November i, 18S3.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



31S 



to go to nourish the leaves and branches, the flower 

 must starve, and as a result the plant will either not 

 flower or produce inferior blossom. The production of 

 flowers by a plant diffeis from the pioduction of foliage 

 in this respect: that flowering consumes the stored-up 

 products of the plant without giving anything in return. 

 A leaf takes carbonic acid from the air, and gives out 

 oxygen under sunlight ; a flower, on the contrary, gives 

 back the carbonic acid and water to the air. Fruitiuf 

 and seeding are also strains on the vegetative life of the 

 plant, but not so great as flowering;* and, moreover, 

 the plant in these stages of its existence does not waste 

 what It gets, but ttores the nutriment up in the seed 

 for the use of the young plant yet uubora. The green 

 fruit acts like a leaf, as under the action of the sun it 

 gives out oxygen ; but when ripe, the respiratory func- 

 tion alters, in so far that carbon dioxide is exhaled 

 while oxygen is absorbed. In chemical composition! 

 too, fruits at an early age agr^e very closely with leaves, 

 their structure and functions being very much the 

 eame. The fruit during the process of ripeninc 

 requires, like the flower, a large amount of sap tS 

 support It. Hence, a plant which begins to flower and 

 fruit early rarely produces large fruits, and is some- 

 times killed after the first efforts have exhausted the 

 strength of its constitution. Gardeners, being aware 

 from experience of this peculiarity in vegetable physio- 

 logy, nip the flower buds of rare fruit-trees, until they 

 have acquired sufficient vigour to bear the strain of 

 fruiting ; and when they wish a tree to produce lar^e 

 and juicy frnits, they prune it of all supcrfluou<. wood 

 which might use up the nourishment required for the 

 support of the flowers and fruit. Now, we have always 

 been accustomed to mfinnre for crop only, and generally 

 during the slack time after pruning, the amount of 

 manure depending on the estimates of crop already 

 framed, and at that time the trees had sufiicicnt stamina 

 to produce healthy blossom. But when leaf disease got 

 the upper hand, the blossoms deteriorated and no 

 attempt has been made to help them; still, where 

 manure has been annually and systematically applied 

 during our term of depression, there has alwavs been 

 enough reuiaming in the soil from the pre?ious" applic- 

 ation, whilst the blossoming season was passiu" to 

 assist a blossom or two to perfect itself, resuUfng in 

 crop sufhcient to satisfy the owner. If we go a step 

 further, and manure for blossom also, the returns will be 

 greatly increased ; and there are few proprietors who 

 have continued manuring operations on the crops tliev 

 have been picking these last few years, who would not 

 be willing to procure a larger quautity of fertilizing 

 ?"'\«'"l'i**''^'°'""^*^'''l quautity of crop on the treei 

 justihed the expenditure.— Vours faithfully. 

 " SVVADDY." 



MR. OWEN'S PAPER ON TEA PLANTINcT 

 A LITTLE CRITICISM. 



Nawalapitiya, 24th Sept. 1SS3. 



Deae SlE,-I was a little surprized to read in Mr. 

 i. b. Uwens able paper on tea cultivation that the 

 tea of the Land Mortgage Bank's Darjiliug estates cost 

 only 6^d m Calcutta, 



On reference to the August number of the Tropical 

 A'jricutunst, we find that the Darjiling wardens of 

 the Land Mortg.ige Bank produced .'■)27,840 lb tea 

 which cost m Calcutta i;24,302 U 6d and taking the 

 rupee at 28 as done in the Bank report, this rtpre- 

 sents an expenditure of 1 Id. currem-y, or 45 cents uer 

 pound. ^ 



1 quite agree with you that Mr. Owen's remarks 

 on the late Mr. Cameron's pruning were too sweeping 

 It would be interesting to hear how Mr. Cameron's syltem 

 of plucking has succeeded. With all deference to Mr 

 Owen I believe a sligfa' modification of Mr. Cameron's 

 system will be the best for Ceylon tea estates —J W 



[Is It not a fact that there are three systems of 

 tea pruning, and consequently of pIucking,%,racUsed 

 m Ceylon? First, shall we call it, the old fashioned 

 "laylor-Armstrong-Owen" mode, as opposed to the 

 Cameron plan which is called too severe and 

 that between these may be placed the plan observed 

 on Galbodde estate and perhap.-. on the Dlantation of 

 our correspondent? Wlfo will desS the ?hree 

 modes to us with the difi^erences between each ?-Ed.] 



