iiji 



tM£ 



fmPtcAL Aomojittvm^T, 



(Siipr, 2, iSU. 



consists of a revolving cylinder through which the 

 tea is gradually passed: being exposed during its 

 passage to the desiccating influence of a stream of 

 heated air. In this case the air may have a tem- 

 perature of some 450 deg. on entering the cylinder, 

 and on leaving it will utill be suflScieutly warm to 

 be serviceable in witheiing t«a. The air, however, 

 leaves the cylinder laden with the moisture which it 

 has absorbed from the tea, and in this respect is 

 of course quite unsuited for withering. But by 

 placing a cage of chloride of calcium at the exit 

 end of the drying cylinder and a small fan beyond 

 it, the air is drawn through the chloride, in which 

 it leaves all its moisture, and is delivered by the 

 fan perfectly dry and of a temperature suitable 

 for withering, as was demonstrated on our visit. 

 Of course chloride of calcium, being a deliquescent 

 salt, becomes dissolved as it absorbs moisture. In 

 the case of the drier as well as in that of the 

 witherer, however, it is caught in a pan placed 

 beneath the cage, and is afterwards restored to its 

 normal condition by evaporation. It is thus used 

 over and over again, none being wasted, and, there- 

 fore involving no expense in this respect beyond the 

 first cost. This simple method of obtaining dry air 

 at moderate temperatures is applicable to many 

 products where heat alone would be injurious, and 

 Mr. Gibbs is now in treaty with a large inporter of 

 timber to construct a building and provide large 

 power-driven fans with calcium chambers for the rapid 

 seasoning of damp timber. He considers that this more 

 powerful arrangement will ultimately be adopted for 

 tea-withering houses when the planters hav^e satisfied 

 themselves as to the value of ilio process by the use of 

 the portable witherer we have described. 



'• We thus have a further extension of Mr. Gibbs's 

 ingenious application of physical laws and mechanical 

 principles to the 8a%nQg of crops, an extension which ap- 

 pears destined to reflect on its inventor as much credit 

 as those by which it has been preceded, and on which 

 he has expended so much thought, time and money. 

 Before concluding, we may refer to an improved ap- 

 paratus, which we saw in model at Mr. Gibbs's, for 

 desiccating fibrous substances. In this instance Mr. 

 Gibbs has taken his hay-drying machine as the basis. 

 Here he nse.i a series of forks or tines fixed on two hor- 

 izontal bars to which motion is imparted by a crank 

 shaft. The material to be desiccated is fed into a per- 

 forated floor through which hot air is forced, and the 

 form and action of the times is such as to lift and 

 separate the material under treatment as well as to 

 gradually carry it forward over the floor from one end 

 to the other of the machine, at any desired rate of 

 speed. We thus have another useful appliance for the 

 treatment of such fibrous substances as require separat- 

 ing during the process of desiccation, and which is 

 specially applicable to certain new substances used in 

 paper making, for which purpose, in fact, Mr. Gibbs 

 has designed this model. A large machine, 35 ft. long 

 by 12 ft. wide, is now being constructed, the cost of 

 which as compared with the old-fashioned eudless hand 

 machine is less than one-haif, while its greater eflflci- 

 eucy in opening up the material is obvious to all 

 practical men."—//. ^' C. Mail. 



CASalA LIONEA ANU THE CHINAMbN.— -Accordiug to 

 ths report of the Superintendent of the Afforestation 

 Department of Hong Kong for 18S5, there is a great 

 diffi'-ulty in growing 'his tree, as the following extract 

 from the i aj.ort will show : — " The plantations of 

 Cassia lignea tha!' were made on the hills north of 

 Aberdeen would probably have been in a thriving 

 condition by this time but for the persistence of the 

 Chinese in I reaking off the leaves and branches of 

 the plants. They appear to attach some importance 

 to the plant as a medicine, and despite the vigilance 

 of the forest guards, they succeed in keeping the 

 plants in an almost leafless condition. Even in the 

 Botanic Gardens, where the pi mts are protected by 

 iron tree-guards and wire netting, they have killed 

 several plants by persistently defoliating them and 

 wreDcbing off the brauches,"— Ga/-rf«««rs' Chronicle, 



COFFEE PLANTING IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



AND CEYLON. -No. I. 

