only moderate lioat and dry air
are required.

This machine lias answered admirably for drying
fibrous, lib'ht and porons products, such as cotton-
waste, wool, &c., but the reason I did not recom-
mend it to the planters was the linding, from care-
fully repeated experiments, that with wi*t and clotted
leaves (like tea from the roUiny mills), it was not
so good in its action as the cylinders ; the wet lumps
were not so effectually separated and where a few
leaves clung together, they did not get their fair
share of the drying action and afterwards formed a
spot of mould when the tea was stored. Moreover
the element of first cost is always an important con-
sideration, and machines on this principle to do as
much work as a cylinder cost nearly twice as much
to construct. This, however, would not be the case
with a set of bands in a chamber for withering pur-
poses 0/1^1/.

The whole philosophy of rapid economical and
thorough drying may, I think, be summed up in
thesi! three points: —

1. That the tea should be kept in gentle but effect-
ual movement, so as to separate every leaf from
evci-y other leaf and allow the dry air to get at
both sides.

^. The application of as much air as can be intro-
duced without blowiug the charge out of the machine.
o. The skilful adjustment of the temperature of
that air so as to obtain the highest drying power
without injury to the product.

As an instance of the utility of attending to all
these three points f may mention that 1 lb. of wool,
when saturated with water until it weighs o^ lb. can
ha^■e the whole of that water expelled in 5i minutes
withuut the slijihtest h '•■'■y to the fabric, whereas in
the " Itema'^kable Discovery" of theJ7>wf7?/ Ti^UcfVuph
it took twenty-eight minutes to perform that wonder-
ful feat. In othir words, by the scientiBo combin-
ation of movement, volume and temjierature, the
process can be aeeomplished in one-fourth of the time;
or-, what is still more important, four times the yield
can be jirodueed in the time needed by the marvel-
lous plan of the " Remarkable Discovery." Of course
where the product (like timber) cannot be moved there
is nothing for it but to pile it up in a chamber
and pump in 0,000 cubic feet per minute of cool dry
air tor nine day.s (or ninety, as the case may be) ;
but j\ist consider what a few tons of rolletl tea would
look like it placed in drying-house of this kind for
nine days or even for nine hours! No: " Divide and
Itule " used to be the old motto, divide and dry is
quite as good a one in this case. You cannot break
a whole quiverful whilst the arrows hold together,
neither can you dry clotted lumps whilst they stick
together ; the surfaces get over dry and their centres
remain damp. "Movement" is the secret of .success
in this as in so many other things. The old system
of kiln-drying is now universally admitti d to be slow
and imperfect, and you will see by the enclosures
that my wheat-drying' cylinders are gradually super-
seding tbem in all p.irts of the kingdom. W'hcre-
evec a damp ]irodnct is spread upon a floor or on
shelves, if the dry power is from below, the lowest
utratuin gets acorched and the upper gets scalded;
if the hot air is diffused from the sides or from
above, the upper slratinn .gets oV(!r-drv before the
lonor is dry enough ; iueqiiality of drying, or waste
or lieat, .vioncess of produetioti, and a necessity for
lai-ge buildings, and much niauunl labour in spread-
ing, turning and collecting are inevitable, whilst yw/'
contra, with machinery, perfect uinformity, economy ^
of fuel, rapid and regular delivery, compactness of ,
building, and saving of labour are the proved and
acknowledged advantages.

If your correspondent jirtemus. or any of your
reailers. woidd care to pay me a visit to see illus-
trations of the two systems carried out in various
nioilels, or to arrange for experirnetdal investigationF

as to further pr.ictical improvements, it will give
me great pleasure to make appointments with them,
and thus to assist to the best of my abilitv in the
"Scientific Manuf.aeture of Tea."— W.v. A." Gujbs.

DROUGHTS IN JAMAICA.

Mr D. iVlorris, formerly of Ceylon, in treating of
this subject stated; —

The prevalence of comparative drought throughout
the island during the last five years, the consequent
arid condition of the country, the failure of springs
and streams, the loss of cattle, .and the diminution
in the yield of crops, are factors in our local
circumstances which certainly deserve thoughtful
attention: and no subject could more worthily or
more appropriately occupy the attention of a Society
having the Agricultural interests of the comitry at
heart than a careful consideration of circumstances
which may directly or indirectly have contributed to
the present state of things ; and the means Avhero-
hy they may he avoided in the futiure, or, at loast,
be greatly mitigated and relieved. It is generally
admitted and indeed proved by reliable returns, that
the rainfall in .Jamaica since 1879, has been of a
very partial and irregular character; and, on the
whole, it has shown a marked falling-off as compared
with returns of a similar period in former times.
According to Returns published by Mr. Maxwell
Hall, in the Jamaica Gazette, .January 22nd, 1885,
it would appear that, while the normal average
rainfall for the whole Island — taking dry and wet
districts together — is about 70 inches ^per annum,
during the last five years, 1880-84 inclusive, the
average rainfall has been only oG inches per annum.
This shows a falliug-ott' in the rainfall at the rate
of 14 inches per annum. The actual rainfall is as
follows:— 1880— 55 inches; 1881—09 inches; 1882—58
inches; 1883 — 48 inches; 1884 — 50 inches. From this
it v.ould appear that during the last five years the
rainfall has only once been near the average, while
during four years it has been very much below the
average. During the current year ( 1885) I regret
to say there would appear to be no improvement.
In .January the rainfall was oidy ouc-fourth of the
average ; in February it was only one-half the average,
and the effects of the drought were severely felt
over the greater part of the island ; in March the
rainfall was only one-third of the average and reports
from Trelawny and other parishes mention the
drought as being the severest on record, the [londs
being dry, and springs and wills failing. In April
the rainfall was one inch above the average, caused
by heavy rains in the AVest Central division ; in
other parts of the island, however, but little rain
fell and in consequence of the preceding drought
there was a great scarcity of water. In May the
usual " seasons " entirely failed ; the rainfall being
only one-half the average.

A euliic foot of air heated to the normal temper-
ature of the plains of Jamaica, vi?,., 80* Fab. and
s.'iturated with moisture holds lO'Sl grains, Troy, in
weight of vapour.* This is more than twice the
quantity of vapour lield by air heated to ouly 50*
I'ah. which niiiy betaken as the normal temperature
of a northern country like England. Hence we have,
here, the key, not. only to the more rapid evaporation
and drying of the surface which takes place in a
trojiieal country, but also to the larger and more
copious precipitation which take* place, when the
air by expansion in the higher strata, yields it«
moisturi- in the form of rain.

BECOKD OF tXOOOS .\.VD DBOUOU '

Besides these we have records of heavy rain^. such I in"
instance iis iu the storm of October 20th. 1711,
when there fell according to Loug, a •' gener:il quantity
equal to that which falls in Kngland hi a whole

♦I might hero add that without vapour in the air
there would be no cloutls. no rain, no fop, no hail,
no lightning or thuniler, no blue sky and no rosy

FEti, 1, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRlCVLTUmST,

MS*

year." There are records also of heavy rains in
17S5 and 17Sii; of Hoods in 1815 when nearly the
whole aspect of the old parishes of St. David and
St. Georges were changed and breakaways and ravines
formed which remain to the present day; of heavy
rains in 133'J followed by severe drought in 1S40 on
the nortbside; of floods again in 1841 when they
continued without intermission for nearly a week.
In 1S44 there were very heavy rains throughout the
island which were repeated in Ii*48 and continued
for nearly three weeks. The May rains of ISUJ lasted
for nearly two weeks. In 1S67 there were Hoods in
the Xorth-estern parishes. Heavy rains occured from
Octo'uer to the end of December li?7(). The rainfall
for Manchester for these three months amounted .
62'5 inches and at Kath to 885 inches.

In 1^7^i there was a severe drought In the northoni
portion of the Island which retardeil the growth Bf
caucs. succeeded soon after by heavy and continuous
raiu». The floods of October lt>7!', were the last of
a general character which we have to record and
these have been succeeded, as we aro too painfully
aware, by five years of comparative drought.

In spite of the present drought uuiier which the
country is suffering. It would be rash to assert that
the rainfall is actually and systematically decreasing
at a large rate over th» whole Island. I\[r Maxwell
Hall, however, is forced to the conclusion that the
rainfall in Jamaica must have been greater in former
times than now, but attributes this ■' to a change
probably systematic and periodic." If wo could take
periods of say twenty, fifty, one hundred or even
two hundred years, and tabulate carefully the amount
of rainfall deposited in each, we might then arrive
at a fairly definite conclusion whether the rainfall
is steadily decreasing or not. In the absence, however.
of such returns, the wisest and most rational course,
for the present at leait, is to leave the question an
open one. This, however, does not touch the inquiry
whether the rains are as regular or as fretjuent as
they previously were ; or whether the influence of
man in denuding the land of forest has not brought
about a failure of the waters in our streams and
rivers and produced such local changes in our climate
as might lead to aridity and drought.

[.iViid then Mr. Morris proceeds, in the usual style,
to show the influence of forest on rainfall. In Ceylon
denudation has not lessened rainfall, ;ind we suspect
the same may be said of Jamaica. Floods and droughts
occur in all tropic lauds, and rainfall depends on mon-
soons and mountains,— Ed.]

RKTfK.S OK La.VI) in IUE HANDS OK GOVEHNMENT. AS
(IIVES IS THE Ua.NIIIIOOK OF JAMAICA 18*1-85, p. 122.

Government
Government Land imder

Land Lease to vari- Unpatented
UiHK'cupied. ous Versons. Laud. Total.

li7,ii4S^. I:.',!K)8 26,980 107,536A

In a note by General i^lann, Director of -Publis
Works and ?>urveyor-Geueral. it is mentioned that
'* the lauds heM b^' (.Jovernment are almost exclusively
under the folloning three heads: — 1st. I'npatented
Lands: 2nd. Lands forfeited to the Govcrniueut for
non-payment of tjuit Kents, and 3rd, Lands recovered
from Sjcptatters under the powers of the District Court
Laws. .... The last class of laniis are
only held by Government for seven years, after which
they are sold, if not claimed before that by the rightful
owner." The extent of land, both iu private hands ]
and iu those of Government corcred h/ fonntf is ,
estimated a^bout one-fourth the totiilareaof the Iiiland.
In other words three-fourths of tht- country has already
been deiuided of forests; and the work of tienudation is
being carried on at the rate of some 15,000 acres to
20.000 (30.(iOij according to the Crown Siirveyort per 1
annum chiefly for the purpose of establishing negro
provision grounds. 1

DON'T DIE IN THE HOUSE.
"Hough oil Hats" clears out rats, mice, beettles.
roaches, bed-bugs, flies, ants, insects, moles, chipmunks, |
gophers. yy. E. Smith & Co., Madras, Sole Agent«,

DECAY OF THE INDUN SILK TEADE.

The Pioneer iu a recent issue contained an article
on this subject, the writer of which commences by
showing, that, though thi're is a market in India for
■he cheap filatures produced by tho native method,
the large companies which work to supply the Europ-
ean market catmot compete with China. He explams
the reason for this, as follows : —

The difference between Indian and Chinese silk
admits of a very simple statement. Silk yarn loses
much of its weight in the process of dyeing, and of
course the foreign manufacturer will turn by preference
to that kind of silk which loses least. Now if we take
the produce of tho worm Jbat feeds on the mulberry —
the species which created tho old historic silk industry
of Bengal — a pouud of Indian yarn yields lOi ounces
after dyeing, but a pouud of Chinese yarn yields Hi
ounces : the difference is therefore 6 per cent in favour
of the latter, and iu point of strength also the superi-
ority rests with the Chinese product. If we leave
the mulberry silkworm and tqke the multivoltine tusser,
which is found wild iu many parts of India, and used
to be reared extensively on trees iu the open air in
Chota Nagpur niid other hill tracts of Bengal, as it is
still reared in the Central Provinces, which abound
in the hill and jungle that it most affects, a comparison
of Indian tusser and China tusser is again to the
disadvantage of the former. The Indian yarn retiu'ns
half an ounce less after dyeing, and is thus 3 per cent
to the bad ; but its deficiency in strength is a more
serious matter. Every silk-weaver knows how much
the lustre of his fabric— the quality whicli gives it
attractiveness in the eyes of the customer and enhances
its price in the trade — depends upon the natural
strength of the fibre. The beautiful sheen of sUk is
altogether an effect of nature ; it comes of the light
glancing along the straight lines of thu fibres which
lie side by side and compose the thread. Twist the
fibres, and you destroy their even straightness, and
the lustre disappears. But if the fibres are weak they
must be twisted, or the thread will not be strong euougii
for weaving. Now this is the case with Indian tusser,
and hence a deficiency of lustre in the woven fabiic,
and a depreciation of 3 or 4 per cent in its value
when compared with the more brilliant Clhinese. Again,
this same want of strength shuts Indian tusser out
of one-halt of its market. The thread is unfitted for
setting in the loom lengthwise ; it can only be used for
weaving across the breadth of the piece, and thus
the Kuropean weaver who works with Indian tusser
has to choose some stronger silk for the groundwork
of bis web.

There are some of the reasons whicli account for
the decline of the Bengal silk industry .and the dimiiii.sh-
ing export of Indian silk generally. We are speaking
now of what is technically known as (/(/vk™ silk, that
is, silk-yarn made by reeling the silk off the cocoon.
It is a process in which machinery has no part, depend-
ing entirely upon the silkworm's work in the first
instance, and next upou the delicacy of the human
fingers that manipulate the fibres. A machine that
could do this work would be worth a fortune, and
indeed it is not likely that the problem of finding a
substitute for young women's fingers will much longer
continue to bafHo the inventiveness of the age.
» » #

The fault of the Indian silkworm is that in spinnng
his fibre he never puts in a sutUciency of "bone." "Bone"
means, in the language of the trade, tliat hardness
and firmne.'is in the fibre which enables it to keep its
even roundness through all the trials to which it is
subjected in dyeing, combing, and weaving. If not
duly fortified with "bone" the thread gets frayed
at the edges, and becomes "fio.ssy," and llossiness is a
quality abhorred by the weaver. It is little differences
like this which affect the prosperity of whole industries.
The fortuues of the largest silk manufacturer in England
have been built on a minute improvement in the
jjrocess of combing, and the fortunes of Indian silk
would rerive if its fibre could by aiiy means be harden-

M^

THE

i i'-.t^r iuyiirf jfi'jKJU Ui^i U-HXis's

'AiV

2d3ti

ed a little. It is hoped that this end may be attained
by greater care in the breeding of the worm". The
Bengal biikworm, it is well known, has lung beeu
teadily degenerating nnder the neglect and cirelessncss
habitual to the natives of the conntiy, whose only
object is to raise a vroyt as rapiilly as possible, with
the least expenditure of money :unl trouble. Un-
fortunately reform in this respect is a matter of extreme
difficulty. In the Punjab and in Dehra Dun no pains
have been spared to teach tlie ryots liow to rear
fiilkworms, good seed has been distributed, and com-
petition lias been stimulated by exhibitions where the
best collection of cocoons finds a liberal reward ; but
it has all proved vain, except indeed ns a demonstration
of the impossibility of getting the ryot to give that
methodical attention to his j^ilkvvorms without which
the goodness of the stock cannot be maintained. An
experiment that has failed anong the livelier and
keener peasantry of Ujiper India has but a poor chance
of success, we fear, in lazy, listless, Bengal. Then comes
the question whether it might not pay to undertake
the breeding of one's own silkworms: and this, too,
has been tried in the Punjab, where those beautiful
yarns were produced which attracted so much admir-
ation at the Calcutta Exhibition. But the old defect
of the Indian breed still cling to it, and all the care
bestowed upon the selection and rearing of the silk-
worms has failed to develop the essential quality of
bone in sufticient strength. The last resource is to
make an entirely fresh start with new seed imported
from Japan. But the history of these experiments
suggests a doubt whether the new strain will long
preserve its vigour. The hereditary weakness of the
Indian silkworm may, of course, be traceable entirely
to a long course of reckless breedings, but it is perhaps
more probable that the cause is a climatic one, and
in that case we shall see the Japan stock gradually yield
to the fatal influences of its new habitat, and part
with the firmness of its fibre just as the Eiuropeau stock
of animals, or of men and women, parts with its
stronger qualities of body and mind when condemned
to reproduce itself in this country.

Look at it, then, as we will, the business of manu-
facturing thrown silk in India does not seem to have
very bright prospects before it. The ludian product
will hardly retrieve its price in the European market,
and the question of successful manufacture for export
seems to depend on whether some cheaper way of
working can be devised, since it is yearly becoming
plainer that the old-fashioned style of fiiature, with
costly buildiugs and European niaun.gement, cannot be
made to pay. But if the whole situation has thus to
be reconsidered, it is worth while to go a step further,
and a.sk whether the fault does not lie deeper than any
mere change of system. The grand secret of succt-ss-
ful production is to have Nature as one's ally ; but in
seeking to produce thrown silk of European quality in
India we seem to he constraining Kature against her
will, or at any rate to he making the mistake of not
setting her to work along the line of greatest efhciency.
The special aptitude of the soil and climate of India is
for the production of coarser kinds of silk ; multivolline
varieties not adapted for reeling, but capable of a vast
number of uses it properly spun. The demand for this
waste silk, or wild silk as it is called, is rapidly growing
in Europe, and at the present moment greatly exceeds
the supply. A few years ago the product was value-
less, but now we have improved niachiuory that can
turn every particle of waste to account.

* * •

This sudden opening up of new prospects for waste
or wild silk occurs most opportunely at a time when
the cultivated silk industry, the manufacture of thrown
silk, finds its outlook so miserably daikcr.od. Silk
firms might well consider whether they might not
turn tbeir capital to the ilevelopmcut of thi'^ new trade,
instead of sinking it in the uttempt to rehabilitate a.
decaying business. India's place in the scale of pro-
duction .seems to be marked out by economic laws ns
that of a supplier of raw material. The tendency
of modern improvements is to remove even the simple
primary processes of manufacturo from tbe first pro-

ducer, and get them done by the same sort of agency
as the secondary processes; indr;ed, the simpler the
process the more ingenious and elaborate, as a rule,-
is the machine. If this he true, the niaiuifacture of
silk in India is mere misdirection of energy ; but in
the growth and exportation of our waste and wild ^ilks
tliere lies an immense field all undeveloped. By wild
silks we do not mean silk gathered from the jungle,
but those species which, though cultivated, have never
received any scientific attention : such, for instance, as
the eri or castor-oil silkworm of Assam and Tsoi-th-
Eastern Bengal, from whose cocoons the natives of
those districts have for centuries spun thread which is
wrought into fabrics of astonishing durability. Treated
by the beautiful engines of the English spinner, these
cocoons furnish the material for pluslies with sof tat
tractive handling, for rugs, and for other kiuds of goods
combining cheapness with beauty. The silkworm is an
indigenous one ; Nature co-operates with man in mul-
tipl3ing its production; and it .seems reasonable to
conclude that only cnpital and perseverance are wanted
in order to lay the foundation of a new trade which
may make the fortune of its discoverer and pro\e of
immense benefit -to the country.

EUCALYPTUS.

Memorandum comprising extracts from various
sources relating to the Bledicinal Uses and Virtues
of the Eucalyptus.

Extract from Jiurj/oiitie, Bviliitlffes i^ Co.'s Circ-
v.lai:~—The oil of Eticaiiiptus ylohirh's, as a substitute
for carbolic acid, has been much advocated of late.
It is a most valuable antiseptic and has obtained
the happiest results in bronchial catarrh. Professor
Lister is of opinion that the Etu-ah/jiins (jhhvii's
should supersede carbolic acid as an antiseptic because
of its harmless nature.

Extract from ComjHinion to the British Pharm-
acopaia. — Liquid extract of Eucalyptus gum 1 part,
water 2 parts : dissolve and strain. An excellent
remedy in arresting bleeding from the nose. Lint
dipped in it checks bleeding -from wounds. The
gum is used in doses of 6 grains every four hours
in diarrhoja and dyseuter}'. The oil is obtained from
the leaves by distillation.

Extract from Medical Times and Gazette, 1S82. — The
oil of Eucahiptv-S (flolndt'S is said to diminish the
action of the heart and the blood pressure and to
act as a stimulant, astringent and antiseptic on
mucous membraues. Dr. Currier speaks highly of
its use as a disinfectant and antiseptic in chronic
ovaritis and tumours of the breast, in removing the
fietor of the discharges and relieving the pain and
discomfort.

Extract from E.rport Pfirc Cvirent and TracU
Report.— The leaves of several Of the 6peci<s of
EuccUiiirtus when duly prepared and compounded
into an ointment are found to possess healing pro-
perties, which, without exaggeration, may be termed
remarkable. Josephson's ointment is the property
of Messrs. E. Bow & Oo. of New South Wales.
In the colonies it has achieved, we believe, considerable
success in the treatment of wounils, ic.

Extract from Australian Medical Gacette.— [Being
an article by John Murray Oibbes, m.b. and c.Jt.,
(Aberdeen), m.k.c.s.e., Coroner of New Zealand, with
reference to a severe epidemic outbreak of diphtheria.]
First. — After swabbing the throat with liq. fer perchl. dil.
and glycerine. ,"<tcoi)d. — Pour boiling watek on blue-
gum leaves and let the steam be inhaled ilay and night.
Drawing steam through an inhaler, or holding the
head over a jug, is a most wearisome process, and you
finil tliat patients, espi-cially children, soon get tired
of it; so I order the pan, jar or jug containing the
infusion to be placed on a chair b<'side the bed, and
a tent of the bcd-'clotlie.s to bu placed over it and
the patient'.s head. This conveys the steam to the
patient without exhausting him. Children soon feel
the soothing elleet, all uneasiness and pain in the
throat leaving. Of course iu mild cases tbe steam

Fee. I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

55^

does not require to be used so often. In several
cases, after 5 or 0 hours' steaming, complete casts
of tbe air-passiige wt^e coughetl up, ami the breath-
ing became easy at once. One young lady, tapping
the upper part of her sternum, said, *' It is liere."
tSlie could not swallow a tea-spoouful of water ! Her
lips were blue and her face of a dusky hue ; but
alter hours of steaming the membrane was coughed up,
and the breathing became at OQoe easy. In one caso,
where steaming was not airried out, the little patient
was serai-asphyxiated for three days before death
put an end to her sufferiugs. It was the first case
of this epidemic that I saw, and was not able to
sufhciently impress the attendants with the import-
ance of the constant use of this steam. In blue-gum
steam we have a most perfect disinfectant, as in
no single case, after the first twenty-four hours, was
the breath unpleasant and the swelling in the neck
quickly subsided. Towards eight o'clock the diph-
theria patients generally became feverish, restless and
unable to sleep, and it was wonderful to watch the
soothing effects of the steam. A bucket was gener-
ally placed in the room containing the blue-gum
water, and a red-hot poker placed in it, which at
once filled the room with steam, and very shortly
after one child after another would fall asleep.
Twenty-four cases were treateil as above, witl: the
death of only one infant, aged eight months. There
Were six other children ill iu the same family, and
not oue case of paralysis has occurred amongst them,
altliongh two treated with sulphur by their parents
are liadly affected. I think that I can claim for
the above treatment. — i^t. — Great simplicity; 2iul. —
That it follows njiture's owa method of getting rid
of the membrane, namely, by suppuration; 'di'd. —
That it prevents paralysis from following; itk.—
That it cures the severest cjises.

Extract from the Si/diiey .l/niV.— [Substance of a
letter from Dr. Koss, Br.D.] — I am forced, from
careful observation and long experience of bush life,
to believe that the majority of our gum trees, no
matter in what form used, whether in the shape
of their leaves iu their natural state, or dried, in
ointment, powder, decoction, g:um, extract, oil or
alkaloid, all inherit virtues. Time alone is bound
to bring them into more general repute .as an in-
valiiabU; antiseptic and agent for counteracting lethal
or poisonous exhalations ; a cooling, healing applic-
ation to wounds and ulcers, or rheumatism, aiul a
salutary remedy in parasitic disonlers iu sheep.
I shall ngw submit the following short extract of a
remarkable ^pmr vioimA case:— On the 2.Sth December
ISfil I found the abdominal wound wifle open aiul
gaping and the bowels protruding, accompanied by a
ipiantity of ichorous serum ooziug from the large
orifice. Had taken no mediciue. His gin, sitting
by his side, in the bough gunyah, attentively bathed
the wound and swollen alalomen with a few of the
most teu-ilcr shoots and leaves of the rcil-gum tn^e,
steepetl from time to time in hot-water. In conse-
ijuence of the untoward appearance of the wound
all chances of his recovery seemed now to have
l>e»*ii quite takeu out of my hands, for to attempt
to close the wound, under the circumstances, would
not only have been perfectly futile, but have added
to the danger as the swelling was rapidly increasing,
80 much so that the case appeared ijuite hopeless
and the pulst? was sinking. On returning m the
evening I found to my great surprise and astonish-
ment that what I had considered to be a useless
and cruel «ort of application had not only lessened
the size of the woun>l, but had positively had the
effect of re<niiing the swelling. Si'eing such results,
of course I coul 1 make no further objection to the
use of this strauge apphcition in the shape of gum-
tree leaves, and the sixth day fouud the abdominal
wound closed !

Extracts from Kvlra Pluinnwn/tria, ISSI. — Erfid/jiliis
fiilitc (Eucalyptus leaves).— Dosie i> grains, or more,
in |>ow ler. The dried leaves of the Kurnli/ptm
glol'i'hi.i, or blui;-gum tree of Australia, have been
employed medicinally in the treatment of agaa and

bronchitis, and are now much used in Italy for Roman
and malarious fevers ; also, when coarsely pDwdertnl,
are omployeil for smoking iu cigarettes hi cardiac
and aueurismal asthma. The narrow leaves, mostly
scimitar-shaped, are more active medicinally than
the broad leaves of herbaceous shoots.

Oleum EnaitypU. — Uoso 1 to 5 minims enudsified
with olive oil. Is distilled from the leaves of the
Eucali/plus anit/(/d<iHnie and also from those of the
EKcalf/ptita ylobidns and probably from other species.
It is to this oil, and also especially to the great
avidity fur water which this tree has when growing,
that it owes its antimalarial influence. The oil is
a powerful antiseptic and has an ozonizing influence
on the atmosphere while it oxidises. It has a pale
yellow color, a penotrating, camphoraceous odour, sp.
gr. about OHOI), and boils between iioS^ and 39:J''
(Fahr.). It is uot caustic like carbolic acid, nor does
it produce much irritation, althougli it is very destruct-
ive to low organic growths. It is soluble in oils,
fats, paraffins, and alcohol, but oidy a trace dissolves
in water. The oil is useful (mixed with an equal
quantity of olive oil) as as Bubefacieut for rheinnatism.
A largo percentage of Eitcah/ptus oil consists of
" EtLCitlyptol" which is also met with iu commerce
and' is tnat part of the above oil whicli passes over
between 338° and 35:2° F. It is obtaiueil by treating
the latter with caustic potax, then with chloride of
calcium, and subsequent distillation.

Extract from thi! Aiiatrahisian. — Baron Von Mueller
has been at the pains of collecting and collating
testimony from the scientific publications of many
countries, and he cites recorded cases resting on the
authority of practitioners of eminence to sliow that
Eucalyptus oil possesses almost imique virtues as an
anti.septic, as an agent for the reduction of the
pulse in phthisis and typhus, for the diminution of
bronchial catarrh, for combating incipient or threat-
ened gangrene, and for healing certain ulcers. Dr.
Wooster of San Frijncisc^o enumerates 123 cases of
variotis diseases, 9rt of which were cured by the ad-
ministration of the tluiil extract of Encali/ptus foliage.
In 23 cases of remittent, intermittent and typhoid
fever, every one yielded to the treatment. The
American Facidty are using the extract largely in
cases of diptheria and scarlatina with the most
gratifying results; and in severe cases of cystisis, it
has effected cures when all ordinary remedies liad
failed. In the practice of a single physician in
New York, 10;) diphtheritic cases have been succes-
fuUy treated by the fluid extract. Eiicatyptus in-
halations, it has been found, are capable of overcoming
catarrhal asthma and hooping-cough ami of arresting
pulmonary consumption.

Extract friuu Phtfrin. ^eitujiff. — Hodolfo BodolG
recommeiuls, from personal experience, the chewing
of two to three dried leaves of Eiirahfptns ulohidua
as a sovereign remedy for cold in tlie head and
coryza, provided they are recent and not chronic.
The (iffect generally makes itself felt in half an
hour.
Othek Uses op Edcalvi'tik Oil NOf Medicin.*l.
Extract from the Indiaa Jf/riritJtitrisf. — A proces
has been invi^nted in America for the manufacture
of a preparation of the gum of the " Eucalyptus
Gloliiclus." It has the effect of removing thoroughly
the scales which form in engine-boilers, an-l thus
prevents rust and pitting. The result of tlie itilroduc-
tion of this preparation has been so great as to
create au immensi> di-mand for it both iji ,\nierica
and Europe. The effect 6f this preparation in
preventing the pitting and corrosion of boilers will,
it is expected, extend the period of their usefiU-
ness 100 to 150 per cent, and at the same timo
effect a great saving in fuel, as strale is a non-
couduct.>r of heat, and therefore more fuel is required
to generate steam in old boilers than in new clean
boilers. [We have seen an adverse opinion from an
Engineer. — Eii.J

Extract from « lelfcr from tli.' Dii'tclnr, Onvcrn-
meiit Cinchona PlatilatioiiSj Parks and Ourtl^/is. — ** The
leaves of many of the Eucalypti yield very good

552

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb, I, 1886.

oils, anil few are more valuable than that obtainable
from the "B«cr(^,y;>(«.v ijlohithis." Th>i way to extract
the oil is as follows: — Fill a largo still with the
macerated crushed leaves, and water and distil at a
low temperature. Shake up the product with a
little salt (this causes tlie oil to separate more
rapidlj' from the water which comes over with it
from the still), decant the oil from the water and
filter through the paper. The li?aves should be
macerated for twenty-four hours and thou mashed
up. This process facilitati^s the extraction of the
oil by breaking down the cells whicli saiTound tin;
glands that eontaiu it.

FEBN CULTURE.

Ferns are so universally popular, and are now used
in such a variety of ways, that the demand for
plants of all sizes has considerably increased during
the last few years; and it requires some skill and
management to keep uj) a supply throughout the
year; especially of small plants suitable for the fancy
pots whicli are now so much used. For this purpose
tile plants must be of a limited size, and to have nice
healthy plants it is necessary to make successive^
sowings. Although the spores germinate most freely
during the spring and summer, yet, under favourable
circumstances, they may be induced to grow at any
season of the year, even during the dull mouths of
November and December.

To ensure success in raising Ferns from spores it
is of the first importance that the fertile fronds
should be collected at the proper time, and they
should always be selected from plants grown in isolated
positions as far as possible ; as, where several sorts
come in contact with one another the spores, which
float about freely, will often settle on the fronds of
different sorts, and it becomes difficult to ensure a
crop of the particular sort that is desired, Nephro-
dium moUe, Pteris longifolia, • anil sunie of the
tlymnograuimas, are among the most troublesome
Fern-weeds, and .should iiaver be allowed to come in
contact with those that are required to be increased.
The best time to collect the fertile fronds is just as
the spore-cases begin to open ; as soon as the fronds
are taken off they sh'iuM be folded up in paper, and
if put in a warm dry place, in a few days there
will be plenty of spores ready for sowing ; or they
will keep in good condition for a very long period.
As good fertile fronds of many sorts are only to
be had at certain seasons, it is necessary to lie on
the look-out so as to secure them when they are
obtainable, bearing in mind that it is better to have
a little extra stock, rather than to run short of any
particular sort.

SoWINd TKE SrORKS.

The plan we adopt is somewhat different to that
which is usually advocated — viz., we usually use
4S-size pots, which are filled firmly to within about
an inch of the top with good biam, using nt) drainage
whatever, and after the pots are fille<l they arc
thoroughly watered. P.efore sowiug the sopres, we
sprinkle a little burnt ballast over the surface of the
soil, or potsherds powdered fine anil sifted through a
fine sieve. As soon as the spores are sown, each put
is covered with a piece of glass and stood in a
saucer of water; the saucers are not kept constantly
lllleil with water, but suflicieut is given to prevent
the pots requiring any surface watering; the pots are
placed under a stage near- the hot-water pipes, where
they remain until the spores begin to germinate,
they are then removoo to a lighter position, and the
glasses are taken olf every morning until the prothallia
are well developed, when the gla.s.ses m ly lie dis-
pensed with allrogether. As soon as they are suffici-
ently devi'loped we prick them off into pots or
boxes, the coMipost for which consists of equal parts
of loam and peat, with a liberal all nvance of .sand
added; plenty of dr.'dnago is also used.

Ferns, when pricked olf in a small slate, must be
lifted and replanted in patches, and thesi' require
dividing agaiu when potted off into siuall pots,

though in soma caies they are not divided singly, as
when grown in tul'ts of 1;hree or four together they
are more useful, and are useful much sifiuer ; this
especially applies to Adiantums of different kinds,
Pteris serrulata ami its varieties, P. hastata, P.
cretici and its varieties; while such sorts as P.
tricolor, P. argyrea, P. tremula, Cyrtoniium falcatum,
or any of the Cf yranocjrammas, are better
singly. — H. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

grown

The Coffee Crop in Coobci. — From a comrauiiic-
ation fron the Press Commissioner which we
have received regarding the prospects of the coffee
crop in Coorg, we learn that the crop is expected
to yield during the ensuing j'eav an outturn of
about ii,C>i'-i tons. With three or four small ex-
ceptions, this estimate embraces, every estate in
the province. The outturn is considered by the
Chief Commissioner to be a favourable one, and
represents about 1 ewt. per acre. — Mnilnis Times.
\^INE Diseases. — The Italian Ministry of Agriculture
has authorised the formation of an luteruatioual
Exhibition in the Royal School of Vine Culture and
Uinology (wme making) at Conegliauo, near Venice,
tor the special puqiose of getting together a collection
of implements and machines destined for the application
of lime and other remedies for mildew and Peronospora,
in Vines. The implements, such as pumps, syringes,
spray producers, will be tested practically, and prizes
awarded as follows:— One Gold Medal and SOU lire
(francs); three Silver Medals and 150 lire with each;
live Bronze Medals. The Government will also purchase
premiated instruments to the value of 1000 lire, for
the purpose of distributing them in agricultural schools.
Apjilicatious for permission to exhibit should be sent
to the "Direzioue della R. .Scuola di Viticoltura ed
Kiiidogia in Onnegliano, Italy." before February 22,
1886, and all machines umst be sent to the model
farm of tlie School before March 1, 1836. The trials
will commence on March 2. — Gardmeis' Chronicle.

HoKrn'iT.ruKE .\Nn Fi.ouiciTt.TURE i.v Silesia.—
Court gardener Hoffmann has expressed the opinion
that it is not possible to compete with Italy and
France in horticulture and rtoriculture, since the coun-
tries require neither glass nor heating for their Howers.
This has induced a large agriculturist in Lower Silesia
to study the question whether the axuiliaries ni-cess-
ary with our climate to the production of the tiuer
garden products cannot in that province be employed
sufHcieutly cheaply. Possessing coal mines and glass
and iron works he thinks conservatories of requisite
.size should be procurable at moderate cost, though for
the establislmient of these on a scale sufficiently large
for the cultivation of tropical fruits of all kinds, but
particularly oranges, lemons, and citi-ons. a (iovern-
inent advance of from 20 to 30 millions, free of in-
terest, would be necessary, as well as adequate pro-
tective duties. We fear, however, that the scheme
is chimerical. It is a hard matter to contend agaiusC
the order of natur(^ — Knhlmr's German Trade lievieir.
AuRU'Ui.rFRK IN Geumvn WiisT Ai'im'A. — r.ieuten.ant
Siegui. Israel writes en this subject that his many
years residence in West Africa convinces him that
agriculture is quite possible there. He has either
planted or seen planted in Africa potatoes, wheat,
radishes, cabh:iges, cucumbers, oats, vines, and toma-
toes, and if they :ire only grown properly they sncceeti
splendidly. He al.so believes that it is possible to
educate tho blacks to .field labour, and even to cultiv-
ate their own ground. Pea or ground nuts are very
largely planted, and are sold to factors as 2s. per
bushel of 2S kg. The ni^groes also plant kassava or
janis, floury kinds of rimts, and sweet potatoes are
likewise successfully cultivated a-s food. Lieutenant
Israi'l allows that the elini:ite of West Africa is very
I trying for Europeans, bu^. he maintains that in pro-
! cess of time it will be more toleralde, and he in-
[ stances the vast improvement which has come over
the salutary state of the European popuhitiou in Sierra
j T,eone and Ijagos since tioctors settled there and
hospitals were ostablshed. — Kiihloir's German Trade
Sei'iew.

Feb, 1, i886,j

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

55i

NOTES OF A VISIT TO THE DUTCH GOV-

KRNMENT CINCHONA PLANTATIONS IN

JAVA.*

BY HENRY B. BRADY, F. K. S.
On the 7th of May of the present year, the British
Indian Mail steamer " Merkara," bouiul from Brisbane
to London, with a full complement of passengers, of
whom I chanced to be one, entered from the south-
ern side the narrow sea which separates Java from
the ueighbouriug island of Bali. Six years previously
I had passed almost within sight of the northern
shores of Java, but with scanty time at my disposal;
and it had been judged better to leave the country
unseen than to invite the disappointment certain to
result from a very hurried visit. This conclusion
had in the intenal been a frequent source of regret,
but the omission was one which there was now the
opportunity to repair.

It was early morning; and as we approacfced the
narrower portion of the Strait the scenery of the
coast to east and west became more and more strik-
ing and beautiful. To the right were the shores of
Bali gently sloping to the sea, backed by a mount-
ain-range, whose summits reached a height of 6,000 or I
7,11X1 feet. But the chief interest lay on the western
side, where Mount Kawon, Mount Idjcn, and two or
three other mighty volcanic cones, the highest of
them towering to upwards of 10,000 feet, seemed I
close upon us. In the foregromul little clusters of ;
red-tiled bamboo cottages nestled amongst the palm- '
trees at the water's edge, aud the sun-lit rippling
sea between, studded with gaily paiuted native fish- ,
ing boats, of build aud rigging strange to the European [
eye, served to complete an almost ideal tropical
picture.

I liad obtained leave to land at Banjoewaugi, the
easternmo-st point of Java; and the Captain, with
his wonted kindness, had further offered to facilitate i
my movements by taking my heavier baggage forward
to Batavia, my intention being to travel overland, I
in order to see as much as possible of the interior |
of the Island. i

• • » •

Intending to make some stay in the Capital on my
return, I proceeded thence almost immediately to
Buitensiorg, a little town among the raouutaius, forty
miles south, the chief health resort of the Batavians
and the usual rcidence of the Governor-General of
the Dutch East Indies and his staff. My letters of
introduction had been forwarded in advance, and
I had hardly entered the Hotel before I received an
intimation from the aide-de-camp on duty that I was
to have the honour of a s[)ecial audience at the. Palace
the same morning. I was received by his Excellency
with great kindness, and the interview was m every
way .satisfactory. lu the course of conversation, which
happily for me was iu Kngli.sh, I mentioned one or
two objects I had at heart— foremost amongst them
my desire to visit the (iovernnient Cinchona plant-
ations iu the Prcanger ; and, on leaving, tiis Excellency
was good enough to furnish me with a private letter
to his son-in-law, Mr. Van Gelderen Stort, the .Secret-
ary of the Preanger Regency, in addition to the
usual formal papei-s. I ha^l heard it said that the
Cinchona plantations and the various experiments in
culture carried on by the Colonial Government were
guarded with a certain amount of jealousy, ami I should
not have been surprised ha*l I experienced some
ditficulty in accomplishing what I wished. Nothing
could be further from the fact ; and I may here be
allowed to express my grateful acknowledgment of
the courtesy and consideration that the English tra-
veller in Java experiences at the hands of the Dutch
officials of every grade.

The Preanger, the district in which the fiovern-
ment Cinchona estates are situated, is a mountainous
region in the south-wet of Java, only sejtarafed from
the Strait of 8unda by the little kingdom of Bantam.

* Read at an evening meeting of the Pharmiceutical
■Society. AVednesday, December 9, 1885.
70

I Politically, it i« a distinct Regency, the capital
! Bandong, being the seat of a Regent or native ruler
'. and of a Dutch Resilient. The people arc Sundanese,
I one of the three Malay races of which the popul-
I ation of Java is made up ; but with something moro
I than tile usual admixture of Arabs, and a considerable
j number of Chinese, The short line of railway origln-
f ally connecting Batavia and Buiteuzorg has been of
I late years extended almost through the Regency, and
' will, it is hoped, ere long form a junction with the
eastern lines, aud thus complete the iutaud railway
system,

Buiteuzorg itself is a fascinating place,— landscape
and climate alike irresistible; and iu addition to its
natural attractions it possesses a far-famed Botanical
Ganieu which is at once the most extensive and
most instructively arraiiged, and perhaps on the whole
the most beautiful, of any within the tropics. Once
more I am tempted to diverge, unwilling to pasg
without notice the numberless plants interesting to
us from their pharmaceutical or economic associations,
whose acquaintance, living and growing, I either made
there for the first time, or had the opportunity of
renewing. But again I am reminded that this is not
our present business.

The geo^'raphy aud character of the Island of Java
seem U> be very little known iu this country, and I
may ther,'fore mention the following particulars. The
island itself is about one-third larger than Ireland,
and it is, I think, with the exception of Belgium,
the mo.st thickly populated country iu the world,
baring a population iu this small area of upwards
of 20,000, IKHI Batavia is the lagest and most popul-
ous town iu the southern hemisphere, having a popul-
ation of something like .500,000,* and spreading over
an enormous area. The only city at all comparable
with it is Melbourne, which with its suburbs has a
populatinn of 3(H),000 or3t;0,000. The island of Java
is about 600 miles long and varies iu breadth frem
40 to 120 miles.

After one or two cursory visits to the Gardens in
company with their indetatigable Director, Dr. Treub,
I determined to take my departure for the Prcanger
at onc(', leaving their more detiviled examination
until my return. Acconlingly, ou the 1st of June,
I took train for Bandong, where I found comfort-
able quarters at the little local hotel. Having made
the needful calls and presented my letters, I accepted
an appointed with Mr. Van den Bergh, the Oou-
troleur of the Regency, for the evening of the same
day, and was very kindly introduced by him to Mr.
U. Van Romunde, the Director of the Cinchona
Plantations — the successor in that office to the well-
known quinologist, Dr. .J. 0. B. Moens. In the course
of conversation (nearly all the Dutch officials speak
excellent English) Mr, Van Romunde very kindly
offered that, if I would stay in Bandong for a day
or two, he would make the needful arrangements,
aud would himself accompany me to two of the es-
tablishments under his charge; whereupon the genial
("outroleur suggested that he also should be included
in the party : ami so it was settlt-d, all trouble in
the matter being taken out of my hands.

Bandong is situated in the midst of a wide plain about
2,000 feet above sea-level, bounded by mountain ranges
to north and south. The localities selecteil for Cin-
chona cultivation are on the southern aspects of these
opposing ridges. There are altogether eight tJovern-
ment plantations, four of about 200 acres each, two
of 1.50 acres, one of 100, and one of 70 acres, total,
say about 1,270 acres. One of the estates lies at an
altitude of aliout 6,00ft feet above the sea, and fitur
at about 5,000 feet, the remainder are somewhat lower.
Six out of the eight are on the southern group of
mountains, that is to say, on the sides of I\Iount
Malawar and the adjacent Wajang, Tiloe, and Patoeha.
.Some, if not all of these were visited by Mr. 11. O.
Forbes in 1880; my own experience do(;s not extend
to that particular region. The expeilition planned
for me was to the two northern plantations, those

» We should say about 200,000.— Ed,

554

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb. I, 1886.

of Nagrak and Lembang, on the southera slopes of
Tangkobbau Praoe.

Early on the moruiug of the clay appointed our little
party started iu two cabars, each drawn by three
smart ponies, on the road towanls Lembaug ; and
after about an hour's drive *we reached a little village
where saddle-horses were waiting for us. Thence,
accompinied by a considerable escort of natives, rid-
ing and ou foot, we commenced the steeper portion
of the aecent by a devious mountain path. Though
we had been gradually getting on to higher ground
ever since leaving B;indong, there was at first but
little perceptible change in the character of the
vegetation, and one might still observe about the
native cottages, bananas and betel-pepper, patches
of cassava, the coconut palm and the areca palm,
and clumps of tall bamboos. Somewhat higher these
gave place more or less to the areuga or sugar palm
and small plots of tea ; whilst higher again cotiee
became the prominent object of cultivation, and this,
together with fine crops of tobacco, were noticed up
to an elevation of ^1,000 feet.

Thanks to an early start we reached Nagrak about
9 a.m. On entering the plantations our attention
was fi.rst attracted by a large patch of Ginchonf Jo^<ph'
iana, well-grown trees eight or nine years old. The
. bark of this species has been found to be of low
alkaloid value, seldom yielding more than 1 per cent
of quinine, so that the tree is no longer regarded as
worth growing, and the whole were being uprooted.
Then came a plot of C. succiruhra^ which, so far as
quinine is concerned, is s-iarcely richer, and this ground
was about to be cleared for the same reason. A
similar fate has already bi.-fallen a Urge proportion of
the plantiugs of C Calisay'., C. Paht'diana, and 0.
Hasskiw liana.

The homestead, if one may call it so, that is the
buildings pertaining to the station, are situated about
13 paals from Bauilong, on a sort of platform 5,0' H)
feet above the sea, the plantations extending to a
further height of 400 feet or more on the mountain
side. The area of the estate is about 2()0 acres.
The buildings consist of the overseer's house — a com-
modious little wooden bungalow of the customary
Dutch East India patteru, in a garden gay and fra-
grant with roses and heliotrope, and a number of rows
of tidy cottages, built native fashion of bamboo
wickprwork and thatched. Near at hand arc the dry-
ing sheds and frame'*, stoves, and the like, as well
as the nurseries stocked with ynung plants. The
platform in front of the house cotnmau Is a magni-
fi^'cnt panorama of the plain of Bandong with the Tji
Taroem mcand-ring through it; and uf the opposite
range of Rlount Malawar, thirty to forty miles distant,
whose summits reach an elevation of 7,^00 feet. A
flag-staff with the Dutch colours is a conspicious
land-mark from below; and close by is a tall hand-
some tree of Cinchui>a Cordlfolia, which has been
spared for its beauty iu the general uprooting of
that species.

Leaving our horses at the housn, we proceeded to the
work of in.spection on foot, visiting first tlie drying-
sheds. The bark is drird as far as possible witliont
artiOcia! heat. It is jjlaced in trays 4 to 5 feut lotig
by 3 wiile, made of plaited strips of bamboo, the
quills being arranged in orderly fa.shion side by side.
The trays are slid on to long stages or tressles li or
4 feet in bright. They are brought out early in the
morning, and at siniset are ail taken liack into tlie
adjoining sheds and piled in tiers. The fre<iucnt
heavy tropical showers necessitate a largo amount of
care whilst the bark is thus exposed. For artificial
drving there are houses with stoves and long flues,
wood of course being employed as fuel; but these
are comp iratively little used, as, on the whoh;, spont-
aneous drying has been found to give the best results.
At the time of my visit the trays were (ilbnl with
xuccirvhra bark iu (luills, and the root-bark of the
same ih small irregular shreds.

Passing from the drying-ground again into the
plantations, whii'h lie on a tolerably str-op ascent, wo
found ourselves first in n tract laid out with C skcc/-

ruhra. As a tree Cinch&na gucciriihra is one of the
handsomest of the genus. The size of the leaves,
especially those of the young plants, and the fine
ruddy hue which they often exhibit, together with its
vigorous habit of growth, serve to distinguish the
species from^ most of its congeners. The plantation
was undergoing the process of thiuuing, and to this
end the surplus tn-es were being pulled up by the
roots. The bark of the roots, which is thinner and
much less easily separated than that of the stem, is
carefully preserved ; for it has been ascertained that
iu several species which are accounted of relatively
low quinine value, notably C. officinalis^ C. aiKjHca
and (7. succirnhraj the root-bark gives the better per-
centage of alkaloids.

Further on we came to a plot of what is termed
by the Dutch botanists Cincnona CaUsaynj var. (ui'/licat
which is supposed to be a hybird between caibiaya
and .■iiiccirubni, and pos.sesses more or less the botan-
ical feeoures of both. The original stock is said to
have been obtained from Ceylon. At a somewhat
higher level, 5,200 feet or more, is a plantation of
0. lancifolia, which is still regarded as a useful tree,
the bark often yielding 4 or 5 per cent of quinine.
At about the same elevation there is also a consider-
able planting of C. officinali:fj but either the climate
or soil are unfavourable to that species, for it grows
slowly and the trees are long and spindling, though
it is reported to thrive well in private plantations
in the more easterly portions of the Island.

Above these again was a large area devoted' to
Cinchona Ledyeviaaa. At present the whole interest
of Cinchona planters is centred in this plant. The
story of its introduction is probably known to many
of you.* An Englishman, Charles Ledger, resident
for the time iu Bolivia, engaged in business chiefly
in connection with the alpaca trade, but in constant
communication with native bark-collectors, conceived
the idea of obtaining the seed of the " famous white
flower rojo cascarilla " from the valley of the Yuugas.
The difficulties were known to be almost insuperable.
The Indians hail a deep-rooted supersition that if
their Cinchonas ever came to be successfully cultiv-
ated m other countries all their own trees would
perish, and of course no precaution was left un-
heeded to prevent such a catastrophe. *' More than
half a dozen times," says Mr. Ledger, "I have had
my luggage, bedding, etc., searched when coming out
of the Yungas ;" and the strictest vigilance was ex-
ercised even by the local Prefects to prevent anyone
taking seed or plants out of the country. This was
as far back as 1850. A Bolivian Indian, Manuel Tucra
Mamani, with his two sons accompanied Mr. Ledger
in his trivels, and one of the sons subsequently went
with him to Australia. Previous to leaving Bolivia,
Mr. Ledger had hinted to Manuel that he might
require some of the seeds and flowers of the coveted
species of Cinchona for the preparation of an im-
portant medicine, and the reputation which he en-
joyetl as a doctor was sufficient to give an air of
in'obabiHty to "the st<jry. On the return of the son
from Australia iu 18G1, Mr. Ledger sent the sum of
2110 dollars to iManuel by him, with a message that
he looked to him to procure M) or 50 lb. of .seed
from a certain specifiiul batch of trees that they had
vi.sited togetJier ten years before. Of the precise
locality nothing is known to us except tbat it is in
the Caupolican district of the eastern Yungas.

Li'dger himself retiu-ned to South America in I8ti5,
and Manuel met him at Tacna, in Pern, bringing
with him the coveted seed. Under any other suppos-
ition than that it was required as a medicine, prob-
ably even the faithfid Indian would have made no
attempt to obtain it; and poor Manuel himself lost
his life seven or eight years later in endeavouring to
procure a further supply from tlie same source.
Even after the seed was secured there was consider-

* Au exceediogly interesting letter written by Mr.
Ledger to his brother, giving a history of the steps
by which the original seed was procured, appeared
in the Fiefd for February 5, 1883, p. 161.

Feb. 1, iSSe.j THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

535

able difficulty in disposing of it, but eventually a
portion was bought for our own East Indian plant-
ations, and the reniaindcr was sold to the Netherlands
Government for about ioO.

So far as is known the seed sent to India was in
every respect similar to thit supplieil to Java. At
first Manuel had endeavoured to keep the ]>roduce of
each tree separate, but the contents of his packets
became accidentally nn'xed and no fiirther attempt was
made to preserve any distinction. Lint for some reason
the residts from British India have not, as a whole,
been equal to tho^e obtained in Java, Mr. David
Howard tells me that at Naduwatt-am, where the seed
was sown, the soil and cliniate did not suit the speeu\s
and almo^t all the original trees died, whilst the
neighbouring .vf/ee/r^/*;-*/ was allowed to hybridize
the riowers of those that remained ; .so (hat there the
strain wa-s lost. Lower down in the "W'yuaad, how-
ever, on Captain Cit.K's plantation, the true /.rdi/cyiniut
is now being grown, and jiroduces bark tjuite equal
to the avera;;;e of the .lava trees. There is also good
promise of bark of the .same sort from Ceylon ; though
the essential conditions, a rich deep soil with good
tiraiuage, are not there so common, and though at
present nuH-h of 'heir so-called iff/'/c/m/m has no claim
to the name beyond the fact that the seed was
brought anil paid for as such.

The Java consionmeut of seed w.as sowu in 186G
at the Tjinjiroean plantation, on the opposite side of
the valley to Xagrak. aud produced abtiut se\-en thou-
.sanil plants. These original trees were seen by BIr.
Forbes ou his visit in ISSO, aud are described by him
a.s, at that time, " .somewhat scraggy looking, about
2 feet in circumference, and between 20 and DO feet
in height." The story of the incredulity, astuuish-
ment, and delight of the Government chemists uu
their first analyses of the bark is also graphically re-
counted by the same author, who doubtless had the I
narrative from Dr. Jloens himself ; nevertheless these
early results were not comparable with what ^ave
since been o^)tained.

To return now to the Lcdgeritjua plantations of
Nagrak. The trees one sees collected there are supposed
to be of the purest strain, yet I could not avoiil
being struck with the great diviTsity of their botan-
ical characters; and I may confess that hail some of
them been shown to me separately as specimens I
should probably have assigned them not only to ili.s-
tinct varieties but perhaps to dilferent species. I
can e.xpress no opinion as to the precise botanical
position that ('. Lcch/ena/tu should or-eupy. I was
a.ssur«l by Mr. V.an Komunde that the plant is always
identifiable; and he agrees with his preilecessor. Dr.
Moc^rs, in the opinion that it is a true species. The
late Mr. John Eliot Howard, you are aware, reganled
it as a variety of C. Cttll/Mi/a, and this view is shared
by many other botanists; »"hilst it has been treated
by Dr. Otto Kunze as a hybrid between C. oficinnli.i
and C. micrantha. [An eccentric theory, in which
no botanist of mark agrees. — Ed.] The present
Director lays particidar stress on the angle of the
8.xil of the brancheji »a a distinctive feature, the , ingle
in C. Ledf/ciMita being alwaysacute. The haves, though
of variable outline, are nsunlly relatively long, narrow
and pointed ; and under all eireunistanees the upiiir
siile e.xhibitt what, for want of a better term, otie
may call a velvety surface, that is to say, it has a
soft deadish lustre, very dili'erent from the evergreen
gloss of the typical Calia/itfti. The most valuable
trees, from a quinine-yielding point of view, have
small and pure white or creamy flowers ; any red tinge
is said to indicate the presence of (punidine rather
than quinine in the bark. It is worth remembering
that a few years ago the highest percentage of (piin-
ine was said to have been produced by one or two
trees with a tinge of red in the (lowers ; but by the
way in which the fact is stated it appears as though
it was regarded as something e.xceptional, and in any
ca-e the proportion then attained has since been much
ex -eeded.

The barks of the various trees of the Calisaya
type, that w to **j, o( C. Caliiaya, var, Javanicir,

I ii

0. Lediici-iana, C. Uaskarliann, C. Josephiana aud
the SohubK-raft h\'I'riil. grown und<-r the same con-
ditinns of locality and soil, <'annot, I was as.sured, be
distinguished one from an ther by any well-defiueil
phy.sieal characters, the era ks and s perticial mark-
ings hcv.r^ very much alike: in all ; though the epidi'iniis
of Lalyerituia sometinus exhibits a ten.Iency to peel
off, not noticeable in true CWUat/ti. The bailcs of
('. ojprinalis atid C ^uirir'ihta are of course much
more easily identilied.

All the Lcth/irianns in this plmtatiou had had
f' ir tops lopped off to pn vent further growth in
1. i^lit; a precaution dictated by practical eonveiiience
since the in*rodti(!tion of the pro. e -s of scraping the
bark, c-ni- i. og which I shill have something to
say presently.

Having wandereil about the grouiids until we were
tired ami examined the plantin.gs of all the more
important species uiuUt cultiue, we returned to the
nurseries in oider to inspect the seedlings of various
ages not yet ready to be planted nut These for the
most part are kept in beds covered with roof-like
shades nuide of split bamboo. The young plants are
carefully protected in this way for two years before
being transferred to the open ground. M'hen planted
out the young trees are placed at dilferent distances
apart according to the needs of each species — C.
Leifi/eruina, for exanq)le, being spaced 4 feet apart,
C. sticvirvhra^ a much larger tree, about 7 feet apart
ami so on. The ground is at first kept carefuly
weeiled ; subsequently, as the trees grow up, the close
shade of the foliage prevents any considerable under-
growth. Long narrow holes or trenches, a foot or
more in depth and s(veial feet in length, are dug
between the rows, chiefly for the purjjose of drainage,
but they are useful also in collecting the soil v.'bich
would otherwise be washed away during heavy rains.
The primary aim in Cinchona culture is to obtain
the maximum quantity of bark containing the largest
percentage of alkaloids, espvcially of quinine. "NVith
this object, various experiments have been made in
connection with the propagation and cultivation of the
trees, as well as in the manner of harvesting the bark.
A lerge number of plants are raised from seed.
There is, however, an element of uncertainty in the
result, arising from the cross-fertilization of the
flowers by insect agency, and the consei|tient produc-
tion of hybrid.=, the bai-k of which generally yields
a smaller propirtion of alkaloils than either of the
pan'.uts. It has been stated, how far correctly I do
not know, that in the ease of (! , J.nhj, yinna the first
two or tliree crops of seed are most liable to yield
hybiid plants, and that the subse([U{ait produce comes
much more uniforndy true. The better species are
also proiagated In a considerable extent by means
of cultin^s.

Hut the process of cultivation most in favour at
the present time is that of grafting. The different
rat<' of growth of the ilifTerent species of Cincho"a,
and their diversity of habit, are ahnost as remark-
able as their difF(-rence in alkaloidal value. The (piick-
growing .species however, arc not those whi.h yield
the richest bark ; and the object sought has b. en
to eiulow the latter with the vigorous habit of growth
of the stronger sorts. The most easily cultivated
ami in every way the most eligible of the rapid-
growing species is C si'ninilna, and this is used as
the stock whereon are grafted shoots of C. Lcd(jryia»a.
The stock may either be a plant obtained from
seed or one grown from a cutting. The graft is
inserted whilst tiu' foster plant is still verj' young ;
in the case of a seedling, as soon as it posstjsses
a firm enough stem. The yoinig plants after the
insertii'U of the gmfts require care and protection for
several inontbs before I.einc placed in the open
grounil, but when once estalili.sbid t!u<y are as hardy
.as the rest. Tiie grafts are always taken from trees
of which the l)ark has given satisfae ory results on
analysis, and the plants produced retain the chemical
characters of the parent. There are now large plant-
ations of grafted Ledgerianas, tho bark of which
is known to contain 13 per c«pt of rfuinine.

55&

"tn^ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, iS86

[Here

Snmo years ago coppicing was tried as a means
of increasing the yield of bark, but the results were
not satisfactory and it is no longer practised.

The old method of harvesting the bark is by
stripping the trees ; to which end they are either
cut down or pulled up by the roots when ten or
twelve years old. A Ledfitnaim tree of ten years should
yield from 10 to 15 kilcs. (24 to a5 lb.) of bark.
Mr. Mclvor's process, which consisted of removing
long vertical strips of the bark and covering the
exposed surface with moss, has been largely employed.
I noticed a immber of trees that h.ad been so treated,
the trunks of which had a very singular appearance,
somewhat resembling fluted columns. This mode of
collecting answers very well, provided sufficient care
be exercised not to injure the cambium layer, a
matter iipt to be neglected by the native work-people;
but it has a serious drawback in the shelter that the
moss atfords to all nianner of noxious insects, and it
has been relinquished in favour of scraping. It is
well known that the exterior portions of the bark
are richest in quinine, and the plan now preferred is
to scrape off the outer layer with a long flat knife —
a process that does not appear to interfere in the
least with the normal growth of the tree. The .stem
and larger branches are scraped half round at one
operation, the other half at the end of six months,
and this may b-" repeated at the same intervals year
by year. I observed some trees of C. Let/'icriana
which had been scraped eight mouths before, with
renewed bark fully a ipiarter of an inch in thickness.
Like all other cultivated plants Cinchona has its
enemies. Hy far the most serious pest is a hemipterous
in.sect, hetnpcfils antovn, the so-called Assam tea-bug,
specimens of which, collected at Nagrak, are on the
table.

follow two figures of the in.sects.]
Hehpdtis anionii, 8ignoret.

a. Male : h. female:

c. side view < T the scutellum.

Magnified about 3^ times linear.

The female insect is slightly larger than the male,

and has a red thorax.
The insect punctures the leaf buds and very young
leaves, and feeds upon the juices of the plant. The
leaves shrivel and die, the growth of the shoots is
stopped, and the tree, if not killed outright, becomes
unhealtliy and dwindles away. The plantations of
('. Calisatjaj C. Ledijrriana and C. olj^ciHa/i^ have
suffered most from the ravages of this pest, whilst those
of (-'. siiLviridira have hitherto passed comparatively
unscathed. Mr. Forbes states that the eggs of the
insect " are laid and batched on a species of Vatnva
which is one of the plants most widely distributed
over the district, thereby rendering all attempts to
eradicate the evil rather hopeless," On some of the
plautatious the insects are collected daily in vast num-
bers and burned. I noticed also one or two clumps of
trees, the leaves of which were completely riddled by
a caterpillar, species unknown, but the danjage in such
cases is ussually local and is not regarded in any serious
light.

The permanent stafTof the Nagrak plantation con-
sists of about sixty natives, in addition to a variable
l/iimber of coolies. The women and children of course
do mnch of the lighter work. The pay of the natives
detietido more or IcM on the price of food J at the time
of my visit, rice being cheapf it was twenty cents, or
about I-/, per day. The Nagrak e."italilishmcut placed
on the market last year about 165,000 lb, of hark,
of one sort or other, fetching au average of 80 to 00
cents (.says Xf, id, to \s. 6A.) per lb. This year it was
e.<(pceled that the yield would be about 200,000 lb.
of which the value was estimated at a guilder (Is.
8/.) per lb,

'llie.se, so far as I recollect, were the principal facts
gathoreclon the day's ramble.

1 was hospitably entert lined for the night at the
superintendent's house, anil the following morning,
whilst Mr. Van Koniundo was otherwise engaged, the
Controleur and I mounted our horses, and accompanied
by native g(ddes took a bridle track to the summit of

the mountain, some 1,500 feet above the station. The
path lay through uncleared forest and nothing could
exceed the magnificence of the vegetation. Of the
larger forest trees at this height a considerable pro-
portion were new to me,— various species of oak and
Ficics, Lnvravcir and MtHciceie, Mi/rittinr. and I'odo-
carjiK.^, with great climbing aroids and parasites
innumerable. There were thickets of tree-terns, the
fronds of which formed fairy arches overhead as we
rode, and amongst le-sser jdnuts were raspberries of
more than one species, with almost tasteless fruit, a
little Hhododeiidrou and one or two other Ericaeeir,
Jlelastomas, ami Begonias, bal.sams, violets, orchids
epiphytic and terrestrial, ferns and lycopods, in pro-
fusion. On attaining the summit we found that we
hail to descend a shurt distance on the opposite side
to reach (he crater. Tangkoeban Praoe has in fact
two craters, one at .somewhat lower level than the
other. The upper is the older of the two, and is to
all appearance extinct. As we saw it, the bottom,
which was at no great depth, was marly level, and
, covered with stones, gravel, and sand. There was a
little water near the middle, the remains of what in
the rainy season forms a small lake. The lower .^nd
; larger crater, though not at present active in the ordin-
ary sense, that is to say not eruptive, showed plenty
of signs of subterranean energy. The bottom was
partly occupied by a pool of boilina; water or mud,
which was often eompletidy hidden by the cloud of
sulphurelted steam is.suing from it. The atmosphere
of the whole place was strongly sulphurous, and the
trees in the immediate neighbourhood, especially on
the higher side, were blasted by the poisonous eman-
ations; though .shrubs and herbaceous plants of certain
species appeared to flourish far down the precipitous
sides of both craters.* From the platform above,
one of those wonderful panoramas of hill and dale so
often enjoyed by the traveller in Java, lay before
us: a broad smiling fertile valley shut in by mountains
— to the north-west the cone of Mount Boerangrau;
to the east the three peaks of ]5oekit Toengocl ;
their summits all reaching a height about equal to
that on which we were standing.

We had not a great deal of time to spare, so after
a general survey we retraced our steps by the .same
path to the Superintendent's house. On our arrival
wc found Mr. A'au Komunde already waiting to aceom-
pany us to the plantations at Lembang, a village about
4,000 feet above the sea-level lower down on the
mountain-side.

After leaving the forest tho downward road lay
through cleared ground chiefly occupied by coffee
plantaions, fenced in with hedges of a fine arborescent
Daliirii, bearing large, white, trumpet-shaped flowers,
or sometimes, as at lower elevations, with fences of
Lantiinn, gay with bloom of every shade from delicate
purple or pink to orange-biown. A prelty Tliunhen/ia,
with showy yt'llow blo.ssom was common by the hedge-
sides, and the cinious little Kubiaceous tree, Mufsmda
/;w«/o.»ii,vvith its cojispicuous white bracts was observed
at intervals all the way.

The establishment at r.embaug is altogether ou a
omaller scale than that which we had previously .seen,
the total area under cultivation being only 70
atTes; but it exhibits just the fame completeness, and
the same evidence of careful managtment in every
detail. Near the house is a fine large tree of Cinclioiiii
cordifnliu, spared like that at Nagrak, not for its value,
but for its beauty. Here, also, is a magnificent ex-
ample of C. r'ncvirnhra. about thirty years old, said
to be the finest Oinchona in the Kast lutlies. A.H
nearly as I could judge it was about (iO feet hi:,'b, and
tie trunk If inches in diameter at i! feet Inun tho
ground. The liark had an ngi-d appearance, being a
good ileal covered with the so-c:dled '"moss" — a sort
of giej-lieard llihcn,

Amongst the points of interest on this estate is a
plantation of Cinchona Vititutnih.—fme young trees
about 10 feet high, the leaves bright green with red

* There is a special fern, called " the volcano
fern," which flourishes on the sides of the crater. — Ep.

Fee. 1, 1E86.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

557

midrib,— a variety yielding a tolerably rich bark.
There is also a considerable plot of worthless C.
7rtirro«M(/, ixhibitiiig the characteristic large panicles
of small fragrant pure-white dowers, and the smooth
longish-oval. strongly rihbed leaves. For the rest there
was little but what we had seen before. In the sheds
they were drying and packing " iiuill succirubra " of
very rich colour.

Near the ciaitre of the plantation, at the point
where the main avenues meet, stands an obelisk, erecteil
to the memory of the Dutch explorer, .Jungliiihu.
It has, however, no inscription beyond some cabalistic
numbers, apparently left by the officials of the tri-
angulation survey :— scant homage lo the memory of a
great traveller ! Having examined at our leisure thr
various sections of tlie jilantation, we sauntered leisurely
towards the village, whither the carriages had been
sent before-hand; and, after nstiug awhile at the
paiiang grahau, we started on our return drive to
Baudoug, thus concluding an excursion, the i)lea.sant
memories of which will ever be associated in my mind
with the kindness, and hospitality, and good-fellowship
of my companions.

In these stray notes I have limited my.self as far
as possible to particulars brought under niy notice
whilst on the spot, avoiding such general statistical
information as can be better gathirc'd from the period-
ical othcial rciwrts. I may, howiver, be allowed a
single remark on the enormous unportance which the
East Indian Cinchona industries hav(^ almost suddenly
assumed, Iwth from an econonnc and a medical point
of view. It is only about thirty years since the first
introduction of the Cinchona into .Java, and several
years were lost by the want of practical success which
atteniled the earlier e.xperiments. It is less than twenty
years since Jlr. l<.dger's seed was received in the East
Indies; nevertheless, according to the latest report,
there are now upwards of 7W,000 trees derived from
it in the (Joverument plantations of .Java alone, and
nearly a million more young plants of the same in
the nurseries. Not only has the effort I'een successful
as an experiment in acclimatization, but even more
gratifying hits been the result of selection nnd cultiv-
ation on the chemical constituents of the bark produced ;
and it has now become an indubitable fact that trees
can be raised on the plantations of .Java, Ceylon, and
the continent of India, furnishing bark richer beyond
all comparisou in alkaloids than any ever brought to
ug from their original home in h5outh America.

The alwve paper gave riee to the following dis-
cussion : —

BIr. Baker said that whilst listening to this very
interesting paper he had been thinkiug of the
i'OU,tHJ( i,Uy(J of people whom Hugland had to look
after ni Asia, whilst the Dutch had, as they had
heard, about l'U,(XJ(AO(X) to care for in .Java alone;
and he could not but rellect how important it
Was that the two nations should work hand in hand
together for the benefit of these enormous masses
of people. WhilBt looking back to the history of
the introduction of cinchoua it was very satisfactoi-y
to think of the way in which the Dutch and Kng-
lish had helpetl one another, and of the liberal
way particularly in which the Dutch ha<l assisted the
English, a matter which he leared was not sufficiently
appreciate*). Kor a long se.ies of years Dr. Koyle
and othr'r ph irmacologists who knew bow great was
the danger of cinchoua being annihilated iu ."ioulh
Americi urged on the Uovernment the duty of
sending out an expedition to bring home seeds for
cultivation, but for soniethiug like twenty years all
these efforts were in vain. The Diitch, however,
were more enlightened, they sent out Hasskarl, who,
at great risk went to the native home of the cin-
chona in the year lAjf) and brought back a great
quantity of se*ds which were taken to .Java and
there plant«<l. Cnfortunately a consiilerable quantity
of see-J which be brought belouged to kinds of cin-
chona which proved not to be valuable in rc»|>ect '

' to quinine, such as the C. PalntdUum, This was
the first occasion on which we reaj)ed the benefit
' of what the Dutch hiid ilone. Some three or four
years afterwards the English (iovernnient sent out an
expeilition under Mr. t'lements Markham to I'eru
?'Md Ecuador, and he introduced souM-thiut; like
, tnree distinct species. These were cyirried to the
I Neilgherries and planted there ; but our plantatif>ns
near the Himalayas were founded with seeds obtained
by Dr. jVnder.s^ni from the Dutch. Oouiing to the
present time the giirdtin at Huiteu/.org, us IVIr. Ilrady
Lad said, was very valuable, and most important work
had been done there. It was presided over for many
years by !>.-. SchietTer, whom he knew very well, and
on his death he was succeeded by Dr. Treub and
Dr. liurck, both of whom visited Kugland before
going there, and were, at the present time doing
most valuable work. During the last lour years they
had published a periodical called Aniutlen dc la Juidin
di: lii'itnizory, which contained some very valuable
papers. They had lately also founded a laboratory
there, the use of which, with the gardens, was open
I to auy students who might wish to s]»end some
time there. All these things showed great liberality
on the part of the Dutch ; and to their expt^rienco
I our own success in triiichona cultivation in India was
I very largely iltie. Dr. Masskarl, the veteran traveller,
, who laid the f(jundation of the whole (Mitt^riirise, was
' still living, having retired for some twenty years; and
Dr. Spruce, who introduced the seeds of the l.'inch'infi
:<t/ccii'i'hra. was also living, and in this country. His
feeling with regard to both these nn'n was that
they had been very inadequately rewarded for the
important work they had done. It woulil bo very
well for that Society, if it could <lo so in its corpor-
ate Ci^)acity, to make some recognition of their services
In India he believ<;d there were four species cultiv-
ate<l, ('. succiruhi-a, C officinalis, C. Cat isaija, and
C. micra/ith<i, a very small mimber out of the whole
genus, which included about thirty. Pi'rhaps Professor
Bentley or Mr. Holmes might be able to say whether
there was any probability of other species being
cultivated with advantage. "With regard to the 0'.
Ledfjtnana, doctors disagreed. Dr. Treub considered
it a distinct species, whilst Mr. Holmes believed
it to be only a variety of the Cafi^ai/a. Oiuctionas
seemed something like brambhis in Mngland ; it seemed
almost impossible to segregate thi;m into distinct
specific types, and he believed some of the Ledt/erianaa
almost shaded off by degrees into the (Jafisaya.

Professor jientley said he did not profess to havu
any special knowledge of the cinchonas, which could,
hi fact, only be invctstigated properly by studying
them in the countries where they were cultivated.
The question Mr. Baker had |)ut as to the likeli-
hood of other species yielrling a fair amount of
alkaloid was one for practical chemists to (iecide.
Mr. Baker had left him very little to say on the
history of the introduction of thwse barks, but there
was one point he wished particularly to lay stresa
upon, viz., that the Government did not pay sufticieut
attention to scientific men in this country. l''or a
number of years Dr. Koyle and others urged upon
the Government the importance of sending out aa
expedition to explore the cinchona districts, but
this was not done, and lie coulil quite confirm what
Mr. Bal*tr had said as to the sucwiss of the cultiv-
ation being very much due to the indefatigable
efforts of the Dutch. Whenever any appIif;ation was
made to the British (roverument for aid in explor-
ing the colonies or anything of that character, the
answer generally was that it was nry doubtful
whether any valuable results would be obtainetl, or
whether the thiug woulil i)e at all succcKsful. That,
of course, was not any answer, because « great
Government like the Kiiglish ought not to fiar any
expense in such mattirs. But iu the case of tho
cinchonas the results hail been most extraordinary,
for instea^l of the product diminishing, the result
of cultivation in India had been to largely increase
the product of quinine. 'J'liis was most importat
when the subject of iotroduciog new plants wn

55^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb, i,' j886.

brought forward. It did not at all follow that a
plant would deteriorate by being taken from its
native country, as under proper cultivation its value
might be increased. In concUision he begged to
thank Mr. Brady very cordially for bringing forward
the .subject in so interesting a manner.

Mr. Holmes had listened with special pleasure to
this paper, having long taken considerable interest
in the Ledi/eriana bark. Mr. Brady had had enviable
opportunities of seeing these plants in their natural
state, for those who had only seen dried specimens
must be well aware that it was almost impossible
to judge, irom the small proportion of leaf which was
attached to them what dilfereuces there really were
between these trees as they grew. Mr. Brady had
spoken of the gloss on the leaf of the Ledyeriana
as being in some respects different from that on
the Culiaai/a, and he should like to know if he had
noticed a similar gloss on any other species. As
far as he had observed, it only occurred on varieties
of the Ca/iaaya. He had also meutioueil Dr. llo-
muude's opinion that the Li:d,/eriaiM might be dis-
tinguished bv the way in which the upper portion
of the bark" peeled off; but he had placed on the
table some specimens of Catisni/a, which had been
collected some thrty or forty years ago iu South
America, and others from Ceylon and Java, in all
of which the same feature was observable. That
therefore, could not be taken as a characteristic
mark of the Lcdf/ei-iaiia. Mr. Brady also spoke of
the Ledyeriana as being the true "rojo" of the
Bolivians, but he should like to ask him whether he
had noticed on the leaves the red tint by which that
was supposed to be distinguished by the Indians. One
interesting fact he had observed was the angle at
which the branches started from the tree. Anyone
who noticed the trees iu the Square or in any part
of the country would observe that each tree had its
own distinctive angle of branching; and the same
very much was the case with the veius on the leaf.
The fact therefore, that this variety or species had
a distinct angle of branching seemed to point out
that it must be either a well marked variety or a
species, hut so far as one could judge by the bark
alone, he still held to the opinion that it was only
a variety of the Calisui/a. Mr. Brady also spoke of
the C. luvcifolia being' cultivated iu Java, and he
should like to know if it was old enough to yield
bark, as he had as yet met with none iu commerce.
Jlr. Baker said the V. llasskaiiiana was not cultiv-
ated in India, and did not appear to be known.
If Mr. Brady could give any information about it,
it would be interesting.

Mr. Brady, in reply, said he had spoken of the
garden at Buitenzorg ' as being the finest in the
tropics ; his experience only extended to Peradeuiya,
Singapore and Hong Kong, and he hoped he had
not underestimated the charms of any of these.
A large number of the questions put referred to the
C. Ledi/eriana, with regard to which he liad not ex-
pressedany opinion of his own whether it was a species
or only ti variety. When it was debated by men like
John KHot Howard, Von Kuntz, Mr. Holmes, Dr.
Komunde, Dr. Moens and others, he had no right to
hold any opinion. His observations with regard to the
want of distinctive cliiu-acters in the barks referred
to were also only a repetition of what he had been
told by Dr. Komunde, He had, however, put the
question to Mr. David Howard, whose opinion on the
point was entirely iu accord with what lie had heard
in Java, that he knew of no characteristics by which
the barks of these so-called varieties of Cut'isui^as
could be distinguished one from another. It was held
that the condition of the bark varied a feood deal
with the climate, and that the characteristics winch
appeared in one place did not necessarily hold good
in another. He did not know whether C. lancifvUa
had yet apjieared iu commerce, but a certain amount
bad been harvested and analyses made of it. "\\ itb
regard to the gloss on the leaf and the texture of
the surfaci^ of U'd(/eiiana, lie could only say that a
mase of it seen together in the auusUiue had an

appearance very distinct from the true Calisaya. In
the latter there was the evergreen sheen and bright
surface. It was like the difference between the gloss
of -satin and that of velvet ; the Led-gcruota had a
soft, deadish lustre. As to succiruhr ' , the foliage was
altogether different both in form and texture.

Mr. JIoss said he had made a statement not long
ag.j iu that room that the bark which came from .Java
to Loudon — and of com-se the Java bark did not all
come to Loudon, for most of it went to Amsterdam —
but 75 jjer cent of that which came here was not
quilled, but in the form of spoke shavings. He had
been making inquiries since then, and found that he
spoke very well within the mark, and that at least
1)5 per cent was iu these spoke shavings, and that
only 5 per cent or even less was quilleci bark. In
fact it was quite exceptional to find any quilled bark
coming here from Java. He should be glad to know
if Mr. Brady could state the proportion of quilled
bark actually produced in Java.

Mr. Brady said he could not say exactly. If a plant-
ation was "uprooted of course the bark was stripped,
but with that exception he believed all the bark
now was being scraped. Li Java they did not use
a spoke-shave, but a long flat knife. He believed
there would be an increasing quantity of scraped bark,
and a diminishing quantity of the peeled.

Mr. Moss remarked in that case there would soon
be none for the Pharmacopcoia.

Mr. Umney said it was very gratifying to him to
find that in Java some importance was attached to
the percentage of quiniue which the bark contained.
They had been informed lately that the iiuiniiie w.%s
of slight value in bark, for they had been told that
because quiniue and cinchouidine were alike in pro-
perty there was no real advantage in using bark
with quinine in it at all. It did seem, however,
that the people in Java had come to the same
conclusion as those in India and Mincing Lane, and
in fact he believed the same as most people enter-
tained except the editors of the Pharmacopceia.

Dr. Paul had listened with great pleasure to Jlr.
Brady's account of his operations on the Java
plantations, which were especially valuable in the
lesson they taught as to the kind of plants winch
it was desirable to cultivate. The majority of
the bark now coming from Java was poor, being
derived chieflv from those plantations which Mr.
Brady had referred to a« in course of being up-
rooted. The orginal CuUsni/ci varieties, taken there
by Dr. Hassk.irl and .some of the earlier planters,
were now giving place to the variety known as
yielding I,edger bark. He was somewhat snrprise.1
to find that the Cinchona officinalis was so un-
successfnl in Java. This was one of the most
successful kind in the Neilgherry plantations, and
though it did not yield bark containing anything
like so much quinine as the Lidr/eriima, it g.ave an
amount of quinine varying from three to seven
and even as much as ten per cent. The Lcdijeriana
were still more prolific in their yield in India, and
also in Ceylon, but their tenderness and difficulty
of culture ahiiost counterbalanced the advantage
obtained when they did grow well.

The President,' in proposing a vote of thanks to
Mr. Brady, said the lesson which Professor Bentley
wished to enforce could not be too strongly im-
pressed at the present day, viz., the iinportauce of
the economic and other sciences being encouraged
by Governments and corporations. There was an
enormous amuuiit of orginal work iu the various
sciences which could only be done by .systematic aid
given either by governments or corporations. The
fact of the iiitroduclioa into India and .Tava of
the cinchonas, and the interesting, wonderful and
unique fact that the la>k« by careful cultivation
actually produced in their new home a larger ipiantity
of important alkaloids than they did in their native
haliitat was of the greatest importance. It would
be obviously legUiniate for any government <u- rich
body to spend considerabli; sums in experiments,
uvfu though uiueteeeu out of twenty should fail,

Feb. I, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

559

if the twentieth gave anything like the result which
had been obtained in this instance. He recom-
mended this observation especially to pharmacists
because there was a very common tendency with
regard to the prosecution of research work to put
the question cui hoiiu. The answer was, you must
experimeut. and if you search long enough you
would be sure to get a good return.

The vote of thanks was carried uu:uiimously. —
I'liaimaceutical Jovrnal.

«

COCAINE.
Towards the end of last year the world of medicine
was agreeably startled by the publication of a paper
by Dr. Karl KoUer, containing statements to the effect
that a certain drug called cocaine could be employed
with the best effects in surgery for the purpose of
producing local an;esthesia. This drug is the alkaloid
of the plant Eri/thruxylon coca, and has been known
for more than twenty years. It was the subject of
many experiments by Professor Schroff, who minutely
described its peculiar properties in a lecture delivered
in 18(32 in Vienna ; but, strange as it may seem, for
many years the anesthetic action of the drug was held
to be of small practical value, and cocaine passed out of
consideration. In 1S80, however, there was another
nibble, so to speak, at cocaine. Vou Aurep became
convinced of its usefulness, after elaborate research into
its action. But it was not till four years afterwards that
its virtues a^ain atttracted attention. Dr. Freud in
August, 1884, published some interesting details con-
cerning its action; as a result of which Dr. Koller
con\meuced experimenting with the object of ascertaining
its local effects upon the sensibility of mucous
membranes. He first experimented upon guinea-pigs •
and found that, by the use of a few drops of a five-
per-cent solution, in the course of twenty seconds the
trout part of the eye— the cornea— could be touched
with the head of a pin without the least show of distress
on the part of the animal, provided the eyelashes were
not irritated. Here was conclusive proof of the total
absence of sensibility. But the question of the extent
of the aniesthesia remained. Did it involve the dec-per
parts of tlie eye, or was it confined to the surface ?
To determine that point, certain e.xperiments were
made with complete success : the whole corneal sub-
stance could be made insensible.

This fact lu.ving been satisfactorily determined,
K"l!er undertook in the next place to ascertain the
ettect of the drug in irifl.-vmmatory conditions of the
eye ; aud the result of the application of the drug was
a most marked alleviation of the symptoms. These
experiments were made upon animals. Attention was
tlieii directed to the effects of the drug upon the
human eye : for here a large field for usefulness might
be opened out. Experimenting first upon himself and
then vrpoo. his colleagues, Koller obtained results
ideutcal in every respect with those .supplied by ex-
periments upon animals. He thus describes the
sequence of symptoms following the use of the drug: —
When a few drops of a two-per-cent solution are
introduced into the coniunctival sac, or, better still,
are allowed to run over the cornea, a slight burning
sensation is felt, together with an increased secretion
of tears. All this disappears after an interval of
from thirty seconds to one minute, giving placi; to an
obscure feeling of dryness. If now— that is, after the
expiration of about one minute subsequently to the
instillation of the solution— the head of a pin is brought
in contact with the cornea, not only is there no pain,
but the absence of sensation is so complete that the
person is unconscious of the touch. Without any incon-
venient sensation or the slightest reflex movement on
the part of the patient, the conjunctiva can be grasped
with a toothed forceps, or the cornea can be pressed
upon. This complete an:esthi>sia lasts from seven to tea
minutes; the normal condition of the eye returning
after a variable time, during which the only thing to
be noticed is the prevalence of .some degree of sub-
normal sensibility. A certaiu amount of dilatation of
the pupil follows the use of the drug ; but it is never
very great.

To an outside observer cocaine is calculated to pro-
duce impressions somewhat akin to the marvellous.
Here is a description. A c«mel-h.air brush is dipped
into a small bottle containing a fluid as transparent
as water. With the brush so charged the part- let us
say a portion of the tongue— is painted several times.
After the interval of a minute, or a little longer'
another brush is taken ; but in this instance a glass one'
and dipped into a bottle the fumes and colour and label
of which establish its contents as fumiug nitric acid.
The tongue is anointed with the acid, great care being
observed iu so doing, and submits to the procedure
without the slightest recoil inilicative of pain. .Such
is cocaine, and such is its effect upon every mucous
membrane. Almost every operation in the surgery of
the eye has at one time or another been undertaken
under the influence of the drug. Cataracts have been
operated on, squinting eyes put straight, foreign bodies
upon the cornea removed painlessly and with ease.
But its utility is by no means confined to ophthalmic
surgery. It can be employed whenever an operation
upon any mucous membrane has to be performed.
The tongue, to which reference has been made abovej
is an instauce in point. The drug has even been used
in the extractiou and the stopping of teeth. More
important are its benefits in the relief of sufferers from
the agony of cancerous growth.s. So treated, cancerous
wounds have become less irritable ; and, unfortunately,
false hopes of improvement have thus been excited!
Another of its advantages is that it enables patients to
whom a general an.-vsthetic would be unsafe or-impo.S8-
ible to submit to surgical operations. For with a
solution of cocaine at hand chloroform and ether may
be dispensed with ; and of course there is no trouble-
some nausea and vomiting, as there often is after the
administration of those anajsthetics.— .S*. Jams-t's
Jiudget.

IHE NORTH-WEST OF NEW ZEALAND.

An interestuig pamphlet ou the North-west of New
Zealand as a new field for emigration has recently
been published by Jlessrs. Bean, Webley & Co., of
Foster Lane, Cheapside. Tlie author, Mr. Alfred
Cooke, Yarborough, says that be does not believe
"there are fifty people iu England who know any-
thing whatever, definite or indefinite, of the present
state of the extreme north-west of the colony "
Kegardiug the culture of the Olive and Mulberry,
both are] said to be as yet only in their infancy, and'
it is to be regretted that the early settlers introd'uced
wroug descriptions of both these trees, the result
beiug that though the plants have grown well, and
shot up into large trees, they ari! uot adapted for
the orchard, or for successfully rearing silkworms. On
the subject of Orange culture tb(! necessity of
.securing a site which can be reailily drained, and
which is not too much exposed to the westerly winds,
is pointed out. " A thoroughly good site of land
for an orangery is a fortune to a man, while an
unsuitable locality may be the means of causing
irreparable fiiilure. With a suitable site, and other
favourable circumstances, the Orange crop will pay
! four times better than any other crop ; seyenty trees
should grow to the acre, and providing that the
grower sells his crops at even 8rf. jier dozen (a very
low es*mate), a large sum per acre is obtained. A
single tree in New Zealand has been known to yield
3,fiilO oranges. The Vine. Peach, and various other
well known fruits, grow to perfection." The follow-
ing account of Kauri gum from Dammara australs
will be interesting.

The Kauri tree is described as the mo.st valuable
and finest trees in the Southern hemisphere, and
from it exudes a soft gum, which hardens on contact
with the atmosphere, and fossilises in the gronml iu
the course of years. How long it may have been in
the ground no one cm say. hut it is found ou tho
sandhills where 110 trace of a tree remains, in the
coal-beds in a district where the Kauri tree does
not now exist, and in large tracts of country from
which evidently the forests have been in ages past

560

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb. I, 1886,

burned from off the face of the earth. The dia-
coloured condition of some of the gum dug up
from several feet below the surface of the grouatl
indicates that the trees were at oue time exposed
to the action of fire. The gum-fields are partly in
the hands of the natives and partly iu those of
Europeans, but they are mostly the property of the
Government, who have hitherto been in the habit of
putting up to auction the right to dig.gum on these
fields. It is out of the power of a workiug-man to
bid a lump sum for the right to dig gimi over an
area of 20,000 acres of laud for a term of two years,
and the result is that the right ot digging tor gum
falls into the hands of some merchant or storekeeper,
to whom all who dig on the land are compelled to
fell at a price fixed by the lessee. This method of
leasing the.se lands is not by any means an equitable
oue. The first thing a gum-digger has to do is to
purchase a spear — that is, a piece of round iron pointed
at the end, about 3 feet (J inches in length, fixed
into a wooden handle; this he can get on credit
from the storekeeper, as likewise a spade, knife,
some flour, sugar, and necessaries, on the condition
that he sells his gnm to him. It .the storekeeper
is the lessee of the gum-laud this is a matter of
course. Thus provided the digger proceeds to the
gum-field (a sort of moorland it woul.l be called
in England), builds a shanty of Haupu or Palm
Fern, and commences to spear the couutry for
gum. An experienced digger will know the likely
spots for a good find, and can tell by the feel
of his spear as it touches a hard substance under-
ground whether it is gum, wood, or stone. If he
thanks it is gum he digs it up, puts it in his kit
or basket, and goes on. The gum as it comes from
the ground is covered with dirt and rust, and every
piece has to be scraped with a knife until the gum
is fairly clean. A good deal ot judgment has to be
exercised in this matter, because if too much is scraped
away the digger loses weight, aud if not enough he
receives a less price on account of bad scraping.
Gum is also obtained iu the forest from under the
trees, and even from the tree itself. The best gum
is very clear, like amber, and hard, but there are many
sorts aud varying prices. Though the average earnings
per week of the gum-digger is from £'-i to £4, a man
has been known to earn as much as £211. He has
to work very hard, exposed to all sorts of weather,
digging all day, .scraping his guui at night, aii<l cooking
his meals between while.

The trade in Kauri timber is also very important,
aud gives employmeut to a large number of hands.
The Kauri forest.'! in the district are of very large
e.xteut. and it is stateil, at the piesput rate of supply,
will last about another 20(1 years. The timber is of
very great value, and is rec)gni~ed in New Zealand
and Australia as most useful for all sorts of pur-
poses— house-building, ship-buililiiig, masts and spars,
railway sleepers, furniture, &c. It is very durable,
and easily worked. The tree grows to a height of
100 feet without a limb, and measures an average
of 5 feet in diamettT. Trees have been found
measuring a chain in circumference, but such trees
are ot no value to the purchaser, as they are too
unwieMy to handle and cut up. In all K.uiri forests
there are found at intervals trees of enormous size,
which stand alone in their grandeur as pirenr trees
to the less unwieldly generation aruun 1 them. In
the forest the young trees grow readily, but .so soon
as the parent trees are felle.l and remov(«l a fire
sooner or later clears the ground, an 1 they peri.sh.
Altogether the Kauri is perhaps the most important
tree in New Zealaml.

The exporttttiou of the fungus, llir-ueol i polytricha,
from New Zealand has t'roqueutly of la' ■ been com-
mented \ipun. Mr. Yarburough speaks of it as a
branch of industrv only entere.l upon by children,
who make a good deal of piie.ket-mou y by it. The
fungvia IS bouglit from the cudector, after being drie I,
at prices vjvryiug from -id. to 5d. per pound, and is
exported ria Sau Francisco to China, to be used by I

the Ohinese as an ingredient for soup. In 1882 the
export of fungus was 400 tons weight, valued close
upon £19,000. — Gardeners* Chronicle.

. -^

THE ENSILAGE PROOES.S IN INDIA.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE "FIELD."

.Sir,— I have loug watched with interest the growth
of silos for the preservation of ensilage, and iu 18S3
my views as to the profitable adaptability of the
system to India were ventilated through the press
of that country. Most of the cattle fodder iu that
far-away dependency is luxuriantly g.-owu and neg-
lectfully wasted during the four monsoon or wet
months, to be followe i by sooiething like a fodder
famine throughout the eight remaining or dry months
of the year. The iueitimable advantages of the silo
system were then pointed out, whereby great economy
would be introduced into the commissariat aud trans-
port services, which constitute one of the chief money-
speuding departments of the state, while the agricult-
ural community would be immensely benefited by
the improvement that would .soon be effected in the
half-starved, stunted village cattle by husbanding ex-
isting resources for consumption throughout the entire
year.

On the occasion of a recent visit that I paid in
India to Sir Herbert Macpherson, the distinguished
and thoroughly practical commander-in-chief elect of
I\Iadras, I was greatly pleased to find the splendid
success that had attended the efforts of that able and'
public-spirited othcer in establishing a fodder farm
in Allahabad, aud in conserving the produce thereof
by means of silos, which are neither more nor less
than pits dug in the ground 30 ft. by 12 ft. by 6 ft.,
such as the natives have used from ti me immemorial
for the storage of their grain. These pits are dug at a
merely nominal cost, aud the earth excavated from
them, when heaped up upon the ensilage, supplies
all the pressure required to keep the latter in good
order throughout the year. No system of ilrainage
has been found necessary.

I beg to inclose for your information a report of
Gen. Macpherson 's silo operations during the yearsl884-5
from which the following results have been deduced : —

1 . It does not appear necessary to go to the expense
of building masonry silos, or to take any particular
precautions in draining and pressing, as an earth silo
seems to fulfil all the necessary conditions, aud
apparently drains itself if kept air and water tight.

2. The only pressure that seemsjto be necessary is that
caused by the excavated earth being piled on the grass.

3. The best time to cut the grass is when it is
mature — between Aug. 15 and Nov. 1 (in India).
This will give a sccoud crop of hay.

4 The fact of its raining while a silo is being filled,
does not appear to do any harni.

5. The ensilage should be used green — i.e., as it is
taken out of the i)it.

ti. 351b. of ensilage would appear to be equal to
20 lb. of bhoosa (cbooped straw) — the ration of a
siege train bullock.

7. Ensilaged karlii (sorghum) forms good food for
elephants.

8. The fact of cutting the grass for en>ilage gives
a finer and better second crop for hayuiaking.

J). Silos should, in my opinion, be made wedge-
shaped — i.e., rather wider at the top than the bottom,
and with sloping sides, to preserve an even pressure.
Tlu^ Hoor and sides might be baked by burning
rubbish in the pit.

These are the conclusions of Capt. I'eile, who con-
ducted the operations under Gen. Macpherson 's
orders. Patrkk 0.\rneoy, CLE.

Ellery Court, Norwood, Dec. 15.

_ ^

()0C\1NK Factories im Lima. — Meyer ,^ Haferaann,
wholesale druggists in l,imi, Peru, are erecting works
iu that city for the purpose of marmfacturing cocaine
from the fresh leaves. .V French pharmacist of Lima,
TMr. Hignon. has likewise undertaken the manufacture
of cocaine, and it is said with good results. — C/(«nn'st
and Drugyist.

Feb, I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

561

THE WORLD'S MANDFACTUBE OF QUININE.
We anticipated, in the Weekly Obserrer of
November LSth last, the estimate wo had framed
for our " Handbook " of the total quantity of
quinine prepared in the factories of the world.
We based that estimate on the best information
at our command, but we were not a little staggered
by the quantity claimed for the Italian factories,
namely, 123,200 lb. (.5") tons) per annum, of which
110,000 lb. were said to be made by the great Milan
factory alone. The statement was so explicitly
put forward in i)riut that we could only adopt it,
and adapt it to the other portions of our estimate,
as best we might. The result was a total reckon-
ing as follows : —
United States . . . . 70.000 lb. per aimum.

Germany . . . . 40,(X)0 „ „

Italy . . . . 120,000 „

France . . . . 35,000 ,,

England . . . . 27.000 „ „

India .. .. 10,000 „ „

302,000 lb. per annum.
Last mail has brought us a letter from a mist
reliable quarter in London on the subject from
which we quote as follows : —

The figures given as to the amount of quinine
mamifiutniccl, in yoiur paper folio il79, are certainly
wrong and known to be so by aU those who are be-
hind the scenes. They are evidently derived from
those published by the Fabbrica Lombarda before
its failure to prop up its decaying reputation.
It is of course impossible to give exact figirres,
but the annexed would be nearer the present state,
of things : it nmst however be taken oim i/rano snlin.
Tliis estimate which may be depended on as the
most accurate as yet framed, "and which ought to
be substituted for our own, is as follows : —
Probable make of Quinine in 18.S5 in lb. per annum.
United States . . . . . . 70,000

Germanv .. .. .. 70,000

England . . . . . . .^o,(XX)

France . . . . . . 10,000

Italy . . . . . . m.OOl)

India (febrifugei . . . . 10,(XXJ

270,000 lb.
For the United States we had the best information
collected during our recent Wsit, so that our London
correspondents make no change. We are surjirized,
however, to see that the maiuifacture in Germany
is quite as large, and we are pleased to tind that
-Messrs. Howard & Whiffen turn out nearly double
the quantity we ventmed to credit them with. Italy
only manufactures one-fourth the qugfftity claimed
by the gentlemen who evidently wished to "magnify
their olhce " or their country ! Our estimate for
France was very nearly correct, while for India we
have the best possible information. Altogether we
were .32.000 lb. above the mark: but this is a
fault in the right direction ; for with cinchona bark
so cheap and abundantly supplied as at present,
the manufacture is sure to increase, and we trust,
the consumption to correspondingly improve. With
quinine, one-half or one-third even its ordinary
price of a few years ago, surely there is room for
a great expansion of the consumption not only as
a febrifuge for human beings, but in other ways,
until not 270,000 lb., but .500,000 lb. of quinine
will be required to meet the annual demand.
«

SKINNY MEN.
" Wells' Health Renewcr " restores health and vigor,
onres Dyspepsia. Impotence, Debility.

W. E. .Smith & Co., Madras Sole Agontn.
71

TEA ROLLERS,

(From the Hills.)
Ill IV tea rollers and their performances, — vary-
ing from completion of roll in six minutes, by
means of Thompson's Challenge machine, to
twelve minutes in the ca.se of Barber's, and from
half-an-hour to fifty minutes with .Jackson's
Excelsior, — apart from finishing a large quantity
of tea in a Innited period of time, are there
any other important advantages, and if so whfit,
gained by speedy execution of the rolling process ?
I pause for a reply from experts. We might
naturally conclude that quick rolling must mean
more or less of heating, such as proved a strong
objection to Kinraond's roller, but for the testi-
mony of good authorities to the contrary,
— at least in the case of the Blackstone roller.
I have heard it said that the superiority of teas
prepared on a certain well-known estate is due
to rolling so liard that the distinction between tips
and leaves is lost, all being of a uniform blackness.
By some, again, the intense black colour is said to
be due to iron with which the tea brought in
contact in the process of being rolled. If hard
rolling IS the cause of the black colour and the
superior quality, it would be desirable to know
how long hard rolling is continued, and how
heatmg, which I suppose I may assume to be

i injurious, is avoided. Then ought not moderate
rolling, long-continued, to be equivalent to hard

I rolling for a shorter period ? It must be largely

I a question of chemical effect on " the roll."..
Our period here, with a Jackson Excelsior, is so
prolonged as fifty minutes, and I might have

! feared that this slow rolling process was in-
jurious in some way to the tea, probably by
permitting of a certain degree of " fermentation "
taking place during rolling, but for the fact tliat
in one of the leading factories of the country,
from which high quality teas are turned out and
where abundance of power to secure quick rolling
is available, the time taken for the process is fully
forty-five minutes : only five short of ours. Weather
and withering, no doubt, influcence the period of
rolling; but I refer to leaf in average condition.
Which is better for it and its outturn, a speedy
roll or a prolonged; hard pressure or moderate?
Of 73,000 lb. of tea made on this estate in 1S85,
about 0,000 lb., it may be worth while to mention
were sold locally. Apart from the inconvenience,
of sales more or less of a retail nature, the chief
reason for stopping local sales is the fact that the
vast majority of orders were for our best quality
— broken pokoe. The result has been seriously to
reduce the average prices of Abbotsford teas sold
in the London Market, and while we have no
wish to acquire for our teas a better reputation
than they deserve, by over fine plucking or similar
expedients, we are, on, the other hand, naturally
anxious not to do ourselves and the reputation of our
teas injustice. Hence the resolution to cease selling
locally, save in a few exceptional cases, and to a
very small extent, which has been arrived at and
will be adhered to.

Since writing about the tap-root of tea, I have
been lold of a case where a-tap root was followed
down to 10 feet.

Fragrant Fr.0WEBS. — The perfume manufacturers
of Nice and Cannes crush l.lf.OOOlb. of Oiange bloB-
6om», 13,200 lb. of Acacia flowers, 154,000 lb. of Roso
petals, 3.5,2IX) lb. of .Jasmine blossoms, 22,ri0f) lb. of
Violets, 8,8li0 lb. of Tubero.ses, aud a relatively large
amount of .Spanish Lilacs, Ho.sem.iry, Mint, Liino
and Lemon blossoms -every year. — Journal of llmti-
culture.

56^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb, 1, 1886.

CEYLON TEA AT THE EXHIBITION.
We liave been indirectly pressing the local
Executive Committee to let the world know a
little more of what they have been doing about tea &c.
Some corresiiondence with the Planters' Association
is to be sent to us for publication we learn.
Meantime we are indebted to the Chairman for a
telegram just received, which stupidly has come
by 2)u>:t from Bombay. This telegram ought to satisfy
our planting friends and the Association. We shall
now have a good Exhibition of products in the
Ceylon " Court" in addition to the Exhibition and
sale in the tea house — which tea house is close
to our Court and quite distinct and separate from
the Indian tea house— or that of any other
Colony: —

From Secretary, Colonial Exhibition, London, to
Chairman, Exhibition Committee, Colombo.

"On behalf of Mr. Birch no objection to tea being
exhibited in specimen cases in Ceylon Court, but
the arrangement of exhibiting tea in the special
department as reported in King's letter must be
adliered to. Ceylon Committee will therefore require
you to send duplicate quantities of specimen tea
for your Court and King's department. Send some
cocoa beans at once to Commissioner for manu-
facture, which has been arranged for refreshment
department."
The following has just reached us : —

Executive Committee, Colombo, 31st Dec. 1885.
To the Secretary, Planters' Association, Kandy.

Sib,— In acknowledging receipt of your letter of
the 15th, 17th, and ISth instant, 1 am desired by this
Committee to express its great concern at hearing that
it is possible you may not be able to take any part iu
the local Exhibition to be held on the 18th, 19th, and
20lh January. That Exhibition is intended to afford
the public, who have provided the funds iu which
your Association has participated, some conception of
the exhibits intended for despatch to Loudon ; and this
Committee is still hopeful that your Association may
be able to furnish by the loth proximo some portion
at least of the exhibits of estate products wliich will
form so important a i)art of the Ceylon exhibits,
and to which this Committee has made so large a
vote of public funds.

With regard to the cases to which you refer, they
have not yet been commenced, nor cau they be until
you have signified to the Director of Public Works
your acceptance of the estimate (R800 and odd) and
furnished that officer with a cheque for the amount
to meet expenses.

The resolutions accompanying your letter have re-
ceived the '^pp^oval of this Committee and copies of
them will go forward to Mr. Birch by this mail. It
is huwHver, matter for regret that Mr. Christie did
not attend the meeting yesterday, adjourned from
the previous week, as that gentleman was informed,
in order that he might be enabled to be present.

The Committee entirely coincide in the opinion ex-
pressed in the resolution recived from you that ex-
hibits of tea anil coffee must be shown iu the Ocylon
Court ; and for your information 1 annex copy of a
resolution adopted by this Committee and forwarded
to Mr. Birch ; at the same time, in order to act up to
the spirit of its previous acceptance of the arrange-
ment with Messrs. King & Co., this Committee has
signified to the Commissioner its intention to forward
samples of tea for display by that firm iu glass bot-
tles in the Ceylon tea house separate from the teas
of India.

With this Committee's letter before him, and assisted
by the gentlemen whom you have reocmuiended as
members of the Tea Oommiitee, and who have been
approved by this Committee, Jlr. Birob will, it is be-

lieved, be in a position to bring this matter to a
satisfactory issue with the Secretary of the Eoyal
Commissioner. — I am, sir, (Signed) J. Capper, Secretary.
{Resolufioii refefred to.)
"That a copy of the resolution passed by the Plant-
ers Association he forwarded to Mr. Birch, and that
he be informed that the Executive Committee con-
curs in the view of the Planters' vV^sociation that
apart from the display and sale of Ceylon tea by
Messrs. King and Co., it is absolutely necessary that
exhibits of tea, coffee, and cocoa be shown in the
Ceylon Court with the other producess of the colony."

Kandy, 7th January 1886.

To the Secretary, Executive Committee, Colonial
and Indian Exhibition, Colombo.

Sir,— I am directed by the Sub-Committee of the
Planters' Association to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter dated 31st ultimo, and in reply to point
out that it is not possible for the Planters' Associ-
ation to exhibit the estate collections at the local
Exhibition, chiefly for the reason that the main ex-
hibits are only now at this season harvested ; and
that even if they were ready in time they could not
in the case of suoh products as tea, cocoa, and carda-
moms be exhibited without certain injury.

I am to express great regret that, owing to some
misunderstanding, the construction of the special ihow-
cases for the Planters' Association at the Government
Factory has been delayed, as they themselves would
have formed an interesting exhibit before despatch to
London.

Such articles as the models of cacao-pods, photo-
graphs, and any other exhibits that can be ready in
time, the Sub-Committee of the Planters' Association
would propose to send to the local Exhibition.— I am,
sir, your obedient servant, (Signed) A. Philip.

TEA PEEPAEATION.

(From the Hilh. )
It is difficult, sometimes, while observing the
brevity necessitated by the cost of telegrams, to
convey the meaning intended, and we fear that our
telegram from Nawalapitiya may have produced tlie
impression that we were contrasting the No. 1
Sirocco with the Victoria and Venetia Driers instead
of, as we intended, classifying it with them, as
desiccating tea without the substance being exposed
to the outer atmospheric air. There is a wide-
spread, but by no means universal, opinion, amongst
tea manufacturers, that this exposure is a detect
in the T Sirocco and in the No. 1 Drier to which
the horizontal apparatus has been applied. It would
seem that if raw, damp air is excluded from the
tea-house, while the roasting process is proceeding,
the effect of the internal atmosphere ought not to be
injurious to any great extent. There is, however,
a good deal «of handling required, and we feel
satistied that the less tea is manipulated by coolies
the better. The great merit of the Jackson,
Victoria and Venetia Driers is, that not only is
the tea not exposed to the outer atmosphere but
that as the air in the interior absorbs moisture
from the tea leaves, such air is incessantly drawn
away by the fanners. It was a surprise to us,
however, to hear that only 1001b. per hour was
tinished in the Victoria at Carolina Factory. Mr.
Megginson does not believe in working machinery
to its full capacity, and he remarked that a turbine
equal to 10 horse-power would do better work
when 10 horse-power only was exerted, than a
10 horse-power wheel worked to its full capacity
would accomplish. Such an opinion, founded on
experience, is worthy of respectful attention. Speak-
ing of Jackson's Excelsior roller, the superintendent
of Carolina Factory (where a third Excelsior is
speedily to be added to the two already at work)
remarked that where there was not power euoiixh to

Feb. 1, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRlCULTtfRfSf*

S&3,

work the Excelsior up to 50 revolutions per min-
ute, it had better not be employed. The inference
clearly is that in Mr. Meggiuson's opinion, 50
revolutions per minute indicate the minimum of
movement requisit<^ for tlie proper rolling of tea
leaf. But to show how experts differ, we may men-
tion tlmt before we could transfer to paper our
mental note of Mr. Megginson's axiom, we received
a letter from the supermtendent of a factory
whence teas of the highest quality, judging by prices
obtaiutd, have been recently issued, to the follow-
ing effect : —

Tea Rollixg.

l-2th .Tan. 18S6.

Dear Su". — In your issue of 9th instant I see an
iuterestin" letter " From the Hills " in which the
writer asks for information ic tea roUimj. Ask him
to try the following, with any ordinarily fine pluck-
iugs. I see he has a .Jackson's Roller, which I
consider actually necessary, to show following result.

Say that Roll is put into the " Excelsior " at 12
noon ; 611 up roller as hard as cooly can drive it
home, set machinery agoing and keep going at rate
of say ^-5 i-ffoJntion-^ per minitfn for 10 minutes, gently
stu'ring up by hand meantime. At end of 10 mmutes
request Kamasamy to get up on to the top, aud
roll thus for other 10 minutes. Rainasamy must now
step down and *' Kindyoodoo " roll ; in fact ,he has to
get down for this purpose at least every 10 minutes
up to say 40 minutes after roll is put in. After it has
been rolled from 'Sr> to 40 minutes W'lth Ramasamy
swaying to and fro on top, Mgotoosamy too must
get "up and lend his weight. A third cooly will
be necessary for a short time before taking out Roll
at .tO minutes just to rfve it final touch or squeeze.
Take out of Roller and spread » iuches thick on long
table near window, breakup thoroughly and sift through
No. 3. Below No. B again spread B inches deep on
table and cover with blanket till fermented. Above
No. 3 also spread on table and keep there for one
hour, after which again put back into Roller, turn
on full water power andput^Acr coolies on top of
'• Excelsior " rolling thus for 1.5 minutes at same
rate as before *".'■. abotit 2.5 revolutions per minute. If
rolled as above 1 guarantee .S.5 per Cent Pekoes.

I'.S. — If liard rolling be necess.aiy for high onttui-u
of Pekoes — and I consider that it is — then Jackson's
machinery must carry the day.

When doctors differ so widely what are poor lay-
men to do? Roll 1)0 to HO revolutions per minute
power being available, or restrict the application
of power to sufficient to produce ;'••") revolutions
per minute? It would seem that each must ex-
periment and decide for himself. While slow roll-
ing is recommended, here we have Mr. Barber turn-
ing out " rolls " from his Blackstone machine in
12 minutes, amidst the plaudits of experts. We
telegraphed the result we witntscd with rather re
fractory leaf, and now we have the following letter
from Mr. Barber, the gentleman who, beginning
his career as a good lawyer, has, in the second
phase of his existence, proved himself not only a
good tea-maker but an ingenious and suzcessful
machinist : —

Blackstone, 14th Jan. I9m.

The leal brought from Carolina by Mr. Megginson,
in your presence and the leaf of Blackstone rolled
afterwards by Mr. Megginson were fired and this day
for%varded to Ifr. Megginson, who writes his opinion
as follows : —

" The appearance of all is superior ; liquors are all
sxtisfactory. but might have been improved by
fuller fermentation. / am mil salisfied n-ith the. iforV of
the roller."

As regards fermentation I quite endorse the state-
ment. The teas were fired when I was away at
Carolina and they seem to have hurried the work
through. But that does not bear on the issues.
—Yours truly, .Jak. H. Bauber.

The amount of wood-fuel consmned by the Jackson
motive powei drieri is » serioai) matter, in the

case of the Victoria .IJ lb. of firewood for every pound
of dried tea. At 2.00(1 lb. of tea per diem, which tin-
Carolina Factory is likely to reach, that means 7,0001b.
of firewood, it firewood alone continues to he used,
per diem, or counting a year of 5 days per week
at this rite, 1,820,000 lb. This result is astound-
ing, and we cannot now wonder at the earnest-
ness with which the gentlemen connected witli the
K. A. W. group of estates, dwelt on the import-
ance of forest reserves, for mere firewood purposes,
apart from timber for buildings and boxes. The
.' ■ ibagamuwa group of estates are, themselves, es-
pecially well off in this respect, and we hugged
the belief t^ nt about 70 acres of jungle belts out,
of 549 acies, with 15 acres more of exotic trees,
were more than ample, and that as our belts got
clear of timber they might be profitably planted up with
tea. We were, on the contrary, empliatically ad\'ised
to cultivate timber trees in our belts. But what
are old estates to do, where there is not firewood
enough even to enable the coolies to cook their
food? The remedy, no doubt, is two-fold :--

Machines ought to be improved in their con-
struction, so as to economize fuel ; and

Better kinds of fuel than lirewood alone ought
to be employed ; such as coal or coke alone, or
mixed with the firewood ; or, better still, some
artificial fuel, of compressed paraffin, for instance,
embodying the maximum of caloric in the mini-
mum of bulk.

Surely the time has arrived when ooal at least,
which costs about K20 per ton at Colombo,
should be used with or in lieu of wood, the
railway carrying large quantities at especially low
rates ? We hope our good, friend Mr. Grinlin-
ton, whose energy and faculty of organization
have enabled him to confer so much benefit
on the Colony already, will take up this question
in earnest. If coal could be laid down at Nauuoya,
at about an advance of 30 per cent on Colombo
prices, and at intermediate stations in proportion ,
we should think it would be useful and eco-
nomical to use the black diamonds (crystallized fire-
wood) in tea factories. Of course the extended
employment of iron in buildings, and the receipt
of tea boxes in shooks from .Japan or elsewhere,
will largely help; but the grand advantage of the
supercession of firewood, by an imported or pre-
pared fuel, better and cheaper, would be to obviate,
not only the necessity of forest reserves on estates,
but to set free the large areas of Government forest
reserved for railway firewood purposes. If that
result were gained, we should speedily h.ave lines
of nourishing tea estates along the 25 miles between
the neighbourhoods of Nanuoya and the Haputalc
Pass, the present luioccupied state of which has
been most unfairly used as an argument against
connecting by the iron road the large populnticm of
Uva (170,000) with the millions in the central
and sonth-western portions of the island and with
the harbour and shipping of the capital. We hope
the problem of a cheap, artificial, compressed fuel
for steamers, locomotives and tea furnaces may
soon be successfully solved.

As to the supercession of coffee by tea, the
process proceeds apace, and the new plant looks
everywhere fresh and Hourishing. That panigraph
from India recognizing 1 cwt. per acre as a good
return of cotlec, was calculated to create a sens-
ation, roiitru we heard of a planter in Dimbula.
who has paid special attention to the manuring of
coffee, who is now rooting out plants which yield
3i cwt. an acre, coffee at that Vatc and at pret-ent
prices not paying. In Uva and in some othei:
dietricts coffee may continue to do well, but the
main hopes of mobt plauters are, with ample juetillc-

$u

ffig TfidPlCAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Feb. I, iS8b.

ation in what has been already accomplished,
founded on the advancing success of the tea
enterprize.

When we visited Blackstone pruning was in full
awing, at which an experienced planter who was
of the company shook his head. He said that
pruning in the north-east monsoon in Upper Dim-
bula at over 5,000 feet was quite a diiierent affair to
pruning in Ambagamuwa at 2,500; and we were
surprised to learn that rainy as Ambagamuwa valley
is, 200 to 250 inches per annum, the drought and
winds of the north-east monsoon are very trying,
the heavy rains not being so well distributed as
in many other places. But Mr. Barber, no doubt,
knows what he is about, in this and in other
matters. By a curious fiasco, teas from Black-
stone will be about the only specimens shown at the
local Exhibition. Had the Committee known in
time that the Planters' Association specimens were
not to be shown, they would, of course, have ar-
ranged for special exliibits of tea, so that the
new product could compare favourably with the
products of the cinnamon, coffeo, cacao and coconut
trees, which are richly represented. We found
Mr. W. H. Davies this morning busily arranging
six grades of tea made from the Carolina leaf
which we saw rolled. Tliere was a case of tea
on the floor near by, and that seemed to be all.
Amongst coloured pictures from Peradeniya, of
coffee, cacao, nutmegs, cloves, &c., there was a
beautiful and correct representation of Assam tea
in blossom. We saw a model sirocco, which Mr.
Davies said was to be shown in operation, the heating
agent being gas. Twenty-eight photographs of scenes
on Abbotsford, showing the cultivation on a mountain
plantation of coffee, cinchona, tea and exotic trees,
from the felling of th^ jungle to the beginnings
of a tea-house, with descriptions are exhibited. That
was all connected with tea, we think, for, on enquiry
for photographs by Mr. Clerk, illustrative of the tea
enterprize from field to shipping j^ort, we were
told they had not been sent. This is a pity for
Mr. Clerk's sake as well as that of the pubhc. If
Mr. Clerk will send us a set of the photographs'
we shall gladly notice them.

THE FINE QUALITY OP AGAH'S LAND TEAS
AND HOW IT IS SECUEED.

A correspondent who has had good means of
judging, tells us that no opinion we can express
can be too favourable as regards the quality of
Mr. Agar's teas, but the conclusive test is the
opinion of Mincing Lane in the shape of an
average price of 2s 2d per lb. for so large an
invoice as f3 half-chests. How such teas are
made by liira and can be made by others, Mr.
Agar lias generously consented to let his brother,
planters know through tlie Observer, as follows : —

AGAR'.S LAND, BALANGODA; TEA-HOUSE
NOTES,

'l'L()'t'fctNO.--Kl'isli 01(8 week tu 8 ilay.s old. Growth
Vdfie.i according to weather, thenifcre no hard and fast
rule as to nurabur of leavi's plucked — rule is to be
careful to J'jave on tree one full leaf and an eye above.
This method auswere well with us, growth being rapid.

W'TriiKHiiN'o. — Weigh leaf twice a day, and if wet
wlien brought to factory put out in suu two or llireu
iiichts ileep; keep turning over until dry, and put on
withering trays as thinly an po.'sible.

RoLi.iNO — (Jnck'on's " Uiiivi'r.sal "). — Wither leaf well,
withdut allowing to dry; (ill up roller well without
•mniiiip, »nd roll gontly, without any extra weight,

for 15 minutes. After this put on some extra weight,
say 25 lb. and roll for other 15 minutes. Take nut roll,
spread on table, break up by hand, and sift through
No. 4. Below No. 1 spread thinly on table and cover
with blanket, and in about two hours this should be
ready for firing. Above No. 1, roll off by hand quickly
as sifting will be found to open the twist slightly ;
after which put this too on table, spreading out thinly
— say three inches deep, and cover with blanket. Keep
on table for one hour, until partly fermented, and put
back into roller for 15 to 20 minutes of very bard
rolling. Whilst rolling and fermenting, " roll " shciuld
be stirred up turned over every ten uiiuutes, the former
to give even roll and prevent heating, and latter to
give even fermentation. To get strong liquor, juice
must be squeezed well out of roll, but mopiied up
again of course, and it should be of a red colour and
not too watery.

F[RtNO. — Should be done briskly, and not over-done.

SiKTiNQ AND AssoRTiNn. — Unassorted tea should be
put away iu tin immediately after fii-iog. To .sift,
put unassorted into No. 8. Sift pretty hard, and teas
above and below sieve tre.-.t as follows: — Above No. 8
put into No. 7 — and sift and break this lightly
with band, which gives ''pekoe souchong " below, " cou-
gou " and "fanniiigs" above. Below No. 8 put into
No. 14 aud sift out all that can be got to pass through;
this leaves " pekoe " above and " broken pekue " below.

To Size' Above Tkas. — Sift pekoe souchoug through
No. 7 without handling it in any way. Sift and lightly
break pekoe through a No. 10. Sift broken pekoe
through No. 12, lightly of course. This leaves small
quantities above each* sieve. Above No. 7 mix with
fanuiugs &c.. after breaking a little. Above No. 10
mix with pekoe souchong. Above No. 12 mix with
pekoe. And " dust " to be separated with cloth firing
tat od^i/.

♦

CEYLON COCOA AND CHOCOLATE AT

BRISTOL.

( Coinmiiiiiratcd.J

Finding myself during last autumn in the neigh-
bourhood of Bristol I thought I would take the
opportunity of paying a visit to the chocolate
manufactory of .1. S. Fry & Sons. To anyone inter-
ested in new products, there are few places whch
better repay a visit than this old town, which,
though somewhat fallen from its former high estate,
still retains much of its ancient connection with the
colonies. Besides the large concern which is the
subject of these notes, there are several tobacco
manufactories, notably that of W. D. & H. 0.
Wills, breweries in which a considerable quantity
of inyrobalans and divi-divi is used, aud several
shops belonging to P. J. Lloyd & Co., who arc
doing a large and increasing business in Ceylon tea.

The -chocolate manufactory, which now employs
about 1,200 hands, is situated in the heart of the city.
I'^ounded about 17H0 ; it has from time to time been
very much enlarged, a Baptist meeting-house of
date 111.10 now being included in the premises.

The process of manufacture is a long one. The
nibs or nuts as they call them previous to the
removal of the shell are first roasted two-and-a-haU
hours, then passed through a machine which gently
cracks them. They then go into a winnower, and, as
the cracked nuts fall, the blast of the machine blows
away the husk from thu nuts whicli fall into a
rec€'ptaclo in the form of nibs. These are now crushed
betweeM millstones and pass from a coarse j^iste to a
cream-like consistency. This liquid paste is nexteither
stored for future treatment, or else taken to have the
oil extracted. To store it. the liquid is gathered in
tins which form moulds, ns when cold the mass
comes out in solid blocks.

If the oil is to be extracted the paste is put in
canvas bags which are then subjected to h\ draulic
prgBsnre. The oil ji; thii» extracted, and the pure

Feb. I, iSSd] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

565

cocoa remains in the bags. Tliis is known as cocoa
extract, and 100 lb. weight of liquid gives 70 lb. of
powder. If prepared cocoa is required, the solid
blocks abovementioned are broken up, thrown into
a pug-ruill, and mixed with powdered sugar and
arrowroot. The solidified oil, or cocoa butter as it
is called, is used by chemists, and I noticed the
other day an advertisement of cocoa butter
soap said to possess wonderful qualities. The pro-
cess of making chocolate is also interesting, and all
the various works connected with it are now done
under the same roof. Thus I visited saw-mills,
box-making rooms where very ingenious machinery
was in use, tinsmiths' workshops, and a forge, n-
well as the rooms where the packets of cocoa ar^
made up. This is done with great speed and neat-
ness by the girls employed, each of whom fastens
up about 1,000 packets a day.

I naturally made special inquiry about the jiro-
duce of our island, which the manager told me
was very highly thought of. It is lighter in colour,
smaller, and more brittle than the Trinidad bean, but
stronger in flavour. Mr. Machin, who showed me over,
.said he imagined the soil in Ceylon was lighter than
that of Trinidad, which is no doubt the case. The
Trinidad bean is. as he e.xpressed it, more mat i( red.
One of the Messrs. Fry gave it as his opinion that
the sweetmeat prepared from our produce was
sickly in flavour, but I do not think the manager
was of this opinion : indeed several people who have
tried it. especially ladies, who are credited with a
delicate taste in sweets, have told me it was the
best chocolate they had ever lasted.

All were agreed that there was no room for im-
provement in the preparation of our produce, and,
while there was a faUing-oii in quality some months
before my visit, at the time, no doubt, when the
drought and fly were at their worst, the later
shipments. I was told, were quite up to the old
standard. A bag from Isobel estate was being
treated at the time of my visit, and in the books
I saw entries of several well-known marks. From
the light colour of our beau a good deal of
Ceylon cocoa, it seems, is mixed with other
varieties when a light chocolate is desired, and
I noticed a large quantity of this kind being dis-
patched to the U. S. A.

Mr. Machin was of opinion that our produce is
better suited for chocolate than cocoa, and as far as
my experience of Ceylon prepared cocoa goes, I
should be inclined to think he is right. The "Cobra
Brand' of cocoa extract, though of delicate flavour,
seems to me lacking in strength.

Besides the tablets of Ceylon choclate which are
now often to be seen in confectioners' shops,
Messrs. Fry are making chocolate creams put up
in tasteful boxes, with a couple of which I was pre-
sented. With the tablets are given directions for
making chocolate in the cup.

I may mention that casual visitors are not shown
over the factory, an introduction to one of the firm
being necessary, but, that obtained, one is treated
with tlie greatest courtesy by all connected with this
thriving establishment. B.

♦

CINCHONA CULTURE IN JAVA AND INDIA.

Amongst other interesting and important papers
on agricultural and horticultural subjects in the
Tropiial AiiricuhurUt, for which it is impossible
to lind iiTom in our daily and weekly issues, is
a long account of a visit to the cinchona plant-
ations in the I'reanger Regency of Java, to the
correctness of which. haWng gone over the same
gtonnd, we can cordially testify. In the paper
of Mr. Henry 15. Brady, r.n.s., read before the
Pharruftccutieal Societf , and the djscuMion which

followed, all the species of the fever-plant
introduced into Java, India and Ceylon are de-
scribed and their merits discussed, from the ahnost
worthless Paliiidiana (named after Mr. Charles
Pahud, one of the best Govcrnor's-General of Java)
fo the monarch of all the tribe, Lfilflin-Uuia, the
quinine results of which when first tested by the
Dutch analysts filled them first with incredulity
and then with astonishment and delight. Ledijeri-
ana is, unfortunately delicate, like so many other
valuable plants, but, apart from some successful ex-
periments in Wynaad and in Ceylon, the . richest
of tlie fe^-er-destrojing plants has found a con-
genial and permanent home in Java. The cinchona
enterprize, in the face of all cankering and dying-
off, has been unprofitable or profitable only in a
limited degree, to individuals, from the very facility
and rapidity with which the plants grew and pro-
duced bark so as to swamp the market. But the
benefit conferred on humanity has been incalculable
and the great cheapening of the product lately
cannot but lead to a vastly increased use of the
valuable alkaloid which is almost a panacea for
malarious fever, besides its tonic effects.

Com FiBKE Dust. — Mr. C. E. H. 8ymons, as
Managing Director for the Horrekelly Estate Com-,
pany, has called on us to say that he is quite prepared
to justify the position he took up before the Bail-
way Committee the other day as to the useless-
ness of great heaps of coir fibre dust now
lying on the Horrekelly property. Mr. Symons
will give full particulars to our correspondent
" Agriculturist " if he calls on him ; but mean-
time he has reminded us how the late Mr.
David Wilson made a variety of experiments
with a view to turning this dust to profitable use
without result. It has been analyzed at home
with the result that it is considered to be the
equivalent very much of cork or saw-dust. The dust,
however, is used on Horrekelly as far as needed
for cattle-bedding purposes, and it is also occasionally
ploughed in between the coconut trees, to keep
the "soil moist ; but its value as a manurial applic-
ation even when mixed with ammoniacal liquor is
nil or nearly nil. Ammoniacal liquor is, however,
freely used on Horrekelly otherwise. But there are
large heaps of coir dust refuse on the estate wliich
"Agriculturist " or anyone else can have for the
carting away.

Maximuji Yield ok Te.i in Cevlon — We
commend the following authentic report on the past
year's results on the 100 acres' field on Mariawatte
Tea Garden near Gampola to the attention of
our Indian critics. It was not expected that 1885
would show so good a return as the former year;
but as a matter of fact the yield is in excess : —

Mabi.\w ITTJB Estate.— Yield from 100 acres and rain-
fall :—

Tear. lb. lea per acre. Bainf ill.

1881 136 10306

1883 312 113-60

1883 560 91-83

1884 1,0!)2 827-'

lt-85 1,180 10141

H. K. RUTHEKI'OBli.

The fortunate proprietors of Mariaw-atte may well
be congratulated on this result, ami we suspect
their experience is unequalled not only in Ceylon
but in Indiaj more especially it they go on for
a third and a fourth year to cro)) at the same
ratio on their magnificent hundred acres. On
smaller areas even larger returns have been
gathered:- -for example 1.200 lb. per acre on 1.5 acres
of which 2001b. weregatbered and made in one month
18 an exi)ericnce on one place in Ambagamuwa.

5«56

THE TROPICAL AGRICt/LTURlST. [Fuk i, 1886.

Iceland Moss Ooioa. — Attention should be direct-
ed to the excellent preparation of cocoa in combination
with Iceland moss {hiclirn Idandi iis) manufactured
by Blessrs. Dunn k Hewrtt. I'tntonville, T,ondou, N.
The moss acts not only as a mild tonic — being in
itself an easily-digested and nutritious aliment — but
also as a neutraliser of any excess of fatty matter
which may be in the cocoa itself. It is contended
by the makers on high authority that to eliminate
the butyraceous matter of the coconut — commonly
called cocoa butter — is to deprive it of the constituent
upon which tbe chief value of cocoa as an ai-ticle
of foot depends. The moss, in assisting the digestion
and assimilation of these oily particles, renders
cocoa prepared in combination with it a valuable
article of diet to those suffering from pulmonary
complaints. — Jii-itish Trade Joirnml.

CoPRA-CDTTiNG. — With reference to the machine in-
quired for from Fiji for cutting out the kernels of the
coconut for copra-makmg, a firm of machinery
manufacturers in Eugland sends us tbe following : —
" Coconut husks are stubborn and tough. They can,
we believe, be cut down by a powerful lever, with
three blades, to rip dowu three sides of the husk
at one blow. Then, we think, a vertical saw, with
from three to six parallel blades, would slice the
coconut into regular rings, and the kernel can then
be easily got out. This saw can be worked by foot.
The coconuts would be held in a suitable holder,
jrorkiug in a groove, so it would not cut the man's
hand. Or we would suggest a rapid-striking ham-
mer, like a steam-hammer, but worked by foot
power, giving, say, 1,500 blows per minute, just
hard enough to loosen the outer shell, and then,
of course, the kernel can be cut into any required
shape, either by a lever-knife or with several blades
on one lever, or in fancy shapes by a cutter-punch.
Those who make any special tool have a considerable
amount of experimenting to do, which is best done
on the spot, to see if theory and practice agree.
We should require some nuts in about the same con-
dition as in Fiji before offering any machine for
the piu'pose described.'' — /iritish Trade Journal.

Tambeacuekky Estates Company (Limited). — Mr.
William'Abbott states that " the position and pro-
spects of this undertaking have been steadily improving
while the shares have fallen during the long period
of depression, investors on the look-out for a
neglected security being in ignorance of their real
value. This Company was originally started as a
coffee Company only, and extensive gold reefs arc
known to exist upon the property ; but instead of
expending all the capital upon ' experimental min-
ing,' attention has been mainly directed to the
cultivation of coffee and cinchona (quinine). While
both tliese important products were steadily grow-
ing into value the shares were declining. Until
recenl-lj the whole capital of the Company, which
had been reduced from ICiO.OOO in .tl shares to
£100,000 in fully paid and limited shares of 12s (id
each, was selling for .£35,000. This Company owns
an estate of G.OOO to 7,000 acres, about '2,000 of
which are planted with coffee and cinchona, and
to give some idea of the extent of the latter cultiv-
ation, the number of cinchona trees planted to
date is over 8,000, and these plantings will be
extended until they reach 1,000,000 trees. It is
expected to realise from these at least 7s lid to
lOs per tree, or, at a moderate estimate, £350,000.
Apart, however, from this large and valuable area
under cultivation, there are the gold deposits in
reserve to be utilised later on, should the value
of the gold reefs in this district be more clearly
demonstrated. This is a sound and lionestly-
managed Company. The I>irectors, being all
largely interested as shareholders, take only half
their foes, preferring to wait for their full re-
muneration until the Company is again paying
dividends." — Madras Mail.

How TO Send Oranges from India on Ceylon to
EuROPB. — Do each up .separately in paper if possible,
thin white paper, then put three of them iuto straw
bottli-cnvlopes. forcing the small ends out big i iiough
to hold the smaller oranges, &c., fixing all tight in
the wooden box. — y. Bugh.

Mustard and Oress. — As other salad plants he-
come .scarce these will bo more wanted, and weekly
sowings should be made. We use shallow boxes, 15
inches wide and 3 feet in* length, for sowing in at
this season. Rich soil is put in to the depth of 2
inches or 3 inches, and tbe seed is simply put on the
surface and the box placed in a warm house. By
sowing one or two boxes a week a constant succes-
sion may be kept up, and as a box may be stood
here and there in any odd corner the expense of
culture is not great. — 'journal of Hortkultart.

FuMiu.vnON j'OK Insect Tests is thus described in the
proceedings of the A. and Horticultural Society of
India: — Mr. Claude J. Dumaiue lately suggested that
fumigating with Mohwa Oil-cake, if done immediately
on the first appearance of Insect Pest-s, while still
affecting small areas, might be usefully tried by Tea
Planters and others. He was asked to communicate his
own experience and writes as follows: — "Koonri Oil-cake
is made from the seed of the Mowha (Bassia latifolia)
from which the oil has been expressed. I was given
to understand that the smoke from it when burned
in a house was sure death to all kinds of insecte.
This gave me the idea of trying it in the open air.
.Some of my Paddy, Eabar, and Moong dall, having
been attacked by blights, I gave it a fair trial, which
proved a success. I got a number of ordinary /«in(/iVs,
and filled them three-ijuarters full with dry cow-dung
cake, aud after firing filled up with Koovri Oil-cake,
The liandiis were then distributed on the wiurlward
side of the affected fields. The wind that day was
nominal and the smoke was very great, and I can
certify that none of the blights outlived the operation.
The plants were in no way affected. I fancy -0 seers
might be enough for a sijuare Bengal beegah. The
cost of tbe Oil-cake is K4-S a maund delivered at
Howrah Station, exclusive of bags, and it is only pro-
curable at a certain time of the year. I shall be
glad to procure some for any person wishing to give
it a trial."

Pkuninu and Planting Fruit TkkEs. — Mr, O. H.
Richards says in the middle of his article on this
subject at p. 758 that '■ As to trees planted in
good and deep, well-draiued soil, and in favourable
localities, very few remarks are necessary as to thi:ir
ultim:ite management either in resiiect to pruning
root or brauch. Fdirous roots and firm wood well
set with Hower-buds will develope simultaneously,"
adding, "aud only after several years' liarreimess
will it be necessary to sever a tew of the strongest
roots in onler to restore tlie balance of root and
brauch." But why allow an interval of ".several years'
barrenness" to elapse before taking steps to "restore
the balance of root and branch, and the fertility of
the trees"-' By way of supplementing Mr. Kichard.s'
remarks, I would advise that corrective measures be
takeu as soon as possible after any tree or trees,
indicate by scantiuess of crop not attributable to
meteorological influences, an unmistakable proof of
waning fruitfulness. And the earlier in tbe summer
that these remedial measures are carrieil out the
better chance will there be of securing a full crop of
fruit from the trees opi'rated on tho following year.
A trench should be opened on tlio dopib of 3 or 4
feet, aud a like distance from tbe trunk of tbe
trees more or less, according to the size of the latter-
working the soil partly out from nuderneatb the b:dl
of earth and roots, aud cutting all tbe latter that
the operator comes in coMtact with outside tbe pre-
scribed space witli :i sharp knife, afterwards rejilaciiig
the soil. The check thus given to the trees will
prevent them from making an over-luxuriant growth,
but on the contrary it will induce them to make
short consolidated wood thickly set with fruit-b'ids. —
jj. W. Ward, — Gardtners' Clironicle,

Fbb- I, 1886;] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

567

CONCENTRATED EXTRACTS: USEFUL mNTS.

1. — It is not generally known that the juice of the
Jatrapha Cuiras, the common fence plant of this country,
is an excellent styptic. The fresh juice applied locally
to a cut or wouud at onoe stops all hicctling with-
out pain by simply coagulating the blood. It is said
even to cure aneurism by subcutaneous injections.

2. — There is an excellent recipe for spicod beef.
round up IJoz. saltpetre, 14 oz. sugar, h oz. cloves, j oz.
allspice, a tea spoonful of grovmd pepper, a tea spoon-
ful of mace, half a nutmeg, and a pint of salt. Our
local stores miglit supply this ready mixed. Take
10 lb. of beef without bone, and rub it all over with
the mixture. Put some of the mixture at the bot-
tom of a pan just large enough to hold the beef, put
in the beef and stew the remainder over. Kub well
every day for 10 days, then wash, tie into shape,
cover over with lard or suet, put it into a pan with
a pint of water, cover with paper, and stew gently
for six hours.

3. — A putty of starch and chloride of zinc hardens
quickly, and is good for stopping holes in metal.
The following will remove freckles: — 1 oz. of lime juice,
^ dram of powdered borax, ^ dram of sugar ; mix in a
bottle and let it stand a few days, then rub the litjuor
daily on the skin.

-4. — The Cantm Adjava7i, known in India as omnm,
is largely cultivated all over that country. Its seed
is regarded as the most powerful of all the umbelli-
ferous carminative see<l, containing the stimulant qual-
ities of capsicum or mustard, with the bitter properties
of chiretta or gentian, and the antispasmodic virtues
of assaftetida. As a whole it is superior to the
caraway.

5. — The French plan of giving castor oil to children
is to pour the oil into a pan over a moderate fire,
break an egg into it and stir up. AVhen done flavor
with a little salt.

6. — In putting up machinery for upcouutry, to save
carriage, a good plan is to cast fly-wheels hollow,
and then at their destination fill them with melted
lead. They atlbrd the same centrifugal power as a
larger wheel of iron, cost le.ss, and take up less room.

7. — Corks can be made impervious by soaking them
for several hours in a solution of h oz. glue or
gelatine in a mixture of J oz. glycerine and, 1 pint water
at a temperature of about 120° F. Such corks can
be niade nearly acid proof by dipping when very dry
tor quarter of an hour into a melted mixture of 4
parts pjirathne and 1 of vaseline.

&. — Water with lead in solution may cause paralysis,
colic, gout, rheumatism, kidney di.sease, and other com-
plaints. A\ B. — Aerated watt'rs sometimes contain
Ifal. A simple test is to add a little tincture of
rf>chineal, when the color willl be blue not rose.

9. — Lactic acid and glycerine, mixed with water in
the proportion of I lb. of each to 8 lb. of water,
make a soldering mixture for tin cans of fruit, flesh
or vegetables, which is imported harmless from a health
point of view, having none of the poisonous pro-
perties of chloride of zinc.

10. — The forests of the United States are disappear-
at the rate of 'Z5 million acres a year. There are
450 milllions of acres in the country.

11. — The use of nitro-glycerine, that is dynamite,
is recommended instea^l of alcohol for stimulating
the action of the heart. Only a minute quantity is
required ; it is practically free from taste and odour,
it acts at once, and does not lead to the craving
for alcoholic stimulants.

12. — Professor Vogel observes that the hemlock which
yields its alkaloid in Bavaria gives none in .Scotland,
and he concludes that sunlight plays an important
part in the generation of alkaloids. In confirmation
of this, cinchonas cultivated in feebly-lighted hot-
houses at home yieUI little if any quinine.

13. — To remove rust : cover the metal with sweet
oil well rubbed in, let stand for 48 hours, smear
again with oil applied freely by a feather, then rub
with Vfirij finely powdered unslaked lime ; or im-
merse the metal for a few minutes until all the dirt
and rust is taken off in a solution of potassium cyanide,

say J oz. to a wine glass of water, then take it out
and clean it with a toothbrush and a little of some
paste made of potassium cyanide, castile soup, whiting
and water mixed to the consistency of a thick cream.

14. — .\ new cement for securing glass-stoppers has
been recently recommended, made of finely-powdered
oxide of lead ami concentrated glycerine, which needs
only to be smeared round the stopper. It dries quickly
and becomes; very hard, but can be readily scratched
oft' with a knife.

15.— To remove ink stains from cloth: use oxalic
.acid or pyrophosphate of soda; grease, use turpent-
ine or benzine; turpentine or candle stains, use
Eaude Cologne.

It).— Floors. To stain, I lb. burnt umber ground in oil .
Mix with boiled linseed oil till it becomes .suitably
colored without getting too thick. Kub in well with
a woolen cloth, then rub oft' with another till it ceases
to come otf. To wax, 1 lb. wax shaved thin mixed
with 1 gallon turpentine. Let the mixture work for
18 hours, then rub in with a woolen cloth.

17. — The beneficial effect of salicylic acid on exzema
has now been well established.

THE SUPPLY OF CINCHONA BARK.
The anticipations of an improvement in the cinchona
hark market, which prevailed some two months since,
have not been realized, and instead of bark command-
ing a price of ninepence per unit, as it was predicted
would be the case before Christmas, it was not much
more than half as much at the last sale. The last
.shipments from Ceylon about the early part of this
month have materially contributed to this result, as
much as a million pounds of trunk bark having then
been shipped in the course of a fortnight. Early in
the month 32,000 ounces of quinine sulphate were
i put up at the drug sale and sold at low prices. The
[ next bark sale will take place on the 12th of January,
I and it is expected that the quantity put up will be
considerable, though the harvesting operations in
Ceylon usually fall off towards the end of the
year.

The changes that have taken place duriug the last
few years in the supply of cinchona bark deserve some
consideration from pharmacists, who have hitherto
been in the habit of purchasing cinchona bark more
according to external :ippearance than anything else.
It has been pohited out that the characters which
conventionally determine the market value of " drug-
gists' (piills" are very often fallacious, and have no
real connection with the quality of the bark. Thus,
for instance, quills of renewed bark, being destitute
of the appearance that has come to be regarded
traditionally ii.s an indication of good quality, will not
sell for druggists' purposes so well as quills of natural
bark; though, being in reality richer than the latter,
they are readily bought by quinine manufacturers.
A silvery coating on the epidermis of the b.irk is one
of the points to which a fictitious importance is attach-
ed, and not very long ago a parcel of fine quills,
having an intrinsic value of about three shillings per
pound as a quinine-yielding bark, realized at a public
.sale as much as four shillings and tenponce, simply
on account of the fine silvery coating upon the quills.
In another instance two parcels of Darjeeling quills,
that were almost identical according to analysis, sold
respectively for four shillings and a peimy and two
shillings and threepence.

The variability of succirubra bark, as regards tho
relative proportions of the several alkaloids it contains,
is also a point of inqxirtance for the pharmacist to
bear in mind, and although the Pli:uinacopiBia now
only requires that cinchona bark usoil for pharmaceut-
ical purposes shall contain between five and six per
cent 01 total alkaloid, and that at least half the
quantity shall consist of quinine and cinchonidine,
many will appreciate the desirability of a.'.cerlaining
with more precision the actual amount of quinine
present in the bark to be used for pharmaceutical
purposes. The Pbarmacopieia definition applying only
to quill hark, shuts out from use the ihaviug.s, which

56S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb, i, 1886,

are so often much superior, as regards the amount
of quinine, to any kind of quill bark ; and since the
established prejudices as to the appearance of bark
would tend to favour the use of natural bark rather
than renewed bark, the general effect of all these
circumstances would be to promote the use of the
least valuable kinds for pharmaceutical purposes. In
the natural succrubra bark it is ahnost an invariable
rule that cinchonidine is present in larger relative
proportion than quinine, so that, according to the
present Pharmacopoeia definition, the quinine standard
of cinchona bark is reduced much below that of the
previous Phai macopceia, and the bark corresponding
with that definition wiJl not contain more than
about 1 per cent of quiuiue. — PJiarmaceutical Jonrnal.

THE DIVI TKEE AND SEASIDE GKAPE IN
THE WEST INDIES.

Henaratgoda, 2nd January 1380,

Sir, — We beg to annex a cutting from Leather

of 5th October 1885, respecting Divi Divi culture in

the West Indies. Ti-iisting it will be useful to intending

planters of the said new product, yours obediently,

J. P. William & Bros.

We are pleased to give the copy of a letter received
from a correspondent who lives on one of the West
India Islands, and has turned to the cultivation of
divi-divi. Some four or five years since he forwarded
for analysis some good samples of divi, acacias, and
other tropical plants yielding taunin which were
growing wild on his estate. Since that time he has
planted some thousands of divi trees, and they are
doing well ; and from the tenour of his letter there
seems to be plenty of scope for any who are disposed
to go into the trade. AVe are not at liberty to
publish our correspondent's name,' but shall be glad
to give it to any who are disposed to look at it as
a oommerical speculation.

West Indies, September 6, 1885.

Dear Sir, — Please accept my best thanks for your
letter of 8th July, and also for the number of
Leather accom|>anying it, which I have taken great
interest in perusing.

I wish you every success in your conduct of the
said trade Journal, and shall be glad to give you
any information in my possession as to tanning
materials, etc.

My plantations of divi-divi are, so far, progressing
favourably, but the tree is of slower growth than I
anticipated. As none of the trees I planted over three
years ago are bearing yet, it will, no doubt, take
five or six years before I am able to obtain any crop
from them.

Meanwhile, there is an abundance of divi pods going
to waste every year on a property ai^jacent to mine,
and where there are thousands of divi trees in full
bearing. This estate could be had for £1,000 at most
perhaps for less, and would easily give 100 tons of
divi or more per annum at ouce. I have a great
miud to buy it if I can find a partner to contribute
half the capital. The property is situated on the
sea-shore, so that the produce could be shipped
without any further expense fur transportation. If
.luy of your leather acquaintances should feel disposed
to make a good investment, here is the opportunity.

The sea-grape {coccojoha uvifera) is most common
on all our shores. I believe it is cultivated in Kew ;
at all events, they have dried specimens there in the
herbarium. I enclose a slight sketch of the tree for
your information. The leaves are very leathery and
stiff, about eight to twelve inches across. The flowers
arr small, white, in a narrow spire > Liter on fonning
into a sort of dark l)lue grape, which cm be eaten.
but are rather astringent. The wood is dark red
and a good timber. The tree grows on the sandy
shore, and is quite common in most West India
islands.

From the Tropical Ai/HcuHunst I learn that divi
cultivation is now taken up in the East, both in Java,
the Straits Settlements, and the East Indies. I

should very much like to know whether the future
for divi is encouraging, and what prices are at present,
I am determined to acquire the esUte mentioned
above. If you think you can find me a partner, or
form a small company ou shares, I shall be glad to
learn your views. Tlie Ian I is about 600 acres, so there
is plenty of room for further extensions.

INDIAN GOVERNMENT COMPETITION WITH
CINCHONA CULTIVATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE " MADHAS MAIL."

Sir, — I trust you will also allow me to enter a
protest against the Government plantmg any more
cinchona. In these hard times, when most planters
are living merely from baud to mouth, I consider it
most disgraceful that government should continue to
extend their plantations, which must be to the detri-
ment of private enterprize. When the enormous
number of cinchonas recently planted on the Govern-
ment estates come into bearing, the crops j-ielded
by them must affect the market. I submit the
following figures, which speak for themselves: —
No. of plants enumer- No. returned by the

ated by JIajor Walker
in 1878.
Wood 45,758

Hooker 87.557

Neddivuttum 208,780
Dodabetta 220,936

Directors as existing
3l8t March, 1885.

555,166
432,091

033,487

Thus Government has, in six years, extended its
estates by over one million plants ! Planters were
led to believe that the Secretary of State had pro-
mised that no increase to the then present area
should be made, except in the case of new or rare
varieties (and a limit was placed to that); yet, under
the present Directorship, upwards of a million of
ordinary officinalis and hybrid cinchona plants have
been put out ! I contend that these are neither new
nor rare ; therefore the Government is acting in
direct opposition to its promise. The present object,
as far as I can see, is to cover as much land as
possible with anything bearing a resemblance to a
cinchona. It is high time for the Planters' Associ-
ations to take action, and represent the matter, if
need be, to the Secretary of State for India. That
the plantations are being extended is proved by the
Director's figures regarding the number of plants on
the Hooker. Major Walker gives the area of this
estate as 164 acres. Now, if the 555,160 plants
said to be ahve on 3Ist March 18S5, were placed at
four feet apart, they would cover 204 acres. But I
am informed that many of the original trees are
still in existence, and that they stand at from 7 to
8 feet apart, so this estate must have been considerably
extended. Not only is the Government competing
with the public in cinchona cultivation, but they, as
landlords, ehaige a rent which is prohibitory. For
land taken up under the new rules the annual rent
is U. 2-2-0 per acre, all forest being strictly reserved.
My opinion is that Government should at once reduce
the size of its properties. With a hundreil acres at
Dodabetta, and a similar area at Neddivuttum there
will be ample space to carry on any necessary
experiments. Anon,
^

Sunflower dn.TivATTON. — AVith reference to the
inquiry from 5Ir. ( '. S. Smith, of Momba.*ta, in our October
number, a correspondent sends us the following : —
*' The seeds of sunflowers can be sown in New Zealud
during Oi^tober ; if the season is cold, towards the
end of the mouth. The plants want plenty of room,
and rows should not be less than 3 feet apart, and
plants, say, 2 feet. For an acre it requires 6 lb.
to 7 lb. of seed. To secure a good crop the land
must be rich, and bone-meal or superphosphate may
be used freely. Forty bushels of seed to the acre is
the ordinary crop, and when it is remembered that a
bushel of seed will yield a gallon of oil, the seeds
conttiiuing 40 per cent of oil, it shows that from poor
land, deficient in certain elements, very poor returns
would be forthcoming." — Btiti^h Trade JourmU

Fiiu. I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

a'v

PLANTING IN CENTBAL AMERICA.

AN BX-OETLON PLANTER ON HIS IKAVEL8 ROUND THE

■WORLD, ENDING WITH GUATEMALA.

LIFE AND CULTIVATION IN GUATEMALA.

REVOLUTIONS O.lLOIiE.

Mv DEAR "Observer," — It is now a long time since
I pi-omised to write you, and many curious and
exciting things have happened in tlie meantime.
These events followed in such rapid succession that
I always postponed writing, waited and wondered
what would be the outcome, so that 1 would have
something else to chronicle. Wars, revolutions,
assassinated presidents, and earthquakes are now
of almost daily occurrence, and cease to excite
much interest. I shall accordingly wait no longer
but proceed to tell you of this country and its
cultivation, the city of Guatemala and its peculiar
situation, coffee, cinchona, and my own adventures.

When I first arrived in Guatemala, March 1S83,
I was most kindly received by the English Consul,
who introduced me to some of the leading plant-
ers. As the first East Indian planter who had
visited Guatemala I was presented to General
Bulino Barrios, President of the Eepublic. The
President liked me very much, and offered to pay
all my expenses through the Eepublic and furnish
me with letters of introduction to the Governors
of the different Departments. This of course I
most readily accepted, and in a few days I was
mounted and equipped for a journey up the Pacific
slope. 1 visited all the coffee districts, skirted
the Mexican boundary, and returned again to the
city by way of the Atlas, or high plateaus. I
was in the saddle 4.5 days, and averaged eight
hours a day riding. 1 gave the Minister of Public
Works a report. A few days after 1 cabled a
proposition to introduce the cultivation of cinchona,
which was accepted. I then left the city again
for the Atlantic coast, crossing the continent.
Thence by steamer up to the Mississippi to New Orleans,
Chicago, Niagara Falls, New York, crossed the At-
lantic to England, through France and Italy to
Brindisi, and on to Ceylon again. I went thence
to the Madras Presidency of Southern India to
get cinchona seed. From the Government cinchona
plantation, Dodabetta, I collected a large cjuantity
of ofticinaUs seed. But I was mostly indebted to
the superintendent of a large cinchona plantation
of succirubra cinchona whose name quite slips
my memory. The estate adjoins the Government
plantation of Neddevattam about 18 miles beyond
Ootacamund. This gentleman was extremely kind
and I owe him lasting obligations. On my return
to Colombo I procured from the Government Gardens
15 wardian cases, containing a selection of plants
which I knew were not in the Eepublic of
Guatemala, cardamoms, tea, cloves, croton, cin-
namon, etc.

I had 50 pounds of cinchona, I think the
largest quantity that was over shipped across the
ocean. I packed it in a peculiar way all my own,
and as it was a complete success I shall describe
the method. I had 150 bags made of cotton cloth
which were about a third tilled with seed. My
intention was to take the seed as baggage, which
would enable me to take it out of the ship's hold
at least every week, turn it over and handle it
thoroughly to prevent it from caking together or
getting musty ; also to have fresh air circulating
inside the box frequently would also bo a good
thing. The box was an iron one, which closed
hermetically and fitted inside another box made of
wood to protect it. Mr. Thomas A. Gockburn of
Eathkelle estate, Badulla, an old New Zealand chum
T2

of mine, obtained leave of absence and came down
to Colombo to see me. Together we fixed all things
up nicely. Cockburn had made some puroliases of
seed for rae in Ceylon, which I had marked
separately, and. am pleased to say, came up all right.

From Colombo to Singapore I opened my box
of cinchona seed and placed the bags in the sun
for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.
This I did several times. By this exposure I ex-
pected to kill any moths or worms that
might have been collected with the seed. After
leaving Singapore I did not expose it longer tc
the sun, but handled it well, turning it over and
over. I was strongly advised to pack in bottles.
I am glad I did not, because I should have been
obliged to ship as general cargo, which would have
prevented me from handling or stirring the seed
up from time to time. Bottles, too, are apt to
break, and being corked the seed is always in its
own atmosphere, which I don't think is good.

I see by my Ohserrerit that your Mr. John
Ferguson has made a trip round the world. The
articles which he wrote were extremely interesting
to me, iiarticularly so as I had preceded him only
a few months on the same road. I shall dismiss
the story of my trip therefore, as I can only repeat
what he lias already so ably communicated. I may
mention I got remarkably good dispatch from
Hongkong. We reached that port at i o'clock in
the afternoon and by 10 next morning we were
steaming away out of the harbour on the good ship
" Arabic " for Yokohama, Japiin. We stayed
four days in Japan, and had a most gay and
festive time. It h.ippened to be the Mikado's
birthday. Tokio was decorated in the most gorgeous
array of banners and bright bunting, and the in-
habitants rejoiced in their own peculiar way. After
leaving Yokohama we had extremely bad weather
for six days. A week before a cyclone had passed
through the sea, which accounted for the extremely
ugly waves. On the night of the fifth day out a
lundtic who was on board had to distinguish him-
self by setting fire to the ship. He went very
cunningly to work and nearly succeeded. At mid-
night he got up from his bed, noiselessly passed
the berths of the other steerage passengers without
disturbing them and entered the forehold, closed
the door and shut himself in. He then struck a
match and set fire to a number of bales of straw which
were stored there. The material was very inflam-
mable and the most disastrous consequences might
have resulted ■, fortunately by chance a heathen
Chinee happened to be standing on the upper deck
opposite the gangway leading down to the steerage
rooms and saw the man enter the forehold,
and had the curiosity to follow and watch
him. He at once flew on deck and rang the fire-
bell. It was the first officer's watch ; he leaped
down from the bridge and entered the hold at a
pace fitting the occasion, nearly brained the lun-
atic, and set to work to extinguish the flames.
The crew were very well trained, and in a
marvellously short time a flood of water
was streaming into the tire. I arrived on deck
at this time and saw the first officer enveloped
and nearly choked in the smoke. I joined him,
and when we and the other men came on deck
after the danger was all over and the excitement
subsided, it would have been diliioult to recog-
nize what kind of animals we were : a something
more than monkey; but a very undignified man.
Darwin I think would have claimed us as the
long looked for "inissinii link."

Wc reached San Francisco in due course and
thence to Guatemala. I completed the round of
the world in eighty-four days deducting the

57<J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [Feb, i, 1886.

time I spent in India, which I think is only
fair, as the steamer which dropped me at Colombo
went direct to Hongkong. I had some trouble
with my wardian cases of plants in San Fran-
cisco at the custom-house. I had them consigned
there instead of througli to Guatemala.

On reaching Guatemala city, I handed them
over to the Minister of PubUc Works, and he in
turn gave them to some planters. How the
Guatemalatians (natives) wondered. They are any-
thing but a voyaging nation : quite the other
way in fact. To go hence to a neighbouring city is
thought an undertaking, but to go round the
world was too stupendous for their undertaking.

The city of Guatemala is most pecuUarly
situated, perhaps none other like it in the world.
It occupies the middle of what appears a high
plateau of plain, but which in reality is split
U11 by scores of barancas. The remarkable thing
is that it is built fairly on the centre of the
watershed between the two oceans, Pacific and
Atlantic.

The rain which falls on the southern and
western side of the city is drained off into
barancas which form streams and are ultimately dis-
charged into the Pacific Ocean. On the other
half of the city the rain and drainage finds its
way into barancas running in the opposite direc-
tion. These barancas converge and the water goes
to swell the volume of mighty Matagua river,
the largest in the Eepublic except the Usama-
sinta. The Matagua is a tine river capable of
floating large steamers of light daught for fully
100 miles from the sea. Its outlet is on the
Atlantic side. The river XJsamasinta has an
enormous volume of water ; I think there is none
other larger south of the Mississipi of the United
States and north of Panama. Its tributaries
drain the western boundaries of British Honduras
and the whole north and centre of Guatemala.
It flows through Yucatan and a section of Mexico,
and is finally discharged into the Mexican Gulf.
The city of Guatemala has something else very re-
markable about it. It is a smokeless city.
There is no smoke to be seen anywhere. The
only thing which fumigates the atmosphere in
tlie way of smoke is what issues from the mouths
of the citizens in the shape of consumed tobacco.
A Spanish American if he is not smoking it is
because he has just finished a cigarette or is about
to begin another. All the fuel used for household
purposes is charcoal, which is brought in from
long distances on packmules by the Indians and
sold to houseliolders. It is true there is a little
firewood used, but very very Kttle chiefly . for
kindling.

When I left Guatemala for India to collect my
cinchona seed I left a gentleman in charge of the
constructing seed nnrseries. Don Louis Arrachea
proved himself worthy of my trust and confidence.
He erected seed nurseries all over the Pacific Coast,
also made some in connection with the Municipalities
of the Pueblos of the Alta Vera Pas. The nurseries
on the Pacific slope were made in connection with
the coffee plantations. Altogether I had built and
nearly ready to receive seed some 19 nurseries. On
my return to Guatemala I left as soon as possible
for the Pacific slope with ray seed, and after
a most tiresome journey and surmounting innumer-
able difficulties and troubles, which to you would be
almost incredible, I succeeded in getting my seed
sown and sprouted. The form of the roof of the
seed nurseries I had made after the manner which was
found so successful in Ceylon. A simple thatched
roof sloping towards the south and facing or open i
towards the north. This form X always found '

secures the seedlings from the rays of the sun,
at the same time gives them all the light of day,
which is all that is required. I pricked out seedUngs
into extended nurseries beginning in .July of last
year, and redistributed them or scattered them further
over the whole face of the land. The following are
the names of the coffee districts and plantations on
which cinchona is planted together with the number
of plants planted out. In addition to this list there
are a. number of other plantations which have
received plants but I have almost lost trace of them.
Ou the Pacific slope, district of El Tumbador •—
Estate of til e Prt,sident, El Porveuio 600,0fi0 : Bola de
Oro 100,000 ; EI Peru 100,000 ; Nueva Granda 10,000 •
Siglo XIX 10,000 ; Nuevo Mundo 10,000 ; Monte Christo
10,000 ; Canada 10,000 ; Las Luces 6,000 ; Montevideo
8,000 ; El Eosario 20,000 ; El Paro 5,000; Municipality
5,000. ^ '

District of Costa Cuca.— Los Mercedes 200,000 ;
La Libertad 110,000 ; Des^impaiades 50,000 ;
Santa Gertrudes 20,000 ; La Unidad 6,000 ; Las Deli-
cias 8,00G ; San Benito 5,000 ; Las Marias 5,000 , La
Virgin 0,000 ; Sau Jose 7,000 ; San Augu.stin 6,000 ;
San Isidro 7,000 ; La Violeta 7,000 ; Santa Elena
8,000 ; Palmira 7,000 ; Democracia 7,000.

District of Xolhuitz.— Helvetia 50,000 ; .San Jose la
Vina 63,000 ; La Suerta 20,000 ; Xolhuitz 20,000.

Distrir^t of Pueblo Nuevo. — Peneflor 50,000 ; Santa
Cecilia 9,000; La Cumbre 7,000; Casa Kojo 8,000
Nueva Francia 8,000 ; La Florida 5,000.

District of Antigua. — Capitia 00,000 ; Portal 30,000:
Philadelphia 10,000 ; San Andres 12,000 ; other smaller
places 12.000.

MunicipaUties of Alta Vera Pas. — Municipality of
Purhula 25,000; Tactic 30,000; Santa Christobal
10,000 ; Sauta Cruz 60,000 ; Ooban 5,000 ; S. Pedro
60,000 ; San Juan 1 000 ; some coffee estates 30,000.

Altogether I have about 1,500,000 fine plants two
and three feet high planted out, making some
allowances for vacancies. The method of planting
out plants of all kinds differs somewhat from
the way we do. In the nurseries the plants are
pricked out much further apart than with us in
Ceylon, so that a nursery with 100,000 plants
covers a very large space, more than double the
size of our Ceylon nurseries — particularly with
coffee. The plants in a coffee nursery are fully
a foot apart. When dug up they are taken with
all the earth around them in a gigantic ball : one
mozo or eooly cannot carry on his back more
tlian three or four plants to the field. A coffee plant
is a young tree with primary and often secondary
branches. Holes are dug on the field of a size pro-
portionate to the size of the plant, I often en-
quired what proportion of vacancies the planters
had to a young clearing after the first planting. They
did not seem to understand the question. It ap-
pears the planting out is done so thoroughly the
first time, that there is no further need of sup phes
next year. The cost of the original planting is
very much higher than with us, but then it is done
and finished with. Planting out with a ball of earth
as it is done in Ceylon, I am persuaded, is only
a half measure. Here the plant is cut out of the
nursery with a gigantic knife called a machete.
In size the plant resembles, with its ball of earth,
a large-sized flower-pot.

In planting a coffee estate the method of lining
is also different. They run down one base line much
the same as we do. They are then provided with
a rightangled-shaped frame of light construction. The
legs of the frame are put against the pegs placed in
the base line, and in the apex of tlie right angle an-
other peg is put and so on until the whole field is
lined up. By this means the whole of the plants
are exactly equi-distant, and whichever way one look
are straight well defined coffee rows. The distance
apart is usually 9x9. In some places this distance

Feb. I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

57^

is thought too close and they line 12x12. The

tree is mostly allowed to grow just as it pleases.
In some cases there are rude attempts at cultivation.
For instance some few planters, those with ad-
vanced ideas (?), top the plant as soon as it is
planted out within a toot of the ground, and two
stems are allowed to grow for six feet ; then these
two stems are again cut and four stems are grown.
After this the tree does just as it pleases. Picking
is done witli ladders, and a piece of one real (25 cents
of your money) is paid for each measure. A
measure is equal to one of your palam bushels. As
soon as the cherry leaves the tree the method of
curhig is then entered on, and it is conducted in a
most slovenly, careless manner. Now the great
falling-off takes place.' They have all Gordon's
pulpers. cisterns (or wet parchment, and drying
patios for tlieu- coffee, peelers and the coffee is
picked in the usual way. But strange, as it may
seem, they don't seem to know rightly how to make
use of them. The coffee bean is a vei-y fine one,
and I don't see any reason why it should not
command the same price in the London market as
the Ceylon coffee. But it docs not by a long way.
Now the question, I may say the very vexed
question, which will occur to the mind of a Ceylon
planter, is. how on earth is it that these people
in Central America can make coffee plantations
pay large returns, with labour at SO cents a day
and upwards, a longer sea voyage, and the very
expensive isthmus of Panama to cross, with all the
risks of transhipments and we cannot do so here?
I think their wonder will almost amount to in-
credulity when I add that there is an export duty of
50 cents on every quintal of coffee. (A quintal is
100 lb.) The cost of taking the coffee from the dis-
tricts nearest to the railway stations is from 160 cents
to two rupees. The Bailway Company has a mono-
poly by which they charge 80 cents for running
about .50 miles. The Wharf Company has another
monopoly by which they charge 60 cents for allow-
ing the coffee to cross their wliarf, which monopoly,
IS joined to another monopoly of transhipment of
the coffee from the end of the wharf to the steamer,
60 cents more. Poor coffee, poor coffee planters! How
would you in Ceylon stand that sort of tiling?
Don"t you think every planter would before now
have invested all his savings in dynamite and
blown Ceylon into some other spliere rather than
tolerate these monopolies one day? 1 think,
they "'ould. When in addition to all the above
charges, I tell you that the coffee only-
fetches some 60 shillings (which is placing very
high, 40 to 60 is nearer) in the London market,
I shall not be at all surprised if my statements
are received with a certain amount of incredulity.

But I hope to make you understand tJie reason
thereof. The secret rests in the enormous pro-
duction. A coffee estate in the best districts (I
make this qualification because at one time people
were so crazy for coffee that they planted it
everywhere) when the trees are in full bearing
yields about three quintals per querda. There are
eight querdas to an acre, so that the yield is
from 1 ton to 1 ton 5 cwt. per acre. How
is that ? Does not the planter of Ceylon long
for lands blest by nature in this way? I have seen
of soil, a tine chocolate loom, rich and friable,
30 feet deep, and plenty of it intermixed with
layers of volcanic ash a foot to three feet thick.
The total amount of coffee shipped last year from
(inatemala was about 400,000 quintals (pronounced
kmtals 100 lb.) which is very considerable. It is
Tery difficult to arrive at correct statistics here.

The Indian population are a very industrious
class, bard-woikiug and law-abiding. There are

quite a number of different languages each quite
distinct from the others. They are by far the
largest portion of the population of the country :
altogether I suppose there are about a million,
and some .SOO.OOO or 400.000 Ladinos, or mixed
breeds, the descendants of the Spaniards intermixed
• with the Indians.

The Ladinos chiefly congregate in the towns and
are employed in all the Government offices, post
and telegraph, etc. The Indian occupy the altos
and cultivate wheat, maize, potatoes, — oats, in fact
fi'! the wants of the people. They are great car-
riers of burdens, 100 to 150 pounds is not at all
an unusur' load for them to carry 150 to 200
miles. I l.ke them very much indeed. They can
be trusted implicitly except only with drink. Here
lies their greatest weakness. They are born drunk-
ards. It is customary in a family of Indians for
the heads of the household to get drunk turn
about. The husband is always accompanied by his
wife, who keeps perfectly sober and sees that no
harm comes to her spouse. Next feast day it is
her turn to get drunk and he looks after her. A
few weeks ago when returning from my last visit
of inspection I passed a large village, which was
simply crowded with Indians who had come to
a fiesta. They were all under the influence of liquor
and were becoming worse every minute. I passed
through alright and for five to six leagues along
the road I passed groups of twos, fours and sixes.
The half were horribly drunk and the other half
comparatively sober. They never attempt to molest
anyone travelhng when in this state. They all
carried gourds which were tilled with a kind of nati .e
beer brewed from sugarcane. I only saw one man
alone; as I passed him he called: "Patronc, allow me to
mount your spare mule. Take me along mth you
for God's sake. I am aU alone. My wife is not
here — left me," &c. Then he cried as though his
heart would break and rolled in the dust. In
travelling 1 always carry a revolver, but have seldom
had occasion to draw it and never used it. They
have a mortal dread of Englishmen. An English-
man could travel from the boundary of Texas
through Mexico and Central America to the Argent-
ine Eepublics, and I don't think he would be
very ranch molested. They usually class our
American cousins and the English as one, and
call them Ingleses. " Los Ingleses estan muy
bravos." On one occasion a Texan was travelling
through the country and happened to be on the
road on Holy Thurs.lay. To travel on Holy Thurs-
day is thought so bad, so outrageous and sacrilegious,
that the culprit is in danger of being stoned in
passing any Pueblo. The Texan, a muscular
Southerner, quite innocent of harm, entered a
village and was passing quietly through. He
was greeted everywhere with all kinds of reproaches,
and grown bold with talk and liquor they began
stoning him. This was rather too much. He drew
his shooting irons and in n very short time
captured the town. The men mostly took refuge
on the hill and the women closed their doors and
prayed for the saints to relieve them of the fear-
ful tiend. History records that he had a pair of
horns and a tail ; be that as it may, they all have
a most wholesome fear of foreigners and especially
los Ingleses ever since.

I think I shall now conclude this letter. So far
I have had to crowd what I have to say very
much. In my next I shall tell you of how we
journey through this country. Also of my journey
of exploration to the Atlantic coast, and my cx-
nerience while commissioner to the New Orleana
Exhibition,— Yours truly, W, J. FOBSl'TH,

%r-i

•tmS. TROPICAL AGKICULTUKlS-r. [Feb. i, 1886.

QTTINOLOniOAL AVOBK IN THE MADRAS

CINCHONA PLANTATIONS.

By David Hooper, F. O. S.,

Oovernmeiit QuinoJogist.

Since the disappearance of Mr. John Eroughton
from the Madras Presidency in the year 1875 no
systematic chemical work had been conducted in cin-
chona culture on the Nilgiris. Theauthor. who had been
a-ppoiuted early last year, entered into his dutii.'s
la st October. The appointment was made with a
V ew to advance the practice of cincliona culture at
the Ooveinment plantations, " by analj'sing the bark
of a very large number of their trees in different
stages of their growth, when treated under different
systems and when grown at different altitudes."

Mr. Hooper gave a table of analyses showing the
quinine and the other alkaloidal value of a number
of different kinds of bark. These results were the
averages of numerous analyses. So far as they go
it appears that in regard to Cinchona Officinalis the
younger trees are superior to the older ones, and
the narrow-leaved variety to the broad-leaved. The
following amounts of quinine were determined iu
three kinds of crown bark from trees of the .same

age:

Broad-leaf.
... 2-95
... 3-47
3-85

Narrow-leaf.

Natural 285

Mossed 4-03

Renewed 448

The varit'ty of officinalis named anr/fHifolia some
years ago creatitd a widespread interest on account
of the extraordinary amount of quinine found in it
by Ilroughton and Howard. Mr. Hooper's samph^s
were taken from tree twenty years old, 10 feet high,
and with a circumference of 18 inches. Mossed
gave 5'G(I, and renewed 4 91 per cent of (juinine.
The results show its superiority over ordinary crown
barks, but in its present condition it appears to
have no cUim to be n prodigy in cinchona culture.
Barks from hybrids lj..Lween C. officinalis and ('.
st'crir/ihra have received of late a great deal of
attention from planters. These, named respectively
C. inaffnifolia and 0, pnbescens, yielded from 2'73 to
3'32 per cent of quinine, the C. pjdifscens yielding
the largest amount of this alkaloid.

The piiajjends bark is characterised by yielding an
unusual quantity of the alkaloid quinidine.

The analysis of the Ledgerinna tree at Naduvatam I
(quinine 558, cinchonidiue 1*24, no quinidine, cincho-
nine '23, amorphous alkaloids '62) is fairly represent-
ative. Ledger bark from the South Wynaad, yielding
8"41 of quinine, was an average sample of shavings taken
from twenty-one trees of five and a half years old;
the amount of quinine is equiv.ilent to 1131 per cent
of the crystalli.sed sulphate ; this is one of the highest
results obtained in South India.

In this paper was also reported the examination of
a tree of Cinchona succirubra to discover the distribu-
tion of alkaloids iu its various parts. The tree was '
twenty-three years old and 31 feet high ; it had grown
iu ill) exposed situation, and had never been barked
or iDoaeed. The whole yielrled of dry bark 271b.
14 oz. ;---Eoot, 2 lb. S oz, i stem. I'O lb. 14 oz. ; branch,
3 lb, 2 or.. ; twig, 1 lb, H oz. ; dried leavc.% 2 lb.

The root biirk coutRlned 5-3(> per cent oi total alkal-
oid.'i, the bark of the stem below ground 4'i'l per
bent, ttliile most other portions of the stem bark
yielded under 4 per cent. The leaves only yielded "0
per cefit.

Other evperimeilt." seemed to show that shade was
very faVcilllablH to the development of quinine and
cinchouidine.

From a .short series of e.iperiments on mossing old
trees, Mr. Hooper thinks that getierally old and original
trees if of vigorous growth may still be improved by j
the mossing system. |

[The Tresideut said he regretted that it had been ne-
cessary to merely read an abstract of the paper, for -
it was a most interesting one throughout, and would
amply repay very careful study.] — Chemist and I
DriiyyUi. I

COFFEE AND CINCHONA.

During the past twenty-five years the coffee enter-
prise m Southern India has passed through some re-
markable vicissitudes. In 18(30 there were comparat-
ively few estates opened in Malabar, Coimbatore,
Coorg or Mysore, but several of the most fertile and
profitable properties now in existence were developed
prior to that date. This circumstance may be attrib-
utable to their possessing extraordinarily rich soil
to the coffee having been planted under natural shade'
within sheltered belts, or on land where the forest
had been felled, but unburned. A quarter of a century
ago, '• coHee planting," though restricted iu area, had
^ proved a lucrative venture, and despite the reputed
unhealthiness of the climate, the paucity of roads
and the inexperience of the pioneers, a great deal of
Kuglish capital was attracted to the coffee districts.
The ensuing decade is memorable for a vast exten-
sion of the industry: large blocks of laud were felled
cleared, and planted, inclusive of much land which
was .subsequently found to be uu.suitable to the growth
of the bean. Notwithstanding the ravages of " borer "
which in 18116 and subsequently, created considerable
alarm, particularly in Coorg, the proprietor of a coffee
estate was generally regarded as an enviable individ-
ual, who was on the high road to making a fortune.
Many properties changed hands at figures profitable
to both vendors and purchasers, while handsome re-
turns were the rule on all such as were prudently
worked, even with " M. P." at £60 per ton. .Such
was the position of affairs, when, early in 1871
rumours reached India of the outbreak of a* formid-
able disorder inimical to coffee, which, unlike " borer "
primarily attracted attention in Ceylon, where its effects
were speedily apparent over a rapidly increasing
area. Towanls the close of the year " leaf disease "
had established itself on Indian plantations, showing
at first most acutely on estates adjacent to the Ghats,
whence it extended inland and assumed an epidemic
type. It is still a moot point, whether a form of
Uemihia Vastiitrij had not been prevalent in AVyuaad
some years previously, it being surmised that it con-
fined its attention to a particular variety of coffee
known as the "chick," which had been observed, so'
far back as 1867, to annunlly di.splay a deciduous
tendency about the month of September. Opinions
differ as to the origin of " leaf disease," and the pro-
blem still awaits solution, but no divergence of views
exists with regard to its disastrous effec's. These
embraced periodical destruction of the foliage and
bearing branches ; a falling off in the cropping capa-
city of the trees; the deterioration of the beau iu
substance and colour; and the stricken coffee, unless
liberally manured, remaming paralyzed for months
until it languished below a point at which all cultiv-
ation became unprofitable. The inevitable cousequeuce
has been reduced production, with diminished exports •
and though, during a spell of high prices, proprietors'
were enabled to carry on their properties, they were
gradually confronted with the necessity to relinquish
outlay on their least productive fields.

In 1878, the uncertainty attending the future of
coffee induced a few planters to turn their attention
to the introduction of cinchona on their estates
project that received considerable stimulus from the
marked success which had attended its cultivation by
Captain Cox, in the Charambady District. The follow,
ing years witnessed the gradual diminution of the
area under coffee in Southern India, but they were
coincident with the progress of cinchona plantiog. and
at the commeucement of the present lustre a vigor-
ous effort had been made on the great ii:.i|„rjty of
estates to establi.vb the most aj.proved and best known
yariolies of red and yellow bark trees. At the outset,
it was imposible to forecast whether these ciucliouas
would flourish in Ooorg and Wyuaad, whether they
Would (to quote it sporliug term) "stay," or prove
ephemeral, .is has since be u the case' in Ceylon;
whether abandoned coffee lauds could lie utilised with
advantage, more especially for the growth of Sucoi-
rubras, and the effect the later would produce if planted

Feb. I, iS86.] THE TROPICAL AGRlCULTVKiST.

STi

at regular intervals ou highly cultured fields of coffee,
lu the meautime, worthless e.'^tates hail been aband-
oned ; shade had been fostered over the more pro-
mising properties, and the most fertile portions of
the latter were brought under tlie highest system of
modern cultivation. Under shade, and with such im-
proved treatment, cotfee suffers less severely from the
annually recurrent attacks of '■ leaf disea.se," and
the yield from economically managed estates fortifies
the owner against los.s ou working expenditure, while
on some favorcil plantations in Coorg, Wyuaad, and
the >;ilgiris, bumpir crops are still realised. Expe-
rience, though still immature, indicates that, where
sheltereil from the voilence of the south-west monsoon,
0. Succirubras, C. Cal. Ledgers flourish as a general
rnle on vir^'iu soil in Ooorg aiid Wynaad, though ; '
growth of the former is less rapid and vigorous upon
abandoned coffee lands. "Where the red bark is
planted not less than 10 by 10 feet, in highly cultiv-
ated cotfee, and when the brandies are carefully lopped
from the time they overshadow the coffee, the latter
buifers no appreciable injury. In addition to the cin-
chonas named, some other varietie.* have been suc-
cesfully introduced which seem to find the soil and
climate of the drier divisions of Ooorg and 'W'jiiaad
thoroughly congenial. The .success of cinchona in
these districts may now be considered as assured ;
coffee planters who have survived a long period of
misfortune may now be said to so have two strings
to their bow. — Madras JIail,

^ THE TUBEEOSE IH NATAL.

So much progress has been made within the last
few years in the cultivation of the double Tuberose
in this colony, that no excuse is needed for bringing
it under your readers' notice. I cannot exactly ascertain
when the Tubero.se was first brought to Natal,
but it must have been about fifteen years ago. IMr.
Justice Phillips, late of Natal and now of Cyj^rus,
■was a most ardent horticulturist, and the credit of
importing the Tuberose is attributable to him. A
short account of the fine estate planted by this
gentleman near JIaritzburg will be found in Mr. J. A.
Froude's graceful little sketch, Leaves of a South
African Journal.

For several j-ears Tuberose bulbs, in number a few
hunderd, were simply cultivated, not propagated,
their possibilities unthought of. About five years
since, however, they were taken in hand, and a diflterent
culture began. Instead of the bidbs beign allowed to
occupy the same ground year after year without
transplanting or division of any kind, they were
regularly lifted about June, growth being then at a
halt, the offsets taken off, and replanted the following
spring (September).

I .shall describe the method followed in a 10 acre
field, which is daily under my notice. In October la,st
year, the dry grass having been burnt off, the ground
— perfectly virgin soil — was broken up with a large
American plough drawn by twelve oxen ; the few large
boulders lying about were removed. For a first crop
Mealies (Maize) were sown broad-cast, and harrowed
in. The next thing was to got the field enclosed with
a good bank and ditch and barbed-wire fence. Owing
to a press of work the Jlealies grew up untouched
tnr the hoe or cultivator of any kind, yet, thanks to
the good season, an average crop of fair-sized cobs
was gathered last April.

As is generally the custom here, during the winter,
the cattle were tarneil in to feed off the cornstalks.
In August last all was burnt that woidd burn, and the
ground thoroughly plouehed, cross-ploughed, and
harrowed twice, grass and Mealie roots gathered and
biu'nt, The soil being in a fine friable condition,
furrows were struck out 2 feet apart with a small iron
plough and a couple of horses, a simple marking-
machine drawn up and down the drills, and the sets
planted 6 inches apart, and hoed in, Weeds are
vpfy carefully kept down, and with our heavy summer
rains the growth of the plant is rapid. About mid-
summer (December) the splendid spikes of bloom
expand, and continue till mid-winter (Juue); indeed

in this locality, 2,800 feet above the sea, I am convinced
that, with a little management in planting successional
batches, they could be had in flower in the open
ground throughout the year. For so little frost have
we, that Tomatos generally continue to ripen fruit in
tliH open through the winter; when in IMaritzburg,
about 200 feet below us, they are invariably killed by
the cold. Canuot the Tuberose be flowered in the
open — at least in the South of England ? I venture
to ask your readers to try. The climate of this colony
is particularly well suited for the cultivation of
bulbous-rooted plants — a hot, moist summer, followed
by a dry, cool winter; and, I will add, this locality
is f.avoured above many other.s for Tuberose culture.
We mi.'s the winter rains of the coast, and escape
the up-country summer hailstorms. A rough estimate
gives about SO acres under Tuberoses in this colony,
and the number of bulbs now in the ground nearly
3,0OO,UU0.— K. W. Adlam, Pieter Maritzburg, Natal.—
GarJeiurs^ Chronicle.

TEA:

THE HOE r. TIANDWEEnliNG AND THE FOKK.

Early in the year a lea<lini,' planter from Ceylon
paid a visit to Assam, and had a general look round
the tea districts there, no doubt for the purpose of
" picking up wrinkles." Considering the rapid strides
made of late by our island rival in the home market
it is a question whether we may not have somethiu''
to learn from Ceylon. Situated as Ceylon is, witE
a large and well distributed rainfall, and with a
climate like a forcing house, it is, as has been said
a perfect par.adise for leu/ crops ; and tea is likely
to flourish W'here coffee, as a fruit crop, has failed.
The marvellous increase of the tea exports from
Ceylon, from practically nil ten years ago to nearly
foiu' millions of pounds m 188-J-8.i, points to some-
thing more than mere advantages of climate and
rainfall ; it indicates very rapid exteii,.iion of tea
cultivation, and persevering and successful work.
The prices realized by Ceylon teas show that they
are by no means behind the best of our tea-
houses in their manufacture. It is noted, more-
over, that any quantity of laud is available for
the extentioii of tea cultivation, freehold — or " fee
simple" as the Assam planter calls it, — at an upset
price of 10 shillings an aero. Oeylon bids fair to
become a formidable rival to Assam. One of the diffier-
ences between Oeylon and Assam is in cultivation.
The Ceylon visitor before alluded to iutroduced a sub-
ject whicli, iu one or two districts, has since become a
quastio, ve.vatii among his hosts. He argued that the
system of hand-weeding practised in Oeylon was one
reason of their success: that the use of the old fam-
iliar hoe was very much against the tea bush, cuttiug
its roots, turning over the soil iu solid clods and not
breaking it up or " fertilizing" it. "Hand-weeding"
for a while became a regular bone of contention to be
discussed with more or less acrimony wherever two or
three were gathered together. Some few Assamese
swallowedthenoone whole ; others nibbled at it ; others
again would not look at it. In other words, one or
two men wont crazy on the subject of hand-wee.ling ;
some went in for cautiously trying experiments by not
hoeing certain selected patches, but weeding them by
hand a goodly number disdaiu the idea altogether, and
stick to the hoe, pure and simple. No doubt handweed-
iugis carried out iu Ceylon on a large scale, most success-
fully. No doubt also it is true, as asserted, that where
hoeing is done cm hill slopes, the soil is thereby so much
disturbed, that it is easily washed away from the roots
of the bushes, leaving them exposed; audthat it is
necssary to carry soil and earth up such bushes again.
Furthermore it may be acknowledged that the hoe does
eut the laterals and niu.it tliereby do harm, more or
less. Again, no sane planter, in these days of ecouoniy,
would deny the advantage of being able to keep his
garden clean at a fabulous iiirik of about half an acre
to a ea:tra, instead of hoeing it at 20 or 25 nnls.
Granting all these facts, the iiuestion remains, — will

hand-weeding suit the soil aud jvnylc— not weeds of

au Assam garden X The advantages of rfw^-hoein^

574

THE TROPICAL AGR/CI/LTUKIST, [Feb. j, j886.

formeriy- cousklertid of vitiil iiuportaucp, are uow very
much questioned. Many successful planters have al-
together given it up, as entirely inuieccsKary. if not
injurious; but few go so far as to advocate leaving' the
soil entirely undisturbed, allowing the surface to harden
and cake. If, therefore, the concensus of opinion is
in favor of the theory that breaking the surface, and
turning the soil, to admit some (|uautuun of air and
light, is necessary, hand-weeding will not do, evidently.
But, argue the advocates of hand-weeding, tea in its
natural indigenous state in the forest, has hard, caked,
undisturbed soil around it, and thrives. This asser-
tion, to begin with, is open to question. The soil
ill the forest, from various reasons, is not likely to be-
come so hardened ou the surface as in an uncultiv-
ated but troddeu-over garden. Even if the assertion
were true, it is of little weight. The tea tree in
the forest has nothing taken out of it, as is garden
descendant has. It is neither plucked nor pruned :
naturally it thrives under different eonditious.
Further, is it itossihh to hand-weed everything
that comes up in an Assam garden ? Certain
classes of jungle, such as what is known as the
"cold weather weed," might be successfully coped
with by hand. But how about the bauds of the
coolies deputed to weed out uln and hoiluiii gras.ses,
which cut like razors ? It is to be feared that very
little work could be done by hand in that class of
jungle. On the whole, while we may have something
to learn from Ceylon in other matters, we opine we
can leave them their hand-weeding, unenvied and un-
adopted. As an accessory to forking it may be u.seful,
but nothing further. The fork is apparently the cult-
ivator of the future ; indeed, we may say of the pre-
sent, as it is rapidly superseding the hoe,— to our
knowledge in Assam, the Dooars, and Darjeeling ; and
probably also in Sylhet and Cachar. The fork thor"Ugh-
ly breaks up and exposes the soil to the beneficial
light and air. By it the roots of the obstinate uln *
grass are extracted and can be thrown away, while the
hoe only cuts the grass near the root, turns that root
over undisturbed in its own soil, and leaves it to take
an immediate fresh start. The fork cannot out the
laterals of the tea bush, nor need it touch them, if
used with anything like care. Indeed, the numerous
advantages of the fork over the hoe hardly need to be
dwelt on, and we look forward to the time when the
hoe will be as obsolete on a tea garden as the pruning
shears. Forking, aided perhaps by hand-weeding, is
the cultivation of the future.— -/nrfiira Tea Planters'

Gazette.

. .*.

AGRICULTUBE IN THE NOBTH-WESTEEN

PROVINCES OF INDIA.

It is satisfactory to us, who have, since the first
publication of the Asian, almost always endeavoured
to encourage the work of the different Agricultural
Departments throughout India, to see from the rei'ort
of the operations of the Department of Agriculture and
Oommerc« in the North- Western Provinces and Oudh
for the year ended the Slst .September last, that good
work has continued to be done throughout the year.
Arboriculture seems to linve been well carried on
during the year, uo less a sum than K59,878 having
been expended on it, whilst the sales from loppings
and fellings of the different trees, as well as from
the produce of the trees, realised altogether
K.38,-85. lu plautiug trees along the roads the same
energy was shown, 1,76S miles having been planted out
RS against 1,226 miles in the previous year. Hut the
cost was of course increased, amounting to RtM.OSl
against ll48,12(i. The nurseries at the end of the
year amounted to Hi', and they contained 286,.'il0
young trees, the cost of their maintenance amounting
to K7,8;il. A new invention has been made by
Mr. Twigg, the Collector of Hamirpur, for watering
plants wheu enclosed within fences, which consists
of a long tin tube sheathed with split bamboo carried

• No doubt the iluk of the Singhalese ; nlaiia-alanr/
of the Malays. It is the main " jungle" of in any Indian
tea d;8trict,s and is fearfully prevelant in Java,— Ed.

on a water cart, one end of which is I3ut through the
fence when the water is delivered from an earthen pot
furnished with a nozzle fitting into a leather bag which
is attnched to the outer entl of the tube. The agri-
cultural experiments ;it the different farms lio not
seem to have been on the whole very successful as
the season was very deficient in the rainfall, but
tins fact we have to bring into prominent notice — the
advantage of deep o\-er .shallow ploughing, the crops
on the deep ploughed ground when only one once
ploughed, giving a produce of 13 per cent over those
that had been twice ploughed with the ordinary native
plough. Our native friends may thus be taught to
understand that the first expense of buying a proper
plough will soon be repaid, as compared with the
work done by native ploughs, in an increased yield.
So far as regards the manure question, the old native
system of using cowdmig was proved to be superior
to that of any other system of manuring tried. Some
experiments were tried with ensilage, and jiwar forage
was kept in good condition for eight months in simple
pits dug in the soil. The cost of the ensilage when
taken out anrl disposed of, showed that 8,000 lb. of
this forage had cost only Rli5-14-8 at a time when
the same quantity of dried and inferior forage could
not be obtained under K25. There is nothing parti-
cular to notice in the proceedings of the Saharanpur
and Lucknovv Cardens beyond the fact that at the
former Mr. Duthie, after a tour of three months in
the Himalayas, brought b^ck a large collection of new
plants and seeds, and that the contributions from these
gardens to the Amsterdam and Calcutta Exhibitions
received three gold and one silver medal. ^lessrs.
Lister & Co. are still extending their opera^ons in
sericulture, and have already 200 acres of mulberry
planted and 200 additional acres of land cleared for
planting, whilst they have in their nurseies a number of
seedlings sufficient to plant over 1,000 acres. The com-
pany have hitherto felt the want of a sufHcient number
of rearing sheds, but these are now being rapidly con-
structed, as the prices realiseil for cocoons last year were
quite high euough to justify them in extending their
operations. Although prizes were offered for the best
cocoons produced under cottage cultiv.'ition, as had been
the case in the previous year, there appears to belittle
hope that the experiment will ever be successful so long
as the cultivators are expected to rear worms at their
own expeu.se in all their stages. Some experiments
were made in no less thau seventeen districts with
freshly imported American tobacco seed, but the result
is said to have been good in only three districts — '
Pertabghar. Gondah, and ITnao — where the plants
flourished and yielded a good crop, and the cultivators
were so satisfied with the result that they have kept a
quantity of seed for future experiment. — Asian.

TEA CULTURE: HAND WEEDING.

I observe that the attention of some of our Managers
has been drawn to this mode of cultivation, so success-
fully practised iu Oeylon, with the object of having
it tried at least experimentally iu Assam. The advant-
ages claimed for it by Ceylon planters are. that
it costs less thau our system and yields better
results.

The chief objections urged against it from the
Indian planters' standpoint are. urst. that the greater
abundance and more (irolific growth of seed-bearing
grasses and other weeds would either reniler the
system impracticable, neutralize the economic advant-
ages claimed for it. Second! i/, that even if practiable
it would be undesirable on the ground of the ex-
clusion in much greater degree of the beneficial
influence of light and air to the soil.

With regard to the first objection it would be a
great mistake to assume that similar conditions are
nou-existent iu Oeylon with its moist forcing climate.
It is their prevalence, iu fact, which h;is led to
the adoption of incessant rapid luind-wi cding as the
only effectual means of keeping the growth of weeds
in subjection. The secoad objectipn has oo doubt

Feb. I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

575

a certain degree of abstract svientifie validity, but
in dealing with a question of this kind fiui-drawn
theoretical principles maj be safely subordinated to
the plain practical consideration — which of the tivo
systems yields the more profitable results. Judged
by this test in a comparison of the working of tea
estates betwee 1 the two countries, Coylon would
seem to have decidedly the best of it. Paying
quite as much, if not more, for his labour, the
(Jeylon planter produces his teas at a lower cost per
lb., of a quality at least equal to ours, and ohtams
a higher yield per acre frL-ni plant of the same age.
If the climate tends to force the growth of tea, it
should have the same effect on the growth of weeds,
thereby enhancing the cost of production In natur-
al fei-lility of soil and surface configuration we
should be at least on a footing of equality— a good
deal more one would imagine in respect of the large
tracts of old cotfee laud put under tea. We thus
arrive at the fairly logical inference that the superior-
ity pos^essed by Cevlon is derived mainly from its
system of culture. 'Be that as it may, the tleylon
planter has this advantage in the argument, that
while we have left his system untried, he has tried
ours, aud tried it to condemn it as little better than
ruinous. It was found a very troublesome and costly
process to restore to its former condition the land
on which these hoemg experiments had been made,
but it was held that' there is no alternative between
that course and absolute abandoumeut. This fact
poiuts to the most serious impediment to be encount-
ered— though I believe not an insurmouutable one —
in the -^plication of the system to our old
gardens. In new clearances, however, carefully made,
with the weed roots eradicated, there appears no
valid reason why it should not be found to answer.
In the case of a clearance made on grass land on
a method tried by me, many years ago. with com-
plete success in the objects than aimed at, it would
have the best chance of success. The method is
simply to dig or trench the ground to a depth of
about 18 inches— starting with a clean cut tiench
by casting on one side the soil dug out of it, then
carefully putting at the bottom of each successive
trench first the grass roots, then the surface soil,
audfuialli/ the sub-soil thoroughly pulverised at the time
of iliggin'g. While the tea plant will readily es-
tjiblish itself aud grow freely in such ground, finding
nourishment for its tap root in the underlying
surface soil and decaying grass roots, the subsoil
now on the surface is so inimical to ordinary vegetation
that no weeds will take mot in it for many months
after breaking up. Land treated in this • manner
will also be found to retain moisture in a much
higher degree in dry weather, aud to part with it
more freely when in excess, especially where there
is a stiff bottom— often a hard pan till thus broken
up. This system would be inapplicable to ordinary
forest land, nor could it be carried out in its en-
tirety where a large extension on grass land bad to
be maile in any one year. 'Ihat it would be more
costly than the ordinary method is obvious, but the
extra co.-t would be largely recoupijd by the saving
in cultivation in the first year, whilst the gain to
be derived from the plant being established under
conditions ensuring the minmum of vacancies and
the maximum of healthy development, is not
easily estimated. I may add that after the people
got used to the work a three tar nirik was got
without difficulty. In the experiments made by me,
the land was prepared early an<l the seed sown at
stake with the least possible delay. This might not
always be found practicable ami safe, and where
transplanting had tn be resorted to, care would
have to be taken in digging the liolcR to return the
soil in the order I have described, so as to always
have a pure subsod on the surface.

While advocating this system of clearance of grass
lands on its lue its, one, and not the least of my
objects in bringing it so promiueutly in view is my
belief that it furnishes the key, so to say, to the
introduction of " hand wee<UBg" in our old gardens.

To attempt this before eradicating or destr"ying
the tangled mass of weed-roots now in full possession
of the soil of old gardens would be siraph to court
failiire, and this object will be more "effectually
attained, I believe, by following in its main lines
the plan I have described, than by any other. Pre-
cautious woulil have to be taken to jireserve as far
as possibli' the chief lateral roots of the plants
from injury, but I think wa may safely reckon that
any pailial damage in this way will be tally com-
pensated for by the thorough breaking up of the
soil and .lestruction of weeds, even if not followed
up by hand weeding.

To those who may doubt the efficacy of this
plan_ in destroying the vitality of grass roots by
burying them at the depth indicated, an alternative
procedure is open to them by digging to about the
same depth, and carefully separating, collecting, and
removing all weed roots. As an illustration of the
beneficial effects of this mode of treatment, I can
poiu! to an experiment made on a patch of old tea
purchased from Monyram Dewan more than 20 years
ago, and which formed the nucleus of the Cinna-
mara Garden.

This piece of tea was in a sadly neglected condition,
and with at least 25 per cent of blanks, but its
response in the first year to this thorough treatment
and malgre considerable apparent tiamage done to
lateral roots, was a return of nearly 800 lb. of dry
tea to the acre, followed by nearly 700 in the second
year under ordinary treatment. Hand weeding was
nnthought of in those days, but it would have been
an excellent opportunity for trying it, though I am
inclined to think the first method described would
be fully as effective and perhaps cost less. However,
this is a point which can only be determined by
practical experiments carefully conducted, and my
primary object in throwing these observations to-
gether is the hope that some — a good many I trust
— of the managers of Indian Tea Gardens may be
induced to make such experiments as may help to
solve the problem of whether, and how far, the
Oeylou system can be advantageously introduced on
Indian Estates. The process must be a gradual one
under any circamst«nces, but that is all the greater
reason why no time should be lost in making a
beginning.— G. Williamson.— //irfMn Tea Ga:,tte.

Tea in S. Wvnaad. — There is a prospect of con-
siderable Tea extension taking place here, as OofTee
prices are becoming most discouraging, and it is
Seen that tea is daily pressing closer and closer on
the heels of Ooffee. — Indian Tea Gazette.

Cuvi.oN Te.v Soi.n IN England. — A gentleman
who was at home last year calls our attention to
the quality of the teas being sold under the name
of "Ceylon" to consumers in England in some
cases by those wlio profess to have our best inter-
ests at heart. He has sent us a sample of the
"Cobra Brand" tea sold at 2/8 per lb., which
was taken from a packet in a grocer's shop in
Devonshire, and adds : — " Tliough I am scarcely
competent myself to give an opinion, \* seems to
me poor stuff and not worth the price asked, and
several tea-planters to whom I have shown it
concur in this view. I have heard several com-
plaints in England of the quality of this ' Cobra
P.rand ' which, however, is now very largely sold
both in England and Scotland." The sample is
certainly decidedly inferior, and is probably a
" blend," while, we suppose, 23 8d ought to secure
a really good Ceylon tea. From an independent
authority we learn that the tea is rubbishy : half
of it broken red leaf and altogether not equal to
Pekoe Fannings, This is certainly the way to
damage Ceylon interests, by selling aiioh tea as
good average Ceylon at 2s 8d per lb.

57(>

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886.

Watehinq Vegetables. — Peas pay for watering as
much as auy crop. When dry at the root they
never fill the pods well, and the peas bscome
hard, dry, and flavourless before they have ever
attained perfection. The plan of growing summer
Peas in trjuches is a capital one. The soil must
be loosoned well down before the trench can be
made, and when watering has to be done it is a
simple matter to fill the trench with it. It has
no means of running away and not reaching the
roots, which is often the case on the level.
Kidney Beans of all sorts should be thoroughly
watered in dry weather. Cauliflowers should never
be allowed to droop their leaves for want of it.
Lettuces will take any quantity if they are to be
cut large and crisp. Ridge Cucumbers, Vegetable
Marrows, and Tomatoes enjoy abundance of water,
and generally speaking dryness at the roots is a
great drawback to all kitchen garden produce. Some
plants many be small and far from maturing
their crops, and by this it may be thought they
do not require water, or that the absence of it will
do them no harm at such an early stage of their
growth, but this idea is wrong. If tlie plants are
insufficiently supplied with moisture when young
many of the roots will peri.«h, they will become
stunted, and no amount of after watering will bring
back their uaual or former vigour, Water should
be applied to maintain their full strength, not to
renew it after a great loss has occurred. Of liquid
mamire for vegetables we cannot speak too highly,
and dissolved, artificial manures, as well as drainings
from all kinds of manure heaps, may be used
copiously. Spreading on the manure around the
plants or along the sides of the rows, and then
watering on the top of it to wash the fertilising
properties down to the roots, is a practice which
cannot be too strongly recommended. — A Kitchen
Gabdenkk.—Jok )■»(!? of Bort'uuhiirc,

OoiK Fibre Dost.— .Is an Agriculturist, I cannot
understand the position Mr. Symons, the Managing
Director of the Horrekelly Company, has taken up as
to the uselessuess of tiore dus'" for applic.ition to the
coconuL tree. When analysed it may not have yielded
encouraging results, but it has an intrinsic value as au
application to the tree that yields or products it. It
has been publicly stated on the authority of ;RIr. .Symons
that owing to the moisture in ir, it cannot be t>urnt, and
that occasionally it is ploughed into the ground to
kenp it moist. No better testimony could be given as
to its great value as an application to a tiry, sandy soil,
than its moistui'e-absorbiug or moisture-retaining pro-
perties. The coi'ouut palm luxuriates and revels in
moisture, not stagnant; and any substiuce that gives
body to a sandy, light soil and arrests the too rapid
evaporation of moisture, ought to be readily availed of
as an application to the tree, or to be ploughed into the
ground. It is an admdted fact that moisture is a
necessity for the absorption of manure by the roots of
a tree ; and if, as I bedeve, artiti.-iil manures are used
on Horrekelly, fibre dust might aav.'.n'.tgeousiy be used
as a ** vehicle " for its applicatinu. All this apart from
the manurial value the product of a tree bear.< to it.
In the last Tropical Ayftculti'rht I find Professor
Caldwell says: — "That the most ividnif distinction be-
tween stable manure and comntprcial fertilisers * *
is its large proportion of nc^^'toWi- 7n<»^<«' (the itidios are
mine) or humus-forming material." So that a moisture
loving proiluet like fibre-dust can pr.iitrdijy be utilized
as an absorl>ent of the ammoni i m bn bad in a cattle-
shed. Again: "That humus, through its decay in the
soil, furnishes cnrbonic acid among other solvent agents;
and this carbonic acid plays an iniprrtant part, by
bringing the native insoluble stock of ji ant food within
easy reach." "That soluble plant food, idricd to the
soil in commercial ftrtiliserp, lu'eds thi^ help of humus,
finally, for its solution." "That plant food in most
animal and vegetable residues used as ir.anures. costs
much less than conimerciat manures." How pertinent
all this is to the discussion recently raised in the
columns of the Observer, as to the value of fibre-dust as
an application to the coconut tree I It is to be hoped

that the directors and shareholders of the Horrekelly
Company will see that not a lb. of the fibre dust will
go to waste. Out will be profifably applied to an estate
where application and means of carriage are ridioa'-
ously easy. Perhaps this discussion will open their
eyes to tlie, I thought, exploded belief, that one who
controls the finances of an estate, is per se capable of
direcHn? its cultivation. If a practical planter, say
IMr. W. .Jar'line, who is now in the neighbourhood, aud
who received liis first lessons iu coconut cultivation on
Horrekelly be appointed to visit this estate, the share-
holders will be gainers without doubt.—" Examiner."

Aphid.^e o\ Tea Leaves are thus noticed in the pro-
ceedings of the A. and Horticultural Society of India: —
From Messrs. (leorge Henderson & Co., forwarding an
extract of a letter from Mr. Troun, of the MuUakat-
tyoor Tea Estate, Kumaon, with specimen of the
affected leaves alluded to, asking for a report. As
other p'anters may have been troubled with similar
experience, Mr. Troup's description, with the report
kindly furnished by Mr. Wood-Mason, are both given
in full : — Extract from a letter, dated the 7th June
188.5, from Norman F. T. Troup, Esq., of the Mullakat-
tvoor Tea Estpte. Lackiugton, Baijuath, Kumaon. "By
this day's post I am sending you a few sprigs of a
Tea hush that presents a most curious appearance, and
should feel very much obliged if you would kindly
get some of your friends learned in such matters to
explain what is amiss with them. The leaves of the
bushes that are thus affected present a varnished
appearance, and are coated with some sticky substance
like honey which is also as sweet as honey, and the
voung shoots are covered with a sma'l wina*d brown
fly like the c/reen fly that attacks some kinds of flowers
in greenhouses. There are also some small six-legged
insects like bugs on these bushes, of a slatish black
colour dotted with white. I at first thought that
these insects were accountable for both the brown fly
and sticky substance on the leaves, but so far as ob-
servation has enabled me to ascertain they only prey
on these flies. I observed the same sticky substance
on the bushes during the winter, but then concluded
it to be an abnormal supi)ly of honey iu the flowers,
as at that time it w.as dropping ouli of them, but
now there are no flowers for it to come from. Tliis
fly, other iusect, and the stickiness do not seem to
affnct the health of the btishes, as those they are on,
look as vigorous, and are flusliiug as freely as those
free from them. Up to date, we in this district, have
entirely free from all Tea pests, and hence iny cnrios-
itv .and ignorance regarding this one, if it is a ' pest."
.Vr. IJ'ood-.lfnMH'.f report: — "The sweet and sticky
substance on these leaves is no doubt ' honey-dew,'
mi.xeil with exuded sap. Many leaf-lice (.■l/i//(./a) are
provided on the dor.sal surface of the ante-penultim-
ate abdominal segment, wi^h a piir of tubular pro-
minences, the so-called 'honey-tubes,' each of which
bears at its extremity a minute pore. From these
pores there continually exudes a sweet ttuiil, secreted
by special glands, and eagerly sought after by anst
the so-called ' honev-dew,' which is frequently deposited
npon the leaves frequented by the lies, there be-
coming mixed with the sap that exudes from the
punctures made by these insects with the four stilets
of their sucking mouth in feeding. Hundreds of the
lice [the 'brown bugs,' of your currcspoudeut are
females and young, and the ' brown tlies ' are males]
arp glued to the different parts of the sprig of tea-plant,
as also are numbers of the fluffy white cast skins of
larva- which are populary termed 'I\[ildew.' though
they have nothing whatever to do therewith. Tlie
matter is of no practical importance whatever."

WfLLS' "ROUGHBON CORNS."
"Ask for Wells' "Rough on Corus." Quick relief,
complete, permanent cure. Corns, warts bunions.
W, E. Smith k Co., Madras, Sole AgentJS.

ftB, 1, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

577

DESTRUCTION OF RATS [AND GRUBS] WITHOUT
INJURING TREES.

TO THE EDITOE OF TIUE " INDIAN AGBtCULTUHIST."

Sir, — In a recent issue of the Indian Daily News,
" A Florist" asks to know " how to get rid of rats
without injuring the tree."

In reply, I wouKl inform him, through the medium
of your journal, of the method which my late father,
Baboo Poran Chuiidra Dutta, the then principal
flower merchant in British India, adopted successfully.
He found in his Ooltadaugha and Soorali plantations
in 1870 that rats did considerable damage to the
young Australian and country seedlings ; hut he suc-
ceeded in keeping them off from plants by simply
putting round the root one or two pods of the cow-
hage {Mucvnti pn'riens.) The cowhage is a i)od covered
with stiff bristles, which, should they touch the hand
or skin, cau.^e violent itching. The pod is generally
known to Europeans in this country by the name
of coic-itcli, which is, I believe, a corruption of its
proper name.

For worms, &c., my father found the following a
very effectual remedy : — He took equal parts of fine,
well ground chunam and salt, and mixing them
well together, used to sprinkle the mixture on the i
groimd round the roots of the plants. Having done
this, he used to water the plants immediately, which [
caused the powder to sink into the ground, and killed
the worms. This was done in all his Belgachia plant-
ations, where he kept country seedlings. The worms
used to eat the roots, but this remedy stopped their
ravages at once. This may also prove effectual in
the ca«e of white-ants.

If " A Florist" wishes to kuow more about manur- j
ing, I shall be glad to furnish him with further i
imformation. — Hem Ohundra Dctta, Rughoo Nath
Ghatterjee'B Street, Malakar's Cottage.

PBEPAEING INSECTICIDES.

■\Ve take the following brief directions for mixing
various insecticides from a recent pamphlet of the
U. S. Bureau of Entomology :

London Purple. — To 20 lb. flour from i to J lb.
is added and well mixed. This is applied by a sifter
or blower. With 40 gals, water J to J lb. is mixed
for spraying.

Paris Green.— With 20 lb. flour from J to 1 lb.
is mixed and applied by sifting or by a blower. The
same amount of the insecticide to 40 gals, water is
used as a spray.

Bisri.l'HiDE OF Carbon. — For use in the ground
a quantity is poured or injected among roots that
are being injured. Against insects damaging stored
grain or museum material a small quantity is used
in an air-tight vessel.

Carbolic Acid.— A solution of one part in 100 of
water is used against parasites on domestic animals
and in their barns and sheds ; also on the surfaces
of plants and among roots in the ground.

Hklleboue. — The powder is sifted on alone or
mixed 1 part to 20 of flour. With 1 gal. of wat^r J
lb. id mixed for spraying.

Kebosenk.— -l/iV/i- EmuUioii: To 1 part milk add
2 part.>! kero,«ene, and churn by force pump or other
agitator. The butter-like emulsion is diluted ad Uhitum
with water. [An easier method is to simply mix I
part kerosene with S of milk. — TS,v]—fioap Emdsivn-:
III 1 gal. hot water i lb. whale oil soap is dis-
solved. This instead of milk is mixed to an emulsion
with kerosene in the same manner and proportions
as above.

Pyrethklm; Persian Insect Powder.— Is blown
or sifted on dry ; a!so applied in water, 1 gal. to
a tablespoonfnl of the powder, wcU stirred and then
sprayed.

Tobacco Decoction. — This is made as strong as
possible as a wash or spray to kill insect pests on
auiuials and plapts. —Xoilh- H'eftcrn Fanner and
Dairyman.

78

PREPABATION .OF FIBRE.

It is interesting to know that the subject of our
fibre industries is making considerable progress, and
that the machinery now available is likely to work
a revolution in this sphere of enterprise before long.
Two chief obstacles seemed to stand in tho way of
any extp:T:ive utilisation of the Indian fibrous materials,
namely: — (1) the want of a proper knowledge of the
materials and of the means of their extraction : (2)
the high rate of railway freight for the materials.
Suice the date of the Calcutta trials Mr. Death (the
representative of the London Fibre Company, who
hr^ve an interest in the machine) has been successful
i 1 bringing the matter under the notice of various
firms and land-owners throughout India. To show
what is ' ' i^' done, it may be mentioned that in
one jute outre in Bengal twenty acres of land under
jute will be set aside this year by some of the jute
agents who aro stationed there, for the purpose of
a grand experiment. Half the produce of this land
is to be tested by one of Death & Ellwood's
machines, and the other half, by way of comparison,
is to be extracted by the common native system of
steeping. It the results obtained by the use of the
machine are profitable, the following year will probably
bring about an important change in the juto industry.
Again, the machine was also tried with pine apple
fibre and produced very good results. In a certain
district in Bengal where the pine apple grows luxuri-
antly producing leaves from five to six feet long,
the jute agent have made a plantation of 2,000 plants,
and are about to try the machine commercially.

As to the second obstacle to the development of
the fibre industries— the high railway freight for
fibrous materials destined for paper-makers. The
reduction in the railway freight was scarcely effected
when the Lucknow and the Owalior mills began to
use this grass, as well as munj, which was also brought
into commercial use by the change of rates. The
Baley Mills used in 1883 (the first year of the
reduction of the railway freight) 2,500 maunds of
hahui. That was a considerable quantity for the first
year, and in the following year, 1884-85, the quautity
used rose to 16,500 maunds. But there can be no
doubt that Imbui will yet be used to a vastly greater
extent than at present; indeed, the use of the grass
may be said to have only been begun. As there
seems to be some confusion on the subject, it may
be well to state that the correct botanical name of
this highly important grass is Polleuia criopoda. It
grows over largt. tracts of country, and its ixtended
use as a paper fibre ought to be a pon-erful stimulus
to our paper-making industry. In Euroi)"! this branch
of industry is threatened with serious loss, owingto
the exhaustion of the supplies of esparto, an'l a'ready
the English paper-makers are beginning to turn ,o
India in search of a substitute, but if the m»"nfiicture
from the new fibres takes root on the spot, as iliere
is every reason to expect, we may yet see p. consider-
able portion of the trade transferred to this country. —
Enylishman.

ARBOBICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS:

CASUAaiNA, DIVI-DITI, and EITCALYPTUS.

In the latest published report of the Agricultural
Department a few interesting particulars are given
of tho experimental cultivation of casuarina, divi-.livi,
eucalyptus, and other productive trees. Although
casuarina is known to be a hardy tree and grows on
steirile soil, experiments continue to be made at (hi;
Sydapet farm, and the worst portions of it have U-in
planted out with good results. Between eleven and
twelve seres have been uthsod and with little out-
lay, a hardy and valuable fuel producing plant is
grown. In the newly formed plantations at Sydapet,
guinea grass was succesfully grown under shade, ami
it has been asrertained that the presence of gnss
is not only a<lvantageons to the trees, but that it
helps to improve the laud and places a large supjily
of fodder at the disposal of the cultivator. On a plot

57S

■VtiK tRdPlCAL AGRtCVLTVmsr. [i'SS. i, iSS6.

of Wh acres of casuarina 40,236 lb. of fodder was ob-
tain il, ;iTnl a second crop was ready to be out. This
will be welcome information to owners of plantations,
especially in places not far from Madras, where ex-
pensive plols of land have been acquired and plant-
ations are thriving. Guinea grass may not be a very
remunerative fodder to grow, but with a large demand
always for the fodder and with municipalities utilising
cv» ry spare plot of ground for the growth of grass,
there shi)uld be no difficulty in owners of casuarina
plnntations adopting the plan successfully introduced
at th<- G.jverument farm. Casuarina plantations were,
n few years ago, all the rage among small capital-
ists, and in the Madras and Chingleput districts, some
thou^an«is of acres were taken up and planted under
the (Uukast rules. Those who embarked in the vent-
ure with care and ^ecoucpmy are reaping the fruits
thereof. Casuarina is largely availed of for fuel pur-
poses, and etforts still continue to be made in the
formation of small plantations. As sand binding plants
they have proved to be very useful, and that is one
reason why almost over the whole coast line from
Madras to Wellore, northwards, and as far as Oud-
dalore southwards, the cultivation of casuarina con-
tinues to receive attentio . The trees at Sydapet
are planted at the rate of 1,800 per acre, and the ir-
rigation charges are returned at IIUS per acre. The
total expendilure per acre for establishing a casuarina
plantation with guinea grass between the lines, is not
iDore than K50.

A little time ago particular attention was given to
the growth oi divi-divi, a most useful plant, the fruit
of which is extensively uscil for tanning purposes.
The pods were said to possess many useful properties,
and for a time large shipments of tliii-dici, collected in
the jungles not far from Miidras, were m.ide to England.
The pries of the seed was quoted at Rlii per oz. and
owners of private ganleus paid particular attention to
the cultivation of the tree and smnil plantations were
formed in the outskirts of Madras. But the demaml
seems, for the present, ii have ceased and we hardly
hear of furiber experiments in this direction. At
Sydapet three acres of laud were planted with divi-
divi and about 521 plants reared. An attempt made
in this direction in 1879 produced a supply of 7-'i lb.
of pods, and 22 lb. gave 2 lb. of seed. No particulars
are given in the report of the maikitablo value of the
pod, of the efforts made to extend the cultiv.ition
of divi-divi, or if any distribution of the seed took
place. From the fact that at one time the pods
were in great request and their usefulness for tanning
proved, further experiments at Sydapet or under the
auspices of the Agricultural Department, might have
a gooil effect on the? cultivation of this u.seful tree.
Tne cultivation of coconuts has also been un<ler-
takeu in the farm, and a small plantation of eighty-
five tres is maintained. Cotoiiiits can, with little
trouble, be grown on saltish soil ; the attempt made
in the farm has proved successful. It has been planted
fllteruately with casuarina, and the actual cost of laying
out the Qeld was K12 an acre. Some \ears ago the
cnllivation of the coconut was more extensively car-
ried ou than at present, imd, according to some
authorities this u.seful tree is not so (iiodiictive as
it onco was: large gardens aud topes were planted
ill connection with chuttrums, churchen ami other
charilable institutions, This i.s mote e.spccially the
case in all the S:>outl!ern ilijtricts of the premdency—
nttached to every work of charity is a coconut tnpc
fire produce of which goes a grest way to support it.
KverJ' part of the coconut tree, like the palinvrii, is
li etui ; the fruit, the fibre, the leaves are marketab!f,
Biid though the oil of the coconut is not extensively
i1~ed for domestic purposes at the present time, still
Ka think that the formation of iil-intatioiis should be
encouraged. Small native capitalists preferred, up to
a few years age, to invest their surplus cash in coconut
plantatioi s. The returns from these investments were
net large ; people were then satisfied with small returns
on oiit!lHy. Hut what satisfied them then is now insuffi-
cient. Jiove remunerative speculations ore sought after
and a steady apd i.u. e source of income lb being gradual-
ly Jaeglecteij.— HodrM St^niayd,

TOBACCO CULTUliE:

SEI.Ee'TlON or GBOCND A\D PLANTr.VG OF TOBACCO.

The following advice as to selection of ground and
planting tobacco is given by the same gentlemen to
whom last week's article on plant beds aud seeding
was credite.l — Capt. R. B. Davis, of Hickory, N. O. —
and will be found to contain much that will be of benelit
both to the beginner and the experienced planter.

'Se/rrt!n.i and Prepo^rathi of the Soil. — As soft, deep,
sand.y soil is preferable, which before planting shouiil
be always put in the finest tilth, it being au adage
with good farmers that a "crop properly planted is
half worked.'' If the land is new ground, it should,
after having been grubbed and chopped, be raked
cleanly, and all leaves and litter burnt. It is then ready
for the plow, and should be closely broken twice and
cros-wise witli the bidl tongue, and as often harrowed.
It should next be marked off by the bull-tongue in
horizoutal rows three feet apart, into which shoulil be
drilled three hundred pouuds per acre, unless where
the land is naturally rich, of a good aud active fertil-
izer. It is then ready tj be listed or bedded with a
turning plow. I prefer the list, since it lightens the
hoe work for hilling, and is at the same time a more
economic il use of the fertilizer — the balks between can
be thrown out at the first weeding. "With a broad
weeding hoe these lists or beds should now be worked
into conical hills, placing them three feet aud three
inches apart. I know that many recommend more
crowded planting, giving the rows and hills a distance
of only three feet. But iu doing so nothing in my
opinion is gained in weight, while something is lost in
length, breadth and body of the leaf, which, with the
mauufaeturer. are prime requisites. The hills can be laid
off with great accuracy by .stepping or otherwise measur-
ing one row, and then placing the hills of the next
between those of the first, anil so on, or what is called
dodging them. To prevent crowding or irregularity in
hilling, this rule will be found of use where raw hands
are employed. The hill culture, both in the prepar-
ations and the subse(iueiit workings of the tobacco crop,
should never be departed from, for the reason that that
metho<l of cultivation gives the land the best drain.ige
of which it is capable. Aud in this crop drainage is
one of the first things to be consitlered, for the reason
that all the diseases to which the plant is liable — such
as frenchiug, firing, spotting, rusting and shedding —
come from excessive rain, accompanied by excessive
heat. The gi'owth of the plant itself would suggest as
much, for in time of drouth the leaves stand up to gather
the rain, but so soon as it has enough of it they turn
down and throw it off. I repeat, tl en, let no water
fitagn.Hte upon the ground. For new ground the hilling
can be done as early as April or JIay. and should be
always when the soil is iu good working order and
neither to wet nor dry. In the one case it will bake and
prevent the ready growth of the plant, and in the
other it will require much rain to put it in the condition
for planting. If the laud is not new ground, either forest
or pine field, it should be fresh, or at least long rested and
in gooil heart, and upon which neither corn uor sorghum
h;n been lately cropped. For such land the preparation
is i 1 all respects siniil.ir to that for new ground, ex-
cept that a turning plow may take the place of the
bull-tongue, a. id the hilling should not be done earlier
than the first of May for fear that the hills may become
grassy while waiting for plants or a seaBou to plant
them. To preserve such lands aud to prevent daniagea
to the growing crops from wa.shing rains, water
furrowing or guttering is recommended.

FcitHi.erx. — Tobacco land, more than almost any
other, .should be manured with a liberal hand. Stable
or barn yard manure is every way the best, but when
net to be had in sufficient quantity, must be substituted
by soTiic good cimimercial fertilizer, of which there are
ciiiiitliss varieties upon the market possessing more or
less merit.

rhxiiling. — The tobacco plant requires usually one
hundred days from the time it is transplanted to grow
mid ripen properly. To secure the best results, there-
fore, the planting should not be earlier than the lOtU
of May, and if possible no latter tbtu the 30tb of /uD«,

Fee. I, i886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

579

la the oiie case the plaut is likely to be stiiuteil iu its
early growth, as well as deprived of the ilews of
August and Sept<"mber, and iu the other there is danger
that it may not have time to mature fully before the
frost. The plants are set very much as cabbage are,
by inserting them to the bud and jiressing the earth
well to their roots and stems with a peg. A plant is
said to be properly planted when the point of a leaf
breaks off iu the attempt to pull it up. The plaut
should never be suffered to wilt before they are set.
If this cannot be done as fast as they are drawn from
the bed, as many a,s can be planted in a single ilay
should be drawn while the di'w is on them, and kept
until needed in a shaded place, with their roots on damp
ground, their tops being occa,sionally sprinkled with
water. If the hills have been put up with a good season
iu them, they can ordinarily at any time iu May be
planted without a rain, if done late in the afternoon.
They .should also be clapped with the back of the lioe,
which clapping preserves the moisture and prevents
crumbling of the earth after the planting peg, and
should be lighter or harder, according to the dampness
of the soil. But. with the abundance of plants, should
the planter be blessed with a good season in Jlay or
■Tune, uought else but planting is then to be thought of.
U is a maxim with hay-makers that they should work
while the sun shines. The reverse of this holds good
with the tobacco planter, and he promises to be but a
poor one who runs from a shower of rain. And yet
for the convenience of housing it is not desirable that
the entire crop should ripen at the same time ; therefore
it is not best that it should all be planted in a single
day, or even in a single season. Instead, then, of
hastening to get once over, it is better to look well to
the r'plautiug, in order to get a perfect stand in the
portion which has been planted — to do so and as
quickly as possible, shading or wateriug the replanted
hills, when necessary, is recommendetl. — I iidi'st rial
South.

ORCHAKD INSECTICIDKS.

(n'litten for the American Cultivator, hy I.. 11.
Bailey, Jr.)

The iucrea.sing numbers of insects, which are
each year causing the production of crops to be
more laborious and insecure, must be met with
determination an i by effective insecticitles on the
part of the farmer. The number of these insecticides
which can be used to advantage iu the orchard are
nuuierous, and are each jear mcrcasing. Some of
the best thought of our scientists is turned iu the
direction of economic entomology. The habits of
many of our orchard insects are not yet perf(jctly
kuuwu, and there is abundant opportunity for new
aud effective iuMecticidus to be discovered or invented.
Mea.sures for lessening insect attacks niay be divided
into two c'assea — i)reventives and remedies. The
preventives which are of most general use in the
orchard are as follows: —

I. O'lod cultiire and tidiness. Good cultivation is
the first aud most rigorous demaud mode upon the
orcbardist for the prevention of insect ravages, as
well as for inducing thrift in liis trei.'S. Tidiness
iu the prompt removal of all rubbish and litter, and
clean cultivation, are direct an<l important preventivftg
of insect depredations. It is almost tiseless to fight
the codling moth, cureulio, tlat-heuded borei-, bark
louse and numerous other insects in a slovenly orchard.
Weak trees are especial favr.rites of certain insect«,
especially the flat-headed borer and the hnrk louse.
The frequent turning and stirring of the ground de-
stroys the hiding places of insects, aiul exposes the
larv.x* t > birds and weather. Tb»j same turning and
stirring are the means of a/Iding fresh vigor to the
trees, enabling them to withstand the attacks of
insects. .V continuous cropping of high grass is
Dearly always liighfy detrimental to an orchard,
©special!} on poor land. The casual observer can
easily demonstrate to himself the greater average
abuudauce of iusects in loug-smlded orchards than
in those which are always cultivated.

2. 'Washing the Iruuks and main branches of trees with
soap and water and earl>olie acid, as a preventive of
egg-laying by borers and other iusects. 'I'he carbolic soap
wash, made hy boiling together one quart of soft
soap and two gallons of water, and adding a pint
of crude carbolic acid while the mixture is still hot,
is probably the best wash to be had. The odor of
the carbolic acid remains for a long time and it is
very disagreeable to insects. A good wash is also
made by adding to the above mixture a little sulphur.
Washes for trees are chiefly of benefit iu preventing
the attacks of insects, or iu dostoryiug the eggs, or
iu killing) such insects as bark lice, aphides, eic. The
soap wash is all that is necessary for this purpose.
I have never been able to ascertain any better results
from whitewashing than from soaiiwashing trees, al-
though I have St en it tried very often. There are
good reasons for supposing that some injury results
from whitewashing. It is certainly unsightly. Wash-
ing trei < may be either a preventive or a remedy,
although it is commonly used in the former capacity.

3. Encircling trees w"ith freshly tarred cloth or some
similar preparation to prevent the ascension of the
canker worm and other insects.

4. riantiug shrubs which will attract insects from
fruit trees, and from which they may be easily captured.
It has been fouud that some of the wild and cultivated
spirce as attract the rose chafer from grape vines and
fruit trees.

5. L' Mg odorants which will repel the inaect*.
This might he included under No. 2. .\mmonia diluted
aud syringed through the tops of trees will repel
the cod iug moth. I'utrirl whale oil showered upon
plum trees is .said to protect from the cureulio.

G. Protecting aud encouraging insectivorous birds.

Among reme.iii s the following are the most general in
their nature aud the most importaut iu their results : —

1. Syringing with I'aris green and water. A scant
tablespoouful of the poison; iu four gallous of water
is a common mixture for fruit trees. Some pietor
a stronger mixture. The quahty of the commercial
drug is so variable that the positive proportions
cannot be given. An urdiuary sjringe, which can be
made by a tinsmith, is all that is commonly required.
This syringe is filled with the poisonous water
by drawing back thepiston while the uo^zle is immersed,
and then by a steady push the liquid may be thrown
over the highest tree, A uozzle with one circular
oi)ening throws the Ibiuiil in one unbroken stream,
causing a great loss, while a broad nozzle with
many minute holes iloes not allow the liquid to past
out with sulhcient force to pass over a tree. The
best cheap syringe which 1 have ever used was
about 2.J feet lung, with a barrel three inches iu
diameter, the upper end beiug made of copper and
punctured with numerous holes au eighth of an inch
ill diameter. .Some of the numerous fountain pumps
which are now manufactured are much superior to
the syringe. Thiry throw a continuous stream with
little effort. Kor throwing liquhl over large orchard
trees, Prof. Liutner finds a Hat nozzle the best.
This spreads the hquid, causing it to strike a large
part of the tree at one time. Paris green is insoluble
iu water, aud the li(|uid containing it must ho often
stirred to keep the particles iu suopansion. Pari*
green can be used to destroy nearly all leaf-eating
iiLscets which work upon the tree before the fruit
is half ripe. It is the most efTactive of all remedies
against the canker worm. It is also a good remedy
f.<r the first blood of the codling moth larv:e or
apple worms. When the apples are first formed
they sUind upright on their stems. The moth lays
her eggs on ttie upper or " blow end'' of the little
apple. Paris green which is syringed over the tree*
lodges in this " blow end" and destroys the larv.-o
when they bepiu to feed. Later the apples turn
downwards and the rains wash away the poison.
Loiiilon purple is cheaper than Paris green, and is
to bo used iu much the same niauiier.

•J. Koroseue oil is attracting much attention as
an insecticide. It is a d.»dly poison to nearly all
insects while it is Imrnilcss lo man. As it does

58o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb, i, 1886.

not mix -vith water, au emalsioa should be male
with milk. Aq emulsion composed of oae-third oil
and two-thirds milk, either sweet or sour, is foaaJ
to be most serviceable. This emulfcio i may be applied
iu the same maunfir as Pari.? g^'-aen.

3. Jirring off certain insects on to sheots spread upon
the ground. This i« the bjst method of destroying the
plum and peach curcuUo, aud it is effective in other
cases.

4. Proviiling places where insects may hide. Tyiug
bands of woollen cloth or felt paptir ab^ut tree
trunks is a means of catching the larvae of the
codling moth. The Ransom method of catching
curculioB provides pieces of bark or blocks about
the base of the tree where the insects congregate
at night. When we know more fully the habits of
insect enemies, this principle may be greatly extended.

5. Applying the soap wash for the purpose of
killing bark lice, scale insects, etc. The scale insects
may be destroyed by a soap solution, which is injected
on to the branches by means of a syringe,

6. Gathering by hand, as in the case of t<gat cater*
pillars, Fall web-worms, etc.

7. Killing borers with a twig or a wire, or cutting
them out with a knife.

8. Burning infested twigs, as in the case of the twig
borer, twig pruuer, etc.

9. Attracting night-flying insects] to fires or strong
lights in the orchard.

According to Prof. Lintner, there are 176 difierent
kinds of insects known to attack the apple tree in the
United States. The greater number of these insects
make the apple tree only an occasional food plant,
however, but altered conditions made by cultivation
nmy at any time cause any of them to attack the
orchard. It is, therefore, highly necessary that the
orchardist keeps in mind the leading preventives and
remedies for insect depredations. — American Cultiv •
ator.

■NEW GUINEA AS A FIELD FOR SUGAR
AND COFFEE PLANTING.

The question of tropical agriculture in Quftens-
land has of late years assumed such vital importance
that auy information concerning the neighboring
island of New Guinea cannot fail to be of interest
of everyone connected with sugar or coffee cultivation.
The following remarks on the land laws under which
the Papuans enjoy their holdings, their system of
tillage, the nature of the soil and of the crops it
produces, may prove interesting to your readers as
well as to the sugar planter.

At Port Moresby all land is strictly private property,
but the owner enjoys a life interest, and cannot
sell in perpetuity. At his death it is divided equally
amoug his children, or, failing issue, his nearest
relatives profit by its distribution. This system has
one great disadvantage in that its cjnstaut tendency
is to cut up the laud into infinitessimai patches;
thus, for example, a man may hold twenty acres, but
these will be cut up into perhaps fifty different lots,
situat 'd in as many separate localities. The diflBculty
of purchasing land under such conditions becomes
self-evident, as a bargain has to be concluded for each
plot, and the purcliaser may be dispossessed at any
moment by the demise of the seller. At Kabadi, a
district sevi^nty miles west of Poit Moresby, the whole
area is held hy the head chief, and the tribe cultiv-
ate such portions as he may poiut out. His right
is undoubted, and no one can burn grass or commence
planting unlil his permission has been obtained.
Here the purcha^^e of -land w mid not be attended
wit*n any ' ry serious difiiculties, but it would be
necB^■-ary to rei.ew the bargain with everv .'mcsssive
chief. T' - i. land tribes— Uoiare, oegore, Mook, Havor,
Favere DuJouri, and Saramina — seem to observe tha
same ' .• very nearly tli-^ same laws as the Motu or
Po t Moresby t'ibe. Here, I believe, land will be
pro' ur»bU- in tim •, ns the people po-nsess more than
th y ii-qure, aud are anxious tu see European? settled
in their midst. This is accounted for by the fact

I that, being constantly engaged in inter-tribal wars,
they would enjoy an immunity from attack as long
as the white maa and his ride remained among them.
The system of cultivation in vogue throughout New
Guinea is necessarily a primitive and faulty one; yet
['he fertility of the soil is so great that these people
often produce tenfol I more than they require, and are
thus enabled to dispose of the surplus' to less fortun-
ate tribes on the coast. Whenever it has been decided
to form a plantation, the people set about finding a
suitable piece of land. This, as a rule, is situated on
the steep slopes of some mountain side or on the
crest of a leading spur. The jungle is cleared off and
burnt, and land having been fenced in, preparations
are made to break up the soil. This is no very
difficult operation as practised by the Papuans. A
number of men fall into line, and each being armed
with a heavy stake or lever, they commence chant-
ing some monotonous words ; at proper intervals they
raise their levers and drive them into the soil, break-
ing out a spit twelve inches wide. The boys and
women pass over this roughly turned up soil and
break it up with hoes and smaller stakes. This done,
the plants are put in, and the whole operation is
concluded by going through an incantation to Vata,
as their evil spirit is called. A peculiarity of this
system is worthy of record: it has taught the people
the value and importance of co-operation. Thus they
willingly assist each other in any undertaking requir-
ing much labour, and this is done without payment.
The crops grown are sugar cane — four varieties — the
best being a rather light green one streaked with
yellow. This I have seen six feet long after topping,
and it grows admirably at an elevation of 2,500 feet
above sea level. A purple cane also seems to do well,
but of course faulty cultivation affects the joints,
which are generally too short. I have often been
obliged to wash the stickiness from my hands and
beard after eating a few joints. I presume such cane
must be good, and would strongly recommend its
introduction into the Queensland cane fields. Bread
fruit (artocoiytis incisa) abounds everywhere in its
indigenous state, but it is largely cultivated in the
plantations. Tare [colocosia sp,), is largely cultivated,
three distinct species being used. One of these has
iongly leaves 6 ft. 20 iu. wide. Yams of several species
are cultivated everywhere, and form the staple food
of the people. Immense quantities are housed and
kept for winter use. In the Kabadi district a sweet
yam is very largely cultivated and exported to Port
Moresby, but it is very fibrous and its sweetness de-
tracts from it as a vegetable. Bananas of several
species flourish aud yield large returns. One species
I noticed had fruit lin. long, very plump, and a
bright golden yellow wheu ripe. This is a delicious
little fruit, and well deserving cultivatiou in all trop-
ical gardens. The bunches of fruit are carefully
swathed iu dead banana leaves, to the entire exclu-
sion of light. This etiolates the fruit and ensures the
production of the greatest possible amount of starch.
Sugar, the Papuan docs not seem to care for ; starch,
being more nourishing, is held in greater estimation,
and the banana has consequently been degraded to the
status of a vegetable. Tobacco is grown in every
village, and 1 believe it is our common species
Cnicotina tobacum). The natives pluck a few leaves,
dry them over the coals, aud incontinently use them.
Turmeric I found cultivated on the Kabad country,
where it is used for dyeing purposes. Ginger grows
wild everywhere and is highly prized hy the Ooiasi.
Ooconnts thrive on the littoral. Betel nut (areca
catechu) is cultivated on the littoral and grows wild
on the inland ranges. The natives of the latter clear
the jungle from these, and gather prodtgous quant-
iti-^s of the fruit. Pepper is grown iu all the villages
of Kaoadi. aud is used for chewing with betel. Nut-
meg, as might have been expected, tlirives in tlie
i warm and muist coast country of Knliudi. I here
saw a large village surrounded with a belt of nutmeg
trees 80 ft. high, and lo?»ded with fruit, but the
KabadirtUB do not use it for any purpose that 1 cnuld
diHcorer. Sago is manufactured from the sago-palm

Feb, I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

581

on the soath-west coast, ami notably in the districts
of Elema and Motu-Motu, whence it is exported in
Urge quantities to Kubadi and Port Iforeshy and 'ho
districts on the sooth-east co-ist. This pahn grown
best on tho swampy lands that Ijorder the coast line
in the districts of Elema and Mota-!\Iotu between
Cape Possession and tho Fly river. The al)i>ve list
comprehends all the plants I noticed as being eoltiv-
ated, the nutmeg being the only exception it affonis.
The country in the vicinity of Port Moresby is hilly,
and owing to the dryness of the coast lino, little
adapted for atjricultnre.

But the immense area on the lower ami vipper
Lulbliki River is eminently adapted for scentific till-
age Du an ext<mded scale. The river rises in tho vol-
canic formation of the Astrolabe Itanges, and has for
ages past been bringing down the rich volcanic and
vegetable moulds of the jungle-covered mountains, and
depositing them on the ilat country which borders
the river along nearly the whole extent of its
lower course. These plains and open forest patches
are admirably suited to the growth of sugar-cane,
nutmeg, rice, in the swamps, tobacco, and a variety
of tropical fruits of eveiT description. The clove and
cinnamon will thrive here in years to come, and assist
in swelling tl\e list of valuable products that must
tigure among the New Guinea exports.

Scalin,' the heights of the Astrolabe I found the
whole country composed of a rich chocolate soil suited
to sugar-cane, coffee, cinchona, cocoa. All these will
amply repay capitalists who may invest their money
in land in this portion of the island. Cotton I found
growing luxuriantly in the village gardens throughout
the upper valley. There is a constant, and I think
reliable, rainfall which leaves nothing to be desired
in this respect. The soil is everywhere of considerable
depth, even on the open forest ridges, and can be
easily tilled. By far the greater portion is covered
with jungle, in which fine oak ' and other useful trees
abound, ilaize antl arrowroot would, I am positive,
yield prodigious crops anywhere on these rich alluvial
lands, and their introduction would prove an incalcul-
able boon to the natives.

The question of labor, that bug-bear of Queensland
planters, would here be solved by the judicious em-
ployment of the native inhabitants, who, I do not
hesitate to afiirm .so far as the inland tribes are con-
cerned, will willingly labor in the field if kindly and
justly treated. Any attempt at coercion, or the im-
portation of foreign colored labor cannot but result in
the most lamentable failure, and will give rise to
serious complications. By dealing entirely with the
native chit is, their co-operation would be secured, and
at the same time it would increase their influence
and power over the tribes under their rule. Tiiese
men are keenly alive to anything effecting their in-
terests, and will greedily avail themselves of any pre-
text to ensure the one and enchance tho other. Any
attempt to deal with individuals will make these chiefs
hoatile and suspicious, and they will endavour by every
means in their power to defeat the objects such specul-
ators may have in view. The above remarks refer
to the dealings of Government with the chiefs, not
to individual speculators. These must content to secure
laud through the Protectorate estalilished by the Eng-
lish Government. This course must recomni'-nd itself
to all right thicking men, who will readily umlerstand
the a^lvantages accuring to them from a secure title
and the friendship of the native chiefs and their subjects.

The importance of New Guin<'a as a coffee proHnc-
ing country cannot be over-estimated, now that Oi-ylon
has been nearly ruined by the coffee le^f disease.
Those who avir that it will be pos^ble to obtain
Papuan labor for Queensland plantations know vry
little about the people. The presence ol white men —
bona ftJe planters — amonp the people wdl assnvedly
put a .stt'p to the constant wars they carry on. Su])e-
rior cultivation means more food, more leisure, and
consequently more opportunity for mental im]>rove-
ment. In this manner we may confidently hope to
pierce the veil of darkness in which these people
are at present enveloped. — Honykong Daily I'less.

ROSE OIL, OB OTTO OF BOSES.

BY CHARLES O. W.iUSFORD LOCK.

This celebrati'd perfume is the volatile essential oil
distilled from i.he flowers of some varieties of rose.
The botany of roses appears to bo in a transition and
s >mewh:»t uisatisfactory s>ate. T'lus tlie otr.o-yieldin»
rise is variously styled Rom <lamisre,ia. R. i miierviriins,
R. )HO-r/(.T<„, R. gul/ini, R. cmtifoUa, R. provincialul
It is pretty generally ag.-oed th it the kind grown
for its utto in Bulgari:i in the damask rose (A'.
diimascena^, a v,^^iety induced by long cultivation,
as it is not to be fouud wild. It forms a bush usually
?. to 4 feel, l)ut sometimes (i feet high; its flowers
are of moderite siz.', semi-double, aud arranged several
on a branch, though not in clusters or bunches. In
colour, they are mostly light-red ; .some few are white,
and .said to he less productive of otto.

The utilisation of the delicious perfume of the rose
was attempted with more or less success, long prior
to the comparatively modern process of distilling its
essential oil. The early methods chieffy in vogue were
the distilliftion of rose-water, and the infusion of
roses in olive oil, the latter flourishing in Europe
generally down to the last century, and surviving at
the pre.sent day in the South of France. Tho hutyr-
aceous oil produced by tho distillation of roses for
making rose-water in this country is valueless as a
perfume ; and the real otto was scarcely known in
British commerce before the present century.

The profitable cultivation of roses for the prepar-
ation of otto is limited chiefly by climatic conditions.
The odoriferous constituent of the otto is a liquid
containing oxygen, the solid hydrocarbon or stearoptene,
with which it is combined, being absolutely ilevoid of
perfume. The proportion which this inodorous solid
constituent bears to the liquid perfume increases
with the unsuitability of the climate, varying from
about l.S per cent in Bulgarian oil, to US and oven
(3S per cent in rose oils distilled in France and
England. This increase in the proportinn of stearoptene
is .also shown by the progressively heightened fusing-
point of rose oils from diHFerent" sources : thus, while
Hulgrai.an oil fuses at about fil" to Qi" l''ahr., an
Indian sample required (iS" Fahr. ; one from the .South
of France, 70" to TS" Fahr.; one from Paris, 84"
Fahr. ; and one obtained in making rose-water in
Loudon, Ae^ to S'Jl* Fahr. Even in the Bulgarian
oil, a notable difference is observed between that
produced on the hills, and that from the lowlands.

It is. therefore, not surprising that the culture of
roses, and extraction of their perfume, should have
originated in the E.ast. Persia pro.luced rose-water
at an early date, and the town of Nisibiu, north-west
of JIosul, was famous for it in the 14th century.
Shiraz, in the 17th century, prepared both rose-water
and otto, for export to other parts" of Persia, as well
as all over India. The Perso-Indian trade in rose oil.
which continued to possess considerable importance in
the third quarter of the I8ih centm-y, is declining,
and has nearly disappeared; but the shipments of
rose-water still maintain a respectable figure. The
value, in rupees, of the exports of rose-water from
Hushire in 1870. were — 1,000 to India, 1,,500 to .Java,
200 to Aden and the Rod Sea, 1,000 to iMuscat and
Dependencies, 200 to Arab coast of Persian Gulf,
and Bahrein, 200 to Persian coast and Mekran, and
1,000 to Zanzibar. Similar statistics rekiting to Lingah,
in the same year, show— Otto : -100 to Arab roast of
Persian Golf, and Bahrein; and 250 to Persian coast
and Mekran. And Bahrein— Persian Otto: 2,2110 to
Koweit, Eusrah. and Bagdad; rose-water: 200 to
Arab coast of Persian Gulf, and 1,000 to Koweit,
Busrah, and Engdad.

India itself has » lonsirlerable area devoted to rosc-
gardrns. ss ?t Oha^ipnr, Lahore, Amritzor, and ether
places, the kind of ro^e Leinj; R. rfamasei.n, arctrding
to Brandis. Both inse-waier and otto arc pro<luccd.
The flowers are distilled with double their weight of
water in claj stills; ilio rose-w,-iter (aooliihi pmii)
thns obtained is jdaced in shallow vessels, covered
with moist muslin to keep out dust and flies and

582 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1S86.

exposed all night to the cool air, ov fanned. lu the
morning, the film of oil, which has collected on the
top, is skimmed off by a fe.ither, and transferred to a
small phial. This is repeated for several nights, till
almost the whole of the oil has separated. The
quantity of the product varies much, and thr^-e different
authorities give the following figures:— («) -.'n.dUO
roses to make 1 rupee's weight (17(5 gr.) of otto;
(i) 200,000 to mako the .same weight; (c) 1,000 roses
afford less th»n 2 gr. of otto. The colour ranges
from green to Ijright-amber, and reddish. The od
(otto) is most carefully bottled; the receptacles are
hermetically sealeil with wax, and e.\posi d to the full
glare of tue sun for several days. Rose-water deprived
of otto is esteemed much inferior to that which has
not been so treated. When bottled, it is also exposed
to the sun for a fortnight at least.

The Mediterranean countries of Africa enter but
feebly into this industry, and it is a little remarkable
that the French have not cultivated it iu Algeria.
Egypt's demand for rose-water and rose- vinegar is sup-
plied from Rledinet Fayum, south-west of (Jairo.
Tunis has al.so some local reputation tor similar
products. Von Maltzan says that the rose there grown
for otto is the <iog-rose (/?. caniiia). and that it is
extremely fragrant, 20 lb. of the flowers yielding about
1 dr. of otto. Cienoa occasionally imports a little of
this product, which is of excellent (luality. In the
Bouth of France, rose gardens occupy a large share
of attention, about Grasse, Cannes, aud Nice; they
chiefly produce rose-water, much of which is exported
to England. The essence (otto) obtained by the
distillation of the Provence rose ( R. proviiu-iidis) has
a characteristic perfume, arising, it is believed, from,
the bees transporting the pollen of the orange
flowers into the petals of the roses. The French otto
is richer in stearoptene than the Turkish, nine grammes
crystallising in a litre ( I J pint) of alcohol at the same
temperature as 18 grammes of the Turkish. The best
preparations are made at Cannes aud Grasse. The
flowers are not there treated for the otto, but are
submitted to ii process of maceration in fat or oil,
ten kdo.s. of roses being required to impregnate one
kilo, of fat. The price of the roses varies from 50 o.
to 1 fr. 25 c. per kilo.

But the one commercially important source ot otto
of roses is a circumscribed patch of ancieut Thrace
or m idern Bulgaria, stretching along the southi-rn
slopes of the central Balkans, aud approximately
included between the 25th ami 2lith degrees of east
longitude, and the 42nd and -liird .legrees of north
latitude The chief rose-growing dist; icts nre Philippopli,
Ohirpan, Giopcu, Karadshah-Dagh, Kojun-Tepe, Eski-
Sara, ,Ieni-S.ara, Bazardshik. and the centre aud head-
quarters of the industry, Kazanlik (Kisanlik), situated
in a beautiful undulating plain, in the valley of the
Tunja. The proiluctiveness of the last-mentioned
district may be judged from the fact that, of the 123
Thracian localities carrying on the preparation of otto
in 1877— thev numbered 140 in 18-W— 42 belong to it.
The only place affording otto on the northern side
of the Balkans is Traviua. The geological foruiation
throughout is syenite, the decomposition of which has
provided a soil so fertile as to need but little manuring.
The vegetation, according to Baur, indicates a climate
differing but slighlly from that of the Pdack Forest,
the average summer temperatures being .stateil at.S2~'
Fahr. at noon, aud OS" Fahr. in the evening. The
rose-bushes flourish best and live longest on sandy,
sun-exposed (south ami south-east aspect) slopes.
The flowers produced by those growing on inclined
"round are dearer an 1 more esteemed than any raised
Su level land, being 50 per cent richer in oil, and
that of a .stronger quality. Thi-i proves the advantage
ot thorough drainage. On the other hand, plantations
at high lO'iludes yield less oil. which n of a clnracter
that readdy congeals, from an iusuflicieucy of .summer
hert The districts lying adjivcent to and in the
mountains are sometimi>s visited by hard frosts, which
destroy or greatly reduce the crop. Floods also oc-
casionally do considerable damage. The bushes are
attacked at intervals and in patches by a blight similar
to that which injures tha viues ot the couutry.

The bushes are planted iu hedge-like rows in gardens
and fields, ai convenient distances apart, for the
fathering ot the crop. They are seldom maniu-ed.
The planting takes place in spring and autumn ; the
flowers attain perfection in April aud May, and the
harvest lasts from May till the beginning of June.
The expanded flowers are gather^-d before sunrise,
often with the calyx attached ; such as are not
required for immediate distillation are spread out in
cellnrs, but all are treated within the day on which
they are plucked. Baur states that, if the buds develop
slowly, by reason of cool damp weather, and are not
much exposed to sun-heat, when about to be collected,
a rich yield of otto, having a low solidifying point, is
the result, whereas, should the sky be clear and the
temperature high at or shortly before the time of
gathering, the product is dimiuished and is more
easily congealable. Hanbury, on the contrary when
distilliu!? rose iu London, noticed that when they had
be<-n collected on fine dry days the rose-water had
most volatile oil floating upon it, and that, when
gathered iu cool rainy weather, little or no volatile
oil separated.

The flowers are not salted, nor subjected to any
other treatment, before beiug coneyed in baskets, on
the heads of men aud women, and backs of animals,
to the distilling apparatus. This consists of a t4uuod-
copper still, erected on a semicircle of bricks, and
heated by a wood fire ; from the top passes a straight
tin pipe, which obliquely traverses a tub kept con-
stantly filled with cold water, by a spout, from some
convenient rivulet, and constitutes the condenser.
Several such stills are usually placed tngetlier, often
beneath the shade of a large tree. The still is charged
with 25 to -W lb. of roses, not previously deprived of
their calyces, aud double the volume of spring water.
The distillation is carried on for about IJ hour, the
result being simply a very oily rose-water {i/Iii/u/snyti).
The exhausted flowers are removed from the still, and
the decoction is used for the next distillation, instead
ot fre.sh water. The first distillates from each apparatus
are niixul and distilled by themselves, one-sixth being
drawn off ; the residue replaces spring water for sub-
sequent operations. The distillate is received iu long-
necked b.)ttles, holding about IJ gallon. It is kept in
them for a ilay or two, at a temperature exceeding
59' Fahr.. by which time, mo.st of the nil, fluid and
bright, will have reached the surface. It is skimmed
oHE by' a small, loug-haudled, fine-oriftced tin funnel,
and is then ready for sale. The last-run rose-water
is extremely fragrant, and is much prized locally for
culinary and medicinal purposes. The quantity .ind
(piality of the ott.i are much inflnenceil by the
character of the water used in distilling. When hard
spring water is emploved, the otto is rich in stearoptene,
but less transparent .and fragrant. The average quantity
of the pr.xluot is estimated by Baur at 0-037 to O-04(J
per cent; another authority says that 3,200 kilos,
of roses give 1 kilo, of oil.

Pure otto, carefully distilled, is at first colourless,
but speedily becomes yellowish ; its specific grarity is
0-87 at 72'5° Falir. ; its boiliuiJ-point is 444' Fahr.;
it solidifies at 51-8° to dO-S' Fahr., or still higher;
it is soluble in absolute alcohol, and in acetic acid.
The most usual aud reliable tests of the quality of
an otto are (1) its odour, (2) its congealing point,
(3) its crystallisation. The odour can be judged only
after long expeiieiice. A good oil should congeal
well in five minutes at a temperature of 54-.5'' Fahr.;
fraudulent additions lower the congealing point. The
crystals of rose-stearoptene are light, feathery, shining
plates, filling the whole liquid. AUno.st the only
material use.! for artificially heightening the apparent
proportion of stesroptene is said to be spermaceti,
which is easily recognisable from its liahility to settle
down in a s /lid cake, and from its meltuv at 122°
Fahr whereas stearoptene fuses at 01 r lahr.
Possibly paralhn wax would more easily escape

detection. ... ,.• , -i

The adulterations bv means of other essential oils
are much more <iiflicult of discovery, aud much more
general ■ in fact, it is said that none of the Bulgarian

Ptis. I, 18S6.J THE TROPICAL AGRlCULTVklST.

585

otto is completely free from this kind of sophistic-
ation. Tlie oils employed for the purpose are certain
of the grass oils (Androi>ogon and Cijmbopngon spp.),
notably that afforded liv Anih'(ipo:jon, Schrenanthiis
called "ir^(S-y«;//n by the Turks, ami commonly Ituown
to Europeans as •' geraiiiurn oil," tlioiijrh quite distinct
from true gerauium oil. The acldition is generally
made by 9i>rinkliug it upon the ro.se-leaves before
distilliug. It is largely proiluced in the neighbourhood
of Delhi, and exported to Turkey by way of Arabia;
it is soUl by Arabs in Constantinople in largo bladder-
shaped tinned-copper vessels, holding about 12ii II1.
As it is usually itself adulterated with some fatty oil,
it ueeils to undergo purification before nse. This is
effected in the following manner :— The crude oil is
rcpeateilly shaken op with water acidulated wi'^
lemon-iuice, from which it is poured off after staiuUn^
for a day. The washed oil is placed in shallow saucers,
well exposed to sun and air. by which it gradually
loses its objectionable oilour. 8prnig and early summer
are the best seasons for the operation, which occupies
two to four weeks, according to the state of the
weather and the quality of the oil. The geueral
characters of this oil are similar to those of otto of
roses — even the odour bearing a distant resemblance —
that their discrimination when mixed is a matter of
practical impossibility The ratio of the adulteration
varies from a small figure up to SO or 90 per cent.
The only safeguard against deception is to pay a f-air
price, and to deal with firms of good repute, such 8,s
Niessrs. Papasoglu, JIanoglu and Sou, Ihmsen & Oo.,
and Holstein & Co., in Constantinople.

The otto is put up in squat-shaped flasks of tinned
copper, callel kunktimas, holding from 1 to 10 lb., and
sewn up in white woollen cloths. Usually their con-
tents are transferred at Constantinople iuto small
gilded bottles of German manufacture for export. The
Bulgarian otto liar\'cst3 during the five years 18GT-71,
was reckoned to average somewhat below 400.000
titt'tircth, misk-ah, or m'dkaU (of about 3 dwt. troy),
or 4:22(> lb. av. ; that of 1873, which was good, was
estimati:d at 500,00ti, value about 700,000/. The harvest
of ICHO realised more than l,00ll,tiO0/. though the
roses themselves were not so valuable as in 1876.
About 300,000 mctirnls of ottii, valued at !)32,07"/.,
were exported iu 1876 from Philipopolis, chiefly to
France, Australia, America, and Germany. — Journol of
tlie Society of Arts.

Thk expbeiments tried with the creeper known
botauically as Crt/ptostet/iti yrandiilora^ which yields a
juice ^capable of being worked into Indiarubber,
proved that although it thrives well and is abundant
in I'ooua and other places, yet it woidd not be
profitable to make rubber from it. — Indian A;/riculturist.

Thk Cheai'Est Antiseptic. — M. Pasteur anticipates
that bisulphide of carbon will become the most eftic-
^ious of all antiseptics, as it is also the cheapest,
costing but a fraction of a penny per pound in large
quantity. It is also the best insecticide known,
and for this purpose may, perhaps, be useful to
preserve woodwork in tropical countries. Some
idea of the use it is already put to may be gathered
from the fact that over eight million pounils on the
substance are used annually to check the ravages of
phylloxera. Carbou bisulphide, as first produced, i.'f
about as foul smelling a couipound fts it is possible to
find ; but it is capable of puvifi'ation till all offen.sive
odor is removed, and it is «utHcie''t pure in smell
almost to mix with a perfume. — Scientific American.

MisOR Indcstiiiks. — The .samples of locally pre-
I'lred preserves Mr. Jayewiidene has sent us include
Pine Apple .Tarn, Orange Marmalade, Candied Orange
Marmalade. -Sour Orange {Kinliiil dodan) Marmabide,
Soar Orange Candied Marmalade, country Olive
(/■(;■»/«) .lellyj Oitroa M iruialade and Candied
Orange preserved entire. He writes: — "Having
iearitt from .i Frenchtnan the art of preparing
jams, jellies, marmalade, pickle and various
other such things, and spent much money in
txpeiiiueutiiij; uu Native fruits, ix., fur ueady 0 ,

years past, I was encouraged by your article on
" Minor Industries" in your paper of the 20th Nov-
ember to take up the' enterprise you opportunely
suggested. I herewith send yon a few .samijles of
what I h.ive prepareil ; but owing t^, the want of
suitable vessels, 1 am prevented from si'uding you
from all the kinds I have now in stock. I call
yimr special attention to the jelly prepared of country
olives (only a very little is sent, as it was made
only for experiment) which we in Sinhalese call /'«■«//(.
It is oiie of the corntnonest fruits, as you well know,
but not much used in any way. After preparing
in variou,s methods, I succeeded in making this
delicious jelly of a beautiful colour. I am unable
to semi ^on some nice pickles till I get suitable
vessels to send them in, and I am put to very
gre.at inconvencieuce and expense owing to want of
suitable vessels. The preserves, jams, &c., prepared
of some Native fruits, you will know, are very whole-
some, even in cases of serious indisposition, for instance
the beli-fruit, and sour orange, kc, are considered
by Native Vedaralas as not only wholesome, but
very eflicacious in some diseases." "We have great
pleasure in testifying to the excellence of Mr.
Jayew.'u-deiie's preparations. They are clear, of tine
flavour, and seem to justify his claim that they
are pure and wholesome. He says that owing to
the difUculty of securing suitable pots and jars.
a supply of which he expects from Euglauil, he
is unable to open a regular establishment for
thi'ir sale, but he is prepared to execute orders

i .and to send his preparations from house to hou.se,
at <10 to 50 cents per lb. according to the price of
the fruit. There can be no doubt of the whole.some-
ness of preparations of the fliH-frmt, Sour Orange,
•Ve^i and other fruits in certain disorders ; and we
hope it will not be long before Mr. Jayewardeue
reaps the reward of his enterprise. \\'hy sliould nut
earthen pots, well burnt and glazed, like those in
which Guava jelly is .sent out from India, answer!' —
"Examiner."

GuTTAS. —Messrs. Heckel and Schlagdenhauft'en have

I already shown that the tree from which Shea butter
is obtained {Bi'ti/i-osprrjiutui Pm-kii^ Kotschy) furnishes
a guttapercha which they compare to that of

i Isotmndra Gutia, Hook. (Comptes Rerulns, c, 123'J).
They have now made a chemical examination of

j this product, and iu a note communicated to the

, Paris Academy of Sciences {Comptes Reitdus, ci.,
1069) state that it compares well, in its fibrous structure
and resistance, with the red gutta of Borneo. Its
specific gravity is 0'976 as compared with 01)75 to
O'USO, the standard given by Payen as that of com-
mercial guttapercha. In its solubility in carbon
bisulphide, cblorofotm, benzine, cold or boiling alcohol,
the two almost exactly agree. But petroleum ether,
ethylic ether, oil of turpentine, and boiling acetic
acid dissolve less of it than of ordinary guttapercha,
and these liquids when evaporated do not yield the
same products ; the residues from the butyrospermum
gutta having a pitcliy consistence, while those of
commercial gutta from a dry adhesive varnish. For
industrial purpo.ses it seems to be equal to the best
gutta percha of commerce, as it can be worked up
iu water quite as easily, and the moulds made with
it are in no way inferior. This new guttapercha
has therefore a promising future before it, if it can
be obtained iu sufficient ciuantity for commercial pur-
po.ses. In a recent paper by Dr. Treub on the gutta-
percha yielding plants of the Dutch East Indies,
that author states that the original guttapercha
plant, I^onand ra Guttiiy Hook., is almost extmct as a
wild jilant, and he recommends the cultivation of
some of the most valuable species of Palnquium,
especially /'. ohlonipfolium, which are at present the
source of the guttapercha of commerce. The natives
mix the ]). oduets of \arious species, which differ greatly
in (juaUty and properties, and hence if the product
of the species which yield the best gutta were obt.ained
separately from cultivated trees, a far better quality
than any yet seen in commerce might be obtained.—
Phuniiaceutiad Journal.

§H

THE Tfi09tCAL A^KieULTUfilST, fF«8, i, m6.

OOTTON Seed. — According to experiments by Sacc
(Joiirn, de Pharm. ct Chen.), cotton seed has the
following composition: — Casein, 6 per cent.; dextrin.
2'U; sugar, 20; Bbrin, 2S'7 ; woody fibre, 32 -1 ;
starchj 9"C; greenish-yellow oil, 06; yellow wax, 0"8 ;
water, 8'0 ; ash, 8'0. The seed affords by grinding
565 per cent of a yellow meal, which may be employed
with milk in bread-making. This meal, or what is
cheaper, the residue left after the seed has been passed
through the oil-press, is available for clarifying .syrups.
— Journal of the Society of Arts.

StjccESSFtjL Fhuit Growino. — All trees should be
sprayed or washed two or three times a year, to destroy
the numerous bugs and insects that prey upon them.
The top of each limb and branch should have about
one-third of the year's growth pruned away. Some
cut merely the lower limbs, but this is not suthcieut.
"When peach or apricot trees are eight or ten years old,
they should have a severe cutting back, and all dead
wood should be removed. Citrus trees need more
thinning out and cutting back yearly, and loosening
of the soil after each irrigation, than they generally get.
These methods properly carried out will ensure good
crops and better shaped trees ; and the labour is lighter
than when trees are neglected for two or fbree years,
and an attempt is ti.en made to put them in good
condition. — Rural Californian.

Thavetxing Seeds. — Sometimes^seeds only, sometimes
fruits, are thus transported by running streams and
ocean currents. The fruits of Fennel are exactly
like miuiature boats ; and Fimchal or Fennel Bay in
the island of Madeira owes its ;|name to this plant, ,
colonized there by seeds that liave safely made the
voyage from the main laud. In like manner, Hazel-
nuts, Walnuts, and many other kinds of nuts, have
been carried by currents to a new home beyond the
seas. For a long time the (source of the large Coco-
nuts that drift about in the Indian Ocean, and are
finally stranded on the east of Jlalabar, remained a
mystery. These gigantic fruits, some of them more
than 18 iu. in diameter, and jweighing from forty to
fifty pounds, are not the produce of any neighbour-
ing country, and the Hindoos called them " Sea Cocoa,"
supposing that they are supplied by some unknown
plant. It has since been discovered that they are
the produce of the Lodoicea, a magnificent Palm,
growing on the Seychelles Islands which lie on the
eastern coast of Africa, more than twelve hundred
miles from the nearest point of Indian territory.
The currents of the Pacific Ocean carry out Coconuts
and other fruits from the American continent to
enormous distances in a similar manner. These find a
restmg-place on the coral riilges which are raised up
from the bottom of the sea by the ceaseless labour
of polyps ; here they germinate, and soon cover with
brilliant verdure what had formerly been a rock
almost invisible to navigators. — Indian Qardiner.

Fektiliszehs. — ^Ve are decidedly in favour of
ui»iiig good fertilizers, and cannot fail to speik a word
for nature's method of making soil, and creating fert-
ility, i.e., green manuring. Nature's laws are im-
mutable, and her teachings are infallible ; but while
we say this we are often painfully aware that we
cannot satisfactorily fathom her philosophies. Nature
creates soil by the process of green manuring, but
we cannot explain exactly in what way she docs it.
Never mind : let the philosophy slide ; we know it
is so, and let this kuowleilge direct our movements
and we shall be the better for it. Tho.se who neglect
this means of increasing the productiveness of their
lands staml in their own light. We believe that the
turning under of vegetable matter to decompose exerts
an influence over the free fertilizers contained m the
air and w.iter and appropriates them ; and on the
well-known principle operative iu many departments
of nature that .to " whomsoever haUi ninro shall be
given," a soil abounding in humus accumulates power
to increse its fertility in exact proportion to the or-
ganic matter it eoutaius. If this is so, aud wo challenge
contradiction, what shall be said of those who per,
BJBteutly consume with fire all the waete vegetable

matter produced on their land ? Is it not umiatured-
wasteful, injtu-ious, in the long run fatal to the cherish-
ed wishes and expectations of the cultivator; and a
sure way to ruin •' We pause for are|)ly. — Queensland
A(/riculturist.

Soot Water. — Asa cheap and easily made reliable
[ fertilizer this is of great value,. It may be used
I with much advaut<ge wherever pl.auts are grown in
[ pots. There is no kind of plant it does not benefit,
I and it may be given to those which produce fruit,
j flowers, or fine foliage. It has the virtue better than
any other fertilizer of clearing worms from from the
.■ioil in pots, and this is a great gain in itself. No
kind of worm will remain in the soil which receives
a supply of soot water occasionally, and it causes
foliage, fruit, and flowers to assume a much dai-ker
colour than they do when it is not used. It imparts
extra vigour, and may be used all the year round.
Ferns are especii'lly benefited by it, aud the fronds
assumea deep green colour under its influence. Straw-
berries in pots. Pines, Vines, Pelargoniums, Fuchsias,
and iudeed all plants improve in texture and appear-
ance from its use. It may he used to expel worms
before the pots are full of roots, but a,s a general
fertilizer it should not be much employed until the
roots have taken to soil freely. It is not wanted
until then. Many have much difficulty in getting the soot
to mix with the water, but this is easily enough managed.
Any ordinary old bag should be taken ; h.alf fill it
with soot, put a brick or large stone inside, tie* up
the mouth, and put it into the tank or barrel with
the water. In a short time the water will have pene-
trated through every particle of the soot any converted
it into a pulp. The water is then in excellent condition
for use. It may, however, be too strong for giving to
the ])lants as it is, but a quantity of it may be lifted
and put into the pans with clear water, the strength
to apply it being a matter which can only be determined
by the cultivator, — J. Mi'iH, Margam. — Journal ofHorti-
cult lire,

Ba iiBADOS. — The island is like a garden ; every
scrap of cultivable land is turned to account, and
iu many cases the bare rock has been covered with
a layer ot artificial soil, thin, but sufticient for the
canes, except in excessive drought. It is extra-
ordiuary to look at the country and see the industry
which has been employed in utilising every inch of
it. Everywhere fields of thick waving canes, uu-
fenced and undivided except by the white coral
roads, thickly sprinkled with the shanties of the
negroes, the white houses of the planters, the low
buildings and tall chimneys of the manufactories,
and the inevitable windmills; while here and .there,
but far too rarely, stand a few palm trees, their
plumes bent over by the trade wind, and a dead
branch or two hanging sorrowfully down the trunk
like the helpless wing of a stricken pheasant.
Everywhere sugar, sugar, sugar — before which all
muBt fall. The trees were ruthlessly sacrificed to
the saccharine Moloch till a diminished rainfall warned
the planters that treelessness means raiulessness, and
led them to place under the protection of the law
such trees as were left. Thus it comes to pass
that a drive over the country is most disagreeable
owing to the absence of shade. There is no escape
from the fierce sun o\erhead, or the frightful glare
of the road beneath ; the latter certainly the worse
of the two evils, and often serious in its etfects on
the eyes both of blacks and whites. The only relief
is a shower of rain, which is hardly a change for
the better, as tropical rain is hard to keep out,
and if the sun come after it the consequent damp
heat is almost worse thnu anything. This high state
of cultivation involves cheap labour, aud Barbados,
within and area of lfi(> square miles, contains a
population of nearly If^O.OOO. Of these less than
9h per cent are pure AVhitcs. It is to this enorm-
ous population that Barbados owes its long-continued
prosperity, and enabled it to st.ind successfullyathe
abolition of slavery and of the protective duties on
eugar. — .Mnanillan'a Mayaiine,

Feb. I, 1S86.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURlSf,

585

Correspondence.

^

To the Editor of the " Geylon Observer."
TEA IN UVA : USEFUL INFORMATION, &c.
Badulla, 9th January 1886.

I suppose it is due to the fact that the cultivation ol
tea in Uva is as yot, comparatively speakiny, in its in-
fancy that wo arc up to the present time almost
entirely exempt from criticism of any kind, bul
our turn is coming, and, when it does come, we
are in hopes that we shall have so benefited by
the experience of those who have preceded us in
the cultivation that there will lie very little to
reflect upon. Let us lay to heart the lesson now
being taught to others, and be not boastful, but
await in patience what things the future may have
in store for us.

A friend of mine, a tea planter (albeit he is a
capital maker of tea as well), living within a
hundred miles of Eookwood, whom I recently re-
galed with a short account of the progress
we were making with tea in Uva, coupled with an
invitation to come and see it, and winding up with
a warning that the Kandy side folks had need
to look to their laurels, good-naturedly retorted
that they would take a deal of beating, that at
best therunning would be even ; and that, as for
the laurels, there were probably enough in the
world to provide wreaths for the sunny brows of
Uva for many years to come, without depriving
Kandy of her share. So mote it be, for we owe a
debt of deep gratitude to our friends on the other
side.

We have not as yet amongst us any great authority
on the plucking and manufacture of tea, but this
will come in due course. A considerable amount
of practical experience has however been gained
on one or two important points. We have learned
that tea can be planted and grown just as
easily and inexpensively as almost anything else.
We have learned that there are such things as
:1ocd seed and bad seed, and this has proved a
most painful experience to some ol us. My own
experience in this connection has been very trying,
and I tear, judging from the large areas that have
been planted with seed, I am not singular in this
lespect. We only know from hcarsaij what estates
l)roducc a good jat, but we have better experience
to guide us as to the source of supply of rotten
and light seeds which jeopardize the success of our
nurseries and clearings and which will effectually
prevent us from troubling the same people again.
I haire always been exceptionally successful with
iiur=erie8 of all kinds, including tea, up to the
present sea.^on. Last year 3S maunds of seed
yielded mc plants enough to plant and supply over
'200 acres. This season I had over 50 maunds of
seed, about half of which quantity was supplied
by a Mr. Lomeringsky, while the balance was made
up of 15 maunds imported from Calcutta, and 10
maunds from a well-known estate in Dolosbage.

The two last lots of seed delivered in Badulla cost,
roughly speaking, Rl.OOO, while the former lot
cost about RljlOO. The outturn of plants has been
as follows : —
From Dolosbage ) 4.50,000 at R3 j exclusive of nurs.

(t imported seed ( 50 per 1,000 ) ery upkeep &c-

I'rom Mr. Lome- i 150.000 at R7 j exclusive of nnrs-

lingsky's seed / per 1,000 j cry upkeep Ac.

lud the plants at BS'oO per tboueand are woith

7i

more than twice as much as those which cost R7.
These figures are somewhat startling, and it is hoped
they will prove of some service to those of my brother-
planters who contemplate making nurseries for the
requirements of next year. The moral contained in
them is obvious, and is of too important a nature to
be lig'..ly set aside. IGH DIEN.

THE BLACKSTONE ROLLER.

Tyspany, Kotmale, 25th Jan. 1880.
Dear Sir, — Mr. Barber's roller is being much dis
uussed on estates and in the papers, and, having
■seen th^ 'lachine at work, I must speak as to the
really •• good " work it docs. The question that
seems most at issue is : " Will the roller roll any-
thing but fine leaf ? " I have heard it said that Mr.
Barber only rolls very fine leaf, which is the secret
of the good work and that the roller perha))s would
not hold its own with other machines were it not
for this fine plucking. I have seen the leaf brought
in from the field and on the withering tats, and
must say that the plucking was only "ordinary"
plucking, such as one sees on most estates in
Ceylon. I feel sure that Mr. Barber's roller will
roll icell any leaf that should be brought into a
tea factory.— Yours faithfully, W. C. THOMAS.

COFFEE AND PEPPER EXPORTS FROM

WESTERN INDIA.

Tellicherry, 4th Jan. 188H.
Dear S:b, — We have the pleasure to hand you
our usual statement of exports of coffee and pepper
from this coast for the year ending 30tli June last.

The figures cannot be taken to represent the exact
yield of the districts in proximity to the different
ports, for, as we have previously pointed out, some
coffee finds its way to Madras, especially from the dis'
tricts of Coorg and Mysore ; and, as regards jiepper,
native dealers hold over from one season to an-
other and no very accurate idea of each year's crop
can be obtained.

Coffee. — The coffee crops in Coorg fell far short
of anticipations, while in Mysore estimates woi'e
generally realized, the result being that Mangalore
exported the largest quantity of coffee, heading
I Tellicherry, which, for some years previous, had
maintained the first place. Judging from the ex-
ports of this produce from Calicut and Beypore,
crops from Wynaad, the Neilgherries and the
Ouchterlony Valley did not show any improvement.
Cochin and Quilon have exceeded their last year's
exports.

Psospects. — In Coorg crops will show an improve-
ment on the past season, and, from all we have
heard, planters who are now picking are generally
B! ti fied that their estimates will be realized and in
some cases exceeded, and wo think the ' same can
be said of Mysore. As regards the other districts,
we have no any reliable information.

Pepper. — Judging from exports, the yield this past
season was a very good one, Tellicherry, as usual,
exporting considerably more than all the rest of
the ports put together, natives now cultiv-
ating to a very large extent in North Malabar.
From what wc can gather the coming crop, although
not 80 good, will be as large as last year, a greater
area of land having come into bearing. — We are, dear
sir, vours faithfully,

7.. ?.ro. ALSTON, LO'W ,V Co..
liiLPii Tatu.ui.

IfHE rtiOPitAL AtiRiCUhTOmST,

[r i;.l5.

Uibb.

STATK^'KN'T OF EXPORTS FROJI MALABAR
COAS'I- MKAISCJN 1884-85 ENDING 30th .TI'NE 1S85-

"fl

3 12.050
6' 6,871
S' 18,389
1' 1.400
5; 225
' 760

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50, 47.148
371 101,483
78' 61,238
79 60,634

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l,5i

280,7

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6.019

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1,894
1.027
2.660
3.444
3.196

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TEA IN UVA: SPLENDID GROWTH OF
YOUNG NURSEEIES.

14th .January 188G.

DiivK SiE. — Nearly a whole year has elapsed since
I had tlie pleasure of visiting one or two of the
crack estates on the Kundii xiile of the country,
as we U%'aites are wont to designate every acre of
land after passing Nuwara Eliya Kandywards.
The impression left on my mind with regard to
the prospects of tea was deep, and it has proved
lasting. What I then saw produced in me a mental
breach of the tenth commandment, and 1 returned
with serious misgivings as to our ever being able
to comijete with those whom I looked upon as
more favored. These envious feelings have how-
ever declined in proportion corresponding to the
progress made by our own young fields of tea
during the jjast twelve months, and a state of
mind which is far more comforting, has taken their
place, so that at the present time we are calmly
and deliberately coming to believe that Uva will
grow as good tea, and yield as large returns as any
other part of the country.

Now and again one of our member pays a visit
to the other side, and brings back a report which
is vastly flattering to us, but the strange part of
it is, that, notwithstanding the fact that our young
clearings now compare favorably with any in the
country, there still exists a feeling of great incred-
ulity as to our being able to produce the
shrub at all. With the idea of bringing about a
change of opinion in this respect, I have taken
advantage of a cooly proceeding to the railway to
send you a case containing a couple of tea plants
taken from the clearings on Uva estate, Hewa Eliya.
Both plants honestly represent the average growth
in the fields from which they were taken. The
larger of the two was grown from seed planted at
stake on the loth January 1884, so that it is now
exactly two years old from the seed. The bushes
were cut down to 20 inches three months ago. The
shoots developed from the old wood wiU give you
a good idea of the growth. The younger plant has
seen 12^ months of life in the field, and the laud iu
which it was planted wan patuna.

I trust the plants will reach you in fairly fresh
condition, and I hope you will not mind letting
them remain in your office for a day or two iu
order that anyone in Colombo who takes an inter-
est in the prospects of tea in Uva may have an
opportunity of seeing what it is like. Your own
opinion, 1 need scarcely add, will be greatlv valued.

ICH DIEN.
[Our ovra opinion is, that finer bushes, for their
age, could scarcely be seen anywhere. IIV have
always believed in Uva as a good tea country. — Ep.l

Crops of Native rBOoncE is Ceylon in 1586-fi.—
A corre.'jpoudent supplies the following review: —

" The crop.-! of^ coconuts ne»rly every estate
in the Western Province will be less than J for
the first six niODtbo as compared with the same
period last year. I fit.d tbat the crop already taken
on many estates is about <^ of what was taken iu Jan,
1»&,5, this it is said is owing to tlie drought that
prevailed early last ycnr, but it is eipeoied that the
crops during the closing mouths of the yeiir will be
nearly equal to that of Inst year. It is however
positive uiat the total crops will be less than last year
aud this Is the more to be regretted a.s prices ;ire at
prt'-ient anything but favorable. [I regiet to .say that
•be same will be the case with cinuaiuon.] Oue coconut
estate to my knowledge that gare S3,f)0l.1 nuts last year iu
.Tan. gave only 13,000 in Jan. this year, and another
that gave 17,000 only gave 7,100. I am afraid from
all tuguiries that I have ni-ide that lor .some time to
come prices will not improve,"

Feb, I, 1886,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

5^7

PLUMBAGO USED AS A MORTAR AND
AS A DYE IN CHINA.
Recently we have been able to collect a great
deal of information regiiiding graphite in its various
forms and the muUitiidiuous uses to which it is
applied, and now we have a very curious con-
tribution to our knowledge fi'om China. It will
be seen that, by tlie celestials, a special form of
graphite, associated with coal and bitumen, but
confounded with neither by the astute Chinese, is
used when mechanically united to lime as a plaster or
mortar and with cloth fibres (also mechanically), so as
to form a permanent dye. Here are two new uses for
the extraordinary substance which aids in the manu-
facture of steel ordnance, is itself manufactured

into pencils, and is good as a lubricant and a
fire-proof paint. It was formerly valued as a
medicine, and the WTiter of the very interesting
aciount we quote has found the form of the ore
lie describes useful in surgery as a stjiJtic and
a substitute for substances usually employed as
■• dry dressings."

NOTES ON THE SO-CALLED "BLACK
LI.AIE " OF CHINA.

The following note on Black Lime, by Dr. A. P.
Peak, Tientsin, appears in the Customs Medical
Reports : —

This substance is made by Dr. Williams to be " a
kind of bitumen," and as it has not been mentioned
by any other WTiter with whose pages I am familiar,
possibly the correction of this mistake and the
noting of two uses to which it is put by -the Chinese
may prove of interest.

A suspicion of its bituminous origin might arise
from the facts that at some places tliere are found
traces of petroleum in coimexion with the coal
measures near which it is found, and that water in
which it is macerated sometimes shows an iridescent
film upon its surface. The substance in question is,
however, atiionihot's gruiihite ; and although it is
mined in localities near the coal beds, the Chinese
themselves insist that it has no connexion with
them. The provinces of Chihli and Shantmig are
mainly supplied from mines in the foot hills of the
range boundin" the great plain on the north-west,
and much of tliis material is shipped from Liuli-ho,
whence large quantities of lime and coal are also
forwarded, this citv, situated at the head of one of
the affluents of the Peiho, being the distributing
point for a large mountain reigion. Near Liu-li-ho
surface indications of petroleum seem to abound.

One of the uses before mentioned is its mixture
with lime, to make a very hard and durable plaster,
used in situations that are exposed to the weather.
iieeause of this association, the Chinese call this
" lime " like the other, although, as they say, it has
not the fiery principle of the white lime.

A peculiarity of this graphite is its avidity for
water, not from chemical afhuity, as with lime, but
from its great absorbent qualities. The crude graph-
ite, in lumps as it comes from the mines, when
exposed lo contract with water, at once becomes
permeated by it, and falls into powder. In this
state the particles slide upon each other with the
greatest ease, giving that lubricating quality which
fs chractcristic of graphite. When mixed with
freshly slake! lime, gr.'i.plnte in this state can be
very thoroughly iiicorpor;ited with it, each one of
the finely divided particles becoming imbedded lu
a matrix of lime, and liy laborious working and
pressure, as the mortar -^ets the m.asa can be so
consolidated as to make, when hardened, one of the
best and finest grained mortara known, speciraonB

of which can be seen in the so-called "chnnam"
roofs.

The superiority of this mortar is due solely to
the physical character of the little knife-edged,
microscopic fragments of carbon : and j'et, strange
to s.ay, the use of silicious sand iu mortar does
not seem to have commended itself to native build-
ers. I have never been able to get one who was
not familiar with foreign ways of building to
acknowledge its utility. True, . is somewhat difhr-
ult to obtain on this great alluvial plain : still,
where it can be had, so far as I know, loam Is
nsed in preference.

To pass to the second economic use of graphite ;
this is the curious one of dyeing cloth. The cotton
garments universally worn by the middle clas.'ies are
coloured with thi.s substance. The cloth is soaked in a
hot, a<|ueous mixture of graphite, in which there is a
little glue; it is then placed on a stone and mauled
with wooden beaters ; again imnier.st^d and again
beaten, the process being repeated many times with
each piece, until the cloth assumes a deep and uni-
form tint attaiued by thus mechanically forcing the
fine particles of carbon more and more deeply into the
fibre of the cloth.

I have r.irely seen a more beautiful object than
fibres .-craped from the cloth, loaded with brilliant,
razor-like fragments of carbon, like diamond dust,
especially whin viewed in glycerine, under a ^ immer-
sion h.:i. It is difficult to believe that such beautiful
transparent objects make up in mass the dull opaque
plumbago.

This ])rocess of dyeing, if we may call it so, I believe
to be unique in tlie art as practis d at the present day.
The colour is, of course, indestructilile by the sun ur
chemical action, and can only be dischai-ged by thorough
and repeated washings. Hence it makes a very satis-
factory and permanent colour for Obinese garments,
aud approves itself to the utilitarian native mind, as
witness its universal u-^e.

Graphite is abundant, and sells in the market here for
5 cash a catty ; yet these are all the industrial uses of
it, so far as I know.

Lead pencils, crucibles, stove blacking and lubricat-
ing are uot yet achieved by means 0*' it.

Oddly enough, the Chinese have not thought of using
it in medicine. Yet the great hygroscopic qualities
of the fine, soft, velvety powder, which may easily he
obtained by levigation, in<licate a direction iu which it
may advautageouslv be employed.

In such affections as require dry dressings, e. g.,
moist eczemas anil purulent otitis, it could not fail to
be of service. As a styptic it is of considerable value,

1 have found that a couibiuation of 3 pirts of graphite,

2 pHrts of. resin, and 1 part of acacia, by weight care-
fully triturated, possesses very marked haemostatic
properties. — Hongkong Daily Press, 12tb Jan.

SPINEL-BEARING DOLOMITE.
Much of our crystallized mountain limestone,
which occurs in beds amongst our other primitive
rocks is so full of iron pyrites that by many it
is believed that this source of sulphur would supply
a local manufactory of sulj^huric acid. Occasion-
ally our dolomite exists with the gold-like iron
pyrites replaced by sapphire-blue crystals of spiuol.
But this latter form is so rare that during our
long residence in Ceylon we had not seen it until
about three weeks ago Mr. A. J. Kellow brought
us some very beautiful specimens from his estate.
New Cornwall, in the Ambawella or New Gahvay
Valley, below Nuwara Eliya. He told us he had
for many years been in the habit of burning the
ordinary form of the rock into lime, but that it
was only recently that the breaking-up of a fresh
bed had revealed the 'blue crystals. A large and
very beautiful sapphire-like crystal which Mr. Kellow
showed us as having been found in the rock ought
to have dissipated the idea o£ copper pyrites which

588

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886.

wassuggested to us, and which we mentioned in
sub itting a specimen to our ever-reliable geological
roferemc.Mr. A. Murray, of the Public Works Depart-
ment, a gentleman so strangely oveilnuked by the Ex-
liibition Committee with reference to their collections
of geological and rnineralogical specimens, which
lie was perfectly competent to name and classify.
Mr. Murray at once recognized the true nature of
the crystals and wi'ote : —

" The geological apecimeus you sent me are very
interestuig— what you take to be copper pyrites is
really Blue Sjiiinlle, au alumiuate of magnesia, known
to occur in crystalline limestone such as your speci-
men is."

Before the receipt of Mr. Murray's letter we
had picked out some of the crystals with a pen-
knife and finding them translucent we had dis-
missed the idea of copper pyrites and we got to
reading about lapis lazuli kyanite and topaz. Had
we thought of looking into Mr. A. C. Dixon's account
of our mountain limestones, in the .Journal of the
local branch of the Asiatic Society for 1880, we should
have found that the form bearing blue crystals was
not so rare as we had deemed. Mr. Dixon re-
ported : — " A dolomite occurring at Wai'iapola, on the
Matale railway, contains a large amount of blue
spinel." In the collection of minerals which ac-
companied Mr. Dixon's paper, there were two
specimens of spinel, one from Watagama,
about half-way between Matale and Kandy,
and the other from Ratnapura. Gygax had also
supplied a specimen of spinel to the Asiatic Society's
Museum, so long ago as 1848. In truth, Ceylon
and Siam are recognized as the two great sources
of spinel, one of the varieties from our island
being named Geylanite, and another Candite for
fhe reason thus stated by Tennent :—" Spinel of
extremely beautiful colours is found in the bed of
the Mahaweliganga, at Kandy, and from the locality
it has obtained the name of Cnndite." The
origin of the name CeylaniU will be found further
on. One of the authorities we consulted stated : —
Spinel, a mineral allied to corrundum, consisting
chiefly of alumina, with smaller proportions of
magnesia, silica and protoxide of iron. It occurs in
crystals, which are oiten octohedral and is chiefly
found in Ceylon and Siam. Its colours are various :
red, blue, green and black. It is much prized as a
gem ; red spinels are commoiily called rubies ; the
Balaa ruby is a red spinel and a violet coloured spinel
is known as Alamandine ruby.'
From another we learned that spinel

Occurs in loose and embedded octohedral crystals.
Hardness greater than that of quartz but less than
that of corrundum. Colours : red, blue, violet, green,
yellow, brown and black. The first most common,
transparent, translucent, opaque specific gravity
3'5 to3'7. Infusible by the blowpipe; the red varieties
are rendered black and become opaque by exposure
to it, but ou cooling at first of a fine green by trans-
mitted light, then nearly colourless and at last
become again red. Ceylon and Siam in isolated and
Toiled crystals in the beds of rivers. Embedded m
carbonate of lime in North America and Sweden.
Red : — 8i-47 alumina ; 8-78 magnesia and 618 chromic
acid.
Blce: — Silica 5-48

Alumina 72''25

Magnesia \i6S

Protoxide of iron 4'26

It will be noticed that red spinel contains a good
deal of chromic acid to wliicli we suppose it owes its
colour? The blue, it will be seen, has a good deal
less alumina in its composition but more magnesia,
with silica and protoxide of iron, against the
chromic acid of the red variety which includes the
spinel vuby. Of course, if fine rolled crystals of
spinel are found in the rivers of Ceylon, the chances
of finding largo unworn crystals in the parent

I rook are all the greater. Mr. Kellow will no doubt
I search for large, clear, flawless crystals, and we
1 should say that where such crystals are not pre-
t sent, slabs of the rock for tables and mantlepieces,
and pieces for paper weights, &e., would be likely to
take a beautiful polish. Curiously enough, one of the
traditions of Nuwara filiya is that the late Mr.
Wm. Kellow stated that while digging potatoes ho
had found a large mass of sapphire which he put
aside, and which when he again looked for it,
it could not be found. No doubt, the "sapphire"
was a piece of limestone, blue and radiant- with
spinel crystals. Spinel occurs, of course, in other
primary rocks besides the crystallized limestone, and
we suppose it is Davy who is quoted by Pridham
to the effect that " spinel is comparatively rare,
though some small and most beautiful crystals of
it are found in the interior, and it is found in
specimens of clay iron ore in parts of the Central
Province where gneiss prevails." No doubt, the red
or ruby form was referred to. In the Manual of
the Geology of India, we find it stated that

The spinel ruby differs from the true oriental
(corundum) ruby in composition by containing a
varying percentage of magnesia, and the maguesium is
occasionally replaced by iron, calcium, manganese, or
ziuo. The mineral therefore iucludes many virieties,
some of which are opaque and unsuitiible for jewellery.
The spinel rubv is distinguinheil from the corundum
ruby by being of inferior hardness and, when crystalUne,
by its octohelral form.

There is little or no information as to the occur-
rence of the spinel inljieninsular India. Its occurrence
in Mysore has been asserted, but apparently requires
authentic confirmation. There are several" countries
beyond the confines of peninsular India where the
balas ruby has beeu regularly miued for.
And then a hst of the extra-Indian countries is
given, commencing with Afghanistan, where spinel
is found in a matrix of crystalline micaceous lime-
stone. Then comes a curious statement : —

Badakshan. — The balas ruby mines of Cadaksbau are
situated on the banks of the Shigbuan, a tributary
of the Oxns. Tb -y have beeu known by reputation
for very many centuries, and the name hala^ is derived
from B.ilakshan, another form of writing the name of
the country or from Baikh the capital (own. This
may possibly be the origin of the common nii.stake
made in English works on precious stones, namely, that
these mines are situated in Balochistau! Marco Polo
states that in his time the mines were wholly in the
hands of he King, who kept up the value of the
stones by only pt-rmitting a limited number to be ex-
ported. C')louel Ynle remarks upon this that the
monopoly has beeu continued to the present day.
When Mnrad Beg of Kundnz conquered Badakshan he
was so (hsgnsted with the poor outturn of the mines
that he abandoned working them, and the papulation
of the neighbourhood were sold as slaves. In 1866
the reigning Mir had one of the mines opened at
the request of Pundit Manphul, but without much
result. Wood, in 1S37, attempted to visit these
raiuea but failed : however, he gives a short ac-
count of thein. The matrix, he states, is a red
sandstone, or a limestone largely impregnated with
magnesia ; most probably it is a liuiestoue, as such
appears to bo the usual matrix. The galleries were
easily made and numerous, but the frequent influx
of water caused much trouble.

Upper Burma. — It is stated that a large propor-
tion of the rubies which are sold in Burma are reallv
only spmel, this mineral apparently occurring also
in the already described "em sands. When the crys-
talline form !s obscure the two stones may be dis-
tinguished either by their hardness, specific gravity,
or their refractory powers. Although of less value
the spinel rabies arc lari,'ely used in jewellerv.

The Rev. F. Mason, wlio givfs some interesting
information on this subject, states that be had a
stone, which every native who had seen it, — and

Feb. I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

589

some of them are very good judges indeed, — supposed
to be a true oriental taby or red sapphire, but its
crystalliiie form — a regular octohedron— showed it to
be a spinel.

He states that the dark-blue or blackisli v.iriety
of spinelle called ceylanite or pleonaste is ottered
for sale by the Shans under the same name as
sapphire. Gem sand containing small fragments of
garnet, beryl, and spinel, together with the more
precious stones, is a regular article of merchandise
with ihe Shaus, Three-fourths of the mass consists
of spinel. Purchasers may rest assured that the
valuable stones have, as a rule, been all removed
by the wily Shaus.

Of couise, the ruby, sapphire and spinel mines of
Upper Burma belong now to the British Raj,
Streeter, in his notice of " precious spinel," states: —
Under the generic name Spinel several minerals
are included, as the Spinel Ruby, Balas Ruby, also
Pleonaste, or Ceylonite, Candite, and other less
valuable crystals.

The precious Spinel is found either detached, or
embedded in granular limestone. It varies in colour,
presenting carmine, blue, rose-red, reddish-brown, or
some tinge of orange. It is fomid. loose in the
sand in Mysore and Hindostan, but in Burmah.
Pe*^^, Ceylon, Saffragam, and Matura it occurs in
well-formed, sharp-angled octahedra. In deep water-
courses, subject to irregular inundation, it occcure
accompanied with Zircon. Garuet, and magnetic iron
ore ; and in granite, accompanied with Apatite.
What is said of Mysore must be read in the light
of the scepticism of Mr. Ball of the Indian Geo-
logical Survey, and as to " Ceylon," with " Satfra-
gam " and •' Matura "added, as if they two latter were
countries separate from Ceylon, we are reminded of
the statement in all the books that graphite is
found in " Travancore, Ceylon." We quote the
further interesting information furnished by Streeter,
which shows that good, large crystals of spinel are
quite equal in value to sapphires. In view of what
Mr. Ball writes in his Geological Manual, however,
there can be little doubt that the specimens of blue
spinel referred to below, owed their origin to either
Burma or Ceylon : —

In North Amex-ica, between Amity and Andover,
lome crystals of extraordinary magnitude have been
found, iiicasuring Iti inches in diameter, in com-
pany with granular limestone and SeiTieutine.

Although its form, which has the octahedia for its
base, has caused it to be classed in the regular gem
system, yet it can be readily distinguished from the
Ruby, to which it has been allied, by its inferior
hardness, and its specific gravity, which varies from
35 to 38, and is in this respect similar to the Topaz.
A peculiarity of Spinel is that the light which is
reflected from the depth of the gem, no matter what
the colotu' of the stone, is always of a pale yellow.
The lustre is vitreous, and displays every degree of
transparency. The refraction is simple, and in no
stone is this more real and abiding than in this
species. It is rendered electric by friction, but not
by heat.

Spinel is a combination of alumina and magnesia.
The varieties of color are due to the magnesia being
replaced partially by iron oxide (Fe.O), zinc oxide
(Zn.O), or manganese oxide (Mg.O), and lime (Ca.O) ;
and the alumina, by ferric oxide (Fe.O).

One of the finest specimens of Blue Spinel, a
thickish oblong stone, was not long since in the
possession of Slessrs. Pittar, Liverson it Co. It was
an Indian-cut stone, weighing 'Ml carats. It was,
on its arrival, re-cut by ^Ir. .7. N. Forster, of Ijond<'ni
and weighed, after re-cutting, 25 carats. There is a
strange nistory attached to this stone ; it was con-
signed from India as a Sapphire; subsequently it
was found to be a Spinel, wlitreupon the purchaser
returned it to the merchant, who at once wrote to
the con.Kignor in India, but the statement was not
believed. The merchant determined to have it cut,
and afterwards sold- it for a much larger nnm than
it had been valued at aa a, Sapphire.

In the Exhibition of 1862 there were two every
fine Spinels ; one from India was cut eit cabo hon,
forming an octagon-shaped stone, of perfect color and
free from tliws. It weighed 197 carats. This was
cut by Mr. .1. N. Forster to an iSl-carat "perfec-
tion stone." Tlie other Spinel was also an octagon-
.shaped stone, of perfect color, very "spread," and
free from flaws. It weighed 102^ carats, and was
re-ciit by Mr. Forster, and then weighed 72i carats .
It is strange that both these stones arrived fro m
India in the same year, viz., 18*>1. One specimen
obtained by Dr. Heron is said to have weighed 49 lb ,
it is in three pieces, and contains cavities studded
with crystals of Corundum.

In iVleronitz, in jiohemia, little rose-red crystaln
are found, in company witli Pyrites; also in the
Liebenhurgen, in gold sand. At Aker, in Sweden,
palo-blue and pale-grey varieties are found in lime-
stone.

Crystals are found in the Ovens River, in Victoria,
and also in the pearl rivers of New South Wales,
and in other part of Australasia.

The Blue Spinel is found in Sweden, Antwerp,
and Ceylon both loose and as imbedded crystals.
They are easily distinguished by ther foliated
fracture ; the color generally is a faint-blue, violet
indigo, or a seladine-green. It is translucent, and
contains 3 to 4 per cent of iron.

Pleonaste was called Ceylonite, by Rome de I'lsle,
who analyzed it with a number of other crystals
brought from Ceylon. It was Hauy who, seeing its
crystals resembled that of the Spinel, desired to
give it a special position in the system of minerals
and named it Pleoiiasle, which signifies superfluity.
Further investigation showed that it was in reality
a black variety of the Spinel. This has the best
cleavage of the whole class; it is easy and parallel
to the faces of the octahedron.

The specific gravity of this stone rises from 3'5
to 3"8. It cansists principally of alumina, and about
II) per cent of protoxide of iron. Its infusibility
before the blow-pipe, and its formation with borax
into an iron-colored glass, are the surest indications
of Pleonaste. Acids have but little influence upon
it. It is found in Russia and other cold climates,
but it is also found in Ceylon, as well as m the
Dolomite region in Ratana.

Spinel, in consequence of its lustre, color aud
hardness, is used for personal ornament, and for
objects of luxury ; but it is only when the crystals
are fine and large that they are considered
gems. Ill cutting it receives the same form as the
Ruby.

Spinel Ruby, called Balas Ruby, varieties in value
according to its cut and color.

Ill the inventory of the French Crown .leweU, in
the year 1791, we find the following : —

One Spinel Rnby of 561 carats .. *2,000
One „ 4 2-5th „ .. 12

One „ 3| „ .. 12

One Balas Ruby 20g „ .. 400

One „ 12s „ .. 120

At the present time small

stones range from . . 5s to 10s a carat.

Medinmstones, of fair color.. 20s to 40.s ,,
Largo stones . . . . 60s to lOOs „

Specimen stones attain even a higher value.
Balas, called Balais Ruby, are pale-red, or roae)^
red gems, with a tinge of blue appearing at the
angles of the octahedron which gives them a milky
kind of shimmer and depreciates their value. The
color is due to chromic acid.

The Balas Ruby varies much in price; for ex-
ample, a dark rose-red of 10 millimetres, square-cut
and polished as a Brilliant, pure and lustrous, will
sell for £12 while a pali-rose of like size will be
worth sixteen shillings only in value depends en-
tirely on the demand and the character of the
stone, occasionally a fine specimen of five carats
will realize il.50.

From the article 'Burma,' iii the new edition of tlie
Kncyclopicdia lirilannico. we quote the (oUowjng
paragraph : —

590

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886,

The precious stones which are proiluced in the Bur-
mese territories nre chiefly th^i sapphire ami the ruby.
They are found about &) or 70 miles in ii north east
direction from the capital, over an area of about 100
square miles, by sinking pits in the gem bed-;. The
varieties of the sapphire found tht*re are the hluf or
oriental sapphire, the red or oriental ruby, the /utrp/f
or oriental amethyst, the v*''^''"' or orientil topaz, b ■-
sides different varieties of chrysoberyl and spinelle.
The Grown lays claim to the produce of these rivers ;
and all the stones that exceed the value of £10 are
sent to the treasury. No stranger is ever permitted to
approach the spots where these precious stones are
found. The yu or jade mines are situated in the
Mogoiing district, about 25 miles south-west of Meink-
hoom. During: certain seasons no fewer than 1000
men — Shans, Chinese, Panthays, and Kakhyens — are
engaged in the excavation of the stone, which is found
in the form of rounded boulders, sometimes of con-
siderable size. Each digger pays so much a inrmth for
the right of search, and all lie finds becomes his own.
Momien, in Yunnan, was formerly the chief seat of the
manufacture of the ja'le, and still produce-t a consider-
able quantity of small articles.

