May r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



^95 



to Mr. J. Shawoonid have equalled him. He crawled sinu- 

 ously up to his victim until he was within easy distance 

 for a rush, and then struck with unerring aim, nipping the 

 rat jusl at the base of the brain. The animals rarely had 

 lime to squeak, so sudden and deadly was the onslaught. 

 In a single watch the mungoose would leave hia traces 

 from the companion to the engine-room, and sometimes the 

 slain were found in numbers by the fore hatches. He 

 never began to dine until his sport was over, and thpn he 

 would tear and rend with extreme emphasis and enjoy- 

 ment By the time the ship got home he had established 

 such a scare thit he was obliged to ^o down below atier 

 his game, instead of enjoying himself on the dewy deck. 

 Wherever a rat could enter he could enter : indeed ftho 

 sailors declared, and perhaps believed, that he could go 

 through a keyhole ; and in troth that strange lithe body of 

 his wound iii and out of all but impo'^siblo places. Had he 

 been full-grown he would not h.ivebeeuBo useful; as if was, 

 he nearly cleared the vessel in his time. When he came to 

 England the troubles of his owner beMu. The young 

 animal developed a sinjtilar ferocity. The sight of any 

 small living creature made him frantic, and until a proper 

 cage of zinc was made for him he could not be kept in 

 confinement. At the most unseasonable hcurs he would 

 escape from captivity ; and when he did escape he made a 

 sensation. He seemed to pervade the house, and his mania 

 for getting into holes was most perplexing; tor instance, 

 the leg of a pair of trousers, with their owner in them, 

 quite came up to his standard of a negotiable hole. If 

 the Australians intend to let the Indian beasts go loose 

 in their country in scores of couples, as is said, there is a 

 sad future before the Australians. It seems to us. how- 

 ever, that if a single mungoose can clear a ship of rats, a 

 hundred couples turned loose in New Zealand may make it 

 too hot for the rabbits and so prove a great blessing to the 

 farmers, nor is this in any way afiected by the fact that 

 the mungoose is a very objectionable pet in an English 

 household. — Planters' Gazette. 



TEA PLUCKING. 



One of the most important operations in tea cult- 

 ure is the plucking or picking of the young leaves 

 or flush. The right and the wrong mode are fully 

 described in an article which the Indian Tea Oazftte 

 has republished and from which we quote as follows : 

 — Supposing a busli, four years old or older, has been 

 badly plucked, i.e., the new shoots not allowed to 

 develop sufBciently, but clawed off whenever they are 

 big enough to be caught hold of by the plucker (this 

 method some call "clean plucking") the consequence 

 is, that it is full of crow' a feet, which have all to be out 

 out, audthebush jiroperly ventilated and liberally cult- 

 icated, if not manured. It is not to.be supposed that a 

 bush can be plucked without making croiu's /eei, though 

 uot the hard, broom-like, stumpy bunches of twigs, 

 clearly showing premature and indiscriminate clawing 

 rather than plucking. At the end of the plucking 

 season the new shoots that grew last spring should 

 show a clean stump, four to six inches long, branching 

 oft", again and again, somewhat like straight antlers: 

