June 2, 1884,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTORIST. 



%7 



THE CEYLON ROYAL BOTANIC 

 GARDENS. 



Oa pages 835-S55 will bo found Dr. Trimen's Report 

 for 1883 on the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradcniya 

 and the Isubsidiary establishments at Ilakgala, 

 Henaratgoda and Auuradhapura. It will bo seen 

 that Dr. Trimen wishes to have one more garden 

 at Badulla under the superintendence of Mr. Noo'' 

 who has done such good work at Hakgala. This, 

 the Director thinks, would suffice, but we should 

 think Jaffna would put in a claim for some attention. 

 The difficulty is to find the ir.oney, a difficulty which 

 has prevented the formation of plantations of indiarubber- 

 yielding plants at Ratuapura. The beautiful gardens 

 at Peradeniya have been improved, and their botanical 

 treasures largely increased ; a glass-roofed plant-house 

 (the glass coloured green) was completed, as was the 

 Gardner Memorial, Dr. Trimen having placed on it 

 an appropriate inscription. We suppose the Thwaites 

 Memorial will be speedily added. We are glad tonotiee 

 that attention is being paid to.the labelling of the plants, 

 and that Dr. Trimen hopes speedily to add to his 

 valuable Guide Book to the Gardens as complete a 

 list as is possible (classified) of the plants growing in 

 the Gardens. 



All visitors to Hakgala will bear out Dr. Trimen's 

 statement, that, under Mr. Nock's able and zealous man- 

 agement, the Hakgala Gardens (below Nuwara Eliya) 

 have made great progress in every way. Amongst 

 the valuable additions are a new propag.iting-house; 

 the carriage-drive has been extended, and the fernery, 

 nurseries, borders and shrubberies and tiower-gnrdens 

 improved. Meteorological instruments having been 

 supplied, we h.ive the information, that, in the second 

 half of the past year, the mean temperature at Hak- 

 gala (5,400 feet altitude) was (il'S ; the maximum 

 having been 74 on 4th July and the minimum 47 on 4th 

 December. The mean amount of cloud was 8. The wet 

 and cloudiness of Hakgala bave militated and must ever 

 militate against the successof cinchonas there, although 

 Mr. Markham chose it as the site of the first experi- 

 ment in Ceylon, on account of its resemblance to 

 places in the true habitat of tlie plants in the Audean 

 ranges. Well-deserved testimony is boriio to the con- 

 dition of the tropical garden at Heuanitgoda and the 

 attention of the Muhandu'am in charge. Curiously 

 enough, Tinnevelly senna and Peruvian cotton which 

 failed hurc have succeeded at AnuraJhapura, to which 

 ancient city a garden is likely to be of great benefit, 

 as well as to the country around ; it is on the 

 borders of the great tanks. Dr. Trillion's remarks 

 on the decadence of the Arabian coilce under the 

 inHuence of leaf-fungus and the rapid progress of tea 

 and cacao, with the warnings held out w ill be specially 

 interesting to ijlauters. The remarks on cinchona, too, 

 are interesting as showing the true causes of so many 

 failures. Dr. Trimen does not hold the degeneracy 

 theory. We notice with great regret that ne seems i o 

 have identified ''a sucking insect" which had clone injury 

 to shoots and pods of cacao with the " mosquito blight 

 or Uchij/ellis thth-ora of the Indian tea plantations, 

 more correctly named in Java (where it is most des- 

 tructive to tea and cinchonas) as IlelojieUis Antonii. 