Mr. Kellow and the proprietors of the blue lime-
stone at Wariapola will see, from all that we have
stated and quoted, that good spinel crystals are
valuable as gems.

While on matters geological we may mention
that amongst rock speclmeus sent to the Exhib-
ition Committee, including quartz and clays of
variou.s colours decomposed from it in an upland
valley, with rock of igneous origin, associated with
those metamorphic formations, was a very tine
piece of jasper, found by Mr. A. Murray near
Bentota. This rock, if found in large masses, ought
to be of value.

With the spinel- bearing limestone we sent to
Mr. Murray some pieces of quartz, the Hnding of
which in a peaty formation seems to have upset
the mental faculties of a correspondent who wrote : —
" I fancy the specimens sent are merely quartz, at
least heat and acid test, did not shew otherwise, liut

how the did I hud it (the stone) in a regular fi-it

'peat moss ' as black as pitch and the ciiaractcr of the
other stones, very few, were all different, common
schist (is that proper spelling?) aud other decaied
common stoue, all of which were few and this on
the whole swamp about 1 ton big — by itself ?

" I *ve followed Sir^ Roderick Murchison aud Geikie ;
but I don't mind ever looking for this sort in a peat hole. !
" Something new in my line for new year ! ! I 've not |
a micro, to examine the cavities to tell the facets or
I need not have troubled you, though I do scratch my
head how the kc. it came there aud 1 ton and more
too of a piece." j

Mr. Murray writes :—

" The fragment's referred to by your somewhat er-
ratic corresponiient are quartz of varying quality — the
cavities incrusted with perfect rhombohedral ' rock
crystals ' contained at one time some carbotiaceous
or other nucleus around which the crystals formed.
The position of the fragments is accounted for by the
simpal fact that they have been — a^es b u:k — iletached
by disintegration from the parent mass aud conveyed
probably by aqueous agency to the so-called ' peatmoss,' "

BOTANICAL GARHENS IN NORTHERN
INDI.'i.

The reports of the Government Botanical Gardens j
at Saharanpur and Mussoorio ai-e always interesting, j
containing, as they do, the results of a large number
of experimenti of gre'it pr-ictical iniportauee; ami the I
report for the year 1881-85 though it cmitaiiis fewer
records of su cessful experiments than some of its
pre^'ecessors, is n *t at all iitferior to them in int'rest.
Terhaps the ino-tt impotait work il me ar t-ieso
Oarlens is that on the ace iinati^ation and cu tiviiion
of fruit trees and vegetnbles. This is carried out on
a tolerably large scale, and with considerable suooess,

new or more hardy varieties of useful fruit trees and
vegetaliles being constantly o btained and propagated,
so that plants aud seeds can be distributed to private
iudividuals throughout the province. During the year,
more than 42,00li plant? aud cuttings, and 19,()d0 lb.
of seeds were sold or given away, the greater part
being sold to the general public, who evidently ap-
preciate the oppornmity givr-n them of obtaining the
seeds of plants which have been so acclimatised, ihat
they can be counted upjn to produce good crops if
due care be taken with them. This is a point of
con.sideraMe impoitmee and one to which we think
sufficieut attention is not paid in Madras. Those who
attempt to raise flowers or vegetibles here during the
cold weather are alwiys more or less troubled by ihe
difficulty of getting good seed ; and even if they get
the best seed from England, they fin 1 that in some
they have very fair crop>, while in other jears almost
everything is a failure. Now the experiments made
at Sharanpiir show conclusively that many vegetables
improve greatly, both in yield" and in haidness, when
properly acclimatised.

Turning to the results of some of last year's ex-
periments, we find that those in potatoes confimed
the results obtained in the previous jear that
the common country varieties give a greater yield
than can be obt.iined from imported .sorts. The
" .Scotch Obampion." however, coutinues to improve,
and seems likly to prove a valuaide addition as .its
[ quality is first-rate. The largest yield per acre was
I got from the kind known as •• Naiiii Tal," and amounted
to 17(i maunds. The "Scotch Champion" increased
from -14 maunds in 1883 to 60 maunds in 1S84, and
to 71 maunils lu 1885. -Seeds of water melons, sweet
melons, punipkius, veget.ible marrows (squashes) and
indian-corn were imported from America for trial, and
some of them proved superior to any that had pre-
viously been grown in the gardens. Of the water
melons the ''Ice cream" and "Gipsy water" were
small but of exquisite fl^ivour, aucl well deserve to
be introduced into this country. Of the melons only
three varieties ripened sound fruit, but those were
far superior to any of the country kinds. They are
known by the somewhat peculiar names of " Netted
nutmeg," " Netted citron " and " AVhite -Japan citron."
The only new vegetable introduced during the year
seems to ha\'e been the kumrali of New Zealand, a
kind of sweet potato. It produced a capital crop.
The tubers are smaller than those of the lut.lian variety,
but not so excessively sweet, and they come into
season at the beginning of the cold whether, when
other vegetables are scarce. Amongst the new plants
introduced into the gardens is one from Jamaica the
<j'tuania doitiiiigrii,tis^ A., which is known by the not
very eleg.mt name <d' the •' chaw-stick." on account
of its ** thill flexible stems being chewed as an agree-
able stomachic." Tooth-brushes are also made from
it by cutting pieces of a suitable length, aud frayiug
out the ends, while tooth-pow der is made from the
dried stems. I'^ebrifugal qualities are claimed for it,
and it is used for flavouring cooling beverages. Another
plant received from .Tamiica is the '* tree tomato,
{ci/phomanth'u hetni'ta). It is a uative of South Amer-
ica, where it gro\vs as a shrub some five or six feet
high. Plants are easily raised from seed, and come
into bearing in two years. The cultivation of the .salt
bush, on i\hich we reniarked last year, coutinues to
meet with lair success, but the seeds hitherto pro-
du'Stid have failed to germiu ite. Th-' genus A H/ilcv
to which this pl.mt be;ougs, is rep:e^ented in Siud
by auothei bushy species A. Stucksii; IViiihl ( biono)
which clo.sely resembles the Australian salt bush; ex-
periments are now being made to de'ermiue whether
or not this can be utdised in th; same way fu" pi tilt-
ing on sterile sdiue soils. The "sheep bush'' has
proved quite unable to stmd the damp heat of the
r.iiiiy season, but perhaps it m-ny be found able to
grovv ill s.»m- of the drier pirtsof the Puiij .b where
'be climate more c!o.sely resemoles that of its native
Africa.

The report includes a very interesting acconnt of
experiments on spider silk. Attention was some time

i-tB, 1, 1886.

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

591

ago caileii to a very stroug form of cobweb, spun by
an African species of spider, which yieltleil a fibre
scarcely distiug-tishablc from that made by the silk-
worm. This notice suggested to Jlr. Duthie the idea
of having some experiments made will\ spiders' webs
which are fouud in great abundance at lihini Tall.
He accordingly obtained a ejuantity of these webs.
and sent them on to Mr. Thiselton Dyer, at Kew,
to have them examined by an expert. The report
received from this expert, Mr. T. Wardle. is most
encouraging. The fibre can be freed from the gum-
my substance with which it is loaded by boiling it in
a solutou of soap, and is then found to have an
average thickness of one three thousand one hun-
dredth of au inch, which is considerably finer than
that of Italian silk. The sti-ength of the fibre is al'
proportioually greater than that of silk, butitschiei
characteristic is its great elasticty. A piece 30 centi-
meters long will stretch to ii6'6 centimetres without
briMkiug, whilst China silk of the same length would
stretch to only M centimetres. The spider silk has
a round lustrous fibre like common silk, but the
amount of gummy matter associated with it in the
natural state is excessive, amounting to nearly fifty
per cent. The fibre dyes readily, aiul Mr. Wardle be-
lieves that if it could be obtained iu any quantity it
would find a ready market. The specimen sent him
was rather dirty, but still he thinks it would be
worth at least 2 shillings per lb. Hitherto, we suppose,
the only usri to which spiiler's webs have been put —
except by the spiders themselves— has been that of
forming the '* cross wires '' in telescopes and micro-
meters. For this purpose, where a fine and fairly
.•'troug fibre is absolutely required, nothing has been
found to be so satisfactory as a rapidly spun spider's
web. When a web is required a suitable spider is
placed on one prong of a frokcd stick which is held
ID the baud of the operator. When the spider has been
got into the proper position the stick is tapped
sharply, so that the spider falls off spinning a fine
thread as it goes, this thread is then wound across
the forks, and is ready for use. When the operation
is properly perrormed a beautifully fine thread is ob-
tained wbicli may be used under very high magnifj'-
ing powers. Returning to the Bhim Tal spiders : the
Kev. O. P. Cambridge reports that they belong
to the Ept-irids (yrpltileni/us Malabureii.-ii.i. Il'iilck).
It is almost cosmopolitan, and is certainly met with
iu India, China, Austra ia, Borneo, and West Africa.
He considers the silk very strong, and almost inde-
structible, but points out that since spiders devour
each other it will be impossible to feed and cultiv-
ate them like sdk worms without an unreasonable
amount of trouble and expense.

The report contains, as an appendix, au account
of a botanical tour made by Mr. Duthie to North-
Eastern Kumain. This journey involved the crossing
of the Kal.im Pass I8,7tlO feet above sea level. One
night was spent in camp on the glacier at a height
of 17,41X1 feet without fuel, and with a very scanty
stock of provisions. The whole party- suffered to a
cert. in extent from the effects of the high elevation.
One man thought himself .so ill that he wished to
lie left behind to die when the party moved on next
day, aud Mr. Duthie remarks suggestively "a little
more than coaxing had to be exercised in order to
prevent his carrying out his wish." The inhabitants
of the valley bcyoml the pass are mostly Bhutias.
They ha%o Iwen hardly at all affected by Brahminisro;
have no family priest* or pnrdhits; they worship the
local deities, the presiding spirits of the mountain top
and stceaui. Marriages result from the free choice of
the young men and women, and are celebrated simply
by a feast ; seclusion of the women is unknown.
They distil a hquor called " jan " from wheat, and
take bouts of hard drinking. Their wealth consists
of their flocks of sheep, goats, and yaks. They weave
and sell woollen cloths, and act as merchants be-
t^veen Tibet and India, carrying borax from Tibet to
Ba-mdco, and bringing sugar, cloth, &c., from the
Indian plains for sale in Tibet. A large number of
plants of species which were either new or previously

unrecorded for Kumaou, were obtained, lists of which/
with the elevations at which they were obtained, are
appended to the report.

A feature of the Ciardens, which seems wortJiy of
imitation, is their use as a school for training gard-
eners. During the year, fifteen trained men left the
fiardens for appointments in various parts of the
I ountry, on salaries of RIC to R15 per mensem
The distribution of men of this kind through the
country cannot fail to have a considerable influence
in improving the garden culture of the districts where
they settle, by introducing the more scientific methods
of horticulture which they themselves have learned
at such thoroughly practical schools, — Madras Mail.

Ft

iu.

5

0

U

6

12

0

3

6

9

0

8

R

7

0

!)

6

11

0

5

0

The ENauiKiES under crop diseases and blight show
that nearly all our staples are affected by some kind
of disease or other. Mr. Ozanne's remarks on the
subject are thoroughly practical, and we have some
hope that, iu the not distant future, some remedies
may be found to rid these crops of their pests. — Indian
A'ji'iciUtifiist.

Fruit Thees i.\ (,(ueensl.\nd. — The following table
of the growth of fruit-trees upon the selection of Mr
T. E. White (of Alfred Shaw & Co.), situated close
to Cairns, is interesting as showing how ferti le is the
soil and genial the climate. None of the trees mentioned
have been planted over two years. The cocoa-trees
are growing without any shelter ; the cinchona were not
raised from seed, but were direct importations from
Oeylou: —

Cinchona, up to

Mango, „

Jack-fruit, „

Cocoa, ,,

Lemon, „

Tamarind, „

Gum copal, „

Date plum, „ ... ...

Flacourtia, ,,

Brazilian cherry, up to
— Queenslander.

Insecticides. — Dr. Thomas Taylor, microscopist of
the If. S. Department of Agriculture, read a paper
iu Washington iu December, 1883, showing the value
of naphtaliue as an insecticide. The naphtaline ex-
perimented with was solid matt*r precipitated in bar-
rels from the oil of tar, and was used in the form
of a powder. Some of the powder sprinkled in a box
was fouud sutbcieut to kill potato bugs, the winged
phylloxera, the common house fly, ants, termites and
beetles. Worms in flower-pots were driven out dead
when brought iu ci/nt.act with the fumes of the gas
I given oH' by naphthaline. Frogs were killed by the
same treatment, and animal life of all kinds was dealt
! with similarly, proving that naphthaline was an insecti-
cide of great value. Other experiments .showed that
while it had this great power over in.sect aud animal
life it did not affect plant life injuriously. It could
be placed in close quarters with the roots, the leaves,
1 or the seeds of plants without destroying or mater-
I ially affecting their vitality. Buried in the ground
j among the roots it would kill or drive away insect life
or worms ; shut in with plants it would effectually
dispose of vermin, and perhaps cause a leaf or two
to wilt, without doing any permanent injury; while
put away with seeds for a year it wofild siniply keep
away all insect depredators and not in any way affect
their germinating powers. This should be of great
value in preserving seed, wheat maize— in fact, sheds
of every description from the depredations of weevils.
Dr. Bancroft has recently experimented in this direc-
tion with strong-smelling leaves, such as the leaver
of the small-ti-tree to, at least, some purpose ; but
this naphthaline appears to be very strongly needed.
It might do to preserve grain retpilred as food for
stock ; still, it ought to be trie<l and a final conclusion
reached — but for banishing weevils from seed of any
description it should he invaluable. — Queensland Aj/n-
, culturtst.

ss»

tME TROPICAL AaRICULTURIST,

[Feb. I, i»»6.

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS.

(Prom Lewis <t Pent's London Price Current, December 17th, 1885.)

FROM MALABAR

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADRAS, &c.

BEES' WAX, White

Yellow
CINCHONA BABK— Crwn

Red

CARDAMOMS Malabar

and Ceylon
Aleppep
Teliicherry

Mangalore
Long Ceylon
CINNAMON Ists

3nds
3rd8
Iths
Chips
COCOA, Ceylou

COFFEECeylon Plantation

QUALITY.

QUOTATIONS.

r Slightly softiah to good

t hard bright

Do. drossy & dark ditto.

Renewed ...

Medium to fine Quill ,

Spoke shavings ...

Branch

Renewed

I^ediuia to good Quill
Spoke shavings ...

Branch

Twig

Cl;p;^ed, bold, bright, fine
Middling, stalky & lean
Fair to fine plump clipped
Good to fine
Brownish

Good & fine, washed, bgt.
Middling to good...
Ord. to fine pale quill

,, Native
Liberian
East Indian

Native

COIRROPE,Ceylon&Cochin
FIBRE, Brush

Stuffing ..
YARN, Ceylon
Cochin
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted ..
CROTON SEEDS, sifted ..
GINGER, Cochin, Cut

Rough

NUX VOMICA

MYRABOLANES, pale ...

Pickings
OIL, CINNAMON
C'lTRONELLE
LEMON GRASS
ORCHELLA WEED
PEPPEK,Malabarblk.sifted
AUcppee & Cochin „
Tellicherry, White ...
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Chips

Dust
REDWOOD ...!

SAPAN WOOD
SANDAL WOOD, logs ...I
Do. chips ...j
SENNA, Tinnerelli

TtTRMERIC, Madra.i
Do.
Do.

Cochin
VAKIttOES, Mauritius &
Bouxbou, Ists 1
2nds'

3rds

•1th

FR(.)M BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

Woody and hard ...
Fair to fine plant...
Bold to good bold
Medium

Triage to ordinary
Bold to fine bold
Middling to fine mid.
Low middling ...

Smalls

Good ordinary ...
Small to bold
Bold to fine bold...
Medium to fine ...

Small

Good to fine ordinary
Mid. coarse to finestraight
Ord. to fine long straight

Coarse to fine

Ordinary to superior

Ordinary to fine

jRoping fair to good
Middlingwormy to fine...

[Fair to fine fresh

iGood to fine bold

(Small and medium
JFair to good bold...

iSmall

[Fair to fine bold fresh ...
(Small ordinary and fair...
jGood to fine picked
Common to middling ...

Fair Coast..

Burnt and defective
Good to fine heavy
Bright & good flavour ...

Mid. to fine, not woody...

Fair to bold heavy J

,, good „ ' (

Fair to tine bright bold...
Middling to good small...
Slight foul to fine bright
Ordiiiarj' to fine bright ...
Fair aud fine bold
Middling coated to good
Fair to good flavor

Good to fine bold green...
Fair middlinc bold
Common dark .ind small
Finger fair to fine bold
Mixed middling [bright

Bulbs whole

Do split

Fine crystalised 6 a t!iuch
Foxy & reddish .S a 8 .,
/Lean & dry to middling
\ under 6 inches
Low, foxy, inferior and
[pickings

£6 10s a £7 10s
Lb lOs a £6 163
l8a.3s6d
Is4d a 23 6a
9d a Is 6d
3d aSd
8d a 2s 6.1
6da2sBd
hi a Is 2d
2da6d
Id

•2s ed a -in <ti
2s a 2s 4d
Is 9d a as 6d
2s a 3s 3d
6A a Is 9d
2s 6d a Is 6d
8d a Is Id
lOd a 2s
9d a Is 6d
7.Jd a Is 2d
6d a Ud .

lUd
848 6d a 87s 6d
74 s a 7as
638 a 7l8
823 a 100s
62b a 77s
H% a 605
48s a 56s
40s a 42s
303 a .'JSs
80s a 100s
62s a 7.5s
46s a 533
40s a 4fis nora.
fil3 a £24
£20 a £32
£7 a £18
£12 10s a £38
£12 a £40
£11 a £17
2.5s a 60s
49s a .59s
90s a 110s
52s a 7Ss
36s a 39s
32s a 353
S3 a 123
OS a 7s

.>*s 3d a 10s 3<1
73 6d a 8s
38

6s .Id a 7s
Is 3d a 3s
1'' a 1 l-16d
Uda IJd
40s a 5.5s

'Jd a 8d

lOd a2s6d
12s a 14s
10s a 13s
83 a 133
4s 6d a 10s
£.512'6da£6
£8 a £7
£20 a £:!3
£10 a £16
Pda Isod
l^d a 8d
IJd a .SJd
21s a 2»s
173 a 203
15s a 17s
lOsrtd a lis 3d

16s a 223
123 a 163

6s a lis

3s a 68 j

AIiOES, Soccotrine and

Hepatic...
CHILLIES, Zanzibar

CX|0VS8> ZtonbiT 1

Goodand finedry ...(£7 a £8 12s 6d

Commou and good ...j70sa£6 '

Good to fine bright ...J40s a 4*«
Ordinary aud middling. ..|35b a 36s
Oood aud &n* bright ...ISjdftdid
OfdlwirdvUtsMi ...(^i%^i I

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

CLOVES, Mother

,, Stems...

COCULUS INDICUS
GALLS, Bussorah 1 ,,

& Turkey /""'
green.,
white..
GUM AMMONIACUM—
drop ..
block..
ANIMI, washed ..

scraped..
ARABIC, picked ..

sorts..
ASSAFCETIDA

KINO

MYRRH, pickeil ..

Aden sorts

OLIBANUM, irop

pickings..

sittings ..

INDIARUBBER Mozambi

SAFFLOWER, Persian ...

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists

2nds

3rds
INDIARUBBER Assam ..

Rangoon ...
Madagascar

SATFLOWER

TAMARINDS

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

QUALITY

I QUOTATIONS

Fair, usual dry
fresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

Small to fine clean
dark to good

Picked fine pale in sorts,
part yellow and mixed
Bean & Pea size ditto
amber and dark bold
Medium & bold sorts
Pale bold clean
Yellowish and mixed
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine
Slightly stony and foul
Fair to fine bright
Fair to fine pale
Middling to good
Fair to good white
Reddish to middling
Middling to good pale ,
Slightly foul to fine
que,fairtofine sausage
„ Ball
unripe root
liver
Ordinary to good

2d B 4d

;15-16d a Id
9s a lOs

52s a S78

483 a 52s
4Ss a 47s

4^s a GOs
30s a 45s
£14 a £16
£11 a£I3
£5 lOs a £8
£8 a £12
£5 a £«
973 a 110s
SOS a 963
78s a 98s
4.5s a .558
32.S a 44s
10s a 46s
£6a£.S
|8.5s a lOOs
l42s a 55s
32s a 40s
9s a Us
9s a- lis

2s a 28 2d

lis 2d a Is 3d
Is 6d a Is 9d
i5a a 15s

Nearly water white
Fair and good pale
Brown and brownish
Good to fine

Common foul aud mixed
Fair to good clean
Good to fine pinky &white
Fair to good black
Good to fine pinky
Middling to fair
Inferior and pickings ...
Mid. to fxnebJackaot stony
Stony and inferior

,34da4Jd
'3d a Sid
2jd a 2id
Is 9d a 2s 2d
fid a Is 8d
Is lOd a 2b 2d
-2s a 2s 2d
Is 7d a Is 9d
£4 10s a £5 10s
£3 OS a £4 2s fid
£1 a £1 IDs
10s a 14s
3saGs

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

FROM CHINA, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS

Fair dry to fine bright ... 273 a S.K
Ccmniou & middling soft 17s a 26»
Fair to fine ...35saiOs

Middling to fine ... 3id a 6d

CAMPHOR. China

Japan

GAMBIER, Cubes

Block
GUTTA PEKC'HA, genuin.
Sumatra
RplKiiled,
White Borneo

MUTMEQS, large

Medium
Small

MACE

EHUBABB. Sun dlie.1

High dried

SAGO, Pearl, large

medium ..
small
Flour
TAPIOCA, Pennng FlaKe..
Singai>ore
Flour
Pearl

. Good, pure. & dry white 1 -._,, ^j ^ J,^^
„ ,, pink, i

Ordinary to fine free ...i29s a 293 6d
IPressed ...|23sa2i3

.Good ...2!sa2l93d

elFine clean Banj&Macas-]28 4d a a» 3d
[ Barky to fair [sar Od a 2s 3d

Ironiniori to fine clean ... Id a Is Id
lOood to fine clean ... lid a Is ;)d

Inferior and barkv ... Id a 8d
61's a 80"8, garbled ... 2s Id a Ss 7>d
88'sa9.5'8 ...lis 8d a 23

lOO's a ICO's ... Is Id a Is 7d

Pale reddish to pale ... Is 6il a 2s 6d
Ordinary to red ... Is Id a Is .fd

Chips ... lid a Is

Good to line souiul ... Is 9d a 3s 4d
Da rkordiniiry& middling lod a Is lid
Rood to fine ... Is 2d a Is 6d

Dark, rough & middling, 7d a Is

.'Fair tofine

Good pinky to white
Fair to fine

Bullets

Medium

Seed

12s 6d a 14s
12s a lis
lOs a 138
lOs a lis
ISd a 2{d
l>da2d
ijda lid
14s a IDs tid
148 6d a IGs tkl
148 (id a 1&8 6i

MAfiCH 1, 1886.) THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

503

SPINEL AND GOLD AT WARRIArOLLA.

From Mr. Fraser ot WairiapoUa, near Matale,
we hare received the following imeiestiiig letter : —
WarriapoUa, Matale, 'iHh Jan. HHO.

Dear Sir, — It is curious how a coinciilence takes
place, and I now write to tell you thai it was not
until today, when I came in with a collection of some
very peculiar and pretty coloured ijuartzy lime rock
(of which I had for long known the existence,
but had only regarded as a mere freak of Nature,
and had laid down as the foundation ot some
hiuulreds of yards of road) for the purpose of
forwarding these stones to some friends, I happened
to take up the Oh.tfrver, and my eye rested on
the article you give in your edition of the 'itith
January, mentioning WarriapoUa as a spot where
s|jinel had been found. It abounds here in large
quantities, and until today I never knew it had
any value. Once I found a piece of the size of
a robin's egg and I asked a JficflU-r in Matale (if
you can call these people by that ti'im) what it
was, and he told me that it was a ruby. My
weak mind was unable to accept this statement,
not liaving seen a blue ruby. I also found red
crystals imbedded with the blue, but these I took
to be the garnet — and so with no more thought
on the matter the coolies continued building yards
and yards of roadway with this sparkling stuff,
and it has been all covered over with metal and
gravel and lost to view. But the locality from
which this bedding stone was gathered will still
be found to abound in these bright blue crystals
if they be searched for.

Mr. W. Tytler first notice<l the peculiar crystal
formation as ot value when he was stayhig with
me, and he showed me several other places where
he thought precious stones must have been col-
lected on the estate. A Sinhalese tells me now
that I am reclaiming land which used in former
days to be a rich source of precious stones to the
natives who, after heavy rains, used to wash the
sand of the river close to its banks, and they
undoubtedly did obtain .something, for otherwise
I should not possess, as I do at the present time,
a sm.all packet of gold du t, which years ago was
washed out ot the sands of the Wariyajjola-oya,
and sent to my father as a proof that gold existed
in Ceylon, and on WarriapoUa al.so. lam told by
natives that this very portion of the river of which
I now speak of was a continual scene of gem-
hunters, and I myself have seen Moormen amusing
themselves, as I thought catching tish. They may
have found some other kinil of tish, let us hope
they did ; for, at least, that, for a time, would keep
them out of mischief.— Vours faithfully,

KoBEiiT H. Fraser.
It is no new experience, in raineralogical form-
ations, that gems should be found associated with
gold. So it was in Australia, and in that country
roads were made and streets paved with rich gold-
bearing ([uartz, a full generation before the Laird
of WarriapoUa indulged in the luxury of bottoming
his roads with spinel-bearing limestone, including
probably, " fuU many a gem of purest ray serene."
Mr. Fraser does not say how he ultimately dis-
posed of that gem as big as a robin's egg. If
perfectly translucent, uniformly blue and flawless,
it would, probably, when properly cut, have been
deemed aa valuable as a red specimen of the same
mineral, to which the name spinel ruby is given.
Mr. Fraser, like Mr. Kellow, and probably a good
many others, wiU now Uuow what blue cryttals iu

limestone mean and will keep a good look-out lor
large clear specimens of the gem, for gem it is,
only second in value to the sapphire, when
of eiiual purity and size. Of course, such gems
are more easily got at in the bed^ of strearii,, into
which they have been washed than in tluMiiatrix,
which nuist be mined and carefully broken up. On tho
other hand, regular mining may result in nuieh larger
and more regular thids of precious crystals, and, where
the latter are not [irceious in the technical sense,
their presence in (juantity ought to give value to
the stone as a marble. We mean to see how a
hand specimen will polish, and we are sanguine
that it will come out well. The result will be stated.
Much of the country around Kandy, such as
liaragani and the valleys of Dumbara and Matale,
doubtless owe much of their fertility and probably
a good deal of their insalubrity (for which Haragani
and HajaweUa were at one time notorious) to the
large prevalence of crystalline limestone, and the
soil and gases which result from its decomposition.
Careful examination in the light of Mr. Kellow's
recent discovery and Mr. Dixon's previous notice
of the WarriapoUa and Watagama formations, will
probably establish the fact that a much larger
proportion ot our mountain limestones than
any oi us imagined are valuable as gem-bearers,
apart from their varying, but in some cases rich,
proportion of carbonate of lime. Of course, i( ig
not gold which gives the beautiful golden coloun to
iron pyrites, but it is a fact that true gold is not
unfreciuently associated with ivon pyrites. It is not our
limestones alone which demand the careful examin-
ation of a mineralogist, such as is now employed by
the neighbouring (iovernment ot Madras, but our
quartz rock, some of which, especially on Mr.
Blackett's property in Dolosbage, look very en-
couraging. Now that it would seem that gold in
really paying quantities is being mined close by
us, in Southern India, it would be well that the
similar iiuestion in Ceylon should be settled once for
all, even if in a sense the reverse of the existence of
paying quantity. Our mountain limestones, which
dilf<-r from and are economically less valuable than
coral and shells, in consequence of the sometimes
large amount of magnesia they contain, associated with
carbonate of lime, are usually described as " beds
overlying the gneiss " which is our principal
primitive formation. But the truth seems to be
that, very frequently, long veins ot the limestone
underlie the top ranges of gneiss, cropping out amidst
tho valleys and " foot hills." This will become
apparent, on reference to Mr. A. C. Dixon's ac-
count of the principal dolomite beds or veins,
which intersect the mountain system of the in-
terior of the island : —

Ikilniititehf(h. As far as! have been able to trace them
during the time at my disposal, I find that these beds
run through the gneiss in a somewhat parallel direction,
striking generally N. W. by N. to N., and having
various angles of dip from 1(3' to ■lO''.

I have indicated their position on the map. The
first is one which outcrops a few miles this side of
Balangoda, and runs N. N. W., occurring again at
Hanuwala.

The second runs through Dolosbage and Maskeliya ;
probably the bod occurring at Bilhuloya is continuous
with tills.

The third outcraps under the Great Western on the
Great Western estate, and is continuous to the
N. N. W. with the Wattogoda and Medakumbura
doloaiit<^s, and probably also with tlie beds at Giimpola
and Kuruucgala. .\ subsidiary bed —or it may be an
outlier of this — occurs near tho i'usaellawa rest-
house.

The fourth bed oulcroiw largely at Wilson's Buuga-
'lOW, Glen Devon, Dumbara and Matale,

594

THE TROPICAL ADltlCULTURIST. [March 1, 1886.

The fifth occurs in the BaduUa district. As in the
guc'iss wo bnve a great many varietius, so also in the
dolomites. They all contain carbonate ol magnesia,
■■.vhieh varies from 1 to over 40 per cent.

These limestones are very valuable for estate pur-
nosrs as well as for building stone and building lime.

In colour they vary mvieh. dependent on the numer-
ous aeeidontal minerals that occur along with them. Thus
the specimens from AVilson's jlinigalow are very dark;
lliey contain pyrites, pliilogopite, chlorite, epiiote, kc.

A dolomite occurring at Wariiipola on the Matale
railway contains a large amount of blue spinel. Some
of tho crystals of these dolomites have large facets
others small ami of a granular texture. Many con-
taiu white translucent siliceous grainsnot easily dis-
tinguished.

A beautiful example of limestone of a somewhat
peculiar tiuc:e, due to the metal chromium, occurs
beyond Balaugoda, and often contains fine specimens
of crystaline biotite — a magnesian mica. This lime-
stone shews a very peculiar and characteristic wea-
thered surface.

As we are writing, the following letter from Mas-
keliya reaches us with a small specimen of reck,
Ri)nilar to the Ambawella rock, but differing in
the prevalence of small, wlute crystals contrasted
with the blue : —

Theberton, Ambagamuwa,* Jan. 27th, 1880.

Dear Sir, — I semi by this post a small sample of
my limestone, as I see by the account you give in
your issue of the 2Gth iust. of the stone found by Mr.
Kellow, that mine is of the same description. I have
it in my lime reef red, b'ue, green, violet and black,
at least some of the limestone has black crystals the
same description as the others in every way except
colour My children have found quite large pieces of
red spinel which we have taken no care of, as -Mr.
Dixon told us they were only spinels and of no va'ue.
I have at times come across from the limest'^ne really
beautiful pieces full of these blue and violet crystals
and other colours, but blue is the most abundant. Mr.
Dixon did not think much of it and said they had
somethiug to do with copper and iron.

A\'hat an extraordinary Jan. ; rainfall so far in the
month 7'32 against an average for the last 6 years
for the whole month of 238 and a max. in 1832 of
4-61 and a min. in 1881 of 0-58 we had on the 20th
iust. a shower at 4 p.m. in which 31G fall ; the most
we have ever had in 21 hours before closing the last
6 years, in Jan. was 1'50. The last wet Jan. was
the year of oxces.sive rain, 1882. Is 1886 also going to
follow suit? Hope not. T.J. Griou.

P.S. — One of the boys smashed the other day a red
spinel he found in h inch square as he thought it wjis no
M ir, I 'irmly be'ieve if we hatl a tjouJ mUit. to make
' iurvev et?. in Ceylon, som-'thing would turn up of
. liue tu the islaud. T. J. G.

! • is quite true that ordinary spinel is not of mucli
value, but large, perfect crystals, especially if of
j'uby red colour, ought to be preserved and their
value ascertained.

THE GOSPEL OP AGRICULTUEE, NEW
PBODUCTS, &c. ■

Not long ago I found a brother farmer in a very
bad case. He said that it had actually come to it
that a man could not make a living in this country,
and if he could find anybody to give his land to
he was going to hunt new ground. I was sorry
1< r him for he did look powerfully long faced.
;Says 1 : " Have you tried to make a living at farming ?'

"Have I tried?" he said with a look that in-
dicated that I was a fool. " I have worked my-
self and folks nearly to death, and we have been
getting jioorer every year." "That is strange,"
says I, " some people do make a living right here
in this country. I have not found it hard to do."

* Post town in Ambagamuwa, but dates in Muskdiya.
—Ed,

After taking a long look at me. he said: "I
carried my last cotton to market t'other day, and
when I went to square up I was left in debt for
meat and bread last year, and now I have got
everything to buy this year. Them merchants just
take all a poor farmer can make and ihen they
ain't satisfied. We all work hard and have nothing,
and we are always in debt. This is no country
for a white man." As he said this his voice
trembled and he shook. It made me real sorry ;
for he is a good, hard working man. Said I :
" How do you manage, Zeke Pitkin ; do you make
a good garden and have plenty of vegetables in
their season ?" Looking down at his feet, he re-
plied : " Do you reckon I have got nothing to do
hut work in a garden ? I tell you it is all I can
do to work my crop." -'Weil," says I, "you
have been on the same place htteen years — reckon
you have got lots of fruit of different sorts to eat
in the summer and fall and to put up for the
winter.'-' " I reckon I ain't. I need my land for
my crop, and land with trees on it won't fetch
a crop." " Do you raise plenty of Irish and sweet
potatoes to do you ?" " Plenty while they last ;
that ain't long ?" " Do you keep cows to give you
butter and milk ?" " Sometimes." " Does your
wife raise plenty of chickens and turkeys, and
such like?" "How can she, when she has to help
me with the crop?" "Do you make plenty of
corn, oats and hay for your own use ?" " Of
course I don't, when I am obliged to put in a full
crop of cotton to pay my debts and buy something to
eat." Several fellows sitting round said: "That's
what's the matter with Sallie." Says I: " l-'rieuds,
I want to tell you what is the matter with Sallie, and
Mary and Jane, and Tom and Bob and Zeke here,
and all the rest of you. You say you can't make a
living, and the truth is you are not trying to make a
living. You are trying to make money by raising
cotton to buy a living with, and there is no reason in
that. Now, listen to me a little, for your own good :
You and yours toil the year round to make cotton,
and then you get your meat from 1,000 miles away ;
corn. Hour, hay, and so on come the same way. The
Yankees sell us their grass at a big price, and we
work ourselves to death to kill grass. If you will do
as I tell you, inside of three years every one of you
will be easy." Several of them spoke right out and
said : " Let us hear it." " Very well," I said, " go
home, and tonight get your wives and children all
round you, tell them just how you liave been doing
and how it has worked. Then say I propose to turn
over a new leaf. First we will not spend one cent
we can help — not a cent for tobacco, whiskey nor
clothes more than is necessary. We will get cows
enough to give us plenty of milk and butter, and we
will attend to them, and we will get some cows
and pigs and look after them. There will be a good
garden and plenty ol chickens raised. We will plant
plenty of ijotatoes, corn and whatever is to live on.
In short, we will go in to making a living first, and
something to sell next. You willlind all will agree to
it. Then just stick to that for three years, and my
word for it, you will never say again that a living
can't be made in this country.

" Now it any of you doubt it come to see me, and I
will show you that it can be done, and I will show you
that it is done."

I saw that it took, so I followel up my licks and
said: " Now, friends, don't flinch, don't keep your
trouble to yonrself, and when it pinches you do not
buy on credit, like your neighbours do and like you
have done ; don't give up. Just settle it with your-
self aud family, you will bo free and you will come
out right."

March r, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

595

"\Vh8n I got thiougli I thought the world was pretty
good, so I shook hands all louud me and spiid, " Good
evening friends, I wish jou success." As I walked off
one fellow said, " I see it — his head is level ;" and
Zeke said, " you 're correct for a fact."— Baptist
llecor<l.

TOON

TEEES NOT EESPONSIBLE FOR
HELOPELTIS.

We are glad to see in the Transactions of the
Horticultural Society of India the following
oommonscMse reply to an ill-considered letter in
which a tea planter traced " mosijuito blight " to
innocent toon trees : —

Mosarrro Bi.ifinT.

The following letter from Mr. Jolmson, of Jhatra
Panighatta, was received in November too late to be
read at the meeting for that month : —

" III a Report of the General Meeting of the Society
held on the 'loth October ISS-i, which 1 have only lately
seen, I notice a letter from Messrs. Lloyd v\; Co. on the
subject of Mosipiit'i Blight on te.i plantations, from
which I gather that toon trees planted around or about
the cultivation, are supposed to lie the nurseries of the
tly. Fri'in my fsperieuro of the blight (which is con-
siderable), I (lou'tthiiik tliat any forest tree iu partic-
ular can be said to be the breeding place of the jiest.

Iu the first instance, I believe, the insects come iu from
the surrounding jungle, where the .spear and other
grass blades will be found to be punctured in a similar
manner to the tea leaves.

When the insects invade the tea, they generally com-
mence operations by some forest tree, but simply, I
believe, for the shade these trees sujiply, as they appear
to dislike the sun, and feed generally during the cool of
the mornings and evenings, and I presume at night also.

In one of my plantations the blight generally begins
iu five places about the same time, two of these being
shaded by Simul i Bombax Malabaricum), and the
others by Palas (Butea Frondosa) trees, which do not
seem iu the least affected. It is a noteable fact that the
only division having a toon tree close to the cultivation
has been hitherto the last to be attacked. The other
pl.intatiou J mile aw ay has only four or five trees upon
it. one of these being a toon, and the blight did not
begin there this year till quite two mouths after it had
appeared on the first-named cultivation, and then it
affected the whole of the place, more or lefs. at once
(not particularly by trees) as though the insects had
simply waite i in passing to lay their eugs. w hieh, I may
here state, are inserted by the pnrent tlies iu the
succulent stems of the tender tea shoots.

The grt'ate.st damage to the tea bush, I believe, is
caused by the young insect before it ha.'s wings, feeding
upou tile buds.

From the foregoing it would appear that forest trees
of any kind in te« cultivation only do li.arni in that they
give shelter to the insects during the heat of the day,
and tiiat plantations without forest trees are just as
liable to be affected. We have yet to Cnd out where
the blight is bred in the first instance."

TAM.VRINU SEi;U OIL.

The follow iiig appears in the Proceedings of the
Horticultural Society of India : —

Baboo Sosi Bliushan Biswas, Editor of the Bhara]-
Sranijivi, applied for informatiou as to whether oil had
been, to the kuowledge of the Society, extracted from
the tamarind seed. The Baboo «as informed that the
Society's Journal for Il*36 seemed to contain the only
recorded instance of oil being expressed from the seeds
of the tamarind. A sample of this oil was sent in 18.56
to the Society hy Captain Thomas Davies from Boo!-
dana, who mentions that he di.icuven d the seeds would
yield an oil much to his own surprise and that of all
the natives. He described the oil to be of a fine amber
color, free of smell and sweet to the taste, and in his
opinion sutible for culinary pnriioscs. The .'iociely's
Sub-Oommittee reported favorably on the oil, and sug-
gested that it might be f ouud useful in the preparstiou

of varnishes and p.nints, as well as for burning in lamps.
They considered about Bid a maund would be its market
price, though this <|Uotation would ue no guide to
us now.

A member of the Committee, Baboo Ran Copaul
Ghose, remarked that the tamarind feed (A'vr heechee in
Bengal) is mostly thrown away, in times of scarcity it is
eaten fried to a limited extent by the jjeur, :inil .t vainLsh
for painting idols au'l fiuisliing Kiirpa eluth, and
tnUit paper is also prepared from it, but tlio bulk of
the seeds are thrown away. The Committee remarked
that the oil had a, smell similar to linseed oil, but
Captain Daviea subsequently explained that Ibis was
due to the mill in which it was e.xpressed being ono
ordinarily used for making that oil. Babu Sosi
Bhushan Biswas has been asked to communicate further
particulars as to the result of his own experiment.

Insect Pests of India are thus noticed in the
Proceedings of the Hoiticultural Society of India : —
An interesting correspondence under the above head-
ing was receutly published iu the Jmniial of the Society
of Arts, at the request of the Secretary of State for
India. The corrcspoudcnce is too long for a place in
these proceedings' but the following extract from Sur-
geou-Geuoral Kdward Balfeur's letter to the Secretary
of State for India will convey an ilea of the purport :
"Although every year, to some extent, nud from tiiun
to time largely, losses occur there from the pests which
attack agricultural produce, India has hitherto been
remiss in this matter, contenting itself with references
as to individual insects or blights to ste_-h peisons as
were thought likely to be able to give information.
But the subject is of far too great importance to Agri-
cultural India to be left tu be treated iu so casual
a manner, and the special kuowledge now availablo
might be utilized to describe the insects which injure
the agricultural, horticultural and forest produce of
India, suggesting means of of preventing, and remedies
for the same." Miss Ormerod, who in Euglnnd
annually reports on the insects injurious to food
crops, forest trees, ami fruits, and tho preventinn
of insect ravag(;s, in writing to Surgeon-General
Balfour, warmly approves of his suggesliow, and re-
marks : -" The information that isneeded could begiven
by plain and simple putting down by various persore of
wh.at they themselves have observed, and one man not-
ices, perhaps, hpw deep the grubs go ; another how
long they live ; and so by collating the facts, we get to
know the whole ..islory of haljils, which is what is
needed to work on. It may take a few years to get
the whole life history of the insects, but v.c soon get
in the way meiiliouefl above (on which [jlau my own
reports are formed) to I 'am the main points, and
then all observers are ri quested to find the missing
part of the history." Tho whole of the correspondence
will be reprinted in the Jonrmif. Members of the
Society wishing to co-opernte iu the manner suggested
in the above extract from Miss Ormtrod's letter should
send their names to the Secretary.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY Ob' TRAN-
SPIRATION UNDER THE DIFFERENT
BAYS OK THE SOLAR SPECTRUM.
A paper on the above subject by Rev. Professor
Henslow was read at the Limiean Society on Thurs-
day last, December :ird. The experiments describi \
were undertaken to test the results of Wiesner, who
found (contrary to tho opinion of others, who thought
that the brightest rays of tho spectrum were the
chief cause of transpiration) that it was mainly due to
the rays which are absorbed by chlorophvll. Tho
spectriira of that substance reveals seven absorption
bands, tho m.ist powerful of which are in tho
red. blue, and .violet, and when plants were grown
under coloured glasses Mr. Hensloxy. found just as
Wiesner had ilone that transpiiation attains to a.
maximum under tho nionochromatic red glass and
under the blue and violet as well, while ordinarj
colourless glass gave another maxiinuni. On the
other band yellow »ud greeu {^ave a iQiuimuu.

596

TflEJ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

Wiesuer'a interpretatiou is that light thus absorbed
by chlorophyll is converted into licat, and then it
raises the temperature of the tissues, and so causes
the formation of aqueous vapour. If this be true it
would seem to account for Deht'raiu's discovery that
plants can transpire in a saturated atmosphere, and
as a coiToboration Wicsner found that light which
had been first transmitted through a solution of chloro-
phyll was almost powerless to cause transpiration.
A fact which Mr. ITenslow could not account for
was that while the red glass which admitted no other
rays gave a maximum, the yellow glass which trans-
mitted red and green rays besides yellow, gave a
mininmm. It would seen as if yellow had actually a
retarding effect upon the other rays.

The method adopted by Mr. Henslow was to grow
small Ijettuces and other plants in miniature pots and
by wrapping them up in a gutta-percha sheeting tied
round the base of the stems all loss of moisture from
the earth was prevented. Then he weighed the whole
day by day after its having been under each coloured
glass for twenty-four hours in succession. He thus
ascertained the percentages of the losses, the means of
which gave the results mentioned above.

Mr. Henslow also drew attention to the importance
of distinguishing between transpiration and evapor-
ation, the former being a vital action, the latter purely
physical, and will take place from dead and living
substances, but is modified or held in check to some
extent by the latter. Thus if a leaf be cut in two, and
one half suddenly killed by scalding it will be found
that this one rapidly dries up, while the other loses
water much more slowly. Again, thick leaves and
older ones absorb more heat than thin ones and
younger ones respectively, yet the transpiration is
greater from young leaves and deciduous, contrary to
what one would expect if transpiration depended .solely
upon heat. — roiinml of' Jforticnl/iirr, mh Dec. 188;').

■ : — ♦

New PHODrt'Ts. — Among the various sampU'S of
Borneo produce which ('aptain K. D. Deeston has
sent to Melbourne per the bartini' "I'jllen"' is one of
the vegetable tallow or vegotabie wax (ininyuk tungka-
waw) which is stated on gipod authority to be tht;
best lubricant for machinery that can be procured,
and which combines economy with efficiency. There
is no doubt but that this product if properly attended
to will comniaud a higii price and be ^received with
high favour in the Australian cokuiies, as while it is
as good as palm oil, its price will never run to auy-
tliiug like so high as that cummodit}'. Captain Keeston
thinks very highly of it, and has particularly reipiest-
ed his Melbourne friends to have it thoroghly tesled.
We shall be hapi>y to hear the result of the experi-
ment.— J>i'iti.-'h Xofth lionn'o lici-ahl,

Amerrwn Tea.-*. — The Commissioner of Agriculture
in his annual report .states that the tea plants at
the Government station near ISuinmerville, is reported
by the superintendent as being perfectly satisfactory.
Ae plants are now large enough to afford during the
early summer of this year leaves in sufficient quantities
to warrant nn effort at tea manufacture, if such
till operation i« necesBary, That the Chinese tea
plaut.i cMi be grown over a large area of the United
fitiltes, mid tliat good ti;3.i can be produced of standard
(lualitie-f from them i."! an entalili.sfjed fact, but whether
left c^ii be produi'.'d tf .luit the wnnt.i "ud reijuire-
hienln of the trade at a price that will be remunerative, in
Very doithtful. The Cooimissioner dor.i not rccommeltd
Mny attempt tn eultivate tea upon and extended scale
'Inlil this lact has bei'u ilcnion.str.-ited beyond doubt.
Crftaiuly the low prireB which have been ruling for
some liiiio p"-St gives very little hope that this country
will be able to nnpjily to any cou.siderable extent the
wants of the Qnwmmer.—Ameiicai' (Iriiccr.

Naiai. I'liiMiorrs,— As tn Natal coffee I have fre-
quently drunk it, aud about a month ago ^nw at the
<^ueensbridge coffee works a couple of lumdred b:igs
of Natal-grown berries. It is not, however, very much
cultivated, as experience has pro\ed the climate is
not altogether suitable, and, as Mr. Litton says, a
ilisea.se attacked the trees a few years ago and played
;»d liacyc with tbvir growth, Cofffc Joet got fijure

among the exports, as what little is grown is con-
sumed locally, in addition to large quantities imported
from Brazil. Nothing can be said against the "luality
of Natal coffee. Cotton is not grown except in small
quantities experimentally. Nutmegs, mace, cloves, aud
ciDuamon are not grown here, the climate not being
sufhciently tropical, (jayenne pepper to tlie value of
over £5flO, aud arrowroot lo the value of £.3,aiJ0, th*
produce of Natal, were exported during 188^. ^\'ool
(the produce chieHy of the neighhouringj Dutch re-
publics, the Orange Free State aud Traasvaal) to the
value of X51!(,U)1 was exported from Natal during
I.S83, and other articlis of colonial produce as
follows:— Hides, £53,00(1; ostrich feathers, £14,000;
maize, 10,0013; ivory, £.'i.O0O; aud Sugar (the chief in-
dustry on the coast kinds) to the value uf £122,(XK1.
Although the upland districts of the interior of Natal
are well siuted for dairy farming aud for wheat-grow-
ing. It is a strange anomaly that nearly all the butter,
milg, and cheese consumed in Natal are imported
from foreign countries. Fresh milk retails at about
Od. )ier quart, and it is estimated that 2,000 one
poniul tins of condensed milk are used daily in |l)ur-
ban alone. All our Hour is imported from .South
Australia. Our meat stipplies in the form of beef
aud mutton are very ))Oor as regards quality, and
compare very unfavourably with that jirodueed iu
Australia, aud instead of Natal exp()rting preserved
or salted meat, as stated by " V. L.," our butchers a
couple of years ago were importing cattle from
Madagascar. Fruit, such as pine-apples, oranges, bana-
nas, mangoes, and granadillas, do well on the coast
lands, and are grown largely. Pineapples last month
were retailing in the streets here at Od. per dozen.
In the more elevated districts of the interior, apples,
pears, peaches, aud other English fruits do well, but
the grape vine, which is cultivated so extensively in the
I Cape Colony, is not a success in Natal. — Avstralasiati.
A Kehort on- Cultiv.vtion, JIanures, &c., at Oawn-
I PORE has been sent to us by the Government of the N,
I W. Provinces of India, the main results being thus
\ stated: — The manure experiments show that for kharif
crops as for rabi cow-dung is perhaps after all the
I cheajiest and most profitable fertilizer, as it is most
certainly the manure most readily procurable by the
Indi;ui cultivators. In this kharif as in the last rabi
I a thorough inversion of the soil has proved decidedly
I advantageous compared with the mere piercing of
the land with the native implement. It is in the
end cheaper and gives a larger outturn for the labour
worked. lu the experiment Kidge-sowiug vtrsvs
Kroadcast-sowiug of cotton the country method comes
off best. Hut a further testing must be applied before
a final verdict can safely be given. It appears plain
that, under existing conditions of Indian cultivation,
It is a distinct ilisadvautage to take two crops of
cotton from the same pkiut. It is better to take the
one crop and then plough up the land in the spring
either for another khariff crop or a cereal in the fol-
lowing spring. New Orlean« dtton failed. But there
arc other varieties which reuioiu yet to be tried, and
the si'cessful iutroduction of an exotic cotton of a
more unirkotable kind than the indigeuous variety
is not to be despRire<l of. In regard to maize, which
i.s a Very important crop, It i.i proposed to attempt,
in Ihe coming khcirif, the American method of sow
lug in "hills" or ''.squares," The secret of the sUC"
cess of thin pioce.is lien In the free Ventilation and
suulight .secured to tlio plaiit.s. The .success of the
" hlir' or " .S((\inre " culllvation in America has been
remarkable. 'Ifie ensilage experiment is still on its
tiial. If tin- fodder proves really serviceable to working
cattle, there seems every reason to hope that e.isllago
m.ay yet become an institution in Indian farming.
The whole cost of the silo up to packing and closing
it Is less thou the cost of digging aud lining au ot-
dliuu-y kutch:i well, so that on the scare of expense
the cultivator cannot well conqjlain. The matter of
ploughs is not an ea.sy one. The same fashion of
)>lough does not suit all soils and all sorts of cultivation.
Experience, however, is being gained, and the Duplex
plough will eljortly be put to a prattieal test cbewb«r(i,

RfARCH I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

597

. ■•

... 1"

. tt

... 4

• It

... 2

...

... 8J

Total

... 21i

CHINA SILK WORSIS IN MADRAS.

The Director of Reveuuo Settlement and Affriculture,
reports the results of the espcriraeuts made in 1883-84
with the :.'1J ounce of silk seed obtained from
Dehrft Duo and distributed by his department as
noted : —

Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association
Dr. Bidie for a Oejlon planter

Ur. Shortt

Collector of North Arcot ...

Major riokauco

(ioverumont I'nrm at Saidapet

Large numbers of the worms reared at the Saidapet
Farm died from starvation owing to the imposibility
of obtaiiiiug a sufficient supply of mulberry leaves on
the farm or from elsewhere ; the deaths were chiefly
among the big worms which were ready to spin. They
refused to feed on anything but mulberry leaves. The
experiment was, however, more successful than that
of the preceding year, for the number of cocoons
obtained relatively to the weight of the sued was 27!'
per cent more than in 18SL'-8a. This is ascribed to
the experiment having been made earliar in the season
than was that of the preceding y0*r. The worms
thrive well during the cold season, but Jlr. Benson
remarks that unless a continuous supply of fertile eggti
can be maintained locally, it will not be possible to
engage in this industry with any prospect of success.
The almost insuperable difficulties of providing in a
climate hke this a sutiicient supply of mulberry loaves
to feed the worms 011 — and mulberrj' leaves appear to
be the only food that these varieties will touch here —
make the enterprise of silk-breeding in Madras practic-
ally hopeless. The two ounces of seed supplied to
Major Pickance yielded .0.921 cocoons, which gives a
rate of 2,9(J'J per ounce of seed against 2,884 at the
farm. Three thousand four hundred and twenty-one
of these cocoons, weighing 42 ounces, produced 5jf
ounces of silk, or exactly one-eighth of the weight of
the cocoons. The worms were fed on uiulbcrryleaves,
and when the supply ran short lettuce leaves wore
substituted, but with what effect is not stated. Dr.
Shortt's experiment with the one ounce of seed supplied
to him was not very successful. I'he yield was onlv
410 cocoons, and only a very small cpiantity of silk
wa.s reeled off. The results of an experiment made by
the Tahsildar of Balmaner, to whom some seed appears
to have been supplied, were reported by Mr, Fawcett.
One thousand five hundred and seventy cocoons were
obtained, of which 1,400 were reeled, yielding 8| toLis,
!.(., al>out ;*! ounces of silk. The worms were very
voracious and were fed on mulberry leaves.

A. SUCCES.SFL'L DECOKTICATOH.

Among the several decorticating machiues on ex-
hibition at the annex to the Main Building, or the
Machinery Hail, is one entitled the Universal Fibre
Decorticjtor, which is manufactured by the Reming-
tou -Vgricultural Company, and was invented by Mr.
T. Albee Smith- of Missouri.

During the past month this decorticator has at
times given displays of its nualities before numerous
spectator?, but on Thursday l.ist it fairly astonished
the seekers after fibre preparing machines who were
80 fortunate as to witness its performances.

The enterprising agent of the Remingtons, Major
F. F. Hilder, anxious to t«.st the capacity of the
decorticator, hail procured from British Honduras a
ipiantity of liinmedia fi/U-estras. or silk grass leaves,
banana and plantain stalks and hene(|uiu or sisal
hemp leaves. It was generally known that the de-
corticator would bo tested at 2 p.m., and quite a
large crowd of experts was assembled, who were
desirous of seeing it operate on green leaves. At
length ;^[r. Smith placed several henequin leaves on |
the phitforiD of the tuacbinc, which «»8 H't in motiw, ,

and in a few seconds the fibre was perfectly cleaned)
without any perceptible waste. The silk grass leaves
and plantain and banana stalks were also operated
with the same result. Kentucky hemp (both rotted
and in an unrotted condition) was thoroughly divested
of it.s woody parts in one single and simple operation.
The ni.achine thus proved to the complete satisfaction
of all who .saw it work that it is, as it claims to
be, a genuine universal decorticator.

Mr. Albee Smith, the inventor, expects to procure
green ramie stalks before the Exposition closes, and '
will demonstrate to the public the ability of the
machine to prepare ramie for market in one operation,
(-ireen jute stalks may not be obtained in time to
enable the mwhine to show its abihty to clean that
fibre also. As the product of dried jute stalks is
only fit for paper making, Mr. Smith does not care
to bother with it.

The luiiversal decorticator, therefore, claims to
successfully operate all green fibre plants, whether
leaves or stalks. As fibre extracted from stalks con-
tains more or less resinous gum, it must go through
another process after it is decorticated to securd
complete disintegration. Mr. Smith asserts that the
jute fibre decortcated by his machine, after being
steeped in water for a week, becomes thoroughly
disintegrated and is fit for market.

The displ.ay made on Thursday proves conclusively
that Mr. ."Smith's machine can successfully decorticate
green fibrous plants. It is the only machine on ex-
hibition that has attempted to work green material.
I'ersons desiring further information regarding this
decorticator can obtain it by addressing to Major F. F.
Hilder at the Remington exhibit in the Main Build-
ing, or at his office, 99, I'oydras street, this city. — Times-
democrat. [AVe shall be glad to hear further about this
machine, when it has successfully operated on Bamie or
Rhea stalks. — Ed.1

S0.4.P AS AN INSECTICIDE.
Professor Riley, the State Entomologist of the
"Washington Department of Agriculture, has found,
after a long series of experiments, that common
soap is about the best and cheapest insecticide that
can safely be used in gardens. Alcohol is too ex-
pensive, and volatile oils more or less injurious to
plants; experimei^ts with some of the latter, such
as naphtha, turpentine, &c., having resulted in the
total destruction of some orange-trees on which they
were tried. Crude pretroleun, he says, destroys the
bark; and even the refined oil in hot sunshine
completely strips the tree of leaves. A mixture of
kerosine with milk, which is subsequently diluted
with water, was found to be apparently incocuous;
but it requires trouble in the mixing, and care in
using. The I'rofe.ssor makes the following remarks
with regard to snap: — The value of soap as an in-
secticide has long been known; and the experiments which
I tried which it were made chiefly for the sake of
comparison with those made with other substances.
The results, |however, were so remarkable, that I
feel warranted in saying that taking into consider-
ation its elliciency as a means of destroying scale
insects, its effect upon plants, and its cost, there
is at this time no better remedy known than a strong
solution of soap. In my experiments whale-oil aoap
WHS used, and the solution was apjilied by means of
a fountain pump to orange trees infested with the
red scale of California. In the strongest solution
used the proportions were three-fourths of a pound
of soap to one gallon of water. The mixture was
heated in order to dissolve the soap thoroughly ; and
the solution was appled while 5'et heated to about
KlIK)-' F. The tree upon which the eyporiment was
made was very badly infested, the bark of the trunk
being literally covered with scales. Four days after
the .ipplication of the solution, I examined the tree
very carefully, and could find no living insect on
the trunk of the trie, and only a small proportion
of the coccids on the leaves appeared to be still
•lire. I was unable to examine the tree Bgtin

i^

fHE TROPICAL AGRICULTUmST, [March i, 1886,

personally, but three months later Mr. AlexanJer
Oraw, of Los Angeles, made a careful examination
of this and some other trees upon which we had
experinaeated, and on this one he was unable to
find any living scale insects. Taking into consideration
the extent to which this tree was infested, and the
fact that but a single application of the solution
was made, the result is remarkable. In another ex-
periment the solution was made as in the above, and
then an equal amount of cold water added. The tree
Experimented upon was similar to the one used for
the former experiment. Four days after the applic-
ation no living iusects could be found on the trunk
of the tree and only a very few upon the leaves.
In fact, the experiment was as successful as could
be expected, it being very difficult to reach every
insect on the leaves by a single application. "When
Mr. Craw examined this tree three months later he
found but few living insects on it. As a result of
all of my cxperiment.s with soap, I recommend the
use of it in the proportion of one-fourth pound of
eoap to one gallon of water repeating the application
aHer an inter\al of a few days. If a cheap soap
be used which can be obtained for from foiu- to six
cents per pound, the cost of the remedy will not
be great compared with what is to be gainefl. — Indian
Agi'icnUuiist.

[Here in Oeylon, soap made from the coarsestcocouut
oil might be tried. — Ed.]

— -♦

MORAAVAK KORALE, RAKWANA AND KUKUL
KORALE PLANTINCi DISTRICTS.
Rakwana is one of those districts that does not
receive the attention it deserves, chiefly because it
is neither near Colombo nor Kandy, and has not the
advantages of railway communication. The climate
is particularly healthy ; so much so, that I do not
remember ever hearing of a Rakwana planter dying in
the district ; he has usually left its salubrious hills
for regions where his shadow has gradually grown less.
This I would observe is a matter of no small import-
ance to those who have to live many years in this
island. Tea now is springing up on all sides: one
favored estate expects 45,0UO lb. of made tea for the
current season and others expect considerable quant-
ieties. The soil of Rakwana appears to be particularly
suited for tea; it is of almost any depth, and, if well
selected, would equal in quality any district I know,
being far in advance of most of those districts which
are now the favorites. The difticulty liere, as elsewhere,
is the general one, insullicieut capital; and not being
upon any of the main routes, it never receives the
attention it deserves, aliliough its soil is. I consider,
superior to Ambegamuva, and the probable cost of car-
riage to Colombo not more costly ; yet the latter is more
sought after. Its rainfall is about the same, and there
is a good cart road right through it, from end to end, |
the extremity of which is only 96 miles from Colombo,
the cost of transport now upon tea to Colombo being
Ih cent per lb. n«t weighed. Rice is at present sold |
at this spot by chetties at R3-75 per bushel. The <
district is certainly somewhat difficult to reach from
Colombo. A coach goes to PelniaduUe, from whence
the Rakwana bazaar is 1(1 miles by road. During the ,
past few years, many acres ot tea have been planted
around this, one promising young estate being owned
by an enterpizing native. Like mauy other parts of
Ceylon this never ranked very highly as a coffee dis- I
trict; although Palamc.ottB, Spriugnood, Deveronside,
Caledonia and some other estates did well in olden
days, aud were above the average of coffee estates.
These are now in a state of transition into tea, and
will doubtless do as well, if not better, with this
product, than will most of the old estates throughout
the islaud. To the west of Uakwaua is the Kukul
Korale, where many thousands of acres of line tea
land lie; indeed, land suited for tea exists in thousands i
of acres from this on to Hen tota. The blocks purchased
10 years ago for coffee lie at altitudes ranging from
l,5(iO to 3,60n feet, and arc as a rule as healthy as
I?ativ#na, aud it is strauge they do not draw more I

[ attention. They have fair soil, good rainfall, and plenty
of large streams for water power. Capita! alone is

, wanted. Doubtless, when the tea enterprize receives
more attention there will be a rush in this direction, but

; It will be at enhanced rates of piu-cha.se. Of these

^ .Southern districts, the Jlorowak Korale is the most
advanced. Canjpden Hill is now a fine old property, and
Hayes quite a picture, without its match in the island
for a bill estate. I would strongly advise anyone wish-
ing to invest in tea laud to take a look round these
.Southern districts before he ventures mto land else-
where, for I am sure at present that he would obtain
more for his money of good promising and lasting
material to work upon than he could pick up elsewhere ;
whether he wants forest or an old estate with buildings
complete to start upon. — Coi: Local " Times."

THE MASUN COTTON HAEVESTEB.*
An iutercsting correspondence has just p;issed be-
tween her liritannic Majesty's Consul at Charleston,
South Clarolina, and the Secretary of State for For-
eign Affairs, which has been communicated to the
Government of India, relating to certain American
iuyeutions for the gathering of cotton, aud the separ-
ation of foreign subtances from rice and other grains.
The first is a machine invented in South Carolina for
gathering cotton from the plant on which it grows.
It is called tlw»#' Mason Cotton Harvester,'' and It
could be used in the cotton fields of India aud Egypt.
As the lateness of the season precluded the poss-
ibility of any exhibition of the actual working of the
Harvester at the 'World's Fair at New (Jrleans, a
committee of experts hi cotton culture was appointed
to test aud report upon the practical ethciency of
the machine at the home of its inventor, before the
open cotton should have disappeared from the fields.
This is what the committee say on the subject: —
" 'We devotc.l the whole day to the objects of our
visit, aud found Mr. Mason indefatigable in furnish-
ing every facility for examination the most critical.
He couducteil us through every part of his workshop,
not ouly explaining every part of his Harvester aud
Cylinder CJin, Init the process of manufacturing the
tools nith which alone he could work.

" We are not called upon to report on the mechan-
ical structure of the machine, but only upon its
practical efficiency ; and much curious inforuuitiou we
derived from this investigation is uncalled for in this
report.

" We were struck with the fact that every improve-
ment made in the course of his experiments tended
to simplify the machine, and its chief recommendation
when now ready for work is its extreme simplic-
ity, combined with stiength aud durabdity. The
problem before liiui at the inception of his enterprize,
and most pertinaciously adhereil to through all bis
experiments, was to invent sornc substitute for the
human fingers in picking the lint from the open bolls
without damage to the stalk of the plant, its leaves,
blooms, and immature bolls. This he has at last fully
accompHshed by me.aus of rotatiog points or teeth —
minute, but strong aud durablc--\vhich will inevitably
seize upon the fibres of the lint brought in contact
with them, but so adjusted to the rotating surface
as to pass harmlessly over every other form of matter.
Fibres, and fibres alone, can reach these teeth, and
once seized, the bolls to which they belong must
follow.

"This we saw practically illustcatc<l before our own
eyes. The present cumlirous, box-sh:iped locomotive —
joined, .screwed, and bolted for any coiiMict with mules
and negroes — in which the sinqile machinery was
mounted and put in action by power tlerivcd from
the rotation of the wheels of the locomotive, was
hauled by a single mule over a long cotton row.
Frost had moiu than once fallen on the upright
stalks; the bolls were all open, with the cotton hang-
ing to them loosely and limp. The limbs of the stalks

* Which, it is supposed, may bo adapted as a tea-
picker.— Ed,

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

599

anJ leaves were exceedingly brittle ami crisp, yet as
the machine advauceil, we only missed the liut —
stalks, limbs, and leaves remaiuiug intact. Of course
the lint, iu being drawn from the bolls, came in con-
tact with and adhcrt'd to parts of leaves almost pul-
verized. The shafts of the locomotive were attached
io one siile of the locomotive, so that the mule nio\-cd
between the rows while the centre of the machine
passed o\er the apex of the row.

•' Of course the return trij) threw the mule between
the tirst and second row, and the machinery p.ASsed
over the same row twice. After the return trip we
noticed no change in the stalks, kc, but the lint
was nearly all gone, safely stored in pendant bags.
The result was wonderful — almost incredible to any
but an eye-witness. It could have scarcely been
subjected to trial under more unfavourable circum-
stances— those above mentioned -anti others that might
be enumerated — aud yet at each passage over the row-
about 50 per cent of the cotton there standing was
bagged. Its almost iuteiligeut selection of the open
cotton, to the exclusion of almost everything else,
was the most remarkable as well as gratifying feature.
Those who have seen it work in a field with lu.x-
uriaut weed, and on the first opening of the cotton,
testify to this wonderful result. The seeiled lint
alone was inithered, while the blooms, Iea\es, and
immature bolls were left uninjured. An intelligent
planter from Alississippi, who witnessed its perform-
ance at this stage ot the cotton plant, offered the
highest prospective price for the machine for his own
use in the present cotton crop. After close examin-
ation of the results, he gave it as his opiiiion that,
with the machine then working and three good hands
to follow and glean after it, he could do the work
of forty hands a day.

'* We take pleasure and pride in reporting that,
io our opinion, this great South Carolina invention
will prove a success. Jlr. Mason himself, however,
is not yet wholly satisfied. He believes that with
better tools which he will soon have, all facilities for
perfecting, he can render his machine still more effect-
ive. He is now aiming at gathering all the open
cotton at a single passing over a row, and thinks he
can do it. He is sure he can make all the parts
adjustable, but doubts, from their present perfect
state, whether he need improve the strength and
durability of those already tested. He showed us
several machines of various sizes already prepared for
work, and pointed out several of bis contemplated
improvements, which none but a skilled machinist
cjuld appreciate. But the simplicity of true geuius
characterizes all its forms. The efficient parts are all
made on the same model, and are all interchangeably
adjustable. Any. one part can promptly be replaced
in the machine without derangement to the other
parts. .Vs it must ueces,sarily fall into unskilful hands
on the farm, this is vital to its success. The oper-
ator has only to retain his seat on the locomotive
and drive his mule aright, and the machinery itself
takes care of the cottou. The cotton gathered iu
this experimental trip of the machine was immediately
transferred to the JIason Cylinder Gin, and promptly
converted into lint ready for packing. Jlr. Mason
promises, as an adjunct to his machine, a cotton
cleaner, which will remove all the light debris some-
times adhering to the cotton. — Indian Aijnculturist.

JIETHODS OF POTTING.
Although the putting a plant in a pot appears at
first sight a very simpla process, and, indeed, is so
with regard to plants of no very particular value, yet
to many plants or families of plants it is doubtless
of the fir.st importance. Of what use would it be
providing the best of garden structures, securing a
sweet and wholesome atmosphere, &c., if our most
delicate! and choice jjlants were badly potted ami
their soils in conwquence become sonr and stagnant ?
Ajid, .to ask further, what was it in former <lay8
that caused garden pots io greenhouses to he so
liable to a coatiDg of green scum, and the plauts so

particularly liable to the depredation of insects ? Bad
soils and bad pottiugs, doubtless, as predisposing
causes.

One of the first improvements that took place in
modern potting processes was the use of coarse and
turfy materials iusteal of the finely ridiUed composts
of former days. Abtnjt the period of this advance
people began to turn their attention to the make of
garden pots also, and it was speedily discovered that
the pots which had been so long in use were any-,
thing but faultless. Thoi-ough ilrainage as a prin-
ciple in potting was speedily a growing question, aud
received the utmost consideration from practical men
in all <iuarters who were well up in their profession.
Theje great improvements doubtless received an ex-
tra impetus through the introduction of so many"
choice plants, many of which, especially some of
the finer-rooted, commonly called New Holland plants,
showed evident siijns that they would not thrive
under the old system. The commencement of the
exhibition era also much facilitated progress of the
kind, and now it may be said that British gardeners
can grow, in the very highest perfection of which it
is capable, almost every plant placed in their hands,
from whatever clime or under whate\'er conditions in
its own locality.

The first thing I would direct attention to is two
modes of potting ([uite distinct. I do not say that
there are but two ways, but, for the sake of simplicity
in the affair, w*? m.ay at once reduce them to two
modes: all others are in the main modifications of
them. One may be characterised as loose potting,
the other as firm or close potting. The loose mode
is applicable in the main to annuals and softwooded
plants, and, I may add, to most plants of what
may be called ephemeral character. The latter class
are required to make their growth as speedily as
possible, iu conformity with their habits and the
services they are qualified to render; the former
class requires durability in the texture of the soil
rather than rapid excitc:ment.

Now,']>lants of these two classes ought to be potted
very differently ; aud, iu order to illu.strato the matter,
let ns take two i>lauts, a Balsam and a Heath. These
two everybody is familiar with. In potting the former
a compost is generally used, and this, in the ordinary
language of gardeners, means a mixture. AVhen such
is used it becomes necessary that, iu order to have
it uniformly mixed, the soil be passed through a riddle
or sieve. This compost is filled in lightly round the
Balsam plant, and a shake or two, with a very slight
pressure perhaps in filling, makes all right; but in
shifting a Heath this process will not answer so well
by any means. Here the skilful cultivator, after pro-
curing his sandy and fibrous heath soil in a dryish
condition, breaks it up into lumpy fragments, and
these he places around the ball, packing them some-
what^tightly, some even thrusting fragments of stones
amongst the turfy material. As for the finer particles
which fall out iu the haodhng, he uses little of this
but to coat the surface over.

As to watering newly potted or shifted plants, I
may just show that this differs as much with these
two classes as the potting or shifting process. The
Balsam alluded to would in most cases benefit by a
good watering with a fine-ro.sed po* ; but the Heath
woidd require some extra caution. I\lost of our hard-
wooded plants when repotted require that their ball
of earth should be in a moist condition — not wet,
but equally moist throughout. This secured, and the
potting performed somewhat similarly to the Heath
before allu^led to, light waterings, not over-frequent,
with the spout of the pot will p>-ove most suitable.
When I pot Camellias I alw.ays make a point of so
dressing up and pressing the surface of the new soil
in the|pot as to leave the stem in a small concavity.
This induces the water when applied to penetrate the
old ball, a thing I hold to i)e of much importance
uutil the new soil is filled with roots, Iwhen the surface
may be made perfectly level. Many a valuable hard-
wooded plant is ruined by loose potting, the water
iu such cases rushing through the loose soil to the

6oo

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, iS86.

entire desertion of the old ball, the loose soil being
speedily coverted into o kind of mud.

I have before alluded to the use of very fibrous
soil as one of the chief improvements in modern
potting; let me here caution the young beginner
against potting with wet soil. If .soil in a wet state
must be used, then all my advice about firm potting
falls to the ground. Jly practice is this :— Turfy or
fibrous loam, having lain about six months in the
compost yard, is clioppcd down when very dry wilh
a sharp spade, leaving lumps the size of a large
potato in it. This being well handled a considerable
proportion of the more loose soil falls away, and this
is put aside for ordinary purposes. The tuify material
is now housed, no riddle being used ; and this will
for months iu the potting-shed if in a body, and
prove always in excellent order for potting. Heath
soil, peat, &e., are served in a similar way; and such
materials in such a condition are qualified, either
singly or in composts, to provide for every need in
the plant way.

I must now recur to drainage matters. Here, again,
practical men make a difference. Annuals, and many
softwooded plants which soon come to perfection,
require a very moderate amount of ceremony of this
kind. A crock carefully placed over the hole, and
over that a layer of the coar.ser materials of the
compost, will generally suffice, although I usually throw
a little charred material over the crock, or a piece
of moss. When, however, we take the more delicate
of the liardwooded class, specimens which have to
remain a long time in their pots, and, indeed, plants
of various kinds which are known to be somewhat
shy rooters, the case is very different. Even in
Camellia potting, for my part, I deem it expedient
to be very particular; strange it is that some of our
continental r.eighbours think and act so differently,
for I have lately read that they are in the habit of
simply thrusting a lump of turfy peat iu the bottom
of the pot, and also pot their Oamellias almost en-
tirely iu peat. ]3ut it must be remembered that to
grow young stock into a smart, saleable appearance,
and to sustain large specimens in high blooming con-
dition for many years, are two very ditfereiit affairs.
There can be little doubt that much of the failure
so frequently complained of i i Camellias, when in the
hands of amateurs and small cultivators, arises in no
small degree from the mode of potting them. Razors
made to sell and razors made to cut are two very
different things. I find also that where lii]uid manure
is frequently used there is the greater need of sound
drainage, as, under the best of circumstances, it has
a tendency to close the interstices of the soil, especially
if fine soil be u.sed. I, however, bid utter defiance
to this tendecy by the use of very turfy and lumpy
•soil.

After all the care we can use m potting processes
we may remember that it lies iu the power of an
ignorant and heedless waterer to nulUfy all our efforts
in a very few weeks. This is a most serious consider-
ation. The worst of it is that we scarcely know how
to offer a rule to those who are careless or ignorant.
A thoughtless person can never be relied on for
watering; but the term "thoughtless" will scarcely
express" what I mean, for we have no eases of
thorough mental inanition in those who labour with
their hands. What I really mean is this— that no
person can water plants well unless he actually cares
for their Welfare. Absence of mind is. therefore, here
an unfortunate affair. One piece of advice may here
be given to the uninformed. AVhen plants are es-
tablished in their pots, and require water, let them
have a thorough watering, unless some special reason
exists for dealing otherwise with them. I'lants growing
fast or blossoming heavily generally require mori>
water than at other times; and plants sinking into a
state of comparative rest, po.s.'-ibly shedding a portion
of their foliage, bulbs, &c., re(|Uire a very moilerute
amount of moisture ; indeed, in many eases, none at

all

One other great feature in modern plant culture
it tho constant war that is sustained against the in-

sect enemies of plants. On this, however, it is no
part of my present purpose to dwell ; I merely point
to it as dividing the honours attached to the high
success of these times with good potting and watering.
But I would observe that there is such a thing as
predisposition in plants or families of plants to insects,
and that one of the most fertile causes of this pre-
disposition may be found in abuse of the root-action
through bad soils, bad potting, and bad watering.

I would here beg the earnest attention of all in-
experienced plant cultivators to a close consideration
of the before-named principles, and suggest to them
that the general health of plants is more dependent
on the soil, and, in consequence, the root-action, than
upon any precise amount of heat, or, indeed, any
of those little collateral matters which are, as it were sub-
sidiary to high culture, and recommend that a due
attention be paid to the potting-shed snd the con-
servation of soils. — K. K. — Journal of IhiHUidturf.
♦

Fob SrnAYiNo Thees. — There is no doubt whatever
but that our citrus trees need occasional spraying to
clean them of scale bugs of one kind or another,
even if of no more dangerous sort than the soft scale,
and a very good whale oil soap can be made for the
purpose, of the following ingredients : —

Concentrated lye 2 pounds

Whale oil 1 gallon

Water 5 g.-dlons

Boil until united, and you will have six gallons of
soap, at a total cost of about 65 cents, or IJ cents
a pound. The regular price charged tor this soap is
from .5 to 10 cents per pound by dealers. The above
recipe for making this soap is from Santa (^"lara
County, and is largely used there. When applied, add
from three to five gallons of water. With only three
gallons of w.iter added, the mixture will be too strong
for foliage, but with five gallons of water the foliage
will not be injured. If coal oil is used it .should bo
added to the warm soap before reducing with water.
There is very little additional labor to the fruit grower
in making his own soap. In any case it must be warme.l
before aiiplication, and it is not much more trouble
to make it than to warm it. — Itaral Ctiliforniait.

(iOVERN.MENT OlNCnilXA PI.aStATIOX, MaDKAS. —

JI. A. Lawson, Esq., Director of (lovernment Cinchona
I'lantations, Parks and Uarden.s, Nilgiris, explains to
the Secretary to the Madras Oovernment, the causes
which have led to the so marked a falliug olf in the
receipts. i''iVs/. — In former years when the cinchona
industry was in its infancy, and a large number of
plantiitions were being opened out by private growers,
there was necessarily a very large demand for cinchona
seed and cinchona young plants ; and, as the Govern-
ment plantations were the oldest and most, noted in
the district, the growers naturally applied to (iovern-
ment to supply to their needs. This went on for
several years, until the new plantations were able to
supply their owners, with what Government before had
only been able to produce. Again, these new plant-
ations are now able to compete with the Government
iu the sale of seed aud plants. SecondU.— Owing to
the great depreciation whioh has recently occurred in
the value of cinchona bark, the public have been deterred
from increasing their plantations, or from opening new
ones. Tho general result of these two above-mentioned
ciroumstinces has been a very small demand for (iov-
ernment seed and plants. The following table shows
the miscellaneous receipts for the p.ast eight years: —

Year. Amount.

ES. A. r.

During 1877-78 2.821 2 a

„ 1878-79 8.136 9 2

I,s7y-S0 I2,3()(1 6 7

lSSO-81 V.iMo -i a

1881-82 li,048 1 r.

1S82-S.3 •l.-'tK) 7 HI

;, 1883-84 -1,352 C 8

,! 1881-85 1,527 10 5

Total ... 52,562 1 0

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

601

polishinxt wood with charcoal.

The methoil of polishiug wood with charcoal, now
much emplcjed by Ficnch cabiui^t-makers, is thas
described in a Paris technical journal :—

AH the world now knows of those articles of
furniture of a beautiful dead black-colour, with sharp,
clear-cut edges and a smooth surface, the wood of
which seems to have the density of ebony. Viewing
them side by side with furnitiu-e rendered black by
paint and varnish, the difference is so sensible that
the considerable margin of price separating the two
kinds explains itself. The operations are nmch lonjjer
and much more minute in this mode of charcoal
polishing, w liich respects every detail of the car\ing ;
while paint and varnish would clog up the holes and
widen the ridges. In the first process they employ
only carefully-selected woods, of a close and' compact
grain ; tbey cover them with a coat of camphor dissolved
in water [y] and almost immediately afterward with
another coat, composed chiefly of sulphate of iron and
nutgall. The two compositions in blending penetrate
the wood and give it an indelible tinge, and, at the
same time, render it impervious to the attacks of insects.

■\Vhen these two coats are sufficiently dry, they rub
the surface of the wood at first with a" very hard
brush of couch-grass (chiemlcnt), and then with charcoal
of substances as light and friable as possible ; because,
if a single hard grain remained in the charcoal, this
alone would scratch the surface, which they wish, on
the contrary, to render perfectly smooth." The flat
parts ;u-e rubbed with natural stick-charcoal ; the
indented portious and crevices with charcoal powder.
-Vlteruately with the charcoal, the workman also rubs
his piece of furniture with flannel soaked in linseed-
oil and oil of turpentine. These pouncings, repeated
several times, cause the ch,ircoal-powder and the
oil to penetrate into the wood, giving the article of
furniture a beautiful color and perfect polish, which has
none of the flaws of ordinarly vainish. — Indian Mercui-y

RUSSIA AS A TEA GROWER.
Accordmg to information which has reached us
from the Caucasus, Russia has decided to commence
the new year with an efiort to become her own
provider of tea. For sometime past the (Joverument
has been looking out for fresh industries to make up
for the growing depression of the corn trade. Acting
on the advice of experts, it has decided to start a
tea plantation at Soukiium Kale, and irajiort a shipload
of Chinese coolies to work it. That tea can be
successfully grown in the Caucasus is a point which
is already settled. Some years ago the J'.iitish Consull
at Tiflis grew a quautity of tea. and during the
course of last summer a German succeeded with a
number of shrubs imported from China. But although
small experimental efforts have resulted in establishing
tue fact that tea can be cultivated in the Caucasus,
it is yet to be demonstrated that it can be grown on
a large scale at a price that will enable it to compete
with the Indian and Chinese article. The home market
is a large one. The Russians are notorious tea
drinkers, and import yearly 72,OUO,000 pounds of tea,
valued at £6,UOO,U0O. Of this quantity half is conveyed
to Russia overland, across Siberia, and half borne by
sea to Odessa and to Crousta<U. In either case the
foreign article would be at a disadvantage in reganl
to the Caucasus tea, owing to Soukhum Kale being
only a couple of (lays' run from Odessa. On the other
hand, labour is scarce and dear in the Caucasus, and
the clumsy moujik, if imported, could never eompete
in the hot, moist valleys of Tran.scaueasia with the cooii!
of China or India. Further, for plantations to l.e
established ou a inrgt ■ I'e foreign capital would be
needed, and that is precisely a commodity which
refuses to patronise Russia just now. Altogether,
therefore, the chances of Russia becoming a great tea
grower in the innnediate future do not seem very
proml.sing. Still the experiment is to be made, .md
India and China tea-growers will naturally watch the
operations of the Russian Government at .Soukbum
Kale with interest,— jPcd? Chronkl .
U

GOSSIP ABOUT COFFEE.

An enterprising American has Uiuen out a patent

for a process invented by himself loi i-r- par-n- ■■■-
substitute for cofl'ee, which is s-tiul to riece ve ev n
good connoisseurs. He uses for this puipo~e varu,us
sorts of grain, beans and others, besides an extract
of willow bark. There is nothing new under the suu.
The sharp American may have invented a mixture
of his own, it is sufficiently known that coffee Is
imitated in all manner of ways, and there is no lack
of inventiveness in the way of substitutes, adulter-
ations, etc. Where lies the fault? If there is indeed
reason to complain of over-production of cott'ee, then
it is clear that the eft'orts of the pro..ucers ought to
tend to the reduction of the cost-price. Genuine
coffee mil, of course, be always preferred to the best
imitation, and only lower coffee-prices will be able
to drive substitutes from the market. But ordinary
sorts of coffee are at present low in price, and
nevertheless the imitation industry flourishes here
and there— only think of Date coffee, I,upine eoft'ee,
etc., and alas"! of another industry that applies itself
to adulteration and mixing. Did not a sly fellow at
I'aris some years since on being indicted ou the
charge of adulterating coffee, go so far a.s to defend
himself on the plea that he defied any one to find
a single grain of coflt'ee in his product !

If it is wanted absolutely to provide an article that
approaches cotfee as near as possible in taste, and by
its cheapueas be within reach of the humblest, then
wc come to the (piestiou whether the producers in
Java could not provide this. It is known that here
and there in -lava, and iu Sumatra too, coffee-leaves
are also used. These will no doubt answer the
jnirpose better than an extract of willow-bark, in
which the sulicin would have to do for the caffcia,
which is indeed present in the coffee-leaves. So also
the tannic acid of the coffee-leaf will be opposed to
the tannic acid of the willow-bark.

It would not do to strip fruit-bearing coflfce-trees
of their leaves to manufacture a substitute for coffee ;
but without damage green coffee-leaves might be
collected from exhausted or barren-trees. If to these
leaves the coffee-shells were added— the idea is not
quite new— one might probably obtain a mixture that
would at any rate be harmless, and remind you of
collie, though not to be sure of th" finest quality : we
sbodd then have only to look about for the most
lib and attractive form.

Ths Trade judges of the coffee by its external
appi araiice, and colour is the chief criterion. This
is a pity, because the colour does not exactly rule
the flavour ; one region prefers fair, yellow, or blown
coffee, while another gives the preference to blue or
green. There is no answering lor tastes. Hut these
various claims again give rise to all sorts of malpractises.
There are some estates, where it is made an object
to produce any colour that maybe wauted. Is there
any reason to blame them for seeking their own profit?
None in tlie least. It is the fault of tho consumers,
who arc ignorant of the intrinsic value of eoft'ee. and
.stick to .some particular colour, because it has a
reputation. It is true, for a judge the colour has some
value but the uninitiated knews it not ; he only
judges by usance, prejudice and so forth.

Yet not :il tho processes for colouring coffee are
harmless, for colouring •■gencies are sometimes used
that are anything but innocent. But the practice,
also prevalent in Netherland, of exp -sing the coffee
to a high moist temperature in rooms arranged for
the purpose to secure a deeper co'onr of y !low or
brown, is from a hygienic poin'u of view, I ielieve,
unimpeachable. It is even pretended, and it is very
possible, that the cofVeu even improves intrinsically
by this process.

The coffee-planter ought to make himself thoroughly
acquainted with the claims of the consumers in differ-
eul countries. It is then highly probable, nay certi"'' ,
that he will discover the means a ways nf enhancing-
the value of his products. From the Goveinracnt
»torc.s- especially, coffee i? eomttiints brought t^

6oJ

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

market au'l sold at vsry low prices, which, in the
hands of hiismoss men, [etches itnitiediately a much
higher value, because they know eminently how to
speculate on what we might call " the fashion. "
Let the p'antors attend to this and derive the profit
themselves. They know very well what an influence
the preparation, the barning or storing, etc., have on
the appearance of the cotfee, and they are entitled
to exercise this influence in their own interest, which
can and will be done without any mystification. A
jood as.iortnient is of great moment, wlien you once
know what is desired. In this respect the brokers
arc the best intructors. — V. G. — fndian Jfe,rnri/.

SILKWORMS OP ASS.\M.

The following particulars are obtained fioui a Report
on Silk in .Vssam by Mr. E. Stack, Director of Agricult-
ure in Assam, which contains a complete description
and account) of the rearing of three domesticated
silkworms, two of which have been erroneously con-
sidered by Knglish silk-spinners as wild silkworms ; these
are the Jfcja and iV/, which, although they may, like
other species, be found in a wild state, are not found in
sufficient quantities to be called wild silkworms of
Assam ; they are cultivated worms.

The wild silkworms of Assam occur so sparingly,
that no silk could be supplied in large quantities
from the collecting of the cocoons. Silk in Assam
are, therefore, obtained by the cultivation of three
domes^i'^ated worms, and not from the wild silkworms.
Mr. E. Stack says that in treating of the silks of
Assam it is desirable to make it clear that, from the
wild silkworms of Assam, as they now exist,
nothing whatever is to be expected, and that it is
Very doubttul weather by the most strenuous efforts
one hundredweight of wild cocoons of all sorts could
be collected in the whole of the Assam valley.

Domesticated Silkworms of Assam. — There are three
kinds of domesticated silkworms in Assam. These are
the Ptil, or mulberry worm {£oinhi/.v te.rtor) ; the
Muffo,, or 3N. (-feeding worm (Anthema assawia) whoso
cocoon, like that of the Pit can be reeled ; and tha
castor-oil worm {Attacus /(Vim'), yielding a silk which
Is spun by hand.

rdt, or mulberry silkworm.— Of this there are two
species cultivated in Assam ; the univoltine Bonibi/x
te.rtor, called hor polu, or large worm, and the multi-
Voltine koi-ii pobt, or small worm, Bomby.e crrtsi.
jBoth species are reared indoors on the leaves of the
mulberry {.Voi'i'.s indira).

Attacus ricini. — Ei'i worm, or Attaci's yieini. This
is reared principally on the castor-oil plant (KiVin«j
communis), called eri in Assamese, but it feeds also
on the Krsrru (Heteropano.v frugatis), and there are
several other trees, as nuJuncha (./atTOpha curcas),
the ffomdri {Gmeluni aihorea), and even it is said, the
eommon hot/ri or ber tree {Xizplitis jvjuha), which the
worm can thrive on in its later stages, if other food
)s not procurable in suflicient quantity. The KH worm
i s multivoltine. and is reared entirely indoors, and as
many as eight broods can be obtained in twelve
months. Large numbers of worms are lost by disease
during these indoor rearings, which is not to be
wondered at, as the oxcrotn and oven llie dead worms
Nf nut removed, The fii'i worm is euUivntod, to a jjrcnt-
f!l- or li'ss ■.■v(('»t, ji) tvi-ry di.ttrint of the province of
."is^'lll!,

't'hc nUihliOf (if liiouliiuR" 111 Mill fcVi Worm is {oiii',
«iiri th>.- following dc^c'rlplion of it \s given by Mr.
Tbotiias Hutfon in a paper which he contributed to
the . T^rocpenings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for
}S;<7:— "The caterpillar is first alioMta quaiti^r of an
inch long, and appears nearly black The cnlmrr is,
(lerlmps, more exactly described n.<< a blacki.shyilliiw,
As It increases in size, it becomes of an or.inge colour,
nith ^i\ block snots on each of the twelve ring.'; which
form it^- 1"' ''• The heail, cl-.iws, and holders .ire black ;
after the »< c iiid moulling, they change to an orange
colour; that of the body gradually becomes lighter.
In some approaching to white, in others to green, and
llir lilmlt s[«)ts gradually becnnie flit- (•oloiir of the

body. After the fourth or last moulting, the colour
is a dirty white, or a dark green. On attaining its full
size, the worm is about 3^ inches long." According
to one series of observations, it would appear that
in the hot months the first change of skin occurs
three days after hatching, and the rest follow at in-
tervals of three days, while the worm begins to spin
on the fourth day after the final change, or the fif-
teenth day after hatching. In the cooler months, the
period between each moulting is four or five days,
making twenty to twenty-five days between hatching
and beginning to spin ; and in the winter season, the
worm lives a whole month, or even longer. — Journal
of the Society of A rts.

ADVANTAGES OF BEET SUGAR OVER CANE
SUGAR.
The great advantages that the continental agricult-
urist and manufacturer have over the Colonial are : —

1st. — A plentiful supply of willing hauds to labour at
moderate wages.

2nd. — Short time necessary for raw products to come
to maturity.

3rd. — Favourite crops to rotate with beet and a
climate suitable for growth of cereals and potatoes,
feeding of stock, kc, &c.

4th. — The roots of such a texture that they can. be
easily manipulated, while the residue is of consider-
able importance as cattle food.

5th. — Oheap fuel, with proximity to the best and
largest market in the world and low freights.

6th. — Climate of Europe more favourable for working
saccharine solutions owing to absenee of ferment
germs, rendering the manufacture so much more
simple.
On the contrary the Colonistshave to contend against: —

1st. — A sparse population who, in the absence of a
winter and all inducement to lay by something for
old age, cannot be depended upon for any continu-
ous laJ)our ; hence necessity of importiog strangers
at a great cost to prosecute the sugar industry.

2nd. — The sugar cane takes from 12 to 16 months
to come to maturity, and is accompanied by a luxuri-
ant growth of weeds. In a tropical climate much
labour is recpiirod to keep these down, and also to
promote the circulation of air and allow the sun to
penetrate among the ripening canes.

3rd. — Absence of any crops other than plantains to
rotate with caues, and as the former are perishable,
and the home wants limited, they could only be
grown at a loss.

4th. — The flinty texture of the sugar cane stalk and
its being as yet only of value as fuel, militate against
any process of manufacture that would destroy its
value as such,

5th. — The nearest market in which they can purchase
coals is Great Kritain, and freight and charges,
raise their cost to y6«. and 37s. per ton before they
can be delivered at furnaces. Freight home is also
high.

Ctb. — The necessity of manufacturing the cane into
sugar immediately after being cut, as immediate
deterioration sets in— all saccharine running into
aeiiiity and fcrmculalioo.

AliVANI'>ni« 01- Oaxe SrO.VIl OVEti Bkkt Si'dAH,

lst.->A larger Vveight (.'! cane can be grown on ;(
given area of lamt, and nt n cheaper rate than
b"ef roots, in ton,'< of silgar canr per raorgcn are
^'nl\Vn «*ith good li lage at 12s, Od, pi.r ton —best
ciists |::,<. l.W. (KT ton, and produces ID tons per
merpen.

2nil:— The .sugar cniitained in Mie sugar nine is of
gieatcr purity lliaii is found in tile beet, heme
le>.t l()S,s in piirificalion, and the finished cane sugar
is on itu average 6" higher in analytif*. and brings
in to the rnanut'afturer at h-ast I's. (1,1. per cwt.
m .re, even after allowing for the extra cost of
freight from Uen)erara. as compared with that
from North (*ern\;iiiy to this country.

March /, iS86.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

6<5i

Crd.— Be«t sugai- must be soUl as iiiatle, and is often
forced on the market at unfavourable times, because
it suffers heavily from increase of glueose if stored.
and a heavy penalty is enacted for delivery of any
but fresh-njanufaotured beet-crystals. In Paris, at
present, beet crystals of old crop are aliuost un-
saleable.

■Weighing all these pros, and cons., it is evident
that the two industries are very evculy balanced,
and that those of the sugar ciine planters who are
in a position to avail themselves of the very best
appliances in maniifacture nii{;ht, under improved
conditions of labour, look t'orwartl to tinii's when
they would hold their own aganist their formidable
rival. One thing is evident, aud that is, that strict
economy must be practised in our colonies. The days
when sugar at £25 to £30 could stand the enormous
public expenditure which characterised some of our
leading M'est Indian Colonies are pa.st, and both
governors aud governed must be prepared to reduce
taxes and e-xpenses to the extent reciuire<l for pro-
ducing sugar at oae-third less cost than hitherto.^
Sxtgar CaiK.

♦ ■

THE OLIVE AND ITS OIL.

IIV IIIOS. WILSON, U. S. CaNSUl, AT NICK.

The olire tree is of the highest antiquity. It
appears on the earliest page of written history in
the leaf which the dove brought to Noah in the
ark as evidence of the receding waters.

It held the highest rank in the ancient mythology.
Minerva taught the Athenians its uses. The peoples
of antiquity held it in great respect, and used its
oil in their various religious ceremonies. It was at
once the emblem of holiness and peace. The Romans
refused to burn the wood, even on their altars.

The olive wa.s brought from Egypt to (ircece, and
from thence spread over the countries where it is
now grown.

It flourishes best in the basin of the Mediterranean
Sea. between 35 and 43' north latitude, though this,
as I have stated, will, owing to the difference of
temperature on the same parallel, be but an uncertain
guide in the United States. The oil produced on the
.African shore of the Mediterranean is inferior to that
of the north shore.

Some of the islands of the f Grecian Archipelago
and the Adriatic produce fine oil, but the centre,
both for quantity aud quality, so far at least as
concerns commerce, is at Nice and the surrounding
country. From St. Tropez to .Savone generally, but
chiefly from the Var to the Koya. from Cannes to
N'intemilli, the best oil is produced.

Here the trees have been indigenous siuce before
the Christian era, and here they grow to the largest
size and the greatest age. One at Beaulieu, in full
vigor and bearing, twenty-two feet in circumference,
and is siipjwsed to be seven hundred or more years
old.

The slower the fruit ripens the better oil it makes,
but as it must be fully ripe aud entirely free from
blemish to make the choicest oil, aud as it requires j
two years to come to perfection (the crop is only '
biennial', one can easily comprehi-nd the dangers of
climate, season, malady aud accident which must be
avoided, and the difSculties which must be overcome ,
in order to obtain final success. !

To accomplish this with a plant so tender requires |
a climate aiul situation of peculiar adaptation, and
imless this is secured ony attempt at its cultivation
will be fruitless. The fruit freezes at 23' I'', and the
tree 10 . Once frozen, no remedy exists; the tree
is destroyed, and must be cut down.

It speak.s volumes for the climate of this region
to say that the olive trees have grown successfully
for the centuries I have indicated.

If the weather be too warm and the land too rich,
the fruit ripens too fast, and its good taste is gone.
If, on the other liand, it should become too cold,
fruit and tree are both de.itroyed. Possibly I can do
no better than answer the question propounded in
the circular to which this is a response.

There are sixteen or seveutecu different kiuds, each
with its DbtiUiical name, which have been grown in
this region, but nearly all as exotics. The tree in
common use, is the Kuropcan olive, aud all the nii'jrm-
atiou given cuuccrus this. It gi\cs the best oil.
The tree begins to bear fruit at ten years of age,
' but it does not come to maturity until from thirty
to fifty years.

i'ov the olives of commerce — that is, to eat, (ither
fresh or pickled — the young tree produces the best
I result ; the mature trees produce the best oil.

The reproduction of the olive tree may be accom-
plished by all the modes known for trees. The be.st
i mode — planting the seed or pit — is practiceil here at
least. The people prefer planting the sprouts which
come up from the roots of the tree, or which may
be artificially made by bending a twig aud covering
it with earth until it has taken root. At the age
of two years this stock may be grafted, or the operation
is more like that of " buddiug. " The graft is cut
i all on one side and iutroduced under the bark, then
bound up in moist earth aud allowed to grow. The
stock above the graft is cut off.

The earth around and between the trees is tilled
each year, and a crop, sometimes of wheat or beans
alternately, planted in the spring and gathered iu
the autumn. The earth is manured every two years,
and the trees are pruned every four years.

It is the same tree and the same fruit for oil as
for commerce. But the best olives for commerce
grow on the young trees; they are larger ard plumper,
and by selecting the fruit they obtain the finest
quality, which arc then perserved for commerce.
There' is a species grown at Nice for which is claimed
a superiority of taste and fragrance. It is disiiuguished
by a small black spot on the blossom enil of the
fruit. These olives arc eaten in the country when
ripe, are semi-dried and slightly seasoned with salt.
Times <ik Fruit Gathering.— The trees begin to
bear at ten years of .^ge, but they do not reach
their full cai>ability or maturity until from thirty to
fifty years. They continue fruitful for two and a
half or three centuries. This is for grafted fruit. The
wild olive lives and bears until twice that age. In
Provence and other countries not so well adapted to
them, they commence earlier and also die earlier.
The trees are smaller, ami the fruit can be picked
by h,and. There the crop is annual, the harvest being
in Novenibf-r and December, while iu Niee and sur-
rounding country the harvest is biennial. Here the
blossom or flower comes in April or Way, and the
first fruit, consisting of the .smaller and inferior, is
gathered iu November and December, the better in
January and February and March, while the best
(for oil) is the last, iu April .and M.ay. It produces
the be.st oil when it ripens slowly, and, iu some
exceptionally good years, the harvest is continued
into June and even .Tuly. The tree then recuperates
until the following spring, when it flowers again.
An olive tree, ewn here, would bear a crop each
year if so permitted, but the "whipping" ncce.s.sary
to gather in the fruit destroys the blossoms, which
do not como agaiu until the next spring.

The trees are planted from each other at a distance
\arying from 10 to 1-3 yards each way. The larger
trees require larger space, and the larger the trees
produced. The trees need sun anil air, aud if crowded
it will be to their detriment. This would permit,
if I have figured aright, 40 to 50 trees to one acre.
But they ilo not calculate by the acre, for the trees
are planted on the hill-side, u.sually on made terraces
impossilile to plow, cultivated with the spade, and it
is difficult to get an acre of olive trees together.
In poorer soil aud on the hillside the trees may be
a lesser distance apart, even reducing it to six or
eight yards.

The difference between olive trees in their product
is as great as between apple trees. But the average
production per tree, biennially, may be stated thus : —
In fruit, from 00 to 120 liters; iu oil, from 8 to 12
kilograms, or 12 to 18 liters,

6o6

USiannnOIHOV IVOWOai aHX [March I, 1886

no inducement, tbere is no economy iu storing and
using farmyard manure — it is a superfluous labour ;
but in all populous countries, and notably in our own.
where the soil has been reduced by centuries of
cropping, the basis of farmiug is the manure heap.
Although iu these days, importation of artificial manures
has made farmers less dependent on farmyard manure
than formerly, yet it is still, as of old, the central
system of the farm, and its careful manufacture, pre-
servation, and use are more than ever deserving of
careful attention.

Farmyard manure consists of the solid and liquid
excrement of animals, combined with the straw or
other substance used as litter, and when fresh consists
of about one part solid matter and three parts water.
About one-half of the total dry matter contained in
an animal's foddur is found again iu the manure, so
that it is easy to estimate approximately the amount
of maniure produced upon a holding iu ordinary cir-
cumstances when the amount of dry mutter contained
in the fodder is known. For every 1,000 lb. live- weight
of the animals fed upon a farm, the amount of dry
fodder daily consumed is about 24 lb. and if we add
to the half of that one-fourth for litter, ri'-., G lb.,
we obtain the sum of 18 lb., which represents the total
dry matter in the manure. To this has to be added
three times as much water, viz., 54 lb., and we obtain
a total of 72 lb. wet manure per 1,000 lb. live-weight
per day. This is only an average, for when animals
are fed mostly on turnips, containing 92 per cent of
water, the manure will be much wetter ; if on hay,
much drier.

The loss of dry matter which occurs in convertmg
fodder into dung is mostly loss of carbon, which is
partly burned in the animal's body in keeping up its
temperature, and is partly stored up as fat and flesh.
There is also a loss of nitrogen, which amounts 00 an
average to about a fifth of the total nitrogen contained
in the dry fodder, but which may be more or less,
according to the kind and amount of fodder and the
state of nutrition of the stock. There is very little
loss of mineral matter. The potash contained in the
fodder is mostly voided in the urine, while the phos-
phoric acid is almost entirely contained in the solid
excrement.

The manu value of the^rial dung is influenced by
various circumstances. In the case of oxeti iu forward
condition, the loss is very slight, while in the case of
cows giving milk and in th" case of calves or other
young stock, more than half the nitrogen and about
two-thirds of ths phosphoric acil are lost to the
manure.

The general character of the dung made by vanous
kinds of stock is also very different owing to the differ-
ent kinds of fodder, and the more or less perfect
mastication and digestion to which it has been subjected.
Milch cows fed on watery diet produce a dung contain-
ing only about one-sixtn or a seventh of solid matter,
while the dung of most oxen fed on a dry diet contains
about one-fourth of solids. Owing to the perfect
mastication which takes place in the.rumiQating process,
the constituents of the dung are in a fine state of
division, and the whole forms a mass through which
air does not penetrate, so that the rotting process goes
on very slowly, rendering it a very slon-acting manure.
It is called a cold manure, since there is no apparent
heat generated during its very slow fermentation. On
that account it is necessary to mix it with a large
amount of litter, in order to keep it free and perme-
able to air, so that the rotting process may be hastened.
The dung of horses is a dry dung, and more open and
porous, so that it ferments very easily and heats
rapidly. When too concentrated, the heating is carried
so far as to kill out the ferments in the heap, and
cause a loss of manurial matter.

The urine of horses is also a more concentrated
material than that of cows or oxen, and therefore it
is very advantageous that the manure derived from
oxen and horses, should not be collected sepatately, but
mixed together in a careful, uniform niinner. The
dung of sheep resembles somewhat that of horses, hut
it is somewhat drier, and therefor*' well adapted

from counteracting the too fluid character of cow
^ung.

There are many questions that arise as to the making
and using of farmyard manure. It may be asked
whether fresh dung is not a better manure than that
which has been preserved in heaps. It will usually
happen that less loss of manurial matter occurs when
manure is made directly on the field, inasmuch as the
methods of preserving farmyard manure are usually
imperfect. It cannot be said that the droppings left
by cattle on a field are properly distributed ; on the
contrary, the manure is applied in about the worst
conceivable manner. It remains for months protected
by a hard resinous covering, and ferments with great
slowness ; it kills out the grass immadiately beneath it,
and renders that part of the pasture unfit for food for
many months ; the rank vegetation which grows on
the spot next season is not acceptable to cattle, and the
pasture becomes coarse and uneven. This might easily
be avoided by a little attention, such as the employ-
ment of boys, or other unskilled labom', to scatter tb«
dung and secure its more even distribution, or tha
removing of it altogether to the dung heap. The
applying of fresh cow dung to the soil is not attended
with any loss of substance, and in some cases is much to
be preferred to any other method. This is especially the
case when it is wanted to improve the mechanical CDn-
dition of stiff clay soils ; but. as a rule, some preparatory
fermentation in the heap is very beneficial. The chief
improvement that occurs to dung when heaped is the
rapid rotting of the substance, whereby the hard straw
or other litter is softened, and made more capable of
yielding up its manurial substance to the roots of
plants. The albuminoid matter in the heap is decona.
posed and converted into ammonia, and ihe ammonia
is in turn converted into nitric acid, so that, from being
a slow-actiug manure, the dung becomes one of the
strongest and most rapid manures on the farm. In
cases where it is desired to prolong the action of the
dung over a long period, it should be ploughed in fresh ;
but when it is wanted to expend itself chiefly on the
crop to which it is applied, it should be as well rotted
as possible. That the rotting process may be satisfactory,
it is necessary that the manure heap be carefully made.
It must be uniform throughout the whole mass, and
this uniformity should be attained during the making of
the heap rather than by turning it over at a later stage.
When a heap is not uniform or equally fermented, the
turning it over, although attended with some loss of
ammonia, is to be recommended, as it is highly desirable
to have the whole heap uniform ; and the loss of the
ammonia is not so great as is apt to be imagined from
the pungent smell during the operation. When a man-
ure heap is carefully mixed and layered in the making,
and where there is a due proportion of litter and dung,
the fermentation goes on equally through the heap, and
there is no need of turning.

The preservation of farmyard manure is a subject
which has been much neglected. There are now many
covered courts and covered heaps, but as a rule the dung
heap is exposed to the weather. In wet climates this
is a great misfortune, as e%'en with the greatest CAre,it is
scarcely possible to prevent wast*-, and if there is no spec-
ial care taken, as is usually the case, the loss of fertilis-
ing material is enormous. An uncovered manure heap in
a wet district is the biggest hole in a farmer's pocket.
In dry districts the loss need not be very great ; and
if care is taken iu the m.iking of the heap, it may be
quite unimportant. \\'hile a dung heap is maturing
there is a constant evaporation of moisture from the
iiot mass, so that it is apt to become too dry ; and where
the heap is under cover, it becomes necessary to run
over the heap with water, or, better still, with urine.
In a dry climate the amount of rain which falls upon
the heap just about compensates for the loss of moLst-
ure during fermentation. In order that there may
be no loss in such circumstances, tlie bottom of the
heap requires attention. The water iu the h(-ap gradually
drops down, and flows away as a constant brown steam
hiRlily charged with potash salts, and this may occur
when the upper parts of the heap is too dry. It is
therefore neeessary to have the heap placed upon •

Makch I, i8S6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

607

dry bed of earth or straw, or some absorbent material,
and it should be surrounded with a gutter filled with
this absorbent, and the earth or straw, or whatever it
should be frequently renewed, the soaked matters
being tossed up on to the top of the heap. When
manure is exposed to the rain it had better not be
quickly fermented, as in the process of fermentation
the great change which occurs is the increase of soluble
matter, and as this is liable to be washed away, it is
well that manure which has to stand long should be
very slowly fermented. In such cases it should be
packed closely together, and exposed as little as possible
to the direct force of wind.

There are some substances which are valuable in pre-
serving manure and hastening its decomposition, but
imless the heap is under cover or exposed to very little
rain, they should not be used. Chief among these
substances is t/j/psion. The effect of gypsum is to prevent
loss of ammonia, and it may also hasten the nitrific-
ation process, It is a safe substance to employ, and it
should be sprinkled over the heap as it rises, so that it
may ultimately be fairly well distributed throughout
the mass. Carbonate of lime or marl niay also be added
with advantage, and even fresh lime may be safely
sprinkled through the heap in small quantity (about 1
per cent), and if put only on fresh dung, there need be
no fear of loss of ammonia. Fresh dung does not
contain ammonia ; it is only after fermentation has
set in that ammonia is formed. The action of lime and
ita salts is to hasten the conversion of ammonia into
nitric acid, so that nitrate of lime is formed, and as
that is a very soluble salt, it would plainly be a mistake
to encourage its formation in a manure heap exposed
to rain and liable to leakage. — North British Agri-
ciUturist,

BRAZIL COFFEE IN RUSSIA.

Our producers might follow with profit the example
lately set by the Brazilian coffee-growers. The
enormous increase of their product of late years has
stimulated them to improve every opportunity for in-
creasmg its consumption in foreign countries. They
took advantage of the internatioial exposition held in '
St. Petersburg last summer and gained a most enthusi-
astic reception of their goods. Heretofore the con- '
sumption of coffee has been very small in Kussia—
only about 7,()2o.0l>U pounds in 18*9, giving the small-
est per caput consumption of any European country. !
Tea has been the national beverage.

It was known to Brazilian planters that their pro-
duct had lost its identity in Kussia by being mixed
and sold under other names. They accordingly sent '
to the exposition a commission equippied with a com-
plete exhibit of the various grades of coffee grown
in Krazil. The commissioners took with them not
only samples, but a complete outfit for having it
prepared and served by their own cooks. The ex-
cellence of the beverage attracted marked attention,
both at the exposition and throughout the country.
It has become quite the rage, and newspapers have
discussed its quality and merits and enlarged upon
the extent of its growth in Brazil, recomr ending its
direct importation into Kussia as tending to increase
and improve in many ways the connnercial relations
of the two countries, As a result of this enterjirises
H la shM tlmt the KusMau govcrnnu'Ut is considering
tile iidvi.'-ability of reducing the duty on coffee imported
ilii'ect from Brazil, which hiI! doubtless tend to increase '
hn Con.^umption. — Indian ihrccrii.

(.•K Japanese tea and tobacco.

ItV J, TA1CA\AMA.

The tea-leaves are gathered in May, and quickly
dried by exposure to air, and carefully siftc 1 so as
to separate dust and fragments of leaves. They are
then sub.jec'ed to the steaming. This is done by
Introducing the leaves into a wooden tub, the bottom
of which is formcil of Immboo meshes, the tub being
placed on an iron pau fil!i:d with water and heited
from below. After thirty miniitos. when the steam
rises up, the wooden cover is taken off, and the I
tuutcntB are thoroughly ui!:;ed so as to 8t«nw uni-

formly all the leaves. This done, the tub is covered
again with the lid. This process is repeated, and
finally the contents are taken out and cooled. There
is a tendency in leaves to adhere to the bamboo rod
during mixing.

Tile leaves are now sufficiently softened to be
rolled up lietween the hands by a gentle rubbing,
after which the leaves arc subjected to drying. This
operation is a most difficult one, inasmuch as the
quahty of the product depends in a great measure
on the treatment which the leaves undergo during
the operation, since it is during drying that that
fine colour becomes fixed, with sinmltaneous production
of that delicate flavor and agreeable taste which arc
wanting in the original leaves ; so that it requires
excellent workmen, whose requisite skill is only attained
after a long practice.

The drying is conducted in a shallow rectangular

box, the bottom of which is made of a thick paper

I stiffened with starch. The box is placed over a copper-

I wire gauze supported by iron bars, which are provided

across the furnace. The furnace is simply a rectangular

box coated with clay, and has the depth of 2*5 shaku.

i To begin the operation, first of all a charcoal fire

is made in the furnace. The rectangular box is now

jtlaced over it, the leaves are next introduced into

: the box, and the workman continually rubs them

between the hands, alternately tossing them up and

letting them fall until they are nearly dried. Thus

dried the leaves are further dried by keeping for a

night in the same furnace after the charcoal fire is

withdrawn. In large factories numbers of these

furnaces are arranged in rows, and during the drying

each furnace is attended by one workman.

The tea thus dried is, before it is sent to the
market, subjected to sorting and sieving. The sorting
simply consists in spreading out a certain quantity
of tea upon a flat table, .and in removing dust, stems,
and other foreign matters by picking them up, which
operation is usually done by women and girls. The
sorted tea is then sieved.

The sieves of different meshes are distinguished from
one another by the numbers 1, -', 3. etc., and the
number of sievings as well as the sieves used vary
with the quality of the tea. Thus, in the case of
coarse kinds, it is passed twice or thrice through each
of 1 and 2, and in the best kinds only once through
2, 3, 4, and twice through 3, which has the meshes
of nearly o millimeters. The tea thus prepared is
preserved in earthenware or metallic pots, in order
to preserve it from the moisture.

lir.AeK TEA.

Before intercourse with AVestern uatiims was opened
this was scarcely known to us, but now at present
it is manufactureil, though to a very limited extent,
for the purpose of exporting it to foreign countries.
The writer states the following description of the
process to be due to the report published by order
of the board for promotion of industry, agriculture,
and coiiiinercc. In preparing the black tea, the leaves
from wild tea plants, or those which are cultivated
without much care, are used, otherwise there will
not be much profit. The leaves after gathering are
scattered on a straw mat, and dried by exposure to
air. They are then collected, and softened by tossing
and clapping between the hands till they become
adhesive, The loaves arc then made into a number
of balls, whii li are introduced into a large bo.x, which
is closed tightly and exposed to the sun for half an
hour, when it is brought into the bouse, and allowed
to lie in this state for one night. The balls are then
taken out, and subjected to the roUiug and drying
in the same way as in the preparation of green teai
During the operation the workman turns the mass so
as to prevent it fr9m being burnt. This process is
continued until the leaves break very easily by simply
pressing between the fingers, when they are considered
to be perfectly dry. The tea thus produced is freed
from impurities and stalks, and separated into different
kinds by passing throujih sieves having meshes of
different sizes. The specimens he chemically examineil
are all those prepared lu the celebrated tea- producing

6o6

USfaniinoraOV IVOWOaX ^HI [March X, i8S6

DO iaducement, there is no economy iu storing and
using farmyard manure — it is a superfluous labour;
but in all populous countries, and uotably in our own.
where the soil has been reduced by centuries of
cropping, the basis of farmiug is the manure heap.
Although in these days, importation of artificial manures
has made farmers loss <U*peudent on farmyard manure
than formerly, yet it is still, as of old, the central
system of the farm, and its careful manufacture, pre-
servation, and use are more than ever deserving of
careful attention.

Farmyard manure consists of the solid and lujuid
excrement of animal.s, combined with the straw or
other substance used as litter, and wheu fre^h consists
of about one part solid matter and three parts water.
About one-half of the total dry matter contained iu
an animal's foddur is fouud again in the manure, so
that it is e.isy to estimate approximately thf amount
of maniure produced upon a holding in ordiu.iry cir-
cumstances when the amount of dry matter contained
in the fodder is known. For every 1,000 lb. live- weight
of the animals fed upon a farm, the amount of dry
fodder daily consumed is about 24 lb. and if we add
to the half of that one-fourth for litter, rt-., 6 lb.,
we obtain the sum of 18 lb., which represents the total
dry matter in the manure. To this has to be added
three times as much water, riz., 54 lb., and we obtain
a total of 72 lb. wet manure per 1,000 lb. live-weight
per day. This is only an average, for when animals
are fed mostly on turnips, containing 92 per cent of
water, the manure will be much wetter ; if on hay,
much drier.

The loss of dry matter which occurs in converting
fodder into dung is mostly loss of carbon, which is
partly burned in the animal's body in keeping up its
temperature, and is partly stored up as fat and flesh.
There is also a loss of nitrogen, which amounts on an
average to about a fifth of the total nitrogen contained
in the dry fodder, but which may be more or less,
according to the kind and amount of fodder and the
state of nutrition of the stock. There is very little
loss of mineral matter. The potash contained in the
fodder is mostly voided in the urine, while the phos-
phoric acid is almost entirely contained in the solid
excrement.

The manu value of the'rial dung is influenced by
various circumstances. In the case of oxen in forward
condition, the loss is very slight, while in the case of
cows giving milk and in th« case of calves or other
young stock, more than half the nitrogen and about
two-thirds of tha phosphoric acil are lost to the
manure.

The general character of the ilung made by various
kinds of stock is also very different owing to the differ-
ent kiuds of fodder, aud the more or less perfect
mastication and digestion to which it has been subjected.
Milch cows fed on watery diet produce a dung contain-
ing only about one-sixtn or a seventh of solid matter,
while the dung of most oxen fed on a dry diet contains
about one-fourth of solids. Owing to the perfect ;
mastication which takes place iu the ruminating process,
the constituents of the dung are in a fine state of
division, and the whole forms a mass tlirougb which ,
air does not penetrate, so that the rotting process goes !
on very slowly, rendering it a very slow-acting manure, i
It is called a cold manure, since there is no apparent |
heat generated during its very slow fermentation. Oi\
that account it is necessary to mi.\ it with :i large i
amount of litter, in order to keep it free and perme- ;
able to air, so that the rotting process may be hastened. '
The dung of horses is a dry dung, and more open and i
porous, so that it ferments very easily and heats
rapidly. When too concentrated, the healing is carried i
80 far as to kill out the ferments in the heap, and
cause a loss of manurial matter. I

The urine of lior.ses is also a more concentrated I
material than that of cows or oxen, and therefore it
is very advantageous that the manure derived from |
oxen and horses, should not be collected sepatately, but
mixed together in a careful, uniform nvmnor. The
dung of sheep resembles somewhat that of horses, but ;
it is somewhat drier, aud therefore well adapted

I from counteracting the too fluid character of cow
dung.

There are many questions that arise as to the making
I and using of farmyard manure. It may be asked
whether fresh dung is not a better manure than that
I which has been preserved in heaps. It will usually
, happen that less loss of manurial mattt-r occurs when
manure is made directly on the field, inasmuch as the
metiiods of preserving farmyard manure are usually
' impei'feet. It cannot be said that the droppings left
] by cattle on a field are properly distributed ; on the
contrary, the manure is applied in about the worst
conceivable manner. It remains for mouths protected
by a hard resinous covering, and ferments with great
slowness ; it kills out the grass immediately beneath it,
and renders that part of the pasture unfit for food for
many months ; the rank vegetation which grows on
the spot next season is not acceptable to cattle, and the
pasture becomes coarse and uneven. This might easily
be avoided by a little attention, such as the employ-
ment of bojs, or other unskilled labour, to scatter the
dung and secure its more even distribution, or the
removing of it altogether to the dung heap. The
applying of fresh cow dung to the soil is not attended
with any loss of substance, and in some cases is much to
be preferred to any other method. This is especially the
case when it is wanted to improve the mechanical cdd-
dition of stiff clay soils ; but, as a rule, some preparatorjr
fermentation in the heap is very beneficial. The chief
improvement that occurs to dung when heaped is the
rapid rotting of the substance, whereby the hard straw
or other litter is softened, aud made more capable of
yielding up its manurial substance to the roots of
plants. The albuminoid matrer in the heap is decom-
posed and converted into ammonia, and the ammonia
is in turn converted into nitric acid, so that, from being
a slow-actiug manure, the dung becomes one of the
strongest and most rapid manures on the farm. In
cases where it is desired to prolong the action of the
dung over a long period, it should be ploughed in fresh ;
but when it is wanted to expend itself chiefly on the
crop to which it is applied, it should be as well rotted
as possible. That the rotting process may be satisfactory,
it is necessary that the manure heap be carefully made.
It must be uniform throughout the whole mass, and
this uniformity should be attained during the making of
the heap rather than by turning it over at a later stage.
AVhen a heap is not uniform or equally ferment^ed, the
turning it over, although attended with some loss of
ammouia, is to be recommended, as it is highly desirable
to have the whole heap uniform ; aud the loss of the
ammonia is not so great as is apt to be imagiued from
the pungent smell during the operation. When a man-
ure he.ap is carefully mixed and layered in the making,
and where there is a due proportion of litter and dung,
tlie fermentation goes on equally through the heap, and
there is no need of turning.

The preservation of farmyard manure is a subject
which has been much neglected. There are now many
covered courts and covered heaps, but as a rule the dung
heap is exposed to the weather. In wet elimates thii
is a great misfortune, as even with the greatest CAre,it is
scarcely possible to prevent waste, aud if there is no spec-
ial care taken, as is usually the case, the loss of fertilise
ing material is enormous. An uncovered manure heap in
a wet district is the biggest hole in a farmer's pocket.
In dry districts the loss need not be very great ; and
if cafe is taken in the m.iking of the heap, it may be
((uite unimportant. AVhile a dung heap is maturing
there is u constant evaporation of moisture from the
hot mass, so that it is ajit to become too dry ; and where
the heap is imder cover, it becomes necessary to run
over the heap with water, or, better still, with urine.
In a dry climate the amount of rain which fallsupon
the heap just about compeu.sates for the loss of moLst-
nre during fermentation. In order that there may
be no loss in such circumstances, the bottom of the
heap retjuires attention. The water in the heap gradually
drops down, and flows away as a constant brown steam
hifflily charged with potash salts, and this may occur
when the upper parts of the heap is too dry. It is
therefore neeessary to have the heap placed upon •

Makch I. 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

607

dry bed of earth or straw, or some absorbent material,
anil it should be surrounded witli a gutter filled with
this absorbent, and the earth or straw, or whatever it
should be frequently renewed, the soaked matters
being tossed up on to the top of the heap. ^\'heu
manure is exposed to tho rain it had bitter not be
quickly fermented, as in the process of fermentation
the great change which occurs is the increa-ie of soluble
matter, and as this is liable to be washed away, it is
well that manure wliich has to stand long should be
very slowly fermented. In such oases it should be
packed closely together, and exposed as little as possible
to the direct force of wind.

There are some substances which are valuable in pre-
serving manure aiiil hastening its decomposition, but
unless the heap is under cover or exposed to very little
rain, they should not be used. Chief among these
substances is y;;pivin. The effect of gypsum is to prevent
loss of ammoiua, and it may also hasten the nitrific-
ation process. It is a safe substance to employ, and it
should be sprinkled over the heap as it rises, so that it
may ultimately be fairly well distributed throughout
the mass. Carbonate of lime or marl may also be added
with advantage, and even fresh lime may be safely
sprinkletl through the heap in small quantity (about 1
per cent), and if put only on fresh dung, there need be
no fear of loss of ammonia. Fresh dung does not
contain ammonia ; it is only after fermentation has
set in that ammonia is formed. The action of lime and
ita salts is to liasteu the conversion of amn\onia into
nitric acid, so that nitrate of lime ia formed, and as
that is a very soluble salt, it would plainly be a mistake
to encourage its formation in a manure heap exposed
to rain and liable to leakage. — Horth £,iiish Agri-
culturist.

BBA^IL COFFEE IN EUSSU.

Our producers might follow with profit the example
lately set by the Brazilian cotfee-growers. The
enormous increase of their product of late years has
stimulated them to improve every opportunity for in-
creasing its consumption in foreign countries. They
took advantage of the international exposition held in
St. Petersburg last summer and gained a most enthusi.
astic reception of their goods. Heretofore the con-
sumption of coffee has been very small in Hussia —
only about T.Oio.OiHJ pounds in 1^79, giving the small-
est per caput consumption of any European country.
Tea has been the national beverage.

It was known to Brazilian planters that their pro-
duct had lost its identity in Kussia by being mixed
and sold under other names. They accordingly sent
to the exposition a commission equippied with a com-
plete exhibit of the various grades of eotfec grown
in Brazil. The eommissioners took willi them nut
only samples, but a complete outtit for having it
prepared and served by their own cooks. The e x-
eellence of the beverage attracted marked attention.
both at the exposition and throughout the country.
It has become quite the rage, and new.spapers have
discussed its quality and merits and enlarged uf.on
the extent of its growth in Brazil, recomr ending its
direct importation into Kussia as tending to increase
and improve in many ways the commercial relations
of the two countries. As a result of tliis eulerjirises
It is sidd that the Kus^ian gnv^rrlmeut is consiilcring
ille ivdvisability of reducing the duty on coffee imporlcil
direct from Brazil, which «il! doubtless tend to increase
it!" consumption. — lAdiun .'/. ici'.i-'j.

ON JAP.\NE.SK TEA AND TOB.^CCU.

nV J. TAKAVAMA.

The tea-1ea\e8 are gathered iu Slay, and quickly
ilried by exposure to air, and carefully sif tc I so as
to separate dust an 1 fragments of leaves. They are
then subjec'ed to the steaming. This is doiic by
Introducing the leaves into a wooden tub, the bottom
of which is forniul of bamboo me.shen, tho tub being
place'l on an iron pan tilled with water and hcited
from below. After thirty minutes, when the steam
rises up, the wooden cover is taken off, and the
tuDttuts are tUurougbly iui»id io as to steam uni-

I formly all the leaves. This done, the tub is covered

I again with the lid. This process is repeated, and
finally the contents are taken out and cooled. There

I is a tendency in leaves to adhere to the bamboo rod

' during mixing.

I The leaves are now sufficiently softened to be

j rolled up between the hands by a gentle rubbing,
after which the leaves arc subjected to drying. This
operation is a most difhcult one, inasmuch as the
quality of the product depends iu a great measure
on the treatment which the leaves undergo during
the operation, since it is during drying that that

i fine colour heeomes fixed, with sinmltaueous production
of that delicate flavor and agreeable taste which arc
wanting in the original leaves; so that it requires

( excellent workmen, whose requisite skill is only attained

. after a long practice.

The drying is conducted in a shallow rectaugidar
box, the bottom of which is made of a thick paper
stiffened with starch. The box is placed over a copper-
wire gauze supported by iron bars, which are provided
across the furnace. The furnace is simply a rectangular
box coateil with clay, and has the depth of '25 shaku.
To begin the operation, first of all a charcoal fire
is made in the furnace. The rectangular box is now
jilaced over it, the leaves are next introduced into
the box, and tho workman continually rubs them
between the hands, alternately tossing them up and
letting them f.all until they are nearly dried. Thus
dried the leaves are further dried by keeping for a
night in the same furnace after the charcoal fire is
withdrawn. In large factories numbers of these
furnaces are arranged in rows, and during the drying
each furnace is attended by one workman.

The tea thus dried is, before it is sent to the
market, subjected to sorting and sieving. The sorting
simply consists in spreading out a certain quantity
of tea upon a flat table, and in removing dust, stems,
and other foreign matters by picking them up, which
operation is usually done by women and girls. The
sorted tea is then sieved.

The sieves of different meshes are distinguished from
one another by the numbers 1, -, 3. etc., and the
number of sieviugs as well as the sieves used vary
with the (luality of the tea. Thus, in the case of
coarse kinds, it is passed twice or thrice through each
of 1 and J, and in the liest kinds oidy once through
2, 3, -1, and twice through 3, which has the meshes
of nearly 3 urillimeters. The tea thus prepared is
preserved iu earthenware or metallic pots, in order
to preserve it from the moistui'e.

niAtK TEA.

Before intercourse with AV'estern nations was opened
this was scarcely known to us, but now at present
it is manufactured, though to a very limited extent,
for the purpose of exporting it to foreign countries.
The writer states tho following description of the
process to bo due to the report published by order
of the board for promotion of industry, agriculture,
and commerce. In preparing the black tea, the leaves
from wild tea plants, or those which are cultivated
without much care, are used, otherwise there will
not be much profit. The leaves after gathering are
scattered on a straw mat, and dried by exposure to
air. They are thou collected, and softened by tossing
aud clapping bctiveen the band^ till they become
adhesive. The loaves arc then made into a uumbtr
of balls, whii h arc introduced into a large bo.\, which
ia closed tightly and exposed to tho sun for half an
hour, when it ir- bruiight into the house, and allowed
to lie in this st.ite for one night. The balls are then
taken out, and subjected to tho rolliug and drying
in the same way as in the preparation of green teai
During the oi)enition the workman turns the mass so
as to prevent it from being burnt. This process is
continued until the leaves break very easily by simply
pressing between the fingers, when they are considered
to be perfectly dry. The tea thus pro<hiced is freed
from impurities and stalks, and separateil into different
kinds by jiassing tbrou;;h sieves having meshes of
different sizes. The specimens he chemically examined
are all those prepared m the celebrated tea- producing

6o8

THE TROPICAL AGRfCULTURIST.

[March i, 1886.

district Uji, and are supposed to be unadulterated. The
accompanyiug table gives the result of the analyses.
On examining the table there eeems to be uo eonnectiou
between eonjuiereial quality and chemical composition,
but it is very interesting to observe how nearly the same
is the amount of the constituents in all specimens;
so that, in any instance it we find some of the con-
stituents, as ash, for instance, in quantity differing
from those found in the table, we may consider such
specimen lieing previously adulterated. Nitrogen in
the table was determined by Dumas' method.

ANALYSIS OF JAPANESE TEAS.

Oroanic

Matter.

Name.

i i

OJ

ij
^

fij

1 ''^

-0

3

^

a

OT

H-(

H

x

Shimonohaua .

..; 9-27

3-8f> ! 1-18

504

35-96

Toyokumo .. .

.. 9-97

374

1-20

4-94

37-06

Hochayen ... .

..; 938

2-60

272

5-38

34-14

Kiuimosato

,. 7-66

4-35

1-26

5-61

38-40

Nagauotomo

..1 8-71

4-28

1-69

5-97

37-32

Tayokage ... .

..: 8-81

3-88

1-68

5-66

40-40

Toyomaye... .

..1 8-31

3-41

1-32

4 73

4187

Giokuio ... .

..1 6-90

3-45

2-55

600

35-55

Obganic

1

Matter.

ct.
gen.

3

1-

a

^

M ; 1

§.2

Shimonohaua ...

50 74

86-70

39 82 i 4-24

0-24

Toyokumo

46-03

85-09

42-70 4-14

0-25

Hochayen

51-10

85-24

36-80 3-90

0-50

Kiuimosato

48-33

86-73

42-75 —

1-25

Nagauotomo ...

48-00

85-32

41-60 5-37

1-50

Tayokage

45-23

86 63

44-28 —

2-50

Toyomaye

45-(i9

8(i-!)6

45-21 3-87

3-50

Giokuro

53-55

87-10

37-00 —

5-00

— Indian Mercurj/.

Cocoa.— Accounts from Surinam are very favourable
respecting the Cocoa-Oulture ; even the young trees,
planted only five years ago in the Districts of Surinam
and Commewyue on abandoned sugar-fields have
surmoimted the many difficulties, and promise a good
crop. The one-year-old trees, on the contrary, are
in a less favourable condition, owing mainly to in-
sutficieut sheltering against the heat of the sun, and
are partially lost. Additional plantings of cocoa are
constantly being continued. There is great scarcity
of available manual labour, and this want is felt most
scTorely in proportion, as the estates are father from
the capital, — Indian Mefcv.ri/.

Ivoaii Mn.UKW — Ojpsum.— Some correspondence having
appeared in your columns with reference to the above,
it would be well perhaps to consiilcr mildew which
affects other plants in order to experiment in the
hope of destroying it in Hoses. Hops are likewise
subject to a " mould *' or mildew, which Mr, C. AVhite-
head remarks in his treatise on *' Hops from the Set
to the Skylight,*' ''is due to an insidious parasitic
fungus, known as Spa-rotheca Oastffgnei, of the group
Krysiphe, allied -to the fungus which causes the
mildew in Vines." Sulphur is applied to Hops in
the form of flowers of svdphur by means of a
machine called a sulphurator, which dusts it over
thu plants, and it is generally considered to be a
cure for the mildew, and a preventive if put on
early. An agricultural chemist, in giving a lecture
cn tho subjeet to » funners' club in this neighbour-

hood, gave it as his opuiion that if sulphur was
applied m an available form to the roots he believed
that It would pi-eveut mildew. A Hop trrower after-
wards stated that he had found this theory cor-
roborated by practice, and that having applied sulphur
m the form of gypsum to his Hops they were very
free from aiould, while his neighbour's on the other
side of the hedge were badly attacked. The above
cbeniist stated that sulphur as applied by flowers of
sulphur is not assimilable by the roots, while it is n-heu
supplied in gypsum. As an analogy the human frame
needs phosphorus and potash, but they cannot be taken
in tho crude mineral form without doing as much harm
as good, while if taken in an assimilable form in veget-
ables they are of great benefit. Hence those growers
who have applied quantities of sulphur at a considerable
expense to the leaves have only derived a temporary and
incomplete benefit, and have not goie to the root of
the matter.— \Vm, Thompson, Tweed V^ineyard.—
Joti'i-nal of Horticulture.

Wynaad Notes, 2-2nd Jan. 1886.— A longer period
than usual has elapsed since I last sent you any news '
from our ijuict corner of the world. Indeed there is
seldom much to tell of AVynaad now-a-days, and that
not generally of too exhilai-,itin^ a nature. Our crop
season is pretty nearly over, and carries with it, I fear
many disappointments in the matter of unfulfilled
estimates. Here and there the balance is to the good,
but such good fortune is, unhappily, rather the excep-
tion than the rule, The prices, too, are terribly dis-
couraging, and do not seem iuulined to improve. Wo
pin our faith, as a rule, upon cinchona, and here, if we
dare to judge by appearance, we liave good reason to
anticipate a more hopeful future. Nearly allour plant-
ings, especially of the Ledgeriaua variety, are in splendid
condition, and so encouraging is their appearance and
growth that largo openings in all directions are in
preparation for the next planting season. There will
probably be a great demand for first-class plants,
which is met in anticipation by sundry extensive
nurseries. South \Vynaad is decidedly proving
itself to be the home of the Ledger, although not
so many years ago it was a subject of nmch speculation
amongst those learned in such matters whether
Ledger, or indeed any kind of cinchonaj would live in
om- climate .and elevation. Opiuioas still vary
considerably concerning the best method of cultivation
and preparation of the bark. Many devices arc tried
to discover the really best way of removiug the bark,
of drying it, and, above all, of encouraging a renewed
growth upon the denuded st>^nis, .some being in favor
of the old system "f protection by moss and grass, and
others believing in the better success of a hardening
system produced by leaving the barked portions wholly
expo.'-ed. It is a question to be answered by experi-
ence, nnd, no doubt, the results would depend greatly
upon the situation of the trees and the weather at the
time of harvesting. Another subject of very keen
interest and discussion has been the colour of our
coffee. Great complaints were made last year in
tho Home markets of the colour of Indian coffee,
and strenuous efforts have resulted by our Associ-
ation to discover the cause of so damaging an
effect. Very many opinions are iu favor of
drying the produce under .shade, and e.'.periments
avo being tried to decide upon the best way of
carrying out so entirely new a system. Vnforttui.itely,
the wenthor w,is exceptionally bad just at the tinle
whi-n most of us -nerc in full pick. Indeed, .such a
season has hardly ever been known, and our climate
seems to have altogether altered its usual routine,
We have hardly any land-winds, and only a few of
the cold nights and mornings to whieli we are accus-
tomed in December. Ins'ead of this, there was a
considerable amount of r.ain about Christmas, and now
we are having reRidnr hot weather such as we nsuallv
expect in March and April. Vou may imagine; thi-
difficulties of drjing under shade, with a w.inn rain
dripping contiinially upon the seething hi-iips of colfcc,
which pisitively, iu some cases, commeuccd gcrnn'ii-
ating before it "could be removed t) the Coast.—
Madrm Time'.

March i, 1886.] tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURlSt.

603

RtlPORT OH THK PROGRK-S AXI) OON-

DlTlOy OF THE GOVKRNMEXT BOVAX-

ICALGAUDEXS Al^D PARKS NILGIRIS,

FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 1SS4-S5.

Sea-^os. — The weather during the past year was,
with the exception of the months of October ami
Novfmher, unusually dry, and little or no planting
could be attempted till the end of the former month.
In October no less than '2264 inches uf rain were
regifttered. More than half of this fell in two days,
and the wash, which this heary fall octMsioued, was
V, ry great. The winter was comparatively mild and
little harm was done by frost.

All the lawns iu the gardens have now been levelloJ
and the grass upon them is beinj; gradually brought
into better order. Last year the grub of tlie cock-
chafer did a good deal of mischief to the grass, but
thi?> w&s remedied by top-dressing the injured portions
with manure iu the early spring. Now that the floor
of the garden has been put to right, I hope next
year to re-establish the flower beds and shrubs
which, during the time that the alterations were
going on, had to be removed. The buiul uf the tank
below the band-stand gave way during the htavy
storm which occurred in October last. The destruc-
tion of the bund was due partly to the tank having
been dreiiged too deeply and partly to trees having
been planted upon it. The depth of the tank bus
now been lessened and made uniform and the bund
has been restored and strengthened. Provision has
been made for putting up a fouutaiu uext winter iu
this tank opposite to the band-stand.

Baklivar. — ((/) K,cpei'i)ntnt(d Garden. — This garden
was of late years becoming overgrown with worthles.s
coffee, oranges, pomeloes, &c., aud which were cramp-
ing many of the more valuable trees. I have had all
these cleared away, and I ha%*e also cleareil of second-
ary jungle, about an acre of ground, which had hitherto
been left uncultivated. This will give a sufticienuy uf
room for planting out new introductions for .some
years to come. Most of the trees are flouri.-hiu^ ;
they have all been i<Ientified, and I have ordered
that they shall have a zinc tally, with a number
punched on it, attached to each. This, in the hot
climate of Barliyar, will be more lasting than the
usual painted label, and it will at the same time be
mn<"h more economical,

Kai.hatti. — (h) E.r peri mental Garihn. — Nothing of
any importance has been carried out during the year
in this garden. The Cinchona morada and xrrde seed-
lings which were put out last year have done very
badly; the dry climate evidently di»l not suit them.
In my lasi year's report I stated that I doubted if
it was worth the while of Government to continue
the cultivation of this garden, aud I am now still more
of the opinion that it is not.

TnoPOSKD MrsEi-M or NATLttAi. Hisionv in Ootaca-
Ml-.sr).— In my report of last year. I asked if Gov-
ernment would be inclined to satictiou th)^ establi.'*h-
ment of a small museum in Ootacamund, which should
contain typical collections of objects of interest to
those living on the Nilgiri plateau and in the Wynaad,
and I further stated that I thought such a museum
should take in all the chief branches of Natural
Science — Botany, Zoology, (leology. Mineralogy and
Ethnology. Government, in paragraph I'Z oi their
U. O, diited I'Oth Octobrr 188i. No. 1,1.">, Uevenue.
reviewing my report approved of the suggestion, and
they accordingly re<iue.sted me to work out the details
of the scheme in communication with the Superin-
temlent of the Government C entral Museum, Madras,
the Consen-ator of Forests, Northern Circle, and the
Collector of the Nilgirim.

Owing to the alisence from the Hills of one or
other of the above a])point<Hl Cominitteo, no meeting
was held until the I3th of last month. 1 th :n ex-
plained what I considered should be the scope uf tlie
museum, and I pro<luced a plan of a building which
I thought would be sufficiently large to contain all
such collections m might be acquired duriog tha first

few years of the museum's existence, and I pointed
out that the building, which I proposed, would admit
of being indefinitely extended. With respect to tiie
pt'ope of the museum, I urged upon my Polieagu?s
that it would be desirable that at first the collections
should be confined to such objects only as would be
of infiirest to tht; ordinary well-educated and intellig-
ent res!deu.t, European or Nati%-e, and that complete
collections of everything existing iu the district which
would be serviceable only to ^-pecialists shoidil be allowed
to stand over to a future day. These propositions,
hewever, met with their most decided disapproval.
They were unanimous in thinking that the scope
which I proposed was far too narrow, and that instead
of commencing with a small buihiing a-'d adding to
it as occasion niigl)t require, a Iiirg(> museum should
be built at ouce, which would accommodate a perfect
collection of all natural history objects.

Seeing that we ware of such very opposite views as
to what ought to bo done, I asked D.^ctor Bidie, Mr.
Burrows and Mr. ( Jamble to put upou paper the views
which they had advanced in the discussion. This they
have kindly done, anrl I annex a copy of the report
which they have drawn up on I lie subject.

♦ * # »

Mr. Burrows, while agreeing in the opinions of Doctor
Bidio and Mr. Gamble, considered that in order to
make a museum in Ootacamuml a useful and success-
ful institution and to ensure its permanency, it should
be sj arranged aud managed so as to prove an
attraction to the public and a credit to the stiition.
It should be aceessibie bith to mere visitors and to
learners and should be one of the public institutions of
Ootacamuud. In this we were all agreed. Ethnological
collections, it was thought, in a district wh^ro 'here
are several aboriginal races who might be likely to
de rejise in numbers rather than increase and to change
perhaps their mode <»f life, would also be of real interest
aud require some space aud some care in arrange-
ment.

Then tliere wotild be a necessity for a series of speci-
niuus properly representative of the coffee, tea, cinchona,
fibre and other industries of the district atul Wynaad,
and thr'ugh Jfr. Lawson thou^'ht that n small box of
). few feet square would properly represent all that
was useful to show as regards cotlfec, the rest of the
m -eting did not agree with liim and thought that
unless such subjects were thoroughly aud well, perhaps
even copitmsly, represented as regards the soil, growth,
varieties, diseases and products of manufacture, the
collection would be of but little interest and planters
would not care for it.

Then the Gold-mi'iing industry and the various
though not very exten.sive mineral products including
the building stones, &c., require to be shown, and
ihoughperhaps in themselves they would not take up
muchroom, yet they would add to the sum total of
the space required, and for this a wall space of 130 feet
would be totally inadequate. And in Mr. Lawson's
proposed room with three-feet eases, the spaces for tho
circulation of visitors would be retlnced to merely
\'S xb' feet in each room. We were further agreed that
if a mu.seum be instituted iu Ootacamund--as all were
of opinion shouli' be the case — it should be confined to
the disjday of local products, and its aim should be that
which in his address to the Biology section of the
British Association at Swansea iu 1S80, Dr. Giinther
thus described . —

" 1 he principal aim of a Brovineial Museum ought,
iu my opinion, to be popular instruction. I do not mean
that it shoubl be merely a plnce for mild amusement
and recreation, but that it should rank equal with all
nimilar institutions destined to spread knowledge and
cultivate taste among the people. To attain this lim
it should contain an arranged series of well preserved
specimens rei)rc8enting as many of the remarkable
types of living forms as are obtainable ; a series of
useful as well as noxious plants and animals ; of economic
products derived from the animal aud vegetable king-
doms; aud list Vbut not least) a complete and accurately
named series of the flora and fauna of the neigh-
bourhood.

6io

*fHE Tropical agriculturist*.

[March i, 1886

" The direct benefit of a complete collection of the
flora and fauna of the district, in which the Provincial
Museum is situated, is obvious and cannot be exag-
gerated. The pursuit of collecting and studying natural
history objects gives to the persons who are inclined
to devote their leisure hours to it. a beneficial training
for whatever their real calling in life may be ; they
acquire a sense of order and method; they develop
their gift of observation ; they are stimulated to healthy
exercise. Nothing encourages them in this pursuit
more than a well-named and easily accessible collection
in their own native town upon which they can fall
back as a pattern and an aid for their own. This local
collection ought to bo always arranged and named
according to the plan and nomenclature adopted in
some monograph of the fauna and flora of the country ;
and I consider its formation in every Provincial Museum
to be of higher importance than a collection of foreign
objects."

No such small room as that which Mr. Lawson
proposed would meet the circumstances of the cases as
thus defined.

NOTK8 ON 30MK OF THE MOKE INTERESTINO PLANTS

WHICH HAVE BEEN INTItODUCED OF GROWN IN

THE OADDENS liITRINO THE YEAR.

1. Eri/thro.ri/Ioii. Coca. — Two big bushes of this plant
exist at Barliyar where they grow freely, but fruit
sparingly. About 60 young plants h.nve been raised
from seed and a large number of cuttings were put
down during the winter, but these have not done
well. It may be taken as certain that Jin/throj^j/fofi
eoca will thrive well in many parts of Southern India,
and that it may be easily propagated from seed, but
that it will be profit;ible for the European planter to
grow it upon a large scale is a matter upon which
I entertain much doubt. Vast tracts of country in
South America are cultivated with this i)lant, and an
almost unlimited quantity of leaves may be obtained
from that country for the purpose of manufacturing
the valuable alkaloid Cocainr. Last winter this alkal-
oid is said to have fetched 2g. 6it. per grain. At
this price, could it have been maintained, its cultiv-
ation would have been productive of enormous profits,
but the price has since declined to 7'f. per grain,
and it is very unlikely that even this sum will be
realired much longer. In this opinion Mr. Thiselton
Dyer concurs, and he moreover wrote a short time
ago to caution me against being too sanguine that
the cultivation of Ooca would be a commercial success,
or advising me at any rate to discount very largely
the reports which had been spread abroad about it.

Mr. Hooper has analysed three samples of the
leaves taken from the bushes at Barliyar. In his first
attempt to isolate tho alkaloid in a crystalline state
he was unsuccessful ; in hi.s second attempt he suc-
ceeiled in obtaining the alkaloid as crystalline, but
with an admixture of some acrid principle which
rendered it useless as an ana.-sthetic; his third attempt
ended in complete success, and the alkaloid manufact-
ured by him has been used and approved of by Dr.
Brockman in hia surgical ophthalmic operations.
Surgeon-General Doctor Furnell reports that the simple
chewing of the leaves is productive of relief in cases
of spasmodic bronchial coughs, anil suggests that
Cocnifie should enter into the composition of cough
lozenges. Mr. Hooper's analyses show that the leaves
of the bushes grown at Barliyar are very rich in the
alkaloid, as he extracted from them .V per cent.

2. F.rtf1hro.r>j^on inot^oj/tfiutnt. — The leaves of this
plant are saiil to have been largely eaten during the
famine by the natives of several districts where it
grew wild in abundance, and it was thought probable
that the leaves of this plant micht be found to con-
tain an alkaloid with properties similar to that which
in obtained from tho Fri/thronilon Cum ; and Ur.
Cornish just before he left India wrote to ask me to
havu the subject investigated. As the plant does not
grow upon these Hills, I applied to Mr. Gamble for
his assistance, and ho has .sent me several small
consignments of the leaves, which had been collected
and dried by Mr. Higgins, Deputy Conservator of
Foreits in the Ouddap&h District. These consignments |

I handed over to Jlr. Hooper, who, after his analyses
of them, reports that they contain no anesthetic
property at all analogous to that which is found in
Eri/tliTuxt/lvn Coca ; but that they do contain a bitter
and a tonic principle which may have mitigated the
pangs of starvation.

3. Taraxacum nfj^cinctle. — Sir .Joseph D. Hooker in
the Flora of British India observes that — " It is re-
markable that this common Himalayan plant should
not be found in the Khasia or Nilgiri mountains even
as a garden escape." This reproach to these Hills is
now removed, and the aggressive dandelion maybe found
advancing in all directions about Ootacamund. It bids
fair to cover our lawns with its yellow blossoms as
in England, Tvhile in the deeply tilled soil of the
cinchona estates such an abundance of it with roots
18 inches long could be collected as would supply the
wants of all the Medical Departments in India.

4. Medicinal lihnharh. — There are a few plants of
this herb in the gardens at Ootacamund and in Sim's
Park at Coonoor, hut they have not thriven as well
as could be wished. I shall try this plant under
varying conditions during the next year in the hope
of obtaining better results.

5. Hi/osci/amus. — This valuable medicinal plaut, which
can be grown very well upon these Hill.s, has not
been riased in anj' (juantities on account of all de-
mand for it having ceasctl.

6. Encali/ptii?. Glohvfus and other Species. — During the
year 20 lb. of the oil of the leaves of the Eiicul;/ptn.i
i/lohilns were sent to the Madras Medical Depart-
ment. The last consignment was sold at the rate of
R.3-3-0 — .5 shillings per pound being the wholesale
English quotation.

The proces.ses required for the manufacture of the
oil are very simple and inexpensive, and I think it
is a pity that those who have large plantations of
"these trees should not endeavour to utilize them for
this purpose as well as for fuel. The way to extract
the oil is as follows: —

The young shoots, having perfectly matureil but
not old leaves, are passed through an ordinary chaff-
cutter and cut into chips not exceeding one inch in
length ; the smaller the chips the more readily is
the oil extracted from them. These chips are then
macerated in water over night and put the
next morning into a still, which is kept boiling,
till the greater part of the fluid has past over as
vapor. This is then shaken up with a little common
salt to cause the complete separation of the oil from
the water; the oil is then decanted from the water
and passed through a sheet of filtering paper, when
it is ready for sale.

Instead of passing the leaves through a chaff-
cutter, it would be better to pass them through
some crushiug machine, as the object is to smash
up the hard cells, which surround the cavities into
which the oil is passed by the secreting cells. I
do not know of such a machine, hut I should think
that some modification of the old-fashioned mangle
would prove effective.

Eiica/i//iti's nlilii/iia, E. siihiaphloia, E. piperita, and
other sweet-smelling %'arieties, all of which are said
to yield valuable oils, grow freely on these Hills;
they are much more beautiful in their general aspect, and
their timber is greatly superior to that of the K. iiiuhnhis.

7. Bl'iis (/!al'ra.—ihis is a febrifuge yielding plant,
the seeds of which were sent from Kcw. The seeds
have germinated.

8. Ipicaciianlia. — I regret to have to report that I
lost a considerable number of Ipecacuanha plants during
the last year. This was owing to my having forced
the stock too rapidly during the winter. The number
of plants, however, is being agaiu increased as fast
as possible and s]iecial care will be taken to prevent
the recurrence of last year's catastrojihe. I have
been much disappointed with the growth these plants
have made at Barliyar during the past year, That
the Ipecacuanha will eventually pro\e a success I
entertain no doubt, but I have to confess that I
have still a good deal to learn about the best ways
of cultivating it.

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

611

9. Joannfsia (Atula) Gouuaii. — This is a haadsome
tree, growiug to the height of 50 or GO feet aud
belongs to the natural onler Kiiphoi'beacee. It is a
native of Brazil where tlie bark is said to be used
*' as a certain remedy for diarrhioa brought on by
cold,"* while the seeds are reported to possess power-
ful but safe purgative ))roperties. I received seeds
of this tree last autumn from Mr. Cameron, Curator
of the Lai Kagh, Bangalore, who writes word that
It nourishes well there. The seeds have germinated
and young plants raised from them.

10. Acacia h'jmah'fihi/lla. — This is the tree wliieh |
produces the Australian violet wood. A small speci- j
men fruited sparingly for the first time la>t year in
the Government Gardens in |Ootaeamunii. The climate
here, however, seems to be rather too cold fur its
fidl development, but I should think that at elev-
ations ranging from three to four thousand feet it
would thrive well and might prove an important ad-
dition to our timber trees.

11. //oa-.— This at an elevation from 5,000 to 7,000
grows more vigorously than I have ever seen it do
in Europe, and I have planted a small plot of ground
near the Jail on the Dodabetta estate with the
view of finding out if it may not be profitably
grown to supply the wood engraver's trade.

12. Castiltoa ela/tica. — The few plants of this
rubber yielding tree, which were put out two years
ago at Barlij~lr, are growing grandly.

Last winter I went down at the request of Major
Campbell Walker, Conservator of Forests, Southern
Circle, to inspect the nursery of Castilloas which
had been formed in Mr. Ferguson's garden and to
advise how they might be best increased. I
found the plants in beautiful condition and growing
vigorously, aud I was able to take from them about
1-50 excellent cuttings. These I planted myself in
pots aud plunged tuem in beds of soil which were
also made under my direct supervision, and I gave
minute instructions as to how they should be treated.
Since that time it has been reported — i-iile li. O.,
No. 766, dated 25th June 18s5, relating to a letter
from Ma]or Campbell-Walker — that although my in-
structious had been followed carefully, not a single
cutting took root.

This is odd, for wheu the same instructions are
carried out iu the Gorernment Gardens at Ootacamund
the failures are less than 5 per cent of the cuttings
planted. The failure at Calicut would appear to have
been due to a want of judgment in watering the
cuttings in their early stage, before the cut ends
had calloused over.

When the side shoots are used as cuttings, difficulty
has often been e.xperieuced in getting the plants
rai.sed from these to form a leader and grow upright ;
they generally sprawl along the ground. To obviate
this it is only necessary to cut the young plants back
to about a foot from the grou d when sides shoots
will be formed, auy of whieh will of themselves pro-
duce a leader,

13. Crura. — This fruits freely at llarliyar aud the
seed appears to be eaten by birds and deposited iu
the neighbouring jungle, for young plants have been
found growing where they never ha-l been p'anted
by man. If this is so, we may look forward to the
Ceara rubber tree becoming a denizen of our ghat
forests.

14. Miuigosteetu. — These fruite<l very well last year
at Barliyur and arc again this year promising to
yield a large crop. The Slangosteen is an extremely
beautiful tree and gives a very ilense shade. It
ought to be grown all over the Presidency.

15. lAUhi. — This too fruited freely lust year at
Barliyar ; it grows readily from seed and like the
Mangosteen deserves to be b«tter known than it is at
present.

16. Caroli trfr. — This thrives well Ijoth at Barliyar
and at Kalhatti, but in both places the trees bear
staminate (lowers only.

17. Acacia ilfcnrri-ni, — This tanning yielding acacia
is being grown successfully at Coonoor by private
persons, and, I believe, also by Mr. Gamble. It grows

fairly well at Ootacanmnd, but does not fruit, Thii
is due probably to the wet gloomy weather coming
at the time when it begiiLS to flower, I have sceu
it growing maguificiontly on the I'alui hills where it
tlowers and fruits freely.

18. Maho^ani/. — Two casks of mahogany seed which
had been received by the Kew authorities from Jamaica
have just arrived in excellent order. I have dis-
tributed all but a few pounds of it ; the greater
amount going to the Forest Department and to the
Agri-Horticultural Garden at JIadras.

19. I'^dibtr Prickly-ptar ft'om i'ljprng. — Living speci-
mens were sent to the Government (hardens at
Ootiujamuud by the Director of Agriculture aud Ke-
veuue Settlement last winter. 'J'ho fruit hail been
highly recommended by Dr. Bonavia, Civil Surgeon,
Ktawah, Xorth-\\'estern I'rovinces, who thought it
might be ad\antageously grafted upon the wild worth-
less prickly-pear «f the plains. The plauts arrived in
fair condition and have been planted out at Kalhatti
where they are doiug so well that it does not seem
at all likely that it will be ever neces.sary to have
recourse to grafting them upon the wild plants.

20. The following plants mentioned iu my last year's
report are all doing well : —

liluis \:trmctfira or the ,Tapan Lacquer plant.
Rhus siiccedanea or the Japan wax plant.
Quilaja sapaiiai-ia. — The latter was put out last
year in the Government Gardens at Ootacamund.
It was untouched by the winter frosts aud is now
more than six feet high.

The Kilmer X Amelia and Cochin-Ghina tuheruus rootti
vine have also been planted out and are doing well.

21. Waras. — I was asked last year by Mr. Thiselton
Dyer to obtain information for him about this
dye. This I have done, and from specimens which
I sent to Kew varus turns out to be the produce of
Fli'mlityia Grahaiiiiaua and F. conyesta. With respect
to the distinctive characters of these two species, 1
l)ointed out that after studying the plants in their
liviug condition, I did not think them sufficiently
constant to allow of the two species being kept
separate, and in this opinion both Mr. Thiselton
Dyer and Professor Oliver now concur. The iraras
yields a beautiful dye when applied to animal sub-
stances such as silk or wool, but it is inferior as a
dye when used for the purpose of coloring vegetable
products such as cotton or linen. Mr. Thiselton Dyer
has kndly obtained for me a London expert's opinion
upon the value of trams, and I regret to say that
it is not such as is likely to lead one to believe that

I it will ever become an object of commercial interest.

! I may mention that when I was in Madras last
winter, I was at the Agri-Horticultural Gardeus's flower-
show a specimen of wacas in a native dyer's collection
which was being exhibited, and from which it would
appear that ifaras is not unknown as a dye in India.

22. Mr. T. Haubury has seut some three hundred
packets of seeds from his garden iu Italy. Most
have germinated, and I shall hope to report upon the
more interesting species next year.

I'ahie of Nil'jiri peat as fatl. — During the past year
I have paid some attention to the manner in which
peat is formed on these Hills and have experimented
upon it, with the view of finding out what its value
as a fuel may be. The peat on these Hills is formed
entirely from plants belonging to the sub-kingdora
rhaniiof/amia such as sedges and other marsh loving
plants. There are no mosses which enter into its
composition as is commonly the case in the northern
and more temperate regions.

The value of the peat as a rule is very inferior
to that found in northern countries, and this ii
apparently due not to any inherent badness of the
plants which go to form the peat, but to the great
admixture of inorganic substances which are blended
with it. The cause of this ailmixturc is due to the
amount of soil which every year is carried down from
the Hills during floods and spr«!ad over the surface of
the peat forming swamps. There is, however, some
which is very good, notably that which is commonly
sold as fuel iu Ootacamund by General Baker, This ii

6l2

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

little if at all inferior to the peat, which is obtained
from the bogs of Eogland, Scotland or Ireland. But
of this good quality (here is, so tor as my investigations
have gone, a very limited quantity.

HOW TO TEACH HORTICULTURE.

" What has he dime ') " was the criterion of the great
Napoleon when the merits of a great unknown general
were laid before him. When much theory is being
talked and written about the lii^'lier forestry teaching,
it may be interesting to know what Professor Lazen''y,
of the State Tniversity, Ohio, has done in the Horti-
cultural Department of which he is in charge. Observ-
ation and practice are required to supplement and
emphasize the instruction of the class-ruoni.

Th.i t'ollowiug is a brief sumnin-y of the means
of illustration and instruction at thu disposal of
stuueuts; —

1. A mu.seum, cotaiuing specimens of nearly every
plant found in the State, and fairly representing the
flora of the United States, A large collection of grasses,
seeds of wt-eds and various economic products of the
Vegetable kuigdom.

2. An orchard, contaming numerous well-selected
vaiieti.-s of tbis apple, pe;iv, cherry, plum, and quince.

3. A garden of small fruits, "containing nearly all
the gouil varieti es of the strawberry, raspberry, black-
berry, currant, and goaseberry.

4. A vegetable g irden, with hot-beds, cold frames,
exp'-rirnent plots, conveniences for irrigation, etc.

5. .Var.s;ry uid ' » e^r tre>:;-plantatioii, with praclico
rows, budding, grafting, pruning etc.

('•. Oi'niim,-nt:il ^roaiids, pi inted with a large variety
of ever-gieens and di-eiduous trees and shrubs.

7. A well-ljuilt and convfuiantly-airanged green-
house, fui nislied with a good collection of native and
exotc plants.

In America, compact teaching power seems preferred
to that va'^ue grasp after the unapproachably magni-
ficent so wi 11 known in British Universities. — Journal
of Forntry.

♦

OEAMGES IN PALESTINE.

Consul Merrill, of Jerusalem, states, in his last report
ou f'uit cultivation in Palestine, that the oiange groves
in that country are confined chiefly to Jatfa and Gaza,
and are situated near the sea coast. The trees appear
to tloui ish best near the sea, the beach sand mingled
wiih alluvial soil being best adapted to their growth.
There are, in Jaffa alone, no less than 5(X) different
g'rdens, containing, altogether, about 8Uo,000 trees,
both large and small. Of these gardens, 150 are ranked
as fir>' -class, while the others are ranketl as second and
thi d rate in size and pri>duction. The trees are planted
about 15 feet apart, although there is no regularity or
exactness on the part of the natives in planting them.
In July or August, cuttings are made from the sweet
lemon trees each about 18 inches long, and these are
planted in beds and watered twice a day. They grow
rapiiUy and in the second year they are buddetl. When
the bud has taken, the lemon .stalk is cut off, a few
inches above the bud, and the new shoots begin to
bear in the third or fourth year. The trees continue
bearing for twenty or thirty years. During the summer
every tree is watered once a week, and in some cultiv-
ations it is a rule to water the trees every fifth day.
Water is brought to the surface from a depth of
tweiity-five or thirty feet, by means of horse power, j
the owner of the garden employing for this work horses, i
donkeyii, or camels. The cost ot" irrigation, with which
it is customary to reckon the other expenses that are
necessary to keep the ground in order, is estimated
at about one-fith of the value »f the crop in gardens
of the first cla.ss, while in the inf< iior,!;ari'eusitaniounts
to one-third, and sometimes one-half of the vahif of
the crop. The orange trees in l'ale^lille ilo not suH'er
from any noxious insects, fungus growth, or diseases
ot any kind, and both the climate and soil are admirably
adapted to produce healihy trees. In planting, the
ground between the trees is generally cultivated, small

fruits, or vegetables being grown where the branches of
the tree? do not touch each other. Interspersed among
the orange trees are frequently seen palm trees, bananas,
the apple, peach, plum, pear, apricot, or fig, and
occasionally the mulberry and sycamore. The average
cost to the producer of 1,000 oranges is estimated to
be about 2Is., and capital invested in orange gardens
is expected to return between 12 and 15 per cent.
For 1,000 oranges it is customary to reckon 1,500, so
that after they are assorted, the purchaser will have,
out of 1,500, 1,000 that are fit for exportation. They
are con.signed in large quantities to Europe, and among
the different markets, that of Odessa is becoming the
most important for Jaffa oranges. Thousands of boxes
are also annually sent to London. Consul Merrill
says that besides the Jatfa orange proper, which is the
only description exported, and is of oval or lemom
shape, and very large, there is another kind cultivated
in Pab-stine. This grows upon trees that are grown
directly from the seed of the orange, without budding
or grafting. They are small, and of inferior quality,
and are all consumed at home.— Join aal of Ihf Societi/
of Art.t.

nto the
serve to

EUCALYPTUS PRODUCTS.

The introduction of the oil of eucaKptus
new British Pharmacopasia will doubile.ss
direct attention to the products of this important
genus of trees. The classical monograph of the genus
by Sir F. von Mueller, ot which ten decaiies are now
before the public, contains a large amount of inter-
es'iiig and valuable information concerning both the
oils of eucalyptus and the "kiuo" or inspissated
juice yielded by many of the species. This information
is, however, scattered throughout the body of the
work, and the absence of a general index renders it
by no means an easy task to piece it together. It
may therefore save some time aud trouble if a brief
summary of the more interesting facts concerning
these pharmaceutical products are presented in a
connected from in these pages.

Encali/ptuH Oil. — In a genus, of which the members
ao closely resemble one another that it is no easy
matter to identify any given species, it might be
imagined that the products would not vary to any
great extent. This, however, is not the case, for not
only do the volatile oils differ in specific gravity, hut
in flavour, and in the yield afforded by different species.
The oil of A. piperita and K. hitma.-itoiiia have a
peppermint odour, that of E. litrioiloni a citron odour,
and that of K. Staiyeriaaa exactly resembles oil of
verbena.

The percentage of oil in the different species will be
readily seen from the following table, as given by
Mr. Bosisto and Mr. Nitschke, as obtained from l.dOO
lb of about equal proportions of fresh leaves and
twigs : —

E. amygdalina

E. oleosa

E. leucoxylon

E. goniocalyx

E. iucrassafa (dumova) .

E. globulus ...

E. oilorata ... ... ... ... — ll:i

E' obliqua 60 —

E. uncinata — 69

E. gracilis — 51J

E. rostrata 15 —

E. melliodora ... 7 —

E. viminalis ... ... ... ... 7 —

The difference in yield of £. oUosa obtnined by
Mr. Nitschke probably depends upon the fact that
the {piantity obtninable varies according to the time
of y-'ar at wiiidi the leaves are distilled. 1\. oleosa
giv( s at one time *nily L' pints auo at others as much
,as 1 gallon o.' v.ilatile oil per tou of leaves. In summer,
when the soil is hsrd and dry, it yields but little oil;
but in winter, when the moistened earth permits of
more vigorous vegetation aud development, the per-

Bosisto.

Nitschke.

Ounces.

Ounces.

... 500

... 200

«2i

. . KiO

... 150

—

... — 140

... 120 ■-

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

613

ceotage of oil is much larger. The contrary is the
case with E. um^yJ'iliiiti, which grows in uplaud
districts, and which const-quently has its vegetatiou
checked by the greater cold iu winter, and therefore
yields oil most abundantly in the summer. The
«ucalyptus oil of commerce, as pointed out by Mr.
MacEwau and others, has hitherto consisted chiefly
of the oils of i'. (t/nyt/datina and /'.'. diimo^a. The
former lends itself well to the dilution of the more
valuble essential oils such as ueroli, rose, etc., for
use in perfuming soaps, etc. j'hi: latter finds its
principal use in the manufacture of varnishes, a
comparatively small proportion being used in medicine.
This will be readily understood from the fact that in
Mr. Bosisto's manufactory alone at least »ix tons of
leaves are operated on daily and the annual production
is not less than 12,U00 lb. of the oil.

The solvent powers of eucalyptus oil on resins, etc.,
have been given in the following order : mastic, saudarac,
elemi, xanthurrhea, resin, benzoin, copal, amber, anime,
shellac, caoutchouc, an<l guttapercha.

The oil added to methylated spirit, in the proportion
10 ounces of the former to 1 gallon of the latter, is
used to dis.solve kauri resin, which will dissolve in
this mi.xture without the aid of heat to the extent
of 2 lb. out of every 2J lb. used: the addition of a
little colophony or Venice turpentine rendering the
kauri resin completely soluble. It is also used to
dissolve asphaltum for photograph varnish. In veter-
inary practice it is used in Australia as an embrocation
for swellings, bruises or stiff joints. In domestic
practice it is employed for rheumatism, etc.

The necessity for manufacturing the oil cheaply as
a commercial product has naturally led to the choice
of the two species mentioned, which, as will be seen
from the above table, yield a much larger quantity
than E. ylohu us. The two other species which yield
more oil than the latter, viz.. E. leucoxylon and E.
goniocaXyx^ being probably more scattered in mode of
growth, would be less easily procurable.

The oil which passes in commerce uuder the name
of oil of E. dnmosa* is likely to vary considerably
in specific gravity and in character since it is obtained
from the mallee scrub, a dense shrubby growth covering
desert land and consisting of a mixture of E. olfoia^
E. incrasaata. E. gianlis and E. ancinuta in different
proportions. Mr. Bosisto calculates that in Victoria
alone the mallee scrub is capable of furnishing 4,843,872
gallons of oil, and the E. umygdaliiui 2S0,891,0iX) gallons.

Other species jielding abuniiaiice of oil, such as
the E. sulubiis of W. Australia, will probably furnish
volatile oil to commerce, when manufactories are
established in the districts where they are abundant.
The trees mentioned by .Sir F. von Mueller as oil-
yielding species are E. sat monophluia and K.
Ravtretiana, W .\ustralia ; E. achienoidts, E.microcoiys,
and iS'. eugenioidet in the Southern provinces. The
volatde oil of E. citrio'hra will probably become an
article of export as soon as it can be manufactured
on a commercial scale, so as to compete in perfumery
with oils of similar odour. This tree is regarded as
a variety of E. mjcxUata^ bearing the sanie relation
to it that Tht/ntus citi-uxto/U (loes to Thi/mui serpijUitm.
The remark is made c>nceruing it, in * Kucalypt<j-
graphia,' that the perfunie seems only developed
within the subtropical regions of the range of this
species, but that it is nevertheless hereditary, i.e.,
when cultivated outside those regions.

Under the head of /■;. cr^hnt, another species of
eucalyptus, discovered by Mr. Sellheim, is allu<led to
as having lemon-scented foliage. This has since been
described by Mr. T. M. Bailey, in the excellent synopsis
of the ' Queensland Klor«,' as a iriw R))ecies, imder
the n-ime of •• E. St xujf!fian<t, F. von. Mueller, ined."
This pi mt. according to M ■. .Stsii;er, > ieids a !-.irge
quantity of vo!atil(» oil, 2J per cent, wlreh so exacly
reft mbl-s oil of vvbena in odour, tint it might
easily pm forit. Ill specific gnvify i. 0 !)01. Theoiou •
of the oil> of J?, pip'irit'i and E. lueni'istumfi hinr-^ sume
r«8emblance to peppermint. — Pkartiuicfuticul Journnt.

* E. dximosa is considered to be a small form of E.
inerauata.

Tii.uiNG Paveb maybe prepared as follows: — Mix to-
gether with a gentle heat, one ounce of Canada balsam,
ami a ^ pint of spirits of turpentine ; spread it with
a soft brush thinly over one side of good lisi-ue paper.
It dries quickly, is very transparent, and is not greasy,
therefore leaves no stain on anything copied. — Queens-
land Aifflcu^turUt.

Pkeservi.nc; Kaii.koad Ties. — It is at length found
that it is profitable to creosote railroad ties in Europe,
and large establishments for the purpose of so pre-
serving them are getting common. In our country
where we burn thousands of acres of timber annually,
ties are )et too cheap to lead railroad men to think
of it. — Gatdeters^ MouUdy Hortii'ulitirigt.

Prosi'ect.'! o» CiNinoN.\ Bahk. — A London
authority, writing undei date Jan. Mth, .says : —
" Quinine is active — and slightly higher. Some
70,000 to 80,000 oz. have been sold during the
last 3 days. An improved demand from America
is anticipated. The huge exports from Ceylon of
cinchona bark have acted injuriously on the
market."

Inflie.vce of the OfiAtT ON THE STOCK. — Among
the strongest arguments in favor of the idea that the
graft has an influeiKe on the stock is the exjjerience
of nurserymen with apple trees. It is well known
that nurserymen can tell a variety by the root. A
row of Maiden Blush apples when dug up presents
a very different appearance to a row of Fallawater
roots. It was supposed that the graft gave its own
character to the toot on which it was grafted, and
this has been accepted as an undoubted fact. Now
comes Mr. Eli Meech, of Shiloh, New Jersey, and
tells the Farmer and Gardener that the reason for the
difference iu the roots is that the grafts send out
roots of the ir own. Now we confess that this is
much more reasotiable than the older guess ; and until
we get more evidence are inclined to believe that Mr.
Meech has the best of the argument. — Gardentrt'
Monthly HorticulturiA,

Tub Pbodlction ok Silk i?* Rlssia. — According to
a Kussiaii im^ustri.il journal, the production of silk
iu the Turkestan district is more important even than
in the Caucasus ; the yearly outturn averaging rather
over oOO.OOO lb. : of which about two-thirds comes from
the Sarawschansk district. Bokhara and Kashgar have,
respectively, yearly crops of about 2tlO,0OCI lb. and
300,(KX) lb. Silk cultivation has existed in Central Asia
for seventeen centuries. In the first half of the second
century, the Chinese possessed nearly all that teri-
tory; to which fact the starting of the industry has
been attributed. Its present development would seem,
however, mainly due to its revival, in 1875, by the
Governor of Bokhara. It is expected th.it the improved
communications now being organised between Europe
and Central Asia, will tend to open up direct trade
iu the raw material with the silk districts in ques-
tion.—Jo«r/irt^ of the Sodetu of Arts.

SiK Joseph HooKKB, who has announced his inten-
tion of resigning his position as Director of Kew Gard-
ens, has throughout his career manifested great
interest in Indian botany. It is not generally
known that lie nearly acciuired the crown of martyr-
dom as the reward of his scientific zeal when he
was made a captive by the Raja of Sikkini. His
researches have by no means restricted to the Hora
of India, although his Indian studies contributed
in no Siiiall degree to his high reputation. Accord-
ing to a recent writer, " it is dithoult to conceive
that his ' Himalayan Journals ' can ever be out
of date either for instruction or entertainment."
The work he has done as Director of Kew Gardens
is of incalculable importance, alike in the interest
of pure science and material jnogress. Although
Sir Joseph propo.ses to give up bis olficial salary
and the otfioial cares wliieh entail upon him an
enorinoits correspondence, liis influence will not b«
lost to Kew, or to the scientific world, as we are
told that he will continue his labours at the Kew
herbarium. — Indian AnrifitUiiTht.

6i4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

♦

To t/ie FaTUov of the " Cenhn Observer."

THE AGKICULTUEAL VALUE OF COIB

DUST: ALLEGED BLIGHT ON COCONUT

PALMS.

Colombo, 20th Jan. 188G.

Dear Sm, — In re communieatious that appeared
in the coluuins of your paper concerning wliat
Mr. Symons is said to have stated before a
Conimitttee of tlie Legislative Council as regards
the worthlessness of coir dust, and his subsecjuent
explanation, I have only today seen one extract
taken over from your contempoiary the " Examiner "
appearing in your last night's issue, and I have
no hesitation in saying that I heartily endorse
every word that correspondent has said, and would
gladly abide by Mr. Jardine's decision whether coir
dust is so utterly worthless as Mr. Symons tries
to make out.

I have also recently heard that some large
coconut estates in the Western Province appear
to be afflicted with a kind of blight denuding
the branches of all their leaves and making the
appearance of the tree quite unlike its ordinary
appearance. I don't want to raise any alarm, but
a proprietor of a very large estate in the Negombo
district stated that in his experience, counting
over very many years, he has seen nothing similar
to this. Have you heard anything of it ? I trust
now that Mr. Jardine is located in about the
eentrel of a large and important district, he will,
if he observes anything that betokens the approach
of any blight, sound a note of warning in time. —
Yours truly, AGRICULTURIST.

[We have not heard of the specific attack
mentioned, but the coconut palm has always been
subjected to attacks from beetles and occasionally
from locusts and leaf-eating moths. We should readily
publish details of the new blight it sent to us.— Ed.]

TEA-SEED OIL ?

Maskeliya, •25th .Tan. I88I;.

De*r Sir, — Oil is made from tea-seed in China,
and I hear that coolies are making it for their
own use on estates.

The question is, would it pay estates to make
oil from tlieir tea-seed '? Before long there will be
a Yery large quantity of it on many places in
Ceylon. Taking it from the trees would relieve
them very much, as it could be done before the
seed was quite ripe and long before it would drop
naturally. If it would pay the expense of gather-
ing and making, and give a moderate profit, surely
it is worth while trying ; another advantage would
be, we should be relieved of the large quantity of
seedlings there will be on many tea estates in the
island.— Yours truly, INQUIRER.^

[Unfortunately it is the least valuable varieties
of tea which seed earliest and most copiously.
To get the maximum of oil the seeds ought to be
left to ripen fully, and this would involve rapid
exhaustion of the soil. As it is not likely that
growing tea merely for oil will pay : the better course
would be to get the weeders to remove the blossoms.
Immature seed, smaslied, is readily eaten by cattle.
The author of the letter says in a private note : —
" Enclosed a letter, re oil from tea-seed. I know
it is a good oil, for we used it for our binnacle
lights, on the voyage home from China, in pre-
ference to coconut oil. An oil mill on an estate
woulil not take up much room, and if making it
would pay, it woulil be another product or rather j
not quite all our eggs in one basket." — Ei>.J 1

SALE OF CEYLON CBOTON SEEDS.
Golconda, Haputale, 80th Jan. 1886.
Dear Sib, — The undernoted sales of eroton-oil
seeds may encourage some, and convince others
that as yet croton cultivation is not to be
: despised : —

Date of per cwt. From

Sale. cwt. q. lb. Golcor.da.

10th Dec. 8 3 27 at 59s „

« 2 0 „ 573
0 2 14 „ 4,Ss
1886.
I 8th Jan. 9 3 17 „ e7s „

„ 1 1 13 „ 5.5s

., 35 2 11 „ 7OS&7IS Wiharatenne

„ 5 2 14 at 55s

As T. A. quoted croton seeds at Sfis and 40s as
being the market rates on .^rd December, the above
sales are sullicient proof that Ceylon can produce
a good article even in crotons.

Messrs. Cumberbatch & Co. were the curing
agents. — Y'ours faithfully,

JAMES WESTLAND.

THE BLACKSTONE ROLLER AND THOMPSON'S
" CHALLENGE."

Dikoya, 3rd February 18S6.

Dear Sir,— Now that the Blackstone roller is
claiming such notoriety, it would be as well for the
purchasers and the public to know, if Mr. Barber is
prepared to give a guarantee with each roller that
there is no infringement of patents, and if in the
event of Thompson or anyone else putting in a claim,
he, Mr. Barber, is willing to take all responsibility
on himself. Mr. Barber says, Thompson has not
pretended that he has invaded his rights ; if so,
why not give to each purchaser a guarantee ?
Can you inform me what claim can be put in,
should it be found that the machine is an infringe-
ment ? — Yours faithfully, TEA.

[Being asked for a legal opinion, we can only refer
our correspondant to Mr. Barber, who being a
lawyer as well as a machinist ought to know what he
is about. Thompson, if he really believes that his
patent rights have been invaded, will doubtless claim
a royalty, but to ask us to specify the amount is
what the engineer of the " Challenge " would
characterize as " peculiar in the extreme." — En.]

Tea Trees wrrnoi'T Tap-roots. — In the present
unsettled state of knowledge in regard to what is best
for the tea plant, here and there a bolil soul steps out
from " the ruck," and astonishes with the brilliancy
of his ideas. One of these advanced thinkers has
lately been promulgating the idea that a tea plant
without a tap-root is a cumberer of the ground, no
matter how well it may apjiarently be growing. He
has not been afraid, eithei-, to act upon his belief and
put his theory into practice. Accordingly all plants
with a peculiar habit, which he says is commou to
those whose tap-root have gone, a droop in the
branches, I understand, — have been rooted out on
those estates to w hich his influence extends. This
may be right enough : and although few^ may have
tlie courage necessary to follow such an example,
still no one will mind the other fellow trying it for
himself. A similar attitude of mind is evinced towards
the much too pai'tieular man who has lately been
uprooting good tea, because the lines are not quite
straight ! That is a refinement of planting which,
like the proverbial straw on the surface, tells of
tile flowing of the tide of prosperity. It is neither
a hard-up nor struggling man who could afford
to do that. — Cor.

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

615

•JS'SKI-J^WC-tm

BLACK ANTS AND OTHEll PESTS.

(To tlif Editor of tlte " Pioufer." )

Sir, — In the I'ioneer of the 11th Jammry is a
graphic account of ii hou^^eholdcv's sufferings from
black ants, so I may suggest a remedy wliich
I have always found successful ? The crude, dirty,
commereiiil castor oil, as sold in the ba/.aars,
is so disliked by black ants and they will not
come near it. Meatsafes and almirahs may bo
protected by letting the feet stand in little tin
troughs of water, on the surface of which the
oil floats. The oil may also be squirted down
any openings from which black ants appear,
either outside or inside the house. A lady
whose store-room was infested with black ants
to such a decree that the trampling swarms could
be heard as well as seen expelled them with castor-
oil of this sort. She steeped strips of flannel in
the oil and nailed them on the edges of shelves,
brushing them well once a week with the oil. The
effect was marvellous. Kerosine, which your cor-
respondent tried, has mil been found eft'ectual against
blacU ants, hut it is most efficacious against
irhite nnti, blips atnl ticks in chicken-houses or
pigeon -houses, if used penixteiithf. Booms or
furniture infested with these pests should be
emptied, and at first treated freely with keros-
ine every day for a week, applj4ng the mineral
oil everywliere to the roof, the floor, the wais,
and the flxtures, like whitewash. Then it can
be apiilied to the room in its j ordinary state
twice a week for three months at the edges of the
room where the walls meet the floor. After that,
if the edges are lightly brushed with the oil once
a week, these pests will not return, fo protect
fowls from ticks not only must the fowl-house be
painted with kerosine, but the pnrvhes also, and
every fowl should have its feet lightly brushed
with kerosine evei-y night before it retires to rest
until all ticks have disappeared, which will be in
about a month. The floor of fowl-houses should
be dug up occasionally and fresh dry earth put
down instead of the old dirty soil. The ground
near the fowl-house should be similarly treated,
and clean, dry, sifted earth should be provided,
in which the birds can take their " dust bath,"
which they seem to enjoy so thoroughly that it
must be conducive to health.

It. Temple Wbigut, m.h.,

Surgeon Major.

}}ngpore, 0. P.

P.S. — Kerosine is equally useful to protest trees
from lichen. First scrape all the lichen off the
bark with coarse gunny of li'it. Then paint the
parts thus exposed with kerosine. * At places
where branches are cut or broken, or there is a
serious crack in the bark or the wood, paint with
kerosine, and then cover the part with tar, as a
protection from the air. Can any one mention a
good protective against mosquitoes other than
mosquito curtains?

♦

Prodict TEH Acre or Strawbekkies in AVestebk
New Yohk. — Mr. C. M. Hooker .says that in 1884
Btrawberries produced a wonderfiil crop. Never before
was .so heavy a crop grown here — (i.DOO to S.O'X) (piarts
per acre not being uncommon. The u.sual average in
previou.s seasons not Ijting over L',0<TO quarts per acre.
This great pro<Iuction arose doubtless from a very
favourahle growth of the plants in the fall of l.s,s:;,
the plants coming through the past winter in good
condition, and frequent rains during the growth and
ripening of the fruit. Vricf-s were very low, — (royt-
eiiers' Montltly Ilorticalturitt,

* Might be tried, cautiously, on lichen-iniMted tea
trees.— -Ed.

REPORT OF THK CALCUTTA TEA SYNDICATE.
The Tea Syndicate held a meeting on Wednes-
day, the nth instant, to receive a linal report of
its operations, which may now be said to have
practically closed, though it is hoped that .some
fruit will yet be gathered from its labours, Mr,
Cruickshank, the Chairman, gave an account of
the operations of the Syndicate, recapitulating the
steps that have been taken in the interests of Ind-
ian tea. The Syndicate was formed in 1880, with
the object of extending the trade in Indian tea
with .Vnstralia, K'20,000 were raised by merchants,
agents, and brokers in the city, and this was sup-
plemented by grants from trovernnient and con-
tributions from others, and by shipments of tea,
the commission on which helped to pay the
cost of the operations, Mr. D. A. Sibthorp
was sent to Australia, and by all likely methods
sought to introduce Indian tea to the colonial
market. His eti'orts were not very successful at
tirst, but by degrees the tea got a footing
and what we have noticed elsewhere seems to
take place in Australia, The taste for Indian
tea, thought not at first always appreciated as it
deserves, gradually grows upon the consumer, with
the inevitable demand in course of time. Agents
in Australia were employed to push the sale of the
tea, without any very encouraging success in some
parts of the country. The returns of total shipments
for five years have shown periods of activity and
stagnation alternately, during which probably both
the Syndicate and the consumers of tea were being
"educated" as to the requirements of the market
and the power of the growers to meet them. Though
the extension of the trade with Australia has not
been so great or rapid as might be desired, the
Committee conclude that " Indian Tea has now
acquired a secure footing in the Colonial markets,
and it is not unreasonable to hope that as its merits
become more widely known, the demand for it will
steadily increase," In 1.S81, the Syndicate sought
to place tea in the American market. But Cousin
•Tonathan does not appear to be a tea-drinker.
Whether he prefer.s such nectar as "cock-tails"
and "eye-openers," wc are not prepared to say. *
The American experiment was not even a mod-
ified success. The consumption of tea there in
any case is small and the preference seems to be
for he highly flavoured teas of China and Japan.
We tshould have thought our American cousins
had been more 'cute in their generation, but it
seems not, as fho total shipments to America,
through all soui'ces of Indian tea have scarcely ex-
ceeded one and-a-ipiarter million pounds, not much
more than a teaspoonful per head per annum of
the population. The Amsterdam Exhibition seemed
to afford an opportunity of introducing Indian Tea
on the Continent. Mr. T. Caritt visited several
towns, and obtained some interesting information
about the tea trade in those countries, but no
practical result followed. The Committee had not
the means to continue their efforts as had been
done in Australia, and though some tea is now
taken for mixing purposes, the business done is
of a limited character.

The statement of account shows that the sub-
\ scriptions amounted to Rll,12.') ; the disbursements
I on account of travelling, iVc, to K48, (17 1-11-3, in
addition to which salaries, office expenses, Ac,
came to R25,720-12-(i, and Rl'.l,.5y7-12-8 were spent
on other accounts. This extra expenditure has
been met out of connnissions realised on the
sale of Teas, which has enabled the Syndicate

* Coffee is the favourite beverage in the t'nitcd
States, the relative positions of coffee and tea being
there the reverse of what obtains in Britain, — Ed.

6i5

THfi TROPICAL AGRlCULTURISt. [March i, 1886.

to carry on its operations till now. There
remained a balance of R7,i'2'J-;H-3, to the end of
•July : and it is estimated that after all charges
are met there will remain a balance of Itll.OOO,
which the committee recommend should be made
over to the Indian Tea Association towards the
expenses connected with the representation of
Indian Tea at the Exhibition in London next year.
The Committee regret that it has not yet been
found practicable to secure an extensive use of
tea in this country, as it is a drink well suited
to the habits and requirements of the people.
A proper distributing agency does not appear
to be available. The Committee are not un-
mindful of the development of tea-planting in
Ceylon, as cultivation is rapidly extending.
There ought also to be a large increase in
consumption. Tea is more extensively used
than ever in the United Kingdom, and prob-
ably will increase in our English Colonies. Of
the Continent we arc not so hopeful. A French-
man once hesitated to visit us in England lest
we should "give him tea," which he regarded as
a sort of medicine, "only procurable at the
chemist's." This was in Paris during the Exhib-
ition of 1S78. We got a sample of Indian tea from
the Exhibition, and so far overcame his prejudice as
to induce him to have a cup, and — he wanted some
more ! No doubt the general prejudice may be
broken down as the individual prejudice was in
his case; but it will take time, and the world has
yet an ample population to take the produce of
the tea gardens.

The Committee direct attention to the possibility
of trade with Central Asia and Thibet. It is hoped
that something may be done in that direction.
The Syndicate adopted the report of the Committee,
and passed a resolution to wind up the -Association,
accepting the recommendation of the Committee to
hand over the balance as suggested. It will be inter-
esting to ladies who preside over tea tables, and
pride themselves on their brew of the "cup that
cheers but not inebriates." — Iiulian Daily Xews.

THE M.UiKET FOR COCA.
In the Ia.st number of the F.phein(ri.< Dr. Squibb
gives some particulars respecting the supply of coca
leaves, which do not ex.ictly coincide with the state-
ments hitherto current. He does not unreservedly
adopt '* the holders story " that no fresh shipments
could reach New York before May. expecially consitier-
ing that about the middlu of February about 8 cwt.
did arrive, not of very good quality, but much better
tlian any there. This was offered at frou 5<. to 10s.,
and by March I was still unsold. Dr. Stjuibb then
gives the substance of letters he has received from
authorities familiar with the AVest Coast of ^outh
America, whose information is, to some extent, new.
Dr. .Joues, of the United States Xavj, and Mr.
Da'ielsberg, the United States Consular Agent at
-Arica, have sent Dr. Squibb letters and samples, from
which it appears that the best coca is produced in
Bolivia east of the mountain-range ; that it is brought
across the mountains for several hundred miles on
the backs of pack-animals to Tacna, and thence by
railroad about 40 miles to .^rica ; and that the rainy
aeason form .January to May renders the long trans-
portation .somewhat risky on account of damige by
wetting. The original packages of 45 to 50 lbs.
are called "tainbores"; and these, after having
crossed the moumtains, are jmt two or more together
into bales, and are thus exported. The leaves are,
especially wheu compressed in large bales, very sensitive
to damp and heat ; and however green and good
at the start, and whatever precaution be taken to
secure cool ilry trannportation, they are always j
damaged somewhat, and often very much more than '
by the long trip acroos the mountains in small parcels.
Bolirittt coca of good quality ia alvraya dear, prob-

ably from the long and expensive journey to the
j seaports, and Dr. Joues &iys that in the shops along
tht coast it sells at 80c. to fl per lb.
Mr. D.tuelsberg, the Consular Agent, who has
1 dealt in Holivian coca for many years, .seals mail samples
I of good quality, and says that, lately, in order to secure
; the quality, the leaves are repacked in tins for trans-
portation. The mail .samples sent are so different
; in appearance from the coca commoaly met with
as to raise a doubt whether goil Bolivian c^ca ever
I reaches thi.s market. The leaves are much more
[ uiiiforTi in shape and size than those ordinarily met
i with, and although not of a very bright green colour,
[ are much more uniform in colour, and are less broken
j up. But the greatest dilfereoce noticeable is in th«
characteristic creases which mark the back of the
leaf, extcudiug on each side of the midrib in an
elliptical curve from the point to the footstalk. In
j all the coca of the market these characteristic creises
I are wanting in a small proportion of the leaves ;
but, being of .ill degrees of faintuess in other leaves,
their absence cannot be cousidered as excluding the
leaves from being the product of the coca plant, but
that they vary under ditferent conditions of climate,
soil, &c. Bontley and Trimen, " Medicinal Plants,"
vol. I., article 40, say:— "It is saarcely possible to
mist.ike the leaves of coca for those of any other
plant—the two lougitudiual arched lines on the under
surface being characteristic. These, which are found
in several other species of Erythroxylon, are not, as
often described, veins or nerves, but folds or creases
produced by the mode in which the leaves are packed
in the bud."

In the small sample of Bjlivian coca, however,
not a single leaf could be found without this charac-
teristic, and in very few leaves was it so faint as
to require very close inspection. Another dilTereuce
in this sam[ria is that in some of the larger and
older leaves the toot.stalk and midrib have the
red colour, which in the wood of some species gives
the generic name Erythroxylon, or red-wood.

Neither Dr. Jones nor Mr. Dauelsberg siy a word
about the new crop in IVfay story, but leaves their
readers to the inference that high prices have cleaned
out the seaport towns along the coast, and that with
the characteristic slowness of the people and their
modes of trausportatiou, it takes some time to re-
supply them, .-is the reports of the high prices reach
the interior, however, the probabilities are in favour
of an over-supply.

The mirket supply of cocaine salt has, for .some
time past, been abundant, and it is highly probible
that all the principal makers h^ve a good stock on
hand. The former high prices seem to have had the
effect of r.ipidly diminishing the less ritional uses of
the agent, and of restricting it to the limited special
uses to which it is applicable, ami wheu thus limited
the demand fell otf — or, at least did not increasi, —
while the amiuat manufactured continued to increase
until the stock on hand became probably sufficient
for several mouths' supply.

It is probable that the few makers soon found out
by experience with their processes that even the leaves
of jKJor quility gave larger yields than had been ex-
pected, and that the ditliculties of extraction grew
le^s and less with experience in the management of
details, so that the supply became greater than the
demand, and stocks thus accumulated. Thi,s, of course,
led to a reduction in price and the abandonment of the
very unreasonabh prices caused by the first sena-
ational demand. Under this improved condition of both
demand and supply, the price of the hydrochlorate
fell, in the wholesale market, from 50c. per grain,
or s7-50 per gramme, to about .'JOc. per grain, or
s4 .50 per gramme. Dr. Sipiibb states that by his
own process, with even moderately good coca at,
say flOc. to si per lb., it can be prodticed at this
lower price, with a fair manufacturer's profit, but cannot
be produced at a lower price until better cjca at
lower price! is accessible. — t'/icwiisr and Dniggi^l,

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

6x7

NOTES OX 28 PHOTOGBAPHS, ILLUSTBATIVE
OF THE CULTURE OF COFFEE, CINCHONA,
TEA AND EXOTIC TniBER AND ORNA-
MENTAL TREES, ON A MOUNTAIN
ESTATE IN CEYLON.

SEVT TO TBE CSIAN AKD COLONIAL EXHIBITION OF

1886.]
With the belief that some of the information
embodied in the notes may be useful to iilaiiters
and generally interesting, they are now publiBhed-^

GEXEKAL DESCRIPTIOX.

The estate in question is at loo high an altitude,
4,600 to 6,100 feet, for the cultivation of cacao
and cardamoms. The so-called Arabian coffee
would have succeeded well here, up to 5,000 feet,
but for the effects of Hemileia i(istalri.c which
appeared on Ceylon coffee in May 18011 ; cinchona,
from first to last, has, with all its capriciousness,
yielded very good returns ; but on this estate as on
the vast majority of Ceylon plantations, Tk.v is
the culture to which aliuost exclusive attention
is now devoted and on which justifiable hopes
of success are founded. Calculations based on
Indian experience led originally to scepticism as
to the profitable growth of tea at so high an
altitude, but experience on this estate, now reach-
ing back to a decade of years, has proved that
soil and climate are eminently suitable to the
luxuriant growth of " the leaf whhh cheers but
not inebriates." and an experienced Visiting Agent
who has recently been on the estate has expressly
eported that " tea flushes as well here as in the
lowcountiy." To account for this result, coumion
to plantations in Ceylon of lottier altitudes than this
by nearly 1,000 feet, it must be remembered that
Ceylon is an island and that a large portion of
the mountain zone is not more than 7' north of
the eijuator. The estate is almost exactly on the
seventh parallel, and the effects of the warm,
moist insular climate is that a position at .5,000
feet here has a higher mean temperature than
places little more than half that altitude 20°
farther north, in Darjeehng. The much more equal
distribution of the rainfall, and the absence of
drought, frost and hail storms, also tell in favour
of Ceylon. The mean temperatures of the estate
(formed entirely out of woodland, so that radiation
of heat and evaporation are much less than from
the damp (rrass land of the Plain of Nuwara Eliya,
•2 miles off in direct distance and (i,200 feet above
Bea-level) var>' from C,r,' at the lowest limit to 60°
at the highest. The mean temperature at the new
bnngalow, 'i.SOO feet high but sheltered by a grove
of exotic trees, is between HI" and 62". Fires OJB
enjoyable, however, for a considerable portion oj
the year, tbe temperature going down to 50" at
night, while the mid-day lieat rarely exceeds 80°.
The rainlall averages about UO inches, of which
3ti fall in the south-west monsoon months, .Tune
and .July, but rarely has a rainless month been
known and even when rain is not deposited a con-
siderable quantity of moisture is suspended in the
air. The difference of altitude on this estate is such
(1,400 feet), that sometimes, halfan-hour's walk is
sufiioicnt to exchange dense mist on the upper
portion lor bright sunshine on the lower. The
estate being situated on the western side of the
great central table-land of Nuwara Eliya, the
" dividing range" between the western and eastern
sections of the mountain system is deluged with
rain, as already stated, in the summer months,
while about ten miles away in direct distance, estates
on the Haputale range, in Uva, are, at tlie same
period, babking in nninterrupted brightness. The
most rainy sfiason on the eastern side of the
78

mountain system is in the north-east monsoon
months. Tea is a plant so cosmopolitan in its
habits, that it promises to succeed equally well in
the comparatively dry climate of Uva, as amidst the
abounding moisture of ■' the young districts" and
old Ambagamuwa with its 200 to 2riO inches of rain-
fall. If we take the region over which estates are
scattered as bounded by Nalanda on the north,
Morawak Korale on the south, Monaragala on the
east, and Awisawella on the west, this mountain
plantation, with other estates around Nuwara Eliya,
is as nearly central to the whole area as any locality
possibly can be. What is wanted, not only in
justice to Uva, but to make Nuwara Eliya the true
centre of the plantation regions of Ceylon, is, that
the railway should be extended across " summit
level, ' (about 6,200 feet above the sea, or 900 feet
higher than it has already attained) to Haputale.
Other extensions will follow, embracing, ultimately,
the " lowcountry " tea estates. The first coffee nursery
was opened on the mountain estate in November
1871. The first coffee and cinchonas were "put
out " in 1872. The first ornamental plants, near
the old bungalow, were planted in ISlii. Scattered
tea plants were placed along paths and drains in
1871-7'), and in the former year the first tea nursery
was formed. Large nurseries of cinchona and Aus-
tralian trees followed, and planting was gi'aduaUy
carried on, until all but about 70 acres out of .519,
stretching a longitudinal distance, over abrupt and
swelling mountain features, of beyond two miles,
were cleared and cultivated. The succeeding notes
bliow how "flic old bungalow," near the Coffee
Store, gave place to the "new bungalow" and the
Tea Factory.

At one time time there were 300 acres of fine-
looking and promising coffee on the estate, and still
there is a large expanse of coffee which is nearly all
that could be desired, as far as looks go, but
this season we expect to get only 800 bushels of
" parchment " instead of 8,000 which we should
have had a right to look for had there been no
outbreak of leaf-fungus. Besides a good deal of
cinchona bark, the fair prospect is that in 1886
about 1;10,000 11). of made tea will be harvested
and dispatched. At an average of only Is per lb.
that would support expenditure, which the trans-
ition from coffee to tea renders heavy, and leave
a fair balance to the good. To the end of 1885,
the expenditure on the estate since the first pur-
chase of land in December 1870 will have been
about Bl,200 per acre, including E13,.500 contrib-
utions to grant-in-aid roads leading to the est.ite
and E22,000 on between 40 and 50 miles of
specially good estate paths. The difficulty and
costliness of " weeding " in tropical agriculture
may bo estimated from the fact that E70,000
stand against tliis item in the accounts of this
estate. When coffee culture was at its highest in
Ceylon, it used to be calculated that the removal
of one free-seeding weed, nueratnm, cost the planters
no less a sum than £300,000 pur annum. Of course
the conditions of soil and climate which favour the
luxuriant growth of the cultivated plants are equally
promotive of thi^ growth of weeds amongst which
"escapes" of flowering plants from gardens, form
a considerable contingent. But there is reason to
believe that land planted with tea can be weeded
at considerably less expense than the constant
hand-weeding of coffee necessitated. Of the total
expenditure on the estate under notice, two thirds
or more have been returned in produce, notwith-
standing the inadequate crops from ccffee. For
(the balance, besides an excellent bungalow, good
cooly lines, coffee and tea stores and machinery,
the tea store very large and tbe tea machinery

'6iS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

new, costly and practically complete), we have the
well-roacled and drained estate of 549 acres (in an
almost perfect climate) with cultivation approx-
imately as follows : —

Coffee and cinchona . . . . 200 acres

Tea esclusively . . . . . . 220 ,,

Tea and coffee . . . . . . .50

Grass .. .. .. .. 4 ,,

Shelter trees 15 ,,

Total cultivated 479 acres
Reserve forest 70 ,,

Total extent, 649 acres
Calculating buildings, machinery and land, the
present value of the property ie about ecjual to
the balance of expenditure, with added value accru-
n g every day, as tea is extended and comes into
bearing. In converting coffee into tea estates, of
course the cost of clearing is very much lower
than if forest had to be dealt with, and in the
case of comparatively young estates at high alt-
itudes, the soil has received all the benelits of
tillage without being to any appreciable extent
exhausted by the crops previously borne. In answer
to the objection, so frequently made by strangers
to the country, that the soil must be rapidly
washed away from steep hillsides in Ceylon,
because they are not terraced, after the fashion
of Java and some parts of India ; it may be
stated that our Ceylon soils and subsoils con-
tain a much larger proportion of clay than those
of .lava and India and that while such soil
is eminently suitable for tea, it is so tenacious
that terracing can be dispensed with in favour of
a good system of surface drains, such as prevails
here, in addition to roads and paths of good gradi-
ents, which largely help the drainage.

NOTICES OP THE''rHOTOC.RAPHS.
FOKEST BEING FeLLED BY SINHALESE. — lu this

Operation, the first in "opening" an estate, the
natives of Ceylon excel. Cutting the trees half
through from the base of a hill up the more or less
steep incline, they ultimately take advantage of a
specially large monarch of the forest wliich they
cut right through, so that in its fall it produces
an impetus before which all below goes down with
a loud crash. This operation is generally performed
so as to be completed in November, in order that
the forest may be ready for " a good burn " in
February and for holing and planting in April-
August. Besides felling, burning and " clearing up"
forest, the Sinhalese will engaged in contracts for
the carpenter and mason work of estate buildings,
but it was rarely they could, (until tlie recent period
of depression from the large failure of the coffee
enterprise, when their poverty more than their will
consented), be induced to take part in ordinary estate
work ; especially in association with their old
enemies the Tamils of Southern India, whose necess-
ities and desire to improve their condition have led
them to migi-ate to Ceylon in very large numbers
during the past forty-five years of the planting
enterprise.

Tea, Coffee and Cinchona Nursebies. — These, our
second set of nurseries (the first having been formed
at the southern end of the estate in 1871), were
opened in nr> sheltered valley behind the assistant's
bungalow, tlie first oonsigimieut of hybrid tea seed
from the Assam Company being received and sown
here in December 1874. The reticulated objects in the
foreground are branches of trees pUiced on plat-
forms for purposes of shade, and from which all
the leaves have disappeared. It was soon discovered
in Ceylon, that, wliile shade is useful for coffee
seedlings and iudispcusable for ciucboua beds, it is,

at high elevations at least, supei-fluous in the case
of the hardy and cosmopolitan tea plant, which
grows well in regions where snow falls, 40° or
further from the equator in China, while it flourishes
with luxuriance in proportion to the heat and
moisture of the climate, at 7° north in Ceylon. A
waterfall, of which merely a glimpse can be obtained
amidst the felled forest, tumbles down the steep
hill behind, which is planted up to the limits of
the forest belt with oofi'ee, cinchona and tea.

General View of the Estate, Looking Socth-
w.UiDS. — The view was taken from the rear of the
assistant superintendent's bungalow, which lies in
a sheltered valley, 4,900 feet above sea-level, and
which was specially devoted to coffee, tea and
cinchona nurseries. The effect of the felled and
partially burnt forest in the foreground is, of course,
enormously exaggerated by proximity to the camera,
but the scene gives a vivid idea of the beginnings
of hill forest cultivation in the tropics, and shews
how utterly absent the conditions are which would
afford scope for the . plough and the harrow.
The implements used instead are, a hce called
" manvetti " (earth-cutter), an "alavanga" or
crowbar, and three-pronged forks. In the more
advanced cultivation in the background are seen
the bungalow to the left, and the school-house and
cooly-lines to the right, while behind the belt of
forest separating the estate from " Cymru," lie
the bold-featured " Railway Gorge " and the ex-
quisitely beautiful Agra patanas, on which, and on
the neighbouring Bopatalawa patanas, the Duke
of Edinburgh hunted Ceylon elk (sambhur deer)
n 1870.

General View of the Estate, Lookinci North-
wards.— In the near foreground are tea and cinchona
nurseries with the original two sets of cooly lines,
the school-house and bungalow with a glimpse
of the cofl'ee store, two more sets of cooly hues
and the assistant's bungalow. The view is interest-
ing as showing a plantation in varied stages of its
early formation. Beyond the nurseries, opened in
November 1871, are rows of cott'ee bushes, three
and a quarter years old, extending to the right of
the cooly lines in the foreground. These shade
away to one and three quarter years old coffee
above the assistant's bungalow, and end in altern-
ations of felled and standing forest running up the
sides of the range, which the Nanuoya (rising on
Pidurutalagala, the highest mountain in Ceylon,
altitude 8,29-5 feet, — and running into Dimbula)
separates from the Nuwara Eliya mountains. All
of the forest represented in the view, except reserve
belts of about 70 acres out of 549, has since dis-
appeared in favour of coffee, cinchona, tea and
ornamental and useful trees, tlie latter chiefly
natives of Australia and the Himalayas. To show how
home names are reproduced in the case of Ceylon
l)lantations, it may be mentioned that amongst
estates immediately adjoining are : Abbotstord,
Edinburgh, Inverness, Lome, Glashaugh, Aadneven ;
Cymru ; Avoca ; Carlabeck and Langdale.

View from " Knock Ferkoi.," 5,200 feet above
Sea-level, I. — Cinchona plants and stumps of felled
forest occupy the near foreground, then rows of
coffee not sufficiently grown (only about .SJ years
old) to liide the stumps and trunks of trees wliich
escaped the fire and which are left on the ground
to gradually decay, so fertilizing the soil. Coffee
in its fifth or sixth year thoroughly conceals the
charred and skeleton-like trees, so prominent on
young estates. On old estates, where the fallen
timber has been used up or has decayed, the
absence of firewood for the coolies and now for the
tea furnaces is a serious want, and the time seems
imminont when a considerable quantity of coal,

i

March i, 1886.J THE TttOPlCAL AGRICULTtfRISt,

619

coke, paraffin or other imported fuel subetances
will be ill demand for consumption on the tea
estates of Ceylon. The buildings on the right are
the first sets of " cooly lines " or barracks. The
young cultivation is bounded by forest reserves on
"Lome"' and on " Avoca " hill (Dambagas-
talawa: the glade of the Damba tree. 5,140 feet alt-
itude) behind which lie the lovely Lindula " patanas,"
— upland prairies. The mountain' ir. the back-
ground stretch from, on the left, Kotiyagala (the
Leopard Rock, 5,7^17 feet altitude, popularly known
as " the Duke's Nose," near which the magni-
ficient moimtain railway to Uva crosses the ridge
that separates the great planting district of Dikoya
from the still grander district of Dimbula, which
a few years ago showed the largest continuous ex-
panse of cultivated coffee, interpersed freely with
cinelionas, in the world and which is now rapidly
attaining the same eminence as a scene of kixuriant
tea culture) to Eilagala, which divides Amba-
gamnwa from Dimbnla on the right.

VrEW FKOM " Knock Ferroi.," .1, 200 feet above
Sea-i.f.vel, II. — The two species of the fever plants
in the foreground can be easily distinguished: C.
siiccinihra by its large and corrugated leaves, while
the smaller and more acute-leaved C. orlicinaliis is
conspicuous in the right-hand corner. Both species
grew well for from four to seven years, at the
height indicated, although such an altitude is better
suited for the shrubby C. 0[lichialis, rich in quinine,
than for the larger and tree like C. siicrinihrn,
which flourishes specially from L.'iOO to 1,000 feet
and gives abundance of " druggists' bark , " rich in
cinchonine and other alkaloids better for tonic de-
coctions than as febrifuges, although they are vahi-
able remedies in fever cases also. In 187-t, cin-
chona was just becoming important as a cultivated
product in this island, which is now the chief
source of the world's supply of the bark that, a
generation ago, could only be obt.iined from tlie
home of the cinchonas on the Andean ranges in
America. Beyond the cinchonas in the pictures
is an expanse of young cofTee, amongst which and
the fallen timber are seen a couple of estate paths
and, to the right, a portion of what was intended to
be a cart-road. Abundance of paths and surface
drains, of gradients not worse, if possible, than 1 in
20 for the roads and 1 in 1.5 for the drains, are es-
sential to the proper working of an estate, while a
cart-road for manuring and other purposes is most
valuable. Conspicuous in a gap between Elbedda-
kanda on the left and the upturned-ship-like Talan-
kanda, is the topmost portion of the pyramidal cone
which renders the sacred " Adam's Peak" (Samanala
kanda of the Sinhalese so conspicuous. The height
of the summit, on which, in laminated gneiss, is
marked the so-called $ri-paila (sacred footstep of
Buddha) and to which thousands of pilgrims annually
resort, is 7, .152 feet. The sacred mountain is really
in the planting district of Maskeliya, and its duect
distance from the point of view is about twelve
miles. Elbedda and Talankanda, which hide the
base and flanking ranges of " the Peak" and wliich
divide Bogawantalawft and Dikoya from Dimbula,
are about 700 feet lower than the summit of " the
Peak," the altitude of Elbedda being no less than
6,637 feet. The mountain estate indeed, commandu
varied and magnificent views of fully fifty mountains
of 5,000 feet and upwards, inchiding the highest
elevations in the 11 ■nd, I'idurulalngahi H,2'.l.") feet;
Kirigalpotta 7,y3i. .cet; Totapala 7,74(i feet; Ac,
with the valleys and grass-lands between.

View or thk Gbe.vt Wkstei:n Moi'nt.vix, 7,261 keei
ABOVE Sea-level. — This truly grand mountain mass,
which is only sUghtly inferior to Adam's Peak in
altitade and is, in some respects, pettaapa superior

to it in scenic effect, is a prominent object, however
its profiles and aspects may change, from every point
in the vast district, or series of districts called Dim-
bula. The mountain, in its mass, is more isolated
and therefore more calculated to convey the sense of
magnitude than is the graceful pyramidal " Peak."
The pride taken by all dwellers in Dimbula in their
special mountain, which is about 5 miles west from
Nuwara Eliya, separating the district in which it \^
situated from Pundaluoya and Kamboda. will bo
acknowledged to be natural and justifiable. But thu
last thought that occurred to us or any one else m
Dimbula, in 1875, was that in 1885, the breast of
the ancient mountain would be scored by the iron
road, along which daily trains should run. These
are now accomplished facts, happily for those who
arc engaged in the task of retrieving by the cult-
ivation of tea, fortunes wrecked in the disaster
which soon after 1875, began fatally to affect coffee.
The view in this photograph was taken from a point
above and behind the bungalow and the out offices,
including stables, cow shed and poultry house at
tlie foot of the grass-planted ravine, where now a
lakelet exists. Paths radiating from " the old
bungalow" (4,800 feet above sea-level) and portions
of the cart road, break the monotony of the new
cultivation, while ornamental trees in the neighbour-
hood of the bungalow give promise of the wonderful
growth subsequently attained.

LoOKIXr. rP THE EiVER AXn the JlorNTAIN-OOROE

THRoufin WHICH IT RUNS. — This view, taken from a
point below the bungalow, but about 300 feet above
the bed of the stream, will give a vivid idea of
the wild appearance of this portion of the estate,
before the sides of the hills and the felled forest
became cloth edj with coffee, cinchona, tea and
ornamental .trees. A great rock, •' Melrose Abbey,"
is scarcely distinguishable in the dark shade of
this picture. The path shown and which passed
from tlie bungalow under the rock to the ford on
tlie river, is now largely superseded by a splendid
cart-road and a path starting from the fine iron
lattice bridge which spans the stream.

The Waterfall, " Coba Linn," in " Maooif.'s
(rRovr." — This is a most beautiful and romantic
scene of which only glimpses are afforded in the
pliotograph, in consequence of the density of tlio
shade of a long belt of forest which was left,
projecting into the estate, to protect a fine mountain
stream. This stream falls 200 feet or moie from
the point indicated, in successive leaps into the
sheltered valley, the scene of the eaily nurseries
described in Nos. 2, and 3. In the valley it is
joined by several other streams, on wliich also
cascades occur and the united body of water forma
ultimately "The Falls of Contin" (whence water
power is conveyed to the coffee store), before it
enters our river, the Dimbuldanda-oya at 4,000 feet
above sea-level, while the point at which it fell
into the estate, about a quarter-o£-a-niile up, was
fully 5,300. Ho abundant are waiertalls on thi.s
mountain estate, tliat its/Iamil name is Aiiiri iiitt<(iii,
the waterfall or cascade garden.

LOOKINO Ur THE KlVEK TO THE LATTICE FoOT-

BiiiuoE. — The river is the Dinibuldanda Uya, (the
Dimbul tree stream) which crosses the estate and
which is now, at the upper limit nf the property
spanned by a fine carriage-road iron-bridge. Tlio
Dinibuldanda meets the Nanuoya from Nuwara
Kliya, face to face, a few miles below, at liadella,
one of the very few spots in Dimbula fiat enough
to be used as a ground for cricket and other sports.
The scene at our Dimbula "meeting of the waters,"
in all save poetical associations, transcends the
famous meeting in the vale of Avyca.

fH£ TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, ms.

Near View of Cinchona Succirueba. — The large
leavsG C. suciiruhra, hero so faithfully represented,
T\-BS, like the other species, growing luxuriantly on
the tip oF "Knock Ferrol," in November lHlf>,
but this larger anil more robust form ha<l not run
to flower and seed at about 3J years old as the
more ])reeociouB smaller species had done, Before
the splendid looking grove of cinchonas on this
hill had commenced to "die off" from canker and
the trees were cut down tor the harvesting of the
hark, it is no exaggeration to say that, besides the
large quantities of seeds gathered, some millions
of self sown seedlings were produced and either
utilized on the estate or sold. There was a sale to
one planter of three quarters ot a million seedlings.
Much seed was also sold from the older trees on
other parts ot the estats, so that from livst to last
Cinchonas, the culture of which was furtnuately
taken u^t at a very early period, gave far better
returns than cofi'ee did. Tea was Jalso adopted
as a subsidiary cultivation at an early period of
the estate's existence, plants being put down,
amongst other places on the top of " Knock
Ferrol." As the cinchonas disappeared the tea
bushes took their place, and there are now line
fields of tea where ten to five years ago groves
of cinchonas flourished, here as well as on inany
other portions of the plantation. '

Nkah Vif.w or Cixchon'a Officixalis in Flowkr
AN'n Sekp. — The late Mr. Mclvor of the Nilgiri
Cinchona plantations, the real founder of the
culture of the fever plants in India, was
enthusiastic in his admiration of this picture, whicli
was taken on the summit of " Ivnock Ferrol" at an
altitude of .5,200 feet, on a day when the air was
perfectly (piiescenl. Tlie result is that even without
the aid of a magnifying glass, nearly all, even the most
minute botanical characteristics of the C. offlchinlix
bushes in the foreground can be pretty well identified.
The little lakelet on the top of the hill, (what, in
the north of England would, I suppose, be called a
turn,) was the result of rain water collected in a
depression on the summit. This depression bears
some resemblance to the crater of an extinct volcano,
only that the boulders on the shelving sides are
composed of stratified gneiss. Similar pools, before
the British planter invaded the Kandyan forests,
were favourite resorts of the elephant, deer and
buffalo. The reflected figures in the perfectly still
and transparent water are so much more distinct
than the originals, that the picture is frequently
inverted by puzzled beholders.

The " Old BrNO.iLow " and Gakden. — This bunga-
low was run up rapidly from unseasoned timber
Bawn on the ground, in 1872. It was built on a
site near the south end of the estate, conveniently
near the coffee store and 4,800 feet above sea-level.
Its life was eight years, not bad considering the
circumstances, and even then it was only the posts
<n the ground which decayed, — doors windows, &«.,
being utilised for the " New Bungalow." As will
be observed, the ornttinental plants put down in
iSTi-li, had beyun lo show in November 197S,
jinS by the tinio the site had to bB abandoned in
1880. there was a danae grove of Eucalyirtc. Aca-
cias, Knos. Auracarias, Palms, Bambus, tVc. youic
of the blue gutiia (hj.tcalijptu^ [iloluluA planted in
1874 are in 1886 upwards of 100 feet high, whilg
krceu of Orevilka robiista though not so tall,
ohcw noble stems. If tea, whichjis rapidly supersed-
ing coffee on this estate of ot',1 acres and over 2 miles
ill length, becomes, as is sanguinely hoped, a decided
perm n^nt success, another bungalow will probably
be built o.: tills beautiful site for the second division
of the OBtate. When the original building wasererted,
jilthougb tout yti&K had elapsed since the coffee leaf

fungus, IJemileia vastatri.i- had appeared, the pre-
diction by the late Dr. G. H. K. Thwaitea that it
would prove fatal to what was than ovei'whelmingly
the staple product of the colony, was regarded with
incredulity by the vast majority of experienced
planters. But the naturalist judged only too truly
of the disastrous effect of the pest, new not only to
coffee planters but to scientists. The spores enter-
ing the stomata of the leaves and the mycelium
sucking the life blood from the cells, coffee became
more and more enfeebled, from the process of
elaborating successive crops of leaves only to be-
come the prey of the fungus, until fine shows
of sweet-odoured, jasraine-hke blossoms either
gave no fruit, or only berries most of which
dropped prematurely. From .300 acres of c»fi'ee
planted on this estate only a few normal crops
were obtained, the returns latterly from fine look
ing bushes, being not sufficient to repay up,
keep, an experience, unhappily, only too general-
on young as well as old estates. But for the ad-
vent of the fatal fungus, however, there was abund-
ant evidence that coffee, planted from 4,G00 to
.'i,000 feet would have here done well. Happily
for the proprietor, he resolved from the first not to
have " all his eggs in one basket," and, the|principles
on which he directed the estate to be planted were : —
Coft'ee up to 5,000 feet.
Tea from 0,000, to r,,r)0O feet.
C'inchoua officinalis from "),.J0O to 0,000 feet.
Cinchonas, of both species and tea bushes were
also, from the first planted along paths and drains,
and cinchonas interspersed with the coffee. By the
time the new bungalow, at the northern end of
the estate, and .'>,800 feet above sea level (just
1,000 feet more elevated than the " old bungalow ")
was occupied, it had become fully apparent that
coffee was doomed ; that cinchona bark had become
literally a drug in the market, and that hopes of
retrieval and prosperity depended on the expanses of
tea around the new bungalow. These began to yield,
in 1878 and onwards, after a fashion that encouraged
extensions on a large scale : indeed the prospect is
that two years hence, the whole cultivated ground,
except a few patches of exceptionally fine coffee and
cinchonas, will be planted with tea. Of course it is
impossible to predict what providential dispens-
ation may lie in the future, but as yet, one of the
great encouragements to the extension of the tea
enterprise in Ceylon, has been the comparative ex-
emption of the plant here, from the formidable attacks
of liflopclli'i, redsjiider and other " blights " so pre-
valent and soinjurious on many Indian plantations.
Thk Fir>sr SeHoor.-HousE. — This building, (to the
left) was erected shortly after the completion of the
bungalow, a glimpse of the front of which appears
over the knoll to the right. It is over this schoolhouse
now superseded by one near the new bungalow, that
eucalypti rise to a height of 100 feet and more. The
coffee in the foreground was. when the photograph
was tnken, about '■^^ years old and iiitcrepcrbed ur<;
i cinchona a tul tea bushes, a year .voungor. Some of
I tils tea bushcri are now noble teed -bearcrb aiidclotie
by it) an EnglJjli oak, whicli. after a good many years
of bushy growth, was pruned and is now a verV
! beautiful and promising Ueeof about U feet high. It
seems to hau' latterly get rid of its teiideiicy to de--
ciduoUbiK bt,. .\ ihesnut, which grew close by. «•»;>
' rooted out by the coolies as an undesirable " jungle
I tree." The superintendent and his wife have always
1 taken A deep interest in the school, which
for several years now has been conducted by an ac-
'• complished and enthusiastic Tamil teacher, " Apolloo
Pallid." {ioveninient give pranls-in-aid to estate
I schools, but the conditions as lo attendance, A-e.,
limit those grants to small sums. The benefits to

Wakcjj i, iSS6.}

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

6ii

the childien of iubtruulion are very great, and in-
directly the parents benefit. It is inspiriting to see
and hear tlie children marching home from school,
with the schoolmaster at their head, singing Tamil
IjTics, (Christian poetry) as they go. Two (Jovernors
of Ceylon, Sir Wm. Gregory and Sir Arthur Gordon,
visited this school and were much interested in what
they witnessed.

Nk.u; View or Cooly lines. — The bnilding on the
left, the walls and partitions of wattle and daub,
roofed with shingles, is a fair sam])le of the ordinary
abodes provided for the Tamil coolies who work the
Ceylon estates. In some cases brick buildings, tiled,
have been erected, but as a general rule the coolies
prefer the more primitive structures which, at their
worst, are greatly superior to the miserable hovels
they have been accustomed to in India, and to the
level of which, if permitted, they would speedily
reduce their " lines." These, as originally built
consist of ten rooms in a block, five on each side with
a partition between, and a good airy verandah on
each side. The process of closing up these veran-
dahs, to which coolies are inveterately addicted, is
indicated in this illustration, but instead of boarding,
as here shown, earthen walls are generally thrown
up. Fowls, and if this is permitted, pigs, are kept
in the verandah compartments. The Houth-of-India
Tamil has many good qualities as a labourer, but
regard for the elements of sanitary science is not
amongst his virtues. He does not appreciate ventil-
ation and as for cleanliness, it may be enough to
remark, that a cooly is told off on this estate for
each of the three sets of lines, whose work it is
to keep the paths clear of offensive matter and to
prevent the stream or pond on the side of which
lines are invariably built, from being contaminated
with the one great cause of fever, dysentery, and
cholera. The coolies will not even whitewash their
own abodes : they must be paid for this work when
performed. The round building in this picture is a
shed for the cow of the head kangani (native over-
seer), and there are bits of garden ground in which
plaintains and vegetables are cultivated by the
cooUes. But many owners of estates have ceased to
grant such indulgences. Cattle are very expensive
to keep and the coolies are such inveterate thieves,
that if a man has any valuable fruits or vegetables in
his plot, he must stay away from estate work to cult-
ivate and protect them. These people so distrust
one another that when a coo man and his wile go
to visit friends on a neighbouring estate, the husband
carries away the cock and the wife the hen, to pre-
vent the killing and eating of the poultry in their
absence. Sometimes estate coolies do not scruple to
appropriate fruits and vegetables grown in " the
bungalow " garden, and a case is on record of their
attacking a plot of potatoes during the night and
carrying away the tubers, but carefully replacing the
plants in the ground, to the great temporary mysti-
fication of the superintendent,

MoiiMN'J MroXEii .it lilt ConEE Sioni;.--It will
be observed that the ra.yt) of the morning sun are
lighting up the young coffee bushes and felled timber
on the knoll behind the iron-roofed store. The
labourers, with the Europeans and the kanganies
in front, aie mustered on the scarcely completed
•■barbecues" or platforms on which the "parchment"
coffee. di\ested of the "cherry" husk or pulp. anJ
washed ill ci-.lerHS, is jiartially dried before being
dispatched to tbe Colombo preparing and packing
stores. The coolies arc awakened between i and .5
a. m. by the beating of a tomtom or the blow-
ing of a horn, bells being few and far between.
Food is prepared, of which the labourers partake,
carrying their midday meal to the field. JIustcred
at bis, tbe fcirce ought to be at work by half-patt

<) or 7, and they then continue to labour until 1
p. m. The coollea themselves prefer this system
to being allowed an interval of rest at mid-day
i and then working to a later hour in the evening,
i "Knocking off work" at 4 o'clock gives them a
\ long evening for their amusements and the cooking
of the evening meal. Each gang of coolies has its
kangani and there is generally a head kangani,
but frecjuent visits from the European super-
intendent are essential to securing good work. In-
deed the main duty of a " einna durai" or young
master (assistant superintendent) is to remain
with the working gangs in the held. Where the
Tamil cooly excels the Chinese and negroes, is
in his steady adherence to one scene of employ-
ment and his amenability to discipline and com-
mand. Turbulence and bloodshed in riots, and
gang robberies are very rare occurrences amongst
Tamil coolies, even after reckoning some exceptional
cases since the bad times, produced by the collapse
of the once prosperous coffee enterprise, set in.

PoKCH AND VEU.U."D.iH OF THE " NeW BuN(i.\L0W."

— In building this bungalow in 1878-79, the error,
if any, committed was in the opposite direction
to that in regard to the temporary erection of
1«72. For the new bungalow a hill top 5,800 feet
above the sea, was levelled, and the whole structure
is of solid stone and brick, with good, well-Bea-
soned timber. The result, if somewhat costly, is
excellent ; the house being safe from every wind
that blows, well fitted and furnished, standing
amidst equisitely beautiful mountain scenery and with
a climate which for a large portion of the year, is
about perfect. The exceptions are for a couple of
months in each of the monsoons, when rain and
mist are somewhat copious. But such meteorologi-
cal conditions, while not generally adverse to human
health are most favourable for the luxuriant growth
of tea. In Ceylon, — on this property up to 6,000
feet and on estates on the eastern side of the moun-
tain zone to nearly 1,000 feet higher,— we have
thoroughly disproved Colonel Money's rash dictum
that a climate good for human health cannot be
good for tea. We now know we can calculate on at
least, 500 lb. of tea per acre, per annum ; while the
estate is one of the healthiest in the world for the
Tamil laborers as well as for their European masters.
" The new bungalow," like the old, is now surrounded
by a fine grove of exotic trees, and the picture shews
how the indigenous tree ferns Hourish at this alti-
tude. Hoses, lillies, violets honeysuckle, Bougain-
villea and furze seem equally at home here as is the
tea plant.

The Beginnings oe a Tea Faciobv. — This build-
ing, with a portion of the massive Great Western
mountain and the extensive Dimbula valley for
a background, stands close to " to the new bung-
alow " at 5,800 feet above sea-level, and distant
less than two miles from the N'anuoya railway station
which is 12!) milesfrom Colombo and about five to
the entrance to Nuwara Eliya Plain, This tea house,
as yet one of the loftiest in situation in Ceylon, is,
with a very large addition now approaching comple-
tion, conspicuous from the railway line which runs
along the side of Great Western, and from the upper
windows of the building magnificent views are com-
manded. A tea store, from the enormous horizon-
tal space required for " withering " the green leaf,
must be twice or more the size of a coffee store,
and the machinery employed, — rollers, sifters,
driers, cutters, Ac, — cast the modest coffee pulper
into the shade, both as to complicated appliances
and cost. Tea machinery unquestionably saves a
great deal of human labour for field work, but
the first cost of stores and machinery on a tea estate
of any bi;se, is, we can answer for it, very heavy, even

(&22

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

where watei'-ivheels have not yet been superseded
by turbines or steam engines. The duties of a
tea estate superintendent, too, who, as is generally
the ease in Ceylon, has the resijonsibility of both
field and factory, are far different and far more
onerous than those which appertained to the
superintendent of a coifee estate. Both must
know something of machinery, but the man-
ager of a tea estate must be not only
a competent engineer but an intelligent and careful
chemist, to boot. The coffee crop " came on with a
rush" atone period of the year, and then came
comparative rest, — such as even tea jjlanters enjoy
in Assam in the winter months, November to March.
But in Ceylon, from its proximity to the eijuator and
its damp warm climate, the tea flushes and the Hush
must be gathered and prepared practically all the
year round, the chief agent in preparation being, not
water, but the element which has been rightly des-
cribed as a good servant but a bad master — fire.
Tea is good, bad, or inferior, mainly in proportion to
the care with which it is fired, and there is ever lire-
sent a danger, tlie thought or the apprehension of
which,' rom lights occasionally employed at night,
never, we suppose led to the insuring of a single
coffee store. But insurance against fire and the use
of fire-proof agents and precautions against fire, must
be amongst the regular contingencies of tea-making.
Going into and out of rooms at a high temperature
and full of the malt-like fumes of " fermenting" and
" roasting " tea leaves, must also be trj'ing to human
health. But great improvements have been etTeoted,
mainly by superseding the long lines of open furnaces
called •' chulas," each sending forth charcoal fumes,
— wood or other fuel suflicing for such driers as are
now used : the Sirocco, the Venetian, the Victoria,
ifcc. Other improvements will, doubtless follow, and
meantime tea planting and manufacturing are full of
interest to men of intelligent apprehension. To give
an idea of the horizontal space required for the
proper " withering " of green tea leaves, it need
merely be mentioned, that Mr. C. S. Armstrong,
the great Ceylon authority on the tea enterprize, has
calculated that six square feet of horizontal surface
will be required for properly withering each lb. of
green leaf, of which four lb. are required to make one
lb. of dried tea, tit for use.

LOOKINU SorTUW.VIlDS (IVKU THE CaTTLE ShED ANIl

New Lines. — The showery and misty weather largely
spoiled what in clear weather is a magnificent view
with the ranges of the grassy Bopatalawa patanas
and the rocky heights of Kirigalpotta as a backgroun d
The foreground gives a good idea of some of our
best and oldest tea, in full bearing again, after re-
covering from pruning, and also of broad-leaved
cinchonas and ornamental exotic trees amongst the
tea bushes. The little lakelet and small cattle shed
also come out well, but it is a great disappointment
that so little is seen of the new and extensive sets of
lines beyond, which, when the coolies are at home
in the evenings, convey the idea of a populous
mountain village. Of upwards of 600 labourers : —
men, women and children, on the estate, over 200
reside here, amidst the tea cultivation which, extend-
ing from the northern end of the estate, is rapidly
superseding coffee in the middle and southern por-
tions. In a commodious room amidst these lines.
a congregation of about sixty to seventy Tamils,
many of them Christians, assemble on Sundays for
divine service.

The " BrNi) Vallev." — This picture, pretty as
it is, (water and rock being always effective in
photographs,) gives but a very imperfect idea of
one of the most beautiful scenes in Ceylun. The
anks which supply the watev power that moves
tJic tea ruacbinery, are at the lower portion of a

valley (.5,8.50 feet) each side of which is clothed
with most luxuriant tea bushes, flourishing and
bearing abundance of Hush even up to li.OdO feet,
on the right hand side. Had the weather been
clear, (as it had been before the photographer ar-
rived and as it was the day after he left.) the
young tea liclds on which the Superintendent most
justly prides himself, would have excited admir-
ation, equally with the expanses of mountain forest
beyond, ending with the highest mountain range
in Ceylon, that of I'idurutalagala, as a towering
background. From the dark misty weather which
prevailed, we get chaotic shade instead of interest-
ing details of flourishing tea at 5,850 to I'l.OOO feet,
in all save the foreground, where the leaf-yielding
tea is seen covering the ground, while the bushes
left for seed bearing purposes and a remarkable cin-
chona] tree (with bare stem and umbrageous crown)
stand out picturesquely against the placid water. A
good magnifying-glass will help to an idea of the
tea cultivation, which can compete with any in
Ceylon ; but even the most glowing imagination
can scarcely supply the beautiful and grand details
of the torested-mountain background, which the
envious masses of driving mist swallowed up. No-
thing at all can be seen of the remains of the cin-
chonas that once covered in dense groves the valley
sides and mountain knolls, which are now still
more densely and we trust more permanently and
profitably covered with a carpetting of first class tea.
Giant Tea Trees: SicED-BE.utiNd Tea Thee anu
GiinvE OF Tea Tkees. — Our tii-st giant tree (No. 21)
which was planted in 1870 and photographed in 1881,
when it was 8 years old and shortly before it suc-
cumbed to a storm, was remarkable, not so much for
its height, 20 feet, as for the enormous area, 88
feet in circumference, over which its horizontal
branches spread. Of a much handsomer habit
(pyramidal) and considerably taller is another tree
(No. 22) reserved for seed bearing purp jses, which
being of the same age was photograjjhed at the
same time. Its dense foliage forms a tine contrast
to the stems of the blue gum trees to the right. A
truly magnificent tree, is our second giant (Xo. 23)
which was nearly 10 years old, when photographed
October 188.5, unfortunately in dark misty weather.
It is only 7!U feet instead of 88 in circumference
(one diameter being 27' 3" and another 2.5' !)")
but its proportions are far better than those of its
predecessor, its height being 211 feet, while the
tendency of its wonderful wealth of stems and
branches is not purely horizontal but inclining up-
wards. To the left some trees of C. .siicciriibra
arc exceedingly well shown and the stem of an
Australian eucalypt frames in the picture to the
right. This giant tea bush growing down a bank,
neither its root-stem nor its summit could be
brought into the focus of the camera. Considering

1 the very unfavorable weather, the photograph is
a good and faithful ))ortrait of a tea tree, such as
planters from Assam liavo declared they never saw
there. The indigenous tea tree of the Assam forests,
is said, in books, to reach a height of -10 feet,
but no authentic measurements to this effect are
available. Our highest trees are 30 feet, a stem
over 211 feet which was cut from the 1874 nursery
being one of the objects to be exhibited with these
pictures. l\ piece having been broken off, the
present length is only 27 feet 1 inches.] It formed
one of many plants allowed to grow up thickly
in the nursery, the remains of which, owing to the
dark misty weather in which the photograph was
taken, in October 1S83, nie indistinctly shown in

I No. 21. A magnifying-glass, however, will leve.'xl
a dense grove of tall tea bushes, over which rise

I Australian eucalypts. Tlie tea bushes, nbout a cou-

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

623

pie of hundreds, left to grow in the uuiseiy were
nearly 11 years old when jihotoRraphed. Econo-
mically, it was, ot course, a great mistake, to allow
trees, which, planted at good distances apart would
have become excellent seed bearers (the jut being
first-class) to grow crowded together, but the scenic
effect of our tea grove is striking and much ad- •
mired by visitors. The trees in the grove have,
also, yielded a good deal ot seed and judicious
thinning will make them still more productive. The
better the jat and the loftier the elevation, the
longer do tea trees take m bearing fruit and from
the many lhousand.s of intended seed bearers scat-
tered over this estate, including 1,000 plants ot
Assam hybrid, grown at Hakgala, tor which KlOO
were paid some ten years ago, the amount of seed
gathered as yet has not been so large as we could
wish, last season having been especially disappoint-
ing. StiU. many hundreds of thousands of the
finest fiusli-yielding plants on the estate are from
our own seed, borne by trees S to 10 years old.
It seems probable that had we resorted more than
we have done to judicious pruning of our first- :
class big tea trees, we should have had earlier and
larger returns of seed. Almost all tea planters
know the vexatious tendency to early and copious i
flowering and seeding of interior kinds ot tea, ^
China or hybrids largely partaking of China charao- !
teristics. The lower the altitude at which tea is
grown, the more is this tendency apparent and a
source of annoyance. The lower the altitude of
estates, therefore, the more important is it that
the jilt should be " indigeneous," or hybrid closely
approaching it. The best for all altitudes, however
is first-class hybrid Assam, with a close affinity
to indigenous. It may here be mentioned that, in-
fluenced by what was observed during a visit to Dar-
jiling in JIarch 1876, tea was originally planted 3x3
on this mountain estate. But the growth, so much
more luxuriant tlian was anticipated, ot the jilants,
speedily indicated 1 x 3 as a better distance to allow
of careful culture and plucking. On •• lowcountry "
estates where the soil is much more liable to the
destructive effects of solar combustion, closer plant-
ing than even 3x3 is fretjuently resorted to.

View of •• Knock I'kbkol ' from the Lakelet
NEAR THE Old Bunoalow. — But for the rainy and
windy weather, this would have come out a fine
liicture Not only are the trees swaying to the wind,
after the fashion which vexes the soul of a photo-
grapher, but the very waters of the lakelet are so
rippled, that it requires tlie application ot a magni-
fying-glass to reaHze that water exists in the fore-
ground, around wliich the graceful banibus, promi-
nent in the picture, are grouped. On the very
snnniiit ot " Knock Ferrol " (5,200 feet above sea
level), the "Giant Bambu" of Burma {Bnmbiisa
ijiijuiilea. Wall.; D. ijiiiaiitens, Munro) flourishes,
and this noble plant seems to have found a second
home in Ceylon. It flourishes not only on the banks
ot the JIahav.eliganga, at Peradeniya, where there
are magnificent groups at l.OUO feet above sea-level,
but in our higher mountain regions at .5,000 teet and
over. We have stems which are about 2 feet in girth.
The beautiful yellow bambu, so common on low-
country river-sides in Ceylon, aUo grows well here
at ."S.OOO feet. But Bambusd tinivdinticea, wliich we
found in full seed in South Wynaad in 1877, hangs
lire at our el vation. On if lowcountry estate it
flourished exceedingly, and we were rejoicing in our
splendid shelter belts, when we discovered that nothing
could gru.v wilhin 20 t'> 30 feet ou each side of the
bambus. They were, therefore, cui down and de-
strojed. Bambus are amongst the, most gracefuUy
beautiful objects in the vegelaDJe world, and they are
useful economically, but beyond all other plants we

know, not excepting even aloes, they are deadly to
other vegetation and they ought to he growri by
themselves, or on isolated spots where they look
well aud do the minimum ot harm. Up the hill
side and on the summit, to the lett of the giant
bambus, are Australian eiualyijt.i which also, it
would be well to cultivate by themselves instead of
interspersing them amidst the ccSee and cinchonas.
Tea is intolerant ot the presence ot any other plant,
and as our tea culture advances, the Australian
gums, casuarinas, acacias, itc. must be removed.
They will aflord timber and firewood (the blue gum
giving good-sized railway sleepers and planks at 10
years old) ; but unless an Indian planter is right in
tracing tea blight to Toon trees (a very improbable
idea) we should prefer growing Cedrela Toona (the
red-timbered variety) to any tree we know. As
Cniptoiiteria japoiiica has succeeded well at Darji-
ling it will probably do well at high elevations in
Ceylon ; but the cheapness with which tea boxes can
now be obtained from Japan, largely removes the
necessity of cultivating timber plants. Witli good
lead lining to the tea boxes, the idea of well seasoned
and but faintly resinous pine wood tainting tea,
seems chimerical. While on the subject of trees, we
may mention that in Ceylon as in Assam there is a
tree, a large-leaved syiiiplocos, which must be ranked
amongst the enemies of the tea tree. Either inher-
ently, or evolved in the process of decay, the roots
of this tree possess a principle fatally poisonous to
tea-bushes growing in their vicinity. Unjileasant
gaps occasionally occur in well-matured tea from
this cause, while it is not yet certain that Albizzia
stij>iihilii is so beneficial to tea cultivation as some
Assam planters believe.

View (down an Estate E.iviNE) of the Valley

OF DiMBULA, WITH THE GliEAT WeSTEBN MOUNTAIN

LooMiNii IN THE Mist .\ni) the Line of Railway
Scoring its Slde. — The application of a good magni-
fying-glass to this picture will shew what a splendid
view was rendered imi)ertect by the dense mist, in
an interval ot which, less dark than usual, the photo-
grai3h was taken by the instantaneous process.
The morning train for Colombo, which had just
started from Nanuoya (129 miles from Colombo and
nearly .'>,300 feet higher in altitude) is shown on the
line, one ot the most remarkable mountain railways
in the world. It was constructed tor coffee traffic,
especially that of Uva, but was opened, so far, in
time to aid and receive the benefits ot the rapidly
advancing tea enterprize. The scenery viewed from
this line, combines all that is beautiful and grand
in nature, with the one exception ot lakes, for
which the mountain system tlirough which the
railway winds is too abrupt. One ot the casc-
ades over which the line jiasses rushes down to
the right ot the train. The part on which the
train is shewn is less than 70 chains direct dis-
tance from the spot where the camera was placed.
This was at the top of one ot our finest and most
characteristic tea ravines, through the centre of
which the "bund" stream rushes rapidly down.
Up the steep faces ot the hills on each side rise
rich fields ot tea, which having, for from 1.5 to 18
months, yielded " flush " at the rate ot not less than
500 lb. per acre per annum of made tea (2,000 lb.
green leaf) were in October in the course of being
pruned. To the left will be observed a few mem-
bers of a gang of coolies engaged in the operation.
The tea bushes in the right are as yet untouched
but on the left hand side, had the weather been
jiropitious, tlie various stages ot pruning and bury-
ing would have been fully apparent, viz ; —

i. — llie ground streued with the deoris of pruned
plants, decaying timber, weeds from the rav-ae.,,
&c. ; 2.— The pruninga, decayed timber and weeds

624

THE TROPICAL AGRICtJLTURtST. [March i, 1886.

heaped up ready for burying in the longitudinal
holes which are being dug at near intervals in the
rows of growing tea ; 3. — Ground as clean as garden
beds, in which the prunings, Ac, have been
buried, while the moss has been rubbed from the
branches of the tea bushes, before the development,
(with wonderful rapidity considering the elevation,)
of the fresh buds and leaves.

In less than three months from a pretty heavy
pruning the bushes get into full yield again, and
can be plucked at intervals ot from a week to ten days
for twelve to eighteen months, before the sweep-
ing application of the knife becomes further neces-
sary. On the left side of the ravine, the system
ot paths and drains is well shewn. Rock except
in the beds of streams being rare, the estate is
exceptionally well roaded. In respect of rock frag-
ments on the soil, the fine district ot Haputale,
in which road making must be difficult and ex-
pensive, is a striking contrast to Dimbula. So with
most of the old Matale districts.

The soil at our highest elevations has been pro-
nounced perfect for tea and the period seems dis-
tant when manure will be absolutely required, but
the manner in which our " cattle shed field "
has responded to the small quantities of fertilizing
material available, shows liow largely yield could
be increased by manuring, if only the system could
be made to pay. The ditticulty in regard to the
kepping of cattle on Ceylon plantations is the
great cost of imported food (gingelly cake and grain)
and imported labour in the shape of cattle-keepers,
while guinea and swamp grasses reijuire to be
themselves carefully cultivated, or they will be ex-
terminated by inferior grasses and weeds, on the
principle of the survival of tlie fittest. A tew milch
cows must be kept on most estates, but probably
instead of resorting again to those extensive cattle
establishments, so common in the palmy days of
coffee, tea planters will avail themselves ot the
ammoniacal white castor cake, with a small pro-
portion of bone superphoFphate ; also potash and
nitrates, all in moderate quantities. Meantime the
effects of merely stirring the ground by fcirks and
opening up the soil by the burying of prunings
and other substances is most beneficial.

The Falls of Abeb.— The object for which this
photograph was taken was defeated by the misty
and windy weather which prevailed. Coffee, with
a few cinchona trees, occupies the foreground, and
a few .scattered trees belonging to a bell ot the
original forest are seen on the lidge, HOO feet above
(.5,200 against 4,900 feet in the sheltered valley
where the camera was placed), but a confused mass
represents the really fine and exceptionally lasting
groves ot Vhichdnn qfifiiialin, which it was wished
to show, growing at heights aliove the coffee up
to the edge of the ridge. Down •' the falls of Aber"
tumbles one of several streams which unite in the
sheltered valley near the remains of the tea nurs-
ery of December 1874. Unlike the considerably
larger stream in " Maggie's (irove, " this rivulet
has been bared ot forest and the effect, especially
in rainy weather, is very striking, the descent be-
ing exceedingly abrupt.

View of tuk Cincuona-crowsf.d Hii.i,, .abovk
" Maooif.'s Grove." — The dark, misty weather and
the strong wind prevented this picture coming nut
well. A peep at one of the many waterfalls in the
belt ot natural forest which covers the stream, is
obtained and a group of tall blue gums rises to
the left ; but, unfortunately, the fine cinchonas
which cover the slope down from the ridge,
can only be brought out by a good magnifying
glass,

Tea Toppino.— a correspondent writes: — "The
Vade Mecum is to hand. I am very pleased
with it: but I find that all young tea should be
topped at 3 feet, both according to Armstrong and
the V. M, How is it that we all top at 1 toot,
ir>" and 18"? and some men I have heard ot doing
it at 9". The two Indian men who were over the
other day found fault on the score of all Ceylon
tea being too low. Can you give information as
to what is the right height for 1st topping?
It seems to me that an amended Cameron sys-
tem might be propagated with great advantage to
all young tea, which, it seems to me, is not getting
the' right treatment." Tea planters, like others,
must be largely guided by personal and local ex-
perience, but ice have never heard of or seen
topping at 9 inches.

Passifloba Eduiis — An excellent figure and an
exhaustive account of this interesting species, which is
in some places cultivated for its delicious fruits, is
given by Sabiue in vol. iii. of the Tiangactwna of the
H^rticHltura! Societi/, under the name of the Purple-
fruited Passion-flower. A short time ago, in a florist
and seedsman's shop, in one of the leading London
thoroughfares, we saw fine frniting branches of the
common hardy P. c.erulea, labelled " the true fruiting
Passion-flower, Passiflora eduiis ; " those who were in-
duced to try the fruits of this would hardly be likely
to give them a high place for desert purpo.ses. Ac-
cording to Sabine, the North American, P. incarnata,
was the first species introduced to this country, " and
for more than a century, the only species cultivated,
of one of the most beautiful genera ot plants exist-
ing."— Ganhiierx* Chronicle,

0iKNAM0\ Plant. — Under this name, with the ad-
dition of " Oiuuamomum dulce," graceful foU»ge and
very fragrant, in company with the Passion-flower
above mentioned, there was a nice batch of healthy
seedlings of some Monocotyledonous plant, in all
probability a species of Elettaria. On our calling the
attention "of the shnpman to such a palpable blunder
he assured us that the plant was correctly named,
and, to prove his point, bruised a portion of a young
leaf, when sure enough a certain aromatic odour,
somewhat resembling that of the Cinnamon, manifested
itself. Of course no one with the slightest knowledge
of economic botany would be at all litoly to mistake
a Cardamom for the Oiuuamou plant; still, in the
interests of those who are guileless of any botanical
knowledge, and who have a love for plants, it is as
well to mention the facts already stated.— f;«,i?«nffs'
Vlirmiicle.

Kui'ALVpTiis GuNNiL — lu a reccut number of Foi-eslrii
au account is given ot some notable trees at NN'hitting-
bame, Kast Lotbian, the property of A. .1. Jtidfoor.
Ksq., M.P. Amongst utbers, jiaiticular mention is
made iif a Kucalj ptus— E. vimiualis. This plant does
not bfcloog to that species at all, but to E. Gunnii. In
spite- of the error in the name, J'ur^.iti-i/ i» correct in
looking upon the Wbittinghame Eucal.ypt as perhaps the
most remarkable tree of its kin.l in Britain. The tree
in (|uestion was brought as a seedling from Australia
in 1846; it grew nipidlv in its new home until the
memorable winter of 1860-01, when it was cut down
to the ground by the severe frosts which then prevaded.
During the following summer it broke away iulu four
limbs, which have now reached a height of about 60
feet, forming a tree of a novel nnd striking character.
The girth of the sten> below where the massive limba
project is nearly 12 feet, and the branches are laden
with tinwers and last year's seed-vessels.— r/.Ti'™*";''
Chronich.

FLIES AND BUGS.

Iteetles, insects, roaches, ants, bed-bugs, rats, mice
gophers, chipmunks, cleared out by " Rough on Rats."
■yV. E. Simth St Co., Madras, Solo Agent*.

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

625

"YUOOA DKACONIS" ^VS A PAPER MATKKIAL.

An American paper says : — For a loug time past
the Loudon Tehyniplt lias, like a number of American
daily newspapers, manufactured its owu paper as a
matter of economy. ITuIike our own d:iily journala wilh
paper mills of their own, it has secured a cheaper
material than ony of its American contemporaries, and,
what is most surprising, the Englishmen came to
America for their stock. After satisfactory experi-
ments, the proprietors of the Tt:hijraph bought a large
tract of land in the Mojarc Desert, of Oaliforuia, thickly
overgrown with the yucca plant or " Spanish bayonets."
The yucca is to be cut down, transported to a point
on the Colorado River, and there ground into pulp,
which is to be taken by rail to New Orleans, thence
by dea to Liverpool. This certaiidy seems a very rouml-
about, expensive way for a London daily newspaper to
obtain stock for its paper mill, yet it is in reality the
cheapest method that could be deviseil. The yucca
plant, though neglected on the Pacific S'ope and
throughout the West, is a vegetable growth admirably
adapted to the reiiuirements of the paper maker's wants
for raw material, and is so useful that it pays to
transport it from the desert wilds of Oalifornia to Lon-
don. The supply of yucca is practically inexhaustible,
and the extensivw experiment about being made by the
great English daily is deserving of being closely observed
by the owners of the largely circulated American
newspapers, who consume enormous quantities of white
paper, which must be procured at the cheapest possible
rates. The yucca is a hairy plant found in Arizona,
New Mexico, and I.,ower California ; it is readily
bleached and as a fibre, almost as strong as hemp. It
can be manufactured at about the same cost as paper
made from mixed cotton and linen rags. It may interest
some readers to leatu the particulars of au invention
just introduced in America for the treatment of pap' r
stock, of Yucca draroni.t or Yucca pi'.hcrida^ or Yucca
hrtirfolia, or sotal tree, so as to produce a pulp or
paper stock of a finer quality than heretofore, aud the.
agents employed being native products drawn from the
immediate locality (California), where the fibre is
grown, with increased economy. The yucca wood or
plant having been unbarked, shredded or torn up so as
to be in the condition resembling tow, by suitable
machinery is brought into tanks provided with per-
forated double bottoms; water containing common salt
or waste solutions, resulting from a subsequent part
of the process, is run in so as to cover the mass, wliicb
is then weighted down and allowed to remain in con-
tact with the solution for several days; but if the
temperature is raised to about 100 P'ahr. by means of
steam, this part of the process will be accelerated.
To facilitate the next operation, the longer portions
of fibre may be passeil through a strawchopper before
the material is treated iu these tanks, so that the main
portion of the fibre under treatment should uot exceed
one inch in length. The material is next removed
form the tanks and brought under a system of tritur-
ation, or further opening up of the fibre by means of a
grinding or triturating contrivance. This may consist
of a fibre opener (diptTmr) or a pan mill, consisting of
broad grooved or ribbed granite runners working ui)on
a grooved or ribbed bedplate of granite or horizontal
stone working under a flow of water, with a discharge
trough or spout provided with a sieve for preventing
fibres of a coarser nature from passing through than
desired ; or the ma,ss as it passes from under the stones
may be run on to a " sorting m.T,chire," such as is
used in wood-pulp mills, or a "knotter," which will
separate the coarse from the fine fibre. The coarsi'
part is, of course, put back into the mill or apparatus
to be reworked. This method of opening up and dis-
incrusting the fibre renders tho subsequent chemical
treatment more simple and effectual.

The fibre brought into this state is now subjected to
a species of digestion with a strong solution of borax,
prepared from the native borax mineral of earth occur-
ring in the locality where the yucca is indigenous. Tbis
may be done simply in vats or tanks, provided with
stirrers or agitators and steam coils with condensing
contrivance, as is well known. The mass of fibre is

steamed iu contact with the solution of borax, which
should be about 12° Banme, for two or three hours.
The borax li.juor is then drained off from the fibre,
aud sulphurous-acid gas or vapour is introduced by
means of perforated inlet pipes or coils, the tanks or
vessels being covered during this part of the process,
and remaining covered for an hour (more or less), while
the sulpliuruus i;..s is being thus introdiiceil. The fumes
from five pi.its (more or less) of sulphur to one
hundred part,-, of dry fibre, by weight, will be sufficient.
Water is now run in sufficient to float the fibre, and
the stirrers are set in motion so as to wash out the
combinations formed and left secreted in the fibre.
This may be done iu about half an hour. The waste
liquor thus obtriiiied is by preference used as a steep-
liquor for the fiist part of the process, viz , the digestion
iu the tanks The borax lipuor run ctff is then treated
for borax, the liquor being first filtered thmuijn a bed
of animal charcoal to remove thf odoriug matter, and
afterwards biuled down aU'' crystalised in the ordt ,ary
way. By this means a cheap and valuaiile ngent in
the treatment of the fitire is said to be secured as the
proces refines the cruue borax of the country at tho
same time the tibi e is treated. In the production of
sulphurous acid, the crude sulphur of the country i.s
used either in the form of native sulphur or pyrites,
iu the ordinary maimer, with the precaution of passing
the gas or fumes through a washer containing water
to which sulphite of soda has been added, or milk of
lime, so as to neutralise or eliminate anv sulphuric
acid which may form. The sulphurous acid 'may also be
made by fusing together the crude sulphur mentioned
and sulphate nf iron in a retort, ivhen sulphide of iron
will be foimtd and sulphurous acid given olf. The
sulphide of irt'U is used over again for the fresh
formation of sulphate of iron, and so on continuously.
Sulphurous acid is also formed by passing the fumes
of buniiug su phur or pyrites througb a tower filled
with vegetable charcoal, sawdust, pith from the yucca,
or such like material arranged on the principle of the
scrubber of gas works. The .sidpbur.ius acid thus
absorbed in the before mentioned material may be easily
driven oif for use from a retort, and may be employed
without washing, if re(iuirei.l. Fur common'^r descrip-
tions of paper the borax solution m ly b'- lisp. ; «e '. with,
and a simple dige.stiou with sulphurous acid may he
effected by allowing the moist fibre to absorb a larger
quantity of the acid gas than previously stated, or
about equal to the gas to be evolved from ten parts
(more or less) of sulphur to one hundred parts, dry
weight, of fibre under treatment, and steamed in the
same for about four hours in a closed or covered
vessel. The liquor formed is run oflt and used as a
steeping .solution. The fibre is then washed in a warm
weak solution of carbonate of soda, to i>rep.'ire it for
bleaching and for softening the filire. This liquor may
also be used in the steeping operition. In either case
the material is now really for Ideaching, which may be
etfectfd in the ordinary manner or by any known or
conveutent means; but for high-class paper it is pie-
ferred to bleach with hypncblorite of magnesia, instead
of hypochlorite of lime, the former being less injurious
to the fibre, and imparting a brightnr color. — Indinn
jlf/ricultitrist.

OX POTTING PLANTS.
Anion;' the firsL-learnt operations iu plant cultivation
crocking p"tji and potting plants are to a young
beginner two of the most important. As ganieii
boys we were first taught hew a pot intended to
contain a jiiant should be draineil, and in due time
we were allowed to take our place at the potting
bench, when in our own opinion we were fully tledged
gardeners. To i man whose apprenticcshiji was spent
under a good and careful master, by whom all that
it was important for the beginner to know with
regard to potting and such elementary work was
carefully explained at the outset, a chapter on such
a subject will be of little value, and he may justly
remark on seeing this that he and all properly trained
gardeners have learned long ago all there is to know
bout potting. But, unfortunately, there are uot a

626

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

few men who from cue cause or another have not
been properly grouuded in the operation of potting,
and that it is so every gardeuer finds out often to
his cost. Recently at a meeting of a gardeners'
society, of which the writer is a member, the chapter
in Lindley'fi "Theory of Horticulture," which treats
on potting, was read and discussed ; and although
everyone seemed to think he knew how to pot a
plant properly, much was said that showed how
some at least did not riphtiy comprehend the oper-
ation, whilst one or two supported views which if
acted upon could not but result in disastrous conse-
quences. This, therefore, is the excuse for writing
a chapter upon the sutiject.

Some useful advice was given by Mr. Muir at
page 232 on how to drain flower pots ; but one or
two flaws occur in what he has said — notably where
h e suggests that an inverted pot should be placed
over the hole in the bottom of large pots. Now we
all know that the first object to be attained by drainage
is a free and const-ant outlet for the water from
the soil above, and thus it is that where crocks
only are used we are always careful to place over
the hole at the bottom of the pot a large one with
the concave pide downwards. But a small even-
rimmed pot placed over the hole i& practically the
same as placing a flat crock or a piece of glass
over it. This will be apparent to anyone who observes
how closely the rim of a small pot when inverted
over a flat surface will touch all round. By break-
ing a few nitcbes in the rim of the small pot to be
used as drainage the danger of blocking the hole
of the pot drained is obviated. In Liudley's book
an excellent plan is mentioned for preventing worni.s,
&c., getting into the pot through the hole at the
bottom when placed upon the ground. He says, "To
remedy this I put at the bottom a piece of per-
forated zinc so as to completely cover the hole.
Upon this a large crock is placed with the convex
side upwards." For large plants ^/liich are stood out
of doors during a portion of the year this zinc trap
seems an excellent suggestion.

The depth of drainage used always varies with
the requirements of the plant — Orchids and a few
other plants, generally epiphytal ones, requiring a
larger amount of drainage thnu others. Bearing in
mind that for plants which are intended to remain
in the same pot for several years the more drainage
used the less soil room there is, it will be seen
that a thin layer of crocks if properly placed will
be better than a thick one. The roots of a plant
when growing in a pot very soou reach the bottom,
where they generally continue growing round, ami
seldom — with strong-rooted plants never— find tlieir
way baok into the soil again. Where a thick layer
of crocks is used it will be seen that the majority
of the feeding roots have no food supplied them
other than that contained in the water when pass-
ing through the soil and rocks. AVhere crushed bones
are used as drainage the case is different, as the
bones afford more nourishment to the roots than
ordinary soil would. If a shallow layer of soil is
preferred it is always advantageous to use shallow
pots or pans instead of having a deej) layer of drain-
age beneath the soil, which has the effect of allow- ,
iug the wator to escape from the soil tjuicker than ,
is good for the plant. So long as .stagnation is pre-
vented it is better for all terrestrial plants that j
they be so situated as to have the soil about tlieir I
roots kept moist without too frequent waterings, the
effect of which is to completely decompose the soil i
or make it sour. For plants in very warm houses |
this precaution is of special importance. I

Shiftiny plants into pots of larger size is an operation '
requiring some knowledge of the nature of the
plants, and also depends not a little on the health
and size of each. Consideriug first those plants wl.ich
are slow growers, and therefore do not extend |
their roots very far in a year, such as Ericas, Epacrises,
Pimeleas, and other hardwooded plants, the (iiu;stion
arises, is it better to treat these plants on the one-
shift syAtem, as recotumended by Dr. Liudley, or !

to give them repeated shifts, such as would be no
more than the roots would take complete possession
of in a year? If it is admitted that soil deterior-
ates rapidly when frequently watered or when placed
in heat, it must be apparent that to place a plant
in a large body of soil which could not be occupied
by the roots for several years is a system not to
be recommended. There can be no question of the
many advantages of the repeated or gradually in-
creasing shift over that of the one-shift sj-stem —
that is for plants which are being grown from small
into large specimens, and which are slow growers.
Many plants — such, for instance, as Pelargoniums,
Balsams, Fuchsias, &c. — will under favourable treat-
ment grow to a very large size iu a single season,
8ome of the softwooded quick-gowing Heaths also
considerably increase in size in a year: for all such
plants a much larger pot is advantageous. But we
must remember that with very few exceptions the
plants we grow are wanted to flower every year.
Now, it is a well-knowr fact that under ordinary
conditions a plant in a pot of proper size — i.e., such
as its roots would about fill iu a year — flowers more
freely than when planted out, or when grown in a
larger pot than is required for one season's growth.
The pot cramps the roots, causes the wood to mature
quickly, and so induces the plant to flower. AVe
know that the smaller the pot under ordinary con-
ditions the greater the dispo.sitiou to flower, so that
by placing our plants in pots containing only enough
soil to afford them the conditions required for the
growth and maturation of the wood formed in one
season, we are eusured a supply of flowers which
would probably otherwise have failed us. From
this it will be s^r^en that the safest and best system
to adopt with regard to repotting and shifting is
the annual and not the one-shift system, or, in
other words, the placing of the plant at an early
stage of its growth in a pot large enough to contain
it for the following six or eight years.
■ Shifting plants is a different operation from that
of shaking out and repotting, which is practised only
for such plants as are deciduous or require a long
season of complete rest. This operation is usually
performed after the plants have been rested, cut
cack, or pruned, and started into growth again. As
soon as the buds begin to show signs of activity is
the time to shake out from the roots of the plants
all the old soil and prune the roots somewhat, after-
wards placing them in pots of a size only large
enough to att'ord them support for a few weeks.
Whatever may be said to the contrary, there can
be no question as to the wisdom of this method
as comiiared with that sometimes recommended, and
whicli is to repot the plants during their rest and
not before j/rowth has recommenced. A little con-
sideration of one of the simplest laws of plant
physiology is sufhcient to condemn the latter practice.
(It must be borne in mind that we are now dis-
cu.ssing plants cultivated in pots, which afford con-
ditions very different from those to which plants
growing naturally are exposed.)

The firmness of the soil is another point of some
importance to the cultivator of plants in pots. Some
growers, successful ones too, put the softest wooded
and quickest growing plants much firmer than m««ny
would advise. Some of the best IVlargoniums I have
ever seen were grown iu a stifT loam pressed down
as hard as a hrick. Tlu sc plants wt're in rather
small pots, but it Avas a revelation to one who liad
been taught to pot hardwooded plants very firmly
and softwooded plants loosely. A prize Mignonette
grower used to say h:s success was due to hard pot-
ting and bones, and his plants were in soil as hard
almo&t as stone. They were bush and standard
Mignonettes, such as we seldom Fee 'now. In this
matter, however, much depends on the quality of
the soil and the aim of the cultivator; still, the fol-
lowing general rules may be pointed to — viz., all
fine-rooted plants may be potted firmly (;dways except-
ing annuals), very fine-rooted plants with hard wood
requiring the soil to be rammed hard. The harder

March i, 1886.] .THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

627

tbo soil is pressed about tile roots tlie more saud or
its equivalent should be mixed with the soil. For
the production of flowers firm potting is an important
factor ; for foliage and quick growth loose potting
is best.

lu conclusion, a word of warning may be uttered
agaiust filling the pots too full of soil, so that in-
sufficient room is left for watering. The more soil
a pot contains the more water will be required to
thoroughly moisten it when dry. This seems plain
enough, but, as was said by oue of those who took
part in the discussion above referred to. " AH these
simple matters are plain enough, but many gardeners
fail to see the importance of observing them. We
all know how to jjot a plant perhaps, but we do
not all pot it properly." — 'W. N. — Joiimal ./' Horii-
enltire.

WOOD.

KY JOHN WOODLAND, F. L. S., &C.

{Read before the Chemi-^ts' As.sistant.-i' As^tociation.)

AVood is a hard, permanent, cellular, and vascular
structure formed by plants, liy them it is used, in
a younger state, for mechanical support and to convey
fluids; in an oUler conditiou, still as a support, anil
to contain secretions peculiar to the plauts. The
following woods are useil when elasticity is required:
ash. hazel, hickory, lancewood, and yew.

The following are in use when toughness is required,
combined with elasticity: beech, elm, hornbeam, oak,
and walnut.

For durability in dry situations, cedar, chestnut,
oak, poplar, and yellow pine are chosen.

For colouring purposes, Brazil wood, camwood, log-
wood, and Nicaragua wood are used to furnish a red,
green ebony a green, and fustic a yellow colour.

For shipbuilding, elm, fir, larch, pine, and teak are
u.scd.

For piles, as supports for piers or landing-stages,
&c . alder, beech, elm, oak, and plane are in common use.

For housebuilding purposes, the ash, chestnut, fir,
oak, pine, and sycamore are much used.

Where hard woods are required, box, lignum vit;e,
and mahogany are servicable.

Timber is wood which has been prepared from trees
or shrubs, so as to be fit and durable for the pur-
pose for which it is selected. When soft or moder-
ately soft wooded trees are to be felled, raid-winter
is the best period of the year, on account of their
containing the lea.st amount of sap at that time; the
next best period being the middle of summer, as, al-
though at this latter period there is a large quantity
of fluid in the stem, still there is not the same
amount of nitrogenous fermeutAble principles as are
found in spring and autumn. If the tree be a hard-
wood one the period of the year at whiih it is felled
does not matter to any great extent. In order to
render the wood fit for timber it must be thoroughly
seasoned by slow drying. In this process the sap is
as well as possible evaporated, so that fermentation
and decomposition are avoided, and the wood is shrunk
to its furthe.st limit; the time usually required for
this to be accomplished is from two to three years. If
the wood is to be u.sed in an exposed position the
moisture with which it naturally comes into contact
would be liable with the constituents of the sap to cause
decomposition, hence water-seasoning is frequently
resorted to. A running stream being chosen, the logs
of wood are sank in it for about two or three weeks,
after which they are taken out and seasoned by slow
drying; in this latter process all the con.stituents of
the saji are washed away, and fermentation or de-
composition is thus prevented. Other means employed
to preserve wood which is exposed to moisture from
the soil, such as gati -posts, telegraph-poles, hope-poles,
and railway-sleepers, are (1) charring the outer sur-
face, V>y which the carlion set free, together with
other products formed and remaining outside, help
to preserve the interior from decay. (2) Vainting,
using with the paint fine sand, pumice, or finely-
powdered glass which has been previously incoqrarated. I

(3) Immersing and standing in bitumen, tar, or
creasote ; in either of which cases the wood is pene-
trated to the centre by the preservative material.
(i) The process termed " kyani.sing," which is now
obsolete, and consisted of impregnating the wood
with perchloride of mercury by means of a solution
of the salt. (5) A proces.'i called " Uurnettising,"
which has proved so successful at Woolwich, and
consists of soaking wood in a solution of zinc
chloride made in the proportions of 1 lb. of the
chloride to 5 gallons of water. A splendid example
of the preservative action of salt on wood is seen in
the salt-mines of Poland and Himgary, the wooden
supports in which have existed for ages.

M'ood, when exposed to a damp surface and not
well ventilated, is often attacked by fungi, commonly
called <lry-rot, merulius lachrymas, merulius vestator,
and polyporns destructor, kv., the mycelia of which
rapidly spread, till in time the hard wood is replaced
by a small powdery-looking sub,stance. As the fungus
only attacks wood when it is moist, the term " damp-
rot '' is obviously more correet. In spite of the sub-
stitution of iron for wood, as in making giders, in
buildings, articles of furniture, tools, tVc, the import-
ation up to IH8:i has steadily increased, the following
being the returns for the past three years, in loads
of 50 cubic feet each :— In 18S2, 6,320,8«3 loads • in
1S83 6,5it",427 loads; in 1884, 6,132,925 loads.

I will now proceed to enumerate some ordinary
woods, together with their sources and what pecu-
liarities they may furnish,

AIdfi\ obtained from Ahius. gtutinona^ Betulaeeie. —
This wood is especially adapted for withstanding the
action of water, hence is used in connection with
cog-wheels of millstones, pumps, drains, piles in water
or mud, h' els of wooden boots, &c. According to
Virgil the first boats that were constructed were made
of this wood. The best gunpowder is also made from
the charcoal furnished by the alder.

Asli, obtained from Fux'mus excelsior, Oleaceos. — This
wood is lighter in weight and more elastic than that
of the oak, and is less liable to be broken by a cross
strain, hence its use for billiard-cues, poles, ladders,
&c., but being fibrous it is more easily split than the
oak. The ash-tree when growing is regarded as being
a special attractor of lightning ; also the yule logs of
Christmas celebration were formerly furnished by this
tree.

Axptii, from Populii.itremiila, Salicaceie. — The wood
is not so good as that furnished by the white poplar,
being porous, soft, and white ; it is chiefly used for
field-gates, milk-pails packing-cases, &c.

Beech, from Fagiis si/lvatica, Oupulifer.-e. — The wood
is brittle and hard, but is apt to decay soon ; carpenters'
plane frames and other tool handlvs are made with
it, and cabinet-makers use it for shelves, kv. Next
to the oak this is the largest tree growing in England,
its height varying up to 100 feet, and at Hurnham
lieeches some splendid specimens can be seen. Of
this wood the Greek ship Argo was built, and in
ancient times the wine-bowls were made of it, and
hence the name of Bacchus, which we occasionally
see in connection with the wood.

Jiirrh, from Betula nlha, Betulaee:e. — This is one of
the aboriginal trees of our island, as shown by the
presence of twigs still retaining their silvery bark
which are found in the lower strata of the peat bogs
existing in the North of Kugland ami around Manchester.
The wood known as Norway birch is much used in
the Highlands and further south for making wicker
hunlles, tying fagots of wood, and thatching straw-
roofs, its advantages lying in its toughness, pliability,
and durability. It is from the bark of this tree that
an oil is yielded from which the peculiar odour of
Kussia leather is derived.

liriizil trood, obtained from Ctemilinnia ci-ista,
Leguminos.'e. — Tliis wood is used for dyenig purposes,
the colours obtained being red, rose colour, and yellow.
liratihlto irood is furnished by Ctenalptaia branUiensix,
and produces red and orange colours.

Box, from Buxuh ^ewpervireitu, Kuphorbiaceie. — The
box-wood of commerce comes from Turkey, Asia Minor,

628

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

Oircassia, Spain, and Portugal. This wood, being
very close-grained and heavy, is largely used by turuers,
engravers, and carvers, also for the manufacture of
mathbCQatical instruments and articles that will take
a high polish; the pure bitter it contains preserves
it from the attacks of insects.

Chevi'y. Frunui cerasunj Rosacea?. — This wood is
hard and tough, also light and porous; it is used by
turners and engravers and for constructing pipes.
These trees, when past fruit-bearing, wer»i in oldea
times considered to be the habitats of demous.

ChestiUitj from Castaneit ve.sca^ Cupuliftraj. — The
timber is chiefly used for beams and raters of houses,
heads and staves of casks, and as protecting gutters
for gas-pipes, &.C., underground. There is one plant
growing at Tortworth in (lloucestursliire moi-e than
1,100 years old. The diameter at base is 15 feet, and
by the last accounts received it still bears fruit.

Doyivood. Cornu.-i siinf/tiiftettj Cornaceie. — The wood
is used for preparing gunpuwder charcoal, and, on
account of its harnnes-*, for skewers, cogs for wheels, &.C.,
Eboiu/, from DlOf<pi/ros rheuns, or JJwspyrus ehetuister,
Ebenacere. — The hearbwood only of this tree is black,
and being very hard, durable, and wear-resisting, its
uses are many and various ; besides this wood, wliich
is known as *' Bastard Oeyion Ebony," we have a
black ebony yielded by JjUupz/ros mtlanoxi/lon., also a
fine variegated wood yielded l>y another species, namely
Dionpyros qwt.'^Ua, which makes haudso.ne fucuiture.
There are also red and green ebony woods.

KI<lti\ from Samhwus n i/j'(t, Caprifoliacece. — This
plant whilst youug grows with great rapidity, but
when it attains the height of from 20 to 30 feet,
its growth is arrested, and of these dimensions the
trea remains for a great length of time. "When young
the wood is soft, but. when old it becomes almost as
hard as boxwood, and in a variety of cases caii be
substituted for it; butcher's skewers an I tops of
fishing-rods are commonly made of this wood. The
Elder plant is reputed fo have retaliative powers, and
it is a custom at the present time in Lower Saxony
for the woodcutters to a^k permission (three times)
of the tree to fell it, these requests being accompanied
by an equal number of salivary ejectiuns. Permission
is taken for granted, as ;i. matter of course; but
should this form of ceremony be omitted, most dire
results are stiited to follow.

Elm, from Ulim's caiHpwtri<, Ulmaceie, next to the
oak, is the most common tre.^ in England. The wood
is hard, finely grained, and hence not apt to crack.
It is us';d for the keels of vessels and woolen fittings
of ships, also for cart-wheels aud coffins; it attains
its maturity at an age varying between seventy and
eighty years.

The Ifych Elm, from U/mi'.s montana^ Ulmaceje,
furnishes a wood that is both strong and elastic, hence
isused for spade-handles, garden-forks, ;mii1 rake-handles.
The goarled wuud is largely used by cabinetmakers
for veneering. Both this and the preceding elms furnish
woods which are tough aud not readily acted upon
by water.

Fir-trees belong to th^ genus Ahie.^ nf tlie natural
order Goni ferae ; they were formerly called "fire-trees'"
on account of the inflammability of their wood, due
to the oleoresiu it contains. These trees having a
conical shape can thus be told from what are term d
"Pine-trees"; one fir-tree (Afjiea e.vro/sa) is the tallest
in Europe, its average height being 150 feet. lu
obtaniing the \\\jod of these trees, the liussian peasant
chops them down, hut will not uproot them, as an
elf of a revengeful disposition is supposed to take
up his abode in the neck of the plant, and if disturbed
wdl retaliate on the evict or of his tenancy.

Ahiifi ea-cdsd is the Norway sprufo. and furnishes
the white deal used so much for liuildiug purposes.
Abies jiina is the silver fir. The stems of each of
these fir-trer-s are largely used for making ma'its of
vessels, telegraph-poles, signal-poles, and building
planks, ami also for splitting up into matibes.

Pn$ticy oWtained frum Jlachcru iinctorin, Moracero. —
The wood in chips is largely used as a dyeing ag'ont,
on account of the colour it contains.

Guaiacuiii, from Guaiacum ojic^'iia/e, Zygophyllaceie. — ■
This wood (the heartwood of the plant) is commonly
called " lignum vit;e " on account of its durability and
hardness; it is pecuUar, in that the fibres composing
it cross each other diagonally, so that cleavage of the
wood is difficult. It is much used for making rulers,
skittle-balls, wheels and cogs of sugar-mills, pulleys,
kc; in parquet-fiooring, by heating the tlat pieces
of lignum vitie the natural resin exudes and aids in
agglutinating it to its neighbouring pieces.

Hazel, from Con/lt'.s a vellana, CuiialUen'e. — The wood
is very tough and flexible, hence it is used in making
hurdles, crates, fishing-rods, hoops for casks, &c. A
forked twig of hazel is stated to have the power,
when held in the hand of a suitable person and
pointing to the ground, of a divining-rod, by direct-
ing the holder to a place underneath which water
exists.

Hicl'oiy, from Can/a (dha, Juglandacere. — The wood
is tough and elastic, and will stand prolonged strains ;
it is used for fishing-rods, walking-sticks, Canadian
paddles, kc.

Jlornbeam, from Carpinua betuiiis, Cupulifene. — The
wood is hard, tough, and white; it will burn like a
candle, so with frayed ends will act as a temporary
torch. It is chiefly used for the manufacture of agri-
cultural implements and the cogs of mill-wheel.

iMiicttrunJ, obtained from Dtujuetia quitortnsis, Anon-
acere, or, according to another authority, Guatteria
viryata. — This wood is tough and elastic to a very
high degree, and being at the same time of light
weight it is admirably adapted for making shafts of
carriages, bows and arrows, fishing-rods, and lances.

Larch, obtained from ImvLv Ei/vopcen, Conifer*. —
The wood is fit to use for timber when the tree is
forty yea'S old; it has a reddish or reddish-brown
tinge, but there is a great objection to its use on
account of its warping, even after having been seasoned.
The wood is apt to be attacked when growing, by
the dry-rot, owing to the tree growing on badly-
drained soils. It was formerly and superstitiously
believed that the wood was impenetrable by fire.
The American larch, called *' hackmatack," is a heavy
and cros.>-grained wood.

Lim€f obtained from T/Ua Kuvopnea, Tillacesa. — This
wood, called commonly "linden-wood," is used by
carvers and turners owing to its being closed-grained
and smooth.

MahoyQui/ from Livittt-nia Mahoyoni, Cedreliaceie. —
This well-known wood is valuable for its hardness, fine
colour, durability, aud smoothness; it is sent from
Central America aud ttie West Indies. When a tree
is discovered, a stage is erected about 12 feet high,
the branches are removed, and *hen the stem cut
down; great difficulty is often experienced in con-
veying the trunks to the river, down which they float
until stopped by a cable drawn across the stream;
rafts are then made of the prices which are chosen,
these being conveyed to their destination. Some trees
have been known to produce as much as 1,(W0^ each.

Mtiple (ivi/), from Acrr nfl/ruju, Aurana;. — A variety
of this produces curled maple, so called from the
accidental undulation of the fibres; it is one of the
most ornamental woods known, and exceeds in richness
and lustre the finest Mahogany. It is used for furniture-
making, and als'o for making stocks of rifles and
fowling-pieces.

Mtiph, (.<:.'/(/ar), Acer sacdu/riiium, Aurana^;. — This
furnishes the so-called " birdseye maple," and is highly
prized for furniture-making. Fair Rosamond is rep.ited
to have taken her fatal draught from a bowl made
of r.i'iple.

M<iiiiitii(n Aah, or Ilonniit-tne, Pyrns finritpai iii,
Hosace.'i'. — The timber is nnich used for carriage and
cart wheels.

()<ih, from Qmrnis ro'mr, Cupulifera\--This tree in
temperjite climates is the hirgt^st in size, the longest
lived, tlie hanlest and most durable as reganls its
timber, and the most common of trees. In warmer
climat'S the wood grows morti quickly, aud is con-
sequently not so hard or durable. The ordinary height
is 00 to SO feet, its maximum age fifli-en renturies.

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

629

AVhen au ouk feuce is built up with iron uails the
black streaks rau be seeu ruuuing ilowu from the
nails, owing to a kiuil of iuk being foimeil from the
iron ami the tannic acid of tlie wood. The oak which
has stalked acorns furuishes the best timber, which
possesses great strength, tenacity, and durability.
The white or American oak, Qmrciis alha. has a
reddish timber, which, though more elastic than the
English kind, is not so durable. Ked oak, ijuerru.-^
riihrii, furuishes a ileep-coloured timber, which, being
coarser in texture, is not so useful.

i'ear, from I'l/rn.i en,ii„iii,iis, Rosace.v.— The variety
furnishing the "hard or baking pears has a very hard
wood, which is u.sed chietly for musical iutsrumeuts,
tool-handlct kc.

riue-trees belong to a genus called /•!« «.<, t'oniterw. —
The trees can be told from fir-trees by being more
or less flat at the top, where nearly all the branches
congregate.

.Vpo<i-/( Fh; Piniis sp/vestris, yielils the timber known
as D^tntzic or Riga fir, and Russian deal. It grows
from 00 to 100 feet high, and is fit for timber at the
age of fifty or si.\ty years. The best cjuality timber
is from trees that have grown in cold situations, such
timber equalling the oak in duration. J'iiins sti-nlnis
furnishes the white pine or deal of the United States ;
it is called the '• Weymouth I'ine." The wood is
used for bowsprits aud yards of men-of-war. riiimi
mitii and I'in'tf iia/ii.~tns furnish yellow pine or deal.
The latter pine will grow in very sterile soils, yet
yields a wood which is more compact, stronger, and
durable than that obtained from the other species.
The least valuable of the pines is T'iniis tifda. or
" loblolly piue," the timber of which decays on e.'sposure
to air. The uses of pine-trees are similar to those
of fir-trees.

Plane, from Platanus occulentalis, PlatanaceK". — The
wood is a fiue-graiued one, and becomes of a dull red
colour in the sea.soning; it is occasionally used by
cabinet-makers, but quickly decajs it exposed to tha
weather. The leaves of this plant are u.sed by the
Grecian lovers to ensure constancy; on their parting.
a leaf is torn in halves, one half being retained by
each : on meeting again the two halves are fitted
together.

Poplar, from Prpulus alba, Salicacese. — Wood is
white, light in weight, and soft; it is not used for
any purpose iu particular, though that of the Canadian
poplar, P<ypi>h/s moinlifertf, is largely used for flooring.
One poplar, namely, the balsam poplar, Poimim hal-
saiiiiftia, in the form of timber, is quickly rotted by
water, like the wood of the horse-chestnut, hence,
to protect the young buds of these trees from moist-
ure, as rain. &c., we find a thick covering of resin
present during winter aud spring.

Santffiftrooil, fron) Snntohon ollnin, Sautalacese.—
This wood is sent from Malabar and the East Indian
Islands. It is used for making small articles of cabinet-
furniture, and its order prevents insects or wornis
attacking it.

f^phidle-tief, from Ehoiii/mux Enropiri/n, Celas-
traceae — This wood is hard, white, and finely-grained
it is used for musical iusrruments, netting-needles,
spindles Chence the name of the tree), aud skewers.
In France gunpowder-charcoal is obtained from it.
and the yotnig shoots when charred form a rough
drawing-pencil.

T''^^k. or Indian oak, from 7Vc/oii« ///unr/if, Verben-
aceav — This wood is light aud easily worked, being
at the same time very strong and tlurable. It is
largely ns^-d in ship-building.

Tf)rtoi<e'VOoil, so called from the resemblance of the
wood to tortoiseshell. is "Iitai'iid from (itwttiiriht
.tp'^ri'is'i., Kuhiace:i*. aTid tli.- sa!u*' plant is by snme
authorities said to yield I In- .stripetl or zebra wood
used by cabinet-makers.

Wahitif, from Jiiyljin.i »';)it,, .IuglandacP:e. — Tl'is is
now largely in nse for furniture, in whi-.h its rich
deep brown and beautifully-marked wood cun be seen
to a^lvantage. liefore the introducti.m of mahogany
this was almo.st exclusively used for furniture-making.
It is also used for gun-»t<ieks. lut it is lighter in

proportion to its strength and elasticity than any
other wood. Black walimt, from Jnultins nit/ra, furn-
ishes a strong and tenacious wood, ^and when well
seasoned is not liable to warp or split; it is also
seciu'e from the attacks of insects. It is commonly
believeil in the country that high winds swaying the
branches of the walnut or whipping the walnut-tree
improves both the yield aud the quality of the fruit
hence the saying: —

A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut tree.
The more you whip them the better they be.
Williin-s. — The (Joat Willow, or Sallow, Halixrapnrn,
furnishes the best willow- timber ; when growing as a
coppice-plant it furnishes hoops, iioles, mui] rods for
crates. The timber of the willow is white, soft, aud
light, the best-stasoned kinds being very durable. The
dwarf-willows, ^ul'tx vuiiindlis and Sniix tuhiit., are
propagated by cuttings for f irnishing osiers or willow-
shoots, from which hampers, baskets, &c. , are made.
Yiic, from I'oxuft baceata, Taxaceie. — The wood is
peculiaily hard, smooth, anil tough, and was formerly
used for making bows; it is beautifully veined auil
will take a high polish, heuce is used by cabinet-makers
for veneering purposes ; being very hard aud durable
it is used for cogs for mill-wheels, axles, aud also
floodgates of rivers, which scarcely every decay.
— Clumist and Dniggist.

♦

fxORSE AS FOOD FOR CATTLE.
In reply to A. C. H. O., judging from the area for
which we supply seed every year, we should say that
gorse is still prized as food for cattle; indeed, there
is no doubt that it is good for stock of all kinds.
The time, too, when it can be used (from November
to April I renders it additionally valuable. In feeding
horses, Youatt gives, as the equivalent of 20 lb. of gorse,
5 lb. of straw, the ordinary ration of beans, and H lb.
of oats. It is excellent for milch cows, causing them
to yield au abundance of rich milk, the butter being
of superior flavour. As far as we can ascertain, the
best machine for bruising it is the (Jorse JIasticator,
by T. Mckenzie it Sons, 212, Great Brunswick-.street,
Dublin. — Tames Oartkr & Co. (237 and 238, High
Holborn, London, Jan. 4.)

In answer to A. C. 11. O., I can say that I have
found gorse first-class food for young cattle, calves of
three mouths old doing well on it if mixed with pulped
carrots, swedes, cabbages, or even turnip leaves, when
they are to be had. The gorse must be grown on fair
land aud on soft shale rock ; that on poor clay and
certain sorts of rock is not worth gathering. I should
be glad to hear of a good crusher or masticator ; all I
have .seen are either too heavy or too tedious for a
one-horse turning gear. Water and steam power I
have not.— 0. F. V.—Fiehl.

[As gorse grows freely at Nuwara Eliya when milk
in the sea.son is in good demand, the above ought to
afford a hint to the owners of milch cows. — En.]

ROOT FUNGI AND TREE ROOTS.
You have done well to give on p. 80 an abstract of
the startling idea recently advocated by Dr. Frank and
Dr. Worouni, and .iccepted as correct by I'rof. De
liary. The iilea is, as you point out, that certain fungi
fuuuil on the roots of Oaks, Beeches, Sweet Chest-
nuts, Hornbeams, Hazels, and Willows, together with
the root-fungi of Conifers, are the agents by which
the tree obtains its ".soil food," the fungi in tiu-u
being fed by the juices of the tree. Tree and fungus

, riiulujiy help each other to live; so say fho thrive
Doctors! It is well that the daidriiers' Ckroiiirb do«>»

' !H)t sav the case has been '■ pruv.-.l," but counsels '"an
attitudi; of inti-iligent expectancy, on the part of those
who are not in a position to add either proof or dis-
proof." It is not neces.-ary to ask what the opini<m
of horticulturists, foresters, and gardeners is as regards
this matter. Their opinion is perfectly well known
and generally accepted as correct and reasonable, viz ,
that root fungi of all sorts eau.se the death of trees,
that when young trees are planted in positions where
root fungi iilniiuid the trees cannot live, luid that

630

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

when trees are transplanted from fungus-infested
positions to positions free from root-fungi they
recover. Dr. Frank says ho fcjunj the fungus
present ''in every root nxamiueil, belonging totheCupuli-
fera;, also occasionally oa .Salicicfju and Ooniferie,
but not on woody plants belonging to other natural
orders." It will be seen from this that the Oupulifera;
are exceptional in the possession of root-fungi. Tlic
facts mentioned by the French and German botanists
in reference to the vital cohesion of root fungi and the
roots of trees are no doubt quite correct, but the idea
of the tree-roots and their fungi deriving mutual sup-
port from each other I consider fallacious. That the
roots of Cupulifer:e show a partiality for a soil ricli in
humus, as stated by Dr. Frank, I also consider a
fallacy. Do the roots of the Conifene. too, show this
partiality, or do they show the contrary y I have long
kept up a M.S. list of fungi as observed in liritain
peculiar to certain natviral orders of plants, and in this
list theC'upuliferre is quite exceptional and phenomenal
as regards the number of species of fungi by which
the members are attacked. Next after the Cupulifer.'e,
as regards large numbers of fungi, comes the Coni-
ferje. Some natural onlers of plants are not attacked
at all, they have neitlier leaf- fungi nor root-fuugi.
The common number of fungi peculiar to any natural
order is about twelve or twenty, some have only one
or two, but when the Cupuliferse are studied there
are more than 400 fungi found only on the members
of this uautral order. In the Coniferpe I have 239
fungi on my list. Some live on the living leaves, others
on the dead leaves, many on the living wood, others
on the dead wood and roots. As the members of the
OupuliferK are i)lagued with more than 400 fungi
peculiar to themselves it follows that the ground
beneath the trees and the roots in the ground are
liable to be infested with the innumerable spores and
abundant fungus mycelium of 400 different fungi. The
Ooniferaj, as I have said, have their complement of at
least 239. If we turn to the Tiliaceje or Limes, we
seldom find root-fungi, the trunks, branches, and leaves
are also comparatively free, for, when all the fungi
are told belonging to this natural order, they do not
amount to twenty. When the spores of the 400 fungi
peculiar to the Cupuliferai, and the spores of the 23.0
fungi peculiar to the Ooniferaj, fall to the ground and
germinate, they in many instances necessarily attack
the roots and rootlets, for the material of the tree,
living or dead, is the natural pahvl/mi of the fungi.
Many root-fuugi are well known in their perfect con-
dition as destructive parasites, and a printed list
could easily be given of them. Dr. Worooin comes
to the startling conclusiou that the root-fungi probably
belong to the genus Boletus, as if the mycelium of
only one fungus attacked tree roots. His guess could
not have been more unfortunate, for if there is any
one genus of fungi more purely non-parasitic than
another it is the genus B )letus. There is, however,
as in this case, no rule (or genus) without an exception.
There are several other astonishing delusions in the
account as published in the Uerichte dcr Dcntscli hot.
UesdUchnft^ as the idea that " root hairs are not
formed" in trees affected with root-fungi. To '* settle"
the fact that the trees above mentioned do not form
root hairs would be quite as difficult as, or even more
difficult than, th(i task i\Ir. .JeTisen set himself when
he set about counting the fungus spores in the dirty
water which trickled out of the bottom of a flower
pot. That the •* <liscovery " "la comparable in all
essential points to that of lichens " (referring, as the
authors do, to the Schwendenerian hypothesis), the
root-fuugi "corresponding with the fungal element,
the tree itself (!) to the algal goiddia (!)," I quite
agree, for there is an equal amount of bad interpret-
ation of facts in both " discoveries. — Worticinoton
G, Smith, Dunstable. — (itii'di^ni'i:^' Chronicle.

CATARRH OF THE BLADDER.

Stinging irritation, iuflamation, all Kidney and simi'
lar Complaints, cured by '' liuohu-paiba."

W. K. Smith & Co., Madras. Sole Agents.

GUTTAPEHCHA: ITS HISTORY, COMMERCE
AND SUPPLY.
Whilst in Singapore, ray heart often ached when
I have fallen across clearings for pepper, gambler,
and the like, to see with what recklessness mighty
monarchs of the forests are cut, or rather burnt
down in all directions, unused and unutihsed trunks
rotting on the ground. But tliis is not the worst, for
as soon as such a spot has borne two or three crops,
a fresh location is chosen and cleared iu like man-
ner. The neglected and abandoned spots are speedily
covered with secondary jungle, often covered and
choked wtth lalang {.liitlrojioi/oii curicosnt:)* to the
exclusion of all else, a pKa'nt whose roots are so
stout as to defy a "chankol" or hoe, and prove a
constant pest to planters from the rapidity with which
it spreads. Thus it is that localities where products
formerly were in plenty, now are altogether devoid
of them, and the products have to be sought far
away. With regard to guttapercha, the number of
trees yielding it which have been destroyed is almost
incredible.

Dr. Oxley calculated that to supply the 6,018 piculs
(1 picul=lb3;i lb.) exported from Singapore, from the
1st of January, 1H45, to lS47, the enormous number
of 69,180 trees had to be destroyed, and the state- .
ment is by no means overdrawn. A writer in the
Sarairuk Gazette says, that from 1854 to 1875 over
90,000 piculs of guttapercha have been e.xported from
that di,strict alone, a quantity which means the death
of at least 3,000,000 trees. And these are only two
instances, the first .shewing the trade in its infancy,
and the second that of a limited and comparatively
small producing locahty. In fact, the guttapercha
troe has only been saved from utter annihilation
because youiuj trees do not yield a sufficiency of gutta
to repay the cost of extraction. In some districts,
indeed, the forests have been so denuded as to ne-
cessitate waiting for a period of ten or twelve years
before any fresh gutta can be collected. It seems
clear, however, that the growth of young trees of the
best varieties has not been able to keep pace with
the destruction, as they have and are still becoming
scarcer, so that recourse now, more than ever, has
to be had to the products of very inferior varieties.
At the present time there is a great ditfiulty in
obtaining supplies of the best varieties, and manufact-
urers require them in much larger quautities than are
now obtaiuable. Especially is this the fact with
regard to guttapercha for telegraphic purposes, to meet
the deniaud for the construction of new lines, and
the maintenance of existing ones, and no substance
has yet been found to be used as a complete sub-
stitute, or a supplementary one to fine guttapercha.
Now it will be granted, I trust, that the necessary
supplies to meet this constant and increasing demand
will not be forthcoming if sjjeedy means be not taken
to assure it, and this can only be met by having re-
course sooner or later to conservation, acclimation,
and cultivation of the trees yielding the best varieties.
In the Straits' Settlements a splendid opportunity
now presents itself to take this matter in liand.
We are now iu the possession of more power and
influence in the Malayan States of the Peninsula than
ever we were before, and by means of Her Britannic
Majesty's Residents and other officials in tliese various
states, can do much in taking charge of the forests,
conserving them and introducing the cultivation of
these trees for the benefit of the community at large.
This wouM be far better than leaving such valuable
state property to the tender mercies of rajahs and

* In one article I wrote, iu a foot note I recom-
mended this pl.ant as a "sand binding plant." The
W^ar Office and the Suez Canal Company have taken
notice of tlie matter; I trust they will try the e.x-
perinient. Thusi' who have been through the Canal
know well the clouds of sand that greet them, and
if the banks were well bound down the verdure
would be a pleasant sight, save much dredging and
many stoppages.

March i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

631

other native rulers, who, for the most part,' for there
are honourable exceptions, look only to iiiuiiediate
returns, aud lose sight altogether of future benefit
to the States. Ky letting or "farming"' out these
forests for the colleetion of gutta and other products, the
working expenses of conservancy would be secured, and
by a small royalty-charge ou export au a^ldition to
the revenue obtained. A clause, to be stringently
enforced, should be inserted in all such contracts, to
the effect that for every tree cut down, four to six
should be planted in the place thereof. I am tlie
more anxious that the question of guttapercha,
amongst other spontaneous forest products, should re-
ceive t'ue attention, from the opinion I have formed
that Singapore will not long retain in the face of so
many direct shipments, her position as a great East-
ern entrepot, unless new fields are opeud up by (com-
mercial enterprise, and this can only be done by util-
ising the undeveloped resources of the great JUalayan
Peninsula.

THE CCLTIVATION OF GtJTTAPEECHA TREES AND IJI-
PROVEMEXT OF THEIR PRODUCTS.

Mode of Obtaining Guttapercha. — As is the case with
a great number of other products, the trees are
destroyed to obtain the Guttapercha. In my report
on caontchouc, to the Indian Government, I strongly
recommended '* tapping," and I think that it is now
proved beyond all doubt that if the process is carried
out as I there indicated, it is not only practicable,
but all a vast saving, and a most economical method
of working a forest of such trees.

"With regard to guttapercha, I am, I must con-
fess, somewhat in tioubt as to whether *' tapping"
or only cutting through the bark to cut tlirough
the milk-bearing vessels as the tree is standing, is
practicable ; whether, indeed, it is possible to get a
sufticiency of gutta to repay collection without cutting
the tree down. A reference to the woodcuts will ren-
der this method more easily understood.

The '.\ativc evidence is nearly overwhelming; still
this mofj arise from indolence — a wish at one oper-
ation to obtain the greatest possible quantity \vithout
a thought to future supply, or from the absence of
a sufficient aggregation of the trees within a reasonable
distance to obtain a sufticient quantity to repay
collection. (Juttapercha does not flow so readily as
caoutchouc does, but concretes more rapidlv. T he
yield in the rainy season is nearly double that of
the dry season, due, possibly, to two reasons : First.
that nature ba,s not yet been called upon to use
up the guttapercha in the elaboration of new tissues ;
or, secondly', the greater amount of moisture causing
greater tiuidity in the milk. The Dutch Government
tried to induce the natives to practice '' Tapping," but
without effect. " Boring,"as practised iu America, in pro-
curing maple-sugar from the Acer sacchonnum^ and
other 8i>ecies, has also been tried, but without
success. However, "tapping" guttapercha trees can
only be properly tried iu a well-regulated plantation,
and, if successful, will be a great saving, as the
quantity obtaiued by successive tapping far exceeds
in the aggregate, that of the single operation of
cutting the tree down.

I'uplcmcnts and i'ofh'cting Vc^scJx. — If it be proved
that nothing short of the death of the plant will do
in onler to extract the gutta, then at least a third
more gutta can be obtained by providing wedges, roll-
ers, or other simple niechauica) contrivances, in order
to allow of the extraction of the gutta on the sicle
of the felled tree next the ground. The beliongs,
pirang.H, and pans are well adapted for their purpose,
and, being cheap, need not be superseded, as natives
are as equally prejudiced against new tools as against
new customs.

I'rcp-1 ration of the GvAtapevcha. — The utilisable pro-
duets existing in plants suggest a moiit important
(|uesfcion in phyto-cheniistry. As to what their use
and characteristics are whilst in the plant, we know
little, and that little is almost entirely limited to, and
inferred from the products after they are taken//-"»i
the plant. Thus indigo does not exist, as such, iu
the plant itself, but is the result of fermentation (xftt^r

the juice is extracted from the plant. Sugar-cane
juice furnishes us with another illustration of the
rapid change of a product alter it leaves the plant.
The juice, whilst in the cut cane even, does not
change, but as soon as it is expressed it .speedily
ferments and changes into uucrystallizable sugar, and
to ret^ird tins action lime is often added.