 the entire growth being a foot or eighteen inches : so 

 that, when the pruner cuts below the lowest fork, there 

 will be a clean, lead-penoil-like stump left, with a 

 couple of well-developed leaves. It is from the axils of 

 these leaves that the finest portion of next year's leaf 

 and wood will spring. However, if the clawing process 

 has been adopted, the ftumps left after pruning will be 

 wood, at least, of two years' growth. The new sboots 

 that spring from the visible and invisible axils on these 

 stumps, must be allowed to grow until the second flush 

 makes a very decided appearance, say an expanded and 

 the unrolled leaf. Then the two and a greater portion 

 of the third leaf can be nipped, not Gripped off. The 

 modu-i operandi of uipping and stripping will be fully 

 described further on. The reason of not taking ofl'the 

 entire lowest leaf plucked is this, — that such an act 

 would injure the axil at its base, and thereby prevent 

 another shoot, the next flush, developing, as it is pract- 



ically impossible to remove the entire leaf without 

 wrenching it bodily off the stock and leaving a cavity 

 immediately below the axil, or carrying it away alto- 

 gether with tlie leaf so taken off. The distances 

 measuring along the stalk will decrease gradually as leaf 

 upon leaf develops. The greater the distance between 

 — sometimes four and Ave inches and even more — the 

 leaves on a stalk, the better. On an ill-grown flush, six 

 leaves will be found on a stalk four inches long ; on a 

 well-developed stalk the si.xlh leaf will not be reached 

 till ten inches of growth have been made. The dis- 

 tances between the leaves, commencing from the lowest 

 one, being three, two aud-a-half, two, one and-a-half, 

 and finally one inch. Therefore, plucking off two and-a- 

 half inches, leaves seven and-a-half inches, which, when 

 pruned just above the second from the bottom leaf, 

 leaves a stump for next year a good four inches long, 

 with two leaves and axils? The heavier the pruning, 

 the fewer and more vigorous ; the lighter the cutting, 

 the more numerous and less vigorous will be the first 

 flush of the following spring. The nearer a plant 

 approaches the indigenous variety of Assam, the fewer, 

 larger-leafed, further apart on the stalks, and golden 

 tinted, will be the flushes. The severer the pruning 

 with hybrid bushes at least, the greater forbearance 

 must be exercised in plucking the first flush. Low- 

 class China bushes seem to require heavy pruning and 

 " clean plucking" annually. It is little use expecting 

 a China bush to bear a long flush, and the sooner five 

 leaves are attained, and three plucked, the better. 

 The difference between plucking and stripping lies in 

 the way the fingers are used. To pluck, the nail of the 

 thumb must be applied to the tip or top point of the 

 forefinger, and the stalk or leaf cut through. However, 

 in practice it will be found that pluckers, if properly 

 looked after, will nip the stalk or leaf between the 

 thumb and slightly curved forefinger, and with a sharp 

 pinching twist take off the le.af or stalk clean enough. 

 Stripping consists in hooking the forefinger round the 

 stalk, and with an upward motion (eann^ off leaves and 

 axils. It will be obvious to the reader of the foregoing 

 remarks, that, were such a vile, lazy practice allowed, 

 the loss in the succeeding flush would simply be enorm- 

 ous. Stripping can easily be detected by examining 

 the leaf baskets as they come in to be weighed at the 

 factory. The whole leaves will »hovi stripping ; entire 

 stalks and no loose leaves will show bad plucking, in so 

 far as the lowest leaf has not been nipped off, leaving a 

 third or quarter behind to protect the axil at its base ; 

 and stalks with a hud or unrolled leaf, two whole leaves 

 attached and one three-quarter or two-third leaf loose, 

 will show perfect plucking. To make coolies pluck well, 

 is one of the planter's easiest tasks. All he has to do is 

 to go round and personcdly show each sirdar and each 

 coolie how to pluck ; and if he finds his orders nut car- 

 ried out, to tine the sirdar his day's wages, and the 

 coolie his or her wages, and any pioe due them for 

 plucking over and above the maximum number of 

 pounds fixed for a day's work. Extra pice should never 

 be given till after the first flush has been plucked. 



ATMOSPHERE AND WATER. 

 [Mr. J. Holloway writes : — " I send you a trans- 

 lation of a letter appearing in Biederman's Central Blatt, 

 (a book printed in Leipsic, Crermany, on agriculture 

 and chemistry) and will thank you to insert same in 

 your paper for the information of my fellow-planters."] 



{About the evaporation of water in the different species of soil.) 



Experiments over the influence of the elements in the dif- 

 ferent soils on the evaporation of the water. 



On the opinion of the farmers the field soil consists of the 

 following chief elements: — 



1. Of sand. « 



2. Limestone in dust form. 



