43«^ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jan. I, 18S7, 



LlBERIAN OOFFEK IN NourHEKN AUSTKALIA. — Mr, 



Holtze returned from a trip to the Adelaide River last 

 week, and he has kindly showed us a specimen of the 

 Liberian coffee plant taken from the block of 1 lud 

 experimented on by Fi slier and Lyons. T^ us it ap- 

 peared a perfectly healthy plant, entirely free from 

 any traces of the ravages of insects, and Mr. H<Atze 

 describes it as a fair average specimen of some 10,000 

 plants growing on the plantation. He had taken from 

 the plant no less than 320 berries, and as it is onlj' 

 about three years since the plantation was started, 

 and during the major j.ortion of that time it had been 

 utterly uncared for, the bush gives an excellent idea of 

 what might be done by careful cultivation. The whole 

 of the plants are said to be in a fine hea'thy condition, 

 with an average height of three feet, and many are 

 already bearing luxuriantly. It is the intention of Mr. 

 Holtze to send the plant to Adelaide as a practical 

 proof of whit the Territory can do in the way of 

 growing coffee, and if such a result can be furnished by 

 a plantation that is allowed to run wild, we think it 

 is only a fair assumption that the industry would well 

 repay a little care and attention. — Xorihern Austra- 

 lian Paper, Oct. 15th. 



Jaffna : AciRicuLTiTnE and Puhlic Instruction. — 

 This is the season for paddy cultivation in Jaffna. 

 The rains for sowing were rather late this year, and 

 then when the plant had germinated there was not 

 sufficient ram to make it grow. And now the fields 

 are being scorched by heat. This is unusual. The 

 thermometer has risen from 82 to 88 degrees, and 

 the paddy-plant is all over the peninsula, diseased, 

 more or less. The disease is called in Tamil 

 " Kurukkutt'i. When the fields are sufficiently tlooded 

 the diseased plants rot away hopelessly. The only 

 way the farmer meets this disease is by pulling away 

 the diseased plants along with the weeds by the roots, 

 and replanting the vacant spaces. This year whole 

 fields are diseased in this way, and the poor farmers 

 are very busy with extensive replanting. There is 

 another important disease from which the paddy-plant 

 often suffers. We haven't any trace of it anywhere this 

 year. It is called in Tamil "Sental." I have noticed 

 this disease of the paddy-plant at length here, just to 

 draw the attention to it, of the Government, or rather 

 of Mr. Green, the Director of Public Instruction, and 

 of his Agricultural School. Scientific farming is quite 

 unknown in Jaffna, and it is high time now for the 

 Government through its Agricultural School to lead 

 the way for improvements and to enlighten the 

 farming public in different ways. A good service has 

 been lately done to Jaffna by one of its educated 

 farmers by distributing freely the entire edition of his 

 pamphlet on Agriculture. The work is dedicated to 

 Mr. Green. JNIr. Green is said to have already 

 perfected his arrangements for agricultural teaching 

 at least in Batticaloa, Trincomalee, and Mnlaitivu. 

 Cannot the funds at the disposal of the Director 

 allow him to provide agricultural teachers to each 

 of the following places, viz., Jaffna, Point Pedro, 

 Chavcachcheri, Mannar and Vavuniya Vilankulam at 

 least. — Cor. 



Tea Machinery. — Yesterday afternoon (Nov. '27th) 

 there was a trial at the Store and Works of the Col- 

 ombo Commercial Company, of the new Cycloid Tea 

 Roller patented by Mr. Hutson, Engineer to the Com- 

 pany. The roller is very simple in appearance and con- 

 struction being an octagon box with an iron lid 

 which tits inside above the charge of tea, pressing 

 the same down as the rolling proceeds. Apart 

 from this pressure the motion is entirely confined 

 to the table below, on which grooves are scienti- 

 fically cut to give the leaves the needful twist. The 

 roller is very easily driven, and has already been 

 at work on Hunasgiriya estate with very satis- 

 factory results. It is also moderate in cost. The 

 Colombo Commercial Company havo altogether an 

 exceedingly busy place in Slave Island — in great 

 contrast with most coft'ee stores in Colombo. Mr. 