With milky juices the so-called milkiness is only
brought about by exposure to atmospheric influences,
and as soon as such exposure takes place, a new
set of chemical combinations are inaugurated.

tiuttapercha, as it flows from the tree, is a viscid
fluitl, acquiruig milkiness and coiicreteuess on exposure.
As is WfU known, it splits up or is resolvable into
two resins, viz., alhin< and Jh'uvUe, and is, like
caoutchouc, a hydro-carbou, iiaving a formula of
carbon Si'SOand hydrogen 12*20

In commercial gutta-percha we have this hydro-
carbon or pf're (pitta, p/us a soft resiu, a resultant
from the oxidation of the hydro-carbon. M. Payen
gives the following analysis of commercial gutta-
percha ; —7

Per cent.
Pure gutta (milk white in colour and
fusible) ... ... ... 78 to 82

Resins soluble in boiling alcohol, and con-
sisting of two parts:—
1. Crystalbine or albine (C^q Hg., 0.^), a
white crystallized resin, crystallizing
out of the alcohol as it cools . . 10 to 14
•2. Fiuavile (C„g H.,„ 0), a yellow amor-
phous resin, falling as an amorphous
powder on the cooling of the hot al-
cohol in which it is soluble . . <> to 1 i
It is thus apparent that the change of pure gutta
into a resinous-like mass takes place naturally if
means be not taken to stop it. This resinification I
have often witnessed and tested. If two bottles of
e(iually pure and identical gutta milk be taken, and
the one bottle be hermetically sealed and the other
left exposed, the first will retain its goodness and
the second will become resinified and as brittle as
shellac. Agiin, iu all sorts of raw gutta or " Getah
Muntah" if these be kept for a certain period with-
out being used up, they become resinous-looking
masses, losing all the qualities of guttapercha— being,
in fact, like so much kowrie-gura, but lackuig its utility.
This change I am sure can be lessened, retarded
or altogether obviated, if the gutta be thorouuhh/ i>rli
hoiltd inoiirtfiotrh/ aft(;r colhction. This should always
be done, ancl through the nou-attention to this, many
an otherwise good parcel of gutta his deteriorated
in quality or become useless.

There is also another fact to bear in mind with
regard to this proueness to chemical activity of
guttapercha. In cutting through the bark to arrivo
at the laticiferous vessels or tissues, many other vessels
and cells become rupture^, containing tannic, gallic
and other appoximate principles, andt he preseuce of
these no doubt accelerate oxidation. In opening bottles
of milky juices a turbidity and effervescence \s often
noticed, owing to the formation of a b.ownish liquid,
the colour due, probtbly, to the presence of gallic
acid, and gallic acid has been found to exi.st natur-
ally in parenchymal cells ar.d milk ducts. In blocks
of {ijutta, which have not been properly prepared,
these foreign substances induce the presence of a
brown fermented and putrid li<|uid, which gradually
decomposes the inertnal part, if not the whole ma^s.
Many of these substances are soluble in water, and
in the process of boiling wouhl be removed.

Pnrit'/ of I'ari'tie.^. — As will have been seen thero
are many varieties of guttapercha, differing most
materially from each other in character and value.
These varieties are almost invariably mixed together
by the natives, au<l great barm is done thereby.
This is practised for two reasons, first that natives,
when collecting, regard quantity more than quality;
j and a second, and wor.sc reason is, that Chinese either
acting on their own discretion, or possibly at times

632

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Makch 1, 1886.

On the orders of European merchants, mix different
varieties, particularly if of low quality, adding in the
operation a certain quantity of best or true gutta
to impart a "tone" to the parcel, and thus allow
it to pass muster, Sometimes this "tone" consists
of a skin of good gutta over a core of bad. I speak
the more strongly against this practice because I have
seeu it done in the East and have also seen its
results in Lomlon ; I speak, therefore, in both cases,
from personal observation. Again, many of these so-
called "low varieties" of guttapercha have no right
to be classed under that substance at all, unless, indeed,
we extend its significance and include under gutta-
percha such .substances as kowrie-gum, gambier, cutch, &c.

This mixing, to a manufacturer, is a serious matter,
and I firmly believe that in some cases where a
" fault" has been found in a cable, often it has been
caused by a fraudulent admixture of some such
resinous substance, and its subsequent crystallising
out. When it is borne in mind that the very smallest
percentage of such an admixture m;i,y render a
cable utterly useless at a most critical nmment, I
am sure that I shall not be cliarged with hypercriticism,
or speaking too strongly on the subject. All the
varieties of true guttapercha are valuable, but wliat
I maintain most strongly is, that if any of these
are to be mixed, that such mixing sliouM be left to
the discretion of tlie manufacturer at home ; he,
and he alone, shold be be.st able to judge ns to
what varieties should be anialgarnate<l to meet the
various requirements in view.

Ptti'itf/ from Adidtvration, — This I have already
incidentally mentioned, and tlie necessity of freedom
from adulteration will be admitted at once. A certain
proportion of fragments of bark mu-t always be
looked for, but in many cases it is purpo.sely added
to increase bulk and weight; a sieve through which
the gutta could eiisily run would obviate this. Stones,
sometimes as large as one's head, clay, billets of
wood, sawdust, and sago-flour, are the stock adulter-
ants. The remedy for this may be seen in the
following paragraph, and if a purer and less adulter-
ated articl'^ were soot into the m trkets, traders
would reaj) the benefit, as, at present, manufacturers
have to iuclude, in the valuation of a parcel, a certain
margin for probable adulteration ; frequently, buying
gutta is like buying a " pig in a poke."

Prepurat'um fur the J/arkct. — The very best form
to prepare gutta in, for the market, is in thin dry
well-pressed slabs. By having thin slabs, instead of
the great irregular rilucks now exported, gross adulter-
ation by the iutroduction of stones, »Vc., would be
reduced tu a ndnimum, and alsu save to a consider-
able extent the wear and tear of machinery in the
subsequent inauipiilation of the gutlaperclia. If the
slabs are dry ami well pressed a great saving in
freight would be ensured, as at present exanqjiesare
not unknown of parcels losing 25 per ci'nt between
the ports of I'.xport and import.

I have incidentally referred to the necessity of the
cultivation under f}.)vernment auspices ; when this is
done, and ii'tt till then, the manufacturer will have
placed within bis reach, what he really wants — A <iOOD
1't.tBE .\ND i'N.VDUi,TKuATt,n (iUTTArnucii A. This Sub-
ject, however, I trust to deal with shortly. — India-
i-nhbci' and Gtittaperchn Jotd'itat.

COCONUT CULTIVATION; SAUT FISH.

Vevangoda, 4th February, 1886.
.Tanuary closed with the weather usu.d at this season
— fierce sun during the day, followed by chilly, dewy
nights. The rainfall during the mmth was 9'09 inches
as against G3 last year. This is the critical period on
coconut plantations, and a time of great anxiety with
those owning or managing them. .Vil tluir energies
are expended in saviug, by propping up, the nuts
they put on their trees by cultivation. A sliort period
of such weather as we are now experiencing and our
plantations wear a melancholy and jaded look, with
bunches and branches drooping. If in addition to the

dry season we are entering on, we have to face the
blight or insect plague, a correspondent in the (Mi.iei-rer
speaks of as being present in the Western Province,
the look-out of the coconut planter will be black in
the extreme. I have heard that in years gone by cater-
])illars denuded whole plantations of foliage. The late
Mr. David Wilson, who had the reputation of adopting
radical remedies, fumigated his trees with sulphur.
The results exceeded his expectations. Caterpillars and
coconut trees were both killed. Of course, this is ])o.ss.
ible only where trees had been overfumigated, for the
the- fumes of sulphur in excess are known to be
fata to vegetable life. There was a spirited discussion
on this subject in a local journal when Mr. George Wall
put forward his cure for leaf disease by sulphur fumes.
It is a question, however, whether it was possible to
kill the hardy coconut tree with sulphur fumes, as most
of the fumes generated under the trees would in a very
little time have been dissipated into spa'-e. It is poss-
ible that the absence of foliage, the lungs of a tree, was
answerable for the deaths. It is best for planters to
be on the look-out and stamp out such visitations in
the incipient stage.

In a former comniunicatien I gave expression to an
opinion that the coconut tree is thankful for all the
moisture it can get. Further observation shews that
though the tree may benefit by much rain its owner does
not. It is with coconut, as with all fruit bearing trees
csces.iive rainfall produces leaf an.l uot fruit. Check-
ing of growth or wintering is as necessaryfor a coconut
tree to bear as for any other fruit bearer. I was pre-
viously of opinion that the coconut was an excefjtion
to this ride, but recent observation shews that it is not.
The flower spathes thrown out by the coconut palm
during the last few months have with a few exceptions
been abortive. If this is traceable to the wet weather
we have just passed through, then it proves that the
cocoinit is no exception to the rule I have just made
just made reference to. I do not presume to speak
beyond what I have observed or learnt from eu(juiries.
These go to shew that in this district at least, coco-
nut crops will be very short. A healthy tree in full
bearing ought to have on it about twelve bunches in
all stages of growth, from the incipient fruit in the
newly opened spatlie to the fully ripe nut. Hardly half
this number of bunches, and very small bunches too
they are, are now noticeable on the trees. A rise in
the price of Oopperah to something like K60 will com-
pensate for small crops. There is no reason why this
price should not be reached, if Merchants will only take
the trouble to inspect the bulk of the copperali
they export and not deligate this important duty
to subordinates. A good article only will then be sent
to meet continental demands, and with increased de-
mand prices must rise. While on the subject of crops
1 notice the continued increase in the exports of ciu-
namon quills and chips. I do not think wc can just
yet expect increased prices, especially with the rise in
the price of chips.

The thanks of the Island are doe to Mr. Kavenscroft
for not only starting a new industry, or at least in-
creasing its scope, but for bringing within the reach
of many a superior quality of dry fish. I noticed in
the papers that Mr. Auwardt was able to sell only 3
cwts. out of the ton of dry fish he put up for compet-
ition. This cannot be construed into a want of demand
for the article, reople do not cousume dry fish by the
ewt., and loose dry fish is not a savoury article to bo
carried about. I think if he will only pick it iu tins-r
krrosine tins ought to answer — of uniform weight, a
demand for the fish is sure to spring up in up-country
bungalows. — " Examiner."

Fka-M't Ki.Ot'ii. — The ingenious Americans have
taken to manufacturing biscuits and pastry from the
flour of pea-nuts, of which there is said to have been
an enormous crop last year, A^irgini;i and the two
adjacent States having raised 2,GOO,00il bushels. As
ground nuts grow in large quantities in this country,
there can be no reason why a ainiilnr attempt should
not be made here. — Indian Gardener,

Makch j, 18^6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICLTLTURIST,

C33

RUBBER TREES IN OEAUA.

The following inforiuation has been receiveii from Mr.
Oeorge Holdern, the Acting liritish Vioe-C'onsul at
Ce<u-:i, in reply to questions sant out by the
Huthority of the Britiah Goverunieut, with reference to
cultivation of the Indiarubber tree in that province :—

Qiieri/. — What are the mimes and productive qual-
ities of the different kinds of rubber trees grown
within your ilistrict (•

AtisKfi: — There are two kinds of rubber trees
known in this province, first the " Manicoba' plant
from which the Sernamby rubber is extracted, aud
secondly the " Mangabcira" from which, with the
application of alum, the " Mangabeira" rubber is pro-
duced.

Q- — ^Vhat is the extent of land under cultivation
by said trees?

■^- — The Manicoba trees are only cultivated to a
Very small extent on the mountains of the "Serra
Orando' and .Serra da l/ruburitaiua, the greater part
of the trees growing wild uru over the mountains,
at an estimated area of 2iJ leagues. On the Serras
of Maranguapo and I'acatuba ninny trees are to bo
found, but in this district they have not been cul-
tirat«d. The Mangabeira tree grows wild in nearly
every wooded district where there is a .sandy soil.

V' — What is the nature of the soil most favourable
for the cultivation of the Indiarubbor tree?

•^- — The soil most cuituble for the cultivation of
the "Manicoba" plant is the clay soil of the mountains.
For the '•Mangabeira" the sandy soil of the low
lands, especially towards the coast. The planting of
the " Manicoba" is very simple either from the seeds
or from slips of trees. The cultivation of this plant
has uot been much extended in this province, the
people limiting their elforts to substituting any tree
that many die by another from siods or slips. Most
of the planting has been done by nature, every year
when the Manicoba fruit or seed is ripe it drops off
the tree, and falling into suitable ground springs
up without any care whatever being given to it. —
Indiarvbber and Guttapercha Journal.

THE ROTHAMSTED EXPERIMENT.S ON
SULPHATE OP AMMONIA AND OTHER
ARTIFICUL MANURES.
Many of our readers — especially those who are
familiar with the proceedings of the British Assocuatioii
for the Advancement of .Science, the Koyal Agriiniltural
Society, the Society of Arts, and some other scientific
associations — will be aware of the fact that, for many
years past, e.'cperiments on agricultural subjeets have
been conducted, on a working scale, by Sir John Bennett
Lawes, at his estate at Rothamstod, iu Hertfordshire.
Through the courtesy of this gentleman, we have been
furnished with some rather extensive printed memor-
anda as to the origin, plan, and results of the field
and other experiments, conducted on the farm and in
the laboratory at Rothamsted ; comprising also a
atatement of the present and previous cropping of the
arable land not under experiment. The report includes
»ome interesting experiments (probably the most
complete on record, as they extended over a period
of more than W years) on sulphate of ammonia, m
Gammon with nitrate of soda and other nitrogenous
as well as all the known kinds of manures. Sir .T. B.
Lawes states that he has found sulphate of ammonia
to be "an exceedingly valuable manure." For some
agricultural purposes, he considers that 1 lb. of nitrogen,
in the form of nitric acid, is more valuable than 1 lb
of nitrogen in the form of ammonia, and therefore
he would prefer to use nitrate of soda rather than
sulphate of ammonia -, as in the cas» of his experiments
(published some years ago) upon the iuflufiice of
Ditrate and sulphate respectively on the production
of sugar iu the beet, which led to the employment
of the former salt instead of sulphate of ammonia.
The price of sul;'' ' ■, he considers, will bo regulated
very much by tuc price of nitrate ; and, with so great
• fftU in the price of grain, farmer* cannot now aftotd ,
80

to pay so high a price for ammoiik ss they have
done in the past. Every page of his printed report,
he remarks, will be found to contain abundant evidence
as to the iinnieuso importance of ammonia as a
manure; and at Woburo, where experiments somewhat
similar to liis own have been carried on for several
years, salts of ammonia have proved quite equal,
and iu some cases superior to nitrate of soda.

It seems that sulphate of ammonia has not always
yielded such good' results at Rothamsted, compared
with other manures, as have been realizeil at Woburu
and other experimental stations. There are two
reasons which may or may not account for this, and in
regard to which ammonia salts have been unfortunate.
The first is that the uniform practice at Rothamsted
has not been to use sulphate alone, but a mi.vtiiro of
equal parts of "sulphate ami muriate of ammonia of
commerce." At the present time, authorities .iiqiear
to be fairly will agreed that, of the various salts of
ammonia, the sulphate is the best for manurial purposes.
Bearing this in mind, it is scarcely just to the latter
to accept th<r results obtained from the mixture of
sulphate and muriate as affording an accurate indic-
ation of those which would be obtain< d by the use
of the sulphate alone. Wo do not find any explanition,
in the memoranda, of the reason why this mixture is
used in preference to pure sulphate. The .second
reason is one which especially bears upon the compari-
sons between sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda.
As a general rule, the practice at Rothamsted has
been to apply the former in the autumn and the
latter in the .spring. On this point, again, modern
practice points to the .spring time as the best season
for the application of the sulphate as well as the
nitrate; so, on this account, the sulphate is also at
some disadvantage. We do not pretend to assign the
extent of thi; effect of these two causes — the use of
a mixture of sulphate and chloride, and the application
in the autumn instead of in the spring- in reganl to
any calculations as to the value of sulphate, as
ordinarily manufactured at gas-works, in comjiarison
with other substances, but simply direct attention
to them.

It is noticeable, although Sir .T. B. J,a\Ves considers
" that the price of sulphate must be regulated very
much by the price of nitrate," that to some extent
these two sources of nitrogen are distinct from eueh
oth(!r, as having special applications. It appears from
his n^marks that in some eases the nitrate is prefer-
able, whilst in others the sulphate is the more iijipro-
priate salt to use ; as for somc^ purposes the former
has been found to give the better rosull.s, while in
others the latter has proved to be more adv:inlagnoue.
It follows that these salts are not to be regarded as
competitors one with the other, except perhaps, to a
limited extent, for certain purposes to which it is
pos.sibla that they m^v bo e(|uaMy applicable; and that
there is (we are not attempting a poiulerous pun) 11
fair field for each salt. Here we Ikivc n strikirj
agreement with the remarks already niaili; in these
columns on this subject by Mr. F. .1. I.loyd, F.O.3.,
in his article on "The Value of Sulphate of Ammonia
as a .Manure."*

Apart from the value of the two salts respectively
as manures, wo would remind our readers that, as
set forth in the article just referred to, sulphate
posses.sen several practical advantages over nitrate.
The latter is so deliipiescent that, as a general rule,
it cannot he used for mixtures; and. as wo shall
presently sec, it is to the judicious use of mix(^d
manures that the farmer must look for the host
results. In aildition to this, it is evident that thoy
must follow the example of Sir. ,T. ]!. f.awes, and
learn to mix the manures for themselves, nillicr than
depend upon the purcha.<e of mixture Iroin denlers.
Sulphate of ammonia is efHoreseent — it loses moisture
by exposure to the air. In mentioning this jiroperty,
it is importtnt to notice that tlio lo.'s is not duo,
as some have supposed, to the volatilization of a part
of the ammonia. The alkali is in a fixed, nou-volutile

» See Journal, Vol, xlv,, p. POP.

fcj-?

THE TROPICAI, ACmCVLTURlSt, [March j, i

from; nii.l therefore tliere is no loss from storeage.
So, in buying sulphate that has been in stock for
some timti, the arlvautnge is likely to be on the side
of the biivoi- ; but nitrate increases in weight by
absorbing raoioture, and is conse<iuently reduced or
attenuated in valr.c to a corresponding extent. The
advantage to a purchaser, in being able to go to the
nearest gas-works, and exami.ve and (if he desires it)
analyze the sulphate before purchasing it, is evident.
In order to place the Hothamsted eiperiments in
their proper light, it will be necessary to indicate the
l)lan of operation, as described in the memoranda ;
and also to glance briefly at a few general principles
respecting the use of manures. Sir, .T. B. Lawes was
the founder of the Rothamstod experimental station.
Soon after entering into the pos.session of his hereditary
property there, in 1834, he commenced a series of
trials in different manuring substances, first with
plants in pots, and afterwards in the field. Of all
the experiments so made, those in which the neutral
phosphate of lime — in bones, bone ash, and apatite —
was rendered soluble by means of sulphuric acid, and
the mixture applied for root crops, gave the most
striking results. These results, obtained on the small
scale, led to more extensive trials. A permanent
laboratory was established in 1843 ; and from this
date down to the present, a permanent staff of
chemists, a.ssistants, botanists, clerks, &o., has been
maintained at the station, in addition to chemical
assistance in London, Berlin, and elsewhere. The
whilu has been maiutivined entirely at the cost of the
owner, who has further set apart a sum of £100,000,
as well as certain areas of land, for the continuance j
of the investigations after his decease. The general
scope and jilan of the field experiments has been to [
grow some of the most important crops of rotation,
each separately, year after year, for manj years iu
succession, on the same land, without manure, w|ith
farmyard manure, aud with a great variety of chemical
manures; the fame <lescription of manures being, as
a rule, applied year after year on the same plots.
Experiments on an actual course of rotation, without
manures and with different manures, have also been
made. These experiments included wheat, barley,
oats, beans, clover, turnips, sugar-beet, mangel-wurzel,
potatoes, and grass. Samples of all the crops are
taken and bro-jght to the laboratory, where weighed
portions, after being partly dried, aro preserved for
reference or further examination. The experiments
upon them include examination for water aud ash —
sometimes the complete analysis of the latter--and
the .determination of nitrogen, whether as albuminoids,
amides, or nitric acid. Iu the case of wheat, the
experiments have extended to the flour obtained from
it; the sugar from the beet, mangel-wurzel, and
potatoes has been determined; and the botanical
composition has also received careful attention. A
large number of samples of soil, at various depths,
have been taken and analyzed ; also tested for absorptive
capacity, as regards w.iter and ammonia. Again, the
rwiifall and drainsge have also been the subjects of
many cxpcrimeiitB ; aud the amount of water trans-
pired by pljnis. the assimiUtion of nitrogen, and
.'*th«f topics, have also rficelvy! attention. Sotiiv very
'■)i!i»u.st)«'p cxpei'iiueB.tii ou utiieisb bsve bpen iijcluded ;

i'mcl, altboutjli tnunj' of the fedults of tb« iavcstigatious
lave been given to the world, as abONe mentioned, a
arge i<roportion remains unpublished.

k general glance at the operations comprised in the
wtoie l)roceSs of praparing laud, for the purpose of
growing crops i( m.y kindj is necessary to enable u,s
to appreciate the pirt played by the addition of
manures to the soil. The mechanical conditions of
the soil have a most important effect, and tlie laborious
work ineideiital to diggiug, ploughing, or otherwise
preparing the land is undertaken for the purpose of
rendering the soil light and porous, and of reducing
6ome portion of it at least to a state of division suffici-
ently fine to enable the various constituents contained
in "it to be assimilatid by the plants. For the
f.iribrnnre of th's purpose, the farmer usually looks
tj tUki ijiUral pbwuuwtBu el (itiu or wist, •» » source

of the necessary moisture; though sometimes this is
supplied, wholly or in part, by artificial means. But
the soil must not be so moist as to cake together ;
and therefore the drainage of the land, for the purpose
of removing any excess of moisture, forms an important
department in agriculture. Kven after every care in
the way of properly working up the laud, much
depends on the weather ; so it is evident that only
by means of such gigantic and long-continued experi-
ments as those the records of which we are now
considering, can any accurate information, suitable
to form data for the formulation of rules for the
guidance of the agriculturist, be obtained.

It is evident that manures may directly affect th«
soil only, and through this medium afford the desired
benefit to the crop; or they may be fitted for direct
assimilation by the roots of the plants, and inert as
regards the soil. Three kinds of action are recognized
by the agriculturist. These are, first, mechanical action,
such as when sand is added to a heavy clay soil to
render it lighter and capable of maintaining the
desired condition of fine division; secondly, chemical
afftioT^, as when a substance is added which induces
actual chaHges in the constitution of the soil, as
shown by analysis, which render it more suitable for
the support of the desired crop ; aud. in addition
to these, there are the rather obscure results known
as "physiological action." Examples of all of these
are afforded by the experiments before us. AVith
regard to the latter, wo may remark that the proverb
'* What is one man's meat is another man's poison "
applies with equal force to the \egetable kingdom.
Most remarkable experiences are ou record as to the
strange effect of certain substances ou vegetation —
results for which chemistry is quite unable to account.
Nitrate of soda appears to act directly upon the
roots of the plants, without in any way atlecting the
soil. It is a very qui^k-acting manure, and but for
this it would be almost useless ; as, on account of its
ready solubility in water, it passes away with the
drainage. Indeed, it appears that a considerable
proportion of it must always be wasted iu this way.
Sulphate of ammonia is entirely different in this
respect. The soil has a sort of affinity for this
substance; and consequently it does not pass off with
the drainage water, like nitrate. The ammonia is
gradually decomposed by the action of the soil ; the
nitrogen taking the form of nitrates, and the nitrates
would be liable to pass off with the drainage-water,
like nitrate of soda. In this manner, therefore, some
of the nitrogen of the ammonia may be lost to th»
plants, if the salt has been applied any considerable
time before it is required. Consequently, a certain
amount of loss may result from applying the sulphate
in the autumn instead of in the spring, as previously
obsprved. The fact that the nitrogen must be con-
verted into nitric acid before it is used by the plant
has not been lost sight of by those interested in
nitrate, who claimed that in this salt the nitrogen is
provided in exactly the form in which it is required.
But, as we have seen, this property is attended by
rapid action, which is not permanent. Some go so
far as to say that the nitrate leaves the soil rather
worse than 'bofore it was used, We have heard of
imtutices In which ni'r.ite was ajipllrd to grain crops,
aud proiluced a spltndid crop of green, but exhausted
its powers before maturity was reached, leaving the
crop in an unripe and immature condition; aud it is
easy to understand that heavy rains, coming late irt
the season, might have this effect. Sulphate, however,
if it does not produce such iniiKediate startling effects,
' IS lovinil to impfovfl the Condition of the land. Nd
iWbt the chemical actions betwi en it and the soil;
which result in the gradual liberation of nitric acid,
also serve to assist the mechanical distintejration
which is necessiry to set free some of the constituents
in such a form as to be absorbed by the plant.

While the advantages achieved by the application
of nitrate arc confined to the increase iu crops obtained
durin' the sea.sou in which it is applied, this rule
eanuo't be adopted in the case of sulphate. The
furmtr io cuiuijletely K&biuotiid iu » siuglw euMou, mi

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

635

does not leave any after-beuetits ; but the good effects
of the Intter are found to extend over so me three or
our seaso is.

Passing ou uow to notice the various experiments
in detail, we come first to those tried on permanent
meadow laud, Twenty different plots of grass land
are under investigation; the present being the thirti-
eth seasoo to which the experiments have extended.
The operations comprise the use of a mixture of a
small proportion of ammonia salts (the mixture of
sulphate and muriate) with farmyard manure; of each
singly ; and of superphosphate of lime — made by mix-
ing ilK) lb. of bone ash with 150 lb. of sulphuric acid
tsp. gr. V700) and water — with and without ammonia
salts, also with the addition of sulphates of potash,
sods, and n)asnesia. Silicate of soda and cut wheat-
straw were also used in some of the mixtures; and
some plots were left unraanured.

The art of manuring is sometimes defined as giving
back to the soil that which is removed by the plants ;
but these experiments show that it is of a much more
complex description. If this idea is correct, it should
follow that land left uumanured would show a grad-
ually decreasing yield. This appears to occur to some
small extent ; insomuch that land to which manure
was not applied yielded rather lower results in the
second ten years than in the first. One plot left in
this condition yielded an average annual production
of 22^ cwt. of hay per acre during the first ten years,
and 20 cwt. in the second ten years ; another plot
yielded 25 cwt. per acre for the first period, and 22^
for the second. But this variation between one period
and another is not so great as that noticeable in some
of the manured plots. One very instructive experi-
ment bearing on this point is that tried ou plot 18,
which was treated with a mixture supplying the quant-
ity of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, phosphoric acid,
silica, and nitrogen contained in a ton of hay, as
ascertained by analysis. It is very natural to suppose
that this would be ne plus ultra of manuring ; but,
although an increased yield was obtained, the result —
o3J cwt. as the average annual production per acre
during a period of ten years — is very low in compari-
son with other results.

Turning to the advantages gained by the use of
sulphate, it appears that although, when the ammonia
salts are used singly, these results are not so good
as those following the use of a corresponding quantity
of nitrate, the former is superior to the latter when
mixed with other substances. The best results ob-
tained— 6.^7 cwt. of hay per acre per anuum — resulted
from the use of a mixture of the sulphate of potash,
soda, and magnesia, suiJerphosphate, ammonia salts,
and silicate of soda. The effect of leaving out the
ammonia salts from this mixture was very marked ;
the yield being reduced to somethiug like one-half.
The ammonia salts also have a marked effect iu in-
creasing the value of farmyard manure. Using singly
14 tons per annum of this material gave a yield of
425 cwt. ; but the addition of the comparatively small
quantity of 200 lb. of ammonia salts increased this to
49.^ cwt. — some 12 or 13 per cent. Only in one case
(No. 14) does the use of nitrate of soda in a mixed
manure approach the results afforded by the ammonia
.salts. In this case a production of 60^ cwt. is ob-
t.ained ; but all the other nitrate mixtures fall very
far short of this.

The experiments 011 barley show that farmyard
manure gi\es the greatest production, and that the
ammonia salts yield slightly lower results, when utilized
as a source of nitrogen, than the nitrate of soda.
M'hen used for wheat, however, these salts occupy
a better position, and compiire fairly well with the
nitrate. Some excellent results were obtained by em- j
ploying a mixture of ammonia salts, superphosphate,
ami one or more of the sulphate of the fixed alkalies. '
With regard to oats, broadly the results are about
the same as these obtained with wheat. Ammonia
salts and niti-ate, respectively used singly, are about
on a par ; and the former show a slight a'iv.intage
when used in mixtures of the character above indic-
ated. It is important to rem»n)ber that 400 lb. of

ammonia salts are equal, in respect to nitrogen, to
550 lb. of nitrate ; and these are the relative pro-
portions maintained throughout the experiments.
Taking the value of nitrate at £10, the ammonia salts
are therefore worth £13 to .£14 per ton. Vulue for
value in the market, then, ammonia salts are superior
to nitrate for grain crops. Generally speaking, the
utility of a nitrogenous manure iurespect to grain is
very marked ; the crops being freqtieutly doubled by
its use.
A set of experiments was tried with oats, using
i the mineral manure as before, but only half the
quantity of nitrogenous manures, A considerable
diminution in yield was the result ; but it is remark-
able that, under these circumstances, the ammonia
salts secured better results than the nitrate. The
unmanured land yielded an average of 13| bushels
of oats per acre per annum. The effect of using
200 lb. of ammonia salts per acre was to more than
double this yield ; the result being 28^ bushels. The
use of a corresponding proportion of nitrate — viz.,
275 lb. — secured a return of 26^ bushels. The results
from the mixed manures are still more remarkable.
When nitrivte was used as the source of nitrogen,
the results were no better thau those seciu-ed by the
use of ammonia salts singly— viz., 2SJ bushels ; but
when ammonia salts were u.sed, the yield was 3S
bushels. The mixture which secured this result con-
sisted of 200 lb. of sulphate of potash, lOfi lb. each
of the sulphate of soda and magnesia, 3.^ cwt. of
superphosphate, and 2o0 lb. of ammonia salts. The
effect of leaving out the ammonia salts (all the other
ingredients being used) was to render the manure
perfectly valueless; the result obtained being only 13j
bushels, or rather less than the yield from the uu-
manured land,

A difficulty was experienced iu the application of
the nitrate on these plots, and possibly was the cause
of the experiments noticed in the preceding paragraph.
■\Vhere the nitrate had been applied, year after year,
the land was so wet that it could not be brought
into favourable condition for sowing, although more
work was applied to the land ; and the plants in con-
sequence came up very irregularly. In one season a
heavy fall of snow a week after sowing caused many
of the plants ou the nitrate plots to perish from
standing surface water. Tlicse difficulties, due to the
deliquescent character of the uitrate, to a large extent
account for the low results obtained from this sub-
stance, as above noted. The user ot nitrate is evidently
under .some difliculty iu respect to drainage. If the
land treated with the salt is iusuflicieutly drained, it
retains moisture so obstinately as in some cases to
kill the young plant; aiul if ample drainage is jiro-
vided, there is tho risk of its runuiug oil' to waste
before it has done its work.

The results obtained with bean.s, peas, clover, kc,
are rather difficult of explanation. The mineral con-
stituents used as manures (more particularly potash)
increased the produce very much during the early
years, and to a certain extent afterwards, when the
season was favourable. Ammonia salts produced but
little effect, notwithstanding that a leguminous crop
contains two, three, or more times as much nitrogen
as a cereal one grown under similar conditions as to
soil, &c. Nitrate of soda produced more marked effects.
But when the same description of legumiuous crop
is grown too frequently ou the same land, it seems
peculiarly subject to disease. It appeared that ordinary
garden soil yielded hotter results with these crop"
than arable laud with every jxjssible assistance iu the
way of manures.

Turning to the experiments ou roots, it is notice-
able that the ammonia salts were used with some
advantage as a cross-dressing for turnip crops, when
mixed with rape cake. When used in this way in
conjunction with farmyard manure, superphosphate,
and mineral manures, the ammonia salts secured much
better results than either nitrate of soda or sawduf ■".;

saturated with nitric acid. The greatest yield

.1 the

tnmips-S tons Ifi cwt. of roots and 29 ewt of _l^;j^«^y°^J
WAS obtained by usmg farmyard manure, with ^j ^fovelnb•r

636

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 18W.

salts (mixecl either with rape cake or sawdust) used
18 a eross-dressing. In the experiments on sugar beet,
larmyard mnmu'e proved far superior to all others;
:,ad nitrate of soda was more successful, when used
lor cross-dressing, than ammonia salts. But although
the actual produce was larger, the best grown from
ammonia salts contained a large percentage of sugar
than that from nitrate of soda. Th« experiments on
iiangel-wurzel agree mainly with those with beet,
oxcept that in some cases the ammonia salts show
a marked advantage over nitrate. As in the case of
turnips, the best results are obtained from farmyard
manure, with ammonia salts and rape cake as a top-
dressing. By these means, a yield of about three-
fold, as compared with that from unmanured land,
is obtained. lu some other experiments excellent
results were obtained by using superphosphate and
sulphate of potash as a manure, with a cross-dressing
of ammonia salts and rape cake. But a considerable
amount of variation is noticeable in all these e.tperi-
meuts even under similar conditions of manuring, &c.,
showing that, after all that can be done, the weather
has a more potent effect upon the crop than any
artificial conditions. A regards potatoes, it appears,
from the average of ten years' experiments, that
nitrate of soda is sometimes more suitable, boiih
singly and in mixtures, than ammonia salts ; whilst in
other seasons the latter yield the better results. As
with the other roots, the yield is increased sometimes
more than threefold by the use of manures.

A serii-s of experiments was commenced in 1848,
and is still in progress, on a regular course of rotation
of turnips, barely, leguminous crop, and wheat. In
these, an extraordinary increase of yield Las been ob-
tained by the use of manures composed of pearlash,
superphosphate, ammonia salt.s, alkaline sulphates, and
rape cake. The average for the first nine courses —
1848 to 1883 on unmanured land is a production of
Sik cwt. of turnips, 3,f)93 lb. of barley, 37 cwt. of clover,
1,867 lb. of beans, and 4,510 lb. of wheat. By the use
of the manures as just mentioned, on plots of equal
extent, a yield of 336J cwt. of turnips, 4,883 lb. of
barley, 75 cwt. of clover, 3,330 cwt. of beans, and
5,308 cwt. of wheat was obtained. The turnips were
incrt^ased about tenfold ; the clover twofold ; and the
other crops to a considerable extent.

The most striking fact elicited by these experiments,
is the importance of nitrogenous manures to the farmer.
Used singly, they arc as ifficacious as much greater
quantities of superphosphate and other alkaline salts.
And when judiciously applied as mixtures, they not
only make two, but three or four blades grow where
only one grew before. If these extensive and costly
experiments, which have been arranged and conducted
with remarkable care, skill, and application, by .Sir
J. B. Lawcs and his assistants, had done no more
than to elucidate tliis f.nct, the benefit to agricult-
urists generally 'woidd be such value as to entitle this
gentleman to the proud position of a public benefactor.
But, even from the imperfect outline of them which
we have gi(en, our readers will be able to ,iu<lge
that their value is incalculable to those direetly in-
terested in agriculture. It is most satisfactory to
know tliat these experiments are to be continued ; for
it is only by taking the average of a large number
of seasons that the effects of the variations due to
climatic conditions can be eliminated.

In addition to setting forth the value of nitrogen-
ous manures, these experiments conclusively show
that sulphate of ammonia is by far the best of this
class of manures in the market, at present prices.
Sulphate is now quoted at but little more than nitrate ;
and 80 pa' t of the former supply as much nitrogen
as 100 pa;,-, uf the Litter. With some kinds of crops
the nitrate produces the more striking immediate
results. But we have s«en that, for securing these,
a great deal of cni-e in the matter of drainage is
necessary; and, further, after every possible exercise
soniare and skill, a smart shower or two of rain, or
ently i-f auow, may not only cause a considerable
in it to of nitrate to go to waste, but the mischief
f,irthirinre^|.p,j,j g, fgj jjs the destnictioB of the
tv tbu U'tui

entire crop. So it is satisfactory to observe that
these extensive and authoritative trials support the
claims that have recently been made in our columns
on behalf of sulphate of ammonia as a manure. Ad-
mitting the nitrate of soda to be theoretically the
better — and this is by no means proved — it is evident
that the mechanical properties of sulphate are such
as to render it the best for general use, as recently
urged in our " Correspondence " columns by " A Farm
Bailiff and Valuer under the Agricultural Holdings
Act," even if its price were considerably higher than
at present. In saying this, we repeat that these two
nitrogenous manures, if competitors at all, are only
so in a limited sense, as there are special applications
for each.

But, if this is true, why has sulphate lately fallen
in value in the market nearly to the level of nitrate ?
One reason frequently set forth is that nitrate hai
proved to be the better for beet and root crope
generally. These are the class of crops that appear
to be least benefited by the use of nitrogenous manures,
for the simple reason that they have plenty of leaf
surface, and by this means take up nearly all the
nitrogen they require in the form of ammonia, a
minute proportion of which is always present in the
atmosphere. The special advantages offered by the
use of sulphate for grass and grain crops have been
pointed out in these articles ; and we can only accept
one of two conclusions from the marked effect which
the discarding of sulphate in connection with beet
crops appears to have exercised upon its market prioe.
These are, that the use of sulphate for grass, grain,
or general purposes is not sufficiently understood (or,
at any rate, not sufficiently acted upon) ; or that the
market \alue of it is artificially kept down by the
operations of speculators. Both are probably true to
a great extent. Looking at the quantities of grass
and grain grown in our own country, it would appear
that the bulk of the .sulphate made at an ordinary
gas-works should be purchased at good prices by
farmers in the vicinity. Under these circum-
stances, there is evidently room for the Sulphate of
Ammonia Producers' Association which is now in course
of formation. And if this body goes energetically to
work in the direction of making known the value of
sulphate for the various purpose, which have here been
noticed, and also the establishment of direct communic-
ation between the producer and the consumer, results
will be obtained that will prove beneficial to all parties
concerned. — Journal of Gas lAghiinyy fVoti-r Supiily
and Sa/iitar/i [mprowinent.

SEED UEKINUNATION.

Sir, — Referring to Mr. Cirierson's letter in last week's
Journal, I would remark that it is a well-known fact
that when fresh soil is exposed by deep railway
cuttings, or otherwise, plants either quite fresh to a
locality, or previously uncommon, frequently make their
appearance in profusion.

A notable instance occurs in this neighbonrhood. A
few years since, having time on my hands at a country
railway station not far off, I wandered on to the line,
and was surprised to find not one, but several plants,
which, although I had explored the neighbourhood
fairly well, I had never previously seen. Since then,
however, in collecting together and compiling all the
information I could get at upon our local flora for the
Essex Field Club, I have ascertained that all these plants
had been found previously in small quantities within
a few miles of the station. Now, as they were to be
found only in special places and in small quantities,
it is highly improbable that the seeds of all should have
been carried to this one spot ; nor was it likely that
the seeds of all should in recent years have become
spread over the whole country. I was therefore led
to suspect that all these plants had, some time or the
other, been more or less profuse, but had become rare
through the soil becoming unsuited to them by ex-
haustion, cultivation, or some other cause ; and that in
making the railway cutting, both seeds and suitable
soil had been exposed, and again the plant had become
profuse.

March t, tSS6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

6i7

This suggests a subject which I think might am-
ply repay one who had the time to work it out
thoroughly.

It is a remarkable fact that, with one or two excep-
tions, no plant or animal has been introduced into thii
country from our colonies. On the other hand, many
of our plants and animals have been introduced into
our colonies, and have in several cases become far worse
nuisances than at home.

Hence it appears that our long cultivated country has
become unsuited to the plantv and animals from virgin
soils ; but that the comparatively recently cultivated
soil of our colonies is frequently even more suited to the
growth of our pests than their native land.

In the case of one of the exceptional plants which
have established themselves in this country (Anacharis
Alsinastrum), the plant was for a long period a great
pest, blocking up canals, and almost defying haman
skill to keep them open ; but I believe the nuisance has
of late years been less serious ; possibly the waters
have become less suitable for their growth, though the
plant may have detriorated through their having been
no stamen-besring plants introduced into this country.

These remarks might be extended into the domain of
medicine. 1 believe instances are not wanting in which
diseases, when first introduced into a country become a
perfect scourge, but after a while apparently exhaust
themselves ; and there are several diseases which, whilst
formerly defying medical skill, have now become more
uncommon.

Some thirty years ago, in almost every third house
in this neighbourhood, a case of ague would have been
found at times ; now the complaint has become comparat-
ively uncommon, and there is some ground for suspect-
ing that whilst our improved sanitary arrangements
have in many cases mitigated disease, iu some the
mitigation may have been due to the pabulum, if I
may use the term, having become exhausted by the
virulence of the disease amongst our forefathers. — J.
C. Shenstonb, Colchester. — Pharmacevttcal Journul.

PRODUCTS FROM KILIMA-NJARO, EAST AFRICA-

Am important paper was read before the jSociety of
Arts (Foreign and Colonial Section), on the 14th
ult., by Sir. H. H. Johnston, entitled "British
Interests in Eastern Equatorial Africa, more es-
pecially in the Kilima-njaro District, and on the
Victoria Nyanza." In the course of his interesting
communication, in which the country and its products
were dealt with at length, Mr. Johnston thus referred
to those articles in which our readers will be most
directly interested : — " Gums are produced in the
interior, both copal and a kind called false copal.
Indiarubber can be procured from at least one creeper,
the Landolphiajiorida, and I think also another, a species
of fig. Coffee grows wild, especially on the north-
wards of the district, where it is the same species
as the Abysinnian plant, which, it is supposed, being
first introduced from the kingdom of Kaffa to the
south of Abyssinia, thence derives its name. Coffee
planting would succeed admirably iu districts like
Usambara, which may be regarded as the natural
home of this shrub, which is, indeed, indigenous
to the African continent. On the trees growing
in the Kilima-njaro and Usambara forests, orchilla
weed, in incredible quantities, is found growing. When
delivered half clean, that is to say, mixed with sticks
and rubbish, on the coast, it fetches from .1 to 3^
dollars per frasilah of 35 pounds. As regards
minerals, iron ore is found in some abundance, and
copper apparently also, since the natives possess
rude rings and ornaments of this metal which have
not come from the coast. Nitrate of soda covers
vast plains to the south, west and north »f Kilima-
njaro. There is good building stone in many parts
of the country. Limestone often appears. The
vegetable productions of the natives' cultivation, are
the banana, the sweet potato, the edible arum root,
the sugv cane. Indian com, mtama, or red millet,
and many unnamed variaties of peas and beans.
A little rice is grown in some districts, namely,

at Taveita and on the River Dana. Tobacco is every-
where abundant, and exceedingly cheap. I might
mention my own, almost incredible, experience with
the cultivation of European vegetables on Kilima-
njaro. Immediately after my arrival I planted the
eyes of a few potatoes, onion bulhs, and the seeds
of mustard, cress, radishes, turnips, carrots peas
beans, spmach, borage, sage, tomatoes, cucumbers',
and melons. Everything came up, and fiourished
amazmgly. In three months' time I had a dozen
fine cucumbers from one plant, and so many potatoes
that I was able to give them away to my men, as
weU as supplying my own table. I had everything
else m abundance in a short space of time Before
leaving, I had planted my land at Tavaita with wheat
and coffee, limes, oranges, mangoes, and coconut*.
I also distributed numbers of useful seeds among
the natives. I should have mentioned in its proper
place, before the vegetables, that there is a great
quantity of delicious honey produced throughout
this dtstnct. The wax is of very good quality, but
the natives have no use for it, and merely throw
It away." For the development of this marvellous
country— a land literally " flowing with milk and
honey"— where the climate is| so exceptionally favour-
able, the great majority of the inhabitants eager to
do a trade and desirous to be under British rule-
which includes "vast plains" of nitrate of sodium!
and where beeswax of "very good quality" is
continuously thrown away, Mr. :Johnston suggests
that a company or association, with a few thousand
pounds capital, be now formed, and that a thoroughly
practical small expedition be sent out, before the
Germans or French take the law into their own
hands and annex' the lands, and we trust no obstacle
will arise to prevent this consummation from being
accomplished. In the course of the discu.ssion which
followed the reading of the paper, one of the speakers
confirmed Mr. .Johnston upon one important 'point
and stated that a sample of the nitrate of sodium
froin the "Masai country" was found, on analysis,
to be fully equal in point of quality to the best
of that imported from South AmeticA.— British and
Colonial Druggist.

COMMERCIAL AND MEDICINAL PLANTS
OF MEXICO.
In a report issued by the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, giving a leview of the agricult-
ural products and resources of Mexico, it is stated
that iu that country there are to be found 110 medic-
inal plants known to the physician, 12 varieties of
well-known dye woods, many plants used for the same
purposes, 8 varieties of important gum trees, and
several of the resiniferous tr. es. Of the whole of the
commercial plants, the vanilla, a parasite plant, is of
the largest importance. This plant is of the orchid
species, indigenous to Lower Mexico and Oenul America
It IS planted from sprouts, and will become fruit-
bearing at the end of three years, lasting from thirty
to forty years. The capsule of the J-anilla Plantifolw.
and claviculata as remarkable for its delicate anti agree,
able odour, and the volatile oil extracted from it.
The several varieties of this plant are successfully
cultivated in the States of Tamaulipas, Vera Oruz,
Tabasco, Oajaca, Chiapa, Guerrero, Michoacan, Oolima!
Jalisco, and Hidalgo. Anil, the Indigofera tinctoiia
of the botanist, is extensively cultivated, onri it is
stated that indigo has long been one of the exports
of Mexico. The following is a description of the
manner in which it is cultivated. The old-fashionod
crooked stick and oxen are used to plough the fields,
and the regular corn crops is planted during June
and .July. 'WTien the corn is about ten inches high,
and the soil has been raised into bUlocks, the indigo
seed is scattered broadcast over the same field, nud
this is all thit is done. The rsins beat down the
seed sufficiently, and in about one week the young
plant appears. The average quantity of seed required
is about 100 lb. per aore. In the month of Novembsr

638

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, i88fl;

the corn crop is harvested, aud the indigo plant is
then three feet high, and very hardy. About Sept-
ember of the second year the plant is about eight
or ten feet high, of proportionate thickness, ardofa
dark green colour, and it is then cut aud pressed.
To insure a large proportion of indigo pulp it is im-
portant that the plant be cut and placed in a tank
at night, or at least before the suu lias gained full
force. The tanks should also be well shielded from
the sun-light, as a strong light bearing on them during
the opeiation materially lensens the quantity of pulp.
The pressing tanks are three in number, built of stoue
and mortar, aud are so arranged that tlie contents of
one can be readily drawn into the other. The plant
is laid in the first tank, filling it two thirds, and after
being pressed with heavy stones, the tank is filled with
clear water. After a fermentation of about ten hours
the liquid is run otf into the second tank, with wooden
hand-paddles for from two to four hours. It is then
allowed a certain time for settling, aud is then drawn
oft into a third tank. The water, after three or four
hours, is then drawn off, aud at the bottom of the
tank is left a blue pulp, which is taken out, dried
in the sun, and packed for shipment. There are
many well-known dye woods and plants indigenous to
Mexico, which are mostly found in the Tierra Calientes,
and embrace, among others, the Brazil tree, logwood,
and the ( 'ampcche, so named after the State in which
it grows. The dye trees of the Tierra Calientes in-
clude the achiotf or heart-leaved lixa or anotta, the
tiniaron, which yields a beautiful sky blue dye, and
the uenijihlillu, yielding a strong bright yellow. Among
the most numerous trees are several varieties of gum
and Indiarubber trees, cork trees, aud dragon root,
which latter iu Chiapa grows to a medium-sized tree.
Palm trees are abundant in many districts, and a
large industry exists in the manufacture of palm leaf
hats, fine mats, and other articles of use and luxury.
One variety ^f the palm tree, known as the corozo^
yields an excellent oil. Other trees of the soap plant
species furnish an exc«lleut substitute for soap, and
a root of the orchid plant, called i/a.vtc in the aboriginal
dialect, furui.shes a very fine soap highly valued for
cosmetic purposes. The castor bean is very largely
grown, and the expenses of its cultivation are very
small. It is estimated that an acre can be planted
with 600 trees, yielding at ouce at least H,GOO pounds
of beans, which if pressed as soon as gathered, will
return 50 per cent or l,8t)i'i pounds of oil. The castor
plant thrives best under conditions similai- to those of
coffee growing, ^\^hell a year old the plant reaches
a height of !l feet, with heavy foliage. The cultiv-
ation ru(i aires no more care than the corn crop, and
its first yield, which svilisotjuently iucreases yearly, is
about six pouuils. The production continues during tive or
even six months of the year, and it is stated that
plants from two or three years old yield from five to
six pounds e\'ery montli, or an average fiF twenty-five
pounds per annum for each plaut. Another product
which is used in Mexico and shipped to I'Vance for
tanning purposes is the Cattcalnitf bpan. This tree
grows wiiil, reaches a height of aliout 2.~> feet, and
has br.mching foliage often 30 feet in diameter. It
produces in large (luantities a bean of a broad and
crooked shape. The bean dropping to the ground
when ripe is gathered, dried, and pulverised, and in
this form makes one of the best of nil tanning sub-
stances. The tree is found in the States of I\Iic!ioacan,
Ooltma, anri t.Juerrero ; it grows wild, and one labourer
can pick as much as 25<) lb. of beans a day. Among
other useful and medicinal plants may be found the
sarsaparilla, toitiiHociirii, a native cure for fever, the
harhd ih- chihatf. or buek-beard the 4/>'iirn. the fuirotfi'i.
anil chc/ii^ herbs used by the Indians to produce per-
spir ttion. The irdjucott, a species of guav.'i, or South
American pear tree, is used for curing skin diseases.
Sassafras is abundant, as also the soap wort. <^r jahonera.
The dragon tret* is valuable for its ineiliciual resin
or gum. The saffron, cinchona, aloe, many varieties
of the acacia, corianda, wild liquorice, and many other
useful plants, slirubs, and herbs are found. The legum-
inous plants are nnmerous and valuable, and varieties

of the J£i<p hmhiaca family are found in abundance
along the table lands of the lower Pacific States. It
is stated that all the plants now cultivated in Mexico
were known to both the Aztecs and their Spanish
conquerors, and though the exportation of the plant*
and their products was at one time much larger than
at present, there is every probability with the pr»fent
and growing activity felt throughout Mexico, that a
large increase in production will soon take place.—
Journal of the Society of Artn.

NUTMEGS. BETEL-NUTS, TEAK AND FRUIT
AT SINGAPOEE.
There are now planted out in Singapore, as
nearly as can be discovered and estimated, about
twenty-five thousand nutmeg trees. In this number,
there are about four or five hundred which have
been bearing for considerable terms of years, includ-
ing about two hundred or so from 18 to 21 years
of age. The remainder consist of trees of all ages
downwards, from about eight or ten years of age to
one. The land occupied by these trees may be from
about 550 to 600 acres. In the whole collective area
there is only a very limited proportion of the best, but
a large proportion of the worst soil.

It has become fashionable in these Eastern Lsles
where the imagination, like the jungle, is so apt to
luxuriate, to pitch upon some trees of uncommon
growth, and situated in the most favoured spots, as
standards of comparison, and as sure indices of
prospective wealth, in a species of cultivation which,
beyond all others, demands the soberest exercise of
the judgment, and the most liberal sacrifice of pre-
conceived opinions and exaggerated expectations, be-
fore we can venture on a computation of the
probable — certainly always more or less uncertain —
results. Like most fruit trees, some nutmeg trees
will bear large aud others scanty crops. The annual
rent will always vary considerably, for a full crop
can hardly be expected beyond once in three years.

The betel-nut tree tleserves consideration, for
although it would not be worth the while for a
capitalist to speculate upon it, still, as the nut is
exportable, it is of more value than produce which
must, from its perishable nature, be consumed ou
the spot. It is a hardy tree, and ouly requires to
be kept free from the lalang grass and jungle for
two or three years, after which it will afford
sutficient shade to prevent that grass growing strongly.

I have already noticed that Straits fruit trees
promise well generally. The base of the hills, and
gentle slopes, and undulations are well suited to them.
The mangosteen seems to thrive ou the flat clayey
laud, while orange trees, the pummelo, jacks, duraius
and others will be best planted on other sites. Some
of these trees, the jack for iustaui'c, thrive well on
the stony red iron soil, lint it is obvious, with the
ackuowledged suijerior fruits of Malacca so close at
hand, th.it the cultivation of uuexportable fruits should
be gauged by the number of local consumers.

I'he ciimamoii tree may yet come lo the aid of the
planter. It has been intrDdnced on the island, and
thrives very well, but a very small number of trees
only have as yet been planted out.

'The cocoa, or tree yielding the chocolate bean, may
be advantageously cultivated here. It has been long
acclimatised in Penniig, and chocolate of a fair quality
is nninufactured for the use of the Roman Oatholic
Jlissiou by its padres. It is a hardy tree, and .seems
to grow wherever it has been planted there, both
on the hills and plains.

The teak tree thrives at Singapore, and might be
usefully employed aloiia with the cocoa tree to Hue
the boundaries of estates.

The pine-apples of Singapore and the islets in the
vicinity, are of a superior c|uality. They are large,
sweet and well-tiavourerl, ami they are cutivated iu
such abundance up the steep sides of thc>se hilly
islands, that they are sold in the mnrket for one-
third of a cent of a dollar each, aud are thus eagerly
KHisuiDed by the lower classes. Jiiil it is not n

Makvs I, 18B6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

639

wholesome fruit, aud, doubtless, it assisted the cholera
in the ravages it made here last spring, when it is
believed from six to seven hundred natives died of
that dire disease. Several European seamen died on
board the vessels in the harbour, but only one died
on shore, and his habits were intemperate.

The pine-apple grows best on the arid rocky slopes,
on the worst red soil, and it partakes outwardly of
this red colour. It the pine-apple fibre comes into
repute in England, which it is likely to do, then
there will be a wide field here for its manufactm-e.

The Agricultiu-al Society has not effected anything
as yet in the horticultural department, which, I be-
lieve, it was intended that it should embrace. The
Chinese and 31alays raise in their own way all the
vegetables which are brought to market. These are
sweet potatoes, bad yams, kaladie, or the arum colo-
casia (of K) which is cultivated in swampy places.
The root is single, oblong and biUbous, and it is
eaten as a substitute for the potato. The stalks and
leaves are sold as fodder for pigs. A few inferior
cabbages are grown from sprouts by dint of stimul-
ant.s which shall be nameless. Celery is also grown,
but the root is not solil in the bazaars, the leaves
oidy being so ; and tltis absurd way of using this
vegetable is patiently endured by the cousuujurs, who
will, it seems, consent to pay a high price for EngUsh
preserved vegetables, which, for ought that has been
proved to the contrary, might by the offer of pre-
miums, and by ft DLodicum of instruction have been
cultivated at their own doors. It may be said that
these will not grow here, iSo it was said long
ago at Calcutta and J[adr;is, yet perseverance has
overcome every obstrjction at these Settlements.
The native vegetables are rather small, yet they are
of good quality, and for a garden of a moderate ex-
tent, a soil can readily be made to suit every species
which the climate whiU permit to grow. From all
that has been stated, it would appear that the cul-
tivation of this island is still in its probationary period.
The Chinese have been shewn to be the chief cultiv-
ators, but then they have no attachment to the soil.
Their sole object is to scourge the land for a given
time, and when worn out to leave it a d&sert.

And what, we may inquire, what Is to become of
the thus empoverished land covered wi^h the jungle
they leave in tbe rear on their onward progress over
the island. A fifty years fallow would barely return
it to its pristine condition ; and what agriculturist
would be so rash as to embark 011 a large scale in
the attempt to renovate it V In short, it seems clear,
that if no general cultivation of a )norc permanent
nature than pepper and gambler can br advantageously
established, the forest must ultimately reassume its
dominion. Unfortunately, there is no rice land worth
mentioning which might induce a settled Malayan
population. The only remaining chance therefore would
seem to be the planting of coconut, areca, and other
iadigenuus fruit trees and incorporating them gradu-
•Uy with sugar cane and trees yielHing an exportable
produgi". A' the case stands, it is clear that if there
ehuuld jbe any cousilcrable prolonged (all iu the prices
of pepper and gambier, the (.ultivation of these articles,
»iid consequently of the greateft cultivated portiou
of the island would cease,

The area of the ialaml has beeu stated at about
l:i0,0OO acre.'!. But as far an the above two products
are concenie 1, the quantity of land available for them
might not Ih; reckoned at abo\'e one-fourth of the
whole, suppo.sing that pepper and gambler must con-
tinue to be cultivated together and cannot pro>e pro-
fitable separately. Because the proportion of pepper
land is uiuch smaller than that suited to gambler.
Then a very large deduction would be required for
the jungle land which must be attached to each plant-
ation for the supply of fuel. When the whole lauds
on the island and iu cultivation shall have beeu
measured and tbe nature of the remaining portion
shall have been ascertained, a correct estimate may
he made of the period after which pepper and gambler
»iil ttikjb Iu It. cultivated, lor it way bi> [cmuktxi

that these plants or trees cannot, until a long period
of years has elapsed, be successfully raised a second
time on tho same soi\. — Siii(/aporc Free Prcsn.

KoR.MMA.— Mr, im Thurn, an <).xford graduate, who
wrote such an interesting book ou British Guiana two
or three years ago, has been engaged in exploring the

' most mysterious spot in South America. About seven

I or eight year.s ago Mr, Barriogton, a geologist and
naturalist, made known to science the existence of an
inaccessible bit of table-land, called Koraima. It was
surrounded by precipitous cliffs, and, it was believed,

I would only be explored by balloon agency. The top
was covered with forests, and naturalists have ever
since been on the tiptoe of expectancy with regard

I to this possible fragment or outlier of a former geol-

} ogical epoch. There we might possibly meet with a
portion of the miocene or pliocene fauna and flora
— fossilised elsewhere — which had become stranded, as
it were, on this American Ararat! The secret was
boimd to to be found out afer this, and by au En-
glishman, too, Jtr. im Thurn went back to (juiana
determined to scale lioraima, and h'>, .#fites to say

, that, after one or two failures, he has .succeeded. He
found the top covered with shrubs (no trees), and he
found a large number of new species of plauts, but no
strange or new animals. The top of the plateau is

' 12 miles by four, and its weather-worn surface plainly
reveals its geological antiquity. — .hiftiula.iiaii.

Ironbauk. — This is one of the most valuable of
Australian timber trees, and grows abundantly in New
South M'ale.s, Some kinds are said to be almost
indestructible in any situation, impervious alike to the
white ant and the Teredo navalis, and with all their
defects, probably unequalled in the world for railway
! sleepers, piles for bridges, wharves, and jetties, fencing,
or any kind of heavy carpentry, as well as ship-building,
for beams, keelsons, sternpost«, engine-beams, and
other works below the line of flotation, where great
; strength is required and a heavy material is not ob-
I jectiooable. The ** Ironbark " stands iu the first class
I of lyloyd's list of shipbuilding timbers, and together
' with several other kinds is already extensively used
I by European ship-builders. There are several kinds
or Iroubark in use, all, however, true Eucalypts, The
I two best species are said to be the white narrow-leaved
Iroidjark (E. crebra), and the white, pale, or she
Ironbark (E. paniculata), both growing in the open
; forest, and on poor or indiff«rent soil in the northern
I coast districts. Three other species^the red-flowering
Ironbark (K. leucoxylon), the silver-lesived Ironbark
j ^E. melanophloia), and the large-leaved Ironbark
(E, slderopldoia) — also grow iu the northern districts,
and make valuable timber, though inferior to the two
first-named. Ironbark is largely used for bridges and
piles where there is no danger of the terrible Teredo,
and for poles and shafts of carriages, wheel-spokes, and
railway sleepers. Owine to the difficulty of obtaining
it, Ironbark is the most expensive of all New .South
Wales hardwnorls, and has maintained its price of 30s,
per lOy superficial f-'Ot, quoted fifteen years ago, al-
though almost every other hanlwood hati decreased iu
price since then, especially during the last two or
three years, the average retail price in Sydney of most
of the hardwood being about 1.5y. The whole seaboard
of New South AVales, from Capo Howe to the Kich-
mond River, contains rid^'es of this splendid wood.
Lai-ge shipments of it are .sent from the Clarence and
Kichmond districts to New Zealand and to Melbourne,
for bridge-building, anil more especially for wharves,
jetties, piles and girders. There is some fine Ironbark
country, too, on the Cl3'de, from which district a great
deal was formerly shipped to Nt'w >^ealand direct. Con-
sidering the great demand for it, the long distance it
has to be drawn to the water before it can be shipped,
and, considering, too, its splendid properties, the price,
large though it seems in comparison with that paid for
other timber, can h.irdly be called extravagantly high
— Auitraliaii I'u^a;

fifC

THE TKOPICAI, AGXICULTCJSIST. [BfwcB 2, 1VB6,

The Ouanoo Tkeb. — An attempt is about to be
made in Mauritius to grow the guango tree, which
ii said to be the finest and largest tree on the island
of Jamaica. It has an abundant foliage, but its chief
value consists in its pods, which are six or seven
inches in length, and contain seeds or beans that
make excellent food for men and animals. Oxen are
(aid to be especially fond of them, and to get rapidly
fat when fed upon them. — Indian Gardener.

History of the Godkds. — De OandoUe, in discuss-
ing tha history and origin of cultivated plants, refers
all the Squashes and Pumpkins to the Old World,
but not to India, because they have no name for
them in Sanscrit. Some American botanists believe
that the Pumpkin and its varieties are indigenous to
that continent, as the Indians declare Gourds had
been a common food among them long before the
Europeans discovered that country ; and Oharaplaiu,
who, in 1304, made a voyage along the coast of what
is now the State of Maine, found the inhabitants
cultivating Citrouilles (Gourds) along with Maize.
Pickering, in his "Kaoes of Men," says that speci-
mens of a small variety of Gourd were exhumed from
an ancient cemetery in Peru, like those which are
■till seen in the markets of Lima. Mr. Naudin, an
indefatigable and distinguished botanist, has, during
many years, observed and experimented upon all the
known forms of Gourds, collected from all parts of
the globe, and cultivated at the Jardin des Plantes.
He reduces them to six species, only three of which,
with their numerous varieties, are used as esculents,
viz., Oucurbita maxima, the large yellow Qourd ; 0.
Pepo, the Pumpkin, which he considers as probably
the most variaWe plant in the world ; and 0. moschata,
the Water Melon. An interesting paper on this
subject will be fouud in the " American Journal of
Science and Art," 2nd ser., vol. xxiv., and also in
Darwin's "Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication." The only plant among our English
wild flowers that belongs to the Gourd tribe is Bryony
(Briunia diocia), which may be seen climbing over
our hedges and thickets in the summer, with its
whitish flowers with green veins, and red berries in
the autumn. This plant abounds with a fetid and
acrid juice. — Science Gossip."

Fiji Bananas. — Let us see how these very utilitarian,
beautiful, and practical plants are cultivated. The
easiest thing in the world is this same cultivation.
The ground is broken up in circles of a few feet oiJy
with a long, pointed stick. Good-sized *' suckers," or
youthful ulfshuots from the root of an adult plant,
called sulina, are taken up, the leaves are cut off, and
the st^m with its small root is inserted in the hole of
the ground made for it ; earth is filled in, and a covering
of dry grass thrown arouud the base as a temporary
protection from heat. That is all, and the plant takes
care of itself. Sliserable-Iookiug objects these newly-
planted stems are, and most unpicturesque where a
number stand over a plot of ground. But ere long
these dry things grow interesting, as the close-rolled
rod of delicate green leaf breaks through the ps^er-
like envelope of the stem, and rises an exquisite object
is the air. So leaf after leaf comes out, unrolls in
beauty (sweet sixteen merging; iuto womauhood), and
soon you have a grove of polished yellow stems and
waviug green flags, shadowing purple cones and massive
bunches of fruit. There is enough of the picturesque
ftUd the sightly now, When a stem has borne its
one buucll of fruit, the owner cuts it down ,and releg-
ates it to " the portion of weeds and outworth faces."
But half-a-dozen lusty stalk.s are rising up round about
its root and offer to take its place, so that for years
the grove keeps itself and supplies its own vacancies,
and I have been told, leaves the ground at the end of
years richer than when it was first placed in possession.
Nothing, I repeat, is so easy as banana-planting,
nothing calif for less care than does banana culture,
and in Fiji, at present, nothing is so profitabe and rich
in its returns. For this reason, what potatoes arc to
Irishmen bananas arc to the aborgines of Polynesia,—
AMitrttlaiian.

PitMiHAH KooTS. — Nature is considerate for the food
of our townsmen. The yams of various kinds, are now
succeeded by our palmirah roots— our cotta kilangos
so that we are in our best food provisions. Boi'ed
dried and chewing as beetle nuts, and other munching
propensities wo are all in clover long live the cotta
kilingo the palmirah root. — Cor. At this fever season it
is questionable whether the roots of the palmirah is
not bilious and prone to help on fever. — Ed 0. P. —
"Oeylon Patriot."

Seed Sowing. — We have to acknowledge the receipt
of Messrs, H. Cannell & Sons' Floral Guide for 1385.
This is something out of the ordinary run of Plant
and Seed Catalogues, forming a handsome volume of
upwards of 300 pages, and contains a vast amount
of information and a host of wrinkles that will not
only be found valuable to the amateur, but from
which even the most experienced may learn something.
The following extract on their system of germinating
seeds will show the lucid style in which information is
given r — " Sow your seeds in the usual way, only cover up
and keep in total darkness until they begin to peep
above the soil, then gently and gradually expose
them to light. All this is so feasible that every sensible
person will at once and for ever adopt it, and the
success of all good seed will follow, and become a
lasting practice and benefit. For years past excellent
treatises have been written, practical men have adopted
shading their seed-pans with paper, and others with
a glass vessel of water, various coloured glass, &c.,
all of which but slightly approach this system, and
why it has not become a general practice long since
we are wholly at a loss to say. The advantage and
success of this system is so apparent that it only
requires to be once known to become universally
adopted; first, when a frame, pot or pan is covered
completely, it ensures one uniform moisture and
temperature ; consequently, every seed possessing the
merest life will be sure to grow, and also save that
continual watching — so necessary in the old style —
and lessen to a minimum the anxiety of raising
valuable seed." — Indian Gardener.

The Frcits of Centeal Asia. — Gardens constitute
the beauty of all this land. The long rows of Poplar
and Elm trees, the Vineyards, the dark foliage of the
Pomegranate over the wall, transport one at once to
the plains of Lombardy, or of Southern France. In
the early spring the outskirts of the city, and indeed,
the whole valley, are one mass of white and pink
with the bloom of Almond and Peach, of Cherry and
Apple, of Apricot and Plum, which perfume the air
for miles arouud. These gardens are the favourite
dwelling-places in summer, and well they may be;
nowhere are fruits more abundaut, and of some
varieties it can be said that nowhere are they better
The Apricots and Nectarines I think it would bo
impossible to surpass anywhere. These ripen in June
and from that time until winter, fruit and Melons
are never lacking. Peaches, though smaller in size,
are better in flavour than the best in Kugland ; but
they are far 8urpas.«ed by those of Delaware. The
big blue Plums of Bokhara are celebrated through the
whole of Asia. The Cherries are mostly small and
•our. The best Apples come either from Khiva or
from Sueak, to the north of Turkistan ; but the smals
white Pears of Tashkent are excellent in their way.
The Quince, as with us, is cultivated only for jam.
or marmalades, or for flavouring soup. Besitles Water
Melons, there are in common cultivation ten varieties
of early Melons and six varieties which ripen later
any of which would be a good addition to our gardens
In that hot climate they are considered particularly
wholesome, and form one of the principal articles of
food during summer. AVhen a man is warm and
thirsty, he thinks nothing of sitting down and finishing
a couple of them. An acre of land, if properly
prepared, would produce iu ordinary years from 2,000
to 3,000, and in very good years twice as many. Of
Grapes I noticed thirteen varieties, and most of them
remarkably good. — " Turkestan," by Epoene Schptleb,
—Iniian Gordener,

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

64f

forrespnudonoi:?

To Oie Edllov of the " Cei\lon Observer."

RLACK AND BED ANTS, TICKS ON FOWLS

(JIGGEES OF THE WEST INDIES),
■ BUaS AND MOSQUITOES.

Sm, — With reference to Dr. Wright's letter in Wed-
hesday's Olifen-fr on some of these subjects,
is there a housholder of any standin;; in
Colombo, who does not know the castor-oil ami chalk
cures for ants ? and the fact also that nftcr a
time a film forms over the eastor.oil on which, the
ants walk.

Chalk rubbed over the legs of tables and stands
regularly is a cleaner and better preventive than
the castor-oil cure for black and red ants. None
of these insects can walk over chalk.

For vermin in fowls the best cure is, the
pounded root of the sweet flag (the wadalalia
of the bazaars) pnt with clean saw-dust into boxes
of the fowl-house. For the flea-like insects that
burrow hito fowls' heads, and sometimes blind and
even kill them, I do not know of any cure better
than kerosene oil'. Instead of the cure given in
the, letter liefore-mentioned, of the kerosene oil
and the mode of its administration for the cure, of
vei-min on fowls, and in rooms of houses, I think
most jwople would prefer chopping the heads off
the fowls and eating tliem, and leaving the rooms
to the ants and vermin.

One of the best cures for mosquitoes in fiouses
is, after all, Keating's Insect Powder, which is
made of the flower-heads of Piiffthriim lim'rnrite-
I'oliiini and Piiivtiiniiii cariti'iim collected in large
finantities in Dalmatia. If the freshness of this
powder can be depended upon, shut your doorB
and windows, get a small Hat chatty with some
t-mbers in it. sprinkle the powder steadily over this
and fumigate the rooms and the sides of the bed,
and all the mosquitoes will either escape, or swell
and get black and die.

This is a temporary and expensive cure,
pnme preferring the smell of clean kerosene oil on
I he hands and face, and this is pretty effectual. When |
Miss fiordon-Cummiug was in Ceylon she used the !
oil ol lavender, ivhich is the most pleasant and
I'tfectual cure of all, but, seeing it was then sold
at lt4 an oz., it was rather an expensive cure.
During those lulls between the two monsoons
when the uios juitoes congregate in houses in
Colombo, see that all the clothes-horses and dark
corners where mosquitoes lodge are well dusted
out sever.il times a day.

Two firms iu Colombo imported the mosquito
powder from China, so much laaded by the late
Mr. Fortune in several portions of his work on
China, and as far as I recollect found utterly
worthless.

No properly kept clean house in Colombo should
have the domestic bug in it, excepting when they
are brought in the •■clean" clothes from the dhoby.
If these loathsome insects by any means get a
footing in betlsteads or other furniture, pour boiling
water over all the joints, and when this is dry
paint all these places and those likely to be
occupied by these insects with a saturated sol-
ution corrosive sublimate either in water or spirits
(>aini,e.d well into the joints. This a most effectual
i;iire, but care should be taken in U'-in^' it, as the
jiii\ture is a most deadlv poison, \\, F.

SI

I ' ' CBOTON-OIL CULTIVATION.

Madras, 4th Feb. ISirtti.
Dkau Sib, — Several notices have appeared in your
magazine (the Tropieal Auriciiltiii-ixt) from time to

• time relative to the cultivation of Croton titiUnm

• in Ceylon ; \vill you kindly inform us whether it
I has been successful and has paid the cultivators?
' If it has, we shall be further obliged by yoiu' in-
forming where we can get information regarding

I the most favorable elevation, soil, etc. — Yours
1 faithfully, GORDON, WOODROFFE & Co.
( [.is to croton-oil cultivation paying, we have
j only to refer to Mr. Westland's letter publislied
recently. A good deal of information on croton
1 culture will be found in back volumes of the
I -ff. -■!■— Ed.]

IRON' SPIKES IN COCONUT TEEES.

Colombo, Sth February 1880.

, SiB, — I shall feel greatly obliged to you, or any of

j your numerous correspondents, for a bit of inform-

} ation on a matter of very great importauce to me.

Is it likely that a coconut-tree would be damaged

I in regard either to its fruitfulness or durability by

the insertion of say a dozen screws about half ao-inoh

long if) its truuk ? The idea is to knock off the heads,

flatten and sharpen the top ends, and drive them into

j gimlet bores, with the aid of a key; aiid tlius if pos-

silile protect its fruit from thieves.

i No doubt it will last Ioniser than the bunch of thorns

usually fastened half way up coconut trees to serve

' the same purpose; aiid iu the longer run, perhaps,

I prove more economi'^al too. After due uotic- hag

! been given to the village headman that such a t' ing

has been done, should a thief go up the tree so tie ted

and get injured, may T inquire whether tlie iand-owner

would be held responsible? — Yours obedient servant,

X. Y. Z.

[We nhould think the spike's would do more har.n

j to the trees than to the thieves, bu'- we donbt if

the exjjedient is more legal than spring-guno are.—

I Ed^

! "A PLANT BICH IN TANNIN": CASSIA
i AVniCULATA: BANAWARA, SINH.

Sir, — In glancing over the T. A. for this month

I I noticed your footnote to Mr. Price's letter on

the cultivation of this shrub. As you say. the plant

, is very common in Ceylon, being found all over

I the lowcountry and plentiful along the cast coast.

I It is very easily cultivated and will grow in any soil.

The tannin qnahties of its bark are well-known in

the English market, being largely exported from

India and some from Ceylon. It is a shrub that

springs up freely when coppiced and a profitable

crop cut e\'ery second or third ye^r. Bound the

Northern and Eastern coasts it is annually co lected

by the Moor traders, nnd I have seen gan^j at work

in t'jc forests pee'-ini? the bark and carrying it off

to Trincoma ee. " This shows another of our forust

products pilfered through the laxity and want of

proper forest administration." The shrewd Moor

trader of Co ombo has hi.i agents everywhere and

gives from B4 to E7 per cwt. dry bark delivered in

(jolombo.

You wi 1 find Cassia bark quoted in the Ijondou
market at E12 per cwt. J. A.

TEA ROLLERS: THOMPSON OF THE

■•CHALLENGE" VEESUS BARBER

OF THE " SPHEROID."

Colombo, l.Sth February 188C.

Dear Srit, — In reply to " Tea" 's letter in the

Ceylon Obserrer of the 4th instant, as it would

seem from this letter that Mr. Barber is in blies-

fill ignorance of my views, intentions and aotion«

04i

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[March i, 1886,

regarding this so-called improvement on my
Patent Challenge Boiler and more or less directly
calls for an expression of opinion from me, I
may liere explain that anyone purchasing one of
my I'atent -Challenge Hollers direct from me or
my agent, Mr. E. B. Creasy, can alter the machine
so bought, as Mr. Barber has done, or in any
other way they may please, so far as I am con-
cerned. But if any machines are sold or used
other than those bought from me or my agent,
of the design which, I understand, is in con-
templation, it will be deemed an infringement of
my patent in every sense. The only difterence I
hear of is that the projecting portions of my discs
are detached from their discs and employed o^
passive in place of active rolling agents. If Mr.
Barber will favor me with tracings of his own
designing, through my agent Mr. E. B. Creasy, I
shall be in a better position to- judge how far, if
at all, I will allow him to use the principle and
lietail of my patent. I may interest some to
kriow that a Spherical Tea Leaf Boiler was used
by lue some live years ago, and my patent for
this with other Blue Books can I understand be
seen at the Colonial Secretary's Office. Trusting
Mr. Barber will be satisfied with the opinion
given above, yours faithfully,

A. THOMPSON.

TEA ROLLERS : THOMPSON OP THE

"CHALLENGE" VEnsVS BARBER'S

OF THE "SPHEROID."

Blackstone, 1.5th Feb. 1886.
Sir, — I liave been very much instructed by Mr.
A. Thompson's letter published in your paper
headed " Messrs. Thompson's and Barber's 'Tea
Rollers," and his remarks on my roller are entitled
to special weight from the circumstance that he
has not yet seen my roller. The only difference
between mine and his, as he gathers, is that the
"projecting portion of his ri('.«'.<(l) are detached from
Ihi'ir (//si'n and employed as passive in place of
active agents." Mr. Thompson also adds: "A
spherical tea-leaf roller was used by me f jrae five
years ago, and my patent^ for this with other Blue
Books can, I understand, be seen at the Colonial
Secretary's OtHce." How Mr. Andrew Thompson
secured a patent " for this with other Blue Books "
I cannot really understand, any more than I can see
how he converted his patented coiies into ilisrs for
the purposes of this letter. It is the surface of a
i-niif or a flat disc or a concave disr, or a flat or
grooved tubic, or a human hand, that can operate
on a quantity of leaf, and bring about the desired
result of a twist more or less perfect, according
to the degree of efliciency respectively of these
surfaces as agents employed for the purpose, and
no one will care to cncpiire whether the table has
four legs or live, or has drawers below this surface,
or whether the other side of the qpncs be flat or x'ound
ors'mo.ith or rough. Ii Mr. Andrew Thompson means
to maintain that every cone contains ,". disc at its
base which is disclosed, on the conical projection
being removed, then it is to be regretted that he did
not remove this projection before he asked t lie Govern-
ment to pi"''" I what he claimed then as a novelty
in tea macmnery, viz., the roHCi,-. But he wa-^ eon-
tent to leave the flat disc and the cube and all the
other geometrical rigures into which hi^ coivs were
capable of being cut, shaped and moulded behnid
or within his cones, and made the surface of (he
cones, tor all practical purposes, the active part to
operate upon the leaves so as to secure the end
lUsircd. The result is known to the Jew Ceylon

planters who purchased these "cones." For as fat
as the cylinder goes it is a casing— an envelope.
It has been in use before in a number of
machines, and notably in a tea machine of
Kinmond's ! So that it was not a novelty, could
not be patented, and was not claimed as such for
a patent. The head, body and tail of the machine
therefore consisted merely ot two cones suspended
on shafts and revolved by coolies by means of
handles like any "grindstone," or "hurdy-gurdy."
The working or effective part ot this roller, as w"itli
every other roller, is the surface presented to the leaf
within the casing.

I am deeply indebted to Mr. Thompson for otlfer-
ing to look at my tracings and drawings with a
view to ascertain " how far," as he says, "I willallo-n-
him to use the principleand details of my patent."
But insamuch as cones -when they became " a
passive ^ agent" with me were relegated for the
time being into the Sirocco room to become once
more an active agent, — tliis time in the tiring
machine, — I cannot, I regret to say, avail myself
of the condescending offer to inspect and scrutinize
my humble efforts to make a " roller while therp
was a challenge '' in the world.

But I will refer Mr. Thompson to the distinguished
machinist to whose inventive genius all tea plant-
ers will continue to remain debtors, for the best
horizontal action roller and the first vertical action
roller ever introduced, and that is Mr. Kinmond,
who is now in Ceylon ! He has taken the trouble
to come all the way to Blackstone to see my
bantling ; and his opinion may perhaps startle Mr.
Thompson. I shall send you if necessary a list
of visitors to Blackstone who have seen the
machine, and Messrs. W. H. Davies A Co. will
give you a list of those who ordered the machine
and confirmed their orders without a guarantee
when they were told that on principle I declined
to hold out a guarantee as an inducement to in-
tending purchasei-s to take my machine in prefer-
ence to others in the market. Mr. Thompson
and all interested in the Blackstone roller may
communicate with these gentlemen for their views
as regards the surface features of "the active or
rolling parts" of the respective machines ; I use
Mr. A. Thompson's own language with my en-
dorsement that it is the only correct way of look-
ing to ascertain the identity or non-identity ot
the two. I will now conclude by adding that 1
shall be glad to meet Mr. Tliompson of the
" Challenge" either in a friendly suit or in the
ordinary way in the District Court of Colombo
to have his claims tried, if he will only adopt the
right and legitimate course, instead of endeavouring
lirst to intimidate intending purchasers from taking
my machines, and in the same letter magnanim-
ously offering the use of his for the purpose of
being converted into mine. This, we are told, is
to be effected by employing his cones (oiscs!) as
: "passive agents" — outside the "rollers"! — 1 remain,
' yours faithfully, .lAS. H. BARBER.

P. S'. — I have Mr. Thompson's speeificntions tor

, the "Challenge" though not the "iiatent" Blue-

I books; and this is what he has p.atcutcd — he begins

j with: "My invention consists in llic cmplotinient uf

I fo«f»'":-not flat discs concealed behind cones to

be disclosed and brought to light : and on the llith

day of Feb. l.S8fi or any date thereafter, for the

first time. Verily he has hid his light under a

bushel all Ibis while. lie finishes with: "1 claim

the itpiiVicutii'ii of tlie cunes."' I think the endeavour

to scjuare the circle and round the square should

1 not be tried on an intelligent body such an the

I Ceylon planters are. I do not know how it may

' dd in India.

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRJCULTURtST.

643

THE NEW UVA PEOVIXCE.

COHEE — TKA — CACAO AND CINCHONA — THE
MONAKAli.U/A UISTKICT : ITS WANTS AND PROSPECTS.

( h'n»ii Our Special Representathc. >

loth February 188G.
I have never in the whole circle of the hill
country of Ceylon seen cinchona tieifls so satis-
factory in growth and appearance, so full of promise
and so pleasing every way to the eye as those
of the Messrs. Mactarlaiie on Cannavarella estate,
about 5,000 feet hiyh on the Nannuiakula range.
Old Cannavarella estate I have known since the
day when ■' Sandy Brown" engaged in my presence
Mr. .7. P. Koss ("long Boss") to go across from
Dumbara to that outof-the-way part of I'va to
take charge of his interests. I saw it tlrst over
twenty years ago,' and 1 spent a couple of days
on the place in 1,S72 ; it was a pleasure to me
to see the old place in such good hands as those
of the Messrs. Macfarlano, who. both in Maskeliya
and Uva, are known as staunch reliable colonists
and careful planters of the very best type. Some
of the old cotTee on Cannavarella — 40' years old
trees, 1 am atraid to say how many niches in
girth— are still very "tit" for crop; but certainly
the finest sight Mr. K. P. Macfarlane had to show
me was his hundred acres of cinchona, in age from
three up to seven years — planted in virgin forest-
land, in clearings of from '20 to 40 acres (chiefly
hybrid robustas), each field surrounded by jungle.
unbroken expanses of healthy, vigorous growth, not
excelled by anything I had seen even on " Lover's
Leap," and far more striking to the eye. because
on Cannavarella the cinchona fields are not interrupted
by blue-gums or any other vegetation. Lower down
on Oetumbe and Wayvelhena there are also line
cinchona clearings ; hut I should say that the
zone about or above 4,000 feet in Uva must be
perfection for cinchona.

I have already alluded to the tine cacao fields
in the valley, and to the very promising tea clear-
ings on both Glen Alpine and Spring Valley. On
the latter property, if one has the patience for
a thl-ee-mile rule through the estate, or a climb
up steps so Bteep and prolonged as to remind one
of those of Malta (which Jiyron apostrophized as
"those cursed steps of stairs '), the reward will
be found in the evidence of a splendid growth of
tea at a high elevation, the bushes having stouter
stoms particularly, for their age than I have noticed
anywhere else in the country. The buhn.-ssand
promise of flush will be more evident by and bye,
the clearings bring still very young. " Tea-seed
planted at stake" seems to do exceptionally well
in Uva : in one case, a clearing so grown, pointed
out to me. rivalled one grown from plants put out
at the same time. Xaliavilln has a clearing of
tea on a Hat which was described to me as mar-
vellous in growth : bushes ."> and <i feet high in
less than two years. I think. Cannavarella has also
good tea. It was a real pleasure to look down
from the Cannavarella ridge on the splendid ex-
panse of luxuriant coffee visible on Nahavilla and
GowrakeUa. — nothing eoubl be liner. — and later on
to pass through .Mausagala, a place which was
being felled when I first saw it and which —
thinks very much to the successive good manage-
ment of Messrs. Crow and Deaker — has done
as well for its owner in crops as peihaps any
* TIV cut the houn'laries round from Spring A^alleyi
via WeywelheD.n, Gonrskrlle, Nahavilla. ,\-c . 1.'; years
ago. an<I «>• remember furveyor .John r.iaybrooke
Wc.sDw the ateep features of (^nnnavarelia. f.ittle did
we then drea"" '' ciiichoua or tea, or ca'no iu Uva.
— Ep.

coffee plantations of its size in the country ami
which is still in good heart.

On the left are the Passara group of estates, and
right in front is the " isolated Monaragala mount-
ain, " which, though 30 to 40 miles distant by the
riding path through the lowcountry, stands before
us in clear weather so plainly as lo enable each
l^ropcrty and clearing to be distinguished. This is .
not wonilerful, seeing that the view of the low-
country to the sea from Cannavarella is so good
that the Basses light is an object of nightly
observation, being very distinctly seen. Tlie out-
look in other respects from these lofty Badulla
ranges is extremely interesting ; one never tires o(
the morning mist filling up hollows, or spread like
a veil over the lowcountry or anon curling slowly
up the mountain sides, assuming the most fantast-
ic, forms. But the cloud effects of an evening
are .even more entrancing, and one picture remains
with me as " a thing of beauty and a joy for
ever," the westering sun over the Totapala range
lighting up a sea of cloud lying over Upper Us a and
making it appear as the translucent crystal floor of
Paradise.

Of MosAiiAo.vi..\, and its nine or ten cultivated
estates, I have only the usual record of trying
pioneering difficulties to make. Ditticulties with
trarisport, absence of supplies, difficulties with
climate, the heat at the fool of the hillside some 700
feet above sea level being described as simply un-
eciualted in the experience of any planting district
in Ceylon. There have been two it not three
European victims already to climate— including the
much -regret ted E. P. Eastwood — and there is still
much suffering from fe\er. A regular supply of
good food would go far to enable plant-
ers and coolies to fight their enemy and as cultiv-
ation extends, no doubt the climate will be im-
proved. .\t )nesent out of .S.oOO acres in private
hands about 1,400 acres arc under cultivation, halt
under coffee, and the rest chiefly cacao and card-
amoms which promise exceedingly well. With a good
road to ^^'c■llawaya, a medical dispensary in the
heart of tlic district, and an improved bridle-
path to Ijunugala, there can be little doubt that the
prospects of Monaragala will improve considerably.
-Mready. there are tew districts in the island
which can show so satisfactory a growth of
so many products as Monaragala. The Arabian
coffee is as good as could be expected ; the Liherian
cofl'ee equal to any in the island ; the cacao is most
promising; cardatnoms bear heavily; now pepper
and arecafiuts are coming on nicely. I believe
cinchona gi'ows well on the upper i)art of the hill,
and " crotons " (the crotbn-oil trees) grow like
weeds. As regards tea, the growth leaves nothing
to be desired. A planter who put in a few
thousand plants in .Tanuary 18H5 last month found
them averaging about 3 feet. These plants are a
good hybrid, but sotne people think indigenous would
cio even better. However transport will have to be
much improved before Monaragala planters will care
to go in for tea on a large scale and there tnight
be some difficulty in getting the l''acfory work well
and carefully done owing to the climate. As regards
labour the planters never have had any difficulty
in getting coolies, and. except on one or two or estates
where water is bad, the coolies. 1 am told, do not
suffer so nuich as their masters froiu fever. Theelifnatc
however is undoubtedly a great di-awback .'is regards
Europeans, and, as I have said, we can only hope
that it will improve with time. It is well known
that the district was not well opened, and it is a
matter of surprise that the older estate- have come
en as well as they have done. Some of the best
cacao wab '•tUbblod in"— a great tribute to the

o4^f

tBE TROPICAI, AGRICULTURIST. [AIarch i, iM

frcenesB and goodness of the soil. There is a lot
of very fine forest still available in private handf,
and of Cro'.yn jungle too, a great extent. The
tollowinij notes from a planter interested in the
district were made some months ago : —

Aii.UiLiN Cofiile, looking well, about 10,000 bushels
crop this year.

LiBBRiAN CofKEE.— A fine coTCr on -yirigaUa (\shich
is also planted up with cacao) and bearing well'.

Cauhamums.— These do very well and the clearing on
Walton is giving a very good crop. They are all, I
think, of the Malabar sort, and some sold in" London in
November 1885 fetched Is .'id to '2s Hd per lb.

Cac'Ao, 1 consider the most promising product. The
:i and 1 year old fields on Sirigalhi and Maragalla
leave nothing to be desired, and the yoving clearings on
Mouerakellie are A 1, while the old trees on Raxawa
are splendid specimens. The Forastero sorts are
now being planted to some extent and wc cayie
across a 2* year old tree with 30 fine pods, while an
old tree on Kumaradola had given about 120 in the
year. , Shade — iak, rubber, dadap.aud. crotou — is heine

put iu. , ^ -' - ■ ■ ; '. ■ .. '■,

Uelvi'iUif has done very little damage so far, and
with the deep soil and good rainfall— about '.tO in.—
I do not think it will. Aic<-(ui are planted all round
the clearings on Monerakellie and are coming on well,
while a few iieinin- riiies put ni have made a
start and we are going to plant a number this year
at the base of jaks and forest trees and are going to
give them a trial on the large boulders which are so
abundant. A few ni'tmcgs have also been put out on
Siri^alla.

The recent ' sale of Monaragala cocoa reported
by Mr. Mason is most encouraging, and although
tea grows so well I think the Monaragala
planters should continue for some time yet to
give their attention to cacao and cardamoms.' " Oh
(or a railway within rvn," the pioneers in
this distant division may well cfy. Planters on
the Kandy side have been accustomed to regard
the Kamunakula estates as the iiltiiwi Thiilc of
Tva, and it is difficult for them to understand
that there are plantations and districts .SO to
•10 r.'iiles beyond, farther out in the new province.
I have been much struck with the evidences of
an abundant labour supply during the present
visit and also with the good relations existing
between employers and employed. As Mr.
Macfarlane told me on Cannavarella, such a thing
as robberies of bungalows or outhouses, so com-
mon in the liimbula, Dikoya, Maskeliya and Kandy
districts, are almost unknown on this side, and
planters take little or no trouble about locks
and keys for their residences.

A^ OTHER NEGLECTED LNJUUSTBV.
i'r. E. Ronavia writes to the I'ioiiccr; —
In the Pioneer of Uiird November, 18S5, page '>. I
read Unit in IhnI.mu, out of total ijuantily of ()!)3,17<i
luiiii of wheat exported from India, Italy took 17,!Ki<')
IpUb. In IMija.H;), out of 7;-57,'."-'0 tons, she took
y.gOO lotia, In IHHS.KJI, yut of 1.0l7.M'i4 tcus, she
took •J-2,'>in lon.% and in lNHi.fj,j, out of 7y2,71I
kuis, she looV H5,015 tons, so that tlio exports of
.(ndian wheats to Italy have nearly doubled in four
jbai>: Tliero can haruly be a \loubt that the
Italians ha.-t; found the hard Indian wheats — rich
Ih gluten —eminently suitbd to the manufacture of
mucatOui and other Italian pastes, .lust observe
how lu'.T wt- In India obiaiu our nmcaroni an
Brtiifle of diet which is much prized by all who
havp eaten it, but which is now used only like
"bonboiiR,'' on account of its prohibitive price.
'Che Indian wheats first go to Italy, and some of
(hem. either In Naples or Genoa, arc then ground,
sifted, and mairafactutcd iuto macaroni. Then the;-
tft ;])iffej s^ mucaruui tu £u;;Iaiid uud TruDce.

boxed in tins or wrapped in small paper parcels,
and sent back to us as tins or packets of macaroni.
The result of the Indian ■ wheat's travels to -the
seaports, its voyage across the seaa, its perambul-
ation in Europe passing through three or four hands,
and its return journey to India is ,that vye^jiet
tinned macaroni — Fabbrioa l>e Rarbieri — nervi — ex-
pressly "ptepBredr for Crosse and Blaokwell at 7i?/iw
a ^Ib tin. That is the price I paid for it the other
day in the shops. Other English firms also send
us tinned macaroni at eijually absurd prices. That
which comes from Erance is made up in long blue
paper packets, and bears the label of "Groult Jne,
Paris — Macaroni gras de Naples." The latter, 1
think, is the best, but, if I mistake not, also the
dearest. Last year I bought a tin of macaroni of
another firm, also at an absurd price, and, in boiling
the paste turned black. The difference between the
superior and inferior kinds of Italian paste is that
the more you boil the former the whiter they be-
come,'while the; latter turn darker -,the more they.,:
are cooked, probably in the same way that brow» -
bread turns dark by baking. No one will probably,
deny that the Italians, rich and poor, live largely
on macaroni : tlierefore the inference is that this
article of diet can be manufactured and retailed
at a eomparativeJy loie price, probably at a , few _
pence per pound, while we are forced in pay for
the imported article one nqicc j'er ih. The new in-
dustry which I now suggest is a macaroni factory,
which would work up our macaroni wheats iwi tlm
sj)ot ivliere flieij are ffroirn. either in Oiidh or iu-
the Punjab. The advantages are obvious. The
carriage to the sea-ports, the voyage to Europe.-
the perambulation over Europe, and probably the
cost of tin boxes and the return journey to the-
Indian shops with other expenses would be saved,
and tor the dear labour of Italy would be sub-,
stiluted the cheap labour of India. In addition :
the bran — a very nutritious cattle food — would '
remain in the country. Then we might hope to get '
our nuicaroni at about 1 annas or less per ijound. At
present a dish of macaroni is a luxury that only
the rich can afford. If this article could be pro-
duced cheaply in India, all the European troops
might be able to have it two or three times a week,
insfead of their monotonous and perpetual meat
diet, winter and suumicr. All the Aug o-Indian and
Eurasian population and the Christian population of
South India would use it. and probably, if Maho-
medau workmen were employed in the factories, "
the whole Mahomedan population of India would
also eventually use it in the same way that many
of them now use European fashioned bread i ihuiHc
rati, as they call it J made by Mahomedan bakers.
It will thus be seen that the probable held of
consumption is not at all small, if this article could
be produced in India at a low price. There ini{jhl,
pei'lmps, be room for more than one factory.

This is not all. MacoronI and other Italian pastea,
II properly dried, v. ill keep u lon^' time, and if
ijUliiciently cheap would, no doubt, soon become an
article of war provisions. Kor imuiodiate use it
does not appear that tin cases are necessary for
macaroni. That imiiorted from Paris is simply.
wra)iped in thick blue paper. I kept macaroni in
these papers all throuyli last rains without their
in the least spoiliii'-'. No doubt the Indian [laper
mills would be able to manufacture a cheap thick
suitable wrapping paper. With macaroni might be
associated the maini!acturc of "semolina," which
is only a superior sort of " soojee " — an article
higlily nutritious; and suitable not only for making
superior bread, but also as an article of war pro-
visions for Ihe thickfuiug of ;ioups and brotht., and
{or luakiu^ casuii brcud' riusHy. iu tbe i^iiwe

ATascji j, iSSS.J TTJE TROPICAL AGRICCTLTUJ^IST.

t'4J

(avtoi-y.auigbt be set upi the mBHufactnre of bis-
cuits, wbich ai'c also now imported at ruinous
prices ; a good and ciicap war discuit is, I should
sajv mucli ueedtd in India lor European troops.
If ; a uia<;aioni factory were started in Iqdia, wliere
it is presumed the liard ^yhcats are well-
suited to its manufacture, Australia, the Cape, and
iill vEastorn markets might get their supplies of
this article troui ludia. To .-;uui up, the advant-
ages would appear to be cheap macaroni for all
Indian ;ind Eastern consumers ; cheap and plenti-
ful semolina and biscuits — brau for cattle, sheep,
and poultry ; a prolltable investment for capital ;
and a new industry for the labour of this country.
All that Would appear needful are capital, and a
couple of Italian macoronr makers as foremen.
Kither Lucknow. Cawnpore, or Laliore, the cen-
tres of the wheat-growing districts, would bo suit-
able place.-, for factories. There the hot weather
and winter are admirable seasons for drying the
pastfi.jWithout artificial heat. _3Viregauzc door and
window littings would be required^ to, keep out Ihe
flies and to ensure general cleanliness. — Madias
Mail. ■ •■"

PLANTING IN NETHEKL.VNDS INDIA.
(Translateil for the "Strails Time^.'')

tor Cinchona Planters. — In a private letter it is
iitated that cinchona cultivation once so promising
in Ceylon yields now nothing but disappointment.
Seedlings and young plants generally fail to come
up and many have died. The cause of this must,
be sought in degeneration of the ciuchonas since
growing them has been startetl in Ceylon from the
fact being ascertained that each succeeding gener-
ation has less strength and vital energy than the
preceeding one. I'erhaps also the true reasons for
these unfavourable phenomena are to be sought for
in unsuitableness of soil in connection with the
climate of Ceylon.

■lava Tea. — Great indignation has been aroused
in Ceylon. It seems that while more than eighty
prize medals were awarded during the Calcutta Ex-
hibition to teas from .lava and British India, those
of Ceylon only secured two, neither of which was
gold. In Ceylon this result is ascribed to jealousy
on the side of India but, h<iwever it may be, the
fact deserves mention anyhow. — Siirabaija Ciinraiit.

The animus of both the above paragraphs is
obvious. — En.'

THE POSITION OF CINCHONA BAEK.
{From an Occasional Correspondent.)

London, 2nd Jan. 188(j.

The recent heavy shipments of cinchona bark
trora Ceylon and the consequent heavy fall in the
market in Mincing Lane must have attracted the
attention of all interested in the cultivation of
cinchona. During the^ months of October and Dec-
ember, tbc fhipments of bark from Colombo
amounted to nearly 3.000,000 lb,

These ship.nents were caused no doubt by the
high prices ruling in llincing Lane, as to which I
read in Messrs. Lewis & Peat's circular for the
year that "in October the improvement all rotmd
bevame very marked : large sales of all kinds were
agam effected and the unit rose to 5M and Od in
the early part of the month and to (l^d and 7d in
the latter. " And the result is, that in December
'' the unit is down to -^d and 4{d."

Very little of the bark shipped since Ist October
can have participated in the good price.s ruling at
end of October here. And it may be safely stated
tbat by rushing the bark in so fast at least 1<1 |ier
unit was lost on the whoh; 3.(k)0,000 lb. The'
question is, bvw vnil it be possiiblu in event of

another similar rise in the bai'k market to prevent
a similar deluge of barl: ?

Now. I am not on<? of those who scoff at the
Inis/e: /aire system and who think that matters
of supidy and demand can, as a rule, be advant-
ageously regulated from without. 1 have seen too
much of the great restllts aehieved by private in-
. dividual cnterprizes (and nowhere have I seen
greater- than in Ocyloii) to be disposed to join in '
the constant modern cry for interferences But in
applying the general rules of political economy it
seems only reasonable to consider the special circ-
umstances of each individual case. And, in looking at
the very special position occupied by owners of
growing bark, it does appear to be a ease where
with the minimum of combined arrangement as to
shipments the maximum of advantage could be
obtained. The time of harvest is at the will of
the owner : and, so long as the trees are growing,
the growth will give good interest till time of
harvest.

' Nq\v,l;ha«e a,fu'ggestiOI}lto: make. While pondor- s
ing on the loss recently caused to Ceylon growers
by their disorgaiiized rush into the market',"! chanced "
to hoar that for selection of exhibits for the coming
Colonial and Indian Exhibition the various District
Associations had been requested to choose the
estates, each in its own district, which should send
samples of produce. Whether or not the District
Associations have, succeeded in carrying out thja.
duty ethciently and to the general satisfaction I do .'
not know. But it has struck. me that this same ,'"
organization having been thus onpe brought into ,
play might be without difficulty be further applied
to the control of the cutting and shiimient of bark.
At present, probably, few know at all accurately
what others may be doing in the matter. And the
diS'usion of accurate information would alone act
greatly to the public advantage in preventing such
wide and heavy simultaneous cutting as shall rob
all of profits otherwise easily obtainable.

Having thus made my suggestion, I leave it to
those immediately interested to judge it on its
merits. w. M. L.

♦ •

TEA IN AMEKICA,

{Special far " Ceijloii Obserrer" hi/ Col. E. Moneij.)
East India Club, London, .Jan. 'i'ind, 1880.

*I have not written in your paper for some months,
but I have been wandering in the United States.
I enquired as to Indian Tea while there, and possibly
your readers may like to know the result.

Firstly, as to the ijossibility of the States, or
indeed any part of America, providing tea. Before'
I went there. I heard and read much on this head,
but what I saw during my travels convinced me that
it never can be. There are climates in that vast
region where -tea would both grow and thrive, still
those spots are not many or extensive. Suitable
soil of course exists, I have never seen a country
where it would not be found. But as we all know
cheap labour is a "ine qim miii for successful tea
cultivation, .and it exists nowliere in America. I '
speak advisedly when I say " no where." In no part
of Canada, or the huge British possessions, can it be
found ; and even were it there, the intense cold makes
tea impossible. All over the States labour is both
scarce and very expensive. One d'lllar 1 2 a day.
with food added, is about the usiial wage in the
northern and western parts, and, though down louth
it is somewhat le'<s, nowlnre is it anything
like the figure to justify tea cultivation.

We need not therefore fear a tea producing
rival in America. .Vlas ! thcro are too many alreadv.
but thib at least is spared ua, ' . . ' '

646

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Masch i, 1886.

Secondly, as to the prospects o{ America be-
coming a successful market (its capacity in tliat
way beggars description,) for Indian and Ceylon
lea. The said prospects are both bad and good:
bad if no larger efforts to introduce it are not
made in the future tliau the past has accomplished;
good, immeasurably good, it the Tea Association set
to work with a will, and really introduce it, which
they have never done in the proper way.

The consumption of tea in the States is enormous,*
partly due, of course, to the tremendous area, but
also in a great measure to the habits of the Amer-
icans. They are, as a rule, a mucli soberer
race tlian tlie English. They drink 't is true, but
not in the same way as the English do. Sober for
months, then three or four days of hard drinking.
But to the point as it affects tea consumption. Tiie
Englishman drinks beer or wine with liis dinner,
sometimes witli his luncli and supper. Not so the
mass of the Americans: tea or coffee is tlieir
beverage, generally the former, and thus per head
I doubt not tliey drink far more tea than we do.+
I write without statistics, but except, perhaps.
New Zealand, where the consumption is enormous
per liead, I imagine Die Americans consume, in-
dividually, more tea than any other race in the
■ world. [A great error. — Ed.;

Strange that it should be so, for it is the nastiest
.-ituff I have over tasted I It is principally .lava
green tea, fearfully weak, and the infusion is destitute
of aroma, colour, or taste. No, I am partly wrong
as to colour; sometimes it is a pinky green. Bui
it is, without exception, the most woeful stuff
I have ever drunk. It only shows how vei'y
acquired is the taste for tea, when the Americans
consume such rubbish. J

How can we alter tlieir tastes, and get them to
drink good tea? I think so, at least my ex-
perience out there showed me it would be difficult.
I was stationary for some time in the State of
Colorado, drank Indian tea, and gave it to the
Americans who came to my house. They had never
previously tasted any but their own vile compound.
They all liked it, more the second or tiiird time
than the iirst, and some vowed they would never
in future drink any other. But I had better proof.
An Englishman in the capital of Colorado (Denver)
by name "Corn'orth" had started a large gro-
cery store, and among other teas sold Indian. It
was a very good high class Assam pekoe souchong,*
and he told me he sold a great deal and that it
was highly appreciated. But finding it there was
exceptional. It is to be had in New York, but,
as a rule nowhere else in the States. At least
enquiring in many places, I could tind it nowhere
except in one tea shop in San Francisco. There
too they sold much.

But the fact is Indian lea is as unknown in
the States as it was in Great Britain ihirty years
ago. We all know what euormous strides it has
here (probably the figures for last year will give
some itB per cent of the whole coiisumptioni and
that iu five years more, wc shall equal if not
txceed the imports from China. Can we not begin
and pave tlie way for a like success i i .\iiierica'.' How
Are we to do it? Success is sure to come some
day in any case, for it is absurd to suppose a
good artick', will not eventually make its way there,
but that day, if a real effort is not made, wiU be
Very long deterred. What then should we do?

Outside the futile efforts that have been made
already, we can do literally nothing without co-
operation. I can point out tlie road to success,
but it must remain with the London and Calcutta
Tea Association to achieve it. Were Indian tea
sent in goodly quantities to America, forwarded
to the principal cities of the States, and sold there
by public auction to the highest bidders as done in
Mincing Lane, it would thus be gradually intro-
duced and made known to the masses. There would
probably be losses on the first shipments, (a mere
bagatelle did tea owners see the immense future
advantages and subscribe for the jjurpose). but
the ball would be set rolling, and the demand
for Indian tea from America in a few years would
be great.

It would run the same course in America it has
done in England — not much would be drunk pure
at first, by far the greater part would be mixed
to give body to their tasteless decoctions, but the
public would be mhicated to like the flavour, and
would demand more and more of the mixture.
When, as would certainly come to pass, and as is the
case in England now, the tea sold had more than
one-third of Indian in it, the cultivation in
both India and Ceylon would be far from satisfying the
demand that would then be created.

I will do what I can to urge this uiattcr on
the London Tea Association, but I would ask for
your help to call attention to it in Calcutta.

Of course, both now and liereatter, when I speak
of Iwdian tea I include Ceylon, and I may well do
BO, for she is running us a hard race.

EllWAKD MONEV.

* Surely no( : I'uly M8 lb. per c.-ipiit against
.'it least five times that amount of coffee. — Ed.

"t" We drink nearly five times as much. — Ed.

.^ Japan Oolouga are the teas chiefly druak
Amorica,— £]>•

lit

CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTING BEPORT.

DEII.iND PCE TE.V ."JEEP — THE HOLD M.\K WHO SCOBES
— r.U,MS IN" XORTnERN INDIA — .IN HONEST OriXiON —
riiOFITS EB03I S.\LE3 OF TE.l SEED — KISE IN PRICE
OF EBONY — COOLIES OUT OF WORK.

15th February IH8C1.

It has been very interesting to watch for soms
months past the excited demand that there has
been for tea seed, and the leaps and bounds which
it has taken in price.

Tliat the local crop for some months was short was
too manifest to all who had orders booked, for deliveries
were put off in some cases, uiitd the buyer was
sickened with disgust, and threw up his bargain in
despair. Nothing loath, however, was the seller to this
style of protest, for there were plenty of others
ready waiting to take the place of the disgusted
man, and even to pay an advance of from fifty
to a hundred per cent on the lonuer prices.

The agents of the Indian tea gardens also helped
to keep up the excitement, by booking orders from
all corners, without any consideration as to the
garden's capacity to execute them, and the result
has been that Indian tea »eed orders are being
delivered short ; proportionate shares only being
handed out of the quantities ordered.

Iu times ol undue excitement it is the bold man
who scores, and it was surely a touch of genius
which was manifest in the advertisement some time
ago, which offered four maunds of tea seed at
ItlOO a niaun<l ! cash to accompany the order I !
and the advertisement to appear only once 1 I I
Whether it was the price, or the immediate delivery,
or the quality of the seed, or the vendor's confid-
ence in the "power of the single insertion, which
fetched a portion of the public, I know not, bnt
this I do know, that a man who wrote off whenever
lie read the advertisement had sorrowfully to con
fess that quick as ho had been lie vas yet too
late, ioi' be bad bis cheque returned with tbe \a-

March i, 1886] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

647

timstion that two men were in before him, nnd the
tirst man had got the seed. How many more may
liave applied goodnessonly knows, but thesethrce alone
were triumph enough. Thus was genius rewarded.

There have been many imitators of this hold
act since then, not exactly following in the same
lines but rather animated with the same spirit.
Yon know the story of the man sending home
to one of the iUustrated papers a sketch of a town
in Northern India, and his chagrin to see it appear
disfigured and rendered untruthful with clumps
of palms. In answer to his artistic contributor's
indignant protest that there were no such trees to be
seen in that part of Hindustan, the Loudon
L-diior calmly replied that that might be so. but tlie
British public demanded palms 1

In these days there is a^ emphatic a demand from
the Ceyion planters for tea seed, and they are de-
termined to get it and io get it where until now no
good }&t has ever before been got. As you value
your seed so will excited buyers value it, and the
way to turn a bad jat into a good one. is boldly to
stick on the price.

It is only last year that I was with a fiicnd who
was after 'tea plants. Visiting a tea garden he
was eiHjniriug at the obliging manager if ho knew
of any nursery for sale, and was told that there
was one there, raised from seed gi-own on the estate.
■ But," said the manager, " to be honest with you,
I would not put them out myself." •• Such con-
tidence should beget confidence," laughingly replied
my friend, ■' and if )/o» would not plant them out,
lo be honest with you, no more will I." So vehe-
mently, however, are the Ceylon planters demand-
ing tea seed, that this despised jat, which less
than a year ago had to be apologized for if a man
were to keep an honest character, is today actually
advertized at K()0 a maund 1

Is ther" any need for this hurry-skurry and
scrambling for seed? The tea seed crop is not
always to be short : nay, as far as my knowledge
goes', there is at present a fairly good crop on the
trees, and while no one would object to give a good
price for a good jat. there is unfortunately much
rubbish being offered at high prices, which would
be dear at nothing.

Those who have seed-bearing trees of a good
jit have since the present rise been doing re-
markably well. From all such fortunate individuals
there are purring expressions of thorough satisfac-
tion, life is worth living, so complete is the reign
of contentment within. When they descend to
figures they can show many a good thing, and from
among a crowd the best which I have heard of wai- the
landing of R7,000 in the month of .January from
tea seed alone, and this from a place which is
turning out large quantities of tea, at splendid prices.
Is it to be wondered at that every here and there
there is a sanguine man who scouts at anything
like a fall in prires either in the near or the
distant future, wliu hrldslhat the leaf and the seed
will ever rem.iin hip"';, that the tea plant will do
more for Ceylon than the coffee free ever did, and
that we are within touch of a prosperity whicii will
rival the days of the past, if not indeed cause
them to be forgotten?

The rise in the price of ebony, and the increased
demand fo" it. are bringing out offers from dealerfl
who are prepared to fell, and cut out the valuable
timber from trees growing in your jungle if yon
are fortunate enough to have any. LIO a ton is
oHfered for the wood, the cost of cutting and trans-
port to be borne by the buyer. Considering that
ebony is worth R**"! a ton in Colombo, those who
make contracts at B40 a ton are not likely to
lose anything, Pefperc'obn.

PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION OF CEYLON.

The following are extracts from the .^'ind annual
report for lSl8">-(> of the Ceylon Planters' .\ssociation
rend at the annual meeting on 17th Felirnar\.
1880 :—

PLAXTIVG IMtODrCTS.

Coffte. — This staple claims precedence by reason of
the value of its crop being still greater than that ol
any other prodnet. but the exports of this old staple
still contiuno to f:i!l. In tlie Kandyan Provinces
that most destructive of pests black-bug has con-
turned its ravages, and ere long coffee will be practic-
ally extinct in the Northern Districts. In the young
disti'icts, too, the falling-off has been great, due in-
anieasm-e to the continued attacks of leaf-disease, but
nioro imniodiately to extended tea cultivation entail-
ing the dostructioji nf much coffee. V\\ some favored
localities — notablv TJdapussellawa and portions of Uva
— goodreuuiiierative evops have boon gathered and the
cotfee retains its vita-lity. — The exports for 1885 were
315 641) cwts., agamst 2iW.:Wj cwt., in 1884.

Tea. — The hopes which yonr Committee expressed
during the last two years about tliis cultivation have
so far been more than realized. The area under
cultivation has during the past year been greatly
incrciised, and in almost every district manufacture has
couimenced. The quality of the teas has been main-
tained, notwithstanding the large proportion gathered
from young bushes, and satisfactory prices have been
realized both in the London and Colombo markets.
Yonr Committee has noted with satisfaction the
establishment of a regular market in (Colombo, and
the strides which it has made — over half a nn'Uion
pounds haviuj< been exposed for sale there during
the last seven mouths of the year. Improvements
and economies in the modes of manufacture continue
to be introduced. Your Committee trusts that by
these means the quality of the teas will advance
still further and the cost of production diminish.
The exports for 1885 were 4.37'2,71 Ih., against
2,H'.I-2.<.172 lb. in 1881.

Cinchona. — Notwithstanding the growing feeling
that in a few years' time this product will again lie-
come one of great value, there h.-ns been, practically,
no further planting of cincliona. The need for money
to plant tea, the slow growth of tea when covered
by growing cinchonas, as well as the dying-nff of
the trees themselves, are caus*^s which have letl to the
enormous expcirt of 13 736,17U Ih. for thi' past year
a4?ainst 11,805.280 lb. for 1881. " M'hile a rise in price
during the current year would lead to a considerable
export, there can be no doubt that the niaximinu pro-
duction has been reached, and that ere long thi;re will
be a great reduction in the quantity exported. It
may be doubted whether the acreage uud*T cin:;hona
is now one-fourth of what it notniually was four
years ago.

Cacao. — In drawing attention to this valuable product
your Committee is glad to be able to point to the
decided improvement observable in its condition dur-
ing the year. Though the insect pent (Ilelopeltis),
which seemed until recently seriolisly to threaten
destruction or incalculable damage to large areas
phiutcd with cacao, cannot be said to have taken it,:
(lupartiirc, its ravages arc compfliatively mitigated
From whatever cai-se, -.vhether a mori- fcivnablo.
acison an.l a i.iyi.- evenly '■''i'stribated rainfrtlt oansi.ig
mailed vigour and power to tlirow out le;.f, the at-
tacke of Helopehi.i h.ave been confined to patchcH
now better understood to be nnturally unsuited to the
habits of tho trc;, owing to poor and shellow soil,
expoted ridges and went of nhMlc an.l Bh?!t«r. It
appears certain that the .^uccessfid and prolitahle
cufiivntioii of <iii;ao w.W be eonfined to certain local-
ities and of 'I'lch to only the best soil and lay oi land.
The iuiprovemenl that has already taken placi- lu
1 rtliipmrnt is matter for satiofaction whili' consumption
steadily increases and prices are maintained bey.ind
the expectati jn formed sonic years ago. The exports
for 18M5 were 7. lil'2 cwt., against 7,'255 cwt. m 1884.

Minnr J'loilui la. — The production of cardamoms
has increased grcntly and as a consequence the price

64.8

XffE, TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

continues to fall, checking further extension oi the
acreage under this valuable product, the exports of which
during 18S5 amounted to 184, 1-12 lb., against 177,163
lb. in 18fM. Your Committee regrets that there is no
advance in rubber cultivation to chronicle. The trees
grow well, but it is difficult to obtain from them at
a moderate cost a sufficient quantity of rnbher.
Liberian coffee has in many districts been cut out
to make way for tea. This year it shows a large
increase of exports over 1S84, but as the price obt,^ln-
able for it is very low, and there is no likelihood of
a better, it will probably shortly cease to lie an im-
portant export. The exports for ISSr. were ■:>.'Ai:i ewt.,
against .S,412'crwt. for 1884.

.TEA STATISTICS.
"'• Messrs. (tow', Wilson <t Stanton send us theirvfthi-
able Ahrinal Bepdrt on the Tea Trade, illustrated
by diagrams which at once appeal to the e.ye
a-nd show the exact position of India and China.
In the second quarter of ia78, the average price of
fftir medium pekoe. was Is 9d per lb. ;. in the fourth
quarter of IHR.t, the figure was down to Is 0|d.
liu.t the average monthly deliveries which were
itnly '2,HfiO,000 in the third quarter ol 1«78, went
iip'to (i,'.t40,000 in the tirst tluarter of last year,
it will be seen that, while the home consumption
fff Chin^tea is lower now than it was in 1871, the
cppsutoption of Indian (including Ceylon) tea now
exceeds by nearly 500 per cent the amount taken
fonfteen years ago. We should think that seldom Or
never has there bpen such an advance as (his in
any one article of commerce, hut the atlvaiire of
Ceylon tea alone in the next decade will jirobably
leave even such a percentage behind.

The two kinds of Indian tea taken by the au-
thors ol the Circular are fair medium pekoe and
useful pekoe souchong. In 1879 pekoe began at
la 7d, rose to Is lid, went down to Is (id and
closed at Is 8d. In 187it prices varied ♦Vom Is :id
to Is 8d ; in 1880 there was a descent to Is, with
a rise in 1881 to Is (id; in 1882 the price went
down to Is OAd. rising to Is M in IHM; rising
from Is 2d -to Is :!d in 1884 and going dowii
below Is ; while 188.i began at Hid, rose to Is 2Jd
and closed at Is n.Ul. In round numbers fair
nu-dinin pekoe was cheaper by 30 per cent last
year than in 1878. Estates, therefore, wliich have
jiot been able to reduce the cost of producing
tea must have suffered severely. Much the same
process has marked the history of useful pe!;oe
souchong which began ia 1878 at Is 3d; sunk to
!)M ia jPS2-83, and closed in 188r, at lO.'.d. The
dcUvorics in the period included rose from 1 million
to 7 millions of pounds per month. In Uie duty
scare period of last vear deliveries went up to
8,(;54,000 in March and 8,703,000 in April, fol-
lowed, of course, by a reaction. The deliveries
calculated on for the first six months of 18H(i are
.'),750,000 per monlli, but we have Utile doubt the
round fi millions will be reached before the year
is out. The percentage ot Indian and Ceylon teas
to the whole consumpdon rose from 3 per cent
in 18t)l-(iri to 17 in 1k7(1 and 3!) in lH8;-i. The
")0 per cent is not far off, and then China will
rank No. 2 as a source of tea. (Iiina tea culmin-
ated with .a. monthly delivery of 10 milluuis of
pounds in 18711, but the deliveries have since re-
ceded to a fraction over It millions in 188r,. From
a mere modicum in 1801 Indian tea has steadily
advanced, until in 18C,.'') the monthly delivery of
Indian tea was r,\ millions of pounds. Cevlon
adding another quarter ot a million.

We only regret we cannot reproduce the very
suggestive coloured diagrams, but the main facts
are patent enough. Indian tea has risen rapidly
in production and public favour, and the progress
of Ceylon tea promises to be still swifter in every
respect.

INDIAN TEA STATISTICS.

13, Rood Lane, Loudon, E.G., January 27th,

Below we beg to submit a few facts bearing on
the statistical position of Indian Tea, which may be
of interest to you,

Gow, Wilson * Stanton, Tea Brokers.

Diagram sliowing the Monthly average Deliveries
of Indian and Ceylon Tea in each (Quarter, and the
Comparative Course of Prices of Liditm Teas (Pekoe
and Pekoe Souchong), for eight years past. [Here
follows the diagram. J

The pr'ces ofthe two descriptions named are given,
as practicitUv the useful Teas, from lOd to Is 6d.
cover about" three-fourths of all the Indian Teas
produced.

In the diagram above, the average monthly de-
liveries of Indian and Ceylon Tea foi; the past year
show fluctuatio.is which are more striking than tho'Be
of anv year depicted upon our chart .

These irregularities are to be accounted for by the
abnormally high clearances which took place in
Mfirch and April last in anticipation of the Budget:
the market was then influenced by unusual excite-
ment occasioned by the fear of an addition to the
Tea. duty. This happily proved to be unfounded, but
nevertheless caused a substantial rise in prices, es-
pecially of the lower grades of Tea, as will lie noticed
by a reference to the Chart.

This disturbing influence coming so near ihc end of
the season yeai' naturally affected figures to such an
extent as to cause tlie usual statistics taken at the
end of May, to appear somewhat misleading. Wi'
therefore, for purposes of comparison give below, a
table calculate'd from 1st .lanuary to 31st December
— thus to avoid anv erroneous concl-.ision.

1883. 1884. IS.S;..
Import of Indian

and Cevlon . . (;i.ti(37,iJ00 67,152,000 66,86.1,000

Delivery" „ „ .. .'>1>.096,000 64,217,000 68,89.-.,0<iO

These extraordinary clearances appear to have un
favourably influeuceS deli\-eries for some months
after the 'excitement —until the close of September,
as shown by the following table, when \\-e again find
an excess over the corresponding period of 1881.

January (1,388,636 ; February j,77i.778 ; March
8 6.'i4 180": April 8,703,8110; IVIay 4,213.,-.s6; June
:i,. '•.76,122 ; July 3,893, LIS : August 4,477.7 i2 : Se)iteinber
.■■|,i.">3,!l22; October 6,452,874 ; November (i.uiul..s'.l;; ; Drc-
ouibcr .'),r>07,578, tot.al 68.894,962 lbs. -

For the whole period under review it is gratifying
to iijiice an iucvtas;^ of 4.679.000 oundsp. It is also
a significant fact- and ou" upon which we shMlI h.avi;
occasion to comment hilcr— thai the delivcri s I'or Ihe
past twuhe months have exceeded blie imports by
2,03.-i,<(oi; nounds— the first inHta,»co of any exct,ss sincu

1881. , , ,. .

Turning our attention now to the total deliveries,
including export, of all Tea for the past twelve months
and comparing them with the two preceding years, we
liud a coutstant increase viz;— l,'i.->3, 21 l,lil7,0(X); 18,84,
219,6;i3000; 188), 220,771,0<IO.

Tiie figures for lioiiu coMiiiiijilinii in 18S.i reach
the enormous total of 178,655.000 lbs.,— the largest
ever recorded, as against 17."),097,000 lb. in 1884, and
l'.0,812,(KX)lb. in 1883— and the annual amount of lea
consumed per head of the population in the United
Kingdom has now reached the unprecedented (igure
of 4 90 pounds. The eutire increase in the hoiiu-
consumption has been made up of Tea from India
and ('evloii, at the expense of China, and it is a
curious fact that the home consumption of this latter
description is lower than it has been since 18,1
fourteen years ago— while the consumption of Indian
Tea exceeds by nearly .500 per cent, the amount taken
in that ye!»r— so vastly has the popularity of Indian

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

645

and Ceylon Tea increased. The total home con-
siuiiptiou ill that year was only 123,529,«)0 lb. just over
twothiicis of its present amount.

Taking all these points into consideration the pre-
sent stock of Indian and Ceylon Tea appears none
too mnch for our requirements, and tins becomes
even more sit;uitieant when we observe that tlie
present stock "of all Tea i9U,-2ir>.U(JO lb.) is lower
than It has been at any corresponding period
since ItiTO, when it stood at <.»5,;«S,000 lb. Our
market, therefore, seems in no position to
stand another sir:un of such sevevity as
that to which it was subjected to during March
and April last, without a^ain undergoing consider-
;ible disturbance anfl inflation of prices m the event
of I hero being any ground for ahirm on account of

duty. , ,■ . ,,

( »"n the other hand should there be no unusual disturb-
ance in the ordinary deliveries we are likely to find
the supply of tea from India and Ceylon during the
next six mou;hs sufficient, but in uo way too largo for,
the probable demand. Taking the Calcutta estimate
of tea avaUable for London as 05,000,000 lbs., and the
total import for the same period from Ceylon
as G,ni)ililOO lbs.,* this gives us 71,000.000 lbs.
(If this ah-eady 4:i,-'SO,000 lbs. have anived
from India, and •2,iJ12,0o0 lbs. from Ceylon,
making together nearly lr,,0TO,0(X1 lb.— and thus
leaving 25,(X)0,0lXI to come forward. Adding the pres-
ent Stock of Sn.nOO.fiOO lb. there will be a total of
5l,000,tX«) lb. to deal with until tl:e end of June.
Assuming now that the deliveries during the next
six months will be maintained at an average of
5,7.5i ,000 lb. per month, we arrive at 34,500,(X)0 as
tbe probable total of the outgoings, and this should
leave us \iith a stock sufficient but not too large
for our gradually increasing rei]uirements.

An important feature of the present season, and
one which planters would do well to remember, is
the continued and steady demand which has set in
for the lower grades of i/ood stioii;/ liijuoriny teas.
The British public have become accustomed to pay
a certain price for their tea, and are every year trying
to obtain a better article without additional cost.
I'.etailers are compelleJ to meet this want by purchas-
ing larger quantities of sucli teas as give the itrmi/est
and »if',-/ seiviceah/e hquors for the least appeaiance.
This end is most easily attained by the substitution
of Indian ar Ceylon Pekoe Souchong or Souchong,
and broken tea for the usually weaker liquoring
("hiua variety. Ketailers now are also meeting the
public demand by introducing Indian or Ceylon tea
into many of then lower priced mixtures.

KxcoET. We remarked upon a previous page that
the deliveries for the past twelve months showed a
substantial preponderance over the imports, and we
now wish to offer some further remarks upon this
subject. It is to be regretted that no official Bgures
are recorded whinh show the amoimt of Indian Tea
e.tported from this country, especially so as there
appear to br- .strong grounds for believing that this
branch of the trade is capable of most important
extension, and indeed there is substantial reason for
suppo.^ing that a marked expansion is even now in
progress. At any rate, it is certain that large quant-
ities of In.lian Tea have been consumed during the
past Iwelvu nitmths where but a short time since its
use was confined to the smallest proportions. This
subject of Export is one which merits close attention
from the trale, but is too exhaustive to deal with in
the limiteii space which yet remains to u^, and we
11,1- ^for: hope to treat of it more fully at an early
date in a circular bearing njioii Ceylon Tos.

Cevion Tfi. — In the diagram upon the last page it
wiil be noticed that the red blocks which show the
average monthly cou.iumption of Imlian tea are tipped
with black foe the year ISSO an<l the following years,
to represent as nearly as can be tstimated the conBump-
tion of Ceylon tea, when uo seiiarate figures were

» The actual figure will he nearer 9,000,000 lb
—Ed.

S2

recorded to show the movements of this article. Small
though these deliveries have been, avera^iing even in
1S85, for which year actual ^tatistics are published.only
62(J8.10 lb. per month, there is no doubt they nr,i the
harbinger of an influx of tea so enormous that before
many years are over, its influence upon uur market
will be of the weightiest descriptinn. Considering
the great popularity of this article and its well nioiited
reputation for high class quality, it must be gratifving
to t!ic British public to hear of the likelihood of so
abundant a harvest.

E.KiiiBiTiox, IS8(i. There is uo doubt that the
coming Exhibition will do much to further the ediic.
ation of thepubhc taste in thedirecticn of both Indian
and Ceylon tea, and we are glad that such steps li.nve
been taken as will secure to these articles a consider-
able amount of the attention they deserve; and let lis
hope that the benefits will extend t.i the encourage-
ra-'nt of their use in other countries besides our own.

MANUK.tcruEE. The importance which attaches to
the process of withering, upon which we have com-
mented in previous reports, is becoming more and more
fully recognised, and has recently been the subject of
much able treatment both practically and scientifically
in a well known periodical, so that there is a fair chance
of the various new methods being thoroughly tested,
and of the acquisition of more intimate knowledge of
the chemical nature of the tea leaf.

Size of Breaks. The importance of making large
breaks and avoidifg the division of tea into too
many varieties cannot be too strongly insisted upon ;
the public sales are now frequently so large that
many buyers are compelled to pa.ss over, all the
siiial'ler lots, wliich thus meet with but little com-
petition,

BuLKiNfj UPON THE Gabdens must be effected with
the greatest care that the tea in each chest may hs
e.iartli/ similar in character, otherwise all the expenss
is thrown away, and the gardens arc subjected to
the additional cost of rebulking in London ,

Gn.nPTH's Tea Packer.— We have received
the following communications ; — A trial ot ^[r.
Gilruth's tea packer was made here (Kiutyve
Estate, Maskeliya) today (February 5th), which
you will see by annexed description, by three other
witnesses was satisfactory. Mr. Walter Agar and
Doctor Berry White, the latter an Assam planter
witnessed the packing of the first box and were
pleased with the result. Had it not been for a de-
fective screw a larger quantity of tea would have
been operated on, but I am so pleased with the
machine that I have ordered one to be made (for
power or hand use) at once for tliis factory and
when made fuller reports shall be given.

By the courtesy of Mr. H. D. Deane, Mr. Gilruth's

Tea Packer underv/eut a trial at Kintyre Factory.

The machine is very ingenious and compact, and,

worked bj hand on this occasion, packed four chests

(3/8ths No. 2.Japan boxes; of broken pekoe 001b. e.ach,

in 22 minutes, a second trial of coar-er tea resulted in

two chests of 86 lb. each being packed iu U iniiuites

each chest, but a screw giving way furtiinr trial li.id

to be suspendo 1. The toa packed compareil favorably

with that packf:d by coolies in the ordinary way and

showed no sigus of being brol-.en. With the few alicr-

atiuus which Mr. Gilruth will now carry out, the

packer will prove of great value, in th.at it wiil pack

tea in the stuU- it Iciives the sines unbroken and free

of foreign matter. The machine operated with was

constructed for power, but was worked by band lor

this occasion, and under these conditions proved itself

capable of packing 1,000 lb. per hour. We understand

from Mr. Gilruth that the machines will in future be

constructed by Messrs. John Walker & Co. and tba-

the cost will not exceed liSOO.— (Signed) A. E. B.

Stiven, Alfred Scovell, Thos. Xorth Christie, H, D.

Deane,

050

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

THE NEW PROVINCE OP UVA.

M.U)ULSIUA AND HKWA ELIYA PLANTING BISTKICTS :

THE " ULTIMA THULE " OF UVA.

ILL ROUND THE ESTATES, WITH THE GBOWIH OF

areCHONA, TEA, CACAO, RcnEEE, &C. AS WELL AS THE

CONDITION OP OLD KING COFFEE.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

Unable as I was to visit the Madulsima and
Hewa Eliya districts as intended, after the (iovernor
liad performed "the function" of proclaiming tlie
new province, I am fortunate in being able to lay
before you the following sketch of a trip round
the districts. No one cay say that " my cousin
Ich Dien " does not form a competent guide, and
although all he says about scenery and vegetation,
coigns of vantage and groves of luxuriance, makes
one inwardly resolve to " do " the twin districts on
the first opportunity ; yet, for the present, your
readers are better served than if they had had to
irust to the descriptive powers of your own corre-
■pondent ; —

Madulsima, 8th Feb. 188G.

My dear X., — I have just received your note, and
am greatly pleased to learn, that at last there
is a prospect of your being able to visit us in
this veritable " ultima Thule " of planting districts,
Madulsima to wit. I had almost prefixed the word
coffee to " planting," so strong is the force of
habit, but the old king's regal state is rapidly
disappearing, and the boundaries of his once ex-
tensive and flourishing kingdom are as surely con-
tracting in Madulsima, as they are elsewhere in
the island. Whether we have done wisely in de-
posing the old monarch, and placing is his room
and stead a sovereign whose name is Tea, sup-
ported by a cabinet, composed of cinchona, cacao,
rubber, cardamoms, pepper, i4c. — cinchona, of
course being First Lord of the Treasury and
Premier— you will be able to judge for yourself
when you have seen the twin-sister districts of
Madulsima and Hewa Eliya. It is a true saying,
often repeated by our jealous neighbours in
BaduUa, and worthy of qualified acceptation,
that Madulsima is not wont to hide her light
under a bushel, and it is with " unconcealed
but bashful satisfaction," that we congratulate
ourselves on the fact that our district is
the very hub of enlightenment, as regards
the perfect cultivation of anything and every-
thing which is warmed into life and usefulness,
by the kindly light and heat of the sun.

More than a dozen years have gone by, since
we last had the pleasure of seeing you amongst
us, and yoti must be prepared for many changes.

The pioneers of the district have nearly all gone
from us. Bailie, Adam, Mainwaring, Ballantyne and
de Havilland have crossed the bourne from which
no traveller returns. Arthur, Eeid, (iarioch and
Edwards have gone to other districts. Channing
Esdaile has just returned to his early love and
is, I fancy, the only remainmg representative of
our district in its youthful days. A now race has
arisen, who display an intelligent interest and
energetic action in the introduction and cultivation
of " new products," of which latter you are anxious
to see something. Come on then ! and see for your-
self, and bf ■ nvinced that our districts have taken
a new lease ul life, which promises to be a more
vigorous as well as ■ a more profitable one than
the old.

As many of the old landmarks have been re-
moved, and you are anxious to see as much- as
possible, in the few days you have to spare, I
would suggest your adoption of a route by which
ynn may see nearly every estate in the district.

You had better try to make Passara on the same
day as you leave Nuwara Eliya. You can easily
reach Attampitiya to breakfast and come on pretty
early in the afternoon to Badulla, where I will
have a trap waiting for you, and you can then
drive on quietly to Passara in the cool of the
evening. Endeavour to start as early as possible
next morning, in order that you may reach Lunu-
gala early in the day.

The little town of Passara, which was only a
few straggUng caddies when you first knew it, will
surprise you with the manner in which it has
lengthened its stays and strengthened its stakes,
and when you have passed through its long
line (nearly a mile in length) of substan-
tial brick-built bazaars, and emerged on the
saddle, you will note that a bridle-path strikes
off on the left hand side of the road, through
Kitulkele and on to Madulsima, and by this route
I propose bringing you back.

The path on the opposite side of the road, forms
the only means of communication with Monaragala.
If the morning is clear, you will have a tine view
of the Peacock Hill as you drive along the rond.
It is a pity you could not have afforded to pay
this rising young district a visit, for there is some-
thing well worth seeing in the shape of cacao and
cardamoms, and rumours are not wanting that
the brave and energetic band of planters whose
lot is cast on its slopes are in a short time to
astonish us with their tea. I hope this may be
true, for the gallant little band who have trans-
formed the "barren rock " into a flourishing garden
deserve success.

But to return to your supposed immediate vicinity.
The first estate you will come to is Letchami-
watte, now the property of E. C. Byers. Some
good young cinchona in the fields adjoining the
road will attract your attention. Next comes a
small estate belonging to some chetties, who have
not discovered the philosopher's stone in follow-
ing the lead of the coffee planter. A few minutes'
drive will bring you into Hanipha where liveth
the genial " Godfrey," whose presence doeth one
good like a medicine, and upon whom I shall ask
you to call on your way back, as all his new pro-
ducts are on the other side of his big bold hill.
A few miles more will bring you to Gallabodde, a
full view of which you will obtain from your trap
as you drive along. The little |)atoh of coffee in
the hollow at the bottom, seems still to be the
best part of the property, which did more for
Edwards and Watt, than it has ever done, or is
ever likely to do for those who succeeded them.
A few miles after passing Gallabodde will bring you
into a group of young estates, known as Lower
Madulsima, and from this point your interest in
new products will be excited, and I venture to
say, sustained until you have seen all that there
is to be seen in Madulsima and Hewa Eliya.
First of all then, let us take Kehelwatte, which, it
it is not now in the van of progress \rith a large
area of new products, certainly can lay claim
to a very large share in their introduction into
the district, for it was here thai many hundreds
of thousands of cinchona, ci-.rdr mom and tea plants
were successfully raised, which have since helped
to maintain hundred.? of acres in our district
under cultivation, and pity 't is that the spirited
prime mover in these large nurseries did not meet
with a reward more commensurate with the
energy and enterprize displayed by him. May
he still have it, in the little property close
adjoining, but on the other side of the road,
and named Hoptou, which has some very fine
young cinclionas, and ft considerable area under

ibARCH I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

G5I

tea, just planted. Closely ailjoiuing Kehehvultie,
anil on the same side of the road are two estates
which have been opened within the past five years,
and are almost entirely under cinchona. A few trees
of CeanV rubber, planted throughout the tields im-
mediately adjoining the road, show a rate of growth
which would be satisfactory, did the return, even
in depreciated rupees, correspond to it. You will
by this time have reached Yapame store, where in
the palmy days of long ago, large stores of all
sorts of eatables and drinkables were wont to ac-
cumulate, pending their removal by coolies to their
respective destinations in the district above. The
beefcooly carries all our oilmanstores nowadays ;
the transport of Uquor has dwindled down to very
insignificant dimensions ; and the way into Madul-
sima is no longer barricaded by stacks of empty
beer bottles!

Four miles' drive from Yapame will land you in
Lunugnla. There is little to see by the way, beyond
an upward peep at Shawlands, famous for the
beauty of its tree-bordered little lake away up in
the hills.

You will find a horse awaiting you at Lunugala,
and a cooly to take your box on to Cocoawatte,
where you will find much that will interest you.
Two of the best new products the district has ever
produced will be fouml in tlie Cocoawatte bungalow
in the Philby's tine little boys. If you make good
use of your time you will be able to see a good
part of the estate before breakfast, and this course
I would advise you to adopt, provided that it
accords with the convenience of your host and
hostess. The bungalow hill, which was formerly
covered by a luxuriant growth of cinchona Ledger,
is now under tea, which has evidently found some-
thing to feed upon, in the comparatively poor-
looking soil, which forms this part of the estate.
As you descend into the pretty sheltered basin
below, you ^^ill find yourself wandering through
lovely sylvan glades, where the richness of the
vegetation is in striking contrast, to that which
clothes the high- lands of the district. A clearing
of flourishing cacao, which, at the date of my
visit, showed a fine appearance of young and
healthy fruit on the more advanced trees, with
clusters of delicate httle blossoms on those less fully
developed, is planted under the shade of the old fores't
giants, and seems to be completely successful.
Huge wide-spreading stocks of cardamoms border
the different streams, and cover those patches of
soil, which seem best suited to their successful cult-
ure, the ground being covered with a thick carpet
of their far-ramifying rhizome-like runners, covered
with little capsules full of the fragrant spice ; all
giving promise of handsome returns in the good time
coming. The rubber trees, too. sc m to have found
something in the soil congenial to their well-
being, and already admirably fulfil the shade pur-
poses for which they were planted. Instead of the
hour or two, to which your Cocoawatte visit must
be limited, I feel confident that you will leave it
with the regret that the hours were not days ; but
you must hurry on, foir already you will have
spent a great part of your first day in the
district.

After breakfast, and half-an-hour's ride, in which
your artist's eye « ill linger lovingly on many a ferny
brake, and creejier-festooned clump of trees, on
your return journey up the zigzags, you may
depend on your "coo-ee-e" being- cheerfully re-
turned by • the ffan^ihawe," from his prettily situ-
ated little hungalow. You will learn what nonder-
ftil results attended the uprooting of a clearing
of cinchona I.' m- on I'arsloes, not only in the
matter of analjaio, auJ i;onse<iuentIy iu price, but

in quantity per acre as well, the bark provnig
exceptionally thick and heavy for the age of the
trees.

Leaving Parsloes with '-Figaro" or "Lucy Glit-
ters " leading the way as usual, a smart canter
will bring you to the boundary of the Park, where
you will see some of the finest succirubra trees for
their age, that have been grown anywhere in the
neighbourhood. On ilit that this is the best un-
broken cover of cinchona over five years old in the
district. It certainly has strong claims to this
distinction, but " comparisons are odious." The
young tea shrubs, planted under the shade of the
cinchona trees are healthy and well-grown, and
their appearance denotes the suitability of soil,
climate and rainfall tor the extensions of the new
king's domains. Before walking round the I'ark,
you should give instructions that your saddle-
horse be sent on to Yapame, to await your ar-
rival. The other horse with the trap should be
waiting you on the cart-road, at the point where
you will strike it, after walking over the patanaa
from the Park. Drive as fast as you can to Yapame,
whence you would do well to send the trap back to
Passara ; mount, and make straight for Mahadova.
Karslake will, I have no doubt, be delighted to see
you, and you will have an opportunity of talking
over your old experiences on the Kandy side
together.

Y'ou must be up betimes in the morning, that
you may have a chance of seeing the sun rise
dripping from his ocean bed, for there are not many
spots on our fair earth, from which the advent of
"God's crest upon His azure shield, the Heavens,''
can be viewed so advantageously. It is only on
a clear day, and under certain lights, that the
calm expanse of ocean is discernible at this great
distance, but in the early morning, the incessant
darting of long lances of light on the far horizon,
constantly and as mysteriously changing as the
forms in a kaleidoscope, tells us that the myriad
rays of the new-risen orb, have buried themselves
in the gleaming, moving surf, and are being re-
flected and refracted a thousand-fold.

A magnificent stretch of lowcnuntry lies between
you and the coast-line, marked by features peculiar
to itself. The low-lands of this tropical island
of ours, seem always to be diversified more or
less, by billowy heavings of the general surface;
but here, we have an almost entirely flat land,
dotted over with mountains of rock, which rise
almost perpendicularly from the plain on which
they stand. I do not know how those huge piles
may be accounted for geologically, but to the
imagination it would seem as if this plain had
been the scene of that "battle of the gods,"
which finds a place in the traditions of so
many nations, and as if some mountain or moun-
tain system had been torn to pieces, in order
to supply the ammtmition of these rebellious giants.
They have lain there for ages but subaerial
denudation and disintegration, have been slowly
and surely doing their woi-k, and they are now
broken up into serrated peaks, and pinnacle
crowned heights, which give them a most picturescjue
appearance. One of these fantastic masses is the
well-known landmark, euphemistically, but not in-
appropriately called " Westminster Abbey" ; so that
you sec, we poor denizens of far-away Madulsima
do possess something to prevent our forgetting
the world, even if we are by the world forgot,
Far beyond Westminster Aliliry stands the "Friar's
Hood,"" and away to the left Trincomalee-wards
you can just distinguish the "Gunner's
Quoin," But I am digrcssing--an expression
that some wite head has given utterance lo be-

65s

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS:^. IMasch i, 1886'.

'ore me — for you must take time by the fore-
lock, and making an early start from Maha-
dova bungalow you should go as far as the north-
ern boundary of the estate, and have a peep into
Kudadova, where what was in former days a fine
field of coffee, is now being crowded out of exist-
ence, by a vigorous growth of cinchona. Return-
ing by way of the bridle-path in the direction of
the tennis-court near the Amanadova boundary,
your attention will be attracted by the luxuriant
appearance of a belt of cinchona officinalis, skirting
the jungle which forms the top boundary of the
estate. This is one of those exceptional fields, in
which ofticinalis has been an umiualified success,
vacancies being few and far between, and the growth
regular and good. The first harvesting operations
carried out in this clearing, yielded n return of
SOO lb. of dry bark per acre, at three years old,
and the following year 500 lb. an acre v/eve ob-
tained, the crop of the two years realizing some-
thing over a shilling per lb. Mahadova can still
bnast of some good coffee, but I fancy it is bound
to disappear either under the juggernaut wheels of
cinchona, or the cheerful smiles of tea. An experi-
mental patch near the little bungalow, and extend-
ing to some thirteen acres has just been planted
with Assam indigenous. Seeing all that is likely
to prove of interest to you on Mahodova, will not
occupy more than an hour of your time, so that
you should reach Amanadova boundary, before 8
o'clock. From this point half-an hour's ride should
bring you to the other extremity of this property.
A 25 acres cloaring of newly planted' tea near the
top boundary will not fail to catch your eye. This
was formerly under cinchona officinalis which was
uprooted at live years old to make room for tea.
It yielded a croji of 1,000 1b. per acre of dry bark,
which fetched a good price. Leaving the road here
and crossing through the narrow belt of jungle to
your left, will bring you within view of another
of the Madulsima Company's estates, Cabriabokka.
The beautifully even cover and robust appearance
of the young trtes on this estate, furnish con-
vincing proof of the fallacy of tlie olt-cxpresscd
opinion, that recently formed cinchona plant-
ations are not so successful as of old. An ana-
lysis of the bark from the parents of these young
trees revealed the existence of quinine sulphate to
the extent of from 7 to !1 per cent, and the several
analyses of bark taken from the progeny, indic-
ate a proportionate richness of alkaloids. Ee-
mounting your horse, a few minutes' ride through
Anamally, on which there is nothing deserving of
special mention, will bring you into a 50 acres field
of fine healthy looking coffee, which forms part of
Vercllepattanic. Arrived at a little Eoraan Catholic
Khrlne, always decked with fresh flowers, proceed by
the road which branches olT to the iight, and you
iri!', tiiid yourpult traversing the tea dearinys oil
t'vn'icllit). Heic Vol! vvill find thut the fc'fowtb dyei-
hot co'iipftie vcij lavounibly with the lea in
liOtte'' *Ic'(uI»imai whicli fact luaV be in some
measure dUe to the cihchona shade, under which
they are growing. A O'.msidSrable impetus to grolvth
bas, however, been observKd *ithiii the past few
months, and it is not at all improbable that though
the growth of Uvakellie tea has been somewhat
slow, in its infancy, the matured bush may be
Bsi hue as any in the district. You will see some
ilirtfc tra on (liis estate on the way to the Forest
Hill .'.^■lp ivliich point you should reach about !l
o'clock. Wending your way downwards through
h'orest Hill you will see the finest field of collce
in the district, with perhaps the exception of
Doomoo which is rcsei\ed fur your return journey,
i'aseing above the district hospital (about tp be

abandoned in favour of a more suitable building
to be erected somewhere near Lunugala), you had
better put spurs to your horse for there is nothing
more worth looking at until you reach the bound-
ary of Wewebedde estate, where what was known
as the young coffee field — from which the late
proprietor vainly expected so much — is now all
planted with tea. A small patch in front of the
bungalow promises well; and away towards the
lower extremity of the estate, where the land
si)reads out in the form of a " terai " you will
detect the ancient boundaries of the now-vanished
" wewa," or lake, from which this property derives
its name. You will obtain another good gUmpse
of lowcountry scenery from the Tavalampalassa
gap, and in a few minutes more you will approach
the confines of Dorapotha, and Quedjeley, now both
abandoned, but still retaining mterest from their
being the scene of Mrs. Edwards' weird story, " The
Mystery of the Pezazi." The steep patana ridge
between these two. is traversed by a long toilsome
flight of steps, hollowed out by the weary feet of
countless generations of credulous followers of
Buddha in their vain endeavours to work out their
own salvation.

A few minute's more tripping and stumbling
along this rough bridle-path will bring you into Coca-
galla, the original proprietor of which was either Sir
John Lawrence or his brother Henry, of loved and
revered memory. Whatever the coffee on Cocagalla
may have been or done in times past, it is now in the
sere and yellow leaf, but the great success which has
attended the introduction and cultivation of cin-
chona here, leaves no room for regret that coffee
has given way before it. On your way down to-
wards the bungalow, you will pass through what,
a year ago, was a dense forest of succirubra trees,
which had so often undergone the (barbarous !)
operation of shaving, that it was deemed advisable
to coppice them. The result has been highly satis-
factory both in point of yield, and in subsequent
growth of suckers from the coppices left in the
ground. After breakfasting w^ith Adolphus (affection-
ately contracted to Dolly), you will be shown round
the famous clearing of cinchona Ledger, and if its
appearance does not excite your admiration, the
statistics of returns obtained from it certainly will.
The clearing is small, being only seven acres in
extent, and looks like a wedge hammered into the
centre of an immense field of officinalis. The trees
were raised from seed supplied by Moens of Java,
the two ounces yielding nearly 35,000 plants,
almost all of which were planted here. At 2.J years
old, a careful recount was made, which showed a

j total of 2'.I,H5() heiillhy, well-developed trees. At
the same lime branch bark was harvested, and

I yielded at the rate of over 350 lb. per acre, with
an analysis of 1-75 of quinine sulphate. Six months
later on, analysis of the stem bark indicated the

I existence of tJic chief ailisloid to the extent o(
o'lJO per cent, and when the trees were 3^ years
old: sulphate of quinine had increasid to 6'40 pel'

, cent; A system of thinning out trees of .seemingly

j inferior type has been vigorously ptlrsued. and this,
Up to date, has resulted in a yield of dry bark

I equal to over 3,000 lb. per acre, exclusive of trifjs;

' tilt average price obtained being solnething over

I 2s per lb. These fifjures speak for themsehes, but,
nevertheless, it seems to be pretty generally ad-
mitted that licdger is very uncertain and short-
lived ; even the trees reserved as being the most
true to type, in the clearing referred to, do not
inspire one with a feeling of confidence. Far differ-
ent is it in the case of the vast area of officinalis
and hybrid trees, young and old, which will burst
ujiuu your Size, »& you rouud the corner and enter

March i, 1886J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

653

New Forest, also belonging to the Cocagalla group.
The last three years' crops of bark from this group
have been as follows : —

1882.1.SS3 equal 30.000 lb.
188H-188i „ ;i2,000 .,
1884-1885 .. 128,500 ,.

Total .. -250,500 lb., or nearly 115 tons
Just before crossing the boundary line which diviiles
this estate from old Hewa Eliya. you will see a
long narrow belt of tea, a little over two years
old, whose history furnishes incontestable evidence
that a great part of this property and therefore
a large area of land in the district is certain to
yield excellent results under tea. This field has
been regularly plucked, from the date of the bushes
attaining their eighteenth month, and, although,
so far as I am aware, no professional valuation of
the manufactured tea has ever been obtained, I
have seen a memorandum of the prices placed on
a large batch of samples by n competent plant-
ing authority, and these ranged from Is to "is Id
per pound. A fact worth mentioning is, that the
land on which this tea is growing, is very poor
and occupies a most exposed situation, at an
altitude of over 1,500 feet. There can be no reason-
able doubt, that a very large area of Cocagalla
might be plantccl up in tea with great gain to its
proprietors, and it is to be hoped that Mr. G. E.
Osborne, who is now in England, \rill return
with full powers for the large extension of tea, on
one and all of the Madulsiraa Company's pro-
perties.

Hewa Eliya is the next estate you pass through ;
the whole of which, with the exception of a small
experimental field of tea, near the top boundary
is uncultivated. The progress made by the young
plants is however an indication that, wherever the
soil is suitable, the other conditions of rainfall
itc. are not absent, and it is to be hoped that
the prospect will encourage the proprietor to ex-
tend the area under tea, next year. You should
ride through this clearing on your return journey,
as it is well worth seeing,

Instead of followng the old tavalam road,
which is now abandoned, walk on (for the paths
are not very .smooth just here) in the direction
of the bungalow where poor old Ballantyne lived,
keeping the lower road till you reach the stream
near the boundary of what is now Elemane estate,
where formerly lived that intrepid hunter and true-
shot Barkley, now of tusker-slaying renown, who
when here kept our tables so well supplied with
venison, by the aid of his clever little pack, j
Here you may again resume your seat in the ■
saddle and ride all the way to the top boundary.
The fine big cinchona trees planted through-
out Elemar.e will claim a glance in passing, but
there is little more worthy of note until you reach
Hathkeale, where although the roads are in
beautiful order, tlie atniobpherc, throughout the ,'
greater part of the year, is so deliciouslv crisp
lind bracing, that I feel sure you will prefer
to walk, provided the weather" is fine. A
slight detour in the direction of the bungalow
which nestles in a sheltered nook, behind tlic
jungle forming the western boundary of the estate, (
will well recoup you for the little extra time re-
((uired. You will find your way to the bungalow
Held, through a small clearing of cinchona ollicin-
alis planted under jungle shade, and thence
through a patch of cardamoms, and half a mile
rif road gracefully winding through pataiia and
trips of jungle (the scene of many an exciting
1 base) to the most recently planted fields of the
I late. The growth heir is all that could be
debited, but the sppearaiice of the whole is per-

1 haps a little marred by lines of straggling calisayas,
I alternating with rows of the more robust-looking
succirubra and hybrid trees.

From Eatlikeale you would do well to walk
as far as the Roeberry stream, or if it is not too
late in the afternoon, you might canter along the
upper road which branches off near the wire fence,
gain the Dehigalla ridge, and have a peep into
the property beyond where the Blackwood Com-
pany have just planted some 40 acres with tea
this season. Half an hour's ride through Roeberry,
on which there is now a tine healthy cover of
I cinchona will bring you out on the patana near
the Katukitulkona trig.
Y'ou should reach this spot first about the hour
' of sunset, and a short time spent in contemplat-
' ing the fair scene before you, with the wonder-
ful cloud transformations, and the ever changing
shades of light thrown over the wide valley beneath
you, which separates you from the far away
Kaudy hills, will fix such a picture iu your
memory, as you will not easily forget, for, —
Tlie heavens appear to love this vale:
Here clouds with uuseeii motion sail,

Or 'mid the eileuce lie !
By that blue arcli this beauteous earth
'Mid evening's hour of dewy mirth
Seems boundiul with the sky."
Y'ouder dark line of trees near the middle of
the valley marks the course of the noble Maha-
weliganga,

" Broad and deep and stil/ a.s Time,
.Seeniiug ati/l — yet still iu motion,
Tendiug onward to the ocean
Just like mortal prime."
Wending your way downward to the bungalow
you will be surprised that such a luxuriant
growth of vegetation could ever have been induced
to cover with such profusion, so steep and rugged
a pieci of land as this part of Uva consists of.
The growth and healthy appearance of the cinchona
trees covering the steep slopes, would seem to
point out that good natural drainage is of
incalculable importance to its successful culture.
Here, on Uva, as on Cooowattie, you will find
two of these wonderful products which arrrest your
attention, whether you will it or not, and you
may criticise them when you see them, for, depend
upon it, they will criticise you.

So much has been done in the way of tea plant-
ing on this property , that it will take you the
whole day to see the different clearings, and please
take special note of the fact, that these cannot
be viewed from the saddle, rs you will Ijave done
in the case of the different estates through which
you will have passed, on the two preceding days.
Fortify the inner man well at the early tea table,
and put on the most comfortable, and strongest
pair of boots you may have, for you will hav«
a very stiff day's heel and toe work before you,
good wallcer tliough you may be. and I think I
have heard " /<; our old friend W. W. W. boas
of his prowess in this repect.

You will enter the tea fields immediately aftei'
leaving the- bungalow and with the exception
of about half a mile of patana and forest, through
which you must Jiass, you may continue to
wander through them, from something like five
miles, before you reach the northern extremity
of the estate, where the oldest tea is to be found:
The first rteld has been planted only tpiite recently,
with sturdy-looking plants of Assam indigenous,
and only extends to some 0 or 7 acres. Next
follows a field of .SO acres of .\ssain hybrid,
planted in land where the cofTeo had been cutout
to make way for it. Then comes a tniall clearing;
ou the ridge, which from the soulheru boundary of

^54

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, i886.

the great central basin is planted with different kinds
of acacias and wattles. From here you will obtain
your first views of last year's clearings, on the
northern side of the main basins, and the appear-
ance of the well-grown bushes, in dead straight
rows on the opposite slope, will compel you to confess
that we are more than justified in entertaining the
idea that we can grow tea, which, age for age,
will bear favourable comparison with any in the
country. Before reaching those fields, you will have
to pass along the road, which now forms the bound-
ary line of the 200 acres of the higher fields of
this basin, still maintaned under coffee cultiv-
ation. The trees are a Very picture of health,
and have, what in these degnerate days
may be called a good crop on them, i. e. a fraction
over a couple of hundredweights an acre.
All the lower portions are planted with tea. Pass-
ing through these you will enter the large clearing
you looked into from the southern side of the
valley. Beyond this again, comes an unbroken
field of 200 acres, backed by a large block of
jungle, having walked through which, you will
find yourself, in the first planted field of this estate,
and, I feel confident, the appearance of this will
surpass the most sanguine expectations you may
have formed of the rapid growth on this side of
Nuwara Eliya. If you have the time, and do not
feel too tired, when you reach the top of this
field, you should make a point of walking as far
as the patana and trig. — distant only a hundred
yards or so. Here, if you are at all subject to
giddiness, you had better not approach within a
couple of paces of the edge of the precipice, which
descends almost sheer into the lowcountry, thousands
of feet below. Were it not that I have already
dwelt at some length on the wonderful grandeur
of the scenery in these parts, I would fain linger
lovingly on the magnificent expanse of hill and
valley, and huge rock, " piled by the hands of
giants for god-like kings of old," to be seen from
this coign of vantage. I have often thought, that
if we had any grounds for believing that the
Mount of Temptation reared its noble head, in this
island of ours, then this point might justly tender
its claim to such distinction, for if all the kingdoms
of the world may not be viewed from it, nearly
the whole extent of the newly created XJva Pro-
vince may be seen to great advantage, and surely
no one will dare deny that this is the next best
thing! The vast stretch of unbroken vegctalion
is diversified by tiny patches of paddy cultivation,
glowing in all the fresh, green delicacy of youth.
or bending calmly to the inevitable as they find
themselves chameleon-like, changing to a golden
yellow, or, here and there, shining like shields of
burnished silver, and giving expression to this
fair picture, as the eyes mark the light of in-
telligence on the human face; the bold lines of
deep green vegetation, provoked by the waters of
the great river, and its affluents ; the jungle-clad
alopeu of the long ranges of hills which form the
back ground away to the west, with their shape-
less patches of another shade, telling whero the
destroying angel of chena cultivation (^a^c the
mark I) has been at his fell work— all forming a
Uiosaic, a thousand fold more varied and pleasing to
tlie eye than any that has ever come from the hand
of the most skilled artificer.

The sun will have passed the zenith on the west-
ward course ere you retrace your steps to the bungalow,
but you will be able to ride more than three miles
of the way, and a bath and breakfast will re-
fresh you sufficiently to make you enjoy an hour's
stroll in the cool of the evening, through the lower
fieldb of tea iu Ibe ueiebbourbood of the bungalow.

Next morning you will commence the return
journey to Passara making straight for Galloola to
breakfast. Most of your way will be through estates
already seen, until you reach Cocagala, whence you
should take the lower road, which will enable you
to have a good look at Dunedin, where tea planted
a year ago is flourishing, and gives every promise
of a profitable career. A pretty large area, planted
with seed at stake on this property in November
last, shows by its satisfactory gi-owth the forcing
natui-e of the clim^e.

Passing through the lower portion of Forest Hill,
planted a couple of years ago with succirubra cin-
chona, you will be struck with the splendid growth
of what is, as well as what is not, intended to cover
the ground. You will not fail to note also the fine
cardamoms planted throughout the belt of forest,
reserved near the stream.

Another half-hour's ride will bring you into a
fine forest of cinchonas, in the bottom of Battawatte,
which is of special interest as being planted on
the much-despised (by a certain journalist) Uva
patana. Extensive preparations in the shape of
nurseries are, I understand, being made on this
estate, against next planting season, and when the
fine soil of Battawatte has had some of its richness
extracted, to produce fine flushes of tea, I venture
to suggest, that it will rank second to none in the
district.

From this estate to Doomoo is but a few hundred
yards, and you will enjoy the ride through this
pretty little property, where the coSee seems in no
way affected by the ravages of that feU pest
Hemileia i-astatii.r. This promises to be one of
those places where the plucky old monarch will
make a last stand, and die game, if die he
must, — and this would seem to be his fate. Poor
King Coffee!

A few minutes more, and you will find yourself
under the hospitable root of Galloola bungalow,
where your unannounced presence will prove a source
of geiuiine satisfaction, to your pro- tern. host. I
am only one of the many, who have crossed the
threshold of Galloola, in season and out of season,
and have thereby taxed the good nature of .T. H. B. C.
to a point, which would have far exceeded the
breaking strains of courtesy with most people, only to
meet, time and again, with the cheeriest and most
genuine of welcomes.

If you have a quarter of an hour to spare, the
time would be well spent in having a look at
the tea-house, not that there will be anything of
much interest in it to you, who have already seen
so many such buildings, but by reason of its being
the first building in the district, which could advance
any pretension to such a dignity, and further on ac-
count of its having a genuine leaf-rolling machine. A
wonderfully ingenious pieces of machinery it is too,
as you will admit when you have seen it, and I
hope its inventor, Mr. I'ratcr, who is as popular
as he is clever, will receive his reward in the shape
of large orders from Madulsima, as soon as the large
area of tea now planted, and to be planted, in the
district, comes into bearing. That this machine is
the genuine brain-fruit of him who has perfected
the invention, and given it his name, there cannot
be the doubt that is inseparably connected with
the bringing out of other machines I could
mention to you ; for when it was in course of
construction, and when its inventor was puzzling
his brains about some of its minor details, I
1 pressed upon him the advisability of visiting one or
' other of the tea gardens, where he wonld have an
j opportunity of witnessing other men's machines
I at work, and thus be able to form an opinion of
what watj vranted iu bis owu, but be decUned the

March i, i»86.] THE TROPICAL AGkrCOLTURIST.

655

advue, prefeiTing to work out liis own idea. Had
every man acted as honourably, we would not
now be hearing so much of infringement'!. Hovf
this battle of the rival machines rages ! Even in
these far-away regions the din of the fray has
reached us.

The really splendid field of two-years-old tea,
within a stone's throw of the store, will attract
your attention, and a walk through it will beget
a confidence in the future of Madulsinia, such as
did not exist, even when coffee was at its best.
The other fields of young tea on this estate all
show a healthy and vigorous grovv'.h, betokening
that soil and climate are exactly to their liking.
The clearings here are amongst the most exten-
sive in the district, and the extraordinary pro- j
gress made by the young plants indicates that 1
plucking and manufacture will be the order
of the day at no distant date. What a strange !
lomment it is on the perversity and blinduess
of human nature, that on this, the very spot
where the old Dame wrote the doom of coffee
on its own leaf, in what now seem to us such
clearly detined characters, it should have taken
us nearly twenty years to gather the import of
her words of wisdom ; but late though the re-
sponse to her warning cry has been, it must re-
joice her heart to behold these flourishing fields
of lea as the result.

The next estate on your route is Vereilapattina,
and hero you will miss the kindly welcome and
warm hand-shake of dear old Ciarioch, who has
just left us. Good luck to him ! This is now the
property ef Mr. Channing Esdaile, whose is a safe
lead to follow, judging from his past connection
with our district. Vereilapattina should make a
tine tea garden, the lay of land being beautifully
easy, and the soil generally of that deep ochreous
colour, in which the shrub revels. There are some
.HO acres planted this season, part of which is under
the shade of coffee and cinchona. My own experi-
ence of such planting is, that, from six months
old and onward, the plants compare very unfavour-
ably with those planted in land which has been
cleared of all other products to make way for them.
A short walk along the boundary of Vereilapattina
towards Dagenham and Bolivia will enable you to
gather some idea of the extensive scale on which the
enterprizing proprietor of these estates is planting tea.
May all his undertakings end in complete success.

Von will have to hurry on now as you must reach
Hanii>ha before the shades of evening fall. The first
few miles of your way will be over ground already
traversed, until Auckland is reached, where you
will see one of the finest fields of cinchona in the
district, and which yields, year after year, large
harvests of renewed bark, without any ajiparent
effect on the health of the tites. Some of the
cardamoms planted under the forest shade are
very good.

Nidhanagalla is a proioising young clearing ex-
tending to W) acres, tlio whole of which is planted
with the most valuable kinds of cinchona.

I do not think it is necessary for me to describe
your route any further, as you are now in the neigh-
bourhood of Mr. (rodfiey Power, who will take
charge of you, show you all round his own pro-
perties, and those of which he has charge; tell
you all about his new products, both here and
on Monaragala, a great deal better than I could
possibly do, and finally will send you on your way
rejoicing, while his hearty laugh will keep ringing
in your cars for days after.

I mu.st now conclude. I had no idea the out-
line of your route would have taken so much
scribbling. My only fear now is, that you will con-

tent yourself with the delusion that you know the
district well enough fi'om the very imperfect and
hurried sketch of it which I have given you, but
no two people ever see a thing in the same light,
and I therefore beg of your that even if you can
find no stronger aigiiment for ycur iiroi)oscil trip
than that of anld actiuaintance, do come and see
us tor the sake of "auld lang syne." " Auf Wieder-
sehen." — I remain, your loving cousin,

IcH DiEN.
P.S, — At the last moment I find that Yapanie
estate has through inadvertence been omitted from
your route. You will however see a good deal of
it on your way from the cart-road to Mahadova
bungalow, and i^iould you wish to see more, you
can take it on your return journey staying there
for the night instead of at Hanipha as already
suggested. I understand something has been done
in the way of tea-planting during the rainy reason
now drawing to a close, but I have no idea of the
extent of the clearings. Clifton, Daysbrook and
Melrose you will get a good view of from the high
way when driving' fr<ini I'assara to Lunugala on
your way to the district.

UVA AND NUWABA ELIYA.
(From Our Special Correspondent.)

GIANT CINCHONA AND CACAO TUBES— EXPtROIENTAI.
BOTANICAL GAIIDEN OPENED AT ISAOIILLA — KOUUR
ELEPHANT AND CHEETAHS REAOV 1 OH SPOUTSMEN NEAK
HAKOALA OAUDENS.

Who has, and where is, the biggest Cincho.va tree
at this moment in Ceylon ? In order to start the
enquiry I have got the measurements of the big tree
in Cannaverella as follows : —

Feet.

" Height . .

Circumference of stem 6 inches

above ground . . . . 4 fi

Circumference of stem 3 feet

above ground . . . . 4 0

The tree is not a high one, but has a splendid bole
as you will see from the measurement. It is a sueci-
rubra growing in poor soil." Who can beat this ? *
Some of the largest cinchonas ever grown in Cey-
lon, I think, were on the New tialway estates, as
sections sent by Mr. Cotton to the Olmenvr Office,
and still used as footstools under some of the
editorial tables, testify. These were grown from
some of the first plants issued from Hakgala Gardens,
but tlic stems were cut down a good many years ago,
and I rather think the largest section of stem, under
my table, exceeds the 4* feet circumference of Mr.
Macfarlane's. The latter too must be an older tree.
But without going back, it will be of interest to
learn whether there is a larger standing tree at this
time in New (ialway, or elsewhere, than the Canna-
verella " giant." I do not know if Abbotsford
has a rival, i but will be able to judge a few days
hence.

I sunpose some of the largest Cacao trees in the
island are also to be found in Uvn, on Keenakelte
estate iieai the buiigalow, and if the moiisuronient

• Mr. U. It. UraJy i.i his recent p&|>er on ti e Java
cincboim plantations writes; — " At Iicmlang is a Magiii-
ficeiil example of C. suctin'hru about 30 years old
said to be tlu; finest cinchona in the Knst Indies. As
nearly us I could judge it was about (iO feet liigh ami
the trunk 1S< inches in <lianieter .it S feet from the
gro'md." The circinoferciipe at i feet high, th'reforc, is
6 inches ahead of the T'va trae. Hut the ,fava tree
is probably tt-n ye.irs older. — Ko.

t Nothing approaching it. The oldest trees are not
more tiiau a dozen years old and the biggest were
cut down or "died out," — Kn.

656

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. (March i, 1886.

of the giant tbere were sent for publication, it
might be worth comparing with the older one in other
districts.

Of more importance, however, than big trees,
whether of cinchona or cacao, to Uva, is the
establishment of an Expfrijientai, Botanical or
rather Economic Gaiidf.n. This has just been in-
augurated at Badulla by Dr. Trimen (who was ac-
companied by Mr. Nock of Hakgala), at least so far
as the selection of the ground and general plan of
operations. Twelve acres of land have been secured
adjoining the race-course in close proximity to the
town, and, when laid out and planted, the Gardens
will undoiabtedly add a most pleasing feature to the
beauty and attraction of the very Ciiarming cpital
of the nev/ province. Dr. Trimen could not have a
better lieutenant than Mr. Nock in carrying out his
plans, and I have no doubt the usefulness of the
Gardens in providing a supply of useful plants
(" new products ") to try on plantations, and especi-
ally near the native villages, will be widely appreci-
ated. I trust the day is not far distant when
every Provincial capital may be able to show its
branch (iardens — ornamental as well as economic —
instructing as well as delighting the people frequenting
them. Annual Provincial Agri-Horticultural Shows
with prizes and sports more especially for the people,
will follow in due course. Meantime, Dr. Trimen
has made a good start, for, besides liis Hakgala and
Henaratgoda branches, he has formally opened
Gardens at Anuradhapura and Badulla. Battioaloa
and Galle or Matara ought to be next favored.
Jaffna, I believe, has a Public Garden under the
Agent's care.

Beturning to the Hills, I have to report that the
story about the " rogue elephant " and Mr.
Jordan's conveyance is a false alarm — an invention
of the horsekeeper so far as the elephant is con-
cerned, to endeavour to screen his own carelessness.
It now appears that tlie horsekeeper, in bringing up
the eonveyence from Wilson's Bungalow, must have
gone to sleep, with the result that the horse, in
turning in to Hakgala Gardens as a resting-place
to which it was accustomed, took the corner too
sharply, and over the culvert went the whole con-
cern— tortunati'ly not on the precipitous side of
the road.

There was just this justification for the horse-
keeper in awaking fiom his sleep in supposing
that.tbe capsize had been effected by an elephant,
that a rogue tusker had been prowling in
the neighbourhood some weeks before. The
Hakgala tiardens have, it seems, been more than
once visited b.y elephants during the past year,
and the wonder is that so little damage has been
done. On one occasion the herd l)roke down a
small culvert and trampled everything in the
neighbourliood of one of the outhouses. On that
occasion their mai-ks were observed along tlie jungle
track and the evidence shewed that the herd was
followed at a respectful distance by a s'lDg'e eleph-
ant— a big tusker — probably cast out, but as yet
unwilling to lead a solitary life, and turn rogue
altogether. This sarac tusker, however, soon after
paid ai'.other visit to the (iardens — this was in
December last — and seemed to be especially attracted
by the aneniomoler stand. He in.^pccted tlie
instrument and gave it a push, so as to turn the
indicator round from N. W. to S. W.I But be
did not do further damage save in riding some
trees of their foliage. Mr. Nock could sc;ircely
reach with his arm outstietcbed and standing on
tiptoe tile part of the tree where the top of the
elephant's shoulder had been rubbing off Ihi' buk,
and the measurement of the footprint was llA
inches inside. Mr. Nock accordingly judged that

his visitor was a big specimen, and this was con-
firmed by Mr. Spencer of Ambawella. who had a
short time before spent a long day in following
up the same animal, he thinks, a huge tusker,
evidently a rogue, in the neighbourhood, and who
would probably have secured him had not his
native attendant bolted with his spare rifle at the
critical moment. In December, Messrs. Kay-Shuttle-
wortli and Bagot of Udapussellawa endeavoured
to follow up the tracks of the visitor of Hakgala
Gardens, but after going a considerable distance
they found that he had evidently gone off to the
Horton Plains. Later on, however, garden coolie=,
sent to the jungle for material wanted, returned
on two occasions saying they had been driven
back by an elephant. There is therefore evidently
a good chance for a sportsman desirous of distin-
guishing himself by getting rid of a thorough
rogue, in the neighbourhood of Hakgala.

Life in these Gardens in fact is varied by more
than human and elephantine visitors. Only a few
weeks ago, the cow of one of the employees which
could not be found at nightfall, having wandered
away on the patanas below the Gardens, was
discovered next morning killed at the edge of the
jungle. The owner suspected wandering Moorme.i,
and appealed to Mr. Nock for redress; but the
latter, on going to the spot, at once saw that
the "Moormen butcher" was a cheetah, death hav-
ng been caused in the way peculiar to that
animal, by a spring on the shoulders and head,
the neck of the cow being broken. A large part
of the victim had been devoured; but the owner
would not consent to sacrifice the rest in order
to lay a trap for the cheetah, which no doubt
returned to the spot, as is usual, the following
night.

Mr. Nock's own adventure some time ago, when
walking along a junglepath, a cheetah dropped
from the bank above, some yards in front of liiin.
and, after a look and a snarl, skulked into the
jungle below, has already been recorded in your
columns. It is parallel to Major Skinner's experi-
ence on the Adam's Peak range (as related in Mr.
A. M. Ferguson's Eemiuiscences) when a cheetah
sprang out and dropped at his feet during an
early morning walk in a forest path. The brute
just looked into the eyes of the startled Major,
who stood stock still, and then bounded back into
the jungle. No doubt the cheetah had sprung
for a fourfooted animal, in which case he would
have landed on the neck.

Talking of elephants, have you ever heard of
Indian or African tuskers being imported and turned
loose in our jungles'? It was stated the other
day that any big tusker now seen in Ceylon must
be the progeny of the introductions referred to;
but I certainly never read or heard of the African
or any Indian breed being introduced into the island,
and although "tuskers'' are few and far between
here as compared with Africa, still th?re can bo
no doubt of Ceylon having genuine tuskers of its
own species of elephant. [The idea of African
elephants turned loosu in Ceylon is, of course
absurd. The enormous ears of the African elephant
distinguish it markedly fioni the Ceylon animal.—
Ed.]

"rough on corns."
Ask for A\'ells' " .Rough on Corns." Quick relief,
<oni|ilete, permaneut cure. (!oriis, warts, bunions,
\V. E. Smitli & Oo., Madras, Sole Agents,

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

657

OIL SEEDS OF EGYPT.
Several plants are grown iu Egypt for the sake of
(lieir oleaginous properties, the principal being as
follows; — Se^ianie^ or Stm:<etn {Ststiaiinn '.iiiticuiii)^ is cul-
tivated in Central Egjpt on a large scale, being sown
iu -Tune and harvested in autumn. The stems are
pulleil up bodily, and conveyed in an upright position
to suitablf spots; as S30U as the capsules are dry
they open iu the sun, and shaking tbeni suffices to
dislodge the seed. The oil obtained by pressing the
seeds is thin and yellow, and serves largely iu cook-
ing, though liable to rancidity ; when purified it is
a good illumiuaut. The castor-oil plant, or Jiharoi'ia
ahiiiur iHiritms commvnis), attains the proportions of
» small tree, and produces much oil, especially iu
Kayouui, An oil-yielding lettuce (KJki.-h) is grown
about Edfou, and iu the southern part of the province
of Thebes ; when ripe, the plant is cut, dried, and
threshed, the seed affording a pale yellow very sweet
oil, n^d in cooking. An oil-yielding radish {Syt^UMjdh)
is gruwu lor its seed, the oil finding application in
the arts. Tlie ground nut, or Fi'd sennari (Arachis
lii/poi/aa), re(|uires a light soil into which it can thrust
its .seeds for maturation ; the oil obtained from them
may replace that of the almond, while the roasted
nuts themselves are good eating, and serve instead
of hazel nut in pastries. Garden cress, or Rieluiil
(Lepiduui *■((/(>«»;*), iu T'pper Egypt, affords a seed oil,
while the young plants are used in salad. Mustard,
or Khardal is similarly utilised, and colza, or Selgdm
•,Bt-<mica io.titpestns), is grown solely for its seed oil.
The seeds of the safflower. Max, and cotton, arc all
pressed for their oi! in Lower Egypt ; whilst the
opium poppy (Poparcr somniffrum) and the heliotrope,
turnsole, or Ayu-vl-chem^ {Htliotropitim- CHro]}ff'uui)^sxe
similiariy utilised iu upper Egypt. — Journal of the Societ;/
of ArU,

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN QUEENSLAND.
In this district (Mackay) the present season has proved
itself to be one of the best on record for the growth of
cane. No very heavy fall of rain has occurred — that
is, nothing over four or five inches during the 24
hours — but rain has fallen at such timely intervals that
the cane has grown as if it had hothouse treatment.
Aiul it has had such treatment, for the sun-heat has
been intense, and the average temperature of the
autumn above the usual figure. Similar favourable
accounts are to hand from the Herbert Kiver, Johnstone
Kiver, Cairns, and Cooktown districts. All the plant-
ations at these places expect a heavy crop this
ensuing season. On the Burdekiu prospects are not so
promising, the climate there being not near so wet
a one as are the other localities both north and
south of it. Here there has been an absence of that
tropical growth so congenial to cane. Still, on one
of the plantations the fields look splendid, and quite
equal to those of Mackay. On the Burnett the cane
also suffered from prolonged absence of rain, although
this district is not a dry one : yet, through some
cause or other, it did not receive its fair share of
rain this season. The same remark applies, with not
quite so much force, to the Mary River district.
Everywhere the cane is healthy, no disease (new or
old) having attacked it. In the Mackay district the
Staiuhii-d — the most authentic organ of the planters —
after a careful estimate, puts down the area under
cane there at 17.770 acres, a slight increase over that
of last year, though by no means so great as would have
undoubtedly taken place but for the various adverse
circumstances with which the industry luus been
surrouuded for the past 12 months. The number of
acres that will actually be brought to the rollers is
put at U,fiOO by the same authority, and the yield
of sugar at 'Si cwt. jier acre. This I consider too
low, but the Standard justifies the estimate by
pointing out the large area under rations, which will
give only a low return, and the fact that among the
plant-cane there are many misses. The estimate for
the coming crop will therefore he ILCKiO tons of
sugar. — Australa.itian.

m

THE LINSEED-OIL TRADE.
A few weeks ago the Managing Director of the North
British Floor-Cloih Co., Limited, wrote to the Under
.Secretary o' State for India, from Kirkcaldy, stating
that " a very large amount of linseed-oil is used by the
mauutacturers of Floor-cloths (wax-cloth). Linoleums,
&e., apart irom the general painters' work, ami that
all these not merely prefer but pay a much higher
price for Russian called Baltic linseed-oil, in preference
to Indian or Calcutta linseed-oil, the reason beins that
the Indian seed-oil is considered to be too fat or rich
and devoid of the more readily drying quality of the
poorer oil obtained from the Baltic seed-oils. Presently
Calcutta seed-oil is plentiful and cheap, whilst Baltic
seed-oil is scarce and dear, and I think I pretty nearly
give the respective value at £19 to ,t!lt) 10s. per ton
for Calcutta and i'23 10s. to £2-1 per ton for Baltie
linseed-oils. In this comparatively small town, but the
seat of the Floor-cloth and Linoleum trade for Scot-
laud, I think that not less than from 50 tons to (iO tons
of linseed-oils are used ii-eeldi/. Of course the (similar)
manufacturers in London, Manchester, and Lancaster,
&c., must use a very large quantity, and all doubtiesH
preferring and paying a higher price for the poorer
quality oil. No doubt, agriculturists prefer the richer
quality of linseeds for cake for feeding purposes.
Perhaps the Indian growers of linseed, were they fully
aware of the higher prices obtained for the Baltic or
poorer oils, could readily grow, and at smaller cost,
linseed that would serve the purposes for which Russi.an
seed is so much preferred and for which so much more
money is obtained for the oils." In a letter sent by
Mr. A. G Murray, from DoUerie-Crietf, to the Secretary
of State, it is stated : — " I am told by Mr. Aytoun,
Manager of a large Floor-cloth "Works at Kirkcaldy,
that they use fifty tons a week of linseed-oil, but that
they find Russian oil best, the East Indian linseed is
too rich and does not make a hard surface. I have told
him how I found it possible to harden East Indian
linseed-oil by adding rosin to it. This seems unknown
here and keeps down the price of East Indian linseed,
one of those apparently small details that turn trade.
At the same time the cake made from East India seed
is best for cattle feeding, but is not much used at
present; the oil is the article that leads the market."
This has been communicated to the Board of Revenue
and the Director of Revenue Settlement and Agricult-
ure. Inquiries will be instituted in view to determining
— (1) the cause of the richer quality of the Indian
article as compared with that supplied by Russia ; and
(2) how the Indian oil might be assimilated in cpudity
to that which is in demand for the special trade indic-
ated and for painters' work generally, for which a
good drying oil is essential. — Madras Timen.

WATERING PLANTS.

This is a subject which has been treated of fre-
quently in the .Journal, but not too often if the
importance of the operation is taken into consider-
ation. Good potting is essential to success, but care-
lessness in the application of water will tjuickly
nullify the benefits of perfect potting. Too nmch
and too little are the extremes to guard against.
Supposing anyone to be growing four dozen plants ;
all may be watered rightly until growth is satisfactory,
then there comes a day when one of them is so
dry that the put in which it is growing sounds
like an empty one if struck with the knuckles.
This plant is permanentlj injured, the young roots
which were forming fast to support the plant are
dead, and although the man in charge' may deter-
mine that nothing of the kind shall haj>pen again
to that particular plant, his good resolution is too
late. Once dry is once too much. I#y-and-by another
plant in the same batch may be subjected to the
same ordeal, and so it goes on until nearly the
whole of the plants are thrown into an untlourisliing
condition. There is no excuse for anyone who haa
the plants in charge, and can examine them twice
daily. Staking and tying, and everything else connect-

6iS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886.

ed with growing plants, are all of minor importance
to watering. There is another side to the question
which is equally important. Besides the possibility
of giving too little there is also the chance of giving
too much. Of the two evils it is diflioult to say
which is the greatest. Both are decidedly bad, and
tho^e who go to the one extreme generally practise
the o'her ; indeed a man who lets some of his
plants become too dry generally makes up bis mind,
when reprimanc'ed for it, to avoid the same th'ig
again, and tor a time he waters most assiduously
— too much so in many cases, as giving large quantities
of water when none is required, simply to make
sure of the plant not becoming too dry, is a most
improper way of watering. There is a happy medium,
easily found and followed, of keeping plants in a
growing state without going to extremes, a nd we
would advise all men who have plar s to w ater to
adhere to it. Surface dribblings have often been
decrind, and must be so now and always. Sham
watering of every description are delusion.s of the
worst form which will soon become apparent, ^\^ater-
ing pots full of soil before they contain many roots
is a common practice, and a decid edly bad one, as
it is at that time that the soil is most liable to
become soar, and if it gets into this state before
the roots have taken possession they cannoi} be ex-
pected to do much good in it afterwards. AVhen
plants have abundance of roots, and the pots, beds,
and boulers are well filled with them, it is more
diflBcult to do harm with the watering pot than when
few roots are there; but printed rules cannot be
taken as invariable guides, but much can be accom-
plished l>y what one of your esteemed correspondents
would call "thinking." — A. K. G. — Jot'i-iial of Hotti-
ciUture.

keep it in order. The estate is well supplied with a
manager's house and several houses for coolies, all well
situated, water is good and plentiful, notwithstanding
the [drought. There is a nursery full of fine young
plants ; in short there seems nothing wanting to carry
on a large estate. For some reason or other the owners
of this fios estate have withdrawn their coolies, aud
it would seem, are going to abandon it, I fancy ths
reason is that unsufticieut cajntal was rai.sed iii the
first instance. Let them ask Government who are
always ready to help a good cause to h Ip them in
this — for their own credit as well as for the credit and
good name of the country. Should there be any one
who thinks an Kxperiniental Garden is wanted in San.
dakan district, let him visit Sebugah, and I am sure he
will say, as far as cotfee, cocoa, pepper and lanut are
concerned, that no further experiment is necessary. I
may add that we went to the Sebugah estate to shoot,
and I am going back again next fnll moon. — A. 0.

PLANTING IN NOETH BORNEO.

TO THE EDITOR " BUITISH NORTH BORNEO HEKALD."

Dear Sir, — I visited the Sebugah estate the oiher day
and was so much taken with it that I wish to say a
few words in its favour in the hope that it may be
saved from ruin.

The clearing seems to be about 100 acres in extent,
of this about 50 acres are very well cleared and planted
with Liberian coffee, cocoa, pepper, and lanut (abacca).
It would be very difficult to say which of these is doing
best ; one in favour of pepper or coffee as the case might
be would probably name his favourite plant, but as I have
no preference I must in hare justice pronounce all doing
uncommonly well. The cotfee which appears in all
stages from IS months old to the young plants in the
nurseries is fresh aud vigorous. The Cocoa is very
strong in the stem and shows promising signs of pods,
the trees have suffered somewhat from wild cattle, but
otherwise are all the owner could wish. The Pepper,
even the plants only one foot high, are all covered with
fruit, I think these want topping aud clearing. The
Lanut is waiting to be cnt and made into rope, there
is quite a .small forest of these which is likely to be soon
demolished by wild cattle and pigs.

If any one will look at the Sebugah estate and con-
sider that it has been, aud is still, under a 4 months
drcnght. he will have some reason to praise the soil and
coigratulate the owner.

The low undulating surface soil of Sebugah has no-
thing in its appearance to recommend it in preference to
that of many other districts in Saudakan. but 1
observeil the sub-soil to bo particularly well adapted to
withstand droughts, being a stiff rich reddish clay
which retains the moisture and keeps alive the plant.
1 noticed s v^ral acres cleared and holed for planting,
and it is .^ i...lter of regret that they cannot be filled
from the crowded nurreries ; indeed I should strongly
urge the owner to plant this up at once, and while the
coolies are cm the spot to clear away the ^-ecoud growth
that has sprung up on the part that has been tellc<l but
not cleared, and plant it up also, with coffee, cocoa
or pepper ; once thoroughly cleared and fully planted
up, the place would require but little attention. I
fancy, a few conlies sent once in three rnonths woqUl

P^VN AND ATR.

I fancy there is hardly a European out here who
has not, at some time or other, come in contact with
pan or uic, or both combined; and I venture .to
atlirm that a very large majority of these know or

I care naught about the meaning attached to their use,
while a great many of these ignorant ones regard
their exhibition \vith disgust or aversion. These are
not aware how insultiug their behaviour is to those
who desire to welcome and honour them, nor that their
conduct has transformed a friendly ceremony into a
hastily got over farce in which valuable atr is re-
presented by various perfumed oils unworthy of the
name. Nay, in some parts of the country, the call
for pan is an accepted hint by the visitor to retire.
Let us now examine the articles familiarly known as
pan and atr, and then describe their real significance.
Pan is the etiolated leaf of Chaviea Betle, a climb-
ing plant of the Pepper order, familiar in the Straits,
where it grows in the open air. Out here it is very
largely grown in pan gardens, great enclosures of straw
or mattuig, in which the plants revel in shade and

I moisture, and thus become blanched. At the proper
time the leaves are carefully picked, closely pileii on
one another, packed into baskets, and then carried
away for local sale or export. They have a hot, strong-
ly aromatic, and grateful taste, but are not nstul in
their plain state ; the^- must become a pan-supari
before they are edible. J^rongly stmmlant as they are,
their virtue is to be assisted by the mild astringency
of the betel-nut (supari), the fruit of that exquisitely
graceful palm, so common about Calcutta, the Arccti
catecki', and the more powerful action of catechu or
gambia ; then an ant-acid is added in the shape of
slaked lime. These drugs are enclosed iu the betel-
leaf, which is then folded into a Hat cone, kept in
position by a clove. For State occasions the cones
are further wrapped in gold or silver leaf. Prepar-
ation of pan-supari generally falls to the women-kind,
who make as unich fuss over their pan boxes, as
our grandmothers used to do over their futmy table
workboxes. There is hardly a married man out here
who has not heanl the click of the ayah's betel-chpper,
a small copy of the old loaf-sugar clipper.

The real complimentary use of pan is its s\ipposed
value in assistin'j the digestion of the rich footl which
properly follows the recipient to bis home. Except
in purely native society, and iu some States where
the practice is extended to Kuropean officials or visit-
ors, the real use of pan has passed away, and the
mere bestowal of the chargt^d leaf survives.

And so it is with the highly interesting aud poet-
ical exhibition of air. Christian recipients, while re-
garding it with an aversion equal to that of the pan,
forget that they see Ix-fore them the representative
of a ceremony coiiut-etei.1 with their most cherished
and sacred traiiitions ; hue they see what the sweet
singer of Israel alludes to in his famous Pastoral ;
here they recall the touching devotion of her who
expended perhaps her all on the ■' ointment of spike-

March r, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTORIST".

65!)

IXDIAN GRASSES.

uaril, * very precious " for actlie ercJ feet of her Lord.
Let us first examine iuto the svibject of atr. ami ttien
see how it ought to be exliibited anrt the meaning
of the rite. Atr is the essential oil procured by dis-
tillation from the petals, leave.-^, or wood of certain
plants; as it is yielde^i in small <]U:intities, it is always
added to a ground , zaniin i, which is almost invariably |
snndal oil (sandal), the essential oil oi Santali'.m 'i/butn.

The atrs in common use are rose fgulab), jasmine
(chameli), paudanus (keorahi, and henna (mchndi) ;
the [irices of these vary according to their dilution
with sandal ; if you chose to go in for real gulab-ki-
atr (otto of roses) you will have to pay R120 per
tolah (rupee's weight) for it, so that it is vastly
dearer than gold.

At the close of an ordinary durbar, bits of mus-
lin soaked in rose-water and touched with an atrdam
spoon are the reprcsGntatives of the sacred ceremony I
of atr, which is thus performctl. Tan having been i
bestowed, host and guest rise ; the former pours atr
of roses iuto one hand, rubs both palms together,
and commencing with his guest's head, passes them
down his be.ird and body aud down to his feet ; then
he .salaams to his guest, who repeats exactly the |
same process with his host. The anointing being com- ;
plete, raiment for the guest and, if necessary, a purse '
of money are prorided, .and the welcome is complete.

Vou cannot join in this solemn ceremony without
thinking of " the precious ointment upon the head
that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beanl,
that went down to the skirts of hi.s garment." Nor
can you forget DaWd's share in a similiar durbar .
" Thou anointest my head with'oil, my cup runneth over."

The ceremonial of pan and atr is only a portion
of the welcome ; food and raiment (khurish-poshis),
or their eiiuivaleuts in money, are also supplied un-
grudgingly to the guest. When I joined as a griff
in 1854 I recollect being welcomed at Bhopawar by
a banker, who offered me as khurish-poshish a horse,
a pair of shawls, a pagri, and a bag of 11150; of these
I was allowed to retain the shawls an! pagri. I
only mention this as one illustration of the kindly
feeling in pre-Mutiny times. — R. F. H. — Pioneer.

All who have read Mr. Syraonds' articles on the
grasses of the Madras Presidency, and on Army
Animal Management, which ai)peared in the Qi'm'terly
Journal of I'eUriiuny .S'ci./ire in Jndia, will be glad
to have them in the more complete and convenient
form in which they are now published. In the present
work. tho. most important grasses of the whole Indian
Peninsula are described, and fi!,'ured with special re-
ference to their use f r fodder, and though, of course,
a complete list of the Indi.in grassi-s cannot be ex-
pected, it will, we think, be found that all those known
to be of value are included. Of coiu'se such a work
must be iu the main a compilation from other writers,
but it needs a wide knowledge of the subject to make
the compilation satisfactory, and we can congratulate
Mr. Symonds on his auccess- iu this respect.

It appears that the most important of the fodder
grasses of India is the Ci/itodfni Jhict'/Zoii^ known in
this part of India as| hariali grass, and in the north
as dhoob. It is the same as the couch grass of Aus-
tralia and America, and grows well in all parts of
India. This grass is treated of at considerable length,
and many useful details arc given regarding its cultiv-
ation. Perhaps the most interesting part is a quot-

• Spikenard is supposed by many to be the Roesa
grass of the jungles of Central India; its fragrant
esfleutial oil, Roosa-ki-tel, is largely distilleil about In-
dorc. Others identify it with the incense root of Jata-
ma8i, one of the Valerians, aud essentially an Alpine
plant. But .Jata-masi titr is unknown, while Koosa-ki-tel
IS very faradiar. Apart from its powerful aud pene*
tr»tiDg odour, the . u a famous rub«fe>cieDt.

ation from a report made by Major General Ottley
upon some experiments which he made at Vellore on
its cultivation on a fairly large scale. Tl'e soil
was first very carefully prepared and manured, care
beiug taken to remove all the roots of the corra
(Ct/perus Iwtundus)^ a most troublesome weed, which
is often found growing along with the hariali, aud
which can h.ardly be eradicated after the latter grass
has been planted. In the ground thus prepared the
hariali roots were planted in fm'rows, and the whole
was then laid out in beds, so as to allow of irrigation
from wells in the compouud. At the end of about
a month the first crop was ready for cutting, and by
the judicious use of irrigation — once or twice a month —
it was found that eight crops could be obtained in
a year. Each crop yielded on an average two tuns to
the acre, so that it is well within the limits to say
that 50 tons per annum can he obtained from 5 acres
of ground properly attended to, and this yi-.-ld is
sufficient to render the crop a profitable one, even
when we take into account the very heavy first cost
of preparing the ground. On the produce of his five
acres) General Ottley was .able to keep eight or nine
horses and sheep, and to supply hay for the racing
studs and livery stables at Madras; while during the
hst Burmese war, at a time when there was not a
blade of grass in the country, he supplied all the hay
needed for the Horse ^Vrtiilery sent to Rangoon. Ex-
periments made at the Sydctpet Farm on a plot of
3 acres iu 1S08 showed, tlitt a fair crop could be
o'otaiued seven wit'aout irrigation, for from this plot
8 tons 1.3 cwt. of h.ay was obtained during the year.
This bay sold for R3G0, while the cost of curing it
was only R1^5. The hay made from hariali grass is
of an excellent rjuality if care is taken to carry on
the drying properly. The grass ought to be cut im-
mediately after the flower appears and, according to
Mr, Cameron, of Bangalore, the cutting should bo
done in the cool hours of the day, so that the newly
mown grass may not be exposed to the intense heat
o" the mil-day sun aud the drying shouM take place
very slowly. But this is evidently a point on v.hich
"doctors differ'' for Mr. Robertson, of Sydapet, gives
advice which is very uearly the opposite of this as ho
advices that the grass should be cut in the morning
after the dew is oil it, that it should then be left
lying for an hour or two, and finally be turned and
tossed about till sunset, for " it cannot " he adds " be
tossed too much during a hot sun." In dry wsather
two days of this treatment .should fit the hay for
being stacked. Our author does not attempt to de-
cide between these diverse opinions, and neither will
we, though we must admit that ISlr. Robertson's advice
seems to agree with the best practice at home. A
point which is not generally known with regard to
hay is that it it decidedly atlvautagrous that it should
heat .slightly after it is stacked, the fenncntation that
takes pi ice in that case improving the quality of the
hay as fodder, just as coarse grass is improved by
fermentation in a silo. But of course care must be
takeu that this heating does uot go too far. Mr.
Robertson suggests the use of a single row of six inch
drain pipes placed about the middle of the stack, and
leailiug from the centre to the outside. But drain
pipes are not things that are usually to be found in
this country, and they can bo replaced by hollow
bamboos, or split palmyra stems, or the stacks may
be huilt round a " centre," as is so often done at
home. Hay which has been well made, attains its
maximum value in from eight to twelve months, and
after fifteen months begins to deteriorate, and by
three years it is useless for fodder.

Another very valuable grass is the guinea grass
(Paiiicum Juinentoriiin) a native of Guinea, but thorough-
ly acclimatized in this country. Not only docs this
grass yield a very large crop of a quality admirably
suited for feeding horses aud cattle, but it has the
power of resisting the longest severest droughts. This
was well shown on the Sydapt Farm during the last
famine. A field of two acres was planted in Sept-
ember 1877, and iu May 1S77 it was perfectly brown,

COc

I'HE TROPICAL AGi?ICULTURIST. [Marcm i, :S86.

and to all appearance lifeless, when the heavy raid
which fell daring the cyclone in that month led to
its immediate revival. Before the third day of the
rain was over, green shoots appeared all over the field,
and in two months it yielded a crop weighing 5,566 lb.
followed two months afterwards by a second cutting
weighing about 12,0U0 lb. The popular idea that this
grass requires to be irrigated, and that it should be
taken up and replanted in fresh ground at the end
of every two years or so, is situated to be quite errone-
ous. Of course irigatiou will increase the yield, and
any grass which grows so quickly requires an abund-
ance of manure. The plants, too, soon become too
large, and ought to be divided into four with a spade
by two cuts at right angles through the centre, three
of the parts may then be removed, aud the fourth
left where it is. A subject on which Mr. Symonds
has a very decided opinion is the present most un-
satisfactory state of the system of obtaining gra.ss
for horses by means of grass-cutters. In Bengal the
grass-cutters are men who are regularly enlisted and
serve for a pension, but in Madras and Bombay in
the army as well as in private stables, the grass-cut-
ters are women who are generally the horsekeepers'
wives. All who keep horses know how difficult it is
to have any real control over these women, and how
badly thuy usually do their work, and that there is
much need for an improved system. In connection
with this we arc glad to see that Mr. Symonds calls
prominent attention to the very common error that
the roots of grass are best for horses. If the roots
are young and small they certainly possess a consider-
able amoimt of nourishment, but old roots are alwaj-s
mixed with the young, and these are not only in-
nutritious, but are actually hurtful. The following
directions regarding grass seem worth quoting for the
benefit of private horse owners. "The grass should
be brought in dry, laid on a trellis frame, beaten to
remove dust and dirt, and it is then fit for use.
Perfectly dry grass is not always possible, of course
in the rains it is impossible, then they should bring
in 2(1 lb. extra, take every advantage of getting it
dry, keep it two or three days, then beat it and use
it. In .very wet weather, when there is continuous
rain, to keep it would only induce fermentation, but
as soon as there is a break in the weather, the dry-
ing should be assiduously attended to, and it cannot
be laid out too thin." The practice of grubbing up
the j^rass with a mamoty is strongly condemned not
only on account of the number of roots which are
thus mixed with the grass, but also on account of the
destruction of the grass ; but this latter objection
can hardly be maintained in view of the experiments
recently made at Lucknow, where it was found that
by scraping the surface, as practised by the natives,
an advantage of 10,-320 lb. per acre per annum was
obtained over the plan of allowing it to grow, and
then cutting it with a sickle. These experiments were
made on hariali grass. In conclusion we may call
attention to the sixty-two admirably executed litho-
graphic plates of the various grasses described, which,
tfiken along with the text facilitate the identific-
ation of each grass, and greatly add to the value of
the book..— .l/urfrii.* JAiil,

♦

THE INDIABU13BBK OATHEEERS OF THE
AMAZON.
I'or the most part the juice of the seringa has been
hitherto collected on the islands and swampy portions
of the mainland which lie within a distance of a
hundred miles of the port of Para, autl for that reason
the product' is known as I'ara ludiarubber. In the
great ileUa, away from the channels that have now
become the highway for steamers between Para and |
the niaiu Amazon, the explorer may paddle about [
iu his palm-decked canoe through hundreds of miles
of str|ucstercd creeks, la'ces, and streams, under the
shade of huge overhanging trees of the richest
Variety and luxuriance, and for weeks together he
will not lind the slightest trace of man's existtnc(^ in
thr ilense solitudes, but here and tliere the hut of an
Jndiarwbber (jatbcrer. Although the iudiistry is largely j

confined to this limited district, the tree flourishes
with equal vigour in all the swampy districts border-
ing the Amazon, and there are gioves of untapped,
sermgas growing by the Tapajos, Madeira, and other
vast tributaries of the central river. Indeed, the
traveller by the steamboats (of English make, by the
' way) that ply on the Amazon from Tabatiuga — the
first fortress in Brazil on the Peruvian border — to
Para, which is quite two thousand miles distant
will observe that Indiarubber is an article of export
from nearly all the places at which the vessel calls.
At the remote Tabatinga itself, rubber and salt fish
are taken on board, the contributions to the civilised
world from the numerous Indians who dwell in the
adjacent forest. Five hundred miles further down
the river stands Ega, on the tributary Telle, half-way
across the continent. Bates, who lived there ex-
ploring in the interest of science for four years and
a half ( Agassiz fished there for six months), exclaims ,
" What a future is in store for the sleepy little village!"
At present, that distant population of 1,200, composed
of pure Indians, half-castes, negroes, mulattoes, and
whites, exports Indiarubber along with cacao, sarsa-
parilla, Brazil nuts, copaiba balsam, salt fish, turtle
oil, and other products of the district. At Mauaos,
a thousand miles from Para, there is ''enough India-
rubber to coat the civilised world.' The same article —
although cacao is the favourite product from this
point — is taken on board at the mud village of Villa
Nova, and so also at the town of .Sautareui, to which
it is brought down from the river Tapajos. Still, as
we have said, the greatest portion of the supply is
obtained in the swampy districts nearer Para and
the mouth of the Amazon.

The caoutchouc-gatherer reaches the swampy regions
on which alone the Para rubber tree grows towards
the close of August, when the Hoods that have
I)revailed for four months and kept the tress under
water to their crowns, have gone down. A spot is
chosen where a gooil supply of rubber trees is at
hand, and in selecting it the gatherer has to take care
that too dense an undergrowth does not hinder a
ready passage between tlie hut and the trees. The
caution is highly necessary, for the juice is rapidly
spoiled by contact with the air, and every one must
be familiar with the difliculty of threading a Brazilian
forest because of its marvellous mazes of creepers and
shrubs.

A piece of ground, of a size proportioned to the
number of the household or group, is cleared leisurely,
about a yard of the stumps beiug left standing. At
intervals the mestizo, with a genius for saving himself
trouble, allows some of the harder trees to remain,
in order to serve as supports for the roof. The tloor of
the projected dwelling must be raised above the reach
of the water, and accordingly the felled trees are
placed upon the stumps for that purpose. Small
strips of the bark of the miruti palm are laid down
as flooring. To form the frainework of the roof thin
trunks are fixed to the stems that have been left
standing, and over this are placed immense palm
leaves, sheltering a space probably sutficieiit to
accommodate a company of twenty persons. To serve
as walls— there is no need iu the tropics of any
protection against cold — bass-mats are hmig all round
tbe structure on a horizontal pole. Partition of the
b nldiug into apartments is not regarded as an in-
dispensable feature among these semi-savages, and
the highest conception of refinement among them is
satisfied by the construction of a ladies' chamber in
the centre by hanging up a few mats. The stair-
case is not an invention that retjuires much toil or
genius i some blocks are laid above each other, or a
tree stem, with rough steps cut into it. is placed
obliquely ajjainst the hut floor.

T.ook now at the ii»ntry. A space at the foot of
some neighbouring tree is cleared of earth to a depth
of two or three feet and fcuced round. The adjacent
stream tills the pond with water, anti to this reserv-
oir are consigned the Hsh and turtles that are caught.
Less ciire is bestowed on the food obtained by the
Indian 'g gun ; what rvuiaius over the iievetisity of tb«

March i, iS86,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURlSf.

66^

lUy is simply ilried lu the sun, or salteil and preserved
ill well-shaded spots.

The last few days before the cantchouc harvest
actually begius are spent assiduously in increasing the
stock of shells and clay vessels necessary for collecting
the juice, in gathering a store of tenacious clay for
attaching these receiving vessels to the tapped trees,
and also in laying in a supply of a certain kind of
paini-uuts, which, as we shall see, play an iinportEnt
part in the preparation of the milky juice of the
Heiea Urasiiiensis into the Indiarubber of commerce.

The tree, which is the object of so determined au
attack from September till January or February, cannot,
indeed, be spoken of as at all remarkable in appear-
ance in the giant forests of the Amazon, but it is
cej-taiuly an imposing tree, often towering to a height
of sLtty or eighty feet ; its round, straight, pale-grey
trunk is devoid of branches till far up, as is the
habit of all forest trees ; the trunk has a circumference
of two or three yards, and bears a stately but not
widely spreading crown. The foliage is beautiful, the
long thin leaves growing in clusters of three, the
central one being more than a foot long. The fruit
is of about the size of a large peach, and is divided
inU) three lobes, e.ich of which contains a small black
nut, not only edible, but eagerly .sought by the wild
aniuials of the forest. In fine, the bark and foliage
of the Para rubber tree have a strong resemblance to
those of our own ash.

lu the early morning, Ixjtween the hours of five and
six, the mestizo, in his light cotton vest and pantaloons,
sets out from the rude hut, bearing with him a small
a\e, the edge of which is about an inch long. With
this he makes twenty incisions or so into the bark of
every third seringa at a convenient height, and with
a little soft clay sticks one of his small shallow earthen
cups just beneath the incision, to receive the milky
sap that now oozes out drop by drop. In a few hours
he has thus tapped thirty or forty trees, with the
assistance of his wife au<l childem.

It is now time that he should make a second round,
in order to collect the juice; for, although the tiny
cups are not yet filled, the wounds are already closed
up with dried juice, and the sap itself now requires
to be looked after if it is to be a good marketable
article. Instead of the hatchet, the seringueiro this
time takes with him a small wooden bucket, into
which his wife and childien empty the contents of
the cups, each of th<,-se holding, perhaps, half a gill
of juice. The emulsion, while still fresh, has an agree-
able taste, not unlike that of sweetened cream. The
skui of sap that has attached itself to the bark under
tht| incisions, or to the edge of the cups, is also
stripped off and stuck on the outside of the bucket.
The husband clears the wound and slicks on another
cup for the second crop of the daj. The sap that
has been obtained is immediately conveyed to the
hut anil subjected to the following important process.

A fire of brushwood is kindled, and on this a
narrow funnel-shaped pot of clay is placed, in or
uuderneath which the palm-nuts already referred to
are heated. The seringueiro, with the bucket of juice
hy his side, scats himself before the fire, dips a club-
shaped piece of wood with a tiattened clay mould at
one end into the milk, and turns the juicy end
round aud round in the white vapour issuing from
the pot. In half a minute the milk is changed into
a skin of a reddish tint. M'hen this is tiriu thebtick
is again dipped into the milk ; iind so the process
goe.i ou, layer being added to layer, until a sufficient
thickne.«» has been obtained. Another stick is then
taken up, and the work goes on until the juice has
been exhauste<I. The benefit of the nut smoke is
alleged to consist in its absorption of the o.xidised
resin of the juice, and it is the smallne.ss of the
quantity of this resinous body iu I'ara rubber that
gives it the highest value in the market of the world.
A good hand will make five or six pounds in an hour.
■When the cakes are coin[)letpd they are slit up with
a sharp, wetted knife, and after being hung in the
open air to dry for a few days, they are ready for
eslc. XliB flat, rounded I'ara rubber cakes, made in

the way we have described, are known in London as
" biscuits," and command a higher price than any
other kiud of caoutchouc.

On the same day the trees are exhausted ODOe
more, and even twice, if they are rich in milk — a
quality that reaches its maximum when they are
about twenty-five years old. On the second day the
second portion of the tree is attacked and dealt with ;
the tbiril portion on the third day ; and on the fourth
the first portion may again be tapped with impunity.

How does the gatherer secure the sale of his
caoutchouc ? Boats ply up the rivers and creeks
during the sea.son with wine, trinkets of all sorts,
and an endless variety of wares, and the rubber is
exchanged for these articles. The chief delight of
the half-savage Indian is in procuring fireworks, and
days of toil are saeriticed for one evening of festive
illumination. — (Abridged from The H'elcomc .)—Indm-
rublnr and Guttapevcha Journal.

GARDEN ENEMIES.
Probably there is no country in the world ia
which the gardener has more difficulties to contend
with iu the way of insects and other vermiu than
in India. A\'e have not only almost every pest
that our brethern in Europe have to contend with,
but * host of others that are even far more dangerous;
I and not only this, but we are further handicapped
by the fact that those species which aro most
dreaded by English gardeners, such as Thrips, Mealy
Bug, Red Spider, Aphis and Scale, which with them
are only developed at a high artificial temperature,
aud couse([uently confine their depredations to plants
grown unider glass, where insects may always to a
considerable extent be kept under control by fumig-
ating, syringing, sponging, and the many other
means employed for the purpose, in this country all
these pests attack plants growing iu the open air, where
they are far more difficult to contend with, and which,
if at all neglected, frequently get the upper hand and
defy all ettorts to exterminate them. An instance of
this is given in our correspondence columns of April
28th, where the writer states that his entire collection
of L'rutoiis had been most severely damaged through
some cause to him unknown. AVc have since had
an opportunity of seeing the plants iu ijuestion, and
found them fearfully infected with black thrips, cert-
ainly one of the worst insects with which we have
to contend. Had our correspondent, however, taken
proper measures as soon as this pest made its ap-
pearance, they could have been easily checked, but
having once obtained a good foot-hohl, they would not
disappear till their work of destruction was complete.
But have they really disappeared at all ? we are in-
clined to believe this is hardly possible ; in all pro-
bability millions of eggs or lar\;u are hidden in the
soil or secreted on whatever leaves may he loft, and
will break forth again as soon as their incubation is
complete. Vta have such a wholesome dread of this
unpleasant visitor that, were our correspondent to
offer us a present of his whole collection in its present
state, we should hesitate to accept it, unless we were
able to place the plants under quarantine for a month
or two. Some writers maintain that insects are in
every instance the eflects of disease and not the cause,
and although wt; cannot accept this as an invariable
rule, still there is undoubtedly much truth in the
assertion. One of the surest means of keeping plants
clear of the ravages of insects is to maintain them
in a vigorous state of health, for it is always found
that it is the weak sickly plants that are first affected
when insects of any kiud make their appearance. As
au illustration of the fact that insects follow disease
and do not precede it, we may mention the general
idea that prevails in this country regarding the rav-
ages of the white ant on vegetation. We continually
hear complaints, especially from residents in Mofussil
districts, that Hoses and other plants have succumbed
to the attacks ,)f this in.sect. But is this really the
casey We believe not; in every instance that has
come under our uotico wo have invariably found that

662

THE TROPICAL AGRICUL'fURlS*. [March i, 1886.

the plants were weak aud sickly, aud that they were
sutl'ering from root fungus or somu other -^lisease long
before the ants commenced their depredations. This
opinion coincides not only with tlii*. observations of
Firoaingev and other Indian authorities, but also of
Figuier, Smeathman and many eminent naturalists who
haTe made the Termiteif their special stud}'. It would
be impossible for us to describe in detail the innumer-
able unwelcome visitors that are found in our gardens,
but must content ourselves with briefly describing the
most importLint of them — either insect, reptile, bird.
or beast, and the most ettective means that can be
employed for their extirpation. "We will commence
with the insects, for these, though individually are
generally so insignificant, collectively form some of
the most powerful enemies that we have to encounter.

APHIDES.

In this family there are supposed to be upwards of
one hundred aud fifty species ; many of these, it is
stated, confine their attention to one plant or family
of plants, such as Aphis Innr/era, better known as
the *' American blight.'' which restricts its operations
exclusively to the apple tree, and Apltis fabtr, which
is only found on the B:-oad Bean. Other species, how-
ever, are far more cosmopolitan in their ideas, and
will attack almost anything that come within their
reach. The most common of these is Aphis msoi, better
known as green-fly or plant lice. These not only
attack Koses, but almost any other plant ou which
they can etfect a lodgement, and if ne£,'lected ■ for a
few days increase enormously. The young shoots of
Roses and other trees all round their circumference
for the length of upwards of a foot are often covered
with this .species; they remain crowded against each
other, aud sometimes there are two layers of them.
If carefully observed, without moving the plants, they
will, to all appearance, be tranquil and inacti\'e, they
are however gratlually, but surely, absorbing the vital
powers i)f the plants, piercing with the point of their
trunk the epidermis of the leaves or stalks aud draw-
ing from them the .sap they contain. Infinitely small
as is the proboscis of the plant louse, when there are
thousands of these creatures crowded on the stems or
leaves of a plant it must evidently suffer. Tho enorm-
ous rate at which the aphis family increase under
favourable circumstances seems almost incredible.
Bonnet, a celebrated naturalist, gives the results of
experiments ma'ie by him to prove how rapid is the
multiplication of aphides; he says : — "A single female
produces generally 1>0 young ones; at the second gener-
ation these 9U produces 8,lU0, these give a third gener-
ation which amounts to 7-r»,0;»0 insects ; these in
their turn become 65,(>10,(JUU; the fifth generation
consisting of 590,490,000 will yieUl a progeny of
53,l4"J.li)0,O0O ; at the seventh we shall thus have
4,;ML'.".Sl),O00,ti00, ; and the eighth will give 4-U,4(il,
OlO,tj(tO,U0O. This immense number increases immeas-
urably when there are eleven generations in the space
of a year. Fortunately a great many carnivorous in-
sects wage fierce war against the plant lice and destroy
immense numbers of them. Thus they are held in
check, and kept from multiplying inordinately."

Smee in his comprehensive work, Mii Garden, in
discusbing this subject, says :— " We are In the habit
uf looking to astronomy for numbers beyond the
capacity of man to realize, but the multiplication of
Aphuhn atford a more astounding illustratiou. To
represent the number of the progeny of one of these
creatures for the space of one year, thirty-six figures
placed in a row would be required. As the distance
in miles between the earth and the sun is represented
by only eight figures, and as seventeen figures would
represent the number of Aphides required to form
a line between the same bodies, we may form a kind
of indefinite vision of the immensity of the power
of multiplication possessed by Aphith\^^ and have a
dim idea of the rapid manner in which they can
cover vegetation when thoy appear."

In Europe there are several instances on record in
which bwarms of these insects, frequently miles in
length and breadth and sufficiently dense to obscure
U»yHgbt, have been ob^f^rved. We are uot aware if

any similiar occurrence has been noted by daylight
in this country, but in Calcutta and the surrounding
districts each year, just at the setting in of the
north-east monsoon, we have a very similiar pheno-
mena. At this period, for several nights in succession,
the air is filled with a species of Aphide, these are
particularly attracted by any artificial light, and
in the vicinity of street gas lamps the crowd is fre-
quently so dense as almost to obscure the light. This
attraction leads them to their own destruction,
for the heated air surrounding the lamps proves
fatal to them, and in the mornings following
these visitations they frequently cover the ground
to a depth of two or three inches for several feet
around e;ich lamp. On one occasion, some two or
three years since, they appeared in such numbei's as
to stop the performances in our local Theatres.
"Whether these myriads migrate at night only it is
difficult to say. "NVe can hardly think that s«ch is
the case: probably the stream is a eoutiuuous one,
but in the daytime they fly at a height beyond the
power of human \'ision. AVhere these immense shoals
come from, and whither bound, seems clouded in
obscurity. It is a strange fact, however, that in their
migrations they have never been known to attack
vegetation. It is very fortunate for us that such
is the case, otherwise we should have as much cause to
dread their visitations as that of a flight of locusts.
Innumerable recipes have been recommended for the
destruction of green-flv. some of them, unfortunately,
proving just a? elfective in destroying the plants as
the insects with which they are infected, in the
hands of an inexperienced operator. In the use of
insuctitudes we nuist always take into consideration
the constitution and nature of the plants to be
operated unon : with hard-wooded plants having well
ripened growth we may use thera much stronger
than with those of a succulent nature, or where the
wood is yo'mg and tender. "With the former cbss
of plants one application mny thoroughly overcome
our enemy, but with the latter it may be necessary
to give three or four weak dressings at intervals of
a week or ten days. The following are some of
the most reliable remedies than can be employed
for eradicating this pest.

I. iSoft iSna/i and Tobacco. — Dissolve one pound of
soft soap in three gallons of water, and when eooi
add one qurrt of strong tobacco water. Small plants
in pots should be immersed in the mixture, bottom
upwards, and hold in it for a minute or two, taking
care that the. soil is uot ulso submerged. When taken
out allow them to stand about ten minutes, after
which syringe with clear water till every insect has
disappeared. Plants in the ground, or such as arc
too large to bo dipped, should be thoroughly syring-
ed with the mixture and af terwarils with clean water.

II. Sflphi'v JH.cturc. — Four ounces sulphur, four
ounces powdered tobacco, four ounces quicklime and
eight ounces of soft soap in three gallons of water.
This is ouly suited for hanl-wooded plants, which
siiould be well syringed with the mixture aud then
allowed to remain for twenty-four hours, after which
they must be thoroughly cleansed with water.

III. Soda and Ahee. — An American horticultural
journal gives the following preparation as sure death
to the gi-eeu-fly, aa well as many other insects that
infest house plants: — Dissolve '2 lb. of washi.g soda
and 1 oz. of bitter aloes, and when cold add one
gallon of water. Dip the plants into this solution
and lay them on their sides for a short lime, and
the insects will drop oiT. Hyriuge the plants with clean,
tepid water, and return them to the house. This
mixture proves to be an effectual remedy for vermin
on wall trees aud hard-wooded plants of robust
habit, but injures soft-wooded plants and tender
newly-grown shoots of all plants.

IV. Tobacco Potrdtr. — This is one of the most certain re-
medies than can be employed for the destruction of green-
fly. Procure ordinary country grown tobacco, dry tho-
roughly and then pulverize as finely as po.*isibler
procure a common powder puti or a cook's flowe ;
dredger, aud after baviiig first damped the plantpf

March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

663

dust the powUer freely over the stems ami leaves, i
The plants should be thoroughly syiingi'd abou . tweuty-
four hours afWr the appUcatiou of the powiUn-.

V. Toliacco JfaUr. — Tske a pouml of the strongest
tobacco leaves, boil them for hilf an hour in a gallon
of water, then strain uul add half a pouiul of Gum
Arabii" and boil again till this is thoroughly dissolved;
when cool add six gallons of olc^r wiiter. This should
be used iu the same way as No. 1, but the plants
must remain for about six hours before bciug syrini^ed.
The object iu adding gum is to iiwurs it.s adhering
to the insects.

Nos. 1\'. and V. are recommended to the imiuitiated
iu preference to the others; they aro uofc only cheaper
but are rarely injurious to plants even when used iu
excess.

AJIIlItlCAN BLIGHT.

The American Bhght {Aphis Langera or Eriosoma
}[aU) is, we believe, entirely unknown in this country.

ANTS.

AVe next come to one of the most troidjlcsome of
ail insect families, and one of which this country
has a vast number of species. Autu, black, rotl, brown,
a«hy or yellow. Ants, omnivorous, carnivorous and
gralninivorous, aboimding in every district that is
not actually a swamp. Fortunately for the gardener
this is not one of those pests that seem to have been
sent into the world exclusively for his edification, or
rather we should say mortification. Ants distribute
their favors equally amongst all classes of society,
finding a congenial home either in a mud hovel or
a mansion, although it must be admitted that the
richer the food available the greater the attraction
for them. The following methods of destroying ants
are given in Quin's Garden Receipts: —

B&ru's. — An effectual way of destroying ants in
places where boiling water cannot be used is to lay
half-picked bones about. These will soon be covered
with nnts, and can then be thrown into a vessel of ,
boiling water, after which they should be again laid
down to attrack a fresh batch of victims. By per- I
Sisting in the use of this trap a house will be
completely cleared of ants in a short time ; the sooner. of
course, in proportion to the number of bones employed.
Camphor. — If the auts have forrae<l their nest at
the root of a plant, pour upon them a quart or so
of warm water, in which a piece of camphor, the
size of a Hazel nut, has been steeped. This thoroughly
destroys tiiem, and is not the least injurious to
the plant. *

Chnfk. — To prevent ants from climbing trees scrape
the bark in a ring about 2 in. wide around the tree ;
then take a piece of chalk and rub it on the ring
all round till no green bark can be seen. The mo-
iiK'iit tile ants' feet touch the chalk it offers no
solid footing, and they fall back, not one being able
to ascend. A chalk mark, at least half an inch in
breadth, around the upper edge of sugar barrels, boxes,
&c., will not admit one ant into the interior. The
same mark drawn on the edges of shelves will al.so
prevent the approach of an ant. The chalk mark
must, of course, be perfectly continuous.

FfowiT-pot-Trap. — Suppose a colony of ants to be
commencing operations on a lawn, it is an easy matter
to trap them all by placing a large empty flower-pot,
with the hole stopped, over it. The ants will build
up into the pot, and in a short time it may be lifted
with a shovel and carried away and dropped into a
ves.sel of water, which will make an end of them.

F/oi'-ers of Hulphnr. — Flowers of sulphur are very use-
ful in checking ants where boiling water caniiot be aned.
Ga< Tar. — When ants make a run up the .stem of
a fruit tree, a line of gas tar all round will put a
stop to their progress, and do no barm to the tree*

Cruapo, — It is not generally known that fresh Peruvian
guano will drivt; ants from any spjt. iiuiVever firm a
hold th^y mav hnv* obt«ined on it.

Jfo ta>: — Ma':-; a mortar bed "f their nest, stirring
the ants iu with the mud until their nest becomes
a mass of mortar, which may then be removed.

Pctro'eu/n, — Pouring of a little petroleum upon their
nest eveTy few day.s will effectually i(ill or bani.sh ants.

Paraffin oil, beuzoliue, and kerosene are also very
effective.

Qifdssia. — The following mixture has been found
successful ; — Four ounces of tpiiis^iu chips, boiled for
ten minutes iu a gallon of water, dissnlving in the
liquid while cu'diug 4 oz. of soft soap.

Qnickfimf, — Perhaps as good a way us any of (xternn'n-
ating a nest of auts is to dig the nest opi-n and
Hood it with a kettle of boiling I'ater. If a bus]iel
of quiekli'ue be then thrown in and the earth replaced,
the colony nill be broken up, and the few nnts left
will seek other quarters.

Baw M*''it. — A very effectual plan of getting rid of
ants is to place raw meat in dishes or vessels of any
kind about places which they infest, ai\d as they
prefer that kind of food to any other, they surround
it in thousands. Jioiling water is then poured upon
them, and this, if persistently applied, ^vith the bait
above reccnmended, will iu time effect a good riddance.
Suft Soup and I'ota.s-h.^lu the *' Kevue Horticole,"
September 1870, the following method of destroying
or banishing ants is described as having proved <juite
successful :~Take 2 oz. of soft soap, lib. of potash,
and 2h pints of water. Boil the whole together for
some time, stirring the Ingredients occasionally. 'J'he
liquor may then be allowed to cool. With a pointed
stick c dibble make holes here and there in the soil
infested by the ants, at a safe distance from any
plants which may be growing there, to avoid any
chance of their roots being injured by the mixture
(although this is doubtful), and fill the holes once
or twice with the preparation. By this means M. de
Forghet was completely successful in clearing his
Melon beds of these troublesome insects.

Sir^et Oil. — Fill small phials two-thirds with water,
and add sweet or any other oil to float on the water
to within h in. of the top. Plunge these upright in
the ground, leaving only ^ in. standing out, near the
nest or runs of the ants. The ants will come for a
sip and go home to die. No insect can exist with
oil stopping U|> its spiracles or breathing pores.

Treaded Sponf/r. — In houses ami other places where
hot water cannot bo poured on the soil without danger
to the plants, pieces of coarse sponge dipped in
diluted treacle will from a most efl'ectual trap.
The ants will crowd into the sponge, which sJiouid
he taken up from time to time and thrown into a
vessel of boiling water. Thick treach- spreaii on
pieces of brown paper is also very effective; thty get
entangled in ihe mass when sucking it, and their
bodies may be swept off the edge >; at ilifferent times
till the nests are much thinned of them.

I'arioit.^. — Turpentine, gas-water, lime-water, a de-
coction of Elder heaves, chloride of lime, and chloralum.
dissolvo<l in water, soot ; wood ashes, soap-suds, tar,
paraffin oil, ami benzoline, have also been recommended.
fVatfV, — If the ants' nest should be in a pot amongst
the roots of a plant, the best way is to immerse the pot
and plant in cold water, and let it stand for five or
six hours, by which time the auts will all be drowned
and their eggs destroyeil. One of the most sinqde
and effectual ways to destroy ants is to pour boiling
water on the nests at night, but in those cases where
boiling water cannot be ajjplied, recourse must be h:ul
to some other remedy.

YeUow Piii.ssiate of Potash. — Yellow prussiate of
potash (ferrocyanide), I drachm; raspings of quassia,
1 drachm ; sugar in sufficient quantity to form u
syrup. The ants are said to devour greedily and
die almost immediately.

It must be borne in mind that in applying any
of the above remedies, it may be necessary to repeat
the dose several times. The ant is extremely tenacious
of life, and is one of the "die-hards" oi the insect
world. Not only this, but during the breeding season
as instinct lesds it to carry off its egLi*^ to a phice
of safety the moment tliat danger threatens, the
immediate neii'hbojrhood of the nest must therefore
be looked after, as will as the nest itself. '\\'heii
the ants are catight alive they miist l>e at once
carried away to « diMtant spot, and either bnrnt iK

664

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[March r, 1886,

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NE^W PRODUCTS.

(Frrnii Lewis <fc Peat's London Price Current, January 38th, 1886.)

FROM MALABAR

COAST. COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADRAS, &c.

BEES' WAX, White

Yellow
CINCHONA BAKK— Crwii

QUALITY.

QUOTATIONS.

f SliRhtly softiah to good
I hard bright ... £6 10s a £nOs

- ■ - • ■ — ■ £.5 108 a £6 IS'?

•CARDAMOMS Malabar

CINNAMON

. Do. drossy & dark ditto...

Renewed IsaSsed

'Medium to fine Quill ... Is 4d a 2s bd

Spoke shavings Sd a Is 6d

Branch '2d a Sd

Red iBenewed 3d a 2s Bd

Uediuin to good;Quill ... 6d a 2s Hd

, Spoke shavings -id a Is 2a

IBra.ich 3d a (id

Twig Id

a maittuii. Cl'pped, bold, bright, fine 2s a lis 2d

and Ceylon 'Middling, stalky .Sc lean|lsal»lW

Aleppee Fair to fine plumpclippeii Is a 2s 3d

TelUcherry Good to fine ... Is 9d a 3s lOd

JBrownish ... 6d a Is fid

Mangalore [Good & fine, washed, bgt. Is 6d a .Is fid

Ijong Ceylon Middling to good ;8d a

Ists urd. to fine pale quill '■ ' •'
2ndsi ,, ,, ,, ,,
3rds| „ „ „ „
4th3 Woody and hard ...
Chips ...;Fairto fine plant...

COfHIA, Ceylon ... Bold to good bold

...Medium

Triage to ordinary
COFFEF.CeylonPlantation Bold to fine boidcolory
Middliii;.': to fine u>id.
.Low miildling ...
iSmal!

,, Native
Libeinan

Kast Indian

Native

kjood ordinary .
.-iSmall to bold
..Bol'i to fine bold.

Medium to fine .

, Small

Good to fine ordinary

ls4d
fed a Is lid
8d a Is lid
7d a Is 2d
, Bd a ll'i
2id a 7il
83s a gOs
?:is a 78s
■59s a 70s
xia a 118.S
62s a 82s
.54s a 61s
47s a 5-ls
38a a 42s
3os a 4Bs
811s a 100s
62s a 75s
Jfis n 53s
42s a 46s

naiivc .viuuu lo niie t^iuiiiivxy ... — " -- •^■■

COIRROPE,Ceylon&Cochiu Mid. coarse to finestrnight ■I-'IS a £24

FIBRE. Brush ...:()rd. to fine long straight

Stutling ...Coarse to fine

YARN, Ceylon ...{Ordinary to superior

Cochin ...Ordinary to tine

Do ... Ruping fair togood

COLOMBO BOOT, sifted ...;.Middlingwomiy to fine..
CROTON SFt'I'S. sifted ...|Fair to fine fresh

(ilNGEB,<:oclnn, C\it

Kongh
NlIX VOMICA
MYBABOLANK.'^, pnle

Tellicberry, White
I'LirMBAGO, Lump

Chips
Dust

RED Wt)OD

SAPAN WOOD

SANDAL WOOD, logs
Do. 4'hips

SENNA, Tinnevelli

£16 a £28
£7 " £18
SIS 10s a £38
£12 a £40
£11 a £17
2ris a 60s
.55s a 703
'jOs a 100s
j2s a 70s
35s a 42s
• Ills a 34s
.^s a 12s
.5s a 7s
7s Gd a ils Bd
Bs tid u 7* 3d
78 3d
6s 3d a 74
Is a 3s
l-l a 1 l-16d
Ud a IJd
40s a o.5s

75d a 8d

Hid a 2s 6d
12s a 14s
10s a l.",s

..'Ordinary to fine bright ... 4s Gd a 10s
..'Fair and fine boUl ... £.5a £.5 Kls

..jMiddling coated to good E6 a £7
..'Fair to good flavor ... fi20a£35

..i £10a£lC

.. Good to fine hold green... 9d a Is .'id

Fair middling bold .,,'4ida8d

■Common dark and smnll 1-Sd a 3id

..'Finger fair to fine bold -ils a 23s

..Mixed middling tbright'17s u 20s

.. Bulbs whole 15sal7s

Do split lOiiBd a Us 3il

Good to fiTje bold

iSnialland medium
[Fair to good bold...

...iSmall

... Fair to fine bold fresh ..
'Small ordinaryand fair..
....Good to fine picked
(Common to middling ..

Fair Coast

Pickings, Burnt and defective
OIL, CINNAMON ...Good to fine heavy

CITRONF-LLE ... Bright & good flavour ..

LEMON GRASS

ORCHELLA WEED .'.. Mid. to fine, not woody..

PEPPER, Malabar blk. sifted Fair to bold heavy (

Alleppcc & <'oi'hin „ ,, good ,, I

.'Fair to fine bright bold.
{Middling to good tmall...
.Islight foul to fine bright 'Ss a 13

TURMERIC, Madras
Do.
Do.
Cochin

VANILI.OES, Mauritius &|

Bourljon, Ists Fine crystalised 6 a fliuchiUs a 22s
2uds Foxy & reddish .5 a « ,, ' 10s a 14s

:irds

4th

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

ALOES, Soccotrine and

Hepatic...
CHILLIES, Zan/.ibar

CLOVES, Zanzibar
and Pemba

f Lean & dry to niiddli nc
\ under Cinctn's ....5s a its
Low, foxy, inferior and IsBd a 4s
■i (pickings'

Good and fine dry
Common and good
(Jood to fine bright
Ordinary and miildling
Good and fine bright .
Ordinary dull to fair

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZI BAR.

CLOVES. Mother

,, Stems..

COCULUS LNDICUS
GALLS, Bussorah
& Turkey

green.,
white..
GUM AMMONIACUM—
drop ..
block..
ANIMl, washed ..

QUALITY

'QUOTATIONS

^blue

ARABIC,

scraped...
picked . .

sorts..
ASSAFCETIDA ..

Fair, usual dry
; ., Jresh

Fair to fine dark
Good

Small to fine clean
d;irk to good

Picked fine pale in sorts,
part yellow and mixed
Bean & Pea size ditto ...(
amber and dark bold ...|
Medium & bold sorts
Pale bold clean
Yellowish and mixed .
Fair to fine
Clean fair to fine
Slightlystonyand foul.
Fair to fine bright
Fair to fine pah

KINO

.MYT.BH, picked

Aden sorts!jriddlingtogood
OLIBANUM, irop Fair to good white

„ Reddish to middling ..

pickings...iMiddliug to good pale ..

siftings ...Slightly foui to fine

INDIARUBBER Mozambi que, fair tofine sausage!

' „ ,. E.alJ

unripe root

SAFFLOWFR, Persian

FROM CALCUTTA AKD
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists
2nds
3rds

INDIARUBBER Assam

liver

Ordinary to^good

'2d a 4d
I.5-16d a Id
9s a 10s

S7s fid a 62s 6d

-5t)a a 55s
47s alios

4.58 a 60s
30s a 4Ss
£14 a £16
£11 a £13
£5IOsa£8
|£8a£12
£5 a £8
'93s a Il'^s
10.S a 94s
Ws a 105s
los a S.'iS
i2s a 44s
lOs a 45s
eii a £,S
■tosa.inOs
I2s a SOS
.1'2s a 40s
Jsa lis
i<su lis

2s a 2s Id

Is Id a Is 2d
Is Gd a Is 9>l
•is a 159

SAFFLOWER

TAMARINDS

.Vearly water white
Fair and good pale ... 3^ a 3^,
Bruwn and l'ro\vniah ... 2Jd a 2Jd
Good to fine ...|ls tid a 2s 2d

^Common foul aud mixed Bd a Is 8d

Rangoon ...Fair to good cl"an

Madagascar'Goodto'fine pinky &wllile
Fair to good black
Good to fine piuJcy
,\Ii(ldling to fair
Inferior and pickings
Mid.tofine^i'rtcA-not stony, lOs a Ms
Stony and inferior ... 3s a Os

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

aid a 4?d

- na

Is KM a 28 2d
2s a 2s 2d
Is 7d a Is 9d
£4 10s a £.5 ICa
£3 ,5s a £4 2« fid
£1 a £1 lOs

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

FROM CHINA, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS,

CAMPHOR, China
.Japan
QAMBIER, Cubes

Block

GUTTA PERCHA, genuine

Sumatra...

Re boiled...

White Borneo ...[

NUTMEGS, large

Medium

Small
MACE

Fair dry to fine bright ...
Common & middling soft
Fair tofine

Middling to fine

27s a 30»
17s a 238
3.5s a 40s

... .3id a Gd

Good, pure, & dry white 1 1

TOs a 7-58

.. £7a£8 V2s6d :

,.70sa£R

,..403n 43s-t;a [

. .3.58 a :)Ks

. Old a fijd

. Kd a Ort '

RHUBARB, Sun dried .

High dried ,

SAOO, Pearl, large

medium ..
small
■ Flour
TAPIOCA, Penang Flake..
Singapore
Flour
Pearl

pink

Ordinary to fine free

Pressed

Good

Fine clean Banj& Macas^

Barky to fair

Common to fine del
[Good to fine clean
I Inferior and barky
Gl's a 80's, garbled
83's a 9.5-3 f^aSS
lOO'salGO's
■ Pale redilish to pale
iOrdinary to red
Chips

iGood to fine sound
Dark ordinary& middling lOd a Is 6d
Good to fine ... Is 2d a Is (:d

Dark, rough & middling 7d a Is

29s a 29s fid

23s a 248

21s6da2l8 9d

2s 4d a 3s 3d
[sar lid a 2s 3d

Id a Is 4d

lid a Is 3d

IdaSd

28 Id a ,3s 5d

Is 8d a 28

Is Id a Is 7d
... IsGd a2sBd
... Is Id a Is .Id
... Uda 18

Is ild a .3s 4d

I Fair tofine

iGood pinky to white
Fair to fine

[BuUet8
Medium

(Seed

llsa 12s fid
■ ■■ llsa 123
... 10s a llsBil
... His a Us
... Uda 2;d
... I5da21d
... l,>d a I}d
...;14sa 1&8
...|U8 fill a ICa
.,.|148 Od a 11)3 3d

April i, 1886.] tHE TROPICAL AdRiCtJtTtJjRfif,

66|

T-jTuir'-

■MMi^aieiBSa

SALT AS A MANURE: KAIKIT.
Mr. Johu Hughes is an accomplished agricultural
chemist, and any opinion from him is to he re-
ceived with very great respect, but \vc fear he
underrates the difficulty of so mixing salt with any
substance, that pure inodorous crystals of chloride
cannot bo obtained by solution, filtration and evapor-
ation. The question has frequently been dis-
cussed in Ceylon and always with the same re-
sult : salt can bo recovered from the most com-
plicated and the foulest mixture. As in India so
in Ceylon, a considerable revenue is derived from
the salt monopoly. All naturally formed salt here
is collected on account of (iovcrnment, and all that
is manufactured is paid for by Government and
stored to be issued to the public at a price about
.500 per cent over cost. The revenue thus realized
ranges close on K8n0,000 per annum, and such a
sum cannot be lightly risked. For many years
this consideration stood in the way of the issue
of salt even for fish-curing operations, but, as this
dilliculty has been overcome, so we trust Govern-
ment may yet see its way to the issue, under
proper restrictions, of salt for agricultural pur-
poses. There is an objection (too unqualified, we
believe) to the application of lime to tea, and
tlris product does not suii'er from grubs as coffe-B
did. Still it has its own enemies, and a mixture
of salt and lime dusted over the bushes might be
useful in preventing the growth of moss on the
stems and in destroying moth, red-spider, fly and
helopellis, should the latter develop in any pro-
portion. A Government officer might see the salt
and lime mixed at central stores, whence it could
be issued under penalty bonds, restricting the use
of the mixture to purely agricultural purposes.
But, with a good proportion of superphosphate of
lime added, what can be better (white castor-cake
not now in question) than the mixture (if it
can be obtained cheaply enough) mentioned by
Mr. Hughes ? The kainit salts are described
by him as composed, (nie-liulf of common
salt, and the other half (with trifling quant-
ities of foreign substances, probably) of sulph-
ates of potash and magnesia. This substance
and a proportion of superphosphate being mixed
with the Norwegian salt-fish would come in free as
a manure. So, no doubt, would pure kainit, if
introduced by persons who did not care to use salt-
fish, or who beheved they could obtain that sub-
stance at a cheaper rate on the spot or from India.
If Government did not interfere with the import
of kainit. and we do not think there would be any
such interference, except in the most improbable
events of attempts being made to separate the
chloride of sodium from the sulphates of potash
and magnesia, kainit with its .50 per cent of com-
mon salt, in view of what Mr. Hughes says
about the danger of too much salt, ought to sulHce
for mixing with farmyard dung to kill grubs, or
for any other agriculiural purpose. It being pretty
evident, therefore, that apart "from castor cake and
salt-fish, kainit is likely to be a good application
to tea : our readers will be interested in knowing
the price at which kainit sells in the English
market. We turn for the desiderated information to
the circular of Messrs. b. Dowries & Co. of Liver-
pool, dated Jan. 30th which reached us by last
msil. We quote an lo\lowi,—
84

Kainit ok Si'LI'Hate m- t'olAsii.— Owing to the
presence of ice in the Elbe, the imports of Kainit
have this mouth been nominal. Kccciit advices
report that the severe frost has conipekaely inter-
rupted water comiminicatiou with the mines in the
interior, and it is not expected that traffic can be
resumed before March next. The effect of this stopp-
age of the supplies will be to materially enhance values
on the spot. The demand so far is exclusively con-
tiiied to chemical maiuifacturcrs by whom Kaiuit is
extensively used in the preparation of compoiuidor
special fertilizers. Of recent years agriculturists
have preferred to use it in a pure state, and by
so doing have obtained most satisfactory rcsnlts at
a trivial outlay.

SuPEEPHOSPHArE 01? LiJiE. — The season has opened
with a brisk demand for super from the outports,
but the difficulty of securing suitable freight and ton-
nage for small cargoes has, in some instances, check
business. .Some heavy order.s for home consumption have
recently been placed, and, as the delivei-ips have far
exceeded the production, stocks have rapitlly dimin-
ished. The market gent.ally exhibits considerable
activity for this early period of the year, and prices
are very firmly niaiutaiufd. All indications point to a
large turnover during the Spring months.

Srr.PHATE OF j\3t.M0NiA,— The market for Ammonia
is firmer, nud a slight advance has taken place in
the value. Shipments continue on an extensive scale
to the Continent. This article is noiv abnormally
cheap, and as it is a superior and m«st reliable fer-
tilizer, and is a satisfactory substitute for nitrate of
soda, it merits the attention of intending consumers.
Today, grey of the best quality, guaranteed 24 per
cent, is quoted £10 lOs to £11 per ton, on rails at the
works.

In the Price Current, kainit is quoted, per ton, ^
28 per cent in hags £1 19s to £1 2s Od. Super-
phosphate of lime per ton, 26 to 28 soluble
£2 lis 3d to £2 18s 8d; 8.5 to 37 soluble £8 lis 3d
to £3 13s 3d. We may add that immediately
after kainit there is the quotation: — ".Salt,
suitable for agriculture at the Avorks, per ton .5s
to 7s.'' So that a ton of salt can he obtained
in England at os, or nearly the Government price
of a cwt. here !

We see in this circular that "cocoa cake"
sells at the same rate as decorticated cotton seed
cake.
We append Mr. Hughes' communicition :—
Analytical Laboratory, 79, Mark Lane, London,

2!lth .Ian. ],S8i;.
My attention has been directed tn a paragraph
under the above heading which appeared in the
WeeUUi Olisercer of .January 5th and in which
special attention was drawn to the case of a
proprietor of an estate in Agrapatana, who
wished to purchase 50 tons of salt at the export
price, R4 to E5 per ton, and offered to pay the
expenses of a Government ofiicial who sliould
visit the estate in order to see the salt actually
applied to the land with a view of destroying
grub. Why this reasonable request should have
been refused it is not my purpose to enter into,
but 1 merely wish to point out that there are
means_ available for so mixing salt with certain
manurial materials that the subsequent extraction
of the salt in a condition at all likely to be used
for food should be rendered extremely improbable.
First of all I would say why not convert the
crude salt as at first obtained into a iiuimrc
by adding two or three cwt. of finely ground
fmh manure or dried blood or even I'enniiDi
tliium to every ton of crude salt ? Any one of
these materials would so strongly impregnate the
mixture that the natives with their natural
caste prejudice against hanJliu;; any foul matter,
much less of having the same brought in contact with
their food, would certajaly refuse to purcbgio salt

666

THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

possessing any such peculiar odour as the above
material would certainly produce.

Quite recently I examined a valuable mixture
consisting entirely of Norwegian Fish Guano and
Kainit salts, which, as a general manure, has lately
been used in this country with marked success,
and which is now being introduced by Messrs.
Jansen & Co. of London as a fertilizer for sugar-
cane in the West Indies. The Kainit salts (which
consist of sulphate of potash, sulphate of magnesia
and quite one-half of common salt) had been
added with the double object of preserving the
dried fish powder from the attacks of ants, and
at the same time of supplying potash salts to
the canes. I have suggested that some superphos-
phate should be used in the place of a portion
of these Kainit salts as being likely to be still
more effective in rendering the dried tish un-
palatable to grubs and similar insects and have
in a former letter drawn the attention of Ceylon
planters to this special advantage of superphos-
phate when mixed with ordinary manures.

There is no doubt that salt is a most u.seful
and clieap source of manure, and it seems a dis-
tinct loss that any Government should throw
difficulties in the way of its local use as manure
or in the laudable attempts to destroy insect pests.
My own view is that salt applied as an ingredi-
ent of a mixed manure is likely to be more
effective in an agricultural sense than when ap-
plied in large quantity in the hope of destroying
grubs.

^5alt in anything like large quantities such as one
or two tons per acre is likely to be injurious to
vegetable lite ; indeed it is commonly used as a
destroyer of weeds on gravel walks. I fear, therefore,
that it cannot be applied in sufficient quantity to
kill grubs without at the same time doing damage
to the coffee or tea. At home a good dressing of
caustic lime is usually found the best application for
grubs and slugs, and, as I know very fair lime can be
obtained in many coffee districts, I would recommend
a trial of it rather than of salt. My object, however,
is to urge that no unnecessary obstacles should be
placed against the use of salt for agricultural
purposes.

A mixture of 8 parts common salt and 1 part
caustic lime would make a capital dressiug, and the
lime could be added to the salt under the direction
of Government officials ; and I don't think any fear
of subsequent separation of the chloride of sodium
need be anticipated.

John Huobus, t'.c.B.

CINNAMON, LIBERIAN COFFEE, AND TEA.

VKVANCiOD.*, 15th February ISSG.

The lain HB had on two days last week has been
followed by blight, floudlesB skies— very hot duringthe
day and very cold .^t uight. The rain will enable
the peeling of Cimiamou to be carried on till about
the end of this month; and but for the showers, I
doubt if wc could have been peeling at this date.
Rain followiup dry hot weather has brought out a
bud on the Cinnamon, which makes peeling rather
difficult just now : but if we have a good soaking
ijhowcr to harden the bud, the freshening up of the
wood hy the free circulation of sap will render the
har\'estingoftho bark easy.

Alternate rain and sun during the last few
months lias ht.'ped Libcrian Coffee to throw
out anl r.et a few good blossoms. Just now
there is a bletsom in spike. But the out-
tmu ot this variety iu parchment is disappointing iu
thff extreme. MeiiKiu-iog with boxes, the Arabian
Variety gave au out-tuiu of from 60 to 70 per cent

according to measurement. Any^vay, I think parch-
ment was never less than .'lO percent of cherry with ac-
curate measurement. The giaut variety, which was
belauded to the skies on its introduction, gives only
froiii 20 to '.'5 per cent parchment ! H.ijjpily the jirn-
sperity of the Island does not depend on tliis product,
but on tea which flushes freely here, except during the
long drought. I look with great apprehension on the
future of tea, owing to the recklessness with which all
kinds of land are being planted up with any and every
plant fliat will grow. The severe lesson taught with
cotliie— that vast unbroken expanses of any one product,

I if they do not induce, yet help in, the spr.ad of
insect and fungoid plagues, has already been for-
gotten. The ruin of coffee estate proprietors was
not entirely due to leaf disease, but also
to extravagance begotten of prosperity. We have
a repitition of it in Tea. Each Estate vies with
its neighbour in the erection of mammoth stores with
expensive contrivances and every variety of machinery.
What with Fairweather's and Gilruth's continuous
withering tats where the freshly gathered leaf is laid,
and witti the Tea, after passing through the various
stages lit manufacture in as many different and pat-
ented machines, coming out at last ready packed for
export in Gilruth's patented packers, the Ceylon
Planter is only a step behind the ingenious Yankee,
who putting a whole pig at one end of a macnine re-
ceives it at the other in the form ot cured bam m
bacon. All this extravagance can be indulged in a,«
long as Tea keeps up to present prices. What if to
a lessened yield be added low prices? This is a con-
tingency that must be honestly anticipated, for in the
history of planting in this Island crises like these
have been i)assed. out of which only the careful have
emerged— I cannot say quite unscathed. All this may
be denounced as the croaking of a pessimist, but I
always err on the side of caution, and look with dis-
trust at a rush to get rich. Two or three years ago
when I first had an opportunity of seeing Tea planted
largely and an Estate pruned. I expressed doubt
publicly of the permanence of Tea, planted as it was
on any soil without due cousideratiou being given as
to its suitability, and the only rest it had from pick-
ing, if rest it can be called, being when the buslies
underwent the barbarous treatment called pruning,
when it was not possible for them to make any root
growth. I see that Mr. Logan, the .Vssam Tea Pbu-
ter, who visited the Island recently, gives ideutically
the same warning. — "Examiner."

[It is easy to preach caution, but each bands over
the lesson to his neighbour. The adoption uf good
machinery is not extravagance, but true economy Tea
must be pruned or there will be abundant ilossom but

no flush.— Eb.1

THE LANKA PLANTATIONS COMPANY,
LIMITED.
Kki'obt.
To be presented at the Fifth (.Irdiuary General
Meeting; of tie Lanka riantatii>ii6 Company Limited,
to be hilil hy adjournment at the oflices of the Com-
pany on the -JSth January, ISSU, at 12 o'clock at noon.

1. The Directors fub'uiit their report for the twelve
months emling 30th Juae last, together witli the ba-
lance .■sheet and accounts of the Company made up
to that date.

2. They regret that adverse weather has again
afl'ected the cott'ce crop in Ceylon, whilst the continued
depression in trade has so depreciated prices that
the rc'.uUoftbc years operations, although better
than (o) the yciu- 18S3-1, cannot be regarded as
satisf.actory.

'^. The (juanitity of Coffee shipped home was
;■>. i'.Mt cwt. against an estimate of t»..^80 cwt. : and
the ainoniits realised and expected to be realised give
a total of ll(i,:iWi Ids. 'id. The average price of the
Coniiiany's ColTec during the past year has been (iOs.
pcrcvvt. while that of the previous year was tils. Gd,
per cwt.

April i, i885.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

667

4. The Cinclioua Bark harvest has been about
V25,011 lbs. (o( which ■2.),637 lb. were sold in Ceylou);
the greater part has been realised and the whole is ex-
pected to produce €4,873 33. lOd.

;■>. In consequence of drought and from other
causes the Cocoa has not produced the anticipated
results.

6. The plantation of cardamoms has become pro-
ductive, the first shipment has been received, and in
future this article will form part of the annual produce
of the Company.

7. The importaut results to be attained by the cult-
ivation of tea has had for a long tmie past tne earnest
attention of the Directors. The first plantings ha\-iug
fully answered expectations the acreage has been
steadily increased and the Company now has upwards
of 1.006 acres of tea planted, of which about 000 acres
have become productive, and two shipments have
recently been received from Fordyce. These teas are
considered by the Company's Brokers to be of good
f|uality and calculated to realize good prices. The
Broken Pekoe has been sold at Is 9d per lb. and the
Pekoe at Is 3d.

8. The following statement shows the present acre-
age planted with tea

bikoya

Haputalc

Maturata
Cda Pusselawa

Hatale

300 acres

150 „

225 „

120 „

M ,,

50 .,

5U ..
60 „

Fordyce

Gouagalla

Fruit Hill

Ampittiakaude . .

A run all

Eiliamallc

Bappahannock ..

Yattawatte .

1,005 acres
9. The erectiou of a Tea Factory at Gonagalla
and the purchase of the necessary machinery, has
iovolved an outlay which your Directors considered
should be made without any loss of time. A Jackson's
Roller and a Daridson's Sirocco were purchased and
shipped some time since, and it is believed that at this
date the Factory has been completed aud the machinery
Sxsd aud in working order.

iM. From all sides evidence is accumulating that
Ceylon will produce excellent teas both in qu.intity
sud quality. The.se teas are now sought for in llie
mark't imiDediately on arrival, and are sold at higher
prices than those from India or China, and if the
prefent average price is fairly maintained tea cultiv-
Htiou will prove largely remunerative.

11. A further selection of desirable situations for tea
planting on the estates is being made aud it is hoped
that by the end of Jane there will be an additional
200 acres, planted. Care is taken uot to interfere
with good coffee, but where coffee (as always happens
on parts of estates) cannot be profitably cultivated,
Tea will be planted, either amongst it or in its
place, and it is probable that in this way and by
planting up land not suitable for other products the
land in Tea will gradually increase to 2,000 acres.

12. The quantity of tea produced per acre varies
with situation and soil, on one Escate in Ceylon as
high a return as 1,100 lb. per acre has been obtained,
but if an average weight per acre of 400 to .iOO lb.
is obtained, the cultivation at present prices will leave
a handsome profit. That Tea properties are highly
remunerative is evidenced by the market value of the
shares of the Assam, Jorehaut, Darjeerling, Leboug
and other Tea Compames.

IS. Under date of 24tli November the general
manager writes that the "T«.-ais flushing grandly"
at Fordyce and Fruit Hill 'especially the latter) and
that "about WX) lb. of (green) leaf is coming in daily."
The completion of Factory and machinery will greatly
facilitate the preparation of the Teas and regular
shipments may reasonably be expected.

14. Although for some time past the opera^ons of
the Company have been constantly attended with
more or less anxiety to your Directors, they have
now every reason to believe that a great change for
the better has taken place in the position and pro-
spects of the Company, and that m the immediate
future, it will resume the payment of dividends on its
ordinary capital

15. The prospects of the Company are therefore
certainly encouraging. The coffee crop for this season
may not" be large, but as only good eofl'ee is now under
cultivation a good return for ouilay on upkeep may be
expected; the greater part of the tea in l)ikoyadi.strict
will soon be productive ; the cocoa on "Vattawatte will
be bearing more equally, the cinchonas will supply a
larger quantity of bark than heretofore, and the card-
amoms will add to the Company's revenue.

U>. Your Directors deem it right to refer to the
fact that of the 2,000 6 per cent. £10 Preference Shares
1,100 have been applied forand allotted, and that 900
Shares still remain available for applicants.

17. The Dividends on the Preference Shares already
issued have been duly paid uut of the profits shown by
the Accounts.

18. The Directors propose to deal with the amount
remaining at the credit of the Profit and Loss Account
by transferring €2,137 2s 4d to the credit of tlie|Divid-
end Account, by which the sum distributed in 1883 (on
nu estimate of profit not realised by reason of falling
markets, ice.) will be discharged, and to carry forward
the balance to the Account 1885-0.

19. The following statement shows the names,
acreages, prod uct.s and cost of the ComiJany's Estates,

J O 3-. 0-. O .-^ t^ ~. -^ ".C

IKlOX

lodJOj 5>
JO d^ndi:iv

ripaj JO ai(iwa.)v

•C030J
JO dZiediJV

■fcmomupjBi^

JO .*i<B^it»V

■V-^X JO oiiuai.iy

•■i-'IJO.O
JO ■i^\;^l.ty

(C rt ^- -»* 01 -< o
to t-. :^ o 04 t' ifi
cc ^ o* «> « -^ c*

Li ^

I M I M I
M II I I I

I?;

l:i' |:

■^ O lO Ci CI o o
iM 1(1 c*j c- irs U5 ";

X 3

SK-s

as

N?i • I i i
Mil i I i i

: : « : ; ' :

: -jTSJi! : • :

• ■ ~ ^ c = tJ

~ U - Cl— O ^

E: c o k:^ .n ca
'i. t. C5 K K H >■

The Cinchona on the several estates is estimated by
the General Manager at about 1,400,000 trees ol various
descriptions aud (in a recent letter) as cove.ing
an aggregate of .">« acres. This efltimnte is exclu£i\ .1
of Cinchonas planted amongst the coifee.

21. Referring to the notice given of an' Extraordin-
ary General Meeting to be on the same day as the
adjourned Ordinary I ten' ;al Meeting, your Directors
think it right to state, that it ha>< been found that from
time to time expenditure becomes necessary, which in
their opinion from it.i nature ought not in fairness to bo
charged against the ])rofits of the year in whidi »ueh

668

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

outlay has been made, aud they therefore recommend
tlie addition to the Articles of Association of a clause,
whereby they will be enabled to place such outlay to a
special account and spread the payment over a period
of yeai's.

22. The proposed new clause has been formed upon
and is iu principle the same as clause 80 of the Reg-
ulations for the niauageiuent of a Limited Company,
given in tho first Schedule (Table A) of the Companies'
Act, 18G2.

2:i. It is proposed to hold the extraordinary general
mcetnig before the ordinary general meeting in order
that the resolution suggested may be passed (if approved)
before the accounts and balance sheet are submitted,
as these have been framed on the assumption that
Euch resolution will be passed and duly confirmed.

21- The two Directors who on this occasion retire,
aro Mr. R. P. Harding and Sir H. B. Sandford, and
they both being eligible offer themselves for re-election.

25. Mr. John Smith (a Shareholder) the Auditor,
also retires and ofi^ers himself for re-election.
By Order,.Jan. 188B.

WiLiUAjj Bois, lirxrelar'j.

No. 8, Old Jowry,E.C.,13t

The Lanka Plantation CosirANy Limiteh.
Balance Sheet, 30th June 188j.

b. d. £ B. d.
161.000 0 0

£

Dr.

To Capital Paid-up

15,000 Ordinary Shares

of .tlO each . . 150,000 0 0

1,100 Preference Shares
of £10 each . . 11,000 0 0

,, Loan (temporary) ob-
tained on the payment
off of the Mortgages
on Arnhall and Am-

pittiakaude .. 9,000 0 0

„ Sundry Creditors . . 1-1,392 16 0

Bills Payable . . 6,630 7 1

Sundries .. 7,7(12 8 11

„ Balance of Profit and

Loss Account . . 1,057 10 9

.■£185,4.50 6 9

Or.

By Estates

Ampittiakande
Arnhall
Kruit Hill

£

d. £ s. d
163,721 10 4
26,225 5 0
18,521 6 9
10,232 14 9

Fardyce and Garbawu 16,149 2 0
Gonagalla and Para-
matta .. .. 18,185 12 11
Rappahannock .. 22,846 10 7
KiUamalle .. .. 10,333 11 9
Thotulagalla.. .. 3.5,143 13 1
Yattawattc .. .. 6,083 13 6

163,721 10 4

By Produce unsold on
HOth June
Since realized
Coffee unsold— estim-
ated at . .
Bark „ „ ,< • •

„ Cash

„ Suspense Account
Tea Planting a/c
Yattawatte — further

outlay
Preliminary Expenses

— balance . .
Machinery . .
Tools

„ Payments on account
of upkeep for 1885 6

14,959 IS 9

9,294 18 9

2,860 0 0
2,805 0 0

2,819 15 10

1,524 9 9

200 0 0
32 17 2
94 19 3

28 5 2
4,672 2 0

2,068 10 6
£185,450 6 9

Trading Account, for the Tear ending 30th June i^»".

Dr. t s. d. C
To Cost of Cultivation in
Ceylon —
Ampittiakaude . . 2,318 18 8
Aruhall . . . . 1,570 19 6
Fordyce and Garbawn 1,842 15 9
Fruit Hill .. .. 1,070 19 0
Gonagalla and Para-
matta . . . . 2,748 G 9
Rappahamiock . . 2,100 12 10
Rillamalle . . . , 1,250 4 5
Thotulagala . . . . 2,991 10 8
Yattawatte .. .. 2,120 11 3
General Manager-
Sundry Expenses . . 929 19 9

18,9-14 18 7
Less — Tea Planting a c,

1884-5 (i-1,249-9-0) Yatta-
watte Estate — Cost of
Cultivation & Planting
(£2,120-11-3), Proceeds
of Drop (£596-1-6) 2,773 18 9

16,170 19 10

164 15 6

583 17 1

1,021 18 G

„ Insurance

,, Interest on Mortgage &c.

„ Loudon Expenses

Directors' Fees, Secretary, Law Costs,
Income Tax, and General Office Ex-
penses

„ Balance carried to Profit and Loss a/c 3,793 4 5

By

£21,734 15 4

Or. £ s. d. f 3. d.

Nett Proceeds of Coffee

sold in London . . 13,267 8 6

„ „ Bark 1,876 13 6

„ „ Cocoa 491 10 4

15,638 12 4
Nett Proceeds of Coffee

sold in Cevlon . . 239 1 8

Bark l9l 10 4

16,069 4 4
Estimated value of Coffee
not realized .. 2,860 0 0

Bark 2,805 0 0

21,7,34 4 4

Transfer Fees . . 0 11 0

£21,7.34 15 4

Profit and Loss Account, for the year ending
.30th June 1885.
Dr. £ s. d. £ a. d.

To Dividend on Preference

Shares to 31st Dec. 1884 278 3 10
„ ,30th June 1885 320 7 6

598 11 4

„ Balance of Dividend paid 5th Feb.
1883 (£2,336 8-7). amount of sur-
plus on realization of estimates
(£199-6-3) .. .. .. 2,137 2 4

„ Balance carried to Balance Sheet.. 1.057 10 9

Cr.
By Balance from Trading Account

£3.793 4 5

£ s. d.
3,793 4 5

£3,793 4 5

I have indited the above Balance Sheet and Profit
and Loss Account, and in my opinion they aro pro-
perly drawn up so as to exhibit a true and correct
view of the state of the Company's affairs as shewn
by the books of the Company.

John Smith, Auditor.
13th January 1886.

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

669

TEA GAEDEXS IX INDU.

It may sound somewhat strange, but it is as-
serted as a fact by Mr. Luttmaun Johnson in his
last report on the Assam Valley districts, that there
has never yet been any authoritative definition of
a tea garden. In the Kanirup district rayats' patches
consisting of only one or two acres, are reckoned
as gardens ; in other districts a concern worked by
one manager with one set of books for accounts
and one set of registers for emigration piirpeses,
and only one place for mannifacturing, is counted
as three or four gardens, because the tea cultiv-
ation is not all comprised within one ring fence,
but is situated in different patches. Under these
circumstances doubts are thrown upon the figures
showing the number of gardens worked in 1884,
but these show a reduction from the previous year,
due chiefly to the lists of gardens having been re-
vised in all the districts except Sibsagar, and tea
patches, which are not independent gardens, hav-
ing been struck off. There were altogether in the
district of Goalpara, Kamrup, Darrang, Nowgong,
Sibsagar, and Luckhimpur, on the 31st of Decem-
ber 1884, 07(; gardens, containing 93,23.5 acres
under mature plants, and 3,432 acres under im-
mature plants, the average area under tea in each
garden being 157-7 acres. There were also 3(30,407
acres of laud taken up, but not yet planted. The
total outturn from the above districts was 32,987,107
lbs., giving an average of 354 lbs., per acre. This
average, however, varies considerably, for many
gardens in the Luckhimpur district produce nine
and sometimes ten maunds per acre. The Panitola
tea garden gave eight and-a-half maunds, and the
]>oom Poem Company reports eight maunds. In
the Sibsagar district four maunds is considered a
good ontturn, and in Nowgong several gardens pro-
duce seven maunds, whilst over a large area the
average does not exceed three maunds. The cost
of producing a pound of tea up to the moment of
its shipment on board the steamer for transport
t; Calcutta, has been reduced in some concerns to
fonr-and a-half and even four annas. — Enfilishman.

PLANTING IN CEYLON AND SOUTHERN
INDIA.

TWO OPINIONS ON CP.VI.O.V TEA — I..\NT.4NA — ODIOtJS COM-
PAKISONS— RAIN IN CROP TIME—" CANNON's InSORF. "
HF.MILF.IA OS COFFEF. BERRIES — TRK CEVI.ON CRICKET-
ERS— (iOOD WISHES.

There is a letter by a Mr. J. O. Logan in the 19th
of January issuf of the riidiun Planters' Ga.ette
about which I should like to make a few remarks.

First, I must call altentiim to the great diflerencE
between this man's style and tone, and that of the
Assam man who wrote in such execrable taste and
with such small-pated prejudice to (he inquiring
citizen of Aberdeen. Of course the latter's remai'ks
were not addressed to Ceylon, nor were they pub-
Isihed by his wish ; but such lamentable perversions
of truth, such venomous acridity towards a struggl-
ing colony should be put down. We all know
that it is that etprit dc corps, that " cockiness,"
that has kept Ceylon through the dark and fiery trials
of the past ; and those who still have an interest
in Ceylon enterprizc should not be sorry that the
smoking flax is not quenched, that the bruised reed
is not entirely broken. One of the first hopeful
symptoms of a convelascent is a certain assertive-
ness of temijer and overbearingness of manner.

But over and beyond this view, those who love
Ceylon are pained in their hearts at seeing anvthing
like blind ioily, or wilful repetition of acts the
modness of whieh have been so apparent. Mr.
Logan during hia short visit has proved his shrewd

perceptive faculties, though he is rather "out"
in many points.

He remarks on "the unnecessary jealousy"
between Indian and Ceylon planters. Well I have
seen a good deal of that even where tea is not con-
cerned. The fault is not on the Indian side. It is
a weakness begotten of insular prejudice. I had it
myself, but I trust I have shaken it off. The same
class of men engaged in the same pursuits can't be
very diverse except through the course and influence
of circumstances. Well, in Ceylon financiers had
the thick end of the stick and all Ceykn dealings had
a stock-broking smell about them. Mr. Logan hits
one nail truly when he says " large estimates and ex-
pectations have been formed, and if any super-
intendent falls behind in his yield, someone else
will be sent to bring it up, thus everything has
been driven at high pressui-e," Ac. This surely is
strong confirmation of my remarks in former letters,
remarks which were termed severe. Mr Logan
says: "In fact, the planters of Ceylon are hard
at work killing their goose." Oh ! it is clear to
others ; yet why will Ceylon shut her eyes to the
truth 1 Drive those Colombo agents " into the
harbour ; provide those Visiting Agents with pen-
sions ; burn all those estimate forms and paper
logic ; and lastly, dear planters, ask the editors
of the Crijion Ohxcrver to encourage prudenci) rather
than criminal haste, to praise the quiet careful
man and be less flattering to the man o£ statistics
and enormous yields whose nan^e is Rutherford.*
Mr. Logan says : " Yet they are not without guides
in the laud," and goes on" to refer to Mr. Spear-
man Armstrong's and Mr. C. A. Hay's cautious ad-
vice against forcing yoimg bushes. I put the bulk
of the blame on a set of pig-headed V. A.'s.f I
heard more unseund doctrine from the V. A.'s I
met than from scores of young intelligent aspirants
whose wings were singed by the quarterly contact
with a peripatetic financier. The great weakness
in Mr. Logan's argument is the very culpable
omission he made, viz., to visit the Kelani Valley.
Mr. Logan, of course, refers to the self-complac-
ent contemplation of Ceylon figuratively in the
looking-glass and literally in her literature when hQ
says : " A remarkable tone of sanguine boastful-
nesR rims through all the literature and much of the
conversation about tea."

To sum up my idea of Mr. Logan's letter, — when
an expert, trained in and accustomed to certain
peculiar conditions of the country of his choice
and certain peculiar requirements of the plant of

his cultivation, 1 say when this expert can

visit a country where climatic conditions, vegetable
requirements and pecuniary resources are all different,
ho cannot be a fair judge for or against. Now I
have experienced the change I speak of, not as a
temporary holiday, but a permanent change, and
I have learned to respect both Mysore and Ceylon;
and at the same time I have seen weakness on
both Bides. I have had time to weigh carefully
the arguments, and I think anything like scorn or
boastfulness betokens deficient knowledge or defici-
ent brains.

I '11 tell you a case of that. I had occasion to
make a remark on the different view Ceylon usually
took of lantana from the view entertained in India,
namely, that the former thouglU it more of a
blessing than a curse. This was at a planters'
meeting and th<! remark wfis published, with the

* This is not fair to Mr. Rutbertord, whoso stat-
istics, as giien some time ago, erred, if at all, on the
side of iftodTatiiii) — En.

t What. or. aa they .say iu Aberdeen awa, " Fat liils
ye at. the V. A.'s, d juco bodies auil, 'pouslblc aa tlioy
are 'r"— Ed,

670

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April r, 1886.

result that men were bo inflamed that they could
not confine themselves to good manners, but at-
tacked Ceylon, saying, that they were indebted to
Ceylon tor expensive cultivation and extravagant
waste and thoy wanted to know what Ceylon could
teach them with regard to an abominable pest that
had scourged Coorg.

Thus you see, I can look down with calm benign
equanimity and hush gently odious comparisons and
proud boastings ; and I have tlie pull of the argu-
ment as I know the weakness on both sides and
can touch these weaknesses at will. It may be,
and in, a benefit to see ourselves as others see us ;
but, on the other hand, those " otliers " know no-
thing ot the inward conflicts and the liardships not
visible to them, observe they never so closely.
Therefore it is that though the scrutiny and criticism
of others is wliolesome, yet it is not altogether
true and just.

We have had a very unusual experience in this
country during crop, in the shape of heavy and
prolonged rains. Tlie awful effect of tliis must
be explained to be understood. In the calm cloud-
less weather which is the normal state of crop-
picking everything moves smoothly on. Crop ripens
but slowly, and thus laboin, .n.ichinery, iVc., are all
arrange.^ accordingly. A!.;o tlie bine vault of etlier
i'. "io wa,terti^dit that nothing is rerpiired, but
covering from the silent forming dew. There are
no palatial stores. Eeally tliose prize essays read
very ludicrous after one has been in a country where
money is not easily obtained and proverbially
easily spent. A planter goes as far as his purse
(his own purse, his pure and simple resources)
allows him. Therefore as no rain is expected
what's the good of buildings? A shed over the
cherry and that is all the roofage. Everytliing
else al fresrn. A Ceylon man would l)e ashamed of
lliis. The V. A. would indi'^nantly demand the
meaning of such shabbiness ! Well, just think of
the effect of heavy and prolonged rain. I sliall
leave it to your imagin.ation stimulated by experience
in days of old.

Crops are good, but it is tlie Coorg plant that
is pulling men througli, except on the Babu Boodan
Hills where " Cannon's Mysore " is raised or on
Wantawarry; the old iMysore coffee, brought by Babu
Boodan the ancient pilgrim, has been sapped by
leaf-disease. Why ? You see hern'ex mottled and
discoloured, unsweetened and blighted by the
fungus. Mr. Marshal Ward said the spores en-
tered the ".wide open door " of the stomata and
fed on the food-cells and thus caused damage. But
where are the stomata or the cherry?* Mr. Ward went
a good deal farther than Morris, but he only scratched
I he surface of a niystery, the importance otw'hichDr.
Thwaites felt if he did not clearly see. Had it not
been for cinchona and now tea, his proplreoy of
the coming "howling wilderness " came very near
fulfilment. In Ceylon leaf-disease came just in time
to spoil the blossom with a grand show of spores,
not to speak of a chronic, prolific, sporiflc state of
liisease which your moist climate never checked.
When cultivation in the open prevented the osmotic
action painfully dwelt upon by that victim of a
restless brain. Monsieur Montclar. His exosmose and
endosmose sickened the reader, and Die struggles
with a foreign tongue finished him. Osmotic action
is a great fact here, but yon, in Ceylon, do not
depend on it, as Nature is liberally supplied with
nioistue. Here during the comparatively rainless
period between November and May, osmotic action
{i. e. nocturnal and diurnal absorption of moisture

alternately) equalizes matters, and this is the great
secret and reason in shade. If you want to realize
that, step from a dusty road in Bumbara under an
umbrageous ./(i/i-. I wonder how the Dnmbara men
are liking their riihljer shade. They will have to
leave cacoa for rubber and that will give fine scope
to a man who likes new buildings, machinery, and
novelty of all kinds.*

Strange to say you hardly see the fungus on Coorg
coffee berries, and almost none of that discoloration.
On an estate composed partly ot Mysore coffee
(like the old coftee near Oodoowelle store, Hantane,
which I saw lately being rooted out), umbrella-like
and irregular ; and Coorg coftee, sappy, regular and
vigorous like a Badulla' new clearing in days gone
bye ; on an estate composed of these the picking
is ticklish owing to the quickness of ripening pecuhar
to the Mysore variety. The two kinds are very
different but the old and weak kind produces plum's
that have made "Cannon's Mysore" famous.
They advertize "Cannon's" in London. Some of
you must have seen jdacards in London referring
to that famous brand. AVell, with cheap labour
and (air crops average prices for all sorts of that
brand are remunerative and something more nt 100
shillings. It struck me as strange hearing planters
young and old heie talking about cn/oKc. cou-piirlug
pricps, as if their trrattiii'iii of the coAee liad much
to do with it. I remember when a Ceylon paid
manager was particular about his parelniiint ; and
after the carts moved stoutly off, he lost sight and
sound of it unless he happened to see in the papers
tire familiar name of the estate and so many
ticn-es of coffee. There was a delicious mystery
about a " tierce." My idea was that local brokers
and buyers knew what brands gave good coffee and
wliat brands did not; but il is new to me to be
told that parchment may be clean and yet the ndour
aft'eeted. One man tones his coiTee and hope he
likes the tune. Then they never send a sample
sealed bag down ; nor do they think of sending
samples by post, and yet they think they can ad-
just the tone and fix the colour on the estate.
Then the rates by the cnrers are awful. There is
room for that competitive energy so lately displayed
in your advertisement columns by your enterpriz-
ing coffee curers.

Aberdonexsis.

• \V"e a!«ked Dr. Trimen, and he said " The whole sur-
face ef the cherry is covered with Ktomata." — Ko.

CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTIN(t EEPOBT.

1st March 1886.
Prospects of cacao — troubles never come sinoly —
shadh for cacao — need of new makeets for cey-
lon teas — rubbish sold in london as ceylon tea
an opening in russia wanted — a planter with

THE 'rllADlNO TALENT.

Our skittish product cacao, which last year, owing
to the drought, rendered many all but hopeless a.
to its ultimate success, has improved in behaviour
and is promising still better. It is all owing to
the rains, say the wise ones, and, given a normas
season with a fairly distrilnited rainfall, there
is, they maintain, a considerable quantity of
"lie " for those who have the courage to per-
severe with its cultivation, and who have the suit-
able soil and surroundings for its growth.
As far as I can learn, there is a fair crop being
gathered now-, and the promise for the next half-
year is unusually good. The trees are vigorous ;
the pods are healthy; and as to the insect plagnes
which fret and worry the cacao, they arc fewer in
number and less destructive in their attacks.
Those who know say, that tlie years when the

* We do not pretend to know what is ment, but we do
not lilce tlie tone of the remark. — Ed.

April i, i886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

671

keloptttis and " thrips" are worst are always those
seasons when things are out of joint.

On the principle that troubles never come singly,
these entomological trials invariably follow in the
wake of a parchhig season. When tlie trees can
least stand it then they visit them in Hordes, and
drive the planter almost to despair. As he looks
upon his leafless trees the thoughtful cultivator
may perchance discover — after a weary (juestioning
of " Why ? ' and" Wherefore ?"— that there (s some
hidden reason in it after all. For the sake of the
puzzled I would humbly put forward one reason
which has occurred to me, and which at least con-
tains some truth. It is, that these plagues may
have been sent for a refining purpose — to refine
the dross, and purge away the " tin." No one will
dispute their ability to do the latter, whatever else
they may think.

Shade, which has been so much sought after for
cacao, and for want of which much of the evil
effects more truly traceable to drought was
attributed, does not seem after all to be iiuitc
universally accepted as the one thing needful.
Xo doubt the general idea is that without it
you can do nothing, but stiU there are men
of experience who object and say th-.it even
with it you mil not do much better. Heavy
crops are not to be had under shade, they maintain,
and if you want to get this you must risk cultiv-
ating in the open. But I begin to fear that heavy
crops in connection with cacao are, like many
other things in Ceylon, a kind of delusion. Still
a moderate crop of cacao pays well. I heard of
one place which last year gave a cwt. and a half
all round, and which, small as it may seem, never-
theless left a decent profit. We have a lot to
learn yet about the cultivation of cacao. Mean
while the numerous experiments which are being
so generally made in regard to the tree most
suitable for shade cannot but result in benefit of
some kind.

The need of opening new markets for Ceylon
teas has stimulated almost everyone who has any-
thing to do with it to an effort of some kind or
another. Those who in a humble way have tried
to develop among their friends and aci|uaintances
a taste for the pure unadulterated article have had
pretty much the one experience. They have been
told that it is just the thing for mixing with
about three-ijuarters China, but unmixed the flavour
somehow does not take at first. A friend of
mine who had ac(iuired the taste for the genuine
article while staying in Ceylon has been amusing
himself since his return to London in testing
the stuff which is sold retail as pure Ceylon tea.
A sorry cempound it turns out in many cases,
and no wonder when you can get pekoe for eighteen-
pence a pound! He has been speculating as to
how it is done, and when he remembers that it is
not a very high-class tea which can be bought
retail here for a rupee a pound, he concludes that
the drawing cjualities which rendered the teas
which he tasted regular nerve-setters must be got
from mixing largely with cinchona twig I If it is
not this it is something else more foreign to Ceylon.
I hear that an effort is about to be made to get
an opening in the Bussiau markets for our teas,
by means of the Black Sea ports. If it can be
inanaged it will be well, for we all know how the
" samovar " and the boiling cup of tea is a universal
institution throughout all Russian territory.
Bussia used to be a good market for some of the
produce of the Indian tea gardens, but of late the
trade has been throttled through Moscovite
jealousy and prohibitive duties. Whether
Bussia iu Kurope will act in the same

way toward our teas, as Russia in Asia has done
towards the Indian, remains to be seen ; but any-
how the offer of the Ceylon article is to be made,
and under favourable auspices.

It is a universal belief among the planters of
Ceylon that the storekeeper can always manage to
hold his own. Merchant houses come to grief ;
banks stop payment ; planters work hard, bury
their coin in the hojie of a glorious resurrection,
are disappointed, and get gazetted ; but the store-
keeper is hke the brook and goes on for ever. The
exceptions to the rule are uot worth mentioning and
do not disturb anyone, least of all his successful
brother. It is with pride therefore that I heard
the other day of a planter who has developed iu an
eminent degree the trader's talent of holding his
own. It seems he bought a pulper six or seven
years ago, and during the last crop one of the
bolts gave way which cost him R4-50 to replace.
The bill for this he sends down to the maker of
the pulper with the request that his account should
be credited with the amount, as it is evident the
bolt cau't have been a good one at the first! To
be able to found a claim upon so little, and hold
on to it, deserves a reward, and although I beUeve
he was unsuccessful in his application still hin
extraordinary talent for trying it on has so im-
pressed his trading friends that they were think-
ing of offering him a partnership right off. They
are sure hej would be able to "run" a store with
the best of them. Peppekcoen.

Nkw Zealand Flax. — Atteutiou is directed in the
Thenipeutir (jaieUc (May, p. 321) to the vulnerary
properties of the New /Cealaod flax, Phormium Unax.
It is used ui the form of a strong decoction of the
root.s and bases of the leaves. The liquid is syringed
into wounds and thou applied on liut. The decoction
requires to be made fresh every day. — Vharmaccntical
Journal.

FiiTEEN Samfliss OF BRAZILIAN OoFEEE, from the
International Horticultural Exhibition held iu fit.
Petersburg last year, analysed by different students
iu the I'hariiiaceutische Institut, at Dor|)at, working
under the superintendence of Professor Dragendorff,
appear to have yielded results varying withiu narrow
limits. (I'harM. Xeit. f. Russ!., xxiv., lUi). The
caffeine ranged from 0'99 to 1'22 per cent; tauuiu,
5"-46 to 7'H per cfut; albuminoids, 19*^^6 to 24" 78 per
cent; fixed oil, i:S'5 to 16'48 per cent; and ash, 2 92
to 424 per cent, in whicli the phosphoric acid varied
from 0280 to oiott per cent. Professor Drageudorff
considers that these results show that as food material
Brazilian coffees do not fall behind other kinds; but
there aeems to be some doubt as to the aroma. The
volatile oil observed was in too minute quautities to
allow of investigation ; but iu some instances, and
especially in the case of the inferior samples, it had
an odour peculiar to BraziUan coffee. — Fharmacculical
Joui'Udl.

Kola. — M. Heckel whose researches ou the alkaloids of
the kola nut are so well known, has recently called
the attention of the Academy of Sciences of Paris
(Comptes ReniLu», c, p. 12;iS) to the importance of
the Shea butter tree (Butyiosper'hUin Parkii) as a
source of guttapercha. The milky juice of the trunk
when solidified has, he states, all the appearance and
properties of guttn])ercha. If this statement be
correct, it must differ considerably from the '* gutta
shea" separated by English chemists from the Shea
butter, this lit'iug friable and wanting in tenacity. A
further communication is promised, giving the phys-
ical properties and chemical comiiositiou of this gutta.
M. Heckel states that the tree can be tapped when
four years old and that it grows readily in argillaceo-
.siliceous aud ferruginous soils, and is found over a
large extent of country. He also suggests that the
Ba.'Mi, trees of India should be examined with respect
to the character of the milky juice they contain.—
rharmwxutkal JourimU

6^2

THE THOPICAL AGSlCULTURlSf , rAfsa i, i8S6.

Oastoh-oil Plants.— It is siugular that the oil ex-
pressed from the seeds of the castor-oil plant should
have been used by the ancients, including tlie Jews,
as one of their pleasantest oils for lj\iriiiug, and
for several domestic uses, though its medicinal virtues
were unknown. The modern .Jews use this oil by
the name of oil of kiki for their Sabbath lamps,
it being one of the five kinds of oil their trailitions.
allow them to burn on such occasions. — Indian
Gardener.

Adulterated Quinine.— Some little excitement
seems to have been aroused among the druggists of
New York in consequence of three of their number
having been charged by the public analyst with selling
defective sulphate of quiuine. It apjiears that tlie
public analyst hiul reported that one of the impugned
samples contained 86'14 per cent of anhydrous quinine
sulphate ; but as the United States Pharmacopieia
only requires that the yield of anhy<lrous salt shall
amount to 838 per cent, there was in this case an
exci'ss of anhydrous quiuine sulphate amounting to
2-34 per cent. The other portion of the sample,
however, instead of consisting entirely of water of
crystalhz.itiou was rei;orte.l to have inciude.l l.etweeu
i .md 5 per cent of other cinchona alkaloids, and on
this account a prosecution of the seller was ordered
by the Board of Health. Another druggist in reported
to have had his name published as selling two grain
pills which were deficient in quinine sulphate by one-
hundredth of a grain, though in this case no other
steps were taken, — Pharnuicnttical Jonriial,

Thk "Yopon" (/le.v Casniiie, L.) Is a shrub met
with in the Southern States of America, where its
leaves are occasionally used as a " tea." Formerly it
was employed by the ludians in the preparation of a
"black drink,' and, according to Hale, at a certain
time of the year they used to come down in droves
from great distances to the coast south of S-'irginia
tor the purpose of drinking it. Large quantities of
the leaves were thrown into a great kettle of water
suspended over a fire, and the Indians sitting r.aind
h.-lped themselves to large draughts, which after a
short time induced free and easy vomiting. Tliis
treatment was continued during two or three days,
until it was considered that a sutticieut cleansing
had been effected. Some of these leaves have been
Bubmitted to a chemical examination by Dr. \'enable ,
who reports (Jom-n. Amer. Chem. ,Soc., April, p. 100)
that he obtained from them a small quantity of
caffeine, equalling '27 per cent of the weight of leaves
used. It will be rememi^ered that caffeine has also
been found in "mate" (Hex Pai-aijij.ayensis), used in
South America as a beverage. — PharmaceiUiral Jonnwl.

Figs. — This is a favourite an 1 generally dislributed
fruit in the Ai-gcntiue liLpublic, and it is in-
digenous.- It thrives everywhere, and gives the best
results, especially in the regions bordering on the
Parana River. The tree e.xhibifs a wonderful deve-
lopment, reaching to a height of twenty to forty
feet, with a massive trunk sometimes two feet in
diameter. In the provinces of San Juan, Kioja, and
Calaraarc^ the crop attains to large proportions and
considerable quantities are dried, producing the figs
of commerce {pasas de liijas), which find a ready
sale all through the interior of the country. While
the provinces bordering on the Parana produce the
fruit abundantly, no movement has ever been made
to dry it, the people being content to consume the
figs while fresh, though it is an industry which must
sooner or later be developed. There are two kinds
of figa grown in the Republic — the white, which are
properly called figs ; and the violet or purple coloured,
which are called hrevax. Thi' first ripen in January,
and are of a large size and better flavour than the
latter. This second kmds produces two crops per
annum — one in December, and the other in March
or April. Being thus much more prolific, they arc
more generally grown, though they are not so suitable
for drying. The fig is not cultivated at all, but,
in spite of the escelleut climate, it is left entirely
to nature, AVitb so luucb iu its favour tbe crop

might be made a most valuable one, and a most
lucrative branch of foreign commerce, though at pre-
sent. Instead of being exported, nearly two-thirds of-
the dried figs used iu the country are still imported
from Europe.— /?i(/ia« Planters' Gazette.

Yams.— A correspondent wrote ri few days ago .—
" I am directed by Mr. Geo. Poulier, the lessee of
Nai valla estate, Veynngoda (belonging to the late Mr.
.Jas. Alwis),to send you the accompanying parcel of
yams whicli within the last 2 years ' he has com-
menced cultivating, finding same very easily grown and
aprolitable experiment if once introduced into the
market. Tliey are called ' cush-cush, ' and his original
stock of bulbs, bought at 'W^hyte's store, Kaudy, cost
him K5. He has a good many cwt. to spare for sale,
this crop, I am given to uuder.stand, and if he could
realize Oc per lb. weight, he toU.s uifi it will bo a
profitable speculation. I have eaten them myself,
and have sent them to a few European acquaintances,
and all who have tasteil them have pronounced them
really fine. Mr. Lamont lias seen .some (out of
Veyangoda stock) grown close to Kilandhu at Hena-
ratgoda and means to cultivate them hini.self: I have
promised him some bulbs. I would suggest your
steaming them and not boiling (after peelingi ",iud
will be glad to know what you think of them. I
have tasted a good many varieties of Ceylon yarns
in my day but have never seen these excelled. I
believe they iire an importation from the West Indies,
and I have heard it stated that Sir .Jas. J.ongden
was instrumental in getting tl-.cm out. The speci-
men yams sent to us arc about the size of potatoes
and of the same purple colour as the large yams we
remember as being so highly prized in Jaffna." We
had some of them cooked as indicated, and we can
bear cordial testimony to their excellence, as sub-
stitutes for potatoes. They are less glutinous than
breadfruits and less saccharine than sweet potatoes,
more farinaceous than either, very palatable eaten
like potatoes, and delicious with a little butter added
to them.

BiUTisii BritMAH AND RicE.— The last Administration
Report of British Burmah tells us that nearly ninety
per cent (88) of the cultivated area in the province,
is under paddy, the cultivation iiicrr-asin.T steadily by
more than 100,000 acres a year. Out of the 4,000,000 acres
under tillage, 232,428 acres are fruit and vegetable
gardens. " This kind of agriculture pays well, and that
a ready market exists for all orchard and garden pro-
duce go>-s to support the view th.itthe p"opIe of British
Burmah are well off, and live comfortably." We have
frequently pointed out that the calculations of our
settlement officers are constantly vitiated by their
uniform failure to take any account of the garden, fruit,
and dairy produce of the ryot's holding, ^^'henever
these holdings are in the neighbourhood of the cities
which are growing up all over India, these items form a
ihost valuable part of the produce, as we here read
they do in Burmah. The report tells us that iu most
parts of the province, the laud revenue amounts " to
from one-twelfth to one-tenth of the value of the gross
produce, and good markets are available directly the
rice crop is harvested." The exports from the province
are about £9,000,000 sterling a year, the chief items
being ; —

£

Uice (paddy) 5,500,000

Outch and Gambler 3T0,0t)O

Hides mo.tK.iO

Timber 1,000,000

Cotton 200,000

The gross hind revenue is about £070,000 a year, but
the addition thereto of a capitation tax of £300,000 a
year, brings the assessments up to nearly £1,000,000
sterling. The general result is that the laud bears an
assessment of about two rupees and a-half per acre, the
.State thus exacting a larger payment from the-cultivator,
than the so-called rack-rent levied by the i:eniiiuiar iu
these provinces under thu I'erniauout Settleuient,—
Iniian Agriculturist.

Aprjl I, i886.3 THE TROPICAL AGl^ICULTURlST,

6/3

^orri:!spnincl6t^oi3.

To the Editor of the " Ceylon Obscrv/r."

PEOPORTIONS OF SORTS OF TEA.

19th February 1880.

Deak Sib, — Your •• overland " of 16fb contain?
Colombo Brokers' reports of local tea sales ; amongst
others that of Messrs. Wilson & Co. with notes re
"Blaokstone" invoice, " which was sold privately,
and realized many cents per lb. above any previous
parcel sold locally by public auction, wttich con-
tained all the four rjniiles villi the fame •propor-
tions." (The italics are mine.)

It would be interesting to know what price per
lb. Mr. Wilson secured for overwhelming percent-
age of Pekoe Souchong and Broken Tea. — Yours
faithfully, TEA MARKER.

BLACKSTONE AND AGAR'S LAND TEAS.
Kaudy, 19th Feb. 188G.

Sre, — Messrs. Wilson & Co. state in their
" Tea Memorandum, " February IGth, that "an ex-
cellent invoice from Blackstoue estate withdra^vn
from public sale, was sold privately, and realised
many cents per lb. above any previous parcel sold
locally by public auction which contained all the
four grades «i(/; the siamc proportion."

The last four words I have italiciiied, as therein
evidently hes an awful lot for consideration. Will
Messrs. W. & Co. favor the public with particulars
a little more explicit? I ask the question, as it
appears to me a pity that such a "crack" tea
sale should be put under a bushel, as also that
my own mind may be made easy on the score of
top prices.

When in Colombo, I heard a gi'eat deal said
about this wonderful break of "Blackstone" tea.
That it had been bought in at Rl-70 per lb. That
it had been valued so low as 91 cents per lb. That
it had eventually been sold to Messrs. W. M. Smith
& Co. at El-20 per lb.

If the latter story be true, I scarcely think Messrs.
Wilson & Co. are justified in claiming first place
for "Blackstone" locally; seeing that "Agar's
Land'' averaged El-2y for 3,610 lb. of an "all
round break," sold at public auction by the well-
known firm of Messrs. Forbes & Walker.

I am of opinion that friendly competilion and
rivalry will do all tea producers good, and per-
advenlure may be the means of attracting buyers
from "afar," thus giving an occasional " fillip " to
the local trade.

I hope the next break "Blackstone" sends lo
our local maiket may find a bona tide purchaser
in the public sale room ; and it might interest and
induce buyers to dip their hands more deeply into
the orthodox breeches pocket, if the article ])ut
before them was knocked down at a reasonable
ligure, I shall probably put a break of " Agar's
Land '' tea on for sale in the course of a fortnight,
S.OOO lb. or so, and it will give me pleasure to sec
•• Blackstone" again in the field. — Tours faithfully,
SHELTON AGAR.

DANGER OF TEA PLANTING BEING

OVERDONE.

De\j: Siii, -It is no news to you, I daresay, to

say that people at home — in London as well as

elsewhere — are now aware that tea is being grown

in Ceylon. They are aware, too, that most of the

tea is of very good quality, and that even Mincing

Lane at length believes in Ceylon, and is disposed

to pat it on the back in a most kindly and motherly

way. Nobody outside o£ Mincing Lano ueeds uow

8C

to say a good word for it. That is what some of
us had to do a few years ago and a few times over ;
but it is all changed now. Everybody drinks or
wishes to drink Ceylon tea now ; and everybody, or
let us say nearly everybody, is ready to go shares
with you in a tea estate, if you only will let him.
Well, I for one am very glad and thankful that it
is so and that we are all going to be so h.-ijipy and
jolly again. And yet one sometimes thin!;s. One
sometimes thinks -just for a moment perhaps, it
makes no impression— that perhaps wo in Ceylon,
with our Scotch dourness and our English pluck, and
our general combativeness and determination not
to be beat by anybody or anything — that we may
perhaps just a little overdo the thing once more.

Now I know, Mr. Editor, that you think you know
the very words I 'm going to say next, and that
these words are : " My brethren, suffer a word of
exhortation " ; but it is n't so, I assure you. I 'm not
a licensed hand, and therefore cannot preach ; and,
though laymen are allowed to exhort, I have no idea
even of exhorting.

I had some talk with an intelligent East India
merchant, the other d.iy, and I thought you might
like to hear something of it. He is directly inter-
ested in Indian tea, and finds at present that his
investment in that line pays him very well. But ho
questioned me about Ceylon tea, of which he said
he had been hearing a good deal. I gave him the
best and latest information I could give at thn
moment, and told him that the last estimate I had
seen was that by this time there were about 100,000
acres under tea in all Ceylon. " One hundred
thousand acres!" he said, and was amazed. And I
confess that I was somewhat " scared by the sound
mj-self had made." Fori remembered that when in
Ceylon in the early part of 1884, the answer Unit was
given to my enquiry was that about 12,000 acres
were then under tea : and to leap from 1'2,000 to
100,000 in some 1st or 20 months was rather n, big
jump. But what was I that I should gain.say
the Oh/erver? The chronicles of the tea bushes,
are they not all written in that nice little pocket
volume, the CeyIjON Handbook and Dirkctohy?
and don't I find in its very very latest edition,
which has not yet come to hand, that the " total ap-
proximate extent under tea " is set down at ex-
actly 101,09-5 acres ? But at any rate I was so
" scared " by my friend's remarks (he icminded
me that 100,000 acres meant -10 millions of pounds
weight) that I promised to see the Observer, and
verify my figures, and the result was that I
wrote confirming my statement and giving the total
as above — 101,(39") acres. Next day I had the
following reply;--" I am much obliged to you for
looking into the matter and writing to confirm the
figures you had previously given me as to tea
cultivation in Ceylon. If lUl.OO.'i acres be the
area already under plant, however young, and not
simply the aggregate area of the estates which are
being devoted to tea of which only a portion
(probably about a half, say) is already planted,
I confess that I should take a very grave view of
the squ.eze that awaits the enterprize in all quarters
say in 3 to .5 years. And yet I fancy the planted
area is really meant."

I had more to say, but I write at the close of my
niailday corre-spondencc, and the time is jusl about
up. But here is a cutting giving the greater part
of an article from the Statist. Vou may have it
otherwise; if not, you will like to sec it. — With kind
regards, A CORRESPONDENT.

The new tea season, 1R85-S6, has opened, in tlio.
opinion of the .Staliil. undT much more hopeful
auspices than did last year — stocks are d wii one-half,
cuusumptioii is on the increase, and the only element of
dieturbwce to au imiaedi^e rite it the uncertaiuty

674

■THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Apirl I, 1886.

ai tn lutiire supplies. It is becoming mere pvi.lent
evpry dsy that tbp capacities of tea-growing countries
hav,-- not yet I pen adequately tester!. Fresh capital,
itapn-nrs, is be Hz poured into As.sani, where there
is a practically unhmited field for its absorption. If
■we annex Upper Rurmab, and gire free scope to Anglo-
Indian enlrrpri?,e in that direction, tea gardens may
soon bt; buani of there which will press tlic Ohinese
harder even than those of Assam. Then C'eylou iu the
tea market of the future is going to be a very import-
ant factor. Growers of Oeylou tea say they can deliver
it iu Luudon at 6d per lb., or little more than half the
minimum cost of Assam tea. It grows indifferently
over all the hillsides, and when the young gardons come
into full bearing it may be supplied without stint. The
crop of the current season is expect^jd to reach
0,i'00,00alb., or fully 10 per cent of the whole produc-
tion of Indian tea, and the planters predict that they
will be easily able to double the quantity next year, and
three years hence they hope to have their e.'iport up
to 20,UOO,000 lb. Then as respects the Indian tea com-
panies their financial position is thus stated. With the
best known appliances and the most careful manage-
ment they can grow tea at a minimum of lOd per lb.
In such a season as 1884-85 that would yield very
little profit on medium crops, while on inferior sorts it
might mean an actual loss. But on all teas command-
ing Is per lb. or over it represents a suhstanti.-^l profit.
Taking Souchongs as a standard they have been selling
during the past week at 9d to lOd for low grades and
from UJd to ]2Jd for fair to medium. As times go,
this, thoii.;,'h not a brilliant, is a sound, healthy market
for the piolucer. All the indications point also to
continued strength, if not to a further rise. There is
certainly some tenipt-Hion to bold operators to l.v,- hold
of the market a. d try to twist it up. Such an incident
may dev^-lop almost any day, and the fact that it hns
not yet shown itself betokens risks lying below the
surface and visible only to the initiated eye. One of
the.»e risks may be the vagueness of information as to
the new sources of supply that threaten the market.
Not oidy Ceylon, hut Java, Brazil, Florida, and even
Natal are all coming competitors to be prepared for.
Should tea growing take firm root in all these places
the marketable supply might in a very short time
exhibit a startling increase, for it requires only three
or four years to bring a tea-garden into bearing."

SPIKES IN COCONUT TEEES.
SiK, — My sympathies are with "X. Y. Z." who
writes on "Iron Spikes in Coconut Trees" in your
issne of the Irtth inst. I am willing to allow that
the spikes might do harm to the trees if put in
too close and too deep, but like every otlier ex-
periment, this must be proved by trj-ing the effect
upon one tree. I know nothing about tlie legality.
or otherwise, of such action as a precaution against
thieves, but it seems monstrous to suppose tliat
it is illegal for a man to put spikes in his own
trees if he wishes to. Every garden-wall in the
nifl rmiiitrii has broken glass, or nails with the
points upwards, stuck along the top in thi; mortar,
a]id who has not seen iron spikes pointing up-
wards, and downwards too, along similai' barriers?
Whether you are right in stating that springgmis
are illegal I cannot say: but this I know, that, when a
boy, I often turned away from a blackbird's nest with
fl sigh of regret and one last wistful glance at the
Sliiniicy in which I had seen the square board
tipon the tree with Ihe terrifying announcement in
C.ipitrils " ]?pwaro of man-traps and spring-guns."
That the former were there a quarter of a century
Ago is uneloiibted, because I saw thein. But thieves
(ire not so kin(.!y lised in England as here; and
I do not b'-'liovc there is a country in the world
^■here sr^ mui-h discouragement is given to honest
thrift as in Ceylon. No sooner does a man by his
Industry possess a plot of coconut palms, of coffee,
i.r ijf anything else, than he is assailed by thieves
who steal the fruit of his labors, and by cattle
wljicli detitroy and trample upon trees wliicb be

has been at so much expense and trouble to raise.
I say nothing about insect pests, or low naarket
prices, after this ; but I do say that severity instead
of Inrivq /.(Hf/ncs.s should be shown to

STEALERS OF PRODUCE.

