Oct. I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



J69 



estimate the forest reserve and grass hind on these 

 estates at £4. per acre, or about f'20,000, there re- 

 mains only a balance of £07 to be spread over 

 close upon ti,000 acres imder various forms of cultiv- 

 ation, or just £11 per acre, which is, of course. 

 a very low average value. Or, if we put it in an- 

 other way, there are, roughly speaking, 2,300 acres 

 of tea, which certainly ought to be worth £80 

 per acre, or i'ti9,000, so that the Company obtains 

 the cotfee, cinchona, cocoa, and cardamoms for no- 

 thing 1 ThSre can be no question that the Ooiupany 

 enters on possession under most favourable circum- 

 stances. Ceylon has now passed- through the crisis 

 which coffee-leaf disease involved her European enter- 

 prise, and capital is once more seeking investment 

 there in the new industries created by the indomi- 

 table pluck and preseverance of planters, combined 

 with great natural resources. Every year the value 

 of the estates will steadily improve under judicious 

 management, and the Company will presently be 

 able either to sell them outright at a handsoine 

 profit, or to continue working them on its own 

 account, and we have no doubt that the result to 

 the shareholders will be highly satisfactory, which- 

 ever course is adopted. 



The Mauritius properties acquired by the Company 

 are so circumstanced that it is impossible for us 

 to give particulars, consisting, as they do, of claims 

 and charges upon different estates, shares in estate 

 companies, etc. : but we are assured, by those who 

 have gone through the calculations, that the purchase 

 " consideration, viz., t'(35,350 in cash, besides a pro- 

 portion of the Deferred Stock of the Company 

 was very moderate, and that this part_ of the bar- 

 gain ought to turn out quite as profitable to the 

 Company as the other. — Planters' Oazetlc. 



COFFEE AND ARECA IN MYSOEE. 



From (t CorregiMiKlent. 



From the official report of the Kadur district 

 for the year 1885-86 — one of the best coffee-growiug 

 parts of Mysore, we xiote that the total nuuiber of 

 plantations are reckoned at 23,238, comprising an 

 area of 138,185 acres, of which coffee covers 136,439 

 acres, cardamom 1,646 and cinchona 100 acres. The 

 cultivation of cardamoms is much on the increase, 

 while cinchona is also finding favour with the planters. 



The Arecanut is grown very extensively iu the 

 Kidur district of Mysore and is almost entirely in 

 the hands of natives. The total receipts by the 

 Durbar on the tax from the arecanut produce was 

 R95,000 in 1885-86, being an increase of over K23,000 

 on the preceding year. The increase was due to a 

 good crop consequent on a favourable season and an 

 almost complete absence of " rot " to which this 

 produce is so subject. The arecanut sold at RlO-8-0 

 pep maund of 80 lb. locally; much of the produce is 

 exported into the neighbouring districts of the Madras 

 Presidency. Still more largely is arecanut cultivation 

 carried on in the Shemo\ah district, vvliich lies 

 to the N.W. of Kadur. The amount of tax collected 

 in this district for 1885-86 was close upon R2, U),000 

 being an increase of nearly R50,0C0 on the previous 

 year. 



INDIAN MACADAMIZED ROADS. 



[In copying the following article from the 

 Indian Engineer, it may be well to mention that 

 Kunlier or Kunkar is an impure nodular limestone 

 common in many parts of India where siliceous 

 rocks, do not exist. — Ed.j 



Macadamized roads in India are of two sorts — (1) 

 kunker roads, and (2) stone roads. It is by no means 

 a very easy thing to produce a good metalled road. 

 It is considered by most people that all that is neces- 

 sary is to ' shove in the metal and ram it down.' 

 If well rammed, this method will, of course, pro- 

 duce a hard surface ; but unless an ordinary 

 " pucca " road even is made on scientific principle, 

 the fifi^Jioii can never be reduced to a minimum, 



which is the object to be aimed at in the construc- 

 tion of macadamized hues of communication. 



