December i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



435 



while nine days' labour of a cooly must be E3*50 and 

 even if of a'-podian" (a boy) R-2 25. We have no 

 doubt, however, that with trees more advanced in years 

 and further experience in harvesting, the return and 

 quality of the rubber will be more satisfactory. 

 Meantime, experimentalists should carefully peruse 

 the mass of useful information collected in the little 

 work on " Indiarubber " published at this office. 



SUGAE-PLANTING : CEYLON PLANTEES IN 

 NORTHEEN QUEENSLA>JD. 



The following extracts of a letter, from one of a trio 

 of Ceylon planters who recently went to try their 

 fortunes in Queensland, wdl be of interest to our 

 rcuders : — 



Seaforth Estate, Lower Burdekin, via Bowen, 

 Queensland, 20th August ISSu. 

 The Burdekin is to be a very favorite district, and 

 large acreages are being opened up. What strikes one 

 from Ceylon is the fearlees way in which capital is 

 bemg laid out, compared with our reduced expend- 

 iture of late years. 'Ihe sugar plant is in full oper- 

 ation, crushing in Airduiillan. We are just getting 

 ready for the plant to arrive here in the course of 

 ten days, and Mr. Young expeds his within a couple 

 of months. Meantime Airdmillan is the only factory 

 in working order on the Burdekin. They have some- 

 what over 1,200 acres under cane there, while there 

 are COO acres here and the same breadth at Kalamia. 

 Mr, Macmillan has several mills of tramway and a 

 locomotive at work — while the Seaforth line joins that 

 of Airdmillan and the first 100 acres of cane ate being 

 sent by rail to the Factory at the latter. It seems 

 almost idcredible the smount of work that has been 

 done on some large properties during these past two 

 years. I must say the prospect fully warrants the 

 ibfi-al expenditure. The appearance of the young 

 tieUls of cane is simply magniticent and the yield 

 per acre and density uf juice is beyond expectation 

 at Airdmillan. * I hear of further extension and prob- 

 ably a second factory there. The two great im- 

 mediate wants are railway communication and a steady 

 supply of coloured labour : you know the latter is 

 a bunung question. It seems to be the geneial im- 

 pression that the stand against Indian labour cannot 

 hold much longer. The sugar industry is getting too 

 strong for its wants to be ignored. The working 

 classes need be under no apprehension of the cooly 

 pushing tLemout of the field. There is much skilled 

 labour for which the Indian cooly is totally untit, 

 while on the other haiid their importation would lead 

 to the opening out of large tracts of fertile country, 

 thus at the same time oflering employment to really 

 good European labour — but of all these questions you 

 have a much more intimate knowledge than I can 

 pretend to as yet. 



There is no question but that Queensland has very 

 great resources which only want a eeoure supp y of 

 labour to attract capital to their developenienl. 



Both mysolt and my two friends like the colony 

 and the work very much. There is a contrast 

 10 Ceylon in very many ways, but I think it is more 

 the less pleasant. If one has any energy, this is 

 certainly the country to develop it — and it is equally 

 not the country for the helpless young man. 



DON'T DIE IN THE HOUSE. 

 "Rough on Kats" clears out rats, mice, beetlee, roaches, 

 bed-bugs, flies, ants, insects, moles, chipmunks, gophers. 

 U. .S. Madon & Co., IJombay, General Agents. 



* We " assisted " at an experiment, when 11 percent 

 Was shown.— Ed. 



TEA EOLLEES. 



[jiiter writing the artile which appears on page 429 on 

 Tea Machinery, we noticed the following account of rollers 

 in the Indigo Plantt^rs' Gazette, in which Mr. Lyle is 

 mentioned. — En.] 



Ill a former issue we took up the subject of Dryers, 

 and we now propose to give Kolling Machines a few words. 