KAINIT AND SALT IN AGEICULTUBF.
27th February 1880.
Dear Sir.,— With reference to your article on Mr.
Hughes' very valuable letter, and your supposition
that kainit would be more largely used as a manure
"if Goyernment did not interfere with the import
of kainit," owing to its containing 50 per cent
of common salt, I beg to say that it has been
imported into the island, and I believe without
Government interference. I used it largely in
compost heaps of ravine stuff and tish. I believe
it was in the .January number of the Tropical
Afinailtmisl that a very interesting extract on
kainit as a manure appeared. In Sabonadiere's
"Coffee Planter" an analysis of this "German
Potash Salt " by Voelcker is given : —

Moisture a-si;

"Water of combination . . . . . . lO'SS

* Sulphate of potash 24-43

,, ,, lime . . . . . . 2*72

„ „ magnesia 13'22

Chloride of magnesium 14-.33

., ,. sodium . . . . . . 30-35

Insoluble silicious matter . . . . 0'71

10000

I agree with Mr. Hughes , that, if salt is mixed
with any substance offensive in smell, no one
would go to the trouble of obtaining the pure salt
from the mixture by solution and evaporation, and
use it as an article of diet afterwards. Instead of
Government going to the expense of destroying
surplus salt, it will be true economy to sell it to
agriculturists with a written guarantee that it will
be used for agricultural purposes, after mixture
with some offensive substance of course. — Truly
yours, A. W. B.

Ceylon C.u'.io.— Messrs. J. P. William & Bros,
of Henaratgoda write : — "We send you by this post
a sample of prepared cocoa for the market from
Trinidad cocoa trees specially selected and sent by
Mr. Morris (now Assistant Director, Kew (hardens)
for your inspection. Messrs. Somervilk ^v Co.
have valued this cocoa for R52 to Ro.t per cwt.
at Colombo remarking : ' It is very line and there is a
special demand for cocoa of this colour.'" The
beans are of a very line color and delicate odour.
They can be seen at our oflice.

rnvLr.ovKRA IN New .Soirit Wales.— Experts have
given their opinion that the scourge of the grape
vine, plw/lor: la i;rft^ttri.v, is to be seen in the vine-
yards of Camden "beyond dispute." Its appearance
is attributeablo to the loose ailiuinistratiou of the
Act relating to the importation of vine cuttings, and
to the vines in Camden being -tadly neglected. ^V■hat
will strike many of our readers with surprise is that
this dreail pest is said to be largely owing to the
prevalence of the Isabella vine iu that locality, and
that the line is "well-known to be a favourite with
the insect referred to." The threatened rai^bit in-
vasi.in from the sister colony is an evil of uo small
magiiitUiic, and now here is another evil not to be
d'.'spis''d or neglected. So far as we know />lii/fftuera
has never been seen in Queensland ; and it behoves
our statesmen ami every individual colonist to be up
in arms against this insiiluous foe. .V little, and a
very little, negligence will snlfice to land this curse
to the vine-grower iu our midst. — Qiincudaiul Aijri-
L'uUurist.

* Coutaiuiug potsfib IS'iU,

.\?nii 1, 1886.J THE tROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

67i

TEA PLANTIKU AS A CARREl!.
(Fi-OM thr ■•Field.")

No doubt casual visitors to Assam duriug the winter
months, seeiug pluutiiig life uutler the nlo^t f;ivourable
auspiees. are apt to take the optimist vie«' ot matters ;
heiiix'. uii their return home, in relating what they
have seen, they unwittingly uiisleaJ the younger
members of their aeiiuaiutance by glowing accounts
of the jovial life led by the planting commtmity.
Though I would not deter anyone from visiting
Assam v.ith the idea of engaijing in commercial
avocations therein, it is as well to place before those
whose thoughts turn in that direction the eviilence
g eaned by a twei.ty years' residence, and subsetpieiit
visits to the scenes of one's early labours in senreh
of a ruupetency; for I presume that, now tea has
found its level, none possessing the slightest ac-
quaintance with the industry wW] dream of realising
the large fortunes acquired by thitst^ early sp'-eul-
afors who were first in the field some five aud-lsveuty
years since. Hut I would t:aruestly counsel anyone
who thinks of plantuig, before deciding finally, to
spend one entire year among the plantations, to judge
for hiuiself as to his bushiess capacity and piiysical
capability. Planters are but only too glad of the
chance of entertaining strangers, and willingly afford
all information ; while knocking about in the rains
and hot weather will sulliciently test one's stamina,
although the climate — if ordinary prudence and care
in living be adhered to — is suitable to most Eu-
ropeans of average health and constitution. The cost
of a years nsit will be amply covered by £150,
plus the expense of the journey and outfit; the latter
had better be obtained in India, or from oni' of the
firms in London accustomed to provide purely Ind-
i.au requirements Flannel should form the wliol.'
ol the clothing both by d.iy and night; boots, shoes,
and saddlery being procured in t'alcutta The best
time to reachjthc gardens is the lieginnin^ of Nov-
ember, as the rains are then over, tli- country
easily traversable for ponies, ami. as a rule, manu-
facture has ceased, and the most enjoyable weather
for lully four months has set in.

.Vn impres-ion prevails that all the land suitable
for tea in the southern province of Assam has been
taken up ; but nothing can be further from the truth.
True, the most eligible sites as to communication
with the main rivers have been secured, but there
a're still thousands of acres available, though such
arc situated veritably in the backwoods; but. from
the rapidity with which the establishment of a tea
plantation, even in the remotest corner of the district,
tends t.i open it up by attracting settlers to the low
lands suitable for rice in the vicinity, either on the
grant or waste lauds adjoining, Bengali or Munni-
poorie homcsteails quickly spring up, and, before the
plantation is in bearing, the approach to it lies
through civilised cultivation.

The earliest tea pLintations in the Surma Valley
were formed on the amphitheatre of low hills that
lie north of the station of Sylhet ; and a visit to
them will at once show the uovice one of the greatest
mistakes of the early planters. These hills, steep,
and in places of conical formation, are mere heaps
ot soft sandstone, covered, very superficiallv, with a
deposit of vegetable mould formed from the droppings,
for ages, from the light for«st with which they
were orijinally covered. The pioneers looked more
to site than soil, and, as the gardens here were
opcnerl for speculation, the operators had no need
to trouble themselves as to the future. I suppose
at least two thousand acres upon this particular
range of hills, that for a couple of years ])resented
a handsome vista of thriving tea plants, have had
to be thrown up; the friable nature ot the soil ivhen
disturbeil by hociag causing wash to such an extent
that the plants, what was left of them, soon retiin-
e<l the hold of the ground merely by the long tap
roots, yielding less and li-ss as years went on, until
they caseii to give sufficient to pay for the up-
keep. The more recent plantings have been properly
tjrrace.l— the terrace shqiing imvard— and now the
remaining portiou of this laud, even in the most

precipitous part of the range, can be brought under
cultivation and profitably worked; im reover. the l!at
space occupied by the plant admits of deep ••uitiv-
ation by pick. Hence these once ilespiscd .Sy:het
" teelahs" will yield a profitable return for many
yeais to come, and mayhap, when the iron hor^. runs
Lower through tlic Kurma ^'alley, and throws sutticient
more be labour into the cour.try from over-populated
Bengal, the abandoned baru slopes may uuce replanted.
A well-torraccd tea plantation, when the line has
been properly kept, presents an e.xceediugly pretty
sight, although just at this sea30n of the year, when
nearly every bush has been denuded of almost all
its leaves in the process of severe pruning, the few
that remain being scarcely visible from the dust
deposited upon them in the course of the deep hoeing.
the sight resembles long lines of well opened bifcli
brooms than aught else. Hut as the visilnr proce^-d.-i
eastward the <liversily of land brought under tea
is most remarkable. Here, in the nciglibourhuod >■!
the Lnbah river, we have a profitable gardeji plautc d
on hummocks of boulders, portions of which ground
are so strong ihat cultivation by pickaxe has to be
resorted to; and yet the yield of made tea averages
upon such apparently unpromising soil nearly tour
inaunds of 320 lb. per acre, that is l.L'HO lb. of green
leaf, of merely the first four to five leaves of the
new shoots; the secret of this outturn lying in the
fact that these hills are deeply impregnated with
fine particles of lime stone. The .l.aintia gardens,
again, lie so low on flat land that half a ilozen times
duriug the year the bushes are for hours eight and
ten feet under water, which, coming down from the
hills, flowing over miles of liui'stnne formation in
its progress, not only fertilises the soil, but eliminates
for the time being tho.se pests of the p'anter. blister
blight and red spider, the bushes taking no harm
from the prolonged submergence. The urea of low-
lying land brought under of late years has greatly
increased, and, though errors of judgment hav^:
oceasinoaily bi-eu made, and land planted that sub-
sequently proved t n low altogether, wh re suitable
ground b.".s been sjlected and cHiciently drained,
there is little doubt that low flats yieM inoie prolifically
than any other, and gardens h:ive been formed upon
ground that, previous to drainage, took one up to
the kuecs. even after the moderate amount of rain
that falls in a March slorm. I have seen l.nud .so
damp and spongy as to swaim with land crabs, and
a year after rendered so firm by drainage that it
was rideable throughout the raiuy season. To see
the remarkable fertilising effect of lime impregiintcd
water, it is merely necessary to visit the orange
groves of Sheila, near Chattue, in the Sylhet district.
The trees hero are twenty feet in height, and they
disappear pretty often under water, yet the average yield
is 200 fruit per tree per annum, and neither pruning
or cultivation of any description is resorted to. But
to resume. Some gardens are planted in soil that
is little better than clayey .slate (shale); others,
again, notably the C'oochela plantation, in the open
Hylakaudy A'alley, conists of a heap of lava which,
ancient though it be, still affords sufficient nourish-
ment to give a profitable return. Ag.tin, plantations
have been estabhshed upon reefs of gravel drifts,
and though the plants look, upon these latter sites,
very unpromising for the first two years, after that
period they develop in the most wonderful manner.
It will thus be seen that the ])lant thrives, and
profitrbly too, in all the diversified soil of the
southern district of Assam, but the nearer the intending
planter can get to the lime formation on the norihern
side of the ccmntry the better, as, even if his land
itself does not contain the miiural, he can obtni"
the fertiliser if need be.

The duties of a planter in the cold weather are
both manifold and onerous, although, from being
carried 011 without the di.scomforts incideutd to the
rainy season, his troubles and ])erplexities are not
so much api>arent. I'resurning that his last baleli
of tea has been despatched, lus first and ino^t im-
portant consideration is th" retention of his labour
force for the ensuing season ; and when one has
to deal (as is the esse on » moderately largo factory)

^76

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, t686.

with several hundred people, who about this time
are smitien with nomadic tendencies — for coolies
(unless imported at great expense from Calcutta)
eug;t(^ed in the district sign agreements only from
year to year — the matter of re-engaging them re-
quires much tact and juilgmeut. The bounty, or bonus
as it is called, varies from 10 to HO rupees, and as
this money has generally to be paid in advance, the
risk is considerable. If the recipients are steady-going
folk, and own, as most old coolies do, halt a dozen
tattle and as many children, the advance is pretty
safe ; but there is always a certain proportion of a
roving disposition, unburdened with domestic care,
and who are averse to saddling themselves with
flocks and herds. Again, with a certain class of coolies,
chiefly those from the N. AY. province.'*, marriage is
merely an agreement between the parties for a year,
terminable by mutual consent, so that the disruption
of domestic ties leaves each at liberty to levant
with the advance and exercise " bounty jumping"
upon some other factory, so that, after paying away
four or five thousand rupees in bonus, the planter,
next day at muster, may find forty or fifty people
missing, and though, when caught, the delinquents
are puuiphed ^.nd sent back to work out their agree-
ment, the expense and anxiety of recovering the
runaways is considerable, and, although all planters,
for mutal benefit, behave as loyally as possible, it
is extremely difficult, when a batch of people pre-
sent themselves, to tell whether they are deserters
or not. Occasionally a planter, eager to secure one of
these nomadic gangs, binds them down and pays the
ho.jUS, 10 find out that they have already signed
articles elsewhere, in which case both men and money
are lost, for the cash is rapidly consigned to some
safe quarter, and prosecution is time and money
thrown away. An inexperienced individual, commenc-
ing planting on his own^J account, is particularly
liable to suffer in this way, and start with a loss
of perhaps £100 to commence with.

As soon as the plants show indications that the
sap has run down, pruning has to be commenced ;
and when it is remembered that an acre of ground
contains 2.722 plants, that the primers have not the
slightest horticultural knowledge, and that all has
to be done with the knife, the supervision requisite
to prevent mistakes must be both vigilant and in-
cessant. True, much assistance is rendered by the
native subordinates, many of whom are intelligent,
and quickly pick up what is intended ; but apathy
and indifference are more the rule than the excep-
tion ; anil, though a man maj' be made to understand
matters of detail himself, it is very seldom that one
can be found either willing or able to take ths trouble
to impart such to each individual member of his
gang. Plantation roads and bridges — the latter all
formed either of wood or bamboo — need repairs and
renewing, while any defects in drainage that have
come to light during the raius, when operations in
this line are well-nigh impossible, have to be recti-
fied; while, if extension of the plantaiion is essayed,
more risky outlay in the shape of advances to con-
tractors has to be incurred, nothing being done in
Assam, or, indp.ed, in any part of India, without
advances. Machinery has to be overhauled, the supply
of chests for the coming season arranged lor, and
all items of expenditure connected therewith carefully
calculated, for in these days, when the profits on
tea to the manufacturer are counted by pence per
pound, the most rigid economy compatible with
efficiency has to be exercised. Building, again, takes
up a large portion of the planter's attention, and,
from the perishable nature of the material of which
most of the huts and houses are constructed, they
need extensive repairs every cold weather. Most
tea houses and some bungalows are, it is true,
constructed of masonry, and the former provided with
iron roofs— albeit bricks and mortar are not much
in favour with those who have a lively recollection
of the. violent enrthquake that took place on the
lOi^i of January, ISti'J, when the Oacbar gaol and
bazanr shot iito the rivpr: the church steeple came
down ill one solid block, aud almost every pucca
biiiliiing either came down with the run or was

rendered unsafe. Hence wooden posts, mat walls,
and thatched roofs form the bulk of the building
material, and frequently, just as the factory is all
in order at the beginning of the working season, in
the dry p"irched months, a fire will lay the whole
in ashes in the course of an hour. Coolies are pro-
verbially careless with fire, and in the chilly nights
of the cold weather get up a blaze within their
huts in close proximity to the mat or reed walls,
without the least regard to consequences, and, when
an accident does occur, up goes the price of bulding
material for miles around the scene of the disaster
to 25, 50. and, if late in the season, 100 per cent,
the dealers knowing full well that the people must
be housed at whatever cost; and this contingency has
always to be allowed for in the estimates. Many an
unlucky planter has got on to the wrong side of
his agent's books through an untoward fire in March
or April.

A well-laid-out factory, it the site will admit, presents
an appearance of thriving prosperity, despite small
profits; situated generally on the banks of or.e or
other of the numerous streams that interseot the
tea districts of Sylhet and Cachar in all directions.
As a rule, t)ie coolie huts are built on either side
of the main road, stretching up from the landing
place to the tea house and bungalow, each hut
standing in the plot of ground that the Government
have decreed shall be allotted to ejich family ; and
where the coolies have stuck to the factory they
were originally imported for, those small gardens are
crowded with all sorts of fruit trees aud vegetables
while, as the adjacent stream teems with fish, the people
can live both well and cheaply. The huts themselves
can be made to assume a neat and trim appearance
by an occasional small reward to the occupier who
carries the palm in this respect. Kaised upon about
three feet of well beaten earth, which with the reed
walls are neatly plastered with a mixture of cowdung
and clay, and whitewashed, they look, at first sight,
like masonry bnildings. The tea house, of whatever
material composed, is always a most imposing build-
ing from its size, the amount of space needed for
manufacture being very great, the tall iron chimneys
belonging to the roasting apparatus, projecting through
the roof, giNdng the structure, at first sight, the
appearance of a river steamer that somehow has
travelled inland. The interior fittings consist of large
withering floors, running the whole length of the
building, m.any factories, howe\cr, having separate
sheds for withering the leaf. The rolling machines, of
which there are some half a dozen varieties, are all
ingenious contrivances, but too costly for small
factories. These have been designed to dispense with
hand labour in rolling or twisting the leaf, and though
most profess to complete the operation, it is generally
found necessary to finish by baud ; but the sa^-ing
effected by them has been enormous, and the in-
creasing competition among the numerous inventors
will no doubt result in the production of a machine
that will entirely dispense with hand-labour altogether.
Equally worthy of notice is the patent roasting ap-
paratus, looking like an immense cash safe. In this
contrivance all risk of burning the tea, as was the
case when, as formerly, it was dried in sieve-; over
open charcoal fires, is avoided, the prepared leaf in
these " siroccos" as they have been named, coming
in contact merely with heated air ; besides the im-
munity from over-firing thus secured, the plonter
has now no need of charcoal, formerly an expensive
item in the cost of manufacture, as any fuel can
be used in the furnaces.

The sifting machines are but modifications of the
common wiuuowers, and, though they have likewise
greatly economised hand labour in sorting the different
grades of tea, final hand-picking is necessary. Chests
are seldom made on the factory, but procuriil from
contractors located on the banks of the main river;
and throughout the year sawyers and carpenters
are hard pushed tn supply the over-increasing re-
quirements. In fact, so bri-^k is the drmand, that
many )ilanters have their chests sent up in sluirks
froni Calcutta. At no distant date there is likely
to be a dearth of timber, not but what there is

Aprh. 1, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

677

plenty in the (lictricts, but that in accessible localities
is rapidly bv-comiug exhausted, and roads or tram-
ways must in Cdurse of time be constructed to tap
the supply in the more remote forests which cannot
be reacliud by watercaniage. AVhatever the bungalows
may have beiii in the past, most planters are now
fairly well housed, although, in first opening a garden,
temporary places of residence, known as hanhoi', arc
generally run up, as when the ground is covered
with heavy forest, it is well nigh impossible to select
a suitable site for the permanent factory, and he
who essays the opeumg of a plantation must he
content to rough it until the surrounding jungle has
been eufficieutly cleared to enable him to look about
him. Swamps in the immediate vicinity, unless such
can be at once let out for rice cultivatiorl, are a prolific
source of sickness among the coolies, and should this
amount to any considerable percentage, it leads to
the intervention of the Inspecter of Labourers, who
has power to release one's coolies from their agree-
ments, and declare the factory closed ; the meaning
of which is, that the planter is not allowed to bind
anyone down, and must depend for labour upon those
willing to run all rii-ks incidental to residing in an
unhealthy locality. It will be seen, therefore, how-
important an item is the pitching upon as salubrious
a site as possible. Many planters conduct all busi-
ness transactions in the bungalow — a practice that
entirely destroys all privacy, as everyone who has
anything to say considers he has a right to come
prowling about the house at all times and seasons.
In well-ordered establishments, however, the ofiice is
kept oistiuct from the dwelling-house, the advantages
of which the intending planter will not fail to
appreciate, especially if he is a married man.

In optiiing a new plantation, the chief consideration
is first to get housed, and then to clear a site for
your nurseries, for, though some sow the seed at the
stakes, -1 ft. by 4 ft. ap.art, the practice is seldom
attended with success. Seed reaches the planter in
these days of steam coranuinication so early, that it
nettls hard, untiring energy to get the nurseries ready
for its reception on arrival, and, as the new coiner
has to depend on local labour for all preliminary
operations, it is seldom that he can begin sowing
until January, while the *eed reaches early in Dcceml cr ;
and, as if kept in the boxes or bags for any length
of time, it rapidly deteriorates, it is usual to spr' ad
it out on the ground covered with just sufiicient earth
to preserve vitality, and at the same time to check
premature germination. It is next to impossible to
obtain labour in the month of December from the
villages, as every one is engaged in the rice ha'-ve-st,
for which they receive no pay, but are remunerated
by Dm: bun<lle in every seven or ten. according to
to tbe strength of the crop, and all other avocations
are thrown aside until the harvest is in. "When labour
becomes available, about the first week in January,
no time is lost in getting the seetl into nurseries,
and the wider it is so sov.n the belter. If the land
to be herealter planted is billj-, it has to be terraced
anil staked off, the plants being transplanted as soon
ns they have matured wood, and if a good stretch
of dry weather intervenes between the early March
rains and the setting in of the regular monsoon,
about the middle of Jime, should labour be plentiful,
good progress can be made. Transplanting can, of
course, be continued throughout the rains, but it is
by no means so batisfactory as planting in dry weather ;
the wet washes the soil from the roots, and the
plant, being in full vitality, receives a check that it
takes weeks to recover from. If the land is flat,
and liable to submergence, the whole of the r.iiny
season has to bo devoted to perfecting the drainage
and hoeing out all lootfl; then, as soon as the rains
are over and the plant at rest, trausplanting can go
on fron; November to May, though the sooner it is
completed tbe better. Putting out plants that have
been one yi ar in the nurseries has many advantag' s
that more than counterbalance the increased cost of
labour : you have a plant to deal with possossing a
good H'Out stem, capable of resistmg the attacks of
that abominably destructive insect, the paddle cricket,
whose raTR;;eB among nnroatured plants, when once

placed out in the open, are something incredible.
These insects work at uisht, and hundreds of plants
disappear, cut short off above th'* matured wood.
The creatures do not appear to eat the plant, but no
doubt do derive some nourishment from it; or they
would not destroy it. No precautions can guard
against them, and the only method of keeping them
under is to dig them out and destroy them ; they
are particularly active during the first four moiithn
of the year, just when the young plants need much
protection, and seem quite unaffected by floods or
the fierce heat the ground is subjected to during the
firing of the felled jungle. Fortunately, Kukis, Meekics,
Khassias, and Dhangers, are partial to them roa.sted,
and they have many enemies, such as snakes, owls,
frogs, and, lastly, the badger; but by June they
begin to hybernate, and if the soil is moderately fertile,
and labour sufiBoiently plentiful to keep the ground
free from weed, the plant by ths end of the rains
in October is sufficieutly robust, and will have attained
a height to render the operations of the cricket
abortive. But, to insure successful planting, constant
attention and unremitting supervision are necessary ;
all plants 'injured in the process of cultivation, or
any of sickly appearance or undesirable variety (for
we have not quite got riJ of the pure Ohiua seed),
must be replaced as quickly as possible, to provide
for which contingency, a reserve nm'sery should always
be kept. Among imported coolies upon a newly-opened
place there is usually a considerable amount of low
fever, which, however, yields rapidly to mild doses of
sulphate of quinine — personal experience compels me
to assert that the cheap substitute, retailed by the
Government, for the sulph.4te is of but little account.
Though it is usual to entertain the services of a
resident native doctor, it is always as well to employ,
as a periodical visitor, the European medical man of
the circle, as coolies are rather givpn to shirking and
shamming if b'ft entirely in the hands of one of their
own cpuntrymen, at least of that class the planter
can .afford to retain ; and I must not be understood
to imply that the properly qualified native practitioner
is one whit behind his European cmifiire, either in
niedical knowledge or becoming a party to what is
known as " shamming Abraham."

On a plantation that has reached the hearing stage,
the man.ager has little leisure from the middle of
March, about which time manufacture u.')Ually com-
mences, tmtil the last chest is picked in November.
Tbe yield of leaf gradually increases fiom March,
reaching its maximum atout the first week in Sepeiuber,
though III) hard and fast rule can be laid down.
Constant wet and .ab.sence of sun, with floods from
the water of the cool hill streams in August, imy
chill the soil and retard the flushes, but heavy rain
at night and a blazing sun during the day constitute a
successful season, whatever the per.sonal discomfort
of living for three and a half months in a perpetual
vapour bath may be. Each day's make, whon silted
out into the various denominations, has to be tested
and compared with the corresponding sample of the
same date of the previous season, and hurried visits
to the neighbouiing gardens during the rains are in
these days chiefly undertaken for comparisons of
culture and intiTcbango of ideas connected thf-rewilli.
In fact, all through the manufacturing season the
talk savours mo.st decidedly of shop, and, though a
casual visitor may be pnrhaps somewhat wearied by
the theme, it has resulted in the pouring into the
United Kingdom of the basis of a capital beverage,
if inio could but got tin: raw material pure in the
first instance, and, secondly, induce those who profess
to know how to brew the concoction to do so in a
proner manner; but I fear that, except on the plant-
ations, a few private houses and half a dozen oflices
wi'.hin the shadow of the London Monument, a good
cup of tea, properly made, is unattainable. It will
be .seen from the foregoing romniks th'it the planter's
time, whether working on his (jwn account or as a
paid servant, is fully occupi^'d; but, though success
depends, as in all businesses, upon constant application,
he need not be tied down day by day and every day.
Two friends v/orking a garden together can manage
to look well after the property and yet obtain a

678

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April r, 1S86.

fair share of sport and pastime. In walking over tha
place, especially iluriug the cold weather, a gun shoukl
invariably be carried, for, round the outskirts of the
plantation, jungle tuwl, pigeon, and such suiall game
can be picked uj) without interfering with the work
of supervision; and upon the weekly bazaar day,
provided the coolies ) .ve beeu jiaid the previous
evening, as they iavariably should be. the planter c.Tn
either visit his neighbours or join a shooting or ]iolu
party. Tl:o general method of paying coolies is by
metal tokens, called tickets, every evening. All work
being task work, these tickets can either be redeemed
at the end of the week, or oftener, whenever small
change is available for the purpose, and, as they are
current in the neighbouring villages and the shops
usually established on the factory, payment of th«
people is reduced to a very simple matter, only care
should be taken that the device upou these tokens is
sufhcieutly elaborate to prevent forgery. Anything
cru'le and cheap may be imitated, giving rii^e to
infinite confusion and causing considerable loss. "Where
two proprieiors work tosether, they may either take
a turn month and month about, or, if the concern
i» a prosperous one, one of the partners, as has been
done, may take each alternate season in lingland
or the hills, but these matters can be left to choice.
The purely commercial part of the business, to such
as can afford to work with their owu capital, needs
but few words. A man with a capital of i'(j,OiXl can,
if careful, and by limiting his area to lOU .-icrt-s. work
the same successfully for five years, Allowing himself
a fair salary, and keep on the right side of his agent's
books. With less than that sum, or attempting more
than the acrenge mentioned with it, he is pretty certain
to become involved, and from the day he borrows
upon the coming crop — ll'J per cent, being the usual
charge for the accommotlation — he loses his independ-
ence, and jeopardises his property, sinking, as has
been the case in many instances, into the position of
the ]>aid servant of the creditor firm, who can and
have got rid of the original owuei' on uiiriieroiis,
though plausible pretences. 'I'he sum I have put down
is far in excess of what many start with, but it will
Bee a man through the five years, allowing him a
decent amount monthly for his personal wants, and
enable him to carry on his work without aid and in
a proper manner. The returns from the fourth and
fifth year should amount to about £.30ii, clear of
everything, und he cnn then gradually Increase his
area but not more tlian twenty ur thirty acres, and,
until this additional acreage is in bearing, not another
rood should be adiled. The " lashing out " into big
clearances with insuthcient capital brought about the
crisis in tea in ISlJti. The rotnnis the second and
third years induce many sanguine jin-n tn in^iir expenses
that are not justifiable, and, in fact, the bushes will
be more benefited by being left to mature than
cropped to show a return; and, though in.^tances are
on record of plantations yielding three m muds per
acre the third year (2401b. of dried tea), such merciless
cropping merely tends to stunt immature plants.
Though many of the older ]>lantations, exceptionally
advantageously situat^'d, turn out their tea at a total
of every item of expenditure of .5 annaa the pound,
the average eost amounts to 8 or, sav, a shilling, and
the average price obtainable in Mincing-Uine is a
shilling ; but then comes the gain in the e.vcbange in
remitting out to India, which, deducting b.anker'a
eommissiou and other iuoidental charges. ;iflforHs but
a profit of 2d. por pound, or lis, 4d. in the pound
sterling, from which it will be seen that the profits
upon tea depend at present solely on the depreciated
value of the rupee. The exchange is not likely to
improve; if, by some unfoiessen circumstances it
sboul 1 do .so, a pretty plight the Indian tea industry
would be in.

Machinery has and is likely to do much in the
future to bring down the cost of out-turn, Imt the
hopes of tlie planter lie in the rapid construction of
th<^ projected Assam railway, which will th»-ow an
immtn e population iuie the district. As matters now
staml, th' pUntecs are situated in precisely the same
position that the early settlers in .\ustralia were some
forty years back, and must remain so until the labour

market finds its level. The pay of the coolie comes
to £4.4s. per annum ; but to tliis must be added the
coat of his importation in the first instance, or the
bonus, housing, methcal charges, and sundry other
items that nearly double thi; ; so that, whi'U all these
items come to be carefully weighed, the man of
moderate capital, ere embarking ia a business that is
at the best precarious, and will j iekl, w hen his garden
of 100 acres is in full bearing, but 6 per cent., or
thereabouts, upon his original capital, may well be
cautious. It must be remembered that the bulk of
the out-turn hardly reaches London before November,
and the remittances reach the factory some two months
later: thus for three months the manufacturer, when
solely dependent upon his year's crop for up-keep, has
some three months to tide ov*^r with the comparatively
meagre funds furnished by his first sales up to the end
of Jidj". In fact, tea-planting has become almost a
hand-to-mouth enterprise, requiring mature consideration
ere embarking in. The reverse side of the medal is, that
a man who will be prudent, and not extend too rapidly,
can, in the course of eight years, reasonably reckon
upon having a compact property, returning a clear profit
of £1,000 per annum, ami allow himself at the same time
three to four hundred a year for current expense s— a sum
ample for all wants. The estate can well afford an
assistant at the end of the fifth year, and the owner
can then allow himself an occasional holiday, either
in the country or at home; but until the plantation
is paying, and faiil_v on its legs, gadding about the
country, either for sport or othtr piu?poses, will simply
invite "failure.

As a rule, shooting and fishing can be had in the
immediate vicinity, and eight years of work for the
securing of a competency that can be bequeathed to
one's family, is not a long period to sacrifice for the
purpose. Of course, with a larger capital, one's oper-
ations can be e.xtemled, and the plantation made
up to 2011 acres at the outset ; one hundred is. how-
ever, the handiest to commence with ; but whati'Ver
area is decided upou, uo addition should be made
until the original plantation is in bearing. ,£'6,000 for
the first 10 ) acres, and .£.5,0t lO for each additoual hundred
up to four hundred ; further extensions require ad-
ditional European supervision, and necessitate out
factories, which must be regarded, financially, as se-
parate plantations ; but ere such are established, the
planter will, or should, have gained sufficient experience
to calculate with certainty whether he can afford them.
Young men witii from two to three thousand pounds
at command may jtiin others, but I cannot rec immend
this, S ime years back a considerable number so
situated came o it, jiaying, in addition to investing
their capital, heavy premiums, ranging from two to
thre.^ bun Ired pounds, which latter was returned as
salary during a three years' agreeineut ; but dis-
appointment almost invariably resulted. They became,
in faet, partners in a couipanj-, lost entirely the con-
trol of their capital, and sank into the position of
all other assistants, few remaining long enough to attain
the position of managers, while the agency charges
were so heavy that the interest upon their invested
capital was hardly worth considering. Even four or
five clubbing together to raise the £,6000 could draw
but nominal salaries out of the common fund, and
the annual incnme from the profits, after the five years,
would but amount to £UH) per annum, aud, if divided,
there would be uo money left fur extension. 'Two
might succeed, but it w uld be eight years, as I have
in lii aled,ere the returns were worth dividing. If two
decided en starting the capital should certainly be not
less than £9.000,; and with that it would be prudent
to coufiiie operations to 1-50 acres for the first five
years. Those that think otherwise can try, but will
iiave themselves to blame if tliey find themselves
mere caretakers, on sufferance, after a vain struggle
to make bricks without straw. There can, however,
be little doubt tfat. when labour becomes plentiful,
the settlers in Assam will be enabled to turn their
attention to other matters than tea, and, were space
available, it could be pointed o.it that there are numerous
articles, indigenous to the pmviiice, whieh would well
repay development, and which private proprietors,
once they have brought their tea plantings up to »

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

679

paying state, thus securiog a steady iucoinc, could
profitabty turn their attention to ; but such will strike
the intelligent observer ere ht* has been many >veeks
in the distriet duriog Ijis year ot" probation.

Hicherto I have dwelt npuii tea from an iuvestor's
point of new, and hare now to glauee at the in-
ducements it olfers to the yonng m:\n without cnpit-il,
but who goes out as a paid assistant, deptutUng en-
tirely upo;i Snlary for a livelihood. In this ease there
can i>fc no probation, but, uules>s one goes out e.ther
to a relation or friend who has estab ished himself
as ma.iagcr, he takrs, as it were, a leap in the dark.
Formerly anyone was eousiilereil iit for a tea planter.
and the country was floodeil wiih young men unsuit-
able in rauay ways, lacking the remotest knowledge of
agriculture, an-l from previous avocations totally un-
fitted for the business. A certain proportion certainly
succeeded, and iu time rose to the highest positions the
industry affords, but not until mistakes culminating
in the crash of ISOU brought nearly half the estates
then opened to the verge of bankruptcy. In nearly
all cases in the present day it is considered a .- /if
yua noil that some knowledge of practical gardening
should be possessed by the applicant, and a man who
has pa.«sed through Kew or other large garden is preferred
to any other. There are numbers of such now receiv-
ing pay upon our Assam te.i plantations ranging from
three thou-iand to seven thousand rupees per annum.
All cannot of course hope to attain the higher salary,
but a steaily man who moans business ought, in the
course of three years, to he able to command UoOO
per //I meiii ; for, though he goes out maybe a thorough
horticulturist, he must serve a least a couple of years
ere he becomes a", fait in tea manufacture, the
management of coolies, and acquires the necessary
knowledge of the language to fit him for the charge
of an out factory. Being engaged chiefly in pure plant-
ation work, his opportunities of learning the ins-and-outs
of mauufactnre are by no means trequent ; but
the bazsuir day, wlien tea-making must go on to
work up the leaf brought iu the previous evening,
wUl give him one day per week to devote to this
branch, and clo.se attention to all details will .-oon
fit him for the higher position. The commencing
salary is generally RlSn the first year, R200 the second,
and Kl'oO the third, after which remuneration depends
upon character and proficiency. To those who do not
mind expatriation for some five-aud-twenty years, the
life affords a tolerably promising career, and, as
furlough is usually granted, on half pay, every five
or seven years, one need not break into his savings.

K1.50 a month should cover all expenses of living
in A-isam— I mean for a person of moderate aspir-
atious^and, as safe interests can be had in India at
5 per cent., a moderate competency may be secured
while one is yet in the prime of life. by the
exercise of very little self dc.iial. The paid assistant
or manager has the same opportunities of relaxation
as the working proprietor, and, moreover, can, if his
cold weather duties are got through in good time,
obtain some six weeks' leave of absence ere the
manufacturing season sets iu. If we come to com-
pare the lot of a young man who takes to tea-planting
as a career, with one of similar age ami social stand-
ing who remains in England, and follow the comparison
out for, say, tivc-and-twenty year>, I am inclined to
think the advantages preponderate in favour of the
•oraier. At the outset of his engagomeut he receives
a salary that enables him to live in comfort, his
arocatious, being carried on in the open air, are
healthy anil invigorating, and, though there may be
minor climatic discomforts m Assam to be encountered,
that such are not iuimici! to health the death or
invaliding ra.e proves; accidents have been few and
far between, while, were the deaths attributed to
climate even but very cursorily investigated, it would
be seen that the mnjority were really due to im-
prudence iu living, habits, or clothing The very nature
of the life tends to mi (gate as-niust anyhing like
dissipation, but there are temptations to imprudences,
such as p'unging into a mountain stream when heated,
turning out of bed on a hot night and ,"itting in the
open verandah to '• c.iol down "—a pleasant indidg-
ence at the time, tiut certaiu to be foUowcJ sooner

or later by unpleasant consequences — playing pole in
racing caps, and many other apparently trifling in-
discretious. whieh, h'^wever, old residents never fail
to warn the new comer against, liut the climate of
Assam has one advantage over that of the T/nited
Kingdom ; in the former one knows what sort of
weather to expect fer weeks and months together,
and so can adapt himself to meet what ho knows is
coming, and take all necessary precautions, while at
home wo are iiever certain lor twelve hours together
of what is iu stori fi>r us. Servants, in remote corners
of the tea districts, arc difficult to procure, tha* is,
really good ones, and much the best plan for a settler
in the backwoods is to select one or two of his agree-
ment coolies — Dhangers if possible — and train them
for domestic duties ; there are of course inconveniences
attending this at first, hut once the men learn what
is required of them, they will be found far perfer-
ablo to the general run of professional district domes-
tics, veiy few of whom are to be relied on, either
for proficiency iu their duties, or honesty. The lower
one goes in the social scale, judged from the native
standpoint, in this matter, the better. With regard
to other surroundings, a young mau can make himself
very comfortable at trifling outlay iu the course of a
very few months.

AH kind of European vegetables come to perfection
during the cold season, and from October to April
there need be no dearth of such, while for the re-
maining portion of the year an innumerable variety
of indigenous fruits and vegetables abound. Butchers'
meat, iu the warm months, is diiBcidt to procure,
unless one is in the immediate vicinity, either of the
civil station or a cluster of gardens that will admit
of the formation of a mutton club; but fish and
poultry are both cheap and plentiful throughout the
year, and the lighter food is certainly more conducive
to health in hot weather. It is perhaps hardly necessary
to mention fruit, aud though some people are in the
habit of considering aught but the most sparing use
of it hurtful, I do not believe one single case of ill-
ness in an adult has ever been fairly traceable to the
consumption of ripe fruit, either in Assam or any
other part of Insia. Milk, either from cows or goats,
is cheap and good, as also is that from the water
buffalo, to those who like it, and butter, it made at
the bungalow each morning, to ensure cleanliness, can
he had in any quantity. Wine, as a rule, is not much
used on the tea gardens, though good claret, at
moderate cost, can be had from any of the French
houses iu Calcutta or Madras. Spirits, though pro-
curable of decent (luality, are priced excessively high,
and as the consumption, to those who have any regard
for their health, .should be limited, it is far better to
get one's requirements iu this line direct from home,
say once or twice a year. Beer is cheap, good, and
wholesome, anil to many men, who have been some
years in the country, may be looked upon as a necessity,
though exercise, especially when beer is used in the
cold weather, is absolutely essential to health. It may
here be mentioned that east aud west of the plateau
on the Xorth Cachar Hills, that is to be traversed
by the Assam Chittagong Railway, special facilities
are afforded for tlie establishment of a brewery, the
slopes on the north, from their comparative freedom
from stone, being well adapted for the cultivation of
barley; while on the higher ranges, the forests coutaiu
a vine that is nothing more or less than an indi-
genous liop. the special qualities of which for inducing
sleep are well known to both Nagas and Meekies. Both
private proprietors and eii)pJoycs — the latter when in
the service of a substantial firm, and reasonably sure
of being located upon the same planiatiou for a term
of years— should lose no time in making themselves,
as fat as possible, independent of local bazaars (markets)
in the food line, by ■ erecting poultry imd sheep houses
— which building must, however, be pretty substantially
bnilt, to resist depredations from such midnight mar-
auders as leopards, wild cats, suakes. kites, and, in the
north, that bold plunderer, in the cold weather, the
golden eagle — as it not uufrcqueutly happens during
the tloo.'s that he may be cut off, for days together
from the source of supply. This precaution is abso-
lutbly ut'ceesary iu remote dietriots.

68o

f ME TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

Tbe hill tribes beiug now reduced to order, there
is but shght danger to be apprehendpd in life or
property from them, and the inhabitants of the<lis-
trict, thou^'h not more remarkable for general honesty
than o:h r pijople, very rarely int'jrfcrc wiih a
European.— SvNTESG.

= « .

THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF
BliVNURE,
Its value, and tbe various modes of its application,
have been staa ting themes of dispiilati'm among
horticulturists ever since the history of gardening has
been recorded. All who have read with any degree
of attention the various theories which have from time
to time been puljlished, must have been struck, and
also considerably puzzled, by the great difference of
opinion amongst those who profess to know something
about the subject. A. thinks there is nothing like
ashes or lime ; B. pins his faith on bone-dnst and
superphosphate ; 0. has no doubt that there is nothing
like muck — stable manm'e being worth all the new-
fangled fertilisers that foolish experimentalists have
invented. His father and his great-grandfather, and
all his ancestors, were of the same opinion, and therefore
he must be right. D., fortified by long experience, in
which all his neighbours have participated, hohls m-iii-
fully to the practice that liquid manure is the one
thing needful to successful gardening. E. tellsus that
he made no money until he used guano, which has
converted his barren soil into miracles of fertility, and
ho therefore looks with pity on all those who do not
follow iu bis footsteps, and as old fogies, who are
tolling on in the dark, ignorant of the true remedy for
the infertility of their gai-dens. And thus these contro-
versies have gone on from year to year— no one "-on-
vinced by the arguments or the experience of others,
but each adhering to his own theory and his own practice
more strongly than ever.

Now. with the increased knowledge of the nineteenth
century, it seems to us that all these various opinions
and practices are equally right under certain circum-
stances, and wrong under other circumstances. No
hard-And-fast rule can be laid down for the horticulturist
any more than it can for the farmer ; each case must
be considered on its own merit, according to inherent
soil-fertility, locality, and the climatal condition with
which the gardener has to deal.

Since, then, every manure has its use and its value
under given conditions, the great aim of the practical
and thoughtful gardener should be to ascertain exactly
what those conditions are, and the special circumstance
under which their application can be made prolit-

able.

Science has demonstrated very conclusively that every
species of plant, whether growiii" wild or cultivated by
the gardener, has its own peculiar chemical composition,
consisting of a greater or lesser number of elementary
substances united iu well ascTtained and definite pro-
portions. It is also well understood by the horticulturid
chemist that plants have no power inherent in them
of creating matter, but that their vitality oidy enables
them to select and combine such materials asare pre.
Rented to their feeding organs from without. The only
sources of supply are the substances within reach of
their absorbing or feeding organs, and these substances
must therefore be contained in the soil or the atmo-
sphere immediately contiguous to them.

The essential elemtnts that are supplied by the
atmosphere are carbon, which plants take from the
carbonic acid of the air; oxygen and hydrogen, which
come from the air to the soil ami are absorbed by
the roots of the plant, and a part of thi; nitrogen.

The essential iugredients that nnist come from the
soil are potash, lime, magnesia, iron, ph'j.sphoric acid,
sulphuric acid, a small amount of chlorine, perhaps a
minute quantity of silicj, and, tinally, considerable
nitrogen.

Consequently, in order that our plants may ?row
and thrive, they must have at the disposal of their
roots iu the soil a suBicient quantity of each of these
ingre lients of their food. If any one of the more
important constituents- potash, lime, phosphnrio acid,
or nitrogen— be deficient, the whole plant suffers,

If we have a gardener especially eloquent on the
virtues of any particular manure, to the exclusion of
all others, we may be sure that he is the cultivator
of soil rich in most of the elements of plants, but
deficient in one or to of them ; the addition of these
nii^siiig substances will then pro-luce truly astoui-shing
results, and those who w itut:ss them can hardly be
p^rsuadjd fhat what has proved so uselul to them-
selv s can be usc"i.l lu the hands of others.

Every cultivable soil, however exhausted it may be,
is cnpanie of supplying more or less of these essential
e'ements oT plant-food, which it derives from the
fUbris of pre-existing vegetation. This is called its
inherent fertility, or uaturd strength. To this im-
portant point it is (mr intention to return shortly,
putting before our readers the best ascertained means
by which the fertility of our gardens and fields may
be maintained. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

NoHTH QuKENStAND. — Reports are reaching us of some-
thing more than didness and depression in that once
fiourishing sugar centre — Mackay. Hard working men
and small lanil owners are, as usual, the first to feel
and succumb thereto ; au<l we learn with regret that
some small farmers are already so pinched that they
have to part with their holdings at great sacrifices to
enable them to obtain the wherewithal to decamp and
start something elsewhere. Everything is working
into the hands of the monopolist, and the expressed
policy with which the present Ministry started is
being I'eserved. While the sugar industry was flour-
ishing small farmers could live, either by cultivating
suifar-cane or other needful crops to supply the wants
of a thrifty population and their working animals and
stock. Besides this, if necessary, they coidd formerly
always get remunerative employment, and never needed
to have any idle time. Now, however, labour is' no-
where to be had, only the bare necessaries of life will
sell, and all that can clear out are doing so, being
compelled to shift or starve. These are facts which
speak for themselves, and we wonder whercnuto it
will grow ; for at present there is no pi-ospeot of re-
lief appearing within range of our poUtical horizon.
— Queensland Agricvlturist.

Ages of German Forest Trees. — A writer in the
Forstliclwii Blntter expresses the opinion that the
nssnmed age of 1000 years of German forest trees
is a myth— that, even in the case of so-called historical
trees, an age higher than between 700 and SOO years
has not been proved, ami that no German tree
reaches that age in a healthy state. Trees of such
antiquity are always hollow, and continue to exist
only as ruins. As regards the limit of health of
trees, it may be assumed that much depi:nds, not
only on the kind of wood, but also on the cliifiatc
anti the soil. The highest age which trees reach in
a healthy condition is found in foliferous trees, not
in coniferous trees After that age has been reached,
coniferous die off, wdiiLst foliated may continue to
vegetate for some time after having reached the
limit of health. The highest age, fouiul by counting
the annual rings, is between 500 and 700 years, ar.d
this age is reached by the fir in the Bohmcrwald
and the pine in Finland and Sweden. The next
highest age is reached by the silver fir, which, in
the Bohnierwald, was found to be 129 years. The
larch reaches the highest age of '27 1 years (in Bavaria).
Of foliferous trees, the oak appears to resist the
longest, the oldest known specimen (near AscbafFen-
burg), a h'llm oak, counting 410 years. In the case
of the common oak, the oldest specimens, in which
the heart was beginning to decay, being 515 and
320 years old. But the common oak grows much
tbicker tham the holm oak. The oldest red beech
trees have been found near .Vsebaffenburg ( 2 15 years)
and AVeisswasser |22G years i. Tbe luaximnm ages
of the other kinds of Gorman trees arc as follows :
Ash, 170 years; elm, 130; birch, 160-200: asp. 210;
red alder, 145 ; mountain maple, 224 years The tree
most numerous-ly represented amongst historical trees —
the lime tree — is found the least in the i ollectiou
to wood of old and oldest trees. This may be due
of the fact that old and healthy lime are most
scarce. — Fifhl.

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

681

EXTRAUTIXG VEGETABLE OILS.

Here where the castor oii tree grows like u weed
auJ is ptreuaial, and where the ground-nnt grows
freely, to say nothing of the olive and other pro-
ducing fruits nud plants, the following nccuont from
the S. A. Adrti'tiser of n new machine for extracting
oil invented by a South Australian citizen will be read
with interest. Our contemporary says : — It has been
found that the usual system of pressing the seeds to
obtain the oil contained in them is much too expens-
ive to be succesfully carried out in a country where
labour is so dear as it is in Australia ; and Mr Birn-
baum, who has studied the subject for many years,
both practically and in the works of the best Carman
authorities, has turned his attention to discovering a
method which will minimise the attendant expenses.
Very briefly described, his vtodvsoperandi is as follows: —
The seed of the rape, linseed, or castor plants hav-
ing been crushed, is passed through an api>aratns which
looks somewhnt complicated to the uuprofessional eye,
consisting of a number of large zinc jars and tubes.
In these the oil is extracted from the seeds by the
use of bisulphide of gasoline, from the unpleasant
odour of which the oil is afterwards freed by the
action of heat. Still later the oil is separated from
the water and filtered, and ultimately an article is
produced which appears remarkably pure when ex-
amined under the microscope. The refuse which re-
mains after the oil has been extracted is made into
rape cake, linseed cake, and other articles. To manu-
facture sandal oil i which is well-known on account of
its important mciicinal properties, and is also used in
making perfumes), the wood is crushed by machinery,
nud the result is treated in the same way as the
seeds abovemeutioned. The sandalwood which Jlr.
Birnbaum uses is imported from AVestern Australia,
and the root gives the best oil, but it would be worth
while finding out whether South Australian trees which
bear the same name and are very odoriferous, would
not answer. One advantage which the inventor claims
for this system is that the seeds can bo used just
as they are clipped in bunches from the plint, with-
out any trouble and consequent expense being incurred
in cleaning them, a preliminary which is necessary
when the oil is to be extracted by i)ressure, Mr.
Birnbaum has secured a patent for tho principle on
which hisapparatus is constructed.— Planter and Farmer.

STATISTICS OF PLANTS jVS (CLASSIFIED
ACOOKDING TO THEIR OULTUR^VL
KEQUIREMEXTS.
If we classify plants accurdiug to the garden treat-
ment they require they fall into four main groups.
The intertropical zone includes a land area of 40,000,000
square miles, and the total number of characteristically
tropical plants known to science m.iy be roughly
estimated at 40,000 or 50,000. These are provided for
at Kew in the I'alm-house, the tropical Fern-house.
the Aroid-house near the main gates, the central por-
tion of the new range, and various small propagating
bouses which are not opened to the public. Of course
the expense iucnrred in cultivating in the English
climate any plant of this group is considerable, so that
a careful selection from the 40,000 or .50,000 species
has to be made. The second group of plants consists
of those that can bear the English summer, but need
protection during winter. These are provided for at
Kew in the tcmper-ate-house, the succulent-house, the
cool Fem-house. and the cooler parts of the new range.
To this group belong the members of the three rich
floras of the south temperate zone, where the height
of summer cnrres[,onds with the depth of our north
temperate winter. To this group belong about 30,000
Bpeces, or about a third of the known plants. Next
come the hardy plantfi. The north temperate zone
occupies about one-third ol the earth's surface, and
its plants number 20,00" species. Of these at Kew
the classified collection of the herbiiccous types is con-
tained in what is called the herbaceous grouud, which
is situated north of the Cumberland Gate. Here are
groffu about 2,000 pereoaiaU and 1,000 ananali),

arr.int'ed under their natural orders. The classified
eullectiou of shrubs and trees is scattered over the
different parts of what was formerly called the pleasure
ground. For the special growth of alpine plants two
rockeries have lately been laiil out. The total flora of
the artic zone does not reach 1,000 species, and the
plants which are couQucd to the higher levels of the
mouLtains of tlie north temperate zone may po3:;il>ly ha
twice as numerous, in all 3,000 species, of what garden-
ers call "alpines," it?., plants specially adapted to a
cold, damp climate, with a short summer, if we at-
tempt to classify the plants of the British possessions
under these four climate groups, tho results will be
something like this: —

Tropical plants
Half-hardy
Hardy
Alpines

— Gardeners' Chronicle.

18,000 species
18.00(1 „
8,000 „
2,000 „

46,000 „

FIELU EXPERIMENTS AT ROTHAMSTED.*

Perhaps the chief interest in the experiments upon
crop cultivation will still centre around wheat. Broad-
balk field, on the Rothamsted estate, is unique, so
far as treatment and cropping goes. lu Xti'i'i, this
lield cai'fied a crop of tm-uips, manured with farm-
yard dung; in 1840 it was barley; in 1841, p"as; m
1842, wheat; in 1S43, oats; all the foUi last crops
being unmauured. The field was, theref'ire, nceording
to all farming rules, in an exhausted state w'leu
the first experimental crop of wheat occupied it in
1»84. Every year since 1843 has this fie'd curried
wheat, auil with, some exceptions, nearly the same
description of manure has been applied to each plot.
In this field the visitor, during the present -''lu'mer,
will see the forty-second wheat-crop growing with-
out manure of any description upon the ninnanured
portion of the field, still keeping up a wonderfully
uaiform yield o[ about thirteen bunhels per ace-;
or about the average yield of wheat-lands in tho
United States of America. This is a striking fact
for those who fear the eventual exh: nstioii of our
soils. Equally startling is the result fr.'m tlio con-
tinued use of nitrate of soda year after year. This
fertiliser is looked upon by many landlords and
agents with suspicion as a stimulator and exli-uister
of the soil ; and yet after forty-one years application
of nitrate of soda, and nothing else, we have tho
astounding result of an average of 'I'S}, bushels per
acre, or double the yield of the nnmanured plot.
And, although it is true that the yield of 'he uu-
manured and nitrate of soda plots i.s leas upon an
average from 18li8 to 188.'! than it was fro;n l.loni
to ISiiT, yet it i.s equally true of the plot m-.nured
with 14 tons of farmyard rnaniiro anuually ; and ibis
falling off is therefore probably due to a succession
of bad seasons, more than to any actual eshau-<'i(tii
of the soil. Another striking fact bron^iht out in
these experiments is thr excellent results achieved
by application.s of artificial fertilisers as contrasted
with those obt:iined frem farm-yard manure. In 'he
latter case, where 14 tons of dung have been annually
applied to the wheat-plot for forty years in succession,
the very satisfactory yield of '.W. bu.shrls per acre
has been obtained over the entire period. When,
howe.ver, a well-coinpoimded mixture of artificial
fertilisei'S has been applied, a larger yield has 1 een
obtidned. For example, JOO lb. of sulphate of po'ash,
100 lb. of sulphate ol soda, lOO lb. of sulphate of
magnesia, :i?.- cwt of superphosjihatf!, and (iUO lb. of
ammonia salts, have given upon an averag'f over the
same long perioil 36 bushels per aero year by year.
W'f must not draw these remarks to a conclusion
without at least noting the interesting (xpcrimonts

*" Memoranda of the Field Experimnds coudiicted
ou the Farm .aud in the Laboratory of Sir .lohn
Bmnett Liwes, Bart,, at Botbamsl d, Heit-i., .Tune,
1564."

682

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

upon barley, the leguminous crops, clover sickness,
root crops, and potatoes. The memoranda close with
a Kvnopsis of a series of experiment'' upon rotations
of crops commenced in 1848 in order to test the
effect of growing crops in rotation, instead of con-
tinuously, and so to arrive at precise results when
ft system of mixed farming is pursued with and
without manures, and in conjunction with sheep farm-
ing.—John Wkiohton. — Xalure.

PRUNING.
The question is frequently asked, Do you approve
or disapprove of pruning. The question thus put is
unfair, and would therefore elicit an unfair answer.
Principles for pruning may be laid down, but rules
cannot be given without incurring the risk of doing
more harm than good. That certain operations of
pruning can be done with good effect there ought to
be no doubt or hesitation, but that much mischievous
and injurious pruning is done daily is equally certain,
and to be lamented. It gladdens the eye and rejoices
the heart of every good forester to see right and
proper pruning done, and it correspondingly distrssses
him to .see wh.it he is doomed to witness every day
in the malpractice of the art. Gutting off a branch
is a very simple and unimportant act in itsell^, but it
may be a grand and successful stroke or a deadly and
disastrous one. The leading principle to be observed
is never to cut off a branch from a tree unless ab-
solutely necessary — necessary in a sense akin to that
of the amoutating of a limb from the human body.
One of the causes of improper pruning being so common
is on account of the fallacious belit^f that if one branch
or limb is cut off, the sap which formerly flowed into
it will, after the aniputation is done simply change
its current and How into the adjoiuing branch, and
thereby give to the one what w-as taken from the
othfc.-. In the case of a tree growing up with a forked
or double si em, one of them is cut away, for the
simple reason that, if allowed to grow in that form,
the future tree would be less than half the value it
would otherwise be with a single stem or trunk.

This, however, is not generally regarded as the only
object gained by cutting away the twin stem, for it
is the popular belief, that if the twin stems are each
annu'^lly gaining 2 inches in girth, if one of the two
is cut away, the one left will not. as formerly, grow
oidy at the rate of 4 inches annually- Tliis theory,
though not unlikely, is a false one, for it will be found
by any one who may choose to examine the structure
of the wood years after the operation has taken place,
that the lay* rs or zoin s in the stem had not increased
as anticipated, but in all likelihood had rather de-
creased. 8ome sections of wood in our possession, cut
for the purpose of examining their structures, show
one general though not uniform resulL va.ying in
certain particulars. Some of them show a consi'^T-
able falli- g off in tho thickness of the layers, beginning
with the first season's growth, in otiier-i ihe ' crease
is not visible till the second year, but in all the
sections the third year's laver is somewhat thinner
than the one produced dunug the year iu which the
operation was made.

How and by what means, then, ia the stem ever
to be increased in tbicknes* if it thus decreases as
shove described ? It increases by a new and different
Jjrocess of growth altogether, in the following manner,
"ioon after the stems have been separated the bark
of the remaining one begins to show little risings here
Slid there which in due time produce buds, these
agsin form .stnall twigs, which ultimately form branches
and limbs. It is from this new set of spray and
branches that the stem growth begins to increase —
from no other source and from no other cause. Now,
if we thoroughly understand this principle of physiol ■
ogy, it will help us greatly in regard to pruning, and
keep us out of many errors commonly fallen into.
The result of pruning is to create rather than de-
velope I to form a new series of growths rather than
increa?!' and extend the old ones. When any branch
is cutolT, the result is, that an embryo bud in its neigh-
bourhood is thereby eo far influenced by the operiitiou

that it developes into a new and distinct branch, and
starts growth, as it were, on its own account, rather
than by contributing to the growth of the branch
from which it takes its rise. I saw the other day an
•lample of what I have been trying to describe. It
was a Sycamore shoot of underwood of about IJ inch
in diameter from which a branch had been lopped off
in the ordinary work of heading back game covert.
At the cut part a young shoot had started, and at
four years' growth had become thicker than the original
stem of ten or twelve years' growth from which it
sprung.— C. Y. Michie, Csllen House, Banffshire.—
Ga/'dfners^ l^hrnnicle.

LIQUORICE ROOT IN SYRIA AND SPAIN.
The United States Government, having sent out »
letter of instructions to Consuls to make inquiries as
to the conditions under which liquorice root is grown,
has received the following reports: —

Liquorice Root in Syria. — Mr, Oonsjl Poche says : —
" From all the information I could gather in the
vicinity of Aleppo about the plant, it results that it
is not cultivated in any part and grows wild in a
large tract of this vill.ige.

" The root only is utilized. As to the plant itself,
it is of no use. The plant that grows iu the vicinity
of towns iR \ised for the heating of ovens. The cultiv-
ation of the root iu this province, for exportation,
dates from twenty years ago, and was inaugurated
by a French manufacturer, Mr. Vidal, who established
a factory in Antioch for the preparation of the root,
which, after being dug out of the gi'ound and dried,
used to be scraped, made into faggot packages of
three different sizes, and exported to France and
Spain, where they used it for the preparation of the
drink called "coco" ( liquorice-water l, and for pharm-
aceutical purposes. This enterprise, after some years
of existence, failed, owing to bad management.

" For a long time this commerce was abandoned,
when a few years since some firms of Smyrna, who
deal in this article with the United States, sent their
agents to Antioch, and began in the plains which sur-
round this city to cultivate this root, which is ex-
ported in its wild state, either to .Smyrna or direct
to America. The exports have been simultaneously
made at the ports of Suedich and Alexandretta.
The cultivation of this root — which is considered to
be the plague of the lands where it grows, as the latter
cannot be u.ied for any other culture, and to clear
the same of it would requu'e a long, assiduous, and
very expensive work— has become an important re-
source for this province, which previeusly used but
a very small quantity of it to make the beverage
known under the name of ''coco." The right to root
up this plaut from the lauds where it grows is bought
from f be })roprietors fur a certain number of years,
as the reproduction, notwithstanding the uprooting of
the plant, is effected very rapidly. As soon as the
first rains of November fall, aud the plaut becomes
completely <liy, and the sap is re-abo.sorbed by the
roots, workmen begin with spades to pull this root
out, This article, iu a damp condition, is heaped up
in sticks on a bed of pebbles placed on sloping ground,
which allows the raiu-waters during the winter to
run ea.'iily down. To prevent the overhe.iting aud
tho moulding of the root in question, tbe,se stocks,
in the month of February, are turned upside down,
This expensive operation is repeated at different times
until the month of June, at which time, the drying
being conipli te, the transport to the port of shipment
is made on camrN' backs. The firm of .VIe.vander Sidi,
of Smyrna, which hns effected the most important
purchases in this year, for the account of on American
company, has Just established at Ale.\andretta presses
movi d by steam, which will be used for the pressing
of the liquorice root.

" The qnantity which vill be exported thi« year
from the ports of Suedich and Alexandretta can be
estimated at about G,000 tons, at an approximate value
of l!)2,0nO dollars."

Liiji'oricc Boot in Spnin. — Mr. Consul Marstou
eays — "(The plant gfows . iM, It requires wild, low,

Ahril I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

6ftj

marshy ground, along the banks of rivers. Tbe
climate of Spain, say in the provinces of Murcia,
Aragou ani) Toledo, is most suitable. It canuot be
lUiltivated so as to increase yield.

" In Spain it requires, say, on an average, eight
years to reach maturity.

" The plant or st-ulk is not utilized beytmd the root.

"The exports of Liiquorice from Jlalftga to the
Unit€d .States in 1882, 1883 and 1881, are as follows :—

Paste.

Quantity.

Value.

Boxes.

Dallars.

1882 ...

... 1,348

32,84115

1883 ...

... l>-4

30,152-4fi

1884 ...

200
... 2,812

4,770-96

tal

Root.

Quantity.

Value.

Boxes.

Dollars,

1882 ...

... 3,36.')

9,336-51

1888 ...

... 8,285

24,371-59

IS&J ...

... 73»

21,688-39

Total 18,9.59

"There are several districts in Spain in which
liquorice root is obtained, and largo exports are
made from Spanish seaports to the United States.
••Tha root is used in the Unite! States principally
tor sweetening in the manufacture of plug tobacco ;
it is also used in the manufacture of dru^s and in
the preparation of medicines.

" It grows wild in the lower lands, in marshy grounds,
and on the banks of rivers. Probably the best quality
obtained in Sjiain is found iu the provinces of
.yagon, Murcia, and Toledo. The very best Spanish
liquorice root is found near the margin of the Ebro,
in Aragim. The next in point of qualitj is obtained
near Cordova. Where it once takes rootit is almost
impn.-,ible to eradicate it. It grows in many counties,
and varies in quality according to soil. Spanish
liquorice dirt'trs quite materially in the several provinces,
the principal variations being that iu some parts the
kark is red. brown, and light colour, the inside varying
from light-yellow to brown ; the proportions of
saccharine and starch vary also. JIany kinds are
fibrous, while others are almost as hard as wood.
The ground is pulled at intervals of throe, four, or
live years, ;»ccording to circumstances, by digging
trenches, pulling everything visible as long as possible
until it breaks.

'■ After a year or two it shows above the ground
with a little stem ; in the spring over this stem there
are little dowers.

" From the time this stem appears until the flowers
have all fallen, this root is not in condition to extract,
for the sap does not return to the root till then.

" Each year, till the ground is culled, the quantity
of roots and tops increases, until the ground is unfit
for cultivation of any kind.

•' It is from Sf-ptembrr till March that the root
is gathered, and goes thrcjugh a process of dr\ing
or curing before it is considered marketable, "the
time required for the drying or curing process being
from four to five months, and requires a dry
climate.

"Liquorice root is also found and gathered in
Asiatic Turkey, Greece, Italy, in the Sicilies, etc.
In the .Sicilies and in Italy, very little, if any, is
exported as root, it being used in the manufacture
of roll or stick liquorice. There is a small section in
England which prjd-.ices a limited quantity. The
Uni'cd Stsfs also have liquorice root iu several parts
of the country, but the quality is not such sis to give
it value.

"The qviality of root produced iu the different
eouatriea is as follows, \-iz., Asiatic Turkey, decidedly
hitter; Greece, bitter, but not so bitter" as Asiatic
Turkey; Sicily, sweet, but less so than Sp.-iish;
Spain, rich and sweet ; Italy, richest and sweetest
of all.

" Malaga has not up to the present time been con-
sidered an important shipping point for root ; Seville,

Alicante, Bartelou?, and Bilbao are nearer the proilneing
districts, yet during the past three years a nmr.ed
increase in shipments from Malaga has taken place,
while the .shipments of liqninioe paste hav<' materially
decreaseil. The value of th's root does not in .Spain
admit of its being increased in crop by cultivation,
and the qusutity gathered greatly depends upon the
severity or midness of the winter. If severe, it lessens
the quantity gathered.

" Again, if other crops are gooil, labour being
scarce, less root is gathered ; consequently i)rices are
higher.

" There are one or two large French establishments
in Spain for making paste and stick litiuorice, one in
.Seville and the other in Saragossa, betides a few
small Spanish concerns also engaged iu the maiui-
faoture of liquorice paste." — Pharmaciutical Journal.

NOTES ON THE VARIETIES OF GUTTA-
PERCHA.

BY .TAMES COLLINS.

In a previous article* I reserved a more complete
enumeration of the varieties of guttapercha for a future
occasion. In the present instance, I only give those
which I have been able to examine personally ; other lists
which I have by me require yet further examioatioa
and comparison, and fuller materials than at present
at my conimiud. Many, too, of these names may prove
synonymous, and the really valuable varieties may prove
to ht' but few in number.

I. Dichufj.-'l-^ f/trtta. — Bentley and Trimen's '* Meilicinal
Plants," plate IfJT. Syaonym — laonandra f/utta, Hooker,
'■ Londnn Journal of Botany," vi. 463, t. 16, &c. Vern-
acular names— Gutta Takin ; Gatta Pereha ; txutta
Niato (Sarawak); Gutta Pereha Duriau (Sumatra);
Nyatoe Balam, or Balam Timbaga (Bleekrode) ; Gutta
Balam Durian (Borneo) ; Ondauw (Bauka) ; Alazerwood
tree (English). Geographical distribution — Formerly in
Singapore iu abundanct*, but only one or two preserved
as curiosities ; Malacca and Malay Peuinsula, as far
north as Pcrak; Sumatra ; Borneo and other adjacent
islands. In llelfer's collection of Andaman and Ten-
naserim plants at Kew, there is a specimen of this plant.
Remarks — Gutta, or as it is variously written, gutah,
gatta, gitta, gatta, is the Malayan term for gum or
juice : pereha (pronounced soft as in pv-;ach, not hard
as perka) acentuated variously as parcha, pertja, pcrclia,
is the name of the tree, hence the term may be trans-
lated "gum of the pereha tree." Recently, it has been
suggested that pereha mt^^us strips or fragments, so
called from the way the gutta hangs from the incised
trees, but this seems too far-fetched. The old name
of Sumatra was Pulo or Pulau Pereha, meaning " Island
(Pulau) of the Pereha Tree." Tubaii, tiiban, tabau is
also the name of a tree, and accordi: g to Logan a new
word has 'neeu added to the Malay language, viz.: —
Menahan (MenTtJaban), .signifying collected gutta
taban. The greater number of Malay noun? admit of
conversion into verbs by the addition of a prefix. The
tree is often compared to the Durian tree, rhtriu :ilitthi-
nim, in its general appearance, and I have classed the
Dutch varieties of Gutta Durian under it, as both
specimens and accounts agree. Whilst in Singapore,
I was fortunate enough to procure a fruiting branch,
and also to prepare a little gutta from the same ident-
ical tree as the specimens from which Sir W. .J. Hooker
drew up '-is description were obtained These speci-
meus are now at Kew.

2. Dichopnis f/tftta, var. ohlonqifnUa. - Syn()n3)n—
laanandra f/ultn vnr. ohlnnqifoUa, De ^'riese, PI. Ned.
Bat. Vtrien't; ih. De Haudei in Getah-Pertja. Li y 1. n,
18.')6. with colr.'iped figure. Remarks — Tiii> varietv
found in Borneo diflft-rs chiefly in having oblong instcul
of obvate-oblong leavas.

3. lHi'l">p!<i.i Macrnphylla. — .SynoDTni — Ismanilm
macrophvUa, De Vriese. Vernacular name— Ngiato
putih (w-hite gutta). Ri^marks — Mi. Motley, who col-
lected a specimen of this at liangermnssing, Borneo,
describes it as a large tree, with white and .stfl wood,

"•.Tan. 18th. 1881. "

084

I'HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

and with whi'ish greeu flowers. The flowers had so
trong au alliaceous smell, that he could hardly support
he ^luell whil-i I'rawiiig the plane. It yielded a second-
-ate guttapei jUh.
4. Dichop^ts Mottleyana. — Synonym — Isonandra mot'
tn/anri, De Vriese. Vernacular name — Kotian. Re-
marks—Mo rt ry, who found this tree also in Borneo,
•emarli,-, " A very tall and straight tree, with snnoth
reddish-grey bark, reddish within, yielding when wounded
.t copirius flow of milky juice, which hardens to a
white Wiixy resin, brittle when old, but readily softened
liy ht-at. Wood, reddish-white, wooly in texturej soon
decaying in the weather, but good for housework.
The KUiu is said to be used to adulterate the inferior
'iiads of guttapercha ; it is certainly unsaleable alone.
From the seed is expressed an oil used for lamps,
and when fresh, for cooking. Grows in deep bogs, where
its roots ar'i under water for five mouths in the year.''

5. Dichopsif ohovata. — Synonym — Sassia obovata,
(Jriffiths. Keniarks — This guttapercha yielding plant
is found in the Tenasserim provinces, and in Borneo.

G. Fayena, puhtrida. — Synonym — Isonandra pnhnruhi^
Miquel. Remarks — Is found in Sumatra, and attains
a height of 60 ft. to SO ft.

7. Payeua dutiyphj/Ua. — Synonym — jHonajidra dasij-
pht/lla, Miquel. Remarks— Known under the name of
Gutta Benton, and is fouad in Borneo and Sumatra,
iccording to Motley, it !yields a second rate gutta, and
is chiefly used for purposes of mixing with finer
lualilies. The tree grows in dry woods, having hard,
.vhite, and heavy timber, black, bard, and smooth bark,
.;nd abundant foliage.

8 Fayei} I Wiyktii. — Synonyms — Ceratephorus Jri{/lUu,
Hassk.; /xonandra polymidra, Wight. Remarks — A
■umatrau tree.

9. Fiit/ena Leeri. — Synonyms — Ceratephorus Leeri,
lassk. ; Azaohi Leeri, T. & B. Vernacular names —
'.alem-tjabeh, Balem tandoek, Koelan, Getab Seimdek.

emarks- This tree, found in Palembeug (Sumatra),
iva, and Bankj, is said to yield a very fair gutta.

10. ? Payeim macropht/llvs. — Synonym— Coi(;of»ia?i</(HS
• acropliyl/us, Hasskl. Remarks — This tree, known
ader the names of Earel Mundieng and Getah Pertja,
, found in Java, and grows to a height of 60 ft. to 70 ft.

11. CIm/aopltJ/llu'it lanceolatum, D. 0. Synonyms —
'. JavatUcum, Steudel ; Ni/ctenstitiov lanccolatv.m,
.lume. Remarks — Known as the Kilakkataog, in Java,
.ud grows to a height of 60 to 80 ft.

12. ClivydOphyUuiii rhodoneuron, Hassk.

13. S!'i/era.3-)//o)? )u<irfij',i!, Blume, theKinjatoe|of Banka
.and Kjatoe of Banka.

11. Sideroxyloii attenuaium, D.C., known as the
raroeutoong uud Biuasio, and found in Singapore, Java,
Bauka, and Fhillippines.

15. ? SiJeroxylwii chrysophyllnm, De Vriese, found
ia Java.

16. Baaia, cu-neata, Blume, a tree of 60 to 80 ft.
high, f<iuud in the Bantam district in Java.

17. Massia .cHcea,[Blnme, known as Djeugkot in Java.

18. Baa^ia nryenti^tt, De A^riese, growing in Java,

19. J'atmi'^ Ji'.n(/hi(}niianu,'DibYnfse, growing in Java.
2U. Jlimusops Muniikara, G. Don, the Manilkora of

Rheeile, and the Metroddaros Macaasuriends of Rum-
phius, growing in Java,

21. MiiniL-iops acuminata, Blume, known as Gonkot;
grows in Sumatra and Java to a height of 80 to 120
feel. Remarks — Nos. 12 to 21 are all said to yield
a guttapercha which is more or less utilized ; frecpiently,
howwver, fur niixtug with better sorts. There are nu-
merous varieties of guttapercha which have come
miller my notice, to which no botanical position has
been aiisigned. A few of those need only be men-
tioned here.

22. Guttapercha Warinyen. — Under this name a
Ollt^aporcha is collected on the Kapuas liver in
Borneo. The tree ia described as being like the
Wariugcu tree {Ficus up. varia), with white wood, and
grows in the hilly country, and generally in yellow-
clay soil.

1.'3. Xttii'. — Found on the south coast of Borueu.
and s»' i by Mjtley to yield a second-class gutta.

24 I'lnotM found lu Borneo, and yields a 'hint rate
gutta. The tree grows iu hilly districts, and its sap

is brownish. The leaves aud bark resemble the Obam-
paca {Michelia Champaca), but the leaves are redder
on the uudev-side. The came Ploot, or P'loot, is a
Dyak term, and the only one tliey seem to use for
guttapercha,

25, Guttapercha Papua. — This is a fourth cla"s gutta,
and is ni less demand ti'an the two preceding ones.
The tree is found on low ground in Borneo,

20, Gidiaperdia Kiina, — This variety, found also in
Borneo, is in very little demand, as it is of low quality
it is of a white colour when boiled.

27. A'a/e?i<T.— Borneo; used only for adulteration,

28, .fnTitvi'— Same as 27,

30, Oidtnperdia Klaii. — Same as 27.

31. Gtitiapfrdta Bcujiny, — This conies nearer in char-
acter to the Balata of commerce than any other
Eastern product I have met with, and should most
assuredly receive attention, " Daging " is the ilalay
term for " flesh," and aptly describes the toughness
aud gristly character of the generality of lieef one
meets with in the East,

32, Gutta Muntah. — This is unprepared gutta, " Mun-
tah " being the Malay for " raw," or *' uncooked."
Hence the term is equally applicable, and, indeed, is
applied to every variety of unprepared guttapercha.
Some J ears since, this name was known and used in
the English market, but now is apparently supplanted
by thut of " White Borneo." It may be of the best
quality of guttapercha, or the very lowest ; which-
ever it may be, if not boiled up quickly, it loses all
its value, and becomes a mere resinous mass.

The following names aud remarks on varieties of
guttapercha were kindly furnished me by Captain
Lingard, who, as a trade and rajah, has had many
years' experience of the question in the Brow and ■
Boolongan districts on the east coast of Borneo : —

33. Getah Kalapeieh Lanyut (Brow). — Lola Lanyut,
of Boolongan, is the first and best quality, and is
known in the English market as Lingard's " Nina "
brand. "Lanvut" means "tough."

3-1. Getah ktdapeiih Mookas (Brow). — Lola Mookas
(Boolongan), is a second quality. The tree yields
about 10 per ceut less than the first quality, and is
more difficult to cut down, " Mookas " means " spongy,"

3.5, Getah Kalapeieh Kapur (Brow). — Lola Kapur
(Boolongan) is a third variety, and yields 10 per cent
less than the preceding; in the wet season even 20
per cent less. The wood is much harder, and re-
quires a stronger and heavier billiong to cut the tree
down. — Journal of the Societii of .Arts.
^ — :

WuEDS. — Having beeu a hop grower, perhaps I may
venture to point out the injury sustained from weeds.
Since my own retirement 1 have for several years past
observed the management of two large growers in the
same parish. They both farm highlj' ; but the one who
expends tho most on manures of various kinds, getting
dung down from London, grows the smaller crops of
the two, owing to his neglecting the cleaning of the
ground. In Blay and Juue he iuvariably gets behind
with the weeding, while his neighbour takes caro to
have the laud kept scrupulously clean. Before the
picking time his land becomes foul with great weeds,
such as chickweed, groundsel, chenopodium, or *' fat
hen," which ought to have beeu cut as seedlings in
spring aud summer. It sometimes happens during one
or two critical weeks in Juue and July, that the hop crop
is seen to be hanging iu the balance, owing to the bine
having received a check from blight ; and a timely dose
of ammoniacal manure will probably push on the growth
of the bine aud fruiting ruuuers, and rescue the crop
which might otherwise be lust. The clean firmer can
thus save his crop, and, if the laud is in high order,
the hops will perhaps recover themselves without help.
But if the land is foul at that particular period there is
no ohanCL for them, owing to the exhaustion of the soil
by weeds. The WoWurn and Kothamsted expHriuients
prove, and Sir John Lawes has pointed out manv times
in his writings, what ro'>bers the weeds are. In com-
jvftiliou with routs or cereals, the weed crop, when it
hapjicns to bo abundant at the pM-iod of full growth
ill suuimer, will drain the resources of the land and
do an imaieuse Rmoiiiit of duuiage.—Fifld,

April i, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

6Ss

Amebicax M'oods. — There are said to be 30 variet-
ies of oak in ttie United States, 'So of piue, 9 of fir.
5 of tipruce, 4 of hemlock, 12 of ash, 3 of hickory.
It* of willow, 3 of cherry, 9 of poplar, 4 of maple, 3
of persiinuwu.aud 3 ol cedar. The New York Museum
of Natural Hisiory is to have a complete collection
of the native woods of our entire country. The logs
are being prepared for that purpose. Ihey will be
for the most part five feet long, a scctioi. of half
the thickness of the log at one end being removed.
In this way both the longitudinal and transverse grain-
ings are shown. There is also a diagonal cut on the
section, which displays the graining also. The re-
mainder of the log remains in its natural condition,
with the bark atttiched. — Aiturican Grorer.

Impkoved Metbod 01' Preserving Wood. — The im-
proved French method of preserving wood by the
application of lime is found to work well. The pl;in
is to pile the planks in a tank, .•vnd to jiut over all
a layer of bricklime, which is gradually slaked with
water. Timber for mines requires about a week to
be thoroughly impregnated, and other wood more or
less time according to its thickness. The material
acquires remarkable consistence and hardness, it is
stated, on being subjected to this simple process,
_«nd the assertion is made thit it will never rot.
Beeoh-wood piepared In iliis way for hammers, and
other tools for ironwork, is found to acquire the
hardness of oak, without parting with any of its
well-known elasticity or toughness, and it also lasts
jonger. — Jndian Gardetter.

Tub Cbotos Oh, Tree. — With reference to your
Matale correspondent's remarks some weeks ago re-
garding the danger of planting this tree amongst tea
bushes, and to which you a.iiled an editoridly incred-
ulous " oh '." I may state for your information, that
native opinion goes much further, and no Sinhalese
man vill walk under this tree if he can help it !
They say that the laxitive power of this tree is such,
that they dare not use the wood for cookiug-
purposes. and that even a stick of it when carried on
the shotiUler has the same powerful effect ! It is evid-
ent that this is a most djiigtrous tree to have in the
pro.\imity ot tea hushes and =houId be banished to the
remotest regions of e<tates.— Cw. [That is because Sin-
halese people say certain things. Bat where is the evid-
ence that the wood of the tree has the slightest chem-
ical effect?— Ed]

TUK KlBBEE I-VDCSTEY OF THK U.VITED STATES.—

The rubber muustry of the St^^tes Ka-; no rival iir foreign
countri-'S. There is something like 57.5.00u,i)OO invested
in the business of manufacturing rubber goods,
>30,000,000 of which is confined to the rubber boot and
shoe industry. The total number of employes is placed
at 1.5,(HI0, and the total number of factories at one
hundred and twenty. According to a recent census
bulletin the v.alue of the annual product is si50,00l>,00 I.
.Some 30,(>»l) tons of raw rubber are imported
every yenr, which, vhen coniuiiied with other ra^teri^ls
in nianufactiring, amount to 30,tJ0(W toas. The market
price of the raw material has been forced up to Sl25
per lb., while six years ago the price was scar«ely
fifty cents. In consequence of the advance in price,
several substances have been prep.ired as substitutes
for it, of which celluloi.l is the most important.—
iTi'lu-itritil South,.

Notes o.\ Ani>ial Parasites of the StiaAR Cane
Made at .Ma<:kay, Qdkes'si.vnd).— I. The Comimn
Chifer {lioj.lmtKrnui sp?).— L'he griio of this insect,
is, one 01 tn« raosi destructive creatures we have to
deal with. It attacks aud destroys the roots of the
cane, causing the leaves to become brown and dry
up. The gro.vth of the cane is arrested and the first
high winil knocks it over. In this manner whole
fields of cane are killed. When a stool of dying cane
of thi» sort is drawn out of the ground it comes up
wilhoiii much tugging, an I appear-s to have few ruots.
When drawn nut of the ground in the eiirlinr stages
of the attack as many as seventeen fat larva may
be discovered hard at their work of de';traction. To-
wards tb(- i;nd of the year (Xov. aud Doc; the fiUly

developed chafers appear above ground in large swarms.
They feed chiefly, and are most lively, at night : during
the day they are to be seen tlickly clustered, some
feeding, but all more or leas .Irowsy, on fig-trees
(Banyans), cocoa-nut trees, Poinci.uias, and many scrub
and forest trees. The egg is probably depnsited at
considerable depth, as the chafer is provided with
powerful fore legs with which to burrow into the
ground. To me there appears sm obstacle to any it-
tempts to destroy the grub; it seems to dive deep
into the ground before turning into chrysalis. In
following the plough I have freqQently picked up chrys-
alid.-B, but from not one of them did this chafer emer"e.
The great increase of this pest of late years is prob-
ably due to the wholesale annihilation of the native
birds by means of the firearms of the Kanakas. The
planters had on various occasions petitioned the Gov-
ernment to prohibit the indiscriminate uso of guns bv
these labourers, but our request was only acceded
to when the damage had already surpassed all remedy.
Steeping the plants in milk of lime does not prevent
grubs' attack. Miss Ormerod recommends the restor-
ation of the average amount of, or the prevention of
destruction of the insectivorous birds and bats as the
only practicial method of suppression.— f/rtn^fr a-nd
Farmei\

Pvrethrum.— The following notes concerning pyre-
thrum were communicated by Professor A.. J. Oook,
of the Michigan Agricultural College, to Gleaiiinqs in
Bee tw^^HJV:— "Pyrethrum is a generic term referring
tu the powdered flowers of one of three distinct
plants — Pjircth-nm roseitm, P. Carneinn and P. Cinera-
ruvful'uun. The powder from the first-mentioned plants
IS known from the locality where the plants grow, as
Persian insect-powder, and for like reason the latter
is called Dalmatian insect-powder. Buhach is the
Dalmatian insect-powder thst is grown and manu-
factured in California. G.N. Milco, of Stockton, Cal.,
who, I believe, is a Dalmatian, his given the name
of his product- buhach— to protect him against the
adulteration which is quite sure to overtake so valu-
able an artiede. This powder owes its v.iluable nro-
perties to the presence of a volatile substance wliich,
unless the pow.ler is kept close, will escape, when the
article is valueless. Buhach, which I have had a year,
and have kupt in a close tin vessel, is not so effective'
as last year, nor so effective as fresh powder obtiined
tins year; yet is kills most insects to which it is
applied. Another peculiar property of fresh pvrethrum
is that it may he mixed with several parts of flour,
and still be potent to destroy. This makes adulter-
ation easy, and likely had its iufluence in causing Mr.
.Milco to adopt a peculiar name for his product.
Buhach— indeed, all pyrethrum— kills by contact and'
not by being eaten. Again it is entirely nonpoison-
nus to vertebrates. A friend tiki me that he ate a
tablespoonful with no harm even to his digestion I
have foHuil the powder every effjetive to kill mnny
insects, when dusted on them by use of a dust-
beliows, or sprayed on them when mi.fed with water-
one tablespoonful to two gallons of the liijuid— by
the use of a Whitman pump or when the alcoholic
extract IS applied as a spray. We kill our house flies
by dusting on the powder. We do this as we retire
at night, and can sweep up the dead or par.aly/.ed
flies the next morning. I prefer to kill cabbage
worms, slugs, ka., by spraying with the liquid rai.xture.
I consider pyrethrum a ve.rij valuable insecticide, es-
pecially the buhach, which is more apt to bo pure and
fresh. While many of our worst insect pests are quick-
ly killed by use of this powder, I have found that
some bugs and a few beetles are proof against it.
In all our use of this substance, when dusted into clo.se
rooms liko living-rooms or chicken-house, the dust
conies in contact with flies, lice, i;c., and quickly kills.
We must put it immediately on the insects, as its
virtue is -soon gone." It is a common practice of
dealers tn keep this powder in np"n bnxes or iiarrcis,
but it i:; e\nde„t from Prc^f. Oook's experience that
pyethnim so kept must soon lose its active proper-
ties.—/'.-trin and. Fireside, rxhe base of all the " insecti-
cides" and "insectibanes" in use is pimthrum —
Ed. Qutemland Agriculturist.'}

ei(>

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886,

Tbb LoQnAT.— In the Zeitschriftd . ally, ostei-rticli.
Apoth.-Tereines (.(auiiary 1, p. 13,) Dr. Ppckolt gives
an. account of the \oqa\t (Erioboti\i/(( Japiinica).v/hKh,
although a native ut .Tapau aud China, Houriahes
freely in Brazil. In the flesh of the fruit he finds,
as the more important ingre Jients, 5034 per cent of
fruit sugar, 1674 of free organic acid, 0-155 of citric
aoid in combination, and 0-145 of a yellowish resinous
colouring matter ; in the seeds, a fat of the consistence
of soft tallow 0416 per cent, a brownish resin OKiO,
amorphous amygdaliuO'150, aud bitter extractive niatter
1-300. He finds that the leaves taken in infusion, in
the proportion of 30 grams to 240 grams of water, in
the dose of a tablespoonful every two hours, produce
a goad effect in diarrhrea. The tincture of the leaves
is employoil in indigestion, and it is saiil with ex-
cellent results, but of this Dr. Peokolt has no personal
knowledge. — Fharmar/nttical Journal.

Flowehs .vnd Health. — Professor Mantogazza,_ of
Pavia, has discovered that ozone is generated in im-
mense quantities by all plants aud flowers possessing
green leaves and aromatic odours. Hyacinths, miguon-
ette, heliotrope, lemon, mint, lavender, narcissus,
cherry laurel, and the like all throw off ozone largely
on exposure to the sun's rays. So powerful is this great
atmospheric purifier, that it is the belief of chemists
that whole districts can be redeemed from the deadly
malaria which infests them by simply covering them
with aromatic vegetation. The bearing of this upon
flower culture in our large cities is also very important
Kxperiments have proved that the air of cities contains
less ozone than that of the surroumling country, and
the thickly inhabited parts of cities less than the more
sparsely built, or than the parks aud open sijuares.
Plants and flowers and green trees can alone restore
the balance ; so that every little flower-pot is not merely
ft thing of beauty while it lasts, but has a direct and
beneficial influence upon the health of the neighbour-
hood in which it is found. — Planter and Fai-,ner.

Indian Tea. — John Ohinaman had better set to work
at once to improve the quality of the tea he sells to
the outer barbarians. They are no longer bound to
resort to him for their supplies, and the instructive
annual report of Messrs. Gow. Wilson, ami Stanton
shows that they are more and more availing themselves
of this freedom of choice. In 1S64 the average
monthly consumption in thi.s country wa.s '\ million
pounds, India's share in the supply being only 3 per
cent, of the total. But last year she furnished 39 per
cent, of the total consumed— a .surpiisiug advance in
such a comparatively short period. Nor is this all.
Since 187H, when the importati(m of China tea reached
its maximum it has steadily diminished, whereas that
of its Indian rival has increased largely and almost
uninterruptedly throughout the wliole period of 22
years. It now has a dangerous competitor in the field
iu Oeylon tea, which, according to the circular, is de-
stined to revolutionise the markets of the world.
Although the industry is of quite recent origin in the
sweet-scented island, the average monthly deliveries iu
England last year amounted to 26^.000 lbs., or 3,216,000
per annum, while the ijuantity estimated as likely to
be imported this year is fl,(IOO,0(JO lbs. ]''ortunately for
tea growers, there seems no limit to the iucrease of
consumption in these inles. Last year's consumption
—the highest on record— was 17^.655,000 lb., being
4'91 lbs. per head of the population. It seems almost
incredible that every man, woman, and child in the
United Kingdom consumed, on the aver.ige, very nearly
6 lbs. of tea in the course of twelve nwR\h*.—(rlohr,
[With the gradual displacement of alcoholic drinks.
the consumption per head will probably in the next
quarter of a century be doubled, a largo i)roportion of
the 10 lb. per caput being Ceylon tea.— En. I

SUOAB PlANTATION PROPKRTV IN inE iSAVOWirH

Islands. — The recent annual meeting of the Hawaiian
Commercial and Hugar Company disclosed .some inter-
esting information relative to the largest sugar
plantation on the Hawaiian I.slands. The area of the
property is 21,000 acres, only a portion of which is
yet under cultiv.ation. This," with the mill buildings
and all other property of the company, is worth
S3,«75,4(i7-60, The Jiabilities amomit to ,S 1,2 11,975-64,

thus leaving a surplus of assets of §2.433,491 '96 — more
than the amount of the capital paid np, which is
•¥2,250, 000. The sugar crop of 1885 was 6,660 tons,
which sold at S10218 per ton, yielding the sum of
S681,240. The price realised was $14-22 more per ton,
than for the 18S4 crop. The 1886 crop, the cutting
of which will be commenced iu December, is safely
estimated at 11,000 tons. At SlOO per ton this means
the nice little sum of §1,100,000, from which must be
deducted $60,000 per month, er §220,000 for working
expenses, leaving in the neighbourhood of §400,000 as
the year's profits. The crop of 1887 will b- still larger,
as the area under cultivation is being increased. It
may be safe t") assume that iu three years from now
the company will be out of debt and have an annual
profit of half a million dollars for the declaration of
dividends on a paid-up capital of $225,000. The
plantation property is the largest aud best equipped
on the Hawaiian "islands and it is generally conceded
that it has no equal in any )iart of the world. It
is fitted with the best and most improved labour and
juice saving machinery. Japanese labour is now
being utilized as much as possible in preference to
Chinese. It has an excellent and complete system
of irrigation ; there are 4S miles of railroad. 4 engines
and 498 cars for the hauling of cane. Of .the
whole crop of 1885, Sn per cent of the sugar, over
5,300 tons, was No. 1, the average polarisation of
which wa.s 96-5 per cent of .sugar. The remaining 20
per cent, second and third grades, averaged a polar-
isation of 854 degrees. It would be interestiue to learn
where such a showing for so large a yield can be
exceeded.— lustra/ffsia/i Trade Kemev.

The Nut.meg. — Of immense commercial importance
is the nutmeg tree, Mi/ristica mn^cliata, or M. aromat-
ica. It is also ornamental by its clusters of berries
or fruit. The plant is not commonly met with in
this country, .nnd it is seldom grown except in botan-
ical or officinal collections. Its cultivation, however,
i.s not difficult. It thrives in a sandy loam and brisk
heat, and cuttings strike freely inserted iu sand and
placed in heat under a bell-glass. Of the Nutmeg
tree Dr. Hogg has written as follows in; his "Veget-
able Kingdom":— "It is a naiive of the Moluccas
and neighbouring islands, but it is now cultivated in
.Tava, Sumatra, Penang, the Isle of Bourbon, M.auritins,
and other parts of the East, and in Cayenne, Mar-
tinique, and sonie of the West Indian island.--. It
attains the height of thirty feet, with a straight
stem and a branching bead. The leaves are oblong-
oval. glo,-sv on the upper Rurf.ice and whitish beneath,
and with an aromatic taste. The flowers are male
and female ou different trees, insignificant, and of a
jellowish colour. The fruit is round or oval, about
the size of a small peach, with a smooth surface,
green at first, but becoming yellow when ripe. The
external covering, which may be called .1 husk, is
thick and fleshv, containing an austere astringent
juice ; becoming dry by maturity, it opens in two valves,
and discovers the nut covered with its aril, or mace,
which is of a beautiful blood-red colour; beneath the
mace is a brown shining shell containing the kernel
or Nutme?. A plantation of Nutmeg trees is always
made from seed, and it not till the eighth or ninth
year that the trees prodvice flowers. The sex> s being
on different trees, after the plants are two years old
thev are all headed .lown aud grafted with scions
taken from the female tree, reserving only one male stock
for fecundation. The natives of the Molu cas gather
the frnit by hand, strip off and i eject the pulpy husk,
iletach the mace carefully, and expose it to the sun,
which soon changes it-s beautiful blood-red colour to
a light brown: it is then sprinkled with sea w-at<>r
to render it flexible and preserve it. The mils are
first sun-dried and then smoked, until the kernels
rattle against the shell. Tiiis shell being removed,
the kernels are dipped twice or thrice in lime water,
laid in heaps for two or three days, wiped, ami packed
inhales or barrels. The unripe fruit of the Nutmeg is
frequently pro.served in sugar in the East ; aud before
doing so "it is neee-^Kary to deprive it of its acrid pro-
perties by soaking it in spirits."— /oj^rim? nf BorH-
culture ,

April i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

687

THE COCONUT PALM AND ITS PBO-

DUCTS IN THINIDAD

ioxui tliri subject of the following article in the
Demerara lioyul Gazette. No doubt labour is cheaper
in Ceylon than in Trinidad, but by no means to
the extent that Mr. Legge suppoaes : —

Persons interested in the development of the so-
called minor industries of the colony may not think
space and time wasted if we call attention to a
phase of the coconut and coconut oil industry of
Trinidad. Our export of coconuts last year was
517,920 nuts, and, us everyone knows, there is one
coconut oil and tibre factory in the colony owned
by a certain enterprising firm of this city. The
Blue Book however does not discriminate in either
its statement of imports or exports of oils and we
cannot therefore give figures thereanent. However,
the growth and export of coconuts is a minor in-
dustry to which no doubt increased attention will
be given as time goes on. Ceylon, it appears, is
the country that now holds the industry in its own
hands. The anomaly that is always presenting
itself to students of West Indian Trade was seen
by Sir William Eobinson, who wrote a minute to
the Colonial Secretary of Trinidad that "with
coconuts growing in the colony we are actually
sending home for coconut oil. Where is the Agri-
cultural Society?" The reply was that the im-
ported price of the product was about 00 cents per
gallon and the local price 75 cents to $l-'20.
Thereupon Sir William wrote: —
This Duly proves that the supply of home grown coco-
nuts is not large enough. There is no diflficulty in ex-
pressing the oil. This is a mattrr that the Agricultural
Society ought to look into. Oeylou exports over
2.500,000 gallous of coconut oil annually. Trinidad
with auy amount of laud fitted for the growth of the
tree cannot supply its own wants.

Out of the fibre, let alone the nut itself, a fortune is
to be made.

The -Agricultural Society took the matter up and
letters were received — and are now published —
from gentlemen actually concerned in the
industry. They were not slow to point out
why imported oil and fibre was cheaper than
the local product ; and their letters are a curious
and instructive illustration of the causes that tend
to retard the development of these colonies. We
do not refer to causes originating in the eco-
nomic policy of the several Governments ; 'such as
the absence of thorough and systematic protection
and artificial stimulation of local industries, in
which we have no faith, believing that it is to the
interest of a country to produce whatever it can
produce the cheapest and be^l and exchange for
other products that are yielded cheaper and better
by other countries more favourably circumstanced,
but we refer rather to purely natural causes such
as the absence of labour consequent upon a sparse
population, the inferiority of such labour owing to
the lazines.- or iuapitudc of those who possesses
it, the distance from markets, cheap and rapid
ocean transit and like causes. It is fundamental
causes of this sort that militate against the pro-
gressiveness of these colonie.^, and only the slow
workings of time will tend to their removal. And
as we have said the correspondence to which we
refer anent the coconut and coconut oil industries
illustrates the working of these causes. It docs
seem strange to the superficial thinker that these
colonies, which can grow coconuts with a pro-
Ijficncss ecjual to Ceylon, should be able to import
(oconat oil at 00 cents a gallon from Ceylon and
vet unable to produce at a price from — as in the
case of Trinidad — 75 cents to ftl-20 per gaOon.
One ol the causes h perspicuously laid baro by

Mr. Edwin Legge of Naiival Cecal, a gentleman
who states his views are the result of considerable
experience :—

In the first place let us consider the question or
rather statement in the Governor's letter, — " the fact
that coconut oil c«u be imported cheaper than it can
be purcbuec'l in the colony." This is easily aD.swered.

First, liy the dilference between the pricp of labour
in Trinidad and that prevailing in such other coconut
oil, producing colonies as India and Ceylon. « » »

I am not sufficiently acquainted with the labor mark-
ets of India and Ceylon to draw a comparison between
them and that of this island as to the cost of convert-
ing, say 1,000 coconuts into oil, or as to the yield of
their nuts compared with ours. I merely know what
is generally know», that in those countries the cost
of labour is nominal, benig at the i ate of 3 or 3 cents
or a handful of rice per man, while my factory hands
receive from 60c. to §1 30 each. I know only too well
what the cost of mauutacturiug coconut oil is to me and
others on the East Coast, and will, further ou, give you
parriculars of the cost and also of the yield of oil
per 1,000 nuts. As I have been for some years en-
gaged in the manufacture of coconut oil I am able
to speak on the subject with a little authority. His
Excelleiicy is quite right when he says there is no
difficulty in expiessing the oil. None whatever, pro-
viding always that you have the necessary plant, as
oil-making by hand is entirely out of the qu' st'on,
and to erect a suitable factory with all the appliances
required would involve an outlay of at least 20,000
dollars. The profit of such a factory, in the present
state of the coconut oil trade, would barely pay 8
per cent upon that sum.

There is at present but two oil factories in the island,
this one, Nariva Cecal, which is by far the larger,
and th.it belonging to Messrs. Urich & Sons at Mayaro,
and there are only two other coconut estates whose
crops would even warrant the erection of a factory on
eiiher of them. They are Mr. Gauteaume's at Mayaro
and Mr. F. Agostini's at Icacos, but neither of these
gentlemen would, I think, build a factory unless driven
to it by being uuable to dispose of their nuts other-
wise at a profitable rate. The whole of the East Coast
furnishes a crop of eight and a half million nuts,
1,600 000 being grown and used ou the Cecal. Of the
remaining 7,000,ijOO two proprietors have about 800,000
nuts each, while the restis divided among a number
of small proprietors, but ten of whom have a yearly
crop r:uiging from 90,000 to 150,000, the others own-
ing each a few trees with a yearly crop of 12,000 to
"0,OUO nuts. A central factory at Mayaro has been
suggested, but no one has been found sufficiently cour-
ageous to embark in the enterprize.
Mr. 1-'. A. Gauteaunie lays bare another cause why
coconut oil can be imported cheaper than it can be
produced, notwithstanding the profuseness of coco-
nuts in Trinidad and the presence of mills for ex-
pressing an untold quantity of the oil : —

The only cause of Ceylon being able to compete with
us in our own market is simply a question of labour.
Ceylon has a chenp and regular supply of this, whilst
we are deprived of a similar advantage. The Suez
Canal and steam communication has enabled the Ceylon
growers to economically ship to European markets,
Fibre will not pay uulcs made on a large scale and at
great (ratlay for mnchineriee. Then there is not a
sufficient demand in the Colony or neighbouring Inlands;
exportation to Europe will not pay, it has been tried.
In thin article also (^vlon beats us. and for the same
causes as mentioned before.

Nearly all tlie writers of the letters from which we
have made the foregoing extracts advocate the
protection of the industry by duties on the imported
article, but that being a purely local question we
need not go into it now. We have confined our-
selves to the purely natural causes which niilitiile
against the success of the socallcd minor industries.
We believe it is so with many other articles than
coconuts and their bye products, that they do not
pay to produce either tor local cotisumpUpn or

688

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST

[April i, xi

export, for the simple reason that they can be
imported cheaper from elsewhere. The particular
article dealt with in this column affords an indirect
oontirmatiou oi Mr. Jones' experiences in tlic niiaor
industries. At all events, it is obvious that the
socalled minor industries have an uphill struggle
in the West Indies where the labour required for their
production is so immensely disproportionate to the
cost of labor in similar climes where such industries
are lirnily established and have a hold upon the
worlds's market.

BLACK TEA.

In the Blue Book containing the report of Her
Majesty's Consuls on China it is poiutod out that the
export of black tta has steadily fal'eu during the past
four t'fars. The demand for these teas in England, it
is stated, continues to decline, and this, taken in coii-
ucctiou with a large increase in popularity of ludiau
and Oeylou teas, leads Mr. Oousul Siuoiair and Mr. Ala-
baster to insist on the necessity for improvement in
the production of China teas, if the latttr are to keep
the market at all. Mr. Jamieson, at Kiukinug, gives
indirectly a further reason for the diminishing export
of China tea. Speaking of the proposal to impose a
li-kiic tax on tea in Kiangsi, he says ■—" The effect
would be that a great deal of the common teas would
not find their way to the foreign market at all, be-
cause they would be quickly replaced by the enhanced
production in India." This Mr. Sinclair declares to even
now bold true of the Foochow tea iudue'ry. Green
tea has, however, been fairly remunerative. The ex-
port is considered a large one, being over L'ti, 800,(100 lb.
Most of these teas come from KiukiaUff, Nitigpo, and
Formosa, and large quantities are destined for the
American market.

The following is taken from a report lately Lssued by
the Iiand Mortgage Bank of India :— " Tea :— The
Bank's crop of 1885 has reached 21,215 mauuds, or
1 697,2001b., against 20,646 maunds, or 1,651,712 lb in
1884, being an increase in quantity over Ihe crops of
1884 of 569 maunds, or 45,488 lb. The manufactured
tea of all grades has been generally good, and the
quantity (1,128,358 lb.) sold up to date has realized an
average price per pound of Is 2-7I2d., or close upon
Is 2id per pound. The yi>lds from the Bank's gardens
in the Darjoeling district has been slightly in excess
of the estimated quaiitiiy, but the managers of the
Bank's ganiens in Assam, Cachar.and Sylhet have
been unsuccessful in reaching their e.stimates,ai tribut-
able in the directors' opinion, to causes diogether be-
yond the manager's control — such as the prevalence
of unfivourable weather for longer or shorter periods,
at some of the Bank's gardens :the occurrence of a dis-
astrous rainfall and conseijueutial flood at Shabazpore
(in Sylhetl in September last, which, according to the
manager's estimate, destroyed fully 400 maunds ot leaf,
besides doing serious damage to the garden and plant,
and a somewhat early closure of the season in some
districts. Energetic measures were at once taken by
the manager at Shabazpore to remedy the mischief
done, and this work has continuously been, and still
is in active progress ; whilst the latest reports from
the Bank's various gardens are generally satisfactory,
giving promise of increased yield in the ensuing year.
Accurate data of the cost of production in 18S5 has
not yet reached London ; but the directors believe that
the cost ot the crop 18S5 laid down in London, and
inclusive of freight, insurance, and London charges,
will be about lOid per pound, taking the rupee ex-
penditure in India at Is 7d. The area of extensions
that will actually have been carried out during the
year at various of the bank's gardens cannot be ac-
curately ascertained until closed accounts for the year
have reached London, but the direct<us believe that
the ilebit to capital in respect of such extensions as
have been carried out will bo about 1(.10 rup; es per
acre, equivalei.t at Is 7d per rupee to £7 ISs 4d , whilst
tho cost of the upkeep of tea under three years of
ago debited to capital will oot exceed fifty rupees an

acre, equivalent at Is 7d per rupee, to £S 19.< 2d. If
the estimated cost of the 1825 crop is uppro.xinately
accurate and the remainder of the cropyi^tto 'ne sold
realizes tlie sume average price as that which has
been already sold, the profit on the season's tea crop
(taking the rupee at Is 7d) will amount to about
£■^'0,00(3, which with income derived from other sources,
will not only cover the whole of the bank's expend-
iture 1885 for debenture ii>t.-rest and general charges,
but will suffice to reduce the debit balance t() profit
and less of £17,346 10s 9d brought forward from 18.-S4
by al'Out £8,000. The estimated yield from the bank's
gardens in 1886 is -26,000 mauuds", or 1,880,000, being
an increase over actual yield of 1885 of 2,385 maunds
or 19' ',800 lb, and under favourable circumstances the
crop may perhaps be laid down at some reduction on
this season's cost. The particulars of each garden's
estimated crop, as well as the realized crop and the
average sale price to latest dates during the current
season, as compared with season 1884, are submitted
in tabular form. — H. ^ C. Miiil.

I

Matano, Sahawak, 1.5th Feb. — Cirichouas an d
Liberian coffee arc thriving well here, and I hope to
open 150 acres of the latter this year for a small
comijany. The Chinamen are largely exteudiiig
their pepper acreage owing to the present splendid
prices. I fancy pepper is, just uov,', about tho best
paying product going. Hoping all connected with
the old paper are flourishing.

Coconut Rkfdse. — We have hoard a good deal lately
about immense heaps of finre refuse on estate.-;, unsale-
able and useless, except as manure. Njw that the
question of fue» supply for our tea machinery is be-
coming so serious o one, it would be as well to sec if
j this refuse fibre and dust could not be utilized as fuel
upcountry, either in its present condition or saturated
! with some more inUammable substance, say petroline.
{ With the help of hydraulic pressure, the refuse dust
' and fibre might be made into solid blocks of suitable
size and shape for tho furnaces. xVs the raw material
costs little or nothing to commence with, these blocks
shoul 1 form a very inexpensive fuel for up'ouutry use,
and should soon find a steady market. The coconut
.shells broken small, might be mixed with the refuse,
i and make it more valueable. We imagiue that an al-
j most unlimited demand would arise for this fibre fuel
I were it prep.ned in a bandy form, and collected in
I *iuautity from the v.^o-ious estates al-uig the sea-borde.
Local "Times." [While we doubt if the refuse would
I make a good enough fuel to pay for heavy cob: ot
; caviiagc, we believe it to be a valuable application to
soil to keep it open and retain moisture.— Ed.]

AsoTHEE New Cle.akixo roii Tea. — We had a
inagnihcent burn at noon today on the hill-range
overlooking the Kandy lake, just a little below Mr.
Pyper's new tea plantation, as it seemed to us
looking on from the town. It was a grand sight to
see the enormous clouds of dense smoke that
darkened a portion of the atmosphere, driven along
westward in lage masses ; while all along the burn,
at least of so much of it as was seen from the
town , lambent tougues of tianie were seen shooting
through the dark volumes of circling smoke that
were being hurried along the brow of the hill. Of
course all this means more of available ground
for the cultivation of the plant whose leaves play
so important a part in the preparation ot " the inp
tlutt clifen hut not inebriates." Perhaps the time
fs not far distant when the hills that bound the
city of Kandy on the South, will be one beautiful
tea garden, from Boseneath to Haiitane, while from
each extremity a staunch teetotaller would look
with deepening interest across the vast expanse,
and watch the successftil cultivation of the new-
product, which is to restore to Ceylon a long epoch
of agricultural prosperity and liiiancial crpdit. —
Oar.

April i, i8S6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS'T,

689

" SALT FOE THE USE OF CATTLE AND FOB
INDUSTKIAL AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES.

Govcrnnieiit of India i-esolutiou offering a liberal
rewarJ for the discovery of a satisfactory process
for reiulering salt mifit "for hnniau consumption while
luavius it fit for cattle, Ac, conmuinicatcd to the
Board of Revenue and the Director of Revenue
Setllcn\ent and Agricultiu'e ; and ordered to be pub-
lislicd in the Fort ,st. Ocoiye Ga-^ctU and laid on
the Editor's table."

Such is the title of a paper we have received
front the Government of Madras and in which a
vast amount of correspondence is smnmarizctl.

We ijuole from tbe Resolution of the Government
of India as follows : —

t)ue of the chief objections taken to the salt duties
is that, owing to the resulting high prices, cattle are
stiuteil in their supply of salt, while nmiiufacturers and
agricultarists are required to piiy duty on salt em-
ployed in iudustry and agriculture. The attention of
the Government of India has been given to the matter
for some years iu the hope that an unobjectionable
method of freeing from duty salt required for tlie pur-
poses above indicated might sooner or later be dis-
covered.

No satisfactory way of effecting this object and at
the same time of protecting the State from risk of
fraud has as yet been found. The issue of duty. free
.salt ou a simple guarantee that it will be used for
certain purposes and for no others is, iu the absence of
special safeguards, out of the question, while the
provision of such safeguards would entail the entertain-
ment of establishments at inordinate expense, or the
adoption of measures harassing to the sectiong of
the public concerned. The only plan which would
fully meet the requirements of "the case would be the
deuaturalisatiou of salt so as to render it unlit for
human cousuniptiou, whilst it remained tit for use by
cattle and as manure, or for industrial pm'poBos, the
salt not being easily restorablo to an edible condition
by any of the methods which could iu ordinary
circumstances be employed in India. If salt were thus
prepared, it might be freely issued at little over cost
price without daufjer to the "revenue. So far, however,
all attempts made discover such a process have proved
more or leas unisatisfactory iu their results.

The first" experiment was made in 1.S7G by i\Ir.
^\■ood, then Chemical Examiner to the Goverimient
of Bengal, consequent on an application from IMossrs.
Burn it (Jo., of Calcutta, for the remission of duty on
salt used by them in the manufacture of glazed
stoneware pipes and similar articles. i\Ir. AVood
reported that ho was unable to find out a pro-
cess which fully complied with the conditions
laid down, namely, the discovery of an inexpensive
nietlud whereby salt may be rendered unfit tor human
consumption and can be attain rendered edible only by
a process the cost of which wouUl equal or exceed the
dutv levied on it. But he suggested an alternative
method, namely, the admixture of salt witli coal tar,
tile tarred salt being issued to manufacturers of
glazed stoneware free of duty, upon a personal guar-
antee for its use exclusively iu manufacture. This
method was adopted and is still practised, the salt
being is.Mied subject to certain special rules framed by
the G'lvernmeut of Bengal. The arrangement works
satisfactorily on the limited scale on which it has been
tried, but constant supervision is required, and tarred
salt cannot be used except in pottery manufacture.

In 1677 Dr. H. Warth was directed to make ex-
periments after the German method with some of
the refuse salt (pf tbe Punjab mines. A mixture
of salt with colocynth (CilrulhiH coloci/iit/nnj, was
and another with lignite, oilcake, and cotton
seed were tried, bnt the result iu both cases
was unsatisfactory, pure salt being easily recovered
from the mixtures, .and the experiments were
discontinued. Ou application to the Secretary of
State for information showiuf; precisely the process
of denaturalisition employed in Germany it appeared
that salt was isauecl for agncultural purposes
in two forme, (1) a coarse powdtr coasisting of a
87

mixture of oxide of iron and Vermouth powdi'r (Artc-
»»i.s(« iilj.-^i.itliiiiiii), and (2) blocks for beasts to lick,
the salt being mixed w ith oxide of iron and charcoal
powder. Salt for manure was mixed witli charcoal
dust, ashes, lamp-black, or ordinary soot, in dillercut
proportions. These mixtures, though effective in
Germany, would not be so in this country where
the salt duty is much heavier, and cheaper meana
of restoring the salt exist.

In 1 87D the Government of Madras forwarded an ap-
plication I'rom l\Ir. Bartir for permission to use duty-
free salt in th(! manufacture of manure. The Ciiiii-
missioner of Salt Itcvenne, Mai!ins. referred to tho
various [u-ocesses of medicating salt used iu Kraiu-e,
and recommended compliance with Mr. Barter's applic-
ation, pro vied the salt was first mixed with poudretto
in accordance with the French method. Thi^ Bo.ud
supported the recommendation of tho .Salt Oommis-
sioner, but the Government of India considered that
the issue of a mixture of the kind to the jieople of this
country was obviously objectionable as leading to serious
misapprehension of motives. The proposal was there-
fore iie^'atived.

This objection svoukl not apply in Ceylon, but
the objection of the easy recovery of this salt would,
we suspect, remain.

The European methods of medicating salt having been
found unsuitahle, and the experiments made in Bengal
and the Punjab having proved unsuccessful, the Govern-
ment ul India, iu its resolution of the 22nd August
1SS3, citeil in the preamble, invited Local Govcrnment.s
and private individuals to make careful and systematic
experiments lor tbe discovery of .satisfactory process.
Various attempts have been made in conipliauce with
these instructions, but none of them can be considered
completely satisfactory.

Then follow details of experiments.

We quote again ; —

The Oheuiical E.xaminer to the Goverume.nt of Bengal
is of opinion that a solution of the problem cannot bo
expected under the conditions laid down, wliiili in
their entirety are impracticable. This view is concurred
iu by the Chemical Kxaminer to the Onvcrnmciit of
the Punjab, and in Madras and Bombay it has been held
that the problem is insoluble.

As already stated in the resolution of 22nd August
1883, the Government of India still ho]ies that a pro-
cess may be discovered which, if not ciimplctidy satisfy-
ing all the conditions hitherto prescrihed, ni.ay yet be
sutiicient fur practical purpcses. In this view, the
Governor-General in Council is prepared to grant a
rew.ard not exceeding i;5,000 to the inventor or dis-
coverer of a process which will satisfy the main con-
ditions. Lamely, (n) that the cost of the process must
be moderate, not exceeding about 4 annas a niaund,
and (h) the preparation must be such tliat edible salt
cannot be easily extracted from it by any of the ordi-
nary processes iu use amongst native salt-workers. If
several good processes are suggested, the highest reward
will be given to the inventor of the process which may
appear to Government to be the most satisfactory in all
respects, and a smaller proportionate reward will be
grantefl for the next best process.

The details of the attempts hitherto made to discover
a suitable method of denaturalisation have been print-
ed in the form of a pamphlet, copy of which may bo
obtained on application by persons who desire to
make e.-jperimenta.

Meantime it soenia to as, that, if kainit can bo
obtained at the present moderate rates, it lias for
manurial purposes a great advantage over chloride
of sodium in the considerable iiroportion of sulph-
ate of potash it contains.

DON'T DIE IN THE HOUSE

"Hough on Ivats " clears nut rats, mice, belles,
roaches, bed-bugs, ilies, ants, insects, moles, chipmnnkH,
gophers. W. E. Smith & Co.. M«lias, Solo Agents,

690

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Apirl 1, 1886.

CEYLON PBODUCE IN THE LONDON
MARKETS.

Coffee — Cinchona — Tea — Cocoa.

Our recent home advices, by mail, inform us
that the uiiirkets for nearly all Ceylon produoo
(tea only being a notable exception) still show the
effects of the general depression, prominent through-
out the past year in nearly every branch of busi-
ness and trade. Exeesive supplies check specul-
ation and commercial enterprise, and so far it is
impossible to guess how soon the general improve-
ment BO freely prophesied is to show itself. The
Coffee market, in spite of the Dutch sales having
gone a shade above valuations, remains quiescent
and inactive except for fine qualities of Ceylon
plantation new crop, which being scarce command
a good deal of attention. A steady market there-
fore for Ceylon coffee, the crop being so small, is
most probable. Supplies from Brazil continue on
a large scale, and the feeling in London is that
the patience of the Ceylon coffee planter if he ex-
pects to see Brazil 'out' must be inexhaustible.
They do say, however, that the old stocks in the
interior of Brazil have now been mostly forwarded
to Kio and Santos. On these points the following
remarks from the latest Circular of Messrs. James,
Cook A' Co. (Feb. 12th) are of importance : —

The figures telegraphed last week from America
were too late for our report ; the stock '28,000 tons
marked a reduction of over ri.OOO tons for the
month, and the deliveries for January, of all kinds,
were '21^,000 tons. The following remarks from Messrs.
Miiitord & Co.'s Review of the American Coffee
Trade, are of interest ; — " The consumption of
Aiiiurica is now about 9.31 pounds per capita,
agaiusl 7. til in ISTi). While the United States as
a whole is the largest consumer of Coffee in the
world, its population is not so miiversally addicted
to its use as in Holland, where the per capita
consumption is about 21 lb., or in Denmark or
Belgium, where it amounts to about IHi Iti." In Great
Britain the use is less than one ponnd per head, but
the London stock has fallen to an exceptionally low
point — short of i>,000 tons, and the little good Coffee
suitable for the use of this comitry is now so difficult to
obtain, that the Euglish market must be a strong
attraction for liigldy valued qualities, especially as of
the cliief competing sorts, the blue Javas, less than
30,01)0 bags remain to be sold.

With tlie short export of Java still to be felt tliis
Bcasuii, somewhat less afloat from the Brazils, and
late shipments of East India, a deficiency roughly
estimated at about 15,000 tons, the statistical pos-
ition must further improve. The imports into Holland
were light in December, and during January are oidy
3,782 tons, against 19,238, and ll,0ti0 in 'the same
monttia of two former years. The stocks therefore
will -iliew a suh.'tautial diminution, but the French
oflici il returns are not yet to hand.

There if nothing new as regards crop reports, for
Ki" tile avernge seems to be 4^ million of bags and
for Santos about OJ million bags ; under such cTrcum-
stancts an export of not more than 6§ to 6J million
bags should be looked for from the Brazils.

Ci.Nc'iioNA has become dull, and the market will
take some little time to recover the heavy exports
I'ecently made from this island. The trade base
their calculations on comparisons made with pre-
vious years, and nothing will convince them that
the prospective supplies are anything but enormous.
It is Imped that by this time the depressing in-
fluences have been fully discounted and that the
next movement will be an upward one. The
Btati.li.-.'il llgures at the end of January are not so
favourable as at the end of the previous month. The
total landings for January amounted to 8,071 pack-

ages against .'),G(i8 packages in 1885, whilst the
deliveries fell to H,:)C5 packages against 6,647 in
1885, the stock thereby being raised to 66,400
packages against t)2,'247 packages at the end of
1885, and against 79,051 at end of January 1885.

We tind from a general statistical survey of
Tf.a up to the end of 1885 a sound position and
one denoting substantial strength in itself. The
total imports into the United Kingdom for 1885
amounted to 212,375,000 lb. against 215,212,000 lb.
in 1881, and 222,006,000 lb. in 18.S.S, a falling-off on
the two years of 10,000,!tOO lb.

The deliveries for home consumption show a
total of 182J million lb., against nearly 171 million
lb. two years ago, in fact, consumption per head
of tea in the United Kingdom has increased to
4-98 lb. per head against 4J lb. per head some four
years ago. The export deliveries exceeded 42
million lb., which added to the home deliveries
show a total of 224,493,000 lb. against 219,709.000 lb.
in 18S4 and 212,889,000 in 1883. The stocks,
moreover, have fallen from 125 millions lb. in
1883 to 119 millions lb. in 1884 and to 104 millions
lb. in 1885. The average price in bond, moreover,
has increased from 6.^d in 18H1, 4Jd in 1882, ■4Jd
in 1883, 5Jd in 1884 to 6jd in 18.85, so th»t, on
»11 sides, the close of 1H85 shows a uniquely
favourable position ; for, whilst imports are less
and the slocks greatly lower, the deliveries lor home
consumption have increased, and show a higher
average per head of the population than formerly,
which conclusively proves that tea is the special
beverage of the British people. The price in bond,
too, is higher than it has been for four years.
These facts and figures in themselves would formerly
have resulted in more active movements in the
London market than has been recently witnessed ;
but the commercial public are no longer guided so
much by the old method of stocks and deliveries
as they are by prospective supplies, aud areas
under cultivation, information regarding which
is more readily and accurately obtainable than it
ever was before. The able article in the Xliilist
on Indian Tea Companies, and referring especially
to Ceylon tea (which we are at length enabled to
republish in full under " Planting Intelligence '"f,
will be read with interest by residents in this
island. The commencement of the article deals
with the sound statistical position tea has attained,
and the hopeful view it is possible to take of its
future. It dates this satisfactory turn in the tea
trade from the threatened rise in the tea duties,
which gave an impetus to the market never since
wholly lost. It goes on to show how prospective
supplies are the real guides in these days to the
future of any market, and, until some reliable data
is available, markets remain in a state of suspense.
Whatever may be said about Assam and Burma,
we do not think Ceylon has much to fear in the
competition of Brazil, Florida aud Natal, for even
if these countries can grow tea of a sufficiently
good quality, the absence of cheap labour is an
impossible olistncle to any but a very liuiited outturn.

Our local public, and most of the friends of
the colony at home, are now quite aware of the
capabilities of Ceylon as regards the production of
tea, but it will, "perhaps, be yet some time liefore
these are thoroughly understood by the world at
large, although we must say that this article in
the Stdtift demonstrates that people aie beginning
to understand that there is a " formidable residuum
of hard fact " in the future of Ceylon tea. aud in
the cheapness of its production and manufacture;

In connection with our remarks aiul the L-nnsumpi
tion of our coming " staples ', (lea and cocoa) in
the United Kiugdom, the following table must
aSotd encourapement, while it is a coincidence to

April i, iS86,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

601

say the least that '• poor coffee " should have
(alien otlf in consumption in Britain by nearly 1-lOth
lb. per head since the time coffee leaf disease
began to work mischief in Ceylon : —

The following figures, extracted from an annual
table compiled by Messrs. Francis Reid it Co. of
Liverpool, show the average quantities of the lead-
ing artiees of food, etc., consumed in the United King-
dom by each head of the population during every
few years since 1S50, together with the net amounts
of income tax payable over the same period, viz.: —

■x«X
oraoDiii

£- t- ,-<

g 8

■s^i.ndSg.S 2

OC'-li-Ht-HrtTHO

fee o

oaouqox £

iC f ■»?'

•00\ri ^ ^

'-''-00c 0000 000
r- ^r: ^ -i 3D -X CO -I' <M 00

•wSug jd

The " estimated" population was 27,123,000 in 1850;
28,ir>4,000 in ISoG ; -iH.'lil.OOO in 1860 ; aO,OtH"),000 in
1»G5 ; M1,UM),0<^0 in 1870 ;-i-2,I(X).(XX) in 1875; 34.000,OC>0
in 1880 ; 3(),000,000 in 1883 ; and 36,600,000 last year.

0

0

ir^

3

0

ec

"Tf<

1ft

V-

t^

X

X

X

X

X

^

00

00

00

THE MAKING OF BOXES BY MACHINERY.

A good good deal of opposition has lately been
manifested to machine-made boxes, and the public
has been invited to boycott goods put up in them.
Mr. Geor?e Blair, socialist and box-maker, was
lately interrogated on the subject by a New York
reporter. The gist- of his remarks is as follows : —

" About ten years ago there was no such thing
as a machine-made box. Nowadays, in some trades,
there is no such thing as a hand-made box.
Formerly the knocking together of small boxes for
soap, oil. etc.. was a trade by itself, at which
nearly 500 men in this city made fair wages. The
wood was cutout by machinery, and the workmen
nailed the pieces together. jX.bout 1871 some man
improved considerably upon a machine which ham-
mered in at one blow all the nails one side of a
box. Since then improvement has followed im-
provement until now you pour a keg of nails in at the
top of the machine and a boy feeds in the wood at
the bottom. All that the boy does is to put in the
right pieces and in the proper order, the machine
doing all the rest. The machine works so well and
so ta«t that the men have been driven out of the
business by boys, the price of such work having
dwindled until no man can make a living at it. In
1873 the Standard Oil Company paid 83 for knocking
together 100 boxes. Thanks to the machine, it now
gets the same work done fur eleven cents. The
work of knocking the boxes together costs less than do
the nails used. The boxes I speak of are used to
put oil cans in, and may measure 20 inches in

length, 10 inches in heiglit and 14 inches in width.
The Standard Oil Company saves a fortune every
year by the use of the.se niathiues, and so it is with
soap boxes, some starch boxes, shoe boxes, etc., in
tact every sort of box that is made in very largo
quantities and of one particular size.— Iniltistrial
South, Dec. 1885.

COLOMBO COMMERCIAL CO., LIMITED.

The annual Accounts are now presented to Share-
holders, viz : Balance Sheet made up to iiOth Septem-
ber 1H85, Profit and Loss Account for year ending
'MMh September 1885. It will be seen from the
Balance Sheet that £11,100 of Debentures have
been paid oft during the year, thus for the future
effecting a considerable annual saving in Interest ;
the Company's Estates also now stand at a cost of
some £1,500 less th.an by last account. The other
items in the Balance Sheet do not call for special
remark. The result of the year's working as shewn
by Profit and loss Account, is a profit of £l!"24
5s Gd and deducting from this the debit balance
brought forward from last year of £223 Os Ud, there
remains to the credit of the account £101 4s 7d.
The Directors recommend that £370 of the above
sum be now applied to the payment of a dividend
of 2 per cent, on the Preference Shares for the
year ending 30th September last. The above result
is regarded as satisfactory by the Board, taking into
account that on most of the Estates with which
the Company is connected, and generally throughout
the Island, a large proportion of the coffee is being
supplanted by tea, the latter at present being in
most cases too young to give returns, while the
coffee crop continues steadily to decrease by reason
of lessened area, leaf disease, and bad seasons. An
important feature of the past year has been the
fall in the price of Silver, which, while cheapen-
ing the cost of cultivating and working estates,
emphasises the desirability of making addtions to
the Exchange Reserve Fund as soon as opportunity
offci-s. The items in this year's Profit and Loss
Account have been calculated at an Exchange of
1/(1 per rupee. For the year now current the
outlook as regards coffee is not good ; the pre-
sent price is the lowest ; of recent jears, and the
crop will be the smallest ever received from Ceylon.
The following figures may be found of interest
as shewing the falling oft' in the coffee enterprise
of the Island.

Ceylon Coffee,
.Shipped for the year ending 30th Sept. 1S75 908,000 cwt.
„ „ 1882 564,UIH) ,,

„ „ l«8:i 2«0,000 „

„ „ 1884 323,0(X) „

„ „ 1885 314,000 „

Estimate „ , 1881! 180,000 „

The shrinkage of business which the above figures
coupled with low prices denote is enormous, and
could not have been faced by the Colony had not
new products come to its aid. Amongst these
cinchona has proved a most useful adjunct,
but owing to large supplies the price of thia
product has fallen so low that its cultivation
has ceased to be fairly remunerative, except under
vei'y favourable conditions. The above crop figures
also shew that the volume of business lost thrr."''h
the failure of such a stap'.e as coffee nan . ly
be replaced by an article of general consumption,
and in this respect the product on which the
future prosperity of the Island depends has even
an advantage over coffee, the consumption of tea
being almost universal and the demand for iiood
tea practically unlimited. Passing from coffee to tea
prospects are distinctly lavoiable. Large areas
have been, and are being planted, and are thriv-

6(32

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

ing well, and the leaf realising satisfactory prices.
Tlie following figures shew the rapidity with which
Ihe growth of tea in Ceylon is being extended.

CliiXON TEA. lb.

.'^hipped for the year ending 30th Sept. 1882 623,000
„ „ 1883 1,523,000

„ ,. 1884 2,263,000

„ 1885 3,797,000

Kstlnmte „ „ 18S6 6,500,000

and it is anticipated that the returns will continue
to increase in about the same ratio until, at no
distant date, sliiijnients reach a minimum of
')0, 000,000 lbs. annually. Tea from the Com-
pany's property has already been received and
sold, and there are now 1,000 acres under Tea
on the Company's Estates, the bulk of which
will be giving crop by the end of this year.
The general business of the Company steadily in-
creases, and your Directors look with every contid-
enee to very satisfactory results so soon as a general
revival in business is brought about by means of the
Tea now in plant. Mr. Brown, Chairman of the
Board, left for Ceylon at the beginning of December,
and will inspect all the properties in which the
Company is interested. Mr. L. Famin, a member
of the Board, retires from otlice on this occasion,
and being eligible, offers himself for re-election.
Messrs. Deloitte, Dcver, GrifBths & Co. the Auditors,
also offered themselves for re-election.

By order, J. Alec. Bobebtb, Secretary.

London, 30th January 1880.

Balance Sheet, .30tii SErTEJiBEB 1885.

Oapit:il autbori.sed r— 10,000 Ordinary Skires of £10
-uch, £100,(100. 20,000 6 ner cent Preference Shares of
Cn each, £100,000.

To Capital issund— £ b. d. £ s. d.

10,000 Ordinary Shares
.;7paid... ■ ... 70,000 0 0

Les^ Calls outstanding... 575 0 0

G9.425 0 0

3,630 Preference Shares,
e.--) p.iid... ... 13,150 0

To Debentures...

„ Bills I'ayable

„ KKchange Reserve Fund

„ Loans, Ceylon

,, Sundry Creditors, Ceylon

„ Sundry Creditors, Loudon

,, ProCt and l-.oss Balance

87,575 0 0

7,400 0 0

3.715 6 2

8,769 0 4

7,400 0 0

3,977 0 8

4,517 1 1

401 4 7

By Ocilombo E.stablishraentl-
Freehold Premises, Buildings, Machiu

ery tS:c...
,, Kslates...

Amount secured on Freehold Estate
'„ Advances against crops
Sundry Debtor.s, Ceylon
„ London
'', Stock of Bones, Stores, I'mniture,

Carts &c., ill Ceylon
,. Produce in Loudon and alloat
,. OHice Furuituce London
„ Gash at Bankers and .in hand, Ceylon

London

£123,744 12 10

£

s.

d.

. 20,000

0

0

. 70,000

0

0

a 4,632

y

2

13.741

12

5

. 2,226

12

1

. 1,392

5

7

.. 1,426

7

7

.. 7,019

6

2

1511

0

U

n 1,043

6

0

on 2,112

13

10

£123,744 12

10

THE INDIAN TEA COMPANIES.
When the commercial horizon is bein" anxiously
Bcaimed at every point for indications of the much-
needed trade revival, the tea trade has, of course,
not escaped attention. In our issue of November
2Stli wo showed that in that market cverythmg
pointed towards a decided recovery in prices. The
deliveries for consumption have for some time back been
stcadilv increiising. while the supply luis been fall-
ing oil and .slocks have hii-u sbrinkiii;^ niatorially.
W'u might have gone a little farther, and aUiiiued

that the recovery had actually begmi. An im-
provement has been going on for months, which
cannot be adeiinately measured by mere rise in
price. It may be more correctly judged by the
altered tone of the market, and the much more
hopeful view taken of its future. The new season
is in these respects exhibiting a marked contrast
to that of 1881-85. Then everything tended down-
ward except stocks, which accumulated from week
to week. Importers felt lugubrious, brokers were
puzzled, and the retail trade was completely be-
wildered. No one could tell what was to happen
next. The shrewdest operator could hardly make up
his mind whether to buy or sell. Altogether, it was
a most uncomfortable season, and but for a lucky
accident wliicli happened towards its close, it might
have had even a worse ending than it did. In the
early months of the cm'rent year, when prices were
at almost the lowest level on record, tlie apprehen-
sion of a rise in the duty caused large deliveries,
and gave a strength to thCiiuarket which it has never
since wholly lost. This was an interesting example
of what the Americans distinguish as a '•psychological
boom." There was no substantial gi-omid for it in
the condition of the market as then known, but it
changed the prevailing temper. It was an agree-
able, though only imaginative break in the loug-con-
tiuued depression, and the current, once turned, baa
kept on pretty steadily in its new course till now it
seems to have acquired a genuine impetus.

The new season 1885-86 has opened, therefore,
under mnch more hopeful auspices than its prede-
cessor did. As we demonstrated the other day by a
very simple and convincing set of figures, the
"statistical situation" has greatly improved. It
seems anomalous that such an improvement as is
implied in the diminution, of stocks to the extent of
one-half, should have had as yet so little effect on
prices. Nothing is more common, how*ever, than
anomailes of this kind in speculative markets. Wlien
carefully investigated, explanations of them are not
difficult to find. Markets, as a rule, follow very
slowly the facts by which they are supposed to be
regulated. Operators may see these facts clearly
enough, and be taking note of them all the while, but
they may be also taking (note of otherithings no less
important. In the case of the tea trade, the increase
of cousumption and the diminuation of stocks, vital
considerations as they may be, are only seeondary
in comparison with prospective supplies. These are
the ruling questions of the future, and the Tea
Market is at the present time in a very interesting
state of suspense with regard to them. Rapid as
the growth of the tea trade has been in the past
ten years, it is still in its infancy. The capacity
of tea-growing countries is far from having been
adequately tested, while of late , the industry lias
extended itself into new disiricts, where it.s develop-
ment may be great beyond present anticipation.
Fresh capital is beingi poured iuto Assam, where
there is a practically unlimited field for its absorp-
tion. If we are going to annex Upper Burma, and
give free scope to Anglo-Indian cnter)nise in th.it
direction tea-gardens may soon be heard of thei'e
which will press the Chinese h:irder even iliaii those
of Assam. Then there is Ceylon. The history of
tea-planting there is truly a romance of modern
enterprise. Five years ago Ceylon was brought to
the verge of bankrutcy through the ruin of its coffee
planters. As a desperate resort, it betook itself to
tea, and the face of the island has already under-
gone a marvellous change. Plantations which were
deserted and rapidly reverting to jungle have been
transformed into tea-gardens, which promise to be-
come as remunerative as coffee ever was in its
best days.

In the Tea Market of the future, Ceylon is going
to be a very important factor. Within the past year
or two Ceylon tea has dawned upon the trade aa a
sudden revelation. All at once there dropped, as it
were, from the clouds a strange tea with an aroma
of Its own, and a quality almost unrivalled. To pro-
duce this superior and unique article requires, ap-
parently, not more hibour or expense than the
coarser'kiuds growu elsewhere. Its growers say they

April i, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

693

can deliver it iu London at 6A per lb., or little more
tbau halt the minimum cost of Assam tea. Nor is
it, like Tokay or Johannisberger, limited to favoured
spots. It gi-o\YS indifferently over all the hillsides
of ('oylon, and when the young gardens come into
full bearing, it may be supplied without stint. The
crop of the current season is expected to roach
6,(X)0,W0 lb., of fully 10 per cent of the whole produc-
tion of Indian tea. The Ceylon planters predict that
they will be easily able to double the quantity next
year, and tlu'ee years hence they hope to ha\'e their
export up to 20,0110,000 lb. There may be a little
boasting in this, which those who indulge in it will be
the first to regret when they tLnd that it has drawn
down on themselves a flood of competiou. But a
large margin may be written off for too optimist
anticipations, and a formidable residuum of hard
fact be left. Until the capabilities of Ceylon have
been definitely ascertained, both as regards cost and
volume of production, tl>ere can be no very steady
level of prices for tea. As regards Assam, import-
ers have now a pretty clear idea of bottom values.
The industry is to a Large extent in the hands of
London or Calcutta Companies, which give their
shareholders the fullest and most exact information
as to their speculations. Very few articles of Colon-
ial produce have their .history from year to year
Ro carefully and reliably written as Indian tea.
At the close of each season it is made known what
every plantation has yielded, what the cost of
growth has been, aud how much per lb. has been
realized.

The Indian Tea District Association, which has
its headquarters in London, embraces nearly thirty
different Companies, and every year it publishes an
abstract of their Reports. This valuable document
shows that the tea crop of the twenty-six Com-
panies amounted in 1884 to nearly Uh millions lb.;
and that the average cost was llJd'per lb. The
average price realized in Mincing Lane was lid
per lb.; consequently, the financial results of the
season turned on the comparatively small margin
of 'iid per lb. With some individual Companies it
was considerably less than that, while with others
it was ,a good deal more. The importance of qual-
ity as an element of success is very conclusively
demonstrated by these averages. The range of
prices realized over all the twenty-six Companies is
very remarkable. It begins at OJd per lb., and
rises to Is 8d. Equally wide and apparently erratic
are the differences in the cost of production, tlieir
minimum being also 9Jd per lb., and their max-
imum Is 7d. One-half of the Companies pay more
than Is per lb. for their tea landed in London.
f)nly two paid less than lOd per lb., whicli may,
Iheiefore, be taken as the minimum cost of pro-
duction for Indian tea in 1N84. Several of the old-
est and best-managed Compaaiies showed an aver-
age of from Hid to is per lb. The Assam Com-
pany, for instance, which heads the list in size of
crop — its production lust year having been nearly
29 million lb. — had a profit of only lid per lb. on
its tea. Nevertheless, that narrow niargin was
sufficient tor a dividend of 14 per cent on its capital.
The average cost of growing was 10 l-.'Jth d. per lb.
and the price realized ll^d. As the Directors ob-
serve in their Report, such a price would a few
years ago have been ruinous ; but owing to the
great reduction in working expenses, and the im-
proved machinery in use, it is made to yield a fair
return on the capital invested. Three other Com-
panies paid last year even better dividends than the
Assam — namely, the Jorehaut. the Brahmapootra,
and the Brokai, which divided 15 per cent each.
Their ad\antage was derived mainly from superior
quality — the .Torehaut and the Brahmapootra hav-
ing realized Is 3d each, while the Borokai made the
very high average of Is 8d per lb.

8pe;iknig in general terms, the financial position
of tlie Indian U'ea Companies amounts to this —
tliat with the best known appliances and the most
careful management, they can grow tea at a mini-
mum otlOdperlb. In such a season as 1881-H.5 that
would yield very little profit on medium crops,
while on inferior sorts it might mean an actual

loss. But on all teas commanding Is per lb.
or over, it represents a substantial profit.
Taking Souchongs as a standard, they have
been selling during the past week at fld to lOd for
low grades, and from lljd to 12id for fair to medi-
um. As times go, this, though not a brilliant, is
a sound, healthy market for the producer. All the
indications point also to continued strength, if not
to a further rise. There is certainly some tempt-
ation to bold o])erators to lay hold of the market
and try to twist it up, as they have been doing
with copper. Such an incident may develop almost
any day ; and the fact that it has not yet shown
itself betokens risks lying below the surface, and
visible only to the initiated eye. One of these
risks may be the vagueness of our information as
to the new sources of supply that threaten the
market. Not only Ceylon, nut Java, Brazil, Florida,
and even Natal are all coming competitors to be
prepared for. Should tea-growing take firm root in
all these places, the marketable supply might in a
very short time exliibit a startling increase, for it
requires only three or four years to bring a tea-garden
into bearing. Stocks and deliveries are no doubt
very material data for the trade to be guided by,
but there are other factors equally essential to a broad
forecast of such an industry as tea-growing. The
tea trade is evidently entering on a new period of
expansion and development, all the possible results
of which cannot be foreseen, either in iVIincing Lane
or out of it. — Loudon Statist, Jan. '23rd.

EEPORT ON THE GOVERNMENT CIN-
CHONA PLANTATIONS IN JAVA FOR
THE -Ith QUARTER 1885.
{Translated for tlie '^Ceylon Observer.")

The weather continued very dry during October.
At the beginning of November the rains set in in force,
whilst in December again some dry days were recorded.
Iu the last month of the past quarter severe winds
were experienced, which did some damage to the
plantations, especially at Nagrak. Of the croji of 18S5,
at the end of the year 401,612 Am.sterdam pounos
had been sent to Batavia, whilst about 20,000 lb. re-
mained iu the packiug-houses and on the estates. The
productinn would have been considerably larger, had
the large amount of rain aud the scarcity of labor uot
interfered. The tlierough working of the soil carried
out during the east monsoon made its good effects
felt, e,specially shortly after the setting iu of the rains,
and the plants exhibit a general vigorous growth.
The production of 1886 ought therefore considerably
to exceed that of the past year. About the middle
of November a commencement was made with the
upkeep of the young gardens, the replanting of the
uprooted patches amd the laying out of graft plant-
ations iit Tirtasari, which operationsare being carried
out uninterruptedly as far as possible. During Nov-
ember and December sales of cinchona seed were held,
which together realized /6,688'75. The 1,000 Ledgeri-
ana grafts sold at the last auction fetched f2,730. On
22ud Sept. 188.5 at Amsterdam a second sale of cin-
chona bark of the crop of 1884 was held, with far
better results than that of 4th November ISS.'i. The
highest price obtained at the last auction was /"S-Ol
per half kilogram fer .succinibra barks iu long unbroken
quills, whilst Ledgeilana shavings realized up to/2*94
per half kilo. The total result of botli sales was about
.f360,000. By Government order of 30th Dee. 1885,
No. 20, G. Toekamp Lammers, after having been for
nearly four years actively employed in the Govern-
ment enterprize as nurseryman, was jippninted per-
mimently to this post, whilst by the same order the
fi-xed establishment was increase by two pupil nver.seers.

Van RoMtJNDi:,
Director, Govt. Cinchona Enterprize.

Bandoeng, 5th Jan. 188G.

6y4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Apuil i, 1886,

BEE-KEEPING IN INDIA.

A paper from the Madras Uovernment recoi-ding
the failure of experiments to breed indigenous
bees in hives contains some curious information : —
Mr. Morris remarks that the EngMsh comb-fouuil-
ation bus five cells to the inch, whereas the worker
comb made by the Indian bee has six cells to the
inch, and he bad, before he could get a swarm to
settle at all, to remove the loundation and substitute
for it comb taki'U from a wild swarm.

iVIr. NichoNiiu observes that the English hive is
much too large for the diminutive Indian bee, and
thiuk.s that no greal profit can be dciiveil from the
iudigt-nous insect, a swarm of which cannot, so he
says, be expected to yield more than lU lb. of honey
in a season. He suggests tlie introduction of the
English bee, and informs that he himself is attempt-
ing to obtain a few (jiieen bees from Australia, whence
be has previcju.sly tried to procure bees, wliieb, how-
ever, died at Colombo, where they were detained for
about a fortnight. Tbe.se or the English may po.ss-
ibly thrive in thecool climate of the hil, but whether
they will .succeed in the plains seems rather doubt-
ful. Htill beiw, wild and tame, are to l.e found all
over Australia, and if they can, as they do, bear
the climate of the northern part of that continent,
they might pos.sibly stand that of India.

Both Messrs. Morris and Nicholson remark that there
is no diiiicuty in managing the indigenous bee in
chatty-bives. Several hives of this description belong-
ing to i\Ir. Moriis are stated to contain strong and
flourishing colonies.

Dr. ISbortt and Mr. Morris promise further experi-
ments with the English hives, but if, as may be
inferred from the information given above, the hives
are unsuited to Iiuii m bees, ultimate success can
liardly be looked for.

Resolution — It is satisfactory that Dr. Shortt and
Mr. Morris propose to pursue their investigations.
Kesults will be looked for with interest.

ftir. ftlorris remarks that the Indian hill-bee con-
.structs bix cells to the inch, while the Engli.sh
domestic bee constructs five, and in view of the
former boing dimmutive ami yiebling comparatively
.so little honey. Mr. Nicholson suggest the iiitro-
dution of the English domestic bee, but the board
observe that one of the low-country bees of this Pre-
sidency, which not uncommonly builds combs rrtun
i' or 1' li"' to 4' or 5' wide, and as drtrp in human
ilwellirigs and is not irascible like the larger rock bee,
yields a very ample supply of excellent honey, and
constructed a coiub containing four cells to the inch,
the ceils being us much as IJ inch iti length, aud
the worker bee being larger th.-m the English worker,
antl very nearly as large as the English droiui.

The species would probably be easy of domestic-
ation, judging from tbeir quiet occupation of human
dwellmgs, aud their domestication is very desirable,
but unfortunately, there is a vulgar prejudice that
they bring bad lortunr' to the house they settle in, and
no efforts at ilomes'ication are likely to be made by
the natives of this country, who only destroy them
for their honey.

The but: referred to by the B">ard in their pro-
ce. dings, dalerl 'J8th April ISS.'i, No. 1,270, is Ajji.i
tlort>uta, variety Tistanii (Smith).

Its natural habit is not to enter its hive by an
aperture, but eoustruct a hanging comb. But it does
not ttience follow that it canuot be domesticated.

Tea drinkers will be interested to learn tb.at over
half a million pounds of willow-leaves, disguised as
tea, wore sent by America to Shanghai last year, to
bo slii]>ped thence as Chinese tea.

KtiMAoN Tea Uisthicts. — We are now in the midst
of our cultivating season. It has so far been a very
fav.i)u-able one, both for pruning, manuring and hoeing.
The temperature lias ruled biw this mouth, and after
all the moisture we have liad since the new year, — 4
inches of rain and melted snow — wft are now in want
of some bright sunshiny weather. — rinntirs' OmMe.

Fungi ox Roots of Tea Bushes. — We received a
fungus-covered tea-bush-root, with the following
letter, from Dikoya :— " By same tappal I send
yon a tea-bush-root covered with a red fungus, a
parasite growth, and I shall feel much obliged
by your sending it to your correspondent versed
in .such matters, as we are losing a considerable
percentage of young tea bushes from this cause."
The gentleman to whom we referred thus responds:—
" I regret to say I can give no opinion." We would
advise our correspondent to examine the soil in
which the bushes are growing for the origin of
the evil.

LiBERiAN Coffee picking is the order of the day
here, and in spite of the Kandyan coolies being
scarcely an fail at estate work they manage to pick
the "golden bean" fairly well. Their average pick-
ing per day is about sixty-four catties a head (aliout
a bushel and a half) of ripe fruit, when consider-
ing the age of the trees, a little more than throe
and a half years, argues well for coffee in tlie future.
The trees are laden with crop in every stage from
the well set blossom to the matured cherrv. While
on the subject of picking it is to be regretted .that
the " giants of old, ' we have all heard of, did not
in foriuer days visit these shores, and leave a few
of their "cubits of stature" behind, as among the
coolies here, scarcely is there one that could n't walk
under a four foot six stand, and of course the higher
branches are out of reach or are frequently dr.agged
down and broken. Pepper is also doing we'll and in
spite of the large orders for cuttings and seed it is
believed the supply will equal the demand. Large
nurseries for cuttings are in course of construction
and with the rich soil here, this useful product is
almost certain to turn out a success. The Ceylon
cocoa is growing apace, full of crop and blossom
and reminds one not a little, of its parent trees
in the Dumbara valley of Ceylon. — Dritixh North
Borneo MeraJd.

Indian Tea and Ceylon Tea have for some years
been running China teas very close in the race
for popularity, and have attained a very high
position for themselves in the English market ;
but it is something new to liear of South .\frican
teas " entering the lists " of dealers in this article.
Tea cultivation on an experimental scale has been
carried on for some time in Natal, with such success
that one of the planters is sending a " sample"
of a ton of his produce to the forthcoming Colonial
and Indian Exhibition. In fact, the rapid ex-
tension of tea-planting in that Colony has attracted
the attention of Ceylon planters, several of whom
have paid a visit tliere to judge for themselves
of the prospects of the industry ; and new enter-
prises are being started in different directions.
Only the other day a share in a " tea gaiden "
in Natal was advertised in the London papers as
being for sale, and altogether the energetic Colonists
do not intend to hide their light under a bushel.
The example of Natal will probably be followed
in other parts of South Africa ; but a still better
field for the industry exists in New Zealand, while
there are, no doubt, several districts in Australia
where as good tea could be grown as was ever
produced in China. The Australians have a strong
objection to John Chinaman himself, but there
can be no sort of reason why they should liesit-
ate to acclimatise, if possible, one of the chief
vegetable products of the Celestial Land. Baron
Ferdinand von MiiUer advocates the cultivation uf
the shrub in Victoria, where plants introduced
by him and experimentally grown have been known
to produce seeds. .\nd if in Victoria, why not
•in Tasmania and New South Wales ? -Cohiiiirx
and Ititlia. (It is useless to anticipate a profitable
tea culture in countries where cheap labor does
not abound. — Ed.1

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

695

DECOETICATED COTTON-SEED CAKE.
Sir, — M}' attention has been directed to the letter
on the above, published hi the Field of the 12th inst.,
and I can cordially agree with the writer in his sug-
gBBtion that buyers should pay more regard to the
actual composition of ditferent lots of the aboveiiamed
cake. Having had more than twenty years' ex-
perience in agricultural analyses, I can testify to ths
fact that badly i)rep.'ired decorticated cotton-aeed cake
has over and over ngain been the source of serious
loss uf cattle and sheep, especially young animalf,
who are unable to digest the hard lumps, which being
often associated with some cotton wool, render proper
separation even imposible, much leiss digestion.

A great deal of stress has been laid by some
chemists upon the reduction of the percentage of
oil which has taken place of late years both in lin-
seed and cotton cakes ; and in another paper I have
already pointed out thai it is not so much the re-
duction of oil that is so objectionable, but the hard
pressed character of the cake resulting from this
extra pressure that is the real cause of so much
mischief among stock.

We must remember that cotton-seed and linseed
cakes are merely the residual products resulthig from
the extraction of oil, and that the manufacturer will
use his judgment as to how far it pays him to
employ improved machinery to extract a larger pro-
portion of oil than was formerly the custom.

There will always be a good demand for cotton and
linseed cakes, and though no doubt \he price will be
reduced, in consequence of the smaller amount of
oil thiy may contain, still, I contend that the true
remedy is for farmers to employ m:»chines capable of
reducing the hard-pressed cake to a tine meal, which can
be sprinkled over cut roots and chaff with far greater
advantage, in a feeding sen.se, than the present nut-
like lumps, which is the condition now too common.
By all means let farmers and buyers generally
avail themselves of the aid of chemical analysis to
distinguish between the different qualities of cake,
and let all cakes be sold by analysis, as manures are
now solrl ; but if is quite useless" to grumble .ibout
the reduction of oil ; for as long as the manufacturer
finds it pays him best to e.xtract as much oil as pos-
sible, he will continue to do so.

As for selling meal instead of cake, every practical
farmer knows very well that meal, in this' change-
able i-liniate, will not keep sweet any length of time,
and the best plan is to grind cake as required, from
ilay to day.— JoHv Hughes, F.C.S., 79, Mark Lane,
E.L'...Tan. 25.— Field.

THE SCIENTIFIC MANUFACTURE OF TEA.

To Till; EoiTOIt OF THE " Ho.Mi: .\ND COLONUL M.VIL."

^-ir,— I have read very carefully Mr. Main's suggestions
and ojiinions as to the use of chemically dried air
for ilrying and withering tea. and have also consulted
scientific authorities and practical men on the subject.
The gener.-il conclusioH seems that for drying it is
hardly likely to be of much use, because air at 212'
(however damp the clima.e may be) is practically
drier thau it could be made by ««(/ absorbent. At
that Mioderate heat it contains less than 1 percent,
of moisture, aud no one seems to believe that 212
could by any possibility be injurious to tea, seeing
that, in nearly nil the. drying processes now employed,
air at from L'nO_ to ulM' lias been used for many years.
Still " the possible is imineuse," and, inasiniicli as the
system could be so easily put to the test by all who
now use our drying cylinders. I will explain more
clearly how this preliminary trial can be carried out.

Inste.-id of lighting a fire in the furnace, (ill it up
with lumps of chloride of calcium oranyolher more
convenient absorl)ent, and draw the air "through this
into tlie fan and drive it through the air-duct into
the cylinder precisely as is now done with hot air.
If this desiccated air is sufticiently powerful to dry
the lei without any addilioicil heiit, so much the
better J but if heat also is n nUd, a coil of steam-
pipt; ill the air-duct will .supply that want at a cost

of a few pounds. It will, perhaps, be admitted that
the simple and regular movement of the cyliuder is
as good a plan as any for enabling air to act evenly
and powerfully on the leaf, and hence wouUl give the
process a full chance of success. Chloride of calcium
per se is a more powerful absorbent than charcoal,
pumice, or other porous substances soaked in its
solution and redried. As it dissolved it could bo
allowed to run iff into a common boiling-pan to be
re-evaporated ; the lumps should be fed lu regularly
at the upper feed-hole so as to prevent any air getting
into the ];an without passing through the absorbent.
Such a trial as this would disturb nothing and spoil
nothing; would involve no heavy expenditure, and
no discarding of a tried resource for an untried one,
and no hazardous "Leap in the Dark." If the tea
were not dried in once passing through, it could hu
sent through again and again, and its quality and
market value ascertained.

Considering that all the air would have thus to
pass through a large bulk of the absorbent, that the
absorbent itself would bo in its most powerful form,
that such air could then be warmed to any desired
temperature and kept perfectly pure, that the t»a
would be presented to it in the best form for being
dreid, and that both tea and ai' could be kept in or
let out of fhe cylinder as quickly or as slowly as
might be found best, I think it will be admitted
that all the conditions for a full, fair, and completely
convincing trial would be present. If successful
planters would thereupon adopt more readily and
widely Mr. Main's patent air-desiccators ; if not, they
conld revert to their present processes without trouble
or hindrance.

It is obvious that these same drying cylinders could
he used to test the value of desiccated air at rarious
temperatures for " withering " also, but for this process
they should be rotated very slowly — .say, once in a
minute — so that the leaves should only just be lifted
up sufficiently to separate one wet leaf from another
and give the air free play amongst them. The volume
and velocity of the air should be far less thau in
drying, aud ths ends of the cyluider closed up to
any e.vtent that practice proved to be best, so as to
subject the leaf longer to the action of that air.
A .series of experiments should be carried out, care-
fully raising the temperature one or two degrees at
each working — say from 85* the normal heat of the
atmosphere, up to 100', 110'"', or any higher degroe
that the leaf would bear without deterioration. It may
here be useful to record that the practical planters,
who were present at my e.xperiments last year, were
perfectly satisfied with the withered condition of leaf
when subjected to the action of ordinary air warmed
to HO-; there was no indication of dried edges or
"stewed" centres, the leaves being tough and supple,
like a piece of very thin leather. I have no exact
data, but probably desiccated air at 100' jwould ho
about eipnl in withering power to ordinary air at
HO." If I am right in this deduction, and 100" is
the maximum heat of desiccatcil air that leaf will
bear without getting scorched at the edges by the
dryness, it would be an interesting comparative
experiment to try one batch of leaves with desiccated
air »fr lOO"". and another with ordinary air at 110'",
and note the ultimate result in the finished tea;
persou.al ly , I believe that th(! result would be nearly
the same, but there is nothing like a thorough practical
trial for setting such questions at rest. It is a great
pity that Mr. Main advises the retention of the clumsy
old form of wltliering hou.se, for, however much
smaller their dimensions, they arc absurdly wrong in
principles and will lead to a wanton and woeful
Waste of his (!l;sic(^'lted air. If he drives that air itt
at the bottom of the chamber flu; first tiers of trays
will saturate it and the upper tiers will begin to
retake the moisture from below. If at the top, the
most valuable and lighter part of such air will cling
to the roof, if at the sides the leaves nearest to the
sides will get too dry and those further otf be left
out in the cold, and wherever and however it is
passetl into, or drawn out of, a roomfull of trays
the most exposed leaves will take more thau their

696

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Afrjl i, 1886.

hhare and the covered ones will cling closely together
in their pristine and unmitigated wetness.

To rectify these dilticullies 1 should construct (on
the same principle as the dryers), very large an<l
cheap octagons ot" wood and canvas with air-ducts
of wood and canvas, and with shelves, louores, air-
vents and gear. With a coil of steam-pipe in the
air-duct and a very slow rotation of the cylinder,
these could be used in conjunction with Mr. Main's
desiccator, or with a plain blast fan blowing through
an absorbent or through pipes in a (ire, — whichever
was found best for the end in view. Such a con-
struction as this could lie fitted together iu England,
marked and taken to pieces, aud folded up for
shipment, like a tent, and put together again iu a day
or two. (.Quantity for quantity, it would be cheaper
than any withering house, take up much less space,
and enable planters to wither tuiiformly and thoroughly
in all weathers. Mothing could be simpler aud loss
costl.v than this, and as it woidd act autoinaticall}',
like the dryers, it would, like them, save a great deal
of tiuK.', labour, and anxiety. As an indication of liow
nmch laboiu- may be saved by this form of machine,
Mr. llobiuson, of Messaignc, advises us that one dryer
enabled two men to do the work of forty or fifty.
Hence, if iu the withering process it only saved half
that amount of labour, it would still soon pay for its
first cost, besides contributing its share to the more
" Scientific Manufacture of Tea." — Voura very truly,
Wm. a. Gibus, Gillwell Park, Ohingford, Essex.

BiiA/.iL.— All the reports from the iutorior unite iu
describing the heat of the last two weeks of Dec-
ember as something almost beyond precedent. Con-
siderable injury was done to the plantati^jus. —
Hio .Y,-'-.v.

AViNK 1-ii.OM OnANOES. — AVe learn from the Qneriis-
la/tdcr, some time ago, iu the querists' column of
that paper the subject of making wine from Oranges
was mooted. " In response to our retjuost for practical
information a Vine grower and wine-maker, who has
withlu the last few years visited many of the European
continental vineyards, called upon us. He informs us,
and wishes the fact to be made widely known, that
B most excellent wine can be made from the juice
of the Orange, aud that since the troul.tles caused by
the ])by!loxera a large proportion of the ' sherry ' of
commerce is Orange wine. Moreover, when properly
prepared, he says, this (.)range sherry is a most pleasant
and heiiltbfnl wine; indeed in his opinion it is only
a matter of a few yfars and the greater part of the
wine iu the world will be made from Oranges, for tli«
product is equal to that made from the juice of the
Grape, aud the yield per acre considerably more. His
argument is, that in eimsequeuce of this discovery, tbe
|)lanting of Orange groves in suitable localities in
t^ueeuslaml eonuot be overdone. As endorsing these
conclusions in the iVfelbonrue Leader we find the
following paragrajih : — 'It is stated the manufacture
of Orange wine is develo])ii'g into a very extensive
business in Florida, where a magnificent Anu'ricau wine
is being made in large quantities from the juice of the
sweet Oranges, sur^jassing iu purity any of tbe
European wines. * It is said to be the best tonic, medi-
cinsl or othtrwise, that 'jan be taken iu the hum.in
system. It is nourishing, of agreeable flavour, and,
what is more, a perfectly pure native wine,' No part
of the fruit is usied in the maiuifacturo of the wine
but the pulp of the perfectly rii>e Oranges, and none
of the wine Imtfleil from the casks tmtil it is at
least three years old. fn taste it is marvellou.sly palat-
able, and contains but 8'iil per cent, of absolute alcohol,
.■md slightly over ,") per cent of sugar. Floriila, filled
with Orange presses, says tbe I'hiladeliihia Timrs,
will outrival the famous vineyards of France and Italy
in lime, for the maruifactiu-ers of this sjilendid wine
are pushing ahead with new and improved machinery,
are setting out countless (u-chards of the precious frnit.
and investing timusands of dollars in the enterprise.
which they are .satisfied will soon become one of tin-
greatest industries. 'J'ho supply now is not at all
equal to the demand."— Onrdefiere' Chrnnidt.

SutiAU IN Beeteoot.— Aime Girard's exporiments,
reported m \,h.R Comptea Btmliis, November 18SI,show
that the leaves of the Beet contain nuiuli Tnore .--'ugar
in the evening than in the morning. It is hence con-
cluded that the sugar is formed iu the daytime in the
leaf, and passes into the rootstoek at uight.—Gciihiiers'
Clii-ciiicle.

Unhe,u.tiiv Tea Lea\es.— A corrcspoudenl wrote
some time ago : — " Can you kindly give me any e.\-
planation of the roughness of enclo.scd tea leaves ?" The
back ot the leaf is reddish, rusty-looking, and pitied
as it were with smallpox. The front of tlie leaf in
crinkly with a ' rhinooeros-hidc' appearance.
Such leaf is useless for tea-making, however young
it is taken, as it is hard and will not wiilicr. Some
bushes arc entirely like this. Others liave the
normal leaves with one or two of these hard shoots."
The gentleman to whom we submitted the leaves
writes:— "I have carefully examined the tea leaves
under the microscope, but cannot say from what
disease they have suffered. It may have been caused
by drought, wind or sun scorch."

Action of Fkost on Leaves.— At the Hcieutific
Committee, on Tuesday last, Mr. Boscawcu showed
some bunches of Camellias grown out-of-doors, tbe
older of which were as if they had been parboiled, being
of a brown colour, while the younger leaves were
unhurt. Other examples of youug foliage, uninjured
by frost, were cited during tbe discussiou. Tbe <|ues-
tion, for which r.O'One f(nnul more than a i-onji-ctural
answer, was as to the reason for this differiiice. For
our own parts, we are disposed to consider the injury a8
due to the influence of the sun on the wet surface of
the older leaves, which, being of a darker colour, would
be more injured than tbe lighter ones. Mureiver, the
older leaves are more horizontal iu position than the
youuger ones. — Gardowrs' Chronicle.

Forests in France. — From a recently published
report of the Ailrainistration of Forests, it appears
that the area covered by woods and forests in France
is S,:j9i),131 hectares; of which 1,0)2,088 hectares
belong to the Governnunt ; I,i)t!7,84G hectares arc
communal; and the remaining 5,415,5ur hectares are
private property ; an hectare being eipial to 2 acres,
I rood, 35 poles. Between the years lS2(i and ^HSl,
105,038 hectares were cut down, aud 37,207 hectares
replanted with trees. The value of the Go\ernmeut
forests is estimated at 1,300,000 ,1100 francs, and the
annual revenue derived from them between 30,000,000
francs and 35,0iiO,0OO francs. For the present j'car
the sum of 3-'.."i83,(iOO francs figures iu tbe budget as
the revenue from this source. The cost of administra-
tion nnd maintennnce, however, is very great, aud
for the i)rcsent year will be 17,772,000 francs, or ue.arly
half the gross revenue, and leaves barely I!), 000,000
francs of net revenue, which only represents about IJ
per cent on the capital, or II) francs per hectare,
whilst woods and forests belonging to private persons
yield from 2S francs to 30 francs. It must be men-
tioned that these figures include the amounts paid
for right of shooting, which in many cases is leased
at high prices. — Journal of the Societii of Arts.

MANooEtS budded this month take very freely ; the
sap is well up, aud the hark parts freely from the
old wood. Previous to budding a lean, young shoot
should be cliosen from the variety to bo budded ;
pinch out the top of the shoot while the young
leaves are red, so as to throw all the strength into
th(! wished-for buds. By the time the bark and
the leaves of the young shoot begin to assume a
green colour, plump buds have formed, wliieh should
tlien be inserted iu the ordinary way of T budding
upon the stock intended for them. In a nionth or
live weeks the hud will begin to push ; the tying
should be slackened, to keep it from cutting through
the baik and preventing the How of the sap. A
spleiulid lot ot mangoes from this district weie re-
cently sent to the Diamond Fields, and readied
their destmation in good condition. The most
pleasing part of the venture was the handsome prioca
realised for the irmi.— Natal Mercury.

Ami t, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

69?

TEA MANUFACTUEE.

•ro THE EDITOR OF TUE " HOME AND COLONIAL MAIL.''

Sir, — We, tea plauters, are indebted to you for
taking up the subject of tea raauufacture in your
columns, aud note with satisfaction tliat the " biy
wigs " at home have under consideration the ijuestion
how tea can be made to the best selling advantage on
the gardens. The fact is, Sir, w« planters who have
not the good fortune to he proprietors have become
rather tired of being preached to. To« much is e.'i-
pccted of us. AVe are told to make economy our
chief study, and in the pursuit of this we have not much
time for speculative chemistry. I, for one, feel (piite
certain th.it the chemistry of tea manufacture is im-
perfectly understood ; but just at present it is difficult
to arrive at any reliable data, and we go on blindly
as before. Kach London and Calcutta broker has
his theory as to the process of manufacture and our
owners have theirs, which do not always coincide with
the //nasi chemical suggestion of brokers' circulars.
Perhaps you can tell us what to do under these circum-
stances. l*araphrasing a well-known sentence in refer-
ence to the getting of money the advice given us by
garden owners is " make tea that will fetch a high price.
make it chemically if you can, but make it economically
whatever you do." If we fail to please the reniedy is
that wc receive notice to quit aud h.ive to commence
life again. By all means let the subject of method of
manufacture be threshed out by chemical experts, but
so long a.s proprietors feel that there is a divergence of
opinion as to the best means of making tea, let them
have some consideration for those who are doing their
best according to their lights. One of the curses of tea
planting hitherto has been the reckless way in which
" swopping " goes on for no other reason than an in-
ability on the part of a manager to calculate the weather,
or tell the condition of the London market six months
ahead. — Yoors, &c., An Assam Planter.

CHINA GRASS.

Mr. Sansone, Director of the School of Dyeing at
Manchester, writing on this subject, says: — In spite
of all the efforts made by the Government of India,
and of the many chemists, merchants, and manufact-
urers who have given attention to this question, the
industry of China grass or ramie is far from having
attaiue<l such development as many people imagine.
In fact, this indu.stry is still in its infancy, and much
remains to be done before it is brought to a proper
footing, or indeed before it can take its proper pi.tce
among the other textile industries. Although many
processes hav been recommended, and although it is
reported that the decorti.ating machines have proved
a success and allow the bringing of tht: fibre into a
marketable form, still I do not believe that the pro-
cess of separation of the fdjre from the woody part
of the stalks has reached as yet the point of per-
fection required to mike it capable of general ap-
plication. Several years ago my attention was called
to the fibrous material obtained from ramie, and I
induced a relation in South Italy to undertake the
experimental cultivation of this nettle. The results
were thoroughly satisfactory ns far as the facility of
cultivation and the amount of the crop obtained were
concerned. The planting was continued for two or
three years, and it was established beyond any doubt
that tho cultivation could be made profitable. How-
ever, it was found impossible at the time to dispose
of the product in the raw state, and as I knew at
the time, no effectual method of extracting the fibre
from the stiilks the matter dropped for some time.
Later on, in connection with my father, who tried
experiments on the spot in the neighbourhood of
Naples, wc succeeded by a chemical prc)cess in
extracting a beautifully silky and bright fibre which my
father had spun by hand and then woven into a
handkerchief; and even iu this primitive way a first-
class fabric was produced.

I have a certain iffejudice againr,t a thoroughly
mechanical process for the extraction of the fibre
from the ramie or chca plants, aud iu my opiaion
88

.1 '■hemical process is a nicessity either alone or iu
conneolion with tho mechanical methods. I m.1y
perhaps be wrong, but still this is my opinion, b.iscd
on the little experience I have had. That the fibre
can be easily bleached and dyed there is also not the
slightest doubt, as I proved to my satisfaction some
years ago, I even dyed with the greatest i-ase mixt-
ures of China grass aiul wool, which wore afterwards
spun into yarn and ised for the manufacture of car-
pets, with very good results.

As I said before, the development of this industry
is far from having reached the point that many people
imagine. There is no doubt that a certain amount
of rhea and ramie is planted every year, and that
the fibrous product is spun and made iuto fabrics
alone or mixed with wool or silk. But still this
business is carried on a limited scale, and even car-
ried on with a certain amount of mystery. As it is,
it seems to me — indeed I know for a fact — that
there are abroad plenty of cvltivators who would
undertake the planting of the ramie or rhea if they
couhl be assured of being able to dispose of their
product, while plenty of manufacturers would be
willing to begin to spin the new fibre if they could
be assured that a constant supply would be forth-
coming. I think also that it would be desirable for
Manchester enterprise to give more attention to this
que.'^tion, aud I would suggest that all those gentle-
men interested in this matter should form a kind of
society with the object of studying the question
thoroughly by holding meetings once or twice a mouth
with the idea of collecting all reliable information
and communicating mutual experience. Experiments
might also he undertaken. As far as I am concerned
I shall be glad to bleach, dye, or print any material
that may be brought to me in our laboratory of tha
School of Dyeing, and I have no doubt that Mr.
Reynolds, the Secretary of the Manchester Technical
School, would be glad to put a room at tho disposal
of the proposed society for the development of the
China grass industry in Manchester for holding its
meetings. — Hoive and Colonial Jfail.

GKEEN OYSTEES.

Au interesting paper is before us, which has been
reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
Science. It is by Dr. Eay Lankester, aud has for
subject the nature and origin of the greon colouring
matter found iu the oysters of Jtarennes, a place
situated on the coast of Normandy. These oysters
have obtained ou the Continent a reputaiion for excel-
lence, and are consequently in demand, though, so
far as the author's experience goes, they are not
superior in flavour to those which are colourhjss.
The grLCn colour is confined to the gills and labial
tentacles, and is only acquired in certain "parks "or
reservoirs of salt water, iu which the oysters are
expressly placed for the purpose of fattening and
" greening." Tho colour gradually disappears if the
oysters are removed from these, so that in a month
no trace of colour will be left. So loug ago as 1820 a
French naturalist named C.aillon observed that the so-
called " parks " — which are tanks .ibout l ft. deep by
200 ft. long aud 50 ft. wide — were swarming with minute
diatoms, Navicula ostrearia, which, when seen in mass,
have also a green colour. It seemel to l)e a natural
conclusion that it was from these Kaviculw that the
pigment had been obtained. The hypothesis that it
was derived from the chlorophyll of green alg.i; had
to be rej(;cted, for two reasons, the suflicieut one
being that the oyster does not feed up(»n coarse
particles such as these green alg;e jjre'cnt. The
difficulty was to account for the way in which the
pigment of the diatoms was transferred to the gills
of the oyster. The fact of its being found in the
liver and intestine seemed to iiulicate that it was first
introduced iuto the alimentary canal ; but the muscles,
nerve, heart, reproductive organs, and blood were quite
free from colouring. In IBil M. Aaleucienneg made
a chemical examination of the colouring matter, and
fouud that it was ijuito iusoluble, except by lucjins

69^

^HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Amt i, 1886.

of such Btrong. acids as destroyed or fundameiilally
changed it. One thiug Valenciennes conclusively
proved, that the pigment contained no copper ; and
the viuw which he himself favoured — especially as no
proof had heen afforded of the oyster's swallowing
the NavicuUu— was that the peculiar colouring matter
was nianufaetured by the oyster itself in the intestine
and liver, and was thence absorbed and deposited in
the gills. The copper theorj', however, was destined
to be revived. It was undoubtedly true that a green
colour had been fraudulently produced in oysters by
the use of copper ; but a still more remarkable fact
was demonstrated by Professor Bizio, that a very
minute quantity of copper is really normally contained
in the blood of the oyster, as in that of otlier molluscs.
■\Vhrther the oyster could take up enough of the
metal to be really poisonous is still a matter to be
determined by experiment ; but Dr. Ray Lankester
holds that the popular notions of oysters or mussels
being poisonous when taken from the copper of a ship
are mere fallacies. Anyhow, Bizio's theory in no way
accounted for the green oyster of Marennes, and the
Navicula does so account for it. It was proved, too,
that the oyster feeds upon these Naviouja*. Had
Gaillou examined the alimentary canal under the micro-
scope, he would have found not merely the dark
blue-green colour, but the siliceous shells of the diatom
in enormous numbers. The way in which the pigment
is trar.sferred to the gill filaments is very remarkable.
It does not permeate the gills as a whole, but is found
localised in a set of peculiar sub-.spherical cells, placed
at intervals among the smaller columnar cells of the
epithelium. The.se larger cells are " secretion cells,"
filled with granules, in which the pigment is concen-
trated. The granules are probably ultimately disch.-irged
as mucin. For the pigment it.self the name Jlarenniu
is proposed; it is not really green, but blue, the green
colour of the gills being most pronounced when the
pigment is diminished in (piantity, and deepenhig to
blue as this increases. Finally, the "secretion cells"
present some curious phenomena. They are often
found sejjarated from their attachments, and crawling
like independent creatures, -with slow ami.eboid move-
ments, on the surface of the epithelium, "probably,"
says the author, '■ on their waj» to disintegration,
accompanied by production of a mucin-like substance."
The singular appearance of these cells, with their
long pseudopodia, is well shown in an illustrative plate,
which also contains figures, largely magnified, of the
diatuins and the gill structures, with a coloured
drawing of the green oyster, natural size. There are
sundry collateral matters dealt with by Dr. Ray
Lankester. of considerable interest, for which we must
refer to the paper itself. — Field.

MAHWA FIjOWERS.

Attention has been publicly drawn of late to "Mahwa
Flowers " — the corollas of Bas-tia latifofia — as a cheap
source of cane-sugar. This species of Bassia is a tree
attaining to a height of 40 to 60 feet, and common in
many ])arts of India, especially in Central Hindustan.
It has oblong leaves of firm texture, from 5 to (i inches
long ; these fall in February, March, or April, and are
(succeeded in March or April by the flowers. These
^a^t for tv'o or three weeks and then begin to fall.
The fall takes place at night, and continue eometiraes
for a fortnight. The fruits, which resemble a small
apple, ripen in three months ( the seeds, one to four
in number, yield an edible oil by pressure. It should
be atided that the trees are self-sown, and that they
fiourish in very poor and stony soil.

When the Jlahwa tiee is in bud, the ground be-
neath it is cleared of weeds, sometimes by burning,
A single tree may yield as much as six to eight
niaunds* of flowers; even thirty mauuds have been
asserted to have been collected from one tree. These
flowers have a luscious but peculiar taste when fresh ;
when dry they res< mble in flavour inferior figs.
They form a very important addition to the food of
frhe poorer classes in those districts where the tree

*A Bengal maiuid equ»l« 82^ lb. sroirdupoii^

abounds, particularly in the neighbourhood of wood-
lands and jungles. They are specially useful in eco-
nomising cereals in seasons of famine and drought.
They are sometimes eaten fresh, but more commonly
sun-dried, and are usually consumed with rice and the
lesser millets, or with seeds of various kinds, and leaves.
It is said that a man, his wife, and three children
may be supported for one month on two maunds of
Mahwa flowers. *

It is not, however, as a direct article of food, nor
as a material for the preparation of a raugh spirit
by fermentation (a very common use ot these flowers)
that Mahwa blossoms are now recommended. It has
been aflirmed that they may be employed as an abund-
ant and very cheap source of cane-sugar. In the
Morning Poft ot October 1.5, 1885, appeared an article
on this subject, in which it was stated that, " If the
Mahwa flowers be available in sufficient quantities for
the sugar-makers of Europe, there can be no question
that the days of the beetroot are over, and sugar-
cane will go the way of all discarded products." This
prediction depends, however, upon another condition
besides that of the abundance of the flowers. It the
sugar they contain be wholly or chiefly cane-sugar,
that is, " sucrose," then the argument is not without
weight. But the nature of the saccharine matter of
the Mahwa does not appear to have been ascertained.
MM. Eiche and Kemont (Journ. de Fliarm. ct Chimie,
1880, p. 215) stated that the air-dried flowers contain
60 per cent of fermentable sugar, of which about
one-seventh is crystallisable. The material available
for analysis in Europe consists, of course, of the dried
flowers. These may have suffered some change beyond
the mere loss of water, but the evidence they afford
on chemical examination is not favourable to the view
that they are likely to compete with sugar-beet or
sugar-cane as a source of cane-sugar. Here is the
i-esult of an analysis of a sample of Mahwa flowers
(from the Kew Museum) in their air-dried con-
dition : —

In 100 parts

C»ne-.sugar 3-2

Invert-sugar 526

Other matters soluble in water ... 7'2

Cellulose 2-4

Albuminoids ... ... 2"2

Ash 4-8

Water lost at 100° 0 15-0

Undetermined 126

The flowers analysed had a slight smell of fermented
csachariue matter and a distinct acid reaction. But
it is not at all probable that they could have con-
tained any large proportion of cane-sugar even when
guite fresh, and that 15/16ths of that .-^ugar had been
inverted during the process of desiccation. We can-
not argue from analogy in this case. For while the
nectar of many flowers contains no sugar except
sucrose, invert-sugar occurs in some blossoms, as well
as in many other parts of plants. Even the unripe
and growing stems of (lie sugar-cane and of many
grasses contain much iuvcrt-.sugar. It must, however,
on the other liHiid, be remembered that cut sugar-canes
imported into this country couiain a large amount
of invert-sugar, and that if they be kept a week mily
after the harvest the invert-sugar naturally present
in the juice shows a marked increase and the caue-
sugar a corresponding diminution. On the whole, then,
.so far as the materials at my disposal enable me to
judge, I believe that the saccharine mitttr of fresh
Mahwa flowers will be found to consist mainly of
dextrose and levulose, and that consequently they will
not be available as a material for the economic pro-
duction of sucrose.

I have to thank Mr. M\ T. Thiselton Dyer, C.M.G.,
Director of the Koyal (Jardi^ns. Kew, for drawing my
attention to this subject, and for a supply of the
material on which I have worked. — A. H. Chijech. —
Xaturc.

*For an interesting account of the Mahwa tree and
its products, see a paper by E. Lockwood in the
Jouninl of the Lianeao Society ("Botany"), vol ivii,

pp, s7-yy.

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

(S99

SrOGESTIONS ON TEA PLANTING.

It is probable that tea-planters in future will be
far more careful of the tea-seeil they select for planting
than they have been in the |)ast ; for although lu-
iligenOHS is not firmly believed in, in Oeylon, except
miller very favorable conditions, the lower jats
are unanimously condemned except for very high
altituiles. and even this latter is a questionable con-
clusion. The two extremes, low Hybriil an Indigen-
ous, do not, in this island, bear hard plucking so
well as .1 good Hybrid of a type I might call something
better than half-bred, and this gives a leaf easily
manipuUted ; and, what is of equal importance shews
a hardy disposition — what would be described in
sporting circles as " stauding punishment well," The
days of racing in tea plants are, I conclude, over.
There is a form of Indigenous thought very highly
of in India, but which, so far, has not become a
universal favorite here, which is supposed to have
come from Munipore, for it bears that name. It
is different from the generality of so called Indian
Indigenous, from being in appearance more like an
Assam Hybrid. It is of rapid growth, but I have
heard men who have it say that it resents anything
like severe plucking almost as much as any other of
the Indigenous kinds. It must not be presumed
from what I have said that I am u general advocate
for " hard plucking." My use of this term applies
more to the hard plucking which takes place on the
most scrupulously plucked estate at that period of
the year when flush succeeds flush in continuous
order, when it is annoying to find many otherwise
fine looking specimens which will not repeat their
flushes. This, as I have said before, is a common
liabit of the two extremes, which the good Hybrid
does not shew.

We have been accused by many Indian tea planters
who have visited our shores of overplucking our
bushes; also of plucking them when they are still
too young. Possibly, we have been guilty of both
these offences. The question, however, arises — what
in the best age to begin, and, when begun, how we
should go on? I think I could find in this islaud a
few estates where overplucking is undoubtedly done,
and where ninety-nine out of one hundred tea planters
would go with me in this verdict. The early plucking
of young tea has also been a failing of ourii, which,
happily, is not so common as a year or two ago, it
being distinguishable afterwards by a small "collar*'
and weak and crooked wood in the frame of the tree,
A large " coll-ar" and curly top iiulicate overplucking,
but not that the bushes were worked too early.

The question now .irises how tea should be plucked.
For my part, I am not in favour of going in for a
large plucking surface on young tea, for it neither
irnpioves the bush or the crop. It induces the pro-
ihiction of far too much *' bangy," for, as a rule, the
larger the yovng bush is the greater in quantity
will b** the bangy. I prefer giving the young bush
a largti top of red wood. It is now the general
custom iu Oeylon to cut ilown tea, at eighteen
months to two years respectively, whether grown
\n the lowconutry or on the hills to 18 inches in
height; some equalize at an earlier age. After this
there are various opinions us to how high it should
grow before being " tipped." Some leave 4, some 5,
*>, 7, or 3 inches on the top ; some count 'the leaves.
For my part, upon young t''a, I consider nothing
comes np t<t the stick and to leaving a good liberal
top. This I maintain for two reasons : first, you do
not wish to work two-year old tea too hard ; and,
second, whatever leuienoy yon shew them, will be
more than recompensed by finer trees aiiil a gener-
(Mis yield in later years. Th»Te are, howeviT, spots
where, from continuous winils and other causes, it
nuty be best to shew less consideration. It is very
often said that certain estates always look well but
yield very little leaf. Upon those a :'. or 4 inch
top should suffice, and, when the leaf is pbickable,
it shouM not be lost; for, like certain kine, although
in the Inst condition, they yield little milk. I could
enumerate a few such tea properties iu Oeylon.

In all ordinary localities I should cut my young
tea down to IS inches, and for the first six months
afterwards use a stick of not less than 21 inches.
My oliject for this is the following. The tea would
fully recover the effect of prunuig before plucking,
and when plucked there would be u suHicient top
upou the tree to induce the full development of the
stem and permanent parts of the biisli. Yeivr by
year I would carry out this principle until, when
five years old, I should, as a rule, not leave more
than 4 inches of a plucking top. I believe it has
been found the best plau iu Oeylon not to pluck
bushes too heavy in the early part of tho season,
though towards its close, for the last few months,
leaf may be taken very close. Most people leave a
leaf, some a leaf and a half, thougli, in practice, I
have rarely seen this system regularly carried out
through a season. In Oeylon towards its tdose hard
pluckiug is the rule. The system has not been long
enough iu vogue for me to speak couclusiviily upon
this point, although I am inclined to think there i(
something in what our Indian friends say. Large yields
are not necessarily the result of close plucking ; it
is the shortened periods between each roiuid which
improve the quality ; this and plucking off everything
which will roll gives a large return of leaf to the
acre, aud, when to it is added a stinted growth of
young wood above the last priming, a continual
denudation of leaves results, and permanent injury
must follow. Time will, however, teach us how far
we may press our bushes. So far, Ceylon marks
appear to have a theoretical aud a practical value
which do not accord. Possibly others might enlighten
the public ou this score, uot ou what they say, but
on what they do ; for my part, my mind is uot quite
made up. I am learning daily. The wonder to me
is how bushes, which are kept nearly leafless, retain
their vitality y Our Indian friends threaten a very
sudden collapse. .Speaking to au Indian planter upou
this subject he said it might be necessary to throw
tea out of cultivatiou for a few years to recover.
This he had done over many acres which had been
overworked. If this is 8u6BciBUt, the remedy is uot
very terrible.— Pekoe Souchong. — Local "Times."

OFF THE GENERAL TRACK IN OEYLON.
I noticed in my last the extensive tracts of forest and
moohilaiia lying between Balangoda aud Pehnadulla.
The high range of hills ou the right h.is many unex-
plored hollows and nooks, where the soil is good, aud all
within easy reach from the Government trunk road at
its foot. This will some day be a large centre of tea,
independent in a measure of imported labor, with both
wood for chests and fuel, merely requiring the energy
and capital of the industrious to make it a centre of
prosperity. The rainfall is somewhat heavy, but the
country is accessible in a day from Colombo, and trans-
port cheap — points of some importance. Madoola
resthouse is well situated, possibly it has some wind
during the south-west monsoou ; but now it is very
pleasant, with a grand view towards the west aud south,
and a large area of laud around, with a soil presenting
.all the requirements of tea. It is everywhere populous
and healthy. I noticed the natives with lonu; bamboos
sweeping the surfaces of tlicur growing paddy — a metliod
for removing the fly from the plant. The process
appeared simple, but I thought capable of improve-
ment, which education may siq>ply, if it does not drive
thom away frotn their sinq)le agricultural life altogether
to one of ingermity awl thieving; for they all seem
willing to reliuqiish work iu the fields for anytldng
entailing the respeetabihty of clean elf iies and silk
umbrellas, Whurever a few houses were congregated
t<.>gether I noticed a gem-cutter, sometimes several
working .at I'jeir wheels. They usually pot;.sessed a
number of very inferior stones thi^y were only too
anxious to dispose of : iiale-colored sapphires and a
great collection of non-descript stones, for which they
wanted large sums. Pelmadulla is said to be one of
those towns where it alw.iys rains, be it the north-east
or south-west monsoon, and such is the impres.sion it
left on me One evening, at 4 p.m., I could scarcely

yoo

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

Beo to read, so overcast was the sky, even in the
veraiulah of the resthouse.

The road from PelmaduUa to Kakwaiia is, perhaps,
the most uuiuteresting in Oe.vlou ; one other is possibly
its equal, that from llorawaka to Galle — chenas and
paddy fields, and paddy fields and chenas ; patanas do
not exist. The AVeyganga is crossed four miles from
I'elmadulla upon a well-coustructod pirder bridge.
Near this is a toll-bar, where the usual 25 cents for a
horse is paid; and, as I had nothing hut a 10-rupee
note, I had to get it changed. Now, my horsekeeper
is a man of somewhat doubtful honesty — all horse-
keeper are, I believe, the same. I have often wondered
why men are so dishonest, since we have always been
told that '■ honesty is the best policy." There must be
some inherent taste for deceit or over-reaching in their
natures, much as a boy feels when he goes a-poaching,
a wilful delight in getting the better of another. I
camiot believe it is merely the desire to possess the
pi'Operty of another: there must be some other impulse,
except in cases where the annexed property is of great
value. My reflections received some support when I
said to ray horsekeeper: "Here, take this 10-rupee
note and pay the toll ; and, if he cannot give yon change,
we shall get through for nothing. Don't part with
the note without change." The unmistakable gleam
shone in his eyes ; the man who was u-sually silent,
and somewhat morose in nature, seemed to rise above
himself. He took the note with an intelligent and
approving nod, and was soon at the toll-bar. 1 watched
his face assume its natural expression as the change
was handed out to him. He was disappointed. It is
the want of excitement. The PoHce Oourt and theft
are the chief centres of amusement, taking the place
of theatres and field-sports at home.'.

Madampe is a solitary spot, at the foot of the pass
before ascending to Rakwana, rather less than half way
from PelmaduUa. The soil appears good. From this
a bridle path goes off to Hambantota, and a new rest-
house is being built on the site of the old one. It was a
matter of wonder to me that it was not rebuilt on the
top of the hill at its back instead of being buried
again in the paddy field. I once spent a night here
some years ago, and shall never do so again; the
situation is altogether unlovely, and has nothing to
recommend it. How many in Oeylon know nothing of
Rakwana —how the badly traced cart-road eventually
leads you to Barra store, and from thence zig-zag to
the top of the Bulatotte Pass ; how acres of abandoned
land meet the eye at every turn. Yet there is a classic
iiistory attached. Many old planters wrought here for
years ; and, in spite of a not over-favorable soil and
climate, with all the difficulties of labour, put their
coffee as cheaply on boardsliip as their friends on the
Kandy side. The remnants of their labor are still visible
upon Palamcotta, Barra, Spriugwood, Deveronside,
tJalcdonia and many other estate.s. 'I'ea is now luxuri-
ating for miles along the road from Barra downwards ;
and when the Bulatotte Pass is once surmounted it
begins again, and is iirosent with the traveller almost
to Morawaka.

From the Pass I looked down towards th» hospitable
abode of Maduanwella Bauda, nestlei! among the lower
ranges, with its pretty piece of ornamental water
glistening in the morning sun, recalling old memories
of the rSovernment Agent — who wished to force him to
give up a, piece of land to one of the Government
Agent's friends— approaching the old chieftain's house,
and tolling someone to say that the Government Agent
wisheil to see Maduanwc.Ua. " Tell him that Maduan-
wella is inside his bouse," was the reply. This spirited
gentleman certainly knew how to retain hia dignity.
He has the reputation of great hospitality to those
who treat him rightly ; ami as he is well educated and
well bred, he should not be curtly borne with even by
a t4over!iment official. His has always been a house
where residents in the districts around have been
hospitably treated. *

Beyond, in the far south-oast, the sea line is visible
in fine weather. The cart-road, well made and metalled,
oontimies almost to the boundary of Lauderdale,
which is now quite an expanse of tea and cinchona,
and at the hack o£ the hill upon whieh these estates'

are in the extensive Kukulu Korale, through which run
down the rivers of Bentota and Baddegama. Mora-
wak Korale is already a large and prosperous tea district
where many estates are now paying well ; indeed, it
bids fair to be one of the best in the island. The large
block of laud once reputed to belong to Sir Hercules
Robinson is now a magnificent show of young tea. Only
had it been known in the past how much better the
Southern Province is suited for tea than coffee,
Mora wakKorale would now be oneof the mostprosperous
districts in Ceylon. It now presents the same ap-
pearance as most other places — a state of transition.

Anyone going from Morawak Korale to Galle can vary
their route by a trip down the Nellawellaganga to
Iilatara. The river journey is much the same as most
river journeys in Ceylon. At first, when near the hills,
the banks are steep, and the bed so low that nothing
but the river banks and slopes upon either side are
visible ; lower down, as the large flats are reached, the
view opens up ; an old sugar estate is passed, one of
the many spots in om* island where the cultivation of
sugar was attempted and failed. Those who are fond
of birds would find much pleasure in watching the
bold flight and wild ory of the speckled king-fisher,
as it dashes into the water after its finny prey from
a great height.

Matara is one of the most picturesque spots I know,
close to Dondra Head, where coffee Arabica may be
seen growing almost on the sea brink. The old town
was founded by the Dutch, who fortified it against
the Kandyans. I was much interested in the old star-
fort upon the esplanade, the scone of many a stiff
encounter with the highlauders of Ceylon, who came
down to carry off the cattle, boys, or girls, or whatever
came to their hands. Many a time have these now
peaceful spots been dyed with the blood of both races,
though I fancy full retribution was paid for all attacks
when prisoners were taken by our Dutch friends. It
is now a charming spot, with good buildings and a
handsome bridge, though all around shews it to have
been quite the little outlying tort where a stand, if
necessary, could be successfully made. Matara to
Galle is a repetition of the scenery lying between
Galle and Kalutara, and can be undertaken in a similar
mode of conveyance. — W. F. L.— Local " Times."'

THANA SILK INDUSTRY.

Mr. B. A. Oupte, of the Sir Jamsetjee .Tejeebhoy
School of Art, Bombay, has an interesting article
in the Journal of Indian Art on the Thana Silk
Industry : —

In the sixteenth century the making of Thana
silks is said to have employed as m.any as
4,0il0 weavers, and as late as the eighteenth century
the English congratulated themselves on being able
to induce some Thana weavers to settle in Bombay.
For many years the industry has been depressed.
There are now otdy seven families of weavers work-
ing fourteen looms, which in ordinary years do not
turn out more than £500 (R.5,000)" worth of silks.
Neitlier gold nor silver thread is worked into the
silks. Plain silk cloth for Hindu wai.st-cloths or pitam-
bars is woven to a small extent. But the special
Thana silks are of two cUasses, silk with checked
patterns, generally black and white, and apparently
of European origin, and silks with very graceful
geometric, apparently .saracenic. designs in a groat
variety of colors. The soft tints and free lines of
many of the patterns are much admired, and would
come into general rise were it not that they cost
from 40 to 50 per cent more than Chinese and French
silks.

The weavers (Catholic or Portuguese native Christ-
ians) hold a higher social position than the ordinary
Salsette Christian fishers and husbandmen. They h.ave
the special name of Khatris and marry among them-
selves, and sonietimes, with such of th(^ upper class
of Christians as take service as clerks in Govern-
ment offices. They seem to have no memory of

April i, 1886,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

701

their original country or caste. They believe that
they were Mussulmans before the Portuguese maJe
them Christians, and though by intermarriage with
other Christians thej have lost much of their special
appearance, it seems on the whole probable that
before they were Mussulmans they were Hindus
of the Khutri caste, and of Gujerati origin, .fudging
from their appearance, they have a larger strain of
European blood than any other Salsette Christians.
Thyy sjieak Portuguese at hnme and Marathi out
of doors. Their houses are neat, clean, and airy,
generally of two storeyes. The looms and the reeling
ami sorting gear fill part of the verandah and one
end of the front room on the grounil floor, the rest
of the room, which is of considerable size, is filled
with a round table, chairs, a cot, well-made wooden
boxes and cases, and displays a row of colored prints
round the wall, almost all religious, of Christ, tho
Blessed ^'ir6iu, and Pope. They eat animal food
daily, fish, poultry, and mutton, and are regular
though not excessive drinkers of palra juice and
Diowlia spirits. The men dress in fluropean fashion,
and the women in the Maratha robe and either the
Hindoo bodice or a European jacket. They are gener-
ally neat and clean in their dress, and on high days
wear rich ^ilk robes and much jewellery. Besides sort-
ing, reeling, and spinning silk, the women of the
weavers' families find time to sew their own, their
husbanils', and their children's olothe.s.

The Thana silk weavers keep Sunday as a day of
rest. Besides Sundays, the chief holidays are Easter
Pay, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Their
usual working hours are from seven to eleven, and
from one to sunset. They never work by candle or
lamp light. They have no trade guild. Boys do not
in any way help their parents till they are fifteen
years old. They are refined, gentle, and kindly,
courteous and frank, seldom gnilty of crime, and
fairly frugal. They teach their girls as well as their
boys to read and write in the (.Government Anglo-
Portuguese School. Their girls remain at sehool till
they are thirteen or fourteen years old. Though
the competition of cheap machine-made European and
hand-woven Chinese silks has gradually driven thoir
silks out of the best markets, they have not sunk
into poverty, or even fallen to the level of unskilled
labourers. The earnings of those who cling to silk
weaving are small, but most of them have well-to-
do relations, and they are in no way a sutfering or
a depressed class. Their education and the nearness
of Bombay have helped many of them to better
themselves by taking employment as clerks. Several
families have settled in Bondjay and prospered, and
of those who have remained at Thana, from fifty
to a hundred go daily to Bombay by train.

All the silk woven in Thana is bought raw in
Bombay. It is of four kinils— superior (Miinese, Basra
(Bussorah), inferior Chinese known as Ahniedabad,
because Aiimedabj.d is its best market, an-l Persian.
The supeiior Cliini-se is divided into three classes —
oval or first, worth about £l' (H20) the pound;
doem or second, worth about £1 ISs. (Klil) ; and
seom or third, worth XI Icis. (Kl«.) The Basra
which is also arranged into first, second, and third
quality, is worth from ISs. to £1 (K!) to KIO),
and the Ahun^dabad or inferior Chinese and Persian
from £1 L's. to £1 (is. (Rll to HIS) the pound.
Uhinei.e 'iv<(^ or dona are used tor the warp. Chinese
seoni and Basra are used for tho weft of check silks,
and Ahmedabad for weaving plain silk waist cloths
and robes. The weaver has .sel<lom any stock of
made goods. When the head of the family gets an
order he goes to Bombay, and in the l',hoivada
near Boleshwar, buys from four to twenty pounds
of raw silk from a Multau silk dealer. These deal-
ers have generally considerable stocks of silk of the
four leailint; varieties, some of it from China, and
a less quantity from Bengal and Bokhara. Bokhara
silk is more costly than Ba-sra or Abmedalia<l silk,
and is seldom u,se<l by the Thana weavers. The
Ahmed:ibad silk, which comes from (!hina, is gener-
ally coarse- and dirty, and is also obtained by the
Thaua weavers from the Multan dealers.

The raw silk is handed to the women of tho weav-
er's family who sort, reel, and twist it. It is then dyed
by the weaver himself, and the part intended for
the warp sent to the Musalman warpers. AVhen
the warp is returned, the we:ivor arranges the loom
and weaves. When the work is finished he bauds
the cloth to the customer from whom the order
was received, or, when it was woven on his own
account he sells it to local customers who come
to his house to buy, or if there is no local demaud
he takes it to Bombay.

Bohoras and Parsis use the checked silks for women's
garments. Some of the geometric patterns are much
admired by Europeans for dresses, and by T'arsis for
troust;rs, and have a small but fairly steady sahi.
E.tcept that the demand for Hindu waistcloths is
briskest during the marriage season (November-May),
the demand for Thana silks is fairly uninform all
the year round.

The Thana silk weavers seldom employ hired labour
at their own houses. When they do pay the weaver
from 8s. to lOs. (R4 to .5) a piece of fifteen yards
long by eighteen inches broad. This represents about
twelve days' weaving, or a daily wage of from 7.\d. to
Is. (5 annas to 8 annans). The Musalman warper is
paid 2s. (Kl) for warping enough for a couple of
tanis or one piece or twin of from fifteen to twenty-
five yards.

To sort and reel the silk, a skien is moistened
and thrown round the pitant, a rough circular bam-
boo cage .about four feet across and two feet deep.
In the centre of the cage is a rod aliout two and a
half feet long. About tliree inches from each end
of this rod, that is about two feet apart, are fastened
si.\ spoke-like pieces of narrow bamboo about a foot
and a half hmg. The ends of the two sets of spokes
are tied togethiT with cords, and tho skein of silk
is thrown over the cords. In reeling and sorting
the worker, who is generally a woman or a girl, sits
to the left by one side of the cage on a stool. (.)n
the ground by her right side lie one or two reels
with long handles and points. She sets the bottom
of the central rod of the oage in a porcelain cup
or in a smooth coconut shell, picks out tho end of
the hank, ties it to one of the reels and lays the
reel at her right side, the handle lying on the stool
and the point balanced between the great toe and
the second toe of her right foot. She spins the cage
bj' whirling the top of its central rod by her left
hand, and as the silk is set free, winds it on the reel
by giving the handle of the reel a slmrp rolling
motion with her right hand and lettini; the point
whirl between her toes. As the silk winds it passes
across her left leg just above the knee. A baud
of cloth is tied to the knee, and as the fibre
passes over the band, the sorter is said to
he able to tell by the feel when the quality of silk
changes. t)nc hank of silk generally contains two
or three qualities of silk. Each quality is wound ou a
separate reel. A\'hen the quality changes, tho sorter
breaks the fibre, and picking up a fresh reel or the
reels to which ttie m?w quality belongs, joins the
ends with her tongue, and goes on rei-ling till another
change in quality takes place. After it is sorted.
with the help of a small wheel or roda, the silk i:>
doubled by winding fibres from two reels on to a
bobbin or thah: of hollow reed about the size of a
cig.irrettf'. These bobbins are next arranged on the
frame of the rahat or throwing machine. The throwing
machine or rahal is in three parts. In the centre is the
bobbin-framo or mcka with a central and two side
uprights; about two feet behind the bobbin-trauie is
the great wheel or ipaii'l-ruda, about two and a half
feet in diameter and with a broad hollow rim ;
and about three feet in front of tho bobbin-fi.iuie
stands an upright conical reel or snkumha about twenty-
six inches high and eight inches in diameter. The
central or bobbii:-frame consists of a divided central
upright and two side uprights, whose outer edges are
cut into a row of eight notches. At right angles
with the central upright, that is, parallel with tho
ground, a set of eight hohbin-holders arc fastened
abont two inches apart. These bobbiu-holdera are

702

THE TlfeOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

round taperiiig steel roils or pegs about the size of a
packiag ueecile, which stand out three or four luches
on either side of the central upright. Over the enii
of each of these bteel rods a bobljiu is drawn in shape
and size like a cigarrette. Each pair of bobbius is
connected with the wheel by a cord which encircles
its hollow rim. From the inner end of the axle of the
wheel, a coir rope runs forward anel is passed loimd
the central rod or the high conical reel or .':<ikumbti.
In working the machine tlie throwiSr sits ou a low
stool, and, as he turns tlie wheel, the cords pass round
its rim, the bobbins twisting the two fibres into one,
while the coir rope from the further end of the
axle turns the reel. As the bobbins .set free the
fibres, the reel draws them through tlie two sets of
eight notches on the outer uprights in tlie bobbm-
frame between two round rods, which are marked off
by rings of oords into sixteen compartments, so that
as the long reel revolves sixteen hanks are wound
round it, eight from each side of the bobbin-frame.
When full the large conical reel is taken away, and
the silk is wound on a smaller reel of the same shape,
called sahimbl, which measures eighteen inches long
by seven in a diameter. This \aru, which is known
as double of duutai; is used in making some cliecked
fabrics. But most of tlie yarn is again wound on
bobbins, and a second time put through the throwing
machine, so as to make the regular or four-fold,
fhartttr yarn.

These processes do not differ from tliose in use in
Yeola iu Nasick, except that in sorting tlie silk passes
over the sorter's left knee instead of through her
fingers. The throwing machine is mucli smaller than
the Yeola machine, and tlie reel is conical and upright
instead of round aud flat.

When the silk is twisted, the warp threads are
sent to Musalnian cotton weavers to be arranged fur
the warp. This costs 2s. (Ill) for every thirty yards
of warp. The next process is washing or bleaching.
If the yarn is not to be dyed it is washed in country
soap aud water. It it is to be dyed, it is first bleached
by boihng it iu an alkaline ley, a mixture of slaked
lime and carliouate of soiBi. The silk is steeped lu
the boiling ley from ten to fifteen miuutes, ami must
be carefully watched, as it spoils if it is kept too
long. After boiling the yarn is washed, left in a
solution of alum for one night, aud again wa.shed. The
silk is now ready to be dyed. The dying appliances
are simple: an ordinary brick fire-place, a copper
cistern, and a stone-grinding mill.

In dyeing silks red, cochineal, coccus ciicti, and
pistachio galls, phtachia vera, in the proportion ot one
of cochineal to four of pistachio galls are powi ered
together and boiled in the copper cistern or dye-bi-ck.
and the silk is steeped and stirred in the mixture till
it takes the reipiired tint. The boiling mixture i.s
then allowed to cool, aud the silk washed several
times and dried. If the colour is dull, the <>"» '«
brightened by dipping in lemon juice mixed with
water. In dyeing orange, the silk undergoes the
same processes as tor red, except that m addition to
cochineal aud pistachio galls, the dye-beik eoiitams
a v:<riable quantity of ispucd- or dflphinium. in dye
lemoii-yrllow, silk is steeped iu a hot strained solution
of ispanik and impure carbonate of soda, ami is then
snueezed and dried. Though not itself yellow this
solution gives the silk a yellow th.at does not l:u e l.y
expo.sure to the sun. To dye green, yellow silk is
steeped in indigo. For black, the silk is steeped in
an infusion ot myiobalaus, and tln-n, for three nights
m',iuclinec, ilc.usinc co.acanii. and a paste coiitaiiiiiig
pieces ot steol, then squeezed, steeped either lu
coeonut oil or eoeouiit milk, and wash.ui iii plain
water. To dye [mrple, r.d silk is steeped in an in-
fusion of mvr.ibalaiis and dried, without being washed.
It is then 'steepi'd iu a solution ol .sulphate of iron
and washed. Another way of making a pu.rp'e labrio
is to use black silk tor the warp aud red silk lor the
weft Silk is seldom dyed blue. When bhie silk is
wanted, the dye used is indigo, and the work is
entrusted to Miisalmau indigo ilyers, who are iiaid^s,
the pound. T" dye taiiiiy, yellow silk 18 boiled a

degree less in the alkaline ley than for other shades.
It is then taken out, squeezed, kept moist, and, without
being washed, is plunged into a solution of dyers
rottlsHii, Kottleria ilnctnria, and powdered alum in
the proportion ot fourteen ot the rottleria to three
of the alum, mixed with carbonate of soda and boiling
water, quickly stirred and left to stand till the
effervescence passes off. In thia mixture the silk is
steeped, stirred, and left to soak for about four hours.
This is the most lasting of yellow dyes, but the
process requires close attention.

Nine chief dye-stuffs are used in colouring Thana
silks : carbonate' of soda, countn' soap, alum, copperas,
pistachio galls, Uparid or defphimiim, myraholans,
rottleria, and cochineal. Of these, pistachio galls,
ispacuk, rottleria, and cochineal are brought from
Bombay, the rest are purchased in Thana. The carbon-
ate of soda is of three kinds : papad Iho.", keh Ihor
and kluiri mail. All of them come either from Sindh,
where they are due from the bottom of small ponds,
or from Arabia. They are a mixture of the carbonate
and sesqui-carbouate of soda and contain a variable
quantity of silica, chlorides, and sulphates. According
to the amount of impm-ity the price varies from above
lid. to3d. (1 to 3 annas) a pounil. The soap or .'"''On
is^coiintry soap, cbiellv made at Kapadvanj in Kaira,
from the oil of the Bassia latifalia, boiled with 'an
alkaline ley of Khor and lime. It is sold in round
pieces at about 2d. (1 1-3 annas) the pound. This
soap is not suitable tor fine work or for the toilet.
The alum comes partly from Cutch or Sindh. The
Dutch and Sindh alum has traces of iron, sihca. and
soda. The China alum is purer and better. Sindh
and Outch alum varies in prices from about Ud. 2d.
fl to 1-3 annas) the pound, and China alum from
.about IJd. to 2d. (1 1-lG to 1 1-3 annas) the pound.
The pistachio galls, buz-ganj, are brought from Persia
and Kabul. Thana silk weavers obtain it from Bombay
at Is. (8 annas) the pound. The i<pnnil-, the fiowers
and stalks of a kind of delphinium, is brought from
Persia and Kabul. It is used solely in dying yellow, and
costs from 9il. to Is. (0 to 8 annas) the pound. Ot the
two kinds of Indian myrabalans.the chebulia myrabalans
is the one generally used. It is the product of the Urad
(tcnniiudia chehulti). which grows in all the Salivadri
forests. The cost varies from 6s. to 7s. (R.I to P.S.M per
maund. The Kapila. or powder on the capsules of the
dyers' rottleria, comes from Dtalabar. the Himalayas,
and Ar.abia. It cost from Is. to Is. Od. |S to 12 annas)
the pound. After being washed or bleached and dyed,
the warp silk is singed.

The next step is to make ready the loorn. Iu this
there are three processes, beddlc filling, ioiniiig, and
arranging. In fiUing the beddle according to the
pattern, the weaver passes the silk between the teeth
of the reed or phim and through the loops in the cords
of thi' different beddles. When the threads are passed
through the reed and the beddles. they are tied behind
the beddle frames in small bunches or clusters. The
end of the warp is then brought aud laid b.'sidc these
bunches of silk, and beginning with the right hand
bunch, each tbroad is snapped and by a rapid twist
knotted to mie of the warp threads. When the joining
is finished the threads are arranged through the whole
length of the wavp in aeoordauee with th,-ir position
at the beddles. The labour and cost of b,-ddle-filliug
is generally avoi.le.l by leaving about six iiichi-s ot the
former warp behind' the beddle, to which the new
threads are attached.

The Thana silk loom differs in no appreciable respect
from the ordinary hand loom in use nil over I'l'l'a.
and a fair i.lea of i's construetimi may be gathered
from the illustration sliowing a Thana silk weaver at
work. The dyeing processes have been described at
some lenuth as examples of the intrinsic simplicity of
Indian dyeing methods. . t

Thana ' silks are sold by the piece, at the rate ot
K.V-> for a piece ot 12 yards long and 21 inches m
wiilth The same price is charged for a piece \f, yards
long and IS inches iu width. If 50 pieces and upward
are' purchased and allowance ot H2 on each piece
is made. — Bom!'".'/ Gazette,

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

703

TEA AND CINCHONA IN CEYLON. '

The weather throughout January was extremely
wet, with a gotxi ileal of wind. Fiue weather has
now set in and February seems likely to be dry
and warm, as it usually is. The dampness last
month bus been very beneficial to tea all rouud, and
absolute salvation to those whose necessities obliged
them to delay their planting until the end of the
season. Great preparations for planting are being
made for the coming season, and many millions of
plants will be put out in due time. Fnmi time to
time our local journals contain letters on what appear
very simple details, but the dednctious drawn from
them do not strike everyone who has been accustt)med,
and possibly for many years, to make use of such
details as a matter of course. The saving of labour
showni in the enclosed extract is one of no little
iuterest ; and may be new to some of your readers.

"The origin il tea-fields in Ceylon were usually
planted 5 feet by 4, or 5 by 5 ; then 4 x -l ; while now
4x3 has become the most common, and, perhaps, in
our present want of early returns, it is the best, though
we are duly warned by our Indian friends that this
distance is rather close. It should always, however,
be renicmbereci that a st<^^ip or rough piece of laud
may be planted much closer than a flat or clearing
of somewhat even lay ; though even on the steepest
or roughest laud the worl'inij line-'i should never be
closer than 4 feet. Four by three permits, 7>rar(ira/((/,
the same number of plants per acre as ;!i > .'fj aiid
with the vigorous action of the tea root gi\e"s the
advantage in its favor, residtiug really in one-eighth
less travelling by the plueker, to pluck the same
number of trees. For instance, in a daring 2iXJ yards
wide, there would !.(• 1.50 lines, if planted 4 . 3, and
171 if 3* xai, showing an increase of labour necessary
in the latter, as compared to the former. Consider-
ing the matter in this light, those who have planted
4 ,•: J may ultimately benefit very largely, for there
is no doubt of the power of the plant being able to
fully occupy the land with its roots. It is merely a
matter of time. Thus, in a clearing with lines (i feet
wide, 5 feut wide, and 4 feet wide, and 3.V feet, the
number ot lines respectively for 200 yards would be
a6 follows: —

6x3 100 lines plucking say 2,400 trees.
5x3 120 „ .. 2,800 „

4x3 150 ,. ,. 3,600

^'3 171 ,, .. 3,600 „

" Consiilcring the immense area travelled by phickers
throughout the season, it, is very desirable" that this
work should be made as easy ,as possible, the aim
being the largest quantity of leaf, for the least pos-
sible trailing. The writer remembers in the old days
of coffee that coolies were told ' you must either
bring in plenty of /uilam, or else finish a large stretch
of land,' implying most emphatically that the two
results could not be attained. It will certainly be
the same with tea, and the less we trail our coolies
over the hills, the more leaf they will, in consequence,
bring us.

"■While upon this subject, has it never struck tea-
planters how excessively the labours of our phickers
are increasc.l upon steep estates by always having to
go up and down the lines on| the face of the hill,
wheu, by transverse or oblique lining, the feature
could be skirteil, i\am(*amy then having no more
downright shoulder work than his <l»ra when he walks
along his well-traced, almost horizontal roads. Also.
if the lines were far apart and the trees close in the
line, so .-vs to almost form a hedge, would there not
also be a saving of wash? 'Would not the closely
planted trees hel|) to protect the land from the rush
of dtbrin down its face?

•' It has always been a vexed quest ini whether plants
are better than s. ed at stake ; though, in my mind.
I have no two opinions upon the subject. Plants are
generally more certain than seeds, but, where the
soil is guild, the climate to be depended upon, and
there are no injurious insects, 1 should much prefir
seed at stake, as there are no tunied roots, and no
injury to them through exposure. The root of a tea-

plant is a very important organ, for all must have
observed how carefully it is projected downward in
the economy of the jilanfs growth, before tliere is
much seen above ground.''

Since writing my last letter, I have heard but little
moro of Mr. Gilruth's tea nuiehinery, as there a]ipeara
to be an iusufbcieney of competition aniougsi machin-
ists in Ouylon. In the old eotfee il.iys there were two
establishments in Kandy, and of lat(? years uidy one.
Monojioly of any kind is now an acknowledged evil,
and I cauuot help thinking there is a very good thing
to be done in Kantly by an enterprising tirm of mach-
inists, who would supply and repair tea machinery,
and do a general hardware business in that town.
You have doubtless seen a description of I\Ir. Gow's
system of withering tea-leaf, and I am rather curious
to read the expression of the opinions of your planters
on the pnncii)le of bruising the leaf during the pro-
cess, so opposed as it is to all expressed ideas hither-
to, and is the very thing Mr. Gilruth claims to have
avoided.

I see notices in our journals headed. "Another
tea-taster from Loudon ;" " Another tea-broker has
commenced business in Colombo." At this rate we
shall have as many gentlemen as we c;in find work
for. indeed how all the brokers manage to obtain
a living is rather 'a puzzle. .Just now there is a
ce.s.satinn in planting, but I hear of more than one
instance where cinchona is being rooted up under
the impression that it is doing damage to tea-plants
put out amongst it. For .sometime past flourishing
coffee has been cut up for a similar reason. I observe
a notice in one of your papers about the probable
introduction of Japanese tea-boxes to your estates.
I should myself imagine that similar boxes could be
made cheaper on the spot, that is where there is
available wood than they cost imported from Japan.

A notice has appeared of an insect infesting both
cinchona aud tea. which, until identified or named,
by scientists, is known as the cinchona-bug. At it is
of such interest to planters \ do not hesitate to .send
it to you in full, and need only add that I person-
ally took part in the investigation, and can fully bear
out the assertions as to its abundance on cinchona,
though 1 have not seen it on tea. The existence of
the insect, as far as is visible to the unaided eye,
cannot fail to have been observed by cinchona-planters,
but its prolonged existence under the outer cuticle of
the bark has hitherto apparently remained unknown ;
and the immense number of them extracting the life-
juice given from the bark would seem to account for
so many young plants failing to grow though they
rem.ain alive, a state ef things which hitherto has
not been accounted for. About a month ago we were
informed that this insect, which we will tor^conveiii-
ence designate the cinchnna-bug, was fouud upon tea-
plants as well as on cinchona. This statement wo
did not care to circulate until we had opportunity
of verifying it, but we much regret to find il proved
to be true. A correspondent writes in answer to our
inquiry : " Yes ! I have found the insect as thick on tea
as it is on cinchona." Here, then, is another pest to
contend against, and one of uo small moment either;
and we hope our correspondents will not fail to lot
us know the results of their investigations. The fol-
lowing is the paper referred to:—

•' I'pon many cinchona trees, even yonug plants ot
one year's growth, may often be observed small
blisters, scarcely an eight of an inch in diameter, of
the same colour as, and in fiict forming p.trt of, the
bark. They are grouped promiscuously round the stem
and upon the under sides of the branches. Under
this blister, which merely forms a thin covering to
a shallow cell in the bark, lies a small insect, which
at first sight would appear to be the /nipa of some
minute beetle; but a closer examination soon shows
the roi'.take. They vary from white to chesnut upon
the upper surface, according to age : the litter being
the colour assumed by the adult female, the under
side is pale purple. Th<y are soft and tleshy, have
no outwanl or visible miinbers, and appear to bo
absolutely devoid of eyes. But from nearly the centre

704

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April t, 1886.

of the nnder surface proceeds a long slender suckiug-
bristlc: even this can only be discerned under a
microscope.

" The insect is divide<l intn the usual number of
segments (of the coccus), which are rather indistinct
at the anterior, but deeply divided at the poiteriur
extremity, and fringed at the sides with short tufts
of hair. The eggs, which are laid within tlie cell,
are oval, pale-red, and trau.spareuf ; before the; young
insect emerges, its limbs and eyes are plainly visilili-
through the thin covering. It is hatched within the
parent cell, aud is then almost identical in appear-
ance to the young larva of the brown-bug (/ectmiitm
coft'eir), being pale liesh-coloured with two short pointeil
aiitennse, si.'C legs, two minute black eyes, and a pair of
anal filaments which are almost as long as the entire
insect. It soon wanders away in search of n(^vv past-
ures. When once it has fixed itself under the thin
outer skin of the bark, it decides to stay there for
the rest of its life, and accordingly dispenses with
its legs, eyes, aud antenna- as being of uo further
use, developing instead a suckiug-bristle. It is in this
first stage, and iu the adult form of the male, that
the insect proves its close relatiouship to the scale-

" When the female insect dies, the covering of the
cell falls off, leaving a small white scar. On many
trees the bark is doited all over mth these white
6pots: iu nearly every such case the tree has a hidc-
bouud appearance and looks ' shuck iu general.' In
some districts it is diflicult to find a single cinchona
tree that is uot more or less attacked.

" The male insects conmience life in much the same
way, but they congregato in larger colonies, though
not so widely distributed. In the larval stage they
keep quite apart from the females. I have seldom
found the two sexes upon the same tree. To ac-
count lor this, it would seem probable that periodic-
ally a complete batch of eggs develop into male
iusects alone. The male colonies are few and far
between, but, where they do occur, they often cover
the bark so thickly as entirely to alter its appearance.
The male larva is very much smaller than the female,
similar in shape, but of a pale-orange or yellow colour.

" But it is in the pvpa stage that the male colonies
are most apparent; for then each insect exudes a
fibrous cottony substance from one extremity of its
cells, which i'es in oblong tlakes uearly parallel to
each other. I have seen a small cinchona (otlicinalis)
tree so thickly covered with these white tlakes that
the bark was completely hidden. ^Vithiu this white
substance lies the small red pii/m which produces
after a time the perfect male insect, a minute red
fly, only just visible to the nakeil eye.

" \'iewed under a miscrosrope, it is sr. en to be pro-
vided with a single pair of dehcate, faintly-hyaline
wiugE, which, when the insect is at rest, are laid aloug
the back overlapping each other. From the head pro-
ceed a pair of long, jointed antenuie, fringed with
gliort hairs. It has no anal filaments like the males
of the black and mealy-bugs, but the tail ends in a
long point, about a third of the length of the body
of the insect. Bu^- the most curious fact concerning
it is, that it possesses four large, black eyes, one pair
situated on the top of the head and another pair on
the under side. They are all true eyes, rot the small
' ocelli ' that are frei|Uently present iu other insects.
This wovdd seem as if it nished to make up for
lost time, having been condemned to pass the greater
part of its existence in complete blindness.

"The /(oiff aud 2»'l'"' "f *^^ '""''' "'sects are
more destructive to Iho trees they attack than
those of the female, though fortunately their colonies
are linuted. The female iusects appear to live for
a considerable time, as their cells are frequently cov.
ered with lichen; and during that time tliey have
no doubt jiroduced many broods of yovuig ones,
though they seem to lay ouly a few eggSMt a time.
They are preyed upon by several species of minute
wasps, Bud a horny black mite helps to thin their
numbers. A thick grey fungus generally follows
the attacks of the male iMect, cuveloping the

trunk branches of the tree in a complete air-
tight suit. I have found several allied species of
this curious insect, Uviug under the cuticle of the
leaves of differeut jungle trees, and p.articularly in
the leaves of the Australian ' Bottlcbrush' tree ( CcU-
listeMoii linenri^.y

If this pest is known in India on the tea, aud
any remedies have been suggested, I shall be glad
to hear about it, as well as to any damage done to
the trees themjselves.

Oil from tea seed forms the subject of auuther
communication, aud runs thus: —

"Very good oil to burn and for other uses is made
from tea-seed in Ohiua (I believe it is a better oil
to burn than coconut oil.) Coolies aud others are now
making it for their own use ou estates. If it would
pay the expense of gathering, making, &c., and give
a profit, surely it would be worth while to make
iucjuiries about. There is no doubt about it the trees
would be relieved if the seed was gathered, as it
would be taken off loug before it would drop natur-
ally; besides there would not be so large an amount
of seedlings, which it is almost impossible for the
weeders t[uite to clear out. No doubt about it: trees
seeding so early as they do iu Oeylou is no hght
matter; aud, it a way could be found to turn' it to
a profitable account, we should uot be altogether
losers. If it pays to make iu China, why uot iu Ceylon i*"*

This is something new to me, and whatever the
quality may be of oil expressed from ripe seed, I
caiinot think the product of unripe seed can be of
much value. — Indiun Plunttrs' GatctU.

Dr. Bon.\vi.\, of the Lucknow Horticultural
Gardens, has but little faith in the statements as
to the suitability and value of the Eiionlyphis
ghibiilus in swampy and marshy districts. The
results of his experience with the tree confirm the
unfavourable results that have also been obtained
with it in Italy, and he is surprised that it should
ever have been deemed fitted to discharge the
efficacious and salutary (unctions that have been
so universally claimed on its behalf. — Aiimricaii
Cullivator, Dec. 1885.

Indian Tea ksb Coffee.— The coffee idautations
through(rat India (says the Grocer) are now threatened
by external competition, chiefly from Brazil. In lS.s:i-
84, lSn,.'!<:>0 acres were returned as being under colfeo
for all India. Their total yield was ^n,7.')0,00() lbs., or a
slight advance on that of lSfl2-S3 (.an exceptionally bad
year), but considerably below the average formerly
attained. The cultivation of tea, on tlie contrary, re-
ceived a decided impetus. There were 2ti(),.'i7I acres
actually plant<nl, or 12,0110 more thin iu 18S2-S3 and
considerably more than 1(10. OIK) additional acres were
takeu up for pl.intation. But perhaps the following
comparison will give the best idea of the growth of tea-
plantiug. -During the last nine years the acreage under
tea has increased by uearly 10!l per cent, aud the
total outturn ((i5,i)U0,(i!)9 lbs. ) has increased If 11 per cent
during the same period. Assam still remains the most
important province of India for tea, and alone produced
more than .i2,li00,00n lbs. of the whole outturn. The
area of the gardi'us increased from ITS.N.il acres to
li>9, l.)3, aud the approximate average yield of mature
plants per acrii is estimated at ,')2;i lbs., iigaiust 2!)0 lbs.
iuthe previous soflsou. In Bengal the number of plant-
ations diminished, but the area under tea, especially iu
Darjeeling and Julpigoree, was nevertheless larger. In
the Pun jaub the cultivation of the plaut has been aban-
doned in Simla, aud has now been restricted to some
8000 acres in Kangra. In Madras aud Travaueoro tho
plaut:di'ins reuriin much the same as before. In BurnuiJi
tea was grown expcriuieuLally for the first time, with
fair success.

* A small quantity of tea-seed-oil was made as an
experiment some 20 years ago by the Superintenilent
of the Central Assam Tea Go. at Diftloo. It burned
very well, and the experiments would no doubt have
been carried out on a larger scale, but for the death
of the gentlemsm,— Ed. /. P. G,

APRii, I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

7'^5

PLANTINCJ IN NETHERLANDS INDIA.

IBE JAVA COKFEE CKOP ; CINCHONA ; nllEWEliV.

(Translated for the Slniils Thii>'f.)
Tlie Ciovcrnient Coffee Crop in Java, tliis year,
bids fair to be a short one, the estimate hardly
amounting to half a milliou of piculs. This liow-
ever vvouM not much signify under ordinary circuni-
stances. It is usual for Uie yield, every three or
four years, to be for once far below the average
outturn. But two very unsatisfactory crojis one
after the oilier as in the ca«e now, bode ill for the
future owing toils arising from the estates becoming
worn out even in the best districts the wor^t of it is
that these plantations can with ditiicully be replaced
by new ones.

Tlie royal sanction has been given to the Articles
of Association of a company started to work beer
breweries in Netherlands India on a capital amount-
ing to 12'), 000 guilders. The tirst brewc ry has been
established at Batavia.

The official report on the Government cinchona
cultivation in .Java for the third quarter for 18S,i
show that, in that year, the crop of bark reached
421,tjl2 .\msterdam pounds. The yield would have
been larger had not cropping been hampered by
heavy rain and want of labour. There was every
prospect of the outturn in 18S() proving to be far
above that secured last year.

•■ A VISIT TO THE CINCHONA PLANTATIONS
IN .JAVA.'

Mr. J. C. B. Moens writes to the Itnlifrhe Her-
ciiiir as follows (we translate from the Dutch! : —

Fndct the heading the fnd. Mciciiur of 9th .Jan-
uary last contains a translation of a i)aper by j\Ir.
H. li. r.iady. which he read at an evening meeting
of the I'harmaceutical Society on i*t}i December, and
which was published in the I'Ihh imu-n'tit-ol .fuunwl
uttj TiiniMutioits ol 12th December. This paper,
which does full justice to the friendly rece|>tion of
the traveller by the Director of Cinchona Cultivation,
van Romiuide, gives rae an opportnity for the follow-
ing remarks.

That no difficulty was placed in liis way,
either of travelling over .Java or of sceciiig the ciu-
chona gardens, apparently surprised Mr. Brady some-
what, as he had no doubt heard that it was not
such an easy thing. It is indeed astmiishing how
stich a strange and wholly unjust idea should still
continue to exist, in spite of the numerous visits of
Englishmen, not ouly to .Javii but also specially to
the cinchona gardens. There whh a time, partic-
ularly in iHTSand IST'.t, whenthefunic of ' ■ii„li„i„i Lrdtj-
tritiiiii was known throughout (%;> lou also, that Eng-
lisliiiieii cainecontimiHlly to see the ciiK^liona gardens,
ofteu almost without an introduction, and only sel-
dom provided with recommendations from the Gov-
emnient, and it has often been my very pleasant duty
to give the travellers permission to see as much of the
gardens as thev wished, althouch my duties did not al
ways perniit of my accompanying them. .Umost every
week Drought some of the pilgrims, and it was usual
at Handong to consider every stranger as an Knglishmaii
wh(t had come to see the cinchona gardens. The
report that vvc obsencd secrec> with regard to the
cinchona cultivation we o«e to the period when
•lunghuhn was at the head of tlic enterprise. Krom
that time also dates an order, b\ winch everyone
who was not pro\ided willi :< writtin perniit from
.lunguhn was refused entrance to the gardens, and
it was oven the case that Prof de \'riese was re-
iiiaod ndmission to the nursery-houses, altliough he
had the sn«'cial ])eruiissiuii of the Go\ernment.
.lunghuhn did not trouble liiiii.self mach about Bucii
a permission, and his will was law with the over-
seers, who were dependent ou him. It is now .-.een
liow diOicult it IS to get rid of the bad reputation
which we then acquired. It is unfortunate that
4U

Mr. Brady had no opportunity of visiting the estab-
lishments to the south of Biuidoug also. He would
then, after seeing the uiiginal trees, and tlie plant-
ation of grafts at Tirtasari, have got a better and
ju.ster idea of the C. I.iilfiriiinm than was possible
at Nagrak, where there are only dcscendents of the
original trees, and among these many which have de-
viated from the good type. The ('. /.nli/iriiuai in
certainlv verv different from the description given by
Weddell of ('. t'<i//.s.i//if, and in my work, " De Kina-
Cultuur in Azii-," page ?:>, I regarded it as piobalde
that the cinchona described by. Was Cnlixmia «as a
more or less hybridised C. l.ediieiiaiin. The special
characteuiitic of the species ^'. LnhjeiUtnu \s that the
clusters of blossoms are small and compact, the
blossoms small, yellowish white and drooping, mid
the blanches united to the stem at a very acute
angle. Dr. Trimeii, the able Director of the Botanic
Garden at Poradoniya in Ceylon, who was able per-
souallv to observe the varieties in tlie cinchona gardens
there," also regards the C l.nhj. liaiia as an undoubt-
edly distinct species. That Kuiize should state that
C. I.tJtjerUiia is a bastard between olfi'iii'ih'M and
C. iiiicraiitha is lest correct. Kuuze calls oihiiuidtH
itself a bastard, and derives J.edi/nunM from Cii/m<i-/h
and mumntla. Brady thinks that the climate
or the soil was not suited for the ( '. oiti.iini/is, which
he saw at Nagrak, as this variety had formed such
long spindly trees. Everyone falls into this mistake
who sees this variety of 'cinchona for the tirst time,
and cspcciallv when the acquaintance is made in a
plantation where there are other varieties of cin-
chona. It is, however, the peculiar habit of C.
uftiiiinili.s, and thev look no worse at Nagrak than in
Cevlon or on the'Nilgiris. In fact the plantation at
Nagrak is exceptionallv excellent, on acc;onnt of the
high quinine yield of the trees, whose barks often
give an average of 6 per cent of quinine sulphate.

NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE.

(Bv Du. .1. E. Tailou, f. 0. s., f. i,. k. Ac.
Editor of ficii'itii' Gofiiip.)

Glass-rtooring is largely intfVeasing in use in Paris.
It is said to bo eheaper than wood in the long
run. and it has the advantage of admitting and
allowing of the diffusion of light.

The sugar industry has been affected so often
for the worse that any further change must be
for the better. But this hardly seems likely yet
— at any rate to the cdiic sugar industry. It is
stated that the .vi/Hr/ic.viV, or "putting together,"
of saccharose has been accomplished. Any laee-
ous matter obtained from potatoes, converted into
glucose by the usual means, and •-hen submitted
to the action of an electric current, has done it
all. The result showed SS-'iti of saccharose, but
even this does not make it cane sugar. — Aii<lral-

THE CINCHONA M.\RKET,

{From II Corrf^piiiidfiil.)

There is trouble with the market, the analysis, the
growth, and with the Government in regard to cin-
chona. Prices liave fallen, and fallen below all anti-
cipation, and no one in particular can be bhmic^d
for the present unsatisfactory state of the niarket.
During the fortnight before the last mail left
London tiiere was good competition for all rich
tests, at steadv prices of )!.d to 'id. the unit.
The Stair estate sold a large pile of " Iteiicwcd
Crown," of the mark K. D. E. 'ver S. in m .unondid,
for -is Id. to 23 2d. per lb. The Stair uffinmiht ir
the true varietv and well grown, the renewed bark
bavin" had ialficieiit time allowed to develope
the alkaloids. The Ceylon shipments continue
on a very full scale. We hear from Ceylon that large
shipments will not be continued. Low prices have
lessened extension, and planters are now giving their
attention more to tea than cinchona. There is sonic
prospect of a better mnrkot in the future, which

^o6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

will lessen troubles regarding this particular depart-
ment o£ the industry; but trouble number two ia
now with the analysis. Bark, which has been an-
alysed by good authorities iu India, and found to
contain niore than four units of quinine, has been sold
in LouiIdu on tests of less than two units of quinine,
involving, to tlie unconscious and unfortunate owner.
a loss of more than SO per cent. The analysers have
differed ; who is to decide ? The Pykara Falls
Estate was very anxious to obtain a correct opinion of
the value of their bark, and a sample was accord-
ingly sent to the Government Qniuologist, wlio re-
plied as follows:— , ,~

" I have made an analysis of the sample of Cinchona
o/liiiii"!i« fi'om Pykara Falls Estate, and find it to
contain : —

Quinine . . • • • • 2"61

Ciuchonidine , . . . . . 1'63

guinidine . . . . . . '08

inchonine . . . . . . '35

Amorphous alkaloids . . . . -ol

r.-18
Crystallized Sulphate of Quinine . . :t-51
Moisture at 93 per cent .. 11(17 p. c.

Tlie following analysis was also obtained from
sample sent to London : —

Crystallized Sulphate of Quinine . , 3-86
,, „ Cinchouidine. . 115

,, „ Quinidine . ■ —

Alkaloid Cinchonino . . . . 060

And the hark was valued, oo this analysis, at 5d
per unit, to be worth Is 9d per lb. Subsequently,
the bulk of bark from which the samples referred to
were taken, was submitted to auction sale at London
in the usual manner. The test taken before the auction
was reduced to ISU psr cent sulphate quinine, and the
bark was sold at one shilling a pound, no';withstiuJing
that the price of the unit had risen to 6d. A stirring
complaint was naturally sent to London, which brought
the following reply :— ' Nothing can be fairer than the
whole transaction, and tliere can be uo fairer test
ot the value of a product than by public
auction. Ou arrival of a bulk ot a bark in dock,
it is carefully sampled by the dock exports,
who then forward an average sample to the
broker, a sample accurately representing the whole
bulk. The broker then forwards a small sample,
directly or indirectly, to every manufacturer in Europe
and America, these" samples, going out three weeks to
ten days before sale. The sooner they go out, the
tetter naturally , they are worked, as each manufacturer
analyses his own sample, and, as this requires time,
late samples re^-nive poor alttution. We also forward
to the au.vlyst, if the bulk is valuable enough to admit
of this, a sample to be tested lor jjuidauce only. On the
Monday before the sale, all the thow samples arc
exhibited, and the buyers coino round and examine
them, note whether the tests received liom their clients
are couoboiiited by the appearance, &c , ic. At the
publir sale the buyers and agents bid according to the
instructions received. Not one of them, as a
rule, ever a^ko if Ihe broker lias tested the
bark." There is a question— What have priv-
ate analyses to do with the result of dock
samples und public auctions: There certainly
should nut be a ililfeicucr ol luoi i- than 50 per cent
between the nsiilt of the private analysis and the
dock samples ; but such bus bicu the case recently in
so many casta, tli:it we consider the question descrviug
of public notice. The sab ^ ol bark on accuuut of
Governmont li:ive recenlly been atoppcd at Madras,
and we have no doubt the yreat disaati.'^laction ex-
perienced, on the one band by the purchasers of bark
at tliese sales, ami ou the part of Oovenimeut on
the other baud, in consecpuirce of the greatly reduced
prices realized, have contributed much to this result.
The growth of cinchona on the Nilgiris is slow,
and expensive iu upkeep. Tlauters who have
been out of their money for years in the
cultivation of cinchona, are not only burdened with
the iliculties referred to, but the great competition
continued by Ciovciumeut. which is unreleutin.:,' in its
demand for taxes, is most disastrous. What will Gov-

ernment do with its bark now, if it is not to be
sold locally!' It has tried London, it has tried Madras,
and it has tried the alternative of selling nowhere,
and sending their bark direct to manufacturers of
quinine. Still they are dissatisfied, and the planters
also. The faults and faihngs of this useful enterprise
require fuller inveatigiition, and we have uo doubt the
Government will see the advisability of giving as wide
circulation as possible to all the information in its
possession. — JltKiraa Mail.

FEOJI THE HILLS OF CEYLON.

THE TOON XHEE I'Ol! TE.V IIOXES, &C. — ITS CillOWTH
IN INUI.V, ,I.\VA, QDEKNSL.\ND, ANll CEVLON.

UiTEU LiNL>iTi..\, Iltli March.
Thanks for the tin of seed from Mr. Mundt, which
is very welcome. As I anticipated, when I heard
of it, the seed is that of the Toon tree (Cediclu Tooiia),
which was all tlie rage in Java wlieii I was there
in 1881, and you may remember that I brought a
large quantity of the Haky seed, collected for me
by my good friend Mr. Kerkhoven, but which un-
fortunately lost its vitality cu route. I tirst made
acquaintance with this fine tree at Dehra Dun,
where there are fine avenues of it along the roads.
That was in February 1870, and in tlie following
March I saw it at Parjeeling. At botli those
places and in Assam it gi-ows well, and there are
now a good many specipiens yielding seed in Cey-
lon. My experience in India, Java and Ceylon
seems to indicate that it does better at a high
than a low elevation. A planter in Upper Hpwa-
lieta liad his toon trees destroyed by beetles, but
on Abbotsford they have grown beautifully, running
up clean, branchless stems to 20 to •i.') feet in four
years. We mean to cultivate them largely, with
GrevillcK nilmxta and Cniptomerio .luiiuiiii'a. Seeds
of the latter recently sent from Darjiling by Mr.
Gammie are doing well in our nurseries. Thfe
three trees I have mentioned are all valuable for
timber purposes, and the toon is so mucli valued
for house building and furnitnre purposes, tliat I
suspect it will be found too valuable to be de-
voted to tea boxes. The inferior woods of Ceylon
answer well, and now we are getting cheap boxes
from Japan and elsewhere. Toon trees can be
planted (i x ti and then thinned out. When I was
in Brisbane the wharves were covered with inagni-
tieent logs of toon timber, known locally as "red
cedar," cut in the Queensland forests ; and in Java
it was so much prized that all the roads in the
Treanger Regency were being lined with it. young
plants of the large-leaved cinchona succirubra being
used to shade the planted out seedlings ! Of all
trees I know toon is llw one for estates, it the
beetles do not injure it. In our experience of some-
what over four years, no enemy has attacked our trees.

SCKNTiiic Tea Manukactcbe. — We call attention to
a thoughtful article on this subject, by a subscriber to
this Joiirual. There are several useful matters mooted
in the paper, and others which will draw forth, doubt-
less, criticism ; but this can only lead to useful and
desirable discn-ssion on a very important subject to all
tea planters. — InJian Tea (inzrtie. [The paper will be
given iu full in the Tropical Agrinilturist. — Ed. ]

Bb.vzil axi> Floiuiia are mentioned by the
(iroccr's Journal as possible tea-growing countries.
With its approacliing slavery crisis, we do not
think Brazil is likely, for very many years, to grow
much tea, and as for Florida the expense of labour
puts competition from thatquarter out of the question.
Upper Burma when pacified and populated may
become a tea country, but we believe the period
is far distant.

April i, 1886] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

707

^onoapawd^uoi'.

To the EdI/nr of the " Ctijlon Obsn-ver."

PLANTING NEWS FBOM BUBMA.

Tavoy, Feb. 2nd.
l)t.ui SiK, — Plantiiij^ nuioeiies in fine order and
tea. cofiee of kinds, ariiatto, cardamoms and cacao
and several other new products all doing remark-
ably well. Coffee in bud and a tine blossom will
be out on coffee Arabian, and coffee Libtrian in
about other lU days or so ; I have got about I.t cwt.
of produce to ship to London in store, the maiden
crop of the Model Dnke estate. I am to plant
up other 10 acres this year with tea, cacao, coffee
and cardamoms, also another for shade with croton
oil trees and the sautrce. — Vours respectfully,

, JAMES D. WATSON.

COBBA BBAND TEA.

Deaii Sib. — I enclose sample of Cobra Brand Pehor
Si,iuhnii:i labeled J lb. packet 7d — 2s Id [jcr lb. I ! !
Exhibitiou ic. <Vc. .Just liquor and taste it and
oay what it reminds you of ; and whether it is likely
to increa-e the liking for Ceylon Pikoe Suiiclinuij
amongst those who buy it out of necessity to gain a
new experience. — Yours UNOWHEW !

Atrocious stuff: the Planters' Association ought
to take action through their Commissioner and
threaten the "Cobra Brand" people with a prosecution
for injuring the good name of Ceylon teas. —
Ed.j

THE WOBLDS MANUFACTUEE OF QUININE

Feb. 11th.
De.vb Sir, — In drawing up yonr original estim-
ates of the manufacture of (juinine in t)ie world
as published in the (herluiul Observer of Nov. 18th,
by some oversight you made use of figures which
applied to the heavy manufacture of quinine in
Italy prior to the failure of the Fabbrica Lombards
in Angnst 18*4. The excess of manufacture daring
the years that " Cuprean " held sway was far
and away above the requirements of that period, and
undoubtedly heavy stocks (perhaps from two to
three million oz. — who can tell ?) are .still held by
those who. as things have turned out, so rashly
ventured into quinine speculation. Not until
quinine goes above 4s the oz. again wUl these old
stocks in any quantity be offered lor sale, although
their existence at all times, until they enter into
consumption, will constitute an unfavourable ele-
ment in the quinine market. The manufacture of
quinine in Italy since the failure has not, I should
imagine, exceeded 2.50,000 oz. per annum. Your
fiaures for United States are surelv too moderate. —
I am yours faithfully, J. HAMILTON,

c of<. Bucker A Co., 12 Great Tower Street. E. C.
Mr. Hamilton will have found the needful cor-
rections in the ireci/y Observer of ItHh .January,
based on information from a reliable quarter ; tlie
manufacture for Italy was given at .40,000 lb. and
that for the United States increased to 70,000 lb.
The con.sumption of the States we put at 8li,000 lb.,
but Mr. Hamilton thinks there is capacity for
consuming a much larger quantity. We put the
world's consumption in our Directory at 302.000
lb. : and this we had to reduce under the inform-
ation we received in .laquary to 270,000 lb. ; but
Mr. Hamilton, one of the best authorities, assures
as that he would put the present consumption of
quinine in the wotld at 5,300,000 euncee at the least.

or'331,22n lb., at W ounceafolhe lb. orl-11 600 lb. If"
' apothecaries' measure is meant. We have no doubt,
however, that the influence of cheap prices will be
seen in a rapid increase in the consumption of
quinine. — Ed.]

A BIO CINCHONA AND A DITTO THEE
TOMATO.

New Cornwall, 2.5th Feb. 186G.

DrAR Sir, — Your r.pecial correspondent will be
interested in learning that New Galway can nill
show some decent cinchona snccirobra tree". I
measured one here yesterday with the followinjj
resnlt'! : —

Total height . . .',! ft.

CircnmiVrence at foot 4 ft. 3 in.

at 10 ft. high . . 2 ft.

The .'•tem is bare of branches up to 41 ft. A few
years ago there were two stems, and the smaller
was then cut away, or it would now have .shown
a girth of '> or 6 feet. A gentleman who was
here a few days ago took it to be a hybrid, the
leaves ayipcarcrf so small at <iueh a hight above him,
"It is worth a t-t note to look at." was his
verdict, but he forgot to leave that same note."
We have been expecting Mr. John Ferguson down,
as, when I met him the other day in Colombo,
he said he would look us up. I hope he will
come to verify above measurements and see some
coffee worth looking at : tea too is going ahead,
there are already somewhere about .SOO acres under
that product in this secluded valley.

Mr. Cotton can still show some fine succirubras
on Warwick and will doubtless send you dimen-
sions, but come and see for yourself. Who has
the finest tree tomato in Ceylon ? Mine at 2 years
old is 13 ft. 3 in. high with a spread of branches
10 ft. in diameter and loaded with fruit. — Yours
faithfullv, AKTHUK J. KELLOW.

Tea: Notes and Comments. — Mr. J. C. Kinmond
has recently paid Oeylou a flying visit. He went to
Avisawella to inspect his tea properties, over which lie
h«s already expended nearly a lac and a half of rupees,
and 80 pleaeed is he with the prospects of tea iu Cey-
lon that be is prepared to spend double that sum on
our new product. An A.<sam plauter travelling with
Mr. Kiumond described much of the lan<l he saw tea
growiug on as " only suitable for railway ballast," and
even after going through some of the mc.it favored
tea districts said he was disappointed in what he had
seen, after all he had road about the Ceylon tea eiiter-
prize.t Mr. Kiumond has ceased to take any active
interest iu the machinery bearing bis name, and ha.s
now, as he says become a pucca Ceylon Planter. It is
said that Mariawatte will, this sea.sou, give 1,41 U llj.
tea per acre : What will Indian Plautere say to tiiis,
we wonder y Bumper returns — much in excels of last
season— are also expected from other well-known estates.
— " Ceylon Advertiser."

• He. no doubt, forgot to " take a note on," and went
away uncon.«rtou.'*ly humming : —

■• The trembling notes ascend the sky.
And float upon the air."
-Ko.

+ We supppose it is tbu 'effect of the climate of
Asjtam which renders planters from the Vallej of the
ISrabmaputra liable to the disea»u of disappointment
when they visit the Valley of the Kelani. We have
be%rd that the planter .illuded to above gave the
majority of Kelani \"all©y estate.**, formed as he 8.iid
on (frjvclly soil, only seven years of existence. If he
comes back at the end of the seven years, he will prrb-
ftbly be "urprised in an opposite dircctien.— Ed.

7c8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[April i, 1886.

Cocoa Nins.— Instead of local cultivators of cacao
trying to make chocolate, we advise some attention
to be given to tlie preparation of cocoa-nibs for the
local market : the beverage from them is most
pleasant and nutritious. Here are the instructions
furnished to us by one who knows : — " A table-
spoonful boiled for two hours vigonnnihj in a white
lined saucepan with a tight fitting lid and say
two cupfuls of water should make a breakfast-
cup of cocoa drink. The aroma goes off
it there is not a good lid. If boiled for four or
five hours the drink becomes thicker, but the aroma
goes. 1 think the nibs are simply well dried and
husked ; as the skin comes off and the nibs break
into pieces of such as we boil. This is all I know.'
Fi;iu;iFiii;Es kkom Cincho.va li.uu;. — A paper sent
to us by the (iovernment of Madras gives full
details of the cost of preparing a liquid extract
of bark, which has been found very efficacious
and which ha.-, the merit of being in a condition
ready for use. The two chemicals employed in
its preparation were acid hydrochloric and glycer-
ine. Our readers will be jinterested in the figures
showing comparative cost of various preparations : —
Com paral ire Cost. R. A. P.

Tost of 175 oz. of the liquid l.** .1 4

„ of 1 (lose of (he 0 0 SJ

,, of 1 lb of DarieeliMg quinetum ... 17 0 0
,. of 1 lb of English (|uinitum (.is

fi.Nc <1 by Government of India) 10 0 0
„ per 5 grains of Uarjeiliiig qiiinitum 0 0 2J
,. ., ,, of EngHiih quinetuin 0 0 Xi

ThK JoHORE .\N1> ST1!MTS FlllItK CoMI'ANV (LfMITED)

has been registered with a capital of f2.").000, in f.T
shares. The eonipanv is formed to purchase for
the sum of £I'2.OOO,'£2,000 in cash, flO,000 in
paid-up shares - certain leasehold estates in the
Batu Pahat district, .lohore also the right to use
in .Johore, the Straits Settlements, Ac, the patent
machinery of Mr. Ephraim Death for " scutching "
tibrous stems, leaves, Ac. The company proposes
to plant, cultivate, and develop, rhea, aloo, moorva,
pineapple, and other fibre-yielding plants, and to
manufacture fibre therefrom, and also to cultivate
tea, pepper and other articles. The consideration
payable to Mr, Death is .i;l,.")00 in cash and 300
paid-up shares, also a royalty on the machinery
used. Mr. R. A. Watson, of .Tohorc, the vendor, is
appointed manager of the company's property in
Johore. — 7..<f- C. K-rprcfu.

FiSH-cuuiNG Yards.— In reviewing the Report on
the operations of Fish-curing, yards for the half-year
ending 30th September 188o, the Government re-
marks : — " His Excellency the Governor in Council
ooncuri with the Board of i?evenue in the opinion that
the increase in the qnnntity of fish cured is, notwith-
Blanding the unfavorable ciiarHCter of the season, very
satisfnciory. Government are gifld to observe that the
disinclination of Ihe fialicrmeuof Vi/agapiitoni to resort
to fbr yrds hi", h-en overcome. In .Sonth Canara,
j,„\(.(.vi •, (he yards hare be. u made but little u.se of,
and th( tishernnn, apparently, still hold nloof. Mala-
bar, n,? usiinl, takes tbn lead in ibe enterprise r)f fish-
curing, The Tinnevelly and Masulipatam divisions
tiSed the largest qnnntity of salt per maund weightof
flsh. lhesmalle^I tigurewasin the Nellore division.
The iiverjige fnf iilt divisions was r2'(>4 lb., and not
l2-f)7lb., nscpiotid I'y Ihe Commissioner. Though the
variations in the tiuanlities used at individual yards
are genemlly bon.ining leas marked, there are still
some enses of strlkilie disparity occurring in adjacent
yards. The (Ippiirfnirntal expf-riments in flsh-curiug
led to no dei idi'd r. «ults; butthiTe can be doubt that
they serve a usf fill purpose by way of example to the
fishermen, and they should therefore be continued. The
tinancial result of the operations for thehalf-year was*
loss to Government of R1.0.i6. The total number of
yards at the beginning of the half-year ia given u 136,
but, according to the report iox the preceding period,
it »Uuuld be \H-—Madrai HaU,

Annatto Sekh. — In reply to a correspondent we
would say there is only a very limited market for
this ifced. At a r^-i-ent London auction one barrel of
476 lb. sold at 6d per lb. Annatto paste, called by
some people Bixa Dye, has also been shipped from
Ceylon iu .^mall quantitien, the last sale re.iliziug 2 6
per lb. This requires yreat care in preparation to pre-
vent it^ turning inouldly ru ruiitr. This substance, we
understand, i.s used for colouring battsr and cheese,
anil it tbereforf requires to be sweet. Tlie importance
of this cannot be too strongly inipressed upon manu-
facturers, as without this essential quality the product
is idiMply worthless. — *' Ceylon Advertiser."

CocoM is : V^KVAMioDA, 7th Maicli. — If the crops I
and mv neighbours have picked are a criterion of
the loconut crops of this district, they will be
lariiciitahly short this year. Speaking for myself, I
have all the necessary conditions for an increase of
crop annually for the next II) to 15 years, and yet
my crop this year has fallen short of that for last
year, as far as w-e have gone. In reply to your
feotnote to that part of my letter treating of the
relative prices of coconuts and copra, I mav men-
tion that I have worked on your figures. \*ou give
the average number of coconuts to a candy of copra
as from I.KII) to l,30t(. I accepted the latter figure.
Even taking it at l,20t), it is plain that with fair
dealing copra cannot be profitably sold at the pre-
sent figures. I too, have heard of places where itOO
nuts aiitfice for a candy of copra. I look upon such
statements as apocryphal. Nine hundred picked nuts
when dried may yield a candy of copra, but it is
hard to believe that an estate of even limited extent
can yield sik b spledid averages. All coconut planters
will bear nie out when I say that only rcr// ex-
ceptional places, hardly one per cent of estates, give
such a good average as 1,(K)0 nuts a candy of copra.
On a 1.1-rge estate that I know of, l,-4tX) nuts have
gone to .a candy of copra for several seasons running.
— Civ., " Kxanimer."

Thi. .Java Tea-box wooi>. of which Mr. Mundt
has brought a sjiecimen box (as well as the seed of the
tree) is known to him as the " Surian " and from
the name as well as the lid of the box sent us by
Mr. Bois, Mr. \Vm. Ferguson is able to identify
the timber as that of the well-known or at any
rate much-talked of Culrelu Toviw already frccjuently
referred to in our columns. " W. F. '' writes ; —
" Botanically the specimen of tea bcrx wood is
most closely allied to our Lunumidella, the
Mel ill iliiltiii, and the only .lavan name like
Siiriiin is ' .S'io-cm '- Cedrela febrifuga-a sviiouym
of (Vdrela Toona. I believe the wood is the pro-
duce of tliiit famous limlper tree of which the Flora
Brit. Ind. 1, p. .'iC.ll, says it is a native of 'Tropical
Himalaya, from the Indus Eastward, ascending to
3,000 feel ; and throughout the hilly districts of
Central and Southern India. Burma (absent in
Ceylon '.). I'l-itribntinii, .fiini, ,\nstralia.' Gamble,
Manual of Inillnii 'riiiibr-r-i. p. IX. says of Ccdrelft
Toona : ' In I'liigal and .^?sanl, it is the chief
wood for making Ica-lro.xes. hut is {getting scarce on
account of the lica\y demand." The bex-lid
itself, if a (air sivcimen of (he work done in. 'avR,
is not to be admired, for as " \V. I'.".says : — "No
man in or out of Ceylon is a better judge of the
fact that the tea-box lid you send me is the pro-
duce of a liliinderin;! mechanic. It was put together
uii.'^fii.wiii'd with wooden pins to draw the edges
and l;ec-|i (hem close, and (hen had two battens
nailed on the iii.^iilf instead of on the out-
siilc, and is altogether a coarse piece of work.
The wood has shrunk in drying, and there is a
wide oprning between the boards. I feel sure it
can't be che.ip too : 14 screw nails in n lid of a
tea-box for cheapness !'' \Vc do not suppose the box
in (|ne-tion. being probably used for the purpose of
carrving seed, is a fair sample of how a tea-box
jii tiirned out, at least in respect ol the 14 ecrew
nails.

April i, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

7oy

WKEDS.

>;ir, — I have be»^ii a little suroriseil that tlie v.triovis
nrticles ou agriculture in the daily papers have omitteil
t<» ineutiou thu change which tin; nvn- American digger
ifi working iu the cultivation of farm lands. More es-
pecially have I heeu surpriKeil, ln'cause at the present
state of agriculture any alteration that can tend to de-
crease the cost of growiug crops is ob\'i<nisly one of
great impt>rtance.

t If you will permit me, I will give some description of
his implement anil of its results on some lands which I
have recently viewed. The American digger differs
from the ordinary plough, which it is iu some districts
amost entirely superseding, in that the former has a
skimmer tixed midway between the coulter and the
share and mould board, and that the two furrows from
the skimmer and the mould board are more completely
turned over than the single furrow from the mould-
board of the old plough. The effect of the work is that
the skimmer furrow (about --in. deep) with all the
weeds and couch grass is first turned upside down, and
then cohered with the mould-board furrow (4-in. to 6-iu,
deep) and the weeds being completely secluded from
the light, die, and rot iu the ground.

The following may be given as some of the effects of
using this implement ; (1 > Origiiially after ploughing up
wheat stubble it was necessary to also cross plough,
twice draij-harrow, twice chain-harrow, and finally burn
or cart off the coueh grass or twice. But now all these
operations arc avoided by the American digger. (Ji
The couch grass, after being completely killed and rot-
ted, forms manure for the next crop sown on the land.

On one farm of ^W acres the use of this implement
haa saved ,-£100 a year in labour, besides yielding to the
soil a considerable manurial value, estimated by the
tenant (the best and most practicable farmer in the
midland counties, who had been doing battle with couch
grass for over forty years), at £1 per acre.

In conclusion, I may mention that on another farm
where considerable difKculty had always been experi-
enced with couch grass, the result of the American dig-
ging the land after seeds, and again when it was iu
wheat stubble, was to completely, and I speak advisedly,
free it from that and other weeds. — Artevh Tahp, 15,
lireat George-street, Westminster, Jan. 2(5. — Field.

ENGLISH HOPS.

HOW THKY ABB RAISED, CURED AND SOLD.

Mr. K. Meeker, of Washington Territory, who is
reported the largest hop fanner in the t. niteil States,
has recently paid a visit to the principal hop-growing
districts of England, and reports some of his observ-
ations to Hu exchange, from which we make the follow ing
eKtract.«. Successful liop growing depends upon two
fondi'ion,^. to produce the best and to produce them as
cheaply as your neighbours. England now has nearly if
not quite 70,UOO acres in hops ; Germany can, with a
moderate crop produce a large surplus; Australia now
sends her quota to swell the grand total, but, after all,
the country that .sends the best hops and the cheapest
will cojnmand the market.

However harshly it may grate upon the ears of our
hop growers, it is a fart that our .Vmericau qualities aro
not »p to the standard of what they sbouM he. In the
I.onrloh market the hop must stand its comparison
with the product of th'- world. I have seen Ui.Wi
.samples of all tcitids of hops groupetl on the boards un-
der the skylight. Hops for the market must be ripe,
shoid 1 be of a golden color, even in color, thoroughly
di-y, dried at a low temi)erature, and the sain[>les when
dr ivn should be soft and springy — silky is the term used
in England.

Ivipiness asually brings the desired color, hut the
ivenness of color is governed more by the management.
For instan^'e, if one fills a bin from the bottom up with
early and late pickings, it is almost absolutely certain
that some of his samples will show •• streaky." and un-
der the English rules can he be thrown out as *' false
packed," an«l thf- f^nwt^r is subject Ut punishment by
law. In view of the fact that our Western States mark-
et wautj our early-^ickcd bops and will not buy out

ripe hops, a better method is to separate the firt week's
•r ten days' picking from the later. Then we get the
even color that is so desirable in any m;irket. Hops
nnist be thoroughly dried, and at a low heat.

In visiting the hop fields of Mid Kent I saw their
stacks of poles, many of which did not look larger
than good-si/ed bean poles with us; saw where great
fields of hops bad recently been " tligged" ; saw the
laborers at work digging i spading with a pronged spade),
aud I really believe that the English actually cultivate
their hops in the Winter, and that, too, by hand.
The whole of the 70,(1(10 acres now in England are
so " digged '' by linnri.

The Euglish hop brings a better price than our hops,
or at least has for this year. Were it not for this
difference wo could crowd the English hop growers to
the wall, for their hops cost them more than with us.
The rents, tithes and manure cost them not less than
eleven cents per pound, and the sum total not less
than t\\ enty cents, and very of t*^ii nmeh above that, and
yet the Euglish growers say that they see no better
opportunity in other crops.

.\11 English hop growers bale their h~ps as fast as
dried, some of them while hot. They never let them
coi'l until in the hole. They have eo stoves in their
" ^■.■^st houses" but use au open fire with charcoal and
coal that does not sniokn. I saw a vine-cuttiug machine
to cut hop vines into short pieces, to be used for bed-
ding for animals aud for absorbents iu manure piles. —
Antci'icaii Ci'ltivutoi:

EXPERIMETNS WITH S'H'EDISH PLOUGHS.

Hulugalle Ratemahatmaya reports to the (Govern,
ment Agent, North- Western Province, that he selected
a tract of field of ten amunams' extent, and used the
new ploughs in patch of two amunams, and cultivated
the remaiuder under the usual system, by means of the
native ploughs.

From the earliest stage he noticed the crop iu the
patch where he had used the new ploughs to be far
healthier than that in the remaining eight amunams
both in growth and also in general appearance.

He realized 18 amunams during the /iri;iioii>^ Maha
harvest in the strip wherein he had now used the
new ploughs, which was equivalent to ninefold ;
and the present yield of the strip of eight amu-
nams, in which he had used the native ploughs this
harvest, was precisely the same, viz., nine-fold, whilst a
few beds lying on the upper level of the tract yielded
less, seven to eight- fold. But in the patch where he
used th« new ploughs ha raised 3:J amunams aud 1 p(Sla,
which is a little above Itj-fold, au.l about double the crop
realized frt)ni the native ploughs.

It has been often remarked that the.se ploughs are
rather too heavy. The Katemahatmaya admits that
they are heavier than the native ploughs, and unless
cattle are useil in a more sparing manner than is gener-
ally the habit of the natives, who use one and the same
pair of cattle from morning till evening, ho has no
doubt they will meet with fhis diifieulty. He was aware
of this at the time he took the experiment in hand, and
adhered to the precaution, therefore, to have two sets
of cattle, and had them clianged, one sot being used in
the morning aud the other in the evening.

The Teacher of the Pauapitiya School -eports that ho
has just gathered his croo of the field which he cultiv.
ated in accordance with the instructions given in the
Director's Primer of Agriculture. The field is two acres
in extent, in which he .sowed :.'{ bushels of paddy, which
have yieldeil 7(1 bushels, lie .sowed paddy too early,
and lieavy rain .set in when the plants were in blossom,
otherwise he might have had a crop of 1()() bushels.

The remaining portion of the same field is seven acres
in extent, aud was cultivated by his neighbours, who
ha«l only a crop of (JS bushels.

In this conned ion he states that be finds by experience
that the bittiT the ground is prepared, the less the
paddy required to bi- sown ; and the less the quantity
sown, the tn-tter the >ield of the crop.

In l.-^fi- he .sowed in the field in ipiestiou 3.'. bushels,
which yielded 51 bueheU ; iu i683, 4| bushels yielded 40

7IO

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [ApRit i, 1886.

bushels ;• in 1884,5 bushels yielded 23 bushels : in ISSf),
2J bushels yielded 7U bushels.

Tiie Ratemahatmaya of Boligal Korale, in the Ke-
galla District, reports that he used the new iron plough
for 15 lahas of a field, and ouly the native plough for
another 15 lahas of the same field.

From the 16 lahas cultivated with the iron plough he
obtained 3 amunams and G lahas, which was rather moi-p
than 21-fold, and from the 15 lahas cultivated with llie
Dfttive plough he only obtaiued 5 amuuams, which was
13-fold. He had before only obtained 13-foId from tlie
land which now yiel.i.-d :;i-fold with the iron plough.

The Schoolmaster of Wallala has also used the iron
plough, and his crops are looking much better than
those cultivated with only the native plough. They have
since been reaped, and he got 52-fold against 20-fold.

It should be remembered that the proper way to ctdt-
iVHte with the iron plough is first to plough with the
iron plough about six weeks before the usual ploughing
time, and afterwards to mix up the land thus ploughrd
by ploughing again with the native plough across the
furrows maide by the iron plough.

With ordinary good luck a much better crop must he
the result.— H. W. Green, Director of Public In-
struction,

(JOMMEEICAL aspects of the .SIJ.K

INDUSTRY,

Our attention is almost compulsorily arrested by
the fact of the decadence of this industry in our
own country, a decadence threatened by extinction
gradual but sure.

A few useful figures from the Board of Trade
returns of the value of the imports into the l.'nitod
Kiugdoni, and of the exports of British and Irish
pro, luce from 1854 to 1880, ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed in 1882, most seriously shows
this. I will only give the totals of various kinds of
silk goods manufactured by countries in Europe during
two decades, and purchased by England.

Imports of silk manufactures from the eoutineut
of Europe, Decade 1854 to 1863.

£

Total 33,732,335

Decade 1874 to 1»83.
Total 118,310,572

lu 18»5, our total imports of manufactured silk from
coimtries in Europe amounted to a value of £1.826,525.

In 1880, the total imports of manufactured silk from
countries in Europe had grown gradually year by
year in value to £13,085,083.

Thus in 25 years we had come to buy from countries
in Europe of articles we ougiit to have manufactured
for ourselves no less than £11,258,558, an alrao.st
iucredible sum.

The breeding of silkworms has for a long time been
a most important industry in Italy and the south of
France. The total production of cocoous from these
worms in Italy amourited, in 1881, to 39,300 tons,
and in 1880, to 40,030 tons. In France, in 1881, the
production of cocoons amounted to 20,3t'2,179 ~ i),090
tonf , and were principally laised iu the Departments
C4arii, Ardiche, Drome, Vaucluse, Var, and by the
mouths of the Rhone. Freuch statistics show that
from this large ijuautity of Freuch cocoous was produced,
in 1881 :—

Raw silk.

lbs. tons.

Total product iu West Europe. 8,(188,614 3^79
From the Levant 1,366,300 611

It will be seen from these figures what a very
Important matter it is that the greatest attention
should be paid to the earlier operations in the manu-
facture of silk threads, and one cannot be surprised
at the Lyons Chamber of Commerce starting anew' to
ascertain all the facts reli-tive to the proper .sij;iiig,
i.e., producing even threiuis of silk in a more minute
and exact manner than herntofore. For if the earlier
stages and operations have not for their aim and
bffcct tilt) production cf rn; even thread, no after

manipulation oi winding, warping, dyeing, weaving, or
finisuiug can effectually avail iu tm'ning out fabrics
of the finest qualities, in all or any oi tUe vaiioue
purposes for wuich bilk ie used. Hitherto ihe sizing
lias been by ruio of thumb, and dependent on skilled
eyesight and fingers, iu first sorting cocoons and
alterwards reeling 4, 6, 8, or more together, according
to the required tnickiiess of thread, or what at this
stage is termed raw silk, that is, the state iu which it
comes into the market before it is manufactured into
organzine, train singles, &c. An examination ot the
thi.kness of Uie ultimate fibre must thtn take first
place, and this method has now commenced, and will
Oe carried on iu tue new Lyons Laboratory, not only
of all species and varieties, or, as the French call
them, races, of cocoons, but of the thickness of these
fibres throuijhuut the enure length of the cocoons,
which 1 have discovered to be very variable. >«'ext come
the important eaaminatious, of strength and tension,
or elasticity, whicu the toregomg tables illustrate iu
both the silks of domesticated and of wild worms.
Tbe necessity for exammations such as these is more
apparent in the njanutacture of those silks which,
some years ago, 1 ventiued lo designate by the name
wild. For some of the wild bilks ot India, for examph-.
there is a great future, a jirediction warranted by the
successful employment of the principal wild silk,
Tussur — or as it is ttrmed in its vernacular, Tasar —
duriug the last se\'eii years. It would not be right to
omit Uere the mention of the name of .Sir (ieorge
Birdwood, C.S.L, M.D. in connection with Tussur silk.
In my South Kensing on Bluseum " ilanilbook ot the
'\\'iUi Silks ot India, ' 1 quotoil a paper which he
wrote m luilia, as long since as 1859, m which he
advocates the desirability of au attempt being made in
l^ugiautl to utilise Xusoui silk, a suggestion which he
hat. lived to see now abundantly realised. The extent
to which the consumpliou of 'iussur silk in Europe
has reached is very large. Franco imported, from
one port alone, last year, 0,000 bales of raw Tussur
silk. Several Euglish mauutacturers have thrown during
last year large quantities as high, in one instance, as
1,0U*J bales. Tile whole of these recently-increased
imports may be said to be badly reeled from the
cocoon, much of it very badly reeled indeed, causing
the European manulacturcrs to cry out loudly for
injpro\ cii leuliug in the Eastern centres of production.
Already has thj improvement begun, and to such an
extent has it been proveil practicable by one of my
many correspondents and collaborateurs in the East,
that raw Tutsur is produced from a .single liave only —
that is, so delicate in the imju-ovcd reeling, that the
beautilul raw Tussur you sue iiere is simply the double
fibre Iroui a r^ingle cocoou reeled into a single thread
successtuUy, proving '■ouclusi\ely enough that in this,
as in other upeiies of silk, if the (juality of the raw
silk put in tUe market is ilefective in any w,Hy, it is
not the fault of the silkwoim. which always djes its
work with the precision that the honey bee buildii
her cell, hut rather the hitherto inadequeucy of '
preceptiou ol man to ascertain and adjust tde natural
variations and difference of the fibre of so wondrous
a beauty, and so incomprehensible a product.

Mr. SI. Blair (Glasgow) said he bad recently had
the opportunity of rieitiug India, and might gay s few
words abouv tae wild siiiis of that country, to which
be thought bilk manufacturers in England had chiefiy
to look in the future. t>ue of the first things which
struck a vimtoi to India was the enormous resourcos
of that great euqiire, the vegetable, animal and
mineral, thoroughly eNplaining why it was thai all Iho
great nalioi*. which bad held the Kast and A\'e3t
tiaiiic bail nourished so exceeilingly — irom the llaby-
loiiiaus and i'uienicntiis down to the English. The
second thing, however, winch struck bun, was the
unreliable charactfr of llie people; the apathy anil
inaitference lo a»i ideas ot improvement and aavaueement
w.xs something which an Englishman, and ceitainly
which a .Scutcbmau, couid hardly compielicutl. In
India thcie was a large population living, and content
tu live, on the verge ot starvation, ami il you increased
their income, cue of two things took jiiace.. Either

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

711

they workfd half-time, and so reduced their iucome
to what it was liefore, or thej adiled additional mouths
to eat it up. Thus it was found that when rice was
cheap, the workpeople went away for half of the week
aud left the machinery standing idle. This had an
imjiortunt bearing on the silk (tuestion. A vast quantity
of silk material could be procured from India, but it
would always be of poor quality' unless it were prepared
under European supervision. The silk was .good, but
it wa."; not well reeled, and the people were too
indifferent to improve it. The one thing needed for
the resuscitation of the English silk trade was a large
supply of cheap and good material, and for that they
might look to India, not only from the Jtomhi/x mori^
but from other and indigenous kinds wldch Mr. Wardle,
bad devoted so much time and study to ; but it must
be reeled better. He feared this would never be the
case if they trusted ouly to the n^.tives. Anything
which ret|uired no very skilled labour, such as rice-
growing, or perhaps cotton, they did very well, but
where skill was required, they could not be depended
ou. If they had been trusted to grow tea, and prepare
the leaves, there never would have been any Indian
tea worth speaking of, but under European supervision,
this trade hail grown enormously. The same policy
should be pursued with regard to .silk, and the
machinery should be, as far as possible, automatic.

Mr. W'ailly said he knew very little about silk,
though he had done something to introduce new
species of silkworm into Europe. He had lately seen
carded silk from various species, such as Indian Tussur,
Pfrnvi from North China, and some from North
America. He had sent specimens of these carded
.silks to the Paris Acclimatisation .Society. Hia main
work had been the introduction of the insects, and he
had no doubt that, this year, the Indian Tussur
.Vi/litta would be acclimatised in Spain, and perhaps
in some parts of Italy, though it would hardly suit
the northern parts of that country, as it wonid take
three months to rear.

Mr. W'ardle, in reply after thanking the meeting
for the compliment, said his p'incipal feeling in this
matter was one of anxiety and disappointment at the
great loss which this country had sustained withiu the
last thirty years, by the gra.lual decay of the silk
industry. It behoved everyone who was aii.\ious to
regain it to set about the work at (mce. It was a
melancholy fact, which could not be repeated too often,
that for the last ten years the average value of manu-
factured silks importeil into Englaml from European
countries had been twelve millions sterling, aud he
believeil Mr. Birchenough would bear him out that
if Knglish ?nanofactur'-rs received orders for one-third
that amount, it wonId make the sUk centres of
Coventry, .Macclesfield, Oongleton, ."\t--ichester, and
.Spitalfields, very busy imleed. In reply to Mr. Hart's
(|Uestiun as to what he suggested, he would say study
carefully the report of the C'ommis.sioners on Technical
Education, for if he understood it aright it contained
everything necessary to regain not only that, but any
other artistic industry, either European or Eastern.
It was a most valuable report, aud he was sure it
would do a great deal of good. It contained a va*t
amoimt of information, and the deductions which the
Commissioners had drawn from their travels and
observations were such as would enable any energetic
per.ion in time to overcome any difliculties. Mr.
Wardle concluded by drawing attention to and describing
the various specimens of silk exhibited. — Journal of
tfif -SiKietj/ of A)ij.

TOBAfCO On.TivATiON IN Bkitaiv and Ikkiand. —
A crop which could pay to its cultivator — over and
above outgoings of rent, rates, taxes, wuges, inter-
est on capital and plant, ic. — jE^iJO and tipwards per
acre, would s-em fat'ulous in the eyes oi the British
farmer, if he were told that such produce liad in com-
paratively mo<lern times been raised on soil of the
I iiited Kingdom ; and yet, if we may gather inferences
from the Statute Book, the profits of cidtivation of to-
bacco (irrespecrive of penalties to the revenue) appear
to have be»n on something of the aforesaid scale in the

days of Charles II. The plant seems to have obtained
a rapid and a firm footing in these islands within little
more than a century from the discovery of the New
World.— i''i«/ii.

Samples 01- TEA.—i'rom proceedings of Agri-Horti;alt.
ural Society of Madras, January 18t(G. V.— Kead the
following letter Irom WiUiam O. Deane, Esq., the Man-
ager Kudanaad estates, dated Kotagiri, 5th ' December
IBSo:— "1 have the honour to suggest that at the
approaching Exhibition in Madras you make it a rule
that samples that havi' been on show on previous oc-
casions be debarre^l from competing for an award In
the case of teas it improves by keeping and a planter
who keeps back the sample that has been awarded
tlie goUi medal aud scuds it down to you year after
year, practically keeps out of the running aU vouiig
eslateb. comiug forward with his champion sk nple.
whilst it IS equally unfair to estates who manufact-
ure Iresh samples every year for show, as we have
invariably done ourselves tor many years past The Ei- '
hibitor should m every case add ' to the declaration
that It is the l<o,m fde outturn of his plantation
that the sample has been specially manufactured for
your kxhibitiou, 18SU, and that it or na portion
ihcreot has ever been ou show or competed for a
prize on any previous occasions." ilead also letter
trom the Hon. Secretary, dated lOth Uecember ltJS5,
in reply, stating that a was too late this season to
enact a new rule, but that Mr. Deane's letter should
be laid betore the committee and the result com-
municated in due course. Kesolved that the follow-
ing additions be more to the comUtioiis of compet-
ition tor next season :— After the words "that land"
add '• anu in the case of tea, that the whole sample
has beeu actually manufactured withiu the year in
which It is sent.' For "tea must bo sent not J«fer
than the 16th December," read " Tea will be reoeivcd
not later than the end of December."

SuLPHUH AS A.N 1 NsKCTRiDE.— In our last appeared a
brief but, interesting letter reporting a successful result
from applications ot sulphur to the soil in which orange
trees atlected wiih scale were giowiug. Sulphur being
so geuerally employed as an insecticide, both alone aud
in combinations, such as Gishuist's compouud, it is sur-
pri»iiig that its value as a destroyer of the sc'ale insect
when applied ni the manner described, has not been
made known. The plan is sure to be tested very gener-
aUy, tor the scale is a pest of increasing magnitude
and if sulphur in the soii will keep orange tret» free'
ftoni Its attacks, it should operate iu Uke manner ou aU
other trees and plauts that are subject to scale The
whole order .Myrtace.-e Las to sruggle agaiust this pest
and even vines, begouias, ind other deciduous shrubs
are hosts for different forme of scale. Our correspond-
ent, " Amateur, ' has suggested that a trial should be
made ot sulphur as a cure tor or preventive ot phyllox-ra
on the vine. He would institute inquiry whether
phylloxera has attacked vines in country kuowu to be
naturally •■ saturated with sulphur." A\-e are disposed
to suggest that there can be no possibility of phyi.oiera
living 111 soil -saturated ' mth sulphur, and that vines
also won :d stand a very bad chance of living under such
conditions. Vines certainly grow on the lower slorej of
V esuvuis, whence sulphurous fumes are emitted at a
great altitude. That the lumes do not reach the vines
may be accepted as certain, Ijecause fatal results so fre-
quently occur trom the injudicious burning of sulphur
in vineries ami greenhouses. The question whether the
soil ot \osuvius contains sulphur in large quantity is
quite another matter, and one on which information
would he acceptable. The letter of " Selector" in an-
other eoluinn opens up new views of the scale insect
question The writer appears to assume, in effact, that
soil well drainea at a suthcient depth to all.iw the fr-cs
ample fecdmg-g-ouud, .-md thus to insure freedom
of gro«-th, IS ine condition essential to the absence of
all such peats as those referred to by "Amateur"
We shall doubtless hear results of the trials iiiitit
uted by "Amateur's" frieud.s, .^o that when sufSci-
. nt time has elapsed the whole matter my b« revis ",ed
from a sund-poiut based on those results, and which
does not at presi-ut exist.— i[.<5^v/toiVtn

'12

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [April i, 1886.

Tea in tbe JIadhas Phesidkncy. — ThuJinfllislimaji,
commenting on this subject, says: — *'Tlu* eultivatiou of
tea appears to be t''''*<'u&'ly. if somewhat slowly, ex-
tending in tlie Madras Presidency, principally in the
Vizagapatam, Madura, Neilgherries, and Malabar
districts. The tea estates have an area of 7,55^ acre.*,
of which but little niurc than half is actually unilur
cuUivation. The outturn last season was .'il>.s,04.") lb.
There are also twenty-seven tea plantations in 'I ravan-
core, which yielded 11)5,740 lb. last year." M'e do not
think, however, that there is much to be feared from
this competition, as houte prices for these teas have
not'as yet proved encouragiuK

KAxn.iPoii.A, NuwAKA Elda, Feb. ISSG. — Tea has
proved the saviour of Ceylon, all Indian and other
crokers to the contrary. New machinery is being
erected in every direction, but we want cheap or
moderately cheap machinery ; we cannot atford to pay
the prices for heavy machinery like Jackson's. Who
will prove the good Samaritan and send us a cheap and
effective withering machine y During her best flu.^hing
months we cannot wither our leaf under two days. A
friend has just sent me sketch of his trade mark, a
tea busli with the motto Oeyloniensis Salvator. — Cot.
" Ceylon Advertiser."

Nails. — It is predicted that in the course of the next
five years, the si.eel nail M'ill have aa comijletely
supplanted the iron nail as the steel rail has its
iron predecessor. Already one of the nails manu-
factured in Wheeling are made of steel, and the
machinery and plant necessary for their manu-
facture are heins set up in every nail centre and
at nearly every nail foundry. It is said that,
under present conditions, steel nails can be made
about ten cents per Keg cheaper than those made
of iron, even where the manufacturer has to pur-
chase his ingots. — Ainerran < ultinilor. Dee. 1S85.
CoFFEK. — With regard to coffee, Dominica was
once one of the chief coffee-produfiiif, countries in
the Western Hemisphere, and capital ajjd enter-
prise alone are wanting to make its name known
again in the hnnie markets. Liberian coffee grows
well in the low lands, and, in spite of the '• white
Hy " blight, the so-called "Creole" variety gives
remunerative crops in lands situaled over 1,000
feet above the sea. It is to be hoped, therefore, that
there will he a good colfee exhibit at the forthenni-
ing Kxhihition. -t'(i/(i«/i'.s' <///</ Imlin.

CiTRK I on Mii.nv.w.- in suppoit of his prt-viitns testi-
mony with regard to the effi,;acy td' -sulpliiib' of potass-
ium in checking the ra\'age.s of mildew and allied forms
of fungus giowth on pboits, Mr. Task-^, of Jviiowie, W'ar-
wifkshire, has e.\hibited a fine healthy speeiinen of a
zonal pelargoniuiri which a month pre\'ious was rapidly
perishing from the disease. 'I'ht- pbtiil. had l)eeii totally
immersed, soil .-md all. in the solution, to tbe ronipltte
cure of the malidy. It neetl not be sugj,'ested that very
bad culture nuist have caused so hanly a plant to be
mildewed, and that clean roses au<l vines would have
affofdeii testitnony of a more encouraiiiug character
than the plant chosen for the purpo'ie. Kvperimeiits
.should, liowever, and doubtless will be, tried with sulph-
ide of potassium by many amateurs who are trtudiled
with this very common pest, espi'cially upon roses. —
AustiatiLfiuit.

Qrebx ISIaNiirks. — We notice that tbe question of
green manure is assumiui,; iniportauce ou the eoniiiient
of Europe, especially in places where the soil is sandy.
The procedure is to sow some crop that iloe.'t iiot require
manuring, and when full grown to ha\'e tbe field rolled
over, with tbe plough following, by which thi- entire
cx'op is plougtied in. IJy this nu-ans, every four or live
years a very large percentage of the I'eriilisiiig agents
are sjiread over the ground, by which tbe favmei' is
enabletl to get a fine crop of Wheat with several ci-ops
of other cereals and gr.isses. ('hemically, it is expbtiiieit
that it is tlie iiuantity of nitrogen in the succuleHt gri'eii
plants that works the chief part of the benefit, while
tbe decomposition of the fresh vegetable matter nniler-
;frouuil gives oil' carhoiiie hei*l gas which attacks the

inert silicates and turns them into assimilable sorts.
AVhen the decomposition is complete, a capit tl manure
is the result. In Saxony this is usual method of manur-
ing and fertilising the sandy soils in which the country
abounds, tireat efforts are being made in France to in-
troduce this practice into the vast tracts of poor land.
\N'e wotdd recommend this to the notice ot o rr agri-
cultural departments, as a means of fertilising and utili-
sing waste and poor tracts of land in this country. —
Giirdeners^ Cliivnicle.

Manooks .VNi) M.vNGOi'Js. — The following list of
twenty- two mangoes, which Dr. Short states are
procurable in Salem, was read at a recent meet-
ing of the local Agri-Horticultural Society : —
Gooudoo, naduchalai, kelimoohu, thil pasunthu,
James pa3unthu, bavutheen pasunthu, otiice pasun-
thu, rungu-haria thil pasundu, seriam-kusarow, ara-
balatt, gatbairaaru. raulgova, Yacooh Homani,
thuthpeida, sakkaiai kuttali, hathanii, ameergoln,
banther gandi, apcem am, thothapari, bengalura, and
gova bunder. — iJadrns Mail.

How TO Maick Good Tea. — A correspondent to
The (irocer writes, recommending the following
system of making tea: — First, put the desired
quantity of tea (one spoonful for each person, and
one for the pot) into a small muslin bag, whicli
drop into the teapot, after thorouglily warming and
drying the latter; then pour suflicient boilng water
into the teapot, and let it stand for .about five
minutes ; after which, extract the muslin bag con-
taining the tea leaves, and then the tea may be
poured out, and drank with real satisfaction. The
advantages of tliis system are that the second and
third cup will be found equal to the tirst : that the
tannin and other properties of tea not considered
beneticial are left in the muslin bag ; and ihat
the consumer gets a beverage which in this case
may be described with pertect triitii as 'cheering,
bitt not inebriating."

J.WA may be expected to run ahead rapidly
now as a tea producer, seeing that its planters,
who have hitherto been absorbed in sugar and
cottee, have at length awakened to tlie need of a
new string to theii bow in tea. Tea has been reg-
ularly planted and prepared there tor a generation
back, but (as in Ceylon) no one cared to extend .so
long as other staples paid their way, and so Java
exports annually no more than the ('. to 7 millions oi
lb. anticipated for Oylon during the present
st^ason. But it did not require Mr. Alundt's
visit to warn us of tbe serious compet-
ition which may shortly be anticipated. Mr. Mundit
has come specially to learn all about our improved
nnichiiieiy, system of cultivation and preparation.
He has already on his plautatifm two of Jackson's
Hollers (Excelsiors) at work to he followed by two
of the Victoria Driers, and when we inentinn that
Mr. Mundt has some (100 acres under Assam ten
as well as an equal area under China, an idea
may be fornu-d of the large scale on wliicli tea
cultivation will now be undertaken in llie rich
volcanic island ol Netherlands India. .Neverthe-
less we abate not a jotof our belief in the ability of
Ceylon to hold her own in the tea struggle : Assam and
India generally, not to speak of China, must surely
surt'er lirst. Mr. Mundt has brought over a liberal
supply of the seed of a tree which is universally
used in Java tor tea-hoxes, being a rapi.l-grower
giving good wood under favorable conditions at (ive
to six years, and growing at an\ elevation while by
no means inimical to the tealmsli. Messrs. .Mstons,
Scott cV Co. are distributing the seed to try in
dillerent parts of the island and we are indebted
to Mr. Percy liois for a package to which a care-
ful trial will be given at different elevations and
tlie result reported.

April i, 18S6.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

71;

DR. TBIMEN'S REPORT FOR 1«S5 ON

THE CEYLON ROYAL BOTANIC GARPENS.

As usual there is much that is inttiesting and
valuable to horticulturists, agriculturists, and
botanists in Dr. Trimen's report, the wliole, or
the larger portion of which, we hoj^e to reprint,
in the Tropii-nl Afirieulturist. At the very outset
in detailing improvements made in roads and
paths, an incident is reported to show that Mr.
Gladstone's favourite recreation of tree felling
must in this tropical land l>e pursued with caution.
There seem to be other trees besides the eu-
phorbias which exude dangerously acrid juices.
Amongst these is Hiira crepitans, the Sandbox
Tree, during the cutting of which some of the
milky juice of the bark was squirted into the
face of one of the workmen, with the result that
the man cumpletely lost the sight o( one eye.
Wo notice that along a new path have been planted
seedlings of the elegant Australian palm, ,-I/i/ic)ii(o-
pltirnix Ali.riiiHir(€, so common in the dense
" scrub " (tall forest) of tropical Queensland.
Not only ought this palm to be more conmionly
used than it is in Ceylon, being as graceful as
the areka, and considerably tallei', but the ex-
ample set at I'eradeniya ought to be followed in
utilizing the dwarf China bamboo tor fences. In
Singapore fences are almost universally made of
this plant, which when pruned down and trimmed
grows thickly and looks very neat. Subscribers to
the Thwailes memorial in the Peradeniya (wardens,
besides receiving a photograph of the building, will
be glad to .see the following account of it : —

This little building ha.^ been erected during the
yt*ar, and no\»' wants, to complete it, only some seats
and a suitable inscription. The design is octagonal with
a bii^h-pitched, tapering *' broken-backed '' roof of the
ordin.iry Ivandyan style supported at thu an^'lesby thick-
set pillar!^ of brick and cement, and intt-rually hy eight
slender, car\'ed jakwood pilasters. The proportions in
gtrneral .ind details of the pillars are in :iLc;»rdanci! with
tbose of the octagon of the Maligu\v;i TeniuU: in Kaiidy ;
and 1 am much indebteil to Air. Rliu-Bride, Director
of Pnhlii- \Vorks, for transforming my rough Hketclies
into accurate working plans.

We regret to notice that of four black swans
presented by Capt. Bayloy ot the P. A 0. Com-
pany, and which added to the attractions of the
enlarged garden pond, one fell a victim to a tiger-cat.
Tea. as yet, seems, happily e.\enipl from serious
damage by grubs, but those engaged in other cultiv-
ation will be interested m the information embodied
in the lollowing paragraph : —

The large lawn suffered during the wet weather of
June from ,iu attack of root-eating grubs. Tliey were
the larvre of apparently one of the same species of
3Ielol.>iithoid beetles that have been so destrnetive
to colfoe in some districts. The roots were eaten olf
below the ground, and the drifd aud wither(ul grass
could be stripped oil the surface, with which it bad
no longer any connection. Jiut the plague was short-
lived, a"tl the value of large insectivorous birds well
shown. Durnig the whole perio<l of the vi<4itatiun,
the places affected were the bivouac of numurous
crows who sought for arid eagerly devounid the grubs
(often so gorging themselves as to be scarcely able to
rise olf the ground), and eventually externiiuate<l
them. It is a matter for regret that this hird does
not extendi its range into th • higher cotfi-e districts,
where " grub " has been so destructive.
A new edition of the Hand Guide is for sale in
the ( jardeus at 25 cents a copy. Meteorological pheno-
mena and their ellects arc thus recorded :—

The who'e fall for tli*i year w.is somewhat above
the average, though January was absolutely ruinless,
and the fall for October — usually our wettt^st mouth
— i.Hiis tlian usual. The greatest fall recorihid in any
21 hours was 3'21 inches on Septem*)er 27-2X

The river rose at the end ot Juue to a great height
than I have before seeu and, threatened to cover
a part of the drive, but subsided before any harm
was done.

lu March we suffered from a heavy north-east wind,
aud sevi'ral trees were destroye.l. The must serious
less was one of the t'oeo-ile-mer palms (X(jd(u'f«./),
nearly 3.5 years old, and an obji'ct of great beauty.
Its fellow of the same age remains, b it is not so
well-growu a specimen.

The very tall and conepicnous Norfolk Island Pine
(Aridicdria txctlsaj in front of the old Director's bung-
alow, died very suddenly in a few wt eks from above
downwards, and has been removed. We have uuuiy
sni.aller specimens about the grounds, but none are
healthy.

We suspect the magnificent Norfolk Island Pino
will succeed better at loftier elevations than that
of Peradeniya. The rauifall for 18.S.') was only 4
cents less "than il8 inches, or (i inches above
the Colombo average. Tlie rainiest months were
June and .Tuly, ags''egatiug iCrSi inches, aud October-
November, which gave '2i■:V^. The number nl rainy
days was 14(5 out ol the 36.5, a fact whicli will take
some persons by surprise. The Hill (iardon at
Hakgala, which, as Dr. Trimen truly remarks, con-
tinues to increase in usefulness and beauty, re-
ceived 10 inches less rain in 1H85 than Peradeniya,
but the smaller amount ot HH-14 at Hakgala was
far better distributed, the number of rainy days
being 215, or H days fewer than the average es-
tablished by the observations of four years. Of the
weather Mr. Nock reported : —

The fir.st few days nf the year were very fine and
bright, aud the rest of the month xiia reuiark-
.able for wet, cold, foggy, and misty weather. The fog
was very thick at times, but only on one dav, tb." 15th,
did we have any very heavy rain. ()u that d.ay I 14
inch fell The other •J.'J days on which rain fidl brought
up the total fur the month of .lauuary to .5 .)(> inches.
The m-xt threi' mouths were ver\ dry ; only S»'7U inches
of rain fell during lh.it time. May, .Inn.-, and part
of .'uly, were very favourable months lor garden
operatious, but troni 1.5tb .Inly to 22nd .September it
was again very dry. 4 5(i inches of rain were all that
fell liming these (iti days. 'J'hc rest of the year was
very .seasonable, Uecemlier. as usual, hfiug a wet, foicgy
month. The toial rainfall for the year was S.'il4
inches which fell on '21R days, the heaviest fall in any
registerrd 24 hours hiMUg S-55 inches on 12th and 13th
Decembir. curiously on the same days and nearly to
the same amouu tfts in last year.

The highest temperature during the year in the
sun's rays was 1480 bu Slsk August, aud the lowest
on grass was 35-0 on 22nd Kobru;iry ami !)tb March.
The mean amount ot cloud for the year was 7 d aud
that of ozone '2 6. The cloudiest mouth this year was
.fuue, with a mean amount of y'o, aud the brightest
mouth was March with C-1.

The mean temperatures of the months ranged from
.5fS-5 in .January to tib' in Sept. aud the mean for
the year was tJ2-'J, or about 13' warmer than the
mean of Nuwara Kliya. The extremes in the shade
at Hakgala for 1H85 were TJ' on 31st August and
435 on 3rd Feb. The Henaratgoda Garden (tropical)
is reported to be in good order and to have sup-
plied a large number of cacao pods for distribution.
Of the Anuradhapura Garden Dr. Trimeu reports : —
A further large supply of plants iu Uvo carts has
been sent to this Garden frcu rer.ideuiyi. • mprisiug
espi-eially fruit trees, vegctahles, and uselu. and orn-
ameutal shrubs. I^arge supplies of seed of the areca
palm, jak, uiang", oranges, and limes were also for-
warded for raising on the spot; and muny have been
distributed at a small charge to the own. rs of the
uewly-cleared pad.ly lan.ls un.ler the tanks. This work
is capable of great f.u-ther exfension.
The past .year was a favourable tme for the garden
the rainfall having been much above the average.
The site of the garden is about 302 feet above

714

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

sea level, and the mean temperature, like that of
Colombo, a little over 80°. The rainfall in 1885
was Til-TS inches against an average of 53-26, and
the rainy days 118 against 102. The last figure
shows that only on about 100 days can rain
be expected to fall at Anuradhapura. Hence
the necessity lor irrigation works. Regard-
ing tlie new garden at Badulla, in the new Province,
Pr. Trimcn reports : —

I am gratified to find included in the Yotes for
lf^8(i a sum for an experimental garden at this town,
the capit.al of tho District of Uva, about to be created
a ni'w and independent Province. I have urged the
desirability o( this addition to the Botanical Depart-
ment for sonic years in the interests of the inhabit-
ants, native and European, of this large and im-
jiortanl but somewhat isolated part of the Colony ;
and in March last, in company with the Uoveru-
ment Agent, Mr. King, I selected a suitable piece of
land somewhat over eleven acres in extent in a good
position near the town. This has now been taken
over by Clovernment, and I shall at once proceed to
fence it and lay it out. One object of this Branch
specially kept in view will be the cultivation and
improvement of tropical fruit-trees and vegetables,
and I purpose to place it generally under the Super-
intendent of Hakgala and work it as a low-country
extension of that Garden.

Tiie interchange of seeds and plants with all parts
of the world lias gone on as usual, and it is stated
that the

Customary rjiatis supplies o£ useful or ornamental
plants have been made to the following public
officials and institutions! in this Island : — The Gov-
ernment Agents and their Assistants at Kandy,
Badulla, Negombo, Kegalla, Kalutara, Matara, and
Hambantota ; the Queen's House Garden, Colombo ;
the Colombo Museum Grounds; the Ceylon Medical
School, Colombo; the Local Board, Nuwara Eliya;
and the Station Masters at Nawalapitiya, Mahaiyawa,
and Katugastota.

There is a long list of additions to the collections
of jjlants at the various gardens, and then come
interesting and important notes on economic plants
and products. Dr. Triraen does not believe in the
extinction of coffee, but rather in the abatement
of the evil which has afflicted it, and he is strong
in advising planters to cultivate a variety of products.
His tone about the cultivation of tea by the natives,
in lieu of their lost coffee, surprises us. He hopes
as we do, that the natives may benefit by work-
ing lor wages, but he holds that tea cannot be
cultivated profitably in small ijuantities, and fluit
planters would give less for leaf sold to them than
what it costs themselves to produce; but many of
our readers know liow tliose who have money in-
vested in factories and machinery have been coni-
{leting for leaf at high prices. Dr. Triinen deprec-
ates the growing of tea and cinchona together,
as it is only in such cases that hvlopeltis has done
any appreciable damage to tea. The '• Verde " and
" Morada " Calisayas receive honourable mention,
the comparison with Ledgeriana, all tlic trees
being 20 months old, being as follows: —

S-= OM o

CO CO <■* H

C. Calisaya Morada.. 1-5.S I'lH — 1-16 -OO 4'78

Do. Verde .. 1-32 -90 — 1-16 1.19 ITj?

C. Ledgeriana .. 1-08 -liH — 1-03 1-74 511

Dr. Trimen deprecates diminished attention to
cacao from what he calls an unreasonable dread of
Hclopeltis. He adds : —

There appears now to be a general consensus of
opinion among planters, that this bug attacks princip-
ally cacao grown in the open; and the planting of

shade-trees is becoming gener.al. It may be expected
that our export of this product, considerably de-
creased in the past year, will speedily recover ; and
if the llchiiehis panic led to a more appreciative
selection of land, and more care iu cultivation, it will
not have been entirely injurious.
There are notices of the rubber and gutta yield-
ing iilants, and the opinion is expressed tliat coca
leaves can be received in such plenty from America
that there is no chance of the cultivation prov-
ing profitable in Ceylon. Dr. Triinen is puzzled
to know to what economic use croton oil is luit
seeing that its u.se in medicine is limited, and tliat
Ceylon planters obtain ISs to 77s per cwt. for the
seeds. A new vegetable, like but superior to veget-
able marrow, has been successfully estcblished at
Hakgala ; so with tlie tree tomato, the fruits of
which are good for tarts. The mountain papaw is
also mentioned by Mr. Nock as resembling apples.
New Zealand sweet-potatoes promise to be a good
introduction, as they grow at high elevations ; and
the Chinese ginger, which is said never to fiower,
is being watched with interest. Of 15 eucalypts
at Hakgala, 3J 5'ears old, the .Jarrah (K. morgin-
atii) had attained 3(') feet in height with 20 inches
girth at base. The red gum (/<;. ruhiixta) was 30
feet high, but 22 inches girth. K. nlohiihn, the
blue gum, is not mentioned. We cjuote the fol-
lowing paragraph : —

The publication iu June of my new " Systematic
Catalogue of Ceylon plants " involved the re-arrange
ment in accordance with it of the Ceylou Herbarium-
This has been eifected, and at the same time the
series of drawings of our native tlora has betm similarly
arrauged in numbered genera-covers. The whole is thus
now very easy for reference. This baa occupied a good
deal of time, but in connection with the work I was
able to put together a series of notes on the flora of
Oeylon, which have been publislied in the London
" Journal of Botany " (May-September, 1885). In
this paper about 180 additions to the flora of Oeylon
are recorded, and 40 new species or varieties are
described. Along with the new " Catalogue " this
brings the record of the constituents of the Ceylon
flora down to the end of 1881. That much yet re-
mains to be done is obvious from the fact, that during
the past yearj 1885, fifteen additional species have
been discovered in the Island, some of which are
striking plants.

I made a botanical tour through parts of the North-
Ceutral and Eastern Provinces during the year, aud
shorter excursions to Maturata, &c., and added many
specimens to the Herbarium.

Mu-i'ititi. — 1 am still unable to initiate anj' exhib-
ition of au. adequate sort, but the approval of Govern-
ment tor the form-ition of such an addition to the
Garden has been conveyed to me, and I trust that
the small adilitional expenditure involved will aLso be
allowed. After the successful Agri-Horticultural Show
held in Kandy at the end of May, several of the ex-
hibitors were so good as to present to the Gardens
their exhibits. I have especially to record my thanks
to C. E. Tennekoon, Katemahatmaya of Kurunegala,
for a fine series of paddy in CA boxes, a collection of
small grains, and other jiroducts ; to A. Payne, E'jq.,
of Handrokauda, for collection of fibres ; and to
Ekneligoda Ratemahatmaya for specimens of work in
"Kanabata" bamboo Ttinontiu:Iii/niu vHuufutiim. A
great deal of my time during the latter part of the
year has been taken up in selecting, preparing, and
naming the rough logs of timber sent in by the Pro-
vincial Foresters and others, or collected by the Garden
officers, to form a series for the Colnuiaj .*ind Imlian
Exhibition. Much labour would have been saved me
had all the contributors complied with the suggestions
sent out. As it is. a good de;il of the material is in-
determinable, and cannot be used. There will be nu-
merous duphcate specimens, from which it is hoped a
fairly full series can be made up for the Garden
Museum, and perhaps also for that at Colombo,

April i, 1886.J TPME TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS'T.

715

CEYLON LTCOrXTRY PLANTING EKPOBT.

CHK.U- TEA MACniXEKY— PTTTIXG IT ON— S.MALI- PBO-
FITS AXIl QCICK RETURNS SOT THE RULE IS
CEVLOX — VET AXOTHER AXD CONTDJUOCS ROLLER —
THE PROSPECTS 01- CACAO — NVTJIEGS — A GOOD BLOSSOJI
OS COFFEE IN DCUBARA BCO.

15th March 1SHI\.
Is the appearonce of Mr. C. Shand's cheap tea
drier the beginning of an era wlien the prices for
tea niacliinerv will see a considerable reduction ?
That the machines ro.iuired for the manufacture
of tea cost a lot of money goes without saying,
and that they could be made for very nmch less,
and still show a handsome profit to the manu-
factmors, can hardly be disputed. There is,
however, some delicacy of feeling among the
rival makers in regard to lowering current iiuot-
ations; no one desires to take precedency of the
other in this good work : " After you," they keep
repeating to each other, as they stand hat in hand:
an exhib:tion of a high-toned refinement of which
the planters would willingly see less.

