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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. i, i886c 



Tl.4 Makers. — A writer in the Indian Drib/ yVivs 

 siguiiig himielf " Okl Planter" declaims against the 

 custom of employing native superiatendents of Tea 

 factories. He woulil have a " gi>o I, active, intelligent 

 European " placed in charge of the THa-hou<e, who 

 should be required to remaui in the Tea-!iouse from 

 the commencement of manuf 'cture till its finish, and 

 on no considerntion to lea-.'e the building— all his 

 meals being brouglit there to him. " The Old Plauter" 

 must, we taucy, have had very limited experience, 

 or he would know that on all large factories the 

 Assistant in charge of the Tea-making is a European, 

 and that ho does remain in the factory during m>tnu- 

 facture ; snmetimes half through the night.— Z/irfirtu 

 Tea Gazette. 



Jap.vn Olovek (Lkst'Edeza striata, H. a.)— My 

 attention, says Dr. Schomburgk, was directed to this 

 valuable fodder pUnt by Mr. I". E. Schlegel, of Beach- 

 port, by his sendinii me a cuttii^g from a Caiifornian 

 paper (the Bnral Caiifornian), which gives a glowing 

 account of this remarkable plant. The extract runs 

 as follows: — The perennial Clover, Lespedeza striata, 

 is now covering thousands of acres where in ISSG it 

 only covered 10 ft-et square. It grows in the plains, 

 and at an altitude of 4000 feet, and stands well through 

 the midsummer droughts, tiowering and blooming un- 

 til the frost comes, and living after most herbage is 

 dead. It grows on every kind of soil — rich or poor, 

 clay or sandy, dry or wet— and is deep-rooted and 

 improving the soil. It never runs out, and can be 

 fed off without injury. It is wonderfully fattening, 

 and contains — 



Nitrogen matter ... 16.60 Potash 0.8S 



Fat 1.10 Soda 0-51 



X'&h. 5.92 Phosphoric acid ... 0.39 



Lime 0.99 Sulphric acid ... 0.30 



Magnesia 0.56 



—Gardeners Chronicle. 



Dependence oi- the Growth or Wood upox Me- 

 teorological Factors. — A. Spamer communicates 

 the following conclusions as to the dependence of the 

 growth of wood upon meteorologicil factors: — 1. 

 Temperature and precipitation are the meteorological 

 phenomena that affect the process of the formation 

 of wood. 2. Of these two variable quantities during 

 the principal period of growth, the rainfall diminishes 

 he formation of wood while the heat increases it. 3. 

 The principal period of wood growth is from July to 

 October, at least for the plants which ar^ very sensitive 

 to frost. 4. The rainfall seems to influence growth 

 more than the temperature. [Excess of rain dimin- 

 ishes growth more than excess of temperature in- 

 creases it.l 5. The growth of different plants is not 

 affected in the same degree by the rain ; some are 

 affected more by rain and others by the temperature. 

 6. In many periods only one of these factors appears 

 to exert any influence, the other being inactive. 7. 

 Possibly this anomaly may be explained by observ- 

 ations of the duration of insolation. 8. The increase 

 of carbonaceous compounds goes parallel with the in- 

 crease in the inorganic c^instituputs of the wood. 9 

 The aqueous component of th<^ wood dimnishes when 

 the carbonaceous increa-es. 10. The so-called ripe 

 wood [the heartwood] differs from that which is less 

 ripe by a greater amount of ashes and carbon. — Smitli- 

 soni'^n histttute lieport. 



OULTIVATIXG the M-i.MMOTH H+iQUOI \ Ov CALIFORNIA, 



To the editor of this magazine one of the most interest- 

 ing lessons learned in California was one which only 

 one experienced in the culture of trees could Uarn ; 

 namely, that the Sequuia gigantea is by nature a 

 f-wampy tree. The places where they grow now are 

 comparatively dry ; but two or three thousand years 

 ago th^y followed the track of descending glaciers, 

 81 d they received the melting snows from the tops 

 of luiuntains that have no summer snows now. The 

 ground on wh ch the.«e mammoth trees stand, once 

 vtry wet, or even swampy, has become drier throusrh 

 tie i'Ugageb. Horticidturists know that swamp trees 

 gi ner^Uy grow very well in ground that is comparatively 

 ^ly, but 8eed9 of tjucb trees will not sprout in any- 



thing but the moist oozy moss on the top of a swamp 

 or damp ground. Hence the only young trees we 

 find in the mammoth tree locations are where a chance 

 seed happens to f>dl on a moist rock, or other damp 

 situation. Young trees an; common only in one loc- 

 ation, where clouds condense against a mountain- 

 side, and the whole situation abounds with springs 

 and flozy spots. Here in the east hundreds of trees 

 have been ijlanted during the past quarter of a century, 

 but rarely has one lived more than a few years. 

