4^4 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[jA»f, I, 1887. 



apparatus, now delivered direct to the upper tier of 

 trays, without having to pass at all through the 

 lower trays, so that all the top trays receive a very 

 sharp heat indeed, and a prompt and eflfective cheek 

 to fermentation is given the moment the fresh tray 

 of leaf goes into the drier. In this respect the new 

 T " Sirocco " has a considerable advantage over the 

 original No. 1, for in them the whole of the air 

 has to pass through three trays before reaching the 

 wet roll on the last tray put in. 



The perforated cover is so adjiisted that it regulates 

 effectively the passage of the hot air up through 

 the trays, and an exceedingly ecjual distribution of 

 the heat from end to end of the drying chamber is 

 the result. It required a series of carefully worked 

 experiments extending over several months to get 

 at the proper adjustment of this cover and its per- 

 forations, for no cover at all gives better results 

 than one wrongly placed or with an incorrect arrange- 

 ment and area of perforations. 



When I at last got the cover correctly adjusted 

 it proved highly beneficial to the apparatus, not 

 only by increasing the evaporative power, but by 

 enabling the stove to keep up the requisite temper- 

 ature for the drying with about half the fuel that is 

 necessary when no cover is used, and as the stove 

 is constantly being worked at a greatly reduced 

 temperature, the castings in it suffer so little from 

 the effects of the fire, that they will wear three or 

 four times longer than formerly. 



The perforated covers can, with great advantage, 

 be applied to existing No. 3 and T "Siroccos," as 

 well as to No. I's, altered to T shape; but for par- 

 ticulars of these, and the other very considerable 

 improvements made in the apparatus this season, I 

 must refer your readers to my new advertisements 

 and circulars, as this letter is only intended as a 

 reply to the particular objections raised by " Cor '' 

 to the T " Sirocco " of last and previous seasons' 

 make.— Yours faithfully, S. 0. Davidson, "Sirocco" 

 Works, Belfast, Nov. loth, 1886. 



[In reference to the above letter, we would call 

 our readers' attention to Mr. Davidson's new adver- 

 tisement in this issue. A very perfect little work- 

 ing model of the new type is now on view at the 

 offices of the Planters' Stores Agency Company, 

 Limited, 1, Great Winchester Street, E. C, and will, 

 doutless, create quite a sensation among those interes- 

 ted, as the recent improvements, when added, are 

 said to double the outturn of the '• Siroccos " now 

 in use.] 



BRICK TEA. 

 Elsewhere will be found an extract from the Eiifflish- 

 man of 24th November on the brick tea of Szechuen, 

 largely used in Thibet. The writer of the article 

 has nothing new to say regarding the brick tea: 

 in fact, he simply quotes Mr. E. Colborne Baber's 

 descrption of its manufacture, and does not quote 

 Mr. Baber's equally valuable account of how the 

 Thibetans prepare their tea, nor the very important 

 statement that Chinese brick tea prepared for use 

 by Thibetans is an infusion difficult to characterise. 

 Baber describes it as " like English tea with rich 

 milk, but without any sugar or tea," and " yet,'^ 

 he adds, " nobody would mistake it for milk and 

 water ; for the tea principle affects the flavour, wlule 

 itself becoming modified into some un-tea-like astrin- 

 gent. It is evident that astringeucy is the property 

 desired, seeing that the many thousand Thibetans 

 who cannot afford tea use oak bark." The only 

 point of interest in the article is the statement that 

 Thibetan cooUes laden with tea from Szechuen are 

 disposing of their loads in the Darjeeling Bazaar " at 

 higher prices than the best Indian tea can command.' 

