734 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April, i 1884. 



and the more effectually the used air is removed 

 the better. Also the more thoroughly the heated air 

 permeates the subatanco to bo dried the better. lilere 

 contact above and below is not at all equal topauing 

 tUrough, 



There is of course the objection to the highly-heated 

 air system, that a good deal of heat is lost, all be- 

 low 400° in a drier working at a temperature of 400° 

 being lost. 



There was for long a controversy raging in the 

 engineering world regarding the merits of liigh and 

 low pressure steam. I understand that the question 

 has been disposed of by making the steam (ii'stwork 

 a high pressure cylinder aud then a low pressure 

 one, the combination of two cylinders giving excel- 

 lent results. 



Might I suggest to Mr. Cameron that he might 

 turn his attention to a similar arrangement in his 

 drier ? Have one chamber for the highly-heated air 

 procesei, and after the air has done its work there, 

 coming out at 150° or 200°, i)as8 it through his 

 flues with the iron cover, quartz, &c. , also utilize the 

 extra heat (fire heat) in his smoke flues for the same 

 purpose in another chamber. He would thus have the 

 two principles working effectually, neither interfer- 

 ing with the other, and secure -the greatest economy 

 to fuel. 



There is one point it seems to me, I must men- 

 tion regarding Mr. Cameron's argument in re " up 

 or down." 



He says:— "We need not look for' the advantage of 

 drawing down to lie in the gravity of the steamy 

 air, as while it is in the condition to hold the maxi- 

 mum quantity of vapour, it is in a condition to rise ■ 

 as well." There seems to be a coufusinn in his ideas 

 here. Air rises only being by lifted. Hot air, being 

 ligliter, is lifted by colder aii", and vice versa ; cold 

 air, being heavier sinks among hotter air. Now hot 

 air dries by imparting some of its heat to the moist 

 substance ; also a good deal of heat is needed to tern 

 moisture into vapour. Air at say 2<J0 coming in contact 

 with a moist substance at (say) 100 has to spend 

 several decrees of its heat in warming the substance, 

 and much more in turning the moisture into vapour, 

 so that the air after the process is greatly cooler, 150 

 or HO as the case may be, part of the heat having 

 gone into the substance, and part become Intent in the 

 vapour. Now suppose a volume of air at 'JOO conies in 

 contact will) a moist substance, the. portion of the air so 

 coming in contact gets cooled by drying it, and being 

 cooler than the neiglibouring air, say 150° to 200°, it 

 will necessarily sink in it. 



It is not because it holds moisture in it, that it is 

 cooler or heavier. If the hot vapour passes from a 

 boiler into the cold air, it heats the air it mixes with 

 (while itself is cooled thereby and becomes visible), and 

 that air, being hotter than the surrounding air is lighter, 

 aud BO is f<]rced up by the cooler air arouud it. 



In drying with heated air, as wo have seen the pro- 

 cess is reversed. The air has to impart of its heat to 

 the substance and its moisture, aud so gets cooler and 

 heavier, and sinks. 



If Mr. Cameron will take this into his consideration, 

 1 think he will not hesitate for a moment in admitting 

 the advantages of drawing dovn the used air. 

 ' The cleriliew like other machines needed to bo 

 understood to be wrought effectually, and the 

 number of blunders possible for an unskilful man to 

 make in the rcpairiuf; of one are many. I have seen 

 some of them, vci'v wonderful in their way, and sur- 

 prising in their results. And I can well believe that 

 the genius that could make these, could have made 

 more, .and more surprising ones on occasion. Were the 

 clerihews Mr. Cameron alludes to in proper order? or 

 had they been imprnivd ('!) by untutored genius?— I 

 remain, yc ra truly. .T. B. 



MEMOliANDA FKOM MYSORE. 



Dear Sir, — I sent you a letter about the transport 

 of seed from north to south and south to north as 

 referred to in an article in the FieJd, but it does not 

 seem to have reached you, as it has not appeared in 

 your paper. 



I had to go to a meeting of the Parent Association 

 Council at Chickmuglur ; and I had an opportunity o 

 seeing somethiug < f the country. Chickmuglur is th^ 

 metropolis of the Mysore planters just as Sucklarpore 

 was when there was a large number of estates in 

 Munzerabad,— a ease similar to what has occurred in 

 Ceylon. A lot of new estates have sprung up around 

 the Baba Budan hills, and there are a lot of planters 

 altogether in Kadur. So the centre of Associations 

 has been removed from the South, and there are 

 now the South Mysore Branch Association, the 

 North Mysore ditto aud the Mysore Parent Body. 

 There is a nice little club at Chickmuglui, -ind they 

 have good fun at the annual sports after the coffee 

 is all oft'. The Baba Budan Hills tower up to 7,000 

 feet, and are thus about 4,000 above the level of the 

 matdan surrounding. These are the famous mountains 

 which take their name from an old Musalman who 

 lived about 200 ye.ara ago (now dead, I believe) and 

 brought back in his "maddee" some coffee berries, or 

 beans rather, after a visit to Mecca where he had gone 

 on a pilgrimage. He sowed the seed beside his house, 

 and from these few seeds the fine old Munzerabad or 

 Mysore coffee came. Well doue, old Baba ! If you 

 had not died, we might have made you Chairman of our 

 Association as the pioneer planter of Mysore. On these 

 ranges of mountains Mr. Caniiou formed an estate, and 

 his relative Mr. AUardice (our Chairman) still carries 

 on the properties and upholds a name in Mincing La-,e 

 which is unsurpassed in the coffee markets. You in 

 Ceylon are apt to fancy yourselves a bit and think y u 

 can beat creation. Well the Mysore climate is such 

 that it defies you to lick it in coffee or cardamoms. 

 You are not in it. 



By-the-bye, I saw a good thing the other day in the 

 Weeldy Times (London). At a meeting of the Linnrean 

 Society, a Mr. Baker read a paper about a new potat6. 

 The following remarks are interesting : — " The ordinary 

 potato is grown as if its sole, object were to produce 

 tubers, .and, moreover, it is grown under artificial eou. 

 ditious of climate and soil. Under these circumstani- 's, 

 the plant naturally loses its vitality, as indicated by 

 the tact that after a time it ceases to produce doner 

 and seed, aud it then readily becomes a prey to the 

 potato disease. The name rule applies to other plaids 

 inhere one function is stimulated at the (xpense of another." 

 Well what Jiave you to say to that ? Paddy would say : 

 " Yes, the sole object of growing potatoes is to get 

 potatoes," and then he would scratch his head and 

 puzzle over the disease when it came. Now, I consider 

 I liave found hero an antidote to leaf-disease. As I told 

 you before, the men here were (irst thrown off their feet 

 by borer. Thej' did two things : they began the 

 careful cultivation of sh.ade, and they tricil a new coffee. 

 With the long droughts common here (sometimes live 

 months on end) they found that the cotl'ee must have 

 an umbrella — and yet must not be too dark. Was not 

 tiiat ])luek to start to i/rom shade and a new kind of 

 coffee? Ceylon pluck is moro of rashness. It some- 

 times needs more pluck to t^tick quietly to the task of 

 overcoming a seemingly iinsurmountable obstacle than 

 to speculate on the " sink or swim" style. 



Don't prune your tea to force an already forcing 

 climate, and then brag of the prices before they are 

 Will out of the brokers' throats. In Coorg they arc 

 pulling in rupees by the cart-load. They don't study 

 shade very much as far as I hear They arc hard at 

 it, and we will licar of Ilemileia vastatria: having broken 

 out badly very soon. Men are like sheep. .Start one 



