Nov. If 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



301 



. ♦ 



To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer." 



WASHING COLOURED COTTONS SO AS TO 



RETAIN THEIR COLOUlt. 



Matale, 20th Sept. 1886. 

 Sir, — In reply to " Outstation" 's letter in yotir issue 

 of 19th instant I beg to say that coloured cotton frocks 

 may be frequently washed and their good looks retained 

 by attention to a few simple precautious, A small 

 bag of bran (1 lb. will be sufficient) should be left for 

 some hours in the water (cold) in which they are to 

 be washed. Very little soap should be used, and that 

 little ought to be white curd soap, not the dhoby's 

 inevitable " salt soap," which contains much irte 

 alkali and various crudities most destructive to deli- 

 cate colors. A large handful of table salt should be 

 dissolved in the water in which the frocks are finally 

 rinsed, previous to the application of "congee". The 

 salt "' sets " the colours if there be more than one in the 

 dress and prevents their " running into each other." 

 The frocks should at once be put to dry in a 

 shady place, if possible in a current of air. It is 

 important that drying ibe accomplished with all 

 speed. Any intelligontdhoby will carry out these direc- 

 tions, especially if he knows a " santosvm " is forth- 

 coming to reward his extra trouble. At the samf time, 

 from sad experience, I would remind " outstation " 

 that many of the pretty, inexpensive cottons cannot 

 be washed successfully, as in nearly every instance they 

 derive their colours from aniline dyes. In this category 

 may be classed almost all pale blues, creams, greys, fawns. 

 and those delicate " tertiary " shades now so much 

 worn, and if striped or spotted with a different colour, 

 or colours, the dyes are pretty sure to amalgamate 

 very inartistically in the wash-tub. Most shades of 

 cardinal, strawberry, navy, or indigo, and notably pink 

 zephyr may be said to be "diehard" colours, as with 

 careful washing they retain tbeir freshness till the 

 last. I may add, that a pretty shade of cream may 

 be communicated to lace and cotton frocks, etc., by 

 substituting for the usual laundry blue a little of the 

 liquid from a few bruised arnatto seeds. 



VANITY FAIR. 



INSECT PESTS. 



Haddington, Hatton, .5th Oct. 1886. 

 Dear Sir, — I am sending you by this day's post 

 two caterpillars or grubs, which I found this 

 morning on a tea bush in a 1") months' old clear- 

 ing, on Kudaoya estate. The bush was entirely 

 stripped of its leaves. The grubs seemed to have 

 worked their way steadily upwards from the bottom 

 of the bush, eating the leaves, old and young, as they 

 happened to come across them. There were six 

 of them on the bush. I send the twig also on which 

 the grubs were. I have never seen anything like 

 them in the course of my tea experience, and it 

 will be most interesting to know what they really 

 are.— Yours faithfully, T. J. TORRIE. 



[Larva of Stauropus Alternus (grey coloured moth); 

 family Notodontida' : (pretty common and not much 

 to be feared.) — Entomolociieal referee.'] 



ON THE DESTRUCTION OF SMALL 



BIRDS, AND ON FEATHERS AND 



POOCHIES. 



Dear Sir, — In the May number of the Tiopical 



Ar/riciiJfinisf, there is a long statistical article on the 



"Trade in Feathers," see vol. V. No. 11, page 782, 



from the Journal of the iS'ocirti/ of Arts. The figures 



given are probably far below the actual amount 



both as to the money value of the trade, and the 



number of birds slaughtered, and it may be fairly 



.stated that for every bird's skin wliich finds its way 



to market, four birds have been destroyed and that 



frequently or mostly in the breeding season. Many 



skins are rendered useless by being shot to pieces, 



■•MK 



many are spoiled by " bird lime,'' many are rendered 

 usele.>5S in skinnmg and many'more are spoiled for 

 want of skill or the proper means of preparing them, 

 so that they will keep. I quote from the article 

 in question : '' The average annual importation into 

 this country and France of small foreign birds of 

 bright plumage is no less than a million and-a-half. 

