November i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



417 



Mr. de Soysa's Rice, Grown at Hanouban- 

 KETTE, has beeu tried by us in broth and with curry, 

 and we can only say we wish we and our readers 

 could always be supplied with grain so plump, so 

 clean and white and so nutritious. It is the greatest 

 possible contrast to the stuff generally supplied to 

 the coolies and to much of what is seen in the 

 bazaars. Rice like that produced at Hangurankette 

 ought to command a good price in the market, in 

 comparison with much of the imported grain. 



General Bisset's Farming Scheme in Natal 

 does not seem to be a success, at least so far as 

 the gentleman pupils are concerned ; tlie report 

 o£ the case between pupil and master which we took 

 over from a Natal paper, besides being interesling 

 and even amusing in itself, reveals to us a good 

 deal of the lite encountered by a pioneer farmer 

 in South Africa, and indeed the work which the young 

 gentlemen in this case, found too hard, is just what 

 has to be faced in any of our farming colonies. 



A Monster Yam.— The Fiji Times has the follow- 

 ing paragraph : — A correspondent from Taviuni has 

 forwarded to this office for inspection a I ikau, a species 

 of wild yam, which one of his men lately dug out of 

 the bush at the back of his homestead on that 

 island. The tuber is 4ft Sin. in length, 2ft. lin. in 

 girth, has a spread of 2ft. Sin. in the fork, and 

 weighs 351b. That it should have attained to such a 

 size without cultivation or care is the best proof 

 that can possibly be given of the extraordinarily pro- 

 ductive power of the soil in which it was grown, 

 and it well maintains the reputation of Taviuni as 

 the most fertile island of the group. The gentle- 

 man who forwards it modestly styles it a "tivoli, " 

 and naively observes : "This is larger than the men 

 ordinarily bring in," 



Tin Tea Boxe.s.— We have received from Messrs. 

 Wm. Law & Co. papers referring to Messrs. 

 Harvey Bros, and Tylor's tin tea boxes, for which 

 they are the agents. One paper gives colored repre- 

 sentations of the different sized boxes (from 1 lb. to 

 201b.) and another gives minute directions for making 

 up the tins, while a third quotes Col. Monej's article 

 from the Indian Tea Gazette of 20th October 18S0, 

 and a letter by a tea planter in the London Times 

 complaining of the loss of weight to the importer iu 

 weighing teas on their arrival in England which the 

 use of these boxes of obviates. Mesfrs. Harvey Bros, 

 and Tyler say in reference to these boxes: — ''Owing 

 to the great success wh'oh has attended the intro- 

 duction of these decorated boxfs (with China ihsigits) 

 to Australia,* especially the smaller sizes, we have had 

 boxes made with Indian designs to contain 6 lb. iitul 

 121b. of lea. These we should recommend being used 

 along with the larger size. It wdl, of coui'se, be un- 

 derstood that the weight of tea in every box varies 

 according to the description of tea packed ; for in 

 stance, a bnx holding 12 lb. of bold-leaf pekoe souoh- 

 on" may hold 16 to 18 lb. of fine pekoe or broken tea. 

 In this way the cost per pound is cousideraldy re- 

 duced. We have little to add to what has been said 

 by Colonel Money, and can only repeat that the ad- 

 vantaues these boxes possess are — 1. the improved con- 

 dition of the tea in transit ; 2. the uniformity of tar- 

 insured, and thereby the reduction of lo>s in weight to 

 a minimum ; 3. the introduction of an increased 

 sale in other markets than England for Indian tea ; 

 4. the probability of Indian tea reaching the con 

 sumer in an unadulterated condition in fuch con- 

 venient pack.Tgee as 20 lb., 12 lb. and 6 lb. boxes ; 5. 

 the facility with which the boxes can be put together, 

 and their ornamental appearance and utility when they 

 are emptied of tea." Certainly those boxes seem to have 

 greut advantages over the wooden cases, and we shall be 

 surprized if they do notultimately supersede the latter. 



