322 



TJHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Oct. I, 1886, 



years, the crops being equally good iu both, the 

 r-hemicals produced quite a difierent result. The 

 first year the tea was good ; but the effects of the 

 manure the second year were scarcely felt — at least, 

 advantageously felt. Besides this, the chemical manu- 

 res, he discovered, made the plant more sensitive, 

 and, unless they were constantly kept up — he might 

 liken it to a stimulant — the bushes, deteriorated. A 

 little had been done iu the way of top-dressing, 

 with excellent results. In cases where roots were 

 washed and left exposed, the manuring he spoke 

 of had been eminently satisfactory. He was in favour 

 of top-dressing twenty acres of old cultivation, as 

 against opening up twenty acres of new ground. 



Mr. "\A''yllie, formerly an Assam planter, said it 

 was nearly twenty years since he was connected 

 with tea planting in Assam. The great difficulty 

 then — and gathering what he bad from the remarks 

 of the reader of the paper, he discovered that the 

 great difficulty now — was withering. He desired to 

 ask Mr. Peter whether from his own personal know- 

 ledge, he could name any machine or any contrivance 

 which had dealt successfully with withering tea or 

 was likely to deal in a practical form with it. He 

 had been in Cachar, Sylhet, and Assam provinces, 

 and could himself testify to the tremendous loss in 

 every way which the withering process entailed. 



Mr. Peter repUed that he had seen Mr. Gibbs's 

 machine for withering purpcses which was most 

 excellent. The Main machine, manufactured by A. 

 and J. Main, Glasgow, was a magnificent drier, and 

 he had every reason to believe that Mr. Main's 

 machine would meet with the success it deserved. 



Sir D. Forsyth said he wanted to make a remark. 

 He had been connected with tea for a long time. 

 His experiences iu India, however, were not in the 

 tea districts of Assam. Now Mr. Peter placed his 

 average yield per acre at 300 or 350 lb. In his 

 (the speaker's) experience they had never attained 

 to anything like that, except in a few very exceptional 

 instances. The greatest difficulty, perhaps, they had 

 to deal with was the shortness of yield. He wanted 

 to know how they were going to reduce their expen- 

 diture and increase their yield. The climate was 

 responsible for a good deal, but there were other 

 agencies at work besides the climate. Indian tea was, 

 in his opinion, making its way exceedingly well. 

 Everybody who cared anything for good tea knew that 

 Indian tea was pure. It was not adulterated like 

 China tea. and people were beginning to find that fact 

 out. If the objects mentioned by Mr. Peter as to in- 

 crea.se of yield and reduction of cost could attained, 

 he prophesied that before long Indian tea would stamp 

 all inferior teas out of the English market. (Cheers.) 



The usual vote of th;aik3 having been carried 

 with acclamation, the (company separated. — Hoiiif and 

 Colomal Mail 



♦ 



THE BLACKMAN AIR PROPELLEE. 

 The Blackuian Air Propeller Ventilating Company, 

 Limited, of 57. Fore Street, London, E.C., exhibited 

 at the Norwich Show six of this firm's air propellers 

 of different diameters, as well as a model of (xcoi'ge 

 Greig's patent fan all these of their own manufacture. 

