December i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



433 



ing of " Pekoe " and " Pekoe Souchong") is delivered on to 

 the head of No. 4 slope at the B end of the machine. 



No. 4 slope has no carrying traj : it would be useless. 

 ■What will not pass through the mesh is delivered at the A 

 end of the machine, and is " Pekoe Souchong;" while what 

 does pass through the mesh falls ou the floor of the factory 

 and is the remaining " Pekoe," that is, " Pekoe No. 2. 



The sorting is so far finished, and the results are the 

 following teas, placed round the machine thus : — " Pekoe 

 No. 1," at the left side of B end ; " Broken Pekoe," at the 

 right side of B end ; " Eed Leaf and Fanniugs," some dis- 

 tance in front of B ead ; " Souchong," also in front of B 

 end, but nearer to the machine; "Congou," at back of A 

 end ; " Pekoe Souchong," also at back of A end, but nearer 

 the machine ; " Pekoj No. 2," on the floor below the 

 machine. 



With teas thus minutely sorted, all possible requu-ements 

 are provided for, and the planter can, by mixing or other- 

 wise, make any number of classes he may choose. 



It will be observed that " Pekoe " is taken out twice, 

 resulting in " Nos. 1 and 2 Pekoe." These differ slightly, 

 but are better mixed together. " Why take them out 

 separately," some exclaim, " to mix them together again ?' 

 But there are three very good reasons: firstly, the " Pekoe" 

 is takeu out at the commencement, previous to fanning, to 

 prevent the small broken pekoe tips being blown out in that 

 process; secondly, the "1st Pekoe" being taken out thus 

 early, its appearance is not injured by passing over a large 

 amount of sieve-mesh area; and thirdly, all the " I*ekoe" is 

 thus extracted, which it could not be, as far as I can see, by 

 auy other process. 



From all kinds detailed above, I make only four — viz., 

 "Pekoe," "Broken Pekoe," "Pekoe Souchong," and 

 "Broken Tea ;" but others can do as they will.* 



The machine is of course driven by steam.f The move- 

 ment of all the trace is a backward and forward one of 

 3 inches longitudinal serai-circular motion, the latter move- 

 ment being imparted by the steel spring hangers. Only a 

 small amount of power is required to drive the machine, viz., 

 under half horse. 



I must here conclude my description. 



Now as to the amonnt of work the machine will do. 

 I speak from actual experience when I state what fol- 

 lows : — 



It will sift and fan seven maunds of tea per hour. The only 

 hand laboxu: required to supplement it is a few (a very few) 

 women to pick out any foreign substances out of the 

 "congou." 



At our garden in Western Dooars, 1,260 maunds of tea 

 were made in IS80, and all sifted by this machine, the 

 hand labour besides being only 44 women during the whole 

 season, or about one-fifth of a woman per day. 



The machine requires only two men to work it con- 

 tiiuially, and one boy to feed it from the upper floor. 



T can think of no possible objection to this machine, or 

 even of any j)0ssible improvement. I believe, in the case 

 of a 300-acre garden with a decent amount of produce, 

 the machine, in its saving of hand labour, pay for itself 

 in one year, whilst the teas are much improved in appear- 

 ance by its use, and fetch higher prices. 

 The machine seems certainly very efficient, doing 

 5,f)001b. of tea in ten hours. Jackson's sifter divides 

 the tea into only four sizes and has no fan attached. 

 The sifter, like the roller, can, of course, be moved 

 by water power in Ceylon. Amongst the testimonies 

 iu favour of Ansell's sifter is a letter quoted from 

 the Cqjfon Ohnervtr, as follows : — 



A corresiiondent writes from London to the Ceylon Ob- 

 servci' as follows: — Ansell's Patent Tea Sorter seems to 

 be an article which will later be much used in Ceylon. 

 In a memo, before me there is an extract from Messrs. 

 George Williamson & Co., who say: — "The manager of 

 our JIajilighur Garden writes : — ' I have now had suflici- 

 ent e.xpcrieiico of Ansell's Sifter to be able to report very 

 favoiuably upon it. It does its work thoroughly and 

 cleanly, and, owing to the comparatively small space it 

 occupies, little or no loss occurs even of the finest; dust. 