Tea Grown Near Galle and Higher Up. — A 

 short time ago Mr. Zeigan, of the P. & 0. Com- 

 pany's service, gave us specimens of pekoe and pekoe 

 souchong, the produce of his land in the valley of 

 the Gintara, about twelve miles from Galle. The tea 

 had a newish taste, but was good in quality and the 

 pekoe especially remarkable for strength. Tlie samples, 

 like most othei's which reach us, shew that tea will grow 

 well in Ceylon from sea-level to 7,000 feet. Yester- 

 day we supplied Mr. A. B. Inglis (late of the great 

 Calcutta tea firm of Begg, Dunlop & Co.) with a 

 cup of tea from a property nearly 0,000 feet higher 

 than Mr. Zeigan 's and he said that a nicer tea there 

 could not be. Most part of the teas of Ceylon, like 

 those of Darjiling, will be sought on their own merits 

 and not so much to be mixed with China. 



Figs from the earliest ages have been held in great 

 repute. In a primitive condition of society they served 

 to furnish the nations of the East with an article, 

 not of occasional luxruy, but of c'aily and constant 

 food. So highly were they esteemed by the Athenians 

 that their exportation was prohibited under a heavy 

 penalty. In Rome they were carried after the wine 

 in the processions in honour of Bacchus, and the old 

 gentleman himself is supposed to have owed his 

 corpulance and vigour not to the grape but to the fig. 

 By the .Jews a bad fig year is regarded as a most 

 serious calamity. Fresh figs, when ripe, are soft and 

 succulent, and are degestible, wholesome, and delicious 

 fruit, which may be used with advantage in habitual 

 constipaiion. When the fresh fruit is not obtainable, 

 we must be satisfied with the dry, although as a 

 medicinal agent it is far less efficacious. — The Family 

 Physician for June- 



Kaolin.— In his report on the geology of the North 

 Arcot District, Mr. Bruce Foote writes : — "The highly 

 felspathio varieties of the granite gneiss are occasion- 

 ally so greatly decomposed as to appear to offer 

 sources tor the collection of kaolin or China clay. 

 When carrying on the survey of tlie Velloreand Gudi- 

 yatam Taluks, 1 noticed various spots which appeared 

 to me to be deserving of attention with this object 

 till I had seen some of the great China clay works 

 in Cornwall, which I visited speciallj' for the purpose 

 study when at home in 1868. The conclusion I then 

 came to was, that none of the North Areot localities 

 showed rocks sufBci'intly rich in decomijused felspar 

 to be of much importance. The extent to which the 

 Indian rocks have been penetrated by decomposition 

 is greatly I'-ss than the Cornish rocks, and the quantity 

 of clay which would therefore be procurable in India 

 would, area for area, be greatly smaller than in 

 Cornwall. Added to this very serious disadvantage 

 is the difficulty of a suitable water-supply. To insuretne 

 preparation of kaolin of good color, which alone com- 

 mands a high price, a very large supply of perfectly 

 limpid water is a sine qua non. This is not always 

 easy to obtain, even in a rainy climate like that of 

 the south-west of Enoland, where running streams are 

 of frequent occurrence, and in a dry climate like that 

 of tlie Oarnaiic this want could only be met by the 

 construction of special reservoirs of large size, in 

 which the water could be allowed to stand for many 

 months after the rainy season till all the suspended 

 particles of ferruginous clay had .'ettled, and the 

 water it«elf has become perfectly limpid. If the great 

 cost of providing such tupplies of limpid water tree 

 from saline matter iu an eminently dry country be 

 taken into consideration, together with the fact tbnt 

 the kaoliniferous decomposed rock occurs in greatly 

 smaller quantity, and is generally much less free from 

 ferruginous staining due to the filtr.ition through the 

 almost universally overlying red soil, the conclusion 

 seems inevitable that the prospects of establishing 

 profitable China clay works in North Arcot are not 

 very promising. — Madras Mail. 



