990 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1883. 



conclude from the remarks of the expert to whom 

 you submitted the matter. 



I annex a series of temperatures with the relative 

 pressures. From it you will see that the pressure 

 corresponding to a temperature of 280° (beyond which 

 no tea machine should be worked) is only ,36 pounds, 

 not 75 as your referee implied. The machine will be 

 made of stfel pates, and, as they will nowhere be more 

 than li" to 2" apart, they may be strengthened 

 to any required degree by ribs of H iron. The 

 distance at which these ribs should be placed and 

 thickness of plates required in order to bear with 

 perfect safrty a maximum pressure of ,36 pounds are 

 mere matters of detail. 



By the way, I can't help questioning your expeit's 

 competency to give a verdict in the decisive terms he 

 usee, or he must have glanced at the thing in a very 

 cursory manner not to have seen that, in this case, 

 fiat surfaces could be strengthened to bear almost any 

 pressure and this without seriously encroaching on his 

 " small foi'tune." May I ask further for particulars 

 of a few of the fatal explosions caused by the "sudden 

 contraction" of steam in India? That steam-driers 

 have been tried in India and abandoned is no reason 

 why they should not be tried in Ceylon, as I may 

 remind you that in more than one instance Indian 

 failures have been carried to a successful issue in Ceylon. 



1 may add that, instead of having steam led into 

 the apparatus from a detached boiler, as suggested in 

 "Teksab"'9 letter, the machine will be its own boiler, 

 and, in working, would be filled with watpr to above 

 the level of the top tray, so that it will be not steam 

 but water at a temperature of 280° which will be in 

 contact with the drying plates. — Yours faithfully, 



JOHN R, K. LAW. 



P.S. — I have seen Mr. Shnnd's letter, pronouncing 

 the idea an infringement of his patent. Are we to 

 conclude that this patent, covers all possible and im- 

 possible applications of steam — that in short he is the 

 inventor of steam ? As well might Mr. Laurie claim 

 that all the recent transplanters are infringements of 

 his original patent, since, like his, they are all made 



TRANSPLANTERS AND TRANSPLANI'ING. 



2nd May 1883. 



Dear Sir, — In reply to " Planter'' 's enquiry in 

 yesterday's issue, I have seen Davidson's envelopes 

 with Scowen's transplanter, worked alongside of Wilton's, 

 Moir's, Wiiglit's, F. Laurie's, and two others ; and 

 they (Davidson's envelopes .and Scowen's transplanters) 

 in every case superseded the others. In addition to 

 the very low price (partly as they are not patented, 

 and partly as they are so simple) they are much 

 quicker, less liable to get out of order, and simpler 

 to work than any other- that I have seen. A trans- 

 runnter and 100 tins can be got for about eleven 

 plpees.— Yonrs faithfully, TRANSPLANTER. 



AN ABORTIVE LIBERIAN COFFEE TREE- 

 Badulla, May 8th, 188.3. 



Sir, — I am forwarding to you by this post a small 

 parcel containing two samples of Liberian coffee cherries, 

 3 of each, marked No. 1 and No. 2. 



You will tiud No. 1 contains no matured beans, 

 nothing but leafy matter, while No. 2 is-as it should be. 



The No. 1 cherries are taken from a tree 64 years 

 ago, planted at an elevation of 3,000 ft. "On Serendib 

 estate in this district and well sheltered. It is in fair 

 average soil among Coffea Arabic* but has a clear 

 space all round it of from 12 to 15 ft. It has blossomed 

 for the last four years, but till now has never set 

 its blossoms and not a single cherry has been picked 

 off it. This year, to all appeaninces it is bearing very 

 well, but up to date not one luatuved bean has 

 been found in 100 cherries picked. The husk is to 

 all appearance eanhered. A small black mark shows 

 on it after it has swollen to a decent size, which 

 gradually developes and dries up the husk. 



The tree is an isolated one, no other Liberian coffee 

 tree being near. It is topped at 5 feet and receives 

 attention in the way of handling and manuring and 

 forking, having had cattle manure forked in round it 

 once a year for the last three ye.ira. It has been 

 very free from leaf-disease for the last 15 months, and 

 I have never seen leaf-disease on it beyond the pin- 

 spot stage during the last four years. At the present 

 time there is not the slightest sign of disease. 



The No. 2 cherries come from the trees at the other 

 end of the estates, about half-a-mile distant from No. 

 1. The trees are 3^ years old and have croppeil well 

 since the second year. There are several of them close 

 together, and none of them have behaved like No. 1. 



Can it be owing to its isolated position and want 



of neighbours that this strangp behaviour of No. 1 



is due? It appears to me to be as great a puzzle as 



the " No. 1" of Irish notoriety! I am, yours faithl'ully 



P. FRANK HADOW. 



YARROW LEDGERS. 



Yarrow, 13th May 1883. 

 Dear Sir, — With reference to the sale in Colombo 

 of the small parcel of Yarrow ledger bark reported 

 in your columns the other day, I would feel obliged 

 if you would mention that the parcel contained a 

 very small percentage of stem quill, being mainly 

 composed of prnnings. The trees, having never been 

 pruned up since they were planted, had become 

 in pl.aces so thick as to exclude the light, 

 thereby both hindering the growth of the smaller 

 trees and preventing the larger ones from blossoming 

 freely. It was therefore necessary to remove some 

 of the lower branches, and it was from these princi- 

 pally that the bark was obtained. A lew trees were 

 also cut out, but in all cases these were such as 

 had yielded an inferior result on .an.alysis (below 

 7 per cent) or small trees of inferior growth. None 

 of the trees cf high analysis were removed. I 

 mention this, as the analysis of the bark, 577, may 

 appear a poor one, taking into consideration the very 

 high analyses of individual trees which we have re- 

 ceived. W. F. L. 



THE RUBBER TRADE OF THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



Colombo, 15th May 1SS.3. 



Drar Sirs, — Why characterize the paragrapli about 

 "Indian Rubber" in the American Mail and Export 

 Journal as an ex.aggeration ? The figures given are 

 strongly coroborative. 



For instance, we have 30,000 tons, sm 60,000,000 lb, of 

 rawrubber imported, worth $60,000,000; pins 270,000 tons 

 of cotton, shoddy, &c., also entering into the manufacture 