I heard the other day of one machine which is
high ill favour, and has been well cracked up. It
has turned out to be a regular milch cow to all who
have to do with it— except the buyer. A planter
remonstrating with the patentee on the big price
he was asking, and pointing out— without any
sellish motive of course— how much more satis-
factory it would be for every one if a moderate
price were demanded, instead of "sticking it on"
as was being done, was told that the thing was
impossible. How could he ask a moderate jn-icc
when the makers of the article wanted R200 clear
profit from every machine which left their shop,
as their share of the spoil ? Then there was tlie
cost of manufacturing, the material, exchange,
wages, Ac, to be added. Last of all there was
" something for my trouble." Altogether the
patentee ran up a nice little|bill, which, if passed,
completely cut away the ground from the caviller,
and what had seemed exorbitant turned out in the
light of fuller knowledge to be cheapness itself.

And yet there is room and call for a cheap
machine, only the engineers as yet don't see it to be
to their advantage to resjiond to that call. The
principle of "small profits and quick returns"
which at home has 'done so much for those \yho
have had the courage to embrace it as an article
of business faith, is perfectly powerless here: it
pays mnch better say they to sell fewer of the
higher priced article, than more of the low price one.
While on tea machinery, I may say that there
is yet another roller about to appear. Unlike thos
now in the field, the new machine will be cone
tinuouo in its working, the withered leaf coming
in at the top, and a steady flow of rolled issu-
ing from the bottom. The aim I understand
is not to waste any power in continuing to roll
what is already BUtliciently rolled, nor to lose time
in stopping the machine to take out the charge,
and filling up again. If the new roller comes up
to the expectation of its inventor, it will be a
con?idcrablc advance on anything that is yet in
the field, and will have beforeit a prosperous
future.

The weather still keep very favourable for cacao,
and those who see it as it is now, and contrast it,
with what its appearance was this time last year
can trace there in a fit emblem of the downs
and ops of a planter's life. A Matalc planter look-
ing last season at the future of cacao, through
the leafless boughs of his stricken trees,
said in reply to a friend who had put
in the cheery word that Matale wa.s the very
home of cacao, "yes, the last home"! And now

tliere is everywhere quite a change in tone, the
croakers who formerly were legion have ceased their
croaking, and the more hopeful have now their
innings.

The season lias also been a very favourable one
for nutmegs, o' which, however, there are very few
in Ceylon who c n boast of an acreage of any extent
in bearing. It is uch a difficult plant to rear, and
so very slow to grow that it wearies out the cultivator
waiting for returns. I know of one planter wlio was
so disgusted with this tardiness of growth that
he pulled all he had up by the roots. For months
he had agonized over every pair of fresh leaves, and
when he came to calculate how much more
he would have to go through ere they would
attain to any kind of height at all he was appalled
at the prospect, and cut the connection by condemn-
ing them to the happy dispatch. I once heard of
a man who went in for growing teak in India,
but backed out when his plants were still in the
nursery, as he had come to learn that the teak
tree took eighty years to reach its full height, and
required fifty more years to mature I* Nutmegs are
not (juitc so bad as that, still there is a vista
of a decade in length ere bearing begins, and
tluy go on improving for more than a quarter of
a century.

I hear of a good coffee blossom aiqisaring in
Dumbara, and round about Kandy generally, where
any with a fair heart is left: still it is a very "one
horse" alJ'air even at the best, and but for the
old habit of expecting blossom at this season, the
coffee in the lower districts might be dismissed
witli few words. Bug seems to have taken itself
off to some extent, still it is about, and when it
spreads its pall the end is near. rEn-Encous.

TEA.
f'Kxlract from the llrjiorl of the Imliun Ten Association.)
Fon THE Year endin.; :28th Fkukhahy 18B6.
In last year's report there were some pappra re-
garilin;; a trade with 'J'hibet in brick tea, and the
Ci)niniittce have .since been favonxl liy Mr. Alfred
SiinsoM, of Messrs. Schocne, Kilburii .Si (ki., with a
letter in which that gentlemen drew atteiiliou to the
fai-t i^licited during Mr. I'olraan MacauUy's vi>it to
Sikkim that the Tliibetans are larg'- consumers of leaf
t<!is in addition to brick tea. The latter is only con-
sumed by those who cannot affonl to indulge in the
luxury of tlie more expensive China varieties wbicb,
it appears, fetch very high prices, ranging from K2 to
113 per lb. As the jiriucipal difficulty in the way of
a trade between India and Thibet in tea, wool, piece
gnodf, hardware, &c., is the objection of the Chino.se
to allow traders to enter the latter territory, ^rr.
Simson suggested that the Chamber of Commerce
should be urged to take immediate steps for bring-
ing the subject to the notice of the Government of
India. This was accordingly done, and an intere.sting let-
ter was addressed to the Government of India by tho
Chamber of Commerce, in which;the Comniittee said
that, as Ncpaulcse traders are now admitted into
Thibet, the desire no further imiovation upon Chinese
cxclusiveness than that the native traders of British
India be similarly admitted, and they were of opin-
ion that this could best be effected by sending a
Commissioner to the Court of Pekin froin India speci-
allv charged to negotiate on the snbjcct,

The result has been that JVIr. Macaulay, an ofhcer
of the Bengal Government, was deputed to the Chin-
ese' Court, and it is understood that his mission
has been so far successful that an arrangement is
likclv to be come to, which it is hoped may tend
to tJie opening up of a trade with Thiljet.

• Very different from Pat, who, hearing that a
tortoise "lived for 200 year.s, bought one to test the
matter for himself !— Ed.

7t6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[April i, 1886.

The attention of the General Committee was drawn
to the increase in the importation of Chma tea into
India, and from tij^ures supplied by the Department
of Finance and Commerce it \\ as found that the total
imports in the ten montiis, from 1st Ajiril ISHl to Hist
January ISyfi, wer« S.Sl.l.OVl Ih., of which nearly the
whole, say '2,9ilO,:i()7 lb., was tal<cn by I'.ombay. The
export of foreic^n tea from India durin;:; the years
188.S-»>4 and 18IS1-H5 were 'i.OlD.a llj lb. and 2.072,187 lb.
respectively, the bulk of which was sent to Kabul and
Persia.

In their circular of the 4th May, the (Jeneral Com-
mittee were able to publish a]\ estimate of the out-
turn of the crop of 1886, .say (;S,735,458 lb. On the
12th November a revised estimate was publislicil
based upon actual results to thi^ Hist August and re-
ducing the fiyurc s to 66,1)^7,640 lb.; but as some change
in the prospects uf the crop had tjikcu place .since these
returns were .sent iu the Committee asked for fre.<h
eetimntcs based on results to the Hist October. From
the returns then obtained, it appeared that the crop
would be rii;,Un.807 Ih. but it hMs actually turni.-d out
aecordin;; to figures applied to the Association,
«li,7.iO,2iy lb.

The atti'idion nf the General Committee has been
drawn to certain figures in the annual rt^port on the state
of tea culture iu Assam issued by thf! Chief Conimi.ssioner.
The laud under cultivation is divided into that under
mature and immature plants, but (he Comnuttee have
pointed out that it would be very much better if
the di.slinction were made between yieldii^g and uon-
yic'.ding are.i, as the term "immature" may mean any
plants from 1 to 5 years old, some of which would, of
course, he yielding leaf. It is impossible, mider the
existing classification, to arrive at a correct calculation
of the yie-ld per acre, so it is satisfactory to kuow
that the (thief Commissioner has adopted the sugges-
tion uf the Comndttee.

As regards the costs of cultivation and manufact-
ure, it has been pointed out that in most cases
this inf( rmation can only be obtained from Calcutta
agents, and the Committee have said tliat, if there
should be any tlithculty in collecting these part-
iculars, the Association will be happy to render
all the assistance in its power, but on the understand-
ing that no details are publi.shed.

The General Committee were informed by the Lou-
don Association that, at the request of the Trade, the
Board of Customs had been petitioned to allow some
slight alterations in the rules for weighing Indian tea.
The result was a General Order from the Custom
House, dated 9th November, copy of which was em-
bodied in the Association's circular of the 19th Dec-
ember. Attention was therein calleil to the importance
of careful bulking and weighing at the gardens and
to the desirability of the tares of packages running
as even as possible. It was also stated that inform-
ation had been asked for as to the nature of tlie state-
ment required to be given by importers of tea under
clause 2 of the revised liegulations. The information
in question has since been received and was embodied
In the Counnittee's circular of the 8th February

I am happy to say that the Association now re-
presents A planted area of 14o,125J acres, and that
the accounts closed to the 2Pth instant, which are laiil
On the table, nhow a balance in hand of I\l.(i94-7-2
after payment of contribution to the Chamber for the
current month. Owing to the reduction of the
amount of contribution this year from 1 anna to 1
ftil aun > per acre, the receipts have only amounted to
Kb, 103-10. includiiig a small .sum of K66 from the
Francis Fund, while the expenditure has been
K7,837-l5-ll.

D. OftuiCKSHANK, Chnirman.

SKINNY MEN.

"■\VellB' Health Ht newer " restores health and vigor,
cures J^yspepsia, luiputcnce. Debility,

W. £, Siuitb Si Co., Uidiis Sole A^entt,

COMING COFFEE, TEA AND COCOA SEASON
IX CEYLON.

Goi-KHK Blob«03is.— The exceptionally dry hot
season we are experiencing all over the island
is liaving a beneficial effect on eollcc, especi-
ally in the high and Uva districts. From Hapu-
tale we learn that the planters' hearts are glad-
dened by such blossoms, as Ihcy have not
seen tor many years back, and on the coffee re-
tained in cnltivation in the younf; districts we
may also expect to lind a really profitable return
in crop for once in a way.

Te,\ is flushing in a wonderful way in many
districts notwithstanding tlie dry weather, but the
great rush in plucking will be after the flrst rains
of the little monsoon, a few weeks hence, Mr.
Bond, who leaves by this steamer, after a few
years in Ceylon, can practically cxcniplify the great
success of tea in Ceylon. He is the fortunate pro-
prietor of Bitterne estate, Maskeliya, where tea
has succeeded coffee in the most nourishing way,
and has also a share in Kandaloya, a largo and
successful lea plantation.

Coeo.v is having a very favorable season, and good
reports of crop prospects come from both Dumbara
and Matale.

TEA AND SUGAR IN FIJI.

Tea culture is slowly extending, and conlidenco
is maintained in its promise of remunerative re-
turns. The Alpha crop finds a ready sale in the
local market at 2s per lb., and the Levuka agent
reports that the demand cannot be supplied. In
the face of this advices received from Auckland
read strangely. Though the Alpha yield is at pre-
sent unequal to local demand, the b.alance would
soon be changed by the larger area conring into
bearing, and therefore the proprietor sensibly tried
to find for his product a wider market. With
this view he sent some to Auckland, having taken
special care in the preparation and packing. After
remaining there for some time the grower was
advised that the highest oll'er made tor it was Id
per lb. I He has directed it to be returned to
Fiji, where it will find immediate sale at therate
first quoted. Tea cultivation is th riving verywell
on Messrs. Mackiuuon and Barratt's Masusu
plantation, Wainunu, It has not been more than
two years under way from the time of prepar-
ing the nurseries, and the young trees now
present so luxuriant and licalthy an appearance
that Mr. Barratt, an Indian tea-grower of con-
siderable experience, asserts he never saw such
remarkable growth. He is most sanguine as to the
prospects. About a month ago, to test the properties
of the leaf, he nmnulactured a few pounds of pekoe
and pekoe sonchoiig. The pioduct was submitted
to a number of competent judges, who. however,
do not profess to be experts, and it was prououneed
to be excellent in strength, llavour, and aroma.

Sugar shipments, princij ally to Sydney aud
Auckland, have been unusually heavy since the data
of my last, and beside large consignments from the
Mago. Taviuni, Denba and Ba mills, by regular
steamers, sailing vessels have taken full freights from
the Rewa Company's and the C. S. E. Company's
mills. The latter mill stup) ed for the season early
in December, and the output for the season is stated
at S.OOO tons. The Itewa planters say the back
season has been a splendid one, and the canes
promise even better for nixtyear than they did for
that just past. To improve tliis chance, timely rains
have fallen throughout the group. A week ago a
heavy downfall on the I'pijer Kewa brouglit the river
down with a high fresh, but fortunately uo damage
it! reported. Work i^s going on steadily ou the New

April i, 1886/J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

717

Zca)an(l Sugar Company's estate at Ba. About 1,500
acres aro plaiUed, and "the mill will bejiin crushiug
iu June, by which time at least half the acreage will
be tit for ilir. rollers. The company can extend its
cultivation to 3,000 acres on its own land. — Aiistnil-
asiiiii.

♦

NOHTHEEN TEKIUTOBY OF AUSTRALIA.

The Minister of Education has received from the
Government Resident in the Northern Territory
(Hon. .T. L. Parsons) his report for the half-year
ended December 31st. 18S."). The Government Ke-
sidcTit says that the liberal land regulations in the
Territory "have induced very heavy stocking, and
the results throughout are highly satisfactory, large
nnnibers coming over the Queensland border. On
December 31st, 188.5. the number of sheep de-
pastured in the Territory was 40,000 ; of horned
cattle, 13(i,000 ; and of horses, Ci.OOO ; this number
is being increased weekly. It is believed that the
efforts made by Messrs. Fisher & Lyons to open
up a beet and dairy trade with Hongkong will
be successful, as the movement is being taken up
by various contractors in China for supplying the
Conmiissariat Department of the army and navy.
The Victoria Biver country is being cultivated with
good results. Pending the opening-up of the country
by the railway the mining industry is languish.
ing. Agricultural prospects are improving, but Mr.
Parsons says aU advances must be greatly retarded
till the railway works are started. With reference
to Stuart's tree. Mr. Parsons mentions that in all
probability there is very little hope of finding
the tree which Stuart marked when crossing the
continent or the tin box buried at its foot.

THE TEA MOVEMENT IN CEYLON
continues to make wonderful strides, and there
is now computed to be under culiivation in tbat island
a sufKcient area to supply r<0 millions of pounds iu
the year. Seeing that the present output of India
is biirdly more than 'Cl millions, it is clear that the
competition is likely to be formidable. The present
advantages which iCeylon possesses are not few. Coffee
having failed, and cinchona not having turned o, so
successful as was hoped, owing to tlie under soi not
suiting the adult tree, land and buildings have been
selling very cheap, and the capitalists who have em-
barked in the new tea industry have been able to secure
houses , and plant of all kinds at a very low rate. In-
stances have occurred in which estates have sold for
less than the value of the buildings upon them. On
the other hand the land having been cultivated for
coffee for several years is in excellent condition for tea,
the coffee bush having in no way exhausted the soil of
those ingredients required by tea ; the roots ofthe two
bushes tap different strata, and the new plant finds a
well weathered tilth with abundant food. Then
again the climate is.'such that the leaf can be gathered
an the year round. A steady flow of tea of equnl
quality has set in, therefore, to the buying houses such
as the soul of the Loudon grocer loveth, for nothing
does "the trade " appreciate so much as a steady and
cert.iin supply of the same class of tea all the year
round, so that the cust mers may always be furnished
with what they have learned to like, and may never
accuse tliem of changing or adulterating the brand,
L:i»tly, tht re is a plentiful supply of skilled plantation
hibourand a se.iportdose at hand. At present the tea
is of excellent (luality, and fetches higher prices in
L"iidon markets thiii Indians of similar class, so that
the fi-trtunate Ceylon growers are making more per
pound profit than perhaps did the Indian planters in
their best day. Prosperity is showing signs of
breaking out in races and sports, bungalow furniture.
ho>pitality, and all the other healthy tokens of a
surplus income. I'bere is, however, fear that the day
of decline may come for tea as it came for coff»-e,
seeing that the Ceylon colfie planters took no pains
to lay up a supply of good ooil for future geuer-

ations. The hill-side slopes were denuded of forest
and iu their hurry to be ricli the earlier devasta-
tors would not incur the expense of banking up or
terracing the vegetable soil which liad been found
under the fort.'st trees, and there is, thert-fore, inmost
parts, only a veneer of good soil on which to work.
How poor the soil is below is indicated by the decay
of the cotfee bush and the comparative failure of
cinchona ; and these precedents induce an apprehen-
sion that the life of the tea b\ush may not be long,
especially iis it is difficult for any plant in the world
to withstand the continued robbery or leaves to which
the Ceylon tea bush is subjected for eleveu months
out of twelve. Still the life will doubtless be ot
sufficient duration to influence very seriously the
price of all other tea in the world within tlie next
few 3'ears. — l^ioneer.

-♦—

PLANTING . IN NETHERLANDS INDIA.

A WONDERFUL OltCHID — HEAVY FLOODS AND DESIKUCIION
OF CROPS — HAD StIOAKCANE DISEASE.

(Translated for the Sfrajf.'j Times.)
At the Government botanical gardens atBuitcn-
zorg there is now flowering an orchid of gigantic
size bearing the name Grainiiuitophi/lhtm spcci-
os»Hi, and displaying no less than twenty eight
flower stalks. Each of them is on the average
eight feet long. On one stalk alone, there are se-
venty flowers of which fifty were all open together
at one time. The (lower is generally Hh inches
in diameter. Each flower leaf is 2J inches long
and 1^ broad. The colour of the flowers is yellow
flecked with brown spots, while the curled edge
which, taking the size of the flowers into account,
is particularly small shows more of a copper colour
with brown stripes. The flower stalks which, be
it noted, are stiff mostly stand upright but the
numerous heavy leaf stalks hang down, some of them
being at least ten feet long. The flowers, like those
of most orchids, remain long fresh. This plant
grows on a tree about eight feet above ground and
has completely encircled its trunk. One peculiarity
in its mode of growth is that the numerous
roots all grow upwards slantingly, a peculiarity
which it has in common witli very few plants.
These roots, owing to their great number, form a
kind of parasol turned upside down. This cotn-
parison may not be quite accurate, but no better
is available. The leaves falling from above remain
hanging between these roots and decay doubtless
serving then as food for the plant. The latter
requires, so to speak, very little care. The only
looking after called for is indeed now and thou
to cut off decayed leaves or flower stalks. Even
in the dryest seasons, it has never any need of
water. The GrnmmatopliyUnm epeciosttm grows in
the jungles of West Java. It is the only one of
the species to be found throughout the whole is-
land. Mr. Hngh Low, the well known orchid grower
and importer, who visited the Buitenzorg gardens
a couple of years ago says that the Grammatophylluni
epeciomm is rarely found amoJig collections iu
England.

Wide spread floods have caused such havoc and
distress at Surakarta and elsewhere in Mid Java
that relief counuittees have been formed for the
benefit of the sutt'erers. At Samarang the floods
recurring as they do every year have not been
dangerous to life but have been as bad as they
were years ago, when the situation pioved so
intolerable that a drainage canal had to be made
at an outlay of about one million of guilders, with
the result that, instead of making floods imposs-
ible, it has not even lessened the evil.

The T.ocomolief, from which the foregoing part-
iculars arc taken, says that at many villa"e8 the
iloud marks reached the height of seven feet and

7i8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULtt/SlSf, [April i, 1886,

larye areas of rice lields were overflowed far and
wide. The paddy which at the time had just begun
to flower is looked upon as lost beyond recovery.
The maize crop and other produce under cultiv-
ation shared the same fate. Besides loss of crops,
damage to roads, bridges, *. , many persons per-
iehed in the flooded districts. The Sourabaya
Couraiit calls attention to the circumstance that
while too much rain fell in Mid .Java there was too
scanty a rainfall in East Java thereby bringing on
heavy losses on native cultivators and European
planters alike. Any change for the better will
come too late to prevent t)ie drought from taking
disastrous effect on this year's sugar crop there
being every prospect of a short yield. Many of
the sugar planters have prepared themselves for
the worst and the inevitable disappointment
and, in other respects, are looking out gloomily
upon the approaching future from the steadily
lessening chances of remunerative prices for their
produce, owing to the great fall in quotations of
late. It is quite certain that 8 to 9 guilders per
picul for No. It, the price likely to rule next
season, cannot but bring on heavy loss. A few
estates, says that .Journal, may drag out a linger-
ing existence notwithstandnig, but the great
majority are doomed to ruin beyond recovery should
these flgures be the rule. Planters meanwhile, are
doing tlieir best to keep down the cost of pro-
duction. There is no likelihood of the Government
coming to their relief by doing away with the ex-
port duty on that article amounting as it does to
nine per cent on the value, but the Netherlands
India railway company has allowed a reduction
of fieight charges on sug;ar carried on its lines
during tlie approaching crop season. There is yet
no such lowering of freight on State Eailways.
Not only have planters to cope besides with diffic-
ulties in raising capital, but they are also now
threatened with a disease among canes which withers
them and dries up the juice. This disease has been
making such rapid progress in West and mid Java that
it will take the utmost exertion to make head.
The Sourabaya Planters' Associations on hearing
these ill bodnig tidings at once urged the branch
associations elsewhere in the island to take combined
action to check its spread by trying a change of
plant cane as the only feasible remedy, likely to be
of any avail.

The Director of State Railways has notifled to
the Sourabaya Sugar Planter Association that the
(iovcrnment will not hear of any reduction of the
freight charges on sugar carried upon its railroad-
ines. The sugar planters have answered by intim-
ating that they will not make use of the State
line. The high rates of carriage on the latter are
one cause of the difficulty in working estate in
Java at a profit now that quotations ary steadily
falling.

The Surabaya Courant reports business prosi)ects
there as gloomy in the extreme from continual
failures among Chinese traders. Both retail and
wholcsaJc onoa become daily insolvent, without there
being any sign of improvement in the near future.
Planting prospects are by no moans encouraging.
The rainfall has become heavier, but the wet season
has set in too late to admit of recovery from
the damage already done by the drought, the crop
looked forward to being likely to be a scanty one.
Not only the sugar field but also the rice outturn
will in all likelihood prove short. Coffee prospects
are more hopeful since the change in the weather
though danger of its ]iroving otherwise is by no
means altogether warded off. A scheme has been
set on toot to start coftec husking works at Pasa-
ruan where there is every thing available to make
the business a pajing one Unless leaf diiiease cbeokd

operations, success is looked forward to on the
ground that it cannot fail to be advantageous to
planters and capitalists alike to be relieved of the
costly and slow cleaning of coffee on estates by
having the operation conducted in central establish-
ments at suitable places.

NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE .

Uv Dr. J. E. Taylor, P. L. S., F. G. S. cVc,

Editor of " Science Gossip."

1 am pleased to notice that New Zealand flax
{I'liorminin Icnuxj is coming to the front here as
a therapeutic agent. A strong decoction, made
from the root and butts 'of the leaves, and
boiled for twelve hours, is employed in cases of
severe lacerations and even amputations. It is said
to produce a healthy granulation immediately. I
believe the merit of first making the curative effects
known is due to the Australian Mcdital Gazette.

The Americans have carried oyster culture to
the degree of a tine art, thanks to the zeal and
industry of Mr. J. A. Ryder, the distinguished zoo-
logist. That gentleman has recently published .a
paper entitled '• A New System of Oyster Culture,"
the principles of which ai'e based on the knowledge
that oyster embryos diffuse themselves throughout
the three dimensions of a body of water, and will
attach themselves to collecting surfaces similarly dis-
tributed therein, particularly if the latter are clean and
fresh from organic growths. Mr. Ryder has discovered
that artificial fertilisation of the eggs of oysters is not
only feasible, but is an important adjunct to successful
spat culture. Hitherto oyster cultivators have been
content with obtaining spat from one dimension
of the water only,. viz., the vertical. V bushel of
oysters yields one billion fry. Mr. Ryder rears his
oysters in ponds 40ft. .square, and the culch, or
collecting material to which the spat attach them-
selves, is suspended in the water from horizontal
cross pieces of wood. — Aiistralashni.

Ckylon TfA. — A correspondent wiitts : — Mr. Oow,
of the well-kuowu tirui of MessrH. Guw, '^ViIt^oll & Ci'.,
WHS good enough to say that he thought there w.is litflc
chance of Ceylou Tea, falling below a sliilliiig for umny
years ti> come. It would, he remarked, alwajs be
a diiuUiug tea, and go straight to the consumer in-ttad
of being used, as a large portion of Indian tea is, for
mixing purposes. — Local " Times."

Mattakuliva Farm. — This well known property Baid
to belong to Me.ssrs. Anthony Gibbs & Sons has been
in the market for some time. It consists of 47 acres full
planted with Mauritius and Guinea grass and cocouut.s,
there being 12 acres of grass and 'o5 of coconuts. It
is said that a well-known Sinhalese millionaire made
an offer of K47,UOO which was refused, and yet 1 learu
that two out ot the tlirec blocks, A and C have been
sold for Klo,000, and Kl(i,(jOU each leaving only block
B ccusisting of 15 acres lor 8i>le. This i I is said is the
least valuaLilc of the three bU cks n) tb,it the total
realized by the 3 blocks (after 3rd i» fold) will be less
than what was offered for the whole as a lot souietimo
back.— Cue.

CoFFiiii. — The annual report of W. Sclioffcr
Jc Vo., Rotterdam, estimates the coffee production of
18S.'>B(i at ll,801,0tlj ctr; the consimiption at l'<,.'i4f>,0(>0
ctr, thus sbiiwiiig a deficiency in the sillily of l,744,nt>0
ctr, or neiuly 1.5 per cent, more than tUe total crop.i.
There must be some mistake in tho esiimate of con-
sumption. Tlmt coffee should rule' low and tend downward
luiiler such conditious seems rcmaik.ible. — Antc-ican
Grocer. [So remarkable that we should certainly distrust
the forecast and woiub-r whether it had an ohjectin vieiv.
To show the great importance ot the trade in Brazil
coffee in the United Stales, we need merely quote the
figures of 2,lit0,O0U bags imported at New York alone
in IseS.— Ed.J

April i, 1886,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

719

NECJLECTED INDUSTRIES IK INDIA.

TO THE EDITOH CF THE " PIOSEEH."

Sir, — Ivintureto seud you the following lints, with
the hope that some good may come of them. For
want of a vaiiety of oijeuings for the employnient
of eapital, one has often seen tea companies started
and conipetiug with other comp;mies, with the result
of loweniijj, and perhaps ruining, the profits of all.
t'oft'i'C and cinchona plantations have heen started in
numbers, and are destroying each others profits. The
same occurs with cotton and other milla, cotton screws,
kc. No sooner is an industry set up and is found to
give a fair profit to the shareholders, thau capitalists
rush in and spoil, not only the profitof the pioneers,
hut also their own : while other and new industries,
which might give a profit to capital, are neglected.
I .shall here mention a few industries which 1 think
might use up the capital of one or more companies
with profit. There are now in India two imported
plants, which I introduced many years ago. Keth of
these gniw like «Yt"d.< in almo.st any part of India,
excei)t where severe frost occurs. These are (1) the
Malta lemon tree, Citi-us lAmonum wJiiaris of Hisso ;
and (2) the Seville orange, Citrus Iliijnradia of Kisso ;
Both can be propagated to any extent by budding on
the common kliatta stock, by laveriug, and by seed.
Hotli could be easily attended to by women, children,
and the cheapest labour. In any temperate part of
India, wheie the hiyhzi nimboo grovis, these will grow,
requiring only irrigation during the hot, dry mouths.
For the aC'Ual cultivatiun little skill is necessary be-
yond I hat of a common mali. For working up the
produce one or two skilled foremen from Europe
would at fi'St be necessary. The indu.stries resulting
fiom these two delightful plants are the following; —
From the )Ialta lemon : The rind is made into ean-
tiied lemi»n-peel, or is pressed for its essential oil,
called ■■ essential oil of lemon-peel." Tlw latter is
used in pharmacy, confectionery, perfumery, and for
flavouring effervescing lemonades. The rind, pulp and
juice all together, boiled with sugar, make a first class
lemon jel'y, superior to marmalade : the juice alone
of course is turned into citric acid. This is used in
pharmacy, confectionery and for making acidulated
efftrvesetug drinks. But its gre^t future in Iiulia
would, I think, be for the preparation of citrate of
iron and quinine, the one tonic needed fur picking
up the fever stricke > population after being weaken-
ttd by malarious fevers. From the Seville orange :
The rind, pulp and juice are made into marmalade
of the first quality. The tlowers, the finest scented
of all the orange tribe, are distilled for their essenti-
al oil, calleil oil " neroli." It is also extracted by
'* enfleiu*agc."' This oil is used in pharmacy, perfumery,
Lc. The distilled water, after the oil is removed, is
the '* orange flower water " of c{ mmerce, used in
pharmacy and confectionery. From the leaves, which
are highly scont«ii, another es.sential oil, called *' petit
grain," is distilled, and is used principally for scenting
ordinary soaps. The Indian lime, or katrltzi nimhoo,
might also be utilised for its acid, and it can also
be mado into lime-jelly ! The reader may perliaps
think that these are trifling notions, but considering
that Moir & Oo. alone have Ihri-e ^teain factoriCi* in
different parts of Europe making marmalade from
Seville oranges I need hardly .say, that these notions
are not, after all, so trifling as tliey would at first
apj>ear. (..'heap sugar aiul chnap fuel woidd of course
Im" iu.portant items in these industries. It mi|;ht be
said that it would be cheaper to get all these pro-
ducts from Europe. So it was said, years ago, that
it would be cheaper to carry cotton to England from
India, and bring it back as manufacture*! articles,
than it would be to work it up in India. Neverthe-
less there are several mills jn Cawnpore, and many
OD the Bombay side and other places, which, if worked
at all. can only be worked at a profit. It might be
also saiil that the demand for such products in India
would not be enough to support these industries. Let
us see. All Europeans in Iinlia, incliuling soldiers, are
fond of cakes, as also the whole of the Eurasian
population ; and cheap candied lemon and orauge peel

would find a sale among them. This, however, is one
of the minor products. All Europeans and Eurasians
are fond of effervescing lemonades. These out/lu to
be made with citric acid flavoured with " lemon oil."
Now, however, as imported tartaric aciil is cheaper
thau citric acid, so-called lemonades are really tar-
tarades. And the flavoring, with few exceptions, is
probably uoirltere. As teetotalers iucrease, the consump-
tion of etfervesciug lemonades, if nicely made, will
also increase. Marmalades are now perhaps only used
by Europeans who can pay for them. But, if suflioi-
ently cheap, both marmalade and lemon jelly would
be used liy most Europeaus, including soldiers, and
also by must Eurasians, Cheap scented soap would
be used by all Europeaus and Eurasians. As to citrate
of irou and ipiinine, who iu this country would uet
be glad to have it cheap ? It is one of the best
toiilis to renovate the blood after malarial fevers.
The above is as far as India alone is concerned, but
then there are other markets to which these products
might have access. Of this I am certain, that beyond
the necessary land and facilities for watering the
trees, (froirint/ tht-m tcuttld present no dilJlcttUt/ whatevtr.
They can both be maile to grow like any indigenoVs
tree, and with proper cultivation they will flower and
fruit abundantly. These two trees give their main orop^
of flowers iu spring, and ripen their main crop of
fruit in December. But at odd times they flower and
produce what natives call •' dumrez " fruit, which
ripens at intermediate times, so that practically they
bear fruit all the year rtninii, but produce their main
crop in muter. Bangalore has a Mediterranean climate
and would probably suit these trees well. His High-
ness the Nizam's territories ha\e remarkably rich
soil, and these plants are almost certaiu to thrive
there. It would appear that orauge ami lemon trees
like lime in the soil, the orange tree wood giving in its
ashes no less than 45 per cent uf lime, according to
Liebig. In the Pioneer of the 5th Feioruary last, the
now famous I'undit is made to say that in Tibet,
in the valley of the Zayul, at an elevation of -ifiWi
feet, he saw the lemon and the plantain growing.
This, hu«ever, I know, that in Ruine the lemon tree
is often killed by frost, and iu Florence they grow
it iu big naiids, and house it iu winter. In Naples
and Sicily it grows abundantly. The history of the
introduction of the orange and lemon in Europe points
to their having been taken there by the Arabs, and
that they came from lu'-lia, or from some jjlace beyond
the Ganges, so that their home is either in, or some-
where near, India. I have little doubt that on the
southern slopes of many a Himalayan valley the orange
aiui lemon trees woukl find many places, with a quasi-
Mediterranean climate, excluding, of course, the sea.
In or near Sylhet the orange is probably indigenous,
or has been grown there from time immemorial.
Calcutta is supplied Kith oranges from Sylhut. Why
could not the Sylhet orange be grown for its fine
fruit in the same plantation with the Seville orange
and the Malta lemon, for their own special products,
so that the planter would have "several strings to
his bow ':'" In Lucknow the Sylhet oranges grows
riuiarkably well. Iu Delhi the Uintra orauge grows
famously. In Nagpore a fine orange is grown which
supplies Bombay with this fruit. Wherever any orange
or lime will grow, the Seville orange and the
Malta lemon will grow equally well. Finally, I need
not say much ahiint Kashmir, which is pur excellince
the land of fruit. As to the occupation, what could
be more charming than growing oranges and lemons ;
making jams and jellies; and distilling essential oils ':*
The planter has a choice of the plains or the hills
for his operatiotis; nor is it necessary that the maim-
factnrer should be also the grower of the raw materials.
M'U-owners do not grow their own cotton, wool or
fibre; sugar refi'w-rs don't grow their own sugarcane;
and rarely do i dig. planters grow their own plant.
Kecently Lord AN'olseley has been chalfed in many papers
for ordering marmalade for the Soudan Expedition.
It is understood that lemon juice or citric acid is one
of the best anti-scorbutics known. Both in the Army
and Navy it is largely used, and 1 believe the way
it is usually administered is to have a parade of the

^^o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

men, two or three times a week, when fresh vegetAbles
canuot be obtaiuetl, and each man is made to swallow
a measure of acid juice. To observe the faces of the
men as tlie bottle moves down the line, would be
enougli to show that it is not a very pleasant draught.
To tell the ^truth, if 1 had to take citrie acid, I
would prefer taking it in the shape of marmaluile or
lemon jolly, at breakfast time, with either bread
or biscuit, and without making faces. I doubt not
that both soldiers and sailors would prefer them also,
to the orthodo.K lime-juice. As to bulk, there woulci
not be much difference, as a large i)ortion of t!ie
lime-juice is nothing but water. Instead ef the latter,
the marmataile and jelly have sugar, flavoured with
the rind of the fruit. But in the event of soldiers
preferring lime-juice, pure and simple, there woui'l
be no dithculty in manufacturing that also. Possibly
these hints may not be without result to somM
Anglo-Indians who '* do not know what to do with
their sons.'' It is no longer a question of making
fovtmxrs either in India or anywhere else. I'he urgent
question is how to earn a 0<;ctini i^omjortahh limntj;
AVheu we find gentlemen's sons either entibliug or
accepting the posts of railway guanls with the hope
of future promotion, the road to fortune-making must
be well nigh blocked up. Those who have read what
the Americans are doing with the orange in Florida
will understand how much there is left undone in
India with regard to these wonderful trees. Theie ar^
not perhaps many p rsons who may have ta-sted Seville
orange marmalade pure and simple, as the demand
is larger than Seville and other places can supply* ; and
therefore the commercial niarmalde is not likely to
be "pure and simple." Marmalade made at home
from pin*e Seville oranges, and simply boileil with
sugar, is truly delicious. Hitherto the oiange and
lemon trees in India have been left in the hands
of natives only, and a few horticultural gru'dens.
There are few trees that repay the cultivator in fruits
and other products so well as the orange and lemon
trees. They do not merely give a moderate crop every
second ye.ar or so. like the mango tree, but are XaduM
with fruit year after year, and sometimes all the year
round. In order to get this, however, they must
be regularly fed and watered at the proper soason.— ■

E. BONAVIA. M.D.

TEA BOXES.

[Mr. H. DBitMMONO Uk.\kk writes to the editor of the
Indian Tea Gawtte : — ]

Dear Sir, —I have been reading your intereslirig work
the " Ti-n- PI a liters' Voile .Vro'm." I would add on
page 249:

" Tea Lead 84 x 22 is the best for full chests, and
72 X 22 for half chests ; thes*- sizes are easily pro-
curable, and save time ami expense iti soldering ; 4.V
oz. lead is more e^'onomical than n oz. lead, whieh latter
is mostly used in India, the former in Chimi and
Japan."

Solder. — It is far cheaper to make yonr own, using
for this your waste tea lead which you melt down
and niiv with Block tin, in projiortion of 2 of lead
to I of tin ; when properly mixed run into a wooden
mould. A good mould is made of a block of a hard wood.
say 18 X 12 X 4 inches, with grooves into which you
run thi' solder.

tVoodn of 'J'ea Ifori>-. — On page 21G yo.i an; good
enough to mention tbt. boxes I have l>een the means
of importing from .Tapan int<i Ceylon and India.

Oryptomeria Jajjoniea is a wood resembling Uedar
wooil; it has a slight smell, but I have had reports
from Messrs. Wdsou *S: Smithett and from Messrs. Kath-
bonc Brothers, both of London, which both H.ay that it
in no way taints the tea. I am to have tlie honor of
exhibiting a set of these boxes at the Colonial ami In 1-
ian Kxhibitiou next year, with the consent of the Tlant-
ers' Association of Ceylon. I claim for these box-s
the following advantages to Tea I'lnnters. — 1st, C-A/'i;t//ts.s.
I understand from Messrs. Williamson, I\Iagor & Co.,
who are my sole Calcutta .\gent.s. that they hope to
place the large.st chest /'. o. 4. the Ass.iru Steamer at
a tride under 10 annas. — 2iid, 'Slrtnifth, the new system

of dovetailing every half-inch has been proved by
experience of my Yokohama friends (Messrs. Fraser,
Farby, and Yaruum) who export close on 8 million
lbs. Japan Teas yearly, to be an improvement iu
every w:iy ou the old system of 5 or li dove tails,
to a chest-side, for the reason that each nail acts as
a wedge, and makes itself felt .as such. If a little
glue is used before putting the box together, the result
is a package simply unbreakable, and by the use of
a few extra nails, hoop iron is unnecessary, thereby
saving freight.— 3rd, ^S.inplu-iti/. The boxes are so
accurately made that no carpenter is required, an
ordinary cooly being able to put them together.
To prevent all possible chance of warping or swelling,
all the planks are passed through a kiln dryer, and
all the moisture taken out, thus ensuring ail equal
and uniform weight to each package. Care of course
must be taken uot to alwai/s put the two Jii:it pieces
that come from the shooks together, as itsometimes
might then happen that tiro joins would come tuijelher,
which would weaken the box. 4t'i. My friends in
Japan have a tract of 25 square miles of this timber,
and are in treaty for as much again with the Japanese
Covernment, so there is no fear of supplies failing
for some years. Jly sole Agents are lle.ssrs. William-
son, Magor & Co., Calcutta, and we hope and intend
to cheapen if possible rather than extend the prices as
soon as the cost of these first few trial shipments
have been proved. I have no doubt my frieml.-t irill
a'h'eriize in the hadirii/ jftanters* papers, and I shall
write to them on this subj'ct at once.

There are two o'her woods in Japan of a nearly
pure white color and absolutely free of smell : these
are called " Mome " and ••Mat.su." Some planters
here seem to prefer them, though heavi(>r in weight
than Cryptomeria. The latter weighs about 10 lb", a
KW lb chest, the two former 21 and 24 lb. respectively,
all in half inch wood, ileanwhile. dear sir, I niust
apologize for troubliug you at such length, but it is
iu the intere.st of brother pl.anters I have done so,
as the advertisements must of necessity be meagre in
information. I hope early in the new year lo visit
Calcutta, .and by then I hope a business will have
sprung up which shall be of benefit to both Ceylon
and Indian planters.

CoFFKE ExeoHTs FROM Rio. — The total ex-
port of coffee for the year was .H.tlTo.T'.lH bng^,
against 8,7.">;i.()2o bags in lffK4,'* of which two thirds
were exported to the United States. The eolTee
trade, it is considered, was not entirely satisfactory
during the past year. As, however, oin- trade lias
become very much moditied through the cslablish-
mont of direct represeittatives of consumers in our
market, it is extremely dilliciilt lo form an opinion
as to the result of business. One would thinkit
impossible for important firms to ship, as they do,
were the business an unprotitable one ; yet quota-
tions from consuming markets, as a rule, are con-
siderably under our current quotations. — liio S'eics.

Thu Effluvium from decomposing paste and glue is
as unwholesome as it is olTensiye. If, when making
the paste or glue, a small quantity of carbolic
acid is added, it will keep sweet and free from
offensive smells. A few drops added to mucilage
or ink prevents mould. In whitewashing the cellar
and daily, if an ounce of carbolic acid is added
to each gallon of wash it will prevent mould and
also the disagreeable taints often ])erceived in
meats and milk from damp apartments. Another
great advantage in the use of carbolic acid in
paste for wall-paper and in whitewash is that it
will drive away cockroaches and other insect pests.
The cheapest and best form of carbolic acid is
the crystals, which dissolve in water or liquefy at
an excess of temperature. — Amerirait Ciiltiralor.

•The figuref do not ioclude Santos au<l other ports. —
Ed.

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

r2i

ISDUX TEA IN AUSTRALIA AND AMEKICA.
The total shipments of Tea to Aiistralii ami New
^calami from tlie time the Syndicate commenced
its operations up to the end of last season have been
as tullows : —

Through Through Total,

the Syndicate. Other Sources.
Soacon lt>. lb. tb.

1880-81 287,198 801,722 l,0»8,!-20

1881-82 472,i»04 3«V,9«4 84IJ.868

1882-»;( l,fi51_'>U 1.67lr''-'7 2.72:1288

18S.i-t*4 68.flin 271,712 :140.613

18iM-S5 31,165 1,368,817 i;«2.982

The ^hipnleuts of Tea from Calcutta to America dur-
ing the past four Sejifions have been : —

Through Through Total,

the Syndicate. Other Sources.
Season tti. tti. tti.

1881-82 195,850 2,740 l!«.5na

1882-83 52:{,012 IW.SOa 082,818

18«3-»4 128,730 123,265 2.-)l,!)fl5

18ai-S5 41,894 85.2*4 127,718

Samples of Indian Tea were also sent to Moscow
aud .\msterdam. In the former ease, no encouragement
followi'l. but a-smuch as 43,610 lb. wure forwarded
to Amsterdam, and free sample«t were largely ilistri-
butetl, with, it is believed, good effect, as heretofore
ludian Tea wa-s <juite unknown there. It may be
safely ooncludeii that through the efforts ma'le. thus,
by the Syndicate iji the v^trinus ('Nilouial markets,
Indian Tea has acquired a footing which it only needs
c&reful fostering to ilevelope into a large trade, for
on its mefitA alone Indian Tea is bound to succeed.
— ladiun Teix Ocizettt.

I sometimes appeared, as in ao example exhibited, on a
plant styled a " male plant," was generally distinguished
by the presence of a peduncle, from that derived from
an undoubtedly " female pliut." — CJutsnulandi r.

KOYAf- SOCIKTY OF QrKEXSLAND.

The President brought forwartt a sample of the
roots of Cifpt'rwi esctilrntus^ the e.dible tubers of which
are known in the south of Kurope as Amanih^ lif Uri-e.
He had introduced thi.s into Queensland -some years
sinc<-, and had observed that in iti habit uf jjrowth it
was scarcely to be distinguished from that pest oi gard-
eners, the •' nut grass,'" ('</jM-ruj< roUfi>'hi.^, Iahu. Dr.
llaiicroft also remarked that the small bulbs, which he
had previously brought before the society as forming
an article of diet amongst the blacks of the interior,
aud which were kno#n as I'oira, had proved on cultiv-
ation to belong to a Cv/^--.i/- allied to this C. racuUntus.
As a farther example of a Cyperaceous plant of econ-
omic Vrtlne affording an esculent. Dr. Bancroft directed
att^-ntion to an JliUochans, an aquatic aedge which had
lately been intro<luced into the gardens of the Brisbane
Acclimatisation Society through his agency. He also
exhibited the fruit of the camlle-nut-tree, Aleurilts
mnliii-riinii. found in the gardens of the colony, aud
remarked that beyoml the value of its kernel as a proli-
fic oil-produ'-.er, and its use as an extempore illnm>uator
amongst the Polynesian IslanderA, there resided in this
kernel comestible properties which were not to be de-
spised.

Amongst other plant products of economic value ex-
hibited were the fruit of the Ling of the Chinese Trapa
bieorni^f the seeds of which are farinaceous in a marked
degree, and, like those of other species of the genus,
largely used on this account as an article of food. Also,
the so-called fruit of Horenia dulcis—i.e., the fleshy
petluncles of the true fruits, and which contain a sweet
edible pulp. As illustrating the importiuce of a cou-
sideratiun of the .sexuality of plants. Dr. Bancroft drew
attention to the male and female it-florescence of the
Oarob tree, of the Mediterranean Ceratmia sViifU/i.
Linn., the source of " Caramel," -.he flowers of a parti-
cular tree b.-ing restricted to those of one sex, and re-
marked tint this fruit tree was more a<Iapte 1 to the
climate of the Darling Downs than to that of Brisbane,
and that it was uece,ssary to have plants of both sexes,
or in the event of possessing a female plant or i>otcntial
fruit bearer only, to have access to the pollen dorived
ft im flowers of a tree of the opposite sex. The Papaw
was not a persistent moncucius plant, but the fruit wbich
91

THE SUrtAR INDUSTRY IN INDLA.
' Some attention has lately been given tu the sugar
industry, to the manufacture of j'iggery, to the intiu-
ductiou of new de.scriplion of mills, and to the general
progress of this important enterprise. Many years a^o
the sugar trade of some of the sea port towns on the
Coromauilel Coast was an important oner fa,':!ories were
estiblished both by Kurop»an and native merchants, and
in the inland districts too much attention was devoted
to this industrj'. A German missionary acquired htrge
plots of lanil in the North Arcot district and plaute.l
sugarcane with the object of manufacturing sugar of
different qualities, and, if possible, the description known
as loaf sugiir now obtained from EngUnd. His efforts
Were to some extent successful, and for a few years the
enterprise turneil out well. But with his return to
Europe owing to failing health, the whole concern,
which was placed in the hands of natives, went t*i the
wall, and to this day may be .seen the ruins of the fac-
tory, the -^htMls and other buildings once devoteil to
carrying out a really paying industry. The manufacture
and exportation of sugar for about two decades hardly
received any attention. European and native merchants
preferred to embark in cotton, coffee and other enter-
prises, but now that there is a full in the.=*e directions,
sugar is beginning to look up again, and with new and
improved machinery a decided improvement has taken
place in this industry and still further development is
apparent.

A recent report submitted to Government by the
Director of Agriculture shows that Messrs. Thomson
and Mylne of lieheea, in Bengal, have succee led in in-
troducing a large number of their mills into the .Madras
presidency. A mill was first sent Ut North .\rcot and
thence to Ooimbatore, but the results were not satis-
factory as no enqm'ri' s were made by growers of cane.
Since than the int eduction of the cane mills in the
Bellary district has been most satisfactory, for we
learn that the local representatives of Messrs. Thomp-
.son and Mylne sold eighty-one mills in the first eight
months of last year, and of these seventy-five were
bought in the Hospett taluq, Bellary district. The
extension of sugar-cane cultivation in the Ceded
districts, IS chiefly due to the enterprise of a well-
known merchant of Bellary who has not oiUy intro-
duced improved ploughs and other machinery, but who
has been instrumental in starting cotton mills and other
industries which must, in time, prove remunerative and
materially improve the condition of the ryot classes who
have for years reared no other crops than the cheap
cereals that are the staple food of the poorer classes.
We have not particulars of the extent to which the
sugar industry has been of recent years pushed on in
Bellary and Hospett, but the following information of
the working of the new descriptions of mills iu the
Godavery district may be of interest.

The Godavery and Vizagapatam districts are import-
ant centres of the jaggery trade of the presidercy. In
certain favorable seasons, the supplies shipped to Eu-
rope have been very large and not long ago the quality
of the jaggery put on board ships leaving the roads was
of the worst possit-le description. With the introduc-
tion of new mills there may be some improvement in the
quality of the article prepared fo." ^hipment. A nitive
flrm in Coconada writing to the Agricultnrsl Reporter
to the local Government states in a letter, d .ted 2nd
March last, that since 18S1 they endeavoured to obtain
machinery for crushing sugar-cane. an<l after much diffi-
culty they obttii.ied a mill from Beheea which crushed
all the cane growi on a field ten acres in extent. The
repairs to the mill were carried out by the country
smiths, and by inducing- other ryots to view the mills,
they procured a few, and during the first year of the
introduction of the Beheea mills, forty-eight found
their way into the Go-laver; district. A depot wa«

722

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, r886.

opeueil at Coconaila for the sale of these mills, and be-
tween December 1883 and March 1884, the total sales
iiiireascd to 169. Since then the sales had risen by
aliout luO mills, and the agents expressed the hope that
they would be able to place about lliO in the hands of
owners of sugar iihintations in the present season.
These results must be very gratifying to manufacturers
as well !i< to merchants in general, as with the new and
improved mill, the quality of sugar available for ship-'
m nt will not only improve, but the return to the grow-
rrs more encouragijig. The success with which the mills
of Messrs. Thompson and Mylue have been introduced
shows that, if growers obtain a fair article at a fair price
they will readily purchase it. The Beheea mills from
their simple constructiou, moderate price and the
facility with which they can be repaired, are likely to
bt'come very popular, and as they are largely used in
the Godavery and Bellary districts, the time is not dis-
tant when they will be introduced into other parts of
the presidency. With cheap mills, sugar-cane cultiv-
ation, which is now confined to a few districts, may
gradually extend. — Madias Utandtiz-d.

OUR NATUKAL OOUKSE OF AGRICULTURAL
ADVANCEMENT IN CEYLON.

(Cniilril'iiied.)
In a country so exclusively agricultural as Ceylou,
I have always maintained that every inducement should
he given to whatsoever will advance the cultivation
of the large areas of waste land throughout the island.
Cobbot maintained that the greatest benefactor of his
country was he " who could make two ears of corn
grow where only one grew before." The Ceylon
Government has spasmodically taken up the question
and shewn an interest in the restoration of a tank,
or in some high-sounding scheme. Whatsoever the
aim of our rulers, the result has been that large sums
of money have been spent, and, with one exception,
wc hear of no great advantage being gained. Eveu
were these numerous projects so often mooted carried
out, there would practically bo inbufficont resident
population to take full advantage of the benefits result-
ing from the outlay of these large sums of money,
and it would be found, as it has been already, that,
with the rc-toration of the tanks, there would be no
extension ot the cutivatiou of land. This of course
might be nut by offering inducements to Indian im-
migrants to settle. This, in these days of experiments,
at fir»t sight appears fea.sible enough. I am told that
water alone is necessary to make the largo wastes of
the northern half of our island expanses of growing
rice. In the Western, Southern, and Central Provinces
there already exists a poiiulation of varying stages of
industry, a people who are willing to roaui a reasonable
distance from their homes, and who will, if suthcient
inducement offers, invest their earnings in coconuts
at Chilaw or I'uttalam, or work a mine of plumbago .at
Kurunegala. A study of their habits shows a willing-
ness to enter any district subject to two conditions,
and these, it will be observed, are those held univers-
ally by n>ost wealthy natives— first, that the locality
cho.seu be accessible without any extreme labour ; and,
second, that it must have a resident population, or
such must be clo.se at hand. I need hardly add the
industry chosen must bear the test — Will it pay? No
unbiassed person could visit either Puttalam or Ohilaw,
or any of the large plumbago pits, and assert that with
liealthy inducement the natives of Ceylon are absolutely
idle or indifferent. The wealthy nativijs amongst us, '
such as the Soysas, the Rajapakses, the Perieses, and
many others prove that capital and industry are to be
found; and it astonishes us that this class has not
been more largely consulted in all matters upon the
di-velopment of the island's resources.

In the (.'entral Province, the European element has I
with varied success grown coffee, cinchona and tea,
resulting in a perfect system of communication between
it and the sea-borde, which again has been the chief
cause of the large areas of extended cultivation now
txistii.g in the tract of land fornung the triangle be-

tween Colombo, Kandy, and Puttalam. Europeans have
not shewQ the same necessity for population and
acce.ssd„l,ty m the lands they have chosen ; for they
have entered wildernesses wholly uncultivated, and, in
a few years, dlustrated what Western euterpize and
mdustry may produce in converting them into pro-
sperous estates. In time, roads have brought these into
the network of civilization.

It will, from the above, be ob.served that the natural
advancement of mdustry, especially where the- natives
are concerned, is progressive from the chief centres
ot mdu.stry and population. The native capitalist is
not likely to invest his money at the Giant's Tank
nor in the heart of the Wanni; yet he is wiUing to
go as tar as he can to look after his venture without
excessive exertion; neither does he appear to consider
property of value or desirable unless there be a resident
population. The extensive repairing of tanks by our
(.overnment would appear to have been undertaken
without a due consideration of the ways and means
tor their maintenance after restoration ; for, when
once repaired, the village soon reverts to its old somnol-
ent condition.

I would urge that greater attention be paid to those
localities within the range of general enterprize, whether
European or native, and in this way gradually extend
the radius of operations ; instead of rushing to spots
beyond the reach of capital, industry, or intelligence
It would then benefit a larger number without bringing
capital beyond the reach of the most industrious and
euterpriziug, and would bv the progressive extension
ot communication bring the consumer and the producer
into close connection with each other. There appears
at first sight, a great advantage in Ceylou becoming
a large rice-producing country, and supplying itself
with that which it now imports in such prodigious quant-
ities, but a very casual study shews that the cost of
transport must always prevent the wide use of locally-
grown rice, until at least the population of the already
populous portions of the island has extended towards
those localities where rice can be advantageously grown.
At present, it can be more cheaply imported from rice-
producing countries and delivered, say, at Matale, by
rail, than it can be cleaned and brought up by road f'ronii
Anuradhapura. It doubtless is a very great temptation
to an ambitious Governor to restore a buried city, to
make a railway, or to repair a giant tank, with v^hich
in all time his name wi'l be associateil, far more than
to urge forward the natural progress of iudustrv and
enterprize in its natural channcds. The Western mind
does not choose to follow that of the Eastern ; yet it
is manifest that the progress this island ha.s maile,
apart from that of Europeans, has been almost wholly
within the vicinity of the three most populous provinces
of the island, and, judging from this is, it is m.ani-
fest that, by fostering and leading on in this direction,
more solid and permanent benefit must result than by
restoring and unearthing old cities and tanks beyond
the reach of capital and enterprize. The immeiiBe
extra expense entailed in working in these out-of-the-
way spots can only be compared to that of a military
force in the field in an unhealthy locality, to which,
at any price, every necessary of life has to be convey-
ed ; the cost of which must be three-fold, both in the
outlay of money an 1 human life, to what it would he
near at hand. — Local "Times."

CORROSION OP THE LEAD LINING OP
INDIAN TEA CHEST.S.
will be remembered that some time ago

It

..... .^w »^.i..,..iui.i,3u vu.li. Bumc biiijtt ago a

correspomionce took place between Dr. Voelcker and
Dr. Watt on the above subject, but their opinions
so widely differed, that the discussion left matters
in a more unsatisfactory state than before. The
Indian Tka AssuiiaTiON, then, very judiciously
took the matter up, and referred the whole cast- to
Mr. Pedlcr, the professor of chemistry to the I'r^sideney
College. That gentleman has since issued a lengthy
Report on the subject, which we will here refer to.
.Mr. Pedler is of opinion, and we think very
reasonably so, th^t the proper preliminary step should

AvRiL I, i886,j THE TKOPICAL AQklCULfiJkl$fi

ni

have beea to accumulate aud collate the mass of
oviileuco which must be available from the experieuce
<if planters aud agents themselves. It is onlj^ by a
loniparisou of such experience that a true solution
of this vexed (juestion can be safely arrived at.

In 1883 Dr. 'Wigner published a Paper on the
packing of substances of delicate odour, such as Tea,
and he refers therein to experiments which he had
made during the previous five years regarding the
alleged effect of certain Indian woods on tea-lead.
He came to the distinct conclusion that the corrosion
of the tea-lead was due to the generation of acetic
or other volatile acid, which, in the presence of
carbonic acid and moist air, would account for the
corrosion complained of. Mr. I'edler is iu agreement
with this opinion, and he says that- in almost all
respects the experiments he has himself made con-
firm the theory put forth. To test the matter
efficiently, certain boxes of tea were specially prepared,
and the wood, the hning, and the contents, subjected
to separate tests.

The first experiment made was on a box madr of
damp uusoasoned wild mango-wood. After being kept
for several weeks unopened, it was found that the
6urfacr3 of the lead ikH the wood was almost entirely
covered with a white powder, principally " wliite
lead." In some places the lining was entirely eaten
through, aud all over the whole external surface
corrosion had set in, but the side of the lead next
the tea was found bright and free from corrosion,
although slightly tarnished,— the latter probably due
to imperfect drying, and consequent insufhcient chock
of fermentation. Fuither, the surface of the wood
next to the lead wa.s found to be distinctly acid to
test-paper.

A second experiment was made by distilling some
of the wood of the box in a current of steam, and
the distillate was then tested by placing it at the
bottom of a bottle. A piece of tea-lead was then
hung iu the bottle so that it did not touch the
liquid, aud the bottle was repeatedly tilled with air
charged with moist carbonic acid; with the result
that distinct corrosion took place. Various other
experiments were made, and care taken to use
scaiunS'i wood as well as wood damp, or partly seasoned
only. The result was the same, although the effect
was more rapid in the ease of unseasoned wood.
Boxes made of other kinds of wood were then ex-
perimented with, aud in five out of six cases no
corrosion took place, aud there was no perforation.
The conclusion arrived at by Mr. Pedler is, that the
experiments prove that the active agent in the
corrosion of the lead linings in the exam|iles taken
was not produced from the tea contained in the
chests, but from the wood of which they were fornaul.
M'e have not space to follow seriatim the m.my
and virions experimi^nts made, but the result arrived
at has been to prove — L That unseasoned mango-
wood attacks lead, iu a moist atmosphere, violently.
-. That seasoned mango-wood kept dry has no action
on it. 3. That seasoned mango-wooil subseiiuentlv
saturated with water becomes again in a condition to
attack lead in the presence of a moist atmo.iphere,
although not so violently as un.seasoned wooil. 4. That
nnseasoned and damp wood of an;/ litsciiptinn corrodes
the lead more or less. 5. That the corroding sub-
stance, whatever it be, must be formed gr.adually in
the wood, and that the formation is connected with
the continued pre.sence of moisture.

The latter conclusion should be taken to heart by
those who, unthinkingly, use woods, of whatever
kind in anything like a green state. In the Terai
wa have seen boxes made from almost green wood,
and we well recollect remarking that they would
split to pieces in anything like a rough journey;
but it did not occur to us, then, that far more
serious consequences might follow, in the corrosiiin
of the lead itself. Now that this has, however, been
conclusively proved, it is to be hoped that the use of
unseasoned wood may bo rigidly interfered with, for,
given hejt and moisture to set up putrefactive
fermoatation therein, the presence of all the sub-

stances necessary to corro Ic tea-lead will, says Mr.
Pedler, at once follow; and few, we think, will be
inclined to di.spute such self-apparent logic, although,
hitherto we have not snflicieutly regarded the fact.
Most men, even though knowing little of chemistry,
would incline to the belief that tea, properly manu-
factured, could hardly have any chemical action on
its lead covering, any more than that lead free from
contact with decomposing influences could effect the
tea, but it is satisfactory to have the matter author-
itatively set at rest; and we now know for certain
as the results of mucli painstaking scientific observation
by an eminent exi)ert, that if damp and unseasoned,
wood is used for the manufacture of Tea boxe.s,
corrosion of the lead is, under favorable circumstances,
almiisi certain, although some varieties of wood may
act more violently and rapidly than others. We learn,
also, that even seasoned wood allowed to become
saturated, m.ay produce, under circumstances of high
teriiperature, putrefaction, or corrosion of the lead
lining. The necessity, therefore, for protecting chests
from moisture, in transit, is impressed upon us; for
it has been further demonstrated that Tea can easily
take up the disagreeable odour which damp wood
may emit.

It is most satisfactory to find that this much-ve.xed
question of the deterioration of Toa from the use
of unsuitable woods for packing, or from the use
even of suitable n-ooila unseasoned, has been author-
itatively disposed of.— IiuHaii Tea Gazette.
-•■ - -
THE CULTIVATION OF 00(^A.»
liv itKKRY If. nrsiiv, M.D.
For more than two months the writer has been
continuously engaged in the study of the coca-plant
and its products iu the districts of Bolivia which pro-
duce the best i|uality of leaves. The results, which are
likely to greatly increase the recently-created interest
in the plant, will be published .shortly, when his
studies .shall have been conclnded. At the present
i time I will ouly discuss a (]uestion concerning which
speculation is rife, namely, the adaptability of the
plant to culture in countries where it is now un-
known.

For the details concernhig cultivation here presented
I am chiefly indebted to Jlr. Oscar Lohsc, one of the
most intelligent cultivators in this country, and pro-
prietor of the I'inca of San Antonio, two leagues from
the town of Oaroica, Yungas.

The district of Oaroica may be considereil as fitly
repre.senting the remainder of Yungas, and Yungas as
representiijg the princip.il coca districts of this republic.
The conditions of soil and clintate may be briefly
stated. Proceeding eastward from La Pa/., itsrif .sonie-
wliat more than ten thousand feet f above the sea,
for a ilistaucu of four or five leagues, we reach the
summit of the pass over the easterumost coidillera of
the Ande.s, this cordillera having an average elevation
in this immediate district of perhaps sixteen thou.'iaiid
feet. This ridge, always more or less snow-cnvere'l,
cuts off a large portion of the westward-bound cluuls,
which are thus either precipitated in the form of rain
before reaching the summit, or. arriving there, are
deposited in the form of snow, and then returned bv
means of rivulets to the valleys, chiefly of the eastern
slope. It should be noted that in Northern Peru and
Ecuador this cordillera is higher than here, so that
the eastern slope in those regions is more profusely
and regularly watered than here. From this pass, hail
we a direct roail, we could travel iu half a d.iy, so
steep is the descent, to the banks of the Oaroica Iliver,
having an altitude of only two thousand four huudred
feet. >\'heu we have descended to six thousand four
hundred feet we should meet with our first coca
plantatious, and after pas.sing two thousand feet level
we should have left them principally or entirely be-
* From the Thtvapoitic Gazettn^ -Tanuary.
t I have given altitudes and measurements ap-
proximately in English feet. By the Spanish niea-
•uretnents the altitudes are much greater.

724

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, i8S6.

hind. "Within this four or five thousantl feet, then,
lie the cocales of Bolivia. No description can con-
vey a perfect idea of the steepness of this luxuriant
elope. Travel, entirely by ridiiig--^nimals, is extremely
difficult. There are only occasional .places where we
can readily leave the road, and here plantations are
establiiihed. The hedge of coffee-plants at the roadside
proves on examination to be the uppermost row of a
plantation; and as we peer down among the shrubs
we mrirvel that anyone can preserve his footing while
cultivating or collecting tiie coffee. The scenery is
of course magnificent, and of a different type, I .should
think, from that of any other part of the world. The
mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent
their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the
richness of the vegetAtion. A\''o stantl among the
cnca-plants and distinctly see another cocal nearlj four
thousand feet helow us.

As there is no better guide to the agricultural rapaci-
ties of a country than its native plants, I will mention
the characteristic classes. At the pass, with an alti-
tude of about thirteen thousand feet, we have but
little vegetation, — this low and mat-like, to escape
the cold and the winds. Crossing, Boon after, a spur
having ;in elevation of one or two thousand feet less,
we meet with several rientianacen?, notably a Iltifrtiia,
believed to be //. Hnthrockii, Gray, of New Mexico.
Hero, also are some shrubs in Acanthace^j and Big-
noniace;e. At nine thousand feet we begin to find
orchids and calceolarias, with some small trees in
Melastoniacenj. At eight thousand feet we meet with
our first tree-ferns; the timber-trees become (juite large,
aud J»egoniaH begin to make their appearance. From
this point the vegetation begins to assume a really
tropical aspect. AVe find many species of calceolaria,
fuchsia, and Amaryllidaceiu, while the variety of orcliids
Slid ferns is quite bewildering. At six thousand five
hundred feet we sec the first palms, and the forest-
trees become buttressed giants, staggering under their
loads of vines and climbing aroids and ferns, and their
branches covered with Bromeliaceie, orchids, and other
parasites. Seventy parasites have been counted upon
a siugle fallen tree.

The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee,
rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the
arborescent species), sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the
ordinary garden vegetables. The principal fruits are
oranges, bananas, coooanuts, leuions (sweet and sour),
citrons, grapes, chirimoyas, alligator pears, tuinba^,
poratigranates, grenadillas, figs, papayas, lukmas, melons,
and pineapples, the last just introduced.

The soil in .such a broken country is of course
very diversified, ranging from a very light decom-
posed shale or standstone to a heavy blue or ehietly
yellow clay.

The rainy season begins in October, and continues until
May or June. During this time the rains are copious
and almost constant. During the succeeding two
months there is scarcely a drop of rain, aud during
the next two there are only occasional showers.

Such are the couilitions under which the coca grows
in this section.

"When we corae now to consider the methods of
ciiUivarion here adopted, we must be cautious about
Bccepiing them as the best, m«'rely because they are
generally followed here. It is to be remembered that
the Bolivian syfttem of agriculture has not received the
attention that it should have had, and that it ia
very probable that reforms might be introduced in
present methods.

Nor iis it propfr to proceed coflccrning coca-culture
without a few words concerning what is meant by
the '* best (inality" of ooc-i-lfaves. To a manufacturing
chemist t)ie best quality would mean the quality that
would yield the largest percentage of cry.-'tallizable
rocaine, obtainable in the easiest manner, while ihe
same coca might be considered for domestic consump-
tion a,« representing one of the lower grades. It is
highly probable that t;he amount of cocaine forms no
element in the Indian's estimate of the quality of coca, j
uo more than the percentage of nicotine establibbes I
the quality of a particular grade of tobacco, Ooc** I

leaves are classed in general by the Indians as "hajas
dulces " (sweet leaves) and '* hajas amargas " (bitter
leaves). The former are made sweet by the abundance
of alkaloids other than cocaine. "NMiile it is true that
a greater abundance of those alkaloids is usually
accompanied by a larger percentage of cocaine also,
yet the vai-iation in the amount of the latter is not
so great .«is in the former; so that while in the sweet
leaves the bitter taste of the cocaine is masked by
the presence of the other alkaloids, in the bitter leaves
its flavour is the predominant one. The presence, then,
of these sire< t nlkaloidi^y as we may call them, trans-
lating the simple and expressive term of the ludians,
determines the domestic value of the coca, and all
that is known of the best methods of cultivation is
based on the production of the highest percentage of
these alkaloids.* Experience may determine that for
manufacturingpurposes a very different line of principles
of culture should be followed.

I have made a large number of assays tending towards
elevations, soils, e.^posures, seasons, ages of plants, and
of leaves, different varieties, wild and domestic, differ-
ent parts of the plant, and various modes of drying and
packing. The results will be embodied in a future
monograph, mere passing references being made to
them for the present, I have about concluded that, the
percentage of the sweet alkaloids varies inversely as
the amount and continuousness of moisture that the
plant reeeivee. Thus, the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and
Brazilian coca, which, as I have stated, is much more
copiously and regularly watered than the Bolivian, is
markedly inferior, so that Bolivia regularly exports
about one-eighth of her crop to those countries. I am
inclined to think that the greater brea<lth and thinness.
of the northern leaf may be partly due to the greater
water supply and the couse(|uent greater degree of
evaporation. Again, the Indian always seeks the coca
grown at the higher elevations, where the humidity
is much less and more irregular than in the districts
along the rivers. AVe are thus obligefi, for reasons
to be elaborated in the future, to regard these alkal-
oids as preserving a sort of a balance of moisture, by
which the plant stores up during the wet weather a
concentrated supply of water, which may be very slowly
yieldt^d up during a time of need.

Having thus chosen a high altitude, the next thing
is to select a soil. A rivalry exists between a yellow
clay and a hill-side soil rich in vegetable matter. My
assays have yielded the bewt results (as to total
alkaloids) from soils of the latter class, and I am
inclined to think that those who prefer the former
soil do so because it yields a somewhat larger crop.

The ground for the nnrsery-bed is prepared during

the latter part of the dry season by breaking it up

1 very thoroughly lo the depth of a foot or more. The

I fruits mature during the early part of the rainy season,

I December and January. They arc red, and consist of

[ a fleshly outer portion and a shell-like inner portion,

I whieli encloses the single seeJ. These people suppose

; that the germ cannot escape from the shell if planted

I in its nnfural condition, and they have continued for

hundretis of years to dep-sit the seeds as soon as

1 gathered in a shaded place, in htyer-* an inch or more

I deep, a'ld ciaviciI with a thin I lyer of decaying leaves

or similar s)d)-'taitre. The beat getierated by the

! dccompositipu of the fleshy pericarp serves to induce

germiuation. and the embryo bursts from its bony

j covering. This gnwth unites them in from eight to

I fourteen rl.iys into a .so!id mass, whirh i.** broken up

\ into smnl pieces and planted in furrows in the nursery.

In this process very many of the sprouts are broken

' off and the plants destroyed. Mr. I.ohse has adopted

' the pl.n! of ."towing the seeds broadca.-^t a« soon a."*

gath('rid, atid rovpilng with a little earth, or, better,

a layer oT biin;ina le;t*'os ur drc.-iyhig vegetable matter.

I Germination rOi(uirei from eight. (/> twelve day,-^ Kmger,

but all the pbuits arc saveil. In cither case a covering

of brush or straw must be placed over the uur.seiy.

f It is desirable that there should be a more
precise definition of the peculiarities here referred
to,— Kd. Ph.J.

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

725

at first ouly three or four iuches above the surface, |
and alivsted to six or seven inchBs as the plants grow. '
T^fually this elevation is repeated once more. I

All thi» t:iking plaee during the lainy season, the '
jilants have reached a good size before the advent of
the dry weather, and so do not call for any artificial j
water supply. Advantage is taken of the ensuing dry
season to clear the land an<l prepare the ground for
the new eocal. (In the manner in which this is done
depends much of the future well-being of the plants.
The ground should be thoroughly powdered to the
depth of two, and, if possible, three feet, all roots and j
large stones being removed. On these steep slopes j
it is necessary to terrace, the terraces being supported
by stone walls, the stone laid dry. The width of the
terraces, according to the slope, varies from several
feet, with a number of rows of plants, to much less
than the height of the wall, only a single row of
plants beink admissable. It is here generally believed
that shade tends to the production of the best quality of
leaves ; so the cocales are planted thickly with a small
broad-topped leguminous tree related to the St. .John's
bread, but whose name I cannot at this moment recall.
There is no doubt that this is a mistake. I have made
repeated comparative assays of shade-grown and sun-
grown leaves from adjoining plants, and invariably j
founil the latter much richer in total alkaloids. I judge
the custom to have arisen from two considerations.
There is, as 1 have stated, a period of two or three
months when the plants receive no rain, and then these
trees atford a protection from the fierce heat. Secondly, \
shade conduces to the production of a large, smooth,
beautifid leaf, of elegant colour, and thus adds to the
a/i/ieiinince of the proiluct. The terraces being thus
prepared, on the advent of the permanent rainy season
the plants, now from 8 to lli inches high, are trans-
planted, being set from one-half to sbt inches apart,
according to ideas of the haciendero. From this time
until the first leaves are picked the greatest care must
be taken to keep tho soil thoroughly stirred and free
from weeds. The plants having been transferred
in October or November of one year, the first picking
is made in March or .Vpril of the second following year,
one year and a half from the time of transplanting, or
two and one-half from the seeds. In case an insufhcient
space hf\s been prepared, the remaining plants are often
lefk until the following year, and then transplanted,
the operation being much more dangerous to the life
of the plants.

The chief danger of picking the leaves earlier than '
the period indicated above is not the strain upon the
vitality of the young plant, as many of the leaves drop
otf tiiemselves, but because it is almost impossible to
avoid breaking off tho very tender tips of the twigs,
the result being fatal to many plants. Immediately
after this first picking, fresh leaves develop with great
rapidity, and in .fuly or .Vngust of the same year the
plant tlowers for the first time. The lovely v.*hite
dowers, if undisturbed, remain from three to six days ;
bat from the very first they are dislodged by the slightest
jar, the corolla falling entire, although it is morpho-
logically polypetalous. The fruit ripens in December
and January.

During the first few ypar.< the percentage of alkal-
oid increases rapidly, reaching its maximum at or
before the age of ten years. At the age of twenty it I
begins to diminish, hut with extreme slowness, so th.at '
the plants are practically in their prime up to the
age of thirty-five or forty. It is jTrobablo that the
decline is then due rather to the exhaustion of the
loil than of the vitality of the plant. Fertilization of
the soil has never been resorted to. It is probable,
as suggested by Mr. Lohse, that as much can be done
(or the coca in this way as has been done for other
plimts.

A coca harvest is called a iiilta, an Indian word
moaning a division or drawing of lots, and there are
from three to five in a year, aecorrling to the' season.
The time of picking is determined solely by the rindi-
tion of the leaves. When they have become mature
they turn yellow if iti the dry sea.TOo, and brown if in
the rainy, aud within eight days at tbs oatsiJe will

fall to the ground and be lost. As soon as tho mita
is over, the ground is cleared from weeds, and, under
au ignorant notion th.it further cleaning is injurious,
is left undisturbed until after the next mita. But
Mr. I(ohsc has tried the plan of keeping the ground
clean, with the result, thus far. of receiving the next
crop in little more than one-half tlu! time required
by his neighbours. No irrigation is resorted to during
the dry season. Although it is i)ossible that good
might result, at least to the welfare of the plant and
the size of the crop, I suspect that after a long time
an abundant and steady supply of water would result
in a decrease in the amount of alkaloids. Mr. Lohse
has tried the experiment of mulching at the end of the
wet season with a few inches of banana-leaves or other
refuse, with excellent effect upon the plants during
the succeeding dry season.

This plant is subject to only two diseases of any
importance. The first is taja, which I suppose to be tho
result of a fungus which alitacks the undeveloped leaves
and tender twigs. It is said by some to be caused by
careless picking, in which the twigs are broken. By
others it is said to result from the planting of seeds taken
from young plants. The only remedy is to remove and
burn the diseased portions. The second disease, if such
it can be called, is the ravages of a caterpillar called
" ulo,'' which makes its appearance in December,
an destroys the crop so quickly that it admits of no
remedy.

The method of picking and drying the coca has been
so often anil so well described of late that it is not
necessary to dwell upon it. Ooca-plcking is a profession
to which the chililren are trained from a tender age.
The leaves are picked singly, both hands being employed
with a rapid alternating motion, which strips a twig
in an instant, (xreat care is taken to avoid breaking
the twigs, and the young leaves are not picked. Little
sacks are tied about the waist, or the women's aprons
are pinned or .sewn into the required form. They
are then transferred to larger sacks, which must be
filled and emptied with gre.at promptness, or the leaves
will become heated and turn black.

The price here ]iaiil for picking is a Bolivian dollar,
equal to about seventy-one cents United States currency,
for each thirty pounds, which, when dry, will weigh
about twelve pounds.

The leaves are exposed to a hot .sun upon a pavement
of nicely-fitted flat stones, and stirrecl occasionally
until dry. Under the most favourable conditions tho
drying is accomplished in about three hours. About
the coca place are built the storage ami packing sheds.
These are furnished with very broad doors, and men
are in constant attendance to sweep the coca with
brush-brooms through these broad portals at the
slightest indication of rain. A very few drops of rain
are suflicieut to decolorize and ruin the sale of the coca,
though it is my impression that such decolorization,
if produceil by but little rain, is no indication of lo.ss
of cocaine. During the first few days that the dry
coca lies within the storage-sheds it undergoes a slight
sweating process.

AVhen I come now to speak of the best methods of
packing the coca for export, it is fair to say that nothing
definite is known. Such coca as has reached Europe or
the ff nited States in good condition has done so purely
by accident; for jjerhaps the very next lot, dried,
packed and shii>p(>d as nearly as possible in the same
manner, has arrived entirely ruined. I have tried many
methods, and as often as I had thought that the secret
was discovered my hopes have resulted in disappoint'
ment.

As regards the exportation of the culture of coca, the
cxireriment has been trieil. I believe, but once. Several
years since, Jitr. V. h. Steinart. of La Taz, shipped a
small quantity of seeds vii: London to Ceylon, and
during the past season the first products were shipped
to London and sold at a hig'i price. Seeds for export
shmild be exposed for several days to a hot sun, so as
to rapidly dry the ffe.shy exterior, which thus forms a
protection to the germ within.

It is itiy opinion that the oocaplaut is adapt«l for
culture in many countries where it is now unknown

726

THE tROPlCAL AGRfCULTORISt*. [Apirl i, 1886.

Among the countries where it woukl bo well to experi-
ment with it are 'iuatemala, Mexico, the East and
West Indies, iDiiia, .Southern Ohiua, portions of Africa,
and possibly of Italy. It is doubtful if it would grow
iu any portion of the United .States. Kequiring an
average temperature of at least 7U', the only districts
at all suited would be Florida and Southern Texas ;
and it is highly probable that proximity to the sea-coast
at so low an altitude would prove fatal. Kor would
irrigation prove adequate iu those countries possessing
a long dry season. The plants must not only have
an abundant supply of water at the roots; they
must bu,bathed in a humid atmosphere for the greater
portion of the year. But from what I have rf^d of
some of the countriei above named, I am confident
that the plant would there find a congenial home.
Jamaica offers especially hopeful conditions, — Fhafm-
aceutical Journal.

ON BAMIE (OR CHINA GEASS).

A LKCTCnE k1 TULANE H.\LL.

i'kii'fi of Mr. Jules Juvenal ahont Ramie, its Value
tis a Crop, its I'ses in the Industries, and its I'lace
in Coutincrce and Jt/riculture.

At Tulaue Hall, on Saturday night last, there was
a Large gathering of those interested in the cultivation
of ramie and other fibrous plants. Judge Wm. M.
Burwell presided.

Mr. Jules Juvenal, the lecturer of the evening, thus
addressed his listeners: —

INDUSTRY OF TH.XTILES.

The industry of textiles is the foremost of all indus-
tries. It is that which all over the world ^ives
employment to the greatest number of labourers,
brokers, merchants and manufacturers. The consump-
tion of its products is diurnal and mthout limit. The
world has ever been looking for new textiles, but
particularly so since the past fifty .years, which have
Drought about a general increase of population and
modern improvements in the fabrication tissue. The
attention of the mauufacturing world has during the
last few years principally been called to the ramie,
or China grass.

KAMIE.

W'hat is ramie?

It was formerly placed by botanists in the class of
urtica, or ortia, but it is now called boehmeria, or
spearless nettle.

I will call it by no scientific name. I will simply
name it the richest of all plants, for it possesses
wealth of growth, wealth of development and wealth
of fibre.

In ordinary light grouud, with a little watering
now and then, no plaut will grow ns rapiiily, no
root will multiply (juicker and produce more stalks,
no vegetable fibre is handsomer, richer or more
silky than ramie.

Notwithstanding all these elements of success the
Chinese alone have for a thousand years past
extensively cultivated the ramie plants. How comes
the civilized world to be thus backward in introduc-
ing a plant of such excellent return and known in
Europe siace the beginning of the present century?
For my lecture to-day I will endeavour to irform
yon concerning :

1. The causes which have delayed the cultivation
of ramie in Europe and America.

J, The best methods for its cultivation and production.

o, American machinery applicable thereto, and a
description of the machines at your Exposition.

4. The chemical treatmeut of ramie and of all textile
plants.

The chemical treatment is thi^ coniphunent of all
decorticating machinery, for it takes away by dissolu-
tion all gummy and resiuous matters adherent to the
fibre, which no machiiuTy can completely eradicate.
i will tell you how this can be accomplished cheuiie-
ally, not only with no injury to the fibre, but with
the result on the contrary of adding to its silky
(jualities. This perfected chemical process is the pro-
perty of our firm, the KamieFibre Slaaufacturiog

Company, of New York, of which I have the honor
of being director. It is by applying this di,sintegrat-
ing process to the Kimie tibre, which iitf.irs the most
resistance of all, and witnessing its exixllent result.!
that, pushiug forward our researches and experiments,
we have succeeded in applying to all textile pl.iuts
the same process at modified degrees, according to
the resisting force of their various fibres. Many of
these grow in abunclaiice under your own latitudes,
the i)ita and silk grass of Honduras (remarkably fine
fibre), the common bagasse of your sugar cane, the
typha or cjmmon cattail, which grows abundantly in
New York, New Jersey and Sandy Hook, the bow-
string hemp^or Florida lily, the yucca of the gulf coasts,
the banana, the plantain, the ixle, the bear grass,
the Spanish dagger, the licheguUa, the Mexican maguey,
etc. With the exception of the cattail or typha,
which may be monopolized by New York, all the
plants which I have named can be imported in leaves —
that is to say, in the crude state, free of duty to
New Orleans, which is naturally destined to become
fir.st their natural depot, and then their place of
transformation into textile fibres by the establishment
of factories along your lake coast. By this means
New Orleans would become the chief market of the
world for textiles, and it will have been one of the
results of your Exposition. I will show you later on
how this is to be effected. But let us for the present
go back to ramie.

CAUSES OF THE DKL.\Y TO THE INTllODUtTIO.N' OF KiMIE
IN ETJROPt; AND AJIEEICA.

The first shipment of ramie from India to England
was a lot of three bales, shipped in 1810. Experi-
ments then showed that a ramie rope could suppoi-t
a weight of 252 pounds, while a Russian hemp rope
of the same size would break on the weight of over
eighty-four pounds.

The ramie question remained at a staml-still during
the time of the wars of the empire and the political
questions which disturbed Europe during the first half
of this century.

It is only in 18U2 and during your great war, in
which the bravery, gallantry and death-daring qualities
of the Southern people attracted the admiration of
Europe, that the subject of ramie industry was re-
sumed. Experiments were made in London and in
Koiien to mix cotton with rainie. Messrs. (Jardier
& Co., of Konen, successfully wove a lot of Egyptian
and Indian cotton, mixed half and half with cut t^hina
grass. The warps thus obtained proved much superior
to those woven out of pure cotton, hut the difficul-
ties presented by the irregularity of the Chinese marki't,
which failed to supply a sufhcieut quantity of China
grass, and the necessity of special looms, caused the
abandonment of the fabricators of that special tissue,
and cotton having resumed its normal prices was
takeji back as the sole agent of fabrication.

In 1800 the English government of India, believing
in tile future of ramie, and with the intention of
introducing it into the public domain, instituted a
prize of £.5,0tX) for the best machine for decorticat-
ing in the green state.

Innumerable pamphlets and lectures on ramie men-
tion this circumstance as being the cause of the pro-
gress made by that textile. I am of an entirely
difTerent opinion. I think that the .ilhirements of that
prize of £i.OOO. though made with the best intentions,
but to which were attached impr.acllabic conditions,
heliied greatly to retard, by the rejection of the
machines presented, the development of ramie culture.
European mt^chanics wore asked in l'iun,.pe to make
machinery for u.«e in India, to work a product scucely
to be found in Hurope even for purposes of study,
experiment, and ron5e<iuently appropriate modifications
of mechanical aiipliauces.

The English Covernineut wouM have done better
in applying to the culture of ramie in Europe the
amount of the premiums ottered for the Calcutta
machines.

A few acres of ramie in the Island of Jersey, where
a retired French Colonel cultivated it with success,

April i, r886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

m

would have furnished French and Kiiglish mechanics
:\\\ experimentol material necessary tti obtain a pract-
ical solution ot the problem, which could have been
demonstrated bj competition in London.

Jute, uotwithstar.iiing its low price and easy decortic-
ation by rettin^. and thougli imported in England
since 17ii(i, remained fifty years without being utilized
to any eou^iderable extent.

It is only in 1840 that a merchant of Dundee per-
suaded the Holland home Government to use jute
bags, instead of those made out of flax for shipments
of coffee by the GoTernment in ludia. A vast Held
was thereby opened and Jute siuce then has made
considerable headway. The .same will happen with
ramie, whose fibre being so much more valuable, has
been environed by nature with more obstacles to its
decortication, aud it is not surprising that some time
and money have been lost in attempting to Kolve
the problem.

Like all great schemes, the ramie question is liable
to the accusation of having enthused, cra/.ed and ruined
a large number of its devotees. K\\ extensive field
of ramie is a beautiful thmg to look at, and when
at the same time one considers that the simplest kind
of study demonstrates that the bark of each stalk
presents an e-xtraordiaary wealth of fibre, astonishment
ceases at the fervor of the adepts of this plant.

As I have said before, the competition at Calcutta,
made uod.:r impossible conditions, retarded the inven-
tion of a practical machine; for, besides the diffi-
culties presented by distance and the absence of
materia' for experiment, the European mechanics were
asked to produce machine ; which could accomplish
the delicate aud tedious hand labour of the Chinese
workmen, who made a pound of ramie a day by
scraping with a wooden knife a part of the gummy
and resinous matters.

if experiments had been made in London instead
of Calcutta on green stalks coming from .Ter.sey, the
absurdity ^vould have been (quickly ascertained of
asking ef practical machinery more than the mere
sep.iration ol the fibre, which in the green state is
easily aecouiplished, leaving for chemical agents the
task of eliminating the gummy and resinous matter
adhering to the bark.

Taer*- lies the whole secrete.

If all inventors of decorticating machines, some of
which are very clever, have heretofore failed, it is
because they have aimed at filling the conditions
imposed for the Calcutta competition ; that is, to make
a machine capable of producing directly the China
grass. This, neverthele.ss came near being accom-
plished last year at Calcutta ; but with what paltry
results \ 'J'he Smith machine, of London, which ob-
tainoil a prize of 2,00l( rupees, or £l,(X^t, produces, with
two men aud a three horse-power, sixty pounds a
■lay.

I.'nder such conditions ramie would be twice as high
as silk. What is needed is a combination by which
production, cleaning and fal)rication will give a silky
fibre ready for the loom at a cost from twenty to
twenty-five cents about the price of first-rate flax.

CTLTL'RE OF R.\M1R.

We have shown by public ex)(eriments at the Ex-
position, what our machine cAu do. We will continue
our experiments on green ramie during the last days
of the Exposition.

Our Miachitie is simple and within the means of all
cultivatjrs to produce the eruile material. Near it
is our .sni.itl apparatus for the cleaning of ramie and
all textile plants. We will lay no stress upon facts
which have been raaile patent t'l all. The >amples
ctiming from our machine and from our apparatus
speak for themselves, and have obtained first pre-
iniucn.s for ramie and jute.

Speaking about jute, I must say that I have re-
ceived may inquiries about that plant. It would seem
that the .Vmerican planter believes in jute without
knowing exactly what it can give. Let me advise
him to abandon jute. There is nothing in American
jute. It eauuut compete with Indian jute, which is

brought to New York at four or five cents a pound,
ready for manufacture.

I will describe other machines than ours which are
now on exhibition. For example, the partisans of
work on the dry material will find in Mr. Gibson's
machine an excellent one.

The question of machinery ia now solved, and we
will have as many machines as we want so long as
they are asked only to work the cruda bark either
greeu or dry.

J^ioiiucttan shoultl non' ht our ohJij pre-occtipation.
I'lanting should be done at once — May or June — so
•s to raise a crop in autumn, ami I will demonstrate
that a net profit of ^lt>J per acre can be made during
the year following the first plantation.

But, what climate is adapted to ramie culture ?

What quality of oil i* How shall we plant 'f Where
are the plants and roots 'i

How shall we cultivate and reap y How will the
crop be sold, and what certainty is there in the
future of ramie 'f

TO WH.\T CLIJIATE IS RAMIE ADAPTED ?

The State of New Jersey, whose Legislature had offered
a prtuuium to ramie planters, has cultivated this plant
with success by protecting its roots with straw during
winter. I would, nevertheless, advise planters in the
Northern States to cultivate it only on a small scale.

This is not the case in Southern States, from Oali-
foruia to the Oarolinas, where by planting in a light soil,
somewhat moist aud easy of irrigation, success is
certain, however extended may be the enterprise, this
particularly in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Texas, New Mexico and California. The banks of the
Mississippi, from New Orleans tn Cairo, will soon, I
am confident, be green with ramie, and if your levees
are not ab.solutely .secure, it seems as if ramie had
been made; for such a contingency, as a .sojourn of
even a wholt: month under water does not destroy
this plant.

In support of this I will mention a circumstance
which happened in Louisiana :

Mr. Laforest. or Bayou Heron, who had a half
arpent of ramie that remained two months under
water after withdrawal of the waters found the
plants in good condition. Evidently there is a limit
to all tilings, but it is well established that complete
immersion for two or three weeks will not injure
the ramie.

now TO PLANT.

Ramie is a perennial |]laut, and has to be planted
but once for every thirty years. The planting is to
be done exactly the same as with Irish potatoes.
Work the soil well by plowing. Trace rows three
feet apart and plant the ramie root in the rows at
oue foot distance; then cover with two or three
inches of well pulverized earth. At a distance of
three feet each, we will have seventy rows to the
acre, and planting the roots one foot apart will give
us 121) roots per row, or 14,00fp roots per acre. In
order to obtain a plantation of straight and well-formed
stalks, the plantation must be made closed and uni-
form.

The present high price and scarcity of ramie roots
would scarcely admit of the average planter investing
at once in I'l.fKlO roots per acre ; but in order to push
forward the priii)agation of ramie, I would suggest to
planters the following scheme: —

Leave a distance in planting of three feet between
the roots, which, instead of 14,1)00 will make .'5,000
roots to the acre.

In three months, when the stalks will be about
two or three feet high, spread them down in the rows
without breaking. This will furnish for the autumn
i.ew stalks, which will complete the plantation up to
14,000 roots, r. isides this, the planter can take
from each mol!ur-njot two or throe cuttings to plant
anotlier acre, and so on.

I As I have told you at the begiiming, ramie is the
most prolific of all plants, aiul Mr. K. Darby, of

I New Iberia, La., was right when he said to his sop
a few years ago ■

728

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

" I have planted a good acre of ramie in oar gardeu .
When I will be no more do not disturb it ; take
good care of it. If its utility is not appreciated to-
day, the time will surely come when tlio true value
of this plant will be universally recognized and you
have in these roots the beginning of a fortune."

WHERE TO I'INn RAMIE PL.^NT.S OR ROOTS.

Various Louisiana planters have in their fields some
thousands of ramie plants which they could aft"ord
to divide. For my part, I have a large stock of the
species Teuacissima, the best of all, which I hoM at
the disjjosal of any planter wishing to plant au acre
or more of 5,rKX) roots, payable half cash, half in crude
bark from the crop of 1887.

HOW TO Cl'LTIVATE.

Planti'-g being over, if the summer season is ac-
companied by a prolonged drought it will be necessary,
during the hot weather, if the soil where the ramie
is planted is not naturally moist, faclliate growth and
vegetation by irrigation, which should be more or less
frequent according to the permeability of the soil.
Irrigation, however, must be stopped fifteen days be-
fore gathering, to permit the stalks to fortify and lose
their excess of moisture.

The land should be disposed as to permit easy water-
ing. The best disposition consists in placing the plants
on small ridges, separated by furrows which serve
at the same time the purpose of irrigation and
drainage. Like all plants whose leafage is strongly
developed, ramie absorbs from the atmosphere a large
portion of the elements necessary to its nutrition,
consequently it does not exhaust the soil, and will
prosper in ordinary ground whilst hemp and flax need
a very rich soil, which they speetlily exhaust. It is
good at each crop to abandon on the ground the
leaves of the ramie plant, which thus return to the
soil a part of the elements taken from it.

It should not be inferred that ramie is indifferent
to the action of fertilizers,* Its vegetation is always
proportionate to the elements furnished for its sus-
tenance, provided always that they possess an assim-
ilating nature. Therefore, as is the case with plants
of rapid development, liquid fertilizers are the best.
These should be used, mitigated with water, in the
spring and at every cutting. Farm manure should be
employed only as a covering before winter, so as to
permit the snow and rain to saturate the soil with
its elements.

Durinj^ the first year the culture ef ramie requires
weeding around the young jdants so as to rid them
of noxious grasses. When, however, the plant has
taken possession of all its allotted space, weeding
becomes unnecessary, and the labor is reduced to giving
iu the spring one smoke of the plow to clean the
draining ditches, and another one in autumn to cover
the feet of the plant for the winter.

HOW TO HARVEST.

According to the Imperial Treatise on Chinese Agri-
culture the ramie stalks .should be cut before the bud-
ding season, when their lower portion begins to assume
a brown tint.

The harvesting of stalks should be made with a
very sharp scythe, to avoid tearing, which would in-
terfere with cicatrization. If th*; stalks are to he used
in the green state, they should be made up in bundles
of about 200 and carried to tbe machine. If they
are to bo used dry, they must be left to dry in the
sun as rapidly as possible. This process offers some
difliculties, as the stalks contain a great deal of water
and are hydrometric by themselves. It will be neces-
sary to use natural labor to turn over the stalks on
the ground until they are dry It is important not to
gather them in until perfectly dessicatcMl, for they
would thon rapidly become mildewed, which would
also be the case if they were kept in a moist place.
When it is wanted to utilize the r.Tmie leaves for the
feed of animals or paper-making, they should be strip.
ped from the stalks at the time of harvesting.

* One of the great obstacles to successful cultivation
is the exhaustive nature of the croji. — En,

HOW TO SELL THE CROP AND WH.Vr IS THE PRO-
DUCTION PER ACRE.

It is important to bear in mind that ramie, like
cotton, hemp and flax, presents varying qualities, ac-
cording to soil, mode of culture and harvesting.

In (!bina, for weaving the finer tissues a difference
is made even between the fibrous strata on the same
stalk. The exterior fibre is coarser and stronger than
the interior fibre nearest the wood, which is era-
ployed in weaving silk goods.

The first crop is shorter, branches off more than
the second and third, and produces inferior filire.

Treatment in the green state not requiring that
the plant should be fully matured produces a finer
quality of fibre and allows cutting when the stalks
are about five feet high. This gives also an advance
of fifteen days on the crop, which in Louisiana would
permit making three crops.

Practice will teach with more exactness what will be
best to do, for though the above information is de-
rived from positive experience, yet it is an experi-
ence made in countries different from your own.

The average value of the crude ramie bark has
been estimated at five cents per pound. At that pries
there is a great European demand. In addition to
this let me tell you that it is by 100,000 roots that
the villages in the south of France are now plant-
ing ramie, and since two months the prices of roots
have raised 30 per cent. American consumption will,
I think, enhance the price of five cents per pound
of crude bark, for manufacturers here are at this
very moment waiting for a regular and sure produc-
tion to rear up their fabrics.

However this may be, we are ready now to pay
five cents cash per pound for the crude bark of ramie,
dried and baled, landed in New Orleans, where we
establish a branch oflice.

One acre planted now with 5.000 roots will have
14,1100 plants at the fall, and will produce in 1887 at
least fifteen stalks per plant, and a total in round
numbers of SiVi.OOO stalks, giving one-eighth of an
ounce of bark, or a pound by 125 or I'M stalks, or
1 ,fi00 pounds an acre per crop, or for two crops 3,200
pounds per acre, at five cents a pound, SlOO. Putting
down at sfiO the annual expenses, harvesting and pro
rata of first cost of the roots, we arrive at the
splendid result of SlOO net profit per acre for two
crops, and in Louisiana, with its lengthy fall, joined
to the treatment in the green state, wliii-li requires
less maturity in the plant and therefore less time,
three crops are almost a certainty.

WUAT ASSURANCES ARE THERE IN THE FCTrRE OF
RAMIE?

A certain proportion of the ramie crop will be ap-
plied to the fabrication of finer tissues. There will,
of course, be a choice of qualities, but the true com-
merce of ramie will extend upon condition that the
average quality of ramie will be produced at a price
which will permit its advantageous use in the manu-
facture of tissues of general consumption. The price
of five cents a pound for the crude bark corresponds
with the good tissues which are now being manufact-
ured from first quality of flax or wool. Under these
ccnditiouB I would say to every iutelligent American
farmer : " Hasten to plant one, two or three acres
of ramie, enlarge your production each succeeding
year, and, however" large it might grow, there is no
possible d.'inger of too much ramie in the United
States before twenty years t« come. When that mo-
ment arrives American genius will meet the emergency."

MACHINES.

The machine or decorticator of our comirany work-
ing only on material in the green state, I am natur-
ally a partisan of that system. But I lio not tor
that r-ea.son condemn the work on the dry material.
The future will show who is right I There are five
machines at your Expo.sition, three working on the
green and two on the dry material.

April i, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

72;

5IAl"niNES FOR TREATUT.XT IN THE DRY STATK.

The Stiiiilfort Macbint. — This decorticator is com-
posed of two machines or parts of macliines. The
first comprist-s two or three pairs of deeply fluted
rollers, haviug a forward and backward motion, wliich
brealcs thr \%otidy part of the stalks. It is used
mostly for lirtaking Hax, for which it is well adapted.
The second machine, or second part of the decotic-
ator, is composed of a big fluted revolving clrum,
working by friction, and is intended to softin the
material, if necessary, after it has passed thr.iivgh the
fir.'-t machine. The International Fibre and Juice
Kxtracting Company, of New York, to whom belongg
the Sanrlfort machine, has made several public ex-
periments of ramie, jute, hemp and fta.x, which have
spoken for themselves.

rHE CHUSON MACillNK.

This machine is a prettly little model, made ou the
principle of the hand-peeling method practised by
the natives of India on jute stalks. The peeling is
tlone by two steel cylinders, in which sharp grooves
blend iulo a spiral, the cutting part not overreaching
the diameter of the steel cylinders, so that it cannot
cut any part of the wood, but only lifts the fibrous
hark. The cylinders are placed one above the other
in such a manner that they exercise a certain pressure
on the st^lk, and thereby eeize the fibrous bark and
throw it between two rollers covered with gum cloth,
which delivers the fibre in two parts, the upper cylinder
seizing the upper part of the stalk and the 'ower
cylinder the lower part of it ; the stalk once free from
the bark slides l>etween the two cylinders ; is seized
by two rollers and thrown on the floor in front of
the machine.

Mr. Uibson is showing daily the good work of
his machine.

MACHINES FOB TBEATMENT IN THE UKEE.S SIAI.K.

Til,- Ilnulliilye or Jamaica Machine, — This machine,
which is ol Urge dimen.sions, divides the stalks into
two p:irls liy means of a sharp knife; each part after
having beeti divided is beaten by two revolving bats,
which break the wood ; the fibrous bark then passes
between a drum having revolving knives and plates
fitting e.xactly the diameter of the drum and moving
in the same direction ; the bark then falls upon a
revolving table.

VXIVEliSAI, FIBRE DECOETICATOB.

Manufactured by Hemiugton Agricultural Company,
r. Albee Smith, patentee. Consists essentially of
three pairs of rolls and a pair of endless uprou.

Ihe machines are of two styles. One is designed so
as to enable the feeder to deliver the stalks. The
other reipiires a workman at the rear end of the
machine to take the cleaned fibre, the feeder being
constantly employed in supplying the machine with
material. In the first style the front rolls are smooth ;
the second are fluted, running about seventeen

evoUitions per minute. The third pair are armed with
scraping blades, rigidly fi.ted to their periphery and
winding spirally around the rolls. These rolls are also
hollow, with perfoiations through their shell, through
which water is allowed to flow for the purpose of keeping
the blades clean from gum; also to wash the fibre,
running uf"! revolutions per minute. The material is
placed on the table, and is passed half way or more
into the machine, then ruu back on the table, reversed,
and the other end cleaned in the same manner. The
second style of machine has scraping rolls in place of
the smooth rolls, as in the first style. These rolls
perform the office of feeding rolls, and also c)f cleaning
the passing ends of the material by reversing the pairs
of rolls, instead of the material being operate I on

THF, LKIHAVC DECOETICA lOlt.

Our company's machine, known as the Lefrauc
UecorticBtor, is made simply of two grooved rollers
and two endless chains working inversely with .scraper.s.
The ramie stalks are introduced iu packages of about
twenty stalks well spread out, under the rollers, which,
alter having mashed them, conduct I hem to ilrive
out the wood between the .scrapers of the cn.lless
9J

chains. During the operation a pair of pincers seizes
inversely the crude bark, which, thereupon, are taken
up iu double action by the scrapers that completely
eliminate all ligneous p.rts. The forepart of the
machine then takes up th'^ fibrous bark, which is theu
perfectly cleaned. This machine turns out about 50'1
pounds in a working day of ten hours, and its price is
from sKW to ^550, according to size.

OTHER MACHINES.

liesides the five machines above described, three
others, not on exhibition, have been pointed out to
us in New Orleans : —

1. Mr. Luffs machine, made by a very skillful
mechanic of your city, Mr, Lewis Johnston.

2. The Vogel machine, whose inventor has been
for a long time studying the ramie question.

:i. The Delavigne machine, constructed by a veteran
in the art. We are not acquainted with these
machines, but they are all pateuteil, aud their inventors
speak very highly of them.

At all events, imw that the farmer is only asked to
produce the rough bark for the market, the problem
of machinery is solved in every way, eith*-r to work
the green or the dry material. It is only a matter of
choice. Practical working will determine which is
the best method, aud, as the machines mentioned
above can scarcely find work to any extent before
the cro)> of 1.^87 is taken in, there will in the meantime
probably he made improvements which will make them
perfect. Nevertheless, taking the decorticators now
(m exhibition at the Kxposition as they stand at
present. I would suggest, in the face of a question of
such im]X)rtaiice to Louisiana and the United States,
that the official jury of the Exposition make a special
test of the matter by giving each decorticator an
equal number of ramie stalks to work, the clean
product to be placed on exhihition, with a report on
the work done by each.

I'HEMll-'.VI. treat:\ient.

The great difficulty to overcome in making vegetable
fibres Useful as textiles, comes from the cement that
attaches the fibres to;;ether and the colored pellicle
which covers them. 'I'he substances to be eliminated
for the utilization of those fibres are called, " vasculose.
cutose and pectose," and our chemical process proiluces
the effect of dissolving these substances, not only
without weakening the fibre but making it stronger
and more s'Iky. Other processes have obtained a
certain result by the use of caustic alkali with pressure,
or such occiJizers as permangauese of potassium,
hyperchloiate, chlorine aud brtunide, but these come
high and consume more time than ours. We began
first by applying our dissolving agent to ramie with
mollifications according to the quality of the phints
treated. For example, American raruie required .'1^
Beauine of our dissolvent, while the China grass,
already somewhat cleansed, required only a bath of 2'
with the same time in boiling, three hours. It is
particularly the washing and depurating with plenty
of water after our chemical bath which should be
done with great care. By this means a perfectly
distinct fibre is obtained which we bleach and brighten
up with our two other products— azotozone and
chlorozone. The results obtained have won for us
two first premiums at your Exposition.

ALL TE.XTII.E PLANTS ASD PEOSPECT OF THEIE TBEAT-
51ENT IN NEW OHLEANS.

It is in studying how to dissolve the gummy aud
resinous matters of the ramie that we have been led
to treat almost in the same manner all the textile
plants which grow, so to speak, .it the vf r' ates of
New Orleans; the bananas nuil silk grass of Honduras,
the- pita and maguey of Jlexico, Guatemala, (.'aba,
.Jamaica, the lil ■ of Florida, and the yucca of the
Gulf Coast. I will not insist upon what I have pre-
viously said of the certain fmure of New Orleans as
the first market in the world for all textiles. All I
ask from this assembly is that a committee be aiipoiuted
this very evening from among you to study the ijuestion
she icifically and tcchidcally with me, and to make a
piihli<' report of all that can be imported in the way

730

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April r, 1886.

of fibrous product, free of duty, from Mexico, Cuba,
Janifiica, Central America, Venezuela, Brazil, etc.,
and made into commercial textile fibre in New Orleans.
JCvery innovation, as also every new culture, however
us. ■111! it may be and bounteous its promises, must
wrestle against routine and old established precedents,
and must have tne help of a high patronage.

Tlu^ Irish potatoe, without which people could scarcely
exi.^t at present, had a hard fight against routine and
ancient customs, and the help of the court of Louis
XVI beciimo necei-sary for the assertion of the claims
of that useful plant to the patronage of Europe. The
noljlest lailies of that age wore the pretty little violet
Howcr of tin: pjtatoe as au ornament, and in that
way gave to flower and fruit the desired popularity.

L'ONCI.USION.

I therefore place the ramie plant under the protection
of the ladies of Louisiana. Unfortunately it has no
flower to speak of, and could scarcely be used as a
button-hole for a *' dude " or a bouquet for a lady, but
every Louisiana or Creole lady should make it a point
to have at least some of these plants in her garden, and
I hereby make a tender of the precious roots to all
who will call for them, and I beg them to take under
their special care the future of the ramie culture,
which then cannot fail to pro-sper. Thus will the
ladies of Louisiana, the fairest flowers of the sunny
South, help their native laud to retrieve its prestine
prosperity and splendor.

T thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the extreme
kindness with which you have listened to me, and if
any more information about ramie is wanted, please
call or address at our company's stand. Machinery
Hall, i' 5, Exposition Grounds. I will gladly respond
to any inquiries. — liiuea-Deiiioorat.

Mil. D. Moiiuis.— We understand it ia the inten-
tion of Mr. Morris, on leaving .Jamaica to take up
his appointment at the lloyal Gardens, Kew, to
make a tour of the West India Islands, tor the
purpose of becoming personally acquainted with
their circumslances and resources, and with the
view of being able afterwards to give them advice
and assistance in the development of new indus-
tries. Several of the islands have already been
visited by him ; but it is, we believe, his inten-
tion to make nosv a careful study of their cir-
cumstances, to be afterwards embodied in a special
report, or utilised in directing the wonderful re-
sources of Kew to the amelioration and improve-
ment of West Indian industries. — Colvnia: ami Imlia,

AspiLVLIK A\'ai.ks. — Take two parts of very dry lime
rubbish and one part coal ashes, also very dry, and
both sifted fine. In a dry plaei', on a i1rv day, mix
them, and leave a hole in the middle of the heap,
as bricklayers do when making mortar. Into tins pour
boiling hot coal tar ; mix, ami when as stilT as mortar
put it down .3 inches thick to fnrni the walk. The
ground should be dry and beaten smootli. Sprinkle
over it coarse sand ; when cold pass a light roller
over it, and in a few days the walk will be solid
and waterproof. An old path will only reijuire to
be swept clean ; a new made one to be well beaten
and rolled- Ohoose a warm day, the warmer the better ;
let the t.ir be boiling hot; use the common, long-
handled, irou-b:)und tar brush, and iron kettle holding
about a gallon, for the purpose of taking only so
much tar from the boiler at one time as can be used
in about a quarter of au hour, and paint over with
a good coat. Let a lad follow with dry sifted sand,
throwing over enough to prevent the tar sticking to
liis feet, and then go over with the roller. Two men
tarring will employ a lad to follow with the sand,
and another to attend the fibre and supply the tar as
fast as used. This repeated every three years the
surface will become quite hard, and the paths will
.always be [lerfectly dry and pleasant to walk upon
even in the worst of weather. The walks are made
.soft by the sun if the tar has not bei'ii male ipiite
liot when used, — Indian Oardiner,

In Sodthern Locisuxa, 200 or 300 feet below the
surface are strata of solid, pure crystalline sulph-
ur, 100 feet in thickness and of unknown ex-
ent. — AitKr. Grocer.

Among the curiosities of Brazil is the Pottery
Tree. The trunk does not exceed a foot in diameter,
but it grows to the height of one hundred feet. The
chief peculiarity, however, ia in the nature of the wood
and bark, which contain so much silica that they are
used in the njaking of earthenware. The fresh bark
cuts like soft sandstone. — Indian Gardener.

The Qdeensl.vxd Sugar iNnr&TRv : Maekay .Jan . 13th.
— December rains were very heavy in Cliristmas
week, and reached the respectable total of 11 in. for
that month. Under the inliuence of the hot weather
which has followed, the young plants are growing
with a tropical speed that requires to he seen to
be credited, and should present ijrospeets continue
next season's output is likely to rival that of
1885, high though it has been. Matured canes do
not benefit by summer rains, as on account of the
growth of new shoots from the stool the density of
the piece becomes lowered, and this it is that
renders January grinding to some extent unprofit-
able. Land bearing ratoon crop must be cleared
in order to preserve a regularity of area under crop
each twelvemonth. Thus as the required space for
1887 crop becomes available on each estate, the
busy period will close in the factories, results will
be analysed, and a future course of extension or
retrenchment considered accordinly. The district
has already exported some 78,000 tons of the staple
product, so the season's total yield is likely to
exceed 21,000 tons, or au average return per acre
of about 80 ewt. of sugar. The outturns from
all centres within the tropics, excepting the
Burdekin Eiver, will exceed considerably figures of
previous years, the Johnstone Biver, in particular,
having made astonishing progress. From there and
Herbert Kiver gratifying results are reported, and
at both places plenty of cane will be left to stand
over until next season. — Austrulaximi.

The " Bevue Fran(;^.vise de l' Ethanger et
OES Colonies" is the title of a monthly review,
commenced last year and published in Paris,
the editor being M. Edouard Marbeau. The
number for November last contained, among other
interesting matter, a paper by the veteran
planter M. Es-Ghassi5riau on Liberian coffee
cultivation in Singapore and Johore, in which
he gives a most glowing account of his own
success with this product and holds out encourag-
ing prospects of its success in Singapore and
on the peninsula. The writer says that
Ilemileia i-astatrix is identical with the ohlinm
of the vine, which it certainly is not.
From what he says of himself one would
almost think he was a Scotchman in disguise,
for he evidently has a " guid conceit o' himsel'. "
He estimates the outlay on an acre at ?.S00 for
six years, while the return he puts at $ri-20,
leaving a profit of 1f2'20, but he says that
this is a very moderate estimate. He also recom-
mends the planting of Assam tea in conjunc-
tion with with the Liberian coffee, and
proposes the formation of a company tor this
purpose. The January number of the Tirviic
contains a paper on the Malayan Peninsula, ac-
companied by a map, the writer being M. J.
de Morgan (a French Welshman?). This paper
gives a succinct history of the Peninsula and an
account of its resources. There is also a timely
paper on Burma, by M. H. de la Martinii'.re.
The February number contains articles on a variety
of subjects, all of interest. Wo wish the Heme
every success and a long and useful career.

April i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURlS'l',

73 1

SIMULTANEOUS DECADENCE AND PRO-
GRESS OF COFFEE IN BRAZIL.

Our readers will be glad again to see a letter from
our valued correspondent, Mr. A. Scott Blacklaw.
He gives an interesting glimiise of the home life
of the descendants of Portuguese colonists who
own so much of the soil of Brazil. But the import-
ant portion of the letter is that which deals willi
the gradual decay of cotTee on old cultivations, the
large exports of the berry being due to railway
extension and the opening of new lands, of which
there is still a superabundance in the great South
American Empire: —

Province of Eio de .Janeiro,
Brazil, 20th Jan. 188().
Active outdoor pursuits and a continual spell of
" roughing it " have prevented me giving you a
letter occasionally. You know the subject which
used to please your readers was "coffee" : well, I
have been for a long time out of coffee, and,
therefore, could say little about it. Besides, it
seemed to be a thing everybody was disgusted with.
You, in Ceylon, were annoyed that it would not
shake itself clear of the leaf-disease ; and here,
in Brazil, we got uneasy about it, because of its low
price, and all who used to derive profit from it-
looked with alarm at the production having out-
grown the consumption. But you reply : " Could
you not have given us something on nev) pruducU ! "
" New products ! " yes, but what is new to mo
is old to Ceylon. I could give you a deal of in-
foruiation about sugarcane, but that you have
tried years ago and found it would not pay. Let
us not forget our old friend rii/Zcc. The hill-sides of
Ceylon are not the ouly places which he has for-
saken after luxuriating for a number of years.
In former times, the lower parts of the Province
of Kio de Janeiro were the principal coffee-
producing district in Brazil. Even not much more
than ten years ago it exported as much coffee as
Ceylon did ever in her palmy days. A'""', in
these same districts, it is scarcely looked on as
a pursuit. The trees have gradually dried up as
one would say — gone all to dry branches and green
points, and gradually died out.

One does here and there meet with a green
patch under shade beside a roadside hut, re-
minding one of your native coffee gardens — but
even these refuse to give fruit, and are not con-
sidered worth keeping clean. For some time the
planters thought it was only change of seasons,
and they thought the tiees would come round,
but they gradually got worse. I did not know the
Province of Bio then, so could not say anything
of the nature of the disease. Since I have come
to know it. I cannot find accurate accounts as to
the principal cause. Some blame an insect which
destroyed the roots ; others said it was a leaf-
disease which, according to some, was a fungus ;
whOe others would insist that it was an insect, and
a great many intelligent planters believed it was all
these things combined ; that the plant got weakened
through growing from seed produced in the country,
said seed being the produce of the plants of other
seed grown in the country and so on without any
importation of fresh seed. As usual in all cases
affecting agriculture Government was implored
to do something, and Government offered a reward
of X.5,000 (-50,000 milreis) to any one who could find
out the real cause and discover a remedy. Up till
now not one has come forward. Meanwhile the
estates have suffered and the trees have died. The
farmers in these circumstances have been reduced
in mtans. Some had to sell half their slaves, a great
many went and bought land in the "far west" and
opened tlourisbiug plantations in districtb . where

railways were being made, and where there was no
leaf nor root disease, where they had only to fell the
forest, plant the coft'ee, planting Indian corn and
beans at the same time, keep the ground clean,
let the coffee only grow and pic); Die crop and live at
ease as before.

No more fretting with the iilanter, now the corn
and beans give him as much as enable him to teed
and clothe his negroes, and the transport of
his coffee is paid in Santos, he receiving accounts
and money for the nett proceeds.

Many on whom the blight had first fallen were
unablefrom reduced circumstances to buy new land,
and their old was now unsaleable. As you are
aware, the condition of life and the connection of
the planters with the soil are different here from
what they are in your country. Y'our Ceylon coffee
planter looks at his occupation as in no way fix-
ing him to the locality. He expects to spend a
certain number of years in Ceylon, and retire to
Europe with as much as will enable him to live com-
fortably the rest of his days, another planter suc-
ceeding him. The Fazoula in Brazil is the Brazilian
planter's home ; on this land he was born and here
he would spend his days, although he may be oc-
cupying but a twentieth part of the great block
of land which was granted to his first colonist
ancestor by the Portuguese Government during the
time of the South American gold-hunting exped-
itions, still the other nineteen parts are occui)ied
by his relations. Perhaps for the last four gener-
ations there has not been a single marriage amongst
the descendants of the old colonists conti'acted
outside of the family group. It is thus a hard
thing for these people to be compelled to remove,
and many have stayed on the old estates, to try to
make a living by a change of /(/rfiKiM {nijriciiltKre).

But what was tliere to fall back on since cot-
fee now gave them nothing? At first they tried
Indian corn and beans, and planted up many
of the coffee plantations with iiiaiulimd, — Haiti-
hot ittili.<Kima. The first and second of those were
prepared for the market at little expense and
there was a market close at hand for them at
the capital, to which there was cheap transport.
Mandioca however reciuired manipulalioti to be turned
into fiirinlui ih: mandioca or into tapioca. In the
days of successful coffee planting, H}ese three were
gi-own extensively on all the estates, the rule being
that the cost of the upkeep of the estates, which
included the feeding, clothing and medical expenses
of all the field hands, and the large retinue of
washerwomen and servants about the house, must be
borne by the cultivation of these three articles. It
was not considered particularly good management
if the superintendent could not also keep up the
town establishment as well. Every fazendeiro
of any pretensions to importance must have his
house in the nearest town or village, and some of
them lived there constantly, seldom going out to
see the estate ; there were otlicrs who would only
visit the town at the times of the church feasts
of which there are a great many during the year. We
must not forget that the very large land owner
had also his I'alacette in Rio de Janeiro. Coffee
planting then occupied an important part in agri-
cultural life. If the fazendeiru had to pay interest
on borrowed money, the collapse of colToo planting
was his complete downfall.

As I mentioned before there was no remedy, nor has
there yet been any found to check in other districts
beyond the Serra do Mar— where the canker is now-
spreading and causing gradual decay, nor is there
any likelihood of any one coming forward to
claim the tifty tlioiieaiid inilrcif.

A correspondent in the Joiiniol i/c CoiiiiiiiTcio a'
late as 'i/th Nyveuiber last =liowb how difficult it io

73^

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1886.

to discover a remedy, owing to the cause being diiYerent
" in various districts" — ^he says, " it appears im-
possible to discover a cure for the disease of the
coii'oe trees, its organism is subject to so many
different alterations. Different means might have
been discovered to combat the viuion.s diseases.
The deliciency of certain mineral salts in the soil
causing serious perturbations in the vegetation of
the coffee trees could not be vanquished by tlie
same moans employed tor the destruction of animal
or vegetable parasites." '• This study relative to
the diseases of plants, requires a long continuation
of experiments to verify what is the cause of the
disease. Sugarcane for example in the Northern
(Provinces of Brazil) is attacked by a disease, at-
tributed by some persons to the want of mineral
salts in the soil, by others to the action of a
cryptogamic parasite and sometimes to oxalic acid
the product of elimination " (that is the burning
of the trash after cutting and clear the ground which
so many sugar planters all over the world believe
in. — A. S.B.) " Therefore to achieve the end, desired
by the provincial assembly of llio de Janeiro (who
have offered the reward of i;5,000— or .'iO.OOOJOUO.—
A.S.B.) it is necessary to establish a laboratory
where these studies of agriculture can be made
with perfection, and only in this way can a true
remedy be discovered."

This is not the first time the loaf-disease of
Brazil has been introduced into your columns. I
have not any of the pajjers by me at present,
but I think that in any former writings to your
paper 1 mentioned that tlie iliscase or a deliilitij
amongst the coffee trees was first noticed in 1801,
the season iHdO-lil was a dry one, and there was
also a lieavy crop picked, indeed the largest Brazil
had given previous to that and the same quantity
was not reached again until season lH74-7fl.
These were for IHOO-Hl bags 3,lHr.,0!U, and for 1871-7.5
3,205, r)Ci7 from the Port of Rio dt Janeiro alone. I
am safe in saying that in the latter mentioned season
1874-75, not one-tenth of the quantity mentioned
was got from the same locality as that of l.siiO-fil
but nine-tenths of that large crop of 1871-7-5
was got from plantations opened beyond the Herra
do Mar to which the disease or debililij had not
reached. Let us remember that the Province of
Kio de Janeiro which used to be the great producer
of coffee, occupies a stretch along the coast about
200 miles long by running nearer East and West
than North-East and Bouth-West. About one half
of the laud is on the sea side of the range of high
mountains called the .Vein; i/ojl/t(/-, of. which the pecu-
liar looking Organ Mountains near Kio de Janeiro
form part, and the other half is beyond that range.
The breadth of the province from the sea to the inland
range is from (10 to DO miles. Before 18C0-'il
nearly all the coffee was produced on the sea side of
Die .S'c/TH do Mar. Tlie re the di.sease appeared just
about 18(')l-()2, and precisely there at the present
day coffee in'll nut tlirive under any evnditiviii,
Ceiniostoma coffccUuin, an insect of which I gave you
account some years ago, was believed at first to be
the cause, but this insect propagated by a small
hioth ceased to be so destructive as to cause much
loss and ceased to be noticed, but still the coffee
trees dwindled, then many believed in the various
causes I have mentioned above ; but there was no
stoppage of the gradual decay of coffee trees all
along the sea side of the Serra do Mar. Now
(or the last few years it has been making
such havoc in those districts beyond the Serra
do Mar, the same that supplied that large crops I
mention of 1871-75, that the Goverument have
offered the reward I mention, £5,000, to any-
UU6 wlip can diecovcr a cure. You ask ffbat ie my

own opinion on all this ? Well, I will say shortly
that all these fungi, all the insects, and the
various assertions about the climate having changed
are not the cause at all. The parasites, fungi,
Ac, are an effect, not a cause. A nearly debihtated
bullock will get covered with insects such as ticks
while the healthy ones of the herd will have
none, a few more weaker bullocks will also get
covered with ticks— and by and by the insects will
breed so fast as to cover the healthy ones too.
Coffee gets debilitated through long continuous
cropping in the same soil without manure, or there
may be something in the soil which coffee requires
as noccRsary to its healthy growth, and which the
manures hitherto applied do not contain. The tree
gets weakly and becomes a prey to disease of various
kinds, and has not strength to rally against attacks
of fungi and insects. There may be exceptions as in
your Ceylon leaf disease which if 1 remember right
broke out first in Ceylon, in one of your youngest
districts at that time, Madulsima, in the Uva or
Badulla District.

But here in Brazil all the old coffee estates
have creased to yield coffee, not only in the
Province of Rio de Janeiro but San Paulo as
well. I do not mean that in Sao Paulo disease
has been at work beyond what I described to you
some years ago in regard to the coffee leaf miner —
iCemiostoma roffeelluin - ,S'(a/«(OH)— which still exists
all over Brazil, and is not confined to coffee trees,
but is found on forest trees, and small shrubs as
well— and at present does healthy coffee trees little
harm— but a gradual decay has taken place on all
old estates from some cause not clearly discernable,
the result being apparent exhaustion.

In South Africa the same decay in coffee trees
has taken place. Natal which at one time exported
30,000 cwts. a year, and supplied home consumjition
—which amongst the Boers is no small quantity,
has to be supplied with coffee, and that supply
comes mostly from Brazil. When in that country
(South Africa) in 1882, I saw whole plantations
of coffee reduced to dry sticks, and green points
the same as one sees so much of in the old districts
in this country. One could witness no direct cause,
and every other Planter gave a different reason for
it. In that colony a Commission was appomted by
the late General Sir George Pomeroy-CoUey in
1881. I think they reported m 18,S2, for the copy
of the Report saw had no date— and no particular
cause could be assigned by the Commissioners to
the decay of the coffee trees. The Commission
reconniicnded that fresh seed should be got from
other countries, to manure plants from the com-
mencement of planting, to stop pruning, and to
watch the results which were being tried by some
—particularly the Natal Land and Colonization
Company — of allowing the trees to bear three
to four crops and then replanting. The fresh seed
recommendation is no doubt highly to be approved.
It has been tried in the districts where the decay
first commenced in this country, but by the time the
plants came into bearing the old cause was at work.

In the new districts far to the west in the Pro-
vince of Sao I'aulo and Minas Geracs, fresh Bourbon
seed has been extensively used, and notably on
the estates in Sao I'aulo, owned by the present
Minister of Agriculture, and those of members of
his family, and who knows but that a persistence
in this system of putting in fresh seed from other
countries in the opening up of new districts where
the disease or cause of decay has never reached,
niay have the effect of giving a longer span of
life than has been customary here and in other
countries where coffee planting has been success-
fully carried on, until all st ouce a change caiiie
over it.

April i, 1880.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

733

As a proof ot how the disease spreads, here
arc the totals from a Parliamentary paper pub-
lislied in October last year, only it is not stated
in wliich years these maximum crops lyorc picked.

Pclailed list of forty-one estates in one small
district of S. Jose de Lconissa in Province o£ Kio
beyond the Serra do Mar ; —

i'he name of the owners and names of estates are
given, which I do not copy.

Maximum picking in one year, l'28-847
arrobas ; Probable crop might have been picked
now include from clearings, 2.5'2-800 arrobas ;
Crop pieked in 1K8.5, 2(iriS0 arrobas.

N. H.— .\ sack of coffee ot tiO kilograms is counted
i arrobas. In the districts besides the abovcmen-
tioued. namely, S. Fedelis, Madalena and Cantagalla
the yearly loss is in ihe same papers calculated at
1,000,000 arrobas.

•• It is added this 1,000,000 arobas valued at
*5.000 (say 10s) the aroba on the average will
give the enormous quantity of ,5,000,0008000
(£.500,000) annually, and this result it is easily
calculated takes from the Provincial Government
1 per cent export duly, this is Provincial only ;
there is !l per cent of Imperial export tax besides,
--the sum of -iOO.OOOSOOO."

Now you will think after hearing all this that the
coffee enterprizc of Brazil is ruined, or you will
say : "Well really it cannot be so bad ! you sec what
large crops she has been giving, and see how her
excessive production has brought down the price
of coffee ! "

Let me explain how she has been able to keep up
her exports. Before 1800 — when the largest crop up
till then was picked — there were very few railways
open.

With the falling-oft' of the production of the
estates on the sea-side of the Scnu <lu Mur com-
menced the transport by railway leading in to the
Province of Minas, the Don Pedro II. Government
Kailway had forced its way through the mountains,
at the cost of 13 tunnels through the solid gneiss.
(rradually different branches struck off from it, while
every year a slice was being added to the main line.
The length of the main line now is 875 kilometres —
and the branches leading off is H43 kilometres, and
still extension are being continued. The coffee that
is carried by these lines has all to come to be
shipped at Rio. The bulk of the Eio shipments
now is from coffee grown on plantations in
districts where there was very little ooflue grown
in l«iHJ-(;i — With all this improvement in transport
and the opening of plantations far beyond the
reach of infection from the diseased districts. Still
the export of coffee from the port of Rio is very
little if any more that it was
in 1860-01 .. 3,183,091 sacks

,. 1883-84 .. 3,138,721 „ 1st July to .SOth June

This goes to prove what I have observed above.

riii: (jreul iiicreuae in the export of coffee from
Brazil is from the S. Paulo plantations. The pro-
duce is shipped at Santos direct for the European
or North American markets.

In 1877 she shipped «00,000 sacks
now she ships 4,000,000 „
and goes on increasing. All owing to railway en-
terprise. The Paulisla planters are an energetic,
patriotic set of men ; with the exception ot the
short stretch of railway from Santos to Jundiahy —
140 kilos — which was made by an Knglish com-
pany ; all the other lines have been made from
capital supplied by themselves. The total extension
open is 1,M15 kilos and there are extensions being
proceeded with on all the lines and branches.
Low as the price is and costly as the transport
must be from the far west of the Province to the
port of Santoii, oleariog^ are etill being opened.

As regards labour supply they are availing largely
of European colonists. There has lately been more
care taken in the selertinn of these, and the planters
are getting to understand the way to treat them.
Gn the whole while, this railway extension spirit
exists, I see very little prospect of a smaller pro-
duction of coffee in Brazil, and further, I look
for a still larger export than the annual 4,000,000
sacks from Santos. We may calculate that Kio will
remain at about the average of, for last 20 years,
3,200,000.

A. SCOTT BLACKLAW.
P.S. — I have spun this out so long I have not
left room to say what I intended about the cultiv-
ation in the districts where coffee has ceased to
grow (I do not like to make promises but I may
return to these), nor to notice the coffee returns
for last year which are just out. You, however, will
receive these from other sourcei. A. S. B.

SIR ROBERT HART AND THE DE-
TERIORATION IN TEA.

Tlie following notification addressed to the Tea
Guild by Taotai Sliau, with Sir Robert Hart's letter
to the Tsung-li Yamen, was published in the
Slieiqiav of 2.5th ult. ; —

On the 23rd day of the 10th moon of the current
year, I received a communication from H. E.
Tseng, the Superintendant of Southern Trade, in-
forming me that he received on the lltli day of
the 10th moon of the 11th year of Kwang-su,
through the Board of War, a despatch from the
Tsung-li Yamen, covering abstract of a letter from
the Inspector General of Customs, Hart, which
the I'amen received on the 28th day of the yth
moon, on the Tea Trade, saying as follows : —

" Tea is one of the most important articles of
commerce of China, and lately the tea sold for
the foreign markets has become worse and worse
in quality. The Chinese merchants, thinking that
the foreigners must have their tea, and for the sake of
maknig extra profits, have been supplying an in-
ferrior article, not knowing that other places are
also producing tea. Besides Japan, the new tea
planted in India is increasing day by day in yield
and is daily meeting with favour everywhere, and
its export this year has been much larger than
the last. If the Chinese merchants continue to
neglect this branch of business, continuing to add
spurious things to the weight of the Tea and not
taking care to have the article properly made and
dried, I am afraid the Tea business will be com-
pletely ruined."

The Yamen finding that the increase and falling
oft' in the trade affects both the Government and
the people, and considering that since the establish-
ment of commerce with foreigners the amount
of silver that has flowed into foreign countries is
very considerable, we having Tea and Silk only
to balance and recover our loss ; and now that
the Inspector General's letter points out the fault of
the tea merchants in making small prolits at pre-
sent without thinking of the trade in future,
the Yamen has to ask the Superintendent of Southern
Trade to inform all the district authorities where
Tea is produced, to advise the Tea makers and
merchants to take care, and not spoil the business
for the sake of profit only. The Yamen encloses
a copy of Hart's letter for the Superintendent's
persual.

The Superintendent, having on receipt of the
above written to all the Ollicials and "Taotais to
inform the tea merchants to act accordingly, I have
on recpi|it of the above written to the Shanghai
Uagibtrate, <iud uow make Ihib pteseut vommuuic

734

t*ME TROPICAL AGRiCtStTV^thT. [April i, 1886.

ation for the JTiformation of the Directors (of the
tea Guild), to immediately inform the tea-merchants
who ileal with foreigners to improve by all meani their
article, so that the trade may be mutually protected.
Do not disobey this.

Dated 2nd day of 11th moon 11th year
Kwauf^-su.

The following is the full text of Sir Robert
Uart's letter to the Tsung-li Yamen as translated
from the SlH'ii-pao: —

The teas sold by Chinese merchants to foreign
countries during the last four or five years havo
become very inferior in quality day by day. The
Chinese merchants, thinking that tea is an article
much wanted in foreign countries, and seeing that
notwithstanding its inferiority it is being taken all
the same, have been making in this way larger
profits than before, forgetting that by this manner
of making profit they are running to certain ruin.
These merchants ought to know that there are
other places which can make tea. Besides Japanese
tea, which is being exported to all countries, the
new tea planted in India is increasing in yield, its
make is also becoming better every day, and its
demand is also increasing day by day. It the
Chinese merchants don't seek to improve, I really
fear that the consumption will be greatly dimin-
ished within a few years. By reckoning in catties
I find the Chinese tea sold to foreign countries
last year amounted to 200,000.000 catties, the
Indian tea exported to several countries amounted
to 1<), 000,000 catties, and the export of Ceylon
tea amounted to 2,000,000 catties. This year the
export of Indian tea has increased to 19,000,000* cat-
ties, and Ceylon tea to 4,000,000 catties. Consider-
ing that a few years ago not a single catty of tea was
produced in those two places, and so many having
been produced now, we don't know to what quantity
it might be increased a few years hence. Tea is very
important for China ; if the Chinese merchants
think of reducing labour and squeezing the necess-
ary materials for the sake of making profits only,
the tea trade of China cannot fail to be ruined.
If the nol>le Ya-meu does not communicate this
state of things to the Southern Superintendent of
Trade, so that he may direct the proper author-
ities to clearly inform the tea dealers by proclam-
ation of the importance of adding spurious things
to the teas, also not to make the teas heavy by
keeping them wet, and not to economise the labour
of manipulation, when this branch of business
has been ruined, do not say that it had not
been previously advised. Tea is one of the largest
articles of commerce in China ; it contributes to
the revenue of the government and supports the
people. The state of things having reached such
8 degree, I cannot be silent ; therefore I respect-
fully make this for the Ya-mfin's information. —
Mercury.

♦

TEA MOVEMENT.

From the ^tati8tical tables below it will be noted
that thi^ popularity of tea an a beverage docs not
increase, being ju.st the same per capita as it wa» iu
1?7!'. In consideration of an increase of over eight
millions iu population, the decline in the total imports
from IWO to 1SS3 inclusive is remarkalile. It is
customary for the Ooveriimont to consider .ill tea with-
drawn from warehouse as having passed into consump-
tion. If the stock held at the close of each year was
close to an average, such a basis would show actual
results. As, however, the stock held at a fixed data
has differed greatly, wo attribute the variation iu

* Jiitbir the figures for India are far too low or those
for Ceylon too high : we do not crop 10 per cent yet
o what ludia produces. — Ed.

consumption, reported below, as being due more to
that cause than to any change on the part of con-
sumers regarding tta as a beverage. \Viiiving that,
however, the figures .show conclusivuly that duriug
the past ten years the article has not grown in favor
with the people.

The Government Bureau of Statistics riports the
quantity of tea entered for consumption since it was
made duty free and the consumijtion per capita for
twelve years past, as follows: —

Year Consumption

ending 'Quantity. per capita.

June 30th. Pounds. rounds.

1874 54,410,055 1-1'7

1875 G4,7O8,07U 1-47

1876 62,744,423 1-38

1877 58,941,178 1-26

1878 05,36(),44n I'M

1879 00,182,463 1-22

18S0 72,15y,2o'fi 1-44

1881 81,949,79H 1-59

1883 79,030,854 1-50

1883 70,771,22.1 1-31

1884 G.5,774,234 MS

1885 6n,«iO,172 1-22

The tot,al imports f<ir the last two fiscal years the
total value of thesan^eas declared at Custom House,
and average cost of inq)ortHtions per pound compare
as follows: —

Average
per lb.
Pounds. Value. Cents.

Imports, 1885 72,UI4,!t56 S14,017,5S3 19-4S

Imports, 1884 67,665,910 13,036 053 20-15

Of the quantity reciivcd last year Ohiiui furnished
35,895,835 pounds, or 49-78 per cent; .lapau, 32,150,032
pounds, or 4459 per cent ; Euglanil, 3,040,148 pounds,
or 4-9 percent, the balance of the imports coming from
fifteen different coimtries.

We are firmly convinced that there will be no
increase in the popularity of tea as a beverage until
the average quality of the imports from Cbioa and
Japan is raised. In Japan the Oovernment lias eiidc:i-
vored to raise the standard by legalizing the formation
of guilds, the object of which is to prevent the adulter-
ation of the leaf . A central associatiou is to coutrfd
the local guilds. It is to be hoped that good results will
be the outcome. The average quality of I.ijst year's iui-
ports was below that of previous seasons, especially
the Cliiua greens. Finest Forinosns have not beeu
equal in character to the same grade received iu 1884,
and that was below tlie quality of the l.s,s:i cruji. Cargo
grades 'were about the same as received iu 1831, but
some claim they were below. The demand for colored
Japans is maintained; basket-fired tea, owing to the
rajiidity with which the fiavor is dissipated, docs not
grow iu popularity with consumers.

In England there has been a marked decliue iu the
importaticu of China hlack tea, due probably to com-
petition with Indian and Ceylon teas. This shows a
necessity for improving the character and quality of
China tea. — Ahia-icait Grocer.

[The unpopularity of tea in the United JStatcs is
attributed to the poor quality of China and ilnpan sorts,
and yet the fine teas of India and Ceylon can scarcely
find a sale. Only a little over 1 lb. of tea per capita iu
America against nearly .'i in Britain shews a curious
diflcreuce of taste. But the Americans are mainly
cotYee drinkers, getting their supplies cheaply from
Brazil.— Ed.]

-<-

COFFEE TKADE SFB-SECTION OF THE

LONDON CHAMBEK OF COMMEBCE.

REPLY TO rni; QI'ESTIONS of the ItOYAI, COMMISSION
ON IIKPKESSION OF TllADE.

Question 3.— Of the total quantity of eoft'ec sold
iu one year, from Is .Id to Is Id" is retained for
home consumption, the remaimler is exported to
almost every country in Europe, mostly to Gerniunv.
The figiu-es have been :—

April t, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

735

For

Exported.

lb.
107.7-23,000

io;i.tis;i,0(Ki

Ul.Gll.CXX)
years.
l.H->,000,000

Retained for Home
Cousaniption.

lb.
33,01 li.OOO

H2,1J.S,(XI0
31,il6'>,00(l

3-2,700,e()0

31,300.000

ISS^
18S3
18K'2
.\verage for 10
1872 to IMSl
And from

l.si;-2 to 1.S7-2 lOl.rtdO.OOO
(plication (i. — The home trade iu coffee has been,
midoubtcdly, shrinking.

Qnestion 7. — The shrinking which has lasted for a
great number of years, reilly began in 1853. became
worse in 18l"i3, and continues much the same to this day.
Question 10. — The diminished consumption is to a
gi-eat extent to be traced to the legislation of 18.i3
and 1803 ou the subject of mixtures, the Treasury
having, in lSi>3, allowed the sale of niijiii cofee ami
chiioii/ if lahtlled " mixttiie," and m 1863 permitted
the sale of mired cofee muf cliicorif irithmrf tnn/ Inht I-
liiiij. The result was that consumption fell from an
average of 1 lb. IS oz. per head of population in
18.M to 1 lb. i oz. in 1S63, and to about 1.5 oz.
per head in 18S0. This shows, ou the population
of the last census of 1881, a diminished consump-
of coffee of over 11,000,000 lb. annually.

Question 13.— The home consumption of coffee could
be improved by legislation. T]ie Ci(Stoms and I/iJaiul
fUvriiite Hill of 18S2 allows the preparation and sale
of aoy vegetable substance made in imitation of, or
for u.se as coffee or chicory on payment of an e-Xcise
duty istampi, giving thus almost unlimited scope for
the adulteration of coffee; either coffee ought not to
be alloweil to be sold mixed with other ingredients in
the same package, or, if the sale of a mixture is
permitted the proportions and names of the iiigredieutw
contained iu it should be stated on the package.

Question 14. — \c) Theinereaee of direct steam com-
munication between several of the producing countrirs
and Continental ports has diverted to foreign ports
direct some of the supplies which used to come to
this cotmtiy to be re-exported afterwards.

Question 14. — id.) The fall in prices during the List
few years would teud to stimulate consumption in this
country .Hud el.-iewhere.

QuestiuD 14. — (li.\ Foreign competion is, no doubt,
stimulated by the lower charges ruling iu
.such markets as Hamburg. Havre, Antwerp, kc,
as compared with the charges of the docks and
wharves in London ; this tends to restrict the export
from this country, consumers abroad fiudiug, iu tliese
ttmpB of keen competition, that tbey can buy the same
(|aality of coffee cheaper in Hamburg, Havre, or Ant-
\»erp, tbanin London.

Question. — H. — (/..) The differential duties and boun-
ties in France and Spain in favour of imi>ortation du'ect
from producing countries as against importation from
this country, have almost entirely stoppe<l the export
traih' in coffee from Etigland to those countries, except
for some particular kinds of coffee which French buyers
can only find in this market.

tjueation 1 1. — ('.) The duty on coffee yields a very
small nt^'t revenue, and its abolition, with the removal
of the restrictions which it entails would be a very
great boon to the tradp.

Signed on behalf of the Coffee and r.V)coa Trade Sec-
tion. H. PA.STKUB, Chairman.

The Chamber of Commerce .foumal, Dec. .')th.
—'hm .Vt'trs.

Stkalino Cocoa is OnRNAnA. — Complaints are
heard in Grenada of thefts of cocoa, and it is said
tliat the practice is due to the readiness with which
mall parcels can be disposed of to ready purchasers.
Ihis looks very much like offering a premium for
theft, anil some people might bedispcied to say that
the hnyer was as bad as the thief. It is hoped the
(iovernment will take the earliest opportunity of
hgi.slating on the matter, since, during the frecpicnt
visit."! nf His Excellency the Governor to the counry,
he must have become cognisant of the great evil
complained of. — Colonien and India,

A Tea Puvn-tek who has just visited the Straits
Settlements, iSrc., says: — "We saw some of the
plantations in Johore, where there was a grand
Hush ready for picking, in Christmas week. Thev
grow tea, coffee, pepper, indigo and — everything".
The Sultan's people are nio.st attentive to visitors,
as he wishes to encourage settlers. There are
thousands of miles of good tea land available. A
good many Ceylon planters have already gone
there, and have either got or purchased grants,
The climate is fair, neither very hot nor very wet,
but nevei cold." — Madnis, Mail.

Thk Wonderful stories told of grain which had
been made to grow after having lain dormant for
thousands of years in the hands of mummies, do
not seem to have any foundation in fact. Mr. H.
K. Parks states in the Journal of Scieiia- that he
has investigated all the cases he can find, and
shows that there is not a single authenticated in-
stance of corn found in a mummy having been grown.
Some of the seeds found in mummies have germ-
inated, but as they produced plants — oats, for
instance — not known to the Arabs of three thou-
sand years ago, it seems evident that they were
systematically put in the hands of the mummies
by the avaricious Arabs of modern days. — American
Grocer. [This seems to be the truth of the matter
as regards mummy wheat. But there seems no
doubt that seeds buried in the earth retain their
vitality for ages. — Ed.]

Suo.vR IN Fui is not the thing of promise
it was a short while back. A correspondent says :
—"Planters still say they cannot make the cultiv-
ation pay with present rates ruling. The largest
mill on the Xavua and the plantations ■ coiniected
with it have lately come to grief and were sold. The
labourers, over 500, were all removed. This is bad
for the Navua in particular and sugar planting in
general, as such a collap.se will frighten other
capitalists. On the other hand, two or three new
mills have been erected : one ou Mango, an island
to windward, owned by a Melbourne Co., and
managed by a brother of Mr. Borron in Ceylon ;
another on an island to the north of Vitu Levu,
owned by the new New Zealand Sugar Betining
Co. The sugar made is of firstrate qudlity, and it
is to he hoped all these mills liare a pro.sperous
future before them. If sugar cultivation turns out
unprofitable, it will almost be a deathblow to Fiji.
—Planter and Farmer.

Tea-Planting on Old Cofff.e Estates. — A

planter from a district north of Kandy writes :

" is flourishing, and I hope it will

turn out well, but it's a fearful uphill game planting
abandoned estates. We put some 200 acres under
seed at stake ; but what with black grub and other
insects eating the young plants down, it is dis.
heartening work, and I lost a large percentage in this
way, all is not plain sailing ! I am glad to say.
however, that they are shooting up again and again
above ground ; really the young tea plant is
wonderful in its tenacity considering all it
stands. Here I allowed weeds to grow, after
spending a lot of money in getting the place
clean. I found that where plenty of weeds, were, the
plants were safe and growing well ; grub does not
I confine himself to tlie young tea plant, but will take to
eating weeds as much as tea. I employed hoys
with very great success catching them, andcveiyonp
they caught was a plant saved, .so therefore it paid
us well. I would not plant seed at stake again in
abandoned coffee land. I burnt off another TTi
acres yesterday, and this will give me elose on .'iOO
acres. As much as any man can well look after
when our troubles of pests are over. Come along
up and see thia fine old district,"

736

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[April i, tSSi

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS.

(From Leivi< ti- Feat's London Price Current, February 35th, 1886.)

FROM MALABAK

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, M.4J)RAS, &c.

KKKS'WAX, Wliitc'

Yellow
C1N(;H0NA liAKK— Crivn

Re4

CARDAMOMS Malabar

QUALITY.

CINNAMON

Chips
COCOA, Ceylon

Native
Liberian

Fast ludiaa

Native

COIRROPK.CeylOD&Coc-hia
KIBRE, Brush

StiitHng
YARN. Ceylon
Coi'bin
Uo
COLOMBO KOOT,sifteJ
CROTON SEEDS, sifte,l
GINUEH, Coci

. J Slightly sottish to good

( hard bright
. Do. drossy & dark ditto
Utnewed ...
Medium to tine Quill
Spoke shavings ...

Branch

Renewed

Medium to good Quill .
Spoke shavings ...

Branch

Twig

(-•I'pped, bold, bright, fine

and Ceylon Middling, stalky & lean

Aleppee I t'air to tine plnnipelipped

TellieherrylGood to tine

(Brownish

Mangalore ,(TOod & fine, washed, bgt.

Long Ceylon,. Middling to good

Ists ;Ord. to line pale iiuill ...
2uds „ „ ,, „ ...
3rdsi „ „ „ „ ..

-ttha'Woody and hard

...[Fiiir to tine plant

...Bold to good bold
...iMedium

Triage to ordinary
COPFEECeylon Plantation' lioldto tine boldcolory...
JMiddting to tine mid. ,..

Low middling

ISmalls

'(rood ordinary

..uSmall to bold

. Bold to tine bold

Medium to tine

■Small

Ifood to tine ordinary ...
I Mid.eoarse tolinestraight
. Ord. to line long straight

. t-oarse to fine

. Ordinary to superior
...|Ordinary to tine ...
... 1 Roping lair to gooil
...IMitldling wormy to tine...

... Fair to tine fresh

ICiood to tine bold

ISmall and medium

Fair to good bold

. Small

.. Fair to tine boUl fresh ...
ISmall ordinary and fair...
.jtjood to tine puked
U'ommon to middling
[Fair Coast...
Pickings Burnt and defi-ctive
OIL. CINNA.MOX ...I'iood to tin.- heavy

CITRONELLE ... I llright & good tlavour

LEMON GRASS

QUOTATIONS.

Chit
Rough

NUX VOMIllA
MVRABOl.ANES,

pale

ORCHKLLA WEED
PEPPER,Malabar blk.sifted

Alleppee & Cochin .

Tellicherry, White
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Chips

Dust
RED WOOD
SAPAN WOOD
SANDAL WOOD, logs

Do. ehip.s
SENNA, Tinnevelli

Mid. to fine, not woody.
Fair to bold heavy ,

,, good ,,

£6 lOs a £
£5 a £0

1 e a 8s 6tl
Is id a 2s lid
ild a Is lid
2d a 8d
8d a 2s 6d
61 a 2s (jd
.d a Is 2a
■2d a lid
Id

Is lid a 2s 7d
a a Is 8d
Is a 2s
Is Gd a 29
M a Is ad
Is Od a 3s
8d a Is 4d
S.la Is lid
■fd a is M
Id a Is 2d
lid a lid
2Jd a 7d
H5s a >l2s
'Sa a THs
l-5s a 708
.Slis a Ills
G3s a K5s
>'2s a 00s
19s a .iSs
39a a 4.5s
'ios a -Itis
I.'is a ll«ls
Ols a 7-is
.52s a 54s
12s

t.S a £20
lil2a £'25
£7 ;i £18
ei'2 :, t::;ti
£11 a ,£;!.->
£9 II JL-12
2.5s a itOs
'jjs a 7l)s
7.Ss a 85s
alls a G.5s
:i5s a 411s
10s a 34s
ss a 12s
>s a 7s
I's ii (Is
5s lid a 7s :id
.is Ud a7s 3d
5s a Hs ltd
!sa .Is
II a I l-16d
lid a lid
lOs a 55s

73d I

7i''l
Od a 2s Od
I2s a 14s
IDs a 1,1s
^s a i:ts

Gd a lUs
£5

Fair to tine bright bold..

Middling to good bmall..

Slight foul to line bright

Ordinary to fine bright .

Fair and fine bold

Middling coated to good £*> a £7

Fair to good flavor ... £20 a £35

£10 a £16

Good to fine bold green... 9d a ls5d

Fair middling bold ... 'id a 8d

Comninn dark and small lid a 3Jd

Finger fair to line liold -Is a 2;!3

Mixed middling [bright Hs a 20s

Bulbs whole i;ls a 15s

Do split lOr lit a lis 3d

TURMERIC. Madras
Do.
Do.
Cochin
VANILLOES, Mnuritins &

Bourbon, Ists 'Fine crystalised Ii a 9inch 1 Is a '20s
2nds Foxy & reddish .5 a 8 ,, ]10s a 12»
.j_i . f Lean & drvto middling:
■' il uuderCinclie, ...-58 a. 9s
4th |Low, foxy, inferior and lsi*d a 4s
[piekiug.s

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

ALOES, Soccotrine and

Hepatic.
CHILLIES, Ziinzibnr

OliOVKS, Zannibar I

aud Pemba f

Good and fine dry ... £7a£ll>

Common and good ... £1 a £8
Good to fine bright ... :lKs a 12s
Ordinary H'ld middling.., -'Is a .'iliH
Good aud tine bright ... i'|d a ll,l,d
Ordinary dull to fair ... 5;daU;d

10s

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

CLOA'ES. Mother

>, Stems..

COCULUS INDICUS
GALLS, Bussorah 1 . ,

& Turkey l'''"'^
green.,
white..
GUM AMMONIACUM—
drop ..
block..
ANIMI, washed ..

QUALITY

iQUOTATIONS

Fair, usual dry

„ fresh
Fair

Fair to fine dark

Good

Small to fine clean
dark to good

Picked fine pale in sorts,

part yellow and mixed

|Bean & Pea size ditto ...|

lamber and dark bold ...|

scraped. .. ;Medinm & bold sorts I

ARABIC, picked ..IPale bold clean

Yellowish and mixed '
sorts. ..iFair to fine
ASSAFCETIDA ...(Clean fair to fine

Slightlystony aud foul
KINO ...iFairtofine bright

MVRRH, picked ...[Fair to fine pale
Aden sortsjMidtllingtogood
OLIBANUM, drop Fair to line white

,, JRe.idisb to middling
pickings. ..iMiddling togoodpale
sittings ...Slightly foul tofine
INDIARUBBER Mozambi:que, fair tofine sausage

„ Ball
unripe root
liver

SAFFLOWER, Persian

Ordinary to good

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists
2nds
3nls

INDIARUBBER Assam

SAFFLOWER

TAMARINDS

Nearly water white
Fair and good pale
Bruwn and brownish
Good to fine

Common foul and mixed,

Rangoon ... Fair to good clean

M.s dagascar^ Good to fine pinky & white,

'Fair to good black ...'

...Good to fine pinky ...I

[Middling to fair ...I

ifnferior and jiickiugs ...I

...' Mid. to finc^*/«cAnot stony

Stony aud inferior

2s a 2s 2d

Is Id a Is 2d
Is 6d a Is 9d
5s a 15s

FROM
C^APE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

FRO.M CHINA, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS

.3Ad a 4Jd

l3il a 31 d

'2id a 2iil

Is 9d a 2s 2d
.litla Is 8d
lis lild a 28 2d

2s a 28 2d

Is 7d a Is 9d
[£4 Ills a £.5 IDs
Ie3.5»a £4 2s 6d
ICl a £1 lOs

10s a 14s
3s a (Js

Fair dry to fine bright ...
Common & middling soft
Fair to fine
Middling to fine

CAMPHOR, China

Japan

GAMBIER, Cubes

Beboiled..
White Borneo

.NUTMEGS, large

.Medium
.Small

MACE

RHUBARB, Sun dried
High dried

29s Kd a »2s Cd
17s a 27s
1.5s a 40s
3id a 6d

Good, pure, & dry white , ^^ _,

Ordinary to fine free ... '26s a 39a
Pres.sed ... 33s a 243

Block ... rtood ... 20s6(i a2089d

A PKRCHA, tjenuiQeiFiuf cIphu Banj&Mauis- 2f* id a. 3a Sd
Sumatra...! Barky ^*^ ^^'"^ t*"**" *^^^ '^ ^'* ^^^

li'omuioii to tine clean ... Id a Is 4d
Good tu fine chwn ... lid u Is 3d

Iiiferioraud barky ... Id a 8d
6l"s a Mil's, garbled ... 2s Id a :is 4(1

-^^J'sa 95's ... Is Hd a 2s

lOO's a IGO's ... la 3d a Is 1-d

Pale reddish to pale ...Is Gd a 2s I'd
Ordinary to red ... Is Id a Is ;'d

Chips ... Ud a la

ijood to fine sound ...'Is 9d a ^b
DarkordiTiary&middling lOd a Is 6d
irood lo tiue ... Is 2d a Is t'd

Dark, rough & middling 7d a Is

Fair tofine

SAGO, Pearl, lar^e

medium
small

Flour ... Good pinky to white

TAPIOCA, Penanp Flake...! Pair to fine
Singapore .,.| ,, .,

Flour
Pearl

, Bullets
Medium

Seed

lis a 12s ft t
...llsa 12-*
... .'.sad a 10s 6.1
... .t" a 10s
... iSda 2id
... I&da2Sd
...lid a lid
... Lisa lis rid
...il.'isa l-'^*
...il4a6dai68 3d

1

jMav I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISI*.

737

TEA IN CEYLON AND JAVA.

Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton liave issued two
valuable and very suggestive circulars illustrated
l)j- eve-speakinj; diagrams, one referring to the
progress o{ tea in Ceylon and Java respectively.
The comparison or rather contrast is wonderful :
for, while the exports from Java have been nearly
stationary for 10 years, beginning with 4,808,000
]b. in 1875, ri.sing to 6,l-5;i,000 in 1878 and sink-
ing again to 5,590,000 in 1884 ; the exports from
Ceylon have risen in half the time, from a
little over 114,000 lb. in 1880 to 4,.S52,8n5 in 1884.
With some variations the pi-ice of Ceylon tea
has also risen during the six years, from lid to
Is 3|d per lb. Well may Messrs. Gow, Stanton
& Co. \n-ite : —

It is indeed a rarity to find any commodity in-
creasing so rapidly in production and showing a rise
in price so constant and sustained. We feel sure that
these encouraging results will tend towards even more
strenuous efforts on the part of planters to excel in
i/iitilili/ the produce of other Tea growing countries,
while they continue to increase the quantitif of their
exports. We would strongly urge them to remember
that the future prosperity of the Ceylon Tea trade
must depend mainly upon the excellence of quality
to which the article attains.

Looking at the astonishing rapidity of produc-
tion in Ceylon and the certainty of progress at
a much accelerated rate, figures are produced to
help to a solution of the questions, — what new
markets for tea can be opened? and what room
for expansion is there in existing markets? The
British race are the great consumers of tea,
although in the United States the national taste
has gone off in favor of coffee. In Britain the
consumption per head is now 4-;i0 lb. per liead,
while the three millions of the Australian colonies.
New Zealand and Tasmania, taken together, use
over 7^ lb. per head. The more Australia is
peopled, therefore, the better for tea-growers, and
as better times come in Britain, no doubt, the
consumption of tea there will more and more
assimilate to that in Australia. Even in Canada
and Newfoundland, the consumjition is equal to
4} lb. per head, against only 1-aO in the United
States. The truth is that the people of the I'nited
States have never had good tea presented to them,
and their taste has been formed or their prejudice
strengthened by burnt and adulterated stuff from
Japan. Of Continental countries Holland alone
consumes over 1 lb. of tea per head, the figure
being 1-05, while Russia, with all that we have
heard of her constant tea drinking, uses only Ofil
per head. In the Cape Colony and Natal they
are not yet much ahead of Russia, and as for
other countries of any importance in the world,
the figures go down from 0-7(1 lb. per head in
Denmark to 1-lOOth of a pound per head in chocol-
ate-loving Spain! Here, we suppose, as in other
parts of the Continent, tea can only be obtained
in the shop of the apothecary, and then the stuff
obtained is "medicine" with a vengeance. We
look for much effect from the distribution of
really good tea at the forthcoming Exhibition, to be
followed up on similar occasions, as also from the
operations of syndicates and individuals. Even in
South America where mat^- is so largely used, good tea
is gradually making way. But of about :<50 millions
of lb. of tea exported from producing countries,
92

over two-thirds is drunk by persons of British
origin, a fact which (in the face of the still great
consumption of alcohol) largely accounts, without
doubt, for our position in the world. Tea grown
by Englishmen in India and Ceylon is rapidly
displacing the interior China stuff', the proportion
in Britain now being 10 per cent of the former,
a proportion which will rapidly increase, Ceylon
keeping, we doubt not, the foremost place in quality
she has already obtained.

But the teas of Java have also greatly improved
from their once low standard and with the decad
ence of coffee, we have no doubt that very largely
increased attention will be paid in Netherlands
India to this new product, more and more seed
being introduced from India. During 1885 there
was a marked improvement in price and for two
years deliveries had largely exceeded imports, so
that supplies, owing to this fact and to recent
drought in Java, were short of demand. The im-
ports into Britain had risen from 1,21(),000 lb. in 1881
to 3,343,000 in 1885. This was considerably more
than half the total exports from Java. With '20
millions of population the local consumption must
be appreciable, and we suppose we shall not be
much out in estimating the present total produc-
tion of tea in Java at 8,000,000 lb. of which over
a million are locally consumed* ? There will now be
a race betweeen the Dutch and the British Islands,
but we shall soon be far ahead, for we believe that
practically all the tea produced in Java is grown on
3'J pro])ertics enumerated by Messrs. Gow, Wilson it
Stanton of which that of our good friend Mr.
Kerkhoven, Sinagar, seems to be the chief. It sent
away (i,218 chests and 20 boxes last year, while
3,155 chests are against Bagelen, and (curious
exception) 5,258 boxes against only 1,000 chests in
the cas" of Nangoeng. What are 31) estates, however,
large their respective acreages, to our 500 to (100
plantations, with over 100,000 acres already in tea; but
then Java is now fast going ahead planting more land
with tea. With all the improvement which has taken
place, the average for .Tava tea sold in 1885 was
only !t-S4d per lb. against 1/3| for Ceylon. Hav-
ing heard in 1880-81 that the Melbourne market
had been tried with Java tea in vain, we suggested
that there might be some excess or some deficiency
in the volcanic soil, the probability in our mind be-
ing a deficiency of iron. But Mr. Moens, who had
analyzed the soils, did not favour this view ; so we
suppose the real inferiority of those really nice-
looking teas was due to defective fermentation.
Messrs. Gow, Wilson A Stanton are right in urging
the adoption of the best jats, but the case of
Darjiling and the Kangra Valley would seem to
prove that there is no inferiority of quality in the
leaf of China tea, if properly treated. Ottr busi-
ness, however, is to turn out teas of the best
quality in Ceylon, while our (|uantity goes on in-
creasing, so as soon to overtake and rapidly pass
our competitors in .lava. As the figures for total
consumption and iiuantity used per head of popul-
ation in various countries of the world, are of great
and permanent importance, enabling us to see
what the chances against a glut of production are,
we i|Uote them as they are so carefully compiled
and so cautiously submitted by Messrs. Gow,
Wilson * Stanton : —

The figures in the subjoined list, wliich aic chiefly
based upon an overaye oj jh'e /»/ ttniiinj i/rai-s, give the
amount of tea takeu for home cousumptio* ia variois

* Our " Hanilhook and Directory" fhows a totii)
prfiductinii for .T;iva of 8 mi lion n>s. arnl up to 7
roillionA for export : the liatavia Kxcbange nhowed
G,flOO,000 lbs. of export inseaaon I884-.'>,

738

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Mav I, 1886.

couufries, together with the average quantity auDually
consumsd per head of the population : —

18S.">

18M

about
about

Australian Colonies

New Zealand

Great liritain

Newfoundland

Canada

Tasmania . .

Various British
Possessions

United States

Holland . .

Capo Colony

Natal

Eussia

Denmark . .

Arf;entine Re-
public . .

Persia

Portugal . .

Switzerland

Norway

Germany . .

Morocco . .

Belgium . .

Sweden

Austria Ilun-

Spain

We also fiive,

the total exports of tea from Java for ten

years : —

1875 .. .. 4,80S,S27 I ISSO

is7(> .. .. n.grifi.saa | issi
1S77 .. .. ri,(i7(l,l:-!.s I 188-2

1878 .. .. i;.lr>i).lJH 1883

187!1 .. .. r),7'21,C,8!l I 1884

1883.8.4
1884 about

1880-82 '. '.

1883
1880-83

1883-81
1884

about

H

a: a
CM

o

r3 5 !■"

9 « 3

35 °
<;.3 p. -

18,018,000

3,'.]{ 12,1100

17»,r,.-).-,,(i(H)

.821,1100

l(i,C>00,Ono

389,2.-)0

3,930,000

6,''i,000,000

4,3,82,r>00

l,128,.i(X)

327,300

62,408,.'>00

74U,000

900,000
1,013,000

r)fii,o<xi

292,000
170,400
3,113,,'-iOO
354,(XX)
203 ,01 «
139,2.^0

739,500
13(1,000

S 5 g 3
S o 0 o

7-B6
7-23
4-90
4-38
3-69
3-04

1-66
l-,30
l'0.->
0-90
0-76
0(il
0-37

0-.30
013
0 12
0-10
0-09
0-07
0-06
0-03
0-03

0-02
0-01

for purpo.ses of future comparison,

.1,548,138
4,8(11,793
.'>,918,896
.'.,870,34,5
"i,.';90,069

A .TAVA ITANTERS IMPEESSIONR ON
PLANTIN'G IN CEYLON.

As we nuntirned .<!Ome days ago, there is at
present in ("eylon a visitor from Java who is
mikini,' a tour of Ceylon and India to compare
mlo;; on planting; matters — Mr, G. Mundt of Paran-
kanF.alaU estate, Preanger Regencies, Java — and a
few of his impressions on ]ilanting in Ceylon
gathered from him in the eoui'se of conversation,
may he of interest to Ceylon planters.

Mr. Mundt is President of the Java Planters' Associ-
nLioii and a large proprietor owning sonie2, 400 acres,
CiOO aercs of wliicli are i)]anted with China tea and
3O0 neres with Assam, the bulk of the remainder
of his esl.ate being cinchona and cacao. As he has
had '22 years' experience of planting and occupies so
leading a position, liis views may be taken as
carrying considerable weight, Mr. Mundt has nothing
but praise to bestow on wliat he terms the mar-
vellous energy which in a few years has trans-
formed the crtTce plantations of Ceylon into nourish-
ing tea estates, producing an article unrivalled by
any country in the world. Our roads especially are
objects of admiration, no such highways existing
in the planting districts of Java. " Your magnifi-
cent roads were the salvation of the country when
the eofl'ec enterprize failed, for without them you
could never have opened up the country and planted
it up witli tea as you have done," says Mr. Mundt.
" Move s the pity," will probably be replied " that

they should now be in danger of being ruined by
that wretched MacBride system."

Mr. Mundt severely condemns the system of plant-
ing on steep hillsides, and says that when he left
the train at Nanuoya, after a journey from Kandy,
his mental observation was that Java need not
fear any rivalry from Ceylon in a few years for
tea could not last long planted on such slopes as
everywhere met his view from the i-ailway carriage.
This opinion has been somewhat modified by closer
and more minute inspection, but he still holds to
the view tliat planting on such steep hillsides is a
mistake which Ceylon planters will in time to come
have occasion to regret. In .Java, no one would
dream of cultivating a slope of more than 3.5 degrees.
In the process of cultivation, he says, it is inevit-
able that the little fine soil there is left on tliose
hillsides will be washed away and your tea will
die out as coffee has done. There seems to be no
steps taken to prevent the washing away of good
soil ; on the contrary the system of drainage
adopted here is calculated to assist in carrying off
the soil into the ravines. Here, he says, the drains
are continuous, emptying themselves into the waste
land, and soil must be washed away and lost.*
Questioned as to the method adopted in Java, Mr.
Mundt drew a sketch of their drains which we
roughly reproduce : —

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[ZI] [—]

I—]

[Zn

[=] [z:] [zi]

It will be seen from the above that the Java drains
are mere oblong holes with no outlet and the soil
when washed into them remains there till taken
out, as is done after heavy rains, and replaced
round the tea bushes. In tliis way really no soil is
lost and Mr. Mundt says that since this method was
ado])ted some fifteen years ago, there has not been a
handful of soil washed away.t Mr. Mundt expresses
considerable surprise that so little of the com-
paratively flat land in valleys is cultivated. In Java,
he says, they would care nothing for. the steep
hillsides, but would devote their attention to the
tiai land lying at the foot of the hills. There are very
few estates there at a greater elevation than 3,000 ft.
and they are nearly all ot them 2,000 ft. and lower. J
There is a good deal of such laud to be fo jnd in the hill
country of Ceylon, the soil of which our Java visitor
thinks is well suited to tea planting. Ifa\ing visited
some of the estates in the neighbourliood of Nuwara
Elliya, ICandapola and Dimbula, Mr. Mundt is of
opinion that generally speaking the jAt of tea grown
thereon is not superior, though in places lie saw some
very line hybrid tea. ■ The soil, too, he considers
poor, and thinks that it is possibly owing to this
and to the elevation that the tea compared with his
own growth looks poor. But ihough the tea bush
does not grow to what he considers perfection, Mr.

* The soil in Java ia loose decouipesed volcanic mat-
ter. Ours is generally clayey enough to be tenacious.
We do not, therefore, fear steep hill side.«, or helping
the natural draiu.ige with a good system of ebanueU
which carry off the maximum ot water and the niini-
inumof .soil.— En.

t It is reiilly the sy.stem of manuring which we saw
in perfection on Sinagar. It is gooil for mnnuriug
purposes, but certainly not for drainage. "\V'e believe
in abundaut drainage and in our steep estates lasting
nearly as long as the level or undulating lauds oi Java.
—El),

{ Quite true, but we believe that much better resultjs
would be obtaiupd.at twice the altitude, — Ep.

Mav I, J 886,]

THE tROPfCAL AiikiCtJtfXJ^Wf.

m

Muudl is envious of the maguitioent flavour and
arouia uf the tea pioduceii. This he accounts for
by the elevation and tlic fine pluckin;,' adopted
hero. In Java tliey pluck coarser in consequence
of their richer soil and nioreforcing climate. In Java
tlie usual i)lanting distance is 3 x 4i in horizontal
rows. When the plants are taken from the nursery
they are top^jed, and at nine mouths the mother-
stem, as it is termed in Java, is cut out. Pluck-
ing commences about 18 months after plautiny
out. Mr. Jlundt thinks that even higher prices
would be realized by Ceylon tea planters it they
paid Diurc attention to manufacture, and had
better tea houses and machinery, hut it must he
remarked that at the time he spoke he had not seen
the best factories. From what he had seen of the
manufacture, it was his opinion that our teas are
over-fermented. In Java they do not "ferment'
but merely "colour" the leaf. He thinks also
that our tea is ' rolled too much ; they never roll
longer than twenty minutes, and Java tea is re-
markable for its good twist.* In Mr. Muudt's
opinion it would he better that small estates in-
stead of putting up a small factory and manufact-
uring in a small way with imperfect machinery
should combine and erect one large central
factory with the best machinery and con-
veniences. The result of this, he thinks, would
be the out-turn of better made tea with the
natural consequence of better prices. With such
excellent road and railway communication he thinks
no difficulty should arise in conveying the green
leaf to the central factory; if the estate was some
hours distant from the factory he would wither
the leaf and then send it in.

Coffee. Mr. Mundt believes, will never again
amount to much in Ceylon, though the little he
had seen struck him as being healthy and free
from disease. In Java it is dying out and crops
are decreasing year by year.

As to Cincimiia, Mr. Mundt thinks Ceylon planters
have not mastered the requirements and liabits of
this product. He has seen very little that is really
planted well, it is all planted with the idea of getting
returns as quickly as possible rather than with the in-
tention of permanently cultivating it. It is planted far
too closely and on land where it cannot get sufficient
depth of soil to grow properly. Though the elev-
ation of most Ceylon estates is too great for
Ledgerania, he thinks a bastard ledger, a hybrid
between ledger and suceirubra, should do well on
good land, but not on the .steep slopes now planted
with officinalis and suceirubra. It is his opinion
that in the course of a few years a very large
proportion of the cinchona planted on the higher
estates will die out as the ground is too steep
and the soil not sufficiently deep. In Java a
very large extent of gi'ound i& planted with really
good cinchona, giving an analysis of 10 and 11 per
cent of sulphate of quinine, and when this bark
is thrown on the market Mr. Mundt fears Ceylon
cinchona planters will suffer. In Java they never
touch a cinchona tree until it is seven years
old. A method they find very successful is to
mako grafts of the true ledger on suceirubra stems.
This grafting was formerly done entirely in the
nurseries but they have now hit on a means of
making the graft after the trees have been planted
out. There are very few estates there that have begun
to shave their trees, nearly all the bark that lias
been sent away is from coppiced trees. When Java
planters begin lo .shave they will put on the market
uiillinns of pounds of bark far richer in qniiiine
than can be produced in Ceylon.

"True; to the cyt Java tea is perlictiun; tu tlio
l^aiatcitiB coueiderabl; short of perfectiou,— Kd.

Mr. Mundt regrets the absence of roads and rail-
ways in Java whieli prevents millions of acres of
good tea and cinchona laud being planted up.*
They have a railway through some of their dis-
tricts, but the rates charged are so exorbitant that
very few planters make use of it. Java can take
a lesson from Ceylon in this respect. The Ceylon
railway system Mr. Mundt regards as a magnificent
triumph of engineering skill and the scenery of the
mountain region he says is very beautiful.

Mr. ilundt goes to India in a few days after visit-
ing the Nawalapitiya and Dumbara districts but ex-
pects to return to Ceylon in about a month.

WYNAAD PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION.

A general meeting was held at the Pookote Club
on the 3rd instaut. Vrt'^ent: — Messrs. Abbott, Achard,
Atzeuwiler, Batty, Goodiug, Jowitt, Lamb, Tauqueray,
A'auKeesema, Walker and G. Komilly, Honorary Secre-
tary. Mr. Tanqueray iu the chair.

Ro>i<il Commission. — Kead letter from Mr. Pasteur
accepting the task of representing thi.s' Association on
the proposed Committee to be held in London, With
regard to the competition of Government in cinchona
cidtivatiou, Jlr. Pasteur wrote as follows: — *' 1 uuder-
stauil that, some years ago, iu reply te remonstrances
from cinchona ]dauters, the Indian Government stated
their unwillingness to give up then the cultivation,
for fear of the industry being abandoned by private
growers in case of a serious fall in prices occurring ;
but they gave at the time a kind of promise, or
pledge, that they would not complete permanently
with private industry. It would be interesting to get
at the actual reply of the Indian .luthorities, which,
perhaps, might, strengthen our case against them.''

Mailras Forest Act. — The suliject of cattle trespass
was discussed, and a draft of a petition to Government
on the subject read and approved.

Ciiii-liuiia. — l!ead letter from the Government Director
of Cinchona Plantations ou the subject of the early
llowering and seeiling of cinchonas as compared with
former years. Resolved that the thanks of the Asso-
ciation bo forwarded to the Director. With regard to
a private circular seut out last month en the suljjoct
of analyses, members are informed that tlie matter
is iu abeyance, and are requested not losend samples
till they hear fiu-tber on the suljject. Kead letter
from Mr. Winterbothani regarding the shavijig of Led-
gerianas and otfering samples for experimental analyses'
Mr. Lamb also off erod to keep a hundred ]jtdgeriana.s
for experiment. Resolved that the As.-ociation wi'l
really accept both ntfers and will bear the cost of ana-
lyses.— Madras Mail.

PL-VNTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA.

(Tramkiicd for the Strtiits Times.)
The advertisement of the North Borneo Com-
pany announcing facilities for opening out tobacco
estates there has caused attention to be drawn, at
Batavia. to the advantages of Cotio for growing
that article, from that country resembling Pcli in
climate. The Sultan is willing to lease out land.
Navigation in the river there is easy and ita
mouth is regularly visited by mail steamers. The
considerations lead the Batavia Viijiblad lo the con-
clusion that tobacco growers seeking fresh fields will
do better in Cotie then in less developed North Borneo.
Three entcrprizing Europeans have just started
tobacco growing near i'adang on the West coast
of Sumatra upon hind about :!,OIIO feel iibove sea-
level. Throughout last year, their operations
proved unsuccessful from planting being set about
in the wrong season. The samples of tobacco they
have turned out so far, show that the land
chosen is suitable. The future only will "show whether
the irregularity of tlie rainfall in that quarter may not
bar success completely.

» Half a milliou ot each would ewamp the world and
t\ in the eiiterprize.— Bl',

^4"

THE -raOPlCAL AGRICULTURIST,

[May I, 1886,

TEA MANURING EXPERIMENTS.

CONTINOAHON OF EXPERIMENTS WITH CASTOIi-rOONAC

AND Castor-cake and Bone-dust in Combination,

IN Season 1885, on "Cuandpoiik tea

Estate," Chittauono.

Having copied Jlr. McL, Carter's paper tloscrioing
the results in the first year after manuring his tea
with castor-cake alone and castor-cake ami bone-d\ist,
we are now glad to be able to lay before our readers
as copied from the 7Va (tazetU the figures showing
the continued effect in the second year. Mr, Carter
looks for further increased yield and profit in the
third year; —

On a reference to the Indian Tea (iatette of Gth
October 1885, page 257, para. 2, I assumed the cost
of manuring with castor-cak'i alone 1 lb. per bush=24
cwt. per acre, as on plot 3, to amoiuit to 1I70 per acre,
and al.so that the increased yield of tea in second staaon
and without any further application of the manure
would be 30 per cent., and tliat in all probability it
will be actually 32 per cent. But the results at end of
season have not borne out either of these anticipations;
nevertheless the registered increase is still fairly aatis-
factory, as the following returns testify : —
2nd Season.

Outturn of green leaf on tea per acre

Plot No. 1 of i acre— no lb. lb.

manure equal to 796 e(iual to 79()

Plot No. 2 of i acre, 1
mauuro<l with 6 cwt. Bone I

dust and 12 cwt. Castor- }-do. S99 do S99

cake to the 13 cwt. of com- I
bination per acre J

Plot No. 3 of 4 acre, "J
tnauured with 24 cwt. of (

Castor-poonac alone per [ 960 do 961

acre )

Comparing one plot witk another, No. 2 shows an
increase (due to manure) of lb. 103 tea per acre equal
to 3 per cent over plot No. 1.

And No. 3 an iucrea.<e of lb. 165 tea per acre equal to
20J per cent in excess of No. 1, whereas between Nos.
2 and 3 the latter gives an increase of lb. 65 tea per
acre equal to 7 per cent only.

The profits per acre therefore are on Plot No. 2 :
as. R. A. P.

Plot No. 1 of lb. 796 tea per

acre at say 8equaltol39S 0 0

Plot No. 2 of lb. 8R9 tea per

acre at say 8 do. 449 8 0

In favour of latter, lb. 103 tea

per acre at say 8 as. equal to 51 8 0
Less cost of manure do nil

Net profits per acre in

2nd Season
Add profits per acre in

1st Season

do

do
do

51 8 0 or 81-6 percent
34 11 6or55-3 „

Total nett profits per

acre in <•'■» Seasons do SO 0 6oriy6'9 „

eo.st per acre I should have said of combined juaiiura
on plots was Ke3-1-H in 1884.

Results from Plot yo. J,
lb. B. A. P,

Plot Noi 1 of 796 tea per acre

St .-ay 8 as. ... 3fl8 0 0
Plot Ko. 3 of 961 tea per acre

at say 8 as. ... 480 8 0

In favor of letter by ^^.^^^ -^

lb. 165 8 as. .,. 82 8 0
Less cost of manure ... nil
Nrtt profits per acre in 2nd

Season ... 82 8 0 or 1178 per cent.

Add profits per acre iu Ist

Season ... 72 8 0 or 103"5 per cent.

I'otal nett profits per acre in two

Sessoue

165 0 0 or 221 '3 percent.

The cost of manurirg per acre in 1831 on plot No
3 being R70.

I have merely tj add furthnr, that Ihe bushes on
above plots were piu.ud down to 18 iichs on 25th
January, and that at e: d of Season 1835 their aveiage
growth was on —

Plot No. 1 25 inches.

,, 2 28 inches.

n 3 27 inches.

The areas were deep dug once on 21st December 1884,
and light hoed and ridged combined four times subse-
quently in Season 1885.

The first flush was taken on 2yth March, and the
last on 29th December, making '26 flushes in Season
at average interval of 10^ days. The rainfall in the
year was close up 119-99— and average temperature 69°
to 70'^ at 6 A. M. daily.

These trials will be carried on in 1886 also, which
makes the third Season ; and I expect the manured
plots will still show an increase of crop over the non-
manured adjacent area, and such a result will be em-
inently satisfactory.

"ClIANDPORE," 1 F. McL. Caeter,

Gth March 1886. > Manager.

.SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF RHEA FIBRE.

The Gohinief and India states : —

The praiseworthy efforts made by the Govern-
ment of India to stimulate inventors to the dis-
covery of a means of economically preparing the
fibre of the Rhea or " China Grass " for manu-
facturing purposes have at last met with success.
For many years past the strength and beauty of
the fibre yielded by various species of Vrtica
have been fully recognised as superior in every
re.^pect to all known fibres, either for textile or
other manufactures. The fibre of the variety
known as Rhea or Ramie, mote popularly as
" China Grass," and in France as " Vegetable
Silk," has long been the admiration and despair
of experts and inventors, who have striven to
discover some means of separating it from the
bark and the wood of the plant, to which it
closely adheres, and to free it from the resinous or
gummy matter in which it is enveloped ; and only
the proved value of the product could justify the
efforts which have been so jjersistently made to
overcome the difficulties attending the reduction of
the raw material to a marketable state. The
honour of the discovery of a perfect method of
accomplishing this is divided between two French
inventors — one, M. Favicr, who has invented a
machine fur the production of " ribbons " by de-
corticating the stems of fibrous plants by steam,
and M. Freniy, who, in conjunction with M.
Urbain, Director of the Encyclopedic Chimique,
Palis, has perfected a system of converting such
ribbons into lilae'^e, ready for spinning. The beauty
aiul tensile strength contained in the Jilaxse pro-
duced by these joint processes from the fibre of
the Ramie is unequalled. It rivals silk in soft«
ness and glossiness, and excels even the celebrated
stijm Icnittii'iniii, or New Zealand (lax, for strength
and durability, while it is superior to both in the
alnwst unlimited fields which exist for its eulliv-
atioii. The trial of a piece of " belting" for
driving machinery, made of China grass, as com-
pared with a similar belt of leather, showed that
the former could sustain a stress of 8,326 lbs. peT
square inch, as against 4,"331t lbs. per square inch
borne by the latter ; while a water-hose of China
grujis containing watei- at a iTessnre of (iOO lbs. per
square ineli only " sweated " as much as ordinary
liose under 11 pressure of 100 lbs. The great dillicultyiu
the way of the economical utilisation of tliis fibre
ha> been the large quantity of resin or gum with
which the fibres are ooatcj.and which it is most dilli-
cult to separate, especially wbea the grabt it in a

Mav I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

74 J

dry state. The Favier-Fr6my process entirely s ui--
mounts this difficulty at slight expense, ami the
uses to which the fibre produced thereby can be
put are so numerous that its consumption will
only be limited by its production. The natural
field for the growth of tins' plant is in India,
where large tracts of laud arc being specially planted
with it ; but it will probably grow in almost any
tropical country, and the West Indies, Northern
Australia, and South and West Africa will no
doubt bo found suitable for its production. Some
experimental areas have been planted with success
in Egpyt and on the shores of the Mediterranean,
and ?ts cultivation is being taken up in Burmah
and the Straits Settlements. In fact, its area of
cultivation is no less unlimited than the field for
its industrial use.

At intrevals for years back we have seen state-
ments like this, but they have never been con-
firmed. Khea or ramie produces a strong and
beautiful fibre, but it is an exhaustive crop,
and it is most difficult and expensive to clear
away the wood and gummy portions of the
stalks.

NORTH BOENEO: GOLD AND PRODUCTS.

(/.'r((is/( Nui-tk Borneo Gazette, March 1st.)
Captain Beeston, whose services we informed our
readers in our last number had been secured by
this Government for the purpose of making a
Mineralogical and Geographical Survey of the
country, was to have left for Segama at midnight
on the Kith ultimo, but a few hours previously a
gale sprang up and has only has just moderated ;
as we write (February 28th), everything being in
readiness the expedition will probably start to-
morrow or next day. It will be accompanied by
Mr. Henry Walker and a Chinese merchant in-
terested in the gold'aiscovery. Mr. WaUier proceeds
to point out the localities where he had previously
discovered gold.

Gutta Percha has been discovered in the Manka-
ladom district, one day's journey from Putatan
'■ tamu," on the route to Tambunan, and a party
are shortly going up to work it. The Mankaladom
people are. said, up to now, to be ignorant of its
value and gutta trees cut down by them in making
" padi " dealings, are left to rot where they
lie. Cinnamon is also reported in Ulu Putatan
and Ulu Tawaran considerable quantities of this
spice used formerly to be exported from Putatan,
and Kimanis.

Liwan tobacco continues to come down to Putatan
"tamu." A Javanese planter who recently saw a
Bample of it, pronounced it to be superior to any
tobacco grown in Java. It seems a pity that
public attention is not drawn more to these tobacco
districts ; where a planter would only rc(iuire to
direct his attention to tlie ciuestion of transport,
the question of soil capability having been solved
for the last two hundred years probably. The
native " tamu " at Ulu I'apar and Ulu Tawaran,
as also that at Ulu Sungei Damit, Tawaran, are
all rapidly developing.

Two experienced assistants, Messrs. Groenert and
Thihs. from Deli, Sumatra, have joined the estate at
Limbuak, Banguey, also a batchof .50 Chinese coolies.
The site of the late crop has been planted up
with native paddy, which is doing well, while all
round felhng and burning goes on merrily for this
year's crop. There is very little sickness among
the coolies. A cuhstautial cart-road in the direction
of Mitford ha& been commenced.

THE BULKING OF INDIAN TEA.

To the Editor of tlie Home Mm Coloni.\l Mail.

S]R,_'\Ve have seen .some correspondence in your
Inst i.ssue on the subject of tea bulking; aud wbil.st
we should not go so far a.s to .say th.it h.ilf the luilian
tea now soUl ici the public sales is of uneven quality,
we ale quite of opiuiou that reasonable grounds of
complauit ilo exist in r<-g:ird to the system on which
the b\ilkingis done. Iriegularities in quality are too
frequent, even with some of ihe largest and oldest
gardens. Buyers naturally ask bow it is that the Uhiiio.so
can bulk 600 chests of one break so accurately that
rebulkiiig in Loudon has never to be resorted to whilst
Indian planters are so careless about it that frequently
in bleaks of tea said to be bulked at the factory, ami
even many of those which have been bulked in London
some chests will be more dusty than the rest, some more
stalky, and others almost out of condition. We have
no desire to make uniiecessay complaint hut we beg to
remind planters and importers that the ludian tra
business lias now reaclieil such magnitude that the time
of brokers aud hujeis is .so fully occupied with work
ni-ccs.sary t5 Uie carrying on of the regular business
that every hour takt-n up in making and settling claims
which, if the bulking were accurate, should never arise
is an utterly unprofitable and needless waste of energy.
It is but fair to say that some of the selling brokers
are always ready to adjust a reasonable claim ; whilst
others invariably profess themselves unable to dis-
cover irregularities which must be apparent to the
merest tyro. — We are, &c.,

Taylor, Coi.man and Sudlow,

IxLu.iN Tka Assochtion. — Regarding the forth-
coming Colonial and Indian Exhibition, the Associa-
tion state they have failed to induce the Government
to give a grant-in-aid. This illiberality of the Indian
Government contrasts badly with the handsome
generosity shown by the Ceylon authorities, who
have awarded the Planters' Association there a
handsome sum for the purpose of aiding a com-
plete representation of Ceylon teas. The Syndicate
itself, however, intends to devote the balance of
its own funds, some B0,200, for the purposes of
the exhibition of Indian tea, and the money could
hardly be better s.^en\,.— Indian Tea Gazette.

Vitality oi' Palm Trees In his German Garden

.Journal (Dcnisehe Garten-Zcitnng) Dr. Wittmack,
Professor of Botany at Berlin, gives a most striking
instance of the longevity inherent in trunks of
palm 'trees of the genus " Cycas." He says :^" In
the large palmery of the renowned seed and nursery
establishment of Mr. J. C. Schmidt at Erfurt (Ger-
many), there have existed for the last eight years
two runks of Cycas media, having a height of
thirteen and sixteen feet respectively, and being,
consequently, specimens of such dimensions as were
never before brought to Europe. These two trunks,
forming a portion of a large cargo brought from
Queensland, were on their arrival in 187?, considered
to quite dead, but, for the sake of curiosity, they
were, nevertheless, planted in the ground. Imagine
the astonishment ot everybody concerned at find-
ing that these ' mummies ' had suddenly returned
to life, their crowns ornamented with wreaths of
thick foliage, which is now completety grown and
affords a most imposing sight 1 It is to be hoped
that these two scions ot the primevel vegetation
of an epoch far remote will continue to thrive,
with ' stature unbent by age," and not again re-
linquish the youthful activity so sudileiily dis-
played, and tliat a chance may be alTonled them
for making up for the loss they sustained during
the enjoyment of eight years of somnolent bcati-
utded."

742

tHE TROPICAL AGRiCyLTURiSf.

CMay I, ime.

THE PLANTING EEVIVAL OF CEYLON.

Some two years ago we called attention in rather
a forcible manner to the state of distress in
Ceylon, consequent on the deuPAlenc(i of the coflee
planting industry. But Ceylon has since then taken
a new lease of life. Coffee has gone from bad to
worse, but its place in the island has with almost
magical rapidity been occupied by tea. i'or the
first time the editors of that really wonderful volume,
Ferguson's Ci'ijlmi Ihiiulbouh, say that they cannot
any longer loolt upon coffee as the most important
branch of the agriculture of Ceylon. The tale they
have to tell about the history of coffee planting
in Ceylon is botli interesting and instructive. The
first upland plantation was formed in iWo by Sir
Edward Barnes. Between 1833 and 184i the
mountain ranges on all sides of Kandy became
rapidly covered with plantations, and in lHli-184;")
the cofl'ce mania was at its height. Five millions
sterling were sunk in less than as many years.
The rush for land was only paralleled by the rush
towards the Australian gold mines. " TKe Governor
in Council," says Sir Emerson Tennent, " the
military, the judges, the clergy, and one-half the
civil servants penetrated the hills, and became
purchasers of Crown lands. The East India Com-
pany's officers crowded to Ceylon to invest their
savnigs, and capitalists from England arrived by
every packet. As a class, the body of emigrants
was more than ordinarily aristocratic, and if not
already opulent, were in haste to be rich. So
dazaling was the prosj^ect that expenditure was
unlimited ; and its profusion was only equalled by
the ignorance and inexperience of those to whom
it was entrusted." Then in 184.5-184(; came the
crash, partly dependent on the financial explosion
of 1810 in England, partly on the withdrawal of
the protective duties, and partly on over-production :
— " The consternation thus produced in Ceylon
was proportionate to the extravagance of the hopes
that were blasted ; estates were forced into the
market, and madly sold off for a twentieth part
of the outlay incurred in forming them, others
that could not even be sacrificed were deserted
and allowed to return to jungle." For nearly
three years the enteriirise appeared paralysed :
the ruined disappeared, and ' the timid re-
treated. But the enterprise slowly and surely re-
covered until in 18('i!l leaf disease made its
first appearance, and this fatal disease combined
with the enormous outturn of coffee from the Brazils
and other new fields rjudcred a Ceylon coffee jilan-
ter's life uncertain in the present and perilous in
the future. But troubles as is their wont came
not "as single spies but in battalions." The fail-
ure of the City of Glasgow Bank i-eacted disas-
trously through the Oriental Bank on the Ceylon
planting enterprize, and led to a great withdrawal
of capital, until in the season 1882-83 with 200,000
acres in cultivation the export, say the Messrs.
Ferguson, "was only 2(i0,000 cwt. or less thau was
shipped forty years earlier from less than one-fourth
the area 1" This terrible falling-off in coffee crops
reacted on nearly every branch of local trade and
industry. To make matters worse the Oriental
Bank itself failed, and the colony would, it is
generally believed, have been irretrievably ruined
had not Governor Gordon taken on his own re-
sponsibility the courageous step of guaranteeing the
Oriental Bank currency notes. It was at this try-
ing period that we printed the article to which we
have already referred. We sliowcd thai coffee was
doomed in Ceylon, and that Ceylon would bs?'
•loomed too, unless the planters realized this fact
and turned their attention to other produclo suiteil
to the climate oi their marvellously fruitful iblaud,

Our remarks were as was natural, warmly discussed
and criticised at the time.

To critics either in or out of Ceylon, the future .
seemed almost gloomier than the past. The plant-
ers were cither leaving the island as rats leave a
sinking ship, or living in sorry circumstances on
the produce of their estates. Colombo was crowded
with starving assistants out of employ, some of
whom actually shipped themselves as coolies to
Queensland. But tlie story of the twelve years de-
cadence may best be told with a few figures, and
we give the returns for every pair of years since
1871-75 when a maximum may be said to have
been attained : —

Seasons. Coffee Exports

Uwt.

1871-70... ... ],H7«,7H2

187U-78... ... 1.654,33!)

1878-80... ... 1,478.275

1880.82.. ... 1.015,5;:0

I8S2-84... ... .574,272

1884-Sti (ubtnuated) 5UUJ22

But owing to competition in the Brazil and other
coffee fields not yet affected by leaf disease, 'the
price of Ceylon coffee had fallen too. Tlic highest
price touched was 13>") shillings per cwt. in 1873;
the lowest 01 shillings in 188.5. As the first result
of this extraordinary depression the total luimbcr
of superintendents of coffee estates has fallen off
from 1,38'J in February 1881 and 1,108 at the end
of 1883 to 1,081 in December 188.5, the latter
iorrespoiiding to 1,4-18 estates now in cultivation
cut of a total 1,1123 pi'operties. "It is probable,
indeed," say Messrs. Ferguson, "that more than
300 European planters have left Ceylon in the four
years, because their places in some cases may be
filled by Ceylonese, whose names would swell the
present number of superintendents. I'erhaps we may
fairly say that our planting community diminished
at the rate of a hundred superintendents or proprie-
tor-superintendents a year, between isso and 1885.
A serious loss, now we trust gradually to be made
up as tea-planting extends." Here we have the key
to tlie revival of Ceylon. For those planters who
had pluck enough to stay on, looked to tea and al-
most solely to tea to recoup them for their losses
in coffee. Many other things were tried, Liberian
coffee (which has on the whole proved a failure),
cinchona, cacao, cardamoms, rubber, and so on.
But tea has succeeded beyond all expectation.
Messrs. Ferguson are bold enough to think that
before Sir Arthur Gordon hands over the reins of
Government, Ceylon will have gained most of that
planting prosperity which has been lost through
the dire effects of the cofl'ee leaf. " And," they add,
"we further see the promise in our tea, cacao and
other new industries, together with the continued
extension of palm as well as grain cultivation, of
a degree of stable comfort and even wealth for
the people such as could not be imagined when
Ceylon was at the very height of its ancient glory
in the days of the groat King I'arakrama, the creator
of 'the Inland Sea.' "

We have looked at one picture. We will look
at the other; and seldom has English pluck been
better illustrated than in this sudden substitution
of tea for coffee. Tea and coffee are greatly inter-
mixed on the different estates with each other,
and with cinchona and cacao and rubber. But
after a great deal of trouble Messrs. Fergnson have
succeeded in approximately dividing the acreage
devoted to each. The tot.al area of the 1.'.I23
plantations in Ceylon embraces (')52,355 acres, and
1,1111 of these with an acreage of 308,018 are still
in cultivation under 1,08^ superiuteudeuts. The

May I, 1886,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

743

area under each crop is given a3 follows in
acres : —

Coffee (Arabiea) ... ... ... 124,707

Coffee (Liberical... ... ... 2,387

Tea... ... ... ... 101,695

Ciuchona ... ... ... 48.246

Cacao ... ... ... 12,3J5

Oanlamoms ... ... ... 4,082

JiubbiT ... ... ... 629

It will be a surprise to most o( our readers to
find that in extent of area the tea in Ceylon
already almost rivals the coffee. There are 50,000
fewer acres of cotiee under cultivation than
in li583, while tea has;increased by 70,000 acres.
The mixed estates of co&'ee and tea will soon be
all tea, and by the end of the year it is expected
that coffee which in 1K77 occupied 270,000 acres
will be reduced to 100,000 acres or less. This is
one of the most extraordinary changes that has
ever been effected in an English colony. Tea
planting in the high districts was only really
commenced in 1883, and not much was done until
1884-8,5. Already as we have shown more than
100,000 acres are covered with the tea shrub. The
progress of tea cultivation in Ceylon is shown in
tlie following figures : —

Years. Acres. Tears. Acres.

1879 6,.500 1833 .32,000

1880 0,274 1884 G7,0C0

1S81 13,.500 1885 102,000

1S82 22,000

Here we have something like the proverbial leaps
and bounds. But the returns of the exports
of tea for the last six years will show more
eloquently than we can the extraordinary develop-
ment of this new industry : —

Year. lb. ' Value : H.

1»79... 9.'-.,969 ... S.5,229

I8nn... 162,57.')' ... i.lU.lMl

1.^81... 348,lf)7 ... 322,993

1882... 697.268 ... ,';9I,80r>

1883... 1,66.').768 ... 916,172

1884... 2,392,973 ... 1,435,784

The ri'tunis for 18848') are given by tin- Cham-
ber of Ci>mnierce at 3.79(!,.'i84 lb. With the pre-
sent rate of increase more than 20,000 acres per
annum will probably be put under tea for some
years to come until some 200,000 acres are planted
with this staple. but the area now cov "ed is
sufiicient to guarantee an exjiort of tea in the sea-
sun I.S8M-S9 of very nearly 30,000.000 lb. Messrs.
Ferguson give the following talile as the approxi-
mate outturn of the intermediate seasons : —

1885-6 6,7.';O.OflO !b.

18SG 7 12.0110.000 lb.

1887-8 20,00(),«aj Ih.

1888-9 .30,n(,o.n0O lb.

They, however, go further than that. They say
that ten or twelve years hence Ceylon will export
(iO.OOO.OOO lb. of tea. Tea is produced more cheaply
in Ci-ylon than in Northern India. The London
brokers have for some time past been loud in
praise of its fine ijualitics, and it conmiands a
ready sale at home. Ceylon seems to have wea-
thered the storm ; and Inaf disease, which at one
time very nearly ruined the planters, has, by forc-
ing their attention to tea instead of cotrce, proved
a blessing rather than a curse.^riincv of India.

*■

TiiK Milan QuiNixn Works :— It is reported
that the " Fabbrica Lombarda di Prodotti Chfraici,"
in Milan, the failure of which created a consider-
able sensation at the time, will again resume
manufacture, backed up by a syndicate of hankers.
The creditors who appealed against the arrange-
ment accepted by the majority have lost their case
and liad to pay the costs of the action. There is,
however, still some talk of a further appeal. —
Chemint (C VruggUt.

PLANTING BEPOET PEOM P.-VNWILA DIS-
TEICT.

COFFEE — CACAO — CKOTON — TKA, ETC.
Frauklauds, Wata^ania, 24th Jfarch 1886.

OoFi'EE. — It is a pleasure to read of oiu- oUl friend
Kii'g Coffee still piomising good crops on some es-
tates, which are no doubt favoured witb a good
climate, soil, and shelter, have been properly cidtiv.ited
aad not planted thickly with cinchona, iu spite of leaf-
disease. On the Kaudy and Matale Bide we liad a
worse enemy than leaf-disease to contend witb, namely,
black-bug which fiui.shed off u-ost of our trees in no'
time, though there are still patches of good coffee here
and there doing well, and there is some fine young
coft'ee iu Dumbara said to promise well this year.
There can be uo doubt that planters with good'
coffee in the high districts will do well to cultivate
the .same thoroughly, as Brazil cannot give as
liue qu'ility of coffee as some of our high estates do.
and good high grown coffee will keep a price of its
own and bo in great demand. Leaf-disease is gradually
disappearmg.

Cacao.— Everyone will remember the great scare
about our cacao iu 1884-1885. I remember at the
Planters' Meeting in Kandy on the 28tb June 1884
there were some planters who thought all cacao was
djiiig out, uotably our present Chairman, who had been
ti the low-co lutry cacao estates, would not allow any
excuse to be made on account of want of shade, poor
soil or exposed laud, for had he not .seen a nursery
oij cacao plants in good soil even dying out? Some
planters urged shelter to protect the cacao from tb 3
wind was all that was reipiired; some thought shade the
best. 1 strongly recommended shade and the crotou
oil tree as a quick grower aud a profitable tree. In my
letter " Advice to Young Cacao planters," published
in 0/iserver on 8th October 1884, 1 urged shace as
necessary tor cacao mentioning many varieties of trees
as suitable, &c. 'Ihere beiug still some croakers going
about the country, 1 wrote my next letter published
in Uh.irfVei- on ]3lh November 1884 ending as fol-
lows : — " The scare about helopelti.s, fly and borer I
treat with contempt as they can be well ebecked."

Times bave changed at last ; we have again good
accounts of caca-j prumi^ing good crops aud looking
well with very little beiupeltis, fly or borer about. The
requirements nf cacao are now better known ; e.jicao
planted iu sandy soil and on poor e.vposed ridges bave
heeu abandoned, shailc is being planted as quickly as
possible, in oitl soil mauure is given, and in dry climates
water trenches are made. It is a mistake to tbink
that becau.se cacao plants taken up witb a small qnuntity
of good nursery soil (even some nurseries are made in
poor soil) planted out on an old estate or in poor
though deep soil without sh.ade does not come on
quickly, that it cannot be grown profitably — it is here
where the Owner must bave coufiilence and allow
some extra expenditure the first two years, to dig up
soil aroiiuil plants, give .some manure, get np shade
aud cut trenches. Once the plants are well estab-
lished there is no fear and expenditure then will be
as low as on any estate though lieginning with better
soil, fispecially is this the case when you can get old
coffee land, good chena or even patana witb a good
climate near a high road or railway station; lauds id'
this descripii<iii 1 value more tlian even forest laud
the value of which wo have still to find out as re-
gards .soil, wind and climate, say nothing of distance
from a highroad, &c. I have proved this with c.ill'ee,
tea. cinchona and cacao aud can safely rccoinincMd a
trial by anyone wlio has land so situated. If, however
till' owner of such lauds thinks all he needs to do is
to have his place planted upas cheaply as be can and
not to give the necessary assislaiice to his plants in
tl.c inopi-r way, and when neeile 1, I would advise him
not to plant any but first class jungle land and g wait
until he cau get such in CJeyion. which however he
will find a great dilliculty at present, a-id scdl his own
liiid to otbeis who will perhaps prove to lum in a
few years what a chance be lost.

Ckoto.n'. — I am gl.id to bear from several planters

744

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886,

to whom I supplied croton-oil seed that it is an-
swering well as sliade and shelter and gives a quick
return which heljis to pay expenditure until cacao
comes into bearing. Anyone who wishes to see how
croton-oil trees shade will answer with cacao should
come to Watagama, visit Maria, Goonambil and this
estate. On the latter cacao is planted 10 f. 10 and a
line of croton Ti feet apart up between each line of
cacao ; so croton lines are 10 feet apart or about 8{}0
trees to the acre : from plants 6 inches high planted
in September 1884 I got this year 2 cwt. per acre — as
soon as the croton trees get larger I shall by
degrees lake out trees until I have a distance of 20 feet
apart or lox'iO.

As regards your correspondent who writes that it
makes coolies sick to work among croton and that
nativesdo not even use the wood for cooking — this I
can by personal experience contradict. I as well as coolies
on this estate work daily among Jthc crotons and we
are all in good health. In January last I cut off lower
branches for ;i to 1 feet from the ground and I can
assure your correspondents both Tamil and Sinhalese
come daily and carry off the wood for their cooking
and with my permission.

Tea. — I am glad to say tea is a great success in our
district and there is some fine tea now on nearly all our
estates ; from our old tea we can get our 600 lb. per
acre— Cinch plants planted in December 18Si are now
from 3 to 4^ ft. high ; one on this estate I measured 4
ft. 11 inches. On some estates the tea is topped as soon as
there isred wood 84 inches above ground.

Cinchona. — We have some very fine cinchona in our
district giving good returns, especially so on Raxawa
estate.

Annatto. — One estate has planted a good deal of this
product, which is doing well.

Cardamoms, Pepper and Ginger are doing well here.
—Yours truly, J. HOLLOWAY.

Tea in Maskef.iya, — The Maskcliya " flats, "
which at one time promised to make the fortune
of their proprietors in coii'ee, now look even more
promising under tea and afford abetter assurance
of permanency. Peria Maskeliya in this way is
likely to give its HOC or 700 lb. of tea lent per
acre, while from Bitterne off a comparatively small
acreage in bearing, the fortunate proprietor hopes to
gather as much as :iO,000 lb. this season and doulde
that next year. But even higher up, in Dimbula,
we hear of estimates of a return of liOO to 700 lb.
per acre. It is strange how entirely free of grub
is the same land under tea that seemed alive
while coifee was available to be attacked. White-
ants bear the same relation to tea — that is at
a low elevation — that grub did to coffee, and dur-
ing the present dry season, a good deal of mis-
chief from white-ants has been experienced, es-
pecially on weak plants or trees, in the Kelani
valley. It is piobable that the Assam plan of
clearing out and burning off all timber, so as to
leave no receptacle for anls on the land, may
have to be followed in our lower districts.

Pj.niiBAoo. — We noticed a short time back
the deputation of Dr. King, of the Geological
Department, to report on the probability of
obtaining water by means of artesian wells in the
neighbourhood of Vi/.agapataui. We now learn that
he lias expressed an opinion that there is very
little chance of this ever being successful in that
district, P>ut Dr. King has made an excursion to
Gallikona, where he is said to have made some
important discoveries as to the mineral wealth of
the district, and a rej)Ort on the subject is to be
published after his return to Calcutta. The exist-
ence of iilnmbago in large quantities is pretty well
established, as it is eonunonly used by the local
])otters for glaring earthenware. Some traces of
(;old are also said to have been discovered within
(J mile of the cantonment ; but Dr. King's report

must be awaioed for full particular.?. — Indian A(jri-
cuhiiriat. [If plumbago in quantity, unmixed with
rocky particles, is discovered, it will be a new de-
parture in India. The existence of plumbago and
its use as a glaze for pottery are nothing new.
Ceylon is, as yet, the only country where large
masses of perfectly pure plumbago are found.
—Ed.

GovEHNMENT WHITEWASH. — Clean looking buildings
around a farm add very much to its appearance, and
for cheapness nothing equals whitewash. We give
below the recipe for making what is know-n as
"Government Whitewash." because the White House
is annually washed with it : To make five gallons of
brilliant stucco whitewash for buildings, inside and
out, takes six quarts of clean lumps of well-burnt
stone lime ; slack with hot water a covered tub to
keep in tlie steam. It should then be passed
through a fine sieve to obtain the flower of lime; add
one-fourth of a pound of burnt alum pulverized, one
pound of sugar, three pints of rice flour, made into
a thin, well boiled starch or jelly, and one pound
of glue, dissolved in hot water. This may be applied
cold on inside work, but for outside work ti should
be applied warm. A whitewash thus made is said
to be more brilliant than plast of Paris, adiv to
retain its brilliancy many years. — It should be put
on with a common painter's brush, a second cost
being applied after the first is well dried — Hiira}
Calijonnaii, Jan. 188(5.

Salt Unfit for Food. — The following ad-
vertisement is said to have recently emanated from
the India Office : — " Notice is hereby given, that
the Government of India are prepared to grant a
reward not exceeding ,5,000rs. to the inventor or
discoverer of a satisfactory process for rendering
salt unfit for human consumption, whilst still leav-
ing it fit tor use by cattle and as manure, or for
industrial purposes. The main conditions are : (a)
that the cost of the process must be moderate, not
exceeding about four annas a rnauud ; and (h) that
the preparation must be such that edible salt can-
not be easily extracted from it by any of the or-
dinary processes in use amongst native saltworkers.
It several good processes be suggested, the highest
award will be giveti to the inventor of the process
which may appear to Government to be the most
satisfactory in all respects, and a smaller propor.
tionate reward will be granted for the next best
process. A collection of papers bearing on the
subject will be supplied on npplication at the Re-
venue Department of the India Office.'' Can it be
true that the policy of retaining the salt duty has
forced the Government of India into such a false
position as this? Wliat an opportunity tor the
preachers ot sedition in India ! " Here is the pater-
wal English Government seeking to provide means
cherehy the beasts that perish may have their ne-
nessary modicum of salt free of duty, while we
human beings, if we should attempt to satisfy our
craving by sharing the salt which our cattle are
not denied, are doomed to run the risk of poison-
ing, or at the least, to find that the salt is ren-
dered worthless, in order that we may be com-
pelled to pay a tax on an article so essential to
health." Here is a text tor the anti-English Bahu !
Of course there is the argument that the salt tax
is an essential source of revenue, with w'hich the
Government cannot dispense. But if the (iovern-
ment is reduced to such a dilemma that the re-
tention of the tax hampers agriculture, and its
abolition threatens bankruptcy, what shall we say
of the authorities who voluntarily gave up a source
ot revenue in the cotton duties to humour a
" free trnde " whim, and so did no good to any
body, while retaining a salt tax which is productive
ot so much h,arm — physical, moral and )>olitical ? —
Cnhnii'K ami India.

May 1, i886.'j

TH'fi fRdPfeAL AGnicVLfijntsf,

71$

Ko;damya is plucking in from 3,000 to 1,000 lb
of tea leaf a day and is likely to make tlie
largest quantity of tea this month, ever made on
any single estate in Ceylon. — Tisitor,

Florida. — The recent cold snap in the South is said
to have benefited rather than injured the orange trees
in Rochelle, Fla. The insects have been killed, the
trees have thrown off all the old leaves, and are
nowputting out a vigorous growth. — American Grocer.

Pkice of Kice. — The exportable surplus of rice
from the present crop in Burmah is unprecedented,
and the early shipuieTits have been sold at the
lowest prices ever known to the trade. Quotations
to arrive are 6s 9d per cwt., or less than l^c. a
pound. At this figure rice is the cheapest food in
the market. — Bradstreet, Feb. IHHG.

Coca fob Chewing. — One of the latest novelties in
the specialty line is a compound of coca, tea, coffee
and cinchona, which is put up in the form of pressed
cakes, like tobacco. Portions of the " plug " are
to be chewed, the saliva being swallowed, and tlie
exhausted quid rejected. The compound is styled,
ridiculously enough, " Coca-bola." — Xatioiial Druij-
gist.

The Bank of Brazil has recently sold a good
coffee plantation in the municipality of Piracicaba,
Sao Paulo, containing 80,000 coffee trees, half of
them young, for the sum of J:ilj,000. The plant-
ation was well mounted with machinery for clear-
ing coft'ee, and had 12 slaves besides. — lHo AV»-s.
[In Brazil coffee trees are planted about 280 to an
acre.— Ep.]

Floiiida. — The surprising statement is made tliat
only one acre of land to each three thousand acres
of territory comprising the State of Florida is fit for
hatit ition or adapted to agricultural purposes.
Neariy all the good land has been secured and is
held at high prices. More than half the area of
the seventeen orange counties is under water ro
consists of inhospitable swamps and pine bar-
rens.— A mcrican Grocer.

Tea in Uva. — After all that has been written about
tea i'l the Principality, no one now doubts that is an
assuieil success. .A friend from the Kandy side told me
the other day that after seeing tea eigliteen mouths
and two yoars old in Uva, he was not only couviuced of
the suitability of the Uva climate for tca,but he said the
'■make" of the tree was stronger than any tea he had
seen on the Kandy .'ide at the same age. — Cor. " Cey-
loft Advertiser."

Mi:. Suaxd's Tea-driee had a good trial as
arranged yesterday afternoon when a number of
gentlemen including Messrs. .Joini Urown. Ballar-
die, liorsfall and others, expressed themselves
well pleased. It took about 2 hours previous
tiring to get the heat up to 350° on the plates
and 2.50' on the trays. With the furnace and
chimney outside the tea-house everything is very
clean and convenient by Mr. Shand's arrange-
ments and he liolds that his plan is by no means
wasteful of fuel, indeed that it will probably
save on the Sirocco. On one point there is com-
plete agreement of opinion, namely, that there
can be no cheaper tea-drier than that of Mr. Shand.

Tka Pli'ckimi in Dar.ieei.inu.— AVe had most sea-
sonable falls of rain la.st Tuesday and 'Weduesdiiy which
have had the etlect of freshening everything, and the
hill ,-ides are beginning to assume their summer coat-
ing of grceu. These showers have of course improved
the prospects of all kinds of crops very considerably,
and as the rain has been followed by bright, warca snu-
sliiiie, good, vigorous first Hu-hes on the tea bushes
ought to be the result. Under the old, and bad, sys-
t(m of tea plucking thi.s vfjuld be an unusually early
tea manntaituring season, but the hill nii-ii, at ail
events, having jirofited by dearly bought experieuce,
now let the flrsi tiuoh run to a length varying from
eigl'.t inches upwaros according to circumslauces, and
the natural result is that, a< comparad with the oldeo
Si

ays, but little tea is made stT the first flush. The ro-
ult of the new departure has beeu that many gardens
which used to pay an almost uoniin.al dividend, and
sometimes nono at all, while the goose that laid the
golden eggs was being slowly murdered, are now pay-
ing steady dividends of from 7 to 14 per cent year in
and year out, and the bushes come up smiling to the
fingers of the plurkt-rs. This change in the system of
plucking is certainly due iu a very great measure to
some of the Assam men who camo here between 1873
and 187(5, and notably, I think, to Mr. James Iliddell,
an old and experieni'd Superintendent of the Jorebaut
Company, who was sent out specially to pull the Dar-
jeeling Company round when it was really in a bad way.
— Indian Planters Gazette.

TuKVAR Tea Co., Ld.— The Secretaries have
issued their report and audited accounts for 188.').
The total outturn has beeu considerably under the
estimate, owing to the red spider blight, which
made its appearance in the beginning of May and
spread all over the garden by the beginning of June.
The rainfall (l.'i-.50 inches) during this mouth was tto
light to check it, and there was not much improve-
ment until the end of July. The estimate was tor a
crop of 28S,non lb. of tea, but only 24(1,010 lb.
were made, of which 238,610 lb. were invoiced and
1,320 1b. have been retained for sale at the factory.
Of this qu.autity 140,225 lb. were shipped to Londuu
and '.iS,ll.3 lb. have been sold iu Calcutta. The gross
average price realized inclusive of amount recovered
from the Insurance Co. for IS.S.sO lb. lost on board
the Oitii of Manehester is annas 12 pies lOJ as against
annas 9 pies 5 per lb. in 1884. The balance retained
at the factory is valued at annas 15 per lb. The total
expenditure amounted to K125,ti02-8-i) and the work-
ing of the season resulted in a net profit of Kii'!,44C)-10-(i
After adjustment of the ProHt and Losh Account,
and providing for payment of the «(■/■/■«/'( !/j( dividend
at the rate of 5 per cent, dochired on Utli November
last, there remains a balance at credit of K29,G'J2-2-3
from which the Secretaries recommend tlie payment of
a final dividend of 4 per cent., making 9 per cunt iu all.
at the. season's workiug. This will absorb K29,;;72
and leave a small balance of R320-2-8 to
carry forward. The estimates for the current season
are R124,U0U fora crop of 0,300 maunds, or 264,000 lb.
of tea. — Flatittrs^ Gazette.

Cinchona Disease in Java. — To the Straits
Times translation we are indebted for the follow-
ing paragraph showing how the cinchona planters
in AVestern Java are suffering from canker : —
"The Sourabaya Couraiit has received gloomy reports
anent a disease among the roots of cinchona trees
in West Java, that calamity proving to be wider
spread than many persons would have thought.
The trees are dying out altogether throughout
whole plantations not at first but just when they
were getting valuable and into bearing. Capital
to large amounts invested in hopeful estates have
thereby been lost beyond recovery and many leased
tracts of land will lapse to Government. Judging
from appearances no kind of plantation enterprise
will thrive in Java with any promise of a bright
future to industrious Europeans. Planters in .Tava,
so says the Samarang I,ucoiiwlieJ\ far from being
discouraged by disease among canes and cinchonas
threatening ruin to these kinds of cultivation are
jointly striving to make head against them by
establishing experimental stations where trials may
be carried on to find out the best methods of
growing produce articles, w'arding off disease among
tliem and securing higher yields. To aid sugar
growers, measures have been taken by the Planters
Association to send supplies of sound and healthy
jilant cane from East Java to stricken districts in
the Western portion of the island. The Planters'
Association at Sukabnmie has taken sleps to induce
growers to take joint action to bring about an in-
crease in the consumption of ijuininc thereby to
prevent a further fall in the price of that article
or at least to check its decline,"

746

THE; TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST.

[Mav 1, 1886.

DiMBiiLA AND DiKOYA, March 1886. — We are now
haviiig very dry weather during the day, the heat being
excessive. This for coffee is splendid weather, and al-
ready a blosaora has heen forced out with more in spike,
but it is only after all a feeble effort as compared with
what a coifee blossom should be. For the last three
weeks the air has been thick with smoke from the burn-
ing coffee. Kvery one who has planted tea is anxious to
get the coffee out as quickly as possible. Tea does not
make much progress this weather, but the acreage
planted must be enormous. — Oor. " Oeyion Advertiser."

Fuel has ou many tea estates become a .serious mat-
ter for consideration, more especially where there is
no water-power, and steam-power will have to be used.
There is no doubt that fuel will have to be imported.
Coke will most undoubtedly be the best fuel for the
tea dryer, but it is both costly and bulky. Ordinary
bituminous coal makes too much smoke, will soon choke
the flues of the Sirocco, which will need constant clean-
ing, and create dirt in the tea house. Welsh coal will
most probably be used, but surely we should be able
to get a compressed fuel specially adapted for use in
the Sirocco, and I will call the attention of Messrs.
Davidson, manufacturers of the Sirocco to this. They
must provide us with fuel specially adapted for use in
fhi Sirocco, and at a price laid down in Colombo which
will not be prohibitory. — Cor. Ibid,

Coca.— We understand that the next meeting of the
Linn;ean Society will be .shown a very fine specimen of
the coca-plant, bearing a quantity of red berries This
coca-plaut shows a remarkable likeness to the cacao-
plant (Tlieobroma cacao), which accounts for the pecu-
liar smell of cocoa eometimes adhering to parcels of
coca-leaves, and which on some occasions has led to
their refusal by buyers, who were under the impres-
sion that this smell had its origin in some form of
sophistication. A firm of London druggists have re-
ceived a consignment of coca seeds, which are intended
for .sliiitmeut to the colonies, where there is some
talk of raising coca plantations. Hopes are enter-
tained that a successful cultivation in Ceylon or other
parts would drive the South American coca out of
the European market, as in that case the American
growers would bo able to obtain a comparatively better
price for it from the natives than they could realise
here. — Chemist and Ilrnrigist, Feb. 1886

Tea. — South African and other Colonists are turning
their attention to tea planting. Tea cultivation on an
experimental scale has been carried on for some tii^ie
iu Natal, with such success that one of the planters is'
sending a " sample " of a ton of his produce to the
forthcoming Colonial and Indian Exhibition. In fact,
the rapid extension of tea-planting in that Colony has
attracted the attention of Ceylon planters, several of
whom have paid a visit there to judge for themselves
of the prospects of the industry. Only the other day
a .vhare in a tea "garden" in Natal was advertised in
the London papers as being for sale. The example
of Natal will very probably be followed in other parts
of South Africa, while several districts in Australia
and New Zealand claim to be able to grow good tea.
Baron Ferdinand von Muller advocates the cultivation
of the shrub in Victoria, where plants introduced by
him and experimentally grown have been known to
produce seeds. — Home and ColoniaVMail.

Tekebbne is the popular medicine of the mo-
ment. Dr. Murrell published an article in the
Britifh 21edical Journal of December 12th, in which
he stated that he had obtained excellent results
Ifi eases of winter cough by the use of pure
terebene. The dose he advises is from 5 to 20
minims on sugar. He also administers it as a
spray, from one to two ounces to be diffused and
inhaled every week. Terebene, he finds, also re-
lieves flutulence and acidity, and combined with
equal parts each of oil of cubebs and oil of sautal
wood, wixed with liquid vaseline and used in an
atomising apparatus, he has found to yield ex-
cellent results, not only in winter cough but also
in post-nasal catarrh, as well as in impro\inp
(be tone of the voice. Tetebeue ii a moleeulai'

modificaton of the spirit of turpentine, and is
usually obtained by acting on turpentine by .5 per
cent, of concentrated sulphuric acid and distilling
repeatedly. It is a product very similar to sanitas.
— Chemist and Drniigists, Feb. 1886.

Madulsima Tka. — We received samples the
other day of the first tea made well-known on a
Madulsima plantation where a large area has beens
planted with tea. Messrs. Willson & Co. have been
good enough to give the folowing report on the
same — a report that ought to encourage tea planters
in that nitimn thule of the Uva districts : —

" No. 1 : Broken Pekoe Is 8d to Is 9d — blackish
greyish, little mixed leaf, little flaky, some pekoe ends ;
good strength, but dull flavor.

"No. 2 : Pekoe Is Sd up — blackish, greyish, mixed,
choppy'leaf, fewjpekoe tips ; doll flavor, fair [strength,

" No. 3 : Pekoe souchong Is Od ; fairly twisted,
blackish, greyish uneven leaf, few pekoe tips ; dull
flavor, rather thitf.

'■ The above samples, having been kept in paper, hava
een rendered duJl and fiat.''

The samples did not get fair play, having been
sent forward in paper and they lay some day
exposed before examination.

Tea in Uva. — An Uva planter writes : — Mr. — ^-
was as pleased as he was surprised with the wonder-
ful growth of lea here, said he liadu 't seen any-
thing to approach it on the other side. This was very
high praise, seeing that he had seen tea in so
many districts before he came this length. I have
been the greater part of today with coolies cutting
down my oldest tea which will thus be ready for
plucking towards end of April, and will afford a
capital opijortunity of testing its flushing capacity
throughout the dry months of June, July and
August. 1 hope, and really think that the result
will be such as to put an effectual and evcrlastfl
ing stop to tliat grave shake of the head and it-
concomitant expression " Will it flush ?" which
some of our as yet unbelieving Kandy-side friends
are wont to assume whenever the subject of tea
cultivation in Uva is brought foiward. A good
many thousands of pounds of tea will go forward
from Uva this year, and next year we shall be
in the thick of it. Oh, for the Railway !

ScijJNnricTEA Making. — It must be kept in mind that
during the raivj/ season the process of artificial wither*
ing becomes naturally divided into two parts. AVhcn
the leaf is brought from the garden ontinirdli/ drip/nn;/
vith rain, it seems to us useless to begin withering
till the leaf is rendered outwardly drj. In wet
weather, therefore, our first operation is to place the
wet leaf into our drier where the rain is cpiickly
evaporated, and in this part of the process a temper-
ature of ll'l ^ may be used with impunity. This we fancy
is the source of the miscjiicejiti n\ we are rectifying.
It will be fully understood, howe^'er, that this teiMper-
ature applies only to tbeevai»oration of the rain-water
on the leaf, and even iu this oparation we wouhl nd-
vf'cate a soiiK'what more moderate temperature — say
100° F. So soon as the leaf is thus rendered out-
wardly dry, the second part of the withering process
is begun, and in it we use no artificial heat. It will
thus be seen that we are in exact accord with the
writer iu your coluimis : and as he is doubtless a
prai^tical planter, it is gratifying to us to find that
while lujiiitentionally misrepresenting us, he so fully
confirms the piincipte, as regards temperature, upon
which we }trnceetl. We will only further add that
notwithstandiug the opposition to our process of
" experts " at home, we are arranging to have it pract-
ically tested iu India audin Ceylon during the approach-
ing .season. jAji£sA.R. Main.

Jno. Dii'K.

Glasgow, Feb. WKh.—rianters' Ouutte.
[Those trials will be the true test of the merits of
the invention, but we believe Mr. Armstrong and a great
many other,^ would object to warm air even iu the
lenjoval of moisture Jrom the leaves.— EP.l

Mav I, 1 886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

747

PHYLLOXERA AT THE CAPE.

W'i> have ri\^eired from a correspondent in South
Africa some details of the long-dreaded appearance
of the rhyllo.xera iu the vineyards of the (!apc Colony.
As long .igo as ISSO the importation of living plants
in any form or shape was forbidden by the Cape
Covemment. This measure wa.s so .strictly enforced
that consigunieuts of young beech-trees from England
and of tree-ferns from New Zealand were not allowed
to be landed. In 1884 the prohibition was for a short
time relaxed. But it was speedily revived, under a
penalty of o(M>l. or two years' imprisonment with or
without hard labour in the case of any infringing it.
The insect has now, notwithstanding, actually ap-
peared in a few vineyards near Gape Town, and in
two ^ther.s about twenty-four miles otf.

Fortunately the Cape CJovernment has competent
scientific advice at hand. Mr. Koland Trimen, F.R.S.,
the Director of the South African Museum, and a
well-known entomologist, attended the Phylloxera Con-
gress at Bordeaux iu 1881 as the representative of
the Cape Colony. A (/Ommission to examine and
report on the outbreak has been appointed, consisting
of Mr. Trimen, of M. Peringuey his assistant, and of
I'rof. Macowan, F. L. S., Director of the Botanic
Oarden. M. Peringuey is a Bordeaux man and a good
entomologist ; he first drew Mr. Trimen'.s attention to
some suspicious-looking mites on a slide which had
been taken from a Cape vineyard by the doctor of
a French ship, about Christmas.

Two or three of the vineyards are simply swarm-
ing with Phylloxera. But in others it appears to have
only recent centres. Unfortunately sulpho-tarbouates
and carbon bisulphide are little more than names in
the colony, and it has been necessary to telegraph for
a supply. Pending the arrival of the insecticide, the
vines are being uprooted and burnt. The result so
far is encouraging, and the small range of the insect
leads to the hope that it may be well kept under if
not stamped out. — Xatvre.

COCONUT PLANT.VTIONS AT BATTIOALOA.

20th February. — The demand for Coconuts is great.
They sell at R33'34 per thousand, and Oopperah at
R36"37 per candy.* The scarcity of nuts may be
attributed to the short produce. I do not i|uite agree
with the common opinion that this is traceable to
the long dry season we experienced last year. The
flower spathes thrown out after the flood of last year
by the Coconut palm has, with a few exceptions, been
abortive, and I persume that this is attributable to the
heavy flood.-i of ISS.'J. A healthy, well-bearing Coconut
tree ought to have 12 hunches on it in all stages of
growth, fjom the newly opened spathe to the fully
ripe nut. Although there are 12 spathes on the tree,
moat of them are denuded of nuts. I am afraid that
the pice of Coconuts will ri.se extremely high thio
year.

Plantations have commenced to wear a dejected
look already, and Coconut bunches and branches
are fast dropping to the ground. While on the
subject of Coconuts, I may say in reply to your foot-
note to my letter that it is truo that the price of
Oil regulates the price of Copperah, but how is it that
the price of (Jil remains stationary or recedes f Ii it
that demand for it is slack, or that the enormous
stocks said to have accumulated in England, have not
been appreciably reduced ? I beg leave to question
your figures as to the relative price of a thousand
Coconuts and a candy of Copperah. You give the
.iitfi renco as only KG. That is true only of exceptional
places where nuts are so large that the Copperah of
I.IOU or 1,200 nuts go to the candy.

[In exceptional places we have heard of 900 to
IjfXiCMiuts sufficing for a candy. Ours is a safe average
for average places in average seasons. — Et>. '* Ex."]

* In the Western Province, the dilference in price
between n thousand nuts and a candy of Copperah is
about H6— as from 1.100 to 1,300 nuts go to a candy,
and the cost of drying is Rr2.5 a thousand. How
many Batlicaloa nuts go to a candy?— Eu. "Ex."

During a season of drought or large crops, on average
properties from 1,300 to 1,400 nuts go to a candy.
Taking the former figure as the average, and the price
now ruling for Coconuts R30, let us see what Copperah
ought to fetch. 1.31.0 nut.s at R.30 = H39 plus Rl-e24.
for drying 1,300 nuts at Rl-25 =- R40 62J per candy
of Copperah in the villages. Add to this transport
to Colombo, and the price reaches something like
R41'50, and yet traders who pay K30 for Coconuts
here, .sell a candy of Oopperah in Colombo at from
R3S to 38, and gat a profit too ! The Mercliauts who
buy Copperah can possibly .say how the trader manages
this. The uninitiated iu these mysteries simply feel
bewildered when attempting to solve them. — " Ex-
aminer."

THE JIANUFAOTURE OF SALT.

It will be remembered that Government recently
deputed Dr. .I..T. L. Katton, to investigate and re-
port upon tho quality of salt manufactured iu the
Madras Presidency. We hear that that otRcer has
informed Government that he can do nothing jier-
sonally to improve the quality of salt .nt present manu-
factured. The excise system prevails now at so many
mauufacturiug stations, that the new system treated
of iu his '* Handbook of Common Salt" could only
he forced |tipon the salt ryots at a few places, and
it would not affect the bulk of the salt made in
this Presidency. But there is still a stronger reason
for delaying any action that might be taken at the
pans, and that is, the system of selling salt by
measure prevalent in this Presidency is entirely opposed
to the manufacture, that it would be impcssible to
maintain an improved method of manufacture without
constant and extended supervision, which would
retiuire a very large increase in the staff of the
Salt Department. It was pointed out that pure
salt, as compared with bad salt, is remarkable for
its weight and solidity, and as we pass from pure
rock salt through the different grades of manufactured
salt, physical qualities deteriorate yaii jjasfu with
chemical, until we meet with the worst chemical
descriptions, which are very light and hollow. Tho
salt trader will always purchase the lightest, i.e., the
worst salt chemically, because it pays out and oat
the best, bought by weight and sold by measure,
and the effect of this on the salt manufactures is,
th.at where there is any choice of pans there is a
run on those which ranke bad salt, and the good
salt stores are neglected. The yearly demand for
salt increases the bud pans. Fresh pans are opened,
and the place developes and i)roapers, whereas the
good salt remains long unsold, the yearly demand
falls off, pans are thrown out of cultivation, and
the ryots abandon the manufacture in disgust, or outbid
their rivals iu the manufacture of bad salt. There
is uo chance of getting the manufuicturers to make
good salt, so long as the present system of pui-chase
by weight and sale by measure is allowed to continue.
But if it is essential to maint.<iin the status quo as
regards purchase and sale. Dr. Ilatton suggests the
removal, as far as possible, of local rivalry by limiting
the number of salt manufactories to a few points
on the coast, far apart and well supplied with means
of communication by rail or canal, as Tuticorin,
Vedarman, !SIadras, Beypore, &c. At each of these
places, an increased staff could be concentrated for
the supervision of manufacture, and the increased
cost would he more than met by the savings of the
closed manufactories. As a standard of quality to be
obtained by the salt manufacturers, he would suggest
the Vedarman swamp salt as it conta'DS ii irly 99
per cent of .sodium chloride, and is the pr.,Juct of
purely natural forces. Government, in passing orders,
observes, that under the existing administration, the
quality of salt produced at most of tho works has
been subordinated to the development of the salt
revenue, in consequence of which salt has been for
some time past deteriorating. This is admitted by
the Commissioner of Salt and Abkari Revenues but
the only remedy whic^h that oflicer has b(x'n able to
suggest, is a legal enactment prohibiting the sale of

748

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[Mav I, 1886.

salt by measure — a proposal which the Government
have after a careful consideration, already negatived,
and see uo reason for departing from their decision
on the point. The true remedy for the unsatisfactory
state of things which exists with regard to the
([uality of the salt non-.'-olJ lies in taking steps as
will ensure nothing but good salt being excised or
passed oat of monopoly factories or depots. For this
purpose a Committee composed of Messrs. J. H.
Garstin, c. s. i., and J. F. Price, c. s., Deputy Surgeon
General BiJie, c. i. E., and Surgeon Major J. J. L.
Eatton, has been appointed by Government, and it
mil consider (1) The standard of quality to be fixed,
(2) The test of ijaalities to be applied, the officer
by whom it should be carried out, and the method
of appHcation, and (3) the question how salt rejected
should be disposed of, and to such other points as
may occur, or be suggested to them in the course of
their enquiry. — Madras MnV.

FISH MANURES.

It was little more than forty years ago that the
first importation of Peruvian guano occurred in Scot-
land. About twenty years ago the imports of Peruvian
guano attained their maximum, and they have since
gradually dwindled away — the rich deposits of guano
are now e.xhausted, and there remain only poor
deposits, which iu a great measure will not repay the
cost of importing.

To find something that will take the place of a
high-class Peruvian guano is of course a great desider-
atum, and it has been claimed for fish and flesh
manures that they are the modern representatives of
Peruvian guano, and the name " guano " has, therefore,
been applied to them. Their composition, so far as
total phosphates and nitrogenous matters are concerned,
lends some support to that opinion, but the resembl-
ance is only a superficial one.

The composition of Peruvian guano was a very
complicated one, and the constituents were of a delic-
atelj'-balanced kind, capable of easy decomposition
in the .soil, and the effect of these upon the crop was
very rapid an<l precise. A large proportion of the
phosphates were alkaline, and therefore immediately
soluble, while the noitrogeuous matter con.iiisted chiefly
of ammonia salts or complex soluble substances, which
were rapidly converted into ammonia salts or nitrates,
and were thus made inimudiaely available for the
nourishment of plants. " Fish guano," on the other
hand, and flesh manures, such as " Frey-Beutos guano,"
consist of phosphates which are insoluble in water,
and of nitrogenous matters of an albuminoid kind,
which are only slowly decomposed in the soil. Before
these constituents can be used by the plaut, they must
Jirst be dissolved or decimipused, and that is a process
which takes some time. The iusolubihty of these
manures renders them unsuitable for application in
circumstances where Peruviau guano exerted a powerful
iulluence, such as in the startingaway of cereals or young
grass when applied as a top-dressing.

Those substances are chiefly valuable for broadcast
manuring with the view of raising the general fertility
of the soil, or for application to root-crops which have
a prolonged period of growth. The utility of fish guano
in thcBu respects has been very clearly ilemonstrated
at the experimental stations of the Highland and
Agricultural Society. The fish guano plot has gone
on steadily improving since the beginning of the
experiments, and it has been noticed that the Turnip
crops havo looked fresh and continued their growth
far on in the season. The only year in which a
marked ilefieiency in that plot was manifest was iu
1884, at the Pumpherstou station, when a crop of
Beans was grown. The very backward state of that
plot on that occasion pointed out very clearl3' wherein
lies the chief deficiency of fish manure. The results
obtained with the Bean crop exc-'oded iu interest anj'
that had occurred before upon the station, and the
one overruling constituent in a Bean manure was shown
to be pota.sh. All the plots that had pota.sh applied to
them did well, and those that had the largest ilosc of

potash did best, while those that had no potash applied
to them were a failure. The most notable failure
was seen in two plots which had been manured with
fish guano and fish meal.

It is characteristic of fish manures that while they
contain much phosphate and abundance of nitrogenous
matter, they contain scarcely any potash. But it is
well known that the abundance of some fertilising
constituents in a manure counts for nothing iu the
raising of a crop if one of the e.ssential constituents
of plant food is absent, or if the one which the crop
requires most is present in insufficient amount. AVe
therefore found that the plots manured with fish
manures produced a smaller crop than any other plot
save one, and that was the plot to which no notash
bad been applied since the beginning of the ex-
periments.

We thus see that there have been two causes at
work to lower the value of fish manures in the estim-
ation of the farmer ; in the first iplace he has been
led to expect, from the misleading name under which
it has been .sold, that it would be a manure resembling
in its efficacy Peruvian guano, with whose extra-
ordinay fertilising power he had been familar ; and
secondly, the nearly total want of potash, which,
though not abundant ia Peruvian guano, was never-
theless present iu that manure to the extent of about
3 per cent.

What, then, is needed in order to make fish manures
once more attractive to the farmer 'i They should
be sold under a name that does not raise fals(( ex-
pectatious, and they should have potash salts added
to them. They would be still further improved if
there were added to them some high-class superphos-
phate and a little sulphate of ammonia. For general
purposes I would recommend a fish manure so mixed
as to show from 5 to 10 per cent soluble phosphate.
15 to 20 per ceut insoluble phosphate 10 per cent of
ammonia partly soluble, and 4 per cent of potash,
and I feel sure that if manufactures can produce such
a manure it will rapidly become popular with farmers,
and produce a good market for a substance of which
there is truly an inexhaustible supply, and the result
will not only be a gain to agriculture, but also a
means of giving greater stability and security to our
fisheries, which have lost much in the past from the
wholesale destruction of valuable fish material. — Ex-
tract from a paper by Dr. A. P. Aitken. in the
North British AgricuUurUt, l&a. 27, 1886. — Garieners'
Chromcle.

TEA PLUCKING.

Plucking has been receiving much more attention
during the last few years, and deductions made go to
prove that with even greater care, better results could
be obtained. AVe are glad to learn that agents are
having their eyes opened to the damage done by writing
repremands for short outturn when the manager has
been adopting a wise policy in sparing Lis bushes, so as
to get as large a surface ujion them as possible. Some
planters we know aver that tlie tea bush should be kept
down to a certain height, and that if allowed to grow
beyond this, the flushes cease to be as vigorous, or as
frequent. Wo are prepared to admit that tliere is some
truth in this, but we think that the height the bushes
should be allowed to grow to, as well as the breadth are
easily determined by the vigour which they display.
According, then, to the vigor of the bush should the
style of plucking be suited. It is of course impossible
to apply such a system to every individual bush; but
but there is no reason why it should not be applied to
sectiona of a garden. If bushes are large anil vigorous
it stands to reason that they can sui)port a larger
number of suckers, and feed a larger number of eyes ;
therefore at the beginning of the season it would be
advisable to allow the first flushes to grow out longer
and leave more axils thau woiUd be the case with less
vigorous bushes. No planter of course desires to have
weak bushes, but at the same time in uearly every
garden a cert^iin proportion of poor bushes are to be
found; and generally some sections are more to liable

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

749

sutfer from blight of different kinds than others. It
cnn hardly be questioned that blight shows either weak-
ness in the bush, or that there is soiue extraiuous,
hostile, substance in that particular part of a ganlen in
which blight appears most severely.

The vexed ipiestiou is, however, whether fine or coarse
plucking paj-s the best? Whilst weighing the/»*y^ and
cum one must not lose sight of what is most beneficial to
the bushes, and which course can be pursued the longest
with impunity to them. A great many li.aphazard state-
ments have been made on the subject ; but within the
last few years a good deal of valuable, reliable, inform-
ation has been accunndatiug. So far as we can learn,
the concensus of opinion leans towards coarse pluekiug,
as not only giving the best pecuniary result, but as
lasting longer, doing the bushes little or no harm. In
fact we have heard it asserted that gardens have
improved in appearance from this treatment. We are
not prepared, however, to .iccept this altogether; but
would lay before our readers the .system we have heard
recommended as the most eihcient, leaving to themselves
to judge whether it should be followed or not. In
former years the rule observed as closely as practicable
was to commence upon a six-leaf dush. taking three
leaves, and leaving three, from the axils of which
hitherto the second flush come ; when the second flush
attained five leaves, to take three, and leave two ; the
third flush proceeding from these in turn, was often
taken in the same way ; and in the fourthflush, as soon
as it attained four leaves, it was usual to leave only one
le,Tf on the bush. After the fifth and sixth flushes, it was
generally a clean sweep of everything that came out,
The wood thus attained would piobably, at an average
of two inches, give a height, for six flushes, of twelve
inches, which was considered sufficient to prune upon,
or rather to prune oil, for it was as a rule cut off say
three inches above the former year's pruning ; so that
so much was wasted that might have been made into
tea.

The system we have heard recommended recently
and which to an outsider seems to carry some weight
is (luite the reverse of this. At the beginning of the
s..-asou insea 1 of plucking upon a .six-leaf flush, the
flush is allow ed to grow out to eight or nine leaves, when
tiiree leaves are tiken off, and the other five or six
leaves left on the bush are allowed to remain and ripen
into material for next season's pruning ; after this first
flush is thoroughly established, the garden is regularly
visited by the plucking women ouce a weak, and the
bush Ls completely stripped of all new leaf which has
shown during that time. At the beginning of the sea>ion
if the gro>-.th is ngorous. leaving six leaves on a bush
means at least nine inches in height from the place
where the shoot strikes out to the top of it ; as the
distance between the leaves is always great early in the
season. S ) that if we allow, say, three or four inches
above the former year's pruning, there still ren)ains six
inches of woo 1 to be cut away. ^ViDther contention
we have heard in favor of this system is, that allowing
the flush to run this way in the beginning of the season
. gives much cleaner wood, and that although nn the yery
surface there is before the end of the season a lot of
brushwood. Another argument is that both young and
old leaf being taken together, the quality of the tea
made is much better than if only medium leaf were
plucked : that the quantity is largely increased ; an.l
that towards the end of the sea.son the harder the
bushes are pinched, the harder they throw out. Our
tea-planter friends would do well to considi-r the subject.
We Jiave put the ideas we have heard before tliem.

We could point to a good number of gardens in
which this system is followed and which seem to go on
increasing in yield, year by year. With regard to fine
plucking, we believe there is the great drawback that
the bushes never get the same foundation as in leaving
the firstflush as recommindcd above, and in con^ioquence
the conslitution ot the bnsh is. to a certain extent,
injured. It mi^'ht be worth the while of some of our
friends to experiment with two plots, alongside of one
another, in both instances allowing the first flush to get
a start, but after that plueking fine in the one case, and
plucking coarse, in the other. We have heard it stated,
but we do not know how true it is, that the loss in

quautity in fine plucking is about 20 to 25 per cent.,
whereas the difference in value is nothing like compens-
atory. It is a subject of much interest to all connected
with tea, and well worthy of the best consideration-
even one niaund per acre extra yield makes a wonderful
difference in the cost of production. In the tabulated
list in the Home and Colmiinl Mail the best paying
garden certainly plucks fine, but this is quite eclipsed by
the number of good paying gardens that pluck coarse.
A8.sain teas have taken :i strong lead in quality last year',
but shareholders have had to pay for it; which tends to'
prove that, for profit, quantity and not quality is the
thing. — Jiiiliuii Planters' Gazette.

TEA CIU.TIVATION IN FIJI.
is thus noticed in the Fiji I'imes of Jany. 2.3rd:

As uKintioned in the former Wainunu article, Masusu,
the plantation where Messrs. Mackinuon and Barratt
are now engaged in the systematic, and what is con-
fidently expected to prove the thoroughly successful
cultivation of the plant, lies on the left bank of the
Wainunu River, some mile and a half from its mouth.
The plantation was originally opened by Jlr. A. Peters
for Mr. Alfred Sharpe, and all preparations were made
to prosecute coffee cultivation on an. extensive scale.
But the prospects of the iudustry declined. The pro-
prietor entered very largely into the sugar enterprise
on the Navua River, the minor undertaking was aban-
doned, and the plantation was suhseijuently acquired by
its present owners as a property specially suitable for
tea cultivation. In arriving at this conclusion, Mr.
Barratt, who is an Indian tea-grower of very consider-
able experience, was guided, not only by the apparent
suitability of the soil, situation, and aspect ; but also by
the result of his enquiries and research as to the im-
portant matter of rainfall and general climatic condi-
tions. As these appeared favo;able the enterprise
was entered upon with hopeful confidence.

The plantation, which has a splendid river frontage,
affording every facility for the loading and discharging
of small craft, embraces about 500 acres, well situ-
ated, easily worked, an.l with a practically inexhaust-
able strength of soil. This is indeed the distinguishing
feature of the Wainunu district. Miles on miles
back from the cost-line, whether the foot is turned
toward Yanawai on the east or Nadi on the west
magnificent stretches of comparatively Ibit land are
met with, carrying a wonderful depth of rich loose
soil, formed by the vegetable deposit of ages, and
possessing forcing <iuaUties that are attested by the
luxuriant growth which everywhere springs up in
rankest profusion. The timber supply on these prolific
but particularly waste lands, and particularly that lying
towaril Yanaw.ai is admitted to be unsurpassed in
any part of Fiji, and it is a planter's axiom that light
clearing makes poor crops, aud vire ver-a.

It is now about two years since its proprietors
commenced operations, and up to the present results
have fully realised expectations. The greater '(lortion
of this time has of ni'ce.ssity been devoted to the
business of getting into order, to the establishment
anil cnltivation of the nur.series, the preparation of
the soil, and the setting out of the young plants.
But now, while this work still goes on, there is beside
a large area of land planted up, in which the young
trees look .so luxuriantly healthy that in reviewing
his experience, Mr. Barratt asserts that he has never
before seen such remarkable growth. To bring the
properties of the leaf to practical tesi, he recently
prepared a few pounds of tea from these trees. The
quahlies manufactured were those known to the grower
and trader as pekoe aud pekoe souchong, being the
respective product of the young leave and of the
intermediate class between the first quality and the
coav.-ci •lescriptii.n manufactured from the largest leaf
and known as souchong. Samples of this, the first
product of the estate, were recently forwarded to
Levuka and <luly tested by competent judges, with
the result that the tea was pronounced excellent,
its characteristics being strength, a pure flavor, and
a rich yi t delicate aroma. This would .seem to in-
dicate that Messrs. Jlackinnon and Barratt have not

750

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May 1, 1886,

misjudged the capabilities of Masiisu for tea pro-
duction, and that there is every prospect before them
of a successful future.

In working this out it is their intention to avail
themselves of the latest improvements in mechanical
appliances, one of which promises to effect a very
considerable saving in the all important matter of
labor. Hitherto it has been the practise to carefully pick
the flushes, as the output of leaves to be harvesti.d
is called, by hand ; but a machine has been patented
which works on the principle of a wheat-header, and
travelling along the tops of trees, jjathers the leaves
rapidly and reduces the work of picking to a minimum.*
The rolling, sorting, drying, &c., is also done by
machinery, so that with the plantation once in full
yield the number of laborers required should not
constitute a heavy working charge.

At present there are about 40 Polynesian laborers
on the estate, and work goes on with them with the
very smallest amount of friction. They are well treat-
ed and they have the sense to know it. That they
are well fed their appearance testifies;' that they are
well and comfortably housed a visit to their snugly-
built and trimly-ordered "lines" will prove, while
that proper provisions has beeu made for them in the
event of 6ickne.ss, appears in the spacious and cleanly
hospital, which, however, was empty at the time of
my visit.

Besides these mentioned, the buildings on Jlasusu
are the homestead, a comfortable wooden structure
with native houses as adjuncts, and a large iron
erection, huilt in the year one ut the coffee era, but
found to be of the great service in the present, and
promising to be of even greater service in the futuru
tea time. I will not intrude upon the privacy of
the homestead further tlian to say that there is a
lady ho.stess whose presence and surroimdings contri-
bute a softer and higher tone than is generally charac-
teristic of plantation lite.

I have already casually said that the soil is of
superior quality, strong, yet easily worked, and need
owl nothing to artificial fertilization during the natural
life of its proprietors. From the river banks to the
hill tops it is a deep, rich friable loam in which all
vegetable products, indigenous and imported, attain
a most satisfactory development. This was particularly
noticeable in the healthy look and Hourishing growth
of the food crops after the drought of tbi- late .sea-
son. AVith ."^uch advantages, as may be supposed, all
necessary supplies, fruit and vegetable, are obtainable
in profusion, and with fish and wild fowl from the
river, and an abundance of fresh milk, butter, eggs,
fee, from a well-stocked farm and poultry yanl, the
occupants of the Rlasusu homestead should tind their
lives cast in very pleasant places. If they do not,
they arc within an easy day's run of Levuka, and a
short change will soon reconcile them to th* ir country
life.

DROUGHTS ANU WHAT KIND OF RETURNS
WOULD HE OF SERVICE TO TROPICA f. AGRI-
CULTURISTS.

People liviug in a tropical countr_y, especially when
that country is alnio.st exclusively liependent upon
agriculture as a means of livelihood, must be continually
struck with the indispensable value of rain. It is
therefore with more than usual interest we are in-
clined to look upon the returns shewing the longest
periods of drought at various rainfall stations in Ceylon,
recently supplied by our courteous Sui vejor-General,
though we must say we have always cousiilered
the word "drought" has with us a wider meaning
than simply freedom from rain. For instance, the
most droughty year we can remember, after almost
thirty years' residence in Ceylon, was decidedly 188-1.
We do not say that rain was neccssanly less fre-
quent then, but that, »h(n it came, for a long time

* Such a machine has been reported from America,
but no sane person, we suppose, believe in a leaf-picking
machine. — Pak

the fall was in insufficient quantities to do any appreci-
able good. Coconut holes, after inches of rain had
fallen, remained dry a foot below the surface. The
dry months of February and March were followed
by a south-west monsoon, with an exceptionally low
rainfall; consequently in many districts it was not
until the north-east monsoon set in that the drought
of the land actually ceased.

After a continuance of dry weather, it is very fre-
quently the case that a light shower falls, at least
light in comparison to what one would then require ;
consequently the drought is far from being at an end.
Rain is wanted for two chief purposes — first, to
maintain vegetation, and second, in a lesser degree
to supply drinking water in the wells and streams ;
so it is the effect it has in these two ways that it
benefits humanity; and in a hot climate, where
evaporation is more sudden, there is naturally a great-
er necessity for ample moisture. Thus it will be
seen that the practical effect of a so-called draught,
as shewn by the Surveyor-Oenerars tables, may be
quite different from what we should in a purely agricul-
tural sense denominate it.

The moisture requisite for plants will always be in-
fluenced favorably or otherwise by sunshine and wind,
they being the chief producers of rapid evaporation,
so that a larger supply of moisture will be necessary
under the intiuence of sun and wind than in a cloudy
or quiet atmosphere. In looking through the Surveyor-
Oeueral's list and comparing it with our experience
of those droughts which for a long time affected
agricultm'e and wells, we do not find any very marked
similarity of results, and we can only ascertain these
by r&ference to the full returns, as usually published.
Simply as shewn, they merely indicate the longest
period without rain, which may after all be neither in-
jurious to moist vegetation, nor to mankind. It often
happens that for long periods only a few inches fall,
say, something under three inches a month, which
where unaided by irrigation, is synonymous with a
faliure of crop upon those cultivated plants of most
value to eultiv.'itors, except, as sometimes is the
case, near streams where the laud absorbs sufficient
moisture to retain the fertility of coconut and other
perennial plants.

A table showing the continuance of droughts,
where the aggregate rainfall did not exceed 3 inches
a Tnouth, would be very interesting; especially in
those provinces the climate is such as to permit the
growth of our most valuable products, such as tea,
cefiee, cocoa, and coconuts. Cocoa is a plant re-
quiring, in addition to a rich soil, a fairly regular
rainfall niver falling short, for two months conse-
cutively, of tile three inches aggregate in a month.
Coconuts bear drought much longer, and woidd. in
ilee]). rich land stand the same teat for three or
four months without much injury. In a locality near
the sea, or upon alluvial flats where water can be
reached within eight to tea feet from the surface, it
is very ditlioult to say how long they would thrive
without rain — perhaps six or seven months — but this
wouhl altogether depend upon the degree of suitabil-
ity of the land upon which they were growing. Tea
is not, truly speaking, a tropical plant. JIanv on that
account consi<ler that its period of Ufe will not be
long in Ceylon ; others again assert that the only
way it can be maintained is by a yearly drought
necessitating a rest; yet we believe a continuance of
the less-than-three inches a month test, for longer
than three months, would cause it great injury. In
most parts of India tea undergoes yearly fully three
months' ilry weather, where probably a smaller rain-
fall than wu consider the minimum we can stand in
Ceylon is experienced ; but it must be remembered
that it is in a latitude fully 10 degrees further north
than Ceylon, and also where it is indigenous. Even
in our island we should doubt if a larger rainfall than
1:20 inches over the nine months, and, say, six inches
over the three dry mouths — in all 126 inelies— would
be auy advantage' to tea. It .seems to h>- the condi-
tiun of most plants in nature to have a period of dry
weather in each year, lasting from one to six months ;

Miiv I, 1886.J

THE TROPICAL AORieULTURlST.

751

not uecessarily rainless, but a period during which the
ground never becomes absolutely wet, when we have
no doubt the airing of the soil contributes much to
many of its particles becoming food for plants, and
the moisture being driyen deeper, it extends the limits
at which roots can descend, remain healthy, and ful-
fil their functions; yet we know there is a limit
even to this.

As a means to a practical end, we consider returns
showing the longest periods when the rainfall has
been confined to throe mches a month would be of
great use and interest to the public, showing as they
woidd the effect of rainfall upon perennial cultivations,
they being the only ones retaining any real perman-
ent value in the island. It would at once indicate
the adaptability of lands for special cultivations more
then any other test. Where droughts continue over
mony months, the grazing of cattle or chena cultiv-
ation is the only use to which land can be applied un-
less within the reach of irrigation, A mapping-out
of the country on a more elaborate plan than that
adopted by Mr. Vincent in the map accompanying his
report would be very useful, especially if there were
various colors for droughts of less than three inches
in the month, for, say, period extending over one
two, three and four, mouths respectively. It is strange
that the list supplied .should contain no returns from
ench an important place as the chief town of the
Noith-Western I'rovince. The pubhc are under an
obligation to the Surveyor-General for the information
supplied, and hope that he will continue publishing
returns likely to help forward the largely extending
and important interests upon which alone, it may be
said, the permanent welfare of Ceylon is dependent.
— Com. local " Times."

TEA WITHEKING BY MACHINERY.
It has long been disputed that, however possible is
may be to iuvent Machinery, suitable for Tea Manut
facture, which shall adequately perform the variou-
processes through which the leaf has to pass under the
system of hand manufacture, the elemental phase of
" withering " must be left to Nature, and could not be
performed m an equally elficient manner by Art. We
have, ourselves, never been able to understand this
contention, since there is no special external atmospheric
condition necessary for perfect withering except " heat,"
accurately applied,— or rather perhaps, as it may be
niore correctly designated, warmth: such a character
of temperature, in other words, which, while ab.soi bin"
moistiu-e, should, without any approach to "steaming"
the leaf, render it soft and flaccid for rolling, and for
generating that fermentation which should ensue on
the bruising of the leaf cells. Mere applied ■' heat "
alone, w'lll not effect this, as, in the latest introduction
tor Machme-witliering patented by Mr. Main, " baking "
rather than "withering" is found to be the result
«hat IS wanted is heat in motion, in imitation of
ordinary atmospheric heat, and such an e.xposure of
the leaf to an cjiial temperature, orey aJl its part'' as
IS obtained by leaf thinly spread and turned on chan^is
over the floor of the room above the factory, by which
the warm air from below percolates, as it were,
equally through the whole of the leaf on the tray
This IS in imitation of the China system, where 'a
thorough draught of warm air passes through all the
leaf; and not only so, but the leaf is subjected to a
process of to.ssmg and beating (so to speak) by which
that ec/iia! distribution of warmth so essential, is ob-
tained. In the attempts hitherto made at witherin-
by machinery, it has been found difficult to keep the
leaf sufficiently separated. The tendency has been for
the leaf to fall in "heaps" round the revolving
cyhnder, and thus e,j„al withering of each leaf has
been impossible. Thus, as we say, the idea of adequate
withering by machinery has been almost abandoned
A new invention, however, is now about to be put
before the public by Jlr. W. Gow. of .Messrs. (Jow,
AV ilson, and Stanton, Kood Lane, London, Tea I'.rokers
which seems to fulfil the conditions required ; and it
is claimed for it that while taking away tht sitra

moisture from wet leaf by artificial heat, none of those
chemical constituent parts upon which good Tea
depends are carried off; and further, that the process
60 srpa-ratfs and exposes the leaf to the operation of
dry warm air, that the withering h,v,n, and the tip
brought out more fully than by the ordinary process;
with the result of good infused color, briskness, flavour'
and tippy ajipearaiiee. '

■Withering being, iu fact, incipient fermentation, it
follows that an extension of the principles of correct
withering is followed, on the bruising of the leaf, by
natural fermentation, and this Mr. M'. Gow's Invention
claims to produce iu one and the same machine. A
series of trials made recently by Mr. Gow himself
before an assemblage of practical planters in the
Darjeelmg aud Terai districts, resulted in an expression
of opinion by tho.se gentlemen that exceptionally good
infused color, briskness, flavour, and tippy appearance,
h.ad been secured by the exhibit made before them ;
and that oxydization and fermentation were, by Mr!
Gow's machine, fully aud chemically perfected ; and
that tea made even from coarse leaf (which was the
kind experimented on,— it being then the end of the
season), gave a good black appearance, and was
generally favourably affected. The Meeting further
found that a good twist in rolling was given to the
leaf, and, all superfluous moisture having been removed
the process of "firing" was much more speedily
carried out.

Mr. Gow asserts that tea subjected to his process
will possess better keeping qualities than tea made
in the ordinary manner, and, as a special tea expert
his opinion on this subject is of high value. '

We were shown by Mr. Ciow some tea made towards
the end of the present season by his process, and the
out-turn was a bright coppery colour, while the infused
leaf unfolded itself, showing that all the surface had
been fully and equally operated on by the water, aud
the greatest nutriment extracted.

The Chinese do not push the withering of leaves to
excess, but only so as to obtain the necessary
fermentation, keeping the leaves moist during the
whole time, and thus preventing any approach to
desiccation, which would result in a poor weak liquor
Mr. Gow follows the Chinese system, and can claim'
certainly, to be the first to apply Machinery to its
practice, for in his Invention warm air softens the
leaf, aud fermentation follows on the cells of the leaf
being broken by a process of "beating," after the
manner adopted by the Chinese, which exposes each
leaf to the action of the oxygenic air-current passinc
continuously through the machine. Means are proviiled
for riyidatiuri the temperature of the air by induction
thus following the natural principle of equalily of
temperature.

It is not a small merit to have overcome the diffi.
culties which have hitherto presented themselves in
regard to mechanical withering, and we congratulate
Mr. Gow on having been .so successful where otherii
have failed.

The following Summary will explain the chief points
and advantages of this unique Invention :

(1) That the management of the leaf is under nerfpcf
control. "

(2) Leaf, after being " withered " and " fermented "
can be kept for some time without deteriorating '

(3) During the last few minutes the leaf is in (he
machine, by shutting off the induction of cold air
(necessary for regulating the temperature) the tem-
perature can be raised to 250", 3nO', or 3.50" Fahr
which would set up an action analogous to that obtain-
ed by the Chinese in "pinning."

(i) By the peculiar working of the machine, the
leaf-cells are gently broken or bruised, so that the
fermentation is quickly set up.

(5) When the leaf leaves the " M'itherer " it has
become colored, and the bloom or down is seen on
the leaf. The pekoe ends are multiplied by the con-
voluted leaf-buds opening out, and though still soft
arc covered with a light yellowish bloom or down Iu
the ordmary process of rolling, a coating of tannin is

?52

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURfSt.

[May I, i8S6.

taken on. and the " enfis," when dry, present a bright

orange color.

(ti) In the roDing, all that Is expressed is the moist
gijin contaiuiDg the tjtnniil and other chemical elements.
if the withering aud fermentation is properly carried
out (taking into consideration the time of year aud the
contingent condition of the leaf), the leaf is ready, after
Ihe rolling, to go straight to the firing apparatns, thus
doing away with the separate fermentation now neces-
sary after rolling. The time occupied is stated at about
50 minutes or an hour. Of course, leaf which has pre-
viously become partially withered before being placed
in the machine, would require a much shorter period of
time to finish. The present machine, which is 8 ft. bj'-
8 ft., is capable of preparing 6 to 7 maunds of fresh green
unwithered leaf at a fill. — Indian lea Gazette.

ErCALYPTI THF TalLEST ThEES IN TITE AVoKLn.— The
tilest accurately measured Sequoia ("NVellingtonia)
standing in the Calaveras Grove, Oalifornia, measures
325 ft., and there is no positive evidence that any
trees of this genu.s ever exceeded that height, ('f
late years, explorations in Gippsland, Victoria, have
brought to light some marvellous specimens of Eucalyp-
tus, and the State Surveyor of Forests measured a
fallen tree on the banks of the "Watts River, and
found it to bo 4?5 ft. from the roots to the top of
the trunk. The crest of this tree was broken off,
but the trunk at the fracture was 0 ft. in circumference,
and the height of the tree when growing was estim-
ated to have been more than 500 ft. The tn-e,
however, was dead, though there is no doubt that it
was far iofticr than the tallest Sequoia. Near Fernshaw,
in the Daudenong district, Victoria, there has recently
been discovered a specimen of the Almond Leaf Gum
(Eucalyptus amygdahna) measuring 380 ft. from the
ground to the first branch, and 450 ft. to the
topmost twig. This tree would overtop the tallest
living Sequoia by 125 ft. Its girth is 80 ft., which
is less than that of many Spquoias, but, as far as
height is concerned, it must be considered the tallest
living tree in the world. — Scv'nfific American.

Niiw Ediiilk Fi'NTiL'S.— Mr. Oolen.so call attention
to the rapidly-increa.sing value as an article of export
from New Zealand of Hiriieola pofi/trichn. This
mushroom, first described from the East Indies and
Java by Montague, is of v;irious sizes and shapes,
some specimens measuring even a few inches. It i.s
found in New Zealand j^rowing on the trunks of
trees, both on living and on decaying ones, especially
on the latter while standing, particularly on the stems
of (^ort/i\ocarpi's Iivv'ujaia aud on JL'ui/tvs nnniftorus
Both of these are endemic. The firmer is mostly
confined to tht- sea-shore, where it often forms dense
and cuntinous thickets. The latter tree is scattered
pleutifully throughout t\n] pountry. AVhen dry. the
mushroom buconies shrivelled up, aud is as hard as
horn; when wet, it is suft and elastic, almost sub-
gelatinous. It grows in compact gregarious masses.
The market for this fungus is China, where it is
largely used by the Chinese in soups. It appears
that another species of the same geinis indigenous
in North China has long been an article of commerce.
Mr. lierkeley notes of our British species, H. ainicula-
judn , that it was ouce a popular remedy for sore
throats, and adds that it is still occasionallv sold at
Covunt Garden Market, The New Zealand species
is plentiful, and obtained at little cost, thn drying of
it being an easy matter. Originally the price paid to
collectors was a penny per pound; nnw it is nomin-
ally twopence halfpenny, while its retail price in China
is five times fliis. The ih-vlarcd value per ton at the
Customs ranges from WV. to 35/. a ton, and is doubt-
less much below its real viilue. During the last twelve
years some 1,858 tons of this fungus were exported,
chieily from the port3 of Auckland and "Wellington.
and of a declared vaUie of almost 80.000/.— (Wtn/N.
ronzancc Nat. Hist, and Autiq Soc. lS8I-8r..)— X/^'-r.

SwiNru'KNElTEA LEAF) CiforPEH. — The late.st addition
of machinery to thu production of tea i« oue which Ua^

often been projected by planters, but which, as far as
we know, has never till now been carried to completion.
The "Swinburne Cropper," which is sinii)lc in construe-
tiou, though an ingenious and not inelegant machine, is
designed tu supersede hand plucking altogether on
Indian tea gardens, and there can be no doubt that if it
fulfils its purpose it will be by far the most important
invention which has yet been applied to tea production.
The py/iiiu facie objection to machine pluckiug is the
pos.sible injury which the plants may .suffer from the
somewhat drastic treatment; but the inventor, who has
tried the system on his own gardens in Assam for two
seasons, asserts that so far from this danger being a
real oue the bushes are actually strengthened by sj'stem-
atic pruning. The machine is calculated to do the work
of about ten coolies, being worked by oue, and as very
little skill or practice is required in its manipulation
there'should be no difficulty in its general introduction.
The blades of the cutter are so arranged as to be in-
capable of taking otf more of the flush than is necessary
to make good tea, and as the surface is reduced by the
process to a perfect level, it follows that ou the second
pruning all the leaves must he of the same age. The
leaf is therefore more homogeueous, aud the quality
consequently improved, while the quantity, according to
Mr. Swinburne's experiments is not diminished. — I'lani-
ers* Gazette. [Our feeling is that the machine may be
useful in reducing tea bushes to an even surface, hut
not that it can supersede the discriminating human
hand in plucking. — Ed.1

A IMAeniNK FOR AVrrHEHtNc; .\nd Fini\o Tka Lkaves
was thus recently ihiscribed by the London correspond-
ent of the Indian Tea Guzittc: — "Were I n-it bound by
promise — owing to the exigencies of the Patent Laws —
not to anticipate, by prematurely disclosing them, cert-
ain starthng inventions, it would interest your readers
to learn of a new departure in tea-drying aud withering,
which will shortly be announced. I am not permitted,
however, to do more at present than merely hint at the
facts,andniURtreservefor a riper occasion any statements
in detail. Suffice it, that the prospect is that of almost
a revolution in the present system of drying, and the
appliances will commend themselves to /«rgc concerns,
the expense being very gr^at in the first instance. It is
as.serted that leaf can be withered in from oue aud a
half to two hours, and fired in 15 minutes atatemper-
ature of only 200*. In wet weather the rain water is
driven |off in 15 minutes preparatory to the withering
process. The dryers are made in two sizes, aud these
turn out four maunds and ten maunda of tea per hour,
respectively. Neither in the driving off of the rain-
water or in the withering, is there any sigin of the
slightest laceration of haf, ''stewing,"' *' scorching,"'
discol'juration, or other injury or deleterious effects,
as tested alreinly in a number of experiments with
privet leave.s. The dryer has the power to "fire" at
any desiied temperature, at the option and uudei the
control of the operator, and whilst "it will effectually
fire its charge of tea at 200' F. in 15 minutes, it is
equally effective at a lower temperature. pro\ided, of*
course, longer time is allowed ; or if a higher temper-
ature is adopted, it will dry proportionately quicker."'
You will remember that some months back I imformed
you of a new withering appliance containing a Black-
man Air-propeiler in its construction. The appliances
I am now alluding to also make use of these pro-
pellers botli in firing and withering, but the procea.3
is not the .same as that I then referred to. The
principle I hinted at so far back as my letter to
you of tlie 27th flfareh last, since which date avast
amount of scientific acumen has been brought to bear
upon this new method, both from the chemical and
mechanical sides of the .subject ; and the scientific
data collected and made use of in the construction,
whilst bringing theory to ripe perfection in pract.ie<r,
deserves to be rewarded witli success. It will soon
be before the world to be judged upon its merits, and
as withering in rainy weather is a terrible hu.siness
at present, there is every rea.son to hope that this
new appliance will prove in practice upon the gardens
all that its inventors expect from their trials with
privet.

Mav I, 1886.]

THE TROPI-CAL AGRICULTURIST.

753

EICE PEST— GILLA— ACACIA AND DOBIS.

(.Voles from yroceedinys of the Aarkvltnra' and Hort 1.
cultural Siciety of India.)

Bice Pest. — At the ordinary general meeting of the
Society last week, Mr. Wood-Mason, in view of the
wide intircst in the subject, read :i report he had
prepared for the Obief Comiuissioncr of Burma on
an insect pest which effects paddy. The " Palan Byoa"
or " Tciuduiing Bo " (I'arapoiii/a Ori/:alii) a lepi-
dopterous inject, which in the caterpillar stage breathes
air dissolvetl iu water by means of tracheal gills.
This paper is illustrated by drawings of the creature
in different stiiges as caterpillar, pupa and cocoon.
and as the subject of rice pests is so highly important,
it will, with the sanction of the Chief Oommissioncr,
be reproduced in the Society's Journal.

The "Gilla." — A communication was then read
from Dr. Uoiiavia, Etawah, asking for information
regarding the •' gilla." He writes : — " Dhobis up here
and probably also down in Bengal use a curious kind
of nut for crimping liucu. without using any crimping
irons. This nut they call in Oudli ' gelha ' and here
'chain:' the latter means a seed. They say it is
brought from Bengal and sold in Oawnpore. The pods
are long and many seeded, and seed is of the size of
a small and fat pocket-watch, of a horse-chesnut
colour, and with highly polished sides. Dhobies cut
one side, and scoop out the kernel ; then they introduce
two finjfers into the cavity, and quickly stroke the
damp linen forwards with its polished surface. This
crimps it beautifully cro«svai/K. " 1 believe you have in
the hills east of Beugal some kind of acacia which pro-
duces a long broad pod with this seed in it. Can you
kindly give me the botanical and local name of it from
the above description ? A new interest attaches to this
* gL- ua.' A lady took one with her to England to crimp
her child's linen ' dhobi-fashion,' and showed it to Mr.
Kuskin. He. has undertaken, I am told, to set up a
village with workpeople, using nothing but primitive
implements. He was so interested in this primitive
Indian crimping machine, the 'gelha,' that I faucy
he has some idea of adopting it in his primitive village.
The upshot is that I have been given the task of
finding out the botanical name of the tree which bears
this interesting crimping implement. It is very efn-
cieut. I know the seed, ami have seen it u.sed, but
have not its botanical name. H you can kindly help
me in this matter, you will oblige me and will confer
a favour on Mr. Kuskiu."

The Deputy Secretarj- stated that the seed to which
Dr. Bnnavia referred was that of the IC/ttada sca/idens
(Ben(ham), E. jmrsaUM (D'C), the Mimosa scandens
of I.inn. and Roxb., a large chmber common to many
parts of the tropics, and found in Sylhet, Nepal, Ceylon,
Java, the West Indies, &c. The Hindustani name
^Ula appears to be commonly used, but it has many
oftier names: Uri_i/a Geredi, SipaU-ie Vangra., Jiomiay
Gardal, Oii/lon Mahapuswela, Tel. Guilatiga. Accord-
ing to Eoyle (lUus. of Botany of the Himalayas,
Vol. I, p. 183) the seeds are used by the natives for
washing the hair, and I'oiaht (p. 256) says it is used
by the ghaut people as an antifebrile. Drury men-
tions that it is emplojed as an emetic iu Java. The
seed is made into snutf-boxes iu the West Indies, and
according to Dr. Birdwood (Cat. of Vegetable Products
of Bombay Presiilency) "the pods are used by the
police here." Although the pods are of great size,
sometimes six feet and more long and 4 feet 5 inches
broad, it seems a strange article for the police to use.
Gamble says '* the seeds are eaten after roasting and
steeping in »vater, the kernels are used by theNipaiese
for waxliiug the r hair, and iu Bengal by washermem
for crimping linen.'' The seed is soM in the bazar
for medich'al purposes, and is used in a powdered
form; it in administered as a stimulant: but this use
is not mentioned by O Sbaugbuessy or others. Dr.
Watt, in his Kconomic Products of India, says that
" ail oil is made from the seed, the prr*p!Tties of
wliieb are unknown." But the use marlc "f it by
the dbobis seems the most general. — Pinrtieer.
94

BABUL TREE PODS.

Messrs. Arbuthnot and Co. forward a report from
their Home correspondents on the probable value of
seed-pods of the babul tree (Acacia Arahica). samples
of which they had sent to Kngland at the instance of
this department. It will be seen that the pods are
not valued at more than from £S to £10 per ton. At
this rate it is hardly likely that it would pay to export the
seed-pods. Mr. Wardle does not regard the babul seed-
pods as of many value for dyeing. For tanning they are
not as valuable as several cheaper substances. Mr.
Wardle, however, suggests " that the best way of
making this product useful would be to extract the
tannin from it where it grows, and as probably the
bark and even the branches of this acacia may eoDtain
more tannin than the seed-pods, all could b ■ boiled down
together and a better average yield of tannin obtained."
The attention of the Forest Department may perhaps
be drawn to this suggestion. I have to add that, at the
request of this department, Messrs. Wilson ii Co. of
Madras are about to send a consignment of the b:ibul
baik and pods to Australia to see if a market can be
found for them iu that colony.

TO THE UNDBH-SECKETAEV OF STATE FOB INDIA.

I have now the honor of reporting on the sample of
crushed seed-pods of the babul tree (Acacia Arahica)
which .accompanied your letter of December 27th, 1.S84,
requesting me to give my opinion respecting the
commercial and tinctorial value of this substance.

•• I have carefully examined the seed-pods, both
chemically and tinctorially, and I beg to submit the
following report : —

•' Tinctorially I do not regard this substance as of any
value. The coloring-matter contained in it is very
small, and is only sufficient to dye silk or cotton a fawn
color. It is not possible to obtain from it directly either
violet or black as stated in your letter, but it has other
properties which are those of a mordant.

"Its value in my opinion cosists only iu the amount
of tannic acid contained in it, and it is only on account
of this that I believe it to be used in dyeing. Its tannic
acid both helps to form a black with iron salts and also
helps to brighten and fix some other dyes, both vegetable
and mineral colors.

■' The following laboratory notes will explain them-
selves:—

" I estimated the amount of tannic acid by Lowenthal'B
permanganate process and found the quantity to be
10-20 per cent of tannic acid or tannin, calculated in
the same way as in estimating the tannin in sumac,
galls or myrabolans, but which mode of es'.imation would
be equivalent to 1539 per cent of tannin, similar to
that contained in oak bark, valonia or extract of chestnut.

" Comparing the seed-pods, then, with these sub-
stances, they contain only a very low percentage, because
good qualities of sumac contain 18 to 20 per cent of
tannin, of galls 65 to 77 per cent, of myrabolans 20 to
40 per cent, of oak Imrk 8 to 13 per cent, of valonia 25
to 35 per cent, and of chcsnut extract 20 to 25 per cent.

" Like other tannin substances these seed-pods impart
weight to silk, the tannic acid uniting with the fibre,
probably much in the same way as it does with hide or
skin forming leather. The amount of weighting matter
in these seed-pods absorbed by silk is equal to 172 per
cent of the weight of the pure boiled-otf silk or l(j oz.
of silk in gum when boiled off and weighted with the
extract from the seed-pods becomes ■14-07 oz. as
against 1'' oz. in the case of sumac.

" I send with this report the followingillu^trations :—
One skein of silk dyed blie-black.

Do. do. black.

Do. do. green.

Two skeins of do. red.
Oue skein of do. mauve.

Do. of do. violet.

Two skeins of do. brown.
Do. of do. drab.

"The b'.acks have been dyed with iron salt, the colors
each various tinctorial matters, chiefly aniline colors,
with having received a base of tannic acid by the silk

754

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

having been immersed in a strong 'solution of the tannin
extracted from the seed-pods.

" As to to the commercial or money-value of this
substance, the price of sumac being to-day £16 per
ton, it would be worth not more than £9 per ton. It
will be sufficient to compare its market-value with
sumac only. — Thomas Wardle.

'* j}>'.B. — On further con.sideration I would suggest
that the best way of making this product useful would
he to extract the tannin from it where it grows, and as
probably the bark and even the branches of this acacia
may contain more tannin than the seed-pods, all could
be boiled down together, and a better average yield of
tannin obtained.

TO W. T. THISKLTON DYER, EC*.

'* You will observe the amount of tannin is consider-
able, being more than that given by balonia, which is
generally 2.3 per cent. The color is also very good ; it
would not give the same weight as balonia, but I
imagine would make a leather more like oak bark. The
pods must be gathered ripe so that the seeds may be
taken out, as they are (iO per cent of the weight of the
pod and contain no tannin. The bark of the babul is
also good, about 20 per cent, but it is not so clean, and
has a good deal of rough ross, which adds to the cost of
freight. Now, as to the probable value, that is another
matter: balonia is worth now (good) £17 per ton. But
tanners know the value of that, and there is no diffi-
culty in disposing of it. But every new material has to
run the risk of the market ; it may be at the wharf for
months without being looked at, until some prominent
man tries it. It should certainly be worth at least £10
per ton, but I could not guarantee that price. — W. N.
Evans.

KEW AND ITS WOEK.

{From the Gardener's Chronicle.)
Value oe Vecietablk Products. — Just consider for
awhile what a large proportion of the food and clothing
of mankind has to be derived from the vegetable king-
dom. Last year the value of the agricultural crops
grown in Great Britain alone amounted to £130,000,000
sterling. The value of the grain and flour imported
amounted to £67,000,000 sterling. These two added
together amount to over £200,000,000, or £6 per head
for epch person in the country. The exports of the
United States, mainly grain and flour, amounted last
year to 740,000,000 dollars, or nearly £150,000,000
sterling. The total exports and imports of India last
year amounted to £131,000,000 sterling, and of these
materially over £100,000,000 belonged directly to the
vegetable kingdom in one form or another.

Tin; I'ltuue or the .A.ngi,o-Saxon Kica.
And consider, also, to what a large extent the future
fortunes of the liritish Empire depend upon a proper
development of the capabilities of our colonial posses-
sions to produce the vegetable crops that are useful
to the human race for food, clothing, medicine, and
other economic uses. Our population is now 3.50,000,000.
What will it be in a hundred years' time -•' Notwith-
standing emigration, the population of Great Britain
has doubled in the last half century, whilst that of
France, that in the seventeenth century amounted to
38 per cent of the whole population of Europe, now
hardly attains i;j per cent. To 350,000,000 add
50,000,000 for the population of the United States,
which has increased above 20 per cent during the last
ten years. The estimate recently put forward by Mr.
Gladstone docs not seem at all an extravagant one,
that in a hundred years' time it is not improbable
that th» English-speaking race and its subjects will
mount up to a population of 1,000,000,000. How all
these men and women and children are to be supplied
with needful food ami clothing is a problem that will
try to the very utmost the knowledge and the fore-
sight and tlie energy and the euterpise of the generations
that are to follow our own.

.Vnd think of these tilings, too, from a social and
political point of view, side by side with this growth in
poiiulatioii anil lljis wonderful revolution that has been
brought about by railways Rnd steamships and tele-

graphs, how we have been growing gradually more
and more luxurious in our habits of daily life, and
how the spread of education and the popularisation
of art ami the enormous increase which has taken
place during the last generation in the number of
those who possess incomes of moderate competence
have increased the quantity and quality of the things
which as a nation we consider that we need to enable
us to live our daily lives in contentment and comfort,
and how that now, more than ever, the mass of the
nation will have an influence in making the laws and
controlling the great issues of our foreign and colonial
policy.

The Power Man has of Spoiling thb 'W^grld.

And reflect also upon the melancholy testimony
borne by the historic record how through man's greedi-
ness, improvidence, and quarrelsomeness many of the
countries that supported the great nations of antiquity
have been robbed of their natural beauty and fertility.
Pass round the basin of the Mediterranean and com-
pare t'ne state of things now with what it once was in
Persia, in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, in
Syria, Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece, in .Northern
Africa, in Cyprus and Sicily, and in a lesser degree
in Spain and Italy. Everywhere we find the same sad
contrast of wide tracts of country that were once
fertile corn-land now changed to sandy deserts and.
pestilential marshes, aqueducts, and roads ruineil by
neglect and violence, vineyards and Oiive gardens, anil
groves of Date Palms ruthlessly destroyed, and mount-
ains that were once sheltered by groves of Oak,
and Pine, and Chestnut, changed to bare stony ridges,
of which the water springs have been dried up, and
the grassy sward parched away, and the coating of
alluvial soil which the roots of the trees kept in its
place carried away by the rain to silt up the rivers and
harbours of the lowlands. Contrast the Carthage of
Regulus and Scipio Africanus with the Tunis of to-
day ; or the Cyprus that was ruled by the Venetians,
when the" island maintained a population of 1,000,000,
with the Cyprus which was Jhanded over a few years
ago by the Turks to the English, when the population
had simk to 140,000 ; or the Lebanon of to-day with
the Lebanon of Hiram and Solomon ; or the Assyria
of to-day with the Nineveh of Jonah, Sennacherib,
and Asurbanipal ; or the Babylonian plain as it is now
with what it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and
Belshazzar. We are told by Herodotus, who visited
the city seventy years after it was taken by the Aledes
and Persians under Darius, that the walls of Babylon
formed a square 50 miles in circumference, and that
the Babylonian territory supported, not only its own
resident population, but also the whole retiime and
army of the Persian king for four months in the year,
that one of the satraps owned 16,800 horses, and that
his dogs were so numerous that four large villages
wore excused from all other taxes on condition of
supplying them with food. He sa5's that the soil of
the Babylonian plain was so fertile, that of AVheat it
yielded a return of two or three hundred-fold ; that
Millet and Sesamum grew to a great size ; anil that
over the whole plain the Date Palm flourished, bearing
fruit abundantly. Now for centuries the plain has
been a sandy desert, without any regularly settled
inhabitants, and the visitor sees only a few Arab tents
and frail reed huts, furEishiug an impressive contrast
to the ruins of the .great walls and temples, the only
trees now a few AVillows and Tam.i risks along the
river, and here and there a spiny Acacia scattered
over the sand.

Recent Ch.\,noes.

About the plants that have been cultivated for many
centuries, such as the Vine and the Hop, the cereal
grasses and the common fruits and timber trees of
the north temperate zone, the farmers, gardeners, and
foresters who have been working at them for gener-
ations under every phase of growth and every modific-
ation of soil and climate know far more about their
different varieties and the situations they need in order
to be grown successfully, than botanist.<, whcse atten-
tion is not concentrated upon tlie plan's which are
specially vftliiablo from ao economic point of view.

Mav 7, 1886.]

-THE TROPICAL AoRiCVt'PtsMii-V.

ns

which do not tiiiniber more than perhaps a hundred
species out of the lOO.'OOO with which the botanist hae
to deal. But even of most of these during the last
generation, as population has increased and the can-ying
trade has been completely revolutionised by steam and
electricity, the countries in which they are grown have
been changed very materiaUy. The total amount of
foreign food imported into Great Britain in 1SG4 was
an average of 26s. per head. In 1883 it amounted
to 69s per head, the difference representing a lump
sum of £77,000,000 per annum. In 1864 the total
amount of foreign grain and flour imported into the
country was worth £20,(00,000 sterling; in 1^83 it
cost £70.000.000— au increase of £50,000,000 in twenty
years. Before the war of secession iu the Vnited
states the Southern States had almost a monopoly of
the trade in raw Cotton ; last year the value of the raw
Cotton exported from India was between £14,000,000 and
£15,00«-M>00 sterling. In 1840 China had a monopoly of
the Tea trade. In 1883-4 the value of the Tea esporttd
from India was 408 lakhs of rupees, or over £4,000,000
sterling. In 1850 the area under cultivation of Tea
in India was not more than 1,000 acres, yielding an
aunu:il crop of £250,000. In 1880 the area under
cultivation was 2U6,700 acres, yielding an annual crop
ot 4'\(X)O,0('O lb., representing au invested capital of
£15,00(^000 sterling : au annual expenditure of £3,000,000
iu wages, and. at tho rate of five to an acre, yielding
means of subsistence to over 1,000,000 natives. The
animal export of Colfee from Ceylon, instead of being
now as it was iu the years between 1S65 and 1878,
£5,000,0(Kl sterling a year, has dropped to £1,500,000.—
J. G. Bakeh.

GIBB'S TEA WITHEBER AND JACKSON'S

AND DAVIDSON'S DIBEKS

have been thus uuticcd iu the Londou letter of tho
Indian Taa Gazette: —

I tlunk I told you that lately I went out to Rlr.
Gibbs' quaint old place Gillwell Park in Essex, to
inspect a model of his proposed withering machine.
Since then a laudatory notice of some length upon
3Jr. Gibbs and his inventions has appeared in the
Times, but as very little is said about his drier for tea,
and that much is already well known, it is hardly
of special interest to your readers. His model is an
adaptation of the principle cf his drier, ooly the
witherer is to be probably constructed of tanned canvas
stretched upon a wooden frame, thus reducing the
cobt enormously, as also the weight. It is to work at
a much reduced temperature, of course. I saw privet
leaves, dripping wet as takeu from a bucket of water
thoroughly dried cf nil surface moisture, without the
slightest appa.rent injury to the leaves, after having
been passed oncf through the cylinder of the model,
the initial temperature being about 200^' Fahr. The
same leaves were passed through a second time, but
at an initial temperature of only about 150,* and on
falling out the leaves were to all appearance and touch
perfectly withered. The cylinder was revoivedr toy
slowly by hand. The hot blast was filtered thgough
asbestos, a thickish pad. Of, course, the working tem-
perature was much below the initial temperature, as
cold-air below 6(f Fahr. was drawn in at the open end
of the cylinder from the room, which cool air, of
course, mi.xed itself with the hot-air, as soon as the
]attcr left the air-duct. The fan was turned at much
ess speed than wheu used for dryivy. So far all
promises well, as the machines being cheap, a suffi-
cient number could be used, requiring less tlmn a
donkey-power each to do the largest quantities of leaf.
And I saw iiuitc sufficient to satisfy me that in " in-
telligent " liands very little practice would be required
to produce, to all appearance and test of touch, per-
fectly withered leaf in the most rainy of rainy weather.
But ! and there is always a but— it has seemed to
me that, in the discussion going on about withering.
and in the minds of inventors, too, one point is kept
too much out of view. "We all agree that nature has
a stage at which the best possible conditions rule for
effectiug given chuges, aud that withering coniep

under this— may I call it, Law. "\Vs can, doubtless,
by experiments, find out the best conditions, and bring
about those conditions artiJicuiHi;, for so withering tea
leaves as to turn them out perfect to all appearance
and test of touch. But Ibis is not all that i« neces-
sary by any means. The leaves may be of a lovely
uninjured appearance and soft as down, but, if this
effect has been produced too rapidhj to the detrimeut
of certain invisible, intangible, yet important con-
ditions, the leaf so withered, will be found very dis-
appoiuling when the time for its " fermentation."
after the rolling, has come, and gone, and the leaf
is fouud to be still " uufermented ! " This drawback
I think might be overcome by steaming the leaf after
rolling, to add the moisture necessary to "ferment-
ation" which may have been unwittingly driven off
in exccas; the wcrst of it all is, however, that this
vital point, upon which success will hinge, is just the
one the inventor cannot detect, or even experiment
upon in his covntry,

Mr. "VV. Jackson has returned for a time, and at
dinner two nights ago, on his passing through Towu
gave me a most satisfactory account of the success
his driers have met with in Ceylon. AVe first met at
the installation of bis fir.'it completed rolling-machine
in the Sibsagor district, iu 1873, I think it, was, and
time seems to have treated him very kindly sinoo
then, to judge by his appearance and active gait, the
latter full of characteristic energy and "go." His driers
have evidently now fulfilled bis anticipations, and ho
is fully armed with those latter-day weapons, reliable
testimonials, with which to demolish all hesitation on
the part of cautious Directors. The machines arc
costly, he allows, but — there it is gain — they arc autom-
atic and so require the minimum of attendance;
they are durable and simple in conbtructiou, and will
not entail frequent repairing; the tea is never hanclj-
ed or submitted to friction or any motion likely to
injure its bloom; and the outturn is considerable,
whilst the space occupied is very tritling.

Mr. Davidson the other day, whilst over on a visit
from Belfast, showed me a large model of his new
" T-Sirocco," and explained its various advantages over
the earlier a " T-Siioccos" first sent out. The amount
of etailed experiment personally conducted by him-
self to arrive at the present improvements must have
entailed months of close application, aud constant
labour aud thought. The improvements chiefly related
to the construction of the stove which has been eu-
largeil and rendered more durable, aud capable of
supplying a vastly increased volume of heat ; to the
insertion of dampers above the stove to retaiu anti
thereby prevent loss of heat, whilst getting up the
temperature previous to commencing drymg ; and laht,
but by no means least, to the very perfect equali/.-
ation of temperature at all points under tho trays.
To obtain the latter object, nothing but actual e.x-
perimcnt could be relied upon, and hundreds of
trials iu arranging the new draught-guides, their
shapes and positions, were necessary before the present
satisfactory result was obtained. The temperature is
now f'O equalized as to show no greater variation tlian
50 Fuhr. at any two points.

Mr. Davidson has good cause to anticipate a vastly
increased working-rapacity for these new T-Siroccos,
and a mucli longer hie for the stoves. It was found
that the excellent ()uality of the fire-l>ricks employed in
last year's stoves concentrated the heat too intensely
upon the iron portions, getting up the temperature at
these latter points to almost smelting heat, by compelling
these to receive not only their own share of the heat,
but th^t of the surface of firr-brick too, which latter
radiated its share of heat, aud bestowed it so to
speak upon the respective iron j)ortionR. TIk; fire-
bricks have in consequence been done away witli the.
temperature thereby being now evenly distributed
over the whole interior surface of the stove, sbonld
not b(; found too severe, and the stove being increased
in size, its heating capacity has been iufreased.

Mr. Davidson. 1 might mention in parsing, has been
lately induced, iu consequence of repeated requests,
to start selling tea io pound packets from his "Sirocco

1s^

THE TROPICAL AdRICULTUKIST.

[May I, 1886.

Works." He complied very reluctantly after consider-
able persuasion, his faith in the venture not being
great. He is known, however, as the maker of Tea
Drying Machinery over there in Belfast, and the public
seem to argue, that as he has so much to do with
the manufacture of tea he must know where to obtain
it good, for without any push on his part, this retail
bu.-incss has suddenly attained a huge success, much
to Mr. Davidson's surpri.se, and he has already the
second largest business in Belfast, within a few months
of starting ! He deserves to succeed in all he does,
his friends think.

♦

A Maekkt Peoduce Samplk Depot. — Amongst the
most practical of the market arrangements in Berlin
is that recently inaugurated by the market author-
ities in that city. A permanent exhibition is now
established of samples of all articles of daily con-
sumption, and includes those sold by grocers, dealers
in colonial wares, luxuries, drugs, country and garden
produce of every kind. The purpose of the sample
deput is to facilitate the sale of such goods by means
of the permanent exhibition, and by the publication
of future sales and offers; and, further, the object
will be attained— 1. By means of a show of samples,
sample books; by exhibiting price current.s, tele-
graphic announcements, address cards, prospectuses, &c.,
which will be open to public inspection without charge.
2. By undertaking the business of a commission agency
and acting as representatives of merchants, itiiporters
and exporters. 3. By advfrtisiiig in the public prints
free of charge to those showing samples. 4. And
by undertaking to carry out sales by auction on the
behalf of inland or foreign traders. The exhibitors
will subscribe for the services of the sample depot
authoiities the sum of 20 marks yearly, and the legal
taritt fixed for commis.sion agents. The space required
by the exhibitor for the due exhibition of his wares
will be alloted without charge. These arrangements
would seem to be well suited to both buyer and
seller alike, as the former can inspect, free of eost,
any article he is desirous of buying either wholesale
or retail, and the latter is certain of finding a mar-
ket for his goods without any further charges than
those mentioned. Measures willbe taken to prevent
any abuse by dishonest persons of the informatio"
at the disposal of the depot by its being affo.rded
only to buyers of known probity.— GaJ'rff'ifi-.?' Citron-
icU.

Shand's New Tea Dbieb, Ceylon.— On the after-
noon of Wednesday last Mr. C. Shaud's New Flue
Tea Drier was open to public inspection at
the St. Sebastian's Store, Colombo, In the absence of
any green leaf on which to experiment, nothing in
the way of a conclusive trial was attempted, nor could
any information be afforded as to the comparative
advantage of the invention in regard to the degree of
heat attained from any given quantity of fuel. The
construction of the drier is very simple. The one on
view is a brickwork chamber, 34 feet long, 3 feet
wide, and about as much in height; two rows of iron
p:ati s are built horizontally into the brickwork, 8
inches apart. The lower are a foot or so from the
floor of the chamber, and the upper cnes .some 3
inches below the top of the outside walls. A furnace
jit one end furnishes the heat, the smoke passing
under the lower row of plates, which are made ab-
solutely smoke-tight, and escapes at the other end of
the chamber. The space between the plates consti-
tutes the air flue; air is admitted on one side above
the furnace, and heated in the flue, and like the
Bmoke escapes at the other end. The upper surface
of the top row of planting of the flue forms the dry-
ing platform, on which the tea trays are placed, as
in the ordinary sy.stim of chula firing, or moved along
after the manner' of a " Sirocco." A new idea was
Under experiment .it St. Sebastian's. A wooden stag-
iBg had been erected over the flue, iu which three
tows of trays could be placed, divided from each other
by thiu metal sheet.s, something in the way of the
first Siroccos that came to Ceylon. The thermometer
r«giBtBf«d SOO® at tbe time pftbe esperiment, and

the air in the flue was apparently of an even tem-
perature throughout or nearly so. In our opinion, as
well as that of several present, there is room for
considerable economy in heat and fuel, to which no
doubt Mr. Shaud will give his early attention. The
great advantage offered to planters in the Flue Tea
Drier is that the furnace can be made to consume
anything that can be used as fuel, whereas the old
chula system necessitated the use and manufacture
of charcoal, which, on many estates, is expensive, and
on others impossible, to obtain. A modification and
adaptation of Mr. Shand's invention will doubtless
supply a desideratum on small estates, where the larger
and more expensive machines are beyond the means
of the proprietor; but we doubt |muc]i any great
adoption of the Flue Drier as it now stands. We
understand Mr. Shand asks for a royalty of RlOO
on each Flue Drier erected for use, and is prepared
to supply the iron plates at some 50 per cent below
the current prices in the Island. — Local "Times."

Damaged Tea and Chests. — Our readers will no
doubt recollect the disscu.ssion which arose some short
time ago in reference to certain packages of Ceylon
tea arriving in the home market iu a damaged condition ;
and various propositions were put forward as to the
cause of this injury to the contents of the packages.
It W-1S by some .supposed to arise from the unseason-
ed or unsuitable wood of which the tea boxes were
constructed ; this had tended to corrode the lead, and
damage the contents of the case. Again, it was
supgested it was the action of the insufficiently or
improperly cured tea itself, which acted on the lead.
In any case the tea was damaged, and in one in-
stance gave occasion to legal action between the parties
through whose hands the damaged tea had passed.
A new light has now been thrown upon the subject
by Messrs. Geo. White & Co., of London, who, in
their ''Ceylon Tea Memoranda", just to hand, state
as follows: — "It is important that shippers should be
careful to prevent teas acquiring a druggy flavour, as
the sale of several parcels has been prejudiced on
account of this lately. Tea, as is well known, easily
becomes impregnated with any strong scented article, so
that it should not be placed near deleterious substances,
either in the tea houses, godowns, or on board ship. We
believe this is, more often than not, contracted while
on the voyage home ; so that it would be advisable
to ship iu steamers used to the trade, the bills of
lading for which have a special Tea clause." AVe
need hardly point out that similar contamination
with other articles of produce has been a common
complaint in all courses of shipment in every part
of the world, though we are not aware of any serious
instance of it in regard to tea. AA^e should have thought
that the lead-lining to tea boxes would have acted as
a sufficient guard to exclude the scent attaching it-
sell to the tea, but probably it impregnates the boxes first,
and when the lead is opened the scent gains .admit-
tance. A large number of cases impregnated with a
powerful scent might for a time contaminate a whole
store, am! so aflfect the tea in course of bulking.
There can bo no doubt that in course of time the
import or manufacture of tea b(ixe.s will constitute a very
large and important industry iu Ooylou, and it would
be well to collect all information and details bearing
on the suitability or otherwise of the wood employed
for the cases, not omitting that of its susceptibility
to contamination from extraneous odors. Protection
from contamination on shipboard on the voyage home
will, we suppose, be afforded when exports largely
increase, and exporters will have it ni(sre in their
power to dictate terms to the carrying steamers. A
ship load of tea is at present niiheared of, but the
time will come when such a thing will be (jnite as
likely from Ceylon as it has been from the tea ports
of China, and in such case a .'special tea clause in the
Bills of Lading will be no novelty in Colombo. Kough
country-made packages would, we imagine, be more
hkc'ly to be damaged by contact with powerfully scented
articles, than the neat close-fitting machine-made or
imported boxes such as those brought to our notice by
Mr. Deaae.— /*!'?.

Mav I, 1 886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

757

Diseases of Pt.ants Caused by Thbead 'Wootis.—
M. PrilJieux has receutly published a paper ou this
subject refcrriug to the nematoij worms whieli (1)
psnetrate the interior of leaves aud cause their de-
composition; (3) which produce galls on the flowers
of grasses; (3) which produce galls on roots; and
(4) those which attack Beetroots. The two lirst worms
belong to the genus Tjlcnchus ; the two last are
species o£ Heterodera— Gui't/c/itrs' Chnmiile.

The Giant Caterpillar.— It may mterest some
of your readers to hear that the caterpillar figured
in your issue of the 20th is very commonly met with
iu the hill country of Ceylon. Owing to its ressmbl-
ing in colour so closely the bark of the trees ou
the leaves of whioh it feeds, it is not readily notice-
able, and I usually discovered its whereabouts from
the ground beneath the tree being strewn wth drop-
pings. It is necessary to handle it with great caution,
as the sharp bristles on its back become at once
detached on coming in contact with the naked hand,
causing intense irritation. When about to turn into
the chrysalis state, the larva spins itself a cocoon—
or, rather, half a cocoon— firmly attached to the
stem, or one of the branches, of the tree on which
it has been feeding. From the chrysalis, iu cour.se
of time, emerges a large dark-coloured moth, tho
sole mission of which appears to be to lay eggs, since
whereas it is enilowed with an enormous body, its
wings are quite out of proportion, being ridiculously,
small and quite unequal to the task of raising it
from the ground ; indeed, it was commonly known to
us a,s the " wingless moth." The male muth is totally
differcut, being less than half the size of the female,
with fully developed wings, shaped hke those of tba
privet hawk moth, aud a tapering body. I think
the larva of the male must also differ from that of
the female, since of several specimens which I kept
in captivity from the caterpillar to the moth stage,
all proved to be females.— ■\\'. F. Laurie, Charlton,
Staines. Feb. -Ih.— Field.

Dr. Buchnkr on the Cameroons.— Dr. Max Buchner
gave a lecture on AWduesday in the Architektenhaus,
Berlin, in connection with the German Colonial As-
sociation, on the value and the future of the Came-
roons. Dr. Buchner said that the value of this
possession was at present small, but the elements of
great prosperity were unmistakable. The present ex-
ports came from a zone of proilucfion of not over
100 kilometres reckoned from the coast inland. What
lay beyond was as yet completely unknown. The
Cameroons possessed a rich volcanic soil, which ex-
tended from Fernando Po in a north-easterly direc-
tion, aud tlie country had .also an abundance of rain,
which was a point of great importance. It coudi not
be said that there was any great mineral wealth ; at
least, no signs of it had thus far been detected. As
a plantation and trading colony the Oameroons were
of undoubted value, but to encourage emigration thi-
ther on any great scale would be criminal. The pro-
ducts of the laud included the oil palm, the cocoa
palm, cofltee and cocoa, quinine, indigo, caoutchouk,
rice, and sugar. The oil palm only grew wild at
present, but it could be cultivated. The cultivatiou
of the cocoa-nut palm had also been neglected.
As to coffee the question of sale had to be considered,
and the market was now overrun. Cocoa would pay
better, and this could be easily cultivated. The Came-
rjon mountains olfereil an excellent ground for cultiv-
ating quinine, while rich and sugar were to be grown
in the lowlamls. Dr. Buchuer spoke of the necessity
of opening up the inland region, and hinted at the
po.-isibihty of a railway proving in time remunerative.
Meanwhile beasts of burden would have to be used—
especially oxen, as they throve better and were cap-
able of more work than horses or asses. As elephants
were very abundant there— more so than in any other
part of Africa— an attempt should be made to tame
thim. The ultimate opinion expressed by Dr. Buchner
was that the Cameroons wcmld pay the costs of keep-
ing and administering it. Africa as a whole was re-
garded as a poor country, but the Cameroons belonged
to the richest parts.— AifAZytuV German Trade Review.