 Hutson has metamorphosed a gr.jat part of the 

 store besides adding new buildings. The steam 

 engines now do other work besides driving coffee 



peelers, eifters, etc. There is extenpive timbe 

 sawing, and box-cutting and fitting machinery — 

 the best in the island we suppose -for tea boxes, 

 of which a large supply is turned out. Bone- 

 crushing is an industry always associated with 

 enr Colombo mills ; bat it was news to us to learn 

 that the bone dust was being shipped from this 

 mill to Europe. Hydraulic machi lery pressing 

 cinchona into compact bales was working noise- 

 less y aiKJ well; while another Department in its 

 busy as well as noisy (hammering) action, gave 

 evidence of the steady demand which has sprung 

 up for Brown's patent " Desaicator " for tea-drying. 

 This machine and its good work have already 

 been described in our columns, and altogether 

 we congratulate the patentees and the Company 

 on the good useful work evidenced during a visit 

 to their Stores. Of course, coffee is not dead yet 

 in Uva, and a goodly share of the Principality's 

 produce conies to the Slave Island Mills, so that 

 altogether we have here as busy a scene as can 

 perhaps of the kind, now be found in Colombo. 

 Mr. Hutson is becoming well-known upcounlry 

 where his skill as engineer and machinist is widely 

 appreciated. 



Java ; Amsterdam, Nov. Hrd. — Advices from Java 

 continue to be very unsatisfactory. Sugar plant- 

 ations and manufactories are being sold at ridi- 

 culously low prices, one manufactory at Probo- 

 lingo being acquired by a mortgagee for the sum 

 of tl. 4,000, what the second mortgagee sustained 

 a loss of about fi. 400,000, Several other manu- 

 factories have changed hands at fi. 100 or there- 

 abouts. These facts show conclusively how gloomy 

 the present state of matters is, and how enor- 

 mous the losses must be in this branch of in- 

 dustry, which formerly yielded large profits. It is 

 not surprising that under these circumstances ef- 

 forts should be made to secure more effective as- 

 sistance from the Government than is afforded by 

 the proposed scheme of the Minister. The Nether 

 lands India Railroad Company has further reduced 

 its tariff for conveying sugar by c. 25 per picul. 

 According to statistics just published, it appears 

 that the imports in Holland during last year de- 

 creased by 2 1-5 per cent compared with 1884, and 

 the import by 3.25-100 per cent., whereas the gen- 

 eral exports have increased by 77-100 per cent., and 

 the transit business by 17.29-100 per cent. — L. and 

 C. Express. 



Wild-Birds Protection. — The destruction and 

 trapping of birds (says the Singapore Free Press) 

 of all kinds and sorts is going on as actively as 

 possible, notwithst.iiiding the provisions of the Act in 

 such case made and provided. This .'-hould be put a 

 stop to, or the consequences will be serious to the 

 fruit and coffee trees and tapioca and sugar plant- 

 ations, which represent our agricultural poverty. If 

 insects are allowed to get the upper hand, human as 

 well as vegetable creation will suffer, and therefore, 

 on purely selfish grounds, we hope the Government 

 will urge the Police to carry out the law. Hundreds 

 of birds are snared and shipped on board of steamers 

 homeward bound, whilst the Frenchmiu iu Malacca is 

 said to be shipping his thousands of skins a mouth. 

 It is no wonder that the traveller in the Malay Peninsula 

 sees so few birds. Where there is nothing for them 

 to eat, the feathered tribes do not care to congregate, 

 and where there is they are shot and trapped, if 

 the gunning tribe devoted their skill to snipe, or deer, 

 wild pig, tig rs, or elephants, they might be viewed 

 as useful m mhers of society, but wlien anything 

 witii a feathe.' is indiscriminately facrificed, nnssacre 

 becomea a nu'sance, iind cills for the strong hand of 

 the law to suppress it. There can be no objection to 

 the fiying-fox being added to the list of game, as it 

 may help to keep the ardent sportsman from further 

 evil, and a str.iy pariah dog mipht help to fill his bag, 

 but birds, in general, should be protected from the 

 devastating guns and blow-pipes of our Eurasian AVinkles, 