* I advise only these four lands. Wlien the trader be- 

 comes more sensible, three or even two would be better, 

 but as it is now four are necessary. 



|- With a driving belt from the engine shafting. 



Sixteen maunds in nine hours is what I find to be about 

 its capabilities, and four boys do all the work connected 

 with it. It has effected a great saving in the tea-house 

 this year, and has quite done away with hand-sieving, 

 except equaUzing the broken pekoe and broken tea — a very 

 trivial operation.' " 



We now come to the final operation of packing. 

 Col. Money writes strongly in favour of the handsome 

 tin-boxes made by Messrs. Harvey Brothers & Tylor, 

 which surely would have beeu universally adopted 

 did Col. Money's statement still hold true that tea 

 sent home in them averaged 8d per lb. in excess of 

 teas packed in the ordinary manner ! There cau be 

 no doubt they are very nice looking and wouM be 

 appreci.tted in America. But the price of a box to 

 hold 201b. of tea is about 2a 6d. For little more, 

 than this a timber box to hold 100 lb., with lead, nails, 

 &c., complete nan be purchased. We fear, therefore, 

 that cost is an insuperable objection. There is also the 

 difBculty of packing for carriage. Col. Money finally 

 quotes iiom the Observer a communication respecting 

 hoop-iron for wooden tea-boxes, which we may repeat. — ■ 

 The Ceylon Observer says ; — " The planters should note 

 the foUowing (writes to us a London firm) — From quot- 

 ations lyiug before us the prices of 22 gauge iron hoop- 

 ing are as follows : — | in., 165s per ton; | in., 110s per 

 ton, J in., 70s.; Jin., tiOs.; 1 in., SOa. Thus by using one 

 inch hooping, less than one-third the price is paid. Tiio 

 narrower the hooping, the more difficult is it to manu- 

 facture." 

 Col. Money adds "It is also not so strong." 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN CEYLON. 

 It is not so very long ago since English operatives 

 smashed machinery and burnt the mills in which 

 labour-saving engines were employed, on the plea 

 that the machines were taking the bread out of their 

 mouths. Neither they nor The Times office printers, 

 from whom the late Mr. Walter had to carefully 

 conceal his elforts to perfect a printing machine, were 

 educated enough to know that tliey could not poss- 

 ibly put back the hands of time, and that tlie 

 ultimate effects of machinery, besides doiug the work 

 of millions of hands, would be to provide fresh and 

 varied employment for human beings as virtual direct- 

 ors of labour instead of being themselves slavish 

 toilers and moilers : doing the maximum of work with 

 the mininuim of results. The masses of the natives of 

 Ceylon are still much in the same dark mental con- 

 dition. It is well-known that the late Mr. de Soysa, 

 after having promised to provide capital for a railway to 

 Moratuwa, refused to go on, in consequence of an appeal 

 to him as a patriotic Sinhalese by the native cart- 

 drivers. They said: — " The English liave ruined many 

 of us by making railways iu the hills. Are you going 

 to join thera and complete the work of ruiu by help- 

 in" to make railways in the lowcountry ?" It is 

 aniusiu". however, to learu that the iritive cultivators 

 are likely to oppose the introduction of improved 

 ploughs on the same grouud. The occasion for this 

 fresli development of crass stupidity arose from Mr. 

 Green, the Director of Public Instruction, having got 

 over some of the light iron ploughs from Suid.apet, 

 some Swedish and some Nawr.b. 



Mr. Green tried one of the Swedish ploughs iu the com- 

 ponnd of Uplands, where he lives and it did very well. 

 Two natives (well dressed) came in and looked ou : one 

 said :— " Yes, the phiugh works better aud quicker than 

 anylhiug we can do with our ploughs, but it will ruiu 

 the country. First the Governnu-ut briu;; in the rail- 

 way and ruin the poor cartels ; now they lirin^' iron 