"MR. F. D'A. VLNCENT'S REPORT ON THE 

 FORESTS OP CEYLON"-GALLE AND MATAUA 



DISTRICTS. 



Balapitiya, 24th September 1SS3 

 t.^.^r"" Sir, -la reading over Mr. Vincent's most in- 

 teresting report, I can't refrain from pointin" out 

 that in para 97 part 11 he is not exactly " in or°de. "- 

 Had Mr. Vincent, a few miles on the Galle side of 

 Hmidum, got out of his boat and taken the tZul 

 to go a mile or two mto the Crown jungle which 

 runs down to no gre.-.t distance from thi bf nks Tf the 

 G.ndura, he might have seen juugle that would have 

 done his eyesight good ! Timber " proper," i.« tiZ 

 ber of that quality and in sueh qiilntities as wouTd 

 supply the P. W. D. of the Southern Provfnce for 

 many a year to come, timber that if Pm not greatly 

 mistaken »o>ild meet all the requirements of the K 

 W D. and hereby making it possible to do away wifh 

 the necessity of importing one single stick from anv 

 other province whatever. s i. >-«. irom any 



of the Berahakanda and BatapoU "forests" to meet 

 be in' ,7"u' ^"i*^ r"^ *■""" ''"« ^°^<=^t« •■ What may 



^tate- but 7 '*'"'°'^f /"'■"'' ^ ^"^ ""' prepared to 

 state ; but I i.an safely say that in the rather 



fane lookingscrub which Mr. Vincent is pleased to call 



forest"-at Batapolla-there is not one single tree 



that woud turn out a bridge pile or beam, that wouW 



be accepted by the P. W. D. nor is it likely that there 



near the Gindura contains iionwood, uheria, mdhi 



theP. W. D.may require timber, besides other vah.! 

 able kiudssuch as wanamie, tawena, keena, del, &c one 



^fTl,!VV" .T'''*'r"°''""'"='^ ^"""l^ ha!-a.do;!en 

 01 the Butapola trees ! 



Mr. Viucent has " proved" that the commonest sorts 

 of timber sells well ! It strikes me that had he 

 to pay for the placing of it in the market, it would 

 not have been the timber that was well sold ' 



Mr \mcent has evidently had the greatest part of 



? iXlv'"" °°1 f™V'"?F^^''™^°'* ^^hose interests, 

 I believe would suffer if the truth came out ! The 

 village headmen did not of course tell Mr Vincent 

 that one or another of their number had a fiu-er in 

 supplying any timber required on any of the provincial 

 or miuor roads, in fact in everything wanted for Gov- 

 erumentns|S. Something w.-»s of course to be praised, 

 and th-y thought no great harm could bo done bv 

 praising up the Batapola "forest." ^ 



.J ^^"1^7^^° '''^^,'^ '''y *^^* there is no timber that 

 the P. W. p. would make use of (except jak, and 

 that IS to be found in private gardens only) on the 

 land you d enclo,e if you drew a line from Galle to 

 Pagoda, then on to Elpitiya, and on again at that 

 distance from the coast as far as Bentota— this laud 

 being covered more or less with a healthy sort of 

 scrub composed of the sort of timber that the Sinhalese 

 could make the cattle-sheds, &c. Mr. Vincent refers to ! 

 -Yours faithfully, SYLVANDS. 



« SSirely in each pro\'ince, the Foresters gave Mr Vin. 

 cent the best information they could 'f— En. 