 (Kevi£w of the " Wrinkles and Hints on Coi-fee- 

 pl.vntino" with diagbails and specimens of foems 

 by george wildes ; m.u)ras, .\ddision and 



co., mount road. 

 Bi/ an Old Ceylon Planter. J 

 Had I been asked my opinion a little while ago, as to 

 whether the Coffee planters of India and Oeyl D, 

 needed another book of instructions, I should h:iTe 

 answered with a decided negative. Behold, thej have 

 Laborie, Sabouadiere, Hull, Brown and all the inform 

 ation collected by the Observer Editors in the Hand 

 books published by them ! I will not now however say 

 that Mr. Wildes' book is quite superfluous, or that 

 i t will not fulfil its promise of giving Wrinkles and 

 Hints to the most experienced planters, rather uarrtw 



and local but pretty sound, and we cannot eXpcct 

 any one to deal with matters beyond their exp rience. 



There are many things in the book worth ki owing 

 and not to be found in other works on the subject, 

 which is sufficient justification for writing and publish- 

 ing it, if the author and publishers saw their way 

 to make it pay. 



In the article on Clearing, the author is intensely 

 local, and not very decided in his views. He was 

 evidently a rather dry climate to denl with, and he 

 goes no further. Top knots and belts are recom- 

 mended to be left, which are very unsatisfactory in 

 all cases : get a good fire, and they will be destroyed 

 by it running through them : if they escape this 

 danger, they become nests of weeds and harbours for 

 vermin; forest left on the tops of hills gives no 

 more shelter to the leeward side, than the bare hill 

 will yield. He advises the leaving of gorges where 

 wind rushes violently, but how is any one to -know 

 where wind will come ; even he himself admits that 

 wind wrings patches of coff'ee that to all appearance 

 should be free from it. We can have no object in 

 leaving a belt across a hill facing the prevailing wind, 

 knowing that the trees so left will break the wind to the 

 coffee above, exactly to their own height, but belts 

 are worse than useless wliere there is an inclination 

 of surface on both sides. The shade question has long 

 ceased to be a subject of controversy in Ceylon ; we 

 leave no shade trees when felling and we plant none 

 afterwards. Even Liberian Coffee expresses its abhor- 

 rence of shade in an average temperature of over 80 

 degrees Fahr. and a correspondingaun heat. To get a 

 good fire through fallen forest, is the planter's first 

 object and to this end the under-wood should be 

 arranged so as 'o carry the flaii.e along the surface; 

 and all branches of larger trees should be cut where 

 they stand above the >,eneral level. 



The autbur has a very proper idea of the import- 

 ance of good LINING, and his method is as good as any 

 that can be found. Bad work I have always found 

 to be the result of trusting a measure to a native ; 

 not one of them that I have dealt with knows a 

 level from an incline or the difference between a 

 right angle and an acute one. My own method is 

 one hundred and twenty feet squares, all the sides 

 of which I measure and peg myself — the coolies lay 

 coir lines across the squares : a moving line is carried 

 over them from psg to peg and the pegs put in at 

 the crossings. There is generally at least one cooly 

 in a gang, who can lay a string straight, if he sees 

 one end from the other. 



From thirty-five to forty yeara ago, a great con- 

 troversy wtnt on, among planters about the proper 

 size of iioi.Ks for coffee plants. Some of us brought; 

 our opinions with us from Scotland, where twenty 

 years earlier the subject of pits for forest tnes. ha i 

 been copiously discus.std by l;inded p opriet< rs and 

 practical men. Sir Walter Scott taking part a- au 

 ardent opponent o'' pits, an^ a firm supported of the 

 X '■ut. I do not know whether the one or the 

 otb^r method ultimately prevailed, but the dispute 