 They come mainly to England for distribution. 

 We import about quarter-a-million Humming-birds 

 yearly. At a puDlic sale in the Autumn of last 

 year, besides the loose feathers, 147,.S86 bird's skina 

 were disposed of daring the two days sale among 

 which were no less than 44,381 green or Amazon 

 parrots and other species." Is not this wanton de- 

 struction ? My poor little Humming-birds that used to 

 nest every Spring in the yellow-scented flowering 

 currant " Ribes Aureum," at my bed room window. 

 I know not which was the most beautiful and 

 pleasant after the long American winter, the beautiful 

 little bird or the sweet scented shrubs they fre- 

 quented. I consider the Humming-bird, perhaps, 

 the most perfect and beautiful of all the feathered 

 tribe. I will not even except the great bird of 

 Paradise and the Lyre bird in their native habitat 

 in the Malay Islands. The article and statistics I 

 have alluded to, are well-worth the attention and 

 careful perusal of all who take an intelligent in- 

 terest in Agriculture, Horticulture and Arboriculture. 

 It is useless to recapitulate the figures already 

 published, but I may quote again as to the value 

 of the birds and feathers imported. " In 1H83 the 

 import of birds was £1.55,240 stg., ornamental 

 feathers .£2,011,;)2ti. ' This seems an enormous sum 

 to be derived from such a source, no wonder that 

 our rice fields and our wheat fields are being de- 

 stroyed by insects when we are ruthlessly de- 

 stroying our natural protectors. How many of our 

 Government officials or planters know that in Cey- 

 loii, there is a considerable trade in bird skins to 

 India '? In Badulla, often when coolies are sick or 

 not to be found they are bird catching in the 

 chenas or lowcountry. AVhere they sell the skins 

 I do not know, probably to the Moor traders in 

 'the lowcountry. "Civilized" man is the most rutli- 

 less destroyer of all animals : the wild beast kills 

 that he may eat and live, the savage Indian will 

 not wantonly destroy game, but the sportsman 

 will kill for the slieer love of slaughter and excite- 

 ment. No wild beast of the forest will do this, but 

 what is to be said of the gentler sex, the better- 

 half of mankind, when a quarter of a million multi- 

 plied by four for those that are spoiled or wasted, 

 say a million poor little Humming-birds are 

 slaughtered every year to be worn as ornaments 

 for the person. Adding the above figures together 

 for value of bird's feathers and skins imported, 

 we have ,£2,167,100 stg., a trade not to be lightly 

 sacrificed, but it is not necessary that this trade 

 should be entirely sacrificed. The ostrich producing 

 the most valuable of all feathers is now domestic- 

 ated, peafowl are domesticated, pheasants are dom- 

 esticated, all the Heron tribe are easily domestic- 

 ated and many other feather-producing birds may 

 be domesticated profitably for their feathers. The 

 Astecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru kept their 

 most beaiitiful birds in aviaries to obtain uuinjured 

 the feathers with which they produced their most 

 exquisite feather work, but to return to figures as 

 above, £2,107,100 is a large sum, but at what cost 

 is it obtained ; the destruction of birds has cost the 

 world in grain and fruit-yielding plants more than 

 this many hundred times over. Take the Genesis 

 valley in the State of New York, long considered 

 the garden of the Northern states, it produced the 

 finest wheat and the largest yield per acre of all 

 the wheat fields of America, where is the wheat 

 now? — utterly ruined and gone ; destroyed by insects 

 because there were no birds to keep tiiem within 

 bounds, I have no statistics, but can put it this way. 

 Tlie Rocliester Hour mills, long said to be tlie largest 

 and iinest in the world, turning out the finest flour on 

 the American continent, the capacity of one mill alone 

 was, I believe, said to be 1.000 brls. (one tliouaand bar- 

 rols) in the 24 hours or say 300,000 brls. per animm, 

 value say $7 per brl— $9,100,000, I do not claim ».ro^- 