1. Kuuker Roads —The existing practice is to 

 break up the metal to 2" cubes and to consolidate 

 it with iron or wooden "door-mats" or rammers. 



2. Stone Roads.— The present plan is to break 

 up the stone to pass through a li" ring and to 

 consolidate it with rammers. In some parts of 

 India ordinary iron rollers are used, and m some 

 places steam rollers. In consolidating stone, 

 " mooram " (decayed rock) is freely 7ised as a bind- 

 ing agent, and also for dressing the surface after 

 consolidation. 



4. Now, this piactice appears to be defective If 

 a kunker road is dug up after consolidation accord- 

 ing to method (2), it will be found that the 2" cubes 

 have been crushed and reduced to J" and J" cubes, 

 thus reducing fearfully its power of resistance. Hence 

 It is that (1) tlie top layer of kunker does not last 

 long, and (2) the cost of maintenance is greatly 

 enhanced, and (3) the surface of roads is never m-u 

 and smooti,, thus increasing the traction. On stone 

 roads the surface is so very rough that the greater 

 number of country carts pass along the earthen siding 

 during the dry months of the year. 



5. The writer ventures to offer the following suo-- 

 gestions, which if adopted in constructing meUlled 

 roads, will, he is sure, produce profitable results. 



6. Kunker roads.— Kunker should be of hard tex- 

 ture and broken to li" cubes. Consolidation to be 

 done with lots of water and one of Aveling and 

 Porter's steam rollers of 15 tons. The advisability 

 of. using a roller is obvious. The gradual pressure 

 will not hreal- up the kunker into small particles, but 

 jam it together, leaving the original nodules practi- 

 cally intact, but closely knit together. 



7. Stone Road.— Stone (granite, quartz or other hard 

 stone) should be broken up as small as practicable, but 

 certainly larger than 1" cubes should never be used • 

 I'" and £" cubes would be better. It should be closely 

 packed and rolled with one of Aveling and Porter's 

 steam rollers of 15 tons. " Mooram " uhould not be 

 used, and the frst rolling should be done quite dry 

 until the layer of metal is firmly compressed. The 

 surface should now be freely sprinkled with a mixture 

 of " mooram " and water, or a layer of i" mooram 

 spread over the surface, well watered, and the road 

 rolled thoroughly over again until the surface becomes 

 perfectly smooth. 



The last process is to lay a thin ski?/ of mooram, 

 say i", dry over the surface and the traflic allowed to 

 pass ov(!r it. 



It is obvious that, unless the stone is broken up small 

 and to a uniform size as practicable, (1) a smooth sur- 

 face vyill never be obtained, and (2) the cubes will 

 never bimi and hold together as a solid mass. " Moor- 

 am," or any other binding agent should never be used 

 with the stone before the Jirst rolliny, as it absorbs 

 moisture and the road would break up during the rainy 

 season. ^ 



The Soap Tkke.— The soap tree grows freely in Tal- 

 lahassee. This tree bears a large number of berries 

 which are about the size of an ordinary marble, havin* 

 a yellowish, soapy appearance, with a hard, black seed", 

 from which the plant is propagated. Sometimes the 

 soap is obtained by boiling the berries, but in .Japan, and 

 other tropical countries, the berries are used as a' sub- 

 stitute for soap just as they are taken from the tree. 



Bim/oi/ne, cjc.'.v Monthh/ Hxport Price Current. 



Acid (lioRAcic). — The experiments to preserve fish 

 by curing it with this acid (to which attention was 

 called iu the Chemist and Drw/e/ist sometime ago) are 

 we hear, proving remarkably successful, sr)ine fish 

 having recently been insppcted in London which had 

 under the boracic acid treatment retained all its original 

 freshness. "\\'e hear that the i(l.;a is ent -Ttiined in 

 some t|uarters to introduce the boracic aci<l treatment 

 offish to Ireland. It is thought that fish so cured would 

 command a ready sale in England and contribute to the 

 revival of a drooping Irish m\\isivy.— Chemist and 

 Drvqcjist, 