 The best known of these are Jackson's Excelsior, the 

 Cross- Action, Kinmond's Ceutrif ug.-d, Haworth's Bag KoUer, 

 Nelson's Bag Roller, Lyle's modification of Haworth, and 

 Thompson's Challenge, comparatively new and unknown 

 in Assam and Cachar. Opinions of planters are bound to 

 vary, and a little partisanship is sure to exist where 

 there are so many machines to pick and choose from, 

 but to juJge from the numbers used on different fact- 

 ories is probably the fairest test. Jackson's rollers stand 

 out prominently, possibly Haworth's and Lyle's modific- 

 ation come next, these may be counted as ' one, and then 

 Kinmond's foUows. The opinions of experienced planters 

 would seem to point to Jackson's Excelsior as the coming 

 machine, and there can be no doubt to look at it, it has 

 more engineering talent displayed in its manufacture than 

 any of the -others. Its simplicity, too, sti-ikes any one as 

 a strong recommendation. We do hear that it rolls fine 

 leaf, but this is what all rolling machines do, and although 

 some of them make a little better work than others of 

 coarse leaf, yet the residts with coarse leaf are not up to 

 one's expectations. The Excelsior is a comparatively new 

 machine, and until last year very little was known of it ; 

 but we have never heard any one say anything worse of 

 it than what we have stated above about fine leaf. The 

 Cross-Action is an old favorite, and seems to do excellent 

 work with both classes of leaf, and some prefer it to the 

 Excelsior. The quantity these two machines turn out per 

 diem is about the same, and in writing about them 

 are influenced by no partisanship, but are merely ex- 

 pressing the opinions of planters whose judgment and ex- 

 perience entitle them to' be heard. So far then tlie '* Ex- 

 celsior" and the *' Cross- Action'' give about the same re- 

 sults, unless of course very coarse leaf is plucked, in which 

 case Lyle's modification of Haworth's would appear to 

 have the advantage. It is absm'd in planters to expect a 

 rolling machine to roil all classes of leaf and get good 

 results, because the pressure required to bring the coarse 

 leaf into shape, destroys the fine young succulent pekoe 

 tips ; but if leaf is plucked separately, the best results 

 may be obtained by using perhaps two different rollers, 

 one for coarse and one for fine. From what wo have 

 heard of Lyle's machine, we should be inclined to think 

 that its strong point lay in manipulating coarse leaf. The 

 ingenious method of gaining pressure suggests the idea 

 that whatever goes in might, if requued, be reduced to a 

 pulp. Of course there is the drawback that the leaf has 

 to be put into bags to be rolled, and there is the con- 

 tinual wear and tear of bags, but this we do not fancy 

 amounts to much. Of Haworth's machine we have heard 

 much the same accounts, except that in its case again 

 crops up the 'question of fine and coarse leaf, ami that 

 it rolls fine leaf better than coarse. Of Nelson's roUing 

 machine the accounts that have reached us are not very 

 encouraging. It is complained of as taldug up too much 

 space, and as not giving very good results. We under- 

 stand the Patentee made some alteration in the driving 

 gear, placing it under the machine so as to save space 

 but that it was not a success. However, we believe that 

 he is bringing out a new machine to roll without the use 

 of the bags, and which will take up a small space, so 

 that no doubt, if it is a success, it will increase in pub- 

 lic estimation. Kinmond's machine according to the ver- 

 dict in the case, Kinmond f.s\ Jackson, was the original 

 that gave Jackson all his ideas from which, from time 

 to time, he has improved upon until the Excelsior and 

 Cross-Action have been evolved. In order t"^ keep pace 

 with his lival, BIr, Kinmond has kept altering his table 

 until he arrived at the Centrifugal, which is. we believe, 

 the latest improvement, or at least thought to be so. As 

 far as we can learn the Centrifugal has not been the 

 success predicted, more especially the large-sized one. 

 The sni.'ill size with fine leaf, so far as we can learn* 

 gives fairly good results, but planters complain of the 

 arge size. The chief complaint wo have heard has been 

 that it tumbles and biui^es the lisS, iastSAd 9i toj^i^ if} 



