S'^ 



ME TROPICAL AGI^ICULTORISI?. 



[Aug. 2, iSbO. 



in the best possible condition, and live minutes 

 after we left the ship a Covent-garden merchant 

 had purchased the whole of the contents of the 

 chamberl Messrs, tScrutton & Co., now that they 

 can bring the fruit over fresh, intend to draw the 

 early fruits from Madeira as well, anticipating our 

 hothouse strawberries by six weeks. Next trip 

 they will bring 1,000 bunches of the banana, and 

 when they have cultivated it scientitically there is 

 reason to believe that some very fine fruit will be 

 the result. At present, a native puts in a plant and 

 it grows. That sums up the history of its present 

 cultivation. 



While the Messrs. Scrutton have been elabor- 

 ating this idea, the Orient Company have been 

 doing much the same thing- in the way of import- 

 ing fruits from Australia— there, however, they only 

 cultivate English fruits— and so there is good 

 reason to hope that we shall have the number of 

 fruits in our markets largely increased and cheapened 

 while our colonies will find a new and valuable 

 addition to their export trade. 



Indian Patents. — One of these is thus describ- 

 ed: — Mr. George Greig, Engineer, of Harveston, 

 in the County of Kincardine, North Britain — " A 

 method ofi desiccating air for drying purposes."— 

 Indian Engineer, 



Tea.— There are said to be 64 tea plantations in 

 the Madras Presidency, covering au area of 7,553 acres, 

 of which little more than half is under cultivation. 

 Last year the outturn was 398,945 lb. The above are 

 ofKcial statistics but are of doubtful accuracy.— iV'ityf'rt 

 Expi'tss. 



TuE Oli> PUSSELL.4.WA district is coming won- 

 derfully to the front under tea: an experienced 

 " V. A." in tea said not long ago that he had not 

 seen in the island better teaj of its age than a 100 

 acres field of about two years old on Peacock estate. 



Trout in Nuwaka Eliya.— We are glad to 

 learn that the Assistant Agent of Nuwara Eliya 

 proposes to try the experiment of introducing trout 

 into the Nuwara Eliya lake and neighbouring 

 streams, and subscriptions are invited to defray 

 the expenses connected with it. The operations of 

 reserving the young fry &c. will be conducted 

 under the personal supervision of Mr. LeMesurier, 

 and we are glad to learn that about E.500 have 

 already been subscribed for this purpose. 



A Eaok Hailway, designed especially for 

 tourist traffic, has-been constructed up the sides 

 of the granite cone of Corcovado, in the immediate 

 vicinity of Bio de Janeiro. The mountain is 2,330 

 feet high ; and, as it stands alone, a superb view 

 of the grand harbour is to be had from its summit. 

 The line starts in one of the suburbs of the city, 

 121 feet above sea level, and rises to the foot of 

 the actual peak, an elevation of 2,198 feet. The 

 total length is 4,144 yards, the width gauge 1 

 metre, the least gradient 1 in 25, maximum gradient 

 1 in 33, and maximum radius G chains. The steel 

 rails arc of the Vignoles pattern, 21) feet inches 

 long, and weighing 40'3 lb. per yard. The rack rail 

 is similar to that of the liigi Bailway, and weiglis 

 112-9 lb. per yard. The sleepers are 5-9 feet by 

 (5-3 inches by 5-9 inches, and are of native wood. 

 The chief works on the line are numerous retaining 

 walls, a wooden viaduct, two plate girder bridges 

 over deep clefts, and a wrought-iron viaduct of 

 three spans, 42(3 feet long. The rolUng-stock con- 

 sists of two locomotives with inclined boilers, two 

 carriages to hold 50 passengers, and two goods vans. 

 The Tasmanian Government would do wall to con- 

 struct a railway of this kind to the top of Mount 

 Wellington.— .S7/(/»c// Mail. J.t the How of tourists 

 continues, we "in Ceylon may see similar lines to 

 the summits of riduiutallagalla and Adam's Peak. 

 —El'. C. O.j 



TiiK Value of tuk " T. A.' xo Cevi.on 

 Estate Owneks. — A planting correspondent wrote 

 not long ago : — " I think proprietors should sup|)ly 

 every tea estate with the '/'. A. The information 

 in it with regard to everything in connection with 

 tea &c. is invaluable : it would pay its value over 

 and over again. Owners of estates should not 

 leave it to hard-up superintendents to take it in." 



A Hint to Planters. — Messrs. Carson & Co. 

 are good enough to send us tw'o samples of colitce 

 beans packed in tin foil bags, rolled up and 

 sealed with wax, which have been sent to tlieni 

 through the post from Gonamotava estate, Hapu- 

 tale, and they write as follows; — "The tin foil 

 bags are very suitable for samples of coffee, etc, 

 sent through the jDost ; see two herewith ; not the 

 least torn. Though not so strong as parchment 

 they are far less costly and apparently quite as 

 safe." 



Seiu) Oysteks are being exported from Bridge- 

 port, Conn., to England at the rate of from 150 

 to 200 barrels a day. The firm engaged in the 

 business has two dredging steamers at work con- 

 stantly on the beds off Southport. The seed are 

 freed from all extraneous substances, tightly packed 

 in barrels, and shipped via New York. By tlie 

 Englishmen they are planted in the river Umber, 

 in Brightlingsea, south of London, and at Carling- 

 ford in Ireland. The project is to cultivate the 

 American oyster in British beds, and thus greatly 

 increase the supply in the English markets. — 

 American Grocer. 



Bbazil : Coffee .\.nd "Coca:" Cojiplijient to 

 Ceylon Tea. — We are permitted to quote as follows 

 from a private letter of Mr. Scott-Blacklaw : — 

 "I shall one of these days try to continue my letters 

 on Mandioca cultivation. I have tried all I can to 

 find some seeds of the Coca-Erythroxylon, but 

 cannot find it in Brazil, and I know no one in 

 Peru or Bolivia, who could send it. I shall make 

 another effort first time I go to Rio. I have been 

 written to from Ceylon and from India for seed. 

 It is a pity you could not find some as it will 

 take the place of tea and coffee, particularly of 

 the former as a renovator of the physical energies. 

 The leaf is shipped at Para but my friends there 

 cannot procure me seed. It comes down the 

 Amazon from Peru and Bolivia. I hope you are 

 succeeding with tea. Coffee will never grow again 

 in Ceylon. It has left it, the same as it has left 

 the old Brazilian coffee districts. In these latter a 

 little grows still in the shade and there are a 

 few exceptional cases where the plantations have 

 held out. But in the far interior where the rail- 

 ways have within the last few years been opened 

 the produce is enormous and increasing in spite of 

 shortness of labour. All our calculations as re- 

 gards Brazil have come to nothing. Slaves get 

 fewer everyday and coffee exports increase every 

 year. Coffee has had to be abandoned in districts 

 which combined \\ould take in three times the area 

 of Ceylon. It is very scUish of me to write you 

 only when my tea is finished, Ihe same as I accuse 

 my boys of writing only when they want some- 

 thing. But really the tea was so nice. 1 take 

 ill without it, now that it is done. I have kept 

 one bottle of it in case of sickness ! If the British 

 India steamers call at Lisbon a box sent through 

 them to be transferred to one of the Brazilian 

 steamers would not cost so much as sending to 

 England. I think they will book it through to 

 Eio." What is stated about " coca " is of import ance : 

 Mr. Gordon Grinlinton at Portswood, Nuwara Eliya. 

 has been interesting himself in this new product ; 

 we do not know if any other planters have done 

 so? 