 These .air propellers have already earned the world- 

 wide reputation of being the most efficient, most 

 convenient, and most economicnl form of punkah yet 

 brought out for use in cases where it is desired to 

 really remove from, or supply large volumes of air 

 to large apartments or buildings. The old-fashioned 

 punkahs merely cause an oscillation of the air con- 

 tained iu the room or building, whereas these air 

 propellers are capable of changing the whole of the 

 air contained in the building, either by the sujiply 

 or the exhaust process, as may be desired. Over and 

 above its mtsre utility as the best means of ventilating 

 ships, public and private buildings, &c., for sanitary 

 purposes or for the sake of comfort, anA \)y using a 

 kvis Ini-if. tattie in connection with one of these air- 

 propellers the air can be cooled to perfection, it is 

 worth while to point out to our readers that it is a 

 peculiarly opportune invention for removing the 

 saturated damp atmosphere of tea-houses in ca-ses where 



no exhaust fans are used for getting rid of the mois- 

 ture evaporated during tea-drying. It has lately 

 been repeatcdlj' pointed out that the saturated con- 

 dition of the atmosphere in tea bouses is most pre- 

 judicial to tea manufacture, inasmuch as it prevents 

 rapid drying and tends to "stewing." Were these 

 propellers brought into use in pucka-hxxWi tea-hou-ses, 

 we have no hesitation in saying that a great improve- 

 ment would be noticed in the tea manufactured, and 

 a considerable economy in fuel would certainly be 

 effected inasmuch as the constantly renewed air itself 

 would be so much more obsorbtive. A 48-inch 

 propeller, fitted with the lately applied multiplying 

 gear, is capable of propeiling or removing .'i,00() cubic 

 feet of air per minute, and only requires onc^ coolie 

 to work it. It is easily packed for shipment, and 

 weighs under a hundredweight complete. — Home and 

 Colonial Mail. 



CINCHONA AND TEA IN MADULSIM.\ AND 

 HEWA ELIYA. 



This District, so far out of the ordinary beaten path 

 of Ceylon travel, is one of the most favoured in the 

 Island for the growth of Cinchona, and Tea is now 

 growing as luxuriantly and flushing as freely at an 

 elevation of 4,000 feet and upwards as in the most 

 favoured of Kandyan districts. Few strangers and only 

 at long intervals, visit the Estates, and the first im- 

 pression on entering the District is not pleasant, 

 owing to the wretched-looking fields of abandoned Coffee 

 the road pa.sses through. The feeling, however, rapidly 

 gives place to surprise at the luxuriant fields of 

 Cinchona and equally fine fields of still rich green 

 Coffee which rapidly replace the abandoned desolation 

 of the first part of the journe}'. Much of the soil 

 is poor to all appearance, but it is this apparently 

 poor quartz soil which has proved so fertile to Cin- 

 chona, whilst the heavier and richer soils are shewing 

 a cover of Tea, which for its age cannot anywhere be 

 surpassed. In no district in Ceylon has there been 

 more attention jjaid to the planting of Cinchona, and 

 what were at one time considered the most valuable 

 varieties were reared in nurseries on which neither 

 money nor supervision was spread : but unfortunately 

 the Ledgeriaua, Calisaya, Officinalis, &c., have not 

 given the returns so confidently expected. .\Iauy 

 varieties never reached maturity, others cankered and 

 died off, whilst in almost every case the percentage 

 of Quinine was found to be far lower than in the 

 original or parent trees in Java or India ; and it is 

 the at one time greatly despised iSuccirubra and its 

 acclimated sprouts or Hybrids, commonly known as 

 Robusta, which have covered our hills with the present 

 luxuriant growth of this valuable tree. The average 

 extent now under Cinchona in this small District 

 may be placed at 2000 acres in various stages of 

 growth, and although the axe and the shaving knife 

 are making inro.ads on the plantations, a large portion 

 of the coppiced trees are growing from the stools. 

 Far more serious, however, is the insidious disease 

 known as canker, which, once establi.shed, is like the 

 leaf-disease in Coffee and cannot be eradicated ; but 

 we find that healthy, self-.sowu seedlings are not only 

 less liable to canker, but are hardy and thrifty 

 growers, and the analysis is also good, so that plant- 

 ers are now at a nominal co.st planting hardy, 

 natural Cinchonas in sufficient quiintity to replace 

 the trees destroyed Miuuuilly in harvesting the bark. 

 Already about SOO.i 00 i)nunds weight of bark has 

 left the district, and shaving and harvesting are still 

 going on. Next year the harvested bark may reach 

 11 milllinn poumls weight, ami it will be some years 

 before tlicre is any ap])reciable ilimunition of the crop. 

 The planting of Tea and the consequent necessity 

 for uprooting the (,'inchona will be the first cause of 

 a material falling off in the yield of bark, but the 

 fact that (yiuehuna grows best on the poor ijuartz 

 and gravel soil, whilst Tea luxuriates most iu the 

 deep rich lirown loam of L'va will show a distinct 

 and well-defined limit for the cultivation of the two 

 plants. In Tea cultivation we are several years 

 behind the Kandyan and low country districts; in 



