JuNi; i, i8ii4,] 



THE 'TROi'iCAh AeRiCULTUiHSf, 



9'3 



SMITH'S FIBRE MACHINES. 

 We insert on pagtf 925 a letter from Messrs. Collyer 

 & Co. oftlie General Fibre Company, the pux'port of which 

 is that the reason why Dr. Forbes Watson did not put 

 in an appearance at tne Calcutta Exhibition was not 

 due to any defect in Smith's Fibre Machines, which, 

 " t«/te?i properly handled, not otheru'ise," are- capable 

 of dealing with 10 cwt. per hour of rhca or any 

 other fibre-yielding plants. This, our readers will 

 observe, is equal to 4 tons of raw material in a day of 

 eight hours, or five tons in ten hours. The great point 

 is that the machine should be " properly handled," 

 and it seems unfortunate that in so many cases here 

 and elsewhere it has been found impossible to handle 

 it so as to get anything like satisfactory results. 

 When those delays in regard to the formation of the 

 General Fibre Company, which really prevented Dr. 

 Forbes Watson from coming to Calcutta and showing 

 what the machines when properly handled could do, 

 are overcome, we suppose purchasers will be fully 

 instructed how to get good and profitable results. 

 Last mail, which brought us the letter from Messrs. 

 Collyer & Co., brought us other communications on 

 the same subject. Amongst them is a letter from a 

 gentleman connected with the Company, who was for 

 several years a planter in Ceylon. We place his 

 letter below th.at of Messrs. Collyer & Co., and our 

 readers will see how positive our correspondent is as 

 to the good results obtained by means of the Smith 

 or Death fib'-e machine. 1'he specimen of rhea fibre 

 sent looks very nice. Our readers will see, that, given 

 the treatment of five tons per diem of x-aw material, 

 the clean fibre will vary from 3 to 5 per cent ; that 

 is, from 3 cwt. to 5 cwt , the latter maximum quantity 

 being one-fourth of a ton. In four days a machine 

 would turn out at this rate a ton of fibre, worth in 

 the market from £20 to £100, according to quality. 

 Ihe mail, liowever, has brought us a communication, 

 which we insert, showing very poor results obtained in 

 Ceylon from one of Smith's machines, which probably 

 was not properly handled. No doubt Ales.srs. Collyer & 

 Co. will show Mr. Campbell and others that far better 

 results can be obtained when the macliines are pro- 

 perly handled, and when such results are realized in 

 Ceylon we shall be very happy to record them. 

 We liave abundance of fibre-yielding plants, and only 

 good, cheap, profitable machinery is required to add 

 an important industry to those alicady established 

 in the colony. But the problem has not yet been 

 here practically and s.atisfactorily solved. 



THE PALMVKA PALM. 



HOW IT WAS CREATED ; 1T.S NATIVE COnNTKY ; AND A 



LIST OF SOME OF ITS PRODUCTS. 



From the Tola Vilasam, a Tamil poem, <lescribiug 

 "in brief an account of one out of the SOO items of 

 thiu'gs connected with the pnlmjra-tree, which is em- 

 phatically the kalpa-tree of the earth," K'ven in the 

 appendix to a "Description of the Palmyra Palm of 

 Ceylon," by William Ferguson, printed at the Obscrvir 

 Press in 1850 (thirty-four years ago), we (xtract 

 the following notice of the miraculous way in which 

 it was created : — "Parvathi (Siv.in's consort) then 

 said to Sivan, 'There is fault neither in Vishnu nor in 

 Brahma,' and thus appeased his anger. Sivan upon 

 this after meditating in bis own mind, said to Br.Thnia, 

 ' Hear me tell you something to supply the want.s 

 of the people of the caith. Ciiate the kalpa-tree upon 

 the earth aleo.' At the direction of the oresent- 

 moon. adorned Sivau, Brahma created in abundance 



nu 



palmyra trees in the three countries of Panathar, 

 Panyoor, and Panangasdoor, and called palmyra trees 

 by the names of Pootpady, Ponthy, Ponay and Talam " 

 In this creation, the Tola Vitasam shows that the 

 Hindu gods, Brahma, Siva, Vishnu and Sivan 's 

 consort, Parvathi, took each an active part — how many 

 years before the Christian era we cannot state at 

 present. Whether any one of the three countries in 

 which the Oriental gods are said to h.ive created the 

 palmyra palm is identical with the land of the 

 'Shaitars,' of the modern Tinnevelly or the palmyra 

 palm region of Southern India, we do not know, but 

 the following facts stated by two living Englishmen 

 may go some way to disturb the self-complacency 

 of the Hindu gods named and those who believe 

 in them. 



