December i, 1883.] 



TPIE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



409 



it, a rolling-machine invented by a Mr. Gibbon and 

 a good deal used in Cacbar. Col. Money wrote : — 



I only know of one other tea rolling-machine, which 

 18 Nelson's. It does not profess to do more than ijre- 

 pare the green leaf for rolling, which, as stated 

 above, is, I think, all that any machine will ever 

 do. I have never seen it working, but it appears 

 simple, being nothing more than a mangle. The 

 leaf is placed in bags, and then compressed under 

 rollers attached to a box, weighted with stones. 

 The prospectus states, it will proiiaie SO lb. green 

 leaf in fifteen minutes and that one man can then 

 finish as much of such prepared leaf iu three 

 minutes as would occupy him twelve minutes if the 

 same had not been prepared. I see nothing unlikely 

 in this. The machine, though inferior to Kinmond's 

 in its arrangement, ought to be cheap enough to 

 brnig it within the reach of all. 



Unfortunately it is not. It is advertised at E300, 

 with a yearly royalty of E50 the first year and 20 

 after. The royalty should be dropped, and the 

 machine sold for R150, which would give the inventor 

 a good profit. 

 We quote again : — 



I have already spoken of one of McMeekin's inven- 

 tions. His chest-of-drawers for firing Tea is, I think, 

 superior to his batten table. It is now so well known, 

 and in such general use, that I shall describe it 

 very shortly. It is nothing more than a low che^t- 

 of-drawers, or trays fitted in a frame one .ibove the 

 other, the bottom of each tray being fine iron wire, so 

 that the heat of tlie charcoal, in the masnnry recept- 

 acle over which it is placed, ascends through all the 

 drawers and thus driej or fires a large quantity of 

 "roll" at the same time. By the old plan, a single 

 wicker sieve was inserted inside a bamboo frame 

 called a "dhole," which was placed over a charcoal 

 fire made in a hole in the ground. On the sieve the 

 roll was placed, and ;ill the heat, after passing through 

 this one sieve, was wasted. Mr. McMeekin's diea 

 was to economise this heat by passing it through 

 several drawers. 



ilost planters use these drawers, and there is no 

 doubt in the space saved, and the economy of heat : 

 it is a great step in advance over the old barbarous 

 method, where not only was the heat wasted after 

 passing through otic sieve, but a great deal was lost 

 through the basket work of the "dholo" itself, 



Still 1 do not advocate four, still less five drawers 

 one above the other. I think the steam ascending from 

 the lower drawers must, more or- less, injure the roll in j 

 the upper ones. I confine myself to two, and even then 

 in the top tray leave a small circular space vacant ! 

 by which the steam from the lower drawer ciin 

 escape. 1 utilize the heat that escapes, partially, by 

 placing -'dhallas" in tiers above, with roll in them. 

 These are supported by iron rods let into the wall, 

 and are useful not only for partly dryiilg the roll, 

 but also for withering leaf when there is uo sau. 



It would thus appear that Mr. McMeekin had anti- 

 cipated the main principles of the siioccus aud 

 driers now in use. Col. Mone.r finally noticed an 

 advertisement res.ieoting Jackson's sifting michine, and 

 said its larger size than those previously in US3 might 

 be in its favour. A machine for sifting and fanning 

 tea at the same time, Col. Money had used, but it 

 did not sort the teas with any nicety, and, alihouah 

 it fanned the tea well, that process might be done by 

 ranch cheeper appliance?. A Jackson's Sifter is doing 

 very good work on Abbotsford. Space and light. 

 Col. Money trul^ says, are the great wants for wither- 

 ing leaf in wet weather. Col. Slouey believed in tea- 

 houses made of iron aud glass, aud, when the 3id 

 edition of his book was pa-ssing through the press ; 



he was sending out glass for a tea-house. He has 

 not, iu the fourth edition, related the result, but 

 we can have no doubt it was good. Colonel Money 

 correctly states : — 



One and the principal reason why Indian Tea is 

 stronger than Chinese is that in India the sap or juice 

 is generally retained, while in China it is, strange to 

 say, purposely wasted ! 



But Mr. 8illar in England, Mr. Everard in Mel- 

 bourne, and others wdiose interests were specially 

 wrapped up iu China tea, indulged in the most 

 vehement aud senseless denunciations of Indian tea, 

 as awfully unwholesome, just because the juice cou- 

 taiuing the strength of the tea was not thrown away ! 

 After describing the various operations iu tea manu- 

 factm'e. Colonel Money wrote : — 



All the above operations should be carefully con- 

 ducted, but I believe the secret of good Tea consists 

 simply iu, first, stopping the fermentation at the right 

 moment ; and, secondly, in commencing to drive oil 

 the moisture immediately after. 



In this article we have dealt only with Col. Money's 

 incidental allusions to tea machinery in his chapter 

 on the " Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea," but 

 iu the fourth edition there is a chapter of no fewer 

 than 47 pages devoted to " Tea Maehiuery," to which 

 we sliall advert iu a further article. Meantime, we 

 may say that ("ol. Money pronounces as sti'ongly in 

 favour of Kinmond's drier as he previously did for 

 Jackson's roller. Kinmond's drier we have not seen, 

 but our experience of Jackson's is very favourable, 

 although we are not yet able to say what the con- 

 sumption of fuel in proportion to work done is, as 

 compared with Davidson's sirocco and Kinmond's drier. 



A Co-STLY Orchid. — Some rare orchids were sold on 

 Wednesday in Mr. Stevenson's Rooms, Covent-garden. 

 Three hundred specimens were put up lor auction of 

 every variety of th3 establishtd, semi-established, and 

 imported orchid. For one specimen of New Aerides 

 in flower, which was brought home about two years 

 ago, and had eight or nine growths, and spikes two 

 feet long and some SO flowers, 235 guineas were 

 realized. This is believed to be the highest- price ever 

 obtained at au auction for a single plant, the nearest 

 approach to it having been realised last April tor a 

 plant of "Cattleya Trianae Osmanii," for which 215 

 guineas were given. — Globe, Sept. 21st. 



Te.4. at Hiou Altitudes.— The following is from a 

 " Travelling Correspondent" of the Ceylon "Times" : — 



" It is curious to note how, on the introduction of any now 

 plaut or product, its supposed zone is limited aud con- 

 tracted by those who at the time are looked upon as author- 

 ities on the subject. This has been the case with coffee, 

 cinchona, cocoa, and caixlamonis in tui-u, and now we are 

 only just trying to reafize that what was looked upon as 

 infallible with regard to the supposed limits of the profitable 

 cullivatiou of tea is erroneous. The adventurous ones, who 

 commenced to plant the shrub up to 2,000 feet scoffed and 

 laughed at for their folly, whilst the very few, who bolder 

 even than the rest, attempted its cultivation as high up as 

 4,000 or 5,000 feet., were pitied as lunatics whose doings 

 M'ould bring their own punishment. AVe have now learned 

 our mistake. The laugh and scoff if any is all on the other 

 side. The more one reflects on such a theme the greater 

 is his astonishment. How comes it that wo were uot able 

 without jirejudice to apjjly the same conditions, which the 

 smallest enquiry would how satisfied us obtained in the 

 various tea districts of India, to our own case ? From sea- 

 level up to considerably over .5,000 feet, the hardy slu-ub 

 fiourishes in India aud is profitably grown between these 

 extremes, with miicli the same temperature as exists with 

 us here, and has been for years previously. Yet we iu Ceylon 

 would not believe but that the nearer sea-level was kept 

 to the better, aud this view is eveu now not yet altogether 

 exploded." 