 The writer states that "i^. seems almost incredible 

 that our planters should allow such a state of things 

 to continue under their very noses,"' and, again, 

 the article goes on, " Meanwhile our planters, who 

 are now allowing the prunings of their gardens to 

 be taken away and used as fuel, might make a few 

 experiments, in brick tea manufacture, with the 

 immediate object of displacing the Chinese article 



that is now consumed in the midst of their own 

 gardens; and with the further view of being in a 

 position, when the time arrives (safe reservation) to 

 supply the vast market north of the Himalayas with 

 Indian tea suited to the palate of the Thibetans." We 

 do not say that Darjeeling and Assam planters should 

 not, when time and means afford opportunity, ex- 

 periment in brick tea ; but the writer, in common 

 with others who at intervals urge the Indian planter 

 to plunge into this hypothetical brick tea trade 

 which is conveniently and clearly described as a 

 " vast market north of the Himalayas," does not seem 

 to realize that the manufacture, of brick tea by the 

 Indian planter practically implies a new process of 

 manufacture, new apparatus, new appliances, new 

 methods, in short everything new ; and that the 

 knowledge on which this new brick tea industry 

 is to be built up is of the vaguest and most 

 meagre kind. It seems to us that the immediate 

 business of the Indian tea planter is to avail 

 himself of the experience he has already gained 

 in growing and manufacturing tea for the European 

 and Colonial markets, to beat the inferior qualities 

 of the China article out of the field. In America 

 and the Colonies, and even in Great Britain, there 

 is considerable room for the displacement of China 

 tea by Indian ; and the Indian article is slowly gain- 

 ing acceptance everywhere. When Indian tea has 

 attained its true position in the markets of the 

 world, it will be time enough for tea planters to re- 

 construct their methods of culture and manufacture, 

 import new machines and appliances of sorts ami 

 bend their energies to the task of ousting China 

 brick tea from that delightfully well, defined tract 

 of Asia spoken of so familiarly by the writer in the 

 Englishman as " the vast market north of the Himala- 

 yas." — Indian Planters'' Gazette. 



Tea of Assam.— The Bengal Hvrkaiu says that the 

 Assam Tea Compaay propose to send to England 

 samples of the indigenous and cultivated Tea of Assam, 

 in a raw state. The leaves to be packed as taken from 

 the trees, after being dried, and the subsequent pre- 

 parations of the tea for use, to be left entirely to 

 parties at home where, it is thought there would be 

 no difficulty in preparing it for consumption. The party 

 from whom our contemporary has derived his infor- 

 mation, seems confident that the experiment will prove 

 successful if acted upon : and among the advantages 

 which would follow its realizatiou the foremost are, — 

 India would in short time be able to supply the demand 

 of Great Britain for Tea — the leaf in its raw state might 

 be compressed into less bulk than at present, and by the 

 exclussion to a much greater extent of the atmo.^pherie 

 air, reach England with a higher and purer flavour. 

 And further, it is probable that the Tea introduced 

 into England in its raw form for manufacture would be 

 exempted from the duty imposed upon manufactured 

 Tea. We trust that the trial may be made, and 

 that the success, the attempt deserves, may result. 



The Ush of Suoae in Cement,— On this subject 

 Dr. Wray writes to a contemporary as follows:—" The 

 combination of sugar with chuna, or lime, in mortar 

 has been used in India from time immemorable. 

 This mortar is so tenacious that when, in Calcutta, 

 the remains of the Old Fort (in which was the 

 site of the infamous Black Hole) had to be removed, 

 some thirty years ago to make room for the new 

 Post Office," the mortar proved to be as hard as the 

 bricks which it bound together, so that it was impos- 

 sible to separate them. The best chuna is made of 

 calcined sea-shells. Another remarkable cement used 

 in India for wood, called soojee, is made from dough 

 of fine flour, kneaded in water until gluten only 

 remains. To this gluten is added a small quantity of 

 Chvna the.se combine and when mixed together form 

 a cement (of the nature of bird-lime) as tenacious 

 for wood as the other for brick-work. This soojee 

 is used in India by the makers of musical instruments, 

 and resist damp, "he objection to its use for Euro- 

 pean viols is that hey could not be taken to pieces 

 but there must be many other uses to which it 

 might be applied instead of glue, which will not 

 stand damp."— P/anferA^' Gazette. 