In the 3rd vol. of the Oenera Plaiitanirn by Btnthain 

 and Hooker, they state that there is only one species 

 of Borassus or palmyra palm, a native of Africa 

 but widely cultivated in India, whiUt in the Keport 

 of the Koyal Gardens of Kew for 18S2 by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, the facts of its origin are thus repeated on 

 page 69: — " Native of Tropical Africa, cultivated in 

 India." 



Leaving the original habitat of this useful tree to 

 besettled between the gods and the tw i authors of the 

 Genera Plantarum, we proceed to not'ce the following 

 list of some of its products. 



Mr. J. Alexander of UdapuBsellaw a, a gentleman of 

 the planting community who tal;ps a very deep 

 interest in the agri- and horticultural products of 

 our island, is taking with him from Ceylon for the 

 grand Exhibition of Forest Products in Edinburgh, 

 amongst other things, a very complete set of the 

 products of the coconut palm prep, red for him at 

 the Hulstsdorp Mills by Messrs. Lecchman, and of 

 the palmyra palm from Jaifna prepared by Mr. Rob 

 ert 0. D. Asbury who received a silver medal 

 from the last Agri-Horticultural .'Society Exhibition 

 for his collection of the products of the palmyra 

 palm. 



From Mr. Asbury we have received a most ex- 

 cellent photograph showing about 100 out of 800 

 products of this wonderful tree, which lemind us 

 of the times of old, 1S43-7, when we shot doves of 

 various kinds amongst the palmyras and the wanoura- 

 like monkey once, and not a second time. 



To us this photograph, showing us no less than 120 

 objects, conveys a very wonderful idea of the number 

 of uses of the tree, and the ingenuity of the natives 

 of Jatfna in manufacturing so many useful and orna- 

 mental products from it. 



We now give the complete list of the lt;3 products 

 of the palmyra palm given in a piiutod list by Mr. 

 Asbury and beg to recommend him to anyone wlio 

 may wish to procure a complete set of the products 

 of the palmyra palm from Jaffna. 



The Palmyra Palm. 

 (Borassua Flahellifoniif.) 



A list of some of the numerous uses this tree is put to 

 in Jaffna, Ceylon : Prepared by Mr. Kohort O. D. Asbury, 

 JaO'na. 



Group I. Wooden Utensils. — 1 Plough ; 2 Yoke ; 3 'Well- 

 sweep ; 4 Water-spout ; 5 Door ; 6 Gate ; 7 Staml ; 8 Manger; 

 9 Bedstead ; lU Ladder ; 11 I'estle ; 12 Walking-stick ; 13 

 Thatching-needle; 14 Paper-weight; 15 Koof-timber; IB 

 Fruit-mallet. 



Group II. Food Materials &c. — 1 Fruit, ripe ; 2 do. 

 young ; 3 do. juice, dried ; 4 do. juice, .s| iced ; 5 do. juice 

 cakes; 6 Koot, edible; 7 do. dried; 8 du. boiled, dried; 9 

 do. boiled, sliced ; 10 I'lour of root ; 11 " 'J iipioca" ; 12 Stone 

 albumen ; 13 Jaggery ; 14 do. syrup; 15 do. candy ; 1 

 Toddy ; 17 do. sweet ; 18 Vinegar; 19 Tend, r shoot. 



Group III. Leaves. (Ola).— Raw:— 1 La.st but one shoot; 

 2 Leaf prepared for work ; 3 Leaf of young tree ; 4 do. for 

 thatching ; 6 do. for feeding cattle ; 6 do. Ivibs ; 7 do. Kef use 