 Of all other pests, not even excepting red spider this 

 is the one most to be dreaded by tea plantei e, and we 

 trust the insect will never find out our young plant- 

 ations. The only tea pest of consequence as yet is a 

 minute moth which lays its eggs on the leaves, the 

 grub sucking out the juices and causing the leaves to 

 curl up and dry into tinder. It is not of much con- 

 lOiJ 



sequence, however, in comparison with the " green fly " 

 or mosquito blight. There is much that is interesting 

 about the trees which are the sources of indiarubber 

 and gutta-percha. We may mention that the natives 

 have done their best to kill a beautiful tree of Alslonia 

 seholari.i at " Blair Athol," Turret Road, Colombo, 

 by taking pieces of the bark for medicine, just 

 as they etrip Cassia fistula trees. Tiie bieadfiuit, 

 pasture grasses, fibres, gamboge and the eucalypti are 

 all noticed, and our readers will find much useful 

 information in the report. 



THE AMERICAN FRUIT DRIER AS A TEA 

 ROASTER. 



Apart from the question of its adaptation for tea 

 roasting, it seems to us that it wouM be worth the 

 while of some enterprising person to introduce the 

 machine for the purpose of drying some of our Cej Ion 

 fruits, such as plantains, pineapples and mangoes. 

 There is a peach-parer which, no doubt, would an. 

 swer w^ell for mangoes. The prepara ion of fruit for 

 export in the United States, has assumed dimensions 

 of great magnitude, and we think it probable that 

 something in the same direction mi^jht be done here 

 in Ceylon. At present we export only hard fruits, 

 those of the coffee bush and of the cuconut and areka 

 palms. The use of the American di ier or evaporator 

 might enable us to grow and expoit a large surplus 

 of soft fruits, such as mangoes, pineapples and plantams. 

 The principles of the machine are thus described : — 



Wo will, briefly as possible, state our claims of titructnml 

 Sujieriority, practically applied in au anaiigemeut entii-ely 

 new ui the construction of fruit evaiurators, by whicn 

 separate cun-cuts of dry, heated air, niilumatwalhj oMtcd, 

 pass underneath and diagonally through the trays and then 

 off over them, cai'rying the moisture out of the evaporator 

 without coming m contact with the trays of fruit pre- 

 \-iously entered, and ah-eady in au advanced stage of 

 completion. 



Wo concentrate the greatest heat upon each tray or group 

 when it first enters the machine, and each tray or grouji 

 subsequently entered removes or shoves the provioua one 

 forward in a lower tempcratui-e. 



These advantages are secured aud continued tliroughout 

 by reason of our Indtned Ecaporator Trunk. No steaming, 

 cooking, or retrograde process becomes possible. 



Indued, so perfect is the active cnculation of dry, hot air 

 over, under, and through each line of trays, that ««y trai/ 

 taken from any iMri'wn of the trunk at miy Hmc after being 

 in the evaporator ten minutes, (the fruit) will be found to 

 he perfectly dry on the outside, to sight or touch, ulthough 

 the process of complete evaporation may be but one-fourth 

 or one-half finishod. 



This condition of the fruit we guarontee our evaporator 

 to maintain when full of fruit and working at its full 

 capacity. 



As a result, we secure maximum evaporating capacity per 

 square foot of tray surface, aud of fuel consumed, aud 

 entire freedom from burning or scorching, a bright color 

 (characteristic) in the jiroduct, highest possible retention 

 of flavor, development of sugar, aud markut value. 



The peculiar shape of our evaporator was designed by 

 Doctor Ryder, the inventor, in order to avoid the objec- 

 tionable features an'l disadvantages incident to a perpend- 

 icular stack of trays, and to divert the currents of hot air 

 and cause them to pass through and around a series of 

 trays so placed as to secure continuous aud rapid evapor- 

 ation without motive power. 



The Inclined Trimlc answers the pui-pose admu-ably. The 

 curreuts, seff-created and continous, strike the trays of 

 fruit at a uniform upward angle with considerable velocity, 

 quickly absorb all moisture, and then pass off out of the 

 machine. 



\\'itli it Doctor Ryder inaugurated the ivf/Mrf continuous 

 fiiajioriilioiiofj'riiils, npuii the principle of *?(/yir<(»^ Ihc fresh 



