April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRIC ULTURIST. 



803; 



Superintendence 



Weeding... 



Roads, drains 



Manuring 



Priiuiug, training vines 



Supplying 



Building, etc. 



3rd year. 



... R12-00 



1200 



200 



10-00 



.■?oo 



100 



1000 



E50 00 



The 4th year's crop should quite cover expenses, hut I 

 cannot state the cost of picking and curing. I believe 

 that for such districts in Ceylon as those round Galle, 

 Awioawella, Yatiyantota and in fact all the south-west 

 of the islanfl, pepper will be one of tiie naost remun^-i- 

 ative products, it care is taken in eelccting suitable 

 localities for planting it. All ridges should be left in 

 jungle Eo as to have plenty of earth available on the 

 spot for using as manure when burnt. The Chinese 

 pepper gardens are all surrounded by forest which, for 

 about 2 chains from the pepper, have the earth for a 

 foot deep at least all carried off during the course of 

 years as manure. 



I have forgotten to state that the vines shouM in no 

 case be allowed to run up to the top of their post or 

 pollard, until they have thickened out below. When 

 the runner is 2 feet high the top should be nipped off 

 to make it throw out laterals, and the vine should 

 always be kept in the form of a sugar-loaf until it 

 has got thick and buahy from the ground to the top of 

 the pollard. If not stopped and made to thicken out, 

 one single runner 'A-ill get up to the top of the post or 

 pollard in a year or 9 months' time and never become 

 a good bearing vine. 



We have now 130 acres of pepper planted at Udu- 

 garaa on b estates, all coming on well, and the land 

 selected as nearly as possible in the same way as I saw 

 done by the Chinese at .Johore. T. S. DOBREE. 



THE OLDEST CINCHONA TREES IN CEYLON. 

 Kirimadua Estate, Haputale, Sth March 1S83. 

 Dear Sir, — On seeing your footnote to my letter on 

 the oldest cinchonas in Ceylon, I walked over this 

 morning to Gonainotava estate to verify the report 

 I had heard of these trees being tion-secd hearing. The 

 two old trees " planted in 1862 were covered with 

 small green fruit or pods, wbich Mr. J. Orchard, the 

 manager, assured me would "come to nothing," as 

 every one of the pods would " wither prematurely and 

 drop off," the same as they had been doing for the last 

 13 years, in all which time, Mr Orch ard told me, he 

 had not been able to rear a simjle. plant by seed from 

 these trees, and I particularly noticed the absence of 

 any self-sown trees or seedlings anywhere near these 

 two olileH trees — and the Iruit already comrnencin;/ to 

 shrioel iip and drop offprematnrdi). The trees are grow- 

 ing on good black soil, and the surrounding coffee is 

 excellent with tine crop, yet these 'impotted cin- 

 chon.is will not ripen their seed. This reminds mc of a 

 report of the late Mr. .John Nietner, when planting 

 out an experimental estate for the Baron Delniar, at 

 K.idirana, near Nesombo, on land purchased from the 

 late Dr. Elliott (the father of the Obxrrver and Sin. 

 hah'se, as I have heard him called). On that experi- 

 mental estate, intended by the Baron to introduce in 

 1852nther tropical cultivation into Ceylon than existed 

 in those days, all the Egyptian, American and 

 other varieties of cotton grew beautifully, blossomed, 

 and fruited, but all the pods dropped off premtitunli/ 

 and never ripened, which Mr. Nietner put down to 

 failure from " climatic causes" — something like Dr. 



Trimen now putting down all my friends, the name les 

 hybrids, under the one generic term " Robusta'! 

 " Abuormal weather" is a very convenient "term," 

 but what sort of weather it is I really don't know. 

 For the last two days we have had lightning', 

 thuniler and heavy shower.s Today it is grilling hot and 

 as ."ine as midsummei — Y'ours truly. 



JNO. ATWELL. 



* I measured these and found them 45 inches in circum- 

 ference a foot from the ground, and over 30 feet high! 

 Xbis is good for poor "bleak and barren" U\ a patauas. — J. A. 



FIRST CINCHONA TREES PLANTED IN 

 HAPUTALE. 

 Paiate, Moratuwa, 9th March 1883. 

 Sir,— Mr. John Atwell is in error in believiu" that 

 I uprooted the cinchona trees which he planted on 

 Mahapittia estate. U a says it is necessary to mention 

 names in order to put the saddle on the right hor.^e 

 but he has put it on the wrong one this time —Yours 

 faithfully, ALEX. T. GEDDES. 



TEA-DRYING AND MR. SHAND'S " PATENIV' 

 Dear Sir,— My attention has been called to a 

 paragraph in your is.sue of the 28th ultimo re Mr 

 Shand's tea drier (which I saw at work on Barra 

 estate, Rakwana) as having been approved by me 

 and that teas were valued at 2, to 2/3. These valu- 

 ations were for broken pekoe made in the usual way over 

 charcoal tires. The teas I tasted, fired by the patent 

 drier, had a nasty metallic taste about them, and as 

 it is well known that tea will not keep by being pre- 

 pared with such a moist heat as steam. I am at a 

 loss to know how such a statement could have been 

 sent you for publication, holding as I do an entirely 

 different opinion of the capabilities of Mr. Shand's 

 patent. / consider it praeticaJJy useless for the mi nu- 

 /acture oj lea. Fearing tea planters may be misled 

 I shall be obliged by your inserting my contra- 

 diction of the statement in an early issue of your paper 

 -Yours faithfully, W. CAMERON. 



MR. SHANDS PATENT TEA DRIER 



Colombo, 12th March 1883 



Dear Sik, — With reference to the remarks in 

 "Cha"'s and Mr. Cameron's letters of the 8th instant 

 which appeared in your Saturday's issue, will you 

 kindly allow me to explain tliat the little model re- 

 ferred to had only arrived on the Barra estate the day 

 before "Cha" 's visit, and was put up temporarily in the 

 tea-house ? I intended it to be experimented with in 

 a corner of the store verandah. 



I need not point out to the uiajority ot your read- 

 ers that, iu permanent arrangements for using' large- 

 sized machines, neither smoke nor steam need be 

 allowed to enter the tea-house any more than iu 

 those buildings elsewhere he»(ed by means of hot 

 water, or in manufactories where steam is used the 

 smoke and escape steam-pipes being both p'aced out- 

 side the buildings. " Cha" is therefore evidently in 

 error in stating that the machines could not be heated 

 without tilling the store with smoke or steam, aiid I 

 me rather surprized that any one naturally supposed 

 to possess mechanical knowledge should sav so. 



No planter desirous of .adopting the principle of 

 the. models, for drying large quantities of tea, wculd 

 think of doing so by mean-i of 20 or 30 of them in- 

 stead of one or two large barbecue-shaped machines 



With regard to Mr. Cameron's letter the information 

 I gave you as to the valuntious was that furnished to 

 me. I sliall of course refer the difference in the two 

 statements to my inform.aut. If tlie galvanized iron 

 surface imparts a metallic taste to I lie tea, the con- 

 tact with the metal can be easily obviated' by cover- 

 ing it with calico, a veneer of wood or something else' 

 or by placing the tea on wire netting, as in the ord- 

 inary way, as I have previously suggested. 