The Madras Tea Industkv.— The Madras tea in-
dustry IS doms: well. There are 84 plantations, all
111 the A izagapatam, Madura, Nilgiris, an.l Malabar
districts. The,=e have a total area of 7,.5,';;i acres of
which little more than half is .actually under cultiv-
ation. Last year the outturn reached 398,04.5 lb. In
Travancore there are 27 plantations, occupying a
^nl'l'^.A^'^n '"■'■■•1 °f !'-'87 acres. The total outturn was
iU.'i.iJO lbs, of which the whole was black tea.—
Jinliim Tta (Jazette.

The PKii.osonivor Tea Drying. —Mr, Gibbs ((Jibbs
aud Barry I writing to a contemporary, remarks as
follows :— '• 'J'he whole philosophy of rapid economical
and thorough drying may, I think, be summed up in
these three points:— 1. That the tea should be kept
in gentle luit effectual movement, so as to separate
every leaf, from every other leaf and allow the dry
air to get at both sides. 2. The application of a-s
much air as can be introduced without blowing the
charge out of the machine, a. The skilful adjust-
ment of the temperature of that air so as to obtain
the highest drying powtr without injury to the pro-
duct.— Iiuliaii Tea Uauitr.

Ascent of the ,Sap.— The precise course follow.'d
111 its upward course by the water absorbed by the
root has been a matter of controver.sy. Sachs, aud
many with him, contend that the sap rises through
the walls of the vessels and ducts by a process of
imbibition. Others, again, such as Btihrn, Hartig
and A esque assert that the fluid does not pass up
the sides of the vessels by imbibition as water would
pass up a lump of sugar or a piece of sponge, but
that it passes upward through the central cavity of
the vessel. The matter might be settled if it were
possible to seal up all the vessels of a branch with-
out 111 any other way obstructing the process of trans-
piration. Thus either the branches would wither when
the_ vessels were all sealed up, showing that their
cavities are the conduits, or they would remain fresh
even though the vessels were obstructed, when, of
course, the inference would be that the water
passed up the side walls, and that the obstruction
of the central cavity was unimportant. Profes.sor
Errera, of Brus.sels, and liis pupil, M. Laurent, have
lately put the matter to the test. They made a
mixture of twenty parts of gelatine to 100 of water
and added to it a quantity of Indian ink, previous-
ly ascertained to have no ill effect on the plant
The gelatine melts at 33'0. (<)2°F.), aud remains fluid
till the temperature falls to 28= C. (83°F.). A branch
of a Vino (Vitis vulpina) attached to the trunk, wed
bent so that the base of the curve was pluugas
into the melted gelatine at a temperature of 30"—
33°C. (say 80=--90--'F.). This done, the branch was
severed from the trunk, care being taken to keep
the branch, while the cut is made, beneath the
gelatine. Under these circumstances it is easy to
trace the ascent of the gelatine to a height of from
4 to 8 inches. M'hen the branch is cut in the man-
ner indicated it is immediately placed in cold water
when a small thickness is again cut from the end
of the branch, so as to secure contact with the
water of a clean .surface in which the gelatine occu.
pies the cavity of the vessels, alone without cover-
ing the cut ends of the walls of the vessel. All branches
111 which the cavity of the vessels is thus blocked
wither within a few hours, while test branches, cut like'
the others, under water or in air, and treated ex-
actly m the .same way except as regards immersion
m gelatine, remain uuwithered. If tlie portion of the
branch infiltrated and obstructed with gelatine, be cut
away, and the freshly cut surface be now immersed
in water, it preserves its freshness. From these ex-
periments, M. Errera concludes that the "water of
transpiration" ascends through the cavities of the ves-
sels, and explains in this m.mner the fact that the
upward current passes through the portion of the wood
formed in spring, and which is marked by vessels of
large diameter, rather than through the autumn-formed
wood where the vessels are narrower and thicker
walled— the latter condition favourable, as it would
seem, to imbibition,— Garden^jy Chronicle.

758

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISf,

[May I, m6.

TEA CULTIVATION BY NATIVES IN CEYLON.

For several yeard back, we have regarded tea
cultivation as an industry peculiarly adapted to
the Sinhalese villagers and Tamil squatters or
colonists in the Western, Central and a great part
of the Southern provinces of Ceylon. We felt quite
sure that as soon as the C'eylonese people saw what
the European planters were doing with tea on
all sides of them, their ambition to own tea
bushes and gardens of their own would be stirred
up. In 1837, when the exports of coffee from Europ-
ean plantations practically commenced from this
island, the total shipments were .S4,000 cwt., of
which probably more than half came from native
holdings ; and thirty years later, in 18Gy, the native
exports were equal to 218,000 cwt. against 780,000
of plantation coffee.

Similarly and even in a larger ratio may
we expect the development of a native tea-
growing industry, and, unlike our morning con-
temporary and Dr. Trimen, we do not see why
the villager with his little garden of bushes
should not get the full reward of his labour.
Factories are certain to be so multiplied that the
purchase of the native cultivator's leaf at remun-
erative rates can always be secured within easy
distance. Of course, there will be some native
gardens of considerable extent. Indeed, they are
likely to range from a few bushes or a few acres
to clearings of 28 to .50 acres ; while other native
proprietors will compete with their European
neighbours in planting up old coffee estates, which
have had a rest under lantana or chena, with
tea. Eventually, we do not think the estimate is
at all exaggerated! that world give 109,000 acres
as the area to be planted with tea by Sinhalese
and Tamils on their own account in Ceylon,
giving in crops, when in bearing, some 'JO to 30
million lb., to add to the 4.5 to HO million lb.
which the regular plantations are expected to yield.
The process of planting native tea gardens has al-
ready begun and wc may depend upon it that it
will henceforward go on at an accelerated rate.

TEA AND TEA COMPANIES.

0.4LCUTTA, March L'l.st.
TliA. — The report of the agents of the Good Hope
Tea Ooiupany shows that tbr outturn was l,G4Cj
inauuds, which sold at au average of As. ll)-6 per lb.,
against 1,301 niauuds at As. 9-!) per lb. iu ISSl and
868^ mauuds at As. 0-6 per lb. iu 1883, The gross
revuue for the year was Kl,03,040 and the charges
R54.570, leaviug a profit of K4(),C>0I, which iucluiies
K160 brought forward. Dividends aggregathig 40 per
cent, have been declared, and a balance of l\ti,601 is
carried forward. The estimate for 1886 is 1,800 maunds
at au outlay of U71.540. The capital of the Oompvny
is one lakh, and the area of the garden 380 acres.

The report of the agents of the Lower Darjeeliug
Tea Cowipauy shows that the outturn was oj'c^k mauuds,
or 46,360 lb., against au estimate of 700 mauuds, the
average price realized being As. it-5. The outturn for
1884 was 51,140 lb., realizing As. 7-S', and that of
1883 was 32,872 lb., realizing As. 10 per lb. ateragee
The gross reveiuie was 1120,479 and the expendi-
ture K24,421, leaving a profit of E5.057. Interest
f)aid amounts to Rl,7s:-), and the debit balance from
ast year is Rl),217, so that the year 18,sri closed with
a sum of Rr>,'.'4:-i at debit of profit and loss, wbicb
the nnmaging agents hope will be cleared off at the
cud of this season. The estimate provides for t>80
mauuds of tea at an ospeuditure of B21,41X).

The report of the agents of the Phoolbaree Tea
Company shows that the outturn was 247,774 lb. against
au estimate of 280.000 lb.— the deficiency is laid to
mosquito blight. The average price realized was
As. 10-8 against As. 9 last year. The gross receipts
were Rl,16fi,337 and the expenditure R1,01..SS8, leav-
ing a profit of ?il64,949 interest on debentm-es, com-
missions, and one-fourth of the new buildings and
preliminary expenses reduce the amount available to
ll4(i,18.'j. Dividends aggregating 9 per cent have been
paid, and a balance of RlOo carried forward. The
estimate for 1886 is 3 400 maimds, with about the
same expenditure as 1885.

The report of the directors of the Lacka-
doorah Tea Company shows that the outturn
was 991* maunds against an estimate of 1,000 maunds.
The average price realized for the tea was As. 10-4}
per lb. The gross revenue was Ro3,232 and the ex-
penditure, including some new cultivation, was
itlS.lU, leaving a profit of R8,121 : and adding the
balance brought over from last season the amount at
credit of profit and loss is 1116,281. Dividends ag-
gregating 7 per cent have been paid and K531 carried
forward. The estimates for 1886 provide for an out-
turn of 1,050 maunds of tea and 40 mauuds tea-
seed at an expenditure focalh/ of R31,tK)0. The area
under tea is 326 acres, of which 229 are iu full
bearing.

The report of the agents of the Washabarie tea
garden shows that the nutturn was 1,GS6 maunds
-agaiust an estimate of 2,100 mauuds. Mosquito
blight accounts tor the difference. The average price
realized was As. 11-2 as compared with As. 9-3 last
season. The gross revenue was R96,624 aud the expen-
diture 1167,557 leaving a not profit of 1126,067, and
with the balance brought forward from last seasou,
the amount available is K'>1,S0I. A dividend of 10 per
cent, has been declared, 1114,451 writteu off Factory
and Machinery accounts, and a balance of lt2,353
carried forwar<l. The estimate for next year is 2,000
maunds, .and the expeudituro on this basis works out
i\h auuas per lb. laid dtnvn in Calcutta.

"The report of the directors of the Eastern Oachar
Tea Company shows that I ho outturn was 4,504 nniuud^
against au estimate of 4,750 maunds. Heavy hailstorms
account, for the dift'erouce. The receipts were 111,89,592
and the expenditure, including debenture interest
(1M,900) totalled up Kl,(>9,161, leaving a profit of
E20,431, which the bal.ince from last year swells to
K25,569, or a little over oV per cent, on the capital.
The estimates of the coming seasou arc 5,000 mauuds
at an cxp^^nditurc of li 1,69, 158.

The report of the directors of the Loubah Tea Com-
pany shows that the outturii was 5,293 maunds against
an estimate of 5,265 maunds, the average price realized
being 11 annas. The gross revenue was K2, 86,754 aud
the expenditure 112,11,615, leaving a profit of It75,139,
which the balance brought over from last seasou in-
creases to RS3,021. Dividends aggregating R12;; per
cent, have been declared ; R 10,000 writteu off
extension accouut, and a balauce of R10,521
carried forward. The estimates for the coming
seasou arc for 5,500 mauuds at an expenditure of
K200, 111. The area under tea is 1,567 acres.

The report of the Directors of the Grob Tea Com-
pany shows that the outturn was 2,878 mauuds agiiinst
au estimate of 3,370. Season unusually wet and cold.
The tot.il expeuiliture, iucluding interest on outlay,
was R122,654, and the gross receipts K 152,740, show-
ing a profit on the working of the gardeus of 1130,086 ;
and after paying interest on the mortgage, manager's
commission, i^c, there is a balance at credit ofiirofit
and loss of K17,317 to go in reductinu of the mort-
gage debt of lll,31,6t(8. The eslimitesfor the com-
ing season are for 3,0.50 maunds at au e.xpendi'nre of
Kl,18,4tl2. The area under tea is 798 acres, and tl'r
gardens stauds at R5,58.666, the capital being 5 lakhs
— Pioiiefr.

■*■

WELLS' "ROUGH ON CORNS."
" .Vsk for Wells' " Rough on Corns." Quick relief
complete, permanent cure. Corus, warts bunions.
W. E. Smith & Oo., Madras, Sole Agents.

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

759

SALT WORKS IS COLOGNE.

Kainit, as a substitute for salt and far more
than a substitute, in consequence of the large pro-
portion of potash, having' been recently noticed in
our columns, Iho following account of the Gorman
mines whence this and other valuable salts are
derived will lie interesting to our readers : —

lU-;i'OUr IIV eONSUl. W.iliNEll IN STASSl'UKT.

For many years the saline beds in Northern Ger-
many have been yielding immense supplies of rock
salt, and as lai'ge quantities of the products of this
salt are aiuuuiUy imported into the United States
for agi'icultural purposes, some statistical information
on their production may not fail to be of interest,
especially to that class of Airerican agriculturists
who use the quality called kainite ithe hydrated
chloride of potassium and sulphate of magnesia.)

The raw potash salt contains on an average the
following ingredients ; Chloride of potassium, Ur8 per
cent; chloride ot magnesium, *2()'"» per cent ; chloride
of sodium, sulphate of magnesia, lit; per cent ;
chloride of calcium, 0-4 per ceut ; insoluble matter,
0"S per cent; and water, aO'ti per ceut.

The importance of these beds has been constantly
increasing during the last twenty-five years by dis-
coveries of other almost inexhaustible supplies of
potash salts in and aroiuid the cities of btassfurt
and Asheraleben. These two places are within a few
miles of Magdeburg, the capital city of the rich
province of Saxony, in the Kingdom of Prussia.

Besides the great value of these salts for manuring
purposes, kainite taking the lead on account of its
being in a condition directly applicable to the soil
and its cheapness in comparison with any other
artificially prepared fertilizers, they are largely used
ill the various chemical industries for the manufacture
of chloride of potassium, sulphates of potash and soda,
preparations of magnesium, potash, tVc.

Tue following sta'istics, published bj the German
Imperial ncivcrnnient, will convey some idea of the
gro.i'ing importance of these beds. The Stas^furt and
Asherslebeii Haline beds pro iuciul, iu the following years .
Year. Kock salt. Potash Salt:

cwt. cwt.

18(i4 ... ... 1,620,094 ... 2,3-30.791

IbTO ... ... 2,2.5S,.581 ... 5.837,8.'>7

187-1 ... ... 3,237.411 ... 8.591.219

1830 ... ... 5,41.5,403 ... 13.:i«l,811

1^84 ... ... U,89.=i,960 ... 19.;1S3,820

The fignrei show that while the production of rock
salt within the period of twenry years has quadrupl'Hl
the increase of pcjtash sails has been ninefold. The salt
works now in the innnen'^e ba.iiu are, Stassurt, op.?ued
in 1S57. the l,eopoldhall, opened in 18G2, the Consoli-
dated Alkaline Salt \V'ork9, in Westuregeln, opened in
107.), the Snltrock mints New StiLs.sfurt in Loilerherg
near Stassfurt, opened in 1877, the Potash mines, Asher-
sh ben. opened in 1883, and the Salt mines Ludwig II,
opr-ned in IS34. The official statement of their product
iu fiv years, prepared by Dr. Fratdj and Mr. K. ]5es.scr,
the director of the salt mines in New Stassfurt is as
follows :--
Year. Karnallite. Kaiuitc. Kierserite. Boracite.

cwt. cwt. cwt. cwt.

I5SO 10,5e4,2;!9ll 2,75.1,91.50 17,8.570 2,0730
1881 M,89i,.521 0 .3,100,0310 41.0380 2,25H ,5
1832 21.1S.5,9fl.5-5 3,89.5,1.540 !)3,l«2l) 2,5l3-.5
1883 19,001,0010 4,532,005-0 97,004 0 4,I02,..5
1881 ll.799,I79-6 4,080,0870 274,777 0 3,1823

These figures show that the greatest yield of
karnallitc wa< in 1882, aud the largest yield of kieserite
was ill the year 1881.

Karnallite, which is produced in such enormous
quantity, is described hy .Johnston and Cameron
as a compound of nip.';nesie and potas^Ic chlorides
and water. Of kainit they say that it.TiCom]iOsition
is variable. Good specimens contain cliloride and
sulphate of potassium equal to about 14 per cent
of potash. Nearly one-fourth ot kainit consists of
magnesie chloride and sulpliate, tl)o rest is niiide
up chiefly of common suit,

SEED-PEAEL SHELLING AT BATU BATU.

The following, from the North Borneo Herald
will be interesting to our readers. The pearl shell
referred to is the species found in Tumblagam
Bay, near Trincomalee, the large thin shells of
which are said to he used by the Chinese as sub-
stitutes for window glass, and which are put to
artistic use, small pictures being painted on them,
having all the eil'ect of transparencies : —

The prominent point of land called Batu Batu
jutting out into Padas Bay is now the centre of
much activity, and many refugees from the dis-
membered kingdom of ISrnnei have made it their
home. Constant feuds, intrigues and misgovern-
ment have rendered life and property insecure in
Brunei and gladly have our immigrants ex-
changed the red banner of Brunei for the protection
afforded by the a-gis of the Royal Chartered
Company.

Most ot the immigrants come from Brunei, others
hail from Labuan, Lawas and neighbouring rivers.
The roving adventurers who trade from port to
port along these coasts do a good business with
the Muruts who bring down jungle produce,
for which hitherto there was no market, and the
newly-arrived " horny-handed sons of toil ;' inimedi-
alely find employment in seed-pe arl fishing, boat-
building, cutting plank and spars for boats, plant-
ing paddy 011 the Linkongan, Lukutan and Sipitong
rivers or working sago on the Padas or other
rivers that debouch into Padas Bay, The gard
woods of Batu Batu and surrounding country
have for many years past been well known in
in Labuan, and within the last month the La-
buan Government has been supplied from Batu
Batu with spars of the famous " Bintangor "
wood for their new flagstaff. The deposits of coal
at Bukit Naloyan are as yet quite undeveloped,
and samples have been sent to the Indian and
Colonial Exhibition, London.

But the principal occupation of the immigrants
is in gathering the seed-pearl shells {phu-imn
pUwenta), called by the natives " seleesip," which
abound in I'adas Bay. A flotilla of twenty or
thirty boats roams about the bay, generally
together as in herring fishing, in search of the
oldest shells and when these are found to be too
young the boats move on to another bank. It is
a rule with the fishermen always to throw back
the young shells into the sea, but if a shell has
been opened and the oyster destroyed it is not
thrown back, as it is said that the dead shells kill
the live ones. These shells pay the fishermen in
a threefold manner. First, the shells divested ot
the oysters fetch in Singapore from $1.80 to 82
a picnl, then the oysters dried in the sun only,
(not salted,) sell for .about $1 to ?(> a picul in La-
buan and thirdly the seed-pearls are sold in La-
buan at one .Mayam #1.80, one Basing =10 Ma-
yams 180. When a boat comes in, the load of
shells is turncil out on the beach. Then each
fisherman gets two buckets, these are made of the
sheath of the nipa palm, and with a sharp knife
manufactured for the purpose, the slicll is opened
and the oyster is out oil within ,f of an inch from
the hinge of the shell. The oyster falls into one
bucket, .and the part clinging near the hinge is
sci'.aped off and falls into the other bucket. It is
this little bit that contains the seed-pearls, if any,
and they are carefully extracted. The oysters are
laid ont on mats to dry in the sun and sold in Labuan.
A great number of the seed-pearls are disposed
ot in the village at Batii Batu. When Uie fisher-
man buys his few ueccsaaries at the GUimiman's

76o

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

shop lie pulJs out his little bundle of seed-pearls
and pays in that currency, the Chinaman making
a good thing out of this transaction. These seed-
pearls are not much valued in Europe, but in China
they are used as ornaments or pounded into medi-
cine and the shells being thin and transparent are
also a substitute for window glass.

There are four principal banks of seed-pearl
shells in the shallow part of Padas Bay, in a ripe
state for working operations, and there are some
more where the shells are still growing ; these are
forbidden ground until such time, say another six
or nine months, when they shall have attained
maturity.

The scene on the sand or mud banks in the
bay is lively, men, women and children up to their
knees in water gathering the shells that are im-
bedded. They seem very busy withal cheerful and
c battering and seem glad to see the (Tovernment
b oat, with the British North Borneo lievenue (lag
rt ying aft, picking its way among their boats. As
we pass the women playfully throw a few shells
into our boat for luck ; further on may be seen,
o n sticks fixed on the bank, some white flags to
keep "evil spirits" away.

The collection of the Royalty on the seedpearls
exported was a somewhat dilficult nut to crack.
The Regulations said that .5 per centum ad valorem
was to be collected.

Mr. C. A. Francis, the energetic otlicer in
charge of Batu Batu found that the .seed-pearls
were so easily hidden away that the revenue
therefore amounted to very little. A tide-waiter
wa s sent to his assistance, his duty being to go
a bout among the people, find out what i)carls
)iad been procured, and to search them. The first
month only brought in some |G revenue, and as
hi s pay was (fl2 a month the result was disap-
pointing. He searched the fishermen but found
little or nothing, all the while knowing well that
they had extracted many seed-pearls from the
bivalves. Little boys showing their bright teeth
looked up with their laughing eyes, the picture
of innocence, and all the time concealed little
packets of seed-pearls between their toes, but
native boys can do anything with their toes from
holding a nail straight with tlieni while hammer-
ing it into a p'ank to combing their hair. Of
course the natural bashfulness of I'rovince Pent
officials lorbad a close examination of the ladies,
and the result was that tliis mode of collecting
the Revenue was a dead failure.

It was now suggested that |'2 should be charged
on every boat, but this plan was found to be
impracticable as fifteen or twenty persons would
crowd into a large boat so as to evade the tax.
At last the fishermen themselves were consulted in
the matter and they voluntarily proposed that a
head tax should be levied on every man woman and
child who were employed in fishing on the banks.
The old men said the young people gathered the
most shells as they could stand longer in the
water than they could, as it gave them cramp to
to be too long in the water, and that it was (piite
fair that the young ones should be taxed.

The payment ul #1 per head per mensum was
agreed to by all, and the first month i.e. December
188.''> brought in a head tax of «H1, whilst I he
month of .January Irt.Sfi yielded a revenue of Silo,
and the peo]ile pay this mode ot taxation cheer-
fully and rapidly.

1:1 (he Inland Sea at Kwala Penyu, in Pro-
vince Dent there are .shells of the same descrip-
tion, the only difference being that they do not
breed secd-pcarls, and it is said that in former
years they ilid not produce any. The Assistant
Resident has now sent away several hundred

weight of Padas Bay shells for deposit on these
banks, believing that the admixture of the breeds
may remedy the defect in these barren oysters.

The seed-pearls shelling is as yet in its infancy,
and it is expected that a large population will
settle at Batu Batu to this and other lucrative
occupations. As Julius Casar is said to have
conijuered England for the sake of her pearls, so
let us venture to hope that a similar but less demons
trative invasion will take place in Province Dent.

PISCICULTURE.
To the Japanese, who add pisciculture to the
polite accomplishments, the following account of
carp culture in China will prove interesting. We
take it from the columns of Nature : — "A report on
carp-culture in China has been made by Dr. Mac-
gowan to the Carp-culture Association of the United
States. Pisciculture, it appears, was cultivated at
a very early period, being regarded as a branch of
agriculture. The carp is, of all fish, the most
frequently reared by artificial means in China, but
nearly every species of Ciiprinilne, bream, tench,
roach, goldfish, etc., is so raised. A treatise on
fish-rearing has been attributed to a Minister 'of
the fifth century before our era, but it appears to
have been really written eight centuries later. The
work says tha' of the five modes of rearing animals
by far the most productive and valuable is fish-
breeding. The pond used for this purpose (it goes
on) should be an acre in extent (the depth is
usually less than eight feet), and nine stone islets,
each having eight inlets or hays, a yard below the
surface of the water, should be constructed in it ;
tlien twenty gravid carp and four males, each three
feet long, are to be deposited in it noiselessly in the
month of March. Two months later a turtle should
be placed in the pond, two months later a couple,
and after a like period tliree more. By this time
there will be 8ii0 rarp. The turtles are to pre-
vent their being transformed into dragons and flying
away. The object of the islets and bays is to afford
greater space for the fish in their sinuous voyages,
for the more a fish travels the fatter and bigger
he becomes. The Chinese author then makes the
following calculation : in the following year the
pond will be found to contain L50,000 carp 1 foot
ill length, 1;')0,000 ;f feet, 10,000 2 feet. In the
third year 100,000 1 foot, r)0,000 2 feet, 50.000 H
feet, and 10,000 4 foet. A thousand of those that
are 2 feet in length should be retained for re-
plenishment, and all the rest be sent to market.
In another year their number will exceed all
calculation, and llicy require no feeding, hence the
value of carp culture. All the varieties, we are
told, come from the black species. Those destined
to become white change to silver or yellow, while
the others turn first red and then golden. Some
of the white sort are so nearly transparent that
their viscera are visible. Much of the art of
rearing them consists in affording due amounts of
shade and sunshine in the course of their growth,
and in changing their water, not more than half
of which is to be removed every fourth day. In the
earliest times the practice, which continues today,
was introduced of planting mulberries on the mar-
gins, < n which apiaries were placed, the droppings
from which fed the fish, while the leaves of the
trees first nourished silkworms and then goats.
These droppings are said to impart a i)eculiar
fia\our to the fish."

.\part from some nonsense, this account is
valuably suggestive. Fish ponds well stocked would
bo valuable institutions on estates and elsewhere
in Ceylon. Proper fish conld be procured from
China. Java, India and other places.

May r, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

761

MANITOBA AND ITS PBODUCTS.
Owing to the great reduction in the value of
farming produce, many of the agriculturists of
Great Britain have been endeavouring to break their
leases and to remove their Lares and Penates, along
with the little hard cash which they still possess
to some other scene of labor, and naturally tlie
question of which colony would be the best suited
for them has been the one uppermost in their
thoughts of late. Pamphlets have been pu))lished
and are to be had gratii: from the agents-general
of the various colonies, and it is amusing to note
how each colony is pointed out, in the pages of the
pamjihlet specially referring to it, as the most
desirable one for any person to go to, and, taking
the first of these that comes to my hand, I find
the Prov ince of Manitoba thus referred to by one
William Howey of Birtle Mass, who says : — " I
consider there is no better place under the sun, for
men with asmaU capital." Now I have never been in
Manitoba myself, but I have known many who have
been there, — men who bore the hardships of early
settlement in New Zealand and Australia, who
had • roughed it ' in the good old colonial way,
and had never shirked hardwork or hard tare,
men also who had helped to open up the jungles
of India and Ceylon, and had planted coffee on
the clearings, who had lived often on nothing but
curry and rice from one week's end to another,
and who were in no way afraid of hard work or
rough living, and strange to say these have all got
the same thing to say about the Paradise of Mani-
toba, riz., that they would rather be hanged in
Australia or eaten by a tiger in India, than die a
natural death in Manitoba. Now something must
be wrong : either my informants have been ill to
please or the pamphlet has been written by one
whose imagination is stronger than his veracity,
and as I am not easily induced to accept of any
tale as gospel, I always try to find out as much
as possible for myself as to which story is the
true one. With regard to Manitoba an opportunity
was offered me lately of inspecting some of the
produce grown there, which was being exhibited in
Aberdeen, and I took advantage thereof of going to
see them and of endeavouring to clear up the doubt
which had become inherent in one on the subject of
the suitability of Canada as a field for emigration, and
its assumption to rank first as a grower of farming
produce. The exhibition was crowded, but I made
two visits to it and took careful note of everything
that I saw. The specimens of grain— wheat, maize,
oats, barley, dc. — were very poor, the wheat being
exceedingly small, and the oats so ' shelly' that
the weight per bushel could not have been more
than 30 lb. ; indeed it was a poorer specimen than
the average of the ' light oats ' in this part o f
Scotland — that is the grain which is separated
from the good oats in the process of winnowing.
The barley also was very .small. According to the
pamphlet above referred to, the average yield per
acre in Manitoba in 188a was wheat 21 bushels
oats 31) and barley 2i>, and'all these are much behind
the British averages. — The samples of peas and
heans were very good, although small, but there
was no doubt that they had been through a sizer,
similar to those employed in coffee mills, as the ex-
actness of the size of all the peas was too remarkable.
But the strong point of tlie exhibition undoubtedly
was the jiotato department ; the specimens of
these esculents left nothing to be desired. I have
seen perfect potatoes in New Zealand, and, in the
95

same country, I have seen 30 tons to the acre
grown ; but I never saw anything better than the
specimens of ashleaf kidney and magnum bonum
potatoes exhibited as grown in Manitoba. The
onions also were very good, and so were the carrots ;
but the collection of turnips and mangolds were as
poor as any I ever saw. They were large, coarse
and hollow, covered with warts and hideous
excrescences, and, although several of those look-
ing at the specimens expressed surprize at the
magnitude thereof, I observed that any practical
farmer who referred to them at all, did so in far
from complimentary terms, styling them rough,
' fusionless,' finger-and-toed and worthless. On
the whole the specimens were in no way equal to
those to be seen at any country show, with
the exception of the potatoes, and so 1 am
inclined to give credit to the somewhat sneering
remarks of those who have told me about
their trips to Manitoba, and their determination not
to throw their lot in with the struggling .settlers there.
It is not my purpose to refer to the photographs
of the fine scenery of Canada and the stuffed heads of
buffaloe and mouse-deer hanging round the hall —
these were tine indeed — but emigrants cannot live
on scenery, even although they may occasionally
have their larders full of buffalo 'junk,' and
Ij only intended, when writing this, to give
you my idea of the products of the Canadian
farms, as compared with those of other colonies
or even of the mother-country. I have no doubt
the specimens wliich I saw were fair samples —
at least the Canada North-West Land Company,
under whose auspices the exhibition was held,
would surely not have put themselves to incon-
venience to collect inferior specimens to send so
far as to Aberdeen Awa. Cosmoi'olite.

EEPORT FOE 1885 OF THE KOYAL BOTANIC
GAEDENS, CEYLON.

Besides what we have already quoted, we add
a few further extracts from Mr. Nock's report on
that now favourite resort of visitors to Nuwara
Eliya and tourists, the Hakgala Gardens : — •

The Hill Garden continues to increase in useful-
ness and beauty, as the improvements planned out
five years ago, and steadily continued since, approach
their full development, and the many newly-introduced
plants begin to exhibit themselves more prominently.
The Carriage Drive extension was continued (by
labour from Peradeniya as in previous years), and
sufficiently finished to enable it to be used by car-
riages for its whole length. About 150 yards, liow-
ever, are still un-metalled and very rough, but I hope
t)mt the whole road will be properly finished off
during the coming year. The damage by flood re-
corded in my last report was repaired and a larger
culvert, (40 feet long, 2 feet deep, and 22 inches-wide)
was made under the drive to carry off the overflow
water ; but again in June a heavy fall of 2 y8 inches
rain in two hours washed away a considerable por-
tion of the road and embankment. This was at onco
thoroughly repaired, and the embankment atrenghtenod
with brickwork and cement. It now appears to with-
stand the floods, and it is hoped will give no further
trouble.

The Sunerintendout's bungalow has been inr'-easod
by the addition of two more rooms, and the enlarge-
ment of a third, and by an extension of the verandah.
This gives him an office for garden work— a want
hitherto much h'.t at Hakgala. The work was
carried out by the Public Works Department, under
the superintendence of Mr. Nock. The small re-
servoir built last year has answered its purpose very
well, and proved very useful indeed during the droughts
of February-April, and AugnstSoptember. Though
at times very low, there was always enough water
for the nurseries, plauthouses, and flower-gardens.

762

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

.'t still leaks a little. The erection of a cattle-shed on
'he liigh load below the Garden, for the sake of obtain-
ing the iiiaunre. has been carried out. It has been
strongly built (by the Garden coolies) and shoiild last
many years. It is already frequented by cartmen, and the
Garden deriving the benefit contemplated. A site for
new cooly lines was selected, and the framework and
\-oof of the building has been put up and thatched.
But it has not been found impossible to spare from the
necessary work of the Garden labour sufliciont to
finish it. I have selected the following extracts from
Mr. Nock's comprehensive report on the Gardens : —
" Iruads mill Paths. — The Carriage Drive from the
bungalow to the entrance gate was thoroughly re-
;)aired in January, and the grass verges made
complete throughout the whole distance. Near the
lower end of the fernery, the old drive made a
very sharp and ugly bend to avoid a bank, some 4
ft. high. This bank has been cut away for about 12 ft.,
and the road made of abetter curve and an easier
gradient for a distance of H4 feet. New patlis, 4 feet
wide, have been made in various parts of ail garden,— in
165 yards, — as well as 27'2 yards of narrow .S-feet
ones in the herbaceous groinid ; and Ii:-i7 yards of turf-
edging has been laid down along the sides of paths.
108 square yards of turf have also been laid down
to form a lawn near the rose garden and on the bank
below the new pond.

"Ferueri/. — I am glad to be able to report that
the plants in the fernery have done well all through
the year. Sonic of the foreign species have made re-
markable growth, and are now quite established. The
New Zealand " Silver tree-fern," Cijat/n'a (Italhafa "
has already begun to form a stem, and has now 25
.ronds. The Australian tree-ferns, nicl;>onia anfarfica
mentioned in last year's report, have also continued
to thrive; and the groups of the lovely indigenous
-ree-fern, Ahophtla cniiita, have made excellent
■ rowth during the year, and have been much admired
Oy Australian and European visitors.

" liiinl-sheih mid .Xiirseries. — In the plant-sheds
and nurseries, a large and varied stock
of plants has been kept up for distrib-
ution, and for the supply of the Garden. The
greater part of the nursery has been liberally dressed
with manure and though some parts of it are still
very poor, the soil generally is in much better heart
and the plants have in consequence grown more
freely, and have given greater satisfaction; 35,300
seedling plants were pricked out during the
year and 55,400 cuttings put in. The propag-
ating-housc continues to be most useful for strik-
ing cuttings of the more delicate sort of
plants, and for raising seeds, &c. "Without it, I feel
sure, I could not have saved the one straggUug ger-
minating shoot of the new and valuable AVcst Ifidian
vegetable, Sciliium cli'le, which has, I am glad to state,
now been successfully established.

'* Hai'dds and Shri'liheries. — A great amount of work
has been done to the borders and slirubberins in the
way of m;iuuring, planting, and re-planting, and thin-
ning out and pruning. Altogether 3S,500 plants and
seedlings of various trees, .shrub, and garden plants
have been planted out during the j'ear, the greater part,
of course, being showy herbaceous garden plants and
annuals. Tlirce new borders have been made near the
lower entrance to the fernery, — one will be devoted
entirely to Fuchsias, and the others planted with mixed
plants. Two mere borders were also made between the
edge of the new pond and the carriage drive, A
l)clt of six rows of different conifers and one row of
Aciuia imlaniixiilim has been planted on the patna land,
near entrance fjate, at the back of the junipers planted
there last year. In July and August the upper por-
tion of the old ilncJiona Lrdi/iiiina plantation was
cleaned up and phinled with J'hiits shuiisis, and on the
lower side enough ground was cleared for and planted
with two rows of rim's luiif/ifoliu, and one oi I'ijtus
Khitspa. The first two named are doing well, but a
good many of the last, besides dying out in the hot
dry wi athi r, wc'-e destroyed by elephants ; and I tv.-
grct to say we have no more plants of tliis kind to fill
up the vacaucies.

" Flower Garden. — The beds here have for most part
of the year been filled with showy temperate plants,
which, on the whole, have done well, though loth
here and in the borders in the other pans of the
Garden it has been impossible to obtain that uniform
appearance so much desired, on account of an un-
usually large number of grubs and slugs which have
attacked almost everything put out this year.

" Hose (I'aiileii. — White gravel has been laid on the
paths in this garden ; and the ground on the upper
side of it has been made level and planted with
English grass, which has now covered the whole
surface, and forms a nice fresh-looking turf. A few
new roses have been added by exchanges, and nearly
all have grown well. Considering the jilauts have been
set out only just over a year, some remarkably fine
blooms have been produced. I may mention that
one bloom of "PaulNcron" measured Ik inches in
diameter, and was as richly-scented as any I have ever
grown. September produced the greatest number of
blooms, and the size and coloiu'iug of the flowers were
very satisfactory.

"Herbaceous Garden. — It has been found that the
herbaceous gnrdeu made three years ago is far too
small for the number of species we now have, and as
it is not practicable to extend the garden there, it was
decided to form an entirely new one ou a site adjoin-
ing the rose garden. This site has been cleared of
jungle, roots and stones removed, the ground made even,
and laid out in sixteen beds 4 feet wide, with a
path between each bed 3 feet wide and a grass verge
on each side 1 foot wide. The average length of the
beds is 50 feet. The monocotyledons will be placed in
the beds nearest the rose garden, and already 100 species
of them have been planted out.

" T'isito/s. — The increase of visitors is remarkable,
being 475 more than in lSs4, when there were 539,
against 1,014 during this year. April gave the largest
number (192), and June the smallest (2S).

We quote also what Dr. Trimen says about tea
and cocoa : —

Tea. — Oeylon has exported over 3J millions (3,796,534
lb.) of tea during the year, a rise of 1} million, but yet
somewhat less than was anticipated. The area under
this cultivatiou (roughly estimatfd last year as G5,000
acres) is now calculated, with as much accuracy as can
be attained, at 101,095 acres. This is ii very large ex-
tent, but it must be remembered that fully half is mrt
yet in bearing, uud much more still very yoimg. It
has been estimated that this existing aci i'ag«
should yield in four years' time an export of
not far oft 30 millions lb,, and to that will
have to be added the yield of the bushes of the
next two years' planting. Such predictious, which
take into account no accidents, have not any great
value ; but allowing this to pass, I must confess, that,
however encouraging in one aspect these figures nniy
appear, they have to mj' mind a serious aspect also.
For the present, however, prices are well maintained
and our trees .are free from any serious blights or
insect ravages.* liut it cannot be too strongly urged
upon planters to endeavour to occupy such a strong
position b}' the cultivation of other products, that
they may be able to hear the chauges ju these res-
pects which are but too likely to occur.

It has been suggested— and the question is likely
to be more discusseil — thai the cultivation of tea by
the small native landholders in the villages iidght
well be encouraged by Government : and during the
year olticial applications for plants and seed have br;en
referred to me. It is certainly very much to be desired
that Sumo cultivation could be found f(>r the villager
to take t ho place of his coffee now almost totally des-
troyed by leaf-disease; a little consideration will how-
ever, 1 I liink, show that this cannot be done by t-ea
at least under jirescnt cireiunstances. Vt'hat has becu

* UcloiH-his has done some slight diunage in a few
estates, the fully-developed insect siud;ing the young
leaves. This has been, so far as I have seen, where
cacao is grow n along with tea, a couibiuatiou perhaps
bettor avoided.

mE TROPfCAt AGRlCytTURlS^,

y^s

liroposutJ is tliat the native cultivator should sell liis
groeu loaf at the factories of the neii;hbouriu^ planters.
1 le would thus be entirely at the mercy of the buyer,
wlio, it is but rea.-oDiible to expect, would not care
to pay more (it would be probably less) per pound
than what it costs him ou his own, perhaps large,
highly-cultivated, and well-worked estate. Such a
price woidd be a miserable return to the native grower
for a crop which he has secured at the expense of.
fur him, much time, care and trouble, and would be
far inferior to that he could obtain by other easier
cultivations. Tea is not a profitable product to grow
in small quantity ; and 1 cannot recommend that its
cultivation in the villages should be encouraged, when
there are many other more suitable and more profit-
able product.s available. If, however, it were possible
for the villagers to viafce tea for their own use, its growth
by them might be recommended.

Uut the direction in which one may hope to see tea-
cultivatiou beuetit the Sinhalese villager, is by induc-
ing him to work for wages on tbe estates. It is satis-
factory to know that this is already commencing in
some districts : if generally followed by tlie natives,
habits of industry will be formed, and the helpless in-
dolence and apathy, and consequent semi-starvation,
so often to be seen among the Sinhalese, be gradually
abolished in proportion.

Cacao. — It is with regret that or.e observes a, de-
cided check in the cultivation of this plant, especi-
ally as this appears to be principally due to an
mireasonable dread oilltflopdtis.* For the ravages
of that insect do not seem to be on the increase
and thougli it has become somewhat more widely
diffused, it is not iii most localities a very serious
pest, such as would justify the abandonment of a
promising industry. There appears now to be a
general consensus of opinion among planters, that
this bug attacks principally cacao grown in the
open; and the planting of shade-trees is becoming
general. It may be expected that our export of
this product, considerably decreased in the past
year, will speedily recover; and if the Hdopelfis
panic lead to a more appreciative selection of land,
and more care in cultivation, it will not have been
entirely injurious.

There has been some demand during the year for
seed of the Trhiidad varieties at Peradeniya, and the
belief is general that these lrtrger-gro«ing kinds are
hardier than the old Ceylon sort, fciince tbe date of
my last report, I have arrived at the conclusion that
the various "pale-fruited" kinds (see report for
\Si2) sparingly cultivated in Oeylon, as well as all the
strains ol thej^e new Trinidad plants, are to be re-
ferred to the ** Forastero " clan's of cacao. All of
them, whatever the colour of the pods — purple, dark-
red, pink, yellow, or pale-green — have .seeds (" beans")
which are lhitti:h iu form, and purple or violet iu-
teriiaily, and become very dark after curing. Our
old caca-.*, t-n the contrary, has the pud nearly always
red (occasionally bright-yelluw), ainl the seeds are
more rounded in shape, and always white or yellowish
on section when fresh, becoming red after prepar-
ation for the market. As to the proper name of this
latter sort, I may quote a portion of a letter which
I addresseil to the Ohsemor newspaper iu November
last, upon the subject; —

"The fruiting of the selected and named varieties
sent from Trinidad in 1880 antl 1891 has since shown
that all these names (Uuiideamar, Cayenne, Vrrdi-
lico, kc.) are applied to forms of what is known there
as 'Foraftero,' cacao, and that none of the purplc-
Recde'l kinds are of the 'Criollo' or 'Caracas' variety.
It will therefore be well to use for the future the name
*Ft>rast*ro' for thr m here also.

"This being the case, the question naturally arises
as to the ordinary red cacao of Ceylon. What variety
is it; and is there anything like it grown elsewhere?
For pome timi' I have been becominir ni'^re convi-iced

* There is a fair wood-.;ut illustr.it. on of t le adult
//f/<7i(V/<<, from .JaV.i sfecinieii.i iu " I'b imieeutical
Journal "for December lilp. IHilf, and of r.ne earlier
sl»jiea ulso in " Girdiners' Chronicle ' 'ot January
16(h, Ittse, (p. Hi). •

that it is thix, that is the 'OfWacas' or 'Priollo' cacao
and I niinht liave taken stronger ground on the mallei
than I did in my last report. I\Ir, Morris, Of Jamaica.
who has had good opportunity of investigating the
c.ioaos, both iu a wild and cultiv.ated slate, tells mi
that he knows of 'only one kind with the cotyledon.'^
white or V hitish, and that is what is known as Car.-icas
cacao.' This, it is well-known, is now a rare kind iu
tlie AA'est Indict, and scarcely to be foiuiil on 'rriuiilaJ
estate.s, having died out, though formerly largely gvowu
hero. Evidently Oeylon obtained its plants before this
change had occurred. The high qualtity of 'Ceylon
cacao' is thus e.xplaiued, as well as its delicate tempera-
ment."

We add a few further extracts : —

'SccJiinin fdiile. — The " Cho-cho" or " Cliayotc"' has
been successfully established at Hakgala from Iho
single surviving seed of those sent from Jamaica iu
January. Mr. Nock reports: — "After being nursed
up iu the propagating house for a few weeks, the
plant was put out at the end of February iiito the
nursery. It commenced to bear in I\Iay, and has cou-
tinued to do so ever since, affording an excellent crop.
The vegetable (fruit) it produces is pear-shaped, and
the average weight is .about 2^ lb. The largest one
we have grown here yet weighed .SJ lb. The plant
being perennial, adds greatly to its value. As it is
the first time it has been grown in this country, it
may be useful if I state the best way of cultivating
it. It thrives best in a rich, deep, well-drained soil,
but may be made to grow anywhere by preparing
the site for each plant in the following manner : —
Make a hole 4 or b feet in diameter, and 18 inches
to 3 feet deep, according to the sub-soil. If the sub-
soil is good and free, you may go to the depth
of 3 feet ; but if it is clayey or likely to hold water,
IS inches will be quite deep enough. Place a layer of
rough stones at the bottom of the hole to a depth of IJ
to 9 inches for drainage, and over this a few inches
deep of small twigs or half-rotted leaves to prevent tho
fine soil from getting between the stones and choking
the drainage. The hole may be filled up with the fol-
lowing compo-st : — One-third ordinary garden soil, one-
third half-rotted cattle or stable manure (cattle manure
preferred for hot, sandy soils, and stable manure for
cold, daye/ soils), and the remaining third may be
formed of leaf-mculd, stiud, woodashes, lime, and the
sweepings of the poultry-} ard, in about equal portions.
"When the hole has only been taken out IM inches deep,
it will be necessary to raise the soil about ly inches
above grouurl ; ind^ ed iu every case, except iu ver.y
dry districts, it is b st to raise it. I'he whole fruit,
which is sent out in a gprn.inated state, must be plrmled
about 3 inches deep iu the centre of the hole. Tl be-
gins togro'.v at once, and iu a week or ten days it will
have made a good start. It is a creeper, and each p'ant
will require a spaeo of about 20 feet square."

The cho-cho also does very well at reradcniya, but
the fruit does not there attain quite so large a size. I
think it will be less suitable for the lower elevations.
I consider it to be a very valuable iutrodiulion. ; nd a
real addition to the vegetables of Ceylon. I most
resemblis the vegetible marrow, but is, in my u.iiuiun,
superior iu tlavoui to the best varieties of th.al veget-
able.

CvPHoM.VNUiiA Katacea. — The "Tree Tomato"*' has
become well-establislied in Hakgala (J.Trdcn, an 1 is now
bearing good crops of fruit. Mr. Nock says ;—

" Some of the phints are now 11 feet hig ■, an 1 the
fruit-s produced are very fine. They are gg-.'-h pcd,
about 3 inches long and '2 inches in diamct r, a; d whuu
fully rijio are of a bright jellowi-h red c hmr. They
make exciUent tarts, are very good stew.-il, a d ar.; nm 'ii
relisheil by most people when rpiile ripe aii' oiteiraw,
like gooseberries. The plant is very rol us ;iP(i easy
to grow here, and I believe it will thri-. c, anl hi very

* Not a very apt name. Neither in fo'iage, fl wcr. nor
form of the fiuit is there much reviniblanc to the 'J'c-
niato: in .all these respects the pant is no re.' to the
.Uinjal or egg-plant.

1t\

tl^OPfCAL AGi^ICULTURIST^

[May I, 1886.

profitable from an elevation of from 2,000 to 6,000 feet.
Under favourable conditions, the plant remains in
bearing for many (ten or more) years."

Carica cundiiiamarceHsis (" Mountain Papaw "). — Mr.
Nock reports from Hakgala : —

" Both as a fruit and ornamental plant this is a very
vMuable introduction. It grows freely in the moun-
tains, and produces an abundance of very useful fruit.
Stewed or cooked in tarts and puddings it has very much
the flavour of apples, and for mincemeat it is quite
equal to tliem. It is also very good when fully ripe,
eaten raw with a little sugar."

Abracacha Escur.ENTA.— The few seedling plants of
this vegetable, which were raised during the latter part
of 1884 at Hakgala (see last report, p. 1.3) were planted
out in February, and have matured a fair crop of the
edible roots. A good quantity of young plants have
been propogated from crown cuttings, and these
»re now available for distribution. This vegetable
has a peculiar flavour, and a cheesy consistence, and
is not relished by everyone. It might be called the
"South American Parsnip."

Ipomaa chiysorrhka. — The " Kumara " or New Zea-
land sweet-potato has turned out very suitable for
Ceylon culture, and possesses several advantages over
the ordinary sorts. The tubers, though smaller, oome
more quickly to maturity, and thus afford more crops
during the year. In taste they are much less sweet,
and more like the true potato; but the great advant-
age is that they can be grown in the hills at the highest
elevations. This was received from Kew in 1883 (.see
my report for that year, p. 9). Botanically it can be
regarded only as a race, adapted to a temperate climate,
of the ordinary I. Batatas,

Chinese itinger. — Of this plant— the source of the
preserved ginger of commerce — nothing is certainly
known. In China, whtre it is grown, it is said never
to flower. I have received from Kew a box of roots,
which are growing well at Peradcniya. The plant is
clearly quite diistinct from ordinary ginger, and I await
itsfloweiing with interest.
Eucalyptus Plantation.— Mt. Nock reports :—
" The trees — now oj years old— suffered a good deal
from the high winds in the South- West monsoon, and
most of them, which are now too big for stokes, show
a decided lean from that point.

For comparison of growth I give below the measure-
ments of fifteen kinds for the last three years": —

Jan. 1884. Jan. 1885. Jan. 1886.

^i

.■a

ji 6

.§

-a oj

'3

•- 5

<u

■5 s

■e s

^

o-^

w

o-^

W

3-^

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

ft.

in.

. robustii,

.. 110

8

24

15

300

22

longifolia

.. 110

(i

24

14

35-0

19

niarginata

.. IS-i)

6

25

13

.%-o

20

Gimnii

., 13-6

ti

26

10

33-0

16

cornuta

.. 13-4

5

22

10

320

15

coloasea

.. 120

7

21

15

30-6

18

viminalis

. . io;t

6

18

14

25-6

19

botryoides

.. 100

7

22

14

291

20

microcorys

. . n-7

5

22

12

25-0

18

Sieberiana

.. 80

6

16

13

26-6

17

amygdaliiia

. . 7-10

7

15

12

22-6

19

piperita
hiBniastoma

.. 7-9

6

17

13

25-0

19

.. 7-2

5

l,i

12

230

18

Lehmanniana

.. 6-5

4

12

9

21-6

13

olpina

,. 2-8

3

5

5

12-6

9

KnEMll Ol-ERATIONS.— The Ennlixliman states
that the Governtnent kheddahs in the Garo Hills are
yearly becoming mote productive under the superin-
tendence of Mr. Sanderson, and the present season
is by far the most successful on record. For
ten years before Mr. Sanderson's appoint-
ment the avcrge capture did not exceed 58 ele-
phants, and since then the number has run up
to 252. This year, however, during the eighty
days from 20th December to 10th March, thi
capture of no fewer than :102 elepbauts wae effected

SvLHET Tea Prospects.— As was stated in the
Pioneer yesterday South Sylhet is suffering from
drought, hardly any rain having fallen since early
m October. A correspondent informs the Englith-
man that the districts south of Maulvi Bazaar aj-e
in a very bad way indeed. On the tea gardens
both old and young plants are dying, and an early
leaf season is now out of the question. The \vriter
adds that, omng to the exceptional dryness of the
weather jungle tires are greatly on the increase
in the district of Sylhet. On many tea estates
portions of the coolie lines and other buildings
have been burned to the ground, together with one
of the manager's bungalows in the South SyLhet Tea
Company. — Pioneer.

A Statue to Coffee.— A good deal of literature
has been inspired by coffee, but few men of let-
ters have sung its praises, and it seems to have
been reserved to a Viennese coffee-house keeper to
erect the first statue in its honor. Toward the
end of the seventeenth- century one Kolsohitzky,
who had rendered good service to the besieged
during the leaguer of Vienna, opened the first
coffee-house ever .seen in the Austrian capital, and
now one of his own cloth has put up a statue to
commemorate Kolschitzky's two great services to
his fellow citizens. The statue, which is said to
be " a fine work of art," represents Kolschitzky
in a Turkish uniform (the disguise he adopted
when carrying through the Turkish lines intelli-
gence from the besieged to the Duke of Lorraine),
holding a catetiere in his right hand and a cup in
his left. At his feet lies a bag of coffee. This
realistic piece of sculpture has just been unveiled
at the corner of the Kolschitzkystrasse and the
Favoritenstrasse, and has been formally made over
to the city ; and, as the Viennese loves his cai'e noir
with a perfect affection, there is much fitness in
the gift. — St. James's Gazette.

Flying -Foxes in Queensland The curse of

this colony and the bane of the fruit-grower is
the flying-fox. How to checkmate them is thought
to be a puzzle. The following from the Leader
is stated to be a certain method of destroying
these animals. " Select a tree to which they
appear to give the preference, and on that tree
hang from one to five oranges prepared as fol-
lows : — Scoop a cylindrical hole in the orange,
then introduce a piece of brass wire bent in the
shape of a corkscrew, so that it will securely hold
the orange hanging from the limb of the tree
where you shall place it. All this being done,
just before dark, when the flying foxes begin to
make their appearance, force into the orange a
quantity of cyanide of potassium the more you can
put in the better— but be careful not to keep
your nose over the fruit while doing so. The
citric acid contained in the orange will immediately
attack the cyanide of potassium, and produce
eyanhydric (prussic) acid ; this action will be con-
siderably helped by the small electrical cun-ent
generated between the cojiper wire and the cyanide,
and the gaseous product of the chemical reaction
will escape from the hole at the top, the flying-fos
coming near it dropping dead instantaneously. The
fruit will be besides poisoned by the double citrate
of copper and potash manufactured inside, so that
when the discharge of eyanhydric acid becomes
insufficient to poison the flying fox. the animal be
ing able (o bite the fruit will be killed, but not
instantaneously. The emanations of the eyanhy-
dric acid will attract the flying foxes from a con-
siderable distance. The poisoned fruits should be
removed and buried in the morning, or else they
may destroy valuable birds. In the long nights a
second hanging of fruit at about ffliduigbt bbould be
done."— P/a/i/t-r d? Farimr.

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

765

^on'ii'.spnndj^ncu.

To the Edilor of the " Ceylon Observer.''

TEA DBIERS.

15th March 1H86.

Dear Sir, — I ain glad to sec Mr. Shand coming
ont with an efficient yet reasonably priced tea-
drier. To push back as long as possible the neces-
sity for the purchase of those expensive home-
made driers will be a boon to many even if they
are not rendered altogether unnecessary. More
than a year ago now I built a set of chulas on
a plan 'of my own, with the tireplace only for
several chulas (as many as you like) and over
each of these I am now erecting (enclosed) slides
for four trays. A row of two or three of such
converted chulas may have a fire at each end —
andcr control without disturbing the trays.

Patentees are fond of calling their inventions
aft«r the hot winds of the earth : so I would sug-
gest that the common chula be henceforth called
the Simoom (as I once saw it blowing at Suez,
covering deck and cabins with fine dust). The
arrangement above described may be erected for
a few rupees, and be called the Monsoon.

I in;iy take this oppiirtuiiity of adding, that, in order
to make the convfrted ehtiliis a success, much attention
must be paid to draughia and air-currents — inside and
outside of them— which are difficult to control.

Yours,
R. W. J.

NEW TEA DRIERS.

Dikoya, 18th March 188G.
Dear Sib, — It may interest "11. W. J." your corre-
spondent in yesterday's issue, to learn lliat his
suggestion of the name " Simoom " fur a lea drier
was anticipated several months ago by a building
inventor, residing not a thousand miles from Hatton,
the offspring of whose creative faculty will, I learu,
be shortly jmt before the public, and which 1 am
told will, of course, eclipse anything of the kind
that has yet been introduced.— Yours truly.

" THE MORE THE MERRIER."

TEA ROLLERS.
Blackstone, Nawalapitiya, 22nd March 188G.
Dkai: Sir,— It will be gratifying to your planting
readers to learn from Messrs. Wm. J. & H. Thompson's
report just received that they confirm the testimony
of experts in Ceylon who have favored the public
with their remarks, as to the quality and appear-
ance of the tea rolled by the Centrifugal Spheroid
Roller. I have seldom rolled a fill for more than
12 minutes at an average, and often filled the
machine with its maximum capacity of 110 lb. al-
though, as a rule, I keep to 100 lb.; most of these
rolls were done in presence of visitors, day after
day. So that you may now fairly congratulate your
readers in having an efficient machine in ail re-
spects for their factories. — Yours faithfully,

JAS. H. BARBER.

P. .v.— 400 lb. of " wither" per hour at least,
equal to 500 green leaf.

Extract referred to ;—

" The highest quotation lias been made by Black-
stone, for an invoice of much excellence in make of
leaf, quality, and strength— but even such teas as
these have suffered from the depression already referred
to. It may be of interest to state that Mr. Barber's
new rolling machinery was used in the manufacture
of this parcel."— IVm. J. d- U. Thompson, t'cb. Joth.

THE PLANTING AND PROSPECTS OF
CINCHONA MARKET,

Dear Sir, — Having had occasion to travel in
several districts in search of a snug piece of land
for tea and cinchona, I was very much struck while
on the beat at the small area in cinchona chiefly
in the olden districts — of course, I mean, ooniparod
to what it used to be two years ago. Most certain-
ly Ceylon is not likely to export the quanttiy of
bark that has lately overflowed the market. The
unusual quantity was the result of clearing land
for tea as well as from the abandoning of coffee
estates. The majority of which had fields of
cinchona varying from 5 to 50 acres. I noticed
that the planting of cinchonas on new land is
still going on in middling elevations. The variety
chosen is Ledger. In the upper districts officinalis
is still the favorite, but no much of it is being
planted. The hybrids, ordinary calisayas, &o.,
seem to bo out of the catalogue. On many estates
that were aljandoned the cinchona has been cop-
piced with the hope, that, even if the land is not
kept clear, in time there will be a forest of cinchona.
This is I'cnj unlikelij. On places with coppiced cin-
chonas over a year old, the weeds and jungle stuff
are obtaining the mastery, and it is pretty clear that
the.se lands must be kept clean for at least three years.
On some of the estates roots and all have been
taken up, but the majority of owners find it too
troublesome and expensive to collect the root bark
and sell the stumps to tambiesat some low figure ; for,
besides the fact that the cinchonas coppiced do
not come on unless attended to, the villagers
quietly dig and remove them from time to time,
the high weeds and jungle screening them from
detection. I am pretty certain that proprietors of
cinchona estates, planted of course with only Ledgers
or officinalis, will in a couple of years reap a good
harvest, for the price is bound to treble so long as
the American supplies do not show an improve-
ment in quantity.* There is one thing drawing
the attention of growers, viz., the advisability of
not cutting a single branch or twig at any time or
age. The practice of doing so does not improve
the thickness of the truuk.s ; rather the contrary
elTect is produced. As for the facility of shaving
such trees the advantage is not nnich, — pecuniarily
hardly appreciable. A small percentage of twig
might be annually removed if the price for such
bark exceeds 12 cents a lb. As for branch bark, its
collection without cutting branches is not so ex-
pensive or tedious as people would fancy. Only
TRY.

PREPiUJATION OF COCOA (FROM THE CACAO-

PLANT) IN CEYLON.

Watterantsnne No. 2, Kandy, 2!)th March 1886.

Dear Sir,— I beg to annex a letter for publication
which I received from Messrs. Volkart Brothers. The
subject is of value to the planting and commercial
community, I need not enter into detail, explan-
atory of the method in which cocoa produced by
me is prepared nor flatter myself that the method
of my preparation is far superior to that of otluTS.

I find an article published in the Planters', " Vadn
Mecum " speaking very highly of Mr. Jeffries' cocoa.
True the external appearance is fascinating but
the fermentation is defective. All that the manu-
facturing bodies require from the planting com-
nmnily is goodly fermented cocoa and not the
briijht (ippcarance of tlie shin (or outer covering
of the bean). I am only sorry that mine is of
a different variety, or I should use all my effort

•Our corrcBpoiideiit forgetn the .Tav.T and Indian
eupplieb which ate expected to increaw.— Ec.

76S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTyeiST.

fMAt i, im§,

to compete with Mr. Jeffries in the outward appear-
ance maintaining my superior method of t'crmtnt-
ation. — I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,

J. P. COTTON.

(Citpij of li-ttcr from Mesm-s. Vvlkart Brothers.)
Colombo, 18lh February 188G.

J. P. Cotton, Esq., Watterauteune.

Dear Sib, — lu reply to our letter of the 15th
iustaut, we are glad to iuform you that the quality of
the last lot of Watterauteuuc cocoa, in fact all the
cocoa we bought from you, with the exceptiou of tlio
small lot delivered ia December last, is all that could
be expected, as far as priparatioii aud fermcidutioii
of the actual cocoa ia coucerued. The only improve-
ment that could be wished for, regards ontrard ap-
pearance and color. AVe send you today a sample of
Gangaruwacocon which produce has hitherto stood fore-
most with regard to colour and appearance of ikin. though
your cocoa is no doubt superior, so far as thorough
fermentation and real qualify of the beans goes. lu
spite of the latter advantages, the Gangaruwa
cocoa will, through its better appearance, perhaps ft:tch
three to four rupees more with some buyers than your
cocoa.

It" you could manage to combine the same fermenta-
tion, which your cocoa had so far, with the appearance
of Gang.aruwa cocoa, AVatterantenue would be almost
perfection and fetch fancy prices. From all what we
have heard, however, thorough fermentation and good
color do not go hand in baud, but the one must
be always partly sacrificed to the other, aud
■we are of opinion that Mr. Jeffries of Gangaruwa
has, as a rule, done a little too much for color aud
appearance.

The lot, from which we are sending you the
sample, has, we understand, been dried by an
American fruit-drier tried for the first time on
Gangaruwa with the result that the inside of the
bean presents a better look, and is better fermented
than former lots from that estate. It is of course
always desirable to give the cocoa a light color, as
appearance is for many buyers of more importance than
thorough fermentntion, but unless you are sure not to
impair the fermentation, in attempting to arrive at
the outward appearance of the Gangaruwa produce,
we would advise you to continue curing on your
present method.

It is very risky to go in for color only, as really
deficient fermentation much more seriously affects the
price than a dark appearance, aud your cocoa is really
very little off in this respect. There is now aud tlien
a parcel (chiefly native produce) brought to this
market which has a strikingly briylit ml color— tile-
rod it might be called. This is a sure sign of bad, i.e.,
deficient fermentation and such stutf is of very little
value aud almost useless for the manufacturer.

We believe Mr. Jeffries' trees are of another
variety than yours, ;'. f.,Cabello which is naturally of
lighter color. It has certainly a rounder beau than
yours. — Yours faithfully,

(Signed.) Volkakt Broiueks.

[This is all vei-y interesting so far as it goes,

but cacao planters would of course like to have Mr.

Cotton describe his process of fermentation and

Mr. Jeffries his process with the fruit-drier. — En.]

I'iBH Mancue for Tea Gabdens. — Under this
heading, a native correspondent of the Indian Ayri-
ciilliirinl advises an application of a handful to each
bush and states : — " In a garden in Assam, also
in one at Madras situated on the Hills (1 omit
names here) lish manure was used to renovate the
soil, as the out-turn ot these two tea gardens had
fallen off in flavour and quantity, though they had
been well manipulated. The lish-manurc proved
efiectua!.

J,WA Ci.NCHONA planters too, are beginning to
find out that it is more to their interest for them
to ship bark to London than to Amsterdam, owing
to brokers at the former city paying greater
attention to sorting operations for the fortnightly
sales, ■ dealing with their customers in a more
businesslike manner, and remitting proceeds forth-
with by telegraph. At Amsterdam, on the con-
trary, brokers take their own time in transacting,
so that planters often have to wait two months
after the close of the sales for remittances ot
the amounts due them. In liOndon Java bark
fetches higher prices than at Amsterdam, from
greater competition among bidders.— S(r«i(s Tivteg.

CoFi-EE AND Cinchona in Ceylon iVnd Java. —
Talawakele, 1st April.— We are having 'perfect
weather for blossoms, and wherever there is coffee
worthy of the name, there will be a good crop. I see
red-spider flourishing in all directions. My young tea
is sorely stricken, but I suppose the coming rains will
wash it ofl. I suspect that is to be our pest on the
new product in a not very distant future. 1 liear
Belgravia is for the second time one white sheet ot
blossom. May it all " set " and come into store, for it
is a precarious crop nowadays. Could you not pro-
cure for us reliable information re cinchona in
Java ? If the large acreage of high percentage
bark one hears of, is really under cultivation, and
within a couple of years of being tit to operate
upon, tlie sooner we get rid of our inferior
stuff the better, for there will be uo market for
it. Then what about Bolivia with its extensive
plantations of high-class cinchona '? Whether the
extended areas one hears of in other Countries
will turn out as deceptive as that said to be
under the cultivation in Ceylon in 1881, ought not
to be difficult to arrive at. It would not be a
bad idea for those interested here to subscribe to
send a reliable expert to find out all about it. I
should be glad to give my mite. Fancy the blue
looks of many of us two years hence, if we found
that our cinchona would not pay for harvesting !

The bipoETATioN of Java Tea in London
rose from 4,808,827 pounds in 1875 to 5,.5i)0,0(>9
in 1885. That article has gained a firm foothold
in England from its soundness and good quality.
The imported quantity is not likely to increase
very largely within the next few years owing to
there being no prospect ot any speedy growth of
production in the near future, as the exports from
Java to different ports sliow but little variation ot
any moment within the last ten years. In (|uality
Java tea is said to be open to great improvement
by Indian varieties coming more 'generally under
cultivation. Heeds of these have been increasingly
imported into Java ot late, from planters there
having become more convinced of the need for
laying hold of every available means to ensure
their produce approaching more nearly the standard
quality of first class Indian and C'cylon teas. Java
planters now prefer to ship their produce rather
to London than to Amsterdam, with the result
that they liave been charged with lack of patrio-
tism in seeking a market among foreigners instead
of among their own countrymen. Their reason
for disregarding tho Homo market is that, at
London, business is more quickly transacted, all
the quantities shipped are sooner accounted for
at rmiunerative rates; wlicreas, at Amsterc'nrn there
is less certainty of high profits, greater loss of
time, and lower quotations ruling. Ten years ago,
says the .hivti Bode tea growing in that island
had apparently reached its highest point and the
yield had actually begun to fall olT, whereas, now,
owing to the article finding ready sale in Britain,
its cultivation is steadily incrcatiug and plouters
Ipok forward to a brighter iui\xie,—StraiU limes.

May X, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

767

THE ATEICAN EUBBEB TREES.

In the West 6f Africa Indiarubber is collected from
several species of /.««</«'/</.<«, of which the best known
are L. OicaiknAs ami L.Jiorulu. Acconiing to Sp^ke
luui lirant L. Jhi-idit is stated by the natives to yieUi the
best ruliber of any of the species. This plant is a wooJy
climber, growinij well in places where little else could be
profitably gruwu, i.e., in damp rocky ravines. Its
trunk ofttu travels along the ground, looking like a
largo boa constrictor, until it meets with a trimk to
climb up. The stem attains a diameter from six to eight
inches at a few feet from the ground, and then soon
divides into more slender br.'inches, which ascend to the
top of the tree, and throw down long pendulous branches
and clusters of large snowy-white flowers, ascented like
.Tessamine. The fruit has a sweet acidulous pulp, which
is eaten by the natives. The leaves are opposite, and
their colourless midribs are sharply angular underneath.
The young shoots are deep green and spotted, jointed
every ten inches, and about one-third of an inch in
diameter ; Ihey are brittle, and a cord of pith maybe
pulled out of them. The plant climbs by means of
tendrils wliich arise from the joints, and which consist,
in some species — as in X. Oivai^iensU — of the hardened
flower-stalks after the ripe fruit has fallen off.

The natives make playiug balls of the juice of the L.
Jioiiila, and consider its rubber to be the most adhesive
known. The milk if rubbed upon the skin adheres like
birdlime, and can scarcely be rubbed off.

According tu Jlr. J. Collins' statement, in the Govern-
ment Keport on the Caoutchouc of Commerce, African
rubber is collected and prepared in a very slovenly and
wretch^ d njanner. The natives cut off a piece of the
bark, and the milky juice is allowed to run into holes
made in the ground, or on leaves. In some districts the
natives simply allow the juice to trickle down their arm,
going from tree to tree until the arm is covered, when
beginning at the elbow, they roll the caoutchouc back
to»»rds the hand, till it comes oft in the form of a ring.
Ii. other tlistricts the juice is collected and allowed to
coalesce in wooden vessels. The wood of the plant
contains a gum, so that if the cut penetrates beyond the
bark, the gum becomes mixed with the caoutchouc and
spoils it. Ivcceutly, however, the collection hasimproved
in some lii.Ntricts. and the price risen in consequence.

From the above statements it will be seen that the
haiijolitliiujioi-ulu possesses many advantages. Itsjloufr
uiigbt t)e u.sed for the extraction of a perfume ; its stems,
from their character, permit the e:jsy e.\traction of the
juice ; the plant could be grown on land otherwise useless,
while the lubber, if carefully collected, promises to be of
considerable value. From its clindiing habit and rapid
growth it woidd more speedily attain maturity, and
yield ft quicker return than the ParA and other rubbers,
which are trees, and which could not be safely or profit-
ably fcipped under twenty-live years ; whereas the Laii-
iM/iliiu irould be tapped when three years old. By the
system of growing them in plantations, a)id cutting down
the young shoots almost to the ground every year, the
stems and leaves could be taken to the rolling mill, and
the crushed mass digested with bisulphide of carbon, in
which the rubber is soluble, but which does not dissolve
the gum and rt sinous matt^-rs contained in the plant,
these if left in the rubber would injure its quality.

The plants could be grown around existing trees, and
thus trouble, time, ami expense might be saved. They
arc easily cultivated, and, with proper care, are suscept-
ible of much improvement. In cultivating these plants
it must be remembered that their chief requirements
are a tropical temperature, and a thoroughly moist
atmosphi're. I here is no reason why the Lonflolphia
fioritia should not become a favourite ornament of
hothouses in tlir country, for which its soft green laurel-
like leaves and ^lelightfuily fragrant handsome flowers
especially fit it. In preparing nibbei- for commerce it
should be remciiibi-re.l thai larg<? masses of caoutchouc
never fctcrh so high a price in the market as small pieces,
for the simple reason that it is much more ea.sy to detect
admiifnres of dirt and bark in the small pieces. The
more free from foreign substances the rubber is, tHfe
higher price it will realise in commerce.

Mr. Collins recommends the preparation of rubber in
the form either of separate sheets or cakes, not more
than one or two inches thick; and if moulds artt used,
wooden ones, of the shape of a child's battledore, are
preferable. Dryness is another important point ; if the
rubber be prepared by a wet process, such as the
addition of alum or .salt to the juice, &c,, it is necessary
to prepare very thin sheets of it, as thick pieces caimot
be dried thoroughly. The gradual and cautious applic-
ation of heat appears to produce the best rubber. Iron
or stone vessels are much better for collecting the juico
than vessels made of clay, which contaminate the milk
and make the rubber of less value. In most of the
plants yielding Indiarubber the milk goes to the flowers
when the flowering season commences ; hence, in
gathering the flowers for perfume, there would be the
further advantage of increasing the amount of rubber
in the leaves by removing the flowers.

Vogel's African Rubber tree, or Vrostiijma Voi/elii^ is
stated by Mr. Neyle to yield one of the best Icinds of
Indiarubber in 'West Africa; it was first collected by
Vogel, at Grand Bassa, but was afterwards discovered in
Ijiberia, from whence the first specimens of living plants
were sent to Messrs. Christy by Mr. D. .T. Dennis.

The tree k^ws from 20 to 30 feet high, and has
large leathery stalked leaves, from 6 to 8 inches long
by 3 to 5 inches broad, furnished with four or five
lateral veins on either half of the leaf. The small
fruits, which are about the size of beans, are found on
the terminal leafy branches, usually in pairs, on the
stem near the base of the leaf -stalks.

The frees are tapped when about five years old by
making slashes or incisions in the trunk, the juice is
collected in vessels and the gum is separated from tha
sap by the use of acids ; it is then made up into balls
about the size of a large orange. Although the quality
s at present remarkably good, it could be greatly
improved by cat e in the collection and preparation for
the market. If the trees are tapped before they are
five years old the juice is watery, and does not yield
such good or strong rubber. The natives, in order to
get as large a yield of juice as possible, pollanl the
trees at a height of 10 to 12 feet and cut back
the branches to prevent the strength of tho plant
being used up in growth, this causes a free and
regular flow of sap. The cuttings which are removed
are easily propagated and will grow vigorously.

The tree will grow near the sea at an elevation
of 50 to (JO fi'i t above sea level, but does not Uour-
i«h well in marshy ground. The ease with which the
plant is propagated, its hardiness in sea air, with tho
excelletit quality of the rubber which it yields, renders
this a desirable species for cultivation in the lowlands
of Southern India and Ceylon ; also in .lava, Sumatra,
Panang and ^^iaIn.

Amongst other African sources of supply are the
/ 'alir'U' species, found chiefly in Maifagascar and the
Maurilitis. M. Coignet mentions that on the north-east
coast of Madagascar caoutchouc is obtaineil from three
varieties of clindjing plants, and a shrub sixteen to
nineteen feet high. Of the climbers one variety gives
the best product, though the natives use all together.
The ciioutchouc is prepared either with salt water or
artificial heat. Madagascar rubber, formerly called
Mauritius rubber, has long been largely used in France,
and is now highly appreciated in England. It ranks
next to I'anl in price.

The ll'ilhiglihfia nlvlis, also found in Madagascar, is
a climbing plant, which when wounded yields a pure
viscid juice, that soon changes to caoutchouc on c.xpoHure,
This is also an Asiatic plant, and is cultivated in Java.
— lodmruhhir nnd Giitta/ierclia Journal.

TKA IN UVA— UVA TEA HAS COME TO THE
FKONT.
Uva, though Into in the field as a Tea district, is
now rapidly coming to the front, and at this date
there are upwards of !l,000 acres of Tea planted in
Uva, which acreage will probably be doubled during
the coming planting season. If tho proprietors of
Uva have such confidence in thi' soil and climate,
surely outsiders may leave the matter to ttose most

^8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURI

Qin

[May I, 1886.

interested, and be assured that they will carry to a
successful issue the work so well begun. Alnady Uva
Tea has been well received in the market, and the
first planted clearing, not yet 3 years old at an elev-
ation of 4,000 feet, is said to have produced its 400
lbs. made Tea per acre. .Surely this should convince
every one that Uva is a district well suited for Tea.
Uva, however, is a very extensive district, and its
climate is as varied as the district is large. Lower
Uva in many places is dry and arid ; towards Katara-
gama and Hambantota, the country is arid and covered
with a growth of thorny Cactus, and water during
the dry season is nowhere to be found. The hill
districts, on the other hand, have abundance of rain,
varying from 70 ° to 120 = , and this rainfall is as a
rule well distributed. The whole of the Naminacooly
range has an abundant rainfall, and rarely suffers
from drought, even during the dry season. The range
starting from Haputale Pass to Hakgala under Tota-
pella has a more constant rainfall than Naminacooly,
and although the rain may not fall in very heavy
showers, it is perhaps better distributed than in any
Uva district, as the South-west monsoon rains, attracted
by Totapella and other high mountains, are blown
over the range and fall in mild showers aloug the
face of the hills, whilst a little lower down the pata-
uas on the plain are parched with drought. The whole
of the Haputale range has plenty of rain from Uva
to Kandapola, and from the top of the I'ass to the
Sabaragamuwa boundary at Halpe of landslip notoriety,
and the Madulsinia range from Passara to furthest
Uva has one of the best climates in Uva. Monara-
gala also attracts rain freely. The district* or portions
of the Uva district most likely to suffer from drought
are low lying valleys like Passara, Bulatwatte, the
Angodde Valley, the base of the Madulsinia hills
below Lunugala, the valley of the Ooma Oya, the
country below Haldummulle and below Lemastota
and between Lemastota and AVellawaya and about
the bottom of the fjlla Pass ; also the base of the
Hewa Eliya range facing the low country on both
sides. All these places mentioned suffer during the
months of June, .July and August from drought and
from intense heat radiated from the plains below;
and if Tea fail anywhere it will be in localities hke
these : but I am not prepared to say that Tea will
fail there, for I am aware that in India the Tea plant
will endure not only a three months' drought, but a
dry heat even more intense than we have in any of
the places mentioned ; and it is generally, I may say
always, in places where drought is most severe, that
the growth is correspondingly great on all plants strong
enough to withstand the ilrought. Now Tea is a
plant peculiarly a<lapted to withstand drought, inas-
much as it has two distinct systems of roots. The
top roots I have seen 6 and 8 feet down in a stiff
clay, whilst the surface soil to a depth of IS inches,
if well forked, is literally matted with fine rootlets.
I am not prepared to say that the lower valleys will
not grow Tea remuneratively under these conditions,
but there is no doubt that the higb districts whieb
have beeu so remunerative in Coffee will prove equally
so in Tea. The seasons in Uva are more distinctly
marked tbau in the Kandyan districts, and there are
two distinct seasons of growth corresponding with the
change of nmnsoon. The South-west monsoon is com-
paratively mild, but during the months of April, j\[ay
and ,Iune, we have what are called tbe spring rains,
corresponding with the breaking of the little mon-
soon on the Kaiuly side and the regular South-wist
monsoon. The rains are not continuous, but fall in
refreshing showers, and the growth of all vegetatiiKi
is most rapid, far more so than in a continuous'
wet climate. During the months of .lune, .fnly aiul
August vegetation ceases. These are the monlbs when
Nature seems to rest. The heat is great, ami the
drought often severe, though heavy dovs fall at
night, anil occasional thunder showers keep plants
from suffering excessively. About the IStli or 20th
of August a few heavy thunder showers generally fall,
which bring out our heaviest Coffee blossoms, and
iu September the rains are frequent and heavy
enough to thoroughly saturate the soil, and vegetation

takes another start and iu a week the whole country
is green. November and December are the wettest
months of the year, and the growth on Teii or Coffee
continues till about the end of December, wheu veget-
ation again ceases from cold and wet during January.
February is usually a dry, cold month with little
growth on anything, but with the month of March a
few thunder showers u.snally fall, the air is not so
dry and cold, and vegetation again starts and con-
tinues till again checked by the dry months of July
and August. It will, therefore, be seen that iu Uva
there are two distinct seasons of growth, and two
seasons of rest caused by drought or cold. These
seasons of rest will not only enable the Tea Planter
to time his pruning with judgment, but will really
benefit the Tea plant. The season for plucking will
be fully eight months, viz, from March to the end
of June, and again from the first of September to the end
of December. Many planters, however, will be found
to pluck well into the dry months. Tea plucked during
dry weather being the strongest and the finest, if a
tlush is plucked no matter how dry the weather, un-
less the plant is absolutely withered up. Nature will
always make an effort to renew itself, and it is these
short fine flushes which give tbe most exquisite Teas,
The sap is inspissated, aud the liow sluggish, but tjie
whole essence of the plant seems to be concentrated
into a small space. In wet weather wiih a strong
growth, especially after pruning, the sap is weak and
watery, and the "liquor" is poor and has little
strength. I do nut propose here to go into the matter
of cultivation or preparation or Tea in Uva, but the
planter mil soon find out what is the best system to
adopt ; but Uva has every thing necessary in soil and clim-
ate to produce the very finest Tea the world can produce.
I have frequently been asked, ^Vill the Uva Pata-
nas grow Te&Y My answer is double: Yes aud no.
It must be understood that there are two perfectly
different kinds, of patana in Uva; the one is natural
pataua, as to the origin or cause of which there is
great diversity of opinion ; the other is cultivated land
allowed to go to grass. To me there seems to have
beeu two causes at work. In one case, such as the
Nuwara Eliya patanas, the Hortou Plains and other
similar patana, there can be no doubt as to their
origin — they are simply the bottmn of a lake upheaved
at some remote period. You have the black mouM
with a fine strata of water worn gravel underlying
it on a bed of impervious clay. Trees will not natur-
ally grow on soil like this till treated with lime.
These patanas are almost identical with the great
American Prairies. We have other patana, frequently
small patches surrounded by forest and covered with
short grass and ground orchids. These patanas are
either caused by absolute poverty of soil, or m.ay be
from some deleterious substance in the soil. I attri-
bute it in some cases to a mineral oxide. I am not
geologist enough to enter iuto this question further
than to say that I have seen a most deleterious
oxide and in great abundance in the patana soils of
Uva said to be a black oxide of manganese. By far
the largest portion of the Uva patanas have at one
time been forest and have been under cultivation.
The whole of the interior basin from Wilson's Bunga-
low to Haputale, and from Wellamade to Bandara-
woIIh and round Fort Macdonalil has all been cultiv-
ated, and where not too much wind blown is capable
of cultivation now or of being re-forested. The Eleph-
ant Piiiins in Uda Pussellawa have been cultivated
every inch of them. Old Rambokpotte Uatemaliat-
maya once told me that be recollected when the whole
of the Kidap,aiu" Pa.ss from Taldeniya to Badnlla was
all fori.it., and the Koskelle patanas and the hills round
BaduUa were to a great extent covered with forest.
There is .an immense acreage of patana in Uva cap-
able of prolitablr Tea cultivation — and a still larger
acreage capable of being re-forested at a comparatively
small cost. Re-foresting the couutry would probablj'
greatly improve the climate, apart from the value of
the timber, aud the value of successful Tea cultivation
on the waste patana cannot be over-estimated. Each
Tea estate might re-forest enough patana to supply
fuel.— James Irvine.— Loeal "Advertiser."

M4V /; tB86.j *PHB 'fROPiCAL AQklCULtynmi

ibj

A TEA QUEilY.

TO THE EDITOIi OF THK " PHARJIACEUTICAL .JOURNAL,"

Sir, — I shall Iiu glad if auy of your readers can
tell me if auy attempt has been made to intioduce
the leaves of Mdastoma Tlieezan.-: as a subititute for
tea. 1 Cud meutiou made of it in an old number of
the Kdinbuiyli Journal of Xaiirrnl Uistnri/. BI. Bonp-
land says : " We have often drunk with pleasure tho
infusion of the Mehistomu Theczans. It has the colour
of ten, and is much less astringent, but more arom-
atic. Jlany persons would doubtless prefer this
drink to te^, and I think it will be found as useful
in nujst cases." The J/rla^fomacto' are not so far
removed from the Tcrn/tromiacere and Cinchonaccw &s
tt) render it improbable that some of the species
might yield some principle resembling theine or
caffeine. It is called the Guijano tea-plant.— J. A.
■\Vhelbon, a. p. S., Burgess Hill, Sussex.

ALLEGED IJIPURIXY OF COMMEEICAL

SULPHATE OF QUININE.

Some months ago Dr. de ^'^ij drew attention to the
optical method of distiuguisbiug the alkaloids of cin-
chona bark ami to certain results he had obtained by
applying this method to the examination of quinine
sulphate of commerce. The inference drawn from
those residts was that commercial quinine sulphate
.nlways contains from o'47 to 1S'4G per cent of ciuchon-
idinc sulphate.

Dr. de Vrij has extended his criticism of quinine
sulphate, and in the Xicitv lijd.fchrift of this mouth
publishes the resvdts of his examination of the make of
the two principal English manufacturers of this article,
reporting the amounts of ciuchonidiue sulphate to be as
follows : —

Howard's, Whiffen's.

Quinine sulphate 84-769 82208

Cinchouidine 9-.508 6-942

■\Vater of crystallization ... 5-723 10-850

100- 100-

The makes of quinine sulphate which are now im-
pugned as containing large amounts of ciuchonidiue
sulphate arc among those w-hich bear the highest
reputation for purity, and it may be expected, therefore,
that the publication of these results will lead to further
inquiry into the value of the optical method of analysis
by which they were arrived at. Though Dr. de Vrij
attaches much importance to it, other authorities are
of opinion that it cannot be relied upon. Dr. Hesse,
who has given srcat attention to this optical method,
considers that it is even capable of imlicating the pre-
sence of cinchouidine where it does not exist at all, or
from three to four times as much as there really is
pri'sent, and the inferences drawn from results obtained]
by this method do not appear to have any greater value
than that by which Dr. de Vrij was led to state that
total alkaloids of succirubra bark always possess a
particular rotatory power by which their origin may be
recognized, an inference that has now been completely
exploded and ascertained to be necessarily erroneous.
— FlMrmaceutical Journal.

THE KKD SPIDER, SO CAI,LKO.

This creature is not a spider, but an acarus or mite,
and lives exclusively upon vegetable products. In
zool-jgical classification they both belong to the ela.s8
Araehnida, but the mit€ is in the order Trachearia, the
spider in that of Pnlmonaria. The function of breathing
in the two orders is different. In the mite it is performed
by air t\i))es distributed through the body, whilst in the
spider the .lir is .idmittcd by spiracles situated on tho
abdomen, and which are lineil by a membrane plaited
into numerous folds, which resemble gills. On these
characters is founded the s\ib-division of the class into
pulmonary and fr.ncheary Aracbnida.

But apart froni all tecbuicalitiis any one with a good
pocket lens might satisfy himself that U:o pests of
gardeners differ in importaut particulars from the

spider. The head and breast, or thora.i, of the spidei
is connected with the abdomen by a slender cord, as ii.
insects. It has eight eyes, and tho same number of
legs, besides two short arm-like projection.s, or palpi,
with which to catch aud to hold its prey. The body ol
the mite is not so divided; is somewhat oval in form
and tapering to the head, which is terminated by a
syphon or sucker, with which to extract tho juices of
plants. It has six legs, but by undergoing a transform-
ation similar to insects an extra pair is not uiifrequeully
acquired. The body is transparent, with dark vein-like
ramifications along the back, which we take to be the
tracheiB. The aged females only are red, which may
have given rise to the popular name by which they are
known. They .spin webs, but not artistically as spiders
do, as they seem chiefly designed for nests, or, when
the workers are unmolested, convenient residences for
large communities ; whereas the web of the spider is
not only a snug retreat in times of danger, but a base
from which to operate against enemies as well as a snare
to entrap unwary Hies or other creatures upon which it
feeds.— (?«r,-/<;ne)-s' Month!//.

FEUITS IN NEW BEITAIN ISLAND.

The fruit of Diike of York island consists of the
banana, coconut, tan, mummy apple, and a description
of wild mango. Yams and taro also grow on the islnnd,
but sweet potatoes are the chief product, and serve as
one of the main articles of trade between this and (he
other islands.

The bananas also are in some parts of the island very
fine, but the yamsand taro are not to be compared with
those of New Britain, or the yams of New Ireland, which
are noted for their large size. The taro of New Britain
is also considered (he finest in the South Seas. Taro is
a large bulbous tuber, with leaves much of (he shape of
the Caladivm. I have never seen the flower. There
are two dilferent kinds, one of which grows in swamjjy
ground, aud the other on the hill-sides ; the latter is the
largest and best, the swanqj taro being waxy to eat.
Taro is planted in rows, about one pace apart, and is
kept clear of weeds by tlie women; the hill toro grows
to the size of fifteen inches long, by one foot circumfer-
ence. "When cooked in a small quantity of water, the
starch that exudes from it makes the water iuto a thick
paste, therefore iirequires more water added continutilly,
and when cooked, is soft and mealy, and is one of the
very best vegetables I have ever eaten. The native way
of cooking it is even better than boiling; the outside
rough brown coating is scraped off with a sharp shell,
and after cutting the taro in halves lengthways, it is
wrapped -up in banana leaves, aud placed in a fire where
it is not too hot; when cooked, it is nninb likr gnoil new
bread, and is excessively nulritious. After taking tlie
taro out of the ground, the tuber is cut otf, leaving
about an inch still adhering- to the staikH amlleaves;
this is again placed in the groiuul, aid in about three
months has another large tuber ready for cuKing. The
leaves are terribly astriugcnt, and. if eaten raw, will t;ike
the skin off the mouth, and render it very sore for some
days, but the young leaves, cooked, are vv.vy delicious;.

There is .also a fruit called the " tan," which 1 don't
suppose; many Europeans know nnicli about. It grows
on very high trees, whose wood, Ijy the way, is beauti-
fully grained and very h.avd, though nice to work. The
fruit is shaped much like an apple, and also grows
in bunches as some apples do, but if you lake oiu: in
ynur hand and press it, when ripe, tlu; skin wiil (-onie
clean olf, and the inside is then foiuul to bo beauifid-
ly clear jelly-like substance, which, when placed in the
mouth melts into water. This jelly surroiuuls a brown
stone, of which the natives make a sort of cake, after
it has been soaked for some days. ThR " papau," or
mummy apple, has also some curious facts connected
with it that aro useful (o know. The .very young
apples, when boiled, make a most delicate subslitiito
for vegctal)U: marrow; the stalks and lea\es, if boiled
with clothes, will reudi-r (heu> beautifully ele.-ui and
white; they come out of the boiler a bright gamboge
yellow, but when bung np to dry ia the sir, they luru

77"

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886,

perfectly white again ; a small piece of the leaf or 6talk,
boilod with ftu old fowl or tough piece of meat, makes
it quite teuder. — Journal of the Society ft/" Arts.

THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS
CLIMATE.

ON

The third Dumber of I'rtermatm's MitllicUnngeii for
this yrar contains an article by Herr A. Woeikof on
the inlhience of forestK on climate. The commence-
ment of a scientific investigation of this subject was
made when the Bavarian fore.st meteorological stations
were established, and when Prussia, Alsace-Lorraine,
France, Switzerland, and Italy followed the example.
As a general rule it jnay he. laid down that in the
warm seasons, as between forests and places close at
hand which are treeless (1) the temperatures uf the
earth ami air are lower in the former, (li) their vari-
ations are less, (3) the relative humidity is greater.
After examining observations as to evaporations, Herr
Woeikof states that the influence of forests in dimin-
ishing evaporation from water and the soil is so great
that it cannot be accounted for alnne by the lower
temperature of the hot months, the greater humidity,
or even by the shade. An important influence, which
lias hitherto been but little appreciated, is the pro-
tection from the wind afforded by the trees, and this
the writer regards as more important than all the
others togethi'r in reducing the degree of evaporation.
With regard to the influence of forests on rain and
snowfall, there is as yet only a single series of observ-
ations supplying comparative statistics, and extending
over a sutficiently long period. These were taken in
the neighbourhood of Naucy, and they show an im-
portant iufluerce of forests in increasing the rainfall.
It might appear that the effect of forests on rain in
the climate of Central Europe in winter would be
small, for the difference between the temperature and
humidity of the forest and the open is very little,
and the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere is
small. But the observations show that it is at this
time of the year that forests get much more rain.
This the writer attributes to the clouds being lower,
the resistance which the forest offers to the move-
ment of the air, and to the moist west wind. Forests
retain rain by undergrowths of grass, moss, &c., much
better than open ground, and let water oif superficially
only after a heavy rainfall ; the remainder filters up-
wards slowly, and much of it is used for the evaporation
of the trees. Although forests, especially thick, luxu-
riant forests, cannot exist without certain supplies
of moisture, yet it is the same to them when the
supplies come, for they retain what they get and use
it over a long period. One example of this is the
Lenkoran forest on the west coast of the Caspian,
where the vegetation is more luxuriant than in any
other part of Europe, yet very little rain falls in
summer, but the rainfall in autumn and winter is
great. The water is stored up by the forest, and is
used in evaporation during the heat of summer. Humid-
ity of the atmosphere, however, is not inconsistent
with a high temperature, as the Ked .Sea shows ;
but in forests the humidity is due to the evaporation
of the leaves — in other words, to a process by which heat
is converted into work, and hence the coolnes.s. Herr
Woeikof then endeavours to ascertain the influence
of forests on the climatic conditions of their neigh-
bourhoods in the western jiarts of the Old A\'orld,
between the 38th and .52nd degrees N. latitude, the
placi'S selected being in all cases in the open. Thus
for the &-nd degree eight stations are taken between
Valentia in Ireland on the west and the Kirghiz steppes
on the east ; for the 50tb, Ouernsey on the west,
SemipalatinsU on the east, and thirteen stations, and
soon for each two degrees of latitude to 38". The
general result of the observations in fifty stations in
six different degrees of latitude is that in Western
Kurope and Asia large forests have a great influence
on the temperature of places near them, and that by
their influence the normal increase of temperature
u wi^ travel eastward from the Atlantic Ocean to the

ioteriur of the coutiiwot is oot mervly iaterruptvd,

but they give places far removed from the coast a
cooler summer than those actually on khe sea. A
striking example of this is Bosnia. An examination
of the statistics shows (1) that in Bosnia the summer
is 2''5 to 4'5 cooler than in Herzego\'ina ; (2) even
on the island of Lissa, in the full influence of the
Adriatic .Sea, the summer temperature is more than
a degree higher than that of Bosnia, which is separated
by lofty mountain rauges from the sea. Bosnia owes
this comparatively cool summer to its great forests,
while Herzegovina is almost disafforested. To sum up ;
forests exercise an influence on climate which does
not cease on their borders, but extends over a large
or smaller adjacent region according to the size, kind,
and position of forest. Hence man by afforestation
and disafforestation can modify the climate around
him ; but it is an extreme position to hold that by
afforestation the waste places of the earth can be
made fertile. There are places incapable of being
afforested, which would not give the necessary nourish-
ment to trees. — Xature.

TIMBERS OF UPPEB ASSAM.

It will be easily understood that in a country where
the temperature of the plains and low hills never falls
below 45 degrees F., and never rises above lUO degrees
F., with an average rainfall of 120 inches a year, veget-
ation cannot but be of the most luxuriant character
and extreme variation. In fact, one of the characteristics
of Upper Assam is its interminable jungles constituted
in places by thick forests of colossal trees, and in others
by impenetrable cane or bamboo groves. As a rule,
cane jungle will grow in swampy ground where water
lodges for several months, and sometimes all the year
round. Bamboo jungle will grow in low lands flooded
occasionally, but where the water does not remain for
any length of time. Forest jungle generally grows in
dry soil, and one or other of any special trees seems to
prevail according to the different altitude of the ground,
or perhaps it would be better to say according to the
different degrees of moisture retained by the soil. The
prevalence, however, of any special tree is by no means
strikingly apparent. In spite of favourable ground,
and the gregarious tendency of jiearly all forest trees, it
seems that a great variety will grow and flourish side
by side in a way which would seem quite incongruous
in our country. The only clear fact in these forests
is the total absence of certain species of trees under
peculiar circumstances. Thus Nahor and Makahi, as
will be seen hereafter, are never found in low lands,
especially if .subject to occasional floods, while Uriam
and HoIIock are never found in high, well-drained
lands. However, as a rule, one may sLind in one of
these forests surrounded by trees growing as thickly
as possible, and he will fimi it difticiiit to detect half-
R-d'>zeii trees of one species. This fact considerably
enhances the wild beauty of the Assam jungles, but it
has been up to the present time a great drawback,
from a mercantile point of view, to the proper utiliz-
ation of the tindier. For the pnrpo.se of collecting one
kind of t'mber it npces.sitate.s going a great distance
through initrodden jungle, and after havmg found and
cut ii^ to the smallest size, elephants are required for
the purpose of dragging it olt- This process, of course,
causes a large portion to be va.sted, which under other
circumstances would be very valuable. The Assam
Railways and Trading Company, amongst other con-
cessions, obtained from the Government of India, have
the monopoly of the timber trade for U miles along
each sidr of their line, which runs from Makum .lunc-
tion to IMar^iherita (a distance of 23 miles), and the
fippcinien.T on' view at the Health Esbibition c^ime from
these forests, wliinli extend, practically, uninterrupted-
ly from end to end of the al)ove-mentioned portion of
the line. When the Company first commenced work
in opening out the country, little or nothing waskaown
as to the re.d value of ma^iy of the timber ^, and as
the Company's works depended so much on thcni, they
had to start at the beginning, and thus acquired an amount
of iuforniatioa which will prove very valuable for the
future of the timber trade of that country, The follow*

May I, 1886,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

77'

iug is a ilescription of the various specimens exliibited: —
Mesua femx. — Assainese name, Nnhor; English, Irou-
wood ; specific gravity, \'2'i\ co-efticient of rupture iu
cwt. aud decimals, 27'0; loss of weight when chemically
dried 25 per cent ; maximum shriultage due to above
operation, S per cent.

There are some good patches of almost exclusively
Nahor trees to be found here and there, growing on high,
well-drained ground, but they are not extensive. The
stem 13 generally straight, and the average size is from
25 feet from the foot to the first branch by 5 feet
girth, m.iximum height found 45 feet from foot to
first branch, maximum girth 12 feet 6 inches. The
branches are generally thin and of no use as timber,
but they produce excellent charcoal and make fir.^t-class
firewood.

The timber is of a deep red colour, with very close
undulating fibre, rather brittle, warps and splits when
cut into planks or small scantlings, heartwood not at-
tacked by insects of any kind, and stands almost in-
definitely, both exposed and under cover, without deter-
iorating. Before being used it should be stripped of
all its sapwood, and thus prepared, forms an invalu-
able material for bridge piles, beams and thick scant-
ling generally ; in fact, it serves almost as a substit-
ute for cast-iron.

Ai-tocarpiis Chaphis/ta. — Assamese name, Sam; English,
Monkey Jack ; specific gravity, 0'6'i ; co-efficient of
rupture as above, 12-3 ; loss of weight in chemical
drying, ,^2 per cent ; maximum shrinkage due to above
process, 5 per cent.

This tree does not seem to have a preference for
any particular ground ; it grows in low land with aB
much vigour as upon the hills. It is never found in
patches, but is liberally scattered all through the jungles.
The stem is seldom very straight and branches off soon,
sometimes at a few feet from the ground, but the bran-
ches often produce good timber. It is of a bright yel-
low colour when cut, and deepens into a brown wal-
nut colour in the course of time. The fibre grows
pretty straight, not very close, breaks short, and receives
easily a clean polish. It warps and splits very little.
It stands well either exposed or under shelter, and
insects will not attack it. It is a very useful timber
for any purpose where great ftrength is not required,
being specially adapted for household furniture, as it is
ei|nal or superior to teak for this purpose.

JSiicltoJjia Javaiiica. — Assamese name, Uriain; English,
none; specific gravity, 104; coetKcieut of rupture as
above, 15-2 ; loss of weight in chemical drying, 24 per
cent; maximum shrinkage due to above process, 10 per
cent. — Indian Tea Gazette.

THE MANAGEMENT OF COFFEE SOILS.

At the time of the Madras Agricultural Exhibition
of 1883 there were prizes offered for the best essays
on certain subjects connected with the objects of the
promoters. The two first articles in the volume, by
Mr. Olarke and General Morgan respctivelv, are on
the nuestion of the best way of treating laud that
has been planted with softee. The former of these
writers chiefly devotes himself to proving the tremend-
ous loss that is sustained by what he terms " waste,"
or causes not connected with the exhaustion of the
tree from producing crop ; while General Morgan lays
before planters the e\ils that arise from the use of
iijiTt manures, and badly selected seed. Assuming
Mr. Clarke's figures to be correct (and as they are
based on those in the report presented by Mr. Hughes
to the Ueylon Planters' Association we may safely do
so), we imagine that most planters will be startled
to find how large the proportion, of this, presumably,
preveutible waste is.

Coffee is not in itself an exhausting crop ; com-
pared with wheat, or turnips, the actual formation
of the bean takes very little nutriment from the
soil. The comparison is of course not a fair oue
though so often made, for in these analyses the exi.^t-
eiiCB of the tree which bears the bean, and has to
uiiiintain itself in vi'^'our, is alwiys neglected. If, how-
ever, the w.iste could have been avoided, or at least
minimise.!, many estates which are now abandoned
would still \»- ■,Hvin5r good crops. Of the four most

Sniportant elements of the soil, namely, nitrogen, potash.
lime, and phosphoric acid, an average crop is cal-
culated on one acre to use up but 21 lb., while a
moderate estimate of the amount of loss by wash on
the same surface is no less than .S22 lb., or in
other words enough to produce sixteen crops of
|colTee. Mr. Clarke adds to this a loss of 169 lb.
for leaf; but as this is, in the nature of things,
unavoidable, it may be left out of our present cal-
cqlatious. Of the wastefulness of a mode of cultiv-
atiou such as this, there can be no doubt, and the
only question is, how can it be remedied. Mr. Clarke
strongly advocates draining, by cutting catch drains
at short intervals across the face of a new clearing,
by making wash-holes between the trees, and by
forking. As to the first of these cures, there are estate*
on which drains answer well enough ; but there is, for
some reason, a strong prejudice against them amou jst
planters in Southern India. General Morgan, for in-
stance, utterly condemns them as worse than useless
in the essay that is printed immediately after Mr.
Clarke's; and yet in Ceylon no planter who could
■possibly afford it would leave his estate undrained.
Whether it is from some difference in the soil, or
from the heavier rainfall which causes them to be-
'come choked, drains do not appear to answer iu our
planting districts. Besides this, they add enormously
to the '• opening charges." Mr. Clarke estimates the
cost of drains and wash holes on his system to be
KlOO per acre. Now a proprietor who thinks K50
per acre a liberal estimate for felling, pitting, read-
ing and planting, would neither consent, nor could
afford to treble this expenditure to "carry out a work
that all his neighbours would assure him was use-
It ss. The expenditure on manure, too, which Mr.
Clarke points out would be saved by conserving the
.soil, need not be incurred till at least after one crop
has given the planter some return for his capital.
The plan of making wash-holes is, however, recom-
mended by both these essayists, and as it has been
tried on many estates, is worthy of some attention
from those interested in the matter. These pits are
to be cut iu the intervals between the trees ; they
are 5 feet long by 2 feet broad, and \h feet in depth ;
they are useful for preventing a gre'at rush of rain
iu the monsoon storms, and the leaves, weeds, and
prunings should be collected in them, removed from
to time, aud forked in over the surface of the field.
Mr. Clarke gives some remarkable iustances of the
efficacy of the prunings when returned to the soil
of vineyards. A great deal of a planter's success
depends, however, on the careful selection of land.
Twenty years ago it was supposed that any land in
a coffee district was sure to do well, and u large
number of estates were opened, only to be abandoned
after dragging out a hopeless existence for a few
years, and ruining their owners. Very steep land
should certainly be avoided. General Morgan gives
an instance in opposition to this, but in the Ouchter-
l(juy Valley, and the behaviour of coffee in that
favored locality cannot be accepted a.s a guide in other
districts.

Neither writer has a word to say about shade, and
this is a serious omission in writing of the treatment
of soils, for the shade trees not only protect the coffee
from the sun, but enormously fertilize the soil by
shedding their leaves. General Morgan strongly in-
sists ou the necessity of procuring good seed for
coffee nurseries, and instances several estates in
Wynaad where the neglect of this precaution has
had disastrous results. Wyuaad, indeed, has recently
been a fruitful theme for the agricultural morii'i t from
other districts : it has been somewhat in tin- p sition
of the drunken man at the temperance meeting, " the
frightful example" of the vengeance of outraged
Nature on the pl.inter who disbelieves in George
Ville. Be this as it may, there is no doubt a great
deal of truth in General Morgan's warning, aud the
fact that planters iu one tlistrict now endeavour al-
ways to procure seed from another, or even from
.Java, .Jamaica or Krazil, shows tiiat they have appreci-
ated the fact. There is one suggestion of Mr.
Clarke's which we will notice in conclnsion, iiamelv

m

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886,

i hat there should be set apart in each coffee centre
• an experimental field, worked under the direction of
:i central authority by which all results should be
carefully collected and circulated. . . The initiation and
direction of such a scheme must be undertaken by
the (Government, also probably the scientific advice
;ind analyses required ; the cost ot working should be
borne by the planters, but there is no reason why
the experimental fields once started should not be
self-supporting." The idea appears to be a good one,
and with an organisation such as the Ceylon Asso-
ciation would uo doubt soon be taken up. Planters
in India, however, are fond of working for their
own ha.uds, and, outside their District Associations
show little aptitude for combination, except when
threatened by some act of the authorities, involving
a common danger. There can be no doubt that with
the present loiv prices for coffee any scheme that
would show planters how to increase the yield of
their trees, and save them from deterioration ought
to be welcome. — Madras Mail.

MANURING FRUIT TREES.
A series of investigations has lately taken place
relati\e to the manuring of fruit trees. It is assert-
ed that the generality of fruit tre^-stake away from
mother earth large amounts of mineral and other
manures known as fertilising .salts, and that either
non-productiveness or smallness of the fruit is chiefiy
attributable to the exhaustion of these soluble salts.
Experiments made on two sections of a vine plantation
—one ]iart left to nature and the other manured
with soluble phosphates— proved that the grapes con-
tained a greater quantity of sugar and a considerable
rise in the percentage of potash over the unmanur-
ed portion; also, that the plants, far more healthy
in appearance, retained their leaves longer in the
autumn, and were li'ss liable to the attacks or oidium.
If these statements are correct, it is evident that
the application of bonedust, nitrate of soda, guano,
and other similar manures would have a very bene-
ficial effect on our vines, whether they are grown
for wine or dessert purposes. Experiments go to
prove al.so that strawberries show a wonderfully
marked improvement when treated with the manures
above mentioned. It has also been well proved that
peach trees gain a valuable advantage by the applic-
ation of such manures, as the fact has been proved
that the fruit ot trees manured is both larger and
better flavoured. If the plan is of advantage to the
a'jovemontioued trees, it must be evident that it
wonld be of advantage to all other kinds of fruit
trees, and entirely throws to the wind the dictum
of an orange-grower that disease only appeared in
the colony after such manures were administered to
tlie trees. Dr. Goessmann's writings and experiences
conclusively show that it is the want and not the
application that causes the diseases complained of.
Again, growers cliug to the old-fashioned stable manure
as benig the most suitable ; but, wliile we are not
prepared to dispute its valuableness, it is not the thing
that nature requires, especially as in it cannot be
found the mineral salts re(|uisite to establish the defi-
ciency caused by the absorption of the original elements
by the trees. Our fruit tree growers have at com-
mand, weather being favourable, maimres, easily handled
and easily applied, that will render fruitgrowing a
more payable affair than hitherto, and result in good
healthy growth and the keeping away of all manner
of insect pests. To do any good wet weather is necess-
ary, and this much can be said in its favour— that
no kuid of manure is of the lo.ast value when applied
during dry weather, or when the soil itself is dry
Fruit tree growers need not be told that towards
the end of winter is the best time to dress vines
and fruit trees. Again, by burning the pruniugs .and
<lressiag the soil with the ashes, the grower will
give in an indirect manner to his fruit trees valuable
nitrates, and in these days of troublesome insect pests
the most sensible method is always to burn the
pruniugs in place of continuing the old practice of
throwing them into a heaj), from which ia some form

or other the enemy may escape and continue its
damages. The value of these chemical or mineral
manures is but yet imperfectly understood, and it is
only owing to the scarcity of oldfashioned manures
that growers have become conversant with their im-
portance, and from older countries than this we can
glean valuable information of their utility Again,
in this colony, stable manure is for the most part
nearly valueles.s, consisting of sawdust and droppings,
so that it IS far cheaper in the end to use the inaiuues
advocated m this article. By-the-way, experimental-
ists advise that these manures" should always
be applied well away from the bole of the trees,
a very sensible advice, considering that the root
feeders are well away from the trunk, so that the
apphcation near the trunk must simply be a waste
of money. While ou the subject of chemical manures,
our American cousins have been experimenting on
their valuableness in jiotatoe cultivation. The old
theory is that there is no better manure known for
potatoes than good stable compost. Yet, strange to
state, comparisons prove that the balance ot crop is
in favour ot the soluble salts in the ratio of eight
to six, thus fairly proving that ground requires to
be renewed with these salts even to grow fair crops
of potatoes. The conclusion is simply this: that all
crops exhaust the soil more or less of mineral
manures, and if the cultivator's object is to keep 'up
fertility he must in addition to ordinary manuring
freely apply to the land in some shape or other
chemical sohible salts known as fertilisers. To the
yigneron the hints herein contained, that by apply-
ing these fertilisers the fruit will contain a greater
percentage ot potash, should be valuable, as by their
application the general acidity so noticeable in our
colonial wines may in a measure be overcome, and
even when used for dessert purposes their luscious-
ness will be greatly enhanced. Those who grow goose-
berries m the interior of the colony should not fail
to well manure their bushes. It is a well-known
fact that gooseberries are gross feeders, and quickly
exhaust the ground of any goodness that may be
in it. Therefore, if good food is required, manuring
of some sort should be given annually during the
winter months. The same rule applies to currants,
which, in regard to size of fruit, would be materially
improved by the application of nitrates or good stable
manure. — Sydney Jfail.

TLANTING IN CETLON AND IN FI.JI.

Under the head of " Planting in Ceylon," we recently
published a valuable contribution from Mr. K. L.
Holmes. The range of subjects therein brought under
notice cannot fail to possess a deep interest for all those
engaged in developing the agricultural resources of the
colony. Indeed, as the progress of the colony and
the prosperity or all who are as.sociated with it is
entirely dependent upon this <levelopment, the interest
should become general as each recognises the direct or
indirect bearing of the matter upon his individual wel-
fare. The community has already received a sufficiently
severe lesson upon the folly of carrying all the eggs in
one basket, "\7hen the cotton failed, planters had
literally nothing to fall back upon. The time that .should
have been devoted to experimental culture had been
wasted. It had then to be dispensed with as a guide,
and to be prosecuted at hap-hazard, in the face of con-
ditions which made failure assume the most serious
proportions. The planters were literally at their wits'
end to find a remunerative industry, and years were lost
in "pottering" before the sugar industry gathered
sufficient strength to consitute it a mainstay.

It cannot be altogether unprofitable to reflect upon
the probable amount this h,as cost the planters individ-
ually, and the colouy generally. How many thousand.s,
for instance, might h.avc been saved if a course of experi-
ment, conducted in various parts of the group, had
first demonstrated the most favorable conditions under
which coffee coul.i be cultivated, and had indicated
under what circumstances it was imposilile to make it
a success? How many thousands might have been
added to the aggregate value of estates if such a coursg

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

773

had pointed oat the superior saitability of che tea plant
for cultivation in Fiji, aud had induced the laying down
of the abandoned cotfee plantations in tliis or some
other crop which had given fair promise of a remuner-
ative character as the result of actual e?q)priencp. Of
course it may he objected that this is all speculation,
deriving its iiuasi-philosophic appearance from the light
of the after event. Granted. But directed on a reason-
able course speculation becomes a very profitable mental
exercise. Upon practical men its effect is to induce
experiment, and as this is the special object now in view,
so valuable a factor may well be employed in %vorking
out the desired result.

Considering former experience it might have been
fairly expected that the breathing time following upon
tho establishment of ths sugar industry would have
been utilised for the purpose of ascertaining by
what products, offering a fair chance of remunerative
cultivation, it could be supplemented. But the person
who would ask — M'hat has been douei' — must be
answered, practically, nothing. Ouce again we have
seen ruin impending over the colony. Again we have
seen its staple industry checked and brought peril-
ously near to the verge of suspension. There is now
every prospect that the cloud is rolling by. But
if such were not the case, is it not evident that for
the sheer want of a substitute industry to turn to,
the outlook would be even more gloon-.y than it
was aftrr the cottoi: failure.

In the face of this poverty of available resource, not-
withstanding tlie wonderful capability of our soil and
the advantages of our climate, it is suggestive to turn to
the long list of arlicli*s etiinnerated by Sir. Holmes as
forming certain of the variovis sources whence Ceylon
derives its wealth. It has not two. but rather two dozen
strings to its bow; and as Mr. Holmes correctly observes
of the catalogue he has furnished : — " It would be
easy from it to fill in a very long list of plants we oufilit
to have, and have not, in Fiji." But to secure their
introduction and to test their suitability for the climate
it is first of all necess.ary that some effort shall be made
toward the t'stablishraent of an experimental garden.
The proposal is no new one, but has been ventilated
aud urged in these columns over and <jver again.
At one time there even seemed a prospect that this
insistence would not be barren of practical result.
The attention of the old Agricultural Society was
aroused. The matter was foricbly represented to
Sir Arthur Gordon. Its importance was by him
freely admitted. Promises^ of some definite action
in the desired direction were as freely given. But,
ax though satisfied with this measure of success, the
spa.snuidic interest then subsided. No sustained effort
followed to obtain the fulfilment of the promise, and
therefore nothing resulted.

Perhaps, thougli, it is incorrect to say that nothing
resulte<l, since some time afterw.ard reference was
officially made to the "Botanical Gardens," as to a some-
thing actually existing. Enquiry then elicited the fact
that there was a plot of ground in rear of Draiba digni-
fied by this pretentious title. There are indeed a few
who could even now go to the place " where once the
garden smiled," and who yet preserve traditions of the
magnificent Crotous, Drac»nas, etc.. there cultivated.
Is it not a thousand pities that so bold an attempt to
improve our list of remunerative products should have
been prematurely abandoned.

Sir. Holmes conceives that with respect to the
prospect of obtaining the establishment of this ex-
perimental garden the Government is " past praying
for." Strictly construed this may be accepted as a
general characteristic of governments. But in the
sense intended and coming from one who has himself
done much in the direction of improving our product list,
the remark is imlicative of the pernicious and dishearten-
ing effect of official apathy. Nevertheless he pertinently
propoimds for authorative answer the question : — " Is it
right, honest, or "i.se to shirk this matter any longer?"
An admif.sion has lately been madi- by the Administrator
that in conspqueuce of the decline in sugar values the
revenue has so suffered that works of importance must
be postponed. \\'hat then woulil have been the result
bad the depression continued ? And in the face of the

probabilities which the reflection must suggest, is there
not a peculiar significance attaching to the question
above quoted. In every interest therefore a strenuous
effort should be made to force the subject on the atten-
tion of the Government. It is one of vital importance
and its consideration should be compelled, at least to
the extent of eliciting an answer to the question above
formulated.

This is a matter which specially comes within the pro-
vince of the Planters' Association, Further, as several
of its members are also members of the Legislative
Council, and as the subject is one which warmly
commends itself to their support, the .Vssociatiou should
be in a position to obtain something more than a mere
formal reply. It must be expected that the first response
will be a full admission of the importance attaching to
the subject, a declaration that it has at all times very
largely occupied official attention, and pathetic regrets
that the present state of the revenue does not warrant,
etc. This should not be accepted as concluding the
subject, although the force attaching to the last cla use
cannot be gainsaid. But some guarantee for the future
should be obtained by the setting aside of land for the
purpose, say ontheKewa; and the placing of it under
the temporary charge of some officer, say Mr. Robert
Wilson ; with instructions to do something in the way of
inauguration. Many are the instances that can be men-
tioned in which the seed or products likely to add to our
export list has been introduced for gratuitous distribution,
has been distributed, aud has been heard of no more
because of the desultory manner iu which the experi-
mental culture has been attemptej^. This would hardly
be the case if the seed could be forwarded to any public
establishment for trial by a public officer who would
feel that a special weight attached to bis report. How-
ever humble ami unpretentious the beginning, the
development of the institution would rapidly follow as
its value became appreciated, and even now no cjuestiou
is entertained that it would soon repay the expenditure
it would involve. The object can be secured if the
effort made is commensurate with its importance, and
this simply depends upon the Planters' Association and
the unofficial members of Council. — Fiji limet.

THE ODLTIVATION OF INSECT WAX.
It is within comparatively recent years that insect
wax has become an article of export from C'bina,
and even now comparatively little is known among
the general public of this article. Insect wax con-
sists principally of cerotic acid in combination with
oxide of cerotyl, an<l has been used lately iu England for
manufacturing purposes in making a superior kind of
wax candles, though the article is at present far
too costly for general use. Considering, however, that
nearly 500 tons of beeswax are annually imported
into England alone, and that Chinese insect wax in
adapted iu a superior degree to all the purposes for
which beeswax is u.sed at present, it stands to rea.son
that Chinese insect wax has a great future before
it if its production can be increased and cheapened.
Strange to say, insect wax has hitherto not been
discovered anywhere iu the world except iu the one
Chinese province of Szechuen and iu South America.
But South American insect wax is hardly known yet,
nor 'has it so far become an article of commerce.
Some years ago the insect wax of China attracted
the attention of the French Government, and an
attempt has been made in Algeria to rear the Chin-
ese wax insect on imported insect trees and wax
trees there, but with what results we cannot tell.
From a Parliamentary Blue Book lately published it
appears that the Director of Kew Gardens also had
his att,ention directed to the matter aiul applied to
the late Sir Harry Parkes for information on the
subject of ' insect white wax, for sppcimeus of tho
insect trees and wax trees, and for fo'-ms of the wax
product. Sir Harry Pa-kes instructeil Mr. Hosie to
visit the wax producing distri(;ts of Szechuen and to
supply all that the Director of Krw Gardens required.
Mr. Hosie accordingly journeyed in .Tune aTid .Tuly, IS&l,
through central Szechuen, studying the suhjcot in
loco, and hia official report has been presented, by

774

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

command of Her Majesty, to both Houses of Parlia-
ment, as the second Ohina Blue Book of 1885.

Mr. Hosie's report does not by any means clear
up all the obscurities which have hitherto surround-
ed the mode of producing insect wax, but it is the
first reliable and at the same time well nigh complete
account, entering into most of the details of this
intricate subject. His report is, however, presentt'd
in a somewhat disjointed manner, which makes it
difficult, without careful study, to piece together,
into a connected outline, the dislocated pieces of in-
formation which he distributes under the heads of
(1) the insect tree, (2) the insect, (3) the wax tree,
(4) the wax. But the sum total of his report is not
only of interest fnr Chinese commerce in general,
but for Hongkong in particular, if, as we are in-
cHned to believe, it may be possible to introduce
in Hongkong the rearing of wax insects and the
cultivation of the insect tree and wax tree. It is
with a view to encourage enterprising spirits in the
Colony to make the experiment of transplanting from
Szechueu to Hongkong this valuable industry of the
production of insect wax that we attempt briefly to
put together, from Mr. Hosie's report and from other
sources of information at our command, a connected
statement of the principal facts connected wi h the
production of Chinese insect wax.

It appears, then, that there are many districts, all
over the province of 8zechuen notably, however, the
Ohien-cb'ang valley, the Chien-wei district, and the
neighbourhood of Ch'ung-chMng, where a certain tree,
which is at present* supposed to be the L7gi/<itvu>n
lucidumy grows wild. Mr. Hosie omits to state the
exact position of these places, but we find from
Playfair's " Cities- and Towns of China," that all the
regions where this tree is found in abundance and
where the industry connected with it flourishes, are
situated between lat. 29 and '60 N., and long. 103
and 104 E. Now, in the above mentioned places a
considerable business is done, simply in detaching
from the boughs of this so-called insect tree numbers
of pea-shaped excrescences or galls and exporting
them to ditfereut places in Szechuen and other
provinces of China, especially Hunan and Kwcichow,
There is, so far as we can see, nothing to hinder
the export of these galls, in souud condition, even
to Hongkong. Each of the galls contains a small
colony of tiny brown insects, resembling minute lice,
each with .six legs and a pair of club antetuiae, and
(in many cases) also a small white cocoon containing
a beetle (known as the buffalo beetle) which has
also six legs and a long proboscis armed with a pair
of pincers. These galls are, about thw eml uf April
each year, detached from the boughs of the insect
trees, wrapped, in parcels of 20 or 30 galls each, in
leaves of the wood-oil tree, whose edges are fastened
together with rice straw, or done up in papt-r packets,
each weighing about 12 Chinese ounces, ami sold at
a price ranging from half a tael to one tael a packet.
The purchasers of these galls, whether in Szechuen
or in other provinces of China, being owners of wax
trees, now take the packets of galls, and, after
making a few rough holes in the leaves enveloping
the galls, suspend the packets close to the branches
of the so-called wax tree. Mr. Hosie gives no name
to this tree, leaving it to the Director of Kew
(iardens to identify ihe specimens forwarded to him.
Bat we may add that hitherto this wax tree lias
been considered to be a species of J'ra.iiuifs, and nann^d
Fraa-imts Chint'iifiis. • Mr. Hosie supposes that, wle-ii
the packets of galls have been suspeniled unilernfath
the boughs, the following process takes place: 'I'fu'
buffalo beetle above mentioned living within each gi''.
having previously done part of his duty in bori, 1,'
a hole through the rind of the gal', escapes through
the holes made, and being at first utiabU' to fly, re-
mains, with crowds of other bnlValo beetles, of both
sexes, for some time on the brandies of the Whx
tree, leaving behino eventually, when taking flight,
deposits of minute eggs, destined to cause some
mischief. Meanwhile, however, the wax insects ixlso
euL-ape through the holes made by the bnfl'alo beetle.
crocp rapidly up the branches of the wax tree, and,

after remaining for 13 days on the leaves of the
older branches and having moulted there, descend
finally to the tender branches, fix themselves on the
under sides to the bark by theii- mouths, to cooi-
menee to produce, by some as yet unexplained process,
a liquid which gradually encrusts the branches with
a thick coating of wax. But during this period there
emerge also from the eggs, deposited on the branch-
es by the buffalo beetles, certain insects, called
wax-dogs, which prey upon the wax insects and are
to be shaken off' by the cultivators by beating the
trunk of the tree with clubs. After a period of some
three months, the crust of wax encasing the branches
is about a quarter of an inch thick. The branches
are then lopped off, the wax is removed by hand,
thrown into boiling water and thence it is skimmed
off and run into moulds as the white wax of com-
merce. The branches are then boiled also and the
remainder of the wax extracted, yielding an inferior
kind of insect wax. The insects, which, during the
boiling process, sink to the bottom, are pressed to
squeeze out the last vestiges of wax, and they are
then used as food for pigs. The owners of the wax
trees have but few expenses, and do on the whole
a profitable business. It is estimated that in good
years a packet of Chien-ch'ang galls costing about
half a tael, will produce from 3 to 4 catties of wax,
the present price of which is about 40 taels a picul.
But as in bad years not more than a catty of wax
can be expected to be produced by a packet of galls,
the trade has a cousider.ible element of risk in it.
unless the owners of wax trees raise also insect trees
and propagate the insects themselves.

We think it highly desix-able that an attempt should
be made to acclimatize both insect trees and wax
trees at different levels of our bids, with a view to
ascertain to possibility of domesticating in Hongkong
the production of insect wax. As the Superintend-
ent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department
is now going home on a well-earned leave of absence,
it is hardlj possible that anything ct»n he done in
this direction until his return. AVhen this takes
place, we believe that if Mr. Ford were to luake an
excursion in Szechuen to investigate the liabits of the
wax tree and insect, and to procure specimens, it
would be attended with results as valuable from a
scientific point of view as his excursion up t!ie West
Kiver to make investigations respecting the cassia
lignea, and possibly more valuable as reganls the
material interests of the colony. — Honokomj IhiVy Ptiss.

A Oheai' i'EniiirUGE. — Government .seems now to be
fully alivo to the importance of obtaining cheap febri-
fuge which would be easily placed within the reach of
even the poorest. The importance of this question can
hardly be overestimated for the deaths from fevor iu
the Madx'as Presidency in the last IS years amounted lu
3,884,482, the mortality from fever being about three
times as great as that from any other cause. A liquid
extract of the cinchona alkaloids, which can be pre-
pared very cheaply, has recently been tried in several
of the most feverish districts. It was prepareil by Mr.
Hooper, the Government Quinologist, and contained
24 grains of the alkaloids to the fluid ounce. Dr. Cornish
now reports that the experiments have been very suc-
cessful, and recommends that this extract should be pre-
pared in large quantities. He suggest.-; that the strength
should be increased to 40 grains to the ounce, and we
believe that Mr. Hooper has fouud it possible- to prepare
an extract of this strength. The cheap febrifuge pre-
pared ill Bengal is uu.satislactnry, inasmuch as it causes
nausea a:id disorders the digestive functions, but this
is not the casuwitli the extract prepared by Mr. Hooper,
even when it is taken in large doses. Prob.^bly this
is due to the circumstance that the alkaloids are in the
form of tannates, and that the Hstr\uj;ency of the tannin
counteracts the tendency I0 cau.se nan.sea. It i> now
proposed to manufacture this extract iu large .jiuintities.
■\\'e wish that private enterprise would step in. and make
it unnecessary for Government to do tins itself. — /utlit'it

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

77S

The Couhn Flohida. — We have already mentioned
the very unusual degree of coid experieucetl in Florida.
AVe now liarutliatit is expected that the Orange trees
will lose their leaves, and that the young trees will be
wholly destroyed. It is calculated that 600/00 boxes
of Oranges, worth 1,000,000 dol., have been destroyed
by tho frost. — Gardentr.s' Chrtmicln.

Tai'L-woum Cure. — The administration of one drop
of croton oil and a drachm of chloroform in an ounce
of glycerine having been recommended as useful in
obstinate cases of tape-worm, Mr. McCullum, of Ontario,
writes to say {Brit. Mtd. Jintrn., June 13, p. 1231) that
the vehicle only is necessary for the purpose, since
tho glycerine will kill the tape-worm quite as effect-
ually without ancethetising it with chloroform, or purg-
ing it with croton oil. This property of glycerine, he
states, he first observed one day when removing a worm
from the stomach of a fish and putting it into a drop
of glycerine upon a microscope slide, where it died
almost immediately. He was therefore led to dry the
experiment of substituting glycerine for the nauseous
male-fern dose with good results. Sometimes he has
feund it necessary to follow the glycerine with a gentle
purgative, but not always. — Phormaceutiral Journal.

Papee Bedclothixg. — A paper-making firm in New
Jersey has for several weeks been turning out counter-
panes and pillows of paper. No. 1 maniJa paper is
used, two large sheets being held together by a slender
twine at intervals of three or lour inches. The twine
is gummed, so as to liold the sheets firmly together
where it lies. A hem is placed on the counterpane
to keep it from tearing ; the .safety edge is composed
of twine. Ornamental designs are stamped on the
outer surfaces of the covers and cases, giving them
a neat, attractive appearance. "When these counter-
panes and pillow-cases become wrinkled from use they
can easily be smoothed out with a hot tlatiron. The
counterpanes can be left on the bed when it is occupied,
and in cold weather will be found a warm covering,
paper preventing the escape of heat. The new paper
bedclothiug is 75 cents per set, and will probably be-
come popular. — The Paper Maker.

Winds sotnetimes prove fertilisers, though the South
Indian planter finds that, as a rule, his cot?ee and
cinchona will not flourish in exposed positions. The
district of liimagne, in Auvergne, is one of the most
fertile in all France. It lies east and north-east of
the Domes mountain chain, and is swept by the pre-
vailing winds of that region, which, according to JI.
Alluard, transport the fertilising dusts of the volcanic
bills ami shed them, by means of rain or snow, upon
the soil below, thus, us it were, supplying the latter
with fertilising chemicals. Phosphoric acid had been
found in the volcanic dust of the Domes ; so also
have potash and lime. From an examination of dust
brought down by rain on the Puy dc Dome, 51.
Alluard estimates that nearly 400 gramn\ es of dust
descend on a scjuare metre in a year. — .'ihidras Mail.

The Dktkkiohatio.n of Indian Tea. — Every now
and then, when prices at home show an appearance
of decline, alarmists are found to come forward with
the consolation : '■ I told you so ! Your teas have
deteriorated, and people are not now so eager to buy
them." And not finding any other sufficiently apparent
reason for explaining wliy this suppo.^ed deterioration
has taken place, these alarmists fall upon Machinery
as the cause, — the head and front, — of the stated
decadence of quality. A home Paper, rejoicing in a
so-callcd " Planters' Supplement," thus sapiently ex-
presses itself: — "The consumption of Indian Tea has
{mmeoscly increased the price has largely decreased,
and the quality steadily deteriorated." As if the very
fact of increased, consumption was not of itself a
direct answer to the last charge, while the reduction
of price shows no more than the success of the
endeavour made to compel large absorption by more
moderate rates than prevailed heretofore. So long
S8 our supply was limited in extent, we could afford
to hold out for high prices, but when that supply
became largely increa.sed, the necessity followed of
more nearly assimilating our rates to those of t'liina
teas than proiously wu coulil afford to do ; and by
the aid of macbinery tb« reduction io the cost of

manufacture has enabled us to sell at lower prices
with almost equal profit. As to the quality of mach-
ine-made Teas presenting a fatal contrast to Teas
made by hand, we do not believe thi: assertion, (care-
lessness in manufacture will produce equally bad results
whether yuu hand-niake or machine-make your Teas ;
but it has been undeniably prove*! that well-made
machine Teas are fully equal to hand-made Teas. —
Indian Tea Ga^ttte.

Phvlloxeka in Fuance. — The Times correspondent
says : — '* The Jom-mit OJficiel publishes the annual report
by the Director of the Agricultural Department on the
proceedings of the Phylloxera Commission. It has been
decided that none of the processes made known during
the year 18S5 entitle the inventors to the prize offered
by the Government, and accordingly the old remedies
continue to be recommended. These are— (1) submersion,
(2) sulphuret of carbon, and (3) sulpho-carbonate of
potassium. The surface under Vine cultivation attacked,
and still resisting, amounted to 642,000 hectares in
188.5, against 664,000 in 1814. This apparent diminution
is, however, due to the complete abandonment of
numerous plantations. Bt-fore the appearance of the
disease there were in France 2,503,000 hectares planted
with A'ines. Vines now cover 1,990,.')86 hectares, which
fact shows that the Vine growers have to a great extent
remedied the evil by planting during the last fifteen
years, so that the deficit only amounts to 600,f)00
hectares, but at the same time the amount of loss
remains enormous. In 1885 submersion was applied to
24,33(1 hectares, sulphuret of carbon to 40,585, and
sulpho-carbonate to 5,227. American Vines which have
been planted now replace those de^royed over a surface
of 72,2t)2 hectares. Thus the surface which has resisted
the attacks of the insect amounts in all to little more
than 145,000 hectares, that is, about 22 per cent of the
whole surface suffering from the disease. These efforts,
which have been continued uninterruptedly for eight
years, should, in the opinion of the reporter, inspire full
confidence in the future." — Gardeners' Chronicle.

Influence of Lioht on the DEvELOPMENr of
AssiMiLATiNO Tissue. — We learn from the Bulletin dc
In Societe Botaniijue de France, that Mt. S. Grosglik, who
has been conducting experiments on this sub.ject, selected
the primary horizontal leaves of Eucalyptus globulus,
as on their upper surface when fully developed they
have palisade cells, and on their lower surface loose
spongy tissue, while the adult leaves directed vt^rlicnlly
have palisade cells on both sides. Three principal
phases are discernible in the development of these
leaves: — I. The very young leaf has between its two
surfaces, besides the bundles in course of formation,
only one homogenous ti.ssue, formed of cells equal in
diameter in each direction, and which the author
calls primitive mesophyl. 2. The leaves still
remaining vertical develope at the expense of the
mesophyl, and in contact with the epidermis on each
side a layer of palisade cells. According to Mr. (trosglik
these leaves have then the definite structure of the
adult leaves. 3. The leaf becoming horizontal the upper
surface receives more light than the lower, and the
structure appears unsymmetrical. The palisade tissue
of the inferior surface is gradually transformed into
spongy tissue, and thus the definite structure is arrived
at. The author cites some experiences confirming his
ideas on the influence of light: — I, He maintained in
the horizontal position a leaf taken at the first stage of
development. I'nder these comlitions it only developes
palisaile cells on one f.ace, and not on both, as it does
normally. 2, Oh operating on a leaf arrived at the second
stage, and m which, as has just been seen, palisade
parenchyma is developed on the two faces, and on keeping
this leaf vertical and equally exposed to light on both
sides, Mr. Grosglik demonstrated that the development
is stopped, and the spongy tissue does not apjjear on
the lower surface. The conclusion arrived at is, that
there exists in the leaves a tis.sue which is not yet differ-
entiated, the priniitive mesophyl, and that it is at the
expense of this tissue that is developed either paliwado
tissue or sjiongy tissue, according to the conditions of
illumination. Light favours the formatiou of jiaHsade
tissue, shade that of the spougy tissue. — Gardeners'
Chronicle.

776

THE TR0#rCAt AQniCVLiumSt.

{May I, iS86.

Progress or Indian Tfa. — The trade in tea with
China, the Straits Settlements, and other countries,
has fallen off 67^ per cent which is attributed by
the Collector of Customs to the low iirices of the
common kinds of ludiaa tea, which euabled the buy-
ers of cheap tea to supply their wants from the local
market. — Indian Tea Gazette.

LiNNEAN Society, February 4, — Brigade-Surgeon
E. Bonavio, in a paper read, asserts that the
wild Citrus kt/strixj D. 0., is the grandparent of
Lima iuhetosui*. L, aytestrisy Lhnonis Fcri, Limonefli's
auriai'iasj and others, while also more distantly the
grandparent of the cultivated true limes of India,
Oeylon, he. The reason why the lime has so persist-
ently a winged petiole, according to him, is that this
is derivative from the immense winged petiole of its
progenitor i^itnis hi/.^tri.r. — yature.

The Cuscus Yam. — Through an oversight we omitted
to refer earlier to Mr. ("i. E. Poulier's successful
cultivation of this delicious yam in the lowcountry.
Mr. A. Whyte of Kandy, now of Nuwara Elija, first
introduced it into the Island from theAVest ludies some
years ago, and it soon became a favourite owing to its
flaTour and mealiness when boiled. Many, we know,
prefer it to potatoes, an<l those who wish to try it may
not be too late if they apply to Mr. G. E. Poulier, Nai
Valla Estate, Veyangoda. — Local *' Examiner."

Tka in thk Anuamans. — The extent of land under
tea in the Andaman Islands under charge of Mr. A. J.
King, now amouuts to 186 acres under plant, all of which
is Assam hybrid. Forty-two acres of new laud have
also been pitted rea(^ for planting out this year. The
outturn last year was 9,801 lb, which realized K5".'i30 ;
1,988 lb. of the tea was sold locally, 3,5^7 lb. to the
Commissariat, 3,827 lb. by auction in Calcutta, and the
balance is in hand. The tea which was sold in C'alcutta
does not appear to have been of a very good description,
as it only realized Rl,412. Exclusive of the charge for
convict labor, the expenditure came to 1\2,920. the
receipts thus exceeding it by upwards of R2,4iJ0. The
manager estimates that in 1886-87 at least 20,(_H_tO lb.
of tea will be produced, and he purposes to undertake
the contract of the supply of tea to the troops in
Burmah for that year. — Pioneer.

Brazilian Rosewood has formed the subject of an
interesting communication by Mr. A. Galletly, the
Curator of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art,
read before the Edinburgh Botanical Society at the
meeting on February 11. This rosewood has proliably
been used in Europe for three hundred years, jet its
botanical source is still unknown, although generally
referred to one or more species of />(j/?)r;;^/'a ; neverthe-
less the trees are said to be abundant in all the eastern
provinces from PernambucO to Rio de Janeiro and the
exports from Brazil have reached the value of £lOi>,000
per annum. An attempt has been made to throw some
light on its origin by examining the resins and resinous
colouring matters contained in the Brazilian nnd
Honduras rosewoods, as well as those of the Indiau
woods of the genus DaJbcrgia, which resemble rosewood,
viz., -P. latifolia and I>. Sissoc. From the experiments
made, it appears that the extracts obtained by means of
ether, naphtha and alcohol are nearly the same in all, both
in character and quantity, naphtha extracting about H
per cent of matter from the wood, ether .ibout 4 and
alcohol about 14 per cent. The alcoholic extract has
a strong tinctorial power, one part in lf»(»,(iO() showing a
distinct colour in a test-tube. Other woods gave different
results, ehony yielding hardly any colour to alcohol or
ether, and mahogany a tincture of far less colorific
power. {Gai'd. (■hroli.j Feb. 20, p. 297). — Pharmaceutical
Journal.

Peat Moss as a Mamuk. — Having had some ex-
perience in using peat as a manure after it had been
employed as bedding for horses, the particulars re-
specting it may be of service to " W. M. B." (See
*' Enquiry," p- 216.) For three seasons it took the
place of straw in tlie hunters' stables here, and we
made use of it. during that timr for various kitchen
garilen crops, such as Teas, Beans, Onions, those
belonging tu the BraBsica family, &c. For Peas, Beans,

and such crops, for which the ground was trenched
in the autumn, it was used very liberally, and was
incorporated with the soil as the work proceeded, and
of course lost its rankness before the crops were
sowu ; in other cases it was dug in ami the ground
cropped while it was in a raw state, and the results
were iu each case similar to those derived from the
use of straw manure. AVe had misgivings as to its
value as a fertiliser, and closely observed its effects,
and the Celery crop was the only oue that appeared
to suffer from its use; but as we used it for oue year
for this crop, and then under rather unfavourable
circumstances, I should not be justified in attributing
the deficiency wholly to the manure. The Potato
was the only vegt-tablc that we considered was im-
proved from its use. I ought to mention our soil is a
retentive clay, naturally cold and wet, upon which
the peat wrought some improvement in the way of
lightening and causing it to break more freely when
subsequently worked. A light soil would not be im-
proved in the same way by its use. We discontinued
it here in the stables because straw was prefeiTed on
account of cleanliness. — Thos. Coomber. — Gardeners'
Chronicle.

How TO Dry Plants. — The materials recommen<l-
ed for this purpose by the Rev. George Henslow
are common cartridge-paper, thick white blotting paper,
cotton wadding, and miP-board, all cut to the same
size. The plants should be gathered in dry weather,
and soon after the flowers open, when their colours
are brightest. Succulent plants (such as Daffodils,
Orchises, or Stonecrops) should be put into scalding
water, with the excejition of the flowers, for a minute
or two, then laid on a cloth to dry. Arrange the
specimens and papers in the following order: — ^lill-
board, cartridge-paper, wadding (split open, and the
glazed said laid next to the cartridge-paper), blotting
paper; the specimens having small pieces of wadding
placed within and around flowers, to draw off all
the moisture as quickly as possible, blotting-paper,
wadding as before, cartridge-paper, mill-board. When
the specimens, &.c,, are thus arranged, heavy weights
should be put on them : about 30 lb. the first day,
60 lb. afterwards. Remove them from under press-
ure in a day or two ; carefully take away the papers,
&c., except the blotting-papers between which the
specimens are placed ; put these in a warm air to dry,
whilst the removed papers, kc, are dried in the sim
or by the fire. When dry (but not warm) place them
iu the same order as before ; put all under the heavier
pre.ssure for a few days, when (if not succulent) they
will be dry. Flowers of different colours require
different treatment to preserve their colours. Blue
flowers must be dried with heat either under a case
of hot sand before a fire, with a lot iron, or in a
cool oven. Red flowers are injured bv heat; they
require to be washed with muriatic acid, diluted in
spiritsof wine,tofix the colour. One partof ai^id to three
parts of spirits is about the proportion. The best brush
with which to apply this mixture is the head of a thistle
when in seed, as the acid destroys a hair pencil,
and injures wherever it touches, except glass or china ;
therefore it should be used with great care. Many
yellow flowers turn green even after they have re-
mained some weeks; they must, therefore, bu dried
repeatedly before the fire, and again after they are
mounted on paper, and kept in a dry place. Purple
flowers require as much care, or they soon turn a
light brown. White flowers will turn brown if hanilled
or bruiseil before they are dried. Daisies, Pan.sies,
and some other flowers nuist not be removed from
under pressure for two or thrt-e days, or the petals
will curl up. As all dried plants (Ferns excepted)
are liable to be infested by n.inute insects, a small
quantity of the poison, corrosive sublimate, dissolved
in spirits of wine, should b*; added to the paste,
which it will also preserve from mould. The best
cement for fixing the specimens on to the paper or
cardboard is gum paste. It is composed of thick
gum-\Mitcr and Hour mixed in warnt w.-iti-r, by a. Ming
tho two together warm, ami of a (•(insi.>lency that
will run off the hair brush." — Indian Gardemr,

May I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

777

TBIAL SHIPMENT OF LIBEBIAN CHMIBY
COFFEE FEOJI CEYLON TO THE AMEBICAN
MABKET.
Some lime ago we mentioned that we
thought there was a good market in the United
States for parcels of Liberian coffee in the
cherry and one or two sales quote d by us com-
pared very favourably with the prices obtained
for the pulped and cleaned coffee in the Loudon
market ; but a later experience is, we regret to say,
not so favourable. The particulars we now give, may
be of interest to owners of Liberian coffee gardens.
The following is an extract from a report
from a Philadelpia merchant, of the result of
an experiment made last year in shipping
Liberian cherry dried in the shell or " uuhuUed "
as the Americans say : — i

When business began to open in September I I
sent small samples of the bays of coffee clfuned, \
not only to coffee brokers, but grocers, result- '
ing in only a few offers of S, 8} and 'J cents per lb.
which I did uot feel free to accept,! hopiug all the i
time that tlie coffee market would soon have a
better and brighter outlook, but, instead of tliat
right the reverse, the best price possible being at ,
10 cents per lb. net cash, as per accouut herewith
enclosed. If these bags had been my owji, I
would uot have sold until next mouth, when I could '
have sold for llj or 12 cents. Coffee market points
that way now.

At no time within the past 39 years has
the U. S. coffee market been so upside down
and irregular. At any time within the past six '
months i could, and today could buy Rio coffee
at li, 7 and S cents per lb" Six millions of bags of
coffee reached this country within the past year
— two millions more than in the previous year. No
wonder the market has been upset, aud coffee never
so low ill price. If I could have waited for the market
I would have received a higher flgure for this parcel.
In hulling coffee and makiug it perfectly cleau, so as i
to sell, some of the hulls are ground too fine to .sell.
It IS utterly impossible to hull and brush away
the tine dirt from the coffee, and not experience the
loss in gross weight. Out of the 9,87(1 lb. gross
weight, I got all the coffee, if not more than if
pulped in the old way on the coffee plantation,
wlieru there ever is a loss ol actual coffee and the
hulls or pulp thrown away. The planter in selling
has to allow for the freight on his cleau coffee,
whereas, 1 have sold as you see enough hulls to
pay the freight on both hulls and coffee. The
fiviglit was Srj3iV2; hulls sold for S.iO.OO Suppose
you had pulped aud cleaned these S)4 bags on the
plantation, you would have recei\ed no more actual
coffee tlian I have doue— then the time and ciist of
hulling, itc. Could you have obtained 10 cents
pi-r lb. for the coffee at the place of export ■!
All we know is that the net result for 88.J cwt.
gros.s weight of cherry shipped from Ceylon is
tlW 12s equal to IWly or about 1 rupee per bushel
tor the cherry which measured some 2.50 bushels.
At the time it was shipped we believe more tlian
this,- -perh.aps, as much as Kl^ per bushel— could
be got for it from native dealers in Colombo. The
charges in the American invoice are a caution ! True,
the "hullings" paid for the freight, and the local
estimate of about 10 to 12 bushels of dried cherry to
the cwt. of idean coffee, was singularly close to the ac- 1
tual result, namely 2,527 lb. or 22A cwt. which re-
lized about -los per cwt. But the charges, especially
for •■ liulling and cleaning " (nearly €20 .-sterling
in order to get 22 cwt. clean coffee!) were stupendous,
and as a. curiosity as well as a matter of instruc-
tion to Liberian coffee planters we append the '

Philadelphia invoice referred to : —

Cr. Doll ars.

i By UnhtJled Liberia coffee

„ Hulls l.-Wa lb., at 1 cent . . . . S15-G2
„ „ 3,438 lb. at 1 cent .. .. 31-.S8
„ SaL=s lil bags coffee 2,.^27 lb. at

10 ceuts net 252-70 $302-70

' Dr.

To Cash paid G. H. charges .. .. 1-6G
,t II II Freight and primage . . 53-92
I, M ,, Commission of C. H.

Broker 5-00

,, ,, ,, Brokerage, owner's oath

and fee.. .. .. 2-70

Freight from N. Y. 24

bags hulls .. .. 2-18

,, II II Drayage in Philadelphia 1-00

Freight from N. Y. 49

bags hulls . . . . 4-97
I, I, I, Drayage in Philadelphia 2-00
,, ,1 ,, Weighing 93 bags, un-

bulled coffee . . . . 3-88
II ,, II Freight on 19 bags of

coffee from N. Y'. . . J-l'iO
I, I, „ Drayage on 19 bags of

coffee in Philadelphia 1-50
,, 11 ,, Dawner & Snyder weigh-
ing 19 bags . . . . 0-75
11 ,, ,, Charges for hulling and

cleaning 94 bags 9,872 lb. 98-72
., ,, ,, Charges for storage in

New York .. .. 9-40
,, ,, ,, Charges for cartage to

mill 7-52

,, ,, ,, Charges for drayage on

73 bag of hulls iu N. Y'. 3-84
,, I, I, Chargehfor selling coffee
and hulls 3 per cent

i3U2-70 9-00

„ „ „ Draft on London . . 91UH 5302-70

From the nett ill-Of; dollars or the B249 we
must deduct K7 " Consular fee for invoice " in
Colombo and E<j9-70 charges between the garden
and the vessel, so that for the 250 bushels of
dried cherry, the planter gets the magnificent sum
of K172-30! Selling to '^Tambies" on the estate
or at any rate in Colombo, he could have netted
not less than R.SOO, so that no more cherry coffee
is likely to be sent in this way to America as an
experiment.

WHY TEA CANNOT EVEBYWHEEE
SUCCEED IN CEYLON :

now IT IS BEINO " RUSHED " IN S03IE CASES.
THK NUMBER OF ENEMIES.

(By an Old Coffee rinntei:)

The young Goliath (tea) stands and will stand
Ceylon in good stead, but there is many a false
David slinging at him with stones in the shape
of rubbishy land, had seed, bad plants and bad
planting, so that some blooming capitalists seeing
their champion in a sick condition in a year or
two after this may feel as did the Philistines of old.

We have the gentleman who proposes tn sell
seed of a good hybrid jat and a very hybrid jat
it is. principally China.

Wo have the gentleman selling tea seed off 3 years
bushes, off which he is plucking leaf fr.ely at
same time.

Then we have the gentleman who tells his cooly
to crack off the outer skin of the tea seed in the
field and then soaks the seed in his cisterns to keep
it up to weight.

Then there is the gentleman who orders his
coolies to dig 300 holes and plant .'iOO plants.

Then there is the patanaand thin scrub planting
gentleman who will palm off his acres en the
confiding Assistant two years hence.

778

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

TEA PLANTING IN SOUTH AFRICA

is exciting a good deal of attention and the Natal
papers are devoting space to information for the
planters. A description of a visit to the most extensive
and successful garden j'et planted — some ten to
fifteen acres — shows the dimensions of the enter-
prise. Here is what the proprietor says of the
results attained : —

Mr. I'.rickhiU'h urtat obji'ct and chief desire is to en-
counifj'o colonists of limited means to go in for the cul-
tivation of tea, for the simple reason that little expense
is incurred as compared to the propagation of the coffee
plani; only the cultivator must exercise a considerable
amount of patience and attention to the pLints at first
as it ia three years before they fully matured and
begin to show a return for the capital invested. The
returns are good ; and when asked for some idea, Mr.
Brickhill said that last year, with only the assistance
of his coolies, he erected some buildings on his estate
effected large improvements, and was able to pay all
the expenses incurred out of the profits of the tea.
This season he says he shall have better returns, and
by the introduction of patent machinery he will be
able to do very well. Mr. Brickhill's concluding words
sum up all that can be said in favour of tea cultiv-
ation. On the question being put, he said "If I had my
days to live over again I would start in Natal as a tea
planter,"
Some facts about the garden are of interest; —

Across the gully, through which a stream runs, on
the gentle slopes, is found in good bearing condition
the original China tea plant, which has been in the
gro und for 22 years. Some of them measure across 10
ft. by 7ft. and it is said they will live ior 100 years
yet. In the back ground .ve entered another enclosure
where a batch of coolies were busily engaged picking
some China tea. This process is a very delicate one,
but the coolies soon get into the way. The season for
picking, we were told, generally commences in Sept-
ember and finishes in the latter end of April ; and Mr.
Brickhill informs us that whilst last season he had to
pick every fortnight from the same plant, this year
he had to pick every week, except with the last two
pickings which have been at mtervals of ten days ; and
he expects now as the season is approaching an end that
there will always be teu days or more of an interval.
AV'C were next taken to the tea house where the manu-
facture goes on, and this appears to be as simple as
the cultivation. After being picked it is laid outside
in tlie sun on the "barbecue" or brick cemented floors
where it is allowed to wither. It is then taken iusi<le
by the coolies and rolled for a time, which expels the
juice, and eventually (he whole mass is formed into
good sized balls, and allowed to remain on a shelf for
about three hours in that state. After this process
it is laid out in the sun on zinc plates to get warm,
and then it goes through a second process of jrolling,
and 13 again iirought out.side to undergo what is ter-
med "sunning," and remains in the sun for two hours
or so. After the sunning the "cooking" in the hot
chamber conuncnccs. Here there is a furnace which is
the entire length of the building, and is fired from
the outside, so that no smoki" or anything obnoxious
can contaminate tlu^ tea. On the brickwork which
furn)s the walls is laid plate iron the length of tlie
furnace. On the top of this plate is laid on each side
a row of single bricks which leaves a vacuum in the
centre, through which the heated air passes and which
is cuveriul with sheet iron. On the top of this gently
heated plate the tea is cooked, and is moved about
until it is finished. 'J'his process lasts about balf-an-
honr, after which the tea is ready for packing in boxes.
From the Mciritnj'x " I'lanter'.s column " we ex-
tract a few paragraphs to show what the Natalians
are thinking about : -

The following important ((uestions have been sent
to me lev tlio purpose of answering ; but before
doing so I publish them in the hope that I may
receive practical assistance from men who are
engaged in tin; industry. The following arc the
queries : —

What class of tea is best suited for cultivation Id
Natal?

To what elevation above the sea can tea be grown
with safety ?

\yill home-grown seed do, or will it be better togetit
from India or Ceylon ?

What distance apart should tea be planted ?

What is the best way of planting in land cleared for
the purpose ?

What do you think will be the cost of planting old
coffee land and bringing it into bearing ?

How would you plant the seed— in nursery beds, or
how?

Should nursery beds be shaded ; if so, in what way ?

In transplanting from the nursery, is it best to prune
the tap root or not?

What size of plants are best for planting?

How many plants would 100 lb. of seed give

What will be the yield per acre of tea planted in good
coffee land ?

AVhat rainfall is requisite for successful tea cultiv-
ation ?

What do you recommend with regard to plucking ?

Will soil with limestone grow tea, and give a good
return ?

What tea roller would you recommend ?

What is your opinion about withering ?

What tea drier would you recommend ?

Have you seen Greig's tea drying and withering
machine at work ; if so, what is your opinion about it ?

Can any of my readers inform me at what price per
ton coke can be landed at from England? Later on
coke or coal must be used for manufacturing tea on
some estates. Coke of course would be the cleanest
and brightest, and give nut more heat than coal. I
heard the other day that a tea planter had ordered a
quantity of coal as an experiment, and hope that it is
colonial coal he has ordered.

Is there any demand for croton seed in small quan-
tities (down toIO lb. or so)? What is the present market
price? Is it necessary to cure the seeds in any way,
or is it marketable in the husk, merely dried in the sun ?
Any information on the above points will be esteemed.

INDIAN TEA COMPANIES. *

Calcutta, 27th March.

Tea. — The report of the Directors of the C'handy-
pore Tea Company for the past season show that the
outturn was '207,2601b., which is 0,710 lb below the
estimate, the average price realised being As. 8-9 per
lb against As 8-1 last season. The gross revenue was
Rl, 13,707 and the ordinary expenses Rl,01,120, leav-
ing a profit on the season's operations of R12,317, and
the net b ilance brought forward from last year
swells this amount to Rlii.OH.'), out of which adividend
of 5 per cent is to be declared, which will exhaust
Rl"2,.i00,andthe balance carried forward. The estimates
for the current season provide for an outturn of
201,000 lb at an expenditure of Rl,01,000.

The report of tlie Directors of the Cocheela Tea Com-
pany shows that the outturn was 8.5,S.)8 lb. which
realised iin average of As. 9 -ti, against 79.605 lb averg-
agiu As. 9 for 1881. The gross revenue was R.iI,G07
and the expenditure RI1,6C2, leaving a profit of R691.i ;
and deducting the debit balance from last year, the
amount available is K6,'282, out of which a dividend
of 2 per cent is recommended. The estimates for the
current season provide for an outturn of 90,000 lb at an
outlay of about 1117,000.

The report of the Directors of Dohing Tea Com-
pany shows ithat the outturn was 1,31SJ maunds
against 1,500 maunds last year, and lo2 maunds less
than the estimate. The avcrnge price realised and to
be realised is put dowu at iVs. 9--')J per lb against As.
79'J per lb last season. The estimated gross revenue is
2,03,3lil and the expenditure Rl,71, 076, leaving a pro-
fit of R3'2,2SS, and deducting the debit balance brought
forward from last year, the amount at credit of profit
2rut loss is R2(>,8.')9. The Directors recommend a
dividend of 3 per cent and that a balance of RoO
be carried forward. The estimates for the current
season provide for an outturn of 1.70(1 maunds. but tho
probable expenditure is not stated. — Pioneer,

May i, M6.]

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST?

779

.^^agaiihkati

Matcratta : Kadkaoalla, Uli April.— Glorious
weather up here. Tea now flusliing freely and
very fair blossoms out on the remaining patches
of good coffee but they are getting, as in other
districts, few and far between. There has been a
good deal of sickness about of late, chietly fever,
inliuenza, a few cases of measles and smallpox
which keep our energetic medico pretty well on
the move. Petty thefts, are, I hear, greatly on
the increase in the villages as they find having
no coffee to steal and not yet learned the art of
tea manufature they are keeping their hands in
by stealing fi'om each other. Bahatungoda post
office was opened on the 1st, which is doubtless a
boon to those over in that neighbourhood, but not
so to us as wc do not now get our Colombo and
Kandv letters till 10-30 instead of (i a.m.

Native Enteki-kise.— The natives of the country
are not far back in following their Kuropean
brethren in planting new products and believing
in same. Mr. Lewis Mendis, the well-known
plumbago dealer of Kurunegala, has successfully
opened out as tine a tea estate as one could wish
to see at Balapitimodara within a mile or two
of properties belonging to Messrs. Wiggin and
Boustead. " Kirimettia," as it is called, consists
of 170 acres and has all but 40 acres opened
and fully planted out with tea, 25 acres are
being planted now and 40 acres will be tit for
plucking in June. The proprietor and manager,
Mr. Mendis, is just now in treaty for a Jackson's
KoUer and Venetian Drier, both of which he hopes
to remove to the spot ere many days are over.
Mr. Mends's example may well be followed by
others of hiis countrymen. — Cor.

The V.iLrE of Homing Pic.eoss in Country
medical practice has lately been described by an
English doctor. He starts upon his daily rounds
with a basket of the birds. Upon leaving the house
of a patient who needed immediate attention, ho
would start off a pigeon with the rciiuired pres-
cription, and the assistant in the doctor's surgory
would forward the medicines to the patient long
before the doctor's arrival home. A case is lately
cited in which pigeons regularly carried a morn-
ing newspaper to their owner. 'The statement about
the letters may be correct, although pigeons some-
times delay entering the room in which the mess-
ages must be detached, not from the wing luit from
the leg. But a% even I oz. v,ould lie a licavy load
for a pigeon, the story about the carriage of a news-
paper is manifestly incorrect. Parts of a news-
paper printed on thin ])aper containing the des-
patches describing the fall of fiebastopol, were
brought by the Ohserrer pigeons from Cialle, but
as a rule the messages they carried wore written on
very thin tissue paper. — Ed.]

Oil ANn Giiathite LcBiircAxxs. — The following
paragraph is interesting as the latest and most
conclusive testimony in favour of plumbago as a
lubricant. It will be noticed that the foliated form
of the mineral is mentioned : —

Experiments lately made with graphite aud the
licBt sperm oil, respectively as lubricants, are re-
porteil, with all the results in f.ivour of graphite,
each test being stopped the moment the bearing
" .squeaked. " Kleven mihutes used up the sperm
oil, while the graphite lasted thirty-eight. The
be-irings lubricatcil with the best sperm oil
cut. while those with dry graphite or Kraphite oil
did not. The tests were on close bearingn, and
very high pressure. Oae-third the quautity ol ilry
graphite did nearly three timos the lubricating of the
best qualitv of sperm oil, and for a long time after
tbc j-perni uil was exbniisted— it squeaked at eleven
minites— the graphite oil cuntinued to lubricate with-
out a cut. Tbc average coefficient of friction wai, on
oi\ '05&5 : OD {oliated grapbite, mized nitb enough ot

water to distribute it over the bearings, •059(5 ; and
on graphite cylinder oil, 0366. The use of plumbago
pure and simple is much safer than when rnixed with
otner suostances. — Michanical i'liqineer.

The "Eain Tisee."— The Gardener's Magazine
contains an article by the Rev. L. J. Templin on
'■ interesting vegetable forms " from which we quoto
a specimen: — "A tree known as the Rain tree,
Pitliecolobinm Saiiian, is found in the dryer parts
of South America. This tree grows to the height
of sixty feet, and its leaves have the property of
condensing the moisture from the atmosphere. So
copious is this condensation that a continual shower
falls from the leaves and the branches, until the
surrounding soil is converted into a veritable
marsh. Places that would otherwise be barren
deserts, are by this means, covered with the most
luxurious forests. It is said that the British Gov-
ernment is introducing this tree into India, to
countei-act tlie aridity of portions of that couutry."
This tree is now pretty common in Ceylon. It
grows rapidly and makes a magniticent shade
tree. At night the leaves hang down, so that
condensed moisture, might if present, 'easily reach
the ground. But is there the slightest evidence
that the leaves actively condense moisture after
the fashion described, or to any appreciable extent'?
The rain tree and the electric tree may be classed
together.

The Western New Guinea Cedak Company
with a capital of £2,250, in 45 shares of £50 each,
has not only been formed, but it would appear
from a recent newspaper paragraph that a couple of
millions of feet of timber had been already cut 1
The prospectus states that

" This Company is being formed for the purpose
of working the Cedar Forests discovered by Mr.
Charles Stewart, Naturalist .and Geologist, during
his .recent explorations in British New Guinea.
Mr. Stewart reports that on the River Cossu he
found a practically inexhaustible supjjly of Cedar,
which on being examined by experts has been pro-
nounced by them to be of lirst-class (juality. The
river upon which the discovery wa.-! made is navig-
able for large vessels, which can be loaded from
the hunk alongside the timber. The local native
labor can be utilized at a very small cost in trade,
and has been found manageable. An order lui.s
been obtained by Mr. Stewart, from His Excellency
the High Commissioner for New Guinea, iirotecling
the discovery of Cedai- on this river to himself,
and practically granting him a monopoly of the trade
of the river. Mr. Stewait and his partners reserve
to them.selves thirteen fully paid-up shares in the
proposed Company to recoup them their outlay in
the preliminary expedition, and the whole proceeds
of the sale of the thirty-two shares offered to
the public will be used towards obtaining cargoes
of Cedar and forwarding to the Melbouine or other
Colonial Markets. The amount required will be
amply sutlicient to cover the whole cost of cutting
and shipping the hrst cargo, and henceforward there
will be not only no necessity for further contribu-
tions, but large dividends may be at once confidently
reckoned upon."

The " Cedar " referred to is, no doubt, the ubi^
(luitous and valuable red Toon, so well-known and
highly prized in India and Australia. A degree ot
local interest attaches to the enterprise from the
fact that the Company was formed by a gentle-
man formerly in Ceylon, Mr. H. W. KcUow,
cousin of Mr. Arthur Kellow of New Cornwall,
Nuwara Eliya. The latter suggests that New Guinea
cedar may be a possible source of supply of timber
for Ceylon tea chests, but we fear Red Cedar
jij too valuable to be used foi' Bucb a purpose.

•}Ea

fm I'^oMCAt AGmcuLfvmsf,

[May 3, J sue.

Seed of Khea Grass.— The Horticultural
Society of India state in their recent iiroceedings
that a communication had been received from
Messrs. Sutton and Son, Beading, England, stating
that " as Bliea Seed is likely to bo in considerable
demand in India, they are jirepared to supply
finest quality seed of Urtica nivea and Urtica
candicans." As yet there is little or no demand
for this seed, but as it is seldom saved in India
should any of the different processes now known
for extracting the fibre prove commercially success-
ful, the demand is likely to prove great. The
Indian seed has long been thought unfertile,
but the Society has recently raised a considerable
quantity of plants from seed gathered from plants
in its own garden.

Feuit GiiowiNG.— Some short time ago Suav boast-
ed of its strawberries. Thereupon Eewa at once
claimed credit for its apples ; and now Levuka,
not to be behindhand, can speak with pride uf
its grapes. Many attempts have been made to
acclimatise the vine here, and not without partial
success. The p'ant grows luxurantly and forms a
most graceful ornament for training on the
verandah trellis or elsewhere ; but a;s a fruit
bearer it has not been a marked triumph. The
difficulty has been to give it a winter, so as to
check the continual flow of sap and prepare it
for a fresh fruit-bearing start. Both Mr. Dufty
and Jlr. Haiman have managed this by digging
the vine up and exposing the roots for a while,
but though bunches of grapes have been so ob
tained, they have been rarities, neither full-grown
or well-flavored. More recently Mr. W. I. Thomas
have adopted a ditt'erent plan, and with a marked
improvement in result. He has at his house a
vine which is about five years old, but which still
lately only bore occasional acidulated curiosities.
But on the advice of a friend, who recommended
the practice as one he had seen adopted with
success in other, tropical countries, he last year
. laid the roots thoroughly bare, and afterwards
filled in with sea sand and manure ; and he is
now rewarded with a very fair crop of full-grown
and very tine-flavored fruit. Already he has cut
about 15 pounds weight of grapes from his vine,
and as he has distributed them widely very many
can testify that they are of excellent quality and
most luscious ajipearance. — Fiji Anjuf. — [With
some such treatment of the roots and severe pruning
of the branches, fairly good grapes could, we should
think, be grown in Colombo. — En.]

Matale Kast, Rattota.— (A Model Blantiiig Report
from an enthusiastic Ceylonese).— This district is
coming to the fore in the developiiieut of the tea
mduatry. if I may judge of the large area of land
now under cultivation with this product, though at
first some were sceptical as to the sufficiency of rain-
fall for a remnuerative fiush. Though it cannot be
categorised as a beau ideal for tea cultivation iii.so-
much as climate is conceruBd, yet it possesses many
desirable advantages in respect "to altitude and suit-
ability of Boil. Some few of the estates that in-
itiated this staple here in the early days of its iutro-
duction have by their produce and its quotations
proved conclusively that it is not behind hand on the
score of remuneration. As its cultivation a.haiices
1 hope the district will compete with the far-famed
districts of Ambagamuwa, Kelany Valley, Deltota,
Arc, as it so siiucebsfully did in the good days of yoro

in regard to King Cotfco. Uappeuiug to pass Oo'

and Ni estates— at one time the eiichautiug scene

of luxuriant coffee fields— on my way up to JIadul-
kele, I observed a large acreage under and in pro-
cess of cultivation with the selfsame product that
characterizes " a cup that refreshes but not inebri-
ates." I hope you arc aware that these properties
changed hands recently to the Colombo Commercial
Company, tiwittid, and cousideriug the short time

that has elapsed since the purchase, it is a matter
of congratulation to witness the works so far pro-
gressed. With the advancement of the enterprixe it
IS devoutly to be wished that the time will not be
lar distant when this once world-famed district would
recuperate its long lost prosperity. In conclusion I
must not omit to mention the ''f/i/ creditable manner
tliat the estates have been so far worked in all their
divergent works by the present superintendent who
no doubt deserves his meed of praise.— April 2nd.—
I regret you have not yet given insertion in your
inestimable journal to my letter sent from Eattota
on the 2Sth nit. in rr the tea industry there. I be"
you will give same publicity in one of your early
issues, so that it may have the beneficial effect of
drawing more capital thither, since there is a pretty
good acreage of private lands that can be cultivated
with this staple. I read yor editorial on tea cultiv-
ation by natives with pleasure.

Oeiextai. Bank Estates Company. Limited.—
The liwcKtor'K Guanlum of IHth March has the
following notice of the new Company for which
everybody has been waiting so long. Although
however the Company has at length been registered,
there has been no transfer as yet to it of the
estates vested in the 0. B. C. ; but there can be
little donbt in which direction the decision of .the
Court will go. The floating of the Company is
evidence of increased confidence, in Ceylon estates
especially :— This company was registered on the r,i\i
inst., with a capital of £.5(;r,,700, divided into 00,000
preferred shares of £.5 each, and 2(iG,70O shares
of £1 each, to acquire any of the tea, sugar, coffee,
or other estates of the Oriental Bank Corporation
(in liquidation), situate in Ceylon and Mauritius,
and any of its lands, buildings and other real
property in India, Ceylon, China, Japan, and
elsewhere, and to carry on business as tea, sugar,
cocoa, cinchona, and coffee planters, wine and brandy
merchants, fruit growers and preservers, brewers
and manufacturers of all kinds of vegetable
products. Although but little over a year had elapsed
since the New Oriental Bank Corporation was formed
to take over.the banking business of the original Cor-
poration, it is now regarded as one of the most
successful of recent financial enterprises, a result
due to the assiduous attention given to the affairs
of the bank by the members of the executive.
As several of these gentlemen are interested in the
pre.^ent Company, and will, no doubt, assist in its
management, a successful future may be reasonably
anticipated. The holders of the prcfcieiice shares
will be entitled to be paid out of the proHts, and
as a first charge thereon, a fixed cumulative pre-
ferential dividend at the rate of seven per cent,
annum. The subscribers arc :~

rrefcrrid
Shriret*.
Edward F. Harri--oii, South Noi wood Hill,

Indian Civil Service (retiredl ... 1

A. J. Mackdouald, 40, Threadueedle Street,
banker ... ... ___ j

K. M. MacLcaii, Elliot Hill, Hlackheutb,
banker ... ... ... i

W. W. Cai-(;ill, Lancaster Lodge, O.inip-
denhill, barrister.. .„ ... i

John S. Scrymgeour, 10, Altenburg-gar.

deus, Olnphani Common, bankjUianager 1

G. \y. Tlu)m.s(iii, New.stead, Forest-hill,

banker ... ... ... |

Robert Turner Kohde, -tO, ThreadiiPedle-

.Htreet, Sicrclaiy to a Cnipany ... 1

The number of directors is not to be loss than
four, nor more tlian eight; qualilication, shnros or
slock of the nominal value of L.">00. The sub-
scribers are to apiioint the Mrst directors, and may
act ad inlerim ; remuneration £1,000 per annum.

i

May I, 1886,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

78 J

riucK's Paiknt Candle CoMrAjcv, on llio siiyyeslion
of Mr. (.i. May, Reading, are preparing a biniodidc
of UiCrcury toap, to be used as a disinfectant after
surgical and otlier operations. The biniodide, of
wliicli there is 0.") per cent, in the soap, is rendered
soluble by the addition oi potassium iodide. —
Chemist ami Dimjijht.

tiiiAi'uiiE Leah.— Says the Rio Neicx : in a short
time wiU be commenced the exploitation of mines
oi graphite lead, tierrax refnu-turiaa, on the pro-
perty of Sr. German P. Konquand situated on the
Oriental coast near the San Juan Hills. A com-
pany of shareholders with a strong capital has
been formed in this eity for the exploitation of
the various minerals these mines contain and in
Uie opinion of well-informed persons flattering re-
sults are assured. — [^Graphite lead is, of course,
nonsense. Plumbago, popularly but incorrectly
" black lead," is meant. — En.]

The Eoi.at.y PcNE.m. — Messrs. W. H. Davies &
Co. have on view at their oflices one of Blackman's
air-propellers arranged as a rotary punkah for
ventilating and cooling a room. The revolving
disc is fixed on a stand and has a crank attached
to which is fitted an accelerating movement by
which one turn of the handle gives two turns of
the disc. It runs very lightly and can be easily
turned by a cooly and the ventilation of the room
is perfect. It possesses many advantages over the
ordinary jjunkah. not the least of which is that, not
being directly over the desk of the person using it
it does not fan all papers &c. off the table, and its
influence is felt throughout the room and not only
in its immediate vicinity.

Talipot Palm L.vbels. — The editors of the Tropical
AiiririiUiirist are sure to be diligent readers of the
Ganleiiers' Chronicle, and the following extract from
the latter journal will not readily escape their
notice. But it may be as well to give it insertion
here, as it shows the success Dr. Ondaatje is securing
for an adaptation which, it is believed, will do much
to stimulate their small local industries in Ceylon, the
prosecution of which is very desirable in the domestic
interests and general wellbeing of the people : —
Since writing to you in September last on the above
subject I have been carrying on the following experi-
ments with a view of obviating the diificiiltv of writ-
ing on the label with a style or sharp pointed instru-
ment, and of testing its capabilities generally. Kx-
perimeutl: liabuls were ea.sily written on with black
Japan varnish and vermilion witli a ([iiill pen and paint
brush; they were thin allowed to dry fora few hours
and when well (h-ied exp^)^(■d to the open air iu a
garden, .\fter they had bci'u thus exposed to the
wcathir, and even to the heavy fnowfall lately exjieri-
euced, no damage ensued, and tlu' writing remained
intact; in fact the labels looked better. No curhiig
up followed iu any one. Experiment 2 : A number of
labels hung over the kitchen stove were unaffected by
the heat, Experiment 3 : A sponge dipped in turpen-
tine or methylated spirit and rubbed over the labels
effaced the writiug perfectly, thus rendering labels
tit for use over and over again. Experiment 1 ; Dilute
acids or alkalies applied to remove any writing did
no injury, the surtnce Leiug protected by a silicious
cuticle. Any soiled label may be cleaned by washing
with soap and water. Expeiim'iit 5: Tjabeis writteu
on with sulphuric acid by means of a quiil pen and
held near the fire until dry, and then fjuickly plunged
in water produced a permanent and indestructible writ-
ing, the .icid acting on the tissue. Conclusion. From
the foregoing experiments I think it is clearly estab-
lished that the Talipot Palm label possesses qualities
which render it more usefid than those ordinarily used
for plants, Ac. I may add that in this climate the
label stands exposm-e better than in the tropics, and
is likely to be more 'enduring. W. (\ (Jnihtatjee /■'. h.S.
I'I'he labels are cheap, durable, and easily written on.
flipped in varnish after uritting on tbeni would make
them jlmost imperisbable.— Ep.]

A DiMKiu.A Plantek of the early days is now
on a visit to Colombo in Mr. James A. R. Clark of
Tinnevelly (son of the late Mr. Kobt. Colvin Clark
of Colombo,) who first learned planting under Mr.
John Martin on Mount Vernon in lHfi5-7, and
has not been back to the district since he left
it for India. What a change there has been
in the 20 years ! Mr. John Martin is almost the
only one left in Dimbula of the few who were
at work there in the sixties!. Mr. Elphiustone had
begun his Logie clearings, but resided in Kotmale,
and Mr. Wm. Smith (now of Pussellawa) was busy in
Craigie Lea. Beyond Talawakele all was forest, un-
broken save by the patenas; roads and bridges
there were none and it was a journey of ditlicnlty
even to pass from Craigie Lea across to the New
Valley of Dikoya where Messrs. Kelly, Fether-
stonhaugh and a few more, mostly dead or gone,
had begun pioneering. Mr. Clark means to
visit the old hunting as well as planting grounds
on his return from Australia in August. He has
not been successful in finding a purchaser for
his Tinnevelly coffee, cacao and tea properties.
They are situated in a deep valley between two hill
ranges, get the sun from 8 till 4 p. m. and have
exceptionaUy fine soil, and although the leaf
fungus is by no means absent, it has not
prevented fair crops being continuously gathered;
while on the other, the Travancore side, the
disease has literally swept coffee out of ex-
istence. Some idea of the luxuriance of the
soil may be formed from the enormous size of
the trunks of the older trees -some of them 40
years old, have been cut down to the ground by Mr.
Clark and suckers allowed to grow up, so that
after two or three years the clearing looked as
of that age only and is giving good returns.
Even young iilants from the nursery grow and
crop fairly well. But Mr. Clark has not neglected
new products — cacao and tea especially. Squirrels
from the large reserves of forest arc the chief trouble
with the former, and as they, if left alone, select
the ripe pods and after enjoying the nmcilaginous
portion leave the crop on the ground, Mr. Clark
is inclined to regard them as harvesters! A new
product whicli is found to do and pay well on
botli sides of the Tinnevelly-Travancorc range ill)
to 2,000 feet is Zanzibar chillies. They have been
planted on some hundreds of acres — so good is the
price got in London and seed has been got direct
from the East Coast of Africa. Has any one tried
these chillies in Ceylon and for what can the
specially good demand in London be? We quote as
follows from Smith's "Dictionary of Economic
plants" : —

CArsiciiji, a genus of the Nightshade family (Sola-
uaceael. C aniunnn, is supposed originally to ha^■c
been a uativc of some part of South America, but
is now cultivated in all tropical regions. It is an
annual plant, attaining a height of about 1'2 or 18
inches. It is too tender for successful outdoor
cultivation in this country but succeeds well and
produces tine fruit under glass. There are several
varieties, their fruit varynig in shape aud coloifr,
being cither long or sbcnt podded, red or yellow, all of
which are known nndcr the name of I'od Pepper.
There are some very distinct varieties considered
by soniG authors as species, such as Cherry Pepper
[t'lijtsiciuh ceiLiififuiHic}', Bird Pepper {C. hiiccafitiu);
Bell X'epper (C nioxmin); Spur Pepper (C /'nitc«eriu),
which are all more or less grown iu different coun-
tries, aud extensively used in cookery in hot cliniateB,
being considered benelieial in exciting the appetite.
The dried fruits when ground constitute Cayenne
Popper. In this country they arc generally used
as pickles, aud in sauces. The small fruits known
by llic names of ('billies, are mostly produced by 0.
f'li.^li'liuluiii. Capsicums arc extensively cultivated iu
Uuiigary, giving umployiucut to 'i|50U families.

78z

THE TROPICAL AORICULTURIS'^

[May I, 1886.

THE TRADE IN FEATHERS.

BV P. L. SIMMONDS.

The fashion for wearing feathers has hail a much
longer reign than most other fashions with ladies, and
hence the trade in feathers and birds' skins has now
attained enormous proportions. When wu find the
annual value of the imports into this country alone
of feathers e.Kceeding two millions sterling, the aj)-
plication, preparation, and subsequent retail sales must
necessarily be very profitable to those concerned.
The largest quantities come from India, Asia, and
Africa, but subsidiary supplies also reach us from
America. In the present remarks I shall confine my-
self to the land birds, leaving the aquatic ones possibly
for a future notice.

The average annual importation into this country
and France of small foreign birds of bright plumage
is no less than a million and a half. They conu^ mainly
to England for distribution. We import about a
quarter of a million humming birds yearly. At a
public sale in the autumn of last year, besides the
loose feathers, 147,386 bird skins were disposed of
during the two days' sale, among which were no less
than 44,381 green or Amazon parrot {Clnysotis uma-
zoiiicu) and other species.

'I'he following figures show the importance of the
trade in feathers in this country— specifying the annual
imports for nine years;—

Ornamental.
For Birds. Feathers.

£ £

1875 120,177 713,199

187t> 109,045 778,477

1877 109,041 873,192

1878 91,679 1,002,902

1879 80,238 1,146,211

l,s80 107,554 1,367,128

1881 127,374 1,322,255

1582 144,694 1,957,840

1583 155,240 2,011,926

AVe re-export about half of the ornamental feathers
as follows: —

f

1879 ... ... ■•• 4!U,140

1880 ... ... ■•. 0li0,931

1881 723,187

1882 ... ... .- 1,003,278

1883 1,009,123

France and the United States take half of these

exports.

In a paper which I read before the Society in Feb-
ruary, l.'S76, on "The Trade in Ostrich Feathers"
(Joiirn-a!, vol. xxiv. p. 225), 1 brought down the satis-
tics of our imports to 1874, and it is interesting to
trace the subsequent rapid augmentation which has
resulted from ostrich farming, and the domestication
of the ostrich in South Africa since that period. The
direct imports of these feathers from South Africa
are .specified in the returns. In contrast with these,
I may place the imports from Northern Africa, which
I collect from the countries of import, viz., Malta,
Egypt. Tripoli, and Morocco.

South Africa. North Africa.

1H75 293.860 94,1(>4

1«76 300,572 67,481

1^77 400,926 61,180

lti78 590,372 33,102

lf<79 717,056 4.5,949

1880 959,079 47,651

1881 073,774 28,183

1W2 1,421,337 49,268

1883 1,425,681 86,943

Aden is iin inlirju't for ostrich feathers, from 7,000
lb. to 8,0(10 lb. being exported annually; half of these
are received from Uerbera.

Mr. K. H. Elliott, in a paper read not long ago
before the East Indian A.ssociation, called attention
to the large exports front tile port of filadras. which
are chiefiy sent to Hung Kong and Singapore, Mie!
argued that the bright plumaged birds woukl soon be
exterminated.

The following were the shipments thence in the

last three years : —

Feathers.

lb. Value.

1881 122,175 £1,662

1882 105,.315 1.998

1883 167,7.50 2,666

Bird Skins.

<,Juantity. Value.

1881 82,400 £1,908

1R82 98,300 2,098

1883 11,275 166

£ £

But if we take the whole of our imports from
IniUa, they form a much larger aggregate ; —
£ £

1871 21,840 1878 25,775

1872 29,119 1879 19,482

1873 38,836 1880 22,164

1874 .3S,4M 1881 24,082

1875 37.197 1882 33,658

1870 23,587 1883 66,455

_ 1877 18,563

The following fig:ures, .showing the total exports of
fea'hers from British India, prove the importance of
the traile. They are for the years ending March in
each year : —

Value.
Year. lb. £

1879 56,000 21,933

1880 41,279 18,618

1881 65,433 26,944

1882 67,164 28,966

1883 89,839 .30,425

1884 104,021 47,039

1.V84 40,487 41,352

(Six months to Sept. .30.)

From India we receive chiefly the blue jay, jungle
cocks, orioles, trayopans, kingfishers (.4?c«?o litni/alin-
^'■^ and other species), peacocks' feathers, and pelicans'
feathers. Of the last named there is a terrific slaughter
carried on during the moulting season in Cambodia.
They are taken in enclosures, and one to two thou-
sand killed nightly for about a week. The greyish
feathers from each wing, and the black feathers at
the extremities are plucked and tied up in bundles,
and they are in the East chiefly made into fans.
These feathers are in request in Europe, as they take
dyes readily.

The feathers of the little egretheron, and of the A rden
alba, are much esteemed for ornament. To show the
large ompluyment of these feathers, 1 may state that
at a feather sale in .lanuary, 1876, the feathers sold,
on a moderate calculation of twenty to each bird,
involved the slaughter of 9,700 herons, aU from India.
Then we have the feathers of the marabou and ad-
jutant storks from India. The former has a long
range of latitude in Western Africa, extending from
Senegal to Angola. The feathers of the greater and
lesser adjutant are scarcely equal to those of the
marabou. The gigantic stork or adjutant is extremely
common in Northern India, more especially in Bengal,
being well known in the larger towns as an efficient
scavenger bird.

Peacock feathers, both from the body and the tail,
seem in grt.at recjuest for feather trimniings. At a
public sale in ,\ugust, no less that 75 cases were sold,
containing nut only complete skins of the bird, but
brilliant blue neck skins, wings, and body feathers,
tail feathers, classified into e^es, swords, which are
the brilliant metallic green feathers which bonier the
tail at each side, and fish tails, the onliuary feather
with the eye cut out, I'eacock feathers are much
employed in India as fans, brooms, picture cleaners,
&c., wiiich sell locally at Od. to Is. each

Of the eighteen species of birds of paradise known,
fourteen inhabit New Guinea and the adjacent is-
lands, three Australia, and one only the Moluccas.
The four true birds of paradise which form a well
characterised group, belong solely to New Guinea anil
the adjacent islands. The other sjiecies are mote rare,
The best known are the great bird (I'antdina ajiiMla,
Liu.) known since the middle of the IGtb centary.

May I, 1886,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

783

found in the Aru islands, and the small emerald (P.
papuam, Bechst), the plumage of the latter being
used to decorate alike the head gear of eastern rajabs
and western dames of fashion. The redbird has Hew-
ing side plumes of rich crimson instead of yellow.
The king-bird is a little gem of exquisite plumage, having
two slender wire-like shafts, nearly 6 inches long, pro-
truding from the tail, each terminating in a broad
emerald green spiral fish.

Birds of paradise must have been found by the Por-
tuguese on their conquest of Malacca in 1511, brought
to that emporium by the Malay and Javanese merchants
for the markets of China. At all events they must
have seen them on their arrival in the Moluccas in
the same year or the beginning of the following. But
the earliest accout we have of them is that given by
Pigafetta, who was at the Moluccas ten years after
the Portuguese had reached them. His description,
taken from the original manuscript published in 1800,
ia as follows: —

" They gave us also for the King of Spain two most
beautiful dead birds. These birds are about the size
of thrushes. They have a small head and a long bill ;
legs fine as a writing quill, a palm long. They have
no wings, but in their stead long feathers of various
colours like great plumes. The tail resembles that
of the thrush. All the feathers except those of the
wings are of a dark coloui-. They never fly except
when the wind blows. They told us that these birds
came from the terrestrial paradise and they called
then hum nil dinata, that is 'bird of God.'"

It is probable from this account that the birds of
paradise sent by the King of Tidor, one of the five
Moluccas, to Charles V., was not the great emerald
bird with which we are most familar, but one of
those which are natives of the Moluccas. At present
the principal emporium for these birds in the East is
the Aru Islands, and to the west,;Batavia and Siusja-
pore ; they are brought to the tn'o last ports by the
prahns of the llugis of Celebes. ^\'e obtain our supply
by way of Holland, and they cost from 2()s. to 258.
each at first hand, according to quality. In 1872,
3,1100 of the.se bird skins were shipped from the port
of Doliho in the Aru Islands.

The delicate feather sprays of the ospery or fish
hawk (T'andwn ImHoetus), of a light yellowish-browu
or snowy white, are largely used in making aigrettes.

Prodigious quantities of the feathers of th') Impeyan,
argus, and other Indian pheasants are also received.
Even in Leadeuhall market the plumassier will pur-
chase the freshest common pheasants for their plumage ;
they are skinned and dressed for ladies' hats, and the
oarcases of the birds sold cheap.

If we tui-n to South America, we find that there is
s demand for the feathers of the American ostrich,
as it is called, the Rhfa Jmeriraixa, which are known
in commerce as "vulture feathers." In 1S65, there
was shipped from Buenos Ayres 15:i,330 lb. of these
feathers, valued at £38,408. The quantity shipped
later from Buenos Ayres was in—

1871

1872
1873
1874

Kilos of 2J lb.
. 31,177

73,132

69,202

59,454

Most of these go to France, but our imports were
to the value of £8,422 in 1875, £10,735 in 1876, .£4,520
in 1877, and the imports have now dropped to about
half this quantity.

The feathers of the male bird realise more than
those of the female.

The tail feathers of the golden ed.g[e (Aquila cana-
denxh) are used by the North American Indians for
head ornaments. The yel\o-w Hicker [Colajites anratus)
and other gaudily arrayed summer birds yield their
plumage for oi'namenting dresses. The feathers of the
Australian emeu are of a brown colour, fiuo but brittle.
The plumage near the tail, however, is long and grace-
ful. The feathers are dyed almost every shade, and are
now much used for trimming and ornament. From
Victoria these feathers, to the value of £3,187, were
shipped in 1883, chiefly to the United Kingdom.

The quantity of these feathers obtained in Uruguay
in 1875, was 92,400 lb. ; but this fell, in 1877, to 44,000 lb.,
valued at £20,000. This decrease arose from several
causes. First; the indiscriminate slaughter by the
hunters, not only of the birds, but of their eggs and
young ; second, the extension of the cattle ; and, lastly,
a Government decree, in 1877, forbidding the chase
of the bird under heavy penalties, and eircouraging
production by offering a premium to the first person
who should produce a certain number of birds in a
domesticated state. This decree had the efl:'oct of re-
ducing the total production of the feathers from the
chase by two-thirds.

A great many farmers have now seriously under-
taken the work of domesticating and raising the birds
soas to obtain the feathers at certain times. It is
thought that, in a few years, this will lead to increased
quantity and improved quality, the feathers plucked
by the hand being said to be finer and more downy.
Fine feathers, in packets, fitted for the European
market, are valued at about 12s. per pound ; and they
fetch, in France, 16s to IS.?, a pound. They are nearly
all sent to Havre ; a few stray cases mav occasionally
be shipped to New York.

About £500 worth of feathers and bird skins are
annually brought to Cayenne, including tufts of the
heron, skins of the rapapa, the turkey sultan, and
varieties of the humming birds. From South America
also came the red cardinals, the blue crupus, and
many other birds of lustrous plumage.

From the feathers of T. resplendens and other
trogons, the mosaic pictures of the Mexicans were
made. One of these, most delicately and beautifully
executed, containing many figures, is now in the Ash-
molean Museum, at Oxford, and is there said to be
made of humming birds' feathers. The subject is " Christ
tainting under the Cross." The whole picture is about
the size of the palm of the hanil, and the figures
are barely half an inch in height.

The above cited facts and figures will convey some
idea of the importance of the commerce in feathers
and bird skins chiefly for personal adornment.— ,/o«?-«a/
n/' thf Society of ArU.

The l.<st quarterly eepokt on the Dutch Government
Cinchona Plantations in .lava quotes some remarkable
results obtained in the examination of bark from
" succirnbra hybrids raised from Ledgeriana seed."
The total alkaloids in ten samples ranged from 0'66 to
14-46 per cent., and in most cases the quinine was
relatively high. In one instance out of 12-26 per cent, of

total alkaloid the quinine is given as 10-67 per cent.

Pliarmaceatical Journal.

Effect of Frost on Orange Trees in Florida.
—A correspondent of the San Francitco Chronicle,
says ; — " I have travelled away from my theme
which was in the beginning the cold wave. Some
friends, with myself, were talking about it to a gentle.
man, long a resident of the State, and its effect upon
young orange trees. Some rather remarkable incidents
bearing upon this subject were related. Among other
tilings, he stated that it was not the cold or the frost
by which the trees were killed, but the heat of the
sun closely following it. ' If,' said he, ' any one will
take the pains to get up before sunrise and make an
incision in every tree, two or three inches long, with
a sharp knife, there will be no danger of harm from
the heaviest frosts. I had a neighbor, who, going
through his grove before sunrise, found his young trees
all killed, as he supposed. In a sort of rage he took
out his knife and scored the bark of about a dozen
or two, to make the destruction sure, but in a few
days— lo ! and behold !— those he had cut came out
in renewed life and beauty and were the most vigorous
trees in the grove, .\cting upon this hint, he always
afterward saved his choice trees by an application of
the kuife before the sun had a chance to get at them
after a frost.' I give this for what it is worth, being
assured of it as a fact. It is the newest thing out,
and 1 leave it for gardeners rnd philosophers to give'
the reason vihy."— Gardeners' Monthly Horticulturist

784

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1&86,

Gum Trkbs.— I noticed in the Field of Feb. 13
an inquiry as to the heiglit of Australian gum trees
planted out in this country. I have one— Eucalyptus
globulus, I believe — which was given me in a pot in
1880. I planted it in a clear space in a wood in
the autumn of 1881 ; so that this is its fifth winter
out, though it is the first in whieli there hns been
any severe weather. After reading your corresponlcut's
letter, I measured the tree, an<l found it to bo 3(.) ft.
from the ground to the topmost shoot. The stem
is alight in proportion to the height, aud there are
uo branches of any size. I have had to stake thp
tree several times to keep it upright; it seems to
grow too quickly for its strength. It is on sandy soil
in Kent.— \y.— Field.

TjtEK-CLiMBiNG PLANTS, like the human parasites
who hover round successful men, usually excite sus-
picion and dislike. Hut there may be uses other tlian
their apparent ones for even such. Professor T. R.
Fraser, at the May meeting of the liotanical Society,
described the admirable properties in heart disease
of Struphanth's hi:<pi//i(s, the source of the arrow
poison of the natives of Eastern Africa. Professor
Fraser's experiments with this new drug, very many
times more powerful than JJif/italis, or the eommon
foxglove, appear to inaugurate a new era of hope to
many new sufferers from a class of diseases apparently
increasing with the march of modern progress. He
gave great credit to Mr. John Buchanan, of Zoniba,
Eastern Africa, for his exertions in furnishing the
necessary material. — Jotinial of Forestry.

Nf;w Caledonia.— Uoconut trees exist in the colony
in different varieties, nearly all having been planted
by the Kanakas. Mo.st of the groves are on the
pastern side, where the majority of the tribes are to
be found. This precious tree produces yearly from
50 to 80 nuts. The kernels, dried in the sun, are
readily solrl uiuler the name of cojivtih, at from 300
to :S50 francs (£12 to £14) per ton. This is the chief
nL'ans by wliich the natives obtain tlie goods and
hixuries of civilization. A few important groves are,
however, held by Europeans. The other principal fruit
trees are the orange, lemon, banaua, canella apple,
mango, gunva and Shanghai peach. In spite of in-
digenous valuable timber, no important felling of trees
exists in New Caledonia. ThM quantity cut is not even
suthcient for the use of the colony since New Zealand
and Oa'ifornian imported timber amounts to the yearly
Talue of 500,000 francs {£'20,000).— Jo/rnn/ of Forest r</.

TuK Indian Fokest School. — An impartial stutly
of the recent report of tliis institution at Dehra Dun
leads us to conclude that it cannot noplace a siniilnr
school in IJritaiu for tlie advancement of home and
colonial forestry, as hinted by Mr. Gladstone in the
recent debate. Founded on continental models, Brit-
i.sh common seu.'ie is modifying the curriculum for
tht* specific needs of Indian pupils. Thus Sylviculture
has been separated from the theoretical instruction
of the lecturti-room in I\loij)liologi(^al and Physiolog-
ical Botany, and is now taught practically in ihe
forests; while fttr. Clitf"rd's cour.ve of lectures on
Entomology has been expanded so as to admit the
study of all injuries aiul diseases incident to forest
plants, whether hy animals, insects, or other plants,
such as climbei's, epiphytes, par;i sites or fungi, as
well as the decay and preservation of timber. This
is now termed Forest Etiology. — ■Journal of Forestry.

Kill THE Poultry Lick. — Almost all poultry are
hmsy, mori; or less. I think good arrang(;nients for
dusting will always keep the lice in check. The sn^ill
hen louse moves along the roosts and siiles of the
building several feet, and sometimes annoys cat'U:
and horses, but tlu^ trouble to fhem is quite tem)i r-
ary. If the fowls are freed from them, they will
leave other stock at once. Iloosts ought always to
be removable, so that tln-y can be s'-raped and
washed with ker<isene. I find kerosene or crude petro-
leum an excellent ad<lition to white-wash. This
treatment, with a good lUisting box for the fowls,
in which there may bo occasionally thrown a pailful
of wood ashes and a pound of flowers of sul|)hur, will
keep lice atfectually in check. Horses and cattle in
adjoining apartments, with only loose bonrd partitions

separating them from the poultry house, will not be
seriously troubled by the vermin. — Ool. AVeld, in
American Agn^nlturist.

Leaf Rollers supply many destructive agents to
the Rose, including the following; Tortrix heparana,
Tortrix ribeana, I^ozotrenia rosana, Pardix tripunctata,
and Spilonota "roborana. Tlie grubs of the above make
their appearance with the first opening of the leaves,
of whose structure they take ailvantage to construct
their summer aboile, bauquetiug, in the meantime,
on the leaves that shelter them, and, if unmolested,
after working havoc among the foliage, make for juicy
buds, which they soon disfigure and render entirely
useless. The larvie have the peculiarity, when dis-
turbed, of lowering themselves with a web-like thread.
The only remedy for their destruction, and also those
of the winter moth and swallow-tail moth, is assiduous
handpicking. — Indian Gardener.

Red Spider (Tetranychus tellarius). — These little
creatures are unquestionably very injurious to Roses,
either when trained to walls, or grown under glass.
They increase most rapidly, and though so minute in
.size, they have extraordinary powers of extracting the
juices from the leaves; aud to further aggravate the
deadly mischief thus caused, they spin tiny webs ov^x
the leaves and point.« of the young shoots, so as, to
completely clog up the pores of the leaves, thereby
stopping their powers of transpiration and absorption'
and giving them a parched or burnt appearance. As
these little nuisances abhor damp, the best remedy is
the constant use of the sj'ringe. AV"e have found a
wash, composed of a large wineglassfuU of petroleum
in two gallons of soft water, most etTefttual. Before
playing on the plants, draw up a syringe full and force
it back again into the vessel two or three times, so
as to mix the petroleum as much as possible witli the
water. The wash may be used every day, or as long
as is found necessary. — Ivdian Onrdener^

Gall Nuts. — It v^ill be remembered that the only
speaker in favour of the Extension of the Railway to
IJva, at the now famous meeting of the Ceylon Agri-
cultural Association, referred to an industry in Oall
Nuts as likely to be fo.stered if facilities for trans-
port were atfortled. The nuts, he said, could be had
for the mere picking. We read in a Commercial ex-
change that "South European gall nuts dried ami
analysed by competent men have yiebled an average
of 25 to 30 per cent of tannin. The oik forests ne.ar
Neusaltz, on the river Oder, yielded in the anlunui
of 1883 a large quantity of gall inits, all of which
decreased in size considerably after drying in the air.
An average sample of the.se gave 32-21 parts of tHuiun
to 100 part.: of the dried substance. This tends to
show that the German g'dl nuts are as good as those
from Southern Europe, as far as their tannin percont-
Hge is concerned, hut their tanning solution is slightly
yellow. For all that they are of little use on account
of the large amount of water they contain when fresh,
and their small size, and are therefore hardly worth
gathering. Another form of gall nuts comes to us in
a pulverized form from Smyrna, under the name of
Smyrna rove. In a sample received from Hamburg.
IS'92 per cent was found, while 100 parts of sub-
stance, dried at 100° C, yielded 2178 per cent of
taimin. Althouj^h its percentage of tannin is smaller
than that fouiul in the German nut gall, the rove
finds extensive employment in tanniug. This is due
to the fact that this is of larger size, ami therefore
more worth gathering. There is, however, one draw,
back to the exclusive u.se of nut galls for tanning
purposes; the leather it produces is of a good colour,
but n< t nearly as durable as tliat produced by the
oak bail< process." It would be interesting to know
what (juantity of nuts was eollecte<l altogether by
I\lr. Milsnm^that is the gentleman whom the speaker
above referreil to 'mentioned as baying collected some
nuts — at what seastui they could be pi.-ked ; whetlier
the uutri have in any way bopn analysed, and with
wliat result; whut use the nuts were put to; and,
aboi'c all. whether collecting them will sitisfactorily
answer the test which is applied to the undertaking,
towards the success of which they are predicated to
bo accessory — "Will it payP" — "CeyloQ Advertiser."

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

78^

LETTERS FBOM JAMAICA-NO 10.
Blue Mountain District, Jamaica, 28th Dec. 1885.

Df.vb Shi,— The much needed " seasons " equi-
valent to our Ceylon monsoon have at lengtii eome.
The rains are very late as they are due in Ociober or
November, but for the last two or three week swe have
had very yocd showers This last week has been
the heaviest of all, so that we have had no work.
It cleared sufficiently on Chnstmasday to enable
us to get to church, but came on again heavily in
the afternoon ; it has since cleared up, and the
temperature in the mornings and evenings reminds
me of Nuwara Eliya. Mr. Morns has telegraphed
to the papers, that 11 (eleven) inches of rain fell in 21
hours at Cinchona ; then I have heard the gauge
overflowed. There have not been such rains since
the flood of IST'.t, and it is to be hoped that the
other parts of the island which had suft'erred so
much from drought have had sutlicient to last for
some months. To us up here, it has almost been
too much, as we get frequent light showers and
mists which keep the ground moist and cool, so
that planting, especially of stumps, may be done
every month except June, July and August.

According to statistics previous to ISSO there
seems to have been much more rain, the mean
average at Cinchona being given in the Jamaica
Hand Book for 1885-() at 121-02 inches ; so that
estates Iving on the same range, must get nearly
as much, and it must have been much
worse in the "old days" before so much land
was opened up. This state of things surprises me
all the more that the coffee was never sent to
Kingston to be cured, thus saving the planter
an immense deal of time and anxiety, and I
believe of expense also. I cannot take for granted
that the quality could be spoilt because the
coffee was cured at Kingston any more thaii the
bold coffee from Haputale. Kamboda, and other
favored districts of Cej-lon. It can only have
been "lack of cart roads, and the consequeni ex-
pense of carriage on mule-back of parchment
coiTee : a mule now carries 200 lb. of clean coffee,
which is a pretty tidy weight for one animal. If
a curing Krm were to set up at Kingston I should
lie very much inclined to send my coffee. I believe
a mule could take 5 bushels dry parchment to
(lordon Town, when it could be carted to Kingston.
With '-property " mules one could thus send 10
bushels to Gordon Town for Is Gd. I only wish
such another firm as John Walker & Co. would
set up a business in Kingston, I will enumerate
what paying work they might undertake. First the
making and repairing of all sugar and coffee estate
machinery, making small hand-pulpers to enable
the settlers, as in Ceylon, to turn tlieir coffee into
good i)archnient coffee instead of the wretched
stuff thoy now bring to Kingston, and which only
fetches SHs to 40s in the London market. With
suitable hand-pulpers, they would turn out a good
sample and if they dried it properly would get a
much better price than they now obtain for the
badly cured stuff they bring to market. The firm
could by the above named coffee, set up a set
o( mills, cure and ship it to England and realize,
good protits. Then if some venturesome planter
like mysielf sent his coffee to them to be cured
and it still fetched high and paying prices, I liave
MO doubt others would soon follow suit. In addition
till- firm would have open to them the repair of
ships, and ships' machinery, building contracts
and all kinds of carpenters' and blacksmiths' work
In repairs, etc. They might also keep a general
-'store" tor the sale of estate tools, and all,
n<iui.sites in the ironmongery line required by
planteis ctnd the general public. I am confident
98

that with such a business well managed by some
" canny " Scot, and it they were satisfied with
'modest protits, tliey would soon do an excellent
business. Most of the business in Jamaica is in
the hands of Jewish tinns who are very enter-
prizing and have managed to keep out the Gentiles
to a great extent. There are only one or two
engineering shops in Kingston, so they have it all
their own way and charge absurdly high prices: fancy
having to pay "is each for iron spade bars, one
inch thick and tliree feet long, steeled at both
ends, one fiat, one pointed ! I cannot imagine why
the Blue Mountain district was never opened up by
good cart-roads; the difficulties are not much greater
than inmany parts of Ceylon, and in the old days when
planters had plenty of slaves, they could ha\'a
done it cheap and fast, but of course sugar
was king and coffee planters in the minority, and
I also fancy they were so well satisfied with things
as they were, and their enormous prices and pro-
fits, and not needing to be as hardworking and
energetic as the modern coffee planter and emi-
grant : they were content to " let well alone."

I am glail to say prices keep up for our Bine
Mountain coffee, I was so fortunate as to obtain
Ills, 122s and IHOs for a small shipment of my
coffee ; it netted lOSs. Would I had more of it, but
I must have patience till the new fields come into
bearing. Tlie neighbouring estate, Sherwood Forest,
ij giving a very fine crop, and Radnor and the
other estates are also doing well. Amongst the
curiosities of Negro-English, I may mention the
words " as nrach." If you ask a man if he has
any stumps left, he will reply " Yes, as umch,"
me'aning there are still plenty. In the field ^ the
other day, I told the people to save the good sticks,
as I wanted to build a shelter-hut ; the answer was
" You have as much," meaning that they were
plentiful. The other day I got a letter from an
educated man. a schoolmaster, whose p n." I had
detained for breaking into my giiineagrass, in-
forming me it was "illegal to impound stocks"
on a Sunday, Amongst other peculiarities, they
will talk of " one, one coffee being ripe," mean-
ing a few berri.'.s here and there just worth the
picking. The absurdity also of saying the " rivers
have come down," when they are in Hood, in-
stead of s;iying the rivers are up, or have risen.
The fact is, so many of the Jamaica rivers are
dry beds during a portion of the year, that it does
not seem out of the way to say the water has
come doiiii ; as if it were stored up in the mountains
for sundry times and " seasons," when it does
come down with a vengeance, people being fre-
quently drowned. One of the most onerous things
the dwellers in Jamaica have to bear is the heavy
import duty of 12.} per cent on most goods,
besides the export duties on sugar, rum and coffee ;
this is even carried out to levying duty on articles
by the parcel post, thus causing great inconvenience
and delay to country residents who have to send
all the way to Kingston to clear their goods. An-
other anomaly is that there is not a uniform
rate of postage : some places near Kingston and
those towns to which the railway extends arc favoured
with a penny postage, whilst we outsiders have to
pay '2d for the half-onnce.

lltli February. — The above was written about
six weeks ago, hut was somehow mislaid, the
writer supposing it was about this time appearing
in the (Jlixerver ; tor this accident he now apologizes.
Crop has commenced, and is of very good quality,
the promise of good crops expressed in the former
jiart of this letter is likely to be realized ; and no
doubt some very line specimens will be shown at
the Colonial exhibition. (Jur very popular Director

786

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

o£ I'ublic Gardens and Plantations, Mr. D. Morris,
has been deservedly promoted to be Sub-Director
al Kew ; and his departure will be universally re-
gretted, and be moreover a real loss to the colony.

W. S.

NATUBAL HISTORY IN NUWABA ELIYA

AN OLD VISITOR FINDING OUT SOMETHING NEW.

I3th April 188G.
When writing you from Nuwara Eliya as to past
reminiscences in Ceylon and Nuwara Eliya and the
great changes which time and the railway, the
great maker of modern civilization, have produced,
I had little thought at the time of the hidden
wealth of life, animal and vegetable, contained in
tlie high jungles of this beautiful island. It is
often and is generally supposed that the high
forest lands and bare grassy hills or patanas of
Ceylon are almost destitute of animal or bird life
and that elk (the sambar deer) with their natural
enemy the cheeta and a few herds of elephants
are the sole inhabitants of the tangled thickets
of dwarf bamboo, nillu and brambles; but the forest
swarms with lite, and bird lite is most numerous.
Few of the birds are of brilliant or gaudy plum-
age, though tlie common jay and the spotted wood-
pecker are bright and beautiful enough in plum-
age though discordant in their harsh notes. To
see bird lite in all its beauty you must select
the early morning after a shower, and just as the
sun's first rays light up the plain seat yourself
quietly in a halt-open, halt-thorny thicket and
watch tlie birds as they come to sun themselves
and teed. Nearly all are insect-feeders ; many of
them are nesting, and the song of the male bird
though low is sweet and musical. The black-bird,
the roker, the tom-tit, the bulbull (Kelaart's) have
low sweet notes and the brambles and thorny
thickets are literally alive with these beautiful
little birds ; would that they were more numerous,
for the blaclc grub larvii' of ilie common grey
moth is so destructive to plant life that the
gardener in his kitchen and flower garden is often
driven to despair, the labor of weeks will be de-
stroyed in a uigiit by the ever-present black grub
which destroys the young and tender plants as
fast as they are put out. Were it not for insect-
ivorous birds, so prolific is insect lite, tliat it would
be impossible to grow anything. Mr. Whyte, the
well-known naturalist of Kandy now at the Grand
Hotel cottage, Nuwara Eliya, has in the grounds
attached to the Hotel obtained one or two rare
specimens of birds, notably the whistling thrush
or "Aringa Elyghi" first found by Mr. Blygh which
is said to be exceedingly rare; also Palliser's ant-
thrush and a very beautiful Night .Jar. These
birds are almost unknown to ornithologists though
I am doubtful it they are really so rare as is
generally supposed, but they must be sought for
in the quiet lialt-open glades of the forest in the
early niornmg. Mr. Whyte is not only a
naturalist but a horticulturist and botanist, and is
most enthusiastic in his love of birds and plant
life and his great desire at present is to introduce
iiit-) the country insectivorous birds and to
protect and encourage such as we have. A strict
and stringent law should be passed to prevent the
destruction of small birds: the benefit derived from
them is incalculable. Mr. Whyte's favourite of all
Ceylon birds is the robin, and I feel every sympathy
with him in this. Like our " robin redbreast" of
the story books he is a domestic pet and will
breakfast witli you at the table and as an insect-
destroying bird is equal to the home starling.
Whenin Nuwara Eliya I was greatly instructed
by Mr. Whyte's oonversation on matters relating

to bird and insect lite, I suggested that a most
useful bird might be naturalized or domesticated
here, the Australian magpie or piping crow ; these
birds are most amusing, the natural call of the
male is a beautiful clear piping call like the note
of a flageolet ; they can be taught to talk and will
sing any common or simple air, and like the
mocking bird will imitate the call or song of any
domestic animal or bird, but as insectivorous
birds I know none so valuable. I have seen a
piping crow watch a tuft of grass and in an
instant dart like a flash of lightning on a snake
14 or 16 inches long, seize it at the back of the
head and break its neck. If Mr. Whyte can induce
the people of Ceylon not only to care tor and
preserve their own beautiful birds but introduce
others he will do good service to his country.

My steamer is due and time is short but I could
write more of the beauties of Nuwara Eliya did
time permit. What a wealth of vegetable lite is
there ! There a botanist might spend a month on the
lichens of the Nuwara Eliya plains alone.

[We can from personal observation confirm
every word said in praise ot the great shrike called
the Australian magpie, both as insectivorous bird,
songster and mimic. When we were in Australia
many of the so-called magpies were dying from
inability to digest the thousands of grasshoppera
they were preying upon. We have seen a tame
" magpie " stretch his neck in order to crow like
a cock, while next moment his head was down
and he was gobbling like a turkey. An accom-
plished specimen at Echuca began with an ortho-
dox coo-ee ! asked " Who are you ? " and after
several other observations whistled a tune. We tried
to obtain specimens for Ceylon, but we failed as the
bird is strictly protected. But our Government could
get a dozen pairs by applying to the Government ot
Victoria. The shrikes could be let loose in Nuwara Eliya
and surrounding districts to teed on the cockchafer
beetles and other insects. — Ed.]

IN SEARCH OF A HOME IN TASMANIA-
{By an Old Colonist.)

BY THE BANKS OF THE DEVERON — .4ND DEBWENT — FIRST
IJIPIiESSIONS — A CIHRMlNO SPOT ON THE BANKS OF

THE DERWENT HOUSE-HUNTING AND DISAPPOINTMENT

NO FREE LAND GRANTS IN TAS5IANIA NOW— I.IKE THE

PERPLEXED HUSBAND IN "CALLED BACK."

It was years ago, while fishing from the banks
of the Deveron, that dear old Tytler and I resolved
to seek a home in Tasmania. We knew all about
it, tor had we not read tha best authorities on the
subject? The climate of course, all agreed, «as the
very acme of perfection for old Indians. The soil,
it somewhat patchy, we knew how to select. "Here"
said B. B. T. with a wave ol his hand, "all is
musty, bug and witheration ; there vigorous youth
with a glorious future, a grand home for the bairns.
Here we are cramped; there abundance of elbow-
room. Why, man, an island as large as Ceylon or
Ireland or 18,000,000 acres occupied as yet by a
population only equal to that of the granite city.
And oh, man, the glorious rivers now stocked
with salmon and trout! Mind you arirer frontage
is a sine qua noii ; and while the boys look after
the sheep or orchard and the girls the poultry or
dairy, ii'c, my boy, will do the fishing and talking !"
Meanwhile dear old K. B. T. has been c.-illed home
to a better paradise, while I alone am left to
realize or otherwise the dreams of Oeveronside.
At present my notes must be brief, for the time for
dreams and sentiment is past and the time for
work arrived. Moreover it will be borne in mind
that tliese are simply /ic.t( impressions liable to b

Mav 1, 1 886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURlS't*»

7S7

modified by a more extended experience as far as
possible ; however the motto " brevity and tacks "
shall be adhered to.

My first impressions of Hobart were anything
but disappointing : its spacious streets, handsome
freestone buildings, beautiful vegetation and delight-
ful temperature more than fulfilled anticipations.

To find temporary shelter for my family was
my first duty. This I had not very much difficulty
in arranging in a good hotel at two guineas per
head per week for board and lodging. This accom-
plished, I walked out to the Botanical Ciardens
to sec what this celebrated climate and soil can
produce — a charming spot on the banks of the
Derivcnt — and for a few hours I simply revelled
amongst the numerous old European friends which
here seem to have found so congenial a home.
Giant geraniums, brilliant verbenas and a perfect
jungle of Heli'trope, greet me as I enter the gate.
The gardeners though civil are not very communic-
ative but when I enquired if such plants as I have
named reijuire any protection in winter, the answer
was a very emphatic: " Oh. no." This, to my mind
sufficiently settled the ijuestion of temperature
though people do persist in saying "the winters are very
cold here." I cannot here enumerate all the familiar
trees, shrubs and flowers which re-awakened memories
of bygone days. From the noble Scotch l''ir
down to the Bourtrie bush and bonnie yellow
broom, all seem to rejoice in the change of climate,
while not a few of my tropical acquaintances,
notably the Lantana, the trumpet-llower (Datura),
Balsams, Vinoas, Veronicas, Yuccas and sundry
palms, tind a home sufficiently congenial. Many
of the shrubh so common at home here grow
almost beyond our ken. The Bay and Portugal
laurel, so like a coffee bush in England,
here more resembles a sturdy oak laden
with a mar\-ellous profusion of bright berries. The
holly, too, becomes a large tree with such lusters
of berries as it never bears in its native clime; indeed,
I have seen no country for a moment to be com-
pared with Tasmania for fruit and seed. Ceylon
may have a monopoly of tender green leaves, and
England for green fields, but for profusion of fruit
you must see Tasmania. The "hawthorn-glade"
can never under any conceivable circumstances in
England look so resplendent wiih fruit as it does
here; while the aucet-hriar we must never mention it
here — what the Ageratum and Lantana are to the
planter in Ceylon, Couch grass to the English farmer,
sweet-briar is to the Tasmanian husbandman.

I could willingly spend days in these lovely gardens;
but I am reminded that a more pressing if less
agreeable duty awaits me, viz.. houne-hinuiiiy which
here as at home I find to be the most worrying,
■wearying work I ever engaged in. My reijuirements
were simple and definite enough : " To rent with
option of purchase, a good house with orchard or
small farm, river frontage, Ac." "Xo need to
advertise," said agents in London, " you '11 find at
once abundance of what you want." In vain
however I scanned the papers on arrival and those
terrible impostors the house agents by their mout ex-
aggerated descriptions gave me many a vain jour-
ney. At length something like the thing wanted made
its appearance in the morning paper, an advertise-
ment in more than ordinarly intelligible English.
"Highly desirable investment, 10 acres of the richest
land in the valley of (ilenorchy with river front-
age and good stone building thereon " Ac, &c.
"Here now is a nucleus to work from," I said;
and off I went by the first coach to the fifth mile-
post from Uobart. My chiigrin may be imagined
on finding the "rich land" to be an exhausted
and abandoned field by the side of a lagoon, with-
out the ghost of a tree or shrub : here a tbistk

and there a sweet-briar tried to find their way through
the hiilied clay, but both seemed inclined to give
up the struggle in despair. The stone edifice con-
sisted of the remains of four walls about I.tx 12
feet. Years ago there evidently had been a i-oof of
some sort, but this portion had entirely disappeared.
I strongly expressed my disappointment to the first
man I met. " Ah," said he, " 1 know of the very
thing to suit ;/oh, about two miles from here. Beauti-
ful little estate on the bank of the Dcrwent, though
now much out of order, the proprietor having lived,
for the last few years \n Victoria ; splendid garden
and 100 acres of riverside land capable of growing
anything ; e.KCellent family house." " That 's the
thing!" I exclaimed, " and I '11 go and see it. Did
you say there was good |fishing ? " "I don't know
what you call good fishing," said my new friend,
" but I caught 87 dozen mullet and salmon* last
night in that ere water.'' I do not know where all
these wonderful fishermen expect to go, but I sus-
pect there are others besides Mr. Fawcelt's friend
up the water who can tell a good big thumper.
However if the description be only half true the
place will suit me, and off I struck through the
fields — demolishing as I went the top of many a
stalwan Scotch thistle. The sun was now high in
the heavens, and the day altogether jiroved one of the
hottest of the season, the thermometer recording
100-'2 in the shade. Yet to an old Ceylon man this
did not seem very opi^ressive. What disturbs me
more is that as 100 is to KO so is (iO to .51. I
was glad, however, when I got into the shade of
some trees which half hid a bungalow similar in
many respects to Fairyland, and as I wiped the
perspiration from my brow with one hand I
instinctively picked a twig from the branch above
with the other. Interested I was to find an old
favourite Aloynia Ciliioiloru the scented verbena,
with stems like my thigh and growing to the
mature height of '20 feet. The flower garden was
certainly wild enough but the geraniums held
their own against all comers, proudly raising their
brilliant scarlet trusses above the heads of the
tallest thistles. The house was deserted but in
fair order and offered ample accommodation.
The orchard of about 'i acres was fully stocked
with apples, apricots, plums and peaches, and,
though quite abandoned, bearing really astonishing
crops. The gooseberries had dried on the bushes
and the luscious greengages were likely to soon
do the same, save on the lower branches which
some stray pigs seemed to reach. I followed their
example and proved the plums which so pleased the
pigs to be of excellent quality. I now sauntered
on the lawn gently undulating towards the Derwent.
"This," thought I "is exactly what I dreamed
of and the sooner I secure it the better. With
what pleasure I shall mow down these weeds I
renovate the flower-garden and see the orchard put
in order ! and then should some old Ceylon friend
come and see mc (shades of R. B. T.) only think
of the fishing I "

With these pleasant thoughts I hurried back to
Hobart in oixler to find out the agent of this desir-
able property, with as little delay as possible. This
I had little diificully in doing, but, a'as ! only to

be again disappoinled. The owner of is a

very wealthy man and does not care to let
or sell. Though living in Victoria he is oub
of the largest proprietors of Tasmania owning

•Native " salmon " »ud a very inferior fish to our
Scotch snimo, to naturaliz^j which £10,000 ha.s been spent
and it is doubtful if ever a single fish hns been c.iugbt
by rod or net. "Inevcrsce'd o,:e," said the r.isdon
ferryman to mc the other daj, " a:id I have bceu here
for 30 years. There,'' he said, pointing to a shoal of
porin'isex, "ttiore is where your aalmon fry go,"

7^8

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, i8S6.

93,000 acres chiefly along the principal river
vallejp,many of the blocks shaped fan-like so as to
take m as much of the river frontage as possible.

In short, Mr. is a species of land-grabber, the

bane of this and every country they exist in, and
the pitiable Government nf this colony, while en-
forcing strict laws upon the poor little immigrant
as to the timely improving of his lot, wink at the
great xquatocrat who may hold 100,000 acres and
not employ a dozen men or spend £100 in the
colony, but, by George, their day 's coming ! (id an
acre tax on all uncultivated land would work a
cure. Out of the 6,000,000 acres alienated I do not
beUeve there are really 100,000 acres in cultivation in
this colony.

My next move was to try and secure if possible a block
of virgin forest, out of wliich, I feared not, I would in
time, carve an estate for myself. The official, liow-
ever, in the Lands Department smiled when I hinted at
a water frontage ; no such land seems avail-
able, and yet 12,000,000 out of the 1H,000,000
acres ar? still in the hands of the Government.
I note a correspondent writing to a Madras
paper gives details regarding free grants of land.
To prevent disappointment it would be well to
note that this is a thing of the past : the immi-
gration agent has informed me that no more will
be given.

There is evidently nothing gained by being in a
hurry in this country, the residents of which take life
about as easy as any people I ever came across, and I
now resolved to take a house pru tern in Hobart
and look leisurely around me for something more
suitable. One morning on this errand I went out
armed with sundry letters from house agents, it was
past (J o'clock and the sun high enough to have
quite dried up the rain of the previous night. The
temperature such as to make me forget 1 had a
body subject to any pains or ailments, the trees
BO green and glossy, the flowers so pure and lovely,
while the deathlike stillness of all around made
me feel like an intruder in some spiritual or un-
earthly sphere. My own footsteps were the only
sounds that reached my ears for the first hour.
By-and-bye servant-girls began to look out, rub
their eyes and wonder at the strange man on the
street. At length I reach address No. 1, and as the
personage I sought was a " builder " I without
any compunction proceeded to knock him up.
This, however, was a more dilKcult matter than
I had calculated upon and had I not enUsted tlie
services ot a passing gardener I doubt if I would have
succeeded.

Very much in dishabille and only half-awake
the builder appears, grunts a few monosyllables and
then arranges to overtake me it I would walk
down towards the house to let. Fe has not yet
overtaken me, but I examined the premises and
decided they would not suit.

The next house on iny list I visited with some
little interest. The late occupant having been an
old Ceylon friend who retired here some 20 years ago,
was lately Beiiied with a longing to see his friends
in England ere he died ; but only reached Mel-
bourne when he suddenly passed away.

It was now about 9 o'clock, but there was no
appearance of the present occupant's mov-
ing. I stood for a few minutes admiring the Laurus-
tinus in the front garden, and then pro-
ceeded to ring the bell ; in about 10 minutes
the door opened, and 1 just saw a nose from un-
der which came a voice, saying : " Could you
call again between 10 and 11 ? " I said, I could,
but didn't say. 1 ivmihl. lor I had already made
Up my mind tliat the square little box was not
raJue enough for the rent asked (£110 per annum),

and so I returned to my hotel inwardly resolv-
ing to indent for some Sinhalese carpenters and
build a bungalow for .£.500 better than any offered
here at £100 per annum.

Strange people the residents of Hobart ! Like
their surroundings fair enough to look upon,
but strangely apathetic and uncommunicative.
Headers of " Called Back " will remember how the
poor, perplexed husband looked upon his lovely
Pauline during the first evening of their married
life, how he eagerly listened for some intelligent
remarks from her beautiful lips, and at length in
despair he bade her good-night and strolled out
to take a walk. In a somewhat similar frame of
mind I now start on an extended tour, or series
of tours throughout this really beautiful island,
and my next duty will be to communicate my
impressions of the interior.

EXPORTS OF TE.\ FROM CHINA AND JAPAN.

The season being now closed, we quote the, figures
for exports of tea from the " Hongkong Chamber
of Commerce Price Current " : —

Kxport ot Tea from Ohiua and Japan to United

Kingdom.

lb.
Total from 1st June 1885, to 29th March

1886... ... ... 150,251,138

Total from 1st June 18S4, to 29th March

1885... ... ... 144,405,920

Total from 1st June 18t>3, to 29th March

1884... ... ... 150,742,895

To Continent of Europe.

lb.

Total export to date... ... 8,(;(50,926

Against same time last year... ... 10,093,683

„ 1SS4... ... 8,960.61)8

To Australian Colonies (including New Zealand.)

lb.
TotHl from 1st June, 1885, to 29th March

1880... ... ... 21,769,305

Total from Ist June, 1884, to 29th March

1885... ... ... 19,078,816

Total from 1st June. 1883, to 29th March

1884... ... ... 14,432,537

To United States.

lb.
Total from 1st June, 1885, to 29th March

lS;i6... ... ... ti4,552..5-20

Totd froiu Ist June, 1854, to 29th March

1S>)... ... ... 51,768,567

Totil from I,st June, 1SS3, to 29th March

issi... ... ... 58,463,824

It will be seen that the exports to Britain after
having gone down from 1-50J millions in season
18S:)-S1 to less than lll.i millions rose to 150|.
millions of pounds in the season just closed. In
the case of the Continent of Europe, the process
has been quite different : from less than 9 millions
in the lirst season, the export rose to over 10
millions, sinking in the season just closed to
8,lli'>0.000 II). In the exports to the .Vustralian
colonics and New Ze.xland, the incrca.^e has been
continuous and very large, from 11,432,000 to 19
millions, and last season no less than il'l millions
of pounds. To tlie United States, too, there has
been a very large increase of exports, the excess
in last season over the inevious one being nearly
10 millions of pounds. It is now clear that neither
the French war, heavy export duties nor low
prices have permanently lowered the capacity of
China to send tea into the world. Wc suppose
tlie total export from China and Japan i\\'\i last
season, is one of the largest ever made up. Tbe

May I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

7S9

ligures are : —

United KingJom . . . . 150,251,000 lb.

United States .. .. (il,552,000 „

Australia and New Zealand 21,7liit,000 „

Continent of Europe .. H,r.(il,000 .,

Total . . 215,233.000 lb.
It will be seen that more than 3-5ths
of the whole went direct to Britain, while Britain's
Australian colonists took a ijuantity, which madeovei;,
172 millions lb. for the British race, exclusive of
Canada which is lumped up with the United States
In our '■ Handbook and Directory " we liud our
calculation for the maximum export from China
and Japan is 275,000,000 lb.

I'LANTIXG IN NETHEKLANDS INDIA.

(Tmiislatcd for the Straits Times.)
In Cotie on the East Coast of Borneo, a Dutch-
owned tobacco estate, the first one ever started
there, has been opened. Simultaneously another
plantation of the same kind has been established
by a Netherlander within British territory in North
Borneo. In that land of promise a German to-
bacco estate which has just entered its second year,
on an island, is still the only outcome of planting
enterprize.

A company with capital amounting to2,100,000
guilders has just been started at Amsterdam under
the style of "the Palembang, Company." A Pam-
phlet has been circulated among persons interested
in the scheme giving particulars about Palembang,
which is described as being an extensive Proviuco
of the size of Java and Madura, but peopled only
by ti00,000 inhabitants found mainly on the high
tablelands, and on the rivers flowing there-
fram. The country abounds with wide-
spread forests, on land never yet brought under cultiv-
ation and full of the varied produce usually met
with iu the Sumatra woods such as rattans, rubber,
(luttii siilin, dammar, gum benjamin itc, besides an
abundance of splendid timber. The land along the
rivers is covered with a thick layer of humus and
is highly fertile. A concession has been secured from
Government which comprises the leasing to the
company of a portion of this land, to miles long
by 4 broad which will be turned to account partly for
growing gutta and tobacco, and partly for collecting
jungle produce. Broad, deep, and gently flow-
ing rivers in the neighbourhood ensure effective
means of communication both inland and with
the seaboard, close at hand. The climate is
as healthy as in Deli and is said to be very
suitable for tobacco growing. Coolies are procurable
from the chief town and Java. That tobacco of
good qiiality can be raised there is proved by
the fact that the native grown article, known by
the name of Bano tobacco, bears a high reputation
for atoma throughout Netherlands India. Experience
only will show whether it will be equal to Deli
tobacco. Easy and cheap communication by water
naturally will prove highly advantageous to the
enterprise. Indiarubber and gutta percha both
of which it is intended to grow are articles get-
ting more and more into demand for industrial
purposes. These gums are now mostly obtained
from gigantic trees the collection being carried
on by natives in a very reckle .s and rough fashion.
By their thoughtlessly cutting down the trees
before gatliering the product, the latter begins
to get scarcer. There i.i even danger of sup-
plies failing, the only means of prevention
being cultivation and jiulicious collection. Be-
sides these trees, where cultivation is at-
tended by diHiculties, there are in the P»lembaug

forests, others from which by tapping, gums can
be obtained which, when purilied, eijual in quality
the best kinds know-n. These gums by means of
approved and inexpensive appliances can be brought
to market in thoroughly transparent condition.
These gum-yielding trees grow very abundantly in
the forests of Palembang, the article boing known
generally by the name of ifetiiJisnlitt. Plantations of
these trees may be expected to bear within seven
years with every prospect of handsome returns
regularly afterwards. The starting of the Company
is a good sign showing, as it does, that people
in Holland arc beginning to take an interest in
hitherto neglected colonial possessions.

Another coffee estate in Mid Java, so says the
Sourabaya Caiiraiit, assessed at a i|uarter of a
million of guilders has been sold for a few thousands
only. Within the last few weeks several estates
have gone the same way, one of them bringing
only 8,000 guilders. Such cases bid fair to be on
the increase with the unavoidable result that the
mountain districts will for the most part relapse
into jungle. In .Surukarta, two coffee estates formerly
yielding thousands of piculs have reverted to (lov-
ernment from their having become utterly worth-
less and unsaleable owing to disease and low
quotations. — Batariu Dayhlail.

CiNCHON.v Analysis and Value : tuk Difiek-
ENCE. — A planter has shown us correspondence
referring to a batch of over 1,000 lb. of cinchona
bark. The local analysis gave -52 per cent quinine,
and the local valuation was 11 to 13 cents per
lb. The bark on being sent to London was an-
alyzed 1'33 and sold at (i.^d per lb., or say three
times 11 cents !

Ceylon Tea. — The Colonics and India for this week
has_ the following paragraph relating to Ceylon tea.
While agreeing in the main with what is therein
stated, we cannot but observe that a great mistake
has been made in the assumption that " the first
samples made such a favourable impression on the
consumers here, that the market was, so to speak,
taken by storm." Quite the reverse, it is well-
known, was the case. Some years elapsed before
the brokers would look at the "black and nasty
stuff" which was sent home, although, as was re-
cently pointed out iu these letters, there was one
man, Mr. Boberts, who saw in it great possibilities
in the future. It is as well to bear this in mind
in order that no relapse may ever be ijermittcd : —

A\'e have frequently drawn attentiou to the rapiil
gro.vth of tea cultivation in Ceylon aud to the high
place which the produce of the island has taken iu the
Euglish market. When we look back but a few years,
to tiud the whole of Ceylon practically one immense
coffee plautatiou, the quantity of tea which it uow ex-
ports is ni;irvellous. The principal cause of this rapid
growth of a new industry is to be fouiui in the uni-
formly high ijualily which Ceylon teas have maintained.
The fir.it .samples made such a favourable impression on
the consumer here that the market wa-*, ^o to speak,
taken by st-urm. Having achieved .•^o much, it is to be
hoped that the Ceylon planters will not sacrifice the
quality of their produce for the sake of quantity, as
has been done in China, for if they do tlicy will in-
evitably lose the mark»'t they have so firmly established.
It is a wcil-knowu fact that each year shows a greater
falling off in tlic qualtity of China teas, and to this fact
i.s to be attributed a large share of thn increase in the
consumption of IiHlia,u and Ceylon growths. Ceylon
teas (Mjmbine the l>est qualities of both Chinese and
Indian varieties, posse-ssiog both the delicacy of flavour
of the former and the strength of the latter, without the.
astriiigency which sometimes prevails to so unpleasant a
dcKri;!'. f.ct Indian and Ceylon plaulers all make
'•Quality" their watchword, aud they need not fe»r
competition elsewhere.

790

THE TROPICAL AGRfCULTURlST.

[May I, 1886.

No Hen should be kept beyond her second lay-
ing season as a rule. Because many pay no hee<l
to this point but keep hens three, five, or moie
years, they wonder why they lay so badly. —
Queenstaiider.

A RECENT find in the Subra silver mine, Australia,
consists of a very high quality of stephanite, con-
taining as much as twelve thousand ounces of silver
per ton. The bunch is estimated to contain twenty
tons. — Madras Hail.

Professok Buud says fresh fruits may be pre-
served during long shipment by wrapping each
specimen in tissue paper that has been soaked in
salicylic acid. If the journey is very long, use
double folds, and till the interspaces with material
similarly prepared. — Ibid.

Mauritius Land Cbeuit anu Agency CoJirANv. —
The twenty-third annual report of the directors of
the Mauritius Land Credit and Agency Company
(Limited) shows a credit balance of i),"217/. The
diiectors propose a further dividend of 2s per shaie,
making a total dividend for the year at the rate of
12A per cent., adding to the reserve fund 1,5U0/.,
and carrying forward 217i. — Overland Mail.

The Expression of the eyes of persons killed by
violence is considered an important matter in cri-
minal jurisprudence, but its value has been greatly
lessened by reason of its evanescent nature. A
i'rench scientist has found a means of restoring the
life-like expression. It consists, simply, in applying
a few drops of glycerine and water to the cornea. —
Buryoync and Uiirhidycs, Feb. 18H6 P.L.

Coca Leaves. — Cable advices from Peru report an
advance of 15 per cent., consequently, and in spite of
the bear operations going on here, holders of good
dark green Huanuco leaves have raised their price
to -tOc (l.s 'Jdj, and if sales begin at anything near
this tigure, much higher rates will be sure to prevail.
With the present demand for cocaine, there is not
three months' supply of leaves in this market. —
The Chemist and Druyyist, March 1886.

Carhamosis. — Private advices state that the
cultivation of cardamoms is being extensively
increased all over Southern India, both by Europeans
and natives, especially the latter, who are following
the example of Europeans in planting up their jungles
and picking the fruit as it ripens, instead of
stripping the racemes as they used to do. As a
result, prices in the local market have declined in
the last three years from 70 rupees to 20 rupees per
maund of 28 lbs. (Is. Id. to 1». id. per lb.), and it
is thought they will fall still lower. — Ibid.

Mr. J. Ware Encui, c.s.i., of the Bengal Civil
Service, who reported his departure on fur-
lough on the 1st instant, is scarcely likely to re-
turn to India ; he was in many respects an able
officer and was one of the best judges of a good
dinner in the service. [So writes the Indian Planters'
Gazette. Nearly ten years ago Mr. Edgar very
ably summed up the history of the tea enterprise
in India. — Eu.J

Treatment oe Sick Heai'ache. — A novel remedy
has been put into practice with very good results,
for the cure of this unpleasant malady, by Dr.
W. Gill Wylie, who says New York Medical Journal,
" So soon as the first symptoms are felt, the
patient should take a pill, or capsule, containing
one grain nf inspissated ox-gall, and one drop of oil
of gaultheria, every hour until relieved, or until six
have been taken." The doctor adds that sick head-
ache is almost always cut short by this means. —
Buryoyne and Buibidyes Feb. 188() Price List.

A I'EACH Orchard. — The largest Peach orchard in
the world, aecordmg to the J//ii.''trntioii Horticoh. is
the property of Mr. J. H. Parucll, in Ueorgia. Mr.
Fsiuell is the brother, we believe, of Mr. S. 0. Varuell,

of Home Rule notoriety. The Peach orchard in que.s-
tiou comjiri.ses ,S40 hectares, coutainiug about 1.50,000
trees, planted at a distance of 4 metres one from the
other, and grown as bushes or low standards, to facil-
itate the picking of the fruit. Seventy thousand of
these trees belong to the " Parnell" variety. The
land was bought at a cost of 12,UiiO dollars, and at
present tbe annual revenue is more than two-thirds
of this sum. Mr. Parnell sent as ojany as 900 boxes
of Peaches in a single day to New YiitV.— Gardeners
Chronicle.

Artificial Soda. — Very few people are aware
of how much the modern world owes to Nicholas
Leblanc, the inventor of artificial soda. By com-
bining six salts he produced very cheaply the soda
used in commerce, and the result has been a revolu-
tion in manufacturing processes of enormous value
to the industrial world. Indeed, some writers clauii
that the manufacture of this soda was as fruitful of
good as the invention and application of steam.
Baron Liebig said that without this process modern
chemistry could hardly be called a science. It seems
that with this artificial soda, sulphuric acid and
hydrochloric acid can be made in immense quanti-
ties and at a very small cost. A statue is about to
be erected in Paris to commemorate the fame of
Nicholas Leblanc. This memorial was first pro-
posed in 18.35, and it has taken thirty years to raise
sufficient means from the manufacturers who have
profited so greatly by Leblanc's process of making
soda. — Ini'entor's Mart.

Poultry. — The secret of successful poultry- farming
although perfectly intelligible and clear, has not
by the many been apprehended in this colony. It is
mostly done by the rule-of-thumb in a come-lucky-
go-lucky style, and as might be expected under
such circumstances. Nature's laws are frequently
violated and great disappointment and loss ensues.
There are well defined laws of nature which govern
matters in every sphere of life and industry.
When these laws are apprehended and intelligently
applied success follows as certainly as the night
the day ; when ignorance of these laws is conspicuous
and operative failure accrues. The following from
the Marysrillc Appeal is cleadj given upon natural
lines and we heartily commend it to the attention
of our readers. Poultry-farming will pay only as
it is properly understood, and energetically and
economically carried out. Our authority says : —
Vegetables of some kind and green feed are
necessary to egg production, and should be
given quite often, cooked vegetables being the
best in all cases, mixed with meal, bran or
shorts. Some meat should be given them about
once each week, where the hens have no
access to worms, or something as a substitute
for these, their natural diet. Cooked meat is the
best, or if given raw should be cut up tine, like
mince meat, and fed from some clean dish or
board, not thrown on the ground in the dirt. In
the absence of worms or meat, milk is the best
substitute, and possesses the requisite parts to
assist in egg production. Hens are fond of milk
in any form, it is good for them sour or sweet,
or in the form of buttermilk ; for laying hens do
not need much corn in warm weatlier, say twice
each week, and have it cracked or ground. It is
too heating and fnttening for summer feed, bnt
may be ted oftener in the cold weather. OWe cooked
feed] as often as you can, such as boiled vegetables,
potato peelings, and such other kinds as you
have, mixed up with bran, shorts, and meal. Feed
wheat or some other grain for the evening meal,
as they have the whole night to digest it. Change
the grain feed often, and give fresii water daily
and your hens will repay you for the extra
trouble and expense by a liberal " shelling out,"

May r, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

70 1

WINTEBING AND LATE PBUNINCJ.

TO THE IDITOB OF THE " MADE AS MAIL."

Sir, — My attention has just been called to a leader
in your paper of the Ist of April last. I think your
review of my essay in the 'Tropical Agriculturist ' is
a very fair one. * En passant ' I may remark, that
planters are proving my • modus operandi ' by sniall
experiments. I feel sure that the system I advociite
will graduallly steadily supersede the present utterly
indefensible and pernicious method adopted, inasmuch
as my mode aids nature by acting iu consonance with
the seasons, which continue unaltered, as evidenced
by the statistics (covering a period of twenty-two
years) which I embodied in my essay. I take thin
opportunity of pointing out a few mistakes made in
your reference to it. First; I do not condemn ' handl-
ing,' but I do deprecate the present method of pull-
ing off with the fingers. I use a knife, for rea.'Jons
explained, and the advantages of it must be obvious
•prima facie.' Second: Gaulting — here I think you
have slightly misjudged my mode, to e.xplain which
I subjoin extracts from your leader and my essay.

From Leader. From Essay.

" Gai,ltiiifi—ThU is " Gniiltini/—An that

adopted in steep lands caiuiot be manured, and
with a view to prevent is too steep to dig 1.5
wash. It consists of cut- inches deep, dig trenches
ting trenches 2 feet in in alternate rows, oblique
width by 2 feet in depth if necessary, to secure easy
* * » Mr. Quarm says gradient along side of
that a coolie can do hills. Trench from Ih to
12 trees, and that the 2 feet deep and one "foot
work costs KIO per acre. wide. A cooly will do
.Since, however, a cooly's 12 trees."
pay is four annas, and
that coffee is planted with
about one thousand eight
hundred trees to the acre,
a simple calculation will
show that he is Qonsider-
ably mistaken in his
estimates."

This computation of cost was made with refereuce
to the planting on the .Shevaroys, which is usually
7x7 feet apart ; cooly hire under 'A annas per day.
So gaulting, on this data, costs considerably under
UIO per acre.

Third. — liiyging. — Though this operation ou the She
varoys has cost R50 pt-r acre, I since ascertained from
experienced planters in Wynaad, that such digging
would cost about R20 per acre iu that locality.

Fourth. — You doubtle.ss have data for pointing out
what appears to you the "great blot" of system.
In ISSl-tt2 we could arrange to get alteriiatu gar.ga
both of Malals and Churnias, as well as Woiilahs, to
come up regularly from March to the uiiddl.- of
.Fune, and I venture to slate that if on )lr. Keilly's
estate. Canarese and Tamil women are taught prun-
ing. Moplahs, Malals and Churma nif 11, who in timber
woik I knew to be singularly intelligent, are not
less fitted to pick up a very simple process. Tlie
facts that tea estates on these hills are worked
practically all the year round, and that coifee estates,
to wit Glenvans, with good management, can keep
over 150 coolies during these months, March, April.
May and June, tend conclusively to prove that laV;our
can be made available whenever wanted, especially
now when, owing to the depressed state of labour,
and the money markets, labour is abvmdant. I con-
tend, with instances to prove my allegations, that
no enrnest planter has ever lacked labour. My fur-
ther allusion is to the late Mr. .lames flordon, who
in the midst of much bolder settlirs in Vylhery was
tolJ he could not the year round keep '300 acres
clean-hand weeded. He kept 7llO acr^s .so. by energy
and determination. Permit me to close this letter by
pointing out the immense advantages derivable from
the system I advo<iate, whi'ieby succeeding crops of cof-
fee can be obtained for six years, without the applic-

ation of manure : —

Wintering without manure ... 2 crops

IJaulting do do ... 2 do

Digging 1.5 inches |deep pucca ... 2 do »
Cost: wintering in Shevaroys 30 trees at 3 annas,
flOO to acre, tJanlting R.s per acre, and digging (on
Shevaroys costs R.32 and Wynaad K2rii.

I am, with other planters, indebted to you for bring-
ing planting interests powerfully forward as I see by
your issue of the 13th instant. — (Agar) A. Qr.XR.Mg,

AtJBICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT OF
EUROPE.

'Special Letter.)

To counteract the extensive frauds in the sale of
commercial fertilizers, engro9ses more aud more the
attention of the agricultural community. Tho restor-
ation to the soil of the fertilizing materials carried
off by the harvests since many centuries of culture,
is the sine (jiia 11011, not of all progress, but of aug-
mentation iu yields. Farmers now "form clubs to pur-
chiise chenn'cal manures direct from standard factories,
and the banks discount their joint paper, for eight
or ten months, at low rates. A co-operative society,
generally limits its action to a radius of eight miles.
Many extend their operations to the purchase of seeds,
ameliorated live stock, machinery, and cattle foods.'
In the case of new machinery, an instructor is em-
ployed to explain and superintend working. One club
has nominated ambulatory book-keepers, to post up
members' accounts. The " union " principle is working
so admirably, that it is in contemplation to extend
its sphere of action to the erection of out-olfices.

In the iron-smelting districts of Germany, an ex-
tensive industry exists, for the extraction of the phos-
phorus from the ore, so as to enable steel of greater
tenacity to be prepared. The scoria or slag is thus
rich in residual pho.sphorus ; also in lime, as the lattiT
is employed to dephosphorize the iron-ore. The
slag crumbles to a coarse powder when exposed to
the air; but when it contains less lime aud more
waste iron, it has to be crushed like mineral phos-
phates. On peaty soils requiring to be sweetened,
or meadows rich in humus, this granulateil dross is
invaluable; the same happy results must follow, on
lands deficient in phosphoric acid and liin.'. The new
feitilizer— for such it really is, has told with maiked
effect on barley, oats, and marigolds. From 5 to 1,'i cwt
of the powdered scoria, along with a proportion of
potash aud nitrogenous fertilizers, sufBce for an acre
According to M. FU-isher, the pho.sphate slag, contains
17i per cent of pho.sphoric acid.

A MOUNTAIN BIDE IN JAMAICA COFFEE
AND CHINCHONA PLANTATIONS.

A bright January morning in Jamaica— and it if
difficult to imagine anything more invigorating than
such a morning in these latitudes at an elevation of
4.000 ft. above the sea— tempted me to forego the cares
of official life for a seaso , and to start oa a visit to the
Oinchonn Government estate, situate on the great Hlue
Mountain range. Leaving the cantonment of New
Oastle. our road first leads by a steep zigzag ascent to
Woodcutters Gap, the eve being charmed with the
view of strange crumpled hills melting into the Liguanea
plains, with their brilliant gleams of sugar cane, and
beyonil that the sea of a deep blue. It was au e.tccp-
tionally promising day for a mountain ride, as the nea
view en.led in a cliiarly defined horizon, which is unusual
here, and an horizon rutting the outline of hills over
2.0,10 ft. in height. M'oodcutters (iap is some 500 ft.
hi:;lu!r than New Castle, and lies in the line of least
width of the island, aud consequently affords a beautiful
prospect of th.' s,-i ou the nnrtli siile and that on the
south of the island. To the north, over Cedar Valley,
and hlopes and bills beyond description, is seen Annotta
Bay, and to the southward the town of Kingston, the
long rib of the I'alisadoes fringed with cocoa palms' and
mangrove jwamps, ending in Port Royal in the blazing

* Extract from Essay. '

792

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

sunshine. Beyond that lies Old Harbour, and the view
is closed by the quaint landmark of the Round Hill in
Vere, hazy in the western distance. Il w.ik difficult U>
to believe, in the almost Iceen mountain air, that, even
as we looked, the yellow fever wa.^ doing its deadly
work in l*ort K^-yal fnr hrlow. On one memorable
ooca.sion (lust New Year's Kve) I saw Cuba from this
yap, floatinj^ like St. Krandon's blfssed isle in the distauee.
Tho road here descends ruund the north slope, if slope
it e;in be failed, of Cathei ine's I't^ak. Li-l me for a
moment explain that the " road " is a bridU' path cut iu
the face of the hill, with a -sheer ilescont on one hand.
and a steep ascent on the other. Fre([ueiitly the outer
slope is precipitous, but is in most cases so c tvered with
bush that the real steepness is obscured, and the danger
of falling "down thegulley," as it is called, is nut brought
too prominently before one. The heavy lains cause the
roads to ne^ed constant repair; it is a most Cuminou
occurrence to find a landslip of loose earth covering the
road, or occasiona ly a large boulder blocking the patli ;
and, on tht' other hand, the road will become caved by
rain on the inferior slope, and leave but a narrow thread
of footholil overhanging h scooped out recess. The way
is rarely level, antl it is absolutely necessary to wear a
crupper, or a back girth, which is simply one girth
brought back in rear of the pony's belly, ami pulleii so
tight as not to slip forward over the stoutest part of the
animal.

They are mostly deficient in shoulders, but are wonder-
fully sure-looted game iittle beasts, up to any weight.
They are too sensible, as a rule, to play the fool on these
narrow roads, as a c^itastrophe nuist be the inevitable
result, A pony tliat will be troublesome in a roomy
road in the plains, will often, in his own interest, behave
with the greatest care and decorum on these narrow
l>ridle roads.

To return to my journey, the road descends along the
northern slope, paht stattly and graceful groups of tree
ferns, and masses of climbing fern on either side, and
iitfording views of hill, dale, and sea that wouhl del'ght
the artist at every step. We then reich Silver Hill Gap,
which unites Catherine's Peak with the main ridge, and
here, leaving the road to J5utf Bay on our left, we turn
down to the Yallahs river by a blossoming hedge of
Cherokee lose. At uur feet lies the Silver Hill Coffee
Works, distinguished by an enormous cabbage palm,
with the Yallahs lirawling below the barbecue; while on
the further bank (dimbs a long stretch of exquisite
feathery bamboos of a giMce not tobt; expressed.

AVe ford tlie Yallahs up to our girths i..i water, and a
U'lsty crossing it most be when the rivers are down (i.e.
in spate), and ascend a steep slope over a shaly landslip,
with broken cUff on tlie left, and on the right a sheer
ilrop of '(1 ft. into a gloomy iiujl. Here the road, to
our delight, displays stretches of level, and as we put
our ponies into a canterl we glance at a curiously striated
bluff ot rock on the further bank of the river, which
appears to have be' 11 b'U'ut to a cinder by volcanic action
and then wrather worn into a rotten state by rain ami
stream. Wiiiding along the liill side :.t a brisk pace,
here and there a mongoose scntiers under the pony's
hoofs as we pass along. These little animals were intro-
duced to externiiuale rats, but having dotie that, bid lair
to exterminate all other animal life. Eggs aud young
birds are their favourite food, and ('(jnsequently (|uail,
partridges, and pigeons have vanished in the hills, and
save in the unwholesome swamps there is n-t sport to be
had. The poultry, too, suffer grievously from their
foraging. Mow we come to a cfTee estate known as
C'lydesdale, where the negroes are sitting at their nrd-
day meal, and liave enough of old time courtesy left lo
salute *' massa,*' and the wonnui to bob an ungr^if Md
curtsey with a smile of welcome. Now we wind npw-v 's,
up steep clayey zigzags, past the ruiiieil C'tjfee wui ks;
known by the inappropriate name of '* Industry," with
its barbecue grass grown, and one tall spectral palm
hiyh against tlu' sky. njnv ual siill through bush, with
wild tangle of rt)s<'s, the renniaut of some dead-and-gone
garden, and. turni?ig sluirp to the right, we rouml the
hill ami arrive at tho C'inchona. The Cinchona T can
<mly deveribi' as a little earthly para.'ise. (i.OdO ft. abov.-
tlie Sea, beautifully kept, and, in a layman's opinion, of
immense scientific value. To see a well-kept homelike

tenuis lawn was indeed a treat iu the midst of the
tropical luxuriance in the valley below, aud the wild
mountain ranges above. The director was not there that
day, but the lady of the house with the utmost kinduess
did the honours, of the place and showed us the nur-
series, the fern houses, and the orchid houses. "We saw
the careful maimer of rearing the cinchona; we saw the
tea plants flouiishing, and the collection of ferns to a
botanist must have been unmixed joy. A grand yellow
hybiscus stood out with prominent grace among the
infant plants of the nursery, those quaint orchids taking
apparently their nutriment from a bit of rotten wood,
and smiling out in strange, almost grotesque, beauty,
nut easily be forgotten. The temperature was 60^ by
the thermometer, and our courteous hostess informed
us that there had been two degrees of frost on the grass
that morning. The view is beyond my poor powers to
describe. Above slept peacefully Blue Mountain Peak,
giving an impression of calm repose, though at times
he looks sullen enough. Through a great river gorge to
the north Hows the Green River (arm of Yallahs), and
away on the east we see Yallahs flowing through a
small muddy delta into the sea by the Albion Sugar
Estate, which he nourishes. Then, again, a gorge to the
east, on the far side of which vises the ridge ot Newton,
culminating iu Catherine's Peak, with a most striking
feature of two great red rifts in the clayey hill-side, aud
the smiling Port Ko^ al visible, belying by its appearance
the curs" of disease that seems now to brood over it.

The director. I understand, is about to leave Cinchona
for an important and honourable post at Kew. I, as a
uewcomer to these tropic scenes, could hardly think of
Kew and its Distriiit Railway, counecting it with London,
as a favourable change from this mountain garden of
beauty.

Suddeidy there whirls up a mass of cloud and vapour
beyond Catherine's Peak, aud we see that Woodcutttr's
Gap nnist be in its nornnd state of cloud. In tliis strange
climate we tremble for the dryness of our homeward
riile. AVhat if these clouds dissolve, aud the Yallahs
shows hi.s forcer* But the alarm proves groundless, aud
the mists vanish as they came.

The beaut) of Jamaica, and the charm of its hill
elinuite, are 'beyond realisation till experienced. Your
readers may care to know that to anyone with an eye
f(n- scenerv the country is a constant delight, and,
living being cheap, the 'ordinary imhvidual can afford
wnat the necro wouhl rail '* p'.enty ponies" to carry him
about to enjoy it.

\Vc had to tear ourselves away, and bid adieu witli
many expressions of gratitude to our kind and courteous
hostess, and start for the homeward ride. We returned
by like route to that by which we came, save that we
pa.ssed out from Cinchona by another road leading
through St. Helen's Gap— a mere saddle or rib. with
sheer des<-ent on either side into a steep gully, and
conneeMng the hill of Cinchona with the main ri-'ge
peak. These gaps are naturally the place of passage for
the roads, an.l atfnnl the most striking views of the two
valleys which they dividi'. U is impressive, afler toiling
up a long ascent to a gap, to find not only the view in
rear, which has been gradually developing as the height
increases, spread out to its full extent, but a new view
opened out in on.- moment on the farther side. On the
return journey, the whole sea to the north was obscured
by cloud, so rapid arc the changes here. "We n'ache<l
(Strange for .lamaica) the cluster of white huts stragg-
ling ui> the motiutain, without a drop of rain, liaving
fhoroughh enjoyed our little expedition. _ _

New Castle. 1 may adii. is five miles from the hinit
which any wheeled 'vehicle can rench, hence we live
much \.\ the saddle, and our health gains in conse-
quence— DUPPV. — Fiihl

Ants (Keriniea .sanguinea) are occasionally very
troublesome pests, being vi-ry dL'tm-mined and iucessaiit
iu their attacks, generally eating into the tlower buds,
and thereby rendering tl'i< in jjerfectlv u-eUss. A little
arsenic mixed with moist sugar, and placed in theii" runs,
wi I ^oon destroy them. — Lidian G-wdener.

May 1, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

793

INSKC'T FI.OWEKS.

These are attracting more thau usual attention iu
Victoria at the present time, owing to the suggestion
niaile by Mr. t'. Watt, of Brunswick, to the Minister
of Agriculture, that if planted in the Geeloug vineyards
the pyrethrum might destroy the phylloxera, with
which they were infected. Haron Von Mueller thought
that the e.vperimeut ought to be tried, but did not
prophesy success. The department immediately sent
to England for a supply of seed, which was received
about the middle of December. It was announced
that some of the seed woidd he raisorl at the Dookie
experimental farm, and that any persou wishing to
to test the plan in vineyards still infected could obtain
a supply of seed from the department.

Numerous applications were made in re.spouse to
this offer. The seed will be distributed also among.st
persons who wishtosee if the pl.-int can be profitably
grown for commercial purposes. It is understood that
a very large trade in the pyrethrum seed i,s done in
California, where it is extensively grown for the manu-
facture of insect powder. The import.s uf the seed to
this colony for the purpose are also large.

For the information of our readers wi' print some
extracts from a paper on the '•Comparative value of
various species of Pryrethrum," published in the 1 'a/ci-
diaii Eiitnmutoi/isi tor lii'i'.l. "The I'l/rcthmmx are
hardy plants which bloom abundantly tlie second year
from seed. The powder is prepared from the liall-
opeiieJ, flowers gathered during dry weather, and <lried
in the shade, under cover; but the process of gathering,
drying, and preparing involves so much time that their
culture can oly be made profitable where labor is
cheap. .Single flowers are much more powerful thau
double flowers.'' We may further remark that the
herb is worthless as an insecticitle.

It is not the vapour from the flowers that is poisouous
but some non-volatde resinous constituent. It is not
suflicient to enclose an iusect in a limited space with
a number of the flowers. They must be finely powdered,
and the powder must be distributed in such a way
that some of it enters the mouth or breathing pores
of Ihe insect. It then produces a kind of paralysis.
the insect showing sigus of life for many hours after
it has lost the power of movement. — Chcutift end

Jtfl'ffQUt.

TEA

TEA. IN CEYLON": THE KELANI VALLEY
STOKES.

Licking forward to the time when I shall have
t > jog along with a factory of the " Old .Saving's"
typi — wooden flooring, weather-boards, and .shingles
— or become the owner of a "Crystal I'alace" like
my neighbour on the left, I am longing for the ilay
when there may be a concensus of opinion as to the
merits of each cla.ss of store. Situated as I am. I have
had opportunities of noticing the work done in stores
of the cheaper kind, and it has been quite evident
during the last twelve months that the best priced
tfas from this ^'alley have been made iu them. I
have also been able "to form an idea of the labor,
and expense attending the erection ef •• Crystal Palace" ;
ami what has struck me is the elaborate and costly
means adopted to support what, after all, is merely a
roof. I eay merely a roof, because the upper storey
is not meant to have any heavy weight upon it — it is
only intended for the withering of green leaf. •
Of this, three tons would be a very unusunl i|Uiut-
ity, wlKi-eai our old coffee stores, with stoiK? pillars
and wooden posts, often had thousands of bushels of
coffee on their upjier floors. All a tea factory re.
ciuires is strong hase-tloor to support machinery and
with.stand whitc-anis (for this concrete and cement are
the best materials), plenty rif withering space, and
protection from rain an sun. Now, to supjiort a build- '
ing of this sort iron columns costing K«Ct to lilOO
each against wood or stone, or stone alone, costing
from KIO to \X2o each, are surely unnccesjary, an<l have
nothiug to recommend them to make up for their
very groat extra cost. I cinnot help reganling the
run upon such iron structures as a " rage" with which
the planting, like other communities, is often seized. J
80

It may be said that they are easy of erection, coming
out from home complete in every detail. Let any
man laboring under such a delusion consult a brother
planter who has had to put together one of those stores,
or has has to transport its material for two or threo
miles where neither water nor wheel trjinsport is avail-
able ; 1 venture to say our enf|uiring friend will stick to
the old-fashioned stoiu' or timber '' In maTiy parts of
the low-country good timber is very .scarce, but enough
can generally be got to support the roof of a factorys
and, where it cannot, then gel teak from Cnloniho i ;
my advice. Let miu .if the "old Saving's t\pe not be
led astray by being tuld that the " best is the cheapest
in the end"; or be ehafTed into iron by such twaddle as
"penny wise anil pound foolish": or (if^ North et untry-
nien) ■' love.l bawbees nut wisely, buir too well."
That tea estates will not last for ever, or all events
that their owners «ill not, may, I thiid<, be taken
for a fttctf not as we say in this Vidley. for a d'llkin.^'
— Local "'I'imes."

M.^NtiOKS IN INDIA AND CK.VLON.

" lUi.< mui liai/i/t't " makes the following ob.servation:*
on tin* respective merits of the mango as grown in
luilia and Ceylon :— While the people of the Indian
cmitinent, especially iu the north, have been complain-
ing of .Uarth of mango.'S this year, nature has been
boiuitiful to the neighb^'uring islruulers of the south.
"There has," .s,ays the Veiihni I'ntr'iut , '' been a large,
crop of this fruit ; which means th.-it the poorer peopl<!
will make an extra nunl a .lay." This in .lafl'na.
abundance indeed, has bad the usual cH'ect of making
the .Jaffna fastidious. The complaint now is that the
fruit IS not good enough — not half so good as that
iu the Western province. The .Jaffna mango is .said
to be somewhat of an acrid taste. Indeed, this is said
to be the case with most fruits in that part of the
island, which are large but not delicious, " Oar soil,"
s.ays the writer, '• perh.aps contains too much of saline
mater ; and our fruit-trees, instead of being left to
grow as well .as they can, recjuirca lot of cattle-manure.
But this is just what is not done. The fact is, the
working peo])Ie do not care for the ex(]uisite delicacy
of garden cultivations, but only seek .something to
satisfy hunger if only the article be not absolutely
nau.seating," We suspect, however, these Ceylon eaters
to be indifferent coiuioi-^-^fi'i's. We speak from no
continental affection or northern assumption of supe-
riority. In reg:iril to fruits and farinacea, we arc not
disposed to make any assumption. On the sutiject
of the mango in special, wc are always prepared to
defer to Ceylon.* That, in our northern tradition, is
the original hihihit of the uiango pilfcre.l by the
great Havana from the orchard of the Olym])ian .lov(.,
Indra. '^^'e ourselves, sixteen years ago, routed an
Indian Prince in dtirbar assembled, who prate 1 of the
perfection of his mnngiies and insisted upon, his coun-
try being the heaven-ordained home of the fruit, by
relating cireumstantially the origin of the nftngo among
us, as handed down from father to son from timo
immemorial, thus, by changing the xcnnc from the
continent to the is!and, cutting away the ground
under the proud chief's pretension. The tradiiion,
however, is not necessarily conclusive of the fact, and
it is still open to the learned to determine the first
hnhiUil of the mango. To .all i:itents and purposes,
India — the main lantl — is now the mango comitry. On
the hypothesis of its Ceylon origin, there seems to
have come a ilegeneracy over the plant iu the i.sland,
by the confe.ssion of our Jaffna friends, the fruit mi
the coast neareast to India is .a most vicious one.
AUIiou>,di preference is given to the outcome of the
orchards iu the interior, we su])pose the best Ceylon
fruit will not compare with the m.ango in .Southern
India or in liombay, to say nothing of the perfection
attained in IJengal Presidency. The insular taste ap-
pears to us to be gross. Cnjfnn i'atiiitt is absolutely
iu rajitures over the coarse sweetn. sa of the jak. Our
ciuitemporary writes: — "The j.ack in size will beat
out any irr the Sinhalese country, but those nice 1-ngs
of honey, when the fruit is ripe, combining all the

794

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

delicacies of the honey-comb, and the essence of the
sugarcane, you do not taste in JatVna." Tlie exquisite
delicacy of the lam/ni, for instance, or of the Mozuf-
ferpore leechee, must be lost upon those who can be
poetical over the heavy jak. — Indian A(/rici'Jtiirif>t.

ll'ntil the Ceylon Patriot condemned the mangoes
grown in the calcareous soil and dry climate of the
Jaffna Teniusula they were considered the best in
Ceylon. We hold to that belief still where the kinds
grown are good and receive attention, for oidy
recently we ate some from the north which quite
composed with " Uonibay mangoes.'' — Ed.

EXPERIMENTS AVITII FEliTILIZBRS AT THE

OAWNPORE EXPERIMENTAL FARM.

Are thus recorded in an official report si'iit to us: —
In the series of duplicate plots saltpetre gave the
largest yield nf all the single manures. The results
of Bp))lying this fertilizer appear to be always, or
nearly always, certain : and for cereals it would appear
undoubtedly the best. The increase which it has
given, compared with ordinary cowdung during the
last four years, is as follow : —

Increase per cent, over mimannred land.
Saltpetre. Cowdung.

1881-82 83 7

18ai-f<3 101 61

1883-84 22 34

1884-85 84 42

Among the combined manures bone superphosphate
yielded fair rcsult-s when applied in combination with
saltpetre. It is doubtful, however, whether this
manure can ever at present prices come into ordinary
use by the Indian cultivator. In the I'iUf Scries
the re.5ults of the present season confirm those of
previous years, vi.:., that for a cereal crop a soluble
nitrogenous manure is essential. This fact is now
completely established. The series will therefore be
dropped. Applicutivn (\f twcrcmeiit of Ojljf'erent kinds. —
The scries appears for the first time. J'oudrette heads
the last. Sheep-dung comes last. Green Soilimj. —
ludigo plouged in green yiekled a net increase of
R27'S per acre, against R19 obtained last year. This
difference in favour of the present season is chiefly
due to the heavy late rains, which throughly rotted
the green plants and allowed of rapid and easy assimil-
ation of the fertilizing ingredients. IJsar soil* in the
vicinity of Cawnpore was treated in situ with calcic
sulphate in the rains of 1884. Barley, gram, and
peas were sown, but the land evidently had not
time to be pulverized, and the plants, after coming
up a few inches above the ground, withered and
died. Samples of soil from the usar plain where
these experiments were tried have been analyzed, at
my request, by Dr. Itomanis, Chemical K.xamiuer
British Burma. He is of opinion that the fault lies
more in #he mechanical texture than in the chem-
ical nature of the soil. The report which Dr. Remains
very kindly prepared is appended.

■\\'o add further e.xtracts: l\ep Ploiii/hivi/. — Taking
the average of all the experiments, deep ploughing gave
an increase over the ordinary shallow country ploughing
of ; 3'5 per cent when the land WiS ploughed !' inches
deep and 435 per cent when iilonghed 5 inches deep,
although the number of shallow ploughings was twice
AS many as of the deep ploughing. lu order to give
practical proof of the wisdom of deep ploughing,
ploughmen from this experimental .station, under the
charge of apprentices, have been sent out to five
selected districts with the new (duplex) plough, and
are now touring about in these districts, ploughing
for ciiUivalers wherever they get a chance. It is no
»»e exhibitini.' a new plough when ploughing opiritions
are ever. The important matti'r h to catch thi' people
while ploughing is going on and drive the new
plough in the fielils side by side with com-
mon country implement. The work done thus in
ordinary course naturally draws the attention of the

« Soil rendered in fertile by a saliuc iu floresconce,
titteii the result of • irrigater,— Ed,

cultivator. If we are ever to get deep ploughing into
the heads of the people, this, it seems to me, i.s the
only way. The district officers of the five selected
districts and some of the selected zamiudars and
talnkdars have cordially co-operated. The reports
of progress received up to date arc encouraging.
The addition of gram as well as peas to wheat and
barley crops seems to result in a large aggregate
yield. This explains why the Indian farmer is so
fond of mixtures.

RE,SOURCES OF UPPER BURMA*

Note by Dr. Remains, Chemical Examiner, on his
return from the Upper Burmah exjiedition. — AuRicor.T-
UBE. — There is little cultivation from Thayetmyo to
Nyaungu, near Pagan, except near Sinbyugynm at
the mouth of the Salen river ; and the country is dry
and barren. From Pagan to Ava the west bank, in-
cluding the delta and valley of the Ohandwin, is fertile.
l^Iyingyan, which may be considered the commercial
capital of Upper Burma, is the centre of this di.strict.
The staples are maize, millet, sesamum, pulse, and
cotton, the latter exported to China. The east bank
round about Jlandalay and towards the south-east
along the valley — the Myitnge— is a rice-growing district,
about 30 miles in length by 15 in breadth. Between
Myadaung and Bamaw, both on the Irrawady aud
north of Mandalay, i.s a sparsely inhabited (listrict
which seems fertile, but is reported to be very un-
healthy.

MiNKRALS. — Coal occurs at three localities on the
west bank near Thingadaw and at Kabaing nearly
opposite on the East bank, and is reported to be found
near Sagaing opposite Ava. Good coal is reported to
occur at Kale on the Ohiudwin far to the north-
west. The Thingadaw coal was worked by the Bur-
mese for some time.

PETnoi.ErJi. — The best known locality is Yenang-
yaung about 70 miles south of Pagan on "the Irrawady.
The oil here is very viscid, flowing slowly into the
wells. It contains much paraffin. At Pagan on the
west bank of the river, and a short distance from it,
there was a well flowing some time ago rather more
limpid, also containing paraffin. There is said to be
petroleum in the Yaw countiy west of the Tangyi
hills opposite Pagan ; it is described as flowing
from springs at the surface of the ground. It is said
to be more limpid than tho Yenangyauug oil, resembl-
ing the Boronga oil. It is only used locally as there
are no roads in that district. The yield from Yenang-
yatnig is estimated at 600,00<) viss, or 1,000 tons per
mensem. There are two groups of wells there, about
three miles from the river, with about 20O wells pro-
ducing oil, many others exhausted. The oil occurs iu
little basins like the Baku oil and unlike the American,
which seems to form subterranean lakes.

Ii>-ON. — Iron was once worked at Pupadaung, 30
miles from Pagan. The manufacture is now discon-
timied.

SiivKR. — Silver and lead are brought from the Shan
States ly'ng to the east of I'pper Burma. The great
silver mine at Bawdwingyi is now flooded and not
worked .

Goi.o. — Cold is saiil to occur at Bamaw, but, it is
believed it comes really from Yunan lying to the
further north of .Shan S'atcs.

Pr.ATixi'M. — Platinum is said to occur in the saud
of the I'liindwin near Kaimi. A large quantity of
what was supposed to be platinum ore luis lately been
collected and sent to England from this locaHty. 1

* From Rangoon, the capital town of Lower Burnia,
to IMandalay the scat of (imernment of the late king
of U]iprr Burma, the river 1 1 »\.rly .stretches almost
(hw nnv'h. Thayetmyo lies at a dista?ice of nearly
200 miles; north of Thayetjnyo is the town of Pagan.
Avi lies to the north-easi of the latter place at a
distance of nearly loo miles in direct line. Half way
between Ava and Pagan is the town of Myingyau,
the connnercial capital of I'pper I'.urma. From Ava
to Mandalay the ilistauce is about '20 miles. All tliesa
towns are situated ou the east bank of tbe Irrawady,

Mav I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

7<J5

hope to have an opportunity of eKamining this ilistrict
in the hot weatlier holidays.

KuuiKS.— The Burmese are very piouil of their ruby
uiiLCS: -'Lord of the Ruby Mines" is one of the
official titles of the King of Ava. The rubies, or more
probably siiinels, are fouud iu the crystalline limestone
of Sagaing, Ui miles north of Mamialay, ami at JIngauk
and Kyaptin near the Shwen mountain. They were
described as occuring in three ways ; 1st. in ijuartz
took? (limestone); L'nd. in the soil on the monntain
side; ord and chefly, in a bed of gravel below the
Burfaec called hma-sa. This gravel is full of water and
the rubies are obtained by sinking a well till this
stratum is reached. Then a man descends and going
heneuth the water tills a bucket and sends it up.
At the surface the rubies are separated by washing
from clay and sand. The large ones are carefully
picked out and the remainder crushed to powder and
used for polisbiug. It is composed mainly of octahed-
ral crystals of spinel. It is extremely improbable that
alumina should crystallize in quartz. What they call
quartz is probably crystidline limestone as at Jladaya,
or some otlier metamorphic rock. The present holder
of the mines had contracted to pay 2| lakhs of rupees
to the King, but he is unable to do it. *

Jade. — This stone is much valued by the Chinese.
They obtain it in the river-bed at Mogaung in water-
worn boulders. These find their way to (. hina ria
Uangoon, the waterway .iown the Irrawaddy being
easier than the carawan route over the mountains
between Bamaw and China.

M.vRBLE. — Marble is quarried at Sagyin, Iti miles
north of ^landalay.

IJKOLOUV.--Tlie general geological structure of the
country is very simple, tlie principal formations run
north aud south in great mountain ranges. The tertiary
formations of Pegu extend to Kyontalaung in the
gr<>at bend of the river below Ava. The metamiirphic
rocks of the Martabau hills are continvied in the Shau
hills east of Mandalay. The limestone of the Sahveen
in the second defile in Kachin hills east of Bamaw
represent the Uawana range east of Jloulmein. The
country west of Irrawady is almost unknown. As far
as Pagan it is obviously the same formation as the
east bank. 'J'hen we have alluvial plains between the
Chindwin and Irrawaddy. The Irrawaddy valley be-
tween Sagaing and Male at the head of the defile has
been described by the late Dr. Oldham. The bills to
the westwar<l are alternately metamorphic and teritary
rocks. The same condition exists along the west bank
as far as Thigyaiug, where the river turns to the
eastward.

The country generally has a great resemblance to
the North-West Provinces and hears the same relation
to Pegu which they, to do Bengal. — Indian Ai/ricidtttral
Gazette.

Cocoa .snd Coca. — A lengthy article in the current
number of the ^fedical Press and Circulaf, by an ex-
Lecturer on Anatiimy and Forensic lledicine, on "Cocoa
and Cocaine," certainly deserves a place in any future
series of "The Curiosities of Literature." In it re-
ferences to cocoa, chocolate, aud Eri/lliroxt/hm Cocoa
leaves are inextricably int'-^rwoven. As instances of the
confusion iu the writer's mind may be quoted three
statements occuring within twenty lines : (1) that to
jVfr. Dunn we are indebted for popularizing tlu; use
of cocoa iu this country; (2) that it is calculated that
10,000,C<X) of human beings indulge in cocoa chewing,
and (o) that cocoa contains two alkaloids, theobromine
and cocaine. After this we are not surprised at bt-ing
told that iu the ])reparation of cocaine, after the
removal of that alkaloid, "hygeiu" remains in the
mo'her-Iiquor. — Pharmaceutical Jovrnal.

"WiLtow. — A correspondent of the Awprica>i J)n't/t/ist.
describes a visit to a ** willow farm " in (ieorgia where
400,000 willows are growing and 8lin,000 sHps have
bt^eu recently set. The willow switches are allowed to
grow for year.s, during which they attain a length of
from four to seven feet. They are then cut and after

being steeped in water the hark is stripped off by
machinery and the withes are wiped and done up in
bundles. The bark aud the loaves are dried aud ba!e 1,
aud comniand a price of twenty-five cents a pouml
for medicinal purposes.— /V(ii/H«Ttv«('(f'? .hiuraal.

* The neighbourhood of our spinel-bearing limesto i< »,
especially beds of streams ought to be scarced for
spinel supplies and rubies.— Kn.

DISSOLVED BONES.
Bv Db. A. P. AlTKEN.

Chemist to the Hiijhhvid and Ai/riciiltural Societi/.

Bones coarsely crushed had not long been in use as a
manure; before it was found that their efficacy was
greatly enhanced by dissolving them to .some extent in
sulphuric acid. That was a very important discovery,
which not only marked an ejioch iu agriculture, hut gave
rise to a new industry, which has now assumed large
proportions, aud indirectly had a beneficial intiuenue on
the whole manufacturing' trade of the country. Its
immediate eft'ect as regards the use of bones was to
transform them from a slow into a quick-acting manure,
capable of being applied with .advantage to crops who.se
period of growth was of short duration. It enabled
farmers very considerably to reduce their expenditure in
the purchase of bones, for it was found that oue bu.shel
of bones when dissolved with acid produced a far more
immediate aud powerful effect upon the crop than two
or three bushels of crushed bones ; aud as the price of
bones rapidly rose in proportion as their use became
more general, this discovery was a great boon to agri-
culture. Farmers bought sulphuric acid and dissolved
the bones themselves, but as this was a troublesome
operation, and not unattended with danger, a class of
men arose who made it their business to disisolve bones
aud supply farmers with the finished article. This was
the beginning of the manure manufacture, and it was
not long before it was found that coprolites and all
other phosphates were capable of being dissolved iu a,
similar manner so that superphosphates and other
dissolved manures came rapidly into existence. The
great promoter of this new industry was Sir .John
Bennett I^awes, who not only led the way in the manu-
facture of manures, but also studied their eft'ects upon
his experimental farm at Kothanisted. and instructed
farmers regarding their properties aud the method of
their application. This new industry gave a great
impulse to the manufacturo of sulphuric acid, and as
that is a substance which forms the chief basis of our
chemical manufactures, the effect of this discovery
influenced the manufactures of the country in their
most remote ramifications.

AVe have seen that bones contain about half their
weight of phosphate of lime — the other half consists
chiefly of organic matter. The phosphate of lime in
hones is what is called insoluble phosphate, that is to
say, a combination of phosphoric acid with as much
lime as it can unite with. But one-third^ or two-
thirds of the lime can be taken away and still leave
definite compounds. When two-thirds of the lime have
been taken away, the compound formed is soluble in
water, and is called soluble phosphate of lime. The
object of ailding sulphuric acid to bone phosphate is
to remove two-thirds of the lime by converting it into
sulphate of lime, ju.st as iu the case of superphosphate,
which is a mixture of .soluble phosphate of lime and
sulphate of linio. P.ut in dissolving bones it is found
that if enough of acid is added to convert all the
phosphates into the soluble form, the whole is converted
into a liquid mass, which refu.ses to dry up, and is unfit
for use as a manure. This is owing to the organic matter
in the bones. There is therefore a prai:tical limit set to
the proportion of soluble phospliati^ which dissolved
bones can contain. It varies a little-, accorlln r to the
amount of organic matter and moisture e.i..L.ined in
the bones, but as a rule, in thit case of pure dissolved
bones, not much more than half the phosphate is
present in the soluble form. The usual practice of
manufacturers of pure dissolved bones is to a.ld mnrc
acid than is nen.essary, ami to dry up the product with
fine bone meal, aud by careful mixing and somewhat
laborious treatment produce a sohihle manure,

796

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

[May 1, 1886.

OtVer things besides fine bone meal are frequently
iisdl asadii'r. Steamed b)iie flour dries more effect-
ively thai lone nual, but if it is ustd to auy great extent
the pro luct will be somewliat high in phosphate and
sonifcwhat low in ammonia. Eone ash is found to be a
si ill more absorbent substance, and it is much used to
dry up dissolved bones ; but bone ash contains no
nitrogcncus matter, and is very rich in phosphate, and
therefore when it is used the product is high iu phosphate
iiud correspondingly low io ammonia, aud, moreover, it
as no longer pure dissolved bones, though that name is
always given to it. B tine ash is not hones ; it is simply
impure pho.sphate of lime derived from bones, and is no
belter, except as a drier, than any other finely-ground
phosphate. The same may be said of bone char, which
is frequently used as a drier, and which gives the black
colour to many manures sold as pure dissolved bones.
If manufacturers think that in using these forms of bone
phosphate they are making pure dissolved bones, they
are sinqjly deceiving themselves. Any other phosphate
would be about as near the mark, and some manu-
facturers, knowing that, do not liesitate to employ any
convenient phosphate as a drier, aud find it makes very
good ' dissolved liones.' Some of the ground phosphate
is dissolved in the process, of course, and the product is
practically a mixture of dissolved bones aud superphos-
phate. Having gone .so far, the next step is quite
easy — the proportion of superphosphate may be much
increas-.d, and it does not need to be bone-ash super-
pho.sphatc, as that is no better than any other kiml, so
that by-and-hy a maiuire may be sold as dissolved bones
which con.sists largely of superphosphate, aud there are
to be foinid samples of dissolved bones, which are just
superphosphate, in which some boue meal has been used
as a drier, or probably as a blind, to give the stuff an
j'ppearauce of dissolved bones. In such cases there, will
be a very great deficiency of ammonia, but having gone
so far, there need be no difticulty iu supplying that by
means of .some highly nitrogenous substance, such as
flesh meal, which after all i.s not very far removed from
the nitrogenous matter of bone ; and if that is not to be
had, there i.s alwaj-s horn dost, ground leather, shoddy,
or some sinular material to fall back upon to make up
the analysis of dissolved boues.

The result of all this is that by a process of /V/cfViV
JeccHxus, there i.s scarcely to be found a manure sold
ui'.der the name of dissolved bones which is a genuine
article. A great projjortioii of them contain no bone
material at all so that the term ' dis.solved bones' has
become in these days what is correctly described in the
instructions of tlie Chemical Department (Highland
and A;,'ricultural Society's 7'^ ffrt)«c(/o/i.s, appendix B) as
a conventional name applied to compound manures,
consisting of any kind of mixtui-o of phos2)hatic and
nitrogenous mattrials, which can be dissolved with (or
without) an admixture of bone, so iis to produce a
manure containing from 15 to .30 per cent soluble phos-
phates, and from 1 to 3 per cent of ammonia.

Many of* these manures are excellent preparation —
ju.>,t as good as pure dissolved bones, perhaps better — ■
aud they have the merit of being formed from material,
which would otherwise be allowed to go to wastes
There is no reason why agriculture should not get the
bent fit of them, and the more of such waste materials
that can be turned to good account the better ; but it
is now time that the abuse of selling them under the
name of dissolved bones should be abandoned. Manure
manufacturers make no secret of the spurious character
of the manures called dissolved bones, and it has become
quite recogni.sed in the trade that purity is not expected
in them, and that it is impossible to adulterate them;
but although the trade know that, anil most intelligent
buyers know it, and are accustomed to buy these
manures at prices at which genuine boue nriuures could
not be made, yet there can be no doubt that the great
majority of buyers are ileceived by the name ; and as
there is a prejudice in favour of dissolved bones rather
than ;iny dissolved comgiouuds, a higher price is paid for
them on the understanding that they are what they
pretend to be. This is like getting money uuder false
pretences, and is a reproach which the nmuiue trade
should get rid of as soon as possible.

It genuine dissolved bones are desired they should be
bought imder a guarantee of purity. Pure dissolved
boues cannot contain much more than 20 per cent
soluble phosphate aud from 2^ to 'A per cent of ammonia.
When well made, it is, of course, a good manure, but
not a whit better than many of its imitations.

The dissolving of bones in sulphuric acid is a wasteful
process not to be recommended, for by so doing the
bones are degraded to the level of mineral phosphates,
which supply soluble phosphate more cheaply and more
efliciently than boues. If soluble is wanted for a crop,
then the cheapest form of superphosphate is the best
thing to apply. If bones are wanted for the crop or
the land, then the natural bone, finely ground, is the
cheapest form of application. If both are wanted, both
should be applied separately, but to attempt to combine
these advantages by dissolving bones is to eifect a
compromise that is not economical — it is to spoil good
bones, and make poor superphosphate, — .North British
AijriciiJturid.

♦

KEW AND ITS WORK.

TlIK HeCE.VT HlSTOUT OF A Tropk'.^i. Oolon'v.

Take a tropical colony like Ceylon, and study how
all the conditions of life there are revolutionised by
the entrance of the irrepressible Anglo-Saxon : — *' In
ls;.i7, when Ootfee planting was started, Ceylon was
a mere military dependency, with an annual revenue
amounting to £372,000, or less than the expenditure,
costing the mother country a good round sura every
year, the total population not exceeding 1,500,000,
but requiring nearly 6,000 British aud native troops to
keep the peace. Now we have the population in-
creased to 2,750,000 with only 1,200 troops, all paid
for out of an annual revenue which exceeded
£1,. '500,000; a people far better fed, educated, and
eared for in every way. The total export and import
trade since planting began has expanded from
£500,000 to £8,000,000 or £10,000,000, according to
the harvest. During the forty-five years referred to
some £30,000,000 or £40,000,000 have been paid away
in wages earned iu connection with the plajitatious
to Kandyan axemen, Tamil coolies, Sinhalese car-
penters and domestic servants. More than 200,000
Tamil cool.ies were saved from starvation in Ceylon
in the Madras famine of l."<77-8. According to ofhcial
papers there are more than 10,000,000 of people in
.Southern India whose annual earnings, taking grain
and Eice at its full value, do not average per family
of five more than ,£3 12,v. a year, or about h'l. a head
jjer d.ay. In Ceylon each family can earn from 9s.
to 12.S. a week, and save half or three-quarters of
that amount. Our calculation is, that from each
acre of Ootfee or Tea laud kept in full cultivation
five natives (men, women and children) derive their
means of subsistence. It is no wonder that, with a
population nearly doubled during the planting era
four or five times the quantity of cotton-cloth is
consumed, and ten times the former quantity of
food is imported into the i.'^land."*

How .\ BOT.VNIC G.IUDKN CAN nEI.P THE Col.OX-

lEs. — It is in selecting the plants for new colonies
or old ones that have been ruined by neglect, or
in hcli)ing to bring into cultivation plants valuable
economically that run the risk of being extermin-
ated in their native localities, that the help and advice
of a botanic garden is required, particularly for the
correct identification of the best species. Take, tor
instance, Cinchona, Indiarubber, and Gutta-percha.

CiNeHON.v. — In temperate climates quinine is one
of the mo.st useful of drugs, and in tropical climates
it is now used universally in curing and warding off
fever. (Quinine and its allied alkaloids are the product
of the bark of trees of the genus Cinchona, which
is restricted in a wild state to a narrow belt of the
Andes of .South America, at an elevation of between
2,000 and S.CKiO feet above the sea-level, principally
aiong their eastern declivities, from Latitude lO" S in
Bolivia to latitude 10^ N. in Venezuela. Here, of

by

» Cii/lon. By W. Ferguson, F. L. S. I'p. 83—84. [No,
' J. Ferguson, co-Editor of Trojiiral Ai/rifKlturist.']

Mav 1, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

797

course, they are very difficult of access, and they are
getting destroyed rapidly. <-'. siu-cirubra, for iuMsiice,
which was louud formerly iu all the valleys that
open to the plain of Uiiyaiiuil, is now almost confined
to the western slopes of" Jlount OLimlionizo. lu If'SH
an expedition was sent out under Mr. elements
Markham to the Andes to procure living plants witfi
seeds, for conveyance to India, and after many ad-
ventures and disappointments its afforts were crowned
with success. There are in the genus about
thirty-six species, differing from one another in their
climatic constitution, and still more in economic value,
but they are very dithcult of botanical discrimination,
because the primary types are linked to one ano-
ther by puzzHng intermediate forms. The Dutch sent
out an expedition to the Andes under Hasskarl in
1,'<54, but unfortunately a large proportion of the
plants which they obtained proved to belong to C.
Pahudiana, a species of very small medicinal value.
In the Indian plantations four distinct species have
been planted extensively— 1. C. succirubra, which
yields the red bark of commerce, yielding about 5
per cent of alkaloids, ciuinine and cinchonine in al-
most equal proportions. It thrives at a lower elevation
than the three others, but is specially sensitive to
frost and long.continued drought. 2. C. micraiitha,
which yields the grey or silver bark, also poor in
quinine, but rich in cinchonine. 3. 0. Calisaya, and its
variety Ledgeriaua, which yields the royal, called
also the yellow or Calisaya bark— the richest of all
in alkaloids, of which quinine forms half or three-
quarters (uot less than two, and, in exceptional
ca.ses. as ranch as ten per cent of quinine). 4. C.
ofKciualis, which yields the pale or l>oxa or crown
bark, containing half or 1 per cent of alkaloids, of
which more than half is quinine.

In India the product of the bark is lused mainly
in the form of a mixed febrifuge, in which the
different alkaloids are not separated from each other.
This is prepared from th- finely powdered hark by
mixing it with milk of Ume and spirits of wine. At
the close of 1882 there were iu the Bengal plant-
ations a stock of nearly ."S.OtW.niin trees, of which
three-quarters were 0. succirubra, yielding an annual
crop of 400,000 lb. of dry bark. The am.iunt of
capital altogether expended in Bangal in the plant-
ations and manufactory w:is £10(1,000, and on this
the receipts for 1.S78-0 yielde.l 4i per cent on the
capital outlay, exclusive of 5,500 lb. of the alkaloid
taken for the Government hospitals, replacing an
an equal amount of quinine, which if purcha.sed
would have cost the Government £44,000. Dr. King
estimates that by the end i.f l.s-s.q the total amount
.saved to (iovcrnment w.as £M0,0II0; and Mr. Wood,
the Government ([uinologist, estimates that the cost
of the mixed febrifuge will ultimately be brought
down to It. per ounce. The price of the .sulphate
of quinine in England has been reduced during the
last few years from 13.^. to ry<. per ounce. As before
explained only four out of the ihirty-six species have
been extensively planted in India, and of the economic
value of many of the others very little is known
clearly.

IXDIARiKiiEli. — The .substance .sold under the name of
indiarubber is the stitTeiied milky juice of at least six
different genera of trees, belonging to three widely ditfe-
rentnatural orders — Liindolphia and Willngbbtiaiii Apo-
cynacea;, Castilloa an.l Ficus iu Artocarpere, and
Hevei and Manihot in Kuphorbiace;«. I'art of it
comes from South AmcrTca (shipped princiiially from
Para and (,'arthageua), part of it from .Sierra Leonc',
Mozambique, and Jladagascar, and the remainder
from tropical Asia. Besides these two genera of
Apocynaccie there are at least six others which yield
a similar milky juice not at present utilized to any
considerable extent. In the Inited States in l.sS3
there were 120 indiarubber factories, employing l.VHiO
hands. Tln^ total importation of raw materi.il into
the States in that year was 30,iX)0 tons, worth about
£0,000,IKIO sterling. The value of the manufactured
goods made in a single year is estimated at £.JO,f>00,000.
Tlie (juantity of unwa.shed rubber imported into the

United Kingdom in 1883 was more than IO,0(X) tons,
worth about £3,500,000, but in 1885 it had sunk to
less than £2,000,000. None of the trees which yield
indiarubber have yet been brought into cultivation
on a large scale, and the time will soon come when
either this will have to be done or the supply will
gradually lessen. There are about sixty distinct
species of these rubber-yielding genera, and the
botanists and foresters will have to settle between
them which of these are best worth cultivating and
where it will pay to gi-oiv them. Infortunately, at
the present time the price of indiarubber of all kinds
is exceptionally low, the best Para rubber being now
only worth about 2.«. Hi/, per pound in London against
I.,-, in If'ts4, and the best of the African and Asiatic
kinds about 2.i. per pound.

Lixt of' I he IiuHaruhbir-pTodvciny Genera, their Xalive
Countries, iriih the Xumher of Species in each and
Annua/ import : —

°« S.io

S; 0 a MOO

Order.

(ienus.

.0 '3 Native country. SjSS

a !o to «.S

Apocyiiaceaj.

Willughbeia

9 Tropical .Vsia 530

Landolphia,

10 Africa and 2200

including va

Bladagascar

hea

"

Hancoruia

1 Brazil

I'rceola

7 Malay Peninsula
and Archipelago

"

Dyera

3 Malaya Penin-
sula

Couma

4 Guiana and

"

CoUophora Brazil

^j

Alstonia

r. Malaya and Fiji

Cameraria

2 West Indies

Artocarpacea

. OastiUoa

3 Central America 100
and (/uba

it

Ficus

2 Africa and 370
Tropical Asia

Euphorbiace.'e Hevea

9 Amazon region 5768

IT

Manihot

1 Brazil 35

60

T003

(lnTT.\-PErit'n.\.— Gutta-percha of the best quality is
the product of Dichopsis Gutta, a tree belonging to
the natural order Sapotace;e, inhabiting the Malayan
peninsula. In order to obtain it the Malays follow
the wasteful plan of cutting down the tree. The bark
is first stripped otf, and the milky juice which then
exudes is collected in the shell of a ('oconut, or
the sjiathe of a Palm. The juice quickly stiffens on
exposure to the air and forms gutta-percha. The
average quantity obtained from one tree is 20 lb. In
IS75, 10,000,000 lb. in weight were imported into
this country from Singapore, and this would involve
the destruction of, perhaps, 50,000 trees. It was first
brought into notice in 1842, and at that time the
tree was plentiful in the forest of the Lsland of Singa-
pore ; but during the next five or six years it was
totally destroyed in the islanil except a few trees
that were kept as curiosities. In 1847 it was plentiful
in the forests of Penang, but a similar fate soon
befell it there, and now the time has come when,
unless it bo systematically cultivated somewhere, the
sujiply will decrease. According to the latest authority
there are six distinct species of Dichopsis growing
wild in the Malayan peninsula, and iu .lava and Su-
matra, and several species of the neighbouring genera,
Chrysophyllum, Sideroxylon. liassia, Miniusops, I'ayena,
and Imbricaria, yield a similar milky juice; bat it
still remains to be settleil which species are best
worth cultiv.iting, and where they cau be most pro-
fitably grown. Tlie annual value of the gntta-pi^rcha
imported into England is between £300,(iuO and
£-5Uf),0oO per annum. J. O. UaUer.—Gardenem' Chroni-
ca f .

798

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May I, 1886.

A CORRECT ESTIMATE OF CHINESE AGRI-

Cl'LTlTRE,
The skill of the Cliinoso in agiii-nlUin- lias vury
commonly been assortnd in this fonntry to hv greatly
supoiior to that of the n;itivi's of Hindustan. In
jnstire to the latter, we now ilirect the attention of
of our readers to the following extract fiom The
River of dolden Sand, by Captain Oille, H. E., page

Notwithstanding the indnstvy of the Chinese and
their admirable system of irrigation and terrace cul-
tivation, there can be very little doubt that the ex-
ceedingly high estimate in which their ntirienlture is
held, is very far from being de^e. ved. 'I'liis ajipears
to have been derived from the French n'issionaries,
for as early as 1801, Harrow speaks of the way in
which it had been over-rated. Nearly all moderns
who have been in China make the same obsei-vation,
anil yet there rent;iins amongst lOuropeans out of Uhiua,
the conviction tliat the t'liinese possess secrets im-
known to. or nuguessed at, by Knropeans. The real
pohit in which the t'hinesi^ excel is in industry. It
is industry that leads them to take such care never
to waste the sm.allest trille; and it is industry that
makes it worth their while to gather n|i tlie last frag-
ments. Industry again enables them to dispense with
any other manure than the sewage of the towns. Kor
a peasant will walk into the town, fetcli his niaimre,
and take it to his fiield himself. It is by industry
that in tlie large pl.iins, the Chinese are enabled to
keep their rice lields properly watered ; for it is not
possible to conduct the water by canals to every jiart
and every level of a with* plain ; it must therefore
be lifted arlilicially, and all d.iy long coolies are to
be seen in tie extensive jdains, raising water by the
means of little tread-mill.s. lint beyond this industry,
the Chinese can hardlv lay <'laim to any superiority
over other nations. They plough about as well as
the natives of India, doing little more than scratch
the ground. It is true that they can r.aise two crops
on the same field, as. for instance, when they plant
opium under rape, or yams beneath millet, lint this
is a .system not altogether unknown to J'juropean fru-in-
ers, and in the East Indies it is cnstonuiry to grow
yams un.lerneath the sugar-cane. Some of Harrow's
remarks appear to be worth iiuoting:— '' They have
no knowledge of the modes of improvement practised
in the various breeds of cattle; no instruments, for
breaking up and preparing waste lands; no .system
for draining .nnd reclaiming swamps anil morasses. .
. . Levelling the sides of mountains into a succession
of terraces, is a moile of cultivation freipii'iitly taken
notice of by the missioiuiries, as nnexainpleil in Europe
and peenlilir to the Chinese, whereas it is common
in ni'iny parts of Europe, and in the hill tracts of

India (*f the modes jiractiscd in Europe

of improving the quality of fruit, they seem to have
no just uotiou. . • . Apples, pears, plums, peaches,
and apricots are of indifferent i|uality. . . . They
have no nu'thod of forcing vegetables by artifical beat,
or by excluding th(^ cold .air and admitting at teh
same time the rays of the sun through glass. Their
chief merit consists iu preparing the soil, working
it inces.santly, and keeping it free from weeds." Thus
wrote Barrow, three iiuarlers-of-a-century ago. The
Chinese are no further advanced than they were in
his time ; and it is hardly necosssary to add anything
to his remarks, except to observe that not only have
the Chinese " no just notion " of improving the i|uality
of fruit, but that to this day, they remain in lompleto
ignorance of the science of grafting.— /lufjiiii .h/rici'l-

iKi-ist.

«

AsiiHSTOs.— When on a visit to Uockhamton recently,
we were shown some splcndiil specimens of asbestos, and
we were informed that if tliere was any demand for the
article, it could be unearthed in almost untold ipinntlt-
ies. Our Yankee cousins are setting us an example in
this matter which we would do well to follow. Thiy
are making hats with an asbestos-lining to the irowo.
on the well-known fact that asbestos is a non-comlncto.-
of hent.— Pill nfir nnd I'nrmtr.

Manilla Hemp.— The plant so well known as tlie
Abaca (Musa textilis), from the stem of which Manilla
Hemp is prepared, is described as doing remarkably
well at Sandakan, in liorneo. The smallness of the
population, the well-to-do character of the people,
as well as their disiuelinatiun to hard work, is said to
prevent anything like an in.lustry in the preparation
of the librc being established similar to that in the
riiilippines. .Should a machine, he discovered adapted
to its production, at however small a profit, there is no
limit to the ipiuntity that can be produced. — Giudeners'
( 'liriillirli'.

Edoos. — Some s)iort time since a French gentleman
waited on us and stated his intention of starting the
cultivation of frogs for this market. This bu.siness
appears to answer iu America. A\e learn that iluring
the summer months from l.OHO lb. to 2,l)iKJlb. of frog's
meat are eaten daily in New York. They are shipped
fresh to that market fvtun (Canada, principally in large
half-berrels. The love for frog meat is on the in-
crease. Ejiicnres and men of extreme wealth give
exhorbitant jirices for them. The large green frog
is the chief kind sold. In Chicago they are called
water chickens, bt can.so their flesh is as white as that
of a chicken when dressed properly. "\Ve have the
great advantage over Canada for this branch of stock
raising that our waters do not freeze. In a drought
it might be necessary to dry the frogs to the next
lagoon. — Ptitutn' and Faniiir.

(hiAucoAL.— It really wonld'appe.ar as if the common
and despLsed charcoivl were far more valuable than any
of us think. A\'e all know its value as a manure for fruit
trees — at least if we do not we ought to. Some of us
have the secret of growing the most beautiful flowers, as
all may by a liberal application. .Six months since wo
had a corresiiondent who thought he could fatten pigs
on charcoal, and many are in tlie habit of giving it regul-
arly to their pigs and poultry ; while here and there a
housewife keeps a few lumps in her dairy, and places
pieces on the butcher's meat to keep away <langer of
taint. It is excellent in all these cases, and now the
America,! Vidtiratdr tells us of an exi>orinient of fatten-
ing turkeys with its assistance. It appears that four
turkeys were confined in a pen and fed on meal, boiled
potatoes, and oats. Four others of the same brood were
also at the sam(! time contined in another pen, and fed
daily on the same articles, but with a pint of very finely
pulverised charcoal mixed with their tooil, mixed meal
and boiUnl potatoes. They hail also a plentiful sup-
plv of broken charcoal in their pen. The eight were
killed on the same day; and there was a difference
of a pound and a liilf each in favour of the fowls which
had been supplied with charcoal, they being much the
fattest, and file meat greatly superior in point of
temlerness ami flavour. As charcoal can be so readily
obtained it is well worth while giving it a trial in the
above way. — Pliititrr and Fartihi:

TitAJiwAvs. — Arc fast becoming a necessity on our
plantations, morn especially since the labour dithculty
has confronted the proprietors, as it is found that by
means of trams and cars plantation work can be done
much more satisfactorily and ccoiiimiically than with
horses and cnrts. An advi'rtiseniKiit iu another column
states that the demand for the Decauville I'ortable
Tramways has become regular, and that they are always
kept i.i stock iu Sydney for prompt tr.aushijmient where
necessary. In our excursions from time to time among
the plantations we have heard willing testimony as to
the thorough efficiency of this particular description of
tram appliances, for iii the cslimation of experienced
men they are truly "ahead of all competition," and are
winniiurfor themselves a good name wherever tried.
So far they b.ive been mostly limited to plantatioii.s, but
anywhere that large industries are conducted, nnd heavy
portage is an item, they can be turned to good account,
as for instance in viney.irds, arrrowroot plantaion.s, olive
yards. manufaetories, brickyards, mines, <piarries, forests,
iir earthworks. The cost of good labour-saving appli-
ances is a mere tritle when compared with their etticieney
and reliability, and a true economist will not lose
siglit of this.— /'/(i(i/>)' o)i(/ fnriiici-. [We should think
those tramways might be useful on at least the low
country tea plantations in Ceylon— El).]

May I, 1886.J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

799

Orn American, cousins are still excrcisiDg their
genius in the way of creating butter and cheese. An
importation of the latter article from New York State
was rect'utly analysed in Loudou and found to contiiin
uo product of the dairy wh;itev(-r. Its principal com-
ponents wurc Uird and colouring matter. 'Xheso cht'cscs
ought to make good cart grt-ase. — I'lantcr ond I'aimcr.

Immense amount of Water (;ivi-:n to the At^mo-
SPiiEiiE nY Thees, — The amount of moisture given out
by trees is immense. In some trees the upwar<l rush
of moisture from the roots is very powerful. The
workmen in ship-yards frequently find in the centre of
teak log a core of sand 5(» or GO feet loug, an iueti in
diameter, and hardened to a marble-like consistency, which
has been carried and deposited there by the sap in its
upward course. A few years ago a number of scientists
of New England made a calculation as to the amount of
water given to the atmospht-rc by tlie " AVashington
Kim," Cambridge, Mass. They caculatt d that the k-aves
of that tree would covtr over i!0ti,OOU square feet of
surface, and that they gave out every fair day during
the growing season 15,500 lb or 7^ tons of moisture. —
I. li. Teaslee. — Indian Gardemr.