 They do not mind the winters.. We have known 

 them stand 20^ below zero uninjured, but some fungus, 

 fav'-iurcd by a dry atmosphere, carries them off gradu- 

 ally during the summer season. Profiting by these 

 facts, the writer brought three strong plants from 

 Cdifornia and set them in a swamp. Usually when 

 we set swamp trees in a swamp they will not grow 

 unless they are suff'ered to grow into the swamp them- 

 selves. We make a mound and plant them in the 

 mound, from whence they root down as suits them- 

 selves. These three plants have had two winters and 

 one summer the p.ist winter being a ter^iMy severe 

 one. Today they look perfectly soun I and flourish- 

 ing, and the editor believes that he has at last dis- 

 covered how to make the great tree of California 

 thrive in eastern gAvAena. — Gardeners' Monthly. 



Cinnamon CrLTiv.\TioN in Ceylon.- Cinnamon peel- 

 ing is at a stand-still owing to a heivy bud being on, 

 and will possibly not be resumed till this month is 

 well nigh over. In the meantime the favourable weather 

 is causing the bushes to grow apace. I have to con- 

 gratulate you on a new departure, or rather on the 

 resumption of an old practice, the making public 

 the results of the Cinnamon sales- As the form in 

 which you give it is open to improvement, I trust 

 you will favourably entertain my suggestion to give 

 the price each quality fetches, the same as is done 

 with Tea. This will afford more information th.vn 

 simply giving the range of prices and the average. 

 The average price any produce of more than one 

 quality fetches, is a very misleading test to app'y as 

 to its excellence. The average price is lowered or 

 raised according as lower or higher qualities predo- 

 minate. The brand that heads the list, occupies that 

 exalted position owing to its two first qualities only 

 having been sold. The older Estatei, where the soil 

 is sandy and the growth not very vigorous, can as a 

 matter of course make a larger percentage of the 

 finer qualities of Cinnamon. Tlie same with the 

 Estates, that, in direct violation of the Kesolutiou 

 passed hy the Agricultural Association, and by which 

 they were bound, never gave up the short -sigted and 

 pernicious practice of scraping Chips. Estates were, 

 owing to the richness of the soil, the growth of the 

 Cinnamon is vigorous, will have the bulk of the 

 Cinnamon consist of the lower qualities, uulesr, very 

 tender Cinnamon is cut. One noticeable feature in 

 the shipments from Mr. De Soysa's numerous Estates, 

 is the absence of the 4tli quality Cinnamon. Has he 

 gone a step beyond the Resolution of the Association, 

 or does he convert his 4ch quality Cinnamon also 

 into Chips for the still? The Lairds of Wester- 

 Seaton asserts that if all Cinnamon Planters had 

 followed his example, and scraped Chips only for J the 

 still, the price of Cinnamon was bound to rise. I 

 go further than he, and say that if all Cinnamon 

 Planter's had followed my, I believe, solitary example, 

 and did not scrape Chips at all, the price of quilled 

 Cinnamon was sure to have risen. Cinnamon oil is 

 but a concentrated form of Ciunamon, and for some 

 purpose can with advantage be substituted for it, 

 under these circumstances it must be regarded as 

 much a rival of quilled Cinnamon as Chips. But the 

 respected Laird of Wester-Seaton so little believes 

 this, that he consistently refu.ws to sell Chips except 

 for the still, ex'-n though he receives a higher offer 

 for them, and asserts that he will sooner bury their 

 Chips, than sell them for ^xport- Paddy-crops are 

 being harvested everywhere, and the air resounds with 

 the cheering strains of harvest .songs. Except in a 

 few favoured fields, crops arc not above the averjigi', 

 — Local " Jixaminer," 