It is not at all reassuring to Queensland vineyard-
ists to find it stattd as a matter of fact that that ter-
rible Bconrgo of the vine, the phylloxera vastatrix, has
really reached so near as the Camden district in New
South Wales. A very striking fact this, and one that
suggests a mode of defending ourselves from this ter-
rible -courge. It was at Camden that the first Austral-
ian vineyard was planted, and we learn that close plan-
ting has always been the fashion there. This leads
great weight to the opinion that tlie phylloxera always
appears first in oUi and thickly planted vineyards. It is
eaid by the best authorities that the system of planting
en cliaintrc, on which we gave one article last issue and
another in this, presents an almost couipiete defence
against the ravages of this insect, which increases most
in those vineyards where in co-isequence of close plan-
ting the roots of the vines form a retwork underground
and are more or less interlocked. If wc really would
escape the phylloxera then let us plant on this system
in rows twenty yards apart, or even more for the
Isabella, and with a space of six feet between the plants
in the row. — PUihter ai\d Farmer.

Valuable Kconomic Plants. — Among the collection
of valuable economic plants furnished from the Pubhe
Gardens, we ma3' specially mention the jL^rafted Kast
Indian mango ; the Manilla hemp, plants which belong
to the banana, but produce seed and not edible fruit ;
the silk grass ; Ramie, two varieties, green and white;
the Kola nut; bay rum tree; vanilla with i)ods ;
jujube tree; tea tree; Sicily lemon; ca.-5sia. cimiamon,
nutmeg, clove, loqimt, cocr., so celebrated fur its an-
a'Sthetic properties, and which was introduced about
four years since ; the citron, cocoa, Liberian coffee,
Brazil nut, cardamom, olive, ginep, sweet oranges,
Tangi rine orange, sweet lemon, cashew, shaddock, itc.
Thousands of vahiabic ])lants like those on exhibition
are obtainable from the public gardens, and Mr, Morris
wisely avails himself of these shows to place before
the public in an attractive and interesting form these
and other plants, and thereby impart general inform-
ation. It stands to reason that Mr. Morris cannot
meet the people at the pubHc gardens, and therefore
he moved the gardens in miniature to "Winchester
Park to meet the people and, while giving them every
information, show what the (iovernment is doing.
In the fern and orchid tent two large tables are filled
with s])ecimens from the Gardens, which, while not
competing for prizes, add meterially to the attr.iction
and bring out the specimens sent by private exhibitors.
—Qlcamr.

BuBMt^SE rAi.:M PnoDUtTS. — A farinaceous substance,
resembling sago, is obtamed from the pith of several
palms. Sucli are the talipot or pvpi' {Cnri/pha vm-
ora'i'.lifira)y another species (('. Gthoaya), the ju>' /ion
{C'tryota nrcn.-i), the tomojnng (JiC»f/a surcharifera),
and the mudoiin/ (i.'t/ca.t mmjihit). The coco-nut or
otvf {('ocos iwr'frra) is cultivated on all parts of the
^eaboard. The leaves of the talipot or pipeu are useil
0 fauB, and for writing on, in the latter case being
pegiicd or »ewn together, gilded souittiiufb in patterns

on a vermilion groimd, and rubbed with petroleum to
keep away insects and damp. The leaves of tho
minlio afford iibre, and the stem of the ini'.dain<j exudes
a resin used in sores. Tlie juice of tho hian atfords
tuddy, ond, therefore, by boiling down, sugar; and
the trunk is applied to many uses. The leaves of the
tonuf/Qfia yield fibre, the hollowed stem serves for
pipes, and the juice drawn at flowering-time gives toddy
and sugar. These two last-named products an: also
derived from the juice of the HienhouDtj [FltuniA- paln^
(l<K«i). The davi or water palm {Nipa frntirans) fulfils
many duties ; its roots bind tho soil of the river
banks; the leaf is universally employed in thatching;
the jin'cR is converted into toddy, sngar, and vinegar;
the fruit is eaten when ripe ; the tlowers are made
into a preserve, and the branches are used as fuel.
The prevalent habit of betel-chewing renders the areca
nut palm {Jrica catechu) one of the most important
of this very useful family. — Journal 0/ the 8ocict>/ of ArU.
Conversion of Weeds into Manure. — A corre-
spondent of the Indian A;/iiciiftt>ri.tt, writes as follows
on this subject.— Spread thinly a layer of gas lime over
tho ground, as a "top dressing." If gas lime fresh
froni the purifiers be applied to soil, the salts which
it contains will destroy vegetation. It is, therefore,
necessary to expose it to the atmosphere in order
to transform the injurious solphur compounds into
fertilizing agents. The sulphur and ammonia which
render fresh gas lime fertilizing agents, and become
destructive to vegetation, are the ingredients so valu-
able in decomposing compost heaps; it therefore fol-
lows that the fresher the gas Hme can be applied to
compost heaps, the sooner the results required will bo
obtiiined, as the salts whicli f/o off' with exposure to
the air, have a powerful effect in decomposing the
vegetable substances in compost heaps. 8uch composts
when applied as manure, after three or four months,
contain sutlicient salts and tarry essences to make the
substance uncongenial to in.sect life, so that by the
application of such manures a double object is obtained.
— 1st, the fertilization of the soil, thereby rendering
it more sharp, porous.and friable, and I2nd, the destruc-
tion of insect Hfe. It nuist be^emembered that the ap-
parent crystaHzation of gas lime is due to its exposure to
the atmosphere. It will thus be seen that it is unwise
to look upon weeds as of no value, as they[ean easily
be converted into manure, in a most inexpensive man-
ner, and made to become, praeiically, insecticides as
well .-.s fertilizers.— //;r//(f)i Tea Gazette.

The Ki.xcston (Jamaica) Fr.oUAL and HocrtiuLT-
URAL Show, which closed on Thursday evening, was
a pronounced success from every point of view, and
the fact that about fifteen hundred visitors were on
the grounils the first afternoon, and nearly a thousand
on the secnnd day, shows conclusively that t)ie resi-
dents of Kingston and vicinity are ready to support
warmly, both by their presence and contributions, any
effort having for its object tho welfare and refinement
of the people. This result is in a great measure duo
to the iiulifatigable exertions of I). Morris, Esq., the
Superintendent of the Public (Jardens and Plantations,
and the readiness with which he has afforded inform-
ation and advice to those who have evinced an
interest in the cultivation of plants. Nor have his
efforts been confined by .iny means to that alone,
for he has introdnctul and distributed extensively many
new varieties, and, by exhibiting specimens of hund-
reds of plants carefully cultivated at the public gitrdejis,
ami personally explaining the course there pursued, he
has rendered very valuable service to the public, as
well as contributed yi a large measure to the success
of the exhibition. A novelty at the show was a tent,
in which Mr. I). IVlfirris harl provided some delicious
tea prepared from the leaves of the tea plant grown
at Cinchona, and which was pronounced by ail equal
to the good grades of foreign tea imported to this
country. A very tluiving business was done in this
tent, judging by tho largo number of persons who
partook of Air. Morris's hospitality, and as ho has
designated tho new tea ''No-he," we presume he
kuow6 whero the cuphouioub title urigiuated.—

Soo

iUE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS-r.

[May I, 1886,

The Uses of HORTicuLTunAL Societies. — We take
the following extract from n paper of Mr. J,. B. Pierce,
of Ohio, on the means of extending the usefulness
of local horticultural societies contained in the
Tra)i:<actloH of the American romolocfical Societij ; —
" If you can persuade or teach an Irish washerwoman
that Grape Vine will grow beside her shanty (in
the United States) as readily as a Morning Glory
(Convolvulus), that a garden that grows Cabbages
and Potatos will also grow Cauliflowers and Straw-
berries, you have taken one step towards the millcnium
— you have got her and her family a step out of
the beaten track, and this single step may lead her
sons into lines of life that will crave neither the
ghort-stemmed pipe nor the whisky bottle." — Hardeners'
Chronicle.

The Cultivation of the "Wattle-tree is quite anindustry
iu Victoria and South Australia. There are several
species of these trees, all belonging to a class pre-
eminently suited to the Australian climate, being
equally able to withstand wet and dry seasons, and
a bush fire, instead of destroying the dormant seed
lying on in the ground as would naturally be supposed,
causes it to germinate and grow. The large amount
of tannin in the bark was early discovered by the
Australian settler, and as settlement became closer,
and tanneries increased, fear was often expressed that
the supply of wattle-bark would .soon be exhausted.
However, observation showed that light loamy or
sandy lands would grow a crop of wattles provided
only it was fenced oft from cattle; this led to a large
area of land being .so treated in "S^ictoria, but in South
Australia the actual ploughing of the land and sowing
the] wattle-seed was extensively carried out, and the
residts are said to have been very remunerative. The
trees are ready to strip in about five ye&rs from time
of sowing, but the process of stripping is always
looked upon as wasteful, as only the bark upon the
trunk and main branches can be peeled off, and much
waste is left upon the smaller branches. It is there-
fore satisfactory to learn that an Adelaide firm have
succeeded in inventing a process for extractiug the
tannin principle from the tree, a process in which the
whole of the tree, leaves, bark, and wood, is used.
The extract so prepared is of a sticky semi-licjuid con-
sistency, not unlike thick molasses in appearance. It
has stood the test of practicability for the tanner,
and now several of the local tanners use it iu pre-
ference to the crude bark, for it saves them a great
deal of labour and expen.'ie, and renders unnecessary
the storage of a large quantity of bark. Several casks
of the " extract " have been shipped to England, and
it seems not unlikely that new industry has been
created. To the farmer it opens out a market for
a product which can be grown in the jjoorest soil,
and with the lea.st amount of cultivation possible,—
The QvccnsUindcr.

Fungi, Food and Disease. — Mr, W. J. Simmons,
Secretary to the Public Health Society of this city,
delivered a very interesting and intsructive lecture on
the night of the hith instant, choosing as his subject.
"Decay, and the Germ Theory of Disease. " After
a short preamble on the economy of the vegetable
kingdom, the lecturer entered upon a very exhaustive
analysis of the family of fungi. He .>iaid that an in-
timate study of it would lead to the discovery that
that it touched human life at every point. " It whs
tn fungi that we were indebted for both bread and
wine, and but for it, we would have neither vinegar
nor beer. The fungi touched us, loo, when they
blighted our crops and desolated our vineyards ; wlien
they paralysed the silk industry of France and Italy,
and swept, like a destroying angel, over the teeming
herds of Kussia. Fungi were a terror to the agricul-
turist, the farmer, and the cattle-breeder ; the physi-
cian had learned to recognize in them the certain
cause of anthrax, and the probable cause of consump-
tion, and a hostof other diseases; the surgeon t.axed
his skill to prevent them from invading his hospitals,
Bnd showing themselves with deadly effect in his pati-
ents' wounds. Their seeds, germs, or spores were
miugled with the air we breathed, aud the food and

drink we consumed. True to the laws of their vege-
table life, these spores persistently produced fungi of
the parent typo. And this constancy of reproduction
ran thrcugh the whole class. As Tyudall strikingly
sajs: "Sow any of the fungi in a state of purity
in any appropriate fluid, you get it, and it alone in
the subse(|uent crop. In like manner, sow small-pox
in the human body, your crop is sraall-pox ; sow
there scarlatina, your crop is .sea ilatina ; sow typhoid
virus, your crop is typhoid ; cholera, your crop is
cholera. This disease bears a* constant a rela-
tion to its contagiura as the microscopic organisms
just enumerated do to their germs ; or as a thistle
does to its seed. No wonder, then (he goes on) with
analogies so obvious and so striking that the convic-
tion is spreading and growing daily in Btrength, that
reproductive parasitic life is at the root of endemic
disease." — Indian Ayricu Itnn'st.

CoCK(.'HAKEtts. — Mr. Booth, the well-known nursery-
man of Hamburg, says : — " About ten years ago we
sutfercd terribly from Cockchafers, whole plantations
of Rhododendrons and Conifers being completely
destroyed by them. Against such devastation all
artificial remedies were more or less powerless. "We
then adopted the starling plan. We caused 100
breeding cages to be made of the very simplest con-
struction, and in the .spring they were all occiyjied.
As soon as the Cockchafer comes or is coming
out of the earth the starling is there ; it picks the
Chafer clean out, tapping about on the ground with
its beak until it finds it. Beside almost every hole
from which a Cockchafer his escaped one might find
the wings and whatever is uneatable, proof enough
that the Chafers' enjoyment of life had not been of
long duration. We increased the number of cages,
and have now from 175 to 300. AVe have since then
had plenty of Cockchafer years, but ha\e not again
experienced such injury from them, and in working
the ground to a greater depth for them the number
of gnibs found is comparaf.ively few." Another
remedy adopted by French gardeners is to thickly
sow the affected ground in autumn with Colzi, which
is ploughed in as soon as the first frosts begin to
make their appearance. Half-decayed Cabbage leaves,
or indeed the refuse of any Cruciferous plant, should
be ploughed in at the same time. It seems that the
Cockchafer grab cannot stand the leaves of an}' of
the Cruciferous plants in a state of fermentation, the
sulphurous emanations given uff by tbem beinj; poison-
ous to the insect. Planting Cabbages or Turnips in
ground infested by the Cockchafer grub is said to be
effectual in driving them away. Another method,
which is only api)licable in woods and ])lautations, is
described in the '* Mereseburgher Official .Tournal " as
having been successfully tried in a nursery belonging
to the lloyal Forestry at Bischotfsrodo, comprising l.V
acres of land, and surrounded by high trees, especially
by Oaks, completely ravaged by Cockchafers. Just
before tlie flying time seventeen different .spots were
artificially prepared as breeding places in the following
manner: — Alongside the paths, and near the fences,
from 3 ft. to 4 ft. square of ground were covered with
fresh manure from S iu. to 6 in. high, without mix-
ture of straw or any other material ; upon this was
laid 2 in. or 3 in. of fresh earth, nicely smoothed
dowu ami raked. Thc.«e spots were carefully watched
during the flying season, but, owing to the absence
of any bored holes, were left undisturbed until the
middle of .Inly, when it was discovered that in those
spots exposed to the sun, the mamire was a living mass
of grubs ' in. in length, whilst in those places more
in the shade the number of eggs was inconceivable.
These heaps were brought together, and collectively
burnt outside the nursery." — Indian Gardener.

ROUGH ON RATS.
Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flics, anii, bed-bug.s,
beetles, insects, skunks, chipmunks, gophers. Druggists.
W. E. Smith & Co., Madras, f?oIe Agents.

Mav I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

Scj!

^orrospnndoncc.

To the Edi/or of the " Cetjlm Obsa-ca:"

THE STOCK OF CINCHONA BARK IX

LONDON.

London, 12tl) March 1880.
1)e»b Sir, — In a iiavagippli of your Oveilarul issue
dated Kith Feb. I notice soiiio reiuaiks iTgarding
the stocks of bark in London at the end of .Jan.
which are undoubtedly erroneous. A very large pro-
portion of the stock of liT.OOO packages mentioned
is composed of the old importations of Cuprean
bark, which liave not yet entered into con.sumption,
and for which at present there is no demand. This
bark is packed in serous, each weit;hing about l.")0
lb.— some packages are even smaller. If an aver-
age of 200 lb. per package is allowed, in my opinion,
the whole stock of bark in London at that date
would be easily included; so that, instead of •2ri,000,000
lb., we have 18,400,000 lb. Several of the packages
too are cases of druggist ijuills, which do not aver-
age as a rule so much as 100 lb. The .Java bark
that sold yesterday (some of its Ledger root by the
way at 2s 7d) arrived in bales of various weights
from 110 to 150 lb. I should be inclined to estim-
ate the stock of bark in Loudon at ratlier under
l.S.OOO.OOO lb. than over, and much of it of poor
quality. Ajjologizing for trespassing on your space,
I am, yours faithfully, .JOHN HAMILTON.

I China tea at 7^d or yd per lb. put a dash o '
I Ceylon with it to give character, and. labelling it
pure Ceylon ten, in oiifiiiuil packets as impurliil,
sell it as such, and rniii our trade, for that, I
am sure, will be the result in a few years. It is
not of course, impossible to get genuine Ceylon
tea, but you must get recommended to the right
quarter for it, otherwise you are bound to be
imposed upon, especially in the 2s tea. I enclose
a sample from some I bought at 2s 4d per lb.
I recommend my friends to do the same, it is very
nice. Apologising for the length of this letter. — I
am dear sir, yours truly,

GEORGE ALEXANDER.

CEYLON TEA IN LONDON.

2i:i, Havelock Street, Mayfair, London, W.
1st April 188(j.

De.vb Sir, — I read with considerable interest the
letter which you printed a short time since upon
the subject of Ceylon Tea (so-called) as sold in
England : and would ask you to allow me to add
my voice to the complaint by giving a few facts,
wliich are within my own personal knowledge.

1 prefer to drink pur, Ceiilmi tea, but have
great ditticnlty in getting it, even from the most
respectable sliops in London, not, mark you, be-
cause tliey do not profess to sell the article ; but
Irom the undoubted fact, that a great many tea
merchants and grocers sell a mixture of cheap China
and Ceylon, as genuine Ceylon tea.

Why we naturally ask, should they do so? I
will endeavour to show why, at least, some of
them find it pays to practice this deception, (I
might say " fraud") upon the public. The principal
part of the tea sold by these packet dealers is at
2s per lb., and for that price, the public expect
a very good tea, both in liqour and leaf.

The dealer buys his tea on the Mincing Lane
market, say at Is per lb. (you can't buy any
Ceylon tea worth drinking under) which, with duty
makes Is (id per lb. prime cost. He then puts
the tea info packets, (lead), which with labels,
time, etc., cost at least 2d per lb. more, thus Is 8d
per lb : the dealer wants Hd per lb. profit, his
agent, who retails it to the consumer another Id,
and adding .{d per lb. for rail carriage to agent,
we get a grand total of 2s 3Jd per lb., in other
words Ojd per lb. more than it co.st the dealers.
From whence comes then the 2s pure Ceyluu tea,
which a dozen different branijn are selling in the
manner I have described ? It is perfectly plain
to us that it pays the dealers better to buy cheap
lUti

CEYLON HIDES IN THE EASTERN PROVINCE.

Batticaloa, .Si'd April 188li.

Pmn Sir,— In your editorial of the (itli March,
under the head, '• Ceylon Leather," you allude to
the ditJiculty which a London correspondent linds
satisfactorily to account for the low prices obtained
for Ceylon '• buffalo hides," and ask if " any of
your readers can give you information on the sub.
ject ■? " I think some reason may be found for
the inferiority of the hides exported from the
Eastern I'rovince of Ceylon. Bufi'aloes being reared
here solely for purposes of cultivation, they are
not slaughtered for food. Wild ones are occasion-
ally shot by some of the M<jors who eat beef,
but the hides thus obtained having bullet holes in
them are valued less ; and such hides form about
one-ninth of the quantity exported. Nine-tenths are
from animals which die of murrain or from over-
work, and the skinning process of these carcases
seldom begins before decomposition sets in. These,
I think, are the causes of depreciation in the value
of buffalo hides exported from this province.

I cannot speak positively about hides from other
provinces in the island. I know that a large num-
ber of buffaloes are slaughtered for food in the
other provinces, but I have reason to think that
the skins of di-^easnd animals form no small por-
tion of the quantity exported from those pro^inces.
The trade in skins and bones has been taken up
by some Moorish traders and Sinhalese settlers. In
former times one could hardly see a Sinhalese ex-
cept in those parts inhabited by them, but now
almost every village has two or three lowcountry
Sinhalese settled for good. Several of these, I be-
lieve, are much wanted by the poUce of the Western
and Southern Provinces. The villagers either know-
nothing about them or are unwilling to give in-
formation against them as they have come here
as to a " city of refuge." I think if the rewards
for the apprehension of these gentry be raised,
and the period extended to a year, and some de-
tectives be sent from time to time, we may hope
to get rid of them. S.

TEA LEAF PLUCKIN(t GALORE!

Kandaloya, Nawalapitiya, Ith April 188ti.

Dk.vu Siu, — As Kandaloya expected crop for
March has been brought before the public, it may
possibly interest some of your readeis to know that
the amount actually secured was 22, -lO.'! 'I. ia March.

The tiiree highest daily deliveries of leaf were
4,720 lb., .'■>,200 lb. and 0,.'56o. lb

The largest " cannack " " of leaf brought in by
any single plucker on one day was 0.1 lb.— Yours
faithfully, W. TURING MACKENZIE.

' Oiumack." task or (juantity.— Ed.

S02

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[May 1, 1886.

CrBRi;S AND IPECACUANHA: INFOEMATION

WANTED.

Cth April 18SC.

yiR, — Wonlil you or perhaps any ot your miraer-
oui-, rfadfv?! furnish me with some data for the
enltivalioM of the above products ? c..'/., conditions
under which best grown, yield per plant, mode of
cultivation, Ac, and marlset value. Kcliable in-
formation would bo most acceptable to, yours faith-
fully, PIONEER.

[Has " Pioneer " the volumes of the Tropica!
A:ii'ifiilti»'i»t'.' If not let him get them. .We could
fill OHc-fourth coluuni with references to the pages
where the above products are noticed.— Ed.]

THE PKEPAEATION OF COCOA (CACAO).

Wattarantenne No. 2, Kandy, 12th April 188G.
Deau Sin, — I believe that there are few (it any)
in this island who arc better able to judge of the
marketable quality of Cocoa than Messrs. Volkart
Brothers, who are extensive traders in the com-
modity. From the correspondence in your issue of
the 1st instant, you will see that they draw a wide
line of demarcation between quuliti/ and superiieiol
appearance; the latter is very easily obtained, and
if my object had been to attract notice by a mere
golden appearance of the "Wattarantenne" Cocoa,
I might have left Mr. Jefferies and Gangaroowa
in the shade very long ago, but my object has al-
ways been to gain, a good name, not only for Wat-
tarantenne, but for the Ceylon product in general.
The letter of Messrs. Volkart Brothers amply shows
the commercial world that altliough the Cocoa pre-
pared by me may be deficient on the minor point
of a rich and glowing appearance, yet that, as far
as regards quality obtained by successful ferment-
ation, it is far superior to the Gangaroowa produce
however excellent the latter may be as a catch in
the European mai'kets. I believe that you will agree
with me that the essential quality of all good Cocoa
must be successful fermentation — a process which
must be obtained by unusual skill and patience, and
I do say that you arc guilty of a very tuuili act
of exaction in calling on me just at present to
give publicity to the method by which I ha\'e
obtained the much desired fermentation, but when
your numerous experienced and scieutilic corre-
spondents have disclosed in your columns the
methods by which they liave attained the nuich
desired end, I too might be induced to come for-
ward and exjilain the process I ha\e adopted, and
I have no doubt that Mr. Jefferies too will come
out with his secret of color, if secret it be. I
beg to enclose for publication a letter of Messrs.
Volkart Bros, of date (ho .'jth April 1H8(;, which
speaks for itself.

Thanking you for so generously opening your
columns to the ventilation of a topic of public
and commercial interest, I am, sir, yours faith-
fully, ,J. P. COLTON.

Colombo, 5th April 1886.
J. P. OoLTON. Esq., — Dear Wir, — lu reply to yoiu-
letter of the 29th ultimo, we beg to inform you that
the lot of cocoa you inquire about, shows iu our
opinion an improvement over tornier parcels with re-
gard tooutw.ard appearance; as to color, however, we
should say more evenness is still required. — 1'ours
faithfully, (Signed) ' Voi.K.Mii' Beotheks.

P.S.— On tho whole the parcel is very satisfactory.

NATIVE AGKICULTUllE AND THE D. V. I.

Dear Sir, — I believe few are aware that the students
of the Agricultural School uuili-r the leadership of
Mr. .Tayawurdaua are eiirryiiig on paddy cultivation on
lands belonging to Mr. W. Aboyaratno of Kirillapane.
I admire Mr. Green's euorgy in endBSVduViiig to teach

the natives bow to grow two ears of paddy where one
is only now grown, but Mr. Green must know well
that many native cultivators can ill-afford to spend
K22 for a Swedish plough, when native ploughs are
available for Pv2-.50 each. It is to be hoped that Mr.
Green will get our mechanics here to make a much
lighter and cheaper plough having nearly all the deep-
ploughing qualities of tho Swedish plough. Mr.
Abeyaratne has further shown his public spirit by
furnishing the Agricultural students with seed-paddy
free of cost, besides ploughing and sowing at his
own expense some of the adjoining portions of his
fields in the orthodox native fashion. It was very
unfortunate that last season's crop was destroyed by
large numbers of eorn-fly and unpropitious weather. —
Yours truly, M.

Cevlon Te.^s.— Only 400 packages were offered in
sale this week, and a few of the higher grades not
reaching their reserve prices were withdrawn. The
same remarks as to the relative value Indian pekoe
souchongs and pekoes apply to these teas. The marks
"Highlands" and " Middlet(Jn ' showed desirable
qualities and commanded fair prices. Most of the other
marks comprised small breaks which always receive less
attention. — N.McNair & Co., atith Marcli.

" Co.vi, Tkr SroAii." — The Manchester Society of
Chemical Industry has had reported to it "a new
substance" named saccharine, "extracted from coal
tar,' ■ and possessing "sweetening properties far stronger
than the best cane or beet-root sugar." The chemical
name of saccharine is "anhydro ortho sulphauine
benzoic acid," and " one part will give a very sweet
taste to 1,000 parts of water.' It has no injurious
effect on the human system, and patients suffering
with diabetes are said to have been treated with it
without inconvenience. Its use as a substitute for
sugar, and for medicinal purposes where sugar is
not permitted, is considered probable. Dr. Fahlberg,
a German chemist, is " the inventor." He combined
it with glucose or starch sugar, obtaining dextro-
saccharinc ? scarcely distinguishable from tlie best
mvi-M.—Brudstrcet, Feb. I88C1.

Tea Season 18S(;.87. — Say Messrs. Stenning, In-
skipp * Co. in their Indian Tea Beport of 25th
March;— ".\ word of |caut!0n to planters at this time
may not be out of place, and we would urge, as
we have often done before, the advisability of ad-
hering to <i vwtlcmtclij fine sijstem of pliicl.iini.
The comparatively high prices that have ruled for
the commoner classes throughout the past season
have been mainly due to better quality, the re-
sult of a careful method of plucking, and not so
much to short supply, moreover, it is probable
that the improved position of Common China Con-
gou will lead to a large export from that quarter
next season, in which case common grades of Indian,
it of poor quality resulting from coarse plucking,
will only realize hnv prices."

MvsoUE Gold. — The yield of gold from the mine
of the Mysore Company at Colar last month was
considerably less than in the immediately preceding
month, though there were three more working days
in March than in February. The shipments of
Mysore gold from Madras for the twelve months
April 188.T to April 188(1 (exclusive of May 1885
when there were no shipments), were 8,788 oz.
worth K 1,49,200. In the hve months December
188.'; to April 188(1, tlie shipments were 5,772 ozs.
w^ortli RH, 00,000, or at the rate of i;!-852 oz. worth
B7, 20,000 per annum, from only one shaft. The
Company has two squ;ire miles of land, strongly
accentuated by auriferous indication. It might
sink and cipiip a dozen shafts with the tOO.OOO
additional capital just placed at its disposal for
the special purpose of developments. The industry
is still iu its infancy -its robust infancy.— il/. Mail.

May I, 1886.J

tHE TROPICAL ACiRICULTtljRlSt,

Soj

TEA AMONG THE BHUTIAS.

Ml-. Darrah, the officiating Director of Agyienlt-
ure iu Assam, in his report for 1884-8:"), gives a
curious account of the process of infusing tea
pursucJ among the Bhutias at Dewangiri. Two
pots, one of brass anil filled with water, the other
an earthen one and empty, were put over a lire.
A piece was broken oft' a brick of tea and crum-
pled up in the hand to separate the adhering
leaves and twigs. The handful so obtained was
put into the dry earthen pot, and stirred up for s.
few seconds till hot. Then about a couiile of winc-
glassei full of potash water (made by straining
water through ashes) was poured an the dry tea,
and when the heat had almost evaporated the
moisture, another spoonful of water (now hot) was
was added from the brass pot. The tea meanwhile
was kept stirred to prevent its burning, and, when
nearly dry, a second, and then after an interval, a
third spoonful of water was added. When this,
too, was almost dry, all the water from the brass
pot was poured in, and a teaspoonful of salt having
been added, the mixture was boiled. As soon
as the bubbles showed that the liquid was boiling,
it was ladled out with a spoon- formed from a
gourd into a sort of churn made from a thick
piece of bamboo about two feet long. The churn
was provided w-ith a w-ooden cover, through a hole
iu which a piston-rod worked, the piston being
simply a round piece of wood roughly fitting the
interior of the churn. The boiling liquid having been
poured in, the churn was worked for a few seconds,
and then about a table-spoonful of r/Zii was added
to the mixture. The churn upon this was w-orked
vigorously for a few- minutes, considerable pressure
being cvidentlv required to force the piston up
and down. The Bhutia next poured back the
liquid uito tlie earthen pot, which meanwhile had
remained on the fire, and tasted the tea. lie stated
that more salt was wanted, and added accordingly
about an eggspoontul. The whole was boiled again
for about a minute, and then t.-isted and pro-
nounced right. The amount was equal to the
contents of two ordinary quart bottles,— fioHciw-.

DECAYINti INDIAN IXDUSTKIES.

Among the remarks made by Mr. (!rant liul'f
wjiich require expansion or elucidation tn make
them truly valuable, or to show their lack of
value, was one about the decaying trades and in-
dustries of India. Ue said he did not care for
the encouragement of manufactures in this coun-
try which England or Europe could supply cheaper
and better. Here there are two questions lo be
a.iked : first, if Europe can supply them better
and cheaper, does she do so ? and next, if Europe
can now supply them cheaper and better, is it
impossible, is not rather very possible, for India,
by improving her methods of manufacture, to
produce many kinds of goods both cheaper and
better than Europe can supply them -? And if
this be possible and practicable, ought not the
country to set about accomplishing it as a fact ?
Apply Mr. Grant Duff's remark to the production
of handmade Arnee muslin at 1 Rs. a yard ;
and we quite agree with him : it would be cheaper
and better to get English or Scotch l.iwn at
Kl'8 or 2 K a yard, even though it might not lie
quite so utterly too tine. But much of the
cheepest cotton fabric that England sends to this
country, if cheap, is abominably nasty, being
overloaded with chalk and packed damp, because
it is bought by weight : and therefore the longer
it remains unpacked, the more the fabric rots,
till, at last, vihsa the ruslicB buys vhea^ a, thick,

closely woven cloth, which has every appearance
of being strong, he soon finds that it would have been
better for him to have purchased a hand-mado
product of the village looni. Of all those manu-
factures and trades for which India supplies the
raw material, she ought to strive to learn cheaji
and rapid modes of production, by importing and
employing the most modern machinery used in
the nianufacture. Even if the price at which she
could thus produce the fabric were not lower than
it could lie produced in foreign countries, India
would be benefited by the expenditure of capital
and the employment of labour in the country ^ it-
self. But even with well paid European superint-
endence, the manufacture of Indian products in
India is likely to lead to a much cheaper fabric
or manufacture than what can be produced in
England ; for there is freight in and out to pay,
and there are the profits of many middlemen.
This is provided by the manufactures of cotton
mills set up in India the fabric is less injured
by chalk and damp ; it is cheaper and stronger
than most English manufactures of the same class
that reach India ; and yet the manufacture yields
a handsome profit. 'We w-ould like to see the
same process of producing and manufacturing
according to European methods applied to iron in
India. The quality of Indian iron ore is excellent
and the supply is unlimited ; and yet the pro-
duce of iron mines in India is declining, because
of the vast quantity of iron imported from Eng-
land and America. In 1884-8.'), the produce of
iron by natives in Southern India amounted to
only 1138,417 against E41,357 in the previous
year. Doubtless this arises from the vast quantity
of iron imported by the railway companies.
There were no less then 16 lakh's worth of
iron and steel, wrought and unwrought, imported
into the presidency in 1884-8-3 ; besides six and-
a-haU lakhs of rupees' worth of machinery and
mill wciirk ; and nearly six,' lakhs' worth of rolling
stock, in which, we presume, there must be much
iron. The sale of old iron rails and other worn-
out railway materials of iron at a cheap rate,
helps to reduce y<arly the amount of Indian iron
produced. Where ore is so abundant and pure,
is it not a jiitv that so inucli of foreign iron
should be imported '-' Might not forests be planted
near the rocky regions where the best Indian
iron ore is (o be found; so that the next gener-
ation at least may begfn to utilize the abundant
excellent Indian ore. ? But this would require either
that Englishmen take up the indnstiy and w-orh
it .according to European methods ; or (hat natives
study and l.arn Europe.an methods of smellin.','
the ore and make it up. Here i.-^ nii immense-
work awaiting eommencement in the S.alern dis-
trict, -vrhich may change the aspect of industry
and life in a large portion of the presidency.
Will no wealthy native give his mind to the matter,
and prepare the w-ay for his son's vulcanizing the
country '! — ilaili'iiK Timei

♦ •

REi'OET OX CHINA, INDIAN, CEYLON

AND JAVA TEAS,
(l-'rom Geo. M'liite <(> Co.'s Aiiiiiial Uepart.)

LoKDON, March 20th 1881)
The scii-ion now fast drawing to a close hat lieen cliii-llv
rt-niarkable for the sterling tjuulity of most o( the i:rnp, and
for the run since September on ten* for price, ii!i i-elaih-rs toniul
the lower aradcs were of .-(Uch useful itesf-ription that tlu'y
could ntforil to purchase them in larije (luaiitilics, cvi-li ut
hii!her prices Ihau usual- This diversion in thedrniaud seiimiMly
uffeclei fiue to t'tnest kind.s, and these beine li"l!lected, prices
raiidly declined unlil a fall of Id to Cd per lb. w.is estaldi-ln d,
which lias never been recovered. The result-s will uevt-r-
thclcsa be satisfactory to cardeo ow-ners- as in cnnsei|u»'iicc ot
ih'; euliauc^-d prices obuined (or thi. lower jfrafiea tUe average,
lias beeu well sustained,

do4

f fiE tROPICAL AORICULTOftlST.

(May 1, 1886,

After the few first Hliipmenta, which lost hoarily, importers
of Calcutta -bought teas did well for a time, but later on
the business prove unsatisfnctory. Tht* uui-ertainty again
prevailing; ns to the probable outturn has boen misleading,
and made it extremely ditUrult to forecast the future of
our market, as the estimates availiible for {rreat Britain
liave varied from about sisty-thrce to sixty-six raillioiis during
the season.

Importers liave sho^v'll more discrimination in briuginj;
their tens forward, especially siiuc \hf. rommr-ncemoiit of
1886, and therefore the market his not been so heavily
weifihted at one time as in form-T years. The effect of this
has proved salutary, for had excessive quantities been .
forced on tin" market during tlie first two mouths of this
year lliere is litlledoubtthat, owing but to the depressed state
of trade throughout the country, especially in Ireland, a
serious collapse in prices Mould have occurred.

The statistical position of China tea is exceptionally good
30 far as stocks are concerned, but that of Indian is, at tirst sight,
less favourable, the deliveries for the pfist eight months beiug
behind those of the corresponding period of the previous
season, in consequence of the excessive clearances last spring
in anticipation of the Budget.

Prospects for the coming season appear to be fairly good,
though there is a great dang-er of managers beiug tenipt-^d
to go in for quantity owing to t!ie high prices wliich have
been for some time ruling for the lower grades. If
similar quality^ be maintained we can absorb a large
quantity, but should, tliis, however, not be the cnse prices
will rule very little above China Congous as in season
l?84-5, the tendency beiug to a lower canister than 2s,
say from Is tid to Is 8d. The way in which some re-illy
rlioice teas (especiilly (he Asaams received last August)
have been competed for by the trade should encourage the
manufacture of line full llavoured parcels with a bright
copper coloured infusei) It-af, and a rich dark litjuor, which
creams over « lieu t_ooled down ; given this with a fairly
well made leaf free from Dust, and good prices are almost al-
ways eusured.

Willi an increasing yield every year, especially from
Ceylon, it becomes a serious question whether the con-
sumption uill krep pace with the supply. It is. there-
fore, satisfactory to note that, lliougii America li-is not
responded well at present, the Colonies now take about
two million pounds ; while a demand seems to be springing
up on the Continent for flavoury teas, especially Ceylon.
Should this develope it will be a great help to our market,
as it will relieveour stock and indut,e more competition.

As, however, China will not beousted from.theContinental
trade without a severe struggle, wetiiiukit not unlikely that
the average price obtained here may decline and would, there-
fore, advisee Managers of Gardens tu strain every nerve to
keep up the quality of their protluctions, while lessening the
cost of manufacture, if possible. Ceylon teas appear to be
still much appreciated for the home trade, as the average
is Is 3sd against about Is Kd for Indian, and say mid for
China.

Fewer complaints have been made about undesirable quality,
partly owing no doubt to the weather and greater attention to,
manufacture, together with more experience having been
gained in the useot drying machines.

To obtain a ^ood name for the produce of a garden should be
one of the chief aims of tlie manager, a.s many retail houses
will give several pence per pound above the ordinary market
rates, if necessary, to secure a band of wliich they can be de-
pend upon obtaining aeertain supply, and at the same time
can rely on tlie quality bt-ing good. For this reason, entire in-
voices shipped (.irect invariably sell best in Loudon, as tbey at-
tract the attention of the regular buyers, but when sold in
Calcutta the br'^aks lose their individuality and on ar-
rival here are often passed over amongst a lot of mixed
mark^*.

As regards sorting it is to be hoped, as the trade is so rapidly
expanding, that it will be found practicable to niiniraise tlie
number of breiks by making them larger, so that by liaving
fewersamples to bo gone through daily, buyers may be able
to tn«te nil the sali's carel'illy. Tliodividing up of parcels of
Ihe same ten inCulc'itta lias not been so noticeable cfuring the
past senson, but Ibere has been a very )ar>5e projwrtion of chi pli-
cate breaks of similar tea in tlie same garden in^oices, «here
they havebeen " Factory Bulked." So often did this occur
Ivhilst the^alcs were heavy, that the leading buyers refused to
bid for such duplicale lots unless they were re-lmlkcd together
hereinto larger parrels. This is an important matter, and
every endca\onr shnuM be made to avoid the recurrence of this
(luring the present year.

Ceylon tea** have been unusually noticeable on account of
llu' nttrnber cf sorts, ns nearly every new garden has been
tppresented in its first shipments by live orsix diff rent prescrip-
Uons, wlitiitwo orthree at the most would have sufficed. In
fact, now that teas of n moderate price are sought after, we
Ufe of opii'itn that it would answer, especially on small
ffardens, to ]ia,ss all the unassorted ten through an e(pinlizer,and
Obtiiin a small even leaf Pekoe Souchong or I'eke, freefroin
dust, and chips it as " one " large break, instead of sift-
ing into four or five non-sampling ones, whith are not seen
by ihc leading bny#T< audlmvc to be offered by themselves after
^h« sale?.

' Fewer instances of the use of improper wood for chests have
I occurred. We understand that a new metal package has been
. patented, which, if successful, willsupply a want in districts
^\ here timber is scarce,

A larger proportion of " factory bulked** invoices lia-s been
sent home, and in many cases the teas havepassed inspection,
bvit on the other hand theappearance of some has been so ir-
regular that it was necessary to re-bulk them. We cauuottoo
strongly impress upon Managersthe necessity of greater care
bei'jgtakcn to obtain evenness of quality and appearance, not
' only by careful blending prior to putting the tea into the chests,
but also by using every precaution iu pressing it into the
packages so that the leaf should be uniform. It has been prov-
ed by experience in packing breaks of oO to 100 chests that the
end of the pile or heap becomes more or Ie--s broken and dusty,
and if placed in the last few package;;, renders their appear-
ance sufficiently different to destroy the regularity of the
whole parcel, as the colour of the leaf is altered when crushed.
It would be better to reserve the balance of the pile for the
next packing.

It is, however, to be hoped that bulking in London will soon
be done away with, for, as we have several times pointed out,
many line Pekoes and Broken Pekoes are deteriorated several
pence per lb. by the treatment they receive here, especially if
they are hurried out forsale, as is often theease when heavy
arrivals are taking place and the warehousemen are fully en-
gaged. Take a Calcutta purchase for instance which may have
been bought on a sample drawn out of one of tlie best chests iu
a break, and compare it after bulking on this side, and its
unfortunate purchaser would liardly recogidze it. This
often accounts for much of the discrepancy between the Cal-
cutta cost and London value. We hear that one of the lead-
ing firms of Loudon Agents is sending out printed bulking^ in-
structions, lobeposted up in each teahouse, being cognizant
of the necet-sity that this branch of the industry should be care-
fully and efficiently carried out, partly to save expense and
al-io to ensure the teas going into the hands of the re-
tuikrs, without being turned but, just as tuey left the
gardens.

ilany shipments have shown a decided improvement in
quality, no doubt traceable to some extent to the useof seed
from India and the greater familiarity obtained with the
niachiuery employed. The leas are in good demand for ex-
port as well as for home eonsumptiou, as they can now be used
much more freely than when they nearly all possessed the
peculiarity attaching to them a few years since. Moreover,
tliey have one great advantage, particularly where it is de-
sired to sell immediately on arrival, viz., they rarely require
re-bulking, and the packages have an even tare. In
that respect the island of Java has set a good example
for India to follow, and we hope for the interests of all
concerned she will do so.

COMl'AKATIVK (jl-ALlTV OF TIIE OUTTfRN OF THE UlF-

FLKKNr Dlstricts fok th k Past three Season.

CEYLON.— 10'), 000 acres, greater portion not yet in bear-
ing.

Fstimate of tea made during 1885.— Season 1885-6,
♦4,.')00,000 lb

18S5 Crop.— Still in favour with consumers, and whenever
supplies have fallen off, there has ben u strong demand
and full rates obtained. These teas have made a great name
for themselves which will probably be maintained if the
quality iskept up,

18a4 Crop.— Still in favour owing to their useful qualities.
Some undesirable shipment, however, have realized low
averages. Demand likely to continue for all parcels with
full llavonr.

^SS^^ Crop.— In consiilcrable re(|uest at steadily improving
rales throughout the seasoi , the demand for these grow ths
having become general from all par s of the I'nited
Kingdom.

PL.VNTING IN WESTERN DOLOSBAGE,
CEVL()N.

18th April.

I have been thinking for some time back to send
you a few planting notes, but the cares of this
world and the deceitfulness of riohcH have so far
checked the good intention— like the pavement to a
certain j'lace which shall be nameless.

yVff.^In all directions one sees signs of renewed
activity in preparing.; for, and planting this deservedly
popular product onboth new and old land. There are
some plnoes which one would think hard'y justify-
ing^ the expense, and, ulterior protitb may be doubtful,
but tea i^ a wonderful shrub, and it Is ditticult
to say where to draw the line. I am working ut
a small *' toonda " which well illustrates the vicissit-
udes of the partt planting years. First of all it
was planted up with coffee, ili ;i, it was laid down
with guinea grass at a time when palatial cattle*
" " tikely tu be much uearer 3,0i)i?,00i),— EP,

Mav I, iS86,J

THE TROPICAL AGKlCULTURiST,

3c5

sheds and manuring were thought to be a cure for
leaf -disease : then came the crare for cardamoms,
and as there was some shade and iirices some-
thing more than a shadow, Iley presto ! and behokl
a cardamom grove. The scene changes. Cinchona
raises its superior head, and the lowly tea will soon
till up all vacancies and do more towards the
appearance and prosperity of the "totam" than
all its predecessors. After that, 1 think, we need
not fear. If lea goes we '11 just be up and doini;
aud take to something else !

Cocoa.— We are having splendid weather for this
product — sunshine and shower — and it is looking
its very best. Well, it is nice to have breathing time
after what has been suffered from Hi'loitellis, for
it is a sad enemy from what I have seen and
heard. Being an insect plague I have hopes that
we may be able to keep it under subjection^ The
season being favourable, there is a goodly
display of early fruit and blossom. The
afternoons are very sultry, and out of doors the
heat is pretty nearly unbearable. This is //«■ cultiv-
ation for villagers round about their houses and
gardens : but local history proves that they are
fonder of reaping where others have planted.

Cimliowi does very well and several estates
have a good show of trees. An idea was broached
the other day which should be acted upon, and
that is to ascertain through the best means what
Java is likely to do in this line, and also as re-
gards tea. The necessary expenses, I 'ra sure, could
be made up.

Cii/le'\ Arabian and Liberian, is a thing of the
past. Like poor old Jeff — " disturb him not, he 's
gone to rest '' — I 've waited on him — coffee, not
uncle Jeff — many a weary year — ' whiles in pleasure,
whiles in pain,' hstening on bed to the everlasting
rain pattering on shingles and wondering about the
morrow's muster and the " palam " at the ' dropsy '
stage.

•THE VEAE BOOK OF }<EW ZEALAND
18Sg-(>."»

This is a book most necessary to be consulted by all
intending settlers in that colony, and affording
valuable and minute information of a kind such as
a traveller would be thankful to have ready to his
hand. The topics dealt with are varied as the life
and activities of the colony. The Universities and
the price of meat, the manner of acquiring Crown
lands and the wages demanded by a house-maid, how
the country is governed and how the people are
taxed, the operations of a Missionary Society and the
cost of a bottle of beer — all these and many other
matters of interest, domestic, educational, legal,
governmental, geological, geographical and his-
torical are comprised within the brilliant red covers
of this large and carefully compiled Hand-book. The
compilers let off the steam of patriotic ardour in the
opening pages devoted to a '• General Description."
There we read that " all the productions of the

» The 'Vcar-b'ok of New /calaDd, 18ti5. Compiled,
for tlie uf>e of iDtcnding Settler.*. Tourists, Merchants
aud Mauu 'acturer3, from infurniation furnished by the
works of the Agent-Geuenil aud the Governmeut of
the Colony. By George Vesey iStowart and Thos.
Simpsou Jones. "' A good laud, a laud of brooks of
water, of fountains and depths that spring out of
valleys aud hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, aud
viues, :iik1 fig trees, and pomcgr«nates ; a land of
oiUlive, aud houey : a land wherein thou shalt eat bread
without soarccncHS, thou shall not lack any thing in it ;
.1 land whoso stones are iron, aud out of whose hillu
thouroayest dig br^.ss." — Deut. viii. 7-''- I'libJislied at
the OUices : Xew Zealand Chambers, <i4, Leadenhall,
Street, London, K. c; aijd Tanranga. Bay of I'leuty,
New Zealwd.-i-ll^So.

British Islands flourish luxuriantly in New Zealand
— wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, Hax, beans, peas,
mai'igold, turnips, apples, pears, plums, cherries,
gooseberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, ttc.
peaches grow wild and luscious in the forests ;
apricots, ijuinces, loquats, tigs, grapes, melons, ripen
in the open air. Manure is unnecessary for the
rich virgin soils of New Zealand : and potatoes, un-
blighted, are floury as they were in Britain before
the failure of -47. There is not a. venomous reptile
in NeAV Zealand, nor are the crops ever withered by
drought as in .Australia aud Houth Africa, or de-
vastated by locusts or grasshoppers." We do not
remember the exact appearance and flavour of the
British potatoe previous to 1847, and our usual
referee on matters of Ancient History is gone up-
country, but the recollection of the yet undegen-
erate tuber has evidently survived through forty
years save one in some minds at any rate, anil
this shows its goodness and the goodness of its
rival and equal , the New Zealand potato. In
reading the above quoted paragraph we were more
than ever struck with the utter perversity of some
men wc have known who have actually
gone 111 look upon that scene of abundance
anil paradisaical freedom from reptiles and ha\e
returned to settle down contentedly in this coun-
try of no potatoes, many suakes, occasional
droughts and chronic visitations of worse enemies
than locusts and grasshoppers. However, it is
only in the lirst half-dozen pages we get this
style of writing. Afterwards the compilers settle
down to details and we get nearly '.100 pages of in-
formation highly creditable to those who have bo
well and ably brought it together and to the
country which it describes.

THE DENATURALIZATION OF S.VLT,

The Bkwako Ofkeeeli by tee Goveknjient of India.

Not the least of the many objections which may
be urged against the imposition of a tax on salt
is, that it prevents, or greatly curtails the use of
that article in agriculture, the arts, and manu-
factures. The value of salt in agriculture was
known in very early times, and there are references
to it in Chinese, Cireek, Latin, and Hebrew liter-
ature. Its value as a manure must have been
established long before the beginning of the Chris-
tian era, for it is mentioned, by way of illustration,
in the following verse of ,St. Luke : " Salt is good ;
but if the salt have lost his savour wherewith
shall it be seasoned ? it is neither fit for the land,
nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out."
Modern science has confirmed the soundness of
the empirical methods of the ancients, and the
manurial value of salt is now fully established.
Salt has also long been used as an ingredient in
the food of domestic animals, and is very neces-
sary to their health. This is borne out by the
partiality tor salt shown by some wild animals,
a fact which is taken advantage of in Chittagong,
where the villagers induce the semi-wild iiaijal.t to
come in, and allow themselves to be milked, by
giving them a small quantity of salt on each
occasion. Sportsmen, too, well know that a ' salt-
lick" is generally a sure lind for bison and other
big game. In arts and manufactures salt is not
so extensively used in India as in European coun-
tries, where it plays an important part in many
chemical works. In India, however, the tish-curer,
the glass-worker, and the tanner all rei|uire salt
for their trades, and it is possible that if the
article could be issued free of duty several new
iudustrie^ oiigbt iiiiriog up.

feo6

THE TROPICAL AGRlCOLTURIS'f.

[Mav I. 1886.

But neither ju agriculture nor in manufactures
can salt be profitably used to any considerable
extent unless the duty is removed. To do this,
so as to leave the salt revenue unaffected — and
India can ill-afford to lose it at the present junc-
ture— it is necessary to discover some method of
renderint^ salt unfit for human consumption with-
out aiieclini; its suitability for employment in other
directions. In those European countries in which
salt is still taxed, this problem has been satisfac-
torily solved. In Germany, salt is denaturalized
by the mixture of oxide of iron, and vermouth
powdsr, or charcoal, when it is intended for cattle,
and by the addition of charcoal, ashes, lamp-black,
or ordinary soot in the case of salt required for
manure. In France, the denaturalizing agents used
are very numerous, but salt intended for manure
is, as a rule, mixed with poudrette. None of these
processes are, however, suitable to the conditions
obtaining in India, where the duty is much heavier,
and where the powerful tropical sun renders the
process of lixiviation extremely easy. It would
indeed be jjossible to use the poudrette i^rocess,
but the Government of India considers that the
issue of a mixture of the kind to the people of
this country is obviously objectionable as leading
to serious misapprehension of motives. The sug-
gestion was made by the Commissioner of Salt
llevenue in Madras, and suijported by the Madras
Board of Bevenue, and we doubt whether, so far
as the Southern Presidency is concerned, the ob-
jection taken by the Government of India is well-
founded. There could, in any case, be no mis-
apprehension of motives by coffee-planters, and
Mr. Bliss's proposal referred to salt required for
a patent manure, which was primarily intended
tor coffee gardens, and was not likely to be patrou-
ized by the ryot. The Government of India, how-
ever, rejected the Madras suggestion, and since
then the chemists of Bengal, Assam, and Burmah
have been endeavouring, but without success, to
discover a process which will fulfil the conditionj
laid down by the Supreme Government. The latter
has accordingly just published a resolution on the
subject, and has offered a reward not exceeding
B5,00U to the inventor, or discoverer of a process
which will satisfy the main conditions. These are
that the cost of the process must not exceed four
annas a maund, and the preparation nmst be such
"that edible salt connot be inolUably extracted from
it by any of the ordinary processes in use amongst
native salt-workers. The conditions are extremely
difficult. All the organic, and many of the inorganic
substances suggested as denaturalizing agents are
liable to be destroyed by a degree of heat too
low to affect salt. To be really effective, the sub-
stance added to the salt must be chemically similar
to it, and must, at the same time, be of low price.
None of the substances detailed in the Resolution
now before us fulfil these conditions, though that
advocated by Dr. Bomanis goes near to doing so.
He proposes a mixture of salt and the sulph-anti-
muriate of sodium (Sohlippe's salt) the solubility
of which is nearly the same as that of common
salt. Salts of antimony act as emetics on human
beings, but have no such effect on tattle and
horses, so that the preparation would not compete
with edible salt. This process was rejected on the
gi-ound that antimony acts as a cumulative poison,
and that fatal effects would follow its continued
use. Dr. Bomanis has, however, in the columns
of the Indian Aiiriciiltnrifl, denied this, and states
that he presumes the idea was S'lggested by tlie
analogy of arsenic. This is a question, however,
which we nuist leave the chemists to decide.

The Government of India seems to us to be
uudul> uervQuu regardiug itij leveuue. Salt can

easily be so discoloured that any attempt to publicly
sell the denaturalized article would be discovered
without difficulty. lu this rresidcncy it is only
on the coast that any extensive attempt would be
made to recover common salt from it, and surely
a Department of which the subordinate agents are
so vigilant that they recently obtained the con-
viction of an old woman foi' being in the possession
of illicit salt when she was in reality only taking
home her husband's ashes, is sufliciently powerful
to prevent the success of any endeavour on a large
scale to evade the Salt Laws. The question is of
such importance that an experiment might well
be made to see whether the issue of prepared salt,
free of duty, would have any appreciable effect
on tlie revenue, and we would suggest that it should
be undertaken by the Madras Salt Department,
the organisation of which is inferior lo none in
India.— J/arf?'«s 3Iail.

TEA CHESTS: CORROSION OE LEAD
LININGS.

The " Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,"
issued on 'iilth December last, contains a " Memor-
andum on the Corrosion of the Lead Linings of
Indian Tea Chests, by Alex-Pedler, i.c.s., Professor
of Chemistry in the Presidency College. Calcutta,'
which shows that very careful and intelligent ex-
periments were made. The result is summed up
as follows : —

The conclusious that my experiments have led lue
ttf form are as follows : —

1. That tea properly mauufactured in the ordinary
way has uo jjower to corrode lead.

2. That if unseasoned aud damp wood is used for
the manufacture of the tea boxes, corrosion of the tea
lead is, under favourable circumstances, almost cer-
tain, but that some varieties of wood act more vio-
lently than others.

3. That even if seasoned wood be used to make the
tea boxes, aud if il be nll'^wed to become saturated
with water, and then placed in favomablo circum-
stances of heat and moisture, corrosion of the tea lead
may occur, though not to so great an extent as if un-
seasoned wood liad been used.

■1, That the active agsut does not exist ready formed
in unseasoned wood, but is produced by a secondary
action from the constituents of the wood.

.'1. That the corrosion is not usually due to contact
action between the lead and the wood, but that a
volatile substance is gradually produced from the un-
seasoned wood.

G. That the corroding agent is nsuilly acetic acid
in tlio presence of moist air aud carbonic acid, but that
other acids of the same series are sometimes produced
aud also act on the lead, and in the case of butyric
aud valeric acids a greeuish yellow incrustation is
formed differing entirely from the whitish or yel-
lowish incrustation produced from acetic acid.

7. Thnt tht' acetic aud otheracids arc produced by
the decomposition (probably by a kiud of fermentution
imdcr the inffuonce of heat and moisture, and perhaps
started by decomposing nitrogenous matters) of cer-
tain substances which are known to be present in
woods. Such bodies are fermentable sugars, starchy
matters, malic acid, etc.

8. That the lead linings nf the tea chests having
been corroded aud perforated by the corroding action
of these acids in the presence of moist air, and carbonic
acid, the tea can easily takeup the disagrecjb'e odour
which the wood itself will possess, after it has un-
dergone the change in which acetic and butyric acil,
etc., are formed, and thus the (juality of the tea will
be deteriorated.

As a mailer of fact, very little, if anything ha-'-
recently been heard of damage to tea by unseasoned
OX damp woods iu teabosec.

Mav I, 1886.J

THE TROPICAL AGR1CULTURI5:T

R07

An Alliterative Tea Cihcclab. — We have re-
ceived by the mail a handbill issvied by a tea firm
in London of a very ingenious design. The virtues
of the tea sold by this tirni are set forth in a
paragraph every word of whieli commences with
the letter T. The following is a specimen : — 'T will
turn the termafjant's tirade to tractable tacit tender-
ness, 't is transcendental to the trashy Teas time-
serving tradesmen tender ; thoughtful theorists tell
tales that twill turn the Tea trade " toi)sy-(urvy. "

Fi.SE I.sDiAN CoFFKKs.— Saj s ilcssrs. Patry & Pas-
teur on March -ioth : — The bulk of the cargo ex "Clydo"
lias now passed the hammer ; the quality, we have
no hesitation in saying, is the finest we have seen
for some years, the color being bright and the bean
large, plump and well made. Should the cargo per
" Straits of Gibraltar," which is shortly due, turn out
of equal qnality, we are inclined to think a new and
profitable era is dawning for growers of Indian coffees,
especially as the supply of Ceylon will be very limited
on account of the extension of tea cnltivation in that
sland.

ToBAcro. — The late Under-Secretary tor India has
won perhaps rather a precarious boon for Knglish
agriculturists in securing the abolition of the restric-
tions on tobacco cultivation. It is always an un-
certain crop, and probably in the English climate
would never be otherwise than speculative. At the
same time it exhausts the soil severely, and re-
quires much greater heat than an ordinary summer
will give for developing a tolerable flavour. Still,
in these times of depression it is quite fair that
the chance of trying it should be opened to the
English agriculturist, and possibly remedies may
be found for some of the more obvious difliculties.
Regulations will have, however, to be issued for its
cnltivation and taxation, as if it were grown free
while imported tobacco is heavily taxed, the result
wonld be a bounty in favour of its home produc-
tion. The first experiments will probably be made
in Lord Harris's own county, Keni.

Brick Tea. — In noticing a Government Report
on Agriculture in Assam, the Inillnti PlanterK'
(Sitzelte states : —

Clause 11 ends with an interesting note about
■• Brick " tea. We look upon this as an excellent
outlet at sonic future day for our coarser class of
leaf if we could establish a trade with Thibet and
the Ifholeas tor it ; the subject is well worth
the attention of our planters. Houghly speaking,
the method of manufacture is, to n ix the tea leaves
with rose-water, and allow them to ferment for a
day or two. Decomposition having then set in,
the whole mass can be worked up like clay for
brick-making; it is then put into moulds, made
into bricks, and dried. The Thibetans put a small
portion or this into an earthen vessel, churn it up
mixed with water and sometimes a little ghee, until
the whole mass becomes a frothy, milky liquid,
when they consider it tit to drink. So far as we
can gather, no art is required in the manufacture
of brick tea, and it is supposed that the Chinese
use all the leaves gathered from prunings for its
manufacture.

Our Thade witu Cevlos.— The direct
trade between the United States and Ceylon
during the year 1881, the latest for which there
are returns, is given by Consul Morey as follows :
Import from the United States direct was
$3i),408 wortli of kerosene oil ; and the exports
to our country were ll,08!l tons, valued at 8912, ">;57.
The only marked feature in this return is the
increase in coconut oil of * 12,.543 ; the total
quantity being §1.50,000, and largely in excess of
any previous year's showing. There \taR also an

increase of nearly 170,000 with respect to plumbago,
though the quantity shipped was below that of the
previous year by ;!,000 tons ; a circumstance prob-
ably indicative of a renewed demand in America for a
superior quality of that aiticle. Of the ex2)orts to the
United States, coconut oil and plumliago amounted
to »82rj, 000, leaving only about Jllw.OOO for all
other articles, the chicfest of which were
citronella oil, Arabian coffee and coir yarn. The tolal
trade of Ceylon was as follows : Imports, *17,:W1,000 ;
exports, *l)i 107,000. Among the imports the
following were the principal articles : Cottons,
?2.'200,000; rice, »7, 100,000 ; coal, $1,1122,000 : iron
and steel goods, glassware, liquors, kerosene, and a
variety of general manufactures. While Ceylonese
produce reaches this country direct to the value of
nearly $1,000,000 per annum, only .\raerican
kerosene finds its way to that colony. The fault
is undoubtedly largely our own.— .-tOTcr/can Ex-
porter.

CrNcnoNA Cultivation in Bolivia. — The fol-
lowing article from the latest Cliemist and Dnififlist.
showing what German Colonists are doing in Bolivia
in plantations of cinchona, is of interest to Ceylon
planters : —

The ruthless destruction of the cinchoua forests in
llolvia by the Indians an,l half-castes, who mouopolised
tiic collection and felled the trees, or striped them in
so careless a fashion as to well-nigh destroy thera, has
lately caused tlie Bolivian Goverument to resort to the
formation of plantations or fj'/itiaUs, which are mostly
worked by German colonists. During the seven years
which have elapsed since the first commencement was
made, these iilaotatioiis have been extended over large
tracts of grounil in the districts of Guanay, Longa,
Yuilgas, and Mapue, jiarticularly iu the latter. The
greater part of the plantations are found in the broken
and undulating region of the Andes, where they are
situated on the mountain sidesandalong the valleys, at
an altitude of 3,300 to 3,900 feet abov.i sea-level,"wliich
is found to be as high asit is desirable to cultivate. A
single tree yields from 15 to 20 lb. of seed, which is col-
lected in the begimiiug of the Bolivian summer tNov-
eiiiberaud December). The seed is thickly sown in
boxes or iu beds of 13 by 3 feet, well watureil, and when
theyoum; plants have grown to a height of C iucbes,
and have developed a few leaves, they are transplanted
into pits of 8 to 10 inches deptb» ami about 0.' feet apart.
They are ligbtly covered with twigs and leaves to pro-
tect tbeni during the next three months against the
sun's rays, the soil around is carefully hoed, and this
careful nursing is continued for two years, when they
maybe considered out of danger; the loss meanwhile
averaging frequently as much as 23 percent, .\tter six
years the tree should be about Hi feet high, with a
diameter half-way up the trunk of 6 inches. If the bark
is of the choicest quality the trunk is straight and re-
sembles that of an orange tree. If the tree is left un-
disturbed until its cleveiitb or thirteenth year, it will
have attained a diameter of over 12 inches, but its bark,
although more close-grained and heavier, i.** lessrich in
quinine. The best results are obtained by gathering the
biirk about the seventh year. The bark is collected by
ninkiiig a transverse incision in the trunk a few inches
from the grouiul, and a second incision 24 inches higher ;
two vertical incisions, diametrically opposite one an-
other, are then niiido, an. I the bark peeled off. When
the tree is stripped it is cut down one foot above the
ground, and from its base, which has the bark iqatn it
preservi^l, about twenty fresh shoots sprout up; these
are after a while cut off, with the exception of the two
or three most vigorous ones, which are allowei! to re-
main. .\ tree yields on an average about 5 lb. of hiirk.
This bark, spread ou' in a paved court, dries rajiidly in
the dry season, but during the rainy season it takes
nearly three weeks. As said above it is only a few yearfi
since the systemalic culture of einchona bark baa be-
come a factor in the resources of Bolivia, and it will be
some years more before this cultivated bark will take
ittipoiitinu among commercial products.

8oS

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Mav I, 1886.

MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEAW PRODUCTS.
(From Ltu)ii^ <fc Ptal's London Price Current, April 8th, 1S86.)

FROM MALABAR

COAST, COCHIN,

CEYLON, MADRAS, &c.

HKES' WAX, White

yUALlTV.

I Slightly softish to good
\ luird bright

Re.l

CARPAMOMS Malabar

YtUow ... IDo. drossy & dark ditto...

riNOHONATURK -Cr..wn|Renfwed'

Alr-dium to tine Quill ...

Sp<>!ce shaviiig.s

nnin.li

Renewrd ...
1 UediuiQ to good Quill ...

Spoke shavings

Branch
Twig

JCh'pj.ed, bold, bright, fine

and Ceylon 'Middling, stalky '& lean

Aleppee iFair to fiueplnnipf'l'PPPd

Tpllicherry!Good to fine

jBrownish

Maugalore JGood & fine, washed, bgt,

Long (leyloniMiddling to good

Ists [Ord. to fine pale quill ...

2nds ,

ardsl „ ...

4th3!Woody and hard

...[Fair to fine plant

...Bold to good bohl
... Medium

Triage to ordinary
QOFFK'EOeylon Plantation Itoldto fine lioldcolory...
Miildling to fine raid. ...

QUOTATIONS.

£6 109 a lEVlOs

«5a£6

Is

CTNNAMON

Cltilis
COCOA, Ceylon

,, Native
Liberian

Kast Indian

Native

[Low middling

'Snialls

Crood ordinary ..
.jSmalltobold
.'Bold to tine bold..

Medium to fine ..

Small

Good to fine ordinary

a 3.4 6d
Is Id a 2s lid
ild a Is lid
M a 8d
id a 2s 6d
(id a 2s tid
■id a Is 2d
2d a Ud
Id

id a .3s 3i
9d a 2s 2d
Is :id a 2s Od
Is Gd a 2s 4d
M a Is :!d
IsBdaSs :id
8f] a Is id
Wa Is lid
3d a Is 6d

m a Is 2a

tid a lid

I a. 7d
80s a 88s Hd
S8» a 7Ss
^5.s a t».is
Stis a lias
65s a 80s
J7s a CIS
■lOs a .'iSs
42s

•'ij.s a .^Or
80s a lli7s tid
C'lls a 80s
JOs a .Ws
II.s

CorRROPE.Ceylon&CochinMid.toarsetofinestraight £7 a £17 10s

.|Ord. to fiue long .straight|£l-' a £S0

..iCoarseto fine £7 a £lti

..'Ordinarv to superior ...'£11 a £30

..Ordinary to fine £l0a£3.i

..'Roping fair togood ... £s lO.s a £12 10s
.. 'Middling wonuy tn fine... 20s a 42s

.. Fair to fine fre.sh Ws a .TOs

Ooorl to fine bold 8«s a 108s

.Small and medium ... '^s a 7'2s

Fuirtn good bold 30sa Ids

..Small .lOsaS.Vs

..'Fair to fine bold fre.sh ... fis a I2s
jSmall ordinaryand fair... -is a 7s
.. Good to fine pieked ... 7s a l»s
iCommou lo middling ... 5s 9d a 7s ,'id

IFair Const fe 9d a7s .3d

PukingsjBurnt and dofeetive ...lis a {>. 6d
OIL, CINNAMO.N ...'Good In fine heavy ...jlsaSs

CITRONELLE ...iBrighl & good (lavonr ...IM a IJd

LEMON GRASS ,..' ''..Idaljd

ORCHELLA WEED ... Mid. to fine, not woo<ly...l40s a .i5s

I'EPPER.Malabarblk.sifted^Fair lo ijold lieay

FIBRE, Brush

Stuffing .
YARN, Ceylon

Cochin
Bo
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted .
CROTON SEEKS, sifted .
GINGER, Coehin, Cut

Ri'.ngh

NirX VOMICA '.

M'i'RABOL.tNES.pale .

AUeppee & Co.^bin
Tellieherrv, While
PLTiMBAOO, Lump

Chijxs
Dust.

RED WOOD

SAPAN WOOD

SANDAL WOOD, logs
Do. ehijs

SENNA. Tinnevell;

good

t

I7<l a 7io
ind a 2s lid
... Fair'to fine bright hoId..!|I2s a Ms

iMiddling to good Fmall...|>is !C Us i-d
...iSlight foul lo fine bright |7s alls
...lOrdinavy to fine bright ...|3s a Ins
...'Fairan.i fine bold ...I f I l.'is a £.1

...jMiddling foaled to good £'' a £7
... Fair lo good llavor ... £20 a f:i->

£IOa£IC,

...Good to fine bold green... Sd ii Is.vl
Fair middling bold ... Lid .i sd
Common ilark and small 1 'd a Ilfd
....Finger fair to line bold bi^ a 17-^
... Mixed miildling [bright His a l.''s

... Bulbs whole 12«

... Do .split ... ....S« lid a IN

TURMERIC, Madras
Do.
Do.

Coehin
VAfJlLLOES, Mauritius &

Bourbon, Isis Fine erystalised fi a 9inoh 1 1» a 24
2nds Foxy & reddish .1 a 8 ,, in» a 12
... J Lean & ilryto middling

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

fl.ean,

\ under 11 inehes
4th |Low, foxy, inferior and
fpii'king

a »s
isl a Is

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIBAR.

I blue

! CLOVES. Mother

,, Stems...

COCULUS INDIClrS
I GALLS, Hussorah
& Turkey

green

white

1 GUM AMMONIACUM—

drop .

ANLJII, washed .,

seraped...

AHAllIC, l:.l. & Aden ..

lihatti ...

Amrad eha

AS-SAFU^TIDA

KIXO

MYBRll, picked ...

Aden sorts

OLIBANUM, ^rop

pickings...

si flings ...

INniARIIBBEll .Moz-imbi'

SAFFLOWER, Persian

QUALITY

! QUOTATION 1

Fair, u.sual dry

„ fresh
Fair

Fair to fine dark

Good

None
...d-Vd a I'd
...'9s a in,

" 59s a 028 Gd

■"1479 a 55s

iBloeky to fine clean
Picked fine pale in sorts,
part yellow and mixed
Beau & p<'a size ditto ...
jamber and dark bold
Medium & bold sorts

[Sorts

Fair to good pale
Gottd ami fine j>ale
Reddish clean
Clean fair to fiue
Slightlystony and foul
Fair to line bright
Fair to fine jjale
jMiddling togood
iFair to tiae white
{Reddish to middling
Middling to good pale
Slightly foul to fine
fjne.fairtofiiie sausage
„ Ball
unripe iflot
liver
Ordinary to good

'sos a 609
i£14 a £17
£11 a £13

£5 i09a£8
,£8 a £12
'£.5 a £8
80s a loOs
,32s a 5fl,s
SOsa 110.S
45s a HGs
45s a 55s
a44.s
38s a 40s
£6 a £7 10s
SOS a lOOs
45s a 55s
.32s-a 44s
9s a lis
9s a lis

2s a 2s 3d

Is Id a Is 2d
Is 6d a Is fljd
•5s a 1.5s

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, Ists
2nds
3rd9

INDIARUBBER Assam

.Nearly water white ... 3Jrt a4jd
.'Fairand good pale ...|2-15,,1M a .Id
. Brown and brownish ...|2Jd a 2id
.[Good to fiue ...,1s fid a 29 2d

Common foul and mixed, Hd a Is Sd
Rangoon ...Fair to good clean ...[is llld a 2s 2d

Alailagascar Good 10 fine pinky & white -Is Id a 29 .3d
Fair to good black ...'is 8d a Is lod
SAFFLOWRK ... (iood to fine pinky ...|£4 10s a £5 IDs

Middling lo fair ■ ...l£a .5sa £4 Zs 6d

Inferior and pickings ... £l a £1 lOs
TAMARIKDS ... .Mid. to liue/Jmlnot stony, lOsa Us

Sbiiiy and inferior ...I3d a 6s

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

. Fairdrj' to line bright ...'309 tida 32-
. Ccmmou Si middling softl20s a 29s
. Fairtofine ...ISisa 4Us

.[Middling to fine ... 3Jd .1 6d

FROM CHINA. .TAP.tN" &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS,,

CAMPHOR. China ...iGood, pure. >!(; dry white I ,. . , .„

.TaiMU ...I „ ., ■ pink ]■'■•»"''» .0^

GAM MI KR, Cubes ...'Ordinary to fine free ...;28s 6d a 29s 6d

jPressed ...1339 a 249

Block ...Good ...J2l3a21s3il

(i I ITT.A PERCH A, genuine; Fine clean Hanj& Macas-;2s 4d a as 3d
Sumatra. ..|Barky to fair [sarjiid a 2s .3d

ALOES, Soccotrine and Good au.l fine dry ... £7a£lii

Hepatic. ..|Commoii and good ... £4 a £>^

CHILLIES, Zanzibar ...IGood b. fine bright ... 37s a 4:!s

Ordinary and middling... 32s a 3.'is

CLOYES, ZaniibBr 1 |aood and fine bright ... 7sd a 7Jd

5DiiP«n*a },r -..-.-

Reboiled

..iCommou to fine clean

... Id a Is 4d

White Borneo

..'Gooil to line clean

...lid a Is 3d

Inferior aiul barky

... Id a 8it

NUTMEGS, large

..iBl'sa 80's, garbled

... 2s .kl a :!s 6d

Medium

..'8.3's ft 95's

...lis lid a 2s 2d

Small

.. lOO's a KiO's

...ls3dalsl0d

MACE

.. Pale reddish to pale

... Is Gil a 2s fid

Ordinarj* to red

... Is Id a Is 5d

Chips

...Is a Is 2d

RHIIKAHB. Sun dried

..'(iood to line sound

... l8 9da;is

jD-irkor.linarvSimiddl

ng lOd a Is ltd

High dried .

..'Good to line

... Is 2d a Is Od

.Dark, rough & middlii

g 7d a Is

SAGi*. IVarl, large

..1 F'air to fine

... 129 Hd a 1:')S

medium .

.1

...128 a 1.3s 6d

small

,

... HsBdallafld

Flour

.Good pinky lo white

...SsGda las

TAPIOCA. Penang Flake.

. Fair lo fin.-

... I'da2;d

Singapore

.. >,

.. IJdaZJd
.. ijd a l\d

Flonr

.' ,, ,t

Pearl

, Bullets

.. 1.39 6d a Ms 8d

Medium

..)l.3sa IBsCd

Seed

..Il4aa 15s ed

jOMtcftry duU t^ idix

, 7id A 7^11

June i, i8S6.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

8oy

CEYLON TEAS FROM & OLD YOUNG
ESTATES: AND ALLE(iEU DETEKIOKATION.
It is news to us that there has been any
marked deterioration in the quality of teas from
the oKler estates in Ceylon, well-estabUshed marks,
so far as we have noticed, fully maintain their
position and reputation in the Iiome markets, and the
criticisms of London Brokers during the late months
have been rather directed to the generality of
Ceylon tea and principally under comparatively
new marks. In proof of this, we have only to
refer to the fact that such teas as those of
Loolecondura, ISlackstone and Galboda have con-
tinued to be held up in the Brokers' reports as
models of what ought to be followed in the
preparation of Ceylon teas. In some cases too of
extensive cultivation we know of estates or marks
which have rather bettered their average and
position— making allowance for the slaker market
and fall in prices. A striking instance of this is
afforded in the wellknowu "K. A. W." teas, because
apart Ironi the extensive area of cultivation directly
attached to this, the largest Tea Factory in the
Island, nowhere else is the leaf of outside plant-
ations so freely purchased, and yet the result so
far has been no deterioration, but rather an im-
provement and strengthening of the good position
of the K. A. AV. mark. KadawcUa Factory, it will
be understood, is fully supplitd with machinery,
with am))le withering room, and with an adeijuale
stati' in all departments carefully supervised. All
this would certainly point to the fact that any
falling-off in the ijuality of teas from other quarters
is due to the want of one or other of the requisites
we specify: needful machinery, superintendence
or care. In one or two cases of known marks
where a slight deterioration has been reported, the
remark has sometimes been made to us, "Oh, Mr.

" is toe busy with e.vtraneous and very profitable

"work to give that attention to the preparation
"of his own teas which he did in the early days."
But the complaints preferred to us and which
we made known about a fortnight ago, arising out
of the condition and quality of teas ottered at
local sales, referred almost entirely to young gardens
and new marks. It is possible that the want of
a sufficient statT of trained natives for the tea-houses
may be the cause of the inadecjuate preparation
which was condemned. To deny superintendents,
the help of "tea-men" — coolies who have learned
and know something of the work of preparation —
would indeed be a penny-wise and pound-foo)is!i
policy. In other instances, shortness of labour
and "the want of machinery (a roller especially)
may account for the disappointingly delicient
quality of the teas. But making allowance for all
these supposed causes, we fear that in some instances
at least, nothing but ignorance or downright care-
lessness can allord a suftieient explanation.

It is suggested that the I'lanters' Association
should enquire into the subject of the " Deterior-
ation of Ceylon Teas;" but apart from the fact
that the industry is in too incipient a stage — tak-
ing the country as a whole — for any such inquiry,
and that the matter is'one of peculiar dilieaey for
any corporate body to deal with (/■.<(. by circular,
" We notice your teas selling below, and your
neighbours' above, par : why is this thus ? ") the
business is really one Bailing for the attention of
proprietors, agenlB of visiting agents and individual
101

superintendents. A discussion cannot fail to do-
good by turning attention to the dcliciencics — in
siiperinteTidcncc, niacliinerv, labour or care — in each
case and by iivumoting a determination to do better
and a spirit of ennilation among our tea-makers.
The way in which Ceylon planters learn from each
other and never cease striving after improvement
in their work, is the admiration of all our Indian
visitors. Let instruction be made available where
required, and do rot let us have grasping jiro-
inietors neglect the fact that the reputation of
their gardens may be ruined at the very outset,
through a false economy, or a desire to ))ush their
superintendents into tea-making before they have
had the requisite training or experience and need-
ful assistance. It is nonsense to suppose that a
ring of Colombo buyers and brokers can acc'ount
for alleged deterioration. As a matter of fact, the
testing of teas for the last Colombo sales showed
a decided improvement on that for the penult-
imate series, and the prices at once rose in cor-
respondence therewith. If Ceylon Teas are to
maintain their good position and reputation, each
proprietor or responsible agent must see to it that
his estate superintendent ^has the qualifications
and appliances and labour which are absolutely
necessary to enable him to turn out satisfactory
parcels of the product to which attention is now
almost e\crywhere so exclusively directed among
the Ceylon planters.

4 ■

THE TEA MAKKET.S IN BELFAST AND THE
NOKTH OF IRELAND,

It is wellknown that the Irish in Ulster con-
sume a large quantity of high priced teas, the linen-
weavers there especially being credited with living
chiefly on strong green teas (up to Is and .5s a lb.)
and potatoes. This adds to the interest felt in a
correspondence which has taken place between Mr-
Davidson of Sirocco fame and a Belfast tea mer-
chant. Messrs. Davidson & Co., wrote to us as fol-
lows by last mail : —

" We enclose a page from //. <(■ C. Shiil of
12th instant from which you will see that a news-
paper war has been waged here between our Mr.
Davidson and a local tea retailer, and, as the matter
is likely to be very interesting to planters generally,
we trust you will see your way to reproduce the
correspondence in the Ubsfrvcr and Tropifal Aijrl-
(tdtiirht as it appears in the Mail."

I'ressure on our space forbids republication in full
but we give such extracts as will enable the con-
troversy to be understood : —

Mr. Davidson, tlie well-known Sirocco Manufac-
turer, has done much to jiopulariso Jiuliau tea in
Belfast. He commcucod by supplying liis friends
and neighbours with small quantities in a quiet way,
and bis reputation as a wise mim about tea having
rapidly spread, he has developed a largo business in
Indian aud Ceylon teas. This seems to have occasioned
displeasure to some members of the tea trade in Bel-
fast, one of whom (Mr. Anderson, of North StreetJ has
entuicd into correspondence with Mr. D.ividson in the
" Bclfa.'it News Letter." In this correspoudencn Mr.
Davideon has decidedly the best of it, aa will be seen
from the following extraet of which wc give a first
instalment this week and propose to coutinuo as the
letters will interest Indian tea planters.

The controversy opened by a manifesto hy Mr. Ander-
son, I'niivencd with italics, in which ho says ; — " China,
at cue time, was tin" only country from which tea could
be obtained ; now, te.i forma one of the staple products
of India, wbile ,Tapan, .Tava, and Ceylon furnish
their quota of the world's supply. " Tea cul-

bio

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[Ju.NE 1, i886.

tivatiou has growu prodigiously iu ludia iluring
thp last twenty years. A quarter of a coiitury
ago the ti'a plant was alniost uuUiio'.tn there ;
whereas now there are " many luimlrciis of t™ gardens"
covering very extensive areas of tlie richest iand in
the Nortbcrn Provinces of Imlia. 'J'liesc yield about
seventy million pounds of tea per annum,' nearly all
of which finds its way to the Loudon market. I'irst-
class tea dealers who have acce.ss to the " extensive
variety " embraced in this " enormous (]nnutity'" arc
manifestly in a mUch better positiou to supply the
public than parties confined to the produce of any
one particular (garden. The soil and climate of India pro-
duce very different tea to that of China. China teas
possess a sameness and uniformity which strikingly
resenobles a similar trait in the character of the
Chinese people.

_" India, on the other baud, produces teas " bristliug
with pecularities," and wide as the poles assnnder in
flavour and strength. And, though Indian tea.'s are
vastly supericr in intrinsic merit to those of China,
yet lengthened experience and a critical taste in se-
lecting and blending are indispensably required to
produce a "thoroughly drinkable Indian Tea." "To
acquire this experience, and to become fully ac-
quainted with the immense variety of teas growu
ill so many different countries, long years of train-
ing and study are requisite. These qualifications
aro brought to bear on the selection of tea in
IJelfast in a "greater degree' than any other place
in the United Kingdom. Hence it is that Belfast
has obtained a reputation for " high-class tea" Bucb
as is not possessed by auy other town or city in the
kingdom.

It is well to bear in min<l that the vast propor-
tion of tea on the market is of medium to common
quality. The " very finest descriptions" form an ex-
ceedingly "small portion" of the total supply, and
the consequence i.s that they are eagerly sought after,
and " fetch very long lu'iccs." It ic no uncommon
occurrence for the choice breaks of the best Indi;in
gardens to bring 3s "per pound in public sale" in
London. Add to this figure duty, freiglit, and charges,
and the cost to the dealer is raised to .3s .Sd. It is
quite evident, therefore, that if the " choicest teas
are wanted full values" must be paid. The public
may rest assiired that, no matter what inflated de-
scription is given of low priced tea, " none of it" is
worth more, to .say the least of it, than the price
asked. Many of these common teas are " badly cured,"
the result of " imperfect knowledge" on the p.irt
of amateur tea planters of the chemical changes
involved in the curing process. .Such teas have been
largely sold in England and .Scotland, and in a lesser
degree in Ireland too, "misleading descriptions' and
"meaningless terms" being employed by unscrupulous
vendors to deceive the public. At a time like the
present, when a great deal of worthless trash is ottered
for sale in Belfast, it is necessary to emphasise the
fact that high-cla.ss tea is more enjoyaWe, more whole-
some, and more economical than "inferior tea."

To this Mr. Davidson replied with a letter, in wliich
he says: —

"The seventy million pounds of Indian tens imported
during the past .season brought an verage price of
about fourteen pence per lb. at the public sales in
London, whcrens the China teas, of which about 150
million lb. were imported during the same time
brought an average of only about teiipence per lb.
These jirices are, of course, 'in bond,' and subject to
the duty of sixpence per lb. extra. Indian teas, there-
fore, show an intrinsic superiority equal to fourpence
per lb. over Chiua teas, and although even the Indian
average of fourteen piuu'C .seems verr low. when con-
sidered alongside of tlu' tbirty-six pence i|uotation
which Mr. Anderson refers to as a proiier price (in
bond) for 'high cla.ss' tea, nevertheleas, Indian plan-
ters have to be contented with it for their .■! verage in the
meantime, and like the farmers in this country here just
do their best to hold their concerns togctlier, hoping
for better times to come, or for some method o?
reaching the consumers more directly with their I
toae. My owu esperituce aa a tea planter datej bick 1

to the year 18U I. The annual out-turn of tea from
India was then only about a tenth of what it now is,
and prices were much better. In my own estate I
managed to realise an average price for my entire toa
crops up to the year isro of over 2s per lb in bond in
T.oudou. Since then the rapidly increasing production
of Indian tea lias brought down prices tremendously,
nsshotvn by tin- aver.ige j>rices realised for last stasons's
total cro]i ; but the consumer nevertheless has been
p.aying Tery much the same price as formerly. '■ Per-
haps Mr. Anih'rsou would attribute this decrease iu
price to what he describes in his advertisement as the
" imperfect knowledge on the part of amateur tea
planters of the chemical changes involved iu the curing
process."

" The Indian tea planters, as an entire community,
are respousiblo for the manufacture of the seventy
million pounds tea crop above referred to, and if
"they" are amateurs, where shall we find the profes-
sionals 'i " Tea planters, as a rule, are always most
anxious to iuqirove the manuf.acture and increase the
quality of their teaf. and auv light which Mr. Auder-
son can give of a practical luiture concerning ' the
chemical changes involved iu the curing process' would
be interesting to them, ns well as to myself, consi-
dering that out of the 70,000,(1(10 lbs. Indian tea last
imported into the United Kingdom, about oO.OOO.OuO
were dried and cured iu the ' ^^irocco' drying machines,
of which I am the inventor, patentee, and maker. These
machines .are manuf;icturcd at my 'Sirocco' Works
here iuBelfast, and there are over 1,000 of them already
in use, and a very large number on order with me at the
present moment. " If Mr. Anderson can impart any
sj)ecial informntion as regards an improved system
of curing tea, wheieby his ideal ' high-class ' ([uality
at '.is per lb. in bond might be obtained, I have no doubt
it would be as gratefully received by my planter friends
ashy myself."

The following letters are iu continuation of the cor-
respondence in the Jbelfint Xen-s-Lctter and risUr licliu
between iMr. Davidson and Mr. Anderson relating to
Indian tea. Mr. Diividsou writes, Jtarch 2rul : —

" Aly last letter on the above subject appeared iu your
issue of the 27th ult., in reply to a letter by Jlr. Joseph
Anderson, of North Street, which he published iuthe
JJ'Ifiis/ Xcns-lctur of 24th ult.

In the concluding paragraph of my letter I chal-
lenged Mr. Anderson to a fair relative comparison and
valuation by a Loudon expert of his teas at 8s 8d. and
2s Sd with mine at 2s. per lb. and I ha\'e since then
bei-u waiting for liim to take up the glove ; but as no
letter or intimation has appeared from him in response
(though he has now had more thau .ample time to reply),
nor any attempt been made to disprove my statements
or .statistics, he evidently declines the challenge. I
certainly did observe that the original adverti.se-
ment, with Mr. Anderson's nann; att.achcd, and to
whiili my letters referred, appeared again in the
Jn/f'ii.<t .\ii's-L/lt( ,■ on the day following the pub-
lication of my last letter to that ])aper ; but, in the
light, which has been thrown on it by the statistics
quoted in my letters, no sane person could accept that
advertisement aseither a reply to my challenge or a
refutation of my statements. "The gist of the entire
correspondence, so far as the general iiublic is con-
cerned, might be summed up in the single (pu'stion
' Can good tea be obtained by the consumer at 2s per
lb?' The statistics which I quoted indicated that it
can, auil I back uji these statistics by selling myowu
tea at 2s per lb. Whether my tea is good or other-
wise, is a matter which the public can easily .ascertain,
as ' the proof of the pudding is in tl>e eating.'
I know it is supposed that sugar is sold at a loss,
in order to draw customers for tea, but what is this
more than an admission that excessive jirofits were being
levied on tea i' I'ossibly, when compared with the
large profits hitherto looked for on tea, the small
margin available on sugar may have beeti reckoned
ahnost as a lo.ss, but any sy,^tem of Imsiness which
deliberately contemplates, and arr.anges for the goods
of one of its important doparttneuts to be sold at .1
steady loss, is unsound in principle, and must sooner or
later be abandoned."

JuxE r, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

811

This drew the followiug from Mr. Anderson . —

" Xow, having found by careful cnmparisou that Mr.
iJavidsou's 2s tea is i:oii\tiUr(ihhi inferior in lii/uor
to tlie tea I have hteiij and rt;n, idliiti/ at 2s.,
I have no htsitulion iu placing before the public
a Tf<i at Is 9d which I ijuaranice fi'Ui; tt/i'.a/j if
not •it'pcrior, in the <-np to Mr. Davidson's 2s tea.
1 Joavc the merits of the case with the public
who are hereby irivited to compare and judge for tliem-
sclves, and they will thus be in a position to decide
whetlier Mr. Davidson, who is only o;ff of ./''<>'?>■ owners
in a sfnatf feii (/uriU'Uf can supply the public as well
as a tea merchant who has wct-f.^'s to the proiluce of
150,000 acres iu I/idia. some 13,000 in Ceylon, iu addi-
tion to the pructicaUij limitless area under tea in tlio
Oitt'.^tiiif J\nipire.'^

■Whereupon .Mr. Davidson replio.s witli the sub-
joined : —

1 presume we may accept the letter which Mr.
.Tosepli Anderson publishes in your columns this morn-
inj'. as his 'statement ' that he declines my challei;ge
to have a fair comparative report and valuation by an
independent London expert of his teas at 3s Sd. and
2s 8d. side by siile with my tea at 2s. per Ih, I
should have been very sorry to think, had my challenge
been accepted, that there would have been any probab-
ility of the London expert putting Iwlh of Mr. Ander-
son's qualities below mine at 2s. per lb. seeing that
I orly claim for my 2s tea, that it is value on the
London market for Is jd. to Is 4d, plus 6d duty
whereas the ' statement ' which Mr, Anderson wanted
me to 'frankly admit ' was that he (Mr. Ander.son, of
North .Street) pays 3s per lb. plus Od duty and freight
for the tea he sells at 3s 8d. In my litter to you,
dated February' 25th, I stated that the total ([Uautity
of Indian and Ceylon teas sold in tlu- public sales in
London between .July 1st and December 31st, 1SS5,
amounted to about 3fl.iiOO,000 lb., of which only about
H.OdOlb., or -03 per cent., sold at 3s and i\i)wards, and
about 40,urHllb. sold at between 2s '.)d, aiul 3s per lb.;
and it may possibly be of further interest to tlio public
to know how the Indian and Ceylon teas sold during
the past month.

"The average price for the whole ii,()00,000 lbs. .sold
in February is rather imder Is 2d per lb., and, there-
fore, much the satue as the average price of the
39,1)00,000 lb. sold in the latter half of 1,S85. Seeing
that the February sales show no tranmclion-s at orrr
2.< 7(7 jifr Ih. Where, does Mr. Anderson obtain his
supplies at 3s per lb. plus tid duty'.' Ho did uot get
them at the public sales in London lately, at any
rate I and if, in the face of the above facts, he likes
to pay 3s plus IJd duty for his 3s sd ijualities to dealers
who buy their teas in the London public sales, it
merely shows that be is not reaping a pro))er reward
for those 'long years of training and study,' and for
the ' lengthened experience <and critical taste ' to vvliich
he so modestly referred iu his origitnil advertise-
ment. It also indicates how e<jinilly liable to error
ho is in the opinion he expresses in his letter today
ponceruing my 2s tea, and it justifies the stipulation
which accompanied ray challenge, to the effect, that
the opinion sought concerning the relative values of
liis 3s Hd and 2b «d teas and my 2s tea, should he
that of ' an independent London expert ' — tlic trial in
such case being sure to be conducted iu a fair, open,
and above-board manner.

Mr. Anderson's reference to myself as being
• only i)»« of /111'/- oivners in a small tea garden,' will,
like his other statements, be nothing the worse of
further elucidation by facts and figures. The name
of the ganlcn referre d to is ' Subong.' It is in
Cacluir. in the province of Assam, and consists of about
2,(X)0 acres, hold from the Government of India. One-
half of the estate bcl ongs to me, and the other half
to my three partners. There are 100 acres under
plant, the variety of which is sn superior that the seed
from it has been largely purchjvsed, at the very highest
market prices, by the Ceylon, as well as the Assam
planters, for extending their estates. The total yield
of tea from the estate for past season was
12 1.000 lb., which by arrangement between my partners
and myself, all conies forward to mo here. Six
months ago I did not cotmt ou being able to

sell this entire crop direct to consumers, but the
demand has iucicased so rapidly that not only can
I now easily dispose of it all, but I have to supple-
ment it b y the purchase of te.is from other estates,
the majority of wli icb I have personally visited. I
hope Mr. Anderson, will excuse my thus trespass-
ing for my extra reiiuiremeiits into part of ' the
produce of 150,000 acres in India,' ' and some
15,000 in Ceylon ,' to which he seems to claim an ex-
elusive ' access."

Mr. • Anderson, under date March 6th, says : —
" Keferrini;- further to my letter of yesterday, I clegire
to emphasise the fact that the issue now lies betwen
Mr. Davidson's 2s tea and the teas I offer at Is '.Id
and 2s, The public who are interested are invited to
compare and jiulge for themselves."

Upon which Jlr. Davidson writes :—" Referring
further to my letter of yesterday, I desire to emphasise
the fact that the issue now lies between Mr. Davd-
son's 2s tea and my teas at Is l)d and 2s." " From
this it is evident that Mr. Anderson now thoroughly
ajipreciates how utterly vain it is for him to attempt
any longer to pose as ihe dishitcre^trd ckattipioyi cl'the
whole retail tea trade for maintaining 3s 8d price,*
for tea to consumers in face of the reduced prices at
which, as shown by the statistics quoted in my letters,
' hio'h-class teas can now be obtained from the grow-
ers.' I had scarcely expected him to ' throw up
the sponge so completely in respect of both 3s
."^d and 2s sd qualities as this last letter of his
to indicate. Mr. Auderson must be very careful not
let himself bo too easily beguiled by the allurements
of low prices olfered from • the pructicullij limitless
area under tea iu the Celestial Krnpire,' to which he,
in his letter of the ■1th instant, claims to have such
exceptional 'Access;' for I fear a good deal of worth-
less ' trash conies forward . from Ihat Flowery Land.
I have never visited China, nor do I profess to know
much personally about China tea, but Mr. W. H.
Chainlets, ot 37, Mincing Lane, London, is considered
an authority, and iu a letter which he addressed to the
editor of the .Statist on January 29tli last, in reference
to China tea, says — ' To the trade who bought common
China congou in lss2 aud 1883 4Jd to iihd the present
((uotation of G.jd may seem dear;' and referring to
the stocks of China tea held in London, he mentions
that on .Tuno 30th, 1885, there was a stock in London
ot 21,339,000 lb. of China congou, valued at from 5Jd
to 6r,d per lb. He was then retnarking, he said, upon
'common to fair' congous, but I understand that the
very flavoury and high-class qualities of China cost
about Is Id to Is Od per lb.

It is to be hoped that in Mr. Anderson's 'access'
to the produce of the Celestial Empire he will totally
Jivoid the'eoiuraon to fair' congous."

Mr. Davidson deserves the thank'? ot the Tea
planters of India and Ceylon.

PLANTING IN NETHEELANDS INDIA.
( Tramtali'd fur the " Straits Times." )

Mr. J. P. Carst, a planter who intends to be the
pioneer in growing tobacco in Cotie, left .Tavft (or
that State about the middle of last month. He is
reputed to know all about the country and its
Sultan. He is besides fully aware that tlio soil
there is highly suitable for tobacco cultivation in
partictilar, and that the Sultan is greatly in favour
of European planting enterprise being started in
his dominions. Lund for the purpose has already
been promised to Mr. C. who feels confident of se-
curing labourers without any dilliculty. Life and
property there are in his opinion as safe as could
be desired, safer no doubt than in Deli or at some
places in .Java. The Sultan is held to be an en-
lightened person, friendly to xirogress, and partial to
Europeans, lie is not only a ineinber of the order
of the Netherlands Lion but is also a freemason.
There is every prospect of his taking care that his
European friends shall sutler no harm from the
natives unless they wilfully bring it on themselves.

8l2

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, i886.

The Siiralmya Cmirant has received less discourag-
ing advices regartWhg the root diseases among the
cincliona plantations in the Preanger Kegencies.
It seems to be chiefly confined within limited
area comprising estates fewer in nnniber than in
other localities to the West and North West. Hence
the extent of the evil is not so great as was at first
anticipated. The disease has, however manifested
itself on isolated spots in other plantations wher-
ever the subsoil is bad and hard or but slightly
porous. On such spots, cinchona plants naturally
cease to grow up as soon as their roots reach the
subsoil, upon which they drag on a lingering ex-
istence until at length they succumb fur good.
Elsewliere in that ijuarter the estates are thriving
notwithstanding the want of rain for many months.
The bark exported from .lava is increasing in cjuan-
tity yearly, but is yet barely one-eighth of that
shipped from Ceylon. Prices continue falling owing
to tlie supply exceeding the demand without any
chance of recovery. The moment any rise does
take place, cinchona trees are rooted up in Ceylon
and their bark thrown upon the market thereby
again bringing quotations down. In that island,
confidence m cinchona cultivation is gone owing
to the prevalence of canker, and tea growing is
rapidly taking its place. So long as there are trees
to be uprooted for this purpose over wide areas so
long will prices continue low from the market being
liable to be overstocked at any moment in conse-
quence. The only encouraging sign is the steady
increase in the consumption of quinine, and the
discredit into which the substitutes for it have
fallen from their inability to ward off fever.

CKVLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTINU REPOET.

APPEOAOHINQ PLANTING SEASON — TKA PLANTS AND
PEICES — TKA SEED — OKATITUPE.

2(;th April 1880.

As the planting season approaches the interest
in tea nurseries becomes intensified. ' How much
should we ask a thousand?" is the uppermost
thought in the minds of those who are fortunate in
having for sale good, strong, well-grown plants.
As for the buyers, there are the ardents souls who
book early and pay high ; but then they are neither
disappointed nor worried once they have plunged.
Others, however, hang back content to let the over-
anxious get satisfied, as they are ever an element
to keep a market unsteady, disturbing it always in
an upward direction.

For the early H.-W. there are not, I believe, a
very large stock of plants to draw from, and
prices are at present lirm, at high rates. Shonid
the season be a favourable one for planting, it is
more than likely that buyers will easily be ob-
tained for all, but the extensive nurseries which
have been put in everywhere since December last,
are being run up with all expedition, and it does
not recjuire one to be a prophet, nor the son of a
proplut to foretell that by and bye there will be
cheap enough plants to be had, and this more
esi^ecially for the N. E. Should therefore the
rains bo delayed, the earlier results of these
late sowings will be in the market to comiicte
with those which in the meantime are " masters
of the situation." As to present prices, I have
heard of one nursery which luis been sold
at RT-.IOper 1,000; another at IJM'.O; and as for
what is asked, R12 per 1,000 is as yet the most
sublime point which my information makes me to
register. A local lirm lately advertising lamps in
your columns drew the public attention to tlie
" absurd prices " it was charging. It is on the same
principle that I cUtonicle Ely a thousand for tea
plants !

Orders for tea- seed, which were booked at the
end of last year or the beginning of this are fast
being executed ; but new orders are slow in appear-
ing. The crop of seed is good on the whole and
the advance of price which obtained when it was
scarce, is not now being sustained. The appear-
ance in the advertisement columns of some of
the favourite estates having seed for sale, is evidence
enough that in the meantime the demand has been
satisfied. The feverish haste for seed which was
so visible a tew months ago, is now transferred
to the tea plant, around it are all the heat and
excitement, whereas the other is neglected, and
has to woo a market, instead of having to be won.
Those who buy Indian seed rnn a very consider-
able risk, and this you come to realize the longer
you have to do with it. The mixed j;U which
can be seen in some properties where the seed has
been imported is a warning. Such stufl'. Plants
with leaves like "curly kail " while others are about
hard enough for shoe-leather. Of course it is
not all like this, but the i:)resence of the better
kinds scattered throughout a new clearing is an
added sting, as showing what might have been. I
should say that those wlio buy imported Indian
seed, except with a guaranteed pedigree, when
there is so much of really high-class local seed to be
obtained, invite a catastrophe, and merit their fate.
I am told that so very particular are some of
the Indian tea planters regarding the seed they
buy that they will not trust others to gather ic
for them, but stipulate to be permitted to harvest
it themselves, and yet, trusting Ceylon has tons
of anything and everything sent into its market,
and it is all sold somehow, and gets planted
somewhere.

There are some nations said to be utterly devoid
of gratitude, but ours is not among the number.
There was a canny Scot who had ventured into
tea, in whose heart there was a remembrance of
favours past, and who had made up his mind to
show his sense thereof by sending, as a token, a
box of tea. He had a hardworking superintend-
ent whose estimate for expenditure he had pared
to the bone, whereas the estimate for crop was in-
flated far beyond anything reasonable. It was all
but hopeless to expect to get it, and yet he pro-
posed to send on the tea in question, as soon as
the estimate was realized I His manager got his
instructions to do this ; meanwhile on the strength
of this the proprietor had that pleasurable sense
of having done what hi; could to acknowledge a
favour of some moment, and this too at little cost.
It was the manager who stopped the current of his
gratitude, for the estimate was never obtained.

Peppkrcobn.

"THE TEA GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

MR. JOHN HAMILTON ON THE PUOSPECTS FOR VOUNQ
TEA PLANTERS IN t'EVLON.

Mr. .Tohn Hamilton of Newton, Dikoya, and
latterly and at present of a well-known firm
of London Produce Brokers, is full of inter-
est in all that appertains to the planting
enterprize of Ceylon. The full title of the season-
able hroi-liiiiY wliich he has just published is as
follows: -

The Ceylon U-.x ludcistiy, an opining for iiieu of
modi inte Oiqiital. By .loliu llaniilion (Late of Vfi/hn).
I'li.e one shilling, Man-b l«f(j.

And he iulrodiices his 17 pages of closely packed
information and advice by the following preface :—

I liave endeavoured in the following .short notice
of the Oeylon Tea Industry to convey to people's
minds a fow of the most material fiicts c.punected
with the new uuterpise, and to explain the opening
that exists, aud the career that is possible, for men

Juke i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

813

of moderate capital now going out to Ceylon. It is
very ilifiicult to make people, unacquaiutiil with the
islaiul aiul all that is taking place thpi-", uiulerstand
the great trausilion necessarily involveil in the oper-
ation of exchanging one staple for auother as the per-
manent protluct of the laud. Over a very large area
in Ceylon, culfee trees are being replaceil by tea phmt.s,
aud as far as human experience can jutlge, lea pro-
mises to be a most brilliant success. The deep de-
pression consequent on the failure of rottV e, culmin-
ating in the crash of the tirieutal Bank seems now
to be passivg away, renewed hope and coulidence en-
gendered by tea prospects is gradually returning and
every nioulh the position becomes stronger and .stronger.
If anything 1 may have written shouUI clear up doubts
remaining in people's niinds regarding the future prii-
sperity of the t'eylon Tea Industry. thi,s pain[ddct will
not have been written iu vain.

There is, of eoiirse, very little whicli is not fami-
liar to our local reader.-;, hut as indicating the
scope of the essay we quote the introductory para-
graph with its sensible warning to young men
"seeking" employment in Ceylon, adding thereto
the headings of the succeeding paragraphs:—

After a pn longed period of intense depression, ow-
ing to the partial collapse of its chief staple, the at-
tention of capitalists is" again being directed to the
island of Ceylon, which now offers an opening to
men of capital, energy, and enterprise, such as is
seldom met with iu a tropical colony. The change
which ha-s quite recently come over the fortunes of
the island, owing to the development of an industry
which promises to bo not only a lemuneralive but a per-
manent one, isalmost unique in the annals of Colonies.
No sooner was it proved that tea of excellent quality
could be produced iu large quantities per acre, auy-
wlu-re almost where the rainfall was suflicieut, from
sea level to 0,000 feet altitude, and at a cost which
left a handsome proht on the undertaking, than plan-
ters aud merchants, whose hopes aud prospects in many
instances had been reduced to the lowest ebb by a suc-
cession of heavy losses, commenced to buy seed and
plant up their laud with tea. Tea, unlike coffee, does
not require virgin soil' although it is possible that
tea planted in laud not previously cleared aud
cultivated will yield heavily for a longer
period without manure than that planted iu laud
previously taken up with coffee aud cinchona. There
are new districts being opened entirely with tea,
yet it is on the estates previously opened with coffee
that the greatest and most important development
has taken place, and these estates will gradually be
replanted entirely with tea. Coffee estates, even iu
favoured localities, formerly exceedingly profitable, have
ceased to pay owing to wet seasons unsuitable for a
fruit crop, coupled with an insidious disease in the
leaf of the plant, which gradually spread over the
whole island. These causes, followed by a heavy fall
in the value of the commodity, had rendered wliole
districts comparatively itffertile and unremunerative ;
yet ou these estates a considerable income has been
ilerived during these years of depression from the
bark of cinchona trees, thousands of which had been
planted about, or in separate clearings, and by their
means a period of uuc-ertAinty and gloom was tided
over, aud planters were enabled to cover the exja-nse
of planting up their land with tea, portions of which
where first" planted are now giving good returns
from the latter product. I have found it neces.sary to
give thesi- details in order to explain to those un-
acquainted with the position of affairs in Ceylon my
reasons for stating that a good opening oiici- again
offers iu (,'eylou. In these days ofUeeu competition
it is a most difficult thing to find any desirable

« Tl>i.t is rather too bare and sweeping an as-
sertioii : although undoubtedly a h-af crop is more
easily produced in our Oeylon climate from poor soil
than one of fruit : still, in the higher districts es-
pecially, it -^^iU be remembered that most of the
land opened for coffee never got the ehanco owing
to the cft'ect of the leaf disease of being eshausted
ita virgin properties. — Kn.

openings for younger sons — every profession is more
than overstocked. Business just now is bad every-
where, an»i it is imperative iu many cases for men
to seek an outlet for their capital and eni'rgy in
some colony. In Australia, apparently, to ensure
success a man must have not le«s than £10,00(1 as
a minimum. A man with this amount of capital
would |>robably be enabled to find an opening for
him.self iu the mother land, and would In- disinclined,
unless of au exceptionally enterprising turn of uuud,
to expatriate himself to the Antipodes without first
trying some occupation requiring such a capital in his
ott n country.

I may as well state, once for all, that there is
no openuig iu a tropical colouy for a man without
caiiilal. Everyone who goes out to such a colony
must go with the intention of investing- on his own
account sooner or later. He should have not less than
CJ,.')OU behind him, and it will be eveu better if he has
from £4,000 to t;.'),000 of his own. It is by no means
necessary that he should have his money in his hand
at starting. It were better by far that he should go
out and live iu the country aud look about him for a
year or so and le.arii his work aud his way about, and
then decide as to what part of the island he iuteudsto
invest in. Arrangements could doubtless be made for
intending settlers to have a place to go to on arrival,
where they may learn their work, and liave every
opportuuity of acquiring a thorough insight into tea
planting aud the management of coolies. A man
going out without capital, although it is possible ho
might push himself into employmeut, aud may seem-
iugly be getting on aud drawing a fair salary, exposes
himself to euormous risks such as failing health,
without adequate means to supply his needs , loss of
employmeut through no fault of his own, and no pos-
sibility of making a future of any use to himself with-
out extraneous aid in the shape of funds.

Then follow sections headed as follows : —

Climate. Government. Tenuie of property. Com-
munications. Labour Supply. .Soil. Lay of the land.
Leaf disease iu the coffee plant. Nature of invest-
ments. Forest lands. Partially opened forest land.
Opened land yielding produce. Uncultivated estates.
Mariawattie. Loaus on mortgage. Cost of production.
Present acreage under cultivation. Yield per acre.
Production in the ne-xt two years. The future market
for Ceylon tea.

Finally Mr. Hamilton winds up : —

There are doubtless many parts of the world v/here
tea could be successfully growu as far as the actual
cultivation of the plant and manufacture of the tea
is to be consideretl, yet it is only in countries where
a combination of circumstances, amongst which a
cheap and ample supply uf labour is the first essential,
makes it possible. Ceylon, just now, holds a peculiarly
favourable position in this resj>ect, as in addition to
the combination aforesaid, the materials for a great
tea enterprise are to be found ready at hauil, owing to
the collapse, or rather partial collapse, of its great
stai)le, coffee. People uuacquainted with the expense
anil tedious delay iu developing a forest-grown tro-
pical colouy, can s(-arcely realise the important pos-
ition Ceyiou holds for intending colonists, in having
its eoinniuuicatious fully openeil out, aud a large
supply of trained labour. Hloreover, in (Ceylon there
already exists a highly enlightened, intelligent, enter-
prising body of industrious men, ready to avail them-
s-lves to the utmost of the new industry so fortun-
ately c.me tu their rescue. There are several books,
directories. iVc., (ui Ctiyloii, which the intending settler
will h(r sure to hear of, and which will fill in the out-
lints 1 have roughly drawn in as )-iiu(;ise a form as
possible, iu endeavcHuing to give a short account of
the rising tea industry in ('eyion, po.ssibly destined, ere
loll';, to make this island the Lea garden of the world.

BUCHU.PAIBA,

(.(nick, complete cure, all annoying Kidney, liladder
nd Urinary Uisenses. Dniggisls.

W. E. Smith itCo, Madras, Sole Agents.

Si4

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

THE ALLEGED FALLING-OFF IN THE
QUALITY OF CEYLON TEAS.

There is another way of accounting tor the
falling-off in quality of some of the Ceylon teas,
especially in those cases where ijuality w'as preferred
to quantity in oriler to obtain a name for pro-
ducing high-classed tea.

It is now found, since the heavy decline in the
prices of broken pekoes and pekoes, that plucking
fine, say, only SOO lb. per acre instead uf ;J00 or (lUO
lb. does not answer. IIOO lb. at an average of Is :id.
per lb. is better than aOO lb. at an average of 'is
per lb. if that was obtained. It appears possible
that Ceylon planters will shortly see the wisdom
of sorting only into two qualities. I'ekoe, in which
the broken and orange tips are left, and pekoe
sonchong to include all the remainder except dust
and red leaf.

CAPT. PONNAN'S INSPECTION OF THE
CEYLON PEARL BANKS.

Capt. Donnan, Master Attendant and Inspector
of Pearl Fisheries, has just concluded his an-
nual inspection of the pearl banks of the island,
— or rather of those which are inspected annually,
here being sonie few banks for which an inspc;ction
every two or three years sullioes. We are glad
to say the results of this year's inspection are
eminently satisfactory, and Capt. Donnan is happy
to be in a position to report that never before
in his experience have the prospects of a large
and lucrative pearl fishery been so good. The
banks just inspected are those lying off the coast
of Arippu and Mannar, extending a distance of
about 20 miles at from i to l-'j miles from the shore.
These comprize the Cheval paar, the Motarakani
paar, the I'eriya paar, the Kallatidel paar, the
Periya paar kerai, the Kondaehehi paar, the
Vanicali paar, the Nadakkanda paar, and the
Anairiluntan paar. It is on the first two of
these paars that the oysters are found which
usually constitute the fishery, the others as a
rule being barren. Two others, however, were
this year found to contain very fair quantities
of oysters, namely the Periya paar and the Periya
paar kerai. Capt. Donnan estimates that on the
Cheval and Motarakam paars they are at present
no less than three hundred njillions of oysters,
about '21 years old. These will be ready for
fishing ill a couple of years, but the quantity is
too great to be all fished in one season-
indeed there are as many oysters there
as are usually brought up in four fisheries. The
only months during which fishing operations can
be carried on are March and April, when the
wind comes alternately off the land and sea. In
the south-west monsoon it is impossible to get the
boats out, and so entirely deix:udent are the
divers on the wind and the weather that a change
of wind and a breeze from the south-west, even
during the calm weather of the north-east mon-
soon, interrupts all work till it ceases. Capt.
Donnan also inspected six banks off the island of
Karadover, on three of which young oysters were

ound. He estimates that there were :iO millions

ere of about IH months old. As no oysters have
been found here before, the fact of there being

o largo a quMitity now there is import-
ant. On another bank, which was last fished
in the year 183'2, about one-and-a-half mil-
lion o£ ovsters were found of three years old.

These banks will probably provide a ■ profitable
fishery for the year IS'JO. It is anticipated by
Capt. Donnan that about half of the quantity of
oysters now on the banks may be fished and this
will bring a large and welcome addition to the re-
venues of the colony for the years 1HS8, IbS'.l and Iti'M.
There is, however, a diliieulty ahead which may
seriously affect the success of these fisheries. It
unfortunately happens that the Indian Govern-
ment fishery on the Tutieorin banks will take
place at precisely the same time as the Cey-
lon fishery. Now there are not suHicient divers to
successfully carry on two fisheries together
and the obvious consequence is that both must
sul'fer. In Ceylon there are no divers, they all
come over from Southern India whenever there is
a fishery and it is a question whether they will
not rather remain at home and take part in the
fishery on their own coasts than come over to
Ceylon —though it is extremely probable that the
better reputation of Ceylon pearls and the good
treatment the divers experience under Captain
Donnan may induce them to forsake India for
Ceylon. In addition to this there is the certainty
that if the two fisheries take place together the
lirices realized for the oysters will be lower than
they otherwise would. We understand that Captain
Donnan has been in communication with Captain
Phipps, Inspector of Pearl Fisheries to tlie Indian
Government, with a view to arrange for the fisheries
taking place at different dates. Captain Phipps,
however, does not think it can be avoided as he
also is dependent on the same conditions of
v/ind and weather as control operations on the
Ceylon coast, and his fishing can only be done in the
months of March and .\pril. A suggestion was
made that the Arabs from the Persian Gulf should
be engaged to do the work if sullicient local
divers could not be got, and we believe corre-
spondence passed between the Government of Ceylon
and the British Ecsident at the Persian CUilf on
the subject, as a result of which it was ascertained
that any number of Arabs would be willing to
come. But the grave objection to the adoption of
this course is the wild and lawless nature of the
Arabs of that region. Capt. Donnan sees that
great diliieulty would arise in the control of them,
indeed it would probably require a British gun-
boat to keep th«in in order ! However as the
fisiiery cannot take place for two years, there h
time to satisfactorily grapple with the diftieuUies
which present themselves, and we confidently
look forward to valuable fislieries in the three last
years of this decade.

FUEL FOR TEA ESTATES.

(Friiiii llie " Cii/loii Ailrfilixri:" l
The diliieulty of obtaining fuel for tlio uianufncrure
of Tea, though perhaps exaggerated by some, is not
a question of tUe future only. It i.s .already of serious
importance to many. :md will inenase yearly as Tea
comes into bearing. Neither in tbe Kalntani district,
nor in tbe Kelani \'alliy is there likely to be any difli-
eulty in obtaining fuel for a long time to come, ami
where tliere is abumlauce of wooil, no better fuel can
be gut either prepared as Charcoal or in billets,
being less likely to burn out tbe fire bars or plates
of the Sirrocco then either Coke or Goal, and
where wood can bo procured at s.iy HI per cubic yard
weighing.'! cwts., it is cheaper than any fuel which
can be usud in tleylou. The Tea I'lanti'i's dillifulty,
however, will be tile uncertainty of the supply and
diliieulty of transfer. At present the ('.yloii Gov-
ernineiit Railway pay to tlie I''orestiy Department
lil'HV cents perciiliie yard for selected wood. This
wood, I believe, weighs about WXJ lb. to tbe cubic

June i, i8s6.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

«i5

yard. Selected lowcountry tiiiibc.-, however, is iinicb
liciwier tliaoi the ordinary forest growth of the hills.
All acre of brdinarv hill forest will not probably
turn out more thiin" from 'ilW to S.'iO, say 22'i, cubic
yard.^ to the acre, of wood fit for fuel, or 12l>,000
"lb. Allowing 2 lb. of wood for every lb. of Tea
cored, it will take an acre of forest annually for
every C:i.lK«i lb. made Tea. Given an estate of .100
acres, yielding -100 lb. Tea per acre, it will take
practically 2 acres of forest every year to cure the
Tea. 'Jo supply an ordinary estate of 300 acres yield-
inn what is now the recognised average yield of
C'cvlon Tea, viz., 400 lb., it will he necessary to
keep replanting quick-growing trees every year.
The value or heating power of the fuel will vary-
much, and ditTer much in weight, according to the
limber planted or growing naturally on the land,
and the cost of cutting and carriage will also
vary with the conditions of eacli estate, but on no
estate where timber is available shoijd fuel cost
more than Kl per cubic yard of say GOO lb.,
which should cure half its weight in Tea, giving
one-third of a cent of a Rupee per lb. as the cost
of fiieWl)ut to this n.ust be added the value of the
land liTul in reserve. Fifty acres of forest held in
reserve means the loss of a crop of 20,000 lb. tea
were it in cultivation. Coal is at present the only
substitute for wood, and at the current price of coal
in Colombo, a ton of coal will cost from RSO to KIO
per ton on tlie estate, according to the station at
which it is delivered, and the carriage to estate added,
the value of coal compared to wood is as three of
wood to one of coal, which will give the following
results : —

•1 Yds. wood = 1 Ton weight.
12 „ „ =1 Ton of coal as is -I to 1.
A ton of coal will cost E:ir> to II 10, or in other
words three times as much as wood, or practically
the cost of coal is one cent per lb. of tea against one-
third of a cent for wood. Railway rates for trans-
port of fuel must be lowered for coal, and patent com-
pressed fuel will doubtless lie delivered in Colombo at
greatly reduced rates ; but the great difficulty still re-
mains— liow are we to get fuel to stores situate in
inaccessible* places? Coal is costly and difficult of
tram-port ; coke is much more costly and the most
destructive to fire bars and heating plates of the
dryer of any fuel which can be used. Wood, where it
rail be got in abundance, is the cheapest of all fuel,
and the easiest managed by an ordinary cooly, but the
cost of reserve forest lying idle, especially on smM
estates, is a very serious matter. There are few large
estates, however, where quick-growing timber may not
be I'lanted in ravines, on ridges or on broken land or
poor patana. riaiited timber will give at 5 or 0 years
old uearly as much fuel from the thinnings ns an acre
of ordinal y natural forest. IManted timber is regular
pud clo,=ie, and having no trash or soft stulf or "Mousa"
iu it, all is available. A natural forest, when the under-
wood is taken out, is often little better th.in a scrub
with hardly a dozen trees to the acre. The first thing
for a tea planter to do is to plant every piece of
I'-iisf/: land with quick-growing trees. The cleaning
up of old timber on the estate will probably last
till the planted trees are fit to utilize. These trees,
if not used for fuel, can be used for tea chests
made on the estate, far superior to any" imported
boxes wo have had yet,

"Jint to the point"— the fuel of the future is un-
doubtedly petroleum, crude petroleum from Upper
Burma, or from the Black Sea .should ]5nrma not
settle down as soon as we should wish. Petroleum
is a natural product or the earth, the origin of
which is not yet fully understood, but it is found to
be much more abundant and more gener.ally dis-
tribntcd than supposed. Fre.sh discoveries gire con-
stantly being made, and the uses to which petro-
leum is now applied are every day increasing.
At the works in connection with the new Bridge
over the }tiver Forth (the most wonderful de-
velopment of modem Kngineeringj, crude petro-

" lir. Irvin<; must have come elo.sely in contact with
the Irish who have made their way to thc"iuacct'?sible"
portions of Canada 1— Ed.

lenni is used for heating huge masses of iron.*
with the result that there is not only a large saving
in cost of fuel, but the heat is thoroughly under con-
trol, and so equally diffused over the entire surface
of the steel, that there is no burning of the plates or
unequal heating of the surface. Xow, this is exactly
what we want in our tea drying niachinory. All our
tea dryers in use rapidly wear out. and are not only
costly to* rejjair, but as in the T Sirocco the whole
machine has to he taken to pieces to replace the
burned plates. This is troublesome and involves
stoppage of work in the factory. Messrs. Davies tV;
Co. have the model of a T Sirocco on their premises
fitted for burning gas. This, of course, is useless on
our estates, but a similar arrangement adapted tor tho
use of petroleum is what is wanted. Petroleum iu
drums or casks is cheap and easy of tr.ansport. Place
I he oil in tanks some distance from the factory, so
that there would be no danger from fire or explosion.
The great advantages to be gained by using petroleum
.are a saving in first cost of fuel ; the pi;troleum being
in light drums or packages is easy of transport ; heat
under perfect control ; lighted or extinguished in a
moment ; and great saving hi the wear or burning out
of the 'plates of the machine ; perfect cleanliness ;
and if jiropcrly arranged, no smoke, and almost entire
immunity from risk or firo.f

I would ask that the manufacturers of the T .•'iroceo,
rilessrs. Davidson i^ Co of IJelfast, give special atteu-
tion to this matter of fuel. It is a serious one iu
many districts. The writer of this article has seen
in America not only crude petroleum Used in the boiler
of an engine, but thu natural gas given off from the
wells. Wo must in Ceylon at once utilise the natural
resources of Upper Burma, and assist iu the develop-
ment of that great country.

In connection with the question of fuel on a tea
estate, as important almost is the question of "power"
for machinery. No tea planter can produce eheaji
and good tea unless he has good machinery and
" power " to drive. The estates which have the best
machinery will lead the way. No machinery will
do its work efficiently unless under "control ' and
any tea roller, no matter whose roller it be to do
good and fast work must be driven at a good rato
of speed; and that speed to do good work must be
continuous and equal, but under perfect control.
All rollers, like Prater's, Barber's and Thomson's,
should be driven at a high rate of speed, and 1
would warn every tea planter to be most careful in the
selection of the site for his buildings. Get water
power if possible— carry your leaf any distance to
get water power. A steam engine is unquestionably
and undoubtedly the most perfect inaehine power
we have, and far preferable to the most mod
era invention in turbines; but a ten horse-power
engine will consume five cwt. coal in a working
day of eight or nine hours, which means an
annual expenditure of Ka.OOO for coal, or its
equivalent in wood if it be got on the estate R 1000.
I'-very Tea Planter must take seriously into consider-
ation the ([uestion of fuel in coiiuection with tli(^ certain
fall ill prices of Tea. Un many estates, it will simply
mean the difference between a profit and a serious loss.

Jamks Ihvin'e.

TiiK BuLKixK OK Inwan Te.\. — It is claimed for
Ceylon, and is admitted by the London brokers,
that sorting in Ceylon is much more even than
ill India. — Jndiaii Ten (Jazc.lU.

Ci;vi,0N Tu.Ns. — The Trade Organ, the Produce Mar-
l.ct Ucpicir, spcakin", <if Ceylon teas, says that tho
active demand for thorn is proof of their in'^reas-
ing popularity ; tliat they arc largely characterized
by great strength and lino flavour, without tho
astringency of most Indian teas ; and can thus
not only be used for mixing with other kinds,
but can be consumed unmixed. — Indian T'-a Gazette.

* y/e inserted a full account of the experiment,—
Ed.
t Surely this ii too sanjfuinn a statement ?— Ed.

8i6

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

Tka Detekiokation. — I am at present inclined to
think coarse plucking and insufficient supervision
are tlie chief cuases. Tea making; can't be done
by coolies the same as coffee curing was : it must
be personally supervised. — Planter.

I'oTATOKS. — The market is (juict stocked with potatoes.
They are from Bombay and cannot be kept long. I wish
some enterprising person would think of gcttfng pota-
toes from Nuwara Elija. Even at a little ixira cost the
mealy fresh potatoe is better than the leather-like stuff
which our cooks serve a table as English potatoes. — Cor.
" Ceylon Patriot."

Dii. FopsTEit, of Amsterdam, contributes an article
on " How shall Physicians Cleanse their Hands,"
to the Centrul fiir Klin. Mcdicin, and has, after a
series of careful experiments, come to a conclusion
that a solution of carbolic acid of the strength of
two and a-half per cent, was not capable of
" sterilising " the fingers after visiting infectious
patients, but that a solution of corrosive sublimate
of the strength c one in two thousand formed a
reliable antiseptic ivasli. — Biirrjoijiie Bnrlihlrjes, Feb.
18a0 Price List.

CiNCHOK.A CcLTivATioN IN Cevlon. — Perhaps
the most successful piece of Cinchona cultivation
in Ceylon of its age and extent is found in a well-
known plantation in the neighbourhood of Nuwara
Eliya, and some particulars we have learned of the
same may be of iliterest. The area under cinchona
is about 90 acres, trees 5 to 7 years of age about
3,000 trees to the acre. Since 1h7h there has been
gathered about 10.''),000 lb. of good bark and 72,000 lb.
of branch and dust. The total outlay is probably
not over 70,000 rupees, so witli much of the good
bark selling up to 'is. a lb. and the branch and in-
ferior for a good few cents locally, it may be judged
that the investment is a very luolitahle one, more
particularly since the estate still looks with perhapi
250,000 trees, as it it had never been cropped, and
it cannot be worth less as it stands than .tlO,000
sterling. The great success of this plantation is,
however, specially exceptional, standing out in bold
relief to many disappointments.

Casioi! Oil.^A correspondent writes' — -'Per
today's post I forward to your address a small
bottle of castor oil made by myself on this estate.
I shall feel it kind if you would inform me at
your convenience as to its qualities and if there
would be a market for it." The packet reached
us before the letter, the bottle broken as it was
packed only in a paper box. We could not make
out what the clear odourless oil was until we
read the letter. Much oil would be valuable
as a medicine ; the cake is one of the best manures ;
and in India castor oil is the great lighting material,
the railways in Northern India having factories
of their own. Castor oil and castor poonac will
always find a market, but oil-yielding seeds try a
soil very much, and we fear Ceylon could not com-
pete with India in the cultivation of the castor oil
plant. Our correspondent might send a specimen
of the oil, properly packed in a wooden box to one
of the Colombo Chemists, in order to ascertain the
ocal value.

Dete:uouation oi-' Omi Teas. — We fear there can
not be nnich further doubt as to the recent falling-
oft" in our teas, in face of the contiiuied com-
plaints of the London brokers— and it is now a
question of finding out the real cause of the mis-
chief, and a remedy for its removal. A well known
tea planter in the course of a private letter to us,
says : — " 'Tis all humbug about old soil being worn
out. I have tea in its twelfth year giving more per
acre than c\'cr it did, and tea of a better quality.
All tkrongh this season I have had better prices for
niy teas than last year, but when a Broken Pckuc,
.^hich is finer than laet year at the same time,

fetches only Is 2d as against Is lid, what can be
done— put it down to falling off in manufactme ? If
the broker values these lower than what they sold
at, it shows he goes by the ntlltnf rates ; if he \ alues
near w^hat they sold at, then he will f'ttir/i/ give
an opinion, and it will show that such a price
can be got even at the present time. I have a doubt
as to wliethcr the tea-taster is in the habit of giving
an unbiassed opinion, and not merely judging a tea
by what it is selling for at home. That is, suppos-
ing Is 2d to Is Hd be the price being paid for
Pekoes in London and he gets a tea worth Is ."^d
whether he will judge it worth that or only go Jd
to Id on what is being paid at home ? I sec a man
now writes to say that the assistant is sent to look after
the plucking, hence the falling-off. As tea is pruned
from .July to November on some gardens, the teas,
being made between September and December, in
fact until the end of January, will always drop down
in price, iuilr.-i..i the rslutr /.s a small our aufl thr pruu-
i/iij drutr in a iimiith. Now, it takes me from July
till December to prune my estate, so I must always
keep throwing a poor tea on the market for some
months, mixed with the stronger tea off u^runcd
bushes."— Local " Times."

CiriioN. — In recent considar reports appear interest-
ing accounts of this well-known ingredient of phira
puddings and wedding cakes. Leghorn citron is what
it is usually termed, but little or none of the article is
grown there, Sicily and Corsica furuishiug the supply
of the new fruit. The citron tree is of the citrus variety,
and is as near like lemon as it can well be. It is
propagated principally from cuttings, and flourishes near
the sea in sheltered positions and in warm and sandy
soil. The tree resembles somewhat an overgrown busli,
and as the citrons often weigh from six to eight pounds
each, the branches of the tree must be supported by
props. The trees are subject to peculiar constitutional
diseases which kill without mercy. As the profit of
the grower depends largely upon his favorable situ-
ation, etc., it is hard to make even a rough estimate
of the business. Supposing the trees to be planted
three yards apart, and allowiug fourteen citrons to
each shrub, the average weight of the fruit per acre
would be 0,3tG pounds. The price of this fruit in
Leghorn is abouv six cents per pound, but from this
must be dcilucte 1 cost of casks in which fruit is ship-
ped, >? ; cost of cutting and packing the fruit, ~2 per
cask; general expenses of citron farm eslimated at
^6.s per acre. The Corsican or Sicilian grower packs
the fruit cut in halves, in casks with brine and .ships
to Leghorn, where are nine factories for candying
citron, employing three hundred men. On arrival there
in the.se casks the fruit looks like huge lemons with
tremendously thick riuds and little substance inside.
They remain in pickle some thirty days, and are tough
and hitter, 'i'hcy are then boileil in fresh water till
soft, cut into quarters, and all seeds carefully removed.
They are then pl.aced in jars with hot syrup, and for
about three weeks the proportion of syrup is constantly
increased until no more sugar can be absorbed. The
proportion is .'^0 per cent of sugar to 100 per cent of
fruit. The i|uarlers are then jilaced on wire netting to
drj', and when ready are ]iacked in the small wooden
boxes so familiar to us. Citron in short> may be de-
scribed roughly as the thick peel of a si>eries of lemon,
pickled to extract its hitter flavor and absorb the oil,
boiled to make it tender, and saturated with sugar to
make it palatable. As with other articles of commerce,
so it is claimed that the prii'es of citron arc largely
regulated by speculation, varying from nineteen cents
to twelve cents per pound at Leghorn. A curious fact
is that more citron is imported into Italy than exported
from it, the proportion for the last three years being
as ten to one. The soil of Cuba is eminently adapted
for the citron shrub, but few trees are, however,
grown there, everything being abandoncil for the
staj.tle crop — sugar cane. It seems so hard for coranum-
ities to learn the lesson of diversified crops; all
sugar cane, all cotton, or all wheat apparently must
be expected. Cub.i, Mexico and ( '.alifornia offer advant-
ages in the culture of citrus fruits, and are only
awaiting enterprise to develop these profitable pursuits.
—Grocer XnttrienJl.

June i, i886,j

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

K17

AMEKIOAN_ OIL OK PEPPERMINT AND
MENTHOL.*

At a recent meetiiii; of the I'hilailelphi.i College
of Phannacv. Mr. A. M. Todd, wlio is largely engaged
in the nmnnfai-ture of oil of peppermint and menthol
in Michigan, mentioned, in response to au invitation.
some of the results of his experience.

Mr. Todd said that tho proces.s for the distillation
of oil of peppermint in nso in the United States,
and which has entirely superseded tho old process,
was introduced about twenty-five years ago, and
consists of using wooden vessels, steam being driven
through the herb placed on false bottoms. The
vessels are of such capacity that fifty tons of herb
per diem of tweuty-four hours can he workeil off.
^Vhea the fresh herb is distilleil, it requires generally
an hour to obtain all the oil; but if it has been
p.irtially dried, thirty minutes will suttica to accom-
plish the purpose. Formerly it was the common
practice, to allow the water of the distillate to run
to wajite, and this occasioned an enormous loss of oil ;
now, afrer the oil has been collected from the distillate,
this is again used to steam through the herb,^nd as it
is already charged with all the oil it will hold in solution,
it effects a great saving in the process. The condens-
ation is effected by passing the di.still»te which is
drawn off from the body of the still though a five
inch pipe into a number of copper pipes, tinned inside,
and these are connected with block tin worms, 2 inches
in d.araeter and 100 feet long, connected with the
receivers. The first portions of the distillate are more
limpid than those which are drawn off afterward, and
the last portion is more resinous and bitter.

To obtain the mentliol, the vessel, which Mr. Todd
calls the container, has an inner vessel for the purpose
of refrigerating the oil, and is surrounded also with a
wooden refrigerating ve.s.sel. In the container is a
valve above the bottom from which to draw off the
uuc«ngealed od. The oil will, in r.are iustuices, furni.sh
crystals without artificial cold, but generally a mi.xture
of ice and salt is used for n^frigeration, by which a
temperature of— 8^ K. is obtained. However, some
specimens of of oil from certain localities congeal at 21''
J-'., this' being about the higbe.st temperature at which
the natural oil from true peppermint ha.s been observed
to crystallize. The mass of cry.stals .at first more
rt.semble paraffin than regular crystals Imt if care is
taken to remove the fluid portion while a low temper-
ature is maintained, the crystalline formation is-more
distinct, and will remain .solid at about 110" F. The
crystals formed toward the close of the process are
harder and firmer. The commercial crystals are finer
and still have some of the oil adherent, but the pure
and perfect crystals are more free from oily matter.
■\\'hen the oil is reduced to zero, the yield of menthol
crystals is about 20 per cent, of the oil subjected to the
process, but varies, and, strange as it may seem, the
specific gravity of the oil has changed but one one-
thou.sandth from its original density. Ko far as observ-
ation has gone no difference in therapeutic value or
power has been noticed between the crystals and tho
liquid portion of the oil, when a pure oil is compared
with it. As a rule, the oils produced in Michigan are
of good quality, the farmer being careful of the character
of thi- crop ; some lots of oil have been observed con-
taining as ranch as 40 per cent, of alcohol. The first
portion of the distillate obtained in rectification is
inodorous, and at-S" F. yields no menthol, while the
last portion is extremely odorous and is also destitute of
menthol, but the temperature at which the separate
fractions boil has not been tabled. In fraetiouing 400 lb
of pm-c, natural oil of 91.S' specific gravity in twenty
pound fractions, extremely interesting residts were
ol)tained as to the variations in specific gravity, but not
having his memoranda at hand, Mr. Todd could not
state the changes with snfticient exactness. The first
fraction was obtained in about thirty minutes, the last
required six honrs. *

Professor Maisch inquired whether the first or in-
odorous portion was as useful as the middle or aromatic
portion, which one would seem to regard as more
desirable.

Mr. 'JVidil replied that he had never investigated thp
therapeutic action of the first or light portiou separately,
yet he did not consider it .as valuable by itself for all tlie
purposes for which the united friwtions were useful,
though it might contain some di-stinct and valuable
properties peculiar to itself. He had recently under-
taken tho study of these fractious iu their phy.sical
aspect, and it would also be interesting to determine
their therapeutic relations. The true characteristics of
pure essential oils seem not to have been determined and
laid down in the books with sufficient exactness, and
their study affords a field for the most fruitful research.
Phwiitacetttical Journal.

*From the American Jntnutl of PhnrmeiCJ/, ilarch,
102

SANDAL WOOD. »

BV WILLIA.M KtKKBT, F.E.W.S.,

The true sandal wood tree is a native of the moun-
tainous p.arts of India ; but is found more especially in
the My.sore and Coimbatore, e.xtendiug northwards into
t'anara. It likewise grows on the t'oromandel Coast,
in Madura, Assam, and Cochin China (?). As a garden
plant it appears as far north as Saharunpore. The
same tree I or a variety) is met with in several islands of
the Eastern Archi|ielago, namely eastern Java, Sumba,
Timor, and probably others. In India the natural
habitat of the tree is said to have been reduced by
cultivation, f and it is now raised, principally from seed,
in (Government plantations in the Madras presidency
and the Mysore.

Sandal wood is yielded by other plants of the
8ant(Uace-(e. In the Fiji Islands it is obtained from S,
Yasi, Seem. S. Spyrnlarinvi^ A. (rray, and A'. Frey-
ciiutiani'iii, Gaud., furnish a supply in the Sandwich
Islands; in. New Caledonia ^S'. Austro-Caledonicum,
Vieill.; in Western Australia Fiisanus spicatvs, Br. (iS.
spicatnm, DC, and S. ci/ynorum, Miq.) ; iu Tahiti S.
insi'lare, Betero. An inferior kind has been met with
in the Percy Isles, Kepulsi! Bay, Oape Upstart, and the
Palm Islands; it is the wood of E.mcurpiis latifoHa, II.
Br.J The wood of Plumiei'ia alha, belonging to the
ApoCi/n<fcra'/\s sometimes substituted for sandal wood .
Balfour also states that a white sandal wood, called
Lava or Lawa, is imported from /Zanzibar into Bombay. §
AN'hen the sandal wood trees have reached perfection,
which they do in from twenty to thirty years, having
then a diameter of from 9 to 12 inches just above the
root, at the end of the year they are either cut down or
dug up. if the former the roots are generally dug up
afterwards. Worthless branches are removed, as is
also the bark if the work is done properly, and the
trunk is buried for six or eight weeks, sometimes left
lying on the ground, in order that the white ants may
eat off the inodorous sap-wood. It is then taken up and
sent to the depots where it is sorted into three kinds.
Concerning the sorting, Buchanan*! says ; — " The deeper
tho colour the higher the perfume, hence the merchants
sometimes divide sandal wood into red, yellow and
white; but these are only different shades of the same
colour, and do not arise from any difference of species."
He distinctly implies that tho three kinds are derived
from the heart wood. To the same effect is the follow-
ing statement by Udoy Chand Dutt,[[ when writing of
white and yellow sandal wood : — '* These varieties arc
founded on the difference in depth of colour of the
heart wood." From this it appears that the statement
which has been made by some writers, that white sandal
wood is the sap wood of .S'. album, is, to say the least,

* Paper retul before the .Sheffield Pharmaceutical and
Chemical Society, Fehruarv 10.

tDrury, 'Useful Plants of India ' (1873), Lt-a.

+ Balfour, 'Cyclopedia of India,' 2nd Ed., V. (1873).

S Op. cit.

*; Buchanan. ' A .Tourney from Madras through the
countries of tho Mysore, Canara and JMalabar,' vol. ii
(1807), 133.

II U. C. Dutt. ' The Materia Mediea of the Hindns'
(1877), 2'2r).

,^lf?

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [}vm i, 1886.

eoniBwIiat misleailiui;. 'J'lie sap wood is, nevertheless,
founJ in commerce, for Balfour* describes it as "coated
witli tliitk compact bark, has a grey and brownish
cpiitormis, it is nearly inodorous, and has a slightly
bitter taste." As the white is doubtless a lighter shade
of the yellow, so is the red (apart from that obtained
from Pterocarpiis s«Ji<aK««s, which is truly red) a deeper
shade. The red kind was not recognized in Sanskrit
medical works, the only kinds mentioned Yieiug srikhandii,
or white sandal v:ooAf&ni\ pitackaiiduiia or yellow sandal
wood. When the wood has reached the depots it is cut
into billets from -' to 4 feet long. In cutting down the
trees the earth i.^ removed from about the root so that
the collectors may cut as low as possible. The billet
taken from the trunk immediately above the root is
called the root-billet and is of superior quality.

The tree grows freely in hedges and gardens, and in a
rich soil attains its full size ; but in such localities the
the timber is of little value and has scarcely any smell.
Soil and elevation have great influence on the amount of
oil produced. It thrives up to an elevation of 4,000 feet,
and yields the largest quantity of oil when grown in dry,
sunny, rocky, mountainous di.stricts, although it does
not reach its full height. It is rarely found in forests.
As has been previously stated it it is now grown in
Government plantations from seed ; but it also springs
from roots which have been left in the ground.

Sandal wood. — iiansknt,chantlana,srikhtmda. Verna-
cular:— Bengali, (;/M/7w/'7n; Hindi, safrd chaiidun. The
wood and essential oil have been esteemed for the last
2000 years by the Hindus. The straight pieces of heart
wood are much valued for carving boxes, desks, and
other useful and or'jameutal articles. Rich natives use
the wood for burning their dead relatives, and all classes
.xdd at least one piece to the funeral pile. In powder
the Brahmins mix it with the pigments they use for
making their caste marks. As a meihciue it is considered
by them as bitter, Booliug and astringent. Reduced to
;>owder it is taken in cocoa-uut water, and an enmlsion
is used to anoint the body with after bathing. It is
,ilso burned to perfume temples and dwellings.

Sandal wooil is imported into this country in logs
from y to 4 feet long, ami, from 3 to « (rarely 14) inches
iu diameter. Tliat the alburnum is imported is very
iloubtful, as 1 have not found any mention of its presence
here. The duramen is very heavy, somewhat hard to
cut transversely, but easily cleft. In colour it is
yellow, fawn-coloured, or reddish-brown. It has a
very strong, persistent, agj'eeable odour. The taste is
aromatic. " Three sorts are recognized in the coumiercial
houses of China, iiAme\y, 'South St/a Isfohil^ Jimor &i\A
Mafaho'' ; the last fetches from three to four times as
high a price as either of the others. "f — Pharmaceutical
Joitrnaf.

POTATO CULTUKE.

SELECTION Of GKOUND.

Success in potato culture is attainable not only in
different climes, but also in a very great variety of soils.
I'nder otherwise favourable conditions, the tuber will
grow as well in clear sand as in stiff clay. The happy
medium is generally the best.

,V thin Layer of fertile surface-soil, resting upon clay
sub-.soil. which is impervious to water, should never be
usoil for potatoes, not even if thoroughly underdrained.
The tubers .are more apt to rot in heavy, sticky soils,
jiarticulary iu a wet season, than on light sandy or
grnvelley ones.

It is a very common practice with farmers to plant
potatoes on clover sod, plowed in the spring. This
Bclectiou is a good one, provided, however, that as in
the case of young and rank-growing clover, the sod is
such us to admit of thorough pulverization, or that the
field can be plowed early enough during the summer
or fall previous to give ample time for the sward to rot

* Op. cit.

t Fliickigor and Hmdiurv, ' I'harmacographia '
54;!.

(1«74).

and thus make cross-plowing practicable. Otherwise,
when the clover-field is old and the roots of grasses and
weeds are woven iuto a tough, thick sward, which
cannot be easily broken and pulverized, it would be
advisable to have a crop of wheat, rye, oats, or corn
precede the potato crop.

An admirable selection . — For early sorts— clay loam,
very rich. For late sorts — Sandy or travelly loam, of
medium fertility. Naturally drained, loose and mellow
clover-sod, or stubble after stiff sod is the best imaginable
condition or state of cultivation in either case.

MANUIE AND ITS APPLIC'ATIOK— KEED THE LAND AND
THE LAND WILL I'UKD YOU.

Coarse, unfermented stable dung is nearly worthless
for the potato crop, unless as a much on very porous
and dry soil. Thoroughly rotted compost in moderate
quantities is a good fertilizer for tall-growing varieties,
while low-growing (early) sorts are greatly benefitted
by more liberal applications.

The clover on the pasture lot or meadow selected for
a potato field should not be grazed or cut very late in
the fall. M'e could hardly wish for a better fertilizer
than a good growth of clover, covered during the fall
with a coat of fine old manure or barn-yard scrapingsr
lighter w heavier — according to variety to be planted —
and, if possible, applied with a Kemp manure-spreader
or, at least, evenly and finely distributed by means of
harrow or otherwise.

For stubble ground, fall manuring can be recommended
only on condition that the manure is harrowsd or culti-
vated into the soil and thus left until spring.

On land manured the year previous, potatoes will do
well without additional fertilizing, still the application
of wood ashes or lime often increase the yield. Newly
applied stable manure seems to attract the wire-worms,
and therefore has the tendency to produce scab in the
tuliers. Coar.«e manure is a fre^jueut cause of prongs,
protuberances, ** fingers and toes."

Commercial fertilizers meet with no objections of
this kiml. The fairest, smoothest and best shaped
tubers ere generally grown on well pulverized soils which
were fertilized with chemical manures, or not at all the
same season. In recommending such fertilizers, we
enter debatable ground. While we have never failed
to see good results from the application of phosphates,
etc., whenever we tried them on potatoes or other crops,
there are many cases on record, as reported hy different
farmers, where even complete fertilizers — those contain-
ing ammonia, phosphoric acid aiul potash — utterly
refused to respond. Still we believe that the fault is
with the man oftener than with the material. Commer-
cial manures and chemicals give us one great advantage.
Of the three most important elements, ammonia, phosp-
horic acid and potash, the soil may contain n sufficiency
of one or two. If we know, from previous experiments,
which these elements are, it will be only necessary to
supply the one that is lacking. Thu.s, our own soils were
always deficient in phosphoric acid, and therefore
greatly benefitted by its application, next by that of
potash, but not noticeably by ammonia. On other soils
ashes, or some other forms of potjish, either alone or in
combination with phosphoric acid, or ammonia, will
greatly increase the yield. •

If previous experiments have not been made to deter-
mine the relative proportion of these elements in the
soil, complete manures like Mapes' or Stockbridge
(Bowker) special potato fertilizers, Powell's potato
producer, etc., which contain the three ingredients in
about the right proportion for the crop, can be relied
on with safety. From 600 to 800 pounds to an acre
should be applied broadcast, just before planting, and
deeply harrowed info the soil, or in ilrills, ahoutan iuch
or two above the seed and covered by a few inches of soil.
The well-known English experimenter, Sir ,T. B. Lawes,
of Rothamstead, used 30U pounds of sulphate of potash
(130 pounilrt actual potash), 350 pounds superphosphate
of lime, 6.50 pounds of nitrate of soda, to produce a crop
of 4t!0 bushcds. This me.ius almost a mere manufactur-
ing of the crop out of chemicals, without oatling on the
soil for assistance (as to the supply of raw material);
and such manufacturing might ho carried on year after
year on the same land.

jONfi 1, 1S86.J THE fUQPiCAL AGKtCtfLt0Rlgf.

iii^

The cost of raw material would be about as follows:
3(0 (louudii of sulphate i>f potaiih at :;^ cents, $7.50
o50 pounds superphosphate at 3h cents, •.. 12.25
5JU pounds nitrate of soda at 3 cents, 16.20

Total S35.!»5

Ejtpeijsive aw this manuring appears to be, we eould
well afford it, if thereby we make sure of a crop of lOi^
bushels.

■Where unleached wood-ashes are obtainable at little
cost, they may take place of sulphate of potash, and
perhaps show better results at less expense. The cheap-
est source of phosphoric acid for potatoes, probably, is
dis.«nlveti South Carolina Kock, containing about 27 to
30 per cent, of bone phospohate, and costing Sl(! per
too.

Nitrate of soda is an awkward thing to handle, on
account of its great solubility, and dear also. However,
it has tbi.s one great advantage ; that there is no need
of applying it sooner than the growing vines show the
lack of it. Never apply it in the fall.

A rank growth of clover or of clover roots, turned
nnder, supplies all the ammonia needed, and is generally
the cheapest form in which ammonia can be obtained.
This manuriul substance plays a very important part
in giving thrift and luxuriance to the foliage, and
while large tops, in tht ))i^d\est are not our object, we
cau hardly hope to reap a large crop of tubers without
their assistance.

The supply of ammonia, especially if scarce, should
be supplemeuted, reinforced, as it were, by the applic-
ation of potato pulp represented in a sufficicney of
seed. — iivuili^rii Plnnfer.

TEA: PAST AND PRESENT.

The ancient Chinese legend relating to the origin of
the tea pluut tells us that the fir.'tt tea-bush sprang up
from the spot where Confucius has thrown his eye-
lids, which he had cut off in anger because sleep
had overtaken hira when he had vowed to keep
awake. Humanity owes an enormous, an incalculable,
debt of gratitude to those eyelids, and one which is
acknowledged by young and old, rich and poor,
statesman and pauper, duohess and dairymaid. Many
of us would be but poor creatures without our tea.
"Were we deprived of that wonderful little leaf what
could we fall back upon as a substitute? Coffee is
the next best beveraiie, but coffee in some tempera-
ments induces sleep. Without tea the weary watcher
by the sick-bed would find her task a doubly heavy one.
AVithout it, the brainworker would be still more heavily
handicapped than he already is in a " world of dreary
noises. ■ How many examinations would have been
" missed" but foi the refreshing and stimulating pro-
perties of the fragrant evergreen ; how many chances
lost; how much work ill-done! Have not the poets
sung of tea, in lines too often quoted to bear repetition ?
Could we but trace the inspiratiou to its source, we
should probably find that their hapjjiest phrases, their
most neatly turned couplets, art due to the magic
infusion. Do we not all, tliiukers, toilers, idlers, Uy to a
cup of tea when we want to make any unusual exertion,
intellectual, physical, or merely frivolous y And yet tlie
curiou.5 point m that out of the millions who use this
TsluaWe beverage and ackuswiedge its mighty influence,
but a small proportion understand how to prepare it.
while many a'tuse the gift by indulging in it too freely.
or by drinking it un<ier conditions that not only deprive
it of its value, but render it absolutely harmful. The
toughest constitution in the world cannot fail to be
eventually injured by constantly imbibing tea that has
been overdrawn. Yet this latter is the usual condition
in which it is partaken. The water in which the leaf is
infused should not be alloweil to boil fur more than a
minute before being poured upon the tea. With every
moment beyond tb;it time the peculiar property of
boiling water that acts upon the tr«grant leaf evapora-
tes more and more, and eventually disappears. It seems
• simple thing enough to "make the te*," and there are

ittut nlo tvta lUow cbilditD sBd etrvtcte to pet-

form that important office for them. The true disciplo
of the teapot treats the art with more respect. He has
studied it from every point of view, and in every stugc
of the process. The idiosynera.sy of kettle and teapot
is to him a matter of importance. Both must be iui-
mnculately clean and of a shining radiance. He knows
that the little brown earthenware teapot, despised of
the ;esthetic of the earth because comfoitahly ea.sy to
live up to, is the very flower of teapots for his purpose.
It becomes thoroughly impregnated with the flavour
and redolent of the aroma of the plant. A silver teapot
is next best, but there is a natural hesitation about ex-
posing the precious metal to the fire, which militates
against its usefulness in this regard. For heat is one of
the great essenti.als in making a " good cup." It is
more important than the novice might imagine to have
the teapot made thoroughly hot before the tea is put
into it. The connoisseur will half fill it with hot water,
put on the lid, and set it by the firo until only the
handle can be touched with impunity from heat. After
this has been carefully attended t<', good tea can be
produced from a less iputntity of the leaf than if the
thorough heating of the receptacle had beeu neglected.
Opinion is divided as to the precise number of minutes
which should be devoted to the process of " drawing."
Some authorities say five minutes, others seven. A tew
even go so far as to recommend ten. It is, however, a
matter that depends in great measure on the quality of
the tea, and even more upon that of the water. Only
experience can afford a safe guide. The slightest taste
of bitterness may be accepted as a sure indication of
over-drawing, a condition that renders tea alike hurtful
to the nerves and to the digestive organs, (,'osies are
dangerous, if occasionally ornamental, articles. Their
mi.ssion is misunderstood. Originally intended to keep
the teapot hot during the process of ilrawing, they have
beeu utilized for maintaining the temperature during
the greater part of an afternoon. The facilities they
offer are but temptations to avoi<l the trouble of making
fresh tea for every fre.'h set of callers, and the wise
man and prudent woman will do well to beware of the
tea that comes from under a cosey. It is almost certain
to be overdrawn.

Indian tea is being imported in l.irgei quantities every
year. In 1871 the average monthly consumption of
Chinese tea in England was a little under ten millions
of pounds ; and that of Indian tea about a million and a
half. In IfSl, the consumption of the former had sunk
to a little over nine millions, while that of the latter
had risen to nearly six million pounds. Indian tea is
both fuller and purer in flavour than Chinese. Two
spoonfuls of the former make a stronger infusion
than three of China. An unanswerable proof of tho
superiority of that which comes from Hindustan is
found in the fact that it sells at a much higher
price than Chitiese at the London tea auctions. It
is nearly all bought up by tea dealers to mix with
the inferior kinds of China tea. Until quite lately the
public has had no means of bujiug Indian tea, save the
coarse pungent Assam kinds, which is used to mix with
varieties that need some stronger flavouring. This very
fact has created an impression that all Indian ^i as are
too strong to be used without mixing Iheni will> Chi-
nese ; but those who have tasted the delicious Kangra
Valley or Darjeeling varieties are speedily ilisabused of
an idea so erroneous. The flavour is eminently delicate,
as behoves the leaves of plants grown in one of the
finest climates in the world, on the lower slopes of tho
Himalayas, midway between the eternal snows that
crown thi:ir summits, and the intense heat ef the plains
of the North-We.st Provinces. With those who are.
unaccustomed to the use of Indian tea, it is a com-
mon error to use too much leaf in infusing it. To do so
is to produce a bitter taste, which is at once set down
to the fault of the tea— not of the tea-maker. Tho
latter has probably been accustomed to ladle out the
ordinary, low-priced tea.s, sold at 2 - or nnder. When
it is remembered that the duty upon oil lea imported
into this country is sixpence per pound, and that this
with freight charges and retailers' profit have to be
added to the cost of culture and manufacture, it is not
difficult to draw the conclusion tbst really fine tea
ciunot be obt»iu»d *t tucb • price.

320

IttiE TROFICAL AGRICULTURIST.

(June i, ibbo,

Regarded iu its social aspect, tea is a valuable actor.
The five-o'clock gatherings which have of late played so
important and refreshing a part in the whirl of the
fashionable da)' owe their origin wholly to the beguiling
(jualities of the fragrant cup. Some years ago it was
regarded as a beverage only fit for women, but its
fascinations now hold in thrall the warrior, the politician,
the man of law, and even him of physic, who sternly
forbids it to his patients. The hostess who makes it
strong, but never lets its strength deteriotate into
bitterness under the sinister influence of cosey or char-
potkri ; who gives her guests a " brew" of the leaf of
rarest flavour and finest growth ; is always sure of that
pleasant sprinkhng of the uascjline element at ber
" five o'clock.s," which serves to make them popular and
to prevent the conversation from becomming absorbed
iu such wholly famiuine topics as distinguished the
German " kalfee-klatsch" or other functions which are
attended solely by the ornamental sex. — Lcnis J' CoV
Tea Trade Circular.

OIL OF SANDAL WOOD.

BY E. M. HOLMES. F.L.S.,

Curtitor of the J[useu)ii of tJtt Pluirmaccuiiad Sockty.^

In the early part of the present year my attention
was directed to the subject of sandal wood by the
fact tliat there appeared in the druf^gists' wholesale
price lists an oil of sandal wood marked " AV. I.,"
and offered at about one-third of the price of the
genuine oil. As the genus iio'iitalum is not represented
on the American continent it was evident that the
'*"\Vest Indian"' oil must be obtained from stmie other
plant. The results of inquiries made since then
appear to me to possess sufficient interest to be placed
on record in the columns of this .Tournal, and may
perhaps be prefaced with advantage by a short account
of the species which have hitherto furnished sandal
wood.

The genus i^aittatciii comprises about twenty species,
distributed over Asia, Australia and Polynesia, although
others may probtbly yet be discovered iu New Cale-
donia and New (.Juinea,

In aspect the trees of this genus bear some resemb-
lance to the Myrtacc;e, in having opposite, mostly
entire leaves, furnished with oil glands, and flowers
similarly arranged. Like the Eucalypti they have no
petals, but differ in the small number of stamens (four or
five) to each flower, and in having only three to five
seeds attached to a central placenta.

All the species delight in dry, rocky localities, part-
icularly those of volcanic origin, degenerating in their
yield of oil 'when grown in moist situations.

The most westerly species in ,Safifo.hrm allnnii^ 1,.,
a native of India and the islands of ISumba and Timor
and other islands in the Eastern Archipelago. The
most easterly is >'^. infulan:, found iu the Marcjuesas
Island and Tahiti. The most nothern species, .S',
Freycinctianum, Gaud., is found in the Sandwich
Islands, and the most southerly, a. Cimnw^liaiiti, in
New Zealand.

The special which have at different times furnished
the sandal- wood of commerce are as follows: —

/}. ali'Viii, L. — This sp(?cies furnishes Kast Indian
eaudal wood anil probably also that known as INIacassar
sandal wood. A variety of 'V. nUnrii, the /i. murtifvlium
DC. which dilVers in" its more lanceolate leaves, and
occur.s on the mountains in the cast of Madras, is
also a source of a sandal wood oil, whicli possesses
comparatively little fragrance,

The interesting account given of saudal wood in
' Pharmacographia ' may be supplemeuted here by some
particulars given by Dr. Bidie concerning the distillation
of the oiliu India, and published in the I'harmacopioia
of India (p. IGl), from which the following quotation

" It (the tree) is caretuily protected by Government,
and only the trees that have reached maturity, which
they do "iu from eighteen to twcuty-five years, are cut
down. The felling takes place in the end of the year,
and the trees are then stripped of their bark and
pouv«yed to various depots where they arc out iuto I

billets, wich are carefully dressed and sorted according
to the quality of the wood. These billets form the
sandal wood of commerce, and are sold by weight at
an annual auction, native merchants congregating from
all parts of India to make purchases. The pieces that
are straight and have most heart wood, fetch
the highest price, as the fragrance for which they are
so much prized depends on the presence of an essential
oil, which is chiefly situated in the dark central wood
of the tree. The jNIysoro r^overnment has looi^ had
establishments for extracting the oil. which is sold
at the annual auctions along with the wood and chieHy
bought up for exportation to China and Arabia. It
is procured from the wood by distillation, the roots
yielding the largest quantity and the finest quality of
oil. The body of the still is a large globular clay pot,
with a circular mouth, and is about :J^ feet deep by
about 6 feet circumfereuce at the bilge. No capital
is used, but the mouth of the still, when used, is closed
with a clay lid, having a small hole in its centre, through
which a bent copper tube about 5A feet long is
passed for the escape of the vai)our. The lower
end of the tube is conveyed inside a copper receiver,
placed in a large porous vessel containing cold water,
■When preparing the sandal for distillation the white
or sap wood is rejected, and the heart wood is cut into
small chips, of which about 2 inaund.s or 50 lb. are
put into the still. As much water is then ad<led as
will just cover the chips, and ^distillation is carried
on slowly for ten days nud nights, by which time the
whole of the oil is extracted. As the water from
time to time gets low in the still, fresh supplies are
added from the heated contents of the refrigerator. The
quantity of oil yielded by \vood of good quality is at
the rate of 10 oz. per n]aur.d, or 2-5 per cent. It
is transparent and of a pale yellow colour, and has
a resinous taste and sweet peculiar smell, which is
best appreciated by rubbing a few drops of the
oil on the warm hand. The specific gravity is about
0-0^0."

Sa'iMnlu.m infuiarc. — A native of the I\[arquesas and
Society Islands. The wood of this species was observed
by Oapt.iin Cook, in his voyage round the world, to be
used by the natives of Tahiti under the name of Eai
or Eaiiii, for perfuming coconut oil.

Suiitahnn Frei/cinftinnum, Gaud. — A native of the
Sandwich Islands. Together with its varieties, ellipt-
ici'Di and pnvicvhxtinn, and Savtalvni pyrKlariUin, A.
Gray, it furnished, for a number of years, the sandal
wooil of these islands. The natives distinguished only
two kinds of the wood, which they called hnn ktokto^
or white, and LnnhiilaJin/o, or red. From 17!)0 to 18l'0
numerous vessels called at the Sandwich Islands for
sandal wood, and as much as -100,0(10 dollars were realized
from this trade iu one year by King Kamehameha.
The destruction of the trees was carried on in such
a reckUss manner that when Dr. Seemann visited Oahu
in l.stn. he saw only a few bushes not exceeding three
feet high, at a place called Ku.iohe, and only a few
isolated specimens were left of the magnificent groves
th.il formerly covered parts of the islands of Hawaii,
Mani, dahu .lud Kauai. An attempt was subsequently
made to sell the scented wood of Myoporv.m Sand-
irichcii'C, A. Grav, in order to revive the trade, but it
did not .succeed.

S, Uvhtei, Seem.— The discovery of this saudal wood
tree iu the island of Eronianga in 18-S> diverted the
sandal trade to that island. The violent treatment
received by the natives from sandal wood collectors led
to ditlicultics which resulted in the death of the cele-
brated missionary, John 'WiUiams, iu 1830. This source
also became gradually worked out, although iu ISoO,
the wood was still so plentiful that one firm eui-
pftiyed sixty men to cut it iu the bush. On a .specimen
of >V. lloii'ui in the British Museum there is a note
in MctJillivray's hand-writing to the following etfeot :—
" I'lOiUices tile gieatir part of the sandal wood shipped
from Eromanga, and formerly also from the New
llilirides. Nearly extinct. Jlay, ISiJO."' Another
specimen dated February. IStiO, bears the remark, " Now
done." I'rom this it would aj"' ;ir that this source of
eandal " jld was csliaiisted oboui ..uL'. Spuciiucus of 5,

JvNE I, ibSb,\

THE TROPICAL AGKiCULTURlST.

b2i

ifoinei also occur in the same berbaritnn irom the
Isle of Pines and New Caledonia.

Santti{u7m Vnsi, Seem. — The wood of this tree was
for a long time purchased from the nativefi of Fiji by
the Toiigati Islanders, who used part of it imd sold
the remainder to the Samoans, by whom it was used
for perfuming the coconut oil with wbich they grease
their naked bodies; for this purpose it was fir^t grated
ou one of the mushroom corals (FuHgia).^ As soon
as the existence of sandal wood iu Fiji became known
to European traders, it was speedily carried away to
the Chinese and Polynesian markets, so that iu ISU!
there was scarcely enough left for hon\e eonsumptiouj
and to save the tree from extinction, one was planted
in the gardens of the Mission Station at Bua. in \anua
Levu, the island where it was most abundant. From
this tree Dr. Seumann obtained the specimens used
for illustratinj^ the plant in * Flora Viticusis.' In lfi40
the tree was so rare that even the Fijiaus paid fancy
prices for pieces of the wood. The interior of these
islands has, however, not been thoroughly explore:!,
so that it is possible some trees may yet bo found
there.

Saiit^htni aHstrO'Caf€d(/niaimy Viell. — The sandal wood
of this tree was obtained from Mare in 1841, and from
Vate in 1S43. In new Caledonia it is known to the
natives as Tibi:an. The u.itural woods having been
nearly exhausted iu New Caledonia, the tree has lately
been cidtivated, and a small quantity, valued at ii<S,
was exported from Xoimiea to France in 182^*^.

•y. Cttttninf/liamij Hook., is said to yield sandal wood
iu New Zealand.

E.rocai'puis lati/ofinf:, K. Kr, — A specimen of the wood
of this tree was exhibited as AVest Australian sandal
wood ("6'. latit/oUinn'') at the International Paris
Kzhibitiou of 1878, and is now in the Museum oE this
ISociety. It possesses but little fragrance.

Australian sandal wood is received in this country
from Adelaide and Freemantle. It yields less oil of
a less fragrant odour than the wood of 'V. alhi'iii. Ftf.'itmits
spicatus, K. Br. {Santalnin a/gHOruni, Miq.) This tree
has a wide range through South and "West Australia,
and a large export of the wood has gone on annually,
chieriy to China, the exports in 1384 having amounted
to 2t>20 tons, at au estimated value of £5 per ton,
thdit of iS. tdhu III being about £40 per ton. The export
is expected to continue for some years to come
before the source is exhausted. There is a duty of
about 5v. per ton on all the sandal wood exported.

Fii:ianf'.s pet'sxcaHiKs, F. Muell. (X. pcrsicarimnj
F. Muell.) as stated by Kosenthal to yield sandalwood
in AVf^st Australia, and .S. laacolatum, K. Br., iu
North Australia, N'ew South Wales and (^>ueeusland,
but I can find no account of their exportation,

ICteinophila Mitcfiefli.--Dr. Bancroft presenti'd a
specimen of this wood to the Museum of the Socinty.
stating that it was known in (Queensland as caudal
wood. It has a weak fragrance not exactly like
sandal wood, and the ht;art wood i& of a deep
brownish-red colour.

VenezneUi ISnmfal If'ood, — A specimen of this wood
was presented to the Museum, together with a fine
sample of the oil, by Messrs. Schimmel and Co., of
Leipzig, who stated that it came from Puerto Cabello,
in Venezuela. It is the source of the W. I. sandal
wood oil o^ commerce. It has already been point-ed
oat iu 'Phirmacographia,' second ed. p., 603, that this
oil may be di.'^tiuguished by deviating the ray of polar-
ized light 6 1-y to the right, while oil of sandal wood
deviates it IS t? to the left in a cohnnn 100 milli-
metres long. The name of saudai wood bark having
been applied in Mexico to what is probably the bark
of a t>pccies of Jfyroxi/loa, and ISnctda capitata being

• In reply to an iiMjuiry I made at the British
Museum Mr. .S. O. Ridley informs nie that the species
of fungus most liliely to be u.sed is F. dttttift-ra,
Pana, which is suniotimes five inches long, and has
large strong teeth. Being elongated it could be readily
graspeil by the baud, and would answer the puipose
well. As a new name for this species will probably
soon be publisiicd I have not uicutiouod the species
iu tUtj text.

known iu the West Indies, according to Griesbacb.
as sandul wood, it seemed probable that the name
might be applied in Venezuela to some other tree,
since the specimen of wood presented to the Soeiety
appeared imlike the wood ot Mi/roj-j/ion or, so far as
I could ascertain, tliat of Combretaceous trees. Ac-
cordingly, I wrote- to Mr. R. Conn, the British "N'ice-
Consul at Puerto Cabello, who lias kindly forwarded
a living specimen of the plant and two dried speci-
mens, hut unfortunately neither leaves nor fruit were
then obtainable. So far as can be judged from the
leaves the plant belongs to the liuttnut^

As the plant doo?; not appear to exist in the national
herbaria ht Kew, or at the British Museum, a brief
description may be placed on record here. The stem
if branched in an irregularly dichotomous manner, the
branches being erecto-patent. The hark is thin and
brittle, resemblijig in general appearance that of
jaborandi or quassia. The leaves are alternate below,
becoming more or less opposite on the twigs. The
leaves arw tive-foholate and impiiripinnate. The leaflets
are oppsile, with a petiole about a quarter of an inch
in length, entire at the margin, thin but somewhat
rigid when dry, ovate, lanceolate, and acuminate, .some-
what shining about but glaucous underneath. When
held up to the light thcy are seen to contain innumer-
able oil receptacles, whichj like those of jaborandi, vary
in size in the same leaf. The oilour of the leaves and
bark also recalls that of jaborandi. In shape and ven-
ation of the leaves the plant approaches the genus
Spirtf/iiiu'td, but the leaves are much thinner. lentil
tlowers and fruit can be obtained the plant must there-
fore, be considered to be one hitherto undescribed.

Dilr. W. Ku'kby at my request has kindly cut sections
of the wood of Sautir/um aJbutn, the Macassar sandal
wood, and that from Venezuela presented by Messrs.
Schimmel and Co. The first two present very little
difference in structure, but the Venezuela wood has
the porous vessels arranged in distinct lines, as seen
iu the transverse section.

Of the Japanese sandal wood mentioned in ' Phar-
macographia,' I have been able to ascertain nothing,
except that true sandal wood ('S". ul(n'-nt) does not grow
in dapan. The only trees mentioned by Frauehet and
Savatier belonging to the order in that country are
h\voca)'pvs f^itifoHa, R. Br. (SoMtaLum latifoliinii)^ and
h'ltckfeya lanceolxta. Miq., but neither of these appear
to have native Japanese names, and presumably
are not used like sandal wood. Nor have I been
able to ascertain what wood it is that is exported
from No.«>si-b<; under the name of saudai wood, or
the source of the kind exported to this country from
Zanzibar, but I am informed by a tlistillor of sandal
wood oil that the latter is considered almost worthless
for purposes of distillation.

Oif of Sandiil flood. -Of all the different species
of sandal wood above mentioned there appear to ho
only two used at the present time as sourct^s of the
volatile oil of commerce (unless the wood yielding
the Macassar oil proves to be derived from a distinct
species), viz., Sujiiafum alhinn, i'urni&hing the Kast
Indian and Macassar oil, and the Venezuela, tree fur-
nishing West Indian '* Sandal wood oil." Inquiries
kindly made for me by Mr. C. l^mney show
that all the sandal wood during the last two yearn
imported into this country has come from Bombay,
except two lot^ from Zanzibar, offered ou February
U* and April 1*S of 1884, and a small (juantity from
Champion Bay, but these were regarded as of in-
different quality.* The Bombay saudai wood as
imported varies .so much in yield of oil that those
who are accustomed to buy the wood for dihtillalion
are often greatly <leeeived in their estimate of its
yield. Mr. IJmney states that the large.st percentage
obtained by bim has been \'bi Imt that sometimes
less than a third of this quantity will result from
careful distillation. The amount obtained also greatly
depends upon the fine state of division to which the

* I learn from another source that saudai wood from
the Pacific laland.s and Australia has very little sutnt.
and is used iu this country for furniture and cabiutit
work ouly.

bii

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUftiST,

tJt'NE i^ i8S6,

wood is brought before distillatioD. This is effected
by first iucisiug or cliipping the logs by powerful
niacbintry, aud tlieii disintegrating them with special
teariug or rasiiiiig apparatus or with mill stores.

The Indian oil, in Mr. Vmney's opinion, is im-
ported iuto this country to the extent of not more
thau 16W lbs., and often reaches England in a
discoloured state, containing fixed oil and traces of
water, and is rejected by wholesale druggists for
medicinal purposes, the whole import being purchased
for use ill perfumery.*

The esseniial oil distilled in this, country realizes
a higher price thau either Indian or German oil; the
latter in some cases contains oil from cedar wood or
inferior sandal wood mixed during the process of
difitillation. Mr. Umney believes that the continental
distillers are far in advance of the British in their
superiority both of plant and of the knowledge
necesFary for the production of this and other
essential oils, two well known German firms probably
distilling three-quarters of the whole quantity used
in Europe.

The above statement concerning the adulteration
of oil of sandal wood having reached me from several
sources, I obtained a sample of the oil, as well as a
number of commercial samples of sandal wood oil,
with a view to ascertain what variation might exist
ill their specific gravity. Examined at my request by
by Mr. AV. H. Ince the followhig results were"
obtained :t— :

Distilled in Sp. gr. Source,

1, Germany *9797 E. Indian wood

L'. Germany, same, firm ... "9754 E. Indian wood,

y. Germany, different firm ... 'HTdS E. Indian wood.

4. Germany, same firm as 1,^ •ft738 Macassar wood.

5. (iermany, same firm as 1, 2 -OfirjO W. Indian wood.

6. English '911'd E. Indian wood.

It will be observed that with the exception of No.
5 all the specimens were of higher specific gravity
than that recognized in the new British Pharmacoptbia,
0'96, although lower than a sample obtained from the
India Museum, and which had a specific gravity of
•9901. The Pharmacopwia of India gives the specific
gravity as '9S0, and the United States Pharmacop<eia
•94(3. It is probable, therefore, that none of the
samples examined by Mr. Ince could have been adulter-
ated with cedar wood oil, since the addition of that
oil (o£ specific gravity "9480) would have lowered the
density. The low specific gravity given in the T'^uited
States Pharmacopceia indicates, however, the possib-
ility of the West Indian oil being used extensively
in that country. This supposition agrees with the
information I have received from distillers of the oil,
that this oil is chiefly exported to the United States.
Mr. T. Parries also informs me that it has very little
sale either in this country or in Australia.

The oil of cedar wood obtainable in commerce is
even more free from colour than sandal wood oil, and
if prepared, as I am informed, from the refuse
of cedar pencil works is probably rectified carefully
to free it from colour, since the oil distilled from a
closely allied species, J. Bennudiana^ in Jamaica, by
M. Bowrey, judging from a specimen recently pre-
sented by him to the Museum of this Society, has
a reddish-brown colour. A sample of oil of cedar
obtained in English commerce has been, at my re-
quest, examined in the Society's laboratory by Mr.
Sv. H. Ince, who finds that it has a specific gravity
of '94.^0, and treated with various reagents presents,
as compared with a sample of East Indian oil of
sandal wood of specific gravity 9901, received from

* According to Dr. Dymock as much as 12, (KM) Ihs.
of this oil are imported into Bombay from the Malabar
coHst, the oil being worth ^i rupees per lb., and it
is used chiefly for perfumery.

t I am informed by Mr. A. C Abraham that two
samples of the oil purchased in London gave respectively
the specific gravity '975^ and l*?!!. The (iorman
speoimeiie wert} vbt»iut:d ^fruiu firm» of the liigheo;
veputatica.

the late Eaiit India Museum, the following characters : —

Cedar oil. Sandal wood oil.

Concentrated sul- Burnt sienna Brown with black

Phuric acid ... colour. clots
Chromic acid ... Brown with

black clots Ditto.

Nitric acid ... Brown colour Brown colour.
Concentrated so-'i

lution of chlo- > No result. ( Makes it gelatiu-

ride of zinc J \ ous.
Solution of bro-")

mine in chloro > No result. No result.

form )

Murcuric chloride. No result. No result.

Hydrochloric acid. No result. No result.

The specific gravity of oil of cedar wood being
considerably lower than that of samial wood, it
occurred to me that it would be important to
determine the quantity of the former that could be
addded to sandal wood oil without being readily
detected by the diflterence in specific gravity. Mr.
Ince kindly made some experiments for me with
this end in view. These were conducted in a room,
the temperature of which was t>5*^ F.

The addition of lU per cent, of cedar oil was found
to lower the specific gravity of the oil from the India
Museum to ■97^9, or rather higher than the average
specific gravity of the *' East Indian" oil of commerce.

In order to see if this (juantity of adulteration
could be detected by the greater or less solubility of
the oil in alcohol, some experiments were made on
the solubility of the various oils with alcohol of
different strengths. From these experiments it results
that cedar wood oil forms a white cloudy mixture
with its own volume of methylated alcohol of specific
gravity "839, while No. 1 (see table) is perfectly
soluble ; but one volume of an equal mixture of sandal
wood oil and cedar oil under the same conditions
dissolves perfectly.

It being thus evident that sandal wood oil might
be adulterated with half its volume of cedar oil
without being detected by the use of spirit of this
strength, proof spirit was next tried, but neither
oil being perfectly soluble in it, a mixture of 1 part
of proof spirit and 3 of rectified spirit was used. This
had a specific gravity of '920. "With this solvent
the following results were obtained : —

Nos. 1 and 3 dissolved in an ecjual volume of it.
Of the oil from the India Museum and No. U, one
c.c. required II c.c. to dissolve it. Of No. 4. one c.c.
required 13 c.c. of the solvent. One c.c. of oil of
cedar required 5 c.c. for solution, but lU per cent of
the latter oil addtd to the India Museum oil in-
creased its insolubility very slightly, 1 per cent re-
quiring only 1"3 c.c. of the solvent.

ConcU'sions. — From the above facts it appears that
whilst oil of cetlar may be recognized by its inso-
lubility in an equal volume of alcohol of specific
gravity ■920, its admixture with sandal wood oil to
the extent of 10 per cent cannot be easily detected.
It is quite possible that the higher specific gravity
and less solubility of the oil from the India Museum
may be due to an admixture* of some fixed oil,
possibly of sandal tree seed oil, which is u|ed for
lamp oil in Mysore. 'rhi» queNtiou, however, can
only be settled by the distillation of the wood and
examination of the oil in India by a competent chemist.
The west Indian oil, as shown in ' Pharu-.acographia/
may be detected by its optical properties, and is
probably derived from an undescribed Kutaccous tree.
The specific gravities obtained indicate that the figure
given in the B.P. is too low. The oil originally
recommended for use in medicine by Dr. T. B.
Henderson in the Medical Timf.- and tnizetfr (fTune 3,
18()6, p. 571) was that of iS". oJludn var. />'. myrti-'
JoUuDi, the wood of which is said ('Pharmacographia,
'2nil edition, p. 602) to be nearly inodorous. But it

* Tested for sesame and cotfon seed oils negative
results were obtained. But the greater insolubility of
the Indiau oil and higher s|)ecific gravity indicates the
probability of fizej ci] bewif preiuit iu ti.

June i, iS86.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURI^'^

833

is only during the last few years that sauilal wooJ
oil has exteniled its reputation wiilely. The quesiiou
arises therefore, is the therapeutic properly of the
oil due to true oil of sandal wood, to oil of cedar,
or to the oil of the ^"enezuela tree ? The species of
the genus ./unipei-us are kuowu to have physiological
effecis (lu the urinary organs, and cedar wood oil
may be possessed of as great, or greater, therapeutic
value than the sandal wood oil. Since all these oils
are to be met with in commerce, it would be more
satisfactory to kuoir which is the most valuable
remedy, but this point is one to be determined by
the medical profession. — riMi-iiiacttiHcal Joui'iml.

T.\K Watku Aoai.nst I.nskcts. — Water strongly im-
pregnated with tar, is becoming very popular in Europe
as an insecticide. — Onnli ntrs' Moiithhj.

Artii KiAi. Manurks.— Notwithstandiug the analyses
of chemists, in regard to the perfection of chemical
manures, and the fact which they au easily demonstrate
that the greater part of stable manure is nothing but
water and other material of no possible value and cost-
ing immense labor to handle, it is remarkable that the
tlemand for stable manure is greater than ever. People
find it best in spite of chemistry, — lltid.

Hkhh K. Boubelox announces that he has succeeded
in isolating from the betel-nut. a volatile alkaloid,
re.semblini,' nicotine, to which he has given the name
■• arekane." He describes it as being left on the
evaporation of an ethereal solution as a colourless
oil, smelling like weak meat broth, and with a
strongly alkaline reaction. It forms varnish-liko salts
with tartaric, citric, hydriodic and salicylic acids, the
salicylate having a tobacco-like odour. The hydrochlor-
ate gives with plautinic chloriile a yellow, with gold
chloride a light yellow, with mercuric chloride a
white, aud with tannin a whitish precipitate. The
taste of the free alkaloid as well as of the salts is
said to be at first imperceptible, but afterwards
becomes .icrid. The alkaloid increa.ses the secretion
of saliva, slackens the pulse and has a purgative action.
— Vhannaci'utiitd Joitrnat.

Mn. AVoKri.NUTON .S.MiTH. In an article in the
Oanlfiirrs' Clirniiicl, (Jlarch (i, p. :!0:',"i briugs further
evidence iu support of his opinion that the berberry
blight and corn mil<lew have no connection with each
other. He shows that the appearance of the blight
on the berberry plant on which the corn Tuildew has
been sown is no proof of any connection between the
two fungi, inasmuch as the berberry blight may be
previously in the plant, ami vii't veriii. In support
of this he gives illu.strations of the corn mildew
fruiting in the seed of an oat and the .Ividiiwi
heilieildU in the seed of the berberry. He believes
that the fungus is thus carried from one individual
to another, fi-aversing the plant from the roots to
the cotyledons. — PJun-inncfiifiraf Jfun-nal.

.SoMK iN.srrtDCTivE experiments have been made by
M. S. Grosglik on the development of the leaf of
Eucali/ptna tjluhulns. He hnds that iu the youfigest
stage the tissue of the leaf between the epidermis,
with the exception of the vascular bundles, consists
of a uniform ti.ssue composed of cells equal in
diameter in each direction, which the author calls
primitive mesophyll. If the leaves are forced Jo
remain in the horizontal position they develop the
usual leaf structure of palisade cells on the upper
and niongy tissue on the lower side of the leaf ; but
if the leaves assume the vertical position, palisade
cells are developed on both side of the leaf uext to
the epidermis. He therefore arrives at the conclusion
that there is iu leaves a tissue which is capaV>le of
ditferentiation, and that uo'ler the inKueiice of light
there is a tendency to form palisade tissue, while
shade favours the formation of spongy tissue {(rant
CAion.. March 1:'.. p. 3.3K, from [lull, dc l,i Snc. Hot.
iU Fninet). If this conclusion l)e confirmed it is
evident that it may be possible to determine from
the texture of a leaf whether the plant prefers shade
or sunlight, a point of some importance to horticulturists.
— Pkarntacfiutitai Jnur'iiat.

NirHOuKN FKO.M Otoviiu Koors.— Dr. Voelcker found
that the average weight of clover roots ou an acre was
about three tons, aud that this furnished 100 pounds of
available uitrogren, the most stimulating of all manures.
This is one reason why a clover sod plowed under is
such good preparation for a wheat crop. Why clover
sod will not always bring good wheat is due, to the lack of
phosphate, which this grain must have if anything more
than a crop of straw is to be grown. — ^unthn-n !'/iiiit,r.

Houses should be bedded with chalT or finely cut
straw. This will absorb the liquid droppings better
than uncut straw will. The manure iu this tine con-
dition will ferment very rapidly, and with a very little
heating will be ready to spread evenly on the laml. If
horses are bedded with coarse straw the fermentation
will be uneven. Some parts of the heap will be dried
lip and " Hre.fanged ", while the coarse straw is not id
good condition for spreading. — Soiithrri) F/aitft>r.

Soi TUEBN Toiialco Ghowini:. — Much of the desolate
appearance noticed by strangers iu the southern country,
is due to the exhaustion of the soil by continuous
tobacco growing. A very large portion of what was
known as tobacco land, has been thus reduced to a con-
dition of poverty, iu which it has been " turned out "
to grow up to old field pine or broom sedge. As every
fault brings with it its own punishuient, so this has done,
not only in the lost of the use of the laud for many years,
and the cost of reclaiming it, but also in the injury
which results from the adverse impression upon the
minds of the visitors from other states, who are seeking
homes iu the sunny and fertile .south. This fault should
be preventeil in the future, and there is no need to stop
growing tobacco either. Tobacco is the cash crop of the
southern farmer, and every farmer requires a certain
amount of money coming in, to meet expen.ses which
must be paid iu cash. But first of all, the food and
fodder crops should be grown, then clover or cow peas
should be grown for fodder for pigs, cattle and sheep.
These may be sowed after two crops of tobacco have
been taken from new land, and one tobacco crop may
safely follow after either clover or c^ow-peas have been
plowed in to enrich the soil. — Aniirirtiii Ariricii/hirUl

Ci.'iT{\\Ti\n THE MAM.Morii Seqi'oia or (Jai.i-
lOiiNMA. — To the Editor of this magazine, one of th»
most interesting lessons learned in California, was one
which only one experienced in the culture of trees could
learn ; namely, that the Se-pioia gigantea is by nature a
swamp tree. The places where they grow now are com-
paratively dry ; hut two or three thousand years ago they
followed the track of receding glaciers, and they received
the melting snows from the tops of mountains that
have no summer snows now. J'he ground on which
these manimotli trees stand, once very wet or even
swampy, has become drier through the long ages.
Horticulturists know that swamp trees generally grow
very well iu ground that is comparatively dry, but seeds
of such trees will not .sprout in anything but the moist,
oo-/y moss on the top of a swamp or damp ground.
Hence, the only young trees we find in the mammoth
tree locations, are where a chance seed happens to fall on
a moist rock, or other damp) situation. Young trees are
common only in one locaticni where clouds condense
against a mountain, side, and the whole situation
abounds with springs and oozy spots. Here iu the east
hundreds of trees have been plftnt^id during the past
quarter of a century, but rarely has oni* lived more than
a fi-w years. They do not mind the winters. We have
known them stand 20* below zero uninjured, but some
fungus, fa\nrt-d by a dry atmosphere, carries them off
gradually during the summer season. Profiting by
these facts, the writer brought three strong plants from
(California ami set them in a swamp. I ■siially when we
set swamp trees in. a swamp, they will not grow unlcKS
tle-y are suffered to grow into the swamp themselves.
We make a mound and plant them in the mound, from
wheuce they iodI down as suits themselves. These
thrt'i' plants li..ve li;id tvv>) winters and one summer; the
past winter being a terribly severe one. To day they
look perfectly souml ami finurishing, and the Editor
believes that he has at last discovered how to make the
great tree of California thrive in eastern gardoun. —
(i'irdtiner.i' Minithfy

iSf24

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

Tea and Otheh Planting Industeies in Oeylon
in J885. A good field for investment. By A. M. and
J. Ferguson, Colombo. This is on intere.«ting book on
the subjeet of tea in all respects— culture, consumption,
the family tea-pot, &c.. tcc.—SoHllieni Planlrr.

Hints fob Prunimh.- \Y\un it is nec-essan- to
prune large linilw the .saw .should cut a little way upon
the UMiler side to prevent Ihe branch from .splitting off
down the body when the main cut is made from above.
All wounds more than an inch in diameter .should be
covered with paint to exciu'e air and promote rapid
healuig over of the cut surface. Outs made with a saw,
however small, should be painted.— .S-r)«(//(rrn Plant,,

The Electric I-ight v.s. (!as.— As regards Ihe
matter of cost the electric light, according to Mr
Preece's experience, comes to just twice that of gas'
but he IS of opinion that there can belittle doubt on
which side the balance would appear, if tlie value of
ste.ady light, pure air, absence of heat, matches, cand-
les, and oil were taken into account, as well as other
advantages, such as cleanliness, durability of decorations
etc., which entitle electric light to a preference over
gas. — Fhariiiaceuticul Journal

Paiu KniiBEi!.— From Me.ssrs. Hecht, Lewis & Kalm's
Caoutchouc Report for 18H5 we learn that an increase
took place ni the crop of Para rubber, the imports
mto London and Liverpool amounting to 4S00 tons
against .UilO tons in KSSI-the total exports from
I'ara to all parts for 1885 being estimated at 12,500
tons agjiiust 10,900 tons in 1884. Of Ceara scrap
rubber, trom Manihot Glaziovii. the imports into Liver-
pool amounted to &:, tons, the quality being moat
satisfactory. Of Central American the "imports were
100 tons, and of other kinds the imports and sales
were good.— Giti-deiura' Chrnniclc.

Thk Editor of the New York Phnnnaceuthche Hunds-
rlKiuCDr.F. Hoffmann) has been giving a considerable
amount of attention to a "non-secret" remedy that
has been put forward, under the name of " Kaskiue, the
New Quiuine," with the modest claim, based on .alleged
certificates from eminent medical men, that it '■ stands
unequalled and unrivalled in the world of .science as
the only medicine that can destroy the germs that
cause each particular disease." Kaskine appears to
have been sold in small Hat green glass bottles at a
dollar a bottle, each containing about twenty grains of
a sweet odourless white granular powder, freely soluble
lu water, which Dr. Hoffmann ascertained to "be finely
powdered Migar ptiret simph !—Phannnc,,iticnl Jom-nal
PkronospoHA of the A'lNE.— This fungus is almost
as much dreaded in Fr.anco as the Phylloxera itself-
neverthtdess, according to Profe.s.sor Kit.m, it is e.asily
kept ui check by the .application of dilute kerosene
emulsion with a small quantity of carbolic acid
applied with a spray-producer. .SuljAur, which is so
useful for the Tine mildew, is of little use for the
Peroaospora. Another remedy is made as follows —
Take Sulphate of copper 18 I!,, to 22 gallons of water
and 34 lb. of lime nii.xed with 7 gallons of water.
Mix the two Kulutioiis, when a bluish paste will be
fornied, which may be applied to the leaves with a
brush, taking care not to touch the berries.— G'fi)v«<?n<;/-.« '
Chronicle.

Himalayan BAnrBoo.- In a note read before the
Royal .Society of New South Wales, ].)r. P,randis, the
late Director of the Forest Dejiartment of India, men-
tions Arundinaria falcata (not the plant generally grown
in this country under that name, and which the late
General Munro determined to be Thanmocalamus Fal-
coner!) anil Thamnocalamus spathiflorus., The canes of
the latter are exported to the plains of Hindustan for
water-pipes, fishingrods, baskets, &c. This is the kind
commonly known as Ringal. It grows with the Deodar
Cupressus toiulosa, Abies Smithiara and Webbiain"
generally inhabiting mnisi, climates. Dr. Hrandis give.s
an acnouut of the chnr,uti-rs of tlie two species, and
takes the opportunity of correcting some errors of detail
into which In; fell when describing the plant.s in the
/•Vi/«« Flora nf .Vnrtli-ir,:<t ■fiidlVnhat /mlia. Both
sij"oies woulil probably tlirive in our south-western
ruuties, and in South Ireland.— C/rm/(-)ifr.«' Clii-nnir/e
The Uoi.D Wave IN Florida.— As u good- deal of
interest has of late attached itself to the reports of

the Weather of Florida, it may be worthy of note that
a reiiort on the subject has just been issued by the
American Government. In this it is stated that an
abnormally cold wave passed over the State between
• Ian. H and 14, sending the temperature down to 15-" F
in some of the northern counties, and on two mornings
Im-mmg lee, on pnnds of water .'ift. deep, of suflicient
strength to boar a man. At one place, ten miles ea.st
ilo i'*' thermometer marked on one mor.iing

:.i , and ice formed three-quarters of an inch thick in
,,", -Tj"**^"®,'-'; ^," *" northern counties the oats were
all killed, and further south all tender garden vegetables
suffered the same fate. The citron, lime, ami lemon
trees suffered severely, as did also the smaller and
diseased orange trees. In the middle counties the large
and healthy orange trees lost one-half their leaves, and in
places further north all the leaves are gone All over
the State oranges have dropped off and been lost. It
IS estimated by those best informed that the loss to the
V:,*, ;,i^ consequence of this cold spell, will be at least
1200,000 in fruit, and another .£100,000 in the gardens
Ihe absolute damage to the State is greater than in
a? ,?' ■""?" T^ thermometer at St. Augustine marked
8 I.., and when most of the orange trees were killed
outright. The reason for this is that since that d.ate
the number of trees have increased a thousandfold
Owing to the small shipment of cattle last year and the
abandonment of cotton planting in all those portions of
the State where fruit growing has been exclusively
entered upon, this loss by the cold falls exceptionally
heavy, and must result in much financial embarrassment
The agent for the United States in Florida hopes that
the result will be to call attention to the necessity for
a greater diversity of crops than at present.—Field.

OocA.— We are imlebted to the courtesy of Dr Bidie
ofMadras for a copy of his pamphlet on Coca. It
consists of the lecture delivered by Dr. Bidie in March
last, and which we noticed some time back. The pam-
phlet is accompanied by an illustration of the plant which
IS now .speedily assuming such importance. Dr. Bidie has
favoured us with the following remarks on the subject-
Subsequent to the publication of my lecture in the
Madras papers, several planters wrote to' me making
enquiries on the subject, but the difficulty hitherto has
been in getting seeds or plants to begin the culture
Some, I beheverbave sent to South America for supplies
ol seed, and one or two are in po.ssessiou of plants
and they will no«- of course propagate as fast as
possible. The local Agri-Horticultural Society has also
pl..nts, and will no doubt do its best to meet the
demands for seed. So far as I have heard, the Coca
in south India does not seed freely al elevations over
3,n00 feet, but this may not be confirmed by further
experience. In Madras town it grows well kiid seeds
profusely, .so that we shall have no difficulty in pushing
the culture on this side of India, I have a few
plants in Madras raised from the original stock
brought direct by Mr. Cross of I Cinchona fame) from'
South America, and also one raised from a single
seed that I found amongst .some old American leaves
liately also a London friend sent me some few secd.s
picked out of a consignment of Bolivian leaves, but
they have not yet germinated. I rather think the
coca does not get on very well in Calcutta, but Dr
King will be able to give you information on this
point. At present I am trying to get a quantity of
leaves of an indigenous species— Brv/A.-orv/m, AFoiwi/t/- '
?1 ion— collected for analysis, with the view of ascer-
taining whether they contain any principal like that
of E. coca, n-., cocahm. During the late faminethe
leaves of the indigenous species were largely eaten by
the starxpoor.and this, at the time, led me to suggest
that they also contain some alkaloi.l, capable of al-
laying hunger and staving off fatigue. Dr. Bidie has
very kindiv promised to send us a sample of a
few leavus and wo shall await their arrival with
interest. We may here note that Dr. Bidie's lecture
contains all the information available about this plant •
and those who wish to know anything about coca, should
g(^t a copy of this pamphlet, which is published by
Higginbotham and Co.. of Madras.— /«f/,-„„ Aqricul-
turi.it ,

jvtit I, isse.i

THE TROPICAL AGRlCUtTlJRIST.

82 i

PLANTING IN' UVA ON "DATS OF OLD"

AND THE PEESENT TIME.
(A letter from Mr. Irvine to the Provluchil AfiPtitJ.
Badulla, 22nd April 18SG.
3i. King Esq., Govemuieut Agent Province of Uv.a.
My Dear King, — Referring to our various convers-
ations and more particularly to your letter of 17th
iiist. I have ouly been a short time in Badulla and
without books or papers for reference but the following
may be of some use to you with reference to the past and
present condition of your Province of Uva, and as
I had promised to write to the press on this sub-
ject before I saw you and had prepared ranch of
what 1 am now writing I will send copy of this letter
for publication.

You ask me as to the TJva coffee crops from 185.5 to
lt>7.5, a period of 20 years and 30 years from this date. My
own knowledge of Uva only dates back to l.s62; but
the Ceylon Directory gives returns of native coffee
for 20 jears from 18i9 to 1869 the largest crops be-
ing those of 1SB5 and ISHS, respectively 21-4,806 cvvt.
and 218,58-1 cwt., the average price of native coffee
during the same period being £1 17s 6d, but for
the last 15 years of this period the average
was Xi sterling per cwt. and no less than
.t'6,986,321 sterling was distributed amongst the
natives of which the Uva villagers got their full
share, and I maintain that Uva produced half the
native crop of the island, taking the annual average
roundly at 1.60,(100 cwt. will give to Uva 75,000 cwt.
which at Badulla prices, say 30s, = £112,750. It was
about the year 1868 or 1869 that Mr. Keid first called
attentiou to leaf-disease and by 1873 the disease had
obtained firm hold of the village cofl'ee and the decad-
ence became much more rapid than on plantation
coffee. And I may here nu'iition that prior to 1873 the
Uva coffee crops were simply enormous : in 1864
Kirklees estate about 200 acres of coffee gave upwards
of 20,000 bushr-ls parchment coffee ; and Cahagalla,
Oodowerre, Kotogodds and Old Spring Valley gave
equally large crops, and the native coffee bore propor-
tionately. It was ouly between 1860 and 1870 that
Badulla, Hiputale and Madulsima were really opeued
up by Europeans. Previous to this the estates actually '
giving crops were Haputale, Cahagalla, Old .Spring
Valley, Ifotogodde, Oodowerre and Oetumhe (i|uite
young) Waywelheeu.!, Gowrakelle, Nahawelle, Cana-
verella Gleualpin (,'[uitt; youug), Ball.Hgalla (.(iiite
young), Pa.--ara or Gonakelle, Wewessc and Debeilda,
and the acn age of these estates in bearing was very
small comparatively. Of the Udapus.sellawa estate.?
there were uuly Kirklees. Tulloes, St. Margarets,
Alnwick an 1 jierhaps Stafford; the.se were all the
estates onlais sidi- NuwaraEliya, so thai it is really
within the lust 20 or 25 years the bulk of the Kuro-
pean estates .verc openedand planted. butit was between
the years y.ni mention, viz. ls;.5 to 1875, that the native
BOffoe iuterst was in its greatest prcsperity. Every
native villa;,.! was a thicket of coffee, growing uaturally
without CH.e and without cultivation. The town of
Badulla n.is a wilderness of coftee iuchiding the
Govemmeiil Agents grounds; the church, burial-ground
and all the adjoining land where the gaol now st.ands,
the temple lands, the land in front of the Govern-
ment Agent's house and all the village gardens were
one mass of magnificent coffee, and there must bave
been growing within what are now the i^ravets of
the town of B.adnlla not less than from ':.(¥) to Coil
acres of coffee, yielding at loa;it 5 cwt. per acre, the
trees were literally laden to breaking with tlieir crop,
and Badulla was no way different from any village
in Uva. I do not think 75,000 cwt. too high an estim-
ate for the crop over a period of 20 years: some
years it must have been greatly in excess of this, anil
I believe it to have been in excess of the K.andyan
crop. The native trade of Uva centring in Badulla
was at this time peculiar. The ouly road by which a
cart could with difficulty reach Badulla was by the
Nuwara Eliya road. The whole of the rice and other
supplies for the troops then stationed in Badulla, as
well as the towns people and plantation labourers
was carried ou pack bulloclis from Catticaloa and

Hambantota, and a considerable pOiLiou of tlie rice
was Batticaloa grown rice, but rao.'it of it was im-
ported direct from India m native vessels, the Moor
traders purchased this ricp or bartered for it, Uva
aative grown coffee at the seaports and sent it to
Badulla on pack bullocks where the rice was again
exchanged with the Badulla merchants for native
coffee, which on the return of the lavalams to Batti-
caloa or Hambantota was again bartered or sold to
the owners of native vessels, and much of the
native crop of Uva was shipped direct to India,
and am doubtful if much of it ever passed throu>»h
the Custom House at all. The native trade at
this time was a large and remunerative one. Kice,
curry-stuff and sundries from India to Batticaloa and
Hambantotta sent into the interior and bartered for
Uva coffee, and this with salt from Hambantotta formed
principally the return cargo of the native vessels.
This trade is now e.\tiiict and the present poverty-
stricken condition of the villagers may readily be
understood when you consider that the native coff<-e
was worth fully 30s in Badulla and the Moormen
made large advances against the growing crop, the
villagers were paid partly in money, partly iu cloth,
fish, curry-stuff and the ordinary necessaries of village
hfe, and, as I have already shown, even at the low
estimate of 75,000 cwt. native coffee at 30s, the villag-
ers have lost by the extinction of their coffee
£112,5(30 sterling annually ; half of this was probably
spent in Euglish imported goods, cotton and other
cloths, common cutlery, hardware, and crockery of the
commonest sorts. (To digress from the immediate text
of my letter this is a matter of equally serious im-
port to the British mauufacturer, first; there is the
actual loss of trade but there is even more than this,
the skilled workman is made out of the boy appren-
tice and it is only in markets like this that the
" prentice hand " can find the purchaser for his work
and if you will go thrcjugh the bazaar and exam-
ine the various articles for sale, especially cotton
goods, you will be astonished to find how far Ger-
many has ousted the British manufacturer on his own
ground— (pardon the digression.) As I have already said
the \yhole of the money or coffee is gone anil the
coasting trnile with all its various ramifications is ex-
tinct, .lust at the time that native coffee proper
beg.au to decline, what were called native coffee gardens
rapidly sprung up along the roads and more access-
ible places; they were in extent from two or three acres
np to fifty ; they were generally the property of
estate kanganies, artizans and others who had saved
a little money on estates and who got money readily
from the money-lenders and perhaps from "less legi-
timate .sources. During the high price of coffee these
•gardens were as well cultivated as anv European
estates, hut as crops failed they graduallv fell into
the hands of the money-lender, who in turn found
them so nnremunerative, that they have nearly all
become abandoned; and this sonrce of revenue" has
also been entirely lost. It is only the very large pro-
fits made by the native traders on the old system
of double barter which has enabled them to coutiuue
tr.ide at all, and many have succumbed. Is it therefore
any wonder that the villagers cannot pay their taxes?
And what makes ni.atters worse is that the paddy
crops have greatly fallen off both iu price and in
yield. The cause of falling off in price for the small
qn.aiitily of native paddy available for sale is two-
fold ; first, the villager will take an .advance .against
his growing crops at any price rather than have his
field sold for taxes; second, the demand for hill paddy
was confined principally to Europeans who kept
horses and poultry, and this for olnious reasons has
fallen off and bazaar prices .are regulated by the fall
iu price of imported grain. The condition of tli'e peasan -
try in Uva at present is very similar to that of the Irish
peasantry after the potatoe famine; and if here arc no
great landed proprietors to eject their tenants, I faucy
the Sinhalese villager finds Government quite as hard
a taskmaster. The Ceylon Government are everyday
selling up the peasantry for their land tax or even for
road tax. (This points a moral to our present Irish legis-
lation.) So poor are the Uva yJUagers that they cannot

i^e

'tut 'miSPlCkL AGKlCULTUKib'i.

[JcN't 1, jBSfe.-

give even one meal of rice to their children daily; they
are living ou roots and yams and any jungle produce they
can get. I myself have seena " wee thing that could
baldly toddle'' given a roasted corn cob for its noon-
day meal (i>erhaps the only meal of tlie day), and this
was considered good. The wonder to me is, not that
crime is rampant in the province, but the astonishing
thing is that it is not more so. Another thing wliich
has militated and greatly heli)ed to impoverish the
ordinary villager is the almost entire stoppage of con-
tract Work on European estates. Formerly the villagers
in the vicinity of coffee plantations could always get
work at felling or cutting roiils and drains or similar
work; there is now almost no work for Sinhalese on the
estates, in fact most of the estates work their coolies
short time and the coolies themselves do not spend
a tenth of the money in the villages they used to
do, for egg.s and fowls and garden produce; there are
not half the number of coolies in the first place,
and Rauiasami working short time with few pick-
ings, hag, like master, to economise on the small
pittance he receives. It may be true, and to a certan
extent it is true, that the peasantry are lazy and do
not make the most of their fields, but life after their
own fashion was so easy when coffee grew freely
without care or cultivation and cropped till the ground
was red under the trees with fallen berries, and when
money could always be got for a few days' easy work
on a neighbouring estalie. tliey have lost much of the
skill as well as the energy to well cultivate their
fleldsl ; another thing is that for years past murrain
has been decimating the cattle and buffaloes, and
more especially the baffaloes, which alone are used
to plough the paddy fields. I am told some villagers
have lost their buffaloes altogether, and it is only by
one village community helping- another that buffaloes
can bo got to plough the rice fields arid often the " sow-
ing"is so late that the prospect of crop is of the smallest,
and now the remnant of the cattle are being sold,
to the butcher to pay taxes, and keep the owner
from gaol or from having his small 'holding" sold.
1 hoard of a good bullock being sold the other day
for R'2 to pay poll-tax — four shillings for a bullock —
and when summing up all this I add that the
BaduUa gaol is full of an ever-increased number
of prisoners, principally for minor offences or non-
payment of poll-tax. It exhibits a very dreadful and
distressing state of affairs. Here (1 speak of Uva
generally) we have what was once a populous
and prosperous community reduced to the most
abject poverty principally from the loss of their
btaple crop by a dispensation of God, over which no
man had any control, and the loss of their cattle by
seurraiu and disease ; the trade of Upper Uva to the
ma hag also been cut off by the opening-up of new
outlets, and the native coasting trade between India
and Ceylon has also been destroyed partly by British
India steamers and the *' Serendib " taking the
produce direct to Colombo, but principally by the
failure of the staple crop for export which has rendered
this trade of almost no value. With steamboats on
the Coast carrying the little trade of Lower Uva
direct to Colombo, and the Kandyan railroads with
their converging cart-roads drawing everything to
Colombo, the whole wealth and energy of the country
is being centralized in the capital, and Uva, naturally
the richest Province m the island, is practically shut
out and cut oil from Colombo or from any benefit
which may flow from centralization owing to the
difficulty of transport over our mountain roads, and
the little wealth and enterprize left on Uva is rapidly
being drawn away whilst the peasantry are starving ;
and unless Government step in at once to the relief
of the people, *' as Alipota now is so will Hadulla
Jrapidly become," and the Goveruuient Agent will
have to administer and collect the revemies of an almost
deserted country.

No one now doubt the success of tea planting in
Uva, it is a reorganized fact, and I anticipate that
the prosperity of the planting interest will be fully
re-established within the next three years, lliere is
much good coffee left in Uva on high estates where
rultivation has'bcon kept up, and what has been lost in
iioffsc will be fully made up iu tea wd ciucboua, and

retui-ned prosperity to the planter- means a large
help by villagers, and is the first step to that full
prosperity— but the great native question of the
day is, how is the extinct native coffee and healthy
native trade of Uva to be replaced or renewed V I
have frequently been asked . if tea could be
made to replace native coffee, and I can answer
this question largely in the affirmative. Although
tea will never grow " sJiumma " like coffee about the
honse under the shade of jak and other trees, it
must be grown in the open, pruned and cultivated. Tea
is a much hardier plant than coffee, but to manu-
facture tea the plant must be so treated that it will
throw out a succulent flush every eight or ten days
during the season. I have already seen some small
native tea gardens on the Kandy side which promise
well, and the cultivation is well adapted for small
gardens along the roads such as I have already de-
scribed as coffee gardens, and I fully anticipate before
long that the whole of the road from Badulla to
Lunugalla will be a succession of native tea
gardens each witli Prater's hand-roller and curing
on chulas with charcoal which I find is easily procured
and cheap; and the burning of charcoal will be one
little help to the villagers if the new forest ordin-
ance does not step in and prevent the people burning
charcoal in the chenas. I have also no doubt it Gov-
ernment will distribute good tea seed that a large
number of the more intelligent villagers will grow tea
in their gardens, but cattle trespass and want of fencing
is a sad drawback to planting. The product which
I would most like to see largely planted as being
sure and certain to produce immediate relief would
bo the iutroluetion of cotton, and every encourage-
ment should be given to the vill-agers to plant cotton
in the chenas and about their houses ; the fact that
cotton has failed in several places in Ceylon, does
not necessarily prove that the plant cannot be grown
remuneratively in Uva. I have seen the plant
growing in the greatest luxuriance up to 4,000 or
5,000 feet elevation, and it is well-known that till re-
cently cotton was largely grown and manufactured iu
Eatticaloa, and Badulla was the principal distributing
point for these goods. For many years I never saw
any towels, napkins, or table cloths in an Uva bun-
galow but those made in Batticaloa, and the natives
used principally Batticaloa cloths and caraboys ; this
trade has also gone, principally owing to the strin-
gent rules regulating the burning of chenas, but
the bill climate of Uva is fur better adapted
to the cultivation of cotton than the lowcouutry.
Cotton requires plenty of rain but if it gets raiu
when the boles are bursting it is utterly ruined, and
hero is whore the perfection of the Uva climate
comes in. I have just risen from my writing to
measure a young cotton plant, it is about nine
months planted, is growing ou anything but rich
soil, and h.as h;<d no manure ; it is ten feet iu height
and has l.iO well-formed bolea in dilterent stages
of maturity and plenty of blossom to come, the
spiing rains of March and .\pril h;»vo sent the plant
into blossom and the boles will burst during the
driest months of the year the plant is j>crennial
however and will blossom and po^i =^1' the year round.
The cotton refercd to is Egyptian. I got the seed
from a friend many years ago who brought the
seed from Egypt and I planted it iu the garden
at Oodowcrre, from there the ssed has been dis-
tributed over the country and there has been no
detericration in the plant though fully twenty yearo
since I first got the seed. A friend took home n
sample, it was very highly valued in Liverpool at
the time and said to be equal to the best Sea
Islands cotton — this was of course a hand picked
sample. Here is a product which may be cultivated
to any extent, brought to Badulla to bo baled and
the seed pressed for oil and cake. The common tree
cotton may al.so be grown iu the valleys to
any extant. Once valueless as a coramciciil pro-
duct it is now most valuable for upholstery.
Tin; .<eed of this plant is al.so valuable for oil and
caUr. Tobacco of fine quality can be grown to any ex-
ten: and so can castor-oil nr. 1 i variety of products,
but to '.hiukof carrying cut any of luy projectp (or

June i, iS86,J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

^i'^

tho profitable amelioration of the people they might
Bs wpU remain in <tr«ain!anil if we are not to have
the means of transptirting our proiiiioe. Tlio solf'ohanoo
of rejuvenating 1 va in the early future, or at all ia
HI a railway not only to Hapntalo hut to Badulla-
I'JIla is a myth. If we are sucofsst'ully to introiluct' new
proJuets amongst tho natives, there must ho a central
marliel to i-eceive them. If eottnn is to he grown in
small quantities hy the villagers, it must he purchased,
cleaned, perhaps ginned, bulked, prepared and baled
in Badulla. The same with tobacco; and if cotton seed
be pressed for oil in Badiill.i, the cake will lie avail-
able for cattle food on the spot, the same with castor
beans, the cake going for manure. .Vs for garden tea
it would have to find a market in Badulla, b-; bulked
there, sorted and refired and packed for shipment.
I am not sure that it would not pay handsomely if
soma of the large proprietors in the immediate
vicinity of Badulla were to send their green leaf
into town and cure and pack it here ; they would
find it much easier to manage both in the withering
and in the fermentation. At any rate a railway is
the first necessity of the day. Just fancy a million
holes of cotton being dragged wearily up to Haputale,
not to speak of Nannoya I The European planter may
very well be left to look after his own interests so
far as planting new products are concerned, or where
the cultivation of his estate may be concerned ; but
if anything for the native is to be done, the Gov-
iriiment must step in at once and help, but no help
can be of any real use till by a thorough and efficient
railway service, we have opened up Uva to the
markets of the world, not only for the present pro-
dnce of the country, but to develop the latest re-
30m-ces of the coimtry. The railway need not be pro-
digally costly like the Nannoya line, but wc must
have one unbroken gauge. 1 demand for Uva, on
the grounds of common humanity, that something
be done for the people : in many places they are
starving and many are thrown into gaol for ioad-ta.\
and for miuor offences, tho outcrop of poverty, niis-
govcrument and starvation. I would suggest that
Government at once select suitable gi-ounds for a
tea garden which shall be devoted entirely, to the
cultivation of the best of jats of acclimated Ceylon
tea seed with some select seed from India, the
tea, to be grown solely for seed to be distributed
amonst the villages and that a cotton plant-
ation be established on a suflioiently largo scale
to fully test the capabilities of the soil and climate
»nd the quality of the cotton grown. The seed to
he_ distrilnited amongst the villagers. These plant-
ation.s .should be principally cultivated by prison labor.
The use of the prisoners in this way will be doubly
beneficial, first they will be usefully and remuneiativcly
<>inployed, second they will have learned .something
new when they return to their villages. A small begin-
ning has been',^made in the wuy of an experimental garden
bat why the site chosen should have been adopted is
moio tb.in I can tell ifirst of all it is the poorest ridge
in all the Badnlla paildy fields, the .soil is a hard clay
mingled with iron, and the land has been sodilen with
water tor centuries till the clay is as hard and poor as
a burnt brick, and the iron has oxidized till it is like
the Bliukb.md of our Scotch Moorlands, rendering the
land barren and worthless ; besides this the field is
swept during the north-east mon.soon bya blast of hot
ilry wind which blow ontof the gorge of the Badulla Oya
with such withering effect that not a green thing is left
during tho dry months, and during the south-west mon-
soon, the field is equally exposed to the cold winds ami
heavy rains blowu down from the hills. A more unpro-
mising site could not well have been chosen or found for
a garden in all 17va, it will he like the famous experi-
mental farm in Colombo on a small scale. That the ridge
may be made productive by trenching and abundance
of manure and by planting hardy trees for wind-
belts and shelter is true, but it will be costly and take
years to accomplish.

As to the traffic of the town of Badulla, I will write
yo'l Liter on, i.> as this letter already far too long I think ;
howtvuj, the figures you have got from the native '
traders may be coii»idered fairly reliable, — Yours truly.

FLORIDA: FROST AND FRUIT.

Yellow Bluff, Fla., Jan. 27th ISSli.

nniTOR ASIEKIC.\N " OBOCPR."

Thinking, perhaps, .a letter from Mouth Florida
would be ot interest to your readers, I write you
what the cold has done for us. The oldest iii-
haliilants claim it the cuKhst weather ever seen iu
Ftoi'ida. It has not done the injury to orange treea
that the cold did in 1835, as the cold days previous
to the harvi frost caused the sap to go down iu thw
trees.

My orange trees were full of oranges ami all ap-
peared to 1)0 frosted more or less. About one-third
have fallen ; those on the trees are sound and I
believe will stand two or three months; those that
fell are sweet, as good as I ever ate, and do not
show many signs of decay. Our people are eating
more oranges than they ever did in the same length
of time. - As to the frost causing them to be poison-
ous, that is all ahoax, as far as our oranges are con-
cerned ; I have eaten six at one time without any
injurious affect. Most growers are letting the oranges
that drop lie on the ground and rot. 1 am housing
mine and will see if they will kee]>, and also picking
and housing those on the trees ; if I should chance
to .seud our Northern friends any 1 will venture to
say they never ate better. Lemons, limes, guavas,
pineapples, bananas, coconuts, mangoes and fig treea
on my place, with a few exceptions, are killed to the
ground. Orange trees will oijy lose their leaves, and
some have begun to bud ; it is thought we will have
du average crop another year. AVe learn that large
trees are killed in the counties north of us.
Vegetables are being planted more than ever.
It is not believed that the cold will depreciate tho
value of orange groves in this section, but rather
make them more valuable. I know of a sale of an
orauge grove that sold for as much as was asked
before the frost.

Orange land is selling here from $10 to §50 per
acre, according to location.

The lowest that the mercury stood iu the most ex-
posed place was 23 above at this place, two or three
miles hack from the gulf; 18 lowest "heard from.

W. W FUTEELt.

\Ye agree with our correspondent that the recent
frost in Florida will not iiermaueutly injure the orange-
growing interests. As to the healthfulness of frozen
fruit, there are two opinions. We incline to Dr.
Ed.son's view that oranges so frozen are not fit for
public sale without some restriction.

rif orauge trees can stand a temperature of ISdg.
surely they can stand anything. What is the lowest
temperature at which the orange grows and ripens
fruit in Ceylon ? Nothing lower than 40dg. we
should say, — Ed,]

FIJI AND ITS PRODUCTS.

The following items are from the Levuka corresponJ-
eut ot the .S'. M. fUrnld :—

I gained the other day, through the courte.«y of the
Receiver-General, and of Mr. .T. M. Borron, manager
of the Mango Island Company, the following porticularn
computed for the year 1885 : — Tlie Colonial .Sugar
Refining Company have exported 7/M tons of sugar ;
Mango Island Company comes next, with 085 tons ; then
Tasmania (on the Navua), with !)H',i ; Deuba estate, -In"
tons; and llolmliurst, on Taviuni, 393 tons. The other
mills have sent out much less.

Going into other statistics concerning the country,
I find that there are of Fiji. ins and J'elvneBians in
the colony about 128,000. There hr..'; ! ■!■ nn inereiise
ill the number of Indians in the group „l, iu round
numbers., 1,000, but a ileciease of f rom 1 ,000 to 1 ,/JOO
Polyuesian f ')ourerfi, these having been returned in
numbers to the island of the north-west, whence they
came ; and very few compared to what has formerly
been the case, have been brought in labour vestels to
Fiji. There has been among the Fiji.ins themselves
a very saddening decrease duriug the past ye.ar, even

S28

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

CJONE 1, 1886,

of births. Amongst the Europeaus, ou the other hand,
the death-rate is very considerably lower than the
birth-rate ; but so it is with our prolific Agulo-Saxons
:ill over the world. Jlay their bow abido in strength.
In commercial statistics one healthy sign may be
mentioned — the exports largely exceed the imports. The
most noticeable fact as regarding imports is the marked
falliug-oft in the item of hardware, which is owinff to
the fact that most of the machinery required on the
various estates had been imported previous to 1885. A
s-evere bloV has, by this mail, reached the coconut
planters, copra merchant.'^, anTl small traders, in the news
of the fall ol the price of copra by .£1 per ton. "Just
slices away our margin of profit," cried a .small trader
the other day. A ray of light, nevertheless, comes
brightly through the rack in the awakening of the
beche-de-mer indu.stiy. There is a magnificent harvest
of the sea, and some vessels visiting the outlying reefs
have done very well. A good price is obtained, and
there is a full demand. One Chinese merchant in
Levuka did in one year a business in this highly in-
teresting and surpassingly delicious Imine hoHchr for
the Celestials amounting to £20,000. There is a greater
demand tor our tea than the small production can as
yet overtake, though a fine new plantation is coming
into bearing at Masusu, AVainunu (Messrs, Mackiunon
& Barrett;. The Fiji tea, though well spoken of by
experts, is not enjoyed by every tea-drinker. " It is
far too good for that," say some of the knowing ones.
" The opinions of the public as to either tea, wine,
or anything else, are no test of excellence," asserted
a. mercantile gentleman, "and the taste of the generality
of consumers and that of connoisseurs and experts are
not alike." " Caviare to the general" is all very well
in its way; but one would think the io.r popii/i v/on\d
come nearer to the truth nevertheless. An industry
that may yet be indefinitely extended in Fiji is that
of fruit-preserving. Oranges boiled in sugar, bananas,
and pineapples canned 8an Franciscan-wise, and various
forms of candied peel, dried fruits, and preserves. These
things are possible to Fiji, where the sugar can be
produced as well as the, fruit at a cheaper r.ate than in
Australia or New Zealand. That there is a future for
Fiji in the matter of exports is evidently believed in by
the great steamship companies, which continue to run
their boats at a jiresent loss merely for the purpose of
securing the trade of the future. The Colonial Sug.ir
Eefining Company has very creditably given a bounty to
the uativeproduceis of sugarcane, from whom they have
received much material for their all-devouring mill-
rollers to opoiate upon ; and this boimty has been to
the amount of Xl.bOO. — Quicn^la/i/hr.

TEADE AND COMMERCE OF CEYLOIT.
{Bi/ American Consul Jlorey.)

IMrOETS.

The nnporlb for the year ISW (including coal and
coke, 200,0110 tons, worth' Sl.iWl.OtiOl aggregated lo.j,Si71
tons, valued at $17,311^,740, and tlie duties thereon
amounted to Sl.OSt'l, 17H. Eight-tenths at leaiit of the
whole came from Great Britain or her colonies, and
although many of tho article;^ enumerated arc nioiu
cheap and abundant in tho United States than else-
where nothing is credited as coming from there, ex-
cept $311,000 worth of keroiieiie oil, wheroau SKS.yOO
worth of the same commodity are credited toBritibh
India, which country, of course, got it from America.
I trace, also, about another ,1?(i7,000 worth of American
goods, viz., salt beef and pork, clocks and watches,
plated ware, notions and tobacco as coming indirectly
from America, conscciueutly there wore about SIV.I.OIK)
worth of our products imported hero during the year.
The notions cnneistcd of mostly the following articles,
viz.: — .'V cotton-gin, a ricc-hullcr, stencil conibiiiations,
wharf and warehouse swivel trucks, coffcc-hnllers,
steel harli-fcucing, Marvin sales, rifles and revolvers,
saws and locks, canned goods and Bcwiug-machinos,
type-writers, &c.

The principal dealers iu those articles say tlio
demand for them is incrcasiug. One leading firm has
the agency for the Walthani Watch ('ompany and
Seth Thomas' clocks and probably sells more of
those goods, ospooially tho watches, than any other

firm here, as almost everyone now requiring a strong
and reliable timekeeper patronizies the American
article.

I notice also that a few American carriages are
being imported privately, and railroad locomotive
head-lights for the Ceylon Government, likewise
some wood-working machinery lor tlie government
factory.

EXPOETS.

The exports were ].'!5,208 tons, valued at S13,-403.316,
or .^3,9811.424 less than the imports. If, however, we
add to tho exports at least S1,.JOO,()00 for coals sup.
l)lied to steamers, and therefore hciug practically " im-
ports re-exported," shall have exports, $1-5,000,000, and
a difference of less than S2,G0O,0OO in favor of imports.
How much of this difference may be m.iile up by the
value of precious stones it is hard to s.ay in these times
when large quantities of gems are being returned un-
sold from Europe ; it is probable, however, that the
account is balanced in that way. *

There are no marked features in the export list es-
pecially distinguishing it from last years's except the
increased shipments of coppera to Europe and a cor-
responding falling oflf in the quantity sent to India;
besides an increase in coconut oil to the fnited States
and a diminished amount of plumbago to our country.
The export of coppera to Europe and kapook (tree
cotton) was alluded to incidentally in my last annual
report as a novelty, and I now observe that the ship-
ments of the latter commodity amounted to, in the
calendar year 1S84, 229,413 pounds, worth S21,82G.

COMJIERCK.

The navigation for the year inward and outwax-d,
amounted to 4,1*76 steamers and SJiiling vessels, reported
5,572,104 tons. Of this vast aggregate, 2,5i)8 members,
totaling 5,168,860 tons were steamers, and 2,378, regis-
tering 398,264 tons, were ."^ailing vessels. Great Britain
and her colonies' contribution to this immense fleet was
2,096 steamers, registering 4,048,986 torn, and 2,061
sailers, grossing 262.236 tons ; total, 4,157 steamers and
sailing vessels, aggregating 4,311,222 tons.

The United States contributed, counting them
double, in and out, 18 sailing vessels, aggregating
12,210 tons, which is the largest showing in our favor
since the year 1863.

The above numbers are taken from the re-
cords of the master attendants at the three prin-
cipal ports of the island, viz.. Colombo, Galle
and Jatfna, and they contain much tonnagt; calling at
Ceylon only for coals or ordrrs. The actual amount of
shipping, entering and clearing, at the several custom-
houses, and really participating in the carr\ ing trade
was.ibout 4,230 steamers and sailors, aggregatiug about,
3,350,000 tons. Nearly eight-tenths of the total ton-
nage first named above must be credited to Colombo,
which, therefore, m:iy now be regarded as one of the
chief maritime resorts of the world, and jtcrhaps the
largest in the Iiiilian seas. This conditijii is mostly
due to the opening of the Suez Canal and the building
of a break\^ater luxe, as. jirior to the former event,
the navigation of Colombo was comparatively insignifi-
cant, whereas now being in the direct track of steamers
bound from the Ked Sea to India, Burma and China
and vice versa, and possessing a safe and most acces-
sible harbor, besides being in telegraphic communication
with the whole civilized world, it now attracts and
offers superior faclities for coaling and comimiuicating
to all steamers cruising in those directions and to sail-
ing vcs.si'ls seeking for freights.

French commerce in Ceylon ranks second to British,
the figures being 220 stcan^ers and 2 sailing vos.'iel.s,
aggregating 555,321 tons. A very large jiroportion of
this, however, represents steamers eugiiged trausport-
iug troops and stores to and from the l"ar East in the
prosecution of the Franco-Chinese war. Austro-
llungary comes next, her contribution being 67 steamers
and 2 sailers, aggregating 120,156 tons. Holland ranks
next, and Germany, Norway, Italy, Spain. Ivussia,
Arabia, Portugal, Japan, and Siam, so f.ir as steamers
.-ire concerned, cjme iu the order nauietl, while the
two nationalities represented by sailing ships only
wore the United States and Maldive Islands ; the only

June i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

825

other country mentioued in the list in that category
being Sweden, a country amalgamated with Norway,
which is separately scheduled.

In compiling the foregoing particulars, all ships bear-
ing a tJovernnient couiinission of any sort, except trans-
ports, have been excluded ; nevertheless, mon-of-war of
various nationalities and departmental vessels are daily
calling in at Col >mbo, and not in frequently at the other
ports; 30 that, wtre their tonagc included in ihe list,
the total would be enhanced amazingly.

TRADE WITH THE UXrTED STATE.S.

As hereinbefore mentioned, the iuijKjrt from llie
I'nitcd States direct was S39,40S worth of k'-rosine oil ;
and the exports to our country were 11,0:19 tons, valued
at .S9-J'2,5?.7. The only marked feature in this return
is the increase in coconut oil, of $42,.543, ihe total
quantity being S150,t»lt0. and largely in excess of any
previous years' showing. There was also an increase
of nearly i?70,0llij with respect to plumbago, though Ihe
i|uantity shi)jped was below that of the previous year
by 3,0<^IO tons ; a circumstance probably iuilicative of a
renewed demand in America for a superior quality of
that article.

PLANTING IN NETHEELANDS INDU.

(Traiisliited for the fitrait.i Tinwu.)
A Mr. Booth at Pasaritan in Java has just made
a very important invention in the shape of a
centrifugal which can be filled with sugar and
emptied of it witliout its speed being in any wise
lessened. Mr. Sargent, an engineer in thii employ
of the well known firm of Manlove, Elliott, Fryer
& Co., found it so efUcient that after getting full
particulars about the invention, he left for Britain
direct to inform his employers of the discovery, in
order to make arrangements with them for the
manufacture of improved centrifugals.

Throughout Java, good Manila cigars have proved
so hard to get except at high prices since the
abolition of the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines,
that tiutch cigars, never at any time an enjoyable
-article, are beginning to oust the Manila ones
e5i)ecially since they are now made in Holland
more carefully, so as to suit the climate of Java.

THE

THE

INDIAN GOYEENMENT ANT)
CINCHONA BARK TRADE.

Mr. L. M'lver asked .the Under-Secretary of State
lor India whether during the last two years the
(iovernment cinchona plantations on the Neilgherry
hills had been extended by nearly half a million
trees ; wliether it was true tliat a large amount of
private capital had been invested in cinchona cultiv-
ation on the Neilgherry hills ; whether, with regard
to the statement contained in the despatch, April
4th, 1871, of tlie Secretary of State for India, " It
should be clearly understood that the Government
have no intention of embarking permanently in the
bark trade. In sending their cincliona bark to the
Ijondon market, one object is certainly to repay the
cost of introduction and experimental cultivation of
the plants ; but the principal intention of the
I Iovernment in sanctioning this measure is to act as
a pioneer in establishing the reputation of the
Indian-grown barks, and not to injure the prospects
of private planters, whose sucoeas would give the
Government very great satisfaction;" whether it
was true that the Government of India since that
time had continued and extended their investments
in that branch of commerce ; and whether it was the
intention of the Indian Government to continue in
competition with ))nvate enterpirise.

Sir U. KayShuttleworth : I can answer my hop.
friend's lirst three questions in the aflirmotive, only
reminding him that the Duke of Argyll, in a de-
spatch to the Government of Madras of the .sams

clearly necessary that the Government should retain
the plantations in their own hands for the present.
The time has not, therefore, arrived for linally
deciding upon the question of their retention or
eventual sale. As at present Informed, however, I
incline to the opinion that a portion of the planta-
tions, with the manufactory, should remain perma-
nently under (iovernment superintendence." Though
it has never been the intention of the Indian
Governmeut to contiuua permanently in the bark
trade, the time for withdrawing from it has been
deferred during scientific investigations on the subject
of the production of a cheap febrifuge. — Home Neir.'
♦

Cnvi'TOMERiA Japontca.— We are glad to learn that
tlie Local Board of Nuwara Eliya have purcliased
5 lb. of the seed introduced by Mr. Deane from
Japan, and Mr. Nock wants Government to buy
the balance, as the tree is one of the linest and
fastest growmg at Hakgala. We recently obtained
some seed from Darjiling, where the tree has long
been established, and is grow ing freely. We mean
to plant our lU-acielot near the Nuwara Eliya Bund
with this Japan pine, with Tooiia cfdivlit and Ore.
villea robiiitd. a,\\ >i>:(i to allow thinning out. Can
any reader offer objection or suggestion ? What
other tree is recommended, apart from eucalj-pts,
of which there is a superabundance on Abbotsford ?
A correspondent advises planting C. Japonka " in
belts as closely as cotton trees. The lower branches
die and you have a perfect wall of timber."

Tuv. Blackstone TeaEolleu.— Mr. H.-irber writes as
follows : — ■' You will remember favoring us with
a call, a few months since, with the manage'r of
Carolina accompanying you. He is now .studying
the achievements of the " roller " at his own leisure,
in his own factory, as tlie enclosed will show
you. With the power he can bring to bear on the
"roller" at that model f.actory I learn he gets
in I'iO lb. at a fill, and works it off in '20 minutes.
This includes the filling and discharging The K.'
A. W. rolling may be a trifle longer and heavier
than mine, to suit the system and mode of manu-
facture adopted there, no doubt, but it is gratify-
ing to know that with sufficienl po\vtr the capa-
city of the "roller" is raised to \'i(\ lb. at a fill.
Mr. Armstrong thought I could drive it much
faster and finish much quicker. It may be of
interest to know that English-made machines will
be shipped from next month. Tea is down in the
higher grades quite 2d per lb. and I have been
no exception. If things don't mend I .shall run
the gauntlet for 10-penny teas against all comers
and play tennis in the afternoon."

.,. x^ T, u ^■^'"- """• '^<»^F»cFwy, 28th April 1886.
T. H. Barber Esq.

Dear Sir,— The Bkckstone " roller " in use here gives
great satisfaction, though leaf received at this factory
is coarser tbari what is usually plucked, a charge of 1 20
lb. withered leaf is well rolled and twisted in 20 minutes
Very little power is needed to drive the machine— I
am, dear sir, vours faithfully, W. Meooinson

Strictly speaking, this " communiitation is an
advertisement and ought to be paid for as such.
The agents of Mr. Jackson's machinery include testi-
monials in their advertisements, and" we have been
asked why we make exi'ejitions in other cases.
Our reply is th.-it in tlic earlier stages of inven-
tions calculated to be of advantage to the groat
enterprizc of the country, we feel bound to allord
such encouragement as wo can to those who direct
labour and iiigeuuity to the benefit of the whole
body of pUmters as well as their own. When the
merits of an invention have been thoroughly tested
and ure well-known, however, tlip casf is difTerpnt
and future testimonials in favour cf the Black-

SjO

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[JONE t, 1886.

Cinchona. — Then the GoTernment lia^ soraething
lietter than mauy a gold mine in its cinchona
plantations on the Nilgiris. These estates, oeeiipy-
ing an area of 850 acres, represent an outlay of
£208,174, and the actual amount realised has
been £109,2fi0. So thut virtually thf Gnvornraent
has been recouped for its whole investniejit, and
it now owns upwards of half a million of cinchona
trees, of which a moiety are Ojfieiualis and Stic-
ciruhra. — Mailrus Mnil.

Tea Bulxino. — In the number of your journal for
.January Vth 1881, there is an article headed " Tea
Bulking iu India and Ohina," from which T would
ask y^ur permission to reproduce the paragraph whi^^h
describes thd method it bulking adopted by 1 lie Ohin»se.
The method i8 as follows ; •• Immediately after the
final firing, and while the tea is still hot, it is spread
iu even layers, two or three inches in thickness, one :)n
tKe top of the other at the end of a godown, the height
and breadth of the heap being according to the siz'^ of
the parcel, or chop as it i.s there called, to be made. An
ordinary wooden rake is then drawn down the face of
the pile, thus rakins; an equal quantity fr.im all the
layeri, and securing (the all-important point) a
thorough mixture of the tea. As fast as it is raked
down it is shovelled into baskets and weighed, an
equal quautitv being put iuto each chest." — Honir-
aTid Colonial Mnil.

Tea : the Weather Reports fkom Assa.m are gen-
ei'ally favourable, although the nights continue
rather cold in some parts, and a few gardens in the
Dibrughar District have had their tea plants and
buildings damaged by heavy storms. A good deal
of injury has also been done by hail to many gardens
in Kachar the plants being completely stripped of
their leaves. Those gardens which have escaped
the hail promise a successful season, flood rain
has at last fallen in .South Sylhet, but the season
must from the long drought prove a late one. The
reports from the Darjiling and the Terai are fairly
favourable, but more rain would be acceptable and
in the I)uars, where it has been very dry good rain
has now fallen Chittagong has also had a good fall
ot rain, and there has been a little in the Ha/ari-
bagh District but the continued cold weather has
rather damaged the prospects in the Kangra Val-
ley.— '^alrutta Eniilisluimti.

The it. S. Go%'ernme"jt'h Tea Faum. -Commis-
5!ioner Colman, of the Department of Agriculture,
has quite an unfavorable report upon thf govern-
ment tea farm at Hummerville, S. C. Mi-. \'ardell,
the superintendent, writes him that the scvi-re winter
and protracted cold weather have stripped the tea
]i]ants of their foliage. He says that he thinks
:'.ome varieties are dead to the root. He has found
one variety standin'; in certairi places that endurer.
the cold better than others, and from which no
leaves have lallen He i"^ now engaged in plowin;;
between these plants, but.sayslhat he discourages all
applications for (hem, because they are evidently
enfeebled by the cold weather and in no condition
for removal, ('onnnissioner dolman is understood to
be of the opinion that this cKperiraental tea farm
had better be abandoned, as he is having propagnled
on the ground? of the department tea plants sulli-
eient number to meet .all calls lor them, r.rail
xtreel yiiaah imr,. [Full details ot this failure will
be given in the Tropical Aiirifidlurist. — En.]

RrrECTS oe thi: htf irrnniCANE IM Frn
The cry of "Pity poor Fiji!" m.ay well again be
rained. In the midst ot severe depression the archi-
pelago has been desolaterl by a hurricane. DhIriIs
like the following ought Iu make lis- thankful that
we aie beyond the infiuence of Cyclones :-Durmg
iho morning news ota specially disastrous c'laracter
'■.as received from the natives on the windwanl
side. They reported that on the Wednesday
night the nea had broken in on them and

had rushed np in furious strength to between 50
and 60 feet above the usual high tide level. This
had completely wrecked the whole windward side
of the island which is undefended by a sea reef,
and the water had done more damage than the
wind. The town", ot Vadr.avadra, Yodua, IJrela-
Nacavanadi and Vauuaso and Malowai were com-
pletely washed away. Lamiti has partially destroyed
and in Vanuaso a shark was kiUe.Hamong the houses.
The whole coast line is comnletely wrecked and
changed in'*appearanoe and the condition of the
people is pitiable in the extreme. — Fiji Times.

The Latest Repout or a " Peufected" MiCHiNE
FOB Clearing Rhea Fibre is thus given in the
Gardeners' Monthly in a letter from New Orleans : —
Mr. I. Inneuat has on exhibition in Machinery
Hall a machine for cleaning and preparing for
nse Jute and Ramie taken in their rough state
from the fields where grown. It would seem that
he has perfected his machine ; if so he will really
be a second Whitney to the S.>uthern States. The
cotton States use millions upon millions of yards
of jute bagging every year. The jute can be made
a very successful crop in the Southern States —
the only difficnlty is to sufficiently cheaply pre-
pare it for use. With a machine that will properly
and cheaply do its work the South will have a
new paying crop and millions of dollars that now
go , abroad can be kept in the country. What it
would do for jute it would do tor ramie cloth lirfna
which nearly rivals silk.

The Rise of the Tea Industrt in Ceitlon. — It i«t
not surprising that some at least of those who
have invested their money in Indian tea, and
adhered to the industry through good and evil
report should feel somewhat anxious upon the .sub-
ject of Ceylon rivalry in tea. It is not soothing
to the feelings of the juoneers of an important
industry to tlnd that ere their projects are completed,
and before the sunshine follows the rain, a neigh-
bouring island, wdiich had been regarde.l by many
as played out, should suddenly assume a new vitality,
and blossom out in tea which is not only of excellent
flavour but which owing to the favourable geographi-
cal .and topographical conditions uiuier which it
is grown can be placed at a favourable price on
the Iiondon market. Some of the pioneers of tea
who, to use a phrase taken from our tr.ans-.\tlantic
cousins, have put " their bottom dollar" on tea in
Assam, Caehar, Darjeeling, and thf' Kangra Valley,
must, as we say, feel anxious le;:t some ot their well-
laid plans should " gang aglee." I.et them take
h^art. There is more than room iiiough for all.
Undoubtedly Ceylon is a rival and a fornndable one,
but this should serve to stimulate rather than to
weaken the efforts of Indian tea planters. Their
cuminon enemy ir. China, if the li 1 m mrty be used
in regard to a irado competitor. Tea planters in
India and Ceylon are on their metal. They are
anxious to make good tea, and they wish to do this
iheaply. They are keejiing their eyes open very
wide, and are earnest in seeking (he best methods
of ensuring these objects. We believe that it is
impossible to keep down the unfailing enterprise
of the Briton, and that as obstacle-, beset l\im he
lakes in fresh (|uantities of determination to over-
corn ■ them. .Mready the import of teas fi'om India
and Ceylon lias made some havoc in the shipments
from f'hina. and tlm game goes on merrily. The
consumer is beginning to realise that there in
economy in the teas grown by Ills own countrymen.
They are sirong end possess a llavour, which grows
on the palate. Dealers, wliolesale and rctad, recognise
this, and there never was a better prospect than at
the present time for these teas. Iiot the friendly rivalry
between India and Ceylon continue, and may planters
profit by theexperience ot o.ich other —H. rf- C. Utiil

JiiKi, I, i8S6..J

THE ^TROPICAL AGRICULTtfKIST.

6yt

fan'tispniutenj^c.

'I'o l/ie Edilor of the " Ctijlon Obsirvtr.

C013EA BRAND TEA : ENGLISH AND FOKEIGN
BUSINESS— A DISTINCTION ?

London". April i'lk.

Siii, — My attention has beeii diawu to a imru-
graph against " Cobra Brand " tea in the Cci/Ivh
Observer. Although it is not stated in plain langu-
age, yet it is hinted that Cobra Brand Tea is not
pure Ceylon. With the English business, since
November l-ird of last year 1 have no connection,
and therefore am in no way responsible for the
way in which that business is conducted. But
prior to November 3rd a guarantee under a penalty
of £100 was affixed to every parcel and packet,
vouohiny for the contents being pure Ceylon Ten
and notliing else. That guarantee I continue to use
(though I understand the Ceylon Tea and Coffee
Company Limited have dropped its use) upon my
packets which go to America, South America, the
West Indies, Sweden, France, Italy and many other
countries. I affirm that I send nothing but pure
Ceylon Tea unmixed with any other, neither have
X ever, since I commenced to sell Ceylon Tea, sold
any other.

I question whether many of the retailers of Ceylon
lea in London could truthfully make a similar state-
ment. On the other hand deception is rife. Tea is
sold everywhere under the name of Ceylon and I
intend, on the arrival of Mr. J. L. Shand, to make
certain ropreeontatioui to him which may induce
action to be taken.

In the face of present prices this loyalty to your
article has been very hard upon me, but I hope
for easier terms in the future. I am continuing to
do good work for Ceylon in pushing her tea into
fresh countries where, until my consignments enter,
Ceylon tea is often unknown. I pack a good lifjuor-
ing, good leaf Ceylon, looking ahead for my reward.
My bond packed teas could never be described as
rubbish and it is very painful to me. after all the
good work that has been done under the ■' Cobra
Brand, '' that it should thus be dragged in the
mire. I euelose my circular with testimonials, which
prove that my tea is appreciated abroad. Yours
faithfully A. HUTCHISON.

P. S. — Although the last Ceylon Observer has been
in some days, it is only now, just at post time,
that my attention has been called to the editorial
and foot-note. I shall treat of this later.

. Who then is responsible for the English bnaincss
in Cobra Brand Tea, we ask ?— En.]

CBOTON-OIL PLAuN'TS AND THEIR ENEMIES:
CATEBPILLAKS GALOEE.

Ncgombo, viTth April imH.
Dtiii HiK, — My good friend Mr. Hollosvay, at the
Planters' Association meeting held on 28th .Ian.
ISiHI, staled that even bees would not approach a
croton-oil plant to gather pollen from its blossoms,
implying thereby 1 presume that so virulent was
its poison that no insect would attack it. 1 have
also heard others express very much the same
opinion, and was myself inclined to endorse it. This
idea has been exploded in a most effectual manner as
yon wiU see. About a week ago the conductor
in charge of my little place between Polgahawela
and Kurimcgala wrote to say that caterpillar., liad
attacked the croton-oil plants and were destroying
them rapidly. I went up as soon as I could, ex-
pecting to 6ee tioiuetbiug like (be sight (bat

l)resented itself to my view about three years ago
when caterpillars attacked a field of castor-oil
plants, and after devouring everything but thr
trunks, began upon the Liberian coffee and cocoa 1
Wliat I did sec was not quite so bad, yet it wan
bad enough. The insects (one of the hop cater-
pillars, tlic larva I fancy of the common brown
and black butterfly, rather numerous there just
now) had made a clean sweep of every leaf over
about three acres of croton-oil plants ; there was
nothing left but the main stems and the primary
branches; all the young twigs were eaten, and the
bark from the secondary branches clean eaten off.
The trees had crop on and were laden with blossom,
but nothing came amiss to these voracious creatures ■,
their stomachs must be as case hardened as that
of the sailor who drank off a glass of aqim forti^
and who when told what it was ho had drunk
coolly rejjlied ; " Aqua forty or aqua fifty I 'd like
some more of it " ; so no doubt would these
insects. The rest of the crotons, over other
2.5 acres, were only slightly affected as they had
been taken in hand in time : the bushes
were shaken and the insects killed on the ground.
This had to be done three times ; and so tenaciously
do they hold on with their 1 suckers that it is very
diflicuft to get them off ; this however is a very
effectual way of getting rid of them. The trees on
the 10 acres will. I think, shoot out again as the
weather is wet ; but had this occurred at the
beginning of the dry weather I believe they would
nearly all have died. Not a leaf of the cocoa was
touched, evidently it was too insipid a diet after
the strong and stimulating croton. I should like to
know if anyone else has had a similar visitation,
—Yours truly, WILLIAM JABDINE.

TEA-MAKING: A BEMEDY FOB "ALLEGED

DETEBIORATION " ;— THE PBOPER TEA-

DBIEB?

Colombo, 21)th April 188b.

Deak Sni,— During a visit to Dimbula last week,
my Benjamin and I made an excursion to the
Templcstowc estate where one of the "l*'luc Tea
Driers" is erected. After reaching Watawala by
rail, we ;;lepped along nearly two mileo of railway
sleepers, and then ascended a bteep path fur a mile
and a half, macadamised with tolerably largo
boulder.-j. We were not sorry therefore when wo got
to the top of the hill, to xc the Bungalow of the
hospitable Mr. MeCauslaud looming in the distance
below us ; this we reached in due time and did
full justice to a good breakfast.

After digesting it we inspected the brand new
tea-house in which the "drier" is [ilaced. As both
the furnace and chimney are outside the building,
there was not a xmrticle of dust or dirt in the
tea-firmg room, which, everything being spick and
span new, was perfectly clean, tidy and well
arranged. I found the "drier" being worked pro-
perly, with one or two slight drawbacks, which
will bo rectiticd when the small ovens, to contain
the tiring trays, arc placed upon it.

We tested some of the tea which Ml'. McCausland
just made, and, though lam an ine.vpert at tea tasting,
I know sufficient of its manufacture to be able to
distinguish between good and bad brews. I was
uuich struck with the very fine color of the infused
leaf, and the dark strong appearance of the liquor.
I asked Mr. McCausland if he could account for
this. He said ho thought the great heat of the
tea-tiring room, was conducive to a good wither
of the leaf, in the room above it, and also to the
fermentation of the leaf, which was twice rolled iu
one of Jackeou'a uew t>maU rollers.

S^J

TliE THOyiCAL AGRICULTURIST,

f/UNE I, 1886,

Ou thinking over the matter on iny way to
Colombo, I tieterminet) to have a sample of the
Templeatowc tea, if I uouUl get o]ie, tested by my
friend Mr. Oaldecott Smith, in whose judgment 1
have great confidence. The agents of the estate
were kind enough to give me samples, and yester-
day, they were tested by my friend, who pro-
nounced the color of the leaf, and the strength of
the liquor to be as near perfection as possible,
and he added that "no tea equal to it in quality
had in his opinion been sold in Colombo for si.v
months."

A well-known, and hilarious tea expert hap-
pened to run upstairs, whilst the samples were
drawing. I seized him by the collar asid in-
sisted upon his giving his opinion on the im-
portant points. He concurred with Mr. Smith.

It is extremely gratifying lo me to find the first
working of the "Flue Drier" in the Central Pro-
vince has fallen into the hands of so careful and
intelligent a Manager as Mr. McCausland. I have
no doubt as favorable results will be obtained by
the experienced tea-makers on "Moray," "New
Brunswick" and " (jallamudena," where "driers"
are being put up. I was unable to visit these
estates when 1 was in Dimbula, as the distance to
walk was rather beyond my capability. When
these and several other "driers" which have been
applied for are completed, the ijuestion whether
great economy and efficiency in tea driers cannot
be combined, will be definitely settled.

I should mention when watching Mr. McCausland's
people making tea, I was struck with the appar-
ently large c|uantity of fermented leaf put on each
tray : more, I think, than we are accustomed to
put on each tray. No doubt, tho process of dry-
ing is prolonged, but the question naturally presents
itself whether slower tiring is not rather a good
thing ? On Templestowe time was no object ; all
I know is thai whether it was wither, or the
ferment, or the slower firing, a very beautiful tea
■was made. — Yours truly, C. SHAND.

CBOTON OXL PLANTS AND CATERPILLARS.

Dumbara Valley, 1st May 1886.
Dsiv, Sin, — I have seen the same thing as Mr.
Jardine describes. In this case the caterpillars had
eaten off every leaf and had been caught. The
croton plants appeared to be quiet dead, but they
have since come round and are now flourishing. This
18 une reason why I always disliked crotons as
shade for cacao. ' F. W. CtK-^-Y.

THE DETERIORATION IN TEA.

Demi Sib, — If an unprofessional may hazzard an
opinion as to the lessened value of Ceylon tea !
what say you to leaves being plucked too young,
before they have any pronounced flavour, and the
tea being tired before sufKcient fermentation has
taken place? Perhaps it is these defects which cause
our tea to be shut out of the American and
Australian markets where it is said the middle and
lower classes complain that it will not stand a
second water. VERB. SAP.

[The real objection is its quality and consequent
price compared with rubbishy China. — Eu.J

TEA PACKING.
Sir, — Touching the agitation about corrosion to
tea lead, I would ask, is the lead packing allowed
to touch the wood case?

The Chinese paste paper on the lead packages
they use. Is tliis done in Ceylou? and if not,
why should it not be tried?- Yours,

HONG KING.

CROTONS AND CATERPILLARS.

Haputale, 3rd May 1886.

Deak SiK,— Mr. Jardiue in your paper of 2ntli ult.
records a visitation his croton-oU trees have had,
I regret to say he is not the only one whose
trees have been so attacked by caterpillars.

An army of them paid a visit to one of my
croton clearings during the last week of November
188-1, and devoured every leaf, blossom and fruit
on many of the largest trees, and would have
soon gone over the whole clearing, but that coolies
were at once put on to shake the trees and gather
the fallen enemy from the ground.

As November of last year advanced a careful watch
was kept, for the approach of the expected visitors
and from their first appearance, about the ■22nd
of the month, an- average daily force of .55 able-
bodied coolies at work for five consecutive days
shaking the trees and gathering the caterpillars
were unable to stamp them out before they left
the greater of two clearings, as if they had been
exposed to a week's sharp frost. The trees, how-
ever, soon renewed their foliage and are now loaded
with fruit and flower. It is proposed that the
attack in November of this year shall be from
our side before the enemy arc fully armed for
destruction. — Yours truly, J. W.

A POUND of bananas, it is said, contains more mitri-
ment than 31b. of meat or as many pounds of potatoes,
while as a fond it is, in every sense, superior to the best
wheateu bread. It is not generally understood that
bananas frucl, baked, or roasted are lery appetizing,
and that sUced and placed in a dish, with a Iternatc
slices of o-ange, they make a most delicious dessert. —
Qiteeiislandcr,

Opinio:* of an Expert on Uva Tea. — I have
liquored the sample of Uva tea sent me. The
character of the leaf is hard and leathery; fairly
well rolled, color good, fermentation equal, rather
underlired, liquor strong and pungent, a hard
rasping tea well adapted for mixing, value about
one shilling — your sample may be considered for
first or early making, good. My opinion of Uva
tea is that it will be generally characterised as a
strong pungent tea, if you wish to get a high
flavored tine tea you must pluck very fine.

Natal Tea i-ok the London ExmsmoN. —
The exhibits are as follows : —

J. L. Hulett, Kearsney Estate, Nonoti. — Show
cases of syringa wood containing teas, as follow:"
— 18 lb. pekoe souchong, 18 lb. pekoe souchong
1'', lil lb. "pekoe D, 17 lb. pekoe, 25 lb. pekoe A.
21 lb. golden pekoe, 16 lb. flowery do., and 1!)
lb. pekoe.

A note to this consignment says ; — This estate
produced and placed in the market the 1st 500 lb.
of tea grown in Natal, season 1881-82, from seed
imported by the Lower Tugela Division Planters'
Association, from Calcutta, with the advice and
assistance of Mr. J. Brickliill, of the I'mbilo, who
had previously successfully imporled a few Assam
hybrid plants. In Natal there are 282 acres under
cultivation in Victoria County, 20 in Durbnn County,
70 in Lower Umzimkulu district and about 200 acres
are being prepared for next season's planting.

The yield per acre is exceedingly large, viz. :
Within H years, 200 lb. dry tea.
f ,. 400 „

5 „ 600 „

6 .. 800 .,"

We should doubt exceedingly SdO lb. beiny oblaincd
save over a few acres under sucli cultivation
0,6 will scarcely pay.

June i, iSS6.]

THE TROPICAt. AGRlCULTVRiST

iii3

LONDON TEA LETTER: TEA DRYING.

You will soon be hoariug of fresh ilovelopnunts nnd
improvements in tca-drycrs. These nro certninly not
the days for resting on one's oars in the race of life.
Our friends wlinso special vocation it is to supply the
enterprising tia plantation of to-day with the host means
of harvesting his crop, are evidently imbued with a
thorough faith in the '• survival of the fittest " (iootrino.
Mr. tireig is convinced that his X. L. ALI/. dryer,
is the machine of the future, and has anticipated the
general verdict somewhat by bestowing upon it his own,
by way of designation. This sieving machine for sort-
ing is nearer perfection in its line tliau anything I
have yet seen. I was vastly pleased with thi; one
on exhiliition at South Kensington. Tlanfirs wlio now
ruefully contemplate the loss of so many plurkers, in
the heiglit of a, vigorous ''tlush, " now re<iiiired in the
tea-house, wilt" do well to write for. particulars of these
sieving-mncliines. Their price is very moderate, and
they arc really most effective and they allow of the
tea being Uroken by hand on the upper sieve at will.
His tea-roller is a handy little bag machine for small
gjirdens, and cheap. It has several very great
improvements on I^yle's, and may even bo worked
by hand on garileiis not yet .able to afford steam
power. 3lr. D.avidson is bringing out a vastly improv-
ed dryer on the "Sirocco" principle, called the
'■ T, Sirocco ," from its shape, which is somewhat that
of the capital '1', with the corners between the arms
of the cross and perpendicular filled up with flues.
This is the evolution and perhaps the comiiletion of the
"No. 3 Sirocco," type now so well thought of by
those who have tried it. This new shape will probably
be found to givT a greatly iucreased yielil. I have
not yet sein more than the drawing, so cannot speak
from personal observation .as to the result of splitting
the draught. Mr. Davidson, in whom personally all
who know him must have great faith, hopes big
things of this type and speaks enthusiastically of it,
and it is not to be supposed that he would do so
without having assured him.self of his grounds before-
hand ; consequently we may take it for granted that
the merits of this new " Sirocco " are well worth invest-
igating by those about to puaehase dryers. Messrs.
Cibbs and IJany are also bringing out a gr(;at improve-
ment in their dryer, and one that has been tried with
marked success in ilr. Gibbs's grain dryers, and which
is therefore no longer a mere theory. The improve-
ment.') reliite principally to the methoil of applying the
draught. As the petitions for patent arc only just
being sent out to India by this mail, I am not at
liberty to enter into particulars. — Indian riaiitcrs'
O'acette.

j.vPjvnese food plants.

A list 1 18 been published by Iferr Mueller-Eecck,
Yokohama, where the compiler fills the post of Con-
sular-jVssis' int of the German Empire. The list goes
far to pr< ve the omnivorous character of the Japanese
in the matter of goods selected from the vegetable
kingdom. jVs with us the Brassicas come in for a
larje share of attention, and in all cases for the leaves
only. The following may be mentioned : — B. chiuensis,
B. orientalis, B, cimpestris, B. Ilapa: of the last
named both roots and leaves arc eaten. Of I'laphaiuis
sativus, the Radish, eleven sorts are given, of which
the roots are eaten fresh, salted, pickled in ilice
spirit, and also decayed. Oranges, Shaddocks, and
Lemons are found in six species. I'e.-is andlUansure
used both for the seeds and pods; but they differ
much from our new kinds. iSoja hispida (the Sr)y
Bean I is grown in twenty-four varieties, and are chiefly
used for so// aud wwf. The roots of Dolichos hirsutns
arc employed for the preparation of starch and moid.
la the ease of D. incurvos, D. uinbellatus, D. bicon-
tortus, and D. ensiforme, the seeds and pods are used
for the same purposes. The seeds of plants allied to
our Scarlet Ilunuer Bean, viz., Phaseolus radiatus, P.
r, pendulas, P. r. subtrilobatus, and P. vulgaris are
used .

iOi

The fruits of Prunus tomentosa are used in tlie
ripe state for eating raw and for jam, and in the uu-
ripe state in salt and vinegar as pickles. The petals
of the flowers of P. Pseudo-cerasus are salted, and
likewise used in water as a llivotir to drink. The fruits ,
of P. jiiponica, which were figiin-d in the Ganliners'
CItvonicle, No. r>T6 p. 45, and those of P. incisa aro
eaten. The Pear, the (Juince, the Apple, aud several
other varieties of Pyrus occur in the list.

I'nder I'mbellit'er:.- are Kciiuiculuni vulgare, Oorian-
drum sativum, and Daucus carota. I'ndir the name
of Shinu-giku the leaves and lIowiTS of Chrysanthe-
mum eoronarinm aro eaten, and tlu^ flowers of Pyre-
thrum Chinese are eaten stoepeil iu vinegar. The roots
of Tussil.ago Japoniea and the leaf-stalks of Potasites
japonica are used as spices. Dandelions, Lettuces, aud
Thistles are used as with us. The leaves of Phytolacca
Krempferi aud three other species are used, the first
as a vegetable, and the others for flavouring. Kuniex
pahnatum and fl. Acetosella are used iu medicine.
The fruits of Ficns Carica and F. pumila are iu use
as dessert, and those of Ca,staneavesca, Juglans regia'
J. .Sieholdiaua, and .1. mandshurica.

Amongst Oonifer.-e the seeds of the Salisburia adi-
antifolia and Torreya nucitera are eaten. In Cycadacero
the leaves, pith, and seeds are eaten, sago being manu-
facturo<l from the pith. The roots of several species
of Arums and Alorasias are used as food. Tho
Liliacere furnish the Japan kitchen with many fine
bulbs that are. cooked for the table, and those chiefly
of sorts which find their greatest appreciation as de-
corative plants in llower-beds with us. Apparently .all
the roots o( .fapan Lilies are eaten as vegetables, as
well as many species of Allium, viz., A. Schosnopra-
sum, A. .ireu-arium, A. seneseens, A. odorum, A. cepa,
A. fistulosum, and A. ascalonicum. Even Ferns do
not escape being eaten, as we find the young fronds
of Pteris aquilina and Osmun'da regalis are made use
of for food ; aud among Lichens, Bacomyccs digitatus
and Usnea florida share the same fate. Of fungi,
Puffbiills, Agaricns campestris and one other species
of Agaricus, and Tremella auricula are consumed.
Two species of Alga; are in a manner cultivated in
Japan; small branches, on which Euteromorpba in-
testinalis aud E. complanata attach themselves, are
stuck into sca-w.ater in September, October, and De-
cember, and taken out in November and .January,
when tlie sea-weed has grown to a usable size. The
above is merely an extract from an interesting list
published by the German l.lovernment. which intends
further to sujiply agriculturist.s, gardeners, and otliers
connected with vegetable cultivation, with seeds o£
the various plants named in Consul Jlueller-Eeeck's
report. Amongst the varied productions of Japan and
China there are doubtless many plants which can be
acclimatised in the milder parts of Europe, and turr.ed
to good .account. Our vegetarian enthusiasts should
also welcome any addition that would lend piquancy
to a fare which, to say the least against it, is unin-
viting by its sameness.— Gai'rfewei's' Chronicle.

ADVANTAGES OF BEET SUGAK OVER CANE
SUGAR.

The great advantages that the Continental agricul-
turist and manufacturer have over the Colonial arc—

l^t.— A plentiful supply of willing hands to labour at
moderate wages.

2nd.— Short time necessary for raw products to come
to matuiity. . , , . ,

Vfil — Favourite crops to rotate with licet and a
climate suitable for growth of cereals and pobitocs,
feeding of stock, Jtc, &c.

4th.— The roots of such a texture that they can bo
easily manipulated, while the residue is of considtiahlo
importance as cattle food. . , i. j

."ith.— (-'heap fuel, with proximity to the best and
largest market iu the world and low freiihts.

Gth.— Climate of Europe mort; favourable f ir workuig
saccharine solutions owing to absence of fcrniiut germd;
rendering the inanafacture so much more simple.

854

fUM TROPldAL AQklCULTVUiBTf,

[JOfJE 1, i886.

On the contrary the Oolouists have to contend
against: —

1st. — A sparse population who, in the absence of a
wintPr anrl all inducement to lay by simi'ithing for oH
age, cannot be depended upon for any continuous
labour; hence necessity of importing strangers at a
great cost to prosecute the sugar industry.

2nil. — The sugar cane takes from 12 to 16 months to
come to maturity, and is accompanied by a luxuriant
growth of weeds. In a tropical climate much labour is
required to keep these down, and also to promote the
circulatlrn of air and allow the sun to penetrate among
the ripening canes.

3rd. — Absence of any crops other than plantains to
rotate with canes, and as the former are perishable,
and the home wants limited, they could only be grown
at a loss.

4th. — The flinty texture of the sugar cane stalk and
its being as yet only of value as fuel, militate against
any process of manufacture that would destroy its
value as such.

6th.— The nearest market in which they can purchase
coals is Great Britain, and freight and charges, raise
their cost to 36s. and 37s. per ton before they can be
dehvered at furnaces. Freight home is also high.

6th. — The necessity of manufacturing the cane into
sugar immediately after being cut, as immediate
deterioration sets in— all saccharine running into acidity
and fermentation.

Advantages op Cake Sugar ovee Beet Scgak.

1st. — A large weight of cane can be grown on a given
area of laud, and at a cheaper rate than beet roots. 18
tons of sugar cane per morgeu are grown with good
tillage at 12s. 6d. per ton— beet costs 13s. IJd. per ton,
and produces 10 tous per morgen.

2nd.— The sugar contained in the sugar cane is of
greater purity than is found in the beet, hence less loss
in purification, and the finished cane sugar is on an
average C° higher in analysis, and brings in to the
manufacturer at least 2.'. 6d. per cwt. more, even after
allowing for the extra cost of freight fiora Demerara,
as compared with that from North Germany to this
Country.

3rd. — Beet sugar must be sold as made, and is otteu
forced on the market at unfavourable times, because it
suffers heavily from increase of glucose if stored, and a
heavy penalty is enacted for deUvery of any but fresh-
manufactured beet-crystals. In Paris, at present, beet
crystals of old crop are almost unsaleable.

Weighing all these pros, and cons., it is evident that
the two industries are very evenly balanced, and that
those of the sugar cane planters who are in a positiou
to avail themselves of the very best appliances m
manufacture might, under improved conditons ol
labour, look forward to times when they would hold
their own against their formidable rival. One thing is
evident, and that is, that strict economy must be
prac ised in oiu- colonies. The days when sugar at £25
to £30 could stand the cuormons public expenditure
which characterised some of our leadmg "West Indian
Colonies are past, and both governors and governed
must b« prepared to reduce taxes aud expense to the
extent required for producing sugar at one-third less
coitthan hitherto.— Sugar Cane.

THE ADVANTAGES OF TOBACCO.

Dr. Tarcira states in his Materia Medica that be
ia " unacquainted with any well determined ill-effects
from the practice of smoking," and Chri,stisou speaks of
Ik as a luxury use.l all ihe world over without any
had effects having been clearly traced to it." In a
letfr of Dr. Parke's auther of "Parke's Manual of
I'rac ical Hygiene,' in the lawft, pnge oSl, ISfO, he
ci.nte.s.-es that he has searched in vain for any .satis-
fa.- oiy evideuce of the harmful eifects of tcbacco,
and thiit it was for this reason that its consideration
was not given place in the work mentioned.

The fact hius been pointed out that men are on
the whole as healthy as women, while nine out of
ten of the male population of the world use tobacco
OBd womeu as a rul« abstain- In the learned pro

^J

lessiors, about one-half of the ministers ore addicted
to it in some form, likely, three-fourths of all phy-
sicians, and nine-tenths of members of the legal fra-
ternity.

In looking calmly at the tobacco question, there
is one feature calculated to excite alarm, and that
is the habit of chewing and smoking so widely pract-
ised among boys. This, to young growing boys, is
unqualifiedly hurtful. They voluntarily endure the
first di.sagreeable effects of the tobacco to acquire
what they consider an accomplishmeut, the habit is
finally confirmed, and with an entire ignorance of its
powers, added to a tendency to immoderation, the
growth and development is often seriously interfered
with, and the worst results follow. They smoke and
chew generally the worst tobacco, and to a degree
which would positively be harmful with the majority
of adults. This matter should be corrected by proper
action of our legislators, with whom the responsiblity
rests. Smoking, when done at proper times, facilitates
disgestion. The sense of relief obtained by a cigar,
after a heavy meal, is well known to smokers.
Dyspepsia sometimes follows the discontinuance of
tobacco, and is removed when the habit is resumed.
While the abuse of tobacco weakens the system and
leads to emaciation, used intelligently it exerts favor-
able influence upon nutrition.

Hammond, by observation upon himself, found a
gain in weight with the use of tobacco. Fiske at-
tributed an increase of tweutv jiounds in three months
to tobacco. " Tobacco, when the food is sufficient to
preserve the weight, increase it; when insufficient,
and the body is losing, tobacco restrains the loss"
(Hammond), Boerhaave, of Holland, over two hundred
years ago, referred to tobacco as being antidotal to
hunger. It seems that the power to undergo severe
exertion and fatigue, either mental or physical, is
aided by tobacco. " Soldiers of all nations use it.
It was a standing uijuuction of Napoleon that his
troops should have tobacco, and it was of great ad-
vantage in the retreat from Moscow.'' (Fiske.) During
our late war the soldier would be patient imder
very severe privations, if he but had a good supply
of tobacco to smoke or chew, and when on picket
duty would risk his life to strike a match for his
pipe.

Situations for loneliness are always rendered more
tolerable by tobacco, and it is the constant companion
of those who lead lives of solitude, such as that of
the herdsmen or ranchmen. A feeling of unrest or
discontent made up of ill-defined longings, of imagin-
ary disappointments, and unpleasant anticipations,
commonly known as ennui, is respon.«.ihle for much
unhappiness. Tliis unfortunate condition of mind is
removed by the shooting infiuence of a cigar, and
the uioroseness and gloom ale quickly dispelled. As
much of every day is tilled up with care, our degree
of comfort in this life will depend largely upon om'
ability to bear it uncomplainingly. That tobacco
assists us to do this ; that it enables us to look upon
life more complacently, must be the conclusion of
every one who has experienced its influence. That it
enables us to toil with less fatigue, is equally true.
The readiest writers generally use tobacco, and can-
not accomplish the same amount of work in the same
time without it, aud those connected with newspaper
and other literary work, who have often to write
against time, find it of inestimable value.

Tobacco formerly enjoyed a deserved re))utation as
a medicinal agent, and was extensively used in scabies
and other cutaneous disorders. It has been largely
supplanted, however, in tnodeni practice, by other
remedies. The use of tobacco during a mercurial
course decreases the risk of salivation, and cases of
ptyalism have ber n reported cured by its employment.
Before the discovery of oliloroform, tobacco served ,'\
useful purpose in the linnds of the surgeon in cases
of strangulated hirnia for obtaining complete relax-
ation. Tobacco constitutes a most valuable addition
to the ordinary poultice in local painful atfectious.
In two cases of carcinoma of the breast, by incor«
porating it in a local apphcif''". a marked advantage
was r^'iced by the writer iu ilie relief of pain. As

June i, 1886.3

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

S35

an iugrcdient in asthmatic cigarettes, with bclladona,
etnimonium, etc., it is entitled to share iu the
remedial effect.

The limited medical rauge of tobacco is unimport-
aut in comparison with its social and physical in-
fluences. Among its many beneficent powers, it ap-
pears to allay worry and lighten toil. It is an aid
to ment«l work, and a hel|) to retleution and com-
placency. It promotes sociability, and in the words
of one of it-s champions, "makes a man act more
like a Samaritan.'' While it i^ neithur likrd nor
needed by animals, who loatlie it, it .seems to bo re-
quired and craved by man, to whom its character-
istic properties appear peculiarly grateful and often
useful, it has repeatedly and unjustly been called a
curse, but those who have written most of its bane-
ful effects, as a rule, have never used it. Indeed, this
comforting substance is so far removed from the idea
of a curse, that it should not be forgotten v.licu we
recount the many blessings of mankind. — Indian Agri-
culturist. [Apart from the undoubted and direct injury
done to young persons by the use of tob;»coo, the worst
probably that can be said against it is that a good many
who smoke much drink in proportion. On the other
hand it enables many to di>pense with alcoholic stimul-
ants. If smokers would only smoke where the habit is
not a nuisance to nonsmokers there would be no cause of
complaint. But it seems rather hard that smoke inhaled
and sent round the salivary glands of one person should
be ejected by him into the atmosphere breathed by his
neighbours. — Ed.]

PRUNING FRUIT TREES.
Much has lately been written on this subject, but
plain instructions showing the best means and mode of
checking exuberance of growth and inducing fertility
are still wanted. Is it not a deplorable fact, in view of
all that has been written about pruning and its effects,
that in nearly every garden one enters or sees, be it
large or small, where ordinary fruit trees are grown,
the trees, though they may ha annually prunsd, are
usually run wild, showing a ma.'iimum of growth accom-
panied by a minimum of fruit buds or fruit ? The
trees are not infrequently beautifully formed — the
result of much careful pruning to this end. This is
particularly noticeable in them after their annual winter
pruning ; but, seen in summer or autumn, they usually
present a plethora of strong immature shoots, instead
of an abimdance of fruit. This is especially noticeable
in the case of apples on the crab ami pears on the wild
pear stock. The object the various pruuers seem to
have in view is probably twofold — pruning to keep the
trees circnni?cribed and at the same time induce fertility.
But, judged by general results, the latter is by no means
reali8e<l. JIany of those who prune vigorous trees must
surely begin to see that it very ineffectually secures tho
object in view, viz., constant fertility. Kor more th.an a
year I have been acquainted with a small neglected
garden, the house in connection with which ivos, until
jnst recently, uninhabited for more than twelve months.
In the garden, in a clump rather closely planted, are
about three dozen pear, apple, plum, anil cherrv trees.
Their trunks vary from 4 in. to 0 in. in diameter, and
their heads, previous to being pruned last month,
ranged from 10 ft. to 15 ft. or more in height, and all,
without e.iception, beautifully proportioned and balanced.
A few, of course, were perhaps too dense, especially
some of the varieties of pear of compact, upright
growth. Evidently— and I took particular notice of
them— they had never been pruned from tho time
they were planted out as low-stemmed standards. Their
bold port, strong leiding shoots and branches, literally
beset with nut-brown fruit buds, indicated a degree of
prolific force seldom exhibited in over-nursed, much-
pruned fruit trees. To keep such trees healthy and
fertile, some, I presume, would recommend that they
be allowed to keep on and upward, unchecked by either
knife or saw at their tops or roots. Others, with a
view to kopp them circumscribed, seeing that they are
alrei ■ly till enough for all practical purposes in a small
garden, and fertile, would root-prune them, and
probably thin out s few of the branched But that in

not what has been done. The garden last month was
let to two men to dig and prune ; the outcome is, that
those once handsome trees are fore-shorteneil half-way
back, and tho stumps almost divested of their flower-
buds ! They are practically spoilt. Instead of the
prolific force already referred to, when they start into
growth a week or so hence, they will exhibit what some
call '■ concentrated vigour," and will take some time,
perhaps a series of years' growth, uuprunod, before
they again attain the highly fertile condition enjoyed by
them previous to being ruthlessly pruned.

I miglit with propriety stop here, but I should like to
make a few remarks on another by far too prevalent
phase in the growth-condition of fruit trees, quite
distinct from the healthy, vigorous, and prolific phases
we have already eonsidered. I refer to trees that are
known to have ralapsed into fertile ways. It; is usually
exhibited by trees about fifteen and over fifteen years
of age. They are, as a rule, neither vigorous nor quite
exh.tusted. I have more particularly in view a few
pear and plum trees trained to the walls of a garden in
Scotland ; I saw them about this time last year. They
are, as near as I can judge, eighteen years old. I know
that tor many years they were highly fertile — bore
heavy crops of fine fruit. They do so no longer, not-
withstanding that their extended branches are well
furnish''d with rather large branching spurs. Neverthe-
less, flower buds are now seldom formed thereon, or
when they do, and blossom, fruit seldom results there-
from. It is a clear case of exhaustion. They lack the
prolific force of early days, and it can only be renewed
in the trees as they now stand by pruning the stay-roots
that have wandered deeply into the hungry 'subsoil,
and by freely mulching with good manure. There are
thousands of trees in a similar condition that are greatly
in need of similar treatment. — G. S.. — Field.

TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN CEYLON.

The following is the result of our observatiou and
experience : and we are of opinion that if our friends
in Colombo only take the trouble of studying this
branch of Agriculture, they are sure to be able to
enter the field as competitors, and the Western Pro-
vince may vie with the North in the Produce of Tobacco,
The district of Udnkinda and Badulla at one time pro-
duced excellent tobacco. In hilly districts the dec-
livity of a hill, rather gradual than abrupt, or a spot
that is shelterf'd from winds was found most suit-
able for the growth of the plants : but at the samo
time it is necessary that the plants enjoy a free air;
for without that they will not prosp.^r. The ground
or wood land for planting tobacco must be wel'
burned, as tho greater tho quantity of wood-ashes the
better. The spot must bo well strewed with nsh-'s,
laid smooth and light: then blow the seed from the
palm of the hand gently on the bed, and cover it
with palm or plantain loaves. A\''hen the plants are
about three inches high, draw them and plant th'im,
about two feet asunder; and when they become as
high as one's knees, cut or pluok off the top, taking
care to let tho best alone for seeds. The plant should
now be daily attended to, to destroy caterpillars that
infest it, as also to take off every sprout or sucker
that puts out at the joints, in order to throw the
whole vegetable nourishment into the large leaves.
When the edges and points of the leaves begin to
turn yellow cut down the stalks and see that mois-
ture is fully off the plaut. As fa.st as it is cut, let
it be carried into the tobacco room, which must bo
so close, as to shut ovit all air, arid hung up on lines
tied across for the purpose of drying. M'hon the
stalks begin to turn brownish, take them off the linos,
an<l put them one upon another, and liv on them
heavy weights for about a week e'* furtuitob' and they
are fit for sale. It is a common practice in Jalfna,
after the ground is prepared for planting, to bury
a few inches deep, at the place where the tobacco
plaut it to be put in, green leaves of an oleaginous
species as the tobacco tree quit© enjoys such feeding.
In a dry climate the irrigation of the land with water
from the well is no doubt a matter of great im-
portance. We are sorry to obnerre that our tobiceo

S36

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

'as lost much of its former estimation, in the market.
"urhiips a supply of fresh seeds from, Virginia is
u-sirHble to improve the stock. But a monopoly, we
.-re afraid, has led people both to scamp the work
iDil the curing. It is time that tliis lu-anch of agri-
culture should be better looked to. India is going
in for toljacco culli%'ation. Time was, when the
Pravancore Ivajah eng.iged the services of mercliants
n Colombo by sending large sums of money to purchase
•falfua tobacco. Many a Tamil broker and tobacco
:nerchant can look back to that period as the time
wlion they turned the corner on the road to fortune.
In Uva wliat was called Uadnlla cigars were looked
upon as quite wortli the money you paid for tl\em.
Till a monopoly of the trade, by Moomien and a
ready market for the le.aves, led to scamping, and
•libhouest preparation of cigars, green and inferior
tobacco being largely used. Those who were duped
it first in making large purchases, were disgusted and
from mouth to mouth the report spread that the
BaduUa cigars were an imposition and clicat : and so
both preparation of tobacco, and its agriculture, are
the history of the past. In trade, as in agriculture,
honesty is the best policy. Let our tobacco planters
and cigar-makers and merchants make this the rule
and not the e.vceptiou. — " Ceylon Patriot."

ORANGE GROWING IN FLORIDA.
During the season of 1884-5 a few boxes of Florida
oranges were shipped, as an experiment, to England.
They sold, both in London and Edinburgh, at prices
which, though justified for the nonce by the novelty and
the unquBStionable superiority of the fruit to that com-
mon in the home mtirkets, were nevertheless " fancy"
prices. There is no doubt that the experiment, having
once succeeded, will be repeated on a larger scale, and
the time will jjrobably come, before long, when the
oranges of Florida can, and will, bo sold in England at
prices at once remunerative to the seller and within tlu^
means of most consumers. The question, however, will
still remain wliether tlie price they will connnand in
any market can reasonably be called remunci'ative to
the grower.

Apart from the many " English colonics" established
in recent years throughout Florida, there are few si)ots
in the peninsula which have not a few young English-
men among the number of their settlers ; and, while it
is not my intention to discourage such of my ytunig
fellow-countrymen as are inclined to seek a home and a
Jiving in Florida, I wish dispassionately to examine the
prospect which is iulluencinjj their choice of a new
country, liefore doing this, let me preface a word or
two defining my own position. Three points only need
be touched upon in this connection — (1) That my
choice of Floriila as a temporary home was dictated
solely by considerations of health, and was absolutely free
from any consideration.s of money-making ; therefore I
can justly claim to be impartial. (2) That I own a
tract of laud in Floriila, .and am thirefore interested iu
the ])rogress ami development fif the state ; and (3)
that I have not planted, and do not intend to plant, an
orange grove upon any part of my land, and have, there-
fore, nothing to gain or lose by competition, anil have
no interest Ijut that of a consumer in the success or
failure of the orange-growing industry.

With this preface let me turn to the main question,
" Is it possible to make a living by orange culture iu
Florida?" I have asked this question hundreds of times
of older sett'ers than myself — men whose experience
should qualify them to answer it without hesitation.
As was to be expected, the answers have differed widely
in different cases; but when 1 have put the further
question, " Have you made, or are you now making, a
living V>y orange-growing ?" there has been much more
unanimity in the rephes. I do not, of course, protend
to say that there are not those iu l''lorida who are
making, not a mere living, but a handsome income, by
the produce of thoir orange groves. Several groves
coidd be mentioned whose fortunate owners are
netting twenty, thirty, and even forty thousand dollars
a year by the sale of their golden fruit ; but these are
exceptional cases. Inquiry will almo.st invariably elicit

the facts that these men are amongst the earliest settl-
ers ; that they had the choice of the best land in the
State of Florida at a time when that laud was to be had
for the asking; that they went through years of toil,
privation, and anxiety, before they could see any return
for their outlay and their labour;" .and that their groves
are now costing them every year a small fortune in
wages and cultivation, to say nothing of the incessant
anxiety which makes the hanssonie return they afford
an uncommonly hard-earned income.

And such being the case with the old settlers, what
is the prospect for the new comer H Growers of oranges
in Florida are divided into two \'ery elearly-ilefined
classes. The one consists of that large aiul ever-increas-
ing body of wealthy Northerners whom the severity of
the Northern winter is driving yi'ar by year to the
sunny skies and mild climate of the southern peninsula.
Having spent one winter in Florida, they are fully
determined to spend niortr, and, with a view to creating
an interest for themselves in their .Southern home, they
buy a parcel of land, plant it with orange trees, and look
forward hopefully to reaping a golden harvest. With
most of them it is not a mere pastime to which they are
devoting a portion of their superfluous wealth ; it is a
speculation upon which they intend to make a hand-
some profit, and, considering it iu this light, they are
willing to lavish their dollars upon the preliminary
stages, looking to the future to recoup their outlay with
interest. During their absence iu the summer months
the grove is left in the hands of a caretaker, who sees
that it is duly ploughed, cultivated, and fertilised, and
that his own bill is duly presented and paid by his
patron.

The other class consists of those who for various rea-
sons have chosen Florida as their permanent home, and,
induced by the example of those around them, look to
orange culture as a means of making a living. For
them the prospect, when reduced to hard practical fact,
is less hopeful. They have brought with them a sum of
money, large or small, which is really their capital, upon
the judicious investment of which they depend for
subsistence. They find that land in Florida h.as already
risen in the estimati' of its owners to prices far beyond
those at which really good arable land in other .States is
held. The owners are shrewd enough to know their
market, and to see that the ever-growing tide of winter
travel will enable them sooner or later to get whatever
they choose to ask for the commodity they otfer. In
many cases it cost them nothing at first, and they are
therefore sacrificing nothing by Imlding it till the •■ good
time" comes. The bona fide settler must therefore ])ay
their price or go without, and, having once made up his
mind to do the former, he finds that he has made a
considerable hole iu his capital when he comes into
possession of his title deeds.

<!)range-growing lands may bo roughly divided into
two classes, pine laud and "hammock." The former, as
its name implies, is in its natural state covered with pine
trees, more or less thickly, and generally, too, has an
undergrowtk of what is known as scruh-p.ilmetto and
scrub-oak, or " Tdack Jack." Hammock is the name
given to the mi>re densely-wooded land lying upon the
margin of laki\s <ir rivers, ami covered with cabbage
palms, wild orangi*. magnolia, .and oaks, ami other deci-
duous trees and shrubs, forming a perfect jungle, and
mated with vines of every description. Hammock ]:uid,
owing to the nature of its growths, is far the more
valuable for cultivation, as the decay of countless gener-
ations of plants and leaves have supplied the soil with
the rich Ino/iv^ which is the one thing wanting to the
soil of the rest of Florida. It therefore commands
much higher prices than pine land equally well situated
as regards facility for transport, and iu another way,
shortly to b(^ touched U))on, the preliminary expense of
a purchase of hammock comes heavily upon the would-
be orange grower. TIutc is also the important con-
sideration prior to purchase of land, that, whereas the
" high pine" is the healthiest locality in Florida, stand-
ing above tho reach of marsliy exhalations, and allording
as a rule a plentiful supply of wholesome water twenty
or thirty feet beneath its surface, tho hammocks are
most invariably uninhabitable — the very richness of soil.

JONE I, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

837

which constitutes their value as m-able land being nox-
ious, if not actually fatal, to humau life. The great
national curae, malaria, lias its chosen home on this
fertile soil, and the purchaser of such laud is, therefore,
perforce coupelled to increase his outlay by the pur-
chase of a second situ within easj- reach of his grove
laud, hut free from its dr.iwbacks for his residiuce.

Haviug bought his land in a state of luiiure, and with
due regurii to the proximity of transportation, supplies,
and labour, the next step is to dear it of timber, and
prepare it to receive cultivation. The new settlor will
hi_' well advised not to attempt this task himself, but to
put it iu the hands of one of the whitu or negro
*' elearers" to be found in every part of the State.
The.se usefiJ men will contract to prepare land for the
plough at regular rates, according to the nature of the
growth and the prevailing wages in the vicinity. High
pine land can generally be cleareil for <'2f) to >30 par
acre l<2-5 being an a\orage ratej, the clearer having the
trees as his perquisite. For this sum he contracts to
remove the pine trees, stumps, and roots ; but, unless so
stipulated, his contract will not include grubbing, i.e.,
the removal of the scrub-palmetto and other long
fibrous roots, which effectually impede the ploughshare,
and must be eradicated prior to cultivation. This
grubbing the same man will undertake, but he will
generally prefer to be paid by the day for his labour in
this department, and will eni))loy the necessary hands
at his employer's e.xpense. Unless the palmetto is thick
. — and this is a sigu of poor land — grubbing will rarely
cost more than <5 per acre, and on much high piuf^ land
it is practically unnecessary altogether. Clearing ham-
mock is quite another matter. The elearers always look
askance at a job of the kind, alleging the difficulty of
getting hands to take the work, and the purchaser will
be fortunate if he succeeds in gifting hammock land
moderately well-cleared and scrubbed for J.10U per acre.
Jfauy purchasers of such lots content themselves with
" dfuilening" the oaks and other tall trees by fire,
burning off the undergrowth, and merely clearing small
spaces, to allow of planting an orange tree in each space,
trusting to time and natural det^ay to dt^ th(; work of
clearing. I have my.se!f visited a grove— that of Oapt.
Sims, of Ocoee, Orange ('ouuty — commenced in that
way, and subsequently cleared out little by little as
opportunity offered. The orange trees had not suffered,
hut had made good healthy growth year by ye«r, and the
owner estimates his crop fur the coming season — the
first since the entire clearing w.a.s conq>leted — at no less
than 700,000 oranges, his grove covering just seventy-
five acres. AVhere wil.l orange trees are numerous in
the hammoc k, they should be carefully preserved and
budded with good varieties, thus savi!ig all the time
lost in the growth and maturing of young trees, and
insuring an early return and a hardy stock.

The land, being cleared and grubbed so far a.s the
purchaser intends to carry those operations, requires a
fence. The most satisfactory .and most generally
adopted for orange groves is the barbed-wire fence, of
four stands of wire and one good stout rail — the latter
being required by law for the purpose of rendering the
obstruction visible to horses and. cattle. This style of
feuce will cost altogether about 00 cents a rod, or, say,
SlW for fivi; acres of land. I'loughing the land will
cost S2 or ,S3 per acre, and then all is in readiness tor
planting the grove.

Now it is that the important difference between pine
and hammock land begins to make itself felt. The for-
mer has a white sandy surface, and a depth of only a
very few ijiches of cultivable soil. The latter is black
rich soil, full of leaf mould, and possessing in itself all
the essentials for successful orange culture. Whatever
is wanting in the former must be artificially supplied,
and innumerable "connnercial fertiliser.s" are in the
market, each of which claims to be the one thing need-
ful. It is not my purpose to recomend any one of the
number, or to dwell on this pirt of my subject. Sufhco
it to .say that all the well-kuo.vn brands are certainly of
use to orange growers, and that they may be bought for
prices varying from ~oO to "rCOper ton, or cve;i m-ire, and
that these prices i!;|i>:nil in a great nioasuro on the
locality, and the rates of freight paid by the agents tor
the carriages of the stuff from the factory. Every tree

planted on pine land will require large and frequent
applications of "fertiliser," the purchase of which soon
become an important item ou the debit side of the
ledger. The trees themselves will cost about half a
dollar each, it two or three-year-old trees are set out ;
and this, reckoning si.xty trees to the acre, adds S.'HI per
acre to the initial outlay, without allowing anything for
the time of the ■•hands" employed iu the planting.
Jlost hammock lauds are sufficiently rich to render the
application of manure at the time of planting un-
necessary, and some good authorities go so far as to say
that this condition of the soil will remain uualtered for
many years. Hammock groves are, however, generally
treated with a moderate quantity of fertiliser after
their first two or thee years, the amount being regul-
ated by the general appearance of the trees, and being
always much less than that required upon pine land.

The (trange grove is now set out, the future trees
looking like little wauds stuck upright iu the earth, and
giving scanty promise as yet of wh,at they will become.
The remaining requisites are careful frequent cultiv-
ation, sufficient supplies of fertiliser, minute invest-
igation and constant vigilance to guard against the
attacks of disease and insects, and last, but not least,
patience. The orange grower who fondly imagines that
he has only to set out a grove, and then take his ease
till his oranges are readj' for market, is reckoning sadly
without his host. No tree requires more care and
attention than the orange, and it is only just to add
that no tree better repays the care expended upon it.
Certainly none shows more readily, even to the inex-
perienced eye, whether it has or has not received its
due meed of attention. Not only are the insidious and
often fatal diseases waiting to seize the ill-cared-for
tree, but the eye of every neighbouriug orange-grower
is upon the groves around him, and a ])allid, irregular
growth will as surely betray tlie owner's carelessness or
laziness as if the trees had tongues with which to pro-
claim it. The amount of labour actually necessary to
success was well described to me by a gentleman whose
place I visited shortly after coming to Florida. lie has,
or had, besides his grove, a very pretty and apparently
very productive garden, which, however, he told me he
was goint^ to abandon to its fate. I ventured to renion-
Btrate, gardens being rare in that section of the State,
and in my ignorance suggested that surely his trees
might be trusted to care for themselves, while he ftave
his attention to his flowers beds. With a smile of
compassion for my innocence, he replied, " I can spend
every hour of every day, from sunrise to sunset, busily
occupied with my trees, and it I were able also to stay
up with them all night I should not have an idle
moment."

In their fourth or fifth year blossoms will appear upon
some of the trees, a few of which will set ; hut the
proud owner will be disappointed to receive the sound
advice to remove all the fruit as soon as it appears.
The reason tor doing so for a year or two is that, hardy
as the orange tree appears to be, there is perhaps no
fruit so exhausting to its parent. Scarcely has ono
year's crop been removed when the next commences to
form, and, with no period of rest, the tree is occupied
iu the development of its fruit during almost an entire
year. Allowing young trees to fruit will therefore
lessen their growing powers, and dwarf them unnecess-
arily ; besides which, the oranges, if allowed to ripen,
are valueless as compared with those of older trees.

Two or three more years must pass before the fruit
becomes moderately thin-skinned and juicy, and the
grove yields sufiicient to be worth boxing, and distribut-
ing among the Jowner's friends as an earnest of future
performances; and it will not be until the trees are ten
•r twelve years old from the seed — i.r., eight or nine
years from the planting of the grove — that sufficient
fruit can be shipped to cover the year's expenses and
yield some snvill profit as interest upon the outlay of
previous years. From this time onwards, it due care bo
taken, and no unforeseen accidents occur, the yield may
be expected toiDcrea.se pretty steadily; but the same
vigilance will still he necessary t.i repel the advances of
disease and the insect enemies of the orange tree.

Such is, briefly sketched, the oraiigo-grower's early
career ; and I think it must bo sufficiently plain from

83S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

fJCNE 1, 1886,

these fac's thafc Ihero is roora for grave doubt whethei"
my or"^uai quesciou can ueaDswereil at6nuitively. Any
iu'kistry, lo he iimune-nitive, nqnires a moderatd
prtjiirn'uary outUy, luoilcrate working espt^nses, and a
regular anJ accessible market fcr its produce. Florida
ora.ige-growiug.at the present time offers none of these
advantages. Land in tlio neighbourhooil of railroader
water communication i.? fore d fir nh vo its tru" value;
hired labour, owing to scafcifcy of bauds, is very costly,
and the marlcet, offered by the great cities of the North
and 'West very precanous. Want of organisation has
hitherto placed orange growers completely at th.t mercy
of the commission merchants, who, even if perfe;i!y
honest and trustworthy thom.selves, cannot guard
against the disastrous effects of frost c!i nniti or a
glutted market on the arrival of their consignments.
Consequently, it is nothing uuusial to find thit, while
A. has been fotuuate in placin^- his fruit in New York
at a moment when the supply w.ts short and prices higli,
and has netted a dollar a box on his shi|)inent, 15., al-
though shipping from the same point only a day or two
later, hi's lost half Ins fruit by bad weather on tlie jour-
ney, HHtl lias not realised sufBcient on the remainder to'
pay freinht. An organisation is now being formed
among Florida growers, whieh proposes to control the
shipment aud distribution of fruit and other produce
to the north and west, and, if it proves succe.ssful, we
shall hear of fewer cases of loss, and injury to the oran-
ges, i.ud of mora satisfactory returns to the growers.

But still, the prospect cannot be descibed as en-
couraging for the beginner. The heavy original out av,
the length of time before any return can be expected,
and the risks from frost, disease, and insects, are all
considerations which must be faced by any young man
who looks to Florida oranges as his source of income ;
and a very rouijh calculation will suffice to show how
great the risk is in proportion to the chance ^if success.
Suppose a purchase maile of 20 acres of good fiue land
wi'h fair shipping facilities. Such land will cost at
least S.50 per acre, generally considerably more. Allow
$30 per acre for clearing and grubbing ; !g200 for fencing,
$60 fi r ploughing, and s30 per acre for irees. We have
thus a preliminary outlay of S'-,4G0, without allowing
anything for the fertiliser used in planting, or for the
time and labour of the planter. The cost of cultivating
• and fertilising subsequently may f.iirly be estimated at
,UtO per animm per acre or SSnO per .annum for the grove-
Here again I am making no allowance for Icsses through
frost or disease, preferring to tako the lowest possible
estimafe. Supposing thi; ti'ees to be three years old at
the time of planting, ami to come into markctiblo
bearing at nine years old, we hav'o six years at least
without retuins, representing an outlay of S^iSOO on
caretaking. The whole cash outlay, tlien, up to the
time at which returns commence, is :^7,2tiO. ami in order
lo state the case fairly, the interest on tlie original in-
vestment and on each subsequent year's outlay should
be taken into account. Now, in Florida 10 per cent is
con.sitlered a moderate rate of interest, aud is the usual
rate at which mortgages are effected. If, then, the
original §2,400 had been invested at this rate, and in
each subsequent yi.ar SSOO had been added to the in-
Testment, the total sum standing to the investor's
credit at the end of the sixth year woulfl be rather
over SlO.iOO. If he were thou to eommenco drawing
his annual inleriwt, his income from the investment,
still at 10 per cent, would be JUO.'iO. This snrn, then,
he must not from the sale of his oranges in ordu- to
make a fair return on his ouHay;and to do this he
must market, in such C(,ndition as to biiuga clear net
profit of one cent per orange (which wouldbecnnsideiably
above average prices), no fewer than lSri,000 oi-auges
every year, jvilowing, as before %90Q annual outlay on
his grove. I do not say that his trees, with duo car*' and
good fortuue. will not produce this ruunl>er, or even
more when thi'y have attained their full growth; but,
all thing< consnlcrcd. is the (;'>me worh the randle ?

'I'hr ughont the abave cal'-nliition I hive unlor rather
t,h m ov.r stat'.-d expi nse.s, and wherever iny items err
they err in favour of the jTow^i-. I hive omitted to
;:dd anything to annual outlay for the bix»« and pack-
mg, or evt-n for freight, which are all con*i ^•■i^b c itetos.
The new-comer then must have at bis command

a sum of §3,460 (roughly JSV)) with which to lay out a
20-acro grove, aud su.licie- i, in addition, to keep him
and pay the espeuses of grove-tending for at least six
years, before he can look for any income from the sale
of his fruit. Part of the annual expenditure will, of
course, be saved if he is able and willing to do field-
hand's work himself, or if he applies himself to some
other method of earning money to pay expenses. But,
in either cas.-, it is still fair to estimate the cost as above,
since his own time and labour must be considered equal
in actual money value to that of a hired hand.

So far I have writti-u only of oraiige-gro\ving, and
I have endeavoured to put the case fairly aud imparti-
ally. The conclusion I have been forced to arrive at is,
that the risks were too great and the outlay too heavy
to .instify expectations of returns commensurate with
the expense and anxiety, bfow far time aud matured
experience will alter the ca,se, I am uuible to prophesy.
Rates of freight, which are at present almost prohibi-
tive, may be so far reduced by ihe extension of the
railroad system in F'orida, and the increase of com-
peti*'on, as materially to better the orange-grower's
position ; but so long as the tide of winter-travel in-
creases, and it ci.utinues to be the fashion among
wealthy northerners to own a grove in Florida, the cost
of production will not diminish. How, then, ,ire bona,
fdt settlers to make a liviug ?

This question may he answered very easily, and
here is a grain of comfort for the intending emigrant.
There are three ways open. The first, and hitherto the
most successful method, is to trade, not in oranges, but
in orange-groves. Land cleared and planted with
young trees Amis a much readier market among the
visitors than wild land of eipia ly good quality, and at
prires which afford a good profit upon the outlay. In
this way the original investment can be rapidly turnetl
over, and an imcome realised alranst from the outset.
A secoufl method is "truek-farmin.i," or, in other
wiirds, market gardening for the northern cities, or for
the supply of fashionable southern re-sorts. The small
fruit and vegetables of Florida are in immense demand
in northern markets, and strawberries, green peas, to-
matoes, cabbage, and cauliflowers (all of which can be
ripened in the open air in Florida in February and
March) bring returns which seem almost fabulous. A
gardener in Alachua 0' unty recently told me that four
barrels of caidiflowers which he shippeil t^o J^ew York
early in 18.S-1 brought him a net profit of §27 (about £5-
12s-) per barrel; and a gentleman in .lacksonville during
last winter raised radishes in large qniutities, and sold
them in that town for a cent apiece. The.se two instan-
ces are sufficient to show that there is a field for the
gardener, and they might be multiplied indefinitely from
the experience of other Floridians. More care is
necessary in the selection of land for gardening than
for orauge-growing ; but there is abundance of such
laud in the State, ami it,s prices are not as a rule so
high as those asked for grove lands. Thirdly, there is
always the consideration that Florida is anew State, as
yet sparsely settled, but growing so rapidly in popular
favour that towns are every day springing into exist-
eni-e where hifherto a few seatfercd cabins in the woods
bave been the only signs of human habitation. Each
new town increases the demand for labour in all its
branches, and the man who is able and willing to work
need never be without em]iloymeut. JIanual labour in
America does not involve loss of caste. The gentleman
(l use Lhe wonl advisi'dly) who has spent his working
houis with a can of paint and a sheaf of brushes on the
top of a ladder will be as welcome in the lirawing-room
io thfi eveidng as if lie had lounged away the day,
. cigar in mouth, upon the hotel jiiaxza ; and where wages
are as high as they are here, and all honest work is
honestly iM' ' for, the dollars accumulate with wonder-
ful rapidity.

Lastly, I woiihl add a word-of warning to the possible
settler in Floridn. Do not be deluded by the offers of
tt'C-e who, tor a "premium,'' are willing to teach tyros
tlif art, of orang ■ growing. It is a stale old trick, but
Jet it is successfully played in many parts of the State,
These aci'emmfdat-ng gentlemen find the rate of wages
demanded by tield-hauds a serious bar to sncoess ; and it

June i, iSSe.'j

THK TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

§59

is uo doubt more agreeable to receive ft well-educated
young Englishman, icilli a cash premiinii, iuto the bo-
som of their f nmilies, than to have to pay S^O per month
to a negro labourer. The one will soon be as cnpble as
the other, ami will have the additional attraction of
giving his work gr.ituitous'y. Hence the williugucsa of
these philanthropists to impart their secrets. Unfortun-
ately, however, for their schemes, there are hundreds
of reputable orange-growers, equally knowing and
equally capable of teaching, who will not only waive
the premium questimi, but will gladly give bnani and
lodging, and a s.»lary to boot, to any d>;ccut white man
who wants to gain experinuce, and is willing to gain it
practically. -Vu advertisement in any of the Florida
newspapers would speedily find such an opeuing for the
beginner ; and his cash in hand will be more saisfactor-
ily invested in the purchase and clearing of laml than in
the pocket of his would-be preceptor. — liEUN.MtD
Hastib, Do Lance, Florida. — Field.

YATIY.AA'TOTA AS A TEA DISIEICT.

Sir, — Enclo.'ied I scud yoit Weather Report for
April. The temperatiu'e was taken by a self-registering
thermometer placed in a verandah with a north
aspect and protected from the direct rays of the sun.
The rainfall waa taken by my neighbour on Balgowjiie,
but, as the estates are quite close to one another,
the report may be considered correct for both pl.ices.

I think we may challenge any district in Cej-lnn
to show a better leaf-producing climate . — Yours faith-
fully,

W. B. HOPE.

Morton Estate, Yatiyautota, Jlay 5tU.

WEATHER REPORT I'OR APRIL, 1886, IIOETON, Y.VTIYANTOTA.

Ts_, Temperature. Ralu- tinto Temperature. Kain-

"^^^- Jlas. Slin. fall. "^^'^- JIa.\. Min. fall,

1 91 73 — -2 16 88 74 —-57

2 92 74 —-90 17 90 74 —-30

3 91 74 — -3 18 88 74 — 4

4 92 75 — •— 19 90 75 -- 2

5 90 70 —-53 20 92 75 — •--
6 92 72 — -2 21 93 75 —07

7 91 72 — ■— 22 91 74 125

8 9D T4 — — 23 88 74 270

9 92 72 — — 24 9<) 72 — fi

10 90 74 —73 25 90 74 115

11 86 72 2-53 26 86 74 117

12 96 70 — •— 27 89 72 —-74

13 92 73 — -6 23 !>7 74 1-40

14 91 73 —-62 29 88 73 135

15 90 74 —11 30 89 75 —-2
TEirpERATUBB. — Mean Mo.ximum, 89-66; Mean Mini-
mum, 73-33; Mean Temperature, 81-70; Highest
registered, OS'Tb; Lowest registered, lO'TC.

Kainfai-l. — Total for month, 16-99; Ifumber of days
on which rain fell, 24 ; (^'reatest rainfall in 24 hours,
2-70.
—Local ■■ Times. "

AGKICULTUEE OX THE CONTINENT OF

EUROPE.

(Special Letter).

Paris, April 17.

The daily annual average milk from a cow varies
from 4J to .•< r|iiarts ; till i|uarts of milk will produce
1 lb. of butter and 4 lb. of cheese. In some parts
of France, 26 quarts of milk are required for one pound
of butter, while half that quantity in the case ol a
Jersey cow, siiftices for the same amount of butter.
It is a maxim in French dairies, that " young '' cream
will produce butter of the finest i|uality, but less in
quantity; while " older " cream gives" the opjiositc
results. Thus, in Isigny, the fanners churn twice a
week, and forward direct, not to the I'aris butter
market, hut to the wholesale-dealer — juntas they consign
direct to London and New York.

Churning has the effect of breaking the membranes
of the little sacs iu the millc or cream, eoclosiug the

fatty or butter ingredients, and these agglomerai^e like
the rolling of a siiow ball. In Normandy, the hnud>
dash turns at the r.ite of 35 to 40 strokes pur minute ,•■'
when driven by steam or borse-powcr, fifty revolutions
ii'-e the rule. Isigny farmers prefer a temperature of
57 degrees Fah. at the time of j)utting th« cream and
milk into the churn — the temperature is raised 10
degrees by tho churning, and 15 minutes in summer, and
often 60 iu winter, are necessary before the butter
can be taken off. The "Normandy" is the favorite
churn, barrel-shaped, 33 inches long aud 32 iu diumeter,
working on supports. The butter is kneaded both with
hand aud spatula. Iu summer the milk is creamed
every 24 hours, aud in winter every 48 hours. Natur-
ally, the best butter will be obtained from pure cn-am,
and next, from whole milk. In the latter case, a slight
aciility is considered essential before churning.

In Germany, brewers' grains are beiug more and more
extensively employed for pig feeding. They must uot
be sour and should have the chill taken oJT them. It
acid, they cause scour ; to remove the excess of sour-
ness, the grains are often washed. They are best
employed when mixed with other food ; this will also
make up for any deficiency m the grains of albu-
men.

Iu Hauover, a Theiseu apparatus exists for the drying
of brewers' grains for cattle feeding. Professor
Heuncberg, of the Oottingen Agricultural station, un-
dertook to test the comparative value of the grains iu
the onUnary or fresh state, aud the dry. In the former,
they contain 77 per cent of water, and in the latter,
14. Briefly: the Professor Jfound, that in pomt of
nutritive and assimilative value, the dried were four
times more valuable than the fresh grains.

In the Kast, sorghum is extensively employed as
fodder. In other places, it h.is been cultivated for its
sugar. For neither object has it met with favor on
the Continent. It had, as a fodder, the reputation of
irritating the kidneys. The cause of the latter appears
to have been found. Berlelot discovered that nitrate
of potash or saltpetre e.xisted in all plants in all plants
more or less abundantly. It was not drawn directly
from the soil, but formed directly in the tissues of
the plant itself. The soil supplied the potash, but
the plant worked up the nitrogen, partly from the
soil and partly from the atmosphere— the latter a
disputed point sti I with scientists— iu the form of
ammonia and its salts and nitric acid.

Professor Deherian has detected notable quantities
of saltpetre in the pith of maize sti-ms, l>ut more so
in .sorghum. Stalks of the latter whenstripprd, contained
over 2 grains of saltpetre per lb.— Now 88 lbs. of
sorghum per day means au absorption of 6 ounces of
nilre and two oimecs of saltpetre, form at any limo
a very powerfid dinrectie. Thi."; may explain the grave
maladies— .ind .some reported deaths of stock fed on
sorghum, due to its richne.-is in nitrate of soda. Netiles
are often consumed in spring by many people as a
substitute for a scarcity of " greens," cases of sickness
have been reported from this peculiar way of " grasping
your netth!."' May not the cause be attributed to the
known richness of the plant in saltpetre ? Professor
Deherain states the stems of sorghum can be recog-
nised as dangerous, if on being dried and then burned,
they crackle or spit. It is the base of the stem which
is richest in the nitrate ; hence, not a bad plan is to cut
it within 8 inches from the soil.

In dry. sandy, aud hilly districts of France, furze
when bruised, is given as feed to cows, and occasion-
ally to horses. Dr. Maercker has instituted in (!er-
luany experiments to test the comparative feeding
qualities of furze reisiin oats for horses. During 95
days, four horses, instead of oats received crushed
furze or whins, plus chopped straw. The latter was sup-
plied to four other horses hut with 9 lb. of oat« to
each, instiail of the furze. All the horses had 21 miles
or more of less hilly roads to traverse daily, and with
carts more or less laden. The ainmals fed on the furze,
improved rather than fell away, and 87 fr. were saved
under the head of oata.

There is nothing exactly new in resorting to saline
solutions, as a means for separating souud from dubious
Kede, Only the practice is becomiug uioK esttrntively

THE TROt^JCAL AQntCiJLTVRiST.

fjUNE I, iS86,

followed as au additional safe-guard against seed mer-
chants say— accidentally dishonest. A few preliminary sif t-
ings of the seed having been made, the steep is prepared :
the stronger, relatively, the brine is, thu more it will
allow only the plumper and heavier seeds to tall to the
bottom. On the latter is placed a fine sieve, which
receives the sinking seed. The contents of the sioyo
are next spread out on a sheet and rapidly dried in
the air, when the seed can be immediately sown by
hand or machine.

Potato-culture is likely to receive a new impetus,
since the plan of solliug them peeled, sliced and dried
like certain fruits, scums to hit the tastes of the
export market. Thu drying of the potatoes can follow
the period of the dessication of fruits. The method
obviates decay and germination of the tuber, and oc-
cupying a less voUune, transport will be cheaper anil
less difficult. The potatoes are peeled by machinery :
next carefully washed, sliced into rounds, and left for
20 minutes in a strong solution of kitchen salt. The
brine induces firmness in the slices and prevents their
changing color — thus securing what sulphur does for
fruits. Later, the cuttings are left to drain, placed in
the drying apparatus on hurdle shelves, aud submitted
to a temperature varying from 176 to 194 degrees
Fah. They must remain a little longer in this hot
air bath than fruit. Before using, the slices have to
be steeped twelve to fifteen hours in water, when they
will become as] fresh and as fiavoury as new pota-
toes.

Professor Schribaux draws attention to the scarcity
of good beet seed this year, and the fraudulent pro-
cesses of merchants of drying inferior seeds, as well
as steeps, to deceive the unwary. Tlie real gram of
seed of the beet is contained in a capsule, but at
least these capsules ought to give from 70 to 80
sprouts of germs. If this percentage be realized, by
a test germination, the seed may be accepted.

Strawberry Gkowino in ENOtiND.— Strawberry
growing by the hundred acres was surely an American
invention, but our English cou.sins are fast following in
our wake. Oardeninr) lUnslrutcd says that If. E.
Vinson & Co., of Swanlcy in Kent, liave 500 acres,
which yielded about l,0(iO tons last year. They
employ about 1,000 hands in the marketing season,
300 being pickers. These live in tents, scattered over
the fruit farm. The worst fruit is not sent to
market, but is made hito jam on the spot. — Gardeners'
Monthly.

Gekman Method to Gimss a . Bank.— For each
square rod to be planted take half a pound of la\vn-
gross seed and mix it intimately and thoro\ighly with
6 cubic feet of good dry garden earth and loam. This
should be placed in a tub, and liq\ud manure diluted
with about two-thirds of water added aud well stirred
in, so as to bring the whole to the consisteucy of
mortar. The slope must be cleaned and made per-
fectly smooth, and then well watered, after which the
paste just mentioned should be applied with a trowel,
and made as even and thin as possible. Should it
crack from exposure to the air, it must be again
watered aud smoothed up day by day until the grass
makes its appearance, which will be in from eight to
fourteen days, when the whole declivity will soon be
covered with a close carpet of green.— Onjrfoirr.s'
Ghrtmicle.

CocONiiT.s IN New Jersey.— The following is from a
Philadelphia paper:— "It will no doubt surprise our
readers to learn that successful efforts have been made
by English capitalists to domesticate in Euglaml cer-
tain species of coconut palm that is iiuw growing
there at all seasons aud producing fruit, which, it
it be true, we shall have efforts made to domesticate
the .same tree on the Jersey coast, so that the seaside
resorts along that shore may in due time assume a
tropical aspect with palm trees growing in the open air."
The original paragraph was of courses intended, as
the English say, asa " rig" on the ignoramuses who do
not know that tropical hoat, aud a tempurature ucver

lower than 45 * , is necessary to grow a coconut palm of
any " species." Our Philadelphia friend had better get
out of the bole by asseverating that he was simply
})layiug a game oa the Jerseymen. Still, with the
dense popular ignorance of the simplest facts in garden-
ing which so thoroughly prevails, the nurserymen aud
seedsmen will soon, as in the case of the famous
Eucalyptus, be run down with orders for coconuts of
"a certain species" for planting along the cost from
New iTersey to Labra<Ior, and they had better provide
themselves with something, even though they be
Osage Orange balls, for the silly people who will have
something or deem you " one-horse coucerns, not up to
the times," it you have not what they ask for.—
Gat'dcners' Mtyiithhj.

Many Si'ECies of Australian native trees are known
to be extremely rich in tannin, notably several kiiiils of
wattle; but in many cases much the same difticulty is
experienced in economically extracting the valu.able
ingrcdit-nts as has so long frustrated the efforts of iron
smelters to extract iron from the Tarauaki sands. An
Adelaide firm has, however, lately patented ^ a new
process of their own invention for extracting the
tanning material from the wattle tree — a process in
which the whole of the tree is used, and an enormous
waste thereby prevented. If this process can be applied
to other trees containing tannin a double economy will
be effected — first, of the wood which is consiuueil in
the extriiction of the tannin; and, secondly, in the
increased facilities for preparing Australian bides.
The discovery of a new tannin-yielding plant lends
additional interest to the iuveution, and at the saine
time affords another illustratiou of the value of scientific
botany as applied to the stvuly and eouservution of the
tlora of the Colonies. The Conservator offForests in
South Australia bus fouud a new species of .Vcaeia, to
which he has giving the name of Acacia Spillcriana,
and the bark of which contains 1.5 per cent of tannic
acid. It was discovered in the Ifundrpd of Bright, but
has since been found in the Wirrabara Forest. It
seldom exceeds 8 feet in height, but is occasionally met
with as high as 10 feet. The bush forms a handsome
evergreen shrub, is well brauched, comparatively dense
in foliage, and when in flower is a pleasing feature in
the scrub vegefcition where it abounds. — Colonies and
India.

Seedlinc FEiiNS.- It you want Ferns to lu.\uriate,
and seedlings to .spring up by hundreds, you must
keep the water- pot in use winter and summer; the
very life of Ferns is water, as .anyone may prove by the
luxuriance of our hardy native Ferns, as well as tho
great variety that are naturalized i n localities where
the moisture is excessive, and their almost total absence
in dry, arid districts. Look at the healthy, luxuriant
specimens that one finds hanging to the bricks or
stones at the top of wells, where they arc daily
drenched with water winter and summer, and compare
them with the same varieties under a glass r.iof where
the water-pot and hose are put by for mouths during
winter. I know many very successful amateur Feru
cultivators who keep their plants in robust health
with but very limited accommodation, for, unliko
flowering plants, they do not re.iuire strong light, but
do best in the sh.ide ; and as to soil, they will grow i_u
nearly any kind if the drainage is good, ami when this
is perfect' they can hardly be overdone with water. To
anyone anxious to try the raising of seedling I'Vrns who
may not have a glass-house of their own, I would advise
the half-filling of a shallow box with rough, porous
material with a little fine soil worked amongst it, and
on this lay auy old Fern fronds that have the seed-
spores visible on the backs of them. Keep constantly
moist by means of a very fiuo-rosed water-iiol^or
syringe, and cover with a large .sheet of glass to prevent
evaporatiiiii, set in any Harm position, and await the
result; if successful, the surface-oil will soon be covered
with green scale-like growths, aud then the various
forms of leaves will spring up ; let them make two or
three good leaves, and then carefully lift with all the
roofs that can be got. and pot in I! inch pnts in light,
sandy soil. A mixture of turf that is partly decayed,
peat, aud saud, will grow any of the ordinary kind of
I'trui to perfuctiou.— tf«)v/<?iin? lUuitrated.

|WME T, t8S6.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

841

TEA INVESTMENTS :— CEYLON VERSUS
ASSAM.

A correspondent interested in Ceylon writes to U3
that he lately met at home a {gentleman who
has extensive interests in tei planting in Assam,
witli whom he discussed the relative position of the
Indian and our island districts in re~poct to the
prospect the former affords of successful competition
in the matter of tea-growing. As regards quality,
there appears to be no doubt but that Assam — at
least on certain gardens — is fully able to hold her
own ; but it was acknowledged by the authority
referred to that the good cjualities, and, in fact,
the present average of tea crops of Assam can
only be produced at such a cost that Ceylon teas
must ultimately oust a large proportion of them from
the London market. Indeed he seemed to tliiuk
that as a paj-ing industry, tea planting in Assam
must in a few years, begin to go down before the
increasing and more cheaply produced crops of
Ceylon, and he talked of investing in this colony
so as to be prepared for the evil days which he
foresees. It may be that this is a rather pessimist
view to hold ; but it is evidently shared by many
who are engaged in tea planting in the Nortiieru
districts of India. As we have often said, the
greatest praise of the tea districts of Ceylon and of
their probable future has come to us from the mouths
of visitors who are acquainted with "tea" in India.

In support of the opinions so formed, our visitors
generally refer to the advantages possessed by
Ceylon. They assert that the more equable distribu-
tion of rainfall which this island enjoys is not
alone more favourable to the growth of the plant
and the development of its leaf, but must enable
more frequently pluckings to be made, and that
too at seasons when the leaf is in its most approved
condition. Secondly, they advert to the great
advantage available to Ceylon planters in its labour
supply. One authority declares Assam quite unable
to compete with Ceylon in this particular, and
he can see no hope of the adverse balance being
redressed in the future. Equally despondent was
the view expressed by tliis same Indian tea pro-
prietor as to the relative transport facilities possessed
by the two countries from the tea-growing gardens
to the port of shipment. Others again there are
who attach much importance to the special reput-
ation for activity, intelligence, shrewdness and care
which murk the nijiss of the Ceylon planters : the
way in which they rub against and emulate each
other— in striking contrast with the isolation and
somnolence of most of their Indian brethren.
Taking all these things into consideration, one
authority after another con see no hope (as they
maintain) of any escape by the districts thty are
interested in from the final consummation of the
fears above expressed.

Now there can be no hesitation in accepting the
weight and force of several of the arguments put
forward by these tea authorities. Here in Ceylon
we are advancing in the matter of tea cultivation
with such rapid strides, and there is sucli a want
of limit to the future possibilities of further advance,
that the day must be within the reach of the
present generation, probably, when the production
of the two countries will be equal. What then it
may be as well to ask. will be Dv. position of
Ceylon when that parity is attained ? We have
plenty of land available for almost any extent of
development at least in the low and middle districts.
And sooner or later, when our home authorities
shall have had forced upon them the conviction
105

they are now so sU,w to accept, that their duty
lies in fostering and promoting the credit of tlii;
colony by themselves showing their confidence in
its future and by permitting the incurrence of an
increase to our comparatively small public debt
for the execution of needed paving public works —
there will be a superabundance of capital flowing
in to permit of that development being reali:?ed to
the fullest extent.

But what then? Behind this picture of fnture
prosperity based on a wide development of tho
tea industry there looms for us one ditticnlty, at
Icjist, which must be grappled with. If dealt with
in lime — if taken firmly in hand at once, — that
diiliculty may never receive accentuation, If, how-
ever, the matter should not be put on a sound
biais, the bright picture of the fnture here may
be over clouded to an extent which may hereafter
find Ceylon in a position as dark as what which
now confronts our competitor, Assam. We allude
of course, to the Tamil Labour Supply once- so
plentiful on our estates. Whatever the cause of
the falling-off may be, the lessening number of
coolies who make Ceylon their annu.al place of re-
sort is a fact apparent to all. Something must be
done to state this if we are to hope to realize our
fullest hopes in the future. The Planters' Asso-
ciation has already been moving in the matter ;
but we fear' the cure for the evil is not to be
fiiimd in Government measures, or in any more
reform of the present Cooly Immigrant Service,
unless at all events, these measures are concurrent
with personal eiJbrts among planters and receive
full support from that body. The credit of Ceylon
in this respect, which used to stand so high among the
Tamils of Southern India, has been sh.tken by many
regretable occurrences. That wages have been tem-
porarily lowered is a matter that cannot bo helped.
The reduction was forced upon all concerned by
circumstances over which they had no control.
But, if the implicit belief of the Indian coolies
in the certainty of their wage is to be restored,—
if thereupon they are to flock to these shores in
the numbers with which we have in past days
been familiar — the confidence they left during the
" days of old " in their European tUirair: must be
fully restored. Legislation in this direction to
some extent has been tried, and in spite Of the
support given to it by ourselves and others it (ailed
to secure that co-operation which could alone ensure
adequate result. I3ut the chief resource must al-
ways be found among planters themselves. Wages
will no doubt increase as demand for labour in-
creases, but this factor of temptation towards se-
curing a full supply of coolies will be of little
avail unless Bamasami can be once again inspired
with the confidence he felt in the palmy days bo-
fore leaf disease. If we are to see the bright picture
we have dravjn, realized to the full of our hopes
and expectations; it must be by the efforts of thoie
who are most concerned it its realization.

There is another side to our Labour Supply Ques-
tion however, which must not be lost sight of,
and that is the large and increasing extent to
which, especially in the lowcountry, Sinhalese are
doing the work on tea plantations. It will be seen
that in the Kalutara district, on many gardens,
Sinhalese are almost the only employe-, and their
women and children are described a ' i' superior
as "pluckers" to the Tamils. We l.ast it will
be the object of every planter concerned to main-
tain and fof Ler the good relations which in the
low as well as in the middle (and as we have
heard in some of the high) districts will tend to
secure the assistance of the "sons of the soil."
the poor among " people of the country" in aid

§42

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

of tlie European tea planters. For there can be
no iloubt tbat there will be room and to spare, for
ill the Sinhalese and Tamils who can be induced
Lo work, when our exports rise as they are bound
to do to HO, 40 aye 58 millions of lb. of tea per
annniii. As regards our Indian rivals, as a Calcutta
authority said not long ago : a fall to lOd or lid
per lb. in the London market would mean a practi-
cal embargo on the export of half the Indian crops
oV say ;iO millions lb. of tea per annnm. But the
vast mjority of Ceylon plantations, if labour fail
not, ought even at lOd to lid per lb. average in
London, (o go on and prosper until even the 00
millions lb. of tea now sTiipped from India is
exceeded I

liEEKEEPINO AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS:

A HINT FOR SUB-TROnCAL EDUCATION

DEPARTMENTS.

Sitting in tlie greenhouse of Acton Vicarage,
Suffolk, where the late Bishop of Ripon and the
present Dean of Lichfield were born, and where
the Bishop of Norwich, Earl Grey, and his two
brothers, and many men of light and leading were
|)upils, one of our representatives had a long
conversation with the Rev. Arundell Leaky on the
([uestion which he has made his own — namely,
Ihe adoption of beekeeping as a subject under the
new code. He said that he had the ajiprobation
of Mr. Mundella and the sympathy of Mr. Claughton.
Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, but com-
plained that what the Government gave with one
hand it withdrew with another, for it allowed no
child to take the subject up as a specific one nn-
i\e.v the Fiftli Standard. All that was now needed,
Mr. Leakey said with enthusiasm, was the removal
of a very small stone, the making it necessarily
u specific subject and allowing it to be treated
as an oi'dinary one. " But surely you would not
put it in competition with the three R's ? " ' 'No,
noi with needlework, but I would with geography,
for surely it would be better for a child to know
how by keeping bees a whole year's rent might
be obtained than the position of the Andes." He
dilated on the value to the agricultural labourer
of this additional means of income, saying that
it required no capital, no premises, and liardly any
time. Another peculiarity he dwelt on was that
bees tresjiass on other people's property with tlie
uuiiiue result of improving it. Mr. Leakey further
said tliat schoolmasters, from iheir permanent re-
sidence in a place and having time on their hands
alter school hours, were ijeculiarly adapted for
beekeeping. The master in Acton village, for ex-
ample, had no less than eight hives, some of
which he had patented. Further asked if he knew
of any schools which would take the subject up
if able to do so, he replied that • he knew of
several, and he added that, where two hives would
pay an average labourer's rent, he thought if
these days, when every one was anxious to im-
prove the labourer's condition, his plan was wortli
consideration. In reply to questions from our re-
presentative as to wax imported from abroad, Mr.
Leakey gave the following startling figures : — From
the West Indies. 1,1HH cwt.; from France; 1,!)0') ;
from Gei'many, '2,2S9 ; from China, 2,114 ; from
Japan, 1,401 ; from Portugal, 0,'.(48 ; and from
America, H,l(i3— a total of 32,01)9 cwt. This, he
pointed out, was independent of the best and most
remunerative point, the honey, of which from
America only the iiurchascs amounted a))proxi-
matcly to 1,50,000. Abseuce of bees was, Mr.
Leakey insisted, detrimental to fruit, and their
absence was supplied by wild ones. Bees, he said,
liud pasture, not only on clover, but on all the

innumerable garden and field flowers, from the
early snowdrop and primrose to the late violet,
while the lovely fruit-tree blossoms which deck the
spring with exciuisitc white and crimson wreaths
at the same time hold out to the bees petals on
which they may rest as thsy drink deeply the
nectar of a thousand chahces. Space prevents our
going more into the practical details of the matter,
which showed that the enthusiasm of Mr. Leakey,
for which he has been thanked by the Beekeepers'
Association, rests on a substantial basis, and
the subject at least is worthy of consideration,
and many will share Mr. Leakey's hope that the
Education Department will facihtate the carrying out
of their own concession. — Fall Mall Budget.

[Query, if the " wax " from China and Japan
was all the product of bees. There is wax produced
on trees by quite another insect. — Ed.^

CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT:

DIVEESITY OF OPINION EESPKCTING TEA JIACHINERY —
W.ANTEr> A " PLANTINO MOLESWORTH " — ALSO A TEA-SEED
PBICE CURKENT.

10th May 1886.
In regard to the question of what is the best
kind of machinery for tea manufacture, there are
as many opinions current in the planting distriet.i
as there are districts in Ceylon. Men have their
favourite Roller, their pet Drier, besides having a
leaning toward^ some particular kind of Sifter,
Cutter and even Packer. This diversity of opinion
is only another evidence of the marked in-
dividuality which so strongly obtains among the
Ceylon planters, and which when crystalized into
nervous language takes the form of " allow me to
know best." There are some men, however, who
have not had the needful opportunities of seeing
or testing the capabilities of the various com-
peting tea machines, and who have not yet made
up their minds regarding the relative merits
of the diiferent claimants for public support.
Many of these men are in the market from
time to time as buyers, and it is a very marked
want which ought to be remedied, that, as far as
I know, there is no lirm in the island to which
you can go, and see for yourself on its premises
all the different machines from which a man
might choose.

Of those who sell not one seems to be
free : all appear to be bound down to sell or
expose for sale one particular make, or tlie machines
of one particular maker, and the trouble in con-
sequence to the public who would like to have a
choice before investing is indeed very great.
What is wanted is a show-room where one might
go and see samples from every workshop and
where your order would be taken when you had
satisfied yourself what kind of thing was going to
suit you. I suppose to be a sole agent for a
popular maker is a profitable position to get into;
but I should say that it does not show much
knowledge of the future, when by so doing you shut
yourselves out from partaking of the fruits of
other inventions. It seems too absurd when you go
into such a firm as Messrs. Walker tt Co. and ask to
have a look at say ICerr's new Holler or any other for
that matter save Jackson's, to be told that they
only sell the latter. Why should ono have to
wander here and there to enable one to have a
sight of all that is offering? It may be that every
individual luaker sees in lih particular jiroduct
potentialities embracing and capable of meeting the
wants of every tea garden now existing or yet to
exist iu Ceylon, and that the sole agent dreams
the same fond dream. liut therein they stand
alone, and a)e subject at any day to a rude awakening.

June i, i8S6.J

tHE TROPICAL AGKlCULTURlSf,

5^43

Wliile on the wants of the community, it has
frequently occurred to me that there is a niche
unoccupied in the series of Planter's Manuals. We
have no " I'lanting Jlolcsworth." To tlie enter-
prise of the O/a-i'itc)- press, ^tropica! planters all
over the world are much indebted for the handy
little volumes which have from time to time ap-
peared on the dilTorent products which have en-
goj^ed the attention of the Ceylon planters, and
from which they have tried to make fortunes and
have not as a rule succeeded. These however
have been all special, and although they contain
much information, which might and ought to
lind a place in the "Planting Molesworth," yet
what is wanted is a rude niecum, constant com-
panion, to which the planter could turn at any
time to refresh his memory as to what was a fair
day's work for a cooly at the numerous occup-
ations he is from time to time called on to per-
form. It should of course embrace far more tlian
that : prices o( building, cost of wood work, current
rates charged by blacksmiths, and other artiliccrs.
Indeed from the cooly it might radiate out wide
enough until it would embrace within its covers cv»n
agents' charges and brokers' actual disbursements !
What a valuable little volume tliat would be and
still it need not either be big nor yet dear — and
there should be a public to buy it.

Yet a last want — this suggested by another, a
seller of tea seed, who dift'ers with me regarding
the course that article is likely to take in the
matter of price. Both buyers and sellers he inclines
to believe are often working in the dark, and with
the view to let in light, and that the pulse of the
market miglit be felt by all, he suggests that the
Obgcrvcr might have a Tea Seed Price Current.
In this price current which was to be a colunni of
the daily jiaper all estates which wished to avail
themselves of the privilege might for a fixed
monthly sum have the advantages of the publicity
which would in this way be given. The buying
public too would be able to see where to apply and
at what riiJrs they might expect to purchase. The
tca-sfcd price current would run as follows : —

Agar's Iiaiid . . Open for orders at E

Bitten I e . . Heed all booked

and so on.

PF.riTECOItN".

INl)I\N' TE.V COMPANIES.

Tea. — The report of the M.anaging Agents of the
Adulpore Ter-:i Tea Company for the pa.st year shows
tliat the outturn was GHO manmls, against .in estimate
of 7W raaunds, the average price realised being As.
10-4 per lb. The revenue amounted to K3.'),052, and
the expenditure to K30,525, leaviug a profit ofK5,127;
and after adjustment in the Profit and Loss account
the sum of 1<4,()38 is available. A dividend of 4 per
cent, has bfpu declared aud R338 carried forward.
The estimate for 1888 is for 700 mauuds of tea at a
local expenditure of R21,17-5, which includea 85 acres
of exteusiiMi i.ot in bearing.

The rep( rt <>l the directors of tho Ea=;t India Tea
Company shr ws that the outturn was 200,190 lb.
against an climate of Is4,(l00 lb., the net average
price reaUsed lieiog .Vs. lO-.ij per lb. The revenue was
R1!K),."93 and the expenditure KIC5,42:i leaving a
profit of K24 969; and adding the baliuce brought
forward from 1 ist season, the available profit is K3.5,3<)7
which admits of a dividend of 3J per cent. Tlie estim-
ates for 1880 )iroTide for a crop of 3,800 maunds at an
expenditure c! KIRS 0(10.

The report <if the direetors of the Kalarberra Tea
Company 8ho\v<tliat the outturn was 104.134 lb. which
realised an avtirage price of A.s. 10-9. The gross re-
ceipts were B69,966 and expenditure R5^,574, leaving
a profit of Rll,3n2, which reduces the debit at profit
»D(i losa to Vi!i,li7. Xhti estimates for ISdQ provide

for an outturn of 108,000 lb. at a total expenditure of
R.52,.iOO.

The report of the Mauaging Agents of tlio Kamptie
Gwallie Tea Company shows that the outturn was
10(i,000 lb., which sold at a not average price of .\s.
ll-(j per lb. The revenue w.is K7'i.7ll and exi)endi-
ture K65,157, leaving a profit of K11,L'57, which reiluces
the debit balance at Profit and Loss to K6,.5(iS. Tlio
estimites for 1886 provide for a crop of 1,6(IU maunds
at a garden outlay of K40.000.

The report of the directors of the Kunchunporo
Tea Company shows that the outturn was ll.'i.lilO
lbs. against an estniiate of l(X),0001b. the average
price realised being As. 9-3'; per lb. The gross re-
ceipts were RiVl.SU and tlie expenditure Ri9, .'l.SII,
lea\ing a profit of R.'>.1S4 which reduces the debit
balance at Profit and Loss to Il'.l,4(;'i. Tlio estimates
for the current season provide for an outturn of
KId.lRHI lb. at a total expenditure of R.il.OlKl.

The report of the Managing Agents of the Second
Mutual Tea Company show^s the outturn wasl.ii'.to
maunds, JJalising an average price of As. 11-10 per
lb. for fine and As. G-7 per lb. for coarse tea. The
gross revenue was R87,S07, aud the expenditure
R.MI,2:'>.">, leaving a profit of R'2S,.372, and deducting
the debit balance front the previous season the amount
available is R20,92;->. Dividends aggregating 111 pt r
cent, have been declared, aud li|j23^3 carried for-
ward. The estimates for IHSli provide for l.S.'iO
maunds of te.a at a garden outlay of RfVl,4.SS.

Dividends have been declared by the Kuttal('"Ui-
|)aiiy of It per cent ; Bishnauth 4 per cent ; aud East
India Tea 3J per cent. — Fiouccr Cor.

COFFEE CULTIVATION IN MYSORE.

B\xr.ALor>E, April 2'2nd. — The Coorg planters have
recently memorialijed Mr. Girdlestone, the (!liief
Commissioner of the province, for the reduelioii"
of assessment on coSee holdings from two In one
rupee per acre for coffee in full bearing and to
eight annas per acre for all other land included
in the coffee estate. The coffee enterprise, in Coorg
has suffered greatly in late years by disease,
drought and low prices in the home market. Many
planters have been utterly ruined, and many driven
to sell out for a mere song, and it was hoped the
Resident, who professed to have the interest of
the planting community at heart, would grant tlio
reasonable concession prayed for by the planters.
Mr. (iirdlestoiie's reply now iniblished is exlreinely
disappointing, and declines to accede to the rcfpiest
of the Coorg Planters' Association. The Uosident
says during the course of his tour through Coorg
he visited many estates, and had the advantage
of studying on the spot the varied conditions of
the aspect of the soil, the slope, the shave, treatment
and age, and in conversing with the proprietors and
managers succeeded in acquiring valuable statistical
information concerning the industry. The planters
pointed out that tlie rate of two rupees per acre
on tlie whole cuHurable area of the estate lixed
when coffee planting was in its infancy and is
heavier than the tax on coffee or tea lands elsewhere
for the past twenty years in Coorg aud shows it to be
excessive. The Resident replies that the settlement
necessarily must be determined by the system as
the averages, Government deriving no direct gain
from the high prices which have in past times
prevailed. Whilst admitting to some extent the state-
ment made by the Association that far from the
industry proving remunerative it has turned out to
the great majority to be the reverse, the Resident feels
bound to point out that besides the loss from leaf-
disease, borer, rat, drought and the like, there have
been other detrimental causes at work, which might
have been avoided. The land is often unsuitable! in
character and much in excess of one man's power
to niauaije. The planted coficc cultivation is

84 t

tHE TROPICAL AdSICULTURlST.

[JoNB 1, x886.

conlinuci;! year after year trom borrowed capital-
Tlic liij;h interest is large ; and advauces for labour
given without BuDieient discrimination. Moisture,
■wliich is reijuisitc. is diminished by over-felling,
the cultivation is careless, and so on. The Govern-
ment are not responsible for these mistakes. For
special reasons the remissions conceded to nearly
two lakhs lately to certain groups of estates,
but a strong case must be made out before the
Government could lessen the demand on the coffee
lands in Coorg.— il/!«'i«s Mail.

COL-IND EXHIBITION.

(From the Joiiniul of the Sucielij af Arts, April IGlh.

CliVLON.

The Executive Commissioner for Ceylon is Mr
Arthur N. Birch c. M. ii. ; and Mr. W. E. David-
son, the Honorary Secretary, is busily engaged
BUpcriutending the installation of the exhibits. The
Genrriil Committee at Colombo is presided over
by the Hon. Sir Arthur Hamilton (iordon, o.c.M.o.,
and includes amongst its members the Govern-
ment Agents for the various provinces of the
island, the Director of the Botanical Gardens,
and the Chairmen of the Chamber af Commerce,
the I'lanters' Association and the Agricultural
Association. Sub-Committees also represent thf
different provinces.

Of llie exhibits from the " Spicy Island, the
most important will undoubtedly be the repre-
sentation of the planting industry, to which Ceylon
owes much of its past prosperity and to which
it will, it is hoped, be much indebted in the
future. The collection of tlie exhibits has been placed
in the hands of the Planters' Association of Ceylon ;
and tea and coffee will here be more adequately re-
presented than at any previous exhibition.

A handsome building, designed by Mr. J. G.
Smither, to be known as the Ceylon tea house,
has been erected in the gardens between the
court and " Old London." It will be devoted
to the sale, exclusively, of these Ceylon products.
The entrance to the court will be through a
Kandyan porch in carved woods, flanked on either
side by a dwarf wall, pierced and ornamented in
the fashion of the ancient decoration of Kandy.
The porch and wall are faithful representations
of portions of the Daltula Ualiinin-a, the Buddhist
Temple of the Sacred Tooth. On either side of
the porch, the lirst exhibits to catch the eye will
be, appropriately enough, trophies of the chase ;
for Ceylon is perhaps the most accessible country
for sportsmen in search of big game. On the right
hand, charging out of a jungle with unlifted trunk,
wU be a notorious rogue elephant, shot expressly for
exhibition here. On the left will be represented the
leopard, elk and varieties of deer, grouped with the
aniidv birds of the tropics.

The decorations of the court have been faith-
fully copied, both in colour and design, from the
Buddhistic art of Ceylon. Facing the entrance
will be « coloeeal gilt figure of Buddha, sitting iu
the attitude of contemplation, the representation
being especially appropriate as coming from a coun-
try where the doctrines and the learning of Bud-
dhism have been maintained in their highest purity;
and a special case will be devoted to a series of
Buddiiistic figures and ornaments. Below this rigure
stands a gateway, elaborately carved iu ornamental
Wood, an exact reproduction of the principal gateway
Bt y'lqnihii. an ancient capital of Ceylon, whose ruins,
though not so majestic as those of some others of
the buried cities of the interior, are the most pictur-
es(iuc of any.

On the left of this gateway will be ranged a
Eollgctitfu of tlie tiiubcK ul Ccylou. Some two

hundred " hand specimens," so cut as to show
the grain in every section, will be backed by
specimen planks of ornamental and cabinet woods,
such as calamander (or coromandel), ebony,
tamarind and satinwood. On the other side
will be seen the same native woods when carved
by native carpenters into cabinets and articles of
furniture. This group will be relieved by a collec-
tion of elephant tusks mounted on stands of ebony
and calamander.

Precious stones, especially those for which Ceylon
is famous— the catseye, sapphire, ruby and pearl —
will be represented by a collection which will
include some of the finest gems in existence. On
stands, adjacent to the central jewel cases, will be
arranged specimens of the filagree gold work of
.Jaffna, and of the repousse silver work of the
Kandyan districts, as well as characteristic sets of
Sinhalese and Tamil jewellery, and a special collec-
tion prepared by the Kandyan Art Association. There
will also be shown, in the front half of the court, an
exhibit of lace— the making of which is an important
industry in the maritime provinces — as well as
tortoiseshell work and ornamental work in porcupina
quill, carving in ivory, ebony and coconut (the latter
a specialty of Ceylon) and a collection of the quaint
Kandyan pottery and of the painted masks used in
Sinhalese drama. Basket and lacquer work will
appear in this r.ection ; and a number of paintings
and photographs on the walls will supplement and
illustrate the table exhibits. Models of fishing canoes
and boats of the pearl fisheries, Ac, will aid to
illustrate the industries and peculiarities of the people.

The second half of the court (which is divided by
a cross thoroughfare) will be mainly devoted to
exhibits of the economic sections. Plumbago, the
only mineral of Ceylon which is at present remunera-
tively worked, will be adequately shown in com-
mercial samples and by photographs of the industry
and its uses. Cinnamon and the products of the
coconut palm, the mainstay of low country cultiva-
tion, will be represented by complete collections. A
model distillery and casks, containing the various
qualities of the spirit, will show the arrack industry
as befits its importance, considering the revenue
derived by the Government from the arrack farms in
Ceylon, and the large export of arrack to Southern
India.

Mention must also be made of the unique collec-
tion from the Maldive Islands acquired from Mr.
Ilosset, a German traveller who has made the group
his special study.

Several fine examples of ferns, sent over from
Ceylon some months ago have been housed during
the winter by the Eoyal Horticultural Society at
Chiswick.

Six Sinhalese, two of them expert cabinet-makers
and carpenters have arrived, and will be etuployed
in the court during the Exhibition.

NOTES ON SCIENCE AFFECTING

VEGETATION.
Bv Dr. .T. E. Taylor, f. i, s., f. o. s., &i.

Mr. F. Darwin has just read a paper before the
Liunean Society on the "Bloom of Leaves." The
" r>loom ' is a waxy coatiug which can be removed by
hot water, or even by the beat of the fiugeis. Mr.
Darniii fiuds that leaves devoid of ■•bloom" on both
surfaces have 54 per cent, which possess uo Stomain
or "breathing-mouths" ou their upper surfaces. Leaves
wliich have no " bloom " on the upper surface have
81! per cent, cout.iining stomata on their lower surfaces
only; leaves liaviug " bloom " ou their upper surfaces,
but none below, liiive IdO per cent, of stomat^i ou
the upper eurfoce, whilst I .ives with "bloom" on
both ■^".rfaces have 6i per Ciut. poisseefliBg 6tonj»t»

June I, i88S.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

845

above. Mr. D.nrwin, theruforc, concludes that the
accumulation of .stomata acconipaniei; that of " bloom, '
anil that it is functionally protective against undue
wetting by rain, &c.

Spcalcing of " bloom" reminds me of a mo.^t import-
ant aud valu.ible pateut which has just been granted in
the I'nited Kingdom to Messrs. Teacoclcof Melbourm-,
for " Improvements in the rresirvation of Fniit." The
invention was suggested to the patentees by the dia
covery of Pasteur that the "bloom "on fruit was the
cause of its fermentation,and that if it were removed the
fruit could be easily preserved. By permeating fruit
with sulphurous acid the "bloom" is removed, and ripe
fruit can In- kept any length of time, or sent to any
dist.'ince for use in jam manufacture. Both the taste
and smell of the sulphurous acid employed are encirely
removed by heat. Mr. Peacock's patent will enable
Australia to send us fruit as wi-11 as mutton.

It has been discovered, from experiments on float-
ing or submerged leaves, that the gases exhaled by
the same plant differ to a marked extent according
to whether the sky is cloudy or tlie leaves exposed to
bright sunshine. Those of Pntamai/etan lurtns gave
36 per cent, in the former case, and 69 per cent, of
oxygen in the latter case.

A tJerman botanist has recently shown that where
the interstices between the finer veins on the upper
surfaces of leaves are strongly convex the leaf offers
much greater resistance to the tearing force of heavy
rain or hail than the lower surface does. ^N'hen how-
ever, the upper surface is quite flat the resisting power
of the two surfaces of the leaf is nearly the same. —
Aiutrnlasian.

♦

MADRAS GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE

WITH THE CINCHONA TRADE.

The number of trees which were growing in
the " permanent plantations " on the 3l3t March
1S84 and 188.5 :—
So. of

>*ame of trees No. of No. of No. of No.of trees

Ptantatioo. yist March trees up- trees trees ;Ust Marcli

l.sgl. rooteti. cojipiced. plauteii. 18H.',.

Do>labetta 48H.(05 20U 6618 IMUm) l)3:««r

Niiiluvaltam 2WW10 .iCi-' 18;)7 140870 132091

Hooker .•»»8ol 2(J8.7 ... iZtiiOO .1.>iltjt)

llDL'rW Tf«; 7IS.1 ■5i:«70 16ao74i

The total amount of bark taken from the trees
on the estates during 1881-H.'> was Ils,017 lb.
Besides this there remained over on 31st March
IKHl, '.)2,.V2C) lb. making a total of '210,.ii:i lb. Of
this (juantity HJ.K80 lb. were disposed of during the
year, leaving a balance in stock at its close of
ri."), l)(i;) lb. The receipts on account of the plant-
ations for l8M:i.81 and 1884-85 were :—

Particulars. 188.S-H4. 1881-85

R. K. .

Value of bark sent Home 18,142

Do sold locally .55,896 82,3(4

Do suppliel to Bombay Medical

Department 1.710 1 ,W7

Do supplied to >la>lras -

Sale-proieeds of seed and plants 4,3.i2 l,o;w

Miscellaneous 30(* .jlu

R»0,3as 84,894

The total expenditure by the Madras Government
In the cinchona enterprise since it was fifst undoT-
taken, in the year 18110-01, including establishment,
supervision, buildings, working charges and inter-
est, amounted to R2r),0.5,Ht;o, and the total revenue
has been R:il,.57,t)03: so the net result is a sur-
plus of R.5..")l,713. Conseiiuently the Government
has not only recovered the '• cost of introduction
and experimental cultivation," but now owns a
property worth a very large sum of money —
possibly ">0 lakhs. Can it be for a moment pre-
tended that it is necessary for the (ioverninent to
possess upwards of a million and a half of trees
in order to conduct " scientific investigations " in
view to the production of a " cheap febrifuge ?"

Mr. Mclver reminded the Under Secretary to n
purpose that the Duke of Argyle had stated, in
the dispatch referred to, that " the principal in-
tention of Her Majesty's Government in sanc-
tioning this measure is to act as a pioneer in
establishing the reputation of the Indian-grown
barks, and not to injure the prospects of the
private planters, whose success would give the
Government great satisfaction. Mr. Grant Duff
was the Tinder-Secretary for India, and he may
have dratted the dispatch to the Madras Gov-
ernment which condemns the activity of his
own Government in extending the plantations, to
the great injury of private planters, long after the
reputation of Indian-grown cinchona has been
established. — Madras 3Iiii!.

PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS
IN THE LAST (JUARTER OF A CENTURY.

IIV p. I,. SIMMONDS.

In 18()1, we possessed '2,1:13 steam vessels, of
.50(1, 30H tons; in 188H, (),'241 -r3,7'2.5,2'29 tons. It
will thus be seen that we have trebled the num-
ber, whilst the tonnage has increased sevenfold.

In 18111, our imports from India and the Colo-
nies were to the value of i:,">2,t>7(),010.

In 1881, we received from India and the Colo-
nies produce and specie to the value of over
,t'.)2,r)00,000.

The tonnage entered and cleaiod with cargoes
from British possessions in 188.5 was '.),TM\,i!>(y.

If we look at what has been done in ocean and
land Telci/raphs, we shall be suprised at the won-
derful progress that has been made in the means
of rapid communication with our distant Posses-
sions, all of which are brought now within an
hour or two of transmission and reply. Ocean tele-
graphs have been laid across the Atlantic to our
North American colonies, in the Mediterranean
from Gibraltar to Malta and Cyprus, from Aden
to India, across the Bay of Bengal to Singapore
and Hong Kong and Borneo, to North Australia,
across Bass's Straits to Tasmania, and we can now
communicate hourly even with New Zealand.

The land wires are even more important. India,
which in iHtU had only about 1,000 miles of wire,
has now upwards of 23,000 miles of telegraph, and
the Eastern colonies about 1,.')00 miles more. Aus-
tralasia has more than 33,000 miles, Canada 17,000,
and South Africa about 8,000, besides small extents
in the West Indian colonies.

If we pass on to Hailira;/, which have done bo
much to open up unsettled districts, and to afford
cheap communication with the seaboard, we find
even more startling progress has been made in the
quarter of a century : and this has been money well
laid out, both in giving employment to labour and
manufacturers, and in the result of the remunera-
tive traffic obtained.

In 18(il, India had little over 1,000 miles of rail-
I way, Victoria 2")0, South Australia .5(1, New South
' Wales 73.

In 18(10, the first lines of railway wore com
mcnced in Mauritius. Aline of 71J miles, between
Kandy and Colombo, Ceylon, was opened in 1867.
What do we lind in operation now, independent of
the many miles of lines in coUr.se of construction ?
The oflicial returns for 1881 show that India had
over 12,000 miles of railway, and Ceylon and
Mauritius 270; the .Australasian cslonics 7, .500, the
Dominion of Canada (l.dOO, South Africa 1,7.50, and
the West Indian colonies 130.

The Gold produced in the Australasian Colonies
since the tiret discovery io Itfdl to 16)84 has been

846-

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886. •

as follows, as near as can be deteimined ;

Colonies.

Victoria to 1885

N. S. Wales

Queensland

South Australia .

Tasmania

New Zealand .

Ounces.

54,.500,000

9,995,825

i,529,2S0

89,720

2H9,151

10,552,279*

Value.
£
218,000,000
37,112,631
18,117,120
.343,950
1,115
12,327,907t

Total .. 79,457,024 315,932,723

—Journal of Society of Artn.

IN SEABGH OF A HOME IN TASMANIA.
(Dij "Old Colonist," F.Ii.G.I.)

A TKIP UP THE DERWENT — THI! EARLY SETTLERS —
WAYSIUE TRAINS — POOR-HonSES IN TASMANIA — NEW
NORFOLK — HOPGROWING IN TASMANIA — SUJIMING-UP.

" And yet, perhaps, if countries we compare,
And estimate the blessings which they share ;

Though patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find
An equal portion dealt to all mankind."

Goldsmith.

My next trip took me once more along the banks
of the beautilul Derwent, one of the tew really fine
rivers in Australasia, and excelling our finest British
river, the Tay, in the length and depth of its
navigable portion, while its mountain scenery, and
evergreen glades, are not excelled by anything I
have ever seen, even in that land " where every
prospect pleases."

My destination was Glenora, 37 miles from Hobart,
and I had a choice of conveyances, viz., boat, or
rail and coach. I chose the latter leaving the
tjuiet little railway terminus on one of those lovely
March mornings which add such a charm to life
in Tasmania at this season. The Botanical Gardens
looked their best and freshest, as we swept slowly
through them. On the right, the blue water
shimmered in the rising sun. Here and there, little
dots of fishing boats, with sails idly Happing, lay
on Uie smooth bosom of the river, while perched
on many a protruding rock sat the patient disciples
of the immortal Isaac. The first station is Ithdon,
— or " liest clown " as some old books have it, —
which I have before mentioned as the spot where
the first English settlers pitched their camps.
This was in 1803, just 30 years after Capt. Cook
visited the island, and sent adrift the first billy
goat, the skull and horns of which, in after years,
were found on the top of yonder hill, now known
as " Goats' Hill." Lieut. Bowen who came here in
1803, with the few settlers, soldiers and prisoners as
we have seen, soon fell foul of the aborigines. For
this act of inhumanity, he did not escape unscathed,
for it took them all their time to defend them-
selves from their exasperated neighbours, who very
naturally disputed the right of the white man to
take possession of their native land, and shoot
them down. 8o much so, that all cultivation had
to be abandoned, and when in 1804 (iovernor
Collins arrived from Port Philip he found the new
colonists starving, and engaged in a lifc-and-death
struggle with an enemy who outnumbered them
100 to 1.

It is curious too, in glancing back at the early
history of this wonderful .\ustralia, to find Governor
Collins deliberately nhniidonin:! Port Philip, now
the marvel of the world. His remarks are found
in a Garrison Orderly hook dated 27th January,
1803: — "It has never," he says, "been my wish
to make Sabbath any other tlian a day of rest
aud dcYotipu, but the eoouet we arc cutiblcil to

leave this unpromising and tmpi-oductive country
the sooner we shall be able to reap the advantages
and enjoy the comforts of a more fertile spot."

Here, in the valley of the Derwent the settlers
now took firm root, gradually spreading northwards,
and ultimately, some of them across the Straits
again to Port Philip, where they found the " un-
promising country " of Governor Collins, so pro-
ductive, that they induced many hundreds to follow
them. In 1835, when the colony was about 30
years old, we find Tasmania sending over sheep to
stock the plains of Victoria to the value of
£500,000. In 1853 the gold fever broke out, and
the bone and sinew .of the island crossed the straits
in a body numbering 34,000. More than half her
able-bodied jjopulation left at this time, and though,
by this means, she got rid for ever of most of the
" old hands," she has not to this day, recovered
from the loss of labour, which rose to, and is still
at a prohibitory rate. Hence those half-abandoned
gardens,

" I'on straggling fence that skirts the way
With blossomed furze unprofitably gay."

We are now at New Town station, and it is the
fashion to say in passing this spot : " How home-
like!" "How much these lanes remind us of dear
old England!" But if these somewhat slovenly
hedge-rows were as trimly kept, and the soil as
well tilled, there would be few scenes in old Eng-
land or even in Scotland to compare with the
valley of the Derwent. As it is, it is a strange
struggle tor the ascendency, between the Watttle,
Hawthorn, Furze, Thistle, Scarlet Geranium and
Sicccl-briar. The Geranium pluckily pushes its
way to the top, and crowns the fence with its
magnificent clusters of brilliant flowers, and even
when rudely hacked down and thrown into the
ditch or quarry hole, will take root again and
throw up such spikes as would carry off the prize
at any flower show I ever saw. But it is evident
the sweet-briar is gaining ; its hops so abundant
and sweet, seem to be the favourite food of horses
and cattle at this season, and by this means its
innumerable seeds get distributed all over the
ground, where its roots take a very firm hold.
It is quite evident indeed, that, unless labour be-
comes more reasonable and plentiful, the sweet-briar
will soon take possession of this locality.

Yonder palatial building on the brow of the hill
— commanding a view which any rich English lord
might well envy — is, we are told, 2'lic Institution.
A building for a similar purpose at Launceston is
pointed out as TItf Depot, and it takes some little
time for a puzzled stranger to discover that these
are simply Poor-Iimiscs. The building we have
just seen contains some 700 paupers, costing the
public between £8,000 and £9,000 a year. Paupers !
There are no paupers in Australasia, the guide-
books say and popular lecturers repeat the state-
ment, but the truth seems to be that the poor
workingman in this colony is so pampered and
protected, that he very often becomes demoralized
and useless. I have come a long way to sec the
conservative working-man, but here he is at last
and I am not enamoured.

There is evidently something wrong here, fat as
•lohii Ruskin says, "The world is so regulated
by tlie laws of Providence, that a man's labour,
well applied, is always amply snllicient to provide
him during his life with all things needful to him.
* * * But by those same laws of Nature and
Providence, it the labour of the nation or of the
individual be misapplied, and much more it it
be insullicicnt, — if the nation or man he indolent
and unwise, — sutTi>riiig and want result, exactly in
proportion to the indolence and improvidence, to the
rcfuiial of labour ot the uiieapplicatiou ol it.

June i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

*<47

VTlierever you see want, or misery, or degradation,
in this world about you, there, be sure, either in-
dustry has been wanting or Hidustry has been
in error."

But we are now nearijig another station — "O'Biieu's
Bridge," so named after the (anions Smitli O'Brien,
who hved for some years in exile here. You can
just see the little wooden shiinty near to the public
road, with a burnie trickling past its gable end.
At its best, it could only have been a poor little
•'but and ben" now frail and tcnantless. Imagine
the six great Irish patriots forgathering here- -as
they often continued to do :— Meagher, O'Donoghue
McManns. Mitehel and ,Tohn Martin. I fancy I
hear the coo-ece of the approaching visitors, answered
by the expectant O'Brien, — the warm greeting, the
row on yonder bay, the jolly evening, the clialT
and story — all spiced with a little sedition ; then
the serious part of the business, the plans of
escape.

It was here that P. J. Smyth, the well-known
M. P., met them; he came out ostensibly as cor-
respondent of an American paper really, to further
the escape of his countrymen. Meagher, I remem-
ber, wrote some beautiful letters to his friend Sir
C. (i. Duft'y dated from here. Mitehel, too. wielded
a very facile and charming pen. Men wholly bad '
could scarcely write as they did. Nevertheless,
O'Brien was the gentleman of the lot, and most
favourably remembered here. But I must hurry
on from this pretty little clachan with its thriving
hop gardens, and tolerably well kept orchards.
The lion of the locality seems to be, the hnKL^lip
which is invariably pointed out to strangers with
the remark that •' it is over 100 acres and the
whole came down one dark rainy night with a ter-
rific roar." On expressing my doubts, that there
were more than 30 acres : the village official said :
'•You have no idea how steep it is"! There are
evidently Irishmen here still. About five miles from
here is lUxtiwrr],-, said to be a very thriving town-
ship, the frugal German settlers numbering about
MUO ; this I mean to visit on my return. Mean-
while we go swinging along on our 3J feet railway,
still keeping close by the water-side. Berrieilale
and Austin Ferrii stations are soon passed and
we come to Norfolk road, where we part company
with the train which now crosses the Derwent, while
we take the coach and continue our journey up
the river side. I do not know if the name of
the ollicer who traced this road has been preserved ;
but this I know, had any Ceylon planter been imilty
of such a piece of work, the inevitable sack would
have been liix reward.

Fortunately the iron horse is creeping up the other
side of the water, slowly of course, for with labour
scarce at lis Inl lO 7s per day, it is not much, a poor
country can do in Railway Extension. Better times
for road-makers, when the Hobart and Launceston
road was made, one of the very best thorough-
f.ires in the world. What very picturesciue
peeps of river scenery now open out at every turn,
as we briflily canter along! The reflection of the
tall gum trees in the still water is very striking
and hrautirul, and liere comes a large paddle
steamer lieavily l.'ideii with hops and fruits. I
wonder liow many millions Melbourne would give for
a river like this ? The marvel is that there is so
Httle cultivation in a locality so highly favoured
as this : the melancholy fact again forces itself
upon us, that for 100 miles on either side of
this river the land has simply been frittered away,
and converted into very indilTerent sheep-runs,
with here and there a smiling little orchard, hop
garden or dairy-farm, showing what it might have
been, and may still be, when the land has been re-
covered from "these barbarous slieep-owners who.

though owning or holding -i-utlis ol the best land
in the country, cannot supply half the mutton
ici|uired by its scanty population.

.\ beautiful little oasis in this wilderness is New Nor-
folk, at which we have now arrived, iA miles from
Hobart. An air of substantial comfort pervades
the township, with its two excellent Hotels well-
plenished stores, neat churches, schools and library,
to say nothing of the capacious Lunatic .\syluni —
tor, strange to say, men and women go mad even
in this perfect climate, where bare existence is a
luxury. "

I much admire the beautifully kept little gardens
sloping down to the river side, the first buiui fide
bit of cultivation I have seen since I left England.
On the opposite side of the river is Valley Field, the
extensive hop-plantations of Mr. R. Shoobridge,
which I purpose visiting on my return. Mean-
while, I take coach again, and go on a dozen miles
further to visit " The Member" at his sp.acious
demesne Hii.iliy Pari;, and to those who know
Bushy Park, it is needless to speak of the cordiality
of our reception, or the hospitality of the entertain-
ment. I have rarely spent a more pleasant after-
noon than in wandering along tlie banks of the
placid Derwent, and the shady rippling Styx, and
never met more keenly intelligent agriculturista
than the Messrs. Shoobridge, the chief hop-growers
and orchardi.sts of Tasmania. Tlie hop-picking
had just commenced, and I had the opportunity of
seeing the whole process of picking, drying, cooling
and dispatching.

r>.flOO busy lingers at work in one paddock, looks
something like business, and what a delightful
outing it must be for the women and children of
Hobart ! The process of picking is simple enough and
a fairly active woman can make her ,os per day easily,
indeed, I'd back Carpie to do more; her nimble,
black fingers would be just in their element amongst
these hops. Splendid hops they are too. I do not for a
moment believe that Kent can produce better, though
it is not easy for an Englishman to overcome a
prejudice— especially, in anything relating to his beer;
and the fact remains, that the price obtained for
the best Tasmanian hops is still considerably under
that for the ordinary home-grown. The soil here is
a very good, rich alluvial, capitally cultivated and
iiTigated. Irrigation is absolutely necessary in this
climate, and by cutting a water-course from the
Styx this has been easily accomplished here, the
arrangement for distributing the water, excellent,
simple and effective. Anyone accustomed to the
management of estates can see at a glance that the
whole system of cultivation here is admirable. The
average yield in a good year is about 15 cwt. dry hops
per acre. The cost of cultivation, say somewhat over
.t;'20. Prices vary tremendously — from '.Id per lb. to
4s Gd. The present prices are not encouraging.
"I based my cultivations on taking over this place
two years ago," said a planter to me, " at '2s per
lb. ; now I am receiving lOd."

The arrangement for drying and cooling the hops
at Bushy Park, are perhaps, the most complete in
Australasia. The system of drying is almost ident-
ically similar to the •' Clerihew " adopted by the
coffee planters of Ceylon '.W years ago. The metal
pipes, the mode of applying the fire is the same;
only the heated air chamber is circular, the floor
revolves, and the fans are at the top of the
builuiiig. Coffee can scarcely be dried too rapidly
whereas luip- must be dried slowly, in or-
der to preserve the essential oil and tougiiness.
This has altogether been a splendid season, and
if a novice in liops may judge from the sample
at Bushy I'ark, Tasmania will more than main-
! tain its reputation for good hops this year. But
' Bushy Park has more than one string to its bow.

848

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

fJWNE I, 1886,

and the extensive orchards were fully more inter-
esting to me than the hop gardens. The season
for small fruits was past, and that for plums,
peaches, and apricots almost over, but enough re-
mained to test the quality, which with soil, climate
and cultivation so perfect could scarcely be other-
wise than first-rate. The rainfall here varies from
19 to 24 inches per annum, and with brilliant sun-
shine nearly all the year round, it need scarcely
be said, irrigation is necessary for heavy bear-
ing trees. Apples are the great stand-by here,
grown upon very small standards which for their
size bear enormously. I was now able to confirm
the estimates I made a few days ago, near Hobart,
»nd find that 450 bushels per acre is a good aver-
age crop, that by keeping the fruits for a few
months, an average price of 7s 6d is readily obtained,
that trees come into full bearing in six years, and
give paying crops fer about 10 years. The
small fruits, such as gooseberry, strawberry, Ac, pro-
ductive as they are, are not so remunerative, owing
to the high price of labour.

I have now said enough of this pretty
paradise, and hive of industry, to show what
may be done under favourable conditions,
but sorry as I would be to discourage those in-
tending to migrate hither, they would do well
to bear in mind that all the best of the land is
already disposed of, that the cost of labour is al-
most prohibitory, and the import duties on necessaries
of life, such, that at present there is little hope
of reducing wages. That with oatmeal at 100 per
cent over home prices, there is little hope of im-
porting labour from Scotland, and with rice at 300
per cent above usual rates, Indian labor is out of
the question. That numerous estates at one time
employing 1.50 to 200 labourers are now worked
with one or two shepherds (this 1 have from what
I consider the best authority in the island), and
as a matter of fact, there are 24,.500 acres less
under crop now than there was 20 years ago, that
the imports and exports per head have declined
from £10 4s, 30 years ago, to £11 9s last year.
Still, all this is, I believe, curable in tim'; and there
must be a bright future in store for an island
BO enriched by nature and advantageously situateJ
as Tasmania, but it will take many a long year
and a very radical change of Government to accom-
plish this ; meanwhile, it remains a delightful sani-
tarium for Australia and India, and mitliinti morf.
In visiting this locality I have a pleasure, apart
from the great privilege of inspecting Bushy Park.
It reminds me I am following in tlie footsteps of two
infinitely better men — valued friends from Ceylon —
who visited the same place seven years ago, and it
is with no small interest and pleasure I listen to the
comments on my friends, who are still favourably
remembered wherever they seem to have touched.
The one is spoken of as " 'Du' Siieciiilixt," the
•ther as " The gonial old gentleman who smoked
the pipe of peace." " I recognize the latter," I would
remark, " dear old fellow I but what is meant by
' The Specialist ' ?," " Well," said one, " no mutter
what subject we broached, this gentleman tiilked
like a very " interesting book, every conceivable
iubjeot eeemfid to have been made a special study
by him ; hence in speaking of him we speak ol the
SptcialiH.' "

Aaici-NCT PljikNTiNO. — The best mode of planting
areoanuts is first to keep the nuts in a vessel of water
for about three weeks, and drain oil the water
and allow the nuts to remain for about a week or so,
when the nutu will begin to sprout ; then take them
out aad plant before the leaves are spread, — Cor.

PLANTING IN NEW DISTRICTS IN CEYLON:

DOWN THE KALUGANGA AND THBOUGH

THE KALCTABA TEA DISTRICT :

DOWN THE UH-ER — THE KAPIDS — NAMBAP.\NR — E.IBLT
PLANTING BLOCKS -SUGAR AND TEA — MR. J. Q. FOBt'8
PURCHASE — 36 BULKS DOWN IN 9i HOURS.

Some of the bends on the Kaluganga are extra-
ordinary for their abruptnets : you see no opening
before you, but rather a landlocked basin, until
you begin to think the boatmen are going to run
you ashore, when instead an opening almost at
right angles to the course you have hitherto pursued,
appears, and you turn ba;k on quite another vista of
this most tortuous and beautiful of Ceylon rivers.
Xt other times we had wide straight reaches and
I was reminded of the splendid St. John's river
of Florida, save for the greater breadth and depth
of the latter and the contrasts presented in the
richer and more varied tropical vegetation festooned
with creepers from the water's edge upwards along
our Ceylon stream, together with the chattering
of monkeys and cooing of birds unknown in
Florida. The Kaluganga (black river) too is true to its
name in its dark waters, while one of the most striking
peculiarities of Florida is the clearness of the
.water, so that tiny objects can be seen at a depth
of 40 to 00 feet with the utmost distinctness.
Kangamoaaganga and Karawitteganga are two
tributaries from the left or south received, and
BalagoUa, Malwilla and Dodampe are some of the
stations passed on the Kaluganga, befere we reached
the first of the well-known rapids. Fortunately
we had sufficient water in the river to make the
passage with no more discomfort than a little
tumbling about of the boat and the shipping of
some dashes of spray. Just enough of sensation
to show the justification for getting out of the
boat and walking on the shores when the water is low
and ' bump, bump' along the inclined rooks is often
the experience of the boatmen. A little later in the full
monsoon, the water will be so high that no rapids
will be perceptible at all. The navigation up the
river either in liigh or low water is a much more
formidable undertaking as the bolts and chains in
the rocks opposite the rapids to help in
warping boats upwards made manifest. At
Idangoda, we had a strong current carrying us along
well and later on we observed some fine jungle
and after the Kurugasmodera station we took
special notice of the fine large tributary to our
river in the Koorooganga entering from the right.
The scarped faces of some of the detached hills
rising from amidst a sea of vegetation pre.sented
a curious contrast and after passing a considerable
river tributary from the left we arrive opposite
Nambapane, the well-known station on the
road between Kalutara and Katnapura which is
always going to be — but never is — finished.

We are now approaching the scene of some of
the earliest attempts at planting settlements in
the Western Province. It was near Nambapane,
or between that point and th<! Perth estate lying
towards Horane, that Sir Wiu. Keid, the old
Domarara planter, early in the Forties, selected
land for sugar, fnr his nephew Mr. C. Shand and the
hitter with Mr. Wm. Ferguson, surveyed 1,"200 acres
in one compact block which was bought from the
Crown at the then upset price of 'is an acre. So
plentiful was the hind and so few the buyers in
those days, that so soon as a pioneer had settled
what he would buy, he began cutting out the
boundaries and indeed, if need be, clearing, before
survey or transfer were completed, it being a point
of honour that no one offered competing bids for
land so selected at its sale. Fortunately for
Mr. Shand, it was proved to his satisfaction on the

June i, ib36.J

laii tRdPiCAL AURIC ULTURi^T.

S4C,

Pcith estate that sugar would not do — the oane
grew, but the succhaiine matter would not crys-
tallize properly in the over-moist climate and
poor soil — before he had need to clear and
plant, and he sold the Nambapaua block to
Messrs. Uibbs Clark & Co. for 10s. an acre. What
has become of this property now, it is hard to
say. unless it be the block in the hands of a
native which it was rumoured lately was to be
trunsferred to a Limited Company, with a view
to the cultivation of tea. On Perth or Etgala.
sugar cultivation and manufacture was continued
by Mr. (iay till after 18(i0, but the result was very
poor Unancially, and now this property is devoted
by its I'r.vsec proprietors (like so many other old
sugar estates in Ceylon) solely to coconuts.

But in this neighbourhood tea has already
made a start, for I heard later on of the
purchase of tine forest land by Mr. J. G. Fort
in rthc neighbourhood of Perth and Horane
siretchiug in fact to the borders of the Sal-
pitty Korale, which after clearing looks very
promising for tea. Although the Kalutara tea
estates are all south of the river, yet there is no
doubt a good deal of land on the Northern or
Colombo side at any rate towards Nambapana which
may be expected to be selected and taken up for tea.

Tlie lowest and most formidable of the rapids is
the Periagalla, and here with the water of the
wide river confined to a narrow passage by
huge masses of rock midstream and with
a really sudden descent, the passage looks like a
aervice of some danger as the waters boil and
surge in small breakers below. But although
tliere is more rocking and spray than at any
. of the other two or three rapids, yet our boat-
men take the matter coolly and we are soon in
smooth water with no further obstacle between us
and Angurantota Perry which — 35 miles from
Uatnapura — we reach about 3 p.m., or within
ten hours of starting. Not bad work considering
there was a good deal of hard pulling over many
miles, that we got aground once or twice, and went
ashore at least once. Of covirse we had breakfast
and titlin with us in the boat from the Uatna-
pura rest-hou;-e. The charge for the boat too was
moderate enough B.5 each or ElO for the 'M
miles. The boatmen had one native passenger
besides wl-.o was going on with them to Kalutara
10 miles chrad and which in conse(]uence of the
greater slowness of the current and indeed the oppo-
sition of the f ea or tidal water, they did not expect
to reach before il or 10 p. m.

The improvement of the navigation of the
Kaluganga has been a problem of long standing,
specially considered by Governors SirHerculesRobin-
son and Sir William Gregory and finally dis-
posed of as an unprofitable work, on which to
spend pubh'c money, I believe, by Mr. .T. F.
Churchill. I refer of course to the blasting of
the rocks and clearing of the rapids on the upper
portion. V-> civil officer ever urged this work
more Btrcim'usly than did Mr. E. N. Atherton
when Assislint Agent at Katnapura in 1>*72-).
Uc got Governor Gregory to travel down the
river and El 0,000 were promised as a bogiiming,
for the purpose of bjasling rocks and widening
the channeh at the rapids; a proper towpath
along the mrrgin of the river was also designed,
with the B) ecial oliject of helping padda boats
upwards which sometimes took a fortnight
between the lirst rapids and Eatnapura — a dix-
tauce nf si.r:een miles ! A mile a day up the
river was indeed slow progress. Mr. Atherton was
very sanguine in those old days that a steam
tug to tow a dozen pada boats between Colombo and
106

Eatnapura and back in 3 days could be got to work
readily and should not cost more than 1118,000.
But nothing came of these and several other
stirring proposals. True the river was surveyed
and levelled with the result that at Eatnapura it
was found to be only 31) feet higher than
at the sea! Twelve years ago with heavy
coffee crops and much prosperity, as much
as El.^0 was paid for a single pada-boat-load
down the river. But later on much of the Irafiio
disappeared. Now that tea is coming on willi ■' a
rush," it may be a question if something should
not be done at any rate on the lower half of the
Kaluganga and Mr. L. Jackson, engineer, says he is
anxious to put a steamer on the river. But there
is also some idea of the GoYcrnniont starling
railway boats (pada) to bring freight to the Kalu-
tara line which would otherwise go all by
the canal to Colombo. How this can be worked is
the trouble ; for water carriage by river and canal
is being made available to the Kalutara estates,
so that for 20 cents a full chest of 100 lb. (Rl-.')0
a ton 1) they can send their tea from their stores
to the Colombo depot ! Not much margin here
for the railway to mike a ju-olH including the
cost of transhipment,— althougli I dare say the
planters would paj a little more for the guarantee
of freedom from tampering on the way.

How little can one realize in an ordinary season
with the water sluggishly moving along, what our
Ceylon rivers are like in time of Hood. In lt<T>
the Ivaluganga rose at Eatnapura 10 feet in the
course of a few hours ! That was on the 8lh-
9th September— the whole town (save the lofty
heights) was submerged and ESO.OOO represenle'd
the damage done. Such a flood is not recorded
before or since at that point and m.ay it not
recur, but it would not do to trust to that chance.
The Eatnapura folk should have their places of re-
fuge ready to flee to.

FRO.M THE KIVKR TO OKEKIVAXAKANDE— LOliD Kl I'KIN-
STONE'S HISTORICAL PKOrEKTY— lOLXKKS ANU KXIfiHT
— " ONE OF nature's gentlemen "— CITIIONELIA
GRASS CULTIVATION AND EXPORTS OF OIL TOR 30 YEARS
— LDiEKlAN COFFEE— THE SINHALESE AM) KXKillT'.S
PAPFR CUKRENCV — TEA PLUCKING IIY SINHALESE — THE
KALUTARA TEA ROLLER AMD LAw's KALUGANGA WORKS.

Starting from the Angurantota Ferry about 3-30
p.m. we had during the course of a four-mile
walk, an opportunity of observing llie nature of
the country to the west of Geekianakanda pro-
perty. The road, a gravelled one, is a continuation
of that from Ilorane ((i miles distant across the ferry)
and goes on through the Pasdum and Wallalawitla
Korales, uphill and down dale after Sir C. 1'. Layard's
usual plan, to Agalawatte and round to Bentota.
The good pasturage and open park-like country
near the river ])rovoked remarks as to the
splendid tea gardens that might be formed on
the flats, though manuring might there become
a necessity. The evidence of advancingeultivationin
coconut and fruit gardens in all stages of growth
along the roadside — showing however, in too many
cases, the common native neglect in promising plants
all choked with weeds and grass — was very observable.
We got to Lord Elpliinstone's citronella grass lieUls
and farther on in time to iinijcct, with Mr. David- on
and Mr. Knight, the 0-acre Hat of tea opened under
Libcrian coffee (which is being gradually taken nul).
This field is close to a vast pit of citronella grass
refuse calculated to contain many thousands of tons of
manure, and manure too wliich evidently suits tlie
tea. Already results from the flat only comparable to
those obtained on Mariawatto, have been
recorded, and nothing could exceed the lino appear-

85*^

tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

fJUNE I,, 1886.

ance anil Hushing of the bushes, now 5 or 6 years
old, when we saw them. We had also time before
dajlight closed to yo over the "orchard " of select
Liberian coft'ee trees which were instrumental
through their wonderful growth and richness of
crop in sending scores, perhaps hundreds, of
visitors during the rush of ten years ago, to buy
land and plant the West African coffee. Even
now, (he trees are a grand sight with their show
of cherries in all stages amidst the laurcl-Iike leaves,
the tree off which two bushels of crop were taken in
one picking season, being not the least noteworthy.
How hard to think of all the capital (at a time
when money could ill be spared) and time and
labour spent over Liberian coiTee. But harder
still is the necessity which now forces the
planter to cut down and dig up, his still splendid-
looking groves of coffee trees. I had not the
opportunity of seeing Patupaulakandc which lies
lower down on the river-side ; but we learn that the
Liberian coffee trees there which when laden with cro|i
excited the admiration of " W. Mck" and induced
BO many more to go in for this new coffee, are
now nearly all superseded by tea, which is
succeeding splendidly. The pity seems to be
that both coffee and tea cannot be left to
flourish together ; but I had repeated evideiiec
on both Gikiyanakande and Oullodcn that al-
though for the first year or 18 months, tlie coffee
may be spared, after that date any patience or
n)cr;y shown to the old product will only be at
the expense of the younger, more vigorous and
more promising rival. If the tea is to grow and
flourish as it ought, there is no escape from it
that out must come the umbrageous groves of
coti'ee.

Gikiyanakande with its 3,230 acres — 5 square
miles — in one compact block, about 14 miles inland
from Kalutara and 3 to 5 south of the Kaluganga,
is undoubtedly one of the historical plantation
J roperties of the island. The land was selected
and reported on, in l.SlO-1, for Messrs. Norris and
Sim by Mr. Wni. Ferguson. It then became the
property ' of Lord Elphinstone at a time when
there was quite a host of Indian civil and
military officers ready to invest in the El Dorado
of Ceylon. The idea on the part of the Lord
Elphinstone, who was then Governor of Bombay,
or of his business managers, was to cultivate sugar,
and this had already been done by them at Paraduwa
on the Matara river — on the property which, after
many years of abandonment, was eventually sold
by Lord Elphinstone to the late Mr. J. W. Home
for his first venture, the cultivation and preparation
of plantain fibre. On Gikiyanakande, a careful
Belection was made of land suitable to cane-growing,
and, besides having a portion cleared and cultivated,
the manager went so far as to take levels from a
stream passing through the property and to erect
a most substantial masonry dam (still to the foi'e
with its native cement of chuuam, blood and
white-o£-egg), in order to be ready for his water-
wheel and extensive sugar machinery. But. fortun-
ately, here as in Mr, Shand's Nambapane, the testing
of me cane took place Lefore further expense was
incurred, and on the report from the Paraduwa
Manager that tlie Kalutara cane yielded little or
no crystalhzed saccharine matter, the atlempt at
sUKar cultivation in Gikiyanakande was given up.
The place then seems to have had nothing done on it
for a number of years. But on Capt. Klphinstoiie,
li.N., succrcding to the title and property .is Lord
Filplili Bt lie (l")th Baron) in ISdl, lie expressed a
desire to utilize his land in Ceylon. Through a
iclative in England this wish reached two young
Englishmen resident in Cape Colony, who. after 11
8 arie' bojourn in the Weiatern Province there, had been

drawn together by the fact that each had lost a brother
in the place, while both were anxious to try their
fortunes in a new land. Accordingly Messrs. S. W.
Foulkesand C. Knight shipped from the Cape to
Ceylon, the Eldorado in those days of coffee, fully ex-
pecting that Lord Elphinstone's big block was well-
titted the staple for cultivation. They had difficulty
at first in learning where the property was situated,
and no wonder, for the story runs that the Agency
had been for a good many years held by a Galle Firm
who, for the life of them, could not tell the noble
lord where his Gikiyanakande estate was to be
found I But on being discovered, some time in the early
" sixties," by the Cape colonists, they were naturally
disappointed to find that coffee (Arabica) was out
of the question and they were nearly falling in
with a proposal of Mr, J. T. White of Messrs.
Murray, Robertson & Co., to whom they had
letters, to take places as Superintendents of coffee
estates on the hills. However, they visited Gikiyana-
kande, found that Sinhalese labour could be com-
manded and that there was room for developing an
industry in growing citronclla grass, the expressing
of the oil leaving a good profit at the then hand-
some prices and limited competition. Not anxious to
be separated w ith the strong tics subsisting between
them, Messrs. Eoulkes and Knight were well con-
tent to give up their more brilliant prospects in
the hill country and to settle down to hardwork
and a lonely out-of-the-way life in the Raygam
Korale ; and to make a long story short, for well-
nigh twenty years they continued to devote their
close attention to the industry they had made their
own, pbrnting up some 700 to HOO acres alongside
the district road which ran through the property, with
the fragrant grass, and struggling on against unpropi-
tious times and lowering prices. The first roots of
the grass put in were got from the neighbourhood
of Galle and the further cultivation and extension
took place very much after the fashion of Guinea
grass. A good crop can be counted on within a
year after planting ; but the great difficulty arose
out of the wonderful uncertainty of the prices.
The development of our export trade in essential
or grass (Citronella, Lemon and other grass) oils
may be judged from the following statistics taken
from our " Handbook "; —

Essential Oils : Export of, from Ceylon.

Quantity . .
Value (Customs) . .

IS.™.

Oz. 13.S,78.i

£8,238

1S150. 18fi3.

388,411 471,(i21

li,i)83 6,732

1870. 1880. 1881.

Quantity .. . .Oz. l,ll!l,ti-2-2 l,3(il,780 4,800,228
Value (Customs) . . l'10,018 20,13<) 37,tH)8

The enormous development of export in oiiiurg of
recent years, is not due to a parallel extension of
cultivation or to some new process of extracting
more oil from existing grass, but as might almost
be judged from the valuation, to a means dis-
covered ill Colombo and Galle— as current report
goes— of mixing the pure Citronella oil with inferior
stuff, it is even said with imported kerosene (I),
after a fashion that prevents detection. Whether
that be the case or not, it is certain that Messrs,
Foulker and Knight had nothing but the genuine
article to depend on, and that 'they made very little
profit for proprietor or lessees. The era of " new
products " too had arrived and Lord Elphinstone
determined to develop on his own account, so that
a few years ago, Mr. Foulkes proceeded to South
Australia where we regret to say, fortune as yet,
has scarcely smiled on him, while Mr. Knight
continued in charge of the Citronclla grass division
I'lUO acrcG are still cropped- of the Qeekiana-
kande property and the dif' illation.

June i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

85 1

Tlie distilling is done alter a very inexpensive
simple fashion, the chief outlay being for firewood,
tlie men employed about the still being paid by
results while the oil passes under lock and key to
the store-room from the still. I was glad to meet
and make the actjuaintance of a 22-yeiirs Colonist
in Mr. Knight, 30 years away from his native Devon-
shire, and still full of life, good spirits and
good health : —

One of uature's gentlemen,
as he has well been called by a member of the
Civil Service. Universally respected by all who
have met him — successive Assistant Agents and
Magistrates especially — Mr. Knight has laid the
tea-planters of the Kalutara district under a lasting
debt of gratitude to him, by the trust and
good feeling he has inspired among the
natives, by his uniform considerate, patient
and honourable treatment of the Sinhalese people
in his district. " The Sinhalese here will do any-
thing for Knight" is the opinion we found expressed
in successive bungalows. They all look up to him
and trust him far more than any Ciovernment
.servant or any Rajah that ever came to the place.
A curious illustration of this fact is found iu
" Knight's Paper Money" which circulates in the
korale and is more readily received perhaps than
the Government notes ! This has orignated in a very
simple manner. There is nothing the Sinhalese are
fonder of than of getting ready cash for any work
they choose to do. Unlike the Tamil coolies, they do
not at all like long accounts, or to have their money
kept against advances in rice in the hands of their
cniployers for months together. Contract jobs with
liberty to do the work at their own hours and
prompt settlement on completion, form the key to
the successful employment of Sinhalese on plant-
ations, and it is of the greatest importance to
tea planters in the lowcountry districts who will
have to depend so much on Sinhalese labour, to study
their character and to take the utmost pains (after
Mr. Knight's example) not to prejudice a people
who having their own bits of land in their own
country will not submit to treatment they deem
in any way unfair or even brusque, but who, if
humoured, are likely to afford most valuable assist-
ance in the tea industry. Mr. Knight's plan of
dealing with the Sinhalese was by means of small
chits or tickets, the amount whether 10, 25, 'lO
or 75 cents or Rl or upwards being marked on
eaclt with the date on which they must be presented
for exchange for specie. It was manifestly impossible
to keep a supply of money for the frequent pay-
ments required by Sinhalese grass and tirewood cut-
ters and the many other workers on Geekiyanakanda,
and accordingly the " tundu " system was adopted
and the surrrounding villagers from finding that
the Englishman's paper and promise to pay on
a given date were as certain as anything
within their experience, began to do business
among themselves with the same, the butique-
kcepers being quite ready to give full value for
the Geekiyanakande paper notes ! Had Mr. Knight
once failed in his promise to pay on a given day,
bU confidence would have been at an end ; for as
was well said to me by a planter in the district,
a Sinhalese carpenter or labourer will make a
dozen journeys if need be, day after day, to get
from you a balance of even .sd. if due — not counting
the time wasted as anytliing— but after any such
experience or a failure to pay as promised, he will
never except under dire necessity, trust or work
(or that careless offending employer again.

Another very practical illustration of Mr. Knight's
inlluiiicc over the Sinhalese people about him
was lately afforded in his clearing with their aid
a large block of forest for a Colombo merchant

at some distance across the river— felling, burning,
clearing ready for planting in so short a time as the
owner deemed wellnigh incredible. Of course Gee-
kiyanakande is always well supplied with Sinhalese
labour and the people look to the bungalow for
medicine and especially quinine, during the preval-
ence ot fever. 'The past has been one of the
driest seasons in Mr. Knight's experience and con-
sequently when the rains commenced, fever becamo
very preialcnt.j When Mr. Knight first erected a
rain-gauge and explained its purpose, an intpllig-
ent agriculturist thought it of little use unless it
brought or foretold rain when required ; but the
counnon people to this day believe that the weather
projihet lives on Geekiyanakande and when anxious
about tlicir fields, they arc very ready to try and
draw from their " prophet " when Iw looks for
rain !

It will be judged from all this, that our
visit to (ieekiyanakande was full of interest: the
property itself witli its undulating gras.sy and tea
(ields, or grove-like coffee and tea divisions
afforded much food for reflection. The main tea
valley opened on soil that certainly looked very
IVrruginons and Ambagannialike in many parts,
showed a most vigorous growth of the young tea
plants and " good strong liqnor " may be expected
from trees {.rowing amidst lateritc and ironstoie.
The best part of the forest and richest soil on Lord
Klpliinstone's property are said to be unopened —
"untouched as yet. so that thiTO is room for tlie expan-
..ion of tea by perhaps 1,000 or 1,500 acres if the 250
acres now cultivated, warrant that operation. Mr.
L. W. Davidson in charge ol the tea is very
strong on the superiority of Sinhalese to Tamil
labour, more especially in tea plucking in which
he says Sinhalese women and children excel, and
this we believe is the experience of other planters
in the district. With an abundant Sinhalese
population ready to aid the planter — very much
owing to their experience of Mr. Kniglit who
ought to be made Labour Superintendent generally
--the KaUitara district in the struggle just ap-
proaching ought to have a great advantage over
many upcountry districts. .A.nd there are several
other decided advantages to which we shall refer
later on.

Tea preparation is, so far, conducted after a
primitive fashion on nearly all the Kalutara es-
tates in bearing ; but we had evidence in Geekiyan-
kaude that there is still another Roller to com-
pete-with the .Jackson's, Thompson's, Barber's,
Kerr's and Frater's — one for which thorough rolling
and twisting of the leaf, with economy in first cost,
and cheapness in working are claimed. No moro
need be said until the patent is announced, although
it is evident from all we he;'.rd that in Mr. .7. R.
K. Law of the Kaluganga Works, the Kalutara district
has a mechanical genius inferior to none in the island.

TIIK KAI,IITAli\ TEK ESTATES EXTENIUNO I'llOM THE
KAtAKlANOA TO THE BENTOTA IlIVKIl — AliUNriANOK
STILL OF OOOD LANn — THE OLDER OliOUP OF ESTATES
— MAKIXO TEA UNDEll IIIEFICULLIES-TUK nKALTU OK
TUK nIHTlilCT — ITS GREAT ADVANTAOEi: IN (IIKAP
LAIiOUH A.NI) TllANSPOnr FACILITIES — 50,000 AlKES np

ooon ti:a laxk said to be a\ aii.ahle al'-'ooetheu.

The Geekiyanakande property lie: . : we have
described, to the North of the main portion of tho
Kalutara Terf District; but there is one outlying
tea garden on a tributary of the Kaluganga still
farther North. It is called Ossington and belongs
to Mr. E. II. Koelman, 75 acres being opened
out ot a block of ll>2 acres. .\way again to the
North-east along the .Agalawatte road and in a
direction where, on the authority of such com

§52

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886,

;)etent residents as Mr. Eobt. Morison (Chairman
!.f tlie Kalutara Planters' Association) and JMr.
I'ocbar, lies some of the best land in the prov-
i:ice, — is found Mr. Shelton Agar's investment
called Horagoda-Mukalane, 42(i acres, liO of which are
ujjened. This is situated a good few (perhaps 12) miles
larther from the river than the main cluster of Kalii-
Lara estates, hut there is a capital road all the way,
'abour_ is abundant and cheap, and the soil is
pronounced if anything above the average of the
uUlcr estates. Farther to the South, inland from
Bentota, but still North of the river so as to be in
the Kalutara district or revenue division, lies Peliya-
goda of 270 acres, 100 of which liave been cleared
leady for tea this present season. This is
known as " Wardrop and Watson's land" and the
- oil and lay of the clearing are said to be all that
iould be desired, while, although Tamil coolies
.lave been employed by the superintendent, Mr. F. W,
Poppenbeel: to do tlie main portion of tlie
work, lowcaste Sinhalese women have been found
to work readily at weeding for a Tamil Kangani
who had won the villagers' favour, his Tamil wife
superintending the gang of Sinhalese we'^ders.
Sinhalese men of better caste readily take con-
tracts for road cutting and draining and they appear
111 be much interested in learning the mysteries
"[ lining, pegging and holing for tea under Mr.
I'oppenbeek's direction. T)ie benefit conferred on
the poorer class of Sinhalese in these inland
Western districts by the work and money intro-
duced by the tea planters is incalculable, and apart
from a larger consumption of food, we may ex-
pect thousands of the people to manifest an interest
iu " Manchester goods " and " IJrunnnagen wares "
.as time rolls on, in a way which cannot fail to cheer
llie .spirits of the Biitish merchant !

Having travelled so far afield, we must now
return to the Kalutara Tea District proper, but
first a glance at the map will shew that already
the Kalutara revenue district has been regularly
entered on at all points by tea planters and it
only remains for the Government to throw into
the market the good lands in the neighbourhood
of Agalawatte and Horagode, not to speak of the
forestland up the rivers, in order to secure very
animated competition and good prices. The story in
the district is that further sales would have come off
before now save for a controversy started by the
;iHi'/.ii Assistant Agent who wished to override the
Surveyor-General and have his own way about
cutting up the forest into blocks of 100 acr^ or
thereabouts. Be this as it may, we have the
assurance of competent authorities that better
jiriccs are likely to be paid for blocks of three or
four limes that area, which would enable capitalists
to open plantations sullicient for one charge on which
they could pay a really good salary to men whose
labour in a hot lowcountry deserves a fair reward.

Bat we might go even farther afield in describ-
ing the extent to which planting' operations have
extended along our Western Coast, only that
in crossing the Bentota river we get into a new
province and to ramifications which extend to
Matara on the one side and the Morowa Korale
on the other. Our pre.-ent duty is rather to dispose
of the Kalutara Tea district. How refreshing after
a hot day's occuaption, long jouruoying or estate
walks in this lowcountry, is the warm bath, the
cheerful evening meal with its

feast of reason and How of soul,—
and the interchange of reminiscences of days gone
by from the comfortalile inside of a long arm-chair !
Unly more enlivening are the early tea and morning
sLmt, after a good night's rest, such as we hail
before leaving Geekiyanal.aiule on foot through the
several tea clearings, the Hat subject to llouds, the

slope with the best jat, and so through the
old sugarcane fields, on our way to Culloden.
From the Geekiyanakande valley glimpses can be
got of some of the clearings of Hogart — the new
name given to the property of Messrs. F. D. Mitchell
and Mackay. But our morning walk first brings
us to the foot of Dean Park, a very promising
clearing of Messrs. Robertson, Hendry and David-
son with a desirable lay of land. Beyond it to
the east lies this now extensive property of Rogart
of 770 acres, of which 200 acres in tea are well ad-
vanced, and 200 more will probably be planted this
season. Right in front rise the heights of Culloden
the most extensive estate in the district, next to
Geekiyanakande, with 450 acres planted out of 1,100.
This is the property of Messrs. DufI and Leech-
man, and was one of the earliest and mo.-t successful
scenes of Liberian cofJ'ee cultivation, the well-
grown apparently flourishing trees being only linally
condemned this season. The difference between
tea in the open and tea within the shading or root
influence of the coffee at once justifies this decision,
hard as it may be to sacrifice a product to whicli
so much attention was at one time given. Cul-
loden has the largest area under tea in the district
and it also affords the means of judging of the
product in a variety of situations from the easily
undulating forest valley to the gently sloping hill-
side, and from rich alluvial flats (owile) reclaimed
by deep drainage, (the land in fact suitable tor
paddy) to as steep and rocky eminences as can bo
found in the Central Province. Culloden is in the
care of one of the best planters in the country,
Mr. K. Morison, the local "Chairman,'' a gentle-
man esteemed and liked by all, and who in Kot-
male, Dimbula, Morawak Korale, Hunasgiriya and
several other districts has, during the past twenty
years, seen as much of the vicissitudes of pUnting
in its various phases as most men. His hospit-
able bungalow is .">00 feet above sea level, — the
highest inhabited point in the Kalutara division of
the island we suppose — and the climb up from the
(hits after the sun rises and heats the massive
numerous boulders on the hillside, is a caution.
More particularly will this be the case if the un-
wary visitor follows the invitation of the Manager,
after a morning walk from Geeka, to come " along
the flat " meaning the path through a decidedly
rocky up and down field to the store before ascending
to the heights; but there is one advantage gained in
tliat, this enables a capital idea to be got of the
different portions under cultivation. Nothing can
be finer than the tea in the valleys and on the flats,
but very vigorous also to our idea was the growth
all the way up the hill side. Passing through a part
of the Torwood property of Messrs. Ruthei'ford,
Tod and Mackay, where Mr. Cochar's pluckers
were busy at work, we had tiuie to notice the even
nicelooking tea on this fine property. It is absurd
to see the shifts to which some of the Kalutara tea
planters with large areas in bearing are put for
the preparation of their leaf as compared with
the style in which )na<hinery is lavished on brand
new estates in other parts of tli" country. Verily,
the proprietors ' ca' canny ' in Kalutara and per-
haps they are right until a little more light is
seen through the great contest of rival macliinisls
and machines. But in the meantime such Kalutara
managers are undoubtedly placed at a considerable
disadvantage. To pass for instance from Maria-
watte or KadawcUe with their magnificent factories—
withering room ad Vihitnm and array of machinery
Ci|uul to a big factory, -to Culloden, or Rogart or
Geekiyanakande, is to run from the most artificial
and advanced to the most primitive mode of work-
ing. But this will no doubt be remedied eieloiig.
lieingouly 10 to 12 miles inland, there arc from Cul-

JUME I, 1886,]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

■^53

Icxlen and several other buii'jalow heights in this
district, the most cheering and cliarninig views of
our Western sea-coast imaginable. Over an
almost unbroken sea of forest — much of it in
reality, cultivated trees, palms, <tc. — the blue water
line, or in the monsoon season, the line of
reefbreakers (white horses galloping inwards)
is readily marked and every passing stoftmir
and other vessel can be noted. From some
points, notably Torwood, the forest is broken by
stretches of paddy fields; — pictures of living green
framed in the sombre forest.

One can understand from these heights how
Kalutnra planters regard the common talk of
their district being hot and unhealthy -because
in the low-country, as so nuich nonsense. Hot
it can be undoubtedly, especially on rocky land
and enclosed Hats towards the afternoon, when the
sun has done his worst. But unhealthy never. The
pure unadulterated sea-breeze comes far inland across
the Kalutara district : the river not far off creates
a current of pure air and he.alth is maintained
among Europeans.as well perhaps as in most districts
in the country. Mr. Kniglit with .his '22 years of
good health is ample evidence and among the tea-
planters there are men who have been 5 and G
years opening clearings and planting and who have
scarcely known fever or ache. This is not the
uniform rule of course ; but Kalutara can certainly
claim to be a healthy part for the planter. The
great point is to get the major portion and tlie
real hard out-door work done in the early morn-
ing and forenoon as much as possible.

Beyond Kogart, lies Polgahakande, a tine block
of 2ir> acres belonging to Messrs. Wight and
I'airweather of which 160 acres ai-e under tea.
Clontarf is a young promising clearing in the
same neighbourhood and not far off is the es-
tablished garden of Heatherley with 200 acres of
fine tea nnder the care of Mr. Algie who also
looks after Mr. Hadden's Hattaugalla, south of
CuUoden. Away to the Eastward is also Arabe-
tenne under the care of Mr. Cochar (as well as
Bogart and Torwood) and in this neighbourhood
is situated a good deal of the 500 acres of forest-
land purchased by tlic son of the wellkhown and
wealthy " Johanis Peries Ks(j.'' of Colombo. A part
01 this is said to have just been sold to the
Messrs. Slrachan at a rate which has not trans-
pired. We were son^ to have no time to go and sec
Arapolakande estate belonging to the Ceylon Co. Limi-
ted, ^aid to have over 200 acres of as fine tea as any
in the district, but which has this year suffered
from an ill-limed pruning. Cruric and Ulendon
(formerly l-'crriu uish) in the same neighbourhood
have good tea, and the purchasers of the latter,
the Messrs. Booth, are well pleased enough to
meditate c.-ctending their investments. Travelling
from Culloden to Kalutara, on foot or horseback for the
first few miles, one sees something of Becherton, St.
Andrew's and Ensalwatte properties with promising
tea, especially on the flats, while farther back lie I'ul-
larton and Kaluganga estates. Altogether the .^,000
acies opened out of 11,000 acres in private hands in the
Kalutara district, afford good promise of satisfactory
returns to the owners. It is, of course, the day
of small things so far, iu respect of the outturn of
crop, most of the clearings being under age ;
but, while the older Kelani Valley plantations (of
ll.OdO acres out of a total of 1!),000) are giving
crops this year estimated at 1 million lb., we
suppose the outtnrn for Kalutara district will not
be much under 250,000 lb.

Talking of these two young tea districts, it is
evident there is a good deal of rivalry, or at any
rate an exchange of a plentiful amount of criticism
aod banter between them. One story current (

as to the decided opinions expressed to a iiew
arrival seeking for information, on the merits of the
two districts by two V. .\.'s, the one pronouncing
very decidedly for Kalutara, the other as much
so, for Kelaniya. The enquirer was puzzled until
he found that each owned property in the district
he backed up ; but surely that went to shew
that each had given lire best proof of his
faith in his Own opinion. At tlie same time the
Kalutara patriots point to the fact that men of
experience in the Kelaniya Valley are fond of
coming down and investing iu the Kalutara dis-
trict and they point to Mr. Kuthcrford and still
more to Messrs. Wright, Pairweather, and Dawson in
support of this view. The greatest doubt perhaps
i-i about the comparative values of the soils, and per-
haps, it would be decided by impartial autliority
that taking the district as a whole the Kelani
Valley has the superior soil, although there ai-e
selections in Kalutara equal to anything in its
rival. As for climate there is not much to choose :
both must have an abnnilancu of rain and heat.
But in two other important miitters, tlie palm
nuist in our opinion decidedly lie with Kalutai-a.
namely in abundance and cheapness of labour,
and in cheap transport facilities. Enough has
been said about the advantage of Sinhalese
labour, and what Jlr. Knight has done should
be counted equal to lUO an acre by Kalutara
pureliasers ! But in regard to transport facilities,
there are few districts so well-served by roads
canals and rivers iis that of Kalutara. There are
a few miles of connecting road remaining to he
cut and then the road system will be almost
perfect both for Europeans and natives. But apart
from this under the auspices of Mr. Morison
of Culloden, an old Dutch Canal is being cleared
out leading from the Kaluganga right into
the heart of the principal group of estates
— the authorities giving KIOOO against a simi-
lar amount raised in the district — and when
this work is done, pada boats will take away the
Kalutara tea at a total cost of 20 cents per 100 lb
c!)est between the estates and Colombo, and if the
Railway authorities work for the same rate with a boat
of their own to their terminus, this district getting
its tea to Colombo wharf at about R5 per ton, will
certainly be the best off' of any in the island.

So much for the present. We have said that
there are between 11,000 and 12,000 acres already
taken up by private proprietors for planting pur-
poses in the Kalutara district. But we are
credibly informed that the total area of land
suitable for tea and which would easily find
purchasers, cannot be less than .50,000 acres
situated between the Kaluganga and Bentota
river. The prospect of expansion is therefore very
considerable, until possibly Kalutara becomes one of
the mobt important tea-planting divisions of the
island. Meantime for any one with three or four
days to spare we can recommend no more pleas-
ant trip or way of seeing the country than the
route we adopted- -to liatnapura by coach, dcvn
the river to Augurantota (or Putupaulakande), in-
land to Gekeeuaka .do and Culloden and tiienco
after seehig the principal estates on loot or horse-
back, to the end of the cart road on which a
drive of xveii or eight miles carries the visitor
back to Kalutaia railway terminus. We found the
agriculturists very busy witli their pad ly fields as
we travelled eeastwards, and we were struck on this
journey, as on several others of late years, with the
way in which the Moormen (IradcTs) are lilling up
the houses not only in the coast towns, but on
the roadsides (or considerable distances inland.
Do they chicHy live by preying— as moneylenders (ind
universal traders — on llie .Sinhalese ?

854

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886,

Indian Tea Phospfxts. — Prospects are reported to
h»vo sliglitly imjiroved iu the tea itistricis, a fair
quautiiy of rain kaviug fallen in Kachar and Assam,
although more W"uld be still acceptable. There has
also been rain iu Darjiling, and the .gardens in that
district are generally doing well, except where damafire
has been done by hail. Some rain has also fallen in
the Terai and the Dooars, hut more is still wanted.
No public sale has yet been held, as only about l,50O
chests have arrived in t'alcutta, the greater part of
which was sent forward to London. An invoice of
OS psckages from the Spring Side Tea Oompauy,
Limited, was sold privately last week at an avei;i.;^i- of
ten annas six pies per pound against an average of
eleven annas four pies for the first invoice last year
sold about the same time, and of very similar quality.
— Ptoneefj May 7th.

The Alleged Deteriokation op Ceylon Teas
AND YorNu .4ND Old ESTATES. — It Cannot certainly
be that any deterioration found in Ceylon teas
can be attributed to the states getting older, for
by far the larger proportion of the teas must be
maiden crops. Mr. Sharpe of Calcutta said the
other day what is very true, that in a falling tea
market (and we well know how the same has often
been experienced in respect of coffee) fault is al-
ways found with the teas. But as a proof that
any deterioration is not due to estates losing their
first " bloom," we are told how some of the oldest
estates in Assam gave the very best teas they
ever turned out (from their old fields) last season,
and how London Tea authorities confessed the
said teas were as good as they could wish for. —
Since writing the above, we have received the
letter from Messrs. Geo. White & Co. published
elsewhere, and which we commend to the atten-
tion of tea-plan ters.

Good News for Coffee Planters. — Every year
when coffee is prepared for shipment, they
separate the pulp from the seed, or rather
the pulp that covers the seeds. That pulp which
is thrown away and so wasted contains sullicient
saccharine matter to become fermented and to give
by distillation a kind of spirit or brandy which
cartainly could he utilised and give a good return.
Experiments made in Pondicherry, by the Govern-
ment botanist, have given such good results that
we have the pleasure of calling the attention of
the coffee-planters to that new source of revenue
which might repay thom a part of the expenses
of management, if not giving them a large profit.
Such large quantity of pulp is thrown awayevery
year that the way of turning it into money must
be welcome. The Pondicherry botanist, Monsieur
J. Kaymand, has made his first expernient on 10
quarts of saccharine juice, and has obtained 1">0
grammes or more than J lb. of good alcohol of
in deg. centigrade proof. That first experiment
gives a return proportionate of one and half per
cent. This result may appear small, but we must
remember that small rivulets make rivers, and
working on a large scale may give results quite
worth the serious attention of the planters. —
Madras Stamhird.

A New Dr.viNO Machine. — Notices of drying
machines are so thoroughly at home in these
columns that no excuse is necessary for describing
that lately constructed by Messrs. Thomas ISana-
clough iV- Co., Limited, of Manchester, although
in this case its original purpose was for drying
librous and general materials rather than tea.
The aim of this apparatus is to obtain the greatest
amount of drying capacity with the least expenditure
of power and fuel lor heating, by the passing
through the machine of rcrij kiiiir quantities of dry
warm air freely, so that immediately it becomes
impregnated with moisture it passes out of the

machine, and makes way for a fresh supply of dry
air. The exhauster is of great power, and supplies
a simple means for removing large volumes of air
quickly and cheaply, and the heating apparatus
enables large volumes of air to be dried and warmed
for use in the chamber. The exhausters used in
connection with these machines vary in size, say,
from 24 inches to 48 inches diameter, according
to the size of the drying machine ; each indicated
horsepower applied in driving these exhausters has
been proved by repeated practical experiments to be
capable of moving l.'),000 cubic feet of air per
minute, as compared with 2,000 cubic feet moved
under the like conditions by a fan. — H. d- C. Mail.

Plantino in Johore.— Our correspondent now in
the Far East writes us : — .\s a rider to my letter
on Johore, I may mention that ilr. McGregor
Smith, of Hong Kong, has just had his concession
for 70,000 acres of land in Johore renewed. The
giant had expired last November, but has been
revived. The large tract of land, which is situated
on the upper parts of the Johore and Muar Rivers,
has been granted free, Mr. Smith only having to
pay the survey fees. These, however, amount to
the respectable sum of $20,000, and pertain to Mr.
Garland, the State Surveyor. $7,000 have already
been paid, and the survey is to be commenced im-
mediately. Speculation is rife as to who is pro-
viding the money for the considerable outlay that
will be required to work even a small part of
the large concession, which is to be planted with
coffee and sugar. Mr. Gibson, formerly of Ceylon,
and who has been some time in Johore, has been
engaged as manager. Report also his it that a
company is very soon to be brought out in London
to purchase Mr. Watson's estates. It is proposed
to carry on the riOO acres of Liberian coffee already
planted, and the balance of the 1,278 acres will
be devoted to cultivating Rheea (China grass) and
otlier fibrous plants, which will be treated after Mr.
Death's recently invented process, I would hope
that the China people who unfortunately, have been
■' caught " in .Johore, will not relinquish the field.
They have not been on tlie right tract before, but
there are many projects which are worth cultivat-
ing and in which there is money. — /.. (('■ ('. K.vprei-'.

Tea Machinery. — The planting community is
indebted to " Peppercorn " for drawing forth an
interesting letter from proprietors of the " Colombo
Iron Works": the chief, indeed, only complete,
Iron Works in the island. Notwithstanding the
criticism of " Peppercorn's " idea, we quite agree with
him that a Show-Rooni in which all the machines
— good, bad and indifferent — connected with Tea
Preparation can be seen and compared under one
roof, will erelong become a necessity. It is scarcely
jierhaps to be expected that any one private firm
should undertake this Exhibition ; but it may be
well worth the consideration of the Planters'
Association, whether its Committee should not
arrange for some such Show-Room to which paten-
tees might be invited to send specimen machines,
and where all could be seen under impartial aus-
pices. As the Tea Industry becomes the power in
the land which we expect it to be. there may
be full scope and means lor the P. A. to do what
we suggest, although it may seem premature just at
present. — As regards letters aiul newspaper notices
of new inventions, it has always been our piactice
as that of leading journals all over the world, to
notice and encourage new inventions up to a certain
point, and. perhaps, no Tea machinery received
more attention or notice in the Indian and Ceylon
Press than " Jackson's " patents up to the time
when their fitness for their work became fully
established in public esteem.

June i, 1886]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURI.'^'^

«55

$oiTi3spnnilence.

To the Editor of l/i,- " Cciilon Ohsn-t'tr"

FALLING OFF IN CEYLON TEAS IN THE
LONDON MAKKET.

2, Great Tower Street, London, 22nd April 1880.

Dkak Sir., — Wlien those of jour readers interested
in Ceylon Tea are no tloubt picturing to themselves
a glowing future for that article, it may seem
rather ungracious, at hrst sight, to hint at the
possibility of their hopes not being realized. We
think, however, as wishing to be the true friends
of planters, it is impossible to shut one's eyes
to the fact that the majority of recent arrivals
is not what it used to be, and by your permission,
we should like to call the serious attention of
managers of estates to this fact.

The falling-o£f in cjuality may not be so conspicuous
in shipments coming later, as in those made after tlie
prunings, which have come to hand during the past
few weeks. We ho]ie this may be so. But at pre-
sent there appears some danger of Ceylon tea not
maintaining the high place it has won in public
esteem. Complaints reach us of many of the teas
being burnt, thin in cup, and lacking the richness
for which they are justly prized. We would urge
upon planters not to go on the principle of "rest
and be thankful." It does not do in these times
of lierce competition. India will increase hev out-
turn this year as well as Ceylon, while, despise
China as some people will, we do not yet know
what she is capable of when driven to tight for
the existence of her tea trade. These circumstances
combined point to a large increase in the total
supply, and consequently to the probability of a
lower general average than has hitherto been ob-
tajned for all tea. Ceylon need not fear, how-
ever, if she can send us teas like those which
first made a name for her produce — rich, good
liquoring, and free from burntness. If planters
would try how their own teas drink, we think they
might easily remedy many of the defects referred to.
—We are, dear sir, yours faithfully,

GEO. WHITE & Co.

GERMINATION OF LONG-KEPT SEEDS.

Nawalapitiya, 10th May 188f;.

Deai! .Sin,— In December 187'.l I received some
seeds of the Alhizzia moluccaua from .Java, and
at the time sowed some of it which are now fine
large trees. Finding some of the same seed, which
has been in my desk drawer since 18711, a few
days ago. Out of curiosity to see if it would ger-
minate after being kept .50 long, I last week
treated the seed with hot water and put it in a
bo.\ of mould, and to my surprise this morning I
see several of the seeds have germinated.

It may be of some interest to your readers to
know how long the seed of some trees will keep
good and perhaps they will be good enough to
give their experience — Vours faithfully,

V. W. NEATE.

RIVAL TEA MACHINES AND THE PLANTING

COMMUNITY.

Colombo Iron Works, Colombo, l.Uli May Ikhi;.

Dkaii Sins,— We always read your articles by

;' Peppercorn." They are usually more or less

instructive— always amusing -but the writer \n

last night's article lia., clearly gut beynud his depth

wbeu writint on the bubject of tea machinery

"Peppercorn" hints that "such a firm as Messrs.
Walker it Co." should have a showroom where
all the ditTerent tea machines could be exhibited
as they are brought out; but will he get the
owners of the different machines to see it in llio
same light? If so let him introduce them to us
and we will be ready to treat with them for the
exhibition of their machines.

The following remarks by " Peppercorn" arc
simply absurd:— "Of those who sell not one seems
to be free; all appear to be bound down to sell
or expose for sale one particular make or the
machines of one particular maker."

So far as we are ourselves concerned
these statements are not correct. Besides Jackson's
machines, (and until we find something better we
shall give them the preference over all others
where our opinion is asked), we have several
machines belonging to other patentees. Last week
we had the pleasure of selling a Gore's " Sifter"
and »here is always one of these machines on
view at our place. Two mouths ago we turned
out (i of Gilruth's "Packers." Two days ago we
accepted the agency for a new machine called
Parry's " Tea Press" of which full particulars
will be advertised in due course, as we do not
wish (like some of your correspondents, Mr. Editor),
to get an advertisement cheap under cover of a
letter.

Finally we arc at the present moment in cor-
respondence with the patentees of two Tea Rollers
regarding the manufacture of their machines by us.

In deciding whether we will take up any new
machine the following points guide us : —

(1) Is the machine really one of utility and
likely to be in demand ?

(2) Will its out-turn be creditable to us as
manufacturers ?

(3) Is it clear of all existing patents ?

(4) Will it pay?

Give us these points and we will make any
machine " Peppercorn " can put in our way. We
trust, we have now written enough to show that
the above remarks from the "Gup" to which we
have specially drawn attention, are not applicable
at any rate to JOHN WALKER & Co.

ON HORSE SHOEING IN CEYLON.
Deau Sib,— J wish to enlist your interest on
behalf of our faithful servants, our horses, and to
point out to you some of the faults committed by
the artizans to whom are entrusted the shoeing.
Horse-shoeing as a rule gets very little attention
paid to It, and yet, unless the propellers are sound,
the general health is of little service. The subject
of shoeing meets with a great deal of prejudice,
and the farriers attribute anything that goes wrong
in the animal economy, to everything but the evil
results of their own work, and in this country it is
very difficult to explain to the native workman
why one method is good and another bad. Of course
there are many good, and intelligent farriers, and
this letter will not apply to them. I will now i^roceed
to detail the process of shoeing carried on in forges
to which this letter docs apply, and afterwards point
out to you, dear sir, wherein the faults occur.

Our horse requires shoeing. - The old shoes afo
taken off, the farrier takes his knife, and ijarcs
n way the solo of the foot quite thiii, and hollow, then
slices the frog into a small neat shape, and oiipms
out the bars, near the heels, to give the foot a nice
wide appearance.— He then shapes a shoe and
when cold applies it to the foot with six nails-
but the edges of the liorn project all around the iron'
so he rai.p.. tlit- horn, and the nail clenches at the
•same time, nice and even, to the dimeneione oi

856

THE TROPICAL AGl^fCULTURlST.

[JUNt I, 1886.

the shoe, and the operation is well, and to his
satisfaction, completed. The following month the
same pi?rforman3e is gone through.

In a .state of nature, the wall, the sole, and tlio
frog each bear their proportion of weight, and wenr;
but with continuous work, on hard roads, the wear
is too great, and an iron protection is necessary ;
but, why cut, or rasp away any part of the hoof,
except the wall, and the outer edge of the sole just
enough to afford a good bearing for the shoe, and
low enough, so that when a moderately thin shoe
is applied the frog will sustain beneficial pressure,
and wear, and it the shoe be made the size of the
hoot, and fitted on red hot for about three seconds,
to ensure a close union, and when gradually cooled,
nailed on with five nails, the ends being pulled
upwards, and then bent downwards and twisted off,
about one-eighth of an inch from the hoof, and the
clenches laid down evenly on the outside of the hoof ;
then no rasping is necessary, and the oil-conducting
fibres are not severed, and the horn at the liaso
of the hoof is strong, elastic, and durable.

bhod in this maimer, in the event of casting a
shoe on a journey, there will be no inconvenience to
the horse until a new shoe can be fitted. A liorse
that has had his feet mutilated by paring the sole
and frog, cannot travel on his tender feet at once ;
time nmst be allowed for nature to repair the
damages, and this is where a farrier asserts his
knowledge, for if be finds a tender frog bearing on
the ground, he cuts it away, and when the horse
does not limp on leaving him, he thinks himself a
clever fellow, and asserts that frog pressure causes
the liorso to go laine. I will now quote a few
paragraphs from the book on Shoeing by the undoubted
authority, G. Flemming, r.it.o.s., ji.a.t. There are
several quotations in Captain Hayes' vetermary notes
after the above authority's ideas, and in .almost all
ailments in the feet, or limbs, the first advice is
" allow frog pressure " thereby inducing many
advantages detailed.

Ahhreriutel Nntes /'rum the U'urk on Jlursi-.slm-
«";/ ''.'/ ''• l''lemiiiiiii/, !•'. R. G.H., J[. A. /., eU\

rrejiariog the hoof. — iK-velling the wall is an import-
ant ojjeratiou which if unequal in pressure ciuses the
deform of the hoof, and luodilies the growth of the
horse, etc.

.Shortening the wall. — I'riividcd the hoot, before it
comes into the baud of the farrier, has the proper
incliuatiun, and is cquni on botU sides of its grouad
face, but is nevcilhless fi\'crgrown, the artizan has
flii'H only to rcniuve the 1 xcess of growth, without
disturbing the relations between the several region.s
of the wall. Or should the hoof be overgrown too
obliijue, too upright, f)r luiequal at the sides, th.'u in
remedying the one detect lie at the same time remedies
all. The amount of horn to be removed from the
margin of the hoof will depend upon citcumstiiU'"Gs,
the liiuil Ut which the rasping may be Cftrried Avill
be where the wall is almost, or quite, reduced to a
level with the strong uu/uired sole. It mu.st ever bo
borne in miud, that if the wall does not stand bejond
the level of the sole, it does not require reihiciug.
AVhen ri'duced suHicieiitly the rasp should fiuish tlie
ta.sk by rounding off the sharp edge to provide .ngaiiLst
fract.ure of the wall fibres.

Paring the sole. — f<ike so many practises relating to
the maiiiigement of the horse, this paring of tlu: sole
is nlisunl in the extreme, and hss r.ot the most trifling
recommendation to support it. To remove the growth
of (be wall is an idi.'^ilute necessity; but to denude
the sole of its horn is wanton Injury to the foot and
cruelty to the anim.il. Tliis is easily accounted for.
The sole only inerca.ses its .substance to a certain
thickness, never too imicb, anri then the excess is
thrown otl in a natural maimer in ll dtes. In this
way the sensitive foot wifhiii is amply pi-iilceteil ;
the solo can sustain a share of the weiglit especially
arouud its margin iu front, where it is strouj;e6t, aud

meet the ground, however rough and stony this may
be, with perfect impunity. This is its fnnctiun! It
lias been nicntiniied that the horn is secrtrtt d from the
living surface, and that myriads of beautilul \ascul;tr
and sen.sitive tufts, dependeT.t from this .surface enter
the horn fibres to a certain depth, and play an import-
ant part in the formation of thesoN*. The newly-formed
horn is soft, aud spongy aud incapable of resisting
exposure to the air, but as it is puslied further away
from this surface by successive deposits of fresh
material, it becomes old horn, luses its moisture and
in doing so acquires the hardness and rigidity neces-
ary to enable it to withstand external intlucnces ;
then it is subjected to wear, and if this be hisuflici-
ent to reduce it sulhciently, it fads off iu scales. l!ut
the process of exfoliation is not a rapid one. Horn
is a slow conductor of heat and cold, and when thick
retains moisture for a long period. These Hakes,
then, act as natural "stopping"' to the hoof, by a<;-
4-unudating and retaiiiiug moisture beneath ; and this
moisture not only keeps the foot cool as it slowly
evaporates, but ensures to the so'id aud growing horn
its toughness, elasticity, and propi'r development.
In addition to this, every flake acts mnre or loss as
a sjiring iu warding off bruises, or other injuries to
the sole ; and thus the floor of the horny box ia
tlioronghly protected from injury, externally and in-
ternally. What occurs v hen the farrier followaig
out tlie routine of his craft, or obeying the iujunc-
tions of these as ignorant as himself, or so prejudiced
as not to be able to reason, pares the sole until it
springs to the pressure of his thumb ? The im-
mature horn, suddenly robbed of its outer covering im-
mi-diately begi'S to experience tbe evil effects of
external influences ; it loses its moisture, dries, hardens
and shrivels up, it also occupies a smaller space, ami
in doing so, the sole becomes more concave, drawing
sfter it the wall. For it most be remembered that
the sole is a strong stay against c'litr.iction of the
lower margin of the hoof; aud the consequence is
that the hoof gradually decreases iu size, and the
quarters aud heels become narrow. The animal goes
'* tentler '' even on smooth ground; but if bechance
to put his mutilated sole on a stone, what pain must he
experience ! The tendcrllcs^ and lameness arising frnin
this maltreatment are usually ascribed to everything but
tlie right cause, and the most populrr'is concussion etc
etc., Seeing, therefore, tlie natural provision existing in
the sole of the lioof fur its dimiiuition in thicknesr.,
when necessary, and knowing that the intact solo is
the best safeguard against injury, and deterioration
to this region, it must be laid down as a rule in
farriery — aud a rule from which there must be no
dei-arture — that this part is not to be interfered with
on auy pretence, so long as the fuot is iu health,
not even the flakes are to be disturbed.

raring the Frog. — This part of the hoof is that
which in the opinion of tbe groom.-, and coaclmien,
and some others who should know better, most re-
quires cutting *' to prevent its coming on the gri>iind,
and laming the tiorse " ; and this reason, together
with its softer texture, causes it to be made the
special spnrt of the farrier's relentless knife. It is
artistically and thm-oughly trimmed, the fine elastic
horn bring sliced away, sometimes even to the quick,
and iu its sadly reduced form It undergoes the same
changes as have been ohservetl in tbe pared sole.
No wonder, then, that it cannot- bear touching the
ground, any more than the sole. Stri|i tbe skin off tbe
solo of a man's foot I How wouM the elephant,
the camel, or oven the dog travel, if we pared aw;iy
the pads on the bottom of their feet? .and yet
tbe liorse's frog performs tbe .*?aino imporlant
function that the pad does on their feet. The
artistically shaped frog, so treated, soon wastes,
becomes diseased, and at length appears as a ragged,
ffuil smelling shred of horn, almost imperceptible
between the narrow df^foi'med heels of the pared foot.
The function of the frog in the iminial economy is
oiu; of great moment, and has already been indic-
ated. It is eiiiinently adapted for eontaet with the
4 round, and iu this resides its most important ollice.
U'j longer tbe frog is left uutoueliud by tbu kuife.

June i, 1886.J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST,

857

aiul allowed to touch the gruimJ, the more developed
it becomes ; its horu grows eo dense, and resisting,
yet without losing its special properties, that it braves
the crushing of the roughest road without suffering
in the slightest degree ; it ensures the lioof retaining
its proper sliape at the heels ; is a valuable supporter
of the Hnib and foot, while the animal is sanding
or moving, and is an active agent from its shape,
and texture, in preventing slippiug. Its reduction
and removal from the ground, I am perfectly con-
vinced from long observation, have a tendency, di-
rectly or indirectly, to induce that most painful,
frequent, and incurable malady. Navicular disease,
as well as other affections of this organ. The
farrier should, therefore, leave the frog also
uutoucbeil unless there be Hakes which are useless : —
though this is extremely rare : then these ought to
he cut oft". So particular am I in this respect, however,
and so well aware am I of the morbid de>ire of the
workman to cut into this part, that I never allow
any frogs to he interfered with, unless I am present.
If any gravel has lodged beneath the flakes, at the
side, or iu the cleft — which is most unfrequent
— this is removed by some blunt instrument. To
show the value of contact with the ground,
when a horse with a diseased frog is brought to me,
I at once onler the hoof to be so prepared or shod,
that this part, will immediately receive direct press-
ure— iu a brief space the disease disappears. Cases
of what grooms call 'thrush" of many years dur-
ation, and which had defied all kinds of favourite
liressings, have been cured, and the rottcu wasted
frogs have become sound, aud well developed in a
few months.

Opening up the Heels. — Having done everything poss'-
ible to ruin the sole and the frogs, the farrier proceed
to complete his work by opening up the heels. 'J'he
oi>eration is quite as injurious, if it is not more so
tlian mutilating the other parts, etc.

Conclusion.— It should be ever most strenuously in-
sisted upon, that the whole lower face of the hoof, except
the border of the wall, must be left in a state of
nature, etc.

The above paragraphs appear to me to meet the
points that I wish horse-owners to take note of
with the additional remark that "cold" titting-on
of the shoe is strongly condemned for several very,
important reasons, but which space forbids detailing.
Ho now, ilr. Editor, I am surprised at the length of
this letter, aud only trust you will consider the
subject worthy of space in your valuable paper,
and that if you do, and would send it to be inserted
in the native papers, so that our urcountry farriers
can read and understand that a liorse's foot is
not a mere horny block to be hacked at, at their
pleasure, I am certain that you will receive a vote
of grateful thanks, although a mute one, from
every horse treated on the above system. — I remain,
dear sir, yours f,iithfully,

A SVMPATUISEK WITH THE MAIMED.

Potato Brkad. — Boil four or five potatoes, mash
thqm, and add one tablespoonful of Hour. I'our over
these the water the jjotatoes were boiled in, stir all well
together, and when lukewarm, adtl half a teacupful of
yeast. Cover with a cloth and set to rise. When light,
make up as wheat bread. — Qmcmlandei:

The Ki.sii of rni: Pujii'Kins.- The heaviest Pump-
kin (accoriling to M. de Vos) ; presented at the
X'aris market iu 188-1 weighed I'AO kilogrammes.
Translated into English, this means that the
gourd in iiuestion weighed about the same as
twenty-eight legs of mutton of 10 lb, each. — Gar-
denerx^ lirt>nicle,

A Metal Te.v Chest. — A new tea chest has been

introduced in the shape of a steel box made by

maclumry. The inventor claims for his new package

that the tirst cost is about one-fourth less than the

10-

present chest with lead lining. It occupies smaller
space in the hold of the ship, and consequently costs
the importer less freight. Likewise being little
more than half the weight of an ordinary chest
the carriage from London to the country grocer
will, of course, be considerably lower (perhaps 15
per cent), which, in these days of keen compet-
ition and heavy transit charges, is a point well
worthy of consideration. It is impervious to moisture,
and may be placed in a pool of water without the
slightest damage to the contents. It will not allow
the contents to leak out. and herein is perhaps one
of the most attractive features in the invention to
our readers. It can be very ijuickly opened by
j removing four screws in the lid, and as it does not
j require to be lined in the inside as au ordinary
chest is with lead, all danger of the contents losing
j part of their fragrance by getting out between the
! lead and the outer wooden case is done away.
; Every tea leaf in tlie package will be in equally good
I condition. It is needless to point out that for purposes
: of sampling it is infinitely superior to the old lead-
lincd chests, as the packages can be opened and
redosed without damaging the box, which circum-
stances also permit of these boxes being used as
bins in the factory during the collection of
suliicient tea to form a break. — H. d- C. Mnil.
I Pkouucts or P.ilam.v Cukisti. — Since we re-
I plied to the query of a correspondent who had
been trying experiments in the numutacture of
cold-drawn castor oil (we judge by the clearness
j and absence of smell of the specimen submitted
I to us), we have seen, and marked for insertion
in the Tropical Agriculturist, what is evidently an
exhaustive article in the Iiulimi Aiiriciiltun.^l on
C.\.sToB OiL.vxiiiis Uses, from which we here quote
one passage : —

The uses of the castor plant are many ; the oil is
the only eligible one for lubricating all sorts of machi-
nery, clocks, watches, &c. ; it is tlie best lauip oil we
have in India, aud gives an excellent white light, far
j superior to that of ndneral oils, petroleum, rape seed,
mustard, linseed, and all other oils whether vcgetaiile,
animal, or mineral. This I state after coiuparisim.
The slowness with which the oil burns effects a saving
of consumption raui^ing from |tb to J. Its freed im
from ilaiiger as lamp oil is another recoinnicndatioa.
All Itailways in India bum castor-oil. It givLS out very
little soot, almost imperct'ptible, which quality no other
lamp oils possess. This is a great recommendation.
Most important of all, it is the cheapest lamp-oil iu
existence, while it is the cheapest autl best for
the maiiufactu;e of all kinds of soaps, cuidles,
pomatums, aiul perfumed oils. All the great per-
fumtM-s of Lo-idon itn<l Paris use castor-oil, for
the manufacture of golden oil, and its beneficial
effects are due to the demulcent quilily of the castor-
oil which keeps the bead cool and tie- skin and tin? pores
of the skin and roots of the hair soft and open. It is
a medicinal oil, and the most largely used as a mtlJ
d/fmu/rent Ifuvative. The use of coid-dniwn oil gives a
.splendid light: no other oil can vie with this light, it
being almost electrical in its brilliancy. When lii)iled
it does not give such a splenilid light: the reason for
this is, in the boiling or sweating, or both proceases,
the electric light-giving portiiui of the oil gets dissi-
i pated to a certain extent. The shelling ot .seed aud
j filtering processes are comparatively very costly. Tlio
oil drawn from unheated shelled seeds without boiling
] (rohl fiUrttioii beitig substitutid tVr boiling) is of the
best quality. If cold-tlrawn oil caTi br ■ Miifactnred
I sufiiriei.tly che.ij) to be within r^-acb ol u . ..s lanift ait^
t it would be used by many. At jirc-ient. however, it is
i selling at p ires ranging from K40 to U.V) per inaund
in India. The reason for this is that castor seed has
first to 111- exported to Kiirope, then it is bought by the
inauufactiirers from tlu! traders in castor si*ed. and :ifter
I manufacture of the oil, it is bottled, labelled, cuiked,
cajwulnd, packc 1. and shipped to India.

'^58

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886,

INDIAN AND CEYLON TEA AVERAGES.

iMes-rs. AValkur, Lambe k Co,, under ilate Aprii 2,
.•e ihc following as some of the averages realised
' iring the mouth: —

< -. -. '^ '^ -^

2- ;J ^3 -Ki KH- O
W ffi ^ ^ ^

4; HW H-f WW -W -*+ Ju, '*'<^ Ttf -''*'

r-7 *-» tM M CQ CO ^»Ot-l-

tC y; UJ W tfi K Wj (C fO »■' o-_

C-- y ^ -5 ^ w

<» 12

^.. _^.. ,^

5§

? P -a -o -a

.^ -1:1 ^:|-»

9 S
S o

^ H

r: y ^3 "O -a

"Is' 3*

o o

rH o r-1

HH S» -E

O

«

■■= 5

.3 !2, JS -^ -r "

•n

f^H*

TS

#r

t:

i-H

-Hit

Hitl

»0

i/i

HH

-iHi t; ;5 „ -H

-^ ^ w-f HH j^

f3

g

J3

3

:

c3

t

o

e

U

-^

i

6

a

a

3 a

~ ^ ^

^ — o

Q H •< P5

H -^ a

a

-Hm)U' and Cotaniaf Mail,

fl O a « 03

o , g a J

•" £> i -^ -1

^ .« *N o -^

^. ^ t-f S5 «

EFFECT OF ARECANUT UPON A RETIUEVKR

BITCH, WHEN GIVEN AS A DRENCFI.

Sir. Twt) <l;iys aj,'o T i)ut rathtu' loss tlniti l^ilrs. of
powih'ictl :>rocaiint in to 4oz. cltian nit'ilicini' buttle,
ami filU:il thr InittlH half full of warm milk ami wntiT,
shaking' tlio buttlo well, and mlrniiiistored the contents,
asadrendij to a n'triever bitch, fivu years oltl, and
say TjO or (iU lb. weij;lit. The re.snlt was. tln^ hiteh
turnetl onet^ fovnid. anil tliiii fell ilown apparently de;id ;
I uniuved lnrr lii'ad fjoni un ler ber budy, and in

about half a minute she got up, with her back much
arched, a peculiar glazed look about her eyes, foamed
at the mouth, breathed very heavily and with great
difficulty ; her t<)ngue became shrivelled, uarrow, and
concave, and of a sort of dull leaden colour ; lips and
gumd the same colour. In this slate she staggered,
and reeled into her kennel, some twenty yards dis-
tant, aod fell into the kennel, being nnable to -lift her
liind quarters over the entrance of the kennel (some
eighteen inches high). In the couret* of three honrs
she passed a large quantity of worms; continually
tried to vomit but only raised a small quantity of
thick mucus ; and breathed with great dittitudty all
day. This is written at the end of the tbird day
since the drench was given. The bitch is very weak
has only taken a little milk since; she still experi-
ences some difficuky in breathing, and if she goes out
for a walk, a sort of tissock, or slight cough (as in
distemper) comes on. I believe she will recover. With
the exception of having worms, the bitch was in per-
fect health, in thorough good condition, and active
and lively. tShe had weaned puppies about eight weeks
previous. I inclose some of the powder, which is
simply grated arecanut, and I have given some of
the same powder out of same box to other dogs, with
beueKcial results. During the last thirty years I have
never seen arecanut otherwise than beneficially. Can
you, sir, or any of your readers, enlighten me ? Again,
what is the action of arecanut ? — Kethiever.

[y^Q have known similar results from drenching
with arecanut, but not from the drug when given
as a bolus, or swallowed in broth voluntarily. \Ve
are led to believe that some of the powiler enters
the trachea when given forcibly as a drench. This is
the only explanation which we can offer of the above
case.— Ed. Field,]

FOREST TREES.

The following is a list of New Zealand trees which
should be introduced here,* as likely to flourish and
become of great value. Dammafa A i' .■>tralis or Kauri
Pine is a splendid timber tree rising to a height of TOO
feet without a branch, it is therefore free from knots
and very useful for house building, it also j-ields the
valuable Kauri gum worth fifty poun»ls a ton. The
annual sale of the timber from New Zealand atnnunts
to one hundred million feet, and five thousand tuns of
gum, this latter is made into a varnish resin and much
used iu the United States, it resembles amber in culour.
and is often found by the di^'gers in pieces larger than
a man's hea-l, it is supposed to Uv the in-oduce uf forests
that existed tfus of thousands of years before ; the gum
yielded by living trees is not so much esteemed. There
are said to be but 150,000 acres of this noble tree
living, and its disappearance is expected, as but few
trees are planted to supply the enormous demand.
There is a tree of this species growing iu the LtI }>augli
at Piangalore, it may be twenty years old, and is some
furty feet in height, the situation is too hot for it.

The next tree in order of value is Potlocarpus fotara,^
some inileed consider it superior iu value to the Kami
pine. Liudley says, that so highly was this noble tree
esteemed, tliat the iiossession uf forests of it was often
the occasion of wars. The tut'ira grows to a hundred
feet in height, and its diameter often excee'ls eight feet.
The wood is red in colour, close grained, easily workeil,
and is exceedingly durable, posts in the gmnnd lasting
for more than fifty years, it is also impervious to tin'
attacks of the teredo worm. There is a variety known
as mo\uitain 'Votttro whieh will stand a eliniate as severe
as the liighlands of Scotland. There is but one Vodo-
carp>'^\n Southern India, diseuvercl by (/olonellSediionie
on the Tinnevelly Hills at an elevation of about fi.tMK)
feet. Libncetfrits I>»ryiana, the Arbor Vita- of the
colonists, is another valuable tree growing to nearly one
hundred feet in height, tl:ft wood i.s red henvy and
very durable, and consi'lered valuable for masts spars,
and it is scarce even in New Zealand. an»l whi'ii its
(jualities are fully known it very probaldy will b-' extirr-
niinated. There is another of this genus A. lU'diri/fi

* Tiie Nilgiris. Hiul what answers there will gen^'rally
ilourish un the Nuwara Eliya ranges. — Eo. ]

June i, 1866.]

THE TROPICAL AGRlCUtTURIS'f.

«59

which prmUiccs the cetiar of the colonists, a very
iisiful timber but not so durable as the former. Tlieu
tliiru is i'oiloctipus Spicata vsteetacd for its valuable
tinilwr much used for briJges, sleipers, houses, an<l its
(htrability is said to be wonderful, and it is abiindant in
both islands. P. dac-iiUtiidfi is highly valued for the
inside work of houses owing to its lightness, eveness
and smoothness in working. JMciidiiim L'ujin.-^sinniii
is remarkable for ils beauty, its timber is excellent,
much esteemed by furniture makers, as the red color
of the wood takes many shades, and it is easily worked,
for all work when not exposed to wet, it is not to be
6urpa.wed. The Tanckaha tree Plij/lloctadus Tiicho-
iiiaitoUUs is a handsome conifer of medium height, its
wood is of first rate i|uaUty, very durable, pale red,
strong and clo'ie graintd. ' The bark of the tree is
prolific in tannin, containing nearly 25 per rent, a large
»mo\nit of the bark is sent to Grenoble in France, in
one year more than two lacs of Kupees of bark was
sent.— .So«W( of liidia Okvi-ier.

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.

NEW :SCI!.4R C.tSES IX THK WEST IXDIKS.

For some years efforts have been made to bring
together into one collection all the different varieties of
sugar canes which are known imder cultivation in the
siigHr-prodnciiig countries of the world. It would
appear now that this object has in a great measure
been accomplished in the extensive collections of sugar
canes under experimental cultivation by the Department
of rnblic Girdens and Plantations in .Jamaica. The
CO Mixtion, as awhole, embraces about eighty varieties
of canes, an 1 itr has been pronounced by a competent
authority connected with the Department of Agriculture,
W.ishington. " as probably the best collection of sugar
canes ever got ton together."

As indicating the wide area from whence these canes
have been ob ained, it may be mentioned that the
••Klephaut" cane, so called from the size it att.ains
under favourable circumstances, was obtained from
Saigon, Cochin ( hiua ; the Salangore cane is a native
of the Malay I'eninsula. where it is highly esteemed.
The Tiboo cane i-i aKo East Indian, and is a productive
cane of great ni' lit. From JIauritius there come the
Home, the JIavnitius, and the IJarkley canes. From
(^Uieensland, there are the Brisbane, the Green-Rose
Ribbon, the Queensland and the Hillii; while from the
I'aeilic Islands (probably the home of the .sugar cane)
there are the Laliaina, the Cuban, the Pna-ole and the
Ko-Kea. The I.ahaina cane is described in Hawaii
(Sandwich Islaeds) as being the most universally
esteemed of all cincs, and everywhere, excepting at
great elevations, it is planted to the almost toUl ex-
clu.sion of other varieties. This cane has yielded ,as
much as an average, of G tons of sugar per acre on areas
as extensive as Ifip acres, and 7A tons per acre on an
average over ^reas of :^0 acres.

The I'ua-oi.i cane, another great favourite in Hawaii,
is called theflowerless cane, because it never tassels, or
throws out a llowering shoot. It is described as a soft,
rich cane, yiilling juice of high specific gravity, and
speciallyadapted for cultivation at high altitudes. The
Cuban, Ko.Pake, in Hawaii comes next to the Lahaina.
It is rich in j dee, rattoons well, grows rapidly, and is
entirely free f ,om " cane itcb."

The Samuii cane is the favourite cane with the
engar planter.n of Fiji. It is hardv, grows rapidly, and
yields sugar freely. Of ilarkrind ianes, such as vi.ilet
purple, and bl..ck, there are nuniL-rous varieties. Many
of these, auch is the Egyptian and the llartinirjue, are
adnurably ad.ipted for dry. arid regions, and grow
luxuriantly where other ranes would fail. Others,
again, arc adapted only as fodder plantf, and are often
grown for that purpose when grass is scarce. The
Mamuri cane, of a dusky brown colour, is certainly a
strange-looking cane. It woidd appear to be covered
with a thin dry Iwrk. which iinrks it at once as a
distinct and spi cialised variety. This is a hardy slender
cane, which would grow in the driest sitnations. Of
striped canes there are very handsome specimens, such
as the Green-Rose RiblK.n and the Red Ribbon, whitli
attract attention, aud aru likely tu be great favourites
nith planters.

In the ^\'cst Indies generally the faiourite canes are
the Otaheite. the transparent, Mont Rlanc, and the
Bourbon. These may be said to yield the bulk of
Cuban and "West Indian sugars, but several others are
being tried, with the wii'w of testing their capabilities
for tlilt'erent soils aiul climate. As the sugar c.uie has
lost the power of producing seed from whii^b plants may
be raised, it is now entirely propagated by shoots or
pieces of the stem which are furnished with eyes at
every joint. These eyes give ri.se to new plants, which
necessarily must be identical with the parei\t plant and
keep true for an indefinite period. The importance
of introducing new canes, and so testing the highest
producing powers of the land, in these days of low
prices und keen cunipetitiou, is self. evident.

From the suplement to the Ju.ntxica Gtuvtte we
find that the collection of canes above mentioned sent
to the New Orleans Exposition has lately been carefully
tested by Dr. CramjjtoD, chemist, attached to the
Bureau of Chemi.stry Dcparinient, Washington, 1).0.
Planters in the "West Indies woidd do well to procure
these analysis and carefully consider whether some of
these new canes do not otTer them advantages in a
cultural aud economic sense superior to the old. Wo
may a Id that a full description of these canes was given
in the last report of the Director of the Rotanical
Dep.-irtment, .lamaiea, and Dr. Crampton's analysis
are intended to supplement these descriptions and
givi^ sugar planters every possible inforniation on thu
subject. — Colonies and India.

CULTIVATION ON TEA ESTATES.

The r|uestion of cultivation is one to which we think
sufficient attention is not paid on tea estates as a rule.
It appears to be more the object of every manager to
put out ft small extension, rather than consolidate and
improve his existing area. It is no wonder that now-a-
days more attention should be paid to measures of
various kinds by which a large outturn of good, sound
marketable tea may be produced. To a larger yield jier
acre is due in a large measure the dilference in cost at
which one planter can turn out his tea cheaper than
hi.'? neighbours. An outturn of four maunds per acre
at a local cost of four annas, if reduced to three m.iunds.
means 20 per cent more ; or an increased outturn of
five maunds, enhances the possilde profits, so that the
planter's .attention in these times should be given more
to emhavr)uring to turn out a larger quantity per acre
than to rushing out extensions, even on a small scale.
i\Iany planters are not (pnte satisfied vndess they '* put
out " a sm.ill bit every year; foregetting that had the
same labor been utili/.(^l in the cold weather to giving a
good deep hoeinj:, and filling in any vacancies in the
old garden, the outturn of tea per acre woubi have
increased more than the area put out will yield even iti
full bearing, that is provided no extra labor has been
imported. The system of cultivation adopted on the
esta'es is not as a ride good, for the .simple r'-ason, that
planters have not sufficient labor at their conmiand
to cultivate when they cnn.sider it most jndiciou,s, but
are driven into cultivating in all weathers, ju order to
keep on terras with thi' jungle that springs up so quickly
aud luxuriously in Assam. The traveller in Assam, go
where he will, invariably finds that, in the rains day
after <lay hoeing goes on. On one or two of the most
rainy days there maybe a little variation in .all hands
filling up vacancies, but this is rather au exception than
otherwise, and yet the planter cannot help himself,
owing to shortness of labor. It may not be recognized
generally, but still there are some planters who
thoroigldy believe, that cold weather cultivation is the
best, and agood many more gardens are now cultivatial
deeply in the cold weather * than was formerly the
ca.se. On teelahs or high plateaux a good deep hce
does more in the w.iy of jiulling out weeds, and its
preventing wastage of soil, th m .'eviral repealeil ones in
the begiuning of the rains; aud it invari.ablv gives au
eaily flush. The first hoeing should be finished snou
after the pruning ; advantage should be taken of any dry
weather, say in May, to give the soil a second good

• Vty seasou io Coylou.— Kb.

86a

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

dti'p cultivation, after which sutEcieut hoeing should be
givi n t- prevent auj- exuberant growth of juiigle. As a
rule, if two or three good hoeings are given before
August, the trouble and expense of Iteeping down
jungle becomes infinitely less. It is not in every plant-
er's power to regulate his cidtivation, but it. is very
possible that nuiuy planters in their anxiety to extend
their area in the cold weather very often neglect cold
weather cultivation, and go on extending and allow
their old garden to get a little dirty. They are tkus
never able to catch np the jiinglo and frequently lose
a good deal in outturn. An idea is prevalent that
pruning and cold weather hoeing should go on side by
side; those who follow this course are not likely to
regret having done so. Cultivation in a large measure
dcterniiius the character of the flush, whether it will
be weakly, or a good healthy vigorous one likely to go
on increasing throughout the season. Some planters
are of opinion that deeji cultivation in the cold weather
causes great evaporation of moisture, but provided the
soil is well pulverised this will not happen. Again.
some are of ojiiidon that a great wastage of .soil t.akes
place on teelah land from deep cultivation, this is,
however, due more to frei|uent light hoeing than deep
cultivation. In fact, if deep hoeing is not resorted to
on teelah lands the wastage is something marvellous.
In the heavy downpours that occur iu .\ssam at the
first burst of the rains, if the hoe is only put in say
three or four inches, the result is, that the hard sub-soil
does not freely absorb the water, and the consequence
is that the loose soil .-diove saturated with rain simply
slides down to the foot of the teelahs. * The deeper
and looser the cold weather cultivation on the teelahs
the greater the jjrotection from wash. AVhen the soil is,
thoroughly loosened to a depth of HI to 12 inches the
rainfall iiercolates through it and descj^nds gradually
to the bottom of the teelah, taking very little soil with
it. t>f course, in most teelah gardens, terraces .are
reeogniseil as the correct system of, what may be called,
surlace drainage, and if terraees are establisheil then
any depth of cultivation can be imlulged in.— Indian

FluiiUrs' GazeiU.

^

METHOD OF PEESEBVINO TIMBER IN JAPAN.

Now that we are getting tea bo.xes from Japan, the
following extract from the Journul of lorcHnj will be
interesting :— Be it noted, then, that the Japanese use
only wood previously preserved as follows ;—

PKESER\AT10N PROCESS APPLIED TO TIMBEH STOH E.

At a distance of 20 or .30 chos (1 cho=about 120
yards) from the sea, and near the mouth of a stream,
a large pond is dug, so that the sea may have free
access to it. This is called Kakoitori (or storing pond).
Its size is not fixed, but generally it contiins an
area of 14,000 or 15,000 tenbos (1 tenbo=about 3(>
square feet), and its owner keeps his office near by, so
that he may transact his business on the spot. The
circumference of the pond is built of stone or wooden
walls, and a canal is dug on one side to communicate
with the river and thence with the sea; the How of
(he tide being regulated by means of a sluice. The
|TOnd should not he deeper than 5 feet in the central
parts at full lileand not shadower than 2 fectin the
innrKin at ebb lide. The right jiroportion ot .<!alt and
fre.>.h Water for the pond is (j parts of the former
to 4 of the latter j for if the salt water exceeds this
proportion, timber becomes blackish in colour, and
is liable to be much eaten by Worms; if, on the
other hand, the proportion of oalt Water becomes
less, it is much sooner decayed than otherwise. The
Velocity of the How of tide should also be very
carefully legulated. for if the current is either too
tapid or too slow, timber is again very liable to be
luucb injured by worms. Hence, in those places where
there are two or three ponds near one another, their
mvner generally amalgamates them, on agreement, by
toeans of small canals, which arrangement regulates
the How of tide very considerably. Timber for storing
is usuallv piled in five layers according to its quality;
the lowest layer consistiug of middle-class timber ;

' * Steep lands.- Kd,

the next layer of first-class timber, the next layer above
again of middle-class timber ; the next layer of third-
class timber ; whilst the uppermost layer, which is
usually exposed above the surface of the water,
consists of very low quality, and by its weight the
lower four layers are kept sunk under water. Those
five layers are piled one upon another alternately at
right angles, so that the whole arrsngemeut presents
the appearance of a toothed cube. Sometimes, how-
ever, the pile consists of only tjo or three layers;
in that case they arc tied to a big timber (about 12
to ir> feet in length, and 7 or 8 inches in diameter)
standing near by, anil are thus prevented from floating
about freely ; sometimes also one or two separate
pieces of different kinds of timber are kept in the
pond for specimens. The durability of timber depends
greatly on the amount of car<^ bestowed on it, and
to this end the washing is the most important. Twice
in a year, generally in June or November, the cubi-
cal mass of timber above described is disengaged,
and each piece is well veashed by means of a straw
brush. The different pieces are then reconstructed
in a cube, but with the following alteration in the
arrangement; the middle-class timber which before
constituted the third layer, now forms the lowest
layer, and the middle-class timber which in the for-
mer case was at the very bottom, now occupies the
third layer. If washing caunot be done twice a year,
it must be performed once a year at least. In the
following table are shown (in the first column) the
names of ditTerent kinds of timber, in the second
column the nvunber of years for which they may
be preserved in the timber store, and in the third
column the period at which they are beat adopted

'" "^"^ - 1. 11. III.

Hinokai (Tlmiia ohtusa), ... for 8 after 3
Mut-ionoTMomHAbiexfrnia),... ,, 4 „ 1'5
Sugi {Oryjilumcria ■Uifmnica),... „ 5 „ 2
Tsuga (Tsiiga SieholO.ii), ... „ <) „ -

Hiba {T!iu/a ilotohrata), ... „ 8 „ 3
Tawara i,Thu/a pisifera), ... „ 8 „ _3
Keyaki {Zelkoim Kti/aki), ... „ 8 „ «
Kashi, „ „ - ■, W >. 4

(The number of years is calculated from the day
of felling, and the time which is s|)ent before timber
comes to the store is reckoned to be one year.)

A pond of 15,000 tembo in area can, on the average,

store up about 10,000 pieces of timber. They are of

various lengths, as the following table shows:—

Lengths of timber (in kens), 2, 3, 2-.5, 4, 3-5, 4-5, 5, 6

Percentage number, ... 50,20,10, 5. 1 U, 5,p. ct

Thus one-half of the whole timber in the pond is

ot 2 kens in length, one-fifth is of 3 kens in length,

etc. (1 ken=2 yards.)

At ordinary times, only three or four men are
employed, who.se daily wage is 35 to 45 kus (?), but
at the washing season 15 men are employed daily
for a period of about half a month.

MUSHROOMS.
The conditi^'UR mo«t favourable for the produc'ion
of fungi are warm showers descending on H heat«d
surface; these conditions e.sist in a pre-eminent degree
just now on the Nilgiris. The spring was unusually
prolonged, and proportionately hot and dry. Rain
in April and May held oft mo.st unaccountably, or
only descended in very slight showers, and the south-
west mou.«oon. accordingly, burst npou the hot soil,
abnormallv quickening vegetable life, more especially
that of a' fungoid character. Mushrooms have sprung
up in great abundance everywhere, and are gatbefed
and carrij'd about the stations for sale. Levers of
the esculent look forward to indulging to their heart's
content in their favorite vegetable, which is deservedly
popular, as an article of food, for delicacy of flavour,
and tisjhly nutritive iiualitie.s. But as the order of
fungi his many poisonous varieties, which, to an inex-
erii;nced eye, appear not to c'ilfer materially from
the wholesome sorts, some caution is necessary before
partaking of a lu.xury of "eh uncertsiu qualities

June i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

S61

as the mushroom. Cases of fatal poisoDing are rare — •
at least we do not hear of them very often — but
indisposition attended with acute suffering is of
frequent occurrence. Mushroom collectors are generally
women and children, some of whom, from long
practice and an observant eye, c^u detect a whole-
some from a noxious variety — but these experienced
bauds are sometimes accompanied in their excurhions
by novices, who gather promiscuously whatever comes
to hand, and the result is that some gourmet falls
a victim to excruciating stomach-ache, or to one of
the numerous forms of iudigestiou, and while still
sullering the consequences of an irritant poison in
the digestive organs, vows he will never touch a
niusJiroom again ; a pledge violated on the very first
occasion the appetising fungus is again* put before
him.

Edible fungi are everywhere distinguished empirically,
but the botanical characteristics of both the poison-
ous and the harmless kinds are so well marked,
generally, that little difficulty is experienced in trac-
ing them in a basket of mixed mushrooms by an
observer of ordinary inteUigence, although it would
prove no easy task, even for an accomplished botanist,
to trace the numerous and it-sensible gradations by
which the 29 edible species whch science has classi-
fied and named, are distinguished from the 'M poisonous
sorts. Fortunately, mushroom collectors, in this coun-
try, have to de-^l with a limited^ number of varieties
only, and these iu a few well-known localities, to which
they resort year after year. It seldom happens that
a poisonous variety, like a parasite, overpowers an
edible kind, and forces it out of existence from a
particular spot. More frequently a harmless mush-
room acquires deleterious properties from some change
iu the conditions of growth, and then there is reason
to fear consequences as the collectors gather these
mushrooms from habit, without suspecting the change
of character, which, however, is not altogether un-
disclosed, for in appearance, odour, and flavour the
mushroom tells an inteUigent observer whether it
can be safely consumed or not. As in the best
regulated families, so with the genus Jt/aiU".^
accidents will sometimes happen, and it behovt'S
cverj lover of the mushroom to take c;ire of himself,
aud make himself acquainted with the salient features
of the edible and the poisonous sorts. On the hills,
as in England, we have the true meadow mushroom,
Agai'icH:^ campestris, and the horse mushroom, A'jario'i
arvcJistf^. The former is not often, or abundantly found,
and atfects open pastures, where it frequently gets
trampled down by grazing cattle. The hor.se mushroom
is the most common and most abundant, and is the
variety usually offered for sale. It is very plentiful
on recently manured coffee estates, and iu open sholas
where the sun-light can freely penetrate.

It is a generally accepted truism that mushrooms
which grow under trees iire dangerous, because they
are supposed to feed on decayed roots ; but the mush-
rooms of the Nilgiri sholas are an exception to this
rule, for some of the best and most delicate sorts
are gathered under the shade of the forest. In the
absence of reliable or scientific information on the
^ubject, consumers of mut-hrooms arc content to apply
the vulgar ttjsts of wholesomeness. namely, cooking
them with a bright silver coin, or an oriioD, the discolor-
ation of which is supposed to indicate danger. But
these are perfectly worthless tests, and nothing but
the recognised botanical peculiMrities are to be relied
upon. Edible mushrooms, in form, size, color and
habit are distinguishable from the noxious congener.
aud when once these features are pointed out and
understood, they cannot be forgotten or overlooked.
The small white^topped, j>ink-gilled mushroom of the
open, is of course the most delicate of the fungus
order, but the jellow-toppcd, and grey-gilled, though
coarser in flavour, is not to be despised or rejected
as of doubtful character. In both the cap is fleshy
and the gills quite free from the stem, round which,
on the under-side, an open channel runs. This is a
salii-nt feature of an edil)le nnisliroom, as all the
poi.sonuus sorts have the gills touching the stem. The
(;ap at tbv outer circuuifereucu, further laps over the

gills and is pendulous, which is not the case with
the cap of a pois(>nous mushroom, which terminates
at its juncture with the gills. The stem shouldj
moreover, be solid, when cut through, and have a
collar round midwaj- bftweeu the cap and the root.
No poisonous or doubtful mushroom will possess this
collar. The cap is sometimes silky, sometimes hairy,
and sometimes sealy, all points perfectly consistent
with wholesomeness, aud should be dry, never viscid,
which is an uumistakeable indication of noxiousness.
The colour may he white, or smoky, or tawny, or
dark brown. The color of the gills may be wliite
or pink, or salmon or brown, or even black, aud the
spores of tlie gills purple, or brown, or black. The
gills of poisonous mushrooms never grow black, bow-
ever long they may be gathered, and the flesh of
the cap never changes color. The horse mushroom,
as its name suggests, is of large size and springs
up in clusters, a condition ot growth which is said
to be peculiar to the harmful varieties, but not always
so. This variety affects the neighbourhood of trees
and hedges, and woods, but cannut for this reason
be rejected as doubtful. Indeed, the horse mushroom
is the natural as well as the cultivated article, with
peculiarities developed by scientific treatment. A
mushroom presenting ajl the salient features of an
edible variety, which we have described, may be safely
eaten either in a raw state or cooked, hut if the con-
sumer will neglect what has been said, and partake
of wh:itt'vcr is otf*-red to him as a mushroom, he
may pay .the penalty, sooner or later, of his want
of caution. — Ltoder,

SUGAR-REFINXXG WOKKS AT FIJI.

Fiji is now enjoying the proud prc-cmineuce of this
one distinction — ishat of having the larii'est sugar-mill
in the world. The Khedive of Egypt has until very
recently had the honour of possessing the great-
est cane-crushing aud caue-juice-boiling apparatus
in the universe, but now an Australian company has
taken the cronn from him; and of the many fields
occupied by that rich Is'ew South "Wales proprietary,
our colony hws been selected to possess the site of
the Champion Mill. As the C. S. 11. Company is far
and away the most important of the financial con-
cerns and developing enterprises- of this country, I
have proposed ^,0 give it a special (if necesf^arily brief)
notice iu this letter, aud for the purpose have just
made a personal visit to the head establishment on
the Kewa.

The work referred to are on that part of Fiji's
chief river, known as the Middle Kewa, and the site
bears the Fijian name, spelt *' Xausori," and i)ron(>unc-
ed Now-soe-ree, with the accent on the second syllable.
This place is about 12 miles fruni that mouth of the
Kewa which opens into Lauthala Bay, where the large
ships come. Nausori is where the liills begin, that
roll on until they grow into highly picturesque mountain
ranges that form a strinkingly fine background to the
river scenery. Down the river right to the sea the
country is one immense flat, a superb delta covered
with trees, or reeds aud jungle, and strongly exciting
the imagination of "sugar men" coming from the
Mauritius or from the "West Iiuliaji Fosscssious. I5e-
tween the river and the Lau coast is a large extent
of fertile country, walking across which one sees what
a reserve of producing capacity is here for future use,
and what facilities exist for getting at the produce
by easily-laid tramways. A study of the district
clearly shows why such an immense mill is erected
liei-e. Coming upon the worl.s themselves from the
landward side affords a great surprise. Emerging from
the ^'tiol gieen forest, where iialure is in an almost
primcvial stute, >ou come suddenly upon a great space,
with buildings crowtUd together in parts of it; cottages
on every hand, with lanes and streets; a two-storied
residence crowning a hill, with three large hospitals
past that again; and in the foreground an immense
factory) ironclad, tuwers before the sight, with the
highest chimneys in the Soutlieru hemisphere. You
aimnst expect to find the institutions of a city close
at hand, to see the inevitable telegraphic UisuUtorS;

862

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

iiD(l t-o hear the locomotives scream, anfl the rumble
and nith t>f an incoming train. The latter is not
IHihaiis far off, and wil! doubtless hv required within
a year or two. l>owu in the river is a fleet of huge
red punts, of ligliters, tugboats, and launches. The
company has in use upon the river three steamers and
six steam launches, 50 iron punts of GO tons each,
and 10 ligliters or 180 tons each, besides an ocean-
going steamer — the *' Fiona." In the crushiug-season
which between June and Christmas, the cane is brought
from far and near in these big barges to the rivers'
bank. A detachment of Indian coolies at once board
the red punts and hurl the long canes ou to the
carriers, which iu three endless bauds bring their
freight to the slow revolving ponderous rollers. There
are three double sets of rollers, each cylinder GO inches
long, o2 in diameter, and the whole of them weighing
together 1(38 tons. The pow**r driving them is that
of a 45 h.p.-enyiue, with 05 lb. steam. The cane is
not only cruehed but afterwards macerated in boiling
water and steam, and further subjected to crushing
until it is actually passed four times through the mill,
so thorough is the treatment and complete the ex-
pression of the juice; 15 tons of cane an hour passed
through the rollers is considered a good average, or
nearly 7UU0 tons in a week. " It needs scarcely to be
mentioned that the largest mills in Australia are small
in comparison witli this," remarked an expert, "and
it is probable that the world cannot show its eci'.ial."
The juice passes into 14 "cold subsiders," then to 14
copper circular clarifiers, each with a capacity of 500
gallons; thence to 38 *' hot subsiders," and onto the
supply tanks. The '* triple effets " are very fine, a
new set, with the latest additions and 10 feet 6 inches
hiternal diameter, being by far the largest in the
colonies— perhaps the largest that have yet been made
at all. There are five vacuum pans which strike on
an average about 32 tons of stuff which is whirled
around in centrifugals (21 of them "Weston's patent
4 feet in diameter) that revolve so swiftly that to
the unpractised eye they appear to be standing still.
By an endless canvas belt the now manufactured pro-
duct is passed to the elevator, and into a bio, from
which receptacle it is bagged and carefully stacked.
When the ships are in Laucala Bay immense quantities
of sweetstuff are set down to them by the Leviathans
called " lighters," towed by steam-tugs ; and it is carried
by barques and steamers to the company's refineries
in New South Wales, where it passes into the very
purest forms of sugar, and becomes delicately fit for
tlie confectioner's delightful and varied art. No incon-
siderable quantity of coal is imported from Newcastle
to keep these mills going, for, iu addition to the
eight engines that drive the rollers, there are 24
extra engines for general mill work; 14 locomotive
boilers (-iO-b.]!.) generate the steam, and all mean a
large cnnsumption of coal, as well as of megass, to
keep the inferno red hot. The main building of the
factory is 'S'2{i feet x 201. The coal-hoist is an inchned
wire tramway, and discharges 12 tons per hour. When
work has to be continued through the night electricity
and gas are both brought into play for a bright ilu-
mination of the premises, and the night is turned into
day that the busy scene may go on uninterruptedly
and time be saved.

To keep the monster crushing rollers well supplied
with i.rofttable food, the company has seven i>lnnt-
ations of its own, with at present 2,5C0 acres under
cane, and this (piantity is being rapidly increased.
Most of the planters on the llewa grow cane under
contract for the mill ; but it may be mentioned en
passttnt that these same planters dolefully exclaim
that under present circumstances the contract price —
which they agree to take for a term of 10 years —
does not remunerate them for their outlay and their
toil. But on the other hand it is only riglit to say
that a gentleman not connected with either party,
and peculiarly well litte<l to give an opinion, asserts
that the liewa planters would bHve been ruineil out
and out before this had it not been for the C.S. It.
C'unpany. 'I'herc are about 'JO(H,> acres cultivated in
tliis way, and, in adilition, tho Fijians of the Delta
grow for the Nau8ori tuill. TUoy have to ^row t^omt;-

thing to pay their tax asse.ssnient with, which has

to be done in produce; and, ofc cour.^e, there is noth-
ing in this neighbourhood like the sugar-caue. A
Government tutor is sent to teach them how to till
th'^ir brakes; and at a given lime they attend and
load up the barges with the cut cane from the l)auks
above. 450 acres (made uj) of patches here and there)
may be reckoned to be the quantity of land covered
by the native sons of the soil with Saceharuni officin-
arum, otherwise called ndovu. The cane on the Kewa
this season is pronounced by various authorities to
be magnificent, and the whole district looking busy
and prosperous. But, as a general rule, so an expert
informs me, the crops do not equal the enormous re-
turns per acre that we read of as yielded l.iy the
land- on the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed Uivers.
Yet, there is this compensatory fact, that the Fijian
cane can be cub annually, and does not take two years
to mature as in the above-mentioned districts of
Australia. It was publicly stated, too. in Levuka last
year, by a gentleman who had been a planter in
Northern Queensland, that whereas there the yield
of sugar was one ton per acre, here in Fiji it was
at the rate of two tons per acre. During the wet
season cane in this climate deteriorates very quickly.
For the removal of their cane when cut the company
has tramways with lines of trucks worked by horses
and by locomotives — horsework now being an import-
ant factor in working, estates to advantage — and their
navy does the water carriage, dropping down with the
stream to the mill. The C. S, IX. has an army as
well as a navy, emploj-ing ma.sses of labourers, tinted
and white; 2,000 Indians vo kept busy ou the Uewa
alone, also a lesser number of Polynesians, and any
quantity of Fijians, otf and on, for job work. There
is also a contingent of engineers, artisans, and mech-
anics, who are better paid than they would bo in
Australia — "and equally hard to please," adds one
who speaks from experience. It is contemplated, how-
ever, that nearly all the work will yet be done by
dark labourer.s, who are said to readily adapt them-
selves to anything. There are also many estate mana-
gers, over.seers, and specialists who have been trained
on the Clarence and at the company's works in
Queensland, and over the whole great enterprise (in-
cluding a new mill at V'iria, miles further up the
river, and large works on the Ba' presides the Hon.
James Robertson, M. Iv. C, who is the Company's
manager iu Fiji — an energetic, stirring gentleman, who*
received a thorough sugar education in Demerara,
and made himself favourably known to his present
directors by the success with which he ran the Chats-
worth Mill, Clarence lliver, iu the season of 18.S2, and
the Homebush, Port INIackay. during the following
season. Tender him wnrk a trained stalf, including
Mr. Kussel Dowling, deputy manager ; Mr. Henry
Brook, cane inspector (also hailing from the Clarence),
who has the onerous work of keeping this large mill
supplied with its proper food ; and Mv. Thomas Fer-
guson, chief engineer, prominently known iu the CS.K.
as a man who has served them for years, untiring in
bis devotion t-o their interests, and pushing through
a vast amount of work with great success.

Immense has been the sum of money already e.N-
pended by this great colonial sugar company in open-
nig its operations iu Fiji; great has beeu *fche work
accomplished, and great will be tiie field ycfc to he
covered by their enterprise. — St/ihui/ Morning llevcOdt

INDIAN TEA DISTRICTS' ASSOCIATION
PvEPOKT.

The following is the sixth annual report of the Associ-
ation : —

The committee of the Indian Tea Districts' Assoei-
alio I have the pleasilre to .submit to llie members tlir
following stat^Muent at tiu- conclusion of the sixth year
of its operation: —

I'roposcd Increased JMi y. — In defereni* to the
tqnninn (X pressed at tlie last annual nie« ttng of the as-
sdctution with regard to the reported int( ntiun of
Government to increaso thu duty on tea, in order to
UJcet n dt&cit iu the Keveuu^ — a putitiou in oppu&itiou

June i, i8S6.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

863

to the proposal (which first appeared in the Timtji news-
paper) to increase the duty was prepared and presented
by your asfociiition to the Kight Hon. O. E. (Mulders,
M.P., then Chancellor of the Exi;he(]Uer. This step was
in accordance with the views of tht; Indian Tea Associ-
ation of Calcutta, from whom a telegnioi was received as
follows: — "Urge strong representation against pro-
posed tea duty — are moving Government of Indiu
to protest." lu this petition your committee drew
attiution to the fact that the existing duty of (id
l»er lb. amounted to over 70 per cent of the market
value of the teas imported from all countrit'H, aiul,
in the case of at least a moiety of the import, to
as much as the prime cost of the article, ami thus con-
stituted a distinctively onerous tax on a couunodity of
such uuiversal consvmiption in this country as to be
justly regarded as oue of the prime dietary necessities
of life. It was further pointed out th:it the ett'ect of
the increased duty upon the Indian tea industry would
be seriously detrimental, while it would tend to restrict
the consumption of tea, and he likely to check the pro-
motion of habits of thrift and temperance among the
people. It is satisfactory to able to state that, as
prayed by youi" committee, the duty on tea was not
increared.

lu vi<ed Ci'-stoms Herniations for H'eighmeni. — The
Loudon AVholesale Tea Dealer's Association having
expressed a desire that certain alteratious in the
dirertion of greater clearness should be made in the
rules issued by the Commissioners of H.M. Customs,
in September, 18S;.i. for regulating the conditions of
net weighment of tea. your committee havin^; duly
considered and approved of the proposal, a joint com-
munication was addressed to the Board of Customs
O-skingthem to sanction these alterations ; and, on the 0th
November last, the foil :i wing order was issued con-
taining the revised regulations on which Indian teas
are now weighed : —

" General Order, tj5-ISS5.
*• Custom Hous>e, London, Nov. f, 1885.

" Sir,— I am desired by the Iioar<l to acquaint you
that, in consequence of representations made to them
on bfhaU' of the Indian tea trade, they have approved
of the following regulations for ascertaining the weight
of Indian teas on importation in lieu of those laid
down in Ueueral Order 5-1S81, which is hereby e;wn-
celled, viz. : —

I. — The packftgt^s on arrival to be weighed to as-
certain the gross weight of eavh package.

2. — The importers to give with each entry a state-
ment that the teas in each break hav'i; been bulked
in India, ami that the chests of each break contain
even not weights.

3. — In order to test the accuracy of this statement,
ten per cent of each break to be turned out and
weigiied net, but in no case are less than three chcvsts
to l»ie turned out.

4. — If the variation in weight of the test packages,
fmm each other, he found to exceed two pounds, the
whole parcel is to 1>h tared. For instance, if the te-t
packages weigh net 7!>, 80, antl 81 lb. respectively, the
variations would not exceed two pounds, but if one
package be found to weigh 70 lb., and any other S2
Ih. or more, tlien the whole break to be lared;unle-s
the import*T and surveyor consider that an aver-
age tare can equitably be given, in which case the
tarers must not vary more than two pounds, as in the
cise of the net weights.

5. — Duty is to be charged on the average weight
of tlie packnges weighed net, provided tliat, wheu the
average of the packaj^es weighed not amounts to so
mnny pounds aud a half or more, the half ur nioru
will be charged ms a fuil pound ; when the fraction is
less than a lialf, it m:iy be disrej^arded

0. — All Indian teas bulked in this country are to be
weighed gro^s and each chest tiired.

** I am t<j add that the importers ate to be h1-
Inweil the option of having teas dcidt with under Ilie
above regulations or under the general regulations on
thi« subject laid down in General Order, 19-1882. —
I am. Sir, your obedient servant,

** II. Murray, Secretary.

Factury Bnlkiny. — With reference to the bulking
of te.is in India, so as to send the crop forward in
a condition to be sold on arrival in London without
the delay incurred by having to perform that oper-
ation in this country, there is still room for much
improveuunt, many invoices, as noted recently in a
trade circular, being marked as '* bulked '* which, on
inspection, prove to be so uneven that re-hulking
here, to make the tea merchantable, is irnperativi-.
It cannot be too strongly urged upon managers (tf
tea estates that to reap the full benefit of bvilking in
India and net weighing here, the necessary conditions
must be rigidly adhered to, viz., thoYontfli hufkhii/ at
ike utirdcHy and an ri'in quantitij ixxcktd in eiwh chrst
of tht hreaiif otherwise the labour and cost of bulking
at the factory will have been to no purpose.

London U'(trihoiL<e Rates. — The inereased rates for
warehousing tea imposed by a jointcommittee of dock
compai;ies and warehouse keepers, at and from the
first July last, without notice to your committee were
made the subject of correspomlence, and your com-
mitte were informed that such increased rates were
to last until the SOth .June nexfc,any alteration in the
enhanced rates being a (juestinu fur the consideration
of the dock companies and warehouse keepers them-
selves. Yom- committee have to report that tiie dock
companies and warehouse proprietors have issued a
revised scale of rates and charges for warehousing
and working Indian teas, to take effect from 1st July,
188(3 ; tlie reductions to be made in the present charges
are equivalent to about seven per cent., but as the
warehouse proprietors will allow only five per cent,
discount from first July next, instead of ten per cent.
as at present, the actual reduction in charges on teas
in private warehouses will amount to only about two
per cent, from 1st July next. Under these circum-
stances your committee have completed satisfactory
arrangements with the proprietors of Butler's Wharf,
Southwark. for warehousing aud working Indian teas
on reasonable terms which will be communicated t-o
the members, on application to the secretary of this
association, and it may be stated that the Wlndesale
Tea Dealers' Association give a preference to teas lying
at liutler's Wharf.

iionns to Coolies. — Your committee have approved
of t he revised rules framed by the Indian Tea
Assoeiation of Calcutta, for regulating the rates of
binus to be given to coolies on their leaving one
garden for another, by which it is hoped that
economy may be promoted and disputes avoided.

Coloni'd and Indian E.vhihilion, 1880. — A Colonial
and Indian Exhibition will be opened by her
Majesty the Queeu en May 4. Your committee
have arranged with Messrs. H. S. King aiul Co.,
who act as a;jents for the Itoyal Commission, that
they shall perform the executive duties connected
with the Indian tea exhibit in co-operation with a
sj)ecial sub-committee of the association. Samples
of teas from different estates will be exhibited in n
uniform manner. Selected teas from the various
district.s, in attractive packets, will be on sale.
Infused tea, c-irefuUy prepared, will be offered to
the public at moderate prices. The careful manner
in winch the arran;^ements are being carrieil out, will,
it is believed, have the effect of popularising Inli.iu
tea both at home aud among colonial and other
visitors.

FrQuh iMarkets for hdian Teas. — Your committee
are glad again to report that the tradi; with Australia
and New Zealand C'Uitinucs to sliow a satisfactory
rate of progress. The exports from Calcutt.i to thi"^e
countries for the period, January I to December 31,
1885, have been 1, 8t)7,«25 lb., against 1.020,l(i:j lb. for
the same period in 18M, and O0fi,47ii lb. for tlie same
period in 188:5. It is to be regretted tli;it the trade
with America does not 'i)rogress in the same satis-
factory m-nu'r^ hit yo'ir committee stdl believe that
patient, persevering efforts to open up this large field
will eventually meet with sncces.s — and also that a
field will be found on the Continent for Indian teas.
T<:a Stati.itics.—Thi: imports and deliveries for home
consumption of Indian tea (including Ceylon) in the
Cnit^Mt Kingdom for the last nine seasons have been

864

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

as fuUows, taking the se.isou as from June 1 to May
31 : —

IMPORTS, IN MILLIONS OF POt'XDS.

1876-7 1S77-S 1S78-9 1870-0 1880-1

20 37 36 40 45

1881-2 1S82-3 1883-4 i884-5

50 57 G3 64

Dklivkries, in Millions of Pounds.

1870-7 1877-8 lS78-f) 1879-0 1880-1

26 34 ;IG 36 47

1881-2 1882-3 li^83-4 1884-[>

47 57 61 71

Of the whole cousumptiou of toa in the United
Kingdom only 3 per cent, was Indian in the year
18G4, whereas the proportion of Indian and Ceylon
tea in 1885 was nearly 40 per cent.

/iunudli and A.-isai/i. — The recent estension of the
empire by the annexation of Upper 15unnah to the
dominions of the Crown will probably lead, at no
distant date, to the construction of a railway between
Uhanio, Gachar, Sylhet, and Assam, by which it is
confidently hoped that the prosperity of the latter
provinces will be promoted.

The members of the general committee as usual
offer themselves for re-election, and it is proposed by
Mr. J. B. White, and seconded by Mr. J. M. Hull,
that the name of Mr. Henry Earnshaw be adeed to
the general conmiittit-e.— Ermest Tve, Secretary, Lon-
don, March 30, 1886. — Home and Calo^rit} Afail.

CoATiNc KOK Woodwork. — Good lime salked with
sour miik, and diluted with water till it is of about the
consistency of ordinary whitewash, is rtjcomme-nded by
the Landivirth. as an excellent coating for woodwork.
Fences, rafters, partitions, etc., are, it .says, eJfectually
protected against the weatiier for at least ten years by
this application. The casein of the milk in combination
with the lime forms a permanent film, which dries so
quickly in warm weather that heavy rains falling
directly after it has been laid on will scarcely effect the
work. — Indian Uanlt tier.

Natal To»ac'co. — A considerable amount of the
tobacco consumed in Natal is grown in the Colony, and
no doubt, a contemporary says, the increasing demand
for the leaf grown on the Iliet A'alley Estate atUmhlali
is evidence that Natal tobaccos should have a place on
the London market, and do away with the necessity for
importing leaf from America. The Kiet Valley tobacco,
which has received much favourable notice at the hands
of e.xhibition judges, was sliown largely in sample at the
recent Agricultural Show and received tirst and second
jirize for leaf, first and second for cut, aud also a " highly
recommended " for the former. It will thus be noticed,
on comparison with other descriptions of tobacco grown
in the Colony, that the Kiet Valley brand fully sustains
that excuUenee for which it is already so widely known.
— Colonies and India..

iMpRovRo IMetiiod o1'' PnEsFitviNG WooD. — The im-
proved Krench method of preserving wood by the
application of lime is found to work well. The pL'in is to
pile the ()lanks in a tank, and to put over all a layer of
finicklime, which is gradually slaked with water. Timber
for mines requires about a week to be thoroughlj' im-
(iregiiatt'd, and other wood more or less time according
to its thickness. The material acquires remarkable
consi.stence ami hardness, it is stated, on being subjected
to this simple process, and the assertion is made that it
will never rot. Beech-wood prepared in this w;iy for
Itammers, and other tools for ironwork, is fouml to
acquire tlie liardness of oak, without parting with any
of its well-known elasticity or toughness, and it also
lasts longer. — /n'i'ian Fnrf.st>-y,

TiiK TuiiR IN Printiny; Housk Square. — The au-
cient tree whirh Mr. John AValter, M.P , preserved
with much care in the square of the Timrs oiiice,
fell on the same day that Mr. Clandstone, the eminent
tree-fidler, resigned. Is this *' an omen'? The tree
was a mystery to most people. Its foliage was un-
like any other met with in London Some South

Americans visiting the office are said to have recog-
nised it at once as a specimen of the striped maple.
Some one has suggested that it may have been a
specimen of the Hecu— a South American aud South
African drug. One authority on arboriculture chris-
tened it a Sophora from Brazil. But it was really
a specimen of bush Ptelia trifoliaia, allied to the
elm, a native of North America. — Jour na/ of Forest ly.
The Landolphia Plant.— Major I. Campbell Walker,
Conservator ol Forests, in charge of Southern Division,
wrote to the Secretary to (I .jinment, on the 5th
ultimo: — ''In reply to the Un ler Secretary's official
memorandum of 13th ultimo. No. 267, I liave toe honor
to state that of Mr. Ferguson's plants of Landofphia at
Calicut, ouly two remain alive, and thej' show no
growth or vigor. So far as is known, all the plants
distributed by Mr. Ferguson in the Wynaad and else-
wliere are dead. The twelve plants planted by Mr.
Morgan in the experimental garden at Madantoddj all
died within eighteen months, but the plant received
from Cej'lon Botanical Gardens and planted at Nilambur
in August 1882 has grown 2 feet 9 inches since the last
annual report, and is now 6 feet 6 inches in height,
healthy aud robust. Mr. Ferguson gave one plant to
Mr, Lawson last January, which is healthy under glass
in the Covernment gardens here.'' The Government
order thereon is as follows. — "The result of these
experiments is poor, but the Government are neverthe-
less of opinion that of the ludia rubbers lately intro-
duced the Landolphias are probably the best suited for
cultivation in this Presidency." — Jladras Mali.

Ceduela Sinensis is the only member of a genus
of large trees which is hardy in this country. Jamaica
or AVest Indian Cedar is furnished by C. odorata,
which is cultivated in stoves or green-houses in this
country ; and the timber of C. Toona, largely used in
Australia and India for furniture and general orna-
mental work, is also grown in England under similar
conditions. At Kew, however, C. sinensis seems as
hardy as the Ailantus glandulosus, which it much
resembles in general aspect. It was introduced f com
China to the Jardin des Planters, at Paris, rather more
than a score of years ago, and for a long time was
known in nurseries under the name of Ailantus tltves-
cens. It. however, does not possess the strongly dis-
agree.ible odor of the foliage of the Ailantus, and the
wKole plant has a yellower hue. The roots, too, are
red and not white, as in the Ailantus. Like that, it is
readily propagated by means of root cuttings, and, in
rapidity of growth and general adaptability for decor-
ative purposes, it seems likelj' to rival the Ailantus. —
Garden.

Planting in the West Indies. — At the same time
cocoa, coffee, and what are commonly called the
" minor" products, ought to be cultivated as much as
possible. Trinidad aud Grenada have practicjdly ac-
knowledged this, and their cocoa is a considerable
element of prosperity. Jamaica, with its coffee and its
fruits, deserves to succeed, for there is plenty of room
for these products side by side with sugar. The
Jamaica population, too, is especially adapted for the
kind of occupation made available by these industries.
Jamaica has also a special reputation for its rum, and it
is satisfactory to see that, while the production will
this year be lessened by the drought, compensation will
be obtained in a better market, which has already
shown signs of strengthening. The cotfee market is
quiet, and Trini<lad cocoa is selling at firm rates. Tho
moral of all these remarks is that for .sugar, with
strictly economical production in cane countries, there
is a prospect of remunerative rates. For Jamaica rum
(and to some e.Ktent for Demerara) there is also a fair
prospect, especially considering the large use made of
the best qualities of Jamaica rum for various purposes
on the continent of Europ'\ Aud that for cotfee,
cocoa, cinchona and spices, with a moderate increase of
production, to suit the consumption, and with the best
and most carefvd preparation (for Jamaica colfee is
sometimes spoiled in price by the careless way in which
it is prepared and forwarded), such a market may be
obtained as would justify the tropical <.'olonies in
jilaciug some confidence in those products as well as in
sugar. — CahnUs and India.

JONE I, 1886.]

THE TROPI-CAL AGRICULTURIST.

■■65

NEW FIELDS FOB- CEYLON TEA.
We have pleasure in calling attention to tlie
letter of Mr. A. E. Seovell given below. In bidding
good-bye to the Ceylon planting Commissioner,
•.ve expres.sed the earnest hope that he would
visit America and take some trouble to make
known there the good ijualities of Ceylon
Tea. Mr. Shand in answer said he was not quite
sure if his commission would cover a trip across
the Atlantic ; but if not, the sooner this is ar-
ranged for by the Planters' Association, in. our
opinion, the better. America, that is, the United
States and Canada are the two great countries
that have to be conquered for tea. They are
■peopled mainly by Anglo-.Saxon and Celtic peoples
—by tlie same people in the main who constitute
the great tea-drinkers of the United Kingdom.
And yet strange to say, no sooner do these same
tea-drinkers cross the Atlantic than they fall un-
der '• the customs of the country." the old ex-
ample established by (iermans and Dutch and
take to drinking nothing but coffee. This is no
wonder, perhaps, considering that nearly every- j
where in the United .States, at railway stations, j
hotels, restaurants, *c., you can, as on the Con- I
tinent of Europe, always get a good cup of coflee,
whereas the tea served— if served at all— is of the
pooi-est description. This is of course owing to the
quality of the teas imported by America from
China and Jax)an, nmch of it faced and adulterated, i
Now, if is quite evident that there is a large |
population in America quite ready to fall back on I
their old habit of tea drinking "if only the good 1
tea to which they were accustomed in the mother- '
country is brought within their reach. The Calcutta '
Tea Syndicate through its New York Agents has
been doing a little, not much however, to make
Indian tea known. Old Ceylon planters— Mr. K.
E. I'ineo among others — have also been reported
to be selUng Indian and Ceylon teas in the " Em-
pire City." Eut we are convinced that nolliing
would serve to strengthen and extend the incjpient ,
business in our teas, so much as a judiciously
managed lecturing tour through the States and
Canada. Tlie Americans are fond of lectmes, and
they make much of a go'od lecturer who talks,
and alks well, on a subject of which he is evid-
enliy master. Mr. J. L. Shand would be certain
to satisfy them in every respect. lie could also
carry and distribute samples of our teas, and, if
possible, establish agencies for the sale of Ceylpn
teas after giving his lectures, in such towns as
Wa^^llington, Ualtimore. I'hiladelpliia, I'ittsburg,
Ciiieinatti, Chicago. Toronto, Montreal, (Quebec
and throughout the New l^.ngland and New York
.Stales. The result, we are convinced, would be
found in a new demand for Ceylou teas, —a result
which could not fail to r.-jiay the constituents of
the Planters' Associattion for the expense incurred
in this campaign.

Statistics show that the increase in eoiisuinption
I of Indian and Ceylon teas in the United Kingdom
I has risen, during the past 20 years from 3 per
cent to -10 per cent. Messrs. Gow Wilson it
Stanton in their interesting analytical review of the
' position and prospects of Ceylon" tea remark: "We
believe that these varieties '(Indians and Ceylons)
I only require to be placed before our I'ollow-coiintry-
nieu in other quarters of the globe in adecjuate
quantities and constant supplies to ensiue the de.
velopmeutof the same improved taste which now dis-
tinguishes the home market and that every pound of
Indian and Ceylon tea which they oonsuine will, pro.
vided the present high standard of quality be main-
tained, have the effect of ultimately displacing
a proportionate quantity of China tea."

There can, I think, be httle doubt but that the
existing channels are capable of expansion and
that there are lields available to us where our
teas are at present practically unknown. A stray
shipment at long intervals from individual estates
will not have much effect (in fact tliis has been
tried) and unless we combine and are pre])arcd to
share losses on first shipments, our tens will con-
tinue to go, almost exclusively to London.

With this in view I think it desirable that the
Planters' Association should take the matter up,
and if possible organize some co-operative action.
We are expending a considerable sum of money
in connection with the exhibition of our products
at South Kensington this year, the results of which
world-wide ad\ertiseniont we hope to reap some
benefits from ; but to give full effect to these and
to bring our Commissioner's work to a practical
and useful conclusion, I would suggest that
his attendance at the Exhibition be fol-
lowed up by a visit on our behalf (and as
our Commissioner or Agent) to America
and possibly other countries. Thi-i, however, and
kindred suggestions are matters which 1 should like
to see fully discussed by those concerned, the de-
tails of an organized scheme being determined on
by a Sub-Cominlltee consisting of influential men
interested in tea and Ceylon's prosperity.

The endeavour to open up fresh markets, involving
as it does a considerable amount of trouble and
some loss (loss though for ultimate uniii), is a
matter which we are apt to neglect until the necessity
for action is forced upon us ; but it is one to which
all Interested in Ceylon should give their attention
and support, and combine as far as is practicable
to send regular and adequate supplies to fresh
markets.

Ill the hope that this matter will be taken up
with as lilllo delay as possible and with the earnest-
ne.ss which, I submit, it deserves, 1 am, dear sirs,
yours faithfully, ARTHUR SCOVELL.

THE NEED OF OPENING UP FRESH
MARKETS FOR CIIVLON Tl'.A.
Sdathellie, Nawalapitiya, liith May Issil.
Deaii Siji,— The recent fail in prices o( Indian
and Ceylou teas, brought about in a great mea-
sure, we are told, by the collapse of trade in one
portion only of the United Kingdom, suggests the
importance of co-operative efforts being made on '
(■■ I part to assist in thi' opening up of fresh fluids 1
as outlets for our |ir.i.liiei>.
108

ANCTKNT COCONUT CULTIVATION IN
ClOYLON.

AiiU'n:-;ft much learned lore iuMr. Novill's latest T((-
pruhoniiiii. wetind thefoliowing notes on the formation
of a coconut estate In the South of Ceylon so long
ago as the latter portion of the sixth century of the
Cbristia 1 era, or 121)7 years ag j : —

In tlie lust note we li.;ve seen tint Agriliodhi,
nephew of Mabaniga (A. D. .'SO) pknttd a c-ocomit
istate three yo :uia» in extent. He n'.so built the Agra-
l.odlii i'"i-v 11a which we have identified with (be Agra-
bodhi Villi a at Veligama. Now (radition, iiotiicd by
Pri'Ihaiii, Teuneiit, «nd others, s^oiibes a niriuiltuble
ht;itiu)iif R kinu, carved out of the live rock not far
from lliis \ib;ira, to a king who lirst iiilrodneeil c< cj-
iml culiiviitidii ill lleyli.ii, miil tnuglit tlie Sinbulese its

m

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886,

value. Previously it would eeem not to have entered
ijto the diet of the people, though undoubtedly grown
Ml orchards for its tender fruit, the juice of which was
;ot only used for drink, but fco mix lime iuto a cement.
I'his agrees with the earliest name, kasap;cngedi, or as-
iriiigent water-fruit. The tradition is precise, universally
believed, and bound fast by the existence of the statue,
rhe only variation in it is that he is soTietimes called
ivushtha llfija, or the Leper king, and it is then added
that he caused this statue to be cut in gratitude for his
cure, after bathing in the sea here. It is not unlikely
Agrabodhi was altlicted with a cutaneous disease, was
cured of it by sea-batting here, and the free use of
coconut oil prescribed by some voyager both as food
and ointment; and that he caused his own statue to be
carved as a grateful memorial, erecting the Agrabodhi
Vihara, aild planting up the coast, for three yodnns in
length, with coconut grovfs.

The dress and ornament of the statue are consistent
with the theory that the Kushtha Kaja's portrait is that
of Agrabodhi himself.

The coconut groves of the coast for three yoduns in
length, from A'eligama to Dondra, are certainly of con-
siderable anti«iuiby, and those ports are also of extreme
antiquity. I do not hesitate then to say, that the ac
count intlie Mahawansa, and the tradition at Veligama-
so consistently support each other, as to leave no doubt
they refer to one event.

The introduction of coconut cultivation in order to
supply the dady wants of the people being thus in-
augurated, we next learn from the Mahawansa, that
Kasyapa, the Yuva Kaja who succeeded his brother Sri
Sangabodhi, and successfully contested the throne with
the rivil line under Dhatopa Tisa, planted coconut
gardens.

After this the cultivation probably became geueral,
as we hear no more details of plantations made by the
kings. Probably the innovation of toddy drawing, and
distillation of spirit, which naturally followed such ex-
tensive cultivation, caused the plantation of coconuts to
be viewed with distrust by the Buddhist hierarchy, who
ceased to recortl this cultivation as a work of merit.
— The record of the plantations of Agrabodhi, and
Ka.syapa, undoubtedly shows that spirits were not then
distilldd Irom the coconut toddy.

I Dropose to have a careful drawing made of the
Kushtha Kaja statue, for publication hereafter in this
journal. For a further extension of a Kushtha R.aja
trailition, see nixtiiote. Editor.

Cochin Lk<;knu of Kusi Ra.ia and the Hoi'o.nut
I'Aijr.

This same tradition of a king being connetitod with
t be introduction or crt^ation of coconut ])alms, is found
ia Cochin. I find in Day's Cochin, p. 53.1, that tradi-
tions there state that ICusi Haja, a strenuous worshipper
of the Divine I'nity, rejectid ollVrings to iiif<Tior
divinities, and became iilniust ei|ual to a goil, <-n\iliug
many grams now grown by mau.

Becoming arabilirms, he meditated creating a superior
race of men, but aftei* completing Ihe head, tlu^ drnd-
gods, aUrnied, persuaded him to dt^^ist. The lieail be-
came a coconut tree, and "U'as dedicated to Uanesa,
lord fif science, aiid jiroteetor of learneil meu.

There seems little doubt that this legend and that of
the Kustha Raja are ecninected. It is (|uite probable
th.at Malabar merchants, linding the Agrabodlii statue
reverenced as that of the king who fiist planted coco-
nuts for geueral use as food, hastily confused it with
the legend of Kusi Raja's cieation of the tree, ami
perhaps gave offerings under that impi'ossion. It would
follow that the villagers of Veligama, gratified by the
honour shown to theii' local celebi-ity, would accept the
Kusi liaja tradition as part of their own, whether their
king was already known as Kustha llaja, or whcdher
that name and the " leper " incidcMit, grew up out of
the Cochin legeml of Kusi.

The esplanaiiou already triooted in the previous imte,
seems, hovvt:ver, most natural. If Agrabodhi, alUicted
with skin disease, was cured by the advice of a Rlidabar,
who prescribed the free use ui coconut as an ariiele of
bis diet, and its employment as an unguent, telling the
king the legend of the miraculous creation of the tree

by Kusi Raja, lingering traces of the name Kusi would
readily suggest the epithet Kustha, for the king. Even
now the use of coconut as food, is regarded as a help
to the cure of skin disease, so common among the
natives, and arisiug from an irritating diet.

In this view of the case, the statue may liave been
cai'ved in honour of Kusi ]i;ija. As, however, no
traditional type of efllgy existed for Kusi, even in that
case it is likely enougii Agrabodhi's own effigy was
adopted, and he himself regarded as a rebirth of Kusi,
just as Maha Sen was treated as an incarnation of
Skanda.

The name and account of Kusi at once suggest the
Cochin legend is a version of the Greek tradition regard-
ing Dionysos. The name Kusi itself may be a tatsaiua
with the Greek chusis, a libation, &c., chumos. sap, and
the other derivatives from the same root. In Sinhalese
kusi means agriculture, whence kusaka the plough, and
also the ploughman. For the Indian traditions identified
by the Greeks as referring to their own Dionysos, the
reader is referred to the ludika of Megasthenes, as
collected and edited by Schwanbeck. For an English
translation by McOrindle see the Incl. Ant., Vol. VI.
p. 113.

In connection w'th this interesting notice of the
coconut palm, we should be glad to receive inform-
ation as to the earliest mention of the tree in Sinhalese
literature and whether such mention favours the idea
of the palm being indigenous.

CEYLON PKODUCE IN THE LONDON
MARKETS.

Political uncertainty combined with gener.al trade
depression has tended to keep the produce markets
in Loudon in a quiescent and languid state dur-
ing the first quarter of the present year, and,
although the position of some articles is un-
doubtedly stronger owing to the recent prevalence of
low prices having somewhat checked supplies, an
entire absence of all outside speculation prevents
any appreciable chan.^e for the better taking place.
In fact, the position is unchanged — no better, and
no worse. But the next move of importance can
hardly fail to be an upward one for most articles
in Mincing Lane, and yet so far people are very
loatli to believe in this probability. In the same
way when everything is most prosperous, and
men .are coining nuincy, it is generally most
diOieult to make them believe that values are
inllated, and a coU.apse will he the result. The
market for Pia>,-t.\tion Ckvi.o.v Coffkh, especially
tor well-made and colory coffee on the whole
has been fairly satisfactory, and decidedly higher
than at this period last year. The smaller sup-
ply naturally accounts for this. Coffee generally
shows but little change. Stocks on the Continent
are still enormous, whilst supplies Irom llra/il
arc steady, regular and continuous. On the 3Ist
March the average daily receipts at Rio amounted
to 8,300 bags, and the stock to 'i.50,000 bags at
Santos at the same date, the average daily re-
ceipts were 3,7U0 bags, and the stock was .320,000
bags, the local market there being tiuoted weak.
In the face of these large totals, the immediate
future of coffee, except for scarce colory and
bold kinds, can scarcely show any rise of im-
portance.

As regards Ci.vciiona our natural presumptions,
we are bound to acknowledge, have been ."lome-
what faulty. The rise we expected has so far
not taken place. Although indications of a rise
in a special' article may be justly relied on from
figures, some circumstance not previously calcul-
ated on may occur to delay or postpone beyond

June i, 1886.}

IfHK TKUFiCAL. AUKlCUL,TUklS'l'.

he-/

our anticipations" the almost certain event we had
looked for. In the case of ciiiclioiia no one
would have supposed Dial the shipments from
Cejloii. up to the end of March would show
an excess of two and a quarter million Ih. be-
yond the shipments at the same period of
last year and to the end of April a comparative
excess of 8,100,000 lb.! For the first seven
sales jf the present year the average unit has
not varied more than a farthing in the London
market. At no period that we have records of
has such stagnant dullness characterized these
sales. Yet, if we look into the statistical figures
of this article, we tind the deliveries during this
period have been well maintained and compare
favourably with previous years, especially if we
bear in mind that the deliveries jiot only equal in
number of packages those of previous years, but
the average size of the package is considerably
larger bemg mostly made nj) of Ceylon bark.
Take for instance the total deliveries for the first
three months of 188'2, which amounted to 14,798
packages and the total deliveries for the same period
in 18811, which amounted to Hi, 217 packages, the
increase in the number of packages amounts to
1, tl'.l, but the average increase in the size of the
package must be something very considerable. The
deliveries for the first three months of 1885 were
15,042 packages, against l(i.817 in 1884 and lti,438
in 1883, those of 1885 and 1880 being almost
entirely of East Indian bark with its larger pack-
age. These facts show a steadily progressive in-
crease over former years. We opened the present
year with a stock of t;2,247 against 80,874 packages
at the beginning of last year. The stock increased
as follows : —

1886. Total Stock. 1885.

JanuarySlst 67,033 pkgs. against 80,039

February 28th ... 6S,873 „ „ 80,067

March 31st 63,700 „ „ 78,635

The increase then in the three months amounts to
1,453 package.^. If we take the package at 250 lb. aver-
age say, for the purpose of discussion, we have an
increase to the stocks since the commencement of
the year amounting to some 3(i3,250 lb., a mere
bagatelle in dealing with an article like cinchona
bark. The exports from Ceylon show au increase of
some 3 milli "IS lb. over the same jjeriod of last
year, yet thrcc-<|uartcrs of this extra amount e.K-
ported has been ■piictly absorbed by the deliveries,
and does not remain hanging over the market. The
stock at the end of March shows a decrease of
some 15,000 packages compared with the same
period of 1-87. These facts all point to an im-
provement in the value of bark and ciuiuine pro-
vided the shipments from Ceylon during the next
few months tio not show an unreasonable increase
over those of last year during the same period.

The unsettled position of Irish affairs has
especially aff'^cted Ceylon Teas. The Irish who
are very par icular about their teas, and insist on
having it g 'od, seem to have a predilection for
Ceylon tea. The tea market generally, from our
latest advices, was very quiet and prices for Ceylon
lea h»d fall<n. The general complaint was that
the quality just now for all Ceylon tea was not
BO fine as osoal, and the numerous small breaks
that are constanlly arriving had temporarily affected
onr market. The imports of all teas for the first
three month"; of 18-((i amounted to 4fi.73;).0OO lb.
against 30,78ti,000 lb. in 18S5, and 3!),080,000 lb.
ih 1884. The deliveries are returned at 54,(181,000
lb. against (-.9,131,000 lb. in 1885, and 51,172,000
ib. in 1884. The abnormal deliveries for the first
three months of 1885 are accounted tor by the
unfounded fears as it proved, that it was con-
templated adding an eslva duty of 3d pet lb. to

tire already e.xistiug one of Gd per lb. The stock
on the 28th February ' amounted to 811,171,000 lb.
against 8(5,837,000 in 1885, and 114,8',»l,0001b. in issi.
It becomes more imperative than ever for Ceylon
with her increasing exports to maintain lier
quality, and increase the sizo of her breaks. The
fallhig-olT in quality being so general can only bo
attributable to chmatic conditions whieli, as wo
know, have shown considerable variation this year.

There has been a good deal more stir in tho
Caiuia.mom Mauki:t during JIarch and April, and
although the rise in value has been innualurial,
there has been no difliculty in iinding purchasers
at a fair valuation. The demand is said to come
from the Continent more than from America just
now. lu March the landings amounted to 337
chests, and the deliveries to 453 chests, leaving
the stock at the end of the month 03(1 chests
against 83(1 in 1885 and 708 in 1884, whilst in
1883 the stock at this period of the year was
only 482. The total deliveries for the first three
months of 1886 amounted to OIC chests against
729 in 1885, 344 in 1884, and only 262 in 1883,
which shows an increased Continental and American
demand of some 300 per cent in three years. The
future of this market is uncurtain. If exports
continue to increase at the present ratio from
Ceylon, it is an impossibility that prices will
continue even at the low ebb to which they have
descended.

LETTERS FROM BRAZIL.
{Sjieci'd Jill- " C'eijlon Olmerrcr" .)

or.ADU.Ui FAILUKE OP COFFEE — CULTIVATION OF PAYING
rEOLDCTS — Sn<iAKC.\NE — TUE FOOD OF THE COUNTKY —
CORN-GKOWlN'G — FAEINHA .\HD FUBA — I'OSTSCKIPT : COF-
FEE, THE SEASON, L,U30UE SUFPLY AND EUROPEAN
COLONISTS — THE PRIME MINISTER OF P.RAZIL A READER
OF THE " CEYLON OBSErvVEE."

Prov. Rio de Janeiro, 4tli March, 1886.

The planters in the lower part of the Province
of Eio de Janeiro were slow in making up their
minds that there was nothing more to be hoped
for from coffee. Those lost the least who were
the first to give up hope. There was no chance'
of selling out, yet needless expenditure could be
withheld and the labour sjient on it devoted to
something else.

I mentioned before that the Brazilian coffee
planter as a rule grows all the provisions needed
for his labourers in addition to his priucijial
agricultural product, col^'ee. These are Indian
corn, beans, and mandioca. Since coffee would
not p.ay, there was no help for it, but to extend
the cultivation of these products, and sell what
was not reciuired for home consumption.
Although railway extension, like your Dimbula-
tJva line, came too late to help them when they
could transjiort coffee, it was now ready to assist
them in the carriage to a market in Itio do
Janeiro of their provision crops, and fortunate
for the farmer it was so, for corn and beans will
pay for a long distance carriage on pack-mules.

Sugarcane was tried by some, but machinery
being expensive and prices of sugar low, nothing could
be made of it. Those, however, who turned the
cane juice into rum managed to make the two
ends meet. Cano is easily grown, and the sea-
side of the Serra-de-mar is the best jjlace imagin-
able for it, but the transpoi-t from the fields to
the engine-house, the enormous quantity of (Ire-
wood rec|uirod for the open evaporators, and the
skill and care rc(|uircd for manipulating so as to
give a fair aample, made cano growing for nugar
making by a private farmer a losing game.

86S

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886

Those who grow cane for distilling had not the
ijame expenditure in tire-wood, there was little
labour recjuired after the cane was once at the
mill, and tliere was generally a good local
cousiuuijtion for the spirit which was made up to
a proof of 20 or 21 degrees. Cane-growing to
sujiply a central factory is quite another thing,
both for planters and factory owners, but this
I will notice at some other time.

The principal food of the country consists of beans,
jerked beef, jiork, and farinha, the latter can be
made from either Indian corn or mandioca. The
consumption of the<>e is large over the whole
Empire, but there is no part of the latter where,
with the exception of jerked beef, they are not
produced in quantities to supply the local con-
sumption. The town of Eio de Janeiro having
a large population requires a large quantity of these
provisions.

To grow corn requires little labour and no agri-
cultural skill. The abandoned coffee llelds are cleared
wth a bill-hook and burned off ; the corii is planted,
by one man going before making small cuts on
the ground with a hoc, and another following
putting seeds in these cuts and covering up witli
the foot. The clearing ot the land with the
bill-hook is done in the dry weather, the
burning when there is appearance of rain, and
the planting after a shower has fallen.
Beyond the Serra, Indian corn is planted from
Septendjcr to I'ecember, and as a rule one crop
a year. Below the Serra the climate is somewhat
different, is a little more forcing, and conse-
quently in many instances two crops are got, and
planting seasons are September, October and January
and February and March. Various opinions are
held as to which is the best time to plant.
Within 10 and lo days after planting a rush of
small weeds comes up. These are hoed down, dry
weather being chosen for this work. If this weed-
ing has been well done, the later weedings are
not at all heavy. Many fields have only two
weedings but most have three ; one is not always
sure of a crop on the lands below the Serra
although a failure beyond the Serra is rare ; some-
times a month or six weeks of dry weather may
come and the corn crop planted at some particular
time may be lost. The farmer does not plant all
at one time but extends his planting over two
mouths cr so ; one half may be killed by the
drought and the other half may be all right. In
gathering the crop only the heads containing the
grain is picked ; the straw is left standing. Different
modes arc adopted : some give a basket to eaoli
workman and he fills it and carries the heads of
corn to the nearest heap, which is beside a track
wliere a buliock-cart can come and take the corn
to the storehouse ; others have part of the work-
men picking and Ihrosving into small heaps and
tiiii'iliev pjrt carrying to the large heap. The head
nf corn JiaB the dry leaves attached to it when
lalten lo the storehouse, and as these form a compa<;t
mass round the grains some work is entailed in
getting this husk off. Tliis husk is kept on until
the corn has to be sent to market, were it is taken
off, the grains would heat it not properly dried in
the 81111. As a rule those who grow corn for sale
sell it a; sojn ai they can after it is picked.
It is gcneially sold befere the husk is taken off.
The unhusking is generally done in the evening
niter daric, on farms where the workmen are
slaves, anfl on rainy days, when the work is
done liy free labour. To one not accustomed to
the work the progress is slow, but a good hand
Wnowi; the exucl ;ea( to open and gives the requisite
tear and a jerk, and pitchea the clean head into

ihu Leap, and iq a circle arounil bioi ie (be

empty husks. These latter are pulled outside and if
there are cattle on the place they arc offered
to them, if not the husks are burnt outside
the storehouse. I believe in the States there arc
machines for unhusking Indian corn, but I
have not seen any here. The next process
is to take the ears off the centre corn, called
in English the corn-cob. There are several
machines for this, and some driven by steam
or water-power do the work admirably. Machines
are not much used on the farms. The
head is held by one hand and rubbed in the
palm of the other, in the latter is often a cob
witli the ears off, which saves the palm a little ;
some negi'oes do the work very dexterously and
laave the cobs clean which a great many machines
do not. The clean corn called in Portuguese milho —
pronounced " meelyo " (and called in the British
African colonies " mealies " from the Portuguese) is
put into sacks of eighty litres, each sack weighing
about 60 kilos (the weight of a sack of coffee) and
sent to the purchaser who may be a storekeeper
at the nearest railway-station or the nearest
sea port or water carriage port. It is only
where railway or water transport is near that
corn millio can pay the farmer as a substitute
for his former coffee planting, and fortunately
for the old coffee planters who first felt
the brunt of the coffee destroying pests these
have been and are being well extended. There
is the Don Pedro Segundo railway which brings
in a large ipiantity ; the t'antagala Railway from
seaside of Serra-de-mar, not much less ;
then there is a large fieet of coasting vessels, both
steam and sailing, from the small ports north
and south of Rio de Janeiro which bring their
quota. We cannot tell exactly what quantity
has come from the old coffee districts, but we are
safe in calculating that thrte-fourths the consump-
tion in the town of Rio de Janeiro is fiom them.
In 188.5 by Don Pedro II. railway was brought

1,01-1,780 sacks.
,, by Cantagala approximately

2,000,000 „
by coasting vessels 173,377 ,,

(>,1SS,10H „
The River Plate sent to Hio in 188.5 in addition
to above !)8,7lil. The enormous iiuniberof mules
used on the tramways in Rio make the coiisurap-
tioii so large. The prices ranged from olfliOO to
rii)>200 duriug the first six months of the year and
from HJS'JO to .51t20O the second.

Owing to there being an abundance \if farinha
de m.in lioca produced on the coast districts there
is very Htlle of the c;>in made into corn meal--
or I'lihii -in Rio, and also very little of what is
called faiinha'de mliho u.-^ed. Tliis latter is a
snbstuice m:ido from Indian corn as follows :— The
corn is soaked in water for some days until it is
quite .soft, it is then beaten in a wooden mortar
into flour. This (lour being damp is dried on a
largo iron piate with a giu underneath. It is
roasted enough not to brown it. This is eaten
along with boiled beans forming, in districts beyond
the Serra, a substitute for farinha de mandioca
amongst the free class of the population. Fidiii,
or the corn made into meal witli a mill-stone, is
made into porridge and is, along with beuna which
have been boiled in some jerked beef and ] ork, the
priucip.il food of the slave in the districts be; o id
the Serra and they fatten and keep shinty in it
and the beans. This is a food nmr : subsl; nt al
than " shore." To use C'oylon language, as a
" new product" and substitute for coffee, unless there
is a market at hand to sell it right off without much
cspcuse iji Irauspoit, it s*::! uol pay. In tbiii

June i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

S69

country, coffee planters all grow it, but this is to
inftlcc them indeixiulent in tlicir rood supply from
any other source than their own farm. They, the
planters, use it in the far interior to feed pigs,
and to be food for their cattle and nniles in crop
time ; and in the districts where the 15ra/.ilian coffee
crops MOW come from, it would pay as a '••pro-
duct " to take the place of coffee.

Before I conclude this on Indian corn, I would
suggest that it may be tried on some of your
estates to supply local consumption. It could, I
think, be grown all over Ceylon, as it is all over
Brazil. Different districts would require .liflVrcnt
times to plant it. The month of April would suit
the most of your districts as a planting season.
During the S.W.. monsoon in .lune or .luly it wqvild
be in nice time to come into full flower : " after
the blossom is icell set," all is, secure.

I was to have touched on mandioea and beans
the other two .siffc-.sK(<stitutes for coffee in our ex-
hausted districts, but these must be left for an-
other occasion. A. SCOTT-BLACKLAW.

P.S. — CoffiW — Yqu are in the habit of receiving
the regular price-currents and must be as well in-
formed as I am about our exports : from Rio was
shipped to 31st December 1^85, 4,20fi,011 sacks of
60 kilos, against :-i,8',t7,113 in 1884. Santos, I am
not so much connected with as formerly, so have
not the figures.

The SeuKon has been a dry one and complaints
are made in the newspapers of the young berries
falling off the trees in many parts. It is tlie crop
season nftcr a di7 year, in which the coffee crop
suffers diminution.

T.iilionr Snpphj keeps ap : slaves are not diminish-
ing much, but at same time, owing to recent legis-
lation, slavery is said to have its limit fixed to IH years.

KiinijH'dii Colonistn are helping the labour supply
in Sao Faulo very much. On the whole, I see
nothing to f^top fiirtJicr extomon of coffee planting,
but a stoppage in railway making. Government is
assisting this latter consummation by giving out no
more guarantees, and seeking every excuse for the
evasion of stipulated conditions in the contract on
the part of Railway Companies to withhold the
guarantee and rescind or cancel the concession.
This course is necessitated by the state of (iovern-
ment funds which are not over-plentiful, and owing
to the recklessness of former Governments in the
giving of guarantees. Some of the railways already
opened within the last two years guaranteed by Gov-
ernment in virtue of a law empowering it to make
contracts with concessionaries for railways, provided
three per ce nt of profit could be shown as a
mininmm, the Government at most losing the
difference between this and the six per cent guar-
anteed on a stipulated sum approved by Govern-
ment as capital of the Company, have been worked
at an enormous loss, and others not yet opened
are expected to be no better. Conselheiro Antonio
Prado, the present Minister* ha? his work before
him. It is lucky that Brazil has such an able
Btatesman as its Minister of Agriculture and Public
Works. The son of a wealthy coffee merchant of
Santos (now retired) and himself a most successful'
toffee planter and introducer of Colonial labourers
on his own account from Europe, he brings the
practical to bear on the somewhat conventional
usages of a department which at the present time
has to give new lite to this expansible country.
Bouie of his late acts in withdrawing guarantees
have the appearance of rashness and entire want
of sympathy with a speculating public— A. S. B^

* He used to be a reader of the Cii/hii <>h> ■,:;■,■ wlien
I knew liiin a few years ago, criticized my writing
severely, but wc remained good friends. I scarcely
tbiuli U"(j ba» forgottou my letters ou Slavery in l'j»2,

DUTIES ON TEA AND CONSUMPTION.
(From the J'/W«cr Marlcii JUfkiv, Ainil 17th.)
The followiug Bnti'^li Colonies and Possessions im-
pose no duty ou tea; India, Strails Sottleincnts,
IiHbuan, Ilong Kong, F;ilkUn I Islands, .St. Helena,
Sierri TjC'nie, (i.imbia, Gibraltar, and Jlalta. Tlie
duty in Mauritius is id per U). In Newfouiulland it
is '-'id per lb., and 1.) psr cent. The following colonies
chartte ;id per lb. : New South AVales, Victoria, South
Australia iGl in the northern tt^rritory), Tasinaiiia,
Fiji, and Ba-.-bailns. 'I^he following chilrge -Id per 11». r
AVestern Australia. New Zealand, Antigua, and Mont-
serrat. Oeylon charges 5^d. The colonies that charge
6d. per lb. are CJueensland. Turk's Island, St. Lucia.
St. Vincent, Uieiuula, Tobago, Dominica, Trinidad,
and British Gnivna. Natal charges 7d ami the Oape
of Good Hope 8cl per lb. The following charge Is
per lb. : Honduras, Bahamas, and; 'Jamaica. Canada
charges 10 per cent ad I'aloiriii ou imports from the
United States ; otlii-r teas arc duty-free Lagos and
the Gold Coast charge 1 per cent nd vulm-ew. Ber-
muda charges .5 per cent, ad I'tdumn. The Virgin
Islands charge 7.v per c^ut- and St. Christopher and
Nevis S per cent, ad I'lilorviii. The remarkable dis-
crepancli^s between iieighboviring colonies cannot be
helped when seif-governineut l.as been granted to them,
but our Colonial Olhco is surely to blame in allowing
such a confu.sed system to prevail in colonial groups
under its own control. For instance there are no
less than si.v v.irieties of tea duties in the West
Indies. Oeylon is nllowt-d to l(;vy a duty of 5^d.,
which can serve no purpose, now that so much tea
is grown there, unless it be a protective one. The
other Grown ( olonies levy tea duties on no percept-
ible vrinciple. The above figures are taken from the
Coloil'ufI }<(iitistuat Ahstraci.

The following from the Sliilint gives the general
consumption of tea iu round figures : —

Ad. con- An av. '-oii-

ainnption sump, per

Jieud of pop.

in English in liluglisli

pounds, pouiida.

Australian Colouios 18,018,000 7'l)ti

New Zealand :j,!W>a.00O TZt

Great Britain, LSSti ir.S,(i.V>,onO 4'1I0

New toundland... 821.000 1-38

Oanada I'i.tiOO.Oiio .'i'tiU

Tusaiania 3811,:.'30 :yiH

Various Britisli possessions, 18S1, about - 3,9;<o,oon riiii

United Stutos, about .' 11.1,000,000 1'30

Holland 4,:Sm:;..1oo fO.'i

Cape Colony I,lL'S.i',Oo 0*90

Nalal :! 7,:to(i 0 71)

Ku.^sia H-MO.S..nOO O'tjl

Denmark 710,000... O'.'t?

Ar^culinc Repnbllu, 1883-84 000,000 U'.SO

Persia, IHSi, about 1.ot;',woo 0"l;t

PortU'-al .31, 1, Olio o-l:.'

Switzerland, 18S0-82 l",c',(Hiii o-lO

Norway ." 170, -100 (fO'J

Germany 3,n:<,500 0 07

Morocoo, about 3.^4,000 0'Olj

Uelgium, 188:1 203.000 0*03

Sweilen, lssO-83 l.'Kl,2oO O'O.^

Austria Hungary, 1883-84 731i,.'i00 ovj

Spain, 1884 - 13U.0O0 Ool

TEA IN CHINA,

Sir Robert Hart has done Chinese tea growers
a kindness, in urging their Government to im-
press upon them the danger they run in the
near future from foreign competition. The tea
exported to foreign countries has, he declares,
been steadily deteriorating of late ; and Chinese
merchants, seeing that notwithstanding its inferior-
ity it is taken a the same, have been encouraged
in their careless manufacture, " forgetting thai,
by this manner of making profit, they are running
to certain ruin." Chinese dealers ma\' be supposed
to know something about the increasing produc-
tion of Indian and other teas, but the grower is
prohaby ijiiite ignorant of the danger. Sir Robert
llart woud have it impressed upon him that, besides
Japaiicbc tea which is being exported everywhere,

870

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886,

India and Ceyon are not only increasing their
procluclicn but arc turning out a better article ;
and if the Chinese do not take warning and im-
prove their tea also, they will find themselves
shortly in a very awkward ijredieament. How
serious the Indian competition is becoming even
Sir Kobert's letter fails adeijuately to show —
fails, that is, if the figures given in the transl.'i-
tion we lately iniblished can be relied on. It
would seem likely, however, that there must be,
here, a clerical error. So accomplished a statisti-
cian is hardly likely to have spoken of the Indian
export for LSSl and lns,5 as sixteen and nineteen
million catties respectively, when, as a matter of
fact, the import into London alone during the nine
moitlis ended March ;Ust last was nearly three
times that quantity; 08,02.^,000 lb. is the figure
attained by India and Ceylon teas durnig that
period, against I)0,0;t7,000 lb. in the corresponding
period of 1884-5. And when we read that over
100,000 acres have been planted this year in Ceylon,
calculated when in full bearing to yield 10,000,0001b.
for that island alone, it must be admitted to be
high time the Chinese producer was awakened to
the gravity of the prospect. India and Ceylon
together will very shortly, at this rate, rival China
in quantity as they already excel in quality ; and
a fresh illustration will then occur of the Darwmian
doctrine of " survival of the fittest." Teas which
have "spurious things added" to them, which are
"made heavy by keeping them wet," and in which
the " labour of manipulation has been economised,"
will not be favourably circumstanced in the race;
and we repeat that the Chinese are indebted to
the Inspector-General of Customs for pointing out
the fact. It is a pity none of the many officials
through whose hands the document passed were
able to enlarge upon the text, so as to bring home
more precisely to tea producers the nature of the
competition which awaits them. All they do is to
hand down from one to another Sir Kobert Hart's
letter, with the sole and quite erroneous addition
that " since the establishment of commerce with
foreigners the amount of silver that has flowed
into foreign countries is very considerable." We
had occasion, only a few weeks ago, to quote
Sherard Osborn's plaint over the drain of silver
that was taking place from Europe to China; and,
as a matter of fact, the movement has always
been in that direction. The Tsungli-yamen are
however right in emphasising the value of tea and
silk in establishing a balance of trade ; and from
that point of view as well as for the sake of an
important national industry, it is to be hoped Sir
Bobert Hart's warning will bear fruit. — L. iC C.
A'.rjJ/'c'ss.

♦

THE SEASON IN INDIA.

(For .t/ic week ending the btli Ma;/.)
Genejial Eemaeks. — Slight rain has fallen thvcugh-
inq Suutheru India and most fiaiti of Bcngil and
British Burma In Assam the fall has heen lieavy.
With the exception of a few showers. Northern and
Central India have been rainless. In the Madras
Presidency, with the exception of the Gaujam District,
agricultural prospocfs coutiuuo fair. In Mysore the
standing crops promise well on the whole, though rain
is wanted in aome parts. In Coorg prospects are good.
In Bombay tlio nihi harvest is approaching completion,
and prepirations for iho ilinrif are in progress in ihat
Presidency and in Berar. In Hyderabad, Central India,
and, witli the exception of Ajmere. Knjputaua agri-
cultural prospf*i'ts oimtiuun generally goo'l. The rafn
harvest is still in progress in the Central Trovinces
and has been netrly ronipI<'ttul in the Xnrth Western
Provinces and Omlh. Ploughing for /7//o'7'cultivMtion
lias commenced in some districts in the ContiiU Pro-
vinces, lu the I'uujab the talii harvest is iu progress

and promises well. The recent rain in Bengal has

been very beneficial to the crops, iiud the I'i's rico and
jute where sown are coming up well. Sugarcane, indigo
and cheena are thriving. The hon rice harvest
is proceeding, with a good outturn. Seasonable wc:i Iher
prevails in Assam, where ploughing and sowing are
still in progress. Seasonable weather prevails iu British
Burma. The public health is generally fair. Prices
are fiuctua'iug iu the Punjab, rising in Mysore and
falling iu Coorg. Elsewliere they are for the most part
stationary. — Mudrcis Mail.

TEA IN INDIA.

The following Circular from the Indian Tea
Association of 8th May, will be of interest : -

" The General Committee arc now enabled to baud
you the following figures, giving an estimate of the
outturn of the Indian Tea Croj) of ISSl.i as couipirod
with the original estimate of the crop of 18«.5 : —

Estimated Out- Estimated Out-
turn nf Crop ti ru of Crop
of 1886. of ISS.i.
lbs. lbs.

Assam SOjlo.S.ini ;3:i,IU,s,ii!)l

Cachar and Sylhet ... 2'J,908,IS0 19,620,11:1

Darjeeling, Terai, and

Dooars ... 13,302,800 U,l-.'2,Si)l

Chittagong and Chola

Nagpore ... 1,34(!.800 1,274,000

Dehra Dun, Kumaoii
and Kangra ... 3,250,000 o,2.J0,000

Total

75,941,274

i;8,735,458

'■ With the exception of the North- West Gardens,
and a few others whose outturn has had to be estimated,
the returns are those actually received from agents of
Gardens.

" In their circular of the 2Gth M irdi last the General
Committee published a statement showing that the
actual crop of 1885 amouuted to 1)8,730, 2191b., so tint
the above figures point to an increased production of
more than 7 millions lb. over that of last season.

'• The consumption in India itself and the exports to
the Australian Colonies and other places may take off
about l-i^ million lb ; thus leaving 72^ million lb for
shipment to the United Kingdom." — rioticer.

Pi.ANTEKs and others in Perak, Selangor. Sunge,
Ujong, and .Johore will be glad to learn that
emigration from India to those States has been
formally authorised by the Governor-General of
India in Council from the 1st instant. Henceforth
there should be no more con>plaints of want of
labourers. — Himjaporc Free Prexs.

The t^u.i-NTiTY OF Tonnv Srinrr issued for sale in
the City of Bombay fell from 281,.HIi5 gallons in
188;-i.84 to 1(1,857 gallons in 18S1-85, while the
quantity of mowra spirit imported from Uran rose
from 415,0711 to 531,125 gallons, and there was an
increase from K]3,70,45(l to 15, Oil, 030 in the amount
of duty derived from both classes of spirit. The
consumption of mowra spirit would no' doubt ham
been checked by the enhancjmcnt of the duty, but
for the fact that there was very little toddy spirit
procurable. The only trees tapped for the pro-
duction of toddy spirit within the town of liomb.i)
were 200 brab trees, ami the average out-turn of
spirit 25 U. P. was only lO.J gallons per tree,— n
result which the Commissioner attributes to presf-ure
brought to bear on the distiller by Bhandaris and
other interested persons. The rate of production
of the 3,000 brab trees tapped at (Hranj, for the
supply of toddy spirit to Bombay, was also, however,
considerably below Mr. Pritchard's estimate of llic
average yield of coconut and brab palms. They
were tapped for six months, and the average out-
turn for that period was 5''J gallons per tree. —
Slttihv Moil.

June i, i8S6.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

S71

Cinchona Babk in Holland. — The public sales of
bark held at Anitsteidam on April I5lh comprised
1,500 bales and ")(iO cases, wsighing about 1 1.5 tons,
the whole being sold with strong competition. Some
lots of druggists' barks fetched extraordniaiy prices ;
among otliers, Cali.sayii Jmankti, in long ipiill,. con-
taining 1-75 per cent quinine, at o-8Hf. per A kilo ;
and ditto, containing O-tiT per cent, at 3--13f per S
kilo. The maxnnum realised by C.Aniiliia (2-H per
cent) was 2-311. ; C. Si-lmkr(ij't (liT per cent)
1-oil: and C. Sua-inilmi (1-47 per cent), 1-lOf. Of
the latter variety, the assortment ofiered was not
remarkable for good appearance. Among the buyers
present were the managers of the Francfort,
Mannheim, IJrnnswick, andAuerbach quinine works.,
— Chemift (111(1 l>ni!i;iist.

ENTOiioLo<iY. — The Asian suggests to the
Ciovcrnment of India the necessity there undoubtedly
exists for appointing an Imperial Entomologist,
whose work would be to study the life, habits,
itc, of such insects as the tea-bug, the rice-pest,
the red-spider, the locusts, Ac, which periodically
cause immense da.nage to crops, and to suggest
such measures as may be deemed feasible for
their eradication. The appointment of such a specialist
would ensure continuity of investigation and study.
One of the duties of the Imperial Entomologist
should also be to report fully and exhaustively on
all insect plagues whenever they occur. This kind
of work is done admirably in America. The ex-
igencies of the situation demand that this blank
should be tilled up without much delay. — M(«Iius Mail.

Tni-: Dkclink <ik Coi-ki-k. — The merchants engaged
in the coffee trade are complaining that the con-
sumption of coffee is so rapidly decreasing that
before long the importation of this once important
connnodity will be reduced to insiguiticant dimen-
sions. Year by year the demand for tea has advanced
with remarkable strides, and the consumption of
cocoa has also largely increased. But coffee is
becoming less and less popular. Last year the
quanlily imported only amounted to 41,000 tons,
'which is not much more than half what it was four
years ago. It ia, of course, quite possible that this
falling-off may to gome extent be coincident with the
general depression in trade, though the augmented
consumption of tea and cocoa scarcely bears out
this theory. At the same time it must be re-
membered 'hat coffee-drinking, though it had
the start of tea. never obtained a firm footing in
ihis country. We are, indeed, still ignorant of the
art of making it properly. Its popularity was of
comparatively brief duration, and at no time did it
(iml much favourjwith the people at large. — Stamlaid.

bKiNi;i.vo Waste Lands under CtiLxivATioN wrni
1'V>wi.ke"s Stkam Plouoiiing Machi.vkky. — A ai-t of
Ui.!< machinery has recently been most 8ucce->siiil!y
.-^titrted on C ijit. Chapman's estate at iJaii near AUa-
liubud. It is on the double engine system, cone engine
at I ftch end 01 the licld and the impiempiit liuuled
backwards and forwards by moans of winding drum
and steel wire rope. Tins .system is now adofiteil ntiili
jiarls of the world for opening up jungle lauds, and as
t)ie engines can be applied for sawing, pumping or
driving the machinery when the laud is too W'-t to work
there is no doubt it can be successfully used in many
pails of India. The set allude'l to 19 now breaking up
new land in a way acknowledged by those who havu
seen it, f.ar more sati-factory thin it would be possible
to do with ordinary digging and the country plough.
The cost inclusive of Kurojiean mechanic in charge
at U:{00 per month, coal at K14 per Ion and allowing
■-0 per cent, for interest of rapi al and depret iatiou of
inacluiiery is only about K^i per Knglis'i acre, and on
f stales wliere wood fuel is procurable this price i:aii bi!
reduced con.siderably. As the success of steam plough-
ing marhinery d^-pends greatly on having implomLiits
specially suitable to the land to be cultivated, Messrs.
towler Jc Co. inform us they will be pleased to visit

aiiylami intending purchasers may think of cultiv.itiug
and advise as to plant necessary.

Lktteks on Tea. — Messrs. Davidson it Co., of
the Sirocco Works, Belfast, have issued in a neat
little pamphlet, the circulation of whicli will do
good, the letters written to the llel/a.^t S'cirs f.ctler
by Mr. S. C. Davidson and Mr. .losejih Anderson
which we summarised in our issue of the "Jlst
April. The following is the preface to the pamphlet: —
Letters on Tea. Preface.

The following correspondence was originated by the
publication of an advertisement in the 'Belfast news-
papers, headed " The Tea Tr.ade, " and signed by
Mr. .loseph Anderson, of North Street. In order tlia,t
the subjects dealt with in these letters may be |iro-
perly understood, and their relative bearings appre-
ciated, it is necessary that a copy of this advertise-
ment slionld precede the correspondence. It accord-
ingly receives first place, and the several letters fol-
low in their consecutive order of date. My letters
in this controversy liave been mainly statistical, their
object being to give the public facts and figures to
more accurately define the superficial inferences and
partial statements embodied in Mr. Anderson's ad-
vertisement above referred to, concerning the cost and
manufacture of Tea, and to elucidate what he also
in it alludes to as " mitlcadinff ih'.u'ii/ttioiis .and tneaii-
imjh'ss Unti.s employed by unscrupulous vendors to de-
ceive the public." My last letter in this correspond-
ence appeared in the local newspapers on the IHh
March, and alongside it Mr. Joseph Anderson pub-
lished a further advertisement, in which by inference
he accused me of having in my letters subjected him
to " persistent misrepresentation, " and of making a
" determined effort to cry down the sale of tbo Finest
Teas." This accusation I distinctly repudiate, and
in support of my repudiation I herewith publish the
entire correspoudence in pamphlet form, so that any
of the public who may be interested in tlie m.atter
may have an opportunity of critically comparing all
the letters side by side, and thereby ascertaining
accurately whetherthe " persistent misrepresentation"
is on my side or his. In no place have I advoc-
ated any reduction in the i/iialtti/ nf Ihf tea so/d ;
on the contrary, the hard statistical facts which I
quoted should unafh/ promofc the demand for fiw^it tca^^
by urging their sale to the consumer at fair, instead
of at unduly high prices. From the figures given in
my letters it will be apparent to what extent con-
sumers have been paying artificially high prices for
their tea. The extra price might be roughly estimated
at about a shilling per lb. over and above a reason-
able margin for profit on the rates ruling in the Lon-
don auction sales for good qualities. It is believed
that the majority of tne tea imported into Helfast
might be tdassed as of good quality, and a shilling
per lb. on the 7,79'2,%0 lbs. of tea imported into Belfast
during the single year of lHH.5 represents the im-
mense sum of £389,1)48 sterling. This tremendous
sum of money (or even the half of ill ought surely
to do more good if left annually distributed amongst
the vast multitude of consmners, than it can possi-
bly do in the pockets of the comparatively few sellers.

About a third of a million sterling is a long price
for KDii.iiiiiiers to fiuii for retaining to Belfast tlu' "dis-
tinguished position" referred to in Mr. .Vnderson's
letter of 23rd February.

Tea is now an article of diet, and most so to the
working cla.S30s. It is subject to the heavy import
duty of sixpence per lb., and it shmdd not fiar^ta hear
a fitrthee taxation to the connKtnrr in tlie form of ex-
orbitantly high profits usually charged by sidlors to
cover their losses on other articles, and for the slight
work and labour required in its retail sale.

As a grower of Indian Tea, I am directly interested
in seeing the qualities designated " worthless trash "
(the supplies of v bicli come mainly from China) driven
out of the niarkot to make room for Indian teas, the
average quality of which is so greatly superior to
that of the China teas. If good tea be supplied at
fair prices, " worthless trash" will die a natural death.

S. C. Davihson.
Sirocco Works, Belfast, 22na March, IH8(>.

872

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June i, 1886.

'J'oBAcco.— 'rii« crop this year <1oes not appear to be
a large one. High prices are deniamled for the best
stuff which U gi-uwii iu parts of the Patchellapallai
District and at K;iratchi, Puoueryu anil Illupakkaflawai
iu the I\Iainland ami which is all converted into cigars
for the Colombo market. I am informed that in cer-
tain localities thti tobacco plantations have been damaged
by a species of leaf dise;ise due to the presence of
worms. — "Ceylon I'atriot."

Bee Cclture. — Much attention is being paid
in British India to hee culture. Bees can be
Icept in all parts ot the country and Ceylm with
the most satisfactory results. A gentleman recently
returned from India, who has been very much
interested in this subject, says: "1 look forward
to the time when bee culture will yield no incon-
siderable revenue, and I fear the time will come
wheii Brother .lonathan will tind that his tons of
delicious nectar will liave to compete with honey
gathered in India." — Anieiictin Grocer. [Whatever
may be the case ultimately, it is not true, as
yet, that either in India or Ceylon, beekeeping has
been attended with satisfactory results. — Eii.j

Mn. Moiuus, the ex-director of the Public Gardens
at .Jamaica, prior to taking up his apiJointment
at Kew, has been making a tour of the West
Indian Colonies. Bemg interviewed at Castries, on
the subject of bananas, he said that the ijuality
suited for the American market is the Fii^ue
Martinique, which is of pale greenish yellow colour.
Eaoli regime must have seven pattes. The price
paid by buyers is '2.^. per regime at Jamaica.
This trade has grown wonderfully. Ten years ago
•Jamaica exported only 85,000 hunches, valued Ci.OOO/.
In la.Si the expnrts of bananas were 1,'.)0(),000
bunches, wortli l'.)2,000/. An acre planted in ban-
anas should give a profit varying from 1.5/. to 25/.
after the first year. Mr. Morris also recommended
the cultivation of oranges. The white blight or
" mealy bug," he added, could he got rid of with
attention. They should be packed wrapped up in
paper, and put in barrels having plenty of holes
drilled in them. It may be hoped that St. Lucia
will profit by this information. — Coloniex ami Imlia.

S-U.T. — Calcutta imports every year 300,000 tons
of salt for the consumption of the inhabitants of
the Bengal I'residency and of the N. W. l^rovinces.
Formerly Madras was supplying about i of that
ijuantity. All the ships going from Mauritius and
J3ombay to Caclutta used to call here, and load
salt either at Covclong or Mnnore, and, as they
were proceeding in ballast, it did pay them at
small freight. At that time they were allowed to
piiy the cost of the actual quantity of salt landed,
or a deduction if so much per cent was alluwed
them for wastage at the port ot shipjuent. This
MO.OOO or 1,00,000 tons salt shipped from Madras
was, no doubt, adding to tlie revenue of this
I'residency under tliat head, but a gre it reformer
came and the allowance granted to the sliips tor
wastage was suppressed, with the result that not
one ton ot salt is now shipped to Calcutta from
the ports of this Presidency. The goose tliat laid
golden eggs was killed. We call the attention of
the Commissioner of Salt and Abkary revenue to
this former current that could be easily revived,
and would give an impetus to the salt' levenue,
where a decrease ot 50 lakhs i-; announced. - ,l/(ii/ras
Timex,

.Japan Te.\ M.u'UiNKin .- We have inspected at
the offices ot Messrs. ,1. M. Robeilson A Co. a set of
models of .lapanese Tea machinery, wliicli Mr. H.
D. lleane of Maskeliya is about to present to t)ie
Colombo Museum. The set is a most complete
one, including all utensils used in the numufacture
(»f tea, down to the paste pnt, used in covering

the boxes with paper, and a fan ! The models are
all beautifully made with a correctness which only
Japanese workmen can attain. It is impossible to
enumerate all the articles uicluded in the set but
our readers got a good idea of the same when
we discussed "Tea Preparation iu Japan " a short
time ago. The principal items in Mr. Deanels
set, are : steaming furnaces — steaming taking
the place of withering — firing boxes, — extraordin-
ary arrangements which u;j entirely air-tight, the
tire apparently burning without the slightest
draught; at the top ot these boxes are fitted paper
trays on which the leaves are spread — steaming
trays, square baskets, sorting baskets, sieve, pick-
ing table, tray rack, tea boxes, papered and un-
papered. with lead lining, &-c. The little baskets
are beautifully made, as indeed are all the other
articles. They are all made to scale and with the
greatest attention to detail so that they may be
relied on as correct models of the utensils in use
amongst our Japanese friends in the preparation
of their tea. Ceylon however, has nothing to learn
from Japan either in the way of manufacturing tea
or the machinery witli which it is prepared. The word
"machinery" is a misnomer, for the .Japanese have
not yet advanced to the use of machinery but
are content with the simplest utensils. The col-
lection is a valuable one and thanks are due to
Mr. Deane for a very interesting gift to the Museum.
Our upcountry readers will no doubt be interested
in an inspection of them at the Museum, when in
Colombo.

Effects of a Hi-iimcANE i.n Fiji. — The following
details ought to make Ceylon planters thankful
that they are beyond the reach of cyclones : —
It was a scene not to be forgotten— the inky
darkness, the roaring of the storm, through whiclr
could be heard the crashing ot timbers, the falling
of trees, and the occasional shouting of laborers
seeking shelter. By the time named most of the
buildings on the estate had been blown down.
From 10-30 p.m. till 11 15 p.m. there was a dead
cahu, a most unnatural calm after such a tempest,
stars came out for a short time leading the un-
itiated to believe that the storm (iend had done
his worst. Suldenly at tlie hist-named hour, the
storm set in again, this time from S.W. harder
than ever with perfect cascades of rain. It was
about this time (although the hour ot low water)
that the high wave came in, wh.ich from its elTeets
and other evidence, must have come up like a solid
wall, from 4 to li feet high. Tliis swept over the
beach and low flats carrying everything before it,
including the debris of the falling buildings with
a vast quantity of other nuxterial, lodging them in
a great layer from 100 to ;i00 yards inland. It
must have been at this time that the loss ot
life referred to took place, viz., an Indian man,
an Indian woman, and two Indian infants. In
the earlier part of the blow the Polynesian laborers
cleared out of their houses and took refuge in the
fibre store and cotton house, but the Indians re-
mained in their houses until they wei-e blown
down, and then sought other shelter to which they
were materially helped by the Polynesians. Some,
however, would not accept their \\o-\\) or aid. with
the above result. The scene of desolation that met
tlieir view as the d,ay dawned, is indescribable - -
not a standing building to be seen —where the cooly
lines, the over.seers' hou.ses, factories, stores, Jtc..
had been, was swept over clean by tlie tide and
the wliole Hat between the bungalow and the .sea
was covered with uprooted trees, coeoiuit husk,
leaves, sheets of iron, timber, bags of sugar, rice, .
flour, nails, libre, copra, tanks, broken boats, punts,
iVe.. in one general chnotio mass,— Fi/i '/'(?« .«.

JONE I, 1S86.J

THE i'ROPiCAL AGRICULTURIST,

^73

EfCAIATTUS riiODUCTS.
J'UicalypUis Kino. — Au astriugciit exudation occurs
iu most species of eucal} ptu.*;, filling cavities or cracks
iu the wood ami liarks ; when ilry it is brittle ami
presents an appearance similar to Indian kino. It
varies greatly in different species, loth in- <|uautity
«nd iu chnraeter. According to AViesner it consists
of a mixture of a tannic acid, giving a dirty green
precipitate with solutions of ferric salts, pyrocatechin,
a little catechin, and a very variable quantity of a
substance insoluble ii^ water but soluble in alcohol,
and which has been variously described as gum resin,
kino-red, or eucalyptus-red.

The amount of the astringent exudation afforded
by different species mav be seen from the following
tabic :—

Ter cent. Per cent-

E. leucoxylon 21 9t

A', macrnrhi/ncha 11*12 to 13*41

i.'. longifolia 8*3

E. roiilrata 8*22

i\ rimiiahs 4*88 to 5 97

F. ghbv.hu 4*84 to 597

i'. refuiifira 4*38

i". yonioca! I/.V 412 to 4*li2

E. iiielliodora 4*03

X, olili'ji-ft 2*50 to 41!)

E. jwlt/antli^mn 8*97

E. Gitnnii 3*14

K. ami/i/dal ina 3*22 to 310

The relative quantity of kino-red pri'sent in the
tree appears to determine iu great measure the value
of its timber, as ft renders the wood almost im-
pervious to decay when under water, and prevents
the attacks of insects and marine animals. The species
iu which it is most largely present contain from 17
to 19 per cent, as iu E. miryinata, E. roslrata au<l
J^. robiista, which are the most valuable of the timber
trees of Australia for shipbuilding, pdes and similar
purposes. The kino of E. rednifera also contains a
quantity of kino-red, only one-sixth of it being soluble
in water. It is to this Last-named species that Botany
Bay kino has generally been attributed ; but Sir F.
von Mueller states on the authority of the Rev. Dr.
AV'oolls that it is much more extensively collected
from E. sulero/Moia, to which indeed the name of
ii'. recfinifera has been applied by Allan Cunningham.

Several species yield a kino containing Init little !
kiuo-red, and ccnscrjuently dissolving readily in hot
water, although furnung a turbid solution when cold.
Those of the following species have been examined
by Wiesner* : — E. gfobtUi/s, E. lei'.co.vi/ton, E. citriodorti,
E. cnni/cfdaHna, E. pUulaAs and E, JihAUs. There is
great difficulty in ascertaining the exact botanical
source of the eucalyptus kinos at present imported
into this country, partly owing to the same name being
applied to distinct trees in different parts of Australia.
Thus the name of red gum, under which name a
eucalyptus kino iii employed iu this country, is applied
to t'. fostrata, E. terelico/ni'', and in \\'est Australia
to E. calopht/lla. The first two of these yield a kino
only partially soluble in water, while that of !■:.
ca/opht/lla is easily 8ohd)]e and contains but littie
kino-red. This species is said by Mueller to afford
a liquid kino in considerable quantity by tapping the
trunk. It 18 caught in casks as a material for tan-
ning and dyeing purposes, and is .said to fetch £iO
to £25 per ton in the London market. It indurates
on exposure to the air, and can then be used as medicine
internally, like true kino, or in i)Owder, as an applic-
ation to wounds. Two species which yield a kino per-
fectly soluble in water arc E. oblif/i/n and E. pipa-ita.
That of the former resembles Indian kino in appearance,
and forms a deei>red neutral solution; the latter is '
of a zircon-red colour, is translucent, and forms a
yellowish-red, neutral solution. The tannic acid of
E, ohtiqua dift'ers from that of most other species
in giving a d.irk violet precipitate with solutions of
ferric salts. The number of these insi)i.ssated juices
suitable for replacing true kino in pharmacy is there-

[ fore very limited. A great deal of other interesting

matter is contained in ' Kuealyptographia,' under

( different species, such as the tise of the acid sap

j of E. O'unnii to form a kind of cider, the employ-

I meut of the roots of E. mirrntheca, E. oh'nsa and

E. popiilijutia as a source of drinking water in the

I desert land where they flourish, the manna of E.

finiiuali.i, and the value of the rugged larked variety of

E, huco^rijlun as an indication of gold bearing soil.

JIuch of interest for the botanist will be found in

; the details concerning the development of the seed-

: ling plants and the structure of fruit, leaf, flower,

j wood, and bark, but these have no practical bearing

! for pure pharmacy. — rjiiirmuctuiical Jouniu/.

» See Fbarmaceutical Jonroal, [3], ii,
109

p 102.

ACCLIMATION OF TKEES YIELDING INDIA.
EUBBEll AND GUTTAPERCHA.

UV .I.\5U-S tOl.I.INS.

The care and oversight of forests is now generally
recognised and accepted as a 8tate duty, beyond the
linuts and capabilities of private individuals. Such
duties consist iu the protection of trees from reckless
destruction, replanting denuded portions, aud intro-
ducnig useful pl.anls from their natural habitats to
other localities having isomeric conditions of heat and
moLsture, and where such introduced plants are likely
to prove of general utility. This latter operatiou is
known as acclimation. The constitution of plants is
a subject of great interest, and has to be considered
with great judgment and abundance of information ;
plants have certain limited ranges, and such ranges of
heat and moisture have to be clearly defined, for by no
process of acclimation can a plant be made to toler-
ate a degree more or less than its proper linut, ex-
cept to its detriment. If they bo subjected to con-
ditions other than their natural ones, they either die
or become so modified as to fail to ilevelop those
special ftatures of structure, habit or constituents,
which are their cha'*acteristics in their native habitat,.
A single instance may be quoted here, by way of ex-
ample, to show how a plant may be altered by <lif-
fercnt climatic influences. In Ktu'ope for ages the
common hemp {(Janntrfti:- yulit-a, h.), has been cidtivated
for Its fibre aud oily seeds,^ whilst in India the
same plant shows a wide dissimilarity, especially in
its medicinal characteristics, its leaves, flowering and
fruiting stalks yielding a resin volatile oil, kimwn,
under various names as bhang, dhurrus, gauga, &c.
having powerful narcotic properties, the resin being
apparently formed at the expence of the fibre, as the
stalks are usually bmut as useless.f

The ascertainmeut of the extremes and mean anninil
temptirature and moisture which best suit cTt-iiu
plants is the residt of experiment, and i> sometimes
surrounded with so much diflicidty that freiiuently
trials shoidd be made simultaneously, in two or more
localities judged to possess similar cliniati<* conilitions.

.'Vll these experiments entail expense, especially iu
the Cise of those trees the utilisable portion <)f which
consists of timber, milky juices, &c., which reipure a
period of ten to thirty years or more to elapse aftir
planting before they come to maturity, or any return
can be expected on the initial ex))enditure atid upkeep.
This outlay. to;»ether with the long delayed returns,
even if the expei'iment he finally crowned witli sui'cess,
naturally will and nuist fail in procuring the accornplish-
nient of such trials by private enterprise. tJovernmenfc
nuist at least give its aid in the initiation of such
schemes.

In the case of the cinchonas the Iinlian Governinent
did, with rare forethought, listen to such men as IVreira,
Howard, and Markham, and undertook the initiative ;

•The great dissimilarity between the Kuropean
species led Lamarck to consider the latter a distinct
one, and desigintcd it Cminnltix Indira, but it is now-
agreed that no specific difference exists between them.

fAVhy burn the stalks of the Indinn henipy A\'liy
not utilise them ? I have suggested to several planters
that they might make capital paper material, especially
if sent over here as " half-stuff."

5/4

THE f KOPidAL AGRICOLTURIS'I'.

[JUNli 1, 1886,

aud as .m)01i as tlie expurimcut proved successful, private
planters ut once sbowod tlieir willingiu'ss to expend
their money in tlie same uuilcrtaking. .So has it proved
iu a minor degree in the preseot instance.

Anotl]er fact is also wortliy of remenibrai\ce, uaiucly.
that aceliinatcil trees invariably improve, and tiicir
products, frinn the caro and attention paid in their
preparation, acipure a much higlicr value than spon-
taneous or uDcared-for ])roduce. As instances, mention
!nay be made of the much higher percentage of
quiuiiu' yielded iu India from cultivated trees than
from those of So-uth America ; anil also that a specimen
of Assam rubber, prepared according to my suggestions
(1 think by the late Mr. Leeds) was valued by one of
the highest authorities in London, Mr. Kdward Till, of
the (irm of Messrs. -Jackson and Till, at from 8d. to lOd.
per pound more than ordinary Assam rubber. *

Fortunately, with respect to the special question of
guttapercha trees, some of these ditbculties do not
exist. There, iu their natural habitats, aud iu territory,
too, under Imperial rule and influence, are numbers of
these trees ready for conservancy aud cultivation, and
where nurseries of plants can be started for acclimation
elsewhere. Although some twenty-five years will have
to elap^e after planting before the trees are ready for
tapping or the axe. yet, in the interim, a revenue could
be secured, to pay working expenses at least, from the
trees already existing, by "farming" them, or by
royalties on the outturn. A stringent rule in all such
contracts should be that four to six trees slioidd be
planted in place of every one cut down.

As to what species should be cultivated on the spot,
or to be introduced, gutta-taban, gutta-durian, gutta-
waringan. gutta-kalapeieh, and gutta-mukas, stand in
the frout. i\rany others, although passing under other
designations, n\ay prove etjually valuable.

Amongst pseudo guttaperchas, or substitutes recom-
mended as supplementary to the true gutta, I would
certainly single out the balata gnm [Mhiii':<opii Indata^
Gaertner), as it would prove a most valuable addition to
our trade supplies. As to the Indian varieties of this
group, I would strongly recommend that the pauchontce
should receive careful attention, and its product coUect.cd
and prepared in proper nnunier. Such specimens so
prcpaicd would then allow of the question being, pro-
pably, set at rest. I have not much hopes of cattiman-
doo, nuulali, and some other substances, but other uses
might be fouud for them if good samples and guaranteed
qualities were available.

As to the climatic conditions necessary for the cultiv-
ation of guttapercha trees, Borneo, Labnan, Sarawak,
Singapore, aud, more especially, the Southern States of
the Malayan Peninsula, being the natural home of these
trees, present the first locahties in which cultivation
should be essayed. Ceylon, like some localities in
Assam, aud, possibly, the IS'icobar islands, would form a
congenial home for these plants.

On the whcde question of Indiarubber, guttapercha,
aud pseudo-guttas, there is much still to be learned.
There may be yet many improvements to be made in
the collection and preparation, but these factj can
otdy be gleaned by one somewhat conversant with
market and niaimfacturiiig reciuiremeuts, added to some
iitntuuit of botanical and chemical knowledge. Such
a t.isk undertaken on the spot, if well executed, would
tlear iqi m.uy a doubtful poiut, aud render great and
lasting service to commerce aud science. — Journal of
Hit Sucicty of Arts.

* In a paper on Indiarubber, delivered at the Society
bf Arts (Jiiiirnal of Iht Hocicly of Arts, December 17th,
iStiP), aud again iu niy report on the same subject to
the Indian Government iu 1872, I strongly recommend-
(id the rultivalion of the native Ficiie ikisticii, and the
acdin'atiun of the Ucrm BrasUitnsl.i, yielding I'ara
rubber, and also other species from which are obtidned
valuable commercial varieties. Backed as I was by
Mr. Clements It. Markham. CI!.,and Mr. Gubtav Maun,
of the Indian Forest Department) the Indian Goveru-
mcnt took the matter in hand,

TEA CULTIVATION IN THE ^VESTEKN DUABS

is thus noticed in a visit to Kuch Behar, the Bbntau
Duars and Assam, in the Indiiin Forester: —

Jalpaiguri, on the banks of the Tista river, is no
longer a Military station, as it was for several years
after the Bhutan war. but is beconung a large centre
of trade, aud tea cultivation has spread over a large
extent of country at the foot of thir hills. It is
worth notice that 3,IJ00 strawberry plants which I
sent therc^ last October from Mussoorie, have grown
most vigorously, and have borne a fine crop of fruit
from February to May, as the damp clin>ate and
sandy soil when well manured suits them admirably.
Here I visited a tea garden belonging to the Tundoo
Tea Company, and had a day's mahsir fishing in the
.Jaldoka river, but only succeeded iu hooking one fish.
It was at tliis garden last year that a must elephant
killed sixteen coolies in one day, and -yet I hear that
no compensation was paid to their families by the
owner, who is the most influential Zamiudar in Berar,
but perhaps has never rightly understood what occurred.

The tea seed for these Western Duar tea gardens
is imported from Assam, and it is an important question
whether tea seed is good when the testa or skin is
separated from the embryo inside the shell. I referred
this (juestion to Mr. Logan of Dhubri, who for
many years passed tea seed on its way from Assam,
opening the boxes and testing a certain proportion
of the seeds, but his opinion was that provided the
embryo was all right, that the separation of the testa
was not prejuilicial. Mr. Peal also says that opinion
is divided on this point, but does not consider it
prejudicial provided the seed is fully ripe, and he
has promised to test the question thoroughly by
planting two lots with and without the testa. From
-Talnaiguri, 1 went by the Northern Bengal Kailway
anci steamer to Dhubri, and thence by the new daily
steamer service to Tezpur, the civil station of the
Darraug District iu Assam. The best tea gardens in
Darraug are on a plateau of forest land which
approaches within 10 miles of the Brahmaputra,
and except for the clearings for tea cultivations is
covered with virgiu forest, known as the Oharduai
forest, up to the Akha hills. A large area consists
of pure forest of Mesua fcrrea, the Assam nahor
and Bengal nageswar, the timber of which might
surely be utilized for railway sleepers, for which there
is a lai'ge demand at present, as I hear that the
creosoted Norway pine sleepers imported for one of
the Bengal Kailways have proved a complete failure.
The jutili, Aliiiigiii c.rculsa, is another .social species,
and the amari, Amoorn specta!ii/is, the sania, Artocarpus
Chtiplaxha, the poma, VeiJrda Tooiia, and the gond-
soroi, CinnamonHiii ijlandidifcrmn. also yield fine tim-
bers and are disseminated through the forest. Whilst
old tea gardens with bad jhat of plant are being
abandoned in parts of D.u-rang, the fine young gardens
of high dasss hybrid and Assam indigenous plant
ou the forest plateau land, and eveu on grass land
below it, are doing very well, ev.-u at the present
low price of tea, and I hear thit Ee. O-lO-ti per lb.
was the best average price realized in the Darraug
district for la^t year's crop. The dark Assam hybrid
plant is now preferred iis more hardy than the light-
leaved indigenous. These forest gardens, on undulating
plateau land surrounded by a wall of Mtsuti ftrrca
trees, have a singular appearance^ but are said to be
more healthy than the grass laud gardens. As
formerly, the 1 ibor question is a great difficulty, but
machines arc now largely used everywhere, Davidson's
Sirocco iloiug the work of a large range of cliuliis.

To lake an example of a fine tea estate, that of
the Boil Hi Company has 7,500 acres of fee siuqilu
forest, and uses up .annually 35.000 mauuds of fire-
wood iu its engines, and tlie wood for 4,500 boxes,
each containing IS superficial feet, or ij cubic foot
with .'.-inch planking, or taking in waste in sawing,
we may allow 1 cubic foot per box. A quantit.v of
timber is also used annually iu repairs to buildings,
so that perhaps we may some day hear of the large
tea companies managing their forests seieutifically.
Many gardeus which have no private forests still

June i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

^75

purchase teak boxes iu Calcutta, and pay Ks. 2-8-0
each lauded at the uearest river gbat. I heard that
the Assam Company imports 35,000 teak tea boxes
annually from Calcutta.

In the liorelli Company's gardeus, the steam saw
was hard at work prupariug wood for tea boxes. I
was tohl that pro%-ided tlu- wood was properly dried
there was not the slightest fear of its fujuriug the
tea. and all species which would saw well, and are
uot too heavy or hard, were u^ed, the kochan
{Duahun'ia sonn*:ratioid€s) having the prt-'ference. On
the islands and banks of the BorelH rivur there are
nearly pure forests of this tree, which is of rapid
growth, and a Marwari merchant has st;trtcil a saw-
mill to prepare teii boxes for the planters at the
Balipara Haut, which he sells at 1 rupee each. Jlr.
LumsJen, the Manager of the Borelli Company,
showed me how he was gradually eradicating China
plants from hi^ gardens, by pulling them out hy ropes
attached to an elephant, at tht; nite of i-'i.") plants
per diem. Twenty acres of China plant are thus
removed every year, and the ground replanted with
indigenous or high class hybrid plant, and the yield
thus increased from it or 3, to 7 or s maunds per
acre. The bad results of former heavy prunings were
evident iu the diseased stalks of the old tea, many
of which were furrowed by white ants up to the top
of the bush. The beneficial results on the growth
of tea of the sau tree, A(l>i:zia :>t/j>idatay have
attra'jted the attention of many planters, and I saw
for myself that bushes under the shade of this tree
were more \*igorous than their neighbours. A small
pamphlet on the subject has been published by the
Indian Toa Association, in which many Assam planters
give their experience on the subject, all being favor-
able to the sau tree. Mr. I'eai considers that ail
the Assam AWizziasj namely, A. elata, sUpuJa'a proc-ra
'Kl/Jiatisxiiii'i, have the property of improving the
growth of tea directly under their shade. The sau
tree has very long .superficial roots and bears ijuant-
ities of seei), the former may assist in draining the
soil, and the pods and leaves falling on the ground
may enrich it, whilst the shade is not too great to
affect the production uf leaf in the tea bushes. The
greatest attention is now paid to the water supplied
to tea garden coolies, and their huts are far better
than those of villagers in the Diln, but there is still
a giiod ileal of sickness amongst those freshly imported.

The planters jre a tine healthy set of men, aud
play polo regularly, and the gardens ate so inimerous,
that the old solitary life in the jungles is a thing of
tlie past in Uarrang. It is worth noting that certain
species of forest trees spring up naturally in tea
gardens. In Darrang the simal has the preference,
in the Western Duars it is the kadam, AnthocephuhiH
i'adaniha. In the Dtin, it is the tun, Ceilrdi Tooiia.

Coi-'FEK.— The writer sapiently adds;~If coffee planting
succeeds in Assam it will he some compensation for
the extensive area of new tea cultivation in <,'evlon,
where splendid yiel-la of leaf have r^. suited. It is
probable, however, that the tea plants will not long
stami the forcing climate aud seeuiingly poor soil of
Ceyion. All vegetation retjuires some re.st, and the
old tea plants in Dehra J)iiu, where the severe cold
of winter and the dry west wmds of May and .Time,
nece.ssarily put a lung stop to tea making, is still
perfectly healthy and free from any blight or dist;use,
and contrasts well in this respect with the more
luxuriant plant in A.ssam, though there are probably
tea bniihes in the Dun older than any in As.sam.

TOBACCO CI'LTIVATION IN THE BKITISH
ISLANDS.
The tobacco plant ( N'ieotiana Tabacum \ must be
considered as a tender annual, completing its growth,
llowering, and ripening its need within the compass of
uiie seuMi.sn, ami finally destroyed by c^ur early frosts.
If sown simply iu the opou ground it will not germirnite
8onn enuugh for our purpose; ; therefor*^ the young plants
Bhu«ti«l*i>e raised nndt:r glass, and pricked out inlo hirge
pans, 1>oxes, or contrivenccs of a similar nature. The
plautiog out may be done at the tjanie time with the

ordinary ornamental bedding-out stuff early iu May or
as soon as two or three strong leaves have been made j
and as a rough and ready rule the crop may be cut
when the gardener is making his first I'elargoniuntt
cuttings for next year.

rrtn'AiUTiON OF THE GROUND. — This is perhaps the
most important part of the whole business. If the
crop is growu upon the flat the lower tier or two of
leaves, which aie the most valuable part of the plant,
as being the first to ripen, will inevitably be injured by
slugs, caterpillars, and heavy rains. Therefore, the
ground must be laid in high aiid wide riilges, us for
Swede Turnips, but on a larger scale, and flattened or
platformed at the top, so as to allow of a zig-zag
•trrangcnient in planting. This is the American plan, I
believe, and was adopted by me from an account given
in the (lardeaers^ Chronicle some years since. The
advantages are manifest. The plants grow, as it were,
high and dry, with the lower leaves hanging over and
supportiid by the sides of the ritlges, which latter
should be sutKcieutly wide apart to admit of the tread
or free passage of the cultivator.

8uiiMEii CuLrivATioN. — As the plant progresses
laterals are formed at the base of every leaf. These
nmst be removed as soon as they can be handled, and
care taken that none steal a march from being hidden by
the lower leaves. I'Ve.sh ones will spring from the base of
those first pinched out, and, as they are rapidly pro-
duced, this will be daily but absolutely necessary work.
The flower-spike bhould be removed as soon as a few
blossoms have expanded, and all subsequent attempts
to flower must be checkeJ. This part of the matter
requires skill aud judgment, for some of the plants will
run into flower when too little developed to be prontable,
in which case a lateral may be encouraged to grow till
it becomes the leading shoot, aud in turn ready to
undergo the same treatment.

The HAUvfc:s'ni\(j Pehiod. — To produce anything
like good quality it is essential that the crop should be
cut before the sun has lost too much power. In our
Knglish autumn, when cool damp nights are llie rule, a
rank luxuriance is induced in many piants, and
eminently so in tlie case of Tobacco, when the bulk of
the plant iucrea.ses euormously at the exjiense of i|uality.
Consequently a crop left to tin; last monuMii before
frost appe.irs will be a long time in drying, retpuring
artificial heat from lack of that of the sun. It fnllows
that it is better to cut too soon than too late, aud this
may be done as soon as the leaves at the base begin to
turn yellow, when the whole plant will undergo the
proper change in curing. It is rect»mmended that tho
plants when cut shuuld be allowed to lie an hour ut two
on the ^Tunud. when the leaves will b.:'C(»me wilted and
drooping, as this will be found convenii-ut when \h>^ next
process, that of hanging them ujt, is pprformed. For
this purpose a wall nail is drivcM into the sti^m, near and
a^, right angles to the base of it, thus forming a kind of
hook, wluMeby each plaut may be hung to a MUiidn'i* of
stretch<'d wires, cords or other supports, in su'di a place
as a large vinery. Here the le;ives will sonn begin
gradually to assume the rich brown colour proper l.o the
connuercial article. The lamina or blade will ehiinge
first, and ftul)sequently, the midrib and larger veins; but
imtil these last become perfectly dry thispirl of thu
process cannot be considered finished, for if in the
stripping antl packing an imperfectly dried stalk is
inchideil, inouldinoss will assuredly set in anil irijure
the sanq)le. The footstalk, if propi^rly dry, should be
sufficiently brittle to be snapped in two on a hot day.
The eye, however, aud touch will soon become sulfi-
ciently practised to judge when the leaf has attained
this state.

Tiir; FkumbntatioN. — The leaves rau^t now be strip-
ped from the stalks, dumped, autl tied in < btmdle.Huf
a do/.iui or more of leaves, by string towards the Uoug
of tin; footstalk. The.se bundles, when fiatteuetl out,
will take a fan-shaped form, and are then technically
called "hands." The damping process may be done in
various ways and should precede bundle making, to
avoid loss and disfigurement owing to bri(tl< ne.is.
yprinkling with water is daugerous, for if a h^uf bu
pocked actuality wet, mouldiness is likely to be th»
result. Some hours in a damp cellar, or even out-cf-

^^(i

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

fJUNE I, 1886.

doors when there is uo fear ot rain, may safEoe, as the
leaf is exceedingly hygrometric and sensitive to a raoist
atmosphere. The bundles are now paclied symmetrically
in boxes or between boards, and heavily weighted. The
packed material shonld remain for some montlis under
shelter and in a moderately warm temperature, such as
may be afforded by a room in the dwelling-house, or in
the same glass structure in which the drying process
was effected, but a really damp atmosphere will now be
detrimental. A species of slow fermentation succeeds,
analogous to that of hay in the rick, and until this has
workeil itself out, the Tobacco is not fit for use, in fact
it is not proper Tobacco at all.

Manurk — I do not recommend the application of
much manure, as this would tend to induce the over-
lu.Kiu'iance which I have indicated as undesirable.
Potasli has been suggested, or rather inferred fiom
the existence of it rather largely in the plant itself. I
might myself suggest a top-dressing of superphosphate
of lime as inducing early maturity, but I have no
experience on this point. The lime, too. might ha\'e a
good ofl'eet in inducing the smoker's desideratum ot a
" white ash."

SoiiTS rott Cultivation. — The Tobaccos may be con-
veniently divided into broad and narrow leaved sorts.
To the former belong the Maryland and Lebanon kinds,
which are nearly identical, wbile i\w narrow-leaved
Ha\aua and Latikia are equally near each other in
character. The A^irginian (broadj is considered to
produce a stronger Tobacco. The Schiraz, or Persian,
is a distinct-looking form, 'and, with mo produced a
paler and milder smoking Tobacco. N. rustica, a dis-
tinct species with green dovyers, is hardier, but S')me-
wliat uuamanageahle in cultivation, and I do not recom-
mend it. A curious hybrid was raised by me between
this and the true Havana, whii-h made a fine coloured
leaf of good quality, but. all tlie sorts I have grown
seemed to turn out of nnu-h the same quality in our
climate,

llKl'AriTin.ATION,

Under this head I briuR- into notice the absolute
essentials only, namely : —

1. The cultivation on ridges.

2. The removal of all laterals.

3. The earliest liarvesting of the crop consistent with
a proper ripening of the leaf.

•1. The absolutely dry state of the leaf before packing
for fermentation.

Note also, a much larger crop nray be gained by leaving
the cuttuig to the last moment iu late autumn, but the
i|Uality will be iuevitably bad — woody and watery, so to
:,pcak, and of iuferioi- colour.

In a goo 1 season, and under the treatment recom-
mended, a perfectly coloured leaf may be produced, and
the resulting Tobacco will be of fair smoking quality —
always, however, more or less pimgeut. and with a
peculiar Goat, which may be described as earthy. — 11.
TnKvoK ('f.AKKK,|JA\niinster, Ajiril 26. [An abstract of
this paper was read before the Scientific Committse on
Tuesday last. — Kn.]— Gu/Jt-miv' Cliron'ulc.

MANILLA UEJU' IN INDIA.

(Kxperimental Cidtivation of the Mu.sa Textilis at the
tlovernmeut Experimental Farms at Bhadgaon and
Hyderabad and the farm attached to the College of
Seience, I'ooua.)

Letter from II. Strachan, Esq., .Superintendent,
(iovernment Kitpcrimental Karin, Hyderabad, Sind, to
the Collector of Hyderabad, Sind, dati-d 29th Sep-
tember 1885.

Miisa ttwtilif plant. — This plant thrives very well
here under irrigation. Fifty young plants have been
planted out, and 127 more arc ready for transplant-
ing ; 29 stems are fit for manufacturing into fibre.
A number of the oldest stems have been cut and used
for tying vine canes and rose buds, &c.; for such
work we find the plant very useful. The girth of
some of the stems, 6" above the ground, is 2 feet SHnches

the length 14' 2," and the middle circumference 1' 9"-
The fruit when ripe may be said to consist of little
else than skin and seed cells, the pulp is almost nil
and of no very pleasant taste. As a fruit I would
say it is useless. The flower spike in most cases is
from 5 feet to 6 feet long, but the fruit seldom ex-
tends further up than 1 foot to 14 inches from the
ba.se, the flijwers fall from the other portion of it.
■\Vith a view of obtaining a hybird between this pl.an-
tain and some variety which yields good fruit, fifty
shoots of the Bombay red plantain were planted out
towards the end of last year; they are growing well,
but will not flower for some time yet. The first trial
at extracting the fibre failed on account of our hav-
ing no proper machine to bruise the stems. AVe ex-
temporised a two-roller mill, but as it had no cog-
gearing to cause both rollers to turn together, the
one only on which the handle or crank was fixed
turned with the result of griudiug th% stems to pulp
instead of simply bruising them. This machine is
being altered so as to make both rollers work together
and it will then be capable of crushing one leaf or
the whole stem at one time. The pressure which is
regulated by two levers attached to the upper roller
can be varied at pleasure to give a bruising weight of
from 5 lb. to 200 lb. or more if required. It only wants
a couple of cog wheels or pinions to make a very
complete and useful implement for preparing any
kind of fibre from stems which require to be crushed.
As soon as it is ready further trials of extracting the
fibre from this plant will he put iu hand.

REPORT ON M.\N'rr,rA nr.MP (mUSA textilis) CCLTtJItE.

The plantation of Manilla hemp on the College Farm
is two years old. From a plot measuring half guntha,
eleven stems were cut down and the fibre prepared
as follows. —

The leaves were cut off and the midribs laid aside.
The (false) stem was separated into the leaf sheaths
it is composed of, the sheaths torn up into narrow
strips and bung up iu the shade to dry and subse-
quently soaked in water until the fibre separated easily.
The weather being cool the time required for retting
was ten days. The quantity of fibre obtained was
7 11). This is equal to 560 lb. per acre. The cost ot
production is per acre; —

Laud rent .. ... ... ."i

Irrigation ... ... ... 18

Manure ... ... ... 40

Labor cultivating ... ... 10

Do. watering i:j

8i; for .'>G0 lb.
A crop of Suua (C'i'oM/</rm_/»7(ccrtl will give OitO lb.
per acre of a better fibre at a cost of ]{25 in this
district. An attempt to produce a cross between
Manilla hemp {.^fusn ti.rti/ix) and Sonekale (.!/««<
sajiientum) has been made. The pollen of the Sone-
kale { the finest of our varieties of Banana was applieil
to the flowers of the I\lanilla hemp without effect.
Ihe pollen of the I^lanilla hemp was applied at the
same time to the flowers of the .Sonekale; the fruit
ripened during last ntonth and has given about half
ounce of seed. "Whether a cross has been effected is
doubtful, but I have never seen the Sonekale produce
such large seed, and it is proi>ably due to the pollen
of the Manilla hemp. The seed will be ripened by
March next when it will be sown. .\s the wild Banana
takes about five years to attain full develoi)ment, I
expect the cultivated variety, when raised from seed,
will take a like period, and the effect will not bo
apparent until the plant is full grown and in fruit.
I attach samples of the fibre prepared from the
Manilla hemp plants and also from the Sonekale grown
in similar circumstances. It will be observed that the
fibre of the latter is little inferior to the fibre of the
former, while the latter (Sonekale) has a valuable
fruit, and tbe fruit of the former (Manilla hemp) is
uneatable. From this I would infer that a cross breed
between those two plants will not be of practical
value. It will probably be an inferior Sonekale with
its fibre a little improved, which would not be an im-
provcraeut on the whole. The necessity for and the

Joke i, 1886.]

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

877

high cost of irngatiou precludes the cultivation of
MaDilla hemp in the dry parts of the Bombay Pre-
sidency, and iu the wet parts there will not bo found
many places where the Manilla hemp would thrive
that aro not iit present occupied by more vuKnble
crops. (Signed) (r. JI. Woonltow, Lecturer in Jiotany
and Agriculture, Voona, February 18SG.

Letter from A. Stormont, Ksq., Superintendent
Uovemmeut Kxporimental Farm, Khandcsh. to the
Collector of Khandesh, dated lihadgaon. l;Uh
February 1886.

A reference to the reports of Saidapet farm shows
that (1) the plants attAined full size after two years'
growth, (2) they refused to thrive unless grown on
a deep well-manured soil, and (3) the fibre produced
was insufficient in ijuantity a!id rouf;h iu quality being
the result of unskilled labor. Tbe correctness of the
above statements is fully confirmed by the results of
the past yejvr't*' cultivation ou this farm which, how-
ever, do not contribute' nuich in the shape of /inn/re.'iS.
The Manilla plants grew well und(-?r the same condi-
tion as the common plantains are cultivated, but
showed no inclination to flower up to the age of two
years when they were cut down and the fibre ex-
tracted. The modft of extraction was the same as
practised in the locality with ^lutbatfi (brown hemp)
and sinin hem/tf with the exception that the stems
were in the first place pa.ssed through a sugarcane
mill which got rid of sap averaging 50 per cent of
the whole. The stems were next rotted in water
from 10 to 12 days, and afterwards washed by hand
and sun dried. The outturn of fibre was 1^ lb. per
1<K» lb. of fresh stem, a percentage considerably higher
than the average shown in the Saidapet experiments ;
it was. however, of bad ctdor and defective in strength.
Oords of equal weight and thickness of this fibre
and ordinary Ambari broke with the following
weights : —

Manilla iienip
Ambari

lb.

117
3:30

It has to be remembered that these fibres were
prepared )>y people who from natural instinct and
life, lori» practice, understand to perfection all the
minute and important details of wi/ti'n//, rotting,
■■itrifpi/hj, !>/fiirhiiig, kc, in the case of Ambari. while
tlu'v know nothing at all of the process necessary
til 1m' followed in that of Manilla hemp. Now al-
thiiugli there are certiiin natural laws which regulate
the growth of a/' fibre plants;, others, and by far
the greater part, apply to in<iividual species only.
So that each kind of fibre has its own particular
pliysiology which requires to be studied and under-
stuiitl before successful manipulation can be reasonably
lo:iked for. Two of the points to which attention
is speciallj" drawn by the Dlrecter of Agriculture
remain still to be dealt with; these are (1) can tbe
fruit be utilized? (2) can a hybrirl variety be raised
between the Mi'sa tfj.ti/is and the iVa.<a Faruilisvua ?
The gowth of the present year, it is expected, will
afford ample opportunity for further observation on
these points, and the results will be given in next
year's report.

WHAT TO DO WITH OUR BOYS.
Agricultural Education in Caruida.
For anyone who intends to settle a son in the TTnited
States or Ganaila the Agricultural College at Gueiph
in Ontario is well worth visiting. There are several
so-called agricultural colleges in the States, viz., col-
leges which to obtain special State aid include agricul-
tun* in their ourse of studies ; but with the exception
of that at Lansing, in Michigan, these are really
institutions for general cchication. fJuelph, however,
is for the farmer, and the farmer only — not t!ie
gentleman farmer, or squire who holds one of his
farms in his own ocupation, like our English colleges,
but for the working farmer who has to gain hi« bread
by the sweat of his brow. The college is supported
by the Province of f)ntario, one of those exceptional
common wealths which is beforehaod with the world

and has a nice little capital laid by on which tu draw
at need. Thus it can atford to work, not for the
present, but for the future ; to loose money iu order
to raise the general standard of agricultural education,
and consequently of agriculture and outturn 1hrouj:hout
the province; and is even willing, in default oMilling
up the numbers of its college with natives, to admit
outsiders to share benefits afforded at the expeuHe
of the Ontario taxpayer, though charging tlie.se out-
siders of course considerably more than is charged to
()ntario students. What this means may be judged
from the following extract from the prospectus for
18m I; — The entire cost to an Ontario farmer's son,
able and willing, with considerable experience in farm
work, is S-l'J to 5,55 a year for board, washing, and
tuition. To an Ontario student without iu\y previous
knowUidge of farming, s50 to sGO a year fur board,
washing and tuition. To non-residents (of Ontario)
$120 to S150 a year for board, washing, and tuition.
Some students, by regularity ami industry, sut^ceed in
cancelling almost their entire board accuimts."

This is etfected by their labour, for which allowance is
made at from '* four to ten cents an hour, according to
its value as estiuuited by the Farm Superintendent
and his foremen, — in no case to exceed the charges
for board and w.ishing." I may mention that the
charge for washing 30 cents per dozen pieces, and
that the wash which may be sent i« unlimited ; so the
Ontario taxpayer contributes considerably to the
encouragement of cleanliness among the students in
the matter of linen, besides affording a liberal pro-
vision of baths in the building, with hot ami cold
wat*;r laid on^which said provision cost <i5.0fHI (say
£1,012) (juite recently. Now, before giving my own
impressions of the college, I will refer to the opinions
of competent persons regarding it, viz., I'rofossor
Henry, of the Lansing College, fifichigan. Professor
Sheldon, of x)ur Downton College, Mr. Anderson,
farmers' delegate from County Kerry, and Mr. (/urits,
farmers' delegate from Yorkshire. The three latter
visited the college iu 1S80, when it was nnly six years
oKl, and I refer to their general reports on ( 'anada
published by the Dominion (Jovernment. The former's
visit was in 18f^3, and his de.scription appeared in the
Farmers* lievieti; from which I saw it (luoteil by
the Indian Agriculturist. Mr. Anderson writes in
1880 :—

" I cannot conclude my remarks on Ontario without
mentioning the Agricultural College at Guelph. (iuelph
itself is a fair-sized town in the county of Wel-
lington, iu the centre of a well-cultivated district.
The land is pretty good, but not «o rich as some
other portions of the Province. There are several
extensive breeders of both Shorthorns and Herefonis
in the neighbourhood; indeed, all the cattle in the
district were particularly fine. The college is about
a mile from the town, and is supported by the Pro-
vince of Ontario. The farm connected with it con-
tains about 500 acres. I inspected the system of
inetruction, which is very complete, including not
only ordinary agriculture and stock-raising, but a
practical knowledge of chemistry and veterinary .science,
two very valuable branches to the farmer and very
little known. The ordinary education of the student
is not neglected, for I see an English and mathem-
atical course laid down, which, if taken advantage
of, will give the future farmer something more than
his bullocks to think and talk of. Nor is horticulture
forgotten, and I saw for myself that the student hatl,
in the extensive gardens conuected with the college,
ample opportunity of making him<*elf acquainted with
that art which will enable him hereafter to beautify
his homestead and supply his table wi th vegetable
luxuries.

'' Among the live-stock six breeds of cattle are
represented, /./;., Shorthorns, Herefords, iJevouH,
Aberdeen pills, rjalloways and Ayrshires. Of sheep
they liave Cotswolds, Leicester.s, South Downs and
Oxford Downs. There are also some very good Herk-
shire pigs. The fields which, as nearly as possible,
contain 20 acres each are fenced with straight l)oard
fences, and are extremely clean. "Turn where you
will, evidences of careful maDAg«ment and sound

878

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

fJUNE I, 1886,

jutlgmeut meet you; but one woultl expect nothing
else after having conversed with Trofessor Brown,
who has the practical working of the farm. Professor
Brown is making some experiments in cattle feeiliug
and breeding and with various crops, which I am
sure will result in much good."

Mr. Ourtis's notice and that of Mr. Sheldon (Pro-
fessor of Agriculture) are shorter ami more general,
and may be seen in the Delegates' Report, procurable
from the Dominion Agent in London — a most vahiable
phamphlet which 1 studietl intently before proceeding
on my prospecting tour. The remarks of Mr. Henry
(Professor of Agriculture at Lau.sing) I quule in
exteii.-iO: — ''It was early on a bright morning of the
present month that I statted from the hotel in CJuelph
for a visit to the Agricultural OoUege. Leaving the
quiet little eitv vvitb its walls of dull-grey limestojie
behind, I passed out ou the Duudas-road, and after a
brisk walk of a few minutes found myself at the
college gate. The first rapid sweep of the eye over
the scene brought nothing very interesting or striking
to view ; in the back-ground on a rise of ground froTit-
ing me stood a long three-storey buiUling of the same
grey limest(me as that used for buildings in the city.
This main liuildiug was Hanked on one sitte by a couple
of neat dwellings, aud ou the other by a cluster of
barns and out-buildiugs, while in front of these last,
half-hidden in the trees, stood a green-house. The
grounds in front of the main building were treeless,
and having been recently ploughgd up lav bare aud
brown. " To one brought up in the United States,
where the idea largely prevads that immense build-
ings are prime factors in the make-up of a college.-
the sight was not very prepossessing, and yet this
institution, situated away to one side of the centre
of our American civilisation and almost on the out-
skirts, has of late attracted nmch attention from those
studying the problem of imlustrial education, aud caused
many persons like myself to make long pilgrimages,
even in some cases from across the Atlantic to study
the causes of its success. In the United States we
have scores of colleges with buildings far more massive
than these, and whose age renders them venerable
compared with this new thing, yet their fame has
scarce extended across the borders of the county iu
which they exist.

" But I have kept the reader entirely too long out-
side the grounds contemplating the earthy campus
and the grey-stone buihiings. I was not long in making
my way to the ofhce of the president, .Jxnies Mills,
who gave me such a welcome that 1 felt at ease at
once. With him as guide, the professor of agricultm'e
was soon found, and I uuw had my two mnin sources
of information at hand. Let me give to the reader
some of the facts gathered. This college accom-
modates LiO agricultural students, who all reside in
the main biulding under the direct supervision of the
president. E^ch cauditlate for adnussiou has to pass a
tliort)ugh examination iu the conun<in l^Ingiish branches
ui)on entering. The course of study is two years in
length, and is made to combine both the practical aud
theoretical. All students naturally fall into one of
the two classes—' First Year' or ' S>cnnd ' students.
Each cl;iss works daily five hours in the fields, barns or
works, and have five hours for study aud recitation.
Thi! work and recitations of tlie two classes alternate :
thus whiU' the first year boys are with the professors
in the class-room during the forenoon, the second-year
students are employed under the guidance of proper
superintendents at manual labour m the fields, barns
or shops. During the afternoon the order is reversed.
l''or this manual labour the student is allowed from
four to ten cents per hour according to his ability.
His earnings are credited ou his board account. For
board, washing, and lights ih(! cost is about ten tlollars
per nu)nth. The cost of the yi'ar's schooling is. to a
ifood working student, ntit. nvtn- sixty tlollars per yeiir
lor all expenses, except clothing." .VII students are
treated alike as to hour.s of labour, and the endeavour
is to make each familiar with all the varied farm oper-

* This refers to outsiders, and the charge for them
has just been doubled.

ations. To be sure, with only a two-years' course, and
half of the day spent iu the field, no extended course
of instruction can be given; yet, since no time is spent
on any foreign language, the student is given a fair
.start at least in such sciences as botany and chemistry,
aud is given a good drill iu English. The range of study
and thoroughness is more than one would suppose at
first thought. The average student leaves the college
an intelligent man, if not .an educated one. It is in
the practical operations tl-.at 'Lis school excels. Let
me illustrate by showing how the young men are
taught in regard to stock. When Professor Brown
takes up this topic, his lectures are illustrated by the
living animals. When talking about Shorthorns, for
instance, a bull or a cow of this breed is led into the
lecture-room and studied. Before the subject is left,
seve*'al individuals are brought in at once and compared.
After this course with each breed, representatives of
different breeds are placed before the class, as Here-
fords, Short-horns, and the Polled Angus, and com-
parisons made. Nor does this end the matter. Each
student must pass an examination upon these lectures,
and in a most rigid way. When being examined the
student is alone in the room with the stock, the Pro-
fessor and some practical stockmen chosen for the
occasion. It is not to be wondered at that these young
men become very proficient in such matters. It is iu
wayslike this that the whole farm is made to serve as
illustration. The farm is very complete, and I wish
this whole ))aper could be given up to an account of
it. It consist of 550 acres of choice laud. There are
twenty-one fields of twenty acres each ; there are seven
fine teams of work-horses and all sorts of farm mach-
inery, mthout limit almost ; there are on the farm
seven breeds of cattle, six of sheep, and three of
swine.

" The college is now about to take a step in advance.
Several years ago §10.000 were spent in blooded stock.
This has paid handsomely, as over ^15,0UO have been
realised for surplus stock sold out of this herd. This
fall they propose to hoM a clearance sale aud re-
stock the farm with a larger number of animals of a
higher type. Not only is there to be a great change
in the stock, but the college grounds are to be met-
amorphosed. Mr, Jliller, who laid out Fairmount
Park, Philadelphia, has lieen employed to remodel the
grounds, and the work has alrcaily begun. This ac-
counts for the large lawn in front of the main building
being ploughed up, as mentioned at the begiiming of
this article. In jilace of their present so all green-
house they are to have one costing over ^IO.Ol\l. and
all the barns are to be torn down and new ones built
on a new site. These progressive changes are a measure
of what the Ontario [leople think of their agricul-
tural college. Pre.^ideut Mil's informed me thdt if he
wished he could fill this school with young men from
England alone, and that the cities of Canada would
over h.alf supply the list. His endeavour, however, is
to have the .sons of farmers from Ontario fill the
school. So^long as this is not the case outsi.lers will be
admitted. Last year sixteen young mi'U from England
were in attendance, Ireland and Scotland sent three each,
and Turkey, \Vales, the United States and West Indies
each sent one. Each term he has to refuse many
applications for admission. President Mills says that,
so far as he knows, eviiry stu'lriit n-lio came ti the
collei/e from the f ami hus qoiw Kiel- tn the farm irlun
thro'ii(/Ii. Let these who claim that education drives
young men from the farm ponder over this statement.
The reasons for the success of this school can be
found iu the men and the methods. Those in authority
li.ive turned themselves squarely to the farmers of
t)ntiirlo, and sought to know what under pre.seut
conditions should be taught to their sons to muke
good farmers out of them. They have not looked to
classical (colleges for guidance, lull liav.' been governed
by the needs' of the common people. Who conld
expect anj thing but success when such methods have
been employed. No wonder money is beginning to
How towards this school like water, and both political
parties of Ontario are claiming the college as their
own particular child. Without fear of successful con-

June I, 1886.J

THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUK15

^79

trailiction, I call it the model agricultural college of
America. Less than ten years of age. it is fairly
roote<i in the hearts of the farmers of Outario. How
can it have other than a bright future ? It was
the afternoon of tlie second ilay wiien I closed my
visit. I felt as I left that I could profitably stay a
week studying the reasons why this youug school
was so rapidly gaining distinction." — Pioneer.

Tire Toon Tree i.\ Qieenslan-d. — Mr. Simmonds,
in a recent paper stated : — " Irrespective of the
immense home consumption in Queensland, there is
a large export trade, ranging in value from £30,000
to £t)O,0tXl. .\lready the Oovernment have seen it
necessary to pass a measure for the conservation of
the red*cedar {Ctdrela Toona.) This tree grows to a
height of 100 to 150 feet, with a diameter ranging
from 3 to I feet, is easily worked, and is in dry
situations very durable. Some trees have been cut
on the Kichmond river yielding 30,000 feet of sale-
able timber. The market value of this tree in Queens-
land is from JO shillings per hundred superficial feet,
according to colour and size. — Indiim Forester.

lM-i,i'EN'CE OF Plants ox tue At.mosphebe. — The
Willimantic (Conn.) Threid Company some time since
accidentally illustrated the intiuence of plants on the
atmosphere. The nature of the operations of this com-
pany ilemanded a reasonable and constant humidity
of the atmosphere in their shops. To obtain this they
ha*l employed two men and a spraying machine; but
Colonel 15arrows, desiring to increase the comfort and
a pleasure of his operatives, commenced the cultivation
of plants around the factory and placed many in the
rooms, employing one gardener to take carelofthem.
The atmosphere was at once changed in character ;
the spray machine was no longer needed, one man's
wage-s were saved and the operatives were surrounded
by bea'itiful flowers, and their lives made morc.pleasant.
— Giirdf'iers' Chronicle.

The Toon Tbee in New South "Wales. — In a
review of a book on the Timber trees of New .South
Wales in the Iwlian Forater, we find the following
information : — Our author has divided the softwoods
into three sob-classes — (1) Cabinet and fancy woods,
(2) Coach-building woods, (3) Stave woods. Under
the head of cabinet and fancy wootls, the red cedar,
our Indian friend Cedrela Toona, is placed first as
the most useful and valuable of all. It is said to
attain a height of 150 feet ivith a girth of 10 feet,
and to yield sometimes upwards of 30,000 superficial
feet of saleable timber per tree. The great demand
for tiin timber has completely extirpated it in many
localities, .ilthou;jh it was formerly abundant in all
the brush forest, and fears arc entertained that unless
protective measures are shortly tikeu, it will soon
be no longer found in the colony. Many of the othor
woods are of great beauty, strength aud durabihty,
and often exquisitely veined, marked or fragrant, but
are little known and seldom used, though superior
to many kinds now largely imported. Amongst the
coach-building woods, we have *coachwood,' Cf.rato-
petaUnn ajiittUuni, and many others. The silky oak,
Grtvilica robiisia, is excellent for copper's work, as
well as the green wattle {Acacia decnrrett.'f) aud the
silver wattle {Acacia decdbata), and many others whose
names are hardly known in India.

The rnvLIxjXEKA i.\ 1'h.vnce. — This malady still
tuakes great devastation in the wine districts in spite
of the energetic measures taken a,'ain.st its diffusion.
The prize of 30,000 francs, offered by the Government
has brought forward no remedy that answers the re-
quirements, so that the means for the destruction of
the pest are those which hive been previously re-
comTnond»d and with only partial success hitherto.
It is notified thit several d'partments have become
infoctel, and thit others hive received permissiou
to employ the American Vines, which are either wholly
or but little susceptible of injury from the Phyllox-
era. Since'iti introduction into Krauc over l,000,O((0
hectare-s have been destroyed, but so rapiilly have new
plantations been laid down that at the present time
not more than 500,000 hectares are fallen out of Vine

cultivation — about ono-fifth of the whole area undor
"N'inos. By ministerial dtcret fields for demonstration
(champs de demonstration) are to be set apart, wherein
infected Vmes be practically treated for the instruc-
tion of the wine farmers, and from whi<'h good results
are expected. The insect 'has appeared in a few vine-
yartls in Algiers, and the difiiculty of meeting the
danger there is increased by the refusal of the .ship-
ping companies to transport the rather dangerous com-
pound used in its destruction. — Gardeners' Chronicle.

ToHAcco Cui.ri'KE HY Fakjieus. — The Daili/ Kens of
April 19 states : — " Under authority from the Ijords
of the Treasury the experimental cultivation of Tobac-
co is to be permitted in the United Kingdom. .\ny
occupier of land intending to plant Tobacco must, on
or before May 5, give notice to the Secretary of In-
land Revenue, Somerset House, setting forth the ex-
tent of the laud to be planted, and the place, parish,
and country where situate. Bond under approved se-
curities will be required in a penalty of i'lOO if over
an acre of ground 1)0 cultivated, and .&50 if under an
acre, in order to secure that all Tobacco grown and
gathered shall be removed to drying rooms and kept
there until properly cured, when it shall be packed
in bags, bales, or casks of an [approved size, and must
then be weighed by a revenue officer. After weigh-
ing the packages the duty must be paid, or the To-
bacco be deposited in an approved customs or excise
warehouse. lu answer to letters addressed to the In-
land Revenue Department by the ensilage Society, of
which Lard Walsiugham is President, and Mr. Kains
.Tacksou, Hon. Secretary, repHcs have been received
that permission will be granted to certain responsible
agriculturists named by the Ensilage Soeiety to make
experiments in the growth of Tobacco, provided they
comply with the memorandum printed above."

The Jarkah or Western Austuaija, it has been
confidently asserted, cau resist the attacks of even
teredo nnra'is, but this has recently been denieit.
In the Indian Forester, however, occur the following
statements : — The wonderful capabilities of the .Jarrah of
"Western Australia, /:,'. marifinata, was the theme of
the majority of speakers in the discussion following
Mr. Simmonds ' paper. Of the twelve saw-mills in
the colony, the most important are the Jarrahdale
Company of Rockingham, with a railway to the port
23 miles long, employing nearly 200 hands ; the
"Western Australian .Jarrah Company, at Lockville,
with lij.^ miles of tramway ; Davie's Karridale saw-
mills at Angasta and Port Hanelin, with (j ndles of
tramway, au'.l employing 100 to 150 men; and the
Canning saw-mill, with ^h miles of tramway, em-
ploying about 50 men. In I8S2, there were shipp**d,
chiefiy to the neighbouring Colonies and Imlia, lt<.73(l
loads valued at £03,650, £5 a load ; and in 1^83
19,9 10 loads valued at £79,760, £1 a lo.-id. While there
is a palpable diminution iu the supi)ly of scented wood
{Santahtii. cijfinorum), the other valuable export of
the colony. Western Australia, has more than 3u,00()
square miles covered with eucalyptus, 2-1,000 miles of
which consist of the white gum (/'.'. viiniualis) and
jarrah (E. tnari/inata). Mr. Simpson, wh ) ha I thirty-
two years' pr.actical experience of the colony, stated
that almost everything iu AVestern Australia was
made of this timber, work-boxes, pianofortes, buildings,
wharves and jetties; it seemed to defy all known
forms of decay, and was untouched by white anfs and
all other insects, so that ships built of it did not
require to be coppered. A specimen on the table,
cut nearly thirty-two years ago, wdiieh had been ex-
posed to bush fires, to the summer sun of Australia,
aud to wind aud rain in the wet sea.son, was as sound
now as the day it was fellotl. Another as sound piece
was exhibited cut from a bridge certified by the
Oovernmeut resident to have been thirty-six yi;ars in use.
There were about fiftt:cn varieties of the timber, and
it could be obtaine<l of any reasonabh! length up to
60 or 80 feet, the tnmk of the tree having no
branches whatever. It did not burn freely, but only
charre.d. If a sheet of gla.ss and a piece of this
timber were put intti a white ant's nest, the ants
would bore through the glass rather thau touch tho
jsrrab.

S8o

THE Ti?OPICAL AGRICULTURIST.

[June j,

MAJIKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS.

(From Lewis it- Peat's London Price Current, May 6th, 1886.)

FKOIM WALAPAR

COAST, lOCHlN,

CKYLON, MADRAS, &c.

WEES' WAX, White

Yellow
(.'INCUONABAEK-

QUALITY.

QUOTATIONS.

Is a 3s 63

.lis Jd ii 2s 6d
!9(i a Is G(l
'2il a Sd
8d a 2««il
|6il n 2s (id
oil n is 2(1

Id

-CrownjEeiiewed

I Medium to fine Quill
Spoke shavings ...
Branch

,, Red iReneTTed

, Medium to good Quill
Spoke shavings ...

jBranch

I Twig

I'AKDAMOMS MilUibur IClipped, bold, briKlit,fine)2s M a X>
and I'eylon Middling, stalky & leanjxd ii 2s 2d
Alejipee IFair to tineplunipclippedils ;jd a 2s 3d
TellielierrviGood to fine ... jls Gd a 2s 4d

' :Iiroivuish ... Gd a Is M

MangaloTe Good & tine, washed, bgt. Is Gd a :1s ;ld

Long Ceylon Middling to good

CIUKAWUN Ists Ord. to tine pale quill ...

2n(isj ,

3rdsi „ ,, „ ,,

4ths Woody and hard

Chips ...IFuir to tine plant

COt-^OA, Ceylon ...Bold to good bold

...Medium

Triage to ordinary
COFFEECeylou Plantation Bold to line boldcolory...
Middling to tine mid. ...
Low middling ...

'Smalls

,, Native iGood ordinary'

T.iberian ...jSmall to bold

East Indian ...JBold to flue bold

Medium to fine

jSmall

[Good to fine ordinary

Native
COIRROI' K.Ceylou&CoehiuJMid. coarse to finestraight

FIBRE. Bru.sh

Stuffing .
YARN, Ceylon

Cochin
Do
COLOMBO ROOT, sifted .
CRO'r'->N SEEDS, sifted .
GINGER, Cochin, Cut

Rough

NUX VOMICA

MYRABOLANES, pale .

Pickings

OIL, CINNAMON
CITRONELLE
LK.MON GRASS

OKCllELLA WEED

.Ord. to fine long str<aight

.iCoarse to fine

.'ordinary to superior
.^Ordinary to fine ...
.jRoping fair togood
. Middlingwormy to fine.
.jFair to fine fresh...
IGood to fine bold...
[Small and medium
Fair to good bold...

■ Small

■ jFair to fine bold fresh .
Ismall ordinary and fair.

■ IGood to fine picked
[Common to middling .

Fair Coast

Burnt and defective
Good to fine heavj'
Bright & good flavour .

.Mid. to line, not woody..

PEl'PEK.MalabarMK. sifted Fair to bold heavy

Allcppcc & Cochin
Tellicherry, White
PLUMBAGO, Lump

Chips
Dust

RED WOOD

SAPAN WOOD

SANDAL WOOD, logs
Do. chijs

SENNA, Tinnevelli

good

8d a Is 4d
M a Is lid
8d a Is 6d
da Is 2d
Bda lid
Ijd a 7d
808 a 90s
7-2a a 78s
b^s a c>os
BOs a Kills
C'is a 773
■57s a 62s
ISs a 57s 6d
42s a 44s
33s a 508
80s a lOOs
OUs a 80s
pOs a GCs
44s

£7 a £17 10s
£12 a £^12
£7 a £19
£11 a £30
£10 a £35
£8 a £12
209 a 428
40.S a 50s
75s a 106s
.135 a 72s
.36s a 50s
29s a .353
8s a 12s
■Is a 7s
7s a iis
5s a 6s lid
6s 6d a7s
4s a 5, 6d
Is a 3s

1.1 a lsl-16d
Uda IJd
40s a 55s

7id a 7iM

lOd a 2» 6d
123 a 149

a lis

a lis
33 a 103
£i 15s a £5
£6 a £7

■ •■'Fair to fine bright bold...

[Middling to good small...
• ■■Isiight foul to fine bright

■ ■■iOrdinary to fine bright ...
...'Fair and fine bold
.. ■[Middling coated, to good
...IFairtogoOd flavor ...l£20a£35
...' £10a£lG

■ ■■'Good to fine bold green... 9d a ls^5d

[Fair middling bold ... 4|da .Sd
Common dark and small ltd a 3Jd
...jFingcr fair to fine bold 143 6d a Lis

■ ■■Mixed middling [bright 123 a 14s

■ ■•Bulbs whole 123 a ISs

Do split 8s fid a Us

TURMERIC, Madras
Do^
Do.
Cochin
VANILLOES. Mauritius &

Bourbon, Ists Fine cry.stalised 6 a 9inch 14s a 24s
2nd8 Foxy & reddish 5 a 8 ,, 10s a 133
•ir.la I / Lean & dn-to middling
■'4 under 6 'inches ....is a 98
4th Low, foxy, inferior and '■

[pickings l86d a 4s

FROM BOMBAY
AND ZANZIIIAR^

ALOES, Soccotrine and

Hepatic^^.
CHILLIES, Zauiibor

CLOVES. Zanzibar
and Femba

Good and fine dry
Common and good
Good to fine bright
Ordinary and middling,
jooodand fine bright ,
lOnUnurdiiUtofiUi ,

.. £7 a ■tlo
.. « a £»
.. .36$ a 38s
.. 328 a 3.5»
,. 7Id a 8d
,.i7i<l»m

FROM BOMBAY
AKD ZANZIBAR.

QUALITY

QIOTATIONS

I Slightly sottish to goodi
t hard bright ...j.£G IDs a £7 10s

Do. drossy &dark ditto.. .i£5 a £6

CLOVES, Mother

stems..
COCULUS INDICUS
GALLS, Bnssorah |,,„^

green I
white
GUM AMMONIACUM—
drop ..
ANIMI, washed .,

scraped...

ARABIC, E.I. & Aden ..

Ghatti ...

Amrad cha

ASSAFCETIDA

KINO

MYRRH, picked ...
Aden sorts:
OLIBANDM, drop

pickings...!

siftings ...j

INDIARUBBER Mozambi

SAFFLOWER, Persian

Fair, usual dry

,, fresh
Fair

Fair to fine dark

Good «

None

lid alia
93 a lus

S29 a tf 2s
■ 479a5&s

i

FROM CALCUTTA AND
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

CASTOR OIL, l3ts
2nds
3rds

INDIARUBBER Assam

SAFFLOWER

Bloiky to fine clean
Picked fine pale in sorts
part yellow and mrxei
Be^m & Pea size ditto
amber and dark bold
Medium & bold sorts

Sorts

Fair to good pale
Good and fine pale
Retldish clean
Clean fair to fine
.Slightly stony and foul ...
Fair to fine bright
Fair to fine pale
Middling to good
Fair to fine white
[Reddish to middling ..
jMiddling to good pale ...
Slightly foul to fine
que, fair tofine sausage 1
„ Ball/
unripe root
liver
Ordinary to good

3os a 608

,£14 a £17

I, £11 a £13

£5 Ills a £8

£8 a £12

!|£5 a £8
. 80s a 1008

'32s a 708

80s a 1108

45s a KGs

45s a .55«

32s a 448

38s a 4(ls
. £« a £7 lUs
.{.Slwa 1008

[45(s a 553

32s a 44s

.'.Is a Us
.'tisa 133 Oil

2s a 28 3dJ

Is Id a la 2d
Is 6d a Is i)Ad
6s a 158

TAM,VRINDS

. Nearly water white ... 3Ad a IJd
,. Fairand goodpale ...3 15-16da3i1
■ Brown and brownish ... 3i|d a ajd
.Good to fine ... Is lid a as 2a

Common foul and mixed 6d a Is 8d
Rangoon ...iPair to good clean ...'Is lOd a 2s 2d

Madagascar'Goodtofinepinkv&white 28 Id a 28 3Jd
,Fair to good black ... Is8da Is lOd
J Good to fine pinky ... £4 10s u £5 lOs

i'Middling to fair ... i"' 5s ii £J 2s Bd

Inferior and pickings ... £1 a .CI 10s
Mid.tofineJ/ucinotstonylOsa lis
Stony and inferior ...SsaOs

FROM
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ALOES, Cape

Natal
ARROWROOT Natal

.. Fairdrv to fine bright ... 30s a :«s
.. Ccmnio'n & middling soft '"3 a 2t>3
..Fairtofine ...|)5sa403

.'Middling to fine ... J.td a Oil

FROMClllN.\, JAPAN &
THE EASTERN ISLANDS.

;0s

CAMPHOR, China ... Good, pure, & dry white I ^

.T.apan ...' „ ,, pink i

GAMBIER, Cubes ...'Ordinan' to fine free ... 2Ss :i<l a 298 6d

I Pressed ... 2:te a 24s

Block ...'Good ...2l3lid

GUTTA PERCHA, genuine Fine clean Bauj& Maco.«- 28 4d a 3s 3d
Sumatra... Barky to fair [sar 6d a 23 3d

White Borneo

NITT.MEQS, large

Medium
Small

MACE

RHUBARB, Sun dried

High dried ,

SAGO, Pearl, large

medium .
small
Flour
TAPIOCA, Pcnang Flake.
Singapore
Flour
Pearl

Reboiled... Common to fine clean .

.'Good to fine clean
Inferior and barkv

...'61's a 80's, garbled

...[83'sa 95's

...llOO'sa 160's

...[Pale reddish to ixile
Ordinary to red
Chips

...IGood to fine sound

Id a 18 4d
lid a 18 3d
..lid a Sd
..j28 3d a .'Isfid
. Is ind a 2s 2d

18 3d a 18 »d
Is Gil a 28 M
Is Id a Is .nl
Is a Is 2d

19 i>d a 2s !M

Darkordinary& middling 8d a Is M

,.;Good to fill

[Dark, rough & middling
.. Fair tofine

.:Good pinky to white
IFair tofine

I Bullets
[Medium

Seed

Is 2d a Is 5d
7.1 a Is
12s lid a l.'js
128 H 1.13 Gd
9s,3da llsiid
Ss M a lOs
Ijda 2',d
l:Vdn2Sd
lid a l}d
13s Gd a 1 J^
13i a Ms
141 a 15a 6d

•

New Vork Sotantcal Garden Llbrar\

3 5185 00258 2797